Baulder & E'nasha
Baulder while continuing his never ceasing consumption of food somewhat tuned out the demonstrations. Though when a cooked stake fell onto his plate smelling of the inferno his attention was grabbed for a few moments before returning to his food. While the stake tasted and smelled of the inferno it was a nice palate cleanser and change from the rest of the roasted and burnt meats. Though the rolls were something of note, he would need to find out how he could get more when the feast was over.
Though as the matches began though he kept a half glance on it at most times but he was mostly concerned with eating one of everything he could get his hands on. Though when the once what had been a lady became...... several different things, he began to find that he was now tasting the same thing over and over again. He guessed that he had lost track of time. The whole day seemed to be like that so far, pieces not really missing but unaccounted for. As the fight ended Baulder abruptly stood up and got around the bench he was sitting on. He looked back at the mass of bones and dishes he had managed to accumulate. But he felt like he needed more, if he didn't get more he might go to sleep. He wasn't ready to go to sleep yet, he wanted to keep eating. It finally occurred to him that there had been mention of food stands outside of the college in the various courtyards.
Determined to find more good eats he set off and out of the dining hall. When he walked over the threshold of the college and into one of the courtyards and grinned at the smells. While the sky never quite went fully dark or light he could still tell it was night time, something he had gotten used to figuring out in the few months he'd been there. That was off set by all the various designs of lanterns which hung at various heights and were strewn from various poles.
As he began walking through the middle of the stalls in the trampled dirt he was bumped into by yet more soldiers some even of obviously different origins mingling. He also felt the hot and smokey air as it wafted into the middle isle. There was quite a large multitude of smells hitting him at any given moment. All of the smells felt like different texture hitting his skin at different angles with some course and some rough. But all of them good in their own way. He finally decided to approach one of the stalls as someone not dressed as a soldier or a student was ordering something in a language he didn't know. They had large poles half the length of his arm with
something on them. He could only assume that it was meat and he picked it up and bit into it. He heard the person on the other side of the small dividing wall separating him and the cooks begin yelling. Not really caring Baulder walked off and began devouring the sweet yet somewhat spicy meat quite aggressively.
He repeated this process a couple of times grabbing whatever the vendors had out. Everything had such a different texture and flavor he was having a hard time sorting through all the flavors and smells assaulting his senses. It was so nice of these people to just have their food sitting out for him and everyone else. Maybe these people were good people. Though he noticed that every time he walked away from a stall the people would begin yelling about something. Most of them were either not loud enough for him to hear over the festival noises or in some speech he didn't know. But then he suddenly felt a hand grab his shoulder quite firmly. Quickly turning around he found a large soldier type man looking eye to eye with him. "Hey! You gonna pay for that roast?"
Baulder looked at the man with questioning eyes. "If you don't pay for that right now we are gonna have problems kid." Who was this guy? Did he know him? The man then suddenly did something Baulder didn't like, even cutting Baulder off before he could get a word out. He reached out and grabbed Baulder's shirt with full fist and brought him really close to his own face. "You're gonna pay for that, you sub-humans looking for free rides all the time I sho..." The man suddenly found himself in a choke hold by John Cena who Baulder had brought in seeing as this man was so intent on being annoying. As Baulder began walking away he saw several more soldier types begin to look at him and step towards him. Fearing for his life Baulder began to pace away from the now mean looking people. He heard behind him the man who had grabbed him yell out. "Thief! Man's a theif!" The soldiers started moving on him and Baulder decided it was best to run.
Having slipped outside after the fight demonstration between the Rune master and the Vitamancy teacher, E'nasha walked around the many different stands enjoying the ambiance that the lanterns gave to this land's twilight night. She heard a commotion a couple of stands over, and as she went to investigate someone ran right into her, knocking her down and tripping up the other person. "Oh, sorry I didn't see you.. are you alright?" She asked the man as she got herself off the ground, offering her hand to him to help him up as she did.
Baulder for a second kept running into the ground not realizing he had tripped. His face felt like it had a dull pain to it and was red due to him hitting the ground face first. He pressed himself up off the ground and turned around to see a shorter girl behind him holding out her hand. Baulder looked at her confused for a moment, then said.
"Did I just trip on you? I would assume yes... yes?" Baulder heard yelling and could see movement in the crowd. Why were they coming for him? They were such nice people.
