Zion: Light of the New Moon, Ch 4.2 Myrh
Zion - Light of the New Moon Chapter 4.2
Myrh Fallen From Grace
What happens when the Myrhian Caravan discovers the remnants of another wagon train? Let's find out.
Beo Kyr remained outside Brother Farstrider's wagon for three days before the priest came out to get him. The discussion was simple and straight-forward. The wolf told him that Jerard would recover but that he was still very weak. Beo grinned impossibly wide when Jerard appeared in his enormous Moon Blessed wolf form, ducking through the caravan's small door without the priest even knowing of his presence.
"Jerard will need his rest and, I assume you'll be helping him over the course of the next several days. As soon as it's safe to move him, I'll need you to help me carry him to a wagon where he can rest. I don't anticipate him being able to walk without aid for at least a week." the priest noted.
"Who's going to help me do what now?" the albino werewolf inquired with mock ignorance. The priest almost jumped out of his traveling boots.
"You're not supposed to be out of bed!" Brother Farstrider announced, "Goddess! How can you be WALKING?" he questioned.
Jerard stretched his arms then winced, moving a paw to a bandage on his left bicep, "This body is hardier than my other one... I'll be fine."
"I still want you resting, Jerard." the priest stated with a commanding tone of voice, "You could do some damage if you push yourself too hard."
"I'm not going to be running a race or trying to wrestle with a basilisk... don't get your holy symbol in a knot." he waved the priest away and descended the stairs on his own, "Thanks for your help, Brother, but I think I can take things from here." he stumbled at the last step and Beo was right there to catch him.
"Just relax..." Beo asserted when Jerard went to push him back, "I think you probably should have had a little help getting off."
"Oh... is that what I need?" Jerard questioned, a light, playful growl to his voice.
"That isn't EXACTLY what I meant..." Beo felt his ears blush as a little giddy-giggle escaped his muzzle. He turned to the priest, "I'll keep an eye on him... I promise."
"Both eyes, I'm sure." Jerard chided as the husky led him away. Beo grinned in response, and let the werewolf lean on him for support.
"When that basilisk snapped you up I thought you were dead for sure." Beo murmured, helping Jerard across the distance between Ryan's carriage and his own.
"I guess I didn't agree with it much..." Jerard shrugged, "I'm not that simple to eat and I don't go down easy." He glanced at Beo, whose ears were almost burning from a blush, "What?" he asked of the husky.
"You don't 'go down easy'..." he embarrassed himself further with another gleeful titter.
Jerard palmed Beo's skull in his paw and rotated the husky's head, gazing into his ear, "How do you have room for arcane lore in there when it's so full of smut?"
"Oh... that head is for knowledge... I keep the smut in my OTHER head." Beo's grin widened, tail wagging wildly.
"I suppose it's a good thing the Goddess gifted you with two then." Jerard mused; Beo didn't miss the fact that the white wolf's tail was wagging as well. He was just about to add to his comment when the werewolf's paw pressed down on his shoulder, and the husky let out an involuntary yelp. Jerard froze in place and looked at him, "What?" Beo glanced at Jerard, and thought for a moment about an explanation for his outburst, but the red splotch bleeding through his tunic did it for him, "You're hurt?" the werewolf questioned.
"It's not life threatening." Beo shrugged, wincing at the movement in his shoulder, "Besides... you're hurt worse."
"When you can turn into an eight foot tall engine of destruction then we'll talk about who is hurt worse." Jerard argued, and grabbed hold of Beo by the back of his tunic. Beo let out a yelp of surprise when he was hauled completely off the ground, "You shouldn't be walking around."
"Hi Kettle, it's Pot. Oh, hello Pot, what's new? Oh, nothing much... just wanted to let you know you're black." Beo argued. Jerard glanced at Beo and, despite his gruff nature, couldn't hold back a chuckle. Once they got back to the carriage, Jerard finally put him down. Beo opened the door and went inside, followed by the large werewolf. Jerard forced him down onto the seat and pulled the husky's tunic right off. Beo's breath came faster, as did his heartbeat, until he sighed, realizing that Jerard was not continuing to strip him, rather, he was looking at the wound.
"I'm fine... really." Beo insisted.
"Then you won't mind me looking." Jerard countered, and physically pinned the husky with a single paw.
"You know... being like this only makes it harder for me to avoid raping you." the husky offered a sheepish grin, quite obviously outmatched. Jerard simply rolled his eyes, but his tail was wagging despite the accompanying sigh.
Despite how much Beo would have liked to follow up his innuendo and bravado with action, he and Jerard were barely in the carriage for three minutes before he fell asleep in the werewolf's grasp. Their time together that evening was summarized with two suggestive comments from Beo, a chuckle from Jerard, followed up with the husky murmuring, "You know... as long as you were only a little rough I'm sure we'd be fine..." and, no sooner was it said, than Beo finally gave into sleep.
Beo awoke with a dejected sigh; he was alone. The husky pulled at the coverlet that was wrapped around him. He didn't own one, but, from the powerful smell of Jerard on it, Beo could guess where it came from. Rolling over on the carriage bench, the husky freed his tail out from beneath himself to let it wag freely, taking another deep breath from the blanket. A giddy 'mrr' escaped him, and the gleeful husky slid his paw into his own loose breeches, eager to find some satisfaction that he was unable to get earlier... but he stopped at the sound of voices outside his carriage.
"I know she knows, but that doesn't mean it will make her comfortable with it." Beo recognized Captain Rakken's voice.
