Farmers Market
Tenebrae - Sunday, August 17, 2014, 5:56 PM
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--<* H03: Eldwyn Road *>--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
The Eldwyn Road meanders continuously around hills, wilderness, and farmland, though it is occasionally broken by fingerlets from the great Tornmawr. At one point, the road crosses the Tornmawr itself, which takes place by use of a ferry.
Further east and past the ferry are the great Redridge Mountains. These mountains, which run mostly north and south, charge through the landscape, and even through the eastern end of the Lord's City of Alexandria.
Towards the south is the city, with its flags rising far above the walls. The fiery Rising Phoenix almost glows in the sunlight and airships may be seen both in flight and in dock, as they make use of a carefully sculpted section of the Redridge.
Towards the north, the landscape of rolling hills and farmland breaks into denser forest.
Cesran has arrived.
Another sticky day in Alexandria, and thankfully, the forest is nearby, but even the trees aren't enough to suck up all of the moiture that just hangs in the air. There's even a good, dense fog out in the area around the city. The merchants, to avoid the sun and the fog that would make everyone three times as miserable as they were when they left the forest, so they stay in the edge of the forest until nightfall.
It's right about here, upon a branch, that a rather tall oruch woman watches over the merchants from a tree branch a few feet off the ground, and by a few? we mean about 30.
Mikilos wanders the merchant stalls, humming absently to himself. To anyone trying to cook a meal, the tall elf's selections would be baffeling. To anyone who casts spells, the selection of reagents isn't odd. And with a faint refreshing breeze seeming to follow Mikilos around, the logical conculsion is easy to draw.
"Mother Above, it's too hot!"
Understatement of the day goes to the trainee making her way through the streets of Alexandria! Of course, the title only seemed to be present in her mind, seeing as someone else could have taken it earlier... but never mind. Hot it was indeed, making the blond woman rethink her stance on taking a breath of fresh air.
A greatsword rested on her back, sheathed and almost as tall as she was. Her half-plate gleamed in the sunlight, which seemed to make her all the more miserable. "Need to find some cover..."
She honestly didn't see him until just now, when he was right in front of her. The trainee made her best attempts to stop, only to bump right into him!
Cesran comes walking in the direction from the ferry and he spots Mikilos and Moonshadow along with a new person. He gives them a wave, "Good day." He says as he as he has his staff with him. The staff speaks from its crystal dragon head, "Greetings."
Mikilos blinks and steadies himself. "Oh, sorry." Wizard's can get a bit absent-minded at times, and bumping into someone is nothing new. However, the elf does quickly doublecheck his purse. This might not be the Low Market, but cutpurse can wander afield as easy as anyone else.
Boshter has connected.
The trainee took in a breath after stumbling backward. "I'm so sorry! I should've been watching where I was... going..." She looked up, and up, and finally into the face of the elf. The very, very tall elf. And then she noticed what he had with him. "Hi there. Sorry about that."
For a moment, she wondered where the sudden breeze came from, then decided it didn't matter. Especially with a talking dragon head staff! Little miss knight-in-training turned toward the voice behind her. "That... is amazing." She walked toward the new person she'd never met before. "How did you do that?"
A familiar voice stirs the woman in the tree, making her drape her legs over the branch and peer down towards Mikilos and the stranger that has bumped into Mikilos. She then smiles as Mikilos checks his coin purse, and actually hops her way out of the tree, landing upon her feet a few feet from where Godwyn is. "there'll be no need for that, Mikilos." She says as she tilts her head to look at the woman in the half-plate, and gives her a bright smile. "Greetings again, Lady Sylvan."
Cesran smiles as Ral-sara beams from the attention she is getting. "Yes it is amazing. Well it's a bit complicated, but she has her own will and intelligence." The staff grins, "That's right I do."
Mikilos eye rolls at Ral-sara's pride, but grins, nodding to Moonshadow with a shrug. "Some habits are safer to keep. I take it you two have met?" He nods towards Godwyn.
The trainee grinned. "I bet it likes being pampered..." She reached for the crystal head, making her best attempt to run her fingers along the living ornament, when her right hand froze in mid-air at the voice from a few feet away.
Seconds turned to minutes as her mind flashed with images burned into her memories. Scenes of a manor, of adults gone to war, of revelations and plans and desperation. Of harsh lands and harsher truths.
The knight lowered her hand, and despite the flash of events, she smiled. "I look for you everywhere in the city, and here I find you playing guardian again." She turned toward the oruch. "Moonshadow."
The smile from the oruch grows a bit when Godwyn says her name, and that she was looking for her. "You will not meet someone until you are meant to." She says before stopping a few feet from Godwyn. "it is good to see you again, Godwyn, and it seems you have taken up a new profession." She says before looking to Mikilos. "Yes I do. A few months ago, I was 'baby-sitting' her for her parents, who had decided to ride off. They asked me to....keep her out of trouble." She then looks down to Godwyn. "And I told her the truth of what her parents were doing."