"Uh, yea. But it was my fault. I wasn't watching where I was going and- are you being chased?" She stopped speaking as she heard the calls of 'Thief! Thief!' and saw guards coming in their direction. "Oh great. Ummm, this way." She motioned for the guy to follow her as she slipped between two of the stalls, cutting through to the next row. Checking over her shoulder once to make sure he was following she led him away from the stalls and around a corner, stopping briefly there to see if they'd lost them yet.
Following the strange lady through the cramped back alley as he saw the soldiers begin to breach the crowd was an odd experience. To get through the alley he had to extend his awkwardly long legs. This just made him realize how much he towered over the girl. As they came out the other side into the row Baulder left his legs extended as he realized he hadn't stretched them in a long time.
"They were such nice people, he kept asking me to do something..... it was a word I can't remember. Oh, hello I'm Baulder. I... thank you. Are you a student?" Baulder said thinking that just in case she said no he was going to need to save his strength and try to get John Cena back to him.
"Well, people aren't always what they seem, but those guys seemed pretty steamed at you. They kept calling you a theif, maybe you accidentially took something without paying?" She smiled a little as he introduced himself and shook her head. "No problem. I'm E'nasha, an herbamancy student. I'll help you sort this out if you'd like, I'm sure we could talk to the guards about it. And if not we'll just keep avoiding them."
Giving E'nasha a questioning look again Baulder responded with a smile aswell.
"What's paying? If they think I stole the food..... they just had it out." Baulder paused for a moment, he scratched his burn mark for a second before it occurred to him.
"If we avoid the people, I think that would be more fun yes? Wait.... Herbamancy? Can you grow things?" Baulder bit his tongue for a moment, was it food he came out here for? "Do you like food by chance?"
"Well, they had the food out to show what they were selling, and I, uh... I'm not really sure how to explain paying. You just, have to give people money before taking stuff." E'nasha glanced around again to make sure they were still clear of the guards before becoming perplexed at Baulder's next questions. "Well, I'm not sure about fun, but It'd be more interesting then wandering around I guess. As for herbamancy, growing stuff is kind of the point, and I have yet to find a food that I don't like." Certain that the guards wouldn't look much further than the edge of the stalls for them, She began to walk the now-familiar path to the gardens. For only having been at the college a few days, she could probably find her way to the gardens no matter where she was. "So, I'm guessing you're a student as well? What's your mageblood? Oh, it's ok if you'd rather not tell me though, some people get nervous telling people stuff about themselves."
Baulder for some reason found himself interested in this girl, well he supposed anyone that would talk to him he was interested in. Baulder for a moment was given a smile by the memory of his first meeting with the demon Tyrael. Maybe this could be interesting like that? Following her through a path that he had never seen before Baulder was inclined to look around and take everything in as he walked beside the girl. He finally recoiled his legs taking him back to his normal height, which was still made him quite a bit taller than her.
"Yes, it's all well people don't ask me much they seem to want to be asked. Demonmancy seems to be my blood, though there is not a lot to it right now. Just John, I have no idea where it went...hmm." Baulder put a few seconds thought into what had actually happened to the imp, he "felt" as though he may have ended up back in the Inferno but he would need to check later.
"How long have you been here? I think maybe I've been here ten nights but I think we may be missing..... some nights. How are you liking it here?" Baulder said cracking a wide grin as they walked along.
"I don't know much about most of the magebloods, but demonmancy is like creature summoning right?" She surpressed the memory of long ago that came up at the mention of demonmancy. Not all demonmancers were like that, besides, she was just a kid then. She skipped into the garden as she moved onto the new topic, spinning around to face Baulder as he entered the garden. "Time seems to go slower here, doesn't it? It feels like longer, but I know I've only been here for about 5 days. Honestly, I've felt a little lonely scince I got here, I'm not used to being away from my friends for so long each day. What about you? Do you have a favorite place to be or something?"
Baulder looked at E'nasha and was taken aback for a moment. What did he like? He began staring off trying to remember. He felt something in the place that should be his favorite place but he was met with nothing but imperceptible darkness. His brow quivered a bit as he tried to think. There was nothing there but emptiness.
"I... like the Underhaven.... the river.... yeah the Underhaven has been fun for me I like that place." Baulder said bounding out of his near depression like thoughts to something that he liked.
