With sore muscles and clothes drenched in sweat, Thobos finally escaped the desert. Quickly they were on a large road heading towards a village. The ground was cover in small white and yellow flowers; they existed in small random patches everywhere to the horizon. A smile crossed the giants face when he saw a few trees, and then a wild horse. In no way could he ever explain how completely pleased he was to be away from those lifeless sands.

Thobos didn’t stop moving until he came upon a small stream, but as soon as the sound of watch reached his ears he made haste to it. The stream was just a small body of water, not five feet across or three feet deep. Cool water flowed rather peacefully south, carrying with it leaves and small tree limbs. It wasn't really much, but it was water. Quickly looking back towards the elf Thobos said.

“Well, aye must stop here. Need to clean a few things, mostly me. I’m sure you need a drink also.”

With one quick motion Thobos pulled his cloak over his head. Under it he wore a light shirt, and a pair of light tattered pants, all of which was make of deer skin. Kneeling down beside the cold water he began soaking his cloak. He just simply wanted to get the sweat out of it, along with his hair and off his body. The sticky feeling the desert had left on him was driving him mad.

“We need a break anyway.”

Gil-Estel nodded his agreement and sat down with his back against a tree. A beautiful, living, tree! He took out a wafer of Lembas and offered half to Thobos.

"It's going to take another four or five days to Estolad," he said, "if our luck holds out that is. Once we're there we can take a proper break and meet our companion. And from there... well, you'll find out in due time."

He busied himself with his Lembas, aware that he had almost given away details of his task. And he didn't want that to happen. Not yet, anyway.

After he was finished washing his cloak, and soaking down his hair with the clean water he began splashing it over his body. Once his body and clothes were as clean as he could get them he drew his sword from its scabbard. Using then bottom end of his cloak Thobos began cleaning and polishing the blade. The surface of the blade was wide, and he took time cleaning every particle of dust, and every drop of blood from its metallic surface. Easily five feet long, the blade was nearly as long as the elf was tall, with the hilt of it added on; it was nearly taller than Gil-Estel. Once the maintenance of the weapon was complete Thobos sheathed it and stood. Damp clothes and wet hair would quickly dry in these grasslands, though he only wished they would dry sooner.

“You’re a bit sneaky. Since you are not going to tell me what we are doing, tell me this. Is there any reward in it?”

Thobos spoke softly, not really caring if there was a reward or not. He had began to trust the elf, though that was simply because he had spent a lot of time with the man since they left the desert city. To Thobos the elf had become a job, even if no form of currency was to be exchanged. Since the bar fight Thobos was planned to protect him, if only to give himself something to do. Not to mention he was sure he could come up with a way to make a little profit off this endeavor.

The piece of food that Thobos was given was quickly devoured, and only seemed to make his stomach cry out for more. He was known and able to go lengths without food, but the present situation was becoming maddening. Only small insects and other tiny forms of life had been on the menu the fast few days, but now that they were out of the desert, he didn’t worry himself about starving. Larger animals would be more abundant here, food would easily be found and hunted.

Typical mercenary, thought Gil-Estel, all he wants is money! Then again, he was having his doubts about this. Thobos seemed to be more than an ordinary mercenary. It could almost be said that he had some form of honour! But that was beside the point.

"There will be a reward. Of sorts." he replied. "Although..." He stopped himself, not wanting to give any more away.

Standing, he took off his quiver and knives, laid his bow on the floor and stripped to the waist. He walked over to the waters edge and began to bathe. Although he knew it probably wasn't the best idea to leave his weapons unattended and to bathe unarmed, but for some reason he trusted Thobos. And he knew that should a fight arise, Thobos would be more than capable of seeing it off.

Despite the danger Gil-Estel knew they were walking towards, he began to enjoy himself, bathing here in the middle of the grasslands, with naught but the birds and a friendly companion to accompany him.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of gallopping hooves, and a black feathered arrow shot past his head, embedding itself in the river bank...

OCC: Sorry, don't know how man horsemen there are, but i'm going to take it that there is more than one.


Nodding, Thobos accepted the fact that he wasn’t going to get the elf to give up any information he didn’t want to. It was understandable, some things we just can’t say. So, he decided to trust the elf and follow him anyway. Just as Thobos was thinking of this, he saw the arrow launch of an arrow.

“Calvary, Elf to yur boow!”

