They landed the next day in Tristyne and proceeded south towards Azidon,

"You know, all of the other places I've been to had names. What is the name of your hometown? I never stopped to ask while I was there" Solaris questioned Romel.

"Alpis, nothing special really. Why ask now? You've already been and gone unless you have a reason to go back." Romel said in a rather annoyed tone.

"Just curious. I looked on my map and thought about it, didn't know where to go back to. Seemed like a nice enough place, aside from the random guys annoying me".

They continued on in the heat of the afternoon. This was the hottest weather they had encountered thus far.

"Oh." Romel said as he looked at the wounds and scars he'd acquired over the last few weeks. He began to wonder what he was thinking and doing with himself. He became homesick and restless. The heat of the midday sun, aches and pains, and longing for home got to him. He began to lose his composure as they neared the city.

Just before they reached the north gate, Romel asked. "So, what do we do now, we can't really go back to the elven kingdom at the moment, if ever. How about some answers, or look for leads to the woman you're stalking." Romel randomly spouted off in a voice overflowing with anger and annoyance.

Solaris stopped, not amused by Rommel's comments. "Something wrong there, Sir PissAlot?"

Romel was pissed, exhausted, homesick, and kinda hungry. He replied: "Oh, nothing, just that I've joined up with some crazy blonde guy on a wild goose chase that nearly got me killed…twice, and has me on the run from the authorities in a capital city. I'm fucking great! How are you, crazy blonde asshole?"

Solaris raised a golden eyebrow and clenched his fist as they approached the gate of the city. "What did you just call me?" he asked, hoping not to get an answer, but Romel delivered one anyway.

"Blonde. B-L-O-N-D-E! Oh, and an asshole." he was staring directly at Solaris and had his hand ready on his weapon. "Got a problem with that"

Solaris looked at him with rage in his eyes, trying to suppress the urge to rend him in two. "Yeah, I do. Wanna take it back?"

"Pfft, nah. You wanna do something about it?" Romel taunted back

"You are making it quite hard for me to not kill you…" Solaris replied, livid at this point.
They'd reached the edge of Azidon, just as Solaris was about to draw his sword. They'd caught the attention of the guards standing watch.

"YOU THERE! RELEASE YOUR WEAPONS!" shouted one of the guards, ready to draw his blade. The other guard had a bow loaded and ready to fire.

Solaris caught a hold of himself "Honestly, if I drew my weapon, I could probably slaughter you all…" he complied with the guard's request and removed his hand from his sword. "I guess I'll see ya around kid"

"Not before I get those answers I've been waiting for. My curiosity nearly cost me my life, I deserve to know what's going on here!" he drew his sword, as did the guard. The archer took aim at his head.

"And it looks like your rage and curiosity may still cost you your life" Solaris replied, drawing his weapon.

The archer fired an arrow at Romel, he evaded it. His skills were sharpened by the random encounters he'd survived. The guards however were not to be dodged so easily, the knight was mere inches from Romel. He pointed the sword at Romel's throat. "You think we'd be so easily duped? Think again naïve!" the guard said pridefully.

Romel snapped back to his senses at that moment. A tear could be seen as the guard prepared to strike him down. Romel closed his eyes and prepared for his end.

A scream of agony could be heard from the knight, who'd taken a sword to his leg. Solaris removed the sword and kicked the guard to the ground, then turned and faced the archer, who'd fired an arrow at him. He also evaded the shot.

"Why must people insist on doing things the hard way?" he said while staring at the now slightly agitated archer.

Another shot was fired, and  was caught.
"Just let us go, or this will end poorly for us all" Solaris said while using the arrow as a toothpick.

The knight staggered to his feet. "I am a member of the king's royal guard, I refuse to be beaten by the likes of you!"

Solaris looked back at the stunned Romel. "If you raise your sword to me, your fate will be the same as these guards...if not worse. Do you understand?"

Romel stood there still in his own little world, watching as Solaris battled the guards.

The guard looked at Solaris curiously, then fell back in fear. "You're that man…from the house…"

"oh, so we've met before?"

The guard trembled and nodded while holding his leg "You took out all the guards, and the collectors at that one house"

"Yeah, about that, I'm sure the king was supposed to be a nice guy…what happened? Gimme some answers, and you'll live."

