Bow Training in the Woods
A tale freshly told of the Breefolk
Seeker agrees to give Keldean a beginner hunting lesson. The ranger gets an unwelcome surprise.
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
Early morning in Archet finds the quiet little village just waking up and getting about it\'s business. Among the folk out and about is Rhifaroth - who has taken up his bow and quiver and just left his own house a little bit ago to start treking west. The man seems to be heading towards the more open land north of Bree this morning.
Behind him, he has left his eager wife who, with Arabella to help with the twins, has set herself to picking early blackberries for making jelly, tarts, pies and whatnot.
The day looks promissing for the rain of last night has let up and the clouds are beginning to break and scatter.
It\'s a familiar young man that\'s coming from the opposite direction with an excitement to his step and a worn bow clutched in his hand. Keldean has actually managed to aquire the hunting weapon it seems, and he\'s carrying a wrapped bundle as well. He doesn\'t notice Rhifaroth at first. His brown eyes are studying a wet patch of mud that he\'s hopping around by stepping along some thick tree roots.
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
Catching sight of the young man here on the edge of the village, Seeker slightly varies his own path to vere a little more direction towards Keldean. Watching the young man trying to avoid the mud brings a hint of amusement to the older man, \"Good morning, Kel. I see you managed to get yourself a bow. Have you been practicing?\"
Pale eyes slip over the other, remembering perhaps their last encounter which wasn\'t the most pleasant.
Keldean looks up sharply at the voice, startled. He almost loses his balance and steps into the sloppy mud, but catches himself at the last moment. \"Well.. I borrowed it. There\'s a man in town that lent it to me, in exchange for some help at his house.\"
The teen hesitates, then asks in a hopeful tone of voice. \"Are you busy? I was .. well.. I went to the market this morning, and I was talking with one of the merchants about how you said you might teach me but I thought you might be angry, and he suggested I get some lunch to bring along. So, I did!\" Keldean holds up the wrapped bundle. \"Bread, and a bit of cheese, and some fresh juice, squeezed this morning, the man said.\"
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
Seeker quirks a black brow at Keldean, \"He did, did he?\" a pause, \"Well, as it happens, I was just departing to do some hunting. But have you actually practiced yet? Can you hit anything?\" Amusement is in the older man\'s tone and his eyes, \"And, have you hunted anything before, Kel?\"
A hand though gestures to the boy, \"You can answer my questions as we go. Come along then and we\'ll see if you know anything - so I\'ll know where to start.\"
The teen\'s eyes light up when Seeker mentions going hunting today, and he grins broadly when the man seems willing to let him go along. \"Well, I\'ve caught rabbits before and some snakes.. but I guess that isn\'t the same thing. I haven\'t practiced yet, he told me not to try anything with the bow in town at all. He said I might hit someone.\"
Keldean seems in far friendlier spirits today, his manner more polite and cheerful. Of course, now the teen -wants- something from the ranger, having finally attained a bow to use, so it\'s likely that he\'s catering his mood to get what he desires. His auburn curls are pulled back into a loose ponytail and he seems more cleaned up than usual, so he\'s made some effort to look presentable.
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
The older man doesn\'t seem to mind ... indeed, he has his own reasons to want to cultivate a friendliness with Keldean, if only to try and influence the youth to stay out of trouble.
A soft laugh at the comment about hitting folk, \"Well, I\'ll make sure to stand well behind you when you are ready to try!\" His own eyes bright, for who could be in bad spirits on a fine morning bright and early, Rhifaroth nods as he walks along the treeline and then into the wood, lowering his voice even more, \"We won\'t find much of anything so close to the village... \" A glance back to the youth to see how he\'s moving through the wood, \"When we break the wood, I\'ll have a look at what you have brought. See if you know a few basics before we really try anything.\"
And still moving westward, the trees slip past...
Keldean follows easily, nodding at the man\'s words. The teen isn\'t terribly quiet as he moves, his steps seeming to almost deliberately land on every fallen leaf, twig, or pinecone. \"Okay. I\'ll be really careful, I promise.\" He\'s making an effort to be agreeable, obviously thinking over what he says before speaking.
