Completed The Desert Witch

Oriah meets her patron for the first time.

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This shining population center is considered the jewel of The Sylira Region. Home of the vast majority of Mizahar's population, Syliras is nestled in a quiet, sprawling valley on the shores of the Suvan Sea. [Lore]

The Desert Witch

Postby Oriah on February 27th, 2014, 2:23 am

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Winter, Day 42, 513 AV

Oriah shivered and huddled further into her coat, wishing for all the world she had thought to purchase something with a thicker lining. The light armor she had been allowed to borrow helped, as did the ridiculous amounts of gear she was required to carry. Exertion alone managed to at least keep her limbs moving and blood pumping. But the icy wind still nipped at her cheeks and exposed skin, tendrils of cold sneaking their way in through all the gaps in her clothing.

"Y'alright, new fish?" the knight beside her asked. They had both been on horseback, which was reason enough for Oriah to be feeling on edge, but dismounted for a spell to give their mounts a small break. Between the cold and the jostling and weight of her shield, shortsword, bow, and arrows on her back, the former dancer struggled to keep the sullenness from her voice.

"Aye," she answered with a sniff, her nose running a little from the incessant chills. "I'm alright."

The knight gave her a look and let loose a deep chuckle. "If ya say so. 'S time to mount up again. Ho, here we go!" He helped her put one foot into the stirrup and swing the other over her horse before mounting his own. Oriah battled against her unease as she sat atop the beast, not wanting to unsettle it with her unstable nerves. She forced herself to calm and stroked the horse's neck as they trotted along. Since her arrival at the Shining City, she had learned to cope with most of her fears for the towering animals. But there was still a trace of anxiety--one she hoped her path towards knighthood would eventually erase.

"Now, this isn't exactly protocol," her guide explained in a soothing, friendly tone. "But then again, Mora isn't exactly the protocol type, either." He turned to grin at the nervous looking squire. "I think you'll like each other quite well. You got a good amount of desert blood in ye both, dontcha?"

Oriah nodded. "So I have heard. But what is a desert bred wanderer doing in the forests of Sylira?"

The knight chuckled again and quirked a thick, bushy eyebrow at her. "I could ask you the same, couldn't I?"

There was nothing the squire could say to that. She inclined her head in defeat and the two of them rode on in companionable silence for a while. From what she had gathered, Oriah understood that her meeting with Sera Mora was more than a little unconventional. Normally, a freshly recruited squire reported to their assigned patron right away at their company's post. No but's, no fuss.

Her case, however, was...unusual. Instead of meeting Sera Mora at the barracks, or the training grounds at Mithryn, or the fields, or any assortment of places that knightly business could be arranged, Oriah was to find her patron. Not meet. Find. In the middle of the blessed woods. She wasn't even sure if she could survive such an endeavor, let alone track down one of the most elusive members of the Order on completely unfamiliar turf.

Well, not completely, the squire had to admit. She'd trekked about the Bronze Woods...once. About six days ago. But that was with the aid of an experienced hunter, and even then it had been a near thing. How was she to achieve this on her own?

"Don't worry about it," her guide sighed out of the blue, as if he could hear the questions firing away inside her head. "She may be curious in her ways, but Sera Mora is not cruel. She does what she thinks is necessary, no more and no less. And she wouldn't ask a new fish like yourself to do something she didn't think you had a chance to succeed in."

Oriah mulled over his words in silence. When the shape of the outpost could be seen in the distance, the knight took the reigns of her riderless horse, which still had most of her belongings in its saddlebags, bade good bye, and went on his merry way.

She stared after him, then turned and marched off towards the forest. "Yahal guide me," the squire sighed under her breath.


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The Desert Witch

Postby Oriah on April 18th, 2014, 8:12 am

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It was quiet, save for the fleeting sounds of occasional bird calls and whistling breezes. Oriah huddled deeper into her coat, trying her best not to give into the intense desire to plop down into the snow and begin cursing. Loudly.

It had been almost an entire bell now. Or, at least, felt like it had been. A bell's worth of her wandering aimlessly around, wondering if she would even be able to find her way back. The desertbred Benshira's survival skills were more suited for...well, the desert. Snow was an utterly foreign thing to her, and even more so a snow encrusted forest. She had a hard enough time blocking out the icy sting of Winter. How was she supposed to find a single, elusive Chaktawe she'd never even met before?

Something dropped onto her head from above, making her jump five feet back in alarm. Breath ragged, crown smarting, Oriah rubbed at the tender point of impact as she bent to pick up the object.

It was a mealy little apple, completely unsuited for the season. Right as the fruit fell the distinct sound of a predatory bird pierced the air overhead before dipping out of sight. Puzzled, the squire looked up and around. It took all of a few ticks for her to spot the flap of a faded, red ribbon swaying in the Winter chill. With a fierce squint, she could make out something else, too. A small roll of parchment, dangling precariously below the ribbon. What in the name of all that was good and just was that letter doing up there?

Well, this seemed obvious enough. Or at least that was what Oriah assumed. Setting down every one of her possessions she had brought along but her shortbow and quiver of arrows, the squire took a breath to steady herself and loaded her weapon. She'd barely any practice at all on the thing, only rudimentary lessons skimmed over during the briefest of training routines. Her true training was to begin with Sera Mora, so anything that preceded it was mostly informative in nature, in order to prevent any bad habits that the knight would not be able to correct.

Steeling her will, the Benshira raised her bow and pulled back the string. She struggled to keep the thing steady as her arm was not used to the labor. It was hard work, keeping the bow up, elbow tucked and straight, arrow nocked, and string drawn all while trying to actually aim the thing.

