|
Post by Firehead on Jun 14, 2009 13:23:24 GMT -5
Red grinned "Who said anything about a vacation? We might as we find out what's going on at the front." he said to Damien. He grumbled as he swung up on Hap. "Why are you all taking me so seriously about it anyway? We weren't on one to begin with!" He spun Hap around and started him at a trot toward the town gate. "See you two later!" He halted Hap and swung him back around. "And if you happen to run into her, tell Shanna not to get in the way of any mysterious flyin' objects!" he called.
|
|
|
Post by flaminwolf92 on Jun 14, 2009 15:22:48 GMT -5
Damien spun Equis around as Red took off. Turning to Rick and Tam, Damien said, "Well off to the front. Be careful tracking this Palisade guy. Good luck." Giving the two a wave, Damien spurred Equis into a trot. Calling to Red, Damien said, "Red! Wait for me!" Giving the two one last wave, he did not look back. Damien eventually caught up with Red as they neared the village gate. "Nice folk. So, Red, do you have any idea which way is the front?" said Damien as Equis kept up with Hap.
|
|
|
Post by Brandwyn on Jun 15, 2009 21:36:15 GMT -5
"Ok. Thanks, and good luck to you both too." Rick said and watched them leave towards the village gate.
"Come on Tam, we have some tracking to do." Rick headed out the gate a little behind Red and Damien. "I hope we can pick up his trail."
Rick led them out the city and started scanning the road for tracks. He frowned in frustration. There were thousands of tracks and they were all jumbled together. "Guess we need to check the edges of the road, see if they turned off anywhere." Rick muttered. "You ride on that side and I will look on this side."
"We are looking for a group of tracks with two ranger horse tracks mingled in. One set will be small, like your horse's hooves. Tory's horse is just barely classified as a horse instead of a pony, according to Crowley." Rick leaned over Domingo's side and slowly walked him along the edge of the road, scanning the dirt and leaf covered road for fresh tracks of a large group of horses.
|
|
|
Post by Firehead on Jun 17, 2009 9:50:20 GMT -5
"Sure! Somewhere to the northeast of here. It shouldn't be all that difficult to find." he added, in a lower tone, "I hope." They left the city behind them and loped their horses toward the Gallic/ Aslavian border, and the front.
(OOC: You want to start the thread there, with your post?)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tam nodded his head and steered Horse to the side of the road indicated. He had no idea how they would know if two pairs of tracks were the ones they would want to follow, but he decided that he would just be asking Rick a lot of questions--all consisting of, "are these the ones?"
He scanned the soft dirt on the side of the road, and unconsciously leaned to one side. At the same time, his horse lurched suddenly forward, and Tam found himself tumbling off and landing in the grass on his back, facing up at the sky. He sat up slowly, and looked at his horse in disgust. "Ferget this." he muttered, standing and brushing off the seat of his pants. He stopped, realizing that he had been looking at a pair of tracks in the soft dirt ever since he'd stood up."Hey, Rick! Are these th' ones?"
|
|
|
Post by Brandwyn on Jun 17, 2009 12:15:17 GMT -5
Rick rode over and dismounted. "You ok?" Rick noticed that Horse had stopped a few paces away and was eyeing Tam warily. He suppressed a smile as he studied the tracks. "Stay there a moment." Rick walked carefully along the edge of the road, leaving Domingo standing next to Tam. The tracks Tam had found were part of a large group that had turned off the trail and headed to the south. Upon further investigation he noticed that quite a few older prints turned off the trail at various points in the vicinity.
"I believe they are. Good job!" Rick pointed out how the tracks they were looking for laid over the top of the older prints and the dirt was darker, thereby making it a fresh print. There were two sets of hoofprints here and farther up were several others.
One of the first set of prints was distinctly smaller than the other. "Those are pony prints. Look, these are your horse's prints, and then look at these. They are nearly the same size. Note the shape too. The other's horses have a more squarish shape while the ranger horses have a more oval shape."
Why don't you lead Horse and see if you can follow the tracks. Walk off to the side so you don't mess them up. If we were trying to hide our passage, you would want to try to get Horse to walk right in the other ranger horses's tracks." Rick went back and gathered up Domingo's reins. "If you loose the tracks stop where you are and I will come take a look."
Rick continued to instruct Tam on other things to look for as they made their way slowly through the woods on Palisade's trail. He pointed out broken twigs on the ground and places where the brush, brambles or grass was all bent in one direction from having had a horse push through it. He was surprised the Palisade had left such a clear trail. Apparently he was either not worried about being captured, or didn't know he was being hunted. Rick hoped it was the latter.
|
|
|
Post by Firehead on Jun 19, 2009 17:14:02 GMT -5
Tam soon found that horse tracks were easy to follow, due the horses' weight. He discovered that he was able to follow the tracks for quite a ways--up to the point where they crossed a large patch of rock-hard ground. He paused, took a few seconds to convince Horse not to run him over, studied the ground carefully, then admitted defeat and turned to Rick. "I've lost them."
|
|
|
Post by Brandwyn on Jun 21, 2009 17:17:28 GMT -5
Rick smiled, "you did well." He walked onto the rocky ground and found some scratch marks on the rocks from horse shoes and pointed them out to Tam.
He followed them and soon they picked up more hoof prints in the dirt on the other side of the rocks. They travelled on for another hour, going slowly so as not to loose the trail. Finally they came upon a stand of trees with several horses tethered to the branches. There were two horses standing free and one of them had brown spots. They were unmistakably ranger horses.
Rick slid off Domingo and motioned for Tam to follow. He scanned the trees overhead for a sentry, but didn't see anyone. Then he slowly made his way up to examine the horses, his bow in his hand.
