Private Tales Leave all but the memories behind

[Sigrith]

The wolf exchanged a look with her counterpart, expressing a sense of apathy that was all too typical for a witch. The elf had quickly fallen below the level of interest or concern to keep her here and he certainly posed no threat to Vand. So, with a yawn stretching her muzzle and flashing fangs within the glimmer of firelight, Sigrith turned her nose to the air.

Wasn't long for a new scent trail to find her, and only a short and foggy breath after that before the wolf leisurely trotted off along the shore, raven winging after her with an excited haw haw!

 

[Vand]

It was bitterness he recognized in witches – Not apathy. He could already hear Signe in his head, hissing in her high-pitched serenade that they should murder Dark Elf before he reports back to his masters; that the outside was always encroaching, ready to challenge whatever little paradise they have carved out for themselves.

No, Apathy, to Vand, though he was barely her senior, was the color of youthful inexperience and folly.

Vand noted she had left him without his fungus, too far from the camp for him to run to effectively…in the most inhospitable terrain on the planet…where everything has another, often larger, form. He was not fearful of this, of course – he just made note as to her reliability.

“She thinks you're boring...,” Vand stated to Sanno – though while it was clear he blamed Sanno, the judgment was on Sigrith. Vand shrugged, "Perhaps she has a point."

The Rabble-Rouser reached into his satchel again, drawing from it a handful of something which he immediately cast into the fire – the smoke turning bright teal for a spell, fluorescent against the starry sky.

Vand knew that it was the pack what took back Withereach. Irvad thought he could be a Lone Wolf.

After a few moments, a faint trumpeting could be heard way out over yonder hills.

“You don’t seem to give much a shit about your friends, I've noticed,” Vand redirected Sanno’s testimony to the two Elves now in the care of Haymar’s Folly.

 

[Sannoru]

Sannoru's eyes shifted away from the fire, but found their gaze wander off to Vand's eyes. The contrast among the brightness of the moonglow and the fire, they could not handle.

»A friend of mine, I would keep safe and sound... Would you do so too?«
San's eyes narrowed as their gaze shifted solemnly to the ground for the following three seconds.
»But of course, people to trust are far too few. And I've erred to believe that those I grew up with would support me as much as I bled to protect them. What you saw there were two of the three leaders of the Valley. Two little whiny bitches, weaklings that turned against their protector. I was their subordinate, a tool to discard. But look, their corpses now crayfish fodder instead of wasting in some lavished tomb.« San chuckled lowly. They sure amounted to more this way than run their people into ruin.

»I once like everyone else followed them blindly, no mater how much people suffered beneath them. But my end goal was always to keep my homeland safe no matter the cost, yet the three leaders of my village benefited most of it.«

»I was their strongest warrior and most experienced assassin. People knew of my name throughout the Transit islands and beyond. 'Sannoru of the Thousand Valleys' what a stupid honorific title to bear. As if words ever had more weight than actions. Thirty...or Twenty years ago we were still enveloped in a lengthy war.« Sanno spoke with some uncertainty to the dates. Any outward information of the war on the neighboring coastline state that the war started roughly 37 years ago and lasted for more than a decade and it was bloody as living hell.

»My last mission in this war was no easy task, for I had to kill a swordsman leader of the town we warred with, whose skill far suprassed mine, everyone was well aware of that. And I was not meant to go alone. My partner and equal became the third of the three village heads. He was no longer 'expendable' and he never was as a heir to the founding clan...They Would have not let him go either way. Everyone wanted me to return victorious or dead. While he, the third only wanted me to promise him that I'd return alive.«
There was no third corpse.

»Without him, I was quickly bested by my target, but he was a man with...Admireable Traits. A leader and a warrior with whom I clashed before as he fought in the frontline. Perhaps my last fight with him and eventual defeat amused him, so that's why he let me live. Or perhaps the most respected and revered 'Sannoru of the Thousand Valleys' could be able to persuade their leaders into lasting peace.« Sannoru chuckled.

»He reluctantly handed me a contract, the start of a peace treaty with my homeland that I had to forward to the three- I had no choice, I was in no state to fight. And I, and they, we knew that it was slowly time to end the war. Either with his death or the latter. And his death was no longer an option.« Sannoru's bright green eyes pointed at where Sigrith meddled with the corpses before.
San sneered: »Traitor. Disgrace. Failure. What right does a doe have to judge a wolf's skill. They whom I protect, those who cover behind soldiers, whom they urge to fight. To judge the warriors when they themselves can't stomach to bear arms. What right do they have...«
»And they, whom only see war in pretty maps in the comfort of their houses had me locked up and stripped off my honour. How quickly they changed pelts, once revered and now judged on that one action as if it was all I were, a tool that no longer worked as intended. Even my former partner sided with them. The leaders wanted to be the victors in this, no matter how long it'd take, while the rest of the transit began to long for peace.«

»Nothing ever ends well for those that disrupt the balance.«
»I saw the banners of our former enemy decorating the village streets just yesterday.«
A smile formed on Sannoru, but it only masked the traces of grief that they were not able to shed completely. There was love for the home, and there was desire to burn it whole.
Which emotion was 'right'.

