A Knight's Pilgrimage (Semi-Solo)

[Kamile]

"Kamile Oltorain, from hence forth you are a lieutenant of the Aurial Army." Kamile keeps replaying these words in his head over and over again as he blankly stairs at the road he is traversing on. Kamile had been given orders to take a small group of Aurial Knights on their Knight's Pilgrimage around the world, a job he gladly accepted. Since his new promotion to lieutenant means that the knights he accompanies on this long trip become his personal platoon for the future. Not a very lively bunch, mostly due to there being placed with the newest and most inexperienced officer in the army.

The group of five knights, Kamile included, had been on the road for over five days now traveling the long distance between their homeland and Fallien the desert nation to the west. The main goal of a knight going on their pilgrimage is to explore the land outside their home and experience the problems of the people that inhabit those lands, this mostly to teach the knights humility.

Kamile had already once before gone on a pilgrimage back when he first joined the army of his homeland, his superior had taken him all over althanas, making him work hard for the locals not only as a merc but as a laborer as well. Kamile had worked his heart out both with his bow and in the field. His first pilgrimage had been a very insightful trek for him and now that he has the opportunity to lead one of his own he was elated. Being able to bring these elves out of their comfort zone and into the real world was an experience they needed and he loved to provide.

His group was composed of four straight from training grunts, without a lick of real combat experience. Though throughout their training each one had excelled in one field or another, some in combat others in recon. Kamile had the liberty to hand pick his team from the fresh grunts and decided on these four.

Up till now Kamile Oltorain, this nineteen year old dog of the army lived for the day he could lead. Now that it is here lets see where his story leads.

================================================== ================================================== =========

"Platoon!" Kamile barked at the four behind him, the group had just reached the boarder between their homeland of Dali' Tun and the desert land of Fallien. Kamile pulled up his hood and covered his head sheltering himself from the sun. "This is the first land, the desert nation of Fallien. Blistering heat and painful wind, those are the things we have to look forward to." His voice was one of an excited kid, but his domineer never changed from confident leader. The four fallowing him all reply with a unanimous "Sir" and the group pushed forward.

The group continued for a few more hours, take small breaks to rest and refill on water here and there. The grass county they hail from quickly changed into a hot and blistering desert, one that the four novice elves had not prepared for. All four of them were sweating profusely and grunting as they walked.

"Sir Kamile," one of his knights spoke out breaking the silence, "permission to speak freely?" her voice expressing her thought before her words could.

"Granted." Kamile answered back noticing her voice sounded tired.

Now relaxing slightly after her lieutenant graciously approved her request without hesitation, she could tell that he was tiring as well. "Its getting late, what are our plans?" Pointing out that the sun had started to decline in the sky. "The temperature is going to decline rapidly."

"Are you getting cold Gemi?" He teases her as it is his decision weather they stop or not. She quiets quickly and realizes he is going to mess with her. But to her amazement he stops and turns to them "Yeah lets us stop here for the night." the group all drop their gear and begin turning this small desert trail into their personal camp site. And within an hour they all were sitting around a lit fire talking about their trip. Hours pass and the group all fall asleep except Kamile who had taken first watch, his gaze scanning the outline of the desert duns.

His mind only thing of their journey, and what it may come from it.

[Kamile]

The night air, as cold as ice in this desert swiftly smacked Kamile in the face as he took first watch. He had been pushing the others hard for the past few days, trying his best to be a stern leader but also wanting to make the group better as a whole. Thus the others gladly drifted to sleep as Kamile offered to take first watch.

Kamile had the choice of plenty of knights to choose from but this little platoon he felt were the best of the best. He chose each one to fill a specific roll, Gemi on of the two females was top oh her class in reconnaissance. The others had special traits that made them stick out to Kamile. Typhian the largest of the group, easily towering over seven feet tall was as skilled with a sword as Kamile was with his bow. Pairing them together in a battle field is a match for anybody.

