Lost & Found [Closed, Mission]

Likewise, Natalie would remain silent. Travels between cities were for chatting and other means to stave off boredom. While this area was supposed to be secure, it was still better to be both quiet and alert. There could be something wrong that had caused this issue to begin with. Just because they did not run into anything along the way did not make this less true.
Nevertheless, Nat was relieved that they did not have a fight here. The muddy ground was not great for combat, much too slippery in parts and filled with roots and the like. The first time they found something suspicious occurred near the cave itself. That was a but more favourable. It had worse implications, however, as her partner deduced the most likely culprit.

Nat had not heard of hobgoblins yet. But the name did not inspire confidence in the fate of their target of rescue. “Hmm….I don’t know much about them. Sounds bad, though. Do you know any specifics about these things? I am not so sure if that is a good sign for the guy we are looking for,” she replied. Admittedly, that offered little of substance or help in the current situation. But she did not have much to contribute, really. Aside from asking questions, that was. “Do you think it might have attacked him? That would explain why he has not returned on his own, but could also mean that he might no longer be alive.”
Was it odd that her thoughts so quickly moved towards dark places? It probably wasn’t good, but she did prefer to be wrong about things being worse than about things being well, if nothing else.


Kasumi Ito

A hunter. Now that wasn’t good. To Natalie, that immediately translated to this being a predator to be wary of. She gripped her staff tightly, would soon enough hear the noises as well. Alert and apprehensive, she rushed there following her partner closely. Given how she’d been carried down earlier, it was clear that the other was not going at full speed. The healer knew better than to waste time feeling bad about slowing them down, and instead focused on keeping up as well as she could.

Soon after, they arrived. She likewise stole a look at the scene unfolding and, though less experience, quickly gathered what was going on there. The other swiftly formulated a plan, prompting her to nod. It was easy enough. Kasumi swiftly took to provoking the enemy in an effort to garner its attention. Her earlier explanations had made it sound as if that thing had limited intelligence. The barbaric attire supported that as well. This meant that it probably did not understand the plan that was so openly shared, meaning there would be an opening soon.

The issue with caves was that they usually only had one entrance, after all. That thing was already inside, standing between them and the hunter. While it would probably be possible to dash past it, Nat didn’t think Kas would risk that. Instead, she pressed herself against the cave’s mouth on the outside, trying to be as small as possible to not appear in the thing’s peripheral vision. Also a bit dangerous, but it seemed the better option for now.
The assassin would probably pick up on that quickly. Nat decided not to reply verbally to not give away that there were two of them. Instead, she hoped that Kas would draw the Hobgoblin out of the cave towards the other side, allowing her to sneak in past it and make haste towards the hunter. Then, she could take care of him properly.

That would be exactly what she would do, once the foe had left. Trusting her partner to know what she was doing, Nat would dive in as soon as she deemed it safe, put one hand on the guy’s mouth and the other on his wound. One, to heal him. One, to keep him from screaming in pain.


Kasumi Ito

As a healer, trust was one of the most precious commodities that Natalie could deal with. Other members of her ‘parties’, sometimes just a single person, trusted her to keep them safe, to not desert them in their hour of need. By the same token, she had to trust them for their protection. That was of importance in situations like this one. The healer was fairly occupied by keeping the hunter pacified and healing him before he could expire. In that situation, she was incredibly easy prey for any foe seeking to do her harm. If that hobgoblin had won or even just been disengaged, she’d been done for.

Therefore, going in here quickly like this, instead of just waiting outside until the threat was taken care of, that said a lot about their current dynamic. It might have been a bit unwarranted, given that she still barely knew the woman. Yet they had spent enough time together, including the climb downwards, that she felt like it would work out.
Fortunately, it did. Trust only carried so far, after all. The girl with the purple hair could have believed in herself completely, yet still failed. That had not come to pass. The sword that appeared belonged to Natalie’s partner, letting her sigh softly in relief, as she gave the other a quick glance-over.

“Were you injured in the fight?” Naturally, that was the first question asked. It was her job. Having done what she could for the one they had come to save, she could offer some mana to her partner as well. Though the latter was still quite focused on the task at hand. “Traditional wisdom would be to at least wait until he is conscious again, to find out if there are any issues remaining that might not have been visible immediately. I’m fairly confident that he would survive a quicker evacuation, though. What do you think? We would have to keep him from the rain and cold if possible, but could there be more of those things out there?”


Kasumi Ito

Heh. She had caught the unflappable assassin off guard, hadn’t she? Nat could tell from the brief surprise following her question what kind of effect it had had. Naturally, it went verbally unacknowledged. But Natalie had been through similar instances before. She could tell. Or she at least believed she could. Which was pretty much just as important, as far as she was concerned. After all, that was all that would matter in the end, given that they were unlikely to meet in the future. They were not guild mates, after all. That did tend to make regular meetings pretty hard these days, all things considered.

“I guess it is better to have that heal naturally, then. As you can see with this man, my brand of healing is…and acquired taste, so to speak.” Natalie chuckled at that. But it was still true nonetheless. Most people did not enjoy her healing, so she tended to minimize the usage of it. The hunter had passed out from the pain, after all. Best if she didn’t have to carry two people back up there. Not when the other was much better at carrying people to begin with.

Instead, she dusted herself up briefly, while standing upright again. The rain did not look like it would actually let up anytime soon, but fifteen minutes were truly inconsequential to begin with. “It did not look like it made a proper home for many of its kind, yes. The people of the town will want to know about it, I think. According to the village chief, they did not have any monsters coming into the Vale for years, maybe decades. But maybe this heavy rain season has changed things.” She fell silent, briefly, pondering if these things might be connected more than they at first appeared.


Kasumi Ito