Closed All the Luck in the Sky

[Jay Darkcrest]

Fall 65, 515 AV


Wilderness had crept through cracks in the walls and invaded the city. Unlike most residents, Jay didn’t find that particularly alarming, quite on the contrary. The first few days were spent following paths, sniffing around in the undergrowth, climbing trees and admiring the beautiful scenery. Alvadas, formerly a city built on a flat plain with some hills, had turned into a mountain with a city built on it. The Kelvic had been in town for half a season and was beginning to realize that nothing was at it seemed beyond the Gaping Maw.

Still, he felt as if the city of illusions had adopted that façade just for him. Most of the time, the pathways and trails were completely deserted and it took time to get to places. Others were having difficulty navigating the wilderness, but Jay who was used to the terrain enjoyed the lack of infrastructure.

While others stayed inside, he went exploring. Then he looked at his face in the muddy mirror of a puddle and turned up in front of the Wolf’s Cave three days later with no memory whatsoever of what had happened in the meantime. Of course, he’d apologized to Micah first of all. Apparently the same thing had happened before. Word had gotten around that mud pools, ponds and other strange phenomena shouldn’t be looked at too closely. Since he’d returned unharmed and no rumors had cropped up involving his person, Jay wasn’t worried though.

These happenings were strange, of course. But they didn’t keep him from venturing out into the wilderness again. He spent bells high up in trees, both as a human and little furry marten, but he’d never climbed the mountain all the way. The path to the top seemed to evade him, so Jay decided to find it. That day, he left the inn dressed in his usual white shirt and dark linen pants, pockets filled with his waterskin and other useful things. As always, his reddish brown hair was disheveled, sticking up more every time he ran a hand through it, but the adventurous spark had returned to the Kelvic’s eyes.

He followed the path up and up at an even pace, barefoot on hardened soles. Over a bell later, he glimpsed a rock protruding from a ledge and a bit of roof behind it. Climbing up the last bit, he decided to rest a little on the rock and enjoy the view without bothering the residents. And what a view! Emerald forest all around littered with orange and the occasional rooftop.

Then, the sky. Squinting over his shoulder, Jay tried to make out the top of the mountain. The side he’d climbed so far, seemed to grow steeper and more difficult to traverse though. Apparently he’d have to try his luck with the north or south side. Sighing, he got out a silver miza and flipped it.

[Karin]

65th Autumn, Alvadas

It had been a quiet day. At the workshop, Cadog had kind-heartedly given her a day off, as they were doing the accounts. They didn't need Karin's help, and as Karin knew nothing about accounting, the day off was more than fine for her. In fact, is was quite a blessing, as she'd been noticing she was a little more tired than usual. So, on her day off, she planned herself a nice relax, maybe having a lie-in, or a swim down at the docks.

Instead, she took one look out of her window in the morning, saw that it was a nice day, and decided to test her limits. Her hometown had once again provided slopes and mountains, and the girl almost felt like it was an assessment of the girl's character. Well fine, Alvadas. You want a test? Let's have a test.

Her recent discovery of the incredibly useful skill of being afraid of heights hadn't been playing too much on her mind, but now she had a chance to test it out, the girl was curious- and slightly apprehensive- to see if she was just as afraid as she had been last season, or if it had even been just a glitch in the inner workings of her mind.

With this thought ringing clearly in her head, she decided to be extra precautious as she stepped out the door. She'd had the slight misfortune of having to navigate to work in this new environment the past couple of days, and she knew how difficult it was to get anywhere.

So the girl picked up her backpack, throwing some bits of rope, some bread carefully wrapped in a bit of paper, and her eating knife into her bag. She also threw in a handful of mizas of mixed denominations, because who knew when you might need a bit of cash? Finally feeling a little more prepared, the girl donned her cloak and new boots, and started her hike up the mountain.

