Notched Arrrow Diplomacy

I hear a drawstring being extended back (its a distinct sound even when asleep), "Murderer."  The voice is low the kind of angry husky voice you hear from someone who suffered a throat injury and never fully recovered.  I open my eyes and see a woman dressed in mostly red leather, a drab maroonish red, like dried blood. Behind her a brown horse sat absently eating dried out weeds.  Dyed leather was big back then as I recall. It was all functional no style (most leather armor was, now morons wear it to be all scary looking and don't protect anything).

"I am a murderer, but probably not the one you are thinking about." I could hear Valyra's voice scream something in the back of my head, but I was dealing with this. I mean when you're laying face up staring into an arrowhead notched back to kill you, you can either A. Be sarcastic try and calm the situation or B. Kill the person with the arrow before they can kill you, since she looked kind of hot I went with A, also I really didn't think I could pull off B.

"Get up!" Still with the growling.  I got to my feet with minor difficulty (I was sleeping prior to being threatened), I got a good look at her, she was taller than I was (and I'm not a super short guy so that put her as fairly tall lady) with dark black hair and pale white skin (which stood in contrast to the red armor). "Where's the boy?"

"Boy? I don't know what boy you are talking about, I'm a man lady." Again sarcasm, Valrya's screaming gave me a headache now, I almost ate an arrow for putting my hand to my head to hold back the madness.

"You just don't know when to stop talking do you?"

"Well when you ask a question I assume its not just a rhetorical, I can only assume the boy you are looking for is the one who burned down the houses nearby." You have to give armed people some info past a certain point, or they start to regret not just killing you, well aside from me, I love to talk.

"How are you involved with that family?" She had suspicion, but I think she wrote me off as a danger, at least for now.

"I'm not, I was just passing through, all the fire and smoke kind of clued me in that something was up."

"Where were you traveling?"

"Somewhere else, decided to check out the fires, made a camp here close by to inspect the ruins after..."

"To loot it?" She pulled harder on the bow string.

"To find out who did the killing, its what I do, I find, but now I have to wonder what you're doing in the middle of nowhere dressed to kill." Not to be all anti female or anything, but they tend to work in groups not solo, I'd suggest its because men are loners and women tend to work better with others, but thats purely speculation from a loner who doesn't work well with others.

"Surviving family member came to the church burned up claimed a child did it, I decided to look into it and here I find a lone male sleeping nearby. And from the look of you, you're a magic user."

"A warrior priest out in the middle of nowhere who knows magic users, I'd be touched if you weren't planning on killing me, speaking of which can you back off with the arrow lady, I'd hate for you to get tired and I end up impaled." That actually started a war once, well not just one archer, but same prinicipal.

"Not a priest just a follower of fire, as was the family the corrupted killed." I'd suspected it was the result of a corrupt (too much damage to just be a lone jerk, I mean its possible I could do the same, but why kill a family in the middle of nowhere?)

"Follower of fire? So you worship campfires?"

"The fire god moron, are you a none believer?" She lowered her bow, I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Not much of a believer in anything really lady, but thanks for the insult to my intelligence."

"When you start showing some I'll start worrying about the insult." Ouch.  "I'm losing time speaking with you, the corrupt is out there, if you want to help I won't turn you away, you seem capable enough, well aside from just falling asleep near a road."  I wanted to say the only thing I have to fear is my own insanity, but I really didn't want to get an arrow through me for being honest.

"Names Trezlan Lorentino and you are?"

"Lorissia Trumane, servant of the fire god, now if you're done chit chatting lets go hunt us a mage." She remounted in one swift move and off she went.  I was left for a moment to repack my gear and catch up, thus began my education on the fire god.  In retrospect I should have just picked up one of their books, would have been a lot easier and less painful in the end (both physical and mental, one of those scars hasn't healed and its not the physical one).