Nightime Investigations

- Dalen Woodland, Night of 1 DSTR -

Kalena grimaced, envisioning Glumy's little clawed hand pawing through the frontal lobe of her brain. She pressed her lips firmly together at the unpleasant sensation of a thin strand of memory being singled out and then forcibly removed from her consciousness. She watched his miniature face closely for any clue to what secret of hers he had just gleaned, but his expression proved difficult to read. Of course the little brownie did not strike her as someone who would be overly awed by the fact she was a confidant of the Queen, or that she'd assassinated some rather important figures in the region. Perhaps he'd learned something from her carefully guarded private past, or her secret methods of operation that to a forest faerie would have been largely meaningless. If so, she might win the gamble and comparatively come out on top, not that she was expecting much more than a lackluster discovery at the bandit camp.

Glumly jumped down from the barrel and landed on the ground. “I guess we will take the earth path, I doubt you would be up to using the trees.” There was a bit of snobbery in his tone, that clearly they were not as gifted as his kind, but Kalena was far from offended.

“I'll try not to accidentally tread on you,” she replied, smiling at how the brownie stood hardly as high as the top of her boot. She gave an amused laugh as she grabbed her sabre. “Just to be safe, perhaps you ought to hitch a ride up on Kline's shoulder?”

Kalena turned to regard the tall mercenary captain as he returned with a lamp. She had heard the good-natured ribbing from his men who poked fun at his discomfort around her. After fending off advances from womanizing nobles and silver-tongued rogues since coming to Dalen, his lack of social graces and awkward reserve was somewhat refreshing. That he was a straight-up warrior and soldier certainly added to his appeal.

The three of them were soon walking through the shadow-haunted forest along a winding deer trail that was faintly illuminated in places by the dim moonlight streaming in through the dark canopy of branches. Between Glumly's natural faerie-light and Kline's lantern they were able to safely negotiate their way to the bandit camp that turned out to be not that far from the sight of the ambush on the road. Had the bandits chosen the location because they had intended to waylay the Lowson wine shipment in particular as Kline suspected? Kalena spotted the half-dozen horses still picketed, and a large tent with some bed rolls folded up and packed for a quick getaway.

Wary there might be a few bandits occupying the tent, she slipped forward like a soundless wraith, her dark tunic and purple leggings blending into the shadows. She carefully investigated the tent and found no one inside, and guessed that if any survived the battle they had likely fled in haste hours ago, perhaps in expectation of a pursuit. She sheathed her sword and looked about. For her, the abandoned horses were enough alone to make the whole trip worthwhile, as she would have hated the thought of them being left to the wolves.

“Captain, would you bring that lantern over here, please?” she called out to Kline as she knelt down and began rifling through the bedrolls and packed baggage, her nose wrinkling at the smell. The bandits in Dalen were made up of peasants, army deserters and escaped slaves that had turned to robbery and plunder to scrape by. What could be found among their meagre assortment of personal possessions was anybody's guess.

“I don't quite know what we're looking for exactly, but I suppose there is always a chance something interesting will turn up,” Kalena commented with irony and humour, half-amused at the situation, and consciously pushing aside the worry about the precious secret of hers that was now known to the little Fey man, who so far had not given the slightest hint as to what that might be...

(OOC - She doesn't know what secret he took, right? And Glumly said you will only know it again when it is spoken to you. So is the secret for the moment out of her memory?

Also, following LazarusBorric's lead, I added the game date system Nim came up with at the top of this post. Most of the story threads right now are still occurring on 0 DSTR, which has to be quite the eventful day in the annals of Dalen...)