Unearthed Legacy

[Nayt]

In her sleep, the sensation of warmth and touch was received much differently than when she was awake. Xibtrae felt as if she were holding onto her stuffed animal again, feeling the soft and warm stuffy against her skin and all the comfort it brought to her when she had to sleep at night--when she had trouble, because she couldn't think of anything but the faces she couldn't protect. Xibtrae had long since forgotten what those faces looked like--it had been that long, but trapped, no sleep ever felt real, not like this.

So, the physical touch of skin upon her skin, a hand upon her side and back, made her think of something else. Her dreams drifted and moved elsewhere beyond the comforts of a personal room of her own or a hillside over a town where she could think for herself--they were geared towards someone else.

". . . S-Saqin . . ." she whispered under her breath, talking in her sleep.

For that moment, it was a pleasant feeling--and she didn't know why. Why was she thinking about him? She wasn't going to remember why when she woke up, so it didn't matter in the end. Had she known that she was having that one particular thought and the corresponding dream, she'd have actually been a little upset.

But the pleasant feeling of warmth from another's direct touch soon faded, and Xibtrae slowly opened her eyes. With her face buried into Garv's back, she couldn't see that he was touching her--or she thought he was touching her--but she didn't appreciate it. This alone became the only reason that she disregarded the fact that she was holding onto him, and used this instead to her advantage: it let her hit him better. Granted, Xibtrae was weak at the moment, so it was more like her tapping him on the chest, grabbing, and shaking him weakly.

". . . ætstenst~!" Xibtrae weakly and groggily whined to try and make Garv realize that she really didn't appreciate what he was doing!

[Zach Kaiser]

As soon as Xibtrae stirred, the hand withdrew quickly, the contact gone in an instant.

"Hurh-hmm-hunh? What is it? What's going on?" Blinking the sleep from his eyes, his head swiveled to and fro repeatedly, looking for some kind of threat, but all he saw was Xibtrae (sort of, over his shoulder) and the blanket.

Fearing it was some kind of threat, she'd feel his arm move, and he lifted the edge of the blanket a few centimeters off the ground with one hand, a knife suddenly in the other. The barest hint of morning light crept in underneath it.

"What is it?" he repeated, sliding the knife back into its slot in his sleeve and placing his hands lightly over hers in an attempt to calm her down.

[Nayt]

"þ-þū . . ." Xibtrae gulped, growing silent for a moment, afraid of the possibility that she might have just had a bad feeling while waking up, and was suddenly blaming it on Garv.

That couldn't be the case, though! Xibtrae knew what she felt, and that was a hand on her side and slightly on her back, touching with curious intent that made her feel extremely uncomfortable! Enough to lightly (because she couldn't do anything else) beat her fist on Garv's chest and whine at him to stop at once.

Unfortunately, he didn't understand what she said--and he wasn't going to, either. That particular word was one of quite a few in her language that had absolutely no equal in another language, and though it could translate into Common, it wasn't something that any normal person would know.

"þū wǣre gerǣce mec . . ." Xibtrae whispered as she let go of Garv, withdrawing her arms from wrapped around him to crossed over her chest.

You were ---- me . . . There was a lot to consider about that one. There was a huge list of words that could fit into the place of the one that Garv wouldn't know, but considering her tone, and the way she put a few inches of space between them, and the way she practically hugged her arms around herself, it wasn't going to take much for him to potentially deduce that she thought he had done something rather improper to her, and it made her feel dirty, awkward, and extremely uncomfortable. The former feeling was truly based around an idea that she couldn't recall. After all, she had originally enjoyed the touch.

Xibtrae hadn't assumed that it could have been something other than Garv, though. After all, she was currently alive; there was no reason to believe something not human had touched her. If it were a shade, it would have just killed her in her sleep, now doubt. Were it someone else, a stalker or someone, they probably would have done much worse than just his their hand on her side. It had to be Garv . . . and Xibtrae wanted to establish right now that she wouldn't stand for that kind of inappropriate touching!

