• PM To Join • [Sweetwine Woods] Seeking Sev'ryn Souls

[Vega]

5th Trial of Zi'da during Arc 717

It had taken them longer than she had thought to get to the Sweetwine Woods, but the weather was awful and they had both agreed that there was no point to pushing themselves. They were seeking her familiar, Iris, but the weather was beyond awful. During the time they'd been travelling, she'd taken the time to tell him everything about the dream she'd shared with the familiar. She didn't even leave out the bit about him, although maybe she would have had they not argued before they left. It had shocked her, that argument. Not because it happened, Vega was more than used to her temper and how she reacted to things. No, what had shocked her was how her temper had made him think that she hated him, that she was done with them. Then, that he considered she might actually hurt him? The realisation that he was telling the truth had caused a rare, but much needed, time of reflection for the young woman and she had been quieter than was her usual. Not massively so, just a little.

And, of course, there was the fact that the familiar was near bees. Vega told him, very seriously, that she hated bees. She was afraid of them. In all honesty, she confessed, she thought that Iris had done it on purpose. Because of the weather, because they weren't sure how long it was going to take all told, they'd taken the decision to pack up the camp and bring it with them. So, Arlo led Peg and Vega led Storm, their home in the cart which Peg pulled by virtue of her seniority and Vega glanced back and then grinned. "I like movin' 'ome like this. Dead 'andy it is."

Still, they were here now, just on the outskirts of the Sweetwine Woods and Vega looked at it and breathed in. "I'm nervous. It's stupid, innit." Vega was wrapped up against the weather about as much as it was possible to be, her eyes being pretty much the only things visible, and those were well hidden behind hood, hat and scarf. "I can feel 'er. It's like I'm crawlin' out of my skin, Arlo." It was bizarre, and not a pleasant experience. One gloved hand moved and took hold of his and she motioned to the woods in front of them. "So, I don't know much about this place. I've never been 'ere but I recognise it. Which is, I guess, 'cos of 'er."

As far as she knew, she'd told him, he wouldn't be able to see Iris, much like she couldn't see Lyova. Whether his small companion would be able to see Iris, Vega simply didn't know but she hoped so. "All I know about this place is that it's got a lot of animals an' plants." Not particularly helpful as information went and she looked at the trees in front of them and sighed. "It's like they're all dead. It's givin' me the wiggins." She kept wrapped up as warm as she could and Vega refused point blank to use the small chicken-leg shaped bit of wood he had. He'd earned that and he'd risked his life for it, she was determined. Besides, at night when they slept together in their shared bedroll, his warmth warmed her. That was good enough for her. If he tried to insist, she was clear; if she ever found anything that bloody useful, she wasn't sharing so she was setting a precedent.

"So, you're the learned man of letters between us," she said, looking at the place. "What do you know about this place, then?" Whatever it was, she would suggest that they might want to set up camp in the first decent clearing they came to and just go with the temporary one-night camp that they had packed into one part of the cart, so they could go on further, or make themselves more at home depending.

[Arlo Creede]

Arlo couldn't have missed that Vega was uncharacteristically quiet. Must have had something to do with their fight, he figured. He couldn't say the same for Peg though. He hadn't really thought about it until he'd put her harness on her and was hitching her up to the cart. Since they'd come to Scalvoris, the mare hadn't gotten as much exercise as she was accustomed to. She'd gotten a little fat. And irritable too, considering the way she nipped him several times while he was getting her ready. But now that they were on the move, her ears were pricked, tail and head high, and if he'd have let her she'd have headed on down the path at a good clip without him. Arlo felt a little guilty, having neglected her that way.

Lyova meanwhile was sailing down the path ahead of them all. Maybe the little diri was scouting ahead, or maybe she was just growing impatient and wanted them to hurry up. "Never stuck where we don't want to be, so long as we can pick up home and have a way to move it," he agreed. They hadn't been here before, to Sweetwine Woods. But he'd read a little about it, had heard a little more in and around town. And part of it was the reason that his bow and his arrows were in quick and easy reach. This was them. Arlo didn't hold out much hope that they'd simply stumble across her familiar, without stumbling across at least some kind of trouble first.