"The king of this country is nice enough, the ruler of Azidon city on the other hand is a tyrant. He ceased control of.…"

"That'll do. You're just following orders after all, so follow this one…leave us, and the girl and her family alone, or next time, you won't be bothering anyone else again…..ever."

The knight nodded and the archer took another shot, which grazed Solaris's hair, cutting off a strand.

Solaris sighed "You know, I kinda LIKE my hair!" and in the same instant he was upon the archer, and gave him a strong punch to the stomach. The archer fell to his knees.

"Now, Romel…where were we?" Solaris looked around. Romel was nowhere to be seen.
"Such a strange one he is." said Solaris to himself. Anyways, I think I'll do something about that ruler you spoke of….later. I have some friends to visit. Now leave me in peace."
The guard bowed and they both departed, thankful that they were spared of any worse injuries.

A short while later, there was a knock at Valencia's door. Andrew answered with an astonished look on his face.

"How've you been ….Mr. Fists" Solaris said with a chuckle.

"Well enough, the guards have left us alone over these last few weeks, not sure it'll last much longer though. What brings you this way?"

"My guide ran off, I was wondering if you've seen him"

Valencia appeared behind Andrew "Lost you guide you say, you sure you didn't scare him off or something"

Solaris looked at the floor.

"Well, might as well explain over dinner, we have enough for the 3 of us" offered Andrew.

"Very well, searching for him in the dark wouldn't end well with my luck anyways."

They sat down to dinner, and Solaris told them the tales of his journey since he'd last been there, including the incident at town's edge.

"Oh, it sounds like he's a bit homesick, and something else I can't quite figure out." said Valencia.

Andrew threw in his 2 cents: "Sounds to me like he's crazy, offering to help you, and then just going nuts, picking a fight and running off. I think you'd do better without him."

"Andrew!" Valencia yelled at him "be more considerate of others!" she glared at her older brother, who looked down at his food, his facial expression was nearly identical to that of Solaris's: a sorrowful expression, although Solaris seemed to have more of a hint of 'lost' added to it.

"He wanted to know why, just wanted some answers, and I never gave him any, that and I always teased him. I guess I was a bit of a jerk. He has saved my life at least once, and saved me untold troubles just getting around, I really should at least find him to apologize."

"We'll start our search in the morning" said Valencia. "give us the details and such then. In the meantime, lets enjoy dinner"

They trio continued to eat, up until the point where Andrew decided to speak again.
"Did you hear about what's happening in the southwest, near Alpis? They say the blight is spreading. I heard a week or so ago that it was visable from the edge of town, by now I'd imagine that it would be upon them, creatures and all."

Solaris nearly choked on the cabbage he was stuffing his face with. "FUF!?"

Valencia and Andrew looked at him curiously. "Uhm, lets try that again after you've finished the food in your mouth?" Andrew scolded him.

"You're one to correct about manners!" Valencia jumped in again. "but he is right, you can't exactly be understood with a mouth full of cabbage, or anything for that matter."

Solaris washed down the cabbage while finishing off his water. "THAT'S ROMEL'S HOMETOWN!"

The siblings gasped. Solaris continued "I'm sure he probably ran off home, and if the creatures there are anything like the last time…..."

"Wait! You fought, nay, SURVIVED an encounter with a creature of the blight?" exclaimed Andrew.

~Well, me, Romel, and a beastwoman by the name of Tara slew it, if that answers your question." replied Solaris.

"I'll be leaving for Alpis in the morning after getting supplies and a new map, mine seem to catch on fire or meet some other strange fate" he said as he set his tattered bag on the table. "They will most certainly need help. Romel is strong, but he can't handle one of those things on his own, not yet at least."

He went to bed early that night, yet was hardly able to sleep. He was so distracted with the fate of Alpis that he never noticed the siblings movement about the house. He awake that morning with and was handed new bag, map, sword, and supplies.

"Thought we'd save you the trouble" Andrew said.

"Don't get lost on the way, I don't think I'll be randomly finding you again" Valencia added. They showed him to the south gate of town.

"A horse would be a good idea" suggested Andrew.

"It would appear as though fate is toying with me, this is the 3rd time I have seen you, and the 3rd time I've been powerless to stop you"

"Eh?" the party of 3 exclaimed as they looked down around for the voice.

