by tjra on Fri Sep 19, 2008 12:06 am
Tjra walked quietly beside her companion, her eyes low upon the ground. For once, she could completely relax. Not the single sound of another human mind for as far as her Sight could See - which was pretty damn far. It had to be the first time she could completely relax and not have to worry about listening to a man's private obscene fantasies about the pretty tavern waitress or the never-ending drone of a vain woman scrutinizing the ladies around her.
There was only Mygen beside her, and open space. And silence. Well, mostly silence - but being able to hear others' thoughts on a routine basis works a lot like a shadow moving continually over a mouse's burrow - eventually the mouse figures out the shadow won't hurt it, and it learns to ignore it. So she was able to shut out Mygen's constant agonizing over the absence of people quite easily, rather like turning the volume down on a stereo - not only because it was annoying, but out of respect for a friend.
And so, the long walk was well worth the near-silence to the mind-reader, bringing her a measure of peace unknown.
But good things never last, and before long - after how many days, weeks of travel? - she could sense the distinct patterns of mind-voices unknown - a male and female, some way ahead and off to their right, Tjra supposed - travelling slowly, likely on foot. But just as it is hard to hear someone shouting from the other end of a football field, so Tjra could not discern anything more on her personal radar system.
"There's someone ahead," she mumbled without looking up. Typically she didn't need to raise her voice; but it didn't seem he had heard her, because she could pinpoint the exact moment he picked up their voices. With a sigh, the young woman climbed the small knoll on which Mygen stood, closing the few yards between them as she squinted in the midmorning sunlight across the barren wasteland to where the two tiny shapes hovered near the horizon. Even the light was bleak here, shining on the ruins of civilizations unknown. It felt false, as though there was no life in the warmth or color.
It cast an odd color on Tjra's creamy reddish-tanned skin, the bright cyan tattoos crisscrossing her smooth, hairless head seeming dull in the unforgiving color. She wore what was once a creamy white 3/4 sleeve collard shirt with neatly buttoned cuffs under a fawn-colored vest - both were now torn and patched in several places, the shirt smudged, though still recognizeable. It was tucked into a pair of dark brown breeches, with light half-calf leather boots. Like her shirt and vest, the breeches were in need of replacing, though Tjra was resourceful enough to know how to mend clothes, even if she wasn't very good at it.
Coming to a standstill beside Mygen, the blue-eyed woman crossed her arms over her chest in thought, her brow furrowing.
"I don't think they'd be hostile. They seem really cautious though," Tjra's current state of mind had her speaking in a sophisticated London accent; she had perfected a plethora of them, and habit brought her to practice them. Constantly. "Prob'ly be best to circle about and come around from the front, don't you think? Don't want them to think we're ambushing them."