Fetzen

Realms of Sun & Shadow

Valthyr Naffron

_{Location: Front side of the Eye Of The Beholder}

---

As strange as some of the individuals dwelling in this particular place looked, they appeared to pay very little attention to the raven that Valthyr still was. It was much more than a pure illusion, but nontheless it was not impenetrable. A faint aura of oddity might be picked up by the most sensitive and attentive observers with the right attunement towards the right magical whispers, but either non of these was present here or they were too overwhelmed by all the gossip and other things going on.

Good. All he had wanted here was to take a quick bath in the water and it looked as if he'd get just that! It was a big splosh as the bird plummeted into the spring and for any significantly smaller creature such as an insect it would have been equal to the self-inflicted doom of not being able to take off anymore. Valthyr found himself happy not to be such thing though and so he was back in the air a mere couple of moments later. During his observations so far, he had already discovered a particularly large building that clearly stood out from the others.

A palace of sorts, maybe for the local ruler ? The outer appearance couldn't tell, but at least parts of it looked even more new than the rest of this village, almost as if there had been some extensive additions only very recently. He landed on top of it and rammed his sharp beak into the outside part of the crest like a woodpecker, extracting a tiny bit of wood. The taste was clearly subpar as anticipated, but the texture indicated that wood had been harvested and put into place not a long time ago indeed.

Valthyr cast a wary glance towards a large chimney, noticing that one wrong move and he might have to take a bath yet again. He hopped away from it along the roof towards the other side, peeking over the roof's end and down to what appeared to be the building's main entrance. Quite a few more people down there that might have been interesting to watch from this kind of perspective for a while, but the journey had been a long one. The druid had grown bored by having to eat worms, small mice and similar things while also having to watch out for larger birds of prey. A giant plate of roasted meat would have been nice for a change!

The raven disappeared as silently as it had come. He needed to retrieve his clothes. It wasn't much since he had not been able to carry a lot around as a large bird, but enough to stay inside the boundaries of societal norms. He would definitely freeze, but hopefully he'd be able to get inside soon. Just prior to shifting back into human shape in an unseen place and at an unseen moment, the druid could just barely hear the low rumbling of at least one carriage. New visitors ? Good thing he could bypass the guards as he pleased!

Valthyr's dress could be considered very unreasonably light for the current weather. So light even that his shirt didn't manage to flatten all the hair on his quite muscular breast so it looked almost as if it hovered a bit above his skin even without any wind. The pants were a bit better, but the druid's feet dug deeply into the snow without any protection at all. That definitely was a method of making a snowy place in the lowlands feel at least as uncomfortable as his home high up in the mountains, Valthyr soon noticed.

"Excuse me, can I help ?"

Valthyr tried to come across as a harmless passer-by, to bury all potential questions about his appearance with his openly exclaimed will to render assistance. Just don't look anybody in the face for too long or they might notice you're a stranger. he thought. On the long run revealing himself was unavoidable, but he'd prefer doing so in the calmness of some office or whatever mayors preferred to push their pencils around in. He honestly wasn't even sure how a typical implementation of government on the municipal level looked like in Lunaris. Where he came from, that wasn't exactly your average town.

Realms of Sun & Shadow

Once having left its chimney, smoke had a tendency to adapt to the outside temperature quite quickly. Today that meant that it was very cold, but that did not make it any less acrid. Whoever was feeding the hearth down there had apparently little clue about how not to waste wood, otherwise he or she would not have allowed so much of it to escape in the form of sut.

Clearly one of the downsides of being a raven was not having any arms of fingers to rub one's poor eyes. Batting the eyelids frantically did help but only somewhat as the oncoming air pressed the tiny foreign objects firmly into every corner. Hadn't he spotted some sort of lake before circling over this town ? A dip into the water would certainly fix this problem. Hell, he didn't even know yet whether this was the place he actually wanted to go to. Signs were not exactly designed to be easy to read from high above.

