New Journey

[Luxury Starshine]

xxxxx (A S K E) L A D D E N xxxxx
c e l e b r a t e d (w i z a r d)

Dallas practically ran over and jumped on the bed, waking Jeremiah to tell him that he could come along on their trip. Once he was awake enough for the words to make any sense to him, the boy jumped up, hugged Dallas ( which was probably awkward for her ) jumped out of bed, knelt down to tell Soren the good news, and then began to hop about like an ape in joy.

From his position on the bed, Aske sighed, and leaned his chin into a hand, watching it with as much of a blank expression as he could manage. Said expression may have come across as slightly disgusted, which was accurate. He was slightly disgusted, though he supposed he ought to have been pleased the boy was so very eager to come along, and happy to hear that he could.

Eventually, after Soren had danced with him, the boy sunk down to his knees, wrinkled clothes, unbrushed hair, and directly after that display, and told him that he would not regret his decision. It was really quite comical, and Aske could not quite manage to hold back a snort. The scathing and horrible side of him wanted to say "too late for that." That was not appropriate. He'd given his word, and the boy was...excited. It would have been nice if he had been that excited or happy about anything at that age, and as such, he could not quite muster up the courage to completely squash the boy's joy.

"There will be conditions, like you will learn to read and write, alongaside Dallas, and you will be given lessons on how to improve your healing ability, but we can discuss these at a later date, when we're back on the road." He gazed at the boy kneeling in front of him, and then, rolling his eyes slightly, he sighed. "But that's later. For now, brush your hair, and then we will all head down to breakfast before we leave." Because they were definitely leaving, quickly. If he had not thought it would raise suspicions, they would even skip the meal.

"All right," the wizard said, rising to his feet and picking up the nearest, and heaviest bag "Let's get started. There's still quite a few leagues between us and Fallenhue."

☀x ☀x ☀ x☀ x☀ x☀ x☀

[Luxury Starshine]

▪ ▪ ▪ M O R G A N___
s u b t l e ▪ s p i r i t ▪ ▪ ▪

After seeming to contemplate his reply for a few moments, Joaquin reached out and rumpled the top of his hood. Their master was not a gentle man, and as such, even when being mildly affectionate ( which Morgan was not used to in the first place from the man, ) the cloth was roughly shifted from side to side and threatened to come down around his neck. Indeed the moment the hand was lifted away, he felt the hood begin to slide back and he reached up for it quickly, readjusting it with a fervent need. It couldn't fall, that would reveal his ears.

The truth was, when it came to his ears, his identity, Morgan never relaxed. How could he, when his ears were a dead giveaway? Pointed, not to the extent that some were, but even slightly was enough to show something that Joaquin hadn't picked up on, perhaps because it wasn't human, magic. Always hiding, even from the two people that he stood near, ate with, slept alongside. In truth, Morgan knew it was actually only a matter of time before his hood slipped, or something along those lines, only a matter of time before their master knew he was part forest spirit. Only a matter of time before Joaquin killed him for it.

Not today, he kept telling himself. He just had to keep not letting Joaquin find out today. Hopefully before his todays ran out, they'd find the wizard that had taken his parents from him. This Askeladden wasn't that wizard, he knew that much, but he needed to be dealt with too. All magic was evil. Including his, and he hadn't even used his to harm anyone, not like the wizard who had lived in this house.

With the assault on his hood completed, Joaquin told him that he was wrong. He was? Oh. He was. Joaquin simply touched the doorknob and the entire house just seemed to melt away. That only happened when Joaquin was touching something like an illusion. That must have been what it was, an illusion, just as the master said, he'd seen beneath one layer, but this particular wizard was apparently powerful. It had been very convincing. Too convincing. This man was dangerous.