The ranger horses greeted eachother with soft nickers and Rick winced, hoping Palisade or his men could not hear them.
|
|
|
Post by Firehead on Jun 22, 2009 13:15:00 GMT -5
Tam followed Rick toward the horses, making sure to keep a few yards behind him, in case they were being watched by hostile eyes. As they approached the horses, Tam became aware of just how wide open and empty the countryside was. It scared him slightly, to know that so much space could be so unoccupied, and he kept shifting his gaze, looking around for the crowds of people that didn't exist out here.
That was probably the only reason for his spotting two people sneaking into the trees to their left. The way they did it sent chills running down Tam's back. It was almost instinct as Tam slowly dropped to a crouch and let his breath ease out of his lungs, so as to barely make a sound. He kept his eyes glued to the spot in the trees where the two men had entered. Then, with a start, he remembered Rick, still walking ahead of him. "Rick!" he hissed, as load as he dared.
|
|
|
Post by Brandwyn on Jun 23, 2009 10:31:37 GMT -5
Rick glanced back and noticed Tam crouched and tense.
"What is it?" He asked very softly and scanned the area, looking for danger. Obviously Tam had seen or heard some threat.
|
|
|
Post by Firehead on Jun 23, 2009 11:52:10 GMT -5
Tam kept his eyes busy scanning the trees, as he answered. "They is a couple 'a gents sneakin' around in them trees up ahead. Wasn't wearin' no Rangers cloak, an' they was actin' kinda funny about th' whole thing....if ya get my meanin'." He finished. 'Which, he probably doesn't.' he thought to himself.
|
|
|
Post by Brandwyn on Jun 23, 2009 12:08:55 GMT -5
Rick hadn't known Tam for a very long time, but he trusted the lad's senses. He nodded to Tam and bent down to make it look like he was adjusting the straps on his boot. "Do you think they saw us?" He asked softly, knocking an arrow to his bow under the cover of his cloak.
He wondered who they were and why would they be sneaking around here? Surely no other bounty hunters but Adrian could have gotten on Palisades's trail so quickly. He had inside information, or he would still be looking in Araluen for the ex-ranger.
Rick scanned the area Tam had indicated, waiting for movement. Maybe they were men with Palisade.
|
|
|
Post by Firehead on Jun 23, 2009 12:21:45 GMT -5
"Dunno. I don't think they saw us out here, but they may've after they got inta them trees." Tam kept scanning the treeline, but the woods were just thick enough that he couldn't see very far into them. He glanced quickly at Rick, then back toward the trees. He didn't really wonder if Rick had a plan or not-- Rick always seemed prepared for just about anything.
|
|
|
Post by Brandwyn on Jun 23, 2009 15:01:26 GMT -5
"mmm, We had better find out who they are." Rick drew his hood over his head, even though it was getting too warm out here for it and slowly stood up. He motioned for Tam to stay still. With their cloaks on, they would be hard to spot until they moved.
He didn't see anyone moving at first, but after almost a full minute he saw someone in dark clothing sneak over to another cluster of trees. When the man reached them, he froze and virtually disappeared and then his companion followed him.
As the second man was moving, Rick said, "Ok, moved smoothly and quietly over there to that bunch of trees behind them. I will cover you. Leave the horses there. when you get there wait for me."
Rick kept his eyes on the strangers and listened for Tam's movement.
|
|
|
Post by Firehead on Jun 24, 2009 10:03:02 GMT -5
Tam nodded uncertainly and, still in a crouch, shifted his position toward the trees Rick had indicated, going at a painstakingly slow rate of speed. When he finally reached the trees, he ghosted closer to one of the trunks, then stopped and waited for Rick. He'd just breathed a sigh of relief, when he realized that one of the two men was barely a dozen feet away, and looking out across the open area that Tam had just crossed.
Filled with apprehension that the man had seen either himself or Rick, or both, Tam tried to think. As he grew more aware of the dilemma that they faced, he also grew aware of the fact that there were tiny bits of stone and bark lying midst the grass. As his fingers searched the grass for those tiny bits, an idea began to form in his mind. He didn't have time to think of another plan, so if this one didn't exactly work....
What was only a short time later, but felt like an eternity, the man shifted very slightly and looked harder in the wrong direction. Tam only had a small handful of debris, but it was going to have to be enough. He threw it as hard as he could, and then froze.
The man's ears, attuned to the quiet as they were, snapped his gaze toward the sound of sudden movement and then toward the sound of the light pattering of the falling debris. Tam watched, holding his breath and not even daring to blink, as the man squinted his eyes, trying to see through the foliage, trying to locate the cause of the sound.Tam thought his heart would stop, as the man slowly turned his gaze back toward him....and stopped, his gaze seemingly locked with Tam's own.
|
|
|
Post by Brandwyn on Jun 24, 2009 10:37:22 GMT -5
Rick watched the second man move to join his friend as the first man he had spotted stood and watched the surrounding area. The man was scrutinizing the area where Tam had just covered.
Rick took a chance glance at Tam and saw him toss something and then freeze. 'No. no, no.' Rick thought, kicking himself for not giving more time in training for unseen movement to his apprentice. At least Tam had frozen and seemed to be staring the man down. 'Don't move!' Rick willed Tam to hear his thoughts, not daring to move himself.
Rick's only movement was to draw his bow ever so slowly back as he stood with most of his body concealed behind a tree. The bow creeked, a very faint sound, like the sound a frog could make. Would the stranger hear it and if so, what would he do? Rick stood ready to let the arrow fly if the man made any threatening move towards Rick's apprentice.
He made note that the second guy had now reached the copse of trees and was wondering what his comrade was staring at. He too began to scan the area and Rick cursed silently to himself. So much for sneaking up on them.
|
|