 

[Vand]

Vand chuckled in smug agreement with Sanno. After all, the lad’s story was an echo of his own; it added more fuel to the brigand’s own rage against his masters and their titles and their awards in mediocrity for perpetuating their weak, comfortable status-quo.

He did not say much of this, however – His arms instead uncrossed and his posture became more casual.

He even empathized with Sanno’s failure. The judgment of King Borvenir still loomed overhead – storm clouds gathering about Withereach – and Vand was not certain that he, a Nordenfiir without a Svalen, would be able to do anything in counter the wrath should that judgment prove vengeful.

And then, Sanno’s conclusion.

Vand would be a fool not to recognize the pattern of insurrection spreading down the coastline like a plague. This same story, rippling like a stone dropped into a pond, as if it were a characteristic of the land.

Like the very dirt had a spirit of which they, the people, were extended aspects of.

“'Tis no land for the fat and old…,” Vand commented, agreeing with Sanno’s conclusion. He looked off into ocean for a moment, some part of him looking for the Bear Wight, sickened or drunk or something…pulling on marionette strings from which they all did their Revolution Dance.

He did not elaborate on his theory.

“So, you were jailed. Now you’re not,” Vand brought the story to current. “You’re here instead. What now, Sannoru ‘of the Thousand Valleys’?”

The pronunciation of the honorific was deliberately ironic.

 

[Sannoru]

As if they were looking through some kind of twisted mirror.

»The wild does not reward the weak...« San quietly followed behind Vand with their words.
And even their gaze grazed the sea subconsciously. What was to be seen there.

The other end was barely visible.


»And I was dead defore...«
Sannoru brushed his face with the start of their palm. The earth and blood peeling off almost like an eggshell.
His gaze again fixated on Vand. One eye they closed slowly, not much surprised his former title would garner attention.
»I will start to live again..«
They spoke simply, what a brilliant plan. With nothing left to protect. San added on very quietly:
»A sellsword I was and remain. But now...I have only myself.«

 

[Vand]

Sannoru misunderstood -- Predatory territoriality was coming back into play.

Vand clarified, slightly irked, "Where now?"

 

[Sannoru]

San fixated their gaze on him.
»Where..?«
»May I stay here for a while?«

 

[Vand]

Vand stared at Sanno in scrutiny; his brow furrowing as a grin began to creep across his face…

…then tore into a stifled chuckle…

…before bursting into a full-on raucous laughter, hands at his sides, head lifted into the sky like some wolf howling at the moon. Like some chaos magickian, banishing an archdemon with pure, unbridled irreverence.

And perhaps he had. When Vand recovered himself, the tension was completely extinguished.

“Woo…!,” he wound down. “Yeah, whatever, man – I don’t give a fuck,” Vand exhaled, cracking his neck free of the tension in his shoulders.

Peripherally, he caught a familiar scent in the air, adjusting his internal ledger on the people he knew in one fell swoop.

“Though we’re not much for sellswords around here, anymore.” This was a statement of fact, really. His pronouncement came without much more character than it simply being what is.

“Adventurers? Sure. Heroes? Definitely. Hard-workers?,” Vand informed, glancing in the approximate direction of the smell. “Always.”

When she finally returned, so did his gaze to Sanno. So did the crossing of his arms, eyebrows raised in amusement.

"But not like that."

He broke his crossed arms to gesture at Sanno demonstratibly.

 

[Sigrith]

She returned with a meal fit for a hungry Nordenfiir; a tundra doe several days past dead. The good thing about Nordenfiir is that they weren't exceptionally choosy when it came to meals - opportunists, just like the real deal. If it was edible, they'd likely eat it, especially if pickings were slim.

Pickings weren't especially slim when you didn't have a charge to look after. Sigrith wasn't want to wander far from Vand nor leave him with the elf alone for too long. Not that the man couldn't handle himself, she'd seen what he was capable of, but she had no way of knowing what the elf was capable of. Best not to take the chance.

The wolf rounded the campfire and dropped the carrion off to the side, making quick work to claim a leg that had a healthy amount of meat left on the bone. Her jaws and fangs were plenty strong enough to sever frozen sinew and tendon - that was the good thing about the north. If you didn't finish your meal in one sitting, the frigid air would keep it for quite a while. Despite the absence of valuable organs, there was enough meat left to feed both a bearkin and an elf, if you knew how to pick it.

