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Post by Brandwyn on Dec 21, 2009 23:25:53 GMT -5
*(OOC: This thread is for Tory and Patrick and Hunter) (OOC: This thread picks up where [La Rivage] Scouting Ahead leaves off for Tory and Palisade)
Tory saw Patrick give a hand signal and suddenly she was enveloped in smoke. She would have been left behind right there except that she ordered Chip to follow Caliber and her horse was able to keep track of it’s stable mate in spite of the smoke. As bad luck would have it, while they cantered out under the cover of the smoke, a stray arrow struck Tory in her thigh. She sucked in her breath and bit down on her tongue to keep from crying out and giving their position away.
When they finally got out of the smoke, which she eventually realized was created from the tiny clay pots some of the men carried, she found that she was only a few horse lengths behind Patrick and Caliber. The rest of his men were either behind her, or spread out on either side. She glanced back and saw Hunter nearly directly behind her and the look in his eye made her glance down at the arrow sticking out of her leg. It was a crossbow bolt.
A thought went through her mind as to who had shot that bolt, and she glanced back at Hunter again. If he had been there behind her in the smoke, then the bolt would have hit his horse, not Tory. She narrowed her eyes, but quickly glanced away. Surely one of Patrick’s men wouldn’t have tried to kill her. No, not kill her, scare her. If he’d wanted to kill her, the bolt wouldn’t be in her thigh, it would be in her back, right between the shoulder blades. She had to admit that thought made her nervous.
So, he was trying to drive her away, was he? The thought made her angry enough to deal with the arrow as they were cantering. She gritted her teeth and broke off the fletched end of the bolt and tucked it into her tunic to examine later. She knew that pulling the arrow back out the way it had gone in would probably cause more damage, but she wasn’t sure she had the strength to push it on through. Then she glanced back at Hunter who was watching her and again her anger gave her strength. She shoved hard on the shaft until the tip punched through the front of her leg. She grabbed the saddle horn with one hand and doubled over in pain, fighting to keep from passing out.
When she was able, she pulled on the tip of the bolt until it came out of her leg. She shoved it in her saddle bag as she pulled out an under shirt and bound it around her thigh to stop the bleeding. It would need a proper dressing when they stopped, but for now it was already feeling better. She’d been lucky. The wound was just a flesh wound and though it would be sore for a couple weeks, it hadn’t done any serious damage to her leg.
She shot a look at Hunter over her shoulder, as if to tell him she knew what had happened and that it wasn’t going to work. Then she urged Chip faster so she could catch up to Patrick and pull up alongside him, making sure her wounded leg was on the opposite side of her horse from him so he couldn’t see it.
“So, where are we going?” She asked him, hoping her voice sounded normal.
Her leg hurt and she was furious, but she couldn’t say anything to Patrick about it. First of all she wasn’t sure if Hunter had shot her, and second she had no proof he had done it intentionally. She also knew if he had really shot her then he was testing her and sensed that tattling on him would be the wrong response, as would making Patrick stop right now to tend her wound. So she pretended that everything was fine as they cantered away from the Grizzly camp.
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Post by Tandar on Mar 26, 2013 15:30:57 GMT -5
Concealed by the thick cloud of acrid smoke, the Banished Brethren hastily retreated on horseback. Palisade led the way on Caliber, and the others fanned out loosely behind him on their mounts. After about a mile, Tory rode alongside him and engaged him in conversation. “So, where are we going?” "We're heading back to La Rivage," he replied. "There's a forward operating base there that needs cleaning." One of the Brethren pulled up on Palisade's other side and removed the lower face mask covering his nose and mouth. "Commander." He raised his voice to be heard above the cantering horses. "I know you've already vouched for the girl, but the men and I—" "Save your breath," Palisade ordered decisively. "Tory stays with us until we reach the port. We're torching the base, so there's no need to keep it a secret anymore." "Sir." The soldier acknowledged Patrick's call resentfully and fell back with his comrades. Palisade turned to his apprentice. "There's an inbound battalion from Araluen that's supposed to arrive soon. There should be a Ranger among them. I'm going to leave you under his or her direction. I know you don't want to hear this, but you really should have stayed with those Rangers back there. You need to complete your apprenticeship, and you know I can't provide that anymore." * * * At the hidden base, the Banished Brethren set about gathering every scrap of parchment. They packed whatever documents they needed and piled the rest of the maps, sketches, notes, and operation playbooks in a large heap in the middle of the bare floor. While Palisade oversaw the destruction of sensitive material, an irate soldier complained to Hunter out of earshot at the rear of the building. "I don't care who she is. The girl could be Duncan's daughter for all I care. Bringing her here is highly irregular and completely against protocol. Mark my words, Captain Dougal will be hearing about this when we return to the garrison."
