Crimson Sky Tavern (Zeth)

Zeth laughed playfully and followed his host into the kitchen. It was a nice and simple lay out and he kinda liked it. He leaned against a counter, and watched the food cook and enjoyed the smell of the cooking, it even caused his mouth to water too. He looked out the window, watching two red cardinals dance in the sky, causing him to smile a little.

He turned back to Melanie as she mentioned a shop owner in Jenar needing a certain item, wondering if they could work together trying to find that crystal, while helping him look for his mage. Zeth pondered for a moment before nodding.

"Yeah that should work, let's do it" He said with a grin, liking the idea of being able to work and travel with someone, he almost lept up and hugged his new ally, but stopped himself, it would be kinda embarrassing if she freaked out when he hugged her.

The way Melanie prepared breakfast wasn't at all comparable to the finesse of a real chief by occupation. However, even in her half-assed nature, there was clearly an untapped potential within. She was capable of better, and she knew it, she just lacked the motivation.

Melanie noticed Zeth look out the window a moment, though she didn't notice the birds. He had sure warmed up to her. And her to him, she realized. Guess it doesn't take much when you haven't had anyone you could really talk to in years. She found comfort in this company.

Zeth seemed to agree to travel with her quite eagerly. She smiled at that. Thanks to her ambient ability as a vampire, which enhanced her ability to read body language a bit better than the average person, she noticed Zeth make a slight motion to hug her. She didn't react to it, but the thought sat in her mind. Someone actually liked her enough to hug her. It was so strange and rather unbelievable. All she could ponder was... why?

As the food finished cooking she brought out plates and utensils and divided it equally. It was perhaps slightly larger than your average portions as she figured he was starving and she was herself. She was capable of being a bottomless pit if she allowed herself. "Alright, so I'll get the map and we'll look it over as we eat for possible locations to start looking., Melanie conveyed as she brought both plates to a small dinning table off to the side.

Melanie momentarily left for her room once more to get the map. Realizing she had yet to feed, she cracked into one of her reserve jars of blood in the privacy of her room and drank from it. It was stale, old. She wore an expression of disgust as she replaced the lid and hid it back underneath her bed. Melanie carefully cleaned her mouth of any remaining blood. She then grabbed the map and headed back to the table with Zeth. "Sorry about the wait, I momentarily lost the map," she lied with a cute little laugh.

Melanie slapped the map, opened, down on the table between them. She placed it so South faced Zeth to make it easier for him to understand it as she had seen it before. "The crystal, called Light Stone, can be found in... what Jinkx referred to as coves. I think he means caves with water in them though. However, I'm not sure we should completely exclude caves without water inside. Though, I think if water isn't inside the cave, it'll likely be somewhere nearby," she began to explain. She then ate a bite of her bacon. "It's identified by being black like rock until a Human gets close enough to it. Then it glows bluish-greenish. He said any size would work. So I'm not exactly sure what size to expect." She continued eating letting Zeth absorb everything she just said.

Zeth inspected the map as he used his fork to eat a bit of an egg. He paused for a moment and looked down at the food. It was amazing! He took another bite quickly before looking down at the map, pondering for a moment as to where they could go based on what Melanie said, it would have to be along a cost, but it could have been any cave too. There were just too many caves...though there was a legend Zeth once heard about a cave with a glowing light whenever the chosen warrior came near.

"You know...there's an old legend about a glowing stone in a cave in the mountains...It's said to glow only when the chosen hero neared the center of the cave. Do you think that could be our crystal?" Zeth asked Melanie as he inspected the section where the mountains were located, dreading the fact that the area was littered with cave systems and undead. He knew not all vampires were bad but there were many that were down right nasty. He sighed and pondered for a moment, wondering if the stone in the legend was the crystal they were looking for as he took a bite of some of the bacon, enjoying the flavour at least, the food helped put him at ease though so that was good.

Melanie thought on Zeth's question. This legend could indeed speak of the Light Stone. Although... "If that is indeed a Light Stone crystal that the legend speaks of, anyone who approached it might've thought themselves the 'chosen hero'. I wonder how many people have been there and what they might've done believing such foolishness," she pondered curiously. She shook the thought away though. "I can't think of what else the legend could speak of if not a Light Stone," she replied after some thought. "It'd be the best place to check out first," she agreed.

