Completed Crossing Paths (Arken)

[Beshira]

Time Stamp: 20th of Winter, 512 AV

Beshira held her bow at her side, crouching as she stole along the dense shrubbery of jade and silver plants. One of them even seemed to hiss into her ear as she passed it by; if luck would have it, it had simply spawned from her vivid imagination. She didn’t stick around to find out. Pushing a hanging bough of ivory-white bark above her head, it suddenly came to her that the conundrum she always faced when hunting was actually finding her way back out of the forest. Crossing her fingers, she hoped that everything would just work out her way, ducking under a thick shade of leaves hung down by slackened, low-cut branches.

She eyed a clearing that opened up at least a couple dozen yards away, the border edged by gnarled trunks and leaves that gleamed like gold under the light of dawn. In the middle of it was a boar, casually probing the grounds with its snout. Rustling through the foliage, she watched it trot into a thicket trees upon detecting her presence.

To be truthful, Beshira would have been quite eager to hunt it down, but considering that her pack was full, she had no intention of concerning herself with any excess game she might stumble across. Nonetheless, it seemed to be moving in the right direction, she decided to follow it anyway, hoping that maybe it could lead her on the right path. This certainly wasn’t the first time she had to rely on an animal to get herself out of the woods.

However, as she trailed the boar, she sensed something else in the area, but she couldn’t quite discern what exactly that was. She wasn’t able to pick up its scent and it seemed to be coming her way; whatever it was, taking chances was the last thing on her mind. She nocked an arrow into her bow and kept her aim low, scanning her surroundings for anything out of place.

“Who’s there?” she called out, her voice loud and threatening as per usual. “If you want the boar, you can take it.”

[Arken]

Arken pulled his cloak tighter on himself. He disliked his appearance very and he figured being as he was undead anyone he came across probably wouldn't like it either. So he pulled his cloak tighter to himself and pulled the cloak hood up. Riding his new unnamed horse he'd just recently purchased was a bit of a uneasy ride but he figured if he wanted to be a more skilled traveler he'd have to suck it up. He managed to get the horse to stop after several minutes of begging it to and then pulled on a black cowl and a red silk scarf.

He tied the scarf around his mouth to cover the lower portion of his face. The inexperienced horseman then looked roughly a few yards from where he was and noticed a woman with a bow was looking right at him. The man in black fidgeted on the horse to make himself steady on the horse's back then waited for the woman to say something. "If worse comes to worse I'm on horseback and might be able ride away or reach my scythe if she gets me off the horse." the man cast a glance at his pale hands and then looked back to the woman.

[Beshira]

Beshira glared at the cloaked man, slipping her arrow back into her quiver and slinging her bow over her shoulder. She couldn't get a good look at his face, but didn't bother in prying. Giving him a hard stare for a couple more seconds, something suddenly clicked in her head. Maybe he knew his way around.

"You," Beshira said, pointing her bow towards the stranger. "Do you know the way to Syliras?" She felt stupid asking for the way back to her own city, but remembering routes within the forest was never really something she was good at.

[Arken]

He looked down at her from atop his horse and thought for a moment "Hmm hunter female that is lost in the woods perhaps she is from Zeltiva or something...". He dismounted his horse and spent a minute or two telling the horse to stay. Then he turned around and looked Beshira up and down and said calmly and casually "Yes." He looked around wondering where this woman's horse was.

His scythe lay in a sheathe on his back and he thought for a moment "Better hope I don't have to use it maybe the talking was just a trick to get me to dismount..." for the moment Arken kept his hands casually at his sides.

[Beshira]

Taking note of the tool on the stranger's back, Beshira folded her arms over her chest and tilted her head.

"What's a harvester doing out in the forest?" she asked, slowly circling her way around him and observing him at angle. Something was unnatural about him. His face suggested that he hadn't had sleep in ages and his clothes were highly concealing. She would assume that he was of a different race, but she was not so well versed in such things. Perhaps the scythe on his back was not a harvesting tool at all.

[Arken]

"Working." He took his scythe from off his back and moved some snow about with the blade. "You?" He looked at the ground the snow hadn't yielded to reveal anything remarkable just some frost bitten grass and dirt. He then put the scythe on his back and pet his horse and told it to stay again. He looked down at his boots and then to his hands and twiddled his thumbs for a second or two. "I really need to buy some gloves."

He then cast his glance back at Beshira waiting for her response yet again.

[Beshira]

Beshira tapped at her pack with a gloved hand. "Gonna be eating some rabbit stew when I get back. Maybe make something out of the pelts if there's time." She chewed at her lower lip, feeling her hand draw closer to her shoulder strap. Was this guy following her? She wasn't sure if she wanted to ask him for directions anymore. If it came down to it, she could just put an arrow through his heart and take his horse. "So what kind of work involves pushing snow around with a scythe?" she asked. "There's no pathing around here and you'd do a better job of it with a broom or a shovel. If you think you can lie to me, it had better be a damn good one."

[Arken]

The cloaked man got back on his horse "Unskilled, not lying." Arken extended his right hand out for Beshira to shake it. Other hand under his cowl he
tightened his scarf. He pulled out his hand out from under his cowl. The guy on horseback then withdrew a comb from his backpack that was slung over his shoulders and begun to come his horse's mane getting bits of snow that had stuck to him out. He wiped the comb onto his pants.

[Beshira]

"Then I won't ask anymore," Beshira said. The thought of trusting anyone other than herself was an outlandish idea conceivable only in the most dire of circumstances, though seeing as she didn't have much of a choice if she didn't want to return home late by hours and the fact that he seemed harmless enough worked around in her brain until she finally decided to give him a chance.

Still suspicious but in need of a ride out, she took the man's extended hand as a sign to climb up on the horse behind him. She took a firm grasp of it and pulled herself onto the horse's back; shivers ran down her spine as she did so, feeling it shift under her. She'd never touched a horse before, let alone mount one. What she was doing was unthinkable, to say the least, but to say that she had changed over the past couple years was an understatement.

[Arken]

Arken uneasily pulled Beshira up onto the back of the horse it took him a moment do to a bit of lack of strength on his part. Then once she was on the back of the horse it was uneasy because Arken was trying keep himself steady though he was lacking a saddle on the horse and he was trying to keep his appearance a bit concealed. Looking over his shoulder and noticing the strange woman he'd just met shiver he then looked forward at the mane of the horse and then back at her. "You alright back there?"

He shuffled around a bit so the scythe on his back wouldn't injure Beshira while they rode. Then unsure what do next he begun to slowly ride off to Syliras.