Calm Before the Storm [Closed]

[Astraea]

"You hail from the sky? Good to know." Astraea looked as deadly serious as nuclear winter, but there was an amused timbre to her voice that hinted she weas not entirely clueless as to what Khasar had meant. Probably. "That should make scouting very simple!" Okay she was having too much fun with this, time to serious the hell up. "Seriously though," she grinned, "We could use the info. I just got here earlier today, and so far none of the villagers have really explained much of value."

The rabbit girl piped up, Kaelu was the name she thought, and offered a surprisingly not-terrible suggestion given how much she decidedly didn't look like a serious warrior. Astraea looked at her appraisingly, re-evaluating her initial perceptions for a moment, before launching into a response. Were all Taguel like this? "You're more formidable than you look." Very pragmatic. Possibly effective. Astraea harbored no delusions about numbers besting training unless the disparity was vast, but it might help. "If nothing else, it'd help to not have to worry about them while we're fighting, and maybe get some use out of the sods."

An idea popped into her mind unbidden, inspired by Kaelu's words. "Why don't you see if there are any ex-soldiers here, or at least farmers that could conceivably make some use of a sword? We can't rely on them, but maybe these people are willing to put their money where their mouth is and actually do something to help themselves rather than expecting us to do everything for them."

Did that come out a little harsh? Whatever. Astraea scoffed, not particularly perturbed by the thought that it might have been. People who refused to help themselves did not deserve to be helped. "As for me..." She rested one hand on her hip, gazing around the village, "I should find out where that blue guy got off to. He needs to be enrolled in some team building exercises."

[Kaelu]

"Oh yes! I use my trusty beaststone and the cute little bunny girl you see here..." Kaelu put on a big smile and pointed at herself with both fingers. She giggled a little because she truly did think herself the cute one before finishing her statement, "...becomes a big monster beating, bad guy bashing fighting animal! You'll see!"

It didn't occur that her that her transformation might frighten anyone. It was a very natural thing for her to do. All Taguel transformed into their beastly counterparts and that was perfectly all right. Even if she had the sense to recognize that she could scare people with her transformation, there really wasn't anything she could do about it. Regardless of whether she reflected about this little pearl of truth or not, she had not the time with Astraea's suggestion posed to her. "I can do that!" Kaelu agreed fervently. She nodded quickly, her ears and hair bouncing with the quick movements making ribbons shimmer and bells tinkle. Kaelu gave Astraea a salute that she borrowed from watching soldiers do towards their superiors and loudly declared, "I'll get right on it, capitan!" And with that she bounded off and swiftly went around from person to person inquiring about past services and hidden abilities.

[Deleted]

With the farmers actually taking his advice, everyone who was previously working on that...rather enormous structure of a barricade pitched in with gathering the fallen debris and began to construct a second wall that was stationed hundreds of feet away from the first unintentional successful barricade, Veigue himself helping out in the actual building process as well. He did admit to himself though that the mere thought of using a wall was a good idea, so they were on the right track earlier...just got a little ahead of themselves at attempts of making it tough. But these walls would create a great means of slowing down the brigands' progress into the town if something may have possibly happened and they slipped through those who were fighting outside the village.

As he remembered, only about a couple of the youth here actually had a bow on them. Whether they could use it well or not didn't matter...as long as they could use it at all and pick off enemies from a distance safely behind the walls...and not shoot an ally in the back. It was a good strategy...and if one was wall was destroyed, they could flee behind the other barricade. If there were any more able fighters or volunteers from the village that could use weapons, they could station themselves behind the barricades too...but for now, it didn't seem like that was a possibility. All that was important at the moment was to help them finish off the second wall.

Holding another block of stone in his hands, Veigue was about ready to set it down next to the other aligned bricks until his shoulder was patted by the large hands of one of the farmers he talked to earlier.

"Hey now! You should take a breather. You've been helping out for a while now, and I'm sure you wanna sit out for a bit after what happened with the collapsing wall earlier." The middle-aged man spoke as he walked beside the swordsman and gestured an offer to take the stone brick off his hands.

