The combination of the long jog and the late summer heat turned Micheal into a gasping heap as they turned into a small dale in a copse of trees near another small stream that cut through the farmers fields all around to meet up with others nearby as it slowly began to feel as though they were working their way down hill. At least the view over the last rise would have been breathtaking if he had any more breath to give or more than a glance to spare away from the road under his feet. From what he had seen while Mayonn was in the distance, a rocky outcrop looming on a hill near a large river that split the spreading valley ahead in half. Any number of streams drew thick lines of brush and trees down toward the river itself, but the river proper was only edged with tall grasses. Horses roamed wild in large herds in the plains away from the shapes of larger similar tentacle backed animals that hulked through the wetland brush near the streams. Large colorful birds like pheasants, but the size of turkeys tore away into the sky and back to the grassy fields below. They had run past all sorts of farm fields before coming into sight of Mayonn, but ahead there were none. The valley floor looked watery and even the road ahead still very much mud slicked from the rain storm days ago. Perhaps dwelling in the wetlands was less than preferable that way without modern roads and bridges. Mayonn's height on large hill it sprawled upon seemed to be the only raised area in sight beyond the forested hill on which they sat, or lay upon.
Jack was panting hard when he dove into the stream. Everyone watched either worried or humored, but Jack soon came out soaking wet and looking happy if not a little tired. They had jogged for what felt like days though it was likely only a few hours on and off. Dexter was panting nearly as bad as Jack or Micheal, but Vivian and Luna already looked ready to run again.
“Get your breath back. Drink water. Relax. We can make for lunch here and then move onto Mayonn when we're done.” Vivian said, sounding only a little breathy.
It took a little while even for Vivian and Luna to break out into a quick camp, gather some firewood and come back together. Jack stayed by Luna's side at her insistence after shaking himself almost dry away from the group. She was also pointing out berry bushes to Jack and Dexter. Jack after sniffing and tasting one made quick work of one bush while Luna gathered a great deal of berries into her gathering satchel. It was still partly full after collecting what she had thrown at the goblins once Vivian and the guards were back with them, but they hadn't bothered to pick up all of it. Not to mention she had donated some to Mrs. Arlee for their meals as well as a good portion of meat Micheal had harvested from the Horned Rabbit he had ordered Jack to kill to cut down on their costs.
What was left was divided up and made into a meal complimented by Luna's gathered berries and a few lightly stewed veggies. For once Micheal thought he could have eaten a little more, but wouldn't complain if they were going to be jogging for hours on end once more. Jack had fallen asleep after devouring the berries or so it seemed, but his ears twitched as he listened to their conversation.
Luna was going over a list of berries that were okay to eat raw to Vivian; she even mentioned some that could be eaten after being boiled, pickled, or made into jam and cooked inside a jar before becoming shelf stable. Vivian listened while she ate and occasionally reminded Luna to do the same instead of just talking the whole while.
When Dexter was done he came to Micheal's side and sat down in an easy crouch. Jack's head popped up to look at him and Micheal matched his companions' curiosity. Dexter waved off the look and settled in.
“Look Vivian told me you don't know a whole lot about the creatures here. Like you didn't even know that Dogs are a type of monster. There's a good many of them in any area and are usually considered lesser monsters and not much of a threat. There are some--” He emphasized by pointing at Jack. “-that can be dangerous when they run out of food, but they usually aren't a problem for grown adults.”
Micheal nodded and wiped off his wooden bowl after rinsing it with some water. He packed the bowl away and settled in beside Dexter listening.
Dexter nodded pointed out of the dale down into the valley.
“Down there the major concern is usually swamp trolls, and every now and then an ogre clan moves into the wetlands further east toward the Lake or west out into the more marshy wetlands. Around here the ground is usually pretty soft and muddy even when its not raining, its always draining in toward the lake through the massive watershed. That means the Swamp Trolls always have the ability to dig themselves into the mud to ambush people. Watch out for heavily disturbed mud near the roads, strange clusters of debris, and for any animal that looks like its been beaten with a tree.”
Micheal raised his eyebrows at that last.
Dexter waved him off again.
“The big Swamp Trolls drag around big clubs to give them a little range to offset how slow they are. They mostly rely on stealth, but are easily distracted. They'll kill more than they need to eat, and leave what's left for the scavengers. Even then if something comes after their food right after they've taken it they'll chase down the first thing that comes to them and then forget where their kill was and then settle back into the mud somewhere.” He explained with a casual sort of disgust creeping into his voice as he spoke. “They mostly move around at night so you won't see them walking around during the day-- you'll know right away if you do see one, but you should be aware that they are the main danger in this area.”
