[FIN] Serious Business [Bee]

[Dark]

As long as she could remember back, Myfanwy had been the steward of a very important task: protect her sisters. Whether she was protecting them from bullies or the injustice of some lesser child getting more ice-cream per cone, Myfanwy prided herself in her ability to keep her sisters safe and happy. As she grew older, though, she came to realize that terrorizing the local children and manipulating the dairyman into giving them free cones wasn’t going to be enough. She needed to grow stronger, mentally and physically, if she was going to continue her task on into adulthood.

It was with that in mind that she came to a very important decision: though it pained her to do so, she would part with her sisters for a time--hopefully no ill would befall them in her absence--and journey out into the world in search of a worthy mentor. When she eventually returned, she would be better fit to be her sisters’ protector.

Myfanwy took careful stock of everything she would need for the journey--she knew the basics of survival, at least, from spending time with her father; and she had a pouch of coin, carefully hidden away, for any expense that might turn up--and packed it all in a light-weight knapsack that slipped on easily over her shoulders. Finally, she wrote a letter to her parents, explaining her intentions and a firm insistence not to worry, which she left of the kitchen table for them to find.

She slipped out in the early morning to prevent teary goodbyes, Brynjar following close behind, and was on her way.

[Bee]

Reisz had her jaws around the neck of a rather wooly-brained little nuisance, dragging him resolutely back to his village where he could be dealt with by his mother. She had told the little bugger not to run. Don't intend to give ya a pash, she had said. I understand that sometimes a little tussle happens between boys. No harm done. Just going to take thee home to yer ma.

But had he listened? No. Now he was whimpering and his back was collecting dirt. Served him right.

His mother was at the door when Reisz approached, and she let the boy drop at her feet. She gathered him up into a hug, cried, smacked him repeatedly, and hugged him again.

"Now apologize to yer ma," she told him, with a stern frown. "You gave her a right scare."

Really, trying to run away from home after one fight was a miserably dim-witted idea. Everyone knew he was good boy. He bleated out his sorries.

Reisz nodded to the boy and his mother and returned to the fields.

[Dark]

A wise man knew when he was beat; wasn't that how the saying went? Except Myfawny was neither a man nor particularly wise, if her current predicament was any indication. She tore viciously into her lunch--jerky, which had lost its appeal within the first week of the journey--and scowled at her surroundings.

She was well and truly lost. Lost in a sea of unending wheat, whose cheerfully waving in the afternoon breeze was a personal affront.

The map she had bought for the occasion was all but useless: as she traveled away from the Capitol, its inaccuracies grew by leaps and bounds. Borders were not where they should be, and the mileage between places was entirely inaccurate. And after weeks and weeks of being almost-not-quite-lost, Myfawny was more than contemplating on her return home searching out the creator and strangling him with her bare paws.

She must have made some noise--had she growled? if she were home, mother would have just magically appeared to lecture her on proper behavior befitting a young lady--because Byrnjar looked up from eviscerating the unlucky rodent that was her meal, and gave a squawk.

"Yes, yes," she murmured, "I know." Self-pity was for the weak. Even if she hadn't had a proper bath in weeks, and all she had to eat was stale bread and jerky.

She would get through this.

[Bee]

There was a curious noise coming from just a little ways off. Reisz tilted her head and listened. A noise, a squawk, and some more sad little noises shaped like words. Reisz pushed herself through the wheat, a fair bit on her guard out of habit, but mostly unconcerned.

The little thing was ferociously pink. Her aspect was a bit despairing. She had with her the most drop-dead ugly creature Reisz had ever seen in her life, picking at the brains of a dead rat. Reisz would bet a round of beer she was dead lost. Only question was how. She'd've had to pick up a ride through the Lower Veldt with someone. Might be she had gotten separated from her party, though Reisz was not familiar with any news of Gardens--Gardens?--folk passing through.

"Well met, little lass," she said. Her accent in Common was abominably thick. She wasn't entirely certain how much the little girl would glean from it. "Got yourself severed from thy kin, eh?"

