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[Ti'niva]

29th Cylus, Arc 717

His bow was already strung as he walked through the forest, each step careful so he did not slip on the icy ground. The twilight was coming to an end, Cylus would soon be over and the hunting would again come easier with the addition of sun light. You don't realise how essential sun is until it is gone and you are fumbling your way through a dark forest, something Ti had done many times, both just in standard nights and Cylus.

Today, however, he was not alone, not like he had so often been in the past two arcs. Instead he was accompanied not only by his most wonderful familiar, Áine. There was also Ti's new friend and camp friend Arlo, a man Ti knew little about but appeared to know the basics of hunting at least. Hunting was a valuable skill and he was sure that was why the adventurer had learnt the skill. he had no doubt it would help him survive in the future.

'Ti'niva, why are you bringing this man along with you, you should have brought the girl she is nice.' Of course Áine's thoughts were just innocent and he understood that, she like Vega but of course she also liked Arlo she just wasn't quite as open about it. 'I prefer the girl.' Ti shook his head as he acknowledged her speech, an odd looking thing to anyone around for him to nod at nothing.

"So Arlo, you come from where?" He was unsure if he had been told but there was no harm in asking again. Arlo seemed nice enough from their brief encounters around the camp, Ti had no reason to doubt that the boy was kind and pleasant. Ti was always quick to trust those who gave him no reason to think otherwise.

[Arlo Creede]

The constant dark of Cylus was growing tiresome. It was almost a novelty at first, or so Arlo thought. But after a dozen trials or so it began to work on the mood and the outlook. The young man had been quick then to accept an invitation to go along on the hunt. There was nothing to restore his spirits like wandering through the forest. With a purpose in mind or even without one.

Of course hunting, fishing, he found both of them better, more promising early morning at sunrise, or in the very early evening when the sunlight had just begun to fade. But in Cylus there was no difference. Of course none of it seemed to bother Lyova. Hardly anything seemed to bother his little fairy companion and defender. Almost always cheery and enthusiastic, she seemed eager to go off on an outing, as if hunting was a grand adventure of some sort.

She hummed a bright blue in the dark that only Arlo could see, as she skipped on the breeze ahead of them, and sometimes came swirling round the brim of Arlo's hat, or even past Ti'niva's ears.

She kept up an almost endless string of chatter that only he could hear. "Where are we going? Do you think we'll find a bear?" Arlo only grinned in response, and when Ti'niva asked where he'd come from, he mentally shushed Lyova and adjusted his knapsack on his shoulder while keeping his bow in hand. "Outside of Rharne," he said.

"My parents own a small farm there. My stepfather raises sheep and a few cows. My mother tends to her hens. That's where I grew up. It was alright," he explained. "But I never had a head for farming or a liking either. I left there just over an arc ago after I turned sixteen."

He was a follower of Cassion, Arlo went on to say. And Jesine. "I think I've never wanted anything else but to explore, see something besides barns and fields." He'd be a poor follower of Cassion, he guessed, had he been content to plant his feet on the farm, just like his parents. "Most of the time I've been on my own. At least until Lyova came along. What about you? I know Desnind's your home. But have you ever wanted to see other places, just let your feet take you where they will?" he wondered.

[Ti'niva]

Rharne, Ti had never heard of the place before and it must have been some distant far off land. He wondered why it was named the way it was, and who had named it. He was not much of an adventurer but he did of course hold an interest in the world around him, he couldn't only care about Desnind. "Who make city Rharne? I never hear this place before." He looked curiously at Arlo wondering how much the traveller new about his home, he assumed a lot.

He had been alone for a long time too before he found Áine, two Arcs completely alone but before that it had just been his father and even then he had felt alone. For a long time he liked the solitude but recently he had been beginning to find it too much. One of the reasons he was glad to have had company through Cylus from Vega and Arlo. "I alone too before I find Áine. She make me never alone always someone." He smiled as he reached down and petted the invisible panther that walked ever so gracefully beside him. "Who be Lyova, or what?" He had heard mention of her before he was sure but didn't know completely who or what it was.

"I follow my feet and dream once, I meet only pain and suffer." His eyes glazed over for a second as tears threatened to breach his eye lids. The memory of the war he had fought in was something that he hated, something that still haunted him in his dreams. "So my interest in travel no much, I like my home, this place safe and I understand. Rest of world no like me or Desnind, they hard and I know get it." He admitted to Arlo his lack of interest in travel, he was content with his forest home for sure.

"What make you want travel, what give you need go search for new place and thing?" He examined the floor searching for some tracks but in the faint light of Cylus it would be difficult even for the master hunter. He had to lower himself to see better bringing himself closer to the ground. Normally he would not do this as it restricted the chance at spotting tracks but in Cylus it was the only way he could definitely find something big or small. Standing higher would mean he missed more things.

