Flashback Bye, Mum. Hi, Mizahar.

[Mynorys Gowa]

51st Spring - 512 AV When he set foot away from his home that day, he knew nothing would be the same. Mynorys expected never to see his family again - his new family would be danger and survival. As excitement washed over him, he smiled eagerly. Discarding his empty water skin, he wandered down the narrow stone path and headed out of town. As the familiar trees waved him off, the rest of the world averted itself as he stepped into it. Mynny knew he'd be seeing stuff of his dreams from now on. His spontaneous decision to leave home seemed such a good idea to him, then, and his smile grew larger as the breeze rolled over his warming skin. After several minutes of walking, he reached a familiar point. He'd almost left his village, and was standing on a tall pinnacle that overlooked the surrounding area for kilometres. The horizon up ahead was laden in tall hills, and they glistened brightly beneath the morning sun. Mynorys inhaled deeply. "I'm coming for you!" He roared, and felt sure that the hills heard him. His intention was to find a shelter in the hills, and running water. Part of him expected company up there, potentially even a long term companion to share his adventure with. The journey seemed to drain away, and the world grew brighter as he neared the welcoming hillside, with the sun rising high above in all its rightful pride. They were much, much larger than he expected, and seemed too steep to climb. While the tops of the hills were visible - barely - they were too wide to maneuvre, and there were several of them. A valley bisected the range, leaving steep slopes and a narrow path that Mynny dared himself to navigate. He'd found his source of water, but he got to the hill much quicker than he'd imagine. 'At any rate', he thought, and imagined who he'd find on this luscious, habitable elevation of Earth. Wandering, wondering, for a second, Mynorys heard singing on the hills. There had been multiple occasions in the past where he'd imagined his favourite beer song playing, or constructed new songs altogether, this time it sounded different. It took him at least twenty minutes to scale the mound, eventually though, he'd perched on a petruding tor that had been seemingly hand-assembled. It wasn't overly comfortable, but Mynny disliked the grass for his fear of Spiders - there were none on the small rock-pile. After analysing the makeshift seat, he transfered his gaze to the nearby hills. They all seemed identical from up there, but no sign of any singers. Every peculiar, green, towering bank had been littered in these rocky monoliths - Mynorys had an amazing idea. "Ya!" His shouts echoed into the valley, as he heaved forwards. Boulders and pebbles tumbled down the slope. It brought the young man great entertaintment and he skipped happily over to the next. With a little more effort, he bowled the whole thing down the hill. Again, he watched intently as the larger stones shattered into fine shards of rock. "Woo!" He screamed. A cold breeze rushed across the fine hairs on his arms and body. He shivered slightly, and let out a breathy, distorted grunt. -{FILLER TEXT - IGNORE}-

[Corvus Corax]

Corvus came to groggily when the sun was already on it's climb up into the sky in-front of him. He shied away his face from the brightness, having just awoken and groaned as he felt the consequences of his rough sleeping catching up on him. He hadn't been in the right frame of mind to set up a tent or to get out his sleeping mat and had only just had the cognitive power to build a tiny fire and fall asleep, thankfully, it was nice weather both the night before and today's morning. Looking downward then, still averting his eyes from the sun looming up in-front of him, Corvus groped for his crossbow that he had left at his right hand side. Feeling the familiar varnished wood beneath his fingertips, he let out a deep breath and ran his fingers along the grooves of the wood. He lifted his hand from the crossbow and clasped his left hand around the scabbard of his Wakazashi, tilting it and resting it on his lap and then taking his right hand and sliding the blade a few inches out of it's sheath to admire it's sheen. Corvus relaxed at the sound of the blade sliding against the scabbard and regarded the glinting of the edge in the sunlight, happy with it's condition after the night of rough sleeping. "I'm coming for you!" Corvus heard bellowing down along the hills, bouncing down into the valley and then rebounding from every direction. Corvus quickly slipped the blade back into it's sheath with a 'clink' and breathed quickly, somewhat taken aback and worried because he couldn't determine the direction that the shout came from. Was it one of the men from the night before? Gripping the crossbow at his side, Corvus braced the handle against his chest and pulled the string back with two hands, until was hooked into place. He then shifted his body quickly, making his quiver slide round from his lower back with a quiet clatter and took one of the bolts from it's barrel, placing it gently into the crevice of the crossbow. Keeping the crossbow somewhat level, as Corvus now held his finger on the trigger and the stock to his shoulder, he knelt on the floor. Turning around to face the rock that he'd rested against, he slowly planted his right foot underneath him and pushed downwards, rising up to look over the rock with the bolt at eye-level - both feet firmly on the ground beneath him. The boy was quite young, as young as Corvus it appeared, and was definitely acting the same age. He toppled a pile of rocks down the hill and Corvus flinched, still plagued by his tactical, survivalist mind-set. He pointed the crossbow bolt at the young man for good measure, and observed him tipping more rocks down into the valley. He had messy near black, brown hair that hung strangely and didn't seem to dress with much of an image in his mind, simply having clothes so that he was covered. Corvus frowned at the strangeness of the boy, in conclusion, and stiffened his grip on the crossbow. "Who are you?" He demanded, looking particularly fearsome with a tiny bolt under his eye and only the top of his head poking out from the large rock. Though his hood and sash obscuring his face suggested a much more sinister persona.