[Jay Darkcrest]

The coin was catapulted into the air by his thumb, a little trick he’d mastered as a pup. This time, however, it didn’t land in his open palm, but stubbornly bounced off his fingers and hit the rock with a soft clink. Then a brief flash and another clink. Leaning forward, Jay watched as it fell off the ledge and disappeared in a pile of twigs and brown leaves. “Petching coin…”

Mumbling to himself, but secretly welcoming the opportunity, the man got up and took a tentative step towards the edge of the platform. The rock was protruding from a small hill and pointing towards the southeast. Under his naked feet, Jay could discern a few footholds and holes. It seemed like an easy spot to climb down at and he didn’t feel like taking the ordinary way around. Since he didn’t know how long Alvadas would be a mountain, he intended to enjoy it while it lasted.

“Aye, I’m coming!” Turning around, he bent down and felt around with one foot. Finding a small ledge in the stone, he slowly put weight on the foot and dug his fingers into the platform. The next foot followed the first, searching for a place to stand. Like that, Jay started descending the small rock formation.

It could be said that climbing trees was second nature to him, but rocks felt less familiar. He could step on loose stones, send down an avalanche of pebbles and lose his footing in the process. Knowing his physical limits, he tried to keep to the three points of contact rule and took his time instead of rushing. While his hands and feet worked, his mind began to wonder. Losing a coin like that, wasn’t it bad luck? He certainly knew what his sister would say to that, or his cousin.

The best thing would be to retrieve the coin as quickly as possible. Which way to go then, north or south? Shaking his head lightly, Jay decided to worry about that later. For the time being, he was so focused on climbing downwards that he blended out his surroundings completely. The footsteps registered in his ears, but they didn’t sound particularly alarming or threatening, so he ignored them. As a result, he also didn’t notice the blonde girl coming up the path.

All he could think of was the rock under his body and the soft earth coming closer. The pile had been a little to the right and in it, the rebellious silver miza was waiting.

[Karin]

The blonde girl in question was slowly walking up the footpath, her footsteps muted but clear against the earth, gravel and stone under foot. She'd had a good start; it hadn't been as steep as it had been the other season, and the path was quite clear. There was no wildlife, fortunately Alvadas hadn't included the dangers of the wilderness in this latest of illusions, only the landscape itself. The mountain-y hill thing she was currently climbing was traced all over with varying degrees of nature trail, and beautiful dappled forests dotted the slopes.

It was also very quiet. She hadn't seen many other people, in fact she hadn't noticed anyone else around, although she hadn't really been paying attention, her focus had been on the path and on the trees and the mountains. So it was quite surprising, and a little alarming when the path started to get less clear and more formidable, and the unmistakeable sounds of a human floated to her ears on the breeze.

She looked around in confusion, not seeing anyone in the vicinity. Well, it definitely can't be the trees making that noise. She walked a little further up the path until the noise became a little clearer. However, it wasn't until she risked a peek over the edge that she realised some stupid human was climbing. Well, bully for them. But if they get stuck, there's no way that I'm going to go down and rescue them. Nevertheless, the girl was intrigued. Why was the... guy, she presumed, climbing down when there was a perfectly reasonable path to the place? She peered down to look at the man, but of course she could only really see the top of his head.

His hair looked slightly curly and red-brown, like bark or the fur of some creature. The girl wondered if he knew she was here, he hadn't made any sign that he could hear her. But before she could call down and inform him, the slope suddenly made her feel dizzy. So, with her head spinning and her heart in her mouth, she very, very carefully sat down on the edge of the slope, with her legs well away from the edge, but still just about able to see down to where the man was descending.

"Hello?" She called out, hesitantly and slightly apprehensive. Her voice was slightly trembly, as she hadn't spoken at all that day, and her vocal chords needed a little stretching. "I don't mean to disturb you, but, well... is everything okay? You're the first person I've seen today." At the end of the sentence, her voice had evened out into a cool alto. She was peering down to the man, being nosey. In fact, from the person's view point, she probably looked like just like a nose, perhaps with some blonde hair attached, as only her head was peeking over the ledge.

