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Post by Firehead on Jun 24, 2009 10:58:50 GMT -5
When the man finally shook his head and turned away, Tam thought for sure that he was going to die. But just as his heart began to start beating again, the man suddenly whipped back around and stared hard in his direction, causing Tam's heart to skip a beat. Tam stayed utterly still, willing the man to look away. The man did so at last, but again whipped his head back around.
Tam thought that if the man kept it up, he would either start suffering from whiplash, or else he, Tam, would fall over dead from the suspense. Finally the man turned away, a frown on his face, and began moving off in the opposite direction. Tam continued to hold his breath, not wanting to be disappointed should the man decide to look his way again.
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Post by Brandwyn on Jun 24, 2009 11:16:27 GMT -5
'Good job, Tam' Rick thought as Tam did not move even after the man looked away and then back at him. Finally he started moving back in the direction they had been travelling. Letting his companion guard while he moved, just as Tam and Rick were doing.
As the man moved, Rick eased his bow, but kept the arrow knocked and darted rather quickly to where Tam was hiding, using the shadows of the trees for cover and keeping his eye on the man doing the guarding. That man was watching where his comanion was heading, not what was behind him.
Rick pulled up beside Tam and crouched down next to him against a tree trunk. He nodded to Tam, a look to say, "well done" and a quick smile, then he turned back to watch the other two men.
The first man reached some more cover and stopped to scan ahead. Then he scanned behind him and stared for a long moment directly at where Rick and Tam were hiding. Rick froze and didn't even breathe until the man turned away again. Still Rick stood fozen, waiting for him to turn his attention elsewhere.
Finally the man motioned for his companion to follow him.
It was like a game of cat and mouse. They moved, Rick and Tam moved behind them in their wake. They paused and looked around while Rick and Tam froze. Until finally a camp came into view. A camp that was being struck.
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Post by Firehead on Jun 24, 2009 11:47:10 GMT -5
Tam didn't realize that he'd started to breath again, until Rick came out of nowhere and crouched down next to him. Tam's heart nearly jumped into his throat at the sudden appearance. He relaxed slightly when he realized that it was indeed Rick. He continued to watch the two men moved away, grimacing slightly at a sudden cramp in his left leg.
Then Rick rose and moved to follow them, and Tam, keeping his crouch, followed Rick's lead. And so it went, with them following the two men and freezing when they looked back, then following them again. And then, they came into view of a camp.
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Post by Brandwyn on Jun 24, 2009 14:58:39 GMT -5
Rick motioned Tam to stay put and he surveyed the area.
The two men they had been following were doing the same, but they had moved up to a clump of bushes.
Rick saw a sentry pacing around the perimeter of the camp, looking bored. There were people all over packing up tents and gear and stowing them on wagons. Rick caught the glint of one of the Grizzly's pendants. So he had found their camp, and Palisade was there? Was he working for the Grizzlies?
Rick stood, leaning against a tree trunk for a very long time, watching the camp and the area around it and the two men in front of him.
Finally they broke their cover and lay down in the grass and crawled forward. They waited until the sentry reached his turn around point and then one of the men ran swiftly and silently up behind the sentry and snapped his neck. He dropped the body to the ground and dragged it back to the bushes. Then he joined his companion in the grass and they crept forward again.
Rick turned his attention to a large tent near the center of the camp where a man guarding it ran inside, drawing his sword. 'What on earth is going on?' he wondered.
He scanned the area between them and the center of camp and happened to catch a glimpse of movement in the grass several yards to the left of the men they had been following. He watched the area, scanning all around it and didn't see anything for a minute.
There, someone was crawling in the grass. They had a ranger cloak on and they were a tiny figure, hardly bigger than Tam. He saw a hand reach up and pull the hood of the cloak back a bit and Rick could see it was Tory. She moved again and then lay still. He mouthed the words to Tam, "found Tory" and pointed to the area, but when he looked back, he could not see her. She blended right in.
He scanned again, wondering exactly what to do.
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Post by Brandwyn on Jun 25, 2009 14:22:08 GMT -5
(OOC: Excerpt from "Hunting Guage")
Tory lay in the grass behind Patrick and moved forward when he did. The cloak was a bit too big or her and the hood kept falling down in front of her eyes so she couldn't see. She eased up on one elbow and pushed the hood back and looked around before ducking back down.
That was when she heard a low wicker of her horse, Chip. It was the sound he used to greet another ranger horse. She tried to glance back to see the horses, but there were too many obsticles in the way blocking her view.
