Fable - Ask Green through the Thumb

[Haelyn]

Haelyn had heard talk of many Sworn calling out to the Wyld and fighting alongside that which they had summoned, had heard of those that shifted into forms of the Wyld, and those that knew the secrets and passages of the Wyld's terrain. She was hopeful for the first time since arriving at the monastery, elated that her first lesson had showed her such potential for pursuing this study of magic.

"Then I should return these to you, so that I do not meddle with things I am not ready for." Small smile pulled at her lips, as she leaned forward to offer the bell and stick. "Besides, Syr Josai, do I not have much more to learn? That is what the leaves tell me."

A small gust ran past them both, as if to accentuate the words of the squire, but in her eyes, there reflected her wanting to learn more. Today had given her purpose, something to look forward to and not be held back by the hate in which she held tightly in her chest. That, of course, was only realisation, and not so quickly did she wish to make such amends but she needed to work her way to the confidence of righting some wrongs.

Josai

 

[Josai]

Josai's eyes stayed on the youth a long moment. Closed again as she bowed her head. "Who am I to go against the lessons of the leaves?" she asked with as smile. "But I believe for now, your lesson will be learned in caring for that bell," her own silver bell chimed gentle with the wind, the bright sphere of precious metal, much like a flower made to bob in the breeze, as all the leaves fluttered and spoke in their language of whispers and sunglow.

"We will walk the set path, young squire," Josai assured. "I will serve as your guide, and we will face whatever your bell brings," she let her eyes come open once more, and looked unto Haelyn. "Such we pursue,"

Haelyn

 

[Haelyn]

Haelyn kept the bell close, a small and tentative smile lifting at the corners of her mouth.

"Shall we wander a little more then?" They had sat down for a while now, or at least, longer than what Haelyn found comfortable. She was on her feet in seconds, stretching and shaking her legs and spine before scooping up the bell. It's green stone of tourmaline allowed her to get lost in the depths of the green of the forest reflected in it. As she handled it, gentle twinkles of the clapper as it hit the inside of the tourmaline bell.

"The leaves say I am too scrawny..." Lips pouted before brown eyes drift to Josai's gaze, her brow quirking in question as if to ask confirmation of the kind Syr. "They say I need to be stronger in order to help Protect the Wylds."

 

[Josai]

Josai stood up in a flow of robes and limbs. Her dark curls nary a tussle as the fell into place, and her spear stood tall and still as the same cedar it was made from.

A small smile crested across her lips as her tranquil gaze eyed the squire. "The leaves shall council you, in the way of leaves," Josai offered. "Growth, patience, unity and numbers. The Lynx, in the way of the cat, the hunter, the protector, the lone wanderer," she gathered up those things she had laid upon the floor, neat and tidy with each pluck of fingers and stretch of arm. "But it is our path as Knights, to take that council, and let it guide us as it may, and yet never let it dictate our path wholly," she let on, and finished wrapping up the items, and slinging them over her shoulder. "We are Knights, first and foremost, Protectors of the Wylds, and stewards to Life and Death alike," she looked to her squire. "And you are a squire still," she assured gently. "I will be here to aid you,"

Josai straightened up once more, and set her eyes to the wylds beyond the small grove which sheltered them.

"Well then," she spied three paths. North, East, and South. "Which way shall we wander?" she asked with the hint of a smile. Her tall spear's head hung high over her shoulder, and her blue steeple hat stirred with the breeze.

 

[Haelyn]

Haelyn looked to Josai as she spoke, and it came easily to her that all her appreciation and graciousness were conveyed in the smile reserved for her. Were other Sworn Knights this eager to help, this easy to converse with? What else could she learn from others?

She had been glad for the way Josai had left this lesson mostly up to her, and that Haelyn's honesty had been met with patience and reverence. The squire had no clue as to what her future was to look like with the monastery, but she was glad to have opportunity to go her pace in figuring it out. And that she had been paired with Josai was a blessing.

"East. Where the sun rises still." She found herself answering, taking the first guiding steps in that direction.

