Under the Star’s Light [Æden]

[Hilana Chenzira]

25 Ash, Year 122


[Closed - Æden]

Inasmuch as she enjoyed the sights of the city, enjoyed the sounds, enjoyed the lights, and in some ways, enjoyed the people, she also found it stifling. It was something she had had to get used to, and it was helped by the way she had found her way into her own small pack. But still, her Wildness was restless tonight, and after taking Tiaz home from work and eating a quick dinner, she made her way out into the sands with her backpack. She considered taking Hayima’el, but she hadn’t planned on going far. Besides, if she wanted to run him later, it was better to let the big piebald bull rest for tonight.

She had initially set out following the path of the River Vasta, making her way along the banks. The sun had already been disappearing at that point, and as she made her way along the ridges worn smooth by the water and wind, she was watching for tracks. Something she might recognize. Something she could follow and practice with, and let it take her where it did before she would use the stars to go home. Where the wind blows, where the lost ones go. She was hardly dressed for the cooler temperatures of the evening, with her bare arms, shoulders, and midriff, though the ample fabric of her tiered skirts, dyed to resemble the sunset, was plenty for her long legs. Even so, it was a welcome change from the heat of the day, and her eyes roamed the sands while her ears and nose sought alerts or warnings for something that might be tracking her.

As it was, Hilana made good time on foot. Perhaps too good of a time, because she was now a number of miles beyond even the furthest structure of Solunarium’s urban sprawl. Looking upriver, she couldn’t even see the city, or any signs of life that she might have when she was closer. There were no more unnatural lights, just those of the moon and the stars. And she liked it that way. Run! the feelings in her very bones urged her. But while she didn’t run, she lifted her head, turned her back to the water, and looked over the dunes. Her dark eyes scoured the golden sands, and she just started walking. The length and hem of her own skirts helped to brush away what footprints she left, making them look faded and older, helping to disguise her own tracks. Her eyes set upon a thickened line, with clawed footprints on either side of it. A Dune Tegu. That was a bit of a challenge.

But only if she actually caught it.

Hilana set off, knowing this was much easier than the dwarf tegu she had gone after in the Umbrium. Even facing the winds off of the water, the more substantial weight of her quarry helped make the track last a little longer, and so she followed it. Had someone been watching her progress, it would have been questionable to an onlooker, and might have suggested distress. The water would have led to the city, and had the girl not left it, it would have brought her back to where she had made her home. Instead, she was going further and further away, and not always in a straight line, her progression lacking any urgency or meaning.

[Aeden]

Æden had made routine patrols around Solunarium rather frequently. As he was usually stationed in the city proper, unless sent on a special assignment, it was not uncommon for the Praeventores to be assigned a direction to circle. What they found varied from nothing to the drama of attacks by the creatures that hid in and under the sands. Sometimes a caravan was lost, or someone was separated from their caravan. Sometimes it was corpses decaying in the heat, their eyes plucked out by carrion crows.

In this case, it was a lone woman in the setting sun. Sandworm noticed her first in the dim light, and began to swoop down before Æden had given her the command. The great Wyvern, scaled in muted earth tones and one of the breeds that carried a great scorpion-like tail behind them, landed gently in the sand some distance from the woman, close enough to be noticeable. Æden stayed on her back and watched the woman for a moment. She was human, Vastian-looking, a touch sunburned.

They were some distance from the city, but she did not look like she was trying to escape, or run away. She looked like she was searching for something.

”We’re thirteen miles from Solunarium.” He shouted, dismounting from Sandworm with a puff of sand at his feet. He walked closer, though with the careful warding on the bottom of his golden greaves, he didn’t sink into the sand. he was dressed in a set of steel plate armor, though he had removed his helm and held it in the crook of his elbow as he approached, his hair tied back into a ponytail. ”Are you lost?”

