It Takes One To Know One

[Draconian]

Tag @kleineklementine

Gardenia had always hated the traveling part of visiting her family in Adela. It took forever. Even the cushiest of carriages made things ache. The book she had with her was face down in her skirts on her lap, her money was in a bag around her wrist. Letting her head thump against the wooden carriage almost instantly the driver stopped the horses, mistaking it for something else. Oh great, now she had to insist that no, really, she was fine. No she didn't want anything.

The door opened and there was the driver.

"Miss?"

There would be no answer because all that left her mouth was a terrified shriek as an arrow plunged into his head. Oh no. No. No no nononono. Quickly she scooted across seat, pressing her back to the door on the other side, staring at the lifeless body hanging half inside the carriage. That man had been alive only a few minutes ago. The blood dribbled down his head and her fingers scratched at the door, only for that to open and a head to poke in.

"Hey! There's a girl!"

Panting, eyes squeezed shut, Gardenia scrambled over the dead body of the carriage driver, her foot getting stuck on the arrow and she let out a quiet panted breath before she tumbled out of the carriage. "Get her!" Gardenia began to run. Her skirts kicking up. Everything she had was in that carriage. Her life though, she had that now and she was't sure she would have kept it if she didn't simply run.

What had started as a boring trip was turning so much worse. Things like this didn't happen on boring nice days. The sun was in the sky. It wasn't too hot. Though her legs and lungs burned she didn't stop running. Though there were no foot steps behind her, she didn't look back, instead she ran as far and as fast as she could. The carriage was long gone and she was deep in the woods, just one peek.

Gardenia turned her head to look over her shoulder and then she stumbled, tumbling down a small hill before she finally stopped. Her breaths were mixed with sobs and she slowly rose to her feet, looking around before dropping to her knees in a flutter of skirts and leaves. There was no effort to quiet her sobs, if they found her now, so be it. She was too tired to run on.

"I want my dad." Was all she sobbed, her hands covering her face as she bent forward and seemed so small.

[kleineklementine]

Soren had heard the sounds of the raid from a distance. Poor saps, he thought. From the sounds of it, there was a handful of raiders and the thought of, say, going and helping the poor hapless travelers didn't even occur to him. What was he supposed to do against a group of multiple bandits? Furthermore, it wasn't his fault if some underprepared sod was traveling through here without enough guards. What were they thinking? This stretch of Draconi Forest was famed for its bandits. If anyone was to blame for the sacking of the coach, he told himself, it was the travelers inside of it!

It all had nothing to do with him.

So Soren carried on through the forest, heading towards one of his stashed camps, and telling himself more how there was nothing he could done, wasn't his responsibility, and what idiots the travelers must have been in the first place when he heard another sound. The last sound he wanted to hear. One he couldn't just walk away from.

...Could he?

Heaving something between a sigh and a groan, Soren followed the sound of the girl's sobs (he thought it was a girl, anyway; it better be a girl! he didn't need to waste his time saving some wreck of a man sobbing in the forest!) until he spotted her collapsed amid the trees.

He paused for one moment, frowning to himself. She looked young and for a second he was thinking of another teenage girl. And how good of a job he'd done at helping her. But he pushed the thought aside, and took a step into the clearing.

"...Miss?"

[Draconian]

The voice had her jerk and quickly she stood up and stumbled, skirts kicking up and again she had fallen. Taking deep breaths which quickly turned into hiccups she just stared at him eyes wide and waiting for him to strike her down. Gardenia turned to look at where she'd run from and shut her mouth, the hiccoughs making her shoulders jerk occasionally.

Still she stared before her mouth opened and instead of talking, she just bowled the poor man over. Distraught, the kind voice of the man, Gardenia simply reacted and the way she did was to wrap her arms around the stranger and press her face against his chest. Her cries quieted and she squeezed her eyes shut before she let him go, realizing what she'd done, taking a few steps back. "Please."

"Do you know how to get to Serendipity? Or the nearest town?" Her hands grabbed at his arms and she held on, feeling like if she let go she'd break into pieces and start sobbing. "Please. I'm scared. I'll pay you. I'll make it worth your while but please don't leave me here." Even now she was itching to still run away, but at least if the bandits decided to follow her they would have two targets this time.