Off in the distance deep between two sand duns Kamile notices some movement, "What might that be." Kamile thinks to himself. His enhanced vision allowed him to catch the movement but not specifically see what it was, as it was very far off in the distance. Kamile stands and pulls his bow off of his back, and begins to walk off in that direction. Every step he take a wisp of freezing air carrying grains of sand smacks Kamile making him cover his face with his hand. Creeping trough the cold sand Kamile nears the area he had seen the figure, bow at the ready he is ready for whatever might happen to him.

Kamile quickly turn the sand dun only to see nothing, like his mind had been playing a trick on him, the only thing in sight were a few scares tuffs of grass and the occasional desert tree. As they were still only in the outskirts of the desert the foliage was still present but it wouldn't be for long if they continued a wile linger on their path. "Nothing." Kamile says softly under his breath, temporarily lowering his guard and his bow. " I guess my mind is playing tricks on me." He thinks as he turns and starts walking back.

"DIE!!" a voice sounded loudly as it fall from above Kamile, a young man holding two daggers had maneuvered past the knight and jumped off of the adjacent dun aiming to kill. His daggered glistened in the moon light as they were brought down attempting to slash right through the knight. Noticing the glimmer and obviously the threat Kamile immediately grips his bow and reacts to the oncoming strike, pulling his bow up above his head to catch the blade. "Die die die die!" The violent figure yells again and again as he continuously slashes at Kamile, leaving the knight only able to block the blades with his bow and with every hit the bow started to get weaker.

Finally seeing a small opening in the figures strikes Kamile brought his foot up to his chest and kicked the man back a few steps. Allowing him to draw an arrow from his quiver wile the man staggered and launch an arrow at the man. The arrow pierced the air and flew straight for the shadowed man. But the man regained his balance to quickly to he stuck by the arrow and instead swiftly brought both his daggers up in a crescent swipe, cleaving the arrow in two making its pieces fall past his head. Instinctively Kamile knocked another arrow and let it loose at the figure only to stall him wile he drew his small dagger. This time The figure instead just moved slightly to the left before starting a full sprint towards Kamile. "Im going to spill your blood, Kamile Oltorain." The man shrieked as he drew nearer.

"How does this man know my name?" Kamile thinks as he returns the sprint with his own, and as the two clashed the sound of metal on metal ringed trough the night. The two could not gain any ground on each other at they blocked and parried all their attacks, metal clashing continued to sound all around them reaching the tent.

As every Aurial Knight is taught to sleep lightly these sounds had begun to wake the others and one by one they all got up to notice their lieutenant missing and the sounds of a fight in the distance. Typhain the brutish one of the group grabbed his long sword from its sheath and quickly sprinted in the direction of the fight, fallowed by the others close behind. Seeing his troops coming Kamile gave the attacking figure a small smirk.

"Sir!" Typhian yelled as he had reached the two fighting, and without hesitation attempted to strike down the man attacking his superior. Though his attempt was valiant the man easily dodged his blade with a agile flip and backed off to a distance from all the knights who had all arrived.

"Im going to kill you Kamile Oltorain, Im going to kill you." he says as the moon moves out from a cloud to shed some light on the attacker. An elf, with red and black hair dawning skin tight leather and two rather large cleavers. His face had an unsettling grin pasted to it and his eyes were baggy beyond belief. He looked like a complete psychopath and acted like one too. But just as quickly as he appeared he kicked up a cloud of sand and disappeared leaving only a light trail behind.

"Sir." Typhian said to Kamile with a look of confusion on his face, "Who was that?"

"I don't know, but he knew my name." He replied just as confused as his men.

[Kamile]

Gemi and the others made quick pursuit in the direction of the faint trail. Typhian still stood next to Kamile, more so to confert him rather than protect him. Kamile deffinently was no push over as a Knight, but the strange assassin knew his name and must have been fallowing them for sometime. "He knew my name..." Kamile says to Typhian with a blank stair. Kamile had been forced to fight for his life before but never been a target of an assassination. "He knew exactly where we were, must have been tracking us since we left home."

