paradisabeyond | (no subject)

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[Good evening, explorers! After departing from Cair Paradisa, the path was south at first, but turned west fairly early on. Skirting well south of Eldritch Forest, the travelers had camped near the edge of the Amber Steppe, not quite within sight of the forest that marks the Totem Coast. The grasses are parched brown by the heat, though greener patches mark the presence of water. It's near one of these - a small, bubbling stream leading west that Raine has chosen to follow as it will almost certainly run into the river marked on her map - that the travelers have made their camp.

The carts and wagons are arranged in a defensive circle, though the campers are free to set up their tents outside them as well as inside wher ethe rest of them are. There are small cooking fires scattered around as well as a large bonfire in the center for socializing.

Play music? Sing? Teach those poor non-Earth kids how to make s'mores? Or just sit around and socialize with others.

Or hide in your tent and ignore everyone, if you really want to.]

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If you want to keep the job.

What will you do?

Talk.

[ Why does that sound oddly like "twist Sam's arm until he does as you want"? ]

You're not allowed to browbeat Sam.

[he chuckles]

I won't threaten or hurt him, I'm better than that.

I wasn't thinking of that. But you're not allowed to do that either.

Why nooooot?

Promise or I won't tell you.

Fiiiiine, do it yourself. Take all my fun.

[ She giggles. ]

It's called The Pie Hole. Mostly I help bake and serve the food.

Wait wait-

You know how to make pies?

I learned. [ She sounds mildly affronted. ] I learn fast. I pay attention and I follow direction.

[He smiles a little] Then you'll be one with a great many talents one day.

It's not really a talent. I just do what I'm told. [ And only because she wants her mother out of the castle and somewhere comfortable. ]

Do you forget it the moment you're done following orders?

No. I'd have to learn it all over again if I did.

So then it's still a skill.

[ A kind of useless one. She shrugs and lies down. ]

[Cooking is important missy considering you need to eat]

[He makes no more to stop her, glancing over at her ]

So what's the sky like in your world?

It's a proper sky. We've only one moon. Some days the sky is cloudy and you can't see anything; some days you can see a million stars.

Maester Luwin taught us them. There's twelve houses of heaven and their rulers. The Faith has the seven wanderers too. Then there's the Ice Dragon, the Shadowcat, the Moonmaid and the Sword in the Morning and all the others.

We'd stay up all night in the godswood to see them, Bran and me and Maester Luwin. One time, Maester Luwin had to go for a moment; I can't remember why. Bran climbed the heart tree and I hid in the hot pool in front of it. We scared him so bad when he came back.

[ She smiles at the memory. ]

He asked us if we were proper little lord and lady. We told him we're wolves. He laughed at that. Said we're proper Starks.

Come morning, we stayed in the godswood to sleep. Bran slept in the branches. He could climb anything, Bran could. Even asleep. We slept right through the first summer snows of the year. By the time we were up, almost all of it had melted in the courtyard. Couldn't make a single snowball. [ The face she makes illustrates what she thought of that turnaround. ]

In winter, after the storms, the sky is supposed to be the clearest and most beautiful one you'll ever see. [ She fans her arms open as if encompassing the sky. ] I've not seen a winter yet, but Father says so. [ The slip in verb tense goes unnoticed. ]

Edited 2012-08-25 18:24 (UTC)

Twelve houses of heaven and seven wanderers huh? [He listens to her story intently, laughing lightly at her actions with her brother. It sounds exactly like something she would do. He's not going to bother correcting the slip in the verb tense.] You're very much a wolf, alright.

[At the story of the snow, he simply smiles in amusement- trying not to think of his own associations of snow. He had become very good at it. Instead he thinks of his own memories of the Flanoir sky; the one he kept finding himself looking at whenever they would go there to not focus on the snow that laid on the ground. ]

It's true. In the northern land Flanoir, it's always winter. And if you're lucky enough to catch sight of the sky past the clouds- it's breath-taking.

[ A warm bubble of pride spreads in Arya's chest at the words. She'll never be a proper lady. Some days she doesn't think she makes a very good daughter or sister or friend. A wolf she can be. A wolf she wants to be. ]

That's how it's supposed to be Beyond the Wall. Bran the Builder raised the Wall thousands of years ago to protect the realms against everything beyond. It's wildlings what try to invade really, but Old Nan liked to scare us with stories about the White Walkers and the Long Night.

That's where Nymeria's mother came from. Before her, no one had ever seen direwolves south of the Wall in hundreds of years. She was dead when my brothers found her, but they brought her litter to Winterfell. Six pups, one for each of us.

White Walkers and the Long Nights? What are those?

[oh wow great so they gave even more direwolf pups to kids. What a brilliant plan] Huh. I wonder how she got past the Wall.

I don't know. The Wall is supposed to be impassable except through the tunnels the Night's Watch carved in the ice. Mayhaps she found an old, forgotten tunnel. And it's the Long Night not nights.

It's supposed to be a time when a terrible winter came. It lasted a generation. The Sun never rose. Entire families froze in their homes. Food ran out. People would kill each other for what was left. Some even ate each other. That's when the White Walkers came. Old Nan called them the Others. They're cold dead things that hate life. They wield swords of ice so cold they shattered steel. And they could raise the dead to fight for them. Anything, it didn't matter. People, animals, so long as they were dead.

Hmm...that does sound like a pretty scary story. I'd hate to run into guys like that.