Patrol (Job Thread)

[Vivian Shiryu]

42nd of Ymiden, 716

Vivian reached up and scratched Speckle's chin as she let the horse rest. Vivian was on patrol near the twins farm, and she had stopped for a moment to let her horse recover. It was a quiet day so far, but she hadn't seen any sign of Lazuli out at work yet. Possibly her cousin wasn't well, though she had seen Lei'lira a few times. Shrugging it off, as Lira didn't seem too worried as of yet, Vivian pulled herself back into her saddle and started her circumference around the farm again.

There had been little of note in Warrick yet, but she didn't doubt things would be heating soon, with the trouble in Burhan. She doubted there would be be damage to Warrick from the rebellion, but she knew there was the chance of Burhan's soldiers raiding Warrick for the bountiful food supplies they had. Shaking her head, Vivian nudged Speckle into a canter, the horse picking up speed as Vivian kept an eye out for any possible threats to the farm. She knew the lack of action was getting to her, mostly by hard a time she was having concentrating on her surroundings, but she needed to keep her wits about her if she wanted to get anything accomplished.

After a moment, she found some odd tracks leading away from the farm into the woods, a group of horses. After a moments deliberation, Vivian turned away from the trail and started following the tracks. The young soldier hoped it wasn't anything serious, but she felt she had to check it out just in case. Loosening her rapier in it's sheath, she slowed her horse and kept a close eye on the ground around her mount, looking for any sign of the tracks she had followed off the road.

[Vivian Shiryu]

After what felt like a full Break watching the trail she had been followed, Vivian finally lost it. After searching around for a while, Vivian wasn't able to find and just about howled in frustration. The loss of the trail was definitely not something Vivian was happy about but she didn't want to run into an ambush so she turned to head back to the farm. After a moment though, she heard someone call out for help ahead of her. Turning her horse, Vivian galloped back towards the sounds of distress.

She crested a hill and found a group of travelers under attack by bandits, and the Warrick soldier drew her rapier and charged down at the bandits without a moments hesitation. They turned at the sound of her horse, but the Skyrider was doing her best to live up to her title even if she was still ground-bound. Her rapier slit one of the bandits throats as she charged by cut the arm of another in such a way that he dropped his axe to the ground. The remaining bandits converged on the young soldier and Vivian just laughed confidently as they approached.

Putting her spurs to Specks flanks, Vivian rode into the bandits, cutting another one down and trampling another under her mares hooves. At this point, the remaining three bandits, including the one with the injured arm, began to have morbid thoughts about mortality and decided that it was time to pursue crime in another part of the region, turning and fleeing the scene almost as one. For a moment, Vivian was eager to pursue them, but instead paused and turned back towards the travelers. She had more important duties to attend to.

[Vivian Shiryu]

The travelers, it transpired, weren't heavily injured at all. A brief conversation informed her that they had only been under attack for moments before Vivian had arrived and they were ready to resume their travel to one of the local villages without complaint. She saw them off with a wave, then turned her horse in the direction the bandits had fled. Nudging her horses flanks, Vivian spurred her mount into a walk and started after them. She had, however, learned caution from her previous excursion dealing with bandits and now rode forward with her sword out instead of sheathed. She had no intention of nearly getting herself killed again.


It was several Bits before she got close to them, this time hearing voices from the forest ahead of her. Pulling her mare into a halt, Vivian slid of Speckle's back and made sure her shield was settled before she crept forward. When she got close she saw that they had gathered around a small fire and were trying, badly, to treat the arm of the one she had injured. After considering her options for a bit, Vivian crept back to Speckle and sheathed her rapier before pulling a length of rope and her shortbow and quiver off of her saddle and creeping back to where she had seen the bandits. As luck would have it, the group was still were she left them and too occupied on their poor attempt at medicine to notice her.

Nocking an arrow to her bow, Vivian stepped forward and readied her bow to fire. "Freeze." she said, her tone cold and hard. The bandits wheeled to look at her in surprise and one of them went for his axe. Vivian aimed and loosed the arrow she had been holding, aiming to hit him in the head. Unfortunately, her aim wasn't that good and she wound up taking him in the lower part of his gut instead. The brigand howled in pain and she nocked another arrow to her bow. "Next one goes through your head." she said, trying to play her miss off as intentional. The last healthy bandit grimaced and sat down next to his companion with the injured arm.

