What's worse, this wasn't the first time she'd noticed this mysterious traveller. She'd seen him in Sailune when they'd set out, but hadn't really paid much attention to him then. But she'd caught glimses of his during the trip here. Always a distance behind them, always in the shadows. Today was the first day he'd actually shown himself openly. She had no idea what he was up to, but she had a feeling it wasn't good.
But there'd been no sign of the mysterious figure since they'd come into town, so Kiori wasn't overly worried. Having finished her meal she retired to the small room she had, and went to bed.
Some time during the night, she awoke to hear footsteps outside the door. They were not the easy footsteps of someone familiar with the place, but the careful tread of someone making as little noise as possible in the dark. They came to a stop outside her door. She lay absolutely still, ready to conjure a fireball at a moments notice, but after a few moments the careful tread resumed, and a few moments later she heard the front door close. She lay awake for a long while after that, but the strange visitor did not return. She had no evidence to base her suspicions on, but she suspected it was their mysterious traveller from earlier on.
She was up with the sun the next day, not because she wanted to but because she'd had difficulty sleeping after the night-time visit. Collecting her gear she left the Inn. After buying some supplies she headed for the road. There wasn't any work to be had in this town at the moment, so she decided to head for the next town.
The day was warm, and she tossed back her royal blue cloak, showing the violet, short-sleeved tunic she wore underneath. Blue leggings and a pair of grey boots completed the outfit. The blue matched the colour of her eyes, and complemented her coppery hair. The violet tunic just was. Nobody said she had to have any fashion sense.
Her face was heart shaped, her eyes large, and her lips made a pretty pink bow. And she was that. Pretty, in the way that 13 year olds in frilly dresses were pretty. But she didn't look 13, and her pretty face and 'slender' form had gotten her a few unwanted advanced. Truth be told, she wasn't slender but skinny. Still being in the process of filling out. 'Some people just develop late.' Her mother had told her. Kiori wasn't impressed. She was almost as flat-chested as the imfamous Lina Inverse. Her legs had grown though, which she thought just made her gangly and awkward. They actually gave her a graceful, coltish look, but try telling her that.
As well as the pack on her back that stored all her worldy possessions, she carried an ash-wood staff only slightly shorter than she was, with a large blue crystal set in a twist of wood at the top. She used it as a hiking staff, swinging it forward and planting it firmly, and using it for an added boost when it came to a slope. As well as a hiking staff it was a mage's staff, used to focus her magic; and a pilgrim's stave, with two retractable blades hidden in the end.
A warm day, a fresh breeze, and plenty of sunshine worked together to relax her and help her forget the creepy events of the day and night before. The road was smooth and ran through pleasant countryside, and all in all she was enjoying herself. And then she heard it; the soft clop-clop of horses' hooves on the road. It could be a farmer, or a horse and cart, she told her self, but even before she looked she knew what she would see. Yes, the man in black was there.
Frowning to herself, she decided to lose him by cutting across country. She turned off the road and into the deep forest that bordered it. She deliberately pushed through the thickest areas, knowing that he'd have to lead his horse around them.
She did this for most of the day, through valleys, over ridges, always in the general direction of the town she'd been heading for, but taking the most difficult route to follow.
The night she camped without a fire in the bottom of a gulley. She wrapped herself in her cloak and settled down, quite happy at being outdoors. After all, it wasn't all that different from the wilderness near Zefeilia, where she'd grown up.
The next day she rose with the sun, felling refreshed after a good night sleep, and listening to the sounds of nature. For that was all she could hear, not jingling of horse tack, no soft footsteps, nothing.
Packing up her gear, she headed for a nearby ridge to get her bearings, gazing out over the forest below her, she could see the road she'd left in the distance, the great expanse of wilderness around her, and down in the valley…. No! ... It wasn't possible. And yet, there, plain as day, was a tall figure in black, riding a horse along the valley floor.
Right enough was enough. She scowled, hands on hips, and decided that it was time to face this creepy guy down and get him off her back.
"Raywing!" she called, and swept down the hillside, leaving branched swaying and rustling behind her, to land on the valley floor. She turned, fireball in hand, to face him.
She turned, and he stopped. Yes, it was the same person as yesterday. Tall dark figure and a tall dark horse. Whoever it was went in for this dark thing in a big way. He stank of black magic, make that lots of Black Magic, and something else she couldn't quite identify, but it seemed to pull a shadow over the sun.
She stood there, fireball in one hand, glowing staff in the other, waiting for him to do something, and he just sat there, watching her.
