A Small Glade

[Asila]

Evening surfaced slowly from her happily nostalgic daydream as Rojo recounted his history, though a vague, golden glamor lingered about her tired spirit. She agreed with Devon in that Rojo's family life, or lack of one, was unfortunate. However, while she was saddened, despite herself, as a result of this revelation, she was also even more grateful for the time she had had with her family. Their time together had not been long, especially when contrasted with the life span of a Tallamous individual, but at least it was something. At least she had the good memories to ease the sting of the bad ones.

She had not expected Rojo to turn this conversation to her family. Her expression shifted immediately, smoothing into a vacant mask as her gaze grew distant. She moved her right hand to her left wrist and toyed with the silver bangles that always encircled them, something she tended to do when she was reminded of the family she had lost.

A second after she had descended into the mire of memory, she emerged, her mood shifting suddenly once again. She lifted her head and stared directly at Rojo, dealing with her sorrow in the only way she knew how. With defiance. "I haven't seen them for seven years." She said bluntly.

Then, just as abruptly, she changed the subject in an attempt to discourage them from pursuing the vague statement. "Why do you do that, anyway?" She was still speaking to Rojo, since he had been the one to bring up the subject in the first place. "I have never seen a man shift from a surly tone to a polite one as quickly or as often as you do." She was just beginning to suspect that he wasn't a noble, even though the thought hadn't crossed her mind in so many words. It was still just the vaguest doubt at the forefront of her subconscious. She had only run across a human of aristocratic rank once before. It wasn't much to go off of. For all she knew, there was no standard way of behaving amongst the aristocracy. They could all be eccentric.

[Rojo]

Rojo shrugged when Devon voiced his apology
"It's okay. Didn't know 'em that well, as I only occasionaly popped back to give my father some coins" he shook his head slightly "they was ever so pleased when they found out I'd been apprenticed. 'Cept mam, of course. She never thought I'd be good at anything." He seemed quite happy to tell stories of his life. Well, he'd gotten used to small children coming up to him in the street and asking how he "slay dat dwagon" or "steal da treshure."

"Oh...I'm sorry to hear you haven't seen your family in a while...family interaction is a big part of your life. 'S why hermits are always so bloody miserable." He grinned.
He raised an eyebrow when Evening faced him with defiance. Then he lifted up the other as she spoke of his manner of speech
"I sound surly?" he voiced, trying to listen to his voice. He'd always thought he had a peculiar way of speech; it sort of...changed in different situations. Such as now, they were having a sort of lax conversation, so he was using shortened words and feeling open. But for example, when speaking to someone he didn't know or when he was cautios, he would speak fully and try to make his sentances short. Or sometimes he just liked to flick between the two just to annoy the hell out of people.

Rojo riffled his hair. He wondered what to say next. He found himself being the one starting these little tangents, by asking questions.
"So...do you do anything, like, working in a bakery, Devon?" he asked. He doubted Evening would have anything to say on the matter, as he assumed she lived in this wood.

[Seven]

I haven't seen them for seven years. How could such a statement NOT leave questions? But Devon knew better than to pry in the matters of others. From her tone, he could judge she didn't want to talk about it, so it was probably involved some misfortune. He listend as Rojo went on about his family, except his tone seemed cheerful despite the dark content. Devon couldn't help but feel slightly out of place though, since he never had such problems.

Devon blinked a little when Rojo asked him about working. "Well....no, I don't work in a bakery..." he said, starting to feel embarrassed. Why, he'd never actually worked a day in his life! (Real work, to say at least. Studies can feel like it at times, but anything your paying for is a service you a receiving, not a job.) But then again, most nobles never had to work, especially ones of his age. Unless things were different on Yorl, he thought the answer to that might have been obvious. Evening would probably start thinking Rojo was strange for posing such silly questions, and from her earlier comment about his accent, she probably already guessed he wasn't nobility, which would make her have more doubts. Wait a second, wouldn't she have already realized he wasn't nobility if he was talking about coming from humble origins? Unless she assumed he struck it rich and bought in....Which would explain his unusual speech.

