Nich seemed to be enjoying himself, loving how the breeze flowed through his hair as the horse made its way across the plains. It had been a while since he'd ridden a horse, and he'd forgotten how much he liked it. "You doing alright?" He asked Rowan after a bit, looking over his shoulder. "You can just nod or shake your head so you can keep holding on."
Rowan nodded her head against his back before she reached up for just a moment to check on her hat. It was still there, and she muttered a quick spell under her breath to keep it there. Her arm returned to being around Nich as she enjoyed the horse ride, it was pretty fun if she was being honested.
Nich nodded and smiled brighter, laughing as the horse went a bit faster. The wind whistled through his ears, and he shivered a bit. They were going for a while until he could see a glimpse of the town they were going to far off in the distance. "Ah! Look, we're getting close!" He announced, pointing towards the vague buildings.
Rowan nodded again against his back letting Nich know that she knew the Aurelius was getting close. She had a huge smile as she tugged on Nich's back fabric to point him in the direction the request was located at to get there. There wasn't much she could do from where she was but tug and point.
Nich looked over his shoulder whenever Rowan requested his attention, and he nodded and headed in the direction that she was pointing. They managed to make it to the town just before nightfall. "Alright! This request will probably take more than an hour, so we should get some sleep and then deal with it tomorrow morning, yeah?"
Yeah, Rowan wrote when she felt comfortable enough to write a message to Nich. She had taken another one of her potions while they were on the horseback, so she was still on schedule and not going to just start splurting out blood from her mouth. It was strange having someone else know about it, but it wasn't weird, Know any people in Aurelius.
"Mmm… I know a couple. I don't come here a ton, to be honest, but I know a fair few people who visit here often that don't live here, if that makes sense." Nich found his way to a stable within the town so that they could leave their horse there. "Now, there should be an inn around here somewhere…" He hummed thoughtfully as he looked around.
Rowan glanced around the bustling city feeling the nervous energy that filled the air as night approached. It probably was because of the increase of attacks in the area, but it could also because of the 2 newcomers to town. Rowan looked around before spotting an inn and she tugged on Nich's sleeve pointing it out.
Nich looked over when Rowan tugged on his sleeve and nodded, leading the way to the inn. He paid for a room and gestured for Rowan to follow him. "Everyone seems really tense… hopefully dealing with whatever their border issues are will help them settle down." He sighed softly and flopped down on a bed.
Rowan followed after Nich and nodded along with his words. She had spotted the tenseness earlier and began to write her response, Most likely. We're also newcomers, most people aren't exactly relaxed around new people. So maybe they'll be less tense tomorrow? Or when we get the job done.
"Yeah, I guess so. Hopefully you're right." Nich busied himself with removing his prosthetics, which took him a couple minutes, and then he lay back down. "I'm really just hoping that's it's not too big for the both of us."
Rowan put her bag and hat by the end of the bed. She glanced at the clock and could feel her throat start to act up again. She would wait another hour or two to take the potion, We can handle it. At least I hope so.
"Yeah, you're right. I'm sure we'll be fine. I'll see you in the morning." Nich yawned and huddled up in bed, closing his eyes. "Goodnight." After a few minutes, he managed to fall asleep pretty comfortably.
Rowan let Nich fall asleep before she took her throat potion and turned to go to sleep herself. Though she laid awake for at least an hour before she finally managed to fall into her normal fitful sleep.
Nich woke up early again and fitted his prosthetics back on. He hoped that the job would go by smoothly and they could go home and pick up another. Remembering the previous morning, he looked over his shoulder to make sure Rowan was alright.
Rowan was tossing and turning in her sleep, but she managed to wake up without any incident. Though she didn't get much sleep throughout the night since she kept waking up. She downed another one of her potions and gave a little wave to Nich, Good morning.
Nich watched her with a concerned expression, but attempted to look more relaxed when she stirred. He returned the wave with a small smile and stood up to gather his things. "Good morning. We should probably get moving soon."
Rowan could tell he was concerned about her, and she figured it was because of what happened yesterday morning. She forced a small smile as she nodded and went to put on her hat. She slung her bag over her shoulder as she checked over her potion supplies. Grabbing a maroon potion that had a dull glow to it she offered it to Nich, This will improve any physical abilities if you want it that is.
Nich examined the potion curiously when it was offered to him, but accepted it either way. "Ah, thank you." He considered for a few more seconds with the potion in hand before he decided to swallow it. He shivered a bit upon drinking it, composed himself, and motioned for Rowan to follow him out the door.
Rowan beamed as Nich swallowed her potion, in a way it was a sign of trust. He trusted her not to poison her at the very least. She began to follow Nich out the door before she took the lead to where they would get the rest of the information for the job. It was also very close to where the attacks were happening.
Nich closed the door behind the two of them and switched positions to follow Rowan since she seemed to know where she was going. He looked around the town curiously as he walked, humming quietly to himself to fill the time. "Hopefully they have some idea of what we're dealing with."
Hopefully, Rowan wrote to him in a small script as she lead them to the position. She walked up the entrance of the guard tower and showed them the job flyer. The two nodded and lead the pair inside the tower to their boss, a larger burly man with some obvious dwarven descent, "So, you two agreed to take on the bandits yeah?"
Nich followed Rowan quietly, his ears twitching occasionally as he walked. So they do know it's bandits for sure. I guess that's good. "Yes, sir. What exactly have the bandits been doing?" He asked. "And how would you prefer us to deal with the issue?"
"Well they've been run amuck that's what they've been doing," The lieutenant spat out. He had a heavy frown on his face as he went into a rant while Rowan shrank back ever so slightly, "Stealing from anyone trying to enter the city, stealing from anyone leaving the city, stealing from the city! Destroying government property and worse is that they've got some magic users on their side to get away almost scotch free! I want you two to bring them in if possible, but if any of them you know, die, during the process I have no quarrels."
Nich took a step in front of Rowan so she'd feel more secure, nodding along as the man spoke. He scratched behind his ears, humming thoughtfully to try and think of a solution. "Right. We'll do our best to ensure justice is served without killing them. Rowan, do you have any ideas?" He asked, turning to Rowan so he could see her reply. They would need some way to incapacitate several people at once without killing them.