"What do you mean by lonely?""It's like, I've spent 90% of my time ever since I was a kid with 2 people, and now I can't see one anymore while the other is too busy with his own stuff now for us to hang out very often. You're actually the first person I've talked to for more than five minutes since coming here." Now that she's said it, E'nasha realized just how true it was. Not wanting to linger too long on the thought however, she continued on. "I don't think I've heard of Underhaven yet. Is that a place on the college grounds?"
Was he alone? Baulder reached out and touched one of the leaves on a particularly thorny plant. He rubbed it between his fore finger and thumb feeling and smelling it deeply. Surely if he could touch this plant he wasn't ever alone.... surely. When she changed the conversation away Baulder's inquisitive look vanished and he turned around.
"Oh Underhaven has been quite a bit of fun. You can get anything there, I do like the lamb they do. It's underneath us I believe. So if that doesn't qualify as college grounds I don't know what does!" Baulder was ecstatic just thinking about the hilariousness that had occurred there just last night.
"Say can you do anything with your mageblood yet? It took me some days before I found out what I had to do to use it so don't worry if you can't." Baulder was exhuming his happiness about the idea of the Underhaven onto his face and for once feeling like he could laugh given a slight push.
Baulder's excitement was contagious as he spoke about Underhaven, it was clear he enjoyed being there. it was nice to hear the tone of happiness in his voice. E'nasha smiled proudly when he asked what she could do with her mageblood, quickly finding a flower seed and cupping it in her hands, holding it up so he could see it easier. She focused, and after a minute the seed cracked open and a tendril sprouted, uncurling as it took up the new space granted to it outside of the seed. "It will take a while before I can get it to bloom, but just starting a sprout is an important step." She continued to hold the sprout in her hands as they continued talking, watching more little tendrils pop out and wrap around her fingers.
"Yes you make things from things, do you like the things you make? The things I make are fun, but they like to things in their free time. He likes being around I think, eating sometimes when I eat. But you have total control of that no? -the plant will do what you want? John does most of the time, sometimes he runs off." Baulder paused for a moment remembering their earlier conversation.
"He keeps me not alone. But I like you more, he dosen't really talk you do though. What's your favorite thing here? In the garden, I know you must like some of the plants more. I certainly like some of the-" Baulder stopped for a moment, the fire demon still made him remember how he could have been immolated during that adventure with the teacher. He liked John Cena more.
"Yea, I like all the plants I use, and within reason I can control the plant completely. Plants aren't able to do anything much on their own other than survive, because they don't have any plans for themselves. I can use a plant like a tool, molding its natural abilities to fit my needs." She paused to laugh for a second. "I can't imagine what it would be like if a plant tried to run away from me! I have no way to tell if plants like me or not, but I suppose that John could just tell you if he didn't like you." At Baulder's mention of not being alone, E'nasha stopped walking and looked at him curiously. "Baulder, do you have any friends here yet? or at least someone you spend time with whenever you have nothing else to do?"
Baulder wondered if John could live simply survive if he wasn't directing him. He quickly decided on a probably. Something he thought of aswell was that Tyrael had talked about molding the imp into something, perhaps the bloods wern't that diffrent? But the question of friends was more of what that word meant. He knew vaguely what the idea of it was as the villagers had used the term when talking to each other.
"What are friends? The villagers they used it and I've heard it used here...... is it a deal? I've made deals before, lots of grain deals. John Cena is the one I've been spending the most time with, well and the books I was told to read. They don't talk much but they are atleast somewhat... informative. Most of them apply directly to John which was fun." Baulder's brow raising and a thin grin growing on his face.
"Um, it's kind of like a deal, I suppose. You would agree to hang out with each other and be there when the other needs help with something. And as a bonus you get to know each other really well and have a lot of good memories together. A friend is a person you can depend on, and they can depend on you. I think that's a bit different than just reading a book." E'nasha smiled at Baulder as she finished speaking.
"I... guess I don't have any of those then. Most of the people seem like nice people, they seem to want to leave when I'm there though. Khan was nice people though, the big lizard guy you know? Taller than me somehow, he really didn't want to take his pills though." Baulder was suddenly struck with an idea.
