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!
"Thank you, I appreciate it," she replied, glancing down at the journal she held to give the cloud mantas one last look. Then she shut it, looked back up to him and passed it on, a smile breaking the thoughtfulness she'd adopted. She nodded as he mentioned his father and grandfather, the lineage of hunters that did not cease with him. She would love to see all they'd seen, even if it were just on a page. Years of the citadel's knowledge bound in leathers and cloth, where Aisha had once only been interested in war games, she had plenty of reading ahead of her.
"What all have you hunted?" she asked, pressing off from her lean against the stone, away from the window and the bees, the infirmary behind them. It was an offer extended, to walk alongside her through the temple, she remembered long ago when she'd met another Halovian here, one who's life had been decimated by the very dragons she now sought to destroy. She wondered where the raven flew now, after she'd followed him through the clouds and lost him to the sky.
and it's all in the way that you talk starts with a whisper
Noah took the journal back from the leopardess and placed it back inside of his pack. As she shifted to walk down the corridors unfamiliar to the hunter, he followed her. He kept pace with her, though he let his eyes wander about the halls as they strode down, footsteps tapping on the stone. "Oh, man," Noah started, smiling still. He took in a breath, ready to share with her what he had seen and what he had brought him. "In Halo the game is limited, at least in comparison to other parts of Caido. I've brought home meat from every snow creature you could think of -- luxere, ursur, seal, ningo, hares, foxes, sea birds.." He continued his list, adding in a few more such as mountain goats and other species of non-magical deer.
"Here in the grounds I just harvested some turkeys with Henry." He brought back the name of the man they had mentioned before. "I sent most of that meat with him, though, to provide for those who needed it after their Longnight. What about you?"
Where Noah might be unfamiliar with the cobbled pathways and ruined corridors that seemed so intrinsic to the build of the grounds, Aisha had spent a year learning these walkways. A short time compared to those that'd grown here, but when dropped somewhere foreign all one can really do is explore. She took the lead as they walked, the gentle hum of the chorus bees slowly drifting into winsome memory.
She chuckled at his 'oh man', flashing him a playful glance, seeking his icy eyes for a moment and finding that she was truly enjoying what brewed behind. Halovians seemed brutish and stoic at first, but they'd always been the best at holding conversation, and keeping Aisha intrigued. As he listed off his game, the leopardess went through and checked off those that she'd hunted as well; ursur, ningo, hare, goat. There was more to conquer, maybe together if they got the chance.
Aisha didn't let the mention of Henry draw her attention this time, she'd done her fair share of worrying about the man. Instead she focused on Noah's returned question, she raised her brows and let out a pfff of air, "Here in Caido? Way different creatures than back home," from there she gave her list; those halovian beasts mentioned before, general prey animals like deer and small game, humming bats and other oddities of the world.
"Back home our land was way different, so we had different versions of the animals here. It was warm for one, almost always green and full of color. We had plains of antelopes and wildebeest, jungles with leopards like me, large snakes and the most beautiful birds," a more temperate climate, vivid and bright. The waterfall that bordered the capital city, the rivulets that flowed the opposite direction into endless farmland. A hint of nostalgia made it's way through the attuned bond, an affectionate red and fond warmth.
and it's all in the way that you talk starts with a whisper
The hunter had been trained to be an observant man, and with that he had superb listening skills. He took everything Aisha had to say and stored it well, compartmentalizing the information in different spaces of his mind for future reference. As she went on about her home, where she had been, his heart panged in a way that was unfamiliar to him. Perhaps it came from the mention of everything being green. While the man loved Halo, and even now with the opportunity to travel and learn and grow, he chose to live nowhere else. Still, though, all those years on the tundra gave him very little of bright, fresh, verdant things to gaze at. Even now, the Grounds amazed him. He knew, though, that compared to other places in Caido this place was desaturated and sad. The vibrancy of Torchline alone gave truth to that.
Perhaps the pang was a longing. A longing the hunter didn't know was there, until now.
"That sounds amazing." He truly believed the words as he said them, glacier eyes matching honey once more. "How did you end up in Caido?"
04-13-2021, 06:03 PM (This post was last modified: 04-13-2021, 06:04 PM by Aisha.)
AISHA
Aisha nodded as she walked, looking down at the path before them as memories played a picture show in her mind. The way the sun cast vignettes into the room at sunset, little stories engraved into metal, dancing in shadows against the ground. How she'd come home from a day out in the vibrant green of the city and fields to find those shadows, welcoming and comfortable. They existed in her memory alone now, but she could imagine them just as sweet and elegant as they'd always been.
How had she ended up here instead? Aisha looked back to Noah, they turned a corner and were now in the main room of the temple, the room with the notice board where her fresh recruitment notice hung. "The Voice's portals I guess. That's what everyone has always said, but I don't know why I'm here." It was in this very room she'd first met Korbin, she smiled fondly, "I'm not complaining anymore, it won't do me any good. I've had good times here and bad times there," she finished with a shrug, meeting Noah's gaze.
"Did you know Korbin?" she asked, purely curious. The raven came up in her thoughts occasionally, how she hoped she knew where he'd gone, if she could help him. Here the memories were strong.
and it's all in the way that you talk starts with a whisper
Noah let his gaze wander over the room before them as they entered it. He had never been here before, and therefor took in every sight he could. It was nice to explore more, and gaining knowledge was something that the hunter always enjoyed. He nodded along as Aisha explained how she had arrived here in Caido. "Interesting that even though she brought you here you chose the old gods by attuning." In his mind, it was the right decision over ascending. While he still didn't understand all of it, he did believe that attuning was better than anything else.
