Donald
Rumors of the Valiant Wyvern's return had been spreading in Findara. That in the shadow of Hyburn Peak a camp was amassing that housed mercenaries of an elite ilk. The white and green flag with green and yellow lined chevrons hung above the camp. It was the flag of the infamous Corpse Brigade mercenaries, an elite band of traveling knight-errants who sold their swords to not only those with the deepest pockets, but with something more, their leader was reputed to strictly screen who they worked for. Whenever the Corpse Brigade began to congregate it was likely due to their being some sort of small scale war about to break out, or something more nefarious altogether. 

In this particular case their arrival coincided with the Thunder Festival, a celebration with an opulent ball filled with nobility and rabble rousing. It would be impossible to track who exactly the leader of the band would be meeting with as there would be so many nobles in one city, his appearance, if it garnered any attention at all, would be masked by the sheer amount of people attending the festival. Rumors further spread, with the uncertainty of whom exactly he was meeting with coupled with the congregation of his motley crew of knights was enough to cause talking in the shadowy corners of inns across the country. 

—

The sounds of the crowd of the festival filled the street, there would be no place that one could escape the gaiety and raucous nature of the Thunder. Between the market, the travelers attending, and those looking to take advantage of said traveler's it was likely that this would be the busiest Findara would be all year, and this year's Thunder Festival seemed particularly busy. 

Aredhel walked with purpose, his scale armor clinking in step with the sound of his sabatons on the cobbled streets of Findara. The wings of his armor flowing silently alongside him, attached to his hips the two armored 'wings' added to his silhouette in a way that added to his inhuman presence on the battlefield. The half armor, half flowing fabric decorations fastened to his hips served little value aside from adding to his aesthetic. Fastened to his back was his spear the Gae Bolg, one of the most iconic pieces of equipment in his arsenal, perhaps only second to his helmet. Clutched in his gauntleted hand was a rolled parchment with a wax seal peeking out from between his thumb and index finger. 

As he walked towards the main gate he made eye contact with a pair of experienced looking knights, a drogon male and a half elf female, both of them wearing green and white mantles trimmed with the paired Corpse Brigade chevrons. The male was sitting on a barrel with one of his feet resting on the lid, his thick tail swaying back and forth. The woman had her arms crossed leaning against the wall. As he approached the pair she pushed off the wall and stepped towards him as if they had been waiting for him.

—
"Boss," The woman spoke as the drogon picked at his nails with a hunting knife, "Do we have a deal?" 

"We have struck an accord," Aredhel spoke, his stoic voice commanding the drogon's attention, "Take this, return to the camp at once and inform the captains. I am being pursued." He handed her the scroll which she tucked under her cloak, revealing the pommel of her longsword, battered and well worn. She looked behind him as he approached, he shook his head for her to not be conspicuous. "Since I left the meeting someone has been following me. Make haste, I'll handle this." 

Reaching to his back he unfastened the spear so that it would be at the ready. The drogon leaped down from the box and the two knights pulled the hoods of their mantles up and made for the main gate. He parted ways with the two knights, heading down the dark alleyway, his pursuer would surely follow. Taking cover around a corner near the entrance he loosened the spear and prepared the ambush, ready to strike out at whoever was following him.
John
Thistle, curiously following the strange man in the even stranger attire, stopped and hovered just across the street, hiding in a thin space between two shops bustling with activity drawn in from the festival. Not really being seen due to the crowd of larger individuals, the fae impatiently waited for Aredhel to continue. Exchanging glances between the trio, the fairy eyed the letter that had been passed to the two mercenaries before watching them take their leave. "Odd, that lizard fella. Don't think I've seen one'a dem before." He chattered to himself before looking back to Aredhel, noticing as they turned into the alley. "Super secret alley deals? How could I miss that!" Cheering a bit too loud, he drew in some questionable glances from the gathered folks, before deciding to make his leave.

He chose to wait a bit before furthering his 'investigation', though in reality the tiny fae was just *Really* Bored. If he tried to dance he'd be stepped on, and the fireworks wouldn't happen till later in the night. After a few moments of tapping his foot on the opposite side-walk, he took flight and hopped over to the entrance of the alley, peeking around. "Aww, where'd da little snicker go? I wanna watch his deeaaalll." Whined Thistle as he shuffled down the dark lane. "Watch a gang pop out 'n jump me." He giggled to himself, thinking of all the terrible things that could happen in this alley. "Maaaaybe this wasn't such a good idea." Stopping in their tracks, the magical bug-man was only a few feet away from the corner that Aredhel was hiding behind.