Just as Valthyr was about to begin his little diversion towards the lake, he spotted another source of water. This one however was in stark contrast to the almost abyssmaly dark looking pond: almost crystal clear and, more importantly, steaming! Were these people crazy and heating an exterior pool of their own in winter or what was this ? It did look almost disturbingly luxurious though. Only problem was there seemed to be people, albeit from above they also looked rather similar to each other. What if they'd make a fuss about a harmless animal wanting to wash its feathers a little ? He didn't feel ready for a proper introduction yet!

Anyway, Valthyr decided, and so down he went in a steep dive that was only halted a few feet above a rock overlooking the scene. The raven's claws made a distinct sound as the two hard sufaces made contact with each other. The druid counted six people, it didn't raise his comfort level. What if any of them would mistake him for a fresh piece of lunch ? Yet had he come in as a wolf they might have thought he was mistaking them for lunch!

The raven released the usual sound these birds used to communicate with each other, but the actual intention was to alert those people here at these hot springs. He wanted to see their faces, judge their initial reactions before actually taking the splash dive into the water. And then he needed to figure out whether this was Dawnhaven or not.

---

_{Potential interaction: Anyone at the hot springs.}

Realms of Sun & Shadow

Wenyr

_{Location: The Eye Of The Beholder, outside and inside}

Wenyr let the door fall into its frame, confused and slightly shaken by the scene that had just unfolded in front of him. The blacksmith had no illusions about all the shady and weird things that certainly happened behind closed doors and solid walls in Aurelia's capital, but this here was a vastly different case. This was a fledgeling, small settlement where most people knew each other, so shouldn't the prince also be more aware about the details of its inhabitants ? Doubts started to gnaw at the fringes of Wenyr's so far very benign opinion about the man. Maybe Flynn was a little too enthusiastic about all of this, slightly neglecting reality and the strict rule it sometimes required ? This Willis guy, last but not least because of being blight born, should have been subjected to a bit more scrutiny upon arrival, perhals.

Or maybe he himself was just too pessimistic at the moment. Maybe the whole thing would appear as nothing more than a sequence of mishaps one could laugh about later on. Wenyr placed the bucket of daggers onto the workbench and made the decision not to melt them down today for certain. There were other priorities and just what was he supposed to do with all the other stuff Willis had dumped at the last possible moment ?

Breakfast first... The day would be long and he needed something in his stomach first. It could also offer an opportunity to ask around whether anybody knew something about this insignia, so one of the daggers found its way first into a small leather satchel so it couldn't sting anymore, then into a large pocket. If nobody in the Eye would be able to tell him, nobody in Dawnhaven could. One thing came to the other. Efficient.

---

Ivor was impossible to overlook for pretty much anybody on his or her way to the inn and neither was the fact that the giant apparently had not bothered himself with taking anything less than an entire tree for the repair work he was doing. For a brief moment, Wenyr wondered whether it might also have been him to have broken the door in the first place, but that was pure speculation.

"Good morning, Ivor. If that hatchet needs sharpening later on, just tell me." He waved towards the blightborn with a smile, completely unware of the fact that the person he had just greeted was maybe four times the volume, but not even one quarter of the trouble of his own, most recent visitor. The much more elderly looking warrior, Marcon, had just left moments prior and so Wenyr didn't witness just how... commanding... this individual could be on almost every occasion.

In spite of the momentary lack of a room separator, the tavern's inside welcomed Wenyr with almost the same familiar warmth he had come to like already. The one thing he couldn't see was the one-eyed ruler of the place. Wasn't she supposed to be in here ? Wenyr looked around briefly, combining this with a search for an empty chair, but couldn't see the one-eyed woman anywhere. Hopefully today's service would not be impaired by this too much, the day before had not been exactly welcoming already.