[Hilana Chenzira]

Hilana had been utterly engrossed in the stocky trail that the tegu had been leading. She didn’t want to overrun it, but another sound attracted her attention, and it was far more pressing than her quarry. She stopped and lifted her head at the sound of wingbeats, straightening and pausing. Well, at this distance, if a wild one was going to claim her, then there was nothing for it as she checked the sky, looking for the predator that was hunting her. When the Wyvern landed nearby, though, she turned, surprised to see the rider and his mount. But at the rapid realization that it was a Rider of the Capital, there was delight there - not relief on those pretty features, as one might have expected from someone who was lost or scared or stranded. No, that was genuine delight, mixed with awe and admiration. A Wyvern! That had to be the closest she had ever been to one, and oh, it was beautiful.

But she was shaken from that reverence as the rider shouted out to her, only to dismount elegantly, with a grace that one might not have expected from the plate armour. She seemed surprised to hear that she was as far away as she was, but perhaps that also had to do with his and Sandworm’s arrival. The Vastian woman straightened, drawing her posture up from the sheer tone lest a more relaxed stance be taken as disrespectful before crossing her wrists at her waist and bowing low to the Elf. One of the Starborn, the Platinum, she saw in the movement. “Salve, Dominus, good evening,” she didn’t know his rank as a member of the Guard, so she went with the address that served as a failsafe for the Populus Ex Re’ha. “I…I don’t think I am, no,” she said as she straightened, raising her hand to the sky and looking at it, like she was measuring something. She had spent more than half her life having to learn to read the stars, because it wasn’t uncommon for her teachers to blindfold her and the other younglings, ride them off somewhere, and ask them to decide where they were and how to get back. If you knew where you were, you knew where you had been and where you need to go. The stars told them everything that the sun hid, and sometimes you just had to be patient and bed down during the day for them to come out.

“Solunarium is that way, I would think?” She turned slightly, pointing in a north-northwest direction. Her eyes traveled up briefly at him when she turned back, checking to see if she was right. He was the one who had been in the sky, after all. He would have seen far more. Her gaze went back down almost as quickly. Well, the human knew her place, at least… her sense of direction seemed decent, as she was close enough. It would get take her to the river, and that would take her home. But unless she had something of a weapon in that bag of hers, she didn’t seem to be armed, and that tended to be a fatal mistake out here.

[Aeden]

Æden watched where she looked. She was ill-prepared to spend the night in the desert, but at least she knew where the river was — the river full of crocodiles on a good day. She was even pretty for a human, with a sense of wind-swept dusty wildness about her, like she belonged out here. But she was not prepared, and in his flight, he did not see any camp. He tilted his head to the side, but his face remained impassive, his eyes searching. No weapon, at least, not one readily available. Then he looked at the sky, as stars began to reveal themselves. Predators roamed at night just as they did the day, but at night, they tended to be far more prepared than people.

He sighed, quiet, and looked back at her. "Were you going to return to the city?" He asked. If she were running away, she was as good as dead like this. Even if she were not, she'd have to make the trek back. Or she could sleep in the sand between cactus and dust and become breakfast for vultures. An overtly bad decision. She was lucky he had found her, in all the vastness of the sands, and she was lucky that he was feeling so generous.

"Do you have a certain predilection towards wandering off without a way to defend yourself, or did the sun addle your brain?" Her long skirt was not even tied at the legs for how far she'd come. "You're no gazelle. You can't outrun wild dogs, let alone what else seeks you out."

"What is your name?" He didn't offer his own. Sandworm lay in the sand, but saddled as she was, didn't roll around in it. The time for play was when the saddle was off, and as troublesome a wyvern as she was, she knew the difference well.

[Hilana Chenzira]

She was quiet as he studied her, having sense enough to know that she should probably keep her mouth shut in front of the member of the Golden Guard. Her eyes did flick to Sandworm a few times, and there was clear admiration and awe of his mount in her eyes. Still, the cooling night wind pulled at her hair, at the scarf around her hips, at the many folds of the cotton of the skirt, the hems of which rested on the sands now that she was still. She was not tired, despite the events of the last few days, despite the fact she had walked over 13 miles after a full day of work, despite the fact that she was almost done healing up from the battle with the aoudads. Her leg and arms had healed; and what few remaining bruises to her abdomen and ribs had faded fast. There was something to be said for the magic of plants.

