A Helping Hand.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

78th of Spring, 515.

Today was a good day. A cool wind kept brushing around the side of Iros, cooling the Pycon's toes as they hung over the side of the horse. The shade he offered from the beating sun was glorious.. it more than made up for the rather rough ride as the destrier struggled to weave around laborers and hunters struggling to squeeze their way through the main gates. It'd be a busy day for everyone.. though likely the squires most of all.

Iros had insisted that they take advantage of a good day in Syna's light and ride down to Mithryn early, hoping to catch some of the late-day preparations for the new harvests. A little running around and some chance words and they'd even picked up a few other squires who had patrons busy with other matters. A little groaning here and there; wasting a good day toiling in the fields was apparently not what they had in mind for their time off training and patrolling, but their whines fell on deaf ears. Besides, for once, Arch was actually looking forward to a bit of extra work.

Well, not that he'd be doing a lot. If it took hundreds, if not thousands of workers to successfully tend to the acres of fields then one squirrel would nary make a dent in the workload. He could give it a shot, sure. The day would be long and hot.. spending all of it lounging on the back of his patron's mount would be a crime and he knew it all too well. Iros had said so. "Hope you're not getting too comfortable back there, squire." Impeccable timing as always, the armored crimson knight spoke up just as the squirrel was beginning to drift off. A sudden swing out to the side, barely missing an archer covered in what looked to be camouflaged armor and with a short-bow slung over one shoulder, swiftly dispersed the cobwebs from his nexus.

"If I was, you'd have just given someone a serious head injury." That rough jerk sure hadn't been on accident.. the Akalak knew how to ride a horse well enough and showed it when he did it again, this time narrowly missing a woman holding a pitchfork and with rough-hewn sacks tossed carelessly over one shoulder.. which she nearly dropped in surprise thanks to the close shave. "Hey, watch yourself!" A nudge wasn't going to be felt through the thick plate-mail, nor the muscle underneath, so the Pycon had to settle with a punch to the small of Iros' back to keep him in line. "If I fall off, you're the one that'll be banned this time, not me."

Apparently the clear day wasn't just lifting the spirits in Arch. He heard a sharp laugh, slightly more baritone than usual. "If you fall off, you'll be banned from hitching rides on the back of me and not riding your own mount like everyone else does." Xarex was just two steps behind at all times, easily weaving through the crowds under legs and around carts like a fish in water, though his eyes were always staring up at the horse's flank. Apparently he was doing much better than the other squires as well.. he could have sworn they'd picked up three yet none of them were in sight with all the crowds jostling to make it through the bottleneck. "Speaking of everyone else, you seen where our little helpers have disappeared to, squire?" Struggling to keep his eyes on the path ahead to avoid any more close collisions, the knight couldn't afford even a brief glance back over his shoulder.

"Think we may have lost them, Ser." A beautiful day, but not the best one to be spent in such a crowded space with everyone clambering over each-other to escape the stifling heat amplified by the oppressive stone corridors.

[Alexander Ross]

