"We're being followed." Marian said this while riding down a plain to the south. We had been traveling south since we left the general area of the train. Sadly Marian only had one horse so I was riding behind her (and it wasn't a super large horse so I basically was holding on to her while she rode like a lost maiden with their conquering hero, in case you were wondering yeah all the jostling hurt my ribs pretty bad).
"Really? I'd figured blowing up a train was such a definitive 'Don't follow me' statement, people today!" I couldn't see Marian's reaction but I'm pretty sure it was not one of adulation at my tremendous wit (such is the problem with being an unapreciated wit deliverer, your words are wasted on those who can not appreciate them properly or they die shortly thereafter in my case).
"Well I'm not going to let them shoot me in the back, so we'll pull up stakes and wait for the jerks right here." Because getting shot in an open field amongst rolling green hills was a better option, well thats what I wanted to say, but Marian is large and hits so I kept silent. I expected to see a division of Ronerawth's military coming, but instead there were three dirty looking men dressed what appeared to be in furs, Marian grumbled under her breath about scum suckers, I took it that she knew them. They didn't have weapons drawn and neither did Marian, she just waited for the three to ride their horses up and called out to them.
"Working with Ronerawth now? Whatever happened to not believing in the empire?"
"Man has got to eat Marian, you'd know that if you were a good woman and got in the kitchen like the rest." The leader was of course the man in the middle, from the facial hair arrangement it appeared to be based on length of beard for qualifications. His whole face was hair.
"I can't imagine a woman has ever cooked food for you Volerio, at least not willingly."
"Hardy Har, look we don't want to have to murder you, this is just business, hand over the necromancer and no one gets hurt."
"And who's going to make me? You three? Please you couldn't intimidate a child to give up candy." Marian had the shotgun out and hammers drawn pretty fast, the men corresponded by drawing their own guns, the two on ends had rifles, while super beard had a pair of pistols.
"So little girl, can we have your candy?" Marian nudged me and I got the gist of it from the hit. I gathered some power and intended on tossing up a flare of some kind, I say intended because unfortunately like when you've built up pressure in pipes (you know what I'm saying fellas) you accidentally release more than you intend. So what was supposed to be a light display exploded in a fiery blossom showering the area and burning our bearded friends facial hair off. They didn't really have a lot of time to lement the loss of their most prized possesion as Marian shot them dead shortly after they caught on fire.
"Next time Lorentino, just burn them, don't taunt them."
"Magic is not an exact art Marian, its like horse shoes, close enough." We got mounted again and left our puruers where they lay (Marian commented that their weapons were shit and not worth taking, I agreed if the quality was like their personal cleaning habits they wouldn't be worth the metal they were made with. We made south past the plains and into rocky hills and canyons. We made camp more carefully this time (ha ha yeah right we did it on top of a peak with a full fire again), not a lot of discussion, Marian hoped in the next two days she'd be rid of me and collect her bounty. I was hurt by the implication, and from my ribs from riding all day. Damn ribs not healing immediately. Thats the problem with necromancy you get out of touch with how long real injuries last, and boy do they last! Oh well at least I knew I'd finally get to see who hired a bounty hunter to break me out of Ronerawth. Knowing now, I think I would have rather faced execution.
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