She spoke again when he asked her a direct question. “Yes, Dominus. It is about getting late enough that I should start the walk back,” she admitted. Apparently, she had not planned on camping. She’d just gone for a walk without realizing how far out she had gotten, and by some miracle, had not been eaten thus far. Pretty as she was, the Vastii girl was a tender snack for any of the monsters that lurked out here, many of whom would surely be coming out to find her. Alone, on foot, unarmed, and no visible Runes. And considering how much of her was bare, she quite possibly did not have any at all. Unless they were hidden under those dyed skirts. Which, aside from helping to hide her trails and maybe protect her from the wind, seemed like they were of no use either.

When Aeden pointed out the foolhardiness of her actions tonight, Hilana could not argue with him. Had anyone else done it, she probably would have encouraged them to be a bit more prepared. Her eyes were focused on the hems of her skirts again. Still, this was a mild lecture, and she knew it. She had had elders that would have thrashed her for less, and sometimes, when she was out here... the Sands called, and stirred the Wildness in her bones. The wind sang, and she felt it urging her on. She was perhaps lucky it wasn’t some sort of rare rainstorm, because she would have gone much further out, and likely had an even harder time returning. If she actually did. “I am used to going out and foraging, Dominus. I... had not realized I’d gotten this far out. I was watching for tracks.” Her tone offered no argument nor defensiveness; she had fully ceded his points. She knew better than to try to explain that feeling in her soul that called her out here, because this was not another Vastii, and half of them didn’t understand it either. This was a very, very important Elf, one of the Coming Race, and... there was no point. Better to be silent and thought a fool than open her mouth and remove all doubt.

“I am called Hilana. Matsi Chenzira Hilana, Dominus,” she bowed again to him, and despite trying to keep herself quiet and calm rather than arouse ire and irritation... Hilana was dying to ask her own questions as the Wyvern lay in the sand. "...May I ask your Wyvern's name?" That one slipped out, because the reptile-obsessed girl apparently could not help it.

[Aeden]

"Walk?" He asked, his head still tilted. He was perceptive enough to piece together that her appearance and location did not match her demeanor. The meek didn't wander into the desert at sunset. But it was a given; and she was smart enough to know her place and to appease him. But Æden didn't care much for meekness, even from the Vastii. But it was who they were as a people, and it didn't bother him so much that he wished for them to change. They were as they were for a reason.

"Foraging for tracks? Or distracted and wandering while foraging for plants?" He followed up with another question, though both seemed a bit rhetorical. He didn't much care for why she was out here, but he was working, and as a guard he didn't find it seemly to let someone wander back to Solunarium in the middle of the night. No, there was room enough for a woman and her backpack on his wyvern. Gods knew that everyone and their mother seemed to be riding with him.

"Hilana." He spoke, testing her name. "Come. We return to Solunarium on Sandworm. She can take us both." he gestured to the wyvern, and then turned himself to return to the large reptilian beast. Her scorpion tail was curled up, alert. Æden stood beside her and pet her flank with one gauntleted hand. They were due back in the city soon, for Sandworm to be stabled and fed. He donned his helmet once more, partially obscuring his eyes from Hilana, though he could still see her.

"Do you need help up, or can you leap like a gazelle as well as you think you can run as one?" He knew he was being mean. It was a delicate balance; he could not be so rude if he were not assisting her. Teasing and impudence were to be mixed with favors and kind actions. It allowed him careful distance, provided the delicate line between sincere care and total disregard. He tread it like an acrobat.

