Amalia sat on her chair in the office of the castle. Her legs were crossed, while her boots rested on the table. She titled her chair that way also. Looking outside the big window, she had a nice view on the beach, the ocean and of course on the small busy overfilled harbor town Menia. This city was the neighbour of Botta. From here they transport the water across the desert to Botta. "I hate my job. No action at all." Amalia complained. "I want to hunt a rune. I might not sell it this time either." Suddenly a soldier opened the door to Amalia's office. "Excuse me Mrs. Himmelslande, a high ranked person of Sunadokei is on the way to Menia. Sent to look how things go in the town." He nodded towards Amalia and left again. Amalia is the one responsible for everything in this town, because the leader of Orden des Rosenkreuzes was missing. After a sigh she took her feet off the table and began to search for some papers. "Well.. I better arrange things quick."

The wind whipped Kael's hood off his head for the umpteenth time and he muttered a curse under his breath. Damn this desert. Damn this wind. Damn the pointless check-ups Sunadokei made him do.

It was a standard procedure and normally one of the non-fighting officers would have been sent off but apparently Sunadokei was in the weeds. He was the only available one trusted with the job of their water supply. The only one who had the mental capacity to walk in, ask a few questions, poke at their machinery for a while, then make up a report for the Council to pour over.

Obviously, he wasn't pleased with being given this assignment.

Having given up trying to keep the hood down, he held up his hand to shield his eyes from the sun, peering up at the buildings ahead of him as he neared the town gate. Most likely they'd see him coming and scramble to sweep everything unsatisfactory under the rug. His eye twitched slightly. Meeting with the usual bowing and scraping was not his idea of a fun time.

He moved quickly through the streets, shrugging off his cloak now that the sun and sands weren't much of a problem. It only took a short while to pick out the building they had described to him and soon he was standing at the main door. Taking a breath and setting his face in a calm and friendly mask, he reached for the door and knocked.

One of the guards opened the door. Amalia already receiver word of Kael's arrival. The big main hall of the castle was filled by two lines of soldiers. Between the line was a red carpet. Amalia walked down the steps and along the carpet to reach Kael on the entrance. She performed a curtsey and spoke. "Welcome to Menia, Sir." After she stood straight, she looked into the sent person's eyes. She was frozen for a moment, because she recognized the two different eye colors right away. A lot of memories ran through Amalia's head in the moment she was frozen. A lot of flames and a hero, that's what she saw. She shook her head quickly and returned to her manners. "Excuse me for that." She wouldn't confront Kael with all her feelings now. She had been well raised by the 'Orden des Rosenkreuzes'. "Does Sir wish to relax for a moment in castle, or does he wish to go to fulfill his duties?" Amalia closed her eyes and sunk her head respectfully, her hand resting on her chest, waiting for an answer.

Of course, here it was. The overly respectful welcome, the bowing, it all made him want to run. Inwardly Kael sighed, but on the outside he was all business.

"Thank you for the welcome." He spoke out, using the common language by habit though his speech was halting since he had yet to learn it fully. "But I would like to skip all of the...uh...formalities, if that is ok with you, and get right to checking on things." He paused a moment to search for the correct words. "I will have to ask that you forgive my slow speech... I am not quite great with these words." He offered a polite smile while bowing his head in response.

His eyes were darting about the place, picking up the details. But the only thing he saw was the ceremony. It was a bit maddening.

"And please. The name is Kael, not sir."

So she was right. It was Kael after all. But he didn't seem to remember Amalia at all. Well she couldn't blame him for that. She was still a child when he rescued her from the demon attack in her homevillage, where now just a forest remained with a castle ruin. "Shit." Amalia stood straight again. "I'm sorry if you don't feel comfortable with my performance, Si.. Kael. Of course, I can guide you around right away." Amalia snipped and the soldiers removed to their works. Walking outside of the castlegate she glanced around quickly and turned around to Kael again. "As you see the whole village is clean, no slavery, no laziness. Would you like to try some fresh filtered water?" Touching Kael's shoulder, she streched her other arm out into the direction of some steps. "It's down that way." Not even waiting for an answer, she gently pushed Kael forward slowly, guiding him.

"Thank you. I am sure it is fine, I am just going to look over everything. You know the Council, they tend to worry too much."

