[SEASONAL EVENT][OPEN] Slim Pickings

This foraging business was getting old, but Ronin knew how necessary it was. Given that he had been able to strike a deal with the mistress of the Rathskeller, he ought not have to worry about meat for the coming LongNight, so the least he could do was repay Vervain with some of the fruits of his own labour. Whilst the Woodlands had been bountiful he had heard tell of berries and burdock root out in the Fields, both of which might make excellent additions to the growing array of drinks in the tavern. The burdock root had damned near frozen his fingers off when he'd tried to dig it up, but now the guildmaster had enough of it to fill the pack slung over his shoulder. And as luck would have it, he had just come across a tree bountiful with frozen crabapples. Ronin grumbled as he collected the ice encased fruits, though the dragonling that rode upon his shoulder was having a whale of a time trying to gnaw her way through to the crisp and bitter interior of one of them. TALIESIN SO LOOK, AND CONNECT WE'RE REFUSING TO RUST HEALING HAS TO BEGIN IN THE PAST

S E I J I

---

Seiji grows accustomed to the depth of the snow, the shortness of days. Slowly, but nonetheless he adapts. He has little choice — not even a memory of his last home to linger in when he resents this new one. Fortunately, there is always something to do. The past several days came with a wealth of information, among them bits and pieces about this occurrence called the Longnight. And these creatures called Luxere. Seiji was fortunate enough to glimpse them once before, but then he had nothing to offer. And that is no way to treat them if they truly are the benevolent guardians he's come to understand they are. So, today he finds himself near the outskirts again, searching amongst the fields for things he and the deer might both like to eat.

Fortunately, he has found one tree already with a handful of edible fruit still in its boughs. He carries a couple of apples in the crook of his elbow as he walks. A third he carries in his left hand, munching on every so often, though it's so cold it hurts his teeth. His plan for the day is to gather as many fruit as he can before heading back. Then he can share some with the luxere, later, too. It's a good plan, Seiji thinks. He hums to himself as he moves, his sights fixed on another tree he spies in the distance.

As Seiji draws near, though, he sees someone else is already there, perhaps with the same plan as he. This is another stranger, another man taller than he (it seems almost everyone here is). He has had only good experiences with the locals thus far, so he calls out ahead: "Hello!" and waves with the hand holding the partially eaten apple. He doesn't quite notice the creature on the man's shoulder until he's much nearer. Or, rather — he notices it, but he doesn't notice what it is.

Then his eyes go wide and he hesitates, whatever he was about to say momentarily forgotten, as he stares at the dragon. It is a dragon? Or at least, the word he finds for it is dragon, though he's not sure he's ever met anyone with such a thing perched on their shoulder before. Just when he thinks he's getting the hang of things here...

The rain is full
of ghosts tonight

Ronin turned at the greeting, half expecting to see someone that he knew but finding himself pleasantly surprised. He smiled in return, raising the hand he'd previously been using to pick the apples to wave a greeting. "Hello!" he called back, realising that the stranger, too, was carrying apples. "Looking to collect some fruit as well? You're welcome to join me - there's plenty here." The white dragonling trilled her agreement, the icy crabapple clutched between her two front claws, her silvery slip of a tail curled about his neck and shoulders for balance. As she called to their new acquaintance Ronin seemed to recognise the other man's hesitation or shock or... any other number of things it might be. "It's alright," he assured him, "she is quite friendly, though if you have any cured meat on you I can't promise she won't rifle through your pockets for it." He grinned. "I'm Ronin, by the way." TALIESIN SO LOOK, AND CONNECT WE'RE REFUSING TO RUST HEALING HAS TO BEGIN IN THE PAST

S E I J I

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Encouraged, by the friendly welcome, Seiji bounds up under the boughs of the tree. He answers the stranger's offer with a grateful nod. "Yes, for the Longnight!" he says, smiling. He doesn't quite reach for the fruit, though, until the man has introduced the little dragon on his shoulder — quite friendly, indeed! "No meat, sorry." Seiji nods to her, too, and then reaches up toward the nearest limb to consider the fruit hanging there. He wants to make sure he finds good things for the luxere to eat. Not just any apples will do. He catches the stranger's name, though, as he considers — Ronin.

"Seiji," Seiji says, and glances down to meet the man's eyes again. "It's good to meet you. More people live here than I thought." Balancing his half-eaten apple in his mouth for a moment, he reaches up to pluck two fruit and add them to the crook of his elbow. The icy skins leave a cold, damp residue on his palm, but he finds he doesn't particularly mind. Everything is much easier to deal with now he has some grasp of the current situation. Removing the apple from his mouth, he adds, "Have you seen Longnight before? This is the first time for me."

