09-15-2014, 09:38 PM
Shiro awakes the next morning, having curled up to sleep in the female's long, soft fur sometime during the night during his peaceful and dreamless sleep. While most people would write off a dreamless night as their brain being too tired to dream, a lycan always dreams as that's their wolf's way of communicating with them and for Shiro's wolf to have grown quiet worried him greatly. Shiro spends quite a bit of the morning thinking on what could make his wolf grow quiet before he remembers Omni's sentiments; that every prime should have a fair chance, and seeing how Shiro's wolf meant not only a lot sentimentally to Shiro, it also contained most of his power and despite Shiro's best efforts the closest to a howl he could muster was a pitiful excuse, not to mention his claws weren't up to what he'd had before coming here. However after another few moments of thought, Shiro remembers Omni's words about how the mystical substance he'd called omnilium could grant any of his desires if he just imagined what he wanted hard enough. Shiro hesitates before closing his eyes and imagining himself turning into a large wolf that was larger than Sapphira however when the process begins he's struck by a piercing but brief head ache painful enough to cause him to wince involuntarily, however as he massaged his temples he couldn't help but think back to how when he'd tried something much too advanced for himself his mother had hit him upside the head with a spoon until he promised to not try it until he was ready. So, taking his cues from his body as omni not judging him to be ready for his wolf he surmises that he'll need a bow to help defend himself until his claws could be brought back to their former glory and his howl could return to the thunderous roar that had killed an entire row of armored guards, and begins to imagine a recurve compound bow slowly forming in front of him on a quiver with a fair number of arrows bristling and ready to be loosed into the hearts of his enemies or as would most likely happen; his food. After hours of nonstop concentration Shiro finally manages to make himself a bow and quiver of bodkin arrows which met with his specifications.
Shiro smiles, laughing softly with joy at his new gift, crediting the creation of the bow and arrows as a sort of gift from Omni since while Shiro had made them Omni had told him how to do it. Shiro stands before putting the quiver on his belt behind him, the arrows positioned in such a way that he could take one, notch it, and let it fly in one fluid motion which he does, hitting a squirrel from a fair distance as he thanks his family for forcing him to learn the bow. Shiro collects the squirrel, removing his arrow carefully and cleaning it before putting it back in the quiver and letting Sapphira have the squirrel, the she wolf remaining laid down as she looks at Shiro expectantly until he hops up onto her back and rides her bare back as he lets her set the pace and asks "mind taking me to a small town?".
Almost immediately after Shiro's request Sapphira races between the trees, brown and green whipping past them as Shiro hold on for dear life while his companion expertly slips between the trees even at this break neck speed until they emerge onto the road, racing along it rapidly until the come across a small bandit encampment a bit farther along the road intended to act as an illegal toll gate with plenty of men with plenty of various pointy things to make people want to say yes all of which being enclosed in a resilient enough looking wooden fort to require a fairly serious force in order to dislodge them. "i see them girl... you go hide in the forest alright?" Shiro says softly as he dismounts and gives her a small pet before dipping into the woods opposite from Sapphira too far out of range of the bandit encampment to be seen. shiro spends a good hour sneaking up to a hill at the edge of the treeline to allow him to scope out the encampment's defenses while he hides, counting six men along the wooden palisade walls, two in small raised platforms, six sleeping in small tents intended for the night shift, and a newly built cabin in the center with a single guard outside, marking where they were keeping their valuables.