Alexander Ross Alexander flinched a bit and held tighter onto the reins as Digby suddenly jerked beneath him. He reached down and patted the Gildling on the side of the neck. "Calm down, there. This is serious, we don't have time for pranks." He whispered, before directing the horse toward the gates, his heart pounding in his chest with worry. He was supposed to meet up with Squire Archailist and Ser Iros, so that they may head to Mithryn, which was a day away by horse to his knowledge. He had no idea why they were going to Mithryn, but he figured it was most likely on a patrol, or to help with the farm work... which he had absolutely no knowledge of. If it ever came to that, then he was luckily a fairly quick learner, and should be of some use. Not only that, but it would be nice to do a bit of physical labor. It was not the most appealing way to spend his time off, but it was a lot better than wandering the city with nothing to do. Alex yawned a bit as he lead Digby through the gates, carefully weaving through the crowd of civilians going on about their daily routine. A fairly dark-haired man who seemed to be in a bit of a hurry dashed in front of Digby, startling him and causing him to rear back a bit. Alex once again patted Digby on the side of his neck in an attemped to calm him down. It worked for the most part, but the Gildling still remained on edge. The dark-haired man continued on his way as if nothing had happened. "Watch where you're going!" Alex called after him, gently coaxing his mount to continue. He searched the crowd for any sign of Archailist and Iros, while trying his best to keep from running into anyone. Of course, if he did run into someone, then it was their own fault, considering that his horse was a fairly large target and could easily be avoided. A person would have observation skills worse than his own to allow themselves to be run over. Searching ahead, he noticed a knight mounted on a horse had already made it out of the gates, and upon a few moments of further inspection, he recognized Archailist riding along with him. Alex gave Digby's side a gentle kick to speed him up, and was nearly thrown back in the saddle as the horse suddenly jerked forward. "Easy, easy..." He said, righting himself. Soon enough, he had caught up with the pair. "Hey! Sorry I'm late, it's pretty busy." He glanced back and noticed that no other squires were with them. Funny, he had been told that there would be more. "Where are the other squires? Have they not yet made it?"

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The slightest tug on the reins was all that Iros needed to bring the horse to a stop; traffic continued to fluidly pass around with nary a mumbled complaint when they saw the armor and who sat inside it. However, there was no need for it since the moment they pulled to a halt, the familiar head of Alex begun bobbing through the crowds. Of course he was much slower.. but then again, if he remembered correctly, the poor boy had barely any understanding of how to ride a horse. Poor lad. "I can see one. No sign of the other two though." Then again, Alex was the only human, so obviously he'd be the first one to see.

Once again, he'd end up biting down on his own words as shouts echoed through the crowds and even from a distance he could see a trail of jumping civilians as they struggled to push aside. Good Sylir. He could even hear the yells through the throng as the first to emerge was a Bozderon Shadow Dog, trailed by a clay lizard jumping between feet and around ankles in an attempt to keep up. "Here come the rest." Regardless of the large and yet remarkably agile mount, Howard had assured them that he'd make it without. Only insisting had eventually drawn the squire to include the dog.. though even then he apparently wouldn't ride it. Not out of a dislike.. but, like Alexander, apparently out of a disability. Unlike the human, Howard compensated.

"Hurry up there, you're falling a bit far behind! Those chubby little legs holding you back, eh'?" the spiked clay creature called over one shoulder as he finally broke through the throng of passers-by and slowed to a gentle walk just behind Iros, panting heavily and patting the dog on the flank. There's one. The other was very far behind.. but unlike Howard, Kaolin didn't have the option of riding. Not only was he far too heavy.. but also too big and generally ill-shaped to fit a saddle and unwilling to change himself to suit it either. He'd not abandon his pig-body until he curbed his obsessive nature.

Couple his.. well, not his weight, but obviously his girth and the inability to ride and the pig-baby was wheezing as he pushed his way after Howard, barely managing to keep up a trot as he made his way up to the side of Alexander and his gildling. "Not all of us were graced with your agility!" In truth, Kaolin seemed to be able to run the same speed as Howard, from what he'd seen of them both at the 'starting line' before all of this.. but Howard was definitely the more flexible of the two and could handle the narrow spaces with much more ease. Nowhere near as much as he could.. but that wasn't to be discussed today.

"Alright, alright. Let's settle down." He tapped the Akalak on the lower back again. "They're all here now." Nothing else need to be mentioned; the convoy started up again with a firm kick, drawing Hammond up behind Iros and right beside Xarex, occasionally fluffing up the Sykanis pup's headfur whenever their paths crossed. Surprising that the little dog had quickly warmed up to Howard's affections, but then so had Arch. It was a warm comfort to be able to have meaningful conversations with those of his own species once more.. not that he didn't enjoy the same formalities with humans. He wasn't that shallow. Didn't mean the humans weren't either, though.

