His furious charge back towards the wagons took him through the centre of the horde of bestial humanoids. Something was wrong about these ‘beasts’, he thought the term beast as they were not the same as those he had encountered elsewhere on the egg, they smelled wrong, sickly, or diseased perhaps.<br/><br/>Cleaving into the rear ranks of the creatures, the heavy bladed glaive cleaving into bodies or knocking them to the ground, only Malkier’s increased strength with the setting of the sun kept it from lodging inside one of his foes. The fury of the horde seemed to be focussed forwards upon Bran, Deryn and the other members of the caravan.<br/><br/>Malkier fought his way towards the humans, striking out with both blade and butt of his weapon, caring only for getting inside the perimeter of humanity.<br/><br/>He overheard the exchange between Bran and Deryn, hearing their voices rise above the din of battle spurred him on, someone was left alive in there at least.<br/><br/>Pressing on Deryn’s cry of surprise as one of the Beastkin, a large canine faced creature, had slipped her guard and tried to sink it’s fangs into her flesh. Crashing through the press of bodies, muttering an invocation and calling forth his dark energies, wreathing his weapon in a malevolent green and black aura, catching another leaping creature in the chest as it had launched itself at Deryn while she was fighting off her other assailant.<br/><br/>The beast’s body stiffened and held firm, as if rigor mortis had set in and came crashing to the ground bouncing off the side of the cart, eyes wild as it lay rigid and motionless upon the ground.<br/><br/>Turning to briefly take stock of the situation now that he had re-joined the fighting line of the caravan guards, the press from the horde seemed to have lessened, some of the more cowardly were backing away, others becoming more wary of engaging. Dozens of bodies littered the ground, viscera and gore seeming into the earth in a semi circle 10 feet deep around the wagons. Malkier had suffered several small wounds and dents to his armour, but most held firm, it was nothing he would not heal or repair given time. Unfortunately amongst the dead, the bloodied and tattered livery of several of Deryn’s Company could be seen and despite no knowing them, this strange and senseless assault by creatures that usually possessed a sentience like himself, Bran, Deryn and the others, what had driven them to do it.<br/><br/><b>“Is everyone up okay? Do you have any healers amongst your number?”</b>he asked aloud, while looking over to Deryn. She seemingly had more skill than perhaps he had accredited her with, something to keep in mind should their paths cross again in less amicable circumstances. He was not sure if she was as indoctrinated into her nation’s beliefs of his kind as most he had met. Malkier was pretty certain that Bran was about as rigid as they came and knew he would not rest if the old man knew what he was.<br/><br/>Moving amongst the corpses Malkier made his way towards Deryn<b>“Are you okay? Did any of them injure you?” </b>He knew his understanding of patterns would allow him to check her health but, preferred in this case to ask her. It was as he got close that he remembered the one that lay near her feet, eyes wide and frantic, ragged breaths fogging the cold night air as it’s body refused to move while infused with his magics. They had some time yet to study the beast before it became free, and if necessary he could probably keep it that way for an hour or so, but it would certainly be questioned by the company around him.<b>“We have a live one!”</b>he called, leaning his glaive against the cart as he bents to grab the creature’s legs and drag it towards the centre of the wagons.<br/><br/>The onlookers muttered things about it not being safe to have a live beast in their camp, others just looked confused at why it was motionless. Malkier knew anyone with any healing ability would be able to discern what was holding the beast in this state, but having a live creature to examine was more important right now.<br/><br/>Kneeling beside it, gently closing his own eyes as he reached out his hand, hovering about an inch from the body as he focussed his ability, channelling a fine thread of energy to touch the pattern of the beast and determine what was going on.<br/><br/><b>“It appears some strange disease maybe affecting these creatures, nothing I have seen before, but I am not well versed in analysing the patterns of other creatures.”</b><br/><br/>Standing to look around the group of the men, and women, of Albion,<b>“We need to know what this is and where it originates.”</b>Walking away from the temporarily paralysed beast, Malkier retrieved his glaive from where it rested, the bone blade caked in the gore from the brief battle. Calling over to the group that remained staring at the creature prone upon the floor<b>“It won’t remain like that for long, I suggest one of you end it before it is free to savage you once again.” </b>He smiled wryly, he wasn’t sure the creature would attack, left alone as it was, it could just have easily ran off into the forest, but why take chances.<br/><br/>Malkier caught Bran as he walked past giving instructions to his men to clear up their dead and care for any wounded.<b>“We need to find what this is. I don’t know how much of your journey you have left, or what additional resources you can call upon, but we need to the source of this. Roving packs of frenzied things is the last thing any nation needs.”</b><br/><br/>He hoped up onto the back of one of the wagons checking over his own injuries, several large punctures in his armour warned of injuries beneath, fingers lightly probing through the holes, he winced at the tender exposed flesh beneath, cursing and shaking his head he began a quite chant, first on one side then the other. Out of sight his flesh knitting together as if nothing had occurred. As for his armour, well not much could be done about that here, he would need a tanner for some offcuts at the least to patch the holes and the nearest town was about 3 days walk to the North.<br/><br/>Getting down from the cart he wove his way through the soldiers going about their duties to speak to Deryn<b>“Do you know the route your party will take?” </b>He was hoping they would be going in the same direction, there seemed no sense to travel separately if they were going the same way, especially if this was not an isolated group that had been afflicted<b>“If you are headed Northward, I believe there is an encampment of the Starcraft Tribe on the Northen edge of the forest, they can likely raise this matter faster within their own nation than either of us can.”</b>Looking the young woman up and down once more, he smiled softly, again the tips of his elongated canines protruding from his lips, his head nodding in acknowledgement<b>“You did well earlier Young One.” </b>his smile broadening as he could see how the appellation irked her,<b>“One would be wise not to underestimate you, but equally you must not let your guard down when jibing the old man so.”<br/>
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