[Arlo Creede]

Rharne, Ti'niva asked? "The city was founded by the Immortal Ilaren, built on a mountain overlooking a lake. Her domain's spirits...The drinking sort, I mean, not the ghosts," Arlo added with a grin. "Merriment, that sort of thing. A lot of people there worship her, and there are lots of celebrations, festivals. There's an order of knights, priestesses. Course, my family's farm was on lower ground, but we visited the city on occasion. Mostly to trade or purchase supplies."

Anyone else might have thought it strange, a man reaching out to stroke the coat of a creature that didn't appear to be there at all. Arlo knew better, of course, and while he didn't speak aloud to Lyova as often as he once had, sometimes when it was just the two of them, he still did. "Lyova is a fairy, I guess," he explained. "But not the kind most people think of. No wings. I guess she's about the size of a large egg, and shaped a little like a teardrop with a long tapered end. She's a transparent blue that seems to change with her moods, and she's got enormous eyes. She doesn't so much fly through the air as she swims."

She was never seen by anyone but him, Arlo went on to explain. Or heard either, except in dreams when she wanted to be seen and heard. "She can be a bit of mischief now and again," the young man added, a trace of laughter in his voice. "But she always means well." Arlo liked the other man. Considered him a friend although they were very different. And clearly they'd had very different experiences when it came to venturing far from home.

"I think I must have been born wanting to wander. My stepfather always said I must have take after my father, who I've never met. Maybe," Arlo admitted. "Or maybe I was just born to follow Cassion. It might be, that it's where the want and the need comes from. I've just never known any different is all. It's not all warfare and misery out there," he added, thinking that one bad experience must have been awful indeed to leave such an impression. "I like Desnind though. It's quieter than some places I've been. But the people here have been helpful, welcoming to me."

Then crouching down on the trail near Ti'niva, he studied the ground where the snowfall was softer rather than packed. There'd been a break with no rain or snow. Long enough at least to avoid washing any more recent tracks away. "Looks like a deer has passed this way recently. A couple of them. Or, maybe not a deer exactly," he concluded after a moment. He'd spotted a glimpse of a deer like creature before during one of outings. But something smaller, more delicate. One of the locals had called it..."What was it?" Arlo wondered and then remembered. "Icraphern, that's what it was. It appears to have gone off in that direction," he added, gesturing to a narrower path that split off from the one they were on.

[Ti'niva]

Rharne sounded like an interesting place, one that he had never heard anything like before. A mountain city that is beside a lake, as well as an immortal creator, Ilaren, who is the immortal of drinking alcohol by the sound of things. Lots of celebrations, festivals and also an order of knights and priestesses. It certainly sounded more exciting than little old Desnind, a place that had those things but he doubted it was ever like the City that Arlo had come from.

Lyova was certianly interesting to Ti as he had not realised there were other invisible companions in the world besides the Sev'ryn familiars. This 'Fairy' as Arlo ahd called it sounded quite odd, especially as he explained it to be a sort of floating, glowing blob. He couldn't decide whether a floating glowing blob was better or worse than a stunning panther, he concluded that the panther was better. Although, a glowing blob did sound rather entertaining. 'Hey I am entertaining too, and I am no little colourful blob but I am helpful and wild like you.' She purred loudly even if she was barring her teeth a little at the idea of being replaced by a fairy.

He was glad to hear that Arlo liked Desnind, and he was also curious about the idea of being born a wanderer though. How does a person be born knowing they want to travel and see the world, it just doesn't seem right. Mabe Ti felt that way because he had never felt it, the urge to travel had never struck him and instead he had found his home to be in Desnind and the vast forests of the Lakubwa Lori. "Us Sev'ryn good friend, we never bad new people, we kind souls most." He smiled at the man showing his true belief in the goodness of his race.

He examined the tracks and agreed with his friend, they were smaller than a Normal deer and he would agree with the assumption that it had been caused by an Icraphern. The creatures were lovely, small and fragile and also some of their parts were useful and worth a lot. Even if money was useless to him it would not be the case for Arlo, he probably needed money to get to wherever he would travel next.

"Where do you go from here, what next place travel?" He was curiosu now as he carefully followed the tracks lowering his voice a little jut in case the Icraphern was nearby. He traced the tracks with great interest in the darkness straining with his eyes to follow them.

[Arlo Creede]

Somewhere along the way, Lyova had settled in the scooped brim of Arlo's hat, as the two men walked along through the forest. As fierce a protector as she was, often her demeanor was more childlike, playful, and she was forever brimming over with curiosity. "No one can see me but you Arlo, and no one can see Ti'niva's friend except him. We've got something in common. It would be nice if we could see and talk with each other. Why couldn't we"

That was a question the young man couldn't begin to answer, and he told her so through their connection, mind to mind and spirit to spirit. He guessed it was the business of the Immortals and Mortalborns. Or at least Jesine, and wasn't for them to question. She seemed disappointed. But he figured if anyone was in the position to ask Jesine that question, it was her and not him.