Melanie followed Zeth's eyes. The cave he spoke of was up in the mountains near Vampire territory. Melanie had never wandered there so she didn't know what to expect from interactions with other Vampires. Even if they knew she were one of them, they might still be hostile. Also not to mention the distance they had to travel, and then the climb up the mountainside. Overall, it seemed like about a week, longer considering rests and sleep, to arrive there. With that in mind, getting this crystal home within a month like Jinkx was hoping would be... challenging... to say the least. A week had already passed since she had gotten the quest from Jinkx. So only three weeks remained.

Melanie noticed a certain unsettled look in Zeth's eyes though. Was it about the Vampires they might encounter? Whatever it was it seemed less of a fear of the unknown and more of a fear of the known. She decided not to pry, however, figuring it was likely about his past in some way.

"So it's settled then, we leave after breakfast," she smiled eagerly.

Zeth grinned and nodded, he was after all, getting a little antsy from staying put for so long. He enjoyed being on the road, his ruck sack on his back and nothing but the road in front of him. He propped his elbow onto the table and put his head on his hand, eating some more of his bacon, enjoying the smoked flavour and the hearty taste of the eggs.

He realised he spaced out for a moment and quickly scarfed down his meal and rinsed his plate clean. "Allow me to change into my traveling gear then we can be off." He said, walking out of the kitchen and back into the living room, digging through his ruck sack and pulling out his red tunic and his blue over shirt with golden bronze trim, pulling those over his current shirt, then he strapped on his leather chest guard and his mail backed leather gloves. He kept on his white hemp pants then pulled on his knee high hard leather boots. He pondered for a moment then pulled his black head band on and smiled slightly, it was his father's after all. He pulled on his leather belt next, then his red cloak.

"That'll do..Mel you ready then?" He called to Melanie as he strapped his scabbard onto his back, happy that he had the weight of his sword Ragnell on his shoulders again.

Melanie folded up the map and finished eating. She gathered the dishes and began washing them in the sink. It seemed Zeth was just as eager to get going as she was. She smiled at that.

She then headed for her bedroom. "I need to pack for a long time away from home, so take your time," she told him. She close the bedroom door behind her. Mountains, she considered. Probably shouldn't wear the formal dresses she so often opts for, she admitted to herself. Instead, she chose 2 durable sets of clothes and changed into the 3rd. She placed makeup and a mirror in her bag as well as a brush. Not to mention perfume. She strapped on her knife belt which held a total of eight daggers at her waist. A few medical supplies were tossed in after some forethought. She also placed her coin purse in her bag as well as 2 jars of blood incase she ran into emergencies. She never used to travel with jars. She'd always be near something she can feed from. But when traveling with a companion, she didn't want to take any risks. Melanie paused a moment. Thinking about safety, she took one knife from her belt and placed it in her bag. She'd claim she lost it and never got a chance to replace it. But this was her back-up incase someone demanded she take her knife belt off and toss it aside.

After looking around and being fairly sure she had everything she needed, she exited her room with her travel bag. Melanie snatched her house key from its home hanging, near the fireplace, in response to Zeth asking if she were ready. "Hell yeah!" was her reply with a bright grin as she exited her own home. She'd then wait for Zeth to exit before locking up. Afterward she placed her keys into her bag with everything else.

It was a beautiful morning. Must've been around 8:30 to 9:00 am based on the sun. The day had still not quite warmed to the sun and there was a slightly chilly dampness about the air. Only a few of the townsfolk had risen from their beds to greet the day. The blacksmith waved to Melanie from afar and she smiled and waved back. She hunted for a lot of rare items for him in the past and they got to know each other quite well.

After about a half an hour they were out of the city heading toward the mountains. Finally traversing through nature alone rather than a town of people. The birds chirped 'good morning' and a rabbit scurried passed at the sound of intruders. "I'm sorry. I'm being awfully quiet. I'm not used to traveling with anyone," Melanie admitted.

Zeth grinned and followed Melanie out of the home, ecstatic that he had someone to travel with for once. It was a brisk and early morning, and only a few early birds were actually up and about. Melanie was pretty quiet the whole time, and Zeth didn't mind, it wasn't an awkward silence, but a comfortable silence. He put he clasped his hands behind his head and enjoyed the brisk air.

"It's alright! It's nice just walking beside someone for a change." He replied, glancing over at her, flashing a cheesy smile. The town was a good distance behind them now, only the tallest buildings were visible above the trees, and only a few farming fields were what showed of human habitation. He pondered what he should talk about, but he stopped in place as his hand slowly went for his sword as he pulled his cloak up, cover some of his body.

