A Chaotic Meeting [Mattew, Bee, Ventus]

[Grimi Locura]

The sun rose over the hill, the air was flowing nicely, birds could be heard chirping, and the nearby stream trickled with water. Grimi woke up. Her camp was small due to it only being temporary as she travels to Sacae. She got up and prepared herself breakfast. Her breakfast consisted of dried bread and water. She was low on rations but hey that's part of the fun right? She looked toward the stream as she ate her meal. A doe was drinking water from it with her young. Grimi enjoyed watching them they looked peaceful. Grimi then got up she had the whole day ahead of her.

"Heh hope they take care," Grimi said as she got into her armour. Her armour was light as normal she was too small to be wearing big metal armour so she had to stick to wearing light armour. She grabbed the container where she keeps her water and refills it by the stream. The water was fresh and clean Grimi thought due to it being drinkable by animals. She grabbed a nearby sword and looked toward the hill the next thing she had to climb. She had a good night's rest and a well sorta good breakfast... so she was prepared I guess.

"My next obstacle shall be you!" Grimi yelled at the hill pointing her sword toward it, "I shall climb you and prove my worthiness to reach Sacae on foot!" With that she marched toward the hill. She may have alerted someone or something but of course Grimi would not have known this.

[Bee]

Suddenly a loud boom filled the air of sacae as Bee, the maiden of fire, shot fort a ball of explosive magic. The maiden did not know the meaning of the word overkill and her stomach demanded food. Falling from the sky after the explosion was a young doe. It had been drinking with its children and out of respect Bee waited till the brats moved away before blowing her up. They could live without her. It would be tough, but they will live.

"Yet again another magnificent morning and breakfast brought by the power of flames", shouted Bee as she walked over to her kill. Part of its body was already cooked, but Bee ignored most of that. Despite her love of fire she did not like burned venison that much. Instead she cut off a few chunks from the smoldering, but not burnt piece and placed it into a metal pan. This would make good jerky after she dried it out. As Bee began to work on her meat she would look up periodically. Her method of getting food was effective, but she always needed to keep a eye out for wolves.

"Alright that is all I am going to get", spoke Bee as she finished her work. She would leave the remaining carcus to the ravens or maybe some of the real wolves. They did not seem to mind burnt meat. Walking back a bit Bee scooped a pan filled with water and set it to boil with a fire she created with her initial attack. Using the heated water she cleaned her hands and began to make preparations for the day.

"Just have to smoke the rest of this now", spoke Bee as she sat back on a hillside. She placed the pot not too far away and pulled out a piece of clothing out of her bag. From it she pulled out the last few stripps of smoked meat and began chewing it down. As a side she had a orange, thought it was the last one she had. Orange and Deer meat, Bee could ask for no better breakfast.

[Mattew Emblem]

Woah! Mattew arose from a boom in the distance. "What could that have been?" Mattew leaned against the tree he, moments ago had been sleeping under. "I hope nobody is in trouble." Mattew takes out the final bite of his own chunk of deer meat and chows down, leaving nothing left but the bone. "Well... Not sure what I'll be eating tonight now." Mattew spots a fresh deer in the forest sprinting from the direction of the boom recentely heard. "Maybe I'll find some rations that direction, but if not any left deer will make for dinner!" Mattew looks upon the most nearby hill, "Sacae lies yonder is that right? If there isn't anything at the "boom" site then I suppose that's my direction." The only fear looming on Mattew's mind was: I sure hope I make it in time if someone is in trouble.

[Ventus Stoll]

Another beautiful morning in a new environment. After Ventus's experience in Etruria with the Inquisition, he and Aria both knew that they needed get out of the the country ruled by Kraft. Ventus wasn't sure where to go. Aria suggested meeting up with Willow in Sacae, but she was fighting for Etruria. Ventus would not fight for Kraft in his pointless battles. He killed innocents, Ventus and Aria both knew this now.

"Good morning sleepy head. I can't believe that we had such a splendid morning in the country of Bern. It's quite nice here. Aria said as she came over with half of a cooked fish that Ventus managed to catch the other day and some berries she managed to scavenge for in the local bushes. She handed the used plate with the food on it to Ventus as she picked up her own plate and begun to eat. At least the two managed to grab some civilized luxuries before heading to Bern. The two ate while enjoying a pleasant conversation on whatever topic they could muster up.

"Well Aria where should we go now?" Ventus asked while looking around the nearby trees to see what was around. He noticed a hill nearby and pointed towards it. The cleric, Aria, looked over and sort of groaned. "Oh come on lazy legs we can get over the hill" The two packed up their belongings and begun to trek towards the hill, but then there seemed to be shouting on the other side of the hill.

"Hopefully no one is hurt! Let's get over this stupid hill quickly."Aria used her heal stave to help her get over the hill. Ventus began to lengthen his stride as he tried to catch up to her. "I can't let lazy legs beat me up the hill," Ventus chuckled to himself.