"Funny. I thought he woulda seen me little bright green body by now." Thinking for a moment as he tapped his chin. "Well, he hasn't found me yet so- I suppose it's safe. Right?" Shrugging, he clearly lacked that sense that tells you 'this is a horrible idea, what do you think you're doing'! Too late. Skipping along a couple more strides though, he unknowingly fell into the ambush. In his search for the man, he didn't notice.
Donald
It wasn't long before his trap was sprung. Skipping around the corner came a small fairy. Instinctively he thrust his spear towards the pursuer before stopping it just short of piercing the tiny creature's head. Standing at about two feet tall and clad in nothing of note other than shoddy hand crafted scraps. This thing was none too impressive, chattering as he followed into the alley. 

It was an odd presence, he was able to sense that he was being followed but it was unlikely that something this small would have triggered any sort of alert mechanism for him. The corner of his mouth twisted into a grimace as he slowly lowered the spear down to his side. "You should be cautious of where you wander sprite." As the spear was lowered it glinted in the light from a nearby candlelit windowsill. "Where are you off to?" Despite most of his concerns seemingly nothing he was still going to be cautious around anything fae like, he had heard too many stories. His blue eyes met the golden glow of the fairy's, he lowered his brows, towering nearly five feet taller than the pursuer. 

A thought passed through his mind, if this fairy is the only thing that was following him does that mean that the presence he felt could be following his knights? He had hoped his lieutenants were prepared for anything, if they were in the camp at all. They were currently dealing with some scraps of infighting, the Corpse Brigade by concept would be difficult to manage, a group of knights from various places and races wouldn't be able to be as cohesive as say, a group of knights all from Findara. This thought wouldn't escape his mind, and so he asked, "Who else was following me?" It was a simple question, delivered with his intimidating voice, the spear still in his hand, hopefully it would help to coerce this fairy to tell the truth.
John
Slowly turning his head to stare directly at the point of the spear, his eyes went wide as his pointed ears fell back in fear. As his jaw hung slightly a-gap, the fairy couldn't help but ramble in a confusing manner. Thistle, Petrified, just stood there for a while, blinking. Eyes glancing up at the staggering figure, his head slowly followed. "Tchthatuphtcha... GaaaAah.." Were the only things to come out of his mouth. Slapping himself, he jumped into the air as he hovered at eye-level. "I-I. Uhh. Gimme a sec to just- rethink the entirety of my life, yeah?" Staring at him for a few more seconds, he finally spoke up on the matter.

Gulping down the rest of his fear, Thistle scratched his cheek, answering the first question. "I was bored, so I decided to follow the funkiest lookin' fella. That was you." Shuffling around in his satchel, the fae drew a handful of candies and stuffed his face in. "I was gonna dance-" He drew the back of his hand to his lips, chewing before continuing. "But I knew I'd just be ignored and stepped on. Hence why I followed you. Weird folks always do the most interesting things." Dashing down the lane a bit, he turned to face the back of the alley. Running his hands through his hair he flew back over as he whistled, Luminos now gliding down from the roof tops and perching on a clothes-line.

"As far as *I* Know, there wasn't anyone else following *You*. Granted there are a lot of people walking around so I wouldn't really know. Hey that letter didn't happen to be important or anything right? Would suck if some kinda shady deal got yoinked from your guards back there. Also what was that Lizard guy? I haven't seen one of them before. Just normal lizards. And big li- you get the point, no humanoid lizards. Well now I'm off-topic, which is a usual but this seems like an important whole-" He threw his palms in a circle, judging up the situation. "Interaction soooo- I assume you wanna go check on your green guys? And girl but y'know- I could help!"

-
Dashing back towards the entrance of the alley, he motioned the man along. "I doubt they've gotten far. Unless they have horses... But they're in green clothing in a blue-kinda-gal city soooooo it shouldn't be too hard rightyo?" Peeking around the streets, he pointed in the direction the duo walked off towards. "I'm sure you know this but they went that-a-way. Me and Luminos can fly around and look but you're kinda stuck." The fairy was clearly getting ahead of themselves, and obviously thought this would be a fun adventure full of cool stuff! Probably not but, hey. A tiny fairy fella that can watch from above *And* Has a pet fae dragon could probably be of some use in a search. Besides, you get the feeling they know how to not be seen.

"On the other hand this could just be you having a real bad case of paranoia and assume everything is trying to follow your little group. In which case, you wanna check out the festival?" He pranced back to the duder, awaiting some form of answer.