[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/mkFbcLS.png[/img][img]https://i.imgur.com/c5i0HyX.png[/img][/center][sub][color=silver]T I M E :[/color]   One Week After Human Arrival
[color=silver]L O C A T I O N :[/color] Seaside Park, Port10
[color=silver]I N T E R A C T I O N S :[/color] [@JJ Doe], [@Conscripts]  ,  [@Lava Alckon]
T A G S :    [@JJ Doe] ,   [@Conscripts] ,  [@Lava Alckon][/sub]
[color=silver][sub]E Q U I P M E N T :[/sub][/color][hider=][sub]N/A[/sub][/hider]
 

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/DkWjPqa.png?1[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/0hgKymt.png[/img][/center]


	[color=silver]The sunlight sparkled through surrounding trees’ leaves, offering some hope through the park tree lining. Several plants glistened and glowed in their beauty, but the tragedy was still echoing throughout the day.

	 They had made it to Riverport just that morning. Rowan thought a change in scenery was necessary. The open air and sea would be soothing, and moving away from Riverbloom, although not far away, was probably safer in case the enemy returned.

	[color=93d8f1]“Sister, it shall be alright,”[/color] Rowan assured Aurora. He had many thoughts about the subject. Perhaps, if they had trained harder and been more alert. Perhaps, if they had travelled an alternate road. Perhaps, if they had stayed in the town. Rowan battled these thoughts and more. 

	 Alas, his mind rested in Zara’s farewell dessert. It was such gestures as these, like a stroke of luck — a feather black pen on silk paper, that his dear sister’s wisdom made its elegance known. And yet, to see her mourn.

	 Words failed him.

	 Without request or much thought, Aurora could not keep her eyes dry. There was a dark shadow that clouded where Zara’s brilliant light once shown. The sound of her voice was a dead echo, invisible to even the wind. How could something so precious be lost so easily?

	[color=white]“I can still smell her blood.”[/color] The words fell from her lips and trembled all the same. Even in the new city, days away from Zara’s murder, the smell of her corpse haunted the air.

	[color=93d8f1]“She shall be missed,”[/color] Rowan assured Aurora. If to keep his own morale from breaking as he selflessly cared for his sister, he coldly mourned how easy Zara was in comparison to their new human counterpart.

	[color=93d8f1]“But all is not lost,”[/color] he quickly added, concealing as much hesitation as he could from his younger sister. He looked towards Barrock. The gentle giant’s appearance had come at the perfect time. Having assistance with his distraught sister and the human Vasco was something only good fortune could have brought him. Although, it pained him to think this way, one way or another as he tried not to reminisce on how much more compliant Zara had been. 

	 Vasco looked like some house pet had dragged him out of an unknown shabby hiding spot. Worse than his appearance when he first arrived in Avalia. Aurora had insisted on a public bathhouse visit for them, first thing. And yet, as Rowan resized up the human for the hundredth time, Vasco seemed to have remastered the ragged look of someone who had been screwing around all night.

 	[color=93d8f1]“Friend,”[/color] Rowan spoke to Barrock. [color=93d8f1]“You watched Vasco all last night as promised?”[/color] The elf felt a pain of guilt asking this of the ogre. There was no reason to assume a lack of trust, and in all, he had to admit at sometime, that he had slipped emotionally.

 	 His sister could have very well been taken along with Zara. Of course, he no doubt was thankful she had been spared. And yet, she thought nothing of herself. It was not as if they could infinitely summon new humans for their bidding, like disposable pawns, and yet, to know his sister’s limits was driving a sharp pain inside of him. On one hand, he wished she had stayed behind; on the other, her insight was ultimately a demand. 

 	Rowan’s hand patted his sister’s back, the best he could. She was sitting by a tree, just as she had been when the Dark Elf had taken them by surprise. Why she did this to herself, he could not fathom. If anything he could understand, the light she might have seen of Zara had also vanished from his own sister’s blind eyes.[/color]