//------------------------------// // Prelude: The Missing Kirin // Story: Dark Alliance: A Kirin's Tale // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// It had been a good day in the Kirin village, as the birds were chirping and the sun was out, something that caused each and every member of the community to head outside of their homes, since it had rained for the last couple of days and this was the first normal day since it started. Many of them started chatting with each other as they went about their days, all while many could see that the clouds were clearing, meaning that they didn't have to worry about another rainstorm happening, not unless the pegasi believed that more hours of rain were required. While they did that Rain Shine, the leader of them all, glanced out of her own residence with a smile on her face, as the rain had been good for them and every plant and tree that surrounded their village, even if they had been forced to do less than they were used to doing. The smile was also due to the fact that she was pleased to see that the rest of her kind were no longer bound by her foolish decision to enforce silence on all of them, in fact it looked like it had been completely forgotten. Such a thing made her grateful to Autumn Blaze, the kirin who had accidentally undid the binding on herself, along with Applejack and Fluttershy, ponies who came to assist them, for rectifying her mistake and uniting them with ponykind once more, even if they stayed here for the most part. "Lady Rain Shine, it's... it's Autumn!" one of the other kirin exclaimed, rushing up to where Rain was standing as she walked out of her residence, though at the same time she was able to tell that some of the others were worried, meaning that the good day they had been experiencing, even for a few moments, was over. "What is it? Is something wrong?" Rain asked, because usually, back when they could talk, this happened when one or more of their kind was in some sort of danger, such as some sort of creature attacking or the kirin in question being hurt by one of the natural disasters of the world, but it didn't stop her from being concerned. "I... we don't know. We checked her residence and found that she's not there!" the kirin replied, while the others stood off to the side as they wondered what to do next, where Rain recalled that Autumn had lived in a cottage that rested on the very outskirts of their village, during her banishment anyway, and realized that the small group must have checked her cottage that was closer to everyone else. It did strike her as strange that they hadn't heard anything from Autumn yet, since she was the most energetic out of them all and she loved to talk, causing Rain to realize that something was definitely wrong and that she might be in danger, as a rainstorm like this could have affected the rest of the surrounding area. "I'll go check her old cottage and see if she went there to collect some of her things." Rain stated, because that was the only thing that made sense, that Autumn hadn't fully packed up her outskirt cottage and had gone back during the storm to get something she deemed to be important to her, to keep it safe from harm, before she turned to the others, "If I'm not back in an hour I want you to remain calm and go about your days as if nothing is wrong... if I'm not back by nightfall, well, I want you to send someone to the ponies and get help. I doubt I'll be gone too long, but, in case something happens, I want all of you to be prepared, just in case." As the rest of the kirin nodded their heads, and started to go about their days despite some of them looking worried, Rain departed immediately, because she wanted to find Autumn, make sure she was okay, and then return to the village so they could go about their day in peace. Rain found that nothing in the village looked out of place or damaged, though that was due to them being built to endure any weather they got, so since Autumn's outskirt cottage had been built the same way, to ensure no harm came to her, it made her wonder why the kirin in question would have gone there in the first place. While that thought crossed her mind Rain left the village and started the trek to the cottage that was her destination, finding that the ground hadn't suffered too much, so it was unlikely that any holes had formed for someone to slip into or trip over, if one was in a hurry anyway. Such a thing confused her and made her wonder if this might be an elaborate joke on Autumn's part, as she knew that the kirin had played a joke on Applejack and Fluttershy upon their arrival, pretending to be silent like the rest before revealing her true colors to them, but this seemed a little much to her. When she finally reached the cottage, however, Rain stopped in her tracks and brought her hoof to her face, as she recalled that Autumn had told her that she was heading to Ponyville for a time, likely to meet up with her pony friends and meet the rest of the group, and was only now remembering the conversation. "Of course we'd forget that she went to visit Ponyville... she's so important to us that we forgot that." Rain commented, as Autumn had many friends before everyone had been silenced and it was made evident when they undid the binding since many kirin rejoiced, welcoming her back into the village, apologizing for their actions, and returned to being friends with her, so this just meant that they missed her more than they realized, "I better head back and inform the others... wouldn't want them to think I've gone missing as well." As she turned around, however, Rain was suddenly overcome with exhaustion, like she had come down with something that instantly sapped her strength or something, where she staggered for a moment before hitting the ground, the world going black around her as she slipped into unconsciousness. It was a dark night in Baldur's Gate, one that was much gloomier than the others that had come before it since the moon couldn't been seen, though that was how Karne liked it, since it meant that he and his men would have better cover while they robbed people of their goods. He was the second-in-command of the thieves guild that operated in the city, a guild known to only a select few as 'Xantam's Guild', and they stole from everyone, either taking whatever gold a person or even a group had, their goods to sell them for much more, or even took their lives to take everything. Of course there were a few targets that couldn't be killed, otherwise it would draw unwanted attention to the Guild, but everyone else in the city was fair game for him and his thieves right now, especially since the guards couldn't do anything to stop them. In fact the last few times they had run into the Watch they had been able to get away with ease, escaping with their treasure before the guards could do anything, meaning that when it happened again they would be able to escape with no problems and without any worries. As he thought about that, however, there was a flash off to his left and he turned his head slightly, because he wore an iron helm over his head and it forced him to turn if he wanted to see something, though it did help keep his face a secret since all his men saw were his eyes and mouth. He also wore a dark brown and deep red jacket and pants, as he almost never got in a fight and didn't need to wear armor, along with some knives attached to a shoulder strap that his sword's scabbard was linked to, but he kept his hand off his weapon for now. Karne