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Post by Nilaya on Dec 1, 2008 10:00:57 GMT -6
((Need to switch High Horse and Chance Meeting around on the time line so Nilaya and Berl will still be in Teirm when Lagritz arrives.)) Lord Anundr stood on the balcony of his keep - though officially it was no more than a guarded, overly large home - in front of the crowd of people staring out into them. None would know the thoughts in his mind as he spoke these words, "I have just heard word from my brother, King Radimir, that my nephew Korin, the crown prince, has been kidnapped from his home in Uru'baen. From evidence found it is believe the Varden is behind this." A cry broke out among the people, obviously disliking the claims made against the Varden. None liked the king, though none openly opposed him either while his younger brother was lord of their town. He quieted the people with a wave of his hand, "Please. This is not my belief only what I have been told. As I hear it my brother has yet to take any action against the Varden until more proof can be brought. It is pointless to start a war without enough evidence to support our attacking." Again the people cried out, but Lord Anundr was done and turned back into his keep. Only he knew the truth of the matter. He himself had had his nephew kidnapped and he was now being held in Anundr's keep, though not treated poorly by any means. Family was family even if you were trying to steal what was rightfully theirs. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~* At the far back of the crowd stood a young woman, the spell caster Nilaya. She was still in Teirm completing a few things which had included learning a new word of power, though that hadn't been entirely her reason for staying. I find it hard to believe the Varden leader would stoop so low as to kidnap the crown prince. Besides that he wouldn't be nearly so foolish as to traverse so near to the home of the man he was opposing, not while he had no known support.Something smelled fishy to the spell caster, and it wasn't just the air coming off the harbor. |
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Post by Berl on Dec 1, 2008 11:30:18 GMT -6
He's lying, Berl thought when Lord Anundar announced that his nephew had been kidnapped by the Varden. Something in what he's saying isn't true. What is it? Is Prince Korin safe and sound in Uru'baen? Are they just trying to throw blame onto the Varden? He shook his head. Berl tried not to get into politics, but he knew a liar when he saw one. And he'd just watched one announce that the Varden had kidnapped his nephew. No one else seemed to have noticed, they were all screaming variations of "Death to the Varden!" and "Long live King Radimir!"
Wait. There was a woman who had a suspcious look on her very familiar face. From the back he wasn't sure, but it looked a lot like... He strode over and tapped her on the shoulder. "Nilaya?"
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Post by Nilaya on Dec 1, 2008 12:06:43 GMT -6
Nilaya felt the tap on her shoulder and turned to face Berl. She hadn't seen the fighter since the night they'd spent outside the city. She'd stumbled upon his campsite and spending the night there had seemed far smarter than spending it alone. As it was they'd ended up fighting some urgals who had stumbled upon the pair. "Hello Berl. Still in the town I see."
She glanced back at the balcony where Anundr had been standing. "Am I the only one who smells a rat?" She heard no one near her expressing distaste for what had been said. Despite the fact that King Radimir was a tyrant no one really wanted war and living under the watchful gaze of his brother didn't help these people. "Admittedly Prince Korin could very well be kidnapped, but I somehow doubt the Varden leader would have done something that dumb and bold as it is it's still very stupid."
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Post by Berl on Dec 1, 2008 14:27:27 GMT -6
"Yeah, I'm hanging around. I'll stay here until the money runs out, or until I get the urge to go somewhere," he said. Berl cracked a grin when she asked if he smelled a rat. "Smell nothing. Spot and hear a rat is more like it. Or maybe, listen to a rat try to rat on the Varden. He knew what he was saying wasn't true, but I couldn't tell what part of it was the lie. I don't suppose you've learned some new amazing word that can tell you what the truth is, have you?" He doubted it. Even so, he wanted desperately to know what the real story was.
Besides, maybe he could make some fancy dough off rescuing Prince Korin, if he had indeed been kidnapped.
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Lagritz
Untrained
Urgal Spellcaster
The truths of this world are both wonderful and terrible.
