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Post by Cecilia Ragnvald on Jun 24, 2014 18:27:52 GMT -6
Ce que je cherche c’est l’aventure | She had dirt under her finger nails and she couldn't stop looking at them - they were like one of those bright flashing lights she'd heard about, drawing her attention every-time she glanced down. And boy, was she glancing down a lot today. Well, maybe it just seemed like that because she was given reason to notice, but did it matter? Cecilia had washed her hands when she came in of course, in the water that was always freezing, would it kill the owner to light a fire (she'd heard about fancy hot water heaters and it was really the only reason she'd consider breaking one of the creeds of Orik), but the dirt hadn't gotten out. She'd been meaning to wash her hands again but for some reason the inn was super busy and she just remembered that it was because a group of traveling merchants was staying for a couple of nights, glad to be out of the summer storms for a little bit. Cecilia had been chatting with one of the younger boys that was apprenticing with them the night before, a Ron, no, a Richard, for an hour or so when they'd come down for dinner.
She'd been a little less appreciative of them last night, mostly because she'd had to stay later than she planned; late enough that she convinced two of her friends to walk her home, just so she could feel safe (one heard a lot of tales at the inn). This morning, though, they were pretty subdued, up for a cup of coffee and breakfast more than conversation.
'Cece, could ya' go feed the hens? Archie's says he's sick, the little beast,' the innkeeper murmured to her as she passed by. Cecilia nodded and went to do as she bid, saying good morning to the guests she passed on the way out. Archie was the owner's nephew and she bet good coin that he wasn't sick with anything - at least anything he hadn't brought well upon himself.
Outside, the air had a slight nip to it still, the sun still perched behind the trees. The small village was quiet still - it was what she enjoyed most about the morning. It had been cloudy earlier when she was in her garden, putting in some flowers to keep the animals away, but the sky was clearing up. She scooped up the feed for the hens, scattering some on the ground, and giggled when they flocked around her. There was a small stream that ran a couple yards from the inn - she'd wash her hands there before she went back in.
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LAIKA OF GS!
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Post by Miles Pendergast on Jun 24, 2014 19:19:21 GMT -6
you know what else is great? me. Walk, walk, walk. Get lost. Find person. Get map. Walk. Get lost again. It really wasn’t getting any easier. Miles had stumbled along through the forest for a few days now after meeting Dakota and the badly drawn map had helped for only the first one. Then, another wrong turn, and he was just as lost as when he started. “Maybe I should stick to the roads. Might not get lost that way.” He shook his head as he trudged through the undergrowth of the Domhan Tir forests. It didn’t look like anything was going to go his way. And what’s worse was that the food Dakota had given him was running out. He’d been smart enough to ration it over the past few days but it wasn’t enough to last a lifetime. He only had some bits of bread left which wasn’t even really enough for a meal.
He looked up towards the canopy above him. It must still be morning, the sun hadn’t reached its peak yet, or at least from what Miles could see. The air was still a bit chill as well. Definitely morning. He stumbled on for a little while longer before hearing the sounds of a stream. His stomach grumbled again but he didn’t want to use the food just yet. But he did need something to drink. Maybe this stream would help with that.
He walked on trying to find the source of the noises only to find himself getting further away. He turned back around and finally started back toward the sounds. It took him a while to push through the trees and he didn’t realize how close he was to the water before he fell through a bush and splashed into the frigid water. He froze for a moment feeling the water before slowly standing and tiptoeing to the other bank. He sat on the ground and shivered a bit. In his clumsiness, the blond hadn’t even noticed the stream sat not too far from a small village. He leaned down slowly still shivering a bit to cup some water in his hands and take a drink.
| TAGGED: Cecilia Ragnvald
NOTES: clumsy is as clumsy does |
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Post by Cecilia Ragnvald on Jun 24, 2014 19:48:04 GMT -6
Ce que je cherche c’est l’aventure | The stream would probably be freezing and, god save her, dirty. Some traveler from Aquavia had come through months ago, preaching about the filthiness of water and how it was a miracle they hadn't all died of dsyentry yet, and while she didn't quite buy what he was selling, the thought had remained uncomfortably persistent in her mind. She looked at her hands and the thought went out of her mind - better than the things that lived in the dirt under her nails (he'd went on a tangent about that too, but then he started babbling about technology and everyone had stopped paying attention). She ducked under a tree and then froze. There was the stream, burbling along and kind of pollen-y even though it wasn't spring anymore, and there was the forest, looking particularly dense today, and then there was a man. Older than her, she thought, twining a strand of hair around her finger. Pretty nice blond hair too, though greasy - oh, nope, it was wet. He'd fallen into the stream, she thought, barely suppressing a giggle. Not nice, Cece.
Her parents, especially her father and that tightened her chest for a moment, had warned her away from strangers. Walking with strangers, talking with strangers, even looking at strangers; they covered everything. She blew that all away by getting a job at the inn where all she did was hang around strangers. Granted, not one on one, like they were now. Then again, the village was right there, so not really alone, right? It wasn't as though she'd had much of an opportunity to talk this morning, anyway. She took a couple steps closer, speaking all the while.
