April Djed Storms bring May.... (Open)

[Balthazaar Kraigen]

Balthazaar had put all of the pieces together, except for the strange dog by the campfire. I made sense in retrospect, as he had observed that she was sitting in the same spot as the dog had been in or wolf or whatever she was. Honestly he didn’t know and was not going to potentially offend her by asking or assuming. Just the simple fact that she was a Kelvic was all he needed to know. He always felt more comfortable with Kelvics than other races. The animal inside of them made it communication simple and easy. No complicated societal rituals or blatant denial of the animal inside everyone. To top it off, Kelvics were also incredibly loyal to those they cared about and as result made them excellent companions.

“Yeah, where I come from the Kelvic come and go quite frequently. Only a few stay for long periods of time, but everyone that I’ve met have been incredible individuals.” Balthazaar said with a smile as he reflected upon the many different Kelvic he had met in the Spires. A pang of homesickness hit him at this moment, which quickly transformed into overbearing guilt. He lets thoughts of his mother float into his head for a brief second, then quickly dismissed them. There was nothing he could do now, no reason to let it consume his thoughts.

“So the Icewatch, huh? What makes you want to do that? Any particular reason?” Balthazaar asked with genuine curiosity. He had finally reached a comfortable state with this individual, the fact that she was a Kelvic made it much easier to do so.

[Sliver]

Why did she want to join the Icewatch? Why did she ever want to do anything? She was an animal through and through, part of her was programmed to survive as best she could in the conditions she was faced with, and she attempted to do this with aplomb. Then there was the Kelvic, the animal whose survival was not based solely on itself or those of its kind, but those of other races, to bond with them, to do their every whim and bidding. Many times this thought process ran counter intuitive to the animal one that was the core of the Kelvic, but this didn't matter, you were an animal Kelvic, a servant and beast, trapped in this submissive role due to the ancient and powerful magics of a man whom everyone assumed was dead. This, however, was neither here nor there. The strange way Marcus Kelvic's magics had taken opposite natures and bound them into a whole was of no concern to the beast that resulted from them, for she was the tool, and she was steadfast in her task. "Because I am Kelvic." Was her curt response. It truly summed up the whole of her knowledge of herself, and her reasoning behind her decisions to travel the city, the true nature of her being. Of course it did not explain why this particular task she chose to undertake, did not elucidate why she had chosen to guard the Everwinter City, and not bond to a wandering trader, or become an inn bouncer, but Sliver found no need to explain any further. She rose from her seat, dousing the fire with some nearby saltwater, and grabbing her things. She slung the backpack over her shoulder, and stretched out, then turned her inquisitive gaze back toward the Botanist. "I tire of sitting." It wasn't very informative, but there was a whole city at their feet, and Sliver had no particular destination in mind, just the need to keep moving.

[Balthazaar Kraigen]

Balthazaar took a moment to process her answer. Having spent time with quite a few Kelvics in his life, he knew that this answer was not a bizarre one. In fact, it was very stereotypical, but it still seemed to throw him off his guard. While he was pondering this, he almost didn’t notice the young female Kelvic dousing the fire and packing up, ready to head off on her next adventure. Taking this as a signal, Balthazaar also proceeded to rise and pack up his things. When he had securely fashioned everything to his person, he proceeded to take position next to Kelvic, ready for her to lead the way.

“So…anywhere particular you wanted to go?” Balthazaar asked with a smile, turning his head to look lock eyes with her.

He wasn’t really sure whether she wanted him to follow her or not, but he really didn’t care. She was the first person he had really had a conversation with since he had left home. Even when he was forced to lead his traveling group, he spoke very little with any of them. So he wasn’t about to lose a potential friend and ally. Besides spending time with a Kelvic seemed natural to him, it reminded him of home and made him feel a little more comfortable in this giant city.

[Sliver]

