Solo [Job Thread] Unwavering Darkness

[Rinya]

Day 79, Season Summer, 513 AV

Nineteenth Bell

Late shifts were the worst in Rinya’s opinion. She was a creature made for daylight; her eyesight was best used in the light of Syna, not for the barely lit hallways of the Warren with the sun down and the darkness creeping along the walls. The Warren was in need of the extra help today though, since the next day marked Feastday. It was a chance to use up any food that may be ready to expire and make room for new harvested food coming into the city. Mostly it was nuts and dried fruits, but there was a plethora of items that could be used to enhance the actual foods of the day like spices and oils as well. The restaurants needed them for the early morning prep, and it was easier to move through the streets at night with such a large abundance of product.

The entire day the Warren had been bustling. At least that was what she had been told. Rinya had done her best to sleep through the heat of the day, knowing full well she would be up all night. She had tried to talk her way out of it as best she could, but she knew better than to question Raistren too much. Arrows were not the best choice in the dark, and her eyes were much sharper with more light, but he needed Rhys for the night shift and she was his partner.

It was a little depressing for her having to work this particular night shift too. Jorin had finally landed himself a job at the Amphitheater and she couldn’t attend his first performance on stage. Despite knowing that he fully understood her absence and didn’t hold it against her, she had wanted to see him in his element. He had always spoken beautiful poems to her, now she wanted to see him speak to a real audience. The colorful outfits and all—though she could easily give a guess she would always prefer his words to something someone else had written.

Rinya tried her best to keep these thoughts out of her head though. She would have other chances to see him on stage. If she let herself she’d project her feelings and that was the last thing Jorin needed… a distraction. Instead she focused on the tasks at hand as if they were entirely her life’s purpose. It may have been a little overkill, but she was getting the job done and that was all there really was to it. Since most of work wasn’t actually patrolling however, Rhys was in command of the body—and wasn’t bound to let her forget it either.

”Hey! Slow down Rin I can’t exactly move as fast as you.” Rinya barely glanced over her shoulder at the Akalak behind her. She did however actually stop for him. Since his run in with Jorin, Rhys seemed… softer if that was possible. He let up on the “pet” nickname for the most part—though he still had a knack for calling her “his girl”. Sighing slightly, Rinya placed the sack of dried cherries on the floor next to her and cocked her head at him.

”Don’t look at me like that, if you want to push the barrel be my guest.” Rhys snarled without any real heat behind it. He had been the one insisting on doing the harder of the two jobs. But his gentle grin was hard not to return. Rolling her eyes she nudged his shoulder with hers and lifted the fruit back over her shoulder as he finally caught up to her. She actually felt a little bad… while a lot of the spices and other dried items were not terribly heavy; Rhys was pushing barrels of some of the finer wine—that if she guessed correctly—were storied just for this kind of occasion. He was sweating and already looking a little exhausted from the few trips up and down the stairs.

”Almost there muscles.” Rinya teased as they climbed the last length of stairs and stepped out into the cool darkness of night. Several torches were lit around the entrance to the Warren, along with mounds of goods. Several of the other guards were in charge of picking up and delivering the goods to the restaurants around Riverfall. Placing the sack down next to Rhys’ barrel, Rinya stared out past the torches into the dark. It was a little unsettling for some reason. Something seemed off in the darkness, even more so than usual. Like pure animal instinct to get inside and stay there.

”A Mizas for your thoughts my dear?” Rinya snorted and turned to face Rhys.

”I did not realize I was so much for a simple thought.” She shot back and Rhys threw an arm around her shoulders as they made their way back inside. Wisely he chose not to comment either. There wasn’t much left to distribute and Rinya was intensely glad for that. She couldn’t imagine how long it would take to actually clear out the whole Warren just of food if the need ever arose. But she figured the next few weeks would be busy, restocking and ensuring everything would stay dry.

”Let’s just get this done.”

[Rinya]

Day 80, Season Summer, 513 AV

5th Bell

Despite the rest Rinya had attempted to get during the day, the middle of the night was still just as unpleasant. She desperately wanted to crawl into her bed and just forget she had a job at all. The only thing she was thankful for at the moment was that she was almost never set up for this kind of shift. She would certainly have to quit if that was the case. But in the very early hours of the morning of Feastday, Rinya was thankful she would have the next several days off.

