Oddball (Natalie)

[Mirchie]

Natalie sat in her makeshift camp in the forest, just out of easy sight of the road, blending in nicely as she waited for her next meal to come trotting down the road. It was late afternoon, the sun just beginning to sink, Mt. Oordin as usual providing excellent cover as the light faded, the sun sinking behind the looming mountain. Animals could be heard dashing around, the sounds of life happening filling the air. Scampering critters, the faint pounding of larger animals, the occasional snarl and squeak as another critter lost its life, birds twittering... The forest was typical of Eebinland, tall deciduous trees everywhere, a pine needle bed set out beneath the woman, covered with a blanket to make it less prickly, so it wasn't actually that bad. For the whole day, she'd been searching for travellers all around the edges of the forest, fruitlessly. It had been much the same story yesterday, and now she was sick of eating fruits and rabbits while waiting for something better to come up, and she was tired now.

There had been little 'business' around for a while, the caravans and travellers a little light recently. She hadn't even satisfied herself for a few weeks, and there was that niggling urge to control as well as trying to scrounge enough food. She had not visited town for a few days, and no doubt questions would be asked when she finally returned. There might even be another law enforcer waiting to question her, though Natalie had yet to meet one who wasn't corrupt enough to resist her certain brand of charm.

Pretty soon, it was mostly dark, even though it couldn't be later than supper time, and just as the raven-haired girl's stomach was beginning to rumble, she heard the sound of footsteps and chatting, though in a language unknown to her. The voices sounded male, and human, but deep, and their dialect was harsh sounding.

 

[OAMP]

Re: Oddball (Natalie)

Natalie smiled to herself as she got up and quietly made her way to an ambush position. Sometime's she'd jump down infront of her victims and demand a surrender of their possessions, but sometimes she waited for them to pass before silently sneaking up from behind. Other times, when she had her bow ready, she'd shoot first and ask questions later.

Right now, without being able to understand the men, option one was out. The darkness was the deciding factor between the other two. With low visibility, drop down behind them, then pull out a dagger, grab one by the neck, threaten, and hope they'd get the picture and drop some valueable stuff.

 

[Mirchie]

Re: Oddball (Natalie)

As Natalie snuck out of the treeline, she noticed something rather odd here. These figures appeared rather tall for humans, the shorter one couldn't have been less than 6'3" or so, and each was shrouded in a thick black robe, strange considering how warm it was currently, though it would probably help with the bugs flying about, reminding the woman of their presence with a bite on her arm.

Quickly, however, she approached them, dropping out of a tree silently a few metres back. A few birds flew off, chirping indignantly, and the unintelligible chatter was cut off as the pair looked around, and in the depths of their hoods, Natalie could see nothing but blackness and a pair of faintly glowing eyes in each. The shorter one had red eyes, while the taller had bright orange ones. Their turn also revealed the handles of swords on their belts, but luckily they missed the human hiding in the bushes and shadows, quickly turning to begin walking again, resuming their chatter.

 

[OAMP]

Re: Oddball (Natalie)

The target was too heavily armed to safely attack. The eyes were a bit unsettling. Natalie had no idea what could cause that strange glow. However, it was not as big a factor in her decision as the swords. Her curiosity was sparked, however, and she'd follow close behind for awhile. She didn't have anything better to do, after all. Who they were or what they were doing really weren't her concern, but it'd be nice to know.

 

[Mirchie]

Re: Oddball (Natalie)

After her initial screw up with the birds, Natalie did much better, following the pair from the treeline, close enough to make out individual words in their harsh language, but still unable to comprehend what they meant. Their tongue was unlike any the black-haired woman had heard before. Luckily, they were keeping to the path, which meant that Natalie could stalk them with the shadows of the trees for cover, while still listening in. From their talk, and their actions, the woman could guess they were on a touchie subject of sorts. They were making violent gestures at each other, turning to stare each other down occasionaly.

Still, by the looks of things, they were heading to the village, or nearby at least. The path didn't go anywhere except straight through the village centre.

 

[OAMP]

Re: Oddball (Natalie)

Natalie was quite bemused with the argument seeming to occur between the two men. Perhaps they'd fight eachother, and she could take the spoils. She really did have to resist the urge to giggle. But alas, they were getting near the village. Natalie didn't want to follow them in. Even if she was going to go back right now, she'd still need to go and retrieve her stuff from the woods. If these two were going to attack one another, they better do it soon.

