She gasped at the sudden voice, and spun to face the newcomer with a heart hammering in her chest. And swayed a bit from the sudden motion, but tried to cover that as best as she could. She stared at the boy, though.  His attire was strange, as strange as any she had ever seen.  His face was just visible beneath the hood he had drawn up, showing dark freckled skin framing a face with eyes of the most unusual color she had ever seen before.  She stared as much for his outlandish looks as for his tone, a cross between commanding and disdainful in her mind.  So far, it had been two outlanders with strange mindsets, and if not for her unease in this new circumstance, she would have said something. She opened her mouth to reply, almost shocked at the temerity she was displaying, but the elven woman beat her to it.<br/><br/>She grimaced as the woman spoke to her, giving her that vile name she had been using the day before.  It occurred to her that the elf had yet to actually give her her own name, yet.  She cast a dark look at the other woman. "My name is Luna, not Plaguerat," she said in a tart tone and then turned to look at the boy, still a bit wide-eyed. "I am on the run from nothing. There is just nothing left for me..." she had to swallow hard at that. She couldn't come to grips with all that had gone down in the previous days, not so quickly. Instead, she rudely shoved it aside in her head. There would be proper time to grieve later.  "That is, I am not running." The other thing he said finally registered, and she directed a quick, open look at the boy. "Soldiers? Real soldiers?" It was hard to hide the wide-eyed wonder in her voice. She had never seen any that she could remember, and she knew little about them beyond that they protected Eloria from the threats of the rest of the world.  They were things from tales, stories told around camp fires or in the dark of winter.  Stories of wars and heroes, great nations fighting against dark and oppressive peoples.  She knew they were real, as did anyone with their full growth on them, but her idea of them was very much idealized from those very stories she had heard so often as a child.<br/><br/><span style="color: red">[He] looked over the pale girl, irritation playing over his features for just a moment before returning to their cold[,] almost weary visage. He didn't time for the introductions or [for] star-struck girls. As for the other, he was taken aback by her tone. From her features, she appeared Elven but her attitude was quite inconsistent with all of his experiences with them. Maybe she'd never been enslaved. He spoke once again "Whether you want there to be or not, there is definitely trouble. They've been headed this way for some time now and they will be here within minutes. I do not know why they are coming but I'd rather not be seen when they do," he walked further into the alcove[,] gently running his hand across the scraggly surface. His hand [took] on the color [of the rock] and faded into the [stone].</span>Luna stared even as the boy faded away, as though he had never been before.  She had never seen the like before, and stared pop-eyed for a moment.  And, for just a trace of a moment, she could swear she<span style="font-style: italic">felt</span>something, then.  It passed, an idle fancy.<br/><br/><span style="color: #80BF80">"Well, he's an odd one, isn't he," Jax told Luna conversationally as she began sharpening a stick for the future skewering of animals.</span>The girl nodded silently, still awed at seeing what could only be magic, that oft-whispered of power that had never really been a part of her life.<span style="color: #80BF80">"I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him," she whispered to the girl as she inspected the stick, not in the least worried about what would come. She had not done anything illegal as of late, and if they wanted to fight, well, it was their funeral.</span><br/><br/>She looked between the blank wall of stone - where the boy had vanished - and Jax with bewildered eyes.<span style="font-style: italic">Trouble?</span>she thought to herself faintly.<span style="font-style: italic">What trouble could possibly be found in Marin's Creek?  Beyond wolves and hard winters,</span>she amended.  Nothing<span style="font-style: italic">ever</span>happened out here.  Why, six years ago a scofflaw from the Inner Kingdoms had passed through town, and though he had done absolutely nothing, it was remembered and even occasionally spoken of to this day.  Had been spoken of.  That recall to the here and now struck as hard as it should, and her wide-eyed gaze darkened somewhat, like skies ready for rain.  There was never trouble here, at any rate.  Even the thief, or whatever he had been, had not been pursued.  Sometimes, people wondered if the Queen even really cared about these backwoods villages.  If it wasn't for gold and alum mines, this would all be unclaimed wilderness.