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Tired and dispirited by the recent turn of events, every one moves of slowly along the path they were originally travelling.
Before long Edgar returns, not with news of a cave, but with news of a reasonable place to camp some distance from the track, and worse news, that he has found the bodies of Correlan and one of the dogheads.
About 800 yards past the site of the original ambush you find the bodies laying almost side by side, blood splattered around and plants trampled.
Another few hundred yards on, Edgar indicates a gap between the bushes, and the party find them selves in a defensible clearing surrounded by thorn bushes, with a small rill of a streaming flowing close by.
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Rolf
Setting a slow pace, he leads the way back down the trail, his eyes roaming the bushes in fear of another attack. It's almost a relief reaching Correlan's body. He gives orders to search the area for anything of use. When it comes to the elf's body, he looks around. "Does anyone know the proper rites for his people?"
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Amok
Then asked about a cave, campsite or cover, Amok says more calmly, "Amok, manni daes fruum ome. The Cheokanne, The People liiv baak to da Hilllls. Maebee plaases dat wae." he points in a direction away from they track.
As Edgar returns from his search Amok grows quiet. He is perfectly willing to follow along, enjoying the safety of mumbers, and the companionship, after being stranded so far from home.
As the group approach the dead bodies of their friend and yet another doghead, Amok stands back. If doing anything, he watches the mules while the others gather near their departed friend, Corellon.
(OOC: HA! Kerim, never heard of the " Angry Beaver Show." Sounds Whacky! That'll do, HA! Actually I'm going for a kind of broken, misspelled English (Common). Please report anything completely indecipherable. And hey, some of the misspellings may be for real, HA!)
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Callum mac Aonghas
Callum stops to bind his leg and then limps along behind the party. When he sees Corellon's body he shrinks back, refusing to go near it.
"We should be away from here, afore his kin come to claim the body. Leave it be - you'll not want to be interfering with a sidhe, dead or alive. It's probably not even dead, it'll be some faery trick to trap us and steal our souls. Come on, let's away!" and he hurries past, not looking at the body.
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Peter Gasgano
When Rolf stops by the body of Correllon and asks about funeral rites, he replies softly, his voice still sounding tired ...
"As far as I am aware, its important to celebrate his life - some times they are buried, sometimes burned - I am not sure what Corellon would have wanted. I never spoke to him about death. Its not really the done thing with Elves" he replies as he looks sadly at the body of this newly lost companion.
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Ravn Ashengrey
"Take heed, Constable! I see in your eye that the faerie spell is yet again about to soften your heart and lead you astray."
The Runecaster regards Rolf in a hard tone.
"I told you before and I'll tell you again - do not let your clarity of purpose be clouded by a weak gut. This may be a faerie trick - or it may not be one. It is not important. What is important is that we are few, weakened and detected by our foes."
"Peter speaks of burial and bonfires. He is, I realize, well scholared - but take not his answer for counsel on which action to undertake, for neither way, proper rite or not, is madness! Should we dally here, digging holes and holding rites - halfbaked ones, for we do not know them properly and so run the risk of adding his godly patrons to our list of adversaries - for one whose folly, not bravery nor wit, led to his demise? Or better still, should we set a pyre here and summon every single man-eating doghead to the feast? Nay, I say - 'twould be an even greater folly! Leave this faerie trickster's corpse to whatever gods he heeds to and let us away lest we share his follied fate."
A short breath, then:
"I know a little of faeries, too. If this one be, indeed, a true descendant of the Vanir then his body should be allowed to return to the fabric of Yggdrasil from whence it came, by way of the crows and worms, or Frey's and Uller's wrath will strike us."
Ravn pauses and lets his temper cool before concluding in a very determined voice.
"Now, we shall continue to the campsite to tend to those still with us in Midgard and not worry about those who have passed beyond the Bifrost, may Odin guide our way and Thor protect us."
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Meeleek El'Wakhad
"Such stupid, ignorant, superstitious babble I have never heard even from the poor old women that have nothing better to do than fear their own shadow and tell stories of what they can not understand!" He almost shouts at the two. "And you, Ravn, a man of spirit and holiness! He was out companion and you wish to leave him here for the wild beast to feast on! What should we do with you body when you demise- hang from the tree so the vultures can 'unit' you with the world?”
Then, realizing everybody is staring at him, the quiet young man falls silent, and bends over the fallen elf to close his eyes and cover his wounds.
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Elsbeth
Elsbeth, still a bit unsteady, frowns at the words about her. "I'd never leavin' one to be eaten by worms!" she states firmly. "Ravn, you're not the Warden, and ye might be rememberin' that! And if ye be havin' a problem rememberin' that, then ye will be fightin' me o'er it!"
She moves over by Meeleek. "If the rest of ye want to be movin' along, then do so. But fairy folk or not, he deserves to be sent to his gods with honor, not left for the dogs! And I'll say words if no one else will."
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Selina
Fading in and out of awareness atop the mule, Selina's head jerks up at the shouting, and her eyes open wide with pain as she takes in the scene. She looks at the elvling and her head drops a minute. She coughs, and struggles to look up.
Her face is flecked with red, the shining bright color streaking her lips and her chin, whirls of it splattered against her throat and half-bared chest still covered with sickly black sores and dark purple welts.
She looks at each of the arguers in this manner while her hands cling to the binds for balance.
She coughs again, and blood spurts forth from between her closed lips. She takes a cloth from somewhere and wipes feebly at her face, struggling for breath.
"Bury him, quickly." she manages, strength in her voice coming from no where," If only to remove his scent from the air. No rites, for his gods will look after him, if they love him. If you leave his body here, openly, then the beasts will have one more clue, and the scent of my blood and the mules is bad enough. While your at it, bury me as well, for I am almost finished" She smiles at this, the pain in her eyes replaced with a look that one expects after hearing some funny childish joke. She drops her head again and begins to shake, although from coughing.... or laughter?
