People someone thinks they found a lair for a horrible monster, after all I highly doubt that the magic we been doing was unnoticeable for people who live nearby.
Clearly the person will leave to get help, when they come back we'll be gone no?
Can we at least try to get into cover just in case it turns out they do have a gun? Like... Hide around the corner of the entrance to our little hollow?
Can we at least try to get into cover just in case it turns out they do have a gun? Like... Hide around the corner of the entrance to our little hollow?
They still seemed to be moving away from the hole, though they settled on a distance of six metres or so. They shifted their body so that they were half facing away, fairly low to the ground. They didn't seem to be doing anything threatening and seemed to be settling down somewhat. Did they think I was still asleep? Were they waiting for me to initiate. Despite the urge to attack them before this could go any further, you vividly remembered your 'gentle' take down of the looter. You were fairly sure you could incapacitate this person non-lethally but you would probably seriously injure them somehow.
Seeing as they seemed to be settling down to wait you out now, you decided to take the initiative. You kept your magic as tight as you could and raised your voice to just below shouting level. "Who are you?"
They obviously hadn't been expecting a response, since they jumped up from their crouching position and their temperature flared hotter rapidly. They also let out a just audible squeak before they caught themself from falling over. They seemed to shuffle about for a little while before they hesitantly called back. "I uhh, I just came over here to have a look. I thought I felt something happening. I'll, uh, leave if you want." Their voice was light and high pitched, probably a girl or a very unfortunate male.
"No! Stay right there." You weren't going to let them leave on their feet or off of them until you were sure that you were safe from them. "Turn off your torch and put your palms on the floor."
She? shuffled around for a moment before calling back somewhat confusedly. "I don't have a torch."
Americanisms... "Your flashlight, put it down and turn it off." You felt the heat from the light cut off after a moment of indecision and then felt the still hot bulb move to the ground. "I am going to come up, I want you to stay where you are and keep your hands down, do you understand me."
You waited for a moment before you felt her nod and then hit herself in the side of the head and say vocally "Yes, I understand."
You reached back and put a hand on Una's shoulder before you moved away from her. You kept a careful eye on your sense, to make sure they kept their hands down and stayed still, they did so, somewhat surprisingly. When you peeked your head above ground, from what little you could see she was indeed where you felt she was. You quickly climbed out of the hole and made your way over to her. "Push the flashlight to the side." She does so and it rolls to your feet where you quickly snatch it up from the floor out of her line of sight.
A moment later and you ignite the beam directly on her and have your thoughts confirmed. It is indeed a her, she looks to be a little older than you, 15-16 you think but not all that much taller. Seeing the distinct lack of anything she was carrying you started calming down a little more. "Alright, I want you to sit up, but stay on your knees. Don't reach for anything, do you understand?" She gives you a nod and says to you in a calm tone "Yes, I understand."
She moves to the much more comfortable position and you see the tense lines running all along her back. She was incredibly wound up, looked just about ready to bolt but was doing as you said very carefully. You slowly released your crushing grip on your magic and started slowly threading it through your limbs, just in case she tries to make a run for it. The moment you stop concealing your magic she freezes where she is and goes a still as a statue. What you can see of her eyes, they have gone smaller than you've ever seen. Then a moment later you see her visibly relax herself as best she can, though now she's looking at you with a mixture of curiosity and terror.
What the hell? "Why did you come here?" You keep your tone even, trying your best to sound as calm as you can.
She just keep staring at you with wide eyes until she blinks and seems to shrink into herself as much as she can from her position. "I was uhh, just investigating some magic I'd felt nearby." The next sentence she rushes out almost faster than you can understand. "If I'd known this was your territory I would never have come herepleasedontkillme" You take in that statement for a long moment, trying your best to keep your surprise from showing on your face at her words.
You weren't really sure where to take this conversation next to be honest. She was trying to press herself as small as she possibly can while still staying in the exact position that you had told her to be in. She looked utterly terrified of you now, thought you hadn't even done anything. "You were just passing by?"
She nods rapidly before she starts babbling "Yes! I was just going to look at that town that got attacked and I felt this place and thought I would stop on the way past. I didn't know this was your place, I'll leave right now and never tell another soul." You don't known if a person could sound more honest if they tried. You could feel her internal temperature slowly creeping upwards and feel the little beads of sweat that were running down her back. Her eyes were still dilated as she stared at you and at the edge of a sense you hadn't really paid attention to you could feel something.
You kept starting at her for a long moment as you tried to pin down that feeling, eventually you just reached out with your magic and grabbed a hold of it to get a proper look at it. The second you did so you saw panic burst in her eyes as she started jumping to her feet. The second your magic grabbed a hold of what you now felt was her magic she froze like a mouse in front of a bear, halfway to her feet. You now knew that the quiet nagging feeling was her magic desperately trying to hide inside of her, it was doing a pretty good job but when you had pulled yours forwards she had apparently panicked and let it ripple outwards slightly.
Now you were looking at it, her magic was so... small. It was this tiny thing that barely flickered in your sense even when you were looking at it directly. When you gently nudged it, it was brushed aside without the barest of resistance. While you did this, she finally stopped her statue impression, settling back to her knees slowly. Now when you looked at her, she looked completely helpless, which kind of made sense. From what you could feel, her magic was such a tiny thing compared to yours, barely a whisper to her compared to yours which thrummed and roared in your chest.
Still, it looked like you had made her deeply uncomfortable and she had admitted that she was just passing by. Maybe you should try and talk her down now? You felt kind of bad for... bullying? her. That didn't seem right but you had just kind of pushed her magic around without thinking of her, it was probably deeply uncomfortable and intrusive or something.
Conversation...
[] Calm
[] Aggressive
[] Apologetic
[] Let her leave
So many scantily clad Anime teenagers were passed over to find this.
I'm thinking calmly probing her for information - she both has and can detect magic, does that mean there's a magical tradition/establishment in place already? - And then letting her go with her promise she won't tell anyone about us.
Apologetic seems like the wrong way to go if only because we have already terrified her, she wont trust us being suddenly forgiving at the moment.
After all acting unstable when we could kill her kinda bad idea.