Shiro waits for the darkness of night, the camp illuminated quite well by the waning half moon which in Shiro's mind had been full not more than two days ago... the lycan doesn't dwell on such things for long since he had important business to take care of right now while his philosophical musing could wait till later. Shiro slowly makes his way to a vantage point just at the edge of the tree line, his furs hiding him as he notches an arrow, draws as he aims, and looses it all in one fluid, practiced motion before watching the arrow sail through the sky with the only thing of it that's visible being it's steel tip which buries itself in the throat of one of the men on the guard towers which while it served a much better effect was not what Shiro had been aiming for. however by the time the guard plummets to the ground outside the wall in front of one of the other guards, that guard is already having to deal with an arrow in his own throat. Shiro sighs, not liking having to kill but knowing that people like this didn't talk things out, although something odd had happened to his aim; it had improved quite significantly. Shiro remembered his previous time with a bow having been so abysmal he'd never have hit those guards let alone in such small vital areas however he doesn't dwell on it too long as he approaches the wall quietly, using his furs to hide himself in the shadow of the guard tower,
Once he finds himself at the wall Shiro collects his arrows carefully before he slings his bow over his back and changes his hands to claws before slowly climbing his way up high into the guard tower, rolling into it as he keeps a hand on his arrows to keep them from rattling or falling out. Shiro quickly spots the other guards along the wall and picks them off meticulously until the only guard left awake is the one at the door to the cabin. Rather than risk someone coming out of the cabin and discovering the body of the guard Shiro climbs down the tower quietly and sneaks over, using the shadows to his advantage before grabbing the guard from behind and muffling him as Shiro stabs him in the throat with his claws and drags the corpse away to somewhere it can't easily be seen. After that Shiro takes his time slitting the throats of the sleeping guards quietly and letting them die peacefully in their sleep.
After finishing his grizzly work Shiro uses his claws to slice the leather straps that worked as the door's hinges, bypassing the lock entirely as he moves the door out of the way only to come face to face with a rather large guard with a rather large axe. Shiro leaps back to avoid an axe swing at his neck, the bandit roaring a battle cry to try and raise his fellow bandits who all lie dead around the fort however the realization of this sends the bandit into a rage causing him to swing his axe blindly and as hard as he can at Shiro however with his opponent's lack of training and Shiro's amazing speed the axe man is soon falling to the ground, clutching at his trachea which still lies speared on Shiro's claws.
Shiro spends the rest of the night and the better part of the morning burying the dead with a shovel he'd found in the cabin, taking the time to gather the still usable arrows and clean them before spending some time making some more and refilling his quiver, opening both gates to the place to let Sapphira in who nuzzles him, sniffing at his new clothing, just some simple cotton pants, shirt, and a wool cloak with some proper leather boots and a small pack he can tie his bow to and store some of the supplies he'd gathered in, making him look like a respectable traveler rather than some wild man although the coloring still allowed him to blend in with the forest around him if need be.
Shiro puts a saddle that oddly fits the massive she wolf before mounting her after letting her get a good smell of his new clothes and the saddle. "Keep taking me to the town please... i'm going to get some sleep" Shiro requests softly before the wolf sets off slowly down the road again, letting Shiro sleep for a few hours before the calls of cattle awaken him, having ridden straight to a ranching town however at the sight of cows Shiro just smiles as he asks "you just wanted something easy to eat didn't you?" to which Sapphira just looks back at him with what could be called a smile for a while before Shiro dismounts and walks with her the rest of the way into town, taking her saddle off at the stables and letting her roam, some children almost immediately befriending her and playing with her while he heads to the inn and sits at a table with a content sigh as he listens to the local gossip and has himself another simple meal of bread and ale with some cheese and smoked sausage thrown in.
Shiro's sensitive ears are able to pick up every word said in the inn however rather than talk of unsavory bandits, strangers, or even sightings of what ever local monster was stalking the cattle the villagers seem to be stuck on one word "Vendriel" and while once or twice wouldn't mean much to Shiro but the fact that the entire inn seemed abuzz about it got him curious enough to call over the bar maid and ask as she refills his flagon "so... what might i ask is Vendriel?" which earns him a sigh from the barmaid who replies evenly "Vendriel was the local healer round these parts but after an... incident he locked himself up in a cave not far from here to study but he hasn't even come out for supplies in a week and everyone fears he's dead... but without a healer we can't live out here for much longer so the mayor's offered up a reward to anyone that can get the old magus out of the caves and back to his work".
