Jigano paused to tilt his head at the young man who'd tagged along, a silver brow arched in silent disbelief. "Where on Caido did you get that? If you're in a mood to put words in my mouth we can part ways right here and now, Oliver." He could understand, viscerally, why the Naturals had been so frustrated with the Outlanders back in the days of the barrier. For someone who had been here so comparatively short a time to be advocating for the extinction of entire species because they occasionally killed a human instead of a deer was entirely exasperating, especially when Oliver hadn't even encountered a Land Shark before.
Gods least fortunate, it was enough to drive a man to drink.
"That would be good," he agreed more neutrally to the suggestion of a warning system, something he would have encouraged with far more enthusiasm had Oliver not just implied that he thought Aoife's death was 'fine' when he had been there the night of her birth, when Ronin had staggered into the Temple with Vanya's death still cold in his eyes and the star-eyed babe wrapped close against his chest.
"Ah, so it's a country, then?" That explained it, more or less. "Hmm... I wonder if you lived in an orphanage, then, and helped take care of the younger children?" the bard mused thoughtfully before a hint of something with potential caught his eye. He was off and moving briskly but not so fast that Oliver couldn't keep up. He wrote as he walked, a line jotted down between steps in cyptic shorthand as he marked the path and the buildings they passed. The ruined walls and crumbled stone grew broader and simpler, shifting from houses or shops to something else. The bard paused as he came to what once had been a crossroads with a shattered fountain at its center - a simple bowl, broad and shallow, and he padded forward to inspect it before looking around at the bare squares at the corners of the little plaza, grass poking up beneath rotting pavers.
"These were probably once storage buildings or warehouses," he explained to Oliver as he scanned the remains of tumbled stone walls and empty doorframes. "This fountain would have been used to water the horses or oxen used to pull carts of goods here to be stored until they could be sold later, or loaded onto caravans heading to other places."
Gods least fortunate, it was enough to drive a man to drink.
"That would be good," he agreed more neutrally to the suggestion of a warning system, something he would have encouraged with far more enthusiasm had Oliver not just implied that he thought Aoife's death was 'fine' when he had been there the night of her birth, when Ronin had staggered into the Temple with Vanya's death still cold in his eyes and the star-eyed babe wrapped close against his chest.
"Ah, so it's a country, then?" That explained it, more or less. "Hmm... I wonder if you lived in an orphanage, then, and helped take care of the younger children?" the bard mused thoughtfully before a hint of something with potential caught his eye. He was off and moving briskly but not so fast that Oliver couldn't keep up. He wrote as he walked, a line jotted down between steps in cyptic shorthand as he marked the path and the buildings they passed. The ruined walls and crumbled stone grew broader and simpler, shifting from houses or shops to something else. The bard paused as he came to what once had been a crossroads with a shattered fountain at its center - a simple bowl, broad and shallow, and he padded forward to inspect it before looking around at the bare squares at the corners of the little plaza, grass poking up beneath rotting pavers.
"These were probably once storage buildings or warehouses," he explained to Oliver as he scanned the remains of tumbled stone walls and empty doorframes. "This fountain would have been used to water the horses or oxen used to pull carts of goods here to be stored until they could be sold later, or loaded onto caravans heading to other places."