Posts: 29
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Post by Lagritz on Dec 1, 2008 14:47:27 GMT -6
Lagritz had followed the Kidnappers for several days. Now he was hungry and exhausted from his long travels. They had gone to a place the humans called Teirm. This surprised Lagritz, because he figured kidnappers would not bring their prisoner to such a busy place, but then again humans were a perplexing species.
Lagritz knew he could no longer do anything about the prisoner now. An urgal was risking his life just being so close to a human city of this size, so there was no way he was going to risk entering it. Still, his feet could use a rest. He would just have to be extra cautious while he rested outside the city.
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Post by Nilaya on Dec 1, 2008 15:42:05 GMT -6
Nilaya gave a smug grin, "I've learned a new word, but that isn't it. As far as what was truth and what was lie, he's a convincing actor. He has everyone else believing what he says is the truth, or near enough. We're not going to have an easy time trying to pick that speech apart."
No, the new word was one he'd asked her if she knew back when they first met. Brisingr. The word echoed in her mind, the ancient word for fire. A word for telling truth from lie would be nice, and perhaps she could learn one later, but that wasn't going to help them now. "I don't really think anyone here will help us either. The best bet for finding something out would be check outside the city, see if any travelers know anything."
She wasn't considering the money that there would be in rescuing the prince, because she still wasn't sure he was in any real danger. The only thing she felt sure about was that the Varden had nothing to do with this.
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Post by Berl on Dec 1, 2008 16:59:28 GMT -6
"Yeah," said Berl. "We certainly won't get anything useful from these loonies." He jerked his thumb at a very short man, whom he'd almost mistaken for a dwarf, who was jumping up and down shouting "Die, Varden, die! Die, Varden, die!" "Outside then?" He grabbed her wrist and led her through the crowd toward the city gates. "I don't suppose that new word can get rid of crowds, can it?"
As they passed out of the city, Berl spotted an urgal standing, resting by the road. "Hey, you know you're putting yourself in danger like that, urgal! Take more care of yourself!" He knew what he was saying could easily be taken the wrong way, so he tried to sound as friendly as possible.
(ooc: if what I did up there was god-modding, im sorry, and i'll never do it again)
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Lagritz
Untrained
Urgal Spellcaster
The truths of this world are both wonderful and terrible.
Posts: 29
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Post by Lagritz on Dec 1, 2008 17:46:37 GMT -6
(Technically speaking, leading Nilaya through the streets was god-modding, but meeting Lagritz wasn't. Although that probably could have been done a bit more subtly too. Don't worry, I won't kick you off the site because of it.  ) Lagritz heard some human gibberish being spoken behind him, but he didn't quite catch what was spoken. He turned around quickly to see where it was coming from, his fight or flight instincts kicking in. How could he have been so careless? He must have been even more worn-out than he had realized. Upon closer examination, Lagritz got the feeling these humans were not threatening him. However, this did not mean that he let his body relax. "Me. Lagritz," he said, talking to them the way he had talked to the other human he met. |
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Post by Nilaya on Dec 1, 2008 18:09:47 GMT -6
((Technically speaking yes, but I don't so much care seeing as I'd have followed anyways. I'm pretty lenient about people modding my characters, but be careful about other people's.))
Nilaya nodded and then allowed Berl to drag her through the crowd, knowing full and well that there probably was no word for getting rid of all these people. Banishing them was a little permanent and would also probably kill the spell caster who attempted it. Even if they were a dragon rider they'd have died and probably taken their dragon out too.
It was when they got out of the city where the urgal was that things got interesting. He spoke, admittedly in a very heavy accent, but it was intelligible if simple. She stepped forward a little, warily, and said, "Nilaya," pointing to herself. She then pointed to Berl and said, "Berl."
She thought for a moment before saying, "Lagritz not safe here. Why so close to Teirm?" She spoke carefully and deliberately slower than she would have, as if she were speaking to a small child. It wasn't that she thought of Lagritz this way, certainly not seeing he was far from a child in size, but that was about what it seemed it would take for him to comprehend her from his speech.
