For the Birds

For the Birds

Postby Tyralor » Fri Jul 11, 2003 3:34 pm

"What is it Key?" He questioned, as he finished the touches up on the notice that he would put at various places about town. It was a simple affair truly, and he blew on the ink momentarily to dry it off.

"They just brought a pair of people in. Private Raifley says there was one dead, another wounded, and two uninjured who were involved. Two of them got brought in. He's got the other details, and he wants someone to look into their stories."

A faint nod from the Lieutenant, and he folded the sheet in half, before passing it over to her. "Would you see that this gets posted in public, and word of mouth passed on. The guards have already been notified."

"Of course."

The two individuals had naturally, been searched and ultimately seperated, so that they couldn't simply directly counteract each other's stories. All things considered though, he went to see the woman in question first. A bit of a frown formed on his features, even before he had arrived at the door. Why was it always women and children, that were causing trouble. Quincy, Phlynn. They rarely seemed to arrest any men. It was, simply put, odd. You'd think that the women would not outnumber the men that drastically. A shame neither one was a politician.

The first question, was of course, rudimentary. A simple inquiry to her name, and a swift response on her part. "Kiersten Thorn DarkWraith Praetorian" Or in simple terms, a mouthful. Fortunately he didn't need to repeat that constantly. He moved to take a seat after a moment's consideration, and shifted until he was comfortable, before making his next question known.

"Very well Ms. Praetorian, tell me what you saw when you first arrived, until we appeared." Simple and straight forward, and it'd give him a basis for all his other questions.

"I came upon the two men and Jason, who I've known as an aquaintance. He asked them to let the bird go and walk away. The one man, who was now dead, drew a dagger and came at Jason, while the other was making a getaway with the bird."

"He attacked Jason, who was just trying to disarm him without any weapons of his own drawn. I saw the other, who I figured would be a threat to Jasons life should I not step in, so I tried to disable him as best I could without hurting him too badly. I was on my way back from the healers place after having brought in the wounded creature from the dagger when this happened. The reason I thought he was a threat was because he stopped once he saw jason scuffle, then turned to run after the guy was dead."

The response, was rather verbose, and well worded. It could've been rehearsed, though she didn't have that much time to think on the subject. She received a slight nod, and another inquiry immediately.

"Did this bird belong to anyone?"

"From the recognizing the animal's markings, and Jason's concern over the creature considering he never has any concern over anything, it's Jason's bird."

"Was it ever announced to the hunter, that the bird belonged to someone? That it was not a wild falcon?" The Lieutenant maintained a casual expression, wanting to make certain that he had all the facts straight, with the pieces that he had. Obviously an important pair, the falcon and the soldier, were being omitted at present, but there wasn't much he could do about that. Decisions had been made, and taken out of his hands. Hopefully there'd be enough between these two alone to suffice his curiousity.

"That truthfully I do not know, because I was not there until the tail end of the argument. I acted on the action of having a friend who could have possibly been killed by two people that were going to take the creature, else the hunter would not have flat out attacked him without reason... That and Jason was standing there unarmed when one drew his knife and attacked him. Regardless of the bird, Jason made no motion to attack the man first"

"The only things I heard was one say to another that they had broken the animals wing, and then Jason asked them rather politely to step away from the creature....and thats when the man drew the knife and attacked Jason, without so much as another word from Jason."

"So you can't honestly inform me, Ms. Praetorian, that Jason was not attempting to steal the bird from people who had lawfully caught the fowl?" He asked next. Her ramble hadn't exactly cleared much on the issue up. His question was more direct of course, and simply to see what her reaction would be, more than anything else. Had she even considered that?


"Given the way the one man attacked Jason who had made no move to attack them, nor draw weapons, the judgement on how they were treating the bird in their lack of treating it like a hunter does, or a amateur hunter for that matter, no sir, I can honestly say that he was not, and that they had not lawfully caught the thing. Else they would not have been so quick to scramble, or to hurt the bird for that matter."

That answer didn't actually please Kilborn overly much in the end. A careful nod for a moment, and a statement to the effect that he'd return in a moment, and speak with her upon the matters further. For now, he wanted to catch the other man before he had too much of a chance to get things in line.

Down the hall, he travelled, before stepping into the room that the other suspect was currently being held in. And immediately to the protestations that were being pronounced within.

""Ye let go o' me, 'ounds! Fools! Idjuts!"

The man seemed to have a slight problem, with the region between his legs. Which made sense, considering that's where he'd been kicked. Not insensative to another man's manly pain, something cold was sent for, so that the pain could be numbed somewhat. Again, the first question posed as Kilborn made himself comfortable, was for the man's name.

