Awoken

The man's eyes snapped abruptly open, and Ashetta started, hopping back a step while still at a crouch, bracing a hand behind her on the rotted earth. He didn’t move at first.. only cool gray eyes looked up to to meet the narrowed gaze of the assassin as she warily watched him stir. Who are you? she wanted to ask - it was still unsettling not to know most faces she encountered. She had grown too comfortable in Northaven, too used to knowing every face, every name of the small settlement. He managed a question as he moved to his back, and she pulled her arm back forward to rest over her knee. ”Still figuring it out,” she murmured in reply. She didn’t flinch this time at his quick movement, snatching up a rodent that had been brave enough to investigate the man. Her heart did stall, however, at it’s chilling demise. Ashetta’s hand drifted closer to her belt, and her other hand was a wrong breath away from summoning a violent spark. Run, some primal part of her whispered as she stared at the now rotted corpse of a rodent in his hand. How had he done that? What sort of magic did he possess to command death like that? Where did he say he was from? Misthalyn. SHe had never heard of such a place, there were no countries of that name outside of Northwind that she knew of. Had everyone here been pulled from different worlds? Her lips set to a thin line as she flicked her eyes up from the rodent and back up to the man’s gaze, and there was no small measure of reproach there. ”A means of survival.” She supposed she was familiar with that much. It certainly didn’t mean she had any kind of trust for this stranger before her, his death magic or - He moved, and every muscle coiled as she palmed a push knife - she hadn’t exactly been meeting a lot of new people lately. But… he was only dropping the rodents, making placating gestures with gently spoken words in an accent she’d never heard before. She didn’t put her knife away, wasn’t even sure if he’d noticed her pull it free… but she made herself slow her heart. Breathe. She tilted her head just slightly at him, and she let her eyes flicker across him. His clothes were in bad shape, in general looking unkempt. Where had he come from? What had happened to him? ”Ashetta,” she replied smoothly, and she suddenly cursed herself. Real name right off the bat? Idiot girl. She truly had gotten too accustomed to the security of Northaven. Too late to recover now, however, she pulled the old small flask from her hip, still filled with freshwater. She didn’t move any closer to the man, but she held the water out to him in offering. ”Interesting way to meet, Attraes. You need directions to town?” She almost scoffed - there was no town here, this was survival. Still, she’d direct him. She had no intention of approaching any sort of society today - Attraes was more than she had planned for. ashetta it's live or die my way.