[Hilana Chenzira]

"I walked out here," she pointed out. "I expected I should walk home." Hilana agreed when he questioned her, finally daring to look at him again. She hadn't seen one of the Starborn up this close before, the Guardsman was the first. And he really was a fascinating blend of his parents. "I forage for plants, Dominus. I am a botanist, a herbalist in training. I come out often for supplies... but I also like tracking prints in the sands," the girl offered an explanation for clarification, knowing he probably had no interest or care in the whats and the whys, so much as the fact that she was out here on her own in the dark. But both of those skills were valuable, but neither was of any use to someone who got themselves eaten by a creature out here.

But she was quiet again as he spoke her name, and those big brown eyes of hers got even larger as he kept talking. The idea of riding with him on his Wyvern seemed to awaken an energy that she was hiding in that image of docility that she was trying to project. And no one had any right having that kind of energy after walking over 13 miles on foot through the sands at night. But there it was, as she rocked from her heels to her toes and back, looking like she was going to start bouncing in place. "Truly?" But just as quickly, Hilana calmed herself, not at all wanting to upset the saddled reptile, nor encourage Aeden to retract his offer, and followed her rescuer at a respectful distance. When he stopped to pet her flank, Hilana bowed to the earth-toned Wyvern. "Hello, Sandworm. I am honoured to meet you. You are beautiful." She knew the creature likely did not understand her, but that hardly mattered: her tone was one of awed delight at being this close to her. And tone tended to be everything with animals.

Hilana straightened once again as he secured his helmet and addressed her once more, her eyes roaming over the Wyvern's gear. She didn't seem to take his comments poorly, though, because she was smiling - whether it was because of that little challenge he had issued her, or the nickname, or something else, that was up to him to judge. He could essentially see her calculating, as she lifted her chin and studied the draconid's tack, only to gather her skirts and bunch them up to one side, using her scarf that was tied around one hip to tuck the...frankly shocking amount of fabric into it to secure it... and in the processing exposing those long legs of hers. A gazelle, perhaps, indeed. Her sandals were tied at the ankle, and the girl approached the Elf and his mount now, standing beside him. Hilana had plotted her course, and what was left was to follow through.

She steeled her nerve and laid a gentle hand on Sandworm's scaled flank before deftly grasping the handholds at the limits of her reach. She crouched slightly, stretching her arms before using those legs to boost herself. One of her legs came up, finding purchase in another hold that was higher than her waist and meant for the foot, and propelled herself up further. Planning paid off - she did not hesitate in her ascension, finding the holds that she had tracked out from the ground and her delight was clear on her features as she carefully settled into the back of the saddle. "Is this acceptable, Dominus?"

[Aeden]

Æden raised an eyebrow in curiosity as she bowed and greeted the wyvern. The woman was clearly enamored by the creature, and he could not argue that she was wrong to be. Wild wyverns were a terrifying sight, but a tamed one, raised from the egg, that you could approach — rarer still, unless one was with the Praeventores or a wyvernkeeper.

He stepped back as Hilana scrambled up her side. There was a few steps she missed that would have made the ascent easier, but that didn't stop the Vastian from ending up in the back of the saddle, an expression of pride and delight on her face. Æden smirked a bit, his mouth visible from under his helmet; she had been determined to show him up, to live up to his insult, and he could respect that, even from the Vastii. Æden didn't say anything but grabbed the reins of Sandworm in one hand and mounted the wyvern. He settled down in front of Hilana, though he couldn't avoid sitting on part of her long skirt.

"Hold on with your legs and with your arms around my waist," he instructed, "As if you will die if you are not holding tight enough." If her hold on him was not firm enough, he would adjust it manually. Situated, with the reins now in both hands, he whistled to sandworm and made a fluid motion from his hands to his feet, alerting Sandworm that they were ready to take off. The wyvern balanced on her back legs and began to flap her winged arms, the blowing up a cloud of sand and dust before she launched herself and they were suddenly airborn.

"It's a lot easier when there's a cliff to take off of!" He called, as the position before they had reached level mid-air had been one where Hilana would have fallen if she had not had been clinging onto Æden. But in the air, one could almost be persueded to relax their grip. It would lead to their deaths if there was a gust of wind or a fidgety wyvern, but it was a smooth ride now regardless. They flew a bit slower with a passenger. Extra weight and excess danger was enough reason.

