oh sunshine in an empty place ( ota )

[persequor]

Who: arya and you!!
What: arrival + wandering
Where: emerald sanctum + silverglen retreat
When: pre-kidnappings and post

a. emerald sanctum

[ for having been recently abducted to an entirely different world, arya stark is handling it remarkably well. joy had replaced her fear when she found nymeria returned to her. the direwolf is no longer a pup and had bowled her over, licking her neck and face while arya laughed and hugged her.

following the reunion, girl and wolf had taken to exploring. arya had tried climbing a tree, but the canopy was up too high and nymeria worried. after so long separated, she is loath to leave her wolf’s side. but there is plenty to see on the ground too. strange broad-leafed plants their green so dark and rich and beautiful flowers the like of which arya has never seen.

and the dragons!

she drew to a stop when she saw the first one — only for a moment before it vanished again among the green. her mouth dropped open into a perfect little o, her eyes wide and unblinking. dragons! real, living dragons!

even faced with such beasts, her fear feels like a distant thing. there are no guards and she has needle and nymeria and a thousand places to hide. she wanders in a state of half-curiosity, half-awe. giggling, she grabs a branch and swings herself back and forth. ]

b. silverglen retreat

[ she was warned of the dangers outside. still, arya awakes one morning and sets off after she and nymeria have eaten to the town. she has both her swords at her hip, needle gleaming and sharp and syrios’ heavy wooden blade, and a quiver of arrows and a bow at her back. she debated long moments whether to take a crossbow; she finally settled for the promise that she would practice with it when she returned.

on the way she practiced shooting at nearby targets. arya would grin after the arrows hit and run off to recover them. at the town, she and nymeria both got their fair share of looks, but nothing compared to how arya stared at the night elves.

they’re purple. it was all she could think and she made the mistake of voicing her observation. she apologized profusely and tried not to stare at anyone else once she was allowed in but—

they’re purple.

it has to be dye. but arya doesn’t ask. she wanders the streets, trying to keep her eyes on the houses, the shops, the wares. whenever her eyes slide over another elf, she drops them quickly to the floor. nymeria remains at her shoulder, growling at any that strays too close. ]

c. forests around silverglen retreat

[ make your own adventure! or ask me for a starter :') ]

Comments

B (pre-kidnapping)

[theshadowkissed]

[Rose had caught a few glimpses of the girl from the Emerald Sanctum - the wolf had stood out - but whenever she got around to seeking her out, she couldn't find the girl. That meant tracking her down with a little help from Morpheus that made her wonder if the dragons had some kind of magical GPS on them.

Not that it mattered.

Dressed in her relatively newly acquired scale mail with a greenish cast to it, a long green cloak and a big sword across her back, Rose was carrying a sack of fruit in one hand when she spotted the girl. She watched her manner and the way the wolf reacted for a bit before walking up to fall into stride next to the girl. She wasn't worried about the wolf for two reasons: Rose was Greensworn and she didn't act like she should be concerned with the wolf's presence.]

They call themselves the Kaldorei, or Night Elves. Don't worry too much about them; they might be a bit wary of us and we don't speak their language, but this is a nice village.

[persequor]

[ though nymeria huffs, her ears flattening against her head, she doesn't snap for which arya is grateful. the girls blinks at rose, casts a surreptitious look around them, looks to rose again.

in a whispered aside: ] Why are they purple?

[ priorities. ]

[theshadowkissed]

[Rose only cast a brief glance at the wolf.]

Because they are. It's just a part of their racial makeup. Like the difference between black people and white people.

[Wow, that could be taken wrong, but it was just skin color to Rose.]

I'm Rose.

[persequor]

[ the logical answer, my name is arya, comes up to her mouth and stops there.

her name is both damning and hers. she clung to it in king's landing, the only thing that could not be stolen from her. but if the wrong people know it, she will suffer far worse than hunger and cold.

instead, she smiles. ]

I've seen you. [ she points to rose's armor. ] What's it made of?

[theshadowkissed]

[Rose lifts her arm up so the girl could take a closer look.]

It's called mithril. Stronger and lighter than steel, but metal nonetheless.

[It was just crafted to give the impression of dragon scales.]

[persequor]

How did you get it?

[theshadowkissed]

We've got an armory back in the Sanctum. I'm not surprised Morpheus didn't mention it; he's kind of absentminded. [That was putting it lightly.]

Any armor or weaponry we need is available to us, but we're supposed to only take what we need. Check it out sometime.

[persequor]

There isn't a lot that will fit me.

[ not that she looked too hard at the armor. she had weapon tunnel vision. ]

[theshadowkissed]

I'm positive there will be. And if not, I'll kick Morpheus awake and tell him you need it.

He'll make it happen then.

[persequor]

Is he-- the steward?

[theshadowkissed]

The what? [What the hell is a steward?] He's the dragon mage of our flight.

[persequor]

I know that, [ she says quickly. ] But what does he do. Is he like a steward?

[theshadowkissed]

I have no idea what a steward is. He's basically the liaison between us mortals and the dragons. He can heal us, get us things, answer questions, and help with all sorts of things.

He also falls asleep constantly like most of the dragons in our flight. [Yeah, that irritated Rose so much.]

[persequor]

[ doesn't know what — arya almost laughs. it has to be a jape. rose must think her some empty headed urchin. arya doesn't try to disavow her from it. ]

Why is that? The stories never tell of dragons sleeping so much.

[theshadowkissed]

From what I've been told [by Ysera] is that our flight protects the Emerald Dream. From what I gather, that's the special dream world that connects everything on Azeroth and if bad things happen to it, it'll be worse than the demons.

So, they sleep a lot. Drives me nuts.

[persequor]

[ arya wrinkles her nose. ]

Must we sleep as much?

[theshadowkissed]

Not unless you want to play around with the Emerald Dream. [She shrugs.] I don't recommend it, though. Dreamwalking isn't an easy thing to control. It really sucks when you can't find your way back right away.

[persequor]

Dreamwalking? You can do that?

[theshadowkissed]

Yup. And so will you with practice. It's part of being Green. Just, um, don't mention it to the other flights. It's kind of out trump card.

[persequor]

[ what's a trump card. whatever she can infer from context. ]

I won't. [ even without needing to be told, she knows better. ]

[theshadowkissed]

So, you going to give me a name or am I going to have to make one up for you?

[persequor]

[ arya lifts a shoulder in a half-shrug. ]

You can make one up if you want. I don't care.

[theshadowkissed]

[Well, that didn't work the way she'd planned it to. Why wasn't the girl giving her name? Really, Rose could just pop into her dreams one night to figure it out, or kick Morpheus awake and ask him, but really...

Rose decided not to kneel down to the girl's level - mostly because that always pissed her off when she was the girl's age and people thought she needed to be treated like she didn't understand how things were. Instead she held her hand out to the wolf to finally sniff.]

I'd prefer to use a name you like. I've kinda become the dragonsworn leader of our flight, so I want you to know that I'm around if you need me. I'm not going to tell you what you can or can't do; just don't endanger the Sanctum and watch out for the death knights of the other Flights.

[persequor]

[ death knights. she tucks that away to ask about later. arya looks at nymeria, her house's sigil living and breathing, who bares her teeth at rose. her grip tightens on the wolf's scruff. ]

You'll lose the hand you do that again. My name's Nan.

[theshadowkissed]

Most animals don't like dhampirs, but it would be good for her to learn I'm your ally and mean you no harm.