by Jak Snide » Mon May 17, 2004 8:52 pm
The night passed without a hitch, the mercenaries guarding the caravan in pairs, spanning three shifts through the twilight hours. Ratch and Valia took the first shift, and noticed a fair number of shady characters scoping out the caravan. No attempts of thievery were made, though; the pair of them was enough to scare off anyone interested, it seemed. The next shift was taken by Larak and Saen, who only observed a single pair of suspicious characters. When it finally came to Carlton and Ree's shift all the scum in town had realized that there were easier targets to pick on, resulting in an uneventful third shift.
Early in the morning they were on the road once again, leaving the town of Chaucer behind them, along with whatever shady dealings it may have held. Heading West along the Doma-Kohlignen road was, for the most part, uneventful. They did pass by a fellow merchant caravan, though. Or, rather, a trio of them, sporting a score of guards. Judging by their matching green and black garments the group drew the conclusion that they must be a mercenary company, or the retainers of a particularly wealthy merchant. A few of them greeted them as they passed, and warned them that there'd been more reports of banditry along the road in the past week.
Hours later, as night approached, the caravan rumbled on. Pedro had asked one of the stronger mercs to guide the two horses that pulled the wagon while he slept inside. The others, either walking beside on riding on it figured the tales mention of highwaymen had led to the decision that they wouldn't be stopping for the night. At least, that was what the Inustani merchant had planned. None of them could have foreseen that nasty pothole, concealed by the growing darkness, which caught one of the wheels, snapping the axle and leaving the wagon immobilized in the middle of the road. The jolt caused the chocobos to panic, and they almost slipped their reigns and ran away. Pedro was shaken by the jolt as well, burst out of the back door of the wagon, screaming something in Inustani. Ratch, who fancied himself as somewhat of a linguistic, understood the temporarily deranged merchant, who was shouting curses and prayers to ward off demons.