"My apologies," Maple said as he took a seat. He eyed the trader and produced a mental list of what he needed. "I think I'll be needing a tent, some paper and a writing utensil, and some armor or metal plates if you have any."

Maple frowned, disappointed by what the trader had. "I guess I'll just take the book." he said. "250 crowns?"

Penelope cleaned out her ear with her pinky to be sure she wasn't hearing things. "What did you say?" she shouted over the howling winds. "I didn't catch that. You want me to rake your leaves? Isn't it a bit cold to be doing yard work?"

[reference: Kuuya actually said "I want you to take me with you, please!"]

"I'm no 'king' or 'lord', but I sure wanna shoot you down with a Blitz Needle," Aaron said to Chester, the Seraphynx. "Anyways, Vatarian, what brings me here. You see, almost all Caltamirs have had a path to their 'destiny' or some outrageous quest. But me? Nope, boring old me gets nothing drastic or exciting. Nowadays I just scare people and scout for local quests. Maybe collect some Droul Spit along the way. What do you do?"
As he said this, Aaron felt plain. Not-so-cool normal plain. Once in his life he had thought, maybe, he would be a legendary adventurer like his ancestor, Lance. Or maybe fight off hoardes of Trojans, like his other ancestor Ragazar, risking his life as he plunged Silverslicer deep into the backs of the colossal monsters. Nope. The only thing he could do was nothing. No fighting the Droul threat, not risking it to return even close to the swarm. He was useless, but he flaunted the few skills he did have.

Chester giggles and puts a paw over his face as if the concept is just too damn funny.

"Buddy, I survived a drop from orbit in a tin crate and being smushed into the ground by Vanadouche's mace. Even if you had a Blitz Needle, which I doubt you do, you couldn't hurt me any more than I've already been hurt."

Vatarian puts a hand over the Seraphynxes' head and rubs it, eliciting a purr.

"I kill Drouls and bring supplies from the clockwords once a week or so. No one else has the time, skill, or equipment to do it any more. But high-quality materials are in higher demand than ever and I'm happy to bring by what I don't need to maintain my armor and weapons."

"Which is to say, everything, because the mats we actually NEED are almost impossible to find these days...."

Chester interjects, tail flicking.

Vatarian nods, hand moving to the gaping crater in the side of his helm, and beneath that, his skull.

"Chester's right. If you want to win glory, we could use someone like you along. With your help, we could brave depths that have been off-limits since the fall of HQ and help a LOT of people."

Chester waggles his eyebrows and smirks.

"Yep. We're that old."

(I only say that since I figure if things are this far gone, SHQ has probably been defunct for several decades at least.)

Maple smiled faintly. "Is it really that obvious?" he asked, thinking the trader wouldn't publicly reveal the secret. "But if crowns don't buy anything here, what might?"

Vatarian shrugs.

"Dangerous and off-limits can mean the same things if you don't have a squad or any first-aid equipment. I just got back from an Owlight Keep. The swarm seems to be fighting a losing battle there. The Grimalkins are hammering the hell out of every unit the Swarm sends in and the Black Kats have been popping up damn near everywhere since the candles have been destroyed. The good news is that they're so occupied with the swarm, they tend to miss knights such as ourselves. Especially when we blend in."

Chester's ears flatten and his head snaps towards the front of the camp.

"You guys hear that? Sounds remarkably like.... Drouls."

Carter reached the entrance to the camp. No guards. Sure, the Drouls tended to attack at night, but no knights posted for defense? Peeking out of the gate, Carter noticed a single knight, on the ground. Notable dent on the side of his helm, surely not from a Droul. He walked over to the fallen knight, and began to drag him back into camp.

Looking at the area where the Drouls were coming from, Carter was greeted with a slash at his neck. Stumbling backwards, he threw the solitary guard back inside.

"Don't do that!"

With a swift movement, Carter kicked the Droul in the side of it's head, and rushed back inside. Pressed against the door, Carter could feel bashing from the outside, and several groans and moans. Frantically looking around, he spotted the two knights that were fighting before. They could hear the Drouls too. Alright, then.

"Hey! You two! Can't hold this thing much longer! You can charge the guys outside, right?"

"Stand back, if you would." The man saying that wielded quite a powerful looking arsenal. A sword and a vial of liquid. Of course, Carter had no reason to doubt a knight fighting using the elements as a weapon.

