PM to join [Sanikas Pass] Things That Come to Pass (Nij)

[Kovac]

Timestamp: 43rd Day of Fall, 512 AV Location: Sanikas Gate/Sanikas Pass The weather had remained rather warm, though the encroaching change in season was foreshadowed in a cool breeze from off of Thunder Bay that came and went. Kovac waited, his back against a stone wall. He was clad in a black bryda of heavier construction and more pockets. His torso was bare except for a lightweight forest green vest, which he left open. Kovac's pack was leaning against the wall nearby, along with his bow, quiver and talon sword. The avora hunter picked at his fingernails with a long knife, running the narrow razor tip under the edges before poking idly at the pads of his left-hand fingers, calloused from years of playing a stringed instrument. The half-breed's latest assignment was to accompany some animal expert down into the pass. Someone figured that someone else should gather as much information about the strange creatures that had cropped up after the Storm before Winter came and shuts everything down. Several teams had been sent out in different areas, and the stories they brought back ranged from the curious to the frightening. All Kovac knew was that he was to pack for a trip of several days, at least two to get down the Road, two in the Pass, and two coming back up. They were to keep an eye out for oddities along the mountain road as well as in the Pass. His duty was to escort some Caiyha-lover named Nijin. Kovac didn't know any Nijin, so he simply waited for her to show up.

[Nij]

"What do you mean, 'he's waiting for you there'? Who's waiting for me?" Vincis was silent. What was the saying, don't shoot the messenger? Nij must not have heard that before. For all she was about animals, people were different. "Why would I need help looking at animals? I was planning to climb mountains. This is the last time I tell anyone when I plan to leave." Nij sighed and sat down next to the pile of junk she had emptied from her backpack. He better have a tent or really like sleeping in trees and caves, like she did. She didn't like tents -- she couldn't observe around her and it was just another layer between her and the tree she so kindly asked to sleep in. Usually she just wrapped herself in her fur cloak. 'Be back in six days' was what she was told. She sifted through her stuff, her gaze floating towards her pile of mountain climbing gear in the corner. I'll be damned if I don't go mountain climbing at all this trip. She put the gear in her bag, leaving only enough room for a brush, soap, an eating knife, and her clothing from Alvadas. The waterskin hooked to the side, and as if an afterthought, she rolled up the fur cloak and shoved it in the bag as best she could. A season in Wind Reach made the city of caverns easier to navigate. At least, the path from her room to the gates was familiar. She had left Vincis to take care of the poona. As far as she could tell, the creature didn't care who it was with, as long as it was fed. And there, waiting, was a hunter, most likely the person she was supposed to go around and look. At least he would know how to approach animals. She stood there, silent, for a few moments, sizing him up. "Kovac."

[Kovac]

Kovac watched the girl approach. She did have a pack over her shoulder, but Kovac dismissed her immediately, just some kid working on a bendi. But when she stopped in front of him and just stared, he thought again. Well, maybe the Yasi was serving a bendi for this Phylonurist he was supposed to meet. Great, a nature girl and her sidekick. The girl stood there rather unintimidated, her dark eyes surveying him from head to toe before she finally spoke up. "Kovac." A sudden bad feeling came over him. Maybe she wasn't Yasi. She certainly was not inartan, didn't look any more like the gingers than he did. She just stood there staring. Oh shyke no, not a kid. The girl could have been no older than fifteen, a short, slight thing with sad eyes and a cute cleft chin. The knife was slipped back into the sheath at Kovac's side. He pushed himself off the wall and narrowed his green-eyed gaze as he examined the teenager. "Nijin?"

[Nij]

"I prefer Nij." He looked at her oddly. What had he been expecting? "What, you were waiting for someone older? An inartan, perhaps?" She sighed. "Caiyha marks her witches when they are children." She started down the pass, walking as steadily as she ever would. Ridiculous. Like she needed someone who probably thought she should have been a Yasi -- not an Avora. He didn't look full Inarta, either. She hissed through her teeth and glanced over her shoulder. "I hope you like climbing mountains." Not big ones. Little ones, of course. She could never climb big ones. Not yet, anyways. But she had to make sure that the valley was going to be okay for when it started snowing hard. As of today, and for the next six days, she had to worry about wild djed-induced creatures, like the Poona or a two-headed bear. That of course included climbing mountains. Sticking to the valley and easy-to-access places wouldn't have half as many the results as climbing some mountains. She kept on walking, with or without him.

