Chapter 4 Siste, viator - 0r - Wait, Traveler.

Steel blue eyes tirelessly scanned the horizon seeking out the one moving being which would let him know the hunt was about concluded. Vulpes brought out some food, eating it as he walked, not caring if his men were still with him or not. He'd been away from the Fort for much longer than he deemed appropriate - especially for tracking down a mere female - and he'd vowed that she'd pay good once he got hold of her. Maybe he'd put the slave collar around her neck a little tighter than the norm. Maybe he'd humiliate her in front of the men. He had told her before setting her free that the longer it took, the harder her punishment would be.

Of course, Vulpes never took into consideration what the girl would DO while on the run, either. He never in a million years would admit to his men how turned on he was getting with each and every corpse he'd come across. Her handiwork, something the other men took as being an insult to the Legion but what Vulpes took as pure art, was creating a stir within him which was quickly becoming unbearable. His earlier thoughts were quite true. She really DIDN'T hold any idea as to what she was waking up in him.

For as long back as he could remember, Vulpes had been the most vicious thing to come into the Legion - aside from Lanius, of course. Vulpes was the one who'd dream up ways to torture, demean, ruin and break those not of the Legion. He had a very twisted mind, after all, and no other below him had equaled it. It made the man most valuable to Caesar. But now, a mere female was doing just enough to capture not just the man's curiosities but his blackened heart. Oh, it wasn't a love thing or even lust. Vulpes was quite incapable of feeling any pathetic emotion like that. It was more of a deep admiration, a semblance of respect. He wanted to see what made her tick, what other ideas she had. Perhaps he could convince Caesar to allow him to keep her in his own tent and go head to head with her for new ideas to bring terror to the masses of the Wastes.

It wouldn't be a bad thing to keep her as a plaything of sorts also. Maybe she'd last longer than prior slaves had.

New Vegas was coming closer, the lights starting to very dimly illuminate the broken down buildings around Vulpes' current position. The city stood roughly a mile and a half away and when the wind blew right, one could faintly hear the music which welcomed travelers into its midst. That wasn't on Vulpes' mind, however. He was still looking out for the woman.

Her direction had been turned around but it wasn't by her losing her way. As Terra had gotten close to the Bittersprings Recreational Center, a child of about 12 years had ran up to her in obvious distress.

"Help me! Please..." The boy cried out as he came to a stop in front of Terra, shaking hard.

Putting a hand on her weapon, Terra took in the area, looking for many things: whatever spooked the kid and the makings of a trap. After all, in the wastelands, one never really made true friends. They either wanted to loot you, rape you, eat you or kill you - or all of the above. Some whackos were so bad, they'd do all of the above in any order with no scruples whatsoever.

"What's wrong, kid?" Terra asked, eyes never stopping their searching as the young boy told this story on how he was with his dad and older brother and, during the night they had vanished. A trail of blood was the only indication of where they were taken to.

"You have to find them!" He got out, tears filling his eyes and Terra looked around, letting out a sigh. She really had no time for this kind of shit, especially since she had no true idea how close or behind her Vulpes was - provided he'd even come this way. Either way, it'd be good to have something to make things just a little harder on the Frumentarian; he could do with running the Mojave a little more. Maybe it would exhaust the attitude out of him for good. With a little smile at her own thoughts, Terra nodded. "Fine. I'll see what I can figure out, but no promises. Given the amount of blood, I don't know if I'll have any good news for you but I hope so."

She followed the trail of blood as it went through brush, up and over small hills, and started to taper off as it headed into a small valley or canyon of sorts. The walls were fairly high all around and, given the carcassas of various animals strewn here and there, Terra had a feeling she should just turn back and chalk the family up to being shit outta luck but Terra being Terra, she HAD to know for sure so she moved on cautiously.

It didn't matter who you were or where you were in the entire Country; when you heard a certain rumbling breathing, your blood was going to run cold and you were going to freeze - at least for a moment. Terra knew two things the second she heard the sound: The first being that the lad's family was most definitely indeed dead and two, time to leave the deathclaw nest as silently as possible.

Of course, when entering, she hadn't been as silent as she COULD have been; but upon trying to leave and working on being as silent as possible, it seemed everything in the Mojave was against that. She kicked a dented can, broke a branch, was cussing under her breath and sweating so hard she was certain that every Claw in the area could smell her. And then she heard one move behind her - and took off running as the roar shook the area.

"Shit fuck shit fuck shit fuck shit fuck" She mantraed to herself as she ran as if her... well her life DID depend on it. Grabbing a grenade, she pulled the pin and turned enough to toss it behind her and ran harder, hearing it blast with a roar equivalent of the Deathclaw it hit. One grenade alone was never able to take that sort of hellspawned entity down and Terra cursed as she lambasted herself for wasting the only other one she'd had on that stupid Fiend earlier. Reaching into her sack, she pulled out another weapon, stronger than her hand gun; her Assault Rifle.

Doing a side run while watching ahead for a drop off as she kept her eyes on the approaching Claw was one hard assed task and she just knew she was going to trip and fall and be done for. Vulpes would come across her torn apart torso, not even realizing it had been her. Game over, no cookie, go back to Caesar now.

Aiming, she let the bullets fly, knowing they were hitting its upper body but the makings of a Deathclaw ensured their bodies were some powerful armor of sorts. Nothing short of a missile would breach it - unless a properly sent bullet went into its eye. Talk about tiny target, though. Terra was great with larger targets but small ones? And especially one on a charging Deathclaw? Yeah. Great. Least she had a change of armor since she was about to unashamedly piss herself. IF she lived to tell about it.

As she took aim at the tiny moving target of soft flesh, cussing herself for not practicing shooting while moving more often, she pulled the trigger - and grinned as it made contact with the beasts nose. It roared and stopped for a moment, comically rubbing its nose with its mammoth claw hands. While it did so, Terra raised her weapon to fire again - but another shot from above her to her left took out the top of the beasts head. It fell down and the girl could only stare, blinking, before she looked up to see a man coming down the embankment towards her. She put her rifle away but took out her handgun just in case.

Watching him approach, he had on what seemed to be normal wastelander clothing - but like her, he was packing a few weapons. "You really shouldn't be out this far. Death claws all over the place." He stated and lit a cigarette, as if killing one while saving a persons life was something he did on a daily basis.

"I... yeah. Thanks. I mean it. I'd have been dead meat if you weren't there." She gratefully said, shaking her head as he offered her a cigarette after lighting one for himself.

"Why are you out here alone, if I may ask?"

"I have my reasons. I need to get going too or else..." Her voice faded as she shrugged and he studied her for a moment before giving a small nod. "Fair enough. I know enough of the Mojave to know when a man - or woman - has their secrets, it's best to not ask. Tell you what. I've needed company and you could use an extra set of eyes. What if we travel together for a few days until you're in a safer area and I get closer to where I need to be."

"Where are you headed?" Terra asked and he in turn shrugged so she grinned a little. "Fair enough." She copied his words. "We'll travel together until the time comes to part. Let's get going. I don't want to waste any more time. I have to tell someone something first and then we'll be on our way."

"Not a problem. Name's Blaise, by the way."

"Terra. Good to meet you."

"Likewise."

Terra headed back to where the boy had been left and, after giving him the sad news, she asked him if he wanted to come with her until he found a place to go but surprisingly he declined. Nodding over his shoulder at the mountains behind them, he made mention he had more family over there. With a nod, Terra gave him some food and a few drinks and then she and Blaise headed off toward New Vegas.

It was time for her to confront Benny anyway. May as well kill that bird since she was close.