Of Beasts and Knights

He does not respond for a while, looking past her at the schooner tied at the docks. "Home is lost to us both, i am afraid."

she doesn't reply for a while. silently she looks out at the water, her body very still

"It was such a beautiful place. Not cold like this northern land."

he sees her head droop a bit

"Do not falter now, you have come so far."

Ooc: .... i may have forgotten her name.

OOC Rosa
IC he sees her shoulders start trembling. as if...she is sobbing.

His heavy gauntleted hand comes to rest upon her shoulder. "Come, let us speak outside the walls. There are many here who would use your weakness."

reluctantly, she nods and follows

"If zyleena had come to the docks, not i..."

"I don't care"

"She may not be able to kill you, but your mind is still vulnerable to her."

"What?"

"Your body is inviolable, we do not know of your mind."

"Her body is not however..."

"You've proven that once already"

"If she tries anything... I can always remove her head. See if that sticks."

"Indeed you can. I would not underestimate her, however."

"What's she going to do? Kill me? For all her sadism, I've been through worse than she can dish out."

"You are immortal, and she is chosen of slaanesh. I shudder to think."

"I can fight back this time."

"Do not fight her alone. You are powerful, but inexperienced."

"I was in the stirland halberdeers for years. I know how to fight."

He looks down at her, his single eyeslit dark and foreboding. "Southling warriors."

"I did kill a minotaur remember"

"Heigen killed a beastlord, and Zyleena is his match."

"I'm stronger than I was then. I just had a breastplate and a halberd back then."

"Stronger, but with little more experience. Hardened, true, but it is no replacement."

"I can literally turn into molten metal"

"If i were her, i would try to drown you in the bay."

"Got to get me in there first"

"That, i cannot say. But she is resourceful."

"And if I just bisect her?"

"I couldn't say. I've never seen anyone manage."

"Guess I'll do that then"

"Hmn. You were wasted on the southerners"

she doesn't reply to that, simply looking down at her sash again

Reaching the northern gate, he looks down at her, as he lifts the iron reinforced wooden bar from its resting place. He does this with one hand, but with obvious strain. "I am glad that my memento is upon my skin."

Rosa: It's one of two things keeping me sane. Keeping me from...*she stops herself, visibly uncomfortable with what she is saying*

He pushes the bar up, hinging on one side upon an iron bar driven into the stone of the gatehouse, and opens the gate a few feet wide, enough to step through. "Not here. Not where people may listen." He gestures through the gate.

she follows quietly, tying the sash back around her waist

He looks back through the gate, looking left, then right, before closing it behind them, dropping the bar, pulling his hand through the gap, and pulling the gate shut in one swift movement. "We will have to go over the wall, on the way back."

she looks at him slightly puzzled

"The bar." he thumps the door with a gauntleted hand to prove his point

"Oh, right. Sorry. Not..thinking straight right now."

He nods a little, and gestures towards a copse of woods some way distant. "That looks pleasant. We can sit there. Upon that felled tree." It seems rather far away to be able to pick out a single tree from this far.

"I would like that." she nods, relaxing a little as she lets him lead the way.

His armour does not make such a clamour as Heigen's does. Far less than one would expect from such a weight of plate and mail. The air is cold and crisp, the sun bright, not a cloud in the sky.

now the two are, seemingly, truly alone, it is obvious that Rosa has lit up, if only a little. her shoulders sag just a little less, her feet a little more sure in their step, the sorrow evident in her eyes just a little dimmer.

"A warband is no place for weakness aired to the wind."

"Since when did I care?"

"You should. Respect, is important. You are due it, you should demand it. They will not respect someone who shows weakness."