“I'm glad you think I know what a troll is.” Micheal said and Dexter gave him an almost mortified look. Micheal smiled and waved him off the same way Dexter had been doing him. “Big, ugly, warts, smelly and lazy? Regenerative properties?” He asked.
Dexter nodded.
“You won't smell them until they're out of the mud most times, but yeah. They can be hard to put down with conventional means, but it can be done.”
“No other predators?” Micheal asked, a tiny hint of sarcasm in his voice.
Dexter nodded and began to explain further catching Micheal’s drift.
“Bear, and Leech Dogs are around. They can live in all sorts of places. Quick-fang Coyotes come out at night too--” He paused, giving Micheal a wondering look as he mentioned coyotes, but went on without prompting. “They can use some minor wind magic and use it to bolster their speed. Mostly they use it to run away with their scraps of food they scavenge, but will pull down Horned Rabbits, Terror Ferrets, lone kids, and any other lesser monster they can isolate or draw away from their dens.”
Micheal nodded appreciatively. Coyotes that could use magic. That was new. And if they could take on a Horned Rabbit then that made them about the size of regular wolves. If he ran into any wolves they would probably fit on the Dire side of the scale from what he knew then.
“In the plains like this you have to watch for Prairie Hawks too sometimes. They can injure or kill you if they decide to swoop down on you, but most humans, and especially people as big as you or I are a little beyond their means.” He said with a mild mannered smile. “They do go after kids sometimes though.” He said in a much more somber tone, his hand drifting toward his quiver before he brought it back in a clenched fist.
Micheal nodded but asked; “How big do these hawks get?”
Dexter shrugged.
“Biggest one I've seen is stuffed and hung on the back wall of the Unbroken Guard's manor in Three Bridge. Probably ten or maybe even twelve yards of wingspan its basically the whole back wall of the dining hall. The ones around here don't usually get that big or maybe move off to other areas when they do. When a big one like that shows up it doesn't last long after it takes a child from a farm. The guilds and churches put huge bounties on them after they get to a certain size and that tends to keep them at bay.” Dexter explained.
As far as Micheal could remember the biggest bird back home at least half that size. He remembered something about it being difficult to fly and carry prey when they got any larger too which probably meant these Prairie Hawks had a little magic themselves too.
“These ogre clans are dangerous?” Micheal asked drawing onto what Dexter had said before.
Dexter eyed him and Micheal sighed.
“Ogres are bigger uglier humanoids right?”
Dexter nodded watching him.
“So you know some things..” He mused. “But yeah. The Eastern Ones aren't so horrible as the more native species—they speak, trade, craft, and do lots of things just like you and me. They have horns, most do at least, and sometimes there's ugh...” He rubbed at his chin and made a soft sound in his throat. “Sometimes there's mixed breeds.” He said uneasily. “They are way better about it than the orcs—all half breeds like them are really, but it doesn't sit well with a lot of people. Sometimes human clans link up with them and travel with them hunting through the plains though and things happen.” He explained trying to work his way around the delicate issue. “It's not like they capture them or anything, and these clans are normally nomadic and from far off places so they're a bit different from you or the Ruldanjan.”
“So they're obviously at least a little civil right? Do they speak Ruldanjan like we do?”
Dexter nodded but scratched his head. It was clear he didn't exactly like discussing the subject, but he glanced at Vivian as she was talking to Luna, grimaced, and then sighed.
“Yeah some do. They even trade hides, monster, and animal parts for things like pots and kettles in the cities, but it gets a little awkward when one of the half breeds show up. There's a reason they don't go further west. Too many people have lost someone to orc raids to never get them back, or worse to get them back broken-- but I guess you know all about that.” He said, suddenly dropping his already uncertain voice into sober certainty.
Dexter watched as Micheal fought off the memories and flashbacks of the camp as best he could. His grip creaked on his staff in his hand. Dexter bowed his head and turned his eyes away sparing Micheal his gaze and what it might contain. Micheal's body trembled a time or too, rage, hate, and shame rolling through him until he managed to get himself under control again.
“I wouldn't mention it, but there's other half breeds too. Half breeds and well..” Dexter said a few moments later. He lifted the rough, dark, and wavy hair from his ears showing pointed ears that were covered in an almost rash like green scale. He dipped his collar too, showing hardier thumb sized scales seemingly growing from his sternum and across his chest. “You get it right?” He asked softly, his eyes flicking over to their female companions.
