[django]

He was not sure what to make of all the different noises coming from the dark room but it was making him more curious by the second. When he finally did reach the door, he stuck a mana light with his hand, "What's going on in here?" Gaul said as he scanned the room, finding everyone in the dark. What was everyone doing in here? Gaul thought to himself and raised an eye brow when Sarani said "Gooowaaay stupid, stoo early for training yet." .

Poni also seemed to have lost his mind in fit of giggles. Very strange indeed.

[Bamawing]

Pon'i started to regain control as his breath came back to him in gasps. "Sorry. I'm... going to bed now." He still had a stupid grin, but to the abyss with it. It had been a long day!!

He met no one on the way down, fell into bed and slept almost immediately.

[django]

The Blizzard lasted night was long and cold, and completely whited out the night, like nothing Gaul has ever seen in almost 15 years. Even the Tavern owner and his wife commented about it several times.

While the others slept, Gaul was wide awake and busy during the night, and he was glad everyone was asleep; especially Serra'tae and Sarani, while he 'Interrogated' and eventually killing their prisoner in the basement... It was unpleasant.

Before she died, she told him all he needed to know about the Sharens and their mercenary group. How unprepared they were for the sudden winter and why only some were sent to resupply the group with proper winter clothing before they headed north to some old ruins. The supplies with their horses confirmed this story, nothing but some regular chel clothing, but did not really help explain why the rest of them stayed out in valley in the bitter cold... Maybe they were sloppy at surface travel or maybe their wagon got stuck, who the fuck knows?

* * *

What little Sleep he did have it was very light and was spent in a chair by his daughter. He thought about her then he thought about the Valley but something had to be done about them. After last night they would want blood for this.

And they did not show up at town, after the blizzard stopped. He put his chain mail on and gathered his things. He kissed his daughter on the fore head and said "Love you.", he was planning on checking out the Sharns by himself.

[Bamawing]

Pon'i slept well, the snow-muffled silence making the entire town a comfortable sleeping zone. He woke early and ventured up to see if all his companions were any better.

Gaul was in the hall, wearing chain armor and looking worried or tired or both. Pon'i greeted him with a smile but felt concerned. "Morning. Um, are you OK?"

[DeadPigeonGolem]

Serra'tae slept soundly. He had stripped out of his armor (medium spaulders, vambraces, and greaves accompanying the standard Medium-Heavy Templar Breastplate and boots) and had ventured into the kitchen for breakfast.

After some gesticulation, miming, and an unfortunate incident involving a live pig and a bucket of lard, Serra'tae managed to procure a ham and cheese sandwich. As he munched and walked, intending to return to his room for a good bout of reading until called upon for duty, he came across Pon'i and Gaul. The latter was in mail and had strapped his weapons.

This was probably not a good thing. Armor and weapons implied combat which implied ripping open the wound on Gaul's chest. This would then lead to blood loss and eventually death, especially in the cold where Gaul would go into shock very rapidly if he started losing a lot of blood.

"Sir," said Serra'tae, coming to attention. "With respect: What the HELL are you doing?"

[django]

Closing the door quietly behind him as he left his room. Gaul turned to Poni, who was up earlier then he expected. "I'll be fine." He grinned at Poni, as he strapped on a belt and secured his Gladius, "I'm going out for a-" Gaul stopped as he heard the young Templars concerns. Turning over to the young lad standing at attention, Gaul motioned for him to stand easy "At ease Serra'tae, I am going out to check our Sharen friends. I don't expect any fighting from them." He sounded very sure of himself.

"They didn't come into town last night, so I wanna now whats the hold up." If the prisoner he interrogated last night was correct, they weren't properly equipped for surface winters. If they got caught in that white out, they would not come out looking good. "I need you to stay here. With Sarani hurt, I need you to watch over everyone, while I am gone."

[DeadPigeonGolem]

"Understood sir," said Serra'tae, dropping from his erect posture. "I suppose that it is not necessary to inform you that I will be watching the horizon for any mana flares. Keep safe, and may the Goddess be with you." Serra'tae bowed.

"Before you leave, have you had breakfast? If not, I would invite both you and Sir Pon'i to assist me in charades for more food, as I am regrettably finding this meat sandwich to be less than satisfactory in terms of a meal."

[Rilla Treespirit]

Sarani'ka was lying in a nice warm bed. It was so cosy and warm she didn't really want to move, she felt heavy and tired but there was that nagging pain that kept her from falling asleep again. Her blurry half-asleep thoughts were confused. Why was she in pain, what was it? 'Ah, yes that.' she thought as she slowly opened her eyes and looked around. She remembered what had happened and then felt puzzled. This wasn't the room she'd been given.

"What? This isn't my room. Where are my things?" She tried to sit up and hissed, looking down at the bandages. "Right." she muttered "Got stabbed." touching the bandages, it occurred to her that she was naked. She wondered who had undressed her, hopefully one of the female halmes. Well whatever, she wanted a wash, she was covered in grime and there were a few small scrapes left untended. Oh and her clothes would be nice.

Gingerly she sat up and slid her legs off the bed. It hurt, a lot, her body informing her of the stupidity of her actions. Wrapping the blanket around her and Ignoring the warning she slowly stood up and walked to the door. She opened it, fumbling with the latch and blinked at the group standing in the hallway. "What's going on?" she still sounded half asleep.

