RP:You're Blood Cold, Woman

Summary Exhausted Emilia is on her way back to Ara in Larket with a small bloody nose from spending time healing in Frostmaw with Pilar. A stranger is met at the crossing bridge, Leoxander. The end to a bloody nose, a new place to awake in the morning, and Leo has found someone he has been looking.

Emilia longed for the comforts of her bed at Ara even if she knew that the place itself was going to be just as much of a mess as the place from which she came. The small woman walked along with bare feet almost dragging along over the ground, exhausted. Yet, there was the bridge just ahead meaning that it would not be much farther to go before she could get some much needed rest. The little woman reached five feet with the added height from her ever wild untamed mess of snow white curls, frankly one could argue there was more curls to the woman than there was woman. In the late evening her perfectly white flesh nearly glowed in the light of the moon, giving her location away like a beacon. As the Genasi reached the bridge her right hand, black and glossy unlike the rest of her snow-woman appearance, slowly dragged over the side of the bridge as she expelled a sigh into a whisper ‘home sweet home...nearly’. Each step across the bridge just as slow and dragging as the one previous, she looked as if she would collapse at any moment. Pausing, center of the bridge, the woman lifted her fleshy white hand up to wipe beneath her nose, blood smearing across her upper lip and hand.

Leoxander was seated upon that bridge. He wasn't entirely certain why. But there was a dark dressed figure easily mistaken as a bandit with a black mask over the bridge of his nose and an arsenal of weapons latched upon his back and harnessed to his ribs. He had watched a few come and go, and not everyone took notice. Nor did he particularly notice them. But this woman with bare feet carried something vaguely familiar, even if it was not her scent, muffled by his mask. He heard that relieved remark and saw her dark touch upon the stone, and beneath a brow covered by overgrown, unkempt and dirty blond hair, his brow furrowed slightly. She had nearly reached his point on the bridge when he leaned forward to booted feet to stand, not at all an intimidating height, but a little above average. And that fact that he looked as though he was dressed to rob her. The sight and scent of blood paused him, even if he had no intentions to be the criminal he was once known to be. He just watched her movements in a typical silence, at first.

Emilia in her wake left behind a careless trail of frosted footprints on the ground, shimmering in the moonlight, as well as a thin layer of frost over the bridge where that dark hand touched the stone. Standing where she paused on the bridge to wipe her bleeding nose the ground below those uncovered feet began to first frost over before turning into a small patch of ice. Leoxander went ignored, perhaps she didn’t see him sitting on the bridge in her moment of exhaustion on her walk or guessed that her person didn’t look worth stealing from by him. The healer wore nothing more than a simple knee length gown in a midnight blue shade that contrasted her porcelain flesh, making her seem even paler than she was. Beyond the lack of anything worth taking Em was nothing more than skin and bones, little to nothing for putting up a fight. Both hands resting on the stone the woman closed those ever bright blue eyes for a moment before expelling a breath of chilled air, a few tiny fakes of snow falling. Shaking her head as she forced her eyes open to keep from falling asleep standing there between two cities.

Leoxander was fairly used to being ignored at that point, but it was still a fairly new feeling compared to his past. It would be almost too easy to be a thief again, but he wasn't that, anymore. His attention ventured to the snowflakes that fell, before he looked back to their maker. He didn't have a name for that face, but she almost appeared ready to pass out. "Hey..." He said, sternly, and risked an approach. Perhaps not the best idea, but this woman was barefoot and barely clothed and it was now very cold. No, he was no hero or knight, but unlike before in his younger years, it was difficult to watch someone suffer. "...Snap out of it, mate." Leo was a foot or two away from her when he stopped, his own blue eyes scanning over her for some indication of a possession.

Emilia blinked at hearing the voice of a stranger calling out in what she could assume her direction, few ever stayed on the bridge for long as it was a mere means of switching cities, not mingling. Leoxander would be greeted with a rushing wave of cold air the moment that he got within those two feet of the stranger. Should he step back he’d be revisited by the previous temperature instead of feeling as if he’d set foot in Frostmaw out of nowhere. Pushing off the bridge the tiny ice woman turned around to face the stranger indeed speaking to her, blood dripping slowly from her little nose over those pale-ice-blue lips sporting the best smile she could muster for the man. “Hello, Sir. Have I disturbed you?” she would question on a whisper that reached his ears with a chilled breeze. She was polite, strange in coloring and absolutely not like any other from this area. Studying him over with a curious gaze before she spoke once more on yet another whispered breeze, “I was just passing through...I will be on my way and out of your hair.” Below her that thin patch of frost to ice was thickening while it spread out away from her closer toward him slowly.

Leoxander , fortunately, had a lycanthrope, hellfire heat to combat with that rush of cold air, though he did wince a little because of it. He did not step back, yet. A shake of his head was gradually given, his head turning slightly aside to regard the 'tiny ice woman' warily. "Yer bleedin', lady..." He said matter of fact. Typically he would regard this as a stranger's problem, and not his, but something about her kept his interest. "You want someone to walk beside you, then?" Regarding her destination, wherever she meant to be. Leo was at least good at that. Playing the part of a shadow.

