Things Can Always Get Worse... ( Joelle/Open! )

[Anonymous]

It was warm today.

Jaks let out a breath and sat back on the grass, his knees up, his arms behind him, his long ponytail of brown hair swinging back and forth. Sweat was beaded on his forehead before he flopped backwards and sighed, wiping a gloved hand down his face, making a dirt streak.

He could do this!

Groaning where he laid, he sat up again and sighed, running a finger over his ear to make an itch go away, also getting it covered in small bits of dirt. In front of his booted feet, was a small river, a trickle. In Jaks' other hand was a crumpled up piece of paper. Useless! Jaks groaned loudly before stretching out his legs and rolling over, lifting himself up onto his hands and knees and standing up, the paper getting even more crumpled.

"Stupid... Piece of crap!" Jaks threw the paper into the bushes and sat down with a soft thud and a grunt, arms crossed over his chest, his muddy hands making even more dirt smears across himself. Half his face and one long delicately pointed ear was covered in mud streaks.

Jaks had gotten the 'map' off a merchant. He wasn't poor, he had a house... Jaks looked over his shoulder and frowned towards the direction of more trees. Somewhere. He had a house somewhere. "I'd know where it was if I wasn't lost."

Elf. Pah.

Jaks wouldn't be able to find the way to his first floor if there wasn't a set of stairs to lead him there. Elf crap about being forest creatures and having great accuracy skills and talking to animals and knowing where down was without making it painfully obvious... Jaks had never met another actual elf.

Didn't have the driving need to.

He wasn't exactly old.

" Pah, stupid... Pointy-eared weirdos." He muttered before sitting cross legged, elbows on his knees and haunched forward. Bad day. Lost. Useless map. It couldn't get worse.

[Anonymous]

Magdiel walked out of her hut cautiously. She'd heard Jaks, so she already knew he was lost and angry. What she didn't know was if he would want her help. There was only one way to find out, though.

"Hello, my name is Magdiel. I don't think you're as  lost as you think you are. This is the Draconi Forest. What were you looking for? May I offer you some lunch?" she asked. Somehow, when a person was angry, it nearly always worked to tell them they weren't as lost as they thought. It helped them calm down faster.

[Anonymous]

Jaks went stone still and turned his head inch by inch, to stare at the woman who popped up out of no-where. Wide hazel eyes stared at her while he looked around, looking for where she popped up from. Nothing. Trees. More trees. Maybe she was some sort of tree nymph, here to steal his soul.

Nah.

With a forefinger and a thumb, he plucked his soiled gloves off his hands and pushed his hair out of his face before standing up and looking around. "I think I'm as lost as I think I am." He didn't know where he was, he knew that, therefore, he was as lost as he thought he was. No need to take it out on the nice lady though, so Jaks took a breath and tucked the gloves into a pocket on his pants.

"Lunch would be wonderful." He said truthfully, closing his eyes slightly and ignoring her comment saying that this was Draconi forest. He knew that. He wouldn't be here if it wasn't. Now, where in Draconi forest and in which direction he'd been walking was a mystery to him. " I was looking for a site a merchanted sold me a map for. It's supposed to be around here, but the map's a fake, there's nothing here, and I was in such a rush to get here I forgot the important things at home."

Jaks paused, pressing his thumb to his lips before leaning towards the woman, blinking at her. " Who are you?" Jaks paused before blinking again, " And where did you pop up from? I don't see anything around here."

[Anonymous]

"I'm an elf," she said. "A light elf, to be exact. I've always lived here. Don't you know elves usually live in forests?" she asked. "Come along then, I was just about to eat lunch myself. I'm sorry you are lost. Sometimes you can't always tell the good merchants from the sneaky ones," she said sympathetically. She set the table and passed him the plate of fried chicken so he could take a piece. Mashed potatoes, green beans, fresh bread, and various kinds of exotic fruit also graced the table.

[Anonymous]

Jaks paused, his hands at his sides, his mouth grim and his hair slowly falling out of the pony-tail. Anelf? Who would name their kid 'Anelf'? That was a silly name. " Your... Name is Anelf?" Jaks lift an eyebrow up and blinked, wiping the back of his hand over his face to rub off the drying dirt. " Anelf Alightelf." Someone was misunderstanding someone else. There was no way her name was 'Anelf Alightelf'. Slowly he analyzed what she said, his eyes leering at her, a hand on his chin.

Oh. She was an elf. A light elf. That wasn't her name. " I asked who are you. Not what are you." Jaks smiled and looked around before blinking in surprise at the random plate of fried chicken. What the fuck? " Ah... Where did this come from?" His eyebrows lifted upwards and he stared across at the strange elf. There was a table. Where did that come from? Gently Jaks put the plate of chicken on the table and took a step back.

" I didn't see any living chickens near by." He murmured. The exotic fruit had his eyebrows up even higher. They were in Adela. It was dense evergreen forests. He smiled politely and cleared his throat. " Actually, I think I'll pass on lunch. I have this wonderful sense of direction, you know. Magical, almost, I'm an elf too, y'know." Jaks lifted a finger to flick a long pointed ear before nervously chuckling.

" You're going to eat me, aren't you?" He swallowed and held his hands behind his back, Scary Jaks was not, and he took another step back, frowning.

[Anonymous]

Venyamin liked forests. Forests were nice and dark and they helped block out the sky. The sky always made him a little nervous. He wasn't really used to it. And, well, stuff came out of it. Like, water. That just wasn't natural.

