A knight Searching for a Cause(Open)

[Valcrist]

"Come on you two, be a little serious now. We need to look professional if we want to sell anything." Valcrist was aware of his own grumpiness by this point, he didn't like being made the straight man in their comedy routine. He never considered himself a stick in the mud, but it was hard not to be the grounded one of this trio. He lacked the exact physical features of his partners for one, and they enjoyed using that twin duality against him. Varen shrugged at him, then Heygus did the exact same. He noticed something on the ground near his foot and let out a mighty groan. It was the steel he was looking for. It was there the whole time, he looked at it, then at them, they could barely contain their laughter.

"Oh no Varen."
"He finally found it Heygus."
"We're busted aren't we brother?"

Valcrist groaned as he bent over to pick it up. He wasn't even mad really, just a bit annoyed and ashamed that it took him so long to even notice. He was off his game. That's when he felt something hit him. Something small. It felt less like someone running into him and more like he bumped into a table. None the less he had been hunched over at the time, and the kid pushed him off balance sending him spilling. No amount of arm flailing seemed to help either, he managed to catch his self and tuck into a roll before he hit the ground though, and did a small somersault on the snowy ground. Which was probably more of a pain then just falling, all things considered. He picked his self up and brushed the snow out of his hair with a grumpy expression on his face.

The smith rolled his eyes as the duplicates moved with perfect synchronization, covering their mouths and giggling like a pair of children at him. Instead he looked at the little kid, or was it? He looked like a little kid at least, and the way he was staring at Valcrist was making the smith feel a bit... creeped out. He stared back at the kid with a somewhat weirded out look on face. He knew that he wasn't exactly a normal looking fellow with the hair and skin and everything, but he's never had something like this happen to him before. Usually when people stared, they looked away when he turned his head. Suddenly he began to move like a bolt of lightning struck through him, and the kid apologized and began moving in a sudden rush. The kind cringed in what appeared to be pain as he went to pick his things up, as some woman came up and the two had a small conversation while she healed him. Valcrist felt a little weird as he just stood there, but it wasn't his conversation and the kid seemed to be fine, so the swordsman just bent down again to pick up his steel bar once more. It was weighty, but it fit inside the pack of his sitting on the ground just fine.

"You okay kid?" He asked absentmindedly as he strapped the monstrous backpack of his on, his silhouette growing a good two feet and becoming significantly bulkier.

[Valin]

"Where the hell does he get his energy?" Was all the knight could muster as the boy jetted off. Valin shook his head and laughed when shugoshi knocked a man over. He felt horriable for it but he couldn't help himself. "Come on Albues lets apologize for our new friend." The Drake snorted in response. "Oh shut up and come."

The two started after Shugoshi, nether noticed that a Nomad archer woman shadowing them. As Valin aproched Shugo run off again. "Im sorry for my little friend." Valin said to the straw haired man.

[Shugo]

“I am fine”, spoke Shugo as he gave Valcrist a bright smile. “Mr. Valin”, shouted Shugo as he rushed back toward the Knight.

“That kid has energy in spades”, spoke the woman as she turned her attention to Valcrist. “Are you hurt by any chance”, asked the woman.

“Ok finished”, shouted Shugo as he rushed up to Valin. The young boy eyes were lit up with excitement as the thought of flying on Albues. At that moment Shugo looked up to see Valin’s red eye. The boy’s face soon shifted back to the way he was before. He stared at Valin eye with the same curiosity that he did Valcrist hair. “That is pretty cool”, spoke Shugo as he pointed at Valin’s eye. “How did you get it to turn red like that? Oh can you show me how too”, spoke the boy as excitement rushed back into his face. Red eye Shugo thought the lad; he liked the sound of it. It was almost like a name of a hero or a pirate.

[Valcrist]

"Ah, no. I'm fine." He shrugged as the people came clamoring to him to see if he shattered like a cheap piece of china in an antique shop. "The only thing of me that hurts is my pride." He added with a smirk. There was a wyvern rider and a cleric woman, as he could tell by their ensemble. Also the fact a wyvern seemed to be following that guy, and that chick just used healing power a second ago. Master of observation Valcrist strikes once more, it was pointless to keep such thing from him. He looked at the kid scurrying around with a blank expression of indifference, before looking at the two.

