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The Sandbox => Borderlands => Topic started by: Random the Navigator on April 02, 2018, 03:45:58 AM

Title: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 02, 2018, 03:45:58 AM

[OOC:]

We're transferring play of Borderlands to this Board.  For the most part, I was going to summarise past events, but also upload the first chapter file (there are only two) so that anyone who wanted to would be able to read the first gameday of the story as it was written.  But it occurred to us that some things in both chapters - ideas and events critical to the story - might be better off posted verbatim.  I'd hate to leave the memory of these things behind on our other forum!

Sooo...I'll post critical Enya material, as Kiye will for Rowellan and Bjorn.  There will be a proper intro soonish, but in the meantime I'm collecting Enya's VIPs (Very Important Posts) here.

[Update: Intro written; Chapter 1 attached.]


  *~*~*~*

The Setting: A remote corner of the Realm of Midgard.  (Map: The Midgard Borderlands (http://avatar-tails.societasviaromana.net/forum/gallery/1_22_02_18_5_23_41.jpeg))  There are three such Realms in the known world (well, as much of it as was known until Enya showed up): Midgard, land of the conquering, seafaring Norsefolk; Albion, where knights and castles hold sway; and Hibernia, land of the mystical Celts.  Each Realm is suffused with its People's mythos and magic.  And each Realm possesses one or more sacred Relics given to its People directly by their gods.

These Relics are the subject of seeming centuries of strife.  Kept in the most formidable and well-guarded strongholds, located in the most forbidding landscapes, they are yet vulnerable to being carried off by fighters of the other Realms.  No Realm seems to be content with its own blessings; each believes that its gods will smile upon it even more brightly if it usurps the divine power of another Realm as well.  If the Norse Gods won't bless Albion, well, at least They won't be blessing the Norse while Albion holds Their artifacts captive either...

And so it goes, year after year, the raids of every Realm upon every other to either claim that culture's Relics or reclaim their own.  The raiders, sparing themselves any long marches or sea-voyages, make use of magical portals planted secretly on the outskirts of the Realm being invaded, and these portals are almost as hard to get into as the Relic Keeps.  And the only thing between the raid portals ("Outposts") and the Relic Keeps are the fortifications of the Borderlands, their inhospitable terrain, and the people who man them with might and magic.

Rowellan Stormsverd is one such defender.  An accomplished archer and huntress, she patrols the Midgard Borderlands in search of anything unusual, anything--or anyone--that has no business being there.  Border guards don't like "unusual".  And on this particular sunny yet frigid morning, she has spotted someone quite unusual indeed approaching the Midgard side of the Wall...

The Characters (click names for images):

• Rowellan Stormsverd (http://avatar-tails.societasviaromana.net/forum/gallery/1_22_02_18_5_22_29.jpeg), Norse huntress
• Enya (http://avatar-tails.societasviaromana.net/forum/gallery/1_22_02_18_5_21_41.png), Seafolk wanderer and some sort of beastmaster...they think...
• Bjorn Silverhand (http://avatar-tails.societasviaromana.net/forum/gallery/2_26_03_18_11_04_13.jpeg), Norse Skald...

...and others (http://avatar-tails.societasviaromana.net/forum/gallery/1_22_02_18_5_24_23.png) we've yet to meet.

[IC:]

[Enya, having somehow avoided being skewered long enough to start up a conversation with Rowellan, introduces her companions:]

...she tossed the sphere overhand in a huge arc, at the end of which it seemed to explode or evaporate...and standing where it had last been seen was a huge owl, hooded like a falcon, only that the hood was open-faced and could be drawn closed by its tassels.  The hood was green, the rest of the bird soft brown above and white below, and the way it held its wings shut made them look like a cape going all the way down to its ankles...

...Meanwhile, the sphere which had contained the owl had somehow ended up back in Enya's hand.

"Is Tayu," Enya said, smiling.  "Think you gonna like him the best..."

 [snip]

But she did need [the rest of her team], and she had them, so she showed them.  It didn't actually take a rocket-launcher to get them out of their containers; a soft underhand toss, like a toddler's, was just as effective, as was simply holding the ball and pressing the latch.  Thus did she release a huge dog, big enough to ride, Nordic in form but auburn with tiger-stripes, whose mane and tail flowed like wind-driven fire; a truly gargantuan mud-colored warhorse, who only needed four more legs to be worthy of Odin; a crested silver gryphon; a brass-colored fox of no unusual size, but whose pelt bristled with static until Enya smoothed it again...and from the last orb, the one with the Rock symbol on it, came a disarmingly cute little puppy, all wriggles and kisses and half-tipped ears and big, fluffy plume-tail...but who yet had pebbles of some dark stone embedded in its ruff.

"Is Pepper...  Is Kilvanä...  Is Auryn...  Is 'Iheyu...  Is Wuffels," said Enya proudly, announcing them in order.

  -:-  -:-  -:-


[Enya explains her "Soul-friends" and her religious beliefs...not incidentally shedding light on how Pokémon could work in a fantasy setting:]

"And now," Enya said more seriously, "since have seen much questions in your eyes, I 'splain to you 'bout my Soul-friends.

"My People do believe that 'All are One'--that there be no difference between us, animals, plants, Land and Sea; that all be just forms of Mother-god, and She be all of them at once.  'f you believe that, you know that all have Spirit, and all share same Spirit--is Spirit of Mother-god.  So...do it matter what form She takes?  Do it matter what form we take?  Is all same-same to Her and to me and to my People; we can be Wolf as easy as Forest.  But She made us *us*, from same stuff as Wolf and Forest, so all have Wolf and Forest in them.  And ones like me, we have Wolf and Forest outside too...

"Tayu be my sharpness, my Seeing, my flight.

"Pepper be my fierceness, my fangs, my Fire.

"Kilvanä be my strength, my caring, my holding-steady.

"'Iheyu be my spark, my force, what I put in the world when I feel thundery inside.

"Auryn...ah, Auryn!  He be anything I need him to be, all of me that not be in Tayu or Pepper or Kilvanä or 'Iheyu or even in me, 'cause Spirit be much bigger than Body.

"And Wuffels, she here to remind me that is okay to still be little and sweet."

(http://avatar-tails.societasviaromana.net/forum/gallery/1_16_03_18_1_14_45.png)

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 02, 2018, 12:02:04 PM

"And that's something she's good at," Rowellan smiled, rubbing the pup's ears as she had done with her wolf companion when he had been a cub himself.  "She's adorable - and more!"  She could feel something to Wuffels that wasn't quite the same as an ordinary pup.

Then she frowned, trying to wrap her mind around what Enya had just explained.  Some of it was completely alien - for example the idea of one single mother god; other things sounded familiar.  "We don't have just one god," she explained, "but a whole family of them."  She gave a half-grin.  "Sometimes a rather dysfunctional family, to be honest.  Everyone here deeply respects them, but that doesn't mean we're blind to all the little squabbles and family feuds they're fighting now and then.  Most of us choose one god or goddess we follow along on our journey in life, one we pray to, one that protects us and gives us their strength.  For me that's Skadi - She's got a special place in Her heart for those of us who run in the wild, the archers, the trackers."  She smirked.  "I wonder what She'd make out of Tayu..."

She got serious again.  "But I know what you mean - the gods are around us, everywhere, in the land, in the sky, in the wind that blows, the falling of the snow, the lights in the sky at night, the rolling thunder.  And we all are their children."  She smiled.  "Maybe I get the chance to introduce you to Venn one day - he doesn't like this place here, too many people.  He's a wolf that runs with me now and then when I'm out on patrol - he's not part of me, but when we're out together we share...*something*.  We understand each other."

Again she eyed Enya's group of unbelievable animal Soul-Friends.  "But I think for you it goes deeper, doesn't it?"

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 02, 2018, 12:24:45 PM

"'What She make of Tayu'?" Enya grinned.  "Prob'ly just what he is: very good at shooting stuff with feathers!"

But at Rowellan's deeper question she grew solemn again.  "Soul-friends and I have seen much, done much," she said quietly.  "Maybe too much for little-kid like me...  Couple years ago, my People did see holes in sky, and grownups not could fix them, so they sent me to close them.  Little-kids with strong Soul-friends, we fix a lotta stuff that grownups can't.  Me, I hadda go through holes to find out what make them.  Did see much beauty, but much scary stuff too.  And monsters...much monsters on other side of that hole, and some fell out onto our side.  But you know what? --They as scared to have holes in their sky as we were to have holes in ours!  They not hurt nobody 'cept 'cause they scared and trying to get back home.  I got strong Soul-friends; do know how it is, animal be scared and not know what be going on; is not his fault.  These ones scared like crazy, lash out at Mother-god's helpers, the Tapu--Tapu be like small gods; got one for each Island--and Tapu not could send monsters home either, and got hurt trying.  So...me and Soul-friends did go through hole, see what was like; then did come back and fight and catch monsters that fell through, and take them home.  Could do this because now did smell like their side of hole, like home.  Because I do this thing, because I help them 'stead of being scared, my home and theirs be always safe from each other now..."

Her epic having been told, she bit her lip, and for the first time all morning she looked her age, as lost and confused as she must have felt back then, and maybe a little haunted too.  It had been a grand adventure, but she hadn't made it home without scars, or a set of memories that she was still trying to assimilate in her spare time.  "But is a lot to ask from little-kid, no?  Go through monster-holes and save small gods?" she ended, her voice wee-small.

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 02, 2018, 12:31:51 PM

Rowellan's trained senses noticed the sudden change in Enya's voice, the lost and forlorn look in her eyes.  Whatever had been asked from the girl, it had been too much and it had left traces and scars.  It was the first moment that Rowellan completely realized that Enya indeed *was* still a young kid.  It was easy to think otherwise, with Enya being that tall, out on her own that far away from her home, with a really impressive collection of Soul-Friends travelling with her.  But if one looked closer it was clear to see that she was still very young, probably somewhere between ten and twelve Summers.

Of course Rowellan knew that early childhood wasn't a safe protected time. Midgard was a rough land and she, like all the other kids in the village, had to learn from an early age how to defend themselves. But that had always been with the adults around - nobody would have expected a child to do a grown-up's work. If a problem was too big to be solved by an adult, the last thing anyone would have done was call a kid to fix it. At Enya's age she herself had seriously started her training - closely guarded by her father, who made sure that she didn't face anything she couldn't handle and near if things would have gotten out of hand.

"Holes in the sky", with monsters coming through... was that so different from the way the Borderkeeps kept spawning enemy troops? Only that of course those enemy troops wanted to come here. But whatever the motivation of the intruders,  it was something the whole realm dealt with - leaving it all on a child's shoulders sounded more than wrong in the huntress' ears.

Not sure how the stranger thought about physical contact, as this could be so different between the races and cultures - Kobolds hugged all the time while Trolls liked to keep their distance - she cautiously put a hand on the girl's arm, wanting to give comfort somehow.  "No," she said quietly, "this shouldn't have been asked from a child.  It's way too much, I think.  And you and your friends were more than brave to face it all."  She shook her head.  "Saving small gods?  That's a lot to ask for even grown-ups...a whole group of grown-ups."  Actually right now she didn't think much of those 'small gods' if they had to rely on kids saving their sorry asses.

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 02, 2018, 12:44:52 PM

[Enya: Hug accepted.]

