"Wow...contrast." Dawn commented as we looked across the river from the Western edge of Duskwood.
"Yeah, no kidding." I said before I slid of the Kodo. On the other side was the plains of Westfall. Large outstretched areas of grass, rippling in the soft wind.
It was like the river was a physical wall between Duskwood and Westfall. Out there the sun was shining and the grass was golden. The sky was blue...here in Duskwood it was overcast, the trees were gnarly and the grass was almost grey.
In front of us was a roofed stone bridge, stretching across the river that divided the two very different areas.
"What do you say?" I asked, looking up at her where she remained in the saddle "Cross the bridge and then set up camp? It is getting a bit late."
Dawn sighed happily, "Yes please. I am so tired of dreadful forests and swamps..."
We did good time through The Swamp of Sorrows and even better through Deadwind pass.
We made it through Deadwind pass in less than a day, we couldn't stop there, it was bat country.
Still, we had been on the road for almost four weeks and getting out of areas that were not horribly depressing and somewhat dangerous would be nice.
Though...the journey was less dangerous than I thought it would be, or rather we were attacked less than I thought we would be.
Sure, there was a Crocolisk or two in the Swamp and a couple of spiders when we stopped for the night, but other than that things were actually pretty calm on the way. Not that we could completely relax, but a couple of summoned Varrens keeping guard under the night at least let us sleep soundly.
I stretched with a groan, taking a last look around to make sure we didn't have any spiders sneaking up on us before starting to walk across the bridge, Dawn and *sigh* Mr Fluffsy following behind me.
We where almost across the bridge when two men, wearing leather and chain armor, their lower faced covered with a red bandana each stepped out on each side of the Westfall side of the bridge. One was taller than the other and almost twice as wide, carrying a large maul. The other was carrying a knife...or rather a small sword.
"Well, well...what do we have here. A traveling merchant and his girl." The small one said, spinning that large knife in his hand "There is a toll on this bridge. If you want to pass, you need to pay."
Dawn brought the Kodo to a halt as I stopped to stare at them.
Seriously? I forgot about the Defias Brotherhood and now a couple of jokers are trying to shake us down.
I glanced back at Dawn "Don't do as I do. This is a really stupid idea." I said quietly to her and then I walked a bit closer, holding my hand up, three fingers held up as I addressed the bandits "You made three mistakes."
The bandits stared at me "What are you talking about? Give us your gold!"
"Mistake number one, You picked a stupid place to rob somebody. The bridge provides us with plenty of cover so your potential archers have huge problems getting shots at us if needed." I started, folding in a finger.
The large bandit looked down at the small one, getting a glare in return "Shut up. Now give us your money!"
"Mistake number two, You picked the wrong targets. We are almost unarmed, not wearing expensive equipment and does it look like that Kodo is carrying a lot of cargo? You wont be able to get very much from us." I then folded in my second finger, smiling slightly.
The small bandit snarled at me, spinning his small sword in his hand "Maybe we just need to show you we are serious..", but the large man had started to look a bit unsure about this.
"Mistake number three...You really, really should learn how to pick your targets. There are two of us, traveling alone through dangerous areas, unarmed and almost unarmored...and you picked us as your targets." I finished as I gave them a feral grin "Bad. Idea."
I raised my hand before they were able to react, lifting them into the air with a small channeling of Blue mana before I waved my hand to the right, slamming them hard into the end pillar of the bridge they were hiding behind when they waited for somebody to ambush.
Their weapons dropped to the stone of the bridge as I pulled them away from the pillar. The small one was knocked out but the large one was still awake...well, barely. His nose had broken and he moaned "P-please, don't hurt me!"
I shook my head and turned to Dawn who was staring at me "Rope." I called out to her. Their armor must have been really cheap if a smack like that took them out.
Even my armor, which was not as good as Dawns would have handled that easily enough. Barely would have stunned me.
She unfroze at the sound of my voice before digging out a roll of thin rope and tossed it over to me. I temporary used a white mana spell to bind them as I tied their arms behind their backs before starting to heal their most serious injuries. At the same time I made sure to look them over for hidden blades and similar surprises, finding two knives on the small one and three on the large bandit.
"Oh will you relax." I said as the still awake bandit tried to pull away as I moved to heal his nose "If I wanted you dead, you would be."
"W-what are you going to do with us?" He asked and I shook my head.
"Well, I figure I hand you two over to the first guards we find. Don't worry, I don't think they will execute you either. You will likely spend some time in jail though." I said as I floated them into the air again and over to the Kodo.
The awake bandit gave me a wide eyed look before he sighed and looked down.
"We are taking them with us?" Dawn asked with a frown.
I shrugged "Well, we could hardly leave them there to be eaten by spiders or come at us again from behind. Toss down some more rope, we tie them to the back of the Kodo until shorty wakes up."
She sighed but did as I asked her to.
All I could hope though that she followed my advice and never did what I just did. If I wasn't completely sure these jokers were alone, I would have simply blasted them.
But as it was, I figured I could turn them in for some kind of reward. Unless they were brand new, there should be some kind of bounty on them.
If not...well, maybe there was a standing reward for the Defias Brotherhood.
Besides, I dislike killing unless I really have to. Ok, I might have showed of a bit as well...
Making sure they were secure and completely unable to move I climbed back onto the Kodo "Come on, We should most likely push on instead of making camp though." I said "I'd rather not find out if these idiots have any friends."
Dawn swallowed and then nodded "Yeah..."
I smiled "Don't worry, Dawnie. If there was more of them here, we would have seen them by now if the where going to go after us. I'd just rather not camp where they tend to wander around."
She bit her lower lip slightly and sighed before she then nodded "Ok...But could you..."
I nodded and waved my hand and four varrens shimmered into existence in front of the Kodo with the help of a small application of Red mana, out of view of the prisoner. The large animal took a couple of steps back and snorted at them. The fishdogs simply looked back at us before running of the bridge and towards the tall grass along the road "There. Nobody will sneak up on us now."
Dawn nodded "Thanks. I know it's a bit silly with the rest of what you can do, but..."
"Not at all." I answered with a smile "It was a good idea. Now, we better get going. The further we get before it get dark, the higher the chance is that we find some sort of patrol to hand these idiots over to."
She nodded and urged the large animal forward once more.
Hopefully things will go smoothly until we find a farm or guard tower or something like that. I would rather not drag those bandits around until we get to Stormwind...
AN// Large thanks to frozenchicken for betaing this sectoid.