"Valcrist's a tough kid." Varen began.
"Physically at least." And Heygus finished with a giggle.

Valcrist let out a grumpy sounding sigh, but he couldn't really dispute what they said either. The twins pushed past him and began to examine the two with the scrutinizing eye of a businessman... er men. "Say there, you all look like a group of fine upstanding consumers." Varen opened up with a big grin.

"My brother and our friend here together are a group of traveling salesmen." Heygus gestured at the three of them. Including the somewhat grumpy looking swordsman hanging around behind them. "I deal in general goods, foods, medicines, candies, delicacies, vulneraries, herbs, books, quills and writing instruments, all of that. I have sweets from the world famous port Banon sweetery, as well as a magical tonic that is said to heal every wound the drinker had ever sustained?"

Varen stepped in right on cue. "I deal in luxuries. Clothes, jewelry, fabrics, carpets, antiques and rare pieces. You ever seen a authentic Sacaen tribes uniform? How about a necklace said to allow one to see spirits? Or a real honest to goodness dragon scale?" He began to over sell everything, Valcrist had seen his entire collection, and while he had an interesting story for every piece, very few of them were anything special. He did, however, have a strange hunk of metal that had caught Valcrist's attention as soon as he first saw it. It was blackened steel, but it was far lighter than any metal he's ever felt. However, it was easily just as strong as the hardest steels, even if it was less than half its weight. Of course he was asking for a king's ransom for it, so Valcrist never bothered even asking about it.

While Valcrist was thinking, the two brothers gestured at him like he was the big finale. It took him a second, but he caught his self. "Oh, me?" The two nodded their heads without moving the rest of their bodies, a big smile on both of their heads, eyes wide and almost pleading. "Oh, okay. I'm Valcrist. I'm a blacksmith, if you need weapons or want a weapon made custom just for you, I'm your man." Unlike the other two who had their goods in a wagon, Valcrist carried all of his on his back. It was heavy, it was unwieldy, and he couldn't carry as much as he wanted to. "I don't think these guys are all that interested though." He looked back at the brothers, who simply shrugged.

"Gotta peddle wherever we can Val."
"It's our livelihood after all."

Valcrist simply shrugged before he looked back at the group of people, who seemed to be completely distracted by something else. Oh well.

[Valin]

Of coarse there merchants. Valin thought regretting his empty pockets. It was that he wanted to buy anything its just he felt bad being there when had nothing to offer. The knight made sure to cover his evil eye and spoke after taking a deep breath.Its a nice to meet you all. I am Valin a freelancer looking for work. This handsome beast is my loyal friend and mount Albues. Im sorry to say I have no money. I beg you forgiveness"

The rider then turned to the orange haired healer. Im sorry to be so bold but who are you Milady?" Valin was shocked how smoothly he spoke those words. Maybe his one man war against Balgoth had made him bolder. He was also glad to see Shugoshi was alright and that the Blacksmith wasn't sore about the boys carelessness.

The lady Noman listen quitly from the other side of the street waiting to see where the Wyvern rider went next.

[Shugo]

“Oh me”, spoke the Orange hair maiden as she looked up at Valin. “My name is Yashi’ she spoke. “I am from a little village called Littlerock. It is on the eastern mountain range in Bern.”

“Littlerock”, spoke Shugo with excitement. “I have been to Littlerock before. There is this neat house near a river. It is made entirely of stone and is shaped almost like a gigantic bowl.”

“It is a called a dome”, spoke Yashi as she gave Shugo a smile. “The structure is called a dome. There are many of them in Littlerock.”

“Dome”, spoke Shugo as he registers the word into his brain. The young boy then turned to the two merchants. He wanted to see their wares before he left the town. “Hay do you all have any pendants”, asked Shugo as he rushed up to the first man. If Shugo was going to return to Bern he thought he might as well pick up a gift for his mother.

“Well he is a ball of energy”, spoke Yashi as she turned toward Valin again. “Is he your little brother”, asked the maiden.