Thrusting her hands into her pockets, eyes darting this way and that the Kelvic led Balthazaar into the city. There was no point informing him that with no knowledge of the city she couldn’t really know where she wished to travel, so she remained silent as always and wove her way through the streets. The Kelvic did not mind urban areas, despite her solitary existence, human cities reminded her of herds of deer, or other roaming livestock, and she was comforted by the animal traits she could find in places alien to her. Of course, while the city was bustling, it was a series of activities born of fear and confusion. People worked like pre-set clockwork to clear streets while children sat on street corners, holding dirty or broken toys in their hands, looking listlessly into the distance. People had lost their jobs, their homes in this storm, and while the Vantha were a proud people, they were obviously feeling lost, out of place in the city that they knew, transformed into something foreign. The smell of rotting food that people had had no trouble preserving before permeated the streets, along with far more unpleasant odors. Sliver made sure to absorb this. She was just another ant in these workings of the world, and she never liked to think of her own misplaced attitude as any different from what others, like the Vantha, would be feeling at a time like this. She paced down the streets, completely unaware of the man who was most likely in tow, continuing to her unknown destination. She knew it when she found it. While she kept the location of a popular looking tavern in her mind as they passed by it, she still was in no mood to sit back down, and the boardwalk she found, its elegant archway looming over her, provided precisely the solution she sought. It was much closer to a series of woodlands than anywhere else the Kelvic had espied in the city, and despite the fact that there was no snow, several flowering plants had cropped up on the borders of the walkways, making it a more hopeful area than the muddy downtrodden city proper. It was here, where the bustle of the streets ceased nearly altogether that she picked up on the footsteps of the Botanist behind her, and slowed her pace so that they might walk alongside one another. There was nothing she wished to say, nor that she wished him to say, but regardless she waited for the unnecessary break in the silence that would surely come from the stammering man…or perhaps the other side of him.

[Balthazaar Kraigen]

As the young man made his way through the streets, following Sliver, he noticed the ridiculous amount of damage the Djed storm had done to the area. As the people scurried around the city trying to salvage as much as they could from the destruction, Balthazaar couldn’t help but smile a little bit. There was a part of him that enjoyed the chaos that the storm had caused and a part of him that enjoyed the sight of others in suffering.

‘They look like little mice, scurrying around in panic because the world around them is starting to crumble under their very feet…it’s a glorious sight…isn’t it?’ A voice in his head whispered softly, reassuring Balthazaar that what he was feeling was justified. For a moment Balthazaar got swept up in this feeling and began to imagine stepping on the mice while they scurried around. However, it didn’t take long for Balthazaar to realize what exactly he was imagining and wiped the thought from his mind and the grin from his face. These thoughts were not his own, he was not about to let them take over. When Balthazaar finally snapped out of his thoughts, he realized that Sliver had brought him to a part of the city where it was closest to the forest and the wildlife.

Looking around him, he noticed that there were patches of flowers and other herbs growing around in this area and stopped briefly to examine them. There were quite a few that he had never seen before and he was eager to see if any of them had particular properties that could be useful for his concoctions. However, before he had any real chance to look them over he noticed that Sliver had slowed down and was waiting for him to catch up. Deciding he could always learn about them later, he grabbed a specimen from each of the plants he had never seen before and tucked them away in his pack, leaving only one out to examine while he walked with the young Kelvic.

Once he had finally caught up with Sliver, he slowed his pace and looked at his companion briefly. She didn’t seem like she was ready to start another conversation, but at the same time he wasn’t really expecting her to. From what he had breezed from this individual, she spoke in very short and precise sentences. So he couldn’t imagine her initiating any small talk between the two of him, meaning that the duty fell on his shoulders.
‘Oh man…’ Balthazaar thought to himself, trying to think of something to say. Finding it easier to talk to someone when he was doing something else and not looking directly at their face, Balthazaar grabbed the plant specimen that he had left out and began examining it before asking:

“So…where do you come from originally? I can’t imagine it was anywhere in Taldera…”

[Sliver]

Her nose scented the air, tasting the faint perfume of the plant the botanist held in his nervous hands. Her mouth opened slightly, taking in a slow and thoughtful breath before replying. Sliver considered it humorous he thought her not from the region when it was the closest thing she had found to a home as of late. You'd be right. I come from Sylira originally. The wolverine thought to leave the conversation right there, and for a few long moments continued walking. Then that inkling of humanity that sometimes tugged at her mind, encouraged Sliver to chime in with her own question. If she just continued what she always did the man would probably just leave. This idea was not something The Kelvic would mind per se, but for now his company was not unwanted either. If you seem so quick to know I am not from Taldera, does that mean it is your home? Her gaze lingered for a moment on his features, turned away from her, then her attention was back at the greenery as they paced down the well worn pathways of the boardwalk, waiting on his response, sense perusing the surroundings.

[Balthazaar Kraigen]

Balthazaar focus began to drift off as he walked along the beaten path of the boardwalk. Various smells of the surrounding scenery were creating an air of nostalgia in the young man’s mind. He began to day dream about his home in the Spires. If there was one thing he missed most about it, it was probably the scent. If you ever asked him to describe what this scent was, he would be unable to tell you. It was as if, his home carried an aroma unlike anything that had ever drifted into his olfactory receptors before. It simply smelled like “home”.

