Out and About [Open][December 3010]
Dec 27, 2017 23:34:34 GMT -5
Post by Wyn on Dec 27, 2017 23:34:34 GMT -5
First?
The pieces were starting to fall into place now, and with realization came sorrow. Orphans were commonplace in Nurn (she was proof of that) and with the scar Paega bore, it all became clear. She sometimes heard the orcs speak of their raids in Rohan, torching villages and slaughtering their inhabitants. Paega wasn't just an orphan, she was a survivor.
How, then, did the child manage to have such a sunny demeanor? Watching her parents die when she was thirteen had all but broken Wyn, forcing her to withdraw deep into herself lest she lose both her mind and the will to keep surviving. To lose them so young, and endure what the girl had--did that make it easier, or harder? Her hands clenched slightly, the only indicator of the anger brewing inside her. The denizens of Mordor had much to answer for, and it frustrated her to think that most of them escaped the justice they were due. By Paega's account, though, the orcs that had tried to kill her had been swiftly put down by the warriors of Rohan, stirring a bit of spiteful satisfaction within her. Any others that stepped foot in Rohan while she was there had best beware, though. The moment she was well enough, she was going on the warpath, and gods help any stray uruk she might catch out on the plains.
Despite showing some hesitation, Runa eventually acquiesced to Paega's cajoling, tugging down the edge of her dress to show a long-healed puncture wound. Wyn drew in a breath at the sight. The starburst shape of it was easily recognizable as an arrow-wound. "That from an orc's crossbow, or did a person do that to you?" Regardless of its origin, though, it appeared to have long since healed, and judging by the way she had seen Runa fight when the Healing House was attacked, it didn't impede her in the slightest.
It would be difficult to explain the circumstances that had landed many of her kinfolk with scars without exposing Paega to some of the world's darker truths, and so Wyn merely nodded along. "That's one way of thinking about it, I suppose." Standing up to their captors did take bravery, even if that bravery was just as likely to land you in an early grave. Wyn had long since learned to pick and choose her battles, and where some might have seen cowardice, she saw only pragmatism.
Her sobered mood improved slightly as Paega encouraged her to try speaking to Yomie with a hawk-call in order to encourage him to finish his meal quicker. "I don't know about that," she admitted with a quirked smile, made slightly crooked by the scar across her face. "Babies can be awfully stubborn about that sort of thing. Why don't we go back to horses while we wait?" She gestured back to the paddock. "I don't think you've told me what yours are named yet."
The pieces were starting to fall into place now, and with realization came sorrow. Orphans were commonplace in Nurn (she was proof of that) and with the scar Paega bore, it all became clear. She sometimes heard the orcs speak of their raids in Rohan, torching villages and slaughtering their inhabitants. Paega wasn't just an orphan, she was a survivor.
How, then, did the child manage to have such a sunny demeanor? Watching her parents die when she was thirteen had all but broken Wyn, forcing her to withdraw deep into herself lest she lose both her mind and the will to keep surviving. To lose them so young, and endure what the girl had--did that make it easier, or harder? Her hands clenched slightly, the only indicator of the anger brewing inside her. The denizens of Mordor had much to answer for, and it frustrated her to think that most of them escaped the justice they were due. By Paega's account, though, the orcs that had tried to kill her had been swiftly put down by the warriors of Rohan, stirring a bit of spiteful satisfaction within her. Any others that stepped foot in Rohan while she was there had best beware, though. The moment she was well enough, she was going on the warpath, and gods help any stray uruk she might catch out on the plains.
Despite showing some hesitation, Runa eventually acquiesced to Paega's cajoling, tugging down the edge of her dress to show a long-healed puncture wound. Wyn drew in a breath at the sight. The starburst shape of it was easily recognizable as an arrow-wound. "That from an orc's crossbow, or did a person do that to you?" Regardless of its origin, though, it appeared to have long since healed, and judging by the way she had seen Runa fight when the Healing House was attacked, it didn't impede her in the slightest.
It would be difficult to explain the circumstances that had landed many of her kinfolk with scars without exposing Paega to some of the world's darker truths, and so Wyn merely nodded along. "That's one way of thinking about it, I suppose." Standing up to their captors did take bravery, even if that bravery was just as likely to land you in an early grave. Wyn had long since learned to pick and choose her battles, and where some might have seen cowardice, she saw only pragmatism.
Her sobered mood improved slightly as Paega encouraged her to try speaking to Yomie with a hawk-call in order to encourage him to finish his meal quicker. "I don't know about that," she admitted with a quirked smile, made slightly crooked by the scar across her face. "Babies can be awfully stubborn about that sort of thing. Why don't we go back to horses while we wait?" She gestured back to the paddock. "I don't think you've told me what yours are named yet."