Argen slowly makes his way out of the shelter and begins to grab some of his supplies: his spear, shield, his large bear fur, and his scarf. As he begins checking his things he finds himself shivering and his hands shaking profusely as the cold has been getting to him through his layers of fur and cloth. His countenance didn’t show it though as he just stood up and began to look around to find a nice spot to post up at near the cart. It seems the bad weather has cleared up and the clouds dissipated allowing the night to actually show through. With all of the stars over head it looked like someone had lit the moons on fire and the stars danced around it. It looks absolutely lovely and has Argen stealing glances quite often in between him watching the forest around him.
After having been woken up again this night, despite nearly stabbing Oscar to death out of reflex, the second time was a lot more pleasant. Sure, it was a lot colder. Way too cold, in fact, but at the very least there was a clear sky full of bright stars to look at. Not even back in the city, around the same time, had she ever seen something like that.
"Beautiful..." She whispered under the cold, making sure to move each of her muscles properly. Sadly, however, she had a job to do. Even now Muu couldn't quite recall if Ettamri had put her on this job whilste calling her an idiot or not. But this deep into the night... someone had to do it. Thus, together with Argen somewhere close(?), Muu made sure to watch between the trees under the bright moon- and starlight properly.
And it got colder, and colder... yeah, okay, this was set to be ultimately pretty boring, no?
Argen began to watch the forest less and less as he began to look at the sky for long periods of time. He slowly sighed as he then throws a question towards his partner, ”Do you think the moons is actually 2 large eyes of a god looking at us?”
This question has eaten at him since he first saw the moon. Anytime he nearly met death he saw that moon watch him as he made it through those tough times. Maybe some god watched him survived those terrible times and they either took pity on him or watch his struggle with joy. He just can’t tell because he will never get to know what they think.
Somewhat perplexed, maybe at the fact that after a long period of silence her 'party member' started to talk, Muu looked at him. Just for a moment, however, before she checked back onto the trees.
"There are no gods." Simple as that. A non believer.
Argen took this answer but he always had questions needed to be answered, and in all honesty this past month has made him question everything around him.
”Then how do you suppose magic works? Especially the magic of the priests and Paladins?”
"Well..." Indeed, how did they work? A good question, but... "I am not a magician, so how should I know? But as far as Gods go, I have yet to meet one myself. You believe what you see." Very downright to earth indeed.
”That’s fair you aren’t a magician. I was just wondering. I haven’t met a god either and I think I never will, however I think seeing is believing is not quite right”.
As Argen lets out a sigh and continues, ”Magic needs to come from somewhere, a place we cannot see. Like a fire mage being able to conjure fire from thin air or an ice mage using an ice wall with no water nearby. These seem like strange thing happening out of nowhere, even Siwon seems to have a form of magic. It just seems it is connected to his little ‘friend’. They seem to talk and react to each other and their surroundings separately. And they seem to communicate not out of his own deranged mind but maybe out of some ability he was given to communicate with a spirit who helps him and gives him power”.
As Argen looks back out and around him again making sure nothing is coming near their camp or snuck past as he was talking as he continued, “That’s where this idea comes from. If a god does exist do you thing they actually watch over us, or do you think they leave us to our own devices?”
Being long winded was not a normal thing for Argen, but he has had a lot of questions he needed to get off of his chest. He knows Muu probably wouldn’t care otherwise, but he really needs to put this idea out and for a second opinion on the matter. Besides talking is better than sitting in silence for the next few hours freezing to death.
"..." He sured liked to ask a lot of weird questions, did he not? "If some sort of God would exist, we — I — would have seen it, sooner or later, wouldn't you agree?" Muu simply, kind-of, repeated herself as she kept looking over the nightly winter wonderland. "But... entertaining the thought they do exist, clearly they do not bother with us. Since there is no proof. So, what differences does them existing make?"
”Maybe to watch their creations struggle and survive? To watch them grow and become their ideal? Or maybe they are just watch waiting to see us suffer”. This last part sounding colder than Argen normally sounds.
Argen looks up at the moon again and sighed as he continued, ”I just don’t know. It feels like something has kept me away from Death’s hands for this long, it just feels like something is here to keep me from dying quite too early”.
As Argen continues to look out into the forest as he began to walk around the campsite trying to make sure he didn't leave anywhere unattended for too long.
Muu sighed for a moment, before she responded flatly. "Again, what difference does it make? They can watch all they want — or don't. Nothing changes. Besides..." The brunette went silent for a second. "Listen, I don't know you, and neither do I honestly care. But the 'something' that made you survive so far hasn't been some higher being. It was you. You, with your own strength. You should be more confident in yourself."
”I don’t know. The parties that were wiped would say otherwise”. As Argen continues to walk around and watch the forest.
”Besides I just think it’s nice to just talk. Especially in this cold environment. Anything you have you want to get off your chest?”
