Where the Trail Ends (Napua)

[Syrin]

Time Stamp: Day 3, Fall, 512AV Location: Forest around Thunder Bay Ducking a low branch, Syrin comes into a glade with tall browning grass. He reaches down and plucks one of the clusters of little yellow flowers from of the grasses, and he brings the flower to his nose and smells the flower's strong scent. He leans over a pats the horses neck and says to her, “This is good place to stop, you should enjoy yourself here. I know you enjoy the tall grass with the yellow flowers.” He dismounts his horse and ties the reins to the saddle, he looks around noticing the tops of the trees are started turn a greenish yellow, and the tall sumac around the grove is starting to turn a deep red. He takes off his cloak and puts it into his saddle bag. He unstraps his quiver from the saddle and looks inside it at the assortment of arrows. He brought ten hunting arrows for the game, and he brought ten broad tipped arrows just in case the rumors are true and the mutated creatures are active today. He is hoping that is not the case, but the Inartans he's been talking to are adamant the monsters are around and hungry. He puts the quiver around his shoulder and he grabs his bow. He tightens his scabbard on his belt and warns his friend who has already started to graze, “Sapphire if you see or hear any signs of danger, Don't be a hero. Just run, OK.” The horse looks at him and blinks than goes about her business eating the grass. Patting the horse on the shoulder, Syrin turns and slips through a small opening in between to two tall bushes of sumac. Once out of the grove of sumac, Syrin looks around at the old forest of tall oaks and a mixture of red pine. He feels the breeze start to pick up and he can hear the rustling of the leaves in the air, and he notices a few greenish yellow leafs descending to the ground. Holding his bow in his left hand, he make his way through the underbrush looking for a good place to hunt. He walks for about a hour through the forest trying to be a quiet as possible. Obviously the leafs on the ground are making it nearly impossible to stay completely silent, but he does his to not advertise his presence to the whole forest. He looks down at his attire and notices the black leather armor must make him stand out in the green surrounding. He frowns to himself at this realization and he starts moving from tree to tree. Hoping he can stay out of sight of any game passing by. Eventually Syrin finds the perfect spot to perch and wait. He looks up at the large gnarly oak tree and notices a thick low hanging branch about five feet off the ground. He puts his bow around his should and reaches up to grab the branch. He jumps a little to help him pull himself on the branch. Now sitting on the branch, he looks up seeing another thick branch about another three feet. He stands up on his branch wobble slightly almost losing his balance. He widens his stance and spreads his arms out to regain his balance. When he regains his balance, he reaches up and takes hold of the next branch, and again he pulls himself up onto the next branch. He repeats the climbing process a few more times till he is about twelve feet into the air. When he reached his desired height, he slides over to the thick truck and takes off the bow from his back. When the bow is in his left hand, he leans on the truck and retrieves a hunting arrow from his quiver with his right hand. With his back to the trunk of the tree, Syrin watches the forest floor waiting for any signs of life. Three hours pass and there is no signs of any wildlife any where in the vicinity of his perch. Wondering if he should go back to Sapphire and make camp. Suddenly he hears a loud song of cicadas in the cool wind. When the cicadas stop their song, Syrin hears some rustling in the bushes, and he sees a wild boar come out from the bushes and starts foraging around in the dirt with its nose. Syrin smiles to himself and slowly puts back hunting arrow, and he pulls out a broad tipped arrow from his quiver. He knows boars are dangerous to hunt, and if he misses he might have to engage it with his sword. He slowly slips down into the neck branch three feet under him. The boar still engaged in looking for his evening meal takes no notices of the hunter slowly descending from the tree. Once on the ground he walks slowing to some underbrush, and he kneels down inside it. Holding the bow with his left hand, he puts the arrow on the string with his left. He takes a deep breath and with the sound of cicadas he stands up in the brush. The boar looks around him when the cicadas sound, but he continues his foraging. He raises his left hand up and the bow to line up with the boar, and with his right hand, he pulls back the string to his cheek. He lines the tip of the arrow with his eye, and all he takes a shallow breath. All he can hear is the sound of cicadas in the cool wind as he suddenly releases the arrow towards its target.

[Napua]

Time Stamp: Day 3, Fall, 512AV
Location: Forest around Thunder Bay


Feeling the cool air on her skin, Napua smiled and exhaled a long breath. The season had changed and it was making itself known by smell, touch, sound and sight. She liked being outside the gates, she liked being alone. It gave her the sense of freedom, perhaps the only time she would know it in the sense of no one ordering her about or trying to harm or take advantage of her. Here, she was just Napua, not a dek, not a runner, not a nobody.

She eyed the tall trees around her and slowly her thoughts become lost within herself as she walked slowly into the tall grass which came up to her thighs and ducked small branches that grew on shorter trees and she continued on through the brush, her mind at ease and her heart calm. The only accompaniment she had was her bow, a quiver of arrows and a knife she carried for added protection. She truly did not have much to her name but she did enjoy being outdoors so it was a risk she took.

Today she had hoped to find something to hunt. It was one thing to practice at the range but another to track and find your own prey and loose an arrow at a potential moving target that could also be potentially violent if you made the smallest error.

