A yellow grin. Time is strange. Where are you?
Tumbling from chaos-dream to pummeling reality-
cold snow, ice striking your face-
-avalanche?-
Benedetto tries to get to his feet, head whipping back and forth while his right hand reaches for his sword. What had happened? Where was he? Last he could remember he'd been with a handful of survivors of Light, trying to get as far away from the madness consuming the city as they could. Then... then what?
Benedetto, you finally stop yourself from tumbling. The snow has stopped moving, and you can dig your way to the surface. Luckily, you are not deep, but moving so much snow is a taxing chore.
With so much snow covering the land, it is difficult to get your bearings, but the positioning of Volcano tells you that you are nowhere close to where you began the night. Memories of the other survivors, the ones you helped to save, flood your mind. Where are they now?
You are substantially farther away from Light now, and closer to Hearth. A stroke of luck, it would seem, if good fortune were possible in these dark times...
The wind picks up, and you realize you are wet from the digging, and now getting very, very cold.
Benedetto withdraws his hand from his sword--for now. He shivers as he starts walking toward where he thinks Hearth is, hoping this snow and cold doesn't extend too close to the city.
It occurs to him that some of the others he was with might be somewhere here. He cups his hands around his mouth and shouts,
River is wandering. She does that now. Maybe its her name? Rivers wander, don't they? Or do they meander? Her mind meanders like this now, gliding from thought to thought without pause or difficulty.
A roar draws her attention as a mighty wave of beautiful, glittering snow comes sweeping towards her.
It's so pretty. River muses as the wave crashes over her, the frozen water returning to its natural form as it reaches her and washing her clean in cold, pure liquid as she's surrounded by white, by light, until darkness.
"Hello! Is anyone else out here!"
A voice! A person. Not like the laughing person. This one sounds... It takes River a moment to recall the right word, the right concept. Is it afraid? Or proud? Are those different? She isn't sure so she swims upwards through the snow instead to ask.
"Hello. Are you afraid or are you proud?"
Benedetto's hand goes for his sword hilt again as an elen... an undine, he sees after a moment, bursts from the snow nearby him and... asks a bizarre question.
After a moment of staring at her in shock, he shakes himself slightly. "Does it have to be one or the other? Not both or neither?" he asks after a moment, deciding a bizarre question deserves a bizarre answer. "Right now I'd say I'm more confused. I have no idea how I got here or what happened... you wouldn't happen to have any ideas about that, would you?"
His hand stays near his sword. She didn't seem like the kind of mad some of the poor elens that had been attacking people randomly in Light had been, but that didn't make her safe.
A gout of flame eventually burns its way through several layers of snow, erupting skyward in a bright, if short, blaze. A dark, red hued hand like smouldering coal pops up from the small hole and a friendly, slightly accented, very muffled, voice trails up after it.
Ah, little help there my good fellows! I can hear you talking. though I can't really make out what.. Anyway, I'd rather not have to melt several... gallons? Pounds?.... flakes? whatever it is, of snow!
the hand twists at the wrist, as if trying to call attention to itself.
Benedetto starts at the blaze, though he relaxes a bit when he hears another elen's voice and it's making sense. With one last glance at the strange undine he kneels down and grabs the protruding hand with both of his own.
"I'm pulling on the count of three! One, two, three..." He heaves on the hand as hard as he can.
Another newcomer, an older ifrit, comes to Leonardo's aid as well. With a warrior's grip, he helps pulls Leo out of the snow.
The warrior holds himself with stiff pride, clearly pleased to have helped a younger el out of the snow. He brushes you off vigorously. "What's your name, lad?" His tone speaks of a formal city education.
His gaze sweeps to all of you. He nods in recognition to Benedetto. "Let's all introduce ourselves, there's a good lot." Clad in a sensible breastplate, ruby longsword, and good soldier's kit, the spry old man simply says, "I am Captain Zurlo. I was leading a contingent of soldiers back from the Front to help out the cities. Damned Moon and all this nonsense-" He stops himself here. "Well, now my soldiers are gone, and I am here." He looks to the rest of you.
The elen replies, but River's mind has already moved on as her eyes track and retrack over the white expanse of snow. Something is wrong, something... there!
Covering the distance in light bounds River falls to her knees next to the hand and begins scrabbling at the snow. It doesn't want to give way, not now she isn't a part of it, not now she wants to take something from it but a part of her is... scared? Demanding that she get the hand and the rest of the child out of the snow. So she scrabbles and digs and ignores the blast of heat at her back and the sound of voices. They aren't helping, so they don't matter.
