May 31st - June 1st 2003
Logged by Donis
BRIEF TIMEWARP
Tekin guides his runner toward a stand of trees, the beginning of the Tillekian forest, while his eyes are on the ground following ever more clear tracks as the ground becomes softer and muddier. "They went in there," he says, pulling the reins to halt the runner and look back at the other guards and recruits in the party. "Keep your eyes open when we get in there, got it..?" Friendly warning to not let your guard down, just because nothing's happened yet.
Sinead nods at Tekin's comment, her eyes are already open, besides the literal sense of the term. "Aye Sir," well, she needs to sound professional.
"Right." Miria, upon her runner, unsheaths that nasty-looking fighting knife (which is more like a dagger, being that it's a little more than a foot in length) and keeps it at the ready, hiding her beltknife under an untucked tunic.
Donis sits hard in the saddle of his grey mare, looking around worriedly at the trees - squinting to try and spot things. "Yessir!"
"Good," Tekin says, turning back to the trees and letting his eyes roam back and forth across the brush, before getting the runner moving again. Too bad Kesher hadn't remembered how many mugger there were or how they looked, but such things couldn't be blamed on the recruit since he'd fallen into an ambush by all apparent traces. Let's just not have that happen again.
Sinead nods and nudges her runner to follow after Tekin's runner, making sure to keep her eyes open for any signs of movement, other than the movement of the other guards.
Donis kicks his mare after Tekin, trying to stay as close to the older guard as possible without actually bumping runners. He holds the reins tightly with one hand, the other reaching for his belt-knife.
Miria nudges her black gelding ahead, keeping him at a slow walk while she surveys her surroundings and occasionally turns around in the saddle to peer at suspicious objects on the rocky path. If there are any, anyway. "They could very well be hiding in the forest ahead."
"Try not to spook yourself, Donis," Tekin says to the young recruit, giving him a slight smile as he sees the boy reach for his knife. Tek hasn't gotten all that far yet, though he's made his own easily accessible by tossing back his jacket away from the sheath and hilt. Nodding at Miria's comment, he glances back over his shoulder, but only for a moment, "they attacked one of our recruits and stole one of our runners. We can't just let them go.." he says, letting his voice drop to a near whisper as the mood of the other guards rub off on him.
Sinead has her own knife easily accesible, though not overly visible, unless one was actually looking for it. "Aye Donis, just calm down a bit," she notes with a friendly smile towards the recruit.
Donis relinquishes his grip on his knife, but takes note of Tekin's movements, and makes sure he can reach it easily. "I'm calm, I'm calm…" he replies, though his voice breaks slightly, and he doesn't seem to be able to stop looking around him. His nervousness is communicated to his mare, who high-steps her way after the other runnerbeasts.
Without warning, rocks come flying through the air, from high up in the trees, accompanied by shouts and screams. "Whoop, whoop, whoop!!" Loud cracks are heard as wayward rocks hit tree-trunks, while those that hit the ground makes thuds. Rushling in the bushes can be heard, but still no people or animals are visible.
Miria keeps her long knife gripped in her hand as she holds the reins, blade pointing outward. "Sh!" she warns, hearing the sounds and tensing just slightly. "Keep your blades at the ready."
[OOC:] Miria needs to go. *sob.* When Miria gets into the fight, just say she gets her share of blood n' bruises. ^_^
Tekin's runner is hit by a rock on the neck and screeches, darting forward in a near panicky dash and all the guard can do is hang on, trying to calm the panicked beast. You know him, he won't start sawing at the runner's mouth, see? Alas, he doesn't get as far as to calm the runner enough to stop him as just down the trail a ways is a mugger, ready to de-runner him effectively. Brought to the ground, Tekin is disoriented and groggy and thus doesn't notice as the mugger snatches his knife away.
"Shards!" Donis screeches as rocks rain down like Thread. His mare - allegedly so placid - half-rears, almost dislodging the lad. "Tekin, Sinead, what do we do?" he cries out, and then yells wordlessly as he sees Tekin go down in front of him. "No!" But another attacker has leapt from the bushes and is trying to grab the reins of Donis's mare.
