Charlie let out a deep groan as she landed hard on her back, forcing her to stare up at the dark clouds that covered the skies. It would rain soon, she could taste it in the air. She could already feel her mood plummet, rain would be a miserable experience, and she would need to find a proper shelter. She couldn't sleep out in the open, and finding a cave or something that wasn't filled with demonic creatures or orcs and trolls would be impossible in the badlands. Plus Brittany never bought her extras, and her position didn't allow for her to simply head down to the guild and trade as if she was a normal member.
"Kill a few demons and bring back their cores Charlie, it'll be easy and you're the only one I can trust," Charlie muttered as she hopped to her feet and stared at the Leshen in front of her. Glowing green eyes under a deer skull, tree-like limbs and the ability to transform into a pack of crows at the drop of a hat, made it one of the harder kills in the badlands. She was most definitely going to insist that Brittany pay her quadruple for this. She had at least managed to bury one of her silver daggers deep into its chest, in an attempt to separate it's head from its body, but the thrashing leshen's limbs had sent her flying.
The Leshen lets out an animalistic roar as it manages to pull itself up, its hands and fingers growing into thick vine-like branches which it uses to lash out at her.
Charlie sidestepped the attack, its movements had become slower, and far more erratic. Evidence that she had hurt the creature. "A sword master who dropped her sword, thank god that no one is here to witness this," Charlie groaned as she reached for the sword that she had embedded into the ground and yanked it out smoothly and spun it. The leshen attacks once again and she slices through it's vines as if they were nothing, the runes that had been etched into her sword glowing a bright yellow as she gets ready to finish this fight. She'd been in the badlands for five days and she was eager to get back to the border and the wall, so she could get a hot meal and a warm bed.
Five days of killing anything and everything that crossed her path with the wrong sword. Hiccup had taken off with her food and supplies, abandoning her shortly after they had jumped the wall that protected their lands from the creatures of the badlands. She was hungry, cold and missing two of her swords, but even with all the setbacks she had still managed to collect everything on the list except for the basilisk venom and the resin from a leshen. At least when she was done with this she could look for some shelter before attempting to find a basilisk.
The heavy vines snapping at her, digging and tearing into her bare arms, Charlie closes her eyes and takes a deep breath as she slowly raises her sword, which had begun to glow golden. She could feel it in the pit of her stomach, and she let the power slowly spread through her body, she could certainly weather this storm, she'd faced far worse. The most pressing concern was the time of this attack, especially if she wanted to preserve the core for Brittany. Her eyes snap open as she brings her sword down in a simple forward slash as a light erupts from the sword slicing the leshen and everything in its path into two, she can hear the tree's cracking behind the leshen she had split them in two.
Charlie inhales deeply, waiting for a moment before sheathing her sword as she slowly approaches the corpse and bends down, ignoring the stinging in her hands as she flips over one of the halves and reaches into its body. It's blood burns but it doesn't stop her from digging into its body and digging out the demoncore. The glowing core thrummed in her hand, a leshen core unlike most of the other demoncores was almost jewel-like and she could feel the magic in the item slowly leaking out into the world. With a sigh she reaches for her hip and opens the storage space that Brittany had given her and drops the jewel into it. It really was a very handy prototype.
She would still need to get the resin, but the hard part had been dealt with and she was going to have enough money to buy a new suit of armor soon and if she was lucky she would commission a new sword. Before she can begin to search for the lump of resin that usually got left behind, a fat raindrop hits her outstretched hand.
"I can't catch a break," Charlie muttered under her breath as she picked up her speed, she wasn't in the mood to lug around a leshen carcass. She manages to find the lump of resin just as the rain begins to fall causing her to grit her teeth as she tries to place herself. If she could retrace her steps she would be able to get back to her last campsite, but the fight had left her clueless about her surroundings. She vaguely remembered a cliff that she had nearly been thrown from. She lets out a small grunt as she rests her hand on her sword and begins to check her surroundings. She needed to find somewhere she could wait out the rain.
Charlie suddenly grips her sword, unsheathing it with a smooth motion as she turns sharply only for her eyes to widen as Hiccup crashes into her, knocking her into the mud. "Hiccup!" Charlie grumbled as she sat up and glared at her completely untrustworthy steed. "Where the hell have you been?" Charlie grunted as sheathed her sword and glared up at her drake. She's rewarded with a faceful of drool as Hiccup licks her and grabs her with his tail and drops her unceremoniously onto his back.
Before she can make another comment or even seat herself properly Hiccup takes off nearly launching her from his back, there was nothing as fast or nimble as Hiccup was on the ground. She manages to pull herself into the proper riding position as she moves her body with Hiccup, despite the fact that he had a mind of his own and had no problem abandoning her in the badlands. It doesn't take Hiccup long to clear the dead forest as she makes her way towards the cliff she was certain she'd nearly fallen off and jumps off it, his claws gripping the cliff as he descends roughly knocking over massive rocks till they get to the bottom where he once again takes off towards a massive cave, before coming to a complete stop.
Charlie immediately slides off and narrows her eyes at the empty containers, "Did you eat all the rations I brought?" Hiccup immediately flopped down and blew some smoke at her as she shoved his head away from her. Not that she could eat anyway, the entire cave smelt like rot. With a sigh she breaks apart one of the wooden containers and holds up a piece after wrapping the cloth around it. "Flame."
