What's the worst that could happen? [open/PM to join]

[Rhindeer]

All Katxiel wanted was some fresh air, free of all the fussing of her servants.

And so she had slipped out of the temple when they weren't looking, well familiar with their habits and routines, and headed out into the jungle where she could be alone. She knew better than to go too far; it was dangerous out there, and all too easy to get lost. But she felt confident that her goddess would keep Her avatar safe, so what was the worst that could happen?

That was Katxiel's thought an hour ago.

Turns out, a lot could happen in an hour.

Like losing herself in her thoughts, and not watching her feet, and stepping on what she thought was solid land and plant matter--but that turned out to be a hole covered by leaves.

In the fall she'd twisted her ankle, of course, and now she was stuck at the muddy bottom of a pit, mud covering her legs clear to mid-shin. She couldn't climb out despite how she'd tried; the sides were too sheer, too soft, and she couldn't gain purchase. And even if she could, her ankle was already swollen and bruised and not much use when it couldn't support her weight.

After an hour of trying and failing, all she could do was lean against the pit wall, supported awkwardly on one leg, and shout for help.

And hope the hunters that set the trap would come by soon, and that they hadn't already checked the traps that day.

If they had...

She could be here all night.

"Hello! Anyone! Please, if you're out there, help!" she called, miserable in her coating of mud.

Hopefully the priests and servants would notice her absence. Hopefully they'd come looking for her.  And soon. She couldn't stay here all night, in the mud and filth! What would she eat? And how...how would she take care of other functions?! She couldn't hold her bladder all day and night!

Oh, she had wanted some alone time. But this wasn't what she'd had in mind!

[Alexandras]

Braxen snorted as he continued to coil the vine around his shoulder, cursing out loud, "Damn it, I hear you, SHUT UP!" He smacked the side of his head and the voice seemed to retreat, it had grown increasingly loud as of late, even more so after he had escaped his enslavement. Though he had to admit, he wouldn't have gotten this far without it's help, but he couldn't take it's constant nagging and persistence on what he had to do next, like this vine, why would he need it, he saw no reason.

It warned him of the traps, drops, and other dangers of this strange place, there couldn't possibly be a use for it in the near future, yet still he wound it tight over himself like a sash, the only thing covering his bare torso. as he stood, the crude pants he had fashioned snagged and tore again, the voice prodded him to create a far superior pair with a spell it whispered to him, but he called it something foul in a guttural sounding language and instead headed where it had instructed him to, after wrapping the vine.

Hours seemed to pass as he walked on, he became lost in thought as he marveled at all the beauty around him, several times stopping to smell a flower, or try to gently catch a colorful butterfly, the voice seemed not to mind this for the most part but scolded him whenever what he fancied was a threat to him,

"It is growing dark father I most find some pla..." He trailed off as he thought he heard shouting, his first instinct to hide but the voice forbade it instead urging him forward, cautiously he headed towards the voice. Within moments he was at the opening to a pit, slowly he inched to the edge and peered down, stunned into silence, as he gazed at the woman below he bowed his head awkwardly and as the voice spoke he lowered the vine without speaking, afraid of terrifying the poor woman below.

[Rhindeer]

Katxiel was still agonizing over the very real possibility that she might be stuck here for quite a long time when a vine suddenly flopped over the side and lowered down into her pit.

For a moment she just stared at it, blinking. It seemed too good to be true! Maybe the hunters hadn't checked their traps yet, after all. How convenient! Well, she certainly wasn't going to complain, though she also wasn't looking forward to greeting them up at the top. She was a mess. Oh, how very regal she looked, covered in mud and trapped in a pit. She would just have to swear them all to secrecy, because this? This was just embarrassing.

"Thank you!" she called in the tongue of her people, for she was unfamiliar with Common, and grabbed onto the vine. "You certainly took long enough." She gave it a tug to test it, to make sure it would hold her weight, and then she began to climb.