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Post by Brandwyn on Apr 21, 2013 20:29:34 GMT -5
"We're heading back to La Rivage," he replied. "There's a forward operating base there that needs cleaning."
Tory had thought they might be heading back to the city but she had no idea what he was talking about as far as a base. She was still trying to figure out who these Banished Brethren were and how Patrick fitted into their order. Obviously he was a commander but who was his superior and what were their goals? She was terribly curious, but knew better than to ask any questions. None of the men or Patrick would ever give her any information anyway. Best thing to do was keep her mouth shut and her eyes and ears open.
They rode on and another soldier galloped up to protest Tory’s presence. "Commander." He raised his voice to be heard above the cantering horses. "I know you've already vouched for the girl, but the men and I—"
"Save your breath," Palisade ordered decisively. "Tory stays with us until we reach the port. We're torching the base, so there's no need to keep it a secret anymore."
"Sir." The soldier acknowledged Patrick's call resentfully and fell back with his comrades.
Tory resisted the urge to smile smugly at the soldier’s sullen look, turning her face into a grimace of pain instead as she shifted in the saddle and disturbed the arrow wound in her thigh. It was burning and blood had soaked through her makeshift bandage. It was a good thing they didn’t have much farther to go. She pulled her cloak over it to hide it from view.
Palisade turned to his apprentice. "There's an inbound battalion from Araluen that's supposed to arrive soon. There should be a Ranger among them. I'm going to leave you under his or her direction. I know you don't want to hear this, but you really should have stayed with those Rangers back there. You need to complete your apprenticeship, and you know I can't provide that anymore."
“But…” Tory started to protest but then shut her mouth and rode in silence. Arguing with him right now would be futile as well as a bad idea in front of his men. She hadn’t missed the grin from the disgruntled soldier who had spoken up before. “A battalion?” She asked. “The King is sending the Araluen army over? I didn’t think he would do that. Are these Aslavians such a great threat to Araluen then?” She had been so caught up in the threat from the Grizzlies that she hadn’t even thought much about the Aslavian army that was tearing through Toscano. But if the King didn’t think they were a threat to his Kingdom, then he probably wouldn’t be sending soldiers to Gallica. It’s not like the two Kingdoms were any great allies as far as Tory knew.
She spent the ride trying to figure out how she was going to get out of being handed over to another ranger. Only a few ideas sprang to mind and none of them had much chance of success.
---
When they reached the city and the secret base of the Banished Brethren, Tory stayed out of the way and watched them gather up the documents. She longed to save the maps from the pile just for the fact they were maps. It seemed such a shame to burn them. She loved books and the information they contained and she was having a hard time standing by as the items were destroyed.
Wanting to be as inconspicuous as possible, she inched back into a corner next to a bookshelf and stood perfectly still even though her leg wound was throbbing. The bleeding had slowed and she had been able to get a proper dressing on it while she was looking Chip over for wounds, though there hadn’t been an opportunity to clean it up. As far as she knew, Hunter was the only one to know she’d been shot and it appeared he was keeping that information to himself. That suited Tory just fine because if Patrick found out, he would probably dump her off in the care of some stupid doctor.
While Palisade oversaw the destruction of sensitive material, an irate soldier complained to Hunter out of earshot at the rear of the building.
