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Post by Crowarethan Stonehands on Nov 3, 2015 21:35:33 GMT
The big man watched as the young woman explained her position and illustrated his position in terms that made it very clear to him. He would have walked miles through a blizzard to save a lost man and he could sense no deception in her manner, not that he was an expert.
He relaxed his shoulders as she filled his cup with more of the sweetened tea. "Thank you" he muttered as he reached for the cup and sipped it more slowly than the previous cup. It was a small pleasure and in his life he had found that the small pleasures meant the most to him. A misty morning sunrise, the smile of a loved one, a cup of hot tea in the cold, all were small in most lives but they were great in worth. He looked at the boughs and branches that made the shelter. The smell of the evergreen was strong and only complimented by the aromatic tea. His troubles? What could he say?
"Before. Before the sun chose me" he began still looking at the makeshift roof as if he could see the stars through the branches. "I was mated and we had two young ones but my tribe was killed by creatures, dead soldiers that came down from the wild and I miss them." he paused to look at the young woman with her wide curious eyes. "And I have dreams of a woman I've never met and a huge city with towers and huge buildings. I don't know who the woman is but I feel I miss her also and the images in my dreams...are so confusing. I don't understand what they mean. I want to use these gifts but they seem like reflexes more than skill. I'm just not sure where to direct my steps, nor what to do to ease the aching in my chest." why was he saying so much? He felt like a child again. He shook his head. "Sorry, I seem to be rambling."
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Post by Lies on Nov 5, 2015 15:23:36 GMT
"I don't mind rambling." Mokoto promised warmly, hugging her knees tighter to her chest and offering a pleasant smile - an attempt to be comforting. "I have two boys of my own, you know. They have their own lives, now, but I would be devastated if anything were to happen to them." Empathy was a powerful thing, it could create common ground between two people from entirely different walks of life. From different Celestial bodies, even. "I hope that isn't something I have to handle someday - I admire your strength for how tall you've stood so far."
Mokoto glanced up to see the stars, and her face lit up - the blizzard had to have broken at some point, the sky was wonderful and clear. The short, green-haired woman stood slowly and brushed her bottom off, then extended a surprisingly rough hand to Crowarethan in invitation. "If you'd like a direction, I can point you towards people in need of a hero. Places that need to be found. Friends to be made." She promised warmly. "But I'll only do so if you ask. I am your adviser, and perhaps someday your friend - it is not my capacity to order anything of you."
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Post by Crowarethan Stonehands on Nov 6, 2015 21:42:10 GMT
He blew out his mustaches as he leaned back then settled his forearms on his knees. Images flashed to his mind of his extravagant former self, surrounded by men and women of beauty tasting of every pleasure she desired regardless of who it hurt. A man, a vizier, had warned her advised against her course, and she had ignored his wise council. Three weeks later in a manse he had yet to find the woman who had held his exaltation in the past was slain by her mate before the usurpation could even occur. Many lessons in that knowledge not the least of which made up his mind about the young woman before him.
"You're a Vizier." he said knowing that she was doing what she had been exalted for. It was right that he do the same. "Mokoto would you please advise me on what I should do first."
He watched her eyes his mind beginning to grasp the fringes of what he would soon face and he hoped she saw her children soon.
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Post by Lies on Nov 8, 2015 5:39:37 GMT
Mokoto gave Crow's mighty hand a tug, pulling him from the lean-to and out into the cold, clear night. With all the clouds blown away by the now-calmed blizzard, the stars in the sky were frightfully bright and the sky was a thing of shameless and pure beauty. Pulling her mittens back on, Mokoto pointed south-east, specifically to the softly shining light of Mercury just over the horizon. "Behold, friend-Stonehands; an auspicious omen to guide our path." She explained in an excited, hushed voice, purple eyes bright with cheer. "The Maiden of Journeys bids us go that way, and I do not disagree with this course - I believe we will find fragments of your past and pieces of your future both, upon this road." More importantly, they'd be moving ever-farther from his sad past.
And, if Mokoto was right, heading through Tear-Eater lands in only a couple weeks. How horribly exciting!
