out of my shell

Sohalia

"From what I understand, the Starshield has always been a part of Stormbreak - or, at least, for a very long time. It was made by the gods," Soh explained thoughtfully. "It was so long ago that it's unclear whether humans asked for it or not. Either way, I wish we could take it down. It seems so unnecessary now; it just creates the illusion that Stormbreak is prejudiced, when most of us aren't. But without leadership..." She trailed off. Little did she know that she'd be doing something about that soon.

In any case, Soh took in the sights as they walked, asking questions here and there about different landmarks, taking in as much information about her surroundings as she could, with every intention of mapping them later. "Well, if you're sure," she agreed cheerfully. "Then sure. The hot springs sound great!"

"Starshield? Is that what it's called? Hmm... yeah, sounds like somethin' you'd have to ask Safrin to remove..." Tal grimaced, rubbing the back of his neck. "An' whoever ends up doin' it, it's gonna be a thorny request since She doesn't always, uh, like most Abandoned." Even more than Frey and Ludo, Tal had gotten the impression that Safrin had taken the Voice's hubris personally, and had never stopped blaming the rest of the Abandoned for it unless they jumped through flaming hoops to prove themselves to Her. And even then, it was just individuals that she forgave.

He was glad it wasn't his problem, and was blissfully oblivious to the fact that it would soon be Soh's.

They moved through Snowcloak, Tal pointing out important places like his favorite bakery and the shop that did the best fruit tarts and desserts in Halo. As they neared his family's store, Tal grinned. "Here, y'can look around in Seawright's Sundries an' I'll be right back!" He led the way into the general store and then headed towards the back, into the private area and up the stairs to rifle through his sister's room.

He returned a few minutes later, a pair of swimsuits being stuffed into his Bag, and he quickly collected Soh and ushered her out before one of his other sisters could spot them and make inquiries. "Does Stormbreak have any hot springs?" he asked curiously as he led the way towards the Citadel gates.

Sohalia

Ever wary of Safrin, Soh reluctantly nodded her agreement. Of the three heralds, she was most drawn to Frey, and from her understanding, they were the most neutral when it came to their thoughts on the Abandoned. Still, with something called the Starshield, it did sound like Safrin's domain. Oh well - for now, it wasn't Soh's problem, and she let the matter rest.

Soh followed along through Snowcloak, peering into shop windows and making mental notes of points of interest for her future mapping and just for her general knowledge. After all, this wasn't purely a work trip; so, too, was it a trip for fun, and it could never hurt to have an insider's opinion on where to find the best food and drink in a new place.

Seawright's Sundries was a nice general store, and Soh looked around with interest as she waited for Tal to return, peering at this and that and having to talk herself out of altogether too many purchases for this early in her trip. When Tal returned, it was none too soon, and Soh smiled to herself as Tal ushered her back out and into the city. "Oh, yes! We have the Eye of the Storm," she said. "I'll have to show you next time you're in town - the bottom of the springs have been magically replaced with clear glass, so you can see straight through the bottom and down beneath Stormbreak. It's really quite something!"

Tal breathed a quiet sigh of relief as they made their escape unscathed by the teasing of his sisters. He had hoped that once they were all grown up it might get easier, but some things never changed. One was the love the siblings had for each other... and the other was the hard time they gave each other when the opportunity arose.

Gods, he needed to move out to his own place, just as soon as he had a few weeks to breathe and find a place he could fix up.

Soh's quick agreement caught him by surprise; he hadn't really considered the implications before, but how could a floating city in the sky even have hot springs?

Oh, right. Magic.

He shuddered as she described something that he'd never considered an option before: combining his fear of drowning with one of falling into the sea! "Glass? That, uh... are you sure it's safe?" he asked cautiously, slanting his friend a slightly worried glance. "I mean... It'd be interestin' t'see but... have y'ever actually been in it?"

Sohalia

Soh had never really considered the possible dangers of the Eye of the Storm; of course, if she fell from the sky, she could simply shift and fly her way home. As it was, she hid a smile at Tal's caution. "It seems perfectly safe, as far as I can tell," she assured him. It was, in fact, one of her favorite places in Stormbreak, and she'd spent a great deal of time near the hot springs. As for being in it...

Soh swallowed, hoping that her voice sounded natural when she said, "Once, so far." She did not share that at the time she was less concerned about the glass bottom and the views than she was a certain young Dragoon. Gods, that reminded her - she still had to break things off with Koa, and she wasn't looking forward to the experience. "It was actually really nice."