"I don't care who she is. The girl could be Duncan's daughter for all I care. Bringing her here is highly irregular and completely against protocol. Mark my words, Captain Dougal will be hearing about this when we return to the garrison."
Tory didn’t move a muscle, but strained her ears to hear the soldier’s complaint. Her resentment toward these men grew. Because of them Patrick was going to dump her off with the next ranger he found. ‘Now who is Captain Dougal,’ Tory wondered. She’d not heard that name before. It almost sounded Scotti or maybe Skandian. It sounded as if that was who Patrick was working for. If he was a Captain, and there was an Araluen battalion coming, then maybe this Dougal guy was leading it. That would mean Patrick really was working under cover for the King. She strained to hear more.
Tory could just barely see Hunter listening to the soldier and she marked the soldier’s face, even though she didn’t know his name. She would be able to identify him later if asked. It sounded like the man was going to make trouble for Patrick, but how could she let Patrick know what the man was planning? She doubted Palisade would believe her if she told him Hunter was plotting with another against him. Then again, was Hunter actually agreeing with the man? Perhaps he would let Patrick know the soldier was disloyal. She decided to wait for now, at least until she had more information, or until Patrick attempted to hand her off to another ranger. In the meantime she would keep a close eye on Hunter and the other soldier.
She was leaning against a now empty bookshelf in the shadows with her cloak pulled around her to hide her wound. She looked down and saw the corner of a parchment sticking out from behind the shelf. Apparently it had fallen behind the bookshelf and no one had noticed it. She casually glanced around and saw no one paying any attention to her so she reached down and tugged on the parchment, hiding the movement with her cloak and not looking at what she was doing.
The parchment felt large, perhaps large enough to be a map. With her heart beating fast, she rolled it up as best she could with her right hand under the flap of her cloak without looking down. She tried to keep her face impassive and not give away the thrill of fear and excitement she felt. If Patrick or one of his men caught her hiding their “sensitive material” she would be in serious trouble.
She slowly and carefully stuffed the wayward parchment up the back of her tunic so it rested along the line of her bow that was slung over her shoulder at the moment. Hopefully no one had noticed and the bow would hide the shape of the parchment until she could look at it later in private and then put it in her map case which was currently hanging from Chip’s saddle. She resumed her casual stance even though she was dying to take a look at the thing. Slowly her heartbeat returned to normal as it seemed no one had noticed her purloin the material.
___
Some time later she was able to get a bit of privacy in a thicket of bushes to relieve herself and had taken her map case along. It was dark but there was just enough moonlight to see what she was doing.
She took the parchment from under her tunic and gave it a quick glance, trying to decipher the markings. It seemed to be a map of several of the Kingdoms including Araluen, Scotti and the western mainland Kingdoms of Gallica, Toscano and Tuetlandt. The terrain markings were fairly detailed and scattered across it in a variety of locations were dots with groups of numbers next them that made little sense to Tory. The only thing she could tell is that they must be some kind of code.
Not having time to really look at it closely, she rolled pulled out her other maps from the case and tried to stick the stolen map to the back of one of her own crudely drawn maps by wetting the corners and pressing the two pieces of parchment against the each other along the edges. Hopefully a quick glance through her maps would only reveal a slightly thicker parchment and no one would notice the coded map.
She rolled them all back up together and carefully placed them in the map case and sealed it up to protect the parchment from the elements. Eventually she would get a chance to really study the thing.
Finishing her business, she casually strolled back to Chip just as the moon clouded over and the first few sprinkles of rain began to fall.
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Post by Brandwyn on Dec 31, 2013 14:35:48 GMT -5
Once the hideout was sanitized, They left the city and headed north along the coast keeping off the roads and out of sight. Each day they rode for a few hours and made camp in a new place, always within sight of the coastline. They never really traveled very far from La Rivage, but they never stayed two nights in the same area.