Sinead tries to calm her horse, or at least stop her from bolting. "Faranth," she mutters slightly as her runner whinnies and dances about, causing Sinead to lose her balance. "Keep your eyes out, Donis!" she states as she pulls out her belt knife and dodges an attacker, grabbing her horses reigns and remounting.
Yelling and screming and not making much sense at all, about seven or eight muggers emerge from the underbrush, while another three jump from the trees above, all of them grinning vicsiously at the guards and their little recruits from the 'Reaches Weyr. The leader, a tall man whom no one can really miss wanders over to stand in the middle of the trail letting out an evil laugh. "Well, well. If it ain't the guards from the weyr," he says, jamming his fists at his sides, "mus' be true wha' they say.. You people aren' 'lowed to carry swords." He laughs again.
Donis manages to get his mare under control by brute force, wrenching her head away from his attacker. Trouble is, he needs both hands to hang onto her, and can't reach for his knife. Looking wildly around, he seems to come to the decision that it's better to stay high up on the runner's back.
Tekin is up on his feet again, but is looking more like a drunken boxer than an experienced guard, and is being hovered over by a mugger who doesn't look particularly nice at all. "You jus' let us go right now and you'll have no trouble from us," he warns the man who just spoke, trying to take a couple of steps toward him, but not only stumples, but is also suddenly and brutally held back by his 'guard'.
"Aha!" says the mugger-leader, turning toward Tekin with a lifted eyebrow (though eyebrow is saying something since his have grown together), "tell me somethin' then, /guard/!" He literally spits out the word guard. "Jus' what are you doin' in /my/ forest?!"
Sinead backs her mare up, so that she's near Donis. She knows Tekin can take care of himself, but the recruits haven't had as much training. Ead puts her belt knife and pulls out a brutal looking dagger, a bit longer than the knife she was carrying. As muggers come near she does her best to fend them off.
Donis manages to hang onto his runner with just one hand on the reins, letting him pull out his knife. It's fairly small, but looks pretty sharp. "Got a problem with guards, have you?" he asks the muggers contemptuously - it's all bravado, of course, and perhaps at not the best time.
Tekin lets his eye roam from one guard to the other, seeing only that they seem to be outnumbered. Brutal hands hold his upper arms back, but the mugger hasn't though of restraining his hands so he fishes around his back for the knife tucked into the lining of his trousers, getting it for when a bad situation gets worse. "We're here looking for a runner," he says, nodding toward Kesher with the bandage around his head. "His runner. I expect you'd recognize him?"
Sinead shoots a look towards Donis. "Less with the talking more with the keeping self safe," she notes towards the recruit as she attempts to urge him closer towards the 'senior' guard, safety in numbers, yah know?
Donis aims a kick at the attacker nearest him, but it thankfully goes un-noticed. He does as Sinead's suggesting though, and nudges his mare closer to the other guards - as do the other recruits.
The mugger-leader laughs again, staring first at the little boy adressing him, then at Tekin. "You let little boys be guard o'er there at the Weyr? No wonder you're so easily defeated." Tapping the hilt of his sword, he wanders over toward Donis and Sinead, grabbing the reins of Donis' runner looking up at him. "Wha's your name, boy? Why's you a guard and not a stablehand or something /safe/ like that?" he asks, overhearing Sinead's remark. And ignoring Tekin's question in the meanwhile..
Uh-oh. Donis swallows, his boyish Adam's apple bobbing. "I'm a guard to serve the Weyr," he replies as boldly as he dares - which means that he comes across as cocky but petrified. The lad gives a yank to the reins, but gives up as they're held too tightly.
Tekin's glare at the muggers becomes darker and more intense, and as the leader moves over toward Donis and Sinead it becomes downright hateful, "if you hurt them…" he warns, voice more cold and icy than anyone's probably heard it before.
Sinead scowls at the leader person, shifting in her seat and adjusting the grip on her dagger. She doesn't say anything, but let's Donis speak for himself, careful not to take a stance that would too obviously say that she's trying to protect the recruits around her.
"Then what?" The Leader asks, turning toward Tekin with a laugh and then back at Donis, smiling up at the boy on the runner. "You can serve the Weyr jus' as easily in the stables as out here huntin' renegades, y'know tha', boy?" And though his voice sounds friendly, there's still an edge of threat to it.
