Saun 7, 717
He had begun the assimilation of the local crime families in earnest now. He could still remember the young men from only two trials prior who he had beaten into submission, could still recall their surrendering of the whereabouts of their leader. That one would be dealt with in time, but it was only a singular gang in a wasteland filled with them. Of course, none of the groups had ever been quite as powerful as the nationally renowned ones, and so whilst it was somewhat troublesome having to eliminate or assimilate them, they had not stopped him for long. Gradually, he knew, one after another would bend the knee until the criminal underworld answered almost entirely to his commands.
In fact, he was hunting one of the bandit groups now, intent on stopping them and either eliminating them from the equation entirely and thus rendering their territories and operations completely open for him to take, or else bringing them into the fold and assigning them roles as members of Al’Angyryl. Even with the relative ease by which he had begun the process of absorbing and conquering the other criminal groups, there were still issues that constantly reared their ugly heads and interfered in his vile schemes of domination and control.
Namely, it was difficult to actually locate the gangs without some assistance from either their rivals, or their members, and if he chose to get his information from the former then it had a propensity of being somewhat inaccurate, whilst the latter typically attempted to twist their words so as to throw him off the scent. He was a hunter at heart, and so inevitably he would almost always locate them, but the process would have been far faster if he had a more viable way of actually finding his fellow criminals.
The other problem involved those who would attempt to stop him in his endeavors. Admittedly, he sincerely doubted that the local law enforcement, nor the citizenry of the city would detest him eliminating some of the criminals operating around their homes, but he sincerely doubted that they would not take notice of the gradual change of power; crime did not truly disappear, just come under new management.
Even those valiant defenders of the law were not necessarily the primary issue for the hybrid. No, that honorable title fell to his beloved Nightshade. She championed altruistic acts and honorable deeds, activing charitably towards all in an attempt at making the world a brighter place, and in a way she made him feel like a brighter person just by her presence. That said, however, he had already reconciled with himself the fact that he would not be able to surrender his ambition for the sake of her, though he thought if he was wily and cunning enough, then he might be able to have both of his prizes. So many stories and lessons taught never to chase after two prizes, discussing how by chasing both, you would only serve to lose both, but Noth thought himself far more intelligent than those in the stories, and far more cunning than ever they could conceive. It was for that reason that instead of hiding his operations entirely from Nightshade, he had decided to bring her along under the pretense of ‘hunting down bandits’, to further show how far he had changed from his old self, whilst simultaneously accomplishing his goals.
That brought him to his current position, standing atop a slight hill in the midst of the forest, looking for any signs of a fire to reveal the group he was hunting. He was dressed in his usual armored garb, the plate gleaming in the sunlight of the blazing star overhead. His information had told him to be wary of the area, because there were apparently a small group of bandits; reports said somewhere between five and six, who were fairly active. When he had questioned the supposed victims of their attacks further, however, all he had gotten was “Oh yea, those prancing and prissy folk.” Time would tell what that meant, he supposed.
He whistled a tune reminiscent of birdsong into the air as he finished his observation, glancing around for his beloved a moment later, and awaiting her return. Admittedly, he was somewhat less affectionate now that he was hunting, but he still tried his hardest to retain some of his warmth whilst working, because he certainly didn’t want to push her away, but the field was simply not the place for hand-holding, and hugging, and so he had refrained from any acts of the sort.
And there, from within the forest… smoke.