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Keiko
[pronounced KAY-ko... do you think the GM has memorized this yet? Nope, not yet...]

The Rhoni lass had merely smiled at Hinata when he proclaimed his Not-Funny Beingness. And she had to bite her lip at his comments about Cesare — the Lost Rhoni was pretty enough, but then so was her brother and her betrothed — and Cesare’s misconstruing of those comments. Was the young man deliberate in ignoring Hinata, or was he truly clueless? Either way, it was funny!

When Tomomi spoke, she wrapped an arm around her Forever Friend. She had no words of her own to share. Others spoke eloquently enough on the subject of heroes. Sometimes, a person just needed to reassure a friend that however they happened to be — baffled, sad, grieving — it was okay to be that way.

“Mother says...” she began softly, “she says a hero is the one who does the right thing and does it with love in their heart.” She smiled softly. “My mother is very wise, and yet she would rather be called a hero than a wise woman.” Nodding to Cesare and Bekkah and Lyric, she sighed and shrugged. “I think we might all be saying the same thing but using different words, having different feelings. It is something we often find as we walk the paths of the World.”

And yet... and yet when Lyric stood and hid herself away in her cloak, then walked down the Path, Keiko’s eyes followed her. Violet eyes expressed her worry most eloquently.

There was no way to say for certain what vexed her friend, but she had spent enough time watching Gaija from the safety of her Family’s Caravan to guess that something bothered the minstrel. Lyric, too, seemed sad about something. But there was more to it than just that, though Keiko couldn’t guess what that might be. Long moments passed while the fire crackled and the young woman breathed in and out three by three times. Her eyes did not leave the form of her friend.

After hugging her Forever Friend, Keiko stood and followed Lyric, stopping an arm’s distance — a polite distance — away from the shrouded minstrel.

“What is wrong, Friend Lyric?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“When I was younger, not very much younger than I am now, and heaviness sat on my heart or mind, I would do this, too.” She gestured to the distance between Lyric and the campfire. “My brother would find me and find ways to entice me to share my burdens.” A brief smile flickered across her features in the darkness. “I can only ask for I don’t know if you are ticklish. And you are my friend, not my sister, so such forwardness would be quite inappropriate. At least, tonight it would be.”

Keiko paused as she hugged herself beneath her own warm cloak.

“It is a truth that burdens are lighter when shared, just as joys are greater.”

She paused again, one hand resting over the Cards that were tucked into the recesses and folds of her tunics.

“Perhaps there is nothing this humble one can do to ease your load.”

The words had an air of ritualistic formality to them.

“This one will hear with an open heart and an open mind to all that you wish to say.”

It was as if the words were a translation from some other language into Colonial — neither the Eastern nor the Forestalk with which Keiko had previously shown proficiency, but something older... something quintessentially Rhoni.


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Lyric, betwixt and between

She could hear Keiko following her, closing the distance with a quicker step. Lyric did not try to increase her own pace. It was not race to be alone. Just a need to find something familiar until she could put all he thoughts she had jumbled up inside, all the feelings that threatened to overwhelm her, all of it into place and perspective.

If she was being truthful with herself, she would probably admit that she struggled with this sudden storm of Chaos, and that it surprised her... but, at the same time, this revelation she was experiencing was proof enough that it shouldn't have. She didn't fully turn around to face Keiko, but she honored her friend's effort and presence by turning her head enough to regard the Rhoni woman from within the depths of the cloak. She spoke softly and slowly to control the timbre of her voice.

"I have spent a lot of my life being alone. It is easy for me. I have mentioned before that sometimes the world just goes a little too fast around me... but this is me feeling things going a little too fast within me... I know that might not make sense."

She shrugged and turned a little more fully but still kept the hood up to conceal her face, her expression, and her current emotions.

"I am a complicated person... but i think you know that already. You accept me even If I can't explain it better than what you can see about me with your own eyes. Please know that I am grateful to have found friends... even if I don't know what that really means."

"I must admit, I have never had a friend before, a true and real friend... or have many friends as it seems I now have... Oh, and a Pack to belong to as well. Never before has just being who I am been such a thing worthy of these gifts that I can barely comprehend."

Lyric drew back her hood and wiped her eyes.

"I am so very different than all of you. I try so hard to fit in and understand, and learn... and I pretend sometimes... a lot of times... But I was also different than my own people and they could not accept that. My people are unforgiving of anything and anyone that challenges their ways and beliefs. I nearly died because of that..."

