Dare Shrouded and Foreboding

Thinking about it a moment Arbok put her finger to her chin quite naturally.

"You know what? Sure. I'd love something made by you!"
She gave Saskia's arm a squeeze to emphasis her words.
"As long as you have the time. I won't be the cause of more pressure on you. It's already close enough."
Last harvest was only a few months away and she knew that Saskia had other important duties to attend to. Knightly things.

"And it doesn't have to be anything big or fancy like your dress. I'm a simple girl with simple tastes."
Again she thought about it.
"Gloves, You know I keep wearing mine down when the cold weather comes. I think I'd like a neat pair of dusty red gloves!"

The magpies took flight again as the turned a bend in the path. Out of the Monastery now the trees grew tall and provided a bit of shade over the road.
A relief for them both to step into the slightly cooler air.
Arbok had an urge to scratch against a tree, not because she was itchy but because it felt good.
She resisted, not wanting to get sidetracked.
"I insist on paying for it though. You gotta ask me for something and I'll give it to you!"

She beamed another smile down at Saskia.

@Saskia Kerraelas

Saskia perked up, only a fraction.

"Gloves? Oh... yes... I can do gloves... afyer all we are coming into autumn, and then winter will be soon upon us..." The vest will have to wait. Perhaps a present for spring... perhaps she could make all her friends items that all matched.

Her cheeks twitched, a small smile brightening on her face. "Let's hope these gloves don't end up at the scarecrow."

It was a jest, something Saskia would truly say on any given day, but for her to slowly come out of her shell showed that her low mood was soon waning. Of course, dark thoughts would pull at her, coaxing her to fall back into it.

"If they do then I can go get them at least."

Now that she knew where the scarecrow was, she'd be up and down whenever she lost anything.

"I'll drag you along, make a day of it. Fresh air, good company!"

Her hip bumped Saskia as they walked.

"Make the most of it rain or shine!"

She looked up to the cloudless sky and smiled, the day was going to be long but they wouldn't last like that. Her keen nose smelled the slight shift in the leaves, the chill that would come at night would follow and the hint of honey. Somewhere bees were working hard. Hard as Saskia she imagined.

"But don't dodge the subject. You need to get something from me for the gloves. I don't take freebees!"

Her Gran had instilled an almost aggressive independence in her. Arbok would owe nobody and be owed nothing in turn.

@Saskia Kerraelas

The silence that followed was comfortable for Arbok at least.

She held Saskia tight as she dared as they made their way onward round bends and paths she seldom trotted herself, leading out to places she never had need to go before today.

As they left the safety of the trees the air about them warmed and the breeze began to fade to almost nothing.

About them were the vast plant farms of the local farming community, a handful of families who's wealth was in the soil and that which it yielded.
In those fields were crop of grains and greens, cabbage and lettuce and carrot mostly with wheat and standing watch within, staggered throughout those fields were the scarecrows. Silent unliving sentinels that hung on long sticks. Some topped with sacks of hay while one or two sported hollowed turnips with crude faces carved on them.

"Right, we're here!" Arbok's declaration served to inform Saskia though she doubted the other had actually missed it, more to keep her from sinking too deep into her thoughts. They were on a mission after all.

"Which one of these straw-packed rogues has my boots?"
Her voice was upbeat as ever as her excitement at ending this mystery of lost footwear was coming to a close.

@Saskia Kerraelas

Grateful to have the walk to distract her, to give her time to compose herself and forget the words of ill intent spoken to her, Saskia peered around at the fields encircling them.

Her lips pursed and skewed, eyes of golden delight peering about as she tried to get a sense of where they stood. "Hm... this way!"

Saskia bounded away from Arbok, but her friend would simply catch up to her in three strides. It felt good to skip, to look about the peaceful fields and crop. The path was becoming familiar now, heading east where if one were to follow the path and road, a swimming hole could be found. She had been frequenting it a lot over the summer, enjoying the cool waters and the shade of trees.

"That one there! The scarecrow wearing the green pointed hat!"

The scarecrow indeed was dressed... with flair. Accompanying the hat was a long cloak in an aubergine shade, and an orange tunic underneath. It was an eyesore, that was for sure, but strapped to it's straw filled breeches were the largest pairs of boots Saskia had seen.

Could they truly belong to Arbok?

They did in fact not belong to Arbok but as she approached with loping steps towards the scarecrow with the garish dress at the edge of the narrow gap that cradled the walkway between two fields. They were not her boots unfortunately but they did look like they might fit anyway and Arbok was not one to waste an opportunity, the mere fact that they did not in fact look like her boots, hers being a bit higher in the leg and without laces these being wider in the rim and thicker in the sole.

