Wanderers' Paths Cross

Bethany was minding her own business sitting in a small clearing, arms resting on her knees, dark hair cascading over her caramel skin, obscuring her scarred left eye, a wound she'd recieved in a battle against a heanta, and had left her blind in that eye. She refused to wear an eye patch, or get seen to by a proper healer. Besides, she what use was an eye when she was to drunk to see straight. Bethany was well into a bottle of rum, when she thought she heard something. She knew there was bandits not to far away, maybe half a mile from her own little camp, but she hadn't been worried about that. Still, she moved quietly, hiding in the brush nearby.

She watched the camp and waited. But the crackling fire was the only sound. She was about to sit down when she spotted someone's hooded form creep from the foliage. The stranger quickly glanced around the camp, and stared at her back for a moment. He seemed unsure of what to do. Bethany moved as silently as she could and slipped up behind him, drawing her gladius, she placed the tip against his back.

"Turn around very slowly and remove your hood." She slurred quietly. "Make a sound, or call your friends for help and I'll run you through." She waited for him to do as she ordered. If he didn't, she would actually attempt to drive her sword through his back. Drunk and half blind didn't stop her from being very dangerous.

Tristan stiffened, as the tip of the blade poked into his back. He heard the woman give him orders and thought, if only for a second, about jumping back. However, he obliged whoever was giving him orders. Pulling his hood down, and turned around. He raised his arms, in a non-threatening manner. "Friends?" He said, mostly to himself. Oh, she thinks I'm one of the bandits. He thought, sighing. 

He spoke, calmly. "I'm not one of those bandits, if that's what you mean. As a matter of fact, I was hoping to take them out. If you would let me go, I could go complete this little outing, and we can part ways, with neither of us taking any damage that we don't need to take." His eyes did fall on her blind eye, but it didn't really bother him. He awaited her response.

He listened to her, turned around and dropped his hood. She quickly took in his features, the red hair, paleskin and oddly colored eyes. Even so, he had small red horns that blended into his skin. A heanta. He raised his hands in a placating guesture and tried to claim he was freindly, causing her to sneer. He quickly tried to convince her he was not a bandit. "Sure, and i'm a fucking Unicorn." She snapped. "Seriously I can't even drink in peace without bandits walking into my camp."

He was pretty well spoken for a bandit, but she'd had a run in with a well spoken heanta who'd cut out her eye. She wasn't about to accept his attempt to make her drop her guard. "Maybe your not a bandit, but your a heanta, you'll probably try slit my throat as soon as I turn my back. I think it would be better to rid the freelands of you then let you walk away." She said.

Without warning she lunged forward, drawing Asi, her other sword, in her left hand slashed at his gut. She aimed a second slash with her left hand and brought the hilt of Her gladius around to strike the heanta in the temple. She drove Asi forward in a thrust to the gut, attempting to finish him off by impaling him.

"It wouldn't have been a simple poke if i'd known you were a heanta." She snarled back as she attacked. He lept out of range and drew a bow. Oh good, a ranged user. This forest was going to burn in her attempts to kill him. She didn't know how much she cared. He tried to reason with her. "Oh, you think. Take a close look, guess where the scars on my face came from. You think a few bandits will deter me from cutting you limb from limb?" She charged at him, and threw a ball of fire at the tree as she did. He hopped back and fired an arrow.

She slashed up, cutting the arrow from the air and lept into the tree. "If there's one thing you can count on for a heanta, its a fight." She was slower, but still agile enough to fight him in the trees. Getting him back on the ground as soon as possible would be best though. He started to back off, so she came after him, leaping from tree to tree, using the boughs to block the arrows. One hit her shoulder and left a slash. He seemed to stop firing after that, and Betheny lept after him, sticking her gladius into the tree and slashing down eith Asi, which burst into flame. However she wasn't aiming for him, but the branch he was standing on. The enchanted steel and fire combined with her strength severed the limb easily.

If he fell, she would drop after him and try to slash him across the chest, however if he managed to jump to a different tree, she would stab Asi into the tree and fire a beam of concentrated fire at him, sweeping it across the forest in an attempt to get him. Eitherway, hopefully he would end up on the ground and she could stop leaping through the trees. It took far more concetration than she wanted to exert.

She slashed him lightly but she knew it wasn't enough to end a heanta. Now if she'd run him through he'd be done for. That was the nice things about Gladius, the blades were short, but wide. They left lethal stab wounds. But now wasn't the time to be thinking about that, she thought, as he suddenly fired a net at her. She was to slow to dodge, but she had no intention of getting caught in that. She slashed up, drawing her second sword at the same time to slash across, and cut the net appart in the air.

Still, it gave him time to run and he did just that, off towards the bandit camp. "That's not going to help you!" She snarled, running after him. She but then she changed directions as he got out of range, letting him get the distance. He'd be at the bandit camp well before her, and if he didn't stop they'd be likely to attack him and never notice her sneaking up from the left side. She waited until they had engaged before joining the attack, opening with a flame breath centered on the Heanta if she could, and preferably taking out as many bandits as she could too. Because fuck bandits.

