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Post by Jenny on Jul 13, 2014 23:18:35 GMT -5
Ulfr combed the ground, seeking for signs of continual habitation, he had left the mare far behind him, in the grove, where he could find it again. He crept like a predator seeing trapped prey, with extra caution because it was night, slow and quiet and careful. He had not expected traps, and almost stumbled into a pit trap. His foot slid into it and he fell, grasping at the roots of a tree, hanging on only by the strength of his fingertips. But he managed to pull himself out of it, scooting back and huffing, his heart beating quickly. He looked down into it and sure enough he saw wood poles sharpened at the tips. He could have impaled himself. Whether this was meant for animals to kill and eat and skin he could not be sure but the paranoid part of him thought that this could not be meant for any except for those who would seek her. He caught his breath and walked around it, silent as ever, having the mind to go painfully slow to avoid any further mishaps. His fingers felt along the earth as if he were a blind man, and his fingers enclosed around a trip wire, ever so carefully, with only a whisper of pressure. He stepped over it and continued on.
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Post by KD on Jul 13, 2014 23:23:36 GMT -5
She'd been much more careful to leave a trail this time around, very much helped by the fact she wasn't moving anymore. She still had his knife and sword, as well as the two bows. She'd retrieved any arrows she fired if she could and still had a good supply. She stood with one of the bows, carefully concealed behind a wedge of wall atop a ruined tower, waiting silently, her eyes on the woods. There were plenty of places to get to the ruins but only a few ways to get into the area she had set up as a home below her, another high point she'd found for this place.
It was inevitable, she thought quietly, that he would come for her. A part of her had known that, but she still resented his intrusion.
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Post by Jenny on Jul 13, 2014 23:58:45 GMT -5
The trail was obvious; he stopped short and glared up, by memory, at where he thought the ruins to be. If she had found any permanent shelter, it would be there. But he still had to be careful of traps, so he did not fall into a spiked pit, or whatever cleverness she had come up with. When he gained ground, he hugged the rock face, as to avoid the worst of it.
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Post by KD on Jul 14, 2014 0:04:56 GMT -5
She should have known he'd be able to avoid her traps. Eira shook her head, not without admiration, and kept her place on the ruined tower. In the clear night, she could hear the scrape of his boots against rock even though she couldn't see him.
Eira was in a much better frame of mind than she had been at their last meeting. She was neither weary nor wounded anymore. She was, however, clearheaded enough to realize she was in a quandary. Even if she managed to kill him, the Jarl would no doubt tear apart the forest top to bottom in order to get revenge for his son. She sighed softly in frustration, wishing the beast would just leave her alone. So she waited silently, her eyes sweeping the ruins.
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Post by Jenny on Jul 14, 2014 0:18:29 GMT -5
He climbed to the top of the ridge, standing on solid ground. He sat down, pulling his legs to his chest and placing his arms around them, allowing himself a well deserved rest. It had not been physically demanding, but mentally, seeking out the possible dangers that lay in the form of a trip wire, or the piling of leaves over well-placed branches, or pulled down branches themselves, promising a near-fatal or possibly fatal blow. He sought out the ruins by line-of-sight, and saw the dark and well-worn, crumbling and mossy stones that resembled a dwelling, or what was once a dwelling. He knew she was watching him, she would, naturally, him being who he was. He sought her out, seeing her familiar form among the rock face.
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Post by KD on Jul 14, 2014 0:33:15 GMT -5
She didn't move, even when she caught sight of him, watching him make his way up. There were no traps once inside the ruins, only around the outside of them. She held a bow clear in her hands but didn't raise it. Her voice drifted to him finally, echoing off the stone. "Your ribs seem to be much better."
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Post by Jenny on Jul 14, 2014 0:45:17 GMT -5
When he reached the ruins at last, he entered the ruins carefully, his senses prickling, aware that she would be nearby. This was her chosen place of residence, her means of survival through the winter so close to their heels. Surely she had felt the sting of frost up here in the mountains, more so than by the seaside. He stopped short, drawing himself up to his full height, feeling eyes upon him. He turned his eyes until he saw her form, up on a ledge, away from attack. A well chosen place.
“They are better, and it appears that I have you to thank for that.” He did not call her slave, or bitch, or whore. He spoke to her as an equal now.
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Post by KD on Jul 14, 2014 1:25:00 GMT -5
She wore furs and the adjusted remains of the dress she had worn, her hair drawn away from her face as she gazed down at him, her gaze quiet and wary but there was no hatred or anger in them. "You're welcome."
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Post by Jenny on Jul 14, 2014 1:43:27 GMT -5
He studied that face, the face he had been familiar with, behind those jagged and unfriendly scars. He watched her just as steadily. “Do you intend to stay out the winter here? Be warned… they are as cruel as they are cold. You’d likely die out here on your own.”
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Post by KD on Jul 14, 2014 1:58:18 GMT -5
"I would already be dead if I wasn't out here on my own," she pointed out. As Moera had said, even the scars didn't really mar her beauty. It simply gave it an edge, a warriors' touch.
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Post by Jenny on Jul 14, 2014 2:06:40 GMT -5
Ulfr bit down on his lip, considering that. “The Jarl would have you dead,” he agreed flatly. “I would have been honor-bound to follow his ruling.” She had been there, had heard the Jarl speak as such, and had heard Ulfr agree to it.
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Post by KD on Jul 14, 2014 2:22:50 GMT -5
"You would have taken pleasure in it too," she said, her voice equally flat. She moved slightly back a bit to add a bit more shielding from the wall of the ruin, still not sure if this was some kind of a trick.
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Post by Jenny on Jul 14, 2014 2:28:42 GMT -5
“Mayhaps…” He said, admitting the truth. Ulfr watched her move, not taking his eyes off her form, or the arrow she still held in her hand, keeping his voice even. “But you still live.”
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Post by KD on Jul 14, 2014 2:36:58 GMT -5
She wasn't going to put the arrow down, but she wasn't nocking it or raising the bow either, both her arms at her sides. She pulled back the hood of the wolfskin around her shoulders, letting her hair fall loose. "Why are you here, Jarl's son?" she asked finally. He was confusing her again, she'd been certain he had come up here to kill her. Her dark eyes watched him with the same intensity they had when he'd come to check on her after she'd been raped.
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Post by Jenny on Jul 14, 2014 2:39:14 GMT -5
He raised his brow, thinking it rather obvious. “Tracking you, though it was not difficult. Mayhaps you wanted to lead me here… perhaps to kill me and be done with it. Why did you save my life?”
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