You uncover a boy, a pale sylph with hair shorn nearly to the scalp. An orphan boy, a thin boy, rags and ragged coat, boots too large and full of holes. Your heart reaches out to him, and you see...
Yourself. A doll, a perfect little image of you, done in a simple style. The boy is hardly conscious, but he holds onto the doll fiercely.
Leo, after being pulled from the snow and brushes most of it off as the others talk before turning his attention back to them.
Leo smiles a friendly, but roguish and holds out a hand.
Leonardo, but, my friends call me Leo, you are a friend aren't ya? hoping that none of the people here would recognize him, he gives only his first name.
He is dressed largely in clothing more reminiscent of the Undine, rather than ifrit heritage, the straps of armor he wears are adorned with thread and embroidery all dyed red. His hair scintillates a fiery red as he moves, almost like a burning coal in the wind. Whether its merely glinting in the light or not is hard to tell at a glance.
Well, I'd say good day to you, Zurlo, but that seems to not be the case. He looks around the scene, a half smile still playing on his lips. small embers play around his finger tips as he continues.
You think they are around here? I could try melting a bunch of the snow. Might be able to find some of them that way. I'd rather save as many as I can you know.
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You uncover a boy, a pale sylph with hair shorn nearly to the scalp. An orphan boy, a thin boy, rags and ragged coat, boots too large and full of holes. Your heart reaches out to him, and you see...
Yourself. A doll, a perfect little image of you, done in a simple style. The boy is hardly conscious, but he holds onto the doll fiercely.
"Gull."
The word falls from River's lips without conscious thought or effort as she channels water into the boy, flowing life through his small form.
"I need help!" She calls over her shoulder, not taking her eyes off him. "Someone? He needs to be warm."
This matters. She isn't sure why, but this matters. Gull has her. So he has to live.
Benedetto is a tall, wiry ifrit, wearing finely-crafted armor of laquered leather that doesn't quite seem to fit him right. His skin is a deeper red that fades to coal-black at a few places, giving him an appearance not unlike cooling lava. He moves with a warrior's wary grace... normally. Now, he just seems confused.
He can't help but stare at the older ifrit. Captain Zurlo? Here? Not immediately trying to arrest him for desertion? As if things hadn't been mad enough already.
"Benedetto Laguardia," he says after an awkwardly long pause. "I was helping defend some of the survivors fleeing Light, and then... I was buried in the snow here..."
Then the undine starts shouting, and Benedetto is jogging over to help. He sees the sylph, reaches for him for a moment before remembering something.
"Leonardo, you can create or control flame?" he asks, looking to the third ifrit. "This seems like a job for that if you can."
leonardo nods, seeing the need for his heat. With a gesture, he blasts away the snow covering the boy, and then turns his flames slightly away for a more gradual warming effect.
The boy, who River somehow knows is named Gull, stirs at the heat. His pale sylph skin takes a slight hint of color. He opens his eyes just a crack. "You're alive again. Good." He smiles and falls asleep, too exhausted for further emotions.
But very much alive.
He can't help but stare at the older ifrit. Captain Zurlo? Here? Not immediately trying to arrest him for desertion? As if things hadn't been mad enough already.
"Benedetto Laguardia," he says after an awkwardly long pause. "I was helping defend some of the survivors fleeing Light, and then... I was buried in the snow here..."
Benedetto,
Captain Zurlo takes a moment while the undine (she absently named herself River? odd.) and the boy are otherwise occupied. "Fancy meeting you here, eh?"" His cigarette-stained teeth are just as ugly as you remember. "I'm more concerned with survival at the present, but you and I shall have words at a campfire sometime soon, what?"
"Thank you." River says to Leo, scooping the sleeping child out of the snow and being careful to ensure that he still has her, the doll, clutched in hand. "Gull is important. To me." She clarifies a moment later. "River. That's me. He's Gull, but he has me. That me. So I know him. Only I don't know how..."
She walks off, her bare feet seemingly unaffected by the snow although she's obviously struggling even with the child's light weight. As Leo stares after her its impossible not to notice that the undine is gorgeous - all smooth, sleek curves and fine cheekbones, although corded muscles can be glimpsed along her arms and legs, as with almost all water-born elen. Strangely though she's barely wearing anything, only a simple tunic-like garment which shifts between opaque white and a miniature rainbow as the weak sunlight catches it - almost as though it was crafted from snow itself. Her hair is long, loose and blue, but streaked with silver.