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Lagritz
Untrained
Urgal Spellcaster
The truths of this world are both wonderful and terrible.
Posts: 29
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Post by Lagritz on Dec 1, 2008 18:21:39 GMT -6
Lagritz let himself relax a little. But only a fraction. These people seemed to be a lot more willing to communicate with him than normal humans. Perhaps they would be allies that could help protect him from the humans that meant him harm.
He figured that maybe they would be patient enough with his language barrier that he could try talking normally to them. He would start by answering the question that was asked of him. Speaking slowly he said, "I came to this place because I was following a group of... (what was the word) child-robbers. I didn't know I was headed towards a human city."
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Post by Nilaya on Dec 1, 2008 19:13:12 GMT -6
Child-robbers? Sounded like the word he was looking for was kidnappers. Why would they have brought their prisoner to Teirm though? She turned to Berl. "He witnessed a kidnapping. I wonder if this has anything to do with Lord Anundr seeming like a rat. Maybe the Varden is being framed by King Radimir's little brother, though I don't know what Anundr gets out of framing the Varden for kidnapping his nephew."
Lagritz probably wouldn't have understood her then, but she turned back to him now and spoke slowly again. "Do you know at all who the child-robber's took? Could you describe him or her?" His accent was very thick, but understanding her was probably just as hard for him as understanding him was for her. At least he could speak and understand more complex words.
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Post by Berl on Dec 1, 2008 20:17:25 GMT -6
Berl hoped that Nilaya was having better luck understanding the urgal than he was, because all he heard was a few words dispersed through a lot of grunting. His hopes were confirmed with Nilaya's question, when she referred to what he'd heard as "chai-bobbers" as "child-robbers," which made much more sense, and seemed important considering Anundr's announcement. Berl edged closer to her and whispered out of the corner of his mouth.
"Can you translate? I can't make head or tail of what he's saying." He was trying, though. But the urgal's thick accent was throwing him as easily as the urgal himself probably could.
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Lagritz
Untrained
Urgal Spellcaster
The truths of this world are both wonderful and terrible.
Posts: 29
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Post by Lagritz on Dec 1, 2008 20:26:46 GMT -6
It took a moment to figure out what this human female? had asked. When he finally did, he answered her as best he could. Although he had to admit that he didn't think he was very helpful.
"The person was male, I think. He rode a horse alone. It happened near the human capital. He wasn't very pleasant to talk to." As far as Lagritz was concerned, he had just described nearly every human he had seen.
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Post by Nilaya on Dec 1, 2008 21:12:38 GMT -6
Ok.... that description was less than satisfactory. Then again, a physical description might not have helped as she realized she had no clue what the crown prince actually looked like. It was a male though, so it could have been Korin. Riding a horse alone wouldn't have made sense for royalty unless they were extremely arrogant though, and unpleasant to an urgal described most of the people of the land.
She turned to Berl. "Yes I can translate. He originally said his name was Lagritz. I just tried to get him to describe the kidnapped individual he'd seen, but the most he gave me was a male who'd been riding a horse alone and that he was unpleasant to talk to, which could describe plenty of humans." She turned to look at Lagritz, then back to Berl. "It could have been Korin, but if Lagritz is the only witness that doesn't give us much. Even if I could get a physical description I have no clue what Prince Korin looks like."
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Post by Berl on Dec 1, 2008 21:29:05 GMT -6
Berl frowned. "I don't know what Korin looks like either," he admitted. "But I've heard he's very unpleasant, so maybe. Do you know what the King looks like? Maybe the two are similar, since the King is his father. And then we can ask Lagritz more about him. Or maybe Lagritz remembers his name?" A new thought occured to him. "Or maybe Lagritz can come with us, since, if it was Korin that he saw, he'd recognize him."
Berl glanced around. "One way or another, we should move further into the forest, since Lagritz is dead meat if the wrong person sees him here."
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