"Hey tell you what, wanna go get up on the wall? I think that would be fun! I haven't been up there yet.""Khan, the headmaster? Why..." She trailed off as she didn't really know what she wanted to ask in the first place. "How would we get on top of the wall? The only way other than climbing would be to use the guard's stairs, and I doubt they will just let us do that." While her tone was skeptical, she did want to go up there. The walls were high enough that you could probably see the entie campus from the top, and with all the activity going on right now that would be very intersesting to see. "Well, we won't know untill we try, will we?" She said excidedly, looking around for the nearest way up.
"Yes, the headmaster. So many titles around this place, there was only one person with a title back at the village and that was the blacksmith." Baulder smiled that the girl shared his intrest of wall adventures.
"I bet... there is a way up the wall that isn't a guard house. I think.... I think I know of a place." He began walking in a direction before it became immediately apparent to him that he had no idea how to leave the garden. He turned back around to E'nasha.
"How do I leave this place?" He said laughing albeit a bit stifled.
E'nasha laughed with him for a moment before leading him back the way they had come. "I got lost the first time I came here, turns out that I ended up walkng in circles for an hour or so. Do you know were you're going from here?"
Baulder thought about it for a moment as he tried to remember where he was. When the image of a rickety wooden ladder against the wall clicked into place on the far side of the courtyard in his head, he excitedly said.
"Yes... yes! We go!" Baulder said grabbing E'nasha's hand and taking off into a jog towards the far end of the courtyard. The stalls around him quickly became less and less familiar. They had out continuously odder things the further along the wall he got. The smells and the textures they brought to him became stranger aswell though nothing that he smelled did he think he wouldn't like. But soon the stalls ended and the lanterns aswell. While the perpetual twilight did give off a pretty even amount of light at all times the obvious night time had obscured the edges of the college which the lantern's light did not touch. The ladder was propped up against the wall and was barely visible as he approached but it was much in the same place he had seen it earlier in the day when he was watching the stalls be set up.
As he approached the ladder he smiled and slowed down to a slow walk finally letting go of E'nasha's hand. The ladder reached to just above the lip of the wall and looked rather old but if hauling wheat had taught him anything, ladders were usually sturdy.
"Well, do you want to go first?"The ladder barely looked like it would hold a kitten, let alone them. Taking a breath and pushing the thought aside however, E'nasha nodded once before starting to climb. "Hopefully if this thing breaks we'll be closer to the ground than the top." She said jokingly after a moment. When she got to the top she turned to help Baulder onto the wall, making sure the ladder didn't fall as she did. Once they were both on the wall she looked out over the courtyard, smiling at the view. "Amazing! Everyone looks so small from up here..."
Baulder sat down on the edge of the wall facing in towards the college with his long legs hanging off the edge. The colomuns of smoke and the bright blazes down in the bowels of the stalls were nice to see interacting with each other. The smells though were much more mingled up here and less distinct meaning the feeling on his skin was much less distinct.
"Could do with more fire and fighting though. Would look bustling then I think." He said coyly looking back up at E'nasha.
"With how many people there are here though, I think it's a good thing that there arn't a bunch of fights happening. It means that everyone's happy. A fire would be nice though, everyone could gather around and tell stories or just watch the flames." E'nasha sat on the wall next to baulder, not hanging over the edge though for fear of falling. She still had the sprout in her hand, and after carefully unwrapping the tendrils from herself she gave it to Baulder. "It's starting to bud now, and even if I don''t help it anymore it will bloom in a week or two." She smiled at him before continuing. "I want you to have it, as a present from a new friend."
Baulder took the small plant in his hands from E'nasha. While it ceased growing anymore it was already looking like a well established plant. He was rather tempted to just eat it seeing as he didn't know what plant it was but he decided against it, though he may eat it still later. He looked with a glint in his eyes, he flashed his unnaturally straight teeth at the excitement of being given a gift. He supposed Tyrael had when he gave him the blades but that was for a job, so really this was the first time someone just gave him something.
"I have nothing to... if.... you need something ever, ask me." Baulder felt the situation weird, he had never been given something for nothing before. He moved the plant to a pocket in his trousers and put his hands back down on the wall to stabilize himself on the wall's edge.
