Edward was currently in Stormgale Village after deciding to visit the region to relax after a hefty battle back in Thunderhoof. He meet some nice and kind people along the way but he decided to head to the best place in town to meet new friends. He headed to a nearby tavern, originally drinking some ale but then he was dancing with the people in the tavern as a very experienced bard was playing tonight. He was currently dancing with a pretty lady. Everything was cheery and light-hearted until a group of travelers suddenly enter the tavern hurriedly everybody slowed down partying to observe the new arrival. The group made up of about three travelers hidden by their robes came in and said, "Hello there is there any strong adventurers here that can help guard us from the dangers of Dragon's Cradle and guide us because we really need to make it to Frost Gale". Edward moves away from the lady and walks to the travelers. The travelers were staring at him and Edward says, “My name is. a wandering wander who helps those in need. I’m a very experienced warrior and I have many spells that could be useful for this endeavor. I am willing to help you all go through the wastes to reach Frost Gale.”

Xalmann sat in the tavern, quietly eating a plate of food and drinking a glass of tea. They were annoyed by all the noise around them and their nostrils were filled with the sickening smell of alcohol. They wanted to leave this town, but the lightning fields were dangerous. They had been trying to head to Frost Gale to pursue any possibility of information on Dagon that might be there. They had travelled nearly to the opposite side of the continent from their home.

As he finished his tea, a group of travelers entered the tavern and the noise quieted down. He heard the travelers ask for aid in travelling from here to Frost Gale and lifted his head a little. This was a perfect opportunity. He could finally go where he wanted and he would even be payed for it. He wouldn't have to travel through the lightning fields alone.

Another adventurer went up to the group to immediately offer his services. Xalmann stood up and headed over to them as well, leaving a few coins to be quickly scooped up by the barkeeper.

"I will also go. I am Xalmann Dakarr." he said to the group.

The three mysterious individuals seemed happy. They went out to the entrance of the town. The three were not the entire group to be escorted. Along with them, there were three wagons and ten more people. The other ten people were merchants with wagons full of goods. Their main worry was the bandits in the fields, but they were also concerned with the generally hazardous area as well. The three people were tagging along, trying to find safety in numbers, though the group didn't believe that only the two guards they already had with them would be enough.

They hoped a few strong adventurers would be able to safely escort them across the fields. Along with Edward and Xalmann, there was also another man in leather armor with a crossbow and a woman with a spear. The two nodded to the new additions to their forces. They knew they could use the help.

Edward settles himself in the caravan. He looks at Xalmann, studying the lizardfolk. He has never seen lizardfolk before and is interested in meeting new creatures. Apparently, there is a large amount of bandits hiding in the wastes, hoping to capture merchant caravans. The group of travelers are worried about encountering these bandits and hoped that having more adventurers would deter the bandits from attacking the caravan.

The two adventurers that the group of travelers had already hired before Edward and Xalmann seems to be experienced guides and helps to lead the group west towards the wastes that divides Dragon’s Cradle and Frost Gale. It is a couple days journey from the small village to the wastes and the caravan stops by several towns to stock up on supplies and recruit more adventurers. They recruited one more adventurer, a woman named Amelia, who is any experienced apothecary and animal handler. The woman with the spear calls herself Xandra and the man with the crossbow is Darrius. Edward keeps chatting with the adventurers and travelers to get to know them better. Edward tries to chat with Xalmann but he seems to be a lizard man of few words. What he lacks in words, he makes up with strength however.

The caravan departed from their most recent stop. Another small town whose name was not worth noting. They had stopped to rest and pick up more supplies, but had also picked up a fifth adventurer to help guard them. Xalmann was a little annoyed, but accepted it. He disliked having more people that would undoubtedly try to speak with him during the journey. He wasn't one for idle conversation. The others seemed very eager to talk to each other, and his appearance being the most unique among all of the adventurers didn't help. Everyone wanted to talk to the fiery lizard man. How irritating.

He answered only a few questions, and only with short answers. Where was he from? The Marsh Flats. How had he come all the way to the Dragon's Cradle? Travel. One of the adventurers had jokingly stated he must be fun at parties. He had actually replied to that with "Very". This might have been a mistake on his part since it seemed to encourage them to speak to him more.