The ice taken, he offered no thanks, but sat, reluctantly, within a seat, hands upon his injured regions, making various comments about how unpleased his wife would be. "...d'name's Chase Price. Don' ask me mah middle. Ah don' know it." ..and he spat on the floor"

A nod was favoured towards Mr. Price, and someone recorded the name down, as had been done with Ms. Praetorian. "It's not important, Mr. Price. Relate to us, what happened, in your view, starting from when you first found the bird in your trap." Similar questions to begin with, at least for each one.

He sat straight, then, eyes rolling back as if recalling from picture memory. "Ah yes. Ah's remember, ah does, sirs, ah does. Tat thar devil of a bird was'n goin' t'be trapped, ye hear? ..but ye see ah was none fer catchin' the *****. Ah's just wants a'te money, aye?
That yonder dead fellar. 'e's te'un what want tat bird. Ah ..but ye sees, we was interpted bah some fellar wawntin' us to stawp, ye hear? ..an' yonder dead fellar 'eld up 'is knaaff an' went t'chargin' at'im an' awll. Ah hads t'go fer te bird, but gave up when yonder dead fellar got knocked aout'n fell on der graound. ..den ah trahs t'run away, but yonder ***** hits me'n mah prahvats! Gawds! Mah nuts're 'urtin' so bads, ah don' reckon ah cans piss. ..but ten ah trahs to run still an' yonder dead fellar went after te bird agin an' tat's when ah heards 'im neck snap. Naow, ah don' know which'n did it, ye hear. Ah was too busy holdin' mah 'ose t'see. ..an' 'en tey start t'takin' te bird an' tat's when ye showed ups. ..naow, ye see? Ah hain't does nothin'! Ah wawnts t'go 'ome!"

"To the best of our knowledge here, there's no penalty for trapping within the region, Mr. Price. Was there any indication that you received, that the bird you had captured was not a wild creature?" At the very least, the Lieutenant hadn't heard of any rules prohibiting catching creatures in the wild. He'd have to speak to someone to find out if it'd actually been on the land the Dagger itself held, or not. To his recollection, the tavern owned a fairly large piece of land.

"Naw sirs. Ah was jist harred fer catchin' 'im. Ah does know yonder dead fellar wawnted it perdy bad fer some reason'er 'nother, but tat's awll ah know. Can ah go, naow?"

The man was more than mildly anxious to leave. It was debatable, perhaps, as to why Mr. Price was so anxious to go. It could've either been the pain, or the truth to his words. He wasn't lying, or so it seemed at least. "Your Employer is dead, Mr. Price. I'm afraid that you aren't allowed to leave quite so swiftly as that. Not until we sort out everyone's involvement was. This man that tried to stop you. What did he say to you?"

"Well bedamned ye's! Ah hain't does nothin' ah, says! Don'ts ye get'it?" It took some time before he calmed down to answer the latter. "Naw, sirs. 'e was shert fer words, from whats ah remembar. 'e says, 'stop'n yonder dead fellar pulls aout 'is knaff'n says 'ye go on. ye d'nae see nothin''er somethin's lahk hayat. ..then yonder idjut says, 'ah dids'n made fer wawntin' us t'stawp agin. Tat's when yonder dead fellar attacked'im. Ah reckon tat's awll, sirs. Say, where's tat perdy" A sudden coughing fit by the one recording the commentary, prevented Kilborn from hearing exactly what Mr. Price called Thorn. "She 'raound 'ere? Say, she's goin' t'pay fer ruinin' mah jibblies!"

-con't-
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Postby Tyralor » Fri Jul 11, 2003 3:35 pm

If nothing else, one thing was fairly apparent, that the other woman was unaware of. Her timing seemed to have been at the beginning of the conflict between the two parties, even if she was otherwise unaware of it. If the soldier was here, that could be confirmed, or if the deadman could tell tales. However it seemed likely at least. There was no reason to doubt either of their stories.

"And your actions Mr. Price, were simply to gather the bird, once your companion drew the knife, and make off?"

"Tat's raht, sirs. Ye see. 'e wawnted tat bird mahty bad, ye sees? I d'know what fer, but ah thaoughts if ah git yonder bird fer 'im whahl 'e does whatever to yonder idjut, ah'd be a'helpin' 'im home-free wid te bird an' ah'd be gittin' mah moneys."

This drew another nod from Kilborn, as he mulled over the information in his head. He had one or two mroe questions he would need answered from Mr. Price yet though.

"It's been said that the wing of the bird was broken purposefully. I have my suspicions as to why you might have done that, but I would like to hear your reasons."