[Alexander Ross]

Alexander Ross Digby shifted impatiently beneath, but calmed when Alex patted the side of his neck. The boy could not exactly blame him. It had been quite a bit of time since he last ridden him, so he could imagine that he would be a bit irritable at being cramped up in the Windmount Stables for days on end. He resolved to spent more time with the Gildling in the future, it was never good for a horse to go for a long period of time without stretching it's legs and running in a more open space. A chorus of chatter suddenly captured his attention, and he craned his neck to look behind him. He did not see anything at first, but raised his eyebrows in both surprise and curiosity when a strange-looking spiked lizard emerged from the crowd, quickly making its way toward them. Upon further inspection, Alex realized that the creature was also a Pycon. Archailist must have had him come along as well, which should not be a huge surprise. The more people there were, the less work there was for each of them. Especially with Alex always being in his exhausted state due to sleepless nights. "Not all of us were graced with your agility!" The sudden outburst that came from right next to him caused the boy to glance down... And what a sight it was. Alex had never been one for first impressions, a theory for which Archailist himself could attest, given how they first met. Giving the creature next to him a single glance, he yelped and flinched. That would have been all he would have done, if his blasted irritable horse had not been startled by his yelp and reared back, tossing the boy from the saddle. With another yelp, Alex tumbled backwards and landed flat on his back, the impact knocking the wind out of him despite the protection of his armor. He lay there in a daze for a moment, before coughing a few times and gasping for air. His eyes glanced about, realizing that his surroundings had gotten noticeably blurry. He reached a hand up and felt his face, finding that his glasses had been thrown from his face. "Ohh, shyke..." He groaned, lifting his head up and squinting, unable to see. "Where are my glasses...?"

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The heavy clatter of metal was enough to bring Iros to a halt. Before he could reel his horse around and get a good look, the Pycon at his back was already attending to it with a soft sigh. Difficult to be concerned when he was already more than well aware of Alexander's lack of practice. "Alex fell off his horse." Though Kaolin and Howard were both at the scene much faster, at least more concerned for the human's wellbeing over snickering at his tumble, neither of them could help the man back to his feet, much as they might try. "Can you two go and find his glass-things please?" They'd have a much better chance than Alex and it'd keep them from getting in the way as the Akalak pushed forwards and reached down to grab the scruff of the squire's neck and drag him back up to his feet.

"You alright there?" If the boy'd hurt anything then he'd either have a lot more trouble helping with the fields or he'd be entirely useless at it; best to know whether to send him back to the castle and have him treated rather than waste time and potentially make it even worse. An annoyance to have to run around and find another squire to take over the duties, but Iros wasn't stupid. If the boy couldn't do anything, no point in trying to get blood out of a stone. "No broken bones, dizziness.. don't lie to me squire."

Kaolin was first to find the glasses, which'd scattered a few feet off to the side and looked dusty but otherwise intact. Off in the background, Arch straightened his back and turned back to the sound of the other Pycon's gleeful cheer. "Got 'em!" Well, that was at least one less thing to worry about.. or so he thought.

"That's great.. now if you wouldn't mind getting out of the way of the carriage, that'd be great." At first, Kaolin just stared up in complete confusion.. which gave the approaching caravan led by a twin set of horses, carrying all manner of farming tools sticking out of thick bags of seed all the more time to push up alongside the group and nearly crush the odd-shaped statue. Even worse, as he squealed at the sight and turned to flee, he almost dropped Alex's glasses on the way back around the side and out of its path. First Alex, now Kaolin.. he swore that they'd have their numbers halved before they ever reached the fields, let alone got a chance to help out.

"Arch." Mid-conversation, Iros had apparently become aware of their struggle and tilted his head in the vague direction of Kaolin without breaking eye-contact from Alexander. "Fetch the glasses, please?" Oh. Stupid, he should've spent more time helping to look rather than lounging on the knight's ride like a damn hitchhiker. In a shot, he was down off the horse and tumbling over the ground to avoid splattering against the ground on impact. The horse was damn tall.. but Arch had dropped from higher, at least.

