A Not So Lonely Road (CLOSED)

[Tahl'dhon Rashaud]

Timestamp: 77th Day of Winter, 511 AV - Evening Tahl'dhon could only see the road in front of his feet. He trudged along the road, far to his right the salty waves of the Suvan Sea crashed against the shore, the salty sea breeze sending shivers down his spine. He pulled his cloak closer around him to ward against the cold. He had lived in a colder climate than this most of his life, but that did not mean he was immune to the cold or liked it any better. He glanced to the left his silver eyes looking along the endless plains of Cyphrus; somewhere out there was Endrykas the moving city of the Drykas that the group he had been traveling with had told him about. At the thought of his ex-companions, Tahl's lips tightened slightly his gaze swinging back to the road. They had left him and Rash; sure they had taken the young knights money and promised to get the young Akalak to Riverfall. They had even taught him the basic language of his kind, and even a small amount of Pavi. But they had left him. They had decided that they had had enough of going slow to make sure the Akalak could keep up on his feet. They had decided he was close enough, and that he could find his own way there. In a way he couldn't really blame them, but then again he could. They had left early this morning giving him an explanation and instructions to continue on this road until he found Riverfall. He hefted his pack a grimace on his face, he continued on the road for a time until out of the corner of his eyes he thought he caught something out of ordinary along the shore. It looked like a camp of some kind a tent and fire pit, he glanced around looking if he could see anyone else. There seemed to be no one in sight. He shrugged moving towards the camp off the road. Tahl could tell Rash was uneasy he just smiled and continued to walk. As he moved closer he noticed, droppings of some kind; he assumed a horse. He kept walking right into the camp inspecting it. He didn't feel any fear, if anyone was near by they would have seen him coming. His blood red skin was an oddity wherever he had been. Finding no one there and that evening was falling fast, he shrugged putting down his pack. He gathered some driftwood and even broke some branches of trees and broke them down. He had been doing this kind of work for the travelers there whole trip, but once he brought the wood back, he paused. He hadn't actually been taught how to start a fire, yes he had the tools for it, yet he had never actually done it. Getting out his fire striker and piece of flint, he stripped pieces of bark and grass and put that together as kindling then he started to strike the steel against the flint, causing sparks hoping the kindling would burst into flame any moment.

[Meera]

She was at a slow pace with her horse, ensuring her kill did not fall. Her back ached fiercely from her fall and from the bed roll and she begged to get to her camp quicker. Ysane huffed air, feeling pain in her chest as she was stuck between wanting to go faster, and wanting to keep slow. There were pros and cons to both options, but she couldn't decide. Blood leaked from her hair onto her face and lazily she wiped at her brow. Ysane's stomach was still feeling nauseous and was made worse when she noticed smoke rise from her tent.

She kicked her horse into a quick jaunt to cover the distance, her back spasming at every gallop. Her vision had difficulty focusing but she saw a tall man, clearly Akalak as she drew closer.

"Aren..." She whispered, hopeful he had found her. But this Akalak was red. Blood red. Instantly she worried he was here for her, to kill her. She couldn't fight him the way she was right now, so she slowed her horse from his gallop.
With her braid undone and covered in antelope blood from head to toe, she had very little concern he would recognize her, especially at their distance. She was about half a mile away from him when she drew her bow and cocked an arrow against the string. With failing vision she struggled to aim, and with her back hurting the way it was she struggled to keep her bow up.

"Reveal yourself, Akalak!" She yelled in seamless Pavi. For good measure, she yelled the best she could in Tukant.
"You! Who is?"

[Tahl'dhon Rashaud]

Tahl'dhon stood up smiling broadly, extremely satisfied. It had taken him while and had caused more then enough waste of kindling and flint, and he had had to move the wood to make a wall against the breeze to shelter the fire, but he had made a fire, with no help. He stood up rocking back on his heals adding another branch to the small fire, and putting away his flint and striker, he glanced over at the wood, noticing that he had used up quite a bit and made a mental note to go gather more. For now though he just rocked back on his heals, his hands out towards the fire, inspecting his handiwork. When he heard the voice cry out in Pavi he stiffened visibly, jerking around to glare into the darkness. The surprise of hearing someone yelling had caused him to only be able to hear the last bit and it was luck that he actually knew that word. His eyes had been staring into the fire so they where dilated and could not see well in the failing light. He closed his eyes and shifted his gaze to infravision, when he opened his eyes he searched around for the source of the noise. He caught site of an odd shape he had never seen and at first he felt slightly afraid wondering if it was a monster of some kind, then he mentally kicked himself when he recognized the shape; a horse and someone mounted on it. He switched his vision back to normal glancing back into the darkness. Rash had almost mirrored every emotion Tahl had felt up to this point, but had squished it away to be dealt with later, but he also was annoyed at Tahl for taking the easy, but dangerous route of using the camp. Tahl held up his hand outward to show he was not armed as he stood tall glaring into the darkness. He had heard those last words and had not fully understood and he put that on his own bad knowledge of Tukant. He searched for the right words in his memory. He was not comfortable to speak in Pavi so he chose Tukant, in broken Tukant he spoke. "Mean no harm. Share camp?"

