Return to Camelot: The Untold Arthurian Legend(OPEN)

[Sly]

Aldreda crossed her arms defiantly over her chest and said nothing. She didn’t appreciate Tam’s mocking tone or the lack of respect these two travelers seemed to have, but fighting about it would get nowhere. She knew this to be true, and yet she felt the overwhelming urge to slap the young girl in front of her across the face. Letting the urge pass, she sighed and addressed the other two.

“If you feel the need to be disrespectful to me, by all means do so. I do not care. But I will not stand for your disregard of my beliefs are the mistreatment of those who have left us.”

She muttered a quick prayer under her breath before continuing. It didn’t matter to her who these people were; they had once been living and deserved that much, at least. Even if they did not deserve it, the land certainly did.

“That being said, I suppose burning the bodies may be the wisest course of action…only try not to poke at them anymore if you can help it.”

She lookd at Tam with a shrug.

“I’ve managed not to burn down the forest in this many years, believe it or not. Not that I’m as experienced at burning bodies as you clearly are.”

She closed her eyes for a moment and caught a brief glance of a hooded figure at the very edge of the forest, just crossing into town. The person seemed to be rather in a hurry, and as they whipped their head around to look behind them, Aldreda saw a strand of long blond hair slip from beneath the hood. She briefly debated telling the others what she had seen, but decided that it couldn’t hurt and might even save the other two some effort.

“By the way, I believe your stranger is already in town, beyond that I do not know, but may be able to trace them further once I’m closer. Take that as you will, I only hoped to save you the trouble of following an old trail through the forest. It’s starting to get dark after all, and that may be considerably harder to do now.”

[Malverne]

"When you've seen as many people die as I have," Tam muttered to herself, "The dead become a lot less mystical, and just turn into work." The young witch tossed the last of the bodies onto the pile. Behind the druid's back, Tam poked one of the bodies with her toe.

"I'll handle the pyre," she said, starting to strip the bodies of their outer layers of clothing, "You finish erasing the markings." A few moments later, Tam had all the cloaks the necromancers had worn, and laid them out over the bodies. The thicker material wouldn't burn as easily, and would keep the smoke from attracting notice. Satisfied, Tam pulled out her flint, and set the bodies alight.

"You might want to cover your noses," She said to Robin and the druid, "Burning human flesh isn't the nicest smell. So, are we doing anything about our runaway?"

[Kinslayer6788]

Robin was used to people not believeing him, but these two were very quick to accept anything he said as true. That worried him alittle. He was pondering about how best to retreive the necromancer when he over heard the druids concern.

"Aldreda, I do not like the dead to sneak up on me, we are just getting a head start on havin to kill them again."

Listening to Tam under her breath muttering about the dead and pyres gave Hob an idea.

"Of course the girl is in town by now, she must have been running like death was chasing her. She must have and still will be cheacking over her shoulder. Looking into this part of the forest. Waiting. So what we do Tam is don't cover the fire. Let the smoke rise. Then we get ahead of the town. When she comes running out. We grab her."

Hob turned toward the druid. "You know this forrest better than us. I think Tam is new to this area and I have not been here in a lifetime or two. Is there anyway to get ahead of the town?"

[Malverne]

"It's a big city, you daft man," Tam said, "People go in and out of it all the time. We'd have no way of knowing who we were supposed to grab, nor would we have any guarantee she'd even be leaving. She doesn't know we're here, and would have no reason to suspect us. Better she doesn't know she's being hunted. Deer are always easier to shoot when they aren't running." Tam stood up, satisfied with her work.

"There'll be nothing but ash and cinders here in a few hours," She said, "and now that we cleared away the markings, no one will be able to tell what happened here. Unless that particular no one can reconstruct bodies from ash and figure out their abilities, but I don't think we could have done much to stop someone like that. Now, I'm going after whoever ran off." Tam dove into the forest, easily following the obvious trail the terrified necromancer had left behind in her haste. A blind man could have followed the trail. A blind and deaf man could have followed the trail.

