RP:The King's Gift and Other Surprises

From HollowWiki

The Fallen Star Inn

Emilia stuck out like a sore thumb. Where those gathered drank merrily with one another telling tales and laughing the farm girl sat at a far table away from the crowd. Blonde curls a mess long past needing a brush were a dead giveaway for any that might be looking for the woman. To make it more obvious that she wasn’t from these parts her simple clothing with lack of weapons spoke up loud enough for her. Her dark wood bow rested next to her, leaning up against the table within reach should she find herself needing its protection. There upon her table was an oil lamp proving extra light for the human and her oversized book. Since dropped off here by the woman, Raidh, Emi had not ventured beyond the walls of the Inn. Her luck she would find some sort of trouble, again. Instead, she’d asked about to some of the locals that visited to get a few questions answered. One was so kind enough to bring her the book that she had spent the past day or so with her nose in it.


Raidh is running late! She hasn’t meant to leave Emilia stranded at the tavern so long, but there is just so much to see to in light of the nation’s recent, violent overhaul, as well as planning for short and long journeys ahead. Not to mention thunderstruck dragons and such..But she’s here! Out of breath, and smelling of horse-sweat and leather. She easily locates the farm-girl, for the Riders (with whom Emi would have blended far better) were back on duty scouring the far northern wilds for trouble, leaving the tavern to more refined city-dwellers. “There you are!” she says, flopping into a vacant chair, once her axe and shield are laid aside. Blue eyes shine with excitement behind the mithril helm which is removed next. She lays this on the table with a clunk, and grins at Emi. “How fare you, after our adventure? It certainly was full of surprises, wasn’t it?” The shieldmaiden peers curiously at Emilia’s book then, her head canting this way and that as she attempts to figure out what its subject may be.


Emilia was a lost in the world of the book in front of her to the point that when Raidh plopped into the vacant chair at her table she let out a rather startled sound, high pitched squeak-like-mouse sound. Blue eyes went wide as an embarrassed pink hue came over her freckled cheeks. As the flush faded a warm smile came over dry lips of the farm girl. A surprise, but a pleasant one to see the other woman. “It was rather eventful, Miss.” She paused thinking back to the paper she’d read that was here in the tavern, “You didn’t mention when we met that you were a Queen.” A simple statement, but her demeanor toward Raidh didn’t shift. Emi would still treat her the way she’d been since they met. No special over dramatic ‘oh my gosh, you’re a queen’ freak out moment. Watching the other blonde tilting her head this way and that Emi found herself tilting her head to one side with a questioning look. What was she doing…then it dawned on her. The book. She was trying to see the book better. Spinning the book, careful of the oil lamp, she pushed it right side up toward Raidh. It was a book about the ghostly figures they had seen in their previous adventure.


Raidh groans softly as the paper is mentioned. “I wish they hadn’t done that.” Moving freely around the Kingdom isn’t as easy it had been prior to her likeness being plastered under the headline referring to the new Queen. Never mind the flak she’s getting from her kinsmen. “Please, just call me Raidh. Not ‘Majesty’” she adds sharply, “Anything but that. And just – forget the royal thing. Really.” She is still in relatively good humor, but more than happy to change the subject when the book is pushed her way. “Ah! Ancient history? The King is very proud of his ancestral people, no doubt his scribes would love a peek at this tome, if they themselves did not write it. The barrows are crawling with their ghosts, as we witnessed ourselves. So much so, that the locals avoid the barrow-hill like the plague.” But as fascinating as all this is, Raidh has something more immediately exciting on her mind. “Emi. Guess what? You’ll never guess. But have a try.”


Emilia flinched just a tad at the sharpness in the voice of the other woman when she warned to not call her ‘majesty’. It wasn’t even a thought that crossed her mind. If Raidh had wanted to be acknowledge as a queen she would have introduced herself in such a manner, but she hadn’t. Miss or Raidh were the two names she’d used for her thus far and it seemed those worked just fine, why change it up? With the topic change to the book Emi nodded slowly. Taking the book back she was careful to mark her place with a strip of plaid fabric from her shirt before closing it. Another topic change. This topic clearly had the other woman excited over it. Not knowing her that well made it a bit hard to guess what it might be that had her so riled up. “You found the missing man that was dragged off by the beast that destroy the land?” It was the best guess that she had.