[Meera]

Good, she thought. He speaks common, and she was better at common.

"Akalak not armed does not mean safe," She yelled back. Dizziness took over as her concussion set in. She had the sense to lower her bow, the arrow dropping from her weapon before she slumped towards her horse. Ysane was grateful she hadn't unbraided Darksand's mane, for she clutched to his neck and made her moment of weakness appear to be a sloppy way to dismount her horse.

Ysane's package of skin and meat fell with a heavy thud and she hadn't the energy to carry the load and lead her horse as well.

"You mean to share camp, you need to help, Akalak." Ysane patted Darksand's neck. He shook his braid nervously, wary of the newcomer. Before she left, she had the sense - feeling quite like she had a few nights ago, being, what did Aren call it? Drunk - to collect her arrow she had dropped and replaced it in her quiver, slinging her bow around her back. "Carry flesh and meat." Ysane pointed to the crumple of blood and skin.

[Tahl'dhon Rashaud]

Tahl'dhon smiled as he heard her speak common. He was only newly taught Tukant and PAvi and he didn't think he would have enough knowledge to converse much with someone who was fluent in either; maybe Tukant. He did not completely understand what she meant, by it not being safe even if he had no weapons. He assumed she meant his size and strength. He lowered his hands as she lowered her bow and dismounted. He nodded and smiled as he saw the meat the young girl pointing at it. He was amused somewhat that he had been afraid of her, she was so small. Like stalk of golden grass. Though she was covered in blood; who's blood was it? hers or the beasts. He assumed the beast, because if a person lost that much blood he didn't think they would be able to stay alive. He quickly reassessed the girl, she had brought down the beast, maybe not an incredibly dangerous beast, but she had still killed it. He nodded again and spoke in common this time, "Of course.", and moved forward slowly, but steadily to make sure he did not scare the girl. He reached down and hefted the carcass onto one shoulder; it was very light to him, he was use to lifting weights or rocks or even trees to keep up his strength, but this beast seemed small and light in comparison. He walked towards the camp, placing down the carcass with care assuming she wanted it cooked. He paused then kneeling next to the fire frowning; he didn't know how to cook. The Larks had cooks, and on his way here he had been with others who could cook. He glanced over at the girl and without thinking asked in common, "Erm miss, do you know how to cook?"

[Meera]

Ysane regarded him carefully as she made her way back to the camp, walking her horse with a straight back. He had hefted the antelope's side and the full body of skin as though it were a light sheet of fabric. Ysane was strong and she was used to carrying her tent and her pack of clothes wherever she went, but the idea of hauling her kill even half a mile made her head spin.

She didn't answer the red Akalak, instead she checked the heat of the flat stone she had placed in the fire. It was still cold, and that suggested to Ysane that this Akalak hadn't been here entirely too long. A quick observation to her tent, the flap door swaying slightly and ajar, she was able to identify her pack undisturbed still crumpled in the corner.

Being near the fire dried the blood on her clothes far too quickly and her clothes had begun to cake to her skin by the time she worked on slicing the meat into moderately sized steaks using the blade she had used to kill the beast with. By the time she had sliced the antelope's side into decent portions, she was working stiffly. Her back had remained straight as she worked, her face had more blood smeared under her eye as she swiped away chunks of her hair out of her face. Ysane worked in silence, not caring much to the Akalak she was now in the company with, but still maintaining contact with his position every minute with a quick flick of her dark eyes.

Once the carcass had been sufficiently portioned, Ysane had worked up a sweat from the fire, and from her pain. Not caring much to the heat of the wide but low fire again, she tested the heat as she had her hand approach the flat stone. The heat had increased tenfold from earlier, and she couldn't dare touch the stone in the middle.

They were running out of firewood. Ysane had used broken branches to fuel her fire from the few trees around her camp, but now they were running quite sparse. The sun had begun its final descent and she held the back of her palm up to the horizon. Ysane lowered her fingers until the sun was hovering just above her index finger and mentally counted the time remaining with their day light. They had less than a half bell, she estimated. With sudden determination, she slapped two steaks on the flat stone, which sent a flurry of sparks against her arm and into the sky to sparkle in their short life and die. She had much to do before they lost daylight completely, and already she could see the pressing night in the sky.

