Legend of Ransera

On the outskirts of Kalzasi, not far off a a road leading into the city, a young Fae was passing the hours by terrorising the insect population. The loud, telltale call of cicadas beckoned him to fly on far larger wings to snap them up where they buzzed and pop them into his mouth with a satisfying crunch.

"An-bhlasta!" Destyn exclaimed to no one in particular as he munched on a particularly bulbous specimen, which was on the verge of shedded its shell, but hadn't which lent a particularly satisfying quality to the crunchy texture. Far away in Sol'Valen, his friends had been invited to some fancy function from which he'd been excluded. It wouldn't occur to him to be offended, but he was irritated that he had no access to them on a day when he had nothing else in particular to do.

Having now spent a bit of time in the Hytori capital which had birthed two of his favourite people, Destyn had subconsciously begun to adopt a particular elven feature that he did not typically wear. His once rounded ears had pinched their tips to points over the course of a gradual process that took place while he slept over the course of two weeks. At this point, at least while clothed, he looked like an Hytori with wings. He already had a lot of similar features, given his flaxen hair and sunkissed skin, so the addition of elven ears was hardly a stretch. Well, perhaps in a literal sense they'd stretched, but that was beside the point.

In the meantime, the sun was setting and the sounds of cicadas were beginning to give way to the song of crickets. If the woodlands were Destyn's restaurant, then it seemed the lunch hour was passing over into dinnertime. He alighted on a patch of grass, and perked his newly pointed ears to listen for more snacks, but it was not insect song that caught his attention straight away, but the snapping of twigs caused by the footfalls of a much larger creature. His wide eyes turned to fall upon the interloper, and he tilted his head at them, looking as though he'd just been caught at some sort of mischief.

Athalia didn't even bother asking Hilana if she was certain of the way that she had been going. But what she had reminded her, over an hour ago, was that if they weren't back soon, then they should likely use the Ring to return to Maze manor lest someone there send a search party for them. However, her younger sister was still foraging and gathering - not just for her, but for their friends here and at home. There were a number of plants that Vasilei had told her to look for while they were up north and this was one of the better times to be doing it. The weather was cooperative - certainly not as warm as Atraxia, but nothing truly was - and the featherlight satchels that both of them had were getting steadily filled with bags and sacks of plants. Everything from lamb's ears to gelsemium, calamus to witch hazel, pewterworts to horsetails. But her biggest prize was the lily aletris... true unicorn root. She had collected a number of them.

Medicinal plants weren't the only thing - they had come across a couple berry patches, and deemed safe, Lia was enjoying a few of them as they walked on. Hilana's brown eyes were searching for more goodies, more plants to pluck and take home. The Vastiana sisters were steadily making their way back towards the city, especially now that Hilana had brought them back to the road. The pair might have seemed an easy target if someone had a mind to do it, but fortunately, it hadn't come to that.

"Lia, here. A few more," Hilana stepped off of the road, heading into the foliage again. Her long, multicoloured jewel-toned skirts had been tied with a hip scarf in order to keep the hems off of the ground, giving her a little more freedom of movement. Lia knew she was going to have to push her to get some less full ones if she wanted to keep exploring places like this. There were endless amounts of branches and brambles, sticks and twigs and stones and such skirts got caught far more easily than they did on the wind-swept sands.

The two foreign women blinked at the winged Fae in the forest, and Hilana offered one of her usual sunny smiles. "Oh, hello, sorry to interrupt you," she greeted him in Common. She hadn't expected to see anyone here, much less a Fae. And as far as she knew, this was her first time seeing a proper one - not counting the horned hybrid that had kicked the bucket and left the mortal coil.

The Fae who stood, or rather crouched poised to flee, before the sisters Chenzira was a far cry from Æros. He looked like a different species entirely, which may have been less surprising had they known that he was from the opposite court. Æros had been a child of winter, whereas Destyn was summer born and his sunny tones broadcast as much. Ironically, for all the deceased half-breed sought to beseem the Platinum elves so honoured in Solunarium, Destyn effortlessly bore far greater resemblance to an elf than the fallen senatorial delegate. Were it not for that set of translucent double-wings on his back, he looked, for all intents and purposes, like a Golden Elf. It seemed winged elves came in many varieties these days, with draconic, feathered and now insectoid wings represented.

