Blood Run: A Terror Returns RPG

[Thinlómien]

"Wargs attacked us, but I fought them off, and Toby is hurt! Kuric's gone to get him."

"We must follow Kuric then," Ash said hesitantly. "He and Toby are in grave danger."
Lea nodded in agreement, although she knew that would put them in grave danger in turn. She knew Ash knew it too, so she considered it pointless to say it aloud. She gripped Orin's shoulder tightly.

"Parkun. You said you fought those wargs off. May I ask how? You don't look wonded and I don't mean to under-estimate you, but..."

[Groin Redbeard]

Gorin slowly crept back towards the group unnoticed. Lea was holding Orin tightly and was casting a worried look up at Ash. As always, Sam was silent and was thinking to himself, at least it looked that way. Erling was looking at, listening to him speak.

Lea turned her worried face from Ash to Parkun, and asked him how he fought the Wargs off. Gorin nodded his head in silent agreement, Parkun had not struck him as the type to stand up to anything. He looked thin and boysh in the face, not at all what a fighter would look like. There was a bow strung to his back with a quiver, almost filled with arrows, and the dwarf noticed a knife hanging from Parkun's belt. Gorin's face grimaced in disgust. He fought them off? Most likely this Toby that he's talking about fought them while this coward ran, and there was nothing Gorin hated worse than a coward, unless it be a traitor.

[Durelin]

They were all looking at him, waiting for answers: answers which he had to contrive and make seem sincere. Lying was hardly new to him, and Kun was accustomed to putting on an act, especially for authoritative figures, but he could hardly breathe now for reasons beyond the blow to his chest. There was another dwarf, though the “defenders” still seemed to be much fewer in number than before. Another dwarf! If this one was as crazy as the other…

The strange dwarf and the girl seemed skeptical, which both infuriated and frightened him. But there was no way they would not follow him to save their hobbit friend…not this kind of people.

It was hardly convincing, though, his story of “fighting off” the wargs with Toby. Kun did his best not to show any anger as he tried to imagine what was going through Lea’s and the dwarf’s minds. The way the dwarf looked at him…it was with disgust. They thought him a coward. They hated him for wanting to survive. They thought him a coward, but he knew he was smart.

“I…” Kun lowered his head, hiding the anger in his eyes, and making a show of sadness and shame. His fists were clenched, but at least any anger could be assumed to be directed at himself. “I…ran. I did. I abandoned him.”

He began pouring emotion into his voice, and allowed his body to shake with his fear. “I was scared, I…I was never ready to defend anyone, I should never have come. I have only failed the town, failed you…and…and Toby.” He practically sobbed.

“I just hope it is not too late to do something about it. To rectify what I have done.”

Kun paused as his eyes glistened with tears. He had often used tears to get out of trouble. Everyone thought him pathetic, wimpy, girlish anyway, and he was always about using things to his advantage.

“I should have helped him then and there, but…I will help him now, though I need your help.”

His gaze was pleading but contained determination as he looked up at the others and pulled himself to his feet.

[Dimturiel]

Erling gave a weary sigh of exasperation when Parkun began his outburst. The last thing the band of Defenders needed was that. And the last thing he wished to listen to was Parkun’ groaning about what a coward he had been. He usually was patient and calm but right now his patience was waning fast. He was weary and angry and wanted that wretched day and the battle with the Wargs to be over whatever the end would be. He wondered briefly whether shouting with rage would help him get rid of his frustrations, but he reconsidered, realising that it would most likely draw the Wargs to them. He took a deep breath to calm himself.

“Well, then we should go now, unless we want to have more deaths tonight.” he said. “Perhaps there will be more anyway. No matter. We should go. And you…”

Erling turned to Parkun and he was ready to vent all his anger on him, to reprimand him from running away and leaving poor Toby in the claws of the Wargs, but he suddenly found that he could not. How could he talk? He had not been there. He could not tell whether he would not have done the same thing, whether he would really have had the courage to stay. Most likely not, he thought. Most likely he would find it hard to stand and fight even now. He sighed, and shook his head.

“Come, lead the way, Parkun, if you can.” he told him on a weary tone. “I cannot say anything against you, as I cannot tell whether I would not have abandoned Toby myself to save my own skin. But we had better go now. We should hurry.”

[mormegil]

It took all the patients Kuric could muster, to just wait for this man to gain his composure. So disheveled and unnerved he was that it reminded Kuric why he knew he must go at this alone. “These people, aren’t ready fer the task” he thought to himself. The man spoke about Toby and it took a moment for Kuric to remember who Toby was. By then Parkun had asked about the location of the others.

“The others,” Kuric questioned, “Why I left ‘em back at the clearin back there. Figured they’d be no good ta me out here. I was goin ta get those wargs meself lad. I reckon they are just a short distance ahead. In fact,” Kuric chuckled, “I thought you were one of them. Here let me help ya up lad.” Kuric extended his right hand towards Parkun who instinctively flinched which only caused Kuric to spit in disgust at this man. “Where’s his spine” he wondered to himself. Realizing that it wasn’t another attack Parkun accepted the help and with some difficulty he managed to stand despite the wobbly feeling in his legs.

