Private Green through the Thumb

[Josai]

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Teaching was, still something that was starting to form within Josai's mind. Never quite saw herself as a teacher. Hardly liked taking on assistants and helpers when it came to manning the bar at the knoll, or the medicant hut.

Yet, she understood the importance of it. Least, she thought she did.

"So, tell me squire," the spear witch started as they hiked out across the wylds. Hours away from the monastery. Nothing too drastic. But, she would not be too surprised if the squire got turned around. Lost her way back.

Worm rot, Josai herself was likely be turned around and astray, were it not for the maps she kept. And the few tricks she had learned from the more wyld of walkers that called themselves knights.

Oh right. "About yourself," she half laughed. Spear acting every bit a staff as she moved through the trees and the soft earth. "About what you know of the shroud, and the wyld," a bit of shadow and thorn in the last of it.

Some theater helped to remember. Least, she thought so anyway. And adjusted the brim of her wide blue hat. Her robes a billowing cloud of brilliant blue against the green and grey of a cool fall day.

 

[Haelyn]

She was fresh to the lives expected of a squire, only a few months into her education and training. Haelyn was like a sponge, or so she tried to be more absorbent, and spend her free time reading whatever books she could get her hands on. This was not the sort one could learn on their own, at least that was the truth Haelyn had to face. When she expressed her intentions to learn the Pursuit of Death, she was quickly told no and that only burned the boiling pot hotter.

Once she had settled her wits and emotions, she decided on the Wylds. The answer had always been there, never too far from the surface of her train of thoughts.

"It is still all so new to me." She began, eyes trained on her boots and where to place them. Haelyn wasn't quite cut out for such terrain, not when her life before becoming a squire was cobblestones and soft grass. "But I know that the Wyld calls to be understood and heard, not to be taken advantage of at the very least."

Haelyn paused a moment, eyes watching for how to sidestep the moss, before starting her path again. "What's your favourite thing that comes from the wyld, Syr Josai?"

 

[Josai]

A fresh recruit. Josai thought with wan smile. She might have been the worst person to teach a fresh recruit.

Though, she supposed that the young woman had shown interest in Death, and then chose the Wyld. Well, she supposed she could see the roots to it. The wiring paths that spread through the mantle of their fate.

Or maybe she had just been getting too little sleep again.

She nod to Haelyn's note on the wyld, as the butt of her staff prodded forward. Found the next steps. along their path. She stepped daintily across the stone. Adjusted the bundle that was strapped onto her back. Laughed some.

"An apt summation, Squire," she said and went on with her trek. "Watch that stone there, a bit mossy," she warned, and listened to the question. Gave a hum. "Well, that's a question, isn't it?" she said. Took only a moment to pull an answer from her hat.

"I would say, it is the clear connection of it all," she said with a pleased smile, and came to a stop amidst a clearing. "Where Fire and Loch stand as opposites to one another, as do Life and Death," she said, let the sound of the wind carry through the leaves.

A bit of bird song sounded in the distance. A pause of silence longer. The rustle of critters through the underbrush.

"The Wylds, are connected to all these things, from the proud cone, that sprouts from fire scored earth, to the humble mushroom, that eats away at the death of the forest floor," She turned her eyes onto the squire, spear firm in hand. "Though I guess, if I were to pick one of these facets," she pondered. Nod. "It'd be the shrumps,"

 

[Haelyn]

Haelyn was careful where she tread, feeling as if one wrong step may ruin the habitat of some small creature. She was now very aware of the wilderness around them, the sounds of the Wyld swirling around them from all directions. If she were to destroy something so small, so dainty, would the nature come to claim vengeance upon her?

Or perhaps she should cease reading the dream journals of a past squire that was eager to learn of the Loch. They were such vivid images of the mind.

"Shrumps..." She mulled on the idea, tilting her head as though she heard something. "Never thought of the shrumps..." Because Haelyn truly did not think of the shrumps. Had always walked past them and questioned their adamant nature to find places to grow. "I like the leaves. The full treetops and how they sway and flutter in the strong wind. Do you...." She should know this, but Haelyn believed one's own perception of a Pursuit would differ to others.

