The Chase Begins

They had not gone very far into the woods when the female scout threw her hand up to stop Adisla's band in their tracks. Leaning forward in her saddle, Adisla raised her eyebrows and propped her arm on the pummel of her saddle. Holding the halberd down by her side with her right hand, she watched as the scout moved in a side to side motion, watching the ground carefully before standing up and waving them forwards.

They hadn't gone much further forward into the woods before the surroundings began to look very familiar to her. Recognizing them as the images that Erik had shot her, Adisla sat up straighter in her saddle before whistling out. Seeing the scout pop their heads up, she waved the woman towards her and gestured for the young man to continue. When the woman arrived, Adisla leaned down and spoke to her, "We are at the location, see if you can't find Erik's body."

As she finished, she became aware of the young man shouting about finding something and requesting the tracking dogs. Easing Madison forward as Abigail split off to the side in search of the body, Adisla waved a young boy from the town that was handling the dogs forward to go to Gerther. Following behind the boy, she looked around the woods and winced as she felt a weird twinge behind her left ear. Moving her hand up to rub at the irritant, she watched with lazy eyes as the youth arrived with the dogs.

This was always her least favorite part of the hunt, tracking the people down. She hated paperwork, but more than that, she hated cowards. Cowards made her go on these crazy chases. Her thoughts were interrupted when there was a loud clap and a fireball in front of her. Steadying Madison as the horse slept up on its back feet and began sidestepping away, she ran her hand along its neck as she looked down at the scene of carnage. Aside from the blackened hole in the ground, there were little to no remnants of the four beings that had been there. The youths right hand holding the leashes was dangling from a lowhanging limb nearby and the hindquarters of one of the hounds had landed beside Madison's hooves.

Jumping down off the saddle, she stepped over the mangled dog chunk before walking to the lip of the small crater. Smirking, she looked around before a hearty laugh left her lips. Gesturing down at the crater, she turned to the shocked faces of her men with a smile before speaking, "My Gods, did you see that? They just...exploded. I wish I had been paying.more attention. Eh, oh well."

Chuckling softly, she looked back to the crater with a hardening glare, her humor gone as quickly as it had come. Sure, it was a funny sight, the way lengths of intestines decorated nearby shrubs like garland and what she assumed was Gerther's skull sat grinning at her beside a fallen log. But, it would set her back. She was down a scout and a pair of decent tracking dogs. Worst of all, as soon as the explosion went off, that irritating sensation behind her ear was gone. Shank.g her head, she pulled herself back onto Madison and looked at Abigail as she came running over. Laughing softly as she saw the woman's face pale at the sight of the gory mess, she swung her halberd around and placed the point of the pike beside Abigail's face. Turning her head to face her, Adisla asked in a light voice, "Well? Did you find the body?"

Abigail struggled to pull her eyes from the collection of body parts that surronded the hole before reporting in a shaky voice, "N-no I couldn't f-find his body, Commander S-Styliane."

Lowering her head with a smirk, Adisla giggled softly before speaking, "Well, isn't that unfortunate? They lied to me, killed my men, and then abducted one of my best scouts. Tut tut. I guess they want to die." Shrugging her shoulders, Adisla looked around before speaking, "They have a horse, find their prints."