Raidh laughs softly. “The King? Yes, I did find Eboric, eventually, and thank the gods, he’s hale and whole. But that’s not it!” she’s beaming now. “Well, not all of it. I told him all about our adventures on the road, and how brave you were, and he’s decided you ought to be rewarded for defending his wife with valour.” Her expression suggests that yes, it was valour! Okay? All that defending, which Raidh might have exaggerated, just a tiny bit. “So I have something to show you,” Raidh peers at the window breifly, judging time by the shadows cast outside. “Soon. But not just yet. We have time for a drink and a bite to eat, before I take you to see it. It’s a surprise,” she adds, in case Emi was going to ask her what it was. “So we have a little more time to discuss your book there. Have you found anything of particular interest in it?” A serving-girl is summoned with a wave.


Emilia raised a brow at how the woman described her actions as defending the other woman with valour…whatever that word meant. “Miss, I think you may have bonked your head in our adventure. I did no such thing as you have described. Simply just put my bow to its purpose. Queen or not I would have done the same thing for you. And, I think you defended my rear more than I did yours.” A simple farm girl. It was the way she was raised and because of that she couldn’t see anything special in her actions, especially any which deserved this surprise that had Raidh utterly excited over it. Then the topic was again changed, back to the book. “It just so happens that I haven’t found much of anything in particular interest in the book. It is a very interesting book thus far, but I can’t find much of anything about the gift from them.”


Raidh chuckles some more after Emilia speaks her opinion on the events they’d so recently shared. “You raised your arrows at a man who was attacking me. The Queen,” she winces very slightly after those particular words. “And that’s enough for Eboric. He admires courage, and it would be best if you allowed him to reward you for it.” She is a little calmer now that her surprise has been announced, partly anyway, and shifts her sky-blue gaze to the book again. “I think the history of that amulet might go back long before men ever wrote books. The aurochs is an ancient creature, and these days is rarely seen even in the wild. Our oldest songs speak of them, the great wild cattle of the river-sides and plains, tall as horses and strong as iron, proud and hard to tame. I can’t be sure what the amulet is for, but the songs and tales my Amma told me of the oldest times suggest the aurochs was even then mostly faded to a symbol, one of our runes is based on it, in fact.” She draws a short dagger from its sheath at her side. “You can see it here.” Her fingertip traces the mark. “Ur, the Great Ox. Among other things, it indicates fertility.” Her glance returns to Emilia, and she puts the dagger away. “Perhaps that’s what it’s about. What was it your ghost said, again?”


Emilia listened to the information that Raidh could provide her about the cattle carved into the white stone amulet gifted to her by one of the ghosts that they had met on their adventure. Interesting, very interesting. “Grow. You grow good.” She repeated the chilled words of the ghost to answer the question given to her. She herself was trying to place everything together. In fact, her sleep deprived mind was placing things together in such an odd manner that when she spoke it sounded as silly as it did crazy, “Whoa! Fertility?!” A wide eyed looked with a mix of some surprise and disbelief, “If your surprise is to become some weird third wife to the King for defending his second wife to bare children based on an amulet indicating good fertility then no surprises for me.” Her hands flew up into the air with fingers spread apart as she shook her head slowly sending blonde curls falling into her freckled face, “I don’t ever intend to marry anyone nor bring a child into this cruel world. Nope, not gonna happen.”