[Grimi Locura]

Grimi faced toward the hill. It was nice and tall it would be a good walk to get over.

"Seeing how the hill is slightly steep... This is going to be quite tiring with the supplies I have." Her supplies weighed quite a bit actually. She began to head for the hill. It was slightly steep as she had thought but hey she was smart enough to travel on foot. Travelling up a quite steep hill on a horse would be the idea of a fool and Grimi was technically a fool. Although she couldn't ride any kind of mount.

She tried riding on a horse when she was younger she fell off and broke her arm, she tried riding a pegaseus she smashed into her neighbour's garden, she tried riding a dragon uh... let's just say there were few people without injuries. Thus because of this she travels on foot. Sure it's tiring, sure it kinda hurts your feet after awhile but it builds endurance which is one of Grimi's best qualities. Halfway up the hill she decided to take a break.

It wasn't too long until she would reach the top but she was thirsty and needed a little rest. She got out her container of water and drank a bot of the water. It tasted disgusting but it was water. Eventually after a little while she got up and headed up the hill a bit more. What was beyond the hill was a bit more visible now. But she still had a ways to go.

[Mattew Emblem]

Approaching the "boom" site Mattew saw embers of flames scattered throughout the forest, not worthy enough to create a forest fire although enough to make Mattew nervous. He patted out each ember he came upon with his foot and even more carefully now he continued along his path. The sounds of burning, and a smell of bark lingered though the forest as he tip toed towards his destination. He began to think a bit on the scenario. "What if there is someone burning the forest? What if there is more than one of them? I couldn't stop more than one person.. I need some help.. But I'm quite far from the nearest town, or at least in my mind, and I don't know a soul around here." Mattew remembered the Sacae that lies beyond the near hill. He went to look at such hill and found a figure scaling the hill. "Someone! And if it's just one person I can handle it one on one. Hopefully though they're friendly." Mattew started running towards the silhouette scaling the hill in hopes they can assist him to stop the burning of the forest. Mattew's food was quite low as well so he needed a way to find dinner for the night, without the ash attached. Mattew felt that the hill ended up being incredibly larger than he imagined as he got closer and closer. Although he was running the distance between Mattew and the shadow didn't seem to get any smaller. In any case, he needed help and continued running towards the shadow upon the hill.

[Bee]

As Bee finished off her morning breakfast she noticed a few trace fires. It was nothing special, but she was going to need to put them out. Bee, being the little pyromaniac she was, enjoyed the sight of fire, but she understood that you can't burn everything down. She still needed to eat and other people would not take to kindly to that. So the maiden rose from her boiling pot and smoking meat to put out all the remaining small embers. Every stop that suppressed a flame was like a crack in her heart. What was and could have been was destroyed and the dazzling glow removed. However it had to be done and Bee was the one forced to do the dirty work.

"Alright", spoke Bee as she returned to her spot. She was a bit bummed she had to put out the embers. Though a few of them seemed to have placed themselves out. It was a strange phenomena, but hey at the very least she did not have to do it. Taking the meat she had in the pan Bee began to place it onto a thin metal wire and hang it over the fire. She was going to need to resupply herself on deer meat. The taste was gammy, but food was food. Bee really did not have that much coin to be buying food everywhere she went. So Bee was forced to stop and make her own rations whenever she could. With her two tomes of fire at her side Bee could pretty much cook anything she got her hands on.

After burning the grass around the fire and making sure none of its wooden source would spit up embers Bee took the moment to simply lay back on the grass. It was a good day and she might as well enjoy it. From her position she could see a rather large hill that was not too far back. Staring at it Bee began to think back onto her trip.

[Ventus Stoll]

Usually when someone scales a hill it eventually ends and the person gets over the top of it with little to no issue. Well not this hill. Ventus was out of breathe after just going about a little over half way, while Aria has already stopped several times to catch her breathe, but she was still ahead of him.

"Why, oh why did St. Elimine place this ginormous hill here? What was the need?" Aria panted as she used her staff to help her make her way to the top of the hill. The cleric's robes were dragging behind her while her Carolina blue hair was frequently swaying its way into her face as she tried to remove it from her facial area. "This is like the most cardio I've gotten in a while."

Ventus listened to Aria's complaints, but was still trying to pump his way up the hill with the use of his arms and lengthened stride. The duo were about three quarters of the way over the hill now, but were even more tired. After about 10 more minutes they got to the top, but Aria first.

"Finally! We finally made it! Hopefully we made it in time to help whoever needed help!" Aria stooped to look around the top of the hill, but Ventus was a little distracted. He was still thinking of beating Aria to the top of the hill, so he begun to surge faster. He got to the top, but didn't really stop. Instead, he got to the top, past Aria, and then went past her. "Aha! I think I won Aria! I beat you to the top. I wo-" Ventus's words were cut off suddenly. Aria looked around and noticed that her Pupil friend was gone. She went to the other side of the hill and saw him. However, this time he happened to be rolling down the hill on the other side on his side straight towards what seemed to be a person.

