Legacy of Traitors RPG

[Hama Of The Riddermark]

“You are certainly a dauntless man, Atharen ranger, and courteous as well. I must admit, having never met a ranger in all my days, I had not expected one to be so….so courageous and level-headed. The stories I was told of rangers in Pelargir made them out to be much more stubborn and chauvinistically righteous than you are. As a former soldier of Gondor, I can rightly say that I am glad to know a man in which all the chivalry of the last age still lives.”

Roryn let out a snort of laughter from behind him. Idruil turned and frowned deeply, before turning back to Atharen. "Ah, Idruil." Roryn chuckled, "Trust me, Atharen is chauvanistic and stubborn, he just tries not to let it show." Atharen also shot a glance back at Roryn, and Roryn saw a trace on real anger there, but it soon passed as Atharen's face broke into a grin. "As are you, of course, Roryn." he retorted. "Oh I know..." Roryn replied swiftly, and chuckled...

[Amanaduial the archer]

Atharen quickly covered the anger that had darted momentarily onto his face, berating himself for his foolishness. He jests, you fool, he doesn't mean any real harm...

"As are you, of course, Roryn," he replied quickly.

"Of course," came the equally speedy reply followed by a chuckle. Atharen shot a look across at Idruil to see what the man thought of the conversation, and saw the ex-soldier was smiling very slightly.

"Ah, I could tell a few stories about Roryn, certainly..." Atharen started, trailing away as he shot a smile at the other ranger who put on an exaggeratedly mortified expression, then wagged a finger at Atharen.

"Ah, now theres an area where you can beat me - keeps himself to himself, Atharen, ever a mystery man...but hey, if you want rumours!" All three men laughed and Atharen saw Crystal smile out of the corner of his eye. But what Roryn said was true - the ranger usually did keep himself to himself, and he hadn't been able to talk as easily for months, having been mainly on his own. Strange, it was, but not a bad thing, as his heart felt suddenly light, despite the seriousness of their expedition...

[Crystal Heart]

Crystal watched the woods around them, but didn't truly see them. She was thinking about the obsticles that were sure to arise as their journey continued. She now hated to think that anyone else could possibly be dead by the end of this quest. She especially hated the idea that it would be Atharen that scared her once again in to thinking that he had died.

Riding behind him was so much different then riding on a horse all by herself. Even though her face didn't show it, she was feeling very excited. Her heart was racing and her breathing ragged. She was the closet to Atharen that she had ever been since the journey. She was holding his waist for goodness sake! She thought, as a smile washed over her. Under normal circumstances she would never have done such a thing. It wasn't custom to the ways she had been brought up to have known and still followed, sometimes against her better judgment.

She wasn't sure she should be so happy about the situation, but she couldn't help but be elated. Somewhere deep in her heart she knew that this was her deepest wish, or at least one of them. She hadn't realized that she had wanted to be near him so badly, but there was the thoughts and the knowledge that they had existed deep within her.

She was afraid that Atharen would notice. She was afraid that he would sense her thoughts and stay away from her. She wasn't sure she could handle that. If he stop speaking or being kind to her then she wasn't sure her new happiness wouldn't cease into another depression that she was custom to.

If only he hadn't grabbed her elbow in the Inn. If he hadn't and had been so kind to her right off then she would have just ignored him and thought the same way about him as she did all men, that they were decietful and cunniving and something that you shouldn't triffle with. That was her perception until she had met Atharen. If anyone should ask then she would say that it had been Atharen that had started it all.

But that wasn't true. Even if he had never touched her, never spoke a kind word she still would have had some sort of an attraction towards him. There was something about his eyes and his ways that made her feel this way. He was different and she could see it by just looking at him.

Her thoughts wandered as they rode along.

[Everdawn]

Hittai kept a steady pace along the small winding road, they had been riding for a long time, and yet Maén had not seemed to notice that she was beginning to tire atop her steed. Still her resilience to make sufficient ground before another day had passed she would not allow her to yield to her body. Sighing she took a swig form her flask and attacked it back to Hittai’s saddle. The wind was picking up, and its chill was not welcomed by her, it seemed to call something which even she could not yet understand.

Turning her thoughts from the eerie becomings of the landscape she stopped Hittai in her tracks and waited for the others to catch up. It was Carathir, however who was right behind her and she had not noticed. He had a strange, almost psychotic glint in his eye, the one she had seen when Del had been killed. It caused her breath to be caught in her throat. ‘Twas strange to be suddenly shaken by the young man who had always seemed so coy and afraid of her, but none the less Maén was unsettled. She was about to speak to him when the wind picked up again this time causing Hittai to rear-up. Maén controlled the animal and looked back to Carathir for help, but he was nowhere to be seen, suddenly there was the familiar sound of horses hooves and the others passed the bend in the track, Carathir with them.

I am surely going mad she muttered under her breath.

“What is it my lady, you look blanched” asked Aleimur, a slight grin on his face.

“You would not believe me even if I told you.” She said wide-eyed.

‘Try me” he said riding his horse beside hers.

