Private Tales Something Amiss

[Kaska]

Kaska blinked past the sting, staring open-mouth at her. "..."

There was so much about those statements that just didn't compute to Kaska, their perceptions on the world at completely different wave lengths. She was not use to this indifferent response to her and it unnerved her greatly. Childishly, she believed it meant something worse was coming at her. A form of punishment. A trick. She was brace for this to be another lesson she would have to master, and in no easy or painless way.

So she did not trust Lia's dismissal. She didn't trust anything about her odd behavior at all.

"...What is it?" She asked flatly, working out her jaw.

 

[Lia]

"Liches are not human." Lia stated the obvious, still half unsure of where she was actually going with the suggestion in the first place. "The others are."

She considered for a moment. "They must be at odds. If we can somehow make that worse...the Lich might kill them."

Thus depleting their numbers.

"They'll already be angry, what with me killing some of them, we just have to stoke that flame." Just how they would do that Lia still had to figure out, but it was a solid idea.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska blinked again, perking as an idea struck her at once. "Wait. That's brilliant. Why didn't I think of that?" She frowned, then shook out her head, looking back to the woman.

"The stream," she stated a touch excitedly. "We ride ahead, it's flowing down stream to us. I bet if we harvest enough propilas, or even, say, poison ivy, we could toss grind it in when they make camp. With luck... some of them would digest it. And with more luck, the sudden onset of any illness could be what we need. Have you seen any hoples in the area? It's a hallucinogen, it's even better."

 

[Lia]

Plants were not exactly her specialty.

When it had come to Ranger school the thing that Lia had excelled at most had been tactics and close quarters combat. Her skill with the sword had been almost better than the instructors, something that had been remarked upon more than once in her tenure with the others.

"I'm sure we can find some." The Reach, by and large, had most of the plants Kaska had mentioned. Lia knew that much at the very least. They would have to do some searching, but the group of bandits couldn't move as fast as them anyway. "The angrier we make the bandits, the better."

It would drive them away from the Lich. "Even if we can get four of five of them to leave it will increase our odds."

She shifted slightly, a small smile touching her lips.

They had the beginnings of a plan.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska smiled too, the sulk of the last four days slipping from her features.

"I can do it," she swore, nodding in affirmation. "It might take a few days, but it can be done." For the first time, she was grateful for her father's foresight. Its a pity they were born to the parents they were, Lia would have found the wealth of the Major's knowledge something to covet. You don't get at a rank that high without being good at what you do. And he would have made Lia the best with the mindset that girl carried.

Kaska moved to stand up, then stopped, a thought taking over her. She slowly sat down, her expression closing up again. "But I won't do it. Not unless you talk to me about what happened."

She simply. Couldn't. Handle. The ignoring. It would eat her alive. She knew LIa felt things against her that she was keeping away from the mission, but until they were out on the table, Kaska would always be tense, paranoid, and unable to concentrate as she braced for the backlash she expected to come.

Her fingers clawed at the dirt they rested on, her chin rising to meet Lia's.

 

[Lia]

"There is nothing to talk about." She said simply, her face returning to that same stoic expression it always seemed to cling to. "You disobeyed Orders, you drugged me, and then you nearly got yourself killed."

It was a good summation of what had happened, though left out some of the detail. There wasn't really much to say about the situation. Lia didn't like it or course, in fact it made her seethe, but what was she going to do about it.

"I don't have the authority to throw you out of the Rangers. I can't Court Martial you out here. And I can't just execute you either." She had neither the will, nor the drive to do that. Besides, it would have been a foolish thing to do. "The fact of the matter is I can't get the bracelet back by myself, and I'm in no position to dole out consequences."

Not now at least. "Besides the fact that even if I did. Your father would very likely countermand my Orders once we returned."

Oddly enough Lia didn't seem upset by that, she just took it as it was.

That was what she had always been good at; logic. She had worked all of this out in her head already, it was why she had decided go ignore the problem, why she was still working with Kaska. Not doing so would have been petulant and idiotic.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska swallowed hard, hearing her missteps laid out like that hard to receive.

She dropped the dirt, her fingers prying open one by one before she brushed them off on her pants. "No. My father will do the orders himself," she informed her softly. "It will be done. I know that I'm... " -through with her career. Or at least any portion of it that had some scrap of dignity to it.

If she wasn't flat out kicked, then she expected to at least be sent to a far away outpost, for a very long time. This had been building up. That was why she had gotten so desperate and stupid. Not that she would tell LIa that.

She cleared her throat, trying to keep the emotions from her voice, her looming future still very hard to comprehend.

"I understand procedure. I'm talking about you. If we're going to pull through on this, I can't deal with this- this tension. You're mad at me. Say it. "

 

[Lia]

"My anger is irrelevant." Lia said simply. It was not what Kaska wanted to hear, but it was the only answer that she would get. The young woman simply didn't work like most people, she didn't think like that. To her there was the mission, and the best way to achieve that mission. It was all that she wanted to do.

It was paramount to the only thing she had ever really wanted; becoming a Ranger and taking a part in the organization.