"Sir, Gemi and the others will find him." Typhian says trying to calm his leader.

"No, they won't." Kamile instently replys, "He won't be caught that easily, he knew exactly when to strike and knew how to find us. This man is a professional." His words carring an uncertain fear, the assassin had definently did what he intended to do. He had no intention to kill Kamile this time rather just instill fear into his prey.

Kamile snaped back into his lieutenant mind set and walked back to the camp site, the fire had begun to die and really wasn't more than hot coals at this point. As Kamile reached the fire pit he unhooks his boa from his back and leans it down next to him as he sits. His gaze fixated on the dying fire and his mind wondering aimlessly trying to make sence of what had just taken place.

Not long after the rest of the platoon including Typhian come up walking towards their lieutenant, all of their body launguage saying what Kamile had already known. "Gemi, Report." Kamile's voice already struck with disappointment.

"Sir, the assailant had alluded us." She answered "But he dropped this." She said as she offered up a broken pendant neckless. The pendant was of the guild symbols from their homeland.

A great power struggle had been ravaging the lands of Dali' Tun for longer that Kamile could remember. The land is officially under rule of the Aurial Palace and their army but in the past five or so decades groups of citizens had broken off and began to govern themselves. These ratical groups are call guilds, and all members of them have of their own freewill given up on the Aurial Palace and its rule. Each guild is is have separate ideals and functions but all the guild leaders cooperate with one another. Since their conception the guilds have risen in strength and had happily lived by the laws that they have created for them selves but are considered enemies of the Aurial Army. Often the two would go to war with each other to gain land or purely out of strife.

"It can't be," Kamile says as he reaches out and recognizes the symbol. He grabs it from Gemi's hand and looks at it more intently, "This is a guild seal."

"Sir, it is the seal of Soul's Decent, the guild responsible for the recent deaths in Dali' Tun." Gemi informs Kamile of the neckless origin.

[Dein]

" Its been a few years since I've been in these sands." Dein says sitting on a fallen log attempting to pull of his shoe to empty it of sand. The last time he had been in Fallien he had just left the chantry and was still being hunted as a heretic. Back then though he hadn't the time to complain on the amount of sand in his shoe, rather he had to run for his very life. Nowadays Dein has more than enough time to waist on such problems as sand, nowadays Dein is free to complain about anything he wants. Dein had been traveling through the desert in search for ancient ruins that the ever changing sands might reveal one day, hoping to unlock any ancient power that might be locked away inside of them.

After Dein was able to collect himself, he continued to drag himself farther into the desert, its heat beginning to cause his perfect red hair to frizz outward. "Aww man." He thought as he attempted to fix his hair problem with his hands, but to no avail leaving him to have to restrain his red locks in a tight pony tail. He had been on the road alone for over a month now and hadn't really seen any other people in a long wile, other than a pair of bandits or two trying to steal from him or even worse kill him. Now the sun was about in its highest point in the sky as Dein forced himself onward, passing through the sand duns leaving only faint tracks in the sand that soon disappear.

After a few hours of harsh trekking Dein finally got a break from the intense heat and blistering winds, and instead was given a gift of freezing and bitter coldness. This being his fist trip into the desert since his days as a heretic Dein was not as prepared as he should have been, his gear would keep him from freezing but it would be a miserable night without a fire burning. Dein stopped his march and started to unpack his sack full with his tent and sleeping stuffs, but off in the distance he saw a faint light flickering. "A Fire?" he said as he through his sack back onto his back and started to move rather quickly towards the light. The closer he would get to it the happier he got, "I bet its warm and toasty, and there are cute girls too!" his mind raced about the idea of cute women waiting for him at the fire.

When he got close enough to the fire to see the people sitting around it Dein did notice one thing, they all were armed and looked foreign to this land. A bunch of elves from the looks of it. This though was not enough to stop him from walking up to the fire and meeting those who looked so out of place in these parts. And Dein did just that, he slowly walked in view of the group that had been huddled together as if the were discussing something important.