She backed off, then just leaned against the wall watching her companions explore this frigid place.  She giggled at the way the snow melted everywhere Pepper walked, and the way Tayu was being so particular about finding a tree-perch, and the way Wuffels kept tripping Auryn up by gamboling around the wingless Gryphon's taloned forefeet.  Oh, how he danced, trying hard not to step on her!  'Iheyu, the golden fox, slipped off in search of rodents to pounce on.  Only Kilvanä remained where she was, snuffling Enya's beltpouch before lipping up a wisp of her hair.  "Ahh, you big silly!!" Enya squawked; then, to Rowellan, she explained: "Is 'cause she want honey! --Kilvanä, where you think I gonna find honey out here??  Is too cold for flowers!"...whereupon the huge equine decided that the rest of the apple Enya held would do.

Finally, after losing herself in the animals' antics for a while, Enya turned back to the huntress.  "Maybe should 'splain 'bout how things go with kids and Soul-friends," she began.  "Grownups back home, and most places where have said anything to me at all, they know kids--'specially little-kids--got something special they lose as they grow up.  Is that special thing that lets us have Soul-friends.  Maybe 'cause world be simpler for us, or kinder; grownups, they got much worries, even worries for us.  Sometimes do see a grownup with a Soul-friend, but is always one he got as a little-kid.  Soul-friends only come to us while our souls not yet be filled with worries.

"So 'f you need something done that only Soul-friends can do, you gotta ask a kid who has them.  If child be strong, asking be large.  Is huge honor, be asked to do something big.  And they ask me to do the biggest because me and my Soul-friends be the strongest.  Yes, strongest in all the land back home!  Be a long time 'fore they quit talking 'bout Strong Enya.  Gonna be much tale-speaking 'bout her.  Gonna be many people will want to test their strength 'gainst hers.  Think they gonna have to sort that out themselves, since right after I beat ev'rybody I did disappear; I not feel like fighting children after fighting things that hurt the Tapu.  Is no fun, when you that strong and nobody want to challenge you and is nothing new to see if they did.  Hadda go away from all that...

"But do miss when fighting was fun.  When Soul-friends first come, they wee-small like us; Tayu got all he could do to chirp loud enough to scare somebody.  Was no shooting feather-arrows for him back then!  But we have contests with other kids; do call them fights, but is not really, is just to see whose Soul-friends be strongest.  If Tali's Soul-friends beat mine, ya, we both have fun, and my Soul-friends learn something, and his learn something else, and bond between us and our Soul-friends grow stronger, which makes us and them stronger too.  So to say 'Enya be strong' is to say 'Enya and her Soul-friends, they same-same as each other; move and breathe and fight as one; all one thing, and what happens to any of them happens to all.  I not worried 'bout 'Iheyu wandering off.  'f I need her, she be here fast as lightning and strong as thunder."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 02, 2018, 12:55:44 PM

[Rowellan listening to Enya's explanations about children, their Soul-Friends and the tasks assigned to them.]

"We had that kind of competitions too when I was a child," she started hesitantly. "Just not with Soul-Friends... but we wanted to find out who's the fastest runner or can climb a tree best. Or shoot best with a bow or fight with a sword. Or who's the best in finding tracks - or in hiding. We did it all the day when we were playing, for fun and for learning from each other." She smiled. "How should the son or daughter of a smith ever find out they're much better in carving wood if they never can try it in a game? And when we grew up and each of us figured out what we were good in, we found out what way in life we want to go - and sooner or later we got tasks to do too, not just for play, but real ones. Hunt for a village feast, make the nails or the logs for a new hut - that kind of thing." She sighed. "Sometimes I miss those days too. When missing a track only meant that we'd eat veggie stew for dinner, without rabbit in it. Or that Sven would rub it in for days, that I again hadn't found him..."

For a moment she was silent, watching the Soul-Friends' antics too, chuckling about Auryn's tries not to step on Wuffels. "And I miss the times when my soul was like that too," she whispered, thinking of all the things she had seen in the years that had passed since those innocent days. "Yes, whatever the differences between your home and mine, that's the same: We lose something when we grow up."

She mulled over the way how Enya's strength was connected to that of her Soul-Friends. That vaguely reminded her of something but she couldn't put her finger on it. Anyway she hoped that Enya's friends would stay around once the girl grew up. Somehow the bond between Enya and her companions seemed too strong to get lost over the years.

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 02, 2018, 01:15:21 PM

[What happened between the Wall and the Hall:]

 - Tayu chooses a tree near the Wall to settle in; while a seemingly trivial matter and no business but his, Enya explains what he's actually looking for:

Quote

"Back home, we got this *huuuuge* Tree.  Is Tree of Mother-god, and is where we go to pray.  But 'All be One', 'member? --So voice of Mother-god Tree is heard many, many places where Mother-god never been at all, or Tapu either.  Tayu can tell if this tree knows that one; if so, place where it stands be home to me."

Rowellan then wonders if Enya's Mother-tree might be Yggdrasil, the Norse Tree of the Worlds; probably not, they conclude, but she offers to take Enya to Yggdrasil Forest, which, while not home to the World Tree, was at least named after it.

 - Rowellan introduces Enya to two of her companions on the Wall: Marble, a Troll Shaman who takes quite a fancy to little Wuffels; and Sammet, a playful and mischievous Kobold thief, to whom Enya takes quite a fancy herself.

 - On the subject of Shamans, Enya has this to say:

Quote

"Did meet a few on way here.  They much like Tapus' Kahunas, yes... Is many Islands, and each one got a Tapu who watch over that Island, and each Tapu got a Kahuna who speak to it for my People.  Do wish to be a Kahuna someday.  Is part of why I train so hard with Soul-friends, to show I be strong enough to help protect my Island; and wandering far and coming to places like this does teach me more 'bout world beyond Islands, on this side of Sea, which I think maybe Tapu wanna know 'bout that too.  Shall come to them with gifts of strength and knowledge and wisdom and very strong Soul-friends.  After that, all I gotta do is win fights with every other Kahuna--and have beaten four already!!"

...which explains a lot about why she came to Midgard.

 - Rowellan decides to take Enya along on her patrol, for which Enya is grateful - if nothing else, because staying in motion will keep her from freezing her patuti (hindquarters) off!  But seeing that Enya is going to need a little help in surviving the experience, she lends the Seafolk girl her cloak, which is edged with runes to keep the wind out from underneath it.

 - Their destination for the night: Nottmoor Faste, the nearest actual Keep in the area.  Enya asks if she counts as a border guard.  Hmm, not really; but Rowellan assures her that anyone who's willing to risk their neck out here for the Cause will be treated like one.  Enya, you see, would very much like to be issued a guardsman's cloak of her own...not to mention to be somewhere warm, chow down on something substantial, and give her Soul-friends the chance to do the same!

 - On the way to the Faste, Rowellan describes the more southern parts of the Borderlands, which they will be scouting in the morning.  Two particular delights await the pair in Yggdra Forest: a lake that never freezes, and the Frostfoals that come there to play.  Powered on by the thought of somewhere in this Realm that might be even marginally warmer, Enya picks up the pace...

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 02, 2018, 01:33:48 PM

[The pair reach the Faste, where Enya quite unexpectedly finds something she has in common with a Dwarven guard at the gate:]

"You like my beard beads?" Haverg asked, literally beaming.  If Enya would have wanted to make friends with the Dwarven guard, she couldn't have found something better than her innocent question.  "See, for our people our beards are very important - no shaving knife has ever touched my face.  Instead we care for them, braid them, decorate them - they show our lives, you know?  Each of 'em has their own story."  He pointed at one copper bead that was almost polished by now but must once have had an intricate decoration.  "This is my first one, given to me by my father when my beard was first long enough to be braided. It was a loooong celebration and the first time I actually got that 'Thor's hammer hit me' head the day after.  This one..." this time it was a greenish carved stone, "was a present from my sister when I got accepted into the army.  And this one comes from Myrun, my wife..."  He pointed at an amber bead that decorated a braided strand close to his heart.

There was no missing the Dwarf's smile when Enya complimented him on his beard decorations, and she was touched at the stories behind them.  That, at least, was so much like home...  "I tell you a secret?" she asked him, then went ahead anyway.  "Is not really a secret, but is more fun to pretend it is...  Seafolk put stories in beads too.  Sometimes in hair or on ears, yes!  But usually in story-strings.  Here; this one be mine, and do add to it when something new happen..."  She fetched a fivefold strand of shells, pearls, bits of local stones and sea-glass out of her ample belt-pouch.  "Start out at home, with stones and shells from home...  This one, this one, this one for first three spirit-animals; do now have six..."  (She didn't say that she was wearing them.)  "Here, from sea; here, from islands I pass in long boat; here, from woods and plains and smoking mountains and spaces between stars...and here, the newest, from this land.  String ties stories together, and stories tie me to every land.  Tapu gonna like that..."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 02, 2018, 01:38:01 PM

[Enya recalls her first Pokémon battle:]

-:-

A warm day, a breezy day.  A small but sacred village; the village where the Kahuna lived.  Enya, three years younger, standing on a low wooden platform behind a little owlet who was already ruffling and muttering to himself, whether about having just been released or having been confined to begin with, only he knew.

A friend standing across from her, about to toss his own companion's sphere.  There it went; a sea-lion pup burst out and stood up on its hind-flippers in a 'Ta-daa!' pose before dropping to all fours.

Enya's smile, as she knew already that she had an edge.  Tayu, Grass.  The sea-lion, Water.  Grass absorbs Water.  If the two were equal in strength, which they were, Tayu had the advantage, and not just in speed.

"Tayu!  Growl!"  The little owl did so, now muttering at his challenger as a way of gauging the other animal's courage.  To its credit, the sea-lion didn't flinch.

Its trainer, Hau, a bouncy person to begin with, now sprouted an even bigger smile - a good-natured smile; not cocky, not boastful, just the grin of a boy having a good time.  Then came his command: "Ashimari!  Pound!"  The sea-lion, having already performed its own display of confidence, smacked the bird with a flipper.

Tayu reeled; a bird was more fragile than a mammal...but there were medicines for that.  The real problem was that he was also enraged, popping right back up, talons out, and on the verge of leaping into his opponent's face.  He might or might not follow Enya's next order; and as each contestant was, by custom, limited to four moves, if he gave in to his fury he'd spoil Enya's strategy.

Hau had skipped the preliminaries and already gone physical.  Fine; Enya would do the same...and it'd give Tayu what he wanted, but under control, darn it.  As much as he wanted to charge Hau's Soul-friend, she didn't want him within range of another slap.  But he knew a ranged attack too...  "Tayu!  Leafage!"

Tayu hopped on one foot, then the other, looking disappointed that she hadn't said "Tackle!" instead.  But he leaped up again and shot a stream of leaves from under his wings and throat, looking like an early autumn and driving them along with the gusts of his flapping wings.  The leaves pelted Ashimari, leaving him stunned for a moment until Hau got him to refocus.

"Ashimari!  Water Gun!"  The sea-lion shot a forceful jet of water at Tayu, knocking him back down to the ground.  But other than that, the owlet didn't seem particularly bothered; once grounded, he ruffled his feathers and chuckled as if he were taking a bath in warm rain.

Satisfied that her companion had recovered his composure, Enya now granted him his wish: "Tayu!  Tackle!"  Whereupon he flew right into the mammal's face as hard as he could...which maybe wasn't much, considering he weighed an ounce for the sea-lion's every pound.  But this was followed by a bout of pecking, clawing, and pummelling with wings, Tayu making up in speed and vigor what he lacked in bulk.

