[Frostfawn Hold] Reveal (Alea)

[Oluse]

Spring 23 512

Oluse gave out a soft sigh as he walked up the what still stood of the hold. The large majority of the elegant structure had fallen, and the rebuilding was slow due to the demand for Icereavers at the castle. It churned Oluse's stomach to see the destruction, and still he could not understand why it had happened, nobody could. He could only prey another would not come before they could rebuild, or ever. The first had left the Vantha citizens all but inoperable, mentally insane in the wake of the catastrophic Melt.

With slight hesitation he asked one of the Vantha around if they had seen the young Denvali girl he searched for, after realizing her old room had been flooded beyond usage and was left empty. Being pointed toward the still standing stables, informed she was likely tending to the animals he trudged hesitantly to meet with her. He knew what would happen if he let his emotions raise, and did not wish to share that with Alea. So, he took a deep breath, and tried to calm his nerves, willing his eyes to remain their deep brown. Once he arrived and got hold of his emotions he stepped in and look about for the little worker.

[Alea Davenport]

When Oluse found Alea, she was taking a break from her work in the stables, and playing with her horse, Beast. She'd almost gotten used to the Gilding's antics by now, and the habits she'd once found annoying now actually cheered her up when she was feeling lonely. Ever since the Storm, she'd been finding it difficult to be around people, and not just because the Storm had taken her voice, but that didn't stop her from seeking companionship. Sure, she had Yuros, and he was always with her, but sometimes she wanted things to be a little more lively.

At the moment, she was trying to pet the tawny cat sleeping in his usual place on the horse's back. The cat ignored her completely, but Beast had a grand old time getting in Alea's way, batting her arm away with his head when she tried to get too close. She giggled silently at the game, and Beast snorted softly in response. The two had been together for over a season now, and they knew each other pretty well, though that didn't stop them from getting annoyed at each other when she actually tried riding him.

He game was interrupted by the sound of someone entering the stables. Frowning slightly, she turned to see who it was, but her expression melted into a happy grin when she recognized Oluse. She patted Beast on the nose, nearly losing her fingers in the process, and skipped over to her childhood friend. Instead of speaking, she simply grabbed his hands in greeting. She hoped he would have enough to say for the both of them; otherwise, this would turn into a rather boring meeting.

[Oluse]

Oluse was still nervous, but instead, his mind switched to utter surprise as the tyrannical Alea kindly took hold of his hand. Oluses neck craned back a moment as he processed, then realized, that Alea, like many of his patients, had lost her voice in the Melt. Most of them were singers, a true shame, and he wondered if Alea had learned to sing since he knew her in Denval.

His shock turned to a softer smile, and a squeeze of her hands, his eyes slightly pitying, but understanding. "Hello, Alea. It seems you have lost your voice?" He couldn't help but think this may make what he had to say easier, and be almost thankful for it. After a moment of silence to confirm Oluse nodded slowly. "Yeah, it had been pretty common among some of our patients at the Center too. We are looking for a cure." His words trailed off into silence a moment, before he realized she wouldn't have anything to say in response to that, so he decided he should just continue.

"Right, well. Since you can talk I guess I should. I mean." He stopped a moment, his nervousness setting in again. "I actually came here to tell you something. Or um, ask. Maybe. Well there are actually a few reason I came, and I wanted to talk to you. So, um, I guess I just will since you know you can... talk." His sentence trailed off after working himself up, giving himself a moment to calm and think about what he had to say.

"Alea," he finally started, getting his thoughts together, "I know your friend Banir is important to you, and his quest is close to your thoughts. I understand wanting to help him, and I hate to leave any man without assistance. But, I can't go to Mura with you and him. I just, it's not my destiny. And I know you might be disappointed in my, or angry. But, please don't hit me till I have a chance to explain." He took a deep breath, and continued.

"I'm leaving Avanthal. I'm going to go to a city in the south, called Riverfall. A troupe of Drykas are guiding me there, and I should be there come the end of Spring, or even sooner. They are good people, and competent guides, especially Ronan. And..." His face became worried, and his emotions began to raise again, and he realized that he wouldn't make it through the conversation without his eyes changing, so instead he just relaxed, accepted that fact, and continued speaking.

"And, Alea. I left you in Denval, and that was wrong. And, I could have lost you forever." His voice tarried a moment, as he wrestling with his own composure, "And, you are a traveler, you deserve a life on the road, a life where you see the world. Where you get to sail the seas of the Suvan, salty wind in your hair, and see the frozen tundras of the north, to the rolling golden hills of Cyphrus. You deserve..." His checks began to tingle slightly, the first hint of embarrassment touching them lightly. He decided for his own dignity he should get to the point.