"Ye askin' meh too many bedamned kestions, sirs! Ah wawnts t'go 'ome! What? What's tat? Ah, naw sirs. We hain't breaks it'on perpose. ..but ah do says tat cage was mahty smawll, ye hear? Mahty smawll fer tat bird."

Which would be difficult to determine without the cage, but in Kilborn's mind made sense. Additionally, he was fairly certain that if a hunter didn't wish a bird to fly off after it'd been captured, breaking one of its wings was a good method to ensure it wouldn't need to be captured again. He didn't exactly approve of it, but it could've been worse. They could've just twisted the bird's neck, and set it on a spit immediately.

"Thank you Mr. Price, you've been quite helpful. Wait here, while I speak with Ms. Praetorian again." Kilborn stated, while rising to his feet and moving by the guard and out the door. A short walk back to the other room, with a moment's time to send someone to investigate the land around the Dagger, and where precisely they were caught.

Slipping back within the other room with Thorn once again, he favoured her with a brief smile, and sat down once more.

"You specified earlier that you believed the other was a direct threat to Jason. Yet you also said, that his actions consisted of gathering the bird up, and attempting to make off immediately. Exactly, how was this threatening?"

"He had stopped, looking at both the man that jumped at Jason, and Jason himself. His back was to me, so I did not know whether he had drawn a weapon or no-but Jason was outnumbered, and it was the man's hesitation that made me react. He was pressing the bird into the cage with his eye on Jason and the man. In that hesitation and from the back, I thought he was going to attack Jason, so I did what I could to keep him from doing so."

Her response had been swift enough, though it couldn't exactly be said to be pleasant. She'd attacked someone from behind.

"I truthfully didn't mean to hurt him, just keep him from attacking Jason, so I went for something that I thought would incapacitate him, and hopefully keep him from hurting Jason. He had gotten up, and to my knowledge was trying to run after I hit him, but given the fact that the guards were almost there and my main focus was making sure Jason was alright, I can only assume he was running to get away from the guard. As far as I could tell, he was trying to run after the other man was already dead. Which was after I had indeed hit him, in order to keep him from hurting Jason." Thorn added, perhaps hoping that'd help explain her motives.

Kilborn considered her words for a few moments, before nodding in faint acceptance of them. "You made no attempt to seek out the guard on your own. What of the kick that the Private says he saw you try to plant on the face of the one you were supposedly incapacitating?"

"He was down, but was indeed soon to be getting up by the spattering of curses he threw at me. And undoubtably, I don't know about you sir, but if someone tried to incapacitate me,
I'd go after them, rather then try and run away. A very much pulled kick to the face, as taught correctly, will also incapacitate without any major pain, so long as you don't kick them hard. Which I was not. Hence why I would assume the man is fine, and not dead. Because truthfully, I wasn't trying to hurt him, as much as keep him from getting back up to hurt Jason, or after the incapacitating shot, myself for that matter."

"The man moved, and evaded it anyways, so thankfully the guard was there in time to apprehend, rather than the scuffle continue further."

In one aspect, that had been the reason that Alexi Rose had been dragged in, during her fight with Carnath-Emory. She'd hit someone that was already down, and not putting up a fight. They'd searched Mr. Price, even as they'd searched Ms. Praetorian, upon her arrival here. Mr. Price hadn't had a weapon at that point. Thorn hadn't brought up a weapon, other than the knife which'd been used initially. That had been recovered and accounted for. No extra weapons had been found.

So one had to assume, that when Thorn was kicking the man in the face, she'd known additionally, that he was unarmed.

"I see."

Lieutenant Joshua Kilborn nodded to the scribe, and both of them rose and drifted out for a few moments. Apparently sufficient information had been reached at this point in time, for Kilborn to reach a decision on precisely, what'd taken place and how to react to it. One detail was missing, so he sought the one he'd sent out for information earlier.

And then, once everything had been taken into account, or at least as much as was available, both Mr. Price and Ms. Praetorian were summoned to another room, where he'd inform them of his decision.

Thorn was silent, aside from looking to the man once. "Are you alright? Wasn't trying to hit you hard...I'm really sorry.." Were the only words she spoke, concern lacing her features a moment.
And in return, he would have made a try at attacking the woman had his injuries felt better, but instead lunged, fell and whimpered. "Bollocks to yes, gal. Ah don' know if et'll work anymore!"

Thorn, compassionately, offered the man a helping hand to his feet again. Price, understandably, refused the option. The guards lingered without interfering. No one particularly liked being hit there, so some irritation was perfectly understandable. Of course, they would've prevented any actual harm to befall either prisoner.