The raven warbled and hopped from its boulder, landing on the ground near the wolf to pick at her scraps.

 

[Sannoru]

Sannoru slowly slouched and wrapped their arms around their knees as the man laughed his lungs out.

For a moment San began to process. Nordenfiir they rarely knew of, despite living just nearby. Some of San's comrades served on Eretejeva and knew of them. But they seemed little other than bear shifters as their most notable trait.

And this one acted erratic. Was he a total wackjob or perhaps he just mirrored the mixed responses back amplified tenfold.
...

San straightened their back as the smell of stale meat filled the air. He did not expect the she-wolf to return. Or that she would drag a scoured carcass by.
The sight of it would turn the stomach of most.
But Sannoru's expression for a brief second appeared relieved and then intrigued.
He was worse.

At least he knew that he was not on the menu.
For now.

»There is more to me than warring for gold,« San spoke in a calm tone with a slightly raised pitch.

 

[Vand]

Go ugly early. Any survivalist worth his salt would tell you the same thing. If you found free food – eat it. There might not be anymore by the time you’re starving.

While Vand did not prefer the meat of the already dead, he was not so bourgeois as to reject it outright.

“War for whatever you’d like, cub,” Vand commented, stepping toward the animal corpse. With his boot to a ribcage, he tore at a leg; pushing and twisting in a series of unsettling cracks until it ripped away from the main carcass.

“But this is a land where the men are beasts and the beasts are monsters…”

He held it over the blooming fire for a moment, not really an effort to cook the meat as it was some almost superstitious act to rid it of any surface parasites, bugs, or bacteria.

“And you are quite small. And quite alone. And not even a little bit intimidating to look at.”

Vand turned to outlander, pulling some excess hide as though it were a banana or an ear of corn and took a bite, chomping it over. There was more to this thought, certainly. Only now, it was Vand taking his time to get there.

He took a step back, watching the Elf intently. Would Sanno reject Sigrith’s gift of hospitality?

 

[Sigrith]

Black tufted ears flickered to the sounds of conversation, words between the crackle of flames and the crunch of bone, the tearing of sinew. She continued to chaw, fangs peeling layers of pelt from flesh and muscle, exposing the white of bone beneath, pausing only to give a snort of agreement to Vand's statements.

"Stagnation is death," said the witch, saliva dripping from her gaped maw, "evolve or perish."

 

[Sannoru]

Sannoru picked up a moist twig and began to grind it against a nearby rock as the other two mowed down on the flesh.
How old must've it been. But it clearly could not compare with the food he ate for the past few decades.


His eyes quickly flashed to Vand for a moment as the nordenfiir spoke.
»-and I've dealed with monsters pretending to be 'men'... ...« (san probably used a word refering to his people/dark elves hm...)
»I may not look threathening, you are right on that,« his eyes shifted to the stick, raising it briefly, gaze fixated on the tip. »...That...may as well be an advantage against the dismissive. Would it not?«

»Time will tell more on that than any empty plans I say, « He pondered bitterly at the Sigrith's words, nodding his head.

The elf then placed the stick against the floor again.
»Do you want me to dine with you?« He asked the wolfess quietly, his gaze shifting between the corpse and her. At this time he was not sure what of this all. He is a guest, in a way, refusing was seen as inpolite back home, but he was not offered anything either. Ethiquette norms from the transit were of no use here.

 

[Sigrith]

"If I wanted you to starve I would'nt have come back at all..." snarled the wolf in reply, lip curling over fangs. The raven skipped over to her gaping maw and pecked bits of meat and tendon from between them, fluttering away as she tore into her meal again.

Vand had no real need for her to hunt for him. No nordenfiir was incapable unless they were broken and while his mind might be a bit addled from too much toadstool and his lungs charred from his life spent in the mines, he was as capable as the next. As for the frostbitten pup? Well, it weren't her place to judge and he seemed to think himself a wolf in elf's clothing, but the likelihood of him having perished had they not found him was a thought she could not ignore.

"Eat," she growled, "while there's still somethin' left to chew."

 

[Sannoru]

»Thank you, you're generous. Let alone to a foreigner, « he said softly in contrast to the she-wolf's tone. But San's tone was very much cautious, growing more so wary of Sigrith than Vand at this point. The quiet one it is, she puzzled him with her behaviour and tone clash. That and her intent.

» I'm indebted to you, « his eyes would shift between the two, and he did not say so as just any meaningless tack on at the end, despite having a feeling, perhaps even knowing they'd not want anything of his. Magical or else. Dark elves of San's creed were known to view only taking and begging as shameful. They tended to repay adequately for deeds and gifts.


Sannoru then pierced some meat by the bone and let it cook over the fire for a while.
He really could not stomach parasites in his current condition.