An Unfriendly Welcome.

As Ashe and yourself get closer and closer to the origin of the arrow, you start to see a group of scouts, their shadows hiding very well in the outskirts of this line of trees. You hop off your tiger, Ashe following suite as you walk on foot towards the shadows.

"Welcome Darien, leader of the Sunriders!" one of the scouts says, walking your direction. His silhouette still completely dark so you have no clue who he is, but he gets closer and closer until he reaches a hand out, trying to shake your hand.

"Thank you sir." you reply, gripping his hand firm and pulling him in a little closer. You can finally make out some of the definition in his face.

He breaks the grip and steps to the side and once more, another silhouette of a person is walking your direction.

"And you kind sir, thank you" you reach your hand out, waiting for the new person to accept your shake.

They get closer and closer, ten feet, five, three, one. His hand goes out towards yours. But it doesn't stop. Instead it swings in an upwards motion and cracks hard against your lower jaw, causing your head to shoot up and your body to fall backwards in to the dirt below.

"Ughhh!" you groan, getting completely caught off guard from the sucker punch.

Ashe immediately unsheathes her weapon "What the fuck?!" she goes defensive.

"That's what you fucking deserve!" the silhouette of the person who just hit you says "You're a piece of shit, you know that?"

"Ahh..." you raise your body up, still seated on the ground, rubbing your lower jaw with one hand "God dammit, Hawk." you say as you recognized the voice.

"Hawk?!" Ashe wields her sword "What the hell did you do that for?!"

"He knows what he did" he growls out.

"Darien?" she questions you.

"Uhh..." you push yourself up back to your feet, still rubbing your jaw "Don't worry about it, Ashe."

"You men are so stupid sometimes..." she just shakes her head.

"Ow..." you grumble in agony again "fuck that hurts." you continue to rub your chin "We even?" you ask.

"Fuck no we're not even." he says with anger once more "Not even close." he turns around, waving you two to follow "Now come with me, I'll fill you in on the details."

Ashe steps by your side and whispers in your ear "You're telling me all about this later, okay?"

"Yeah...sure." you mumble out, hoping she'll forget the situation "Let's go." you step towards Hawk, following him as he leads the two of you up a slope in the hill, making your way to the peak of the hill, to look down onto the city of Murnic.