Solo Branches and Twigs

[Lenz]

53rd of Summer, 514 AV
Lenz's Tent

Lenz awoke with a start, scrambling among the various fabrics and seams from her blanket. She tossed and turned, wrestling with the material as if it were an alligator having clamped its massive jaws on her legs. Finally the blanket conceded, letting go of her body.

Beads of sweat had formed over her eyebrows. She brushed them away with the back of her hand before tossing the blanket off from her thighs. She was lying in the tent, the tent of which she had despised ever since the death of her child.

Why had she returned here and not instead wandered the vacant streets of the night? How had she ended up asleep in here in the first place?

The tent door was open, revealing a forest of trees flooded with lush leaves and multiple other vegetation some harvestable and others poisonous to the human body.

There was no doubt the reason behind her sweating. Leaving the tent flap open had exposed her to the heat of the night and the many bugs and insects of the nightlife. She checked her body only to be relieved to find no instance of bites among her fair tones flesh.

She sighed, exhaling warm heat into the already scorching air. This only made her more confused as to why she was sleeping with a blanket shrouding her body.

She tried to recall to the dream she had before she had woken up. It was a nightmare, she was sure, for why else had she been sweating for profusely besides the variable of having the blanket covering her?

Her eyes hurt with such intensity that once she had stepped out into the morning sunlight she immediately closed them. They burned so terribly that she fell back into the tent, landing on her bedroll and blankets.

Suddenly the images of the past night flashed before her eyes. She was walking down an alleyway when she came across a woman wearing a slutty dress that was too tight on her. Her makeup had dripped from her eyes and had smudged itself across her cheeks.

Lenz didn’t know what to do. She had always felt somewhat sentimental and soothing around those such as that woman, but when she went to help her the lady lashed out and threatened to murder her if she came any closer.

For some reason this reaction brought tears to the read head’s eyes, sending her away and into the night with a puddle of sobs following closely behind. She couldn’t recall anything else besides waking up; so what was the nightmare she had?

“That’s right,” she whispered to herself, propping her head on her elbow which had been resting on her raised kneecap. “That’s completely right.”

She had dreamt about the child again- the child with the name of Ipisol. She could see the man’s filthy hands rubbing themselves all over the little girl’s body.

She could smell the alcohol enriching his already foul smelling breath. She watched as the man slapped Lenz across the face and all the while the present tense Lenz was standing in the background, unable to interact in the scenes that were being depicted before her. This made her more frustrated than she had ever been before.

Being unable to change the events before her, being inept to do anything but witness the disaster unfold before her very eyes- it was all unimaginably frightening. It was devastating and devastating was the word that caused her to awake in a frantic state of panic and misery.

She shook her head and scratched her eyes with her fingers before opening them again. She tried again to see the morning. She sat up, used her knees to propel herself upwards before snatching balance with her feet. She proceeded to take a tentative step forward before she emerged from the shelter of her tent and into the awaiting world before her.

This time it was much easier for her to handle. She only needed to shield her eyes for a minute before turning around to zip the tent’s flap again.

Pivoting, she was met with the wild scenery. It was beautiful to the normal person, but to her it was just another reminder than things were happier than she was.

And why do you suppose that is?

“Good morning to you too,” she replied, absentmindedly acknowledging the voice inside her head.

I never said good morning to you.

Lenz growled. “What do you mean by ‘why do I suppose that’?”

Why do you suppose you are unhappy?

“I don’t need to tell you why I am unhappy. The universe threw this upon me. The gods smite me and force me to feel terrible; therefore it is all their faults. They were the ones that caused her death- it wasn’t me! Why else do you suppose I am unhappy?”

There was no response, and frankly, the redheaded woman was thankful for that. The voice had subsided, or at least for the time being. With that in mind, she set out to find something to distract herself before things got out of hand. She didn’t want to start her day off with the wrong foot.

Too bad she already had.

[Lenz]

53rd of Summer, 514 AV
Lenz's Tent

Her eyes managed to scan upwards, observing the morning sky. The sun had barely lifted itself above the horizon, meaning that it was only a few hours past the fourth bell if any.

She began to enjoy her trek further into the forest, examining the flowers and other green objects that flourished on the limbs of various trees and shrubs. Everything was beautiful and lively and free feeling. Strangely instead of making Lenz feel more depressed, the sight made her feel more lively as well.

She smiled, for once in the longest of times. She smiled. She smiled and continued walking that was until she stepped on a branch and eliciting a stirring in the woods.

A flock of birds lifted off from the forest floor and flew up into the branches and past. They reached elevation high enough to be able to spread their wings to their fullest extent and soar above the canopy.

Lenz stood and stared in awe as she watched them fly, that was for the longest time she was able to before they were out of sight. With that scene’s moment dying slowly, she found herself needing another one. It wasn’t too long before her eyes came across something peculiar out in the distance.

She took a step forward and stepped on another branch, mentally cursing herself for her failed attempt at being stealthy. She tried again, clearing a branch and remaining her invisible façade. With her presence unknown, she continued to sneak through the forest, hiding behind various trees and crouching behind several shrubs.

Suddenly the thing she found was peculiar from out in the distance was even stranger only it wasn’t out in the distance; it was closer and more obvious. It was a man and he was naked, a large leaf covering his bum with its green shading.

She knelt down and looked at him with a more intensive gaze. He was lying face down in a dry, grassy area in the middle of a small clearing in the forest.

His shoulders were muscular and well-toned and this was something Lenz kept in mind as dark thoughts began to swirl in her mind. His hair was stark black and matted to the back of his head which was tilted slightly to the right to promote breathing for his time spent unconscious.

She wondered how long it had been since he had fallen; could it have been several hours? Could he have been like this for a day or two? What had happened to him to cause him to be lying out in the middle of nowhere nude?

