[RP] A wilderness arrival

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Rasa

[RP] A wilderness arrival

Post by Rasa »

Maple and birch trees stand as stately sentries guarding the perimeter of the field to create a circular expanse for the red clover to grow. The autumnal wind wends its way through the field of red clover like a hare in the hunt. The currents of air bring with it the lingering caress of a fading summer together with the promise of a brutally cold winter yet to come. The trees have cast aside their mantles of vert to don crowns of bronze and gold that even now fade into brown. They are decked in their splendour like maidens dressed in finery for the promise of a celebration.

Another maiden is also amongst this copse of trees on the edge of the cascading circular field of red clover, though she is not a tree like the ones that surround her. She is far from being decked in finery as the trees are. She is clothed in little more than rags and covered in dirt. She is hungry. It was easier to forage for food in the summer. Now that autumn has come, her foraging has become more desperate. She wonders what will become of her when winter comes.

Golden sunlight spans the forest glade in motley patterns through the verge as if in direct symphony with the changing colours of the trees. The maiden has paused her foraging for food and is looking about the glade with an almost childish wonder at the beauty of the scenery ... and something else.

Beyond the edge of the forested glade, there is another city. She has come across many such stone structures on her journey. With the gathering cold of oncoming winter, this city might be her saving grace.

Where the dirt road meets cobbled city streets there is a sign post. Three symbols are etched upon the surface. It must be the name of the town, though she cannot read it. She has never learned.

She hides in the dying ferns on the edge of the three-lettered city, not certain if she wants to be seen ... but she is hungry. Food costs coin and she has neither. Coin comes from working and she has no skills to ply to a trade. Mining has proven too dangerous. Thrice she has been caught in cave-ins. Once, she was gravely injured. Her right leg still bears the signs of the haphazardly healed injury. Foraging in the forest and rummaging through towns has sustained her this long. But the last week, her searches have yielded nothing of use.

She sees a temple among the buildings. She is drawn to it as a moth is drawn to a welcoming flame. Temples are life-blood. She does not know much about anything, but she has discovered this much. When she sits outside of temples, kind strangers give her coin. Coin is traded for food. With foraging bearing no fruit, to beg is all she can think to do. She creeps from the shadow of leaves to crouch beside the temple door. A few coins tossed her way could be the difference between life and death.
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Gawain
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Re: [RP] A wilderness arrival

Post by Gawain »

In the town's graveyard, Gawain approached the grave of his wife, Katarina. He bent and laid some fresh flowers upon it and stood there his head bowed in quiet reflection for a long time before turning to leave the graveyard. He left it and headed towards the temple where he served as its deacon.

As he approached the doors, his sharp eyes spotted a young maiden sat next to them. He guessed why she was there as beggars would often sit there and instead of just giving her a donation, he decided to try to offer to help her any way that she might need, as he had noticed she needed more help than just money.


"Hello milady. I am Gawain, the deacon of this temple. Can I help you in any way?"
Last edited by Gawain on Sat Oct 26, 2013 5:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Rasa

Re: [RP] A wilderness arrival

Post by Rasa »

She hears the soft timbre of the male voice before she sees its owner. A man approaches. She turns to offer her hands to him in supplication. She has learned from other beggars she has seen in other towns. Somehow, this man is different. It takes her many moments to realize that he is speaking to her. No one has ever spoken to her directly before. Not even the beggars she has sat beside have ever offered her a word of camaraderie, derision, or neutrality. Yet here this man is not only speaking to her, but offering support. She does not know what a 'deacon' is. She has never met one before. Her wide amber eyes stare at this new acquaintance uncertainly. Her behaviour might be best construed as poised to strike or to run if given the motivation to do either ... even as her cupped hands lower slowly in a desire to see him more clearly and to understand his motivations for offering support to one such as her. His language is not new to her ears, but she is not accustomed to speaking it herself. She has never had to speak before.

Her first instinct is to decline his offer, so she shakes her mud-marred, golden-red head of hair. Whether she knows it or not, she has just proven that she understands what he is saying. Even as she shakes her head, her eyes belie her need for assistance. She is simply afraid to accept.

When she tries to stand, her injured leg stutters her balance. She winces and is forced to sit down on the temple steps again. Pride gives way to necessity as she examines the month-old wound. In her mind, she curses the mining accident that she had been caught in back in Fenia city.