_{Interactions: Ivor @SkeankySnack
Generally anybody in the vicinity, possibly}

Realms of Sun & Shadow

Wenyr

The moisture suspended in the air hovering above the hot spring water made it diffiult to see any further than Wenyr's big hand could reach, but another method of propagating information proved to work rather well as the waves caused by Pleiades' involuntary splash dive reached the blacksmith. The unexpected commotion in the water almost made him spill the wine still left in his glass. A solid liquor much too tasteful to let it fall victim to such an event without remorse, but still not nearly pleasureable enough to completely distract its consumer from what was going on around him.

"Be careful! The pool's not very deep!" he shouted out into the haze, hoping that whoever had decided to go in so flamboyantly had been wise enough not to do so head first. The noise from the waves hitting the wall and enduring a mix of sploshing over and reflection cancelled out his chances to hear any of the words spoken, but a scream would have overpowered this acousting shielding he deemed. So... nobody was hurt apparently.

Little did Wenyr know about the enemy approaching him from below. A lot of things tended to be more soluble in very warm water than in cold water and the silent attack onto the contents of Pleiades' pockets had already begun. The man's own actions had also contributed to some tiny chunks directly falling into the water and now following the almost unnoticeable current towards the spring's drain. Wenyr sat in this stream, he could see the foreign bodies drift along almost next to him, and his relaxation that had just started regenerating was disrupted yet again by the sight of this unidentified debris. He had never held any opium in his hand before, let alone wet and disintegrating opium, and thus had no idea just how genius his decision not to taste, but only to inhale the smell of this piece of dirt actually was.

Couldn't people at least remove the roughest shit of their skin before going into the pool ? What if this now increasingly soft, goo-y stuff in reality was some kind of bird poop or the like ? The blacksmith was quite disgusted and heaved his not so tall, but all the more broad self out of the water in an instant. Having wrapped a large piece of cloth about himself, he took a slightly angered stroll around the water's edge in order to investigate. Soon, Pleiades and Lena came into his blurred sight.

"Hello! Did you notice that some significant dirt is..."

Wait! What ?

He spotted what looked like an odd discoloration on a rock first, then couldn't help but find it to be some substance with an eerie similarity to what he had just picked from the water.

"Is this yours ?" he asked rather sternly without addressing any of the two individuals in particular. His index finger pointed towards the opium to make clear what he was referring to. Somehow he started to feel a tiny bit odd now... Maybe he had risen out of the hot water and right into the cold air a tad too quickly for his circulation ?

---

_{Interacting with Pleiades (@The Savant) and Lena (@AliceInRedHeels)}

Realms of Sun & Shadow

Wenyr Targath

Wenyr waited. And waited. And still waited...

Hadn't Na'Ri promised to be back with him in time ? The blacksmith pondered whether the girl's definition of time could be a tad different from the usual, whether his own perception had shifted or whether something entirely different had happened. Not wanting to accuse anybody of anything without further proof, his mind defaulted to the latter. Given how busy the place was right now, that wasn't implausible either.

The man's callhoused hand squeezed itself into another pocket to retrieve a somewhat worn down looking piece of parchment. Contrary to many other means of documentation, dead skin had the advantage of being recyclable as often as the color used and one's skill with a razor allowed for. Wenyr found a piece of charcoal to be perfect and maybe even some people would be surprised to see how fine his motor skills could be when it came to saving some coin. But... just what had he scribbled on there recently ? He couldn't even remember, but it looked like something mathematical. Erasing something that was written in a language as close to that of god as a mere mortal could get felt slightly sacrilegious, but he needed the drawing space right now! He tried to keep the scratching at a very mild level though for the noise tended to upset people sometimes.