Kilborn shuffled a few pieces of paper, which Mr. Price attempted to glance to their contents. Not that Mr. Price had any ability to read, so the notes about what they'd each said, weren't going to be of any benefit to him.

"Mr. Price, you are going to be fined fifty shillings, payable over the next year, as a result of trapping upon the tavern's lands, without known permission. Ms. Praetorian, you have been found guilty of unprovoked, aggravated assault against Mr. Price. The charges of attempted murder, and attempted theft have been wiaved at this present moment. In all future occassions you find yourself in such a situation, I suggest you act more rationally. Either determine precisely what is taking place or more intelligently, summon the guards to determine who is at fault. You will be spending five nights in the gaol, less one night for each 25 shillings you pay to Mr. Price for injuries sustained, to a minimum of one night."

His tone was impassive. There was no need to get excited, afterall, about sentencing anyone to the gaol, and obviously there were some options for Thorn to reach upon her own. Which meant, all told, Mr. Price's jubiliation at the verdict, was a bit premature, though understandable.

"Aha! Raht then, ah'll take yer moneys an' pass it'on! ..seems cetchin' that thar witch of a berd wren't so bad after awll!"

"Am I allowed visitors here or no?" She glanced to the bandit a moment, eyes vacant before looking back towards the lieutenant.

"This is the gaol, Ms. Praetorian. Not a tavern. There is a scheduled visiting hour. Prior to which visitors are not permitted. After which visitors are escorted out." Not that anyone paid attention to that generally, but in theory, it was there.

"Aye, I would assume as much; forgive me, I have yet to ever been in jail. I believe that you've been fair under your juristiction; so I have one question for Mr. Price. How much was that bird going to get you..?"

She shifted, turning to face the man for a moment, allowing her decision on the matter to be made perfectly clear.

"Because whatever it is, you'll have to earn it on your own, along with the fifty shillings. I'll take the five nights"

~Fins
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Remember crew, one low blow lands ya five nights in Gaol

Postby Thorn » Fri Jul 11, 2003 3:50 pm

It was indeed mid evening into the first night of her incarceration, and Thorn was nothing short of quiet in the cell she had been placed in. Longsince having thrown aside both surcoat, boots and leather tunic, she remained barefoot, her sleeveless shift allowing the spiderwebbed scartissue on her arms to be easily seen.


Maybe it was only chance that had landed her to be returning from taking whatever wolflike creature to Aeri in order to be healed that led her through the woods that afternoon. Either that, or recognizing Jason about to be getting into one heck of a scuffle. Whatever it was, Thorn knew that it was better for her to be sitting here, rotting for five days then try and watch Jason Heldebrand fume and drink more then his fair share after the possibilites of murder being placed on his head.


Besides, he was a friend of Ari's. A person she had fought alongside for more then one occasion. A friend, and a cursably good one at that. That made Jason part of her responsibility, no matter what the charges.


Thorn sighed, remaining ever vigilant upon that cot. The cold gruel and slightly nasty water had been a welcome compared to the hunger that panged her body, and even through it, she could still be picking the bits of grit from her teeth.


Elven ears perked, and she could hear the random scuttle of rats within other cells, moving absently away from hers.


"All the better for me." She muttered to herself, running a hand through her hair. Earlier she had written a letter to the Dagger's blacksmith, in hoping it to be delivered on tomorrow's dawn. This way her horse would be well fed, and the letter contained strict notings to have Nightmist let her friends know that she was fine and well, and that none should worry.


Another sigh, and she flipped over, closing her eyes in a vague attempt to sleep.
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The mornings to come

Postby Thorn » Tue Jul 15, 2003 2:27 am

Days went by without many visitors. In fact, aside from Jason Heldenbrand, Thorn wondered if her message had even been carried out. Tanned skin was now pale from lack of light, and dark circles slightly clung to her eyes in the lack of sleep due to the random voices that were always echoing about this cursed place.

The changing of the guard meant that it was morning on the outside, and Thorn counted the random marks she had made on the wall with a bit of stone.

Four days.

It really seemed to have gone by a lot quicker then she had thought, but never the less, tomorrow evening the bittersweet would come to an end, and they'd be forced to thankfully let her go.

Thorn sighed again, soon moving to sit upon that familiar cot. Jacket pulled like a blanket, she muttered under her breath to herself, putting away the finished gruel she had just been given.

"The first thing I do, when I get out of here, is to have a decent meal."

Running a hand through disheveled and greasy hair, she added.

"And get a bath. And some clean clothing."

With a growl, she started the day of staring at the ceiling; was the only thing at this point, that was keeping her sane.
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