"So why did you come to the college?""You don't have to give me anything back. Meeting someone new is enough for me!" E'nasha smiled before answering his question. "I came here because it's more interesting than the desert, and to learn how to control my mageblood. The first time I ever used it I got Blood Sickness, and I've gotten sick since then too. Too many times, so I hope that by learning and training with my mageblood I can get stronger and stop getting sick. Plus, I want to help people, and I can't think of a better way to do that than with magic. What about you, any special reason for coming here?"
Baulder thought to himself that he would need to find a way to help her later, it seemed like she wouldn't ask him for help. Surely she would need help with something in the future, he would just need to figure out what it was. Stowing this away in his brain he thought for a moment about why he had come. He had wanted to right? Yes, the villagers told him to. They were growing tired of him, he felt compelled though yes? Baulder's thoughts began to cross and he decided on what was winning at the moment.
"After the villagers found me..... spent awhile there helping they, figured out i had blood.... I felt compelled to come. I think they were growing tired of me aswell... the harvest was bad last year they didn't. Ever since I woke up in that field I've felt like I was.... missing something. Being here feels right.... I guess." Baulder said making multiple small face contortions throughout his thought trying to get something nailed down.
It was difficult to follow what Baulder was saying, his words seemed so separated, but after a moment E'nasha caught the jist of what he meant, hopefully. "I think I know what you mean, this place should be alien to newcomers like us, but it dosn't feel that way. While the college is very different from home, it's welcoming enough that the separation isn't so bad. But, what do you mean by the villagers finding you, and waking up in a field? Are you alright?"
"Y-yeah, I woke up last summer... the villagers said I did anyways. Wolves they said... I...he killed them? The one who was here before.... he's been gone... I'm what is us now. I don't remember him, what he did. It's just darkness before that day, there is nothing but me now. Whoever he was died there and I was..." Baulder for a moment realized that he couldn't really figure out where he came from. Most of the time he had tried not to think about it but now...the question had come up to the surface.
"The villagers taught me how to do things after I woke up. I remembered how to do some things though, no idea where or how I learned how to do things like read and write. Not everyone can, I found out, I just could for some reason. There was a lady who was from another village, she was a psychomancer I think..... she told me to come here. I wanted to stay with the villagers that had helped me but eventually they told me I had to leave, I couldn't think of anywhere else to go. When I started here it felt right.... somehow. But when master Tyrael brought me into the Inferno.... that felt weird. It was funny, really funny.... it just felt funny."Baulder paused for a moment.
"Yes, I think I'm alright. Did.... what did home.... feel like? What was it... like, I....don't know what mine is.... "Wolves and, him? Them? As much as E'nasha wanted to ask Baulder if he could explain more, his question to her left her speechless as she tried to think how to answer. "Well, back in Yarosmere was just a really big desert. Aside from the houses there was nothing around but sand, and it was dangerous to leave the village because you could get lost in the sands. The people there are what made it bearable, a story was worth more to us than anything. As for feeling, I suppose it was safe, and comforting. Everyone knew everyone and helped eachother; looking back, most places aren't like that." E'nasha smiled at Baulder. "Home is where there are people you trust and love to be around, so even if you don't know where that is, you will. Just take some time to think about it."
"Sand?" Baulder paused for a moment.
"As in around a lake? Is Yarosmere a big lake?" Baulder only knew of one place that he could find sand as she was calling it. What she was describing was forgein to him at best. His face sliding itself into a postion of bewilderment. These words she used "love" and "trust" also had no real meaning to him. He knew that they were words that people said and used but he had no definition for them.
" If I thought....I have no..... those words, those two words you used." Baulder strained under his own confusion as it racked over his thoughts in waves trying to push his mind in a certain direction.
"Love and trust? W-I have no definition of it. They are words I know...what do you mean?"E'nasha laughed before answering. "Yea, sand like what's around a lake. I wish Yarosmere was a big lake, It'd be a lot easier to live there if it were. Really though, it's just sand, like all the water in the lake has dried up from the heat. And it's always hot there, so it's dosen't rain enough to fill the lake back up." After a few secconds of thought E'nasha was pretty sure she had a good way to answer Baulder's next questions. "Trust is belief in someone or something, normally shown through an action. Earlier when you followed me to get away from those guards, you trusted me, even if only a little. Love... is a lot harder to explain. There are different types of love, some much stronger than others. I guess an example would be your favorite food, you could say that you love that food, because it is your favorite."