Veigue looked to the man at the corner of his eyes, smiling just a bit as he placed the brick in position and grabbed another one from his side. "Don't worry about me. This is nothing."

"Yeah, but we'll be depending on all you outsiders the most tomorrow, so we wouldn't want to overexert ya now and you'll end up too tired to fight tomorrow." The man actually bold enough to place his hands on the brick while it was still in Veigue's hands.

As much as the sword fighter wanted to disagree, the farmer did have a point. While Veigue himself felt he'd be fine for tomorrow battle no matter what he was doing the day and night before, he knew that in general that taking it a little easy beforehand was the best advice to take. As such he released the stone and gave the farmer an agreeing nod while saying, "Thanks." before walking away from the site of the second wall construction and towards a random building to the side.

As he leaned back on the wall, he just hanged out there to break. Guess all he could do for now was to close his eyes and relax a bit to collect his thoughts.

[Kaelu]

A leap and a bound.

A leap and a bound.

A leap and a bound.

And that brought Kaelu almost full around the entire village. There must have been about a dozen men she had hopped right on over to who had confirmed that they had some experience. If not experience, then they at least felt that they had the skill. That included them in her count. It wasn't much, but Kaelu had no idea about the size of the opposing forces, even so a dozen extra pair of hands was better than none at all.

Oh! There were a few more folk right over there. If only Kaelu had remembered that one of them was in the company of volunteers. She practically raced right over with a flurry of ribbon and the tinkling of tiny bells. Kaelu's short-term memory was not the best. "Oh oh! You look pretty strong, you can fight? Right? You'll help us defend the village won't you?" She asked after Veigue. The man was leaning against the wall looking a bit drawn. As she observed that about him she peered at him in concern as she questioned, "Say, are you feeling all right? Don't worry, I just know that we won't let the bandits win. Justice will prevail if we work together." It was only then, as she was looking closely at him, that she recognized him. Kaelu blinked at Veigue and then stood up straight and alert. She took a step back as her eyes went wide and she gasped.

"Wait! Wait! You already are part of the fighting team! Gee, what a dunce I am. Sorry! Sorry!" Kaelu quickly cried out. "But really, are you all right? You look pretty tired."

[Deleted]

Just as he was thinking about his current situation, he heard someone approaching him and before he slowly creaked his eyes open, it was the same taguel girl from earlier. At first, he was a little dumbfounded that she'd seemed to have forgetten who he was already...but once he thought about it, it was his fault. Other than not sticking around for too long, he didn't even introduce himself. He figured he'd have time for such things later when they'd have nearly everything complete, but it seemed like that was a bad idea. He was never any good at social interactions in the first place, so it was to be expected.

Before he could say anything in response, she seemed to catch onto the fact that she already knew him. He simply shook his head with a small chuckle. "Not to worry. Relax." But her inquire of his well-being made him silent for a moment. He hadn't really taken the time to realize or focus on it, but he never could get comfortable as of late and had extreme difficulty with sleeping. That was likely due to how much he thought back on home. Ever since he was beamed into this unknown realm of the apparent past, home and all the people he knew back there was all he could think about. So many worries clouded his thoughts as well, but in a sense, it was beginning to feel like there were upsides to him being trapped here...like how he didn't have to worry about endangering the lives of others and his friends within the crossfire of his own affairs...and his nemesis likely died from the fall into this world...though that still wasn't fact. He just hoped it was.

But of course, he couldn't really tell or express any of that openly. And not like anyone from here would believe that he time traveled (or whatever the hell happened), which realistically was impossible no matter where you lived. He even doubted it himself sometimes and thought he was stuck in some freaky dream...or trapped in purgatory before needing to accept his death. That actually...sounds a bit more plausible than time travel.

"Oh, no. I'm fine. It's just that when you find yourself reflecting on the past and dreaming about the future, it just becomes a little taxing on the mind." He tried to put it as subtle as possible to mask the true meaning of the words. That was all he needed to say anyways.

