The Village

“I? Well, that’s a long story,” Tethys said, looking out over the river with Nerro. “In brief, I came with one of the vanishing lands that was brought to Felarya from time to time. Just some… old castle ruins that I was dwelling in at the time. Trapped really, so the transition freed me, as the great walls of the ruins weren’t brought to Felarya as well. I left, and the ruins returned to their origin without me. To be honest, I haven’t looked back since. I’ve neither regret nor remorse over leaving my old home.”

“Since arriving, I’ve just been wandering really. Down the river and out to see in an old fishing boat. I’ve met one or two of the mermaids you’ve mentioned out in the ocean. I was fortunate to escape them, and I decided I’d try my luck on land instead. Following one of the river tributaries led me to this village, and I found work here as a seamstress and a watchwoman.” Tethys said, her eyes briefly getting a far away look as she recalled her first adventures in this dangerous world. After a moment, she glanced back over at Nerro.

“I’ve seen an Exovole once. It was huge. Not as big as a mermaid but still huge. Tell me, how do you get them out?” Tethys asked curiously.

"Yes," Michael replied, "may I please have two eclairs?" Michael took a moment to think on what Alexiah had said, about revealing himself in public, but he was sure that no one else was listening to what he said. He could always tell when he was being watched. "They look extremely delicious." Michael commented. He looked at Alexiah again. "So, how long have you been in Felarya, exactly?"

Alexiah placed two silver coins on the counter to cover the cost of Michael's eclairs, took the baskets containing her pastries; bowed her head in thanks to the baker and casually walked outside, without saying another word.

"Thank you for the pastries, miss." Michael told the Destro with a smile. "And thank you, Alex-" It was then that Michael noticed her leaving the bakery. "Damn, she's quick." Michael walked outside to find Alexiah leaning against the bakery's wall.

"Well, it ain't easy." he said, looking at the river. "But exovoles are used to bigger rivers than this one, where it narrows in the village. Everyone takes cover and if we're lucky, it'll mess up and beach itself, then it's easy to finish off. Some though get the jist of things and just stay in there, eating the fish and going back and forth. They tend not to leave 'cuz they can tells there's food near. They can snatch you if you're over the river. Like on the bridge."

He finished that pleasant thought with a grin.

"In that case you just gotta kill it. Best way I've found is wait 'til it's flying and exposed then harpoon the bastard and reel it in onto shore. Really, it usually comes down to me standing right here and doing some fancy dodging and throwing."

"So." he continued. "You a mage? What do you do if the beasts start knocking?"

“Well, yes, I do have some magical training and innate ability. I don’t have any official title, though,” Tethys said. “I mostly know spells that influence the mind, influencing and illusions and such, but I do know a little pyromancy too.” She explained, gesturing to the lantern she carried.

“It depends on what kind of predator comes looking for a meal. Simple animals are the easiest to deal with. Their instincts are simple, and easy to manipulate It’s just a matter of implanting a suggestion of ‘food’ elsewhere, or’ danger’ here, and they usually go away. They have to have some awareness of their surroundings to manipulate. The truly simple ones, plants and such, are harder to deal with, if they don’t even have concepts of ‘danger’ or ‘food’. But that’s when the pyromancy comes in handy.”

“Now, thinking predators, nagas and such, are harder to deal with. I can’t use the same techniques, they’d become suspicious of any base instincts or emotions suddenly appearing in their mind. That might make the situation even worse, as they’d be curious, or want to find what’s influencing them and put a stop to it. It takes more subtle spells. For example, the dimmer ones I can hide the village altogether, doable but tricky, as I need to deceive multiple senses at once. The stronger willed ones, though, they are tricky to deceive. Often, I find that I have to decoy the predator personally.”

Alexiah stood against the bakery wall looking up at the morning sun, the snake wrapped around her was geting heavy, or was it getting tighter? "Don't worry, we'll get you some food as well." Alexiah said quiety as she stroked the coil around her waist. Children ran past playing games as passer buys continued on their morning routines, many of them taking no notice of Alexiah or her pet, 'good' she thought.