Raidh’s eyes open wide in mild alarm at the farmgirl’s exclamation, her mouth hanging open for a moment before she breaks into a peal of laughter, in which she’s hopelessly lost for a few moments. Her eyes are watering a little, when she gathers herself enough to speak again. “Oh.. no. No, nono.” Raidh clears her throat, “Nothing like that, I promise. I think the two wives he already has are more than enough for any man, even Eboric.” She settles the last of her mirth by ordering two cups of kumis (which the tavern keeps, just for the Riders now) and some heavy cake. After the serving-girl leaves, she continues, “It’s curious, though, if the amulet is indeed a reference to Ur. Because,” she doesn’t wish to spoil the surprise. “It might be relevant to the King’s gift,” is all she says about it for now. “Perhaps something to keep in mind is, as I told you on the barrows – ghost-gifts often carry obligations. It isn’t easy to cross the veil from Draugheim in either direction, if you don’t properly belong to where you’re going. Harder still, to draw though it any object. More often than not, anyway, the purpose of the gift isn’t apparent until it .. is.” The kumis and cake arrives, the travelling-foods of Riders, simple fare of which Raidh is particularly fond. “Have you tried kumis before?” she slides a cup Emilia’s way. “Fermented mare-milk. Sip it slowly, though, it’s stronger than ale.” It’ll taste like thin yoghurt, with a kick. The ‘cake’ is more like a bread, yellow under its brown crust and just a little sweet on the tongue.


Emilia could not understand what it was that was funny enough to have the other woman’s eyes watering with her laughter. What had she said to cause such a moment? She would really have to let the book stay closed tonight instead of staying up another night to read on. Emi wasn’t much use to anyone with a lack of sleep. Normally she was a bit more on the grumpy side than the jumbled up side, but she was in a strange land after all. King’s ‘gift’. That latter word hit hard. Gifts were not something that the farm girl was used to receiving. In fact, she had a hard time accepting them. Work for what you own was the way in which she was raised, but how does one reject something given to you by a king? A nervous habit as her thumbs started to twiddle together in her lap. The kumis and cake were brought shortly after Raidh finished her tale about the ghosts. “No, Miss. I can’t say I have ever had kumis before…I don’t drink much beyond water for the most part.” It was the honest truth. She stuck to water. Safe and reliable water. Last time she’d drank things were way crazy. A timid smile as she accepted the drink though, lifting it up to her lips for a slow sip of the drink. Her nose scrunched up, lips twisted, and eyes closed as it went down her throat. Not a true fan of the kumis. “Miss, I really have done nothing worth a gift from the King.” She just couldn’t grasp the idea of getting a gift from first a ghostly figure, then a king.


Raidh isn’t the most politic of persons and sometimes subtleties which shouldn’t do fly way over her head, but she is becoming aware of Emilia’s discomfort with the idea for something-for-nothing. It wasn’t exactly for ‘nothing’, but Raidh knew how her own people could be regarding anything they perceived as charity. “Look,” she says, through a mouthful of heavy cake (sorry about any crumb-spray there, Emilia), “You’ve seen the trouble our farmlands are in. Half the farmers are gone, dead or fled, and the rest get to go home to what’s basically a newly turned bit of sucked-dry dirt. If they’re lucky, it’s wet dirt. Eboric has said he’s not worried about famine since he’s clearing the jungles and the soil is fertile there. But will farmers want to bring their children to such a place, in time to plant and grow enough crops to feed the city? Now, I was playing tossrunes with some of the soldiers bred on these farms, and from everything they said I believe the King’s expectations might be somewhat. Ambitious? Truth be told, I made much of you bravery so that the King would wish to reward you, because you know about farms and how to help these people, and I do not. Besides I like you, and the gift may entice you to stick around here a while.” She bit off another wad of cake, her words muffled through it, “I’ve probably spoiled the surprise. But would you like to come see it?”


Emilia half-blinked a few times as crumbs were flying her way for a moment from the other woman as she spoke with a mouthful of the cake. Lifting a hand she dusted the crumbs off while she listened to the words that were spoken to her. She could tell that the other woman was meaning well, but the way she had gone about it hit a sour spot with the farm girl. She waited until Raidh was finished speaking before speaking up, “I understand where your heart is, Miss. You want to help the people of the land to the best that you can. If you wanted me to stick around to help out with farming to keep the people from falling into famine I wish you would have just asked me instead of making me out to be some more skilled worthy person to get such a gift from the King.” She paused. Were her words to harsh? She hoped not. “I would of gladly stayed to help if you asked me first…” Another pause, “Of course, I would enjoy seeing this surprise of yours.” A flash of a smile. A perfected fake smile. She liked being in the presence of Raidh, but now more than ever she felt obligated to stay.