"My point is, Alea. I-I... I want you to come with me! I want you to come to Riverfall with me and the Drykas, and leave Avanthal and it's Melt behind. I want you to travel!"

He had planned the question to be given in more of a.... composed manner, but you could only work with what you had. And Oluse had no social skills.

"I don't want to leave you again..." His eyes cast down for a moment before looking back in search of an answer, and he didn't even bother bracing from an attack as he did so.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea had to sit down.

There was a long moment of silence as Oluse waited for Alea's response, but for a long while she just stared at nothing, her eyes pointed at the ground, her head so full of thoughts and possibilities that she just couldn't make sense of any of it at first.

The first idea to make it out of the jumbles mess and into coherency was that she felt extremely honored that he wanted to invite her, and she had no idea what a Riverfall was, but she felt sure she wanted to see it. And Oluse was right, she wanted to travel the world and see everything, and maybe one day she would even be willing to return to Denval for a time, to share her stories. But more than anything, having always felt like an outsider, even in her own home city, she wanted to find a place to belong.

Then her more practical side broke through her dreams and started listing her more realistic obligations: what about helping to rebuild Avanthal? What about her friends here? Indeed, what about Banir? Or any of her friends? Would they be invited to come along, or was this strictly a single invitation?

These thoughts gave way to anger: What does he want in Riverfall, anyway? What makes that a better place than Mura? And who did he think he was, dropping this on her all of a sudden? Did he think she didn't have plans of her own? Did he expect her to follow him just because she'd been pissed about him leaving before? Augh! Why now? If he had told her sooner, when she was already planning to leave, that would have been one thing. But the storm changed everything, and she didn't know if she was ready to leave Avanthal yet!

A part of her that was sad enough to bring a few quiet tears realized that part of being a traveler meant that sometimes you had to leave your friends behind, one way or another. Not everyone stayed in the same place, so no matter what choice she made, she'd be losing someone.

She could not possibly make a decision like this. There were too many questions unanswered, too many factors that could still affect any decision she made. Wiping her eyes so Oluse wouldn't notice the emotional firestorm she was feeling, she knelt to the ground, using a trick she'd figured out a few days ago, last time she'd needed to say something. She cleared away loose bits of straw and smoothed a patch of dirt. Then, with her finger, she wrote one word. "When?"

On impulse, as an afterthought, she added below it, "Why me?"

OOCfeel free to answer any of the questions she didn't actually ask. She will probably need answers to all of them before she decides, and writing all of them would be tedious ^^;

[Oluse]

Oluse's stomach had managed to work itself up into his throat as Alea silently thought to herself. The tears trailing from her eyes churned this feeling of worry and guilt more, guilt for something Oluse couldn't even put his finger on. He just felt bad, like perhaps he shouldn't have said anything at all, like perhaps he should have just run away without saying a word as he had last time. Then at least Alea could be angry instead of sad. Oluse closed his eyes trying to cool his head a moment, then opened them again as Alea knelt down to begin writing.

Oluse stood there above her looking down at the words scrawled in common upon the ground. "In a few days, before the end of the week we have to go. The Drykas need to hurry home to see their families, if they even have families to go back to. They can't wai-" He stopped talking seeing the look on Alea's face, knowing that knowledge of why they had to go so soon didn't change the fact he should have told her sooner, didn't change how hard it was to just get up and go. Especially after the melt.

Then came the questions of why her. He frowned slightly, thinking the question a bit silly. Shouldn't it speak for itself? "What do you mean why you? Who else? You are. Well you're." He then realized he didn't actually know. It had seemed to obvious before he tried to put it into words, now he wondered himself. Perhaps it was wrong to ask. He tried again. "Well you and I are..." He then remember something that replenished his assuredness, that reminded him of what he was doing there. He hoped it was enough to show Alea too. He could only think of two word's that might describe his feelings in that moment, and they were already set in stone, in cool metal.

"Alea... here." He slipped his hand into his pocket when his emotions finally began to catch up with him. He was unsure if he could follow through with his plan. In that moment, he considered running, hiding, never coming back to Alea in her musty Avanthal barn, to just run and keep running till he reached Riverfall, half the world away. But, then he looked into Alea's eyes, and with a sudden rush of heartbeats causing a swelling sensation in his chest which left him light headed, all his doubts were flooded and washed away. And most peculiarly, for the first time within Alea's presence, Oluse's eyes slipped slowly in hue that moment from their usual bland dark brown eyes to an increasingly vivid green, which along with the flood of his emotions altered cereal toward a lighter yellow.