"Hmm..." Tal squinted at his friend in mock-suspicion. "Well, I guess if you say so..." In truth he trusted her judgment, though it was admittedly much easier to do so when they were a thousand miles away from the place and he wasn't facing its challenge in the immediate future. His grin returned in a flash of white teeth against his brown skin as he nudged her with his shoulder. "Long as y'aren't teachin' any other handsome young couriers t'swim in it, right?" he teased.

Boreal snorted, rolling her eyes at her human's smug playfulness, and fell back to nudge her own shoulder into Tal's hip, shoving him aside so she could walk beside Sohalia. The courier stumbled and gave her a wounded look that she blithely ignored as she fell in beside the cartographer.

"Hey! Jealous, much?" Tal huffed at her but obligingly shifted over so the dragon could walk between them. His hand dropped to scritch between her wings and the companion rumbled approvingly, tilting her head up to give Soh a pleading eye that invited her to join in the petting while they walked towards the city gates.

Sohalia

Soh blushed at Tal's teasing, in part because she had thought him quite handsome when she taught him to swim, and in part because her actions when she'd been in the Eye of the Storm with a different handsome young man were less than pure. Still, she stuck her tongue out at him. "I've only taught one handsome young courier to swim, thank you very much," she told him airily. "And I did a wonderful job!" Then she grinned at him.

Boreal shoved her way between them, drawing a laugh from Soh as the attention shifted away from her and onto the dragon. With Tal scratching between her wings, Soh reached to pat Boreal's head. They probably made quite the sight, the three of them, with the dragon happily enjoying her scratches while mildly inconveniencing the humans that served accompanied her. The city gates were rapidly approaching, and Soh turned the conversation back to Halo. "So, outside the Citadel - what are the places worth visiting?"

"You did," Tal agreed, smug as a robber that the cops couldn't catch. "Prob'ly helped that y'had an amazin' student, too!" He grinned unrepentantly at his friend, enjoying the easy back-and-forth of their teasing and the warm bonds between them. Sure, at the time he'd been so scared he'd been shaking and Soh had a hail of a time getting him to willingly stick his face underwater, but they'd gotten there in the end! Further lessons had firmed up his confidence and smoothed out his technique enough that he wasn't a danger to himself or others anymore, even if he wasn't about to win any races.

His dragon was her usual charmingly bullying self as she inserted herself into the conversation, leaving both humans laughing in exasperation as they obeyed her royal whim. Soh's question brought Tal back to the reason to her visit, though he didn't stop his scritches of his companion. "More, since the War," he admitted cheerfully enough. "If y'keep an eye out for ursurs an' breath snatches. There's the Hollow Forest, with its weird steel trees, an' the Bay with its black sand beaches. The Frostfields are kinda spooky, all full o'mist, but the Greenwing is prob'ly the prettiest place now. An' you'll see what's left o' the Fangs when we get t'the Springs," he added with a grin as they passed under the Gates and started on the well-traveled trail towards the hills. "Tomorrow I can take y'up in the Peregrine an' you can get a bird's eye view for your mappin', if y'want?"

Sohalia

"The best," she agreed teasingly, and she might have bumped her shoulder playfully against Tal's if not for Boreal's insistence on moving between them to be a part of the banter. Soh looked back on teaching Tal to swim with a mixture of fondness and cringe - she'd been so different then, so shy, so touch-deprived, and had Tal been more aware, she might have made a fool of herself. Still, she had managed to help the courier in his time of need, and that was more than enough to make up for any silliness that she might have experienced on her part.

She listened intently to Tal's list of places worth visiting, scratching Boreal all the while. "It sounds like there's a lot to see," she said excitedly, eager to begin exploring, and her eyes lit at the offer to go up in the Peregrine for some mapping. "Oh, Tal, that would be perfect!" she exclaimed. "Thank you!"

Tal remained as oblivious on this fine Longheat day as he'd been back in Flowerbirth, never quite realizing just how much of a crush Soh had once had on him. It just... didn't happen, in his experience. He approached others and sometimes they said yes, but usually they said no. If anyone had ever liked him, well, they'd certainly never said anything blunt enough to make it through the courier's thick skull.