She wasn't going to elaborate on what that meant. Not yet. Not because she needed to hide some truths, but because being chased and hunted like game prey was still very fresh and raw to her.

"I survived but I was exiled. And now I am Banished." There was that word again, spoken as if it was a title given to her. She has said it before in conversations. "My life would be forfeit if I were ever to return there. So, you see... I am caught between the old and the new... I feel lost somewhere in the middle and I am scared Keiko. Scared, that one morning I will wake up and all of this will have been a dream, all of you are gone or never existed and I am alone again."

"Strange that, being alone is the thing I know best and fear most now. Complicated, right?"


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The Heartwood
The Flowered Path
Later that month


Lyric, Cesare, Keiko and Bekkah ... and Tomomi and Hinata Cat.

Off the path, where Lyric and Keiko spoke, it was quiet and cool. It was a rare night, a time when neither moon chased each other across the night sky. And this meant it was dark, very dark when they got beyond the soft glow of their campfire. The air was still, nary a breeze, it was a between time, a between place. Between being alone and with company, between night and day, between here and there. It felt that if they looked one way, the dark and shadowed hills, the scattered boulders, were one place but if the turned around, those shadows, black against black, could have been another.

Perhaps that was why it was a place they could speak and the last thing they need worry about was being seen, overheard or disturbed.

A simple kind of magic.

Back at the fire, it was the four of them; Cesare, Bekkah, Tomoni and Hinata. Their horses stood in the background, taking a few steps every now and then, whuffling once o twice too. Even when their conversation had silences there was the crackling of the fire in its stone ring. That was another nice thing about the traditional landscape along the Flowered Path - not only were there a myriad of little streams but also enough rocks here and there for a nice cooking fire. Sometimes, on a rare end-of-day, they'd have come across one left by previous travelers and they knew they were passing someone's fields when - even if they never saw the farmhouse itself - the crossed a low stone wall running here to there in the middle of nowhere.

That little bit before, Tomomi had leaned against Keiko, listening to her words, her small round ears turning within her travel cloak hood to better hear. The little Mouse kept quiet, however. If she had a reply, she kept it wrapped up all warm inside, because it would be best for a different conversation at a different time. The hug, it was most definitely returned, and if anything Tomomi gently ooshed her Forever Friend after the minstrel. Because she knew, helping folks when they were all torn up in thoughts and very lost, that was what Keiko did. Just like she had gone to see her in the little house outside of Home.

Returning her attention to the others, she again listened earnestly, her long frail whiskers twitching. Then she looked confused. She first turned to Cesare.

"Does this means that there are Heros everywhere outside the Forest? Is being a Hero is a common thing? We ... we knew the Forest and the Keep were very, very bad places. Which is why lady teaches us; so we would know different?"

Then she looked to Bekkah.

"But if all it is is doing the right thing, isn't that what folks are supposed to do, so they'd just do it as a matter of course, everywhere?"

Hinata also spoke up, with his venerable and pragmatic Hinata-view opinion of the weighty subject.

"Heros shmeeeros."

He reached for the cookfire and snared a fish speared on a stick. The stick bowed from the weight of the grilled meal, but it did not break. The big slink-person nodded, as if it made all the sense in the world, that it was the most right thing in the whole world. he took a big bite, leaving a perfect half-circle cut out before passing it on to Cesare.

"Doesn't put fish on sticks."

He was also a very simple cat.

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Cesare

His eyes follow first Lyric and then Keiko as they move away from the campfire, at least until he cannot see them anymore in the darkness, so his ears go on guard instead, listening for anything that might indicate trouble.

He sighs softly before answering Tomomi.

"There are heroes both inside and outside the forest but maybe not as many as you think. I know we think that doing the right thing is important but that is not true of the majority. Others fear for themselves, or are lazy, or not sure what the right thing might be.. then there are those that enjoy doing the wrong thing."

He shrugs.

"And there are small heroes, I don't mean physically small beings, but people who are heroes in small ways, often in ways that others don't hear about and are often forgotten. More of these than big heroes who might put their lives on the line, do something really dramatic or courageous to help others. These people are much rarer."

He reaches across to the take the fish, with stick, from the cat person.

"Thanks Hinata. And why don't heroes put fish on sticks?"

He twists the stick to get at the fish and finishes it deftly, moving it in his mouth to stop it from burning his tongue.

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Bekkah

She smiled sadly and shook her head.

"Supposed too? Perhaps, but there is a lot of people with good intentions who are tempted by greed, power and other emotions and they betray themselves. And there are some that are worse."

