Quest Restoring the Web (Team 2)

[Jackalope]

Restoring the Web 31 Fall, 512 AV As with most things, the plans to restore the web didn't go exactly as expected. Several of the web users who had stayed behind were attempting to keep an eye on the teams who ventured forth by using the newly woven web to follow their movements. When checking on one team, it was noticed that their attempts to further the all important web had stopped, and they were no where in range of what still existed. All that was visible in the distance was a grove of trees, and beside that, endless green grass. Organizers of this great restoration requested another team to go and investigate the disappearance of this group and finish their job if the worst had come true. The grove which was visible from the end of the webbing was their target, so it seemed to be only a short amount of work away. Whether the team was found or not, there was little more to be done. The Sunsinger Pavilion was called upon to help in this task. Although Leto was out with another team, Sam'ael, his two apprentices, and Khasr were gathered. Besides Sam's competence being known, there was another reason for them to be sent away. It appeared there was a pox spreading alarmingly quick. It would be best to get those unaffected, especially those involved in the Watch, away from the city until they could figure out what was going on. So early on the thirty first day of the season, plans were made for the team of Sam, Mealla, Ronan, and Solicah to depart Endrykas, follow the web to their goal, and see what happened to the original team. The moving city almost seemed to be in mourning, as worry about this disease overshadowed the unfortunate disappearance of a group of skilled riders. If good news could be brought back by the new group, perhaps that could lift some spirits. ooc : Alright, feel free to do some posts getting ready to leave, and when it all looks set, I'll move this along! Thanks guys, I hope you enjoy this!

[Ronan]

OOCThanks Jackalope! Morning dawned on Endrykas. The Sunsinger Pavilion were up and moving early, after Sama'el had woken them all. A constant worry hung over them. A pox was spreading through the tent city. Ronan had heard rumours that it had already taken lives, though he did not know for sure. Disease was always the worst thing that could strike Endrykas. Clothen walls and clustered animals were not effective barriers against such a threat - in fact, they made it worse. It was not the pox that had them getting ready to leave though. A group who had been out restoring the Web had gone missing, and the Sunsinger Pavilion had been called upon to investigate. Something had happened to them, and Ronan could only feel ice down his back, and the worst assumptions. Glassbeaks. Zith. There were too many threats out there. Ronan left the tent. The air was cold. Outside, he patted Tairell down and readied the Yvas, steeling her and himself for whatever might lie ahead. Inside, the others were getting ready.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

Things were not going the way Sama'el had hoped. Ronan was up and getting ready, and though he hadn't seen Mealla, he knew she was diligent and likely would be ready when the time came to ride out. He didn't like leaving his pavilion with the threat of disease in his wake, but they had Denen, who was a competent healer and blessed by the goddess Herself. It would have to do. Duty called, and even Leto had been drafted for this. And Leto was now missing. His guts churned as he triple-checked Bigarren's yvas and his gear for the trip. Denen and Jyn would take the cub and Jyn's daughter as well as the livestock a safe distance from Endrykas. But Sama'el had not said goodbye, for he intended to return. Though he longed to ride the Sea of Grass on his own bonded Strider, he thought it wiser to leave her with her foals. If worse came to worst, Ronan's Tairell was the only other mare in the herd, and Mealla and Andraste would owe his pavilion nothing should he die and she live. But these were dark thoughts, and he set them aside, instead focusing on hope. Priskil ought be with them, else they would have died a long time ago. "We'll just wait for Mealla to arrive, and I was told a man named Solicah would join us. Then we will go. The sooner we are out of Endrykas, the easier it will be to search what remains of the Web for them."

[Solicah]

Matted curls shook against the cloth rolled into a sleeping pad, and with them shook the foundations of Solicah's tender heart. His mother's sobs pooled in the tent, and seeped out its thin barrier with a haunting consistency. Her cries and occasional screams were not alone. The Moondirge Pavilion had been spread thin for the spring, and well into the sweltering summer. They had given countless brothers and sisters to Semele. And then, as the rush of the storm's victims finally waned so had the resolve the seemingly steadfast clan had summoned in the wave of tragedy the preceded.