They split apart to search the burned house for clues about where Askeladden might have gone. It seemed pretty pointless, but who knew? There might be something. Still, the wizard had done a thorough job with the place. Fire seemed to be his element. The only real indications that a house had been here recently were the remnants of the foundation and the acrid smell of charred wood. That was all he smelled though. Burnt wood. Under his boots glass cracked and a time or two he came across nails that wanted to bite into his hands or feet, but glass, metal, wood. These were things that made a house, but not necessarily the things inside. Shouldn't he be smelling things like potion ingredients? Cloth? Even discarded food or wine? Just as the wood had not faded away, neither should these have...but there was nothing. Not even the barest remnants or bits on the floor. Everything, just...everything seemed to be house material.

After what felt like a forever of nothing, Gracie made her way back over to Joaquin, and Morgan followed, standing on his tiptoes to get a look, "What is it?" He wasn't really expecting to be answered, it would be answered by his own eyes, or by Master Joaquin without his asking, but he was curious, even if he did, out of habit that was quickly becoming a nervous tick, he readjusted his hood so that there was no chance of it falling back. Even if that did prevent him from seeing as much as he wanted.

[chihari the Kiwi]

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⊱ DALLAS ☇ unwilling apprentice

The boy stared at her like a dummy for several long minutes, during which she repeated "Master says you can come!" several times. She was actually beginning to feel quite cross with him by the time he finally woke up enough for the words to sink in. When it did, his face stretched until he was beaming smiles. He lunged up, flinging his arms around her. While she initially yelped with surprise, her arms soon came around him in a return hug, most of her crossness fading. At least he was as excited as she had expected!

Then he released her and was bouncing and spinning around the room. Soren joined in, causing her to laugh with surprise. This was the most animated she had seen him, though watching him shift from cat to fox made her a little nauseous. It was like her brain couldn't comprehend what she was seeing. She wondered if she would ever get used to it.

Jeremiah's sudden stop and serious vow to Master Askeladden gave her a case of the giggles, and she squirmed on the bed laughing. He looked so ridiculous with his serious face, rumpled clothing, and with his hair sticking up in all directions! That, combined with her master's expression... ahahaha! This was hilarious! The wizard better not change his mind. No take backs! She would make him pay for it if he crushed poor little Jerry!

She made a face when he mentioned reading. Stupid reading. Why did he think it was so important, anyway? She sighed. Oh, well. At least now there would be someone suffering along with her. She sighed and sat up, putting her shoes on. Breakfast! No way would she turn down breakfast!

She swallowed hard when he mentioned Fallenhue. While she'd bragged about it to Jeremiah yesterday, she still wasn't sure how she felt about meeting a dragon. Dragons were scary.


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[CLOMP-a-saurus]

xxJ E R E M I A Hxx

“You’ll teach me to read?” Rather than being dismayed by the conditions the wizard set, the boy seemed thrilled by them. Not only to read and to write, but also to heal better? Jeremiah already healed really well. He didn’t know there was a better! This was going to be awesome. Askeladden really was the coolest wizard ever. He was so lucky that he got to travel with him.

“It sounds really hard,” he added cheerfully. It probably was going to be hard. But no one had tried to teach him to read before! And think of all he could do once he could. He was going to do his best! And Dallas was learning, too, right? Did that mean they were. . . no, he couldn’t even think it. He couldn’t handle that possibility just yet.

“Yes, Master Askeladden!” he chirped at the instructions, hopping up from where he was kneeling and making a beeline for the nearest reflective surface. He ran his fingers through his hair in a surprisingly effective facsimile of combing it, then smoothed his shirt, the second motion seeming more of an afterthought. Then, as he was waiting for Dallas to be ready as well, he hopped over to put on his new boots, his tongue sticking out slightly between his teeth as his full concentration went into lacing them up properly. And just like that, he was ready to go.

Grinning, he turned his attention back to Dallas. Was she ready to go, too? He supposed it might take her longer. She was a girl after all. Which meant brushing her hair out took a lot more work. Though it looked like maybe she’d already tackled that while he was still sleeping. Oh, he hoped she was ready to go, too. He was so excited to set off on his first real adventure!

