09a - The Mazy Men - Maggie, Martin, (Cecil)
[[Bravo!]]
Maggie hears the other men move a little way forward behind her, concentrating intently on the ground. Though the uncertain texture of plain leaves is hard to read, the spots where careless ambling has crushed spindles of herb and fungus are evident. She keeps to her circling, however, aiming to see if the strangers had split up, and in passing a boulder another ten paces on she spies the unmistakable print of a shod horse and a shod man near it and catches a near-ground scent that draws her eye to a mound that might have been a campfire as recently as that morning.
She can see where the horse was led away by someone with enough woodskill to make their passage no more obtrusive than a stag's track, and stands briefly near the depression that might have been one man's bed, noting that she can see the others milling uncertainly through the gap between boulder and slope. It might be that that one man watched her likewise, earlier that afternoon, breathing quietly and saying nothing as her attention was taken up by the strangers, his thoughts opaque. A thumb-smear of oily grit marked a rock nearby, suggesting he had not employed an ability to shoot her, at least. It's hard not to wonder about his hands, cleaning the weapon, adjusting his clothes, tacking up the horse - a well-fed beast, by the few golden grains of dried oats Maggie can pick out as she returns to her low-bent circling.
The mazy men had continued to wander in step, it seemed. The others move after Mistress Yendale as she vanishes amongst low beech branches, setting up a concerned rustle behind her. Polzeath even calls out, as though with some knowledge of danger: "Be wary, Mistress Yendale, please!"
The noise distracts her enough that her brain takes an extra half-second to parse an object that presents itself before her as a shoe. Still moving as she straightens, abruptly, she collides with the Young Man: her shoulder catches him in the gut. The stranger doubles, wavers, and falls like a thrown corpse.
#CRASH#
He llies on the ground for two breaths, then starts to rise. His movements are languid yet precise, as though some strong, unseen hand guided the motions of a man half awake. The Old Man and the Tall Man stand a little further away than they had before, but make no reaction whatsoever.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:27, Sat 17 Dec 2022.