Thread: Grand Quest (Sharub & Kosmik_Khaos

The Guild Hall was bustling with life and sound. Countless bodies moving through the many twisting halls acting as the life blood coursing through veins of a giant. The constant movement and sound of hundreds on hundreds of bodies all living in the same moment. It was enough to make him miss the solitude of the Broken Mountains despite their many dangers, or even the harsh climate of the Lo'vi Desert. Through the eclectic sounds of the Guild Hall he faintly realized he was hearing his name. Zoroial. Zoroial! Zoroial Mantiros you dear bastard I know you hear me talking to you! The distant voice that prodded Zoroail from his distracted musing grew louder finally catching his attention. Hmm? He grunted in reply to the pestering voice. Don't just Hmm me. It's been nearly a year since you have been back and over two since we have spoken to one another. That was all true Zoroial agreed silently his eyes still closed to the world as he leaned against the stone wall with his arms crossed over his chest. Mmm. He grumbled in agreement to the speaker whose voice he recognized now that he was actively listening. It was a deep, melodic voice that could easily hold the attention of anyone that heard it, well almost anyone. Lazy fucking human. The voice muttered in part annoyance, part amusement. Persistent fucking Knife Ear . Zoroial shot back his stoic expression cracking with a faint hint of a smirk. He knew the insult would strike a nerve with the speaker and he waiting counting off the seconds between his blatant racial insult and the victims retort. Did you just call me a Knife Ear? The voice was low and dangerous and finally Zoroial opened his light green eyes lazily to to stare at the face of the Elf he had insulted. No. I called you a Persistent fucking Knife Ear. If you are going to be upset with me for saying something make sure you get what I said correct. The Elf stood just outside of arms reach of Zoroial with a scowl on his face. Gods below Ailduin that look isn't going to frighten me so stop it. You look like a pissed off little princess having menstrual cramps. Ailduin's face fell flat and he just stared at Zoroial with a dumbstruck expression. Finally finding his voice again he spoke. You've gotten worse since you last time back. You spend to much time alone you heartless bastard. Zoroial shrugged at the comment at first, then thought about it tilting his head to the side before nodding in agreement. You're probably right Ailduin. You will just have to give me time to adjust to being around so many useless things all at once, I'm out of practice and frankly I am a bit cranky because some obnoxious Knife Ear keeps yelling my ripping name while I am trying to rest. I haven't been here more than four hours and I am already signed up to go again, the least you could do is let me rest. No can do friend, our last member is due to join us any moment and the caravan leader is wanting to head out as soon as we can. Zoroail just growled in response and shifted his weight from one leg to the other. A moment later a young woman approached the group, a Beastman, horse type. Zoroial had his eyes closed again and was not paying attention. He didn't cafe about any of the others on this assignment. He was only on it as a means to leave the town while getting paid instead of paying to leave. In spite of looking like he wasn't paying any attention to his surroundings Zoroial was listening intently to everything going on around him. One didn't become a veteran in this line of work by being lax. Before he heard her speak he head the sound of hooves on stone, followed by a nervous voice introducing herself to the group of nineteen. Opening his eyes again he stared straight at the horse woman and his expression darkened. Not another one. He muttered in disgust. Hey! What do you mean by that? A voice growled from his right. Turning his head to see who spoke he met the golden eyes of a wolf Beastman glaring at him, he was the only other Beastman in the party, which consisted mostly of humans and elves, with exception to a pair of Orcs. Do you have something against Beastmen, human ? He growled baring his teeth. In fact I do pup, and that is part of what I meant. I now have to deal with another of your kind and another complete greenhorn. The wolf man snarled and started to step forward but was stopped as Ailduin stepped in front of him. You will only get hurt. He may be human but he is stronger and more experienced than you. Ailduin warned before turning to glare at Zoroail. And you... You will be tasked with watching after Amalthea on this mission. Say a single word about it boy and I will take the losses on my person to rip your foul tongue from your head. I am in charge of his party and you will do as I say, are we clear? Zoroail frowned menacingly at his friend. Transparently so. Turning to face the entire group Ailduin cleared his throat in needlessly to catch everyone's attention. Now that we are all here I will go over the details of the assignment. We are tasked with the safety of a caravan of goods from Poh'Rey to a small village four days north of here. Those of you that are familiar with this area know that two days north of here is the start to the Ulaquilt forest. As I am certain most of you know that can be very dangerous territory. There are twenty of us and the caravan has five carriages, so do the math, four guards for each carriage. I'll be breaking us into pairs. First Zoroail and Amalthea. Zoroail tuned out Ailduin and pushed himself away from the wall to walk to the nervous girl. You heard the man. I'm stuck with you for the next four days. Do as I say and stay out of my way and I will make sure you live. Feel free to ask me any questions and I will feel free to ignore any and all of them. This is a means for me to get out from this place and nothing more. Turning his back on her he started to walk off. Come on horse, I don't have all day for you to stand around. He called back to her gruffly ignoring the stare he got from Ailduin as he passed the man who was still pairing off the others to head to the caravan wagons waiting outside. Each wagon was twenty paces long, tall enough for a full grown orc to stand in and made of solid iron with covered windows. He could tell they were driven by magic cores. These were expensive and well defended. It nagged at him why the caravan leader would need so many people for a simple escort mission with this much armor on his side. Pushing the thought away adjusted the sword on his back and looked over to see Ailduin and the rest joining them. When we get in the wood stay aware. I assume those ears are not just for decoration, listen for any sounds of anything larger than a squirrel moving though the brush. He instructed Amalthea. It took another half an hour for the caravan leader to finalize his checks and get everything in order before they set off through the heart of the town, on the only road large enough to fit the grand wagons. Within a quarter hour they were outside of the town walls and the quest had officially begun. The entire through town Zoroail was silent, his eyes flowing over the multitude of people passing by and being passed always watching for something, anything.