The Road to Tullybrook

“Spirits calm the wind.” Sae muttered, the taught bowstring going slack as she caught sight of Rally and Abyrxia breaking the treeline with… Pony(?) in tow. Pony the elf gave a good long stare as if trying to decide if she was seeing things or not before shaking her head. “You send them out for a horse and they come back with a dragon. Hah.” She said with a short laugh as she scratched the side of her head. Strangest group by far she’d ever found herself with, wasn’t it?

“Well, I don’t think I’ve cooked enough for Pony, but I’ve enough for everyone else.” Sae slid the bow over her shoulder, wasn’t like it would have been much use anyway, was it? “Once we’re all by the fire we can all introduce ourselves, yes?” That and trying to make heads or tails of what was going on.

“I hope Pony doesn’t mind staying outside, don’t know if he could fit in the tower.” Sae added, with a look to Rally. Abyrxia might be a good bard, but Rally seemed the more likely suspect for this touch of oddity.
 
"Do you mind staying outside?"

Rally Rose had directed this inquiry to Pony, and tried very hard to listen to the answer, whatever it was. Presumably it was going to have to be that way, though, because Sae was right and Pony was probably not going to fit in the tower without breaking it any more than it already was.

"We'll see if we can find you something to eat later, though. Not people. We don't eat people." Rally Rose was very firm on this last part. Especially the we part of it. "And you probably shouldn't eat horses either, at least without asking. Maybe we can go down by the river and see if there are any fish. No one ever minds about the fish, especially those big ones at the bottom with the little whiskery bits. They're too big for people usually but I bet they'd be about right for you."

Rally patted the wyrm a few more times, then went in to poke a finger at the fire before remembering that perhaps they should not do that, and looking for a stick to poke at the fire instead.

"Pony is a wyrm," Rally said, since he wasn't here to introduce himself. "And I'm Rally Rose. And Cricket is in my pocket." Cricket was still a cicada. Rally Rose patted at him absently. He might have been dead, but they could fix that later if they needed to.

"I like this fire. It seems happy."
 
Pony seemed perfectly happy to stay outside. He let out a contented huff of smoke, then curled up beside the tower, head tilted up to look at the stars. At the mention of fish, he growled a little, bobbing its snout in the direction of the (now distant) river, then back at Rally. Perhaps he'd already been there. Perhaps that was why he wasn't currently hungry.

Abryxia, meanwhile, was a little beside herself. Of course the Lady Allard's horse was fine - he was sitting just next to her. A bit daft that she didn't realize it, and dafter still that she hadn't managed to find a horse that, from the looks of things, really didn't need finding at all.

"Din put it on me! Was Miss Rally's idea. The - er. Pony seems ta've taken a likin' to them, I think." She shuffled into the crumbling ruins of the tower.

"Happy yer horse is safe," she said in passing to the good Lady. "Was frettin' a bit when I didn' find him. I - ah, well. All's good, I suppose."

Then, a bit louder, with a clap and a grin, she glanced at Mayflower and Riven.

"Nice ta see new faces round! Fire is better with friends, aye? Me and Miss Rally passed an odd lady out in the woods as'well, figure she was with ye folks?"

Mayflower glanced at Riven. Riven glanced at Mayflower.

"In truth, we're both lonely travelers," he replied back jovially. "We met near Twinriver. I was on the path from the Long Flat, and she was - well. She's from north. North, north, you know."

He shrugged.

"So as for another woman travelling about, I wouldn't know a thing."

Riven wasn't fully paying attention to the conversation. Instead, she seemed to be focusing mostly on Rally, watching the child poke at the fire with a stick, her dark eyes wide and glittering.

"You are the one that made the pillar of light?" she asked in a low hush, scooting closer to Rally - but anxiously keeping a good bit of distance from the fire. "You befriended the wyrm? You - you are a powerful soul. Perhaps the omens were pointing to weal, not woe."

She shifted uncomfortably as the fire spat out some sparks.