He could only imagine, based on what he'd been told that these woods were a beautiful place to be in, come springtime or summer. But now when all the world was white and ice? Well he guessed there was a certain appeal. But mostly it looked dead. "Course you're nervous," he told Vega when she admitted it. "The looks of this place in winter probably doesn't help any. But it's more than that isn't it? She's a part of you that's been missing from the beginning. And you're about to find her and be whole. That's pretty big, I say."

"I don't know a lot," he admitted, regarding the place they were in. "This, maybe this'll help some." Digging into his sack he pulled out the map he'd been given, that changed itself in response to his current location. No better time than now to find out if it worked, and he handed it to Vega for a look. "They named these woods after the trees if I remember. Sweetwine. And the vines and fruit on them. Right now I guess it all looks dead but the vine is supposed to resemble snakes, and the fruit when it's in season is supposed to be good to eat."

Except, he told her, it didn't sound like it was worth the trouble. Unless you ingested it at just the right time, in just the right way, it was poisonous or would at least make you sick. Even in season it was tricky to cut and eat without ending up worse than you started. "There's supposed to be a wide, rushing river somewhere in the woods. And a large stony place that looks like steps where honey flows like a fountain over it. Except you can't eat that either because of the bears and the bees."

It seemed to Arlo that there were a lot of can'ts in these woods. And neither him nor Vega liked can'ts very much at all. "I'd heard something about a lion with stars on it's coat though I think the fellow that told me that was drunk. And maybe a family of Stagrein, whatever that is." Meanwhile they'd come to a spit in the path and Arlo paused abruptly enough to annoy Peg, who promptly nipped him on the shoulder. Swatting her away, he glanced at Vega. "Which way then?" he asked, wondering if because her familiar was here somewhere, she'd have some sense of which way to go.

[Vega]

5th Trial of Zi'da during Arc 717

It was them, so Vega had her sword at her hip and her bow across her back. Anything else would be foolish and she tried not to be if at all possible. Especially when it came to them being safe and protected. She looked at him, though, and frowned slightly when he said that it made sense that she was nervous and why. It caused her to stop walking and look at him for a moment, trying to formulate her words. "See, I think I'm doin' it wrong." she realised that it wasn't the first time she'd said that to him about a relationship to-trial, but she gave a slight grin this time. "I mean, when she said she's 'alf of my soul, I told her she's not. I'm only 'alf Sev'ryn an' so she's a quarter at best. An' I don't feel like I'm not whole now. I don't." Should she, she wondered? Was she missing some important feeling about this whole thing. "I can feel 'er, an' I want to find her. But it's not some great epiphany, Arlo." Vega shook her head, trying to make sense of it, then she shrugged and started walking again. "It wasn't 'er that was missin', is all." She said no more on it, but she was clear.

His map, though, that was a wonder to her and Vega looked at him in amazement. "It works. That's awesome." Examining it carefully, she listened to him when he said what he knew about the place. Her head lifted quickly, though, when he said one part of it. "Bears an' bees? She's near the bees, she said so." They weren't close enough to see it on this map, though, which was a shame. She had no idea, she said, in terms of which direction to take if they were looking for the familiar, but Vega was sure, because that was what she was like. "Left."

Left led them down a winding trail, which Vega took slowly, trying to find tracks and other clues. The snow made it difficult but she was a much better huntress than she'd ever been and she stopped, kneeling next to a particularly gnarled and twisted looking bush. "Arlo, look." There, nestled in the darkness between the apparently dead branches was a good sized tuft of black fur. Pulling it out, it looked odd against Vega's skin and she frowned for a moment as she wondered why it seemed strange. Then, she looked up at him and asked, in case she was losing her marbles, "There's strands of it what are glowin', aren't there? Like my blood in my arm?" It wasn't exactly the same but it was a similar sort of effect, and Vega looked a little awestruck at that. "Tell me what that drunk fella said? This 'ad a good layer of snow on it, I'm gonna see if I can clear off this path, find any tracks underneath it." If they were lucky, if there were tracks and if it had been cold enough that the ground wasn't yet muddy, then they might be able to find tracks, she thought, wondering whether he considered that a reasonable deduction.