At the mention of the familiar name, Noah stopped in his exploration of the main room. He swung his body to face the leopardess, blood running cold and face dropping it's amiable expression. "Yes." His jaw feathered and he took a step towards her. "Do you know him? Do you know where he is? Gods, Aisha, I need to know if you know anything about him--" His voice was not threatening. In fact, it was clear that there was nothing in Noah's heart except worry when it came to the mentioning of Korbin Hale.
"Oh," Aisha said with a slight frown, before realizing that she hadn't told Noah about her attunement. She was born with these abilities, it was so innate and crucial to her that she often forgot that other's here didn't know. "I was a shifter before I came here, back home everyone had an animal form. The gods might've given me the bat, but I've always been a leopard," she explained with a smile.
As they reached the main room, at the mention of Korbin, Noah swung around. His sudden movement, the urgency in his tone, it startled Aisha just a bit. She could see the worry in his eyes, this man was close to the raven, and she felt herself exhale a breath of relief. "I saw him at the beginning of Deepfrost out in the tundra, I think he's been living as a raven. He ran from me," she said, brows knitted.
and it's all in the way that you talk starts with a whisper
Noah stopped himself from invading any further into Aisha's space. At her balk, though small, he felt something snap in the back of his head. "Sorry," He apologized, lifting his hands palm up towards her, offering his surrender. "Korbin is.." My brother "my oldest friend. I thought he was dead." The hunter admitted, out loud, for the first time. A lump formed in his throat and he turned away from Aisha slightly, letting his eyes drop as he sighed out the tension that filled him. "I thought he had gone out on the tundra and picked a fight with something too big."
In the sudden tension, with the lump in his throat, there was some relief that washed over him. For a generally stoic man, it felt like a tornado of emotion. It was overwhelming. "He ran from you, you said?" Glacier eyes lifted back to honey. "Did he say anything?" He turned then to look more face on to Aisha, as he had been before. He could not imagine what state Korbin was in. Had he been living as a raven this whole time? Noah was not sure what that could do to the kid. Even he felt more and more of the instinct of his animals the longer he stayed in their skins --
She'd been surprised by his sudden urgency, but at his "sorry" she shook her head. If anything she was excited that she'd met someone else who could relate, who'd known him. She could remember so vividly the raven's dark feathers as he ran from her, guilt at the back of her mind always there for having pushed too hard, or too little. As Noah raised his hands Aisha ventured to place her fingertips at them, urging them down, offering her understanding.
His oldest friend, and in a way Korbin was one of hers as well. He was one of the first she'd made in Caido, and though they'd only met a few times she'd valued their time together. "Flew from me. I didn't know he'd been missing when I found him, I'd just moved to Halo. But I realized quickly that he was not the same," she said, recalling the excitement she'd harbored upon first finding him, and the rush of dread when he'd turned on her way up in the clouds.
"All he said was that he wanted me to leave," she said, face colder than before, hiding the pain laced within.
and it's all in the way that you talk starts with a whisper
Noah nodded, falling in on himself and his own spiraling mind. There was an overwhelming sense of worry, a swirling sense of panic, and some twinge of relief set in amongst it all. While Korbin was out on tundra, lost and maybe falling far into his avian self, he was alive. "That doesn't surprise me." Noah couldn't help but laugh at Aisha's response. He heard it himself over and over again -- the raven telling him to leave, to get away from him, to stop. Noah never had. He had always been there. And now...he would again.
"Thank you for telling me, Aisha." Noah looked back up at her, and smiled. "It's getting late. Are you staying in the Grounds or would you like to accompany me back through the portal?" He asked her, head tilting slightly. He had not intended to stay another night in the Grounds, he had been away from Halo for far too long already (three days is a lot for him), and now he had more things to plan.
Aisha nodded, a soft hm in response, to the memories. The 'leave' which had only spurred her on, assured that she would try harder. She'd tried, but she'd failed. It'd bothered her for months, but here and now she wondered if perhaps there was hope, a flicker of a candle from a dusty shelf, re-lit and stoked to shimmer.
"Of course," she replied, returning his smile with a gentle tug of her lips. "I've got more work to do here, I want to help clean up a bit more. And I'm meeting with Deimos in the Wilds to do some exploration," she started walking again, headed from the notice board to the front entrance of the temple, assuming Noah would join her. Out into the open air once more, a bit of buzzing wizzed past her head, the melodious kind. She smiled and watched a few of the chorus bees make their way back to where she'd seen the nest, humming their sweet tune.
"It's been nice officially meeting you, polar bear," she turned to him to say her goodbyes.
and it's all in the way that you talk starts with a whisper
It seemed time for them to part ways, and Aisha's words gave truth to that even as Noah suspected it. He nodded, respectful of her answer. He had finished the work he had come to do and more, and his heart was ready to return to the icy fortress it knew best. "I'll be seeing you, then." He reached up to touch her shoulder gently, a natural movement and action for him. He did not think about if the woman would reel from his touch or shy away, her warm honey presence giving his soul the ease it needed to act as he always had. He smiled at the leopardess before turning the opposite way as she, heading back towards the portal.
