A Tragic Decision(closed)

[Elisabeth]

Well her simple plan to find Hal among this chaos got significantly more difficult with the fact that it seemed other people were randomly joining the fray. Sure, good on them for engaging in bloodsport and whatnot, but it made her job more difficult. On the bright side it got those soldiers to back off a bit, back off of their motley crew that was. Hopefully that meant those two were having an easier time not dying, she for one was loving the lack of mages and archers trying to poach her from the air. As it should be really, archers were really freaking annoying and mages quickly worked their way up her unnecessarily long shitlist.

She could see it from here, people bursting from their homes and rushing the soldiers with crappy improvised weapons like pitchforks and gardening hoes, it wasn't particularly threatening, but the way they caught the soldiers off guard seemed to be working well for them. That would only last so long though, and these villagers were no soldiers. As soon as the actual soldiers regrouped, they'd mow down this motley resistance with the precision of a hot knife through butter. Pitiable, but not actually her concern. They come fighting guys with swords and have only pick axes in hand, not exactly a fair fight and definitely not one she would have chosen, but they made their choice and she wasn't going to lose sleep over it. Over a great deal other things perhaps, but not this.

Hal, on the other hand, was a different story. He'd probably be significantly more sour about that, just another good reason to find him quickly. That was proving difficult though, since the fighting in the streets was making it difficult to pick out foe from other foe, as she scarcely believed any of these people would be welcoming of a clearly Ilian pegasi knight. That was the thing about the Bernese, they were staunchly salty about the whole 'Ilia' thing. It was like get over it already. Still it made the situation a bit muddled for her in particular. She wasn't sure of the story here, as she was sure there was one (there was always a story), she didn't really manage to grab all the details before the fighting broke out. Peasant rebellion and angry mobs were pretty universal concepts though, and generally in times like this her kind weren't particularly welcomed.

She scanned the streets, Medusa and her up in the air. a blob of white against muddled and cloudy skies. She squinted her eyes to try and distinguish each person from each person. She was looking for a spear, blue hair, armor (she assumed that last one since they found armor together in that cave), and an ornery lizard. The spear/blue hair/armor combo wasn't particularly rare though, blue hair wasn't terribly uncommon after all and spears were the weapon of choice of the average soldier. The only ones not in armor were the villagers, and the mages, but he was pretty certain that Hal hadn't taken up witchcraft since the last she saw him. So that really only left the lizard as the big criteria to hit, luckily for her she actually seen his Wyvern before and vaguely remembered it. It was pretty big if she could recall. Of course that was hardly a sure thing, there was every chance Hal and his Wyvern were removed from each other especially since she couldn't see him in the air. If he could fly, why wouldn't he after all? Ugh. Now that she thought about it, that seemed terribly likely. Crud.

Speaking of lizards, there was one now. A corpse by the looks of it. Ew. It wasn't Hal's though, so that was a good sign. It boded well for him, as there were only two Wyverns before. If this one was dead, it stood to reason that the other (being Hal's) lived. She followed the imaginary trail and.... There we go, Hal's Wyvern. Stuck out like a sore thumb, no Hal to be seen though. Typical, just her luck. The lizard appeared to be trying to take wing, but unable to, probably hurt itself in the fight. Poor thing, she's seen too many pegasi grounded by an injured wing in her day and she was sure that wyverns couldn't be that much different. There was a reason Archers were such pests to flying cavalry. Still Hal couldn't be too far from his mount, right?

[Orcleous]

When Orcleous reached the main street he saw the fighting. The people of the city had risen up in rebellion and were now fighting against the soldiers who once patrolled the town. The image alone was pretty shocking to Orcleous. He figured they would have liked their ruling overlords, mainly because they had been living under them for so long. However reality seemed to be different than what was in his mind. This however moved in their favor. If the citizens of the town were rebelling against their overlords then Orcleous and the others had very little to worry about. With the massive loss they suffered at the hands of the company, Orcleous and all the others fighting against the rebellion. The Crimson Mercenary was sure this battle was a good as won. Shoot he even bet some of the soldiers would probably defect over to the villager sides. Most of the time if you were stationed in one place for a given amount of time you would grow attachments.

