The Fated Three

Bandits And Bad Timing

Delgan swings at the woman viciously but she anticipates the attack. In the same movement, she pulls out a dagger and throws it towards him. Delgan barely manages to dodge the dagger; it grazes his arm. A small smirk falls on the woman's lips. Delgan raised his brow confused. He looked at his arm, it was a small cut Delgan noted, why was she smiling? Rose's eyes flickered to the guard behind her. Just as he moved to grab her she pulled back and raised her fist to the bridge of his nose. blood instantly fell from it. "your mistake" she chuckled. The guard grabbed his nose "ahh" he cried and fell to his knees "you bitch". Delgan swung at the guard behind Rose now. While his sword is in mid-air Rose ducks under it and drives her dagger deep between the guard's ribs. He screams as blood gushes out and then dies. Delgan falls to his knees as well. "shit Del, what's wrong?" Rose says, alarmed.

Delgan grabbed his scratched arm. "my arm" Rose runs up to him and removes his sleeve. his skin was turning purple and what appeared to be an infection spread across his arm from where the dagger cut him just like the dead leaders. "what the fuck!" Rose flares at the woman "you've poisoned him!" Rose roars. "This isn't good, the poison spreading fast" Delgan begins to cough up a darkened mucus. Satisfied by the turn of events, the woman stood back watching. Rose's lips peeled back in anger. She snatched Delgans sword from the ground and charged at the woman. She swung the sword, the edge of the blade was just barely touching the woman's throat. But the woman hadn't moved an inch. she was smug, and with a chuckle, she taunted "you can't kill me... cause your little friend will die as well" She declared. Rose glared at her but said nothing. She knew she was right. After a few moments Rose slowly lowered the sword and tossed it away. Delgan slowly got up and inches his way to Rose. "It's not every day my plans get rudely interrupted." she gestures to the dead guard lying in a small pool of blood on the floor "My, you two sure know how to make a mess of things." She tisked. Rose looked at the vine-covered room again, the almost decapitated leader, and back down at the barely noticeable guard. Compared to the woman, they hardly did anything. "Yea.. 'we' made a mess" Rose scoffed.

The woman laughs while making her way over to Delgan touching his wound "ohh damn that looks bad" She pouted. "He'll be dead soon if you don't start talking" the woman states. While glaring at Rose, Delgan mouths for her to kill the woman. Rose hesitated at Delgans demand. She knew she needed to kill the woman to get to Calbridge, but she couldn't stand the thought of leaving her friend behind. Through gritted teeth, Rose spat "tell you what. I'll tell you why we're here if you give me the antidote". The woman smirks and nods " well that depends on if I like the answer" she retorts. Delgan's eyes widened in realization. "dammit" he mumbles. "What do you want to know?" Delgan says. "Everything" the woman answers.

Delgan takes a deep breath before speaking "We're from the kingdom of Lynxfell we were sent on a mission to slay the lich who cursed our king's lands with the undead. On our travels, we encountered undead in a village where we learned that there is a lot of undead coming from Calbridge. On the way to Calbridge, we saved some merchants from a bandit attack which led us to you. They agreed to get us into Calbridge if we killed him.." Delgan motions to the dead leader before glaring at the woman "..but unfortunately there's been a-" He squints as a sharp pain shoots up his arm "-minor setback" He finishes. "Look, our beef isn't with you directly, you were just an unfortunate detour on our journey..." Rose says hurriedly. Delgan smirks while coughing up more dark mucus Rose gives Delgan a worried expression before returning her gaze to the woman. " We've told you why we're here. If you don't like it, take it up with the merchants... just... give us the antidote". Rose snapped. "Those damn rats'' the woman sneers angrily.'' The only reason those merchants were attacked was becaused they took someone.. from me" the woman glances at Delgan, hesitates but gets up and touches his wound while mumbling some words quietly under her breath. Delgan grunts a bit. As he sees the poison slowly retract to its origin point The discolored skin returns to normal as the cut reforms and closes "that's some serious magic" Delgan exclaims. Rose's shoulders finally relaxed at the sight of Delgans arm returning to normal. The woman picked up a couple of her daggers she threw before heading back towards the leader. "The names Freya" the woman muttered as she turned to sit on the leader's throne, but not before grabbing the nearly decapitated man and throwing him to the floor. Stepping on his body to sit on the throne, she turned to face them as a sadistic smile began to form on her lips. "I came here for answers, but he was..." Freya scoffs at the poor man beneath her feet "a bit unhelpful.. I'm actually a bandit leader myself, ''she added. Shaking her head, Rose asked "well Freya, who did they take from you?" Freya's face contorts and she begins to frown "You know, I wasn't always a leader of criminals. I had a life once...a good life. I was good." Freya looks around the room and chuckles at the sight " I was good, and it was peaceful... those scumbags who claim to be merchants are actually slave traders. The military buys those slaves to boyster their army. They took the only family I had left and left me for dead...and I got the scar to prove it." her hand moved to her chest pulling her shirt down a little revealing a scar just below her collarbone, a sudden flash of sadness crossed her face but instantly gone as fast as it appeared "...it happened 5 years ago" Freya continued Rose didn't like the sound of this "fuck... "

5 years ago...