Gods and Men

Jocasta turned to Myrddin.

"All right, kid, I'm going to propose a plan. You tell me what's wrong with it. We set up outside the tavern tonight and wait for one of them to head to the outhouse. We take him out of the picture, and I'll head in from the road as a travelling mercenary looking for a drink. That'll keep them from noticing their friend's gone for a little longer. I'll scope out the layout and then head out to check on my horse or some other excuse. By then, they'll notice that their friend's gone, so we'll have to take out the searcher too. We'll regroup and take the plan from there."

"It's solid." Myrddin commented. "The only thing we can't be sure of is that they won't notice while you're on the inside. Hypothetically, if they do notice, you should be safe, at least for a time, as they probably wouldn't want to alert a potentially innocent party to their activities. That said, if they do send someone out, we'll need to take care of him, so you might want to get out shortly after, as two missing men will draw attention to you if you stick around."

"Who's we?" the man asked, getting out of the bed and stretching, "I'd like to know our numbers so I can decide if I should be panicked, slightly scared, or strangely calm."
He gave the group a nervous grin, before dropping down and doing a few sets of pushups.
"I feel very good considering I spent the last 4 days in bed..."

"We consists of exactly five people: you, a recently recovered dead man; me, a highly knowledgeable catalogue of information with precisely no combat experience outside of being sliced up last night; Ashera here, a young healer with equal combat experience as myself; Jocasta the terrifying, a woman with, I'm going to go with, absurd amounts of practical experience and a presence that causes grown men to cry, and the enigmatic Axel, upon whom we can count for very little, as he has said equally little concerning anything. Oh, and Axel has a wolf that seems to accompany him." Myrddin said smartly.

Jocasta snorted.

"That sums it up pretty well. Overall, I think I'm happiest to have the wolf. Though the kid here looks like he might have the makings of a good tactician. I could just steal you for my mercenaries when all of this is over."

Myrddin shook his head, "While I'm grateful for the compliment, and appreciative of just how rare it probably is, I'm afraid I cannot leave my town. Once this is over, I'm heading back there to keep doing what I was. The only reason I'm here right now is because it's rather hard to turn down a god when they 'ask' for your assistance, especially when they are responsible for everything you have."

"so panicked it is then!" the man, John, said with a sigh, and a small grin, "I can handle that."

"Wait," his brother, Kevin, said somewhat indignantly, "What about me? I don't count?"
He looked around at the others, looking slightly upset, then a puzzled look came over his face.
"Is that normal?" he asked, pointing to Ashera who appeared to have fallen asleep in the doorway, "should I be concerned?"

"I did not include you in our count, as you had not indicated a willingness to be involved." Myrddin said, "If you so wish, my list can be amended to include a thoughtless swordsman who nearly murdered me last night. As for her state, I cannot say for certain, however, considering the amount of energy she surely just expended saving your brother's life, I would venture to say it is not unexpected."

"oh..." kevin said, looking sheepish, "I'll help...should we move her?"

"Well, since she appears to have fallen asleep, has no physical trauma, and your brother has vacated his bed, I think perhaps shifting her to the bed might be beneficial. At the very least she'll be more comfortable upon her awakening." Myrddin said. He was silent for a few seconds before adding, without looking at Kevin, "And, I suppose since your reasons weren't entirely invalid, and there was a healer on hand, I won't hold your thoughtless actions against you, so long as in the future you intend to properly observe a target before striking."

"Me on the other hand..." Jocasta said, shifting her sword belt, "Let's just say that I'll be watching you awful close."

"And there's that." Myrddin acknowledged "But yeah: no hard feelings."

Kevin smiled, looking embarrassed, and said,
"Sorry..."

Jocasta crossed her arms.

"Now we're done with all the touchy-feelies, I say we get some rest. It's going to be a long night tonight."

Myrddin nodded his assent, taking a deep breath when he didn't think Jocasta was looking, shuddering as he let it out.

Kevin set about placing some pillows and blankets on the floor for everyone. Once that was done he picked up Ashera and placed her on the unoccupied bed, carefully covering her with a blanket. Once that was all finished, he picked a spot on the floor and went to sleep. His brother followed suit.

"Yay, more sleeping on the floor" Myrddin grumbled softly to himself.

One of the men, hearing Myrddin, says with a smile,
"You could kick the healer out of the bed, but I don't think upsetting a healer is a good idea the day before a fight..."

"I'm not big on removing an unconscious girl from a bed that she truly seems to need." Myrddin replied, "I'm just accustomed to a somewhat comfier lifestyle."

Jocasta sighed.

"Quit whining, kid. At least you're inside and no one's trying to kill you, which is a step up from last night."

"Yeah, yeah." Myrddin muttered.

The night went by peacefully, with no disturbances.
At dawn, Ashera woke up and began putting together some tea for everyone. One of the men got up and began making a quick breakfast.

At the sounds of food being prepared, Myrddin blearily rose. "Morning" he groaned, his eyes still squinted almost completely shut.

Ashera covered a smile with her hand and suppressed the urge to laugh as she looked over at Myrddin, then brought him a cup of tea. Her cloak lay abandoned on the bed, and her dress being a pale blue/ white colour, she glowed softly in the dim light. Most of the glow came from her exposed skin, but a little came through her clothing. She looked much better than she had the night before, and it seemed as though the nights rest had done a lot of good.

The brother not making breakfast was going over their weapons and other provisions for their plan. When breakfast was ready, the man went to wake everyone else up.

Axel had slept rather little that nigh, as was usual when he was inside. He had propped himself in a corner of the room with Asher at his feet, and the wolf seemed far more rested than he. He accepted the food with a quiet "thank you" and resumed his position once more towards the edge of the room. Asher fed off of some remains of the deer from the night before, happily chewing away at the raw meat.