The rain is full
of ghosts tonight

"Oh? Same as me, then. Luckily enough this tree doesn't seem nearly as bothered by the cold and the dark as we are." Ronin grinned and watched the other man bound up, plucking another apple from the boughs and adding it to his growing stash. He chuckled at the apology, shrugging his shoulder lightly to cause the dragonling to let out a chirp of annoyance (she had gone back to her attack on the fruit the second she realised there was nothing of tasty importance on the stranger's person). "I'm sure she'll live. Her name is Sugar, by the by." Ducking his head politely as the man introduced himself as well, Ronin reached up to pick more apples, humming in agreement at the abundance of people as well as fruit. "And more arriving every day, it seems. It's an odd place though, don't you think?" He gathered purely from Seiji's comments that he must be a fellow Outlander, and as talk turned to the LongNight that only confirmed it. Ronin gave a gentle shake of his head. "No, it's a first time for me as well. I've only been here since... Leafchange, I believe they called the season before this one. How about you?" TALIESIN SO LOOK, AND CONNECT WE'RE REFUSING TO RUST HEALING HAS TO BEGIN IN THE PAST

S E I J I

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"Sugar." Seiji paused again to smile at the little dragon. He wanted to touch her, but not to invade the other man's space, so he contented himself with merely looking. “Because she is sweet?” Seiji wondered with a smile. “How did you find her?” He was silent a while longer as he watched the dragon in her efforts to maul the fruit. She was just about the strangest thing Seiji had ever seen, which was saying something, considering the whole of Caido.

Seiji nodded in response to the man’s next statement. His attention shifted to continue gathering as they conversed, though he was still listening. “I came here…” Seiji considers. “Not long before now. It was already cold.” Several days? A week? He hadn’t been properly counting. Perhaps it had been more than a week. “So it is not cold all the time?” he inquired. What a relief that was! Then, tentatively, Seiji added, “Do you remember where you came from?” His dark eyes falling from the task at hand to study Ronin’s face if an answer proved forthcoming.

The rain is full
of ghosts tonight

The dragonling in question busied herself with her attack on the crabapple, though it was much too big for her to want to finish. When she lost interest she simply let the fruit tumble from Ronin's shoulder half eaten, where it sank into the snow. The guildmaster smirked at her. "That was the reasoning behind it, yes. Though I'm not sure she's quite as sweet as she was, and it's only been a week or so." He chuckled, reaching up to tickle the reptile beneath the chin. They continued to gather the fruit, Ronin stepping a few paces around the tree to get to more low hanging branches. "I found her in the Oasis. The eggs must have been deep beneath it, but the ground shifted and released them. Of the whole clutch she was the only one who made it." His smile was a touch sad, though the little creature seemed happy enough with him. "Hm? Oh, no! No, not all the time. The snows came abruptly - before that it was quite balmy, all things considered. The trees were shedding their leaves, though, so I guess that was warning enough." Ronin flashed the other man a grin, though it faded somewhat at his next question. "Yes, I do," he said. "Not that I think I would go back... do you?" TALIESIN SO LOOK, AND CONNECT WE'RE REFUSING TO RUST HEALING HAS TO BEGIN IN THE PAST

S E I J I

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Only a week! Seiji’s eyes grew wide as he digested this remark. How big would she get? he wondered. Though she was yet small, she seemed already to be so quick and clever. What would she be like when grown? He remembered stories about dragons, though he had little memory of where or why he had learned such stories. Only that those in his mind were large, and also — not exactly real the way Sugar was real.

Ronin’s quick explanation of the season prior to this one brought a faint smile back to Seiji’s features. “I’m glad,” he said. He might even dare look forward to something like spring! “I’ve never been this cold, I think.” He hadn’t the best equipment for such weather — his shoes and the bottoms of his trousers beginning to soak through where he stood in the snow. It might be best to consider returning to the settlement.

He continued gathering fruit anyway, though he was running out of space to keep it. The little pile of apples in the crook of his arm had grown, and proceeded to begin soaking his sleeve as the warmth of his body seeped into them. Stepping back, Seiji considered the tree, and then the fruit he held, as well. It hardly seemed enough to be worth all the trouble. He glanced over at Ronin.