"Miss Alexiah," Michael said as he looked at Alexiah, "if you would like to converse further, I would suggest we get onto the rooftops." He gestured upwards. "That way, we won't have any unwanted listeners or attention." He looked to see the children playing, smiling slightly as he remembered his childhood. But then he noticed something else. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a black hooded man peering around the corner. "I would suggest we do it quickly," Michael said in a low whisper to Alexiah, "we are being watched."

(sorry I'm coming in late, but i got permission from the author to do so.)
(as for a character....I'll use my main survivor Kallan. what she is doing here is freelancing as a solider.If u want to know about her, Just ask me or read her up on the character discussion)

Observing from a tall tree nearby giving her a good vantage point over the village, Kallan was just doing as she was hired to do. Observe the village perimeter,report, and repeat. She was really starting to find this tedious and boring. Then decided to use her new rifle's scope to be an uninvited spectator too look around the village and its residents to see if anything juicy pops to her interest.

"Oooooooooooooooooh pie............*drools* gees i can go for a godly snack right now, too bad my conscience says no....for i have these tasty sandwiches that doctrine made *grabs a sandwich out of her bag and take a bite then gets a disfigured expression towards it* too bad her cooking cant always stay good."

She gave her attention back to her scope and was looking at restraunts of the place (honestly wouldn't you in her position?) She then turned her focus onto a bakery she hasn't been to yet. She saw a young tall blonde woman come out from the bakery. This gave her very confused and excited emotions building up inside her waiting to be blown out.

"Sweeeeeeet! Axy blonde girl is here! Haven't seen her in awhile." She magnified the scopes view on her, then to another person walking out of the Bakery. This person was tall, seemed to have a well built up body, and very mysterious being dressed up in white clothing with a hoodie giving the impression he didn't want to be known, as if he were to be an assassin or hit man. This gave Kallan an uneasy feeling, a feeling that would make her turn her rifle's saftey button to off, loosening her body to be calm and her crosshair aiming dead on at strangers skull. Waiting for him to make a move as if to Cause Alexiah or anybody else harm, which is something she really didn't want to happen. As she was stalking the stranger she noticed that the stranger wasn't looking for a fight, but to get Alexiah's attention for a conversation. All the stress washed out of Kallan's body with relief as she was almost about to shoot at him pre maturely out of fear. She then looked at the area around the two and noticed an ease dropper. Looking similar to the man dressed in white, except he was dressed in black, also with the expression that he also didn't want to be known. Whitey took noticed and spoke to Alexiah as if to get away and move somewhere else more private.

Kallan got a worried expression and began to aim at the black claded hooded guy "well as if this doesn't look suspicious." she gave one last glimpse of the group before they went around a corner of a building that was blocking her sight to observe any further. "Meh...Alexiah knows how to kick but...The guy with her also seems to have skill too, might as well let them deal with it till i get down there." she put on her goggles and turned on the thermal vision that came in the goggles and observed the river to see if there was any huge mermaids big enough to eat any fisherman. Fortunetley there was just a few small ones that were too deep into the river to be noticed or to noticeable to even care about and took off her goggles and put her finger to a radio piece in her right ear.

"Yo! HQ! Its Kallan, My shift over now?.......Yep...Nope, no major preds or threats at the moment.......sweet! thank you- thank you- thank you!" she pulled her hand down and started packing up the gear she brought with her in an excited and ecstatic fashion. She was just excited to see a familiar face and to finally get some great food to eat. she heard her tummy grumble then pated it once and hard to stop and do it later once she gets back to the village. "ah yes....this day is going to be killer!" she licked her lips and started to climb down the tree with glee.

(Good to have you, vixens )

"Decoy?" said Nerro, impressed. "That's quite a dangerous strategy. But... you're smart to do that. Even if the magic defenses hold against a predator, which they probably could... they'll come back, maybe with some tricks up there... ah.. sleeves, if'n they had sleeves. I like that initiative. The best way for this place to survive is to just let the jungle conceal it and keep it that way."