Shiro nods and finishes his meal before getting a room for the night and heading upstairs, flopping into bed and attempting to catch up on sleep only to be woken in the middle of the night by a scream, the already loud sound made louder to the point it wakens him easily. Shiro hastily grabs his bow and quiver before sprinting outside to see a rather odd sight: farmers fight creatures that look like mushroom raptors however luckily they didn't seem to be as smart as their prehistoric predecessors or as deadly more just odd and creepy than anything else so the villagers manage to survive fighting with them although having the creatures scares them more than it probably should. Despite the villagers seeming to be capable of handling them Shiro still steps in and shoots a single arrow which pierces through multiple of the creatures showing that they're actually quite fragile as just that arrow seems to kill three of them however at that revelation Shiro puts his bow away and leaps into the fray, claws out as bits of the creatures go flying, scattering fungal chunks of gore around the battle zone which had slowly grown until they'd been fighting right outside the mouth of a cave. "i suppose i'll look into your problem with Vendriel... starting tomorrow..." Shiro calls out as he peers into the cave, a moldy damp smell drifting up to him which causes him to wrinkle his nose in displeasure.
After returning to the inn Shiro collapses into bed, still quite tired, his mind weary as it tries to calculate what happened but eventually his exhaustion wins out and he falls asleep mid thought about wanting to spend a night with one of the beautiful women he'd met on his short travels
Shiro smiles, laughing softly with joy at his new gift, crediting the creation of the bow and arrows as a sort of gift from Omni since while Shiro had made them Omni had told him how to do it. Shiro stands before putting the quiver on his belt behind him, the arrows positioned in such a way that he could take one, notch it, and let it fly in one fluid motion which he does, hitting a squirrel from a fair distance as he thanks his family for forcing him to learn the bow. Shiro collects the squirrel, removing his arrow carefully and cleaning it before putting it back in the quiver and letting Sapphira have the squirrel, the she wolf remaining laid down as she looks at Shiro expectantly until he hops up onto her back and rides her bare back as he lets her set the pace and asks "mind taking me to a small town?".
Almost immediately after Shiro's request Sapphira races between the trees, brown and green whipping past them as Shiro hold on for dear life while his companion expertly slips between the trees even at this break neck speed until they emerge onto the road, racing along it rapidly until the come across a small bandit encampment a bit farther along the road intended to act as an illegal toll gate with plenty of men with plenty of various pointy things to make people want to say yes all of which being enclosed in a resilient enough looking wooden fort to require a fairly serious force in order to dislodge them. "i see them girl... you go hide in the forest alright?" Shiro says softly as he dismounts and gives her a small pet before dipping into the woods opposite from Sapphira too far out of range of the bandit encampment to be seen. shiro spends a good hour sneaking up to a hill at the edge of the treeline to allow him to scope out the encampment's defenses while he hides, counting six men along the wooden palisade walls, two in small raised platforms, six sleeping in small tents intended for the night shift, and a newly built cabin in the center with a single guard outside, marking where they were keeping their valuables.
Shiro waits for the darkness of night, the camp illuminated quite well by the waning half moon which in Shiro's mind had been full not more than two days ago... the lycan doesn't dwell on such things for long since he had important business to take care of right now while his philosophical musing could wait till later. Shiro slowly makes his way to a vantage point just at the edge of the tree line, his furs hiding him as he notches an arrow, draws as he aims, and looses it all in one fluid, practiced motion before watching the arrow sail through the sky with the only thing of it that's visible being it's steel tip which buries itself in the throat of one of the men on the guard towers which while it served a much better effect was not what Shiro had been aiming for. however by the time the guard plummets to the ground outside the wall in front of one of the other guards, that guard is already having to deal with an arrow in his own throat. Shiro sighs, not liking having to kill but knowing that people like this didn't talk things out, although something odd had happened to his aim; it had improved quite significantly. Shiro remembered his previous time with a bow having been so abysmal he'd never have hit those guards let alone in such small vital areas however he doesn't dwell on it too long as he approaches the wall quietly, using his furs to hide himself in the shadow of the guard tower,
Once he finds himself at the wall Shiro collects his arrows carefully before he slings his bow over his back and changes his hands to claws before slowly climbing his way up high into the guard tower, rolling into it as he keeps a hand on his arrows to keep them from rattling or falling out. Shiro quickly spots the other guards along the wall and picks them off meticulously until the only guard left awake is the one at the door to the cabin. Rather than risk someone coming out of the cabin and discovering the body of the guard Shiro climbs down the tower quietly and sneaks over, using the shadows to his advantage before grabbing the guard from behind and muffling him as Shiro stabs him in the throat with his claws and drags the corpse away to somewhere it can't easily be seen. After that Shiro takes his time slitting the throats of the sleeping guards quietly and letting them die peacefully in their sleep.
