Spreading the Word. (open)

[Anonymous]

Ghost shook her head. "I've tried my hand at sculpting, but I'm very bad at it. I tried to make a simple pot one time and it ended up having a hole in it. So I stick to the other types. I'll paint you something sometime if you wish." She explained. "Do you do any art Hysaeda?" Honestly he didn't look like the artsy type, but one never knew until they asked and she wasn't about to make assumptions.

"Yes I do when I can. I prefer being in nature than being in a city. It's so much more peaceful and there I don't have to constantly explain myself to people. Though I can't say which I like better, the woods or the ocean. The woods are always beautiful and mystical, but the ocean is another world all together. One of my favorite memories is when I was down deep in the ocean and this giant creature came up to me. I don't know what it was, but it same with me for miles before sinking down to the deepest part of the water." She said with awe in her voice. What she didn't think about though was that Hysaeda had know idea she had a fish form that allowed her to breathe under water, so he was probably a bit confused by that story.

"I could tell you had the touch of nature about you and not for the obvious reasons. What kind of training do you do, if it's okay to ask?" She was curious about this strange man who had helped her even though he didn't have to. Ghost didn't socialize much and usually never with men, so this was very new and exciting to her.

[Lion]

"Err," he began, uncertain.  "I do some.  But I'm not very good.  I...have tried to make paintings of the things that are usually around me.  I try to draw animals and rocks and trees and such, but they've always ended up look like mounds of color, never taking shape.  Perhaps I'm better at the spoken word than I am with my hands."  He looked down at his palms, stretching the skin across his large fingers.  With a smile and look of amusement, he gazed at her and said, "These things are more accustomed to skinning a rabbit than playing an ocarina."

He laughed a little and walked on, passing vendors that offered him useless things like paper and sticks.  However as he listened to her story of being in the sea and following an unusual oceanic creature for miles, he questioned, Miles?  She didn't look too human but he didn't think she was physically capable of doing such things.  He furrowed his brows at this and commented with a friendly tone, "You must be a very good swimmer, then."

"My training?  I don't know exactly how to explain it."  Hysaeda scratched the back of his head in hesitation, grinning uncertain to her.  He took a moment to pause before he tried to say something.  "I-I work with nature.  I'm capable of performing spells in the esoteric art of mysticism if you know the name.  Do you know of the things in which I speak?"

[Anonymous]

"The spoken word is as much an art form as painting and sculpting is." She said with a smile. "I bet you're are better than you let on. Besides art as always been interpretive. What one person sees as beautiful another may see as ugly." Ghost could be quite logical on occasions.

She giggled when she realized that she had not explained herself very well. "Oh, I'm an excellent swimmer, but you could say I cheat a little. You see I have the ability to morph into three different animals. A cat, an eagle, and a fish person of sorts. That's how come I can swim for miles." She explained to him better and hoped it wouldn't weird him out.

A confused look came over her face. "I've heard of mysticism, but I can't say I know what it is. In fact I can't say I really know how my healing works. I pray to Anaisyn and it happens. Please explain it to me. I am very curious."

[Lion]

Hysaeda nodded, pausing before a vendor and turned to her.  "I understand now.  I've heard of some people that are capable of morphing into different beings.  Even some that were born that way.  But Umbraeons don't really study such things.  That is beyond the simpler of us.  They leave such undertakings to the clan mystics."

He then took another moment to pause.  When he found his tongue, he said, "It...is difficult to explain such things.  Mysticism is far easier to understand in practice than in proverb.  Perhaps—"  he looked around nervously "—If we are alone at some point.  I might show something to you.  It is an art comprehended by few and practiced by fewer but it allows one to become more in tune with nature.  If that makes any sense."

[Anonymous]

Ghost nodded, "As far as I know I was born a shifter, I've always been able to do it, but only those three forms. I've tried to change into other things and it never happens. Comes in quite handy sometimes, I must say." The more she heard about his nation the more she wanted to know about them and their culture. It seemed so different that hers, or what she believed to be hers.