Finally the Pavilion mourned for their losses, and indeed they mourned unabashedly with pining wails in the night. Leth's night that still hung around Solicah as he pressed his pale lips to his mother's temple and held her firmly with his hands, the hands of a now grown man. There were no words to share as he held her, as he gave a weighty goodbye in form of embrace, and tear fringed kisses. There were no words that could revoke loss such as hers, nor words that should steal her right of pain, and Solicah had been taught this wisdom from the very moment he had come from her during their rite of birth.

He did not move from his duty as a son till his mother slipped back into a restless slumber. Struggling at quiet grace he took his already packed bags, greeted Aureunna with another of his salty kisses and mounted her with a trained familiarity. His lightness returned to him as he perched upon her, and he let the tears fall without wiping them away.

"Let them fall," his whispered Pavi drifted harmoniously through the darkness as he recited the saying, "Like bodies, and stars; tears must fall to Semele. Fall and nourish the soil for the grass to grow..." His mother's saying comforted him, reminded him not to regret the pain, not to resist the change.

Hooves against cold parting grass let out near silent reports as he shifted his weight with Aureunna, as they walked slowly through the morning hours to the near heart of Endrykas, where he would find his new purpose, and an old friend.

[Mealla Stormsong]

She’d been awake for hours, too excited, too frightened, too nervous to sleep. Her weapons had been cleaned and cleaned and cleaned, her arrows checked over, bow inspected, and her supplies long since packed and checked, and checked again. She would not falter and fall at the start-line; of that she was determined. She’d pull her weight. She’d succeed. This would be her first proper mission, and, though she was only really coming along as Sama’el apprentice, she wasn't going to allow herself to fail. But it was not just that that had kept her awake. The pox was spreading, spreading from tent to tent, the cloth walls no barrier against it, and she feared it. She feared falling to it. She didn’t want to die before she’d seen beyond the Sea of Glass. It was relief, then, that they were going far, far away, but she also felt guilt. Was it not wrong to leave so many people behind whilst they suffered? The Drykas did not abandon their own... but the mission was more important. The Web was life. She moved finally, stepping from the tent to where Andraste stood outside, yvas already readied, weapons and supplies strapped to it. She drew a breath, whistled to the horse, and headed off, knowing the mare would follow, to where the others waited. She halted when she saw them, and simply nodded, still too nervous, too frightened, too excited to speak. It had begun.

[Jackalope]

As everyone finally began to gather, the warming rays of light finally peaked over the horizon as the evening's dark had given way to day. A metaphorical sign, perhaps, or simply a routine which had happened for as long as history was recorded. Regardless, everyone was there, and it was time for the group to depart the relative safety of Endrykas for the always dangerous Sea of Grass. A young Drykas boy of no more than eight came running up to the Sunsinger pavilion, visible relief washing over the child's dirty face. He brushed his hand through a curly black mop of hair before continuing his brisk pace up to Sama'el and the others who had gathered for the important trip. "I was worried you all had gone! My dad's gone. You guys are going to find him, right? Can I come with you? Do you think he's safe? My dad wouldn't die would he?" The boy rapidly fired off question after question, the concern for his father evident. If his father had indeed fallen, he wouldn't be the first child to lose one to vicious plains. Indeed, it was far from uncommon for entire groups to be wiped out like that. Vicious animals, Glassbeaks, Snarlwings, even the grasslands themselves would claim life after life as the brave Drykas would co exist in a twisted circle of life. While the boy waited for his answer, the two expected members of the team would arrive. First Solicah, then shortly after Mealla, finally bringing their numbers up to full. As soon all were ready, they could depart and see what had become of the missing team. There were two users of the web in that group, so to lose them all would be a grave loss indeed.

[Solicah]

Solicah listened to the boy's loud pleas as he rode through the silence and he felt the desperation in the son's voice. He understood the need a son had for their father, and sympathized with the child. His concern, however, turned to Ronan. Solicah knew full well Ronan still hurt for his family, what son wouldn't? And feared the emotions the boy's ramblings must be stirring in him.

Without a moment's pause Solicah dismounted Aureunna so that he might be closer to the boy's level. It was his place in his Pavilion to soothe the children in times of fear, and so the action seemed automatic.