In order to get that Lia would deal with anyone or anything. She would put aside her emotions, drive away her feelings, and ignore all slights from others who might stand in her way. The Sergeant worked off of a singular determining drive. She always had.

"Of course I'm angry." She continued. "But anger isn't going to help me."

The only tension that Kaska felt came from her. "I want that bracelet. I want to complete my mission. Everything else simply doesn't matter."

It was of course, this exact attitude that had lead to some of the other recruits at the academy to label her inhuman. It was why she had a reputation for being cold, why some likened her to a golem. Lia was driven, far beyond a fault.

 

[Kaska]

By far, the tension Kaska felt was self-created, the woman filling in the blanks that should be there but wasn't. She looked at Lia with no small amount of confusion.

She had heard about the Sergeant stone-like nature, but it had always seemed like an exaggeration. Everyone had lines or limits, that was fact Kaska had gotten really good at exploiting. It often felt like the only bit of control she had was pushing those limits and walking those lines, so to have accidentally cross them so horrifically, and to not get a response at all?

"That's not normal," she whispered at her, slowly shaking her head.

 

[Lia]

Lia stared at Kaska in silence for a moment, and then spoke again. "My entire life is a path."

She had never really explained herself to anyone, had never felt the need to. More often than not people joined the Rangers because they paid well, because the job was easy enough, and because it got you respect. There were few who had a true passion for it like Lia did.

Even Kaska was really only in the Rangers because her father was, not because it was a life she had chosen. At least Lia was almost certain that was the case.

"A path that I set out on, that I laid for myself." Her tone was still. "I've wanted to be a Ranger for as long as I can remember. I love this society. I want to take part in it, and eventually, lead it. That is my path."

She stared at the other woman. "Nothing will take me off that path."

 

[Kaska]

Kaska continued to shake her head, looking away. "You sound just like him." It wasn't a compliment, but it also, strangely enough, wasn't an insult. If anything, she just sounded sad for the woman.

"Why? Why does it have to be that way? Doesn't anything else matter to you?" And the way she looked up at Lia then, it was like a child trying to implore their parent. Her eyes were watery and vulnerable, and if that could break through the stone like nature of the person before her. Of course, it never worked, but she could never help how the emotions just came out with this topic.

And she sucked at separating other rangers from her father.

 

[Lia]

"Everyone has their own dreams." Lia said simply, a shrug rolling over her shoulders. There was still no real hint of emotion to her voice.

"Mine is to lead the Rangers." Something that she had decided early on. A fact that disappointed her mother, though brought nothing but pride from her father. She supposed they were opposite in that. "Of course things matter to me, there are people I care about, I'm not a monster."

Despite what some might have said. "My mother, my father, my sister, my fellow Rangers."

Lia looked pointedly at Kaska.

"There is a reason I came for you." She told the girl simply, deciding that she did not need to explain further. Lia would achieve her goal, but she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she achieved it in a way that seemed wrong to her.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska sat back. That was the first time she had ever gotten an answer for that question. It wasn't some magical solution to the things that bothered her, strangely enough. She had thought it would be. In truth, she didn't really know what to make of it.

Of course her father loved her. But she could never see the ways in which he tried to express this, the two on such different wavelengths. They spent more time feeling frustrated with each other than hearing each other lately.

Lia's calm demoneor was a far cry from her father's stern anger, and... it allowed kaska the space to fell like she could try to explain herself for the first time. To some degree, she wanted to be heard. It was strange that Lia was the one that had ever made an effort to think past her hostile tendencies and hear her.

And it was even stranger that she felt the need for Lia to understand her. Hers was the first opinion that... bothered Kaska.

"I didn't mean to do it. You know, I-... I don't think sometimes. I-I-I liked that guy. And it all- and what it meant-And to not be a ranger anymore, I can't fathom what that would look like. I don't know why I'm so self-destructive. It all just... slipped through my fingers." Her voice solidified, one thing certain as she said it. "If I could go back and be a proper ranger, I would."

 

[Lia]

"Then be one now." Lia countered, her expression never really changing. Everyone made mistakes, hell she made mistakes. They were just different mistakes. Of course in her eyes Kaska was still some fool girl who needed to grow up, but perhaps she would start to with this little revelation.

It was an odd thing of course, considering they were near enough in age but that hardly seemed to matter.

Lia was gifted with ambition, drive, something to reach for. Kaska had been gifted with a rebellion against her father. It was not something the Sergeant could have understood, not really. Their lives converged, but their paths were utterly different from one another.

"Follow Orders." She told the her. "Get the bracelet."

A breath filled her lungs. "Complete the mission."

 

[Kaska]

Kaska let out a slow exhale.

"Okay," she said simply, feeling minutely defeated. Or perhaps was that shamed. She wasn't sure what the emotion was, but it didn't feel good. It motivated her alright.

She glanced around the clearing once, then grabbed a prepared torch, not yet used, and lit it. "I will go east and forage for what I can. I will be back in an hour." She hesitated, grimacing and looking to the woman. "Really."

