Location [Syliras Entrance] The Main Gates

[Gabriel Thule]

A quiet sigh escaped the lips of Gabriel Thule as he trotted down the road, cloak pulled tightly around his shoulders, hood up over his dark brown hair. His blue eyes scanned the road ahead of him with a mechanical efficiency.

Thump thump, clip clop. He swore the tedious noise would get to him some day. A grumble left his lips. He hated these trips he had to make back to Civilization. His head rang with quiet tunes that he would hum to himself on occasion.

Finally, he approached the gates to the city of Syliras, hopping from atop his horse to approach the entrance. He passed the guards without incident after stabling his dearest horse Rain, patting her flank in his affectionate way.

He yawned loudly, doubting anything eventful would happen this time around, either.

[Stikka al'Tyne]

20th day of Spring, 510 AV

As the sun reached its midday zenith over Sylira Region it shone brightly upon a man walking slowly along the middle of the road. The man’s short cloak and long hair lay still on the breezeless early spring day. Tucked through the straps of the man’s pack was a five and a half foot iron quarterstaff. With his hands he held a simple, but finely crafted flute to his lips and a low, long melody followed behind him as he advanced down the road. The guards at Syliras’s massive gate heard the man’s song for quite a few chimes before the man himself emerged from the forest that covered so much of the Syliran countryside. The man played his flute to within a couple paces of the guards, before lowering the instrument and giving Slyiras’s watchmen his full attention. The sergeant if the guard stepped forward to begin the ritual of admittance that was repeated over and over in every civilized city throughout the known world. “Good afternoon sir, welcome to Syliras. May I please have your name, where you’re from, and the purpose of this visit to our city?”

The man acknowledged the guard sergeant with a nod, but took the time to replace the flute within the hard case on his belt before replying. His face was expressionless, though the intelligence clearly visible behind his eyes prevented him from looking vacant. “I am Stikka al’Tyne, come from Zeltvia in the hopes of earning some coin. As you have noticed I am musically capable and thought I would try my luck playing for patrons.”

“Zeltvia is it? You’re not a piraite are you? No, nevermind, pirates don’t play flutes. Very well Mister al’Tyne, enjoy your stay in Syliras and good luck with your music.” Stikka actually was a pirate, but he reflected, bringing that up might lead to undo difficulties with the local authorities. Instead he just nodded once more to the sergeant and strode into Syliras.

[Taithrosa Eldytia]

70 Day of Spring Year 510 AV

Taith walked up to the gates of the new city of Syliras. His silver eyes looked at it with interest. He remembered greater grandure from his orignal home city, but that was only a fleeting memory at best.

He was just here to visit and see the city. He had plan to move on after a couple days and head towards the healing hosptial in Mura. He had heard it was a sit, one of the last bastions of true civilization, also it had a church dedicated to all the gods. That was one of the biggest reasons he had desided to spend some time here.

"I am Taithrosa Eldytia of Riverfall. I was traveling and needed some place to stay for a couple of days." He waited for only a moment longer before he was allowed on through into the center of civilization.

[Dusk]

One of the Knights at the gate looked the Akalak over warily, but Riverfall was well known, and the man looked neither sick nor particularly bent on tearing the place apart.

"Remember to keep the peace here, mister," he said with a nod - not unfriendly, but it was a warning that had to be given. "If you've never been here before, I'd suggest you talk to Aenysa," he said, pointing across the street to a fresh-faced young human girl with chestnut hair and matching eyes. "She'll tell you how to find whatever you're looking for."

As soon as she saw the Knight pointing, she grinned widely and began waving quite enthusiastically, all spunk and energy. She had a little wooden box in one hand and a pencil in the other, which was what she was waving around.

"Bit excitable if you ask me," the Knight laughed, "but she'll help you out."

[Taithrosa Eldytia]

Taith nodded his head and headed towards the young lady who he had been directed to, Aenysa. He smiled at the young woman amused by her excitement, his mind briefly flashed with images of other young women he had known in past lives. He had grown better at not letting these flashes of memories show thought, and he smiled as he approached her. "I understand that you are person to ask for directions in this town." His silver eyes held a strange deepness, one seen usually only in the very old and wise. His face though was that of a young man. "I have heard of a Temple, or maybe a Church to all the Gods. It is one of the main reasons I came to Syliras. Also do you know of any medical facilities? I am interested in healing and wish to see some local healers."

[Dusk]

Aenysa bounced a little on her toes, grinning up at him with that same enthusiasm. She wore a simple red dress with an emblem stitched into one shoulder, four sharp, straight vertical lines enclosed by a circle.

"Hi!" she said, tucking a curl behind her ears. "I'm Aenysa, one of the local greeters. Welcome to Syliras, and if there's anything I can do to help just let me know!"

She listened intently to his requests, nodding at each mention, and when he finished she beamed at him again. "Excellent choices, both," she said, opening the little wooden box to reveal a number of little white pieces of paper, all cut to exactly the same size and separated into categories by hard leather dividers.

"The Temple of All Gods is down that street," she said, pulling out a card and pointing the way, "just make a left on it, then the third right, and you should be able to find it. Here are the direction," she said, handing him the little slip of paper with Temple of All Gods on it and a quick recitation of how to get there from the city gates.

She turned back to the cards and dug through them again, nimble fingers flicking the papers aside until she found the one she was looking for. "Ah! Here we go. For healing your best bet is Soothing Waters. They mainly do baths and massage, but they keep a healer on staff so if you've need of something they can take care of it." She handed him that card, then pointed him in the right direction.