. . . and then maybe feel bad about being so stern, enough that she was too ashamed to actually reprimand him right in the middle of it . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

Xibtrae hadn't put enough force into her efforts for it to register to Garv that she was trying to attack him or anything--it was only enough to get his attention, which was what he was assuming she'd been trying to do.

That is, until she backed away from him and accused him of...something. He wasn't sure what, but again, given her reaction he could more or less fill in the blanks using his imagination.

"You just woke me up, so I didn't do it, whatever it was...well, unless I did it in my sleep." He scratched his head as he thought that over for a second. "I guess I do have pretty strong instincts when it comes to women, so it's possible...sorry if I did, anyway."

He wasn't offended, because frankly he usually deserved that kind of reaction from girls, but he was a bit confused. He'd never heard of this happening before, but then again usually when a woman slept next to him it was because she wanted to, so it maybe no one just ever bothered to mention it.

Damn these magnificent, skilled hands! Even in my sleep they know what to do.

[Nayt]

If she could have hit him a little harder, she would have. Maybe then Garv would remember grabbing her side, then! But alas, she could barely do much more than smack him with the bottom of her fist or something. If she punched him, it'd probably do less damage than if she slapped him.

"Līcian dēst nā dēst hit eft . . ." Xibtrae whispered before shutting her eyes again, and allowing herself to find comfort in the ground, rather than in the warmth of Garv's body. She didn't want him taking advantage of that again, regardless of if he realized he had done so or not.

---- do not do it again. She was very polite about it, though she had tried to hit and shake him earlier, and would have hit him harder if she had the ability. All in all, she was a very polite and respectful person, even when she felt as if she had been wronged . . . well, it helped that Garv was helping her out at the moment . . .

Xibtrae shut her eyes. The ground wasn't nearly as comfortable as Garv was, and she kind of regretted him touching her, for it made her too uncomfortable to sleep against him knowing that he might not be all that gentlemanly if she did that. But he was warm and soft and, well, she liked that. So, the ground would have to do. She was just inches from him, and remained laying on her side, facing him. Xibtrae could have probably slept for a few days if given the chance, considering how good it felt, regardless of where she was at the time.

[Zach Kaiser]

"I'll try not to," he replied, still a little confused as to what happened. Apparently he'd done something she hadn't liked in his sleep--to her, specifically, so he assumed he touched her or something, which was a shame because if he was getting reprimanded for it he would have at least liked the memory of it.

He was also confused when she settled back down...well, it was kind of understandable. It was hard to tell what time of day it was from under the blanket. He lifted it up again, making sure it was indeed light out.

"I won't stop you if you want to keep sleeping, but it might be a good idea to get to town first--it'll be a bit more comfortable there, and quite a bit safer."

If she was still curled up against him he would have considered putting it off, but he wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep after that, so he might as well go get a drink if he needed to be awake.

[Nayt]

She really did want to keep sleeping. Anywhere she was going to lay her head down, she was going to want to sleep there. Unfortunately, this did nothing for her other bodily needs. Lacking any food or drink in her body whatsoever, she didn't have to go to the bathroom, but her throat was extremely dry and it was starting to feel as if she had a black hole in her stomach eating away at her soul.

This was a decidedly unpleasant sensation, and the closer she was to waking up, the more Xibtrae wanted it to stop. Until they were in town, where she assumed there to be food and drink, there wasn't anything she could do about it. So, Xibtrae supposed that maybe that should go into town as quickly as possible, but only--and she only thought this in her mind--if they got something to eat and drink as soon as they were there. The sooner her dry throat and hunger pains went away, the sooner she'd start to feel more normal.

Maybe they could even get an inn room, too, if those were on this planet. Xibtrae's name for them was completely different, but still. As she thought of that idly, Xibtrae disregarded it, assuming that Garv was going to leave her as soon as he had escorted her back to civilization, and she'd be on her own to make sleeping arrangements, which wouldn't have to be too hard, if shades weren't involved.

"Betlic . . ." Xibtrae sighed as she tugged at the blanket. She had seen a glimpse of light, and assumed that that sun was up--and she was right. The morning sun was out, and she was going to have to be ready to trek along on Garv's back again. She wasn't ready to see the sun again, though, and as soon as that was on her face--with her sitting up if she could--she'd cover her eyes with her forearms to block out the sun, wincing all the while. Now that was an unnecessarily rude awakening if she'd ever had one!