 

[Lia]

Lia inclined her head in acknowledgement.

If the girl ran off again, she wouldn't save her this time. Not because she didn't want to, but mostly because she was pretty sure she couldn't. The fight against the bandits had been bad enough the first time, the second? She was sure the mage would make an appearance.

In truth that was what bothered her the most; The Lich. She had no idea how to fight one of their kind, nor even how to kill it. Had it been a Vampire she might have thrown out a list, a werewolf, but a Lich?

She had absolutely no idea. "I need to read more."

The Sergeant said to herself quietly.

 

[Kaska]

If Lia only thought to ask Kaska, she would find the girl would know everything worth noting about the species. Of course. But as it stood, Kaska blithely believed that Lia knew it too. Did every ranger have her training?

She returned in an hour, dirt under her fingernails and a satchel full of pulled up plants. It wasn't much, really. Not when they considered the sheer volume they'd need to pollute a stream, but it was progress. She dropped her torch on the fire, the tip resting in as she huffed and sat down for a moment's respite.

"This actually isn't a bad haul," she commented to Lia, pulling out each plant and gingerly organizing them. Some were wrapped in a separate piece of cloth. She made it a point to avoid touching them all together. "Can you prepare these for me? I think I can get more in East," she commented, mildly enthused.

 

[Lia]

"I cannot." Lia said simply, clearly unembarrassed about her failing. "Herbology was not my strong suit during training."

Neither was generally learning really. "Most of my talent was with the blade."

That wasn't to say Lia was dumb, she had a great tactical mind, but retaining information from books and lectures had proven...difficult for her. She knew a fair amount about things that were specifically useful, Wolfsbane and the like, but this? Nothing more than a merchants daughter would.

"And tactics." She added, though it seemed like she might have been bragging a bit.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska double-took, looking up from her task in surprise. "What?"

She composed herself for a moment, then asked tactfully. "You... don't know herpetology. Or... Runes... Do you... know.. much about ... what we are going to face?"

No judgement, just careful disbelief.

 

[Lia]

Lia shook her head. "No."

Aside from the basics. She knew what a Lich was, how dangerous they were, and in general that holy magic could undo them. Other than that she was pretty much in the dark. Lia had always focused more on the practical applications of being a Ranger, rather than the other things.

"I can fight." She began, explaining herself. "I can hunt a Dragon. I can lead men into battle. I can track our enemies all the way to the Lost City. I can survive alone in the wilderness for months. But this..."

She gestured to the plants. "I'm not good at."

It was safe to say that Lia was more the picture of a Ranger that most folk imagined. The ones that people spoke of in the old stories.

 

[Kaska]

Okay, some judgement.

Kaska took a deep breath in, letting it out in a whistle and sitting back. "Alright, well. Come over here. You're gonna have to learn if this is to be done." This was a job far larger than one person. As much as Kaska yearned to be the one to call credit on the retrieval with her idea, she knew it was foolhardy to risk the results by doing it alone. Consider that a lesson learned the hard way. She wasn't fucking up here.

"You have a spare pair of gloves? Bring them over. And a handkerchief for your mouth."

 

[Lia]

Lia did so, though she doubted the instruction would stick for long. The Sergeant was aware of her failures, as well as her abilities.

It wasn't that this sort of thing hadn't been taught at the academy, just that she'd never really retained it all that well. Sure doing it would would bring it to the forefront, but in a few weeks time she would be struggling to remember any of this. Not that it mattered much.

Not if she got her way.

"Alright." She said simply as she put on her gloves and pulled free a small bit of cloth from the inside of her armor. Normally she would use the handkerchief to wipe off her blade, but it would do for this.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska made room for her and began to point out what herbs she had managed to gather. "Not enough of any to make any sort of concentrated batch, but we're not looking for exact effects. Getting any of this into any of them is enough. The further up the stream we move, the closer to its river we'll reach. We want to strike soon, while the water is still densely concentrated. I suspect will have to scout and give signal for the other to release it. There's too many factors that go into this to rely on luck along. This work could be lost very easily, so. Be careful."

Hypocritical words coming from her, but she leveled them without her usual condescension, bracing herself for the exact place to start in this lesson. There was so much to it. How could she not know this?

"Do you which of these are poisonious on touch alone?" She started out.

 

[Lia]

"Yes." She knew that much at least, mostly because it fell under the aspects of surviving in the wilderness.

Something she was good at.

Lia also knew which of these plants not to eat, though their names escaped her. She remembered the important bits, but not how to prepare any of this for what they would need. That was really where the trouble came from. They needed to make sure the herbs actually did what they needed them to.

"Just tell me how to prepare them." Lia told Kaska, no indignation or anger in her voice. "I don't need an entire lesson right now."

Again, she did not sound mad, simply driven. She wanted to make sure the mission went right.

 

[Kaska]

"...But it's important to know these things," Kaska insisted, still careful with her words. "You can't rely on other rangers to know these things, there has been several instances in this missions where... your sword wasn't enough. Or your tactics required other areas of expertise. These areas, Lia. We have time, I can show you." She continued to insist.