 

[Mirchie]

Re: Oddball (Natalie)

Eventually, the pairs arguments settled down as they approached the village, and one gave a short, harsh laugh. They finally veered off of the path, going towards the smaller houses at the sides of the village. Natalie could see them pause, and lean against the side of a house. She didn't know the people who lived there particularly well, and couldn't see what they were doing properly since she wanted to stay in forest cover. However, she could clearly see the sinking sun glint off of metal as the pair drew long, fairly broad swords, and one looked around, the orange eyed one, back at the forest.

The pair then slowly opened the rear door to the house, and walked in, disappearing from the raven-haired girls sight.

 

[OAMP]

Re: Oddball (Natalie)

Well, that certainly was interesting. Natalie was pretty sure these people weren't over for tea. It was probably for the best she was out in the woods then, instead of sleeping in a bed where a random stranger could come up and kill her in the middle of the night.

Natalie debated if she should warn the authorities or something. She had no problem with random killing, hell, she'd practically made a living off of it sometimes. But if the village was to have something bad happen to it, well, that was bad for bussiness.

In the end, Natalie decided to wait untill she was sure no one would see here, then sneak up to the captain of the guards house to tell him of the mysterious strangers now in the peoples' homes.

 

[Mirchie]

Re: Oddball (Natalie)

As Natalie approached the captain's house, she heard some shouting of a human man, then a female scream. The people outside stopped what they were doing, and turned to look at the source of the noise. More screams pierced the air, before being swiftly cut off. The raven-haired girl opened the captains door to see the man, a burly human in his thirties, still with a thick head of brown hair, belting up the hall, grabbing a large battleaxe from a stand, and stopping dead to stare at Natalie. "What do you want, girl? Come crawling back to society have you?" he spat, making to run past her. It had been obvious for a while that the man had suspected her of being the newest bandit in the forest, but he had no solid proof to lock her away for, and he hated that.

 

[OAMP]

Re: Oddball (Natalie)

Too late to give a good warning now, it seemed. "Well, I was going to tell you about the mysterious strangers sneaking around, but it sounds like you already know." Natalie slid out of the way to let the captain run out to deal with the threat, before making to join with the bystanders. It wasn't like she had just done anything incriminating right here, he'd have to be content to stew in his anger later.

 

[Mirchie]

Re: Oddball (Natalie)

The captain growled something unintelligible, but it sounded rather unpleasant, and Natalie caught "... your guts..." among it.

He rushed out, and hefted the battleaxe, as the 3 other guard members joined him shortly after as they rushed into the house. There was some maniacal laughing, and then the sounds of battle ensued, the clash of metal on metal. Natalie had slunk in at the side of the nervous looking crowd that had gathered, but the clanging didn't last long. One of the cloaked figures burst out of the shuttered window, and rolled on the ground, before springing to his feet, red eyes blazing. He raised his sword, and shouted something in his harsh tongue, before running at the mob of civilians, who shouted and screamed, starting to flee. The captain ran out of the house, bleeding from a wound to his arm, and yelled a curse, before chasing after the figure, fruitlessly. The being was much faster than him, without the mail shirt and battleaxe weighing it down, and was getting close to some of the fleeing villagers. Natalie had a choice here. Help the guards, she knew full well she was much faster than them, even if she was lacking a 'proper' weapon, or she could just sit out, and slink off...

 

[OAMP]

Re: Oddball (Natalie)

Whoever that man was, he'd manage to injure a professional in sword to sword fighting, Natalie figured her dagger would be useless. She'd slink off back to her woodland camp again, spend the night there, then gather her things and come back, this commotion should be over by then.

If the man charged at her, Natalie would defend herself, of course. She'd try an acrobatic dodge, taking advantage of her flexibility. She'd lash out at the same time, as to convince the man that other targets would be more worth while. If given the chance, she'd strike from behind, ending him. This would not be the focus, however.

 

[Mirchie]

Re: Oddball (Natalie)

As Natalie fled, she heard the sounds of laughing again, and the rending of flesh. Looking back, she'd see the figure sink into the fleeing mob, hacking one mans head clean from his shoulders, and running down an infant just in front of him, trampling the child into the dirt. A crunch could be heard as he stamped on the child's skull, and grey goo spurted out beneath his boot.

Covered now in blood, he raised his sword once more as a woman screamed and stumbled, but as the blood-stained blade descended, it was met, and then flung away, by the large axe of the captain, utilising the heavier weapon and the hook underneath the head to flick the figures sword into the dirt. The robed, glowing eyed figure howled in rage, and fell upon the captain, trying to tear at his face with his clothed hands, but the handle of the axe met his shadowed face, and he fell backwards with a crunch. The burly man wasted no time, and raised his axe, slamming it hard on the creatures head, splitting the skull straight in half.