Tekin isn't taking anymore of this. And yes, he may overreact, but his knife is jabbed backward stabbing the guard-mugger in the gut, who lets out a scream and then he dart headlong toward The Leader jumping on his back, yelling, "get the others!" at the 'Reaches guards.
Sinead nods and dismounts her horse, not being the best at mounted skirmishes. She can understand Tek getting tired of this, she is too. Therefore the guard pulls out the belt knife and moves to a defensive position. She dodges back, narrowly missing a slash by one of the muggers.
Donis was scowling back at the muggers' leader - but as Tekin attacks, so does the lad, flinging himself from the mare's back to the back of one of the muggers. "Got you!" he crows, clinging around the man's neck as the mugger whirls round trying to dislodge Donis. One of the other recruits comes to Donis's aid - whacking a fallen branch across the legs of the attacker to bring him down, crashing headlong into a tree to be knocked unconscious. Donis rolls away and onto his back, bleeding from a gash above one eye, but waving his beltknife desperately.
Tekin is tall, but the muggers' leader is much taller than he and not particularly happy to suddenly have someone 'riding' his back. Howling he flings himself around, trying to get Tek of his back, much the same way Donis' mugger tried with him. But when that doesn't work, the leader simply lets himself fall, backward and on top of Tekin. "Arghh!" Tekin shouts, then stabs his knife into the leader's shoulder who lets out another howl and rolls off his attacker, ripping the knife from Tekin's hand. "Shards!"
Sinead has not, as of yet, decided to leap onto any attackers back, in fact she's trying to stick with frontal confrontation. Her smaller knife acts as a shield, while the other plays offense, trying to get a swipe in, but her attacker is fast, and she only gets in a slight slash before he swipes at her again…
"Tekin!" Donis scrambles through runner legs towards the other guard, kicking one of the attackers in the groin for good measure as he tries to reach his superior. The other recruit follows Donis, flailing about enthusiastically and fairly efficiently with the tree branch.
"Well, don't help me, Donis!" Tekin shouts, getting onto the back of the fallen leader to tie off his hand with a (conviently found) piece of leather string. "And look out for that one!" Pointing he warn the two approaching recruits about another mugger coming in from the side, hidden between the runners.
Don't help Tekin? This order clearly confuses Donis, since he stands still just long enough to get himself grabbed. "C'mere, little boy…" his attacker growls - then yelps, as Donis bites into the man's arm. Someone's clearly taught the lad to fight dirty, as he bends down quickly to grab a branch of his own - which is used on his attacker. Thumping the man about the shoulders, chest and head, Donis squeals insults until his victim trips. Another one knocked out by a tree.
Fighting dirty can be useful, but Ead never learned it, so instead she trades slash for slash with whoever happens to come at her, however, they're unsuccessful until one tall and lanky guard takes a swipe and catches the guards hand, nearly causing her to lose her knife.
Tekin stands, taking a moment to gauge the situation and then bends to jank out his knife from the leader's shoulder. "Now everybody /STOP/!" he shouts, hoping that it'll make an impression on the rest of the muggers that their leader is bound and on the ground underneath Tekin's boot. "I'll have no more fighting, or I'll finish this one off!"
"Don't ye stop, ye hear!" the leader shout from his position on the ground, then lets out an 'oumf' as Tekin's boot hits him in the stomach and he shuts up for now. But there's little honor amoung thieves and although the fighting stops, most of the muggers slips off into the forest, disappering before they too can be taking into custody.
Donis was about to hit the prone body of his last attacker - but holds off as Tekin shouts, and the conscious attackers disappear. "Is that it?" he asks hopefully.
Sinead stops when her attacker does. Ead, however, doesn't remove her eyes from the mugger. Her dagger still at the ready to take him out if need be. "Good, glad to have your attention," Tekin says, looking around to see the crowd having thinned considerably. Just a few muggers left and most of them unconscious or wounded. "Looks like your boys have left you behind," he goes on, bending to whisper in the leaders ear, but only receives a growl in return. "Now, would you care to tell me where Kesher's runner is…?"
"Never!" is the reply Tekin gets from the leader as he lies there with his face in the mud and a wound in his shoulder needing attention.
