[The Fringe Forests] A Big Misunderstanding [Sama'el]

[Gianne Basete]

35th Day of Summer, 512 AV Early Afternoon Outskirts of the Fringe Forests It was one of the hotter days, and going for a ride had been more miserable than enjoyable. Gill's brown patches were a shade darker because of sweat, and Gianne's hair was plastered to her face and neck. She peeled her shirt from her sticky skin, shaking it to get some air flow going. It didn't help. The reigns were slack and she was allowing Gill to chart the course, too stunned by the heat to care where he was leading her at the moment. Fortunately he was a smart horse, and took them right to a wide stream. She swung heavily from the saddle and dropped the reigns. "Time for a rest, boy," she murmured to the horse as she uncinched his saddle. Once all his tack was off and halter on, she patted his thick flank, sending him off to graze. Then she stripped down to her undergarments, reveling the release from her sweaty clothes. She threw the bundle down with the rest of her gear, stacked neatly in the grass. A ways down the stream was a corpse of trees, the branches creating pockets of shade over the running water. This is where Gianne slid in, sighing as the cool water swallowed her up to the waist. A glance over her shoulder showed Gill chewing contently near her pile of equipment, tail swishing at flies. She leaned back against the bank, getting herself wet past the shoulders, then submerged herself for a second to soak her hair. In absolute bliss, she pushed back her wet hair and closed her eyes.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

Sama'el really had no ill intent. In fact, he had only recently returned to Endrykas and the Watch was sending him back toward Riverfall again. He didn't mind it, exactly. The solitude was nice, though he felt he should be there with the bear cub that the goddess had given him in exchange for a live son. And Issima was gone. That was why he was headed toward the cliffs again, wanting to visit the place where her body had been laid out for the elements and the scavengers, the better to return to the cycle of nature. He missed his wife. He should have been paying better attention to the surroundings, but luckily Dohaina was doing it for him. She didn't even snort, but her ears swiveled and he felt a tenseness in her, though it relaxed and he understood why when he caught sight of the horse whose coat looked a bit matted from sweat and chafing, in need of a good brush down. Curiously, he dismounted and Dohaina nosed the beast to make his acquaintance. That was when Sama'el found the clothes. "Huh."

[Gianne Basete]

Resting was impossible when Gianne was in the water, so she gave up trying. She enjoyed swimming too much, and playing in her own little way. She ducked under the surface, clinging to a fat stick protruding from the rocky bottom of the stream to hold her in place. When she opened her eyes it burned for only a moment, but she blinked away the sting. A small silvery fish darted past, joining its tiny school. Gianne floated there suspended in the shallow water, watching the little fish go about their business. Tadpoles wiggled in and out of crevices in the rocks, and plants clung to their perches as the current tried pulling them downstream. She broke the surface of the water to grab a fresh breath but as she was about to submerge again she heard Gill whinny. She stood in the water to investigate, frowning when she saw another horse and a man. Gill was nose to nose with the stranger's horse, and the man was examining her equipment in the grass. Thief? she thought suddenly. Gianne shoved her way out of the water, stumbling a little on the bank before breaking into a brisk walk. "Hey! You!" she called angrily as she approached. I left my knives with my clothes. Petch! "What do you think you're doing?" she said, stopping a few feet away with a scowl. Gianne tried to look intimidating. Or as intimidating as a woman could look standing unarmed in the open nearly naked and dripping wet.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

He wasn't really touching anything, of course. A grazing horse and a pile of clothes near a stream was rather clear, but he didn't see her until she surfaced, and then she was yelling at him and the man who faced down Zith slavers and Cyphrus storms without batting an eyelash suddenly retreated right into Dohaina's golden flank. "Ah... ah, I mean... that is, um... I was just..."