"Everyone is tempted at times by such things. Many succumb to them and then find their way back to what they truly know is right. For others it takes longer if at all."

"No my dear, not everyone is a hero and most of us are not heroes all the time."

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Keiko
[pronounced KAY-ko... do you think the GM has memorized this yet? Nope, not yet...]

[OOC: Although I have an outstanding question to the GM, I’m fairly certain (based on my calculations and sketches that are going give Daxia a big boost to her Astrology skill) that the answer doesn’t matter. I am therefore ignoring his comment about Keiko and Lyric being surrounded by darkness because he did not indicate that there was excessive cloud cover that would hide the moons and the stars. In fact, he stated quite clearly that it was one of the rare moonless nights.

Mister GM: The problem is that this is the month of Yrick... and we have a conjunction this month, meaning that Silver is going to be close to zenith if Hunter is near moonset. Any other month (except Horse) and you might have gotten away with it. (I’ll know more when I get into Photoshop and give Daxia even more points for Astrology and get more points for House Hufflepuff for my hard work.) But we have stars. We don’t have clouds. We do have moons. We do have light. Consider this payback for all the times you’ve contradicted (ignored) details in one of my posts.

And Dayala said, “Let there be Light. No, not that much!” Dayala pours half an ocean of water on Hunter. “That’s better.” ]

***************************************************


Despite her instinct to reach out and comfort her friend — something that came naturally to her when she saw family or friends in distress — Keiko was still and calm and present. The light from the fire made the shadows around them dance. And that reminded her of her Family. And how much she missed them.

She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind for the moment.

“Tomomi is learning what a friend is, too.” It seemed like a non sequitur, and perhaps it was just the Rhoni’s way of comparing the Waves, watching them converge.

“I understand Banishment. The Rhoni will cut a person or a whole branch from the tree of Families for going against the will of the Elders. We have few hard and fast rules, so perhaps that is why punishments are so harsh. Such a person, such a branch... well, they are no longer Rhoni. Not like Cesare, who is one of our Lost Ones, but... but... alone. Without Family. It is a terrifying thought. I have Family even though they are far away and I don’t know where they are. To be Banished? I would be so very afraid, Friend Lyric.

“And the Rhoni mustn’t go into the Black Mountains north of Brementown anymore. The Eastern Princes banished us from their lands, though that does not even begin to describe the cruelty of their proclamation.”

Keiko paused, letting go of her sadness surrounding the circumstances for her travels and glanced back at the others sitting around the fire before facing Lyric and smiling at her.

“Of course, you are different, Lyric. You are from a place so small and isolated that even the Rhoni have no tales of Kethy’s Wood. Well, none that I’ve ever heard.

“Don’t worry about not knowing everything, my friend. You don’t need to pretend with me.” She nodded toward the four people sitting around the fire. “If asked, I suspect none of our companions would expect you to pretend to know more than you know. If I can help you understand things, I will. I know I sometimes will explain things in ways that will only lead to more questions because I will introduce more places and things that you don’t know.”

She bit her lip, considering that particular dilemma. Well, it was simply another type of journey, wasn’t it? Finding ways of explaining things so that other things could be understood? Keiko was fairly certain that was the case.

“I’m glad you didn’t die. And I do understand being scared. But I am your friend, and so I will help you learn new things and new ways of being in the world. It’s what friends do... help one another.”

The Rhoni unfolded her arms and spread them barely wide enough to upon her cloak slightly, then pulled it close again against the night’s chill.

“The past is always the past. We can’t really be the same person from year to year because traveling and learning about different ways the world can be will change us. Meeting new people, seeing new places, learning new stories and songs — all this changes a person. I am not the same Keiko who left her family half a year ago. But I’m still Keiko; my mother and father and brother and sisters would still know me.

“You may not be the same Lyric who was not understood by her people and was Banished from her home, but you are still Lyric.

“That is why I say that Lyric is Lyric is Lyric. How you are is how you are, no matter how you change. Being between old and new? Well, that is just life.” Her brows drew together for a moment before her features cleared again. “There is something that Grandmother always says: When you stop learning, you begin dying. I don’t know if that wisdom will help you, but I share it freely for you to contemplate.”

Keiko chuckled softly.

“I know I chatter a lot. Even though it might feel like a mighty wave washing over you, you are Lyric. You are like the great rocks at Gh’orre that have stood against the tides of the Sea of Pearls since the Shattering. And you are like the earth soaking up all the water so that the jungle trees can grow big and strong.”