Ashimari, still woozy from the Grass attack and having hit Tayu mostly by accident, broke discipline and smacked at his assailant...which of course meant smacking his own forehead, leaving him blinking in confusion.  The slap, requested or not, still counted as his move for that round, so Tayu got a freebie...or would have if he weren't spending the time picking himself up off the ground first.  Neither Hau nor Enya knew whether to laugh or groan...

A lost turn for both of them, then.  But Tayu recovered first, and Enya went for the coup-de-grace:  "Tayu!  Astonish!!"

The little owl, calmly and with as much dignity as anyone could muster who was only a few months out of the nest, turned his back on Hau's Soul-friend, then seemed to gather something from within himself...something a little eerie; something from another world.  And with a backward thrust of his shoulders, he unleashed it: a shockwave of energy from the spirit-realm.

Ashimari reeled, seemingly on the verge of collapse.  Hau, looking chagrined, saved him the embarrassment by recalling him into his orb.

Kahuna Hala smiled.  His grandson's companion had indeed put up a good fight, considering that Water was weak to Grass.  But Enya...Enya had somehow helped Tayu find the Ghost within himself; in Seafolk legends, the Owl had ever been an emissary between Life and Afterlife.

He called the children to the center of the platform, the place where the festivals of Melemele Island were held.  After some formal words about honoring the Tapu through their skills and spirit, he beamed at both of them:  "Not bad for your first real battle, either of you..."

But as they left the dais, Hau punched Enya playfully in the shoulder.  "How'd you get Tayu to do that?  He's not supposed to know that one yet!!"

Enya just smiled...then, their friends' hurts having been seen to, she let Hau cut in front of her for the buffet.

 -:-

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 02, 2018, 01:43:15 PM

[Rowellan shows Enya to the Great Hall, where a hearty feast awaits.  Her companion is pleased that, for once, she's met a foreigner who wasn't carrying any weapons.  And Enya has a "qweshun" about that...]

...At the mention of sharp and pointy objects, her curiosity about the state of affairs in this new land could no longer be contained.  "Why so many people be sharp and pointy or dressed like lobster-guys [the knights of Albion]?  Why such high walls and strong houses?  Have wandered a long time; do know what have seen...  And when fighting comes to me, is a fun game.  But nobody say what it be about...  'f I gonna let my Soul-friends play or freeze my patuti off on that Wall, be good to know why."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 02, 2018, 01:50:23 PM

"Phew!" Rowellan let out a deep breath. Alright, this question had to come up sooner or later, still she suddenly realized that something that was completely natural to her, a knowledge she was literally born with, might not be so easy to explain to a complete foreigner with a completely different culture.

[As this is a question that won't be answered standing out in the cold the two girls go into the Great Hall now, get themselves something to eat and find a quiet table where they can sit down, tucking into their meals as well as into groundshaking questions]

She looked at her plate, still trying to find a good place to start and decided to go with the basics. "This land here - it's divided into three realms. There's Midgard - that's us here. Then we have Albion - the squeaky lobster guys - and finally Hibernia. And somehow those three have been at war for... I don't know, since the beginning of time?" She slightly shook her head. "I don't know a single song or legend talking about more than a shaky armed truce now and then. It's all about the Relics, you know? They were given to us by the Gods themselves and it's our task as People of Midgard to guard them and for that they bless us and our people."

She made a face. "That would all be nice and shiny if not the Albion and Hibernian Gods had given their people sacred Relics too. Sooner or later someone somewhere gets the idea that four Relics are better than two, and six are better than four. That's when everyone is gathering soldiers, sharpening blades, fixing armour, making battle plans and heads off into a neighbouring borderland for a big raid. Sometimes they're even successful and yeah, having more Relics strengthens the Blessing. I have never understood why, maybe it's because our Gods think we have proven ourselves and deserve more of it?" The young huntress shrugged. "But of course that means that the owners of the Relics want theirs back and mount a raid of their own. It's an eternal back and forth in those lands here."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 02, 2018, 01:58:06 PM

[To which Enya said...]

"So I helping you steal other guys' stuff and get yours back that they stole?" she finally replied with a smirk.  "Yah, if is holy stuff, can see you want yours back if they take it...but why you then gotta take theirs?  'Cause Blessing feel good, but do want it to feel great?  Good Blessing not enough?

"As long as you got their stuff, 'course they gonna 'feel' where it is, 'cause all be One and be connected.  I know where my feet be, even thought they be farthest from my head.  And if someone take my sacred stuff, if I had any, I follow the feel of it like I follow the feel of the Sea, 'cause is gonna speak to me the same way.  Can even find people that way, you know?  And places, if you know them and they know you; you just keep going towards what feel like them, follow their wanting to see you again...  So you take lobster-guys' stuff, 'course they gonna come here looking for it.  Is important enough to them that they willing to get hurt for it.  'Member those monsters?  They not like having *our* holes in *their* Sky either; is like holes in their Being."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 02, 2018, 02:00:34 PM

Listening to Enya's comments and questions Rowellan couldn't help but wince here and there. This newcomer - this tall child - had put, with the clear view that children can have sometimes, her finger on a few sore spots that had cost the huntress a few sleepless nights of her own. She was fiercly loyal to Midgard, loving her land despite its roughness, seeing the beauty in a clear blue winter sky and the rough mountains and deep forests that formed her homeland. And she didn't have much love for Albions or Hibernians, but sometimes, when she watched a beaten-up army trudge home from another fruitless attempt to tear down Midgard walls (not to take Midgard Relics, no, the Gods beware, but to get their own back) she couldn't help but feel a tiny bit sorry for those people. There wey people too, after all. Someone's father, mother, son or daughter. With a family, hopes, dreams, a living they had to make... and without the Gods' blessing that would be a good part harder.

A few battling emotions crossed her face and finally she hung her head with a sigh. "I know...", sie said quietly. "It's always been that way, but that doesn't mean it has to be right. Sometimes I think that by now we fought about it all for so long that we just don't know how to stop it. I seriously can't blame someone for wanting their Relics back - it's their part of what the Gods have given to them, it must hurt their souls to not have them at their home."

She took another sip from her mug. "Maybe a good blessing should be enough", she admitted quietly. "I'd give my life to defend this land here, and our people and of course our Relics, but maybe there could be a different way than stealing other people's sacred things." She paused. "The Gothis say that it's part of a contest we have to win for our Gods. That we have to prove ourselves to be worthy of their Blessing."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 02, 2018, 02:07:50 PM

Perhaps unexpectedly, Enya's first response was a gentle smile.  "You understand this thing; is good," she said softly.  "Means others like you can understand it too.  So maybe their heads not fall off, or they not take mine, if I say I got an idea.

"Back home, we also got many Peoples.  Got humans, got Seafolk, got Pelei--be giants from smoking mountains; look kinda like Marble but with black skin and World-fire in the creases.  Got little folk called Menehune--they small and ash-grey, live under stones in forest; be very wise, teach us all 'bout making houses and temples and how to grow own food, and gave us stories about the Tapu.  Menehune were first people on the Islands.  And when we first come, Menehune not very happy to see us!  But after messing up a lot, we finally ask them what be best way to live there, and they see we not wanna take over, but be willing to become more like them.  You did say is nice to learn from someone new 'stead of having to stop them from hurting you.  So maybe I be Menehune for you.

"You got any of lobster-guys' stuff right now? --Send someone to give it back.  Send me.  I not from your lands; got no enemies here; can do this thing without anybody being scared I gonna attack them.  Maybe you want me to say where I got their sacred stuff, and that your people be returning it for yours.  Or maybe we just pretend I snuck their stuff away from you and you guys gonna be coming after me soon, so they feel sorry for me and let me in.  And maybe they give me any of your sacred stuff that they have, or maybe they just toss me out on my patuti and throw small hard things at me to make me go away.  But they'll have their stuff back.  No reason for them to fight you 'cept bad habits.  And if I know my Soul-friends, you gonna get your stuff back too.  Tayu *reeeeal* good at finding things while staying unseen, and if lobster-guys' bosses not give me your sacred stuff, Tayu gonna tell me where it is anyway.  Then me-Tayu can come back to lobster-guys' place, because place and me gonna know each other after first time, and place will let me in even if people don't.

"And why I wanna do this, right? --'Cause grownups be silly and out of touch with own souls, which I think be very sad, and just like you know it 'bout you, inside themselves they know it about them, too, and prob'ly same-same wanna make fighting stop but not know where to begin.  Somebody gotta be first, and it not can be someone from Midgard or Albion."

Then her smile broke into an impish grin.  " 'Sides, I gotta honor my gods with fighting too!  And Tapu gonna looooove this one!"

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 02, 2018, 02:17:06 PM

Rowellan had just taken another sip of her drink, but at Enya's idea she almost spit the mead allover the table, her eyes getting wide and her jaw everything but hitting the table. "Enya....!", she breathed, "never say such a thing again! Not where anyone can hear you..." Her face turned slightly pale beneath her tan. "This... this would violate every vow I've ever sworn."

She swallowed hard. Enya couldn't know this - coming from so far away, from such a different culture. And Rowellan also knew that Enya meant well, but this... "I'd like the fighting to end, yeah, but your idea - heck, no. I know you mean well, but for anyone of my people even thinking about something like that would be considered High Treason." She reached out to Enya to squeeze her hand. "Don't ever try anything like that", she pleaded. "Anyone of us would have to try to stop you and I don't want that."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 02, 2018, 02:24:50 PM

Enya jerked backwards as though she'd been struck, eyes wide and blinking back instant tears.  She'd upset her friend, endangered her friend, made her friend afraid...  Feeling so excited and so clever just a moment ago, now she saw that she couldn't have screwed up any worse here if she'd tried.  "I sorry...!" she winced, ears so low that they looked like they might slide off.  "I not mean to put you in trouble...  Aiee, now do want to make myself wee-small and hide in Wuffels' ball!"

...Finally Enya looked at Rowellan again with a sheepish half-smile.  "Did forget own rule: 'Shut up, Enya, 'till you know where you be and who you be with!'"

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 03, 2018, 12:59:36 PM

[The next time is spent by sorting out the effects of Enya's Great Idea and Rowellan's panicky reaction to it, changing the mood to a less pleasant one, both girls feeling that something from their initial start had changed. Still they decide to leave the hall and get Enya equipped when all of a sudden ...]

Before they actually could leave a warm, ringing voice came through the hall. "Rowellan! Dare you to leave again without saying hello here!"

The huntress turned around, blinking into the hall, then her face brightened when she spotted a familiar face. "Bjorn", she called back. "Where are you coming from now? Could swear you haven't been in this hall just a moment ago." She turned to Enya. "Talk about coincidences", she said. "That's the very Skald I've been talking about just a moment ago - the one with that loooooong song about soups."

By now the man had come over. He was a Norse like Rowellan, just that his hair was dark, he sported a well-trimmed beard, grey eyes and a scar that ran from his temple down to his jaw - and a merry air and a smile that warmed his eyes when he reached the two girls. He gave Rowellan a warm hug and then turned towards Enya. "And who's this young lady here?", he asked, looking ready to greet her just the same way if they were just properly introduced.

Rowellan smiled. "That's my friend Enya", she introduced the blue girl. "She's a traveller from a seafarer people far, far away. Enya - that's Bjorn Silverhand."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 03, 2018, 01:11:15 PM

Something about the newcomer seemed to warm Enya's corner again.  Maybe it was his manner, maybe his voice; maybe the obvious affection between himself and Rowellan--but almost certainly the knowledge that he was the man responsible for the Epic Soup Story.