"Man what a rough battle", spoke Orcleous as he pulled back into the alleyway. The mercenary was tired. It was not his first time fighting in an intense situation, but he sure wanted it to be his last. He had a few injuries that need to be looked at, but for the moment he was stable. He doubted any of the fighting would break out here. The mercenary turned and found a nice alleyway to crawl into. Tactically he moved something heavy in front of the little cove he found and crawled behind it.

As he moved to his nice little hiding place Orcleous saw Elesia who was probably confused by his actions. "Nothing personal but I am kaput", spoke Orcleous to the young maiden. "With the citizens rebelling and the damage to the guard force we have done during our fight I doubt the enemy will be able to pull off a proper counter attack. Me personally", spoke Orcleous as he let out a yawn. "I am about to get some shut eye. Your welcome to come back here and join me if you like, but I doubt you will. Just keep your head down and stay out of trouble. This whole mess will be over soon", spoke the mercenary as he laid back against a nearby wall. He felt a wave of exhaustion roll over him.

"I hope no monsters show up", spoke Orcleous as he stabbed his sword into the ground next to him. They always seemed to show up when he was at piece. The sound of battle raged all around the mercenary as the citizens fought the rebels, but Orcleous was already down for the count. The exhaustion of battle and the injuries he received had done its toll on the lad. From behind a heavy cart Orcleous slept till the entire conflict was over, or at least till the sun rose again. Which ever one came first.

{Orcleous leaves thread}

[Hal]

The element of surprise had worked wonders for the towns people, but once the rebels had figured out what was going on the tides had turned quickly. The chaos had quickly grown from there, it was trained soldiers fighting against miners and simple folk, it was obvious who would win that battle. What happened next shocked even Hal. Some of the soldiers had laid down their weapons and others went as far as to protect the villagers.

At the end of the day they were all Bernese, the war was against Ilia, not Bern. Some of the soldiers had recognized that they were only protecting one of their own while the ones who kept fighting them just saw them as an enemy. There was only two things on Hal's mind, finding Elesia and killing James. He thought it might be wise to hold off on finding Elesia, he wouldn't want her to witness him murdering an unarmed person, even if they were a vile despicable person. Hal looked to the house on top of the cliff that over looked the town, it had been where James' family lived before, he was sure it was where he ran off to as well. "I wouldn't mind getting my hands on that little bastard either, the town went to crap when he took over." Hal heard a familiar voice, he turned to see Oskar, who was like a friend to Hal when they were little. Hal smiled as he nodded. "I'm sorry that I didn't finish the job before then." Oskar chuckled as the two began to jog towards the path leading to the home.

There were a few others, villagers and soldiers, who saw where the two boys were heading and could only guess at their intent and joined them. They were greeted by soldiers with their weapons drawn and pointed at them. "Lay down your weapons and surrender and we'll see that your deaths will be just." The man in front had said. By the looks of his armor and decorations on it, he must have been the second in command, after Sarah, of the soldiers there. Couple of his men that were with Hal argued what was going on was wrong, and James was to blame. Hal took only a moment to catch his breath after the hike up that trail before charging in. Others had took that as a sign to join the battle as well.

[Elesia]

...That was BRILLIANT.

Elesia couldn't believe she hadn't thought of just randomly falling asleep in the middle of the biggest and most chaotic battle of her life - Ork-louse must be a tactical genius, a veritable Creed of the modern age, to have come up with it.

Unfortunately, she couldn't really follow his example or she'd look like a total copycat, and that would just ruin her street cred. Caught midway between a giggle and a garumph, Elesia lightly kicked the sleeping Orc in the shins - VERY lightly, she didn't want to get sword'd - and crossed her arms to huff a bit. So unfair. Why did everyone have to ditch her? Lizzy had flown off to do... whatever, she couldn't remember what the pega-sis had said, and now Orc was sleeping, and Hal was... Hal would totally know what to do, right?

Elesia bit her lip in deep thought for a moment, wrapped in a terrible struggle with her hardest decision of the last thirty seconds, and then shrugged and continued to motion to loosen her shoulders as her hands dropped from their pose. Of course Hal would know what to do. Hehe. Halk. The Incredible Halk. Damn, she was witty, mixing his name with hulk, 'cuz he... had... hulking muscles. Or something. But man, the fight had gotten a lot less... fun while she was preoccupied with Orc, Elesia didn't really get the deeper ramifications of the fight, but even she couldn't really be blind to how it didn't seem like anyone was really having fun, even more than usual for a fight, and she couldn't even tell which side was really which.