Ead's mugger isn't about to not keep fighting, though it appears like he will. He gives them a few minutes, maybe she'll let her guard down? At any rate, in a few minutes time he moves to strike at her, maybe take her captive in exchange for their leader, but he's not quick enough. Sinead see's him moving and moves her knee upwards, and then the hilt of her dagger down. Thump. Ooh! That's gonna smart in the morning. "Oh, puhleese…" she mutters.
Donis sags against a handy tree, sheathing his unbloodied knife and then wiping his forehead - only to stare in horror at the blood on his hand. "All this for a runner," he murmurs softly.
Tekin hears that 'thump' as Sinead's mugger goes down and he turns swiftly to stare at her, lifting his hands a little. "What happened? Why didn't you tie him up…?" Okay, so maybe he's being more of a superior, than a collegue and a *ahem* friend here, but serious matters were at hand. Glancing over at Donis, he shakes his head a little, but doesn't comment. Once upon a time, runners had been Tek's life, after all.
Sinead eyes Tekin. "What? It was quicker," she notes, with an all too innocent look on her face. "Yes, all this for a runner, for a runner who belongs to the Weyr, and to find the people who hurt Kesher."
Donis is scarlet with embarrassment at being overhead - as bright red as his jacket or the blood streaming down the side of his face. He doesn't say anything… just pulls some leather thongs out of a saddlebag and starts to tie up the unconscious man in front of him.
"Well, this one isn't talking, and now /he's/ unconscious," Tekin complains, looking around at the sorry pickings that are left. Three knocked out, one who's not talking and… Well look over there. Tek's own personal 'guard' was still lying there groaning on the ground a ways down the trail. "You!" he shouts, jogging toward the man and grabbing him by the shirt to pull him to his feet. "Would you care to tell us where you took /our/ runner?"
Sinead follows Donis' example and ties up her mugger person, securely an all that stuff, before quickly removing his weapons. When Tek questions the 'guard' she moves in that direction, intent on hearing the answer… (meanwhile she's dug out some bandaging from the first aid kit and is bandaging up the cut on her hand)
Donis is getting good at tying people up - the other man knocked out by a tree is quickly bound up too. He looks over at Sinead, but decides that his injury - which is starting to hurt - is more important. "Sinead… do you have any more bandage? Or gauze?"
Shaking his head, Tekin's 'guard' lets his eyes flickers back and forth between the Reaches guard and the tied up leader up the trail. "I can't tell. He'll kill me…" the man says, blabbering like a small child. "I mean it, he really, really will kill me. I can't tell, I can't, can't.. No.." Tekin let's out a sigh, then gives the man a slap across the face to make him come to his senses. "Just tell me where the runner is and we'll protect you. Isn't that right, people?" he calls out, looking over his shoudler to see Sinead coming toward him and notices her hand, but doesn't ask about it just then.
Sinead nods slightly at Donis' question and beckons Donis towards her. "Sure do," she notes, rummaging the extra she grabbed out of her belt pouch. "Head right?" she questions, offering to wrap the wound up. Hey, I'd like to see you neatly do it yourself when you've got someone to do it for you. "Of course we will," she notes, with a shrug. "We're not that mean."
"Protect you. Sure," Donis agrees with Tekin, though he doesn't sound too sincere about it. But that could be because blood is streaming down his face from the cut just above his hairline. "Umm… can you just mop it, Sinead? I know headwounds bleed a lot but I don't think it's too bad."
The slap, more than the fact that Reaches guard will be 'protecting' him brings the mugger around and he waves a hand down the trail toward a place where it bends. "Just down there. Where it bends. Our own runners're there too," he rambles off like a puppet, then stares at the leader who's staring back at him.
"Thank you," Tekin says, then finds another piece of string to tie up the mans hand, to which he protests. "Well, you didn't think we'd just let you go, did you?" Pulling him along with him to the 'camp', Tekin plops him down at a safe distance from the angry leader, then joins Sinead and Donis, "are you two alright?"
Sinead nods towards Doni and does as requested. "Let me know if it starts to bleed too much, I don't need you passing out," she points out, before nodding to Tek as he gets closer. "Sure thing, nothing big," she shrugs, " Or at least they don't look too bad."
