River of Bern [Open]

[Diarmut]

Living in a human village was an experience that Diarmut couldn't describe. There was a closeness between the villagers that reminded him of his conclave, but the atmosphere wasn't nearly as stifling. That he, a traveler with strange clothes and little common sense, could be accepted so readily was a testament to that fact. Diarmut's days had been filled with earning his keep and learning about human culture, either through observation or through the books he had borrowed. Still, it was hard to deny that he didn't fit in as well as he would have liked. Even though he knew he wasn't planning on staying much longer, that nagging feeling of being an alien in a close-knit group wouldn't cease.

Perhaps that was what had drawn him out to the river, all by himself. It had been hard to escape the keen eye of his guide and newly proclaimed guardian, Clyde, but luckily Diarmut had figured out that early evening was the best time to evade him. By that time the middle-aged priest was usually making good headway through his flask with full intent of finishing it off. Needless to say, his awareness faded accordingly. The manakete took advantage of these moments often, though this was the first time he had gone so far as to leave the village entirely.

"Ahhh." The river of Bern had ever been a place of solace for Diarmut, and it never brought him greater peace than when the sun was just beginning to set. He patted the earth beneath him and took a seat, allowing his eyes to close as he took a deep breath. "I needed this even more than I thought." With a smile, he crossed his legs and prepared to empty his mind and center his spirit for the continuation of his journey. He quickly rummaged through his satchel, withdrawing his dragonstone and pressing it to his heart. Within seconds, his every thought had flown from his mind and he found himself entering a pleasant, meditative state.

And so he began the process of clearing his head. One by one, thoughts came rushing to him. He thought about the conclave and how he'd been carrying around guilt somewhere since he left, he thought about the touch-and-go nature of his journey up until he found the village, and of course he thought about Clyde and the other villagers, the first humans he had ever spent any time with. As each memory entered his mind, he took a moment to account for it and then promptly let it go. With each of those releases, he felt a tightness that had festered deep inside him begin to unravel. He had no idea how long he'd been sitting there relieving the unseen burden from his shoulders, but when he finally opened his eyes he found the sun was now just peeking above the horizon. "I should head home," he conceded, knowing that the journey could have unexpected obstacles if he didn't get started before nightfall.

Diarmut picked himself up, let the last of his pent-up anxieties fade with one quiet sigh, and began the trek back.

[Aria]

ooc-Hopefully this is still open.

Aria had set up a small camp for herself in wilderness around the river. She had a campfire burning bright as well as some fish being cooked on sticks. She filled in a small part of the fire pit with rocks so she could put a kettle on it. In the kettle were some mint leaves, a lemon slice, and a spoonful of sugar. The tea would help keep her spirits up through the night. Near her was her partner in crime. A large reddish colored wyvern, whom was busy gobbling up the remains of a stag she found.

It had been a rather un-eventful day for the rider. A day spent on patrol for the people and doing farm labor in exchange for food. Nothing out of the ordinary for her. The blue haired rider pulled up her cloak and buttoned it down. While the day was rather warm the night would be cool. And with her being in close proximity to water it would be colder still. Fortunately, she had enough wood and dried saplings to keep herself warm though the night. And if that failed Chewy’s body heat would suffice. The large wyvern liked to sleep with her rider curled up either under her wing or Aria sitting up against her.

“You know you are going to have to rinse off in the water before sleeping right?” She asked the wyvern who was just looming a few inches outside of the fire’s reach. Chewy growled a bit in response. They wyvern wasn’t fond of bath’s. Aria knew this and she sighed.

[Diarmut]

[OOC: It is indeed!]

The sun was setting quickly, perhaps a bit more so than Diarmut had expected. Confident though he was that he could intuit his way back to the village regardless of visibility, he had rather hoped to have covered more ground before this point. "This is what I get for meditating so long, I suppose," he muttered to himself as he trudged forward. He knew that even if he had the chance to do it over, he wouldn't have changed anything. The relaxation he felt in his body, and the calm that overtook his mind...he hadn't felt so close to normal since leaving the conclave. He smiled pleasantly, focusing on that feeling and ignoring his situation. He would get home soon enough.