As she was talking, her hair fell in front of her face, obscuring her vision somewhat, so she couldn't see what the man did next.

[Jay Darkcrest]

It took all his concentration not to jump and lose his grip when the voice reached his ears. Instead he froze at the sight of blond locks and a pale face peering down at her. It couldn’t be… it wasn’t possible, or was it? He hadn’t seen her for over two seasons, but her face was inhabiting his dreams, that and her sharp tongue that never beat around the bush. The girl’s voice was a tad deeper, but in his shock Jay completely missed that detail. Suddenly his knees felt like jelly and he had to adjust his grip. Hard edges cut into his skin, but he didn’t feel it. A different kind of pain was overshadowing every physical sensation.

Instinctively he leaned closer to the wall for balance. When he spoke in Fratava, the sounds came out hoarse and hesitant. “You should be dead… Are you a ghost? A dream?” He had dreamed before, after all, and taken a stroll through Alvadas in his sleep. Waking up, he’d been at the side of a pond with a beautiful horned woman next to him…

What was it with the bad omens? Suddenly a handful of pebbles came loose under his foot. Jay had just enough time to cast a look over the shoulder, push away from the rock and turn his imminent fall into a jump. More or less planned, he landed on a patch of moss and dead leaves. Gravity bent his knees and forced his nails into soft earth for balance, but then he stood.

For a moment, the silver coin was forgotten. Shading his eyes with one hand, Jay looked up at the girl again. Just like that, hope and fear were extinguished. It wasn’t Jalaal, of course not. The girl had her pale golden hair and her tan, but the resemblance ended there. Her voice had been deeper too. Jay took a few ticks to search for words in Common before calling out. “Hello. No worry, everything is okay. Climbing is faster than walking.”

Grinning at the irony, he bent down and rummaged through the pile of twigs for the damned thing. At the sight of a reflection of light between the leaves, he picked up the silver coin and slipped it into his pocket. Another glance at the way he’d come and his mind was made up. “I’m coming up now. You wait, then we can talk, aye?”

Licking his lips, Jay moved through the undergrowth quickly and efficiently. After a chime of soft rustling, he’d returned to the path and was walking up the path a second time. In another chime, he would’ve returned to the rocky platform. Common was a language he still struggled with, but the girl seemed friendly enough. Moreover, something about her still reminded him of his sister… he simply had to find out what it was.

[Karin]

Whilst Karin was brushing her hair from her face, she heard the man speak in a language which she hadn't heard in a long, long time. Almost instinctively she recognised it as belonging to her childhood, the sounds echoing back from times lost to her. The words were on the most part unfamiliar, she could only pick up the word 'dream', but their sounds filled her with a longing and hope.

A spark of curiosity- no, something stronger than curiosity filled her head. That language, those words, this person- what could it mean? Was, and she hardly dared to think this, was he... Svefran? She felt her stomach drop, not exactly from fear, but from excitement and a slight fear that she might be wrong.

There was a soft thump of feet hitting the earth, and Karin peeked over the edge of the ledge again, with a strong feeling of anticipation in her heart and mind and soul. With her vision clear and the hair out of her eyes, she focused her gaze down on the man who was now looking up at her with a grin on his face, although she thought she could detect the hint of something else quickly, before the smile swiftly swept it away.

The man was starting to ascend up the path before Karin registered what he had said and replied with a confused voice in the affirmative, "Of... Of course." Whilst she waited for the man to appear again, she stood up.

Her heart fluttering in her chest as she waited. As he got closer, she could see a tousled head, a stubbled, lightly tanned face set with smiling eyes. She scanned her gaze over him, trying to evaluate if she could recognise him. In disappointment, she realised that this man was a stranger to her.

But there was still the case of the language, the words he'd said. All ideas of helping him in his quest or whatever he'd been doing were lost as she focussed solely on remembrance, and on finding out about this stranger. As he neared, she blurted out without even meaning to, "Hey. What... Who are you?"

