[h3][color=lightblue]TEAM RUTABAGA[/color][/h3]
There was a moment – however brief – when Meryn let herself be distracted by the Traveller's words. She'd spent countless hours sitting atop the city wall between the guards' patrols, gazing out at the horizon. Watching the sunrise set fire to the endless [i]space[/i], wondering what lay out of reach. What sort of plants, animals, people, mysteries… Meryn glanced over her shoulder as she heard the gate rattle shut behind her, the corner of her mouth twitching up into a small, child-like smile. Droplets of water dripping from her hair measured the growing distance between her and the town she'd called home, and with every step she only wanted more and more to break out into a sprint and just run.

Meryn turned back to regard Spook more conspicuously, curiosity lighting up her pale green eyes. True, being outside was a wonder. But thus far it wasn't anything particularly new to her. This man, though. This Traveller. Her eyes drifted over him, taking in the feral mask, exotic clothes, the flashes of pale skin. He was a new [i]world[/i]. She could only imagine the places he'd been to, the people he met. The things he'd seen. 

Her eyes fell to the patch of bare skin on his arm, and Meryn squinted a bit as she looked at the strange markings there. They didn't look like any letters she knew, but then again her literacy level wasn't particularly high. This one sort of looked like S if she tilted her head… That one looked like a squashed G… Were they another language? A simple design? Questions spun in her mind, one after another, all of them centered around the odd man beside her. What was the mask for? What were those markings on his arms? Why [i]birdcages,[/i] of all things? Were they going to catch something?

After taking a moment to work up her nerve, Meryn raised her hand between them and tapped her knuckles against his arm to get his attention. Lifting the hand carrying the birdcage, she took her free hand and drew her fingers along the skin of her bare arm, eyes never leaving Spook's masked face. She let her eyes fall down to his own arm before looking up again.
[@Mokley]