"Shall we begin, my Lord?" Mokoto asked cheerfully, lifting her long coat just enough to wade through the tall, fresh drifts of snow. Although she was no Icewalker, the Eastern woman was spry, athletic enough, and terribly light on her feet - as expected of her usually diminutive people. Once she got moving, she barely broke through the light crust of ice coating the snow, and if there was one thing Mokoto liked to do, it was keep moving. Crow could keep up, and then some - he was Solar.
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Post by Crowarethan Stonehands on Nov 8, 2015 12:12:36 GMT
Crowarethan crawled from the lean too, the diminutive woman's hand dwarfed in his huge hand. The stars shone like ten thousand god's eye smiling from their heavenly look out as he stood in the snow. The wind whispered like a lover's good night as it passed. The raging storm gone leaving only the soft breaths after a climactic embrace. The air fresh and cool against his as he began to move. The ice pack could not bear his weight as it could the small woman, so he waded like a great bear through the drifted powder. His eyes for the first time in days sparkled like the stars that watched them. The green orbs with their small golden sunburst around the pupil fixed on the distant star to which she had pointed.
The heavy golden goremaul sat on his right shoulder as he walked. The moonsilver bracers of his past life showing from the tanned hides he wore as a tunic. His tree trunk like legs pumped hard as he kept pace with the small green haired Vizier. her utilitarian cold weather garments almost quaint to his still barbarian mind. His tribe had revered it's women as opposed to subverting them. perhaps then fate had a plan by sending him a woman advisor rather than a male. Prehaps he was over thinking. Black wisp like clouds hung in the sky unmoving as they walked toward the Tear Eater lands. He knew not what he would find, neither what he would do upon arrival, but what he did know was he had direction and that made all the difference.
"Does your Maiden know what I must do when I arrive." He asked his voice still like stones in a tumblr drier. It was small talk. He didn't need an answer, but the company of another after weeks of solitude while mourning made him long for the sounds of another's voice. He almost felt he had someone out their that was a part of his soul, but he couldn't understand it, so he left it be. "Or is she fond of surprises?"
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Post by Lies on Nov 15, 2015 15:31:06 GMT
Mokoto turned and offered a veiled, even somewhat deceptive smile over her shoulder once her coat was back in place. "Intrepid-Mercury lights our path, but I am not blessed with the honor of being among her servants." She promised playfully, practically shining with good cheer - such cheer that her Eastern accent returned now that the serious talk was over. "Though the difference means little, in this case." The short woman bounced forward through the snow, throwing her hands forward and skyward, as though to grasp the thousands upon thousands of stars above and hold them in her hands. "But it means little tonight, for is there anything more wonderful than pursuing a surprise with friends?"
The Eastern woman turned as she spoke, better to face the lumbering Solar behind her. "And you are not without friends, brave-Crowarethan of the Ice Walkers." She promised intently, folding her hands behind her back as she fell into busy steps beside his lumbering path. "The Queen-who-cannot-be-named is reborn for the first time, and battles valiantly against darkness in the jungles of Harborhead - your wisdom and strength would be a boon to her, for she is young and in need of guidance." She explained in hushed tones, though none were around. "And death itself fuels the Tear Eater tribes of the Linowan; many good people will meet horrible ends without friends. But an even greater darkness gnaws at Creation, and without our help, an ancient and benevolent guardian of mankind will fall into madness or oblivion."
"Tonight, however, we take only the first steps down a road that you will soon stride proudly down at a speed I can only dream of!" She declared proudly, grinning ear to ear. "Benevolent-Mercury herself blesses our steps; we will mourn the past together, and visit it bodily in location. It will be cleansing to both spirit and body, and I believe it will not be long after when you outpace me entirely!" Mokoto chirped happily. "Once we reach the dwelling of your past selves, and cleanse the darkness within, we can set our sights forward on the future."
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Post by Crowarethan Stonehands on Nov 16, 2015 11:13:35 GMT
Snow almost blue in the star light sat laid out like a blanket rested before them. Cold nipped like hungry birds pecking at the warmth of his tanned skin as they trod upon the white carpet of the frozen north. His eyes, sharp and clear, watched her in her near theatric behavior and he could not help but smile along with her cheery disposition. Was he being manipulated? No, no he thought not. She was a friend and if not wholly a friend, then at least a pleasant companion for the present.
