The fire in the hollow coughs out. A cold wind pours through the trees, and the shadows at the edge of the light shape themselves into the man in Gray.
He does not step in. He only stares at Embers, still as a hooked trap, while the air around the hollow seems to tighten.
The Woodsman
Stay behind me, Embers.
The Woodsman moves forward, blade half-raised, his easy calm gone hard with old memory. Beside him, the Royal Courier snaps her own blade free and shifts to cover Embers' flank.
Grayman
You have no right to hide her from me.
The Royal Courier
Not if you mean to take her.
For one thin heartbeat, Embers sees it clearly, the Lost Woods are no shelter if the wrong hands are waiting outside the fire.
+ Scene Quest Added
Escape the man in Gray
“Now with two erstwhile protectors, can Amber's find the strength to stand and face the man who killed her entire Village, who has hunted her for years? Attempting to gain a hold of her emotions after the outpouring she experienced earlier in the evening Amber's will attempt to stand with her two companions her sling in her hand stone ready for the attack”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled -2)
Embers straightens where she stands, small fingers closing hard around the sling. The stone sits ready in her palm, steady as her breath.
The Woodsman shifts half a step, keeping his blade up, but he lets her move into the line beside him.
The Royal Courier glances back once, then edges closer until Embers is no longer hidden behind either of them.
Embers Firestarter
Her grip does not shake. The stone feels real.
Grayman
There you are. Good. I would hate to lose you in the dark.
He finally takes a step into the hollow, and the dead firelight catches on his gray sleeves and still hands.
The Woodsman
Keep your eyes on him, Embers. If he moves, we move first.
“In a voice barely above a whisper she will hiss out you are the man who killed my father why do you hunt me?”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled +2)
Embers Firestarter
You are the man who killed my father. Why do you hunt me?
Grayman
His head tilts. The answer comes quiet, almost careful. "Because he made a promise with blood, little fire, and you are what he left behind."
The Woodsman
His grip tightens, but he says nothing, watching for the hunter's hands.
The Royal Courier
"That is not an answer. Say his name, then. Say what you did." Her blade stays raised, but her voice steadies the hollow.
Grayman
"I did not come to boast of old wounds." His gaze stays on Embers. "I came because she can open what was sealed, and because others will kill her for it if I do not take her first."
Grayman
A pause, thin as frost. "If you want the whole truth, come closer. I will trade it for one thing. Your name, and whether you remember the red door in the roots."
“Memories Flash a Cascade of moving images and incoherent sounds at The Mention Of The Red Door in The Roots. A sacred place her father once took her when she was very little speak to the pretty lady of the forest with the flowers in her hair she smelled of fresh rain and new growth and her hands while hard like wood was smooth like the bark of the Ironwood tree. Her name embers thinks to herself what was her name? Breaking Free of the memories and returning to the moment Ember's looks at the man in Gray armor with burning hatred. I don't know what you want from me you have always followed me. When I would hunt you would stalk me when I would hide you were the shadow that followed in the dark I hate you and everything that you are she will use her sling for arranged attack meant more to distract than the harm to give her two companions an opportunity to block his advance”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Ranged Combat, rolled +2)
The red door flashes in Embers’s mind, roots gaping like a mouth, and the memory splinters apart. Rain, flowers, a woman’s hands, then nothing but the hollow and the hunter’s pale face.
Embers Firestarter
I know what you are.
Embers Firestarter
You have stalked me since I was small. I hate you.
Her sling snaps up. The stone flies low and hard, not to wound, but to force him back.
The Man in Gray shifts aside as the shot tears past, and the opening is enough.
The Woodsman lunges in from one side, the Royal Courier from the other, blades cutting off the hunter’s path.
Grayman
There it is. You remember enough to frighten the right people.
He draws back a half step, but his eyes stay on Embers, sharp with a grim sort of triumph.
“With everything that she is and in an utter fit of desperation she cries out to The Whispers help me I don't know what to do. The Whispers respond, the wolves are slaves of the gray man. Free them and they will fight for you. A primal urge bubbles through embers and she lets out a feral howl calling for the pack to attack the man in Gray”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled -1)
Embers cries to the Whispers, and the hollow answers with a sudden, living stillness. The air tightens around the Man in Gray.
From the dark between the trees, wolves appear, eyes lit like coals. They do not rush Embers. They turn on him.
Grayman
No. Stay back.
He lifts one hand, but the pack circles wider, growling low and sure, as if they know him.
The Woodsman
Embers, now.
The Woodsman and the Royal Courier step in closer, and the hunter loses the center of the hollow.
The Royal Courier
Go. I will hold him.
The Man in Gray staggers back toward the trees, blocked by teeth, steel, and the sudden fury of the wild.
“Ember's meeting no further urging to flee will give in to the instinct on run like the wind she will race through the woods towards the edge where the Royal Courier had spoken of the beginnings of her journey perhaps there they can regroup and figure out what to do next”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled +1)