"Mahalo, Bjorn; I Enya, yes," she greeted pleasantly, making the offering-bowl gesture with her hands.  "Have heard that you know what to put in this..."--she meant her symbolic bowl--"...only for me, fruit if you got it and not too much salt!"  By now she was wearing a genuine smile.

To her shy but susceptible delight, she was not met immediately by a glare.  Maybe this wasn't such an oppressive place; maybe she shouldn't come to conclusions until she met at least a few more people.  What was "same-same" about the inhabitants here, and in what ways did they differ?  What were they comfortable talking about, even joking about?  Chances were she'd find plenty to talk and joke about on those 'safe' subjects too, and then she wouldn't feel she had to hide so much of herself.

All the same, she'd meant what she'd said about her idea.  If she had to disguise it as a story, so be it.  If it was a bad idea, that was all right too; she'd think of something else, something that wouldn't bring Midgard down around her ears.  But people had to feel safe to travel between the Realms; a voyager herself, she felt that more than anybody...

...because while Albion was as closed-off as its canned soldiery, she had friends in Hibernia.  Real ones who understood the ways of animals, nature and the elements in much the same way she did.  People who delighted in having their ideas and preconceptions challenged around the bonfire.  People who didn't blink twice when she told them about Tayu and trees and a Great Mother and navigating the spaces between the stars.

Friends she needed.  Friends she'd wanted along.  Friends she wanted to see again, who worried too much when they found out where she was going next, which way Tayu's spirit-winds would carry her...  Just for that, the fighting had to stop, at least between Midgard and Hibernia.

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 03, 2018, 01:41:32 PM

"Enya..." The Skald let the name roll over his tongue and it sounded almost musical that way. He answered Enya's genuine smile with one of his own. "Welcome then to Midgard and this sorry heap of stones here. We all might look a bit rough around the edges, as well as our country and climate do, but I hope you'll find a bit more softness inside."

[From there on they all sit down together again, share their meals and some promises of storytelling and tale speaking, starting to get to know each other a bit better, but also planning how to go on from here]

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 03, 2018, 01:47:03 PM

Enya was in full-on spooning-up-stew mode by now, which was remarkable considering she'd just eaten a full platter of roast and veggies.  "Do normally eat outside back home, but here?" she snorted.  "Bonfire only warm you in front!  Na, I stay in nice warm inside 'til warm go all the way through me.  Here, huts, stable...anywhere out of the wind."

She turned to the Norsewoman who had brought her here.  "Hei, Rowellan!  Where I gonna feed rest of my Soul-friends?  Get all the wrong kinda 'tenshun if I let 'em out in here!"  Then, to Bjorn, she said "You wanna know where my stories start, just ask me 'bout anything I say that you not understand."  She wrinkled her nose playfully.

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 03, 2018, 01:48:54 PM

"You can bet that I'll do that", Bjorn nodded, making a mental note about the term 'Soul-Friend'. Did Enya mean the fox there - as in: her pets? And how many of them were there if she needed a place out of this huge hall for it? The skald decided to keep this special question down for now and instead just tag along with the two girls for now and find out for himself.

Rowellan, knowing a bit more about Enya's Soul-Friends and especially the size of Kilvanä, rightly guessed that Enya wanted all of her companions to get out of their balls, a bit room for play and some real food. "We best go to the stables then", she suggested. "There's enough space there, it's warm as well, it smells good if you like the scent of fresh hay and horses... I just wonder if we should get a few slabs of meat for Auryn and Pepper first? And how about Tayu?" She tilted her head. "I know you have those poffins for them, but an extra treat won't hurt, no?"

Bjorn's eyes had widened with every name the huntress mentioned and again the question popped up in his head. How many of those Soul-Friends did Enya carry around and - where the heck did the girl keep 'em? By now it would have taken the whole Midgard army to pry the skald away before he found out that secret.

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 03, 2018, 01:54:34 PM

When Rowellan named and implicitly numbered Enya's Soul-friends, the Seafolk girl scowled at her, looking miffed.  "Hei!!  You did that on purpose!!" she yowped.  "Now he know who and how many--next time I tell whole Hall your closest hiding-place!!"  But the grin that broke out just after she said this made it clear that the threat was made only in play.  Indeed, one of her favorite ways to mess with her buddies' heads back home was to pretend she took what they said absolutely seriously...until she burst out laughing.

"Fiiiiine," she sighed melodramatically, rolling her eyes in mock-surrender.  Then she scowled at Bjorn in his turn: "Talespeaker gonna find out anyways, and he not gonna shut up 'til whole village know it too!!"  She wrinkled her nose at him, and if she hadn't been so (relatively) polite, she might have stuck out her tongue.  But she'd made a promise, so now she had to at least sorta-'splain things...but first she had to figure out how to do so without giving it all away to everyone else in the Hall.

The thing she came up with was dangerous in itself, very much so if anyone but her two companions was paying attention.  But she trusted Rowellan, and Rowellan was obviously old friends with the storyteller, so it should be all right...

She slipped one arm under her cloak again and detached Pepper's sphere.  ~ Aiee, Pepper, always the one to help me 'splain... ~ she mused silently; but the great Fire-dog was the clearest example, and so the easiest to present in whatever form.  Rather than release him, though (she *was* trying to avoid attention), she handed the orb to Bjorn.  Red-dyed and polished, it didn't need the light from the lampstands to look as fiery as its inhabitant.  "Is warm, yes?" she said.  "Is Pepper's ball.  You understand why it be warm when I let him out.  Not gonna happen here.  But feel this inside you, know him like this, and he gonna know you too when he come out, 'least a little bit.  Stables be stone like here, yes? --Is good; we not want him to burn down the barn 'fore we feed him his supper."  She winked.

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 03, 2018, 02:07:57 PM

Bjorn gave Enya a smirk. "Don't blame her - I would have found out anyway, you got me curious the moment you mentioned your Soul-Friends. But I promise I won't blab out anything if you don't want to - yes, I like to tell a good story, but a skald also has to know when to keep his mouth shut and keep a secret."

"That's true", Rowellan confirmed both things. "He's more curious than is good for him sometimes, but he's also trustworthy and not someone to spread news that shouldn't be spread." She smiled at her old friend and then at Enya. Yes, she knew Enya hadn't meant her 'scolding' for real, but that didn't mean that trust was an issue here. "I'd trust him with my life - Skadi, I have trusted him with my life already and as you can see I'm still here he's been good for that."

In the meantime Bjorn had taken the orb in his hands, taking in the fiery surface, feeling the warmth and... something in there. It wasn't something he could put a finger on. Not quite magic, at least not the kind of magic he knew from the Three Realms, but close. There was life in that ball, that was for sure. Life of an unfamiliar kind, but life nonetheless. And maybe "unfamiliar" was even the wrong world, cause something in that ball was familiar - somehow the vibes skald and huntress got from it weren't too far away from the ones they could get from Enya, hinting on a very close bond between those two.

After a while of taking in Pepper's 'presence' in that orb Rowellan got up from her seat. "Well, he better should get his supper then", she said with a smile. "Yes, the stables are solid, if we stay in an empty one."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 03, 2018, 02:17:04 PM

"I not say solid; I say fireproof," Enya corrected. "But 'solid' be good too, 'specially if Kilvanä start kicking!"

She took back Pepper's ball.  "So...we go now?" she asked.  "Or did you-Bjorn wanna tell stories to each other for me?  Did say you not have seen each other for way-long time..."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 03, 2018, 02:23:10 PM

For a moment Rowellan and Bjorn shared a look and a short smile, then both nodded.

"I would like that," Rowellan admitted, half turned to Bjorn, half to Enya. "We have a lot to catch up – we haven’t seen each other for years now." And now that she had met the skald again she felt reluctant to end the meeting too soon, she really had missed her friend.

Bjorn sighed. "Yes, and I still feel bad about that. The guild master called me off to that diplomatic emergency mission, giving me barely a chance to say good bye to all of you." He made a face. "And I must have done my job too well, cause that first mission was followed by the next one and another and another -  and from then on I haven’t had a chance for border patrol at all."

Sitting down again Rowellan gave Enya a short explanation. "When Bjorn and me met I was still pretty green behind the ears. Any young one joining the border guards will do their first steps in a group with seasoned warriors – getting our feet wet in shallow waters, kind of. Bjorn was in the group they sent me to and although Bjorn had already travelled with them for a while he and me still were the youngest and least experienced in there." She smirked. "It’s kind of a bonding experience when you both have to do everything under the watchful eyes of an old Dwarven captain. Or, as the youngest, have to keep the graveyard watch most of the nights…"

"After a while we did those watches together," Bjorn added. "Usually nothing happened there and it was more comfortable to join those hours than to freeze your ass off all alone."

"Definitely," Rowellan confirmed. "Those first nights – oh ye gods, was I scared, with everybody else sleeping, out in the wilderness and the possibility of something or someone hostile around the next corner." Now it was her turn to make a face. "I’m not very good at pulling the shadows around me and hiding there, Skadi has different plans for me. But I know what others can do and back then I saw shadows everywhere."

"Actually I’m glad that Skadi has put you on a different way", Bjorn commented. "It saved our asses more than once that you’re one of the few archers who actually know what to do with their swords once they ran out of arrows." He looked at Enya. "It’s not many archers who go through the effort to practice more than with their bows, sneaking and track reading. Rowy here is a bit different – she doesn’t like the sneaking part but instead went through a lot of training with that big knife she’s carrying around." He pointed at the long sword that now was leaning against the table. "I remember that one day when we ran into that group of Albion raiders – if it hadn’t been for you and your sword we would have never held our own until reinforcements showed up. You haven’t earned that name ‘Stormsverd’ for nothing."

Rowellan actually blushed. “Yes, and it was you who came up with it”, she half-scolded. She wasn't the kind to boast with something that to her was nothing special. “Plus, when telling that story you always forget that it was you who had my back that day or we would have been screwed.” She shook her head. “Do you know that nobody ever called me ‘Rowy’ anymore since those days?” There was a certain air of regret and even a bit sadness in her voice and face for a moment, but with a deep breath she shook it off again.  “Anyway, so that’s where you’ve been those last years?”, she asked. “Diplomatic missions?”

“Most of the time”, the skald nodded. “Guess what you once called my ‘silly sweet-talking’ worked on clan leaders as well as diplomats from other realms… so I spent much more time dressed up in uncomfortable fancy clothing in clan halls or on official – and not so official – meetings than out here.” He looked around, taking in his surroundings. “As much fun as that can be, I’ve missed places like this one, and the people here. My old friends… At least everybody here is talking straight to the point, no hidden meanings or stuff like that.” The easy smile came back. “At least now and then I do have a mission that brings me out again, like now, helping me to breathe some fresh air. And how about you? I’ve been keeping my eyes open for you on the few times I was out here, but somehow never saw you.”

“I ran for a while longer with the old group, until our captains seemed me ready to go out on my own. I’ve been doing guard duty on the Albion wall for four years now”, Rowellan explained. “It’s a good crowd out there. Not as tightly knit as our patrol group has been, as many of us like to roam on their own, but I’ve still made friends.” She smiled, thinking of people like Marbles or Sammet. “You’d like them if you ever came by.”

“I’d love to”, Bjorn answered with another sigh. “But for some reason I’m much more involved with Hibernia these days…probably explains too why we never ran into each other before; wrong part of the country.”

