OoC: Took me long enough.
BiC: Wen had taken a shortcut (possibly a shortcut... a detour anyway) through the forest when he got the message. He had smelled the message, or the messenger, long before that; the aroma of burnt fruit and oil invaded his nose and took presidence over the usual smell of pine and animal waste. When he had determined that his stalker was harmless, and he demanded that he show himself, he was slightlysurprised to find that the strong stench was emanating from a small boy.
"Mr. Grove is it? Are you? 'scuse me." The boy shuffled a bit on the composted ground. "Sir?"
"I... guess." Wen hadn't been called by his last name in a while. "Why?"
The boy's left orange eye twitched beneath his dirty long hair. He was covered in soot and grease, and his tattered clothing looked much too small for him; they were probably hand me downs from either a much older sister or even his mother. The skirt had held up fairly well, considering. He handed him a paper, without an answer.
One side was blank, clearly showing ripples from where the boy had been gripping it. Wen turned it over to find a short notice. He read it quickly.
It was startling news, but Wen took it almost apathetically. It didn't tell of the writer, though, which was disconcerting. "Who gave you this?"
The boy coughed. "She said, she said she wouldn't pay if I said. She said."
"But how would she know if you told way out here?" Wen thought about unsheathing a knife, to
make a statement and move things along, but decided against it.
The orange eyes that looked back at Wen told him that this wasn't a line of questioning to be pursued. "She
SAID."
"Alright," said Wen, conceding without a fight. "Um, I don't have any money..." Wen didn't know too much about social procedure when it came tomessengers , but he assumed some sort of tip was involved. The boy may or may not have been expecting anything, but at this point he decided to run off.
Wen stood still for a moment, blank faced and silent. He cracked his neck. Then he started walking again, but with a different destination. He had juggled the idea of a tournament in his mind, and had decided that it was the most interesting thing to happen in a long time. Interesting, figured Wen, was as good as it was going to get for a while.
Now Wen was the messenger, and his message was for a woman named Kariette.
*****
Wen's Note told him that he was part of a huge tournament, the likes of which he had never heard of. It warned him briefly about danger, and a threat to his life, which he ignored. It also told him to go to a village where he will meet a partner.
Wen looked down at the note again to for more information.
"You will know her when you see her." didn't help much, but it was all he had to go on.
There was nothing special about the place it had told him to go. The weather was strange, but despite himself Wen found the dark clouds pretty. Curtains of light shone down on the market, highlighting the various merchants in a natural spotlight.
A ray of light found a shiny man, who glittered in the corner of Wen's eye. He shifted his attention in that direction, and quickly made sense of events unfolding in front of him. The shiny man talked to another man, who was armed, and he ran off. The armed man was running for... a woman, or a girl. Was this a criminal? Asassassin? No... a contender.
That was her. Wen started towards the scene. "Lady, watch out!"
The woman Kariette acted fast at the call. In seconds she was prepared to kill the man who attacked her, edging her sword for a fatal blow while she kept him at bay. A few more seconds passed, and the tables turn yet again; the metal man was between the two, holding his opponent by her sword. He mumbled something to his accomplice. He then threw the girl right at Wen.
Dust flew as they both hit the ground. There was a few screams; the market was emptying itself in fright. Nobody wanted to be around any of these people, some even more than others. Wen took precious little time for explanations.
"Hi, I'm Wen. We're all part of some cosmically arranged tournament, or something." He helped her up as he rose from the ground, gripping his long stilleto blade in his right hand. "...and that's all the explanation we have time for right now."
He bit down on dust, tightened his fist around the grooves in his knife, and ran towards his opponents. Kariette followed behind him. The green haired opponent was almost unprepared for a strike, but managed to counter Wen with his sword before the knife reached his neck. This left him in a compromising position, though, holding the small blade at bay with his much longer rapier very close to his neck. Wen reached for his second knife, when the metal man intervened; Wen felt a strong jab to his side that felt crippling, and he withdrew defensively to recover.
From behind him, Kariette emerged to engage the green haired fencer again. This time he was much more prepared for her attack, though, and the clang of parrying swordsmen filled the street.
Wen shook off the pain and shifted his focus to the metal man. A quick search didn't show any point of weakness... at this point, Wen had no idea how to fight this thing. He charged at him only to slide away from the man's attack, barely, and jab at him from behind. The blade clanged and deflected, leaving a small dent. The metal man turned around.
OoC: Sorry about all the backtracking, but you know how these intro posts are.
