"Hi!" said the bubbly mage. "I'm Ollia! These here are Tara, Sephoira and Rathana! The two big redheads are the brawn behind my brains. They're my posse!"
"Your... your what?" the cleric of Sol asked. "Posse...?"
"Yeah, totally! They're like my big minions. I tell them "Hey, go smash that bad guy over there!" and they go do it! It's great. And they're good at smashing!" The larger barbarian redhead, Rathana, simply rolled her eyes behind Ollia's back as she did frequently when Ollia went off on her self-important diatribes... which was also often.
"I see... I am Madelyn!" the cleric of Sol introduced herself to the other adventurers. "These are my friends, Alchana, Linara, and Tylissa."
The two groups all shook hands with each other, and then Tylissa pulled back the hood of her cloak, revealing her high elven heritage. She didn't look pleased to be meeting more round-ears, but she would be pleasant to them for Linara's sake. "Hello. It's a pleasure to-"
She barely got the words out before her world was rocked suddenly, and she found herself on her back, propped up on an elbow. Rathana had flown into a rage at the sight of Tylissa and straight-kicked her in the face, blindsiding her.
"I'll fucking kill you, Meret!" she screamed. Memories of the major battle flooded her mind unabated. The elven arcaneblade who wielded spell and steel with equal skill. The sword stroke that cleaved into her face, burying itself so deeply the blade pressed against her skull, probably scarring the bone underneath as well. The incredibly hideous... gash wasn't even the word, the hideous gouge taken out of her face... the uncertainty of whether she would regain sight in her nearly destroyed eye and be forced off the battlefield dishonourably.... had only that sword been enchanted at the time, it would have traveled through Rathana's skull and ended her life then and there that day. Only the Fates knew why it had not been.
All of these flooded Rathana's mind anew as she laid eyes on the diminutive elven sorceress. She raised a boiot and stomped down hard on Tylissa's chest, cracking her sternum. Tylissa wheezed in pain from the blow... then another stome, and another. Rathana pummeled Tylissa with ferocity, cracking and breaking ribs. Rathana then knelt over Tylissa and began to fire punches into her face, colliding with her jaw like a warhammer strike. Her fist went up and came down on Tylissa's face four times before finally, the rest of Rathana's party grabbed her by the arms. It took all three of them to peel Rathana off of the elven woman.
Rathana screamed death threats as the three dragged her away. "I'll kill you, you bitch! You haven't seen the last of me, Meret!"
The other three mouthed apologies to Madelyn's group as they dragged her off. The whole attack had taken less than five seconds from start to finish, but Rathana needed less time than that to finish an opponent and the only reason she hadn't was because she'd been grabbed at a fortuitous time.
"What the hell was that all about??" Linara asked. "She's freakin' crazy! Just out of the blue!"
"Yeah." Alchana agreed. "Tylissa's done a lot of stupid crap to get herself in trouble before, but even she didn't have that coming. I wonder who Meret was? We clearly introduced ourselves."
Tylissa groaned in pain as she shivered in agony. "wha... huh... didn't.. do anything... this time..." she painfully murmured.
"We know, we saw. It all happened before anyone could even react, and they got there first and dragged her off. She seemed almost uncontrollable. Here, hold still while I mend you..." Madelyn placed her hand on Tylissa's sternum and began the healing process, a scene that had played out a multitude of times in the past.
