The Way Back

The Way Back:
Characters:
Man
Morrighan

Premise: Morrighan finds a man being attacked, saves him, and she travels with him to get to Cobh, so she can relay a message. Things happen as they go.

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"Leave me alone!" A man screamed, while frantically running away through the thick forestations of the Ephemeral Wood, His shoes beating against the marshy dirt and roots laden on the forest floor. Scampering away from the brooding beasts, the tip of his shoe knocked against a wayward root and he crashes onto the floor. The beasts that were chasing him, with bared fangs and dripping an ooze of inky darkness. Accepting his fate, he shut his eyes tightly and tensed his body.

...


He no longer heard the barking but only a slow growl, then cry of a horse and a clanking of metal, and when he opened his eyes, the scene had changed.

A figure stood before him, a solemn tall woman clad in glossy yet nicked and slightly worn armor. "Get back.", she declared, and the man writhed away slowly as the woman faced off against the Forlorn creatures. She drew her sword, a long, tempered blade cast in iron and signaled with her free arm towards her horse, near a tree yards away from the two. "Wait there" she said. The man scurried off in a heap whyile the woman surveyed the scene. In front of her were three wolves, although they looked much different from normal, their fur taking on a black color deeper than she'd ever seen. Their teeth bared and hunger dripped from their maws, and there was little time to assess them before they made her their dinner.

Watching from the safety of the worn and knotted trunk, the man looked upon the armored woman as she began staving off the creatures. The wolves attacked at once, but as they came she was felling them just as quickly, one-by-one, needing only a quick blow or a decisive strike before stopping them for good. Her approach to fighting felt calculated, yet adaptable, her swordplay swift and decisive, and in a matter of minutes the foul beasts were slain, the smell of rank blood emanating into the air. The woman wiped the blood from the metal with her glove and pauldron before wiping it on the bark of a tree, and then walked towards the man's position. She kneeled down to meet his cowering form and extended a non-bloody hand out to him.

"Are you hurt?" the woman asked. The man shivering in fear looked around frantically, looking around the trees and bushes for any signs of more impending monsters?

"A-Are they gone? Are you sure you've killed them all?"

"Yes. They won't be bothering you anymore."

The man let out a pained sigh of relief, picking himself up from the corner of cowardice he'd made for himself, and started for his bag. "I can't thank you enough, um..."

"Morrighan."

"Morrighan. Ah that brooch on your chest, you couldn't possibly be..."

She let out a pained sigh. "Yes, I am Morrighan of Ulster, and the..." She let out another sigh, "Godsbane."

"The Godsbane appears to save " Morrigan crossed her arms, averting her gaze in annoyance and quickly scoping the wood. The Ephemeral Wood was a plot of forest that laid outside of fields of Macha, with thick trees and a thicker canopy, with only the occasional streams of light strewn about the leaves, providing a fain illumination to the thick underbrush and She looked again at the man and spoke. "And what do I call you?" "Stewart", the man replied. "Pleased to make your acquaintance."

Morrighan grabbed her horse by his reigns and walked alongside him and the man to the bodies of the wolves, now beginning o gather wolves."These wolves, have you seen anything like them around here before? Like this?"

"No, it's the first I've seen them act this way, the wolves out here normally pretty solitary, I've no idea why they were attacking me...although Are you of the faith?"

Morrighan looked at him with the air of a balding, bespectacled, middle aged man holding a bat in a fenced cage, with a face that conveyed an expression of disbelief and disapproval, and a serious suggestion that one shouldn't persue their current course of action.

"Oh, right...of course not. Well these woods are said to be under the watchful eyes of the hero-god Chulainn."

On my way back to

"Cobh, huh." Morrighan pulled a piece of paper from one of the pouches from her belts, and showing it to him. It was a sealed envolope marked with the Seal of Aodhan, the mark of the divine guard. The mark of the guard, goledn and shining briliantly with it's knotted logo and seal of "x", Stewart recognized it instantly. It carried the words "To Captain Osric, Regional Commander of Cobh" "I'm supposed to relay a message to their militia outpost. I'll accompany you on your way back, I don't have a good feeling about these woods." Morrighan turned arounf to her horse and reached for a pack on the back of her horses leather saddle, and pulled out two long pieces of fabric and an axe. "I'm going to set up a camp, I don't think it's wise to try and travel any further this late, what with the wolves being as they are."

"Are you a fan of wine?"

I've always been an ale gal, myself.
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The two set up a small camp, and laid Morrighan's horse to rest before taking a load off and . The night in the forest was haunting, yet beautiful, with the sunlight that peekd through the spaces in the trees replaced by luminescent moonlight that gave the forest an ephemeral glow. Stewart reached into his pack, got out two large glasses, and a large bottle of Colhen's Finest Red Ale, that reflected a calm rubbish glow against the light of the fire. Stewart poured their glasses and handed one to Morrighan, who gave him a nod of thanks before taking a sip. "Colhen's Red?", she inquired, before downing some more. "It
s only the best in the land of Duine." He took his glass and set it down before collapsing himself on the blanket he'd set on the ground prviosuly. "So, wh
"My wife is the reason I'm here actually. We own a tavern, back in Cobh, north of here. She has this penchant for the mushrooms that grow in the dark patches of the forest this time of year; they have this earthen, savory taste that lets her make some of our best dishes. So, every couple of months I go out of town to scavenge the forest and get some for her, although as of late, it appears the forest is much more dangerous than I remembered. But, I still got them regardless.

"That's very sweet of you. You must care for her a lot." Morrighan said, subtly smiling as she took another swing of her ale.

"More than anything." Stewart readjusted himself and leaned forward, gesturing with his glass. "And what of you, Godsbane. I can't imagine that you don't have anyone; the people of Ulster must all be throwing themselves at you." Morrighan's face felt flush, not knowing whether it was her own embarrassment or the grip of the strong ale slowly taking over her sensibilities.

"Well?"

"There's this one girl..."I'd rather not talk about it."

"Haha, the Godsbane has a penchant for the ladies."




"For the Godsbane, and my personal savior? Anything."

Morrighan tried to smile.


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