She didn’t waste any more time dwelling on the possibilities. Instead, she decided to see what she could do about getting him back to her tent. She had things up her sleeves whether they were devious, dubious or just plain insane.

Upon reaching under his limp and bare body she came across several large lacerations and cuts. Bruises littered his body among the dirt smudges and other debris. Just noticing these flaws made her stomach churn.

What was this boy doing?

She drew her arm under his stomach and used her other to latch around the other side, lacing her fingers together as she brought him up from the ground and rolled him over to the side.

He was heavy and just the act of moving him made her muscles burn and her forehead to seep particles of salty water. She wasn’t about to give up, however. She would endure the pressure and continue; she needed to get this man back to her tent, for he was wounded and tired and would probably be starved when he awoke.

She crouched down so that she was more level with his prostrate body before hoisting his arm over her shoulder. Following suit was his shoulder and then his stomach. Before she knew it his entire body was lying across her back.

It was very uncomfortable and was quickly becoming too much for her to handle. Her endurance level was slowly dropping before she needed to rest.

She crouched down again, propping her and his weight on her left knee. She had only made a few feet before this break, but it was enough to make her feel like she had accomplished something.

She waited a few more minutes before standing up again. She was straining both her back muscles and her arm muscles. She knew it, but she persisted, for she was a very tenacious woman whether her soul had dimmed over time or not.

With her feet underneath her, she began to walk forward, slowly but with necessity. She had made another few yards before her legs began to give out on her.

Instead of taking a break, she continued forward, rushing herself and what she could take. She continued to push herself until she emerged from the thickest portion of the forest and into more familiar grounds. She caught sight of her tent in the distance and just the sight gave her more optimism.

“We’re… almost… there,” she panted, tossing the man upwards so that he was positioned in a more comfortable way for her.

“We… are… almost… there.”

[Lenz]

53rd of Summer, 514 AV
Lenz's Tent

Only a few more feet and they were in front of her tent. She set the man down directly in front of it before taking a seat herself. She fell in a heap beside him.

Her arms burned and her legs tingled from the overuse she had forced them to do for her. She was exhausted and she enhanced that knowing with her heavy breathing and chest heaving.

“You are lucky,” she panted, “that I didn’t leave you out there.” Her more sordid and violent demeanour was returning now that she wasn’t put under stress or set in a more beautiful scenery.

It was while yet before she was capable of moving her body without pain. When the time came, she stood up and stretched herself. With her feet underneath her she leant forward to see if she was able to reach her toes.

She bent downwards, joints cracking and popping in protest. She touched her toes with the tips of her fingers and felt her leg muscles and tendons expand from under the stress.

Soon, she couldn’t take the strain any longer and had to stand up again. She was only so well trained in the acrobatics and therefore she could only do so much when it came to flexibility.

Unzipping the tent’s flap was the next thing she did and she accomplished this with much success. After that, she ended up dragging the limp body of the naked man into the tent.

Closing the tent back up after her hands were free, she proceeded to seclude the two in the encampment. This only made Lenz more stressed in the process. It brought back both wonderful and terrible memories and they flooded her mind in a rush of water like an uncontrollable hurricane that had never been predicted before it eventually hit the shore.

She pictured Ipisol sleeping right next to her in the other bedroll; she envisioned watching the child drawing on their shared pad of paper with her charcoal sticks; she saw herself all alone with only faint images of the child and if she was in the same room with a ghost- something that wasn’t there… but was.

Suddenly the pictures dissipated into thin air, leaving her alone with the naked man in the tent. She shook her head from side to side before coming back to reality in the present world- the world she was sadly living in during the time being.

She looked over her shoulder to see the sleeping man, certain that he was still alive and breathing because his chest was rising and falling with decent rhythm. She smiled at the sight and decided to start treating his wounds.

She started to rummage in her backpack for something that would help assist her in treating his injuries. She had ripped off a part of her dress a while back to help clot Roy’s knife wound when they had been trapped in a building due to the tempest outside and its incessant snowing.

She had gotten out alive and for some strange reason had kept the ripped piece of fabric in case she needed it again. Consequently she did need it again and now was when she needed it.

Once she found it she raised it above her head in triumph. She then scooted over to where she stored her water skin and pulled it out from its hiding spot.

She shoved a tip of the cloth into the opening hole and tilted it so that it soaked the cloth. Once it was dripping with water she pivoted on her knees so that she was now facing the wounded boy. She leant over his nude body and went to work.

Lenz dabbed at the bloody cuts and even some of the bruises that looked very severe. She continued to dab at the injuries instead of wiping at them, because she knew it you did that you could cause them to fester more than they already were.

Once she felt satisfied with her duties and once the piece of cloth was stained red from the blood she had picked up, she tossed both the cloth and the water skin to the side.

The next thing that came to her mind was something she felt somewhat elf conscious about. The man needed to be clothed not only for warmth reasons but also for protection as well.

She was about to take her shirt off when something caught her attention. Out of the corner of her eye was a laceration on the man’s skin that was much deeper than the others. It was too deep to simply ignore. She knew that that particular injury needed stitches and stitches was what she was going to give him.

She scrounged around in her backpack again, trying to find her sewing needle and the spool of thread she had snatched off of her employer’s counter last season. Once she found them, she snatched them from out of the backpack and went to work once again.

The first thing she remembered she needed to do was disinfect the needle before sticking it into his skin. She turned to her left and grabbed the flint and steel she always kept handy.

She also got her hands on a small piece of tinder she fortunately found lying around. She struck both flint and steel together and created a spark. She had been leaning over the piece of tinder, giving her the advantage as the spark transformed into a temporary flame. She quickly snatched the needle and stuck it over the flame before it burned out.

Sanitation complete.

She then took a decent length of the thread from the spool and pulled it out before biting off the amount with her front teeth. Everything was out for her to use and she was ready to use it.

