Glory Days

[Kyo]

((Closed))



She lifted the goblet to her lips and took another slow drink of the mead. It was smooth, strong and slightly spiced, adding just enough excitement to it. Not to mention it was quite an interesting drink, one she would never get back home. It was close to ale, but much stronger and with quite a different taste. Possibly from the different ingredients that the natives here had to use, and what natives they were. Kyo had never been in a place filled with such amazing creatures as she found in Dheathain. True, she had not seen much of the region yet, just the port town of Talmhaidh, but she planned on exploring it rather thoroughly. Though the Draconian race looked more than menacing, she quickly learned that when shown respect they were easy to deal with and Kyo having grown up in Akashima was used to giving those who deserved it, her respect. The Fae on the other hand were quite beautiful and gentle. There was something so innately magical about them, something she doubted she’d ever be able to understand. Something that the drunken human man beside her was sadly lacking and she definitely hadn’t drank enough to even consider what his eyes said he was interested in.

He was disgusting. He took no pride in even keeping himself clean and healthy and he was also quite intoxicated. Kyo would be surprised if he could even remember his own name, let alone hers. Not that she’d bothered to tell him. His dirt covered and scarred hands clasped at the dull surface of his tankard. Bringing it up to his dried and cracked lips, he greedily drank the contents, some of which spilled down from the corners of his mouth and dripped from his chin, staining a shirt so filthy she couldn’t tell where the liquid landed. The smell that came from him was none too appealing either; sweat, ale, smoke and a variety of others things she’d rather not identify. But it wasn’t his appearance or his smell that kept her from leaving her current seat at the bar, but what he was saying.

“Those were the days…” He said after he slammed the metal cup on the wooden surface. The action was followed by a rather loud burp, which was nearly drowned out in the din of voices filling the room.

Hiding her disgust, the ninja glanced around the bar at the many different faces filling the room. Most of them weren’t even human, unless her eyes deceived her. The majority seemed to be the Draconians with their boisterous cries and flaring tempers. Fights broke out quickly between them and died down just as easily. The small number of Fae in the room mainly seemed to stay close to their Draconian comrades. None seemed to be paying any attention to Kyo or the man she was talking to. Even though she wasn’t working, she couldn’t turn off her training as her eyes swept the room. It was instinct. Something she did automatically now. She knew she could easily escape through any of the windows should the front door no longer be accessible. The glass was thin and would break rather easily. She also knew the bartender kept a weapon under the counter and it was exactly three feet to the right of where she sat. She couldn’t see it, but he always moved to that exact spot whenever it seemed trouble was brewing.

“We lived by our own code!” the raspy and slurred words of the ex-bandit brought her attention back to him. “We stole what we wanted, killed those that opposed us and shrugged the laws of the Corone Government.”

Interesting. Considering the things he was boasting about, no wonder the man had abandoned Corone for Dheathain. He probably would have been arrested otherwise. Then again, perhaps people only looked at these like the ramblings of a drunken man. She was certainly not believing everything he told her. It was most likely grossly exaggerated, but still quite interesting if it indeed was true.

“People used to fear us…” His voice changed, sounding more solemn. “They treaded lightly in our territory. We raided people, travelling caravans, and even shipments to the government, never fearing their counter because it never came. Those were the glory days of The Bandit Brotherhood.”

The name struck a cord in her memory. She remembered The Bandit Brotherhood, spoken alongside names like Yari Rafanas and Gild. Not to mention the other clans: The Red Hand and The Façade. Though Kyo had never been a part of them, she had heard tales of them from returning ninja and even on her own missions.

“Are they still around?” It was the first thing she had said to him in a while.

“Is who still around?”

She sighed, “The Bandit Brotherhood.”

He snorted, “Of course not! Do you think I’d be wasting my time in this place if they were? I’d be with my fellow brothers, doing what we did best…”

She questioned that. The man didn’t seem like much of anything right now, thief, bandit or otherwise. He seemed like just another drunk. Had he truly been part of the brotherhood? Shame it had disbanded though, she would be quite interested in joining it if it were still around. Though she had her ninja clan, that did not mean she couldn’t join another. Her allegiance with her fellow assassins was solid, but for now as she journeyed on her own rather aimlessly, the Brotherhood sounded like a safe place to be herself.

Kyo had her Kunketsu clan, but to have a safe haven away from the ninja clan was a luxury she wished she could afford. A place where she could live by her own rules and her own code and not bow to the governing bodies hiding in their ivory towers. Very similar to those damn Okinawa bastards.

Allowing a small smile to play at the corner of her lips, Kyosku took another long drink from her goblet.

[Molotov]

Molotov was bold enough, perhaps stupid enough, not to hide in the corner. Even with his noticeable features hidden underneath a cloak and his hair dyed jet black, the mutant was certain that someone would notice him. He had been running on luck for over four years, and while that gave him a certain sense of arrogance, the mutant knew that his streak of fortune was going to have to end sooner rather than later.

Now, in Talmhaidh, practically a sea away from where he was born, Molotov feared he was going to die. He had angered too many of the local gangs, and he knew far too little about the politics between the Draconians or the Fae to be of use to either of them. For a moment, the mutant indulged himself enough to wish that the portals to Haidia had not been closed. It had been the one place where he had managed to do some good, though perhaps that good that he’d managed was ultimately undermined by the fall of Vainta.

“Bloody dwarves,” he muttered irritably as he took another casual sip of his ale. He had been drinking from the same glass for the past hour, and the temperature of the beverage had turned to room temperature. Molotov blew into the glass to cool it again. A few little icicles collected around the rim of the glass, and he took a big gulp, smacking his lips as the cool liquid ran down his throats.

“Delicious,” he said with a smirk to a couple dining near him.

The drink was just a pretext for Molotov’s true aim. He had been planning to have one drink and leave until he noticed a stunning woman with jet black hair and blue eyes. Molotov wasn’t sure what drew him to her, perhaps it was just that her eyes were just uniquely colored enough that she could have been a mutant, even though he doubted she was. Perhaps it was just that he was drawn to another pretty girl, but Molotov doubted that.

“There’s just something about her,” Molotov thought. “Like Lady Luck decided to give me one last bloody reprieve. God bless that cunt…”

Strangely enough, the woman seemed to be drawn to the most annoying boor in the entire bar. “And he’s talking about the bloody Bandit Brotherhood like those wankers planted the bloody trees in Concordia…,” Molotov scowled. He was not particularly impressed. He had been a member of the Red Hand briefly, and knew exactly how the Bandit Brotherhood operated. Nothing that they had accomplished particularly impressed him.

Finally, Molotov decided that he had enough. It might undermine his chances of getting to talk to the dark haired woman, but there was only so much stupidity he could tolerate, even though that threshold was raised in taverns.

“Oh for sod’s sake you wanker!” Molotov interrupted, spilling ale on his hand thanks to the force with which he slammed his glass on the bar counter. “If you were in the Bandit Brotherhood, you would have known that their members knew better than to fuck around in bars talking about the shitstorms they made in Corone. The bloody Bandit Brotherhood had class, too much class to be drowning in its own drool like you seem to be. Now, I’ll let you have two options. One, you can bloody shut the hell up about the Bandit Brotherhood, or two, I’ll kick your ass out of principle. Not that I particularly loved those wankers, but the way you’re talking, you could have ruined the good name of Eluriand’s zombie army just by associating with them…”

The mutant finished his drink in one gulp and stood up. “Your choice,” he concluded.

[Kyo]

The outburst was extremely sudden and sent the ninja on edge for the briefest of seconds until she realized the anger and words were not directed at her but the ex-bandit that was sitting beside her. And she didn’t know why, but there was something humorous in the scene as a whole. She couldn’t completely understand it herself but she found herself laughing as the last of the man’s words left his pierced mouth. He was quite an odd one, good looking in a rough and tumble kind of way, but she didn’t really know of all that metal covering his face. It detracted something from him. Perhaps it was to make him look more menacing to his enemies, she just though it made he look a little silly. But she was used to the things she did to her body being of benefit and she couldn’t see much benefit in that.

