A Knight in no Armour

[Pierre]

“Gotta keep moving...gotta keep warm” Pierre jogs through the woods, placing his footsteps carefully to avoid taking damage to his bare feet. He reaches to the top of the hill and can see the open field of Holdfast, and the shores to the ocean in the distance. He stops for a moment to attempt to rub the warmth he produced to his almost naked body. He's exhausted. He can't remember how long he's been running. “Almost... there.” speaking to himself, trying to catch his breath.

Shaking off the cold one more time, he begins to trot downhill again.

As the wind take a short break of howling through the trees, Pierre hears a low voice, almost a growling of a low mumbling. Looking only a small distance to his immediate right, behind some trees blocking his path of sight, spots Datura sitting on a rock, his head in his hands.

“Datura?!” Surprised to see someone this far on the outskirts of town. Slowly making his way to the dark figure. As Pierre gets closer, the figure doesn't come to clear, but gets more blurry. Tunnel vision begins to set in as he tries to focus and blink it back out. “Da...” trying for the name once again before his vision goes completely black, “...dammit.” He collapses onto the ground, falling into a mix of fallen leaves and a small patch of snow. Only a few meters away from him.

[Datura Shinso]

Looking up from his palms, Datura notices the still figure of a person horizontal on the ground before him. Standing up straight, he closes the gap between himself and his fallen comrade. Still unsure of what he is seeing, Datura kneels down before him. Reaching out, he turns the figure by its shoulder. Noticing who it was, a look of utter shock is spread across Datura's face.
"Well fuck..." mumbles Datura, looking towards Pierre's face, as if to confirm what he is seeing. Without hesitation, Datura hoists Pierre's still body over his shoulder.
"I suppose Degren'll wanna see this." Datura says, turning to face the Knight's camp at the edge of the forest.

[Degren Brightforge]

Degren, finally awake after nearly a whole day sleeping, crawls from the tent and throws his warm red cloak over his shoulders. He begins the day by cleaning the camp, tidying away the trash that had built up over the last few days. A loud crack echoes from the forest behind him, putting him on guard. With sword and shield in tow, he scans the forest, finally seeing Datura clumsily forcing his way through the woods. Degren's heart plummets when he sees the figure, seemingly dead, on Daturas back. He drops his weapons into the snow and rushes forward.

[Datura Shinso]

Approaching Degren in the Knights Encampment, Datura picks up his pace. When in front of his Grand Marshal, he gently lays Pierre on his back upon the white snow.
"It would seem an interesting turn of events has occurred, Degren," says Datura quietly, looking up at His comrade. "Wouldn't you agree?"
Taking a few steps back, he reaches sets his gear down.
"I think that in his current condition, you'd be better off helping him."

[Degren Brightforge]

Nodding, the two men carry the fallen knight into the tent. Degren, quickly going through a series of complex gestures and grunts, forces Datura to do some menial medic tasks. Datura is made to look over Pierres body, finding and binding any small scratches or bruises he can find. Other than those small wounds, Pierre appears to have just overexerted himself I'm the freezing cold. Confident his friend is alright, Degren covers him in blankets and sets the new sword ontop of hjm.

[Lessa]

<OOG: Pierre, please read the PM I sent you, okay? Thanks! It's a small thing, but worth noting.>

[Pierre]

As you look over Pierre, you see he dons an unusual chain mail circlet on your head made of gold-coloured chain links. And braided in his hair, a small bauble in a silver ring. It looks like a small opalescent orb, and if it catches the light it has an orangey-gold glow; it's attached to a silver ring.

Pierre looks like he is now dreaming. It starts of looking like its a good dream. But it slowly goes away and now looks like its becoming more uncomfortable. Anyone watching would see Pierre having a nightmare. Becoming increasingly sweaty, he awakes himself and screams in intense pain that would scare off any wild life in the nearby area. Gripping his upper left shoulder and hunching over in still pain until it begins to recede. As the pain becomes more tolerable, he looks around and finds himself in his tent. He puts on some fresh clothes and finds a beautifully crafted sword amongst the blankets. Stepping out of his tent, with the new sword in hand, finds Datura and Degrin just outside. A small sigh of relief can be heard from Pierre.