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
Coming to the edge of the trees, the Dunadan stops and winces as Keldean steps on something more that makes noise. Rhifaroth turns his head, \"First of all... you are going to need to spend many hours in the woods just practicing moving -quietly-.\" The man tries not to frown, his scar seamed and tattooed face looking at Keldean, \"Easier, out in the open grasslands. But you\'ll mostly find small, fast, harder to hit game out here.\"
Having stopped, Rhifaroth waits until the youth catches up to him, \"String your bow and knock and arrow.\" His own pale eyes scan the grassland that opens up and spreads out to the west and north of their current position. An arm is raised to point out into the open, \"See that hummuck of grass there? With the bit of dead scrub sticking up? Try and see if you can land an arrow anywhere near to that.\" So that \'Seeker\' might see if Kel even knows how to string a bow, knock it properly, draw and aim...
Keldean immediately tries to move more quietly, but it\'s hardly much of an improvement. He mutters a quiet apology when he notices Seeker wincing. \"Sorry.. I guess I\'ll practice later.\" When they stop the boy carefully sets down the bundle and two arrows he\'s carrying, and digs his hand into his pocket to pull out the bowstring. He examines the weapon for a moment, then attempts to hook the string on properly.
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
The older, tall man waits patiently for the younger to do as he has instructed. Rhifaroth watches Keldean for a moment. His own, longer bow is already loosely strung but the string is slipped so as to lay lax against the yew wood. \"When you get it on one end, reverse it and set it against the inside of your foot like this...\" He demonstrates, then bends his bow lightly by leaning against it just a little. His left hand holds the wood while his right slips the string up into the notch, \"You can keep the bow strung, the string slipped up one end off of the notch. Then, when you need it, you need only lean on it a little to make it ready quickly.\"
Keldean looks up at the explanation, watching closely. He looks down at the bow he\'s holding again and clumsily mimics the example that Rhif just gave. \"Ah! Got it!\" He says when he figures it out, plucking at the string a few times in satisfaction.
The teen stoops down to scoop up one of the arrows, and then stares in dumbfounded confusion as he realizes he has no idea as to what he\'s doing at all. He looks up at Seeker questioningly, an almost worried expression on his face.
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
Well, if one thing can be said for him, the older man is a patient teacher, \"Most arrows have two or three fletches... that\'s the feathers on the non-pointy end. If it has two, as yours do, just stick the groove over the string. Mine have three... for better spin and stability.\" Seeker draws out one of his own cloth-yard shafts which is considerbly longer than Keldean\'s shorter arrrows.
\"See here? These have three, so it must be placed more carefully so that the notch lines up with the flatter side so that the third feather sticks out. You can train yourself to grab it just so from the quiver so that you don\'t ever have to actually look to see if you have it lined up right.\" The Dunadan shows how he has drawn the arrow using three fingers of his right hand, placed just so. Then he tips his own bow horizontally, \"Lay your arrow on the top, or left side of your bowstem like so. You can shoot either holding your bow vertically, or horizontally, but do not load your arrow on the right side. It will tend to slip or fall out of place.\"
Then Rhifaroth pauses to see Keldean nock his own arrow.
Again, the teen watches carefully, absorbing everything Seeker is telling him with quiet enthusiasm. When he attempts to nock the arrow himself, he drops it the first time, flushing in embarrassment. It\'s quickly snatched up from the ground and he tries again, concentrating. He frequently looks between his own grip and Seeker\'s trying to match how the man holds the arrow against the string. \"Like this?\" He finally asks, fairly confident he has it done properly.