"Do you think the wind and the leaves talk to us that way? If that we listen, we would hear the voices of the Wyld?" She was fresh, green, a squire for not too long. Haels would not ask this of her peers, but in Syr Josai, she knew no cruel judgement would be placed on her unawareness.

 

[Josai]

A little laugh sounded from Josai's throat, almost a knock that come from the back of her throat. A thrum. "Good," she said upon hearing the youth's repose. "You aren't shy with your thoughts," she said with a hint of warmth. Ripples come rain across a clear pond. "Wouldn't know how to behave myself if I had to go and tease everything out of you, Squire," she almost laughed, settled on a smile. A nod. "Haelyn," a reminder to herself, more than anything.

Her right hand came up, and tilt up the wide brim of her great blue hat. Through thick dark brows, Josai gazed at the leaves. Saw all the golden light of the sun, speckle through them. Dots of gold against bright green. Set the whole air about them to a dreamy green.

The breeze through the blades, paddles, and combs of needles washed over them like waves. Gentle and easy against the shore.

"I can't see why ever not," Josai said, simple in that way that something new, sometimes simply made perfect sense. "The wind carries much and more upon its currents," there again, the trill of a bird, whose call became the more familiar. "If the songs of birds, and wolves, why not the words of leaves?"

Slow, and with purpose, Josai began to set down the bundle she carried upon her back. Hard woods knocked against stone.

"A question for you, squire," she smiled. "Haelyn," another little reminder as her hands were busy moving fabric here, and setting object there. "Does each leaf have its own voice?"

 

[Haelyn]

Haelyn found sure footing on the last few feet before coming to a stop, peering down at the bundle being laid out against the stone. She circled around slowly, deep in thought as she pondered the question posed to her. She wanted to think for Syr Josai, to provide an answer wholly truthful and honest of her. Being away from the Monastery gave her relief, the chance to perhaps let down some of her high walls of defense.

Her lips skewed, teeth chewing at her lip as she turned her dark eyes skyward to consult the leaves. They rustled in the slight breeze, but the squire listened to the noise on the wind, the different voices she was convinced spoke to her.

"I think at first, they sound the same... but it is a language only those that know how to speak and decipher it that would understand." Haelyn brought her gaze back down to the Syr, to the bundle on the stone. "Language of the leaves, speaking with different winds of speech... I think." Dark brows knitted together, her expression coming across a little perturbed.

Josai liked that Haelyn spoke honestly, and had not made comment that indicated Haelyn was wrong to think that way. It was vulnerable to give her opinion, as if she were still halfway out the door to declining this lesson, to go back to the Monastery and stew in her bitterness.

The leaves rusted above, as if telling her to keep talking.

"Each leaf... I think that would be many voices. I think the leaves now speak as one, and we should listen now."

 

[Josai]

A pleasant little hum came from the Sworn Knight's throat. A nod. Slow at first. Then faster, with an excited rhythm. "Well, that is a thought, isn't it?" she said, happily. "To each be born with a language shared, only by those who know it, each with its own wind of words, to then, come together, as one, for us to listen," she carefully bent low, and set down her pack.

Her own spear, a support upon which she held to, made from old and treated cedar. Fire hardened. Ash bathed. Oiled and cared for. It was like another part of her now. Its heft, lined with runes, and three charms hung from its winged head. A shard of bone. A black stone, and a single sliver bell. One tied with a string of green, the other with a string of purple, and the last a string of blue.

Her wooden pack, now on the soft earth floor, was made of a dark wood. Finely crafted. It was full of compartments and drawers. Marked with colorful strings and paper charms.

Another relic, of the spear witch.

Without a word, she undid the bundle she had carried. Within it, tools. A willow wand. A rod of pewter. Even a bronze dagger, with fine runes carved into its handle, sheathed in a piece of leather.

Each object felt old. Each object, was lined with power, attuned to the shroud. They hummed with a voice all their own. Spoke with a wind, only those who knew how to hear such whispers could sense.

"Our neighbors to the east," Josai started, as she began to organize the old tools neatly upon the cloth. "Have taught, that stone, so too metal, can carry their own words with them," she smiled, and looked up from her bent angle, the wide brim of her hat, angled, just so to hide the glimmer of mischief in her eyes. "How do you think, that is?"