[Astraea]

"And we're here in the now, so it's best to focus on that." Her words were blunt and perhaps a little harsh, but there was no ire to them - a sort of guarded agreement if anything, Astraea herself all too familiar with how unpleasant thoughts of the past could go. She didn't know what he was thinking about, and to be perfectly honest she didn't care, but something about his expression had been more familiar than she was entirely comfortable with.

As she entered the open area, the gladiator realized Kaelu was already there, and raised a hand in recognition. It had taken longer to find Veigue than she had hoped - so much for yelling at him about wandering off alone. Not that she needed to now, apparently, since he seemed to be... interacting with the Taguel girl. For certain values of 'interaction' that had very little to do with being personable.

Not that she was really one to judge people for shallow interactions, she thought with some amusement, given how little she actually cared about most people. "Past and future - they only matter as much as you let them matter. The past forges us, shapes us, but it does not define us. The future is ours to take." She smiled wryly. "But these folks don't have a future without us."

In a world where she had any idea of what Veigue had actually meant by his words, she might well have said the same thing.

[Kaelu]

"Relax? Relax." Kaelu tilted her head curiously with the first word she uttered and then nodded knowingly with the second. It was not that she was losing her head over Veigue so much as she was just worried for her new friend. They had a fight ahead of them after all and they needed to be sure of each other. Kaelu keenly watched Veigue and listened to his response. "Those are good things to think about..."

There was no way that Kaelu would be able to read into Veigue's words. She just wasn't that much of a thinker. Even with Astraea's presence returned to their group and her own words added to his, she had no more suspicion than before. The only suspicion she did have was that odd sensation that something was going to happen. She wasn't quite sure what and she didn't precisely know as to when, but it was something and it'd be soon. All the same, she was happy to be in good company, silly smile and all.

"Well, they might and they might not, but that's not worth thinking on. I say we just fight our hearts out! Too much thinking doesn't really do much of anything, hmm? And thinking has never been my strong suit." Kaelu brightly added her input. She bounced in place a little, the bells in her hair tinkling softly. She spun about about looked around, ears twitching as she she listened. There was definitely something going on, wasn't there? She still wasn't sure what it was yet... Kaelu glanced back at the others, between Astraea and Veigue, looking to see if they were having the same strange feeling she was. "The village is awful quiet, ain't it? Is it time you think?"

[Deleted]

The enigmatic swordsman kept his eyes closed for a little while longer until the woman in red arrived and gave her input on what he said, not exactly expecting her to say anything towards something he made up off the top of his head to mask the fact that he was thinking about how he was in a completely different world...or time frame. He slowly creaked his eyes open about halfway before settling with a stare towards the woman as she spoke. From anyone's view, it could look like he had a frown settled...but in actuality, that was just how Veigue's face looked in general.

After hearing the taguel add on to what the woman said, he closed his eyes again, not exactly wanting to say anything in response. But it seemed like the two were going to be hanging around him for a bit, so it was better to say something than nothing. "...Depends on what kind of past you've had, and the future you need to pursue." He kept his rather calm bearing about him as he spoke. "Some can't help but be haunted and reminded of the past no matter how hard they try, and strive for a better future to help forget it. While others simply don't have the time to waste on such things and would rather worry about what's happening to them now. So yes...past and future are only important...if you need something to fall on to survive and keep going in the present. Everyone's not fortunate enough to find something else to drive them forth."

Veigue knew that first bit actually applied to himself. He had nothing else pushing him on but his own survival, the well-being of those he cared for, and the future he'd striven for...and he used the past as a fuel to guide him through the present. But...since he's here, did that mean the past he endured and the future he dreamed no longer existed? Did Lena, Nayru and Elly also cease to exist here as well? In the end, he no longer had anything to push forward...so, what exactly was he supposed to do now? Just stand around and do nothing as time in this world passed and him along with it? Or was this just another test he had to undertake before he possibly passes on to the afterlife...?

