Run Aground in the Sea of Grass

[Sonyn]

Time Stamp: 22nd of Winter, 509 AV

Pain. It hurt. Bad. Sonyn staggered along through the grass, leaving a bloody trail behind him. A pained smile fluttered across his face. He almost always smiled, but it seemed like he shouldn't right now. He didn't really get it. Most people didn't smile when they were in pain, that much he knew. The grass tickled his feet as he stumbled along. He held his right shoulder, breathing heavily. He had removed his clothes when he had fought, and he dragged them along in his sack behind him now.

The wind stung the open wound. Squinting he looked at it again. Blood oozed from the gaping hole. It had hurt when he changed. The man who had done it to him lay dead miles back, and the crossbow bolt lay near him. There was nothing back there for him now. His fellow travelers were gone. The men with crossbows had seen to that. He stopped moving and smiling. He wasn't able to stop them. He shook himself and started again. Must find others. he thought. Someone new. Someone I won't fail. A new smile breached his face.

He rolled his shoulder, cringing as a new wave of pain rolled with it. It was inconveniant. It would be hard to help anyone he found with his shoulder like that. His vision swam. Stupid... keeps happening... His thoughts faded in and out as he pushed through the blowing grass. The wind made them roll like waves in the sea. Or was it his vision? Hard to concentrate. Hard to think. Hard to move. He was losing blood fast. He fell to his knees, blood spattering the ground around him. Were there figures in the distance? Couldn't tell. Everything was so... blurry. He lurched forward, his thoughts fading into black.

[Evarette Karmine]

A dark form plodded through the silvered, willowy grasses...a mountainous black horse for which the sea of rippling emerald parted. A rider sat astride him, everything in form that the horse was not...petite, slender, and currently wrapped in the billowy folds of a cloak to guard against the winter chill. They were an unusual pair, Ivar and Evarette... The crisp breeze toyed with tendrils of Ivar's hair, turned his breath to frosty clouds, and flushed the cheeks of his rider. Evarette tightened the cloak around her shoulders, burying her cheeks into it's folds as another stirring of wind kicked up. She'd be glad to see the end of this brutal weather.

It wasn't the first time she'd considered turning back, waiting out the season behind the walls of Riverfall. But, there were many days between now and spring...and each day was another that her brother inched further beyond her reach. No, she had to find him...and if she was going to do so, she couldn't let something like a little brisk weather get in her way.

Ivar lurched to a halt, suddenly...sending Evarette grasping for his mane to uphold her balance. "Ivar?" The Nightwalker snorted, tossing his head as his nostrils flared wide. He smelled something, of that she had no doubt. An icy trickle of dread crept down her spine and Evarette scanned the grasses ahead...Glassbeaks? Serpents? Surely serpents knew better than to venture out in this weather...but Glassbeaks? Evarette tossed another panicked look over her shoulder...and hesitated. Ivar stood frozen beneath her, which was uncanny in the approach of danger. Furrowing her brows, Evarette leaned over his shoulder so to get a better look as the eye he rolled her way..."Ivar? ...Whats--"

But her attention was drawn by a flicker of movement ahead...so slight, she nearly missed it. A mop of pale hair crowned an even paler, lanky figure, slumped over in the grasses. Was she seeing things? Evarette pressed her knees into Ivar's sides, urging him forward...the stallion took another handful of paces before he stopped again, stomping a foot decisively. "Oh, fine...you big baby!" Evarette chided, sliding from his back. Ivar whickered a protest, but looked on as she stepped past him and knelt alongside what appeared to be a young boy.

He was wounded, this much was made evident by the amount of blood around him. He'd lost a lot, by the looks of it...and in this weather, the danger of hypothermia was prominent. Evarette placed a hand to his cheek...which was still warm, if only barely. His breathing was shallow. "Boy? Can you hear me?" She murmured, sapphire depths casting about the young one's face for any sign of recognition.