"Are you human?"
 
Still shaken, and with a fair bit of nervous excitement, Viviane nodded to Abryxia. Of course it had been Rally. They'd conjured a pillar of flame, why wouldn't they be able to tame a dragon? "Of course, my apologies. I- I suppose I should have guessed, all things considered," she said, now fully deciding to bring her horse inside the tower. Leaving him outside, tied to a tree- a recipe for disaster, as far as she was concerned.

"And- don't worry, about not finding him. I appreciated your offer, but to be honest, I didn't expect you to find him. I thought him to be long gone, and I'm frankly unsure what drove him back here. Just know that I appreciate the effort, truly." She offered a smile to the bard, at that, before turning her attention to her horse, and the dragon.

The ache in her legs was returning, now that things had time to settle. Her head was still buzzing with the excitement and adrenaline, to be clear, but she was still unaccustomed to travel like this, and her exhaustion was settling in once more. At least, now, she had her things back, and as comfortable a night of rest as she could hope for. As she went over her things, however, her eyes kept drifting to the newcomers, and then to the outside, where the dragon sat, just out of sight.

Viviane couldn't accurately quantify what was drawing her to the beast. It was dangerous. The stories and songs told how they could ravage villages at a moments notice, with little to no effort. As far as it was concerned, she was a snack. But- the stories. They were noble creatures, intelligent beyond most others, hallmarks of freedom- adventure.

Quietly, without word, she found herself walking towards the breach in the tower wall.
 
“Aye, a proper merry fire isn’t it?” Sae said, returning to her spot at the fire. She gave the pan a shake as she sat, it didn’t look like anything had burned while they were all distracted by Pony. “And they’re always warmer when you have others to share it with, isn’t that true Miss Rivan?” The elf said, giving the dower women a grin.

“Now, once everyone’s over pick up a slice of bread and I’ll scoop out some of the fry for you all.” Sae gave a wave over her shoulder for the stragglers to make their way to the campfire. She leaned towards Rally and gave them a wink. “Food’s the same way, in my opinion, hah.”
 
The new lady had a lot of questions. She might have had more questions than Rally Rose, even. Rally Rose didn't mind them, until the very last one.

Then, suddenly, Rally Rose found that they minded very much. The hat shifted a little bit as they looked across the fire at Abryxia, who'd come along with them on their quest to find a lost horse and stayed with them when they'd found a lost wyrm instead. It shifted a little more as they looked to the side at Sae, who had taught them about making a fire and didn't mind too much when they'd done it a bit more so than they should have, because they were learning.

Rally didn't know if the others had heard the last question, because it had been said very quietly. Their answer, though, was not said quietly.

"What does it matter if a person is human?"

It was a question, and it was a warning, and it was breaking the silence and letting everyone know exactly what question had just been asked, because Rally Rose thought that maybe they ought to know. You couldn't really make your own choices, after all, if no one told you what you were choosing.
 
"Can think o' at least one thing that'd drive him back," Abryxia replied with a slight grin, glancing at the dragon. It was odd how normal it seemed, now. She wondered if that's what it was like to live back in the olden days. The mythical and monstrous wasn't so awe-inspiring when it became mundane.

Her attention was stolen, however, by Rally's outburst, turning quickly to the rest of the group with wide eyes.

-

Riven scoffed at Sae's remark.

"Others to share. But none of you know each other, yes? You are all strangers. You don't know what - what hatred lies between you, what dark thoughts lurk. One of you may be a murderer, waiting for the others to sleep. Would it be a warm fire, then, when the coals are smothered in your blood?"

She whipped her head at Rally, sharp teeth digging into her lip as she raised an accusatory claw.

"That is what matters. It matters to know the nature of those you make bedfellows of. It matters to understand the people you rub your shoulders with. Do you not know what some of this kind have done? History lives in the veins, and that drives the hand."

Riven rose quickly, her robes rustling, casting her hand aside in a dismissive gesture.