Wenyr soon lost track of just how long he had already sat lonely in his corner of the inn, his mind meandering somewhere between the most practical layout of his future workshop and how much fuel he would need for it. That of course depended on how much Dawnhaven would need him and his services, which in term depended on decisions made by yet another bunch of people, possibly. He already did not look forward to the moment he'd have to confront Sunni with a painstakingly fine-tuned list of requirements in terms of raw materials. For the blacksmith it was just that, a proof of the efforts he would have made to only ask for exactly what was really needed and not any more. For the merchant however ? The man's stress level had to be somewhere between the stars by now, so Wenyr honestly anticipated his very same list to read just the following in Mr. Emberani's eyes:

• Metal ingots: Insanely heavy stuff nobody wants to carry across a mountain pass even in summer!
• Coal: This crispy black crap tends to cause dust explosions and cleaning all the dirt will make the demand for soap soar sky high!
• Grinding stones: Can't this bulwark of a man just use his teeth or finger nails to do the sharpening ? Really ?! Why does he even use a hammer ? Smacking his forehead against the hot steel should suffice...

Another example of relativity in perception standing in his way this morning...

The blacksmith ultimately found himself running out of parchment to write and draw more stuff on. Now that he had been able to inspect Dawnhaven's most immediate surroundings over the course of the last few days, coming up with a good plan for his dwelling and working place had been surprisingly tedious still. Of course he did not plan to bother the prince with meaningless internals, but he needed to get those resources -- workforce, space, material -- allocated or at least a clear decision that those wouldn't be available for him anytime soon. Nobody in Dawnhaven should think that he'd just be sitting around with his hands idling in his lap...

What Wenyr did not know at this point however was just what kind of emotional disaster zone he'd stumble into by knocking at Flynn's door. He silently enjoyed the fact that it had turned noon even though the difference was quite theoretical, then repeated his gentle, nonverbal call for attention with blissful unawareness.

---

_{Mentions/potential interactions: Flynn (@The Muse), Olivia (@The Savant))}

Once bitten, twice sparkling!

Welcome to the Guild! ...and I really like the avatar! :)

The Land of Skara: and the Songtale of the Breaking

Vodilic's red mane waved in the wind as the lycan stepped up his pace significantly. The sound of people chattering and wagons rumbling along had reinvigorated him, causing the spontaneous decision to just screw this 'shortcut' of his that had failed anyway. Almost bursting out of the forest, the rather short man found himself surrounded by tall grass reaching almost up to his hips. In the distance, he could see the merchant caravan and instantly knew he had to hurry.

If any of the people on the caravan would have turned their head in the right moment, they would have been able to spot a figure blasting down the gentle slope on a horse. Who knew when the next crossing would be and he thus would be in danger of losing their track before reaching them! That being thought, Vodilic noticed that he was almost going too fast for his own good and was near to just falling off. Luckily though that didn't happen and, some rather dangerous minutes later, he got close to the last wagon.

Vodilic had put on the best clothes he had been able to find back home for the festival. His padded fur cloak was still somewhat clean, looked quite new and had the little secret of actually containing some of his own fur. Why spend precious coin on something else if one had the ability to grow that stuff oneself ? His werewolf shape had a lot of it! It looked almost like something a noble would wear in the public with individual strands almost glistening slightly, especially at dawn or in the moon's light and also in a similar color. Beneath that was a thin, dark brown layer of leather in the form of shirt and pants. It wrapped somewhat tightly about his body, revealing his slight, soft belly and the fact he did not seem to have that much muscle. His figure really was rather small even compared to some of the merchants and he left ample room in the saddle, but still his horse breathed heavily as if just having finished a long race.

The big question was: Why on earth had he just had to pass by a burning piece of bushwork ? There was no forest fire anywhere to be seen and also no open fires on any of the wagons, at least as far as he could oversee them from behind. He pushed forward a little until reaching about the middle of the caravan, then knocked gentle at one of the wagons in order to gain some attention from its driver.

"You don't mind me tagging along for the festival, do you ?"

The driver looked more like a merchant's assistant than being a man of trade himself and almost snapped back at Vodilic: "You, too ? Just had a weirdo with a fancy hat joining us. You two belong together ?" The man pointed towards one of the other carriages further in front of him.

