Call to Adventure [Julius/Open]

[Milenth]

Milenth shivered a bit as she glanced out of the window. It seemed winter was coming but there was little she could do about that. Besides she had grown up around this region, albeit she still had no idea how to get home, as such be able to handle a small chill. Rubbing her nose bridge, she tried to focus on the papers before her. Some of the words made little sense, while others were simply incomplete. Why must the ancient time be so cryptic?

She had been staying here for the last few years, living off money made from past adventures. During her journeys she had found many implications of what might be happening with the sudden rise of monsters but she had no time to piece together the information. However even now she was still having trouble. It distressed her immensely. With all the time on her hands, she simply could not figure this out. How did some humans make so much progress with their allotted time?

"I need some fresh air," she muttered to herself. Before long she slammed the door shut to her room and ran downstairs. The smell of bread greeted her and she waved at the friendly woman and child as she passed by.

"Out for a stroll?" the woman asked throwing her a loaf of bread. She nodded cheerfully as she jogged out of the house.

The ground felt cool to her barefoot. It was a small village but a thriving one nonetheless. There hadn't been a bandit attack in ages apparently nor any threats. Hopefully it would stay that way. As she passed other people, she greeted them with a wave while balancing and munching on the bread at the same time. Perhaps she needed to gather more information to make sense of what was happening. Another 100 years of adventuring didn't sound so bad but she would feel bad for leaving her home. It wasn't like this village was going anywhere soon.

[Julius Kailas]

Julius had been venturing further north in search of a decent monster hunter guild, the leads he had received had pointed him in that direction but he found nothing. He had told himself he wouldn't join a guild but he needed to test his strengths and push them to the limits. While searching a town for leads he was approached by a scuffled man, he offered him a job but couldn't talk about it in the open. Once the two were alone the man began to talk "I'm going to cut to the chase Julius, you're a sell-sword who will take any job if the pay is good enough. Having a fighter of your caliber the Ruby Bandits will hold this territory under our thumbs." Taking out a bag of gold he tossed it towards Julius, he caught it and inspected the amount. "There's plenty more where that came from if you join us." Julius' gaze returned to the man. "How do you know my name?" "Hahaha, let's just say I happened to be passing through a town when I heard of you. What do you say boy?" "Just give me a target and I'll see they fall." The man grinned as he told him when they were going to attack and where to meet up. Julius bought a room for the night and made sure he was well rested.

The group of men gathered at the location they were going to meet up, there was 8 men excluding the leader and Julius. The plan was to enter the town pretending to be merchants, once inside they were going to rush from the covered wagon killing any guard on sight and any resistance, once the damage was done they were to grab anything of value and load up the wagon. Looking around with what they had Julius knew he would be doing quite a bit of fighting, while his leather armor would provide the freedom to move it did lack the protection he would need so he was happy with the decision to wear his plate and bring his new shield.

It felt like an eternity but they were finally there, adrenaline began to pump through Julius veins as he heard they need to be ready to attack at a moment's notice. 'G'day mate' There was the code word to begin, Julius drew the blade from the sheath as he jumped out the back. He cut down an unsuspecting guard from behind as the others rushed behind him.

[Milenth]

Milenth only managed to walk past about two buildings before she heard the screams. It alarmed her enough that she misstepped and fell over on her butt. What can be causing such a commotion around this hour? The most she heard was a simple rat stealing from a fruit stand in this town. As soon as she brushed herself off, a passing man pushed her back in her ground.

"Hey! Watch it!" she barked, waving one of her fists in the air. This was beyond bizarre. It didn't take long before she heard the call of bandits in the area. Just the thought caught her even more off guard. Sure this region was full of them but this town was left alone. Just the sound of the situation made her uneasy.

As she saw the first glint of a blade, she quickly jumped back to her feet. She scrambled away like the other villagers, running back to her home. Sure enough, the baker began barring the doors as soon as she jumped through the door. His wife held their daughter close in the best hiding space they could find.

"Nononono," she muttered to herself as soon as she was through her room. Bandits wanted wealth but she was still afraid of her possessions. Cursing herself for her disorganized nature, she shoved piles of paper, carvings, maps, and artifact into her sack pack.

Before long a knocking at the door caught her attention. She simply continued to stuff as much as possible before the door was knocked down. Sure enough a rather burly man entered the room. He glanced about the room and narrowed his eyes on Milenth. A rather wide and nasty smile was plastered on his face.

"Hand over the goods, girl," he spoke, his eyes settling on his sack.

