➶ quest

[Kitty~.]

a l l y a
role;; rogue archer
race;; elven
tagged;; the party
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Allya watched with growing scorn as the warrior went around, trampling the silks. She knew some who would pay handsome silver for such wares. At least he had the sense to grab meat and - was that brandy? Professionalism obviously wasn't something he aimed to maintain, then. She was vaguely aware that the woman had spoken and distractedly turned to face her. The question surprised her a little, but she quickly got over the initial shock and replied, "I have been wandering Narivi for a few weeks now. Why do you ask?" Allya was retaining a further sense of foreboding, aware that their statements and actions were leading to a final conclusion. Pointedly ignoring the rogue's second comment (were all of these individuals drunks?), she returned her attention to the warrior.

His words greatly irritated her at their implications as she bristled with anger. Were she a less cautious elf, she may have disregarded it for some trivial matter. However, Allya knew better and she could safely say that she did not intend to be tied up and lead through these woods like a lame mule. She was greatly disappointed when the girl - Alyce, he had called her - confirmed her possession of the item. Her elaboration confused Allya (rotting away in a cell? Who were these people?), but she was more focused on the pressing issue of captivity.

To say she was grateful for Alyce's defense was an understatement. Although she didn't like the thought of being unwillingly brought on whatever quest they ventured, she liked the thought of being bound and taken anyway less. Alyce was right, too. Walking around Narivi without a means of defending yourself was asking for a death wish, especially if the corpses before them were any indication. Certainly, she wasn't happy with this and she would undoubtedly be somewhat hostile throughout, however their motives were proving intriguing and mysterious. She didn't play well with others, sure, but she knew enough that she could save her own hide in a lot of situations. If fate was with her, perhaps there would be an accident and she could slip away - maybe loot a few dead bodies in the process. There were a million possibilities; she just needed to be patient, steady. Being brash would kill her.

"Alright," she said, a certain edge to her voice. "It looks like I don't have much of a choice, but what do you propose?" She stared petulantly at the warrior, arms folded over her chest. She was curious to their objective. Previously, they had skirted around any and all questions she threw towards them. She hadn't had that liberty. However, they would have to divulge something should she tag along, right? Leaving her in the dark was just as easy, but she hoped they'd be a little better than that - Alyce seemed as though she was anyway.

[Keriae]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ＦＡＢＩＡＮ ＳＨＡＲＰＥ
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
❛''''ＡＮＤ Ｉ＇Ｍ ＮＯＴ ＢＡＣＫＩＮＧ ＤＯＷＮ
I WILL STAND MY GROUND! I WILL STAND MY GROUND!
⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯

★x
★
★

ＢＥＣＡＵＳＥ
ａ ｃｈａｍｐｉｏｎ ｉｓ
WHAT THEY CALL ME NOW!

★
★
★

xxxxxxxage: twenty seven
xxxxxxxclass: warrior-knight
xxxxxxxtagged: party, allya

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Fabian rolled his eyes at his companion's tone, choosing to ignore the words completely. Instead, he answered the woman's inquiry about the brandy, not pausing to look over his shoulder at her. "No," he responded, "Either you'd drink the whole thing at once and I'd have to carry you everywhere, or you'll decide you don't like it and then drink it anyway. Both are a waste." There was not a single chance that Fabian would be sharing the brandy with Alyce: she'd had her chance to search through the luggage and steal from the dead bodies (which she had, judging by the coin purse hanging from her belt) and it was not his fault if she hadn't found the brandy. Finder's keepers, and all that.

Sadly, if none of them had any rope, he'd have no choice but to find a vine somewhere in this twice-damned forest and use that. It wasn't his first choice, but if he had no choice then he had no choice. Besides, versatility and initiative had always served him well in the past, so the warrior was fairly confident in the idea and how well the vine would hold. There were ties which made it just about impossible for the captive to free themselves - he'd been in many of them before, actually, and he was sure his shoulders still ached - and any of those could be used in this situation. A simple one was likely the best course of action, and a simple route would be the one that Fabian took.

He spotted a decent looking vine not far away. It didn't have to be particularly long, for it was only being used for a temporary tie (with luck they'd come across someone who had some rope or, better yet, another former scuffle that had some rope). If that didn't happen.... Well, maybe Allya would die before then. That would make things easier. Another person they wouldn't have to bother about. Using his dirk, Fabian cut through the vine and made his way back to the female elf, slipping behind her. "Arms behind your back." He would have forced them, and he still would if he had to, but this was easier. As long as Allya cooperated, that was.