<br/><br/>The valley had always been quiet; it was too far out of the way for the troubles of the world to touch it. Even ne'er-do-wells seldom bothered coming this far into the mountains. There was no money to be stolen, and nothing of value to be obtained, at least in Marin's Creek.  "I can't imagine there will be any trouble, uh....boy?" she replied.  There was no response from the lad, now.  She could see something in what Jax was saying; the boy was an odd one, and had a strange way about him. She put it down to him from being from off somewhere. "Unless you are bringing it on your heels," she said doubtfully as she settled onto a stone near the scant fire. She took a handful of berries and ate them, spitting seeds.  They still tasted of ashes in her mouth, and if she was hungry, it seemed something far distant, another person's troubles.  She ate mechanically.<br/><br/><span style="color: #80BF80">"I'm sure he is, otherwise, why would he care?" Jax shrugged. "They could just be out taking a walk, but no, Stoneface doesn't want to talk to them, do you, eh?" She added a little louder, staring directly at the spot where he had melted into the cliff. Was he a magic user, or was it something with his race? Jax hadn't encountered it before, but she found the likelihood of it being the kind of magic she knew to be extremely small. He was so young, after all. Or at least looked like it.<br/><br/>"Listen, whatever they want - you have nothing to fear. We have done nothing wrong, all right?" She said to Luna. "And like I said - I'm not carrying these daggers around for fun."</span>Luna eyed those daggers doubtfully.  They were foolish weapons - a bow was far more effective for virtually every purpose she could imagine using a weapon for.  Men didn't kill one another, at home.  The idea of using weapons on other people was foreign to her, and in fact, never even occurred to her at all.  She wasn't worried at all about the soldiers; rather, she was excited to see something from the stories she had always heard as a girl.<br/><br/>"What could I possibly have to worry about?" she asked, and tossed a couple more sticks on the fire.<br/><br/>=====================<br/><br/>The air was brisk, which was to be expected in the mountains at this time of year.  The horses snorted as they clopped along the stony ground, tack rattling and clinking as they made their way down this bloody forgotten road.  Evon had to wonder at the folly of this particular expedition.  No one came into these mountains, because<span style="font-style: italic">there was nothing in them to find</span>!  At least, nothing of any interest.  Only wolves, tree's, and backwoods people who were so far behind the times that they seldom knew what went on from one valley to the next within six months, if even that.<br/><br/>He shifted in his saddle to look back at the men with him.  There were six of them, not counting the dark stranger that rode at the rear of the, for lack of a better term, column.  The leather padding of his steel chain mail creaked as he made sure that everyone was still with him.  Unfortunately, they were.  Oh, his five companions didn't bother him much at all - all of them were veterans of the interminable raiding across the southern border with the Empire.  Blessedly, they were never more than raids; Eloria had as much chance fending off the combined might of the Empire as did any other of the numerous nations that bordered that great blood-soaked nation.  Not, of course, that they could win against the Elorian military so easily.  They had these cursed mountains to fall back to, if it came to it, and the desert-born were ill equipped to deal with what many of his nation took as another day at the park.<br/><br/>No, all of his concern was focused on the one rider trailing them.  He rode a little apart from the rest, they in their chain shirts and greaves, long swords at hips and horse bows unstrung and shoved into saddle quivers.  That worthy wore a silk lined coat of fine wool, embroidered in the classic maze pattern of the nation in thread-of-gold around the collar and sleeves.  His dark trousers were unsoiled despite two weeks in the saddle, and the dgger thrust behind his belt - ornamental, Evon was certain, for if that man had ever seen any fighting he would eat his own boots raw - worked with gold and fiery gems.  He would have looked a fool if not for the heavy gold necklace he wore, upon which was suspended the Scepter of the Kingdom.  This man had all of the authority of the Queen behind him.  It made him a very dangerous man, behind those hooded eyes and stone hard features.<br/><br/>"I believe there is a village up ahead," he shouted back to his companions, who all grumbled about the fact.  They had been forced to bed down in a stone-studded meadow some two miles back for the night, and had they known there was a town close to hand they might have pressed on.  