"Good. You have some brains." she said, in her most superior tone. After a moments pause to gauge the risk, Vivian loosed her grip on her arrow long enough to throw the healthy bandit the rope she had gotten. "Tie your companions hands so they don't do themselves a greater injury." she said, her tone a command as she drew her bow again. The bandit had gotten a very calculating look when she had loosed her grip on the arrow she didn't want him to get stupid as well.

She watched as he did as he was told, then gestured him over to a tree. "Put your arms around it, extended out and I'll bind your hands as well." she said, her tone calm. The man glared at her and did as she said, dropping the rope out of one hand as he did. Stepping around the tree to his hands, Vivian loosed her grip on the bow again to pick up the rope. The man, evidently having accepted defeat, allowed Vivian to bind his hands without comment and when she picked up her bow she didn't bother to ready it again. "I'll be back in a Bit with proper transport for you and your companions." she said, her tone calm as she stepped away from them and back onto the road.

Turning to where she could face the bandits in case they attempted to surprise her, Vivian drew her rapier and held it up, letting the blade catch and reflect the sun. It was a signal used by skyriders to let one of them know when they needed aid when they were too far away for shouting to work, that kind of reflection tended to be noticeable from a very long way off. She knew a skyrider would see it, but she wasn't sure how long it would be before they arrived at her location. She sincerely hoped it wasn't long.

[Vivian Shiryu]

It wasn't very long before a rider on a Volareon touched down next to her. Vivian told the rider that she needed a cart to carry three bandits back to the fort to stand trial and that of them were wounded and the rider took off again. Travel arrangements set, Vivian walked back to the trio and walked up to the one healthy bandit. "Are you the last three left?" she asked, her tone cold but calm, as she no longer had reason to worry about them. The man scowled at her, but nodded at her question. He hadn't spoken once yet, and she wondered if he even had the ability.

Looking around their camp, Vivian took a moment to poke through the place, but there didn't seem to be anything of value or use. Turning back to the man, she cocked her head to the side and looked at him curiously. "Is this your only camp? You don't have a hideout somewhere?" she asked, to which she got an embarrassed look and a head shake. She said, then noticed something at the head shake and walked up to the man, looking closely at his neck and finally noticing the slave brand the man wore. "Ah. Escaped slaves. Not your fault you weren't up to the task then." she said quietly before stepping back and shaking her head. She knew some people treated their slaves poorly enough to make them run away and become bandits, but there was nothing she could do to help them, not with laws the current way they were.

It wasn't long before the wagon she had requested arrived, escorted by a pair of knights, and she helped load the prisoners into it to be bundled away towards the fort and their trial. She doubted they would get a particularly fair trial, being slaves, but that was out of her hands and in the judges. Sighing, Vivian turned and remounted Speckle, riding back towards the farm to resume her patrol route.

[Pegasus]

Vivian

Points!:

Story: 5/5
Collaboration: 0/ 5 (solo thread)
Structure: 5 / 5

Knowledge:

Detection: Keep focused to spot small details in your environment
Detection: Spotting tracks in the wild
Combat: Blade (Rapier): Fighting on horseback
Combat: Ranged (Shortbow): Multiple opponents
Combat: Ranged (Shortbow): Aiming higher to compensate
Mount: Horse: Fighting on horseback
Leadership: Taking command of Bandits

Loot:

NA

Fame:

+1 (helping the travellers), +2(enforcing a city law)

Magic:

These points may NOT be used for arcana

Overview:

General comments. This thread gave the opportunity to see Vivian in 'work mode' and you wrote her in a very business-like way. I like how that reflects her current role in the thread. I would personally have liked to see more of her inner thoughts coming through, maybe how she dealt with the frustration she felt at the beginning of the thread or the moral dilemma at the end. Other than that, she came, she saw, she kicked bandit behind!
Story Clear, cohesive and a complete story in and of itself.
Structure A few minor errors, such as "mostly by hard a time" which is missing a word. Nothing so much that it would lose a point, but worth to proof read /edit one more time.

Please do PM me if you've got any questions