Arrival

[Anonymous]

"Well,"  Remie jumped off the Ursul after assuring she was safely docked and had a good skeleton crew watching her, "here you have it, the dry land you desired, dear sister."

"Yes," Arachi replied dryly, folding her arms over her chest, "but where exactly *is* here?"

Remie smiled and wrapped his arms around his placidly brooding sister.  "Does it matter?  It's land, and for once, you don't have to scout it for raiding purposes!"  He kissed her cheek and patted her head.

Arachi seemed unmoved, then sighed.  "You say that so casually, Remie....it worries me sometimes."

"Don't be silly," he replied, taking her arm.  "Come on; let's you and I check this place out.  It'll be fun!"  He started dragging her away from their floating home, spinning her about.

"Cap'n!"  Byron, the second mate, called out to Remie, his lazy drawl somehow cutting through all the pervading dock noise.  "We got a bit of a situation on board, an' it cain't wait.  Kin ya see abou' helpin' us with it b'fore you go?"

Remie sighed.  He had stopped spinning Arachi around (who still looked positively unthrilled) when Byron called to him, and had been holding her between himself and the ship by her shoulders, as though she were a shield of some sort.  Now he dropped his head down and looked at his little sister, then looked back up at Byron.  The second mate's look said for certain that no, there was no other way to deal with it, nor was there any other time.  He looked down at Arachi.  "Well, you heard him."

Boy, had she.  She knew Byron was probably scoping her out from behind, but she didn't particularly care.  At least he was among the more attractive of her brother's crew.  She nodded in response to Remie.  "You go take care of it.  I'll explore."  Remie made a face, and she sighed.  "I can take care of myself, you know," she continued.

"Yeah, I know, but...you're my *sister*, and..."

"Remie."

"What?"

"I'll be fine.  Help Byron with whatever it is he wants.  I'll come back in a little bit with information about this place, alright?"

Remie pouted a little, but finally yielded.  "All right.  Be careful."

"I always am," she replied as he walked past her, back to the ship.  She watched him for a few steps, met Byron's gaze over her shoulder, caught the fleeting, charming smile he directed towards her, then started into the bustling town.

'Well,' she thought, 'we're not raiding this place.... but it'd still be a good idea to stock up on supplies while we're here.'  She started wandering aimlessly, seeking places to get food and other supplies for the ship.  At one point, a clothing store crossed her eyes, but she tossed her short red hair over her shoulder and moved on.  She didn't have time for nice clothes like that, even if that cream blouse with the emerald-green cloak would do beautiful things for her complexion....  With a determined turn of her head, she moved past the store, trying to keep her mind focused on finding some kind of general store.

[Anonymous]

Ardea had been getting bored around the circus folk, she had earned a few new tricks with them though seeing as she was doing a back hand spring in the middle of the street. Ardea had always gotten bored quickly, and once she did she had said by to those she was with and set off for a new adventure. She had decided to go to Cerenis, and since it was a port town she thought that she should try boating, or pirating that would be fun. She already had mild experience with boats, and for a pirate ship her fire could be usefull.

So she waited at the dock for a ship. Right now she was wearing, like usual, a tight brown leather top with a matching short skirt, leggings that stuck to her skin and wear bright red with orange stripes going across it. Her boots were also worn brown leather, but they were comfortable so she loved wearing them. On her back was her small pack, her quiver of arrows, and her bow. It was actually a nice bow with inlaid carvings in it. Then on her neck was the only piece of jewlery she ever wore a red ruby tear drop on a silver chain, and it was the most delecate thing she owned, but she refused to take it off. She had on a fun-loving smile and her tan face was framed by short mahagony colored hair. The oddest thing about her though was the little silver or smokey gray drangon that sat on her shoulder. He was only a baby, but they were already attached to each other.

Ardea was still on the dock when the Ursul came, actually she was balancing on the top of the fence while waiting. When the brother and sister came off the boat something about them caught her eye, so she jumped down and walked over. She had nothing better to do at the moment anyway. When she got down there the brother had already gone back to the boat though and the sister was walking away so Ardea just walked up to the girl and gave her a warm smile before saying, "Hi, I'm Ardea."