[Zach Kaiser]

"Yeah, I don't like mornings either, but I like 'em better if I'm not in the middle of a forest." Garv didn't actually understand what she said, but he gathered it to be a complaint about the sun, having to wake up, or something similar.

Seeing that she was officially up, he retrieved his knives from the blanket, stuffed the blanket back in his pack, and put back on his belt--the latter of which might surprise Xibtrae if she was paying attention, since she hadn't seen him remove it.

Once they were all set, he knelt back down so that she could climb on his back. She could, of course, turn the offer down if she was rested enough to walk. But even if she was, he'd still carry her if she wanted--it'd be a bit of work, but it had its perks, and the drink he'd order when he returned would be all the better.

[Nayt]

Never before had she been against the morning sun. In fact, it wasn't always that bad of a thing if she slept well enough. Then, she'd be waking up around the time the sun was coming up, and if she washed quickly enough, she'd be able to get outside to watch the sun coming up over the azure hills . . .

Seeing it and feeling a bit of pain was actually sort of disappointing. Xibtrae didn't want to be like that, fearing the sun in the morning, rather than looking forward to seeing it whenever she went to sleep. The only thing that could be blamed here was sleep--that was it! The sun rising over the trees and the ruins in the distance was actually quite the spectacular sight, and while it hurt her eyes to look at it, she was able to shield her eyes to catch the image of it. It was nice, not having to worry about running or getting way with some relative quickness; that meant she could enjoy the little things like this, things she didn't have where she was before. This admiration actually kept her from seeings him put his belt back on, as she wound up sitting on the ground, just staring off into the distance.

Garv had been waiting for a second while Xibtrae admired the view, and she was surprised to see him knelt down with his back to her, just like before. Should she? The woman didn't know if it was kosher. He may have been a perfect gentleman all day beforehand, but that thing about him touching her earlier . . .

In the end, though, she didn't trust herself to walk much of a distance. If they were in a town or something, then walking would become an option again, but as it was right now, she could barely tense her muscles for all that long of a time. It was kind of annoying, fearing that she'd exhaust herself after only twenty minutes of walking. So, Xibtrae inevitably climbed onto his back, arms around his shoulders.

"Līcian dēst nā begietst se wōh þanc . . ." whispered Xibtrae as she leaned her chin upon his shoulder, "ic nāh fēðe fægere . . . ic bēo ofdrǣdd tō scȳfþ hit fore nū . . ."

---- do not get the wrong ---- . . . I cannot ---- ---- . . . I am afraid to ---- it for now . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

"Right, I getcha, it's not that you've fallen for my charms, it's that you need the help, am I right?" he commented as he hoisted her up.

Much as he liked Xibtrae, he was under no illusions as to what she thought of him at the moment. But of course, opinions could change, and he'd just have to make up for whatever it was he did in his sleep.

It was only about a half hour into the journey they exited the forest and started upon a road, one that was well traveled--or rather, had been. The towns further into the continent had been decimated by shades and who knew what else, but some of the ports, which were easier to defend due to the coast, were still mostly intact.

The capitol, Preznoc, was one such city. At first glance, it looked like more ruins from further in land--the part of the city closest to them suffered fairly heavy damage, and was uninhabited at the moment. Unlike some of the recent ruins they'd passed, most of this section was bare, though: anything that was salvageable was already taken away.

Finally they reached a checkpoint, and one of the guards stepped up to greet them. "Damn, you're still alive! They said you never came back last night, so I thought for sure you were a goner. Eh? Who's that?" He came to a sudden halt when saw that Garv didn't return alone.

[Nayt]

Xibtrae had really tried to sound as nice as she could. It was actually somewhat difficult for her to sound stern when she didn't feel threatened. She was simply a very soft-spoken woman, but she had gotten her point across well, at least. Had she known that he was a bit offended, she'd been apologetic.