"Patrick, the horses!" Tory whishpered. "I heard Chip winny, like greeting a ranger horse." She'd always had excellent hearing and was adept at paying attention to everyone and everything around her. She'd had to in order to stay ahead of her abusers when she was growing up and to escape from the bullies.
She wondered if someone was back there trying to steal the horses. She would be devestated if she lost Chip and would hunt whomever took her down and make sure they would never be able to steal another horse for the rest of their short lives.
"I am going to go check on them." Tory said and turned around and made her way carefully back through the tall grass towards the horses, not knowing that she had been spotted by Ranger Greenriver and two strangers.
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Post by Brandwyn on Jun 27, 2009 9:15:12 GMT -5
Rick scanned the grass and saw Palisade's apprentice again. It appeared she had turned around and was making a beeline for their horses. She must have heard the ranger horses exchange greetings or something.
Rick watched her for a moment, wondering if they could get her help in bringing Palisade back alive. Perhaps Tam might have a better chance.
Rick leaned over and whispered, "Tam, I think Palisade's apprentice, Tory, is heading for the horses. Think you can make it back there to them and meet her? Find out if she will help us pursuade Patrick to come back with us." Rick laid a hand on Tam's shoulder, "Be careful, though, she might not like the idea of us taking Palisade and may try to warn him. Stop her if you can, but don't harm her. Oh, and use the shadow of the trees to make your way back. Move when the wind blows the trees. I will cover you."
Rick glanced back at the two strangers who were still surveying the encampment, but they had spotted Tory and watched her moving slightly away from them and dismissed her as no threat. Stupid on their part, thought Rick. She was an ranger apprentice, and still could be dangerous, but then they probably didn't know that.
Rick kept his bow at the ready, in case one of them decided to go after either apprentice.
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Post by Firehead on Jun 30, 2009 17:28:02 GMT -5
Tam listened to Rick's instructions carefully, then nodded. Not taking his eyes off the encampment, he wriggled back out of sight, then turned and ghosted through the shadows to the horses. He stopped a short distance away, crouched down at the base of a tree, and waited.
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Post by Brandwyn on Jun 30, 2009 19:30:30 GMT -5
Tory reached the cover of the trees and looked back over her shoulder and checked on the posistion of the sentries before she stood up and ducked into the shadow of a tree. She froze for a bit, making sure she hadn't drawn any attention to herself.
She didn't hear anything out of the horses as she slunk from tree to tree. Finally she reached them and slinked up to Chip. She seemed ok. Tory didn't see anything amiss. She looked all around the area but didn't see anyone.
"Strange. What was it Chip?" She softly asked her horse who nuzzled her and nibbled at her hand. "I did hear you winny, didn't I?" Chip gave another low wicker and there was an answering wicker from nearby. Tory stiffened and peered all around again, looking up into the trees this time. She still didn't see anything. Slowly she pulled out her saxe knife and waited, hoping whomever it was would show themselves, and when they did, she hoped it would be another ranger, not a Grizzly.
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Post by Brandwyn on Jul 2, 2009 5:34:59 GMT -5
After several minutes, when nothing happened, Tory decided to go check out where the winny had come from. She slipped away from the horses and moved from the shadow of one tree to the next until she saw two ranger horses standing behind a stand of trees. She didn't recognize either horse and stood hiding behind a tree trunk and chewed on her lower lip for a moment, looking around, trying to decide what to do.
Should she go back and report to Patrick? Chances are she would only draw attention to him from people in the camp and he wouldn't be too happy about that. Then she realized that these were rangers and more than likely they had already spotted her, especially since she couldn't see either of them. What were they doing here? Did they have orders to take out the Grizzlies too?
She wondered about that. Why would Crowley send a bunch of rangers? Normally, from what little she had gotten out of Patrick, only one ranger was sent in on a particular job. Normally one ranger was more than enough for the job. But then this wasn't a normal situation, so he could have sent more.
Then she touched on the subject she feared most, what if they had come to take Patrick back? What should she do? Would they try to use her against him? Was she on the wanted list too?
She made up her mind, she needed to warn Patrick. She turned around and made her way back to Chip and Calibur and the rest of his men's horses. She leaned in and gave Chip a hug as she assessed the situation in the camp. It would be hard to get all the way back to him without the sentries noticing.
Tory looked around again and spied a boy hiding at the base of a tree watching her. She jumped because she hadn't been expecting anyone to be so close. "Who are you?" She asked suspiciously, keeping Chip's body between her and the boy, ready to jump on her horse if she needed to.