“Now lad, I think it’d be fer the best if ya got yerself back with the others.” Pointing the way Kuric instructed “it’s that way there, it took me a bit and I was runnin ta find these ruddy wargs and now me mission is all the more urgent, what with that helpless hobbit in the mix. I knew he shouldn’t have come in the first place, nothing but trouble sending out a bunch of hobbits if ya ask me, he wanted to take charge when I told him it’d be fer the best if I was the leader…” Suddenly Kuric heard the howl of the warg that brought him out of his untimely rant.

Grabbing his mace and beginning to towards the direction of the sound at a quick pace, Kuric realized that Parkun wasn’t following. Turning to face him he saw what was, in his mind, a sniveling weakling not fit for true combat. Knowing that he wouldn’t have the emotional fortitude necessary for such an encounter Kuric waved off Parkun not hiding his disdain for him and said “Go back to the others and tell them to stay put, I’ll take care of our wargs” With that Kuric departed through the trees again resuming his hunt and destiny.

[Groin Redbeard]

His eyes burned, his grip tightened around his axe and shield; even his beard seem to twitch with his anger. He wanted to hit Parkun, standing there and almost sobbing with fear. Such foolish behaviour should not be aloud when lives are at stake, Gorin wanted to strike him with all of his might! He stepped forward, about to do just that, when Erling's words stopped him. He was so bent on his thoughts that the words startled Gorin.

Erling's talk was calm and consciously composed, and it even sounded as if Erling pitied Parkun a bit. Gorin to mad for words, his eyes widened his stance as stiff as a stone statue. Kuric had left to save this miserable man's companion, Toby, and all that Erling could do was sound cross! It had tried his short span of patience even thinner, these people were made of lesser material than dwarfs. He did not dare to speak just yet in fear that he would snape and do something rash.

Parkun led the way sobbing, trying to compose himself as best he could. Gorin followed close behind him, infront of Lea and Ash. His eyes were fixed on Parkun and never left him.

"Good for nothing Breelander," he said not realizing that he was speaking outloud, but barely above a whisper, "If Kuric dies may that man also die, with my axe in his throat!" His words were low, but filled with his wrath.

Gorin sprinted closer to Parkun and hit him hard on the shoulder with his hand, almost causing Parkun to fall down. "Come on Parkun," he growled, "Pick up the pace or we'll never reach them in time!"

[Durelin]

All of them seemed to turn on him now. Just as before, they all watched him, but now all their gazes were filled with anger and disgust. Even Erling, who had always seemed to calm and patient, and who had always been kind to Parkun – he had seemed so relieved to find him! – turned on him with anger flashing in his eyes for a moment. The “you” Erling spat at Kun was spiteful.

And that Dwarf…he was worse than Kuric, now. Kun thought he could feel rage emanating from him, and avoided looking at the Dwarf. He held his axe in his hands and a shield, and the young man was frozen for a moment with the fear that the Dwarf was about to strike. His chest still ached like mad, and this Dwarf was not about to strike him on accident.

Now, at the best they pitied him. That was what he had seen in Erling’s eyes besides anger. But he was not the one to be pitied, he thought. They were about to follow him to… Kun could not finish the thought, though it did not exactly displease him.

Kuric, though, had gone ahead. In the direction of where the wargs would be waiting for their meal. Kun wished he could stall a little longer somehow, but how would it look now, if he would not immediately take them to Toby, after his little speech about wanting to save him. There was an urgency now that he had helped create.

He could not bring himself to move quickly, though, for more than one reason. His chest still ached with every breath he took, and thoughts began to run through his mind until his knees nearly gave out. If the Kuric drew out the wargs, and they got there before the Dwarf was taken care of, it would no longer be a trap. But then perhaps he could slip away unnoticed, if there was a fight, and still survive, as everyone would be busy, and…maybe no one would survive, warg, man, dwarf, or hobbit. Then he could say whatever he liked, and be the surviving hero, or flee from Bree forever.

Kun inhaled a bit sharply, and his chest stung. Maybe he was already dying, anyway. Maybe he was dying slowly, and his suffering would be long and drawn out, thanks to that crazy dwarf.

The young man felt a hard punch in the back of his shoulder that caused him to stumble, as his knees threatened to allow him to topple. The dwarf growled quietly behind him, but Kun heard every word. Kun stumbled on stiffly, finding it difficult to keep his eyes ahead of him and his fists unclenched.

Their anger angered him in turn, though he had expected it. This new dwarf – who was he to speak ill of anyone? Kun had had his fill of their kind. They were nothing but dim-witted oafs who should not be trusted with anything that could do harm, for they did not need any help.

But it was no matter. This only made his work easier.