One of Rowellan’s brows shot up. “Diplomatic missions with Hibernia? Well, if there’s anyone who might listen and talk instead of peppering you with arrows and fireballs then it’s them, I guess.” She hadn’t heard of such things before, but from her own experiences Hibernians were much less aggressive than Albions.

Bjorn nodded. “I’m not allowed to say much about it – but some of those guys ain’t half bad if you think about it.” He smirked. “They’re sending Bards over too and once the official part was done I’ve got the chance to talk shop for a bit. It’s nice to exchange music that hasn’t been played in every tavern between Jordheim and Gna for centuries.”

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 03, 2018, 02:33:57 PM

Enya, smiling gently with her chin parked on her knuckles, listened to the pair's pleasant banter, her mind seemingly elsewhere when she was not being directly addressed.  Actually she was taking note of their tones of voice, their turns of phrase, the rise and fall of their speech...  You could tell a lot about people from the features of their speech that weren't actually words.

Once in a while one of them said something that drew her thoughts into the conversation.  Wet feet in shallow waters? --That sounded so much like a ball game the children of her homeland played in the shallows, wherein they piloted little skin-boats and tried to whack a ball made of a blown-up quillfish skin with their paddles.  Almost everyone eventually tipped their boat over and got very wet, with the real dunces ending up with the quillfish tangled in their hair.  But this game was how they learned to balance in a boat; it trained their sea-legs.  She thought about sharing that little factoid, then thought better of it; this conversation was about Bjorn and Rowellan, who, it turned out, did have a name that was easier to say.  'Rowy', hmm?  Maybe she like it if I call her that too.

But at the mention of Hibernia, her own non-verbals got the best of her; she couldn't help pricking her ears.  She shot a glance around the Hall, hoping nobody had seen her give herself away like that.  Silly me, she admonished herself right afterwards; with all the hubbub so natural to a gathering-place, who would have noticed, let alone made anything of it?  But her companions had certainly noted her sudden interest, and there'd be no escaping their questions now except by cutting in front of them.

"Hibernia, hmm?  Did pass through there on way to here...  Okay, maybe more than 'pass'; maybe stay a little bit.  Was cold there, too, a lot.  But people be warm, 'least if you dressed like me or young like me or blue like me...*I* not know why they like me!  But did like them, too; is why this fighting make me sad.  Yah, ev'ry journey take you from someplace, through other places and to other places yet.  Did come here through Hibernia.  Would like to go back and forth without being called 'treason'."

Then she got an idea...hopefully not as 'upside-down' as the last one.  "Maybe we go with you?" she asked Bjorn.  "Rowy get to see you, we both keep you safe, Enya get to visit friends without being put all fulla holes?  And they understand 'bout Soul-friends; I not gotta worry 'bout where I gonna let 'em out without being seen."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 03, 2018, 02:36:11 PM

If Rowellan's ears had been pointed and movable like Enya's, they might have perked up at the blue girl's words - the same way as her eyes lit up, hearing that old, endearing nickname again.  So Enya had passed through Hibernia - and made friends there?  The young huntress mentally smacked her forehead - but of course!  The blue girl had not fallen from the sky - she had travelled here, across the ocean, across the lands that lay between here and there.  And she was an outsider, coming from a land so far away it kind of hurt Rowellan's head to think about it, and she had nothing to do with the ages-old squabbles and fights the three Realms were stuck in.  In that light, of course Enya's crazy first idea of making peace suddenly made sense - nobody liked it when their friends were banging their heads together.

"I can understand why," she half-smiled.  "Someone who doesn't like you has to have serious problems with their head and their heart, and not even Firbolg and Lurikeen are that stupid."  She took a breath.  "And there's absolutely no reason why the fact that *we* don't know anything else but fighting should keep *you* from making friends wherever you can find them."  She looked over to Bjorn.  "Do you think that'd work?"

The skald rubbed his chin. "Hey, I'd be glad if you came along... having nice company like that sure beats travelling alone. But I'm not straight away on my way to the Hibernian Border. Actually I've just sent a message to the Jarl of this keep here and I'm waiting for her reply now - she already said it could take a few days and that I should sit and rest my feet for a while."

He eyed the two girls. "What were your plans so far? Maybe I could first join you on your journey for a while before you join me on mine?" Actually he wasn't too eager to already say goodbye to an old friend and a new interesting acquaintance yet.

Rowellan smiled now. "Well - I was on my patrol and wanted to show Enya some of the beauty of Midgard's borderlands... personally I'd love to have you along. Almost like in old times..." Then her expression went merry. "And if I remember right there was still a bit of Tale-speaking to be done."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 03, 2018, 02:48:11 PM

Enya smiled at the Skald winsomely.  "I not going straight to Hibernia either," she declared.  "Just came from there to here, ya?  O-kayy, 'come here' did take a long time...  But Rowy was gonna show me never-froze lake and forest named after Father-tree.  We got Mother-tree back home, you know?  Maybe they know each other, maybe they will... Be sweet if they got married.  No fighting with Alola then--is where I from; is my home.  And stories...?  How 'bout you start one and me and Rowellan pile on?"  She grinned, then scowled and shook her finger at her companions.  "And you not pick on Lurikeen!  Do know Lurikeen 'chanter who like me very much!!"

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 04, 2018, 12:19:56 PM

'Never-froze lake' was clear to Bjorn and he smirked.  "I'm sure you'll like that lake; it's a good place for people not used to the cold," he said.  "But what's the forest named after Father-tree?"

"Yggdra Forest," Rowellan explained.  "When Enya described their Mother-Tree to me, at first I thought it might be Yggdrasil, the Tree of the Worlds, but it's something different.  Still, we wanted to have a look at it if possible."

Bjorn nodded in understanding. He too knew that the forest was a special place and worth a visit from a stranger who wanted to get to know the land. "Maybe you can tell me more about that Mother-Tree one day?" he asked Enya curiously. That sounded like a story worth knowing and telling to others. "If She might be married to our World-Tree we should maybe know Her better?"

He rubbed his chin then. "Stories though... yes, I got one in mind. There is a Lurikeen in there, but promise, the story won't pick on him!"

Then he took a long swig out of his mug and cleared his throat. "Anyway - as we're all comfortable now I will start my story here." He looked between the two girls. "One thing to know beforehand: Rowy here knows already and you, Enya, should, because one day it might save your rear or at least keep it warm... This place here ain't the only one that offers shelter from the cold.  There are others as well.  Caves, some of them natural, some of them built with the help of Dwarves; they're awesome when it comes to three things: Beer, steel and carving stone.  Those shelters have different sizes; you have to know where they are and usually they're magically sealed, so only the ones who know how will get in there."

[Bjorn then tells the two girls a long story - one he says is very personal for him - about a cold winter's night where four people proved that meetings between the Realms don't always have to end in bloodshed, but instead they can help each other... that they can even fall in love and have families, like the Midgard healer and a Celtic girl who are part of the story, the girl giving birth to their daughter.]

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 04, 2018, 01:00:01 PM

"Do know 'bout rocks and caves," said Enya with a smile; "We got 'em back home, too.  If you not got a cave close by, leeward side of a rock is good...but only if you got a Pepper to make up for not being inside!  He huge; he just curl up 'round me and I be toasty-warm 'til we leave again."

It *did* intrigue her, though, that in Midgard some of those caves could only be accessed through magic.  It was awfully thoughtful for the Dwarves to scatter these shelters about, and to mark them so that anyone who knew the marks would know they were there.  Was this what the Celts meant when they talked about the First Folk, the people under the hills?  She'd just figured they were like the Menehune of her homeland.  But if they'd actually come walking out of a magically sealed hill with no obvious exits, she could well believe they might have inspired a few legends.

The bear chase that worked its way into the tale put a different kind of smile on her face, one backed by a certain crafty look in her eyes.  She thought about how her companions would handle a bear.  She thought about the cave, too, and how Tayu could have gotten her in; Grass broke up Rock just by growing in the cracks.  By now, the combat of the elements was her stock in trade, her weapon, her shield and her ally.  This wasn't magic, as far as she understood the term.  But it'd been mistaken for magic enough times that it'd brought her here from the other side of the world.
  ...

Once the Skald seemed to have finished, Enya mulled the long tale over for quite a while, mostly sorting through the relationships between the characters.  Only one had been left unexplained: Bjorn's stated personal interest (or involvement?) in the tale as a whole.  He'd plainly been waiting for the right time and the right person to tell it to, but with the way it left her eyes crossed, that person surely wasn't Enya.

"So, umm...where you come into it?" she asked him, cocking her head.  "Did say this one very personal to you; how so?  Is nice story, seeing Kobold and Lurikeen, Norse and Celt get along, but what it got to do with you and me?  I not soldier, I not spy; have never made babies..."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 04, 2018, 01:03:52 PM

Rowellan only could nod to Enya's question. "Yes, where's the connection?" she asked curiously.

Bjorn hesitated for a while, suprisingly for a Skald, looking for the right words there. "For one - because it's a story that proves that all our people can get along." He smiled at Enya. "You are not the only one who made friends in Hibernia, because in the end they're not so different from us at all. They love, they hate, they have families..." Again he hesitated.   "This story is personal in the true meaning of the word.  That baby girl that was born that night...her name's Ailis, and she's my mother."

He took a breath.  This had been his best-kept secret; he had hated to keep it even from friends like Rowellan, but he hadn't been sure how they'd take to knowing about his ancestry.  Back in the day, the young huntress had been so eager to defend her home Realm, but now he felt that his friend as well as her travelling companion should know about it all.

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 04, 2018, 01:13:02 PM

"Ahhh, so you got little-bit to do with Hibernia too, hmm?" Enya said, beaming.  The question was neutral enough if overheard, especially considering the Skald's role as an ambassador, and only the three at the table could know what she really meant.  Still, she lowered her voice before adding, "So you an' me got same-same secret.  Did come through Hibernia.  So, in a way, did you.  And world not be turned upside-down yet, so maybe I share my big idea sometime...but not here.  Have freaked Rowy out already, and she knows me."

She winked at her archer friend, then continued.  "So we know we can trust each other with secrets.  So maybe I gonna trust you 'bout Soul-friends too...and maybe you gonna meet them somewhere besides in their balls.  Gotta go to stables for that; some of them not gonna fit in here, not if you want room for people too!"

Though Wuffels had dashed into the Great Hall in front of everybody, and though Enya had surreptitiously released 'Iheyu so that dog and fox could join in the meal, this was the first time she'd referred to them as anything but pets to Bjorn.  With his sense for a story, she hoped he'd pick up on that...

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 04, 2018, 01:29:29 PM

Bjorn did indeed pick up on that term, "Soul-Friend". Enya had used it before and it had roused his curiosity even back then. Now, with what he had seen of her pets and everything else he was even more curious than before. And the way it seemed he would get a few answers in the not too far future.

But for now there was a more urgent matter at hand. He had seen Enya's beaming reaction to his story and his ancestry; but he didn't know how Rowellan thought about it all - she hadn't said anything so far and looked thoroughly stunned, only self-discipline keeping her jaw from dropping to the ground.

And that was indeed how the huntress felt: Thoroughly stunned! A good bunch of emotions run through her almost at the same time. Surprise, of course, as that was something she would never have suspected. Of course they all had shared stories about their families, but all she had known so far about Bjorn's parents was that they had an inn in Jordheim and his mother was a great cook - nothing unusual at all. And now she learned that her friend's grandmother had been a Celt?