Finally, getting tired of this - for she was not the most patient of people - Kiori began to slowly, warily walk towards him. As she began to approach him, he touched his heels to his horse's flanks, and for a moment Kiori thought he was going to be really annoying and ride away to maintain the distance between them. But no, apparelty he wasn't feeling that sadistic. His horse slowly walked forward, the man himself, for man it was, sat easily in the saddle, and waited for them to meet. Seemingly without any command from the man himself, the horse stopped several paces infront of her. Kiori also stopped.
The guy was tall and pale, too pale, and had the longest hair she'd ever seen on anyone, male or female. He was also, as she'd noticed before, into black in a big way. Hair, boots, leggings, tunic, cape, horse, the lot. There were occaisional glints of grey or silver, like his eyes. They really creeped her out. So cold, so distant, almost disdainful, if they showed any expression at all. He looked like the quiet, dangerous type. She'd have to deal with him carefully.
"Why are you following me?" she blurted out, hefting the fireball.
"That is not nessessary." He said, and lifting a pale, slender hand, snuffed her fireball out.
"Really?" She said, hands on hips. "And why have you been following me everywhere? How do I know you're not going to attack me or something?"
The man just inclined his head, a slight smile playing over his lips in a way that said, plain as if he'd spoken, 'You don't'.
"Just leave me alone. I didn’t ask for this! Diem Wind!" she hurled a hurricane wind at him, the trees about this swaying madly, branches breaking and leaves filling the air, and he held out his hand and the wind parted around him and his horse. She quickly followed with "Flare Arrow!" but again the spell diverted around him, the arrows of fire setting a few pieces of vegitation alight but not touching the man infront of her.
"Why won't you just go away!" she screamed at him. "Fireball!" this time she did hurl it at him, and a satisfying explosion resulted, blacking trees and throwing dirt and debris everywhere. Yet when the smoke cleared, he was still sitting there, astride his horse, though everything around him was blasted and black.
She was about to start on her bigger arsenal when, much to her surprise, the man spoke. "Touchy, aren't we. And to answer your question, the only place I'm going is where ever you're going."
Maybe she was overreacting, but to be honest he scared the heck out of her. Who wouldn't be frightened of some creepy guy who keeps following you and is immune to spells that could flatten a small farmstead. Still, he hadn't as yet done anything aggressive, she just found his entire presence, demeanor and attitude frustrating.
She sighed. "Ok," She said, "lets start over. You're obviously following me for a reason. What is it?"
"Because I have been paid to do so." He said in the unnervingly smooth and confident voice.
'Ok, we're getting somewhere.' She thought. "Ok, why were you paid to follow me?" Kiori asked.
"Because presumably my employer wishes me to do so." He said.
Kiori rolled her eyes. At least he didn't seem hostile. "Do you mean me any harm?"
Again that tilt of the head, the slight smile. Ugh. This was like those Oracles you heard about in folklore. The one's that would tell you anything you wanted to know, providing you asked the right question. Otherwise they either couldn't or wouldn't answer it, or the answer they gave was useless.
"Ok, were you employed to kill me, rape me, steal my stuff, tie me up and throw me in the river, or in any way hurt me or damage my property?" she said, hoping she'd made her question specific enough to get what she wanted, whilst still encompassing every aspect of 'harm' she could think of.
"No." was the answer. Ok, that was progress.
"Any way I can pursuade you to stop following me?" she asked.
"No."
"How about if I double what you're being paid." She hazarded.
For the first time she saw his expression really change. He regarded her shrewdly then smiled, almost pityingly. "You do not have the means to carry out your offer." He said.
She deflated. What had this person offered him, and who was it?
"Who employed you to follow me?" she asked.
"Though I was given no specific instructions on the matter, I do not believe that my employer would wish their identity known." He said.
Ok. Maybe she could try this from a different angle. "Why were you told to follow me? And don't give me that about it being your employer's wishes, you must have been told to do something other than just follow me." she said.
"I was told to report back on your activities." He said.
"Great. So that's it. Follow me, watch me, report back. Yes?"
He nodded.
"And you're sure there's no way to get rid of you?" She already had a decent idea of her chances against him in an all-out magical fight, and she liked the idea of hand to hand combat even less. She really didn't like the look of the broadsword on his back.
Again he nodded.
"Right." She said, shrugged, turned around and continued walking. She was out of ideas, and as long as he wasn't offering any threat, she could just ignore him. At least she could try, but he was already annoying the heck out of her. Behind her the clop-clop of hooves started up again, and he gradually drew abreast of her, and stayed there as she walked, watching the road ahead, his horse's pace matching hers perfectly, and he never said a word.
And all the while she was thinking "Ugh, great. Just great. I really needed a creepy travelling companion."