"The Dark One is risen. He will know what lies in the blood of all, and He will bring it forth, whether in honest truth of word or in honest flow from righteous wounds. We in the Dark will not be forsaken. Keep your fire, conquerors and blood-traitors, we need not the warmth where we depart." Her eyes scanned the group. "I hoped people like you would have understood."

-

There were some raised voices coming from inside the tower, but it was distant enough and muffled enough to not be able to make out the words. Instead, the low rumbling of the wyrm's steady breaths filled much of the silence, its eyes fixed on Viviane as she approached.

Mrr.

It was a short noise - slightly agitated, but not aggressive, audibly similar to a horse's huff. In fact, there were quite a few similarities between the wyrm and an anxious horse. The way it swayed from side to side, the way it bobbed its head, the way its tail began to swish across the ground, rustling leaves and sticks and dirt out of the grooves were it swept.

Mrrrrrr.
 
"What."

This was not a question. Questions had answers. This didn't have an answer. It might have had an excuse, but an excuse was not the same as an answer.

"What?" This one had been a question. The question did not ask for an explanation so much as it asked if Rally Rose had really heard all of that correctly.

"You-" They pointed a finger at the newcomer. It was the one they had singed and their skeleton was showing and they had decided they did not care about that right now. "What?"

They started to get up a little, but felt the weight of their pockets shift. The little notebook was there, the one they had carefully written It is not fair to curse someone for what they cannot control in just earlier that day.

Was it fair to curse someone for something they could control? This was not in the notebook, and Rally did not have an answer to this. They had-

Well, they had an excuse. But that was not the same as an answer, and perhaps they had better not use it. Rally made themself sit back a little once more, lowering their finger and watching from beneath the brim of the hat, pink eyes unflinching.

No. No excuses.

"I know what they have done today. And that's enough." Rally Rose hardly wanted this to be a time where people were judged for what they did a long time ago, either. Their hand moved again, retrieving the stick they'd dropped, and poking it once more into the fire, stirring the embers.

"You would not know the dark one if you met them."
 
Instinctually, and perhaps even expectedly, Viviane flinched at the noise, her heart jumping into her throat nearly instantly. She froze where she stood, suddenly very unwilling to get any closer than she already was. The dragon was watching her, and it made her think to the stories again. Obviously, they were just beasts, you could look at one and tell, but everyone always sang about their intellect and cunning. The heroes who bested one always had to rely on outsmarting it, rather than overpowering it, and it often seemed one was just as likely as the other.

She could see in the gleam of its eyes, though. It wasn't agitated. It wasn't upset, at least, not yet. Had it been, either they would all be dead, or Rally would have vaporized it. Instead, as mentioned, it was just... watching. Humming, a bit, in the way that she could feel in her chest. They were talking about something back at the fire, but it was hard to hear over the noises from the dragon.

Viviane decided not to get any closer, instead sitting nearby on a fallen stone from the tower. "Hello," she began, miming a curtsey before realizing the dragon probably didn't really know what that meant. "I am- I hope you don't mind if I sit here?" The question was more to put herself at ease, uncertain as she was that it could even understand her. Once seated, she simply watched, observing from what she hoped was a fair distance.
 
"Hey."

There was shuffling some distance behind Viviane- from the foliage, perhaps, or behind some of the rocks beside the tower. Hidden, quiet, and whispering, the source was barely discernible until it appeared, quite suddenly, right next to Viviane.

"Hey, what the- just what the blazes do tou think you're-"

This one, she seemed not to know what she was doing. Dressed too well, sat too proper- not world-weary whatsoever, though Morgan could hardly say the same about her own hermit self. Didn't matter if she hadn't braved the wilderness before, anyway. She hadn't braved a wyrm before, that was for sure- sitting brazenly at its feet, staring--staring--directly at it. Sure, it was docile now, but these things carried a temper that was feared the world over. If ignited, she'd be dead. They'd both be dead. They'd both, alongside those idiots from before, be dead. Morgan reached out to grab her shoulder, attempting to turn her head away from the beast before them. Her voice was a hurried whisper- quiet, but panicked.

