Isaac slowly woke. His head pounding and his eyes screaming when he tried to open them. He forced his eyes to crack open, looking around. He was still at his camp, but he was tied up with rope, tied to a tree with more rope. The items he had brought with him were spread out on the ground a few feet away, the weapons separated from the items. His 5 knives, his sword, his crossbow and 2 daggers. You could never be too careful in the Brundai woods. His campfire was put out, and next to it was a hole. Next to the hole was Crimson. She had a shovel, digging the hole deeper and wider. She tossed the cooked deathwing into the hole, burying it.
"Hey! What are you doing?" Isaac protested. That was a blatant waste of food! And it wasn't even hers to waste! "That's mine!"
"Great. The Poacher's awake." She turned, glaring at Isaac. Crimson had red hair with black roots and green eyes that stared him down. She wore a brown coat over a black shirt, with a belt containing what looked like bottles and flasks of pure mana. Around her neck was an old royal guard emblem hanging from some leather string. Emblems were usually trophies, given to captains and generals. Although the kingdom didn't hand them out anymore as too many people targeted those with the emblems. Did she kill some retired captain Isaac wondered?
"Poacher?" Isaac scoffed. "I killed the deathwing because it was attacking me!"
"Wow! So heroic!" Crimson snapped back, sarcasm in every word. "Killing a mother Roc because you were too close to her nest!"
Isaac paused, confused. "Wh- I didn't kill a rock. You can't kill a rock, they're not alive. It's just stone."
"Not a rock, a Roc!" Crimson clarified, annoyed.
"You're saying the exact same thing! And rocks can't be killed!"
"It's a ROC! A BIRD!"
"ROCKS DO NOT HAVE WINGS! THEY ARE STONE!"
Crimson screamed out in anger. "What do you call this?!" She pointed to where she buried the bird.
"I named it Deathwing." Isaac puffed out his chest, although hard with the ropes restraining him.
"Oh my god how cliche are y- Nevermind. What you call a Deathwing is actually called a Roc. Not R-O-C-K. R-O-C."
Isaac paused, absorbing the knowledge that he had just argued how a rock didn't have wings when she meant a bird. "...Deathwing is better."
"You can't just rename a bird that's been around for thousands of years." Crimson snapped. "Plus it's a cringy name."
"It is not! It's a cool and threatening name for a bird!" Isaac argued, pride stinging.
"What is deadly about it's wings?" Crimson asked, the question pointed.
"W-well it's wings are… probably the safest thing on the bird actually but that's not the point! In fact it's like… irony!" Isaac struggled to defend his point, his ego hurt.
"Irony? My god you sound like a writer." Crimson groaned. Isaac… wasn't really sure how to take that. If you were called a writer it either meant you were poor or you were famous. No inbetween. "I bet you write about going into the Brundai woods to slaughter goblins too." Crimson snapped, walking over to his stuff. She knelt down, searching through the non-weapon items.
"Hey! Don't touch my things!" Isaac struggled in his ropes, although futile.
Crimson held up the crossbow bolts, spare ones he brought and set all but one aside. She held it up, examining it. "What's with this? Why's it hollowed out and bulky?"
"...It was poorly made." Isaac lied. If she knew it absorbed mana, she might destroy it.
"No, this was intentional. You don't accidentally hollow out a crossbow bolt. And you don't just happen to line the inside with steel and the rest copper." She noted.
"...Alright, you got me. It's a test bolt. To see if it's better than normal." He halfway lied. Technically it was still in testing. He wasn't lying per se, simply not telling the entire truth.
"Well it obviously failed. Either it did or you did. That werewolf would have gone down quickly had you shot it in the head. It's not hard to miss, they have a head about the size of a watermelon." Crimson smirked. "It adds up considering who was aiming it."
"I'm a great aim! I just… felt like missing." It was a lie, and one that made him look pathetic. But he did intentionally miss. He wanted to mount the werewolf's head on a wall after its mana was sucked out. He still wasn't sure why it hadn't worked. "Besides, you missed the head too with that fire." He pointed out.
