Frozen, Yet Afraid To Burn [Open]

[Riley LaRose]

Fall 60th, 511 AV

The wind was so cold as it brushed through Riley's hair, caressing the back of her neck with icy fingers and stroking the half of her face that couldn't feel it anyway. Two eyes of silvery green gazed from the scarred face of the Kelvic, whose hands held a long red scarf and twisted it in agitation. She had just removed the scarf to allow the Sun to see her face as She drooped in the sky. Rarely was Syna allowed to see Riley's face, but not out of spite. The light hurt the sensitive burn where a cool breeze tickled unresponsive flesh but bit the bone deeply enough. Riley feared Syna and her heat as she feared all heat, and as she gazed South to where she imagined the desert sands of Eyktol to be, she remembered why.

The cold wasn't so different from the heat, she realized. No matter what, it left raw skin smarting and tears in the corner of an eye. Her other eye was unable to tear up. Riley didn't understand why, but she couldn't cry from the right side of her face. Her left side could only make up for so much, which was so little in comparison to what others had.

A cloud of frost rose up from her lips as she turned her back to the South and her birthplace. Under her clothes lay the brutal scars of her past life, and she was glad that now the scars inside and outside could heal together. Ahnatep, the Masters, the Snake-People, could all be forgotten like the pain of fire and the ache of a bleeding wound. She could fear them, but she could forget them as well.

Holding the scarf still in her hands, Riley allowed herself one tear from her left eye. She allowed the wind to stroke the scars along the right side of her face, both unfeeling and hurt from its touch. She would have to put her scarf on soon, she knew. She couldn't risk hurting her face further, digging herself a deeper hole into the pit of ugliness her Master had felt she deserved to belong in. She was going to return to Avanthal shortly, before Syna descended fully and let Morwen's cold free across Taldera, but she felt the need to linger, to remember the loneliness of her travel.

She longed for friends, for anyone. She had a few, but she still longed for someone to share herself with. Not someone to Bond with, per se. The Bonding was something she was unsure of still. The only Bonded Kelvic she knew intimately were her parents and the others in the kennels of her Master's household. Slavery was something she associated with the Bonding, and until coming to Avanthal she had not seen a willing Bonded Kelvic.

With another sigh she considered her hands. She felt the need to hunt. While she had her weapons on her, she didn't know if she'd rather be in her true animal form or not. If so, she'd need to find a decent place to change. Her eyes lifted to consider the tundra and sparse trees around her.

[Vanwen Frostfawn]

Vanwen was glad he'd decided to travel with Snowdrift, his white Snowmare. It was about the only decision he'd been pleased with on his short hunting expedition. He'd been tracking what he'd assumed to be a wounded animal, hoping to pick it off from the rest of its herd. What he'd found, after two days of travel, was a pair of wolves picking over the carcass of a deer. 'Another failed hunt...' Van was currently traveling at a slow trot, not particularly worried about being caught in the wilderness before sundown. His hooded cloak was pulled up, more than enough to keep him relatively comfortable when combined with the Gnosis mark given to him at birth. The glare from the sun on the vast patch of white snow, however, it could do little about. Van kept his eyes, a dark violet at the moment, focused on the horizon. He'd been traveling from his campsite for a little more than twenty chimes, when he saw something in the distance which made him question his eyesight, then his sanity. A lone figure stood still, with its back to him. Too far to make out even the smallest details of race or gender, he nevertheless could not see an animal in sight. He supposed it wasn't inconceivable that she'd walked from Avanthal out here, though it would've been some walk. 'A Kelvic?' He had no reason for this sudden belief, but it made sense. Kelvics certainly weren't uncommon around Avanthal. For all he knew it was a member of the Icewatch. His curiosity was beyond peaked, now. Van wasn't in a hurry, and he hadn't seen another human being in a few days. It would be nice to make some sort of contact. Van prodded at the reins and the horse began to move only marginally quicker. The last thing he wanted was to scare this person, but even more so he didn't want to make it seem like he was trying to sneak up on them. The sound of the snow being crushed under his horse's hooves grew louder, and he assumed the figure would be hearing them soon, if not already.

