RP: Urban Jungle
It's Variday, Callem 08 15:11:16 1018. The full moon is up. The tide is high and ebbing. Everything is pale grey, veiled by mist. It's warm, humid, and still.
A07: Lower Alexandria Market District
Ga'Elian is at a merchant's stall finishing up some business, with his griffon just behind him. At the next stall over, he sees a lucht examining some merchandise, and pockets it when the vendor's attention is elsewhere. Ga'Elian strides across toward the thief.
Taer is still a little overwhelmed with the city. Wide eyes peek out from under her worn cowl, the light of day hard on her skin, and so the pale features remain mostly covered. A heavy breath breaks her lips, the smells, the color. It's a little much. "I'm far too small, and this place too big." speaking to herself, her anxiety nearly peaking as she is bumped by someone walking near, her feet scurrying to help her find a safer spot. The thief, and the familiar Ga'Elian are missed, the crowd and market making it hard for her to latch on to anything that might be familiar.
Aya exits the Fernwood, which has proven a place frequented often, if not resided in. To go most anywhere aside from directly up or down (and she might not have an easy way to do either) means passing by several stalls. Fortunately for her, the applicable vendors long since learned of her disinterest in their wares and focus their hawking on others.
GAME: Ga'Elian rolls Stealth: (4)+15: 19
Ga'Elian tries to sneak up on the thief before he gets away, and almost does, but not quite. Just when he is about to grab the thief by the left upper arm, the thief notices the movement and slips between a couple more patrons. At this, the Sylvanori tells that vendor, "Sir, yonder person hath just pocketed something of thine and fled." He points, and continues to pursue, now striving for speed rather than stealth.
Aya is not as short as some, though certinaly not as tall as many, either. She tends to alternate between agile avoidance and deflection via irate aura, depending on which is more appropriate at the time. For now it's the former, though the call of thievery certainly catches her ears: either Ga'elian's original, or the quick echoes that would follow. Merchants really do not abide thieves. Unsure of who, what, why, or precisely where they alleged larcenist goes, she does move closer.
Taer catches that sharp movement of the thief's retreat. She's torn on what to do, fighting the instinct to run after, but pausing as Ga'Elian seems to be giving chase. "This place does not follow my laws. I can not judge here." she mutters, the surroundings and their suffocating nature making her chest feel tight. She needs to sit, and so that's what she will seek. A step taken as she turns away from the crowds, and steps right in to Aya's form that had drawn closer without being noticed. Her small bit of weight is not light, but with head striking the woman's stomach, she can not help but look up with a grey-blue eyes filled with a bit of worry. "Apologies!" she blurts, but not before freezing. A woman of white has just met a woman of midnight, and while Aya is not the first Mul'Niessa that she has seen... she is the closest.
The thief knows that his stride is too short to outpace his pursuers, and so opts for ducking and weaving this way and that. And although the cityscape is by no means the ranger's preferred terrain, he is incredibly agile and immensely perceptive. He ultimately catches the thief up, but just as he escapes behind a pair of half-oruchs that seem to have been awaiting him, and they don't look friendly. One says to the ranger as he halts in front of them, "Leave my friend alone, Elf. You don't want to get your pretty armor bloody, now do ya?" By this time, a couple of city guards are approaching, but haven't yet rounded the corner where the goons are waiting. The watchmen are blowing whistles to clear their path.
Perhaps Aya recognizes something of the darting alleged thief or, more likely, of the pair of partial-oruchs that become convenient roadblocks to Ga'Elian's following. She is now intently focused there as the syl is delayed, turning towards- only to collide with not the Lucht she was looking for. Without glancing down, she utters a curt "Accepted" to Taer before ..vanishing in a puff of black that is not smoke. She reappears next to Ga'Elian. "The child isn't worth the effort," she suggests to him. "Consider it a donation of charity. That is a common cause here, is it not?"
That vanishing act leaves the lucht with swirls in her eyes. Taer is not use to such casual uses of magic, and abilities, and it shows. "This really isn't my domain, not at all." tugging her cowl tighter, and moving to sit between two carts and watch the exchange that's happening from a distance.
About this time, the armor-wearing griffon from back at the original stall has come closer, not chasing at speed, but just keeping within visual range. The crowds part around him, like they might for a lion in their midst.