Two days later Tory's leg wound was festering despite all her efforts to keep it cleaned out. She was feeling feverish as she downed an herb laden mug of hot tea while Hunter doused their meager cooking fire. Tory hadn't slept much, fearing she would wake up and all of them would be gone, leaving her here along the coast with nowhere to go but back to Araluen. She didn't dare let Patrick out of her sight and followed him everywhere he went like a lost puppy following a boy trailing a string of sausages.
Everywhere she went, it seemed Hunter's eyes followed her and she didn't like the look she saw in them. She glowered at him but said nothing. She was determined not to give him any excuses to get rid of her. Apparently Patrick was still waiting for the Araluen army and that Captain Dougal guy to show up. The ships from Araluen must have been behind schedule judging from the grim looks on everyone's faces.
The tea she'd drunk seemed to run right through her and Tory slipped down the pile of rocks they were sheltering in at the beach to find a bit of privacy. She winced as the swollen and enflamed tissue around her arrow wound in her thigh pulled the skin taught, threatening to break open and resume oozing putrid blood. The bolt had done more damage than she had originally thought and sometimes she had trouble making her leg bend and she couldn't always wiggle her toes. There were also spots in her foot and calf muscle that were numb, making it difficult to sense when something was touching the skin. There was a burning pain that radiated up her thigh into her lower back when she moved a certain way.
She started to hike up her tunic when she heard the barest scrape of a footfall behind her. She whirled, her throwing knife poised for flight. A black-booted foot was pointing at her nose, resting on a large rock at her head level. She looked up, into the cool face of Hunter.
"Use this." He held out a tiny stoneware crock with a corked lid. She took it from him and sniffed the contents. Tears sprang to her eyes and she looked back up to ask what was in it, but Hunter was gone. She eyed the ointment in the crock warily. Should she take his advice? What if it was poison?
She stood there for several moments debating with herself. If he had wanted to kill her, he could have done it that night they escaped or any of a dozen times afterwards. But why help her? Her fevered brain was having a difficult time reasoning out possible dangers of trusting Patrick's right-hand man. She sat the ointment on the rock beside her and, glancing over her shoulder once more, proceeded with her business.
The wound was getting worse, of that she had no doubt. If left like it was, it would surely kill her and it wouldn't be a pleasant way to die. Or they might have to cut off her leg. She certainly didn't want to live, if living meant loosing her leg, so in the end she figured she wouldn't be any worse off if it was poison. "I will just die a little sooner is all." she said to herself as she spread the ointment into the wound on both sides of her leg after draining more of the puss.
The process was agony and she barely kept from crying out from the pain. Finally she wrapped clean bandages around it and pulled her breeches back up. She had forced some of the ointment deep into the wound and it was burning now, as if she'd shoved a hot poker in the hole left by the crossbow bolt. She gritted her teeth as she resumed her post, never even giving Hunter a nod of thanks. She stared at the spot where the fire had been and curled up in her cloak, fighting to stay awake as the fever soared higher and battle was waged inside her body.
Eventually her eyelids drooped and she slipped a little sideways to lean on a rock falling into a fitful sleep. Soon after the nightmares returned. They were so real even though she knew she was sleeping, but she couldn't wake from them...
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Post by Brandwyn on Oct 3, 2020 21:50:31 GMT -5
She woke from the light touch of Patrick's hand on her shoulder. Tory felt weak and more tired than when she had fallen asleep a few hours before, but she was too afraid of the nightmares to even think about falling back asleep. Besides, Patrick said it was time to move. Hunter handed her a mug that steamed in the cool morning air. Tory could smell the herbs in it before she even got it to her nose. She drank it down in a few big gulps and shuddered. It tasted as bad as she had expected. She handed the mug back to him and he raised an eyebrow, as if he were surprised she drank it. Tory just shrugged and turned to saddle Chip. She still felt hot and wasn't thinking clearly, but could reason enough to realize that once again, it wasn't likely Hunter was trying to poison her.
