44 The Beginning of a Travel
Farsian was slowly marching through the snow in this area, he had left the village ten day ago. He remembered seeing a young girl when he arrived at the bar, but when he left there was no girl in sight.
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After a good week of travel Farsian saw a small group of people, they were humans. Even in this harsh environment there were humans traveling the land, this made Farsian curious where they were headed to.
"Oh look, there is someone up there." One of the travelers said as he spotted Farsian. Farsian didn't try to hide himself so they saw him as soon as he came within view. With his good hearing Farsian was able to make out the contents of their speech.
"Should we take him in? He seems lost, maybe he needs food and water?" One of the females in the group said with concern.
"I don't think so, look at his gear. All he is wearing is a cape and two blades, no one could come this far without food and water." Another one of their group answered and marched on.
"But what if he only recently got separated from his group?" Again the same female said with concern.
"I think he is a bandit or something of that sort, his eyes scream murderer at me!" One of the veterans with a big scar across his face said in a solemn voice as he too showed that he was not unarmed.
"You think so too?" Another veteran said, part of the small group that seemed to guard the bigger group. This time the female didn't object anymore, evidently this traveler had more to him than meets the eye.
Farsian only smiled slightly as he heard their conversation, there were many people on this planet that killed for a living. Only having the eyes of a killer wasn't considered to be a crime, if he came up to them and played the innocent or weak they would propably still take him in. After all there were 6 veterans with swords and spears, it was unlikely that he would be searching for trouble all on his own.
"Hey you!" One of the veterans shouted back, either he was looking for a fight or something else. He had separated himself from the group of people and waited for Farsian to catch up with them.
"What is it? I have nothing to give you." Farsian calmly stated as he approached the figure, behind which waited the other 5 veterans. Farsian even went so far as to open his cape that was wrapped around his body, showing that he indeed only had 2 daggers and his clothing on him. He left most of his stuff in the tavern, he had payed in advance and it was a waste to carry everything with him here.
"What if we wish for your life?" One of the veterans in the back shouted to the front. The one in the lead slightly frowned at that but didn't say anything more.
"So you want to kill me?" Farsian said and slowly placed his hands on his daggers. All of the veterans wore uniform armor and weaponry, a set of light armor that was composed of a chainmail and some leather to cover it up, large shields that covered 1/3 of their body but were made of animal hide and wood, long spears that stood as tall as 2 meters and swords that dangled from their waist. They were rather well equipped for a rag tag band of mercenary's, perhaps they were professionals?
"No, actually we came here to talk to you." The leader that stood in the front said.
"Then let us talk." Farsian relaxed but kept his hands on his daggers.
"Actually we know that there is no town close to us that you could reach, also we know that this is a rather dangerous place." The leader said calmly as he eyed Farsian.
He was right, even Farsian knew that there was nothing but ice and snow around, but they couldn't say that he hadn't had some companions thus far. It was still safe for him to lie.
"So what do you want to say?" Farsian said slightly grumpy.
"We were hoping that you could help us out, we are missing one of our companions. He was usually responsible for the scouting. He took his horse and some rations and just never showed up again, we don't know where he wen't but we wouldn't wanna find out about any traps he set. That's where you come into play, just scout for us and we will make it worth your while." The mercenary said with a smile, he appeared rather carismatic. Too bad that Farsian was one of the undead and charisma was something that had little efect on him when it was someone from the other races. Mostly it was fear and strenght that ruled the undead and gave them motivation to do something.
"Allright but you have to provide me with food and water." Farsian said, although only to keep his cover.
"We can do that, no problem. Now follow us back to the main group, there we will go into the details." The leader of the small group said with a sigh of reliev. If things would have gone south they might have had to fight him and risk injury. There was nothing worse than getting an injury in this weather, heat would leak from you untill you died or weird infections could claim your limbs.
"Sure I will follow you." Farsian said. But they still didn't trust him completly so two from their group actually walked behind Farsian while their leader and three other guys walked in the front.
Farsian was thinking that it might not be so bad to go with them for a while, his money was beginning to go out. It was a new experience to someone like him who could have literally swam in his money.
"Well just got to earn it all back now." Farsian muttered under his breath.
When they arrived at the larger group, many were sceptical towards Farsian. Partially because they heard what the mercenarys had said and also because Farsian was wearing weapons. It was never a good sign when someone walked with no stuff but with weapons. Mostly bandits would do such things to travel quicker, the other explanation was that he had to leave somewhere in a hurry and couldn't get his stuff together. Both reasons weren't so good, as the latter would mean that there was something very dangerous in the area.
"Fear not, I'm no bandit." Farsian said with a slight chuckle. They were eying him like he was some kind of monster, which he was but they shouldn't know yet.
Some of the people in the group visibly breathed a breath of relief when they heard Farsian, even if there was no proof it was at least something that they wished to beliefe in.
"Then tell us the story of how you lost your stuff." One of the mercenarys eyed him suspiciously.
"Well, it's quite easy to explain. We were ambushed by a group of zombies, one of them was even an elder corpse. I couldn't have possibly warded them off all alone so I ran." Farsian said something that was half truth and half lie. Making it difficult for them to see through.
"You say "we", does that mean that there were more people with you?" This time the leader of the mercenarys came up to him and talked.
"Yes, we were 10 people and 4 guards." Farsian said some made up numbers after counting what they had in numbers.
"Only so many guards?" The leader frowned. If it was true, then 4 people really couldn't have bested the zombies all on their own. The leader of their group must have been trying to save money.
"People alway try to skim on the wrong ends." The leader said, deliberatly louder so that the other people in the group could hear him. He was a man of business after all.
"Allright, we will believ you. But you have to understand that we will have to be carefull." The mercenary leader said.