She moved amongst the grass, sandals cladding her feet for a change since she mostly moved barefoot to preserve the only pair of sandals she possessed for the time being and she eventually came to a clearing but stopped behind the trees and scanned the area with her eyes. All she heard was the call of birds, the rustle of the leaves and at times the faint sound of small animals moving along in the brush.

Hours had passed since she first step foot inside the forest but it mostly went unnoticed by her when she was out here alone. She kept to the edges of the clearing and continued around it in a slow encircling, hoping to find prey and soon enough she did spot something coming into the clearing. 'A boar, great.' She thought. 'Not only dangerous but also meaty and definitely something you had to put work in.' She stayed where she was behind a large tree and slowly unslung her bow, getting an arrow out and notching it. She drew back with practised ease and lined her shot before releasing it and watching the arrow fly across the clearing, waiting those few precious seconds to see if it would hit home.

[Syrin]

Syrin frowns when he misjudges the distance of his shot. He watches his arrow sail over the boar and lands some distance behind it. Suddenly another arrow strikes the large pig in the upper buttock, and the boar whirls around to look for its attacker. A short distance away, he notices a young girl with a long bow looking to see if she hit the target from around a tree. Catching a glimpse of her crimson hair, the wild pig turns in her direction, and it prepares to charge. Syrin swears to himself in Denvali, and he loudly make his way out of the thicket. Hoping to catch the attention of the boar before it charges the girl. Once he is out of the bush, he drops his short bow and unsheathes his sword. The pig whirls around and notices the man with the sword in his hand. Syrin can see the hatred in its eyes as the wild boar charges him. Syrin holds the point of the sword down to the ground, and he takes a open stance as the boar closes the distance between them. Staring at the boar, Syrin waits till the boar is committed to its charge. He jumps to the left of the charging boar, and he slashes up ward with his talon sword slicing the boar across the shoulders above its left leg. Syrin hears the boar squeal in pain as it crashes to the ground. Syrin turns to face the boar as he notices the wound in it shoulder is hindering it strength to get up quickly from the ground. He moves quickly towards the wounded animal and decides drive the heel of his boot into the shoulder wound to drive the beast down into the ground. He raises his sword hilt upward and he drives the blade of the sword into the neck of the boar impaling it to the ground. After impaling the beast, he grits his teeth as he tries to hold the pig to the ground with the sword. Suddenly the boar violently twitches beneath him before the beast goes motionless. Syrin slowly pulls his bloody sword from the pig, and he turns around to the other hunter with a smile. When Syrin turns around to face the young woman, he looks himself over noticing his sword arm is cover in blood. He turns around and wipes his blade on the fur of the pig. He turns to the young woman and ways her over to him with his non sword arm. He smiles at her again and says loudly to her, “Come on over and claim your prize!”

[Napua]

Napua keeps still and watches the arrow whiz and spin through the air, her eyes narrowing now as her attention seems intently drawn to see if it will fly true to its target. She raises her brow when another arrow whizzed past the boar but hers striking home and she breathed a mutter under her breath. 'Great.. another hunter out here.. not again..' But she barely has time to focus on that thought when she sees the boar turn around in rage and look directly at her from her position behind the tree and she swears, backing out from the tree and stepping clear of it. She didn't want to trip over and have a large boar gouge her if she could help it and with just a long knife as her backup weapon, she drew it out and gripped it, widening her stance a little and waiting as she eyed the boar and waited.

Suddenly she heard a yell which drew her and the boar's attention towards it and she looks stun when she sees a dark long-haired male move from the thicket and into the clearing. She watches him drop his bow and draw a sword out and she inhales sharply when the boar dashes off into a charge at him and she comes further out the clearing, picking up into a sprint after the boar and towards the man. 'Is he insane!' She thought as she ran, her heart racing, her breaths coming quickly and hear the thump of her feet against the soft grass.

Napua knows she can't make it to the man before the boar evidently reaches him, which it does in mere seconds and she stops, her fingers twitching to reach for her bow again to let off another shot but she sees the male swing hard and upwards, cutting into the shoulders of the board and she hears the painful squeal from it. She begins to continue to make her way to the male now, her eyes staring as she watches the boar try again to charge but is kicked back by this stranger, who soon raises his sword and drives it through the neck of the boar, silencing it in death.

She returns the knife to her belt and as she approaches the strange hunter with the dark hair, she can smell the blood in the air and her smoky grey eyes look down at the dead pig before she eyes the stranger intently. 'I wonder who he is.. and I guess he'll likely want this kill too.. I hate when this happens..' She thought, sighing inwardly, her eyes soaking in every movement of the stranger when the bloodied sword is cleaned over the boar's fur and when he smiles at her again, she just meets it with another dubious squint before he invites her to approach and claim the kill, which surprised her.


"Are you certain?" She asks as she now stands a few feet away and keeps her eyes on the man. "Maybe.. we could share it.." She adds soon after though her curiosity soon gets the better of her and the man not appearing to be Inartan makes her even more curious, "Who are you?"