"No, but... thank you."

Maybe he should see who this other guy was. Apparently his 'shortcut' had failed in even another way, that of keeping him a bit away from other people...

Realms of Sun & Shadow

Wenyr Targath

The prince! Of all individuals, Wenyr had deemed the odds of the royal couple in charge of this colony being here to be the lowest. Yet there Flynn was and Wenyr could steel feel the remnants of the man's reassuring squeeze on his shoulder. If only there would be a way to preserve it, just to make it a little easier for his mind to remember this nice little moment in life. Flynn's words echoed in his ears and made him happy, a meeting would be a good thing for multiple reasons.

The prince's footsteps had barely dissipated when another sound entered his ears. The far less pleasing, because kinda irritated if not outright angry voice of... Sunni ? Yeah, that had to be right. While still somewhat unfamiliar with the average person, the few days since Wenyr's arrival had been enough to at least get to know some of them and having some sort of connection with a merchant could only be a good thing. The tone didn't fit this time though, he had never witnessed Sunni in such an emotional state yet. Had his day not been so bright this time ? For a brief moment, Wenyr considered whether he should go upstairs where the voice had emanated from and have a look, but then he remembered one of his childhood friends who had reacted to this kind of approach not so well -- sometimes people just wanted to be alone no matter whether those coming did so for the sake of aiding or not. Not adhering to that kind of insight ? Dangerous territory!

Wenyr did not feel like stepping into dangerous territory right now. Trying to troubleshoot somebody else's problems from time to time was important to keep a community together, but not in such a forced manner. Also maybe it just wasn't as bad as it sounded ? There was more action going on upstairs and Wenyr remembered some young people who apparently were the merchant's assistants. Maybe it was them ?

"Lord Coswain and knightly party, such an honour. My name is Na'Ri,"

The girl's words made Wenyr turn his head almost in an instant. He had completely missed the fact that Lord Coswain was here as well ? What a shame... on himself! The blacksmith's eyes rested on the Lord just long enough to judge that the latter was busy and thus maybe might not have noticed him either. And if they had not been busy before, now they certainly where. From what Wenyr could hear over the general chatter from the patrons here, Na'ri not only whizzed around like a bee that'd been stung by three wasps at least, but also went pretty much all-in when it came to upselling her guests. Whether she would try the same on him ? Wenyr made a mental note of being cautious while his hand, half unconsciously, slipped into the depths of his pockets to check how much coin he had actually left to deal with such a vicious attack.

The table he choose was situated close to one of the main hall's corners. It was good to have a wall behind one's back even if just for the realm of subtle feelings in the back of one's head. Wenyr would have traded the wall for another chair at any time though for the one he sat down on creaked loudly as if very well outside its original design limits.

Realms of Sun & Shadow

Wenyr

Wenyr's parents had always told him that the first impression was the most important one, but they had never told him what to do if the most important thing was highly ambiguous. So was the case with Dawnhaven. On one side there was no arguing about whether what had been achieved so far was impressive given the time taken or not -- it just was. On the other side Wenyr couldn't help but find the location far less preferable. Back home he could probably still have strolled around the growing winter crops with hardly more than a linen shirt for cover and here, he could already feel the first snow touching his skin. Casually, he brushed through his hair in order to get rid of any snowflakes that might already have accumulated there without him noticing.

It dawned upon the blacksmith what might be coming: First, the melting snow would soften the roads and passes and make them, well, less passable. Then, with some luck, things would freeze over at some point and become solid again. With bad luck however it would start snowing more and at least some of the mountain passes would need to be closed for the sake of not everyone needing a rescue.

Who would rescue his business then, though ? Usually, the heavier and more difficult to transport goods whose lack wouldn't leave anybody starving yet would be delayed first or at least so he expected. What would he have left to work with then but scrap metal and bare wood to make a fire ? And the entire settlement would be put to its first real test when conditions turned for the more harsh...