He halved a step or two making sure to keep her close. It wasn't that he thought she would not keep up but an earnest desire to make good time together rather than press on in the darkness alone. He was certain her twinkling eyes held secrets, most women's did but tonight it was not important. Death was stalking the boarders and there was a need for watchmen. If this young lady would help him to be that watchman, that bulwark against enemies of peace then he would follow her guidance.
"I will heed your guidance." he said simply as he walked along. He calculated the time til morning, he gauged there direction and location by the myriad stars and a nagging sense that he knew where they were going tugged at the back of his mind. He shook his head briefly his brownish gold hair and small braids flying about his head and then wiped moisture from his beard with a big heavy hand. Something, more than a feeling but less than a memory said he knew this path as if he had walked it before but he also knew he had not been so far east the he could recall. In either case he made no mention of the strange sensation and simply soldiered on with a small smile behind his beard.
The night hung silently on the land and only distant sounds of a howling wolf reached his sharp ears. The small night birds and other fauna all tucked away from the cold embrace of the late night.
"These feet have not walked here and yet they seem to know the way." he said with a bear like chuckle, "Perhaps they've been out walking without me."
It was a small joke Northern humor perhaps but he wanted to say something so as to not have to much silence between them. It kept the mind healthy to speak to another even if only about mundane things. He looked down at the woman at his side and then back straight ahead. Her green hair was still an oddity to his eyes and quite exotic to his rustic mind.
"Your homeland is in the East?" he asked with a hushed voice as if someone would hear. "I've not seen many with green hair."
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Post by Lies on Nov 19, 2015 18:41:34 GMT
"And if I have seen many with yellow or brown, it is only because I have spent many years afield." Mokoto replied slyly, keeping steady pace with the lumbering Northman. "In the nation of my birth, it is a great oddity to live on the ground among the animals - to have a home is to live in trees so tall that they challenge the sky itself and hide the very horizon! To visit your neighbors means crossing networks of rope bridges and pulleys to go up or down." She explained, gesticulating wildly. Sure, the girl who would become First Lie of the Beneficent Storm lived in Halta for little more than a few months before destiny stole her away to heaven, but explaining Yu Shan to a fresh Solar Exalted was to invite all sorts of trouble to them both. A white lie of convince and omission. "They would think you odd for seeking shelter in the earth, even in a storm - but then, they would find this whole place odd and worrying." The short woman added, gesturing to the sweeping expanse of snow, wind, and distant mountains before them.
It was nearly a week of casual pace through the North that brought Mokoto and Crowatheran to what felt like the right place to be. Perhaps Mercury had heard Mokoto's praise, or maybe the Maiden of Travels truly did bless their path, for it was relatively free of dangers. Game was plentiful, and the nights were not so harsh to invite the risk of their lives. Mokoto proved herself to be no idle hand in the ways of survival; although she carried no weaponry and thus had no real ability to hunt, what herbs and ice-hardy greens she could find, she gathered. Her apparently never-ending supply of hot tea was a welcome distraction from the cold, and her narrow hands were just as clever at coaxing flame from tinder as they were at helping the somewhat more capable barbarian construct shelter. Mokoto's good cheer was as undefeatable as the cold, and nearly as pervasive.
At some point, she found a gnarled old length of hardwood nearly as tall as she was, and proudly declared it to be the finest walking stick she had ever laid eyes on.
Thanks to that old stick, they didn't overshoot their target - although no doubt that the echo of the woman Crowratheran had once been would have led him back towards where they were going. The boot of the hardwood 'clunked' forlornly through the snow against something that was neither packed, ancient snow or soil, and curiosity led Mokoto to crouch down and see what she'd found. Her busy hands cleared the snow away in a circle, revealing what looked to be smooth, white stone - or marble - with emerald inlay that flowed delicately with the stone; it gave the impression that what lay beneath their feet was a massive marble feather, long buried. Mokoto cried out to her companion happily, clearing away more stone before looking to the west, where lay a massive and (now that she looked properly) oddly-shaped snow drift. The ages had covered the isolated sanctum entirely, it seemed, but they'd finally found it.
