Crossroads (Victoria/Open)

[Locke]

The forests near Taras were dappled with sunlight that filtered through the trees, and the undergrowth rustled as the unseen denizens of the woods scampered and capered about. Birds chirped, and the harmony of nature was unbroken. The path through these woods, worn flat and tamped hard by countless boots, was empty, save a thin man who looked at once wholly out of place and completely in his element. His footfalls were light, and a faint hum came from his lips as he walked without swagger or caution through the forest. He appeared completely unencumbered by the large spiked mace that hung on his back, and his hands were busy carving a rock he had just picked up from the forest floor. His green hair was unkempt, but somehow seemed perfectly in place as it was tousled occasionally by the breeze. It was almost as if this being, making his way down the center of the path, was the distillation of the contradictions of nature in one compact form. Chaos and order met, but nothing about their confluence seemed to faze the wanderer in the least.

With a bright and thick cracking noise, the stone shattered, and smaller chips fell behind Locke as he continued to carve. A few moments later, a figure emerged, and then minute details came into form before he dropped it gently into a bag on his hip and stooped to pick up a new stone. The rhythm began again, and the ‘man’ walked on, chipping his stone and carving as if that was all that mattered. Birds flew around him, and squirrels and rabbits crossed his path, but nothing disturbed the nearly hypnotic state that Locke had entered as he carved the earth with which he communed.

This continued for quite a while, until the song and the feet stopped in the center of a crossroads.

"Hm. Where do I go from here?"

[Victoria]

Of all the things she was used to, drudging through woodland paths wasn't one of them. Tori could feel the rise of another blister on the balls of her feet as she walked, her pace having long since slowed. She’d realized early in the day that trying to rush to Taras was a futile effort, and a stupid one at that - the waterskin she’d taken from her would-be captor had been half-empty to begin with, and she had to conserve what was left if she was to reach the city in one functional piece. The blonde eventually let out a sigh and stepped off of the tamped down path, sinking onto softer ground near the tree line. “Just for a little while,” she breathed to herself, and set her tome in the grass to give her arms a break.

As tempting as it was to take off her boots, Tori knew that would only invite infection for the blisters that had already broken open. The girl frowned at the condition of her hands as she flexed them, the shiny burns making themselves known in no uncertain terms. She drew a hissing breath when one of the lesions in the lines of her palm popped. Blood trickled down her damaged flesh. She wasn’t quite sure where she had gone wrong with the incantation, but with reciting it from memory, something clearly had. It was the price to be paid, however. A little discomfort versus walking on eggshells with brigands, without knowing how long their patience would last or or how her father would even find them again. Her solution hadn’t been the best - it hadn’t been ideal at all, if she were to be honest with herself, and it may have even put her in the same category as their aggressors - but she at least had the mobility to find a better follow-up herself.

It wasn’t until a faint chipping drifted that she started. Close, with how the trees absorbed sound.

Tori shielded her book in the folds of her cloak as she scrambled to her feet and further off the main path, and ended up hugging the illuminated volume to her chest as nerves quickened her pulse. It wasn’t until the green haired man showed himself that she shook her head. Pensive, perhaps even absent-minded in his wandering, but he certainly didn’t look like a threat. She was jumpy.

The blonde couldn’t help but to nibble her lip as she emerged from the foliage, well aware of how foolish it may look to the man when he realized she’d been hiding from him, but there was no way to recover from that without getting into the bloody details. “Erm, hello.” Her words came quieter than she’d intended, but at least they weren’t inaudible.

[Locke]

“Erm, hello.”

A quiet voice had spoken. Locke turned his head, inclining it and gazing at the young woman who had spoken without turning any of his body or halting the chipping that his hands were working on. His eyes slowly moved from her head to her feet, not lewdly, but almost curiously, as if he was seeing for the first time something interesting, a rare type of bird, perhaps, or a butterfly sunning itself on a log.

It was a human girl, a young woman. Most likely barely of the adolescent age. She seemed uncomfortable. A little scared, and she was favoring parts of her feet. Perhaps unused to travel. Locke sniffed. He smelled blood. Perhaps she was injured, too. His eyes alighted on the burns and open wounds on her hands, and slowly the manakete crouched, placing the carving he had just finished on the ground and opening a satchel he carried in his flowing clothes. He withdrew moss, a few leaves, and a few small pieces of a crumbling material from the skin bag, and then mixed them, crushing them in his palms and smearing the paste onto the damp moss.

"You are injured. Use this on all of your injuries, and then feel free to place the moss in your boots. It will ease the discomfort and protect you from sickness."

Locke then offered the small carving, which bore the likeness of a girl with arm outstretched to the sky, almost as if pointing her allies on to victory.

"Please also take this charm. It may not be much, but the earth has smiled upon you. I have carved your likeness without knowing your face… Indeed we have been brought together by forces beyond control."

The manakete bowed his head briefly, a smile breaking over his face.

"Do not be frightened. My name is Locke of Nabata, Guardian of the Sanctuary. I will do you no harm, girl of golden hair."