In any case, Devon decided to continue the previous topic, "...though I have learned some management skills from my father. It could be called 'disreputable,' but my family bought in only five generations ago. We were sea-faring merchants, though nowadays we just contract captains. A shame though, I do have helmsmanship skills that are going to waste..."

[Asila]

Evening calmed as the conversation returned to the mundane. Good, now she could just stare out the window and pretend she was daydreaming. Rojo's question had left her edgy. She didn't want to speak for the next few moments.

As for nobles...well, she didn't really know all that much about them. Unless the merchants had mocked them, she hadn't heard anything about them at all. She remembered clearly that they spoke eloquently, and disdainfully, on the rare occasion that one would deign to talk to them. Or rather, buy from them, though they usually didn't run such errands themselves. She knew they were educated and that they were rich. And that pretty much summed it up. Wait. Hadn't Syriek, her uncle by name if not blood, scoffed at them for there fortune? Because nearly all were born into money, as he had phrased it? With a silver spoon in their mouth...

She just gave a slight shake of her head and rid herself of the thoughts. Humans were humans. Did it really matter if they were noble or not? Of course, if he wasn't, it would mean she had been lied to about this too and could not help but be annoyed. She had yet to get over the fact that she'd been tricked by humans, and subject was only reminding her of that failing.

Her gaze shifted back into a glare aimed, for the moment, only at the passing trees. Stupid humans... She didn't dwell for long, however, because Devon's respons caught her interest. Or part of it did. "Merchants?" It wasn't much to have in common with someone, but it was something.

[Rojo]

Rojo smiled
"Ah, how lucky I sometimes think you nobles to be, not having to do a day's work to earn your keep." He looked at the sleeping Shadow.

"That fight has tired me. I need rest. I'll still be awake, but just...resting" it was true. He didn't actually need sleep. As he lived on a limitless supply of dark magic. He leaned back into the chair and closed his eyes. His ears still listening. He folded his arms and thought of home...

[Seven]

He nods to Rojo, "Yes, we are lucky indeed. Take your rest though, you never know when you might need your energy suddenly."

He looked over to Evening, "Yes, the Shire family were merchants up until approximately 140 years ago," he sighs a little. "I've always wondered what it must have been like, to travel such as they did. Perhaps I am just being romantic and stupidly optomistic, but I imagine it must have been a beautiful way to live...." He nods to himself, "Though I suppose the desire to travel is just a genetic thing amongst us Shires. Even after we became nobles and founded the university, my grandfather led a team to explore the world outside of human territories..."
Devon suddenly drew silent. He was forgetting that he was sitting across a Tallamous. Devon's grandfather and the exploration team were the group accredited to the official discovery of 'the others.' Though they were celebrated amongst humans as heroes (completely overriding any disdain older noble families had for burgeouis-rich upshot families), he had no idea how a Tallamous viewed such a person. In fact, the whole subject might have angered her. Devon really needed to learn how to bite his tongue!

He smiled, "So, I imagine Tallamous races must have traveling merchants as well....Did you know of any?"

[Asila]

(I have no idea which big cats a merchant caravan would be likely to employ...)

Evening glanced at Rojo for a moment, wondering how he could rest at all so soon after the ambush. She, for one, was still to anxious to let her gaurd down, and, as far as she knew, it was impossible to rest and remain alert at the same time. She was also tired, and pretty sure that Devon was as well, but she knew that seconds after she closed her eyes she would fall asleep and lose all awareness of her surroundings. It was an inevitability
that she intended to avoid for as long as she could.

Her glance quickly returned to Devon, who was the one that was speaking at the moment. "It was a wonderful way to live." She said with a sigh, twisting the silver bracelets around her wrists once more as she thought of it.

