It hadn't been too long since Kazh'e had left the inn she had stayed in last night. Today would start a new task, as a hired mercenary she would set out with a group of other mercenaries to protect a shipping wagon heading to Raiden. There were a couple more that would join the group, but those that were already there were a couple of humans, mostly armed with an assortment of weapons of all sorts. Then again, weren't a lot of other mercenaries that were there doing the same thing? It was things like this that discusted Kazh'e about working with others, they were inefficiant to her opinion. Kazh'e sighed and approached them, with Ise striding beside her and her black cloak catching the wind behind her.

Sandy came into the group a little late, since she was kinda bad with directions. She got helped off her horse, her red cloak's hood being pulled back to reveal her face and pointed ears. "Where's the leader of this mercenary group?" She asked wanting to give the leader her contract for being hired here.

Then Fasz answered, "I am. So you're here for the job, right?" And he continued his journey with no questions. He is not interested in knowing new people. He just does his job, with no interest in seeing his commrades again, but maybe this will change...

* * *

Joline had been in Dragon Breath for the last month, since the darkness came and undead rose. The city was holding it's own. At the time of unexpected happenings, she had come to visit Alric's parents and inform them of what truely happened to their son. It had taken some time to gain the courage to confront the inlaws she hadn't seen since her marriage. Now that she had informed them, she couldn't stand their coddling and comforting any longer. It was time to leave. They wanted to set her up in a home--with Alric's brother none the less!--in the country when this "dreadful matter of darkness" was vanquished.

It seemed ages since she had led that charmed life. Despite all the wealth, it seemed so hollow to her. She wanted adventure, she wanted to see the world. The best place to start would be Raiden, where no noblilty was tied to her, or even existed. She heard the Free City was rough, but she could take it. It was all a part of the experiance wasn't it?

Joline walked the city streets, trying to figure out how she would get out of this mess. The proudest and most determined merchants and travelers were getting their courage back now, despite hearing word of the destruction of Roid, Mirror Forest and Blade. With a handful of guards and mercenaries, they should be fine. Besides, cities seem to be the worse place to be. Undead really weren't that hard to kill. Especially when some else does it for you.

And what luck she had! Already a small caravan was being prepared to leave. a slightly pudgy merchant was shouting orders to becareful of his goods to the apprentice packing a wagon. Several mercenaries were gathered around, mostly indescript men with assorted weapons. Three of the mercs caught her eye though. One very tall red-headed man, a woman who was possibly even taller, and a red-headed elf. She smiled secretly at the elf's back, perhaps she could spark a friendship... She looked back at the two tall mercenaries and realized as the breeze shifted the woman's hair, she was an elf as well. This maybe interesting, she thought with a smile.

Joline approached the merchant, swaying gracefully like a noblewoman. She gave a curtsy and introduced herself. The merchant in fact was quite friendly to her. She gave him a few gold to pay for her passage and he would let her ride in his wagon. As the group waited for the a last few things to be taken care of, Joline climbed up into the driver's seat of the wagon. She laid her staff beneath the bench on the floor and arranged her skirts, then watched the two elven mercenaries.

* * *

Sandy smiled and nodded, "Good now lets get going!" Sandy smiled and hopped back onto her horse and rode to the front of the party.

Fasz prepared himself, he knew that the journey was going to have some problem, something always happens when you travel in Lodoss. He saw merchant got someone up in the wagon but he didnt take care of that. Later, they started moving to Dragon Scale as it was in the route. In the way Fasz tought about leaving Lodoss after his travel to Raiden, in Raiden he can take a ship going to explore or maybe a ship going to Alecrast ro something, as he knew, the Farland is like a paradise, not including that its a salvage land, but he can take care of himself. Then he felt good, his commrades werent askin things as he thought it would be, but you never know what can happen.

Joline carried on a light conversation with the merchant as they rode. When the conversation lulled, she looked out across the land. The dark clouds hung over head still, with no signs of breaking. Despite that, birds still sang off in the trees, swallows swooped about chasing after insects. It was a good sign. Though there seemed to be a tension in the air.

Kazh'e walked up front and to the right of the group, Ise right beside her still. She hadn't said a thing since they had left and it obvious she didn't care to be with other people at the moment in the first place. Kazh'e kept her head turned directly straight down the road, but her eyes wandered about cautiously, always scanning the area. Occasionally she'd look back at each and every person, making sure no one tagged behind. A couple of the mercenaries that were loaded with weapons had been joking around, keeping conversation the entire way. Foolish behavior discusted Kazh'e and she turned back to the road.

It wasnt after a while that Ise perked up and started growling, first a low tone then louder after curving his ears back. Kazh'e noticed the bad smell that had crept into the air and came to an abrupt stop and held her hand up, signalling to do so as well. "Listen." was the first word she had said on the trip. Her voice was calm and smooth, but cold and harsh. Anyone could tell the smell encircling them was of rotting flesh and death.

