Act I

It was the perfect weather for traveling as far as Andy was concerned. The trio had left early in the morning much to Ange's chagrin, the sun just starting to crest the horizon as it reflected off the snow under food to create a rather dazzling display. Luckily for Andy, he had seen this a thousand times before. Two pairs of snowy crunches filled the air, followed with a slightly more random set of footsteps. Glancing over his shoulder, Andy watched in amusement as his friend practically stumbled behind the group. Although clearly hungover, he would be fine. This was also far from the first time Andy had to go through this song and dance. Turning towards their new comrade, Andy put his hands on the back of his head before breaking her gaze on the snow.

"If I was just judging on facial expressions, I'd say that you've never left your town before"

She gave a quick laugh before replying as she shook her head. Despite the heavy jacket and snow equipment, she was keeping up quite well. One would almost guess that she was a natural, rather than the subtle twists of air behind her pushing her forward.

"Afraid you're right. Never really had any reason to. All the places in the books sound great, but far too out there to visit"

"Why'd you pick THIS clown to start your travels with then?!"

Both heads turned behind them to look at this tumbling man, who had finally spoken his first words of the morning. He was practically grumbling to himself about the situation, but his voice was more than loud enough to interrupt their conversation. The footfalls got louder until he was right behind them, apparently good enough to keep up to both their conversation and their walking.

"Well, I always was a fan of the circus"

Elyon's reply came out faster than either of them had expected, causing Andy to laugh and his other comrade to just roll his eyes. Despite agreeing, Ange still seemed rather annoyed about the entire thing. With a long sigh he sped up his walking again, coming in between the pair before turning to Andy.

"What are we, a babysitting business?"

"Yeah, I figured that I'd hire someone else to take care of your sorry ass"

Another laugh, this time from Elyon, and another eye rolling from Ange as he continued to grumble to himself. They let him complain under his breath for another few seconds as the group kept moving. The next few hours passed rather uneventfully, the snow growing slightly higher with every few steps as they approached further north. 

Eventually, the rising towers of Garley Keep came into view as the hills around them started to grow higher as if to match the city. Lookouts watched as they approached the doors, eyeing them the same way that a hunter might eye a wild animal. 

The group came to a stop, Andy standing a few paces in front of the others as a pair of guards walked over. They looked the group up and down before the closer one spoke. Her voice was rough, the same voice of someone who had seen many winter storms pass the area and lived to tell the tale.

"Traveling papers?"

Andy sighed before taking a step forward. In one quick, clean motion, he moved his leg forward, hitting the back of her leg. At the same time, his arm came over to her head, sweeping her directly onto the ground.

Elyon let out a small shriek as she ducked behind Ange, expecting arrows to start flying any second as she closed her eyes and braced. A few seconds passed where there wasn't any noise. Peeking to the side of Ange's shoulder, she saw the guard laugh and get pulled back to their feet by Andy. Elyon was absolutely aghast. Why did Andy just attack a guard? Why did Ange not stop him? She glanced around wildly, but no one seemed to be too worried about the fact the leader of her party had just committed what for many would be a serious crime.

"You're getting sloppy, Amara" 

"Against a monster like you? I think I recovered pretty well"

Ange rubbed his eyes before sighing and turning to look at Elyon with a shrug. He seemed apologetic, but also like this was something that he was more used to then waking up in the morning.

"This is what you signed up for, our brilliant leader Andy here likes to pick on the guards of everywhere we visit. It's a tradition of his to trip them up. Fear not, we're under the crown's protection or some stupid bullshit. Point is, you'd get used to it"

As if on cue, he started following Andy into the now open gate. Elyon hesitated for a second before quickly following in their footsteps. The guards just gave her friendly smiles, apparently not surprised by the fact the duo had added someone to their team either. As soon as Elyon made it into the area proper, she was assaulted by noises and new sights as she whirled around to take it all in.