[Riley LaRose]

The sound of hooves through snow did alert Riley to the approach of another, and she wondered who it was. She turned her head to look back, the left side facing the person approaching as the right side was kept safely away where it couldn’t be seen. A silver-green eye settled on a Vantha man (Riley only knew this because Vantha had such interesting and enviable eye-colours) astride one of those white horses held in great fondness by the people of Avanthal. A slight smile curved her lips. She was so much more at ease when not surrounded by many new faces.

Her hands lifted and she wrapped the scarf around her neck, hoping the wind wasn’t treacherous enough to pull her hair free from the scarf so her face could fully show. No matter what, she still disliked that one feature of herself greatly enough to hide it as though it had no existence to speak of.

The Kelvic faced the approaching Vantha as he got incredibly near her, looking up at him through just the one visible silvery-green eye. She had not seen him before in Avanthal, and if she did maybe she saw him in a large group where he camouflaged nicely. As it was, she was still glad to see a new face. She liked the people here. They were like her kind back home crossed with the bright-spirited Benshira of the desert. She wished she were like them, or like Jaiun.

As he eventually came to a halt, Riley felt the first twinge of shyness after noticing his arrival. It still felt odd to encounter new people.

”Hello...” She said in Vani, one of the few words she did know. Marred by her Arumenic accent, they would sound alien even to her, and perhaps butchered to the Vantha. She hoped he’d realize she couldn’t speak Vani with any credible decency.

[Vanwen Frostfawn]

Van watched the figure turn her head towards him, finally recognizing her as female. Even then he wanted to doubt himself initially. She was presenting herself in profile, her hair and a scarf doing their best to cover up as much of her face as it could. He didn't blame her. He had a gnosis mark and felt the cold touch as it touched his face. He could see her smiling as he drew closer to her, and felt himself relaxing. It was probably not the best move to make. He didn't know her, and if he made a habit of relaxing in situations like this he'd probably end up splayed on the ground, watching as his blood stained the pure snow a bright red as he counted down the last seconds of his life. She seemed to be tense, but there could have been any number of reasons for that. Such instincts, if she was Kelvic, would be perfectly normal. She could have been thinking the same thing about him, after all. He shook his head of those thoughts, only just stopping from rubbing the claw marks on his stomach. He didn't get those scars because he let his guard down. And he certainly wasn't going to be distrustful of someone without reason. If he felt that way then he shouldn't have approached her in the first place. He stopped about ten paces away, the woman's scarf and her hair hiding most of her features. It bothered him, not because he thought she was hiding something. He wasn't sure what it was. She reminded Van of himself when surrounded by relatives in a situation he couldn't escape. Happy to see them, yes, but a little wary at the same time. He felt a kind of kindredness with her in that moment, though he knew next to nothing about her. "Hello." She spoke the greeting in Vani, but it was accented in a way he wasn't immediately familiar with. He almost wasn't sure what she'd actually said at first. It definitely wasn't a first language, he was certain of that. How much of it did she understand? Well, he supposed he'd find out. "I'm Van. I've been out hunting the past couple of days. I saw you by yourself, wanted to make sure you were okay. That and, it was nice to see another person after a couple of days by myself. Maybe I could give you a ride someplace?" In the way that all people try and communicate with those who are from other places, he spoke exaggeratedly and slowly, making it less likely instead of more that she'd understand him. He'd never traveled before, not outside of the region at least, and most people that bothered to travel to Avanthal either spoke the language, or didn't have reason to come see him. Van shook his head, and tried something else. "I'm Van," he began in the common tongue this time. He repeated his previous speach. "I hope you speak common or we won't have much to talk about."

