Unearthed Legacy

[Nayt]

Xibtrae had been raised in a very "proper" environment--very formal and the like. When sitting at a dinner table, she always sat with her back straight and if she had a napkin it was placed on her lap--and she never ate with her elbows on the table, and always chewed a bite fifteen to twenty times before swallowing; extremely formal, and at a constant. That being the way she was raised, she never thought about it; it was just what she did. She didn't sleep that way though; in fact, it could be said that she didn't act very lady-like in a bed at all. At best, it was child-like.

After Garv helped her to--and into--the bed, Xibtrae laid upon her side. The bed was bland but it was real, and just about anything real was going to hold comfort for her now, and if she had the chance to live out a full life on this planet (which Xibtrae figured she did not), she'd not take advantage of any sort of comfort, knowing for thousands of years what it was like to go without . . .

So she lay the side of her head upon one pillow and wrapped her arms around another pillow. The woman lay sort of curled up on the bed, her eyes half open, her arms gently wrapped around the pillow as something to hold onto in her sleep . . . it was really quite comfortable.

What was strange though was remembering the difficulty in having horns. Since the moment she had been released, Xibtrae had been remembering that. She couldn't lay on her side, for she would ruin the pillow if she did--and even then, her her would be propped up too much to be comfortable . . .

At Garv, the woman shook her head. In her state of comfort, she was prepared to fall asleep at any given second, and were Garv to leave her where she lay, Xibtrae would shut her eyes slowly and drift off--and for the first time in her life, she wouldn't wake very easy at all.

[Zach Kaiser]

Garv smiled. Xibtrae was an unusual woman--most of the time she seemed fairly mature, but other times, like now, she acted child-like. He wondered how old she actually was, but he knew better than to ask a woman her age.

"Sleep well, then, beautiful Xibtrae. I'll be back in a little while."

And with that he left, but Xibtrae was perhaps not even awake enough to notice. Once she was fully asleep, she would have her rest...but every so often she would hear a voice, one too quiet to be heard while awake.

A bookshelf...well, I guess reading beats sitting around doing nothing...

...

...

H-Hey...I've read all these already! What gives...?

A few other times there was muttering in a young girl's voice, but it faded in and out.

Unfortunately, Xibtrae would again awaken to the sensation of someone caressing her skin...this time it was her face. Like before, it was a gentle touch, but still likely an unwanted one...

[Nayt]

The woman couldn't help but blush even a tiny bit when Garv called her beautiful. Having gone so long without contact from others, compliments had been practically forgotten, and she always like compliments anyways; someone complimenting her now simply had a stronger than before.

It was odd. Xibtrae didn't dream, but she still heard something--a voice, a familiar voice, but one she couldn't necessarily reply to, nor could she remember, just based on the fact that it came to her as a rush right before she awoke, which was in itself a bit strange. Xibtrae shut her eyes tightly for a moment; just what was waking her? On her own, she would not have woken up for another few hours, perhaps even more, depending on how long it had already been. A twenty four hour nap would have been great, though. No--she wasn't waking up on her own, someone else was. She didn't yet realize it though; someone was touching her face, but the gravity of that was going to take a moment to hit.

Groggily, she reached out for whoever it was that touched her face. In a half-sleep, she didn't yet realize what it could have meant that someone was gently touching her face, just like before, when she thought it was a particular someone laying a hand upon her, and she didn't mind it--well, not until she drifted out of that half-sleep . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

For a moment, Xibtrae would lay her hand on the other person's arm...and then she would feel them retreat, their presence gone from the room.

While she hadn't slept for an entire day, she still managed far above a normal night's rest. It was the morning's twilight outside; light was beginning to filter out the darkness, but the sun had not yet ascended past the horizon.

Were she to gather her senses, Xibtrae would be able to tell that she was alone in the room...and there was nothing preventing her from going to sleep once more, should she so choose.

[Nayt]

Once rationality kicked back in, she started to swing her arm as she quickly sat up, passing a frantic glance from one corner of the room to the other. It really felt like she had reached out and touched someone--stronger than a dream. Having had only her mind to live within for so long, the physical sensations became so much stronger. There had to be someone else here. Was it Garv? Was he messing around with her again? To check, she crept out of bed, and using the walls as support, into the other room. The place didn't seem to be that big, from what she remembered from yesterday--and she still didn't find anything.

There was a fair right to be concerned about this, but she couldn't find a thing . . .

It . . . must have been my imagination . . . the woman concluded.

Well . . . except for one thing . . .

Instinct demanded that Garv must have been touching her again! And now there was proof, because she finally spotted that familiar mass on the old couch. How was she supposed to react to this? Was he just pretending to be asleep, or was her imagination really just messing with her? Xibtrae furrowed her brow in thought. If Garv was touching her in her sleep again, she'd have to have a serious conversation with him about it--and by serious conversation, that entailed her catching him in the act, smacking at him, and yelling at him once again to respect her personal space! Well, it wouldn't be the most conversational thing in the world, but still . . .