Months ago, the city of Preznok had seen its worst days. Prior to that one fateful day in this city where the nation's collapse began, it was, as many considered, the pinnacle of civilization. Their architecture (Germanic Renaissance!) was unique to their nation alone, with very few influences from outside cultures regardless of the fact that they were, for all intents and purposes, a nation that survived solely off of trade alone. If they didn't put out a good product, there wouldn't be enough money in their economy, and people would starve. So they sold well, they populated well, and the massive city of Preznok, the capital of Greoul, slowly edged itself into the top ten populated cities on the planet.

It lacked the technological merits of places like Meridian or the more nature friendly Artegran, except one thing: a sewer system. The pipe systems weren't complex, but there were people who made a good living in the sewers making sure there was no water back-flow and that waste didn't clog any of it. They were massive sewers under a well decorated and beautiful town, horrid smelling sewers that may very well have saved hundreds to thousands.

But now, more than half of it was laid to waste--this once great, thriving city devoid of a massive chunk of its population, most of which had to fend for themselves after they somehow survived the horrors of a single week that decapitated the nation. High rise apartments and cathedrals and multi-story homes crumbled and lay in halves across the street, physically impossible to clean up as is, and portions of streets were collapsed where the sewers beneath gave way, a tremendous feat, all things considered. The fires were gone, but the rubble remained, and most tall structures were in the worst of shapes, except one: a single tower of insurmountable height still standing and unharmed in any way, set towards the right side of the city, and capable of being used to any extent.

The cobblestone streets they walked were torn up and filled with potholes and rubble from nearby collapsed structures, as if a war had broken out. The only difference was that they hadn't stood a fighting chance, and a good part of the damage to the city was from their own broken weaponry.

Upon seeing this, Xibtrae felt a strange pang in her heart. This world was no better off than her world was. Was it only a matter of time? And in her state, was there even anything she could do? Truthfully, Xibtrae didn't know what plagued this world, but if the threat was the same . . .

She didn't answer the point guard's question, refraining to look forward anymore. When Garv said that there was civilization, she didn't expect this to be it--she didn't expect it to remind her of home in the worst ways. So, Xibtrae had shifted to lean her forehead upon the back of Garv's shoulder, staring at his shoulder-blade rather than the men before them or the rest of the city. Was this how all places in this small universe were doomed to become? Rubble and ruin, littered with death and decay?

Nonetheless, Garv and Xibtrae both didn't know the chance that she might even be confused with one of the creatures that caused the woes of this city . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

"Her name's Xibtrae," Garv replied for her, since she didn't answer for herself.

"She looks like one of those demons that was running lose back then," the guard observed suspiciously. Her pale skin and horns in particular gave her a bit of a menacing air, separate from her actual demeanor.

"Well, she isn't. Different eyes for one, and, well, I'm still here, aren't I?" If she had any ill-intent, she could have easily killed him at any point when he was carrying her or when he slept.

The guard looked at him uneasily. On one hand, had a creature like that walked up alone he probably would have attacked on sight. On the other hand, she really didn't look all that dangerous...

"I'm sorry, without knowing what she is, I can't let her through."

Garv let out a sigh, before motioning the guard over. "Look, I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want to it to get around, but I will if you promise to keep it a secret, alright?" He received a dubious look in response, but the guard leaned in to hear him anyway. "She's a forest nymph," he whispered, hoping that Xibtrae wouldn't hear but realizing that chances are she would.

"W-What? Really?" Garv nodded. The guard was taken aback, and he stared at her intently once more. "But, I didn't think they had horns..."

"Have you ever seen one?" Garv prompted.

"Well, no..."

"There ya go. She was in pretty bad shape, so I decided to help her out. Don't tell anyone, though...I don't want anyone bothering her, and gentlemen like us wouldn't upset a lady like her, right?" he asked.

The guard nodded furiously. "Of course not! Go right on through, sir! And...your secret's safe with me, miss! So if you ever need anything--"

"She's very grateful," Garv assured him. "Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need a drink. My back's starting to ache."

"Right. Take care."

"You too."

He hurried down the road, not wanting the guard to see the grin on his face.