She leant over the specific gash in the boy’s flesh and decided to stick the needle in immediately. Before she did this, however, she had stuck the tip of the thread into the eye of the needle and had pulled a small portion through until she tied it at the base.

She was now gone with the heat of the moment pushing her on. With the needle already through a thin piece of flesh, she crossed the gaping abyss of shattered flesh and forced the tip of the needle through on the other side.

The first stitch had been made, leaving her with only several more to go.

[Lenz]

53rd of Summer, 514 AV
The Seaside Market

She was on fire, much as the small piece of tinder had been only moments ago. She had already made one stitch and was now onto the second.

She pressed the tip of the needle against another thin section of flesh before thrusting it through so that it met at the other side. She turned the tip of the needle around and crossed another strand of thread before continuing the same procedure again.

She did this repeatedly before she met the end of the cut. She then tied the ends together and tightened the stitching so that the two ends of the flesh met and closed together.

Satisfied with her work, she cut the remaining piece of thread and threw both the spool of thread and the sewing needle back into her backpack.

Now, she began to strip herself from her shirt which was now slightly dampened due to the sweat that had run down the side of her face and onto her shoulders. She stuck one arm in and then the other before taking her arm out from the bottom to help assist in taking the rest off of her body.

Finally she was free of the article of clothing, only her bra covering her feminine features.

She leant over the man again and raised one of his arms. She slipped the shirt over his head and pushed his arm through the right sleeve. She set that arm down and started to raise the other only to do the same thing to the other side of him.

Now that he had a shirt on, she advanced to the bottoms.

She commenced to take off her baggy black pants to match the baggy black short sleeve shirt he was currently wearing. She stuck one foot out from the waist band and the other foot followed right behind until her underwear was the only thing covering the bottom section of her feminine attributes.

She carried on to dressing her acquaintance by taking his right leg and slipping it through one leg hole and taking the other leg and putting it through the other leg hole.

She raised his mid-section so that she could drag the waist portion of the pants until it rested gently over his hips. Now he was more presentable than how they first had met.

Still, she was perplexed as to how he had ended up completely nude out in the middle of the wilderness all alone and without anything to protect him with.

The questions would have to be answered once he awoke, but for now she would have to find something to do before he did. One of those things she could be doing right now would be going out and getting something to eat for herself and her newfound companion.

Firstly, she began to rummage her backpack for another set of clothing to wear. Coming across her blue blouse, she sent it over her head and down around her body so that it hugged her abdomen rather nicely. Next, she found her leather skirt, the one she had never worn before and slipped it on over her knees so that it fell smoothly around her hips. She was ready for being seen in public now.

She seized some money from her knapsack and took one last glance at the unconscious man before slipping out of the tent.

She was heading towards town with a few Mizas, searching for a modest looking marketplace that wasn’t too expensive nor too cheap. She wasn’t searching for anything too filling but a simple snack wouldn’t suffice.

He must be starving, but she wasn’t too considerate to give away her money. He was going to have to give her things in return for her services and she would make sure he would or else there would be dire consequences.

Her mind was lost the entire time she was walking from her campsite in the wilderness to the city’s limits. She had no recollection of what happened in between those two times only that she still had her money and her personal belongings and that was good enough for her.

She made sure that she had heightened her senses before stepping from out of the shadows. The alleyways no longer gave her protective cover, but instead retreated as she emerged into the light of day and into the crowd of other locals.

She walked forward and found herself diverging from the mob of people and towards one of the various stalls one would find at the Seaside Market.

She held out her hand, opening her palm so that the vendor saw her money. His eyes grew large, but other than that give away, he remained as stoic as he could.

She scanned the man for any other signs of weakness. Calling to her enhanced vision, she allowed the djed to succumb her to more fathomed power. The colours were soon visible as her she exploited her power for more assistance in understanding.

Textures and various tints of colour surrounded the man until one direct colour was displayed more than others. It was a strange blue, but not one of sorrow. More confusion with a mixture of curiosity. It was a sadder form of curiosity as if he was tentative on whether he wanted to know who she was and why she was flashing around several tens of golden mizas.

She simply rolled her eyes as she began to dull her auristic sight. To save her strength, she called the unused djed back into her body. The sensation of relaxation flooded her veins as the strain was less noticeable. She was back to the normalcy she assumed was her average self.

“What can I assist you with, miss?” asked the seller.

Lenz brushed her hair behind both ears and puckered her lips into a more seductive way before she leant over the counter that separated employer from customer.

She made sure the tops of her breasts were visible before sighing in a melodramatic fashion. She fluttered her eyelashes until her vision blurred and then she lowered her voice into a soothing and calming way.

“I would absolutely love for you to help me in acquiring some meat?” she asked.

The man didn’t know what to say at first, obviously taken aback by her approach. However, he recovered and retaliated with a mumbled, “I’ll see what I can do.”

You better, she thought menacingly.

[Lenz]

53rd of Summer, 514 AV
The Seaside Market

Once he finally returned from around the back of the stand, Lenz was already bored out of her mind. Her patience had diminished intensively and if there had been another minute or two to wait she would have jumped at him with her claws extended.

A figment of her imagination really- or would it have been?

“I have a selection for you to pick from,” he announced as he slapped down several different types of meat onto the table.

At first Lenz was irritated by the way he treated the food, her food, but then she relaxed realising that it was indeed dead and not living pieces of animal.

The redheaded woman had once been a vegetarian, having a strong distaste for those that ate meat, for they were animals before being slaughtered by hunters or the farmers that raised them in their fields. Just the thought had made her skin itch, wishing her to jump out of it and run away.

There was a time when she would have wanted so desperately to break into every known man’s farm and rescue the animals from their disastrous fate. They didn’t know any better, for they were simply animals, yet there was something deep inside the woman’s heart that felt like every living thing on this planet had the chance to be equal.