[Mynorys Gowa]

With the unfamiliar voice behind him, Mynny just knew today was going to be eventful. He'd already annihilated somebody's hard work at marking the points on the hill, and no he'd met a real life ranger! Hopefully this expert could teach him a great deal about survival, and offer him as much protection as he could offer back - he felt they were destined as Master and Apprentice. The crossbow didn't frighten him, he figured that everyone would want protection in the wild, and as far as Mynny was concerned, he himself looked menacing. This, of course, wasn't true. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you!" Mynorys talked to strangers a lot, though the ones he talked to were bound to be friendly, as he came from a very community orientated part of Zeltiva. He straight-up walked towards the man behind the rock, wandering over despite the threat he posed. "You know how to fire a crossbow? That's so cool! I can't wait for you to show me." He didn't understand the seriousness of the situation. When Mynny thought about something, and made up his mind about it, he was already in that time frame. This meant, therefore, that he and this strange man were already very close acquaintances, and he wasn't going to act formally around him. "Well anyway, I'm Mynny," Everything he did was intentional of becoming greater friends with the ranger. Suddenly, he had a realization of the situation. He then came to feel quite silly. Ashamed of himself, he frowned and turned his attention to the ground. "I'm sorry," He admitted, humbly. "I should have at least saved some of the fun for you." He would have honestly allowed the strange man to play with the rocks with him, had the man asked or wanted to. Now, Mynny felt like the worst Human in Mizahar. As he processed it more and more in his head, he came to the conclusion that maybe the ranger didn't want to push tors with him after all. He lifted his head and was back to his confident and usual self. "Whatever," He managed, at an attempt to make the conversation much less awkward for himself. Suddenly, a burst of energy surged over him, and he threw out his broadsword from its sheath. He looked directly at the broadsword as he did so, making sure it carved a neat path through the air and didn't waver. "I have everything we need already, I have a tent and stuff - a really, really big one, so I can sleep in it with lots of animals if I find any. I also have a sword for killing Zith, and I'm really good at being outdoors - but you're probably better. Will you train me? Where are we going first... ?" The questions poured from his mouth as he went on and on, slowly approaching the man behind the rock as he asked. Eventually, he was up against the rock, and staring down at the arrow in the crevice of the bow. He hoped that the man didn't want to kill him, but soon dismissed the thought having remembered that they were to become good friends. "So yeah, I know that you're going to like me - and help me, and you probably need me, don't you?" Although it was half-wit and accidental, Mynny had probably cracked the situation. At the end of the day, he was smart, even if he didn't mean to be. Sword still in hand, he stooped down to bring his eyes to the level of the arrow tip. He stared at the point keenly, admiring how sharp it was - he'd never seen a bow before. Then, he went and did the rather strange deed of leaning over and smelling the arrow. "It smells like dirt." The fact was all that Mynorys said, and he looked up beneath the hood of the figure as if awaiting a response. -{FILLER TEXT - IGNORE}-

[Corvus Corax]