Thobos yelled his accent so deep it was hardly understandable. He quickly began moving, he didn’t run like normal, instead he leaped. His feet quickly covered distances up to ten feet in single strides. Pounding towards the horseman, he weaved side to side to make himself a hard target. Each pound was a random left or right in the general direction of his enemy. Quickly he reached he first horseman, he landed with his last bound low onto the ground. He swung swiftly as he slid across the grass along the left side of the horse; his blow aimed for the lead horses legs. Just before the scabbard of his sheathed blade would have bashed into the animals legs it jumped into the air avoiding the blow. Thobos then swung his blade left, deflecting an arrow aimed at his upper stomach. Grabbing quickly at the scabbard with his left hang he began drawing the fresh blade from it. Instantly the sword was out, firmly in his right hand, the sheath firmly in his left. His legs now propelled him to the next two horsemen racing towards him. The poor man on the right was grabbing desperately at an arrow with his left hand, attempting to hold his bow and his reins in the right. On the left was a man with a long spear. Both men were wearing simple cloth and leather armor. Thobos jumped in the middle of them as they road past, he easily used his height to his advantage as he stood up straight. He swiped the spear away with scabbard and made a devastating swing with his sword hand. The man with the spear road past unarmed, but the bowman lay dead on the ground, along with his horse. The scimitar had shattered his bow, and cut deep into his left side, but his horse still ran alongside the other one.

Thobos quickly turned hoping the elf had reached his bow, because he could only last so long with his exhaustion. That one series of attacks had almost left his body in complete pain. All his muscles plotted against him, and begged to shut down, screaming at him with ache. That long journey and this fight threatened to wear his completely out of energy and will, and on top of this he wasn’t even a little drunk.

OOC: I hadn't really decided the number of horsemen tbh lol

IC:Almost as soon as Thobos had shouted to him , Gil-Estel had leaped up the river bank to the place he had left his things. He grabbed up his shirt and pulled it over his head. Then he grabbed his bow, his arrows and his knives and readyed himself for combat. Thobos had already dealt with two of the horsemen, but that still left seven others. This wasn't going to be an easy fight.

Suddenly, Gil-Estel remembered something about horses. They were afraid of fire. Leaving Thobos to deal with the horsemen, he found some dry twigs and some flint and set about starting a fire. He noticed that the horsemen were already turning around for a second charge. He had to work fast.

At last! A small fire erupted on the twigs. Putting one end of an arrow into the fire he waited until it too set alight. As the horses were almost on them for a second time, he launched an arrow at the ground between them. The dry patch of grass immediately burst into flame and those horses who didn't throw their riders off turned around and ran in the other direction.

The remaining riders ran off, leaving Gil-Estel and Thobos alone. They had to get moving, the riders would most likely be back, and in greater numbers. Unless of course they were mere bandits. Unfortunately Gil-Estel seriously doubted that.

“Arg bulfella no poth.”

Thobos began shouting random curses in his language aloud. Not for any reason, he was just angry at the whole situation. Walking rather slowly and with a couple of grunts and groans he began to talk to the elf rather rashing.

“You get into more trouble than is humanly possible. I think this is the first task I’ve been on that might finish me off eventually, but not now. Not dying out here lets go now.”

His feet broke out to a slow run, but it was all he could do. Muffled sounds escaped from his throat with every step. Some how he never stopped though, his pace wouldn’t get any faster, but he wouldn’t allow himself to give up. Considering he was running on flat grown, he was confident that he could keep up for a while. Since he once lived in very mountainous terrain his legs were pretty strong, and his stamina held up better than any humans, but it wasn't so easily compared to other barbarians who had unbelievable stamina.

After dousing the flames with his wet cloak, Gil-Estel turned, expecting to see a pleased Thobos. He was unpleasantly surprised. “Arg bulfella no poth!”, he was shouting. Gil-Estel didn't know what the Barbarian's words meant, but he knew they weren't friendly. "Now look here..." he started as the tall man reprimanded him. Suddenly Thobos ran off at full speed and it was all Gil-Estel could do to keep up with him.

"THOBOS!! THOBOS!! I'M SORRY THOBOS!!" he shouted, hoping to placate him. "THOBOS, SLOW DOWN!!!"

Thobos ran until the sun set, then in one exhausted grunt he fell down. He had ended his long sprint in a small grove of tree, with slight underbrush. Laying against a thin tree the large man breathed hard, fighting to catch his breath. He was almost completely delirious from the effort of running.