"No you don't understand, this is my research, you-" she was cut off as he snatched her up. She flailed a bit but didn't struggle much at all. There was no room to change form in fear of breaking through the ground and crushing the baker and his family.

"You smart gals are worth a bit as well," he grinned as he took her back to the wagon. He carried her like a prized trophy. Sure she could have crushed him under her transformed weight but that would mean wrecking various stands and homes for the people. She would cause more damage than actually help. Plus she didn't like the idea of facing off against a whole band of heavily armed bandits. She might be escape later on though or whenever she found a chance.

"Hey why you bring a girl?" one of his coworker called out as he threw a sack of valuables into the wagon.

"A real smart gal, gotta be pretty rich with all her writing and the like," he responded with a wide grin on his face.

"I really don't have all that much sir," she interjected to no avail.

"There isn't enough room, we need it for stuffing the treasure," was another response. She was sort of offended. Was she really that big? However she was soon stuffed in the cart, tied up.

[Julius Kailas]

Julius was playing around with what seemed to be the caption of the guard, his armor was more decorated than the others, Julius would block the his attacks with the shield and made slow attacks ensuring he could safely avoid them. From the corner of his eye he saw one of the men toss a woman into the wagon as another prepared a torch to burn the town down. "Play time is over, sorry about this." Julius parried his blade then knocked him back using the shield then shifted his body towards his 'allies' and took off running. Damn armor slowed him down too much, he couldn't stop the bandit from starting a fire but it didn't stop him from striking the first blow upon the men he was working for. Julius spun around knocking away an axe and kept his momentum to block a sword with his own, it seemed the bandits all realized who the biggest threat was as a third came rushing towards him. He was in over his head, Julius knew he couldn't fight 3 of them at a time and a few of the group seemed to know their way with a blade. Julius threw a punch with his shield hitting the man in the jaw, dropping him to the ground hissing in pain, now to focus on the two on hand. There was little that Julius could do but fight defensively the shield was more of a set back than a blessing, he had practically no training in using one.

It was almost a blessing when the captain of the town guard came to Julius' aid, with one of the bandits locking blades with him it allowed Julius a chance to go on the offensive. Parrying his blade with the shield Julius went to behead him but his blade was blocked him his armored arm, he needed to get to the cart to free that woman. Raising his shield he blocked another attack he made another counter attack only to be blocked by the man's arm but this time he cut through the leather and broke skin. Julius judged the direct of the attack, anticipated the path of the blade and shifted his body so it would strike his pauldron, lowering his shield the sword struck where Julius predicted as brought the wing of the shield upwards into his arm-pit of his sword arm, on of the few areas without any armor, this was the opening he was looking for. Julius brought down his blade into the man's neck as he shoved past him towards the wagon. He didn't see anybody near it yet, the ones in the area were preoccupied with the guards and the ones he couldn't see must have been looting. The town was on fire and there were bandits on the loose still, the fight seemed as a losing one but it wouldn't stop Julius from trying.

Pulling himself into the wagon he cut the woman loose. "Quick, get out of here and get help to try to put out the fire. Don't worry about the bandits, I'll deal with them."

[Milenth]

Milenth landed on the bandit's pile of loot in a rather rough fashion. It was sort of flattering being worth enough to abduct but there was plenty more eligible people out in the world. She was soon showered with bits of coins before she heard more noises. It sounded like a battle out there and she hoped the town's defense was winning. However when she caught the scent of fire, she recoiled in horror. The town, it can't be... Perhaps it was selfish of her but her mind immediately imagined her room and the bakery burning down. 

She squirmed under her ropes, wondering since the town was going to burn down, maybe she should turn now. Before she can decide though, a man popped into the wagon and cut her free while giving her orders. She struggled to find words, not recognizing the man. Considering she is still alive and free, he was probably not an enemy. What he said was true, the fire need to be put out before it burns everything to ashes.

She didn't speak, giving a nod and scrambling out of the wagon. Sure enough, the fire was spreading quickly and blazing away. Her eyes darted about as there was plenty of chaos going about. People were trying to get out of their building homes and shop, only to be met with a bandit. Some were cut down, others managed to flee into another home. Nobody wanted to get out in this mess. 

In a rush, she began calling for help but no matter what she did, the people didn't want to leave the safety of their homes. She called out names she knew, just anybody would do. Yet it was only met with disappointment. Most of them won't even look her in the eye and say no. Frustrated and dejected she ran to find the man that helped free her in hopes that he might have an idea. 