 

[Haelyn]

"Stone..." She spoke, skewing her mouth in thought. "Stone is sturdy. Dense. Their words would be of... bravery?" Her imagination ignited, and the squire crossed her ankles before bending her knees to lower, seating herself and crossing her legs. She reached for a small piece of stone and rolled it between forefinger and thumb.

"Silent, maybe. But I imagine the language of stones are strengthened... and that metal is not too far off from that either. Metal could be..."

Haelyn placed the stone down and now pulled up her sleeve, revealing the simple cuff at her wrist. She flicked it and listened, repeating her actions twice more before she canted her head. "Very quick to defend." Is that why they clash their swords and iron hammers against one another? That the language is of defending, of fight?

"I feel as if I speak of nonsense, Syr Josai. My mother used to say I heard things that no one else hears... but I see no harm in that. What if the trees and the springs spoke to me, told me what was to come?"

 

[Josai]

"Sturdy, dense," she nodded along. grinned some. "I've dated a few men could be described as such," she laughed. "None I'd right call brave though," she shook the thought away. Blinked and remembered herself. Went on listening to the young squire.

A quirk upon her lip, as well as her brow. One hand still about the tall shaft of her spear, which she leaned against some as she squat low. Hunched as she eyed the tools set before the squire.

Three charms hung from the head of Josai's spear. A bell of silver, tied by blue string. A jaw bone, tied by green string, and a black obsidian orb, tied by purple string. All three remained still. Quiet.

"Often, those who do not hear the languages of those things around us, cannot begin to understand what the world might be whispering," she smiled, a wistful and small thing there beneath the brim of her wide hat.

Almost a mushroom herself, bundled low near to the ground. Her fingers reached out and spread across the soft earth. Pressed pads into the soil. Felt the green blades of wild grass and the soft rounds of clover leaves there underneath.

"If the world whispers you a secret, then it has trusted you with it," she looked up to the squire. Her pupil, for this outing. "What would you do, if the trees and their roots, and the springs with their streams, told you what came next?"

 

[Haelyn]

Haelyn considered this, pondered on the different things she could be entrusted with by the surroundings nature. Why would they trust her? She was inexperienced, but she always trusted in the safety the earth gave. Perhaps they recognised her, from her childhoods spent running through trees, herself playing busy kitchens on the dirt. Haelyn recalled making mud cakes and learned to sew leaves together with long blades of grass, collecting the drops of water from the leaves and dew from the grass. She remembered collecting acorns and spelling out each name of her own and her friends that played with her.

Did the trees in different forests speak to others?

"I would trust in the Wyld in return." She surmised.
"I always have. That shall not change now." Haelyn gave Josai a shy smile.

 

[Josai]

A slow nod came from the wide-capped witch.

"A green heart then," she said with a gentle smile.

Had her own heart been so, once?

The bone charm that hung from her spear rattled against the black sphere of obsidian.

"Very well," she welcomed, and sat down before the instruments she had so carefully laid out before them, motioned to them with an upturned hand. The blue sleeves of her robe, trailed behind her long fingers, like a shroud of mist.

"Placed before you are magical foci," her smile widened as she brought her hand back into her lap. "Tools, meant to help one feel and channel the lines of shroud that are woven into the world around us," her eyes came back up to Haelyn, and there was a welcoming calm, there across Josai's face.

"We are not bound to our tools, but like a carpenter, or a mason, we weavers might find some, more welcomed by our hands than others," The breeze stirred, and the silver bell tied to her spear chimed soft. Proud to be where it was.

 

[Haelyn]

She stared at the instruments, wondering just how they would work in the way Syr Josai spoke.

"So... these would be tools to help me with..." Haelyn went quiet, hoping Josai would fill in her blanks, but was met with an expectant look. "To help me hone in with the Wyld?" Even that had been vague.

She sighed, letting a hand go to lightly brush against the closest instrument in hopes it would inspire her with appropriate words. "Well, I expect there would a different instrument to help with an assortment of things to do with the Wyld. Is that correct, Syr Josai?"

Brown eyes turned wide, innocent and accepting of whatever lessons she was learning today. Taken away from the other squires, she felt more focused and willing to do well instead of falling into the known irritable mood she adopted at the monastery. Here, she could afford with being serious and studious.