The drunken bandit beside her didn’t seem to think they were so funny though. His face contorted into a look of rage spurred on by the amount of alcohol he had consumed. His hand tightened around the tankard he was holding as if wishing he had to strength to crush it, that or it was the head of the man mocking him. Either way, neither was going to happen. Not only was he way too intoxicated to even think of fighting him, but just looking at the man told Kyo he was far more skilled than the bandit, probably than her too. He had a certain air of experience around him that she herself lacked some of. She was well trained and she knew how to fight and kill, but a lack of experience was her main problem. Training could only go so far, eventually one had to apply it to real life situations and see how they would react and Kyo had only been given a taste of that.

When he finally released his cup and stood from his stool, the ninja reacted quickly. One of her feet shot out and kicked him in the side of the knee before he could take more than a single step. His leg crumbled and his body fell to the floor below, the action apparently being too much for him as he lost the contents of his stomach on the stained and mud tracked wooden boards.

“I think you’ve passed the point of usefulness…” The ninja said with a smirk.

Apparently a few of the Draconians in the room thought the same thing and began to haul his drunken body from the establishment. He didn’t even bother struggling or fighting back, not that he probably could. The place smelled far better without him around anyway. She’d seen far drunken Draconians remain in the tavern, but she had an inkling that their race did not tolerate humans very much, so the moment they made a slip up they used that as the excuse to get rid of them. It was fine with her. She didn’t plan on upsetting any of them any time soon.

Turning her eyes back to the man who’d so politely decided to free her from his presence, the ninja smiled and pushed the chair the bandit had previously occupied out towards him a bit. “Take a seat, stranger.” She drained the last of the contents of her goblet and motioned to the bartender. He was an extremely tall Draconian with bright red coloured scales and hair and one of his hands looked more like a dragon’s claw than a human hand, but he seemed able to use it well enough.

“Two more glasses of mead, le do thoil.” Kyo wasn’t great at picking up other languages, but simple words like please and thank you were rather easy to acquire, and the locals around here always seemed to appreciate it when strangers made an effort.

He smirked at her odd pronunciation. It was true, their language Dheath did sound rather strange without the accent to accompany it. But she was doing her best. As he moved away to get her order, she turned back to the man.

“Tetsoma Kyosku, but you can just call me Kyo, or Kyosku, whichever you prefer. What do I get to call you?” She gave him a rather thorough up and down as she asked the question, reminding herself in the process that she really needed to stop flirting with random strangers, even if they were good looking.

[Molotov]

Molotov smiled. If he had known being rude could have gotten the boor kicked out of the tavern and the attention of the svelte blue eyed girl, he would have said something at least twenty minutes ago. “Now the bird’s even ordering me a drink,” he thought. “I’ll have to snog Lady Luck the next time I see her.”

With a wide grin on his face, Molotov finished his ale and sat down next to Kyosku. He wondered whether he should introduce himself by his most common name, or whether another pseudonym would have been in order. Dheathain was closed off from the rest of Althanas when he had lead his group of Misfits to victory in the Gisela tournament, and no one that had met had remembered his attacks on Radasanth.

“My name is Molotov,” he said. He offered no more than that. If the name Molotov intimidated Kyosku, then the mutant would just say he was a different Molotov than the one that she was thinking of. “And how may I be of service to you?” He sat down in the chair that she had pulled out for him, and arrogantly let his feet sit up on the table as he leaned back.

The day had suddenly taken a surprise turn for the better. It made the mutant happy. He had come to Dheathain not out of any desire for adventure or out of a passion for excitement, but because he was unwelcome in so many other parts of Althanas. Even in Shanleh, where his labs were stationed, the mutant was watched suspiciously by the law. Here, he had no identity, no past, and he was beginning to believe, perhaps even a future. He had already met one interesting person in Karuka Tida, and now he was sitting at a Draconian bar, talking to an attractive young female and drinking alcohol that she had paid for.

“Bloody hell,” he exclaimed to himself. “I love Dheathain!”

[Kyo]

Molotov… the name did not ring a single bell within her mind. It was an odd name, but Kyo knew she was not within the realms of Akashima right now. Things here were not familiar to her and people did not have to give her their surname as well. Even if she were raised in a certain way, they were not and she couldn’t fault them for it, she could also find no disrespect in it. At least the man had in fact given her a name and taken the seat she’d offered. She wasn’t too sure about him having his feet up on the table, but she kept her mouth quiet all the same. There was no point in mentioning something so trivial, not when she had better comments she could be making.

“That’s a rather loaded question…” She said with a smirk, absently she rested her elbow on the table and her hand on her chin. One of her fingers made a continuous turn around her bottom lip, tracing it.

Before she could part her lips to speak again, a slight Draconian female who looked far less menacing than any she had ever laid her eyes on yet came over and set two new glasses upon the table. As she reached to take away Kyo’s old one, the ninja produced a few gold coins from within her Gi and laid them on the tray.

“Go raibh maith agate.” She said to the woman.

“A bhui le.”

The female smiled and turned, leaving the two of them alone in a din of words and calls that neither of them could probably understand. Reaching for her glass, Kyo took a long drink of the strong alcohol. She was beginning to feel a slight affect from it in her head, this being her third cup of the brew. Normally she had a higher tolerance than this, but she hadn’t eaten in quite some time and this was not a usual drink for her. Soon, she’d part from the tavern to find some interesting local cuisine to try on her taste buds, hoping it would offset this slightly fuzzy feeling.

Setting the cup down, she turned her icy blue eyes back to Molotov, “I find myself intrigued by The Bandit Brotherhood and what that man most likely grossly exaggerated from them. You appear to have some knowledge of them…”

She didn’t outright say that she wanted to know what he knew, nor that within her mind she could feel something stirring. She wanted this clan, whether or not she had to start the damn thing back up on her own was a different matter altogether. Right now though, she just needed more information on them and what they stood for.

[Molotov]

Molotov wasn’t really sure if he wanted to talk about the Bandit Brotherhood. His relationship with them had been an uneasy one, he had often admired the work they had done, but always from a distance. They had both been criminals, but they were criminals of different sorts. They were bandits, he had been a murderer. It had been strange how time had changed his life. Where he had once sought to kill, now he just wanted to get by. It was a bitter irony, now that the Bandit Brotherhood would have fit his needs, it no longer existed. Before drawing his attention back to Kyosku, he allowed himself to wonder about just how many other people there were out there now, shiftless and living in the margins of society, because Althanas seemed to belong to the warriors and not the thieves.

Finally, after what must have seemed like a deliberate pause, Molotov spoke. “Well love, I never was in the Brotherhood, just so you know,” he said. “It really wasn’t what I was after at the time. I knew their members though, Damon Kaosi, Dan Wilmhearst, enough of those wankers, we’d run into each other time to time. Even knew Shadar Logath, though he’d given up on the Bandits by the time I knew him. Beat him in Gisela too, stupid sod and his naked bird girls…”

The mutant took a long draught of the mead before continuing. For a moment, Molotov wondered if it was worth digging at scars, even for this girl with her beautiful ice blue eyes. The mead offered him a nice repose, a chance to think about his intentions and come back to his senses if need be. Once he’d consumed a large enough gulp, he felt as though he had an answer more fitting to what Kyosku was genuinely interested in.

“They were just a bunch of kids in the forest, living by their own rules,” Molotov said. “They looked out for each other in the beginning, and then they just got too big. They tried to take over the Bazaar, didn’t do too bad at it, but they got so caught up in their own politics they just imploded after Damon left. By that point they had a whole bloody city and four towers or some fuck thing like that, I don’t really remember. They were more interested in building a city than stealing then anyways.”

As Molotov concluded, he hoped they could move on to another subject. The Bandit Brotherhood may have had its own halcyon days, but the mutant knew that there was no point to living in the past. There was always enough injustice there to find reason to be bitter.

“But now they're gone,” Molotov concluded. “Nothing you can do now, can't rewrite the past...”

[Kyo]

She recognized the names that he threw at her, surprised that one man could know so many legendary figures and here she stood knowing none of them, only the members of her own clan and one stranger amongst a vast multitude of the many in Althanas; Jared. She hadn’t known that they’d been apart of the Bandit Brotherhood, the only two names she knew from it were Yari Rafanas and Gild Sorrian. They were figures that had long since disappeared from the history pages of Althanas. Last she’d heard, Yari was dead and Gild had left the Brotherhood only to disappear right off the face of Althanas. After that she hadn’t heard much of anything about the clan until she’d been here in Dheathain of all places, just to explore and see new things. Here, she had run into an old member of the clan who had rather easily started spilling his beans about how good things had been back then and well, her curiosity took over. Now her mind was practically reeling with ideas.

