A Yoreiq meeting [dragonsong]

[Trenzalor]

Mira stretches as she wakes up for a new day of walking. A few days ago Mira had gotten on a boat for the island and once she arrived she walked into the tropical jungle to continue her journey to try to learn more about the world, and has been in this jungle since then. She has just been walking through the jungle just hoping to bump into someone or something. She yawns as she finishes up her stretch and starts getting up for the morning. Once she's gotten up and worked the kinks out of her back she starts packing up her small little campsite. She undoes her tent and sleeping bag and disrupts her campfire. Once everything has been organized she bundles them all up into/onto her backpack and gets ready to keep walking along her path, being careful to avoid poisonous plants and creepy crawlies.

Mira starts walking in her original direction through the jungle with her backpack on her back and her cloak fluttering along as she walks through the jungle. Mira does her best to keep herself steady as she walks over the lush forestry. She tries to keep herself walking for as long as she can before she needs to rest. She's not really trying to sneak around so she's not hard to miss if someone were looking for her. The trees around her stand still as their leaves rustle lightly in the wind. Mira looks up at the leaves and smiles lightly to herself as she sees the nature outside of her home village.

[DragonSong]

Tai woke, as he did most mornings, to a large, snuffling muzzle in his face. He groaned and shoved at the animal, grumbling nonsense curses under his breath before he managed to sit up.

Ren nipped at his shoulder, tugging on his sleeve when he didn't sit up fast enough. "Alright, alright!" The mercenary glared at his companion, who just gazed placidly back and whuffed softly. "Yes, I know you're hungry," Tai muttered, getting to his feet with a yawn. "Go on and hunt if you want—I don't know how to forage in these jungles."

The peryton didn't reply—he never did—but Tai continued as if he had, "We should probably be heading back to the mainland soon anyway. Gods know there's no real paying work here, don't know why I ever listened to that—"

Man and beast both froze, heads snapping toward a subtle sound further into the trees. Tali's sword was drawn in a flash of steel, his eyes hard. "Who's there?"

[Trenzalor]

Mira is doing her best to try to keep trudging through the jungle, but the humidity is doing a number on her. The is their making the heat worse and making her robes cling to her figure as she walks through the underbrush. She hopes that deeper into the island the humidity will be mitigated a little bit. However she does still keep walking. The look of the jungle is nice enough that she can ignore the humidity. She keeps an eye out for anything that she won't wont to step on as she keeps walking.

When Mira hears talking she starts heading in that direction. she wonders who could be out in the middle of this jungle other than her. She would be happy to meet another person on this journey. She walks into the bushes and as she's about to come out the person asks who's there. Mira walks out of the bush and waves politely. "Hello there. I didn't expect to meet anyone else out here in the jungle."

[Trenzalor]

(Is everything alright?)

[DragonSong]

The sword was in his hand in less than a breath, sighting along the edge of the blade at the stranger that had just come tramping out of the undergrowth. Beside him, Ren went tense, and a low growl rumbled in the deer-like creature's throat as he pulled back his lips in a snarl that revealed not very deer-like fangs.

Tai just stared at the woman, bewildered. "Where...what are you doing out here?" She didn't look like a native, which meant she must be doing something that wasn't just...daily chores. None of which required a hike this far into the jungle, inasmuch as he knew.

[Trenzalor]

Mira is a little bit off put by how hostile the strange man she just met is. And when she sees the deer with sharp pointy fangs she starts to sweat even more because of how nervous she's getting. She wonders what kind of person she ran into out here. She wonders what kind of person she's just ran into. She does her best to look not threatening so that they won't attack her. "Oh, I'm out here exploring and trying to see more of the world." She says this even though she at least seems to be wearing a blindfold.

[DragonSong]

"Uh-huh."

Man and peryton once more exchange a look, this one rather dry--a difficult expression for a deer to pull off, but Ren somehow managed. Tai sighed and, finally, lowered his blade into a relaxed stance at his side. "Look, I don't know who you are or what you're really doing, but you'd best be cautious. Plenty of things in the jungle less friendly than me that you don't want to surprise."

He sheathed the sword and laid a hand on Ren's whithers, sort of guiding the animal away in a curving arc toward the trees toward the strange woman's left. "If you need us to get you back to a town, we can," he offered, almost grudgingly, after several long moments.

[Trenzalor]

Mira can hear the sarcasm in the strange man's voice. She isn't sure why he doesn't seem to believe her, but she doubts that she'll be able to change his mind just like that. Though Mira is able to relax a little bit when it seems like the two of them aren't going to attack her. At least she hopes that they won't attack her. She doesn't know however. When he says that he doesn't know who she is, Mira gives a small wave. "My name is Miracle Mira. It's nice to meet you. Who are you two?" Mira relaxes a little bit more when she sees the man sheath his sword. She hopes that they won't be hostile towards each other once this is over. "I suppose that it might be a good idea to head back to town to stock up on supplies." Mira accepts his offer to head back to town together.

[DragonSong]

"Miracle, huh?" He tried not to scoff at that. Could be a professional name, wouldn't do to offend someone who used a title like that--probably a mage.

Ren picked his way along beside his human friend, peering around his side at the woman curiously every once in a while with a small huff.

