I think it was the panicking Kodo flying around with wings made of blue flames that did it. I'm pretty sure that would scare the hell out of pretty much anything short of an Elder God, and possibly even them.
 
Very few things with a brain will attack someone who experiments with spells by having someone hit him with lightning bolts.
 
31
"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.
 
Brellin said:
Wow, did I call that or what?
Brellin said:
More likely the intelligent things in the swamp are smart enough to know that if 2 people in Azeroth honestly think they're good enough to go through hostile territory on their own with no visible weapons and minimal armor then odds are they're mages and quite capable of blowing the shit out of everything. Conversely everything that isn't smart is likely to either be scared away by the massive komodo dragon they have as a mount and/or far to big to move stealthy and thus gets blasted.
You said that they wouldn't be attacked by anything, so I guess that's "or what." I guess you can get half-credit, since Hiver's "three mistakes" kinda referenced what you said, though.
 
Blackraptor said:
All that proves is that the bandits clearly weren't as intelligent as most swamp denizens.
Yeah, but he didn't add on something like "Then again, most bandits aren't as smart as the non-intelligent swamp-dwellers," so that's not "calling it."
 
Hey, Winter...

better off creating two more Varrans and tying each crud villain on the back of each one of them so that they enjoy the comforts of these trackers moving among the grasslands, the rocky & bumpy terrain and riverbeds in relative comfort ...
:po_O
 
They're barely across the river and they've already been accosted once. Now, Sentinel hill isn't too far off, but... I can't help but imagine what happens if/when Winter and Dawn waltz into *Moonbrook* with a bunch of captured bandits, looking for the law in town. That would just be hilarious.
 
32
"Halt! Who goes there!? Friend or Foe!" Somebody called out from the Dark.

We didn't stop for camp that evening, wanting to be rid of the prisoners as soon as possible which meant riding in the dark.

Calling up light is something I could do, at least in the way of fire, but I rather not pull more attention to us.

But it looked like we attracted some anyway.

Dawn glanced back at me in the starlight "Seriously, when is the last time you think somebody answered foe?"

I just shrugged and she turned back forward "We are travelers. Identify yourself!" she called out into the dark.

"We are soldiers of Stormwind." the voice answered and a man walked out of a small grove of trees, raising a torch, his metal armor shimmered in the light, a yellow lion on his chest and his cloak was blue.

"Oh, good." I said, sliding out of the saddle as Dawn did the same "We were looking for the closest guard post."

"This isn't a guard post, traveler. We are on patrol. What are your names?" the soldier asked as he brought the torch a bit higher to get a better look while walking closer.

He was actually wearing a helmet. Careful guy...if he was that careful, they likely had archers in the treeline as well.

Or I'm being paranoid again.

"I'm Sunrise. This is Winter." Dawn said and I almost grinned at that. I did have a talk to her about using her real name...Sunrise might not have been most inventive name, but I did use it once before and it was easy enough to remember.

I nodded and motioned back towards the Kodo "Don't ask the name of the animal. Please." I said with a sigh as Dawn gave me a small glare so I quickly continued "The reason we were looking for a guardpost is that we were attacked by a pair of bandits."

The soldier paused and pulled his helmet off "I am Sergeant Thompson. Were anyone hurt in the attack? Can you describe the attackers?" he asked. He looked to be in his thirties and have a large scar across his chin.

Oh, Time to have some fun.

I raised my hands and shook my head "No, no. We are fine. The worst injury was somebody being knocked out. There were two of them, one tall and muscular and the other short and narrow. They were wearing some kind of leather and chain armor. The large one was armed with a large hammer and the small one a small sword. Oh and they had some kind of red cloth covering the lower half of their faces" I explained, pretending not to notice Dawns eyeroll.

Thompson shook his head "Sounds like Defias brotherhood scum. Just the kind my squad was sent out here to stop." he said with a sigh "They have been attacking travelers and merchants lately. Did any of you see in which direction they went?"

I nodded "Yes. They are tied to the back of the Kodo." I said, keeping my face as straight as possible while pointing back at the Kodo over my shoulder with my thumb.

Oh yes, That was the look I was waiting for. The look where his brain try to process exactly what it was I said and if I really said it.

It was completely priceless and it was so rarely I got the opportunity to cause it.

"They are..." He started before he paused.