In the distance, the evening lights of the Luxium were revealed, and Solunarium could just be seen. Below them the land seemed to rush past. Even at a more relaxed pace, Sandworm was faster than a racing camel. "It should take us less than thirty minutes to reach the city." He called back, unsure if his voice was going to be lost in the wind. He looked behind him, to give Hilana a better chance at hearing him, and yelled,

"Gazelles can't run that fast, eh?"

[Hilana Chenzira]

It seemed that she had done well enough, and Hilana was utterly tickled to be up there atop Sandworm. She watched Æden’s own ascent, seeing what he had done differently to her own method of getting up there. His own climb was easy, practiced, and natural, but considering he was obviously experienced, well, that just made sense. She sat as far back as possible on the extended saddle to give the Wyvern Rider room to settle, not at all bothered that he was on her skirts. That was impossible to avoid, after all, and if anything it was probably for the better to help keep her on.

She followed his instructions, those long legs of hers tightening and clamping down the best she could. Her arms went around Æden’s midsection, drawing herself in tight and gripping her forearms, effectively locking herself around and against the Platinum elf. Hilana kept her elbows in, her chin against the Rider’s pauldrons. Just like a camel, she told herself, as Sandworm reared up on her hind legs and started to flap. The Vastii kept her centre low and in the saddle, centred, as her heart hammered - not with fear, but with excitement and delight.

“I would think so!” She called back in agreement when he told her it was easier with cliffs. That just made sense, especially since their front legs were wings and the height just made things easier for them. Internally, she was screaming with delight. They were flying, she was flying! “Oh, Founders!” Hilana laughed, unable to contain her joy anymore, her grip slacking only slightly as they finally levelled out. She didn’t let go, not quite yet, still holding onto her wrists. It was cooler up here, away from the heat of the sands now that they were moving at such a speed.

It may take them less than thirty minutes, but Hilana was going to enjoy each and every one of them. “They really can’t!” She was back to laughing at his comment. “Unless they’re on a Wyvern!” She would have to apologize to Hayima’el, because even at his top speed, or on any of the horses she had raced in Tertium, nothing matched this. Nothing. “How long have you and Sandworm been working together?” Hilana asked, raising her voice enough to make herself audible. “Have you had her since she was a hatchling? How old is she? Will she get any bigger? Do you patrol every day with her?” The questions came out in a torrent, that restraint that held in all of the questions she wanted to ask earlier having apparently evaporated.

[Aeden]

The flight back to Solunarium was natural to Sandworm, and he did not have to do much directing to ensure that they arrived back at the city. Hilana would come off at the stabling yard, but she seemed capable enough to walk herself home in Solunarium at night. Gods, if she was wandering around the desert at sunset he doubted her fears lay in the realm of man or beast. He was quiet for a moment, most of his thoughts towards deciding if he wanted to indulge her questions or not. He'd already inadvertently given her a nickname, and though they just met, she seemed to indulge it. He chuckled at the thought of a gazelle riding a wyvern, but hid it with a cough.

"I joined the Guard six years ago. I joined the Praeventores, and I did have her since she was a hatchling," He replied, tilting his head again towards her so that she might better hear him. "They do not start you with your own Wyvern, no, an older, tame one is used to teach you how to fly. She's already thirty feet long, if she gets any larger, they may not have a big enough holding!" Solunarium grew closer as they flew, and he was quiet for a bit longer, debating if he should talk about his patrols or not. Frequently the Praeventores who were stationed in Solunarium were sent out for missions that the Imperialis Vigilia could not get to, even on their basilisks. But they trawled the Atraxian desert, and he had even been further abroad to Kalzasi — a rarity for anyone.

"If we were on patrol without our wyverns, we would just be Imperialis Vigilia, no?" He answered her question with one of his own. "No, gazelle, we are sent for time-sensitive patrols, for long distances, for scouting... It is rare that I'm on a flight like this. Perhaps you were very lucky."