Joline returned her attention to the road ahead. The tall elf was leading, a wild cat trotted alongside her. Joline studied the animal, admiring the sutble grace of the feline. He was what first alerted her to trouble. Like the rest of the party, Joline's nose picked up the smell of dead flesh. Her nose twisted in disgust as she reached for the staff under her seat. She'd dealt with undead earlier, she knew what she was doing.

Anxiously, she waited on the bench seat of the wagon, clutching her staff.

Joline caught a glance of movement in the brush nearby that the mercenaries didn't catch. A half-rotten what once was a man staggered out of the trees. Joline jumped from the wagon, swung her staff and gave the abomination a good wack that crack a few bones and dropped it in a dead heap on the ground.

Sandy blinked looking to the undead, the smell alone nearly made her faint, but she quickly grabbed out her bow and arrows, shooting a couple to the ground, but they kept coming. "For the love of..! Don't these things just...umm re-die?"

With quick reflexes, Kazh'e whipped her double-bladed long sword into a straight horizontal slash, lobbing off a few heads of the undead attackers. "We can talk later, focus on destroying them first!" she called out in response to Sandy while hacking away at more walking rotting corpses. Kazh'e thought to herself, now having to pull out her combat pole to ward off those that attacked from behind. These things won't stop comming until we're the same, so we should buy all the time we can get... After striking down a few to get a good sized radius of free space, Kazh'e put away her weapons and started to summon energy for an elemental attack. The wind picked up and began to spiral around her for that point of time, seemingly distracting some of the undead in the area from the other mercenaries warding their own hordes off themselves.

Fasz started cutting undead with his sword to get them away from the wagon. How can so many undead can be here in Moss and nobody knows? he thought, Well, somebody must know, someone must have found them before we did. There is nothing Fasz can do except fighting them or thinking what to do.

Joline was busy beating off her own horde. As her "surviving" attackers were drawn away, she glanced to where they were going. The tall elf at the front was using her magic. Joline looked on in wonder, but she snapped out of it in time. More of the undead were ambling toward her and she wacked them back as well.

It looked like a battle with no end, and if it had they were not going to reach it so easy, as they continued fighting, the undead continued coming.

With a flick of both her wrists, Kazh'e released a massive amount of wind, sending the undead corpses in a 180 degree span infront of her flying deep into the forest. "Move the wagon forward, keep the rear clear from the enemy, we can't stay in this area." Kazh'e raised her smooth voice over the commotion of the still combatting mercenaries in the area that didn't get swept away.

Fasz made the undead follow him, in that way the wagon could get out safely, but one person can't get all by himself for long.

Joline cracked another zombie across the head, then hopped into her seat on the wagon. The merchant hadn't left his seat, his bulk would likely have been the end of him in the fray. He had a dagger, and his whip as well, which he had been using against any undead that came too close. "Kazh'e, Fasz!" the merchant called out to the two mercenaries. "Get on the wagon!" He flicked the reins, but the horses shied and reared. Cracking his whip and yanking the reins, he got his horses under control and started them out at a gallop. Joline clung tightly to her seat.

Fasz moved as he could to the wagon, it looks like its safe now.

Joline clung to the seat as the wagon jostled her about. The red-haired human with the big scar was the first on the wagon. Fasz, the merchant had called him. The elf, Kazh'e was still fighting however. The merchant glanced back at the rest of his mercenaries, most were mounted on horseback or on his wagon. "Kazh'e! Get on the wagon!" he bellowed again to the elf. "Sandy! Aron! You two clear a path!" A human man rode up alongside the wagon, Aron, as ordered. Joline scanned behind the wagon for the other elven woman who was obviously named Sandy.

Kazh'e caught the message from the driver and whistled for Ise and motioned at the wagon. The wild cat and the elf seemed capable of communicating to one another and Ise ran after the wagon and jumped high onto the back. Kazh'e, wanting to buy more time, sent another wave of wind to throw the corpses back. Then she turned and dashed after the wagon, quickly catching up. She leaped up onto the very back of the wagon, then forced herself into a flip to land on the top with ease.

A scream was heard from behind the wagon. Joline jumped to her feet on the seat and peered over the back of the wagon, catching Kazh'e's eyes as she clung to the top. Behind the rest of the group, the other elf's horse was pulled down by the undead horde. Sandy's screaming continued as she was consumed by the corpses, then cut off abruptly.

Joline's face blanched and slid back into her seat. "The elf...Sandy, she's dead," she said weakly to the merchant.

The man's face twisted into a scowl. "Damn, I hate to loss the protection of an elf. I'll have to find a replacement for her in the next city."

Fasz whispered, "If you are not strong enought to protect a wagon, how could you survive in Lodoss as a mercenary?"