Ghost couldn't help but blush a little when he said if they were alone together. She was such a naive, innocent thing, the thought of being with a man alone in any context made her blush. "I would like to understand better. Perhaps we could find some time for you to show me. Being closer with nature is something I would like to do." She said, a bit more shyly than how she had been talking before.

[Lion]

Hysaeda had torn his attention between her and the vendor that was trying to get him interested in some of the skins he had.  But he wasn't one to be rude and ignore anyone he was talking to.  But as he looked down at her, he saw her cheeks grow slightly pink.  At first he assumed it was the heat or the sun.  Apparently, people with such pale skin burned so easily.  But, she seemed fine just a second ago.

Furrowing his eyebrows together, he nodded in agreement, "Yes, I think so too.  I think that we should get in touch with nature every once in a while.  But—" He pointed to her cheeks in a nonchalant motion "—are you okay?  You seem a little...red."

[Anonymous]

Needless to say Ghost was absolutely horrified that he had noticed her blush red cheeks. Normally she tried to hide such social embarrassments better, but she assumed that he had been too preoccupied with the vendor to notice. She just stood there for a second trying to think of something to say that didn't sound silly and could think of absolutely nothing. A part of her didn't want to tell him the truth of why she blushed simply because it was a little childish, but she was at a lost to tell him anything else.

"Um..well...I...um..." She stammered, still thinking of an excuse. One never came however. Ghost just was not good at lying, she never had been and probably never will be. "Okay, but you have to promise not to think me silly." She said and crossed her arms as she looked down to the ground, very embarrassed. "I was blushing because you said we'd have to be alone for you to show me so I'd understand and I've never been alone with a man for any reason." As soon as she'd said it she felt like an idiot. "Please don't think me strange or weird. I'm just not that social and very, very innocent. Too innocent almost."

[Lion]

At first, Hysaeda's face remained utterly stoic; merely a visage used to better allow another to speak without any chance for intimidation.  But as she went on, stating that she was embarrassed only because of what he said about being alone, a smile couldn't help but spread across his face.  When she finished, he laughed out loud in a chuckled that, hopefully, said, 'I completely understand.'

Soon he recovered from his state of amusement and looked down at her with eyes twinkling with mirth.  "That's nothing to be ashamed of," he said.  "I comprehend such feelings.  I have to say for myself that I'm not much of a people person either and it's okay to blush once in a while.  And," he chucked her chin with a kind thumb, "I think innocence is a very endearing quality in any person."

He turned to the vendor for a moment, saying over his shoulder, "There's too little innocence left in this world and it's nice to meet someone who's still fill to the brim with it."  He tossed one more congenial glance over his shoulder before finishing his business with the vendor.

[Anonymous]

For the merest of seconds Ghost thought that Hysaeda was laughing at her, but then she realized that it was a laugh that said he related to what she was feeling. That was a relief, she was really worried that he would think of her as a silly little girl after that blush. "Thanks for understanding. It's nice to meet someone who is also a bit antisocial. I like people, don't get me wrong, it's just that I get so nervous in a big crowd of people I've never met."

"There isn't enough innocence is there? It's a shame. Of course I can't say I would want to stay this innocent forever, but for now it seems to be working for me." She said and giggled. She liked the way he chucked her chin, she'd never been treated so kindly before in her life. Well except for the people who saved her. "You're probably the nicest person I've ever met Hysaeda. I'm almost glad I got myself into so much trouble and you had to save me." She smiled widely at the dark man.

[Lion]

Peering at her with honest eyes, he said in response, "I wish I could say the same.  I tend to find comfort in staying to myself."  He grinned with a strange mixture of modesty and pride brewing beneath closed eyes.  But it was her next comment that caught him off guard.  It caused him to blush a little but because his skin was so dark, one couldn't readily see it.  "Eh, you're welcome?  I'm not an every day hero, really."  A nervous chuckle escaped his throat and he turned his attention back to the vendor.

