Hunting Through Keliac - 119 4A

[Nara-pyon]

It took three days for the group to reach Keliac, traveling due west from where they had found the group of mercenaries in Eausin. The terrain didn't change much, nor did the climate: the heat and humidity were constant, though bearable for those who were used to it. What did change was their surroundings. In Eausin, the trees were more sparse, as it was closer to the ocean, but the further inland they went, the thicker the trees grew together, to the point where their travel because very tedious. Still, they were led forward by the mercenary whom they had taken captive in Eausin, and while Kyrie always did the traveling, others took turns either traveling or staying inside the tent.

While they did treat the prisoner like a prisoner (especially Kyrie), they did make sure that he had the necessities - food and water, enough that he could stay nourished, and proper rest each night. He never tried to escape or even simply to attack any of his captors, and eventually Kyrie gained a bit of respect for him - or at least for his intelligence in knowing how foolish it would be to try something. After a few days, they learned his name: Alph. It didn't affect how they interacted with him, but it did mean that they didn't have to keep calling him "the prisoner" or "the mercenary" all the time, which made things simpler.

As they traveled, Kyrie and Earendil followed their path with one of Kyrie's maps, and Kyrie was satisfied to see that he was leading them in more or less a straight line, rather than wasting time by going in circles. The only time they deviated from their course was when they came close to settlements or towns, which did happen a few times. They circled around them at Kyrie's insistence, since she didn't want to draw more attention than necessary. Besides, the more secret their approach, the easier their task would be.

[Kara Winters]

During the three days, Miyuki worked along side Cael and Lancerial to get the quivers done. Despite the joke about them being pretty designs if they worked, Miyuki was sure they would since Lancerial had heavily helped with the design and it had been tested before she forgot about the array.

The non-stop work kept her from getting antsy.

Her mother, didn't have such a thing to keep her mind occupied and after the first day, was out traveling with Kyrie and Earendil when she wasn't resting. Otherwise she would just end up pacing.

[Nara-pyon]

Two days into Keliac, Kyrie was beginning to grow impatient. When they slowed down to have some lunch, she asked Alph, a bit gruffly, "We've been traveling five days now. When will we be getting close?"

The man kept looking forward and down as he replied in a quavering voice, "I- I don't know."

"What?" Kyrie blinked and frowned. "What do you mean, you don't know?"

She reached out and put one hand on the man's shoulder, stopping him so that he would look at her. He didn't seem to dare look into her eyes, though: he kept his gaze lowered, and he began to tremble.

"I don't know exactly where he is," he admitted fearfully. "I just know roundabout where he lives. I - I never met him in person, I've never been to his home-"

Kaito had come along with them to keep from annoying the people left inside the tent, and now he face-palmed and groaned. "Seriously?"

Kyrie's eyes grew dark. "Suddenly I wonder if we have a use for you," she said angrily.

[Kara Winters]

Lin sighed, and yet she wasn't surprised by this. Instead of getting angry though, she asked Alpha a question.

"He recruited through another person?"

It wouldn't surprise her if that was the case, it might be the case of them having to go find the recruiter, which could make things potentially a bit tricky for them.

[Nara-pyon]

"My cousin and a friend of his came to our town and told us about the job," the man replied, facing Lin. She wasn't as frightening as Kyrie was. "He said the boss wanted to remain anonymous, but that his money was good. We picked up others on the way to Eausin, but those two stayed back with whoever it was who wants the job done."

Kyrie pinched the bridge of her nose and counted slowly to five so that she wouldn't do something that she would end up regretting later. "And why didn't you bring this up earlier?" she asked him, trying to be patient. "You said that you would help us, that you would be able to take us directly to him."

Alph's face reddened, and he didn't seem to want to answer.

"Bet he just wanted to save his own skin," Kaito muttered in English from just behind Lin.

[Kara Winters]

"Could you blame him?" Lin asked Kaito dryly, "He probably thought we would get rid of him if he couldn't lead us to the guy."

It would be too suspicious if they went around asking about them, especially since they were foreigners.

"Did they stay back in your town or just stayed back in general to whoever it was doing the hiring?" Lin asked, "And do you know if they were continuing to hire people?"