"What was it like in your squire days, Syr Josai?" Haelyn had not asked much of her tutor, but her soft inquiry was indication that the squire was beginning to trust and open up to someone new.

 

[Josai]

The silver bell chimed against the black obsidian sphere, and Josai stared at the eastward path. "Toward the Day's Star," she bowed her head, "To welcome what may come,"

And she followed after her student, blue robes a trail of currents behind her. Steady steps, that let muscle and bone shift and move with each press of foot, and each stride of leg.

"My squire days?" she asked, with a soft smile that showed the white of her teeth. "Well," she started, nose and mouth scrunched a tad as she gathered her thoughts. "I came to the monastery at an age, just some years older than you, Haelyn," she gave. Though her smile turned wistful, as if the warmth that had been there were but the sun's light traced across winter snow. "I took to the gardens then," she said with a little more warmth to her voice. "To the Rootgrot," she keened her head towards the youth. "Tending to Webster, the spore-spider," she winked with her step. Stepped on more. "I was very angry then," she confessed, and let her eyes gaze up to the beauty of the world around them.

The dapple of sun that poured through the countless leaves. How the many blades rattled and shook with the gentle wind.

"But in time," she went on, as a squirrel ran across the bough of a proud maple, with its leaves like stars of gold against the critters brown fur. "I learned that busy hands helped kneed the fury," she looked back to her squire. "Help me shape and spool it, like a fine thread," she laughed a little. "Though maybe Webster played a part in that,"

 

[Haelyn]

Anger spoke to Haelyn. It gave her thought, a moment to reflect on why she could feel a resonance with Syr Josai's spoken memory. The squire had many a thing go wrong in her childhood, but to have ended up at the monastery was not her true decision. It was a last chance for her to make a change for herself, to look after herself when her family could not afford to pay her the proper attention that could shape a young girl.

And so Haelyn pushed herself to learn, to receive an education that she could not back home. Her letters could do with some work, but that was what the books were for. To read, to learn a vocabulary, and to practice her lettering, to take notes on what she was eager to learn.

"I am angry too." She admitted. Silence stretched in the wake of her admission, but Haelyn made show of her intent to continue with the chewing of her lip. "I lost family, and those that took me in did a poor job of filling the hole of a proper family, I think. Friends were not friends, acquaintances at most." Nothing could make her feel whole again.

"And I think I will be angry for a while. When I try to thing why, all I can think is that... I do not know what my future is no more."

 

[Josai]

There was a pang of sadness in the Dusker's heart.

To know that another of the young hearts come to the grounds of their Monastery was so painted by the red wounds of the world. Burns, still hot from the angry lash of fire's tongues. Wounds, so deep that their pain still beat down against the bone. Could be felt there in the marrow.

Still, her steps did not still.

One after the other, the pads of her feet felt through the supple and worn leather of her shoes. Toes spread and pressed against the earth. Warm with life. Soft with promise.

"Then you will be angry for a while," she said simple as a branch swayed by the breeze. "And you will not know the why of it," she went on as a strange scent tickled her nose. Her head tilt up, and she took in a few quick sniffs.

A sickly sweetness. Like a fruit gone too long. Though where there would be the syrupy scent of fermentation, there was else there. Something wrong.

Still, the Spear Witch stopped her step. Her brow stiffened, and her fingers felt more firmly the weight weight of her weapon. Her shoulders, the weight of her pack, and all her hairs felt as if they rose to attention as a new dark wind blew along their path.

Cold and full of strangeness.

 

[Haelyn]

For one so young and able to be free with her speech and thoughts, Haelyn could not find the words to convey the struggle she felt, the anger that heated her blood, nor the reason that steered her down such a path. But she could admit it, at least, be open to how she felt and not need to give reason. For this, the young squire began to warm to the teachings and guidance from Syr Josai, would heed her words.

She tried to listen to those words, spoken with understanding, patience, but the strangeness slowly crept on the young Wyld one.

