From being an Abandoned who had rarely left the Hollowed Grounds, to embracing the call of adventure, to dying and being reborn first as an Ascended and then as an Ancient, Maea has gone through quite the amount of changes in her life. One thing remains common, though, in her attempts to find out just where she belongs; she’s always had a craving for knowledge which has brought her to so many places and to meet so many people here in Caido. We can’t wait to see what else is in store for her!
Congratulations, Maea!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
Skinning and hosting by the epically talented Kaons, and functionality fanciness by the coding magic of Neowulf. If you ever see either of them around, make sure to show them some love!
Aisha passed the sword to the boy and almost immediately the tip swung towards the earth. She had grown so used to it's bulk, it was a little comical to see someone else struggle with it. His sheepish smile was met with an amused cheshire grin, and a subtle fondness for his clumsiness. As long as he hadn't hurt her baby, her beloved sword, she found nothing but humor in the slip up.
She watched him investigate it, not bothering with lifting it any. She bent down and pulled the blade tip off the leaf littered ground, letting him keep the handle. "They build up muscle mass, that's how," she teased, still holding the blade of the sword and starting to move it around a bit. "They lift it above their shoulders," she moved the blade up then slowly pulled it diagonally across, letting him feel out it moved with his hands on the handle, "and they strike down."
She let go then, stepping back, "You wanna try?" Who knows if he'll go along, if he did then she wouldn't be opposed to teaching him a few things about protecting himself. If not, it was pretty funny to watch.
Every day's a challenge But I always seem to get through
"It's hard to practice if I can't even lift the sword," he said with a slight frown as he looked down upon the blade, not even managing to pick the thing up once the tip flopped back onto the ground. It wasn't from lack of trying, it was just pretty heavy for him, more so than he was used to at any one sitting, at least.
"How do most that plan on taking up the sword gain the strength to wield these, are there lighter practice blades that they wield at first," he asked with an aggravated sigh before moving carefully so he could at least try to pass the handle off to Aisha so she can put it back into its sheath. He was just a bit mad at himself for not being able to lift the blade next to at all, not being able to easily swing it would have been more acceptable, at least. He then glanced at his left arm, that had the nasty scar from a land shark around here, and frowned. "...might have fared better if I did know how to defend myself against that creature back then..."
As soon as Aisha had let go of her sword, back down it went. Damn, those are some noodle arms, she mused to herself, cocking her head to hear his excuse. She really was surprised that he'd survived the outskirts so well, he must be fast or just really lucky. He passed her back her sword and fired off another question, one she answered as she sheathed her weapon, "Yeah, there are different swords of different sizes too, you just need to find one that works for you."
His addition, glancing down at the scar, Aisha nodded, "Maybe, but don't blame yourself for a goddamn landshark attack, those things are brutal." She smiled, huffing a bit and pulling her pack up further on her back, "Well Belril, if you're ever interested in learning some sword play, come find me. I travel around and I know lots of people, I'm sure somebody will know where I am."
"You want me to walk with you back?" she added, a bit of a protective streak coming through. She didn't feel great about leaving a kid out here in the forest, even if he'd come in alone.
Every day's a challenge But I always seem to get through
"It would be nice to have some company back," Belril admitted as he picked up his buckets, one in each hand filled with things gathered from the woodlands before looking back up towards Aisha. "I usually try turning these into a few different things for either myself or for selling where I'm staying first. It isn't much, but it's been enough, so far, to survive."
He then sighed before looking down at the buckets he had. "Have to get some produce plants from Halo as well as make an area for them to grow in, maybe some tomato plants among others. They tend to grow well through Deepfrost," he mused before looking up, giving a small smile. "Maybe I'll run into you during one of my daily trips in the future."
The boy agreed to letting her walk with him back to the more settled areas of the grounds, Aisha nodded. One last glance around the woodland clearing, searching for anything she didn't want to leave, or anything else she might want to forage. Then she looked back to him, doing a little jerk of her head in the direction they were going before facing the path ahead.
She let him talk, about how he lived and all his plans. It was rather impressive, he seemed to have his own little business model going. She gave him an encouraging smile, "I hope you do little farmer," and then they carried on their way, back to the safer places carrying with them nature's riches.