"Desnind is quieter than where I can from," Arlo admitted when Ti'niva talked about his home. "But that's not a bad thing. I was made to feel welcome straight away and never had any problems getting on with the locals." Then again, he'd been as polite and as respectful of their ways and traditions as it was possible for him to be, and they'd seemed to appreciate it.

Once they decided that the tracks must belong to an Icraphem, Arlo was torn just a little. They were a wonder after all and though he hunted regularly, there were times he didn't particularly like the necessity of it. But the Sev'ryn did hunt them as far as he he knew. The hide alone would be something of a prize. "I'm told the meat is a delicacy. Is that so?" he asked quietly while studying the tracks as they went.

And meanwhile, he nocked an arrow in his bow to have it ready just in case. "Vega asked me that too," he said when asked where he'd go. "I follow Cassion, and for him it's more the journey than the destination, so I tend not to plan much. I told her though," Arlo added with a grin, a shrug. "I'll probably let my book of maps fall open, have a look where it lands, and consider that location a very strong contender." Pausing then, he stopped and pointed ahead at a thick copse of bushes. There was movement there but he couldn't quite tell what it was.

[Ti'niva]

"It right, the meat good, tender and full taste." He smiled as he thought of eating it as a child, his father had hunted them often and he had killed them as a child too. They were some of the smaller creatures he hunted before he was old enough to take on the larger creatures. "I eat as child, less when I grown but it good every time I eat." He continued to follow the tracks of the creature, they were small and it was definitely an Icraphern and not a deer. There was no doubt in Ti's mind about that as he followed its small prints.

'What has he got on his head?' Áine said observantly as she cocked her panther head and looked up at the humans head. Ti'niva had seen a few people wearing such things on his travels from Ne'haer, yet, it was not something he commonly saw around Desnind. 'I don't know.' He projected his thoughts to his familiar as he examined the thing himself. It was not something his own race would customarily wear, maybe it was only humans that had such things.

He was quickly brought back from his curiosity by the speaking of hoe he chose where to go. It seemed crazy to Ti to jsut drop a book and then go wherever it opened. Then again he was no adventurer, no traveller who loved the open road and exploring far and wide. He loved Desnind and the Makubwa Lori so he had little reason to want to travel off to distant lands like Arlo did, especially not after what happened last time. But still, one question did pop into his head as the human explained his method. "What if book show where you are now, or where you be before?" He looked at him curiously.

His attention was quickly averted from the man though when he turned to face the where he was pointing. He saw it too, the bushes moving and some flashes of something else and then finally he saw the head of an Icraphern pop up. Its long neck along with its single antler visible above the bushes, signature of there species. "I see." He whispered barely audible by Arlo as he prepared his bow, drawing an arrow quietly and knocking it on the string.

"I allowed?" He checked with Arlo that he did not mind him taking the shot, he was the more experienced of the two after all. Then again maybe that was a good reason for Arlo to take the shot, he was sure he could hit it if Arlo missed. "You take shot." Ti said as he lowered his bow and looked at the traveller and smiled calmly.

[Arlo Creede]

So he'd heard right. The meat taken from Icraphem was more than a decent meal, but an exceptional one, at least to hear Ti'niva tell it. But Arlo was admittedly interested in more than just what could be taken and eaten. "I've heard the pelt is quite a prize too." Unique, a marvel to look at that was. Nice to have, if they could get it.

If the young man had been aware of inner dialogue passing between his Sev'ryn friend and his familiar, he'd have grinned a little. But he'd also have pointed out that while the wearing of hats was fairly common among humans, this particular hat was an exceptional one. Very well traveled, at any rate.

Arlo grinned and laughed though when Ti'niva brought up a flaw in his method of choosing, where next? He had a good point. "I let it fall open again, and hope it chooses better next time," he admitted. He hadn't said it was a perfect system after all, had he? But it wasn't the being in a new place anyway, so much as it was the getting there, and anything that might happen in between. Those were the things that mattered.

But then all went quiet when they finally caught sight of their pray. When Ti'niva asked, Arlo nodded. Of course it was fine if he took the first shot. And maybe the only one. But then there seemed to be a change of thinking when he was offered the chance to shoot first after all. Considering it, Arlo nodded and nocked his bow, raised it to take aim, breathed in, out then released his arrow.

He knew what to target, but the slightest movement of his prey could cause that sweet spot to shift. And as of yet, he wasn't a good enough marksman to adjust that quickly. So his arrow struck, but was not the quick killing shot he'd hoped for, and in a split trill the wounded creature would bolt. Presumably Ti'niva already had his bow at the ready, and would take the shot that would end things quickly, rather than having the thing bolt away into the forest, lose himself and die slowly.