It wasn't easy, with one leg as good as useless. But her arms were strong; she had climbed trees and such for fun since childhood. Grunting, she pulled herself up, one hand in front of the other, until she reached the top and flopped over the side, foliage in her hair, mud on her face, and panting from exertion. "Gods!" she continued in her native tongue. "One would think you'd be more obvious about these traps! An animal isn't going to notice if you mark it for a human! Can you imagine if I'd been there all night? The high priest would have a stroke! As it is, I--"

She raised her head to look at her rescuer, and her words cut off with a soft gasp and a jolt that nearly had her slipping back down into the pit.

[Alexandras]

Braxen tilted his head to the side as the voice echoed the ladies, though it he could understand, as it was obviously translating her speech, yet she wasn't really making sense to him. The vine was held firmly by his powerful hands until she was clear of the pit and he released it without a second thought.

Yet at that moment she reacted to him, and even as that caused a stab at his heart, there was no delay in his reaction, his left arm wrapping around her waist and he swung both of them away from the trap, though he doesn't release her, instead he lifted her up into his arms, the voice chanting at him, in the language she had spoken.

"Fear...No...Fear...God? God...Send..." He has trouble with the words but they are probably at least vaguely understandable, "We...Go...Death...Stay...Direction?" He looked at her for a moment waiting for some sort of input, before realizing he had been staring into her eyes, and knowing like all before her, he must be a most repulsive sight.

He tilts his head away from those alluring orbs of her's, a beauty that contended with all the majesty this jungle had showed him, the voice telling him to still his heart, and reassuring him he was far from repulsive as it always did. But one singular voice amidst the outcries of the world, well it was a hard thing to accept at best.

[Rhindeer]

The man grabbed her, and Katxiel let out a yelp of alarm as he swung her up into his arms and away from the pit. Flailing in surprise, heart hammering away, she threw her arms about his neck reflexively (smearing mud over his skin in the process) and held on, her eyes wide as she stared into his face.

The man was massive, his features like none she had seen before, and between that and his meager dress, it all marked him as "not Citallin" before he even opened his mouth.

And when he did speak, the language was broken, choppy. It took her a moment to understand, for her brain was still reeling in confusion. There wasn't really fear there; she'd had no reason to fear anyone before, for Citalli had always been safe and its people treated her with respect and reverence. But this man was a stranger, different from her people. And for once in her life, she'd truly been thrown for a loop.

"Wh...what?" she managed to squeak, still trying to parse his speech. "Ah...'God send'...? 'Direction'? What are you...oh! The gods sent you! Ixtacotl sent you! Is that what you mean?" That had to be it. She cocked her head, squinting, but then broke out into a smile and let out a relieved laugh.

"Of course she would. It wouldn't do to have me hurt. Very well, then! Take me home, servant of Ixtacotl! It's..."

She trailed off, lifting an arm to point the way, and then blinked.

"...Somewhere. I think I came from that direction?" She looked back up at the man and smiled. "Surely you know the way, servant of Ixtacotl!"

[Alexandras]

Braxen cocked his head to the side as he listened to her, the voice mirroring her voice in the common tongue for him as it had since he met her, he wished he could look at the voice questioningly since apparently it had told him to tell her he was god sent, yet he couldn't personally believe that, his true father the voice, he was most certain it was anything but something holy like a god. But there was little he could do to argue with the voice, he couldn't understand this frail creature in his arms, and it always seemed to know his every thoguht, so though he had escaped physical enslavement, was he truly free...

This was a question for another time he decided as he began to march in the direction she had pointed, in the mean time he thought as he often did, directly to the voice, expressing his desire to at least introduce himself to this lady he held, even if she had smeared him with mud, it wasn't even close to the worse he had endured in his life, and slowly it recited the words to him and then he spoke them, haphasardly but sincerely as well, "My...name...is...Braxen, I...Will...Protect...you...from all...threats."