[Victoria]

Just as he regarded her, Tori regarded him. She wasn’t entirely sure how he was managing to chip away at the rock in his bare hands without any tools - perhaps an earthen mage, if she was to hazard a guess - but his distraction wasn’t enough to damage his carving. It was the man’s tattoos, though, that kept her attention. The dark patterns stood out in sharp relief against his complexion, and Tori couldn’t help but to wonder if there was meaning behind them.

Tori edged back half a step when the green haired man approached, and then stilled, willing herself to stay put. Unease persisted in spite of herself. It was childish, even with how her day had gone. She tilted her head when the man produced a hodge-podge mixture of ingredients from his satchel, at first not sure what he was doing with the greenish wad, but lifted a brow when it was offered as a remedy. “Oh … thank you,” she murmured, and shifted her weight before setting her things on the ground again. “I didn’t realize it was quite so obvious,” Tori added with another glance at her hands, and then at him. The bleeding wasn’t terrible, but it shouldn’t have been visible at their initial distance with her hands full.

Still, the cool moss was refreshing from the get go when he handed it to her. An uncertain smile twitched at her lips with Locke’s introduction, and she inclined her head in return. “Thank you, Locke. It was not my intent to to come off as rude, and I appreciate your generosity,” Tori said, and met the man’s gray eyes when she looked up once more. Manners were due process, but at the same time, giving her full name may not be the wisest decision after the day she’d had. “In return, I am Victoria of Ilia.” A slight hesitation. “Tori is all right, though, if you’d like.” It was her mother’s pet name for her, but out here, it wasn’t as if she was trying to build a reputation. She was just trying to get somewhere safe. Something familiar was a small comfort.

Tori was quiet as she went about applying the salve and moss to the areas in question, even as she eyed the new trinket that sat on the center of her Trinity tome. It was well crafted. The details were minute, particularly for having been done the hard way.

After slipping back into her boots - and letting out a nigh imperceptible sigh of relief as she did so - Tori collected her things and Locke’s gift, and smiled as she rotated the small carving. “Thank you again. I suppose that sometimes things happen without explanation, don’t they?”

[Locke]

The Manakete was quiet as the girl spoke to him. It was obvious. She stood in discomfort, and smelled of blood. It was clear she had been wounded. There was no way to miss such obvious cues. And as she introduced herself, Locke nodded respectfully, accepting her greeting.

"Victoria of Ilia, you have offered no offense to me. I am only happy to help you in this time of need. It is my self-given duty to help all I come across, so that they may see truth and come to accept peace and open-mindedness as the true way to lasting happiness and prosperity."

“Thank you again. I suppose that sometimes things happen without explanation, don’t they?”

Locke nodded. Indeed, the power of chance and fate was strong. Destiny turned its wheels on unknown paths, and it was not for men or dragons to question the ways of the world, but rather to absorb themselves into the world. By seeking to understand the true way the world had set for them, they could only then grasp the nature of their reality.

"Indeed. The world is a mysterious place, and destiny moves the hands of fate in ways unknown to us. Truly, I have found much to be joyful about and much to be sorrowful for in my years upon this continent. But nothing brings me greater fulfillment than helping others to understand and find truth.

But let me not dwell on these thoughts of philosophy. You are a mage, I see, and injured. Had you a fight with the denizens of this forest? They are usually most peaceful, often choosing to flee when provoked. I would be interested to hear your tale."

[Shara Tiinedra]

Deep woods. She'd certainly taken a wrong turn at some point, it seemed. Shame, Shara had thought she was actually closing in on Aquleia. The dragoness couldn't help but huff, holding the bottom of her dress up a bit with one hand and guiding tree-branches out of her path with the other. She'd complained internally about land travel before, but this was the first time she genuinely wished she could just transform and fly without starting a mass panic and/or getting herself arrested and or killed.

That said, Shara did take solace in the brief amusement that was pondering how exactly an arrest would play out. No doubt the average human believed dragons to be extinct, or at least "gone". How would they intend to arrest one? Obviously they wouldn't, but Shara needed to think about the hypothetical. It was so much better than the reality she was currently stuck in.

With a shy the golden haired dragoness paused and took a deep, uncharacteristically brutish breath. She couldn't afford to ignore her surroundings, that was likely how she wound up lost in the first place. "Next time I'm just going to spend the coin on a carriage or something. Even if it's overpriced it beats being lost in the woods."

There was nothing fascinating about the woods. Trees were all over Elibe, and Etrurian wildlife wasn't anymore exotic than Lycian. There was nothing to LEARN, nothing to GAIN. Even though she had at least another half-millennia of years left in her lifespan she still found it to be a total waste of her time. How humans could deal with wandering about, struggling to move their feet through the underbrush, baffled her.

Then she heard voices. A man's and a woman's...just the two of them. Unless she stumbled upon some sort of bandit couple then there was a chance they were mere locals or travelers. In any case, if they were dangerous, she was in a secluded enough area to shift. Let alone she was definitely in the mood to ignite something.