Finally, she reached out a hand to her friend. “I always give my little sisters a hug when they are afraid. Perhaps you would find it comforting as well?”


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Lyric,

The Minstrel shrugged, a tentative gesture, and opened her arms a little in acceptance to Keiko's offer to hug her. Certain kinds of intimacy were all too commonplace to Lyric. She was rather libertine in many regards. But, something like a hug was entirely different. The attached emotional context was the part with which Lyric struggled. She had mostly lived a solitary life, keeping to herself. Her people were not genuinely gregarious and, as such, public displays of true affection were rare. Life in her village, among her people, was different. Hugging someone to comfort them, and not just an act in pursuit of another end, was 'different' for her.

But Keiko was right. She needed comforting. Lyric realized she needed something in terms of intimacy and connection, something with real emotional exchange... and maybe a hug was that thing.

Once in the embrace, Lyric spoke softly with her head beside her friend's ear.

"I am humbled that you would share such a gift of kindness you reserve for kin."

Lyric's body relaxed a little in Keiko's arms. But words failed her in terms of what it meant to have a sister, for Lyric had no siblings. She understood Clan though. That was a more apt way to understand family for Lyric, and yet it wasn't the same.

"I am sorry, in my true heart, to have troubled you with the weight I feel upon me. But there is only so much of it I can share with anyone, no matter what my heart wants me to do. It is my burden for a reason and I am bound by things as old as the Oldest Things to bear this burden in a certain way. Friend Keiko... Sister Keiko... Please know that I am grateful all the same that you have asked to share it."

Lyric paused, considering her words and the paths through and around the 'Things that Bind'. She seemed to come to a decision, or she made a choice. She smiled, just a little mischievously.

"But I was never told that being Banished meant I must walk my path alone. So I will share something with you and the others who I am fortunate enough to wander with for a time and a space..."

"If I am to find a way to save my people from a fate they do not seem to realize they are facing, nor seem to care, maybe even deny, then I suppose I will have to be like these Rocks from the Time of Shattering in my resolve. Also I will have to learn all I can. Absorb all the water there is available to me like the earth of this place you call Jungle..."

"Because I feel weak and overwhelmed and what I now know of this world beyond the borders of my own, if it were water, would not fill the cleft from edges to stem of a clover leaf. I will need help. So, while I must bear my burden, I am grateful if you would help to bear me in this journey. Patience and forgiveness I do not deserve, but I would ask for them as well. No Oaths or Promises though..."

Sometimes Lyric spoke in such an archaic way, as though her words and the way she spoke them had a deeper meaning or intention... or purpose that required her to speak as she did.

"Friends, that is what I need. And I will endeavor to be such a friend as one who deserves to have another call her friend."


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The Heartwood
The Flowered Path
Later that month


Lyric, Cesare, Keiko and Bekkah ... and Tomomi and Hinata Cat.

"Heroes do hero things, yes?"

The big cat leaned back, smiling almost mischievously as Cesare finished off his simple dinner.

"Fish not smart. Live in water. Fish not strong. One whack, head to rock, ex-fish. Fish no more. Fish ceased to be. If hadn't stuck on stick, floating upside down in pool. No need to brave. No need strong. Not much of fight. Even fish with feet and sharp teeth, one kick, fly real good.

"Not so good at hitting ground."

He reached for the fire, took up another spitted snack and took another big semicircular bite out of it.

"Not so heroic."

"But ..."

He took a second bite out of it.

"Let fish stay in water.

"Go hungry."

Two more bites and all that was left was a fish skeleton. On a stick.

Tomomi giggled a bit, her eyes going wide at how easily and fast the fish had disappeared and how perfect its remnants were. Her own meal looked barely touched. Only if one looked really, really close could one tell her dinner was suffering the fate of a thousand tiny nibbles. She then looked around, her head tilting a bit.

"I've only been in the Mines. The Forest. Home. And here. The mines. The Forest. Home. Just us. One family. The Market. The market was so busy. And here. here just us in fields.

"You say most people?

"Where are they?

"Are there lots of them?"

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Cesare

"I agree, fish are stupid.. but good to eat."

He grins as he watches Hinata devour his fish; such precision. Then he turns his head to look at Tomomi.

"For some reason I have never been able to fathom, people tend to all gather together in one place, though there are lots of places like that. Think of the market and then multiply that by several hundred. We will find places like that as we travel."

His head tilts on one side as he considers.

"Maybe they feel safer like that? Not sure that works though, the bigger the place the more it stands out."