Her tone was wondering and questioning, and probably a bit more accusing than she'd meant it to be. She was truly so apprehensive that she didn't have full control over her words. So she just stood there, her hands by her sides awkwardly, and a worried, drifting expression crossing her face as she waited to see what the man would do next.

[Jay Darkcrest]

Jay still felt her gaze or, whenever trees obscured that, her attention prickling on his skin. As he was walking up the path, his hand wandered into the pocket of his black pants and fingered the coin. A mere silver had hardly been worth climbing all the way down to retrieve it. If he hadn’t gone for it, on the other hand, he likely wouldn’t have met the blond girl. Jalaal wouldn’t have entered his mind… then he pushed that thought aside. Nothing good would come from remembering her!

Instead, he would focus on making a new friend. The girl had seemed friendly enough, asking if he was alright, and her Common had been better than his. If nothing else, he could ask her to correct his mistakes with the language. Nodding to himself, he slipped the silver miza back into his pocket. Two fingers lingered by his gold earring for luck. Turning the last corner, Jay mentally steeled himself.

As he neared the edge of the platform, however, the Kelvic realized that his mind had played tricks. The girl didn’t resemble his sister at all. Both were pale of hair with blue eyes, but that was all. Jalaal had never braided her hair, yet the girl did. His proud sister had always worn tunics with little sleeve and short pants, exposing her tanned skin to the sun. The girl had a lower brow, the way she moved and talked was completely different…

Jay was almost grateful when she blurted out a few words, bringing him back to the present. He didn’t want to think of his sister, their pod. Not yet. Instead he cocked his head and gave a low chuckle. From one tick to the next, the vague longing in his dark eyes was replaced by a playful spark. “I’m Jay. Jay Darkcrest. Who are you?”

Despite the words, his tone held no accusations and he didn’t seem to have noticed how she had corrected herself. After a moment of hesitation, he gestured. “I not good with Common. Earlier I talked in Fratava because you looked like someone I know. Same hair. But she cannot be here.” Shrugging, he took a few tentative steps along the path, then paused. The Kelvic wanted to keep moving. If she followed, it’d be easier to avoid direct eye contact too.

[Karin]

Jay Darkcrest. Speaking Fratava... So, he is Svefran, or has had a lot of dealing with them. The girl nervously shifted from one foot to the other as the man passed by, going to carry on walking. She was both sure and unsure as to whether she wanted to follow him. The way he lead, up the mountain, signalled all kinds of uncertainty to the girl. She hadn't realised till now that she was frightened of the future. She had been imagining her future with confidence, her place within the Svefra culture was so clear in her head it was as if she was already there. But now that she was faced with someone who was Svefra, she felt like... a fraud. Or someone playing at being a person of the sea.

She brushed them aside, these nagging doubts and fears. She wanted to know. So, with tentative footsteps, she followed after this Jay. Venturing a smile to the back of his head, she said, "I'm Karin." She failed to mention her last name, as she somehow didn't want her name associated with the name her stepfather had tacked on.

Fratava. Oh, she so badly wanted to ask him about it. But something like ocean currents were tugging her back, holding her back. It was like fighting a maelstrom of emotions. A storm which finally got the better of her, a little way up the path. He's going to think you over-eager, she thought darkly to herself. "Jay, you spoke Fratava. Can I ask, is that something... Well, what I want to ask is, are you Svefran?" Her nosey curiosity got the better of her.

She bit down on her lip, a blush spreading embarrassedly across her face. Hoping against hope that she didn't offend him with the impertinence of her question, she ventured again, "It's just that, I'm a Svefra myself, not that you would be able to tell." She spoke quickly, and stammered to a stop. She was walking a little distance away from Jay, and although he was facing forwards away from her, she hid her face with her long hair.

Her embarrassment was confusing to her, she wasn't quite certain why she should feel like this, after all, they were just two strangers walking on a path in the mountains, exchanging small talk. Girl you don't need to be embarrassed. Stop it. But it was still there, along with the other emotions, fear, hope, excitement...