"Which way should I go?" She asks after a few steps, turning to look over her shoulder. "I don't know the way."
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Benedetto's wan smile back to the Captain is so obviously strained that it's a wonder he's bothering to try. "If we can manage to even have a campfire, that will be an improvement over the present," he says.
"Now, we want to get to Hearth, most likely. Definitely we'll want to take Gull there, it should be safer than here. As for which way that is..."
Benedetto looks to Volcano, gauging the distance and slope angle as best he can, then slowly looks around for other landmarks.
He points in a direction. "There should be a road that way not too far, if it's not buried in all this snow. It will be about four or five days total to Hearth."
Zurlo deliberately sits down at the same watch as you during the night, around the campfire that drives away the cold and the dark. He offers you a cigarette.
"Fate is funny, eh? I don't know what to do with you. You're too valuable to discard, but not a tool to be trusted. Hmm." You don't remember the Captain being quite this cold before, but you assume he's still quite angry about your desertion.
"Tell me - if you were commanding officer, in this same desperate sort of situation, what would you do with a...specimen such as yourself?" He smooths down his ash-grey mustache, then looks over to see gauge your reply.
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Leo grins A campfire will be simple for me. Even wet wood will burn in a hot enough blaze. Here. Let me get a better vantage point to look around.
Leo will fly up a couple hundred feet, jets of flame spewing from his hands and feet. He'll hover in the air to try and get a look at the landscape, particularly looking for any indication of the road that Benedetto mentioned.
Leo, from your aerial view, it is simple to keep an eye on the flat, snow-topped surroundings. You see no movement - whatever animals or people survived these glacial waves and snowcrashes have all gone into hiding. Your companions' footfalls are loud in the quiet, their boots crunching fresh snow.
You see some worrying tracks of a larger beast, but they veer off in a different direction as you make your way closer to the road, and possibly the cottage Benedetto told you about.
He falls silent for long moment then shrugs. "Given I'm on the other side, it's easy for me to say something like 'keep an eye on him until we get to a city and make a decision then', but how can I really say that's the right decision when it benefits me?"
The gleam of the firelight seems to catch in Zurlo's eyes as he regard you. "You know your history? How some of the saints and knights and ladies got their powers?" He punctuates his questions by jabbing his cigarette into the air.
"Take Sire TreeBurn, savior of the black north - he chopped off his own hand rather than be corrupted by anything." He lets the statement stand in the chill air.
He sighs, and draws his knees up to his chest. "But no matter how much I wish it, I can't change what I did, only what I'm doing."
Even with Benedetto knowing the area fairly well, trudging through the snow takes time and effort. There is no substitute for placing one foot in front of another to make distance. The air carries a wet chill to it that leaches away your body heat.
River carries Gull; he is in no condition to walk on his own. Captain Zurlo offers the undine his arm in a polite way to help keep her upright, as its clear she won't part with Gull.
More time passes. Trudging. Any exposed skin -- cheeks, lips, hands -- becomes cold and dry. Finally, Benedetto points to a darker shape on a slope - the old cottage he mentioned.
Captain Zurlo congratulates him on a job well done, and immediately sets to bringing in firewood from the stack. He asks Leonardo for help in getting a warming fire going inside. Though his tone is polite, it's also clear Zurlo is used to being obeyed.
River seems concerned, more than anything else, with Gull. Once inside the old cottage she makes for the best available bedding and turns it into something of a nest, where she deposits the boy and wraps him warmly.
When food is supplied (something she has no part in, given that she seems to carry nothing beyond the items on her body), the undine feeds Gull with the methodical care and attention of a mother bird to her chick and her features light up in a smile when the boy eats and then settles back into sleep.
With that task done she picks at the food, just about finishing the bowl of soup that Gull started and then sits down next to the bed and... just stops. Like the famed clockwork automatons she seems to just lose all animating force and stills utterly. Her eyes are closed, her chest barely moves and complete stillness pervades her frame.
This situation continues for a couple of hours, as the fire slowly dies down before River's eyes snap open once more. After that it becomes clear that she isn't going to sleep again and the undine wanders away from the warm room and out into the coldness of the snow where she looks into the sky and dreams, waking.