[kleineklementine]

Oh. Er. Soren stood there, arms limp, while the girl threw herself at him, sobbing and clutching onto him. Next time he was going to ignore the sounds of sobbing after a coach was attacked! He didn't need this. What was it with him finding wayward teenage girls in the woods? Well, he thought, he hadn't really found Pepper in the woods, but...

And that pang of guilt made him look a bit more sympathetically at this girl, and he even patted her on the back with one arm in the classic 'there there' motion.

"There there," he said lamely, verbally echoing his pats. He still had no idea what to do with a crying girl. Couldn't she just... stop? The idea that maybe the attack n the coach had been worse than he'd assumed hadn't even occurred to him yet. "Um, there there," he said again, patting her again.

Finally recovering from the initial surprise, Soren reminded himself that he was the 'adult' in this situation. And that he was confident and good-looking on top of that! So he took Gardenia from the shoulders and held her back a bit, gentle but firmly, so he could look her in the eye.

"Hey, you're okay now," he said with confident reassurance, smiling encouragingly. That's right, Soren, use your natural charm. "Of course I'm going to help you. We'll get you to safety, okay? Can you tell me what happened?"

[Draconian]

Big odd eyes stared up into Soren's.

A hiccup and she nodded dumbly, she was okay. A deep breath and she blew it out slowly and promptly began to cry again, though less sobbing and more unstoppable tears. "The dri-driver." She took a deep breath and let it out again, though everything inside her was telling her to just curl up and cry.

"They shot him with..." she swallowed and looked away, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, "An arrow. In the h-h-head." A nod and she closed her eyes again, "I... He was nice. He was just checking on me because I thumped and now..." Gardenia looked towards the trees where she'd run from and quickly turned to stare up at Soren.

There was some intense eye contact because looking anywhere else just made her cry again. "I just ran. I'm a coward but I ran. I can't fight. I can't..." Swallowing she grabbed his hand and began to walk, wanting to get farther away from the bandits. If they got their hands on her, she swallowed and straightened her shoulders. She was a lady. Not a whimpering idiot.

"I don't know if they chased me, I just... ran." Gardenia moved her hand to his forearm and held it, looking all sorts of kicked puppy. "please, if you can take me somewhere safe my father will reward you handsomely, I promise."

[kleineklementine]

"Hey, hey, don't blame yourself," Soren said encouragingly, heroically keeping up all of this intense eye contact, keeping his own gaze level and reassuring. "You did nothing wrong and you are not a coward. I'm sure escaping to safety is exactly what your driver would have wanted you to do, okay?"

What he was thinking, though, was that he really hoped all these waterworks would stop soon. They just made him, eh, uncomfortable. These days, it seemed, teenage girls had a real knack for making Soren Levi feel awkward. And even as he thought these things, he berated himself. Here she was, just a girl, who'd gone through a terrible shock, lost someone who maybe she'd been close to, what did he know?, and forced to flee into the woods, lucky to escape the bandits... And what could he think? 'Ew, please stop crying. It's making me uncomfortable.' What a shmuck.

"Look, we're going to get you to a safe town, okay? From there you can send word to your family that you're all right and that you've been delayed and that you're in safe hands. I'm from these parts and I'm happy to guide you to the nearest village, okay?" Please stop crying, please stop crying. "We'll do that first, okay? And from there you can decide if you want to wait there for a family member to fetch you, or, if you like," because Soren had heard that bit about being 'handsomely rewarded!' (though how he'd manage such a long journey with another person without them seeing, well... he'd figure that out as he went along!), "I'll take you all the way to Serendipity. I have family there myself." Yeah, family who'd chase him out in disgust, but that was besides the point!

All the time, he'd kept a firm arm around Gardenia's shoulder. "I have a camp nearby. We can get some food there - few things are better comfort!" and who can cry when they're eating? "and rest before heading onto the next town. How does that sound? I'm Soren, by the way, Soren Levi. And I'll get you home safe."

Or, he figured, at least try. Probably.

[Draconian]

A few shuddering breaths and she just listened and nodded. Her hands moved to her face to wipe away the tears and she took a few more deep breaths before steeling herself and just nodding again. Talking would be hiccups and watery and just no use. The arm around her shoulder was comforting and she leaned her head against his, closing her eyes briefly.