After that she waited for a reply keeping pace with the girl while absent mindidly stroking Kennith because he wasn't to fond of people, and with what happened to him he was hardly to blame. She was surprised that he even trusted her, but for some reason he stuck to Ardea like glue, it was the oddest thing. Even so Kennith would get used to people after a long while but Ardea didn't stay around people for that long. Ardea could feel Kennith shift uncomfortably under her so she muttered some ticking sounds that was the fire language under her breath. Her hand now had flames covering it as she stroked the dragon. The fire always calmed him down more, maybe that was why he had picked her, but then again she'd most likely never know so she didn't bother with it. Instead she just loved the little dragon back. So she gave the girl another good hearted smile hopeing that she didn't scare her away with that.

[Anonymous]

Arachi had put on her usual "I'm going ashore" outfit--a white men's shirt with a black bustier around her middle; tight, dark grey pants; dark brown, nearly black, leather boots that went up to the middle of her shin; and today she had a coat draped across her shoulders, charcoal-grey in color with black and silver patterned lining on the collar, hems, and cuffs.  Her ears had picked up on the person walking in her general direction, but she ignored them, for the most part, figuring that whoever was walking behind her was just going to pass her by.

Then she was stopped by a sudden and rather intrusive introduction.  "Hi, I'm Ardea."  Arachi simply made a noncomittal noise and continued walking.  The girl was dressed strangely, and had a bow with a quiver of arrows on her back.  So she tried to seem like a fighter.  Big deal.  If Arachi wanted to talk with fighters, she'd just turn around and get back on the Ursul.

Gods damn it all, the girl was keeping pace with her!  What part of "noncommittal noise + continued walking" didn't she get?  Stupid girl, making stupid noises to the little grey dragon on her shoulder... alright, admittedly, the dragon inerested Arachi, as she hadn't seen many in her travels that were of the land/air variety, but still, why was this girl still following her?  Gods, couldn't she just take a hint and leave a girl alone?

Then fire caught Arachi's attention out of the corner of her eye.  Fire...wrapped around the girl's hand....as she stroked the dragon....?  Well, that was curious.  She continued to glance over at this strange, annoying girl as she made those weird noises and petted her dragon, using the fire to calm him down.  Well, she obviously was a mage of some kind, fire being her elemental specialty, and it appeared that she didn't require any further training (which was a relief to Arachi; she'd never liked the "moral obligation to help train new mages/sorcerers who don't know how to control their abilities" part of being a sorceress).  So, even though she still did not reciprocate a greeting or an introduction back at the young woman, she did not try to throw her off.... yet.  If the girl kept smiling like that at her, however, there was no guarantee that Arachi wouldn't simply find someplace to vanish.

[Anonymous]

The girl didn't seem that interested and didn't even reply, but Ardea wouldn't be rid of that easily. Finally deciding that smiling at the girl wasn't helping she sighed and looked around although she was still keeping pace with this girl. Ardea could be very determined at times. Then she stopped making the clicking noises and the fire imediatly vanished, with no trace of it having ever been near her. Kennith seemed a little disapointed that she stopped, but he was better now or at least he was better until the girl came any closer. Then he would hide.

Ardea was getting bored again soon while waiting for the girl to finally speak so she started making clicking sounds again and a singal flame was on her pointer fingure. Still whispering her fire language the flame jumped from finger to finger, and soon she added another flame to it. Before she knew it they were both dancing, in the literal sense, on her palm. She stopped and closed her hand after a while though, she loved playing with fire, but not all people enjoyed watching it so she looked at the girl and gave a quizk smile before checking on a scared looking Kennith.

He was fine though, so she looked at the girl again finally noticing her clothes and decided that she needed some more color in her wardrobe. Ardea didn't have an affinity for this or anything, she just always thought of the most random things, and when she got to know people a little better she would usually voice them. It was deffinatly odd, but then again so was she. Ardea just wasn't what people were used to, but that didn't really bother her. She didn't care what people that she doesn't know now and wil most likely never know in the future though about her. It would be to hard to value everyone's opinion on her, and she couldn't just care about some peoples. So instead she just didn't care what people thought about her. It made life so much easier.