As Oluse pulled his hand from his pocket the release of tension gave way once more to his usual dark brown eyes which Alea was so accustomed to, and he held with closed fingers within his palm a small object, taking a short breath before finally allowing his fingers to open, revealing a sheen of ornately crafted gold. It was a compass, with a strong chain looped through the top of it, and a door covering the glass from dirt and harm. The slightest sound of the metal piece within twirling as he righted it in his hand could be heard before Oluse continued to say. "Open it." And, if she did take the compass and peer inside she would see the inscription marked upon the inside of the door. 'Denvali Forever.' And, the makers name upon the back, one of the men who died in the flood of the Icefall Market, one of the last items he ever made. "For you." He finished, and looked searchingly upon her face, trying to gauge her feelings.

Secret :

[Alea Davenport]

Alea's head spun. She only had a few days to decide? Not only that, but to say goodbye to her friends here. a lump rose in her throat as she realized that Yuros would have no way of knowing she was gone, but she pushed that down. That was an old sadness, and she could not deal with any more emotional complications than necessary.

Setting aside her inner turmoil, she looked at Oluse expectantly as he tried and failed to answer her second question. A slight smirk curled her lip in a sadistic amusement at the difficulty he was having. For some reason, his discomfort always made her feel better. Usually, she would inflict such discomfort herself, but amazingly, he hadn't yet done anything completely stupid enough to warrant her wrath. Springing a decision like this on her at such short notice came close, but she had to admit it was a vast improvement over not telling her at all.

Her expression faded into one of curiosity when he presented her with what, at first glance, looked like an amulet of some kind. She looked at him skeptically, wondering how this could possibly explain anything, but she looked inside it, as instructed. It took her a moment to quite comprehend the meaning of what she was seeing. She doubted that 'Denvali Forever' was something the Vantha regularly crafted into their jewelry, so... did that meant that... Oluse had had this especially made? She looked at Oluse with an expression of confusion, not of her mind, but of her heart. For once, she was glad she couldn't talk, for she didn't know what to say.

After a moment, she flicked her eyes away abruptly. Then she unclasped the chain and fastening it around her neck, dropping the necklace below her high-necked shirt. She glanced back at him, wondering if he expected her to answer him. As much as she appreciated the gift (not that she'd ever say such a thing out loud), she wasn't going to leave Avanthal and everything she had her for a shiny bauble. If she went with Oluse and his new friends, it had to be fore the right reasons, or she would regret it forever.

[Oluse]

Oluse felt better as Alea took the gift and placed it around her neck, it looked very good on her and would have made Oluse smile had he not still be quite nervous. He wanted an answer, but didn't expect one right away, he more than anybody understood the importance of having time to make decisions, especially life changing ones. Not to mention it seemed Alea had more friends than Oluse did, and if Oluse had that many he would never be able to leave Avanthal. Well, at least not before the dream... Everything was different now though, he had to get to Riverfall. He had to discover what it all meant.

"Ok, well I'm going to go. I'm staying in the warrens. So I'll either be there or at work for the next few days when you decide." He stopped a moment wanting to say something, wanting to say that he got the necklace before all of this, wanting to explain why he was leaving, and that he felt the same weather she stayed or went. How he still felt the same about her. But, the words didn't come, never forming in his mouth. He still had much to learn about speaking, and expressing himself. But, till those lessons were learned he would have to settle with that. Gifts, and the shortest of moments full of emotions. He turned slowly and left the stables behind, wondering if it would be the last time he would ever see Alea.

[Creeper]

Oluse   Skills Investigation: 1 Rhetoric: 1 Persuasion: 2 Planning: 2   Lores Alea Has Lost Her Voice Persuasion: Giving Personal Gifts Nagging Question: Will She Come?   Other Gave Away Engraved Compass Stating 'Denvali Forever' Nice little personal thread. I hope everything turns out for the best! Alea   Skills Detection: 1 Planning: 2   Lores Communication: Writing in the Ground Ronan's Mission Nagging Question: Will I Go?   Other Gained Engraved Compass Stating 'Denvali Forever' Lovely little thread, spoke volumes without a voice. What will she do?