By the time she finished rummaging in the snow, Vega's cheeks were flushed with cold, but she had a look of victory on her face. "See, look. There." He'd taught her how to hunt, an arc ago now when they'd met and she hadn't ever stopped checking with him if she was right about what she saw. "That looks like..." a loud, almost mournful roar echoed from a distance away and Vega raised an eyebrow. "a lion." Her voice was low, just barely audible although the roaring had come from quite some distance away. "What do you think?"

[Arlo Creede]

"Half your soul, a quarter of it, I think maybe you're picking nits there," Arlo told her with a grin while keeping a close eye on their surroundings. "Maybe it's something that can't really be comprehended until it's found. Until then, who knows?" he suggested. Arlo couldn't begin to relate in a literal sense, not having a drop of Sev'ryn in him. For him, it was truly guessing. "Lyova's different after all. She's a companion, a protector and a guide. A friend," he conceded. "Maybe Jesine even picked her out special for me. But she's not a familiar."

But bears. So he'd heard anyway. Nearby the place where the honey flowed, and apparently dangerous and aggressive towards anyone who came near. Seemed like a big waste of honey though. Arlo wondered if it was worth the risk. He wouldn't mind trying to collect some of it, cook with it, find out what was so special about it. "Maybe that's where the bees are too," he considered. "Or at least nearby."

So left they went, him leading Peg and the cart and it wasn't long before Vega stopped again and plucked up a bit of hair that had probably got there, snagged on a twig from a passing animal of some kind. But it was a strange patch of hair, he had to admit when she handed it to him. Strands that stood out against otherwise black hair, glowing silver. "Maybe there's something to it," Arlo muttered before she'd uncovered the track. "I figured it was just a tall tale. But he said there were lions in the woods here. Constellions he called them. Like ordinary ones but black, and with silver in their fur that looks like the constellations. Glows like them too."

Thinking back, he tried to remember everything that the man had told him. There wasn't much else, he admitted, except that he'd been told that the lions were sometimes used for pack animals if you could get one. That they were friendlier and more playful than ordinary lions. Except when they weren't, and felt threatened or, instead of them, their cubs or territory. He dropped to his heels though when she uncovered the track and one quick later, he shrugged. "That's a big cat track." And a half trill later, listening, he answered her. "and maybe that fellow wasn't making it up. Sounds like a lion to me."

It was some distance away though and definitely not around the next corner. Nevertheless, as soon as he straightened up, Peg startled, jostling around nervously with nostril's flared. She'd sensed or smelled something, Arlo knew, and as soon as he began to wonder, they could hear a hissing, snarling sound up ahead of them...maybe a good stone's throw away. And then suddenly through the brush sprang a pair of deer. Not the ordinary kind either but with fangs and glowing red eyes. Something familiar about those, except the ones they'd been before had been white. "Oh-deer," Arlo muttered while pushing Peg aside and reaching for his bow. Nocking an arrow, he took aim and sent an arrow sailing.

[Vega]

5th Trial of Zi'da during Arc 717

Vega glanced at him, when he said she was picking nits and it probably had to be experienced to be comprehended and who knew. He was distracted, keeping an eye on the area around them and Vega's eyes shot through with a range of colours, sudden and sharp, but she said nothing more than, "yeah, maybe. I guess we'll see." There was confusion in her expression, but she didn't go there. Instead she focused on the bear and bee discussion and she frowned slightly. "Is it, like, actually true that bears like honey?" Vega hadn't been raised on land and had some moderately bizarre stereotypes of what animals did, and didn't, do. "Are they aggressive cos they're protectin' their honey? That's just weird, that is." Her grin to him when she said it was wicked and she shook her head. "They must be boy bears. But if they're protectin' the honey, then the bees must be past or near the bears. So, we've gotta fight bears for honey, an' I'll find my flunny?" She was pleased with the rhyme, close to delighted, there was no hiding it.