glanced around for a moment and found that none of the guards seemed interested in this, or maybe they hadn't noticed yet, causing him to walk over to the alley he had spotted the flash in, where his men followed after him without delay. A flash like that meant someone must have used magic, that much he was sure of, though as he approached the area he was interested in he discovered something that he wasn't expecting to see and was sure that his men were surprised as well. Karne found a woman, probably between twenty to thirty years old by his reckoning, resting on the ground, though in that moment he discovered that her body was more like the mythical faun, as in she had legs that looked like a cross between a human's and a horse's, or maybe a pony's, since both ended in hooves. As he looked over her body he found that her skin was a grayish color, with what appeared to be goldish gray colored scales on the sides of the waist and upper body area, an unusual color for the races of the world, even though the scales were incredibly out of place. Following that he discovered that she had long moderate opal colored hair, another odd and extremely unusual color, before noticing what else she had, there was a thin tail, possessing her body's color, that had hair the same color as her hair on it, only to notice the moderate crimson curved horn on her head. That was when he noticed that she had pointed ears, more like a horse's or pony's given what he had seen so far, and both of them seemed to be pointing at the sky, though to wrap it all up she also had a muzzle, making her look like a human or elf crossed with a pony creature. He had no idea who she was, where she had come from, or what in the world she was, but he could tell she was magical in some nature, as that flash must have been a teleport spell of some kind due to the lack of clothes on her, to which he took a nearby piece of cloth and threw it over her before his men got any funny ideas. "Karne... what do we do with her?" one of his men asked, though as he said that Karne knew what was going through his mind right now, while at the same time the other three were focused on the surrounding area and the main gate, which was their actual target in case travelers showed up. "Quiet. I'm thinking." Karne replied, where he wondered if his master would enjoy having a new soldier to mold into one of his faithful followers, especially one with such untamed magical powers, since the lady had to have some due to the magic that brought her to this city, which might give them more power over the city in due time. "Karne, we've got newcomers... three of them: an elf, a human, and a dwarf." another said, where Karne turned his head for a moment and found the trio in question, finding that the female elf looked like she was a sorceress due to the staff in her hand, the human had a quiver and bow, and the dwarf had a battleaxe, causing him to realize what they were as soon as he noticed the packs on their backs, adventurers. As he started to form the order he wanted to give, however, the lady moaned as she started to come to, getting over the shock of her transportation spell, though as she started to stand up one of his men to step forward and struck her right in the back of the head, knocking her down once more. Such a thing caused the adventurers to notice that something was up and moved to investigate, which was fine with Karne since the other thieves were in the path they were taking and those three emerged from the shadows when they were passed. As the trio started to get ready to deal with them the thieves struck each of them from behind and knocked them to the ground before they could do anything, causing Karne to walk over to where his targets were laying, finding that each one, while having no armor or trinkets, had some decent weapons in their possession. With that in mind he ordered his men to relieve the adventurers of their weapons, and even the quiver that the archer had since he had some good quality arrows that could make them some good gold once they were sold, but to be sure they were actually sold he had them handed to him for the time being. "Easy pickings, eh Karne?" one of the trio asked, the supervisor over the group that he was currently working with, who had come to the Guild to make some gold and had stayed after discovering what they were capable of, while the others in his group continued to look the adventurers, taking their gold to add to the Guild's coffers. "Indeed. Our little ambush has won us some gold and some odd items." Karne replied, though at the same time he took a moment to glance back at the alley that the lady was resting in, either with a concussion or a split skull, where the latter would likely annoy his master when he learned what had happened, but before he could do anything he heard the sound of the Watch coming, "Quick, take the rest of their gold and leave everything else for the Watch... we'll come back for the strange lady when the coast is clear." His men nodded before they scurried off for the shadows, to use secret entrances that only the Guild knew about, and of course none of them would use them if the Watch was waiting, not that it mattered since he found that the two guards had stopped to tend to the fallen adventurers, with a third near the fallen lady. "Damnable thieves... they grow bolder with every passing day." one of the guards commented, where his companion took a moment to nod his head in agreement, neither of them were too pleased with the thieves who had run off, since more and more people were being attacked every day and there was nothing the Watch could do since they were spread thin at the moment. "I'll say, they robbed her blind." the third guard stated, as he had lifted the cover for a moment and found that the group of thieves had stolen everything from the odd lady that was under it, though he counted themselves fortunate that they had arrived when they had, otherwise all four of them would have been slain, "They also, um... took her undergarments as well, as odd as that sounds." In the next moment the three adventurers regained consciousness and found that that were alive, in fact they had heard of thieves killing their prey once everything of value had been stolen, before focusing on the fact that someone else had been hurt by the same individuals who knocked them out. They found the same thing that the guards discovered, she was without clothing or possessions, the thieves must have stolen everything before they walked through the door and had carted it off before they could even see whatever she had been wearing. It came as a shock that the thieves would steal all of her clothing, unless she was some sort of noble and her clothing had all sorts of gems and gold lining, but, since all of the guards had never seen her before, it was unlikely that she was a noble. In the end the adventurers decided to help her out, even though most of their gold had been taken, causing one of the guards to offer up a few pieces to ensure that they got a room at the Elfsong Tavern, where they could rest and get their bearings, and help the unconscious woman when she finally woke up. As the trio moved towards the tavern, the human carrying the lady, who had been wrapped in the cover that had been put over her, they thought of how they were going to get back at the thieves for attacking them, the lady, and everyone else in the city, unaware of the great adventure they were going to be embarking on in the very near future.