[Nayt]

The woman tensed up. The other man was talking about her, making her feel extremely uneasy--suggesting that she wasn't going to be going through without something or the rather. They were talking in Common, just like Garv had did with her, so she was able to understand a lot of it, enough to know that maybe she wasn't going to be going into civilization after all--which was extremely unfortunate. Xibtrae didn't want to deal with more shades if she didn't have to. She was afraid for a moment, but then her attention was distracted by something she recognized--a particular word coming from a different language other than her native tongue, but one she knew.

Forest . . . nymph . . .?

Xibtrae had to think on this for a moment, long enough that Garv had essentially passed by the checkpoint guards without any problems at all. This was something she had to wrack her mind about, though. The latter word come from a language that she also knew, but didn't ever think in, nor had she spoken it in quite some time. It was understandable for her to have forgotten a lot of her vocabulary.

But then it hit her. The meaning behind the word nymph. She had heard it a few times before when speaking with Saqin, for whom she had to learn his native language for communication's sake, and it was a subject matter that he didn't really like all that much. Nymphs . . . nymphs . . . people or monsters or creatures of some sort--it could really apply to any of them, as the action was the same.

Her cheeks were bright red. For a moment, she could only stare ahead with wide eyes, both astounded and shocked with what Garv thought she was. She tensed up her arms and jabbed her chin down onto Garv's shoulder to get his attention, so she'd have his full attention when she cried: "I-ic neom āc . . . āc . . . n-nym-nymph!!"

To anyone else, her language would have just sounded like gibberish. Soft spoken gibberish that was spoken and flowed like a song of some sort and was simply pleasing to the ear, but gibberish nonetheless. If the guards were still in an earshot, they wouldn't understand that she was stammering in saying that she was in no way a nymph; they'd only be able to discern that she was dutifully offended!

[Zach Kaiser]

And get his attention she did. He let out a sharp, "Ow!" It didn't hurt so much as it was unexpected, granted, but he was kind of a wimp like that.

"O-Oi, keep your voice down," he whispered urgently. "I know you aren't a nymph, love. But I don't know what you are, and I had to tell them something so they'd let us pass."

Or, put another way, he lied. He had no problems with lying, and all things considered he was a pretty good liar, so getting past the guards wasn't too difficult. It was considered a good skill to have in his line of work, but whether Xibtrae would see it as a virtue was another story.

"Nice as it is to sleep next to you, I'd much rather sleep in a bed tonight. Of course, ideally I wouldn't need to choose," he noted.

[Nayt]

And why was he calling her love?! This was just crazy! Xibtrae didn't feel much of a sense of panic, as Garv declared that he had just been lying to the guards, but she still couldn't shake it off entirely. It was good to know that he didn't get the wrong idea about her, but she didn't necessarily want anyone else getting the same idea, either. What if that guard found her later on? He'd expect a completely different woman than she really is, a mistake which could only end in tragedy. Xibtrae just didn't want to deal with that.

So she relaxed a bit and instead of sharply pushing down on Garv's shoulder with her chin, she lightened up, and went back to just using his shoulder as a chin rest, rather than a means of getting his attention. He was in the clear for now--and damn lucky he took back what he said about her before calling her by that crazy pet name!

Which didn't mean that she wasn't against lying. She was a fairly bad liar for a reason: she'd rarely done it. Morally, she wasn't against telling a little white lie to two to make things easier, but in all of her experiences there had been no situation where a major lie was actually called for.

She didn't think about it too much, though. Garv had said something else what intrigued her.

"'Bed'?" asked Xibtrae, "Hwider eart wē gang . . .?"

Where are we going . . .? Xibtrae had asked. "Bed" was something she recognized as a soft mattress with pillows and blankets, a place that was altogether comfortable, especially when compared to sleeping on the ground. Indeed, she would be fairly excited to go somewhere with a nice comfortable bed to sleep on, though it wasn't entirely necessary. At best, it'd allow her a place to rest until she could move and communicate better. Only then would she be able to help Val back out, even though that meant swapping places again--if Xibtrae wasn't mistaken. Swapping with Val again would be fine so long as there wasn't a threat around.