[Dark]

Myfanwy hadn't heard the woman approaching, and it had given her a bit of a start, but Brynjar didn't seem concerned besides an initial cursory glance (and was back to looking for another rodent to brain); and not being lost, alone in a wheat field quickly overrode any hesitation she might have felt about trusting strangers.

At the very least she could glean decent directions; maybe even procure food from some nearby village or farm; and if she was very lucky, maybe someone would take pity on her, and she could take a bath.

Then the woman spoke, and her hopes plummeted; she hadn't understood a single thing the woman had said. Was it even Commons? If it was, it was so heavily accented that Myfanwy could scarcely tell. Frustration bubbled up.

"I am lost," she said carefully, wondering if the woman understood her any better than Myfanwy could the woman. "What direction is the main road?"

[Bee]

The main road was awfully vague in terms of actual destination. It was a windy thing that branched off everywhere to mills, little villages, the mines--and, far enough along, the governmental seat of the region. If the girl had been en route to that, she was fairly well off her mark. If she pointed in the direction of the main road, she was liable to get herself lost all over again and immediately.

She looked filthy and hungry, besides. She wasn't going to let her off on her own. Damn near irresponsible of her.

She made a gesture with her paw. "This way," she said, and put some--but not much--effort into making herself sound vaguely intelligible. It twisted her tongue to speak decent Common and she usually didn't bother unless around important personages. "Get thee to a scrub and a meal first, then we'll have a talk about where yer headed."

[Dark]

Myfanwy scrunched up her nose as she attempted to decipher what the woman had said. Something about a scrub. Did she mean a bath? Her skin started to itch at the thought of being clean. And a meal! The jerky she'd nearly broken her jaw to digest had barely touched the hunger gnawing at her belly.

Still, she hesitated. Brynjar didn't seem to mind the woman, but that didn't entirely negate the possibility she was a serial killer or something, luring weary travelers into her abode to brutally murder them. Still--Myfanwy peered at the stranger through her bangs--the woman didn't look the type, and she really could use a decent meal and a bath.

She worried the bottom of her lip--a bad habit--but the decision was made, for better or worse.

She nodded to the woman, "All right. Lead the way."

[Bee]

Reisz was pleased by the girl's portance--if there had been an argument things could've gotten passing unpleasant, and she had no idea whether the hideous bird would take offense to her attempting to corral its mistress.

She nodded at the girl and led her on to her small abode. She might have put it at the edge of a little village but "little" being the operative word there wasn't much of an edge to it. The house itself was scarce, just a main area and a tiny room off to the side, the space decorated mostly with tools and basic worldly necessities. Reisz liked simple living. At least it was tidy.

"I welcome thee to mine humble home," she said, gesturing expansively. She glanced at the pink thing again--how disheartening it must be to have wings that looked far inadequate for flight. "What measures stronger: thy hunger or thy filthiness?"

[Dark]

What was the difference between thee and thy? Was it a possessive conjugation? Myfanwy scrunched up her face with the effort of translation. Grammar had never been of particular interest to her and adding what was, for all intents what might as well be another language--dialect?--was making her head spin.

But she thought the gist of it might have been something like: Welcome to my home. Do you want a bath or food first? (It sounded much more exotic and exciting the way the woman said it, for all Myfanwy could barely understand her).

As it was a very important question being posed to her, Myfanwy gave it a 'measure' of thought. Was that like a bit? What was a bit, anyway?

"Filthiness," she responded finally. Since the first mention of a bath her skin had been crawling, and she wanted soap and a good scrubbing more immediately than a full stomach. Food could wait.

[Bee]

"Follow, then," she said, brightly, and led the girl out the back door of her small place and to a water pump with a large container for water. Reisz didn't consider indoor plumbing to be a basic necessity. Very few people in her neck of the woods--or fields, as it were--had it. At least she considered bathing occasionally to be a basic necessity, an opinion not universally agreed upon. "Won't be mighty hot but--" she brandished soap--"it'll get thee right clean. Hop on in."

She wondered if some special kind of care had to be taken with those wings, though damp or dry they wouldn't get her off the ground. Maybe the girl had a bit of stunted butterfly in her--rare as it was. Then again, she'd known a lad or lass or two with the most peculiar little wings. Mayhap she was just a mutant.