Where had that part of her gone? Had is disappeared with the other more sentimental and calm and motherly protective side? Had it vanished with her shy, weak but understanding side? She couldn’t recall when it had left her, just that she didn’t care anymore.

Everything died of something, and that included the very humans she tortured and let bleed out. She faintly had any care for them anymore. She didn’t care for anything anymore in fact and that included her own self.

She hadn’t been eating as much as she should for all the exercise she put herself to do. She had been starving herself not for punishment reasons such as she believed she deserved but simply because she hadn’t found herself hungry in quite some time. The mere thought of eating made her gag until slimy phlegm and other volatile liquids spurted up and out her mouth.

Her forms of punishment were more severe and painful. Sometimes she would take out her dagger and make long, but light incisions on the inside of her wrist just to see the blood drip down her arm and onto the grassy plains of the forest. Sometimes just the sight and the pinch of pain was enough to distract her for a moment- distract her from the incessant and boisterous voices that lingered inside her head.

She had stopped tearing out her hair, but a small section of her scalp was still much shorter than the others having been torn from the skull. It would grow back eventually she always told herself, but she didn’t really care, for she didn’t own a mirror to examine herself. She could care less what she looked like.

She had dwindled down to the deigning folk of the world’s worst city.

Rocking out of the plantain of obsolete and torturous thoughts, Lenz found herself staring at three different appearing meats. What was the difference? She couldn’t tell unless she delved deeper into observing them.

Again, she reached into the cavernous depths of her mind, where her soulful magical qualities resided. She felt the power wafting inside her body just waiting to be put to use. Putting it to use was just what she planned to do.

She called for it, summoned it to become one with her as she felt it moving through her veins and up towards her forehead. It rested right above her eyes were its properties took a hold of her being. It was essential to her to feel completely in control so when three colours started to vibrate in front of her, she knew her auristic sight wasn’t failing her.

A tight straining sensation was beginning to pull at the back of her hazel orbs, but for the time being she simply ignored it. She would neglect to give it any attention before she had the chance to do what she pleased to accomplish.

She stared at the first slab of meat, the one on the farthest left. Its aura was surprisingly decent. It was as if it was commanding to be chosen, and she was about to, but when a fly startlingly landed on it, she was jostled. There was no way she would eat something that was most likely rotten. She advanced onto the middle slab of meat.

She examined its appearance on first glance before surveying it with her colourful sense of sight. She saw a dark colour, but couldn’t clarify on whether that was a good sign or not. She contemplated for a moment’s time before settling on observing the next selection. The next selection she had to dwell on for a while. It was mysterious but there were no signs whatsoever of contamination or foolery.

Shutting off her illuminated vision, she reeled back at the force of unused djed welling back up inside her body. She immediately felt heavy pangs in the temples of her head, but she reassured herself that the sensation would only be temporary.

Realising that the last meat she had looked at would be the one, she pointed at it with her index finger. “I would like to purchase this one, please,” she told the salesman with a low voice.

The man nodded his head before picking up the other meats that weren’t chosen. He turned around and set them behind him. Lenz didn’t know what he did with them, but that was of no concern to her any longer. She had picked her meat and that was all that was of necessity to her right now.

“How much?” she asked, cutting to the chase.

“Three golden mizas,” he said sternly before outstretching his hand.

Lenz was taken aback. That was a lot of currency for a simple slab of meat, for the little thing could barely feed herself yet alone another man currently residing in her shelter!

This called for something else and with her head still throbbing, she chose to toughen up and fight through the pain as she summoned up the djed that wasn’t used for her auristic vision. She converted the channel way into the head as it connected to the man’s wavelengths.

They were in sync; the woman could certainly feel it. With his attention focused wholly on her, she sent carefully worded thoughts in the form of hypnotism his way.

They were suggestive, but also calming voices that were more commanding than she had ever done before. They said things such as, “lower the price,” “bargain with her”, among other things.

But would it work?

[Lenz]

53rd of Summer, 514 AV
The Seaside Market

She continued to draw from the strength in her body. Her only power existed within her soul. The very essence of her djed flowed through her veins and pulsed through her arteries. She felt it swimming in her blood stream as if it was alcohol building up from the over ingestion of tonics and brews.

Her eyebrow drew downwards and she continued to focus. The mere presence that the channel of djed was flowing in was giving her a migraine, but she needed to make this man do as she wished. She would incorporate other tactics as well, but for the time being she would proceed to use her hypnotism gestures.

She whispered her words through their shared brain’s functions. She breathed them in a melodramatic way so that they were clear and easily understood. Lower the price, and Help this woman out, were fed through her magic.

No one else would know but her and that was just how she liked it.

Finally she couldn’t take it anymore and stopped the use of her hypnotic tone of voice. She needed to rest, but the retaliation was almost enough to send her falling backwards. Thankfully her hand reached out and grappled onto the ledge of the counter to balance her with.

The propulsion was simply too weak to take her with it. She steadied herself before shaking her head from side to side. She needed to take on the uncomplicated façade of a local woman with a sexy desire for meat.

What?

The man obviously looked confused, but Lenz could just tell simply by staring into his grey orbs that he was contemplating lowering the price because of her. Was she a special case or were those voices in his head just too suggestive to ignore?

She made sure she would get her way by again reaching over the stand only this time she found an easier way to make it seem more realistic. The tops of her breasts were even more noticeable than last time and that was just how she wanted it when she said to the man, “oh, you have a little something on your face”, before using her own finger to gently tug at the corner of his mouth.

She cocked her head to the side before returning to her normal standing position. The most grotesque thing she could have done then would be to stick the same finger she had used to wipe something from the man’s beard and suck on it. Unsurprisingly that was exactly what the redhead was planning to do. She displayed her finger proudly and fought through an unnerving grimace before sticking her finger into her mouth and licking it.

