Communication had many barriers. Language was certainly one of them, and Briar hated it.
While it helped him maintain the image of clueless tourist, he didn't want to feel like one. He didn't mind people believing that since it could only work in his favour while he was gathering money on the streets, though he probably wouldn't complain if he could at least understand all what people were saying. These last few days had been spent hunting around the city to create visuals in his mind of the various locations of this city, inspired by a
certain meeting a couple of days ago. He'd brought his map with him and a generous amount of clothes so he could survive the long day of wandering, arriving finally in front of the Crystal Hall. It was... a very impressive structure, to say the least. Suffice to say, the man felt dwarfed before the massive building and the sheer magnificance of a kind he'd never seen before. Avanthal was, in so many ways, different from his former home. Sunberth had been in a poor shape and nothing particularly impressive had been constructed there for as long as he could remember. The city was practically falling apart as far as he was concerned, whereas Avanthal stood in all its glory and basked in Syna's light. Sometimes, Briar told himself this city had been stolen out of some young child's favourite fairytale.
That might be far from the truth, however. While it was absolutely stunning on the outside, certain odd happenings of late had started to cut through his illusion of a peaceful fairyland of ice. Shouting from up ahead caught his attention and he apprehensively approached the stairs leading up to the Hall. A crowd had started to gather and this one woman was shouting at a man on the stairs who was... appearing to be protecting a young kid. Whatever the woman was saying to him, he couldn't really tell. He could make out that it was about a mage, or magic. More than that, he couldn't really know for sure. It was all jumbled up gibberish to him, his limited knowledge in Vani making itself painfully obvious to him. ... He really needed to work on his proficiency in the language. This was no good at all.
Briar blinked and froze when he saw that the woman prepared to hurl a chunk of sharp ice at the man on the stairs. ... The man was already bleeding from his temple and the observant Briar could spot a large icechunk resting near him on the steps. Putting two and two together, Briar could only assume the woman had already thrown once before she was, now, stopped. He felt a tinge of relief; whatever this was, it didn't look good. The woman passed hateful glares to the wounded man and it seemed her discontent was shared by a greater part of the gathered crowd. ... Briar only had to look in most of their eyes to know that something was definitely wrong, colours shifting back and forth.
These Vantha...Eventually, the Icewatch appeared to scatter the crowd and Briar was not one to protest when they were ushered to leave the scene. He just unfolded his map while walking, scouting out his next location of interest before wandering on through the streets of Avanthal. So much to see, so little time!
by Briar Holden on October 2nd, 2012, 8:10 pm 