Next thing was a certain kind of hurt - why did he come up with this right now, after all those years and hand't trustet her with it before? Understanding was there, of course - you had to be sure of someone to tell them something like that, and maybe in her early years she had been a bit overeager...

But in the end it all didn't matter, didn't it? The man sitting there, with his secret on the table, was still Bjorn, her old friend and travel companion, someone she held close in her heart.  Had anything about him changed at all? She internally shook her head - no, nothing had changed about him, it was just her knowledge that had changed. Still... phewww...

Rowellan let out her breath and then a helpless laugh. "Alright, this is the day for surprises, it seems!" She shook herself, like a dog coming out of the water. "Maybe I needed that anyway, getting a few things shaken up," she mused. "I definitely got a few things to think about today." She smiled shortly, reaching out to Bjorn, squeezing his hand for a moment, then rubbed her temples. "Maybe we should indeed go to the stables," she suggested. "I've been sitting on my hindquarters for far too long and need to stretch." She made a slightly sheepish face. "And sort out my poor, muddled brain." The smile she shared with her two companions showed that she wasn't in any way miffed or something, just surprised and a bit confused.

"Sounds like a good idea," Bjorn replied. He had spotted a lot of emotions running over Rowellan's face and a stone had slid off his heart when he saw her final smile. "A bit of fresh air won't hurt...and then I'm really curious to see your Soul-Friends." He turned to Enya. "Outside of their balls," he added with a smile. "I guess I've seen Pepper inside her ball already - and she or he is one of them."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 04, 2018, 01:47:32 PM

Enya, who a while ago had refused to leave the Hall until its warmth had worked itself all the way through her, jumped up now like she'd just been let out from school.  Wuffels, tumbling off her lap, almost fell on 'Iheyu before Enya picked them both up (wriggling and kicking) and tucked them under her borrowed cloak again.  "Rowy...?  When we get *my* cloak, make sure it got lotsa pockets inside, hmm?"  She grinned, then recalled 'Iheyu so that she wouldn't be seen walking out of the Hall with any pets other than the one she'd come in with.  Then, on an impulse, she handed 'Iheyu's ball to Bjorn too.  "Pepper's ball, you held fire in your hand.  'Iheyu's, you hold lightning...  And you gonna meet Earth and Forest, Spirit-world and Sky."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 04, 2018, 01:54:11 PM

"All the elements... and some more", Bjorn muttered while he took 'Iheyu's ball with even more respect and awe than he had held Pepper's. Back then it had been a strange item that promised a tale. This time he knew that inside that ball was a living, breathing creature, with an own will, with bristling fur and a deep love for Enya and her pettings. Someone that the blue girl called "Soul-Friend", so deeply connected were they. There were a million questions running through his head.

[From here our crew finds their way to the stables, discussing more mundane matters.]

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 04, 2018, 02:04:55 PM

The preparations complete and Kilvanä's hay-net and grain bucket having been properly stocked, Enya returned to her companions.  "You maybe not ready for this," she told Bjorn.  "So maybe Rowellan gonna 'splain it to you, 'cause have already 'splained it to her and she seen it once already, and Soul-friends not gonna want to go hungry while I tell you things she already knows.  Here goes..."
 
 One by one she detached the steel orbs from her belt, releasing their occupants as quietly as possible under the circumstances.  'Iheyu, any more than the others, did not experience the passage of time in her orb, so from her perspective she'd been sharing a table with Bjorn just a moment ago; now she grinned at the talespeaker as if she'd walked in just in time to catch the punchline of a joke.
 
 Pepper shook himself out, sending tiny embers flying.  Auryn fanned his crest and screed, delighting in his freedom, but clean spoiling Enya's short-lived attempt at being subtle.  She couldn't have pulled it off much longer anyway, not the way Kilvanä's feet hit the ground like four separate thunders...  And Tayu, of course, was Tayu, looking around the building disdainfully before giving Enya another 'Hmph!'
 
 Enya  led them to their quarters without further comment, other than the affectionate murmurs she bestowed upon their ears.  Fire-dog, ghostly archer and protean griffin got their share of the roast, Auryn pinning his down with one taloned foot and merrily shredding it to bits. Wuffels and 'Iheyu prowled around the larger carnivores' feet hoping for one more scrap.  And Kilvanä, never happier than with her nose in a grain bucket, cleared out the loose husks with one mighty, contented sigh and tucked in.
 
 But once Pepper was done eating, he peeked back out of his stall and tipped his head at the Skald as if he were trying to remember where they'd met...

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 04, 2018, 02:12:48 PM

To say that Bjorn 'wasn't ready for that' was some kind of understatement.  He had expected something extraordinary to happen; the bits and pieces he had picked up so far had told him that much already.  But watching Enya's Soul-friends pop out of their balls just like that and still acting like they were just ordinary animals - which they were most definitely NOT! - going for food and affection, that was something that even a Skald's wild imagination wouldn't have come up with.  He blinked.  "Wait... what?  Um...how?  But..."

Rowellan watched his jaw drop with a slight smirk - she could relate to it very well; she had been in his place just a few hours ago.  "It pulls the ground from beneath your feet, doesn't it?"

"Hmmmhm."  Bjorn nodded his agreement, watching the Soul-friends again.  At second thought, there was even more to them - not something on the surface, but certain vibes coming off from the animals.  May it be the owl's slightly disdainful manners, or the grounded and almost maternal air of Kilvanä, they all had something special going on.

"Don't ask me how it works," the huntress admitted.  "How someone like Kilvanä..."  She pointed at the huge horse who was happily tucked into her meal. "...can even fit in an orb that size.  I think it's a certain kind of magic..."  She scratched her head.  "I'm not completely sure if I got it all right, but I'll try my best for an explanation. --Enya, chime in if I'm messing things up, okay?"

She paused shortly.  "Things are different at Enya's home - they have one Mother God, she told me, not a whole family like we.  And Enya said that Her spirit is in everything and can take every form...a forest, a rock, a wolf or a tall blue girl."  She scratched her head, trying to recapture more of Enya's explanation.  "So, as the form doesn't matter, they can all connect in some way.  And her Soul-Friends kind of connect with certain aspects of Enya herself.  She said Tayu's her sharpness, her seeing and her flight, Kilvanä's her strength and her caring...and so on."

That was the moment Pepper chose to come out of his stall, tilting his head at Bjorn.  "And Pepper's her fierceness, her fangs and her fire."

Bjorn swallowed hard - partly trying to digest the information, but also due to being eyed by a creature as fierce as Pepper, realizing all of a sudden that he had held that very orb just a short while ago.  "Ummmm...  Hey Pepper," he greeted respectfully.  If that huge, fiery dog was as ferocious as he looked, there wasn't anything else to do but treat him with all the respect he deserved.  "I hope I didn't mess up anything."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 04, 2018, 02:34:05 PM

Enya couldn't help but giggle at the Skald's dumbstruck expression; she never thought she'd reduce a talespeaker to near-wordlessness.  "Na, Rowy, you not mess up...'cept by talking 'bout fangs and fierceness just when Pepper wanna come say Hi!  --He not gonna eat you, Bjorn, 'less he think you gonna eat me first, and even then he wait 'til I say.  Lurikeen friend, he got good way to say how is Pepper: 'Gentle when stroked, fierce when provoked.'  Think anyone with any spirit be same way.  Right now, he just want pets and loves and to get to know you the rest of the way, 'cause did already sorta-meet you when you held his ball."

At her nod, the huge canine stepped forward and stopped just beyond Bjorn's arm-reach.  He stretched his head forwards, taking tentative sniffs, then deeper ones, as if sifting through the Norseman's essence.  Anyone knew a dog was the best judge of character...

Up close, it was clear that Pepper wasn't made of fire so much as he embodied it.  The glow of his coat, the warmth of his aura; the, yes, fierceness of his gaze, which yet had a fatherly kindness in it; the way any little draft or breeze stirred his ruff, his mantle, or the plume of his tail so that they caught the available light and seemed to flicker like flames...  All of these things reminding Enya of a captive blaze--a hearth or a campfire, perhaps, and the comfort, security and sense of home they meant.  But he had wildfire in him too, waiting only for Enya's word to release it; and when he did, they were some combination of a craftsman showing off his best work and a child being let out to play.

Pepper, in short, exemplified Enya's life with these creatures.  To see one was to reveal a part of herself; to capture one was to embrace that aspect; to train one was to explore, express and master a facet of her many-sided but unified soul.

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 04, 2018, 02:37:51 PM

"Mmmmhm - alright, that wasn't the best timing," Rowellan admitted a bit sheepishly, watching her friend and the huge canine together. At the moment it didn't look as if the 'fire' Pepper radiated was the one that could burn down forests, but the cozy one of a hearthfire, the one that gave warmth on a chill winter's night. And in some way it kind of mirrored Enya's own warmth... that connection between them again?

Bjorn saw that warmth as well; he also noticed that almost fatherly expression in Pepper's eyes and realized that at least this time his head wouldn't be bitten off...or go up in flames. Instead there was open curiosity and a hint of wisdom that more than anything else told about the fact that Pepper was not just an ordinary pet. As none of them were.

A small smile showed up on the Skald's face. So - Pepper wanted to say 'hi' and get some pets?  Cautiously and slowly Bjorn reached out a hand for Pepper to sniff at again, curious himself of how that shimmering fur might feel if he got the chance to touch it. "Hey Pepper," he said, the open smile widening, tentatively reaching out for the huge dog's neck, as he would do with any other unknown canine. If Pepper really wanted "pets", he'd show it; if not, he'd have the chance to retreat. It was always the dog's decision in the end...

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 04, 2018, 08:41:19 PM

Pepper seemed to forget that he wasn't a cat; he came the rest of the way forward and planted his (very warm) forehead on Bjorn's chest, leaning into the expected neck-rubs and puffing his (very warm) breath into the Norseman's palm.

Enya turned away from the scene and looked for Tayu, who was perched on one of the stall dividers a little too close to a Dwarven pony.  At her whistle he looked backwards all the way over his shoulder the way an owl does, the rest of him still leaning towards the pony.  "Tayu...Sanctuary," she murmured.

Now he *did* turn to face the humanoid trio.  Muttering deep in his throat, almost seeming to be weaving some enchantment of his own, he spread his wings as if mantling his prey.  A soft quietness fell over the stables then, even the sounds outside becoming muffled, then silent.

" 'kay," said Enya.  "Now we can talk...  'f we gonna travel together, is stuff 'bout me and Soul-friends you gotta know--you and Rowellan both, and nobody else."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 05, 2018, 08:27:05 AM

Now those were signs that were hard to misunderstand - Bjorn's smile changed into a grin and he enthusiastically got into the task of thoroughly giving Pepper the neck-rubs the dog expected. The fur felt indeed warm beneath his hands - as did Pepper's breath in his neck - and surprisingly soft. "Didn't you say that in bad weather you curl up with Pepper?", Bjorn asked Enya, then smirked. "I can see that very well." He scratched a spot that Pepper just had presented.

Then Enya spoke to Tayu and both Norse could feel something else on their skin besides the warmth Pepper was radiating. A slight prickling, over in the wink of an eye, and then the silence. As if they were sitting beneath some kind of shelter, away from the rest of the world.

Rowellan raised a brow, then sat down on one of the boxes standing there. Whatever Enya was about to tell them had to be important. Really important, cause never before the blue girl had considered it necessary to do something like this. "We're listening", she quietly said and Bjorn nodded.