Gardenia didn't feel safe. The arm was comforting but at the back of her head the chance of him being a sneaky bandit were too high. There were two choices though. Go with this man or go out into the forest. If it had been closer to... She would have been fine. Could have run all night to get home. Or closer to home. It wasn't though, a few days left before that happened.

As it was, survival was key and this man was her best chance. Gently she bit her lip and, once again, simply nodded at his suggestion to eat. She wasn't hungry.

"Gardenia." It was quest, "Gardenia Silinrul." She was cautious of offering her last name, perhaps the idea of kidnapping her - which wouldn't be hard in this situation - would be a good one. If he had family in Serendipity he probably would have heard of her family. Maybe she could just be a cousin instead of the daughter. Maybe he'd see that she looked absolutely not Serenian at all and just smile at her.

"Thank you, Soren." It was quiet and she tucked herself closer, simply because he was warm and she was starting to shiver. "You're very kind for helping me... You could... You could have ignored me. So... Thank you." Still wasn't hungry though.

[kleineklementine]

If Soren recognized her name as that of the heir to Jadenshire, he didn't show it. In fact, he didn't recognize it because he'd only been half listening once she'd stopped crying. He was far too busy being relieved that she'd stopped crying, and thinking he better be careful lest she start crying again! That would be the worst. Because if she started crying again, he was out of tricks to make her stop.

"Don't worry about that. I don't think anyone could have ignored someone alone and frightened in the forest," he said in his Reassuring Voice, but mostly because he didn't know what else to say. They walked on for awhile until they came to a little lean-to shelter built up against a giant old oak tree. It had the look of somewhere that was used often, but not regularly. Soren looked the tiniest bit embarrassed bringing her to it. Having spent his youth wealthy, he still wasn't entirely comfortable owning his transient life in the forest. Who lived in camps in the forest? Rejects, that's who.

And that, of course, was exactly what Soren was.

"Make yourself comfortable," he said with a self-conscious shrug and a slightly apologetic grin. "We can light a fire if you like. I don't think the bandits will leave the road," not when they had a coach, but he chose not to say that, "and maybe something warm to drink would help settle your nerves?"

[[Ugh, lame post. Sorry!]]

[Draconian]

Gardenia was quite overwhelmed and just watched Soren as he went along. How was he so calm? Did this happen often? She swallowed and took a few deep breaths, running her hands down the front of her dress. The shoes she wore weren't made for walking and the clothing not for traveling. The purse around her wrist jingled when she smacked it against her dress and she just smiled at the kind man.

Make herself comfortable? Gardenia looked at the camp and quickly moved to sat down, tucking her skirts under her and shifting so her feet were off to the side. Numb was a good word for what she felt. She just wanted to go home. That was now a very long trip away. "I ... I could use something warm to drink." Though what exactly was there, she didn't know.

Did she want to know? No. She had to be polite. Nice and polite to the man who lived in the forest. "Do you live out here?" She motioned to the tent and plastered a (very false) polite smile on her face. Idle conversation would be nice. "It's... Very nice."

[kleineklementine]

Soren set about building a small fire just outside the shelter. Close enough that it would warm the shelter, but not so close it would burn it down. As he worked, he glanced back at Gardenia and caught her face as she said, 'It's... very nice.' He actually gave a little laugh at that, throwing her a lopsided smile as he struck the flint to start the fire.

"No it isn't," he laughed, "but it's very polite of you to say so. I don't live here all the time, though," he told her with a little shrug. Despite the laugh, he knew from her clothes and bearing that she was used to a very different life. Like he had been, once. "But it's a nice place to have for when I'm passing through these parts." There, that was sufficiently ambiguous that he might actually seem like a normal person, who traveled a bit? He remembered bringing Pepper to a camp like this, and how earnestly she'd told him it was nice. And reflected for a moment that his life was more aligned to a street-rat orphan than a girl who clearly grew up in similar circumstances he had.

Well. So it goes. He just had to hope his curse didn't pop up to show why he lived out here in the woods.

Once the fire was lit, he reached Gardenia in the admittedly tightly-spaced shelter to grab an old, beat-up looking kettle. There was a stream not far away, but he looked at Gardenia and frowned doubtfully. "Look, there's a stream nearby. I'll just be a minute to get water. But if you want to come with me so you're not here alone, you're welcome to."