Still frozen and seeming poised to flee at any moment, Destyn offered a tense greeting in response to Hilana:

"Um. Hullo." He said looking from one Vastiana to the other back and forth repeatedly, as if either one might seize upon him at any moment. He hadn't always been so tense around strangers, but he did know that he was close to a roadway and that such passages were haunted by highwaymen and their dastardly ilk. Besides, he'd lost his clan to strange humans and he didn't know the ways of those who stood before him, though they did not resemble the Zaichaeri he'd seen in the past.

"You did not, um... interrupt me. I was not really, you know, doing anything." Although Destyn replied in Common, he had a marked accent. A few of his vowels were rounded where they oughtn't have been, but it was more the lilt and cadence of his speech than the pronunciation that distinguished it.

Well, this one was definitely different. It was kind of funny, really, how many winged types of Elf there were, but imitation was the sincerest form of flattery, wasn't it? Who knew, maybe he was full or half, and just chose those wings the way Aeros had chosen his skin and horns. There was no way to ask without being rude, and while she supposed she could have tried to Semble him, doing that to a stranger who was perfectly okay on their own was just asking for trouble. Best case, she might succeed. Worst case, she might well get caught doing it, and cause a problem that didn't need to be there.

His accent and the way he spoke was interesting - she wasn't quite sure from where he came from, but she knew that she heard some rather different accents in Kalzasi than she had even in Tertium. Perhaps it was just the way he spoke, but it was mellifluous and nice to listen to. "It's a beautiful day, isn't it? Are you from around here?" the Vastiana asked him, her head tilting. It wasn't necessarily Kalzasern, but who knew? Their own accents clearly indicated that they were not remotely local, but Hilana's was quite understandable, at least.

"I am called Lia, and she is Hilana," her sister added to introduce the pair of raven-haired women to the blond Fae, having another one of the berries that Hilana had picked for her. "We are just passing through on our way back to the city. She is fond of plants and collecting them."

"Very much. Speaking of... You wouldn't have happened to have seen any scythe trees around here, would you? They have seed pods that look like this," the one called Hilana sounded a bit hopeful as she opened her featherlight satchel and withdrew a rather large, brownish-green oblong seed pod that resembled a sword, and she held it up for Destyn to be able to have a look at it. It was long and leathery looking. He might have recognized it as being somewhat local, if less common.

“I am, you know, sort of from around here, but my people did not stand still for long. We travelled the waterways of the Northlands for many years, and this area was on our, uhm… circuit?” He was not certain of the word, but he wasn’t the sort to linger long enough on a subject to make sure he was understood before moving onto the next topic. Case in point:

“I am called sometime Destynrael and most time only Destyn. Rarer time I am called a longer thing that is not easy, I think, for most to pronounce.” He furrowed his brow at the talk of collecting plants, but when the example provided was a seed pod he softened and his expression relaxed, perhaps with relief.

He took a few cautious steps closer to inspect the specimen.

“No, but I can, you know, ask.” He replied, turning to regard a nearby tree. He stepped closer and placed a hand to its trunk and leaned in to whisper against its bark.

“An bhfuil crainn le síolta mar seo in aice láimhe?” He pressed his ear to the tree and a gentle breeze flowed through the canopy above, rustling the leaves. He shut his eyes for a few moments.

“Go raibh maith agat.” His eyes snapped open and he took a few paces away from the tree, then extended his arm and pointed to the Southeast.

“That way.” It was the same direction in which the breeze was flowing, though it was unclear whether that was coincidental or parcel to the manner of communication Destyn was executing. Of course there was also the possibility that Destyn was just a lunatic leading them on a wild goose chase, but he smiled warmly and continued pointing Southeast until they acknowledged his contribution.

Hilana was delighted. Another nomad, though of a different land and tradition, but they seemed to have their own routes up here, too. She wondered if they went far to the south when the cold came, considering his colouring didn't seem to be like Aeros' winter seeming. He had loved talking about himself, after all, and never did resist bragging about his father's people. Still, inasmuch as she wanted to know, she had to acknowledge the fact that not everyone wanted to share their secrets of their routes and pathways. Oftentimes that was something that could be deeply personal and private, and he might not be keen with the question.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Destyn," the Vastiana smiled at him. Destynrael was already long, and she could only wonder how much longer the long name he didn't say was. But the way he said it came off the tongue so fluidly.

