LadyAnnaLee

The Tree of Astra (LadyAnnaLee and Blackfridayrule)

Darin shook her head, “This is something else.” She pointed out, “Look, there aren’t quite as many varieties of food, and the odds of there being as much music as there was last night are slim.” She shrugged, “When you get a room full of people together to eat after a day of good, honest work the meal tends to be jubilant.”

She started putting food on her plate. Without really thinking about it she made up a plate for Ridahne as well. The warrior seemed … odd tonight. Darin supposed that couldn’t be helped. Actually, odd was not the right word. It was more like the Elf was in a better mood. Darin had to wonder why that was. She didn’t think that it was anything she had done. Maybe Ridahne was just glad to do something besides travel. Absently Darin wondered if it was her place to ask. She thought she might just be willing to ask it.

Then Ravi had to go and distract her, “Tell us of your home Seed-Bearer. What is it like? What is it call?”

Darin hastily swallowed the bite she had just taken as she sputtered for a moment, “Um, uh, it’s not called anything. And you can’t find it on the map. It’s a teeny tiny village. The closest place is a place called Lively, about a day and a half away. It’s a small collection of farmers and shepherds. There are a few hunters; some trapper too.” She shrugged, “It’s not that exciting. A bit like The Farm I guess, but smaller, way smaller.”

Ravi laughed lightly, “What would you call it?”

Darin was at a lost for words before she thought of an answer that was true that no one would like, “Um … Home. I would just call it home.”

The Overseer raised an unimpressed eyebrow, “If someone made it to Lively looking for your village what would they have to ask in order to find it.”

Darin shrugged, “I guess they would just ask, ‘I’m looking for the village near here. How do I find it?’ Everyone in Lively would know what you are talking about, but no one comes to our village unless they are headed to the forest of the mountains behind us.”

Ravi sighed, “There are those among us that wish to visit; to pay their respects to both The Gardener and to your mother.”

Darin was caught off guard by that. That made sense. If she knew that a loved one had died away from home, she might travel to go pay her final respects. The problem was that there were people looking to kill her and destroy The Seed. She couldn’t let them figure out where she had come from. She didn’t need to give them the chance to gain hostages. That would cause to many complications. If a whole slew of people dressed like Workers headed towards her home anyone would be able to figure it out. The secret would be out before she could blink.

She shook her head softly, “I understand Overseer, but it is not wise. I am not strong enough to say I would pick The Seed if an enemy had my mother. I think it best not to give them any clues as to where she is.”

Someone protested, “That’s not fair! That’s not fair at all!”

Darin didn’t take her eyes off of Ravi, “When is life fair. If a bunch of Workers started traveling is any significant numbers towards a village no one has heard of before it wouldn’t belong until the enemies we all know are out there figure it out.”

The protestor stood and began to advance towards the main table, “Our loved one is dead! And you expect us to refuse to visit him because you don’t have the strength to pick all of Astra over one person.”

The human male about Darin’s age did not look happy. Darin wasn’t surprised by that. Most human teenage boys tended to have tempers that they couldn’t control easily. Darin did not blame him for that. She didn’t blame him for wanting to visit the final resting place of The Gardener. She would want to visit the resting place of her loved ones without a doubt.

She dipped her head once, “Yes. I do.”

The boy scoffed, “Why must we be the one to sacrifice for your weakness?”

Darin let out a single laugh, “Because this quest means we all must sacrifice. I am so far away from home I don’t know my left from my right. My Guardian has given up hope of any of her people truly seeing past her face.” She stood slowly, “And Ravi is dying early to keep The Tree alive just a few more years.”

The human boy flinched at that last one. He turned to look at the Overseer with a look of horror on his face. Ravi sighed as he nodded. He then shot Darin a nasty glare that she ignored. If he was going to seek to make her uncomfortable by making her play and requesting permission to send people to her home, she was going to tell these people the truth so that way they had time to prepare for their loved one’s death. Perhaps it was petty. Perhaps it was childish. It was still the way it was. The boy fell away from the table. He hadn’t given up this fight. He just needed time to think.

Darin looked around the room before falling back into her chair. The happy atmosphere was gone, and she was sad to be the one to send it away. She was exhausted. She wanted to sleep, but that wouldn’t be possible. She still needed to help with the evening chores. She still needed to let Ridahne kick her butt. Who knew when she would get proper sleep? She didn’t think it would be anytime soon.

Transformers: Savior From The Heavens { Angel & Anna }

The girl looked up at the femme in shock. She never left this room. It didn’t matter how much damage Shockwave had done to her. She lived in his laboratory; waiting for the next experiment and wave of pain. When Shockwave left the room, she was locked in a cage that was rapidly becoming too small for her. There was no way the scientist would allow her to leave to room or be in another Cybertronian’s care. That aside, why would the femme want to take her to the med-bay? Most Decepticon were the same. They relished seeing her in pain. She had never been checked over the way Raiza seemed to imply that she wanted to check over the human. Did the femme even know anything about human biology, because the human sure didn’t.

Shockwave countered, “Megatron gave her to me. You can have her when I’m done with her.”

Well that would be never in a million years. Did Cybertronians live that long? She knew they lived longer than humans. She just knew that the only way Shockwave would be done with her would be if she died or if he got bored. That didn’t appear to be happening anytime soon. She couldn’t keep very good track of the days, but he tended to do something to her every third time he fed her. It had been like that for a while now. Suddenly Shockwave backhanded her across the room. She didn’t break bones, but it still hurt as she landed in the corner where he tore her apart only to put her back together again. She stayed where she landed; not even daring to look up.