“It’s true, you can’t rewrite the past, but you can create your own future…”

The words were said a little off-handed as her mind was preoccupied mulling over the information she had received. Could she really recreate The Bandit Brotherhood with the ideals of the old one in mind and some of her own mixed in? Was this really just a fancy she was entertaining due to a sudden influx of alcohol in her system, or was she seriously considering this? By the Thayne, she didn’t know and she wasn’t entirely sure if she wanted to. A clan was a huge responsibility and one she didn’t exactly have the resources to start, fund or possibly the motivation to keep going. No, that last part was a lie. She wanted this clan and knew that if it were still around she’d join within a heartbeat, but it wasn’t and now she was finding herself entertaining the idea of restarting it.

Kyo bit down on her bottom lip as she stared off at no place in particular. This idea was folly… wasn’t it? Someone tell her this was ridiculous for her to even consider let alone actually begin to believe she could accomplish it. And if she did, where would she hide her clan? In Akashima? No, it would be too close to home and all that she knew, and Corone already had a few rising powers beginning to influence it’s shore’s not to mention a civil war that appeared to have no end to the start. The other regions did not seem particularly enticing to her senses either. Salvar was too bitter in the winter, Fallien too hot and well, Alerar just seemed a bit inhospitable. Then there was Raiaera, which she didn’t even want to get started on considering all the zombie problems they were having recently. Honestly, zombies…

Her fingers played along the edge of her cup before bringing it once again to her lips. “What were you to say if I wanted to bring back The Brotherhood?”

It was a bold question to ask, one she wasn’t entirely certain if she regretted the moment it left her or not. Either way, she couldn’t take it back and she found herself expectantly awaiting his answer.

[Molotov]

Molotov was about to take a sip of mead when he heard Kyosku’s proposal, and it was fortunate that he hadn’t, or he would have promptly spit the fluid back out. He shook his head. “She’s bloody daft…” he thought. “First bird in here who isn’t a minger, and she’s bloody daft.” Molotov wondered if he had ever heard of a stranger, more far-fetched proposal, and he had once attempted to conquer the world with a group of misanthropes from Berevar.

Still, there was something about the impossibility of the idea that appealed to Molotov. He took a sip of mead to mull Kyosku’s suggestion, weighing the various negatives and positives. “On one hand, its bloody impossible and bound to get us locked up in a gaol somewhere,” he thought. “But its Dheathain here. The police here are bloody foul, a bunch of ponces the lot of them. Plus, half the people are bloody fairies. They have to keep gold locked up in their trees or in rainbows or whatever fuck place they keep it. And who ever heard of fairies fighting… this just might work in Dheathain. It’s bloody stupid, but Kyosku’s pretty cute, so I’ll let her take a piss on this. See where it goes...”

After swallowing his mead, Molotov addressed Kyosku’s proposal. “It seems impossible,” he said. “All the things we’d have to do just to pull it off here, it couldn’t be in Talhmaidh. The cops here are stupid, but they aren’t that bloody stupid. We could make it work, but we’d have to be smart about it, find some kind of place that no one needs and no one cares about. Find the people no one needs and no one cares about, and steal the pants of the people that no one likes. Otherwise, we’re going to end up in a gaol somewhere, blaming each other for what went wrong here, alright?”

[Kyo]

Kyo was not great at reading people, but the surprise on Molotov’s face was evident for any to see. Not only that, but so was the doubt and the disbelief that crept into his blue eyes. Yet, as quickly as they formed there they seemed to disappear, losing their form and changing into something else, something she was hoping for; interest. She didn’t really expect it from him, a complete stranger after all, but she was nonetheless pleased when his face changed he seemed to become genuinely interested in what she proposed. Though she could possibly do this on her own, any helping hand would be an accepted one.

A lot of the stuff that he said to her didn’t really make a lot of sense. It was almost like he was speaking a different language but she was quite certain that was Common coming out of his mouth. Still, the cops and the gaol were words that were lost to her. Normally she would feel the need to ask him what exactly he was going on about, but after musing over the words for a little while and the rest of what he said, she was rather certain she’d figured it out. Cops were probably a form of guard that they had here and the gaol was either some kind of execution, or a dungeon, possibly a prison too. Either one of those three options was not something she was particularly fond of either.

“You want to set the clan up here, in this hostile environment?” Her eyes were wide in disbelief. He must have had far more to drink than her, either that or those piercings were allowing air into his brain that shouldn’t be getting in. “I may not have been in Dheathain for long, but even I can see that the locals around here aren’t exactly friendly towards humans. Do you actually think we could get away with placing a group of them here and not have them notice? And on top of that if they did notice, not have them attack us?”

The ninja shook her head and took a drink from her glass. There was no way this could work. No, she had been wrong to even think it let alone propose the idea to Molotov. But still, she wanted it so badly that she could make it work. Even in this foreign land if she had to. There was something within her just driving her to do it.

“If we want to recreate The Brotherhood here… we’ll need help. We can’t just rely on luck to slip by the locals, hoping they don’t notice a band of humans taking over a small piece of territory within their lands. As big as I’ve heard Dheathain is, we could only hide for so long…”

She knew that they would need help from someone, but her lack of information about the region left her feeling inept. Kyo barely even knew the layout beyond the port and the few streets she had already walked down. The rest of the region was a mystery to her. Even if they decided to put the clan here, she had no idea where would even suite The Brotherhood and their needs. Perhaps Molotov did though, he seemed like he’d spent a bit of time here, how long though she wasn’t sure.

Just as her lips parted to speak, the chair next to her was suddenly pulled from the wooden table and the empty seat was filled with a rough looking and scarred Draconian male. His face seemed friendly enough, though that probably had something to do with the slightly glazed look in his pitch-black eyes. He was clearly intoxicated, bit that didn’t seem to stop him from laying one black scaled hand down on the table and addressing the two of them.

“I hear you two discussing The Good ol’ Bandit Brotherhood.” His smirked as he leaned back in his unsteady, revealing a straight row of white teeth, the canines of which seemed longer and sharper than normal.

Up until that point in time, Kyosku had nearly forgotten that they were in a bar surrounded by other people. Her mind had been focused solely on Molotov and her own thoughts, blocking out the sounds of the bar and the raucous calls and laughter. Now it all came flooding back in like a broken symphony, drowning her ears in uselessly static.

He continued on without giving either of them a chance to respond. “I remember them from my days of travel back in Corone, good set of guys. I even raided with them once for fun, but it wasn’t really my thing.” No wonder he could speak Common so well, that man had probably spent quite some time away from Dheathain. “I also heard you discussing setting the clan up here.” His voice turned gravely serious then, as if all the alcohol had fled his system in a single moment, leaving his mind to function as it should. “I wouldn’t suggest such a thing without the permission of the Ceann Cath, he’s the leader of the Draconians. But it would probably be rather impossible for two humans to get an audience with him.” His voice returned to that jovial state once more.

Slamming down the two front legs of his chair, the Draconian looked somewhere to the right of him, his eyes trailing towards the group he had probably initially come from. Out of all of them, one male Draconians stuck out to her. He was tall, extremely well built and had one scar that her eyes could easily pick out against his darkened skin. It was along his left shoulder and arm, most likely from a spear or other projectile and probably quite nasty when it happened. He was dressed in single clothes, a pair of flowing white pants and vest, unbuttoned and showing off a well-formed set of muscles along his chest and stomach. It was something nice for her eyes to drink in, even if there were dark blue scales appearing along the skin. Unlike the others around him though, he held an air of power and respect.

“Yep… that there is a good friend of mine and one of the five Generals that surround the Ceann Cath, I’m sure he could get you an audience with our leader if you were really serious about this.”

Her eyes lingered upon his formed as a loud round of laughter burst forth from him and those around him. Would he really help them?

