ASHE
does the wolf apologize when it stands on top? should the lion say grace when it takes its mark?
She glanced up at him with a half frown of understanding. "I'm not sure Northaven is still there or not," she offered in turn. "And Northwind was ravaged by war." She tried not to think about that. The country that had been her home. The great mountains to the east she had been born in, the sprawling capital she had been broken and remade in, the valleys and plains and forests and cities... she didn't realize how much she hoped it was still there, even if she would never return.
She huffed and stepped nimbly from rock to root to fallen branch, until she stepped up upon a stone that brought her almost to eye level with Deimos. "The stone cat was a bitch to fight," she said, happy to switch the topic back to the beast that stole so many lives. Strange how horrors that once made her heart race and her breath catch held not even an ember to the infernos she had suffered since then. "We had these walls around Northaven, surrounding us on all sides. Keeping us in, keeping the jungle out. Impossibly tall, and this thing was taller. Headbutted it's way right through them and buried half our Guard in rubble. The rest of the settlement was magically trapped in town somehow and.. well, I think there were only eight of us left to fight it."
She glanced up at Deimos as she continued on, hopping down from her perch to the next root, feet never touching the ground. "It was stubbornness and luck that won in the end, I think. We lost one fighter, a civilian baker. I don't know what she was thinking, fighting." She shook her head. She had never met Harlow personally, but everyone knew of everyone there, the messenger of Northaven especially. "I focused my firepower on one of its legs, along with a couple others who had magic. Some were crazy enough to climb it as it headed for town. Eventually we downed it, and with a final blast-" She held up her hand, a bright, brilliant blue spark of lightning snapping around her fingers before vanishing. "-its head was taken from its body. A few of us were crushed in its fall. I was lucky to only to lose a finger."
Ashe looked up at Deimos, finding it easy to talk to him. She was meeting more and more like minded warriors and fighters of late, people she understood, people that knew what it was like not to remember a life without battles and pain and hardship. Not like Northaven, where she had felt like the dirt on people's shoes for not being able to live like they did. "Did you ever face monsters like that? Or just other people?" For there was no question in her mind he had faced people as surely as she had.
She huffed and stepped nimbly from rock to root to fallen branch, until she stepped up upon a stone that brought her almost to eye level with Deimos. "The stone cat was a bitch to fight," she said, happy to switch the topic back to the beast that stole so many lives. Strange how horrors that once made her heart race and her breath catch held not even an ember to the infernos she had suffered since then. "We had these walls around Northaven, surrounding us on all sides. Keeping us in, keeping the jungle out. Impossibly tall, and this thing was taller. Headbutted it's way right through them and buried half our Guard in rubble. The rest of the settlement was magically trapped in town somehow and.. well, I think there were only eight of us left to fight it."
She glanced up at Deimos as she continued on, hopping down from her perch to the next root, feet never touching the ground. "It was stubbornness and luck that won in the end, I think. We lost one fighter, a civilian baker. I don't know what she was thinking, fighting." She shook her head. She had never met Harlow personally, but everyone knew of everyone there, the messenger of Northaven especially. "I focused my firepower on one of its legs, along with a couple others who had magic. Some were crazy enough to climb it as it headed for town. Eventually we downed it, and with a final blast-" She held up her hand, a bright, brilliant blue spark of lightning snapping around her fingers before vanishing. "-its head was taken from its body. A few of us were crushed in its fall. I was lucky to only to lose a finger."
Ashe looked up at Deimos, finding it easy to talk to him. She was meeting more and more like minded warriors and fighters of late, people she understood, people that knew what it was like not to remember a life without battles and pain and hardship. Not like Northaven, where she had felt like the dirt on people's shoes for not being able to live like they did. "Did you ever face monsters like that? Or just other people?" For there was no question in her mind he had faced people as surely as she had.
I do what I need to, what I have to, to survive. Closer than your friend, I can be your enemy.