"Oh dear, St. Elimine please make sure that Ventus and that other person come out of this okay..."

[Grimi Locura]

Grimi was trekking up the hill like nobody's business after her good break. She was close to reaching the top when she noticed a figure rolling downhill toward her. Was it an animal? Wait no a guy! Grimi needed to keep her supplies from getting destroyed so she threw her backpack to the side and Ventus smashed into her. They began to topple down the hill hitting many bushes, rocks, and such. Eventually they came to a stop as Grimi smacked into a tree and Ventus... I dunno what he stopped by. Grimi got up she had cuts and bruises and was bleeding in the head but she was enraged so thus she didn't care.

"What's your problem!? What idiot would just go rolling down a steep and dangerous hill!?" she paused for a moment blood still trickling through her hair, "Wait... You probably just tripped and fell down the hill. I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions." Grimi did a quick bow but not a full one.

"The name's Grimi what's yours?" she asked still bleeding from her head. Her bag was still on the hill it was caught in a bush. So it wasn't going anywhere. But it did have like all of her supplies so it was kinda important. She then heard rustling in the bushes and she reached to her sheath for her sword. But it wasn't there, "Huh w-where's my sword!?" she turned in circles frantically searching for her weapon. It was somewhere but not with her.

[Mattew Emblem]

Mattew frantically running to the hill stopped dead in his tracks. "What the..?" Mattew was quite a distance down the hill but within his view he could spot a woman with flowing blonde hair. Her eyes even came into his sight with an unexpected crimson tint although she had not spotted him yet. He began to open his mouth when he spotted another figure approaching the woman at a high speed. Not just a high speed! It's not going to stop at all! "Watch!..." The woman and figure collided sending them both into a ball rolling down the hill towards Mattew extremely fast. Mattew remained stunned for a couple seconds and then shook his head ready to take action. "Quickly now Mattew-" Mattew dodged to the right into the cover of the forestation. He watched as the two smashed into trees and such; from behind his own tree, not necessarily hiding but remaining a cool and collected look, leaning himself against the tree just out of sight of the two.
The woman with the golden hair began her self introduction after quite an unhappy moment releasing what was quite the understandable anger. Mattew remains leaning against his tree during her introduction. "Grimi huh? She looks harmless, although I haven't an opportunity to look at the other," he says to himself. Mattew would normally unsheathe his sword at this moment, in preparation from whatever may come next, but after careful inspection, has it remain at his side, under his cloak out of sight.

[Bee]

As Bee laid in the grass trying to enjoy the day her ears caught wind of something that seemed to be important. Rising up from her now matted down grass Bee looked over to see something going on on the hill. From this distance she could not tell exactly, but it seemed like three people had gathered. From the look of them they could no have been bandits. Bandits where much bigger, wider, and had a very unpleasant look to them. These people looked more like lost sheep the way they fumbled around. Still there very presence would prove to be entertaining. Bee had not seen another person in a while and she was feeling a bit conversation starved.

So after double checking her cooking meat Bee decided that she was going to go over and introduce herself to these three people gathering around the bottom of a hill. She wondered what in the world where they doing and what was the sound that ruined her little morning layabout. If bee had to guess, and from the matted down grass, somebody took a tumble down the rather large hill. Though she wondered why one would climb up such a hill in the first place. There was nothing of real value up there and she was sure nobody was building a home. Maybe they wanted a view of the area or maybe they found it to be fun, thought she doubted that. Still it mattered not in the end. Somebody climbed it and from what she could tell there was still somebody ontop of it. That or she was seeing things.

Dusting the grass of her clothing Bee began to make her way toward the forming group. In her hands was her fire tome and in her right pocket was the big one.

[Ventus Stoll]

It took a few moments before Ventus came around. In a quick glance, it seemed that the young pupil hand knocked into someone as he was rolling down the hill and then the two ran straight into the breaching trees of the forest. Ventus shook his head to try and regain himself. After a moment he got up as the girl that he tumbled with was just getting up as well.

"What's your problem!? What idiot would just go rolling down a steep and dangerous hill!?" the girl paused for a moment blood still trickling through her hair, "Wait... You probably just tripped and fell down the hill. I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions." Ventus looked at her wounds and felt terrible. He had a few small scratches along with a gash on his chin, but she seemed to have taken most of the injuries. "The name's Grimi what's yours?"

