Koe Tidraq (discant) wrote in adusta, @ 2009-12-09 12:18:00 |
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Entry tags: | koe tidraq, oaths, vedette uthral |
chivalry (vedette)
They made a strange party - of that, Koe had no doubt. What concerned him was not the fact that there was no traffic on the street, so late at night. What concerned him was the absence fo any signs of life at all. When you peered through the cracks in a shutter you saw no light. When you made your way through the town to the square, you found nothing but a fountain that did not flow. Red made not a sound - he was used to approaching something or someone in the dead of night - but Koe could not keep his hands from shifting uneasily on the reins. In the dead cold of mountain winter his leather riding coat was stiff in the collar, in the shoulders, so every movement gave a loud creak that announced him to the world. Breath misting on the air and Vedette's presence behind him were the only company that Koe had. And though he tried not to let his nerves show, he was beginning to grow anxious regarding the whereabouts of this place's citizens.
Perhaps just asleep, or perhaps in a dragon's belly?
Caution was the name of the game as they flowed deeper into the city. There was no playing, no singing, no plucking on string instruments. Just a measured and calculated walk through cold, unlit streets that told him nothing about anything. Koe had not seen such a desolate patch of nowhere in quite a few years. What made it more unnerving was the simple fact that all of it looked so pristine. As though it had been used, and recently, for its intended purpose. What could make a entire village simply disappear as this one, with building and fixtures so thoroughly unharmed? Koe's eyes darted this way and that in search of an explanation, in search of something that made it into the general vicinity of sense. Vedette must have been feeling the same unease - but for now she kept that unease to herself, roiling beneath teh skin, just as his was, neither of them content with simply letting things be as they were but unable to say anything to change it.
The dragons had not been forgotten. There was something amiss with them, but in following for three hard days and three equally hard nights Koe and Vedette had seen nothing of the beasts. This mountain town was the next in line - and it certainly had all the signs of being under fire from dragons except the damaged structures. Not one of them was touched. Would the dragons have spared such a city? He remembered with a tense stomach how little they'd seemed to care for life. Why spare the buildings only to devour the people? None of it was logical or rational, and to make matters worse, all of it had an explanation. It more than likely was not even truly bizarre. It was only that they could not, between them, discover that explanation. Every moment that passed made him more curious, more uncertain of his passion for finding the truth, and less than convinced that all of this would end well. As soon as there was a place to stop for the night he would have to think on it.
"Ho, there!"
Koe wheeled his horse around, just as Vedette did, to discover the moon casting silver shafts of light upon a fellow. A fellow dressed in battered and well-worn steel armor, sitting astride a horse. Koe thought he could see rust in the armor, along with all the dents. As if he wanted to give truth to the observation, that armored fellow lifted the hinged face guard with a creaking and hissing of metal on metal. What was revealed was an older fellow, with white hair on his face and silver atop his head, staring out at them through an oval that did not fit his face. The armor was not made for him, then. Of course a naked sword was still clutched in the old man's hand. And though his eyes looked sharp as a hawk's Koe wondered how quickly he could swing that sword. Not quickly enough, but they hadn't come here to fight. If this was this city's idea of justice... or was he the reason the city stood intact with all of its residents in hiding? Too many questions, but Koe would have answers if he had to shake the fellow.
"Hello," Koe called. "My name is-"
"Save your lies for the gods who judge you, knave!" the old man cried with a trembling of the mustache. "I shall not dither with a false name! I tell you, no stranger with a true heart has come in many months! State your business!"
So he was, or at least claimed he was, a resident of this place. That explained why even the inn had locked doors and unpleasant sounds as its company. But what manner of defender was this? If the dragons had arrived just then they would have eaten him up as one whole morsel. Thinking nothing of whom they hurt, or why, they would destroy him. Koe wondered if he should have strummed on his sitar a touch upon entering, just to give a more peaceful image to himself and his companion than they currently enjoyed. The knight came no closer, and they did not approach themselves. Instead it was simply a game. Who would answer first, and what would the content of that answer be.
"We are in search of an inn," he called out to the grizzled warrior.
"The inn is closed as any eye could see!" said the challenger. "It is time for you to be gone from this place, my friends!"
Helplessly, Koe looked to Vedette, as if wondering what they should do.