She mumbled something in a rather seductive fashion before smiling with mysterious sincerity. She then eyed the man up and down and whispered something inaudible. The reason wasn’t essential- it was merely a distraction, something to get the man’s focus on her face which she hoped was somewhat presentable for this specific occasion.

“So,” she breathed, leaning in again in terms of trying to take the seller’s own breath away. “What is the price for this particular piece of delicious meat?”

The man stuttered for a moment before recuperating from the turn of events that had just recently taken place before his very eyes. He cleared his throat and inhaled, gulping down a large wad of phlegm.

“I, uh,” he started, “I think I can lower the price to one golden and five silver Mizas. Does that sound fair to you?”

Lenz fluttered her eyes before placing one hand on her hip. She nodded resentfully before placing exactly that amount of currency on the counter. With the hand that was stapled to her hip, she snatched the slab of meat she had picked out off of the table and pivoted on her heel, flipping her hair in the process.

Very well done, I must say, said the voice inside her mind.

She waited a few moments so that she was an understandable measure away from the busiest section of the seaside marketplace before responding. She did so with a rather tolerant tone of voice as well which she found most unpleasant.

“I thought so,” she said before breaking into a dead sprint.

Her left leg nearly trampled over her right as she sprinted through several parties of people. She had to dodge over an animal of some kind on her way through the streets. Finally, she managed to avoid summersaulting in order to emerge from the depths of the city, yet she did not cease running.

Why do you run?

Lenz didn’t need time to think this over, for she already knew the answer. She knew why she was running and why she needed to so badly return to her campsite.

“I don’t want that man rummaging through my things only to steal them and flee the scene,” she retorted, coming to the conclusion that she was losing her breath. However, she continued to run, although now she had slowed her gait to just above the minimum of a jog.

Why is it that you did not think of this before you left him all alone?

“I did think of it you cretin. I simply assumed he would still be unconscious for the mere chimes it took me to reach the city, buy his meal and return. Why are you so cynical and picky about what it is that I do lately?”

There was no response, just as the voice had been doing since the start of the morning. This is exactly what the woman with scarlet hair loathed but desired at the same time.

“Cat got your tongue?” she spat before her eye caught onto something familiar off in the distance.

She saw the tent and made a break for it. Once she arrived and had stepped into the roomy space of the shelter she was delighted to see that the man was still lying on his back in the middle, sound asleep and still breathing.

“Thank you,” she whispered to no one in particular as she struggled to regain the normalcy of her breathing. “Thank you.”

Who are you talking to exactly?

Now she needed to start the fire to cook the meat.

[Lenz]

53rd of Summer, 514 AV
Lenz's Tent

She kept humming it to herself- what she needed to do. Build a fire, build a fire, build a fire. It was starting to become a monotonous incantation, as if she were trying to raise the dead to do her bidding for her, something she has yet to study about and in turn learn.

But no, she was not chanting a rhythm for the lifeless corpses under the soil she stood on. Instead she was simply trying to remind herself of what she should be doing if those three words weren’t easy enough to remember as they were.

She continued to chant, sometimes putting the words into a little song as she did, something she hadn’t done in quite some time. Her voice soon filled the forest and bounced off the leaves of the trees. The melodious letter that came off her tongue were resilient as they came off of branches and the thick shrubbery that surrounded her.

She sang,

“Build a fire and with that fire,
We will build a fire and with that fire,
We will build a fire and with that fire
We will smoke our meat.

Shall we build a fire and with that fire
We will have built a fire and with that fire
We will build a fire and with that fire
We will smoke our meet.”

It was childish and rather suddenly thought of, but the woman with luscious crimson locks sung it anyways, her vocal chords constricting at moments where she wished to drop the octave of her voice.

She heighted the sound by releasing the words that wished to spill out instead of forcing them outwards from behind the barrier that served permanently as her teeth.

Still wandering aimlessly in circles inside the tent, she finally screwed her cranium on right enough for her to grasp the logic in what she was trying to accomplish. She needed to build a fire and build a fire she shall.

She reached into her knapsack and discarded her flint and steel strung together by a thin piece of rope. She then grabbed her axe which sat propped up next to the flap of the tent for hasty usage. With her boots still on her feet she decided to trek out into the woods once again only this time she hopefully won’t come across yet another naked male.

Following nothing in particular, no tracks, no scat, no trail whatsoever, Lenz found herself a decent distance from her campsite. She looked upwards and began to scan the sky for anything of practicality to assist her in her fire building. Hazel eyes collided with a great source of limbs from a weakened tree.

She felt no remorse as she heaved up her blade and positioned her feet just right so as not to pose a threat to her balance.

Her knees were located shoulder width apart and with that in mind, Lenz yanked back her axe slowly and then quickly threw it up at an angle so that the sharp part connected against the bark of a branch. The crackling sound reverberating past her eardrums and into her brain, rattling it in the process.

Checking to make sure her footing was still nice and steady and evenly proportionate, she again lifted up her axe and brought it up and struck it down against the wooden plant. Soon several limbs were falling off and landing right in front of her very own feet. She smiled with triumph before stopping her hacking routine.

She attempted using the best abilities she could muster to grasp the branches. They were incredibly heavy, but as she propped one up on her left shoulder and another in the nook of her right elbow, she had managed to carry them from out of the forest and into the small clearing that served as her personal neighborhood.

Upon reaching a fine-quality ground, she dropped the heap she had been carrying and set aside her hefty weapon. She didn’t take a load off herself, but instead went inside to retrieve her flint and steel.

Once she had returned, she began to set up shop. Using one of the branches she drew a circle, an outline of where the fire pit would lay. Then she used that same branch and set it inside the circle, positioning it so that it could carry another branch upon it. She took a few other branches and laid them across each other so that they formed a pyramid to some degree.

She stood back and observed her handy work. Once she felt somewhat satisfied, she reached over to grab her flint and steel and started to scrape the two together in hopes of getting a spark or two.

