The Blind And Her Guide Dog [Closed]

[Alyssum Crow]

Frost 85th, Year 119, Age of Steel

To stay in Kalzasi for the next season, or to leave and travel somewhere else? Somewhere... warmer, preferably. She hadn't' decided yet. She'd grown fond of Talon throughout the season, so a small part of her wanted to stay in Kalzasi a little bit longer even if it was only for a part of Glade. A different part of her cried that it was cold here and she wanted to be somewhere warm. Another part yet called out in agony over missing home.

Every time she thought of Atinaw she got a little sad. She was going to be missing one of her favorite holidays, even if she didn't have anyone to celebrate with anymore. She could still go to Raellon and spend time with the people there. Maybe even little Linden would still be around and willing to spend the holidays with her! No, she didn't want to be a burden. It seemed that those she was currently fond of lived in Kalzasi for one reason or another.

She felt another yank as her thoughts scattered in different directions, arguing for this or that. Staying in Kalzasi wasn't the best decision either though. She couldn't start a business until she actually got her citizenship. And finding someone who was willing to back her during the process was... a challenge. Then again she hadn't actually asked anyone. She'd gone back and forth time and time again regarding asking Talon to support her, but she didn't want to cause any problems. What if he didn't feel comfortable supporting her yet? She didn't want to make him feel awkward. Or worse yet, upset him and get herself kicked out. Of course, Talon was too nice to actually do that to her. But she was feeling pessimistic and homesick and all sorts of other feelings she didn't want to feel anymore.

At the end fo the day, she'd realized a long time ago that home wasn't a place even if Atinaw was pretty close to home. Home was people. Atinaw, Raellon had just been home for so long because it was where she grew up. The people she loved were there. But those people were getting older and Alyssum was approaching 60 seemingly untouched by time. There were always other rathari, ones that occasionally traveled with her when she was younger, but she hadn't seen a familiar face in a while. Then again, was she really looking? A lot of the rath she traveled with had been closer to her own age, so of course, some of them still have to be alive wandering around. Assuming they or their Purposes hadn't gotten them killed yet. Alyssum even with her mildly tame purpose had gotten close a couple times, singing the praises of Dragon Gods in places where she really should have just kept her mouth shut.

Another rathari would probably understand how she felt. Every rathari had felt the pang of something in their chest missing. That gentle and ever-constant ache of something being broken. Not there. It hurt and it never seemed to want to go away, but they lived with it and dealt with it and they moved on.

Her own breath visibly curled around her as she took a heavy sigh, the dark atmosphere of Kalzasi in late frost truly matching the heaviness ice in her own heart the longer she thought about things that were missing and probably wasn't ever coming back. Maybe the Purpose itself was just some messed up fool's errand, keeping the rathari running after something they could never get back. It was gone. They were gone. The rathtori were without question absolutely entirely gone.

Or maybe she was just getting pessimistic because she was sad, cold, and homesick for a place she didn't remember. A place she couldn't find.

She probably would have sunk even deeper into that depressive state if it wasn't for the flash of a black tail splashed with colors in the corner of her vision. She whipped her head around, frantically looking around for it. Her. Oh! Oh! Yes, oh yes! Alyssum's mood completely 180ed at the flash of something familiar, something friendly, something that reminded her of home. Her tail shot straight up and started to whip the air. "Sister! Sister!" She cried out. Not for an actual sister in blood, but for a sister that had been made after hours and days and weeks of a shared road. She cried out the Vithmi greeting, standing up from the ground where she'd been curled up people watching, and her expression shifted into a smile as she raced towards the familiar, the rathari greeting still rolling from her tongue as she ran.

[Reima]

A shivering cold filled the air of Kalzasi this day, as it had nearly every day in the cursed season of Frost. The cold was like an ever present weight upon the city and its people, a weight like that of the ocean settling down atop one's head and shoulders as it seeped deeper and deeper into the skin and marrow of living flesh. There was an aching in the chest as this cold settled deep within, punctuated by sharp moments of pain at each intake of breath that filled the lungs with shards of winter most lethal. It was a time of silence, of stillness, and of death.