"Well, come on. It's at least a couple hours' hike back into the nearest village."

[Trenzalor]

Mira hears him scoff at her name but she doesn't comment on it. She doesn't want to cause trouble with the person she'll be walking with for a while and his strange deer. Mira does her best to keep up with the stranger. "So, what's you and you're friend's names? And why are you out here?" Mira is genuinely curious. She hopes that asking doesn't offend him or anything like that. Mira keeps looking around as they walk back to the village, just taking in the scenery.

[DragonSong]

"...This is Ren." Tai jerked his head toward the stag-like creature. "And you don't really need to know why we're out here."

Yes. That sounded suitably vague and maybe a little threatening. Hopefully it would scare her off of asking more questions that he really didn't want to--or couldn't--answer. Besides, it wasn't particularly interesting to tell her that they had been wandering around out in the jungle trying to catch some food after a boring job turned into a bit of a nightmare with the mercenary band he'd taken up with a few weeks ago.

[Trenzalor]

Mira looks at Ren and smiles a little bit as she waves at the stag-like creature. "It's nice to meet you Ren." Mira then looks over at Tai. "If you don't want to tell me why you're out here that's fine. What's your name then?" *Mira genuinely seems to be trying to be nice and friendly. She doesn't want to make either of them mad and she doesn't want this walk together to be bad or awkward. She hears the threatening statement but she doesn't really head the implication because she wants to be nice.

[DragonSong]

The peryton twitched his ears and whuffed at her in a friendly sort of way. Tai shot him a betrayed look, which the animal returned blandly.

Then the merc sighed, forcing his hand not to twitch to the blade at his hip. He looked determinedly forward. "...Tai." His lips were thin, eyes slightly narrowed. Tense. "You can call me Tai."

[Trenzalor]

Mira smiles when Ren acts friendly towards her. She's happy that she was able to make a new friend through her little venture. And Ren looks pretty cute once you get past the fangs. She wonders if the strange man will warm up to her over time. When the man and Ren give each other the betrayed looks, Mira is confused. She wonders why they seem to not agree with each other. When the strange man finally says that his name is Tai and that she can call him Tai, she is very confused. "Um, if Tai is your name, why wouldn't I call you Tai?"

[DragonSong]

"I—what?"

He blinked at the woman, taken aback and just a bit confused. "It—it is my name?" Had he not said that?

Wait, shit, how had she suddenly gotten him on the defensive?

Hunching his shoulders against the creeping sensation of discomfort, he huffed out a sharp breath and quickened his pace a bit. "Just...come on. Jungle is dangerous if you're not used to it, you should be safe in a village somewhere."

[Trenzalor]

*Mira raises an eyebrow when he gets all flustered at her response. She doesn't understand what was so confusing about her statememt. "I asked you what your name is. You said it was Tai. You then said that I can call you Tai. Then I asked you why I would call you something other than Tai if you've told me that your name is Tai. That seems a bit redundant to me. You don't need to tell me to call you Tai when you've already told me your name is Tai. Or would you prefer that I refer to you as Tai, also known as Tai." *Mira keeps following after Tai as he leads them closer to the village. "I hope we arrive soon. This place is pretty big."

[DragonSong]

The mercenary just stared at her, half of his brain trying to track what she was saying while the other half attempted to keep aware of their surroundings.

"I don't...what... Look, lady, call me whatever you want," he exclaimed finally, exasperated. What the hells was she even talking about?

He didn't comment on their proximity to the village; they'd get there when they got there, as far as he was concerned. He didn't think it should really be much longer than an hour or so of hiking though, at the very least.

[Trenzalor]

Mira is a little bit miffed when Tai doesn't understand what she's also him. It doesn't seem that complicated to her. But Tai doesn't seem to be getting it and that's starting to annoy her. She hopes that she didn't find a dullard. "I want to call you by your name, but you made is confusing. I guess it just won't be solved though since you seem very lost." Sarah rolls her eyes under her blindfold and keeps following Tai towards the village. She wonders what someone like this is doing so far out here. As she walks she manages to keep good footing despite the fact that she's wearing a blindfold. There's also a subtle but present sway to her hips as she walks along. It can be seen despite the cape she's wearing.

[DragonSong]

Tai rolled his eyes, but kept silent. He was just getting this woman back to civilization, then he could wash his hands of the whole nonsense.  Honestly a large part of him wanted to just leave her, but he knew Ren wouldn't let him.

And...well, honestly, he'd have felt a little bad about it. She had a blindfold, for gods' sakes, regardless of how well she seemed to navigate despite it.

Just get her back to a village, then you don't have to think about this anymore, he told himself, hopping over a large root, his attention mostly focused on the path ahead.

[Trenzalor]

Mira continue to casually walk along through the forest with Tai. She wonders why it's taking so long to get tot eh village. She hadn't been walking for that long. Though it could have been longer than she thought it was. Either way it certainly feels a little bit longer than she remembers. She hopes that they aren't lost or anything like that. As they are walking along Mira starts walking closer to Ren. When she's close enough to Ren she tries to pet him. she thinks that he looks super cute and fluffy and she really wants to pet him softly. If there's not much else to do on the walk back to the village then might as well try to entertain yourself by giving appreciation to such divine poofiness.