[Solo/Closed] The Hero Rises

[Altair]

He moves forward into the center of the room, meeting the other fighter halfway, and slashes sharply at his throat. The man leaps back easily, a mocking smirk on his lips, and offers his own testing thrust. They settle in to battle for real, after that, lightning-quick darts and retreats, waiting for one or the other to make a fatal slip.

It comes in the form of the other guard in the room, who makes to tackle Kirin from behind. Unfortunately for both of them, Kirin is not the only person on his side present.

“Behind you!”

All three of them startle--Kirin, at least, had thought Nathan mercifully unconscious--but Kirin is the fastest to recover, used to living on his toes. He leaps forward, catching the guard’s reflexive thrust with his own knife, twisting outward against the wrist and disarming him entirely. His momentum carries him, and his opponent falls with Kirin’s blade in his throat. The last guard decides, for once, that discretion is the better part of valor, and makes for the door.

Where Lyria clobbers him in the head with her last brick of explosives. For such a tiny person, she hits hard.

Kirin is already moving to release Nathan, from where his bound wrists are suspended from a hook in the ceiling. He catches his lieutenant’s weight as the boy nearly collapses, his legs unwilling to hold him after so many hours. Carefully, Kirin unbinds his hands and slings his arm over his own shoulder.

“Come on. We’ve got the others already, and Lyria’s about done rigging this whole place to blow.”

Nathan lifts his head at that, shaking his dark hair out of his eyes, and gives Kirin a faint smile.

See, Nathan’s not fragile, not really--fragile would imply that he can’t take care of himself, that he’s easily hurt, and that’s not it at all. But Nathan sometimes isn’t necessarily present. His body is there, but his mind wanders, distracted. They’re all used to it, by now. None of them have had the best experiences in life, and Nathan has the sharpest senses of any of them. It’s no wonder that he checks out of reality sometimes, when he’s too overwhelmed.

Kirin has never been grateful for this before, but he thinks it might have sheltered Nathan from the worst of the interrogation just now, and that’s definitely something he’s not going to begrudge.

Lyria gives them a worried look, but Kirin waves her off, back to her task.

They rejoin the others at the door and wait, although Nathan gets some worried attention from the other former prisoners. Corin, especially, tucks himself up against Nathan’s other side and takes some of his weight.

Finally, Lyria all but skips out the door, glee lighting her eyes as she unrolls a long fuse behind her.

“Let’s go! We need to be very, very clear when I set this off.”

After that it’s a silent, mad rush back through the tunnels towards the kitchen, Lyria trailing fuse all the way, before finally she deems them far enough away. They slip out the door, she lights the fuse, and then they run. If half the mountain really is going to come down on them, they don’t want to be near enough to be buried in the rubble, even if the explosion is going to miss them. Lexon is jogging backwards, laughter bubbling from his throat, and Lyria herself looks almost high on the rush from it.

It starts as a low rumble, growing to a crescendo, and they’re all witness to how the side of the Keep simply--vanishes.

[Altair]

Lyria is still quivering, and she damn near tackles Cress as she babbles excitedly about the explosion. Lexon is still snickering to himself, and Nathan is--not out of it, precisely, but about as present as he ever is.

Well. Time to take their party and head for the mountains. They’re ready for it, he knows they are, but he worries nonetheless. It’s the prerogative of a leader, to worry about a group of people, and he does. Endlessly.

The journey itself is mostly uneventful to the slopes of the mountains, but once there, it rapidly gets difficult for the smaller children. They’ve had the foresight to bring warmer clothes, and it is summer, so the weather is mild. Still, the actual slopes are hard for little legs, and the youngest among them, probably no more than three, is unused to such constant exercise.

The eldest take turns carrying the little ones, when they can, trading off in shifts. As they expected, food quickly becomes the most dire necessity, even with several of the hunter-raised out scouting for what they can kill or forage. There are nearly twenty of them; there’s not much out there that’s not aware of the group of children wandering through their forests. Kirin has the vague idea of going to Gisela--surely they’d not turn away children? Even if they just took the younger ones, Kirin and the older teens would be able to manage on their own, if they had to.

