In Pursuit of Will [Clair/Garith]

[Clair Feldsky]

[Teal]"Is there anything you need from me Commander Feldsky?"[/teal]

Clair sighed as she head the question. It seemed like... She didn't know what it seemed like. She'd never be ready to capitulate. To give up. At the same time, this whole search was seeming more and more fruitless. Why did she continue? How did she continue driving onwards?... And Garith really didn't have anything to do with any of her frustrations.... She took a few moments to collect herself before speaking.

"Not really, Garith..., well, why don't you walk with me for a while?" She invited. "I'm on my way around the camp. Just taking care of a few things before we shut down for the night."

[Garith Valkyrie]

"Not really, Garith..., well, why don't you walk with me for a while?"

She wanted to walk with him? That was a first, Garith never figured that Commander Feldsky would want to just walk with him. He felt that he would only really talk to her when work needed to be done or if his father was up to no good. Speaking of which Garith couldn't even find Cryger which was good no need for him to be around.

"Umm you sure you don't need anything from me Commander I don't want to be a bother," He said timidly feeling a bit nervous. He was honestly wondering how long it would take before they found Commander Richter.

The blue haired mercenary still felt bad for losing his Commander the first day on the job. It wasn't his fault there was a huge battle and everything but still.... It was his duty to make sure his Commander was alright and he failed that. Stupid! The lance wound he just got was a reminder to his weak skills that needed honing. He was getting of track though his attention then went back to Commander Feldsky.

[Clair Feldsky]

Clair gave a laugh as Garith asked if there was something he could do yet again. It was a high, clear sound. Almost musical, and certainly not the norm from her these days.

"Garith, It's refreshing to find someone so eager to be of use." Not that people being useless was much of a problem around here. The soldiers were good, skilled men who knew how to get things done, but Garith reminded her of something else. She walked on a little bit, before speaking up again.

"What do you think, Garith? Illia, Bern, Etruria... This Prophet in Etruria. He says he wants to unite the lands under one rule, and establish peace, but then I saw what happened to Ostia...." The Falcoknight's expression grew pensive. She wasn't sure quite why she was bringing this up to him, but after a moment of thought, she didn't bother stopping. She didn't even know how much he knew about those situations.

"Words and actions don't always match up evenly...."

[Garith Valkyrie]

Prophet? There we go hearing about this Prophet guy again. Garith really didn't know what she was talking about but that guy sounded like nothing but trouble. The comment about him being eager to be of use made him think. It wasn't the fact that he wanted to be useful it was more of the fact that sitting around doing nothing while your own a rescue mission just made Garith bored. This was his job however and he prided himself on doing it well.

"Um Commander I am all for peace and everyone coming together but something like that happening seems a little far fetched seeing as no matter what there is always going to be someone out there who wants to ruin it. Thinking about it a little more with peace and such there would be no need for me, all I've know pretty much my entire life is fighting and killing doesn't sound like the right way to grow up but I'm completely happen with it. I'm just not sure if peace will ever come frankly," Garith said.

"It also seems as if you've experienced something that makes you doubt this prophet guy?" He asked. Garith wasn't sure how Commander would respond to this.

[Clair Feldsky]

"I don't expect full peace to ever be established." Clair said softly. "I just want to end this war in a way that our country won't starve to death." She was out here, fighting for her country's survival. That was what she considered it, at least. Keeping Illia from losing what it had to support itself with was on about the same priority as stopping Etruria's roll across the other countries.

"If we could just cut this war off, there'd still be need for caravan guards, brawlers, security... Things us Illians are known for. Full scale wars leave too much destruction behind." Destruction of property as well as people....

"You could say that." Clair laughed, as they reached discussion of the Prophet. It was a harsh laugh though. More bitter than anything else.

"He promised safety and security, but when they reached Ostia, his army bombed it into the ground. They dumped enough magefire on it to level the castle. There was nothing left but the foundation stones! And the rest of the city... the rest of the city faired little better. They scorched it off the map. The greatest of the Lycian cities, reduced to a crater full of rubble."

The Falcoknight could still remember the forlorn look in the eyes of the few survivors. They'd been stricken. Helpless. Hopeless. And she'd been able to do very little for them. Perhaps with her experience now, she could have done more for them. Diverted more resource for the civilians, shouted down one an Etrurian Officer, even. But she hadn't had the confidence then that she had now. She'd been an assistant officer in name only. Playing at being important, but never really doing enough....

She stopped this line of thought. It was a natural reaction for someone to regret the past troubles. She'd done what she'd been able to do at the time, and that was that.

[Garith Valkyrie]

Garith began to regret asking Commander Feldsky about the prophet. What she had told him made him realized how terrible and cruel people could be. How does one end up so twisted and warped that they feel taking it out on other people by killing them or just causing chaos and destruction to the world.

"I guess I would be a guard for a castle or something," Garith laughed knowing being a guard wouldn't be as dangerous or adventurous as being a mercenary.

"This prophet guy sounds like a monster," The blue haired boy said looking into the palm of his hand. "Someone like him needs to be put to an end and I'd love to do it," He said making a fist and clenching it hard. He then noticed that Feldsky had seemed to stop and make a somewhat troublesome face.

