Still seeking...

[Shin]

"This is....so this must mean...."

A finger slowly traced over a map of the coastline and surrounding areas, yellow eyes darted from one map to another comparing the details. A frustrated look was stamped on the young mans face as he noticed the obvious discrepancies between the two.

"..that can't be right.."

He scratched just under his chin where a little bit of stubble was showing, it was the beginning of a goatee or more accurately what Zhent hoped to be the beginning of a goatee. He was already nineteen but couldn't for the life of him grow any facial hair, though right now that wasn't what frustrated him to no end.

The two maps were supposedly of the landscape surrounding Kikita, but when he looked more closely he was rather sure they were just slightly altered maps of Cizoks coastline.

"Son of a bitch!" He cursed to quietly, his head snapping up to see if he could find the vendor he had bought them from. But no luck would be found, the man was already long gone.

Currently Zhent, after just coming off of a merchant ship and purchasing the maps from a vendor at the end of a dock stood near some large crates where he had been huddled over examining the maps. He snatched both maps up and crumpled them into a tiny ball as he continued to look for the man that had ripped him off... he knew he wasn't going to find him, but that didn't stop the young man from looking.

Now without his supposed maps he wasn't sure what to do, he could try to find another map vendor, but how would he knew those were authentic maps? He harshly kicked the crate next to him and began to walk away looking for anything that could be of use right now...though he wasn't exactly sure what that would be.

[Iskander]

Juichi

Zhent stood out sorely among the throngs of Kikita. His hair, his eyes, the very way he moved and spoke, it all screamed that he was a foreigner, a barbarian. Foreigners were seldom trusted, and those who arrived so shortly after the return of the Tyrants were viewed with even more suspicion. Some few still came to the country's greatest port, seeking treasures in the new land, but few would ever leave again. They did not know how to conduct themselves, and most ended dead at the hands of a warrior whom they had insulted. Juichi hated dealing with the foreigners, but that was his task. Whenever one came to the city, it fell to him to ensure that they did not disrupt the smooth flow of commerce, or the harmony of the city.

"You!" Juichi's guard shouted at Zhent as he cursed. Juichi rode with two warriors, each mounted on the amphibious creatures that had been adopted by the Twin Countries. The mounts had come from the Tyrants, but they had proven to be excellent for use by the nation's warrior caste.

"What business do you have in the Twin Countries of the Kirin?" The second warrior demanded, his hand resting on the handle of his long horseman's blade. Juichi himself sat, impassive, on his mount. He wore no decoration or emblem of office, and instead dressed in the plain robes of the nation. His warriors were armoured in leather and mail, imported from the islands of Albion. All three hid their faces between red lacquered masks.

[Shin]

Zhent, oblivious to the fact that he stood out, walked with both hands stuffed in his pockets, eyes locked onto the ground infront of him as he thought out his plan of attack. There was treasure here to be found, he was sure of it! The problem was that he didn't know where to start.

Equally oblivious that the shouting was directed at him Zhent didn't bother to stop until the masked men were already upon him. He looked up from his daze, a look of anger, angry that he had been stopped, turned into confusion as he looked from masked man to masked man.

"Uhh..what ya want?" He asked.

Zhent removed both hands from his pockets and crossed them over his arm defiantly, raising a brow. He wasn't sure what to expect, but he was more then ready for a fight, as were the men judging by the way they kept their hands so close to their swords.

[Iskander]

Juichi frowned beneath his mask; the barbarian was doing just what all the others had before they died. They were so arrogant, and they didn't respect any law or land but their own. They always thought they could fight their way out of any trouble, but did a single one of them stop to think what would happen even if they won their first battle? Of course not. None of them considered where they would get food, where they would sleep, how they would buy new supplies. They thought only of personal glory and the killing of supposedly inferior enemies.

He nudged his mount forward and gestured to his men. They were young, full of blood lust, and they had no patience for the foreigners. He knew that things might well come to blood shed, and he couldn't make himself feel sympathy for the barbarian. He didn't hear the sound of his men's blades being drawn, but he knew that each would hold a naked sword in hand. He remained unarmed as he advanced toward the barbarian. "In the name of Dragon and Tiger, you will answer, or you will die. What business do you have in our land? Why do you taint our air with your stench?" His voice was tinged with anger, and the fingers of his right hand twitched while he spoke.

A space had been cleared around them as citizens backed away from the warriors and their drawn weapons. A brief hush had fallen over the docks, but most men and women hadn't even noticed the beginning of the altercation and continued on about their business. Children stared between the legs of their parents, eager to watch a barbarian meet his death. It wasn't every day that the legendary monsters, the barbarians, came crashing through the docks after all.

[Shin]

Zhent wasn't ignorant to the wide birth the people were giving him and the three horsed warriors, it occurred to him then that even if he did incinerate these fools he would have no where to run. He uncrossed his arms quickly and patted the air in front of him, as if he was trying to calm them down.

"Woah woah, no need to get hostile gentlemen." He gave a wide smile and swept into a low bow. "Zhent Kaiser at your service." He said, as if expecting them to know who he was. Of course when the didn't he put on a hurt look, a look he had perfected. "I am looking for a relative of mine, an explorer. I have reason to believe he is somewhere out there." He said, gesturing away from the sea and what would be outside the city, though that was no doubt impossible to see from where he currently was.

"Imma bit hard o hearing. Didn't hear ya until you were upon me ....who am I speaking to by the way?" He let his arms hang loose to his side, giving the longsword hung on his side a long birth.

[Iskander]

One of the warriors waved his blade at the barbarian as if he could cut through ten feet of air to reach the man. "You speak to the Dragon Lord Juichi Kuwagatamushi!"

Juichi raised a hand to silence the warrior, "Yukeo, sheath your blade. This man is no threat to us." His face was blank beneath his mask. "Who we are," he spoke to Zhent, "is unimportant. We are guardians of the Twin Countries. That is all you need to know. Your bow should be lower, though. You should show proper respect, and get to your knees when you bow to the defenders of the land. Some of us might take your bow as arrogance." He slid from his mount and settled on the ground, his feet wide apart. He stood ready for a fight, and he secretly hoped the barbarian would take offense.

"You will come with us. It is not proper for a foreigner to wander the city, or the land, without guides." He folded his hands at the small of his back, where his fingers could rest on the bits of sharpened metal he carried with him. They weren't large enough to be used in hand to hand combat, but he found them useful for putting down warriors and casters alike. It didn't matter if a man wielded a sword or hurled death from his hands, they all fell easily enough when their brain was blown out the back of their skull.

[Shin]

There was a slight twitch in Zhents eye when Juichi told him to bow lower. Zhent didn't particularly like authority figures, people you were supposed to follow just because they said so, and if you didn't they would use their power to either make you or destroy you. People were fully capable of making their own decisions. Zhent was a foreigner, so what?

"Tell ya what, Juichi. Why dont you and your lackeys lead me to the exit of this city and I will be on merry way?"

Zhent couldn't hide the mockery from his voice, if these men were going to push him then Zhent would push back. He wasn't stupid enough to attack them, but if they made the first move he would be more then ready to defend himself.

"I got no time for you'r paranoia. Clocks a ticking and times a waisting, catch my meaning?" He finished by placing both hands on his hips, a small smirk across his face and a light dancing behind his amber eyes.