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Keiko
[pronounced KAY-ko... do you think the GM has memorized this yet? Nope, not yet...]

“I understand,” she whispered, “at least as well as one who does not know your burden possibly could. I, too, have a... a Duty of which I am not to speak. It is not as much a burden as...”

Keiko was silent for long moments. This Duty that the Elders had given her was a burden in some ways. And yet, in other ways, it was an opportunity.

“...well, it simply IS.”

Something about the way Lyric said Oaths and Promises tickled at the back of Keiko’s mind. Was it something from one of the Ancient Stories? Or was it a song she had once heard? It reminded her of... something that seemed just out of reach at the moment.

Ah, no matter! What mattered was Here and Now.

“Family and friends do deserve patience and forgiveness, Friend Lyric,” she said. “The giving of these things is sometimes difficult, but that’s doesn’t mean one shouldn’t try their best to give these gifts.”

The Rhoni smiled then at the minstrel.

“You may think you know so little, my friend, but I believe you know more than would fill a very large tub. You instinctively understand the Currents of the World without knowing why the Rhoni call them Waves. You have an instinct for peacemaking, which is a rare and special kind of knowledge.

“Even the wisest person in all the world would only know enough to fill a small lake. Only the Deities can know everything. We mere mortals?” Keiko laughed, and the sound both echoed off nearby rocks and was muffled by the night air. “Some of us try to learn as much as we can, that’s true. But it’s for the joy of learning — not to say that we are knowledgeable and wise. I would leave that task to the Eyes of Hastur!”

She was still smiling as she held a hand out to Lyric.

“I can tell you that already you have one friend, and perhaps even more by the fire.” Keiko giggled. “I’m not certain that Hinata is sharing his burnt fish with Cesare out of a desire to be friends or if the Cat is courting my kinsman. It’s amusing to watch, in either case. He might insist that he is not a silly Cat, but he does make me smile.”


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The Heartwood
The Flowered Path
Later that month ... and then the month after that ... and the month after that


Lyric, Cesare, Keiko and Bekkah ... and Tomomi and Hinata Cat.

"Lazy."

That was Hinata Cat's pronouncement, as he finished his meal, set the stick in the fire and folded his hands together behind his neck, to flop backward until he was comfortably sprawled. He looked up to the stars, scattered across the midnight sky. Wisps of clouds, very thin, very high, slowly drifted from the west to the east, as if they were riding forward to, eventually, greet the dawn.

"That way, no walking days upon days upon days upon days to see more than grass, flowers and rocks.

His eyes narrowed then. Just a bit.

"This. Same as square box stone home. Kind of. True. Can walk whichever way without hitting wall. All same though. Big rock. Little rock. Still same. Rock."

His nose wrinkled.

"Still. Never had stupid slinks jumping out of tree."

Looking up to the stars he came to the most proper, obvious solution.

"Need more stupid slinks."

That was followed by a whumf, the telltale sound - to those knowing of such things - of a certain someone moving from one place to the other without passing in between. Thus, right atop Hinata's stomach, sitting all comfortable and easy, was suddenly a Tomomi.

"Slink! Not Mouse!"

A broad hand moved to remove the mischevious lace-maker from her chosen spot. Of course, she wasn't there anymore when the hand-paw swept past, having decided immediately that it would be far safer in Bekkah's lap. Hinata crossed his arms over his belly, to thwart any further trespassing.

"Stupid Mouse."

Tomomi simply smiled.

"Silly Cat."

Hinata grumbled.

"Nin silly."

"Ja silly ..."

"Nin."

"Ja."

"Nin."

"Ja."

"Nin."

"Ja."

"Nin."

"Ja."

"Nin."

"Nin."

"Ja ............... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Leaning back against Bekkah, Tomomi nodded victoriously while Hinata rolled over and pretended to fall asleep. It was a long long while before she spoke again, this time directly to the Aterran Priestess.

"Are they going to be fine? Lyric and Keiko? I think so. Forever Friend, she is good, really good, at knowing what to say when the world goes bad and you feel lost and lonely. I feel lost like that every now and then. It's kinda different though. Not like before. When I was homesick. Then I was losing who I was. Am. I still don't know all of who I am and such, but I believe I'll only figure that is seeing what happens each day after the other. Its a lost and lonely, in that there's no Lady to pick me up when I've stumbled. I can't mouse anyone all by myself, and while sleeping beneath the stars is always so pretty, resting my head on the window sill of my little nook at Home feels just right. It's just that I knew that it would always be there when it was time for sleep, waiting for me.