"Sticky sex without the kid around?" Mikilos guesses casually.
Cesran nods, 'Yes she does." He looks at Mikilos, "What?" He asks a little confused and he looks over to Godwyn and Moonshadow, "And you do let come to Alexandria, not exactly the safest city to be in."
Godwyn laughed. "Not exactly. It is more than that..." Her features darkened, just a touch. "...worse than that." She took in a breath. "Suffice it to say that Moonshadow saved me from a life that would have cursed me, and I wouldn't have known I was cursed." She turned toward the others. "My name is Godwyn Sylvan, and I am, as she said, taking on a new profession. Since I came here, I had no place to go, nothing to eat, begging for scraps and anything that I could survive off of."
She turned her eyes downward for a moment. "I almost resorted to stealing, which would have made me no better. Had it not been for a cleric of Althea feeding me one night, I would have fallen back on my old ways."
Mikilos bows slightly. "Mikilostravia Abrioudelanarchie Mithralla, Magus, and Builder Arcane. Though just 'Mikilos' is fine. The temples offer a number of options to pilgrams and travelers. Though with all that's been happening, resources are thin and meals perhaps not as filling as they might be."
Cesran ahs, "I'm sorry that you had to come to the city under those circumstances, but Mikilos is right the temples here do offer help to those in need, there isn't any reason to steal, although that doesn't stop some people."
She turned her gaze from the ground and smiled. "I didn't know where anything was, really. Not at the time. And if you've had nothing but your own provisions to go on, and nothing left, anything will do that's filling enough." She sighed. "No one had ever done that for me before. When I'd run away from home, I was mostly on my own, with what I'd taken with me. But here was someone who wanted to help me, and without asking for anything in return."
She blushed. "Understandably, I was a bit... obsessed. I followed him around all that night, curious as to why he did what he'd done. When I saw him doing the same thing for everyone that needed a meal or a kind word, it wasn't long before I wanted to do the same. Anything to distance me from my parents."
She shrugged. "I wasn't cut out to be a cleric, but the lessons in strategy I'd learned when I was young came in handy for something else." She grinned. "My training to become a Sentinel is almost done! They just have one last task for me..."
She frowned, her brows furrowed, right hand swept through her blond hair. "...and I have no idea what it is!"
Moonshadow tilts her head to Godwyn and chuckles. "So you came here, hoping for a bit of guidance?" She then takes a deep breath. "Or did they not tell you at all?" She says softly before looking to Mikilos and Cesran. "I do know that becoming a paladin is not as simple as distancing yourself from your parents, is it a path of self-exploration, self-reflection, and ultimately, becoming an example of what you would be for others to follow."
Mikilos glances to Cesran and shrugs. "What do you know of your task? You've two of the brightest minds in Alexandros before you. I'm confidant we can come up with a few ideas."
Godwyn shook her head. "That's just it. When they told me it was time for my final task, I said I needed time to prepare. Moonshadow is right about one thing... they haven't even told me yet, because I decided to at least get myself mentally prepared for it."
She folded her arms in front of her, just at waist level. "Truth be told? I'm still a mess."
Cesran hmms as he thinks for a moment, "Usually one becomes a paladin though hard work and dedication to the faith of your choosing. I have heard stories that paladins are often visited by their gods as paladins are the chosen champions of their god, while other strictly adhere to the tenets of their faith and are rewarded for it. Others just are, they don't have to say anything, they just live their lives in accordance with their gods wishes and are rewarded for it. Do not lose hope, Alexandria needs all the help it can get, especially the adventurer's of Alexandria, we have formed a group of irregulars to help combat the Dran aggression against the country of Rune." He turns to MIkilos and Moonshadow, "Speaking of that have either of you been to the front lately?"
Moonshadow puts her hand gently upon the shoulder of Godwyn. "Sometimes, Godwyn, it's not about preparing yourself mentally for the trials to come, but you move on instinct. You came here on pure faith alone, hoping the answers you sought were here and......you may just find the answers without finding them inside of a book at all, or in a person." Moonshadow usually spoke in riddles to Godwyn when she had to hear something.
Mikilos shrugs lightly. "Most people are a mess. That you're aware of it is a step up from average. So the question becomes, are you going to let something like that stop you, or are you going to set aside your personal troubles in favor of aiding those whos troubles are even worse?" Glancing to Cesran, he shakes his head. "Not recently, no. Has something changed?"
Godwin frowned. Another riddle, was it? She despised these, and yet knew what they meant by now. There was something in there she was meant to figure out. Moonshadow was always like that. At the moment however, she was distracted by talk of battle. There was no shortage of information about Rune and Dran... and the destruction wrought by Heth. Yet here was fresh news, potentially, and she fell silent to listen.