Raidh’s cheeks take on that pinkish hue they tend to get when she’s angry or otherwise perturbed. There’s no ire in her features, though. Mainly, dismay. Her gaze drops to the remnants of her cake-slice, and she’s quiet for a while before speaking quietly. “I am truly sorry, Emi, if I have given you offence. You’re quite right, I should have just asked. I am sorry I did not. But please,” she lifts her startling-blue eyes to meet Emilia’s now, “Don’t think I did not appreciate your courage on the road, and at the barrows. There’s many a farm-maid who’d have fled screaming at the first sign of trouble, let alone in the presence of that weird old ghost. Yet, you are correct, and I have treated you ill.” She rises, collecting her helm and weapons. “You don’t have to stay in Venturil, but I would appreciate it very much if you would do so just for a while.” She returns Emi’s perfect smile with a weak one of her own. “Come, let’s see this King’s gift. Nidrun can carry us both.”


Emilia felt bad for upsetting Raidh with her words. It was clear by the frown that quickly befell her features as she glanced up at the now standing woman. Her own bright blue eyes finding those bright blue eyes of the other woman, “Not all farm-maid have watched their family get slaughtered by a group of bandits…or had to deal with that same group returning to finish the deed year after year…” Perhaps a little more information than was needed to be shared, but enough to reason why she didn’t run like a coward when they were greeted by those five men. For a short moment Emi remained seated in the chair after Raidh had offered Nidrun to take them to this surprise. Standing slowly she picked up the book from the table. Her free hand fell to rest lightly on the shoulder of the other, “Now that you have asked me to stay in these lands I am more than happy to stick around. I am also more than happy to put my knowledge of farming to use to aid the people.” A warm smile before Emi moved to embrace Raidh in a friendly half hug since she had that book in one arm. “Let’s go see that surprise of yours?”


Raidh gives Emi a quick squeeze and a smile that is much wider than her last one. “Let’s!” she says, with a return of her former enthusiasm. Soon, they are riding through the busy main road which is all a-bustle with heavily laden wagons trundling north; the farm-folk, returning to their homes. Soldiers, traders, the occasional city-bred gentleman, so many people, and more than one will catch sight of Raidh and recognise her, from that damned tabloid-spread. Nidrun is urged to a quicker pace, and once they pass into the city’s outskirts the mare enjoys stretching into an easy gallop. Her hooves eat up the road as they pass once more through the broken lands, the empty fields, the ground becoming boggier as they turn off the main causeway into what used to be a shrivelled husk of a minor settlement. Now, it’s a wide pile of muddy rubble surrounding a muddy lake.


North of the Newly-Formed Lake

Raidh indicates that this is a good place to dismount, and waits for Emilia to do so. “It’s just a little north of here,” Hooves and boots make sucking sounds in the water-logged earth as she sets off in that direction. Raidh has, all this while, been thinking of what Emi told her in the tavern, but has taken this long to find what she hopes are the right words, “You will never see bandits here, Emi. Not ever, unless only by their heads on pikes far from this place.” It’s not so much the words, but the tone that carries her condolences over the hardship Emilia has formerly endured.


Emilia was silent as the two of them road through the town. The farm girl was just as silent as the trio reached the outskirts of the city. Her mind was wandering. She had just agreed to stay within these lands that she knew very little about and agreed to farm it to help the people. Farming was second nature to her and part of her everyday life. The difference now was the land. The soil here with its climate was not the same as in Larket. She would have to investigate the land and figure out what would grow best here. Once they had reached a point where it was best to walk Emi carefully slid off Nidrun. Out of habit from when she had her own horse she gently patted the neck of the horse before placing a kiss to the side of the horses face. “Thanks for the ride, Niddy.” A nickname for the horse came with a warm and appreciate tone. Her steps were a bit slower than Raidh as the mud pulled at her leather boots. A pause with a stare at the mud. While the other spoke she rolled up her pants until they were below her knees before slipping free of her boots letting her bare feet sink into the muddy ground. Plucking her boots free of the mud she would carry them and let her feet squish in the mud instead. “I find trust in your words…” She was not sure what else to say.


Nidrun blows a blast of warm breath out of her nose and into Emilia’s hair, something she usually does for Raidh herself. Maybe she likes that nickname, or just the pat on the neck and kiss on her face.