[Gianne Basete]

"Well?" was her demand. Her arms were crossed over her chest, with eyebrows furrowed and a hip cocked out. This was the universal sign of a woman wanting answers. If he was supposed to be a thief, he wasn't a good one. He just stood there and sputtered. "I assumed you were a thief, but I'm starting to doubt it." She didn't change her body language though. Any normal person would have just ridden on without stopping or taken her things quickly and run. Maybe she was still thinking too much like a Zeltivan though. She wasn't used to Cyphrus yet at all, and the people here had a different mind set. Gianne thought about this a moment and deflated some. Now she felt equally awkward as the poor stuttering man. Plus she remembered she was practically naked. Her face reddened and she snatched her clothing from its perch on the saddle next to her feet. "Do you mind?" she said, waving the clothes a little to specify what she meant. Her voice was harsher than she meant it be, but she felt only a little guilty about that.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

In fact he had been a thief at one point, when all he had to his name was a stolen Windrunner and a bit of this and that. Of course, he had never been a very good one, and had turned to honest work as soon as he could. But he was sure she didn't want to hear his life story, and he didn't like telling it, because the tragic elements seemed to overwhelm anyone's understanding of him. He was not a sad person despite all. "Sorry," he said, and turned around. Just to be safe, because a woman scorned might do anything, and a woman might consider this situation to be scorn, he took a few steps away, just in case she tried to knife him in the back.

[Gianne Basete]

She got dressed in record time, not caring if she looked rumpled. Her clothes stuck to her wet skin and she picked at them uncomfortably, then decided it didn't matter. Just in case, she slipped her hunting knife into her boot. Who knew what might happen? She wasn't a seer. Maybe she was just over reacting, but the few bad experiences she'd had so far in this region had crippled her previous ability to trust easily and the seed of fear and suspicion had been planted deep in her mind. "Alright," she said a little too curtly. Straight to business, she asked even before he turned around, "Since you're apparently not a thief, what were you doing?" A pause before she remembered her manners. Gianne had been raised very properly, and this sort of behavior would drive her mother right up the wall. "Sorry," she amended, backtracking the conversation. "Forgive my behavior. I've become... suspicious of people. I forgot my manners." An awkward pause. "Thank you for not stealing my things?" She searched her mind for something else to say but sadly came up short.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

She dressed in silence, so when she spoke, he hazarded to turn around, finding her clothed and only a bit out of sorts. He offered another apologetic smile. "You are right to be suspicious," he allowed. "The world is a dangerous place. I'm a member of the Drykas Watch, and I had business in Riverfall. There's a place on the coast I was going to visit, and my path crossed yours. It's part of my job to investigate the doings of people in Cyphrus... I wasn't... watching for, you know... Anyway... "I'm Sama'el."

[Gianne Basete]

The Drykas were one of the reasons she'd come to Cyphrus. Gianne knew of their masterful skill with horses and had traveled in the hopes of learning more about them. Of course the first Drykas she meets, this man, gets harshly accused and close to attacked. Her cheeks flushed faintly and she clasped her hands in front of her. Time to be meek, sorry, and polite. "Thank you for understanding, but I still shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. I need to... work on my people skills I guess. Or think before I lash out." Her cheeks darkened and she offered up an awkward smile. It was as much as a peace offering as she could muster yet. "And I'm Gianne." A short pause before she continued, trying to heal the situation with curiosity. "What is the Drykas Watch? It sounds all important but I'm originally from Zeltiva." She floundered a little, searching for something to say. "You're the first Drykas I've had a conversation with." Even though this wasn't much of a conversation yet. You could cut the awkward tension with a knife. It's hard to build up from a bad starting point. Like trying to light a fire with wet wood. "Where I'm from I only heard stories mostly, of your people and what you all do. I haven't been here long; I've learned more than I knew before, but..." She spread her palms open in front of her as if that would elaborate her lack of knowledge for her. Well this is petching awkward.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

"Gianne," he repeated. Saying it himself helped him to remember the name and the face, for when he was among people, it seemed he was always meeting new ones. It was surprising to hear that she hadn't met a Drykas before. They traveled into Sylira and Eyktol frequently; he himself had been to Zeltiva in his youth. But if she was residing in Riverfall, well, there were Drykas there frequently, trading and otherwise. "I hope I do not disappoint?" he hazarded. He was young, but there was only a trace of baby fat to his cheeks. The rest of him was whipcord muscle, lithe and lean. The tribal windmarks of his people started at his left wrist and made their way up his arm. Syna's gnosis marked his face, and Oriana's curse his shoulder. His hair was longer now that he had accepted his heritage, braided with bits of blue stone beads, feathers, and the like. And, of course, he smelled like horse and grass, earth and sky. "I was in Zeltiva once. The beer tastes... funny."