Emilia nodded slowly with a tired glaze over those icy eyes, “Yes, I know. It will stop before long…” the way she spoke of the matter of red liquid leaking out of her nose as if he was a common problem. Truth be told in the last few weeks it had become a problem with each healing she performed on the injured, weakening herself without taking time to rest herself. At least she could admit the bleeding didn’t last near as long as it did in the beginning. Running her black fingers through her crazed curls the little lady debated his offer, eyeing him up and down once again. He could steal her away for ransom to those that wanted her head, sell her into one of the exotic markets always looking for a rare creature as she, or he could simply be telling the truth wishing no harm toward her. Too tired to debate the matter she accepted, “That would be nice...I am on my way to Ara just Northwest of the bridge here by the river farther up.”

Leoxander untied the bandana from his skull, wrapped it around his left hand, where he already had an extra layer of bandages around his palm. He approached Emilia cautiously, and then he attempted to grip her head with one hand and rise that fabric to the other, digging fingers into her hair to tilt it back. "Jus' stay still a moment, bird. I ain't here to hurt you." He couldn't guarantee that she would cooperate, but he tried. Regardless of her fight or not, he tried to talk her down. "I'll take you where you need to go. It ain't that safe this late." But he was nocturnal, and just in that moment, the moment when he was finally introduced to the healer, expected or not.

Emilia in her exhausted state was not quick enough to react to his movements. By the time his fingers had wound themselves into her tangled curls she was just responding to his cautious advancement toward her with a glide back on the ice beneath her bare feet. It was no good, she wasn’t going any farther back than his grip on her would allow of her. Head tilted back, blood dripping over her lips and down her chin, Em was staring up at the man blue eyed gaze to blue eyed gaze. Letting out the breath she’d been holding as he spoke to her she slowly rose both hands into the air, surrender, “Alright, okay. Whatever you want...I’ll go with you.”

Leoxander considered her words. He would not take advantage of this woman. Strangely enough, Leo was changing from one who would do all he could for greed, trying to assist this world as it had become today. "I'm Leo... I won't hurt you." He said this as he sopped up the blood from her nose and gradually drew her head forward, once it may stop bleeding so profusely. Still, he kept his own face mask over her face to mop up any extra blood. "You're blood cold, woman." He tried to at least stand her upright.

Emilia didn’t move a muscle as he tended to her bleeding nose, frozen in place just like a ice statue. Lucky for her his ways had changed from greed to a more caring-for-some-odd-reason way, at least in this moment. The blood under his bandana would slowly cease until once again she was not bleeding. Yet, still if he changed his mind she’d follow him obediently. Then, there it was, the remark she’d been waiting to hear about her cold. It was now she lowered her arms back down to her side, “Blood cold? What do you expect a monster made of ice to be? Warm and fuzzy?”

Leoxander shook his head as he withdrew the cloth from her nose to check the flow. "You're not a monster. I would know a monster." He tucked that cloth away and released her hair, her person, to judge how she was doing, then. "What are you even doing out here?" He shouldn't ask. But Leo had changed since his resurrection. These things mattered. She mattered. He felt as though she was important, for some unknown reason. "Where is it you're wanting to go?" He was prepared to escort her there, even though it might take him into a town he had not been to since Jacklin ruled. Since his brother was king. But that was not the case, anymore.

Emilia ruffled her curls with her pale hand after he had released her head from his grasp, “I am a monster, I just choose not to show it…” there was a pause between her next words as she let him continue on with questioning her. People caring, it was odd, yet she replied to tired to debate it, “I am heading to Ara that is Northwest of here by the river bend. I am going to one of my floating homes...somewhere I think I still belong.. Sabrina has never not accepted my company…” Turning, her movements slow as if expecting him to grab her again now, she faced the northern exit off the bridge. Her black hand lifting to point in the general direction of where she was hoping to get to. As he would escort her it would be like walking with an elderly woman, the healer hardly able to get her feet up off the ground to walk, fighting sleep and exhaustion.

Leoxander was taken somewhat back. Sabrina. He knew that name, even if he did not know hers. "The healer..." He stated, solemnly, revealed to have a beard that hadn't been shaved in days. As dirty blonde as his overgrown hair, and perhaps sporting just a small stripe of gray these days. Recognizing her weakness, Leo suddenly attempted to hoist Emilia into his arms, in that bridal carry pose, without the romance. "Which way?" She could fight him if she felt the need to, otherwise she only needed to direct the path and he would tolerate that cold against his warm frame.

Emilia might have on another day fought against his help, she was an independent woman and all, but she didn’t on this night. Her tired and worn feet from walking welcomed the relief from standing on the ground. In his arms she barely weighed a thing, almost like carrying a doll, but was cold as the ice of Frostmaw. Her ice against his heated frame making the faintest of steam at first contact. Tired, she’d rest her head on his shoulder, while pointing out the directions as he walked to Ara. “I suppose, I should introduce myself...I’m Emilia, Ice Monster and healer.” Idle chat as they moved along.

Leoxander spoke very lowly. "I figured out who you are... I've been looking for you since I got here..." He didn't go into much detail beyond that, but since she had said she was passing through, he would find somewhere safe for her to stay. And since he worked for the tailor, that tailor shop in Larket seemed to be the obvious decision, even if he might lose his job over it. "You're a'right... I won't leave till morning..." And should she decide to fall asleep, she would find herself in a bed, around perhaps many clothes, and a lycan drinking an ale on a table nearby.

Emilia would be sound sleep in his arms by the time the pair reached the other side of the bridge, meaning Ara was not going to be found this night. Instead, it would be his bed at the tailor shop that she would slumber the night away in. Yet, why was he looking for her? It would dance around in her dreams.