Her gaze flashed when Devon mentioned the humans rediscovery of the Tallamous and Osten races. She'd heard quite a bit of irritable mumbling on that subject. Her family had been convinced that they would never be left in peace now that the humans were aware of them. Of course, they never were a peaceful race, and were often the tormenters of humans than the tormented, but that was the rightful way of things.

However, she decided to let this slide. For the time being. Devon had asked if she'd known any merchants, and for once she wanted to answer. "I...traveled with a caravan of merchants while I was growing up. We chose to travel by land, using large wagons that were pulled by lions. I loved the cats almost as much as I loved the merchants. We were a very close-knit group. Most of us chose to sleep beneath the stars, even though the wagons usually had enough room to accomodate us. It was always the perfect opportunity to share a story, legend, or just exhange thoughts before we fell asleep. Of course, we owned only the wagons, the lions, the small trunk of personal items that each of us possessed. Everything else was marked to be sold."

She gazed at Devon's very large wagon for a moment. It was much more luxurious than the one's that they'd owned, though the smaller merchant caravans had possessed a charm of their own. Of course, the crude carvings that the wagons in her memory had collected throughout the generations wouldn't be appreciated by a noble. "We never had this much, though."

[Rojo]

Rojo opened an eye
"Heh, I suppose if it weren't for a merchant, I wouldn't be here now." It was true. If the merchant that he had stolen some sweet rolls off of hadn't passed through his city, then it wouldn't have led to the chain of events that led him on his first ever journey.

He closed his eye again and said
"I think one of my friends is a merchant now." He wasn't really contributing to the conversation, just adding little pieces.

[Seven]

Devon smiles, appreciative that she is sharing a part of his life with him. 'Maybe humans and tallamous aren't so different as lore makes us out to be?' he wondered; he really was hopless, naive from years of being sheltered. On the brightside, he wasn't as pompous or crude as other nobility would have been. As he figured, if someone was being polite to you, wa there an reason that you shouldn't be in return? Why, wasn't being a noble supposed to mean you should be well-mannered? Manners that shouldn't just suddenly vanish once you were outside the 'acceptable' social circle? But then again, most nobility lived on their false fronts, and would end up ruined if they suddenly forgot how to act.

"That really sounds lovely," he says sincerely. He really wanted to question her about her life, the Tallamous' lands and lifestyle, and if her people could actually communicate with animals like legends suggested. But then he remembered that Evening probably didn't even like either of one of the two boys in the slightest. She was, after all, only here to repay some 'debt' she incurred when they offered to help her. She was still probably inwardly fuming at them, and a paranoid person (like Jenri) would probably say something along the lines of, 'That Tallamous scum--they have no honor to repay debts! She probably only wants to travel with you to get revenge at the last moment!'

Devon banished the thought from his mind; he was not about to go the rest of the trip in paranoia! But then again, he WAS supposed to be picking up a girl for a scholarship, and heaven knows if he would be unwittingly placing her in danger. Legends, though just stories, usually did contain bits of truth, as time had shown. He would just have to be careful then. After all, if she did turn out to be dangerous (though he didn't want to think that), he couldn't just turn her loose with some unsuspecting, uninformed village so close by, now could he?

His train of thought was interuppted by Rojo's life comments. "Oh really?" Devon asked, though he knew he couldn't question further, less the two, engaged in casual conversation, accidentally slipped up about Rojo's true origins.

Instead, he glanced around the carriage, then responded to Asila, "I suppose it is a bit much...though I suppose it is so fortunate as I've had so much company, and am still expecting more."

[Asila]

So Rojo had known merchants as well, Evening thought to herself as she listened to his comments. The first had seemed kind of cryptic, as vague and prone to multiple interpretations as her phrases regarding her family. However, she was probably just paranoid. Besides, the affairs of humans, even merchant humans, did not matter to her.