Next time, though . . . she'd catch him in the act, and he'd have no argument! Xibtrae quietly returned to the bedroom and laid down, her eyes shut, but mind still awake. If he came back, he was really going to get it. Though, if he waited long enough, she was just going to fall back to sleep . .

[Zach Kaiser]

As if on cue, Garv let out a loud snore as Xibtrae looked him over. He was still fully clothed, half-sitting up with his hat tipped down over his face. There wasn't anything that suggested he'd moved recently...but nothing suggested he hadn't, either.

While nothing was keeping her awake, it was only a few more hours before she'd again be awoken by a touch--this one a bit different, though. It was a hand on her shoulder, firmly shaking it.

"Oi, Xibtrae...?"

[Nayt]

That was a bit of a rude awakening, but it wasn't an unpleasant one. An unpleasant awakening would have entailed a soft caress, followed by Xibtrae swatting at Garv and shouting at him to cut that out--but he didn't do that. No, he shook her by the shoulder, which was far from a gentle caress on the skin.

Coincidentally, while a caress of the skin felt better than a rough shake on the shoulder, she received it much better than she would have a caress. Indeed, she didn't smack at him. Rather, Xibtrae shut her eyes tightly and tensed up, groaning in unwillingness to wake up. A couple more hours of sleep just hadn't been enough! She hadn't reached twenty four hours of rest yet, after all.

Xibtrae stretched out on the bed, quietly groaning as she awoke. She relaxed shortly thereafter, but didn't get out of bed--rather, she continued to lay in bed; the only difference was that she had her eyes open, and she was looking up at Garv tiredly. Not feeling the drive to hit him, she wasn't panicked enough to wake up immediately.

"Garv . . .?" she whispered, curious as to why he was waking her.

[Zach Kaiser]

The way she looked at him, as though it were perfectly normal for her to be asleep, made him reconsider whether it had been a good idea to wake her. There really wasn't any urgent reason to, it was just...

"Are you feeling alright? You've been asleep for nearly an entire day."

...he was worried. Perhaps it was normal for her--she wasn't human, for all he knew sleeping days at a time was normal for her. But thus far save for her appearance she seemed human enough in every other way, so he was concerned.

Gah, should have just gone about my business for the day, he lamented.

[Nayt]

She yawned. Well, maybe it wouldn't be all that bad to be awake. Xibtrae hadn't slept as much as she'd have preferred, but maybe they could make use out of the day if she got up. It was morning, after all. Or afternoon? She couldn't tell. It had been too long; Xibtrae had forgotten a bit about how to tell the time, which in itself was a bit strange, considering their lack of functional clocks, this should have been fully devoted to memory . . .

Xibtrae nodded to Garv's question. Of course she was all right. Why would have have thought she wasn't? Sleeping for this long couldn't have been problematic, could it? People usually slept for a good eight hours a night, and she had slept for a good-- oh . . .

Now, the whole reason she had slept for so long was that she hadn't done in long enough that she wanted to enjoy it while she could. But telling Garv that would have been an unnecessary risk, so she refrained. She'd have to come up with a different reason. Well, she was feeling a bit odd . . .

Xibtrae attributed this to a lack of sleep in the past. Well, it wasn't a lie. She had gone several thousand years without sleep. She didn't realize that it had more to do with the cold outside at night, though . . . "Ic hæbbe nā slēp wel nīwan . . . ic eom sārig."

[Zach Kaiser]

She hasn't slept well in a long time? Or something to that effect, from what he could understand. That was certainly likely, given her condition when he first saw her, but eighteen or so hours was still a bit much. It was currently late morning, and she'd gone to bed early afternoon the previous day.

"Well, alright...sorry for waking you." For the first time since she met him, he seemed...embarrassed, if only a little bit.

"Anyway, just holler if you need anything." In retrospect, he probably shouldn't have left her there alone yesterday--if she still couldn't walk on her own, she'd be pretty helpless--but his business couldn't wait, and he neither wanted to drag her along or have his employer come here.

So today he'd be sticking around, making sure she was alright.

"Oh, and if you're up soon, I'll be making breakfast in a few minutes here."

[Nayt]

"N-nā, nā--" Xibtrae called out to him tiredly.

Xibtrae forced herself to sit up, at which point, she sat on the edge of the bed. Her hair was quite a mess, with the two long locks of hair by the sides of her face--long enough to reach her diaphragm, while the rest of her hair was momentously shorter--separated into multiple close locks, and scattered every which way, and the rest of her hair having lost all rhyme and reason. Xibtrae failed to notice this.

"Ic eom wacie," she remarked reassuringly.