"I wasn't trying to kill it." Crimson explained, irritation in her tone. "Just scare it. It still has a consciousness beneath that fur!"
"Then you must have also been trying to traumatize it. It caught fire."
"I didn't know it would roll into the fire YOU started!"
"So it's not so predictable and smart, huh?" Isaac prodded.
Crimson scowled. "This is going to be fun." She took the sword from his weapons.
Isaac's face paled as panic raced through him. "Um… S-say, what are you doing?"
Crimson grinned. "Use your imagination."
He began to kick his legs against the ground, trying to press himself more against the tree as she approached. "W-wait- H-hold on I know I was annoying but I- I didn't mean anything by it! Th-there's no reason to kill me! W-well except as a threat to the kingdom but it wouldn't be much I'm only the advisor's son and-!" DEAR GOD WHY COULDN'T HE SHUT HIS MOUTH TO SAVE HIS LIFE?! Isaac knew he had a problem with rambling.
"Oh yeah? Weren't you going to kill the witch?" Crimson held up his journal from his backpack. Isaac cursed internally.
"I- L-listen, we can talk about it! W-we can come to an agreement! What do you want?! Money? I got loads of it! My father does! You can write a ransom! I'll even deliver the message!" He stuttered as she raised the sword above his head. "Please we can work something out! I'LL GIVE YOU ANYTHING PLEASE-!" SHING!
Isaac froze, slowly opening his eyes as the ropes around his arms released around him, falling down to his sides. Crimson grabbed his arm, yanking him to his feet with a smirk. She grabbed his items, stuffing his journal, stamp and Identification papers into her pocket, grabbing one of his daggers, sheathing it and attaching it to her belt. "Walk." She pushed him slightly.
"What?! No! I can't just leave behind my things, those are expensive!" Isaac protested.
"You're a rich boy, you can afford more." She dismissed.
"At least bring the crossbow and sword. They're family heirlooms." He lied. But she didn't need to know they were both weapons in testing.
She sighed, picking up both the weapons. "Choose one. We can't carry both, it'll slow us down."
Isaac paused, thinking. How could he choose? They were both weapons in need of testing and the sword hadn't even been documented yet. Then again, he technically did test the crossbow on the werewolf. It proved to be useless, so he could go home and tell them to keep working on it. He hadn't seen what the sword did, but he knew it was tied to the mana the crossbow collected. "...Bring the sword… And the crossbow bolts, at least."
Crimson tucked the bolts into her back, putting the sheathed sword on her belt. "Lets go." She grabbed his arm, walking forward with a quick stride.
Isaac struggled to keep up, having to find an awkward stance to walk with his hands tied behind his back. "Where are we going?"
"To the kingdom." Crimson answered bluntly. She noticed Isaac's confused face. "What, you think I would just leave you out here?"
"Well… no. I thought you would kill me." He admitted.
"Of course you do." Crimson muttered under her breath. Silence fell over the forest as they walked, filled with the crunch of leaves and sticks under their boots. The sky above was light, the sun having just risen. Birds tweeted above, making it seem as if an entire flock were following them. Crimson let out a sigh. "So what do they call you?"
"Isaac." He answered stiffly. He'd be caught dead before being friendly to a mass murderer like Crimson.
"Hello Isaac. I'm-... Crimson." She introduced, pausing before stating her name. He chalked it up to her wondering if he didn't know her.
"I know. Killed 2 of my family members." He sneered.
"So that's why you're in here, huh? To get revenge?" She questioned, an eyebrow raised.
"...Sure." He lied. In reality he wasn't that close to his cousin. He barely knew the man. He only knew that Jonathan was well aligned enough with their beliefs that Nicholas saw him fit to rule.
"Well to get one thing straight, I didn't-" Crimson froze where she was, raising a hand to stop Isaac. Her eyes were wide. "Don't. Move. A muscle."