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
Rhifaroth nods, \"There are several ways you can hold the arrow to the string. Whichever works best for you, use. I prefer to use my first two fingers, some prefer the middle fingers.\"
\"Then, when you are ready, resting the arrow on the top of your left knuckle, tip your bow slightly horizontally so you don\'t have to worry about your arrow falling off to the left. To ease strain on your right arm, you can push the bow -away- from you and not just pull the string with your right hand.\"
Seeker lifts his own bow slowly, with exagerated movement so that Keldean can see what he is doing. Sighting on the bit of dead limb sticking up, which is far shorter than his bow\'s range can easily reach, he pushes his bow easily away from himself to bend it, the string going well back to his right ear as his right arm draws the arrow back... and his arrow is more than a yard long to enable him to do so. Then, just letting go with his right fingers and not shifting his left arm the slightest, the arrow sails free without even a twang of bow string against his left arm guard.
The shaft sails fairly staight onto the target area and hits the thicker, lower portion of the limb by the grassy hummock.
Keldean pulls the string back slowly, then loosens it again to watch Seeker shoot the arrow. He looks up, watching the shaft bury into the limb. \"Okay..\" He straightens his left arm out slowly, then again pulls back on the string. He almost drops the arrow again, but his brow tightens in concentration and he strengthens his grip on it. When he finally releases, the arrow flies wildly into the air, way off target, but he manages to send it sailing much farther than he anticipated. \"Wow!\" He exclaims, grinning.
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
A smile from the Dunadan, \"Now... did you pay close attention to where your arrow fell? Because now, you must go and fetch it.\" A chuckle, \"Unless you can make your own quickly or have an endless supply, you shall wish to recover every one you can.\"
A gesture to send the young man looking, \"Don\'t worry that you didn\'t hit what you were aiming for. All you need is lots and lots of practice. A few hours every morning, or evening, as you are able.\"
So saying, Rhifaroth keeps his own bow in his left hand and starts an easy, long legged jog out to retrieve his own arrow.
[Cordelia(#1394)] There is another here, watching in the trees behind the two, silent and only moving when Keldean makes noise. Now as Rhifaroth starts to jog ahead, Cordelia ventures to take a look out to where the two had been practicing---and then she settles back down into her hiding place far back in the trees and bushes, not even watching for the most part--she doesn\'t want to risk giving the ranger a sense that he is watched.
That grin fades as he realizes he didn\'t pay the least bit of attention to where it landed. Keldean looks at the tall grasses of the field and his shoulders sink in dismay. The bow is propped against the tree where he set down the other things he brought along and then he strikes off into the meadow to search out the arrow.
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
With a bit of humor in his eyes, the tall man lays his own recovered arrow back into the nocked position and walks the distance to close on where Keldean is searching, \"If you can\'t find it, don\'t worry too much. Go back to your previous position and use your last arrow to try again. But pay close attention to where it lands... then retrieve it and shoot it again and again until I come back, all right? I am going to scout out a aways and see if I can flush any foul. Game birds, once they leave the ground, will be hard to hit so you might want to stick to trying for deer once you can get comfortable with your bow.\"
With a bit of a smile, the tattoed man adds before he turns away, \"I\'ll come back in a little while... might be gone an hour or two. If you are still here, we\'ll lunch and I\'ll tell you a bit about hunting deer.\"
\"Okay. I\'ll stay here.\" Keldean is a bit distracted, his brown eyes still searching through the tall grasses, determination on his face as he tries to find the missing arrow. In the back of his mind there\'s fear that he might screw everything up, but Seeker says he\'ll come back and he\'ll just have to hope that it works out okay. Any reaction otherwise would look too suspicious. \"Oh, I think I see it!\" He rushes off a few yards and snatches up the lost arrow with a hollar of triumph.
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
A nod is the only reply for the tall man has turned away and started to jog off into the open land. Long legs carry him easily, even though Seeker\'s left leg is faintly lame and misbalances the length of his strides just a little. The man moves off, then begins a slow, leisurely pattern of walking that tacks loosely back and forth in zig-zag pattern towards the north west.
Time passes... an hour, perhaps, maybe more... the sun climbs higher into the morning sky, closer and closer to zenith. The bright spring day grows warmer and a warm breeze kicks up over the plain.
A little later than he had said he would return, nearly three hours later, Seeker can finally be seen a bit to the north, coming back along the edge of the trees. He carries his long bow low by his left side, and something else hangs from his hand on the right. Pheasants it looks like. Two or three of them perhaps.