In his semi-cognizant state, he almost didn’t realize that Sliver had not only answered his question but posed one of her very own. With a frown, he shook away from his quiet happiness and once again joined the realm of awake. Putting on the best smile he could muster, he turned to the young woman and said:

“We should go explore the town! I’m sure there is something fun to do.” Balthazaar said quickly, as he rushed past her in the opposite direction of the boardwalk. As much as he loved the greenery of that area, the aroma was bringing back too many memories that he was trying to forget. The farther he could get away from his memories, the farther he could get from the pain that they brought, or so he thought. He didn’t know exactly where he wanted to go, but he had a feeling that the Kelvic would follow behind him regardless. So off into the streets he ran, if only he knew: you can’t outrun the past.

[Sliver]

The Kelvic was just as confused as ever. This individual seemed practically bi-polar in the way he behaved. She shook her head as she watched him run, but couldn't help but be dragged along with his enthusiasm. Her feet shifted, she counted to three, then set her hips in line with her toes and dashed off after him, catching up and racing past him easily. She'd have to slow down eventually to allow him to show her where he wished to go, but that needn't mean she let up her advantage presently. So the wolverine wove through the crowds of people like she was after a rabbit, barely brushing up against the constant throng, mouth open, tongue lolling like an excited puppy. the Vantha of the city barely seemed to notice as long as she didn't actively get in their way, and she enjoyed the human obstacle course the streets provided, bare feet splashing through puddles and muck with reckless abandon. Eventually the illusion of elation wore off and she slowed, allowing the botanist to take the lead and go where he will, she had no particular desire this afternoon, and since she had picked their last location, it was his turn as it were.

[Balthazaar Kraigen]

'Show off' Balthazaar thought to himself as he watched the young kelvic rush past him deeper into the bowels of the city. If he had been even the slightest bit competitive he would've tried to run after her and tried to outrun her, though in all reality he probably wouldn't be able to beat her even if he tried. He kept a steady pace behind her for the duration of her jaunt and when she finally slowed down to let him catch up, he rushed past her and took the lead, searching for a place to stop at.

They traveled for few more minutes before Balthazaar spotted a small brick building hidden away from the main part of the city. Unable to determine the identity of the building from afar, he decided to run up for a closer inspection. It wasn't long before a large set of letters entered his visage: Stories in the Snow: Library of Avanthal. A surge of excitement pulsed through the young botanist after reading this and he quickly rushed inside, momentarily forgetting about his companion.

Once inside he was instantly greeted by an elderly gentleman who seemed to be sorting through a pile of overdue books.

"You're a new face, what brings you here?" The man asked with a smile, briefly breaking eye contact with the Balthazaar to stamp the book in his hands before returning his focus to the conversation at hand.

"My name is Balthazaar, I just arrived here and was....ummm... looking for fun things to do around the city"

"Well if you like books, you came to the right place! We may not be a very large institution, but we have a fine collection. If you are interested in taking any of them out, swing by the desk and we'll see if we can't set you up with an account here" The elderly man smiled again and then returned to his work.

Balthazaar was about to go rushing deeper into the library when a naggying thought floated into his head.

'Aren't you forgetting someone?'

A pang of guilt erupted inside him and he rushed to the door to see if the Kelvic was still around. Poking his head outside, he saw that she was standing at the foot of the building looking somewhat confused. Motioning for her to join him, he smiled and exictedly said:

"Come on in! This place is great!"

[Sliver]

"Great." That is the word you used to describe a hunt when you had barely caught your quarry. That was a word used when you had successfully beaten your opponent to the ground, or when you found a warm dry cave to sleep in for the night just as some thundershowers began outside. Books, were not great, they were not even close to great. Books were strange jumbles of indecipherable code that made Sliver's head hurt when she looked at them too long. That all being said, however, as soon as she looked at the botanist's face, she could tell he was set on this, so she followed him into the library, practically glaring down the man at counter, he wouldn't have to worry about her setting up any accounts. Sliver ran her long fingernails over the spines of the books, passing aimlessly through one aisle to the next, removing the tomes as if they were made from glass, then replacing them in a hurry when she opened them to reveal walls of tiny text, like some kind of witches curse, waiting for her to read it. Eventually she stumbled across a book of animals with many more pictures than most. While she had no knowledge of letters, the Kelvic understood numbers well enough, and many of the pictures had statistics like weight and height, she could read these. Pleased with her find she collapsed on one of the chairs and began to study her find in great detail, eyes occasionally searching for her companion who was clearly more at home in this sort of space than she was.