Closed A Clash of Faith (Sekai)

[Tsaba]

2nd Fall, 513AV Tsaba left Zeltiva behind her, striding off into the hills. She'd been worried about leaving the city at all at first, but she'd strode into the foothill several times in the past season and no harm had come to her, so while she still held her sling and kept a stone cradled in her palm, ready to load it, she wasn't frightened. Besides, the best way to fight danger was to learn to protect oneself, was it not? And that's what she was doing out there in the first place. She could practice closer to the city, of course. But she needed ammunition; large, round stones, the smoother the better. To practice with cast lead ammunition all the time would get expensive. So she meandered about the foothills in a zigzag pattern, eyes to the ground, pausing every now and again to pick up a rock. Most of them were crumbly and uneven. They would still do for short-range practice shots. She kept them. Once she had a good pile of stones pooled in her cloak like a makeshift bag, she found a target tree, checked carefully behind it to make sure that there was nobody there to injure (she didn't want to make that mistake more than once), loaded the sling, and fired. She missed, of course. Tsaba patiently loaded another bullet and fired. Then another. A few of the shots hit, more an effect of random chance than any real skill. But she was pretty sure her hit rate was improving. At least, she hoped it was. Sun above, city behind, Tsaba patiently assaulted the tree with large, round stones.

[Sekai]

OOCI Guess I'll let you make the contact. Literally the contact XD

Wandering about away from her tent, Sekai sighed. She really should practice her magic, but they were so pitiful, that she didn't really think it would make a difference. Nonetheless, she wandered away from the city, as a precaution against someone distracting her, or getting injured by her magic. Though the chances were rather low, Sekai did not want to be troubled soon after she had returned here. Stopping after walking a good distance, she dug a shallow hole in the loose soil, before attempting to cover it with Shielding. Tasking it to stop steel, she took the scythe off her back, before slowly lowering it towards the shield, with small hopes of success. Of course, her already low expectations were dashed away, when the tip of the scythe passed throw the shield without resistance. Sighing as she stood up, she thought back on the basics of shielding, and attempted to figure out where she had strayed from the steps. Unable to see where she had went wrong, she attempted the shielding once again. This time, she felt a small resistance, however, the shield shattered shortly after the blade of pushed against it. What am I doing wrong?, Sekai thought to herself in annoyance. She had created the shield over an opening, and tasked it against steel. Why wasn't it working, she had no idea. Out of frustration, she threw her scythe somewhere off to her side, while growling in annoyance.

[Tsaba]

Tsaba, of course, eventually ran out of stones. Not wanting to take another long walk looking for more, she approached the tree and crouched down to see whether any of her spent ammunition was reusable. She couldn't help running her fingers over the chips she had made, and feeling a little proud. If an enemy stood still twenty feet away from her and let her fire stone after stone at them, sheer random chance could do some damage. Most of the stones that had hit the tree were beyond use, so Tsaba walked farther afield, eyes to the ground, looking for her shots that missed the mark. Slings had a range that was almost ridiculously long; while there was a limit to how far somebody could shoot accurately, missed shots could end up much farther away than one might expect. She was focused on the ground, but it was important to remain conscious of one's surroundings outside the city. Anything less was an invitation for death, especially for a little girl like her. So when a scythe randomly flew toward her and bit into the ground a few feet away, causing her to jump, she told herself it hadn't taken her entirely by surprise, and neither did its apparent owner, standing some distance off and apparently expressing anger at the ground. Tsaba put away the few usable stones she'd reclaimed, picked up the scythe, and jogged toward the stranger. "Hey! You there!"

[Sekai]

Sekai had given the hole where she was practicing Shielding at least a good twenty and odd number of stomps, by the time she heard the voice call out to her from her side. Pivoting around on her foot, her body tense with surprise and worry, as she had not heard anyone nearby, most likely due to the fact she was wholeheartedly concentrated on making large numbers of foot prints on the practice area. Sekai quickly gave the person a once over, noting the short height and black pigments in her eyes. More importantly, she also saw her scythe being held in the girl's hands. Panicking, believing it to be a bandit, she turned around and tried to land a hit on the person with her bare fists.

[Tsaba]

Tsaba was somewhat startled by the stranger taking a swing at her, but when somebody attacked out of the city you protected yourself first and asked questions later. She was small, weak, and without the advantage of sharp human reflexes; not an ideal hand-to-hand combatant. Instinctively, she flung up the scythe as she tried to back away. The weapon was somewhat unwieldy in her tiny hands (who attacked a child, anyway?); not that that made much difference, given that she had no training in how to actually use it. But she wasn't trying to hit the other woman. She was trying to use the weapon as a shield. "Stand down!" she snapped, trying to sound a lot more in control of the situation than she actually was, as she tried to back away from her assailant. "Don't make me hurt you!"

[Sekai]

Filled with anxiety, as Sekai saw her weapon be held up by the girl. Deciding that if a physical approach was not possible, then perhaps a magical one would, she placed her left hand in the pocket of her breech. To any other person, it would seem like Sekai was planning on fighting with one hand. She was actually attempting to send an astral projecting of her hand, by slowly and carefully disconnecting the astral body. Se may be in a panic, but still had enough rationality to not rip it off as quickly as possible. Keeping her right hand out, in case the girl holding the scythe strikes, Sekai guessed that it would take maybe a chime or two to finish disconnecting.

[Tsaba]

The girl adopted a more relaxed pose upon seeing Tsaba, putting one hand in her pocket, so Tsaba took that as an invitation and quickened her pace. The girl looked very young -- although about three times Tsaba's apparent age, she reminded herself. The child thing was becoming more jarring than she'd expected. Scythe in hand, other hand still caressing her sling absent-mindedly as had become habit outside the town, Tsaba jogged towards the young woman. "Hi. I think you lost something?"

[Sekai]

Taking a step backward when the girl got closer, Sekai gave the worried look behind her, checking for anything behind her that may cause her to fall. Looking back, she finally disconnected the strap projection of her left hand. Using that astral projection, she attempted to push at the girl, only to realize that she did not have the capability to do so. Her push, probably would've felt like a very useless and barely annoying poke. Giving up on attempting to harm with Projection, she slowly started to reattach her left hand, will hoping that the girl wouldn't attack her. Hearing what the girl had said, Sekai was confused. She lost something? When had that happen? While still taking slow steps back, she answered, "What do you mean?", in a slightly hesitant voice.

[Tsaba]

Tsaba stopped when she realised that the young woman was backing away from her. Her hand was still in her pocket; not casual then, but protecting something, probably clasped around something valuable. Or dangerous. She lifted the scythe. "This is not yours? I assumed that it had to be..." she glanced around, and lowered her voice. "There aren't other people out here, are there?" The woman had made no aggressive moves, but she was pretty sure she'd felt something brush her as she approached, and they could very well be stalked by something. If they were ambushed, she hoped that the young woman could fight, because Tsaba certainly couldn't. She took a deep breath and began chanting quietly in nader-canoch, gathering her will in order to pull djed into her sight and take a proper look around. At the same time, she moved closer to the woman, so that they wouldn't be separated by attackers.

[Sekai]

[Abandoned]