[IRP] Retreat to Nowhere

[thenoun]

As Lantis retrieved the medical supplies for Cinia, Morgan turned her attention back to the nearly empty road, feeling an enormous wave of relief. Her dread had clearly been unwarranted; this whole thing had turned out better than she'd expected. She was fairly sure these two wouldn't have the information she was looking for, it's true, but at least they could be potential allies while she tried to find her family in Bern. She wasn't sure yet if they'd actually agree to accompany her; she wouldn't be surprised if they turned her down on account of having their own business to deal with. But it was at least worth asking.

Morgan was contemplating how best to bring the subject up when a loud metallic crash sounded out behind her. Morgan swiftly stood up and turned her eyes back to the trees; it seemed like they'd been followed after all. An armor knight had fallen into the clearing, seemingly alone in his failed ambush. The only clue to the presence of anyone else was the sound of a thrown rock from the forest soon after, a rather ineffective distraction attempt.

Lantis calmly approached the knight, intent on negotiating with him and his currently hidden ally; Cinia, on the other hand, seemed rather bewildered at the idea. Morgan had to agree with the latter; the Lycians were hardly the sort for negotiation, especially not with rebels and mages. It would be best to simply flee while the knight was down.

Morgan wordlessly followed behind Lantis as he approached the knight, holding her bow in one hand while the other rested on her hip near her quiver. She wasn't really worried they'd attack; they were hardly in any position to do so. Still, unlike Lantis, she wasn't going to drop her weapon around people who just a second ago had been trying to kill her.

[Alusq]

"If you are Etrurian, then there's no reason for you to die here," Nichol stated, stepping out of the trees and into the clearing, holding his spear tightly. It seems like he had been standing there for an age, and he couldn't just leave his comrade hanging out in the open. "After all, that does make you Lycians as well." Unless they sided with those swine in Etruria who tried to hoard all the power for themselves, he thought begrudgingly. But now wasn't the time to bring up that situation, little though he knew how misinformed about it he really was.

"You're surrounded, by the way." The worst bluff in the world. "I suggest you follow your comrade's example, ladies."

Then the other side of the clearing began buzzing.

As fate would have it, Nichol's rock had struck a beehive, and the bees were making the violation well-known as they entered the clearing in a cloud. Several of them surrounded Nichol, and he swatted at them futilely as they attacked him and he began spouting curses— curses which were unquestionably Etrurian ones.


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