It might be a long shot, but if the man was still hiring, maybe they could track him that way.

[Nara-pyon]

"I have no idea," Alph admitted dully. "I mean, I'm pretty sure they went back to guard him - he knew what he was hiring us for would be dangerous to him if the right people found out."

"A thought that clearly never crossed your mind," Kaito quipped.

Alph's face grew redder. "You have to admit," he mumbled, "it's easy to feel safe in as large a group as we were. And Kyrie ... yeah we'd heard of her, and the stories about her were what kept us in line as kids. But after so long ... everyone started to doubt the rumours, you know? Like with any legend."

"The wise realize that all legends begin with some bit of truth," Earendil pointed out.

[Kara Winters]

Lin sighed, she wasn't going to get into that. She understood that people were horrible at judging what was actually dangerous to them and why wouldn't anyone doubt the existence of a person who was used to keep children in line?

She wasn't even going to make a comment about it was also easy for them to throw away their morals as well. Even if she would be the first to admit, their morals were probably different.

"You said you know roundabout where he lives right?" Lin asked finally, "What is the most likely town he might have someone drop by to?"

If they had to, they would do this the old fashion way, which meant scouting and stealth.

[Nara-pyon]

"My hometown," Alph replied, glad for a question with an easy answer. "My cousin was recruited from his home, and he lives not too far from the town. That being said, it's ... pretty far. Close to the Elysium border."

Kyrie licked her lips, again in an effort to control herself. "Completely on the other side of the country," she said slowly, outwardly calm.

"Nearly," Alph admitted quietly.

[Kara Winters]

"Can we fly there? Or would that make us too much of a target?" Lin asked Kyrie in English, "There's a catch he might still be recruiting. If someone from our group is willing to go into town and see if he's still hiring. We could gain access that way. It might be a waiting game, but it's better than nothing."

At least it was something, and they had to at least try.

[Nara-pyon]

"It's worth a try," Kyrie said slowly. "But then we run into the same problem we had back at the fortification. They would have to be Light Elven, highly skilled ... and male."

Lamruil didn't have the skills, as much as it pained her to admit it, and there were no other Light Elven men. And she wasn't sure how long a disguise by Lancaeriel or Cael would last.

[Kara Winters]

"What a pain..." Lin muttered, "The first two isn't an issue, but to be male..."

That they didn't have so it was going to be a problem.

"I'm not sure how to get around something like that," Lin admitted.

[Nara-pyon]

"Well, at least we have time to think about it," Kyrie sighed. "As for flying ... we could probably risk it at night, but during the day is too high a risk of being seen. Dragons are not at all common in this part of the continent, especially dragons like Uruloki."

She wondered then if there would be a point to walking any further that day. Perhaps the thing to do would be to get Alph to show her just where his hometown was so that they could fly there during the night.

[Kara Winters]

"Let's pick a spot to camp," Lin suggested, "There's no point walking at the moment and the others will need to know the change in plans."

Who knew, maybe someone would have an idea of how to proceed.

[Nara-pyon]

Kyrie nodded. It would be a challenge to find a spot large enough to set up the tent, but it would be wise. And if Alph didn't want to give them information this time ... she just might have to do something about it. He had kept too much to himself for too long.

It took nearly an hour, but finally they did find somewhere to set up the tent - a clearing large enough for Uruloki to expand to a size large enough for some of them to climb on and for him to take flight later on as well. As soon as the tent was set up, they headed inside.

Lashrael was passing through the foyer when they entered, and she looked at them in surprise. "You're back early today," she commented, puzzled. "Have we reached our destination?"

[Kara Winters]

"Unfortunately, there's a hitch in our plans," Lin admitted wryly, "Gather everyone up so we can explain this once."

That was the only problem with a group as large as theirs, there was a lot of people to gather.

[Nara-pyon]

Lashrael nodded. "I'll get the bedrooms, if someone else wants to go the other way."

"I'll check the kitchen and dining rooms," Kaito offered, heading in that direction.

"I'll check the work rooms," Earendil offered. "Should I check the gardens as well?"

"Well, that is where Mirania and Lamruil live," Kyrie pointed out.