"Right, well... you and the one behind can have fun with that."

Releasing the doors, Carter held his Plate Shield and bashed the crowd of zombies back a few feet. Following that, he sprinted out of the way.

Carter sat at the entrance to the camp, watching the knight fight off the horde of Drouls. Yes, as before, the tall knight with the elemental sword fought quite violently. He sought to destroy his opponents before they could attack, by simply overwhelming them. Stamina would probably be his downfall. Still, it was quite a show he was putting on.

Looking onwards, Carter spotted a large form, wielding a large, dulled blade. No one in the camp would be able to block that. It would certainly be a problem for Carter. Probably for the tall knight as well. Seeing as the other knight was idling for no apparent reason, Carter stood up. He jogged towards the crowd, shield in front.

Seeing as the taller knight was the main offensive force, Carter hoped to pick off Drouls that could potentially flank. The Drouls themselves were not intelligent enough to devise a strategy, but their numbers and strength made them a horrible force to go against.

A group of three had managed to avoid the knight's forwards assault, and had begun to make their way towards him. Running up to their sides, Carter charged at the would-be attackers with his shield. Knocking them down, he crushed the skulls of two, and kicked down the third once more. Smashing the Droul down with his Plate Shield, Carter looked forwards again.

The large form and blade seemed only to acknowledge the taller knight. Good. Unsheathing the sword he had forgotten to bring out earlier, Carter made his way around towards the towering figure.

As a quartet of Drouls breaks off from the main body of the group, Vatarian dashes forward, ramming his sword through the sternum of one and out its back. Raising the pinioned Droul off the ground, Vatarian uses it like a bludgeon to smash the other three with, beating them to their knees and breaking the arm of one.

He shakes the ruined mess of a creature off his sword, then dispatches the three injured individuals at his feet. Another leaps at him, from the side, and Vatarian raises his shield just in time for the Droul to smash into it full-force, shattering one of its arms and knocking Vatarian backwards a step. Chester targets the zombie's spine with pin-point precision and severs it, leaving the otherwise whole corpse to tumble to the ground bonelessly.

The Trojan, for that is the only thing it could be, shoulders its way through the remaining Drouls and eyes Vatarian out of rheumy, barely visible dull-red eyes. Tossing its head, it charges the big Vanguard with sudden and terrifying speed, sword raised to cleave him in two. Vatarian dodges at the last moment, then sprints after it, leaping onto its back as it plunges its massive blade into the ground where Vatarian had stood only an instant before. Gripping the thick armor at the base of its massive neck with one hand, Vatarian plants the sword in the creature's luminescent back-crystals nearly up to the pommel with a metallic grinding sound.

The Trojan whinneys in pain and flails about, nearly shaking Vatarian free, but the Vanguard persists, teisting his blade free and driving it in again. The Trojan howls and grabs at Vatarian with its free arm, purple sparks fountaining from the crystal in its back.

Chester blasts the Droul attacking Aaron, lighting the back of its head up like a gore-filled signal flare.

"Disco inferno, as they say."

As the Droul reared it's head, the moan from the Trojan surprised it. "DIE!" Aaron now yelled, stabbing Silverslicer through the Droul's sternum, and then following up with a decapitation. He picked up the zombie's head, and chucked it at another of the oncoming knights. The two remaining iron-clad knights had decided to kill him together! As the two knights rushed at Aaron, swords in hand, he muttered, "May the swarm consume your souls....."
The wound on Aaron still bled, but he had clotted it with a piece of Droul bone. His pain had diminished, and his refined and quick movements were once more restored. As the first Knight swung his sword at Aaron, Aaron parried with Silverslicer, feinted to the left, and struck to the left at the Knight's leg. The Knight crumpled to the floor and Aaron raised his sword to behead him. Suddenly, Silverslicer was knocked to the ground, and the other knight held him at swordpoint. "This is for Daja!" the knight said in a muffled voice as he raised his sword. Bad move. Aaron kicked the knight in the chest quickly, darting to pick up Silverslicer.
Aaron had retrieved Silverslicer, and one Knight stood to face him. Aaron swept his leg at the Knight, attempting to knock him over, but the Knight dodged, aiming his sword at Aaron's chest. Aaron parried, whacking the Knight's sword so hard it disarmed him. "Good luck in hell," Aaron told him, as Silverslicer bore his way into the man's ribcage.