[Draconian]

The laugh caught her off guard and she gave a lopsided smile back, looking in slight awe at how he lit the fire and nodded along with him while he spoke. This was his home, sort of, and she was intruding... Sort of. "I can appreciate a nice place to have when you're 'passing through these parts'." Gardenia swallowed and offered a beginning to be watery smile, "I'm glad you're here." And she was. Against all odds there was someone out here.

She had no idea what she'd have done if she was a home. Probably hope to survive until the full moon and then run as close to home as she could.

"I want to come!" She stood up quickly, on her feet in a flash and moved to follow him like a duckling.  Quickly behind him, her hand snapped out to grab his, simply because she craved the contact. "We can... We can talk.So, Soren." She swallowed as they walked to the stream and still, she held onto his hand or some part of him. Holding the back of his shirt, "Have you always lived in the forest?"

[kleineklementine]

The stream wasn't far away, but Soren had expected Gardenia to want to come. He hadn't, however, expected her to take his hand in her own. He glanced down, feeling momentarily uncomfortable. Or self-concious. Or something. Who knew, feelings weren't really his specialty. He could have sworn he'd once been less apprehensive of harmless girls in the woods. But now everything was shadowed by his Big Screwup with Pepper. But his moment of unease passed, and he squeezed her hand reassuringly.

Only moments after he regained his composure, however, she hit him with that. Soren glanced down at her, looking just the tiniest bit surprised. And then he frowned. Soren liked to believe that, despite the reality of his life, he didn't look like someone who lived in the forest. After all, he was (by his approximation) good looking, his black hair was disheveled maybe, but not matted or long or scruffy, he wore normal and sometimes even flattering clothes, and by great pains even managed to shave semi-regularly. He had been a little slack on that. Did it show? Was he turning into the sort of person you'd look at and thing, 'Who is this crazy, long haired, scruffy, bearded, wild-eyed forest man who clearly lives in the forest?'

"Who said I always live in the forest?" he asked, trying valiantly to sound unbothered and maybe even jovial. But he failed and, realizing it, flashed a sheepish grin. Guilty as charged, it seemed. He rubbed the back of his neck, always his tell. "Uh, no. I haven't. But I don't strictly now, either. This is just one of the places I stay some times..."

Then thank the gods, they arrived at the stream and Soren could busy himself with filling the old dented kettle. "Might be some blueberries on those little bushes there," he told her while he cleaned out the kettle. Truth be told, he actually hadn't been to this camp in a bit and it was a little grimy. Plus it'd be good for her to be occupied, and good for him if she were more occupied with looking for berries than asking questions. "A bit early, but you might be lucky."

He realized 'lucky' was a poor choice of words as soon as he said it and frowned a little. Why was doing the right thing always so hard?

[Draconian]

If there was a polite way to blush and feel awkward, Gardenia was doing it. Her hand flew to her mouth and she played with her lower lip. She started to speak but before she could get any words out he replied and she simply nodded. So he wasn't a total forest man. That meant he could understand some stuff. Or did that make things worse? Gardenia tried to smile and simply walked with him.

Gardenia looked over her shoulder to where he indicated these blueberries were and she meandered over to it. Giving it a long hard look. Sure she'd picked flowers before but never blueberries. Her fingers were plucking at the few ripe blueberries she could find and she paused when he said she was lucky. Tears clouded her eyes but she stayed quiet and resumed picking blueberries, lifting up her skirt and turning it into a make-shift basket.

So, silently she cried and picked blueberries before taking a deep heavy breath. Her wave of self-pity over she stood up and cleared her throat, "Do you think we'll still be traveling two nights from now?" The full moon. Should she warn him? Maybe... The day after tomorrow. If they weren't somewhere safe for her to just... Run away. She'd let him know. So that way when the girl he picked up turned into a furry beast he wouldn't be surprised.

[kleineklementine]

Crap. Soren saw the tears streaming silently down her eyes. But she'd only just stopped crying! Unsure what to do, he decided to let her have a moment and pretend that he hadn't seen - and hoped that it was just a moment! He glanced nervously at her a few times while he cleaned and filled the kettle and while she collected berries. When he was done and stood up with the full kettle, he was greatly relieved that her tears had stopped.