Hiccup lets out a hiccup sending a small flame loogie onto the cloth, igniting it and illuminating the dark cave and Charlie immensely crinkles her nose, finally understanding why the cave smelt like death. "You're a greedy little shit aren't you?" Charlie questions Hiccup, monster corpses littered the ground, some half eaten others stripped of all its flesh. There's a loud thump and Charlie turns back at Hiccup who had dropped a half eaten basilisk in front of her, his tail thumping proudly. Charlie eyed the half digested lump and then grinned, Hiccup had left the head which meant that there was not only an intact venom sac, if she was lucky then she might be able to get it's core as well. Brittany would have to pay her a lot of gold for that. "When we get back I'm going to buy all the fish at the market for you." Charlie vowed.
Hiccup lets out a low trill as she jams the torch into the ground for some light and warmth as she grabs her knife and opens the basilisk's mouth carefully making sure not to cut herself on its fangs. With this she could head back and attempt to help Quinn broker peace. The last thing she wanted was a war where her father would use every little military achievement that she brought back as a reason to place a crown on top of her head. She needed to thread the needle carefully, while also remaining on her best behavior.
~ O ~
Nyssa had no idea how Charlie ran her special unit, but she could already tell that there was no chain of command, and Sam and Finn and the rest of her unit just did what it wanted. It would have been far better if she had simply replaced Charlie's unit with Sparrows, but with a possible traitor in the midst such a plan was fraught with risk. Though putting her fate in the hands of Charlie's chaotic unit seemed to be equally fraught with risk. Still, she had a job to do and second-guessing Quinn's decision right now might cause Quinn to question her loyalty. A traitor within her ranks and she hadn't spotted it? Quinn might be willing to forgive her, but once her father had heard the news he had become enraged.
A traitor in the ranks reflected poorly on the family, and the last thing that her father wanted was for the Imperial family to not only lose faith in him but to start paying attention to what he did in his territory. There was an unspoken agreement between her father and the Imperial family. She needed to make sure that this escort went off without a hitch, the last thing she wanted was Talia to take her place as Quinn's second in command. Her older sister would love to lord it over her.
"Nyssa darling, are you certain there's no official welcome for the beasts?"
"Beastkin, you must refer to them as beastkin at all time, to refer to them as anything else is considered offensive," Nyssa corrects for the umpteenth time turning to look at Rachel who nods absentmindedly.
Rachel nods and looks over at where Charlie's unit is currently sitting at one of the tables a rather loud game of cards that is going on, "We couldn't have taken a more refined unit? I fear that they may offend our guests before they've even had a chance to arrive at the capital."
Nyssa glanced over at the table and grimaced, Rachel had a point, without Charlie around her unit was even more chaotic than usual and even though Quinn had informed both Sam and Finn that she was in charge they both seemed content in ignoring her and drinking and gambling. "Quinn believed that you would feel more at ease with this unit then—"
"Her whores?" Rachel finished for Nyssa raising a brow.
Nyssa cleared her throat, Charlie would have been far easier to manage. She could manage Charlie, all she needed to do was bribe her with coin and booze and women. All she would need to promise was to help the youngest princess avoid her mother for a month and Charlie would have done everything she said, and made proper tactical suggestions. Out of all the consorts in the imperial family, Rachel had to be her least favorite. "I have never slept with her highness—"
Rachel waved off Nyssa's comment, she'd heard the excuse before but she simply didn't believe her. How could she? Quinn was very much a royal and like the rest of the family she had her concubines, she had mistakenly believed that she would be Quinn's only love, her great love. She had convinced herself that it would be a fairytale that the bards would be singing about. She was such a fool. "When are they set to arrive and have you prepared the gifts?"
"Brittany has prepared a few trinkets to make the guests stay a bit more comfortable, and I've managed to keep the good alcohol away from our guard. They're used to drinking swill, I can't imagine that they'll know what the difference is," Nyssa stated glancing over at the group Sam's position had changed as had Finn's even if they were idiots, she could understand why Charlie kept them around. "They're close."
"How do you know?" Rachel questions.
"It's my job to know, and despite the fact that they may be the dumbest men that I've ever had the pleasure of working with, they did train with her and while they may not be swordmasters, Finn's half giant and half dwarf, he can feel it in the stone or something."
"He's half giant? Well that certainly explains a lot."
"Doesn't it though," Nyssa stated as she clapped her hands, hoping that such an action gets Charlie's chaotic unit up and moving but they just look at her. She was going to have a very long talk about readiness with Charlie though she doubted that Charlie would listen. "Our guests are arriving, please try and look professional," Nyssa calls out.
"Professional?" Finn whispers to Sam who shrugs his shoulders.
"Try and look like the 4th princesses highly trained unit, not a bunch of low-life drunken criminals that you lot spend most of your time with," Rachel offers trying to help.
Sam blinked, "Oh, pretend Sue is coming to inspect us guys!" Almost immediately every member of the unit begins to move, putting away cards and drink and tidying the place up as if General Sue Sylvester was coming to check on them.
Nyssa inhales sharply, this is what happened when you just picked up random people and gave them a sword. Charlie's unit, the fourth unit of the crown had a high percentage of commoners, many of which wouldn't have passed the training requirements from the other units. She was certain that the vast majority of them couldn't read, and most of them lacked the proper manners. "Next time, Britt gives us the golems." She could work with golems. They did exactly what she said and exactly how she would do it. Before anyone can do anything a black cat suddenly drops from the trees landing onto the makeshift table and staring at the group of soldiers, Finn jumping back and immediately reaching for his hammer. "Finn don't you dare!" Nyssa snaps at him.
The cat suddenly morphs into a beautiful woman who is seated on the table, "If this is the best your kingdom has to offer, well I'm not impressed," Santana informs them, her ears twitching backwards as she leans back on the table. She spots Nyssa and winks at her, perhaps this trip wouldn't be wasted. It seemed the Agron kingdom certainly had beautiful women. She could work with that.