[Valcrist]

"See, you can't just go accosting everyone. It makes them feel bad." Valcrist said with a grumpy sort of humph noise, gesturing at the broke wyvern rider. He was also covering his eye for some reason which was odd, but y'know whatever. The twin merchant simply shrugged and didn't say a word, which was a good thing because when they got going it was hard to shut them up. As soon as one finishes, the other picks up, and then when he's done the first starts again. It was impossible to get a word in edgewise.

Then they began to go about their own business, which was fine and everything. They should probably head into town anyways. It's probably easier to sell their things when there was more than three people around, one of which was poor and the other a child. Wasn't exactly their target demographic you see, the girl didn't seem particularly interested either. That's when the child came rushing up to Heygus, excited and asking about pendants. He probably meant to go to Varen, he was the one who dealt in jewelry.

"I-"
Varen quickly pushed him out of the way. "Of course I do. Jewelry is one of my specialties!" He wasted no time to peddle his stock, Heygus only looked at him with a sour expression. After rolling his eyes he went back to normal though, if one of them succeeded they both did after all. "Some of it crafted by my friend right here." He put his hand on Valcrist's shoulder. The smith looked at it as if it was burning his flesh. He wasn't a jeweler or anything, but his very intricate and detail oriented style of smithing lended itself to the craft well. His uncle was a jeweler as well, so he had a good grasp on the basics. The results were usually quite a sight to behold, and one might say he had a talent in it, but he didn't feel passionate about it like he did his smithing.

"If you come this way, our caravan is being set up with all of our wares. It'll take a few minutes, but I'm sure you understand that you can't rush perfection." He had a smile on his face as he led the boy away to where the mercenaries were setting up the caravan. Unlike Val, they didn't peddle off of their back, they had too many goods and many fragile things that needed to be gently cared for.

Valcrist shrugged and decided to follow them.

[Valin]

Valin smirked and listened to the young woman and boy. He was brought back to Dierrum His home town. He missed the smell of fresh tilled earth and the pain you get from along days work. The visions weren't all good and the words of those how feared him came rushing back. The thing that hurt him most was the fact most woman run from his curse and thous he would never have a son like Shugoshi. Yashi words broke him out of his depression. He knew He need to move on from these dark thoughts.

He is a ball of energy but he isn't my brother hes a lost child I happened appon today. I plan bring him back to his family in Bern. Valin said with a nervous smile. Albues huffed shaking it head and pushed into Valin. "Hey scale breath watch wwre you going. Valin turned back to the healer blushing slighly. Didn't notice that his hood had slipped off. He tried to Laugh off his mounts behavior but before he could say anything he saw the jeweler trying to con the boy.

As Shugoshi was led off Valin rushed after him. "Hold on sir, I don't think will be neccary. Shugoshi? It appeared that The knight need to protect the recruit from more then brigands and boggiemen. Albues walked behind Valin and hissed at Yashi.

Valins watcher moved to keep the rider in sight. She kept a hand on her shortbow as she walked ready to draw it when the time came.

[Shugo]

“That is very kind of you”, spoke Yashi. From the corner of her eye she saw Shugo being pulled away by the peddler. “Oh, I think your little friend is going to need some help”, spoke Yashi.

Shugo eyes lit up as he saw the merchant’s collection. He could not believe how dazzling the jewelry was. The only jewelry Shugo had seen was that of his mothers, and she made all hers out of steel. He had never seen the gleam of a gemstone or the bright colors of an emerald. As Shugo stared at the vast quantity of jewelry he began to count his coins. “I only have a hundred to spare”, spoke Shugo as he stared at the collection. Surely such beautiful stones would be worth more than a hundred golden coins. The boy turned to ask the merchant about the prices when Valin suddenly jumped in.

“Hold it sir I don’t think that is necessary”, spoke Valin jumping in to save the young boy from the onslaught of merchant’s assault on his coin purse.

“Yes I don’t think that is wise either”, spoke Yashi as she joined the two.

“But I want to buy a gift for my mother”, spoke Shugo as Yashi clamped Shugo hands around his coin purse.

