Al listened to the conversation between Zoshonel and Parker with some interest, and little to add. Before long, he noticed the half-horse creature heading towards the bar, looking like he'd had entirely too much to drink.
"Parker, Draconian, would you excuse me for a bit?" he said with a smile.
He followed the strange alien to the bar and sat down next to him. He ordered a pint of a strong, rich, ale-like substance he was familiar with. A few moments later, the bartender set the heavy metal tankard on the bar in front of him with a dull thud. He took a sip, raised an eyebrow as he looked into the tankard, then shrugged and took another.
Still staring straight ahead, he spoke to Julian, "Hell of a day, eh?" Turning towards the man, he held out a hand and smiled, "Name's Al."
Salem continued to peer into the trees. Where was Rathien? Even knowing what direction the hunter was coming from, spotting him in this environment wasn't easy.
A bit of movement lit up a small area of his display briefly, and so slightly he wasn't even sure he'd seen it at all. When he looked closer, though, he could see... that was pretty clearly Rathien. Wait... that was pretty clearly Rathien already drawing a bead on him...
Salem dodged to the side at the last possible moment. The tiny, unsecured corner of his cloak that hung down caught the wind and flapped out beside him as he moved; the Entroper's shot managed to clip the very edge, causing part of the fabric to be torn and ripped apart in the resultant explosion. He was thrown headfirst to the ground, his head bouncing off a rock with a sickening crack.
Stunned, he did his best to roll and scramble to his feet, more out of instinct than any ongoing thought process. His ears were ringing and his head was spinning, and dust kicked up from where the entroper's shot had hit the ground behind him was making it difficult to breathe. He glanced down at the rock his head had struck and noted that it was a thin, flat rock, that had broken clean in two. He felt a dim satisfaction- better the rock than his skull. But... he could already feel a warm, wet trickle running down his scalp from the impact point. Wasn't there something else...?
Oh, right. Rathien. Rathien could see him. Maybe coming out into the woods here wasn't a good idea. Without people around, the hunter wouldn't hesitate to kill him.
The thought was enough to make Salem move. Unable to clearly see Rathien through his swimming vision, he fired two shots offhandedly towards the tree he'd been in. He activated his hover boots and began 'skating' backwards in the direction of his forest trap, somewhat less steadily than he should. Thanks to his damaged cloak, a brief flash of random color would occasionally emanate from his side.