[Riley LaRose]

Riley blinked as she coaxed tendrils of djed into her senses, beginning to gain a 'taste' of sorts for the aura of the man before her. He seemed to feel what she was feeling, as the sweet flavour of uncertainty and calm ticked her mind. She couldn't explain vocally how Auristics worked for her, but she could relate it to individual flavours that weren't tasted on one's physical tongue. It was like the essence of flavour that she sensed.

While the Kelvic couldn't understand what brought on the Vantha's emotions, she could try and piece them together to pick apart what was going through his mind. She really hoped he wasn't here to kill her. The sudden density of a new 'taste' ran over her mental tongue. It was bitter, and so it had to be friendly feelings. Kinship. It wasn't often that she tasted that

Her nose scrunched up at the Vani he addressed her in, her simple mind prodding through the unfamiliar words for anything that made sense, other than articles. It was much more difficult when he spoke slowly. Was he being condescending? She was unsure. It made her smile dim.

Finally, he switched to Common, and her smile tweaked upwards again. Common may not have been her first language, but she was much more fluent in it than she was in Vani.

"I am Riley, Van," she began to reply, flinching slightly as the wind prodded at some of her hair. She continued once she was sure her hair wouldn't fly free. "I'm okay, but I'm flattered to hear you were concerned enough to come over. I didn't expect another person to come upon me, in all honesty. As for a ride, I'm unsure of where I may want to go, other than to Avanthal again. I like it there."

Her eyelid drooped over the silvery iris of her left eye as she had spoken, focused more on relaxing than maintaining eye-contact. "Oh yes, I can speak Common, or I think I'd be completely lost up here." Another smile caught her as she spoke to the Vantha.

[Vanwen Frostfawn]

It was marginally more difficult than usual for Van to keep his horse still. Snowdrift wanted to be moving, and he had taken to rubbing his companion's neck in order to keep him calm. It made him feel even more strongly the woman in front of him was a Kelvic, and probably a predator of some sort. He was sure Snowdrift was much surer than he was, with good reason. It was an instinct that was bred into him that Van simply didn't posses. As far as understanding the woman as a woman, Van wasn't exactly a social marvel, but he knew one thing: smiling was good. When someone smiled they were happy. Of course, people also smile for other reasons, like covering up sadness or preparing to stab someone in the back. Van was not aware of this, though. He wasn't quite sure what to make of this woman's smile, though. It dimmed and brightened, but it was still a smile. It would be easier if her eyes changed color. That he'd grown to understand. "I am Riley, Van," She paused, noticeably reacting to a particular gust of wind as it passed. "I'm okay, but I'm flattered to hear you were concerned enough to come over. I didn't expect another person to come upon me, in all honesty. As for a ride, I'm unsure of where I may want to go, other than to Avanthal again. I like it there." He saw her flinch, but thought nothing of it. It was cold out, after all, and any bit of wind would probably be feeling unpleasant. He focused on the words as she was speaking them, listening and translating back to Vani in his head at the same time. It was good practice, but felt like using a muscle he hadn't used in a long time. "Oh yes, I can speak Common, or I think I'd be completely lost up here." The words finally began to resonate with his own thought processes a she finished, so listening and understanding did not lag too badly behind one another. He paused to think about what to say next, though. He was curious as to what she was doing out in the North all alone. Even he knew, though, that prying was impolite. Perhaps if he said something about himself, made it seem like he was looking for something to do... which he was. And being honest with people was definitely easier than not for him. In the end, he spoke with far less subtlety than he had wished. "Were you out hunting, too? Or perhaps you're an artist? I carve masks, so I don't come out here to work. But some Vantha come to watch animals for sculptures or paint the landscape." Van thought it was a good response. He said something personal, and invited her to say something personal back. He thought about what else he could say, realizing, finally, she had mentioned going back to Avanthal, so... "If you wanted to go back to Avanthal I could take you. Not that I'm particularly looking forward to going back. I still have another few days of supplies, and I've been tracking some footprints that came to a dead end," he said thinking of the wolves feasting on his own target. Van paused. He wasn't exactly looking forward to coming back empty handed. He'd be subjected to all kinds of good natured ribbing, which didn't always feel good natured to him. He was a swordsman first and hunter second at this point, which was perfect if he ended up joining the Icewatch. For being someone who was hunting for money, not as great. He knew what he wanted to ask, but found it difficult. It was more forward than he usually was. Still, she seemed friendly, and Van knew he didn't like being out in the Reaches alone. "Perhaps I could go with you instead, Riley?"

