"They have roses of colours and scents you have not dreamed. The Great Gardeners weave the shroud through them to make wonders. It's a good place for alchemists. We have some of the best there."

Warmth came to his voice as he spoke of home but left when it turned again to the grim topic he had brought up and he already regretted mentioning it.

"None of them hmm?"

He told the damned dragon woman clear enough, perhaps after she chased him off she forgot about it. Careless though to not even check up on Oakstead and find out for herself. Then again it occurred to his mind, which he would admit all too easily settled on the side of paranoia, that the dragon woman might be complicit.
If that was true then betraying too much of what he knew might be dangerous.

"Perhaps I heard wrong."

Gently he undid his cloak and adjusted himself to sit on it then rolled up his sleeves. Taking a band of string from his wrist he tied back his hair to keep it out of his eyes.
"Since we have started camp and the day is getting along I suggest we stay here, at least until morning to see if these two can travel by then. Sound good?"

@Euphemia Martell
 
"It could very well also be that I just didn't hear about it. The Knights of Anatheaum and the monastery isn't exactly small. If someone else handled the situation while I was out on a patrol, then it's likely I never would have heard about it. But if it puts your mind at ease, I'll inquire into the missing children when we return." She offered as she reached a hand out to the kettle, holding it close to gauge the heat of the water inside. Finding it warm, she reached up with a bit of her cloak wrapped around her hand before bringing it to the bucket and pouring the warm water to mix with the cool. Her other hand slowly string the two temperatures together before stopping when she felt satisfied with it.

"Water is warm Syr Barton." She said dipping some of the water out with a wooden bowl from a pack that sat nearby and passing it to the other knight.

"That does sound like the best plan." She said turning back to Hawkflesh. "Syr Barton can care for the kittens, would you help me with the other task? The herb for the medicine and something for both us and them for dinner?" Her hand reached out to the bag again, pulling a folded piece of metal off that had been attached to the side. With a shake, and the press of her thumb against a rune, the folded metal elongated into a walking cane. Effie stood and turned toward the forest suddenly recalling the last time that they'd traveled through the trees together.
 
"Thank you. It would do me well to know that it was dealt with."
He'd have to answer for his poking soon then. Even if Euphemia was not involved before, she was now. He did not miss Syr Byron's notable absence of comment either. It did not settle him so he was eager to leave when the offer came.

"I will."
Rousing himself he accompanied Euphemia, quietly intrigued by her cane device, a significant upgrade from the lone branch he'd last seen her with.

Before they left he gazed on the little ones again, one feisty and the other all but motionless.
As they entered the wood proper he wondered at what they might be looking for but beyond that a deeper, more urgent topic gripped his heart, one he did not know he had by fact of never seeing anyone else who escaped before.
"I am sorry. I don't know how it works but I am sorry you wound up there. Nobody should ever be there."


The forest was still about them and he could not help but feel that the seriousness of his apology quietened it yet further.


@Euphemia Martell
 
As they stepped into the forest, Effie cast her shroud sight spell. Her vision changing from the sightless darkness into the steady glow of the shroud. She turned her head, her eyebrow raised in confusion before she realized to what Hawkflesh was referring. "Unless you had something to do with my appearance in that wood, then there is no reason to apologize. The world is full of strange occurrences." She said as she lead the way into the woods. Steps sure as she walked. "Something brought me there, perhaps in the end it will be for the better."

Effie was one to believe that things happened for a reason. The world was mysterious and the shroud made it even more so. There was so much that no one understood and so much more that were still being learned and discovered. This just happened to be one of those things and she would not run from it. Even if it made him uncomfortable. Better her getting pulled into the strange forest than someone incapable of defending themselves. Sure she'd been at a disadvantage in the space this first time, but next time she would be better prepared. Ready.

"Are you good with a bow? Or are you more confident in finding the herbs we need?" She asked indenting on spreading the tasks between them. It was hard to keep an eye our for game while also watching among the plants.
 
A dark and impulsive laugh came from his mouth but he didn't regret it.
"I find it hard to believe anything good comes from that place. It is utterly evil."
Begging cries echoed within him, the lost and never found disappeared into the nothing dark. Noticing she was walking easier he assumed she had given herself her sight again and could not help but wonder how such a person saw the world.

"How does a blind woman come to have this much optimism?"
It was not really a question that needed answering but he wondered out loud all the same. Humans lived short and bloody lives of what he saw and those who were sightless were typically easier targets than most. Her magic helped but that only compensated her and it could not be used forever, that much he knew of the Shroud, even the most resourceful cannot use it indefinitely.

"You shoot as well? Now you're just showing off."
He teased taking a long whiff of the air. The forest was alive with smells, some helpful, ginger, parsley, vanilla... others not so helpful, foxglove, oleander, hemlock...
"I'll gather, you hunt. Since you've already given your sight back. A shame to miss the wildlife."

Taking his knife from his boot (never wanting to be caught again unawares) he checked the blade, still sharp and ready for some light pruning work.