"Would you mind...?" Kaolin was still examining the glasses by the time the clay squirrel got in front. He seemed very curious about it, spending far too long staring at the shiny pieces of glass, and the metal frame.. yet embarrassed the moment he realized that he needed to give it back. Arch wouldn't judge nor prod, but he spent too long staring at the man-pig statue before accepting the glasses - Howard was quick to slip between them and snatch the instrument from right between Kaolin's chubby fingers. Petching shyke, this wasn't the time.

He made a grab for them again but the clay lizard hopped back a step, huffed a warm breath right over one of the lenses and begun exaggeratedly wiping them with his free hand in little circles. He had no idea why but it cracked an unwelcome smile regardless. "Shine yer glassy-thingies fer yah', mistah?" he asked in an overtly-mocking accent, bowing heavily at the waist to offer up the glasses. Kaolin was snickering.. but Iros wasn't. They'd taken far too long by now to stop messing around and just give the boy back what he'd dropped.

"Ahem." He didn't actually say anything but clearing his voice in the way he did sent a sudden shiver up all three of their non-existent spines as they struggled over one-another to climb back up the back of the horse and offer the glasses back to Alexander. "Here.." Arch was faster than Howard.. and a lot faster than Kaolin in struggling his way back up the side of the horse's smooth flank so that he got back at about chest-level with the one human squire of the group.. that were now blocking the way for quite a lot of men and women trying to pass down to Mithryn.

[Alexander Ross]

Alexander Ross Before Alexander could even move to get up, the red Akalak hauled him to his feet by the scruff of the neck. Usually being grabbed like that would cause a defensive reflex to kick in, but luckily the boy was able to manage himself and he allowed Iros to drag him to his feet. That's just sad... I'm so light that I could be picked up easily with one arm... He thought. Of course, the Akalak was a lot stronger than some people, but it still surprised him that he could be dragged to his feet with almost no trouble at all. He stood there for a second and shook his head, before answering to Iros's prodding about his health. "I'm fine, Ser. Just a little shaken." The squire replied, glancing at the giant red blur. The impact from the fall jarred his head a bit, and a headache had already accumulated, but he was sure it was nothing serious. A bit of rest later in the day and he should feel better... that is, if he could get some rest. If anything, it would wear off in a few hours. He had experienced worse, he was sure. Being strangled to the verge of passing out was nothing compared to falling off of a horse. He glanced off in the directions he had heard the three statues scurry off, but found himself unable to make anything out besides blurry moving shapes and blobs. From what he could tell, one Pycon seemed to be too interested in staring at his glasses instead of returning them, before another one intruded. "Shine yer glassy-thingies fer yah, mistah?" Alex could tell by the accent that the Pycon was teasing him. He rolled his eyes. "Can we not make fun of the blind kid, please? That'd be great." He said, and froze when Iros suddenly cleared his throat. Even though the knight did not exactly say anything, it seemed to have a satisfying reaction from the three. Even Alex felt chills, and usually not many people had that effect on him. Finally, he accepted the glasses from Archailist, who seemed to have been able to grab them from the other two. "Thanks, Arch." he said, putting them on and sighing as his sight came back into focus. He glanced around and noticed that, in the time that they had been goofing around, they had blocked the path of people trying to get to the Mithryn Outpost. Wincing a bit as his head pounded, he patted Digby on the neck. "Sorry about that, bud." He whispered before climbing back into the saddle, glancing back as he heard a pedestrian mumble in complaint. "All right, let's go before a riot starts." The boy said, rubbing the back of his head.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Iros agreed quickly; the last thing he wanted was to cause a fuss. "Back on your mounts and hurry the petch up." Arch wasn't even given a proper warning before the Akalak stabbed into the horse's sides and sent it almost launching forwards to leave Alex, Howard and Kaolin behind as the rest of the crowds threatened to envelop them on their way around. Howard barely managed to catch the back of his dog before it ran off in pursuit; a few ticks and he'd sped off as well, rushing to catch up with the knight and leaving the man-pig statue in the dust behind him.