"Good morning, stranger! I see ya managed to go for a swim already," she said, her voice slightly teasing, but mostly friendly, still pitched with the sweetness of childhood. "Is the water cold?"
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LAIKA OF GS!
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Post by Miles Pendergast on Jun 24, 2014 20:57:07 GMT -6
you know what else is great? me. Miles drank heavily from the water not realizing just how thirsty he really was. It tasted odd but it was water. It at least would help hydrate him somewhat. He drank so much he didn’t even notice the girl coming up behind him. He jumped a bit when she spoke and nearly fell into the water again. He caught himself quickly before turning around to look at her. He looked up at her dark hair and dark brown eyes. She didn’t look to be that much younger than him but Miles wasn’t always the best judge of age.
“Uhm, yeah the water is rather cold. I, uhm, didn’t really mean to go swimming.” He was still shivering slightly as he sat there. He slowly stood up and looked down at her. He smiled a bit. “I’m Miles Pendergast, Guardian Shield in training. It’s nice to meet you. I didn’t know…” He looked behind her and saw the village. He looked down a bit sheepishly. “I didn’t know I was this close to a village. I’ve, uhm, kind of been lost for the past few days.” He looked back up and smiled again.
“What’s the name of the town? I haven’t been here before. I’ve been trying to make my way to Blaikfurd from the Rose. I wanted to join the Solstice Tournament but I arrived too late to get in.” He looked down again. His sword and shield were strapped to his back. He shuffled on his feet a bit before looking back up at the small village. There wasn’t much there and it seemed early enough that not many people were up. At least no one had really seen him stumble into the stream.
| TAGGED: Cecilia Ragnvald
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Post by Cecilia Ragnvald on Jun 25, 2014 10:06:46 GMT -6
Ce que je cherche c’est l’aventure | She smiled widely, more open now that he had spoken to her. No one threatening would speak like that, she thought. “Bit early in the day go swimming, anyway,” she said in a light tone. It wasn’t like she had actually believed he’d meant to go swimming but…she digressed. His smile was really quite nice, she thought, walking within an arm’s length of him, deciding that he was safe enough.
“Good morning, Miles, then,” she said, offering out a hand. “I’m Cecilia. The village wasn’t on most maps. Awfully troublesome when you were actually trying to find the place, but it generally kept them safe from bandits deciding it would be a convenient place to attack. “The village is called Asheboro, on account of all the Ash trees, I guess.”
“The solstice tournament? My brother signed up for that.” Tristian had sent a letter a couple week ago telling them, immediately worrying her. She looked up to her brother, sure, and his abilities weren’t anything to sniff at, but the rumors had it that some real heavy hitters had signed up too….She’d sent a letter back, wishing him the best of luck, secretly hoping he’d get knocked out in the first round; less chance of him being hurt that way. The round had to have started by now – and perhaps it was even over – but she hadn’t received any news yet.
“He’s a guardian shield too – do you know a Tristan Ragnvald?” she said, tucking a strand of fallen hair behind her ear.
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LAIKA OF GS!
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Post by Miles Pendergast on Jun 25, 2014 10:43:31 GMT -6
you know what else is great? me. He smiled sheepishly again when she mentioned swimming. He watched her walk closer and extend her hand. He shook it hearing her name. “Cecilia. That’s a pretty name.” He smiled again and released her hand. “Asheboro. It does look really small. I only have a drawn map.” He started to pull it out but the paper melted in his hands and clumped on the ground. “Uh, well… I had a map.” He dropped the rest of the soggy paper and shrugged. “If this village is so small, it must be just self-running? It’s not really on the main road is it?”
He hoped it was. He’d at least be able to follow that toward Blaikfurd if nothing else. When she mentioned the tournament and her brother, he smiled a bit. “Yeah, I did hear he entered the tournament. I’m sorry to say I don’t know much about him. I never got the chance to meet him either though I wanted to and wish him luck. I didn’t stay to watch though. I was there to compete. I’d feel left out sitting in the stands.” He smiled a bit. He looked back up and around the village. People were starting to wake up. Smoke was rising out of some of the chimneys and he could hear the sounds of wood being chopped. “So, is there an inn in the town? I have some coin and I’d love to get some food and maybe someplace safe place to sleep tonight.” He could feel that he still have the bag of money given to him by Dakota. Turns out he might actually have needed it after all.
| TAGGED: Cecilia Ragnvald
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Post by Cecilia Ragnvald on Jun 25, 2014 11:43:31 GMT -6
Ce que je cherche c’est l’aventure | Cecilia had giggled when the paper map turned to pulp in his hands, covering her mouth with her hand. She made a mental note to tell him to stop by Kinnen's shop - the man was a smith, but he had a map-making hobby. Depending on his mood, he'd give one away for free - he'd just gained a contract with the guardian-shields, so the odds of him being happy were pretty good, unless he was hungover, and, god-save her she'd distracted herself again. "Pretty self-sustaining, yeah. It's off the main road by a mile or so, though the road's kind of thin around here." It was stretching the truth a teensy-bit, as Cecilia knew that they received imports every couple of months; mostly raw materials, some iron, spices, salt, the sort of things not easily found in a forest.