[Kara Winters]

"I'll help by checking the gardens in case they're in one of the other gardens," Lin offered.

Since that was extra rooms to check for Earendil, and who knew if Wren or Khetal was in one of the gardens tending to it as well.

[Nara-pyon]

As it turned out, some people were in their rooms, Shiro was in the lab, Andarien and Shoneah were in the forge, and several people were in the gardens: Mailon and Daenis in the coldest of them, Mirania and Lamruil in their tree, and Wren and Khetal were in the hot and moist garden.

It was only about a quarter hour before everyone was gathered in the foyer. Alph was safely back in his sealed room, and Kyrie was standing, leaning against a wall, watching for everyone to be ready to hear what had to be said.

[Kara Winters]

Miyuki helped seal Alph into his room before turning her attention to Kyrie to see what was going on. It sounded like there might be a problem with finding the man behind it.

Holly took a seat on one of the chairs, to listen to what Kyrie had to say.

As everyone settled in the attention was on Kyrie.

[Nara-pyon]

Kyrie folded her arms across her chest and sighed. "It's a mixture of good and bad news," she began. "Bad news is, Alph doesn't know where to find the man who hired him. He never even met him. He was hired through a third party in his hometown."

Daenis frowned. "Does that mean that the past week of travel has been a waste?"

"Essentially, yes," Kyrie nodded. "And as frustrating as it is, I suppose I can't blame Alph for trying. He doesn't know what's going to happen to him when he's no longer useful to us, so the longer he can make it seem like we're reliant on him, the safer he feels."

"So what's the good news?" Khetal asked, moving things forward.

Kyrie looked around at everyone. "He's relatively sure that the man who's behind it all is operating from somewhere near his hometown. It's nearly on the other side of the country. Rather than spending another few weeks walking, we're going to rest up for the afternoon and evening, and as soon as night falls I'll fly on Uruloki with just a few others to a place close enough to Alph's home town that we can walk the rest of the way easily. Obviously we can't all just walk into a Light Elven town. The idea is that someone will head into the town and ask around for work. Hopefully the mastermind is still hiring, and we can get some information that way."

[Kara Winters]

"Of course," Lin added, "We'll run into the same problem we did back at the fort, and that is, they're most likely looking for a light elf who is male and has fighting abilities, but we'll cross that bridge once we get there."

Who knew, maybe the guy needed behind the scene staff to keep everything organized.

[Nara-pyon]

"Light Elven is definitely going to be one of their requirements," Kyrie agreed. "They'll probably kill anyone on sight who isn't."

"And skilled," Lamruil added with a frown, "which lets me out."

"And me," Andarien said worriedly.

Kyrie nodded. "Yes, we'd thought of that. As Lin said, we can cross that bridge when we get there."

Andarien frowned and opened his mouth to ask a question, but Shoneah put one hand on his arm, leaned closer to him, and explained the idiom.

"Look, I know this didn't go over too well last time," Wren spoke up, "but I could do it. Even if they'd prefer a male, I'm sure even a female with skills wouldn't go amiss."

"No," Khetal said immediately, frowning. "Not alone."

[Kara Winters]

Holly looked thoughtfully at Wren, "What if... they thought Wren was male?"

Leave it to the person who dressed up in lolita clothing to make such a Gaian suggestion.

[Nara-pyon]

"No," Khetal repeated, his frown deepening.

Wren ignored him, choosing instead to listen to Holly. "You mean dress as a man?" she asked, intrigued by the idea. "I'd have to cut my hair short again, but I wouldn't mind that. It was always short before this trip."

Kyrie was looking Wren up and down thoughtfully. "You'd have to wrap your chest," she murmured slowly. "Wear a bit bigger clothes ..."

Khetal held one arm out in front of Wren. "No," he said angrily, "it's too dangerous for her to go alone."

"As opposed to anyone else?" Wren asked him, looking at him. Her expression was somewhere between bemused and annoyed. "Look, I'm the best candidate. I have the necessary skills."

"And if you're found out?" Khetal pointed out.

She smiled. "Then I just explain that I've had to deal with too many sexist pigs who think that women can't do a job as well as men."

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