[Molotov]

Molotov wasn’t sure whether to believe the Draconian. He was not particularly of the trusting nature, and he knew more often than not, when someone seemed to offer help with a task that was impossible, Molotov knew that more times than not, he needed to check his back pocket for his wallet. With a slight scowl, he considered the possibilities. “Don’t know for sure how these lizard men swing, but he could bloody be trying to move in on Kyosku,” he realized. “If I can get next to her just by insulting some wanker about the Brotherhood, who knows where this sod would get by promising an audience with his lizard king…”

The mutant’s first impulse was to challenge the legitimacy of what this Draconian had said, but he decided against it. He didn’t know too much about the Draconians, but from the one he had fought with Karuka, he knew that they tended to hold honor to a high degree. The mutant didn’t want to end up in a fight that ended with him getting thrown out of the bar like the drunkard earlier, and while Molotov knew he would be able to fight off a group of Draconians, he thought it better not to run afoul of the law this early in his career in Dheathain.

Unsure of what to do, Molotov decided to glance over to Kyosku to figure out what she was thinking. He could sense a bit more hope from her, and he decided, that even if it may have been naïve, he was going to take a chance here. The chance that the Draconian General would help him seemed remote, generals had never been the most useful people in Molotov’s estimation, and that was even assuming that the Draconian off in the corner was actually a general. Still, there was little to lose. The worst, Molotov was humiliated and wouldn’t get a girl. That had happened often enough that the mutant figured he shouldn’t worry about it anymore. It still stung, but the mutant decided he was going to take his chances for the sake of doing something genuinely special.

“Alright then,” he said, looking over at the table where the supposed general and his friends sat laughing. The mutant took one last look at them, decided that he didn’t care for them much, and then addressed the draconian he had spoken to in the first place. “What do you want for introducing us to the General? I’m broke here myself, and I don’t know what Kyosku has on her that you’d be interested in. If you want to introduce us because you loved the Brotherhood, then go ahead, fine, bloody introduce us now. We’ll find a way to be useful to you here.”

Molotov had come short of calling the Draconian’s motivations into question, though he did suggest that the alleged helper’s motives could have been to bed Kyosku. He was content with what he’d said, what he’d left unsaid, and the implications it had for a discerning listener. Now, the decision would be up to the Draconian. Either, there was a general to meet, or this new intruder was no less of a braggart than the first.

“The Bandit Brotherhood can come back either way…” Molotov decided. “We don’t need this wanker if he’s just for show.”

[Kyo]

The Draconian grunted and leaned back in his chair once more, eyeing Molotov as if he wasn’t quite sure what to do with the man’s words. His actions left Kyo feeling uneasy. She could understand Molotov’s reluctance to trust the man, especially in this faraway place, but if he were actually telling the truth and insulted him, she doubted he would be so quick to offer his services again.

“I won’t be asking you for anything…” He finally said. The words came as more of a relief to the ninja than she realized. “It’s not my demands you should be worrying about. If Erionn can get you an audience with the Ceann Cath, it’s his demands you should keep in mind.” His face turned into a bit of a sneer as the next words left his mouth. “He’s not really a huge fan of humans, especially those that think they can run around his region and do whatever pleases them, you know, like taking over a small piece of land and starting a clan without permission.”

Point received, understood and taken. The ninja was worried about something like that, which was why she suggested to Molotov that they would need someone’s help in order to pull this off here. Apparently, they were going to need the Ceann Cath’s help, a Draconian that didn’t particularly sound as if he would easily offer them much of anything.

Turning his pitch black eyes from the two of them, the Draconian glanced towards the General. “Erionn!” When he turned his attention towards him, he motioned for him to come over.

When the Draconian approached the table, Kyo could believe just how tall he was. Not only was he a walking house of muscle—and rather good-looking muscle—but he was massive. Perhaps because her new companion was sitting did she not realize just how tall this race could grow to be. Much taller than her or any in her clan, that was for sure. Erionn must have at least a foot of height on her.

“Cad e ata uait, Aidan?” His accent was thick and heavy; making the words an endless string of syllables she had no hopes of interpreting with her tiny knowledge of the language.

“Common, my friend. These two ‘ere are looking for a bit of assistance.”

A smile crept onto Erionn’s face as he looked down at Kyosku, “Really? What can I do them for?”

Though the question was supposed to address both of them, Kyo found his eyes only on her and the distinct feeling that he wasn’t paying much attention to Molotov.

“They wish for an audience with the Ceann Cath.”

Erionn’s face suddenly changed. The jovial expression that had so freely lit it before was now gone, replaced by one far graver and serious. It were as if mentioning the name of their leader suddenly turned the merry moment into something else that she didn’t quite understand. At least his eyes were no longer attempting to undress her.

“Why?” He said between clenched teeth.

Aidan appeared unmoved by Erionn’s sudden change in behaviour, “Remember that clan I used to talk about when I returned from Corone, The Bandit Brotherhood?” The only response he got was a nod. “Well, they’re looking to restart the thing… here, in Dheathain.”

Erionn burst out into laughter at the end of his friend’s words. He knew Aidan must be joking, there was no way that the Ceann Cath would allow such a thing on Dheathain soil. He himself would barely allow such a ting on the soil of his homeland. This was not a playground for humans to do as they wished, this was his home and the home to many others. They could not set up a clan here, especially one like The Bandit Brotherhood, one that employed a certain kind of person.

“Please tell me you jest.” Aidan shook his head, which only elicited a sigh from Erionn. “You actually think Darroch would go for a bunch of humans hiding out in his lands and stealing from his people?”

“Of course not, not unless they were only stealing from other humans.”

“He would probably ki—wait a minute, did you just say only stealing from other humans?”

Aidan nodded his head with a smirk as Erionn actually began to entertain this crazy idea. Darroch really had a thing against humans, it just might amuse their leader to watch them fight each other within her own territory, especially if he had a say in it. But then this clan would turn into nothing more than a pawn in the hand of Darroch and Erionn was not particularly pleased with that idea. Though they lived much shorter lives and tended to do rather foolhardy things, the humans did not deserve to be a game piece on his little board of life.

“All right,” He turned his attention back to Kyo and Molotov this time, his face serious as he leaned down on the table. “I’ll take you to see Darroch if you’re serious about this, but be aware that he may only use you to get what he wants and he’ll demand things of you.”

[Molotov]

Molotov was pleasantly surprised. He had noticed that they were arguing with each other, and gauging from their expressions, the mutant could tell that it was a genuine argument. There were too many highs and lows in the way they were talking, so much so that if it was fake, it would have had to have been scripted before. Molotov doubted these Draconians spent their time waiting in taverns hoping to swindle humans.

“Lets go take care of this love,” Molotov said. He smiled at Kyosku and got up from his seat. Since he wasn’t sure of what might the general might take offense to, he removed all his weapons from his person. His adze, his night stick were both laid on the table.

The mutant reached into the holster of his revolver and then scowled. He didn’t want to part with the gun, not out of sentimentality, but because he knew if things did get ugly, it would be the only weapon with which he’d be able to put the Draconians down. He removed it, took one last look at it, and decided to keep it.

Immediately, Molotov reconsidered. Now that he’d taken the gun out, putting it back in its holster would have seemed to be an attempt at intimidation. That was far from his intention. The former Gisela general knew that he could rarely get the things he wanted by force, and the chance of him forcing anything out of a group of Draconians in Dheathain was bound to be even worse. Regretfully, he set the revolver back down on the table and then held out his cloak and held up his hands, as if to suggest that he was unarmed.

“Use the proper Tradespeak,” he reminded himself. “People here will look at you like you’re daft if you speak like Bromley here. These lizard people barely speak the Central Tradespeak, no bloody way they’re going to get mine…”

With that, Molotov went and stood before the member of the Ceann Cath. He cleared his throat and looked at Kyosku, hoping that she would trust him to speak. The mutant thought deeply. He wondered why he really wanted there to be a Bandit Brotherhood again. His absence from it had not struck him as particularly dear until his conversation with Kyosku, but now that she had suggested it returning, the mutant had begun to pine for a new Bandit Brotherhood.