As Wenyr strolled around Dawnhaven's streets a bit aimlessly for the lack of better knowledge, he honestly contemplated about whether it would be better to try and open a workshop in spring, but -- what should he do until then ? Also the nobleman who effectively was his employer would likely not accept that kind of thinking. He had to get going no matter whether the sun was shining or not and for this he needed to know the place a lot better and probably also get some permits. Yes, permits! Wenyr silently, but no less truly assumed that a closer proximity to the kingdom of Lunaris did not necessarily correlate with a reduction in bureaucracy, or law and order as it was sometimes called slightly euphemistically as well.

Right now, the blacksmith was dressed in an attire a bit more suited for the low temperatures. A thick fur cloak made his shoulders look even more obscenely broad than they already were and he had put on the warmest piece of linen cloth he had been able to find in the mess that was his current 'home'. Wenyr had barely arrived a few days prior and his dwelling place equaled a chaotic looking heap of halfway opened, wooden crates with a large piece of fabric on wooden poles serving as a makeshift roof. A lot of work would be required, but for that he first needed to know where it was possible to deploy. And maybe he'd not ask the same people again to do him a favor and help lifting the damn anvil of the carriage. Their grudge against him would probably last longer than the various aches acquired in the process.

Squinting his eyes slightly, Wenyr deciphered the letters on a sign that gently waved in the wind: Eye Of The Beholder. The building looked as if being given priority in terms of construction effort, but if this was as much of an inn as it seemed to be, it was clear why. Who didn't need a warm place to stay ? And frankly so did he. It took a bit of courage to open the main hall's entrace for a dense crowd of people had never really appealed to Wenyr, but it was a small price he was more than willing to pay.

And just how little he knew the place still! From the many people now in his sight, he could hardly pick anybody he was already familiar with. Don't keep standing around like an idiot! Don't stare at everybody, especially not the women! Trying not to behave like a stalagmite that had just popped up out of nowhere and now blocked everybody's way, Wenyr stepped forward towards what looked like the bar. Maybe somebody would be able to give him some guidance there.

The Land of Skara: and the Songtale of the Breaking

Vodilic

Being out in the wilderness felt rather relaxing as a beast, but not so much as a human. From a purely logical point of view it probably was a weird thing for he should have known the place and its lack of dangers all too well, but the increasing darkness around him triggered an almost discomfording level of alertness. Was there a big bear hiding in the shadows ? A boar who could try to run him over in a panic or an act of aggression ? The fact that there was still some morning haze left surviving in between the tree trunks didn't make things any better.

It's just a dense forest... Vodilic tried to calm himself, but his senses, partly animalistic still, kept pushing their findings into his mind: a suspicious cracking here, the smell of a small creek there, and hadn't he just trampled over some animal trails ? Part of him wished to swap places with his horse at this point. It was commonly said that these were runaway animals, right ? Then why was it perfectly relaxed and he was the one on alert then ? Okay, maybe it was just happy about the break as well.

Yet there was absolutely noone to blame than Vodilic himself. He had made it his very own choice to keep of the proper roads in order to take this 'shortcut', but the more he ventured on the more it dawned upon the lycanthrope that sheer distance alone might not be the most appropriate metric to judge how far away a certain destination was. He'd return to some more beaten path as soon as possible, that was for sure!

Carefully, Vodilic wrapped his padded fur cloak tighter around him. It felt rather frigid and it also was. Good thing he had taken his good boots for this, otherwise he'd already have ended up with wet feet and a cold. Part of him hoped to find some company while another part of him hoped for the opposite. Both had their pros and cos and he just couldn't decide yet. Maybe this would change once having seen another soul again, but maybe he should just try and turn and move forward on four paws instead of two feet ? Could make things a lot more efficient, but also more dangerous in some way...