"Hey Commander can you tell me how you first decided to become a Pegasus Knight?" Garith asked trying his hardest to change the subject to something hopefully not as troubling.

[Clair Feldsky]

Garith's sentiment about the Prophet matched her own, and she could feel her own fist tightening in determination for the future. The conversation went down a completely unexpected route though after that.

"You want to hear my story?" She was slightly taken aback, actually. She couldn't remember anyone other than Richter taking an interest in her. "Well, I'll share some. Just don't expect some tragic tale."

Where to start? Why had she wanted to be one of Illia's Pegasus Knights?

"I guess it's in my family. My mom, Hera Feldsky was a successful enough Falcoknight, called the Doombolt." She smiled at the name. She'd always loved hearing the stories of what her mom had done in battle, even if Hera herself would shoo out the people who lacked anything else to talk about. Hera wasn't shy of praise for her accomplishments, but had had a short tolerance for too much of the same thing.

"They gave her that name because she would drop out of the sky on an enemy formation, and they'd scatter as she landed in the middle of them." There had to have been times the maneuver had failed, but her mom was still around to this day.

Clair missed them. Illian Commander she may be, but that didn't make her impervious missing friends and family. She had a great deal of responsibility however, which allowed her to carry on.

[Garith Valkyrie]

"Your mother sounds quite skilled," Garith said smiling a bit. He then thought about his reason to become a mercenary. At first he figured he just wanted to be like his father when he was younger but then he truly didn't have a choice.

"So I'm guessing you kind of just followed in your mother's footsteps?" He asked curiously. Garith knew what it was like being in a parent's shadow but he wasn't sure Commander Feldsky was the same case. She could just have wanted to become a Pegasus Knight despite her mother already being one.

"Do you ever miss her? Seeing at it seems you travel around a lot you don't get to see her that often?" He added in his list of questions. Garith was honestly curious about his Commander, seeing as he didn't know much about the person he was taking orders from.

[Clair Feldsky]

Hera Feldsky had been and still was a force on the battlefield, a fact which the twenty year old falcoknight appreciated. She was competitive too though. It just made her want to grow more capable when she thought of her mom.

"That's right." Clair nodded her head lightly as she pushed one of her long blond locks back behind an ear. "If I'd really followed in her footsteps though, I would have returned to Illia after a few months of work."

Things are important out here though. She thought to herself. It was the reason she'd not made it back to them in about three years. She'd gotten caught up in the fight. Attached herself to it, and it had consumed her. Still was. And would for as long as she considered the fight to be just.

The blond haired Falcoknight looked away for a moment, fiddling with her collar a bit before looking back up. She'd remembered the commitment she'd made to the fight a long time ago, and it had relit the fire inside her.

"I miss them. The same can be said for most any soldier in this war, though." She paused a moment, her lips pursed in annoyance at her ignorance. "I hope they manage to stay safe during all this."

"How about you, Garith? What was growing up like for you?"

[Garith Valkyrie]

"Hmm growing up for me?" Garith questioned as he paused a thought about it for a moment. His life was fine until his mother was attacked by his own father. Which thinking about it why did his father do it again? Oh right he was being controlled with a berserk staff or something it sent him on a rampage.

"Well my childhood was fine growing up I was a quiet kid that helped his mother around his house. I barely saw my father and when I did he wasn't around much due to his "job"," He paused for a moment sighed and then continued. "Growing up I wanted to be like my father a great fighter not just a killer but being like my father got washed away that night my mother was attacked," Garith said now looking to the ground below him.

"Then there was Orrith who trained him and looked after me. It wasn't to hard I managed to do learn everything he could teach me never complained. Even training in Arphen wasn't that hard, I did everything they told me a listened like a good kid. The more I talk about it the more I see myself as a soldier more than a mercenary. Orrith soon became my role model and look how that turned out," He stopped again, he was probably sounding like a emotional baby by now to his commander so he figured he might as well stop now.

"So I guess growing up for me wasn't what I imaged it would be or as ideal as what most people expect. That's all in my past now and I don't like to think about it much so how about you how was your childhood?" He asked trying to change the subject to his commander.

[Clair Feldsky]

Something about Garith's whole story.... His family must have been caught up in some serious messes to have been through so much hardship. Part of being a well known assassin, she supposed. The profession certainly wasn't helping them avoid the nasty types.

Clair pressed her lips together into a thin line as Garith asked about her own upbringing. She didn't have any terrible memories in her past to cause pain, and she was fairly open about herself, but she wasn't sure giving out the details of her past history was quite appropriate, despite her leanings towards a casual nature in some areas.

"I had the best that two Illian soldiers could afford. Mom stayed home to raise me the first several years. After that, they were around as often as they could be, but I would occasionally be home alone for a time, Or looked after by the neighbors if it was very long." Clair could remember some nights when the Illian girl had had to endure the frozen chills of the northern city, while struggling to chop enough firewood to keep the house warm overnight. She'd learned the values of being capable early on, and had never lost them.

"Eventually, I made it through the Illian Academy and then it was off to see the world." She laughed a bit at how simple it had all seemed back then. In a way, it still was, but now there were far more things around her that she interacted with.

"It might be hard living on the road like this, but I don't regret any of it..., and I want to stay busy for a good long while." The last sentence was her talking to herself more than to Garith, but it slipped out anyway.