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Post by Cess Kache on Mar 27, 2011 12:16:41 GMT -6
Cess saw Xanthus dashing around the forest, looking for her. As long as Wyrne wasn't around, it would be okay to talk.
"Hey Xanny!" she called out to him, jumping down from her perch. "If Wyrnie sent you after me, you can go back and tell him I'm not gonna follow him. We have too different of paths." It was easier this way than to tell him to his face. Wyrne would probably force her to follow him, just because he was much older.
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Xanthus
The "Before" years
Existence Terminated[M:0]
Posts: 28
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Post by Xanthus on Mar 28, 2011 6:24:04 GMT -6
Xanthus smiled and shook his head. "Naw, I wasn't going to bring you back to him. I just wanted to make sure you were safe. And, well..." he paused, trying to figure out the wording of his next comment, "why did you run away? I suppose I came out here because I hoped you would want to leave. I want to leave this place and see the rest of Elibe. I love my sister, family, and friends dearly, but... They are content making their living here, while I wish to seek my personal fortune elsewhere."
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Post by Cess Kache on Mar 28, 2011 17:27:26 GMT -6
"Eh? Really? They just had a party in your honor, right?" She paused for a second, thinking it over. "Well, I suppose that birds want to leave their mother's nest."
Cess looked down at her feet, kicking some dust. "I ran because Wyrnie won't help me achieve my goal. He's too distracted with other things. I need to find my sister, Prin. She got lost in the desert one day, but my family gave up on searching for her. I know she's still out there, though. She definitely made it out of Nabata, I know it. But, I don't know my way around the world. My village is the only place I've ever known."
She looked back up at Xanthus, tears in her eyes. "P-please! You have to help me find Prinny! I feel so incomplete without her."
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Xanthus
The "Before" years
Existence Terminated[M:0]
Posts: 28
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Post by Xanthus on Mar 28, 2011 17:44:36 GMT -6
Xanthus shrugged his shoulders. Cess had made a valid point in that he felt a little bad about just up and leaving. But, in most cases, once you became a man, if you weren't a farmer's son, you had to go out on an adventure and prove you had honor and strength enough to make a living for your future wife. Then the girl burst out crying.
Xanthus hugged Cess and wiped the tears from her eyes. "It's alright, I'll help you find her. I just need to run back home and tell my parents I'm off..." he said. He bid her to stay where she was and did just that. His parents were sad to see him go, but knew that Xanthus, not knowing any trades, had to find a way to make himself be seen as a man in the elder's eyes. They sent him off with supplies for two and a song in his heart.
"Alright! Let's go back to the sands!" Xanthus said to Cess when he returned.
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Post by Cess Kache on Mar 28, 2011 18:40:39 GMT -6
Cess allowed herself to be hugged, and felt Xanthus's hand brush away her tears. A human she had only just met feeling sympathy for her. It was almost enough to make her start crying again. What are you so afraid of, Wyrne? Humans surely have enough kindness in them to accept us eventually...
"I knew I could trust you, Xanny, right from the start. Okay! The sands... which way was it again? A mountain?" Cess hadn't really paid attention to the route they took in here. She was too busy looking at the difference between biomes. She blushed a little out of embarrassment.
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Xanthus
The "Before" years
Existence Terminated[M:0]
Posts: 28
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Post by Xanthus on Mar 30, 2011 15:01:11 GMT -6
"Yes, they are right over the mountains that way!" Xanthus said, pointing out in a northerly direction. He handed Cess a bag full of supplies and started leading her up to the foothills. He didn't know what or where their adventure would lead them, but he knew that he would rather be out helping people and discovering lost lands than on a farm, or in a smithy.
"So, you are form Nabata, you said, right?" he asked Cess as they walked. "Where exactly are you from? I know there are oases and other mountains that create a fertile niche like this, but... There is just so much of nothing, it is hard to imagine another place that thrives here."
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Post by Cess Kache on Mar 31, 2011 19:54:01 GMT -6
"Right, the mountains!" Cess started the hike very excited, but quickly calmed down to normal.
"What? Our village? It's on one of those things you said, 'O-A-sis.' " She sounded out the word because she hadn't heard it very often. "Everyone works really hard to make sure there's enough food to go around. We're too far into the desert, so we can't trade or meet other people. You're the first person not from my village that I've talked to."
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Xanthus
The "Before" years
Existence Terminated[M:0]
Posts: 28
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Post by Xanthus on Apr 1, 2011 16:54:56 GMT -6
Xanthus nodded along as Cess talked, drinking in her every word. "Interesting. I've never heard of such a place. But then again, I suppose that is why! We here do not see much of the outside world, but we do have a port, and some trade goes on there," he said. "But I suppose there isn't much you can do out in the middle of the desert. It must be why your sister left!" pausing, he knew he went too far. "Erm, I mean... ya..."