[Kovac]

Someone resented him. Well, still resented him. Kovac had hoped that while he was away at Water Reach, the number of people he irritated and rubbed the wrong way would sort of forget. But this...well, someone must have it out for him, sending him a kid to trail out into the valley. "Nij?" He muttered. It sounded like some sort of little annoying insect. She was sassy, the half-breed actually liked that though. "Yeah, I expected a grown-up, not a kid. Whether you are inarta or not, well, makes on difference to me." He gestured at himself, he certainly was not pure inartan. "The only thing I care about is that you know what you are doing and you don't do anything to get us killed." But Kovac was not sure the small woman even heard him. She was already heading out the gate. "Petch" Grabbing up his gear, Kovac hurried after Nij, easily catching up to the smaller strides of the girl as she started the long descent down the Sanikas Road. "I hope you like climbing mountains." Kovac goaned. It was going to be a long trip. Longer if they didn't talk, he admitted. "So...Nij...how did a...not-Inarta kid, I mean young woman, find her way to Skyinarta?" Without being eaten, he wanted to add.

[Nij]

"Kid, young woman, does it matter to me?" She lifted up one leg of her bryda to show the swirling Phylonura gnosis. "That's how. Won't get killed by any animal, no matter how deformed it is. One of the good things about being a witch." She didn't offer up any more information about being a Phylonurist. In her opinion, if he wanted to know, he could ask. She absentmindedly picked up a rock and started tasting it. It was a habit Nij had gotten on her way to Wind Reach. She liked the taste. Like earth and home. It helped her taste imbalances in the soil, imbalances in the tiny things she couldn't see but knew that were there. "You don't have a tent. I don't either. I sleep in the trees."

[Kovac]

The teenager seemed to infer Kovac's unspoken thoughts, and the half-breed gave her credit for her perception. The girl had a measure of arrogance, certainly some of it earned by the fact that she actually did make it to this remote mountain alive. Some of her haughtiness could be attributed to her status as one "marked by the gods". The hunter figured getting that kind of recognition, attested by the elaborate depiction that adorned her slim thigh, would make one feel rather important. And then, of course, she was a teenager. Nij was not Kovac's first experience working with a teen. He had worked to train Rista in archery. But the avora had some affinity for that yasi, she too being only half-inartan. Kovac took a liking to her, taking her under his wing like a little sister. He had not seen Rista since his return from Water Reach, nor had he been able to find out what happened to her. Kovac simply grunted at Nijin's comment about sleeping in the trees. As long as she didn't fall out and he didn't have to drag her mangled body back up this mountain, he was fine with it. Thing was, somehow Kovac felt Nij was quite able to do what she said with little difficulty. The two avora walked the next few chimes down the road with little words between them. Autumn had laid hold of the region, and the beautiful view from the descending road was enough to satisfy the travelers for a while. Finally, Kovac broke the silence. "So, what kind of weird things have you seen out here since the Storm?" He asked, glancing down and the raven-haired girl.

[Nij]

"Very colourful squirrels, mostly. A blue stag with gills and scales rolling around in a river. I haven't seen any bears or anything dangerous, though. Have you?" She absentmindedly twirled her fingers around the branches and leaves of a tiny bush they passed, the tiny thoughts spreading into her mind. She didn't pay much attention to it, though. Nij both hated and loved going into the unforgiving. Sometimes it gave her a headache - being perceptive to the enviroment wasn't always fun. "What did you do to get stuck with me?"

[Kovac]

Kovac and his companion had reached the first intersection of the Sanikas Road where it crossed the steps on its serpentine path down the side of the mountain. The stairs widened and broadened, giving the hunter and the Phylonuran more room to walk together.

The girl was...strange. She seemed intent on sensing everything along the way, brushing overhanging tree branches as they passed, inhaling scents, even licking that rock. Either Nij knew what she was doing or she was bat-crap crazy. Had she not shown him her gnosis mark, Kovac would have easily chosen the latter.

"I haven't seen anything really out of the ordinary so far." He answered with a disappointed cast to his features. " Maybe you will bring me better luck."

"What did you do to get stuck with me?"

Nij's self-abasing inquiry made Kovac laugh. "I don't know little Nij. Must have been something pretty bad to be saddled with a know-it-all like you. But you are cute and you have some sass, I like that." His grin was ornery, goading the teenager. "Have you considered that maybe you have done something wrong to get stuck with me?"

They had set a good pace and would reach the first shelter along the road in plenty of time for dinner. Nij was small but kept a good stride, and Kovac guessed they would arrive at the end of the road and enter the pass late tomorrow afternoon.

He looked down at the dark-haired girl. "You are not one of us....them," Kovac still existed somewhere between being Inartan and not, "...where are you from?"