Glayp'neir (Arc 1)

Sharpe hears a growling in back of him, and finds that the girl herself is attempting to bite at Doc. As he nears closer, he sees the girl has the same orange eyes as what they saw previously. Either she's possessed or she's a shapeshifter. He hopes the former.

He rushes in and pulls the girl away, keeping her restrained. He struggles, the girl has surprising strength, and she turns her attention away from Doc, now biting at him. She bites close to his ear but he dodges. She's fast, supernaturally.

"Shit! A little help here, maybe?!" He yells.

As the little girl becomes a demonic little girl, Airgetlam watches in shock. She watches Sharpe grab her... or it... and wrestles, trying to regain control. She panics a bit, and holds up her crossbow, but then regains composure at the last second and cycles to the sleep round and fires.

The bolt punctures her skin and she soon starts to slow down and eventually falls limp, asleep. As everyone turns to look at her, she takes out an incendiary bolt and loads it, but keeps the normal bolt ready. If it makes a move, she'll pump two more bolts and light it up like a festival bonfire.

"That... That's not right..." She mutters, her eyes trained on it. A tear falls down her cheek.

He was watching his new found cat run off a bit and laughs. "Whats the matter little one? You don't like the little girl?"

As he is turning back, he sees on the corner of his eye that the little girl is gone and he is being attacked by the monster with the orange eyes. He holds hand out to stop her biting attack. Once he does, he pushes her off of him a bit and Shape and Air takes over from there. He walks over to the girl and pushes her a few times to make sure she is really asleep.

"So....I wasn't expecting that. We should tie her up, but I don't want to leave her here or kill her. I vote we bring her with us. If you give me some time, I can make a sleep charm. That will keep her asleep as long as the charm is on her"

Jian just looks around, what is happening? He can't move, struck down in fear. He doesn't want to risk hurting one of his group-members... The girl then got pinned and was shot into. His mind kind of just shut off and he looks at everything. A short moment of chaos... That all reminds him of his past. If he can't even fight once without thinking about it, might he even be any use for the group?

He drops his blade and it pins into the floor. He then just falls onto his knees, head facing down. His mind just shut down. His vision is blurry, his breathing faster and uncontrolled. He slowly crawls to a wall and curls up.

The small place surrounding the forest falls calm once again and the indescribably thing is asleep calmly. No signs of any danger are around and that feeling of being followed or watched has subsided. A cold breeze wafts through the forest, blowing some leaves along with it up the mountain towards where the supposed location of the castle is.

"Well then... That was random." Sharpe says. He gazes at the girl, now asleep... if it even is a girl...

"Doc... I don't know about that... What if it's not a little girl? In that case I'll have to get messy, and we don't want that... Can't we just tie her up? Like really tie her up? I don't even know if that'll keep her strapped down..."

He glances at Jian. He's not suited to combat at all. He knows it's not skills - it's the fact that he's too fractured. Maybe he'll whip him into shape... failing that, he'll get Air to do it, since she's so heartfelt. He sighs and puts his hands behind his head.

"A charm would be seriously useful.. if it can even keep her down, she might be more powerful than a simple charm... still... if she went down to that bolt, you must have a metric shit ton of tranq in those, Air."

He sheathes his sword but keeps his pistol ready. Lot of weird stuff out here, next thing that might jump at them is the dust.

He begins walking out towards the porch.

She slings her crossbow back and kneels beside Jian, his eyes are glazed and staring right into the floor.

She opens her mouth, as if to be really sentimental.

"There's a limit to how much I give out the motivational speech. How about a nice pat on the back and a reassuring "You'll be fine! Just believe in the me that believes in you!"?"

She's not sure if it's working. She gets up and puts her hand on Doc's shoulder.

"Don't worry about the cut."

She puts her hands on her hips and sighs.

"I think our time in this decrepit place is done. We should get moving if we want to get there by sundown."

As Air walks by him, he puts his hand on where he cut her. "This will just be a moment." He says to her. He frowns, how careless could one person get....well, he will make it so he will not forget again. His hand starts to glow, but instead of it being the normal white glow, it is now a dark red. He whines for a moment, then takes his hand off of her. The slice in her arm is gone when she looks. He then walks to his bag and takes out a small stone charm. His hands glow around the charm for a bit before it fads. He then puts it around the little girls neck and picks her up as if she was is own daughter. "The charm has enough to keep the most aggressive animal asleep for as long as it is around the users neck. I am not going to leave this poor child to die out here, she is coming with us. I will carry her the whole way if I must."