[Degren Brightforge]

Seeing his friend exit the tent, Degren stands and walks over. He clasps his hand tightly on Pierres shoulder and nods to him, checking him over to be sure his health has returned . Confident his friend is once again healthy, Degren drives his fist deep into Pierre's gut, ensuring his friend knows just how stupid his actions were. Without missing a beat, Degren passes a food laden plate into Pierre's hand, tossing a rusty fork into the lot of it. He sits, motioning towards the stump closest to the fire.

[Pierre]

As the fist ram into his stomach Pierre falls to his knee and coughs up spit at the ground. As he looks up his sees the plate of food in front of him. Standing up again to stare down Degren with a look of seriousness, Pierre looks like he wants to say something but he's biting his tongue. He takes the plate and sits at the stump Degren motioned to. He wolfs down the food as if he hasn't eaten in days. Once he's finished, he lays down the plate beside him and stares into the fire.
"How long has it been since they returned from the Mists?" His attention then goes to to Degren to wait for his response.

[Degren Brightforge]

Degren, eating his second serving of food, busily gestures, eventually imparting the information: Not too long. Maybe a week. A bit more. after a while he motions, What will you do now? Auron and the others have gone already.i can protect Holdfast well enough, if you wish to follow them. Just be sure to say goodbye before you do

[Pierre]

Taking in the new information, he returns to look at the fire...collecting his thoughts. "I accomplished what I felt I set out to do. It may not have ended up perfectly in the end, but things could have gone much worse in my opinion. You may not agree with my actions, but I do, and I still stand by them. What's done is done now. Take what we've learned from this and move on. We have bigger things to worry about now."

Pierre stand up from the stump, looking at his armor, and the new pieces. "I can't thank you enough for filling out my request for this friend. Exceptional work as always!" As he starts to dawn his armor once again. After he's finished, "I do intend to leave once again, these werewolf visions are getting worse." A look of slight sadness can be seen in his face as he goes to rub his left shoulder again. "It seems death cannot stop this either. So I need to head back to my hometown for a bit to see if I can learn anything from it. It'd be quite the coincidence if I run into them, but I will not seek them out. But I shall return to Holdfast in due time. If I can, I'll try to have someone send a letter for me to keep you up to date, but don't hold your breath for it. I will give my farewells before I go, but I still need to check somethings out before hand." Pierre walks over to Degren and whispers something in his ear. (OOG: will send PM)

Once he finishes he give Degren a two healthy pats on the side of his face and walks towards the inn.

[Degren Brightforge]

Degren listens to his friends whispers, his eyes widening in mild shock, then to suspicion. He pulls away from Pierre and gives him a calculating look before seemingly shrugging it off. He stands, stretches, and follows Pierre to the inn.

[Pierre]

After some time at the Inn, Pierre returns to the Knight's camp. Heads into his tent and begins packing for a long trip. He packs only the bare necessities to travel as light as possible. Once finished he checks over all his weapons and inspected his armor. Sitting down now, everything is ready to go. He knows he's tired, and he knows he going to need his rest. But he stays up, his mind cannot rest and he does not want to have another dream tonight.

[Pierre]

It's early in the morning. You can see the first signs of light beginning to take place in the sky in the far distance. Pierre had no sleep the night before but he's still showing signs of a sharp mind. He gathers his things together, dawns all of his armor and sheaths every weapon. As he exits his tent, he eyes several pieces of paper by a table.

"They usually scribble on that before they leave" He goes over and starts putting down his own scribbles on a blank sheet. Anyone attempting to read it would only see gibberish. "Looks like everyone else's...in a way. But I'll need to let them know its from me...but how? He gets an idea and continues to scribble. On the bottom right of the page, you can make out a crudely drawn stick figure with swords, a staff, and a bottle of wine. All together, it looks like a 3 year old can do better.

Feeling contempt with his "goodbye" letter, he places a rock on top to make sure it won't blow away.

He makes his way to the edge of town. Everyone is most likely still asleep at this time. He turns around to take a last look at the town. An ominous feeling goes over him before he finally turns back around and heads out of town.

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