Perrin looked up to the sky, but it was clear. A few clouds above but no sign of rain and definitely not storms ahead. Perrin shook his head to himself, glancing over at Tannith and smiled towards her.
“So am I.” He reached forward to the pot near their little campfire. It was always better to travel with company, even just one other. As much as he thought himself a danger, he couldn’t deny common sense.
2. a song I associate with my muse’s past (for each of them)
Abby
Meadows of Heaven by Nightwish
I close my eyes, the lantern dies
The scent of awakening, wild honey and dew
Childhood games, woods and lakes
Streams of silver, toys of olden days
Kasdeja
Take me away by Globus
Kneel (dream with your dream we travel)
In Silence (empires of faith unravel)
Alone (sealed with our virtues' treasures)
Kingdoms falling
Lux
Papaoutai by Stromae
Qu'il part très souvent travailler
Maman dit « Travailler c'est bien »
Bien mieux qu'être mal accompagné!
Pas vrai?
Où est ton papa?
Dis-moi, où est ton papa?
(He leaves very often for work
Mommy says, “Working is good”
Better than being in bad company
Right?
Where’s your dad?
Tell me where’s your dad?)
Dilara
No Roots by Alice Merton
I like standing still, but that's just a wishful plan
Ask me where I come from, I'll say a different land
I've got no roots, but my home was never on the ground
I've got no roots
I've got no roots
Nylariel
Die another day by Madonna
For every sin, I'll have to pay
I've come to work, I've come to play
I think I'll find another way
It's not my time to go
Minosh
Mama said by Lukas Graham
Mama said that is was okay
Mama said that is was quite alright
Our kind of people had a bed for the night
And it was okay
Mama told us that we were good kids
And daddy told us never listen to the ones
Pointing nasty fingers and making fun
'Cause we were good kids
Vicros’s mouth hung open, his current train of thought completely abandoned as it attempted to register what Vesper had said. He could have been wrong, but the tone reminded him much of words exchanged in his youth. It was… strange to hear from someone he had assumed was little more than a child. Perhaps in his comparison of racial age norms, he had overestimated. Or underestimated. Words and terms and such things were quite muddled in the moment.
“… I can break bone between my teeth, and melt chain mail with a caustic spray – I don’t know what you’re getting at.”
Vesper took a deep breath. She had dressed as nice as she possibly could. She had fixed her hair to be especially attractive. Finally staying in a tavern/inn and not camping, she had been able to have a real bath and she smelled nice and somehow that made her feel normal and less anxious about the world. But she’d always known she wasn’t a real adventurer.
She tried not to be so disappointed just yet. Maybe he needed her to be a little more obvious. Maybe her feelings were a bit misplaced. He’d been the only true friend she had. The only one in who knew how long. He had saved her life more than once. She leaned her back against the door frame, hands folded behind her against the wood.
“Something less violent? Something... gentle? Tender?”
It wasn’t so much the darkness that bothered her–given her impeccable eyesight –it was the space. No matter how she moved or carried herself she felt caged. To stand at her full height was painful. Every few paces her horns would catch or scrape against the stone ceiling above her, causing a terrible noise and sharp, stinging pain. The air as well felt stuffy, making it harder to breathe as time went on.
What a torturous venture this had been thus far. Sorsha was beginning to think that no amount of coin would make this worth it to endure. Her tail slapped against the stone floor in irritation. They’d been wandering now for hours, with only brief changes in pace so that the leader of their expedition–a gnome scholar by the name of Warryn–could pause to inspect some peculiar stone or glowing fungus.
Glancing over, it appeared her companions were hardly faring any better than she. Three other adventurers had been hired by Warryn to protect him during his expedition into the Underdark: a human warrior, an elven sorceress, and a dwarven cleric. Sorsha couldn’t remember their names and they had no interest in socializing either, all three of them similarly irritated by the fruitless venture this had become.
With a heavy sigh, Sorsha attempted to content herself with counting the stalagmites they passed.
1...2...3...4...5... Is that...? No...a bat maybe? 6...7...8...
An unfamiliar noise broke Sorsha from her thoughts, long ears perked up and straining towards the sound. She stopped in place, signalling for the rest of the expedition to do the same before they could protest. Silently, she inched forward, blue eyes scanning the darkness before her.
A slight movement in the shadows caught her eye, her hand reaching for the dagger at her waist. Her companions followed her gesture, readying their weapons. Sorsha could barely hear the sorceress mumbling under her breath.
It seemed like ages passed as they stood there in complete silence. Sorsha’s eyes never stopped their search of the shadows, her breath caught in her throat. Her head snapped up at the sound of stone cracking, icy blue eyes darting to the ceiling.
The warrior, whose name Sorsha could still not remember, seemed to finally get frustrated with this, throwing his hands up in the air. “This is a waste of time I’m going back up to the surfa–”
He was interrupted by a thunderous snap as stone tumbled down on top of them, burying them all in dust. Instinctively, Sorsha threw herself forward, slamming into a stalagmite, the breath knocked out of her lungs.
Wincing, she turned to help the others but couldn’t see through the thick clouds of dust. She tried to stand, but a rock had crushed her leg, painful throbbing like fire under her skin. Sorsha could barely move without gasping in pain.
⁈ (Jester) Have you drawn any of The Mighty Nein? Could you describe what the drawings look like?
“ Yes! Yes, okay, let me tell you--- I have drawings of everyone we meet, even really shitty and awful people, because you see The Traveler really likes knowing about them, but he’s also very very busy, so if he’s not around to see what I’m up to, then we can look at my super good drawings and I’ll tell him the story and that’s how he knows! --------- There’s one of Fjord when we started travelling, with all his boat stuff and looking super strong even though he’s really not that strong and I probably can lift him with one hand, probably, but it looks better that way. Then there’s one of Beau sleeping like a princess in our room, she doesn’t sleep like that at all and her hair gets really messy, and sometimes she drools in her sleep, but she’s nice so I drew her like a princess. There’s one of Caleb looking really stinky and dirty, because he was very smelly when we met him, then another one of him looking a better a few pages later, after Pumat Sol cleaned him up because he looked so good. That doesn’t usually last, though, so it’s better having it in a drawing. There’s loads of drawings of Nott with Caleb, because she loves him so much, and one with Kiri, and one of us being awesome detectives who solve all the cases. Because we are awesome detectives who solve all the cases. And there’s one of Yasha looking all serious and shiny under the moonlight and stuff, that’s kinda her thing and she looks so pretty. There’s so many drawings of Kiri, oh my gosh, I kept drawing her things every night to help her learn what she should say on different situations, so I drew her in all these situations so it’ll be easier. And there’s a really really big one with all of us in a big two pages kinda thing, kinda at the beginning, I drew that one so The Traveler wouldn’t mistake any of them and I put him, you know, little arrows and notes next to everyone so he’ll know who’s who when they meet him. There’s uh.. the Tusk Love ones, I drew those for Kiri too, but we don’t need to talk about those. They’re not dirty, though! So that’s really good, she’s too little for dirty drawings. ”
It really was a heartbreaking story. And while Timon wasn’t the most... pious of clerics, he did, sometimes, genuinely wish to help those in need. And this poor creature, a fellow tiefling no less, seemed so innocent and misused.
“Tell me, dear. Do you have anywhere to ...seek refuge?”
