forum Dystopian Fantasy RP aw yeah (Private)

Started May 02, 2018 by @Young-Dusty-the-Monarch-of-Dusteria group

tune

"Night." She replied, slipping back towards the med hut.

A few long hours, and then the light steadily began to return. The nocturnal half of camp went one by one back to their tents and fell asleep, while the other half groggily got up to replace them. The burly woman who'd been guarding Tanrial had recovered from being knocked out and stumbled off to rest her aching head, grumbling in confusion that she must have been snacking on the wrong root. A bit later, a different bandit came to stand watch in her place–the young man who'd lost his hand the day before. He now had a rusty garden fork tied to his wrist, and seemed none the worse for his injury. he sat down with a plop outside the shed, petting the camp dogs who'd followed him over.

Tanrial slowly crawled out of the hut, magic restored finally, and sat next to the bandit, slightly wary of the dogs, “How’s your hand?”

"'S'good," the young man replied amiably, using his improvised prosthetic to scratch behind a dog's ears. "I don't feel a thing. My name's Danthony, by the way. I'm the dog-boy around here, but I guess you mighta figured that out already."

Tanrial cracked a smile, “Nice to meet you, Danthony. And your dogs. What do you do with them, exactly?”

Danthony shrugged. "Make sure they're all fed and in-shape, mostly. Sometimes I try to train 'em, but it's hard when I'm almost the only one trying, and these dogs teach each other bad habits faster than I can teach good ones." He sighed. "Honestly, I'm just here to take the blame if they bite somebody they aren't supposed to. Which is pretty common." One of the dogs started nosing around near Tanrial's shelter and he pulled it away. "They're great sentries, though, and they're good to have along during raids. And a bunch of 'em even brought own a deer once, so I'm thinking maybe we can train them to hunt with us."

“Wild dogs are always harder to train. If their instincts tell them to do something they follow it. Getting to train them to hunt might be hard if they don’t listen but I think you could do it.”

"Yeh." Danthony smirked and leaned over, hiding his words behind the back of his hand. "The boss, he loves these dogs. If I tell him they need something, or should learn something, he's gonna make sure it happens. We'll get 'em trained up eventually, I bet."
Just then there came the sound of footsteps and Rezzi appeared, yawning. "Hey, medic lady. Tanrial, right? I brought you breakfast with compliments from the chief." He set down a very old, chipped plate with badly-cooked rabbit and an assortment of raw wild greens on it. "I mean, he didn't whip this up himself, obviously, but he said to make sure you ate before you looked at those mystery patients of yours. Careful the dogs don't get to it first."

Tanrial nodded her thanks, though knew she wouldn’t touch the rabbit. The greens she could handle, “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

Rezzi nodded and walked off. Danthony pulled the dogs away and distracted them by throwing sticks for them to fetch, addressing each one by name. After a while, Shiv appeared from her shelter and trotted over, her hair tied back in the messiest braid the world had ever seen.
"Tanrial?" she called, giving the dogs a wide berth. "I'm ready to help you with your patients."

Tanrial took a bite out of one of the greens, chewing and swallowing before standing with the second half in her hand, “Wonderful. Let’s get to it.”

Shiv nodded and led Tanrial across the clearing, Danthony in tow. "They put the shivery one back in his lean-to for the night with a guard on him. I think Boar-back told the guard to tell you if anything changed….since that didn't happen, I guess the kid must still be shiverin'." She stopped at a cramped looking shelter and pulled aside the ragged blanket covering the entrance.
The young man was there, curled into a tight ball. When the light fell over him, he flinched and jerked back, staring at the others as if he barely recognized them. It looked like he hadn't gotten much sleep.

Tanrial frowned, crouching down to the mans level. So either he didn’t like the light touching him or he was just sensitive from it being too dark over night, “Hey… I’m Tanrial… what’s your name?”

He didn't reply, just covered his face with his hands in an attempt to hide. Danthony frowned and answered for him. "His name's Tinsnips. Liked to play around with old junk he found in the woods, try to make stuff. He isn't very…..well, let's just say that him, Ango, and a six-year-old would be in the same grade together…..but he was okay. Nobody really hated him or anything." He pushed the dogs back a ways, still frowning. "Normally, he's a total chatterbox. It's weird that he's so quiet now."
Shiv suddenly noticed something and stiffened. "Watch out," she warned, putting her arm between Tanrial and Tinsnips. "He's got a knife!"
Tinsnips hissed at her, lifting one arm to show that he did indeed have a rusty knife gripped in his white-knuckled hand. Shiv, Danthony, and the guard quickly backed away, pulling Tanrial with them. Once they were out of range, Tinsnips seemed to calm down slightly and settled for glaring at them with wild eyes.
"This is….this is just like what happened to Blue Tommy," Danthony muttered.