[Manis]

"Ruby Bandits?" Manis mumbled under his breath. "What kind of name is that?" He had just walked into another town, still searching for his quarry. There was supposed to be some sort of bandit group roaming around the area but he was always either to late or too early. It's bad enough I'm going to have to kill people, the least they could do is not hide. He looked at the paper in his hands again before shaking his head. Ruby Bandits?

It wasn't until Manis walked right by a house ingulfed in flames that he noticed something was wrong. He had assumed people were busy talking about him as he passed. He had done some work around here a bit before and so some people knew him. And people either knew him, thought they knew him, or just plain liked talking about a guy dressed so horribly he could pass as a-

"BANDIT!" Someone yelled nearby. Manis looked up from his paper to see a woman holding a broom menacing nearby the burning house. He looked around to see what she was talking about before realizing she meant him. He raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not a-" Manis began.

"HRAH!" A bandit yelled, firmly planting his axe where Manis had been. Manis pointed at the man while looking at the woman questioningly. She nodded uncertainly. 

"Oh," Manis mouthed before planting his fist in the mans face.  The bandit stumbled backwards, letting go of his nice shiny axe. He soon found his legs out from under him and an elbow in the chest. Manis stood over him with his empty gaze resting on the man. "Do you where this guy is?" he questioned in his dry, dull voice. He was holding up the paper and sounded as if he didn't care, which he didn't. He had tried to get the inn keeper to just let him do dishes but he had insisted Manis go looking for the man who had wiped out his village years and years ago; all this based on a rumor that the man was back in town.

The bandit pointed down the road after a kick in the gut and a little prodding. Why do things always have to be so hard? he questioned as he strode down the street. There were screams and smoke and laughter as he made his way through town. He passed by some noisy girl and a man with a sword and completely ignored any bandits he came near. He just wanted to get the job done and be home with as little killing as possible. 

[Julius Kailas]

Julius had sheathed his sword, this was going to be risky but he couldn't afford losing mobility right now his mail should provide aid to his sheild in his defense. His shield hit the ground with a clang, he quickly removed the straps on his pauldrons and slipped off the chest plate, Julius thought he told the girl to go get help why was she back? He knelt over picking the winged shield back up as a man casually walked by, it was like everybody here had a death wish. Grabbing the hilt Julius got ready to charge, "I thought I told you to find help. Every second you waste is another life lost. I told you I'll handle the bandits." Before she could even speak he took off towards his foe, using the shield he rammed into him, both falling towards the ground. Applying pressure using the shield and dragging away Julius rammed the sword into the man's chest. Rolling onto his back to the left he dodged the axe that was coming down for his head, springing to his feet Julius brought his shield up to block the incoming blow, Julius howled in pain as the axe struck his shield. He should have remembered what that blacksmith told him about using a shield. Julius figured there were about 3 other bandits he didn't see fall in battle, hopefully this was the last.

"Why did you betray us Julius? We could have gone places, but now the only place you're going to is your grave." Julius returned his left arm to his side and let go of the shield, it slide off his arm towards the ground, he brought up his sword between him and the man. He was squaring off with the leader of the Ruby Bandits, Julius could feel the heat of the flames to his back.

[Milenth]

“That isn’t fair, I tried but nobody wants to help!” Milenth called out in protest. She stomped her foot in agitation in the middle of the chaos. However the man was preoccupied with killing off the bandits. This brought her back to some of her travels but this was no time to walk down memory lane. She did prefer the less dangerous job of making sure the town doesn’t burn down than to kill off bandits. The issue was how she was going to go about it.

There was little time for thought as she heard a screaming coming from one of the houses. The fire had already spread inside and apparently the occupants were trapped inside. It just so happened to be the cry of a child. In normal situations she would depend on others to handle the problem. Seeing as everyone was busy with their own trouble, it was her turn to do something. Taking one more gulp of fresh air, she charged through the doorway. Her arms were brought over her head as she did so. Glistening blue scales lined the top of her arms, repelling much of the flame.

“Don’t worry, I’m coming,” she called out, more to console herself than the child. The building could collapse at any moment. She heard a shrill cry and found the child trapped under cabinet of some sorts. For a moment she tried to lift the thing but found it futile in her current form. Even before the little boy could call out, she saw the horror in his eyes. Her body reacted quickly enough to bring her arms over her head and sure enough, burning bits of wood pounded her.