Suddenly Lenz stopped short, two questioning bubbling up inside her skull. One was why she was trying to make a fire without using some tinder to assist her and the other was why she was trying to start a fire by using flint and steel when she could very well use her fire reimancy, something she had been practicing for several days now?

She mentally slapped herself in the face before dropping the flint and steel on the ground. She crouched low so that she could escape the ceiling from the entrance into the tent.

She only glanced at her acquaintance for a moment before clutching a piece of tinder and returning back to her project.

She set the tinder in the middle of the fire and began to calm herself. She closed her eyes and began to envision a solitary environment where there were no distractions and no harmful things to hurt her. She pictured a tranquil location where there was nothing to stop her happiness and freedom had she any.

She began to hum to herself so that her heartbeat would begin to slow and match rhythm to her repetitious tone. She also began to count slowly in her mind to both match her breathing and her heartbeat.

Once she had reached the maximum of her meditative state, she opened her eyes and viewed her current physical state in a different perspective.

She closed her eyes again only this time she tried to concentrate on what was inside of her. The energy that was flushing through her body in tidal waves was soon channeled through both of her arms, merging into one, her left arm.

Soon, the djed that was just passing through her body as a whole united as she called for its presence. She felt the warmth of its essence as it welled into the substance of res in the palm of her hand. She merely had to think of the balance between rage and serenity to cause a spark to ignite in her hand, but all was in her control.

She was the master and as she watched the fire explode into her hand, she couldn’t help but smile.

She leant over the pile of branches she had created and allowed her hand to hover over it. Using her will and the sheer strength she still had from the exhausting day she had spent wondering, she made the flame move from the palm of her hand over to the pile of sticks.

Soon the entire hoard of wooden vegetation sprang to a crimson and scarlet life. She had created a fire using magic!

Astonished, but also not entirely stunned from the sudden image, Lenz made no time to run and fetch the slab of meat she had purchased from a stand at the Seaside Marketplace. She tentatively took a seat in front of the fire, grabbed a pristine stick from beside her and impaled the tender flesh onto the tip before sticking it over the flourishing inferno.

Now all she needed to do was wait until her and the man’s meal had been fully cooked.

[Lenz]

53rd of Summer, 514 AV
Lenz's Tent

Lenz’s eyelids soon grew heavy. It felt as if large and heavy weights were adhered to her eyelashes and were slowly dragging them in a downwards motion. It wasn’t that she was tired per se, for she was never tired and often had troubles with sleeping when the moon was out glowing in the darkness of the midnight sky. No, it was more so because she had been through much in the last few bells.

Finding a naked man in the middle of the forest and having to carry him back to her tent caused her arms and legs to ache. Having to travel out of her way and into the profundity of the city only to purchase a slab of venison did a number on her mental and social state of mind. Having to come back and build a fire only to use her reimancing powers to subdue the pangs in her stomach to enforce the throb in her head to start the fire made her exhausted as well.

Now, here she was slumped over next to the burning inferno with a stick stuck through the meat as she waited for it to cook thoroughly.

She pondered the idea of having seen the white light due to the malicious attack of raw and poisonous animal flesh. She would rather die due to a knife wound to the heart or from being strangled by a brute’s thick arms than from meat that wasn’t cooked through to the core.

She sighed and sat up straighter, stretching her back and earning the delightful sound of popping joints. She rose from her sitting position and retracted her extended arm from holding the meat over the fire only to check to see if it was done.

She set the slab over one of the branches that wasn’t blazing with heat and ripped out the stick. She found that it wasn’t slimy with fat or any other contaminants and suggested that it would be fine; she would further examine the meal once she actually cut into it.

Waiting several chimes for her food to cool was probably the longest time she had ever had to test her patience- at least for the season.

Time didn’t fly by as she would have liked so when ten to fifteen chimes past, she was glad it was over. She wasn’t hungry, but she knew she could be doing something far more productive with her time besides waiting for food to turn a certain degree that the tongue can handle.

Once she was able to touch it, she picked it up and rounded the fire so that her destination was the tent’s entrance. She walked in, scrounged around yet again for a plate and came up empty handed. Of course, she had forgotten; she never owned any essential dining utensils. Why exactly? She couldn’t really tell you.

The stranger that continued to lie in her tent would just have to use his bare hands to feast on this slab of tender skin. She too would have to do the same thing if she wanted any, but for now she would be considerate and giving and would offer the entirety of the meal to him once he awoke.

It didn’t take long before he suddenly tossed and turned. His eyes fluttered open, revealing obscure and portentous, dark brown eyes. They flickered from one side of the tent to the other, surveying the room he was in before his large orbs landed on Lenz. They only stood still and silence on her own hazel spheres before darting back to the examination of the tent he was currently in the process of doing.

It was then that he began to worry, concerning lines marring the extra skin in between his eyebrows closing in on his lower forehead.

He panicked suddenly and flipped off the blankets Lenz had set across his body before leaving for fetch his meal. He stirred before flipping onto his rear, his eyes widening beyond belief. They were so miraculously and beautifully large- far prettier than the woman’s own visual preceptors.

She felt she needed to do something or else her entire shelter would be wrecked in the havoc of his out bursting commotion. She settled the dispute that was raging on inside her mind and chose to use her hypnotic stage of magic to try to calm this man down.

Under pressure, but still having understood why it was he was freaking out, she tried to centre her energy so that the djed would rise all together in a current or channel of her control. She then pushed it to the top of her mind where it castigated the deepest layer of her scalp and branded over her brain tissue.

She controlled the mass of energy that was wafting through her body and she forced it to her mind’s sight where she connected with his brain waves and essentially suggested very encouraging words for him to listen to pertaining to their current predicament.

Be calm, she suggested earnestly and honestly. Everything is under control. You are safe. No harm will come to you. Friends not foes.