A black streak shot out from the brush to the right side, slamming into Zeth's cloak, only to deflect off into the ground. "We've got company!" He called to Melanie. More rustling came out from the brush, and some shuffling. Iron clad undead came out, slowly advancing on the two. There was about 5 undead thralls closing in from the left and right, and a hooded woman with a long scythe commanding them from behind.

As Zeth locked his fingers behind his head and flashed his cheesy smile, Melanie noticed something was off. Her genuine smile melted away to a slight look of concern as she casually looked around trying to figure out what changed. It was a minute or so before she realized, it seemed unnaturally dark for the time of morning. As if the forest itself were casting some dark shadow that there was no real explanation for. That's when a black bolt of dark magic shot out from the brush off to the right. It deflected off Zeth's cloak. That had Melanie intrigued. It was a good thing, of course. The fact that Zeth's cloak protected him from the attack; but something she definitely didn't expect. It was irrelevant at the moment. She made a mental note to ask him about it later. Later, cause she certainly wasn't about to go down here. Not like this. Melanie slid two daggers from her belt and braced herself for combat.

Zeth then announced that they had company. Melanie laughed. "Yeah, kinda noticed." Her laugh stopped short though when she saw the rotting bodies of the Undead. They wore metal armor over certain sections of their bodies. Some armor had fallen or rotted off though due to time leaving vulnerable sections; different places of the body for each zombie. It seemed as though they might've been fallen soldiers of war; but that was in another life. Regardless, they seemed to be no strangers to battle and quite formidable. There were at least five undead, visible in this shadowy darkness, stumbling toward them menacingly. And then the obvious leader; a necromancer. Though hooded such that her eyes were covered, Melanie could tell the pale necromancer was quite attractive from the little visible portion of her face. There was an air about her though that felt chilling; malevolent.

This was Melanie's first encounter with Undead. The gruesome appearance made her gasp. Admittedly, she was terrified for a moment as she realized exactly what she was facing. The thought that someone was manipulating the dead as puppets to carry out their own selfish tasks was... unthinkable. Melanie's grip tightened around the handles of her daggers at the thought. If this Necromancer thought she could manipulate the dead for personal gain, she was sorely mistaken. Melanie fully intended to make her a corpse just like her Undead puppets. Except, hopefully a little more lifeless...

"What are you doing?!" Melanie exclaimed. What was the point of all this anyway? Raising the dead? There must've been a reason. Was it as simple as to eradicate the living? Afterall, that's what most evil people aimed to do, right?

"It's quite amusing really," a smirk lit across the Necromancer's pale face. "How ignorant we are of our own mortality. You seek to face the Undead in open combat. Don't you realize that we've already lost?" Melanie thought about her words, and then became more confused than before. "We?" Was she implying to be on the same side as Zeth and Melanie? Melanie glanced over to Zeth to see if he understood this anymore than her.

"Some things are simply fated to be," she said simply. She then activated the magical ability of her scythe casting darkness upon the area such that Melanie could only see five feet without struggle; ten feet if she really focused through the mist of shadows. "Like your death and my immortality," she whispered through the darkness.

The snapping of a twig on the ground told Melanie the Undead began the approach now. Melanie backed into Zeth; figuring fighting back-to-back was the safest when surrounded by enemies with limited visibility. "Here they come," Melanie warned. "Defend off the initial attack, then break through to the Necromancer, herself. Leave the minions to me," Melanie whispered in his right ear. "If possible, don't kill her. I'd like to find out what the hell is going on."

Zeth simply nodded, pressing his back firmly against Melanie's back. His whole demeanor seemed to change, he seemed fiercer and determined. He held his blade up, holding it with two hands, ready to fend off any attack they may come his way.

"When they come, aim for the eye sockets to kill them, it will pierce their brain, or aim for the leg tendons, it'll slow them down." He said curtly to Melanie just as the undead charged them. Zeth slashed out with his blade just in time to parry a sword swung his way, his blade easily knocking aside the undead's own blade, then slashed quickly, cleaving the head in two, and swiftly kicking out at a second undead, causing it to topple over.

The third was just about to swing when Zeth jumped up and over it, lashing out with his blade, decapitating it. He landed hard on the undead that he had kicked over, it's head caving in from his boots, he dug his heels into the ground and sprinted off to the necromancer.

The fight with the three undead in Zeth's way lasted a little longer than 10 seconds and he was already facing down the necromancer. She launched a bolt of deadly shadow energy at Zeth, but like before, he deflected it away with his cloak. He pointed his sword at the necromancer, as if challenging her. "Tell me who your master is, if you comply, your death will be quick." Zeth said harshly. He really did seem like a different person than before, all the smiles and jokes, laughs and grins were gone when it came to battle, especially against the undead forces.