As she cradles her injury, her amber eyes look back up to the man, this deacon. She does not know what this title is but accepting his offer of assistance seems closer to a necessity now than it has in months past. The words to convey her need escape her. This deacon's own words would suffice.
'Help,' she repeats one of his words. Her voice is like the whisper of wind in the leaves of the autumnal trees, but audible still. She nods in agreement. 'Gawain, deacon, help.' With the deacon's own spoken words, she accepts his assistance.
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Gawain
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Re: [RP] A wilderness arrival

Post by Gawain »

Gawain watches as the maiden tries to get to her feet, winces with pain, and sits back down again, and examines a wound on her leg. He listens as she speaks and nods, accepting his help. Nodding in return, he crouches down beside her to take a look at her wound. He draws in his breath at what he sees, and knows she is going to need help with it, and that the healing plant skills he learned from Katarina, his late wife will be of use now, plus what he has learned about healing via the temple. "What happened to you? I can help you, I am a healer and can help with something to ease your pain. I will be back in a moment."

He disappears behind the temple to fetch his horse and cart that he had left there before visiting the graveyard, and brings them to the bottom of the temple steps. He returns to her, and extends both hands towards her in readiness to help her to her feet.
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Rasa

Re: [RP] A wilderness arrival

Post by Rasa »

She is hesitant to accept help. No one has ever offered to help her before and she is not sure that she understands what it means. This man, Gawain, is extending his hands to her. She looks at her own hands. Her hands are small, dirty things. His hands are clean and open. Against her better judgement, she accepts his offer of assistance and stands with his help. He is taller than her. That is not so new. Most people are taller than her. She has come to accept her small place in the world.

"Healer ... yes" She is cautious, careful. Still, his kindness wins over her fear.

He has asked her a question. She is not certain she knows the words to explain. Understanding others' language is easier by far than expressing herself in the same spoken language. She tries anyway.
"Stone ... cave ... boom. Big bah-da-boom." It is the best she can manage to describe the mining accident that happened a month ago in a city she couldn't name if she wanted to.

She is frustrated in her attempt to explain herself. Her thin eyebrows knit together while she tries to communicate. This language is hard for her.
"Boom!" she says for emphasis and gestures her tiny hands in the rock-slide sort of explosion that she experienced.
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Gawain
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Re: [RP] A wilderness arrival

Post by Gawain »

Gawain helps her to her feet and listens as she speaks. At first, he isn't sure what she is trying to describe, but as he thinks further, that sounds like a mine, a mine collapse/cave-in?

"Did a mine collapse, rocks fell whilst you were working in it? OK, I need you to climb upon to this cart, so I can take you to where my healing treatments are. Can you climb up if I help you by lifting you up? What's your name?"
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Rasa

Re: [RP] A wilderness arrival

Post by Rasa »

She nods. She can climb into the cart. For as long as she can remember, she has been walking through the forests. Her memory is full of miles and miles of forests with no clear direction of where she was going. Now that she has found someone to help her, maybe she can walk right again, the way she walked before the mining accident. With Gawain's help, she gets into the cart.

Something he has said confuses her. Name? She has never had a name. She shakes her head and shrugs. But how does she convey that to Gawain?
"Gawain," she says, pointing at his chest. She points at herself and says "Rasa." She shrugs again. It isn't really a name. It is what the trees called her where she once lived.

She looks down, remembering.

----
Spring blooms in shades of green and gold. A tiny sapling springs up from the ground, a simple two-leafed plant. It is small, vulnerable, but hearty. It grows. By midsummer's eve, she is stronger. There is a celebration of life in the forest. She feels like she could move and dance. She does. That's when she realizes that the trees around her are different from the tiny sapling that found enough sunlight and water to grow strong. They have different leaves, different bark, different voices. They are prickly. They do not dance.
Rasa they call her. A sound like the wind sighs through their spiky leaves. She hears words. "Rasa?" she asks them aloud and they answer. Different. Unknown. Blank to us. They do not like her very much, she thinks. She is not like them. She is an intruder in their grove.
----

To Gawain, she shrugs again.
"Spiked trees say so. All same. Rasa is unknown."
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Gawain
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Re: [RP] A wilderness arrival

Post by Gawain »

Gawain smiled.

"Its nice to meet you, Rasa." He took up the reins of his horse and soon had the cart going along the road. "I make my healing treatments at my home, which is near the edge of town. Its amongst some trees, I think you will like it there."
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