Miletus Roleplay

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Darast rode his horse northward across the Great Plain. The area was barren; just dirt and rocks as far as the eye could see. There was a story that a battle among dragons was the reason why the plain looked as it did, but no one knew for sure anymore. However, it was still told that the plain was bad luck, and that people should stay away. He had Bahamut to protect him, though, so he wasn’t afraid of some bad luck.

Thus, Darast was, for all intents and purposes, completely alone. He almost wished Carlon was with him; at least he’d have someone to talk to instead of being stuck with his own thoughts. Heading to Malar brought back so many memories, and he wasn’t even sure if he was mentally ready to come back. But it was Bahamut’s will, so he had to go.

All he knew about the Malar-Arachen War was that it had ended in a draw. He didn’t know how any of his friends and comrades had made out. Were any of them still alive? Would he see them as he got closer to Malar? He kind of hoped he wouldn’t; they were a part of his old life, and that belonged in the past.

As he rode, he thought he saw movement up ahead. He slowed his horse and got closer, until he could tell that there were two figures. One seemed to be a young boy, and the other was a goblin. The boy had a stick that he was using to protect himself, but it was no match for the goblin’s morningstar. The stick was easily snapped, and the weapon made contact with the boy’s arm, knocking him down.

Darast dismounted and drew his sword and shield; the goblin heard him and turned around. Darast took the first move, running at the goblin and swinging at it, but the goblin hopped out of the way. Darast was now positioned in front of the boy and saw his arm was bleeding.

“I’ll take care of this pest and then I’ll fix you up, okay?” he said. The boy nodded and stayed where he was.

The goblin then lunged at Darast and swung its morningstar, but he easily blocked it with his shield. He quickly struck at it as it tried to get back in position and his sword ripped through what little armour it was wearing, giving it a good gash across its midsection. The creature howled in fury and struck back, hitting Darast on the thigh with a great swing of its weapon. Darast stumbled backward, clenching his teeth at the pain.

He recollected himself and went after the goblin, but it blocked his sword with its morningstar. The battle went back and forth with each able to block and dodge the other’s attack. Darast took another hit, but used that moment to impale the goblin while it was open.

He pulled his sword out of the goblin’s throat and the creature collapsed. He wiped its blood from his weapon with the hem of his shirt and sheathed it. He then turned to the boy, who had stayed put through the whole thing. Darast figured he couldn’t be more than ten years old.

“Th-that was awesome!” the boy exclaimed.

Darast bent down next to the boy and said, “Only doin’ my duty.” He checked out the arm; it didn’t look too bad. “So why’re you out here by yourself?”

“I was travellin’ with my mom, and she wouldn’t let me see the Great Plain, so I ran away,” the boy replied, sounding almost triumphant.

“Ya shouldn’t be doing stuff like that. Ya could’ve been hurt way worse.” Darast stood. “Tell you what. I’ll take ya back to your mom if ya promise not to do somethin’ like this again.”

The boy stood as well and rubbed his arm. “Okay…”

Darast led the boy back to his horse, which was still standing where he’d left it. Although this wasn’t his Paladin mount, he wasn’t strong enough to get one of those yet, this horse listened to him pretty well. He helped the boy up and climbed on behind him, then started the horse forward and tended to the boy’s arm.

Casimir felt sick thinking of what had happened to his mother. Why had Chazz had to say that, of all things? It physically hurt to remember finding her hanging in her closet, the rope impossibly tight around her neck. Casimir slid against the back of the building, pulling his knees to his chest and hiding his face against them. He screwed his eyes shut, trying to block out the images and think of anything else.

He was hoping Chazz would get distracted with the man he was talking to and not come look for him. He would be able to find someone in this city to show him the way back to his house from here as long as Chazz didn't catch him.

It was then he felt someone grab his arm. He knew who it was before he even looked up. He narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere except home," he said flatly.

"Hey, wait!" Darast yelled as the man took off. He had a bad feeling about this; something was wrong, and he wouldn't give up until he found out what it was. If this was an innocent person in danger, there was absolutely no way he could turn away.

He hurried in the direction he'd seen the man go, toward a shop nearby. He went around the back and found him trying to make the other guy leave against his will.

"Unhand him! Haven't you upset him enough already?" Darast said.

Chazz was about to drag Casimir when he heard the voice of the man from whom he had ran away. He thought quickly; he had no choice but to confront this guy and stop him. Killing him would be ideal, but during the fight the kid could easily escape. All he needed to do was somehow stop this guy. Chazz glanced at Casimir and got an idea. He drew his rapier and held it to Casimir's throat.

"If you take one more step, I'll kill him," Chazz said, looking at the man. He looked back at Casimir, and spoke to him in an urgent whisper. "Use a sleep spell on him. Now."

Casimir was intiially relieved when he heard the man from before arrive and try to help him. Maybe he would finally get home because of this man. He gave him a grateful gaze, but it was soon replaced by a look of horror as he felt the rapier at his throat. He didn't doubt that Chazz would kill him over this so he couldn't do anything but reluctantly obey. He cast the sleep spell, willing it to fail.