@Euphemia Martell
 
She glanced Hawkflesh's way at the joyless laugh that came from him. It was in these moments that the simple sights that she couldn't see really made a difference. Where as most people could see the emotion in a person's face, eyes, and posture, Effie was limited. The shroud sight didn't show those details. Just almost an outline of the object or person. She turned back toward the path, stepping over a root that stuck up out of the ground. Almost like the one that she'd tripped upon in that forest. The difference between what she could seen now versus then significant, even if limited.

"How can one with sight not be?" She responded with a gentle challenge as she drew her bow, stringing it in a swift and practiced move. She didn't give him a chance to answer before continuing. "Before I learned to use the shroud, I'd never once thought I'd ever see. I was born without sight, my world dark. Sure there were times when I was bitter at the gods, my parents, everyone at what seemed to be an unfair lot in life. I always needed assistance if I went anywhere other than the four walls of our little home. I hated it."

Her shroud enhanced eyes searched the higher branches of the trees, searching for the smaller woodland creatures that made their homes up there. "When I was young, there was a landslide. Destroyed my whole village. Somehow I was lucky enough to survive. Those four walls that I had hated saved me." For the longest time, after the Knights had rescued her, she'd dealt with a survivors guilt. Everyday wondering why she'd survived as useless as she was. "I had this feeling that if the Builder had seen fit to save me, then I had to do my best to be worthy of the second chance at life. The Knights gave me a purpose. Even without sight, I could still help. Could still do something meaningful. I worked hard learning to heal. The Shroud sight only came much later. I don't know if I've served whatever purpose I was saved for, but until death comes I'll keep moving forward and doing what I can."

A long winded answer, but she felt he deserved to understand. They'd faced something together that from how he would tell it took more than a few lives already. The sound of something rustling in the brush near a tree caught her attention and she saw the rabbit hiding under the bush. Drawing back the bow to her cheek, she took a steading breath and then released. The arrow flying true and through the leaves to the hidden quarry within.
 
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A fine speech, spoken well and with utter conviction.
Hawkflesh would not dispute her truth with her. A blind woman, found in a landslide, raised by these Knights of Anatheaum and trying to do what good she could.
"I'm sorry you lost your family like that."
He said, kneeling down to collect the small green leaves from the budding white flowers.
They smelled sweet as he plucked them.
"And you are, of course, entitled to your opinions on the state of fate and the will of the Gods."
Above and below, he certainly could not make sense of such things. For a moment he felt like ruining her optimism, spoiling it. After all he had seen some pretty despicable things done. Veritable horrors of life visited upon people.
He knew enough though to know that life was not a series of comparisons to be weighed against others but he still did not understand her position.

"You truly are not angry anymore? That's remarkable in itself. If that had been my life I would have taken the world by the throat and made it so sorry the earth would spit back the dead just to make me stop."
One more leaf, three each should do. As the squeaky death rattle of the rabbit pierced the forest he looked up to see it dead, a clean kill.
"Nice shooting. Ever think of entering tournaments?"

A bitter cream smell hit him. Browncaps, a small bundles just under a tree in the shade. Plump and ready, he collected them as well.

@Euphemia Martell
 
"Thank you." She said simply to his condolences. It had been a long time ago and she'd long since found some manner of closure with what had happened. As she had said, how could one be upset at being given a second chance. It had been her family that had led to her life being spared in the end. Her parents attempts to protect her by encouraging her to stay indoors while they worked that had led her being within the the building when the landslide hit. Those four wooden walls and the furniture within protecting her in their own ways.

"No. No tournaments." She said with a chuckle as she walked over to where her arrow had struck true. The glow of the shroud still remaining in the dead rabbit making it so that she could find it easier. "Inanimate object, things that are not filled with life are harder for me to distinguish. This rabbit, if left would slowly lose the evidence of the shroud that it once held. It's all a balance. The things that would eat it, moss, bugs, birds, would absorb what it contained. Only a bit left in the bones until that too grow indistinguishable over time. The straw targets, still have a faint amount of shroud, but plants already seem less bright to me than animals." She tied a rope around the back paws and hung it from her belt as she raised the bow again looking for something else. One rabbit wouldn't share well between the three of them and the kittens.

"To fight well with a sword, I had to learn to read my opponent's movements in their body instead of watching for the sword." It had been a hard thing to learn, had resulted in a lot of bruising from the wooden practice swords and even those she could see a little more than she could see metal weaponry. Her sword was spelled to hold shroud, if only to make it visible for the purpose of not losing it in a fight. Knocked from her hands and unable to find the weapon would be fatal. Her eyes caught sight of a deer, only for another to move from behind it moments later. Mother and child. She let them continue on as she stepped lightly further into the woods, while Hawkflesh trailed a bit further behind gathering herbs and mushrooms behind her.
 
"I see."
A limitation. A weakness. Some part of him filed that information away just in case and he was reminded that he was not the good person he tried to be.
Good people did not take note of vulnerabilities like he did.

He gathered a clump of hedgehog fungi and stood again, there was parsley not far, so he went to it, adding a bit more distance to them but still keeping Euphemia in eyeshot.
"Anything I should avoid? Nuts, berries?"


Some folk could not eat certain things and it was best to ask.
"That's good practice, a lot of swordsmen don't pick that up. You're fighting a person, not a sword. I imagine that you made your instructors proud."

@Euphemia Martell
 
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