[Wolvine]

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Ａｌｙｃｅ  Ｔｏｂｉａｓ  Ｖａｕｘ

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Ｈｕｍａｎ  Ｓｐｙ

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Ｗｉｔｈ：  ｔｈｅ  Ｐａｒｔｙ

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Alyce clicked her tongue in acceptance at Fabian's response. "You know me too well, my friend," she sighed, tone wistful. She did like brandy though, as a general rule. Perhaps she could slip some when Fabian's head was turned. Except it never was; he was one of the most irritatingly vigilant people she knew, which was saying something. Most of her associates spent their entire lives fearing waking up with a knife in their gut. One day though, she'd get to sneak up on him. And it would be so worth it.

"Fantastic, then you'll know your way around. Any chance you could lead us out of here and away from whatever it is did that?" Seeing as she'd be travelling with them, it would be in her best interests to avoid having the life sucked out of them.

Fabian wandered off to cut some trees or something, apparently overruling her, which fine, it wasn't as if she wanted to offer valuable advice or anything. She leaned back against the upturned caravan, and watched Fabian tie up the elf. "You're a real gentlemen, Ser," she muttered, smirking a little to herself. "I wonder why you're not married yet."

A bird's scream interrupted whatever other comment she was about to add, making her jump about a foot into the air. "Uh. Let's move on then, shall we?" Suddenly, she wasn't so keen to wander off on her own any more. Sticking around the people with the swords seemed like a very reasonable course of action at the moment. This forest really was unsettling.

[Kitty~.]

a l l y a
role;; rogue archer
race;; elven
tagged;; the party
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Allya observed the two converse idly, repressing the urge to roll her green eyes. Yep, drunks seemed like a likely assumption. She, herself, had never seen the appeal of alcohol. She had taken a tentative sip once and found the liquor vile. She had seen what it had done to men - muddled their thoughts and turned them into complete idiots - and she did not fancy having the same thing of her. She liked to stay very much in control of herself. For all she cared, they could have the brandy. That was one thing she was never intent on stealing.

Her cautious eyes watched the warrior, her expression revealing a sliver of annoyance as he pulled out a vine. Obviously, even disarmed, the man was distrustful. Honestly, he had to use that to tie her up though?! It was bordering on ridiculous. Decidedly, she figured that she didn't much like him (later on, she would likely realise that his caution was well-founded, but at current she was far too irate to care).

Folding her arms obediently, if begrudgingly, behind her back, Allya shot Alyce the driest possible look, her mouth pressed into a thin, hard line. "Considering my situation, I would predict that your chances are pretty high," she said, jerking her head towards the male behind her who was currently making good work at binding her hands. The rogue's comment made her snort a little, a sarcastic smile pulling at her chapped lips. Under her breath, she mumbled, "Single? What a surprise." Who would have thought such a lovely man would be without partner? Truly amazing. Squandering her distaste, Allya lifted her head high. She did rather like the idea of leaving this murder scene. It was unnerving. If the panicked bird was any indication, it would not do well to dwell in the area.

The path ahead was, befittingly, grim. It was showered in darkness due to the canopy overarching above it. Allya immediately regretted her innate curiosity. She could have avoided this mess, however she appeared far too unlucky for such miracles. "Very well," she said curtly. "Would you like me to lead the way or is that a little too risky? God only knows I - a bound and weaponless elf - could run off into the wilderness." She directed the statement largely at her mistrusting captor, well-assured that Alyce had at least a little faith in the archer. Ordinarily, she would have certainly made a run for it. However, despite her agility, Allya very much doubted she could outrun that intimidating stallion, even in the thick undergrowth. And venturing into the forest without a weapon? That was plain stupid. Allya liked to think she wasn't that moronic. Hesitantly, assuring herself that she did not earn her leg sliced off, she trailed towards Alyce. The warrior may have appeared as unfazed as ever, but she wanted to get out of this area as swiftly as possible.

[Keriae]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ＦＡＢＩＡＮ ＳＨＡＲＰＥ
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
❛''''ＡＮＤ Ｉ＇Ｍ ＮＯＴ ＢＡＣＫＩＮＧ ＤＯＷＮ
I WILL STAND MY GROUND! I WILL STAND MY GROUND!
⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯

★x
★
★

ＢＥＣＡＵＳＥ
ａ ｃｈａｍｐｉｏｎ ｉｓ
WHAT THEY CALL ME NOW!