[Riley LaRose]

Riley's eyes flickered to the restless horse, the faint flavour of it's own uncertainty and need to leave tinting the flavour left over by this Van person. She wondered if it sensed what she was. Prey seemed strongest for that. They were dominated by their instincts and a predator like she could come along and snuff their lives out. But she wouldn't. Horses were untouchable, and she had been trained to not even put a paw on their tails. Her father was a horse anyway and so eating one would feel terrible.

Her eyes turned away from the horse dismissively. She did not want the horse to fear her at all, but the beast's reaction to her just showed how unnatural she was. She looked again at the Vantha to watch him as a myriad of tastes assaulted her with his own emotions. His eyes weren't changing colours, so the many nuances in his aura were not that large. She awaited his voice with another slight smile on her lips. She was very quick to smile these days.

His question, followed by a torrent of words, didn't disappoint. A person with that type of aura was meant to speak this way. It was fantastic. She should reply though, before an awkward silence trailed his words.

"I was... thinking, I suppose. Also, I wouldn't have minded hunting. I believe I was considering hunting for something out here. As for being an artist, I dance." Not once did she consider keeping things a secret. She only had one secret from the world as well as the other secrets she and her kind kept for their Masters, but everything else she was trained to be open about. Some things weren't easy to forget or unlearn. "You Vantha are so... artistic..." Her tone became somewhat subdued. Carving masks sounded so much more glamourous than dancing.

Her eyes flicked up to his again. He was talking about hunting. She liked hunting personally, but only as her true self. Four paws were better than two legs, she'd come to know, but two thumbs trumped any advantage an animal could ever have. "So you're a hunter?" She asked him now.

His last words brought a blink from her, her only current show of surprise. He wanted to come with her?

"I'd like that... But, would your horse?"

[Vanwen Frostfawn]

"I was... thinking, I suppose. Also, I wouldn't have minded hunting. I believe I was considering hunting for something out here. As for being an artist, I dance. You Vantha are so... artistic..." It was an interesting comment. It was hard to measure from inside, but objectively speaking a great number of people either made a direct living or had a hobby in a creative art. It never occured to Van that this might have been either compliment or insecurity, and he took the comment as an observation. "Well, Morwen's protection gives us more time than most to pursue hobbies, I suppose." Van had never thought about it in those terms. But he'd heard stories from family who'd travelled to other parts of Mizahar, and all spoke of the lack of cohesion and safety compared to Avanthal. He knew it was difficult to appreciate something one never lacked. It was part of the reason he knew he needed to travel. "So you're a hunter?" He could feel his eyes changing color, brightening in embarrassment. Calling himself a hunter, little as his experience was, didn't always feel right. It made him feel like an imposter. The 'hunt' he'd just come back from was still very fresh in his memory. "I'd like that... But, would your horse?" 'So she's noticed... bad horse' Van thought about it for a moment. Snowdrift was skittish around a lot of Kelvic he had met in Avanthal at first. He'd warmed up to them, though. He needed to say something that would ease her concerns. Something that wouldn't make Riley feel bad, or like it was her fault that Snowdrift was afraid. And it wasn't. Besides, he couldn't shake the feeling that she seemed lonely. Travelling together would be good for the both of them. Good for his horse, too. "So you noticed?" Van's smile was genuinely rueful. "Snowdrift's just shy around new people." Which was true. "But he's real friendly, and if you give him the chance I know you two'll be friends. Isn't that right, Snowdrift." Van ran both hands up Snowdrift's neck, and he leaned his head backwards, wanting to be petted more. He's just jealous you're paying attention to me and not to him."