Micheal sat up a little and looked over at Vivian and Luna. He took in their ears. One of Luna's was focused right on Vivian standing upright, the other did her usual scanning as it flicked open and wilted down slowly as it made its rounds. Micheal always found the way her ears moved to be a little funny, but it only added to her cuteness in his mind. Vivian was lithe, her slender frame, long legs and arms like that of a super athletic supermodel making her just shy of alien when compared to Luna's relatively stout frame and powerful legs that hid under her skirts. Luna of course was of average size, it was just that Vivian seemed a little thin beside her, or the other way around depending on how one looked at it.
“But there's Bunnary, High Elves like Vivian and Nomads like you all over the place isn't there? And you're saying people look down on them too?” Micheal asked the hunter.
Dexter nodded again and scrubbed at his hair covering his ears completely again. He eyed Micheal with curious and somewhat offset light in his eyes like his usual mindset was unbalanced by him and his questioning.
“There are, but they usually stick to their own kind. I see the way you look at Vivian. I think everybody who spends more than an hour will see you get dumbstruck by her at least once or twice by then.” Micheal frowned at him, but he kept on. “Of course you've noticed our adorable back liner too. With all those bright dresses and the lace its hard not to, but like just now I saw you smiling at her ears. It's pretty obvious in your face that you're fascinated by them and you find them cute more than anything else.” His wry smile somehow showed an honest light as he spoke softly.
“Typically it's a little different with adventurers when they come into a city, but most humans won't so much as look at the Fae Born races, either out of prejudice or to avoid prejudice for their 'improper interest'. We usually get along well enough with each other, humans and faeborn, but it can get a little awkward when you're by yourself in a big human dominated city.”
“Nomads are Fae Born?” Micheal asked surprised, but Dexter immediately shook his head.
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“We just get roped in with them. It's why hiding my scales is usually my best plan. Unlike some of my long lost brothers and sisters among the Nomads I can. It gets me better prices and better treatment most places even if my skin is a lot darker than most. They still see me as human...for now..” He mumbled peeking down his own shirt with a sour look on his face.
Micheal frowned heavily and watched as the two girls laughed over something they were talking about. He took a heavy swig of water as he thought about the implications. It wasn't in his mind to have people hate each other for such small differences. Likely a fault in his own writing was the lack of mention of people disliking each other for such minor differences. Somehow that made his internal hidden guilt about somehow being a part of this worlds written foundations faded away from that. If it truly was his he would have had them get on by either intention or lack of mention of hatred, but there was honest appreciation showing in Dexter's eyes. The cocky nomad had a knack for appearing arrogant and getting rises out of people, but he seemed pretty down to earth at the moment.
“I guess I don't understand.” Was all Micheal could think to say. “Luna's pretty, her ears are adorable, she can sing like an angel and her personality is cuter than all that.” Micheal said thinking all the while. “You're right about Vivian too. She's so beautiful I forget where I am when I look too long.”
Dexter eyed him while he spoke, but chuckled and gave him a friendly punch on the arm.
“Don't get greedy now.” He said with a wry smile.
Micheal shook his head, but smiled back.
“Vivian is more than enough for me. She's all I need and more than I deserve.” Dexter raised his eyebrows at him and they held each other's gaze for a moment. Micheal felt words piling up inside him to tell Dexter about Vivian. How her gentle support and guidance was already helping him more than he could explain, but pile up the words did and Micheal couldn't put together what he felt he should say. By the time he managed something of the complex emotions running through his head the girls were putting their packs back together after Luna and her had begun exchanging herbs and supplies with potions and other odds and ends.
Vivian did glance his way as he spoke before, but he hadn't faltered until after she did. The men and women weren't so far apart as to not overhear each other, but Luna was taken in with her mentor, and Vivian looked to have been very much caught up in the conversation as well until that glance. She had been listening, but seemed to not want to pry.
“She's what you want too right?” Dexter said in an even softer tone after he too noticed Vivian's glance.
Micheal looked up at him showing a bit of consternation on his face and nodded. He noticed one of Luna's ears had turned toward them and a grin grew onto his face over the consternation. “Of course I've always wanted to touch Luna's tail and ears too since I saw them, but I'd leave it at that.”
Luna's ear twitched wildly and her gaze shot over to him with her cheeks bright red.