I nodded "Yes. They didn't realize I knew magic until it was to late. I knocked them out and took them prisoner until we could find someone to hand them over to."

Dawn sighed as Thompson walked behind the Kodo and pulled away the cloth we used to cover the prisoners. No need to let them see where we were going.

The two ex bandits was tied up tight and gagged beneath the blanket, tied tight to the pack harness of the Kodo just above it's tail.

Oh looky, shorty had woken up.

"Well, they are Brotherhood alright." the soldier commented as he shook his head "Very well, I think we can take them of your hands." he said before he turned and whistled.

Four more men, wearing the same kind of armor as he did came out of the woods, two of them carrying bows.

Good to know I had not lost my edge completely since leaving Westeros.

I moved to release them from the Kodo as the soldiers under his command moved to catch them.

"There wouldn't happen to be come kind of reward for catching them, would there?" Dawn asked him as I let the large one drop first. He looked resigned to being a prisoner for now, the small one was squirming in his bonds, screaming into his gag.

The Sergeant shook his head "Not at this time, no. Not a general one for all member anyway, just for specific members of their gang, but if their little band continue like this, I don't doubt there will be one in the future."

I dropped the small one to the waiting soldiers and then shook my head "Oh well, at least we did some good."

To bad though. I still have some Jewelry to sell from the Zombie world, but not much and I rather not go back there if I can help it. Another traveler know about that world, that increase the danger by quite a amount....never mind that Walking is a pain in the arse, even for a Planeswalker.

"I would say so. These bandits will be locked away for a long time." Thompson said with a nod "Alright men, get them back to the camp."

"Do you know a good place to make camp?" Dawn asked him as his men lead the two bandits away.

The Sergeant nodded "You two are more than welcome to share our fire tonight or you can continue another hour down the road. There is a small community there and they have a pretty nice Inn."

Dawn turned to me "Bed. Please?" she asked, giving me a mildly desperate look. I couldn't exactly blame her for that, I felt the same. Spending another month on the road only weeks after getting to Hellfire was not exactly my idea of fun.

Sleeping in a actual bed would be very nice.

I grinned and nodded "Bed." before I turned to Sergeant Thompson "I think we will continue to the Inn, but thanks for the offer. We have been on the road for quite a while and sleeping in a actual bed is to nice a opportunity to pass up."

He nodded "So I hear. Well, I wish you more peaceful travels from now on. We came from that direction, so the road until the Village should at least be clear. But be careful, these lands are not as peaceful as they used to be."

Dawn nodded as we climbed back onto the kodo "We will be careful."


Besides, what is the chance we will run into more bandits just as stupid as the first bunch in the short time it will take to get to the village?




AN// spidermounky92k is the one to thank for betaing this section.
 
You know, just because it would be unexpected, nothing even remotely interesting happens until the last night before they are to return. And on that night...

... Hiver stubs his toe.
 
Lord Sia said:
You know, just because it would be unexpected, nothing even remotely interesting happens until the last night before they are to return. And on that night...

... Hiver stubs his toe.
Well ... Winter still has those four Varrens he called up??

Winter could allow them to scout, then pounce, trounce and thrash any buggers that would dare prevent him to take Dawnie to the appointed sleepingpost ....

Do a Giles, Winter ... :po_O

update.
Hiver..CH_32a - HALT! WhoGoesThere? The Guard?? Dawn&Winter, Explaining, TwoPOWBandits, Murphy
 
PhantomPhysicst said:
That is the only one of those verb problems you noticed? That one is actually fine since I do not doubt that Winter would say it like that. Hiver is horrible with English verb grammar and this is a self insert. A few others are not in quotes that I noticed and there might have been one in Dawn's lines, but it barely interferes with anything enough to make it hard to read. I like Winter sounding like he is not a native speaker. It adds a little to the character. (Dawn and other native English speakers making similar mistakes is a detriment, but nothing is perfect.) Still the whole thing was great.
Winter's at leat a decade older than Hiver. But yeah, this was the only one that jarred.
 
I wonder if the next group of bandits will be worth something (yes, there are multiple ways to interpret that, but two of them are related).
 
Actually, if he finds out their backstory, Hiver might be interested in the Defias Brotherhood... Afterall, they were a bunch of artisans (smiths, masons, engineers, etc.) who basically rebuild Stormwind, then got tossed out when they presented the bill to the Nobles...

Not that their current behavior is good, but they're pissed with justification...
 
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