The disarming way that the stranger spoke caught Corvus off-guard, leaving his shaken, practically shaking from the confusion of the whole situation. "Show him how to fire a crossbow? Why would he ask that?" Corvus' hidden gaze deepened in sadness at the mention of such an activity, revealing very shallowly buried memories. He stood frozen with the point still at the man, though he felt his strength fading. Mynny couldn't have been a real name, so why did he introduce himself like that? None of this situation made any sense to Corvus and his head inclined passively, though he felt as if he still aimed at the man. 'What did he mean by fun?' does he mean we could roll stones down the hill like kids? 'I'm not a kid anymore, am I?' he thought to himself silently. He stepped away from the stranger then, the crossbow lowering slightly but still being pointed right at him. Corvus' breathing became jittery and he looked at the man openly, letting the sash and hood loosen somewhat. He lifted his left hand to his face and pulled the sash gently from his face, letting it hang from his neck. Corvus stood up properly behind the rock slowly. Corvus quickly leaned backwards with the man swinging his sword and his hand holding the crossbow flinched slightly, but it was barely a threat now - with the state that the stranger had induced in Corvus. "What are you talking about?" he pleaded, his voice straining under the semi-conscious, emotive state that he was currently in. As the man listed his apparent skills and assets, Corvus' thoughts became more and more clouded, but he also started to recover - the stranger was so childlike that it almost reflected onto Corvus and made his worries fade away into the innocent parts of his mind. "I'm Corvus" he managed, in a slightly mumbled voice. He pressed his left hand to his eyes to absorb some of the moisture that had formed there and let his right hand relax, the crossbow lowering down behind the rock. Slumping then, Corvus sat down on the ground behind the rock - still able to see the stranger above the rock in-front of him. He lay the crossbow down beside him and then lifted his hood from his face with his other hand, placing both into his lap and sitting there: as if awaiting orders.

[Mynorys Gowa]

"BOO!" 'Wow', he thought, that was fun. He'd never really done anything like that with anyone before, so he thought he'd try it. It wasn't overly helpful either, that he leaped forward with his arms raised high above his head, almost mock-intimidatingly. He honestly had to test this boy's reactions, and his hypothesis was that the boy couldn't shoot a crossbow. He'd already found out that he hadn't the overall best aim, he reckoned reaction would be something the boy would be poor at. In actual fact, the boy was a potentially excellent crossbowman, and simply in training - at any rate, not even an expert crossbow man would be able to react fast enough to Mynny's foolery, and this is what he was testing. It was a hot day, which meant to Mynny (a boy who took everything as an Omen), it marked the start of something amazing. In fact, his skin had become a shade darker since he left his family's house, and it was warm to the touch. His red shirt clung to his back, not wavering behind him as it normally did, as there was no wind at this moment. He bowed forward, nearing the ground with his hands and then pressing them firmly against it. Next, he tucked his legs under himself and sat with his knees upwards on the grass. "I like this valley, man," he honestly didn't know what to think, Mynny just kind of, well, thought. "I hope we'll see more valleys like this, those tor things are really funny." After introducing the topic, he just motored on. "I mean, can you imagine the effort someone put into marking the heights of all of these places, and I just went and pushed them all off!" He laughed, and talked some more. He was so socially insecure that he told the stranger all about his back story. He informed him of how he decided that he'd leave to see the world, and of all his ambitions that were crazy to any moderately sane person. "I'm going to have the biggest horse in the world, and I'll call it rocky, like a mountain," he trailed off, then back on, letting Corvus in on all the wonderful things he thought. It was pretty strange, I suppose, that he'd just confided in this person - Mynny felt a connection though, he was after all, a pretty good judge of character. "Do you like apples? I wish I had an apple," suddenly, his mouth shut. He stopped for a second while his eyes widened. He tensed his hole body for a second and intentionally shivered. It must have seemed to Corvus like a display of fear, though in reality it was Mynny preparing for a nap. -Thud- He threw himself down on the grass and spread his arms. He felt like such a child with his arms out in line with his shoulders - like he was about to be tickled or something of the sort. "I feel like a roasted pig." His eyes stayed shut, and he inhaled deeply. Mynorys was quiet, at last. -{FILLER TEXT - IGNORE}-