Fellows from Foreign Cities [Aoren]

[Naiya]

20th Day of Spring, 515 AV

Naiya was dusted in animal hair, and despite shaking out her clothing and washing the prickling and tickling strands from her skin, there were still the tell-tale signs of her close workings with the animals.

It didn't bother her really, it was the more that she just felt odd among the people here still, and looking like she had been dropped in a pile of animal hair didn't make her any more confident. Wildfire was especially unhelpful in this sense, rubbing his face against her whenever he was near. He was comforting her, and he didn't see any reason to change his behavior just because they were in a different place. Naiya couldn't find it in herself to be upset by his actions, but once she left she worried once more about her appearance.

That was currently of little consequence, though, because her reason for being especially clean was because she had intended to visit Zuva Creamery, in hopes of finding some answers about making cheese. The hunting cats hardly needed milk any more, and even with a group as large as they had at home, they didn't drink as much milk as their animals were producing. So cheese, yogurt, butter, and buttermilk were on the list of solutions for the Dawnwhispers. Yet, her visit to the creamery was not going well. That is, it was not going at all. She seemed to have gotten lost.

She had started out at Zhongjie Warren, the market in Riverfall, and a passerby there had told her the creamery was just down the road to the right... though perhaps it had been to the left?

The layout if this city had no rhyme or reason, and while she had found herself surrounded by beautiful flowers, when she has inquired about her location, she found that she was in a park. Semele park.

Which was certainly not her intended destination.

[Aoren]

“Life will always give an answer…though it might not be the one you expect.”

Aoren sat perched atop the edge of a wall not terribly far off the ground. Much had transpired in the past few days. It had cluttered his mind with thoughts that desperately needed to be sorted through. He had far more questions at that time than he thought there could ever be answers to. To alleviate some of that stress he’d chosen to jot down his thoughts in his journal. The sentence that he’d just written across the page served to outline his hopes. He closed the journal grabbing a hold of his pack tucking it away inside. He put the stopper back into his ink well then placed it and his pen into the pack hopping down from the wall.

“Going to need to get some more ink today.”

He’d been doing a great deal of writing lately. He supposed it was because he had a lot to say. Most of it he did not say aloud but still, he felt compelled to get it all out of his head somehow. The journey to Endrykas from late Winter to early Spring had gotten him no closer to discovering his origins than when he’d started. He knew nothing more about his family than what he’d managed to piece together in Riverfall. His heart whispered what his head refused to acknowledge. The greatest blessing that visiting the city of his people had bestowed upon him was the gift of Katya. The golden palomino strider was resting getting accustomed to the Sanctuary. Aoren was finding her to be a beautiful, steadfast soul. He still had much to learn about her but her company filled a hole in him that he hadn’t realized had been missing.

He thought on the layout of Riverfall. The only place that he knew of off the top of his head to find writing supplies was from Xira, who ran a courier business in the city. He would make a point to speak to the man when he could track him down. Xira was always on the move. It was not surprising given the man’s profession. Shouldering his pack, Aoren set out in search of his friend. He was bound to be darting about the city somewhere. Even if the Seer did not encounter him during the day, he would see him at some point during the evening. Like Aoren, the manned roomed at the Sanctuary when not doing business in the city.

He was just about to make a turn when a familiar face caught his attention. Aoren stopped puzzling for a moment as he tried to remember the woman’s name. Bright hair with a generally kind appearance. The young woman was looking left and right as if she were searching for something. It was a look that was familiar to him. He’d had the same one when he first arrived to the city the past Fall. Adjusting the pack over his shoulder he made his way over to the young woman. He spoke, the words of the grasslands flowing from his tongue. His grasp on Pavi was only slightly better than when he’d gone into Endrykas. He was still by no means fluent, the sentences still short given his small vocabulary.

“Naiya. You are lost?”

The phrasing was far from correct but at least he’d remembered to put the proper inflection on the end of the sentence. Aoren gave the woman a friendly smile.
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[Naiya]

Her musing wasn't helpful, although it did keep her from being upset. She had been excited to find the creamery. She still intended to do so, but only if she could find her way there.

"Naiya. You are lost?" Her name, her new name. Someone she knew? A man's voice, not nearly as familiar as Shahar's, but one she knew she sould have recognized.

