Completed Shyke it all!! *Fallon*

[Kreig Messer]

513 A.V. 11th Day 4th Bell, 14th chime. He awoke with a silent start, his room mates none the wiser to new shade of white his face had turned nor the sweat the ran down from his forhead. His heart beating like a party drum as he breathed in out deeply 'They're getting worse.' It was the same nightmare, its precense dulled in earlier times but now it returned with full force like a hammer shattering a bead of glass. Slowly, once he regained himself, he removed himself from bed quietly and tip toed out the room, not wishing to awake Percival and Orion, though he doubted would awaken so easily if he had been about gallivanting again. He had slept in his day clothes so he didn't feel the need to change his clothing. Nor did he felt the need to at least wash his face or grab his items, including his precious gauntlets.... He simply wished to be out of the dorm room as he quietly left and made his way to the training field. It was barely morning as it were, the twilight cast by syna ascending as Lheth had already decended, the two gods eternal in their game of chase, well, not really a chase but it looked it. He stared as Syna's light faded out the night, what stars whose shine could he seen were buried under the goddess' own. It provided a nice distraction from his current thoughts as he rubbed his eyes, trying to banish the sleepy feeling. In the past days he found himself unable to eat proper, few bites seem to stave his hunger but not enough to nourish his body and thus he lacked in energy. The food seemed to lack taste, or perhaps that was what his fatigued mind thought, its energies spent on banishing the memories while his body begged for it to turn its attention to its senses. He ran his hand over his face, it felt thinner than it should be. He wondered if his room mates noticed... or perhaps they wrote it off as the rigors of training. But Orion....He may notice it for what it truly was...Fallon and Sera Natasha may take notice as well.. He sighed as he looked back to the sky, wondering if he should return for his gear or to instead settle for the training equipment at the grounds. It was then as he unconciously rubbed the side of his waist that he noticed the lack of his gauntlets and murmerred a silent curse. His decision made for him, he quickly made his way back to the dorm rooms to retrieve his items and may as well wash his face to erase any trace of sleep. As he arrived, he opened the door slowly... hoping to wake no one as he went to retrieve his gear, he certainly hoped no one was about to wake either as time crept closer to the waking bell. Though he gather it wont be difficult to sneak past and that his sense of time would like be off, as summer days were quite long. As he entered to boys room he scooped his fauntlets and secured them firmly to his, then gathered his swords, his real one and its training counterparts and left the room as quietly as he could. In hopes of not dropping his various items.

[Fallon]

Fallon was lurking.

It was something she had only begun doing recently, sticking to the low light areas in rooms, silently watching and listening to those coming and going. She would stay as quiet as possible, and tread around the room with gentle steps upon an unsuspecting victim. Except of course, most of them noticed her being there when the floorboards creaked loudly to which then a slightly confused expression would plaster itself there. In return she would simply blink and regard the person silently, before sliding her way back to the table and start writing once more. And today was no different.

Bare feet padded around, her book held in her hand. What was she going to do today? Was she going to brave the outside world of summer and heat? She pulled a face as she peered out the room and into the main body of the suite. There was the distinctive sound of movement in the air, of the clinking of metal and wood. The night owl Fallon, stepped out towards the table and paused. For a moment her ears twitched, her head turning to towards the source. The book was placed down upon the table, her fingers resting on top of it as she listened.

Someone was indeed awake and moving about, the low footfall marked that. Of gathering of… something. Equipment most probably. At this bell though? Well she could not say much herself; she spent more time being awake at night than training in the day time. Heat was a pain after all. Sliding into place, the squire perched herself down on the chair, and placed down the quill and ink. What was she going to do? Write? Most probably. She had barely turned her eyes to a blank page before the groaning of wood beckoned her.