Kael began to walk towards the stairs. It was true, he didn't recognize her. Or at least he hadn't yet; he had spent little time looking at her and more time coming up with a story pleasing enough for the Council. Her glance had made him begin to suspect, but it was the same everywhere on these missions. It'd probably end with some bribery or whatever tactic his hosts would try to use. Of course, he couldn't blame them, wanting to show their best side and suck up for a possible promotion, but he had always appreciated the honest ones the most.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs he hesitated, glancing back at Amalia for direction.

"I'm right behind you. We need to take this ladder down." Amalia climbed down the ladder first this time and when Kael would follow, he would find himself in a big hall with water pools from the ocean. Large pumps pumping the water into it. The hall was bigger than the castle itself. However, one couldn't see it if he didn't climb down the ladder, because it was underground. Everyone was working in this room exept for Amalia and the guest. The people in this town didn't know laziness. "There we are. The hall is all yours now." Amalia followed Kael as he would go inspect everything.

"...Wow. That's actually pretty impressive. I hope it's not all work around here." Kael commented to himself as he jumped past the last few rungs on the ladder and looked around, taking in the size of the place. Sure, he had run inspection missions before but this was his first visit to this particular town and his first time seeing machinery built without Sunadokei aid. That was discounting Botta of course, but it had fallen into a state of such disrepair there wasn't much reason to marvel over it anymore.

Kael walked forward, moving among those working there with relative ease. He was doing his best to stay out of the way of the staff, though more times than not he got curious and would ask to get a closer look. Coming up with a suitable story for the council seemed to have slipped entirely from his mind as he actually spent time examining the different parts and listening as whoever he pulled from their station explained what was going on.

The time went by fast enough, at least for him, as he made his way around the most prominent structures. He made conversation with the workers, obviously much more at ease once past the normal questions of 'So how do they treat you, what's living here like, blah blah blah'. After a while he seemed to remember that he was on a job and turned to give Amalia an apologetic smile before moving on.
In this fashion he circled the room, coming to the ladder once more.

"Miss Himmelslande! Miss Himmelslande!" A voice sounded above Kael and Amalia. It came from a soldier who fastly climbed down one of the many ladders, right by the two of them. As he finally reached the bottom, he saw Kael and relaxed fast, coughing. He formally walked along Kael, over to Amalia. "What is the problem?" She didn't add that he was emberassing Menia to not rub it in deeper. The soldier went closer to his lietnant and whispered to her ear. "The beast is attacking the town again. Our soldiers have no chance in combat, but we can keep it in place with our long pikes." Amalia widened her eyes and glanced over to kael quickly and then whispered again. "Where is it?" The soldier answered. "On the market place. We lost some villagers." Amalia began to grind her teeth silently and began to think of a plan. She knew the beast was a strong monster that lived near Menia and only the captain was able to drive it away.

"What is going on?"

Kael tilted his head and looked at them curiously. He had focused his hearing and been able to catch snippets of the conversation, but hearing and understanding were two different things since he hadn't fully grasped the language yet. Beast and villagers stood out so he assumed it was an attack by a spirit. An outpost like this wasn't shielded, and as the room rumbled lowly at the passing of the train he guessed that was what had lured it here. It'd be nice to know it was because of some applicants who had talent, but that wasn't quite appropriate for the situation at hand.

"Well, I am not quite sure what is going on but, if I can be of any help, just say so."He settled for offering, running his hand through his hair as he spoke and letting it fall to the hilt of the sword at his side. It wasn't as if combat would be an issue; even at the risk of traveling he would bring a weapon with him.

The ground shook lightly for a second as a bump sounded through the hall and some tiny stones rippled down the ladders. It must have been the beast's uproar. The soldier was already on the way back up the ladder again after he received some whispered order from Amalia. "I-I guess.. I can't hide the fact anymore from you that we are being attacked. And I can not ask a guest of Menia to help us in battle." Amalia bowed formally and sunk her head with closed eyes towards Kael. "However, I can't keep you from following me." That last line killed her inside. But she knew that she would rely on Kael's help with this kind of encounter. Climbing the ladder back up again, Amalia almost slipped, because of the beast beggining to get out of control and hammering it's palms on the ground. With every impact the ground broke around the monster. It was rather huge and muscular. A kind of hairy thing with long fangs and claws. It also has wings. It's fur was blue. At that moment the villagers got evaced into the castle which had an much increased protection now. After Amalia finally maked it to the soldiers with their pikes, her body began to tramble in fear. The monster had one of the soldiers lifted by his feet and were chewing on his body as if he was a snack. Very bloody and creepy scenario. As the hate towards the monster increased in Amalia, it overwhelmed her fear and she began to grind her teeth once more, until she shouted towards the monster. "How dare you take innocent lifes for your hunger!!" The monster froze for a moment and then let the soldier fall. It turned it's head slowly towards Amalia and was silence for a moment. The silent then broke with a horrible roar that would even break the will of the bravests night. The wind created by it, knocked Amalia back to the ground... "Holy mother of god..."