★
★
★

xxxxxxxage: twenty seven
xxxxxxxclass: warrior-knight
xxxxxxxtagged: party, allya

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

He'd caught the tail end of Alyce's muttering as he walked past her towards the elf. Had he been drunk, or generally in a better mood, the man might have snorted, shook his head, and ignored her. Instead, as it was, he was exasperated by this entire situation and most of that was because, as well as he might me hiding it, he was shaken to the bone. Death and corpses didn't bother Fabian, he dealt with them far too much for it to bother him any more, but things were just too creepy here. So the woman's muttered comment did nothing to improve the warrior's mood and he sent her an icy glare. "You know as well as I do that I do not have time for love." He sneered. Ugh, just the thought of being eternally bound to a simpering mess of a woman was not an enjoyable one. He could barely put up with Alyce, and she had a strong stomach. Some butcher's daughter would likely be the best he could ever hope for, if he ever wanted to marry. Which he didn't. He was a lone wolf, as cliché as it sounded. Neither a wife nor a family fit well into his lifestyle or his future.

The knot was finished and Fabian cut away the excess vine. He would have much, much preferred rope, but this would have to do until he could trust the elf - Allya - enough to untie her. If she proved herself to be good, and could lead them through the Narivi without leading them into danger or any other circumstances like this, then he might consider untying her. For now, she'd have to suffer with numb hands. He'd also find it particularly enjoyable if she fell in the dirt, but that was because he was a cruel man and who he was. Hell, he'd laugh if Alyce fell over, and she was armed and dangerous. He'd probably wake up with his toes removed slowly from his person, but it'd still be worth it.

"You know as well as everyone else that if you run I'll catch you and start removing your nails. Then maybe cut your fingers off at each knuckle one by one." It probably wouldn't be that bad. He'd probably just remove her nails, just to teach her a lesson. He knew how much it hurt, but she didn't know that. "Lead the way." They might even get out of this forest quicker.

[Wolvine]

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Ａｌｙｃｅ  Ｔｏｂｉａｓ  Ｖａｕｘ

█

█

Ｈｕｍａｎ  Ｓｐｙ

█

█ 

Ｗｉｔｈ：  ｔｈｅ  Ｐａｒｔｙ

█

They moved on. With Allya at the head, they seemed to be making steady progress. Or at least, Alyce hoped so. She was too busy scanning the treeline and jumping every time a twig snapped to be paying an awful lot of attention to how fast they were actually going. It had been a long time since she'd been this ill at ease. One didn't do what she did and get scared so easily. The corpses had tipped her beyond just wary though. She was more alert than she had been for months.

Her response to such stress was simply to talk more than usual. Having a conversation when most of her companions were intent on killing each other was fairly difficult though. She'd tried to share several of her more interesting escapades, and though the story of how she'd ended up being robbed by a gang of elf children after being thrown into a ditch by a noble's hired muscle had gone down well, the follow up story about how she'd then gone out found said hired muscle and thrown her into far, far more interesting places had been silenced pretty quickly. A shame. That was a fun one.

Her sulking over having her fun interrupted didn't last long though, and she was back at it within an hour. "So we were sent to Harlon to deal with him, discreetly of course. The advisor must have liked bears or something I suppose. It was... peculiar to say the least. I can confidently say I've never seen a man with as many bears embroidered onto so many articles of his clothing since, and I hope never to again if they're anything like Cortland. But that's not the point. The point is, he had the biggest wine collection this side of the sea. Erui and I helped ourselves, naturally, and so we we're pretty damn drunk by the time they brought out the actual living bears, thank God. I don't know how they fit that many in the building. I'm not sure I want to know how they fit that many in the building." Here, Alyce paused her rambling, staring off into the distance, momentarily overcome by memories. There had been so many bears. So many bears. "It was unbearable," she whispered at long last, her expression far too sombre for the joke.

Before she was able to continue what was bound to be a terrible, awful story, (she had been very drunk, most of the details were foggy at best), a rabbit sprung out in front of the party, moving at an incredibly fast speed. Alyce gave a yelp, unsheathing her dirk instinctively before she could register that it was a small harmless animal rather than something gigantic and about to eat them. She swore at the retreating rabbit, cursing it so hard its entire warren would probably remember her words for generations to come, returning her weapon to her belt. "What scared that?" she asked, staring up ahead. Now that they were no longer marching, she became aware that she couldn't hear and birdsong or insect calls. It was far too quiet. Something was off.