Eyes turning up, she looked upon the door to where the boys were sleeping, and then to the tip toeing form of Kreig as he tried to escape as near to silence as possible. She gave a blink, followed by an almost lazy flick of the wrist as she addressed him directly, “Being an early bird on the training?”
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[Kreig Messer]

He was almost free, not far from the door as he carried his equipment down and he could go back to the training grounds and claim an excuse for looking so darn tired. To not be badgered by a multiple of questions as to why he’s up so early or be told he looks like shyke and just go back to bed to not….. “Being an early bird on the training?” “Petching….” Kreig nearly jumped as he heard a certain voice, struggling to catch his balance and not drop any of his belongings. He turned to see that certain girl who seemed to be lurking in every shadow, the dorm rooms very own ghost whom he should have remembered rarely seemed to sleep early. “Oh by Dira’s will…. You nearly gave me a heart attack Fallon” He sighed as he looked at her, with the lack of light it was possible she couldn’t see how shyked he look. Him looking disheveled wasn’t uncommon, the brawler rarely cared for physical appearances, especially since it will only be ruined later….He’s worried that she would notice how disheveled he was. “Well, yes….. I found myself awake quite early this day, might as well make use of it and get some training done early” Which was a truth, he didn’t know if he could lie to Fallon and quite frankly didn’t want to. But he really didn’t want to explain why he found himself awake at this hour “So…um….what are you doing up yourself? I knew you stayed up late, just not this late”

[Fallon]

Fallon watched him juggle his gear as he looked at her almost in surprise. Her lip curled in amusement as she watched the squire flinch in response to her voice, surprised almost by the fact she was about and awake. The outline of Kreig in the low light was clear, a few distinctive features and colours being picked out barely in the candle light. But the small things were invisible to her, hidden well in shadows and hues. The girl gave a snort, “Should learn to keep yourself on your toes then. Unless you want me scaring the petch out of you again.”

Taking up the quill and ink, Fallon undone the vial and placed it down on the table, before she scratched at the surface of the page. She drew a circle, and then pulled the ink down into a figure of eight her lips wetting as she heard the answer from Kreig. In honesty she did not think a lot of it, but then again his business was his. And so it would stay that way, unless of course he truly wished to share.

“It’s cooler at night,” Fallon explained herself “So… I do more at dark, dawn and dusk, whilst resting in the daylight hours. That and…” she gestured about “It’s quiet, and I can think. There is no hum of people and no judging eyes upon you as you train.” There was a quick shrug, and she held the page in place as she begun to write across it. Though at present it was simply a string of words that were unconnected to each other. Thought. Think. Mind. Heart. Existence. And so on. She gave only a quick glance at Kreig “Well, be sure to drink lots of fluids and so on if you’re going to train. Make sure not to push yourself too hard. And so on… you know what I’m saying. Also try going to sleep later if you keep waking up this early. Or get a blindfold.”
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[Kreig Messer]

‘I think scaring the petch out of me would go easier without you lurking in the dark like a bat’ He silently retorted as. He felt himself sweating all over, hoping to step out as quickly as possible before ended up saying something stupid and get himself in a very uncomfortable situation. He at least knew why he seemed to see less of her during the day though; indeed the weather was indeed cooler during the night than it was in the day. Of course there were those humid which made living in a city near the sea unbearable. He hated such days in Sunberth and Syliras wasn’t too different although it was much cleaner. He looked at her in the darkness as seemed to scribble words or doodle on the paper with her quill. It was too dark to make sure, could have been both really. He always admired Fallon for being interested in such things, he could barely write his own name clearly much less write a poem or some small tale. He was simply brawn than brains, the longer he stayed in this city the more he realized the bits of reading and writing he knew in Sunberth didn’t matter as much here where more than half the population seemed to be able to do the same things better than him. When she gave her advice about sleeping, he didn’t know what possessed himself to damn himself with these next few words “If a blindfold can make that nightmare stop, I’ll take it” Then came the belated realization as he heard his own words, wondering what came over his mind to say such things. He silently prayed to Dira or to any god that she didn’t hear what he said as his body broke out sweating full force, his heart racing quicker than a flying arrow ‘pleasedontask pleasedontask pleasedontask’

[Fallon]

“I heard that if you eat cheese and other dairy products that you can get nightmares that way,” Fallon gave a shrug followed by a yawn “I heard bad diet can do it too. Might be wrong though.”