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 06, 2018, 03:09:53 AM

"Okay," Enya said--the whole word this time, not her usual Island slang.  Indeed, her demeanor was suddenly more formal than Rowellan had ever seen it, a far cry from her usual playful, breezy warmth.  Even Pepper looked back at her and nodded as though he understood.

"Rowy, did say Pepper be my Fire, and Tayu my Seeing.  Maybe you think that means they stand for those things, like carvings stand for stories or gods.  Is not so.  When do have Pepper make fire, is my fire he make; my breath he take in and blow out; my strength and braveness and power and running and even my fierceness.  Pepper not 'stand for' anything.  Pepper be me, that part of me which is Fire.  I lose him, I lose my Fire.  He not exist without me.  Apart from me, yes.  But not without me, and not if I not did have Fire in me to begin with.

"Same-same for Tayu.  When I say Tayu be my Seeing, I not mean my eyes.  Na, 'Seeing' among my People means seeing into, seeing through, knowing invisible things like Spirit-world or someone's heart.  When Seafolk say 'I See you', is to say they know your heart.  Not your mind or all else about you, but your heart, what kind of person you be, even if you not sure yourself.  Imagine losing that, after being born with it and having it so strong that it shows outside you as an owl who travels with you and guides you.  Imagine losing that.  Is what I be like if I lose Tayu.  Be lost and blind and cut off from Spirit-world.

"Is like that for all Soul-friends.  They be soul-shards, more like it.  Living ones, with own Being.  And when they come out of their balls, yah, they solid and real, hungry or bored or eager to play; soft or scratchy, chipper or snooty--these things be their own.  But powers they have be my power.   You know them, you know me.  Do all-the-time worry 'bout someone taking them, stealing their balls from me.  Thief not gain anything by it; they not parts of his soul, but mine; they not gonna obey him.  But me without them--any of them, all of them--I not be Enya anymore 'cept as spirit in branches of Mother-tree.

"This is what I protect you with on journey.  My whole Being.  And this is what you gotta protect for me, these parts of me that be strong enough, brave enough to live out in the world.  Is much too easy, someone take my belt, unless I sleep high up or make myself wee-small or have Tayu hide me in spaces between stars."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 06, 2018, 12:25:48 PM

When the impact of Enya's words sank in, Rowellan was glad she was already sitting - it straight away knocked her feet from under her.  "Wait..." she started, then paused, realizing that she didn't have the words yet to describe her thoughts.  Heck, she didn't even really know what she thought right now...

Bjorn, too, was at a loss for words at first, and glad for the support of Pepper's massive shoulder as he found his knees quite as solid as they used to be.  Due to his extended contacts with delegations from Hibernia, he had seen and talked about a bit more and more diverse concepts of magic than Rowellan had.  Still, none of them included the magician giving away shards of their own soul, of their own being into their magic.  Their strength, their willpower, yes - and a spell broken could result in the spellcaster being exhausted and, if it really got bad, being bedridden for a good while.  But that was nothing they couldn't recover from.  Losing a part of someone's soul though - that was different.  It was like losing an arm or a leg...and Bjorn wasn't sure if even that was the right comparison.

He suddenly realized the trust Enya had put into two almost-strangers, not only telling them about it all, but also handing them Pepper's ball to hold.  The Skald let out a breath.  "That... that's... phew!" he started, again sorting out his thoughts.  Enya's "Soul-Friends" being not some creatures she had befriended on her travels, but manifestations of her own being - that explained a few things.  The wisdom behind those eyes, the playfulness and also the strength Pepper radiated.  It also explained a lot about the strength Enya as a person had, bringing out "Soul-Friends" strong and fierce and wild like that.  It explained why she had such a close bond to her companions; although they had a will of their own, they still were parts of herself.  But it did not explain why she was out here on her own... because one thing was true: the moment Enya was asleep, with her friends in their balls, she was helpless.  Helpless to any prankster or thief who might take away one of those balls for fun or profit - and it wouldn't just take away her company or her belongings, it would take away those very parts of her Self.

He shook his head.  "How did you make it so far?" he asked, suddenly worried for the girl and the extended travels she had been on.  "You can bet on one thing - as long as you're travelling with us we'll protect you and your 'Soul-Friends' with every part of our own being too - even if we can't send it out like you."

Rowellan nodded, slowly having come to similar conclusions.  "That."  At one point in her own thinking her eyes had turned hard like stone for a moment - that was when she had thought of what Enya had told her.  That the girl had been sent out to close holes in the sky, sent out because her 'Soul-Friends' were the strongest... sent out by adults who probably knew very well what Rowellan and Bjorn had just learned.  Rowellan hadn't thought much of those adults from the beginning, but now she felt herself getting downright furious!  How could any adult in their right mind dare to risk part of a child's being to fix something that was so huge that those adults and even some minor gods weren't able to do it on their own?!?  She took a breath to calm down again - if those were that people's habits and ways, she had no right to judge.  Plus, it was done and over and getting angry now wouldn't help anyone.

Then another thought crossed her mind.  "I'll talk to Venn," she said.  "You know, I've told you about him - he's a wolf and a friend.  And he knows a lot of other wolves...  I'll make sure that every wolf of his pack will know your name, your face and your scent - and that they'll watch over you when you sleep somewhere and you're alone.  Nobody's ever gonna come close to you."  She got up from her seat and - now knowing that Enya's personal space was up to hugs - did just that, give the girl a tight hug.  "There won't be any sleeping on trees or hiding between the stars as long as you're travelling in Midgard."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 06, 2018, 01:15:07 PM

Enya actually looked rather pleased at having blown her friends' minds out of the water the way she just had.  How fun these strangers could be when she revealed things that, at home, needed no explaining!  Ahh, sometimes it took having your world stood on its head to clear your mind and make way for a new perspective!

But she hadn't said what she'd said to garner worry or pity or to invoke anyone's parental instincts.  It was as she'd said in her very first words to Rowellan on the Wall: You not worry for me; I not alone.  So she endeavored to answer Bjorn's question:  "'How I make it'?  In this, in travelling with Soul-friends, I not a child.  Do know people here see this as magic.  If so, I be stronger in this magic than anyone else in all my land.  No boast.  Ask Rowellan, she knows..."

She took on a whole other look then: a look that hinted at not just inner strength, but true power.  "Small gods call on me; their shamans call on me," she said now, addressing them both.  "In Alola, finding and bonding with Soul-friends is a thing that only a child can do.  And I do it better than anyone.  Is why I travel; I not gonna get stronger sitting at home.  Have met armies, sent pirates scurrying, and mended holes in the sky.  You treat me like any other strong wizard or dragon or sea-monster who only her friends know that she got a weakness.  Ya, even a wizard like that 'preciates having friends watch over her and keep her secrets.  And you'll know why you want to when Pepper melts armor or scorches whole wheatfield into ashes.  And you not gonna feel sorry for me; you will be proud to have such a wizard as your friend."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 06, 2018, 01:37:41 PM

Rowellan nodded. "Yes... she's told me, back at the wall." And although Enya might like the stunned look on her Midgard friends' faces, she wasn't one to boast - she just told the facts as they were. And that was something she had to tell herself as well - Enya was right: she was strong, she hadn't gotten where she was cause she was a helpless child. So, curb your maternal instincts, she drily told herself. "Without Enya and her Soul-Friends those small gods and their shamans would have really been in trouble." She gave a half grin. "And that part about not getting any stronger by - well, I've heard that a few times ago already. For some reason it's very true."

"Sorry for you?" Bjorn again looked at Pepper, cross-checking the huge dog's look and warmth with Enya's explanation, and smirked. "Maybe I'd better feel sorry for whoever is in that armour Pepper's melting," he stated. "Doesn't change the fact that it doesn't hurt to have someone to have your back."

Rowellan nodded again. "Yeah - it's something that we learn from the start - to look out for each other." Now she smirked too. "And yes, you told me not to feel sorry for you when we met this morning. Wouldn't dare, not with Tayu around." She shook her head. "Never met a bird that could do 'hrrrrmp' as well as him." As much as she was wrapping her head around the fact that this probably was another facet of Enya's complex personality, it was just easier to talk about the critters as their own 'people', with their own mannerisms and quirks.

Softly she added: "And I'm proud and glad to be your friend anyway, mighty wizard or not."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 06, 2018, 02:48:49 PM

Enya's firm stance relaxed now that she was sure her companions could relate to her as an ally and a peer.  "Not so mighty," she smiled.  "What I do, what I be is hard to 'splain to people in a foreign land.  If they call it 'wizards' and 'magic', then I say it that way.  Did tell Marble on the Wall 'bout being sorta like a shaman, since he know 'bout shamans but not wizards so much.  A real wizard would laugh at me.  But then I laugh at him back, 'cause he not can do what *I* do either!

"So...is good, we all watch over each other.  Soul-friends know they gotta look out for me, and I not gotta tell them to look out for each other...but sometimes, being so brave, they forget they need protection too.  Think they gonna like Rowy's wolf-friends.  And I sleep better, knowing I not the only thing between them and danger now."

Then she cocked her head at the huntress.  "Rowy?  How come you always look mad when I talk about Tapu and Kahunas and holes in sky?  Was my honor to do that, to be asked to do that.  Nobody make me, and risk was all mine, and did take it willingly, because would rather lose some of me than all of home."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 06, 2018, 02:56:46 PM

"I start to see how very much things work differently in your home than here," Rowellan started, hesitating. More and more she realized how her first thoughts might have led her in a wrong direction here - actually she was talking and thinking at the same time. "Not just as in 'you're eating more sea fish than fruit and dress in a different way, and you have one Mother God where we have a whole family of them.' That's true too, but right now I start to see a few more things and they're even deeper and more important. See, I admit my very first thought was not very friendly of the adults at your home... how come they ask of a child all those things? It didn't sound fair to me..." She blushed slightly, her few freckles standing out in her face. "And even more so when I realized what's at stake for you." She raised her hands. "In the village I grew up in children helped with everything as well, were parts of the community, as far as their strength and talents went, but the buttload of what was to do was on the shoulders of the grown-up."

She sighed. "But I guess I've been wrong there. I start to see that what had to be done could only be done by someone like you - because you and your Soul-Friends were just the best ones to do it. Age just didn't matter there. And I see how it's an honour - heck, an honour you probably worked very hard for, for to get where you are now. It's just that part of me that flinches when a child is sent out to do an adult's work. Even though the rest of me just knows better - all the adults would have failed where you were successful."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 06, 2018, 03:38:14 PM

"Ah...do see how that maybe look strange, seem strange," Enya acknowledged.  "But is foolish to send grownups to do a child's work, too.  Say is something that needs a small person; a grownup not fit.  Or a light person; 'f a grownup try to pick coconuts off a palm tree, he gonna break off a leaf and fall.  Or a fast person; or, most of all, a person who not got grown-up learning and grown-up worries.  Grown-up learning does shrink the world to what you can know by learning.  Grown-up worries take you away from being a child.  I not can work a field all day or build a house or raise a family; takes bigness and learning to do that.  But that grownup working the fields, he thinking 'bout soil and bugs and what he trying to grow there, and hoping the weather stays right, and hoping the next Clan over gonna want his berries as bad as he want their bark-cloth.  Child not gotta worry 'bout that, 'cause grownups do all the worrying for us, and they provide.  And grownups not gotta worry 'bout losing touch with Eywa, not as long as She keep sending Soul-friends to children."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 07, 2018, 10:39:05 AM

Suddenly Rowellan felt a huge lump in her throat. When in all those struggles and fights of the last years had she lost that simple view of life? When had she lost the contact to the girl that had run over her village's meadow, just for the fun of it and cause the grass tickled at her bare feet? The girl that could see whole epic stories in the dancing of a bonfire's flames or the clouds in the sky? Had all of that been lost in between the almost daily fights with foreign intruders? In the mere struggle to stay alive out here? Worrying - heck, yeah, she had become really good at that over the years! And right now, right here, sitting on that chest, she felt the weight of it almost crushing her down.

