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 Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 8:32 pm
Rasslyre had thought that she had come to terms with losing her sight long ago, but as she found herself on her rear end for the umpteenth time that day, she was slowly becoming increasingly frustrated. Earlier that week, she had found herself right on the borders of Daya and Elore with the current group of musicians she had been traveling with. She had already been feeling the chill that seemed to permeate the nights the closer the small group got to Daya, and to put it bluntly, she hated it. When the small group had stated they intended to move through Daya before heading to Ina, Rasslyre had decided to part ways with them. After spending one more night in camp with them, she had spent the following morning contemplating what she wanted to do now after bidding the others goodbye. Perhaps it was time to go back to Omach and check on the little sprouted plant that her seed had grown into. Mind more or less made up, she rose to her feet and kicked dirt onto what was left of the campfire before heading east with her pack and walking stick.
That had been several days prior, and because Rasslyre could only comfortably and safely travel alone during the hours of daylight, her progress was slow. She was in Vritra now, and the natural lack of sunlight made things a bit more tedious. The low-lying roots and shrubbery had snagged on her skirt and tripped her up several times, and Rasslyre's palms were scraped and stinging. She was unsure exactly what time of the day it was, but she had had enough traveling for now, and wanted to go find a place to just rest. Using her walking stick to help regain her footing, she strained her limited sight in an attempt to find a path or sign that could lead her to a settlement or populated place.
Nothing, just wonderful. As usual, Rasslyre had undertaken the trip back to Omach in the mindset that if she started out in the general direction, she would get there eventually. With that said, Rasslyre had pretty much no idea where exactly she was in Vritra. For several long moments, she stood immobile, but then decided to head a tad deeper into Vritra, but still be aiming for the border into Omach. Well, what she hoped was the right direction at least. About an hour and an additional two falls later, Rasslyre noted a tiny spark of light a small distance from her. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was a paper lantern and that several more seemed to dot the dim landscape around her.
Rasslyre leaned against a nearby tree for a moment, resting her walking stick in the crook of her arm as she brought her two hands close enough to her face to notice the blood from her scrapes on her palms. Wincing as she poked at her palm gingerly, Rasslyre sighed and reached up to the long cloth headband she wore in her hair. Taking the length of it and carefully wrapping it around her left hand, she gripped her walking stick again and walked up to the paper lantern once more. It was pretty, delicate in a similar way to the kites she had seen in the home of a local from Neim. Still, there was something almost… creepy about how the dim light that was given off by them. At the same time, the flickering dimness could also lend a certain ambiance to the dark forest. Sometime around that point, Rasslyre realized she should probably stop standing in the middle of the path, staring at the paper lantern looking like some lost idiot.
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Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 2:03 pm
Today had been a rather quiet day so far in the little bookstore, and Sophia was getting to the threshold of boredom; approaching it rather quickly, actually. She had already dusted every square inch of her shop (that she could reach, that is), made sure all the books were organized correctly, and watered the little tree that sat on the corner of the counter. She watched it carefully, head resting on her folded arms as she leaned forward on her stool, nearly bent in half at the waist. She let out a heavy sigh and closed her eyes; there was not even a ray of sunshine to brighten this dull day. But that was really to be expected, seeing as she lived in Vritra, the darkest of all places in this strange world. Sure, the hanging lanterns that were hung up around the city were pretty (in a rather...haunting way, mind you), but they paled in comparison to the real thing. Sophia had always had a love of lanterns, but she truly missed real sunlight. Maybe she could travel some day, just to get away for a while?
Lightly running her fingers along one of the dark leaves on the little tree, Sophia hummed a soft little tune to herself, her boredom truly beginning to show. She glanced out the front window of her shop, and saw a woman. She looked rather strange for someone who lived in Vritra; she must be a migrant or someone just passing through. Sophia normally would have been largely uninterested, but she seemed...strange. Watching as she inspected her palms, she wondered if she had tripped and fell. Sophia had done that a lot when she'd first arrived in Vritra; whose idea it had been to plant so many trees had certainly not thought of the fact that darkness in addition to rippling roots in the pathway generally equaled a lot of tripping. But she'd gotten to used to it eventually.