His attention was drawn from the girl at the sound of clicky clacky fox nails against the bare floor. He looked down to see the shape shifter sitting nearby, watching him with what he swore was a thoughtful expression. He really was a good looking fox. Maybe a little older looking than the wild foxes he sometimes saw at the edge of the woods on the south side of town, but he was really old, wasn’t he? Just how long did wizards live, anyway?

Smiling, he knelt by the fox to stare back at him. Foxes had really pretty eyes, didn’t they? He looked soft, too. Not much thinking about what he was doing, he reached out to pat the fox. But his hand had barely come close enough when the fox reacted, lunging forward slightly to bite his hand before skittering off to hide on the other side of the bed.

“Ow!” Jeremiah jerked his hand away, though the fox was already gone. His voice was more surprised than actually pained. Jeremiah had been bit way harder by stray cats and dogs. The changeling had barely even broken the skin. But he hadn’t expected the fox to bite him! Didn’t he like to be pet? Jeremiah thought changelings were supposed to like cuddles. Maybe the wizard just didn’t like him. Maybe the wizard had seen it as an insult that the boy had wanted to be so familiar. Oh no! What if he’d made him angry or hurt his feelings? Jeremiah didn’t want the shape shifter to dislike him! If the great wizard Soren hated him, then Ser Askeladden would, too! Nooooooo!

“I’m sorry!” he ran around to the other side of the bed, but the fox jumped on top of the bed and hopped over out of reach. The fox gave a sharp, yipping bark, then hopped a little in place before stopping in an alert stance, legs spread slightly and eyes fixed on the boy. This kid was kind of fun! Though Aske was definitely going to scold him. Everyone always scolded him when he bit people. . . but that's what the twerp got for trying to touch him!

Anticipating the reaction, the fox turned his head slightly toward his old apprentice, poking his tongue out of the tip of his snout. It looked kind of derpy, but the boy would get the jist. He’d stuck his tongue out at him enough times – and in enough forms – over the years, after all.

All around me, I see what weakness had made. Too much tomorrow. I think I'll take all today. Am I a poison? Am I a thorn in the side? Am I a picture perfect subject tonight?
Here I slumber to awaken my daze. I find convenience in this savior I save. Am I a prison? Am I a source of dire news? Am I a picture perfect reason for you?

[Luxury Starshine]

xxxxx (A S K E) L A D D E N xxxxx
c e l e b r a t e d (w i z a r d)

Over on the bed, Dallas was laughing. His kneejerk reaction would be to turn to her and tell her to stop, but...he couldn't. She'd been so solemn the last few days, after her attack. How could he possibly stand to crush that? It wouldn't be right, and so his annoyance was pushed to the side and he focused on the boy before him, who, as opposed to Dallas when she started to realize she had to learn things, seemed excited.

"It will be hard," he informed the boy grimly. Jeremiah seemed to be excited for the challenge though, ah, well, let's see how he felt about it in a couple of days.

With that said and understood, Aske stood up from the bed to gather their things, and then startled a little when he heard Jeremiah express pain, and then, apologize almost immediately afterward. What--? Oh. It wasn't hard to figure out once he saw the boy going after Soren. He'd tried to touch him, and Soren had bitten him. "Soren!" He scolded, eyes narrowed in displeasure, "You know better than that!" He suspected the boy hadn't even tried to pick him up, just touch him, which, considering that not everyone got to touch a fox, wasn't a ridiculous request.

In return for his scolding, or perhaps even in preparation for it, the old wizard turned to him, his tongue distinctly sticking out of his muzzle. For a moment, Aske stared agape. It had been a while since he'd gotten that, but then the annoyance kicked in, and he scowled, "And you know better than that too." He made a harumphing sound and pulled the bag over his shoulder. "Don't apologize, Jeremiah. He's trying to teach you a lesson. Do not touch the fox unless the fox says it wants to be touched." Though between them, they both knew that the fox always wanted to be touched. Affection and food.