Benedetto leads the group to the cabin, without any comment about exactly why he knows the way. He accepts Captain Zurlo's instructions on which watch to take without complaint.
He's quite subdued as he helps warm some food and melt some snow for those who need water to drink, saying as little as he can get away with. The whole situation with the Captain has him too unsettled.
Leo keeps himself warm, despite his lack of heavy clothing. one of the boons of his flames. He easily starts a fire even with the iced over wood.
Well.. does anyone happen to have a spare blanket? I and keep warm all well and good while I'm awake, but.. well. When I'm asleep not so much you know.
He smiles at the others.
That said, Long as whoever is on watch keeps the fire going, I suppose it should be alright. Anyway, we all doing well?
** spoiler omitted **
"Well, what you're doing may become more important soon, eh?" With that cryptic remark, he goes to find Leonardo, the ifrit who made the handy fire in the first place. It's his turn for a watch.
Leo keeps himself warm, despite his lack of heavy clothing. one of the boons of his flames. He easily starts a fire even with the iced over wood.
Well.. does anyone happen to have a spare blanket? I and keep warm all well and good while I'm awake, but.. well. When I'm asleep not so much you know.
He smiles at the others.
That said, Long as whoever is on watch keeps the fire going, I suppose it should be alright. Anyway, we all doing well?
Zurlo smiles in a grandfatherly way, and hands you one of his own blankets. "My pleasure to help, chap. And thank you for the handy work with the fire. Benedetto and I will tend to it on our watch, and I'll wake you up for yours." He goes outside the cabin for a cigarette.
Benedetto shrugs slightly. "Worried about the folks I was trying to help get to safety. Cold, tired, wondering if the whole world's gone mad. Other than that, doing fine." He gives Leonardo a sardonic grin.
**
Zurlo wakes up Leonardo for his watch. Before going to sleep, he takes a quick cigarette outside. He finds River there. With no preamble, he says, "I don't know how to phrase this politely...but who, or what, are you?" He watches the undine...not with distrust precisely, just caution.
**
"I don't know." River says simply. "Who or what are you?" The question doesn't seem flippant but it's delivered in a slightly distracted tone as though she doesn't care much about the answer. "Is Gull awake yet?"
Benedetto gives Leo a nod when he wakes. He doesn't say anything at first, simply setting about warming and eating some of the travel rations he'd managed to grab in the chaotic retreat from Light. He's still absorbed in thought after yesterday. What had Captain Zurlo wanted? What was he going to do? In the end, he supposed it only mattered if they all lived through this. He did hope those he'd been traveling with before got away safely...
Unless Leonardo starts a conversation, Benedetto doesn't speak until after he's finished eating. Finally he looks to the other ifrit and asks, without preamble, "Were you traveling with anyone? I was with a group when... I somehow ended up in that snow."
Leo is stretching his arms in the morning, as he talks.
Nah, I was out here alone. Just doing some... stuff. Ya know, training in the cold is supposed to be really good for ya. So I'm told.
after stretching, he concentrates a bit, and his skin takes on an ember like effect, as if it was embers from a fire catching a breeze. Finally, he takes some water, and seems to.. wrap it? around his arm before it seems to nearly vanish. Afterwards, he seems a bit more tired than he was just before his little show.
Where were you all headed? And uh, how'd you know em? A Traveling groupe?
"I don't know." River says simply. "Who or what are you?" The question doesn't seem flippant but it's delivered in a slightly distracted tone as though she doesn't care much about the answer. "Is Gull awake yet?"
"Not yet, girlie. He's fine." His tone is less friendly now. "Why do you call yourself River? Do you know more than you are saying?"
"Not yet, girlie. He's fine." His tone is less friendly now. "Why do you call yourself River? Do you know more than you are saying?"
"Don't all elen know more than they say?" River asks. "Do you say how to walk? Or breathe?" Her gaze unfocuses for a moment before she drags her attention back to the ifrit. "I don't know. I know Gull. I... am me?" She doesn't seem sure. "River is a name. I remember that. So it can be my name? I think? Maybe Gull will tell me."
She pauses and then, "Why are you being cross? Or are you hungry?"
He stares at you a moment, then laughs. "Perhaps a bite of ashbread and a bit more sleep is what I need, eh? I'll check on "Gull" and make sure he's alright before I do so, if you are staying out here. Be safe, yes?"
****
Gull awakens and sleepily pads toward Leonardo and Benedetto. Without so much as a good morning, he says, "Where are we going?"