Dexter laughed, returning back to his somewhat mocking and arrogant persona again. Luna's stare turned into a glare as she turned it on Dexter, and when he noticed he laughed all the harder while pawing for his pack on the ground next to him. Vivian watched with a mildly amused face as Luna marched over and stood almost nose to nose with him when he finally got a handle on his laughter, but then she quickly came over to Micheal, took his hand and shoved it onto the top of her head.
Silky, velvety, plushy soft and smooth hair brushed his fingers between her warm ears, startling and stunning Micheal with their softness. One ear wilted and went soft as his thumb ran along the inside and sent shivers through the Bunnary woman before she took his hand in both of hers and rubbed it roughly back and over both of her ears before almost throwing it back to him.
Micheal was stunned and on the edge of laughter from Luna's outraged face as Dexter raised a sheepish hand barely keeping his laughter out of his voice.
“I was going to say...” He almost wheezed. “I'd say you should ask if it would work, but she hates having her ears touched. Oh Luna you are really something though. Your face...” He was wheezing and Luna's temper soared as she stamped her feet and came over to her friend. She gulped hard and took Dexter's hand roughly before hesitating and then gently thrust his hand into her ears as well.
Dexter's laughter died away and he stared at Luna as she held her eyes shut and rubbed his hand gently across the silky plush between her ears. She let out little 'eeps' as she did, and her face grew more and more red as Dexter's fingers probed around the outside of her ears and felt them. His thumb and forefinger ran along the edge of her luxuriantly soft ears and his face grew with open wonder almost not noticing her struggle against the gentle petting. He put his other hand on her head to feel the other ear and Luna seemed to almost vibrate in place until she suddenly went still.
Dexter felt her ears in wonder for a little while before he let go, and then jumped as he finally noticed Luna's red face and complete focus on him. Her eyes were huge, staring up at him, and unwavering. Wearing his pack he was overbalanced as he jumped and he stumbled backwards a few steps over the rock he had been leaning on as he sat. Luna, still red faced, stared him down fiercely.
Micheal looked at Vivian as she was putting on her pack. She just shook her head solemnly and gestured for him to pick up his own pack. He did so as Dexter tried to recover, keeping an eye on them as he bent to collect his things.
“Sorry Luna I just didn't think they'd be that soft.” Dexter said with a forced laugh. Luna didn't reply, just simply continued to stare him down and his usual confident manner struggled to stay in place.
“Look I'm sorry I took that a little too far.” He ventured, but Luna's gaze only seemed to grow in intensity. He laughed nervously, and brushed at his hair with one hand looking away. As he did Micheal watched as Luna took the chance to take a deep breath, her face suddenly contorting into a visage of horrible nervous embarrassment mixed with a little smile that she forced away before the Nomad looked back. Dexter didn't notice the change and he glanced at Micheal momentarily before he stepped forward and took Luna's hands in his.
“Look I won't joke about your ears. I shouldn't have laughed so hard when Micheal made that joke.” He said in a more serious tone. Dexter Farren's usual confidence was there again, but very little of the arrogant manner. Luna looked away this time and pulled her hands away. Her arms went to her middle, not quite hugging herself.
“You always tease me.” She said in an almost pouting tone. Dexter looked almost to be ready to say something to her when she continued. “This wasn't the first time you could have touched them, you know.” She mumbled. “If you weren't so shy about your scales maybe I'd tease you about them.” She said right after with a bit of heat in her voice. She was still just about tomato red, but her face was stern.
Vivian made her way slowly across watching the two talk with Jack at her side. She held her hand out for Micheal to take a thoughtful look on her face as Luna continued to face down Dexter.
“Come on. Let them talk.” Vivian whispered.
He took her hand, patted Jack on the head, and walked without saying anything to the other two. Dexter watched them go looking a little helpless and shot glaring looks at Micheal that spoke as loud as words that this was all his fault. Micheal shrugged and half waved with Vivian's hand in his sudden inspiration taking him as he did. He gave Dexter another shrug and gestured with Vivian's hand again purposefully this time and nodded toward Luna.
Dexter frowned back at him as Luna scolded him of his treatment of her a little more, and then blinked and shook his head as he might have put together what Micheal was suggesting.
Micheal shrugged and stood a little closer with Vivian, his staff in one hand and Vivian's hand in the other and then didn't look back.
Vivian was watching him all the while they made their way out of the camp until they were well out of earshot. One of her bangs fell across her cheek, and caught the light of the sun through the trees as it fell. Her freckles showed against the tan of her skin, and a shine like a twinkle in them only adding to the beauty of her thoughtful expression as she studied him.