She slid off her stool quietly and pushed open the front door, moving toward the woman. She was now simply standing in front of a lantern, inspecting it, and Sophia approached cautiously. "U-Um, hello. Are you alright, miss?" She asked, glancing at her hands before returning her gaze to her face. She smiled weakly, always having been a bit awkward around new people, but reached out to place a soft hand on the woman's shoulder. "You look lost. Would you like to come in for a bit?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 3:08 am
Rasslyre was inspecting the paper lantern, comparing it to the flickering sparks of color that she sometimes saw around the tiny little plant she had back in Omach. The flickering and inconsistent light shared a similarity to the occasional spark that would seem to emit from the sprouted plant in the meager garden behind the Omach Inn she stayed in normally. While there was no real proof that her plant was not just a very colorful and… well, occasional spark of light emitting local flora to this world, Rasslyre got the feeling that something about this place reminded her of the seed she had received from the blonde stranger. She had a suspicion that even if Vritra was very unlike Omach, which Casimir's seed seemed to like best, the small plant would be able to thrive here in the shaded forests with no problem. Rasslyre wanted to get back to get back to Omach, and preferably try to avoid any more ventures into the heavily forested areas such as Vritra or several of the regions far to the West that she had heard of from the most recent group of travelers she was with. Until then however, she was stuck in this place where the sun seemed as far away as her hometown was from this "Sanctum" world. She assumed that these lanterns were only placed close to places that were populated, so perhaps she could find someone around here somewhere.
Almost as if her thoughts had been heard, she heard the sounds of things that did not belong, of rustling fabric in motion, and light footsteps. She adjusted her grip of her walking stick, and winced lightly as doing so aggravated the raw scrapes that criss crossed her palms. Gritting her teeth and pausing to listen again, Rasslyre was able to locate the general direction of the sounds and the nature in which they were approaching. The tread and pace of the approaching steps did not seem threatening at all really, cautious if anything, but definitely not antagonizing or dangerous. Rasslyre relaxed slightly as she heard the soft voice greet her, and turned her body so that she was facing the other woman. She smiled easily, somewhat touched that this stranger seemed to actually care, and formed a response in return so as not to be simply standing and staring unseeingly.
"Hello, and unfortunately I do think I have managed to get myself quite lost in this forest." She said almost sheepishly, moving her free hand to attempt to covertly wipe any excess blood from her hand on her deep burgundy skirt. She did not care really about salvaging this particular set of clothing, the bottom of the skirt must have looked terrible from the amount of times it had been snagged and tripped over. At the light touch upon her shoulder, she continued on, "I'll be fine, this terrain is just.. disagreeable with me." Rasslyre finished lamely after pausing to search for an adequate term to describe how she felt about this region now. At the offer from the other, Rasslyre thought for a moment. "If it's not too much trouble…?" she trailed off, not wanting to impose on this other woman.
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Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 1:06 pm
Sophia had always been rather talented at reading people, but it was not difficult to see that this woman was in pain. She had obviously tripped and fallen quite a few times, and the hem of her skirt was snagged and ripped in many places, indicating at least one cause of those accidents. But another was soon made clear when the woman turned to face her, and Sophia realized that this woman was blind (at least mostly so; she had no idea how blindness progressed). The milkiness of her eyes was a blatant advertisement of this, and Sophia's heart immediately went out to this woman. To not only be in a dark, unfamiliar place, but to also be at least partially blind in said darkness, must have been terrible. She decided then that, no matter what the woman said, she would usher her inside.
The woman spoke up rather soon after turning to face her, confirming her suspicion of her being lost. It was rather easy to do in Vritra; the alleyways and trees all looked the same, even to someone who had adequate sight. As she wiped something on her skirt, Sophia's nose picked up the faintest trace of copper, making her nose crinkle in just the slightest way; she had no doubt scraped up her palms after falling, and was wiping the blood on her skirt. She began to pull gently, guiding the woman across another nasty-looking root, before moving back toward her shop. "I'm afraid it's disagreeable with everyone, at least at first," she said, laughing quietly. She knew that, most likely, only one who had lived here all their life could confidently say that they were experts at dodging the snaring curls of the roots underfoot. "And of course it's not too much trouble; come in, I can make some tea or something and find something to clean up those hands."