Of course he had to blindly accept what he was saying to be what he wished to convey, but trust was a commodity that Braxen knew very little to nothing of, his childhood, and mother, were long ago and even that had ended in betrayal, and this whispering being in his head, that which had saved him and made him an outcast to begin with was all he had, needless to say he was a mess of a human being.

He walked without showing signs of tiring even while holding her close to his chest, they had been heading in the direction she had motioned for quite sometime and now it was deep twilight. At this point the voice and he agreed they had to stop for safety sake. Soon he was taking them into a small outcropping of trees which sheltered a shallow cave, the voice once more spoke to him in her tongue, and he parroted it, "Darkness...Approaches, You...Shall...Rest... I...Will wait till...the sun...returns."

After finding a dry spot in the cave he sat her down, and in a few short moments had a fire roaring at the entrance of the cave, using the skills he had learned since escaping to the fullest. Once the fire was set, and plenty of dry/semi dry wood was collected he returned to her, bending down at her feet, "May...I Treat...You?"

[Rhindeer]

Had she really come this far? As they walked, and walked, and walked, and the jungle grew darker and denser, Katxiel got the sinking feeling that either she'd traveled a lot farther than she'd anticipated, lost in thought as she was, or...

Or they were lost. Completely.

But surely it was just the former? If this man was a guardian sent to her by Ixtacotl, then this all had to be going according to plan. Right?

But soon they were approaching a cave, and he was telling her they would wait out the night. What? Surely he couldn't be serious! He people would freak if she didn't come home! Why, they were probably sending out a hunting party as she spoke! But he was right, she supposed. The jungle was dangerous at the best of times, and night brought with it fresh dangers.

Sitting by the fire, Katxiel huffed--and gingerly stretched out her leg, biting back winces, as her ankle throbbed and ached to the beat of her heart. The swelling had gotten worse, all black and blue and puffy. Goddess, this wasn't how she'd intended to spend the day, injured, filthy, covered in dried mud, and sleeping outdoors. Well, in a cave. Same difference. Was this a test? Or a lesson? She poked at her ankle and sucked in a breath. It wasn't the first time she'd sprained an ankle--she kept quite active--but it was the first time she'd had to endure it for so long before the healers swarmed her.

She was snapped from her thoughts when the man knelt by her feet.

Treat her...? Oh!

"My ankle? You know how? Well, of course you do, Ixtacotl-sent. Yes, please!"

It didn't even occur to her that she hadn't given him her name. But then, she just sort of assumed he knew, like everyone else did. Surely if the goddess had sent her, it went without saying!

[Alexandras]

Braxen pulled a small sharpened rock out from the hem of his pants as he examined her ankle, it wasn't that damaged, so he was relatively certain he could heal her with little to no trouble. He cut swiftly across his right palm then cupped his hands together, whispering softly now in the unearthly language, after a moment he tossed the blood in the fire and rubbed his palms together.

When they parted again all traces of blood was gone from them, even the cut seeming to vanish, yet now they seemed to glow with a soft incandescent light, and as he laid his hands upon her ankle a strong warmth would spread through it, first numbing any pain, then mending the damaged tissue from the inside out. As he pulled his hands away he smiled in a gentle manner, happy for the chance to use his powers for something other then destruction.

The voice began to nag at him and the smile slowly faded as he stood, "Please...Rest Safe now."

He was adapting to the pronunciation of this strange tongue quickly though he still lacked the knowledge base to hold any sort of conversation on his own, crimson orbs lingered on her for several long seconds, mirroring the sadness of his thoughts as he walked a small distance away to be closer to the entrance then she was.

A hand rested on his ax as he kneeled down to hold his vigil for the night, softly he began to sing an old song he had known his whole life, yet held no memory of where it came from, a warm melody that told of warm sands and a nourishing oasis, a simple child's lullaby, of course he doubted she would understand it, but it brought him comfort and in a time of life where any moment a bounty hunter could spring forth to kill him, well comfort was in short supply.