"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck fuckfuck!" Rowan wasn't sure when or how he'd pissed off the beings on high, but he swore to sacrifice the next goat he came across to appease them. A very large and very angry bear was hot on his heels, and Rowan's attempt to free Thelma from her cage in one of the pirate outposts had gone awry when the ursine version of The Incredible Hulk had come out of nowhere. (How something that large managed to sneak was beyond him.) Now, Rowan had abandoned his recon mission in favor of not discovering if a bear does in fact shit in the woods. The hard way. He came tearing down one of the mountainsides hills and leapt onto a branch of a tall tree, hoping the bear wouldn't be able to stop in time and tumble to it's doom. What he didn't count on was the thud.

Rowan managed to hoist himself onto the branch and turn just in time to see a truly bewildered Vaas stepping out of a car to examine the carcass. His two guards hopped from the back of the Jeep and Rowan could see a gagged woman with flaming red hair tied up in the back. Vaas, seemingly very impressed with his kill, thankfully didn't notice Rowan crouching unsteadily on a tree limb a few feet off the road.

"Another fucking bear!" He exclaimed. "You see this?" He said to one of his guards. "This is why I drive." Rowan took aim and fired his revolver, not wanting to waste the chance. unfortunately, his bobbing footing threw off his aim and the guard on the left fell to the ground. Vaas let out a scream of "'EY!" but Rowan leapt from his tree and caught Vaas by his belt. Rowan's feet didn't make the ledge, however, and they both slid rapidly over the edge. Vaas's guard grabbed his arm, but Rowan seized the guardrail and gave Vaas a good yank. He and the other man tumbled down the hill and Rowan wasted no time in sprinting to the truck and freeing the woman.

"Thelma Dukes?" He asked hurriedly.

"Yes." She responded, confused. "Who are-"

"'EY! I'm gonna get you for that, you fuck! I LIKE this belt!" The angry voice from the bottom of the hill told Rowan that they had very little time.

"Car. Now." He told Thelma. She leapt into the passenger seat and told him to floor it. They sped off, putting as much distance between them and Vaas as possible. They ended up in one of the Rakyat territories and pushed the car over a bridge to prevent Vaas from using it to find them.

"Okay," Thelma asked him. "Number one: Thank you. Number two: Who the fuck are you?"

"My name is Rowan Arland. I'm... Well, I'm a soldier. Kind of. The point is, I'm trying to get off this island. But I need to find a friend of mine first." He stopped. Maybe the woman had heard Vaas or his men discussing the chopper he'd arrived on. "By any chance, did you happen to catch any talk about a helicopter?" Thelma shook her head. "What about a captured pilot?" Another shake. Rowan sighed. "Alright, then. We can talk more later. We need to find somewhere we won't be found if Vaas comes looking."

"Hold on a second there, buddy. How do I know I can trust you?"

"Two things." He said. "One: I'm the only friend you've got right now and I know more about this island than you do. Two: Consider this an offer of good faith." He pulled the memory card from his pack and handed it to her. "What do you say?"

"Fucking little prick. I like this belt."

Vaas hauled himself back up the side of the hill and began searching himself for injuries. His tumble down the hill had left a few nasty cuts that he was certain he'd feel after he came down a little, and his black eye throbbed horribly. As Vaas began to walk down the road, He spoke to himself out loud.

"I tell you, I get no respect. I give these people a chance, try to show them 'ey, this Vaas, he's not such a bad guy. And how do they repay me? They steal my car and ruin my favorite belt. I swear to God!" He wheeled about and fired randomly into the forest. A cry of pain somewhere in the underbrush told him he'd hit something. Eh. Not his concern. Shouldn't have been in front of his bullet.

He picked his way along the road, following the tire tracks. He continued to ramble to all and sundry.

"I'm going to find them, and I'm going to shoot them. Then, I'm going to talk to them, then I'll shoot them again. Then, I'll cut them into pieces, put the pieces in a fire, piss on them, AND FUCKING SHOOT THE PIECES AGAIN! Jordan ! Rikki! Where the fuck is my- Oh yea." He vaguely recalled a gunshot wound and a broken neck regarding his two henchmen. But for Vaas, it was THDNC: Too high, do not care. Still, thoughts of the man in the tree occasionally lingered in his mind. "Think you can come to MY island and take what you want, fucker? Think you can steal what I rightfully stole? NO! And I'll tell you why, you son of a bitch!" He was screaming at a tree, of all things, but he didn't care. If it had a problem, it could walk away. Stupid tree. "MY FUCKING LIFE is nothing but a heartache! You are NOTHING but a mistake! And I'm going to cut you open, no matter what Hoyt says! You know why? BECAUSE I FUCKING WANT IT THAT WAY!"

He stalked back toward his compound, still grumbling. He liked that belt.

They's been hiking through the hills for an hour now, getting aquainted. Rowan learned that Thelma had been a photojournalist before she'd been captured and that's what brought her to Rook Island.

"What about you?" She asked. "You mentioned that you were a soldier?" He hesitated to tell her, but he wanted her to trust him.

"I'm ex-Asutralian military. I was discharged when they claimed that I'd been demonstrating 'seditious behavior'."

"Oh..." She was quiet for a moment. "What did you do?" She asked hesitantly.

"Punched my CO in the face." Her eyes went wide and he explained. "We'd captured a few deserters and he was beating them. Standard protocol is to write them up and detain them until they can be processed and ejected if need be. He went into a rage, knocking one of them senseless." Rowan heaved an angry sigh. "They were just a couple of kids. They heard that they were to be deployed and they panicked. I stepped in, and next thing you know, I'm out on my ass.

"I'm sorry... So how'd you end up here?"

"I had a friend, a pilot named Paul Horton. I still came around to visit some of the boys in my squad when they had down time. Paul had the genius idea to take one of the choppers up for a spin, and I tagged along. While we're up, we get a distress call from one of the ships that was captured by Hoyt's men."

"Hoyt?" She inquired.

"The big boss around here. Even Vaas has someone to shove him around." She looked stunned. Rowan guessed the idea of Vaas taking orders from anyone and actually listening was astounding. "Think about it." He said. "Vaas couldn't manage all this by himself. He's too volatile. If he was in charge, it would be pretty short lived. No, he takes orders from a man named Hoyt Vaulker. I ran into some men who were talking about him. They weren't pirates, though. Soldiers. They wore yellow striped uniforms and they were WAY more well-equipped than the guys here. I don't know where they're based put of, but I haven't seen anty since, so I'm gonna assume that they were just here on business."