To say Melanie was impressed with Zeth's display was to understate it. Zeth was such a jokester. Such a kind-hearted adventurer. A little goofy even. To see him wield a sword in such a proficient manner, was not only surprising, but a relief. She knew, he could, in fact, hold his own against this necromancer now. She figured it based on the fact that he wore a cloak that deflected dark magic. It meant he had faced dark magic before. And his lack of surprise suggested he had faced Undead in the past as well. Not that Melanie wouldn't quickly put herself toe-to-toe with the necromancer. But she wasn't stupid. She was just encountering Undead for the first time. He seemed to have experience with it. It was only reasonable for Melanie to take out the lesser targets. Even if they outnumbered Zeth and Melanie, Melanie was swift and knew they were no major threat one-on-one. Whereas, one misstep with the necromancer could kill her. The fact that Zeth didn't hesitate to face the necromancer confirmed Melanie's assumptions and put her at ease. At this moment, she knew she could rely on herself, as she always could. But she also knew she could rely on Zeth. That was something she hadn't felt in years; and never to this degree. She knew he'd watch her back while she watched his. She had nothing to worry about besides what she saw before her. And so long as that was all she needed to focus on, she was golden. She smirked as Zeth pushed onto fight the necromancer.

Melanie snapped herself out of it. Only three zombies were killed. At least two remained. Melanie flipped the dagger in her right hand and caught it again. She lived for the thrill of moments like these. It was less a fight for her life and almost a game to which she swore she'd get the highest score. "Alright, bring it on!"

The hooded necromancer wielded her scythe with her left hand currently as she used her right to manipulate the shadows of the forest around her into bolts of dark magic. She then fired her second bolt toward Zeth as he made his way toward her. Zeth's cloak swayed into it's path, once again, deflecting the bolt completely. Instead, the bolt was accidentally redirected at Melanie, who noticed it last second; just fast enough to dodge out of the way as it shot past inches from her shoulder. Her dodge distracted her long enough for the zombie in front of her to raise its sword to attack. However, as it began it's swing, the bolt hit it directly in the chest. The dark magic enveloped the creature in darkness converting its body into shadows in mere seconds. It vaporized, blending into the shadows created by the necromancer's scythe, disappearing completely. Its armor and sword fell to the ground with an abrupt, metallic clang. "Holy shit!" Melanie's eyes widened. Was it really a one-hit kill? Maybe that was only true for weaklings such as zombies? But Zeth and Melanie didn't have the luxury of taking that risk. "Keep that cloak between you and those blasts, Zeth. You may not get a second chance if you fuck up," she warned, knowing he hadn't seen what just occurred.

The necromancer smirked, taking Zeth's boldness for ignorance. "You've faced Undead before. Well, so have I," she hissed. "And I lost everything." Deducing her magic wouldn't be effective against Zeth unless she could remove his cloak or hit him when he's vulnerable, she swapped her scythe to her right hand, then supported it with her left hand. "You ask my master? I don't have one. Not even time will be my master... soon enough. As long as I give my services to Charlotte, she will see to that." Her head tilted down slightly, bracing herself to fight. She was not playing around. "So you can either join us..." It was all or nothing. "Or die." Her grip tightened on her scythe.

"Aim for the eyes. Aim for the brain," Melanie repeated Zeth's words from earlier, reminding herself as she launched her attack on the nearest zombie. It was barely visible due to the thick shadows cast by the scythe. As she approached it became clearer. It swung at her as she approached, but thanks to her Vampire ambient power to read body language, she anticipated the attack and ducked the swipe. She then reached out around with her right leg and pulled its leg out from under it sending it topping backward. As Melanie went to stab it through the eye, she felt a zombie grasp at her upper left leg from behind. She spun around, with dagger in hand, stabbing it right above its right ear, directly into its head. It dropped atop her leg, dead. "No one is allowed that close to me without proper protection." That was Melanie. She always found time to make a joke; even in the most serious of situations.