"Now," the wizard gestured toward the boy, expecting the wounded hand to be offered. It was true that his newest acquisition was a healer, but healers were rarely any good at healing themselves. When the hand was given he gently wrapped his fingers around it, both pulling the hand up and kneeling down a bit so that he could properly see. It wasn't bad. Soren hadn't bitten hard, but biting was biting, and Aske did not approve. "Here," He simply swiped his thumb over the wound, releasing a minimal bit of magic into it...and then it was gone. "Better."

With a little bit of a sigh ( he hadn't been up long and it already felt like it had been all day ) he stood up straight and made his way to the door. "Let's head downstairs for food. Pick a table you two, and let's see if Innes decides to come back before we're out of town." Or if the other shifter decided to come back at all. It was actually a little worrisome. Innes had told them very important and dark things, and he would very much prefer if he would stay with them. The children might not like it, but Soren would...and Aske too, even if Innes did only tolerate him.

☀x ☀x ☀ x☀ x☀ x☀ x☀

[chihari the Kiwi]

J O A Q U I N

The three of them broke apart in different directions to search the rubble. Joaquin's long fingers were methodical in their search. Only the most ordinary of rubble was cast aside without examination. He found blessed little else, unfortunately. Even things he would have expected to find in the ruins of a house were absent. Where was the cookware? Ceramic and iron shouldn't have been destroyed in a fire, especially a fire that had left so much wood behind. He didn't find even a fork in the rubble. Had the wizard Askeladden gotten rid of it all somehow before demolishing his house? Then why demolish it in the first place? There had to be something here. But maybe it was just a counter measure in case someone tried to track him, as Joaquin and the children were doing now. Or maybe the wizard had already been planning to leave, and so had sent his stuff along, before the townspeople had angered him and he had destroyed his house in the resulting tantrum?

So many questions with very few answers.

He sighed. Grace called to him, and he glanced up at the boy's approach. He stood, extending a hand for the paper Grace held out to him. Paper, huh? It was a surprise it had even stayed as intact as it was, despite the fact that half of it had been burned away. Morgan trailed after Grace and stood on his tiptoes to try and peer over Joaquin's arm to catch a glimpse of the paper. Joaquin automatically lowered the paper a little so that the boy could see better, even before he had read the words himself.

His brown eyes scanned the words. They were bloody hard to read, and many were misspelled. The writing was too large, and a lot of the words blended together. "Awful penmanship," he said with a sniff. From what he'd gathered, the local wizard had been soft-spoken and educated, not the type to write in this kind of messy scrawl. It was a labour to read. "It looks like a letter he received, not a letter he was planning to send," he murmured. Perhaps it would have been better for the children's education if he had asked them to observe facts about the letter themselves, but his mind was spinning to fast for him to even remember that he was supposed to be their teacher.

There were few words that could be made out because the letter was so charred, and had been torn by the debris. He could make out "Dear Aske", which was undoubtedly the wizard's nickname. Who else could it be? Other tidbits could be gleaned from the letter. The wizard planned to visit the sender, who looked forward to seeing him after such a long time and meeting the child. The thief boy the innkeeper had mentioned? No one had mentioned another child, so he would have to assume. Unfortunately, the letter did not mention where the visit would be taking place. Perhaps it had in its intact state, but that was of little use to them. It was gone. The senders name had even been burned away, since it had been scrawled on the bottom right of the paper, and it was the right side that had been damaged the worst.

Still, there was one very useful fact. "It mentions not to go through Kastel," Joaquin said, tapping the paper where the name of the large trade town was mentioned. "Because the king has stationed troops there on their way to the border." Kastel was northeast from their current position. At least it was a start.