Hysaeda was trained in the many tongues indigenous to his Umbraeon tribe.  From Sevic, his own native language, to Common, to Draconic.  But even with his previous training in languages he wasn't even close to being prepared to understand the dialect of the vendor.  The man was the color of dusk, something that he might consider to be Elven, but his ears were proof enough that he was human and yet his tongue moved with the swiftness of an early bird catching the worm in the rising sun.

Hysaeda stared blankly at him as the other man's mouth attempted to haggle.  He found his patience being strained not only because of the heat now but because of the vendor.  For a moment he was tempted to speak Sevic just to spite him.  Just as the vendor was about to lower what he might be willing to pay, Hysaeda piped up in his own tongue, "Itkata mit soehn shen y'ia kratamna meiha zohet met khana, eh?"  With that the vendor shut up, obviously astounded at what he couldn't possibly understand.  The Umbraeon smiled and laughed to make it seem as if the whole stunt was a joke.  The vendor laughed along with him and handed him a small bag of coins as Hysaeda slid the skins in the opposite direction.  He waved goodbye and walked away with Ghost, placing the coins in his bag.

Looking down at her as they walked, he furrowed his brows and said, "I'm very sorry you had to hear that."

[Anonymous]

Ghost didn't even try and understand the haggling that was happening between Hysaeda and the vendor. Half of what the vendor was saying she couldn't even understand. Ghost never haggled with the vendors, she wasn't good at it and every time she tried she either ended up not getting what she needed or paying way too much. So she paid for things at face value since it was much easier for her.

Then Hysaeda said something in a language she'd never heard before, but she assumed it was his native tongue. What ever it was that he had said had made the vendor shut up for a bit. Finally the vendor handed Hysaeda a bag of coins for his skins. Then they walked off and Hysaeda apologized. "Don't be sorry. I don't even know what it was that you said to him. Is that your native tongue? It's very beautiful. Was that vendor giving you a hard time? I could barely understand what he was saying." She asked him.

She wondered what they would do now. Perhaps he would show her what it was he was training in. Mysticism, was it? She didn't have anything that she just had to do at this moment. What she was going to do had ended being a failure, so she figured she'd take the rest of the day off. It wouldn't be good if she had to be saved twice in one day. That would not speak well for her at all. Of course she was just assuming that Hysaeda wanted her to keep following him. He could have been wanting to go on about his business by himself especially since he just said he preferred being alone. "Um...if you need me to leave now that's fine. I don't want to keep you from what you need to do."

[Lion]

As he walked away with her, he half expected to hear a statement like that one, "He was being rather difficult, yes.  I don't think it was on purpose but I couldn't keep my irritation at bay.  I don't know much about beautiful though.  What I told him wasn't very flattering.  As a matter of fact, I would most likely get throttled if I told it to another Umbraeon."

He laughed a little and peered down at her a little shyly, unsure if he should tell her what he told the man in Sevic.  After a moment, he thought about it was felt it was better not to leave her in the dark.  "I told him that his mother's mouth must be the ass end of a horse, if that helps any."

At her offer to leave, he involuntarily shook his head and said, "You don't have to do that.  As a matter of fact, I think I finished my business for today.  Do you have any place you'd like to go?"

[Anonymous]

"Difficult people are a pain. He deserved what you said to him." She said with a small giggle. Personally she thought what he had told him was sort of funny. Of course she would never have the nerve to tell anyone that, no matter how annoying they were. She would probably just stare at them and then leave without saying a word.

A small smile spread over her face as he said that she didn't have to leave. That made her happy cause she really didn't want to leave. Sure she mostly preferred to be alone, but every once and awhile she liked having a bit of company. Today she was in the mood for company. "Um...No, there's really nothing that I have in mind. Since you're being so kind to let me follow you around how about you pick. I'm up for anything."

[Lion]

Hysaeda laughed and scratched the upper portion of his left arm in nervousness as she considered her answer.  When he heard it he furrowed his brows awkwardly and said with a congenial grin, "Well it doesn't help if both of us are aimless.  I'd just thought that we could do something that you wanted to for a change, since I dragged you around my way for a while.  Are you sure there's nothing?" He looked around and perused certain stands from afar before turning back to her and suggesting, "Perhaps there's something you'd like to get from the market?  Like a bracelet, or a canteen, or something."