Raidh’s striding off into the mud, which is followed by more mud, and then just dirt as they leave the immediate vicinity of the lake. Someone’s dragged a fallen tree here and lain it over the run-off creek, the trunk wide enough to support the girls both, and ‘Niddy’ as well if she picks her way over it carefully. Finally, they arrive at – dirt. Raidh beams. “Here we are!” She opens her arm wide, to indicate the surrounding land, empty of everything but an upheaved expanse of clods. “Surprise!”


Emilia followed the other woman as they moved along through the mud, over the log and onto the dirt on the other side. Bright blue eyes wandered about the expanse of land that was empty of anything. A decent sized space to establish a farm, even if for now it was a temporary one. She did not know yet how long she would find herself staying. Just until things were settled for the people or forever if she fell in love with the people and land herself. A smile crept across her dry lips as she took in the sight of the land. It was a surprise indeed. “Beautiful land setting.” She said softly. “Much appreciated. You will have to thank the King for me.”


Raidh is wishing she’d followed Emilia’s lead and removed her boots, which are sodden with clay-bearing earth and wet on the inside. “I’m not sure about beautiful, but it’s yours,” she grins, “And you can thank him yourself soon enough.” She points east, to where there’s a distant break in the dirt-only landscape, wheel-ruts leading to high piles of lumber. “I’m sure he’d like to meet you. I’ve no doubt he’ll be by here regularly, to check on the progress of the new village he’s building over there.” She bends to take one of those clods in her hand, her fingers crumbling it apart, and squints across the land. “What were you saying about needing to work for something, to call it yours? I think you’ll have your share of work and more, here. I’ll lend you a pair of heavy horses until you turn profit enough to buy some, and the King will give you whatever lumber is left over from the village. But it’s been a poor year, out of many poor years, so perhaps you might have to purchase seeds and…” she thinks, comes up empty, “.. other farm things. I wouldn’t know where to begin gathering those. But if you figure it out, and don’t mind some extra work, I’ll pay you for finding it and hauling it back not just for you, but for all the farms around here. Payment being, a decent share of the goods. How’s that sound?” A fly lands on her forehead, blue eyes swivel up in their sockets in a useless attempt to see what’s tickling there.


Emilia could not believe that the other woman did not see the plot of land just up the hill that lead to a flat expanse of soil was not beautiful. Maybe it was because she was a woman of the land since she was born. To her, the soil beneath her feet was almost an extension of her own being, but not in the way a druid or dryad was part of the earth. Her thoughts about the spot were quickly slapped away when Raidh mentioned thanking the King herself. That would mean she would have to meet the man who was given exaggerated details of her as a first impression. Her heart skipped a panic beat. Would she be able to measure up to the standards set for her by another? She could only hope that he could see in her what Raidh saw. A small gulp before the blue gaze of the farm girl turned to look where the other was showing would be a village that Eboric was working hard on. Between the plot on top of the hill and the place in progress there was still enough of a space to make her feel comfortable. Growing up on the Larket farm she was used to be away from town and people to the point she got anxiety and nervous when in town for too long or even with more than a few people gathered at any given time. Muddy feet started to move up the hill leaving behind little prints of her bare feet. “I think you should not have to worry about loaning me things or worry about sending the King out this way to see me…” It was very clear that the blonde was nervous about the idea of meeting Eboric.


Raidh slaps at her brow, and manages only to give herself a slight red mark; the fly buzzes off. Perhaps being preoccupied with that is why she doesn’t pick up on the true degree of Emilia’s trepidation over meeting the King. “Oh, he comes across as a bear with a sore head most of the time, but he’s really very nice,” she starts following Emilia up the slow incline, her boots sucking more mud for the first few yards, less so as they ascend above the limit of the new water-table. “I’m sure you’ll get along. From what I know of him so far, he seems to like useful, practical people best. And you’re surely that, Emi. And please, let me loan you the horses. We breed them specially for hauling our yurt-wagons across the plains, their endurance is remarkable.” There’s a strong note of pride in her voice. “And I would so like to add their type to the breeds available here. You’d be helping me do so, if you took them for a while and loaned the stud out to the other farmers.” The hill is as bare as any other part of the land, aside from a broken door here, or a scrap of metal debris there. Raidh passes a young walnut tree, which had in life struggled to thrive even in this formerly harsh environment. It seems sad to her that it should be snapped off mid-trunk. She bends briefly to pluck a walnut out of the tangle of dead branches.