Tanrial snapped he head to Danthony, concern and curiosity lining he features, "What happened to Blue Tommy?"

He shook his head. "It was years ago now, but it was exactly like this. We went out on a raid, and nobody really saw what happened, but Blue came back a total mess. He only had a few cuts 'n scrapes, but he was shivering like crazy and didn't recognize anybody. He attacked anybody that came near. Eventually, after like a couple weeks, he sorta calmed down and started to do his job again. Thing is? He was never the same. He's harder to predict, only Boar-back can really control him. And he hasn't said a word since it happened. Nobody could ever figure out what went wrong."

Tanrial narrowed her eyes at the ground, “I’d talk to Blue if he could actually respond… whatever’s in this area is… I don’t even know, I haven’t seen anything lik a this before. But whatever it is, we need to find it and kill it… and possibly find an antidote.”

Shiv leaped to her feet. "The boss knows Blue Tommy pretty well, maybe we can get some clues from him!"

Tanrial nodded, “That’s a smart idea. Where is he now? The quicker we get this solved the better.”

Danthony rose as well and scanned the clearing. "I see him. He's over by the main fire." He led them over, the dogs trailing behind. Boar-back was busy with some kind of whittling project, but when he saw them coming he straightened curiously. "Need something?"
(Apologies, but it seems I arrive only to have to leave, for it is late ^^; I'll see you in the morning!)

Tanrial slipped one hand into her trouser pocket, tilting her head to the side, "Can you tell us anything about Blue Tommy and his condition? We think there's a link between what happened to him and my patient."

Boar-back paused to absorb this information, his fingers tapping the blade of his knife. "Blue Tommy," he said eventually, "may be a very dangerous and unpredictable individual, but I don't think that's the way he intends to be. He's one of the most loyal bandits I know, and as long as you don't spook or annoy him, he's harmless." Boar-back glanced at them. "I've been wondering for a long time whether he might be seeing and hearing things that aren't there, and sometimes those things aren't pleasant. And maybe he doesn't really know what's real anymore. I don't know what happened to him to make him that way, but if you want we can retrace our steps from the raid last night and see if we find anything."

"That's probably the best idea. If whatever has caused these two to behave this way is still out there chances are it's gonna strike again, and possibly another one of you. We need to kill it, or at least lure it away from here."

Boar-back rose, pocketing his knife. "This way. Danthony, if you're tagging along then make sure the dogs don't get in the way."
He led them southwest, out of the clearing and down the slope towards the valley. There were multiple narrow paths winding through the trees, and the dogs ranged out to the paths on either side as they walked. Shiv stayed nervously close to Tanrial–it didn't seem like she left camp very often.
"So you didn't find any injuries on Tinsmith?" Boar-back asked as they walked.

“Only small cuts and bruises. Nothing serious that needed urgent attention,” She replied, shrugging a shoulder, “Then again I couldn’t get very close to inspect him further.”

"Yup, that matches what we saw with Blue Tommy all right. The worst he had was a chipped tooth, and that might have been from a different battle." Boar-back nodded to the right. "We came down and waited here while our scouts went ahead. They came back and gave a report, then we kept moving. You can see how everything's trampled because some people don't know how to follow a path."

"Fair enough… Was Tinsmith one of the scouts or not?" She asked.

"He wasn't. Too easily distracted." Boar-back kept walking. "I can't even remember seeing him for most of the raid."
"I saw him," Danthony volunteered. "He was poking around for shiny stuff, like he always does. In fact, he wandered away from the group right before we attacked."
Boar-back stopped in his tracks, slowly turning around to face Danthony. "Really? You saw him leave?"
"Uh…..yeah."
"And you didn't tell him to come back? Or tell anyone else that he was gone?"
"Well I thought–"
"And now, today, you're only just mentioning this potentially crucial piece of information?"
Dathony swallowed. "Yes, boss. Sorry boss."
Boar-back shook his head. "Which way did he go? Get in front and take us there."
"Yessir." Danthony quickly looked around, then turned right and trotted off away from the paths, dogs still in tow. "This way."

(Hey, sorry I disappeared for a little while. I went though a pretty rough break up and just needed a little time to think and whatnot)

Tanrial glanced between Danthony and Boar-back during the exchange, more worried for the former then anything. She followed along quickly, keeping up with Danthony and the dogs.