"Worth a shot." She could emphasize, though. Sitting out, just watching everything. Her life in a sentence, wasn't it? That wasn't entirely fair. She did get to do more than friends, working at the inn. It made a little jealous of Miles - he got to go out and be adventurous. She was just stuck here in this village.
She perked up at the mention of an inn. "We're right behind one. I'm a waitress there," she said, beginning to walk toward the animal sheds behind the inn; she should probably check on the cow at some point too, unless Archie got his butt up at some point today. "As long as you don't mind a small room. We have a couple of merchants taking up the larger ones."
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LAIKA OF GS!
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Post by Miles Pendergast on Jun 25, 2014 20:25:50 GMT -6
you know what else is great? me. Ah so there was an inn. Miles stretched a little, his arms raising up high behind his head. “Well, I’m glad to hear that. A bed beats sleeping on the ground or in a tree any day.” He’d been lucky enough to not run into any kath on his journeys but he was also worried that his luck was going to run out. If a kath did happen to find him, he was pretty much just a meal. If not for one than for another. If there was one thing Miles knew about kaths is that they rarely ever travelled alone. If he were to find one, another surely wouldn’t be far behind.
“Well, if I can occupy more of your time, could you show me the way to the inn? Or were you busy with something?” He didn’t want to be a nuisance and distract her from her job. He was rather tired though. He hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep or a full meal since leaving the Rose. He just hadn’t noticed just how tired and hungry he actually was. He smiled a bit thinking of a nice warm bed and food. His stomach immediately made itself known with a rather large gurgling. He looked down and put his arms around his waist.
“Sorry, I haven’t really eaten that much today, or much at all for a few days.” He muttered the last half of that. He was feeling foolish. Here he was standing next to a young but still pretty girl and he’d already splashed his way into her village and made noises with his stomach showing how hungry he was. He turned his face a bit away from her and tried to push back the blood that was rushing to his face. Men weren’t supposed to blush, especially not Guardian Shields. They were strong and smart and always kept their cool. And here he was getting flustered over the smallest things. Maybe he wasn’t meant for being a Shield after all.
| TAGGED: Cecilia Ragnvald
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Post by Cecilia Ragnvald on Jun 25, 2014 21:04:32 GMT -6
Ce que je cherche c’est l’aventure | "I bet so." Cecilia had never needed to sleep anywhere but her bed, except for the occasional trips out of town. And even then, could sleeping in a caravan really be called roughing it? She certainly didn't think so. Going off on her own though...she couldn't manage it, not yet. She knew what terrible things could happen to those off in the forest alone, or with just a young boy for company. Keeping with the pack, that was what she could be counted on doing. A regular conformist, according to Archie, but what did he know?
"Oh, no, I can bring you right in," she said. She'd spotted some feed by the cow's shed. Cecilia doubted that Archie had managed to rouse himself in the handful of minutes she'd been gone, which meant the owner had likely come out earlier and did most of the chores. The owner gave their nephew too much slack, though she wasn't going to say anything about it. Now, it meant that she could just go right back to doing her job.
"There's something on the fire inside. Oatmeal, I think..." Hn. She didn't like people being embarrassed, especially around her. It'd be best if she pretended she didn't see it all, wouldn't it? So, Cecilia smiled and ignored the kind of cute flush spreading over his face. The inn came fully into sight now. It was an older building, the roof mostly slate, but patched with thatch in a few areas. That sort of material was costly and no one complained about it much.
She led Miles inside; there were a couple more people up than before, but nothing close to full. "Wait here, Miles. I'll go get the owner to rustle something yummy up for ya'".
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LAIKA OF GS!
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Post by Miles Pendergast on Jun 26, 2014 15:46:20 GMT -6
you know what else is great? me. Miles followed Cecilia into the inn glad she hadn’t seemed to notice his embarrassment. Or had she? He couldn’t tell but she hadn’t mentioned it so he wasn’t going to. The inn only had a few people sitting inside eating and doing things normal for them in the morning. But most of the area was empty. Some of the chairs still sat upside down on the tables near the back wall. Miles walked with the girl and sat at the table she offered him. He watched her leave and looked around at the inside. The outside didn’t have many striking features, it just looked old with patches in the roof and some of the walls.
The inside though looked slightly newer, being made mostly of wood, it would need to be replaced every once in a while to keep the structure sound enough for use. Beams raised up keeping the roof held high above. A second floor held rooms for travelers. There was a bar facing the opposite side of the door, though it was a small one. It didn’t seem like it received too many travelers coming through. He reached down to squeeze the purse of coins in his pocket.
He looked at the other people sitting in the room. They all were looking down at the tables in front of them, some eating, others reading over papers. No one seemed to really care that much about him. That was just fine with him. He only wanted to stay for one night, just enough to rest up for the rest of the trip to Blaikfurd. Cecilia had mentioned a map-maker so he would have to see about making a more reliable map for the rest of his trip. That would be helpful, a lot more than one that was badly drawn and didn’t really tell him where to go.
| TAGGED: Cecilia Ragnvald
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