Despite his efforts, the large figure, now identified as a Trojan, charged off as Carter came within attacking distance. Slightly annoyed by the Trojan's decision, Carter decided to make his way back towards camp. The two knights who sought for glory could have it. It was smarter to stay away from the Drouls than fight them on a regular basis.

Carter looked towards the knight with the Kat helm. He had just finished off a few offenders, it looked like.

"Good luck in hell."

How dark.

He held quite a reflective sword, and a basic shield. Candle on his helmet. Everything appeared normal... Carter focused on a spot on the knight. A Droul bone protruded from a wound. Did he try clotting an injury, with an infected item? When there was no cure to the disease yet? Transformation seemed to take a few days, if not weeks, but it always happened. Carter walked cautiously towards the knight.

"Hey, you have a second? Have you noticed that Droul bone covered in blood, there? Just checking..."

Aaron turns around, looking at the stranger. "It's fine! It's the Droul spit that's infectious!" he tried to say, his voice garbled by the hisses and spits of Drouls.

A Droul spat and some of the spit landed on the outjutting Droul bone. Aaron needed to take the thing out. "Hey, stranger!" He yelled to the man walking away. "Catch this and get me some cloth!" Aaron said, taking out the Droul bone and hurling it perfectly at the man's hands. Suddenly the pain of the gash came back to him. "Stop it, Aaron! Don't feel the pain!" he told himself, surveying the remaining legion of Drouls. One iron-clad Knight left, stunned, and four Drouls. "This'll be easy," Aaron thought, as another pang of pain echoed through his body.

Maple catches the bone in his hands, a perfect throw by the owner of who obviously was bleeding. "Reduced to medic work? Ha, pathetic," he chuckled to himself as he went and grabbed a random cloth from the ground, rolled it up into a ball, and chucked it at the bleeding man. He turned around again and beheaded another drouhl.

The powerful winds carried the sounds of battle to Penelope's keen ears. "Yes, those are zombies, and what's more, I think someone's already getting a piece of the pie! Come on, we have to find them!" She grabbed Kuuya by the hand and began to drag her as best she could through the mud sloughs toward the sounds.

Nodding silently, Fen sheathed her Cutter and stepped towards the elderly trader lady, of whom had been forgotten amidst the succeeded battle.

Not bothering to seat herself, she loomed over the trader. The seat is probably filthy anyways.

"I need food," she said indifferently. As she stood before her, Fen couldn't fail to notice the twinkle of life in the woman's eyes. She was old, but her mind was not.

Kuuya's hand passes through Penelope's, as Kuuya kneeled to the mud, Attempting to grasp a small object. A phone.
Kuuya said "I kind of forgot to mention... I'm not really here." She said as she pointed to the black phone in the ground, as her projection wavered, seeing as she was running on reserve energy.
"Believe it or not, I'm in this phone..."

"Aaaah!" the knight screamed as his other leg was broken. Venatik knew he would die. He had minimal blood, and was gashed in about 5 dozen areas on his body. He slowly looked up at the man above him. "Stop him....... Jazocka.......stop.......the....knight......" Venatik garbled, spitting up blood. Red filled his vision. "Stop.... him....." he managed to say once more. Venatik looked to the skies of Cradle, memorizing the beautiful sky as his last sight. Then, everything turned black.
Venatik's lifeless body was sprawled on the grounds of Beta camp, a sad sight to see as any dead knight. His soul floated from his body, staring at the tall stranger above the body. "Good luck," the spirit said, his astral voice impossible to hear.

"Jazocka........" Aaron muttered. "I've heard the name, never seen the face. Someone who works with the swarm, is all I know...." he said. "Why?"

Cmon Vatarian, where'd ya go?

"Eh. The last time I heard of him was slightly after the Knight freed me......" Aaron said, a chill running down his back. "Then that knight.... was ..... well...... Let's just say incapacitated." Silverslicer gleamed as darkness battled light across its blade, a churning mixture of pure abyss and blinding light. "Hey, did he say Jazocka was a Knight? A knight working with the swarm might be a desirable postition...." He thought out loud to Vatarian.