Emilia walked slowly up the hill until the she was standing at the top where the land smoothed out into a mostly flat area. She had seen worse, but this space was empty. A place where she could set things up the way she wished them to be. House where she wished it to be settled with the crops where she thought they would grow best. A true test to her talent and skills learned over all these years as a farmer off her parents pre-built farm. Squatting down she ran her fingers over the land below feeling the dirt beneath her fingers while Raidh picked up a walnut from the ground. Standing once more she flashed the woman a gentle smile, “I will accept your loaned horses and will help you breed them out into this areas horses. I think hauling some things up that hill may be a bit more than I can handle.”


Raphaline seems to still be amidst the forest line of Venturil. Whatever is keeping the bard this far west is still unknown, so, as she approaches from the south, having come out of the wildlands where she had taken some quiet time to herself, she catches the timbres of mingling voices. With her wild curls pulled back into a loose braid, providing her more visibility, she approaches, gaze dancing over the growing land. As she spots certain ladies she knows, she perks up. "Afternoon ladies." She calls out in her jovial tone as her feet pick up their pace and she makes her way over to them. With a grin she turns to one and then the other, "I didn't know you both knew each other."


Raidh is about to reply to Emilia when she spots Raphaline as the wild-haired girl picks her way across the field of dirt, one hand rising in a wave. Waiting for her riding-pupil to join them, she returns the grin, pleased to see Raphaline again. "You weren't kidding, when you said you went everywhere. And yes, Emi's just kindly agreed to farm this hill. We killed some looters together." She leaves Emilia to explain that, in case Raphaline asks. "Has Hvitr helped you with your riding any, since last we spoke?"


Emilia was caught by surprise when Raphaline of all people arrive at the little barren hill where Raidh and her were discussing things. Wide eyed with the shock the farm girl was left staring at her in disbelief for a moment while Raidh and Raph spoke to one another. Emi had not seen the red head in some time, too long of a time. Without a second thought the farm girl moved to embrace the bard in a tight hug, “Miss! You are not dead!” She stated before moving to let her go and have her space again.


Raphaline chuckles as she gives Raidh a brief nod, "No, I wasn't." As she prepares to explain her relationship to Emilia, she finds herself wrapped in her arms and allows a grin to grow across her lips. "Aye, I am still alive and kicking. Just been busy, in another land, trying to deal with things. And then things here too, but," She turns to Raidh as she gets released, "Finding myself in the care of new friends and old. As for Hvitr," Her grin broadens, "Your poor cousin seems to be stumbling over his words whenever I stop by for a lesson."


Raidh nudges Emilia gently, “My cousin is moon-eyed over our pretty friend here. I caught him trying to clean the saddles with molasses, after her last lesson.” Raidh’s gaze shifts between her two companions, “Well, isn’t this wonderful, that we all know…” Raidh’s horse interrupts with a sharp whinny, from a little further down that bare-dirt hill, the mare trotting in that high-stepping way she did, when nervous. Raidh frowns, her attention on the horse now, “Amma? What’s the matter with you?”


Xersom might've been the matter with Nidrun; he had his mask, thankfully, but aside from that, the man was entirely nude and with broken bones. He walked -no, he limped with a gait that spoke volumes of not even broken but shattered bones with each pained step he bore. That charming and wickedly seductive face was in features that were not a smile or grin for once, but rather an expression of literal and physical pain that he was attempting to burden upon his shoulders. No gasp, no sharp exhale with each step he bore. A grin, subtly and briefly, overtook his faux features only at the sight of the mare and her nervousness, but he didn't reach out to touch her. Naked, one arm cradled his right side of his shattered ribs and the over pressed firmly over a bleeding hip.