"Don't meet its gaze- just... back away slowly, eyes to the floor. There's a covered route down here- the trees should be enough to hide us, if you haven't already drawn its ire."
 
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She had only been sitting for a short time before she heard a rustling sound from behind her, followed quickly by a voice very much next to her. Viviane, understandably, flinched from the sudden noise, especially given the nature of the beast she had been sitting across from. Once she realized it was a person, however, she quickly regained her composure, and given the tone, she felt it necessary to introduce herself once more.

"I am Lady Viviane Othelia Allard, heiress to the duchy of Duleis. I am going to assume that your tone would have been different had you known beforehand," she said, looking over to the newcomer. Another traveler, and clearly completely out of sorts, based on how she was dressed. For lack of a better term, she seemed disheveled. "And I feel no reason to move. A traveling companion of mine seems to have... appeased it. I assume, given what it is, that I would already be intimately aware if it meant us harm."

With her own introduction out of the way, she crossed her legs, set an elbow on her knee, then her chin in her palm, turning her gaze back on the dragon. "I do expect you to introduce yourself, by the way."
 
Riven was… a rather unpleasant woman to be around. Sae chose to stay silent as she stripped bark from the piece of wood that seemed the driest of her bunch. She added the log to the fire, out of the way of the end of Rally’s pokes which stirred the embers and sent flakes of ash dancing uneven twirls in the air.

“If we’re just wishing bad blood to follow bad, then what hope is there of the world being any different?” Sae picked up her pan, and to the slices of bread she gave each a generous scoop of the jerky and mushroom mixture. The elf returned to her pack to find a small pouch of salt so she could sprinkle a pinch over the finished food.

“Perhaps the Dark One has risen, but I don’t think they’re sitting at our fire tonight, so how about we all eat before the food gets cold, and see if that takes the edge off things.” Sae said, holding up two slices of bread, one for Riven and one for Rally.

Maybe that would help calm tempers before a shouting match erupted, Sae always hated those.
 
The wyrm continued to eye Viviane as she approached. It watched the curtsy with idle curiosity, and when she gestured at a spot to take a seat, it let out a low huff. It didn't seem particularly bothered by her presence, whether it understood her or not. As Viviane observed it, it turned its head back to the sky, thin trails of smoke puffing out of its nostrils at odd intervals. After a few long seconds, it stretched out, then laid on the ground, head resting on its forepaws.

Then it tensed.

Its head rose, that cautious growl sounding again.

Mroww.

It didn't relax when Morgan made herself known. If anything, the woman's tension and nervous talking seemed to set it on edge, tail once more swishing, jaw shifting. For all Morgan knew of wyrms, she'd know this one was either a young one - or the stories about how big they got were exaggerations. Either was possible.

Mrrrr.

-

Around the fire, the air was thick and cold despite the fire's warmth. Riven stood frozen, eyes fixated on Rally - eyes fixated on that single, skeletal finger pointed her way. She opened her mouth as if to protest, bit her lip, then threw down her arms.

"I will not break bread with cowards," she scoffed, "Nor with fools who do not understand the blessings they are given. May the Dark One watch you, and find you wanting."

With a huff and swirl of her cape, she turned and marched off into the forest. Mayflower - eying the food - sighed, rubbing at the back of his head.

"Suppose I should go after her. I'm sorry, friends, for that little outburst. The road has been rough on us both, and she - well, as far as I can tell, she's not the best at talking. Let me -"

He smiled, taking the bread meant for Rally and Riven in each hand, then bobbed his head.

"Thank you for the fire, the words, and the food. The Dark One blesses you all."

Then, he too was gone, balancing the slices in each hand as he hurried after Riven. Abryxia stared as they left, almost so taken aback that she forgot she was hungry. Then her stomach rumbled, and she winced, quickly grabbing a slice of bread before Sae had even had a chance to top it with the gravy. She bit into it furiously.

