Diantha had been resting peacefully in a nearby forest, but apparently, the spot she had chosen to bed down at the night before wasn’t hidden enough to keep her from being found by some rather unsavory folk. Hearing rumors of a rare half woman, half deer creature, the group of men had been tracking her for the better part of a week. Finally, early in the morning they found her resting spot. She awoke suddenly as a net fell upon her, quickly followed by the men jumping in to hold her down and make sure she couldn’t escape. Before long they had managed to bind her hands with thick rope, and partially bind her legs so that she couldn’t run away, only walk. She then was directed down the road toward Vilpamolan, and could do nothing but walk with the three men. They were armed with daggers and one of them also had a crossbow.

She had considered fighting back, but they had taken her bow, not that it would have been much use at close range. She had a few magical tricks, but she’d have to catch them by surprise or they’d easily be able to do a lot more harm to her before she managed much against them. When they finally entered the city, she almost wished they had killed her. Her ears began flicking in all different directions from even the smallest sound, and her tail twitched nervously. She had never really been close to a major city, much less in one, particularly one with this much of a seedy underbelly. She wasn’t sure what the men were actually planning to do with her, as they’d been rather quiet since they abducted her, but considering the situation, she knew it wasn’t anything good. All she could do now is wait and hope an opportunity to try and escape arose, or someone perhaps came to her rescue, though in this place, she wasn’t exactly holding her breath on the latter happening.

Cedric was at the entrance of the city, reading a small paper, the sound of the city interrupted his reading a bit, after a while, he threw away the paper and wandered around the shops, bought a few crossbow bolts, crow feeds and such. Then, he heard many gasps outside from the shop, he walked towards the sound and spotted 3 men holding a strange deer woman creature. Cedric whistled a tune and suddenly, a crow came towards him and landed on his shoulder. The men told the city folk to get back.

Cedric thought to himself "Hmm, all creatures were created equal, they have no right to treat a creature as if it is below creation, plus, it's illegal." With these thoughts, he quickly drew his crossbow and whistled a tune that signaled the crow to prepare. 

"Hey! Apologies for butting in, but isn't that illegal?" Cedric said as he unfolded his crossbow's limbs. "If you don't stop, I'll have to do something I don't want to" Cedric threatened the men, 

Diantha’s attention was swiftly drawn to the man with the crow and the crossbow as he spoke, and hope bubbled up inside her as he seemed to be standing up to the men who captured her. So there was still some law and order in this city after all. The men looked much less happy to see him. “I told you we should have arranged to do this outside the city, or at least waited till nightfall to enter the city!” The taller of the three men shouted at the other two. He then grabbed Diantha by her hands which were bound behind her back, keeping her from going anywhere while the other two men approached Cedric, drawing their daggers. “I think you’re a bit outnumbered friend.” The one on the right said before lunging at Cedric, aiming a slash of the dagger at the arm Cedric was holding the crossbow with.

Cedric's hand was slashed, but it didn't stop him from using the crossbow, he whistled a tune that signaled the crow to attack the men in the head, which bought him enough time to shoot one man in the abdomen and knocked the other unconscious with the stock of his crossbow.

"Strength in numbers doesn't always match the strength in speed. "Cedric cockily said to the tallest man, he whistled a tune which drew the crow back to Cedric's shoulder.
He put a piece of dirty fabric on the tip of the next crossbow bolt, then, he noticed that the one he knocked unconscious was starting to wake up, he quickly used a paralyze spell
on the unconscious man "Stay down" Cedric said to the man, meanwhile, the man that got shot in the abdomen was still alive, though fatally injured.

Cedric aimed his crossbow at the man. 

At first Diantha watched as the fight began, impressed as Cedric swiftly dispatched two of the men despite taking a nasty looking gash to his hand. He seemed to have things well in hand, but she took advantage of the moment, while the taller man was focused on Cedric, and swiftly swung her antlers back at him, poking his eye with one of the tines. The man howled in pain and clutched at his face, allowing Diantha to shuffle over toward Cedric and stand behind him, moving as quickly as she could while trying to avoid tripping with the way her legs were tied to each other. With his partners in crime unconscious or dying, and his prize now on the other side of the man who put them in that state, things weren’t looking too good for the taller man. He decides to cut his losses and turns to run, attempting to get lost in the crowd further down the street.

"Thank you, those men just threw a net on me as I slept in a nearby forest, and proceeded to take me here. Not sure where I would have ended up if you hadn't stopped them. How can I repay your kindness?" Diantha asks with a smile as she looked up at the man. She was still a little nervous about all the people around, some which were kind of staring at her, but her gladness of being saved more than made up for that at the moment.

"I don't really know, so you can take this one for free" Cedric said to Diantha, before walking away, then, the unconscious paralyzed man stands up and lunges at Cedric, he attempts to stab Cedric in the shoulder, the crow quickly flew away before Cedric was stabbed in the shoulder and started pecking at the man's eyes.

"Do you want me to kill him? Or just leave him there?" Cedric asked Diantha, the crow blinded the man temporarily. Cedric looked at the man who was shot in the abdomen,
Cedric figured that the lawmen will just grab them both and leaves them there.

"The name's Cedric, and I'm not good with introductions" Cedric told Diantha. "So, what's yours?"

While a little surprised he didn’t want anything from her in return, after risking himself to save her, she wasn’t going to complain about having her freedom back and not owing anything for it, well, mostly free, she was still a little tied up. At the question of killing the man, Diantha pondered for a moment, looking at the man as the crow pecked at his eyes. “Well, he did just try to kill you again… I’ll leave that up to you I guess. As for my name, it’s Diantha, really glad I bumped into you Cedric. Just one more thing though, would you mind untying me? I mean, I could probably get out on my own eventually, but I’d rather not test that right now…” She asked as she finally took a moment to look around at the city now that things were a little less dire. It was a little rundown, but she didn't really have much of a point of reference to compare to. "So many people in one place, I don't know how you don't all drive each other crazy." She mused mostly to herself.

"Well, It's been the first time I've been to this city," Cedric said as he was untying Diantha "There you go, well, I gotta run now, see ya 'round" Cedric whistled to his crow and walked off to head to Adeluna once again.

"I see, well, thank you again, and take care of yourself. I think I'll be heading out before long myself. I'm not used to this much of a crowd." She replied as she rubbed her wrists a bit where they had been bound. Looking around, she noticed a dagger that had been dropped by one of the men, probably the one Cedric killed. Deciding it might be useful, she picked it up. Looking around a bit, she caught the smell of food and because she hadn't eaten since the night before, she decided to brave the city a little longer and see if she could get a little breakfast before she left. Off to the market she went.