forum Medeis {open}

Started June 19, 2019 by @Reblod flag

tune

You continue on, days turning into weeks. Despite it still being the middle of summer, it's unusually cold and the snow is relentless in the higher altitudes. As your journey nears the end of the second week since your encounter with Moukib, you see a town in the distance. Having spent nearly a month away from civilisation you were unaware of the progress of the war until now. You hear murmurs of attacks on Antaron and Craisio as well as rumours of Yrnan prisoners being used for slave labour.
The town itself is a bustling trading post with stores stocked full of supplies and merchants and travellers alike wandering the streets. Looking north, you can see a road stretching into the Geminat Mountains and beyond into Craisio. You find an inn and a stable for your waybeast.

Clare stabled the way beast, her feet felt heavy along with her eye lids, in a moment of tiered delirium Clare careful untangled the way beast's main “I, adopt you, Damian Bobby Joe, Terrifying Creature of Darkness, the Way-Beast, as my child." It had a nice ring to it she decided. She trudged up the stairs of the inn and collapsed on one of the three beds in the space. "I am never moving ever again." She whispered hoarsely and she pulled the bag off from around her waist, "Hey, are you guy's alive down there?" She said hoarsely into the bag, "I've got us a propped place to stay the night for now, Stock up on supplies before heading out."

Bella didn't have to be told twice. She grabbed supplies and scurried out of the pouch. "Where are we?" The bags under her eyes suggested that she spent many nights awake and restless as she toyed with her shoulder length waves.

"We're…", Clare paused distracted by Bella's toying with her uneven cut of hair, "Bella, we're fixing that right now." She plunged her hand into a pocket in the bag and pulled out a pair of scissors, "I will not be seen in public this close to home with that hair cut, come here."

“Not too short!” Bella’s reply was quick and panicked. not the hair. anything but the hair. Arabella’s hair calmed her but she didn’t know why. She just didn’t know what she would do without it.

Clare sighed, "I'm not going to make it much shorter then it already is, I'm just going to even it out and add some layers so you look presentable." She said rolling her eye's, "I promise it won't go more then an inch shorter."

Bella ran her fingers through her hair protectively and stared at Clare.

Iris emerged from the bag with a faintly amused quirk on her lips. Her lion's mane of tangled hair shadowed every controlled step. Normally fierce silver eyes glanced with concern at the opening, as she called softly for Azriel.

Clare gave up on reasoning with Bella, she walked up behind the girl and gently lowered her hands, "It will even feel better and we can brush it and then you can wash it out and it will be all shinny and beautiful." She raised the scissors to the hair and quietly began snipping at the uneven ends, evening them up and adding dimension, the girl probably wouldn't realize a thing was happening until it was already over.

Azriel carefully exited the bag and leaned against a nearby rock boredly. "Is now really the time for a haircut?" She muttered.

"Shh!" Clare said as she hurriedly finished the cut. "There all done." Clare set fire to the fallen bits of hair and they were incinerated in moments. "All done!" She said butting away the scissors. "Alright now that that's done, I'm going to take a long nap, and non of you get to wake me up, I carried you across the mountains, I need my rest." She collapsed on the bed and was asleep in seconds.

Arabella stood up silently with a look of disgust on her face and sat down on a chair. She looked at Clare and went into her mind. She made the sound of an air horn blast throughout Clare’s head waking her up.

Clare sat up, "You little! That's it I'm done being nice, every one out of my bag, it's mine yep, no more sharing, Get out, I also payed for this room actually so you all can skedaddle out of here, Not once have I gotten a thank you, 'why thank you Clare for caring us through the mountains in the snow, thank you for Sharing your food and water with us Clare,' Seriously is it that hard to say! All I asked for was for you to not wake me up! That's it and you failed, you incompetent dust of the earth!" Her blood shot eye's Glared at Bella, "How dare you!"

Azriel's eyes widened, and she quickly backed up. As it turned out, yelling was much more intimidating when it sounded like a lot of nonsense, ironic as that might have been.

Clare looked over at Azriel's scarred face, "Not you, you're fine, you've done nothing wrong you sweet innocent child." She said sweetly before hardening again to face Bella, "You, you can leave, you've just made the one person in this room who was on your side mad at you, good job!" She said harshly

“Good. That was for taking away the one thing I had left. All for what, your reputation? At least you had one. At least you weren’t known by the few people that had known you as the living breathing science experiment. But I’m glad that my hair getting even shorter helped your reputation.” Bella wiped away a few tears that fell from hollow eyes. “I’ve never needed people on my side anyway. I’ve survived on my own for almost my whole life. What’s a little bit longer. I don’t care if I die anyway.” Bella ran out of the inn and began to run. She hated her life. She hated Clare. Her hair was the one things that comforted her, and now she couldn’t even braid it. She couldn’t twine it around her fingers and pull to relieve the pain of an aching heart. She had nothing. She had nothing left but the comfort of deaths sweet embrace. That was her home.

Clare rolled her eye's, "Drama Queen," She muttered as Bella ran off, "She already couldn't braid it anyway, if it mattered that much to her then why did she chop it off in the first place!" her voice rose in volume with every word. She punched the wall then took deep breaths, when at last she was calm again she collapsed back onto the bed and fell back asleep.

Arabella ran far away from the inn and civilization. She saw a nice tree and curled up under it. She was still in view of the road, but she didn’t care.

Iris's eyes widened to saucers, as her mind raced at miles a minute. Out of instinct, her lips parted to translate what had just occurred before realizing: she didn't know, either. Her vision darted with the attention span of a child, going to the dent in the wall, the door which still hung slightly ajar, and Clare's dormant form slumped in the room. An Eltin curse fell out of her mouth.

Azriel looked around the room, tapping her fingers anxiously, before starting for the door. She should find Bella, she thought. After taking a few.steps, however, she stopped. But why should I find her? She thought confusedly. "Iris, I - we should find her… shouldn't we?" She asked, still confused.

"I'll check the room next to ours, you check the vents of this place," Iris deadpanned. Arabella could be anywhere. "Are we just leaving Clare like this?" The elf worried a lip uncertainly, still processing the earlier events.

Azriel thought for a moment. "I think she can take care of herself," she decided, looking around for a vent. She found one in the corner of the room, and peeked inside.

The elf clamped down on her mouth with a hand, stifling a laugh at Azriel’s antics. Taking a breath, she said, “Alright. C’mon, let’s search outside. She ran out the room, and I don’t think she’s too eager to return.” Not giving her angel a chance to reply, Iris reached out and grasped Azriel’s hand, proceeding to lightly tug the girl in the direction of the door.

Azriel raised an eyebrow. "But I thought - " she shrugged. "Aright." She followed Iris, looking back into the room several times.