Shara fixed her hair up the best she could, thankfully it was tied up into a braid, and stepped forward into the slight forest clearing. Yes indeed, a young girl who looked to be the picture of an Etrurian woman...and a man, tattooed with brown hair. Intriguing, but more importantly...

"Ah, my apologies for stumbling into your conversation." Shara stated, doing her best to hide her previous irritation, and even putting in the effort to make a proper bow, "As I am sure you can tell, I have very much lost my way."

[Victoria]

Given Locke’s philosophical presentation, Tori couldn’t quite help the tinge of amusement when he called himself out on it. “There are certainly worse things we could be discussing,” she pointed out, but opted to tuck away Locke’s petite gift in her coin purse. At least it wasn’t likely to be damaged, there, and with the workmanship, it’d be a pity. “If only there were more who held your ideals to their chest. The world may well have avoided the condition it now suffers.” It may have been a rather blunt observation, but it didn’t make it any less true. The more Locke spoke, though, the more she was reminded of a priest rather than a mage. Then, one’s occupation didn’t limit them from exploring other pursuits in life. She was a prime example of that, and it’d be foolish to make assumptions of others.

His question, however, brought her up short. Tori fought the urge to hug herself, trying to remember that she was an adult, not a child in need of comfort. If she was of the age to be betrothed and soon wed, she was past the age to show such weakness. Hiding it just wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

Green eyes met gray, and she hesitated a moment more before shaking her head. “Not quite, no. The … denizens of fur and feather are a sight more polite than those of flesh,” Tori said, her words quiet. There was no need to parse out a finer meaning from her words, phrased as they were. Where beasts were of simple motives, they were also without the threat of depravity offered in mankind. “He is no longer an issue.” Putting her actions to words made them all the more real, and Tori ended up doing just what she had tried to school herself against. Her burned palms still twinged when they rubbed against the fabric of her kirtle, squeezing herself.

Tori’s attention snapped to the arrival when she abruptly spoke up, and drew a nigh intelligible breath. The woman had heard her admit to killing a man, be it in defense or otherwise. The girl forced a smile to her lips, an unsteady thing though it was. “You’re … not terribly far from Taras, unless I got turned about myself in the woods.” She hoped that this encounter would not turn out like the last.

[Locke]

Locke’s eyes bored into the girl’s downturned skull. ‘If only there were more who held your ideals to their chest. The world may well have avoided the condition it now suffers.’ A truer statement had never been produced, even if she had no idea of the weight of the words she had just spoken. A silent nod was all he managed to produce in response, and he felt his stone burn hot on his chest.

Then she raised her eyes to meet his, giving an answer that was at once veiled and plain. Again the Manakete nodded. The girl was alive and well, with only superficial wounds… the other was not so lucky. Given the dangerous nature of the world, it was likely that she would run into similar situations again… so it was better to be prepared than to be caught off guard. He spoke slowly and with an air of knowledge and understanding, saying a simple message that hopefully would inspire her with hope.

"You are safe now."

To the other woman, Locke gave a new greeting.

"My name is Locke. If you seek to make your way out of these woods, I will guide you. It is not too far of a journey, but safety always is more assured in numbers. The Mace of the Guardian is not merely a showpiece."

The newcomer seemed to be quite confident in herself, even for one who had lost her way, and she approached without fear. Clearly, she was sure of herself and able to fend off any attackers, but Locke deemed it more tactful and polite to offer his assistance.

[Shara Tiinedra]

It appeared Shara had arrived in the middle of a somewhat intense conversation, but from what she had gathered it was not all that interesting. Her presence had startled the girl, if but a touch, while the one who named himself as Locke seemed significantly more calm in his initial reaction. The blonde girl stated she was not far from Taras, which did help reassure Shara somewhat, while Locke even went so far as to offer an escort. Well...she wasn't about to turn one down.

"I see. Taras is nearby?" Shara gave a small smile towards the girl, first, standing up straight and casually striding closer towards the two. "That is helpful. My goal is to find the Etrurian capital. It is reassuring to hear I have not strayed too far from my path."

Shara then flicked her gaze over to the man named Locke. The way he dressed and even spoke was...strange. He did not seem like the typical Etrurian, from her experiences in the nation thus far. Interesting. She would have to see what knowledge she could gain from him during this escort. Judging by his appearance it would either result in some fascinating discoveries, or disappointment. Shara couldn't rule out the possibility that the man was just some sort of crazy hermit. "An escort would be greatly appreciated, Locke. I am Shara Tiinedra."

She had already curtsied upon her arrival and would not do so again, so instead she immediately began to dig into Locke. What could she gather from this man. She supposed it would be smoother to interact with the both of them, rather than make her focus blatant. "I have to wonder what the two of you are doing out here? I am simply lost on my way to Aqueleia, an admittedly silly mistake by myself."

[Shara Tiinedra]

OOC: Shara's going to drop this thread. If it revives for any reason continue on without her.