The troop set up at the side of the river, and everyone washed up, cleaned clothes, and cleaned off weapons of blood. Sin floated in the middle of the river, shirtless, wearing a pair of plain jeans. He floated on his back, staring at the sky, thinking. No one else was swimming, but Michael was fishing, and Terra was thinking about what Sin had said, about fisherman. Sin was a strange person, able to manipulate someone's mind into complete paranoia about someone.
August tried hard to not look at Sin, but she couldn't help, and felt a little... naughty? about it, so whenever she glanced over, she quickly looked away. "Peeking at Sin, huh?" A voice said from behind, and it was the icy-haired mercenary. August hid her face with her hair. "Uhhh..." And Hannah smiled. "I don't blame you, he isn't bad looking at all. Just not in my personal tastes." She said, and August smiled sheepishly. "But you seem to be the type of girl who'd go for tha bad boy." Hannah said, and August shrugged.
"But, my advice, is that you get to him before Terra does, because she might be a problem." She said, and August nodded. "I know..." She said, in an almost evil voice. Hannah backed up. "Woah." She said, and laughed nervously. "Didn't expect that of little miss nice-nice." She said, and August laughed and smiled sheepishly again. "Sorry..." She said, looking back to Sin. "If you don't like Sin, who do you?" August asked Hannah. She grinned. "Someone." She said, walking away, to go stand among Kyren, Baldh, and Baldh's troop.
Sin eventually decided to get out of the stream, at the calling of Kyren's voice. His little swim floating in the river had given him time to think, something he hadnt been able to do in a while, which caused him to be bitter.
"What do you want?" He said, and Kyren's eyebrow raised. Apparantly, Sin wasn't in a good mood, judging from his scowl and lack of attention. "Well, I'm going to send in a few unsuspiscious members of our group to go scout out ahead, in Alsterea. Make sure there's no Ereans, and even look for a lot for sale where we could set up shop, as sellswords." He said, and Baldh cringed. "Don't degrade us to the quality of common sellswords." He said, and Kyren shrugged. "What else shall we call ourselves? Proud survivors of the Bolstar Slaughter? If we are to play ourselves off as sellswords, we have to call ourselves sellswords until we have other merits." He said, and Baldh sighed. "All that work, for nothing... now I have to build my pride, once more..." he said to himself.
"but, like I was saying... I need a group of people to scout out, in groups of two, or alone, to learn the lay of the land, and keep an eye out for potential locations. If not, we'll be forced to build our own camp outside of Alsterea." Kyren said. "Sin, you'll be one of our chief scouts, because of your natural ability to blend in." And Sin nodded. "Yep..." He said, and Kyren nodded. "I'll take that as a yes." And Sin was looking at the gates in the distance from the small camp they set up near the rive. "Whatever you say." He said, and Kyren sighed.
"Hannah, and Heresy, you two can go as well. Keep an eye out for a smith, who can make this list of supplies, and here's the money for the order as well." Kyren said, handing Hannah a large pouch of heavy money. "Well, pure gold coins in here, huh?" Hannah said, opening it. "Must've taken this from the treasury as allowance, huh, Kyren?" And Kyren's eyes shifted. "My father told me to always keep a large sum of emergency funds..." he said, and Heresy laughed.
"Nonetheless, we shall go." he said, and Kyren looked among the other units. "August, you can go too, but leave your horse behind on this one." He said, and she looked unsure of herself. "Y-yes.. captain..." She said, as everyones eyes turned to her, as she got off her horse. "Terra, Michael, you go into the town too." And the two Myrmidons nodded. "Siham, you can go as well, you won't stick out too much." Kyren said, and she nodded. "Now, I would let you mages go, but don't get me wrong..." He said looking over the bunch. "...but you're all a bit too ... eclectic to not stick out." And Nadia nodded, understanding. "Hmph... I don't care, but when will battle break out again?" He asked, sounding almost thirsty.
"When we become mercenaries, we'll have plenty to do." He said, and Aidan smiled. "Good. I need to keep sharp..." He said, and Kyren blinked, looking away. "The rest of us will stay here. If something goes wrong, evacuate the city, and come straight here, as fast as possible. The rest of us will stage a rescue." He said, and the scouts nodded, and set off for the city of Alsterea.
On the walk...
Sin was ahead of the group, wanting to be alone as much as possible, but it seemed that his time here had been signifigant to seem to attract... friends. "Trivial things like friends aren't needed.." He muttered to himself, but then shook his head. "Eh? That was unlike me.." He said, as he seemed to battle his own personality as it changed.