“Listen Shugo”, spoke Yashi in a gentle tone. “Your mother lives in Bern correct.”

“Yes”, spoke the boy as he stared into her eyes. Shugo had not noticed it before but Yashi was quite pretty. A small blush crossed his face as the cleric continued to speak.

“Well now Bern is pretty far away from Illia. You are going to need money to each and to get an Inn room to sleep in along the way. IF you spend all your coin now you will not have any for the trip.”

“Right”, spoke Shugo as the logic of her message dawned on him. The boy however could not help but feel sad as he took one more glimpse at the beautiful jewelry on the table. He so wanted to buy his mother a gift before he returned home.

“Look Shugo”, spoke Yashi as she put her hand on the boy’s hair. “You can always buy a gift when you get back to Bern. They have jewels and gemstones in Bern as well. You don’t have to buy them here.”

“Alright”, spoke Shugo as he placed his coin purse back safely into his armor.

[Valcrist]

"Ah, a sharp eye you have my boy. That's a skygem, very rare, very beautiful." Valcrist rolled his eyes. Sure it was rare and beautiful, but the way he was talking it up made it feel like he was selling the moon itself. The boy barely had time to say much as he looked around in splendor, something felt dirty about trying to sell a kid jewelry. He asked for it, but it was kind of... Ech. Valcrist nudged Varen in the ribs before he started to go on, the twin looked at him and the Nabatan gave him an imploring look that basically told him to go easy on the hard sale. Rolling his eyes in a truly Valcristian fashion, he put on a big smile. "One hundred gold? Don't fret my boy, there's plenty you can acquire with such a sum!"

Then the cavalry arrived and talked the kid out of buying anything. Heading to Bern were they? That's a tough trip, especially on someone so young and at such a time. There's fighting and danger everywhere, especially in Bern. The rebellion, the illians, the inquisition, dragons, very bad. Valcrist looked at the kid, and let out a small sigh. It reminded him of himself when he was that age, not the traveling across Elibe but the energy. The enthusiasm. The willingness to be cheated out of his last gold by merchants, now he was one of those merchants. Something about it felt wrong.

"Hey, wait." Valcrist spoke up to stop them, from the stand he grabbed a very intricately made steel and emerald design. It was obviously not as expensive as some of the other items, but it was made with a very fine hand. "I made this. It's a Dust Emerald, a common stone that's not nearly as expensive as the one it's made to imitate. Still, I think it's beautiful." He held the ring into the light and watched as the green cut gem sparkling in it. Only someone well versed in gems could tell the difference really. Of course the fact there is a difference drove its price way down. He slowly walked over as he examined it, a grin on his face. "If it's your mother I don't think she'll mind what it is. Anything you get her would be wonderful." He put the ring into his hands with a smile. "I'm sure you want to give her something nice though. So give her this, for me."

Varen and Heygus looked at him like he was crazy. "On the house." Valcrist added with a grin, they smacked their hands over their faces but said nothing. It was, after all, something Valcrist made. They had no place to stop him. He'd just have to pay for it later. It wasn't terribly expensive, but gold was gold. Still, after having to deal with the smith being cynical and grumpy for days on end, it was nice to see that wimpy soft side he showed every so often. It was one of the reasons they liked having Valcrist travel with them.

[Valin]

Valin Let the healer talk to recruit down with out saying anything. There wasn't much he could add, Yashi's words seemed simple yet powerful enough. Valin was relived to see Shugoshi putting his purse away but at the same time a little guilty, all the boy wanted was a gift for his mother. The knight made a silent promise to get a gift for Shugoshi to give her he just didn't know how.

Valin was a little surprised that the blacksmith had a gem to sell. He had heard that blacksmith would sometimes put jewels in weapons but Valcrist was a street vender. The rider was about to pull the boy away from the blacksmith when freely gave the Dust Emerald to the young recruit. The knight felt a small bit of joy to see such kindness. It was a invited counter to the evil he faced to weeks past. "Thank you Sir Valcrist. Now Shugoshi would you like leave now or do you have more to do in town?"