"You can't keep avoiding her." said a second voice, the mouse woman who had been lingering around the caravan, "The two of you make a good team and we're weaker without you two working together."
"She is a skilled soldier and I am a strategist." he responded to her, "We can work independently, Thera. I don't want to push her on this."
"Yearl... please..." the quieter voice requested.
"I know you want to patch things, Thera... but you need to let her calm down first." the lion stated.
"Yearl, I--"
"Hey!" Beo spoke up, pulling up his trousers with a scowl, "You're kinda interrupting my relaxation time!" he sighed, looking around for his tunic; it would have to wait.
"I apologize, Mr Kyr." the Captain announced.
"Sorry, Magus Kyr." Thera added.
"Don't be sorry... just go do your drama-thing somewhere else... or talk to Artemisia... she's not some beast or anything." Beo spoke through the door, pressing a paw to his head as it began to pound, "Ugh... headache." he mumbled to himself. Thankfully, he heard the two walking off so, with any luck, the pounding wouldn't get any worse. Unfortunately, Beo was a little short on luck.
"How is your head, Mr. Kyr?" the cold, emotionless voice from outside his carriage was unmistakable.
"Getting worse, I think, Priestess. Thank you for asking." he responded.
"Drink something." she stated flatly, "I wish to speak with you at the head of the column in five minutes."
Beo sighed, "Fantastic."
The black husky rushed to locate his tunic and donned his boots before stumbling his way out of the carriage. He winced once reflexively as he caught himself on the railing then realized that his shoulder didn't hurt as much as it had. He pressed his paw against the new bandage through his tunic; the wrapping was holding, and it didn't feel like it was bleeding through... he mused on countless thoughts of how and why Jerard would be such a good healer, but his attention snapped back to the present when Brother Farstrider called to him.
Most of the caravan's independents had found their way to the front of the wagon train. The mixed-breed scout slipped away into the underbrush to the east, but Brother Farstrider and Jerard were already looking around. Yearl and Thera were speaking quietly beside an overturned carriage while Artemisia stood back by the caravan's lead carriage, using her polearm as a walking staff.
"So what IS this exactly?" Beo asked, looking at the carriage where it lay beside the Highway. It looked overgrown, as if it had been there for some time. He looked back to Anya, who was overseeing a group of scouts who had just returned from the west.
"A warning... or perhaps a chance to excel." the jackal responded enigmatically.
"So what IS this exactly?" Beo repeated his earlier question in exactly the same voice to Brother Farstrider.
"The scouts found the remnants of a wagon train further west." the wolf explained.
"As in... off the road?" questioned Jerard. Beo made his way over to stand by the albino werewolf, "How did anyone find it?"
"A trail led from there to here." the half-breed scout noted, emerging from the undergrowth, and he walked out onto the road, punching daggers at his waist swaying back and forth with each stride, though making no sound. "He was being chased by something large... it moved fast, and had large, scaled feet." the scout announced, peering out at Beo from behind his facemask, "The traveler was an owl." and, with that, he returned to the undergrowth.
"Brother Korrik." Anya spoke up.
Brother Farstrider, kneeling by the overturned carriage, nodded, "It looked like he took shelter for maybe twenty minutes before moving on." he offered, looking at what appeared to be barren ground as far as Beo was concerned, "Whatever was after him wasn't very far behind." he glanced off in the direction the leopard-wolf went, "And the trail leads that way."
"We should figure out what happened." Artemisia suggested.
"Then we set up guards here." Brother Farstrider noted, "We can take some men and head after them." he glanced eastward, then back to the carriage. The wolf began sifting through several bits of discarded refuse, "Hmmm..." he noted, until the dragoness called to him.
"The tracks are too old to expect to find anyone alive, Brother." Artemisia pointed out, "If we're going to have any luck we're best off searching for what remains of the wagon train." she motioned to the west.
"Other than giving the victims a decent burial, we won't accomplish much either way." Beo added with a shrug, "If we hang around here whatever happened to them might happen to us."
"A decent burial is important, Mr Kyr." Anya noted, staring right at him. He was about to argue against her statement, but her gaze forced him to look away; he really didn't much care for dealing with the jackal, "And finding Brother Korrik's Holy Shield is just as important."
"What are we looking for?" Yearl asked Anya.
"A chalice..." the jackal responded, "It is a silver goblet."
"Very well," the lion nodded, "and what about hunting down that creature?" he questioned, "If it attacked a wagon train then it could do it again."
Anya nodded, "Tomal thought he might." she spoke quietly, possibly too quiet for anyone to hear except for Beo, who was closest to her.
At that point the husky was beyond arguing; turning around he headed back to his carriage, "I'll leave the specifics to all of you... just let me know if you need me to blow something up."
* * * * * *
The Myrhian Caravan comes across quite a scene and the party must decide on their best course of action. Contributing readers may vote on what they think that may be:
1) Go east after the fleeing priest... and whatever is chasing him.
2) Go west toward the site of the destroyed caravan to start an investigation.
3) Split up and look for the Divine Shield-- that is the most important thing anyway.
4) Keep going... whatever happened it makes little difference because nobody can be helped and it's more important to avoid whatever fate befell them.
Contributing Readers, make sure you make your stance and utilization selections before midnight (pst) on Thursday, August 11th.
Marked adult due to Beo's little escapades.
Finally, congratulations to silverhair, representing Kell Vederik for successfully answering the logic puzzle posed to Myrhean Contributing Readers. Kell will receive 1 bonus experience point and 1 bonus Willpower.