"Thank you both," Riruka says, gathering what's left of the food. "This should also do for breakfast."
"Maybe leave it until tomorrow. I doubt she'll be willing to go into it tonight. Her reaction was pretty intense though. I've seen it before. In refugees and people who've been tortured." Rhadaya says quietly as they eat.
She nods, "Before I met you I saw her sister Elena at Hadrinn's who had told me that her father was a cruel man.....but I've never seen someone jerk away like that from just being touched before." She shakes her head as she's unable to fathom how any father could do things to his child that would bring about a response to physical contact like that.
Looking over at Riruka she says, "It was nothing. Just hope that when you get back to Valwick you can find some more of the people you were looking for."
Riruka nods. "I can only hope they are being cared for."
"Most of them went with Kaplan to stay at the green circle camp, others stayed with family that they had there in town. Even before we left they were working on expanding buildings to accommodate them all." She says as she leans against Rhy.
"Good," Riruka says, taking out her sword and sharpening it. "I can take first watch, if you need to rest."
"I shall take second then," Malyoxa offers.
She nods, "Yes thank you....that last fight was pretty draining and now that I've eaten...I feel like I can't keep my eyeballs open."
Getting up she sets up their bed rolls and takes out one of the blankets in case they wanted it, but it was so hot she doubted they would need it. Looking at Malyoxa and Riruka she nods and says, "Okay, just wake me up when it's my turn to take watch." She says before finishing up the bed.
Slipping off her boots as she settles in Rhadaya waves a sleepy good night to the others as she lies down waiting for Tes.
It doesn't take long for her to join Rhy in their makeshift bed. Laying down next to her she wraps an arm around her as she kisses her sweetly, "Whew....I'm worn out today."
"Me toot love." Rhadaya says with a smile. "Dinosaurs, crazy jungles...all part of a day's work as long as it ends in your arms." she says snuggling up to her wife and giving her another sleepy kiss.
Ashram volunteers himself for third watch.
Returning the kiss she holds her close, "I couldn't have said it better myself love. Goodnight sweetheart, pleasant dreams." Holding her wife close it doesn't take any time at all for her to fall into a deep and peaceful slumber.
After she eats and has some water, Rajni makes up her bedroll in the back of the sled and falls asleep rather quickly with Shamara lying next to her.
Clara also volunteers for the last watch and crawls into her bedroll.
"I'll take third watch then with you Ashram." Alethiro piped up.
Ashram nods before turning in for a little while.
The night passes uneventfully. You awaken and find Malyoxa is gone, though Riruka and the others remain.
Tesia sighs though she figured Malyoxa wouldn't go back to a really populated area with them, she must have figured that they would get these people there safely. Giving Rhy a kiss good morning, she gets up and starts getting their rations out for breakfast.
Rajni wakes up with Shamara on top of her and gets up. She picks up her bedding and puts it away before getting out her own rations while staying in the sled.
"Hmph, she must have slipped off while we weren't looking," Clara says with a yawn.
Huh, I was hoping she might be different. Alethiro thought realizing the Drow was gone.
Noticing the elf's expression, Ashram puts a hand on Alethiro's shoulder. "Anything wrong?"
She shrugs, "Perhaps there were other things she needed to deal with? Not really my main concern right now, she probably realized that we would see these people back to the plains and decided to take off. I appreciated her taking watch though so Rhy and I could rest. Thank you everyone for letting us sleep."
She sits with Rhy and has breakfast with her as the others eat and get ready to go as well.
"I'm trying Ashram. I'm trying to not let prejudice rule me. But it's hard." Alethiro simply replied.
"She didn't even seem to pay attention to you," Ashram remarks.
"I know. But growing up and being taught that Dark Elves are a blight on your race's history, it's hard to not let hatred take over." The Elf Cleric said in a slightly shamed tone.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Tesia sighs, "That's a very old way of thinking Alethiro and for the close minded. I don't see you as that type of man." Looking up at him she says, "There could be darkness in anyone, it doesn't matter what their race is. Hells...I can be a stone cold b~!+& some days, but that doesn't mean I'm a bad person. Just like Malyoxa can't be judged for what she was born as. Am I making sense? Would you think badly of me just because I only happened to have one Elven parent and not a full blood?"
She picks up their bedding as she speaks to the Elven Cleric, "I don't think you're that kind of man though. Just because you were taught something, doesn't make it impossible for you to have your own opinions. Sorry...I'll stop now."
Rajni shakes her head as she tends to Balladier, "Watch out Mr. Alethiro, once she gets up on her soap box it's hard to get her back down."
She shakes her head at Rajni's comment. She didn't realize she had upset her so much by simply touching her yesterday. Whatever memory it had brought to the surface must have been a horrible one because she sure was taking it out on her.
Walking over closer to where Rajni is taking care of the horse without entering her personal space she says, "Look...I'm really really sorry about yesterday okay? I didn't mean to upset you....can we just talk about it?"
She shakes her head, "Nope...nothing to talk about. Just don't ever touch me like that again." She knew she sounded b$%&&y, but she just couldn't help it. The best way to keep them at a distance so they couldn't see how much she was hurting, was to do exactly what she was doing. Maybe if she remained cold and distant the heifer would get off her high horse and just leave her the hells alone. She didn't want to "talk it out"...she didn't want to even remember anything from then. It took her a long time to get to the point that she was at now and Dillon was the only person, aside from her family that she felt comfortable enough around to let them touch her.
She would not be a victim anymore and she would not allow her feelings to get dragged into all of this. Feeling a little overwhelmed by all the feelings her memories were drudging up she turns away from the half elf pain in her ass and busies herself with Balladier, just hoping that Tesia would just go away and leave her alone before her resolve broke down completely. She hardly knew these people, they didn't know about her past and she sure as hells didn't want to relive it by talking about it.