Left they went and as they were looking at the hair with the glowing effect as part of it, Vega spoke. "When I said it wasn't her that was missin', I meant it was us that was." Her voice was quiet, but she had a serious expression on her face, determined to make it clear. "An' I don't like feelin' all discombobulated like this," Vega had some wonderful words and never were they more apparent than when she was trying to explain how she felt. "Thing is, when I said that an' you didn't pick up on it or say anythin', my reaction was to jus' thump you on the shoulder an' call you names but I stopped myself cos ... I'd never 'urt you, Arlo, an' yer stupid for thinkin' I would. Like, 'ow awful do you think I am?" Vile, cantankerous and foul of temper, most certainly, but she wasn't denying any of those. However, she charged on with her usual logic, or closest approximation she could manage. As follow ups to 'I'd never hurt you', went, it didn't really resemble logic at all. Namely, "I mean, I'd punch you, an' you know it's just a gesture of affection. An' also, I meant it was you what was missin' an' I feel whole now, an' maybe that didn't get put across, but there." It was about as clear as Vega got, in fairness, and once she'd said it she gave a sudden grin. "Flibbets, but that feels better fer 'avin' said it." She bumped her shoulder against his, more relaxed than she had been since they left their old camp and she got to digging in the snow to find a track which, it transpired was a lion track.

It was a lion and she glanced at Arlo with a grin. "Big glowy lion? Great, what's the..." but then she stopped and frowned as Peg reacted and then Arlo spotted, as did she, the two creatures running towards them. Charging, in fact. Vega pulled her bow and drew an arrow, her movements as quick as they could be whilst still retaining accuracy of them. There was no point, Vega knew, in exchanging accuracy for speed, it was a poor pay-off. So, she moved, albeit just a little slower than him. Arlo's shot, but both of them hit. However, Vega's bounced off the thick hide which acted like armour, whereas Arlo's embedded in the throat of one of them. All it seemed to do was to enrage the creature, however, and the glowing red eyes of one turned to him, and of the other to her.

Vega breathed in and aimed, then breathed out as she released another arrow. This one, also, embedded in the throat of the one charging at him and it fell, but that left the one charging at her and Vega dropped her bow as the distance grew too short and she pulled her blade. If she needed to buy herself time, he'd do that for her she didn't doubt, but she'd rather not so she simply moved as fast as it was possible for her to.

[Arlo Creede]

Vega seemed bothered about something, but Arlo couldn't quite figure out what it was. Maybe her mind was still back at camp where they'd argued, though he knew she wouldn't tell him if it was, if he was to ask anyway. Or maybe he'd again said something foolish without knowing it? He couldn't begin to guess. Still, she'd asked about the bears and honey. "I guess they're defending it. I always sort of figured," he said, "that bears and honey was just a story. Something to make them seem less fierce and scary. But stories usually come from somewhere accurate even if only a little." She was right anyway. Where there was honey, there must be bees nearby. Her rhyme though left him shaking his head, and snorting once. "A regular poet, that's what you are."

But then she'd said what it was that was bothering her. Something that he hadn't heard, or understood maybe. Or responded to before because he hadn't got exactly what she meant. It seemed to be their way. Or maybe his more than his, to miss the things that sometimes went sailing past his head. This was all new, Arlo realized. He'd get the hang of it sooner or later. "I knew that," he'd said, teasing and giving her shoulder a gentle thump. "Us. And you for me, though I guess I'm not very good at saying it," he added honestly.

But he'd never thought she'd deliberately strike out at him with forethought, he explained. Not for a bit when he'd wondered about it earlier. Mostly it had been teasing, as if...if it was done, it would be an impulsive, unthinking thing. Temper flared, he meant. "But I know. Honestly I do Vega. And I hope you know I'd never hurt you. Not ever." But then there were these unnatural beasts they called the oh-deer.