He continued leading Cess in silence, still mentally reeling from his lack of judgement. They soon came upon a series of rolling hills, and, behind them, misted mountains. Upon seeing the peaks, he broke his silence. "Well, that mist doesn't look good. Usually mist on the mountains brings rain... We should camp here and wait until it stops to venture forth."
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Post by Cess Kache on Apr 1, 2011 21:39:49 GMT -6
"What? My sister..?" Cess knew that Xanthus was wrong, the facts didn't add up. "No, we were playing too far into the desert, and I couldn't find Prinny." Saying that, Cess continued the climb without speech.
Later, they began to set up camp. "Rain? What's that?" Cess had never heard of rain even mentioned in Arcadia. Whatever it was, Arcadians must've avoided thinking about it.
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Xanthus
The "Before" years
Existence Terminated[M:0]
Posts: 28
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Post by Xanthus on Apr 5, 2011 15:31:58 GMT -6
Xanthus smiled, but could not help thinking that either this girl's parents had sheltered her to a criminal extent, or she was touched in the head. Not wanting to sound like he way babying her, he said, "I'm no expert, but it's water that falls from the sky. It's what sustains life in places where there are no lakes or rivers. I'm glad you asked now, instead of begin scared when it started to rain later."
Xanthus found a few saplings, cut them down, and thrust them into the ground. He then laid a blanket treated to resist rain over them, creating a shelter. he made sure to angle the shelter, facing the opening to an outcropping of rock, so no rain would get in. "This will have to do for now," he said, getting inside. As he motioned for Cess to follow him, the skies dropped their first beads of moisture.
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Post by Cess Kache on Apr 5, 2011 17:58:54 GMT -6
"Eh?! Water from the sky?" Sure enough, not much longer after they had gotten into their shelter, the clouds sent forth a downpour.
"Woah, I've never seen so much water at once before, other than our oasis." She sat staring at the rain for a long time. "It's as if," she said, "the sky is sad about something."
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Xanthus
The "Before" years
Existence Terminated[M:0]
Posts: 28
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Post by Xanthus on Apr 5, 2011 19:43:03 GMT -6
Xanthus chucked as he arranged their bags to make more room in the tent. "Maybe people think that is why rain happens, but... You'd have to ask a sage or a druid for a defiant answer, they know lots about nature." He sat down and rummaged through his bag until her found half a loaf of bread and some hard cheese.
"Now then, I can't light a fire with all of this rain, so dinner going to have to be cold," he said, dividing the food up and handing half of it to Cess. They ate in silence, Xanthus listening to the rain beat upon their makeshift tent like a drum. When they were finished, Xanthus asked, "What is there to do in your village? A place with no rain, surrounded by desert sound pretty boring to me."
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Post by Cess Kache on Apr 9, 2011 4:45:17 GMT -6
"Hmm..." That was a hard question. Cess couldn't really answer that without giving away the real purpose of Arcadia, which all dragons knew. A city to keep the divine dragons safe from evil intentions. There were other things, but that was the principal the city had been based on. A principal drilled into the minds of even children.
"Uh, I wouldn't really know that stuff. I just play games with the other kids in my village. There's enough to do to occupy our time." A hundred years of time...
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Xanthus
The "Before" years
Existence Terminated[M:0]
Posts: 28
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Post by Xanthus on Apr 11, 2011 21:12:28 GMT -6
The rain did not stop through the day, and only grew harder as the unseen sun set. Xanthus had to go out and strengthen the tarp, as well and lay another down on the ground so the pair would not get soaked through. He sat back down and leaned back on his pack. "I used to love playing soldier with my pals back in the village." he began to say to Cess. "Part of me is sad that I was too young for when the merchants came, asking for our warriors to go help fight the Bernian bandits five years ago... Did they hear about that in your village?"
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Post by Cess Kache on Apr 12, 2011 5:57:35 GMT -6
"Bandits five years ago..?" Cess thought about it for awhile, most days were all the same. There was one time when a group of strangers were in the village for a couple days. She was told that they were brought to the village by Lord Athos, and she was told not to talk to them. It seemed unlikely that they were related to a bandit problem, but it was always possible.
"Some travelers came by our village once five years ago. I don't know if it's for the same reason, because I wasn't allowed to talk to them. Big Brother said that they would be a bad influence." Her brother, Doragon, had always been a stick in the mud, he was kinda like Wyrne.
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