“It’s because I need something,” Molotov realized. “I don’t bloody have anything here. I’m just walking, wandering around like a bloody behemoth who no one can strike down, just because I want someone to try. One day, some wanker’s going to succeed, not because he’s any good, but because I’ve run out of things to fight for. Karuka saved me from those sodding Spider freak kids whatever, but I don’t know how much longer I can keep playing at this game. Fighting’s fine, but I need someone- something- to fight for. This is better than most…”

Molotov knelt before he began to speak. “It is my honor to humbly request a favor,” he began. “It is my intention to create an organization somewhere in your land that will do no harm, and maybe even help you one day. We’ll leave you alone, we won’t attack your bobbies, we just need somewhere to disappear to, and we want the permission from you and your fellow rulers to give us that. Could it possibly work here? If you say yes, you won’t regret it. We will become people of Dheathain, not Draconian or Fairy people, but we will work to preserve it as you have…”

[Kyo]

The Draconian that Molotov found himself kneeling before stared at him for a few seconds as if he were daft, then burst into a fit of laughter that could have brought tears to his eyes. It echoed in the tavern, even above the other voices that were filling it and it echoed inside of Kyo’s mind as well. She didn’t really know what was going on, but she had the feeling that Molotov had just made some kind of mistake, one that made her stomach turn with possibilities. Had he insulted the man, or was there something else going on here that she didn’t know about?

After a few seconds, both Aidan and Erionn burst into laughter as well, which made Kyo blush with embarrassment and anger. They hadn’t done that just to make fun of two silly little humans had they? The argument they’d had seemed so real to her eyes and ears and yet here the two of them stood, chiming in on some kind of joke that she clearly wasn’t getting and definitely wasn’t finding very funny. Molotov and her were being serious about this. She wanted the Bandit Brotherhood and apparently he did as well for him to humble himself in front of some strange like that. He really didn’t appear to be the type and she thought she was probably going to have to do all the talking when they met the Ceann Cath.

“I don’t know what Coinin crap those two have been feeding you,” The Draconian said in flawless Tradespeak, “But I ain’t the Ceann Cath and they’re not called Fairy. That’s some little crap you humans like to refer to them as, they’re Fae. Get it right. They don’t insult your race by calling you worthless bags of flesh, so don’t insult theirs.” The last of his little speech had turned into growl as his black eyes narrowed on Molotov.

Pushing her chair out, the ninja came to her feet and walked over to Molotov. Her eyes were cold not only in colour but the way they glared upon the form of the Draconian that had just sat there and insulted him. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she urged him to stand and come back to the table they had previously been sitting at. She didn’t look him in the eyes though, just in case he was trying to save face from his mistake.

“I knew you were enthusiastic about this,” Erionn said with a large grin still plastered across his face, “But you could have waited until I actually took you to see the Ceann Cath before you started kneeling and sputtering insane things like that.” He was still laughing at bit as he said the words, which only made Kyo glare ice towards him. This seemed to still him only slightly. “The Ceann Cath doesn’t usually hang around in taverns in Talmhaidh, considering he has better things to do with his time. In order to meet him we’ll have to go to Suthainn, the Draconian capitol.”

They specifically had a Draconian capitol here? How many other capitol cities did their region possess then, perhaps one for the Fae as well? It would only make sense that if the Draconians had their own capitol city that the Fae did as well. In her mind she couldn’t help but picture the Draconian capitol as a hard place, made from stone and perhaps built into the very side of a large mountain. It would fit their personalities and have a home built similar to the way they acted, cold and unmoving. Then again, as she looked around at the different groups of them, it appeared that they only acted that way around humans and not their own kind.

“Aidan are you coming?”

The Draconian who had originally helped them shook his head, “I’ve got better things to do than act like a submissive whelp around Darroch.”

She was a little disappointed that he would not be coming with them, after all he had originally helped them and Kyo couldn’t help but feel a small amount of comfort around him because of that. Erionn seemed trust worthy but after what had just happened with Molotov and that other Draconian, whoever the hell he was, she was sure she’d need all the help she could get.

“All right then, humans, gather your stuff.”

“I’ve got a name, you know.” The ninja said as she defiantly looked up at him, “Perhaps you should try using it.”

He frowned as he looked down at her, “I’d care if I were beddin’ ya, but since you’re not interested in that and you’re feeling mighty suicidal by talking to the Ceann Cath, there’s no point in me even asking.”

[Molotov]

Molotov could feel his face turning beet red. He had put this much humility and soul into an offer, and now he had realized that it had been all for naught. For a moment, he considered getting a bit of his dignity back by taking a swing at either Aidan or Eironn, but his calmer side prevailed. With a scowl, he picked up the weapons he had laid upon the tavern table like a rebuked little child, took a quick glance at Kyo, and then made his way out.

“In this capitol, you do the talking, alright love?” Molotov asked, though he was really suggesting that she would be better at it than he. He placed all his weapons back in position, but made a special point of checking his revolver just to make sure that it was loaded. He had heard what Aidan had said about the meeting with the Ceann Cath being suicidal and that made the mutant cautious.

Before he left the tavern, Molotov tried to figure out what he thought of Aidan. He liked this Draconian better than most of the others, he was capable of speaking in their language properly, and was surprisingly forthright. Though the mutant didn’t much care for people more self absorbed than himself, he thought he might make an exception now for Aidan, if only in the slightest, because outside of Karuka Tida and Kyosku, he didn’t like much of anyone that he’d met in Dheathain.

“You don’t worry about suicide there,” Molotov said, his gun firmly placed back in its holster. “There’s not going to be a problem for us. We’ll go, make our case, let this whole thing smooth over. They’re talking to a former Gisela champion- or at least a former Gisela Champion by rights. I bloody creamed that sod Drax Piston and his wankers…”

He realized he was going off topic, and for little reason. Molotov had no reason to impress Aidan, but the mention of bedding Kyosku had made him want to show that he was more accomplished than an initial impression might have provided. Taking one last exhale, Molotov looked around the tavern as if he was going off to war, said one sardonic goodbye to all the Draconians in the tavern that had never paid him any mind and then made his way out of the tavern, along with Kyosku and Eironn. He wondered how long of a journey it would be.

Molotov hoped that it wouldn’t be too long. He didn’t want to be around Draconians any longer than he had to. “Almost as bloody bad as dwarves,” he thought to himself. “Bloody filthy buggers… the lot of them.”

[Kyo]

Kyo had no problem doing all the talking when they met the Ceann Cath, she had dealt with the Oyabun of her clan so many times that dealing with leaders was second nature to her. It all came down to respect and how one carried themselves when they talked to a leader, not to mention the tone of their voice. Leaders were leaders for a reason, they expected people to look up to them, be submissive around them and generally do whatever they said. Though Kyo at times had problems with the latter of that, respect and a small amount of submission she could handle. As much as her pride hated it, she was a ninja and she was used to it. With a small and sudden start, Kyo realized that if Molotov and herself were able to restart The Brotherhood then they would be the leaders of it and people would be acting like that around her.

She didn’t know what to think of that. On one hand it would be rather thrilling to be the leader of a bunch of bandits, but on the other hand it would be a lot of responsibility. Was she ready for something like that? If she sent some of her men out on a mission and not all of them came back, would she be able to handle it?

The thoughts she pushed to the back of her mind as the fresh, cool and salt sprayed air of Talmhaidh slapped against her body. It was refreshing and despite the fact that it had been rather dark and gloomy inside the tavern, outside the sky was relatively clear and bright and shining with the light of the sun. They were rather deep into Talmhaidh though, so Kyo couldn’t hear the sound of the port, but she could still smell and taste the salt in the air. Buildings in Talmhaidh were mostly made of stone and wood, the stone being a slightly beige colour that made them seem a little more inviting than the cold of normal grey stone.

Silently, the group of three began making their way through the city with Erionn leading and Molotov and Kyo following closely behind him. They received a few looks from those that passed them by, but she noticed for the most part people in the city merely inclined their head slightly to Erionn as he walked by. More than once they were stopped for a brief moment as an exchange in Dheath took place that she couldn’t follow. It appeared that Aidan hadn’t been lying when he’d said that Erionn was in fact a General for the Ceann Cath, it certainly appeared that he was some kind of leader to these people.

After taking a myriad of streets and turns that the ninja couldn’t ever hope to follow even with her memory, she found herself approaching a small area in the city that was filled with thick, lush grass, ferns and trees. It was as if there had a small and beautiful garden growing in the middle of the city, but no one appeared to be using it as that. In fact, the closer she got to it the more the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. In the centre of the growth were two Draconians, their bodies covered in key areas with armour made to look like the scales of a dragon and both carried a spear in their hands, plus swords sheathed at their sides. Between them was what looked like a small gate made of twisted vines and tree branches, and below it was a puddle of water.

What the heck is this?