Sometimes, a single shot was enough to kill any given creature. And then? Sometimes those creatures just didn't know it yet. Given time, they'd bleed out and die slowly, which was probably the case with the oh-deer. But in a bit of rage, adrenalin pumping and mid charge, they just kept coming. It took two to bring the one down that was charging him, to convince the creature that it really was finished.

But not the other one that kept coming at Vega. Too close to her for a bow but not to him. She'd dropped her bow and picked up her sword while Arlo took aim again and fired. He'd have gone for that same killing spot, but the already injured creature stumbled on the run and dipped, causing his arrow to go high. What happened then could rightfully be called a very lucky shot, or one well suited to a marksman. His arrow pierced the thing's eye and sunk deep into it's brain. It was another case probably of something not knowing yet that it was dead, since against everything sensible, the deer hisses and snarled in rage and kept struggling towards Vega. Albeit blindly and not exactly at an all out run.

[Vega]

5th Trial of Zi'da during Arc 717

He thumped her, companionably, on the shoulder and Vega grinned at him. She shook her head though, when he said that he wasn't good at saying what he should. "I think we're both a bit crap at sayin' what we should, Arlo, to be 'onest. An' it's all jus' new innit? New boundaries, new ways of bein' together." For both of them, she knew that. However, she also knew that there was another factor here. Or two. "An' I'm sensitive and foul of temper. Not the best combination is it?" When he explained what he'd meant though, Vega's eyes flooded with a sudden, vivid violet. "Really? 'onest to Betty, Arlo, I wouldn't. Not ever. I thought, after seein' what I did to Reese you thought I... " Reese, after all, was her cousin and Vega had pounded on his face pretty badly. It wouldn't be a massive step for Arlo to think that she might hurt him as for as Vega was concerned and the violet colour of relief in her eyes was mirrored in her expression. "I'm glad you know that."

Did she know the same? There was no doubt in Vega's mind, and she said so. She was clear, uncomplicated and very sure. "I know you wouldn't 'urt me, you dweeb." Besides, as she pointed out, he'd pulled her out of more bad dreams than she could count, and charged after her when she pursued the bandits who had attacked him. "You've always been protective, Arlo. Not some quick-to-thump, ask-questions-later crazy person." It was an entirely different thing and she knew that about herself ~ her temper was not a good character trait. She'd have explained more, but there were those infernal oh'deer. The first one died. The second one, though, was charging and then Arlo shot it in the eye. Vega had to admit, as she pulled her sword and saw it running towards her, that it was a damn fine shot. But her eyes widened as she realised that the accursed thing wasn't stopping.

Well, that was just silly and she wasn't having any of that.

It was blind in one eye and running at not full speed and Vega dropped, gracefully, folding her legs underneath her in such a way that she would be able to stand again without changing balance. Her sword swung in an arc, blade parallel to the ground, in front of the Oh'deer's face and beneath the neck of the creature and, as she reached the moment that her sword was in the perfect spot, she stood as she kept her sword straight and cut upwards. The way that she'd been moving the sword already meant that the movement just continued the momentum and the slice cut it. Two things happened, simultaneously, which was that the deer kept going and as the muscles in her arms and legs flexed and she moved, Vega sliced it's head off.

Which didn't help in the short term as it continuing to move took her completely by surprise and she fell to the floor, Oh'deer trampling her. Vega let out a yell of pain at the feeling of it, then the weight of it falling on her, it's body more or less entirely on her right shoulder, arm and abdomen. Wildly she wondered if she'd ever not be bruised. "Ow! Bloody 'ell gerroff" was her cry and she wriggled herself out from underneath it and looked over, immediately, for Arlo. "You a'right? Good shot." With a groan, she hauled herself up and retrieved her sword.

