And Then Everything Changed... [Akilah]

[Ronan]

12th Day of Autumn in 511 AV Ronan's training for the Watch was coming along slowly but surely. As he trotted out into the Grasses atop Tairell, he felt more natural than ever. Never had it felt so comfortable to ride his Strider. The leggy mare had been through quite a tumultuous time, but the events of that stormy night seemed to be fading from her memory. Especially with the gentle persuasion of a fresh carrot. He moved her a little faster, cantering down the broads, heading away from the moving city and out into uncharted wilderness. There was a familiar warmth blowing off the coast, but the wind remained. A smile began to form on his face, born from running free on his Strider, moving through the Grasses. This was being a Drykas. This was what it was all about. He had been riding for quarter of an hour when he saw the shape in the distance. A female staggering in the Grass. Tairell's ears pricked up, and Ronan aimed towards the figure. One day he would be in the Watch, protecting the citizens of Endrykas. Now was the time to test his mettle. "Go on old girl, go on!" he cried, galloping towards the figure.

[Akilah Windsong]

Stupid girl. Stupid, stupid girl. That was all Akilah could think as she slowly limped toward home. Never had the city seemed so far away--always she came out by horse, galloping her way around the plains her city settled into.

It figured the one time she decided to go out on her own she got hurt. No one was around to help her, no friends to pick her up, no horse to carry her back. Not even Vespera was here to comfort her.

Her left foot throbbed once more as she took a step, shooting lances of pain up her leg. Grunting, she stopped for a moment, shifting her weight to her right to ease the pressure. Panting heavily, she looked up, trying to gauge the distance to the cloth city.

It looked far. Very far.

Stupid girl. No one goes out without a horse, without their strider. The plains would eat her alive, if they could. If Adámas was sick, she should have taken another horse. If she wanted to be alone, she should have stayed near the outskirts.

But no. In her curiosity, she went too far following an old rabbit trail. In the dust that caked the earth, the rabbit prints remained a clear marker. No matter how smudged or overrun they were, she could see enough to follow it out into the fields. Through trenches and over rocks, the path had led, until she took a tumble in a small ditch.

Small, but deadly, her foot slipped and she hit the earth fall.

She didn't want to think about how her foot felt after that, how it looked. It didn't seem broken. Angry and swollen, she was still able to move her ankle despite the protest it gave when she did so.

Moving forward, it was all she could do. Her lesson was learned. Oh, Zulrav, help...

It was when she couldn't walk any more that she heard thunder in the plains. Zulrav was a fickle god, she knew, one who could help as easily as hinder. To send a storm, though? Reluctantly, she raised her eyes to the sky.

Only to see a rider, his horse galloping quickly to her. A fickle god, but good to her people. A tired smile broke her face and she waved her arms as much as she dared, trying to maintain balance. Akilah knew she looked a mess--dirt decorated her pale clothing like a leopard's spots and her braids had loosened from the fall. Her silver pants were slightly torn and it was all she could do to remain standing.

But there was a rider and there was a horse and it looked like she could make it home after all.

[Ronan]

As he approached he began to make out the figure. A young female, limping as if she'd injured herself. She had dark hair, partly braided, and her clothes were fraying and torn. It didn't look serious enough to be a Glassbeak attack, thank the God's. "Don't worry," he called as he slowed Tairell's movements down, "you're safe now." He hopped off his Strider and rushed over to her, catching her just as she began to sway. Though this wasn't a wild creature attack, she was still pretty cut up. He needed to take her back to Endrykas. "What's your name?" he asked, slowly comforting her.

[Akilah Windsong]

It was an older man who came to her rescue. His hair was oddly short and she could see the tips of his windmarks from the edges of his sleeves. A stranger, she could see that he wasn't that much older than her, though his eyes said otherwise. As he dismounted his strider quickly, she was able to see the worry etched on his face.

She almost bristled at his words. The truth in them stung her and vulnerable state she was in made her tense. In the end, though, he had saved her and her life was worth more than her pride.

Relaxing slightly, she let him support her, his arm wrapped around her shoulder as they stood there. Leaning against him, she gave a sigh of relief as the pressure on her ankles lessened.

"Thank you," she said, directing her words both to the strider and the man. Her face felt a little hot as she admitted, embarrassed, "I look worse than I am--it was just a fall." A nasty one, perhaps, with scrapes and bruises, but a fall all the same. She couldn't call herself a warrior if she couldn't handle this much.

Wincing as they moved, she continued. "I'm Akilah, of the Windsong Pavilion. And you are?"

[Ronan]

They began to walk slowly back towards Tairell, allowing the girl to lean against the side of his body for support. She was right, it wasn't major, but her injuries looked like more than just cuts and bruises. She needed tending to despite her modesty. "I'm Akilah, of the Windsong Pavilion -" Windsong... Ronan's breath caught in his throat, choking him momentarily. He stopped moving, and saw Akilah frown. Windsong... she couldn't? It was impossible. But the seed of doubt had been planted, and he slowly began to realise that this could be happening. And he had thought all to be lost... by the God's. "Windsong...?" he began slowly, his voice shaking, his strength waining. Suddenly nothing in the world mattered but this. Everything else faded like a dull tapestry, receding around him. "There is only one Pavilion of that name in Cyphrus... only one." He turned around so he could stare into Akilah's eyes. Could she be...? "I am Ronan. Ronan Windsong." And the world trembled.

[Akilah Windsong]

She almost stumbled forward when he stopped suddenly. Frowning, she looked at him to see what the problem was and froze at the expression on his face. He looked so...surprised, so vulnerable, so afraid. As though something earth-shattering had occurred, as though something he thought impossible had just happened.