The doc takes the girl and the group begins moving forward. Aside from a cold breeze nothing seems amiss and the forest is peaceful once again. As they move up the mountain along the rocks protecting the river, a gust of wind blows some dust into Sharpe's face.

An hours worth of climb later the group stumbles across an encampment. At first the group is very cautious, especially after the recent incidents. But after further investigation it turns out the camp is abandoned. The fire had been choked out by dirt thrown onto the bonfire and a makeshift house was left abandoned besides it. Signs suggest the person or people who vacated here left early in the morning to head further up the mountain. On closer inspection the makeshift house is made of a bunch of branches twigs, leaves, some clay and cloth. One of the pieces used is a jacket with a silver-threated stitching on it. The stitching is a crest with a silver fox who'se one side is surrounded by flames. But neither the doctors compass nor any other signs are given of the contact they were supposed to meet.
Meanwhile the girl still rests, being in a coma-like state.

Jian remains silent the whole time. He feels terrible, weak and useless. People probably now just look down to him, being the one who just stood there, not doing anything when shit hit the fan. He kept distance so far and prefers to avoid conversations at the moment. He shuffles through his things and takes out the book, reading about certain things, looking back at the past, before the war. He then takes out the picture of his family, brushing his fingers over it. he takes off his sweat-jacket and looks for a nice place to settle. A bit away from the group there's a rock, he uses his backpack to polster his back and puts the jacket over himself, he keeps reading a bit and then puts it away, leaning back closing his eyes.

Sometime he wishes all of it was just a dream...

Sharpe wipes some of the grime off of his face and proceeds to brush the rest of himself down. Stupid wind. He peruses what little is at the encampment and takes a closer look at the insignia. He wonders who made the call to make that their insignia. He has to admit though, he likes the idea of it.

He hoists it up in front of Doc.

"Isn't this the emblem your colleagues used at the inn?"

No-one that looks like his kinsman is in sight at all.

Airgetlam keeps a close eye on the girl. A very close eye. She really doesn't want her waking up again. At least, not until they prove that she's possessed or something. She shivers for a moment, thinking of possibilities. She stops dead in her thought process, at the realization of one particular possibility: What if this little girl is the man that kidnapped the girl they're trying to find? What if he can shape-shift and he's toying with them?

She's still going to keep her weapons handy. If the girl indeed turns out the be him, she'll be ready to put him to sleep, get info out of him, then light him on fire.

Dr. Atrium looks over are Sharpe and nods. "looks like we just missed who ever was camping here. Though I am happy that he or she didn't take down the camp."

He looks at the symbol that Sharpe is talking about and smiles. "Looks like my sister was right. One of my brothers is out here...though he is rather sloppy. He shouldn't of had our symbol out for the world to see."

Done talking, he walks into one of the houses and unpacks his two sleeping bags. He tucks the little girl into one of them and examines her for a bit. She just looks like a normal little girl to him, wounder what has happened to her that made her turn. He sighs and looks around, he sees that Air is keeping a very close watch on them. He wants to talk to the girl, so he takes the charm off of her but keeps it in his hand. He has one of his syringe in his hand and it is filled with stuff that will knock her out again if she turns. He watches as she slowly wakes up. "Hey there. good to see you are ok." He says to her smiling. "My name is Atrium, but my friends call me Doc because I am a Doctor. How are you feeling?"

The girl wakes up slowly, but then as she notices the surrounding figures she gasps and tries to back up a bit and falls over clumsily. In distress she looks around panicked and then dissapears into the sleeping bag. She is clearly in a state of confusion and hides away inside the bag. No words come from her, just the sniffs and gasps of a worried little child.

Having his eyes closed he hears the commotion of the others in the background. He just turns around leaning against the rock with his side, facing away. He sighs and tries not to listen to it too much. He instead tries to listen to the rustling trees and the wind to calm himself down. He then hums a tune that was in his head, a slow one. The melody is resembling a piano and comes from something he used to hear a long time ago. His humming fades more and more and soon he just kind of spaces out, nearly being asleep.

Sharpe motions for Airgetlam to leave doc and the girl be, and to relax a bit. He turns and sits near Jian, looking into the sky as he sits cross-legged, leaning back. He scratches his stubble and slowly unsheathes his sword, pulling it out and looking it over. It glistens and reflects at his eye, but he doesn't blink. He takes out a sheet of soft cloth and dips in some water he had with him. he slides it up and down the sword on both edges, his extremities becoming cool as he relaxes. It's self-therapy since nobody else can really calm him down like that.

Stupid dust.

