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Post by Angel ♥ on Sept 10, 2009 7:45:52 GMT -5
Stuck wasn't a word that Etoile would like to use to describe her current predicament, but the longer she stood there the more adequate the word sounded. She was to one side of the river Meuse, a safe distance away from the river bank with her arms folded over her chest, eyeing the water with suspicion. She wanted to be on the other side of the river, but as far as she could see there were no bridges and no boats that could carry her to the other side, and she certainly wasn't going to go and get herself wet. Ugh, she couldn't think of anything worse.
But, that took her right back to square one. She was stuck on this side of river with no idea as to how to get to the other side and no desire to go back to where she had come from. Well, this was quite a dilema. Maybe if she stood there for long enough the answer would just fall into her lap? Either that or she would find herself a nice distraction so that she wouldn't want to get to the other side of the river any more. Neither of those were very likely though, seeing as it was the middle of the night and the nearest town was just a faint twinkle of lights on the horizon, but Etoile was feeling stubborn, and she was determined that she would just stand there until she got what she wanted.
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Post by »Kamui Syvil VII on Sept 11, 2009 11:31:06 GMT -5
For weeks, since he had come to this land, Ndegwa had been following the river locals called "Meuse", which he had trouble pronouncing correctly. So he simply referred to it as e-wúáso, the word for river in his native language. He been walking since dawn, going well past sunset before deciding to stop and rest. Looking around in the darkness, he spotted a tree. Given his height, he had no trouble reaching the branches. Finding some relatively straight ones, he snapped off a couple. Taking one of the animal fangs hanging from his loincloth, he etched a notch into one of the sticks. He gathered up some grass, twigs, and leaves. He placed the notched stick on the ground, over the tinder. He then began to spin the other stick between his palms, grinding one end into the notch. Eventually the friction created an ember. Removing the sticks, he blew on the ember, providing oxygen, which ignited the tinder. Then he broke up the sticks, feeding them to the small flame until he had a decent sized campfire. Once this task was done, Ndegwa turned his mind to food. For this, he turned to the river. Wading into the water, he became very still, waiting for a fish to swim by.
(I forgot to put this in the bio, but he has low-light vision and darkvision, in case you're wondering how he could see a fish in the dark. In D&D, ogres and half-ogres have these traits, so I intended to give it to Ndegwa also.)
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Post by Angel ♥ on Sept 11, 2009 12:13:21 GMT -5
For a stubborn person, Etoile didn't have very much patience. She was stood drumming her fingertips over her arm, seeming thoughtful as she looked down at the dark waters. Stupid river, what business did it have getting in her way and thwarting her plans? She had hoped to find a nice, comfortable bed tonight, but it looked as though she was just going to have to make other plans.
While she was trying to work out what to do she caught a sudden burst of light in the corner of her eye, a reddish, orange glow that seemed to have appeared from nowhere. Fire; she would have recognised it anywhere, and where there was fire there were people, or at least one person. It looked like she had found herself a distraction, for now at least.
The fire wasn't far away, maybe five minutes walk at the most, Etoile stepping carefully to avoid being heard. Sneaking up on travellers usually wasn't the best of ideas, but, when you were a young woman travelling alone, letting them know that you were there was an equally bad idea. Plus, she preferred to choose when to let her presence be known, that way she could just sneak off again if whoever had made the fire seemed intolerably dull.
The flames danced in her golden eyes as she peered around the tree she was hiding behind. The fire was directly ahead of her, and to the left was the water. A small scowl settled over her features as her gaze fell on the figure stood by the water. The lack of lighting made it difficult to pick out details, but you didn't need much light to tell that he was huge (and she was guessing that it was a he). Not human, defiantly not human, so what was he? Hmmm, interesting.
"Evening." She chimed, smiling innocently as she stepped out from behind the tree, her hands clasped behind her back. Well, she would soon find out what he was.
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Post by »Kamui Syvil VII on Sept 11, 2009 12:33:45 GMT -5
He remained silent and motionless, waiting patiently as the minutes ticked by. When the young women emerged from behind the tree he did not acknowledge her presence in any way. But then he suddenly lunged with surprising speed, swiping a fish right onto the river bank, much like a bear might. One fish would not be enough. Completely ignoring the girl, Ndegwa became like a statue again, waiting for another.
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Post by Angel ♥ on Sept 11, 2009 20:24:26 GMT -5
...nothing? She was certain that she had spoken loud enough for him to hear. Maybe he didn't speak common and was making a point of it? She had met people like that before, who refused to respond unless you spoke to them in their own language.
She remained silent as he moved suddenly to catch his fish, a puzzled look in her eyes as she watched. So he was huge, far faster than any man she had ever met before and he must have pretty good eyesight to see fish in the water. He definatly wasn't human, but she was sure that she would have heard of creatures like him before if they were common around here.
"Bon soir?" She tried again now that the figure has fallen still again, repeating her greeting in Écritêtrean, hoping that would get a response. She wasn't getting any closer to the water, that was for sure. It was safer back there, by the fire.