While her back was turned, the tripped zombie sat up to bite her upper left arm. It would've been successful if another zombie behind it hadn't mindlessly grasped the sitting zombie's head, preventing it from closing the last few inches, as the walking one approached. Melanie, catching sight of this, jumped back, to her feet; startled. She took a few steps back to safety and then realized something. "Cleaved, decapitate, crushed, vaporized," she counted. "Pervert, and Clumsy." She was naming them now. But that was six. And a seventh one was grasping Clumsy's head. Melanie paused as she gazed at it. It finally released the sitting zombie's head which allowed the sitter, Clumsy, to stand. "There's more than just five..." she whispered to herself in realization. At that exact moment, she heard a zombie let out a guttural moan for flesh directly behind her.

Zeth growled lightly, raising his blade to the necromancer. "Thank you for the name, now you can die." He said harshly, about charge the necromancer when he heard a loud groan from behind him, he glanced back just in time to see an undead raising it's blade, ready to strike Melanie. Zeth cursed and reached behind his waist, pulling out a miniature crossbow, shooting an arrow out, hitting the undead in the back of the knee, causing it to fall to one leg, hopefully giving Melanie time to react.

Another bolt came shooting Zeth's way, he pulled up his cloak again, but this time was knocked back a few feet. His cloak's protection was weakening, so he knew he needed to end this quickly. He dashed forward, slashing out with his blade, aiming to knock the scythe out of the necromancer's hands, then did a quick jabbing kick, intending to knock the necromancer off her feet.

Because Zeth had glanced back to save Melanie, he left himself open. The Necromancer delivered a hasty shadow bolt attack with her left hand before swinging in with her scythe immediately afterward. Zeth was quick to return his attention to the Necromancer, however, and his disarming slash countered the Necromancer's swiping scythe, they clanged. The metallic shot ringing out into the distance. Almost as if on cue, the scythe's active ability lifted and the dense shadows became fainter. Moaning in the distance matched the sight of at least five more zombies, besides the three Melanie was fighting, slowly approaching on all sides.

Zeth's kick followed and it did as intended. The Necromancer fell to one knee, but as she did, she brought her scythe swinging back at Zeth from Zeth's right side. Zeth noticed in that moment, that on the opposite side of the scythe was a small axe-like blade that was now swinging right for his lower right leg.

"You still don't get it, do you," the Necromancer spoke during combat. "We're all dead unless we align our loyalties with the dead. Death is going to consume the world. I only sought to escape that inevitable fate. I offer you a chance to do the same. But should you not accept, then you shall fall too. Whether or not by my hands. Death will come for you all in due time." It seemed less of a threat and more of a terrible fact she believe as much as she wished she could deny it.

As Melanie spun around, she witnessed the zombie behind her lose it's left leg from the knee down as the crossbow bolt came flying by and ripped it right out of its socket; pinning it to the bottom of a nearby tree. It took a prolonged second, like some cartoon, but the zombie fell from lack of balance, completely to the ground face first. Melanie sheathed her daggers and snatched its own sword and plunged it into the zombie's head. She then picked up a small shield it had been carrying. She preferred a longer blade in this instance. Keep these rotting corpses as far from her as possible. "Nice shot, Zeth!" Melanie flashed a smile to him, but he was preoccupied. She didn't bother him any further, she glanced around at her surroundings to notice the shadows had lifted now and she noted the approaching zombies. Her job was to make sure Zeth's only concern was the Necromancer. She was already falling short. She had to do better. The trick was, the zombies weren't only approaching from the side she was on, but the opposite side as well. She'd be doing a lot of maneuvering to keep up.

Melanie smirked. "That was just a warm-up. Round two!" Melanie turned back around to see that Clumsy and friend had made a decent amount of progress in the time she was away and were now a little too close for comfort. Yet, they were still directly in front of one another. Melanie narrowed her eyes. She had intended to keep her new sword for longer than two seconds but... sometimes you have to adapt plans on the fly. Melanie swung the sword back over her shoulder and then threw it down and out sending it in a straight line to perfectly skewer both zombie's heads. The momentum of the sword sent them backward to the ground. Melanie snatched a dagger from her waste once more and picked her next target.

Zeth cursed slightly as he noticed more undead shuffling not too far from them as the shadows began to fade. He knew he had to stop the necromancer quickly. He did a leap backwards, dodging the attack. For a mage, the necromancer was a semi-good fighter.

"Just shut up, you're only being used you fool" Zeth spat back to the mage and darted forward again to reengage the necromancer, doing a sweeping slash with the flat of his blade, trying to stun the necromancer. He was hoping to get more answers out of her. Perhaps she could tell him where this Charlotte person was, and maybe tell him if that was indeed the mage that destroyed his home town.

He hopped Melanie was having an easier time than he was with her foes as he glanced backwards at his friend.