To distract herself as they walked, or perhaps to calm herself a little, she looked around, admiring the scenery. Trees down the mountain slope, their dark green, yellowing-orange leaves showed the change of the seasons. Even though Karin loved the sea, the sight of nature in glorious colour such as this made her feel.. surprisingly calmer. So, as the pair walked, she admired the scenery, and denied her heart any fear. Accept whatever comes, she promised herself.

[Jay Darkcrest]

Eventually she followed. While Jay noticed the small drop after her first name, he decided not to comment on it. Could be she didn’t have a last name. Could be hers was associated with something bad that she didn’t wish to mention. Either way, it wasn’t in his nature to pry.

He slowed his step for a tick, allowing her to catch up, and gave a brief nod. “Nice to meet you, Karin.” Despite the rocky start, his tone was far from mocking or sarcastic. Genuinely happy to have made a new acquaintance in this strange place, Jay simply couldn’t mix that with more ambiguous feelings. After the introduction, he looked up and over the treetops. The morning dust had dissipated bells ago, revealing the naked top of the mountain. Since he’d already began to walk north, they might as well follow that path. Experience taught him there had to be a deer pass or similar way up on that side of the mountain.

For the time being, they were walking along a narrow, but fairly easy to traverse path. After a few steps, it got steeper and steeper. When Karin spoke again, Jay slowed again to save his breath for an answer. Before he could, however, she continued with a revelation about herself. Turning his head sharply, he noticed the color of her eyes for the first time. Of course, the exact color of the deep ocean.

He was almost relieved when a curtain of blond hair fell before her face. A chuckle was stuck in his throat. Swallowing, he fumbled for words. “I understand. Now that I know, you look like Svefra a lot. The person I remembered earlier, she was also Svefra. You see, I always lived with them. My father was one, but not my mother, not me. I’m Kelvic, but I belong to Darkcrest pod.” Biting his tongue, he wondered if past tense would’ve been more appropriate. Despite the time that had passed, he wasn’t ready for that kind of truth though. What did it matter anyway? Alvadas was far away from their usual route.

With a low hum, Jay returned his focus to Karin. Memories of the past were strong, but the possibilities of the present infinitely more exciting. Had she heard of the Darkcrests before, of the conflicts before his birth or the recent tragedy? “Can I ask… where is your pod? Do you anchor here this season? I have seen no casino or palivar at the port.”

[Karin]

She noticed the sharp way her spun around when she mentioned that she was Svefra. The words Kelvic, Darkcrest, Svefra, father, mother... they spun into her head, suddenly hopeful, suddenly blossoming. Probably because he seemed friendly, and that put her at ease. If there was a hint of sadness, the girl didn't notice. "Aah..." The girl's voice trailed off from her exclamatory noise of understanding.

Where is my pod. Hope wilted as her emotions once again swirled into despondency. With a sigh, trying not to let her anger and sadness show, as she didn't want to frighten this Jay away, she said, "I... don't have a pod. Or at least, if I do, I don't know where they are." She let out a harsh but quiet 'ha' of cynical, bitter laughter. "My... family, they..." But she broke off, anger once again boiling in her stomach at the thought of what her 'family' had done to her life.

"I'm sorry Jay. My family, my mother is Svefra, but we've lived here in Alvadas pretty much all my life. I just... found out something recently, is all." She desperately tried to shrug it off. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk about it, in fact if she paid close attention to herself, she would probably realise that it would do her good to vent a little. But right now, with a relative stranger? She was too used to solitude that it felt alien to talk about anything other than the weather or other boring, safe subjects.

Choosing to try and steer the subject, the girl piped up again, forcing a brighter tone to her voice. "Jay, you're a Kelvic? I know about people like you, but I've never met one. What's it like?" Her voice rang with tinny happiness, but she smiled a genuine smile to the man. Please... Please humour me.

Note :

Please feel free to talk about anything, including her past if you want to. Karin's just a stubborn introvert