“I remember nothing,” Seiji said with a shake of his head. His voice had gone low, almost wistful. As Ronin failed to elaborate, Seiji wondered if he came from a place like Nairi’s old home. Something dismal, something wrecked. Perhaps, then, Seiji, too, came from such a place? But he couldn’t believe it. He felt as though his home had been different. And the few memories he did possess, however fleeting, supported this. He had no desire to bring them up now he had heard Ronin’s response, though, so he merely added, “I try to every day. I don’t like… to not know.” A shadow had crossed his expression as he spoke, darkening the usually cheerful light of his eyes.

It did not last overlong. “I don’t think I can carry any more,” Seiji changed the subject, with a gesture to the pile of apples in his arms. He was also quite aware of the cold bearing in on him, trying to work its way under his clothes. He wondered if Ronin might want to accompany him back to the settlement, and continue their conversation, though he did not quite feel they were well enough acquainted to offer outright.

The rain is full
of ghosts tonight

Exactly how big Sugar would get was a question that often tugged at Ronin's curiosity, too. Though she was yet small enough to lounge beneath the collar of his coat, curled around the back of his neck like a scarf, he wondered how long that would be the case. The guildmaster flashed a crooked smile around at Seiji as he spoke about the cold, Ronin nodding to him. "Yes," he agreed, "the winter season here seems a lot more harsh than where I came from too." He was, at least, more prepared for it - unlike his new acquaintance. He noticed, in fact, the sorry state of Seiji's clothes in the snow, and the way the crabapples were soaking through into the crook of his arm. Collecting up a little more fruit until his pack really was full to the brim, Ronin trudged back around to join him, expression softening at his explanation. Or lack thereof, as to how he had arrived in the Hollowed Ground and where he had come from. "I'm sorry to hear that," he murmured softly, tilting his head. "And you say you've not been here long at all? Fate definitely didn't decide to shine on you when it threw you here." His smile softening, Ronin nodded at the considerable pile of apples that Seiji held and glanced back towards the direction of the Settlement. "I have a guildhall back there," he commented. "Would you like to walk with me back? I think I even have some spare clothes and equipment. Where are you staying?" TALIESIN SO LOOK, AND CONNECT WE'RE REFUSING TO RUST HEALING HAS TO BEGIN IN THE PAST

S E I J I

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Seiji had also considered himself unlucky these past few days. But if fate was unkind, it seemed to him the people of Caido made up for it. He blinked in surprise at Ronin’s offer before he returned the man’s kind smile. “Yes,” he said, nodding. He would cheerfully follow where Ronin led, though he was not entirely sure what a guildhall was. He might guess, but just looking at Ronin, Seiji could not be entirely sure of the man’s profession. Ronin was taller than Seiji, but so were many people here. Nothing particularly stood out about his build, though he appeared healthy. Perhaps he was an agricultural worker of some kind, or a baker, or… There were too many guesses. Seiji was beginning to think he knew too little of the world in general. Perhaps he had left those memories behind, too. Or he had lived a very sheltered existence.

“I am staying in a house for now,” Seiji answered the man’s question. “With a friend named Kiada. I met her here.” He supposed she was his friend. They hadn’t known each other long, but she had been very kind. Her house, though a little run down, had at least strong walls and a roof. “I am trying to learn how the people here live,” he added, frowning slightly. “I think it must be… very different from my home.” There he stopped himself, lest it sound as if he were complaining. He didn’t resent Caido — not really — but around people like Kiada and Ronin, he did feel more than a little useless. He supposed all he could do was continue to learn, and hope he could pay their kindnesses back in some way later on.

He wanted to lead the conversation onto a more cheerful path, so he added, “What do you do in your guildhall?” He was truly curious, and he thought it should not be too rude to ask.

The rain is full
of ghosts tonight

At Seiji's agreement, Ronin nodded and set off without further preamble; he was prepared for the weather and even he felt like he had been out in the cold for too long. He had no idea how Seiji might be feeling. Still, moving would warm the muscles and take their mind off the weather, and the weight of the apples and burdock root in his pack at least served to tell him he had been successful in his gathering. The guildmaster looked unashamedly relieved at hearing that his new acquaintance at least had a roof over his head - this was no season to be left vulnerable to the elements by any means. Still, a crooked smile curled at the corners of his lips at Seiji's comments about 'how the people here live', nodding in agreement. "Where I was from," he murmured, "it was very much more... advanced, I'd say? Certainly in some ways it has been a difficult transition for me, too." Luckily he'd had a slightly warmer season to get to grips with it. Within a few short minutes they had crossed the fields and the Settlement was growing closer, smoke billowing from some of the shop chimneys and telling of the heat within. "Hm? Oh, we..." Ronin paused to let out a quiet laugh, not wanting to frighten the man. "This place is... strange, in some ways. There are creatures here - monsters, that cause problems. We hunt those monsters to make sure they aren't a problem for the people anymore." It sounded silly when he spoke about it, but Ronin had seen too much (and had the scars to prove it) not to take it seriously. TALIESIN SO LOOK, AND CONNECT WE'RE REFUSING TO RUST HEALING HAS TO BEGIN IN THE PAST