[Cordelia(#1394)] In her hiding place, Cordelia ventures a peek as Rhifaroth moves off. She doesn\'t dare move from her spot--it might be trouble to settle in again without being noticed. Once she sees where the man is gone, she stays put, not moving at all--in fact, she closes her eyes for a while to pass the time.
Keldean does spend a lot of the time practicing with the bow. He actually talked Nob into having the day off and isn\'t going to waste one of the only chances he\'s gotten to try using a bow. After the first hour the teen starts to grow ansy, the first shred of worry creeping into him. After the second his interest in shooting arrows dwindles and he frequently looks up for the ranger. After a time Keldean finally sits down by the tree and waits, systematically breaking twigs into smaller pieces while he worries about how angry Cordelia will be with him if he completely botches this up.
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
Not at first seeing Keldean waiting for his return ... for hunting can take little time or much time depending upon chance... Rhifaroth comes walking up. The man pauses and looks off towards the target area and sees the grass trampled down a bit. Evidence that Keldean was taking his practice seriously.
Shifting the birds, Rhifaroth turns his head to scan the trees, \"Kel, are you still around?\" His voice is low, not pitched to carry far.
Keldean looks up sharply at the voice, and when he recognizes the man he stands up. \"Yeah, I\'m here!\" Relief floods through him. At least Seeker didn\'t ditch him. \"I broke one of the arrows.. \" He reaches down and pick up the ruined shaft, frowning and walking slowly to meet the man and show him. The wood is cracked down the middle, split from an impact against something hard.
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
Glancing at the broken arrow, Seeker doesn\'t seem to care, \"Don\'t worry about it. Give it to me. I can take the tip off and make you another arrow. This week I\'ll fletch you up a dozen or so using this one for a guide for length. I don\'t have metal tips to spare but for practice you can shoot them untipped. Or trade for some in town and I can add them.\"
Lifting the three birds, one male and two female pheasant, the Dunadan motions for the lad to start back, \"I got something for dinner tonight, and some... let\'s go sit in the shade for a little. Do you know where to aim for if you did get close enough to a deer for a shot, Keldean?\"
Keldean heads back towards the shady spot he was sitting in, where the lunch he brought is waiting. \"I\'ll see if I can get some. Thanks!\" And the teen actually feels the slightest twinge of regret for what he\'s about to try and do to the man. Seeker\'s never been so nice to him before. When the question of the deer comes up, Kel shakes his head. \"No, I\'ve never hunted deer before. My father doesn\'t know how to hunt and there was no one around to teach me anything like that.\"
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
Seeker drops the game birds near the tree Keldean had been resting against. The tall man folds himself to sit down cross legged, \"Deer is what you\'ll want. Large, plentiful, not that hard to stalk... make fairly habitual rounds, obvious places where they bed down. For now, I would suggest you just watch the groudn wherever you go when you walk places outside of Bree. You see tracks, stop, look at them... make a guess as to how old they might be, how many animals, which direction they were moving... then take a few minutes to follow those tracks as far as you can. You do this often, you\'ll start seeing things you never noticed before.\"
Drawing a long breath and relaxing, Seeker looks around at the woods around them, \"Your family\'s the Pickwicks, aren\'t they? Potatos?\"
Keldean sits down as well, reaching for the bag of things he brought. He starts to untie the cord holding the bundle together, but looks up warily when Seeker mentions his family name. The farm is only a mile or two northwest of Archet. \"Umm.. yeah.\" The teen looks down again, growing tense. Is it from the shift in conversation, or the task he\'s set to. \"I have some bread and cheese..\" He pulls out one of the small loaves, offering it to the ranger. There are two small jugs of juice as well.
[Cordelia(#1394)] The wind blows through the trees, stirring up branches and leaves, which rustle about noisily. Cordelia shifts in her place, moving so that she can watch more closely now.