Haelyn, who slowed her pace half a step, turned to cast her gaze about the earth, the trees, the sun filtering through leaves. Her lungs took in a breath, tasting that sweet and yet not quite right air on the breeze sweeping through. It caused her to still, to assess their environment like a deer waiting to fight or flight.

Her eyes narrowed as she listened to the Wyld, listened to the echoes travelling to them and her hand reached for her mentor, gently pulling at her sleeve to slow. "Perhaps we should go another way."

 

[Josai]

Josai's gaze remained high and on the path before them. Took in the sway of the branches, and the shimmer of the leaves. She saw the pale silver beneath the bellies of broad blades, and the verdant green of faces pronged and pitted.

She would stop, come the tug at her sleeve. But she would not speak. So wrapped in the listening of things, and the feeling of it all.

The silver bell swung upon its blue string. Its round body clinked against the black obsidian sphere as the dried jaw bone rattled and shook there against the spear too.

It was a long moment before Josai's dark eyes turned to regard the youth. The Spear Witch's gaze wide and so filled with a cold curiosity.

"Another way," she repeated the words, as if but a ripple of thought across a mind's mirror surface. Her own thoughts, her own feelings, far beneath any light that traced her chin, or painted her gaze.

The air, stranger still. Sweeter still. Full of that smell that only seemed to grow the more pungent. The more foul.

"What tells you to turn back, Squire?" there was no judgment in here eyes. No weight to her tone. It was but a question that need be asked. With answer, or without answer. It need be asked.

 

[Haelyn]

"The stones. Hear how they quiver, how they hesitate under our feet? They do not wish to be pressed into the earthen floor, they ask to be kicked, hidden, away." Her knees bent slightly, as if she would crouch down to be as small as the tiniest rocks that found their way here.

Instinct and Wyld, the squire fell in height and listened.

"They came from the stream the stones, there... the water seeps into the Wyld, travels it's whispers from the crests..." And the water sent this message with urgency. No stone would break it's path, bending past anything that obstructed it's current, and Haelyn's own heart felt as if it beat alongside the rush of water. Her blood flowed, calming and quiet, urgent and strong.

"Another way," the squire repeated, turning to look back to where their original path parted in three. "We must make for the South. Strangeness grows thick before us on this path, but the elk are making for South and safety."

From where she crouched, tips of her hands lightly touching the earth to keep herself connected and balanced, Haelyn lifted her large eyes to peer up at the Spear Witch. "I cannot hear anything before us if we continue this path."

 

[Josai]

With eyes unclouded, Josai went on, looking unto the Squire as she listened to her words. Felt the flow of the currents that pulsed and flowed from her.

A river unto herself. Whose waters ebbed unto the soil around her. Gave weight to the wind that moved the air about them.

Josai let her eyes come closed, and nod.

"Then you will lead us, Haelyn," her eyes came open, her impassive mask still worn neatly. "And I will follow wherever the Wylds take you,"

A snap of branch and twig in the distance. The cry of birds as they took flight. The skitter and scramble of squirells, as they made their race across branch and underbrush.

Fear, thick in the chitters and chirps.

No songs. But warnings.

Flee. Flee. Far from here. Danger. Death.

 

[Haelyn]

Her ears were new to the cacophony of creatures and critters, unable to differentiate the voices, the cries, the fear. Haelyn herself did not know how to stop listening, to stop feeling the dwellers of the Wyld, and felt their fear. Felt their panic and terror. She wore it for them, humanising it across her facade until tears welled up in her brown, fawn-like eyes.

Hands gripped the Spear Witch, pulling her away from the path they were set upon.

Steered her with fevered steps back to the decision point.

Squire quiet and scared, unable to make voice of what she experienced. At least her mind knew how to move, how to naviagte through the chaos aching her ears and breath.

"South." One word could rob her breath, her very air. And so Haelyn feasted on a meal she did not need to eat. A fear she did not know how to quell. Urgency strengthened her grip on Syr Josai's arm, uncaring if such a position was awkward but it did it's purpose and work as they came back to the three points from one path.

"South."