As Erionn approached, the two Draconian guards seemed to become slightly agitated. Barely growled words escaped one of the Draconian’s mouth, words she could never hope to understand. Erionn implied in kind, his anger at most likely being challenged clearly evident. The Draconian recoiled slightly and a few other things were said, the only few words she caught being Suthainn and the Dheath word for human. She was really beginning to wish she understood this language more.

Finally, it appeared that something was happening. One of the guards, the one who had kept quiet this entire time, spun his spear around in his hand. At first the ninja was worried that some kind of battle was going to take place, but he merely dipped the tip of the spear into the pool of water. To her shock and amazement, the water began to climb up the gate, creating a wall of the liquid that pulsed and shimmered with the slightest touch of the wind. She couldn’t help but stare a little wide-eyed at it.

Without turning around, Erionn growled at her, clearly not pleased with what had just happened. “Follow me…”

Nodding her head, she watched him step forward and walk right into the pool of water. Taking a deep breath, Kyo approached the gate and stared at her own reflection rippling back at her. Hesitantly she reached out with one of her hands and ran her fingers across the surface. It was cold and responded to her touch like water, but when she pulled her hand away, it was not wet. Knowing she couldn’t stand there staring at it forever, Kyosku took a step forward and walked into the liquid. Immediately her body went ice cold as the substance surrounded it, but all she saw was darkness. Then it felt as if she were moving, a disorientated kind of feeling where she couldn’t really tell in which direction she was going. And then with a sudden and abrupt force it stopped and she found cool wind brushing against her skin.

Realizing that her eyes were closed, she opened them only to first look upon Erionn standing there rather smugly. The second thing she noticed was her surroundings. She wasn’t in Talmhaidh anymore; she was in someplace completely different. The very ground she seemed to be standing on looked like the bark of a tree, the buildings within her immediate view seemed to be carved into the very surroundings as well and then built up with wood. Foliage grew in every place that it could, cutting through the shades of brown with bright and dark green.

As she gaped at her surroundings, her mouth opened to speak and the only thing that came out were a few words in her native tongue of Akashima. Though she doubted Erionn understood what she said, it appeared he found her reaction quite humorous for he burst into laughter. Kyo could have stood there for much longer if it weren’t for the fact that Molotov came through the water thing and bumped into her from behind, making her stumble forward a bit.

[Molotov]

“Not impressive,” that was the first thing Molotov said when he made his way through the portal. He knew it was a rather silly thing to say, especially when he was going to the Ceann Cath for help, but he couldn’t help himself. He knew well enough that Eironn spoke enough tradespeak that he would understand the phrase, but he considered his chances of getting an opportunity to form the Bandit Brotherhood based more on Kyo’s words than Eironn’s impression of him. If he was going to need to rely on the latter, Molotov had figured he had already lost it in the tavern.

However, the moment Molotov actually got a look at his surroundings, he had to nod appreciatively. If he had said anything, he would have only offered a “not bad” out of spite, but even then, he was impressed that a city as noisy and disorganized as Talmhaidh could be part of the same country as this lush forestry.

Now fully through the portal, Molotov decided that he wouldn’t say another word unless explicitly asked. Once again, he couldn’t help but wonder how many people who had been born in his part of Radasanth would have ever had the chance to get an opportunity like the one he had now. For a few brief moments, as he looked around the wood buildings and green plants, it didn’t matter what kind of a decision the Generals made, because he was happy just being where he was. The mutant basked in those moments, like they were leaves floating through the wind, for as long as he could before he had to remember why he came.

Still, the step through the water portal had left Molotov with a completely different perspective. He had wanted the Bandit Brotherhood for all the things he could do in the future, but now, he was glowing with the thoughts of all the things he had done in the past. He no longer saw his task as the stone he was squeezing to draw blood from but an open road, one that would have made him one of the few off worlders to ever get a chance to meet the Ceann Cath.

“And probably the only mutant,” he thought with a light chuckle, not caring much if either Kyo or Erroin heard him. If they were paying close enough attention, they would have, but otherwise, the mutant’s change in mood would have remained with him.

As he looked out on the houses before him, Molotov saw nothing but opportunity.

[Kyo]

As Erionn once again began leading them somewhere, Kyo took the time to look around her surroundings. She came to a few realizations rather quickly, the first being the Draconians here either paid them no mind or set glares that would send most men scampering for their lives in their direction. Kyo, just decided it was best to ignore them, after all none seemed to want to approach them since they were walking along side Erionn and that was fine with her. The other two things that she noticed was they weren’t on solid ground, not the literal kind anywhere. It certainly seemed solid as her feet stepped across the ground, or what was supposed to be the ground but wasn’t really the ground. What she was trying to get at was the fact that they were not on the ground. In fact, it looked like this entire city of Suthainn was somehow built into the very trees around them; either that or this was one giant tree itself, or maybe a few giant once.

Once they had come across an area filled with a few rope bridges leading to different sections and levels of the city and Kyo had happened to glance down. Instead of seeing dirty and grass and maybe some bushes or something she had seen nothing but a thick, white fog for as far as her eyes could look. Just what kind of city was this?

They only ended up walking for a few minutes before Erionn turned and began leading them to a rather large building. It was not particularly decorative; in fact it looked almost like all the other ones, rough and crude in a sort of naturalistic way. The main thing that set it apart were the two guards standing on either side of the main entrance and just the sheer size of the building. Passing by the guards without a single problem, the Draconian general led them into what was most likely a waiting room. It was small, and bare. There weren’t even tapestries hanging on the wall, just a few torches to keep the shadows at bay.

Without stopping in there, the General grabbed a set of uniquely carved doors depicting some kind of epic battle scene that Kyo didn’t get the chance to properly see before they were pushed open and out of her view. The next room was slightly more impressive and much bigger than she thought possible considering the outside of the building. It was rather large and open with a high roof that would make almost anyone’s voice echo. Within the middle of the room was a large round table set with six chairs if her eyes counted correctly. But that wasn’t what her eyes were immediately drawn to. No, the two figures in the room were what caught her attention.

The one seemed like just another Draconian, covered in green scales over certain parts of his body and long black hair pulled back in a thong. But the man he was talking to seemed much different. His looks were not particularly striking, he was handsome in a rather primal and rough kind of way, but the air that emanated from his person spoke of power and respect. He seemed leaner than Erionn and some of the other Draconians she’d seen, but she was not about to assume anything of his strength from that. He wore a simple black vest and black pants, with what looked like a claymore strapped to his back. His black hair was shoulder length and swept away from his face, but not tied back. There were also blood red scales covering the wings on his back and other parts of his body, including his entire left arm and part of his chest. They certainly didn’t help the feeling of intimidation coming from him either.

As he caught sight of Erionn he stopped talking to the other Draconian and the expression on his face turned from one of indifference to downright malevolence as his eyes landed on both her and Molotov. She got the feeling that if he could kill her with just a glance she’d be dead right now. The other Draconian sensing the hostility in the room made no arguments when he was waved away. He left through a different door than they had come in. She couldn’t see Erionn’s face since he had his back to her, but she could see the tense muscles all along his shoulders and neck and his arms. Was this the Ceann Cath?

For a brief moment the two of them stood there in silence and Kyo found herself not knowing what to do. Should she speak? Should she bow respectfully? Erionn had not informed her if this was their leader or not, in fact he’d done nothing since he came into the room. And then the silence broke with a single, growled phrase in Dheath that went by her without a single piece of understanding. Erionn answered and before she knew it, the two of them appeared to be involved in some kind of heated argument. They moved closer to each other and on more than one occasion the ninja thought it was going to boil down to physical blows. This was getting them nowhere fast.

Edging closer to Molotov, Kyo whispered to him, “Follow my lead.”

Then she stepped towards the two arguing Draconians and did the same thing she did when approaching the Oyabun of her village, she knelt down on one knee and bowed her head to him. Seconds later, she turned her eyes to see Molotov in relatively the same position she was, not more than a foot away from her. The growled words stopped. Instead they were replaced by a few calmer statements, from which Draconian she couldn’t exactly tell since she did not raise her head.

“Speak.”

The command was almost jarring as the sudden invasion of Tradespeak filled the room on a heavy accent. Feeling her heart increase it’s rhythm and knowing that if she screwed this up it would probably not end very well for her or Molotov, Kyo raised her head and stared directly into the black eyes of whom she was now quite sure was The Ceann Cath.