The simplicity of every sentence she sent his way was almost deafening, and at first nothing worked. Her attempts were failing and she began to quickly find the corners of her mouth spiraling downwards in the appearance of a pouting frown.

Suddenly, however, the man began to breathe at a normal pace and she could almost hear his heart beat slowly until it reached an average rate. She had done her best whether her requests and encouraging voice had made any impact on his mental state or not.

His hands were moving now, reaching up to where they rested gently on either side of his head. He bowed, his spine arching in a fluid motion until he was crouching over his tousled blankets. His nose softly touched the floor of the tent.

“Don’t do that,” he mumbled.

His voice was faint but audible and the accent that dripped off his tongue was enchanting if not mesmerizing *His accent is Irish for those wanting to know. I know right? Dreamy…- much like her own novice but hypnotic trances and suggestions.

For the first time in what seemed like forever, Lenz responded to someone who wasn’t a voice inside her own head.

“Do what?” she asked politely if not a little irritated.

He needs to be more specific if he wishes for me to tolerate his presence in my shelter.

Give him some time and treat him as you would a child. He doesn’t know any better and I can sense something inhuman about him. Why do you suppose he was naked in the middle of the forest with scratches and bruises littering his entire body?

Lenz needed to ponder this question for a moment. Why in fact was he caught in that state of being? Was it because he truly wasn’t human or simply because he was running away from something and got hurt, leaving him unconscious? But that same inquiry still remained tangled in the web in her mind.

Why was he naked?

The man shook his head from side to side, not legitimately answering her question as to what she was ‘doing’ to him. She knew what it was she had done to him but she also knew and accepted the fact that what she did to him helped him in many ways more than one.

“Why were you out there,” she asked, pointing out the tent, “in the forest alone?”

The man instantly sat up straight, if not a little evident of future subterfuge and anxiety. Why did he react in such a savage manner? Was it a deep and dark secret that he wished for her not to find out about?

He tilted his head downwards, attempting to avoid eye contact with his acquaintance and formidable saviour if the truth were spoken avidly. His stark black hair hung in front of his chocolate brown eyes in a very unintended yet seductive way. His eyes were now completely shrouded by the dark of his fringe.

Lenz bit her tongue; there was something unknown shifting uncomfortably in the pit of her stomach.

“I don’t remember,” he answered finally.

“You were naked,” Lenz blurted.

“I don’t remember!” he shouted all at once.

“Don’t yell at me,” Lenz countered sternly.

She was the master in this relationship. However long they had met did not matter. What mattered was that she had authority right now and she would grace it with open hands and a willing heart.

Who knows? she thought maliciously, fighting to hold back a grin of mischievousness. I might find him useful and use him as a slave of sorts. This was what she had been thinking back to the time she had found him in the woods.

Why else would she have gone out of her way to bring him back to her quarters and purchase him food and clothe him if not to get something in return for her courtesy?

Mentally, she was wringing her hands, but physically she was listening to the man apologize.

[Lenz]

53rd of Summer, 514 AV
Lenz's Tent

“Where am I?”

“You’re in my tent.”

“Why am I here?”

“I found you out in the middle of the forest wearing nothing but a leaf having fallen from a nearby tree. You should be thankful it was I who had taken a stroll out into the forest and not a hunter. Things would have been different for sure and even potential worse for you had it not of been me,” Lenz announced profoundly.

She adjusted her seating position so that she was facing the man directly head on.

He was certainly full of questions, but the more understanding and versatile portion inside her remained cowering, if not a little curious as it popped its head out from within the weeds of obscurity.

She could relate the guy; she really could if she tried to. He was in a dark state of uncollected dreams and forgetful figments of anyone’s imagination before awakening from that state only to find himself in a stranger’s tent located who knows where?

A foreign emotion had begun to bubble up from the conscience she had thought she had destroyed seasons ago. She could put her finger on the source or even what this feeling was called. She only knew that it was fighting her and thus far it was succeeding in claiming its victory.

It came out all at once- a curiosity of genuine interest mixed with a hint of concern and worrisome desire. Flashing a fleck of romantic intrigue and even a dash of confusion and the mood was as thick and pronounce as anyone could image it could be.

And she couldn’t do anything about it.

“What is your name?” she asked formally, cursing herself inwardly at her attempts on continuing the conversation. It was going absolutely nowhere in particular.

There was slight hesitation in his response, but once his lips and tongue worked together to formulate the words, Lenz immediately took note on remembering the name.

“Twig,” he said softly but bluntly.

“Why are you called that?”

He shrugged.

Lenz knew by now that he was a young man who probably wasn’t more than twenty years of age but one that didn’t speak much. She didn’t know if it was due to some sort of trauma he had experience, no including being found naked in the middle of the woods by a woman, or simply because he didn’t like social interaction.

Perhaps he was like her in trying to avoid social contact by all means necessary. Was she testing him them and pushing his buttons and manipulating his arms in directions of which they didn’t go? Was she surpassing her limits by provoking him to talk or was she merely trying to get all the basic facts? She went with the latter which spontaneously resolved the inner quandaries of sentimental rationality that buzzed inside her head.

However, she couldn’t resist not knowing.

“Why were you naked?” she persisted almost comically.

He shrugged yet again, but this time he added a lick to his lower lip to spice things up. In truth, he was a beautiful man with sharp features but soft contours that outlined his body in majestic and fantastical ways. Lenz spared difficulty in just ripping her eyes away from his face. She wondered what other potential and attributes he owned within him.

“I’ll figure out eventually,” she said in a threatening manner. “But for now you should eat this-“ she tossed the slab of meat at him. It landed in his lap with a strange squishing sound resonating from his muscular legs.

“You must be hungry.”

He nodded his head absentmindedly as he dug into the meat without much delay. He tore into the flesh with his teeth which happened to be straight and without rot. His canines were slightly longer than his other teeth, but the sight could just have spun the tapestry of deformity; distortion as well.