However, Natalie hadn't seen all this, and after some trekking, she arrived back at her camp, which had been undisturbed. Quickly the raven haired girl prepared for the night, settling down, and quickly falling asleep under the forest canopy, hidden from the world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Natalie awoke with a small start. It was long gone dawn, she had slept peacefully the entire night, and with a quick look around, she was perfectly fine, and all of her possessions were still there too. Now she could decide what to do with a fresh new day...

 

[OAMP]

Re: Oddball (Natalie)

The scenes of the night before had not distrubed her dreams. Natalie felt quite refreshed. In no particular hurry, she gathered her things and took down the camp, preparing to sneak back into town, store her stuff, then find out more about what had happened. She was still pretty hungery, but that could be solved in town. Might stop by a creek nearby if it fancied her on her walk back, as thrist was a more pressing concern.

 

[Mirchie]

Re: Oddball (Natalie)

Passing the river to sate her thirst, upstream of the town, Natalie quickly moved in. The village was subdued, considering it was late morning by now. There were very few out, and there were some bloodstains in the dirt floor of the village centre. None of the few that were out paid any attention to the raven haired girl past a look to make sure she wasn't another sword-wielding beast.

 

[OAMP]

Re: Oddball (Natalie)

Natalie stopped by her small abode to deposit her "camping gear". While inside she change into some more normal clothing instead of the dark tones she had been wearing. After grabbing some of the quickly dwindling food supply, she'd head out into the village and discreetly ask around as to the full extend of what happened last night. If no answers were forthcomming, she'd head over to the guard station and see if they had any information they'd be willing to part with.

 

[Mirchie]

Re: Oddball (Natalie)

From the various questions she had been asking, Natalie didn't find much worthwhile from the subdued villagers. A man and wife had been murdered, probably the first two, and then another man, and a child. One of the guards had been hit pretty bad and was getting patched up, while the captain had a small injury on his arm. There was not, however, any information to be heard about the two figures. They had both been cut down, but the captain had kept it hush-hush, and had had both bodies removed before anyone could identify them. He had had his arm wrapped up, but other than that had been inside his house since the incident.

In the large hut reserved for the guards to while away their time when on duty, there was little else to be found. The two still healthy ones were there, and seemed nervous when Natalie went in, saying nothing that she hadn't already heard, apart from that the captain had forbidden them to talk about the two figures. Their swords were in the corner of the room, probably to be reused by any others who needed weapons, and the raven haired girl could quite plainly see that they were of rather good craftsmanship. The pommels and cross guards were ornate and silvery, and the blades gave off a feeling of being extremely sharp. The air seemed to sing around the edges as it gently swirled past.

 

[OAMP]

Re: Oddball (Natalie)

Well, the bodies had to be around town somewhere. Natalie doubted they'd be taken the to cemetary, but it was one lead. Perhaps they might be hidden in the trash out back of the guard shack. Natalie desperately wanted a closer look at these two men, and perhaps what they were carrying. The bodies would probably have most their items removed, even if she did find them. Maybe she'd have to sneak into the guard house and the captain's house tonight and do a little snooping...

 

[Mirchie]

Re: Oddball (Natalie)

No matter where she looked, Natalie could not find the bodies. There were no freshly dug graves, no recent fires large enough to burn them, no tell tale black cloth amidst the rubbish piles, no sign of them. She of course hadn't checked any houses yet, so the only real possibilities were them being inside someone's house, probably the captains, or he had taken them already out into the forest to dispose of, which seemed unlikely considering the late-ish hour the attack had happened. Though it was still pretty likely that he had wanted to dispose of them. Four deaths, one of them a child, from two strange beings who spoke in no comprehensible tongue, and seemed to have no known motivation behind their acts of violence. Though at the very least, they seemed to have guessed that the town would be unguarded to try such a thing.

 

[OAMP]

Re: Oddball (Natalie)

At times Natalie wondered why she put so much effort into such trivial matters. But now that she'd started snooping, might as well go all the way. She'd hang around in the town square, near the captain's house, untill she saw him leave to do something, preferably something that would take a long time, such as go out drinking, gods knew he needed it, or to argue with a particularly tough merchant over pricing. Then she'd slip into his house undetected, try and find a log book or perhaps those two men's possessions. Probably shouldn't take anything, Natalie knew she'd be the first to blame, but taking a look wouldn't hurt.