Jack plodded along ahead, his nose in the air as he went from one side of the road to the other. His tail wagged and a few times he spotted game he looked to want to chase before looking back at Micheal and then seemingly forgetting the Squirrel was there and heading to the other side of the road.
“So you were listening the whole time?” Micheal asked feeling a little uneasy though he had hardly said anything that would get him in trouble.
Vivian shrugged.
“Some of it, but certain things caught my attention. My conversation with Luna was much more interesting. You'd be surprised what that girl knows. She was going on about how much forage the villagers waste not knowing the woods like she does. I'm not exactly slacking in that area, but I learn things every time I travel with her.”
Micheal nodded and the semi-awkward silence continued. Vivian only once gave a sidelong glance at their hands as they walked, but neither of them let go.
So they went on walking down the road. Vivian glanced about and she leaned forward a little to look at the mark on his other hand as they walked.
“They should really hurry up. It can take a while sometimes, but I don't feel like having a silver rank threat right on our tails before we get to Mayonn.”
Micheal nodded and a question came to mind. “The way you all checked your marks. What was that all about?”
Vivian's eyebrows shot up and then she gently put the staff of her spear to her forehead.
“Right of course you wouldn't know. The marks kind of know who's with you. I mean other adventurers and what's around you for help. Out in the wild completely alone your mark might change based on what was running around nearby. It might go from copper to silver if you were to say choose a road that leads to a Swamp Troll alone, but only if there was no help at all nearby. Meanwhile with a party of four like ours it might stay iron because there would be other adventurer's around you to help out.” She explained.
“So the fact that we all changed to silver so suddenly--?” He let it hang, not sure what exactly to say to end that sentence, but Vivian got it.
“Yeah.” She said with a clear and solid tone to her voice.
“We might be in trouble if it runs up on us and there might not be anyone nearby to help, or it might not be a problem we can get help with. There are some adventurer's who are able to handle that kind of thing alone, but it's none of us. If I kept more magic items with me and bothered to learn to use them maybe I could do a little more with my experience, but I find that the more ready you are for things the more things show up that you need them for. Go around armored and geared for war and you'll find yourself dragged into it. I'd rather just spend my afternoons fishing rather than hunting down some war party or another, or being dragged into some Hero's fight against a great evil.” She said with a certain amount of play in her voice that somehow put across her humor at the idea as much as it did the certainty of which things like could happen.
Micheal gave her a quizzical look then, but nodded thinking about her light armor, her lack of horse, and the time she must have had put into being an adventurer. She had the respect of her colleagues and from what he had heard from Luna Vivian was a teacher and mentor to most of the new guild members. Likely that was what first drew her to look after Micheal. The whole being lovers thing was new to her, but she was in her stride teaching others to survive with their new blessed, maybe cursed, mark. He felt his respect for her grow.
She obviously chose to travel and to help others in whatever way she could, but respected that she clearly preferred this style of travel. She was a shrewd bargainer, a reliable fisherman, hunter, and scout who knew first aid and some minor surgery. She had a small talent for herbs and medicine she picked up from her friend Luna who seemed to be an alchemist when she wasn't singing or foraging for herbs like the world was her garden. Vivian was a guide, a hero in her own right, to almost any new adventurer she met, and likely a huge morale boost to her guild when they acted together on difficult contracts even if she wasn't exactly the destructive force one might think of a hero being in this sort of setting. The fact that she was an elf likely played into that moral boost as well. People knew she would live for a great deal of time, likely continuing on when others would grow old and frail. In fact there might be people in the guild who had both been guided by her and managed to dismiss their marks and retire by her guidance. All the while she would keep on as the guild's constant companion, an elder and guide for those setting out on their own journeys.
There was a lifetime of stories Vivian could tell, and she would likely return home to be considered an inexperienced child barely out of her youth if she did so within Micheal's lifetime. Micheal wondered just how long it would take for her mark to disappear. He wondered just what she would do. Part of him felt guilty for tying her down in a way. She obviously cared for him in some sort of way. Their love was still new and growing, but growing it was. Could she do what she wanted or always had with him tagging along or would his mark, and whatever challenge or destiny interfere with that? His heart ached already at the thought of separating from her, but he might have to.
He admired her while he had those thoughts. She was lovely and beautiful in so many ways, and all the more so at the moment with her expression seeming so lost in thought. Her lovely, somewhat strange, large eyes flashed their emerald gaze up at him looking warm and somewhat vulnerable for just an instant before the solid quiet determination returned. She smiled then suddenly and leaned close against his arm.