Baulder attempted to catalogue what she was telling him but as it was filed away for later use the actual information became obfuscated. Now the feeling of confusion had passed he layed his back down on the cold cobblestone of the wall with his feet dangling off the wall, his questions had been coming to him quickly but the feed had been cut and now he was out of them. Though one last one came to him.
"What have you been doing while you've been here? I ask as this place has shown me some... interesting things, I'm hoping I've not been the only one experiencing this... this delightful madness." Baulder said with a slight smile forming at the ends of his mouth.
"Delightful madness. That's, actually a perfect way to describe this place." E'nasha smiled as she looked off into the distance. "Other than the classes I go to, which can be pretty fun, and the garden, I've been doing paperwork. I actually just finished what I hope to be all of it yesterday, so I'm thinking that things will get more interesting after today. What about you?"
"Well... within a few minutes of being here I was brought into the inferno or some place I'm unsure if that actually happened. When I woke up I was in an infirmary with an old man who gave me clothes, he was nice. Then I saw plants mauling a student, that's how I met the staff actually. Then the demon sent me with a short girl to a sea or something, I beat a lobster to death, was... big." Baulder made a half hearted attempt to show how big it was by extending his arms briefly
"They were tasty but I had to bring some back, couldn't eat them all. Studying like you.... oh and the orcs. They were fun. I liked them. They enjoyed food, I like people that like food." Baulder brought up his clawed hands for a moment and looked at them as the lights of the gathering below brought contrast to his hand.
"What.... is it like to know those like you... Khan said there was one like me before, he's gone now. People I mean, they LOOK like you or... well a lot like you, not to say you all look the same.... you look better than the others... I mean" Baulder realized he was stepping on words trying to find something specific but he was unable to find the word.
"Like the lizards, there are many of them. But there is only one of me, I don't know where we exist but there must be more yes? I can't be alone in exsistance with.... sorry... I mean what is it like knowing others like you are around, you are not different from them.""I've... never really noticed it before. But yeah, there are a lot of us, uh, humans I guess? We're practiaclly everywhere you go... It never seems like much, and I've never thought about what it'd be like if there weren't any. I suppose it should feel comforting, to know that i'm just one of many, but not really. I've never thought in terms of just 'human' before, I sort of just see the individual." E'nasha smiled at Baulder. "And you as an individual are very unique. Even if there are more people like you somewhere, there is only one you. And i'm glad I met you."
"Individuals... single people, that seems not... right. Haven't you been several people? You are multiple people through time yes? You are not the same as you were yesterday no? We're you not more like everyone else yesterday..." Baulder was hung up on the word "individual" for a moment.
"Then I'm alone is what you're... if there are people like me, they are not me. I... am glad I met you... I don-... uncertain now of me." Baulder's eye twitched and he was filled with a sense of dread. He was alone, for the moment yes. He wondered what the other would say. Had he dealt with this before him? Surely he had, this seemed like something he would always run into. He was now unsure what he was even doing.
"Are you certain of what you are?" Baulder was trying to find a life line for this crisis now. Surely the girl had an answer for him yes?
"Maybe? I guess that's a no." E'nasha laughed lightly. "If you want to think that way then no one is certain of what they are. Other than at this very moment we are alive, we know nothing about ourselves, we can't prove anything else. But you're definitely not alone. Just because you don't know anyone else like you, or just because you're a unique individual, does not mean that you're alone. You've got me, and anyone else you decide to become friends with, because we're all different, but we all have similarities too. We're all alive, right here, right now. And that's the biggest similarity you'll ever need to be connected with someone else."
"Yes friend, this is living then huh? Watching small people scurry about with purpose while asking of a purpose. You I like, the longest I've talked with someone... ever." Baulder cracked a grin that he struggled to bend into anything less.
"Still so much food to eat to, yes that's a similarity, food. Everyone eats food yes?" Baulder laughed deeply for a moment having snapped out of his momentary depression. His eye twitched again but his smile remained as he looked at E'nasha for a moment then down to the people below as they scurried around.
"Haven't met anyone yet who didn't eat." E'nasha laughed as she watched all the people below for a moment. "Speaking of food... I think those guys will have given up looking for you now, wanna go look around the stalls for a little bit?"
"Yeah, that sounds good." Baulder said as he got up with E'nasha and began to make their way off the wall.