Coughing and wheezing for air, she was glad to still be alive. She checked the entrance but it was blocked up now. Glancing from the child and back to the doorway, she let out a sigh. It wasn’t like she disliked being a dragon but it was just troublesome in the long run. It meant that after this incident was over with, she had to leave the town. Plus she wasn’t the most peaceful looking creature in the world. Nomadic life, here she comes…

Her body seemed to crackle as visible shocks passed through her body. Her hair appeared to merge and darken into spines. Her teeth began to sharpen and enlarge into a jagged blade like mess. Soon the lightning passed through her body seem to envelope her until she was nothing more than a mess of spiky light, that kept spreading outwards. She was careful however as she spread out her body to shield the boy. As her form finally took hold, she easily broke the rest of the crumbling building around her.

She gently lifted the cabinet off the boy and placed it aside. Experience had already explained to her the dangers of carelessly tossing things aside. Once free, she picked up the child with her palm, like a shovel and placed him safely aside. As she did so, she couldn’t help but let out a triumphant chuckle that was far more deep and menacing than it had any right to be.

She awkwardly maneuvered out of the house and into the wider streets, trying not to destroy or crushing anything or anyone. It wasn’t going very well as she managed to stumble into the wagon and smashing it into pieces.

[Manis]

It didn't take Manis long to realize he'd been tricked. Especially when he was able to see the outskirts of town. I can't believe I actually came across a smart bandit, he thought, totally baffled. Of all the things- There was scream nearby, and Manis turned to see a bandit throwing a woman to the ground and berating her, stating he just wanted her belongings and it'd be easier if she stayed quiet.

"Excuse me sir," Manis said, tapping the bandit on the shoulder. "Have you seen-" And then Manis got a face full of fist. He stumbled backwards, hands going to his face. "Aw, man, come on I just wanted some directions." It was kind of odd coming from him, his voice still dull and unwavering. He gently poked at his nose to see if it was bleeding. Luckily it wasn't.

"Back off and mind your own-" the bandit stopped as his eyes came to Manis' sword. "So you're looking for a fight, eh?" And then seemingly out of no where two more bandits appeared as if waiting for this.

"Look, what did I just get done-" Manis began but there was the sudden sound of a house breaking, and then some sort of roar-chuckle thing. All four men looked back toward the center of town. The bandits turned white. They looked between Manis and the dragon while he looked between them and the dragon. He looked back at the dragon one more time before looking at the bandits, hand reluctantly going for his sword. They were gone.

Smart bandits Manis thought, shaking his head. He then turned on his heel and walked back down the street, ignoring the two dueling men, one of which happened to be the man he was looking for. He had eyes only for the dragon, barely blinking as debris began flying at him from the wagon. He side stepped as a board went flying by, but found someones family heirloom staring him in the face. No... he thought as it hit him in the chest, knocking him to the ground.

[Julius Kailas]

Julius charged towards the man, he had anticipated him doing that and began to swing his mighty axe before Julius was in range to attack. Julius had dove and rolled past him avoiding his axe, before Julius could get back on his feet the man had spun around swinging his axe looking to behead Julius, raising his sword he intercepted the axe and held it at bay for a second. Not wasting the opening he drove his fist into the man's crouch. "You dirty little..." the bandit grunted out as he doubled over. Julius drove his blade into his heart, it was at this time a dragon came bursting out of the home behind him. Using the dead bandit's body to shield him from debris, shoving the body off him he saw a dragon. Oh what a lucky day, he remember mother explaining there were different types of elements dragons could control, Julius got to his feet and almost tripped rushing towards the dragon.

"You must help us put out the fire, please I'm begging you." Julius' breathing was deep, all of the combat and the stumbling run here began to take it's toll on his body.

[Milenth]

Milenth finally got control of her body after she managed to relax enough. It had been some time since she last used her powers, having buried herself in piles upon piles of research. She actually felt quite silly, having to crane her neck downwards to see the tops of people’s heads. It sure made her feel much bigger than she actually was. With that in mind, she began to survey the area, not looking for a fight but to get a good idea of the situation.

The whole place was lined with dead bandits, scattered about. However what perturbed her most was the constant scent of smoke. She couldn’t help but let out a cough and snort as the smoke filled her senses. It was beginning to irritate her eyes, forcing her to blink constantly. It didn’t take long for her to notice that she was standing on her legs.

As her eyes locked on the man that was taking care of the bandits, she crouched down below the smoke, close to the ground. It felt far more natural and comfortable now, outside of flying. It was then that she got the man’s demand. Well lightning breath would hardly help in this sort of situation, she was bound to make more fires than put them out. Nor would flapping her wings, that tend to make fires worse… At that thought, she did know a good way to help out.