[Keylaleigh]

Meanwhile, it was a bit past breakfast time in Camelot, and Learmount was enjoying some peace and quiet. No messages from anyone, nothing crazy occurring, it was wonderful. She sighed with content.

"You are looking quite calm." Cait Sidhe leapt onto her lap and curled up.

Learmount simply nodded. she didn't want to look like she was having a full-blown conversation with a cat in a house that barely knew her yet. In the Cut of Your Jib, she was already known as the quiet, yet crazy one from the moment she walked in practically. Here, she had to reestablish that slowly. And that was what she was going to do. Cait Sidhe seemed to understand this and quieted himself.

The peace was very enjoyable.

[Malverne]

Allyn was actually enjoying his breakfast. He hadn't expected many nice breakfasts when he got the letter.

"'Scuse me, Master Allyn," Gerald said, and Allyn knew his nice breakfast was about to end, "An...er...urchin left a message for you." Gerald handed the old knight a letter. Allyn read the letter, and immediately pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Learmount," he said, "I do apologize for this, but we have to go. One of Lady Elaine's...sources saw a group of cloaked men going into the forest last night. She suggests it might be worth investigating. Would you like to accompany me?"

[Keylaleigh]

Learmount sighed. Of course she had to jinx herself. Just as she was getting used to the peace and quiet, Allyn gets a message. She rose. "Sure, I'll come."

It was her job to investigate these sorts of things, so it was better if she came along. Cait Sidhe looked up at her and she looked down at him. She already knew what was coming.

"Despite what objections you may have, I am coming with you." He said matter-of-factly. To anyone else who may have been listening, it just sounded like a meow, but Learmount heard it for what it really was. She didn't bother arguing with the fae feline at this moment.

[Malverne]

"As you wish," Allyn said, "It's not too far; we can walk there quickly enough. Gerald, would you clean up after us? We have to leave quickly."

"Yessir. Shall I get a pair of horses?"

"No, not necessary," Allyn said, "Our starting point is closeby, and we don't know where it might lead. But thank you."

"Yessir."

"Shall we?" Allyn said to Learmount, gesturing to the open door.

[Keylaleigh]

Learmount nodded. "Lead the way, Sir Allyn."

The two of them started walking out of the city and towards the forest. She liked forests much more than cities, and was glad to be heading for one once again. Forests were the home of the fae, and only being a few generations away from being one of them, she felt generally close to the folk. If they needed the aid, she could most likely call one one of them to give her information.

Cait Sidhe followed close behind her, sometimes distracted by shiny objects or rustling noises in the alleyways, but he would always return when he was done, no matter what the pair was doing.

"So... do you have any idea what we are looking for at all? Or were our orders more cryptic than that?" She asked. Learmount was used to getting really cryptic orders, and wondered if Sir Allyn got them a lot too in his line of work.

[Malverne]

Allyn chuckled quietly.

"Orders?" he repeated merrily, "My only orders were to track down the witches, nothing more. I don't know if you'd call that cryptic. At this point in my career, my superiors have realized that if they try to tell me how to catch witches, it will either not work, or I will ignore their instructions. They stopped trying to get specific when three nobles died of drowning in the top of their towers, miles away from any water."

"In any matter, as a rule, we're looking for something, quote unquote, suspicious. Last night, a few men were spotted entering the forest, wearing robes. Call me paranoid, but I say it calls for investigation. I plan on trying to track these robed men, hopefully to interrogate them and discover their purpose."

[Keylaleigh]

Marian Learmount nodded. She was used to slightly cryptic instructions from her employer involving "there may or may not be a witch in that town" and to go check it out. It sounded as if he got similar orders but was able to take them in stride due to the amount of time he had been in the business.

But robed men in the forest... sounded suspicious to her as well. If he had a generally good idea as to where they may be heading then it would be good to listen and follow. If they got stuck, she knew that she had some that she could ask for help all over the forest. She had felt their eyes on her the moment she entered.

[Malverne]

"Well, this is where they were spotted," Allyn said, once they reached the edge of Camelot where, in fact, the robed men were spotted the previous night, "So now...we track!"