It wasn't that Xalmann hated or disliked any of them. He simply wasn't very good at speaking the language. On top of that, he just wasn't very socially outgoing, not desiring to talk with anyone he didn't see as a comrade. They seemed like fine people, but there was only one way to really become a real comrade in the eyes of Xalmann. They had to fight side by side with him. Until that occurred, the Lizardfolk warrior just wasn't very interested in any of them.

After a couple hours of departing from their recent stop, the leader of the travelers yells out, “We are approaching the wastes. It’ll get a bit rocky. All the adventurers, please watch out for any signs of trouble or danger. Also the caravan will have to slow down for the duration we are here in the wastes. There are too many rocks, so we need to slow down to have enough time to maneuver the wagon in case we encounter sharper rocks or any environmental hazards.”
Edward nods and gets out of the wagon that was carrying most of the adventurers. He sees a large expanse of rocks with snow scattered around. The skies above are grey as the clouds rumble with thunder. Edward can see the flashes of lightning in the clouds from time to time. It is unusual for him to see such extreme weather but, that’s what the wastes are known for. 
Edward pairs with the the always silent and solemn lizard man, who was guarding the back of the caravan.
After a while of walking, Edward can hear the sound off hooves stomping on the ground from behind him. He turns around to see a group of horsemen behind the caravan quite a distance away but he can see that some of the horsemen are carrying weapons. Edward shouts out, “I see people behind us, they might be bandits. Get ready!”

As a group approached the caravan from behind, Xalmann was almost smiling. The trip had been fairly uneventful until now, so he was getting a bit bored. Now there may finally be something for him to do, some excitement. As they got closer, he could finally get a good look at the approaching wagon.

A wagon that was more like a cart, only able to be called a wagon thanks to the fabric roof and sides, was coming toward them pulled by two horses. In the driver's seat were two men. One held the reigns of the horses while the other held a bow at their side, an arrow at the ready. The fabric on the sides of the covering was rolled up to open up the sides, allowing four more figures to lean out from the wagon, holding onto the wooden frame to keep themselves from falling out.

There were two men holding longswords, a man holding a large axe, and another man with a bow. Unlike the one in the driver's seat, their bow was not loaded since they had to hold onto the railing with their other hand. All of them wore masks and hoods and a few of them had some leather armors pieces. They were very clearly bandits.

Xalmann pulled out his axe in one hand. His hand that would usually have pulled out his dagger instead was lifted into the air where a small flame appeared before growing into a ball of fire a little larger than a person's head. He threw the ball of fire at the wagon before pulling out his dagger.

---

Fire Bolt

Edward sees the wagon pulling the bandits and Xalmann throwing the bolt of fire. The bolt of fire flies through the air as the bandit with the bow dodges it. The bow wielding archer laughs in disdain at Xalmann since the bolt missed him but quickly realizes that the wagon is on fire as the fire licks at his feet. The bandits scream in terror as the bow wielding archer tries to stomp out the flames with his foot.

Edward whispers to Xalmann, “Close your eyes, I’ll blind them.” Edward waits a couple seconds for Xalmann to close his eyes before weaving several glyphs of light into the palm of his hand. He raises it and a light brighter than the sun flashes in front of the bandits eyes. The bandits scream out in pain as the light pierces their eyes and two of them, a long sword wielding bandit and the great axe wielding bandit fall to the ground because they released their grip on the wagon to cover their eyes. The rest of the bandits are blinded by the light.

The bandit’s horses neigh in fear and pain and run in opposite directions, causing the wagon to stop and shake as the horses desperately try to run from the reigns tethering them to the wagon.

---

Solar Flare

Xalmann opened his eyes to see the bandits' wagon in chaos. Two bandits had fallen from the wagon and were now rolling on the ground with their hands over their eyes. One was trying to put out the fire on the wagon. One bandit was blindly trying to get the frightened and blinded horses under control. The other two bandits had leapt from the wagon, but were now standing with their hands over their eyes as well. Only the bow-wielding bandit that was now trying to put out the flaming wagon seemed to have been spared from the blinding light thanks to them having been turned away from it.

They were in such a sorry state after only two spells. It was.... disappointing. Downright pathetic, even. The Lizardman had expected more of a fight. His excitement drained away as he began to walk toward the bandits. As they did, the other three adventurers arrived, running from the wagon they had been staying in while Xalmann walked behind. Partially to be on guard, partially to avoid having to speak to them. When they saw the scene, they were shocked.