"Hmm!"

The sun beat down on them both as she peered over the fence and held her breath in that moment, the moment that happens when you know in your heart you are about to make a decisive choice, this choice was to swipe these boots which having seen better days still looked like that had a few seasons in them.

Without stopping her motion to turn to Saskia and speak she heel toed off her shoe and picked up the boots, barely having to lean over the fence which only just broached her hips.

"These will do I think!"
Smiling was in her very being and she threw Saskia one that rivalled the sun itself as she slipped down onto her rump to coordinate her great form and gave the boot she bore in hand three heavy upside down smacks on the sole to encourage whatever might have found a home in there to flee now or face her foot.

To her great surprise a slim green creature, a grass snakling, fell onto the path and in a panic at having its world literally turned upside down fled into the nearest patch of grass causing Arbok to call after it.

"Sorry little one but I need these more than you!"

Tossing Saskia another wink at her own playfulness she forced on the boot, satisfied that it was now empty of other occupants and straw. It was a bit tight on her which caused her nose to crinkle until she forced her heel down into it which opened the toe of the boot like a mouth displaying her foot like a strange tongue of sorts on some abstract creature.

"OH!"

Her cry of disappointed surprise was sharp and short and ended in a laugh at herself.

"Look!"

Holding up her leg she showed it off, kicking up at the knee to make the broken toe of the boot flap like a jaw.

"Nice to meet you!"

She said in a higher pitch voice than her usual. Clearly enjoying the impromptu puppet she now controlled on the end of her leg.

"I just need to paint eyes on it now!"

Again she beamed at Saskia from under her wide brimmed sunhat, so tall that she could almost look right across at her even from sitting on the ground.

The disappointment Saskia felt that she had gotten Arbok's hopes up being reunited with her long lost boots was a weight heavy enough that she felt she could sink in the pit of darkness again.

Her thoughts were quick to doubt herself, to tell herself that she had just wasted her friend's time by drawing her out here for boots that were not her own. She should say something, an apology, but no words could form to be spoken upon her tongue. Instead, she watched Arbok try the boots on anyway, not at all fussed they were not her own. One boot seemed to be very difficult to get on, and the gentle giant's strength proved too much for the lone boot.

Her feet stuck out, and that made Saskia snort with amusement.

If Arbok could notice or not, the shadows around Saskia seemed to shrink back to a regular shadow. A sign that her troubled thoughts were now disappearing.

"Oh Arbok!" She could not help but laugh now. "It's going to be hard to get them off now!" In which she was sure it would be an entertaining endeavour.

"Oh yeah."
Arbok agreed even as she attempted to wedge the ill fitting footwear from herself by scraping the heel, never once loosing her smile despite she suspected looking quite foolish to any onlookers who may come by.

Shadows were something to notice around Saskia and Arbok had reckoned that they were something of a mood ring for the other girls emotional state. Bigger was usually worse, or so she reasoned, so the shrinking of Saskia's own darkness under herself in the light of the still high sun gave Arbok a small swell of satisfaction.

Saskia was not currently thinking of those silly people who didn't understand her and that was good.

Giving up for the moment Arbok threw her head up and her had off, letting the sun hit her face and her hair waft in what breeze dared present itself.
"Well, at least they breath now."

Her joke followed by a silent chuckle as she leaned on her knees and tried to think on how to get them off before an idea struck her and she cast a gentle eye on Saskia.

"I see two ways of doing this. I can bear up and explode out of them, which means I need you to please keep watch so I don't get seen as I undress or..."
She still grinned even then but finished with a bit of a desperate hope in her voice.
"...well you don't happen to have a knife do you?"

A knife...

Knife....

Here, knife...

The shadows sung to her ears alone. Saskia could forget that the shadows always listened, and that they would always look for something before she could begin to think of finding it. Her shadows had done it for so long, leading her to where an item could be, but only in the past couple of years did the shadows begin reaching through the dark for her.

It was how she found Farren's bells after she had them lost before leaving the infirmary after the skirmish. It was how Saskia found her keys that she had dropped into a drain, only for the shadows to jangle the set before dropping it onto the ground before her.

Saskia held out her hand, and saw the glint of steel be carved out from nowhere, and a placed into her hand.

"Ask and you shall receive." She snorted, but thought her thanks to the shadows.

The physical movement would be the only thing Arbok would see, only the voice of the shadows could be heard by her.

"Whaaahaaahaaaat?"
Saskia was trully amazing to Arbok, she did not even see her pack that knife.