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Post by Crowarethan Stonehands on Dec 3, 2015 15:44:41 GMT
He shook his head and laughed at the thought of people living in trees. He pictured great nest like an eagles with thatched roofs and people running about to find food like birds. It was an image that could not but make any Northman chuckle.
"Tree people, living among the branches like birds?" he said with a laugh, "You're an interesting woman Mokoto of the Maidens."
Ice clung to his first in small white balls as he continued to watch the animated little green haired lady. If nothing else she was an entertaining companion in the cold.
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Their road had been clear and lacked anything more dangerous than those common to a trip through the snow and ice. Food was plentiful and his skill at hunting kept them from hunger. The tea she seemed to never run out of was sweet and light on the stomach but best of all hot. The ample time and conversation about daily needs and thoughts on various truths he needed for his life as a sun chosen kept their minds from becoming idle.
He had nodded kindly at the old stick the woman had found and declared he'd never seen a better walking stick in his life. It was a lie, it was to think, but for her it was a fine help.
There path took them along hills and near a small creek all the while his scattered memories of the woman he had once been kept telling him he was close to home but he couldn't help but feel uneasy. What would he find? Would he be the same? Would he suffer the same faults as the woman who was slain by her mate? Doubts were a funny thing. Small and simple but as destructive as an angry bear. He stopped in his tracks as the cold clawed at his exposed skin and stared at a great mound of snow while Mokoto searched with her stick.
As she declared what she found he began moving to the mound. Something deep in him said he had found where they needed to go. Thanks to this little woman he was growing closer to understanding his place in a world that just became huge over night.
He remembered white marble walls and the sunburst emblems he had placed. He remembered the Golden goremaul he had carried, Fenrir, and how it shone in the sun. He had armor then. Golden plated with a masked helm. People would come for miles to sit I'm her halls. Children would gather to listen at his feet to hear tales of battle and wonder. She had children of her own that came to this place with her mate. This was it.
He plowed forward through the drifts to the hill and sat his iron weapon down to dig through the snow with his big heavy hands.
"It's here." he said over his shoulder, "I can feel it."
What "it" was exactly he wasn't sure anymore but his home had been here once. He was sure of it. The snow flew through the air as he swiped it aside until after nearly 3 feet of ice and powder he scratched stone. No, not just stone but carved marble. A wall with carved images. This was the place.
"We need to find the entrance." he said calm despite his pounding heart, "it should be facing east....to welcome the sun."
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Post by Lies on Dec 3, 2015 20:48:30 GMT
Once Crow got to digging, it was all Mokoto could do to simply stay out of the way and let his heart or heavily calloused hands guide his progress - any aid she could have offered would have likely more meant getting in the way. Besides, it was cold and snow was wet and some of us aren't gigantic titans incapable of becoming chilly, thankyouverymuch. She was content to stand aside and lean on her walking stick, watching him dig like a wizened old instructor observing an enthusiastic student. Her engaged smile bursting into a wide grin combined with her overall innocent appearance slightly ruined the effect. As well as the fact that she was half his size and on the young side of ageless.
More and more of the snow-lost manse was uncovered, until Crowarethan rather needlessly declared that they had, in fact, found the place. Mokoto clapped with delight and immediately began looking around, as though the entrance of the manse might reveal itself among the endless drifts of snow and frozen trees, before sighing. It could be weeks before they found the entrance. It was, after all, buried by over a thousand years of snow in the snowiest of snowy places in Creation. Weeks, maybe even years of digging. She didn't have years, she really didn't even have weeks. One had duties, endless duties, of varying degrees of importance.
"My Lord..." Mokoto complained in what was a dangerously petulant tone likely intended to be somewhat adorable. "Perhaps the manse will respond to your Essence?" Such places tended to have security, and that security was often tied to one's Exaltation. Such security tended to function as reliably as the day or night. "The display of your caste mark may compel the entrance to reveal itself, saving us a few..." The green-haired woman tapped the snow for emphasis, half the stick sinking into the powder with what little effort her small frame could produce. "... decades of digging, I should think?"
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