A humid morning in Cove and two of the most handsome guardsmen stand by the barracks like two extremely loyal dogs... As Boo Little removes his bandana to wipe the sweat from his furrowed brow for the eleventh time of the duty he hears a rustling in the bushes"'Eh, Vlad. Y'know wha'?" Boo calls to his senior guardsman, "Wha'?"
"Ah reckon we's need ter get our walkin' boots and take a lil' patrol ter see if any o'them darned loyalists be sneakin' around Cove. Better safe than sorreh, eh?"
Vlad stirred slightly and placed his heavy weapon on his shoulder, hauling his body up from the wall and strolling towards the city entrance, motioning Boo to follow
Wearily, the two guardsmen trudged along the dry road to Altmere, where Vlad had decided they were to travel. They then encountered a mad woman, who they first saw facing the wall of a locals house. When they approached the woman, Vlad enquired about the sightings of loyalists - seemingly the whole affair of that Area being subject to the ravishings of the terrible Loyalist oppression and the hold that their regiments had when they had taken over the Crossroad outpost.
At this point the brave guardsmen peered down the road, where they saw a camp fire rising out of the treeline in the distance. Har! The essence of surprise was in the Covians hands. Thinking it was loyalists, they slowly crawled through the low foliage and crept upon the band of men and women just through the clearing. Vlad, whilst Boo was still lying prone of the floor battling with a hughe weed that had caught his foot, had lifted his head over the bush - Smell of sheep, Harsh Vesperian accent, lots of dodgy looking jewellery lying by their puches - Gypsy brigands!
"Damn!" Boo cried. "Shhhh...Y'ejit yeh'll get us killed" Vlad pushed his gloved hand down on Boo's loud mouth.
Suddenly the sun had been blocked and the heat had disappeared from their sunschorched faces.
"Ey ladders, fetch th'ropeeys we'll tie dese Ragermuffens up! Gran'!" The bristly gypsy shouted back, as he looked over Boo. Then as quickly as he had come, his grizzled face was swept back in a fatal blow from Vlad's battleworn sword.
"Up up Boo... We're bein attacked!" He looked down on Boo who was swigging a trusty bottle of liqeur. Dispatching of the liquid he threw the finished article down onto the bloodied floor, and heaved his maul into his hand... Clearing the bush.
Two of them had managed to draw from a nearby tent, and were wielding huge pikes. They swung for Boo's head, lifting his shield at the last moment before bringing down the heavy maul onto the surprised gypsies shoulder, crushing the bone and leaving him writhing in agony. The other had moved to his right and swung her sword into Boo's side whilst he had been fighting the other, it glanced luckily from his black armour and allowed Boo to throw his maul round to his right and catch the woman under her sword-arm. Winding her momentarily, she jumped up nimbly and ran at Boo again. The maul was being lifted slowly, but she was coming too fast - Boo looked up at the deadly blade as it was brought down.
Blood flew down onto Boo's face in gushes, and the womans lifeless body was thrown to the side and behind her grinned a rough looking Vlad, who had finished scuffling with the others gypsies. "Tight call lad. C'mon" Offering a hand to help Boo up they started their walk to the outpost.
It was derelict, and due to some detective work from Boo Little the highlight of the search were two disillusioned loyalist slave healers, left to rot in the doomed garrison. Unable to persuade them to leave, the two tired men left the crossroads and headed back along the long road to Cove.
Boo doing what he knows best.Vlad and Boo arrived back in the still early eve, and split the gold earnt before departing from the garrison to continue their daily chores.
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