[Stories in The Snow]Geography (Alea, Coren)

[Oluse]

Oluse pondered the issue of the cost necessary to build a library, primarily ignoring Alea's half-hearted assault, not wanting to engage in any scuffles around the book. They looked sturdy enough, but he knew in essence they were really all just very thin pieces of paper. He couldn't help but philosophize on that a bit, as they walked, and searched. They were really much like the people that fashioned them, very strong and valuable all around, but when you broke them down and damaged the smaller parts of them they turned out to be very delicate.

"Thank you for your assistance, Coren. I'm afraid we wouldn't know the first place to start looking in a collection this big. It would probably take us years to find the right volumes." He did as instructed and focused on one side of the shelf, mentioning one more thing before dedicating his full attention to the search. "We should probably also look at books on navigation. Oh, and anything that is between here and Mura. Like any cities, or..." He trailed off a moment, remembering something, then continued to say, "Dangers." Then lapsed into silence and commenced his search.

[Alea Davenport]

Bringing Oluse along hadn't worked out quite as well as she'd hoped. Granted, she had managed to not throttle Coren yet, but on the other hand, Oluse seemed awfully friendly toward someone Alea considered an enemy. She also noticed with annoyance that Coren seemed perfectly willing to help Oluse find a book. When she had first come to the library, Coren had utterly refused to be of any assistance beyond pointing her to a shelf.

The two seemed perfectly content to ignore her, so rather than admit to feeling left out, she stood back and crossed her arms, waiting for them to find something. She wanted to know more about the place they were going and how to get there, but she thought books were just the most dry, boring things imaginable, and she had yet to have anyone convince her otherwise.

[Coren]

Coren just shrugged as the boy thanked him for helping him look for the book. “It wasn't a problem at all, helping people get used to the library is one part of the job and I am really willing to take my eyes of a certain problem that has been staring at the wrong shelf for quite a while now.” Coren said in a throwaway comment. As the boy began talking about books on navigation and cities between here and mura coren raised an eyebrown in slight confusion. “That is a harsh and pretty unnecessary journey over land. You have to go through taldera and the sylira region. Both of them are pretty dangerous. Though you probably already knew that. Anyway you probably should try and go towards a city called zeltiva, its a port city and then take a boat to the isle mura. Though you could just avoid all of that and just try to get a boat ride to mura straight from avanthal. It will cost quite a bit, but I think that money is worth it to get a safer boatride. Coren really hoped that the boy would see reason and reconsider his plan's. “Also it seems you have forgotten to introduce yourself. My name is coren, as you already know. What is yours?” He held out his hand for a handshake.

[Oluse]

Oluse struggled some with splitting his attention, both trying to scan the titled with both his eyes and a critical mind, and focus on Coren's words. He missed some, but he did hear the word "Sylira." His eyes ceased their search for a short moment as Oluse thought back on what he knew of the region, and physically shivered with a sudden jerk, before returning to stillness and listening to Coren finish. His eyes glanced over as Alea, suspecting she already knew how dangerous her plan was, and how as always her taste for adventure put herself and all close to her in danger.

Not wanting to be rude, however, and valuing introduction quite a bit himself, Oluse broke his study of Alea for the time necessary to introduce him. "Oluse Fortis-saro. Like Alea I am from Denval. It's a pleasure to meet him." His introduction was in Vani. It seemed appropriate. His Vani had actually improved quite drastically in the seasons he had been in Avanthal, and the introduction, though tinged quite drastically still with accent, came with ease. These words were accompanied with a straight face, a firm hand, and eye contact.

Releasing the shake he continued to say, "Alea had failed to mention we would be traveling through Sylira. You're advice is much appreciated. I suppose paying more attention in geography lessons would have paid off more than they seemed they would at the time." He gave a shallow laugh, then his shallower smile faded. The horror stories, and specific foreboding warning against traveling the region rang in his head, and scared away any hopes of a true smile. "Alea, have you considered taking a boat?" He finished, and looked to her, temporarily abandoning the bookshelf to consult his friend.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea would tromp out into the wilderness alone before she took any advice from Coren. She glared at him, then turned her angry gaze to Oluse as she answered his question. "I've been on a boat. Boats are small and cramped and boring. What is even the point of seeing the world if you're just going to stare at ship hulls for most of it?" She walked over to the shelf, forcing her way between Oluse and that terrible influence of a librarian. "There must be some other cities between here and Mura that would be interesting to visit, that you can't get to by boat."