"Good work, Grace," he said. He didn't clap Grayson on the shoulder like he would have if it had been Morgan to bring the paper to him. One didn't treat girls in such a rough manner. Luckily it wasn't hard to remember not to treat Grayson like a boy. He played his role exceedingly well. "We've got a starting point." He would love to hit the road right away and chase down the wizard to mete out judgement. In times past he would have. That had been before children. They weren't even his children. He sighed. His or not, they were under his care, and night would fall soon. They had been travelling all day and would surely want to rest. Plus he should probably feed them. Not feeding children was generally considered a bad thing.

"Let's see if we can find anything else that's of use to us, and then we'll return to the inn for the night," he decided. He could mourn his freedom, but there was no point. He had always known that Grace might come to travel with him someday if things had not changed by the time he had grown. His mother had warned him. Morgan hadn't been planned, but allowing him to accompany them had been Joaquin's choice. He had brought it on himself.

They continued to search, but there was nothing else that revealed a clue to the wizard's destination. Still, the paper was a good start, so when they returned to the inn Joaquin bought Grace a piece of cake with his dinner as a reward. Rewarding kids for accomplishing things was supposed to be good, right? He didn't know much about it. But then he felt bad for Morgan and wound up buying him cake too. Ugh. Kids were complicated.


❝if your problem's magic, i'm the solution❞

[chihari the Kiwi]

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⊱ DALLAS ☇ unwilling apprentice

Even the prospect of reading seemed to delight Jeremiah. That baffled Dallas. What a weirdo. But she brushed it off, because clearly the boy didn't know what he was in for. Reading was hard, and boring. She was certain that once he had actually experienced the lessons he would come to his senses. Even Master Askeladden, for all his emphasis on reading, seemed to be baffled by Jerry's enthusiasm. He told the boy that it would be hard, which affected Jeremiah not at all. Dallas sighed. Oh well. Crazy company was better than no company, she supposed.

Jeremiah dashed off to neaten up his hair while Dallas pulled her shoes out from under the bed and slipped them on. She yanked hard on both laces until the leather was as tight around her shoe as she could get it. She tied them quickly, and the slack from tying them loosened the shoes enough to be comfortable, but still snug. She smiled and got to her feet, gathering up her brush and making sure all her other possessions were tucked safely into her bag. She had very few things, and she didn't want to leave a single one of them behind. When she was satisfied that everything was where it should be, she closed the bag.

The commotion caused her to glance up, and she rolled her eyes. Oh, Jerry just got himself bit by Soren. He should know better than to pet a shiftling without permission. After all, Soren was a person, even if he looked like a fox most of the time. She went back to ignoring them as Master Askeladden scolded the boy and the fox, before healing the bite on the boy's hand. She focused and slipping her arms through the straps of her bag, settling it on her back. She wasn't sure if they were leaving right away, but she had long been in the habit of carrying all of her possessions with her to keep people from nicking them. She had more now, but that didn't inspire her to change her habits.

"Okay," she said when Master Askeladden instructed them to go downstairs and get a table. She turned to Soren, who had run to the other side of the bed when Jeremiah had chased him earlier. "Soren, do you want me to carry you?" she asked. He was perfectly capable of going down the stairs alone. She knew that. But he seemed really old, and he might have overdone it running around with the other shapeshifter the night before.

When Soren had made his decision, their party tromped down the stairs into the dining hall. Dallas dashed ahead, picking an empty table close to the door and waiting for the boys to catch up. A grey cat jumped up on the opposite end of the table and glanced over at her through slitted blue eyes. The corners of her mouth turned upwards in an uncomfortable smile, and she gave a small wave with her fingers still mostly curled. "Good morning, Innes," she whispered, because she didn't actually want anyone sitting nearby to hear her talking to a cat. She didn't want to be rude by ignoring him, either. That didn't seem like a good idea.

He turned his back to her, watching the movement of the other people in the dining room. Dallas let her hand and her smile drop. He was still unfriendly, it seemed. She crossed her arms on the table and laid her chin down on them. She wondered if he would ever warm up to her, or if he really hated everyone like Master Askeladden said. She would prefer it if he liked her. He was kind of intimidating.


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