“I must sleep, don’t set fire or the smoke will be seen. Wake me if there is any trouble, and keep quiet.”

Thobos smoke between deep inhales and exhales. His voice was raspy but still commanding. Afterwards he simply laid down his head and closed his eyes. The constant strain had finally got to him, and he was forced to sleep so his aches and pains would go away. Now his muscles would finally have time to rest themselves.

The whole night Thobos didn’t move, almost looking dead against the slim tree. A few hours after dawn his eyes opened and he yawned deep. Hunger now gripped him, it ripped at his stomach. He slowly stood then ventured out past the small patch of tree to gaze out and see what lay ahead of them. As far as the eye could see was distant grassland. Realizing that there was no threat around them he returned to his elf friend. Reaching under his cloak he pulled out a small folded piece of cloth. The cloth contained a few pieces of dry, tough meat. Placing them into his mouth, he chewed the dry, tasteless food swallowing every piece. Once he had his full he offered his companion the last couple of pieces.

“We need to be on the move.”

After an endless day of chasing Thobos across the plains, Gil-Estel was just deciding that it was no use and that he'd have to leave it and find the Man after he'd calmed down a little. Suddenly however, Thobos seemed to collapse against the side of a tree. Relieved, Gil-Estel came to a halt and sat down cross legged. After checking that Thobos was truly asleep and not just waiting for a chance to escape, Gil-Estel sank into a state of meditation. Meditation was a favourite past time of the elves, it cleared their minds, and allowed them to focus on the task in hand. Although he was in a sleep-like state, his eyes were open. Enabling him to be in both the dream world and the material world.

For an entire night, the pair made not a movement, Thobos lying and Gil-Estel sitting. As the first tendrils of dawn crept their way up the horizon, Gil-Estel came fully back to the waking world and began mentally preparing himself for the day's journey. When Thobos woke, Gil-Estel was practising drills with his knives, strange dance like movements, graceful and entrancing, yet deadly.

After scouting the horizon, Thobos returned and offered Gil-Estel some dried meat. It wasn't a very elven thing to eat, their meat was always fresh and juicy at the table, and they ate Lembas on journeys, but nevertheless he took a piece. The meat was dry and tasteless, but it filled him with the energy he needed to travel, so he was grateful for it.

“We need to be on the move.”, said Thobos. Gil-Estel nodded his agreement and stood up ready to go.

Thobos began towards their objective finally feeling as though his body was able to function without the aches and pains that he had come accustom to in the past few days. Every moment he made was different than the ones the elf had seen before. Finally sober, well rested, and his stomach even held a small amount of food. His motions were actually accurate, he no longer staggered or hunched over.

Step by step, he moved at moderate pace, flattening whatever flora his feet so happen to cover. It was a clear day, a constant steady breeze swept across the plains cooling Thobos and making each step easier. They traveled for hours, and nothing ever seemed to change, the plains were apparently endless. Thobos felt as if he would be walking forever.

“How much further do you think this place is anyway?”

Climbing up a small hill of grass, Gil-Estel scanned the horizon for the faint haze of Estolad. Returning he said. "No more than a day! We should be there by nightfall, and then we can have a proper meal!".

Looking forward to the prospect of that meal, Gil-Estel doubled his speed, constantly searching the distant horizon for any sight of horses, and always listening for pursuers behind them.

"That is, of course, assuming that we aren't captured or killed first!" he mused outloud.

As the day wore on they began to finally reach their destination. The dirt path began to widen, and they began passing other travelers. This began to worry Thobos, he was afraid the riders they encountered earlier might be in this town. If they were, all they could do was hope they didn’t recognize the two men, because here there would surely be more of them than last time.

It bothered Thobos that the elf wouldn’t tell him what was going on, yet had fought dangerous odds with him twice, and won. Now he began to consider it a kind of test. How many men would he have to cut down to earn the elf’s trust? Thobos laughed silently in his head or a moment, and considered if the trust of an elf was even worth that. Silencing his thoughts Thobos turned to his companion while the road was clear and began to speak.

“What is it we are doing here?”

Thobos didn’t allow his voice to speak much over a whisper. He knew that his ears were not the most sensitive, and he also knew that others could hear from distances seemingly impossible. He didn’t want to risk anything that may happen. It was true barbarians enjoyed war, but they didn’t enjoy dying, and the last attack had made him realize how much people wanted this elf dead.