As though his life had changed with her name.

His voice sounded as conflicted as him and she had to strain to hear his words before they were lost to the winds. Slowly, his words grew firmer, his voice stronger. The emotion that ran beneath them, entwined with the expression on his face--she couldn't fathom it.

He looked like a drowning man reaching for a rope.

Uncertain, she hesitantly replied, "Yes...though we are larger than one pavilion now..."

She stared at him now, his name still echoing in her ears. That wasn't possible.

Every single one, from the newborns to the elders, she knew every single member in her family. Her cousins, her grandparents, her aunts and uncles, her nephews and nieces. She knew everyone.

And not once had she met this Ronan that stood before.

"How?" Confused, she searched his face for any familiar characteristics. Her father's nose, her eldest's uncle's sharp chin. The doe eyes of her grandma, the plump cheeks of her aunt. Something. "I don't know you...I know everyone, how do I not know you?"

[Ronan]

Ronan's blood ran icy cold, and he was shaking. Shaking so terribly. "I... I don't understand," he said. "They died... they fell into ruin." He stumbled a little, but managed to keep his hold on her. "But the rest of them... they just fell apart." There was too much to take in, and Akilah was just as confused. The confusion was fine though, it was the shock. It was the fact the world had spun, and turned, and twisted. It had rocked so violently, moving every player upon its surface. "My brother fell first... and then I left when my parents died. When I came back to Endrykas, the Pavilion had... fallen apart. I don't understand." And then ignorance became bliss for Ronan, he gave up on comprehending and began to walk towards Tairell with Akilah wedged under his muscular arm. "We need to get you back to Endrykas," he said vacantly, "can you ride behind me?" He walked like a spirit, an amorphous being merely floating across the ground. This girl... he couldn't think about the truth, he couldn't! The tears were welling up, every fragment of memory threatening to stab at him like shattered glass. No. He'd get her patched up, and then leave her to fend for herself. He could only picture himself walking away from the smouldering wreckage of his past.

[Akilah Windsong]

She could feel each tremor of his body as it ran through her, his grip on her tightening slightly as he spoke. It was starting to hurt, but not as much as his words.

"All...dead?" She stared at him now, eyes wide in surprise. Dead? But no, her family is alive. Alive and healthy and what was he talking about?

The stumble was worse for her than him, jolting her ankle. Biting her lip, she stopped her cry before it could happen. This was more important than any pain.

Deaths, deaths, he was older than her, but not by much. She must have been alive when this happened. Must have heard of some family members dying. Deaths, deaths, what was it, something familiar nudged in her mind.

Frowning, she searched her memories. Several years ago...several years ago something had happened. Her grandpa had been withdrawn and depressed for weeks. Something to do with his brother and his pavilion...

This time she stopped moving, trying to recall the exact events. They had been fighting, she knew. They had stopped talking for a while. And then...then what?

Young as she had been, she should have asked more questions.

She ignored his words, the sudden slack in his grip, the strange tone of his voice. "You're from granduncle's family, aren't you?"

If only her grandpa were alive, he'd have shaken of the regret that clung to him those last few years. Maybe he would have smiled again. "You are, right?" Her voice rose slightly, excited and hopeful. "You have to come home with me."

Maybe grandpa wasn't there anymore, but her parents and her grandma still were. They remembered, they knew. They must have been waiting for this. A survivor. A chance to make amends.

[Ronan]

A role reversal had happened so subtly, that Ronan hadn't even noticed. It seemed he was the patient now, forced into a catatonic state by world changing revelations. The pieces were coming together, and he had so wanted to run away. But turning his back and just forgetting again was not an option. The girl had faint memories, he could see the recollection in her eyes. And when she mentioned her granduncle... he could not deny the truth any longer. This would change everything. If the Windsong pavilion still lived on - in any form - then he would have family. He would have a home. His life would be so very different. But it seemed like a cruel dream, intangible, and impossible to reach. Everything else in his life had burned - why wouldn't this? Fate was a trickster, with poisonous arrows taut and ready to fire at every turn. When he realised she was in pain, he breathed heavily three times with his eyes shut, then got a hold of himself. He supported her properly, glancing at her every few seconds. Family. Bloodline. His heart fluttered. "My father was Michaeus Windsong..." he said slowly. Tairell appeared at his side, bowing her head and whinnying gently. "Do you think you could ride behind me on the Strider?" he asked the girl.

[Akilah Windsong]

She held her tongue, fighting the urge to resist the coddling. Even when she was little, she had balked at aid when injured, preferring to make it back on her own two feet.

Still, her ankle throbbed, pulsating through her leg, and after walking many weary hills and plains, her strength was waning. Leaning against him, she concentrated on moving on step in front of the other.

Thankfully, he hadn't asked why she was out here. The stupidity of going out without a horse was not something that could be easily explained, no matter how clouded her mind was when she started walking.

Glancing up at him, it seemed he had made up his mind. He looked a little more solid now, stable. Taking his words as a consent to come home, she gave an apologetic look at his words. "His name sounds familiar, but I never really paid attention to family history." Always running out when she could, liking the open sky above her more than the white canvass. "But my grandma should and probably all of my aunts and uncles."

She peered around him to the strider, taking her in. "Ah, she's handsome." A hand reached out, allowing the horse to take her in before stroking her velvety head. "What's her name?"

Looking up at the horse, she realized exactly how tall the creature was. "As long as I can get on her." Her right foot couldn't take the weight of her body on its own, whether she used it to get her other foot on the yvas's rungs or if it was the one on the rungs. "I'll need some help with that."