Aimed Bows and Tucked-Down Hoods [Vyvian]

[Engghaen]

32th of Fall, 513AV

Engghaen woke up with a yawn. She didn't want to stand up. Not just yet. The ground was soft and... Soft? No, it was not soft. Her bed had been soft. This was... Hard. Stone-like hard. She wasn't laying on the floor, was she? Well, apparently she was. Something kept annoying one of her back muscles. Not very comfortable here... Oh well. Though the girl was awake, she didn't feel like opening her eyes, but the daylight still hurt her eyes through her eyelids. Then she decided just to get upright. She did and looked around, trying to adjust her eyes to the light. When her eyes were closed, it had looked very light, but instead it was rather dark here. Comparing to the dark nights in Lhavit, this was light, she thought. Noticing she wouldn't get any further by just sitting here, she commanded her body to stand up and it followed, though slowly.

This was a...? Forest? The cat smiled slightly. Forests! Great! Turning around, she also saw that this was the edge of the forest, and her back was facing a tiny city. It's cold here, maybe I should get... Her thoughts got interrupted as she turned around. The cat now noticed she was wearing her full garnments and the hood of her cloak was over her head. Nothing. the girl concluded after a while of staring into the dark forest.

Slow but steady she started walking to the core of the city. It was, indeed, tiny. There were but people on the streets. Rather gloomy this place is. She didn't even know what she was doing here, anyway. Turning around a corner, she stopped. Noises. Due to her ability to hear well, she heared someone coming. The girl grabbed her bow -which she apparently had been carrying on her back, she saw- and an arrow and aimed it in the direction it had been coming from. Please don't let me shoot, please don't..

[Vyvian]

x

Vyvian's eyes snapped open and he screamed. Sitting up bolt straight, he wiped the sweat off his brow.

That was a particularly bad nightmare.

Frowning he looked around him, the sighed and slumped back down. Still in the dream it seemed. He could only assume this was what the members of the harvests had called a forest. He had never left Kalinor after all.

He recognised what he was sitting on was wood, but it was rough... not cut to a comfortable shape. And there were green... what where they called... leaves sprouting out the end.

Despite this feeling so strange he felt deep inside him at home. From some distant corner of his memory he recalled his ancestors used to live in forests. Vyvian shrugged mentally and wait to take his boots off to climb the tree. Except he wasn't wearing any in the first place. He shrugged, his dreams had odd habits. He slowly began to scale the tree, taking in the smell and the roughness of the tough outer skin of the wood. It certainly wasn't as comfy as the cave was, but he could see how a Symenestra population might live here, easy to run away from hunters, that's for sure.

After spending some time exploring the "tree" he grew bored of its.. muffling, rough complexion and descended to ground level.

He frowned and wiggled his toes. So this was grass. He squinted. It was way too bright for his eyes, narrowing them to slits he put his boots back on. He didn't like grass. Why was everything on ground level so... rough?

He turned and saw a young girl. Not Symenestra. Human? She didn't quite look right for one.. She seemed really.. fleshy, you could practically see the blood through her skin. Looking down at his own, he saw his greyish veins stand out through the bright light. He probably looked like a corpse in this light.

"Uhm. Hello?" he muttered, wondering what to say. He ran his clawss through his bone white hair and squinted at her to try and get a better view. She definitely was very short.

x

[Engghaen]

The girl removed the dark-green hood from her head so she could see more and scanned the place for the source of the sound. There it was. Something -or someone- was disturbing the comfortable brown, green and orange colours with it's white. Then she lowered her bow. Internally, she grinned. I don't look anything near scary, do I? Oh well. I'm not anyway. Ziths are. And Syms. A.. Sym? Could be.

"Erm... Hello." she answered back and walked closer. Yes, it was indeed a Sym. His skin looked as if he was almost a ghost. The Kelvic looked at herself and back. She wasn't that much lighter. He scratched his scalp and now she noticed his hair was almost as white as his skin. Maybe even whiter. He was much taller then she was. That wasn't hard if you realised she stood only 5'4' feet tall. Was it making her look young? She shook her head.

Then she realised she was still holding the bow tightly and put it away.
"I.. Er... I'm sorry for that. You scared me." For the one time she had met a Symenestra, she had noticed not all Syms like it when they are called 'scary'. But in Lhavit they were feared. As in Syliras. The only place she could recall where they were loved was Kalinor. She had never been there. It was a place for Symenestras and not for Kelvics, nor for humans.

[Vyvian]

x

Vyvian raised an eyebrow, almost invisible against his skin.

"I scare you?" he asked cynically. "May I ask why? I'm not.. well not very intimidating at all." he chuckled. "Well, the shadows are my friends that's for sure."