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Post by Firehead on Jul 2, 2009 8:20:31 GMT -5
Tam finally spotted the girl, Tory, walking toward the horses. He started to rise, but then noted the direction from which she had come. She'd probably found their horses, he decided. Then she looked in his direction and jumped, startled. Tam glanced quickly over his shoulder to make sure no one was sneaking up on him from behind and, seeing no one, looked back to the girl.
"Who are you?" she asked suspiciously.
He stood, but kept his back to the tree. "M' name's Tam. Yer Tor'y, right? Is anyone else wi' you? We need ta talk."
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Post by Brandwyn on Jul 2, 2009 10:19:23 GMT -5
"M' name's Tam. Yer Tor'y, right? Is anyone else wi' you? We need ta talk."
Tory looked him over and noticed the ranger cloak just like hers, then saw the double scabbard and she relaxed slightly and lowered her knife.
"You're a ranger apprentice too?" She asked, even though it was a stupid question. She ignored his question, not sure how to answer it since she was alone in this particular spot, but one call would bring Patrick and some of his men running, so she wasn't really alone.
"What do we need to talk about?" She looked over her own shoulder to make sure his Mentor wasn't sneaking up on her and then ducked under Chip's neck and placed her back against her horse's flank. "Guard!" she whispered to Chip, knowing the horse wouldn't let anyone near her, not even Patrick.
She wasn't sure what was up, but wondered why, if there was ranger business, his mentor didn't just talk to hers, ranger to ranger.
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Post by Firehead on Jul 2, 2009 20:33:54 GMT -5
"What do we need to talk about?"
"Pa'rick Pal'saide's yer.....wha'ever they is, right? Well, Crowley sent me an' Rick, m'... whatever they's called, ta fin' 'im an' ask if'n he'd be willin' ta come back ta Ar'luan an' explain some thin's that's got 'em all puzzled about 'im. On'y thin' is, we dunno how ta get 'im ta lis'sen ta us, so we're kinda stuck as ta how we're gonna ask 'im. We was hopin' you'd hep us out wi' that part."
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Post by Brandwyn on Jul 3, 2009 6:43:56 GMT -5
So, thought Tory, they are after Patrick. Why not just confront him? Maybe this Rick guy was afraid of Patrick, Tory thought in satisfaction. She would have to warn him, but she wanted more information.
"Where is your mentor, this Rick?" she asked Tam. She glanced back around, trying to find the ranger.
She still didn't believe Patrick had gone "bad", but it was pretty obvious he wasn't working for Crowley anymore. "I think Patrick is working undercover for the King, but you mustn't tell anyone. If it gets out, it could blow his cover. He is in the middle of a mission and I don't think he can go back to see Crowley at the moment."
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Post by Firehead on Jul 3, 2009 15:13:09 GMT -5
"Where is your mentor, this Rick?" She looked around, as though she were looking for something. Tam felt suspicious, something about the way the girl asked him the question didn't feel right, somehow. "He's aroun'." He crossed his arms across his chest, and silently dared her to doubt him.
"I think Patrick is working undercover for the King, but you mustn't tell anyone. If it gets out, it could blow his cover. He is in the middle of a mission and I don't think he can go back to see Crowley at the moment." Tam frowned. "Then why don't he tell anyone? Like you, for ins'ence."
He kept his eyes glued to her face, watching for any hint of what might be making him uneasy for some reason. That feeling that something was wrong was growing at what, for someone else, would have been an alarming rate. Something wasn't right. Or maybe it was just him.
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Post by Brandwyn on Jul 4, 2009 12:21:57 GMT -5
"Huh. If you knew Patrick, you wouldn't even ask that." Tory retorted. "He doesn't tell anyone anything if he can help it. He is always very secretive and quiet." Tory was afraid that Tam's mentor was working on sneaking up behind her to grab her. Maybe they planned to hold her so Patrick was forced to come rescue her. She didn't dare take a step away from Chip. As long as she was next to Chip, her horse would keep anyone else from getting near her. She really wished she knew where his ranger was.
"Why doesn't your ranger just ask Patrick himself?" Tory countered. Why were they talking to her instead of him. "I mean, why not just ask him when he comes back to the horses? He is in the middle of something at the moment." She nodded her head back towards the camp.
"And trust me, we don't want those Grizzlies to find us around here. They are really good fighters and probably pretty mad now after loosing La Rivage yesterday. It looks like they are breaking down camp and planning to high tail it out of here to me." Maybe Tory could distract him off the subject of Patrick until his ranger showed up.
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