Finally another man [Serrif]

[Nathan Longstride]

33rd day of Fall, 511 AV Nathan opened the iron gates that stood shut but not locked outside the Opal Temple. The teenager was wearing a white linen shirt with a green cloak, brown breeches, and his boots. Two daggers were stuck in his boots, but he didn't appear to be coming here to cause trouble. Nathan was here to help. Nathan didn't quite understand why he wished to help sort herbs here. It didn't seem like something most men did when they came to this island. Not like they actually came here often. Nathan didn't see why not with all the women around, but besides the men on his ship, he had see no other person sporting an Adam's apple. And it was discouraging not to see someone others than those he spent a month with on a boat. Even they got boring after a while. Not that he really wanted to see men. He still enjoyed the views he got around every corner. But one low voice would be nice to here. Or atleast facial hair. Nathan didn't look at the South Temple as he walked to the entrance of the temple. He wasn't going to relive yesterday. He didn't like the feeling of Rak'keli possibly watching him from there and him not knowing. So Nathan strode purposely to the door and stepped inside. He expected to find women sorting herbs into piles. But he would never know until he actually did know. And in a place like this, anything is possible.

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

It was another morning in the Temple for Serrif. As usual he had woken before first light and trained with Ildin. Then after this he had work to do in the temple. His morning routine was becoming pretty well hashed out to him. Every day was accounted for and he seemed to know what to expect next from both his Mistresses. Lym would challenge his medicinal and herbalism skills and Ildin would test his body and composure. Each had their own methods but each wanted results. He dressed in his black loose fitting shirt and pants and had his bow across his back as always. It was an ornate thing, pure white with cold iron inlays. He still didn’t know how anyone could go about making such a thing…nor why they would make a bow so large if they intended it to be used by a Konti. The bow stood six foot two much too tall for a Konti to use effectively by most conventional means. The thought didn’t disturb him but it did prick his curiosity a little.

Serrif had gotten used to the plethora of beautiful women around him; they put him at ease really. Their astounding beauty helped bring him peace. He had reported and Lym met him in the lobby. “Early as always. Today you will be sorting herbs and all, they are a little behind and they need to get all of this mess sorted out before we start pulling from the stockpile. The new stock needs to be sorted out fully.”

Serrif smiled and then waited for direction from her. “And where is this all taking place?” He queried as Lym smiled.

“Yes, down that hallway stairwell down then take a right it is the large room at the end.” Lym instructed as Serrif then nodded and headed to where Lym directed him to go.

Lym stayed behind for a few moments to compose herself. A smile on her face as she thought about her newest accomplice down in the temple sorting through the mess of herbs that the women had acquired form all over. There was more than enough to keep him busy for the day. She may have to send him to do that work for about a week or so if they didn’t make headway into the herbs.

Serrif entered the room and sat his bow against the wall. In the middle of the room was a large wooden table with piles of herbs and such on it. He was here to sort out quality and all. Lym had taught him how to do this in his spare time and well it seemed like he was the only one here right now…perfect. He was supposed to discern somehow what he was supposed to do without any guidance at all. He looked around the room and saw that there was a plethora of storage flasks and several washing buckets. He knew he would want to wash these plants and such before storage so he would need water. And it figured that none of the buckets were filled…well for now he would only need one with water in it. The others could remain empty for the time being. He grabbed a bucket and made his way out to the entrance where there was a hand worked pump. Once there he saw another man standing at the gates looking at Rak’keli’s southern tower.

“You know she could be watching you, but she is kind. I would worry more about Avalis than Rak’keli.” He sat the bucket down on the ground and then worked the hand pump some calling up water to pour from it’s mouth into the bucket.

“You here to seek healing?” Serrif asked as he pumped the hand pump some more trying to get as much water as possible into the bucket.