She blinked really fast. "M-maybe that's somethig we're missing here", she said, very quietly. "Losing our touch with being a child, just worrying too much."

Bjorn, who had stowed away the name "Eywa" and had been just about to ask if that was the Mother God's name, instead stepped over, sat down beside his friend and now it was his turn to give a hug and a shoulder-squeeze.

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 07, 2018, 01:49:09 PM

"Aww..."  Enya's ears lowered a notch, her face growing soft with empathy before she, too, joined in the embrace.  They stayed in a little huddle long enough for the outside to come drifting back in - people talking, the smell of roast, the mists of early evening creeping in.  In a battle Tayu's Sanctuary lasted five rounds, and the trio had indeed had five exchanges since he'd first draped his metaphorical cloak over them.  The Seafolk girl waited long enough to be reasonably sure the others had noticed, then drew back and smiled a little sadly.

"Grownups gotta be grownups," she said.  "Is strange to me why so many want to be kids again; grownups have own things, important things to do.  But maybe Rowy hadda start doing grown-up stuff too soon?  Heia, not can do anything 'bout it now..."  Then her face lit up with an impish grin: "...'cept maybe help me run my Soul-friends ragged tomorrow!!  Ev'rybody out of their balls when we get to Yggdrasil's Forest!!  'Cept you, Auryn; you gonna be out the whole trip, 'cause you not really meant for ball-travelling, and somebody gotta carry Wuffels!"

The stables erupted with the sounds of animals in varying states of anticipatory glee, the griffin tossing his head and prancing, while Kilvanä stretched her neck out far enough to gently snuffle Rowellan's hair.

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 07, 2018, 03:41:56 PM

[After this, Rowellan takes Enya to the local seamster's shop to receive her own cloak; they even talk her into a pair of moccassins.  Rowellan then escorts her to the barracks where the trio will spend the night.  She finds it...odd...]

Rowellan nodded. "Yes - it's a bit of a military setup." She had stopped unlacing her boots and looked up to Enya now. "It's common for men and women to travel together, to fight together... so, when we come to any barracks, of course we share them. Back at home, in the towns and villages - well, young people either live with their parents until they take a mate - or until they leave their home for work or becoming a soldier or whatever else they want to do with their lives. We usually only have separated rooms when we're really in a tavern with separate bedrooms or something." She curiously looked at the girl. "How do your people do it when you're out travelling?"

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 07, 2018, 03:48:02 PM

" 'Pends on how we go," Enya replied, almost in the dutiful manner of a schoolchild.  "Only one fit on Ikran to fly; same for riding horses or bulls or sharks or big, long-neck sea turtles.  To sail short, houseboats be like house-anything elses.  To sail far, long canoes got little huts on 'em, only one person fit, so we take turns.  Have seen that in Realms, too, with people on watch; and I can sleep with a Soul-friend watching over me, not need nobody else.  But for people who go walking and not have Soul-friends, be nowhere to go but more of Alola; and ev'ry village there got girl-huts and boy-huts, 'cept Kahuna's house, which be like this in back, and then whole families visit at once.  Aunts, uncles, cousins, grands; or maybe ev'ryone from school together; or maybe group of people visiting from another Island...or even other lands like this one, 'f you ever want to see my home.  But I not a group or a class or a family; used to having own space when do travel alone..."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 07, 2018, 03:50:48 PM

Bjorn's mind was already busy drawing pictures of the means of travel Enya had just been describing. "You ride on what?" he asked. "Sharks and Sea-turtles? And.. Ikran? You fly them?" His tongue stumbled a bit over the unfamiliar word, but there was also a bit of awe in his voice. There weren't many animals in Midgard that flew and would be big enough to ride.  Apart from the lone female dragon that was terrorizing Malmohus, there only were her smaller cousins, the wyverns... and those one were so ferocious and wild that nobody would even think of trying to tame them.

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 07, 2018, 03:54:48 PM

There was nothing "by rote" at all about Enya's description of her People's flying mounts.  "Ikran, yah!  They be much like Wyvern, 'cept back legs be also wings; have seen both, Wyvern on way here--Wuffels take care of him.  Ikran got biiiig chin-crest, too, for skimming waves to scare fish.  And they be big enough for grown-up Seafolk to ride!  But first you gotta go to where they nest, way high in mountains, and challenge them.  Is like gaining Soul-friend, that way, 'cause Soul-friends appear to you, but you gotta prove you strong by fighting them before they agree to go in a ball.  Only Ikran not be from your soul, and they not go in balls.  Be Soul-friends a different way: Ikran recognise you, she know you and her be for each other, kinda like finding mate.  But you still gotta fight her and prove it.  Girl Ikran be best, because be largest."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 08, 2018, 05:41:04 AM

When Enya described Ikran both Northerners did a rather good job of synchronized jaw dropping - not so much about the fact that Enya's home had creatures comparable to Wyvern, but about the fact that they actually managed to tame fierce creatures like that so they could use them as flying mounts...

Before Bjorn's inner eye a whole epic story unfolded - he hadn't seen an Ikran, but had run into his share of Wyvern.  He doubted that the Midgard equivalent would ever stop to check if one of the travellers crossing their way might be something like a soul companion, but if it was possible in Enya's home - wouldn't that make stories and songs worth to be sung on every campfire?  "Female Wyvern are taller too..." he mused.

While Bjorn was halfway busy composing a song about an encounter he had never seen, Rowellan's eyes widened in awe.  "Wow...!" she breathed, her mind producing pictures much similar to Bjorn's, just that Rowellan's approach was a bit more hands on.  "How?" was her next question, then she bit her lips.  "Maybe what Wyvern and Ikran got in common is mostly the looks?  Never has a hunter been able to charm or befriend a Wyvern - it just doesn't work on dragonkin."  She sighed.  "I know 'cause I tried..."  And there was a weak hint of regret in her eyes.

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 08, 2018, 12:50:23 PM

Enya eyed the wishful thinkers coolly.  "Na, you not gonna tame Wyvern," she said flatly.  "Is not just looks he share with Ikran; do think Ikran be dragon-kin too, dragons meant to live at sea.  Wyvern who pester me did feel little-bit the same.  But what Ikran got that Wyvern not has got be history - long, long history with my People.  Other-name besides 'Seafolk' be 'Ikran People of the Eastern Sea.'  How Ikran nowadays know to feel for Seafolk she recognise in her soul?  Is 'cause as long back as she remember, Ikran of her Clan have carried people from ours.  She ask Mother, Grandmother, ancestors from an Age ago; she can even ask Mother-god, 'cause Ikran got holding-hands part too, and her ancestors will say."  She picked up her braid again, then draped it over her shoulder and smoothed it down.  "Very name 'Ikran' means 'We who carry.'  Is own name for selves.  Is part of who they be.  Wyvern not have that history or that pride.  They stupid and childish, thrashing around like simple beasts, not Seeing that we do better together than against."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 08, 2018, 12:54:01 PM

Now it was Bjorn's time to sigh. "Eh, so we got the childish cousins of your Ikran, huh?", he asked with something between amusement and resignation.

"And they're still in their Terrible Two's", Rowellan added, talking about Wyvern. "Experts in temper tantrums and hissy fits." The regret in her eyes deepened. "Good way to put it - they don't realize that together is stronger than against. Heck, I'd already be glad with them deciding to just leave us alone. I hate that with them it's always do either kill them or - on a good day - drive them off violently."

"Your ikran though", Bjorn now went on, his eyes bright with interest and curiosity, "sound more and more fascinating." He shook his head with a lopsided grin. "Imagine - dragonkin having a history, as a clan themselves but also with your People, communicating with a goddess, sharing..." He gave Enya a smile. "Your home sounds like a place full of wonder for so many things."

"One of them being how Wuffels managed to deal with a Wyvern. Hey, by now I know not to underestimate any of your Soul Friend", especially as now Rowellan knew that those Soul Friends actually were aspects of Enya herself, "but still... wow!" She had felt the smooth stones in Wuffels' fur and wondered if the puppy just had thrown them at the huge beast. "Seems you forgot something when you introduced her - besides everything else she's your courage too, I'd say."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 08, 2018, 01:15:05 PM

Now that was a story Enya could get her teeth into!  A real story, not just an explanation for things; she liked talking about her home and culture, bringing a little of Alola's sunshine into her listeners' eyes, but nothing beat sharing her actual adventures.

"Was very simple, yah?" she grinned.  "Wyvern be two things: Flying and Fire.  Wuffels be Rock.  Rock not hurt by Fire, and any slinger know that stones be best thing ever to throw at Flying things.  So Wuffels shoot stones--big ones.  Then when Wyvern not get the message, come back 'round and pester us again, we wait 'til he fly too low--and Wuffels make sharp stones erupt from ground, hitting Wyvern real hard in stomach!  Wyvern decide that maybe our patch not be the best land to hunt over that day and sorta stagger off, however you stagger when flying...  So fun!"

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 08, 2018, 01:17:10 PM

Rowellan first started chuckling, then finally laughed out loud. "Ooooooh", she grinned, "I would have liked to see its face! Yes, a few rocks thrown at their sensitive spots will do the job - we usually just don't get close enough, not being fire resistant." Her respect for tiny Wuffels - just snack-sized for a Wyvern - just grew a few notches more.

"That beast probably just looked quite as insulted as that bear we met on our last patrol". Bjorn too was grinning widely. "You know - the one we disturbed when he was just about to try if there might fit another fish in his already almost bursting belly when we tried to cross the river."

"Oh dear..." Rowellan grinned. "Yes, he was deeply insulted, probably cause he was just to stuffed to really chase us away... but, to his defense, it was Fall and he was just trying to fatten up for hibernation. So he got every excuse to be a bit... um... clumsy. That Wyvern though..." She rubbed her chin. "Maybe I should polish my skills with a sling."

Title: Re: Borderlands: The Wall
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 08, 2018, 01:44:22 PM

"Na, you already good with arrows," Enya observed.  "Just make arrow with round stone head for if you just wanna give warning.  Is a good thing my Wyvern go 'way with just Wuffels' rocks, 'cause otherwise I woulda had to have Kilvanä make sandstorm or throw mud!  Kilvana be Earth or Ground, which not does bother Flying things but is very good to smother Fire."

She sat on her bunk, one close to a window so she could greet this country's excuse for a Sun in the morning, and swung her feet for a little bit. She was pretty sure by now that her companions had picked up on the way she broke absolutely everything down into its elements, or would soon; and she was also pretty sure that if they learned to do the same thing, they could do what she did, perhaps even to the point of gaining Soul-friends.  Rowellan had a wolf-ally already, and somehow she sensed that the necessary child-likeness had never really been extinguished in either of them...

But she'd made the group think enough big thoughts for an evening.  And anyway, the mattress gods were coming for her; once down, she would remain in their clutches until the Feast of Sunreturn unless her subconscious remembered she was due for an adventure in the morning.