"Two nights from now?" he repeated, thinking. Poor thing, he figured, was probably just eager to get back to somewhere safe feeling. Back to her family or wherever. And he would be happy to be rid of her sooner, too! Somehow this teenager was seriously cramping his style. Maybe he had no style when he was being nice. But he hadn't forgotten what she said earlier, and he wondered just how much more or less days of travel would impact just how much he was going to be paid for her safe arrival to her family.

Yeah, Soren, very nice.

"Well, it depends, I guess. On where you want to go. There are some small villages within one or two days from here, but there isn't much there and it might be hard from there to hire transport. To a bigger town," he gave a small shrug, "we might be able to make it in two nights." He gave her what he imagined to be a compassionate frown. "I can imagine you're eager to get back to your family after the scare tonight, though. It might be faster to go directly to them, or to a larger town where you can hire a coach."

[Draconian]

Gardenia tried to smile and nodded at him, feeling bad in some manner simply because none of those reasons were why she wanted to get home soon. The guilt in her chest probably showed on her face and she took a deep breath. Of course she felt bad for the people in the carriage but... That was their job, right? Making sure she was safe? She looked down at the blueberries in her make-shift pouch and then back at Soren.

"I..." Gardenia straightened her shoulders, trying to look confident and like she was better than everyone else, "I would like to ... Go to a large town to hire a coach." There was a beat before the quiet "please" followed.  Taking a breath she shuffled her feet and made her way back to his camp, taking great pains to sit carefully so she didn't spill any of the food.

"I've never picked blueberries before," She commented idly, looking down at the pile in her lap and then offering the man a kind smile. "Where are you from?" Was that too heavy for idle conversation? Gardenia's experience with talking to normal people was very little and she

[kleineklementine]

Soren watched the mix of emotions on Gardenia's face uneasily. He wasn't thinking that she looked guilty, even if that was what she was feeling, he was mostly just watching to make sure she wasn't going to burst into tears again. But it seemed like they were safe there for the moment.

He nodded when she announced, with straightened shoulders!, that she'd like to go to a larger town to hire a coach. Inwardly, he had to smile at her mannerisms a little. She was clearly a wealthy, or maybe even noble-born, girl unaccustomed, he thought, to being so helpless in her situation. Trying to act like she wasn't so helpless now. But it didn't last, and Soren just put a hand on her shoulder, reassuringly, as they headed back to the camp.

At the edge of the camp, a patch of wild mint was growing, and Soren carefully selected the better-looking leaves from it and added them to the water in the kettle. Not the fanciest of tea, but it would do.

"Well, blueberries only really grow in the forest," he responded while he picked mint leaves and set the kettle over the fire. "So if you haven't spent much time outdoors, I'm not surprised." He paused, though, to look up at her when she asked where he was from. Only for a moment, before fastening the kettle in place and sitting down next to the fire. "Near the border with Serendipity," he answered. Then he frowned inwardly realizing that, with where they were, if she wanted to get back to Serendipity... that was probably exactly the town he should take her to. But for the moment, he pushed that thought aside and looked back up at Gardenia, "What about you? I have to say, you look more Adelan than Serenian."

[Draconian]

Gardenia sat as close to Soren as she could without invading his space, it wasn't too far away, close enough to touch him. Far enough away to not touch him accidentally. It worked for her, for now, and hopefully it worked for him. The look she gave him about blueberries growing in a forest got a bit of a look. It took a moment of internal conflict not to spit out a snotty retort about how she knew where they grew and what they were but she swallowed the remark and just quietly smiled at him.

"My mother was Adelan," was her quiet response. It didn't explain why she didn't look serenian at all in any way shape or form, but that was the only answer he was getting out of her for now. Pushing her black hair behind her ear she cupped her hands to pick up the blueberries and held them out to Soren, not really sure what he wanted done with them.

"What shall I do? Do we just eat them?" She frowned at her hands for a moment, "No chance of getting sick?"

[kleineklementine]

Within touching distance actually was a little closer than Soren would have preferred. He had to consciously remind himself that there wasn't any harm in it, he wasn't doing anything wrong this time. He was doing the right thing! He was actually doing something good. And if he got paid in the end? Well, he'd be an idiot to turn away money, right? And if he got paid a lot, maybe he'd even go to Arca with it... See, good things all around. Man, he needed to calm down.