But what might-have-been was now firmly in the past, and Tal was focused on their present and future. The present was soon to include a dip in the newly-made hot springs, and the future held a bespoke airship ride in Soh's future. He grinned proudly at her excitement, puffing up his chest a little as Boreal chortled good-naturedly at all the attention. "You're welcome! Gettin' new maps updated with all th'new territory that opened up after the War is worth it, y'know?" He grinned over at her. "I help you make maps, an' your maps help me make deliveries faster!" Everyone won!

But that was for tomorrow. For now, the road stretched ahead towards the mounding hills that had once been towering mountains separating Halo from the Climb. "How long're you plannin' t'stay on this trip, anyways? An' where are you stayin' the night?"

Sohalia

It was a win-win situation, to take Tal up on his offer to take a skyship ride for mapmaking. She was always sure to supply the courier with updated maps when she'd finished them, and this would be no different, though she imagined he knew Halo pretty well even without maps of the region. "It's amazing how much the world seems to have changed," she commented. Sometimes she compared her maps to older ones from libraries or archives, and she was always amazed to see the differences.

Soh followed along the road towards the hot springs, a spring in her step as she considered her trip. "Just a week or two," she told her friend. "Long enough to get some mapping done and see the sights, but not terribly long." She was eager to get home - or, more accurately, back to Torchline to see Jude. "And I booked a room at one of the inns in town."

Tal nodded easy agreement, lips quirking up wryly. "It's a lot wetter'n it used t'be, that's for sure. I used t'be able to walk all th'way from Halo t'Stormbreak without gettin' my feet wet!" Well, that was a slight exaggeration; the Oerwoud and Feverlands had always been pretty damp, but at least you hadn't needed a boat to cross them. Now Halo was an island, and with the portals inactive it was either sea-ships or skyships to get there.

If anything happened to the magic that powered the skyships, Tal figured they were all fucked.

But it wasn't something he was going to dwell on when it was such a beautiful Longheat day with such nice company. He pretended to pout and kicked a rock down the road. "That's hardly long enough t'see Snowcloak, nevermind the rest o' Halo!" he protested - but not very strenuously. "You-- Boreal, get back here!" The kicked stone had skittered and bounced ahead over the packed snow of the road at an angle before diving off into a snowbank where it startled a dozing ningo. The bird squawked and fluttered up, making a bumbling bid for what it thought was safety in the sky, but Boreal was already pouncing forward and spreading her wings to chase the round, white mouthful. Tal sighed and didn't even try to chase after her as he looked ruefully over to Soh. "Anyways, I guess I can forgive you if it means you'll be back again soon," he informed her loftily around his grin.

Sohalia

"I know, and I'm sorry," she said of her short visit, giggling a little at her friend's mock pouting. "But -" She was interrupted by Tal's kicked stone, which startled a rather chunky white bird from the snow. Boreal lunged for the poor creature, drawing a gasp from Soh as the dragon chased the ningo. "Oh, Boreal, don't hurt it!" she called, a slight frown marring her pretty face as she watched the scene with some concern. The ningo had just been minding its own business, after all; it didn't deserve to end up as lunch!

As for coming back soon... if only Soh knew how soon she'd be back, and with what news! But alas, she was not a Seer, and so she merely laughed. "I'll be sure to visit soon," she promised. "But I do have to get back to the shop at some point. I've been away a lot this summer." Quite a lot, in fact - something she had to thank Flora for. The girl had given her some good advice about not spending all her time working, and Soh felt all the better for having listened - even if it meant she had a backlog of maps to prepare when she finally made it back to Stormbreak.

’Sorry about that,” Tal apologized for his companion’s lack of manners with a guilty grimace. ”Not like she doesn’t get fed anytime she asks, but th’damn ningo are like cupcakes for her, I think.” Fluffy junk food she always seemed to have room for. Given the nonsense the ningo could get up to in their bold stupidity, however, he couldn’t really reprimand his dragon for making a snack of one.

”Hey, it’s good that you’re travelin’ lots! I guess it’s kinda your job, just like me, though, huh?” His grin returned as he bumped into her shoulder amiably. ”I know what y’mean about goin’ home, though. It’s nice t’have a place t’come back to.” Looking ahead he spied the place where the path turned up into the rocks, the hot springs just a little ways beyond. ”Even nicer havin’ hot springs t’relax in once y’get there! Race y’to the water?” He flashed her a challenging grin, remembering their last race up the Ascent in Stormbreak and another happy memory that they’d made.