the journey ahead

baelfire

he'd left edinburgh and sorcha behind to head out on a journey; one he was hopeful would end in triumph. it was high time he enacted his plans and attempted to reach his goals and, well, he needed a win... so he headed towards yorkshire with determination sparkling in his deep green eye.

of course, it would take some time before he reached his destination he'd pass through melrose first before the red wood and eventually, yorkshire. he didn't mind, perhaps he'd be able to clear his mind along the way. he couldn't avoid that haunted place forever... it had been so long since then and he was grown now. he was larger and muscular, well traveled and trained— he could take care of himself. he wasn't worried about a thing...

okay, he was a little worried.

baelfire swallowed as he moved through the flowers, thinking about the possibility of running into his brother here. he had always assumed beltane had left to join the college but after their mother died he hadn't said a word before disappearing. baelfire understood; he was in pain and needed time to grieve... but he just wished he knew what had happened to him and if he was alright. he wasn't even sure what he would do if he did run into him. he just knew it was a scary thought, for some reason. after all this time would they still be brothers?

he sighed, his ears twitching as he thought he heard the paw steps of another. he didn't call out, but he stayed within a patch of blue and purple flowers, his white coat somewhat blending in with the lighter shades if you didn't look too hard. he scanned the area with his eye, but only saw a dark patch in the distance. wait a minute...

@Echo

template © bean

Echo was fuming. Absolutely raging. Granted, that wasn't really a difficult outcome to achieve with Echo, especially where soldiers or royalists were involved. She'd been quite happy this morning having had a successful plunder of some abandoned structure the day before. Her little scrap of fabric she used as a makeshift satchel had been filled with plants and herbs and other pieces she'd found in the rubble that she had been intending to try and trade. Even if the items she'd collected turned out to be nothing more than junk, the plants she'd collected she knew would fetch for a fair price somewhere, even if she'd had to go all the way back to the College. Unfortunately Adamh's little soldiers seemed to be everywhere these days, patrolling the countryside like ants and making her life much harder than it needed to be. They'd stopped her, requesting to look at the items she had and declared that she should donate the items to Adamh's cause. It was probably the mix of plants she'd picked that they were really interested in but maybe they thought they could make a pretty penny on the other items too. Well, of course that went down like a featherless crow. Her items had ended up strewn across the ground and she'd only just managed to grab her bag from one of their jaws and sprinted away, leaving her haul behind. Their angry shouts eventually died down behind her. Either they couldn't be bothered to chase her or she was just too quick for them, but she didn't look back to check. She stopped in a patch of flowers to catch her breath and threw her satchel on the ground angrily, a cry of anger breaking the peaceful silence of the field. It was only when she turned around and looked up did she notice the stranger. She hadn't seen him while running, his pale form blending in somewhat with his surroundings and she too lost in her anger to really notice. She puffed up, hackles raised as she glared at him. "What? You here to rob me blind too? Well you're too bloody late!" "Speak."

baelfire

the dark patch addressed him angrily and after a few seconds the bleary figure materialized into that of a wolf.

he blinked and shook his head slightly, brows drawing in confusion.

n-no!

steal? he would never...

sorry, i'm on my way to yorkshire. name's baelfire, what... what happened? do you need help? he asked. maybe he could help her retrieve her stolen items, but she seemed very angry. would she even be interested in his help?

his jaw tightened as he looked down at her empty satchel and when he thought of the thieves that had taken from her, he nearly growled out loud. they were scum in his eyes and as a soldier he would be sure to put any thief in their place. tell me, who did it. he urged. he wanted to help, he wanted to be a good influence as much as possible, it was what he owed his father and his country.

@Echo

template © bean

The pale wolf looked startled by her outburst. Good - startled was better than offended. She'd been so caught up in the injustice of it all that she'd let her anger get the better of her. While she very easily got herself into trouble more often that not, Echo did usually try not to antagonize strangers. "sorry, i'm on my way to yorkshire. name's baelfire, what... what happened? do you need help?" She huffed. "Did'ya not hear me? I said I was robbed." Her accent had never been particularly strong but her heightened emotion did seem to put a little of an upper lowland slur to her words. She pawed at the empty satchel and made an irritated "ugh" sound and sat down huffily. Her face still looked angry, her brows turned down and throwing more shadows over her already dark feature, but her tone of voice and snarky attitude toned down a little. She shrugged half-heartedly. "Not a lot you can do now." She glared at him, though it wasn't really directed at him, more around the situation. Now that she wasn't seeing red she took a moment to regard him; bigger than her, older, smelled a little like a lowlander though one could never be too sure these days. Her gaze lingered over the scar on his face but she didn't ask about it. She watched in fascination as his own demeanor turned from surprised at her outburst to indignant. Was he angered by the transpired injustice? tell me, who did it. Echo regarded the stranger - Baelfire he'd called himself - with a critical eye. He was coming from the north but was heading south to Yorkshire, and it made her wary. "Adamh's soldiers." She said bluntly, acerbically. No point in lying, and she was curious to see his reaction. "Speak."