Emilia frowned for just a moment as she stepped away from Raphaline after the lack of hug. Time changes people. She’d seen that recently in the warrior and now the bard too. The thoughts on this matter were lost when Niddy came with that whine in her voice and odd steps of nerves. Bright blue eyes fell on the horse of Raidh’s before glancing around until they rested upon the man broken and bloody. Seems trouble found someone else today. Emi was not a healer nor very good at much beyond farming and shooting. “Uh…I think he needs a-lot of help.” Came her rather stupid obvious words as those muddy bare feet of hers lead her toward Niddy instead of the naked man. Why the horse over the man? Easy. Rushing to strangers got her in trouble more often than not so…comfort the mare with a gentle touch it was.


Raphaline isn't too sure about the sudden stranger either, but other than being a bard, she had been a healer as well. So she makes her way to the wounded man's side, a look of concern evident in her emerald eyes. "What happened?" She offers a hand for him to take and relieve himself of some of the weight on his wounded leg.


Raidh’s mare is less in need comfort than desiring to cave someone’s head in with a well-aimed hoof, but ‘Niddy’ is smarter than the average hack and so allows Emilia’s touch, sensing it would do the girl good. Nidrun’s liquid-dark eyes glaze over a little, though, and she lifts one hind leg, its neat and sharp hoof pawing the air as if warning Xersom what will happen, if he makes a wrong move.


Raidh herself is open-mouthed for a split second, before one palm presses briefly across her face. What in the name of Othinn is the wanderer doing here? And where’d he gone, the day before? Raidh had returned once Nidrun was seen to, with fenceposts and string and a haunch of boar, on foot no less! (for over Nidrun’s dead carcass was the mare ever setting foot on that lightning-blasted tor ever again) only to find the wounded creature she knew as ‘Sacrilus’ gone from the place she’d left him. The walnut falls from her opposite hand, and is trodden into the soft earth of the hill as she paces after Raphaline, in case... Well. Just in case. Her gaze switches between Nidrun-and-Emilia and the man-shaped dragon, the walnut-less hand flicking a silent signal to the mare to be still. “Looks like he was struck by lightning,” she says, her tone somewhat laconic.


Xersom couldn't really speak and thus opted for Raidh to speak for him in her cryptic manner; the first woman to come to his side, Raphaline, had the nude man nearly collapse in a lean against her as those vivid and intense green eyes searched the trio (not counting the mare) in some closer-than-cursory stare. His chest, of which shattered ribs were cradled by the opposite hand, seemed scorched around a single point of contact as if stuck by, as the shieldmaiden stated, lightning. But those eyes went to the Rider, as silent as his closed mouth was, and the man utterly naked and upon display for the three women stared at that particular woman before eyes began closing.


Emilia watched from where she stood on the other side of the mare to keep herself in good distance from the stranger. Bright blue eyes glanced over the broken naked man that was fully exposed to the world around him. Just a glance that fell to the horse once more. She knew the two women, but not the man. Too many people for her comfort, especially with him injured. No medical talents she would probably find herself in the way more than helping. Another gentle pat to the neck of the mare before she whispered to Nidrun, “You think they’d notice if I left?”


Where the walnut was pressed into the soil by the shieldmaiden's boot, is for a moment only another footprint in the dirt not too far from where Emilia and Nidrun stand. As the mare huffs a warm breath into Emi's hair in reply, the packed-down soil of the footprint begins to tremble, ever so slightly. Emilia might notice her amulet growing warm, even if she doesn't see the tiny shoot that struggles upward from the walnut's erstwhile little grave. Nothing spectacular, just a shoot for now, not even a leaf unfurling. But nuts don't sprout that quickly, even on good land, let alone that which has been bled dry for centuries.


Raidh gives Xersom a meaningful stare, as though to say, 'where the heck were you?!' but out of her mouth comes a suggestion to Raphaline that they take the nude and injured man to the nearest clinic. "Emi," she says over her shoulder, "Can Nidrun stay with you a time?" Because no way will the mare carry Sacrilus! But she doesn't explain this. "She seems unsettled. Raphaline and I can arrange to get him there, if we can carry him off this hill. The builders have a cart we could borrow, surely." And maybe a bit of tarpaulin, to cover up all that nude..


Emilia said to Raidh, "Of course. I will keep good care of her. Safe travels with the injured man."