[Anonymous]

He was right. They both couldn't be uncertain on what to do next. One of them had to decide what it was they were going to do next. "Um...well..." She said, trying to think if there was anything she needed from the market. She was a very light traveler and didn't require much. Surely there had to be something that she wanted or needed. "Well, I guess a new outfit is something I need. This one is getting a bit worn." She said, looking down at her toga that wasn't as white as it use to be.

[Lion]

At this, Hysaeda raised both brows and scrutinized her outfit with the utmost professionalism.  Still he found himself staring at her form and it wasn't until the passage of an excruciatingly long minute or so that he snapped his attention back to her and grinned nervously.  "There you go," he said and was ready to step forward.  "Now what kind would you like?  There's cotton, hemp, leather, and lots of other materials to choose from.  Would you like one of a similar style or something different?  Well, come on!  We're not going to be getting it just standing here, now, are we?"  With that he grabbed her hand and yanked her into the market crowd.

[Anonymous]

Ghost couldn't help but blush as he looked her over very well. He seemed to stare at her for what had to be over a minute. She shifted her weight a few times as he looked her over. She hadn't had a bath in a day or two and she knew she looked it. "Really, just something simple like this outfit would do just fine. I like having an outfit that's easy to take care of and not complicated." She said. She knew some women that liked to wear multiple layers and outfits with a bunch of ties and what not. She didn't care for those kind of outfits. She liked to put on something that took less than fifteen minutes to put on. Before she could say anything else she was yanked in the direction of the market.

[Lion]

They rushed passed several market goers in their mad dash but it seemed Hysaeda was agile enough to lead her out of harm's direction.  It wasn't like he wanted her to get hit by oncoming wheelbarrows or anything remotely vehicle-like.  They'd gone pretty far in terms of reaching the right shop.  Passing most of the smalltime vendors, they now reached apart of the market that held actual indoor shops, which allowed for a small sanctuary away from the heat.

He paused when he thought he reached the right one.  Letting go of her soon enough, Hysaeda indicated a shop to his left by pointing with his hand.  "Does this place seem suitable?" he asked as he looked through the sand blow windows.  Inside on display were a series of simple robes of varying sizes, ranging from rusty reds to sandy yellows, and moonlight white.  Whatever she was looking for, these seemed simple enough.

[Anonymous]

All Ghost could do was not let go of Hysaeda and hope that someone not paying attention would run into her. He seemed pretty aware of his surroundings and led them through the mad dash crowd very easily. At least he seemed to know where he was going, she was lost after the first turn. Finally they arrived at a few inside shops.

He pointed to one shop and asked if it looked like what she was wanting. "Yes, this place looks perfect." She said, going into the shop ahead of him. She stood near the entrance looking at all the robes and toga like outfits they had, not knowing where to start. "What color should I get?" She asked Hysaeda.

[Lion]

Of course, being unused to cities or any place that was occupied heavily, Hysaeda was hesitant to enter.  Crowds didn't suit him nor really did the dwellings of the other mortal races.  He was far more accustomed to entering the yurts of his village.  All this brought to mind the architectural differences between his people and all the other races that occupied the main cities.  Most Umbraeons never went outside their respective villages, or even from the mountains whence he came, and it was this thought that made him consider feeling somewhat special that he would experience something no one else would.  And making a friend in the process.

Hysaeda lurked just within the door, slowly creeping inside to join her as she rushed toward the robes.  He smiled at her briefly, overcoming his reluctance with every step he shuffled and took in the surroundings of the store.  It was a nice little shop, nothing quite like he was used to but it was very well put to together in his opinion.  At this point he reached her side and said, turning his attention back to her, "You are free to choose.  White suites you quite well, but I'm sure you already know that. Hmm, try that red one over there.  Maybe you'll like that as well."