baelfire

as she huffed back at him, he tried his best to let her have her frustration and not feel personally attacked by it. he hadn't meant it like that, he'd been asking for a more elaborate description but it didn't seem like he would be getting that. he was curious as to what exactly happened beyond her getting robbed and more importantly, who'd done it.

however, he wasn't prepared for the answer to that question.

the glimmer of ferocity in his eye faded into confusion when she told him that adamh's soldiers had robbed her. that... didn't sound right.

w-why? he asked, though he wasn't sure she would even know the answer to that. then again, should he even believe her? he didn't even know her. though by that logic why should he automatically believe in the soldiers? he didn't know them either. his lips pursed momentarily and he let out a huff of his own. what did they take? he asked, trying to make sense of it all.

not that the 'what' mattered when it came to thieving.

@Echo

template © bean

Echo regarded him with her sharp gaze, measuring him up the moment she revealed who it had been who had taken her items. His noble ferocity for her plight faded to confusion and her lip twitched, fighting the sneer that was just begging to curl at her lip. Instead she allowed herself to roll her eyes. w-why? She shrugged and looked at him incredulously. "Why do the soldiers do anything? Because they can, and not like anyone can stop them or tell them otherwise." They were all a bunch of bullies if anyone asked her - Echo was very good at painting everyone with the same brush. When he asked what they had taken she sighed, waving a paw in the air around her now empty bag. "Supplies. Food. Plants and such. I was taking some of it back to the College. Guess they didn't like that I didn't want to give it to them." She shrugged again with a resigned huff. Bugger all she could do about it now, she'd have to go out and collect it all again. She'd taken a guess that this stranger was not a solider, even if it did make her suspicious that he was on his way to Yorkshire and the fact his righteous fire had dimmed upon learning who he was supposed to be angry at. She wondered how much goading it would take to have him reveal just where his loyalties lay. Not that it really mattered to Echo, but if he was a Royalist at least she'd know to avoid him in the future. "Speak."

baelfire

baelfire wanted to tell her that not all soldiers were bad, that surely this was an isolated group that would be taken care of soon enough, but he didn't. he could tell that would not be received well so he bit his tongue and kept quiet. they took supplies from her and he sighed and shook his head. i'm sorry. he said, unsure of what else to say. nothing would make those soldiers come and give her back her stuff. the only thing to be done now was to go and gather some more.

his ears perked slightly and he looked over at her. well, it seems like you've had a pretty shitty day and i know we just met but i could help you gather some more stuff and take it to the college. i help my friend do it all the time; i live near melrose too. it wouldn't be a bother, and perhaps he could make her day a little less terrible. this was the sort of thing he wanted to do anyway, he wanted to help his people. whether she would take his help or not was another story. if she didn't want it he supposed he would just get out of her hair and be on his way.

@Echo

template © bean

For a moment she thought he might say something to rebuke her claim, or perhaps defend what they had done, but he merely sighed and offered an apology. Her sharp look softened a little and she looked away, the air seeming to deflate from her a little bit. He was not the people she was angry at. A single shoulder raised in a heal-hearted shrug. "Not your fault." She said, her tone gentler now that the fight seemed to have drained from her. With a resigned look she reached for her tattered bag and slung it over her shoulder, glad that at least it wasn't so damaged she could not longer use it. Just before she intended to be on her way, ready to get a good sulk on, he perked up again. The look she gave him was unsure - she didn't know him - but he seemed like an okay sort, her suspicions about him being a Royalist aside. Usually she would have turned him down, happy to do things her own way in her own company... but she really had lost a lot of materials. "If it's not out of your way." Was her slow reply. It wasn't that she didn't want to be a bother, not at all, she was just wary of niceness, especially when there appeared to be no strings attached. Still, two paws were better than none. "I had some chanterelle mushrooms that were taken. Do you know where I could find any more?" "Speak."

baelfire

baelfire shrugged his shoulders when she told him it wasn't his fault; that didn't mean he couldn't feel sorry about what had happened. he would do his best to try and help her, because that was just who he was. and he thought that all soldiers should be that way. it was how his father was and how any he had met as a youth had been. the army had never been painted in an unsavory light to him, in fact it was quite the opposite. but none of that mattered in the moment. she seemed to ease up somewhat and then eventually, she decided to accept his help and ask him where she might find a certain type of mushroom.

while he didn't know much at all about plants, his mother and brother had been so a little bit of that knowledge had rubbed off on him. "i don't know specifically, but this place has a lot of patches where things like that grow... me and my brother use to roam these parts all the time. let me take you to a little grove he and my mother loved to go to. there might be something there, i remember lots of plants and even mushrooms." he said before glancing around. "it's actually not too far from here! just a short walk south," he added. with that he turned, this place had been ingrained into his paws and he felt he would know the way blind. if she would follow, he would lead her there and hopefully it would have the mushrooms she was looking for.

exit via mushroom hunting <3

@Echo

template © bean