Timestamp: Autumn 3, 518 AV
While the sun had not yet reached a point of set, the sky was lugubrious, shrouding the sun in its wake. Rain was still coming down upon anyone who was unfortunate enough to be outside, soaking them within moments. It was funny, Zuhre thought while still in her fugue state, that not that long ago she too had been falling from the clouds.
“It’s going to be okay,” mumbled a gruff voice from beside her.
Zuhre’s eyes fluttered upwards, dodging the pellets of rain by blinking as fast as could be manageable. The gruff voice belonged to a man who was taller than her, but not by much. His sandy brown hair was wet and stringy, sticking to the sides of his unshaven face and getting into his eyes as he walked beside her. His eyes were a perfect reflection of the sky above them: grey, dreary, but so full of emotions Zuhre couldn’t pinpoint just one.
Where had this man come from? And why was his arm wrapped around her body? Remembrance is often a fickle thing, but as though blessed, it occurred. Like flashes of lightning (unless perhaps it actually was lightning), the images flooded her head. She was completely nude, washed up on the shore of an expansive lake, cold and shivering and barely conscious. Her knee had felt like it was on fire, and it still did, but she dare not look at it quite yet. May it be fate or luck, a stranger had crouched down beside her and offered her his hand. Had he not of touched her, her blurry vision might have mistook him for a mirage or some sort of wild animal.
Zuhre looked down at her body, wondering why it was she no longer felt as cold as she had when she had first come across this stranger, or rather him having come across her. She wore a long coat with small, chipped buttons, many of which were barely hanging on by the thread that kept them attached to the rest of the coat. Under that coat was a dirty shirt bearing stains from all sorts of origin and a pair of pants, both of which were far too large to be her own. Her feet were even warm due to shoes that did not belong to her. Where, then, had she acquired this attire?
She looked back towards the man, noticing that he bore no clothes aside from the hose that covered the lower half of his body. That, and the backpack that was resting on his shoulder by its strap.
“You’re not wearing anything,” Zuhre stated rather than said, blinking away stray raindrops, or were they tears?
The man chuckled, but she wasn’t sure if the laugh reached his eyes. “That’s because you’re wearing it all.”
Oh.
“Now, I need you to not say anything,” the man continued. Confused, Zuhre looked away from him and towards the direction they were heading. “Let me do the talking.”
A large stony tower pierced the sky ahead of them. Maybe that’s what was making the sky so angry, Zuhre thought as the two of them continued closer. The tower resonated a feel of ominousness that made the hairs on the back of her neck raise in objection. She knew not if it was the weather or the tower that suddenly cast a sense of contrition over her body.
Nestled between two sides of the tower were two wooden doors that had probably seen better days. They looked thick and dense; heavy, like whatever was inside wanted to keep what was outside, on the outside. That, or it was the other way around. It wasn’t until moments after examining the door that Zuhre saw the numerous guards surrounding the gates. One of them began to approach her and her chauffeur.
“I request your names and intentions,” stated the guard. His eyes were cold, like frost had blanketed them throughout the night; his expression was stern.
“Tallon Erving,” the man said from beside her, releasing his arm from around her body. “I am a current resident of Ravok. And this is-”
“Zuhre.” It was so blunt, so informal, and by the expression the guard gave her after the words had left her mouth, Zuhre so wanted to claw at them and force them back down her throat. “I-I’m requesting citizenship here- looking for work! What’s your name?”
Tallon threw his hand up and took his palm to his face. The guard turned to look at him- to really look at him- and noticed then that he was not wearing anything other than his undergarments.
Anxiety soon racked the poor girl as she realised how strange the situation appeared. Her nervousness only increased once several guards started walking towards them with shared stern expressions as the guard they were currently conversing with. Zuhre closed her eyes, bracing for what they were about to do, but all they did was touch certain parts of her body, and investigate the contents of the backpack that was slung across Tallon’s shoulder. She noticed the contents of the backpack consisted of some various sizes and shapes of knives, a net, and some other tactical gear.
The guards retreated to their stations almost as soon as they had advanced. The first guard was still looking the both of them up and down as if trying to unearth a secret he thought they were hiding. Zuhre smiled in an attempt to right any wrongs she might have accidentally caused. Tallon was still seemingly hiding behind his hand.
The guard’s gaze dropped to a book he was holding in his hands. Zuhre saw her and Tallon’s name being scribbled across the previously blank paper. “Go on through,” he muttered under his breath.
Relief flushed through her body, neglecting to further recognize any issues she may have caused both her and Tallon. She had other things to worry about such as, what had happened to her previous to the point of time she can remember?
Once they were on the other side of the tower, Tallon took Zuhre by the arm. “What did I say about letting me do the talking?” His eyes were colder, Zuhre noticed, but they held something else within them. Concern. He was concerned for her? Why would he possibly have any concern for someone he had just met? Someone who had been naked along the shore in the middle of a storm, no less?
She shrugged her shoulders, feeling the tension of the muscles and bones grinding together. She was still in so much pain, and her lungs continued to burned from having swallowed so much water in the fight to breach the waves of water that came crashing down upon her. She was very much on edge, even after being granted clearance into a place of refuge, but she couldn’t deny the fact that she had no idea where she was, or what she was doing. Being on land, in the presence of another person, and promised that “everything was going to be okay” were just a few minute components that made up an otherwise completely negative situation.
She heard Tallon sigh, but refrained from looking into his eyes, for fear of finding a worse emotion displayed within them. “Let’s just hope that whatever you do, you don’t piss off more than just the guard that grants you access into a whole bloody city.”
That was not the reaction Zuhre had been expecting. Her crystalline blue eyes met his smoky grey ones. She could have sworn she saw a sparkle encircled by the cloudiness. She was about to ask him something, but was interrupted by Tallon’s movement down a pathway composed of various types of stones. She followed.
At the base of the pathway was a docking port, a ferry attached to it by a thick rope. A man was standing beside the ferry, with an expression that contrasted greatly with those the guards on the other side of the gate.
“New to Ravok?” asked the man with a strange smile. She saw his eyes survey Tallon’s clothing preferences.
Tallon didn’t given Zuhre any time to respond. “Returning,” he grunted as he boarded the ferry. He held his hand out to Zuhre so that she wouldn’t fall or hit her head when she transferred from the docks and into the boat.
“Then, I bid you a pleasant return.”