His journey went fairly uninterrupted until he noticed the fire in the distance. At this point, the sun had fallen below the horizon, but it's rays continued to stretch faintly across the sky. With that in mind, Diarmut knew he had no time to spare for an investigation. More than that, he knew that entering an unknown encampment on his own was a pretty bad idea, manakete or no. And yet somehow he also got the feeling that his curiosity was going to win out in the end. Deciding not to struggle against it, he braced himself for the dark journey home (now made wholly inevitable) and ventured toward the light. When he got within a reasonable distance, he found himself some cover behind a bush and carefully peeked out at the sight before him. It was a small camp, containing only a single woman and...

Crap. A wyvern. Not only did wyverns have excellent senses, but the fact that one accompanied a lone woman meant she might very well be akin to the scouts he'd read about at the church. And that meant the chances of him not being discovered were incredibly slim.

[Aria]

The stag Chewy was munching on was soon gone. And the wyvern let out a light growl that sounded something like a satisfied sigh. The rider then ordered her wyvern to rinse off in the water. To which the wyvern seemed to scoff at and stomped it's foot. But there were noises in the wilderness that caught the wyvern's attention. Subtle noises that her human companion couldn't quite pick up on. Rather then stand there and listen to one of Aria's reluctant lectures on hygine. The wyvern wandered off and appeared to be heading towards the water. Aria blinked. She was prepared to have a tug of war with the wyvern in hopes of guiding her into the water.

Aria shrugged and resumed her regular camp activity. While she waited for the fish to cook, she pulled out her lance, a wetstone, and a rag. She started to sharpen the metal tip of her lance so that it was in the best working condition. The rag was used to polish it before placing it next to her. She put the stone away and grabbed a knife instead. The woman took one of the many long branches she recovered from the woodland earlier, and started to cut them into javelins. The wood shavings would be either saved in a pouch for future kindling or tossed in the current fire depending on her stock. As she whittled away she started to hum a tune and time it with the cuts.

Chewy on the other hand did'nt wash up. Instead she went to investigate the area where she heard the noise. She could smell the other person but couldn't see them just yet. She stopped just short of a bush and tucked her head and wings down ready to pounce if the person turned out to be dangerous. She let out a warning growl and slammed her tail to the ground. Which now alerted Aria, the rider got up, held her javelin close in a defensive manner.

"Who's there?"

[Diarmut]

It didn't take but a moment for Diarmut to notice that he had been...well, noticed. Though a wyvern and a manakete had very different levels of intelligence, their instincts were almost one and the same. The behavior Chewy was displaying was that of a beast on edge, and there could only be one cause for such a reaction. The boy's mind scrambled, trying to think of an escape plan. Of Course, the only one he thought remotely viable was to transform and take flight. And yet, even if he did, the woman had the means to pursue him. Whether she had the courage was another matter, but he decided he didn't want to find out.

His frantic thought process was cut short when Chewy began to approach. As Diarmut sat there, glued to his position, he began to realize that his reaction to fear would need some improvement if he was going to survive in the outside world. Attempting to start that process right then and there, he scrunched his eyes closed and tried to force himself to be calm. Of course, with the thump of Chewy's feet growing ever closer, it was no small task. After a moment, however, he did start to feel some small modicum of composure. It was enough to regain control of his body's movement, which was fortunate he heard the woman's inquisitive voice just a second later.

"W-wait!" he called back instantly, slowly rising to his feet so as not to startle the wyvern in front of him. "I'm...I'm just a villager! Please forgive me, I was curious as to who could be camping here!" He knew that what he was saying wasn't the entire truth, and that his clothes and speech patterns might reveal his more foreign origins upon closer inspection, but he wasn't exactly taking a lot of time to think these things through. "I'm...I'm sorry for alarming you!"

[Aria]

Chewy was prepared to strike at the creature behind the bush. The stranger's scent was odd. The wyvern recognized the scent of humans. She knew each human scent was unique, but they all carried with them a scent that is distinctly human. The person behind the bush did not have that distinctive human smell. It was a different scent all together. It felt familiar. But at the same time powerful. Something that could threaten both the wyvern and the riders existence. This is why she was acting so defensively.