"Hello," Dein said in a calm and don't draw your weapon type of tone, though it didn't seem to work like he wanted. All five of the elven militia quickly turned to look at him and all drew their weapons and pointed them at the man.

"Intruder!" Typhian yells as he walks closer toward Dein holding his sword out front in order to keep Dein down, if he attempted to attack.

"Woah now big man, I don't want any trouble." Dein says as ne take a step back from Typhian's approaching blade. "Im just here so I don't freeze tonight, I saw your fire." Dein said trying to explain himself.

"Bull" Typhian retorts and looks back at his commanding officer for instruction. Kamile was intently looking over this strange man who had just walked up to their camp site so bravely.

"Lower your weapons, all of you. This is no time for violence, we have come to this nation to help out their people not condemn them." Kamile barked as he himself was first to sheath his small dagger. Then the others did the same but under their breath all had for sure muttered something about it. "Hello traveler." Kamile says in a softer tone to Dein who had begun to relaxed after seeing their weapons being lowered.

"What a welcome wagon you have here. Did you guys run into any trouble or something to make you so on edge?" Dein says in a sarcastic tone.

"Yeah we did but nothing for you to worry about." Kamile said back to the traveler who had now taken a seat by the fire. It looked to Kamile like the man had been on the road longer then they had knew the area better. "Are you from these parts?" He asked

"No, im just here doing research. How about yourselves?"

"We are Knights of the Aurial Army, The Army of our homeland Dali' Tun. We come from beyond the desert's egde many days away."

The conversation went on for a wile longer as the group of elves made acquaintance with the wandering healer.

[Kamile]

"So you explore ruins for a living?" Kamile asks to create some conversation to try and determin what type of person he will be dealing with. "And are you out here by yourself?"

"On my no, I have just heard rumors of the shifting sand revealing some interesting things out in these parts. And yes, I do tend to travel alone and seeing your fire like a moth I was drawn." Dein answered Kamile's questions. "So what are your plans for your trip?" he said then issuing his own, all wile leaning into the warmth of the flame separating the two.

"Honestly, we are traveling to work with people of these lands, to teach my knights learn the strife of others." He says inclining he hadn't really thought out his next move very well.

As the pair talked Kamile had dismissed his knights to rest as he would give up on getting any wink of sleep this night. Between the mystery assassin and this man wandering into the camp unexpected there would be no rest for this elf. The conversation drifted from topic to topic as he and the healer spoke about his being out in this desert, and his plans for the rest of their trip through this these nations. Nothing far off the surface just small talk to pass the time until the sun began to rise off in the distance, its glimmering light cresting over the roaming sand duns.

Sun rays now starting to touch the tops of the tents as Gemi and the others begin to stir making a little noise other than the sounds of yawns and stretching. Kamile and Dein had been discussing what they were going to do from here, the conversation was leading in the direction of the knights escorting him through the ruins. But neither had asked the pivotal question, come along?

"Well im going to head out soon, let you guys get moving." Dein says as he stood and started to collect his equipment. "Wouldn't like to overstay my welcome."

"Dein, you seem to have a rough trip before you. Do, you want an escort and assistance in the ruin?" Kamile said feeling this would be a good experience for his team. This mostly to relieve his knights of the nameless assassin that hade come the night before, to relieve himself of the fact he was being hunted.

"Well I was going to go alone. And you have done to much for me already."

"Nonsense, the purpose of us even being here is to help out." Kamile says as he stands up and walks close the his new friend. "Dangers can come from anywhere wile delving in ruins, some that even we wouldn't be able to handle alone."

"Kamile," Dein paused turning his head to avert his eyes from the confident elf's. "Okay, but there is no telling how long this might take."

Kamile turned to walk towards his not risen platoon, barking orders to rise and shine and pack their junk up. "Be ready in ten" He said as he dismissed Dein's words other than "Okay".