Final Fantasy RP Chapter 7
 

It was midday and the group had kept up a relatively fast pace. Deamon was up in the front, in charge of guiding them since he apparently knew the way, and Blyr and Ark were behind him, apparently watching for some trouble. Redael was watching all three while conversing with Naras.

Near the back of the group Ripel road Boco beside Dezil and the wagon carrying those with injuries (this included the currently unconscious Carolina, to make things easier for Ark's chocobo), making sure neither had any troubles on the road. Behind him were Kairie and Marche, whom he thought were talking.

So far it had been a peaceful trip, with only the conversations between those around him creating the majority of the noise. However, they had just crossed into Lyad, and this is where it would be most dangerous.

He slowed Boco down a bit, though not enough to be noticeable immediately. I feel something...something is going to happen. I should keep my eyes open.

"Delightful," Ren intoned. "You know I love that sort of thing." Her eyes glanced down at the slave girl chained at his feet. "And I see that you've been busy..."

She folded her hands in front of her and once more smiled with her eyes. "You're one lucky evil bastard, Ciaran. Enjoy it while it's easy. It probably won't be for long...Once you take power, you spend the rest of your life trying to keep it."

She sighed softly, as if speaking from experience.

That morning, the bandit Killith and his group arrived at the campsite near the ex-bluemage village. There were about fifty other bandits with him, about half of which seemed to be lightly dressed in robes, most likely mages... and about five carried bows and crossbows. The rest wore swords and axes, and Killith himself had a massive war-axe strapped to his back. All the bandits rode sparsely armored chocobos, and most had some sort of leather armor for themselves... as well as scars from past battles.

Killith leaped down from his chocobo and examined the chocobo tracks and the fire carefully before giving the plan, "They have a half day on us... they're heading south east... it looks like they have a wagon however, so they should be moving slowly. We should catch up to them by tonight. We shall ride southeast and send scouts to find where they are exactly, and then cut them off with an ambush. The normal plan. We'll be attacking them either late tonight or tomorrow, depending on how long it takes to prepare the ambush." His chocobo gave out a quiet "wark" as Killith remounted and began to ride off, signalling a few of his scouts to move off to the southeast, which they did at incredible speeds. Their chocobos would be fit for racing, if they hadn't become bandits, and Killith suspected they should find the refugees soon. In the meantime, the rest of the bandit squad rode southeast, toward Lyad.
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Ciaran chuckled at the woman once again, and reached down to pat his slave girl on the head fondly. He treated her almost as one might treat a pet... a pet that looked human and wouldn't disgust someone to fornicate with, but a pet none-the-less. The slave-girl, oddly enough, didn't seem to mind being reduced to property either, whether it was through some sort of enchantment or if Ciaran had just happened to acquire a particularily kinky woman as his slave one could only guess.

The emperor then turned his attention back toward the redmage then and spoke, "Oh, I see no problem keeping my power. You see... I rather enjoy the struggle to keep it. It would be ever so boring if I had nothing to do." Those words were ones he truly meant. He hadn't taken power JUST to have power, but because it was something he could do, and because it amused him. If he was stuck with this power, but without any rebels to crush, he would quickly lose interest.

(ooc: Edit to add response to Ren, and to change the bandit's time frame, so that they could catch up with the heros a bit sooner)

Blyr noted the lack of familiar trotting coming from Boco. He turned back, and yelled "Hey, Ripel! You okay? You aren't looking too good!"

Dezil was tinkering with his rifle, the only weapon he really had. It was a heavily modified Magitek Rifle, so that instead of having a permenant piece of magicite, it could be swapped out quickly as needed, or it could fire regular bullets. He was currently fixing in a thundara magicite into his rifle, muttering, "If Ciaran sends more of his Magitek Armor, I'll be ready for them." Then he put the rifle in a special slot he had attached to Zero's saddle, and pulled out a big contraption, with lots of wires, gears, and even a few Magicite crystals in it. He started to tinker with the device, muttering as he worked.

His laughed weakly. "I'm fine, really, I'm fine. I'm just...going to talk with our new dragoon friend." Well, it wasn't much of an excuse, but he had only five seconds to make it up. "That's what I'm going to do."

That guy...he makes it so hard for me to go unnoticed. He slowed Boco down further so that Kairie and Marche catch up to him. Well, I might as well. I still haven't thanked her properly for saving my life anyway.

"Hello again Kairie. And you...your name is Marche isn't it? Hello to you as well."

Blyr noted the tone of Ripel's voice, knowing that he made it up within seconds. Hmm...he still isn't all that great at making crack excuses, but I don't think anybody else noticed. He grinned. He's changed quite a bit lately, but it's good to know that's he's still himself.

Blyr turned and saw Dezil tinkering with his rifle. Blyr nudged Toc over to him and Zero as the craftsman worked. "You must be quite the craftsman to work on the road without being distracted." Blyr spake in a friendly tone. "Tell me, how does that gun work? It looks different from the one Ripel has used as of late."

Kairi was riding along talking quietly to Marche when Ripel, the mage she had saved from the magitek knight, rode back and greeted them, "Hello... Ripel is it?" She said, making sure she had his name correct, "Thank you for letting Marche and I come along with you guys. I still haven't officially met all of you yet." She shifted her eyes to glance at some of the others.

"Heh," he said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly, "That would probably be my fault. I was so busy introducing Dezil that I forgot to introduce you.

"However, I don't think it matters. It seems people got used to you being here that I almost forgot you two were new too. Besides," He continued, smiling, "You saved my life, and if you wanted to come along how could I refuse?

"That reminds me. I haven't had a chance to thank you for that. So...thanks."

Marche fidgeted a little on Yan, scratched his head, then looekd up, with as big a smile as he could muster on his face.

"I'll try to be of service to you, Mr. er... oh, that reminds me, we haven't been formally introduced. This is my lady, Kairi, and I am Marche Radiju, judge knight in training bound to her service."

He executed as graceful a bow as he could manage on chocoboback.