Still, she couldn't help but feel more tolerant of them for even these small similarities. The childhood she had spent with her merchant family was truly the key to her friendship. She had loved all creatures then, to the point that she hadn't even harbored any ill will to the Ostens or the humans despite the harsh words she often heard spoken. Her hatred didn't develop until after she lost them. Which may seem odd, since it was neither the human nor the Osten race that had taken their lives. But with her family gone, she had found herself clinging to their ideals in the same way that she had clung to the silver bangles that they had given her. All the words that had once meant nothing to her had taken on a newfound meaning while she had lived alone in the woods with nothing but the memories.

She stared at Devon when he mentioned that he was expecting more company. "How much company are you expecting?" She asked nervously, imagining a mob of pitchfork-weilding, flaming-torch carrying villagers. She, too, had heard frightening stories of this race. Parents just loved to tell their children such things to instill a healthy fear of the things they must avoid.

[Rojo]

The man with the red scarf around his head thought. He considered fate. If he hadn't stolen the rolls, would he be here now? Would he be dead, now? So many questions...so many awnsers, but who knows which one is the right one.

"Do you know why a dragon breathes fire?" he said all of a sudden, seemigly randomly. He sat up from his slouch, opening his eyes and waiting for their awnsers.

Shadow turned over in his sleep, a pained look on his face. He was having troubled dreams about Her...

[Seven]

Devon had been forgetting about the girl. Could you blame him? A lot has happened this morning. He sighs a little, mellowlysaying"Well, I was expecting to pick up only one person, a young girl, if she would agree to study at Maderal University as a scholarship student, though at the rate I've been picking people up this morning--" in his drifting mindset, he had forgotten to be more careful about what he said. He would face palm, though such a candid display would never suit a young genteel of the aristocracy.

Instead, he smiles, "I'm expecting one person, though who knows what fate may throw in our path?" He then turned to Rojo, hoping Evening wouldn't realize his blunder, though his random comments where hardly fitting. After all, as far as humans on Venera knew, dragons were ficticious, unlike Yorl. Though he could have just been musing about the lore. He grins, "What strange things you ask Rojo, honestly! I don't really have any idea, but...." He then teases him a little, "But if I ever meet a dragon, I'll make sure to ask."

((augh, sorry for the short post.))

[Asila]

((speaking of short posts, this one also needs to be forgiven...))

Evening was staring at Rojo now. What kind of nonsense question was that? There were no dragons! Well, her mother had had a theory that one of elusive spirits may have taken that form at one time, inspiring the legend, but a spirit was about as likely to start spouting flame from her mouth as a mage was. Maybe it was a riddle. Or a trick question? Her family had been fond of such things, though she had never heard one quite like this.

She was so focused on trying to make sense of the comment that she actually missed the significance of Devon's comment. Perhaps it would come back to her later, the way phrases sometimes do, and she would realize that there was something...off about Rojo. In the meantime, however, they were in the clear.

There was one other comment that was of interest to her. "Only a young girl," She restated, relieved. A young girl was no threat to her. "Do you pick students up often?" She asked Devon curiously, dropping her analysis of Rojo and his peculiar questions for the time being.

[Rojo]

He had completey forgotten about their differences. He had always thought Dragons were...there. But it was very hard to just suddenly say "Oh, I'm sorry, I don't know if Dragons exist here, could you tell me?" so he scratched his chin and said,
"I think a philospher once said, Dragons breathe fire because that's what Dragons do. It makes you think, doesn't it? Do people die becuase that's what you're supposed to do when you get old or get ill? Do people breathe becuase it's what we've been told?" he stopped, surprised at his own sudden philosophical outburst from nowhere.