Focused as he is on the goons talking smack to him, Ga'Elian is significantly startled by the SUDDEN appearance of Aya next to him, and jumps a little in reaction. He had been about to draw the elegant bastard sword, but at her words, he calms and says, "All yours," bowing as the city guards catch up to the goons. To Aya, he says, "I suppose you're right," and turns to head back to his steed.
"Good day, and thank you for your swift response," Aya greets the watchmen. "Alas, the alleged thief was rather nimble and small, and darted that way through the stalls." She directs a hand away from their current spot and towards an alley across the market. "Looked to be a child, probably one of the starving ragamuffins looking for a chance at a meal. I'm sure that whatever is thought to be missing is worth far less than a hungry child, wouldn't you agree?" She looks to the oruchish fellow bystanders for nods and grunts of agreement, at a minimum.
Taer can't really hear what the two are talking about from where she watches between the sea of legs that pass between from the small space she has claimed. "And people say the forests are wild." she mumbles, forcing herself to stand, and dust off her cloak and leggings, heading finally towards the two, trying to not let the market get to her.
The half oruchs grin knowingly at each other as they cast shifty glances at Aya. They are sufficiently intimidating though, that the guards opt to let the "child" go. As they excercise more discretion than valor, Ga'Elian quietly says to Aya, "That was a lucht and I believe he had taken a small tool or item of artifice, but you're probably right that it's not worth the effort to pursue at this time."
Aya watches at the Watch decide to spend their time more wisely, then looks ato Ga'Elian. A snowy brow arches. "Oh? A lucht and artifice? Are you sure?" After a moment, her shoulders roll lightly. "If so, my mistake. I've seen numerous children dashing about to swipe buns, loaves, and fruit that I took it to be just one more."
Ga'Elian nods to Aya as the majestic beast and he reunite. He then hears Taer and looks at her. "I know not, cousin. Perhaps the White Stag would have thee see how the herds of the 'civilized' migrate." He winks with a teasing yet friendly smile.
Aya can't argue against most of that the arriving lucht says, the least of which being the madness of the city. "Maybe, like many, you thought the city would contain less madness than elsewhere?" Her shoulder rolls. "Life has definitely proven ...interesting here lately."
"No. I have always been told my domain was wild, and unruly..." Taer's eyes roaming the market. "And I don't see the difference they claim. It's just a different kind of unruly." she admits, crossing her small arms beneath her chest. "The interesting is why I imagine I am here. As what happens here often bleeds in to the wild."
Ga'Elian considers for a moment, then nods. "In their imaginations, the city folk fear the wild and thus ascribe to it traits that may be true enough from theit vantage, but miss much. Even so, we who are wild better know the rules of the wild and thus find the city to be unpleasant from our prespective. I see the mai. difference as that we trust Ea and the gods to ordain the world, where the civilized think that they must shape and order it themselves."
One corner of Aya's lips lifts upwards. "Yes, a different kind of wild, possibly as unruly and dangerous as anything out there... but the dangers can be predicted and avoided, just as the wilderness, with the right knowledge."
"Well if you know much of it, I'd find a way to compensate you for imparting part of it." Taer says in truth, but dryly. "A wagon wheel almost got me this morning, and with all the people so close, I feel crowded... as if danger is constantly on my neck." pulling her cowl back, and letting her white hair, and features breath. "Plus it's muggy... really muggy."
Ga'Elian chuckles. "I'm afraid I'd not be your best guide hereabouts, and yes, it is very muggy. It gets humid in the wilderness, too, but for some reason, it is heavier here than there."
"Avoid the roads or stay to the edges," Aya makes simple suggestions to the lucht, then adds, given the recent example, "or travel with large and conspiucous allies. Dress lightly in the heat."
"Your kind look wonderful with their dark skin, but mine will blister with lighter clothes under the sun." Taer gets out, pointing to the freckling of her pale skin near her nose. "I only wish I could dress like you." she pops off, but still finds herself nodding. "Though I guess the trick is to know when and when not to get involved. This is not my law, my order."
Ga'Elian says, "I find the key to surviving a new terrain is to learn its order, or lack thereof."