(OOC: So are you setting up a monster for our level? And who will play it? XD;)

((ooc: I will. I'm the NPC for this thread, ne?))

Kael had darted up after Amalia, moving swiftly even though the ground was trembling around him. Sure, he stumbled a few times, but he was at least moving fast enough to keep up. He hardly batted an eye at the scene of the poor soldier's death; things like that were common with his line of work. Doing Sunadokei's dirty work wasn't fun but at least it had these kind of perks, he thought with a dry tone even in his head, though that was something he would have never voiced anyway.

As the beast let out its colossal roar, he threw up his hands to cover his face and the sheer force of the wind sent him skidding back a few feet on the ground.

"Well, I guess that's a pretty obvious clue as to what element this spirit used to be...Wind, hmm..." Kael thought aloud as he stared down the thing, not expecting any of the soldiers to have any clue as to what he was talking about. It had to be high ranked, what with its size and that little demonstration. He set to thinking, searching for a good strategy. Going all out against it himself would end it the fastest, but would probably be the most dangerous for the people in the immediate area, let alone him. So a back-up plan would have to work.

"Hey, uh...miss..." He hadn't even learned her name. Some representative he was. "Can you look for its weak spot while I go and attack it from the front? I can keep its attention." He was directing his words quietly at Amalia even if his eyes were still glued to the corrupted spirit pawing at the ground in front of him and his left hand had tightened around the hilt of the sword at his right. It had swung its head to meet his gaze, noticing he was the only one left standing, if shakily. The two seemed to be waiting for the other to make the first move, but Kael was slowly inching his sword out of its sheath and the monster was slowly preparing to charge. The air itself seemed to be too heavy, too still.

Amalia stood fastly as Kael's words reached her ears. It was really encouraging to fight at Kael's side, so Amalia thought. Removing the whip from her belt, she hit the ground before her feet and getting into fighting stance. Amalia wanted to send an image of stability in her courage towards the spirit. "Amalia Elise von Himmelslande will beside you in combat sir. Err Kael." Amalia might be able to get the monster to flee if it was possible to get it afraid somehow. She was a beast tamer after all, or used to be. "I will flank it then and observe." With that said, Amalia ran half a cirkle around the monster and watched it carefully, as her cloak waved through the wind gracefully.

--------------------
Health: 100
Stamina: 50
Spirit: 30

Heavy Armor (minus 2 Spirit)

Health: 100
Stamina: 50
Spirit: 28

"Thank you."

The sword slid easily the rest of the way out of his sheath and Kael shifted his weight onto the balls of his feet. It was a subtle movement but it seemed to be the starting bell, for hardly had he begun to move when the spirit reared back, shouting its challenge to the sky in yet another roar. As its paws crashed against the ground, leaving cracks in the stone, it threw its weight forward, its jaw hanging loose and ready to close its fangs around Kael.

In a swift reaction he brought his blade up, having to press the palm of his right hand to keep it steady as it met with the front of the beast's mouth. The impact sent him skidding back once more, being pushed inch by inch as the thing forced its way forward. Making a face as if it was the bad breath that was the most annoying, not the bared teeth a few inches from his face, Kael suddenly changed direction. Moving along with the monster's force, he let its head pass to his left, turning on his heel and using the inertia of the turn add to the power he'd have with the sword in his left hand.

But as the blade bounced off the spirit's tough skin with hardly any damage, he cursed under his breath and threw himself backwards to avoid retaliation. That usually meant it was armored everywhere except for the joints, which it would have learned to guard. Most likely its wings would be the best place to strike. But it knew that, and refused to give Kael any openings.

He hardly had time to think before the monster had come for him again. This time he threw himself to the side, darting about before the monster. They moved across the streets, the beast attacking while Kael dodged.