Her eyes did not miss the change in tone or the mentioning of his problem. But she chose to keep her thoughts quiet for the moment. Lead him into a false sense of security and so allow him to spill forth. The best things were discovered when given willingly after all. The nib scratched at the page, a low hum reverberating out from her lips as she thought. She dipped it into the ink, and drew a long black line underneath her written text.

Once, there was nothing. A void. But it was from that void that life did spring.

Fallon paused for a moment and looked upon Kreig with narrowed eyes. Her fingers drummed against the surface “Water… maybe you’re not drinking enough before you go to sleep. Or you’re not doing enough training. Maybe you should tire yourself out before crashing. Do some exercise,” she flashed a grin “Ask me nicely and I’ll do it with you.” Her attention once more was returned to the page, the nib filling the silence for a chime or two. Or at least until once more she stopped again and addressed the squire “Kreig, when you were younger what did you want to grow up to be?”

The girl leaned back in her chair, her eyes locking upon the trembling form of Kreig, before a single hand gestured to the chair that sat opposite her “Come, sit, talk to me. We have not done so in a while and I think a good… catch up is in order,” Her lips curled and she gave a blink “How is Syliras treating you?”
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[Kreig Messer]

In any case Fallon didn’t seem too concerned, maybe the darkness of the room did better at hiding his now even more disheveled appearance than he thought? He felt himself calm….somewhat, he still felt as sweaty as a pig. He listened to her theories or suggestions on why he’s having trouble sleeping, he was certain it wasn’t a lack of water intake ‘Drink plenty enough as it is during this season’ He sighed internally, then he quizzically wondered what she meant by helping him with exercises if he asked nicely, even more so by her mischievous grin before resuming to write or scribble on whatever she was writing on. Then came a question he never thought about much as a child…. Being from Sunberth the common desire for any child to grow up was to be rich , powerful or get the petch out of there once they can which all equated to ‘I want to survive in the end’ For Kreig, it wasn’t really about survival, he just wanted to fight and get tossed into dangerous situations…. He sought the jaws that would lead him to Dira’s embrace only to escape those Jaws for better or worse.

“I never thought much about that truly” He said, his voice suddenly hoarse as something seemed to be lodged in his throat “ I….always wanted to fight, even as a small lad…. For me it became natural to earn my living as a fighter in the cage matches at the gambling establishments or the death arena in the blood pits, I’ve simply always wished to be a fighter” He shook his head and gave a slight chuckle . Then she motioned her hand and asked him to sit ‘Catch up’ she said since they haven’t interacted much in the past number of days.

Hesitantly, but a bit calmer now, sat down on the chair opposite her “I suppose it’s treated me well…. Just so different from Sunberth, it’s just so clean and….lawful” He sighed as he let those words out “ There are some places I've found to help me cope, like the fighters pit run by an ex-squire. Usually go there to fight with other people there..." He recalled the first few days of spring that added to his sleeplesness, but those days were due to being unable to sleep rather than restless sleep caused by a single repeating nightmare.

"The people aren't too different, though I don't quite fear a thug at every corner or being stabbed in broad daylight" Not that he had that fear to begin with. He then looked at Fallon " And what of you, how do you find the city?"
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[Fallon]

Fallon continued to write as her acquaintance sat himself down opposite her. She gave a few nods in understanding, her lip curling as she listened . A boy from Sunberth who never thought about his place in the world. On the occasion that she herself had been stuck in the city for the winter she too felt the grasp of fighting, the simple want of coin and most importantly survival. Old habits that she thought she had left long behind emerged and she herself felt the change existing upon her. But that felt it was little more than a life time away now and perhaps for the better too. Still, she could not knock him about at least being a fighter. It was still an aim.

