Rose had always liked the odd and unusual. As a child she had always been the sort to go off the beaten path, to her father’s dismay. Perhaps that was why she was starting to take a distant liking to Sila. She had never met one of the”shadow daughters” before and more than that she had never met someone so deeply impacted by their wounds. In a way Sila was far more honest than any of the others in their little party. Cal undoubtedly had many secrets, Rakvald had a sort of strange old wisdom in his eyes that left one unnerved, Cir of course it turned out had been a Mer this entire time, and Olu was a strange and soft spoken as they came. But Sila was forced to wear her secrets on the outside. Even Rose’s own secrets had been hidden from herself until this journey.
But everyone knew that the Naer had been through something terrible. Rose knew perhaps more than the others that the one thing the wounded and sick hated, was the look of pity the people around them cast in their direction. No one enjoyed feeling weak or helpless, especially those whose strength had been taken from them abruptly and violently. Rose remembered he sailor who had arrived at the Medicine House when she had first moved to Desnind. He had refused to have his leg amputated, even though it would have saved his life. The red haired woman had always assumed that he had only wanted to retain his ability to walk, but now Rose wondered if instead he was afraid of the cripple that he would become afterwards...even if he had lived.
Whether or not Sila realized it; it took far more strength to keep pushing forward after what she had been through than she perhaps realized. In that way Rose respected her. With a soft nod Rose helped her tie a clean strip of cloth over her bad eye.
“It’s no trouble.” The woman replied with a subtle smile.
After an excellent breakfast provided by the ever mysterious Cal, they all headed off deeper into the shadowed path that pushed through the Lori. Tyr, the bear spirit silently padded along beside Rose’s horse as they advanced closer and closer toward the Badlands.
“You’ve been quiet.” The green clad woman commented softly.
“I’ve thought it best if you figured things out on your own.” He grunted with low rumble deep in his furry chest. Interwoven bands of light glittered within the spirit’s fur. Tyr was a strange beast. He could be perfectly chatty one moment and then resigned to silence for trials when it suited him.
The amber eyed healer frowned irritably before snorting derisively at the spirit.
“Did you always know? That I was...different?” She asked in a hissing whisper, trying her best to keep her voice down from the others. Granted she looked a little silly talking to what appeared to be thin air.
Tyr finally slowed to turn and gaze at her carefully. It was almost like he was going to answer her question when he sighed and resumed plodding along.
“Wisdom must be earned.” he replied.
Rose only huffed and frowned sourly.
“Well aren’t you useful...” she muttered dryly.
Right at that moment there was a strange sound that echoed off in the distance to the western side of the path. It sounded like an animal of some kind, either a yowling feline or maybe even the brash call of a stag. Rose carefully slid off the back of her bay mare and quickly checked the bow on her back and the quiver at her hip before stepping toward the edge of the trail.
“I’m going to go take a look, want to come along Olu?” The woman asked with a twitch of a smile over her shoulder. The soft spoken lad reminded her of the other hunters in Desnind. It would be good to have someone like that on hand when snooping around for a strange animal. She might have asked Sila to come along, but there was a haunted look in the woman’s eyes after the battle with the beasts on the first day. The amber eyed healer knew trauma when she saw it, sometimes it was best to simply give someone the space to heal on their own.
Hopefully with the young Sev’ryn in tow the woman slowly picked her way through the emerald shadows of the forest. Every now and then she would tentatively reach out with both her hands and her mind to make contact with the flora surrounding them. Her fingertips would brush a leaf and almost like an echo in the dark she could somehow “feel” it’s lifeforce within her mind.
Again the call of the strange animal sounded ahead and Rose found herself pulling out her bow and fitting an arrow to the string.
“Did you hear it?” she asked quietly to her companion, even though she already knew the answer.
Rose slowly took cautious steps forward, wondering to herself if the creature would be friend or foe. Given the events of the previous day, she had to prepare for the worst.
OOC
Rose is eager and friendly to go with others off the path