After finishing his grizzly work Shiro uses his claws to slice the leather straps that worked as the door's hinges, bypassing the lock entirely as he moves the door out of the way only to come face to face with a rather large guard with a rather large axe. Shiro leaps back to avoid an axe swing at his neck, the bandit roaring a battle cry to try and raise his fellow bandits who all lie dead around the fort however the realization of this sends the bandit into a rage causing him to swing his axe blindly and as hard as he can at Shiro however with his opponent's lack of training and Shiro's amazing speed the axe man is soon falling to the ground, clutching at his trachea which still lies speared on Shiro's claws.
Shiro spends the rest of the night and the better part of the morning burying the dead with a shovel he'd found in the cabin, taking the time to gather the still usable arrows and clean them before spending some time making some more and refilling his quiver, opening both gates to the place to let Sapphira in who nuzzles him, sniffing at his new clothing, just some simple cotton pants, shirt, and a wool cloak with some proper leather boots and a small pack he can tie his bow to and store some of the supplies he'd gathered in, making him look like a respectable traveler rather than some wild man although the coloring still allowed him to blend in with the forest around him if need be.
Shiro puts a saddle that oddly fits the massive she wolf before mounting her after letting her get a good smell of his new clothes and the saddle. "Keep taking me to the town please... i'm going to get some sleep" Shiro requests softly before the wolf sets off slowly down the road again, letting Shiro sleep for a few hours before the calls of cattle awaken him, having ridden straight to a ranching town however at the sight of cows Shiro just smiles as he asks "you just wanted something easy to eat didn't you?" to which Sapphira just looks back at him with what could be called a smile for a while before Shiro dismounts and walks with her the rest of the way into town, taking her saddle off at the stables and letting her roam, some children almost immediately befriending her and playing with her while he heads to the inn and sits at a table with a content sigh as he listens to the local gossip and has himself another simple meal of bread and ale with some cheese and smoked sausage thrown in.
Shiro's sensitive ears are able to pick up every word said in the inn however rather than talk of unsavory bandits, strangers, or even sightings of what ever local monster was stalking the cattle the villagers seem to be stuck on one word "Vendriel" and while once or twice wouldn't mean much to Shiro but the fact that the entire inn seemed abuzz about it got him curious enough to call over the bar maid and ask as she refills his flagon "so... what might i ask is Vendriel?" which earns him a sigh from the barmaid who replies evenly "Vendriel was the local healer round these parts but after an... incident he locked himself up in a cave not far from here to study but he hasn't even come out for supplies in a week and everyone fears he's dead... but without a healer we can't live out here for much longer so the mayor's offered up a reward to anyone that can get the old magus out of the caves and back to his work".
Shiro nods and finishes his meal before getting a room for the night and heading upstairs, flopping into bed and attempting to catch up on sleep only to be woken in the middle of the night by a scream, the already loud sound made louder to the point it wakens him easily. Shiro hastily grabs his bow and quiver before sprinting outside to see a rather odd sight: farmers fight creatures that look like mushroom raptors however luckily they didn't seem to be as smart as their prehistoric predecessors or as deadly more just odd and creepy than anything else so the villagers manage to survive fighting with them although having the creatures scares them more than it probably should. Despite the villagers seeming to be capable of handling them Shiro still steps in and shoots a single arrow which pierces through multiple of the creatures showing that they're actually quite fragile as just that arrow seems to kill three of them however at that revelation Shiro puts his bow away and leaps into the fray, claws out as bits of the creatures go flying, scattering fungal chunks of gore around the battle zone which had slowly grown until they'd been fighting right outside the mouth of a cave. "i suppose i'll look into your problem with Vendriel... starting tomorrow..." Shiro calls out as he peers into the cave, a moldy damp smell drifting up to him which causes him to wrinkle his nose in displeasure.
After returning to the inn Shiro collapses into bed, still quite tired, his mind weary as it tries to calculate what happened but eventually his exhaustion wins out and he falls asleep mid thought about wanting to spend a night with one of the beautiful women he'd met on his short travels