[Keriae]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ＦＡＢＩＡＮ ＳＨＡＲＰＥ
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
❛''''ＡＮＤ Ｉ＇Ｍ ＮＯＴ ＢＡＣＫＩＮＧ ＤＯＷＮ
I WILL STAND MY GROUND! I WILL STAND MY GROUND!
⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯

★x
★
★

ＢＥＣＡＵＳＥ
ａ ｃｈａｍｐｉｏｎ ｉｓ
WHAT THEY CALL ME NOW!

★
★
★

xxxxxxxage: twenty seven
xxxxxxxclass: warrior-knight
xxxxxxxtagged: party

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

If there was one thing that Fabian truly hated, it was pointless stories that lead absolutely nowhere.

Which was why he was walking in front of Alyce and directly behind Allya, beckoning Hector along by clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth. With the corpses long behind them, the stallion had calmed down slightly, though the dark forest was still clearly putting the nag on edge. Nevertheless, it was easier to keep the sixteen hand horse on the right track and moving. Fabian had even slackened his grip on the reins a little so they were not pulled taut in determination to keep him on the move. By staying in this position in their little line, he could keep himself from either looking at Alyce in frustration or pushing her into a pile of dirt and animal faeces that no doubt lined the track. He'd like to see her covered in filth, if only to witness her reaction, but it was not worth it and he really couldn't be bothered.

Still, he was on the urge of finally giving in to the urge to turn around and give Alyce a smack to silence her when the rabbit rushed across their path. He might have heard these stories before - he could probably tell them himself, actually, and he was fairly certain he'd been in a few of the more memorable ones - but that did not make hearing them again any more bearable. If anything, he just wanted the woman to shut up her chatter. If she was quiet they might be able to hear what was going on around them, which was invaluable in the Narivi.

He watched it go, briefly thinking that if they had had quicker reactions and the small mammal had been a little slower, perhaps injured, they might have been able to capture and kill it for supper. Fresh meat was always better than salted, hard pork or beef. In it's wake things became very quiet, and Alyce took it upon herself to state the obvious, as she normally did. But this was too serious to roll his eyes at. Everything felt wrong. This was worse than the scene they had come across before. Fabian was, in a moment, super alert and ready for anything. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled with anticipation as his hand wrapped around the pummel of his sword and pulled it out. He was not going to risk death because he had been too slow. His eyes scanned the trees and his ears listened for any noise, anything. Yet everything was silent, all he could hear was their breathing.

[Kitty~.]

a l l y a
role;; rogue archer
race;; elven
tagged;; the party
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Were she not being held captive by several particularly hostile (well...Alyce wasn't too bad) individuals, Allya would have been positively at home travelling through Narivi. This, however, was obviously not the case. Venturing through the thick wilderness, every rustle made the elf ache for her bow, just to feel the sweet reassurance of the cool wood underneath her fingertips. No, instead she was leading this party through the back end of the forest, her wrists bound behind her back like some type of savage. She had the male - Fabian, she had learnt his name was - to thank for that, the stoic di-

Her thoughts were interrupted by the female rogue as she initiated a ceaseless babble. Although her attention was largely focused on the path ahead (she did not intend to accidentally lead them into a ravine and get stabbed by Fabian), she was quite content to silently listen to Alyce. Unlike her warrior accomplice, Allya actually believed the girl to be decent. From what she gathered, Alyce's life had certainly been intriguing. She snorted, amused at her avid description of the noble's adoration for bears. The small smirk on her lips quickly dropped at the horrible pun. With half-lidded eyes, she shot Alyce a look that could be determined as a mixture of disgust and disappointment. How the woman managed such a joke with a straight face was completely beyond her. Whatever this lot hoped to achieve...Allya hoped it wasn't anything important. She feared they could not handle such a task.