"Tha' was a bit odd, wasn' it? Ye get folks like that on the road often, then?" Wiping at her mouth with her sleeve, she frowned. "All a' talk o' tha Dark One an' such. Thought the Dark One folks were all - y'know, culty types. Wearin' robes n' chantin' n' doin' blood rituals. It true what they say, that he's back? Honest, didn' even really think he was real."
 
Well, from its body language, it seemed a lot more polite than her companion. Though she rarely dealt with living monsters, living nobles were a dime a dozen- or more, depending on how much she could charge. Most of them were fine, if a little hostile at first, but some- oh, some were more dangerous than the beasts they carried.

Still, the wyrm's presence meant that her usual customer service fare of getting them through the store as quickly as possible by being sort of pointlessly rude wasn't a particularly good idea. It seemed as agitated as she was- getting more agitated would be murder-suicide, tempting as it was. Bloody hell, taming wyrms and casting fire- maybe the North wasn't the place for her after all. Tame as it was, though, she wasn't about to gamble with it.

Morgan usually only dealt with these things dead. If a living one was here, this far south, in her path, then who knows what could be further up- and who knows how soon she'd find it. Did she have to take this business trip? Did she have to travel north? What happened to letting everyone else do the hard work for her- surely her companion here would understand that, being nobility and all. She'd stick by the others she had met, who seemed apt to care for themselves, but they seemed more likely to befriend every dangerous beast they came across, and she had already angered that mage by implying this might not be a sustainable plan. She didn't want to be caught on fire herself. That wouldn't be good for business.

She placed a business card down next to Viviane.

"At least I'll know what to carve into your headstone, miss." She mumbled, "And keep your voice down- you'll spook it more."

Morgan, knowing that staring directly at a juvenile wyrm was a sure-fire way to burn, still wasn't looking at its head, only its body, he way it held itself. It was young. Youth meant instability- easier to tame (though magic means surely made everything easy), but easier to anger. It was like a domestic fox, the ones that scampered about the meat market- feed them young, and they'll get used to people. If they get used to people, they'll get bolder. If they get bolder, they'll start attacking, then hurt someone, then get killed, then get brought to her for taxidermy. Maybe letting them tame this wyrm was a good idea after all- the corpse would come to her in the end.

Still, though she loathed to admit it, her companion was right- they weren't in any immediate danger.

"I wouldn't stick around for long. Let that thing get back to the wild- 's not meant to be kept arount people."
 
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Sae tried to break up the argument by saying the Dark One wasn't there and holding out a piece of bread, which Rally Rose stared at for a moment. This was... very awkward.

It wasn't exactly lucky that the woman started being mean about things, but at least it saved Rally from having to explain anything right away. The man seemed like he was trying to diffuse a situation, and at least took care of the problem with the bread. He left with a blessing, kind of, sort of, not really.

"No they don't!" Rally called after him, maybe a bit petulantly. Maybe that was rude too, but... well, the Dark One had definitely never been in the habit of blessing anyone before, and certainly hadn't started since then. It would probably all go wrong, anyway.

Abryxia settled down with her bread and added some context that, while it was maybe needed, was definitely not welcome.

"Abryxia, that's not- that's- why is that a thing?" It wasn't that Rally didn't trust her or didn't believe her, it was just that the whole thing was hard to believe at all. If Rally hadn't heard the last conversation, they might have thought it was all just part of a fantastical bard's tale. They jammed the stick into the fire a little more vehemently, with a noise that might have been ugh! or something similar, the exasperation evident.
 
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Abryxia shrugged.

"Dunno. How it's always been, least for me an' my folk. Dark One worship's not taken kindly round Erdgate, an' the sorts ye do cross tend to be, well -" she took a bite of the bread. "Sorts who don' much like other folks, y'know? Reckon it's different elsewhere. Erdgate folks might be odd folks, but we all get along fine, human, elf, weirdling, all sorts, without any sorta Dark One bringin' justice by the sword an' all like the old stories say."