Evarette tossed a helpless look over her shoulder in Ivar's direction. The horse stood immobile, a hulk of fleshed out, obsidian statue. Evarette scowled up at him and got to her feet to retrieve her bed roll and blanket. Ivar snorted his displeasure. "Whats gotten into you? You're a warrior's horse, not some nimsy pony...He's just a boy!" Eva tugged free some linen bandaging materials. She could at the very least bind his shoulder and bundle him up, before searching for materials with which to start a fire. "Much good it will do him," she sighed, combing a frustrated hand through her mane of mahogany locks. "I tend horses, not people..." she trailed off into mutterings, falling to her knees alongside the boy once again, and busying herself in what little she could do...

In a few hours time, a small fire crackled and popped, fed by young limbs and dried grasses...It was all Evarette could manage, wishing to stay near in case the boy should awake. She had him wrapped up, a pressure bandage applied to his shoulder, the bed roll and blankets soaking up what heat could be gleaned from the small fire. She'd also managed to rig her tent so that it formed an angle behind him, blocking the wind and trapping what little heat there was to be had. Satisfied and weary, Evarette had coaxed Ivar into settling down on the other side of the fire...puzzled as to why the steed refused to approach the boy. In the end, she'd just assumed it was the blood.... Nestled against his large frame for warmth, Evarette tucked her knees up beneath her chin, Indigo depths sparked by firelight as they watched the sleeping figure from across the glowing pit of flames and coal.

[Sonyn]

Sonyn's eyes flickered open. What? He concentrated. Where had he been last? Then he remembered the pain. He tried to move his arm to his shoulder, but he was bundled under blankets. His eyes wide in panic, and he struggled against the cloth, pushing his way out. Standing bare, his back to the tent, he scanned the small camp. There was a horse and a woman with dark hair. The wind whistled past the tent.

Sonyn swayed as he stood, weary from lack of blood. His feet were sore from walking. There was something else. His shoulder. He reached a hand to the bandages, surprised. He looked at the woman across the small fire. Resigned that it must have been her that helped him, he pulled his bloody sack close. Opening the drawstring he drew out his clothes. He pulled on a pair of pants, the fabric pulling across his raw feet. Draping the shirt around his shoulders, he sat warily before the fire.

Scratching his head, Sonyn sat calmly. He stared at Evarette, waiting hopefully for some kind of order. Something to do. It had been a while since he had been told to do anything. His last job had been a failure, to protect the people that lay dead miles back. He wouldn't fail again. Still, it seemed obvious she wasn't going to give him work yet. "Your name?" he asked.

[Evarette Karmine]

Evarette started as the boy sat up. He was disoriented, and rightfully so. She placed a steadying hand on Ivar's flank as the horse make as thought to move. He uttered a low nicker and settled back to the earth, his dark ears flitting back. Eva sat forward a bit, watching the boy, who seemed to have regained a bit of his strength. He was bone thin, and Evarette could not help but feel a pang of pity for the kid. What could have happened to him that would bring him so far out this way?

As the boy sat down across from her, Evarette's brows rose expectantly. He took so much in stride for one so young. The young lad seemed to possess a willowy grace, and there was something decidedly fluid about his movements that Eva could not put her finger on. Plucking a stick from the earth beside her, Evarette bent to stir some life into the fire, kicking up a shower of sparks that nearly drowned out the boy's words...

"Your name?"

Evarette hesitated, stick poised over the coals. He spoke...and she understood. It was something which Eva had been wondering for some time, whether or not they'd be able to communicate, if he awoke...The boy was assuredly no Drykas, which had given her room for her imagination to play.... Offering him a faint smile, she decided upon answering him as simply as he'd asked, "Evarette." A tilt to her head as she indicated him..."and yours?"

[Sonyn]

Sonyn paused for a moment. His name... he didn't exactly have one. He was called different things by different people. He sat still for a moment racking his brain for the names he'd been called before. The whistling of the wind through the grass reminded him of his first master's home. Full of music... Sonyn. That's what they had called him. That would work for now.

"Sonyn," he answered. "But you may call me whatever you want." He didn't care, he was just glad to have found someone else. Someone that wasn't a foe. The large horse behind her seemed nervous, and he did his best to keep his distance. His stomach growled like an angry lion. An ironic metaphor to be sure. "Do you have food?" Sonyn asked.