"Wood," she spoke softly over the loud pops and fizzles of their fire. Ysane connected her gaze to the Akalak's silver hues - rather relieved his eyes were not the vibrant yellow of Aren's - and pointed to the sprinkling of trees slightly behind the camp and to the side. The steaks needed to be wrapped in cloth to be protected, and she would dip them in the water behind her tent to leave overnight to freeze. She had no tarp or fabric, but she did have her bloody shirt, a clean chemise in her tent. That would be what she would use.

When the Akalak had gone to rend the limbs from the few trees she had pointed out, Ysane laid out her hide. It would need to be stretched and the fur scraped off, she knew, but hadn't the mechanism to secure the hide to stretch. She would need to soak it too. She sat and debated with herself if she shouldn't just use it as a fur blanket for right now and work it into rawhide later, or make it into raw hide now, which would be the best time to do so for the quality. Regardless, it still needed to be cleaned.

[Tahl'dhon Rashaud]

Tahl'dhon watched the girl as she worked, she seemed to be ignoring him. While she worked he sat down and inspected her. She sat stiffly, almost as if she was uncomfortable; maybe it was his fault, maybe she was scared of him, or uncomfortable in his presence. That thought made him shift slightly. But when he thought about it he berated himself for his arrogance, it might not have anything to do with him at all. That is when Rashaud chose to butt in. It is still wise to be wary. It may have nothing to do with us, but let us assume that it does, we must be wary. Tahl'dhon frowned slightly. Always assuming the worst means you can never trust and will make you paranoid. Has anyone ever proven themselves worthy of our trust? The world has been against us since the day we were born. You seem to forget this, brother. I do not forget this, I only council that we take a path of balance; between pessimism and optimism. Between distrust, and trust. I tend to be naturally optimistic, and you and I know this. And you are naturally pessimistic, no matter how you try to disregard that fact it is true. We must balance each other out see each others strengths and weaknesses, and be better as a whole. You keep to your pessimism, I'll keep to my optimism, and we shall come together in the middle to make balanced decisions. Tahl did not mention the fact of Rashaud having instant mood swings all the time, but he did not need to. Well said, brother. I try. Tahl'dhon smiled feeling Rashauds mixture of emotions in the back of his head. His brother tried to keep his emotions bottled up, and it was true that he could see things more clearly then Tahl'dhon in most cases, but bottling up those emotions has consequences. Tahl'dhon shook his head, bringing himself back to the present, but he could not get his brothers comment out of his head; Has anyone every proven worthy of our trust? This made Tahl weary as he continued his inspection of the girl. She was matted in blood, which seemed to be drying. Tahl could not even make out a defiant colour for her hair, but he assumed it was lighter in tone. He had completely forgotten about his mental not to get more wood, when the woman pointed it out to him he nodded and smiled showing that he understood and was fine with this. He got up and moved out into the night grabbing upward he walked some of the limbs of the trees, not needing an axe or a blade of any kind, his arms and hands the only tool he needed. Once he had gathered a large enough bundle, which was large for him, but was huge fore most humans. He walked back to the camp setting the branches next to the other wood, he sat down and looked curiously across the fire at the girl who had stretched out the hide of the animal and now seemed to be inspecting it. "Miss, I never got your name." It was both a question and a statements, it sounded innocent enough, but it was a careful probe to his new acquaintance.

[Meera]

He was strong like his Akalak brethren, ripping the tree limbs as easily as Ysane would slice through a wounded antelope's neck. She was distracted by her hide, still debating on tanning it later or not, and by the time the red man came back, she was still undecided.

The winter would still be long, maybe a half moon left before it would be Spring again. The ground was crisp and her mornings were testament to that. The tent could only do so much to block the chill of the night, and if this man wanted to share her camp for the night, he would definitely be in need of a blanket. With a frustrated sigh Ysane turned flipped the hide over so the fur was down against the prickly grass. She pulled Osri from her belt and began to scrape gently the fat from the flesh.

The red man took a seat across the fire and addressed her. The word 'miss', not following a name like Aren usually did, was misinterpreted in her head to mean failure, but thankfully he had continued to speak to inform her. He was addressing her as a lady and Ysane gave herself a private smirk, the hair hiding her features.

This still posed a problem for Ysane. The woman would not tell this stranger her real name, Meera, just like she had done for Aren, but she certainly could not call herself Ysane anymore. Aren knew both her names, and should he or anyone be looking for her as she suspected this man to be doing, she couldn't reveal that about herself. She had a stroke of genius with Ysane, but at the prompting to give herself a new name she came up blank.