She shuffled her way past, careful not to knock the man down. Before one building, she dug into the soft land, pulling out a good bit of dirt before flinging it at the fire. She did this repeatedly, with so much determination that even a veteran dog would be proud of. She continued to do this to each of the buildings, trying to avoid crushing anyone below.

[Manis]

Manis climbed to his feet, brushing the dirt off his jacket. I should ask for hazard pay. The thought flicked across his mind as he searched for his paper. At least then I'd be able to pay for stuff. He found the paper nearby, laying nicely on the ground. He eyed it warily. Couldn't happen. He was still blissfully unaware of what was going on, to a degree, as he moved toward the paper. It moved in a gust of air, perhaps due to the dragons passing. 

No... Manis  thought as he dove toward the paper. He found his mouth full of dust as the dragon frantically pilled earth on top of houses. The dust made a decent smoke screen, and the paper was no where to be seen. Blast it all! He saw the outline of a person nearby and finally decided to help out. Or at least try, hopefully this mess wouldn't end in him chasing some one cross country again.

"Excuse me, you all right?" Manis questioned with his dull voice, only to find most of it covered by his hacking coughs as he spit the dirt out. How he had forgotten eluded him. Can't anything go right? Suddenly the paper was under his boot. That's what I thought. He quickly scooped it up and made his way toward the person who seemed to be having issues standing.

Surely that won't happen again he thought as he remembered what had happened when someone had seen him earlier. To him it seemed the man had some sort of shield along with a sword. Besides, the dust is settling. I hope.

[Julius Kailas]

This dragon was the polar opposite of his father, she seemed to enjoy being around humans where Julius was probably the only human Liam liked. Once she started to fling dirt around the fire had began to die out as she added more to it, Julius finally set out a sigh of relief. It shouldn't have ever escalated this far, his original plans were to 'betray' they mid combat and kill them all, he never knew one of them planned on burning the town down. Everything was his fault, while he felt bad about it now, he wasn't going to lose any sleep over it. Searching the area he was looking for the guard caption, within moments he had found him alive so Julius approached him only to get a look that could kill, if they could. "I'm truly sorry for all of the lose today, when I had accepted the job offer I made sure to get half of my pay up front. I know it could never bring back what was lost but I would like to give it to the families that lost everything in the fire. If I had known they were going to start the fire I would have killed the man with the torch as I left their wagon"

Julius reached behind himself and grabbed the pouch full of gold and handed it to the caption. He snatched it from Julius' hand quickly "Gather your shit and leave this town. Don't ever come back again." Julius gave a small laugh as he shook his head, turning around he started to walk towards his shield "I hope you realize you'd be dead along with many others if it wasn't for me." He gave the caption no time to reply, he did not care what he had to say. Picking up his shield he sheathed his sword into it's back and carried it with his good hand as he approached the dragon. "I'm sorry for what happened here today. I wanted to personally thank you for helping put out the fires, I am sorry if I came off as an asshole, I didn't want to risk others getting hurt by wasting time talking. My name is Julius, I would like to know the name of the woman that aided me today."

[Milenth]

Milenth let out a happy grunt towards the blue haired man. I response, she couldn't help but slide her tail against the ground a bit. Helping had always been difficult for her. Some people just didn't feel comfortable around Manaketes. She could understand why as she looked at the ditches she had built.

When the man asked for the name of the girl, she realized he meant her. Unfortunately she could not communicate in her current form. It wasn't quite time to change back either. So she used one of her rather wicked claws and wrote her name into the ground. When done she smiled, revealing her rows upon rows of dagger like teeth. She always seemed to come off more menacing than she meant.

[Manis]

As the dust settled Manis found the man was no longer there. But there was someone on the ground. He gripped the paper tightly as he walked over to the body. His eyes widened. He looked at the paper. Looked at the body and then back again. A smile played at his lips. He rarely found things amusing these days, but he couldn't help himself this time.

That's what I thought, Manis thought to himself as he bent down over the body. He looked for something he could grab to show the deed had been done. He was still happy he had been able to get the job done with out killing anyone. And then he saw the ring, which he quickly slid off the dead man's finger. Manis rolled it with his fingers as he read the inscription on the inner band. He almost laughed out loud this time. 

The band read Lilynette, which had been the name of the inn keeper's wife. Manis swallowed the laugh and looked around as he put the ring in his pocket. It seemed as if a perfect day had occurred. No townspeople bothering him about a job, no one staring and whispering, and he had finished a real job without actually killing anyone. It was definitely a good day.