Order Of the Dragon, chapter 3
 

Chapter 3, "Suspicious Happenings."

The group finally left the cave after finding the Pheonix Feather. They ran back to the town, after seeing the smoke curling up from it, expecting to see destruction, but instead, they found the town looking just like it had when they left, except for one house at the back looked a little torn up and scorched.

"What happened?" Aylia asked as she approched the elder of the town who was outside. The mayor shrugged, "Not many people saw it, since most of them were on the other end of the town, but the man who was around the house at the time said it was some kind of monster that did it..." The mayor looked sheepish, "But no need to worry about it! He said the monster ran off, and you've already helped us so much, by defeating the monster. Where were you all headed again?" He asked.

"We're headed to Naelgorth." Aylia said timidly.

The elder thought for a moment, "Ah then you may feel free to take a couple of our boats to travel down the river." He smiled, "It should make the journey go much faster."

Aylia looked at the others and shrugged, "Uh. Thank you." She turned, "Shall we go then?"

Lunas shrugged. "We may as well. There is little left to be done for this people except making an altar, but we do not have time for such luxuries."

"Hmph, luxury...lunacy is more like it." Glark muttered. "So who can operate the boat?"

Nighteyes seemed happy that something he knew about was useful.

"I can operate a boat. Boats are fun. May I operate the boat? Oooh! I know, Wen can operate the boat! He's good at water stuff! But then he might not let me help, because he wouldn't need my help. Wen? Do you mind if I help you with the boats?"

Barely breething, Antoninus lay in a pool of blood by the river.

Why do I get the feeling that we're forgetting something?

Nate had gotten a weird feeling as he started to walk towards the boats. Shrugging it off, he thought, Nah, probably just imagining things.

(OOC: I guess we'll have to go pick up Jad before we take off ^_^)

As the group approached the river, Aylia looked at Nighteyes then at Wen, "I don't really care who steers the boat, as long as we get there in one piece." They finally got to the river where a boat was awaiting them, <Hm... looks like it's going to be a little cramped...> She thought, looking at the size of the boat, then at the size of the group. She had a funny little feeling in the back of her mind, "Are we forgetting someone or something?" She asked, looking back over the group.

"Well, who is that beautiful redhead walking back home from the slaughter?"

Rabbit whirled around quickly, and then the voice registered in her head. "Yes, Daranz. I'm ready for my reprimand." She said, hanging her head in mock shame. A young man wearing heavy armor and carring a huge pole-axe moved through the brush and onto the path Rabbit was walking down. As the man joined up with Rabbit, they began to walk together. "You were supposed to wait for us, you know." He began. Rabbit shook her head. "I couldn't wait. Some party of mercenaries or Kingsworn had come across the village and took up the job. If I waited any longer, they'd've done it all for me and I would not've earned a single piece." Daranz frowned at Rabbit's blunt report. "Damnit. More people are getting in on our work? If this keeps up, we'll have to resort strictly to monster hunting tasks."

Rabbit folded her hands behind her head and gazed at the sun. "That's how it is, Daranz. Oh, where's Kheleen?" "She's in town. Said that it was likely that you either went down there yourself and got killed or something or that some other party stole the job from us." Daranz mused. Rabbit sighed. "It's always nice to know that she has confidence in me. Anyways, that village job was bullshit. They weren't even going to pay me full price for trying to save their village, even after all that I told them."

Lunas shrugged. "I'm not good with faces, so I honestly can't tell you if anyone is missing. However, I don't think we should waste any more time. If someone fell behind it's their fault and they should be the ones that need to make up for it."

Dayfang sniffed at the air

Nighteyes looked around

"do you smell that? blood. the healer is bleeding. where is he?"