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Elsbeth
She moves over to Selina. "And we'll not bury ye 'till ye be needin' it," she tells her gently. She whispers a few words, taking the edge of her skirt to wipe the blood from the woman's face.
Cure Light Wounds
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Peter Gasgano
"I can't see what's wrong with her ..." he comments to Elsbeth. "Just a few bruises left ..." he adds as he removes his shield and places it caefully on the other mule.
"Shall I look for somewhere to dig" he asks Rolf as he prepares to move off of the path.
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Selina
Leaning back, she jerks away from Elsbeth and lets her head fall back, tears streaking trails through the caked blood on her cheeks as she chokes back the sound....
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Elsbeth
The druid looks carefully to see if she can recognize anything else wrong (healing check) and to see if there might be an herbal remedy for Selina.
"Ye just rest easy," she continues gently. "Does it hurt inside?"
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Rolf
"It goes against my grain to leave the body as is, but it is true that we should not long tarry here. After all, we know that the dogheads were here not long ago. So, the only option I see is that we take the body with us and bury it at our campsite. Kerim, Meeleek, please find him a place on the mules. Callum, Ravn, please follow behind from here, I think it more likely the dogheads will strike from behind instead of in front. Also, see to our tracks."
"Peter, Kerim, please see to the mules. Elsbeth, Mandrake, keep an eye on Selina. Yuri, Amok, take the lead." Rolf falls in directly behind Yuri and Amok. "Edgar, which way was your camp site?"
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Selina
She points a shaking bent finger at Elsbeth, and continues laughing, her voiced crackling with cruelty and pain. She gasps for breath and giggles as her face tears over. The laughter grows weaker, but it does not stop, just gets reaspier and more twisted, less human and more otherworldly.
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Peter Gasgano
He stops for a moment as his face pales to an almost deathly white, and then trembling slightly heads to collect his shield from the mule.
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Elsbeth
"Selina," she whispers, very softly, meeting the woman's eyes. "You've got to let me help ye. An' the only way is to tell me what is going on..."
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Ravn Ashengrey
Unnervingly calm, Ravn turns to answer Meeleek's outburst.
"In fact, Southerner, that is exactly what I would like that the Gray Wanderer's eye may fall favorably upon my eventual passage. And don't forget to run my spear through me, either - nine days is a long time if you are only hanging by your neck and I would not want to drop before I were truly ripe!"
The smile on his face is genuine yet at the same time unpleasantly cool.
"But such rites are not befitting of any but Gray-Beard's select few and those chosen to appease his bidding, as is the custom in the North where nine by nine by nine are strung from the highest branches in his name. And none of them faeries, for Vanirkin sit at Asgard's borders - not at Odin's table in Valhalla."
[Elsbeth] "Ravn, you're not the Warden, and ye might be rememberin' that! And if ye be havin' a problem rememberin' that, then ye will be fightin' me o'er it! If the rest of ye want to be movin' along, then do so. But fairy folk or not, he deserves to be sent to his gods with honor, not left for the dogs! And I'll say words if no one else will."
"And so you have," Ravn mutters through grinding teeth, thinking to himself: The poor woman's mind must still be tortured by her loss of sanity - fight her? A woman? Proving what, exactly? If I were to dispute the Wardenship then it would surely be the Warden I should best - not a heathen witch!?!
Ravn, his smile now vanished, shakes his head sadly for the obviously distressed Meelek and the just as obviously mentally strained Elsbeth - more poor souls caught by the faerie spell. He watches the druidess' seemingly fruitless efforts at healing Selina, a macabre scene that suggests to him only that the ill fortune brought upon them is now being further worsened by their gods' disfavor. Not that he counted too much on their boonful intervention, anyway. He casts the notion aside and makes another observation on the nature of elves.
"Pyres are for kings and graves are for thralls. The elf was neither - but merely a creature of mist now returned to the haze that bred him. Do you mourn the dew at sunrise? Do you weep for snow in spring? The elf's passing was as natural as his coming for he was but a lyktgubbe, a phantom of mist and faerie fire sent by Loke to lead us astray. And it worked, too, his charms still clouding our judgement."
Something in the Runecaster's voice more than suggests that he is referring to everyone's judgement but his own, of course. But it is about to get worse: Just then, Rolf returns from searching the doghead corpse and Ravn listens to the Constable's decision with a sarcastic smile that gradually turns into a look of disbelief when he hears the plan.
[Rolf] "It goes against my grain to leave the body as is, but it is true that we should not long tarry here. After all, we know that the dogheads were here not long ago. So, the only option I see is that we take the body with us and bury it at our campsite. Kerim, Meeleek, please find him a place on the mules. Callum, Ravn, please follow behind from here, I think it more likely the dogheads will strike from behind instead of in front. Also, see to our tracks."
Ravn is just about to utter yet another protest but he chooses to refrain from prolonging the debate and let instead the inevitable doom that the Constable's decision will surely bring upon them provide its own unmistakeable proof. Frowning and shaking his head, Ravn waits with Callum for the others to lead ahead, then falls in behind the mule train, greeting Callum with a sardonic smile.
"Odin is making an example of us, I fear, and we are heading for our very own Ragnarök. It shall be my pleasure to take you as my guest to the longhalls of Valhalla, my tall-haired friend."
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Meeleek El'Wakhad
What clouded mind some of these foreigners have... he thinks to himself.
As Rolf makes his decision known, Meeleek looks at him thankfully. As he and Kerim lift the covered body on one of the mules, Selina begins to laugh. Meeleek only looks knowingly at his countryman.