With grateful amazement she took the knife and began to work at cutting the leather from the boot, blade out of course to not cut her ankle.

"Honestly, how did you know we would need that? It doesn't matter, you're a Knight, always prepared right?"
Arbok understood little of what Saskia's powers actually did so it did not occur to her that the shadows were somewhat independent actors from her. Instead she tended to assume that everyone's innate magic was like her transformations. As linked and controlled to her as her own hands and feet.

She was about halfway through when she stopped to look up at Saskia again.
"Um Saskia..."
Her face flushed a bit, it was awkward to bring up but nobody was around and she reasoned as good an opportunity to ask wouldn't come up again soon.
"... I know you don't really have a reason to know, so it's fine if you don't or anything, I'm not gonna be upset or anything but..."
She pulled at the leather and it tore, freeing her foot to the cool air and warm sun. Her ankle was stained by the old boot dirt and she huffed at that as she slipped her shoes back on.

"...you don't happen to have seen, well, anyone like me on your travels have you? I mean, someone who can change like me."
Having no further need of it she handed the knife back.
"Thank you."

The breeze came up for a second and then died again, it played with their hair but Arbok didn't bother trying to control it. The question had been boiling in her for months now.

Saskia's face softened, and the shadows grew thinner behind her as if to give them both privacy for this conversation.

"No." She hated how easy that answer was, how short and succinct it was to dash any hopes her friend might have. "I'm sorry. I don't know if I have heard anything across Ilicia about... anyone else of your kind, Arbok."

Her stature drooped, just as her eyes turned saddened and that her lip curled outward in a pout. Saskia knew what it was like to be missing so many pieces in life. That was why the Monastery and the Knights earned her loyalty. They were the family she prayed for and got in return, that something to fill those missing shapes. She was shaped by their kindness and companionship, and would do anything in her power to keep it that way.

Saskia took the few steps forward, turning her expression to something happier but weighed with the sadness of being unable to help her friend.

"Is that something you wish to... find out? To search for anyone like you? Because I am sure if we spend some time in Crown's Hold, speak to scholars and historians and anyone else privy to such things, perhaps we will find someone that could point you the right way." Saskia smiled, the hopeful tone lightening her entire demeanour.

"Of course I do."
She put her hat back on but stayed sitting, shuffling her knees up a bit to rest her elbows on them.

"My shaping isn't a spell or a curse or anything, my gran could do it. Said "we all could!" so, there's got to be more than just me, right?"

A polite frustration wove it's way into Arbok's words but it was just the disappointment of not knowing. It was a long shot to begin with and she had grown tired of hoping she'd find the answer at Astenvale. The suggestion to go further afield confirmed what she had suspected for a while, that she must go out and find answers herself.

"Crownshold?"
Arbok had only been to the port city briefly but she saw her friends reasoning, that it was a big place with lots of travel, likely a good place for rumours and the like. It sounded like a strong place to start but before she agreed her eyes went a bit sly as her mind focused on a particular word.

"You said "we"!"
She wasn't going to hold Saskia to anything but if she was offering to go with her Arbok wouldn't dream of objecting.

@Saskia Kerraelas

A sly smile grew on her lips.

"Aye, I did." The smile bloomed into a grin. "I always look forward to an excuse to go to Crown's Hold. I can only spare a week, mind you... but I am sure some friends I have there know some people... maybe I can write them a letter before we head out..." Saskia began to pace a little, giving herself something to do while they plotted the logistics of this small trip.

Shadows rippled behind her, a sign that they were alive and ready to act should she will it. They never appeared to be still or standard as they are on anyone else, but Saskia would sometimes reach a hand to the shadows just to feel the reassurance they were there.

"It would be a start, no? And if that is the way I can help you, my dear friend Arbok, then I will be glad to be of assistance!"

Her eyes brightened with her smile. What she saw of Saskia's shadows was excitement to her, nothing more, like a dog wagging its tail. Again the concept of the mood ring came to her mind.

"A week isn't much time..."
She hopped up, an unusually swift movement for her great height as she towered over Saskia.

"...but I'll take it!"
Her hair swayed behind her, almost long enough to be a cape under her wide hat that covered her face on shade.

"And I'm happy to provide an excuse, just don't expect me to know my way around okay?"
She laid a playful hand onto Saskia's head.

"I've never been and a wholesome country girl like me can get lost in the big city!"
She was only half joking, the last time she was anywhere she traumatized a squirrel-person. It wasn't a good feeling she got when she was to take the lead on things.

@Saskia Kerraelas