It’s not the most elegant solution, but most of the younger ones still remember having families to go back to, and many of them hold that in their hearts despite their outward wariness of life in general. If they can go to good homes, Kirin will be content, even if that leaves him and the older ones alone. They’ve discussed this; they’re willing to give up their chances at a permanent home to allow the little ones more of a hope. Kirin himself has never hoped for such a thing; the entirety of his experience with authority figures has been...unpleasant. He knows most of the older kids are in agreement with him--they’ve all had their own hopes dashed enough times. They’re broken, a little, and usually he doesn’t mind, but it’s not something he wants for any of the little ones if it can be avoided.

[Altair]

If they can find a place to take them in, anyway. They’re tentatively planning to head for Gisela, hoping the Revolutionaries won’t look too closely at a bunch of refugee brats. But for that, they’ve got to get through the mountains. And across the elf-damned forest, but no sense borrowing trouble from tomorrow. Right now, they need to find a pass. Preferably before they exhaust their meagre supplies.

It takes some scouting, but by the end of the second evening, Lexon and Lark report back that they’ve found one. They’ve taken to the wilderness with surprising aplomb, and Kirin offers both of them a quicksilver smile before directing them towards the camp. He helps where he can with the menial chores; none of them would last long if any of them started thinking themselves above anything at all. Lex and Lark get the evening off, of course, but everyone pitches in where they can, even the little ones, who enthusiastically turn their packs back into the pile of blankets they originally were.

Nearly a week later, everyone is beginning to run hungry. They’re through the mountains, certainly, and food is a bit more plentiful in the forest, but even though Corone is not the largest of islands, it’s still daunting to trek across on foot. In addition, they’re all wary of being caught as outsiders to the forest and split up. None of them sleep well, even with several of them taking watch shifts, and tempers are starting to fray. Aliah disappears for hours at a time, scouting out what she can. Lexon gets quieter, which is never a good sign.

[Altair]

Corin, in contrast, talks more, trying to soothe ruffled feathers. Kei and Lark too spend more time wandering. For that matter, Kirin has never seen Kei so relaxed, even with all the added stress. The boy’s an elf, sure, but Kirin had never realized how out of place he’d felt in the city until he sees Kei in his natural environment. He practically melts into the trees, and there’s a weight off his shoulders that Kirin almost envies.

He makes a note to himself, to send Kei back here if he ever gets the chance. Their liaison with the Resistance, maybe?

By the time they’re within sight of Gisela, all of them are tired to death of walking, of sleeping outside, and of pinched stomachs. It’s not too uncommon for street rats to starve in Radasanth, but Kirin has provided well for his people, over the years, and they’ve all gotten a little spoiled. Kirin knows he’s getting a little too thin, himself, and he can’t even reprimand Corin for slipping the others some of his food, because he’s found almost all of his older group doing the same thing. Not a one of them does anything more than give him a vaguely sheepish look at being caught out, even when they know they might need to save their strength.

[Altair]

They stumble into Gisela under cover of darkness. There’s no time to scout the town, look for the best hideouts--they all pile into a little alley and seal it off as best they can. It’s a clean town, not as big as Radasanth, but not far shy of it either, and the ocean scent brings a touch of familiarity. Everyone sleeps well that night despite being outside.

The next day is a massive whirlwind of activity. They’re moving well before dawn, dispersing throughout the town on their scouting missions in small, easily-dismissed groups. An older sister and her two younger siblings. A pair of youths jostling each other playfully. A group of brats playing with a makeshift ball. They’re good at undercover, all of them, especially in the more rundown parts of town.

Kirin, with his half-elf heritage, and Kei, and Corin, take the upper districts, where the wealthy live. It’s the step above the merchant districts, where Lexon and Lyria wander, and further still from the lowest districts, where Aliah and Lark apply very different methods to the same problem. Kirin was tempted to go with them, but he’s been informed that he can terrorize the seedy underbelly of the city another day. For now, he needs information on the nobles.