Even little hamlets at the edge of forever might have an inn, a real bed to sleep in, and possibly some beer to wet their throats.  Only, the dark little man with the weight of a throne behind him had demanded that they stop where they had, and had threatened to<span style="font-style: italic">hang</span>any man that disobeyed.<br/><br/>"Our goal is beyond it," that dark man croaked, his voice a dry rasp.  His plain features were offset by the grotesque scar at his throat; someone had tried to cut it for him at some time in the past and failed.  A pity, that.  And, if the rumors about this fellow were to be believed, it was probably best to hope that those who had attempted it had died screaming, but quickly.  "The High Lord is very curious about what the surveyor's uncovered in the valley beyond it."<br/><br/>Evon grunted, and he heard the grumbling from his men as well.  Sent out into the middle of nowhere to escort this...this man.  All so he could look upon some ancient ruin that hd been discovered last year, no less.  A whole year!  It had taken a whole year for news of the discovery to reach the capitol, and then for the powers that be to assemble a team to go an investigate it.  He had little doubt it had much to do with the situation in the Noorah.  War had broken out somewhere deep in the desert, and it was clear from initial reports that the Empire had won that exchange in its usual crushing fashion.  There were those who worried that if it didn't have to chew too much on its latest acquisition, that it might turn its greedy stare elsewhere.  Eloria wasn't so far away, after all.<br/><br/>All the same, Evon disliked this man.  The High Lord?  The only person who should have any say in the disposition of the army and its resources was the Queen and her trusted advisors and military leaders.  High Lord Davian was something of a new face; he had risen to power in ten years time which was no mean feat within the court.  There were those that said his own power within the kingdom rivaled that of the Queen.  There were even some who said that it exceeded her Majesties own.<br/><br/>"Sir?"  His second heeled his horse forward, pointing ahead of them.  "Sir, I see smoke atop that saddle pass up there.  It appears there are either some locals or travelers up there."  Evon looked where the man pointed, and saw the faint curl of smoke coming from off to the side of the road.  It was perhaps five hundred yards down the line yet.  Erik had surprisingly good eyes.  It was what made him an excellent scout.<br/><br/>He opened his mouth to tell the man it was of no consequence, when the man at the back stirred.  "Well."  The word cut through the silence of the woods like a knife.  "That is truly interesting," he said to himself, and Evon had to suppress a shudder.<br/><br/>"We will leave them be.  Its probably just a bunch of farmers out on a hunting trip.  Or maybe some merchants."  A dry, wheezing laugh cut his chain of thoughts in half, and he turned in the saddle to stare at him.  "You have something to say, m'Lord?"<br/><br/>Choking off his wheezing laughter that was so out of keeping with his youthful appearance, the man grinned.  "Oh, nothing at all.  Only that your farmers have in their midst someone who can touch upon the force of creation."  Evon staggered as if he had been punched.  That was....well, not impossible, but unlikely.  Mages were sought by the Army and the Crown equally.  They weren't precisely rare, but they were uncommon enough that any such could earn themselves a very comfortable life working for the Crown of the Stars.  Before he could reply, the odious little man continued.  "Someone up there just used a little bit of it.  It was almost too small for me to feel, so weak, but it was there.  And it has a peculiar flavor to it, too.  Not human."<br/><br/>Evon turned in his saddle, and faced forward.  Towards the quickly approaching fire and its unknown occupants.  Unconsciously, he had dropped a hand to his sword, as if that would even do him any good against even a weak mage.  "What is your suggestion, my Lord?" he asked through gritted teeth.  Asking it almost hurt.<br/><br/>"Why, we should examine these fellows.  I have not felt that kind of magic in years.  It has...a peculiar taste to it."  He leaned forward, and seemed to sniff the air.  "It smells of sage and sand, so it does."  Those words cut to every heart immediately.  There was no denying what the bastard was implying.  And, through implying, the further implications of such a charge.<span style="font-style: italic">Noorah is already here?!</span>It was impossible.  But....he had not been a soldier for fifteen years by taking unnecessary chances.  As they approached the fire, and the two occupants he could see, he subtly gestured for the others to circle round, making sure that escape was not possible.<br/><br/>In case.<br/><br/>"Ho, the fire!  In the name of Her Majesty, I demand that you identify yourselves!"