Michael and Terra were besides each other, Hannah and Heresy accompanied by Siham, and Sin ahead of them all, August tagging behind, wondering how to get to Sin without being noticed. Michael ran ahead, and tapped Sin on the shoulder. "Before we get to the town, it seems this new... power... of yours has made you on par with me-" He said, and Sin whirled around, blades at ready, lashing out at Michael which he promptly dodged. "A duel it is." Sin said, and Michael laughed.
Terra rolled her eyes. "These two never let up!" She said to herself. "Well, they are fighting over you." Hannah said, and Terra blinked. "Eh?" She said, and Hannah laughed. "All of you are so clueless! Take a look around, realize the situation you four are in." Hannah said, with a sly grin on her face. "...Four of... us?" And Hannah laughed, and tugged on Siham and Heresy's arms, and went off ahead.
August walked up to Terra. "They're fighting... again..." She said, and readied a staff. Terra noted this and laughed. "Yeah, one of them's bound to get hurt... who do you think will win?" Terra asked, leaving August perplexed. Shouldn't her enemy be more... mean? "I hope Sin will win..." She said, and Terra tilted her head. "I don't know who I think will win..." She said, as the two watched.
Sin was slow to start, but caught up as he learned how his weapons worked. The blades were heavy, yet once he got to using them, he manipulated the top-heavy quality and the fact that they were chained to move them at amazing speeds. Michael could only dodge at this point, but it didn't look like he intended to attack, either.
"Well, this is a new speed and prescision I havn't seen before... so this is a true assassin, huh?" He said, as he evaded a near hit, and drove his hilt into Sin's chin, lifting him off his feet, and flipping once backwards. "Too bad assassins are so weak, apparantly." He said, with a wiley grin.
Sin landed on his feet, and rubbed his chin, his expression becoming serious. "Oww.." He said, cracking his jaw. "That really hurt you know." He said, and Michael laughed. Suddenly, a blade shot at him. Michael ducked really quick, as he acessed the situation. He used the top-heavy movements of those strange daggers to give the other chained dagger immense momentum, as he launched it at him, doubling his weapons as clumsy close range, and deadly ranged. Suddenly, Sin dissappeared, and reappeared in front of Michael. "This is what assassins would call a Silencer." He said, a maniacle grin on his face, and a burning intent to kill in his eyes.
Terror shot across Michaels face. The bastard was going to kill him! But he seemed helpless as time seemed to slow down, and Sin seemed to speed up, as he did a sweeping kick, knocking Michael off his feet, and from the ground, Michael noticed that the chains had broken from each other, and had attached themselves to his arms. "Silencer." He said, spinning his blades and Michael closed his eyes. Thump.
Sin had launched the chained blade at the ground, inches from Michael's face. "Did you really think I'd kill off a team mate?" Sin asked with a chuckle, as the chains crawled down his arms and re-connected, as he pulled the dagger from the ground. Sin turned around, and Michael grinned, as he pulled on Sin's leg, causing him to trip, and while Sin was down, Michael got up quickly, and placed the tip of his blade at the back of Sin's neck.
"SonofaBITCH." Sin muttered, and Michael laughed. "You might have more potential, but I have experience, something that can NEVER be given to you." He said, and Sin mocked him from the ground. Swatting away the blade, Sin stood up, grumbling.
"I'd call that a tie." Terra said, and Michael's jaw dropped. "What do you meeeean, a DRAW?" He said, and Terra laughed. "Well, Sin got you down as well, and had you in a kill position. If he hadn't missed on purpose, you'd be dead, and you'd never get that chance you had." she said, and Michael tried arguing. "Would you like to duel me? We both know who'll win this battle." She said, and Michael gave. "Oh, and I didn't miss purposely." Sin said with a sheepish smile of innocence. "I tried to stick him in the face, but I'm still not used to my weapons." He said, and Terra's smile fell off. "What?" She said, simply, and Michael chased him. "GET BACK HERE, NOW!" Michael yelled, and Sin laughed. "Catch me if you can!" He exclaimed, and August giggled, as she watched Sin run towards town, and she and Terra ran into town as well.
Now, within town, they split up, and Terra and Michael went off one way, and Sin dissappeared, and August was left alone, in the big city. "Uhm... Sin?" She asked, as she stumbled out into the crowd, and rushed off to find him. "...Don't leave me behind!"