Taking another bite, she leaned in closer to the fire and grinned, tail flicking back and forth behind her.

"Got lots o' stories, tho. Ol' ones. Like - like how tha Dark One's forces brought down Ol' High Mere after a hundred night siege, or how the Dark One Hisself near drowned all o' Far Seedin'. Lotta big heroes in that time, more than jus' the Tullybrook four, and big magic too - bigger than jus' fireballs an' dragons. Stuff that coul' put out the sun or topple mountains with a snap."
 
"But - I don't-"

Rally sat back, withdrawing the stick from the fire and holding it across their knees. "I don't understand." They drew the brim of the hat down, feeling more comfortable when occluded behind its volume.

"Why would they worship-... I never... they didn't even ask." Possibly, this didn't make any sense to anyone aside from Rally, and maybe the inside of their hat, to which they were mumbling. The hat didn't have any more answers than Rally did, and the stories... well.

They weren't just stories. At least, most of them.

Things were supposed to be different, though, weren't they? It wasn't that time any more. There weren't supposed to be any more towns drowned - the flooded bridge had not been- Well, all the mountains were still where they had been yesterday, anyway. And the sun wasn't out, it was just dark because it was night. That was the way it was supposed to be.

Although, Rally Rose did have some opinions on supposed to be, but they hadn't really applied any of them to the sun.

"It was only sixty three days. Not a hundred. I suppose a hundred just sounds better." Rally rocked back a little, then forward again, then back once more. None of the positions were any better, but maybe the rocking was all right. "Can you... tell them not to? When you're a famous bard, I mean. All that worship stuff. It's not supposed to be like that."
 
The dragon was notably tense, now. It was in a way that was beginning to set Viviane on edge, as well, and were it not for it's calm just moments ago, she likely would take the woman, who still neglected to introduce herself, up on her advice. As things stood, however, without a name for a face and plenty of reasons for doubt, she turned her head to look at her, eyebrows raised.

"No one is keeping it here. If it wanted to leave, it certainly would have, I would think." This, of course, was said with less than the barest knowledge of the beasts, but that was neither here nor there. None of them, save for perhaps Rally Rose, was capable of making a dragon do anything other than what it wanted. If it had felt it necessary to leave, it almost certainly would have.

The Lady felt it unnecessary in the moment to comment on the mention of a headstone- though, back in Duleis, saying anything of the sort to her or any of her family would be treated as a threat, and dealt with as such. "I believe that, if you were to calm down, it would as well. You saw it, certainly, on your approach. It was relaxed, and certainly didn't seem to mind me."
 
She was calm. Cautious, not stupid, but calm.

"That's-"

Morgan shook her head. It did seem to be mimicking those around it, that was for sure, but that didn't mean it was wise to stick around- for the wyrm's sake, if anything.

"Mm."

She still didn't sit down.

"Just don't let it follow you north, alright?" She said, "That thing's a juvenile- if mama finds out you've been charming her babies, you'll be cinders before you even hear her cry."
 
“Things’re never truly are gone, so long as the memory remains. Sae said with a shrug of her shoulders, her gaze finally turning away from the door once the two… pilgrims were out of sight. She shook her head, it was good at least they took something to eat before they went, the road was hard on an empty stomach, especially on damp nights like these. “It’s what old gram-gram always said about things, anyway. People remember then teach others to remember and sometimes they go and remember things wrong.” Sae shrugged, before picking up her own slice of bread and ladling some of the gravy onto it.

The elf took a bite, and chewed thoughtfully as Rally spoke. They seemed rather perturbed by the whole matter of worship, which seemed a fair enough thing to find disagreeable. “Ay, that’s quite the workload you’re placing onto Albryxia’s shoulders.” Sae said with a chuckle. “Might be best to start her off with something smaller.”
 
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