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
Rhifaroth isn\'t accustomed to accepting food or drink from others. Recently though, the man has been chastized about being ... so paranoid, and distrustful. What could be wrong with bread and cheese, so basic? And though he looks up to watch Keldean, the lad is a boy. Almost a young man. His sister seems nice enough. Must be a descent family by the sound of them.
So, trying a bit of advice given recently that he should try to relax and not worry quite so much, the Dunadan accepts the bread and cheese handed over to himself, \"I\'ve never been up there to the farm, nor met your folk. You are old enough to strike out on your own if you don\'t wish to be a farmer, lad. No worries that I\'d drag you back to your father.\" A bit of a chuckle, \"I hated my own father. I was always slipping off to hunt, or go wandering about far and wide across the land. Made him so angry, but nothing could stop me. I was very bull headed in my youth.\"
A glance at the lad, then the older man draws the knife at his belt - a handsome, elvish knife with a handle made of golden hued tiger maple wood. The cheese is sliced thinly and then Rhifaroth takes a taste, \"You should though give it some thought... what you want to do with your life.\"
The bread is nothing special, a sour dough. The cheese is very sharp. He picked out things with strong flavors specifically just in case the drug that he was given has any taste to it. The teen takes a large bite of bread, quite hungry, as he always is. He looks away when Seeker speaks of his father.
\"I don\'t hate my father. We fight, but I don\'t hate him. He always goes on about how it\'s my -duty- to take over the farm, because I\'m the only son. It wasn\'t fair! He doesn\'t know where I\'m working. Jacquelyn sent word, but she promised not to tell him where we are, only that we\'re fine.\" Kel digs out the two bottles of juice, setting one on the ground for the ranger and helping himself to a drink from the other.
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
A flick of his pale grey eyes as Seeker looks up from cleaning off his knife. It is resheathed, tucked at an angle into the front of his belt, \"My father was a drunk. We never did get along. But, I can understand your father wanting his only son to take over running the farm. You could, you know... take a few years off to learn about other things, then go back to it. Learn to administrate it. If it brings in enough, you can hire out much of the work. I expect your father does anyway. Be a nice lure to choose you a good wife, Keldean. A woman won\'t want to marry a man who has no prospects. Can\'t support her and children.\"
The bread is very dry, and a little salty, the cheeze very sharp in taste. The Dunadan glances once more at Keldean as he drinks his own juice. Seeker\'s own gaze lifts to scan the land around them. Seeing no one about, the day growing warmer, he reaches a hand over to pick up the other juice Keldean set over by him. He opens it, smells of it, takes a small sip, then says, \"We\'ll have to show you what to do with a deer so that when you are lucky enough to get one, you\'ll know how to prepare it.\" A faint chuckle, \"You aim for the heart, by the way. Behind the elbow, or infront of the shoulder. When your bow skills are good enough, you can aim for the upper throat, eye, or spine at the top base of the neck.\"
Seeker takes another drink of the juice, then eats a bit more, looking around. It\'s going to be a hot day - thankfully they are in the shade and the hunting is done.
Keldean frowns when Seeker makes more suggestions about the farm. \"He never hired out. He always made me do it. I told him a hundred times that I didn\'t want to be a farmer and he didn\'t care. So I left. I tell people about it and they\'re always asking if my father was mean, but.. he\'s not. We just don\'t get along.\" He takes another bite of the bread in his hand, sighing and leaning back against the tree.
\"Nobody understands, and most of the people that think they do have never actually -done- any farming.\" Keldean shudders as he thinks of the endless rows of plants that had to be tended every day. In his opinion, his father always planted far too many. The teen yawns then and takes another slow sip of his drink.
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
Something catches the Dunadan\'s eye. He sets the bread and cheese aside and gets to his feet, stepping over to look at the very tree he had leaned his long bow against when he sat down. With the clay juice bottle still in his left hand, Seeker touches the bark of the trunk, \"Look here... a buck was here within the last day or so. Rubbing velvet off of his antlers, looks like.\" The man picks off a bit of dried, papery skin with reddish brown fuzz on one side. Rhifaroth turns and tosses the tid bit to the young man.