"What is your name?" He listened then said it, looking him in the eye, making sure to say his Pavilion name in a proud manner. "You're a bold young man. I can only assume you inherited that from your father. That means you must be a true son of the Drykas." A "true son" no such thing till the day your strider finds you, but he hoped it would give some title for the boy to be proud of. "Have you met your strider yet?" No was the answer, he knew it would be, otherwise the boy would have already been allowed to accompany the search party. "No? Well then that means your place is here, with your Pavilion. You will know when you should look because your strider will come and guide you. Till then you have to trust your father to be the man. Remember he, just like you and I, have traveled these plains before as Drykas and Strider. Just as we will again when we have done our part to lay the path to our people's future." He smiled in hopes the boy would take this as reassurance, never sure how other Pavilions viewed life and death.

"We are doing just that, making sure that your mother and you and all of our Pavilions have a path to return to this world with. This is the most important thing your father and us could possibly do. And, because your father and our party walk the same path with the same goal you can be sure we will find your father, but," He paused a moment and looked the boy over with a light contemplative smile before kneeling down in front of him and putting a hand on his shoulder, "you know what just might help a lot if we use Webbing? If we could have some of your hair." Solicah wasn't sure how close the boy and his father has been, or how much of a connection their body could provide. But, in a place where the laylines had been cleared the boy's connection with his father just might lighten a path, especially if his father still lived.

"Ronan, a dagger please." He straightened up and went to Ronan's side, extending his hand in request of the tool so that he may cut some hair from the boy's head. Once given Solicah offered a characteristic smile to Ronan before returning to the boy, smile still lingering. With a swift movement he cut a strand from the boy's head, set the blade aside then tied a single neat knot to keep the matted dark hair together.

"There, now you can help us, and stay here for your family. Like being in two places at the same time." He reassured the child, holding the cut hair up where the child could see then ruffling the child's head and straightening again.

"Now go eat so that you can be strong and big for when we return." He hoped the boy's father would not be dead, and if he were that their Pavilion would allow Solicah to speak with the boy again, to console him.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

Sama'el nodded to Mealla when he saw her. He offered her a little smile, knowing how nervous she was. They all were. Finally, there was something they could all be a part of. Things had gotten a bit better between them, but he hoped she would follow orders in the coming days. He didn't want to have to carry her body back to her pavilion. And he would miss her if she was gone. Just then a boy ran up, all words and wild hair. But before he could speak, the man who must be Ronan's friend Solicah Moondirge arrived and spoke to him. He was sure that was the man; the Moondirge pavilion was famous for its priestly ways, being some of the best in Endrykas when it came to funerary rites. But he added a request of the boy: "Tell me who is your father, little warrior. I will tell him how brave is his son when I find him." But they were all there, and it was time to ride. The other team might be in dire straits even as they paused to assuage the fears of a young boy barely older than Sama'el had been when he had lost his father, along with everything else.

[Ronan]

Though Ronan had heard of his coming, he was pleasantly surprised by Solicah's arrival. The boy had barely changed. Still golden locks and all the grace and glee of Syna. He passed the dagger without hesitation, trusting his old friend implicitly. He met the boy's smile, before watching as Solicah took a lock of the boy's hair. It would be a key in their tracking efforts... a tool as they entered the tattered remains of the Web. Ronan re-sheathed the dagger when he was done. He turned to see Sama'el and Mealla emerge, and gave his brother a customary nod. The tension between them had melted away a little, though there was still a smidgen, lingering beyond anyone's control. He felt pride at Sam's words to the small boy. He was growing into a great leader, and no one could take that future from him. Seeing everyone gathered, Ronan patted Tairell and climbed up into the yvas. It was time to ride.

[Mealla Stormsong]

Mealla said nothing, though she could not help but feel a sense of pity for the boy. If the others had not been there, she would have knelt before him and taken him in her arms and reassured him, but now was not the right time or place. Sama’el was the leader, and it was for him to give the reassurances, the comfort. She could not deny the slight admiration at his choice of words, at how he handled it, though that too was quickly stamped down upon, her chin lifting as she briefly glanced at him, as if fearing that he’d read her thoughts, or read her thoughts on her face. It was not what she wanted to feel, or, more importantly, what she wanted him to know, so that would never do. Her admiration had been growing as the days passed. It had always been there, along with other feelings that made her stomach churn, but still. With everyone here, Mealla turned and followed Ronan’s lead, leaping up into the yvas, though it still lacked grace. Her nerves made her feel dizzy, and she concentrated for a moment on simply breathing, in and out, in and out, though her heaart drummed against her chest. It was time to ride. The gods help them and keep them safe.