Hm.

A sudden explosion of wind propelled her upwards, ruffling Orc's hair as she hopped up onto the nearest roof to try to survey the battlefield from above. Okay, sure, it had been like an eight foot jump, she coulda just climbed up, but the cool factor was important. As for what was going on... oh god, she had no idea what was going on, holy crap, EVERYONE was fighting. Elesia recoiled a little in surprise, suddenly forced to deal with how widespread the bloodshed was and how it wasn't just the good guys vs the evil army anymore... just people hurting each other, and themselves in the process. Maybe for the first time, she felt a little bit of emptiness at how little she could actually do to stop it, to fix it; it was less a momentous realization as the start of a dull understanding, but nonetheless she decided she didn't like it at all.

But she couldn't ignore it anymore.

Elesia grimaced at the sights, wishing she had either godlike destructive powers or wide-area healing magic - she'd settle for either - and being forced to accept that she had neither, and that there was no real magical solution she could cause immediately. She pursed her lips and blew a bit of air out, trying to figure out what she COULD do. It was clear she was out of her depth here, and suddenly she didn't really feel like killing 'the bad guys' anymore, not when the difference was so thoroughly blurred. Hal would know what to do, right? She trusted him to do the right thing, to protect the people who needed protecting, and until she could figure out how to decide that on her own, she would try to help him out.

Fortunately, catching sight of him was easier than she'd hoped, on account of him being at the head of one small army charging another. So that was cool. Her body hesitated before she could move though, belatedly followed by the realization that she didn't really want Hal to see her like that when she thought about it, so Elesia steeled herself and tried to put up a positive air before launching herself into the air once more with another jet of wind. Okay, granted, the landing went pretty badly and she had to roll a bit, but the second super jump went better, and it WAS faster than running, so Hurricane Elesia continued to rocket jump through the fire and the flames as she homed in on Hal.

...Man that was a lot of dudes.

Unfortunately she was already airborne by the time she realized it was a clusterfraggle of a battlefield, also she hadn't planned out the landing, so as a last-ditch effort she tried smacking the ground with as much wind as possible before landing, which had the unfortunate side effect of buffeting her pretty badly as it abruptly stopped her descent, which kinda hurt, but at least she managed to only stumble a little bit while landing, which she covered up with a bright TA DA gesture and a smile. Even if she wasn't smiling inside anymore, she didn't want Hal to see that. And there he was! "HAL hi what are we doing?"

[Hal]

The entire town was caught up in Hal's mistake, the first time it was his family but it had quickly escalated to people who had once shunned his family. He knew there was no way to pay them back for risking their homes and lives, the only thing he could do was see this to the end. He ran forwards with lance in hand, held up pointed towards the men in front of him, he wasn't the fastest runner there, even without the extra weight the armor added, so he had began to fall behind in the charge.

There was a green blur in the corner of his eye, he heard it land with a thud. Other than Sol and Sarah's wyvern he hadn't see any others. He looked back to see what it was, it had been Elesia, which seeing her caused him to stop his charge. He looked back towards the fight for a second before moving towards Elesia, by time he reached her she had finished her 'TA DA'. He used his free hand to grab her arm and lift it up, all while looking for any visible injuries, he kept looking over her body as he spoke. "Are you okay? Did you get hurt in that fight?"

So far he hasn't seen any, which was a relief to Hal but he had still wish she hadn't come up here. She had asked what they were doing up there, he wasn't sure how he could explain they were here to kill somebody, even if they were an evil person that wasn't justice. He tried his best to explain it as if he was talking to one of his little sisters, thinking that would be the easiest way to explain it in terms Elesia would understand. "There's a big bad monster hiding in there, I came to slay it."

Hal was satisfied with the answer he gave Elesia, he had let go of her arm and turned around walking towards the battle once again. "I rather you wait here, but if you really insist on joining us there's nothing I can do to stop you."

[Elesia]

Was she okay?

Elesia wasn't really sure how to answer that question, not honestly. She wasn't injured, which is what she knew Hal was asking, but she wasn't sure what he meant. And honestly, no, she wasn't really ok, Elesia was still trying to come to terms with the fact that her understanding of the world was apparently really f**k**g terrible and she couldn't do anything about it, at least not yet, and she had no idea how she would even try to start working towards fixing it. If she could fix it.