“Don't forget to watch the road sometimes or you'll trip.” She said softly to him with a big smile and a small blush growing on her face. Her pointed ears twitched from under her hair as she laughed softly and brought her spear in with her other hand to lay against his arm so she could put both hands around his one with the staff in the middle. She laid her head on his shoulder, twisted at the hips so she could walk and give him a light embrace.
Micheal remembered what he had said to Dexter and felt a little heat rise in his cheeks as indeed a rock caught on his boot and he nearly stumbled. Vivian pulled away still clinging to his hand, chuckling softly at him, and the silence between them no longer seemed awkward at all. Micheal did have things to ask her. About where she had been, what she had done all those years, and all the friends she had made, but he kept silent for now. Part of him wanted desperately to learn all those things about her as soon as he could manage, but another advised patience. He would ask when it seemed right to ask as they spent more days together. He would learn about her and follow where she led and he would do his best to gain the skills to help and assist her.
Slowly the anxiety he had felt earlier that morning began to melt away. The harsh memories of the camp slowly washed away from the back of his mind as his memories took in a new one. The two of them stepped out from the spread of trees where they had stopped for their lunch break into the rolling open fields of Mayonn's outskirts, seen clearly now and not in glances on the tops of rolling hills. Birds, huge, strange, and fantastical, sang on trees or on the wing as fresh river smells washed over them. Big colorful bugs chirped and flew about the grass in the lively swaying fields of wetland prairie below them as the road followed a slight incline. Chunky fat limbed frogs called a little too low and deep, and something chirped before it stirred and dove back into the water somewhere nearby. In the far distance past the tall solid walls surrounding Mayonn the river it sat upon snaked its way through golden and green grasses into the distance to the shining and glittering surface of a lake almost the equal of the Great Lakes back home. It was so large it almost looked like an ocean all on its own, and in the afternoon light it was shining like a great mirror. It almost felt like home if he could ignore the strange and abundant wildlife all around.
He hadn't realized they had stopped as Vivian watched him take in the view with wonder. She slipped the waterskin from his shoulder and handed it to him with a smile as she looked back over her shoulder.
“We can wait here for them to catch up.” She said and took a small drink as he handed the bottle to her. She smiled and looked about taking in the view as he did.
Some strange creatures moved about the wetland below, some like great horned frogs, others like horses with tentacles sprouting form their necks that picked through watery ponds half buried in swamp grass, a few boulders that moved about slowly that seemed to be some kind of great tortoise with their feet sunken into the mud. As they moved there were great sucking sounds and little eel-like creatures swarmed in the holes in the streams of water that filled their deep footprints after fish and minnows that were stranded there. All around the wetlands seemed to be absolutely teeming with life. All sorts of things he had never seen before, bugs, birds, and leathery winged feathered bat things that looked very much like pterodactyls high in the sky circling like vultures.
As he watched one dove, and crashed into the water of a convergent nest of streams to only rise again moments later with a wiggling fish in its beak before it beat its wings and rose back into the sky. He stared at that. A dinosaur, real, and flying right in front of him. Boyish wonder so strong it almost brought tears to his eyes ran through him. And elation. All the years of reading, daydreaming, wondering, and writing had somehow come to this.
The world he had only begun to write was alive and spilling out before him. Almost fittingly there was so much he could hardly imagine taking it all in so he settled for taking in the sights. Ahead he spotted people on the road heading into Mayonn with carts or wagons from several directions. A great stone bridge sprouted out from the far side of Mayonn, all but its end on the other side of the river hid from his sight by the high walls of the city. The people heading in ordered columns for the safety of the city walls. Yet still his eyes couldn't help but take in where he was and the wonder in it. The strange and magical beasts great and small all around him, and the lovely Elven woman at his side too, all of it was almost too much. After what he had been through...was this some kind of hope? Certainly it had to be. He was on his own adventure now.
He had found his way to it. The camp and all the pain...was it worth it to be here? He suddenly had so much more motivation to try. His heart sang with the desperate urge to see everything the world born of his imagination had to offer. He wanted to see it all.
Vivian's eyebrows shot up as she spotted the other two coming behind and Micheal turned just in time to see their hands come apart and for both of them to look very abashed. Luna's ears wilted and twitched, and Dexter's confidence was like a wax sculpture put under the hot sun a little too long. Vivian smiled broadly back at them, but didn't say anything. Instead she took Micheal by the arm and pointed ahead with her spear.
“Onward and Never Falter, Hail and Greetings to All! The March of the Unbroken Guard!” She cheered with dry humor in her voice.