Darast stopped in his tracks when the man held the rapier up to the other one's throat. This was bad, very bad. His mind raced, trying to think of what to do. Suddenly, the hostage began to cast a spell, which Darast recognized as the sleep spell. It didn't affect him, luckily, but he still couldn't do anything.

He clasped his pendant and made a silent prayer to Bahamut to keep the hostage safe and to help him free him.

"Why're ya doing this?" Darast asked. "What has he done to deserve this?"

Chazz was relieved when Casimir obeyed, but the spell ended up failing.

"Dammit," Chazz hissed under his breath. He decided that he needed to take care of the man himself, which meant that he would need to do something about Casimir. He looked at the kid, and hit him in the head with his free hand, hoping to knock him out. However, it seemed he was too gentle, because he only succeeded in making the kid look more miserable. Chazz hit him again, and Casimir collapsed. He didn't seem completely out, but he was definitely incapacitated.

Casimir was relieved when the sleep spell failed. Perhaps now this man would be his saving grace. Before he could even think to say anything, he felt Chazz sharply hit him in the head. He cried out, half in surprise and half in pain, before pouting. "What was that f-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Chazz hit him again. This blow was harder. Casimir's vision went blurry and he collapsed to the ground. He tried to lift his head but it was too sore and heavy. It wasn't long before everything faded to black. He would be drifting in and out of consciousness for a while, it seemed.

Darast couldn't believe what was unfolding in front of his eyes. He felt powerless; he couldn't act or the guy's throat would be slit, but just standing there watching him being hit in the head until he collapsed made Darast feel horrible.

"You... you fiend!" he yelled. "This evil won't be tolerated! I'll stop ya in the name of Bahamut!"

Chazz left Casimir's side and turned to the man. He certainly was persistent. The guy's outburst was interesting; it sounded like he was a paladin.

"Oh, I see now," Chazz said. "You're one of those fools. Well, let me show you how living that way turns out."

Chazz charged at the man, his rapier aimed to stab him.

Since the man already had his rapier drawn, he was easily able to go after Darast before he was able to at least ready his shield. However, he just managed to get out of the way in time to avoid getting hit.

Darast whirled around and drew his sword and shield, now prepared to fight. He tried to get an attack in quickly and catch Chazz off guard.

Chazz could see that this man knew how to fight when he dodged his attack. The guy was quick to retaliate, but Chazz was able to dodge. He followed up by taking another stab at him.

Once again, Darast's opponent was quick, and he was able to completely avoid Darast's attack. He figured this guy must be a rogue, and this could be a tough battle. The man tried to attack him again, but he got his shield there in time to deflect the blow.

The impact of the rapier against shield jarred the enemy enough that Darast knew he could get a hit in. He didn't want to kill the guy, just hurt him enough so he could save the hostage. He could come back and deal with this guy later.

He swung his sword at the enemy, hoping for a decent hit.

Having his attack blocked abruptly by the shield jarred Chazz and he realized how open he was, but it was too late. The man's sword slashed across his thigh, leaving a deep wound. Chazz clenched his teeth in pain and sidestepped. He stabbed quickly at his opponent again, hoping to get the attack in before he could block with his shield again.

Between the head injury and his exhaustion, Casimir was only catching snippets of sound from the fight, dozing and drifting out of consciousness the majority of the time.

As all of this was going on, the shopkeeper was finishing up closing his shop for the night. He heard a bit of a ruckus outside and soon realized it was coming from behind his shop. He stepped outside and peered around the corner. Sure enough, a couple of young men were going at it. "Hey! Knock it off!" he yelled at them. "Or at least take it off my property before I call the guards!"

Darast turned the next attack aside easily. He had given the rogue a pretty good injury to his leg, so he was getting ready to make a run for the hostage, but stopped when he heard someone yelling. It turned out the shopkeeper was still around and had heard the scuffle.

"I'm very sorry!" Darast apologized. "This evil man took this guy hostage, knocked him out cold, and tried to attack me. It would actually be helpful if you could call the guards on him."

He kept an eye on the rogue the entire time, not wanting to be vulnerable to an attack.

Chazz was rather annoyed that he couldn't land a hit on his opponent, but suddenly the shopkeeper found them. He hadn't seemed to notice the kid, and the paladin tried to get help from him. The shopkeeper didn't look too happy, though.

"Yeah, right. Didn't you hear me? I told you to get off my property!!" he shouted. He continued to rant as he charged at Dara with his broom, clearly in no mood to be dealing with this.

While all this was going on, Chazz had the perfect opportunity to get Cas onto his back and run off in the opposite direction. It was a bit difficult, especially with his injury, but he needed to get out of the city. Chazz headed toward the unguarded exit he had used earlier.

Casimir was jarred from his semi-conscious state at some point while Chazz was running with him. He wasn't sure what was going on at first and even after he realized, he was in no state to struggle very much. His head still felt too heavy to lift and it hurt badly. Coupled with the dizziness and nausea he was experiencing, trying to get down and get away from Chazz would be futile.