"Is it right to feel lost and lonely like that?"

Tomomi waited patiently for Bekkah's answer. And once heard, would then wait for the return of their other two companions. Who would, upon their own time. Time enough that - if they wished - there was still a not over-burned fish on a stick for nibbling before sleep.

***********************

Dawn followed, as she always did, rising in the east, sending long long shadows streaking back towards the lands where they had come. By now they were moving mostly south, skirting the edge of rocky expanses to the west and farmer's fields to the east. And as before, to Hinata's annoyance, the path was quietly staid, same old, same old, as it wove through the lower parts of the landscape, in the hollows and between the larger scattering of shattered rocks.

They did catch the last glimpse of the riders they had seen previously. In the distance, between two large rocks, barely more than small dots at the edge of sight. They had turned around and were heading vaguely northwest. One rode forward, two followed, and between the lead and those who followed they had been joined by another.

Whatever tasks they had set themselves upon must obviously have been completed and now they were returning to wherever they had originally come from.

***********************

More dawns followed, with the rocky terrain to the right slowly fading away, replaced by fields and trees. To the left, to the east, the mountains were significantly closer, they were no longer a gray line along the horizon. Their height, their jagged profile was now apparent and on a very clear morning, they could see the hint of their white snow caps. The dirkwood was now a faint green line behind them. It was also getting much cooler - some mornings were downright cold. They were closing in on a holiday, the month of Raven now passed and Midwinter's approaching. Not that Hinata knew what a holiday was.

"Oh.

"Like finding meat in one's soup."

The big cat person just shrugged.

"Burnt fish. Stupid slinks. And big four-legged things with branches growing out of head. Stupid branches."

Hinata had discovered harts.

"Everyday holiday."

***********************

Of course, there was the day when Hinata brought back a sheep.

"Slow, fat. Far too furry for own good.

"Taste good."

His head tilted.

"What mean, belonged to someone?"

His head tilted the other way.

"Bah.

"So many.

"Not miss one."

That took even longer to explain.

***********************

It's not that Hinata would have made a good Hunter. It was true, he had some natural skill in that area. But if one was, to be honest, his skill was not as much in the stalking or the craft of the hunt. He was just good at killing things and especially when it was to his benefit. His concept of predator and prey was more along the lines of the natural order of things. Fish were, obviously, made to be burned and if sheep weren't meant to be caught, why were they always in such big groups just waiting to be eaten?

Though one day everyone, everyone was in stitches when he suddenly broke through their evening camp, just before their appointed time to begin preparations for their meal. This was when he usually showed up with whatever would be their meal.

Instead, at a full speed run, he tore through their little campsite as if Krysta herself was demanding her dance. There and gone in a heartbeat.

No one had a chance to catch their breath before - almost on his heels - a handful of ruffs followed in full pursuit! Most were small - sturdy, long-haired, black and white furred critters - and they were definitely angry and they were definitely focused on the big cat person.

Shepherd dogs.

It was quite a bit into the night before Hinata snuck back into camp, looking warily over his shoulder.

"Stupid yapping things. Now know why slinks in trees."

Nin.

Hinata would not make a good Hunter.

***********************

Eventually the path turned in an easterly direction.

But that was expected.

They now stood upon a small hillock, a place where, after such a long while, they could look down upon things, see the lay of the land.

They could see the Flowered Patch behind them, sweeping west the way they came. Ahead they saw a second path; this one of worn dirt and well used. A pair of carts were on that trail, heading west while a little further beyond a much larger caravan was moving in the other direction. Keiko knew that trail. So did Cesare and Bekkah. It was the Highland Path, the long merchant route that started in Talesan's village.

And there, below them, perhaps a half day away - just in time to get through the gates before evening, was Bordertown.

The small square settlement was set comfortably within its walls. Though there were hints of a recent occurrence. There were hoardings along the ramparts and some portions were damaged and broken; folks seemed very intent upon their repairs. There were horsemen patrolling the town's eastern side, between Bordertown and a very large nearby woods. These woods were a smaller cousin to the Dirkwood; a sprawling forest stretching from Bordertown to the Black Mountains. Faint plumes of smoke rose from within; it was not an uninhabited place.

A tumbled ruin rose on the town's southern side; capped by a copse of trees and a small set of buildings and a tower with a banner. This was where the Flowered Path, from their point of view, ended. They knew the truth of it though. The Bordertown ruins were actually where it began.

And, of course, atop that tumble of rubble, Cesare and Bekkah knew there was something else.