Still refusing to speak directly to Coren, she turned her back to him as she tried to figure out how to get her plan to win out over the "safer" more boring alternative. "Do you thing any of these ugly old books have maps of the Taldera and Syliras regions in them? That might make it easier to plan a route. How's this: I'll find a route I like, you find a route you like, and then we'll talk to Banir and see which one he likes better. This trip IS for his sake after all." That's right, if she could guilt-trip Oluse and get Banir on her side, then their adventures would be properly exciting. As for the danger... "It's not like we'll be going alone anyway." There were plenty of people Alea planned to bring on this little adventure.

[Coren]

Coren let out an annoyed sigh as alea once again proved how much of a stubborn child she was as she forced her way in between him and oluse all the while trying to force her will on the other poor boy. Before he could even accept his handshake none the less “Well to be honest, the only way over land that has a good chance of you people making it through the trip alive is with a caravan. Which sounds just as exiting as sitting in a ship. With a lot more chance that you are going to die, if there is a caravan that is willing to take you with them anyway.” He Pulled out a well worn leather bound book . “And not going alone doesn't really make that much difference to be honest. If you got a group that doesn't know anything about how to survive in those parts you all are going to die anyway.” He paged through the book and gave a small nod as he confirmed this was one of the traveling journals. “Anyway I found one of the books I was looking for. But I'm doubting any of you really understand the dangers of the talderan fauna if boredom is an influence in your choice. You all have seen how big icewatch polarbear already didn't you? Now almost all of the talderan fauna has the same increase in size as the Icewatch polarbears.” Coren held out the book to oluse for him to take, if alea would try to take it he would just quickly pull it out of her reach.

[Oluse]

Oluse decided to leave the debate to Alea, she did so enjoy her arguments. So he took the book with a murmured thank you, then added more audibly.

"A friend of Alea believes he requires healing in a place called Mura, which supposedly has magical healers of some sort."

Then with the slightest of shrugs he flipped open the book, and took a look at the table of content, starting to get a grasp on what sort of information might be in it.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea was unable to ignore Coren any longer. "Don't assume you know what I know! I happen to know exactly how big Talderean animals can get! How many have YOU seen. I mean, other that the Icewatch bears which everyone has seen." She was getting defensive, largely because Coren was bringing up a lot of possible dangers that she hadn't fully considered yet.

The obvious solution was to work on a solution to a problem even Coren hadn't thought of yet. "I'm more worried about getting lost. Mizahar is a big place, right? How are we supposed to know where we're going? Do you have any books on THAT?" She crossed her arms and smirked, convinced she had him stumped.

[Coren]

Coren rolled his eyes at alea as she suddenly snapped at him. “I have seen enough talderean animals in my lifetime to know how big those can get alea, though I don't really see what that has to do with this. Besides IF you know exactly how big talderean animals can get it means that your even more reckless or idiotic to consider going through with your current travel plan instead of taking the boat.”[/b] Coren argued back in a calm voice, though there were some ondertones in his voice that clearly indicated he was getting a bit annoyed. When Alea said she was more worried about getting lost coren was dumbstruck by the comment for a few moments. She was planning on traversing the entire region of taldera and didn't even have anybody who knew how to navigate in the wild? [b]“You gotta be kidding me right? You are already planning to travel but you haven't got anybody with you that knows how to avoid getting lost? Something like that is usually one of the first things you do before you get started on the rest of the planning.” Coren rubbed his temple with his hands as he shook his head in disbelief. “Well then again, its you who is planning the entire trip so its no wonder you haven't got a clue about what is needed for it. So in response to your question. Yes we have books on how to navigate through the wildernis and we have maps. Though we don't lend out those, so you probably should get those somewhere else.”

[Oluse]

Oluse glances up from the pages of his volume, and helpfully offered, "I'm sure Alea would be willing to stay in the library while she studies those, if you think you could allow us use of the books as long as we stay here within your sight." Then smiled at Alea, thinking another moment, then added, "But, perhaps we could see some books on sea travel and navigation as well. Perhaps some books on types of ships, and any travel logs of journeys between here and Mura. That way we can compare and contrast, and either way we would have some background knowledge on the type of travel we would use. But, don't worry. I am sure Alea wasn't planning on going anywhere without a trained navigator," He looks back to Alea again, "Right?" Then his smile faded slightly, as something seemed to dawn on him, and with a straight face repeated, "Right?"

Oluse wasn't altogether dedicated to the trip, and the idea Alea might want to go without a guide seemed very near suicidal to him. Alea could cop all the childish attitude she wished it wouldn't stop them from being eaten or starving to death as they wander about without direction. Oluse was worried now, and wasn't sure how he would help show Alea reason, that two children could not do this alone, without large amounts of training. And even then it took more than sheer numbers to make something work, people complicated travels and simplified them, something Alea likely couldn't comprehend. He directed his worried look to Coren, as if pleading him to fix Alea's brain. "Perhaps we should start at the beginning, yes. Basic sea and land navigation, no travel logs for the moment. No harm in taking our time."