The bandits finally just completely abandoned the cart as the horses broke free of their harnesses and ran away blindly into the waste. The only one that was not blinded and holding their eyes in pain turned to the approaching lizardman and raised his arms into the air, dropping their bow on the ground in surrender.

"We surr-" their words were cut short by a slash of Xalmann's axe. The man dropped to the ground, gurgling with his hands on his throat as Xalmann walked past him, toward the next bandit. Even if they had been pathetic, the Lizardman would show them no mercy. Perhaps their disappointing performance made him even more merciless than usual.

Edward sees the chaos he had made for the bandits and sighs in relief. This would probably be an easy fight then. Then he sees Xalmann mercilessly kill a bandit, efficiently and quickly. Seems like the lizard man is an experienced killer. Edward grimaces seeing the cold blooded killing of the bandit. Although he has killed before, he isn’t really merciless or cruel. He still feels pain from taking a life. 

Edward walks up to one of the blinded drivers of the cart, grabs the man by the collar, and drags him to the ground. He then raises his staff above his head and swings downwards to knock the man out. Edward proceeds towards go to one of the fallen bandits, who has gotten up and is swinging his great axe wildly in Edward’s direction since the man was blinded by the light. Edward just dodges out of the way of a wild axe swing, steps to the side of the bandit, and jabs him.

The bandit gets hit but is still standing as he tries to swing towards where the jab came from. Edward didn’t have to move as the swing missed him by a lot. Edward sighs touches the man in the head as blue mist pours from Edward’s finger and into the man. Then the mist exits the bandits body and goes back into Edward’s body. The bandit slumps to the ground unconscious.

Xalmann continued on, taking the opposite side of the wagon that Edward had taken. He walked up to the bandit that was on the ground, their sword on the ground nearby. They must have dropped it when they had fallen. He placed a foot on the man's chest to hold him still before driving his axe down into their neck, nearly decapitating them. Another bandit was standing in front of Xalmann, their hands no longer covering their eyes. They seemed to have recovered a bit from the blinding, possibly because they had been toward the back of the wagon. They had been exposed to the light just a bit less.

Xalmann held his axe and dagger at the ready. This might not be as disappointing as he had though. The man held his sword in both hands and ran toward the lizardfolk with red, furious eyes from watching the brutal slaying of his companions. They reached striking distance of Xalmann and slashed their sword sideways, trying to cut through his stomach. Their blow was easily blocked with a swing of the axe. Surprisingly, the sword flew from the man's hand. They must not have had a very firm grip on it. Were these bandits complete amateurs?

With the sword flung to the side, the man was defenseless. He backed away from the Lizardman. It would have been easy to counterattack, but he was momentarily stunned by just how pathetic a fight it was. He sighed and stepped forward, ending the man's pleading with a slash of his dagger. This was an even bigger disappointment than if they had just been killed by the fire bolt.

He walked around the back of the wagon and looked inside. It was empty. Maybe they had just been that desperate for money or food that they thought they could actually rob a caravan despite their lack of training or skill with any of their weapons. Taking a better look at their armor and weapons as he walked by, they were all in terrible condition. Probably more to make them look intimidating than to actually function.

He walked back to the caravan. Edward could handle the final bandit. He had lost interest.

Edward sees that Xalmann is brutally efficient of the killing of the bandits. He slits their throats with such efficiency that Edward is both impressed and terrified. Edward can see that the lizard man seems to have something weighing on them. Maybe some sort of rage that keeps driving the lizard man or maybe a infinite void that can’t be filled. Edward sighs and shakes his head, maybe he’s been overthinking it. Maybe Xalmann is just a very experienced killer and just likes his job.
Edward shakes these pointless thoughts out of his head and rushes at the last bandit. He overwhelms the bandit with a flurry of jabs and swings. The bandit does his best to fend off Edward’s attacks but eventually, Edward was able to knock the bandit to the ground and knocks the bandit out with a jab to the face. 
The other adventurers just stand there, doing nothing to help them since Edward and Xalmann have already defeated most of the bandits by the time they got there. They were shocked by Xalmann’s efficient killing and move away from him when he walks by, clearly a bit uncomfortable. Edward is busy tying up the unconscious bandits and laying the dead ones on top of each other.