For a brief moment of panic she almost found herself without words to say to him and not knowing exactly how she should word this, then she figured coating this with sugar would probably be pointless. Sometimes it was just best to be blunt. “My companion and I wish to create our own clan within the lands of Dheathain and we look for permission among its leaders.”

He remained silent and she was unsure if she should continue or wait for a response.

“A clan? A clan filled with humans?”

She nodded her head, “Yes, and possibly other races as well.”

“And what would the purpose of this clan be?” The corners of his lips rose slightly into a smirk.

“A brotherhood of bandits, a place where we may create our own society, our own rules and not have the governing bodies of where we live hunt us down.”

“You mean thieves!” He practically snarled the last word at her, revealing a row of straight, white teeth and a pair of unnaturally long canines.

Kyo felt any chance they had of convincing him slip through her fingers like too many grains of sand. She didn’t know what to say to him, what she had told him was the truth. Yes, there would be thieves among them and quite possibly much worse than that.

“We will not be stealing from the citizens of Dheathain should they choose to shelter us.” She felt the words slip passed her lips without thought. Just whom else they planned on stealing from she didn’t know. Travelling by ship from one region to another just to find prospects would be insane, but the words had already been said and she couldn’t take them back.

His eyes narrowed on Kyo as he appeared to be contemplating her proposal.

[Molotov]

Molotov had complied with Kyo’s orders, somewhat grudgingly because he hated being told what to do, but this time, decided he would swallow his pride. “After all,” he consoled himself. “She isn’t bloody going to tell me to do anything once we’ve made this thing…”

For the moment, however, the mutant was being good to his word. He said absolutely nothing, even when the questions of the Ceann Cath really annoyed him. It had taken a good deal of willpower not to call them complete idiots after their statement that bandits meant thieves, but he somehow managed to keep even those thoughts to his self. “Bloody hell, we mean thieves,” he said. “What other sodding kind of bandits do you have, pixies or sodding nuns? Bloody hell we’re thieves, and if those bloody lizard boys don’t give us this clan, I’ll show them every damn thing that I’ll steal.”

These thoughts were interrupted as Kyosku mentioned that she was going to promise that they wouldn’t steal from any of the people in Dheathain. With his eyes opened wide, he could barely keep his mouth from opening agape. He knew how it must have looked, to be so utterly stunned by Kyosku’s proposal, but Molotov couldn’t help himself. He hated that he was so utterly forthright, because he didn’t know if he heard another stupid thing if he’d be able to restrain himself again. His patience was running thin, and the Brotherhood that he wanted to run was getting more dim.

“You could have at least let us steal from those bloody fairy people,” he thought disdainfully. “Really Kyosku, what do you expect. We’re going to jump on a steam ship from Talmhaidh every time we want to go and rob the Radasanth bazaar. Love, you’ve gotta think this through. We’ve got to do something.”

Molotov hoped, for their sake that Kyosku was lying just to get permission from the Draconians. He supposed that she was, it would make sense that they could wait until they had amassed a large enough force to establish themselves before they would take on stealing from the Draconians, but Molotov figured that eventually, they would have to.

“If only to repay these buggers for being such cocks,” Molotov resolved.

The only thing spoke was to reconfirm what Kyosku had said. “Yes, no stealing from the people here,” he said, hoping that his dead tone didn’t sound too insincere.

[Kyo]

For a time there was nothing in the room but silence, the kind that buzzed within her ears and left her feeling nervous and anxious. She had no idea what was going on within the mind of The Ceann Cath and whether or not he was even considering what she was asking of him, not to mention he had yet to try and demand anything of them. Both Erionn and Aidan had mentioned he would demand things from her and Molotov and possibly the clan as well. Perhaps he was not even going to let them have the piece of land they required. Perhaps he was merely going to laugh in their faces at bringing such a thing up and toss the two of them out of his region, or worse, try to kill them.

With her heart beating like the wings of a caged bird, she continued to look up at the imposing form of the Draconian leader. Perhaps her and Molotov should have taken this up with the Fae, maybe they would have been far more willing to help them than this lot of…whatever they were. Some kind of lizard men or something.

“So, I have your word that you will not steal from the citizens of Dheathain.” The way the word dripped like acid from his tongue made her heart stop and her mind begin to wander.

It was as if he were hinting, rather blatantly, at the fact that they could steal from any person within the region of Dheathain, as long as they weren’t Draconian or Fae. Kyo had not been here rather long, but she knew there was a rather lucrative business market opening up in the Talmhaidh port and that it was bringing in all kinds of races, the majority of the trading ships coming from Corone as well. And it just so happened to be that the Draconians, especially their leader the Ceann Cath, appeared to dislike humans most of all the races upon Althanas.

Feeling a small rise of hope from within her, Kyo quickly answered him. “Correct, we will not steal from… the citizens of Dheathain.” She really hoped she had understood that remark correctly.

A smirked spread across his lips, “How many are within this clan of yours?”
“Right now there is only Molotov and myself.”

“Not much of a clan, now is it?”

Kyo was beginning to feel her own emotions turning within her as she tried to keep her sarcasm and her quick tongue in check. “We plan on recruiting, once we have a place to recruit with.”

There was already a certain someone she had in mind were they to be allowed this. But she did not allow her mind to wander to what ifs and maybes, but instead kept it focused on what was happening right now.

“And just where exactly were you planning on keeping your little band of brotherly bandits?”

Her mind went blank. Kyo knew nothing about the layout of the Dheathainian landscape. She didn’t even know where she was in relation to Talmhaidh right now other than she was pretty sure it was built into the trees! They should have expected such a question, if they were going to ask The Ceann Cath for permission to have a clan within his region then they should have known he’d want to know where. He wasn’t just going to let them put it anywhere and get away with it.

The ninja found herself thinking fast on her feet for a solution that would not show how unprepared they were. “We were hoping that with your knowledge of the land… you would be able to help us find a suitable place where we may hide ourselves.”

That came out much better than she thought it would, especially considering the jumble of words that had been floating around in her head, jostling for a place in line. She watched his face as his smirk turned into a slight frown and he grunted, folding his rather muscular arms across his chest. Then he turned his back on them and began heading towards the large circular table in the middle of the room.

“You may rise.” He said without turning.

Coming slowly to her feet, the ninja stretched out a few cramps in her muscles from having been in a rather uncomfortable position for so long, then she followed The Ceann Cath to the table but did not sit.

“Erionn, a learscail.”

Erionn walked out of the room, leaving Molotov and Kyo alone with The Ceann Cath, who simply leaned his hip against the edge of the table and stared at them. She didn’t like the Draconians eyes. There was no pupil, no iris or even eyeball definition. It was just black and she got the feeling that no matter where she stood it would always feel like he was staring at her, probably just as Molotov felt like the man was staring at him. Within a moment, Erionn returned with a large piece of parchment in his hand. Moving towards the table, he leaned over and unrolled the parchment, revealing a rather large and extremely detailed map of the region. It was much larger and more diverse than Kyo had originally thought. She hadn’t realized just how much of this continent Dheathain was taking up and though it was easily much bigger than the western continents, Dheathain appeared bigger than both Alerar and Salvar combined.

Her eyes quickly picked out the various different areas on the map though. It appeared that the region had four major landscapes and each of them greatly differed from the other. There were plains between Talmhaidh and Luthmor, which appeared to be some kind of forest. After that was an area labelled as Fiorair, with Suthainn as the capitol. Fiorair appeared to be a rather large swamp that spanned the area right before the Neahm Mountains. So they had a number of choices before them, but Kyo immediately ruled out the plains. They would be too open. No one could hide a group of bandits in a bunch of grass and rock.

Turning her eyes to Molotov, she waited for him to look over the map as well, hoping that he would have a better idea to put this clan of theirs than she did. For she had nothing at the moment though she was leaning towards the forest. Hadn’t the original Bandit Brotherhood been in Concordia?

[Molotov]

“We’ll take somewhere in Fiorair,” Molotov said. He knew exactly what he wanted. The swamp. It was the kind of area where a large group of people could be hidden, not only from rival gangs that might one day want to attack them, but the Draconians if necessary. He liked how close it was to Suthainn, because just in case their relationship went sour, the mutant wanted to be in a position to attack the capital.