He squinted and looked up. "Not that there are any of those around, this place is blinding." He shifted a little of his hair to cover his eyes, providing him some relief in the form of shade. Stooping down to kneel, he looked at her straight in the eye. He was roughly her height when kneeling upright.

"So what are you then?" he glanced at her longbow with a little disinterest. "Don't you find your bow... well, boring?" He brought his crossbow off his back and handed it to her, after a moment's thought. It was a dream so it mattered little. "Mine is much more powerful, and easier to aim, and I won't break my arm drawing the string back" he chuckled melodically. It sounded like an unnerving mixture of bones grating and glass chiming.

x

[Engghaen]

Ha, ha, ha... We're going to be funny? "Well, uhm, I don't care if you are or not, from far away you look differently."

Yep. He was indeed tall, and kneeling was for her almost as if he was making fun of her. She didn't care."I'm Kelvic." That sounded stupid. Like you was saying: 'hey I'm a tree, and you?'.

He handed over his bow. How do you mean, 'boring'? 'Boring'?! He doesn't even know what the thing's personal value is! "It works fine." she hissed back at him, while carefully taking the bow. 'Boring'. Tsk. "It might not be the best bow there is, but this one means something to me, alright? And I'm happy to break my arm for that."

A bit cross, she stared at the man in front of her. It's just a dream, just a dream...

[Vyvian]

x

"Kelvic...." Vyvian muttered, giving a not well concealed cursory glance over Engghaen

"So.... you're a cat? I've never met one before." Vyvian smiled and brushed some hair from his eyes so he could take a closer look. It wasn't a friendly smile, more than a smile of a person whose boredom has been alleviated.

Vyvian's eyes narrowed in caution as the.. cat? Human? grew angry. He didn't know how dangerous they were. If size mattered to Kelvics as it mattered to Zith, he'd need to be careful.

"I didn't mean to be rude, I was merely stating I didn't find it interesting. You can hardly blame me for having my own opinion can you?" Vyvian narrowed his eyes, slightly confused. "Or is it rather you'd prefer me lie and say its the best bow I'd ever seen just to flatter you? Which would you prefer?"

Smiling proudly, he gestured to his crossbow and carefully loaded it.

"Give it a go."

x

[Engghaen]

"Yes. Kelvic." Her attitude changed a little and the angry face disappeared. "I am a cat indeed. And a girl. And you are a Symenestra, I suppose? Be glad you are. When people see me they call me cute, but when they see a Sym -or at least, in Lhavit- they are scared."

He apologised to her. Why, she did not know. "You do not need to apologise for anything. Normally I do not get angry easily. I am just a bit protective towards this thing." She tried to smile, but failed miserably and it ended in a weird grimace.

"Even I know this bow is bad. Crossbows are much better."

She looked at the bow and took it carefully from his hands. There could not go anything wrong, could there? She tried to aim at a random tree but it took her a while to find out how to hold it. Then she tried a shot and muttered in herself. Miss. Awfully miss.

[Vyvian]

x

Vyvian raised an eyebrow..... well... impressive.

"No no no no" he muttered derisively. "You don't aim it like your shortbow. You see these two indents here and the single indent at the front?" he said with unbridled enthusiasm, gesturing to the two iron sights on the crossbow.

"Line them up so they're level and that's where the bolt will land."

He lined up the crossbow in one extended arm and pointed to the centre of the nearest tree.

"Try there"

x

[Engghaen]

Great. You missed.
So? I can try again right?
Yes, but you know you do not like missing at all.


''O.. kay.." She tried to look carefully at what he was trying to explain. It confused her. Oh well. She could try again. "Yes, I do.."

It was funny to see how enthusiastic he was to explain it to her. Probably he was just proud of it. At least, that was the only thing she could think of.

This had to line up with the other, right? A bit helpless, she stared at the thing and scratched her head. Then she took it from his hands and tried again, as best as she could. Or at least, in her opinion.

Now aiming on the tree he had pointed at, she tried again.

[Vyvian]

x

Vyvian flinched as the shot went wide. Thankfully not as wide as before, but still wide. Pouring he thought.

How could he explain this to what must be a less intelligent species?

Uhm... ok.." He held the crossbow up in one hand, extending his arm fully and closing one eye. His eyes glinted through his fringe.

"See? This is how you hole it. Everything lines up and the bolt will go straight on that... leaf" he held his breath and fired, the bolt landing more or less true.

Further explaining, he drew lines in the soil with his black claws.

"Maybe this helps?" he was losing patience fast, his shoulders hunching.

x