"I'm fine," she diplomatically returned to Hal as her chosen response, not entirely honest but then Elesia had never shied away from half-truths or, well, lying in general. Usually not to Hal, but there were... extenuating circumstances. She it was true that she wasn't injured, so it wasn't REALLY a lie. Maybe a white lie, which really wasn't even much of a lie at all.

But she didn't want to worry Hal, and she kinda got the feeling this would be a bad time to have a breakdown in general. No one else here seemed very happy, and most of them had problems much worse than hers - having to fight their own family and neighbors. Kinda made Elesia feel like a bit of a jerkbutt for being so weepy about all this. So she was just gonna press on, dammit, and not be a total idiot. Really, she had it about the best of everyone here, so maybe she should show it? SOMEONE had to be happy for the people who couldn't be, right?

"Awright," she said after Hal gave an 'explanation' that not even she was dumb enough to fall for. "You know you couldn't get rid of me if you tried, so you best get used to it." Satisfied that she had worded that excellently, Elesia patted Hal on the shoulder, trying to be there for him, and remembered to pull her hand back BEFORE she set it on fire. "Now let's go murder the crap out of the bad guys!"

[Hal]

"Now let's go murder the crap out of the bad guys!"

As soon as Elesia had sad that, Hal could feel his heart sink into the bottom of his stomach. The last thing he had hoped to hear her say was to go murder anybody, even if they were 'the bad guys'. Hal's opinion of what determined the difference between the good guys and the bad guys was how they handled "crime". Bad guys would be out for blood and don't care about innocence while good guys would still give them a chance.

Hal was closer to the battle now, he charged forward using his large armored frame to knock a man onto the ground before shoving his lance into him. Hal saw his opening, there wasn't anybody between him and the gate so he pulled his lance from the man and ran towards it, throwing his body into it to force it open. Slamming into the gate like that had caused Hal to lose his balance, he hit the ground with a loud thud and a skid. A few others had looked in Hals direction when they had heard the noise, they also saw the opportunity Hal had and crated. It took only moments for them to be by his side helping him back to his feet, Hal only replied with a simple 'thanks' before he began to move once again.

The group kicked in the front door and rushed in, there were no guards, just James cowering in the corner of the room brandishing a dagger towards the men. "BACK, STAY BACK YOU FILTHY PEASANTS!" he shouted, Hal was the only one to step forward. "Bwahahaha, look at this coward. Like back then, you're making a big mistake Hal. With a snap of my fingers I could give the name of the man to kill you to the higher up officers of the Bernese army and get them a fine rank" Hal stepped forward once again, keeping his back towards the men that James had claimed he could buy out.

"The only mistake I had made before was not finishing the job. My father and brother paid the price for that, as well as the whole town." James had cut him off "They're getting what they deserve for biting the hand that feeds." Hel didn't stop his slow approach towards James. "Is that how you're justifying the blood bath taking place out there? Slaughtering the oppressed who are defending a family that you and your father ridiculed over the years?"

Hal had typically sounded unsure of himself, there was always an underlying tone of cowardliness in his voice, but now it had seemed as if it had changed. He had gained a self-confidence, not only in himself but for his actions. It takes a man to stand by what they say and fight for what they believe in and now was the time Hal became a man.

[Elesia]

Elesia cringed a little when Hal turned away from her, clearly disappointed with her response. She had hoped that her attempt to be her normal idiot self would at least be some small bastion of normality for Hal, at least as far as normal went these days, but apparently she had picked some reallly bad words to try it with. Elesia wasn't quite sure what she had said wrong, or if the problem was that she had come across as too fake in saying what she didn't necessarily really mean. This whole 'wisdom' thing was harder than she had hoped.

But it wasn't her style to give up after one minor setup, and Elesia wasn't ready to call if a total defeat just yet. She just had to learn to get better at what to say - even if her intentions were good, actually conveying them correctly was a trial she had struggled with ever since being introduced to the greater world. So in some ways this was just an extension of her usual work, which made it a lot easier to think about.