"I'm alright," Donis mumbles, putting the bandage wrapped around half his head. "What do we do now, sir?" he asks, eyeing the tied-up muggers.
Tekin shrugs, looking around at the sorry-looking band of muggers and the not so much better looking guards and recruits. "We get their runners, and Kesher's runners and we go home. And we bring them…" he says, nodding at the tied-up renegades. "Anyone else need first aid?" Rolling his shoulders, he groans a little feeling sore from the fall from his runner and later from having the mugger landing on top of him.
Sinead looks about at the recruits, seeing at least some no's in the crowd, if not all. "Then I suggest we get to, so we can get back to the Weyr as soon as possible," she states. "I'm not keen on staying out here longer than possible, and Kesher'll need looking after."
"Hope those others didn't run off back for their runners…" Donis mutters, but now that he's all patched up, he seems more cheerful and ready to take on the world again. "Getting back would be good though," he adds, fervently, starting to gather up fallen weapons (the muggers') and other useful things.
TIMEWARP
And the day passes…. And lookit, it's the Weyr! Home Sweet Home!
Central Bowl
Tekin and Sinead are here.
Tekin lets out a breath of air as they come back into the Bowl, his runner moving at a leisurely pace and the one next to him holding a prisoner with his hands tied at his back, while Tek is leading his runner. "You there!" he shouts to a recruit lounging outside the barracks, "go get some of the guards will you…" So that the victorious returned rescuers can have a rest a quickly as possibly.
Sheridan steps out from the Weyr's living caverns.
"Home again, home again…" Donis just beams with relief and slides from his saddle as fast as possible, letting go of the reins of the runner next to his - which is also carrying a prisoner. "Now what do we do with these men, Tekin?" he asks, looking around the bowl as if he thought he'd never see it again.
Sinead has a prisoner of her own, also on horse. She's ready for a nap, of klah, or something, who knows, but, hey. "We throw em in the brig, or what not, and take Kesher to the infirmary… I think."
"Yeah, in the brig," Tekin parrots Sinead, stretching before he slides off the runner, giving it a pat on the neck before relenquishing the rein to a stablehand magically appeared out of nowhere. "We'll get the other guards to do that. The two of you also need a trip to the infimary, I think.." he says, pointing at Donis and Sinead in turn.
Donis nods slowly, and glares at the nearest prisoner - who's awake, and groaning. "The infirmary, right.." he groans, reaching again to pat the bloodstained bandage over one eye. "I need a bath too, please Tekin…. I'm as stiff as a board."
Sinead points at Tekin. "If I'm going, you're going too. Ah, no arguing, I don't care that you don't have any obvious wounds," she states. "From there, I suggest a soak in the batsh," she states, with a lopsided grin. And you can bet she won't go to the infirmary if Tekin doesn't agree to come as well… she's stubborn. Dismounting the guard stretches…
Tekin just gives Sinead a long displeased stare, then nods, "aye, well, a bath wouldn't be so bad, I s'pose," he says, looking back toward the barracks and cracking a smile as nearly /all/ the guards come running outside and over to greet them and take 'good care' of the prisoners. "Alright, thank you fellows, we'll all be in the infirmary, if you need us," he says, giving them a wave. "And tell the Capt'n that we're all alright. And tell Drevic that we found Kesher!"
Sheridan just happens to be taking a walk around the bowl when the group of guards and their 'prisoners' come riding in. The young woman doesn't seem too surprised to see how beaten up everyone is, but she is concerned about the state of the runners the group's riding. Looks like they rode hard from wherever they were coming from… Looking over at the nearest guard, who just happens to be Tekin, she drawls, "Ye should take better care fer your beasts." She doesn't give a shard 'bout the bad guys trussed up and ready to be dumped into the brig. That's what they get for being.. well.. bad.
"Sharding runners," Donis complains, and gives the girl a hard stare - which despite his young age may come across as being mean due to the blood all over his face. And the thick black frowning eyebrows, too. He does give his grey mare a gentle pat though, before heading towards the infirmary. "No-one tell Mom about this, please?" he asks hopefully of the other guards in passing.
