When Alys mentioned the subject of jilted husbands, Celim had to work hard to keep her facial expression neutral so as not to betray her slight fluster. It wasn’t that she had anything personally against her intended but he’d not made a strong impression on her when her father had announced their engagement. In fact, the only real positive she could see was his relation to Alys which would make she and her childhood friend legally family instead of just the emotional bond between them.<br/><br/>“That girl, always with the jokes.” She muttered, shaking her dark head and taking the offered weapon. “Anywho, so heroes it is…” Fumbling around and withdrawing a small vial of light green fluid from her back pocket.<br/><br/>Being the stepdaughter of Ivy Von Springshire had its advantages. Her stepmother had shown her how to blend various herbs and berries to produce elixirs and other concoctions that served her well on more than one occasion. Deideu was a particularly useful plant when boiled down with a mixture of the root of Paras and the early berries of the Trate bush. In diluted forms, it slowed the movements of the victim and made their vision blurry. More than one annoying bard had had his drink spiked with her brew so that relieving him of coin was made easier. Or to just shut him up. And right now it’d have to do until she could make her way back to the inn and get her sword and her pouch.<br/><br/>Applying half the contents to the borrowed dagger, Celim gave the blonde elf a quick grin. “Salty Sow Tavern and Inn. Let’s meet there after this whole fiasco is over.” She suggested before taking off and joining the fray. Part of her wanted to at least put a dent in the number of mutants running amok but another wanted to get to the inn and get better weaponry and weighing her options. While she wasn’t someone afraid of fighting, why get her hands dirty when she could always leave that to someone else?<br/><br/>It was a doomed endeavor as far as she was concerned as she ducked to avoid the blade of a misshapen creature trying to take off her head. Whirling and piercing the creature’s side so that the mixture on her blade could do its work, she pulled short in surprise when a woman with similar skin to her own made her way closer to herself and the blonde elf. This was going to be one hell of a drinking party after this was over but right now she wanted to get to the inn and have a proper blade in her hand.<br/><br/>Moving swiftly dodging screaming, wounded people and slashing out whenever a mutant got too close, Celim was nearly at the inn when something caught her attention in her peripheral. A child with hair similar to that of her best friend trying to crawl away as a mutant stalked towards her like a dog bristling and snarling waiting to pounce.  She wasn't someone who had strong maternal instincts nor did she have a particular fondness for children. But something about the crying waif made her think of her friend at that age. Her friend who was hopefully upstairs in their room readying her bow. Either way, Celim found her body moving towards the young girl and feeling a surge of something crawl up her spine.<br/><br/>“<b>LET HER GO</b>!” She roared over the sound of fighting, an anger she’d never felt before burning in her veins as she redirected her attention at the mutant when the child was snatched up in strong jaws and shaken like a rat.   Not even when other children had picked on the half-elf for looking different had she ever felt so angry. In her heart of hearts, she'd known that she wouldn't have been able to reach the girl in time. But witnessing her death, the spray of blood propelled her forward  as her movements became blurred even to her. Gods be merciful to any who got in her way.  A man staggered in front of her, trying to flee the mutant that had just mangled his arm only to be roughly pulled out of the way.<br/><br/>When the monstrosity bellowed at her for daring to come between it and a kill, she decided that she could fly as she jumped and plowed her way into its center, knocking them both to the ground. Sharp claws raked themselves across her hips and sides and the smell of blood seemed to agitate her even further.<br/>Mutant and woman grappled one another, twisting and turning like serpents being born until her arms found their way around the beast's throat. Squeezing with all of her might, she could hear its breath whistling as it struggled to get air in its lungs until after one final, violent spasm, it went still.<br/><br/>The man whom she'd saved stood in petrified fear as she slowly staggered to her feet and stared disconnectedly at the mutant laying still in the mud.<i>More</i>. Something insidious seemed to whisper to her.<i>These things hurt your friend. They marked you. Make them <b>pay.</b></i>Each word resonating as her heart beat strongly. Blood for blood.  As she bent down and retrieved the short sword the mutant had dropped during their brief wrestling match. The mutant that had killed the young girl now caught sight of her and bared fangs at her to which she replied with a snarl of her own as the two rushed towards each other.<br/><br/>Her newfound blade made its home again and again in the beast's flesh as she simply let go of all reasoning and let her body do all the thinking for her. How glorious it felt to be disconnected from the moment and just watch from some cerebral spectator's box as the blood of one foe after another sprayed in grim celebration of one less monster.