The lady Nomad started to draw her Shortbow but stopped after looking around. "To many people." The woman said putting her bow back. "I will test this man when he leaves town. May the spirts punish him if he is evil." The woman said sinking back into the crowed. She waited for the groups next move.

[Shugo]

Shugo eyes practically lit up like fireworks as Valcrist handed him the Dusty Emerald. The young boy could not find the words to express his gratitude, but his facial expression had already said enough. It had been a long time since anyone had done something nice for Shugo. Even longer still since the boy had seen such compassion.

“How kind of you”, spoke Yashi as she witness Valcrist act of kindness. She opened her bag and pulled out a small pouch and took out some coins. “Here”, spoke the orange hair maiden not giving him an opportunity to deny it. “Such kind deed is deserving of some reward”, spoke the maiden.

“Thank you”, spoke Shugo finally finding his words. He then turned his gaze to Valin and answered the wyvern knights question. “Yes I am ready to go”, spoke the young boy almost jumping with excitement. He was finally going to ride on the back of a wyvern.

“Well Mr. Valin and little Mr. Shugo”, spoke Yashi as she walked up to the duo. It seems you are heading to Bern. I myself was going to head back to the homeland. The trail for my fool brother seemed to grow cold and besides it would be better if someone was manning down the fort when the lunk finally slinked back in. I am sorry to ask so suddenly, but are you willing to take another on your trip to Bern”, spoke Yashi as he stared at Valin.

“Of course”, shouted Shugo before he even realized it was Valin decision. “I mean if Valin would allow it. You know Little Rock is not far from Hal village. Shoot we are even going to have to pass through Little Rock before we even get to Hal. So please Mr. Valin” asked Shugo. He had taken a liking to Yashi. There was something about her that was so warm and caring. It was almost as if he was talking to his mother at some times. Shugo did not want to say goodbye, but a opportunity like this came only once in a lifetime.

[Valin]

OC: Sorry Val for skipping you It just i like to keep Topics moving

Valin started to turn around when he realized that Yashi was walking up to him. He listen to the womans request with some discomfort. It wasn't that he didn't want her to come or that he wouldn't like helping a lady. What bothered him was that he didn't know how she would react to his evil eye. Taking a deep breath and steadying his voice he looked at the woman with a warm smile. "Milady if you would like be escorted by to Valiant knights home. We have no choice but accept." He looked down down at Shugoshi. "Am I right sir Shugoshi of Hal?" Valin knew full well that the boy had already Begged for her to come but the boy in him wanted to play the role of knight with the recruit. Starting their journey on a light hearted note would make thing easier in the rider view.

The Nomad listened to the rider make a fool of himself with some disdain. "The Dark man might of been wrong. The rider seems more a fool then killer."

[Shugo]

As Valin spoke Shugo eyes lit up. The young recruit like the idea of being a knight and immediately joined in on Valin play. “Yes Shugoshii of Hal will aid in your escort milady Yashi.”

“Yashi gave off a big smile as she grabbed Shugo right hand. “Then we best be off young squire Shugo”, she spoke.

“Hay I am a knight”, spoke Shugo not resisting her hand.

“You need to grow a little bit taller before you can be called a knight”, spoke Yashi. The young boy began to pout a little, but broke from it when he saw Valins Wyvern.

“Oh, can I still ride on Albues”, spoke the young boy as he broke form Yashi grip and mounted on the back of the Wyvern.

[Valin]

Valin started to reach for Shugoshi to take him of Albues but shook his head and said. "You can ride him as long as were on the ground." and as always looked at Albues."NO EATING!" pointing at The recruit then the healer. The drake huffed as if insulted. "Lets get going shall we." The groups started toward the gate to exit town. The Nomad Moved ahead of them and mounted her horse.

As The party moved Valin turned to Yashi and steadied his voice. "Forgive me for being bold in asking this but you said your looking for your brother. Would you mind telling me about him I may have seen him or even met him in my travels? Worse come to worse if I meet him when we part ways I can point him home. Valin felt his face become flush with embarrassment and quickly said. "Umm..you know if its okay with you..." he then looked away and rubbed the back of his head with his left hand. Albues gave a group of low hisses that sound almost like laughter.