Tala Tales: Elin and Dirus (silversuzi & Daerune 1x1)

[Daerune]

(Present)


Dirus now stood at the outskirts of the village as if he had never left and to Elinsyia that would be just the case. Kalgum's advice kept weighing in his mind, of which he was tempted to just ignore. He made of show looking up toward the sun when he saw her and then back to Elinsiya. "And here I thought you were intent on getting this done." As if no time had lapsed he started along the same path he was to take before. Almost within the same direction as the village. "What took so long, decided to get a little nap in before leaving?"

 

[SilverSuzi]

Elin spotted Dirus a few yards away and, despite her misgivings about him and this whole situation, she greeted him with a small but friendly smile as she approached. She opened her mouth to say hello, but he spoke first. Getting a sense of impatience off him, she frowned for a moment and resisted the urge to roll her eyes and point out she was early. It had been her intention to try and make nice, so better not start off with attitude. "Well, yes, I did actually. It seemed practical to utilize the time I was provided to catch some rest while I could. I'd be useless by now otherwise." She looked him over while walking beside him. "Didn't you sleep?"

 

[Daerune]

He knitted his brows at her. The look conveying more then words could, the idea of sleep seemed impeccable to him. "You're unless in either case." he reached a hand out to ruffle her hair. "Though that will no remain, for the sake of politeness we will avoid your Dwarven friends, last thing we need is having your old ward concerning himself with you any longer.... and we are going to need to get you a horse." He motioned to their feet and the fact that they were walking. "This is primitive and ineffective for trailing. So have you thought at all on the monologue you're going say to what's his face? I've had people do it in the past, none of it was memorable and the lengthy ones I did away with for I had better things to do."

 

[SilverSuzi]

He jumped from subject to subject so quickly, all the while Elin was trying to recover from the initial action of hair-tousling he'd subjected her too. It wasn't as if she'd never had that done before -- it was afterall a harmless action adults often inflicted upon children affectionately -- but being that she was fourteen years old and had been living with dwarves (all of them shorter than herself) for the past two years, and not to mention the fact she barely knew this man, the action prompted her to stare at him a moment with a brow quirked. She lifted a hand to brush her hair from her eyes, not one to care over how it looked as long as it was out of the way, and tried to back track in her mind over all the things he'd said while she was distracted. "Um... monologue?" She frowned, staring at the ground. He was referring to her confrontation with her families' killer, right? Her hands clenched tighter around the straps of her travel pack. "I don't much plan on talking to him. I imagine I'll be focused more on getting it over with." In truth she hadn't imagined it much at all. That she wanted him dead was undeniable, but picturing the deed in question tended to twist her stomach into painful knots, so she generally avoided thinking about the how and just envisioned the end result: the murderer gone for good. A bitterness filled her voice as she continued, "Besides, I said enough to him last time we were face-to-face. Tried to give him a piece of my mind, he took my eye instead." She tapped the eye-patch for emphasis.

 

[Daerune]

Dirus frowned while looking down at her. “Considering its better to lose an eye instead of part of your mind, I would say it was the better trade off.” He knew what she meant, for the sake of his humour he decided to take it literally. “What did you say to him?” Dirus’ tone took on a serious edge as did his gaze as he looked down at her. While she formulated her reply he looked around the landscape as they passed, Dirus’ idea of a walk was a human's fast march, if it were not for his new Ward he would have flown away by now and be ten times the distance away. He did sense that her emotions jarred when thinking upon taking the man’s life and it was something he was planning to use against her later as he sought to dissuade her from killing her parents murdered. even if it was her blood right, she was still a child. “Tell me what you’re trained in if anything. Be it survival or weapons.”

 

[SilverSuzi]

She snorted, amused by his remark. "Yeah, at least I had a spare." In answer to his next question, she scrunched her face up in disgust. "Told him he had the intelligence of a brain-damaged troll if he thought his swift rise to power through treachery and deceit would get him anything but a knife in his back. May have insulted his manhood a couple of times." She ended with a wry smile, but it faded fast. As a traumatized, freshly orphaned twelve-year-old, she truthfully hadn't been so eloquent as that, and most of what she had said had more to do with how he'd never be as great a leader as her father had been. But she preferred not to relive those moments in accurate detail. Easier to gloss over it with jokes and sarcasm. Unconsciously, she rubbed her empty eye-socket with one hand as a brief twinge of phantom pain flashed through it.


The subject of her skills was a welcome change in the conversation. Elin shrugged nonchalantly. "I can forage, fish, and hunt small game. Mainly with traps, so foraging will be more useful on the move." She got the impression from his brisk pace that he wouldn't be likely to take long breaks. "I'm a pretty good cook too, even with a campfire. My da took me camping frequently, in any season, just whenever the mood would strike him. I'm decent at tracking, and can make a shelter. As for weapons..." She tapped the hilt of a short sword at her hip. Kalgrum had given it to her, one of the pieces the dwarves forged for trade with humans, so it was the proper size for her. "I was just starting to learn when my parents died, but I trained some with the dwarves... even helped in a few skirmishes with this tribe of goblins that keep making trouble in their territory." Which meant most of her fighting experience was with targets smaller than herself, and goblins weren't exactly brilliant warriors... But it was something.

 

[Daerune]

Dirus chuckled with a soft shake of his head. "Well, least it can't be said you don't have your mothers tongue. Most of her insults were refrained to her mind, but one who can read it.... well." He shook his head before it withered and died as it was promptly noticed. "Your skills will increase only because of necessity. It serves me not to have a liability so you will be taught out to fight and wield magic, if you have any at all as your mother did." His pace had not slowed, even across broken ground. Clouds gathered in the distance and there was a faint drop of temperature in the air suggesting that rain would soon be following. "Goblins as it is, are about as useful at fighting as ants against a cat, even if its the whole colony."

 

[SilverSuzi]

Despite her initial skepticism about Dirus's relationship with her parents, Elin smirked a little over his reminiscing. She had certainly learned more than a few insults from her mother, even some that were used -- affectionately -- on her father from time to time. The smirk hardened to a scowl as she recalled some of her mother's last words had been scathing remarks directed at her killer. Elin sighed, trying to push the memories away and return her focus to the task at hand. Dirus had a lead of a couple paces now, moving effortlessly through the forest in the waning light. Elin pushed herself to close the distance again. "I don't have any magic. Mother already tried to teach it, but Da said I don't carry it in me like she did." Did this man already know about her father's enchanted eye-patch? Would he recognize it as the one she now wore? She glanced down at herself, noting for the millionth time the lack of any viable etheric connection within her, something that would otherwise be visible -- thanks to the eye-patch -- in someone who possessed the talent for magic. Then again... She glanced up at Dirus's back, and the wings there... He didn't appear to have any magic either, which made absolutely no sense as she had already seen him use it. She had seen Kuldari before -- from a distance -- and the magic within them was so abundant they practically glowed. "By the way, you haven't told me your name yet."

 

[Daerune]

He looked back at her with a lofted brow. "Dirus no last names that you mortals so love." He had recognized the eye-patch but as all things with his pupils other half, he tended to ignore it, not out of spite but indifference. He never felt interested and in return never sought to spend his on him than was necessary. "Its a shame you don't carry it. It would have been useful to both me and you in the future. It will be weapons and ranged equipment we need to teach you in then. Tell me, have you ever fired a bow?" He already knew the answer, it took certain strength to draw one and the Dwarfs were not the type to use bow's. When he stopped and it was entirely dark now. "Might as well set up your camp and if you don't tell me you need to rest... not want to rest than you'll not get it. It was a lesson your mother learned but this night is your free pass."