"A..." She started. "Aah... Aaren." She had just said the name of the man she had left behind, her word whispers transforming his pronounciation. "Aaren." She repeated, as if unsure herself, but knew she had said it once already and could not back away from the answer.

"You name is?"

[Tahl'dhon Rashaud]

Tahl's brows furrowed wondering why she was having trouble with her name. Maybe shes having trouble with the language? Shes lying. She’s lying! Rashaud started to cackle insanely, having lost control of his emotions. Kill her! Kill her! Rip her throat out! Watch the blood bubble out! He giggled in glee at that mental image. Tahl didn't answer; he had already thought of that and had hoped that it wasn't the answer, but he could find no other. He pushed Rashaud back down and locked him up mentally until he had better control of himself he would be not allowed out of his mental cage; though it wasn’t anything physical it just made it so Tahl could ignore Rash while he thought. Once he had done that, he paused entertaining the idea of lying to her then he shook his head, if she didn't trust him lying to her wouldn't help and he would prove that he was worthy of trust. He smiled broadly, "Greetings A-Aah-Aaren," stumbling over it just like she had and obvious little tease, "I am Tahl'dhon Rashaud, S-" He cut himself off abruptly almost saying too much, he frowned hating himself for almost saying; Slave of the Lark family, and personal slave of Jidara Lark. He shook his head ridding himself of those memories. He smiled as he thought of where Jidara was now, in some ditch in the forest with a broken neck. He then focused on the girl again, "So Aaren what brings you out here?" He motioned with his hand to their general vicinity. He pulled his cloak tighter as the temperature dropped continuing, "I'm on my way to Riverfall." He didn't think it would hurt to tell her, his destination. Why else would you been on the Kabrin Road here unless you were going to and from Riverfall, he wondered what group the girl fit in.

[Meera]

Her head snapped up. Her hair flew back heavy in clot and tangle as a bounce to her shoulder and he exposed her face to him. Her eyes examined him cautiously, as if judging any flaw, looking alert for any sign of untoward twitch or suspicious smile. He had teased her, and she wasn't a huge fan of that. Her lip twitched in the slightest snarl.

"Tahl'don." She repeated, just to make sure she was saying it properly. "Tahl. Tall?" She questioned the pronunciation of his name. "Tall done."

Her head returned to her task of scraping the fat. She had to work quickly. This Tahl would want a blanket if he intended to sleep at her camp, as Aaren didn't see one with him. She still needed something to cover the meat again... Oh, her chemise, it was already bloody, she thought with a bout of sudden, but fleeting clarity as though remembering something from before.

Aaren pressed a bloody hand to her brow as though it would help stabilize her dizziness, or aid in ridding herself of the sickness she felt creeping up on her again. She made herself clean the skin with more focus, scraping fat into the fire. The blood must really be starting to get to her, she assumed.

"Left Riverfall," she said loud enough to carry over the fire. She stole a glance to him over her shoulder. "Three days ago." Her voice, naturally gruff in Common, seemed softer as she recalled the reasons why. Aaren couldn't necessarily turn tail and go back, not now. "Can not go back...not now," She trailed off. "But can not go on." Her lips fell into a tight line across her jaw.

A few more minutes and Aaren was done with the fur, and perfect timing because the steaks were already threatening to burn, even for Aaren's taste. She bundled the skin and fur and tossed it over to Tahl before she stood to enter the tent to grab her eating knife. Tahl didn't seem to have many possessions with him, and if they were going to share the camp - an idea she wasn't too fond of to begin with - he had better eat. Once inside the comfort of her tent, she dug through her pack to find her knife when she stumbled upon her only clean chemise.
She'd best give Tahl the knife first, and so she did, sticking a hand through the flaps of the tall tent.

Right, she reminded herself, the dirty one would cover the steaks. The blood stuck the chemise to her skin and it ached to pull off, her tiny hairs sticking to the fabric. After not much struggling she decided to rip the damn thing off in one go and so she did. Aaren's torso had been stained the shade of wine from blood clotting on her chest and stomach. She pulled the chemise out from her pack and quickly rose to straighten when suddenly --

-- Her back spasmed and her face contorted to a look of pain, but she did not cry out. She held her back as she continued to straighten more slowly this time. Aaren finished dressing, and returned to the fire to wrap the meat in her shirt. She squatted and rested on her heels as she worked by the fire, bloody hands packing up bloody meat into a bloody shirt. Once she had tied it off at the top did Aaren stand once again.

Unconscious from a mild concussion, Aaren lay in a crumpled heap beside a roaring fire.