She shut the box with a little snap! and then smiled up at him again. "If you haven't gotten lodgings yet, Traveler's Row is right down that way," she said, pointing over to a section of the wall that had a long line of temporary apartments built into it. "And of course, if you should find yourself in need of employment you can always come find me again - or any of the other greeters," she said with a laugh, tapping the emblem on her shoulder.

[Taithrosa Eldytia]

Taithrosa took the cards, very impressed with the method used by the locals. It did leave a better image then someone who gets lost trying to follow verbal directions. He looked up as she mentioned employement. He knew he would need something to earn a little extra. "What type of employment?" He asked. "I could use something short term to earn some extra Mizas."

[Dusk]

"Oh, we've a derth of jobs always needs doing," she giggled. An idle hand took him by the shoulder and turned him to point down the street opposite the Traveler's Row. "I don't know all the details, but that's the main office over there," she said with another smile. "I'm just a greeter. But they can tell you what's available and find something suited to your needs."

[Tyuru]

The light spring breeze ruffled her copper hair, tossing it up to caress her freckled skin. It carried scents of the season, the fragrance of flowers, pollen, dust, and-

Tyuru sneezed, almost falling off her mount. The horse, a huge beast that was pure muscle and grace, snorted in derision, blinking away the dust the sudden gust of wind had thrown at it. Horse, for that was what Tyuru called him, continued his steady pace toward the intimidating gates, his rider righting herself clumsily.

Tyuru straightened her steadily dirtying white tunic and took off her heavy red cloak which had moved askew, draping it across the pommel of the saddle. She could feel the spring in the air. And the pollen that always caused her allergies to act up. Sniffing, she slouched up in the saddle, keeping up the pretence of control over her massive 20hh mount. In reality, Horse was trotting of his own accord and needed no steering or urging from the inexperienced rider atop him.

Said inexperienced rider sat straighter as a young guard approached. Horse trundled to a stop and Tyuru pulled the reigns to make it seem like she had stopped him. Horse allowed this.

The guard was young, maybe a few years older than her. Am I in trouble? she wondered, giving the guard a flirtatious look from under her lashes. She decided to turn on the charm. It was plain to see she lacked the finesse of more experienced seductresses, but she was learning, and her demeanor was inviting, to say the least.

The guard wanted no more than to check the history of the horse – ‘How long have you had him?’ ‘Is he in good health?’ ‘How many days has this journey taken you?’ – but his eyes did seem to stray from her face, perhaps distracting him from the fact that Horse was looking tired and ragged and that Tyuru’s loose sienna colored skirt was a little torn and frayed around the edges.
Her answers were spoken in a shy, breathy voice that she hoped wasn’t overdone – ‘I’ve lost track, sir, the nights have gone by so quickly!’ ‘He’s in perfect health, a great beast if I’ve ever known one.’ ‘As I’ve said, sir, I lost count of the days somewhere along the way, in between the long waking hours and the short sleeping ones.’ – but he seemed to not really hear what she was saying and let her pass without further incident.

She let out a breath of relief. The short, sharpened stick she was hiding in her tunic wouldn’t be enough to defend herself if she had been considered suspicious – although, she thought to herself, she doubted that they would take an interest in her. A good thing, too - she had no idea how to use the rude, clumsily made weapon.

The sound hit her as Horse carried her through the gate. Tyuru looked up nervously, eyeing the sharp points of the metal portcullis, unable to suppress a sudden fear of it falling on and impaling her. Suddenly, the spring air seemed slightly colder.

[Fherasoone]

She was unsure as to where she was, eyeing the great gates that stood before her. A number of people passed by, one of them that caught her eyes was a woman with a horse who was let inside. Once the sight of the woman disappeared, Fhera took a breath, frightened after having noticed the guards posted at the gates. She took a few steps forward, her worn sandals giving to the rocks below. This was as though a forewarning, the sharpness of the rocks being compared to the sharpness of the guards weapons. With a shiver, she turned around, stepping off of the rocks that poked at her, trying to think of what she should do.

She stood there for a minute, slowly rubbing the sleeve of her robes, trying to find out if the guards might take offense to her, or maybe someone inside might not be happy with her for something. She was completely new here though, disbelieving the idea of someone having any qualms with her. If it weren't for those weapons held by the guard, surely she would have courage enough to go up there, but instead, her frail body shook at the idea of being hit. Finally, after the fifth minute, she did her best to calm herself, holding onto her hands as she approached the gates.

The guards eyed her, watching as she approached. Within a few steps, she took a bow, praying not to offend them. The guard was suddenly very nice though, whispering as he placed his weapon to the side, "Now now there little one." he said with a smile through his rough face, "No reason to be afraid." Fhera believed this, immediately calming down, staring up at the guard with her bright eyes. The guard took notice of this scratching his chin, "So. You're a Kelvic girl are ya? Just so you know, a lot of people won't take well if you run around without your clothes." he said, taking into consideration a Kelvics natural tendency to walk around with a lack of.

Fhera went red at the idea, unable to imagine doing such a thing, having been raised with humans who taught her human ways. The guard took notice of this as well and laughed, "Ah! Sorry, sorry young lady, I didn't mean to insult you." he said, placing his hand over Fhera's head. Fhera liked the comfort of this, and smiled, "Its...It's alright..." she said in a soft voice. The guard spoke up once more, still rubbing Fhera on the head gently, "So where are your folks?" he asked. This was a painful thing there, causing Fhera to stare down, tears suddenly filling her eyes.

"Ah. I see. We get a lot of that here. Go on through, we can't send you back out there alone. However, you're on your own from there. Not much more we can do for you from our position." he said, nodding at the other guard who opened the door for her. Fhera smiled once more, bowing her head, "Thank you..." she said, once more in her quiet voice just before walking in, eyes suddenly widening at the huge world within the walls.