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Ronin's manner is kind, and Seiji finds himself glad to have the man for a companion. He nods in response to Ronin's statement. Advanced is an interesting word, one Seiji had been skirting around, though he feels his home must have been so, as well. He is, nonetheless, glad to see the buildings first rising in the distance and then growing ever taller with each step, smoke trails crowning some of the chimneys. The small movements of people around the outer walls. Home or not, it still feels like a safe place, and for that Seiji is absolutely grateful.

Seiji's attention turns back to Ronin once more as he explains about the monsters. Surprise widens Seiji's eyes then, his brows lifting credulously. Sam had said something about monsters also, hadn't he? Seiji has yet to see any, though he keeps his activity to the daylight hours and tries not to stray too far from the buildings. He's more impressed to learn Ronin actually fights them. The man seems so kind and unassuming, Seiji would never have taken him for a warrior. He certainly lacked Kiada's brand of sharp cynicism. "You fight?" he heard himself say. Hopefully Ronin wouldn't take his credulous tone as an offense. In hopes of softening the statement, Seiji added, "No one I spoke to talked about fighting them. What are they like?" He was suddenly eager to see the inside of the Guild Hall, to learn more about what Ronin knew. He scanned the buildngs ahead of them, wondering which one it was.

The rain is full
of ghosts tonight

Ronin led them through the Settlement on careful feet, wary of the way the snow compacted to ice under the weight of so many footsteps. The guildhall would appear as a large, townhouse-like structure; the bottom floor was the hall, in effect, and above it Ronin had made himself a home. Sugar trilled happily from the depths of his collar at the sight of home, and he grinned despite himself. "I do," he confirmed with a light laugh, nodding across at Seiji and leading them up the steps and inside. He beckoned for the other man to go first - Seiji would walk into a small entranceway, dominated by a large notice board pinned with a few bounties and warnings about things that needed taking care of. Through a set of double doors, then, they would emerge into the hall proper, with a roaring fire in the hearth and a few tables and comfortable chairs scattered about. "I was a soldier, back where I came from," Ronin explained, waving a hand to advise Seiji to sit down if he wanted to. "And the monsters I've seen are many and varied. Some are just... odd. There were a few pumpkin like creatures that had a taste for blood, for instance. Others are truly fearsome, though, like the creature that guards the Spire..." TALIESIN SO LOOK, AND CONNECT WE'RE REFUSING TO RUST HEALING HAS TO BEGIN IN THE PAST

S E I J I

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Perhaps Seiji is surprised only because he never knew many soldiers. In his mind, he pictures such people as gruff and stern. Not at all like this friendly man with the baby dragon. He feels a little more at ease, though, knowing at least a few people here are equipped to fight. If Ronin belongs to a guild, he must at least be an adequate soldier, as well. And he must have fellows there.

Seiji is silent as the big building rises above them, his dark eyes flitting over the outside with open curiosity. As Ronin pulls the door open and waits for him to enter, Seiji thanks him with a nod, then steps into the warmth beyond the threshold.

And it is warm — warmer than the outside air. Seiji notices that first. Then his eyes are drawn to the notice board just past the doors. He pauses there, his eyes skating over the various postings, before he continues on through the next set of doors. And then the real warmth of the room beyond, a fire burning brightly, tables and sturdy chairs. Seiji walks a few paces into the room and smiles. "Wonderful!" he says, his voice ringing with delight. He can only guess how long it took to set all this up. It must have been like the other buildings before, half ruined and falling to decay.

He is still very aware of his damp clothes, though, and he finds a clear space to set his apples down for the moment before shrugging off his coat and draping it over a chair. All the while he listens to Ronin speak, as he moves slowly to a place near the fire. The mention of the spire monster catches his attention more than everything else, though, and Seiji's head jerks around. "Have you seen it?" He asks. "What is it like?" The Spire. His fascination with that place had been put on a back burner while he prepared for Longnight, but now it simmers once more to the forefront.

The rain is full
of ghosts tonight