Her thoughts were then broken by Kennith pawing her ear making her laugh and turn to him. Seeing his face was all she needed to know what he wanted so she nodded and said to him, "Okay Kennith, but make sure you can always find me. Oh, and take to long. Otherwise I'll have to hunt for you." Giving a small dragon chirp he flew offand Ardea concentrated on talking to this girl again, something that proved to be more tiresome than she thought.

[Anonymous]

Hmph.  The stupid girl let the fire go away.  Now her stupid dragon seemed a bit saddened.  Not that Arachi particularly cared either way.  Now that the fire was gone, she prepared to pick up her pace, looking for places that she could hide so as to sever the invisible rope that the girl seemed to have decided was attached between them.  Stupid girl.  Then another flame appeared on the girl's index finger, and Arachi watched out of the corner of her eye again as the flame split in two and danced on the girl's palm.  Oh, yeah, this one had more than enough experience with her abilities.  She closed her hand around the flames--how disappointing.  Arachi had actually been a bit intrigued by the girl's abilities, but if she didn't want to keep showing them off, then fine, she wouldn't have to.

Suddenly, the girl started talking to the dragon.  Arachi almost dismissed that as stupid as well, but she reminded herself that she didn't know this dragon, and the ones she had encountered were very wise, intelligent creatures.  The stupid girl's stupid dragon appeared to be young, so she could only assume that he was not as capable of intelligent and rational thought and expression as the ones she had met.

The dragon flew off, and then the girl started talking to her again.  Oh, gods, not again.  Arachi held up one hand with all the authority she had (which was a considerable amount, even *if* she wasn't on her brother's ship) to silence the stupid girl.  "So you can use fire?" she finally says when the girl shuts up.  She snaps her fingers and a flame ignites on her index, just as the girl had done.  "So can I."  Arachi brought her hand before her and began drawing the flame down in patterns on her hand, then dragged it to her other index finger and began drawing patterns in the air.  With a wave of her hand, the patterns in the air vanished.  "I can also use wind," she says, and causes the slight breezes around them to stop for a moment, "and water."  The hand that was enveloped in fire-patterns was suddenly surrounded by a small orb of water, just big enough to cover her hand.  The water vanished just after Ardea looked at it, and Arachi kept walking at the same pace she'd been going, wondering if the stupid girl would follow her.

[Anonymous]

When Ardea whent to say something to the girl a hand stopped her, and the gil asked if she could use fire. Then said that she could use all of the elements, and gave examples. The girl kept walking though, and Ardea kept pace with her saying, "So you can speak to air, and water to? I can only speak to fire, or I've never tried to speak to anything else. What's there language? Nevermind, I like fire better anyway." WIth that said she began clicking again and making fire jump up in one large streak before making it come down and flow from side to side, then she made it sidapear again to say, "So where'd you come from?" Ardea had figured that now that the girl had talked it was the best time to start a conversation up.

Altough listening for the girls answer stil Ardea began making more elaborate clicking noises in a faster tempo, and soon there was a miniture tiger mae of fire in her palm. She smiled at herself happy that she had gotten it perfect, and that it hadn't gone away when she stopped talking to the fire. That was what she was working on, it was possible to make the fire stay there forever with out her talking to it, she just didn't know all of the words yet. She kept trying though, and this one was going to stay for a while so she began clicking again though this time it didn't last as long and a butterfly in relative size to the tiger came up making the tiger chase after it, but the butterfly couldn't fly out of her hands reach so that the tiger couldn't fall off of her hand.

When the tiger pounced and fell back to her palm she gave a small giggle and continued to watch them as she listened to the girls footsteps and kept up with her. Then the butterfly dissapeared though, but to her surprise the tiger stayed. She could hold onto him for longer though so she muttered a few more clicks and he fell asleep on her palm. She figured it would be easier to make sure he didn't fall off of her palm that way. Finally she looked up at the girl wondering what she would think.