Only problem with forests was that they tended to not have a lot of people in them. And Ven liked people. That had been the whole reason he had left home. To meet people. Of the shapely female variety to be specific. Though if a boy was real pretty, Ven had been tempted a few times. As it was, he could feel through the ground that there were some people nearby. And wanting someone to talk to, Ven went off the find them. Oh he hoped they were pretty. If they weren't, he was leaving.

As he approached, it seemed safe enough. The Terrin's odd legs made almost no sound over the soft forest floor, but he was unused to moving in such an environment and he gave plenty of warning that he was approaching every time he tripped over a root or bumped into a tree. He even managed to make a grand and impressive entrance by tripping over a root and having to flail and skip forward in a desperate attempt to not fall.

"Damn it!" He had a tail! Those were supposed to be good for balance! So much for that idea. It was useless to him on the surface. The Terrin was rather exotic looking for the woods, looking a little like a clumsy demon or spirit. He was a pale blue gray color, with pretty, delicate looking features. His eyes were rather strange looking, large and almond shaped, they were a pale empty white color, only a thin line of black revealing where the iris was and the pupil was slitted like a cats.

6 pointed horns curved lightly back from his head, flanked by two large pointed ears. He used one clawed hand to brush his deep red hair out of his face, grinning at the pair, revealing large fangs, "Uh...yes. Hello! The...er...the root moved." The man's legs looked like they belonged on some scaleless dragon, the knee bending oddly and ending in viciously clawed feet. All in all, Ven looked very other worldly, despite his attempt at a friendly smile, "As that was royally embarrassing, how about we pretend I made a suave entrance and..." He blinked at the table, with place sets sitting the the middle of the clearing, "Is that a table?"

[Anonymous]

"My name is Magdiel Apsara, and I don't want to eat you," she reassured Jaks. I want to help you. What's your name? Where were you when you bought the map? That might help."

"Yes, it's a table." she said to the other voice that suddenly piped in. "Go ahead and eat off of it if you wa-"

Her words stopped in mid-letter when she saw what she had spoken to. Yikes! What was that thing? She desperately tried not to look scared. "Um, may I help you?" she  asked it. "We were kind of in the middle of something, no offense."

[Anonymous]

Jaks was tense, his eyes flicking to and fro, not all that sure if he wanted to make a run for it and present his back or take a run for it and possibly head into a grip of doom. Swallowing slowly, Jaks smiled and put his hands in his pocket, eyeing the strange woman. The strange table. The strange food. " I'm Jaks. I bought it in Ketra from a merchant. And..." Jaks smiled again and yelped rather loudly at the sudden appearce of the .... Odd guy.

Doomed.

Things could always get worse.

This proved it.

An odd woman who makes tables and food appear out of no where.

An odd looking man who just looked plain lethal.

Jaks would have rather run into a bunch if Plainspeople. At least they would have the curtesy to kill him before he had a chance to freak out about it. Of course the sudden one-eighty in Magdiels reaction made Jaks even more worried. She was being so helpful to him earlier and now she was being... Somewhat snooty. Jaks looked between the two.

One or the other was going to eat him.

" Ah...." Jaks cleared his throat and looked between them again. " Hi. " His hand went up and he waved slowly, fingers wagging in a slow hand movement.

[Anonymous]

Slightly confused by the woman's offer of hospitality, followed by her request for him to leave, Ven gave the odd couple a confused look. Then it slowly all became clear. Why else would there be a table in the forest, a rather flustered looking elf and the woman running him off. Woman loved Ven! He was beautiful! At least, he thought so.

Shifting his weight, he gave the odd looking fruit on the table a strange look. Well, people had different tastes after all, "Well, I do apologize. I hadn't realized this was a...err...private meeting."My God but the surface dwellers were kinky. Fried chicken? That was just...I mean.....where would that even go? Ven didn't want to think much on it.

He gave a small bow, "I shall be on my way then. I had just been looking for some company."

[Anonymous]

"You don't have to leave,"  Magdiel said to Ven. "What I should have said was to ask you to wait your turn. In the meantime, have some food if you like."

Magdiel took a deep breath and let it out, relieved that she had hopefully avoided sounding rude. She returned her brain to the subject of Jaks.

"Ah yes, Ketra. I go there quite often myself. I'm a seamstress and I sell my wares there. How far away from Ketra do you live? If you give me an estimate, I will be able to tell how far you are lost."

[Anonymous]

Having dealt with many people before, Jaks rushed towards the lethal looking man and grabbed a hand. " No! Don't leave! Please! I'll keep you company! Really!" Jaks' eyes were wide and he looked over his shoulder carefully to look at the elf woman. Still holding onto Ven's arm, Jaks blinked and licked his lips.

"I'd been travelling for at least four hours to get here. I'm... Just not where which direction I should travel back in." He looked around and then looked down at his hands clutched around Ven's wrist. He let go and stood off to the side, hands behind his back and his head down. Awkward...

[Anonymous]

Ven had a frozen half smile on his face, taking a slight step back as Jaks rushed at him. These people were totally insane. Maybe he should just turn around a leave. But the elves were pretty hot. And Ven always had a tendency to think with his little head more then his big one.

"Uh, well, sure. I guess I can stay. If you don't mind." He gave another bow, doing his best to cover his confusion with a dashing smile, "So, I take it that you are lost?"

And...the other woman was a seamstress. Ven wondered if that was with quotation marks or not. He would be so lucky if she was. Well, no. Then he had to pay for it. He would much rather get it for free.

The male looked like he might be an idiot. That was good. Dumb ones tended to be easy, "I wanted to head to the city as well, maybe we could go together."