"I'm so sorry! I was climbing the hill from one side and then the next thing I know is that I tumbling down the hill on the other side," Ventus looked at her wounds, "My friend that travels with me, Aria, is a cleric. She can get you healed up. Speaking of which where is she?" Ventus looked around and saw that she was trying to quickly get to the bottom of the hill safely. "She is almost here. As for me, my name is Ventus. Pleased to meet you." He gave a slight bow and then put his hand out for a nice greeting.

"I'm here!" Aria was coming over to Ventus and Grimi as she called out while giving a slight 'huff.'"Oh dear! You two seem to be hurt. Let me take care of those wounds with my staff." She held her staff out over Grimi's head and gave a short prayer to St. Elimine as the staff begun to illuminate and glow. Aria then shifted and rested her staff by Ventus's face. The pupil could feel his wounds becoming less noticeable. "Well there we go," she turned to Grimi, "My name is Aria by the way. A pleasure to meet you."

[Grimi Locura]

She turned back to Ventus. "Hello Ventus uh sorta nice to meet you. I think it would be nicer if we hadn't collided on that hill..." Grimi shook Ventus' hand. Then Aria showed up. Grimi was amazed by Aria's healing ability due to the fact that she had never met one before.

"Nice to meet you Aria. My name's Grimi. A novice who has plans to become a mercenary eventually and then a hero if I have the chance. I was climbing the hill earlier when Ventus and I uh... collided so to speak. I was so close to getting to the top too. I was planning to travel to The City of Heroes in Sacae which has been a dream of mine since I was really young. Then travel to Etruria for reasons I am not to share." Grimi then looked toward Mattew's tree and said, "You can come out if you want; I have no weapon."

Grimi then looked toward the hill that she was climbing. Her bag was still there. If she doesn't get to it soon bandits could entirely take it and then she would really be in trouble. All she really had to do right now is try and end these conversations quickly so she can get up the hill and get her bag. A bandit camp was nearby or so she heard which made her worried for her bag.

"Hey uh... My luggage is still on the hill and my sword is well... Somewhere. Could you guys help me find my sword and get my bag?" she asked politely.

[Mattew Emblem]

Mattew, still leaned up against his tree, watched as each individual traded greetings. "Oh, the other 'collider' looks harmless as well, I suppose it is time to-" "You can come out if you want; I have no weapon." Grimi said, rudely interrupting his conversation with himself. Mattew was not fazed due to her statement though, as he was never hiding originally. Mattew parted with his tree and began to walk out into the small meeting place formed by the party. As he began to walk out he spotted the stave on Aria. "My, that stave worked wonders huh you two? I've felt a healing of the sort before, quite the feeling," Mattew stated to the group. Mattew quietly wondered to himself if any of those here had any sort of rations remaining, as his stomach could be heard a mile away.. well, more accurately only himself, but that was enough. Although his rumbling stomach he wanted to address the topic at hand due to otherwise being extremely rude. "While I don't like weapons much, I shall indeed assist Grimi. Here let me fetch your bag for you." Mattew sprints up the hill, incredibly fast, cloak flowing behind him, only to return quite quickly, bag over his shoulder."Here you are madam, although I have not spotted the sword you spoke of." Mattew eyes around for any sign of the sword although it appears fruitless."Oh!" Mattew coughs extremely falsely. "I forgot to mention, I'm Mattew, also as it appears one of many looking to find refuge over the hill. There's nothing you need to know about me, but as a promise this sword shall stay sheathed even if yours is drawn against me. Well met Grimi." Mattew nods to Grimi. "As well as you lady Aria, and- Ventus it was?" Mattew extends his arm to Ventus in a gesture to handshake.

[Bee]

It too a good bit of time, but Bee finally made it within ear shock of the group. Her mind and eyes still wondered back to her little project. However Bee had taken the precaution of burning all the plants around her little pot, so she was sure that the fire was contained. Though she would have to worry about overcooking her meat. Still Bee was curious about these people. Why in the world where they meeting on this hill? What was the sound that broke her sweet nap? What they where doing out here? Where in the world is the nearest town?

At the moment Bee was a bit starved for conversation. She had been by herself on this knoll land for a bit too long. "Hey", shouted Bee as she tried to get the groups attention. At the moment Bee was debating on whether or not should she use her magic to grab there attention or simply rely on her voice. If she really wanted too she could shoot off a few balls of fire and make them explode in the air. That would get there attention really quick. However it would also alarm everyone in the knoll lands of where she and the group was. That however was a bad idea. She could also try to make words with controlled flames. Though that my come off a threat than a attempt to make friendly chat.

In the end Bee decided to do things the old fashion way. She would have to simply pick up her pace and walk up to them. At the very least from the distance she was standing she could tell they where not bandits. They all had shirts and not a single one of them had a axe. Sure not all bandits used axes, but the fact that none of them had one gave a good indicator. After picking up her pace Bee caught up with the ground after one of the men returned with a bag. However the sprint caused her to run out of breath and Bee had to take a quick moment to catch her breath.