Although not nearly as animated as the talkative rogue, Allya too was startled by the small mammal. She flinched, taking a small step back as she eyed the flighty beast with an innate sense of curiosity. Had she her weapons, she would have them by her fingertips. Hearing Alyce's voice once more, she shook her head, unknowing. "Let's hope it was a small fox," she said, though her hopes were low. For some while now, beyond Alyce's chatter, the air had been tense, unsettling. The elf had taken little note of it until now. Perhaps it was unwise for Alyce to put away her weapons. With the way things were, it became adamant that they could be needing them. Perhaps it was paranoia or an excessive amount of caution, but no one could fault her for that. When was the last time one got killed for being too careful?

It occurred to her that she could venture forth. Investigate. But seen as Fabian had rid her of her weaponry, she opted for patiently watching instead. If they wanted to walk into the ominous wilderness, who was she to stop them? Still, she stared into the distance with a certain intrigue. The road was a snake - winding, perilous and slippery with every amount of unpredictability. What was ahead may have been little...or it may have been something far worse than they could imagine. Beckoned by her curiosity, she took a few tentative steps forward, her body low and tense. Like an animal on edge, she approached the path ahead with extreme caution, her green eyes flickering at every rustle and snap. Heavens above, she prayed it was nothing. She had had enough excitement for one day.

[Wolvine]

█

Ａｌｙｃｅ  Ｔｏｂｉａｓ  Ｖａｕｘ

█

█

Ｈｕｍａｎ  Ｓｐｙ

█

█ 

Ｗｉｔｈ：  ｔｈｅ  Ｐａｒｔｙ

█

Her companions all tensed. Well then, it seemed they weren't going to try and go back then. "I sure am glad I escaped execution for this," she grumbled to herself, withdrawing her dirk once more. It had been a little optimistic of her to hope they'd do the sensible thing, she supposed. She toed lightly, drawing close to Allya, who was still bound. "Stay close to me," she mumbled to the elf, eyes shifting over to Fabian who was still on his horse. The warrior would no doubt be far too proud to release their captive, but if they needed her, Alyce wouldn't hesitate to cut her free. Best hope she actually knew how to fire a bow, and didn't just keep it for intimidation purposes.

She squinted a little at the bushes, where a distant rustle could be heard, but she couldn't actually see anything. A faint buzzing filled the air, worming its way in through her ears and scratching at her skull with long, blunt claws, She winced, shaking her head, trying to clear it, but the noise did not subside. Her eyeballs started to itch, but from inside her head. She swore, loudly and vehemently, taking a few steps back. The feeling lessened, though she could still feel the throbbing. "That was... God."

She hardly had a chance to recover before a shrill shrieking filled the air. She swung her head from side to side, but it was impossible to pinpoint where the noise was coming from. It was everywhere at once, filling the silence with unholy noise, high pitched and pained. Alyce instinctively moved closer towards the rest of the group, finding herself elbow to elbow (well, shoulder, he was a lot taller than her) with Easter. Or Esteban. Whatever his name was, he had a big sword, and probably knew howto use it.

The bushes rattled, and she whipped around to glare at them, but nothing emerged for a few, tense seconds. It appeared as if out of thin air, even though it was about the same size as Fabian's horse, and about twice the width. It was hard to tell what kind of animal it had been at one point. It barely looked alive at this point. Its pelt, brown at one point perhaps, though it was difficult to see under the mess of scabs and scars, stretched awkwardly over swollen limbs and raised hard skin making it look like a grotesque, nightmarish caricature of a child's overstuffed toy. Alyce gave a small, hysterical laugh, completely devoid of humour. "Bears," she whispered, voice raw. "It's always bears."

She found herself hypnotised by its pallid, sickly eyes. It seemed to be staring at them and through them at the same time, hungrily allowing saliva to drip from its apparently endless mouth, sliding down its overgrown fangs and pooling between its paws. Her breathing became laboured, and the buzzing reappeared, though she was far less aware of it this time. Her breathing became slower, and she felt herself relaxing, her mind numbing...

Abruptly, something snapped her out of it, though she wasn't sure what, jumping back a little with her heart in her throat. The thing had moved forward, and as soon as it saw that she had moved it leapt. She felt the whistle of its movement as she rolled out of the way, heart in her throat. She landed onto the ground with a grunt, the force knocking the air out of the rogue's chest. Another deafening shriek filled the air, followed by a grunt of effort and the sound of metal. She scrambled to her feet as soon as she was able, but in that time the beast had trapped Earl under one of its massive forepaws. His sword lay a few arms lengths away, and the beast bore a few new wounds, but nowhere near enough. She watched in horror as the thing lowered its head to be level with the knight's, and felt bile rise up in her throat as Erik's head dropped lifelessly to the floor with no more fuss.

