Red Rose

Meriado was just about to get up and move closer to the cliff, when someone did a whistling sound behind them. He turned around and was relieved to see Black Falcon. He had a shaggy-looking old man with him. Meriado crawled over to the two men and quickly briefed them on the situation. He told them about the mysterious man, about Mild entering the cave with them and about the book they had found.

"But, we don't have lots of time... we should get going!" Meriado said.

"Our plan is to walk around that cliff over there and then try to enter the cave from the back. We have to be stealthy at first, so we don't blow Mild's cover nor risk getting any of the messengers killed!" he continued.

He told the others to follow him and started sneaking towards the cliff. They passed trees and bushes and made sure to stay in the shadow of the trees at all time. When they reached the cliff, they walked around it, slow and steady.

Suddenly they heard voices - the voices of trolls! Meriado peeked out from around a corner and tried to get a look at them.

He saw two big, ugly-looking trolls standing by what looked to be an opening into the cave. It was a back door!

The two trolls were obviously arguing about something and seemed not to take much notice of what was going on around them.

Meriado made a sign to Black Falcon which made clear that Meriado would sneak up and kill the troll to the right and that Black Falcon should take out the other one.

He closed in on the trolls and when he was close enough he came out of the tree's shadow and pierced his sword through the back of the troll. He hoped Black Falcon would take care of the other one!

OOC: That was great, Falcon! I'm impressed by all of you. Good job!

I was standing outside my house by the east gate, when I saw a dog acting strange. Usually they come to me and either wants to play or be pet but this one didn't. It was the second dog I had seen lately acting strange so I decided to follow him.

"Come here, little friend!" I shouted when the dog was at the bridge of East Gate.
No reaction, that's odd, I thought.

The dog ran fast towards the troll clan I knew had a hide out right outside of Thais. I wondered what it be going there for. No time for thinking, I ran as quickly as I could back to my house, picked up my sword and shield since I got a bad feeling about this.

I jumped on my trusted Wolfy's back and hasted to get to the dog. I saw him from afar and kept whistling and calling for him.

I told my bear to keep calm but prepared "this is not the work of Banor!"
What is this I sense? Fellow followers? In danger? "MERIADO, IS THAT YOU?"
I realized fast that it was a mistake yelling his name so loud..

After a hard bargain with the equipment dealer Turvy, who is residing in northern parts of Thais, Avenlia decided to take a little detour along the city wall. So much time had passed since she had had the opportunity to peacefully revisit the common streets of her childhood.
Well, yes! I could even visit the city guard, Tim, if he still strolls around on his usual spot, Avenlia thought, while a subtile question about the age of the current employees of the city guard rose in the back of her head.

As she turned right by the end of the street, she enjoyed the view of the very large and thoroughly crafted city wall. And yes, wasn't it Tim she saw there, watching out for unwanted creatures, on top of the wall? But, wait, what was that? She recognized the shape of a bear, hastily running towards the gate - but did she see a certain Adrian on top of it?
Yes, she thought. His mannerisms were unmistakeable. But what on earth would make Adrian ride this swiftly out of Thais? She thought maybe he had caught some trouble, and had a horde of unsatisified peasants on his heels - that was at least how it looked like.

However, no peasants followed, and thus left Avenlia in the unsatisfactory situation of being curious. There wasn't really a question about it, she had to chase down her friend to find out what he was up to. After all, she had got quite tired of all the nostalgia, and felt ready for some bow-stringing. And this day which started out so boring, she thought as she followed Adrian out of the gate.

Just out of the gate, Avenlia notices something shining between some bushes.
She goes to check, even if the place is hard to reach.
When she reaches the place, between some leaves and branches, she finds this:

OOC: Sorry, but you can't control someone else's character, Rob! We should really get this one going again though. I'll make a post soon.

Meriado wrote:OOC: Sorry, but you can't control someone else's character, Rob! We should really get this one going again though. I'll make a post soon.

whateva, whateva, rob does what he wants

OOC: Nice stories... I think I'm not good at writing stories so I delete this one.

@Avenlia, I changed it today... but after reading the whole story I thought it sux and deleted it.

OOC: Ooooh loooord This is not in the spirit of a join-in!

@Vanyel, it is not that you are not good at stories, you should only write as if you were your own character!

OOC: Lets just all ignore Rob's, Cinny's and Vanyel's posts and go at it again. Sorry guys, but this is not the place for such posts, haha... ruins the mood!

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Meriado dragged the two dead trolls into a group of bushes near the cave entrance. Then suddenly he heard a familiar voice yelling from somewhere near. It was Adrian. What a fool he was yelling like that! Now all the trolls outside the cave would know they were here.

He ran back to the cliff corner and took a peek around it. He saw Adrian and his trusty mount Wolfy coming towards them. Meriado gestured with his hand to show that they should be quiet and come to where he stood. Luckily the group of trolls over by the other entrance hadn't taken notice of Adrian yelling since they were in the middle of fighting over something. They had begun fighting and screaming at each other... probably over half a pig laying by the fire.

When Adrian had come closer Meriado saw someone moving among the trees a bit further away.

"Good to see you Adrian! Who's that following you?" he said and pointed towards the one running among the trees.

Adrian greeted Meriado with a fast "Hey" while trying to catch his breath. "I'm sorry for yelling, didn't know what.. what'd you say? Is someone following me?" Meriado pointed again and Adrian looked. "I can't see anything but it's probably just Hanna, you know the jewelry store girl, she usually follows me". Adrian laughed quietly and asked what was going on and so Meriado told him everything he knew.

Adrian told Wolfy to go past the arguing trolls and on the way kill them, that way it wouldn't seem suspicious, a bear killing a troll isn't really news.

"What's next?" Adrian asked. "Where are the others?"

Before he knew what's what the shadow had appeared behind the tree again and it wasn't Hanna..