[DeadPigeonGolem]

Sarani'ka was lying in a nice warm bed. It was so cosy and warm she didn't really want to move, she felt heavy and tired but there was that nagging pain that kept her from falling asleep again. Her blurry half-asleep thoughts were confused. Why was she in pain, what was it? 'Ah, yes that.' she thought as she slowly opened her eyes and looked around. She remembered what had happened and then felt puzzled. This wasn't the room she'd been given.

"What? This isn't my room. Where are my things?" She tried to sit up and hissed, looking down at the bandages. "Right." she muttered "Got stabbed." touching the bandages, it occurred to her that she was naked. She wondered who had undressed her, hopefully one of the female halmes. Well whatever, she wanted a wash, she was covered in grime and there were a few small scrapes left untended. Oh and her clothes would be nice.

Gingerly she sat up and slid her legs off the bed. It hurt, a lot, her body informing her of the stupidity of her actions. Wrapping the blanket around her and Ignoring the warning she slowly stood up and walked to the door. She opened it, fumbling with the latch and blinked at the group standing in the hallway. "What's going on?" she still sounded half asleep.

"Breakfast. Also your father going on recon. Do you want anything to eat, or do you just feel nauseous?"

[django]

Gaul turned towards the door as he heard it open. He smiled when he saw Sarani, happy to see she was up and about, after everything she's just been though last night. "Morning Sarani'k, how are you feeling today? I was going to get you a change of clothing, unless you prefer to parade around with nothing but a blanket." He lightly teased her, he truth was he just about to get her a change of clothing himself. "You should lie back down Sarani, you did take a pretty mean wound last night and were not going anywhere for a little while."

When Serra'tae mentioned he was going to do some recon, he said "I'm just going out for a bit. I'm going to see what happened to the Sharns after the blizzards last night. I'll be back sometime before supper if the weather stays clear."

[Bamawing]

"Food sounds good," Pon'i said to Tae. He was worried about Gaul, however. "Are you sure you should go alone? If nothing else, having someone with you would help your mana levels." Mind you, that's the extent of Pon'i's ability to help... with Thun's defenses down and Itoh freed, mana was literally all he could do.

[Rilla Treespirit]

Serra'tae was the first to speak, and the topic he chose was food. She'd just felt tired and in pain before, now she could add queasy to the list. "No food for me just now thanks and I'm ok father, just a little tired." She rolled her eyes at his next comment "I don't know, hard to decide. I rather like this blanket. What do you think Serra'tae, Pon'i, blanket or clothes?" She grinned and her eyes sparkled, Just to look at her you'd think she was fine, she always looked half awake in the mornings after all, but you could hear the pain in her voice. She yawned widely, it hurt but she covered it up as best she could.

"In all seriousness, could someone get a halme to bring me some water while you're down there? I can't talk to them and I'd rather not get dried blood and dirt on clean clothes." She leaned surreptitiously against the door-frame hoping the others wouldn't notice.

"I don't need to go back to bed father, I'm fine really. Do be careful out there won't you. Don't want you freezing to death all alone." Normally she'd have jumped at the chance to go back to bed and sleep some more, now it just irritated her. She wasn't going to lie down all day and do nothing just because she got stabbed a little. If she could stand up and walk around it obviously wasn't that bad. She'd get dressed, go downstairs and do some painting she decided. If she'd known that her father was injured however she'd have protested at him going out.

[DeadPigeonGolem]

"Nothing doing, Miss," said Serra'tae, stepping forward and trying to shift her back into the room. "If you don't want food, you're clearly not well enough to be doing anything but sitting in bed. Fell free to paint or read a book, but you're not doing anything that could strain your wounds. For that matter..." Serra'tae rounded on Gaul. "YOU shouldn't be doing anything either. You are my superior and so have the right to judge for yourself how fit you are for a fight, but you really shouldn't be doing any combat with a gash like yours, Sir."

[django]

Gaul looked at Poni as he offered to help or at least what Gaul suspected Poni meant. "I don't Have many options at the moment, and you don't need to help out if you don't feel up to it Poni. But I'm sure my mana will be fine." He didn't say no but if he wanted to come along, he wouldn't stop him.
Gaul would rather him being safe here, then go out to check on some Sharens.

He also wasn't sure how fine his daughter really was. Gaul was not stupid, he could tell she was trying to hide it. At least she wasn't trying to convince him to bring her along or do something else stupid. "I'll bring you up a bath and a change of cloths. Hows that sound."

"What makes you think you know my body better then me. I've been scrapping longer then the two of you together, I know how I'll hold up." he cocked his head and smirked at Serra'tae before heading down stairs to get some grub.

[Rilla Treespirit]

"It sounds wonderful. Thank you." She smiled up at her father as Serra'tae set about trying to get her to move back into the room. She ignored him. "but I think I'll go back to my own room." She pointed at her own room a little way down the hallway. "My things are just over there. Unless you think I smuggled a load of chocolate and the like with me I don't see why I shouldn't get them myself."

She sighed as her father insisted on going out. This was the first she'd heard of his injury. Was Serra'tae exaggerating or was her father playing down his injuries? She couldn't tell but she knew well enough that he wouldn't be persuaded to stay and sit around all day. She certainly wouldn't. "If Serra'tae wasn't so prone to "charging into the abyss" I'd suggest you send him instead. Actually that doesn't sound too bad, send him out."

With that said she stepped around Serra'tae and walked slowly, carefully towards her room. She was still irritated by his charging in and ridiculous, impossible orders yesterday. Then she realised something awful, "Did anyone see what happened to my paints and book? I think I left them in that teashop."