...Though she also had the idea that she was gonna have to discuss what actually made a 'bad guy' at some point. She was still her, but it might not hurt to get a second opinion. And while she didn't have the power to do it now, Elesia was starting to think that maybe she should be trying to give people who looked like bad guys more of a chance to prove that they weren't. In the future anyways. For now she'd just do whatever Hal told her to.

Hal was about the most determined she had ever seen him so the bear mage decided to keep herself to, well, herself. This was Hal's story, and was just here to make sure it ended the way it should. Fortunately that decision was made easy by circumstance, since no one really tried to stop them outside of some guy that Hal just straight murdered. They made it to the house Hal was heading to pretty easily fromthere, and there was only one guy there to stop them, the James butthead that Hal wanted to kill.

Not even Elesia was dumb enough to get in the way of that, so suppressing her glory hounding tendencies, she stood back a little and let Hal handle it, crossing her arms a little nervously as she stood in front of the group of men that had accompanied them, but far enough behind Hal to give him his space. There wasn't really much for her to say she she kept her mouth shut, but it probably didn't take a genius to see that for as calm as she was trying to look, Elesia was still pretty worried. Her and Hal were a team, they were supposed to do stuff together, or at least that was what she had thought until today. She still did, but the naive girl was starting to realize that sometimes there were things that only one person could really handle, even if it meant trusting that person while they were in danger.

[Hal]

Liberating a town from a tyrant was something a hero would do, something Hal was doing. But at the same time, it didn't feel like Hal was being a hero, he was ready to give up everything in order to repent for the wrongs he had indirectly done. He wasn't fighting to save the town, only to protect a single girl, at least that's how it had started. Once the battle had began to pick up the pace, he had saw things for what they really were, Elesia was the spark and the villagers coming to his aid was the fuel to keep him going.

He knew at the end of the day, people would be telling stories about him being a hero despite what he thinks. Gripping his lance tighter he kept his slow pace towards James. "Is that what you think of those soldiers who threw down their lives in order to protect you? That they're just pawns in some kind of sick game?" At this point James knew his attempt to bribe the others was futile, he began to back away in a panic before tripping over his own feet. Being on the ground didn't stop his attempt to create a distance. It didn't take him long before he backed himself into a corner.

"O-only the strong survive and the weak parish Hal. That's why I survived your brutal thuggish attack the last time." The only sounds that remained was the sounds of Hal's foot steps and his armor clanging as he raised his lance and pulled back. Hal saw the fear in James' eyes, he knew that look all too well, he saw it in his own eyes many times in the past. Without hesitation Hal had drove the lance into James' chest, piercing his heart, he did not pull it out but left it where it now rested. He turned back towards the group with a look of sorrow on his face.

[Elesia]

It was all wrong - they were supposed to have an ending fitting of legends, where the glorious heroes beat up the bad guys and everyone went home happy, where no one on the good guy side got hurt, and the bad guys ran away and never bothered anyone again. The heroes got to be happy and thanked by grateful villagers, and then they rode off into the sunset to go save everyone else forever, driving all evil from the world by sword and spell.

Was this her fault, or had she not understood what being a hero was? Faced with reality, Elesia couldn't help but shy away from it, trying desperately to understand what the disconnect had been, how this situation differed from stories and even her own limited experiences. In the village she met Hal in, and again in the mostly abandoned village, they had come out on top... though it was true that the first time they just hadn't been there to see some people get eaten, and in retrospect they had been far too late for the second town?

Elesia wasn't stupid, but she wasn't used to pragmatic and realistic views of things, and having her idealized concept of heroism come crashing down around her was taking part of her with it. Nothing about this fight had been like it should, and even now the villagers they were, even Hal, didn't seem very happy with how things had turned out. She would have been happy for them, or tried to be, but not even she could misread the tone of the situation that badly... and while it wasn't as bad as it had been, she could still hear fighting going on outside. It's over! The bad guy is dead! The bad guys can surrender now!

If that wasn't how it worked, then how was it supposed to?

She didn't have any fancy words for Hal, any wise and kind things to say that would fix everything, that would bring anyone back to life or make up for what happened. She couldn't even think of anything sort of helpful to say, much less anything that would make Hal really smile. But she couldn't not do anything, not when the only real friend she had was standing there looking like a beaten puppy, so without any better ideas Elesia impulsively stepped forwards and hugged him, as if his armor wasn't even there, trying to reach out emotionally where he voice failed her.