Taking another sip of the juice, the man nods, \"I\'ve had to take up some farming lately myself. It\'s hard wor- ..\" Rhifaroth sort of steps suddenly to this left, correcting his balance. Lifting his free hand, he puts it up to his brow, feeling strange. Why does he feel so wierd? Almost dizzy... things seem too bright.
Trying to focus, the tattooed man looks to Keldean to see if Kel is likewise feel odd. But then, suddenly Rhifaroth\'s expression changes and he looks at the juice as though he were holding a snake! The man drops it suddenly and reaches for the hilt of his long sword, \"YOU!\" The word is thrown accusingly, icy cold grey eyes upon the young man, \"Why?!\" But even as he starts to move towards Keldean, his face a look of surprise and shock, the man stumbles and tries to catch himself against the tree.
Keldean leans forward to take up the piece of fuzz, looking at it curiously. Then he looks up at the ranger to ask a question, but the teen adopts a confused expression when Rhif trails off in his words. He slowly climbs to his feet, a frown growning on his face. \"Seeker, are you oka-.. what??\" The teen sounds very concerned, then draws back in shock when the man suddenly snarls at him.
Keldean steps forward to try and offer him aid when he stumbles, reaching out to support him. \"What\'s the matter??\" His brown eyes move down to the bottle, \"Is there something.. \" The teen stops speaking and lurches back, looking more alarmed. \"I don\'t feel .. right.. \" He drops down to one knee, his eyes on the ground now.
[Cordelia(#1394)] There\'s a sudden stirring in the bushes many feet behind the two men as Cordelia jumps to her feet. She hadn\'t wanted Rhifaroth to realize that Keldean was drugging him, and this is an unexpected development. Quickly she moves forward--then stops behind a tree as Keldean also seems to be getting ill. She hides herself again, eyes closed briefly in a quick prayer that the ranger hasn\'t seen or heard her.
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
Rhifaroth knows this feeling, that faint after taste... his head feels muddled, his limbs already dragging, heavy. Acelen\'s horse medicine, or something like enough to it. His heart rate having jumped up, his breathing a bit ragged, the archer tries to focus on the young man. But Keldean isn\'t acting at all like he expected. Not acting guilty. Acting like ... the drug was in both of their provisions.
Holding to the tree, the tattooed man\'s eyes suddenly look to the woods around them, \"Then who, Kel-ean?\" Rhifaroth\'s words slur a little, \"Did Cordee-lia... ?\" The man swallows, tries to clear his vision. He feels so sleepy, \"What? No, I don\' know... ask ... Muir...\"
Muttering something that makes no sense, the archer slips from the grip he had on the tree as his weaker left leg buckles beneath him. Rhifaroth falls onto the ferny forest floor and lays there. An arm moves a little, trying to get himself back up but then stops. The man just lays there, breathing, eyes half open. He tries to mutter something else but it\'s not comprehensible.
Keldean doesn\'t say anything, he looks up once when Seeker starts speaking of asking his wife, a sluggish reaction. Then the teen crumples down to the dirt, motionless. Cordelia had told him he would fall asleep, so he plays the part. That\'s easy enough. It hadn\'t been hard to fake the panic after the ranger immediately started accusing him of foul play.
[<#1394>] Cordelia now runs into the clearing, running first to kneel next to the fallen ranger, one hand on the man\'s chest to make sure that he still breathes. Strangely, there\'s an anxious look on her face. Despite the warm spring temperature, her hood is drawn up--and her dark hair has been carefully braided and put up, and hidden under a cap. \"
[<#27282>]
Rhifaroth is breathing. A little fast but Cordelia can feel his breathing smoothing out, easing as though he were resting. His normall pale, grey eyes are partly open but they look blackened. The pupils have begun to dialate open, obliterating the pale irises.
To the sound of the voice speaking in a familiar tongue, the Dunadan mutters a reply, slurred, \"
Keldean lays motionless. Maybe he actually did give himself some of the poison too, as she suggested. He listens to the elven speech, a faint furrowing of his brow the only thing that gives away his little act. Cordelia speaks elven?