Kaolin didn't have a horse.. though he was a pretty good runner, that didn't account for his minuscule stature. There was only one option left to him.. and that option happened to be mounting up right now. "Err... excuse me.. do you think you could give me a ride?" he asked Alex with an accompanying tug to the back of one ankle, like a child pulling on the skirts of its mother to ask if it was allowed to go and play with the other boys. For his hideous looks, his voice was remarkably soft and even calling up to Alex and trying to make himself heard was a strain. "I mean.. only if you want to, any way."

Just then, a loud call from Howard - who obviously had a much bigger mouth than the baby-pig statue regardless of how he was dwarfed in size by it - echoed from around the passing people all turning with glances of disgust down to the arguably-malformed Kaolin. "Hurry up you lot, Ser Iros says we need to get a move on or we'll be spending all of tomorrow in the Outpost too!" They hadn't even made it very far.. and there was plenty more ground to cover if they were going to get any work done. Every bell spent milling about and chatting to each-other.. or falling off horses.. was another bell they could be spending doing a bit more good for their fellow Sylirans.

Instead of being jolted to action by the call, however, it'd only served to bring Kaolin deeper into his own insecurity. "Actually... you know what, I think I'd be better off if I just, you know, ran.. I need the exercise after all, yeah." Jumping to conclusions wasn't going to solve anything, he knew that.. but it'd be better to just accept the inevitable already rather than wait for the real rejection. It made it easier to take if he brought it upon himself and accepted it sooner than keeping hope up when so much evidence was already lying on the contrary.

[Alexander Ross]

Alexander Ross Alexander nodded in response to Iros's command, and watched in surprise as the lizard statue suddenly bolted off and left them in the dust. But before he could spur Digby forward, a soft voice brought his attention to the little pig-man statue next to him. He gave a soft sigh and nodded. Truth be told, he felt terrible the way he reacted to the Pycon's appearence, and the least he could do was try to be more sincere, especially after he and the lizard-thing tried to help him after he had fallen off his horse. The boy was surprised that he even reacted the way he did. Usually, it took a lot to startle him and trying to scare him would be like trying to scare a stone. "Hurry up you lot, Ser Iros says we need to get a move on or we'll be spending all of tomorrow in the Outpost too!" The sudden call snapped the boy out of his thoughts. In all honesty, Alex did not care much for manual labor, yet his entire life consisted of it. From what he gathered, he was fairly well with manual work, just as long as he did not try to overexert himself... which he had a bad habit of doing. Even so, he did not exactly care to spend all day in the hot sun lifting things. "We're coming! Just a second!" He called back. At the pig-man's intervention, Alex shook his head. "Oh! No, please. I don't mind. To be honest, I'd feel terrible if you didn't." He replied with a smile. "I do apologize for my behavior back there, it's not very often that I meet people who are actually unique." He chuckled a bit. He waited for a moment, giving the Pycon time to scramble up onto the horse before moving forward, eventually catching up with the other three. "I'm Alex, by the way. It's nice to meet you." He patted Digby on the neck when the Gildling suddenly jolted forward a bit. Calm down, you damned thing. He thought, rolling his eyes. Falling in step next to Iros, he rubbed the back of his head, wincing a bit. "So, why exactly are we doing in Mithryn again? I have a pretty good idea, but I just want to make sure."

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The sincere apologies brought a fresh smile to Kaolin's face, even as the rest of his body struggled to shift fast enough to scramble up the side of the horse before they fell any farther behind the rest of the group. His normal pig-body slowly dissipated into a pair of equally-chubby feet that clawed at Digby's hoof and wiggled its way up the smooth surface until he felt like he had a suitable grasp on the horse's flank. It still wasn't easy, though.. he had to rely on the leather straps of the saddle for a decent foot-hold and making the jump between the hind-legs and midpoint of the horse's body was almost his entire height in a single jump, stretching his arms to the absolute maximum before they'd likely snap in two.