Eventually the swordsman scoffed to himself silently as he tilted his head to a random direction and re-opened his eyes. The Sacaean couldn't believe that he'd be so caught up within these thoughts so deeply. Guess all he could do was to do what he can first...and that was killing off some brigands that wanted to do the same to innocent farmers. As the taguel's worries were more apparent in that regard, he looked back over to the men who were constructing the barricades from afar. "...I don't think so. Unless the bandits had a change of heart, I'm sure they'll still attack at the specified time. The villagers might be a little on edge, though."

[Astraea]

Years of learning how to judge a crowd had imparted some modicum of knowledge on the matter to the crimson gladiator, and while she had not noticed before the comment, it took very little time indeed to smell the tense anticipation in the air. Of what, and of whom, she didn't know. She didn't hear screams and bloodshed though, which sort of ruled out a full strength bandit attack.

There would be plenty of time for that on the morrow, Astraea thought morosely, but wisely kept her opinions to herself. No need to ruin the moment with a dose of reality.

"Well, overthinking matters won't help," she reservedly agreed with Kaelu, not entirely sure what Veigue was getting at. Obviously something had happened to him - but she didn't know what, and to be honest she didn't much care what. Everyone had problems, and it wasn't like he'd been ripped away from his family and friends and deposited a thousand years in the past or anything stupid like that. Astraea smiled, partially to herself and partially for the benefit of her companions, though there was little humor in her expression - her look was more eager than amused, tinged with a hint of the madness she flirted freely with.

"We won't get much done here. Why don't we do a little assault recon, see if we can't cut down a few of the craven curs we'd be up against tomorrow?"

[Kaelu]

Kaelu was almost entirely lost by all that Veigue said about pasts and futures. This was definitely a conversation that was more to the speed of two swordsmen, well swordsman and swordswoman, humans might be the better plural. In any case, Kaelu just looked between the pair of them and shrugged, "My past is in the mountains and forests. I don't know about my future, but gee Veigue, you sound a bit like you think about this a lot. It's kind of hard for me to follow, but I feel like it's important." Oh well, there were plenty of important things she missed out on. Backtracking was one of those, marking a trail was another, and being intellectual... that was right out. Kaelu just accepted things as they were in such cases and turned her energies only to the things she knew she could change with her own strength.

"Oh! I can do that! I can be sneaky!" Kaelu declared excitedly as the prospect of recon was put forth by Astraea. She bounced and clapped her hands, bells tinkling in her hair. She stopped suddenly and then reached up to her hair. Deftly she removed a few ribbons and then retied them over the bells. Her fidgeting movements, usually accompanied by the ringing of little bells, was now accompanied only by the soft pitter patter of footfalls. "See, quiet as a mouse but still quick as a bunny! Are going now?" She looked eagerly at Astraea, she was the leader among their troupe of defenders. Her brightly shining eyes glanced at Veigue as well. He certainly knew more about this kind of thing than she so far as the human side of things. Kaelu then said, "I promise I am good at this kind of thing."

[Deleted]

The enigmatic swordsman decided to keep quiet towards the both of them, as he was beginning to feel quite fed up with the topic...completely regretting ever making his subtle response earlier that triggered the whole conversation. The less he had to think about it right now, the better. It wasn't any of their faults though, just that he generally hated talking about it. Words pouring out of your mouth against your own will was one nasty habit of human beings that Veigue seemed to fall victim to when it came to subjects such as these. He was at least able to keep his normal expression and didn't outwardly show his inner struggle, for he'd probably scare them away if that was the case.

Hearing the idea of heading out to possibly minimize tomorrow's numbers didn't sound like a bad idea. He'd hate to leave the village virtually defenseless, but if those two went out alone, he had a hunch they'd have a little trouble if they decided to attack any of the bandits they find. As he recalled though, there was another swordsman volunteering, so perhaps wherever that guy was, he'd be a means of protection. Either way, maybe if they did team up out there, they could cut their numbers down. Would have been nice if they could outright eliminate the brigands in one fatal tactic if it was possible, but the chances of that would be slim to none.

"...It wouldn't hurt. I'm in." He finally eased his back off the wall, though still standing in the same spot as he awaited their next response or action.