Bellmari felt another shiver rack her body even as she pulled the dark grey cloak tighter around her shoulders. Curse this weather, and all who enjoy it. the Rathari thought, her breath shimmering before her eyes through the pitifully weak rays of sunlight cast overhead. Bell had never understood why someone would like this, the most frigid of all seasons. Sure it was essential for the world, but need it be an entire season? Around her Bell heard more than saw the milling people around her, their bodies providing very little warmth as they past just a bit too close for her comfort. Her log tail she kept close to her body this day, afraid that some passerby might grow an odd fancy and decide to reach out and catch her by it.

A sigh rushed past her teeth as the Rathari shook her head, ears twitching this way and that as each and every sound of the city drew their sudden attention. The new scarf she bought really was of no help at all in this weather. Extending one hand Bell caught a drifting fleck of white upon one finger, bringing it close to her face so that she could examine it. Despite this she still had to squint to truly make it out. It was a large fleck this time, almost ice were it not steadily melting upon the digit it rested on. Many thought that snow was majestic, or romantic in some way. For bell it was just cold and wet. The mists take this season in its entirety.

With an absent flick of her long tongue the snow was licked away, and Bell pressed toward a quieter part of the city, if any part of the city could be described as that. As she walked the thrumming in her chest almost seemed to intensify, beating almost in rhythm with her heart. In truth she did not know why she was still here. She could have traveled south weeks ago, and she almost had were it not for the Purpose rooting her in place. To be sure Bell liked Kalzasi, it was technically her birthplace after all. It was just that for as long as she could remember she had felt the longing to move, never settling longer than a season in any one place, yet here she was into her third season in this city and yet still she had not ventured out. She was steadily beginning to run out of excuses.

Her tail flicked in annoyance as she rounded a corner, stuffing her hands deep into the pockets of her trousers as she did so. Her feet were cold, but she did not care for the foot traps most mortals wore. In an almost literal sense it was like putting a blindfold on to walk with her feet covered as the humans did. She could not feel the ground, nor the tremors of the world when she let her feet be confined in shoes and boots. Thus she often chose to simply go without, even in weather such as this.

One ear twitched as Bell caught the sound of someone calling, the tone familiar and the words clearly Vithmi. Pausing the Rathari looked back, both ears now swiveling toward the voice that continued to call out. It was so familiar... As the woman drew closer Bell felt the vibrations of the person's steps, and instinctively her tail uncoiled fully from around her body and drifted forward. It probed the ground before moving up, brushing over the other Rathari's clothing as it traced upwards to their shoulder.

"Sister... Alyssum?" the words came out in a breathy whisper, surprise coloring her tone even as her skin lightened ever so slightly so that it tented lavender. Close as they were now Bell would step forward to close the distance, one long fingered hand reaching out to touch the woman's cheek as she squinted to make out details from her blurred vision.

As her hands made to confirm Alyssum's identity Bell's already toothy smile would widen further, stretching fully to bear all her teeth as she laughed, "Sister, what are you doing here? I wondered if I would ever hear your voice again."

Bell's body language would visibly relax, like Alyssum's sheer presence caused some weight to lift from her shoulders. If they stayed close long enough her tail would wind familiarly around the two, brushing the other Rathari's shoulder in a familiar way.

[Alyssum Crow]

Alyssum's smile turned brilliant the moment Bellmari turned to face her. She quite happily leaned into the other's palm, her entire chest sparking with joy at the familiar touch. Even in the terrible, awful, evil cold it made her feel warm. She was carefuly to deftly avoid stepping on Bell's tail or toes, long since use to the way that the other's long tail would carefully prod against the ground. It wasn't a concious decision to make a high pitched kind of whine that was usually indicative of pleasure or joy in the sharvalain's, the noise far too high in pitch for normal ears to hear. But neither of them had neither ears. "Sister, sister, beautiful Bella, wonderful Bell," she half cooed and half cheered as the other rathari grew closer and closer.