She was charging towards him after her fire breath, and the Heanta drew back his bow and fired. She tried to throw herself to the side, but wasn't quick enough. The arrow wizzed past her, a near miss. She opened her mouth to speak but there was a thunk and a scream, and she turned around. A bandit lay a on his back. He'd been a few inches off of impaling her with his spear. Well, trying to atleast. Bethany took a good look at the heanta, trying to figure why he would bother helping her. As he pulled his sword from the ground, she recognized something in him.

It was Vala's face, not as sharp as her mothers, the red hair, the gentle eyes. It clicked with Bethany, right in time for her to see the bandit coming at him. She threw her sword, then lunged after it. The blade hit the bandit's gut and she slammed into him, ripping it free and kicking him away. She spun, ducking under the heanta's swing to pass by him and run another bandit through. "Alright heanta, your off the hook. But i want to know who you are." She said, slashing another bandit across the throat.

He said he'd answer her questions later, but first they needed to deal with the bandits. She shrugged, cutting a man's swordhand off and jabbing her second blade into his face as the bandits started to surround them. He asked if she could breath fire again. "What do I look like, a real dragon?" She snapped back. But she could do something. "Try to group them up, I'll do something." She ducked to the side, instinct kicking in and warning her of an imcoming threat. She responded by moving low and driving Asi forward and up, into the man's throat, then backed off.

When the bandit's were grouped up, probably achieved by forcing them to chase The heanta and Bethany, she would raise her hand. "Duck, heanta." She ordered, and fired a beam of blazing fire over him, sweeping it across the group of bandits. The attack did the trick, scorching the closer bandits and knocking them down, and burning the ones behind. The beam cut through them like butter. It didn't kill them all, but it was enough to send the rest of the bandits fleeing in all directions. Bethany tossed a few balls of fire after the fleeing bandits, and when all were out of sight she turned to the heanta. "So, who are you?" She asked.

Tristan told her who he was, and asked her the same. "A Wandering Asentari, Bethany Merciallus." She said in a slightly mocking tone, copying his wording. He didn't ask her much else but did point out she'd ignored his question. "Pretty simple. You look like a girl I know. I figure it can't be to much of a coincidence considering your both heanta with similar shades of red hair and well, I've met this girl's mother and she's got razor sharp cheekbones. It makes sense the girl would have gotten her softer face and gentler eyes from her father's side of the family. So, Tristan Bahamut, is there a 'Of the hornless Clan' on the end of your name?" She asked him.

Then she started to look around the destroyed camp. Moving over to the campfire, she found a bottle of fine wiskey. She picked it up. It was still sealed, she was pleased to find, so she uncorked it and gave it a sniff. "Oh shit, this is good stuff. They must have robbed a trader recently." She said. Taking a swig. She offered the bottle to Tristan. "Truce?" She asked.

Tristan sighed, when she said her own name in a mocking way, similar to how he said it. He listened to her talk, slightly freezing when she correctly guessed that he was Vala's father. He smiled, sadly. The first showing of real emotion to her. "No. It is not at the end of my name. Not anymore, at least. Tristan Bahamut. That is what my name is." He shrugged. "I left that life behind. I am my own clan, I guess. And much happier for it." 


He followed her, as she began to drink. He sat down, and took the bottle. "Truce." He said, slightly raising the bottle, and taking a swig. he nodded at the taste. It was good. He threw it back, before asking, "How do you know Valatrix, if I may ask? From how you first reacted to me, I'm surprised you don't seem to be very bothered by her. I'd think you treat all Heanta like that." Tristan didn't sound angry about it. Instead, he had returned to his more emotionless face. He sat back a bit, relaxed, but still keeping an ear out for anything. 

Bethany caught the bottle and grinned. She'd been right. Probably just as well she took the time to look, she doubted Vala would forgive her for killing her father. He asked how they met. "I got dragged into her mess up north. I didn't like her much at first, to be honest, but she proved to be a good kid. I lost my eye fighting some heanta named Saivene who appeared half way through a battle against a mercenary band and tried to kill Vala. Not that I blame Vala for that, I let my guard down." She said.

She gave Tristan an assessing look, and then grinned. "So, your Vala's father. I met her mother you know. Your a very lucky, very brave, Heanta." She said, taking a swig before handing the bottle to Tristan. "She doesn't look like the kind of woman to put up with shit." She shrugged. "But I see where Vala gets her ferocity, and her kindness."

Bethany shrugged. "Well, you're not wrong. You're a race of bloodthirsty flesh eating warrior fanatics. Still, I've met some good heanta. You should visit Edaria if you haven't yet." Bethany said. "Rough, huh, not her good looks?" Bethany said with a sly smile. He mentioned his first encounter with Vala not going so well and she shrugged. "Sound's like she might have wanted a father." Bethany said. "What's stopping you? So you weren't around for her, that hardly makes you the worst father in the world. Seriously, I know what I'm talking about. I killed mine. He was an abusive piece of shit, and he tried to murder my girlfriend." She said taking a long swig of her drink.

Tristan nodded his head. "You nailed us on that point." He sat for a second. "Edaria, huh? Maybe I will go there. It beats just wandering in the forest for days at a time. Do they have good food there?" Tristan asked, his curiosity peaked a little. Tristan listened to Bethany, and stayed quiet for a few seconds. He finally sighed. "At least, in linear terms, I am a bit better than that. Thank you. I fell......better, I guess." Tristan stretched. "Were you after the bounties on the bandits? I don't know if they would split the reward two ways."