"I'm sorry...sometimes I just have...strange thoughts. The ideas and theories some people come up with astound me. Sometimes I wonder: Was the world made becuase we thought it? Do we choose our faults and disabilities? Are we really in control of our fates, or are we merely puppets on the strings of some sadistic git?" he went back to his normal, joking self for a moment, grinning, then continued "how do we know if anything is right? They say that we regain features from our parents, but do we? I look nothing like my mother, but prehaps that's simply becuase my father could've been a sexual deviant." He stopped again, still wondering where these sudden ideas had come from "Some people say the world is flat, but how do we tell? No one has ever been over the edge or flown to the land of the stars to look down. Only the gods, if they are true, know, and they themselves are just more theories. We are so insignificant in a massive and ever-changing realm. Who knows if we are the only life forms? What of...oh, what is a correct term....aliens?" he flashed a quick grin at Devon "who knows if we are the only lifeforms in existance? Not egnough questions, too many awnsers."

He smiled, looking at the other two. They probably thought him mad, or insane. But then again, it was better than what some people thought of him. Rojo still had no idea where all that had come from, but he was glad that he could share his thoughts and feelings with people he considered friends in only a few hours for Devon and thirty minutes for Evening. He smiled again, this time so widely he reached over and gave Devon a hug, he turned to Evening, afraid she might scream or something if he gave her the same gesture, so instead he nodded to her, still grinning widely.

The man sat back, feeling strangely happy and immensely content and safe inside, he turned around and gave Jenri another twelve solid gold coins he had produced earliar.

He turned back in his seat, still smiling so widely it would look quite frightening to the others.

[Seven]

Devon smiled, glad that she didn't pick up on the accidental hint. "No, actually this is the first time. Usually, other people are hired as delegates. The truth of the matter is that I wanted to travel outside the city, but I had to have an 'official' reason for leaving. It's not always fun to be of nobility, and because I am still young, traveling alone with no 'purpose' would be frowned upon and not tolerated," he answered her question before Rojo once again went off on a completely random tangent.

Devon listened to him patiently, nodding from time to time. But by golly, it sounded like the man was having a monologue. Why, all he needed now was a darkened room with a single spot light one him! Devon knew the same pain of not being able to ask Rojo about his world right now; he desperately wanted to ask if everyone was so strange on Yorl. Either that or perhaps Rojo had taken a few swigs of a bottle when he wasn't looking? No, he didn't think that was possible, though he DID have magic....

But Devon finds the whole thing amusing, and he would be a terrible host if he kept ignoring the 'alien,' as Rojo had said with a wink. Besides, philosophy amused him.

"I think we choose our abilities and faults, more or less. Sure, you can't spontaneously gain knowledge of a craft without proper training, but apart from that, I feel we control everything about our lives. After all, don't we choose all the actions that we take? I command to raise my hand, therefore it lifts. So how is that any different than our personalities? We, based uponthe people around us, our experiences, and what WE think we would like to be becomes the mold for the person we are now. If you see the world as a dark, unforgiving place, you decide you must be 'strong' to survive it. Therefore, you choose to become untrusting and dark. If you decide that intelligence is the most important factor in the world, you will do whatever it takes to educate yourself; even if you were born a street urchin, you would find ways to teach yourself things and become clever...."

Devon had been rambling on himself now when Rojo launched himself at the young aristocrat for an embrace. He really took him by surprise, as nobles rarely touched others (as manners had deemed), especially with company, and almost never amongst the opposite sex. "Ehh...thanks, Rojo..." as expected Devon had flinched a little, smiling a little sheepishly as he gave two slight pats on Rojo's back, with a slight nervous chuckle. Jenri just smirked outside in the driver's spot, amused by the young man's awkwardness in casual social situations.

"I take it your happy?" he asks in minor confusion (though he really wanting to comment on his strangeness again) as he watches Rojo fling more money at Jenri.
"Hell, I'm happy" Jenri said, greedy as ever.
Devon frowns slightly, "I think that's the only thing that makes you happy...."
Jenri pursued his lips indiginantly, 'I was ter'aumtized to-day! Puttin' me in dangerous situations and such--in fact, I think I not only deserve a bonus, but a raise!"
"Yes, well you can have a raise if you stop mooching off my company's kindness."
"...neh.." Jenri taunted Devon's scolding tone. One of the cats out in front of the carriage gave a bit of a mew sound as it looked back at the commotion.