Tesia involuntarily takes a step back away from Rajni. Her sudden change in mood a little surprising...but not completely unexpected. All she can do is nod, "Alright...if that's really the way you feel."
Feeling the need to be left alone she looks up and gives Tesia the hardest glare she can come up with, "Well...it is...so...so just leave me alone alright? Why don't you go meddle in someone else's life?" She didn't fully understand why she felt the need to be so mean....but she just couldn't take anymore questions right now.
"Believe Tesia, I understand what you're saying more than most. It wasn't too long ago that I was a slave to my rage and pursuit of a man. It took the love of my wife to lead me from that path of destruction. And I'm trying to not let those old hatreds dictate my actions, it's just hard when it's ingrained from childhood."
She swallows and nods, "Okay...I'm sorry. I just....well, we're here if you ever want to talk about....anything okay?" Knowing she wouldn't really get a response out of Rajni at this point who is taking care of the horse in an effort to ignore her, she turns and walks a little sullenly back to the others and leaves the young woman to her thoughts. Maybe she would talk to them later when she got know them better. Whatever was going on with her though had been caused by something severely traumatic. It would probably be best to let Rajni deal with it in her own way and in her own time. She'd just leave her alone for now and see what happens.
She seems a little distracted as she keeps glancing towards the fetchling. Her voice betraying nothing of her own feelings she looks from the young woman to Alethiro and sighs as she sits down next to Rhy and leans her head on her wife's shoulder. She nods as she listens to Alethiro, "I know....take that girl over there. She's from your town right? She's a fetchling, which...can seem a little off putting to some since they have their own somewhat dark kind of past and are not usually trusted easily by others....but even though she was born something that most of us are taught to look down on, or be wary of....she has a really good heart and I think....she puts on a tough front to hide something very painful."
She sighs as she feels badly for bringing up something painful to Rajni, "Just remember that you control your thoughts and actions, no one else. How can you hate someone you don't even know?" She doesn't sound condemning, but genuinely curious as if this concept is foreign to her.
Clara grunts, noting the exchange between Rajni and Tesia, and takes out her rations. It would prove difficult later if those two couldn't get along, at least on the battlefield. "Let's eat and move out. We're going to spend the day trying to get back to this point..."
Having everything all packed up already and Shamara on the seat next to her she says, "I'm all ready to go whenever the lot of you are. I have extra room in the sled here if anyone wants to ride instead of walk." She says looking at the people from Malwen and avoiding Tesia's gaze. She didn't know why the woman's questions bothered her so much, they just did. She just didn't want to think about anything but getting through the mission so she could find some good sized kills to take back to town and get back to Dillon.
Tesia nods as she notes Rajni's coldness towards her, not that it really bothers her...but it makes her worry about Rajni's emotional state and if she can handle being on the battlefield right now. Rajni would have to decide when to get over whatever it was that was bothering her and talk to them about it...but she wouldn't push her to do so.
Making sure they have all of their things together after they're done eating she gives Rhy a light squeeze and quick kiss on the cheek, "Well...I guess if everyone's ready we can start back towards the plains."
As they start on their way back Rhadaya walks beside her wife. "She's gonna be a tough one to crack love. Someone hurt her bad, bad enough she should have broken....except she didn't." the sorceress says nodding ahead towards Rajni.
"I've seen it before, hell I've sorta been there, and the only way to pull that off is to develop a toughness that might start off as an act, but turs real pretty quickly, and it's hard to let people through.....at least except when that one magical person comes along." she says smiling at Tes.
She nods as she looks down at the ground in front of her as they walk, "I know...I just...I worry because if she doesn't learn to trust someone soon...if she doesn't give up some of that hardness...it could get her killed, and I don't want to have to be the one to go back home and explain how she died. She's rash and jumps into things without really thinking. That dark elf had a spell ready to go as soon as Rajni showed herself, I'm not sure she was even aware of that. There's still a lot that she doesn't understand, and if she doesn't let someone in soon....it's gonna destroy her. She may not realize it...but that's what'll happen."
She pulls Rhy a little closer to her and smiles down into her hair, "I don't really know how it happened either, but I thank Erastil every single day for sending you to Valwick." She leans down and brushes her lips across Rhy's cheek as they continue to walk.
Rajni just sits in the driver seat of the sled and says nothing. Maybe if she just stopped talking completely they wouldn't ask her anything else. She was pretty sure she got the message across finally that she wasn't in the mood to talk about anything. She had no way of dealing with those feelings right now, so she just wouldn't. Suffice it to say, the very next thing they came across that they would have to fight would die a horrible ugly death.
She kind of smiles at the thought of upcoming violence that she could do to something else. It would help work out some of these feelings, and then maybe she could stop feeling so out of control.
Tesia watches Rajni but makes no other attempt to speak with her. When she was ready to let them know what was going on inside of her head, she would approach them. Until then, she'd just leave things be.
The journey back to the plains isn't difficult, though you skirt around the horde of carrion feeding creatures feasting on the giant dinosaur's corpse. Riruka and the others bid you farewell and head to Valwick. After a long day's hike, you return to where you camped last night, though something seems off.
Tesia looks around and grunts slightly put off by things, "Something doesn't seem quite right. Hold on a minute..."
She looks around the area for anything that might be off or give them a clue as to what's possibly changed.
She just looks around confused.
Taking a cue from Tesia, Alethiro looked about as well.
Rajni looks around, afraid of something coming out and possibly going after Balladier like that giant creepy lizard did earlier.
She scans the area for possible trouble as well, not wanting to be caught off guard by something like that again.