“The blood pits… Oh I remember those,” she shook her head, and lowered the quill. The cheering, the noise, the crunch of flesh against bone, the stink of sweat and blood. She gave a shudder and listened to Kreig as he continued talking. Choosing not to interrupt him, Fallon leaned back in her chair and pulled at the collar of her shirt. What bell was it? She was not sure, but it seemed light outside. Or at least that was what her body was telling her. Smothering a yawn, the squire gave a nod

“Syliras is Syliras, just as much as Sunberth is Sunberth,” she gave a shrug followed by a frown “It is treating me as it always treats me. Another person in the crowd, another face passing by. Nothing more, nothing less. Don’t think half of them realise I’m a squire unless I tell them. Kind of amusing really,” she gave a snort “Then again, kind of useful too. You can get the opinion of people and the truth out of them. Can learn a lot too also. Well, more than just a lot. But you’re right, people are the same. Just like elsewhere.”

A moment of silence took Fallon as she quietly thought to herself. Her eyes turned and snapped to Kreig, unmoving from his own. Straightening she spoke in a purr, with both her hands placed firmly on the table “So… why did you leave Sunberth if you like fighting so much? Surely you could get away with a lot more there than here… No real law after all exists in that city.”
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[Kreig Messer]

He felt calmer now, he didn’t know Fallon had been in Sunberth at some point in her life, he couldn’t imagine her being in such a city despite knowing her history as a traveler ‘Gods we truly didn’t speak that often’ He felt guilty about that, they joined on the same day and he owed her his life…. Yet the time they spent together was so short it was like counting to ten. But he was glad she understood how it was to survive, at least…. It seemed she understood his way of survival ‘She even knows the blood pits’ he wanted to chuckle at that, but he only felt relief that she was no longer there…. Sunberth was a home he loved, but it was rare for outsiders to survive it if they stayed for long durations and he was glad Fallon was of the few.

Kreig looked at her appreciatively, but there was that nagging feeling…. She understood, she sympathized but that nagging feeling told him she was just waiting, a patient hunter that’s slowly. He chuckled at her words about Syliras, it was pretty much the same for him in the regard that most didn’t recognize him as a squire ‘Actually I think they show outright shock’ He found both amusing and annoying, but it was mostly the former.

Then came the question, the reason why he had that nagging sensation. Why he left Sunberth, she was right…it was much, much, less restricting when it came to fighting… he could’ve fought anywhere in Sunberth “I feel regret about leaving it….oh I know it’s a pisshole, but for a man like me who loved to fight it was perfect and I was proud for surviving, for never falling into its traps. When I fought it was usually in self defence or my oppoenent knew that when we fought death was perhaps waiting” His own were brought together, clasping each other as his elbows rested on his knees and his face brought closer to them “ I knew I was no paragon of virtue, but I was a smart dog…. I kept to my morals and survived long to this age” He then gave his a blank stare “My soul had survived just as long” Had was the key word….

“Then came that summer’s day, a summer’s day where I was defending a turf for friends who never returned…… An associate asked that I learn the sword and I was training for that purpose. As I trained two individuals came” The memories began to flow into his mind, a damning memory that haunted him in his sleep. He couldn’t lie to her, she lured him into this sense of security and asked a question that he could only be honest about now.

“One man was tall, the other was unusually short. It was the taller of the duo who approached, jovial, friendly but he wasn’t shy about his intentions… He wanted that spot, I was to defend it. We talked like buddies, threw barbs at each other” He took a deep breath, recalling a fight was usually a much happier occasion for him. But in this case it certainly wasn’t, he could see the images flashing in his mind over in over, his eyes blank as if he were in a trance.

