{se} a shepherd's touch

Luka

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade

Luka has no official profession in his youth, but as a Halo-homebody who was more able-bodied than the grumpy old geezers who often tracked him down for these things, being a Jack-of-all-trades sort of comes with the territory. Given his depth of experience with hunting and tracking, today that means tracking down a lost gaggle of hardy (and hard-headed) sheep.

Having hitched them all together so they couldn't wander apart, Luka starts the long journey back to the Greenwing and the crotchety old shepherd that lives there. The Frostfields are impenetrably foggy as ever, but the mud and muck are unseasonably thick, making the journey even longer and messier as the sheep bleat and stop mulishly at every turn. "Don't make me come back there," he threatens, voice a deep rumble but overall an empty threat as he aims a glare over his shoulder.

One yew drops her head toward one of the strange plants Luka had seen warning about on the Notice Board, and with an exasperated noise he tugs on the rope, dragging her head away from it. "Not a brain between all of you," he mutters, glad to have averted at least one disaster.

And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid

Alys

Alys sat on a blanket in the Frostfields, trying to ignore the strangely warm weather as she sketched in her journal. She had long since shed the jacket she'd brought along with her, armed as she was with the Academy's protective magic, and she had her dark curls tied up out of her face in a messy bun. Her notebook lay in her lap as she placed stroke after stroke on the page, trying and failing to capture the surreal beauty of the landscape around her. At least, the distant landscape - anything up close was rather muddy, which was not what she was looking to capture.

It wasn't so bad out on the tundra, even if Flowerbirth had been strangely warm all season - almost uncomfortably so for those protected by the Academy's blessing. At least there was still snow on the distant peaks, and ice in the bay, and a sheep on her blanket -

Wait, what?

She looked again. Yep, that was definitely a sheep. And it was trying to eat the quilted flowers upon which Alys sat. Well, no one ever said that sheep were remarkably intelligent creatures.

Alys looked around, searching the mists for more animals. Surely, where there was one, there would be many, right? That was when she saw a blur through the fog - a person-shaped blur - and got to her feet, grabbing her bow and an arrow as she did so, just in case. You could never be too careful on the tundra. Loosely placing the arrow on the string, she called out to the human-shaped form. "Excuse me, is this your sheep?"

funny how it all works out in the end
you dance with the devil and you lose your head

Luka

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade

Luka has resorted to counting the sheep every mile or so, because despite the rope, their fleece is rather slick and they are rather prone to wandering. He won't admit he's just too soft-hearted to tighten the rope too firmly around their necks, so he just continues to count. As he pauses, he turns back and performs this strange new ritual in his head; four, five...five? Shit.

Right as he whirls around, keen hunter eyes scanning for tracks denoting which direction the errant sixth sheep had wandered off to, a voice calls through the mist, close enough to startle him and have him reaching for his dagger. Pausing only when the words themselves register, his dark brows furrow as an aggrieved sigh leaves him.

"Yes, that would be mine," he calls back, the squelch of feet and hooves in mud clearly marking his approach as the other five gaggle along behind him in a cloud of muck and curls. The sight of a raised bow isn't a surprise, as he lifts his own empty hand away from the hilt of his dagger in the universal sign of being unarmed. "Are you close enough to grab it without scaring it off?" He really doesn't want to have to chase it again.

And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid

Alys

The figure took shape through the fog slowly, growing clearer as he came closer. What had originally looked like a cloud following along behind him turned out to be more sheep, and as he raised his hands in the universal sign of peace, Alys lowered her bow and carefully stuck her arrow back in her quiver. At least this close up, she could recognize the young man as a Halovian - even if she couldn't exactly place his face with a name in her mind.

"I can try," she said dubiously, eyeing the sheep as she gently slung her bow back over her shoulder. Maybe, if she moved slowly...

But though Alys was many things, shepherd, she was not, and for a moment, she stood rooted in place, unsure exactly how to do what the young man had asked. In the end, she settled down on her blanket, resting on her knees, and made soothing noises as she reached out for the creature nibbling on the corner of her blanket. It watched her with big, brown eyes as she came closer, seemingly content to continue trying to eat the quilt rather than run away. In the end, she managed to snake an arm around its neck in the (perhaps vain) hope that it would be enough until the young man could collect it.

funny how it all works out in the end
you dance with the devil and you lose your head

(If this thread takes place at night...)

Glancing up, something catches your eye. Not the moon, or at least, not that moon. Faintly, just off to the side where the moon hangs bright and clear, seems to be another moon. Or at least, a very large star.

Luka

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade

It's clear she's no farmer with the trepidation in her gaze, but that isn't exactly Luka's problem. Well, perhaps a little - if she can't catch the sheep, he's going to have to keep tracking it, and while it will be inclined to return to the herd eventually he's not keen on remaining out here for longer than he already has.