The lone man behind the bush stood up and exclaimed that it was a villager. From Chewy’s perspective, the person looked human. Wore clothes like a human. Spoke like a human. The wyvern snorted then growled. She did not like this conflict between human appearance and in-human scent.

“Chewy get back. And hold!” The rider spoke towards the wyvern. The brick colored wyvern took a few steps back but still maintained it's striking proposition as a precaution. Aria herself was cautious of the stranger. She knew of the fairy tales regarding strangers. Some of them were good some were bad. As Aria was a lone woman, she decided to err on the side of caution.

The rider kept her javelin in hand and squinted her eyes. The stranger was just out of her range of vision. And Chewy was mostly in her way. In order to determine if this person was a threat she'd have to have him come closer.

“Sir you will have to step forward a bit more. I cannot see you among the dark. Do not be alarmed the wyvern will not hurt you unless ordered too.”

[Diarmut]

The woman certainly carried herself with confidence. And yet, rather than being intimidated by it, there was something about her words that stilled Diarmut's flustered mind. Maybe it was because she had assured him that he wouldn't have to lock talons with a wyvern, or maybe it was something else. Regardless, Diarmut knew quite clearly that the only rational option available to him was to follow Aria's commands. "Yes, ma'am," he called back in compliance, taking a few tentative steps forward and past the so-called Chewy.

He briefly wondered if the wyvern could discern their similarity. It was possible the two could communicate, if Diarmut were to assume his draconic form, but that certainly wasn't going to happen. Besides, his main concern didn't lie in Chewy identifying his nature, but rather in somehow passing that information along to his human ally. Even if he could, there's nothing I could do to stop him... Blinking away the thought, he focused as best he could on appearing normal and convincing Aria he wasn't a threat.

Of course, it wasn't long at all before he was standing by the fire, his unsure gaze turned towards the woman who had summoned him. "S-see? I'm...I'm just a kid." As soon as the words came from his mouth, his eyes darted to the ground. How did he keep getting himself in these situations? A small part of him knew it was due to the fact that his curiosity won out over his judgment, but he wasn't totally willing to accept that.

[Aria]

As the strangely garbed person made his way out of the bushes, Chewy let out a light snarl through her nose. Then a few gruff of disapproval. Outside of that though chewy didn't move. No, that wasn't true, Chewy didn't make any movements towards the stranger. But she did move in order to keep her gaze fixed on this "person who does not smell human." Chewy was very protective of Aria, but she was also very well trained.

As the child approached, Aria still kept her grip on her javelin. Aria wasn't the type to be unwelcoming to strangers. But Chewy's continued reaction to the boy had her a bit nervous. Spirits, monsters, devils.. according to legends they took on a multitude of forms in order to fool humans. Aria was not an expert at telling the different between human and "human in disguise". And while the child certainly looked the part of a human, the clothes he had on told her other wise. She deduced this boy was NOT some sort of evil spirit of the world, because if he was she would probably be dead by now. Going by that logic, at the very least she could tell that this child was not an ordinary child of the village. She guessed that this kid was either some sort of lesser lording, scholar, or merchant's son. Who might be residence of the village or passing through the village or something.

"You should know better then to wander around the woods in the evening boy. Let alone randomly sneak around stranger's campfires. You don't know if that person is friendly or not." She spoke with some coldness in her voice. Something akin to an old mentor chiding a young pupil. I mean really! What If I were a bandit? With your expensive looking clothes they'd kill you and rob you in a heartbeat!

"Seriously, kid. Where is your sense?"

Chewy gave out a bit of a short high pitched whine. The wyvern had grown uncomfortable in her stationary position. The "can I stop now" roar.

"At ease Chew." The Wyvern took a few steps closer to the fire and plopped down next to it. She still kept a firm glare over the stranger. After a bit more banter Aria and the stranger spent an uneventful night at the campfire. Chewy helped to keep the night watch and by dawn both rider and wyvern were gone.

{aria exit's thread}
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