[Evarette Karmine]

"Well met, Sonyn," Eva offered him a tentative smile, pushing herself to her feet and retreating to the cluster of packs resting behind Ivar. She thrust her hand into one, and emerged with a few leathery strips of dried meat. In addition, she plucked her waterskin free from the heap of baggage, and returned to the fire. Carefully, as though wary of startling him, she layed the waterskin near him, and placed the strips of meat on top.

"I'm afraid it is all I have to offer, for now."

She settled back by Ivar, his massive weight at her back a subtle comfort as she stared openly at the boy-child across from her. There was something...perplexing...about his eyes. When the light caught them just right, they didn't seem...human. His movements were weak, and yet still possessed a strange fluidity she could not put name to. Shoving aside the disturbing notion, she tucked her knees under her chin once again, wrapping her cloak tighter against the evening chill. Ivar eyed the boy dispassionately, though his ears were canted back in unease.

"What brought you out here, Sonyn? You are far from any settlement, and I sense a story behind that wound, there..." Picking up her fire-prodding stick again, she dug into the coals, folding back a few pieces of kindling so to release more heat. The light played patterns on their features, spreading it's golden fingers of warmth across them like fickle rivulets.

[Sonyn]

Eying the horse, Sonyn stretched out his hand and pulled the morsels towards him. Untying the water skin, he took a few gulps. His tongue lapped at any water that didn't make it to his mouth. He retied the skin and dropped a bit of dried meat in his mouth. After the first scrap, he devoured the rest. When he was finished he let out a contented sigh, his teeth gleaming. They were longer than normal, and finished in points.

He adjusted to a slightly more comfortable position, tying his shirt at the center. "I was traveling," he began. "With others. I don't know where they were from, I didn't ask. They wanted me to protect them..." his voice trailed off and a hint of sadness entered his eyes. "I failed. Some evil men with crossbows tried to take their things. I fought them, but by the time I killed the last one my friends were dead. I got shot." He reached up and touched his shoulder, grimacing in pain.

[Evarette Karmine]

Evarette listened to the account of his arrival with a hint of concern etched across her features. He'd been hired on to serve as protection? But he is only a boy! her mind cried in defense, a thoughtful frown pursuing her lips. Why would a caravan expect a boy to be able to ward off bandits? Perhaps they had been low on funds...or their expectations for trouble had been a grave miscalculation.

"You are very fortunate to have made it out of such a scrape," she remarked, tugging her stick from the coals and placing it aside. It's burning tip cooled quickly in the frosty night air. Indigo eyes watched as the boy shrugged into his usual attire, curiously noting the sharpened teeth. The glimpse drove an icy thorn of unease into the back of her mind, and for the first time Eva considered the possibility that this young boy may not be entirely human. Ivar brought his velveteen muzzle in close to her elbow, as if sensing her mild distress. She leaned into him briefly, one hand falling upon his cheek almost reflexively.

"Though I still do not understand how a caravan would expect so much from a boy."

[Sonyn]

"Perhaps that is why they now lay dead," Sonyn said quietly. He wasn't sure she had heard, but he didn't care. She seemed to be nervous. The horse certainly was, and that was enough to make him nervous as well. A scared horse could cause pain, he knew that much. He was still smiling, but he did his best to once again stay away from the horse.

The wind continured to swirl around their small camp, whispering it's news to unheeding ears. She was looking at him strangely. He gave her a reassuring smile, his pointed teeth flashing agin in the light from the fire.

[Evarette Karmine]

Evarette blinked at him, trying to determine if she was more caught off guard by his words, or the flash of sharpened canines that gleamed through the nervous smile the boy cast in her direction. No, she decided inwardly, not likely human...but not necessarily dangerous, either. "I highly doubt it was your fault...you're just a boy," she spoke softly, reassuringly...A hand rising to gesture to the wound on his side. "Clearly, you did try..."

Ivar shifted, averting his dark eyes from the boy as he furled his ears flat against his broad skull. Though she was starting to understand why Ivar might feel uneasy in the presence of this boy, Evarette shrugged against him with a sigh, a disarming smile preceding her next words as her indigo eyes crept towards the boy once again..."Don't mind Ivar, he's being a grump. He isn't the most socially adept creature around..." at this, the horse snorted, and seemed content to leave it at that.

"Tell me, Sonyn, where will you go now?"