Rhys had finally given in and let Seymantis take over for the night, with the entire product on its’ way to Riverfall. Now that the important tasks were over with, Rinya and Seymantis were patrolling the area much like they did during the day. Only she still felt completely useless. As they started at the pit of the Warren and worked their way up, Rinya realized she wouldn’t be able to fire an arrow properly with any sort of accuracy. She would have little to no time to aim. So wordlessly Seymantis took lead… not that they were entirely expecting much to happen so late—or early rather—in the morning.

As they moved up through the levels Rinya doused the torches on the wall. The guards remaining at the top wouldn’t need them. In her left hand she fidgeted with her bow. With her eyes useless, she had some serious thoughts throughout the night that she might want to take up some kind of unarmed combat—or perhaps some kind of sword training. Without her bow she was completely vulnerable. Granted Seymantis had no issue with coming between something and her, but she didn’t want to always leave it up to him to save her life.

”You are thinking too much. Pay attention.” Rinya snapped out of her daze, realizing she was standing at the top of the steps. Frowning slightly, she moved to extinguish the last of the torches. Following Seymantis outside, she instinctively grabbed an arrow out of her quiver. The air had the same feeling as before, far too quiet and still. She tilted her head side to side, but no one else seemed to get the feeling she got. It was probably just instinct to be asleep at this time of the morning.

Seymantis started to lead her down a path towards Riverfall. Thank the deities the shift was almost over. The skyline in the distance was slowly turning bright. The sight felt like it had been forever since she had last seen it. But an odd clicking sound coming from the dark around them caught her attention.

They had barely made it past the torches lit for the remaining guards before she spotted the first Glassbeak. She had never seen one before, but it would have been hard not to be able to identify one. Its’ size seemed monstrous to her, and at the moment she was glad it wasn’t focused on her, but the two guards lit up at the entrance. Perhaps their eyesight was much like hers? More effective in the light. Reaching out she silently snagged Seymantis’ bicep. He opened his mouth to say something but Rinya just pointed rightly at the large bird creature observing the Akalak.

The Glassbeak was clicking its’ beak, and Rinya immediately set about searching the area around them for others. Generally Glassbeak didn’t travel alone… they were pack creatures—lovely thought. Gritting her teeth, Rinya couldn’t make anything out in the dim light yet. Seymantis had drawn his scythe in a whisper, approaching the bird from behind as the creature made its’ way towards guards.

Following a few steps behind, Rinya pulled her arrow taunt and aimed steadily at the Glassbeak. Thankfully it was moving towards the light instead of away from it. Seymantis raised his scythe just as the guards at the entrance noticed the bird. A twitch in the wrist was all the signal Rinya needed. The light reflected in the beasts’ eye was more than enough target for her. She loosed the arrow into the bird’s eye as Seymantis charged. The Glassbeak wailed and Rinya drew another arrow. But she hadn’t realized she may have actually given away her position. A second Glassbeak appeared from the dark, slamming into her left side and onto the ground.

Rinya let out a breathless groan of pain as her back collided with the ground, knocking the wind from her chest and causing the quiver across her back to dig in awkwardly. Arrows from her quiver scattered across the ground around her. The beak narrowly missed crunching her forearm, but managed to slash a decent tear into her left forearm from the back of her wrist to nearly her elbow. The flow of blood was evident, but she was too busy dodging the talons coming at her body to notice any pain—yet.

Rolling to her right, Rinya lashed out and grabbed an arrow next to her. The bird was fast though, snapping its’ beak at her in agitation. Air was slowly leaking back into her chest and she could feel the tell tale signs of very bruised ribs coming about. Maybe even broken. Distantly she could hear the other bird release another wailing like sound, and the Glassbeak standing over her seemed to take a moment. But whatever decision it made didn’t matter much. It lunged at her, and Rinya swung her good arm with the arrow into the side of its’ neck. Certainly no death blow, but it made the creature rear back in pain.

And now she had no defense. The rest of her arrows were scattered around her out of reach… not that she could have even used her injured arm to attack with her bow. The Glassbeak decided the arrow was not enough of a nuisance to try and remove and leaped at her again… right into the path of Seymantis’ scythe apparently. The bird screamed, but it wasn’t a match for three Akalak that was bearing down on it.