Perhaps there was no warmth from the sun out today, but Alyssum was certainly smiling like she was trying to replace it. Her entire disposition seemed to melt. No facades, no playful games, no whirring chaos that seemed to follow her constantly. She was just warm and gentle like the child that had first met Bell when Alyssum was 19 and still just striking out into the world with Isra for the first time. That first visit to Kalzasi, she'd been having trouble remembering it but all the memories that involved the younger rathari were just so clear. One of her oldest friends who she'd had the grace of crossing paths with multiple times on the road. Maybe it was cold, but the way Bell's tail wrapped around Alyssum felt so very, very warm.

"People like us can never keep our feet in one place for long. I actually got into Kalzasi at the start of the season, but life has been a mess between getting a job and making so many new friends. Oh, I've met some of the most amazing and strange people! And yet I didn't have the luck or the fortune to run into you prior! Thank goodness I saw you," she said as she very carefully use her wings to pull Bell closer and coax the other woman into a hug. She took a moment just to enjoy the very presence of the friend she hadn't seen in so many seasons. While sometimes their traveling could take them to very similar places, at others it took them apart for seasons if not years at a time. Such was the way of life for rathari, but sometimes it made life so very hard and lonely when those you considered companions were pulled from your by their Purpose.

A large part of Alyssum's own traveling was the fact her Purpose was so vauge. No matter where she went, the steady heartbeat like thrum never changed its tempo. Slow and lethargic, like there was something wrong. Like there was some kind of missing spark. I'd been that way ever since her coming of age ceremony, never changing from the sickly slow pump which kept her legs moving at a steady pace. Since nothing she ever did seemed to change it, what was the point of trying to chase it on her own.

"Tell me though, how have you been? Where have you been? I haven't seen you so long I was almost starting to get worried that you'd been caught," she flattened her ears to her head for a moment and felt she didn't really need to elaborate on that. Alyssum herself wasn't that much of a good goody when it came to following the law, one of the things they'd both learned pretty quickly was the fact they could be honest about their exploits. "Worse yet I thought a beast might have finally caught up to you. Or that you accidentally wandered into a Dread Mist!" It might not have been obvious to strangers, but Bell was likely already well aquainted with Alyssum worrying her poor little head off over those she considered to be close.

"Ah, you're probably freezing though." Alyssum flinched when a large snowflake landed on the tip of her own nose. "Gods, how can anyone like Frost," she muttered under her breath with a shake of her head. Then again she didn't like Searing either. Alyssum hated most temperatures, she just begrudingly put up with them because she wasn't a good enough alchemist to embuing her clothing with temperature maintaining qualities yet. She could, however, quite easily remember that Bellmari had always hated the cold even more. Partialy because the other rathari had to wander around without any shoes just to avoid running into walls. "Come on, it's not really a house but my boss for the season has been letting me stay in his office where we work after dark instead of catching my death out in the cold. You... know how I am with money, and that there's no way I'm buying an inn room. Apparently I was pathetic enough for him to take pity on me. I'll try to save my pride and call it an acomplishment of my acting skills. Anyway though, it's a bit warmer in there than it is out here and you could probably do with warming up your feet. I'll be your seeing eye dog the way there," she said jokingly, smiling broadly as she carefully locked her own hands with Bell.

Assuming the other agreed, Alyssum was quick to lead the way to the Skyforge, moving at a speed that was considerate of Bell while also moving with the speed of someone who wanted to get out of the dreadful cold. She kept her wing wrapped around the other the entire time, trying to help maintain some semblance of warmth through the use of her large downy feathers. She'd made herself something a nest in the corner of Talon's office, with pillows and bedding and her spare blanket. It wasnt much but it would still be a heck of a lot better than whatever the hell this was. Sure, Frost was pretty. As long as Alyssum was safely inside and staring out the window from beside a fire.

"I think the worst part about not crossing paths soon is the fact this means I missed your birthday. Again!" Alyssum would have to do something to make it up to Bell. Even if Bell herself didn't really care, Alyssum had a thing about making sure she celebrated brithdays. She tried to celebrate with Bell any time they crossed paths during the early part of the Frost, but thanks to how often they were also apart, Alyssum was prone to missing it.