Luckily she manages to get her arms around the sheep easily enough, and Luka winces as the mud makes his steps louder than he's ever had to contend with as he approaches with the rest of the flock. The sheep eyes him - though he isn't kind enough to say it's intelligent enough to be plotting against him, it feels like it - and Luka slips rope around its neck as quickly as he can so it doesn't get any ideas.

Exhaling with relief, he encourages it back into the fold of fleece and stares down at the muddied and chewed blanket with despair. Fuck, he's going to have to talk to her more to get this set to rights. "I'm sorry about your blanket. I actually came out here to find them for someone, so I'll see if he can pay for it." Because they certainly aren't Luka's sheep. "What's your name?" He doesn't think to give his own just yet, too caught up in considering this more of a business transaction.

And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid

Alys

The stranger crept closer as Alys kept her hold on the sheep, until he was close enough to slip a rope about its neck and tug it back into line with the others. The seer glanced between the sheep and her blanket, bemused and befuddled, unsure whether to laugh or to cry. Thankfully, the blanket wasn't a particularly sentimental one, but it was a shame to have something chewed up by what was, in Alys's mind, essentially a fluffy goat.

The stranger seemed to have read her mind, and she looked up at him with some surprise as he apologized for the mess the sheep had made. "Oh, it's no trouble," she said. "The mud will wash out, and I've a friend who's a seamstress. Besides, if I'd wanted it to stay clean, I wouldn't have brought it out in this weather." It had been unseasonably warm, and the region's typical spring snowfall had been less snow and more mud this year. "But my name's Alys," she added, not wishing to be rude. "And you are?"

funny how it all works out in the end
you dance with the devil and you lose your head

Luka

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade

The woman is far more cheery - and forgiving - than Luka would have expected, but he's not about to go looking a gift horse in the mouth either. Still, it's disarming, and Luka isn't sure what to do with the absence of agreement to a deal or any level of shouting.

"...right," he says instead, because what's he supposed to do with that amount of over-sharing? Though Luka isn't the best person to determine what is and isn't oversharing considering his rather clamshell personality. "Luka Lovi," he introduces himself, gathering the ropes into one hand to extend his hand formally for her to shake. "Would you like me to escort you out of the Fields?" It's the only other offer he has to make that could possibly put them on more even ground in terms of owing her, and given she's picnicking in thick mist makes him wonder if she's not a bit directionally challenged.

And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid

Alys

Ironically, 'cheery' was not the word that anyone might have expected to describe Alys - at least, not when she'd first emerged from the Hollowed Grounds all those moons ago. Seasons later, the seer had gone rogue and done her own thing changed and matured. Perhaps some of her friends had rubbed off on her, to make her more open and accepting of new people. Either way, she was almost absurdly cheerful much to her writer's chagrin.

"It's nice to meet you, Luka," she said, grasping his hand for a moment before beginning to gather her things. "Any relation to Sah?" It was a guess, but he did look like the Abandoned, and she was certain she'd seen him around somewhere in Halo. Either way, she wouldn't complain about the escort from the Fields. She considered teasing him, briefly - after all, his sheep seemed to be the ones in need of shepherding - but thought the better of it. She didn't know him quite well enough for that, after all.

funny how it all works out in the end
you dance with the devil and you lose your head

Luka

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade

Her hands are calloused in a strange pattern, enough to make Luka briefly pause as they shake hands, curious. He almost only associates with hunters, whose hands follow similar patterns of wear and tear for weaponry. Curious though he may be, he doesn't comment on it, and instead quirks his lips in a small gesture that could be a smile but could also be a grimace.

"Yes, I'm his son," he remarks plainly, if not with some bit of pride. The slant of his mouth becomes more clearly a smile as he says, "Most people know my sister Soleil better, if you've met her?" Nine times out of ten the answer is yes, which also provides him a topic of conversation to distract them away from himself. The benefits of having an extroverted twin. Given she hasn't answered him on the topic of escorting her, Luka gestures in a gentlemanly way - though the effect is ruined when he leads the way shortly thereafter, not actually waiting for her as he should have. He knows where he's going, and he'd feel better if she came so that he won't envision her lost out in the mist when he goes to bed tonight.

And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid

Alys

Her hands were indeed a strange combination of callouses and scars, some from shuffling her cards and others from her bow. As it turned out, bowstrings were not kind to bare skin, and she'd learned that the hard way before investing in a set of arm guards.

That Luka was Sah's son came as no surprise to Alys, not now that she'd begun to catalogue the similarities in their faces. That Soleil was his sister, though, did surprise the seer - and earned him a raised brow. She could see it, now that it had been pointed out to her, though their personalities could not have been more different. "We've met, briefly. I can't say I know her well." Nor did she really know Sah well, but she admired her fellow Abandoned and rather thought they could be friends, given half the chance.

The seer finished gathering up her belongings and fell into step beside the youth, Sascha close behind. "Do you herd sheep often?" she asked conversationally as they made their way through the mist.

-FIN-

funny how it all works out in the end
you dance with the devil and you lose your head