There were specific reasons for such a declaration, too. First and foremost, she was starting to like the idea of making some progress with the day--namely learning some of the Common language here to speak better. Secondly, the idea of breakfast was very enticing. Though she had eaten a bit last night--or yesterday, rather, she was still hungry. Which made sense, considering the fact that it'd been eighteen hours since she had gone to sleep yesterday. Almost a full day without food . . . that had to be tough on the body.

Xibtrae slowly stood up, and again using the walls for support, made her way out of the bedroom. She had seen a few odd instruments a couple of hours ago, but didn't check into them. Xibtrae was curious if the act of cooking breakfast had anything to do with them.

[Zach Kaiser]

"You going to be alright, there?" Garv asked, concerned as she made her way out of the room relying on the walls. He was under the impression that her weakness thus far was the result of exhaustion, but if perhaps she was in worse condition than he thought. It was odd, though, as she didn't seem to be wounded or sick.

He'd help her get to the table again if she required it, but otherwise would go on to start making breakfast. Alas, it was a simple meal--toast, using some bread he bought while he was out the previous day. He was loathe to purchase more than a bare minimum of food, in case he found a lead on what he was looking for and left.

"It ain't much, but here you go," he said as he placed a plate and glass in front of her. This time, he made sure to give her water right from the start, though he still had a glass of something that clearly wasn't.

[Nayt]

"Ic eom til . . ." Xibtrae stated as she shook her head.

She was thankful, though--she just wanted to stand on her own two feet when she could. Though it may have seemed like fatigue to Garv (originally), after the sleep she had experienced, it was clearly something else, some sort of serious medical problem. At least as far as he might know. Xibtrae knew and understood the issue, though; her body simply couldn't react like it used to, having gone so long without her mind using it. It wasn't that her body was weak, it was that her mind couldn't make it function anymore, greatly restricted by the long, long time that had passed with her existing only in mind and spirit.

Xibtrae tried to stand sporadically, bound found difficulty once again. The wall was a good friend to have--it held her up. Real sturdy, real stable. She'd be able to walk elsewhere, over to a place like the dining room or something, but for now the wall was good.

This allowed her to watch what was going on, too. Garv made use of some bizarre obsidian device with these strange grate like coils on top, under which he called forth flame. The woman narrowed her eyes. Just what was this terrible device? Who created it? Garv? And just what could it do? Could that fire spit out from the top in controlled proportions? Was it like magical fire, except with vastly less drain upon the body? She couldn't tell. Of course, Xibtrae was no stranger to toasting bread over a fire, but she was a stranger to this device. It was one of the curious things she had seen earlier, and once it was in use, it had the woman staring at it with a furrowed brow and pursed lips. Whatever this thing was, it couldn't be healthy.

The plate had been set upon the table for her, and she could have walked over at any time to get it, but . . .

". . . hwā is þæt . . . ?" asked Xibtrae as she pointed to the stove.

It made her not trust the food--not knowing what the hell he was using to cook it and all. What if it was poisoned? Or poison entirely? A whole big piece of metal that could light flames under weird little coils that was made completely out of poison. Poison to her, perhaps, and not to him? Xibtrae didn't know for sure--she couldn't know. The thing may have looked a tiny bit familiar, but it was still too alien to her to merit trust.

[Zach Kaiser]

"That...?"

Garv followed her finger to the stove, but couldn't comprehend what she meant at first. He understood her perfectly, but he didn't seen anything there that was out of the ordinary.

It took him a few seconds to realize that out of the ordinary for him might not have been the same as out of the ordinary for her.

"That is a stove--a gas one, if you wanna get technical."

He regarded her curiously for a minute, debating on whether or not to ask a question on his mind, but decided against it. Instead, he continued his explanation.

"Gas comes out of it, you light it with something, and you get a sustained flame. You just gotta make sure you turn it off when you're done."

[Nayt]

"Gas . . . stove?" Xibtrae asked as she furrowed her brow.

Quite the odd mix of words. She did understand it, though--fortunately. Had she not, she'd have continued silently protesting the food that it provided! Fire was how they made toast back on her world, too; they made camp fires and put bread over it, then usually added something else or the rather.

To anyone else, just plain toast wouldn't be all that wonderful. To Xibtrae, though, it was as much of a treat as the dinner she had last night. Again, she sat with her back straight, prim and proper as some might call it, and ate slowly, regardless of how much her stomach anticipated breakfast. Or lunch. Whenever they were supposed to be eating right now. Their system of time was different from hers; Xibtrae had merely made a guess, and could very well have been wrong. The toast was graciously accepted and eaten, nonetheless.

She was silent as she ate. Garv had the opportunity to fire away questions at her, and though the didn't know the particular ones where he'd encounter the chance of her lying to him, Xibtrae had already thought about that much. If it had to do with her origin, she was definitely going to make it up.