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Post by »Kamui Syvil VII on Sept 13, 2009 4:21:24 GMT -5
Ndegwa did not respond to the girl. He thought that perhaps she would wander off from where she had come from if he ignored her. He lunged again. This time he was lucky and got two fish at once. They were of decent size and would do for now, so he got out of the river. He walked right past the girl, shaking the water off him, and snapped another branch from the tree. On it he skewered the still flopping fish. Then he sat down next to the fire, holding the fish over it.
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Post by Angel ♥ on Sept 13, 2009 7:39:11 GMT -5
Nothing, again? She was beginning to think that this man was either deaf or extreamly stupid. Either way, her patience was wearing thin. Etoile didn't like being ignored.
The flames of the fire flickered violently for a moment as he turned around, the girl folding her arms over her chest, gaze following him as he returned and sat by the fire. Up close it was obvious that he wasn't human, not just because of the sheer size of him. She had never seen anything like him before, she would have never said that creatures like him lived in Ecritetre, so what was he doing here?
"Either you are deaf, mute, or that huge head of your is all bone and no brain, but I am rather sure that you can see me, and I'm not going away until you acknowledge me." She warned with a shrug. She wanted to know what he was, and she would find out one way or another.
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Post by »Kamui Syvil VII on Sept 16, 2009 10:45:21 GMT -5
He looked over at her and then back at the fire. It occurred to Ndegwa that there was something not quite right with her, but he wasn't sure what. He shifted his weight and sighed. It seemed that the girl would not simply wander off again. "Noisy person. Go away." He grunted brusquely, both acknowledging and dismissing her at the same time. His accent was not Écritêtrean, or even Demian.
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Post by Angel ♥ on Sept 16, 2009 11:03:46 GMT -5
It seemed that it was the latter that applied to him; in that big head there was nothing but bone. He had at least acknowleged her though, which she supposed was a start, though from his tone she guessed that getting any more than that out of him. Well, she had found out something about him, he wasn't a conversationalist.
"No." She answered bluntly as he told her to go away, taking a step closer to the fire now. . "You don't sound Ecritetrean, so where are you from, what are you and what are you doing here?" She questioned, to take a more direct approach to finding out what she wanted to know. Hopefully she would have more sucess this time.
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Post by »Kamui Syvil VII on Sept 19, 2009 11:38:51 GMT -5
He grunted again. Most people avoided him, which was how Ndegwa preferred it. Why was this girl so interested in him? Something was strange about her. Whatever the case, maybe the quickest way to get rid of her was to sate her curiosity. "From across... ɔl-bálbál. Big water. People call me 'barbarian'" He roughly answered her first questions, and answered the other quite literally. "Cooking fish."
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Post by Angel ♥ on Sept 20, 2009 10:43:47 GMT -5
"Across the water..." She reapeated, as though hoping that he would elaborate on that, but she really doubted it. Getting any information out of him would be like trying to get blood from a stone, she could just see it. Well, at least they had established that he wasn't from Ecritetre, if nothing else. It was a start, she supposed.
"Yes, I did notice that you were cooking, but I was asking why you are in Ecritetre? And your name?...Do you have a name?"
(Your writing is pink!!! <3)
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Post by »Kamui Syvil VII on Sept 21, 2009 5:45:17 GMT -5
(It is.)
"Ndegwa in this land because boat carry me to this land. You talk too much. Go away." He checked the fish, sniffing them. In one bite, he took off about half of one of the fish. He chewed noisily, fish juices dribbling down his chin, which he wiped on his arm.
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Post by Angel ♥ on Sept 21, 2009 6:34:12 GMT -5
"I talk too much and you lack manners, I think that we can both deal with each others failings." Etoile looked rather disgusted as she watched him eat, wrinkling her nose up before eventually looking away into the fire. That was something that she would rather not watch, she guessed that he wasn't used to company, or being invited to dinner parties. He didn't seem like a dinner parties kind of person.
"Won't the knights hunt you? Knights like hunting things, generally big things that they can brag about...you would be a perfect target for them..." Her gaze was still on the fire as she spoke, the flames seeming to be leaning towards her, Etoile reaching out to run her hand through them, oblivious to the heat. "Or have they not noticed you yet? I'm sure that word will soon get out that you are here."
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Post by »Kamui Syvil VII on Sept 21, 2009 6:40:41 GMT -5
"Night is already here. It comes when the sun sleeps. How does it hunt person?" He said and put the other half of the fish in his mouth.
(I'm just waiting for her to start facepalming.)
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Post by Angel ♥ on Sept 21, 2009 6:48:18 GMT -5
(I acutally just LOL'ed. xD)
Her gaze moved back to Ndegwa as he spoke, tilting her head to the side. He was being sarcastic, wasn't he? He had to be pulling her leg, no-one could actually be that stupid. No...wait...he looked sincere... His head really was just bone.
"Oh, the Night around here is especially vicious." She shrugged, her voice heavy with sarcasm, not that she thought that he would understand. "That is why there aren't many people out at night. You see how dark it is over there...?" She pointed to a patch of dark shadows under the trees, "That is the kind of Night that follows you. It keeps creeping closer and closer until it gets you...and then you just disappear into the dark. You are lucky that you have a fire, fire scares the Night away."
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