"Why won't you just take me home...? I have nothing I can do for you," he half whispered into the man's ear, watching grimly as Chazz headed for the exit.

Running while carrying Casimir made Chazz realize that he was actually a bit tired. He had traveled far to make it to Orios earlier that day for his mission, and he had skipped sleeping to get there as soon as possible. He didn't think he would be able to go too far after he left the city, especially with his wounded leg.

Chazz suddenly heard changes in the kid's breathing and then his plea as he reached the city exit. "I can't do that," he muttered, looking straight ahead and focusing on forcing himself to go as far as possible.

After leaving the city, Chazz left the path as he had done earlier. However, this time he headed east, toward the Karedde Hills. He knew he wouldn't be able to reach them, but he made it as far as he could before stopping in an area with a few trees to use as cover. Chazz crouched and set the kid down next to a tree and then sat next to him. He breathed heavily as he inspected his injury, cursing the paladin under his breath. He hoped he hadn't left any blood behind him as he ran.

"Ack! Wait!" Darast exclaimed as the man hit him with his broom. "I'm so sorry for causin' ya trouble! I promise it won't happen again!"

He backed away from the area around on the shop and the shopkeeper seemingly decided that was good enough, as he took his broom and went back into the shop. Darast sighed, he'd managed to cause trouble and now he'd lost the evil rogue as well. He hadn't had much experience with real life situations without Carlon being there, and he knew it showed.

He looked up at the stars which were now visible in the night sky. He held his necklace in his hand, the pendent depicted a large star in front of a nebula background. He couldn't let Bahamut down now, not after he'd spent the last three years training for this sort of thing. He had to prove himself.

Darast then directed his attention down at the ground. He had given the rogue a decent gash on his thigh, so there should be blood from it on the ground. Sure enough, he saw drops here and there on the stone path, leading away from the area behind the shop. He began to follow the trail, breaking into a run. He had to save that poor hostage.

Casimir's spirits were completely crushed. His one chance at being saved hadn't worked out and now he was stuck with this horrible man. When Chazz put him down and sat next to him, Casimir turned his head away, refusing to look at his captor. Unfortunately, moving his head just exacerbated the pain, causing Casimir to emit a low whimper.

"...can you at least tell me where we're going?" he said, his voice shaking.

Chazz caught his breath and began applying pressure to the wound. It seemed it had been bleeding quite a bit while he was running, so it was likely that he had left a trail. He hoped that the blood was well hidden by the grass and bushes he had encountered after leaving the path. Running more was out of the question at the moment; Chazz's leg throbbed with pain and he needed to regain some energy.

The kid asked where they were going, and Chazz sighed. He would need to give in and answer some questions to give him fewer things to whine about.

"We're going to Lysas City," he said. He glanced at the kid, wondering if he had hit him too hard. The boss wouldn't appreciate some brain damaged kid. "...How bad is your head?"

"Lysas City...? Where's that?"

Casimir had never traveled far outside of Orios; his mother had never cared for travel. Before his father left, he would travel for business. He often asked his wife and child to come along, but she was skeptical about the issue of safety and always stayed home, keeping Casimir with her. Casimir sighed, drawing his knees to his chest and leaning his head against the tree. He wasn't up to thinking about these things right now.

Luckily, Chazz's voice pulled him out of his own mind. He blinked in surprise; he hadn't expected Chazz to even address what he'd done to his head. He shrugged unhappily. "It hurts a lot and it feels like it weighs more than I do. I'm kinda dizzy and nauseous too." He could only assume the latter symptoms were related to the injury; he hadn't felt like that before Chazz had hit him. For the first time since sitting down, he glanced at Chazz, his eyes fearful. He didn't want to die from this or suffer any kind of permanent damage. Biting his lip, he waited for the man's assessment. He figured someone who fought often would know a bit about injuries.

Chazz knew it wouldn't do any good to explain where the city was to this kid. He instead listened to him talk about his head. It sounded like the injury would take some time to heal.

"Hmph, all right. We'll rest here for a while," Chazz said. He figured he might as well let the kid sleep.

Casimir nodded. He was half expecting Chazz to make him walk more in spite of his injury. He curled into a fetal position at the base of the tree and closed his eyes, soon falling asleep.

Darast followed the trail as it led through the city. He soon came to an unguarded exit, which made him frown. None of the exits should be unguarded... I must tell someone about this when I get back... As he stepped outside the city, however, a problem became apparent. The blood trail vanished.

He looked left and right, but there was no sign of anything. He had to have left the path, but which way to go? It was impossible to see any blood in the grass when it was this dark out. If he went the wrong way then he could completely lose his target...

Then it hit him. The man was a rogue, thus he was evil. If he could concentrate detect evil toward him... He grabbed the pendant which hung on his necklace with one hand, then muttered a few words and gestured with his other hand. He faced away from the city to keep from picking up the evil from there and concentrated on either side of the road. It was tiring to focus on such a wide range, but after a while he was able to pick up something faint in the eastern direction. He dropped his concentration and put a hand to his head.

"Keh, he must be that way..." he said to himself as he started to walk.