[Astraea]

Astraea wasn't sure she liked how the conversation had gone about futures and pasts and all that rot - it was grating on her sensibilities that people refused to look to the future, to recognize that their pasts had shaped them but they were so much more than what reality had attempted to make them into. There was no harm, no shame, in admitting to past failures or past difficulties, but they were exactly that: the past. A past that could no longer hurt you unless you let it, and a past that could well blind you to the glorious dawn that the future you pursued might bring. One could not change the past, but the future was malleable.

She was pragmatic enough to realize that she might not have the full story, that perhaps there was another layer of meaning to Veigue's words, but it was simply impossible for her to accept that one's past could make them weak. If she had survived what she had, certainly people who had possessed freedom could strive for as much or more. But she had earned hers, and perhaps that was exactly why it meant so much more to her than those who knew not its true value. Or maybe she was overthinking all this and she should just be stabbing people in the face. Biting back the urge to challenge Veigue to a sparring match - there would be plenty of time for that later, assuming they all survived - Astraea responded with a grin at her erstwhile companions. Kaelu was sweet as sugar and amusing to interact with.

"Quiet's definitely good, and we'll burn the 'stealth' bridge when we come to it. Bandits may not be known for their wits, but it'd be wise to expect a bit of canniness if they're capable of organizing for a full-on invasion." Scourge that they were, though she could at least respect that they built their own lives and carved a future in blood and steel - if only they were capable of building, rather than simply breaking. That desperation could be turned to better use than running around killing people and stealing their belongings. "Now let's try to do this without all getting ourselves killed, or that's going to make tomorrow a fair bit harder for me."

[Kaelu]

Yes! They were all going together, a real group of them. This was just like how it had been in her Warren! Kaelu was accustomed to going out on runs looking for monsters to exterminate from their forest home. While there would be no extermination, heck, there wouldn't even be any monsters, it made her reminisce of home and family and friends. It reminded her of one other thing: how she had gotten lost. We... We have to stick together! Okay? Okay! I don't want to get lost again. That's what happened last time with the monsters and I don't want it happening again. The emotion was strong in her voice and she looked determinedly between and the man and woman before her. It almost looked like she could cry with the way her eyes glistened and how her ears drooped a little sadly. No tears were shed, though, and Kaelu took a deep breath and gave a firm nod as if still agreeing with herself that they would stick together and not lose any of their little party.

"So, which way?" Kaelu's mood changed on a small coin. She was all smiles again and looked eagerly for instruction. Human tracks were all over the place, so she couldn't track the bandits down like she would an animal to play with. They didn't really have any sort of aura either, so she wasn't like to sense them like some of the magical people appeared to. Not that she was capable of that anyway since the bandits were being sought out and not attacking her out right. "I've never looked for bandits before."

[Deleted]

It still troubled him that bandits would even attempt something as odd enough to warn their victims of their oncoming raid. It could have all been just their little way of striking fear into a village nearly defenseless and having no way to protect themselves, or lack the skills to do so. Really, he wanted to go with the two to see what they were up against. They didn't seem like the average group of bandits, or if they were what they claimed to be. There really could be a major difference between brigands now and how they were in his own world...or they all could be the same and he was merely over thinking it beyond what's necessary.

When advised to take caution, he was no fool to bite off more than he could chew when walking into enemy territory. He especially experienced it first-hand on how it was to invade an entire stronghold...alone. And he knew how that ultimately turned out. There was a strong difference between brigands and skilled men, but numbers conquer no matter how skilled or untalented a fighter is individually. However, going through that suicide mission was for the sake of his friends, not for himself...so unless he was forced with another situation similar, he wasn't going to do anymore one-man shows for a while.

"...I'd imagine they have a stronghold somewhere nearby. Though since I'm unfamiliar with this area, I have no clue where to search." In response to Kaelu's question, this was a moment where his complete ignorance of this world's geography has come to bite him earlier than expected. This...appeared to be Elibe, but he seemed lost. "If we can't find it on our own, we may have to ask any villagers who may know. That's about the safest bet."