“I only had a wooden in my hand, he had a real one. Wasn’t even wearing my gauntlets, had to feel the blade. But he had his own steel blade… he knew how to use it like I used my own fists.” He fingers began to tremble, parts of the nightmare mixing with memory. He could see a living corpse, he was fighting against it.
“ I enjoyed the fight, I mixed what little I had with the sword and my own fists. I gave him a good fight…eventually I was on the ground with a broken wooden blade, its sharp points……he was standing above me and ready to kill, but I saw what he didn’t…. I stabbed him with the now lethal wooden sword and he fell”


“When I stood up, that’s when I stood up…. And the smaller attacked, he wanted to kill me with his dagger” He began to rock back and worth, the memories now violent waves crashing a stone. He wanted to stop talking but he can’t, his head ached but the memories wouldn’t let up. Never stopping…. Tears began to form and he couldn’t feel them flowing down his face “ I didn’t let him kill me even I saw his face, but an unintentional thwack…. I just wanted to push him way, not punch. But he had stabbed me and I just reacted. He couldn’t move, his tiny fingers stopped, his tiny breaths…stopped….I shooked the corpse, I yelled at it to wake up. It just didn’t and I was left with a small, tiny, corpse…..he won’t leave me alone, I wan’t to sleep but he won’t let me be….he won’t let me” His mind was caught in a trance, the memories won’t leave, they’ll never leave not after death. He was a monster, a damn forsaken monster.

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[Fallon]

Fallon listened, for listening was what she did best. She leaned back in her chair, her eyes narrowing down upon him like a hawk. Arms folded, her expression calm she made no attempt to judge him. Not yet at least. He was a fighter, a brawler to the very end. It was in his blood and his nature to exist as he did. It allowed him to survive this long, and in this world that was a vital and important skill. Especially in Sunberth, it was very important. It was how she managed to claw through her time there. Yet the more he talked did she realise the uneasiness and the direction this conversation was heading.

Finger drummed against her arm, the steady rhythm beating out to the rate in which he drifted in and out of his speech. His verbal resentment and suffering pouring out to her. A tightly guarded truth being exposed to the air. But it had also ensnared him; it had caught him in a memory that grasped tightly at his very ego. It was a face she had seen before. Not just on his own face, but her own. That haunting thought that would follow one for the rest of their days, that poison to corrupt the thoughts and command hesitation. Her lips pursed her eyes narrowed.

Even she understood that even the worst of memories would return one day. And it was those same memories that would define that individual to the very end. Sahova had done the same to her. The Wildlands had done the same to her. All the places had done the same to her. And all had supplied her with a pain she knew far too well. But still she did not speak, she let him finish. For it was the least she could do.

Yet the hold of the trance continued, and worsened. The nightmare played out, and it repeated itself. Tears fell, the patter of droplets sounding out in the midst of his monologue. A sure sign that it was a heavy load for him to carry. Too heavy perhaps, and one that begun to internally destroy him.

And that was the sign to Fallon that enough was enough.

Standing the squire stood, working her way around the table towards him. A slow, steady pace with her arms resting at her side. Hovering before him, she looked down, her eyes blank and revealing little of her intentions. Nostrils flared, her jaw tightening. Was she angry? She was unsure, her only thought was snapping him out of his current plagued state. Her hand rose, fingers splaying outwards as she brought the hand back. A sharp intake of breath, and the hand swung down across her.

It was the sound of a slap that resounded out shortly afterwards, the eyes fixed upon him. But within a tick she had grasped him tightly and pulled her arms around him. She held him close for a good time, her hand stroking his hair, the other resting on his side. She hushed him, her chin resting on his shoulder as she gently rocked him. She exhaled and pulled herself away briefly from his sniffling. Hands planted on his shoulder as she looked down defiantly upon him.

“Your name is Kreig Messer. You are a human. You are a noble and well-being human. You seek to succeed. You seek battle. Not for bloodshed, but for the safety of yourself and for others. You are a squire, A knight to be. Your judgement has been placed upon you time and time again, if not for the times before then the times with me. You have fought your past time and again, you have redeemed yourself not only in the eyes of our Patron, but in my eyes too. For if it was not for you…” she trailed off only briefly, “I would have never made it here. I would have never been able to come home. You have pulled up the courage to fight when all odds are against you, and that is more than I would ever be able to achieve.” A sigh was released, a hand resting against his cheek. She gave a small smile, “And don’t you dare ever forget that! You hear me?”
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