It didn't quite startle her. She wasn't exactly in a private place, or an overly quiet space. All the same, the calling of her name was not something she expected, especially not followed by her native language. She found the man who had spoken, Oron, Oren? He had traveled with them from Endrykas, with Caelum and the child. He was a Drykas, bonded to a Strider, a beautiful palomino.

She knew him, but perhaps not as well as she might have otherwise. It did not make finding a familiar face any less comforting, or any less welcome.

Lost, yes her hands shaped the words, she supposed she was indeed lost, although not so much an inability to find her way home - well not yet anyway, that still might come - but a similar lost in that she had not found her way where she was going.

"Aoren." She spoke, fixing him with a smile, pleased, well met, relief, "I am not where I had hoped to be, although this is a beautiful place." She glanced around once more, a look of appreciation rather than one of searching. "What of you? What are you doing here?"

[Aoren]

Naiya seemed a little confused upon first setting sight on him. He wasn’t surprised. The two of them had not spent much time getting to know one another. He waited for the recognition to dawn on her and soon enough it did. The smile she offered spoke volumes when one knew how to listen to such things. Little by little he was learning just how to do such a thing. He inclined his head humbly returning the smile. He moved his hands with a little more ease than what he once possessed. Home. Place of rest.

“Riverfall is my home.” Curiosity. “I can help?”

He recalled his first few days in the city of the Akalak. They had been rather confusing. Were it not for the steady guidance that had been offered to him by Xira or Caelum, he likely would have still been relying on the map given to visitors. It was not so difficult a layout once one got the handle on it however. Besides, he had not much else to do that day except for the chores required of him around the Sanctuary. It would be nice to stay out and about before he returned to see that they were done.

“What is it you look for?” Aoren reached inside of himself drawing upon the pool of power that flowed through his body. He brought it to his eyes that they might be opened to a world beyond the mundane. In the world of understanding, of grasping the meaning and intent of another, what better tool was there to use than the magic created for such purposes? With the assistance of Auristics, Aoren peered at Naiya searching the planes of her aura that he might better gauge how to help her. He saw in her a small amount of relief, obvious confusion likely related to her present predicament, he also saw curiosity. None of these things were surprising but they helped nonetheless. Aoren gestured to the road ahead of them, his body assuming a slightly inquiring tone. His head cocked slightly to the side, his shoulders lowered and his arms extended forward.

“Travel forward?”

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[Naiya]

Seeking, time passed, mild frustration her hands shaped the signs, flowing smoothly into what was a semblance of missed opportunity.

"I was looking for the Creamery," She informed him, glancing around once more as if to further point out that her search had failed. "Now I think I would just as soon return home, there are meals to prepare, and animals to tend to." Her words held less upset, and more purpose. She had family to care for, and animals to tend, that was no burden. Family, she was discovering, was worth the time and effort. More so when she managed to bring smiles to their faces. That wasn't really a difficult task, but it still provided her with a goal.

Although, she was beginning to grow worried about their provisions. She had been given a cooking kit on her departure from the Nightsong pavilion, but she had hoped to save the spices there for when times were tough. Her foraging had grown rusty at home, the Nightsong children having taken the lead, and she could hardly remember the tastes and uses of the herbs and plants that she had learned as a child. All in all, she was struggling to bring anything home on her trips out into the grass, only bringing the same few things home over and over.

Her thoughts surfaced, breaking from her mind into her speech. "I have been trying to find some plants and herbs to put into the meals, but there are so many plants here I don't recognize..." The flowers around her could attest to that, and then there was her utterly hopeless attempts to navigate in and around the city. If she wandered beyond the reach of her sight of her tent, she often had to call for Wildfire to make her way back. Although, she had not yet wandered so far that she lost sight of the towering walls of Riverfall. Apology, distracted, musing her hands shaped the words as she realized how strange the comment must have been in their current situation. She blushed, and ducked behind her curtain of hair.

Aoren had some plan in mind, inquiring whether they should travel onward now, and Naiya was happy enough to let him lead her wherever it was he had in mind, for he was, as he had pointed out, much more familiar with the city than she was. She nodded, grateful acceptance shaping her body as she allowed him to lead the way forward.