Pushing open the door, Sophia guided the blind woman to a stool situated near the front desk, and headed to the back room with a glance at Erebus again. Lately, she had felt just the slightest dark presence when she came too close to the strange plant, and hoped that this woman would not be put off by it. It was weak, and perhaps she was the only one who felt it? She came back a few moments later with a swatch of cloth soaked in cool water, and handed it to the woman. "I'm Sophia, by the way. I'm rather new here myself," she admitted, sitting down opposite the woman and smiling at her. She wasn't entirely sure that she could see her smile, but it couldn't hurt to wear it just in case. "What's your name?" She asked, tilting her head to the side. Perhaps she could make a new friend in this strange new world? The thought instilled quite a bit of hope in her chest; a friend would certainly make things much less lonely.
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Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 3:13 am
It was a much welcomed relief that this woman's personality did not reflect the environment that she seemingly chose to reside in. Rasslyre attempted to strain her eyes to be able to make out something of this other female's visage, and the most she was able to ascertain was that the other had pale hair of some sort that was relatively short in comparison to her own. As she struggled to pick up anything else, she idly wondered if this other female was a local of Vritra. It was difficult to tell since it was not as if the local residents of each area had any particular physical or audible differences for the most part that Rasslyre was able to identify, but then again she had never really encountered anything in this dark place yet besides raised tree roots and the dirt floor itself. A light pulling on her arm brought her attention fully back to the woman and Rasslyre put up no resistance when she began to be led in the direction the other had come from. As she was gently guided over a decidedly nasty root, Rasslyre decided that she liked this woman.
As the other woman spoke, Rasslyre felt herself chucking softly as well. "And here I was thinking that the trees just didn't like me." Rasslyre tried to imagine people growing up in this dim world where forest and buildings seemed to flow seamlessly together and she couldn't see it. Rather, she imagined a small child covered with band aids and scrapes from all of the ensnaring bushes and raised tree roots. The mental image made her wince slightly, thinking back to some of the orphans she knew back from her hometown. Mentally shaking her head with a chiding reminder to stay focused, Rasslyre blinked in surprise at the other's next words. A pleasant smile pulled on the corners of her lips as she spoke, "Thank you. Tea would be lovely, but only if you intend to drink as well." She easily followed the woman through a doorway and towards a stool, sighing softly in relief once she made it to the smooth flooring of the interior. Rasslyre perched upon the stool, and closed her eyes briefly before opening them again and appreciating the better illumination within the building. She glanced up to track the sound of the other female's continuing footsteps, and managed to make out what appeared to be something akin bookshelves filling most the small building.
The return of the other brought a relief as something cool and moist was handed to her. For several moments she simply pressed her two hands together with the wet cloth between them, a relieved smile on her face. She proceeded to gingerly begin wiping at her left hand as Sophia introduced herself. The revelation of her being rather new to the area made Rasslyre pause for a second before continuing to clean the dried blood and dirt from her palm. She glanced up as Sophia's movement to sit across from her caught her attention. She met the other's smile with the slight widening of the one already on her face before speaking, "It's a pleasure to meet you Sophia, my name is Rasslyre." She switched hands, cringing when one of the swipes of the cloth ended up accidentally rubbing dirt deeper into a cut on her hand. Gritting her teeth, she began to dab more carefully at the irritated and mildly inflamed skin on her right palm around the wound before continuing on. "How long have you been here? I recently moved into a small village in Omach myself."
Rasslyre's sight was not much better inside but it was enough to make out a few more details of the things closest to her, namely Sophia and a few of the other various things on the counter. The other girl certainly seemed nice enough, and fairly friendly as well. It would probably do her good to try to get herself a few friends who weren't thieves or part time criminals like the ones she had back in the little town of Nova Nona. For a moment Rasslyre puzzled over the nature of the relations she had with a few people back in Omach were exactly, but after a few seconds decided to think that particular headache through later. Much later. She slid her eyes away from Sophia across from her and skimmed over the rest of the counter, screeching to a halt when her eyes settled on a small plant. Her lips parted in mute surprise as she stared at the plant whose silhouette was near identical to the one in the small garden behind the single inn located in the Omach village of Nova Nona.
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