As Seasons Pass
Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2017 3:30 am
Zi'da 2nd, 716
Night looked up towards the sky as her breath came out in a misty puffs. Her wings were covered in a speckling of white, truly her wings looked like the night sky dashed with stars. "Cylus is going to be a rough one this year," she commented to the group which was slowly emerging from Smarter Charts. She was easily the least bothered by the weather, it wasn't like she hadn't survived worse before or anything. But it was still any annoyance. The colder the weather the more likely her wings were to lock up, meaning the harder it would be to take off. Of course over the years she'd learned how to deal with this, it was still a pain though. The rest of the group that emerged were wrapped up in thick layers of clothing to ward off the coming cold. If they were already shaking then Night hated to see what they would be like during Cylus. She was still dressed in the same attire as she always was, a simple set of clothes and her cloak. She acknowledged the fact she was going to have to get some new clothes sooner or later. But she preferred to put the idea off until later, much later. "Come on, let's get this over with. No one likes being out in the cold. So we better get to work fast and get back here faster!" She said with an annoyed huff.
The group quietly muttered their agreements. It had taken some time, but with the new season so too did come a new option of Nightshade. Her coworkers still didn't enjoy her, but scorn wasn't the first thing to fly out of their mouths the trill she opened her own. The less they argued the less trouble they caused, so Night wasn't all too upset about the new development. "So today we need to scout about and see if any of the roads are blocked off, are likely to be blocked off, and which ones are the safest for travel," she said pulling out a note which held their directives. It was strange to be the one giving orders for once. Not to mention giving orders and not getting sass in return. All she got were a couple of angry grumbles, she couldn't tell and could honestly care less if they were about the weather or her.
The group traveled with as much speed as their frozen joints could manage. She was slowly coming to the realization that working with a group in the end was easier. Holding papers was half near impossible on your own during the snowy and rainy seasons. She was already dreading the idea of going out during Cyclus. Fearful of the cold yet to come she shivered and her mind went back to cold and haunting events. It was almost like everything bad happened in her life during the times of ice and cold. She allowed her mind to turn to the hopes of a warmer season, her consciousness wandered to the times of Ashan. Thoughts of her birth season quickly made her thoughts even more sour.
Eventually the group made it out of town. Some trees clung to decaying brown of their once glorious green leaves and there were always the evergreens which managed to keep their color, but most of the trees were bare and dormant.
"Hey Shade, come here for a sec," one of the group said. He was a lot further ahead than the rest of the group and a bit of curiosity came over her. She trotted over and glanced at where he moved his arm to point. "Bandit camp. They look nasty. Suggestions?" The man simply said. There was a flush of crimson on his cheeks as if he was embarrassed to be asking the half breed for help. Or maybe it was something else entirely like the bitter cold sinking its fangs into his skin, it was sometimes impossible to tell with these people. The bandit camp really did look a little nasty, a tiny thing but it looked to be well defended.
"Let's go around. Safe rather than sorry, I'm the only one here that can fight and I'd rather not end up in a 100 on 1 battle while I'm trying to protect you guys," she said after a moment of contemplating the situation. She exaggerated but they seemed to get her point. "Come on, follow me. I can keep us at a safe enough distance that we won't be detected. I'll head back on my own later and check it out since we need to comb everything until we find some safe roads." The group simply nodded voicing no bitter arguments. There weren't even any bitter mutters or words of hateful resistance. Just silence. It was something comforting and on the fringes of her hearing she could note bird calls. The only thing that broke the lovely quiet of her silenced coworkers was their breathing, and that was something the average person had trouble when it came to silencing. She was actually at ease around such vicious and hateful people. But that weren't that anymore. They were still occasionally bitter or harsh, but they didn't maintain the kind of violent spite she'd experienced when she first took the job.
It was a pleasant surprise. Never in her life did she think she'd be in this kind of position. Leading a group of Cartographers. Mercenaries or warriors yes, but Cartographers? Never in her life did she think she'd be roped into a job like this! Except here she was and in all truth it had done nothing but help her. Her line of work had come in handy more than once or twice before. When she took the job she only took it on the recommendation that it was more steady work than being a mercenary. In the end she was left doing both jobs, but she was grateful she'd taken this one. Certainly the comment about it being more consistent was true.
"Hey, can you fly up and do a quick check. There should be some kind of small river close by, but I can't manage to find it," one of her coworkers said catching the attention of her wandering mind.
"Oh? Yeah, sure," she said spreading her wings and easily lifting herself into the air. Her grace was becoming slowly and slowly more unmatched in the air, she had to admit she rather enjoyed the grace and power her aerial abilities brought her. "It's just a little farther north, thought I think the location might be off on the map. Take a quick note of it," she yelled down before lowering herself back to their level.
"Really? But this is the master map. That's worrying. It means that the river moved," one of the few women in the group besides Night mused. She turned towards Night with a question in her eyes, just to verify that the words of the bird maiden were true.
"It looked smaller than it did on the map too. We might want to head over there and take a quick check of it?" She offered up and the group nodded. They followed the half avriel's lead as she easily picked her way through the woods. When they got to the river both things she had said were true.
"This is... Greatly worrying. We'll have to report back on this later. Let's follow the river up and see where it changed direction. Surely we won't be able to get all the way to the source but at the least we might get an idea of what's going on," one of the men offered.
"How about you guys head back. I'm going to go ahead. I think it might be dangerous," she said looking the direction the river was flowing from. She expected some kind of argument or anything, but they all quietly agreed leaving the half breed to do her work.
The woman took to the skies and glanced around. It was easy enough to follow the path of the river, for the most part the path was rather straight and clear. She was able to follow along with it while she was in the skies simplifying the hunt greatly. "It don't see anything that would cause this," she muttered to herself as she continued her flight path along the river. She couldn't find it and the trial was already half over. "I'm going to have to deal with this some other time, I have to head back," she muttered quietly with a slight shake of her head.
She flew quickly back to the Smarter Charts landing outside and walking in. "You find anything?" One of the men who had been with her called. He was currently behind the counter.
"No, it went too far I wouldn't be back before tomorrow morning if I went all the way. I didn't want to be out in the Zi'da cold," she said. She went quiet expecting some kind of chastisement, but instead she just got a quiet nod.
"Make sure you investigate it when you have the time. For right now we need to focus on finding safe trade paths. The city is relying on us. Continue work tomorrow as you always have. You've been doing well, keep it up and a promotion might be in the question. It isn't fair to keep calling you an assistant if you have skills equal to official Cartographers," the man said simply before walking away. Night stood there a little shocked for a couple of moments. A smile started to work its way across her face as she left work, happy afterwards for the first time in all history.