She wasn't sure what prompted the furrowing when the talk of collecting happened, but who knew? He was Fae; they had a special relationship with nature that people like Hilana and her sister could never hope to truly emulate, even if they were attuned to the element of Wood. But it still wouldn't be the same, not without that innate connection. But she wasn't about to ask, she just held the enormous seed pod and let him inspect it. The sisters were quiet, and let him go about it. And it was soon clear that he did actually mean that he was going to ask where such a tree might be.

When he leaned in to the tree, the sisters were fascinated. Athalia from a scholar's perspective, Hilana from a botanist's. "That was brilliant," she tucked the seed pod under an arm to clap softly in admiration and noted the direction. She didn't know how far off it was, but that was apparently the way to go. "That way? Thank you very much, Destyn." She offered him a small bow. She did want to inspect the tree, and if she could get more pods, the better - but there were other parts of the tree that would make for good medicine, and it would be nice to have them on hand.

"How did you do that? Ask the tree, I mean. Was it Elementalism, or something else?" The colourful young woman wanted to know. "Summoning, maybe?"

Destyn shrugged, pursing his lips. To him it hasn’t been brilliant at all. It had been the practical course of action.

“You are welcome!” He said, dispensing with the gesture toward the Southeast and redirecting his arm to the task of waving good bye. He assumed, after all, that the girls would be on their way now that they had a destination, but they seemed to be in no particular hurry as another question was posed.

“Huh?” He wrinkled his nose and tilted his head, birdlike, in confusion. “What? No! I did not talk to a tree spirit, I talked to a tree. It is not, you know, spellcraft, it is… uhm… it is just listening and being, you know, aware. But also, look!” He lifted up his shirt and turned away from them, spreading his wings to either side to reveal the length of his spine.

Where one might have expected to see a few spinal ridges beneath the skin, instead there was a protruding spine that looked to be made of bark. It was not segmented into vertebrae, as a normal animal spine would be, but looked rather like a branch that had the same sort of give one saw when wind rustled through the trees, as was happening above them even now.

“It is, I think, easier to commune with plants when you are also of their ilk…. Somewhat.” He declared, before turning back around and letting his dirty, tattered shirt fall down to cover his lower torso once more.

His eyes fell to the seed pod.

“What will you do with that? Will you, you know, plant it?” He tilted his head in the opposing direction and his eyes danced up to meet Hilana’s inquisitively.

Hilana was fascinated, inspecting the oak bark 'spine' of the blond Fae in front of her. While it was fairly rude to do so, she activated her Semblance Rune, blinking so as to get a better look at him and his aura. The Fae was interesting. She almost regretted the fact she probably couldn't invite him over for tea so she could try and talk to him more about himself, his abilities with the trees, and she couldn't just interrogate a stranger in the forest. "Were you born with that like that?" she was curious. "Or did you perhaps glamour it yourself?"

Athalia, for her part, was far less inclined to stare, eating another one of the berries from the little pouch and offering some to Destyn with a smile. "Would you like some?" They were blueberries, plump and juicy. She was curious, true, but she was not one to be consumed with it like her sister was. She did, however, wonder how Hilana would answer the question, considering the fact that Destyn had an affinity and connection with trees.

"I do intend to plant this one. I want to see if I can cultivate it back home. It will take some doing, though, since we're very far to the south and the climate is quite different... but I'll start it in a greenhouse and see what happens," Hilana admitted. "I am looking for more for more samples to try to have a healthy population to start growing my own there, and that way there is options for pollination." He of course already knew that, doubtless. "The seed pod I have here came from the north of the city, so being able to find the one in the Southeast as you mentioned would be very helpful."

Ah, good. Good. Learning to read the room...

"The roots and stem are very good for helping people that are ill in different ways, so being able to collect some and then help the tree recuperate with Elementalism or medicine of its own with alchemy would be very helpful for patients. It's good to have a variety on hand in case someone does not react well to one type of medicine." Hilana added. "The seed pods can be eaten, but I'd rather keep the trees growing and keep planting those."

Well, a swing and a miss.