"Here." said a man off to the side of the gate. He removed his helmet and attempted to stand. "You met me yesterday, at the north gate, when you lost you friend."

Solaris's eyes widened. "You aren't going to try to stop me in your condition are you? Why are you even out here?"

"I'm supervising new recruits. The name is Niel by the way."

The guards at the gate noticed him and drew their weapons. Niel raised his hand "Stand down. There's not a warrior in this entire town that can stop him, he's the one who has me hobbling along as is. Do not try to stop him."
Everyone but Niel stood around looking slightly surprised at the order . "So, what is your business here traveler, and perhaps you name if you're willing to share"

"Solaris, and I have no business here at the moment, I'm going to help the town of Alpis with the blight, I've seen what happens, they'll need help. And my friend may have run off there."

"A rescue mission?, well, you'll need to get there quickly, I heard someone mention a horse?, you can take this one." He pointed to a white horse tied to a shade tree. "His name is Frost, I'd tell you more about him, but I assume you're in a bit of a hurry. You do know how to ride a horse right?"

Solaris scratched the back of his head "I, can't remember"

He mounted the horse awkwardly, and took the reins He looked surprisingly natural at that point, and with one "HEYAH!" He was off

He's reached the Razanden Ruins and saw the lone pedestal. "I'll return here one of these days" he muttered to himself as he rode by. It about a third of the way to Alpis he came across Romel, and still riding at a full gallop, plucked him up off the ground and sat him on the back of the horse. "We can argue later, I heard you village is endangered by the blight."

The 2 rode on, stopped for the night, and reached Alpis just after dawn the next day.
They stood speechless as they gazed upon the ruin that had so quickly befallen the village. Buildings were destroyed left and right, and there were small fires here and there. Groups gathered to fight the flames and injured were being carried to the buildings that had little damage.

"it looks like we just missed a hell of a fight" said Solaris, as he hitched the horse to a post on the edge of town. He got it food and water. Romel looked around again, and bolted off towards his house. Solaris caught up just in time to see Romel's father being carried off, quite hurt from whatever incident happened the previous night.

Romel's eyes ran with tears of anger. "They were attacked. Based on the description, it isn't the same type of creature we last faced. I WILL get revenge for them hurting my father!"

"That's all fine and well, but lets help clean this place up a bit first" replied Solaris. "Oh, and here's a gift from a friend" He handed Romel the sword Andrew and Valencia gave him. "After those fights, you should be a bit dull"

They split up to help put out fires and get the injured to safety. There were 17 deaths as a result of the incident, most due to injuries in the fights and building damage. 1 person was confirmed to have been eaten by the beast.

"What's happening to this world?" asked some of the villagers amongst themselves. Romel replied to them as he passed by "Its being corrupted from the outside-in. The result of the corruption would be things like whatever came here last night."

"You speak like you have all the answers" Solaris looked their way.

"Just something I figured on my own, I'm still lacking concrete answers"

"We'll deal with that, right after we're done here, deal?"

"Whatever." Romel replied, seeming indifferent.

Just then, a loud growl could be heard from the far end of the village, and just over the pieces of leftover pieces of houses, the top of a creature could be seen, much larger than the last one they'd faced. They raced to the other side of the village and there it stood, grabbing at people singly at random.

This one had 2 tentacles, in place of arms, stood upright on 2 legs and…
Romel dodged a shot of purple liquid that was shot from the creature's mouth, it consumed the grass it landed on, in a sizzling smoke. "It shoots acid!" Romel yelled with a slightly petrified look on his face.

"Yeah, so it does. Just don't get hit" Solaris said as he drew his weapon. A similar seen was unfolding in a ring around the creature. The able bodied villagers took up arms, and were ready to fight. Someone shouted "CHARGE! And about 2 dozen men, women and even a few children armed with stones and pots, unloaded on the beast. Solaris and Romel made short work of the tentacles and before long the leges were gone. Romel landed the death blow and pulled out the bloodstained sword. He jumped to the ground and looked at Solaris, with the eyes of a serious warrior.

"You were saying something about answers? Tell me everything you know" He pointed his sword at Solaris.

Solaris looked at the bloodstained Romel calmly and replied simply "you'll get you answers sooner if we can get another horse."