Airgetlam pulls off her cloak hood and watches the girl. She honestly thought the girl would go haywire and try to kill them again. Maybe seeing a friendly face would keep her calm. She eases off of her weapons - for now - and kneels next to Doc.

"I hope you don't mind me being here." She says with a smile at the girl. She gets the feeling she'll probably only trust Doc.

Dr. Atrium watches as Air walks into the hut and knees next to him. "Not at all, Just remain calm. That is all I wish."

He looks at the sleeping bag. He opens it just enough so he can see the little girl at the end of the sleeping bad. "It's ok little one, I am here to help you. No one here is going to harm you, if they try you and me will beat them up ok?" He smiles at her. "you must be hungry. If you come out, I can give you some food. I also have candy for those how are good and listens to what Doc says."

He hopes food and candy will at lest make her try and trust him. After all, candy cures all troubles.

The girl curls up and stares through the opening of the sleeping bag. She seems to graduately calm down, but her distrusting eyes dart back and forth between what little she can see through the bag. While she does so, her brown eyes repeatedly turn a dark orange while her pupils form slits, and then revert back to normal. She wraps her arms around her kness and just lies there, staring.

He keeps wiping his sword, even though it honestly never needs to be wiped down... unless there's blood on it. Needless to say, it's still a ritual in his routine, so he does it anyway. He sheathes it.

"Jian, later I should show you how to not tense up. And how to fight with something bigger. But mostly not to have fear. That I feel is your greatest weakness. You're not weak yourself though." he utters, then goes back to his meditations. He watches the clouds shift over the skies above, and sighs.

Airgetlam watches the girl and smiles a little, trying to appear friendly. Yeah, totally not thinking that she's a shapeshifter.

"If you come out, we can keep you safe, not just Doc. I'm also kinda sorry I shot you with that tranquilizer, you were being rowdy, and good girls aren't rowdy. But you're a good girl, right?"

She shuffles back a little to give her some space. They might be able to get some good info out of her actually. She might know where the castle is... and if she turns out to be really powerful, she can prove to be a wonderful asset.

Dr. Atrium watches as her eyes change back and forward. It truly is fascinating to watch. He reaches back into his bag and take out a bit of bread he got from the inn. He moves back and holds the bread into the sleeping bag for her to take. "Here you are. It is good, I had some before we found you. You can have the rest." He keeps his hand out stretched inside the sleeping bag for her to grab.

Jian shuffles a bit again, his stomach howls and grumbles. He rubs some herbs into his mouth. The blade needs some cleaning, so he rubs over the sides with his fingers, he has nothing else to clean it with after all. He looks at all the scratches and such it has, it's quite a shame what he did to make it look like this, it feels like he didn't take care of it too well.

A bit time passes and he turns his head to see what the others are doing, seeing two of them sitting in front of the sleeping bag and some shuffling inside of it. He then just turns around again sighing and looking into the woods. He looks at his charm, which is still having a bit blood on it. "I need to get rid of that when I reach water...", he mumbles. Speaking of water he grabbed a bottle he set aside earlier, drinking from it. His stomach then grumbles again. "It's really been a while since I ate anything, not that I had enough for breakfast to start with...", he quietly says to himself. He sighs once more, pulling up the jacket to cover himself a bit more.

As the group is relaxing surrounded by forest and nature, the minutes passing, the whole forest still seems peaceful. The humidity in the air has mostly passed by now, leaving it cool and dry. The wind blows through the forest dragging leaves and dust to dance around each other in its current and small animals jet around in the distance looking for food and shelter and other things. The little girl nudges around a bit and then carefully extends one of her arms. She hesitates... continuously staring at the doctor from inside the bag. Then takes the food and slowly retracts her arm. She pins it between her knees and her face, her eyes still focused on the figures outside the bag. Her eyes turn feline and change to the deep orange colour again and she opens her mouth wide. Growing fangs and biting into the bread with a strong crunch. All the while her eyes are trained on the doctor who is loosely smiling at her as if she was nothing to heed. She frowns a curious gaze and then takes another huge chunk out of the food before rolling over in the bag, and facing away from the strange people.

He looks over to Jian and sees him twiddling around his dagger. It's his only armament, and it looks like he really values it. It's an old blade, weathered and worn, but still combat-ready, although it definitely could use some work.

"You know, if you want I could fix that up for you - or at the very least, give you the materials to do it yourself..." he offers. He understands if he declines. Another person's blade is something you don't touch without permission, and even then, to a lot of folks in this day and age, it's their livelihood, Sharpe included.

"I don't really do knives, but considering I have a sword of extremely fine grit to take care of, it's not much of a stretch. That and I do it all the time, sometimes to keep my head straight."