"Ahh, thanks... m'called Kaolin." Difficult to strain his already-limited conversation skills when he had four feet on the ground, let alone when balancing on the back of a horse with nothing but Alex's backside to grapple with to stay there. "And.. 'nd I don't blame yah. S'not something I like lookin' at meself neither." Not any more. Not yet, at least. Perhaps some day, when he could take up the mantle of knighthood and spend his time helping those who needed it most, he'd be able to look in the mirror and love himself again. That would take time, though. Years if not more, but it'd be worth it in the end.

Though first he'd have to survive that long.. and to do that, he'd have to avoid day-dreaming. "Huh? Oh. Uhm." Wasn't Alex already told when pulled off for the venture? Or Alex had fallen off his horse again in the middle of the explanation; who knew? "I think we were just meant to patrol around the sides of the Fields, monitor the new planting and lend a hand wherever we could." The laborers would need all the help they could find and there was never a better excuse for sneaking out of boring combat training or, worse still, sat in the Archives reading up dusty books on the history of the knights when it was such a beautiful day out.

"At least if we make it there before the planting ends. Unlikely, at this rate..." With their little diversion, they'd all have to speed up a little if they wanted to cover the distance.

***

Morning made way for midday, which faded into afternoon with little change to the sky.. but plenty to their path. Arch had, during some point, slid off the back of Iros' horse and hopped back onto Xarex for a quick ride. Little and overly-burdened as the little dog was, there was still plenty of energy as they darted back along the path towards Alex and then up to Iros again, nearly knocking over a few people also walking beside their horses down the smooth dirt track. Howard was busy taking great joy in winding around a wagon filled with the wife and children of a hunter who'd made the trip down to the castle with his family to sell his wares. The little boys and girls leaned over the edges of the wooden cart, much to the dismay of their overprotective mother, reaching out with their tiny hands to try and catch the acrobatic statue as it bounded from one side of the wagon to the other.

Finally came the call they'd all been waiting for; Iros, by now rather far up ahead, calling down the road with a single phase that brought Archailist and Howard running.. hopefully Alex as well, if he knew what was good for him. "We're here; fall in!"

[Alexander Ross]

Alexander Ross Alexander nodded, focusing more on keeping Digby directed on the path. In a way, he could somewhat relate to Koalin. Of course, it did not seem too relative, given the major difference between the two. Whenever he looked at himself in the mirror, he he would would find nothing physically wrong with himself other than his wiry build and the few scars on his body. But when he truely thought about it, it always felt as if something were missing. Nothing truely noticeable to the naked eye, but more... mentality-wise? Not even he himself could quite put his finger on it. It did not take a genius to figure out that there was soething mentally wrong with him, but not many could guess that he was borderline insane, given how quiet he was about it. He hoped that one day, he would regain that little piece of himself that he had lost so long ago. * * * Alex yawned widely and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, being careful not to accidentally steer Digby away from the path. For some reason, the Gildling seemed to be much more calm and patient with him. As usual, the boy had gotten very little sleep the night before and no matter how hard he tried to hide it, he was exhausted. Hopefully he would have some amount of energy when they arrived at Mithryn. It probably would not help their cause much if he ended up being completely non-observant and tired the whole time. The morning sun was hot against his face, and nearly blinded him as beams of sunlight bled through the seemingly endless line of people making their way to the Outpost. It was an obvious thing to tell at first glance that Alexander was not a morning person, and for good reason. He wondered if it would be easier on him if he were assigned a nocturnal schedule. It would make sense, considering how well he functioned at night. He had absolutely no idea what it was about the night air that made him feel such at peace, but it would be smart to at least try to use it to his advantage. "We're here, fall in!" Iros's sudden call snapped him back to reality, and he sighed. About time... He thought, rolling his shoulders a bit. His back still ached from his fall the day before, but he was sure that it was nothing too serious. If anything, he would feel a bit better by the end of the day. Once again rubbing his darkened eyes, he spurred Digby forward. "All right, let's get this over with..."