The beast turned its head and looked at them, again with that same ravenous look. Without waiting for Fabian's approval, she cut the vine that was binding Allya, and tossed her bow at her. Thank God it hadn't snapped. Some of the arrows from the quiver which she then passed might have been damaged, but they weren't completely defenceless. "If you can distract it, I can try and sneak up behind," she breathed, surprised she could even manage a sentence. "I don't think you'll be able to just charge it. I certainly wouldn't last a minute." Fabian probably felt a little foolish now for not wearing his armour.

[Keriae]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ＦＡＢＩＡＮ ＳＨＡＲＰＥ
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
❛''''ＡＮＤ Ｉ＇Ｍ ＮＯＴ ＢＡＣＫＩＮＧ ＤＯＷＮ
I WILL STAND MY GROUND! I WILL STAND MY GROUND!
⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯

★x
★
★

ＢＥＣＡＵＳＥ
ａ ｃｈａｍｐｉｏｎ ｉｓ
WHAT THEY CALL ME NOW!

★
★
★

xxxxxxxage: twenty seven
xxxxxxxclass: warrior-knight
xxxxxxxtagged: party

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Hector was nervous again. The beast's flanks were rising and falling rapidly as he breathed, nostrils flaring. The nag's muscles were taut under his skin and fur; Fabian could see them when he looked at the animal, he could see how tense he was. His neck was high, holding his head up with his ears pinned back against his skull, as if stuck there. Fabian could see the whites of the horse's eyes, and when he looked further down the animal's body he could see the tail swishing back and forth violently as he fidgeted on his feet, picking his hooves up and setting them down. Hector also kept spooking, and it was getting harder and harder to keep a hold on the reins. In addition to all of this, if he was close enough, he could hear the teeth grinding together. He was doing so well.

Not that Fabian had much time to focus on his obviously nervous horse. There was a buzzing in his ears, like a pair of bees had flown under the brim of his hat, worked their way through his hair and entered without him knowing. Except it was more fierce than that, it was reverberating through his skull, it was vibrating throughout his entire skeleton and he felt almost sick. Okay, he felt very, very nauseous. He felt like he was going to keel over any moment and vomit all of his organs out of his mouth. Like Alyce, he cursed, though it was something no one would ever want to hear.

When it suddenly stopped, Fabian barely had time to draw in half a breath to aid his recovery when a shrill screaming filled the air. The man felt like his eardrums were exploding, he felt like his eyes were going to burst and stream down his face. He didn't know what anyone was doing around him, all he knew was that he had his sword in hand and he was going to have to let go of Hector. the horse would run, he knew he would, but there was nothing he could do. The thing that eventually appeared shook Fabian to the core, more so than the corpses had. Could this be the thing that had killed the merchants?

All he knew was that it very vaguely resembled a bear. Had this been any other situation, he would have laughed at the irony. As it was, all he could do was stare at the monstrous, aberrant gargoyle. The warrior-knight did not move when the animal did, and when he came to all he saw was Estel's head hanging from it's jaws, covered in sputum and gore. He didn't feel sick from it, not quite; he had seen many sights, many similar. But he still felt faint, swaying on the spot a little, his skin ashen grey. His hand had loosened on the reins to Hector's bridle, and while he would regret it in the future, right now he really didn't care. Hector served one purpose, the purpose Alyce had given to Allya a few feet away. Not that he could hear it.

Complete with heavy-laden saddle bags, the stallion immediately reared, vocalising loudly in his fear. That caught the- the bear thing's attention, for it whipped around and all but flew at the dark horse, tearing into the animal's flank like it was nothing. Blood and organs spilled from the wounds as the horse literally screamed, head thrown back and legs kicking, scraping at the leaf litter. It pained Fabian so much to hear his horse like that, to see what was happening to him and to not be able to do anything about it. He might value that horse more than he thought possible, but he was not insane. There was nothing he could do to save the his trusty steed, and they'd be lucky if there was anything left of him in the end.

He supposed he could throw Allya's hunting knife at the creature, but it wouldn't do anything except make it angrier. They had to kill the thing or they would die. His sword was in hand, Fabian watched and waited for the opportune moment. If they could sneak up behind it and get at it's undoubtedly soft underside, they might stand a chance.