[Reima]

Bell's smile turned into a laugh as she was enveloped in a furry, feathery hug. Her arms circled Alyss' neck, fingers brushing over soft fur as she pulled her friend into a strong embrace.

"I told you not to call me Bella, Sister." Bell chided playfully as she pulled back slightly to get a look into her friends smiling eyes, "I'm not a child you know."

Though she spoke the words Bell could not hide the pleasure that filled her heart to hear the old nickname fall from her oldest friends tongue. She was the younger of the pair after all, and so just a small amount of mothering was simply to be expected. As they stood there a moment, wrapped in the sudden warmth and shade of Alyss' wings Bell felt time begin to slow. Through her fingers she could feel the other woman's pulse, strong and steady and flooding with life and energy that now matched her own rhythm. Those eyes, these wings, this warmth despite the cold... Bell had not realized how much she missed this. How long had it been? A year? Two? The snow fell around them in slow graceful arcs, spinning and twisting as each crystal made the decent to earth and their final resting place. The cold and the milling people around them did not matter in this timeless space, and Bell felt as if she could live in this moment forever.

So it was that, with a start, Bell realized that her friend had been speaking to her. Slowly her cluttered mind tried to process the flood of words, parsing their meanings as she felt her hands being taken and her body guided suddenly through the street. She went willingly, still reeling at the suddenness of their reunion. As they walked Bell's smile never failed, though it faded to a more considering one. It seemed Alyss was much like she remembered. Bubbling with energy, like the sun that cut through the morning fog as it warmed the world with its touch. Just as she remembered from their childhood Bell found herself being swept up in this person's current, and she could not have been happier.

Bell listened idly as they walked, her tail sweeping forward from time to time to feel at the stones and buildings they past. She could feel the steps of people around them, though what she saw was simply a mixture of moving shapes dappled with colors around her. At a distance she could tell a person from a wall, or a cart from a building, but the details were missing. The world was simply a blurred mix of colors that slowly faded to grey the farther away it got. To her side though Bell could see Alyss' shape in only slightly blurred detail. She watched as the Rathari used her wings to make a slight bubble around them, a clear space that was easier for Bell to walk. The woman's hand was warm, and the pulse of life within her felt even clearer as they quickly moved to be out of the frigid cold.

When they crossed into the Skyforge Bell immediately felt the spreading warmth of the building surround her. Freed as she was from elements she shook herself, releasing Alyss' hand as she stretched, wiggling fingers and toes in pleasure as she let the newfound heat begin to sink into her bones. She followed her friend back into a smaller area, one hand touching the other woman's shoulder for guidance as she carefully picked her way around the unfamiliar space.

"While I am overjoyed to see you again Alyss," Bell said as she unwrapped the scarf from around her neck, "I think I am growing a bit too old to celebrate EVERY birthday."

As she removed her cloak Bell looked around the small space, comforted somewhat by the close quarters as it meant a smaller space to memorize. She rested the cloak on the back of a free chair and settled herself down in the nest of bedding and pillows she assumed belong to her friend. Her skin shifted color ever so slightly once more, changing to a soft blue of uncertainty.

"I am glad to see you again, truly. Yes I have been well, and keeping myself away from trouble as best I can." Her tail swished back and forth as she leaned forward to rest her hands in her lap, "I've been in Kalzasi for several seasons now." The words were allowed to trail off, and Bell shifted uncomfortably before quickly continuing, "And what of you? How goes your studies?

Bell was not sure what to call what Alyssum did. If she were completely honest with herself a part of her was disturbed by Alchemy, though it was an irrational thing. She knew it to be like any other discipline out there; dangerous when not done properly, but in the hands of the trained it could create great wonders. Perhaps it had something to do with the Chelvine deep within herself. Even as she thought that she became aware of the slowly beading drop of aether at her ear.