[Nathan Longstride]

Sorry for such a long wait for my reply. My cousin had a wedding and most of my time went towards the preparation and the actual wedding itself. But I'm back and ready to get caught back up

Maybe Nathan just imagined himself opening the door and heading into the temple. Because of seeing the interior of the place that healers trained at, the Zeltivan instead found a man speaking to him. And that was enough to make the teenager make a double-take. A man on the Isle that he had yet to meet? Impossible. Nathan was sure he had seen every man on the island in the form of the crew on his ship. Usually he would've ignored men, but in a place like Konti Isle where he hardly saw any, Nathan was sure he would've remembered seeing this man. The dark hair was enough, but it still didn't matter. A man was found on Konti Isle. The man sat a bucket down on the ground, using a water pump to draw the cool liquid into the bucket. He must've noticed that he was staring at the South Tower with his mention of the goddess watching him. He also said something about worrying more about Avalis. Maybe that would've clicked with a more worldly individual, but not Nathan. All he knew that they were women names. Enough to make any man worry. Nathan stepped up to the man, putting on a slight smile. At least he hoped it was a smile. The teenager was never good at smiling, and more often than not his smile looked more like a scowl. "I'll take your word, stranger. Growing up, my pa taught me that women and worry had the same meaning. And I'm sure both goddesses are no different." Nathan didn't know that Serrif was a follower of one of them. He didn't mean any harm towards him. It was only a jest about how women truly were a worry. But the teenager didn't understand that Serrif might've taken offense to it. He didn't know whether this man thought like women. Because Nathan could only see two possibilites about this man, who appeared to be a resident instead of visitor. Nathan figured either this man really liked women or not at all. The man went on, asking if he sought healing. Nathan shook his head, answering after fixing a stray bang that hung over his eye. "No sir. I heard the day before the temple needed help in sorting herbs. Consider me the reinforcements. But instead of that, you can call me Nathan." Nathan held his hand out for Serrif to shake. If any goddess was watching, it appeared that Nathan was being polite and a true gentleman. But if Nathan knew anything about Avalis, he wouldn't have felt so good. He would've known that Avalis probably predicted his sexist nature on the day of his birth. "A king never leaves his throne. Not because he's afraid of another noble taking it, but because he's frightened a women would."

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

OOCSorry bout the long wait, I got an actual job now and the 12 hour work week is killing me
“There can’t be any harm in a little help Nathan, I am Serrif.” He cocked a smile at Nathan’s statement of the goddesses. Oh how he would have a different attitude if he ever were to meet one of them in person. Although….he may not have a different impression either. Serrif knew his meeting with Rak’keli in person had definitely had an effect on him.

“Yes, but if you were to meet the Goddess in person you may think different about that in terms of Rak’keli. In fact, it isn’t uncommon to see her walking about the isle at times. Keep a sharp eye.” Was he kidding? Did the goddess herself really walk among the people here? If so…..could he actually meet her? What if he did?

“But like I said before, I would worry more of any marked with the seer’s lily than the twirl of Rak’keli. But come there is an area set up for us down the hall. We best get to work.” He then led Nathan with him down a hallway toward the room he had previously been in. It would be about this time that Nathan would get a feel for how large this temple really was.

Most of it was underground, well most of the labs and offices were anyway. There still wasn’t a complete schematic of the entire building on file really anywhere. If you knew where you needed to go you knew where it was. That was the general feel of how to navigate here. Every now and then Serrif even found himself stumbling onto a corroder or hallway he had never seen before. But he was careful not to stray too far from where he needed to go. He didn’t fear there being anything dangerous here, he just knew there were places that he shouldn’t stray uninvited. He entered the room and set the bucket down on the countertop among the pile of herbs.

Against the wall his backpack and bow sat, they were out of the way but at the same time well within view of any that wanted to see them. The bow was white as snow, and stood a rather large six foot three in height while strung. One could be sure it was taller than this when the string was removed. It had a very intricate handle reinforced with artisan strips of cold iron that formed a shell pattern all the way down the length of the bow. The handle itself has several arrow guides etched in it so if the user wanted they could easily fire two arrows at once. It must have taken an artisan years to craft this wondrous compound recurve long bow. And Serrif was the one that was chosen to wield it.

“So Nathan, I must admit you are the first of my race I have seen since I stepped foot here almost a year ago. What brings you to Mura?” Idle conversation, but it was with someone who was of interest to Serrif….Another man. Oh how rare this occurrence was.