“You are a Kelvic,” she announced.

She had heard a tale or two, simple fables really, about Kelvics and what they are and what they do. They have two halves to their persona- one being their human half and the other being their animalistic side. They do not get to choose what animal side they bestow but are rather born from someone of that same breed in the animal kingdom.

Lenz needed to assure him she knew what she was talking about or even mention why she knew so suddenly of his race.

“I know many things about your race,” she said quietly.

They were wonderful creatures really, but often treated without kind hearts. It was a devastating shame that Lenz’s wasn’t pure like the few out there, but she wasn’t a cold, hard menace either.

She would treat this man with some respect. She would clothe him and feed him when he became hungry and she wouldn’t go so low as to place a collar round his neck. That was just barbaric in her personal opinion.

“Then you know,” he started, stuttering at first, “that we aren’t given much veneration.”

Lenz hung her head for a moment before recuperating from his sudden solemnity. She seldom disliked when others became sad for no apparent reason. She would rather give them something to sob about rather than let them simply cry because the stubbed their toe or because they were poor like the rest of the population of this putrid city.

“I have given you something, however,” she stated blatantly. “I have taken you from the state of destitute and I have put clothes on your bare back. You must realise that I have fed you and I am willing to continue to do just that, but I must need something in return.”

What was she doing? Why was she treating this man with such high quality? He was nothing compared to her, for he was only half human! His other side ached of animal reason and terrible judgment, so why should she care at all about his very existence?

He tilted his head as curiosity brimmed the ridge inside him. It dared to spill out over his ribcage; over the lower lip of his mouth and into the form of questions, but Lenz held up her index finger in a gesture of peace and silence. Her nails were surprisingly long and nasty.

“You will assist me with whatever I please whenever I please if I, in return, spare you some consideration and bless you with this shelter among other quality and possible quantity.”

Her hand subliminally stretched outwards and towards her new companion, soon to be slave. She insisted on shaking in terms of sealing the vow that was currently being mended.

“Do you vow to my rules if I grant you with sincerity?” she asked.

The redheaded woman could literally feel the seconds ticking by, but she held her tongue and very nearly held her breath until she started to turn blue. Her patience was thinning, but she knew that if she did anything outrageous at the last minute, he would be startled and revoke his part of the deal. She found it fair and she only hoped he did as well.

Finally, he nodded his head briskly and stuck out his hand in a hesitant motion. Lenz forced her hand closer, locking the transaction with a fresh promise.

“You can neither redact nor retract this vow now, do you understand?” she asked him with a sinister tone.

He nodded his head again.

Wonderful, came the sordid voice from the back of her skull. Now you have another voice to listen to, but at least this one can complete physical tasks where as I cannot.

Lenz ignored the voice for just this one time as she drew back her hand and wiped it on her leather skirt. It was an instinctual germaphobic motion and one that she would continue to struggle to break, but in a city crawling with disease festering people, it would be almost impossible to.

Fatigue gently descended from the repressed heavens residing above her head. It graced her with drooping eyelids and aching limbs only to have her slowly slump forward.

“What’s your name?” she said weakly.

“My name is Twig,” was his response.

“You may call me lordess.”

A crooked smile latently latched onto his face before vanishing completely as if taken by ghoulish monstrous spirits of one kind of another.

She had doubts in her mind, but she put them to the side for the night. He might steal her personal things and ditch her alone in the tent but that was of no concern for her at the moment. She was tired and if need be, she would wake to settle the tension of his traitorous ways with her reimancy. She was a light sleeper if she slept at all and tonight was no different.

Besides, he was a Kelvic.

[Caela Dorin]

Grade Awarded Lenz Experience Skill XP Earned Acrobatics 1 Auristics 1 Bodybuilding 1 Composition 1 Endurance 2 Hypnotism 2 Investigation 1 Medicine 3 Meditation 1 Observation 4 Planning 1 Reimancy 1 Seduction 2 Singing 1 Stealth 1 Wilderness Survival 2 Lores • Lore Earned • How to lift a person • Stretching to loosen muscles • Knowing your body's limits (basic) • Dab wounds, don't rub them • Suturing: Sterilising a needle with fire • Dressing an unconscious person • Hypnotism: Paving the way for seduction • Gathering firewood • Building a fire • Lighting a fire with Reimancy • Cooking on a campfire • Using Hypnotism under pressure • Hypnotism-Emotional Suggestion: Calm • Twig: Naked man found in the woods • Twig: A Kelvic Consequences : An ache and tightness of various leg, arm and back muscles. Pains will last for a day, flaring when the muscles are used. Can be eased with massage. Additional Comments Another interesting thread, a lot of magic although it was used in small amounts and in interesting ways. I found it quite amusing the way that she finds a naked guy and the woods and, hardly batting an eyelid, picks him up and carries him home. I'll be very interested to see more of this Twig person. The Irish accent got me curious though. All I could think while I was trying to imagine it was anything but a Cork accent, or a true Dub accent or Mullingar... and the list went on and on. So Twig is this person I can't help wondering where his voice came from exactly. *Is Irish, don't you know. Anyway more of the Irish Twig! In terms of awards, I gave you the lore concerning Twig's Kelvic nature because he admitted to it himself. However, Lenz shouldn't have been able to identify him as such. His teeth wouldn't necessarily give him away or any distinguishing features that people assume Kelvic identity from. Some magics could have been used to discern what he was, or hint to such like auristics or hypnotism to coax it out of him but other than that, short of him changing you probably aren't going to know. I assumed that it was very lucky guesswork but it's quite a leap from "man naked in the forest" to "he must be a Kelvic". You knew he was a Kelvic OOC but that doesn't mean that Lenz knows IC. Just bear that in mind in future. Please edit or delete your grade request and PM me if you have any questions or concerns about your grade. x