Allyn scanned the nearby ground. Behind him was the city of Camelot, specifically the part of the city where the nobles tend to live, and in front of him was a field of grass. Across the field was a large, rather suspicious forest, sprawling to the south and east, and it was toward the suspicious forest that the aforementioned suspicious robed men were spotted suspiciously going into. Suspiciously.

Allyn relayed that little nugget to Learmount, minus all the repetition of the word suspicious, and started walking through the waist-high grass towards the forest.

"I don't suppose you can track magical people," Allyn joked, "Because that would be very useful in this situation. I probably should have brought a dog, because my eyesight isn't what it used to be. If you see anything, say so. Two sets of eyes, or one and a half sets if we must be specific, are better than one."

[Keylaleigh]

Learmount smiled. "A dog, you say?" She walked into the grass. She knew where she could find a dog. One that was more adept at this sort of search than any mortal hound.

"You are not going to..." Cait Sidhe yowled in protest.

All Learmount did was nod to the feline's distaste. There was no better dog in the world than Cu Sidhe. She walked into the grass, further away from Allyn so he would not hear her conversations. She knew this field and its denizen quite well. As she looked around, she found exactly who she was looking for.

Curled on the ground was a sleeping fae, much bulkier and animal-like than the ones in the fairy tales. In fact, he looked more like a small minotaur than a member of the fae court.

"Peaseblossom, wake up!" She nudged the sleeping fae with her foot. "I need you to find Cu Sidhe for me, and I know that you two are pretty good friends."

"And why do you need that one's help?" the bull-fae grumbled as he rose, standing at full height, but only reaching Learmount's waist.

"I need a magic tracker, and there are none better than the fae hound." She explained quietly. She didn't want to rouse any suspicion from the knight that was nearby. "And tell him to put some glamour on so I don't have to explain a bright green dog to my partner." Peaseblossom just grumbled and nodded as he clumbered off to find the fae hound.

She then went back to looking like she was searching for a magic trail. It wouldn't take long for Cu Sidhe to show up, but she had to look busy until then.

[Malverne]

Allyn was trudging in the general direction of the forest, his head pivoting so that his one eye could scan the landscape. He noticed that Learmount had gone off in another direction.

"Ho!" he called to the woman, "Where're you off to? We're heading this way! Silly girl..." The knight said this last at a mutter, a grin on his face. Despite his rather grim quest, he was in surprisingly good spirits. A good breakfast does that.

Eventually, the old knight made it to the forest. His eyesight wasn't as bad as he made it out to be, and soon enough, Allyn found evidence that a line of people walking quickly had passed through. However, he couldn't tell where they went once they entered the forest. Allyn leaned against a tree, his face contorted into a frown.

Now what?

[Keylaleigh]

"Oh! Sorry..." Learmount chuckled and ran after him. It was better to look like a silly and forgetful girl right now. Wait until the right time to show what she could really do.

As they made their way towards the edge of the forest, she heard a bark echo across the hills. There was one. Just a few yards before the treeline, she heard the second, and the third right as they hit it.

The Cu Sidhe barked three times to announce his presence, and the death of those who got in his way. Fortunately, her and the hound were on very good terms, so no blood would be spilled this day. At least, not yet.

Skirting the treeline was an enormous black dog. Good. He chose a more natural color to appear in this time. The last time he appeared she forgot to tell him to put on glamour and he had his bright green fur. "There you are!" She scratched the dog behind his ears.

"Peaseblossom told me you were in need of a tracker?" The dog looked up at her curiously.

"Yes I am." she smiled. "Supposedly a group of mages was in this forest last night, and we are trying to find out where they went, if they were here at all, that is."

The dog lifted his head to the air. "Yes, there was magic here. I can feel it all around me. It's a little too stale for anyone else to really pick up, must have been late at night."

"You know best, Cu Sidhe. Lead the way!" She smiled as the hound walked into the woods. "Come on, Allyn! I think I have the trail."

She knew that the older man was most likely confused, but she would explain everything to him as they walked. She figured it was better to get this out of the way if they were expected to work together for a while. No use hiding secrets. She was really bad at it, anyways.