Darroch seemed somewhat surprised by Molotov’s eagerness for the area, but he clearly had none of the concern that the mutant had about them growing a group there. “Then it is settled,” he said.

Though Molotov was a bit surprised by how easily he got what he wanted, he only supposed that it was he who considered the Draconians adversaries at this point, and not the other way around. He would make them pay for their arrogance eventually, but that would be another matter. Now, he just wanted to celebrate. “We’ve got it love!” he told Kyo. “Everything we bloody wanted. Shoop the whoop!”

In his head, he was already scheming. “I thought that bird was crazy, but dare I say it, I think she’s pulled it through.” He was worldly enough to know what the restriction on not stealing from citizens meant, and he figured now that it wouldn’t be too difficult to enforce. The little time Molotov had spent in Talmaidh had informed him to the number of more shiftless, honorless criminal gangs infested the area. Now, the Bandit Brotherhood was going to replace them.

Molotov had committed crime, and he truly had no issue with the idea of crime. Crime was just another way to get by in the world, he considered governments like the Ceann Cath little more than largely organized gangs. What he had a problem with was with the kids who acted like they were the kings of the world, knocking over the newsstand of an old man for a few pennies of profit. It was just showed so little respect for the environment that brought them in.

There was something about the Bandit Brotherhood that transcended these kinds of criminals. They were bandits, but they had class. Brotherhood was not just a name for them, it had been a way of life. People who entered into the clan were brothers, people who made their agreements with the clan were honored as brothers, though Molotov felt he could make somewhat of an exception for these Draconians.

They would live an honorable, thieving way of life in the swamps, and it would be good. Molotov would have the direction that his life had needed. For the first time in a long while, he was feeling the joy of creation. For far too long he had been either picking up the pieces of what someone else had destroyed, or stopping an idiot from doing something stupid. Now, he finally had the chance to make his impact on the world in a positive way.

With a somewhat coy smile, he offered a slight bow. After a polite, but resentful, thank you, he was ready to take his leave. He had plans to make and people to see.

[Kyo]

Kyo couldn’t believe her ears. Just like that, the Ceann Cath had given them what they’d asked for as if it had been the simplest thing, as if it wasn’t a piece of his land that was going to be infested with the humans he appeared to not like very much at all. Her ears had to be deceiving her, but they weren’t. She knew the moment that Molotov started speaking to her, the moment his exuberant voice filled the empty room and left her starring at him wide-eyed for just a second longer that it was true. That this was actually happening.

Then that look of shock and surprise disappeared as a smile slowly teased the corners of her lips before fully blooming across her entire face. In the heat of the excitement over it, she turned to the man who had been a completely stranger to her no less than two hours ago and wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him closely. The ninja wasn’t usually huge into hugging, especially strangers, but she just felt so happy over somehow completely her task that she just threw inhibition to the wind and hugged him. He didn’t seem to mind either; his arms came around her sides and held her closely for a moment or two.

“I can’t believe we did it…” She whispered so softly he could probably only hear her.

“Oh, how I hate to break up your happy moment here, but I’m not done yet.”

Hearing the dominating voice of the draconian leader practically bounce around the room, Kyo quickly released Molotov and gave him a bit of a sheepish smile before turning back around to face the Ceann Cath. She noted with a bit of worry that Erionn seemed none too pleased about the course of the events. It made her wonder whether or not the General had ever wanted them to succeed or if he was merely worried over something else. She remembered him mentioning the Ceann Cath wanting things from them; perhaps that was why his expression had turned sour.

“Besides your promise to not take from the citizens of this region, I will be demanding another thing from you.”

She could feel the muscles in her stomach clench as she bit down on her bottom lip. What if he asked something that they could not give or follow through on? What would happen to them then?

“This clan exists here only because I am allowing it to exist here and for no other reason. Therefore, as I way to give your thanks to me, you will complete any and all tasks that I need of you. No matter what it may be.”

“Understood.” Kyo said to him.

It seemed steep and was rather vague, leaving the ninja knowing that he literally could and would ask of them anything. They were almost like pawns upon the board game of chess and in his mind he could freely move them about as he pleased. But one day their clan may grow to rival that of the Draconian strength, and then things would change drastically. That particular day would not be anytime soon and would never happen unless Molotov and herself worked hard at it.

“Now, as for the actual placement of your brotherhood, I have just the set of ruins in mind. But they are most likely infested with monsters and will need to be purged before you can start rebuilding...”




((Spoils:

Fothrach dar Aiseirigh: A large expanse of ruins that sits on one of the few landmasses within the swamps of Fiorair. Parts of what could have been a wondrous city at one point in time lay as nothing more than crumbling walls and worn stone, but some areas of the Aiseirigh are relatively well preserved and quite steady, making repairing the ancient buildings rather easy. Most of the repairing can be done onsite with the abundance of rocks and stones littering the ground, but eventually stone will have to be brought in by boat to the new clan headquarters to help with repairs. Currently, Aiseirigh is infested with some of the swamps nastier inhabitants that must be killed before construction can behind.

Erionn dar Cailan: One of the five Generals that surround the Ceann Cath, giving advice and support amongst also leading factions of the Draconian army should war ever break out. Erionn is rather impartial towards humans and believes that as long as they abide by Draconian law, then they are of no problem or concern to him. He has been charged by the Ceann Cath with keeping an eye on the Bandit Brotherhood to ensure that they do not overstep their boundaries, but his leader never said he couldn’t help the clan should he choose to. ))

[Karuka]

I'm not going to make this judgment long, since the thread wasn't really long. I will say that I know you both are phenomenal writers, and this thread felt like the plot fell out the bottom of it as soon as you guys hit Suthainn. Anyway, here we go.

Continuity: 5

I know exactly what you guys were doing before this thread, having either judged or participated. But I got a very weak sense of it from the story. Molotov dropped hints throughout the thread, but I had absolutely no idea who this Karuka Tida person was and what she had to do with him (not from the thread), and Kyo vaguely mentioned Jared, but if I hadn't been familiar with your characters' stories before this thread, I would have been irritatingly in the dark. Why were you there?

I have a dim sense of the future, what you two are going to do next, but that still is pretty dim. I have to say, though, you did a better job of future than past.

Pacing: 4

I'm not sure if I should say the ending rushed in contrast to the beginning, or the beginning dragged in contrast to the ending. You guys don't get out of the tavern until post 14, and then it only takes 7 posts from there (a post and a half from each of you describing the journey from Talmhaidh to Suthainn) to get what you want and end it.

Setting: 6

I had a solid enough sense of the area around you in the sense that it was there. A little good detail was given to the tree-city Suthainn, but everything else was kind of dim.

Persona: 6

I knew you both a little more at the beginning of the thread than at the end. Molotov actually did better here, showing some character development and making his character more round than I felt Kyo did, although I could see that potential in the character.

Action: 5

Most of the action in this thread was internal, in the responses of the characters to different things that happened, might have happened, and probably wouldn't happen. It had the potential to be much, much more than it was. I think that maybe you didn't recognize the action as action, since what happened was them meeting and talking and having a happenstance meeting with someone of influence (for real, how often does that happen?), then going to meet the Draconian leader on the same day as they'd conceived their plan. But really, despite how much effort you put into all of that, it felt glossed over, and the heart of the quest was in the emotional responses. Take that and run with it next time.

Dialogue: 6

This wasn't bad, and it fit fairly well, but there wasn't really anything that shone.

Mechanics: 7

There were little typos and errors from both of you, but both of you are judges so I expect you'll know what I ought to insert here.

Kyo, one particular error you made consistently was "Molotov and her," when you meant "Molotov and she." When you have two subjects, drop off the other person and see if the sentence would make sense with the pronoun you were using.

Technique: 5

There were a few things tossed in by Kyo, but not much. It was a straightforward quest.

Clarity: 8

When Molotov knelt in the tavern, I had to go back and check to see if the Ceann Cath were in the tavern (which would have made me very confused) or if there'd been a transport. I'm not sure if that was planned or not, but it did confuse me.

Wild Card: 6

This was all right for a short, quick quest.

Total: 58. Congratulations!

Rewards:

Kyo receives 670 EXP
Molotov receives 1,975 EXP

Spoils are granted with the stipulation that the site base for a PG will need to be approved by RoG mod when the PG is registered and that the site is quite monster infested and will take a lot of effort to clear out.

EXP/GP added! Molotov levels up!