[Alyssum Crow]

When Bell took her nest, Alyssum found somewhere to prop herself up, leaning against a wall and allow her wings to sag behind her. She listened quietly to her companion, her expression going from a brilliant smile to a more relaxed contentedness. Then Bell asked about Alyssum, and it was hard to hide the grimace. Not that she really had to. She'd picked a position on the wall far enough away that she knew Bellmari would have trouble seeing the exact way Alyssum's features crinkled up in uncertainty and agitation. The way the tip of her tail quietly lashed just barely out of view. "Well," she said, very carefully keeping any trace of emotions out of her voice. She tried her hardest to pretend she was just thinking as she tilted her head upwards and got ahold of her emotions.

When she lowed it again and turned to Bell, the smile had returned and her voice was wonderfully chipper. "Things are going absolutely stunningly!" She said, her tone just barely sitting under exaggerated enough to be comical. There was a slight stiltedness to the exclamation, but she was proud of how small it actually was. She didn't choke or trip, which was an improvement compared to last time she'd met with Bell and a similar question regarding how close Alyssum was to opening her own business had almost brought the older rathari to agitated tears. She wasn't sure if she should be proud of becoming a better liar, but... it made things easier the less other people worried. She was the oldest, the adult, the competent and the confident. She didn't need to be worried about, not in the slightest. Sure she could roll over and look pathetic for free meals and housing but she knew better than anyone that she could take care of herself if she had to sleep on the street. She'd actually been planning on how to make some insulated lining for her tent now that she had access to a proper smelter for Runeforging.

She didn't need to be worried about. Least of all by Bell. So she ferociously yanked any hint of hesitance form her voice and loosened up her form. Speaking as though she meant every single word of what she was saying.

"I think I'm finally making some good progress! People are actually buying my potions, which is always nice. The alchemist here is an absolute pleasure to work with and I've been able to do a couple of side jobs in order to better fund myself. Plenty of room to experiment and full access to Runeforging tools with no restrictions? I'd like to think I'm living the high life, and it's only a matter of time before I start gaining some of the recognition I deserve. Just you wait, my dear, one of my aliases is going to become world-famous one of these days! Or perhaps even my real name. Oh, I haven't even though of that. Decisions, decisions," she said with a slight impatient sway as she moved her weight from foot to foot.

She absent-mindedly twirled her hair, a nervous trait she'd picked up that she herself had yet to notice was something she did whenever she got nervous. There was a short moment of silence after Alyssum finished speaking. She didn't know if she'd been caught in the discernably vast number of lies she'd managed to tell in a single breath or if Bellmari was just being quite. It made her uncomfortable, she needed to fill the silence. She loved the silence but when it settled into her heart instead of her head and the thrumming of her own pulse and Purpose were the last things she could hear, she found she needed to fill the silence.

"Hey, do you remember the promise we made the last time we met?"

[Reima]

Bell's colorful ears turned toward Alyss as she spoke, and the Chelvine's head tilted slightly. From where she sat she could see the outline of the other Rathari, leaned against the wall with her wings folded. The details, however, were muted and that outline blurred and beginning to fade at the edges. For the briefest moment Bell thought she heard something in the other woman's words, a slight downward inflection, like... but no, if it were there it was gone like a dream and Bell thought she must be mistaken.

A smile quickly lifted the corner's of Bell's mouth as she listened, her skin lightening to a pink shade as her tail moved back and forth to signify her pleasure. In her heart Bell felt a glowing pride at her friends word, a warmness that spread to the tips of her fingers and toes. Alyss was the person she had known the longest, and looked up to ever since she was young. In many way she was what Bell aspired to, though of course she would never say that. Thus it was that she very quickly and readily allowed herself to be drawn into the narrative and did not look for anything lying below the surface.

And what have I done...? The sudden thought struck like a physical blow and made her tail pause in its motion. The color faded somewhat from her skin, but with a shake Bell threw aside those rising emotions. This was not the time, not when her friend was doing so well. She would not take this moment away from Alyss.

"Of course I remember." Bell forced the smile back into place at Alyss' question, and she leapt to her feet, "How could I ever forget sister?"