"When'd you get so good?" Vega asked, completely unaware of her own improvement."You not 'urt?" Then, with a grin, she motioned down the dead creature. " 'e got into a panic an' lost 'is 'ead. Come on." Vega started to move over to the two corpses, her body resisting and wanting her to at least pay attention to having been trampled and then laid on by a deer, but she ignored it. "Lets get these two on the cart."

[Arlo Creede]

He and Vega had come across any number of strange creatures as they'd traveled from one place to another. Every settlement and it's surrounding wilds seemed to be able to make claim to something unusual, unnatural. But if he had to rate them, these deer would rank high for being both confounding and unnatural. He could only think that something nefarious had been involved in their creation, them and their cousins, the sno-deer. And they just didn't know when to quit.

Awfully hard to keep going however with an actual head on their shoulders. He'd have thought the shot through the eye might have done it. And it still might have, but only eventually. In the meantime the last surviving deer continued to charge, far too close to Vega now for him to risk loading up his bow and firing again. Arlo would have charged in himself with a blade if she hadn't beat him to it. She was quicker than he remembered her being. More fluid in the way she moved. He saw it coming but was still surprised to see the deer's head come up cleanly and go bouncing away into the underbrush.

There was a sick sort of airy moaning sound as it happened. And then it was on top of her and he bent in to help haul it off. "I'm fine. You alright?" he said, helping to pull her to her feet and making sure she wasn't seriously injured. As for him, he shrugged. Was he going to tell her his shot had been a lucky one, come of happenstance? No, he wasn't. The way Arlo saw it, having once happened by accident, a thing could very well happen again was a little skill and practice applied. He had gotten better over time after all. And it was just a matter of time. "Practice," he said simply and looked at the two corpses.

"You sure you're alright?" he asked again. Assuming she was, then he was all for loading up the two kills and taking them along. They could process them once they'd found a good place to put down camp. "We'll have to drape 'em off the back though," he said as they hauled the two deer and leveraged them up into the back of the cart. Just in case the bodies weren't quite done bleeding out, he'd rather not have it on their belongings. But once they were done, then he'd suggest they got on their way again and focused on finding a place to put down roots for a while.

[Zip]

Overview

I'm gonna be honest: I clicked on what I thought was this thread and ended up doing a review on the sweetwine one where they did their official date >_> So, um, I can see into the future: glad they took the big jump to the first date. Don't hurt da nice oh-deer tho D; it's a cute thread, but then again so are most arlo/vega stuff.

@Vega

Points

XP: 15/15

Loot/Injuries/Overstepping

Bruises to right shoulder, arm.

1 x oh-deer corpse (head comes separately)

Knowledge

Skill Knowledge
Knowledge:
Bladed Combat: (Longsword) Dropping down to strike from below
Bladed Combat: (Longsword) Keep your blade parallel to where you want to strike
Bladed Combat: (Longsword) Graceful, sweeping arc
Bladed Combat: (Longsword) Use blade and body movement for momentum
Bladed Combat: (Longsword) How to put your full strength into a blow
Endurance: Protecting yourself against the cold.
Ranged Combat: Don't sacrifice accuracy for speed
Ranged Combat: Judge distance at which a bow is no longer accurate
Ranged Combat: Aim for vital, unarmoured locations.
Scalvoris Fauna: Oh-deer

@Arlo

Points

XP: 15/15

Loot/Injuries/Overstepping

1 x oh-deer corpse, +1 tuft of constellion fur.

Knowledge

Skill Knowledges:
Endurance: Hunting in the freezing cold.
Hunting: Lion tracks
Navigation: Reading a map that changes to reflect your environment
Ranged Combat (Bow): Using environmental clues to pick direction.
Ranged Combat (Bow): Multiple shots can increase the speed of the kill
Ranged Combat (Bow): If you aim low, a falling creature might still get hit
Ranged Combat (Bow): Maintain your stance after you've released
Ranged Combat (Bow): An accidental shot can still be a breakthrough
Strength: Hauling around carcasses
Scalvoris Fauna: Oh-deer

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