Rinya realized after a moment that everything was feeling fuzzy. The wound on her arm was starting to throb with a sharp pain that set every nerve in her arm on fire. Even her vision was feeling a little foggy. She couldn’t focus on anything in particular, not even when Seymantis leaned over her… or was that Rhys talking to her? There was an echo in her ears she had never felt before either. And exhaustion—that was a familiar feeling out of everything. She just wanted to sleep. Everything hurt and ached and she just wanted to sleep.

[Rinya]

Day 80, Season Summer, 513 AV

Unknown Bell

There were voices over head that Rinya wished would just be quiet. Her head was pounding like she had taken a bad dive and hit land headfirst instead of the water. The voices around her seemed to be getting louder, and she let out a heavy sigh and then winced sharply. Her ribs were so sore! Taking a smaller breath, she opened her eyes to the sight of three Akalak standing over her. Two she did not know, the third was Rhys. As she stared at the three of them, one jotted something down and left the room.

”Rinya?" She frowned at Rhys’ tone. He never sounded so gentle and – distressed? Attempting to sit up, she pressed her hands into the bed below her before quite literally yelping and falling back onto the bed. Her left arm was on fire. Pulling it out from beneath her, she noticed bandages wrapped around her arm from wrist to elbow. The white of the bandage was also starting to turn red. One of the Akalak muttered something in Tukant before gently—but quite firmly—grabbing her wrist and started to unwrap the bandage. Rinya stared in awe at the stitches winding up her arm.

”What…?” She was having trouble remembering what happened. Looking up at Rhys for help, he just grimaced before sitting down into a chair next to her bed. He grabbed her free hand and started to play with her fingers. If she wasn’t so tired and confused, she would have pulled her hand away. Instead she let herself think back to the last thing she could remember.

There were flashes of darkness and heavy items… a late shift at the Warren. And patrolling and then… oh! Rinya let out a groan and let herself slide back down fully onto the bed, her head throbbing even harder.

”Glassbeaks.” The monstrous giant birds that tried to snap her arm in half and then her face. As the Akalak pressed some kind of salve against her stitches that made them both sting and cool, Rinya tilted her head to look at Rhys again.

”Yeah. A young pair that must have wandered off the Sea of Grass.”

”Why do you say they were young?” They certainly didn’t look young. They moved so quickly she was kind of surprised that they had managed to kill either of them as it was. Rhys shot her a small grin before shrugging his shoulders.

”First of all, they usually don’t hunt that early in the morning. They can run down just about anything they hunt. Secondly the one attacking you stuck around even after its’ partner was slain. They’re very intelligent beings, but the younger ones don’t think things through as well.” Rinya groaned and closed her eyes. She nearly got eaten by one adolescent Glassbeak.

”How bad am I?” The male tending to her arm spoke up before Rhys could open his mouth. They were glaring at each other and Rinya wondered what exactly happened while she was unconscious.

”Deep wound across your arm obviously. Quite a few bruised ribs, and your back is covered in bruises and small scratches, probably from the fall. You have a nice sized bruise across your right thigh as well, apparently the bird went down fighting and landed on your leg. Nothing life serious but you will have to stay here a few days to make sure you do not have any internal issues.” Rinya opened her mouth to argue, but Rhys cleared his throat, shaking his head subtly. Gritting her teeth, she pulled her hand from his and let her fingers cover her eyes. And then a thought popped into her head.

”… Jorin?” If Rhys made a face she couldn’t see it.

”He hasn’t been by. You’ve basically been in and out of it since the attack so I don’t think he knows you’re injured—yet. I’m sure he’ll figure it out sooner or later.” Rinya nodded slightly. Sighing softly, she settled herself into the bed as she felt exhaustion start to tug at her body again.

”Just rest would you? I’ll stay here with you…” If Rhys said anything past that, she didn’t hear it. She was thankful she fell back asleep.

[Caelum]

Thread Award Name: Rinya. Skills: Detection +1 Weapon: Longbow +1 Unarmed Combat +1 Lores: Monster: Glassbeak Notes: This was an exciting read. Keep up the good work and please delete the post with this thread link in the Riverfall grading thread. Don’t hesitate to PM me with any questions or concerns.