Tory saddled Chip and struggled up into the saddle. She could hardly bend her leg, but she thought the ointment was helping it heal. She was so befuddled, she forgot to take extra pains to hide the wound as she settled on Chip and pulled her cloak tight around her, shivering in spite of the hot coffee laced with herbs she had just drunk.
They headed north along the beach, just into the treeline where they were hidden from view. Tory didn't pay attention to where they were going. She told Chip to follow Caliber and concentrated on holding onto the saddle to keep from falling off.
"There they are Commander." The words penetrated her brain fog and she looked out to sea, following where the man was pointing. On the horizon was a sea of sails and masts. It looked like a forest floating on the water, bobbing on the swells.
The Araluen Army had arrived in Gallica. Tory's heart sank. She pulled her hood down closer and huddled in her cloak to hide the tears that threatened to blind her. She couldn't think of any way to keep Patrick from leaving her with one of the rangers now. She wasn't in any kind of shape to protest or attempt to follow him. She felt cold and occasionally she shook violently in spite of trying to hide the effects of the fever. She didn't say a word, or even look Patrick in the eye. She just followed along as they made ready to meet the army.
_____
Things didn't go quite as Patrick had planned, however. Being a wanted man, he couldn't just ride up to any ranger and hand off his injured apprentice. Tory followed him, as the others waited in hiding, as he attempted to leave her with another ranger in the dead of night. It almost got him captured. Apparently the whole Ranger Corps knew he was a fugitive and they were out to catch him. Three times they tried to pass her off and all three times Tory ended up riding away on Patrick's heels. By the third attempt in as many days, Tory was over her fever and her leg, although extremely painful, was healing up and no longer infected.
Eventually they moved on to the northwest, away from the coast and the army. Patrick had disappeared for an hour while Tory was dozing and when he got back, they broke camp in a hurry and headed around the army and off into the wooded rolling hills. Tory guessed he had gotten new orders from that Captain Dougal guy or someone and now their mission was to harass the enemy. She ended up riding with the Banished Brethren for nearly two months, doing her part to help them out and to keep from slowing them down. She learned to shoot her bow, although her accuracy wasn't terrific, and she practiced with her throwing knives every day until she got quite good. As time went by, the Brethren even accepted her, up to a point. Hunter still watched her like a hawk, but she could see grudging respect in his eyes now.
Tory was happy and she soaked up everything any of the men would teach her. She walked with a limp, but didn't let that slow her down. She learned a great deal about skirmish attacks and strategies and about the terrain of Gallica, locations of towns and private castles. She jotted down notes in her journal and on her map of Gallica. She even learned what the dots were on the map she had taken from the La Rivage hideout. She kept that information to herself and kept the map hidden among her other maps. She even forgot, for a short time, that Patrick was still trying to leave her in the care of someone who could take her back to Araluen and Crowley for reassignment.
She was reminded abruptly one night when they stumbled across the encampment of a Master Royal Scout and his female apprentice. Two people Tory was very familiar with and who might give Patrick the benefit of the doubt. When Tory saw who was camped in the copse of trees, her heart sank again.
Patrick took her down to the camp and spoke with Master Ian while Lady Brandwyn looked on with disapproval. Tory knew she was doomed when Patrick turned back to her and told her it was for her own good and she deserved better than him. for a mentor. Tory couldn't concentrate on what he was saying. She just kept thinking, 'he's leaving me behind.' In the end she decided not to blubber like a baby in front of him. At least he was saying goodbye this time.
"Please take care of yourself," she said and then hugged him. "Come find me when you get back to Araluen, and I hope you catch that person who set you up for those murders." It was a lame goodbye. She stood next to Brandwyn and watched him ride away. Her heart settled into a pang of deep sadness as she watched him ride out of sight. Chip gave a whinny of goodbye to Caliber who answered back and then Patrick was gone. Brandwyn tried to comfort her, but Tory just pulled her blankets around her and fell into an uneasy sleep.
Two weeks later they were on a ship heading back to Araluen and a new life for Tory.
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(OOC: Tory's story picks up again in Rat Catcher and the Bear on the Araluen board.)
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