[Bronze Woods] Shallow Waters (Brane)

[Zaylunao Skyglow]

Zaylunao gave a small grin as the Kelvic sat next to her. The warmth of their proximity combined with that of the fire was enough to sate the Vantha into a more relaxed posture. She leaned back and propped herself up on the sand as the granulates shifted around her fingers. There was certainly an air of mystery that surrounded her new friend, one that wasn't too different from her own. It seemed that Mizahar was full of people with secrets. Perhaps there was more to her father's crackpot theories than she thought.

"I'm from Avanthal as well. Skyglow hold. Of course... it's been a long time since I was in the city itself. I've been in Novallas for the past few seasons, so it's nice to see someone from my homeland." she said with a warm smile. Unfortunately, the smile quickly faded as her eyes broke away from Brane and to the water. A serious tone fell on her words. "I get a bit homesick at times, but it'd be too hard to return. Things just aren't the same." Her words held a trace of resentment. The bitter memory was starting to surface again.

"Mph. Listen to me brood. No sense in dabbling in the past." She turned her head towards the lights in the distance, down the coast. The city of Syliras stood out in stark contrast to the night thanks to the many torches that lined the ramparts and clocktower. Even the docks were coated in light, caught by the tall masts of trade cogs. It seemed so full of life. So... active. Was there ever an hour at which the city slept?

"I can't wait to pass through the gates into Syliras. Every second that passes makes my heart beat a little faster..." she spoke softly, but with great enthusiasm. Her eyelids fell to keep back her excitement. Only a sigh managed to escape her lips.

Enough time had passed for the rabbit to fully cook, the smell of roasted meat making her mouth water. She hastily retrieved it from the spit and divided it evenly between Brane and herself, laying the metal rod in the sand to cool. She threw any notion of lady-ness aside when her teeth greedily chomped into her piece, hunger taking over as she devoured her meal. In mere minutes, the Vantha had downed her dinner.

"Ahhh... that was perfect. Thanks again for catching our dinner. I don't suppose you'd mind accompanying me to Syliras. It's obvious that you know this place better than I do, and I wouldn't mind the company." A warm smile stretched across her lips, her bronze-tinted eyes locking onto Brane's.

[Brane Lana]

Brane smiled when he heard the word Avanthal, he returned the warm smile as he began thinking of all the times he spent prowling the night through the Skyglow hold. He had been seeing an older woman that lived in the area, but she wasn't the only reason he would travel from his home in Coolwater to Skyglow.

"Skyglow is nice but it's a little to uppity for me...er...no offense" He said as he noticed the smile drift away from Zaylunaos face. Homesick, he thought to himself, he has never missed his home nor did he have any plans to return to the frozen city of the north. He had things to do, people to find.

Brane bowed his head as he accepted the cooked rabbit, then his eyes widened as he watched the Vantha demolish her half. Well no need to pretend he was some high-class noble, he proceeded to tear the rabbit apart, only chewing a couple times before swallowing his food. After he finished he noticed Zaylunao looking at Syliras.

"Well I haven't spent much time in the city myself but I suppose I could show you around" He wipes his mouth on his sleeve then turns towards Zaylunao "If ya don't mind me asking, whats a pretty looking Vantha like yourself doing out in the wild alone?"

[Zaylunao Skyglow]

Zaylunao snapped her head away from Brane and turned her gaze back on the fire, and it was difficult to tell if the blush on her cheeks was from the chill of the night or the Kelvic's words. She was far too accustomed to such compliments being thrown her way with the intention of either gaining her support, or as a clever cover for a much sinister meaning. "Hmph... flattery won't get you anywhere, you know..." Her eyes rested into the lower-left corner of her cornea. "At least... most of the time." No sense making something out of nothing. Just a polite compliment, nothing more, she told herself.

"I'm... looking for something that I hope I won't find..." she confided, slipping her hands into the pockets on either side of her coat. There they stayed, the Vantha unable to will herself to reveal her only reason for braving the wilderness all these years. The only reason she had put her life in danger by isolating herself in the endless stretch of ice that was Taldera. The only reason she was trekking across the untamed wilds of Sylira. Did she dare reveal her secret so willingly to this stranger? What would she risk by doing so?

With a pace to rival only the glaciers, she slid her hands back out, producing a crumpled scrap of paper no bigger than her palm. All accrosses the faded parchment were scribbles and lines of incomplete nonsesne. But in the flickering light of the fire, one set of bold fonted words stuck out like a sore thumb. The only words that could be translated from the haphazard writing.

SEVEN STEPS BACK

The ink was thick, protruding from the paper like a sickly wound still healing, the red color completing the analogy. She seemed to focus on it for a long time, the bronze tint in her eyes struggling between an angry orange and a determined hazel. The silence was pressing hard onto the both of them. Only when she had regained full control over her thoughts did she start the conversation again.

"Sorry. I'm brooding again. I've spent years trying to decipher the words on this scrap of paper... solving its riddles and uncovering its secrets. Yet with every single step that brings me closer, I feel like, well... I feel like I'm taking seven more back. It's infuriating. Hopefully Syliras will shine some light onto it. Though this paper is filled with nonsense, nonsense that I hope is proved false, I'm more concerned with finding the author. But that's a story for another time. For now, I think It's best that we get some rest. I want to get up before early enough for us to reach the city before sunrise, and maybe on the way there you can tell me more about yourself," she said, rising from her seat with a long stretch.

"I'd offer you a space inside the tent, but I only have one bedroll. Unless you don't mind sleeping on dirt"

[Brane Lana]

Brane let out a small grin, he knows the feeling of wanting to find something but not having a single idea of what that thing is. For him though it wasn't a material object he had searched for when he was younger, it was something he had been missing on the inside, something deep down in his heart. It took him years to find what it was and once he did he felt much better and more accepting of his past, but now it was a material object he searched for, not just any material object though, a person.

"Well I have spent most of my life on the dirt so that will suit me just fine, I must thank you for letting me rest at your encampment, not many people would be open to let a Kelvic share a space with them."

He turned his gaze towards the crackling fire, before he reached down and slowly rubbed his finger across the tip of his dagger. He hated this blade, the blade that pierced his mothers heart, the blade that destroyed him as a child, and yet he was bound to it for the rest of his life, till this blade tasted the blood of his father.

"I think it is time to get some rest" He announced as he gazed at the night sky "Tomorrow should be interesting"