A well.




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Lyric, trepidation at the sight

The Minstrel, whom Lord Dominic Korie had deemed to have come from a place near or akin to Faraway Hills, a place where Poet Shaggies had all the room to wander free or find themselves in a languid repose in the pursuit of their craft and trade, stood on the hillock, taking small half steps forward to find the the right view that filled her entire perception of the horizon. Given where she came from this was certainly a strangeness to her. It was a city with walls.

Oh, sure, she had seen the town of Waverider's reach with it's tower fortification, and that was a spectacle of engineering, albeit grey and dour, as though the stone was pulled unwillingly from the earth and hewn with out a love for the delicate nature of the art that was being crafted...

And she had seen the strange keep of the Mad Imperial Prince and his dwarven minions, whose skills in artifice and masonry were so elegant in design, but wholly devoid of passion, as though function ruled over form...

But this was a massive city with walls and gates and buildings inside the protective barriers where people separated themselves from the world around them, isolated and yet willing to invite outsiders through narrow passages.

Oh, how many people must live inside those walls, and how ever did they feed and support those people with foodstuffs? Surely those inside the walls were not the farmers? This city was enormous, but not so much that it could have farming fields, grazing pastures, or gathering forests enough within the confines of those walls. It was a puzzle to Lyric.

Yes, this was the biggest settlement of people that Lyric had ever seen. Her home village was so different than this, in both design and purpose. Her whole way of life was different and, while she felt the chafe of the difference to some degree in Waverider's Reach, this new 'experience' was certain to overwhelm the country Minstrel from Kethy's Woods... and quickly. And she knew it too.

She sighed at the sight and mustered her resolve. She had come this far, so very far it seemed, with the purpose of seeing all there was to see, learn all there was to learn, and to find a 'song to save her people'.

Her eyes followed the flowered path to it's Origin, the Ruins. That sense of sadness tugged at her heart. The tale was such a sorrowful thing.

"It is a very big city," she mumbled to those near her. "There must be so many people, so close together... How do they do it?"

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Cesare

"Lazy... hmm maybe."

He is feeling lazy right now, comfortable, fairly full and relaxed. And he cannot help but small as their two small friends squabble with each other. He is content. And so he drifts off to sleep.

And so the days wore on interspersed with.. sheep... harts.. ruffs..

And then eventually their destination was in sight. It brought back lots of memories. Reminded him too of absent friends.. Kadri.. Darian.. Daxia.. Mikal.. He knows where Kadri is but wonders what adventures may have befallen the other three. But as he stands there surveying the town, he notices several things.

"Signs of trouble maybe?"

He points out the defences and the patrols.

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Bekkah

She regarded Tomomi and smiled.

"Lonely and Lost? No. I don't think that's good for anyone. At least not for long. I suppose though that it does give one incentive to try something new, to explore and learn. So in small doses it is good but eventually everyone needs to have a place and people to turn to. For me for years those people were strangers and my Lady of course. Helping those people and feeling welcomed by them always kept them from being lonely and lost."

She looked over at Keiko and Lyric.

"I think she'll be okay. There is a story behind that one. A sad one I suspect. She will share it one day. Perhaps we are the ones who can make her feel less lonely, perhaps it will be someone else. Perhaps, like me, she needs a purpose. We shall see."

The days passed as they traveled. She would talk to anyone who wished to speak to her. Finally they'd arrived at Bordertown.

"I would like to go to the Dragonstooth Inn. Perhaps we shall meet friends there."

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Keiko
[pronounced KAY-ko... do you think the GM has memorized this yet? Nope, not yet...]

Traveling along the Flowered Path wasn’t something a Caravan would do — it really was more of a path than a road. Wagons and carts could no more traverse much of its length than they could navigate the Stairs of the Great Ravine. Lone Rhoni had traveled the Path, although far fewer than the Gaija might believe. So Keiko had only vague warnings and little real Lore to rely on as she journeyed with her companions toward Bordertown.

She could appreciate the land over which they traveled... so like other places that she had seen and yet wholly alien to her previous experiences to date. Struggling over a patch of rocky terrain wasn’t enjoyable because she liked clambering over rocks but because it was something she had never done before — climbing over rocks of the High Tarn. They weren’t the same as the boulders along the Black Mountains.

Lady Bekkah seemed to take everything in stride — she had the wisdom and composure of the Grandmothers but was far too young to have reached that level of enlightenment. It took Keiko many handfuls of days to weave her way through the mystery of the Atteran. It wasn’t that she had the uncanny ability to ride the waves. Instead, it was an absolute trust in her Goddess that nothing the waves sent her way would harm her. It was fascinating and so very alien to the Rhoni’s experience.