Oriah let go in a whoosh of air. Only to watch in disappointment as the arrow went plummeting awkwardly back toward the ground. It didn't even bury itself headfirst, landing instead on its side at a clumsy angle. With a huff of indignation, the squire tried again. And again. And again. Until her arms felt more lead than flesh and she no longer possessed the will to convince herself that her nonexistent skill at the bow would suffice for this task.

Time to change tactics, she decided. That ribboned parchment was her only real clue so far and Yahal smite her right then and there if she was going to show any signs of giving up on it.

Setting down her shortbow and arrows, Oriah reached instead for her Hebrean sling. It felt a little bit like cheating...at first. She knelt to find a sizable rock--something small enough to be slung so high up but also large enough to knock that parchment down--and once this task was complete the Benshira readied herself for the best aim of her short life. She loaded the rock, held the sling up to her left eye as she pulled back, and then let go with a grunt of effort.

Like her arrow, the rock only made it so far into the air before crashing back down, utterly short of its target. At least the rock went somewhere, though. Instead of almost falling straight back onto her head.

With a heavy sigh, Oriah set the sling back down as well and reconsidered her options. Perhaps she could climb the tree? Being desertbred, she'd never exactly grown proficient at such an endeavor, but it seemed the only possibility left to her now. How should she do it, though? The tree was tall and quite bare, with only little stubs and nubs of branches for purchase.

The squire scanned her meager collection of belongings for an answer. There had to be a way, there simply had to be!


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The Desert Witch

Postby Oriah on May 3rd, 2014, 3:24 am

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The squire rifled through the rest of her belongings. A short sword, a buckler, and some other survival gear. Not very useful for climbing trees or launching things at a small and almost impossible to hit target.

She sat on her rump and let loose a heavy sigh, leaves and sticks crackling beneath her as she did. Rubbing the mealy apple that had fallen on her head against her sleeve, the squire eyed it for a moment before taking a large bite out of it. How to go about solving this problem? Should she just leave it be and move on? No, no, this was too blatant. It had to be a clue of some kind. No one would just casually leave a rolled up parchment up in some tree, nor would a bird somehow lose its message and leave it so neatly placed.

Hmm...birds...

Oriah propped her flustered cheek on one hand as she allowed herself to daydream a little. Pale, blue eyes, hair black as a raven's feathers, and a smile warm enough to melt ice floated to the forefront of her thoughts. The squire's face grew twice as hot and she shook her head in embarrassment. Now was not the time to be losing sight of her objectives!

It had been such a joyous occasion, receiving Marrick's letter. She couldn't really blame herself for wanting to think of something more pleasant during such a frustrating moment. With another sigh, the Benshira's cerulean gaze wandered around until they landed on a flock of small, shivering birds. She watched idly as they wiggled and pecked at one another, clearly huddled close to share each other's warmth. Winter was strengthening in earnest soon and Oriah sympathized with the feathery little creatures; even under all her layers of cloth and leather she could feel the slight sting of a cold breeze.

Her eyes narrowed as a thought crossed her mind. They moved, slow and snail like, from the gaggle of birds to the small roll of parchment. Could there...was it possible this would work?

With utmost caution and care, Oriah got to her feet. Some of the birds twitched their heads her way but otherwise paid no mind. They were busy preening themselves and had no interest in what that large animal so far below was up to. Well, unfortunately for them, their lack of wariness played right into the squire's hands. She picked up her short sword and buckler with agonizing slowness, raised them level to her chest, and then without warning banged them together to create one Hai of a racket.

Startled beyond measure, the birds squawked in terror and abandoned their comfy branch and mutual preening to take to the skies. In their panicked haste, one or two of them knocked straight into that little roll of parchment and sent the thing twirling toward the ground.

Oriah whooped in triumph and ran to snatch up her prize. She unfurled it with eager fingers, eyes alight in anticipation. It took her a few ticks to read through the Common words but eventually the meaning became clear. Kind of.

What the Hai?

"Be careful when you look behind, squire."

And look behind she did, though not with the apparent amount of caution the parchment had suggested. Before she could even blink or blurt out a proper introduction to the unexpected visage of her dark skinned patron, a large net sprung up around her and hauled the writhing squire up into the air.

It was there, as Oriah dangled helplessly, limps akimbo and poking out of the sturdy net, that she heard her patron speak for the first time.

"Greetings, squire," Sera Mora intoned, not with even the faintest trace of amusement to hint that this was maybe, perhaps quite possibly, a joke. "Welcome to the first day of your training. I was hoping you would be a bit better prepared, but worry not. There is plenty of time ahead of us for you to improve."

And oh, how Oriah did learn the full extent of this promise in the days to come.


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The Desert Witch

Postby Radiant on May 3rd, 2014, 3:56 am

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Oriah :
Experience
Skill XP Earned
Observation +3 XP
Socialization +1 XP
Investigation +1 XP
Riding: Horse +1 XP
Wilderness Survival +1 XP
Weapon: Shortbow +1 XP
Weapon: Slingshot +1 XP
Planning +1 XP


Lores
Lore Earned
Location: Bronze Woods
Snow: An Odd Foreign Thing
Mora: My Chaktawe Patron Knight
Mora: "Desert Witch" of Eyktol


Loots
+1 Shield Point


Notes :
What a lovely thread, Oriah! This gives off that mystique exotic feeling for some reason. Enjoy your grades! :D


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If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, beam me a PM and we can work it out. :)
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