[Hal]

The deed had been done, the soldiers saw the end to the tyrant that held this village hostage. They turned and left the building, leaving only Hal and Elesia. They walked towards the cliff and stopped at the edge right before one began to shout to those fighting below.

"BROTHERS, SISTERS OF BERN. US REBELS HAD TAKEN UP ARMS TO COMBAT THE TYRANNY OF ILLIA. WE SAW THE INJUSTICE OF ANOTHER LAND RULING OURS, NOT CARING ABOUT OUR BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS FOR THEIR OWN PROFIT. THE PEOPLE OF THIS VILLAGE HAD SAW THE SAME HARDSHIPS OUR LAND HAD BY THE HAND OF ONE WHO CLAIMED TO BE ONE OF OUR OWN.

"WE ALL TOOK UP ARMS FOR THE VERY SAME REASON, TO PROTECT THOSE WHO WE CALL FRIENDS, FAMILY. WHY MUST WE FIGHT EACH OTHER? ISN'T OUR ENEMY THE SAME? THOSE WHO SEEK TO HOLD BACK THE PEOPLE OF BERN, WEATHER IT BE ILLIA OR A CORRUPT LEADER, WE SEEK TO UNITE BERN AS A WHOLE, WE CANNOT ACHIEVE THAT GOAL IF WE ALLOW OUR OWN PEOPLE TO GIVE INTO GREED AND ALLOW US TO SHED OUR BLOOD FOR THEIR PROFIT. TODAY WE TOOK ANOTHER STEP TOWARDS OUR GOAL SO LAY DOWN YOUR WEAPONS."

As the man gave his speech, the fighting had died down. His words of not uniting Bern by name only but the people itself hand rang true in their hearts. The villagers as well as the soldiers had gone to a battle for the very reason he had mentioned.


Meanwhile in the house, Hal had walked over to Elesia stopping to gaze into her eyes for a moment. He gave her no time to talk, or even react before he threw his arms around her. "I'm sorry." he said with fear in his voice. What he caused her to go through was unforgivable.

[Hal]

Before Elesia could say anything or react by his sudden bear hug and appolgy Hal let go and began to walk past her. "Oh goodness, I forgot about Sol. I think he got hurt in that fight." He rushed down the path towards the spot he last saw Sol, who was in the same spot licking his wounds. There was one of the soldiers attempting to get closer to check on him but stayed back when Sol began to let out a growl. "Sol!"

Sol looked up and saw Hal, the young wyvern let out a happy sound as he waddled towards the boy. Hal began to pet Sol as the man began to talk. "I saw that your wyvern was injured, I was going to check on him but he wouldn't let me get close enough." Hal had told him that it was okay, as well as reasuring to Sol he meant no harm. The man spent a few moments inspecting the damages.

Once the bloodshed had ended Hal's mother left the house in search of her boy. She found him with Sol and the soldier and rushed towards him with tears in her eyes. If she were younger she would have greeted her lost son like Elesia would, tackling him to the ground with a hug.

"It appears his wing too injured to carry you in the air let alone himself. It should be healed up in a couple of weeks." Hal stood there, allowing his mother to hold him close while sobbing all over his armor."Sol, this is mom. She's the most loving lady you'll meet. You'll love her almost as much as I do." His mom sqeezed him tighter now. "Does that mean you're going to stay?"

Hal moved around a bit to turn around to face her, then held her back. "For a couple of days at least. I'm going to leave Sol behind, i don't think he's in any shape to be traveling with me." His mother's hold on him was even tighter than before. "No. As your mother I command you to stay with your family. I don't want to lose my son again." Tears had began to flow from Hal as well now.

"Mom... Something that I realized today was I feel the need to help those in need. Ever since I met Elesia in Lycia it had became appearent to me. I'm leaving Sol behind to heal and once he's better he can help protect you guys for me. Please, let me go mom." Sol had moved closer to the two and wrapped his good wing around them, as if he were joining in the group hug.

"Only if you promise me two things. You come home to visit us so we know you're doing okay, and you have to stay two weeks before you go and every time you come home." "Thank you, I love you mom." "I love you too Hal."

And thus the next step in Hal's journey had began.

[Thread finished]