[<#1394>] \'Shhhh,\' Cordelia answers the man, still trying to maintain a lilt to her voice. \"
\'Keldean!\' Cordelia then hisses, turning toward the boy. \'Get up and help me now! Do you want him to wake and kill us both?! Get up! Get the food, get the arrows and these birds. Now!\'
Keldean sits up when she gets that edge in her voice. No need to tick off Cordelia now. There\'s a smug grin on his face, but he doesn\'t say anything, just climbs to his feet and collects everything as she\'s told him to. He slings the birds over his shoulder, then gathers up the arrows, food, and other odds and ends.
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
There is no response at all to the woman\'s voice. Rhifaroth\'s eyes are closed as Cordelia made them, his breathing more regular and soft. The man makes no movement as his weapons are stripped from him, Keldean moving about their \'camp\', collecting things and making tidy.
[Cordelia(#1394)] \"Get everything!\" Cordelia orders now, giving the ranger a quick glance to make sure she\'s collected all of his visible weapons. The thought crosses her mind that there are others hidden, but no time for that now. Standing, the girl adjusts the sword, knife, bow, and quiver of arrows in her hands--and then moves to disappear into the thicket. \"Stay here,\" she says to Keldean. \"I\'m getting us some help.\"
Keldean nods, still refraining from saying anything. He has this fear that somehow Rhifaroth might hear anything that he says and have proof that he\'s an accomplice. The teenager gets all the evidence collected, then begins to pace nervously, frequently glancing towards the thicket that Cordelia disappeared into. Once he stops and looks over at the still form of the ranger, seriously considering checking the man for any coin, but Keldean decides against it. If he gets caught by anyone else now, he can still talk himself out of the situation. Possibly..
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
For his part, Keldean is worrying for no good reason. The Dunadan is out cold, unconscious and not even muttering now. Obviously the dosage Keldean must have managed to get into the food or juice was quite enough and then some. There is no stirring, no movement from Rhifaroth. Just soft breathing, the mind drifing far away someewhere else, quite, quite unaware here.
[Cordelia(#1394)] The girl isn\'t gone that long, perhaps 5 to ten minutes at most. Here she is, carefully weaving her way back through the woods. Two sallow skinned men behind her. \"There.\" She points to the motionless form of the ranger. \"Can you get him to the wagon?\" She awaits their answer, surveying the area. \"All the grass is trumpaled here.\"
Keldean examines the two men, studying them carefully for a moment. Then he looks over when Cordelia mentions the grass. \"That\'s okay. I\'ll just tell people exactly what I was doing with Seeker, and that I fell asleep.. and when I woke he was gone and I was alone. I should go see his wife later.\" The teen has apparantly put quite some thought into his part of things. He adjusts the load he\'s carrying, then prepares to follow them.
[Cordelia(#1394)] The men are big and brutish looking, and one of them walks over to the ranger, frowning at the size of the man that they are apparently going to have to lug to a cart a goodly walk away from here. Still, they kneel, one man taking Rhifaroth\'s feet, the other grabbing him by the shoulders. None too gently, they start to carry the ranger through the thicket from which Cordelia emerged--which causes the woman to look worried.
She sighs, watching the men for a moment, then turning to Keldean. \"That\'s a good idea. You don\'t want her to think you\'re implicated in this....but those bushes..that\'s a dead giveaway.\" Indicating the path through the woods that the men are making carrying the man.
Keldean watches as they carry the man, then frowns when Cordelia mentions the bushes. \"I don\'t know. Tell them not to do that, I guess?\" He swats at a bug that bites his neck, then suggests, \"I could pretend that I don\'t remember exactly where we were sitting. It\'s a big field.\" He skims the forestline for other likely places to claim they had eaten lunch at. \"I didn\'t know you could speak elven..\"
[Rhifaroth(#27282)]
Though Rhifaroth is a tall man, and completely limp, totally unhelpful to the efforts of the others... there is also no resistance. He is picked up and carried off without ceremony. His greenish grey thin cloak drags on the ground behind him, catching on thorns as the two men move through the brambles and bushes, careless.