[Anonymous]

Arachi hadn't answered the girl's other question.  Instead she watched the little show on the girl's palm, and felt some kind of jealousy.  Not only was this girl most gifted in fire, but she had obviously recieved more training than she had.  She was loathe to speak again, settling for watching the tiger as it chased the butterfly, then fell asleep.  Perhaps she could learn to do that...after all, the girl seemed to have learned sorcery under a different discipline than Arachi.  She was sure it was possible, though playing with fire was not a good idea on a ship.

She let out an amused noise when she realized the girl was watching her, but said nothing.  So the girl could manipulate fire--big deal.  That by no means meant that she could try to start a conversation with her.  Her perkiness and high energy levels simply annoyed Arachi, and while a part of her--granted, a very large part, but still--wanted the girl to just go away, the other part--the much, much smaller part--half-hoped she'd stay.  Perhaps they'd find something in common aside from the sorcery.  Perhaps she'd gain a female friend for the time she'd be ashore.  She forced her face back into her usual placid frown when she felt the corners of her mouth turn up in a hopeful smile.

((I feel soooo bad for you.... Ardea is probably the worst personality-type to encounter Arachi, period.  >_<  Go ahead and say it:  "Arachi's a bitch."))

[Anonymous]

The girl watched the tiger on Ardea's palm and seemed interested, but when she noticed Ardea staring at her she gave an amused noise before turning away wearing the same face she had the whole time. It was different now though Ardea could see the corners of the girls mouth twitch wanting to smile. Well, at least she's one step closer. So she gave a small smile back and asked, "What's your name?" It seemed like a reasonable question, and it didn't look like the girl was going to introduce herself anyway.

While waiting for the answer she checked her spell by using natural ways to coax fire away from her wishes. So she blew on the fire hard, but all that she saw was the slightest ripple, good she was still doing great with this one. Suddenly decideing to try something she started up the faster more complicated clicks again and watched the fire quickly transforn the small tiger cub into a lion. He was still small of course, but you could still see all of his features including, if you came close enough, the individuale hairs of his mane. She always liked big cats, they were just so cool, and if she could have only one more pet it would have to be one of them. For now though she only kept Kennith, but that was more than enough for her. He could be such the trouble maker at times. She cut her thoughts there though having almost forgot about the girl she was following intensely, so she looked at the girl trying to see her reaction.


(OOC: don't worry about it, Ardea is very determined, and she want's this badly. She'll keep bugging her until they at least get into a conversation. )

[Anonymous]

((What exactly does she want?))

Ugh, more questions....though this one was probably more reasonable than others.  Still, Arachi hated the thought of the girl knowing her name at this point in time, so she didn't offer her name in return.  Instead, she asked another question.

"Where did you learn to control fire?"

((Ugh, short....but I really couldn't think of anything...))

[Anonymous]

OOC: It's okay that it's short. Sorry that I haven't been on, but I've been swamped seeing as it's the end of the school year for me, but I'll be on more now. She want's to know about the boat that you came on, she's looking for some type of adventure. Again. Sorry again for my absence.

BIC:

When she looked up at the girl she didn't say what her name was, but instead decided to ask where she learned how to control fire. Suddenly her face sunk and she looked away slightly, it was almost unnoticable if you weren't paying attention. Then she finally answered in a minorly depressed tone, "My parents." That was the only thing that always bothered her, was to talk about anything from her past. It was too depressive for her, but all she asked was where she had learned to control fire. It still hurt, but she answered anyway, it wasn't like the question was uncalled for.

She was loosing any concentration she had and she could feel the tiny lion flickering away so she clicked a few more times to strengthen it then looked back up at the girl giving a small smile that quickly vanished as she looked back the tiger changing it's form again. This time it turned into a smallish lake then as she continued clicking little drops of fire that looked like rain would fall onto it. She could remember where she learned this. She was out by the lake in the woods by her old house. She was about 7 and her mother was there with her. It was raining and they were taking refuge under a nearby tree when her mother began to talk to her. "Now you see how the rain falls onto the calm lake causing disruption. Any element will have it's natural disruptions, just like a wind will disrupt your fire. Some are just more supseptable than others. You need to be stronger and have a stronger will then the disruption for it to keep your shape and not change. Here watch." Her mother smiled and walked to the lake and began humming to the water making the whole lake become calm. Ardea shook off the memory as a tear sliped down her cheak.