Hinata probably didn’t mean to provide so much entertainment, but even when complaining about too much Sameness, even when berating fish, slinks and harts, and especially when being chased by shepherd dogs, he always managed to make her smile.

Lyric’s music, though, was almost as mesmerizing as the array of colors she and Tomomi found along the Path. Some of the tunes the minstrel played were familiar, some were entirely new to Keiko, and a few of them straddled a line that felt the same as riding a great wave. They were something unknown that seemed oh so familiar — almost like something she had once heard in a dream. Keiko liked those tunes quite a bit.

Between the two of them, she and Tomomi knew which plants, which parts of plants could create almost any color. Lady Bekkah pointed out the ones of medicinal value. What fascinated Keiko so much was the wholeness of many of the plants. If one part could be used as a medicine, another could be used as a pigment. Perhaps this was all part of the Lore already, but some of it was new information for Keiko. She soaked it all up.

Eventually, a night came — after they had crossed the Highland Path at the famous MacMurphy’s Tavern and were camped in the shadow of the Skaefla Plateau — when the Card Reader sat at their campfire just shuffling her Cards slowly while Hinata speculated on the taste of griffins. Even when she was merely shuffling the Cards, the Wild Cards liked to keep themselves hidden. So it was more than a little unusual when she saw the Card that had completed her Deck face up in her lap.

Things that are meant to be are meant to be.

Well, she probably should stop feeling so awful about what happened in the mines. So many had been saved, including her amusing friend Hinata. The dragons were no longer being hurt. Some had died; many had lived.

Things that are meant to be are meant to be.

She touched the stains on her tunic — dragon’s blood would never wash out — and thought that perhaps the Card could use a brighter bit of color at the bottom. It was something to consider.

Finally, they were within a half day’s walk of their destination.

Bordertown might have seemed intimidating had Keiko not spent time in and around Trundle. The banner that flew from the top of the tower built on the ruins could be Imperial, although at this distance and the way the breeze kept it fluttering made it impossible to be sure. But it would certainly make for an interesting juxtaposition — Imperials living on top of a Dayalan temple from which the Coven Deities had escaped?

Keiko smiled to herself. It had the makings of quite a silly song... or rather, it would if folks in this Age didn’t fear Coveners as much as they did. Keiko didn’t quite understand it — but then, to her knowledge, she’d never met a Covener. And the Rhoni tales were different from those told by the majority of people on the Mainland.

She caught sight of the caravan camped south of the ruins. Given the number of wagons, it was likely two families. They were too far away to decipher any family markings.

She was brought from her musings by Lyric’s question. It was rhetorical, of course, because none but those who were doing the living close together could say how they managed it. Still, Keiko shrugged.

“Perhaps we can observe them over a period of time to see how they manage it.” Then she chuckled. “I’m not sure either of us would like to stay here long enough to figure them out, though.”

She wouldn’t, what was certain. There were far too many merchants in Bordertown.

Then she playfully poked her kinsman’s arm.

“Now you’re just being silly, Cesare!” Keiko said with a laugh. “Even I know that the Riders from the Forest harry the town on a regular basis. Why do you think our kin make their camp so far away?” she asked, pointing to the Rhoni encampment south of the old temple. Then she shrugged. “It is the way of things here, I suppose.”

When Lady Bekkah spoke, however, the Rhoni’s eyes widened.

“The Dragonstooth?” It was an Inn with a reputation — and it was a good one. There were few enough of them on the Mainland... inns that offered real hospitality and safety, where one need not worry about being robbed or killed in their sleep. Of course, that sort of hospitality came at a price.

“I would certainly like to see this place that is spoken of even in far-off Trundle!” Keiko giggled. “I think the owners of the fancy Trundle inns might be jealous of the Dragonstooth’s fine reputation. And...” She shrugged once more, this time more philosophically. “...if the price of spending the night there is too high for my meager amount of coins, I don’t doubt I’ll be welcome at the Rhoni camp.”

Of course, she had been told by the Grandmothers to avoid the Caravans. Still, avoidance might not be possible.

“I believe they will understand if I am more... withdrawn than most would expect.”

After all, every Rhoni knew that Grandparents were inscrutable. To be sent off on a mysterious task was an unexpected thing to be expected from the Grandparents.


"Everything is bad except unicorns." -- Phoebe
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