[Flashback] Earning a few coin, one caravan at a time [Kale]

[Vexrea Hawke]

Spring 26, 507 A.V


Vexrea had arrived early at the Bizarre . The walk here alone had been annoying enough, the nature of Alvadas made setting a meeting at a time and place difficult. She had passed a pond where there shouldn’t have been one, the temple of Ionu that should have been on the other side of the city, and The Wolf's Cave, their dirty looks always got to her. Still, here she was leaning up against the entrance ahead of when she said she would have been. Curiosity almost had her step in, but she knew better, and business had always come first.


The day before she had got a lucky break. While making her daily trips , looking for work, she had come across the opportunity to play caravan guard. Mizahar was not the safest place in the world, so the jobs where fairly frequent for such things, and tended to be the day in, day out sort of coin a merc like her would earn. Unfortunately for this trip they where looking for more then a single guard. As such well... she had little choice


“Inviting someone else for a job.. this is a new one for you Vex” she mutters to herself, looking up to the sky. Grey clouds blotted out the sun, not that unusual for the season.. She had her black cloak over her shoulders, the hood pushed back. What light there was glinted off of her gauntlets , obviously cleaned from the fight the day before. She shifted a bit, as she had been taking her bath the evening before she knew just how black and bruised her body was at the moment. Thankfully nothing broken, only minor cuts but the task before her would have her quickly looking forward to a plush bed and another bath before too long.


“ Mind back on business” she chided herself aloud, drawing the attention of a few passerby’s . She waved them on. Well, there was little to do but to wait..

[Kale]

Kale had lived in the city of illusion to realize just how impossible to was to find a place in that exact place the next day. However the longer you lived there the greater your sense of direction got. Whether it was some subconscious ability or simply some pattern that was too complex for waking mind to notice, you eventually were able to find your way through the city and find the places you were seeking. Of course there were occasions when you still got lost despite having lived in the city all of your life. Those times happened more often to people like Kale who had spent nearly all of his time in the city in the same few places. Perhaps the fact that he thought he could find his way through the city without a map was also part of the city's illusion. He had only met Vexrea the day before. He had immediately admired her for the skill had displayed with those gauntlets of hers. They had been put against two opponents that were well versed in fighting together and had won against them. It had been a little touch and go at first but as the twins, because their opponents had been twins, obtained more and more injuries the fight had begun to be one sided. Soon enough they had finished both of their opponents off and won their match. The crowd had basked them in applause and cheering at the way they had each finished their opponent. A person alone was normally pretty docile. Numbers of people together tended to become bloodthirsty easily. It was the conversation after the fight that the two of them had actually had their first full conversation. It was a conversation in name only. Both of the gladiators were beings of few words. Their version of a conversation normally would have simply extended to the words that you spoke to an opponent as you were trying to kill him. This left them both in a very peculiar situation when it came to trying to converse with each other. The two had actually spent more time staring at each other and cleaning themselves from the dirty and blood accumulated during the match then actually talking to each other. It was not that they despised one another. It was just neither of them knew how to start a conversation with the other. Eventually Vexrea had spoken first. She opened with thanking him for not getting her killed. They had both laughed at that because they were the words that Kale had spoken when they had first stepped foot upon the sands of the arena. With that single sentence the ice between the two of them had been broken. At length they had agreed that they considered each other strong fighters and that while the match had not gone perfect it could have gone much worse than it had. At length they agreed to partner up on such a fight in the future. Neither of them had much experience in "playing well with others". When Vexrea suggested hiring onto a caravan as a way to make extra coin and perhaps get better skilled in the department they both lacked Kale had accepted. That was what brought him so far away from the arena for the first time in quite a while. No matter how lucky or how well you knew Alvadas, the city of illusion could still be confusing and play tricks on the mind. It was truly a city for outcasts like him. Kale finally arrived at their designated meeting place but did not initially see Vexrea. It took him a few minutes before he found the female warrior.