Maén looked back at Carathir who seemed to be glancing to the woods and thought for a minute. “Carathir, I saw him here a minute ago, he had the look of… like he wanted to kill me.”

Aleimur laughed before looking at the serious expression on Maén’s face which was serious. “My lady, even if you did, it could not have been, he was with us all the time.” Maén nodded and continued to wait for the remainder of the company.

[Hama Of The Riddermark]

Roryn glanced at Carathir quizzically, Carathir met his eyes and shot a murderous glance back at him. Roryn, taken aback, didn't register the look properly, although he knew it wasn't friendly...Hm...maybe our Easterling has a different agenda...

Roryn looked at Atharen and raised a brow, What do you think?". Atharen looked back in the same manner and gave an imperceptible shake of his head, Wait for a chance.... Roryn nodded uneasily as he turned his horse around to look into the forest behind the party...

[Melisil]

"I'm sorry, my lady Maén, if you think it rude of me, but it couldn't be that Carathir was by you." Aelimur stated. He smiled, this part of the woods seemed much brighter then before. On the other hand, it could have just been the dark, before. Aelimur silently decided to voice his thoughts, to make conversation.

"The woods seem much brighter now, don't you agree?" he asked.

"Yes, they do seem much more pleasent, strange as it is." she laughed, another thought seemed to have formed in her mind, "Aelimur, I know I seem to be asking a few strange questions, but doesn't this day's ride also include a much fresher feeling aswell? Or is this just me?"

Aelimur returned her laugh, "Yes, my lady. I must agree that I find this day to be very refreshing: full of life!" he paused, stopping himself slightly, "Even after a death. It seems, maybe, that some one up there," (at this he nodded his head to the sky) "is trying to apolagize for Del. Just maybe." he laughed again slightly, this time in an almost humbled way. "I apolagize again my lady, now I am speaking slight foolishness." He turned his gaze to Aaron's mane, though he wasn't really watching it. Another thought hit him slowly.

"My lady, I know this really isn't my place, but why are you hunting down Guriel? Are you truly doing all this just so you can kill him? It seems so very unlike your character, well, from what I know of you, at least." he waited anctiously for Maén's reply.

[Kransha]

There was an odd sensation coursing anew through Idruil’s veins. He felt refreshment, youthful light returning to his withered pallor as he took a moment to smile and laugh while conversing with Roryn and Atharen. For one of the first times since he fell in with such company, he felt as if he was starting to relate to others, the threadbare pieces of friendship building. It was a warm feeling that began to seep into his cold heart as he goaded the steed, Ecthelion, forward, chuckling briskly under his breath. His eyes traced the footprints indented on the ground in front of him, left by the number of steeds who led the motley procession.

He turned upward; barely catching a more consternated look on Roryn’s face before the man wheeled his own mount about expertly and spun, surveying the forest behind. Giving an acknowledging nod to Atharen, Idruil turned his own horse sluggishly in his tracks and it stamped, complaining aloud, backward as Atharen’s horse and its two riders proceeded ahead. Braying and whinnying in an irritatingly shrill tone, Ecthelion stalked beside Roryn’s steed after a sharp jab from Idruil. The man of Minas Tirith leaned forward in the saddle, looking and assessing Roryn, and spoke pensively to the other.

“Since we are on the subject, or, rather, not on the subject, perhaps now is the time for me to pose yet another question. Ever since I found myself falling in with you all, I have been intrigued, to say the least. Though there is a monetary award for all of our services to Lady Il Galoth, it seems to me that that is not the primary motive for joining this company. What, Roryn, was your motive? I know mine, of course, was no more than a bout of energetic foolishness, though I do not regret that spasm, since it seems that I will profit from it, but what was…or is, your reason for giving aid to Maen and her cause?”

[Crystal Heart]

Crystal thought about the true reasons she had entered the company. She had joined at first because the money and she needed it desperately. She also needed the protection that the company could provide from her father and his men. She also needed to get somewhere away from the area that her father's men were searching.

That is what it had all started with, but her reasons began to expand. Of course, the first reason was because of Atharen and his kindness. She wasn't entirely sure that she would have joined the company if it hadn't been for Atharen. He was a large deciding factor in her thoughts.

Then she had become friends with Maen and eventually Ferethor. Del had been very kind, even though she hadn't known him as well as she would have liked. Roryn was an interesting man as was Iduril.

Her reasons of survival and then friendship had mixed together. She had no idea what she would do after this was all over. She wasn't sure she wanted this quest to be over. She had somewhat of a family unit or something of that sort going on here.

She was also afraid that at the end that she would loose Atharen. He was a ranger and he certainly wouldn't want a thing to do with a daughter of Rohan that was begining hunted by her own father. Who ever wanted that in a woman?? She was afraid that he would just say good bye and fade away into the distance, leaving her with a broken heart and a lonely soul. She wasn't sure she could live once again without a purpose.

This quest, these people had become her purpose. At first she wouldn't have admitted it, but now she did. This was the purpose of her life. This was the purpose why everything had happened to her as a child. This is the reason why she was meant to leave her father's house and everything she had ever known behind. This was her destiny.