Thankfully his mental bumbling was interrupted by that look she gave him and Soren nearly had to laugh. Instead, he just gave her a lopsided smile. He grew up with four sisters, he knew that look well. "Nah, you can just eat them," he said, still smiling a little. The kettle whistled and he got back to his feet to carefully move it off the coals of the fire. Then he disappeared temporarily into the hut and reappeared with two clean-ish wooden cups. Crap. He should have brought these to the stream, too... Well, they were only a little dusty!

Still, blowing on them would be far too embarrassing. Especially in front of what was clearly a well-to-do young lady. So he poured just a little bit of tea in each, swirled it around, and dumped it out before refilling it again. Not perfect, but it'd have to do. And to think, he'd grown up drinking tea out of porcelain tea services! Well, that was a long time ago. He handed one of the mugs over to Gardenia, then sat back down, just a little bit further away from her than he'd been before.

Soren sat with the steaming mug, looking between the fire and the girl. She hadn't, he realized, actually answered where she was from. But he wouldn't pry. "I think we should head to Opal Run," he told her after a moment's silence. "It's a decent sized trading town. Lots of merchants going every which way, you should definitely be able to find someone there who can take you to wherever you need to go. It's near the border, so there should be people going to all parts of Serendipity. Plus it's beautiful. The river has a peculiar mineral content, and it shines and shimmers just like an opal and..."

Soren stopped, he suddenly heard the fondness with which he was speaking of the place. And felt a strange feeling... was it homesickness? He frowned to himself, and said hastily, "Well, I imagine you won't be interested in that after your ordeal. Sorry. It should take three days from here? Starting tomorrow. Maybe four, depending on how we go," he added, glancing at her very-much-not-designed-for-walking attire.

[Draconian]

Gardenia popped a few blueberries into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully, enjoying the idle conversation with the strange forest man. Curiously she watched him clean some wooden mugs and she graciously accepted it, noticing that he'd sat farther away than before. Gardenia gave him a small smile and took a sip of her hot minty water. It was still better than nothing and she sat there quietly, looking over her cup at him while he spoke, her odd eyes watching his face.

His tone had her smiling, the way he spoke about this Opal Run. Another sip of her drink and she popped another blueberry into her mouth. "No!" She started, even throwing her hand out as if to grab the tail end of his sentence before he decided, no, she didn't want to hear it.

"I want to!" Gardenia smiled again, anything to take her mind off of what she saw. "Tell me. Is that your hometown? Opal Run? You speak fondly of it." She looked down at her cup, then down at the various bits and pieces of jewelry she wore, "I could go on for days about how beautiful Jadenshine is." Which, in her opinion, was the very best province in Serendipity.

The idea of being outside for three days filled her with dread.

She would worry about that then, there was little she could do to not turn. Shifting her weight she looked down at her own clothing, which was indeed very not make for walking. Gardenia moved her legs to take a better look at her shoes,  inappropriate for walking around in a forest indeed.

[kleineklementine]

"Yeah, I guess it is, sort of," Soren answered awkwardly, unconsciously rubbing the back of his neck. "But I haven't been there for awhile." Awhile was an understatement. How many years had it been? Five? Six? Could it possibly be even seven? What would he do if someone recognized him? What would he do if he saw one of his siblings? Maybe he could just, get her to the gates of the city, then push her in. Was that such a crazy idea?

It is if you want to get paid, he told himself.

He watched as she also looked at the unsuitability of her clothing for the journey. Frowning thoughtfully, he set down his mug and got to his feet. "Hold on, let me see," he muttered and disappeared back into the hut. After the sounds of some shuffling and clattering, he reemerged with a clean-ish tunic, trousers, an old leather belt, and a pair of boots. "Here," he said, handing them over to Gardenia, "they'll be too big on you, of course, but probably better than what you're wearing now. You can belt the tunic and roll up the trousers. The boots are smaller, they might even fit you."

He left it at that. How could he explain that he'd stolen the boots when he'd been in wolf form and grossly misjudged their size? His wolf-brain didn't always think quite so practically on matters like that.

"If you want," he said with a shrug. He guessed a proper young lady wouldn't be so keen on the idea!