(Mature) Overrun City

[Emora Deen]

ooc: yes, LOL. You have thrown me off. I am writing with my tablet. It is hard .

IC:

Shinobu smiles at Kyosuke. "I suppose we should get going." she stands slowly and begins to dress. Its not long before she is ready for Hn road. She begins to pack everything away in the saddle baps. The forest is loud this morning with wildlife. Its peaceful, and a pleasant relief. It would be a problem if it were too quiet.

Shinobu goes to the water and watches the leaves float downstream, waiting on Kyosuke to give the word that they were departing.

[Kyosuke]

Kyosuke dresses quickly as well. His clothing is cleaner now, at least, cleaner than the day before, but it's still fairly dirty, as far as clothing goes. Splotches of blood have stained the white fabric of his top, though the black fabric of his hakama show only signs of tearing. Thankfully, the fabric is tough, and he won't have to find a new pair of pants just yet.

For a moment, he debates whether they should stay and try to fish more, or if they should move on and hope they find a town. They still have a meager supply of rations to last them the rest of the day... so putting more distance between themselves and another potential Arken patrol is probably prudent. "Yeah, let's go," he says, jumping onto his horse.

[Emora Deen]

Shinobu mounted the horse and followed along him. They rode for hours, and just when she thought they might not find a town again that day she caught sight of smoke above the tree tops in the distance. "We're almost there!" Shinobu exclaims with a smile. "Can we stop though? I need to stretch my legs, they are starting to ache."

[Kyosuke]

Kyosuke frowns a bit at the smoke. "...I don't think that's a good idea," Kyosuke says. "That seems like too much smoke for a village." The samurai has a bad feeling about it as their horses trot towards the village. "Maybe we should go on foot first, be a little quieter on the approach."

[Emora Deen]

Shinobu frowns at the smoke, and slowly dismounts. Her legs thank her as she touches earth. She ties the horse to a branch and then turns towards a small narrow path that leads through the thickest part of the forest towards town.

Shinobu grows more paranoid of their surroundings the closer they get to town. The loudness of the forest has turned into a whisper. Maybe we should keep going to the next one?" she asks him slowly.

The closer they get, the thicker the smoke.

[Kyosuke]

The section of the forest they're traveling through is fairly dense, as long as they're careful, they probably won't be discovered, though the village may have been razed hours ago, maybe even days. "They might have supplies we can still use," Kyosuke points out. He'd also like to help any survivors, but well... that might be hard depending on the number of Arken soldiers still around. "But it's up to you."

[Emora Deen]

Shinobu bites her bottom lip and thinks. Finally with a heavy sigh she nods. "We should at least look," she agrees. Something in the pit of her stomach lurches and warns her its a bad idea, and yet she ignores it.

She covers her mouth with her hand as the smoke grows thicker. It makes her eyes water.

[Kyosuke]

The smoke never gets thick enough that it's completely suffocating, but Kyosuke covers his mouth with his sleeve as well, dropping lower to the ground, where it's thinner, he makes his way towards the burning village slowly. And it quickly becomes obvious that it is a burning village. There's more than the smell of burning wood in the air, the smell of burning flesh burns at Kyosuke's nose as they draw closer. Still, when they get close enough to see the village itself, it seems that the place is deserted. They struck a few hours ago, probably around the time Shinobu and Kyosuke woke up and broke their fast. Whatever they were doing, the small village is empty, left to burn until ashes are the only thing left of it.

[Emora Deen]

The smell of burned flesh makes Shinobu want to gag. It turns her stomach. She breathes from her mouth to keep the stench from making her sick. "This is terrible," she mutters under her breath. "They killed them all? Women, men.... children?" Her heart broke at the thought, and she wrapped her arms around her stomach.

She and her husband had tried for years to have children and had been unfortunate. She was convinced she was barren. The thought of monsters hurting children, it stabbed through her.

"Kyosuke... I'm going to wait outside the city walls. Will you hurry and grab what supplies we need? I'll hide out of site, I promise." She turned to leave.

[Kyosuke]

It really is more of a village than a city, no walls to speak of, only a collection of a few dozen small houses. His normally cheery smile isn't on his face at this sight, drawn back in a thin line. "Or captured, some might have been captured," Kyosuke says, then nods to Shinobu. "You can probably go back to the horses. I don't think they're going to stay close to this place like they did Hepian." Hepian was a large city they wanted to occupy after all. He would go into the village himself and see if there was anything that hadn't been looted yet.

[Emora Deen]

Shinobu nodded quickly, and left for the horses. She nearly broke into a run back to them, wanting to get as far away from the death as possible. When she reached the horses her went to the river and dipped her hands, dragging a cool drink of water into her mouth and spitting it back out. She still tasted the smoke, so she did it a second time.

Then, Shinobu sat beneath a tree with her knees drawn up, waiting for Kyosuke.

[Kyosuke]

Kyosuke keeps his mouth covered as he wanders into the burning village. It seems that not every house is on fire, but it probably won't be long before fire spreads to the rest of them. Kyosuke runs into any house that isn't burning and rummages around, trying to find anything of use, while silently apologizing to the deceased the items used to belong to. They would be better served in the hands of the living anyway, so the samurai doesn't really feel guilty about it.

Altogether, Kyosuke takes about an hour before he returns. He's found a few useful things, some flint and steel, a bow and a quiver of arrows, a fishing rod and some fishing supplies, and a small bundle of vegetables that he took from a farm the Arken soldiers didn't bother digging up. His face is, as Shinobu may expect, rather grim.

[Emora Deen]

Shinobu gets nervous at the sound of feet after an hour. She was starting to get worried, but her worries ease when Kyosuke emerges from the path.

She stands to meet him and help him settle the things he brought into their packs. Her eyes catch movement on the path behind him, but just as quick as she sees it, the shape disappears. Too small to be a human, too large to be a dog. She wasn't sure what it was.

"Kyosuke..." Shinobu mutters. "You don't think something followed you?"

[Kyosuke]

Kyosuke frowns when Shinobu mutters that to him and shakes his head slightly. "I don't think so... why?" he asks, putting some of their new supplies in the saddlebags. The bow and the fishing rod will have to stay out, but he can probably strap them somewhere.

[Emora Deen]

She glances back down the path and shakes her head. "Nothing," she mutters, finally convincing herself that she was merely seeing things. "We should get going, just encase there are soldiers still lurking around?"

Movement, but a shadow this time from above. Her eyes turn up to the limbs and the leaves. She looks up and nothing is there. She scans the branches, unable to see behind some larger limbs, and still nothing. The wind is blowing hard, it could merely be the wind.