Argen asking as he has said quite a bit and found it would be better if he started having the other person begin to speak. Especially since she did seem to know about his past parties.
"I..." Muu was about to speak up as quickly as she stopped. Silent for a few good seconds, using this time to make absolutely sure that their surroundings had been safe. "You ARE the silver-eyed shieldbearer of misfortune!?" While before her voice was somewhat neutral, there was now a genuine surprise. Maybe even a bit of a shock.
With a sad smile he looked towards Muu as he said, ”I am”. As he continues his rounds every once in a while looking up towards the sky and taking in the view again. It was fair she would be surprised or even scared. Maybe even apprehensive towards him, but he needed this off of his chest and he never really found a time to do it, so now seems like the best of any.
"How does it happen?" Muu now asked. "You don’t strike me as someone who purposefully gets his party members killed."
”Well now that’s the story. How did I end up with this title? I would like to say I was stronger, wiser, or just smarter. But I wasn’t It felt like plain dumb luck for me to get out alive of deadly situations”.
”If you wanna know what happened I am willing to tell, but it is a bit of a story”.
Or maybe he was just craven? Shieldbearer - protector of the front-line. Hah. Giving a slight shrug, the brunette now said with a light smile. "We got time."
”Well, we’ll start with my first party. On our mission we were tasked to hunt down some goblins, our party was ambushed and massacred by a gang of goblins lead by a strange skull-faced spear goblin. I got split away from the rest of my party and fought on my own for a bit before, in an act of self preservation, I ran away from the band instead of charging in as I knew I was no match for the group of goblins by myself"
As he took in a deep breath as he sighed out, "They died because we took this job as a fun journey. Not work, not as a dangerous endeavor. And we paid the price…they paid the price".
Argen began to grab at his bear cloak and sighed as he began to continue, "The party I got to help me purify my friends bodies took me under their wing and began doing simple hunts, as they became more comfortable with my skills they decided to hunt a man-eating bear. In an ironic twist of luck it snuck up on us and mauled our backline before me and my friend could get into position. He died to give me an opening for a heart piercing strike. All I could do was end it and pray for them. Taking some parts of them with me". As he lifts his shield and takes hold of his cloak.
He took in another deep breath and continued recounting his tale, "Now I was growing a reputation of being a lucky, or cursed, SOB as I survived 2 party wipes. As it took some time for people to accept me into their group as they feared they would be the next party wiped, but there was a party who needed a tank really bad, so they let me join them for this one mission. We went down to a kobold mine, only for us to get lost after being chased by way more kobolds than expected. Our priest succumbed to environmental exhaustion first, and afterwards, infections from ill treated wounds got everyone else slowly as it left me to trudge back to the town alone".
Argen took in another deep breath as now he was getting winded from talking so much, "By this point it was hard to find a group who didn't know the rumor and didn't take precautions against people holding my description so it took some time for a group to agree with me joining. When they heard my story and found me to not be a bad tank they decided to let me join their party. In this party it was where I met Siwon we didn't make the likeliest of pair but he was strange enough to not show much care about what has happened in my past. And he doesn't find my rituals disturbing. He just gets upset when I waste blood. But besides that…". As he waves his hand in the air as if waving away a fly.
"The mission I joined in on was to hunt for an orc. Our entire party jumped the lone orc, only to realize that even with our superior numbers, we were outmatched by the sheer size of the thing.
I got knocked out early but managed to get back up to deliver a death blow to the creature with Siwon. Leaving us to try and find a new party, but maybe with better ease as I had someone with me so people wouldn't assume I was the Cursed Shield bearer".
As Argen looked towards the forest as he continued his round, he said, "And it seems to have worked as it would have been a large hassle to try and re-explain this to everyone while in the city as we would have wasted time just sitting there talking".
As Argen looked towards Muu as he finishes, "But yeah, that's my story". With a bit of a sigh he finds a place to sit for a moment and look back out towards the two moons and stares at them for a bit. He takes out his water skin and drinks a bit of his alcohol before his mouth becomes too dry.
Argen talked. A lot. More than Muu liked. So much, in fact, that she now started to miss the silence. He told her about classic tales one heard every so often. He simply happened to be always there! But... simple coincidences. The brunette did not believe in silly concepts like luck and misfortune. One had to grasp destiny with their own hands, and change ones own Fate with their own hands.
Ultimately though, it sounded to Muu like he had a tendency to join rather naive parties. She had killed orcs, with a group, before. And if this group was willing to take a 'risk' like him than clearly they were desperate and/or underprepared. "I see..." Muu ultimately answered, pushing back any feelings of guilt she might have gotten to give a two word answer to his long monologue.
"Thanks for sharing." She did add, however. "But what happened in your past will not repeat again." Quite more than two words, by now!
”Hopefully that’s the case”. Argen says as he begins to stand and begins his checks on everything to see if there was any tampering with the supplies or gear they didn’t notice. As he says in a low whisper to himself, "I don’t think I want to go through another party wipe".
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