The laugh that bubbled up from within was genuine as Bell crossed the room, a slight sway in her steps as she naturally fell into the rhythms of motion. As she neared her tail was the first thing to brush against Alyss, confirming her location and what was around her before Bell's hands found their way to her friend once more.

It was a difficult for the other races to understand, and for many the way Bell seemed to ignore personal space was disconcerting. She did not mean for this, but was simply the way she was. Her eyes were all but useless, and her senses of smell and taste were muted at best. What she was left with then was all that she had to experience the world around her. Her hearing was sharp, and painted the landscape in broad strokes of color. Often she could rely on this alone to navigate, but it was like only being able to see the world in tones of grey and blue. Her touch, however, was something special. It was the spike of detail in the painting of life, and with it she was truly able to 'see'. She could feel a person's warmth and sense the pulse of life within them. Every twitch of muscle and brush of fabric spoke volumes to the Rathari, and because of this Bell was always quick to grew close to those she spoke with. Not to invade their privacy, but rather to truly get the sense of the person before her.

The fingers of one hand would brush along Alyss' shoulder, pausing at the side of her neck where the Rathari's pulse was the strongest. The other hand rested familiarly on the other's chest and Bell smiled another wide smile with head cocked to the side, "We said that, should the gods allow, when next we met we would travel with one another as we always said we would as children."

A lightness had come to settle on Bell's heart, a tingling mix of excitement and anticipation that caused her colors to shift to green to yellow to white before settling on a deep purple. When she spoke her voice was soft, and her tail would wrap familiarly around them once again, "Sister... You do not know how happy I am to hear of your success. It..." She paused, emotion playing on her features before she sighed and shook her head, "I have so much to learn from you. The strength you have, the ambition... Maybe now, if we were to travel, I could learn to be more like you."

Can't you keep your mouth shut. The Rathari chided herself silently in her mind. Still, maybe there was some hope for her after all. Her purpose was unreliable. Maybe, just maybe if she traveled with her friend she would finally know what it was she was supposed to be doing.

[Alyssum Crow]

Bell's words hit with all the grace and finesse of a sucker punch to the jaw. Ambition perhaps, but strength? She wasn't sure just how strong she actually was. Her dreams, they still felt like fragmented shards of aether drifting just above her head like neglected stars. She wasn't strong enough to fly high enough and grab them, and even if she could, would they burn her hands? Would they sting and writhe and wretch against her fingertips like poison bugs mistaken for colorful jewels?

But was it even worth it to worry?

In the end, she wasn't strong. But she could be. A liar, a chaotic little creature, intangible and impermanent. Who was to say what she could be tomorrow. Who could say what she was at this very moment, except for herself? What even was strong supposed to me? She could lie, say that she was stronger than she actually was. Act and pretend, convince even herself that she was powerful and elegant, a driven creature with a fire in her soul. And maybe, just maybe, if she convinced herself so foolingly, it might just become true. She had such freedom to design herself and her own character, so why couldn't she just decide what was true and what wasn't?

"It seems we've finally been giving the chance," she said with a giant smile, not allowing her expression to falter for a minute in spite of the way her head was spinning. She was strong, so very, very strong. The older sister, the elder Rathari. The leader, the guide, the one who knew what she was doing and understood her place in the world despite the fact her Purpose hadn't so much as woken up. After her initial realization, it had sat in her being like some kind of dull hum. Never moving, never change. But that didn't matter because she knew what it was. Or so she told herself. She knew because she was experienced and wise and close to completing it. She knew and she was closer every day just like she was flying ever closer to those shatter fragments of dreams.

She was closer because she said so. She was closer because she had to be. And she was closer because she decided her own reality instead of the pale half baked cognitions of those standing around her and watching.

"Yes, of course. We'll both grow, sister. The two of us will learn from each other, and we'll both get stronger," she said, her voice dropping down even quieter. Her tone deep and gentle, like the hum of a childhood dream. And even if it wasn't entirely true get. Even if she still had so much work left to do. Even if the world could turn on her at any minute and force her even farther away from her goal...

She gave herself a gentle smile and bought right into her own lie, allowing for it to become the questionless truth.