Xalmann walks back to the rest of the caravan, the other adventurers backing away from him a bit as he walks by. He only glances at them as he passes. They had been too slow to help in the battle at all. Or maybe he and Edward had been to fast. Either way, he was still waiting for them to prove themselves and so didn't care for them. Edward had proven he was capable in a fight, even if those bandits hadn't been much of one. It was something.

He went to the wagon that had the caravan leader and knocked on the door. They opened it up and looked to him for his explanation of the situation.

"Bandits attacked from behind. They are dead. No damage or casualties." he said simply before turning and walking away. That should be enough of an explanation. The caravan leader came out and began to give orders to the rest of the caravan. They would take a moment to deal with the bodies of the bandits before they began moving again.

He walked back to the back of the caravan to see Edward piling up the dead bodies with the help of the other adventurers. They must have wanted to help with something since they hadn't helped with the fight at all. The bandit's equipment was stripped from them, but it wasn't very valuable or useful. They looked like they planned to burn the corpses and leave the now roofless wagon on the side of the road. They didn't have horses to spare for it and the horses that had been harnessed to it were long gone.

Xalmann walked forward and motioned for them to get away from the corpse pile. Once they had all gotten clear, he raised his hand again and sent a ball of fire onto the pile. It quickly caught fire, but to be efficient, Xalmann willed the flames to spread faster until the pile was entirely engulfed.

Once that had been dealt with, the caravan continued onward.

The caravan rides on, with the burning wreckage of the bandit’s wagon slowly disappearing behind them. Edward looks out in the distance, thinking about what happened. The wastes are apparently a very dangerous place and Edward sees that the journey will only get more difficult from now on. These bandits were the least of the threats here, there are still lightning fields and dangerous beasts to contend with. Edward is glad he took this job though, as these travelers probably wouldn’t be able to survive the journey if they didn’t recruit  adventurers like him and Xalmann. No offense to the other adventurers as Edward hasn’t seen them fight yet, but Xalmann seems to be on a different level compared to them.
The caravan trudges on as the time passes by and soon, it was nighttime. Edward was the only one who is comfortable staying near Xalmann, the travelers and even the other adventurers choose to stay away at a distance from the lizard man. When it turned night, the leader wants to set up a camp for the night as the horses needs rest. He asks the adventurers to keep a watch out as the travelers begin to set up tents and tending bonfires.

Xalmann sits a little ways away from the fire as he eats that night's dinner. A simple stew made with root vegetables and dried meat. Ingredients that could last a while on the road. He wasn't a big fan of stew. It wasn't anything special, just made to fill their stomachs and keep them going on their journey through the waste. There was still quite a ways to go. The last town they had visited would apparently be the last one until they reached Frost Gale, so they had stocked up their supplies accordingly.

The other adventurers had started to avoid Xalmann since the bandit attack that morning. He didn't mind it so much. It was quieter like this. Though, he didn't really understand why they avoided him. Had he scared them? Did they fear his combat abilities, or possibly his fire magic? Only Edward seemed to not fear him.

He used to sit nearer the fire, but he decided to sit farther away when he noticed how uncomfortable the others seemed around him. It was cold at night, but he had stopped being bothered by the cold. His scaled were always warm to the touch despite being a lizard, so he wasn't bothered at all not being by the fire.

Edward finished scooping the food onto his plate. It wasn’t the best but at least it wasn’t the worst. He has been taught that any food is food that would keep you away from death. He feels the cold seep into his bones but tries to shake it off by drinking the still hot broth of the stew.
He finds Xalmann sitting farther away from the group and sees all of the adventurers and travelers looking uncomfortably at Xalmann, despite him being a distance away from them. Edward sighs in embarrassment at the group’s behavior. Everybody has a story and everybody has a distinct personality. Doesn’t make them bad of evil straight away. Xalmann may seem cold and ruthless but he isn’t using those traits against innocents. At least, from what Edward can tell.
Edward moves towards the lizard man and sits besides him. Edward sits in silence as he eats his meal before speaking up. “I’m sorry about the group’s behavior. They seem to be afraid of you. Why, I’m not certain. But I’m not afraid of you. I actually admire you. You are sure of yourself and make sure that everybody knows that. Not with words, but with actions.”