"So..." he continued. "You going to rest now after the night? Got yourself lodgings and all? Not really a proper inn here... not many tourists, so to speak."

Alexiah kept looking up as she heard Michael come out of the bakery. "You really need to learn to cam down, acting out of instinct is all well and good, but it's the easiest way to get noticed." she turned and looked directly at Michael. "You need to act natural in a setting like this; we know he's a possible threat, so we'll have our guard up, the best thing we can do right now is force him to make a move, not make the decision for him by retreating ourselves." Alexiah turned away again as she tried to take something out from beneath her robe. "If you do wish to move, like I do, we go towards him. If he is a threat he has to deal with two heavily armed and trained killers, three if you include my pet. Speaking of which mind if we go towards the river? I want to see if those fisherman have made any catches I can feed to her." Alexiah began to walk towards the bridge, tapping Michael on the shoulder as she passed.

Michael willingly followed Alexiah as they walked toward the river's direction. In his experience, acting natural and being a part of the crowd was second nature to him. He just knew that sometimes, retreating to somewhere else was necesary when being watched. However, he knew that running should always be a last resort.

Alexiah walked past the stranger keeping her hand gripped tightly on the pistol concealed within her garment, she could feel her pet was beocming active as it writhed around her; constantly smelling the air with its tongue. "Don't worry, we'll get you some breakfast." she whisped, strokeing the python's head with her free hand. Despite being focused on her snake, Alexiah kept the stranger in her peripheral vision, having walked some distance away from him she looked towards the bridge where a tall woman dressed in white seemed to be having a convisation with a naga. She looked back at Michale before looking back at the pair on the bridge.
"Excuse me, are there any large fish to be bought?" she asked in a cheerful voice.

As they walked past the cloaked man, Michael remained perfectly calm and pretended that he wasn't even there. Howerer, his hidden blade was ready to spring if anything went wrong. Nothing did, thankfully, as they walked by the strange man. Finally arriving to the bridge, Michael waved to the woman dressed in white as he smiled.

Michael then smiled at the Naga, greeting him as well. "Hello there."

Kallan was just strolling through the main street of the village. enjoying the atmosphere of the residents. all of them doing their daily duties to make their Home the best it could be for outsiders and themselves. Kallan then turned her attention to two young girls that were playing around with each other to what looked like a game of tag. This gave Kallan a serious and almost discomfort face, for it reminds her of Her past and how Happy it was. Sharing that past with her only real family, her younger sister; should have always been before the accident to Felarya.

She shed a small tear at the thought and quickly tried to get rid of it so people wouldn't be openly concerned for her personal life and to not show weakness as a Hired arms freelancer. Continuing to roll down the main street, she gave her attention to the various cafe's and bakery's around. they all looked very scrumptious to eat at, but they all lacked the ability to make her appetite sway and make her sit down to eat any lunch, heck she didn't even know what kind of food she was looking for.

That was the time when something caught her nose's interest. it was a delicious scented smell that she hasn't smelled for awhile (and I mean before felarya) . This smell was coming from a bakery a little down the road. It Looked nice from the outside and didn't seem to bad from the other cafes, so she went with her gut and went ahead inside.
Once she was in she'd stop and wanted to take a whiff of the place to arouse her nose's senses. it smelled better than most the places at negav; for one giving a sweeter aura and atmosphere. It really got her enthusiasm going as it wasn't technologically spiffy, nor was it an old drag, it seem just right to her at the moment, especially the wild variety of food

.She gave out a deep smile to a girl that looked like a fairy due to her antennas, but with NO WINGS??? this gave Kallan a what the heck??? expression on her face, almost to the point of her tilting her head in perplexity trying to figure out what ever this girl is was even to be made. The girl smiling at her, she quickly went back to her nice expression and asked.

"hey! Я приехал сюда к этой прохладной пекарне взгляда, чтобы получить некоторую пищу (I have arrived here to this cool bakery of a sight to receive some food). She thought trying to say in her foreign tongue would be giving respect to the girl, assuming she's the one running the place.

((Would it be alright if I tried reviving this thread? >.>? ))