Shockwave spoke again as he moved to start the procedure, “My invitation to stay is still valid Raiza. Just don’t think you get to take her away.” Shockwave then loamed over her, “Let’s get started Stupid Child.”

Well now the Decepticon scientist was angry. She didn’t have time to ponder why before he was using his knife to cut into her abdomen. He wasn’t using pain killer and the pain cause her to jerk. An order to remain still was followed by a set of restraints locking her into place. She looked up at the mirrors placed in the ceiling to see Shockwave messing around with her insides. Her world had narrowed to the pain and the terrible images she could see above her. She didn’t know if the femme had stayed in the room or left. Just as she saw Shockwave pull something out of her she blacked out. She woke again as she was shoved into her too small cage.

He was still angry, “I’ll be back Stupid Child. Lord Megatron had summoned me. Be a good pet while I’m away.”

With tears running down her face the girl ran a finger over her abdomen. She didn’t know what he had done, but she hated when he took things out of her. She curled into a ball to silently weep. She just wanted it to be over. Why couldn’t it be over? What would happen if she just refused to eat or drink water? If she could do it for long enough, she knew she would die. Would Shockwave let her do that? That was the question she didn’t have an answer to.

Transformers: Savior From The Heavens { Angel & Anna }

The girl looked up as the door opened. It was Raiza, one of the femme Decepticons. She was crazy too, but not as crazy as Shockwave. It was very hard to beat Shockwave when it came to crazy. She was a different type of crazy. She was one of the few Cybertronians that the girl knew that would speak Earth languages. As such the human was always secretly glad when the femme came in. Any chance to get a connection to Earth was well received. The girl hesitantly waved at the Deception. It was safe enough since Shockwave wasn’t paying complete attention.

Shockwave spoke from where he was looking at a screen, “No. Not today at least. Today I am more interested in thy pathetic species reproductive systems.” He gestured at the human without really looking at her, “She is one of the ones that carries human young. She bleeds every so often as a result. I think I may have discovered a way to stop the bleeding.” Shockwave turned to give what the girl knew to be the scientist’s version of a menacing grin, “Won’t that be good Little Bit?”

The girl had to fight off another shudder, <Of course Sir.>

She wasn’t sure if she was lying or not. On one hand it would be good to stop bleeding all over the scientist’s laboratory without being able to stop it. She had never figured out why it had happened. There didn’t seem to be a pattern to it. On the other hand, the girl figured that it would require the taking out parts of her. As of now Shockwave hadn’t taken anything that she needed to stay alive. She could only hope that continued. Who knew? Sooner or latter he would get bored and then just take out her heart. Besides it didn’t really matter. Shockwave wanted the bleeding to stop. As such he was going to do what he had to in order to make it stop. The girl had no real way of stopping it.

Shockwave turned his attention back to his fellow Decepticon, “I start soon. Would you like to stay and watch? The girl cannot scream, but she still makes some delicious faces when she’s caught up in pain and panic.”

The human could not begin to fathom how much she didn’t want that at all. It was bad enough that Shockwave saw her at her weakest, and she knew that the Cybertronians didn’t see her as anything more than insignificant. That didn’t mean she wanted another on in the room to see her struggle with her pain and fear. Then again, like always, it didn’t matter what she wanted. The Decepticons were all so much bigger than her. The only thing she could really control was not getting squished, and even that was something in which her control was limited. If Shockwave or someone else really wanted to step on her she would already be dead.

Shockwave reached out to caress the girl’s check with one clawed finger, “What do you think Little Bit? Should Raiza stay to watch?”

She closed her eyes as her breathing became more erratic the longer Shockwaves finger touched her face, <It’s not my place to make a Decepticon’s decision for them. If she wishes to stay or if she has other things to attend to she must do as is best for her.>

Transformers: Savior From The Heavens { Angel & Anna }

The girl looked at herself in the reflective surface off the panel about twice her height. It wasn’t a perfect reflection, but it let her know that nothing had visible changed after Shockwave’s last experiment on her. She wondered what he had done. He had cut her open three days ago. Normally he would have told her by now. So, whatever he was doing to her this time wasn’t done yet. She had to contain a shudder. That meant he was going to cut her open again. Soon, unless she missed her bet. She shuddered but couldn’t stop it this time. Every time her experimented on her it hurt for days afterwards. She wished it would stop. She knew it wouldn’t until he was bored with her. Or she was dead.

“Little Bit.” Her head swiveled in the direction the voice was coming from, “Come here.

She didn’t dare disobey. Shockwave only called her that when he was in a good mood. She didn’t want to put him in a bad mood. She raced across the floor towards the main panel where she could see the Decepticon scientist. With an almost flawless ease she took a hold of part of the console. The outer casing was made of panels. The grooves allowed her to climb up to a level where Shockwave could see her. She stood where he knew he wanted her. He wasn’t looking in her direction, so she snapped her fingers just once. He turned to pierce her with his lone eye.

He hissed at her, “Ah Little Bit, how are you feeling?”

She had no vocal cords. As such she couldn’t speak. She used a code Shockwave developed to communicate. It involved touching her thumb to her other fingertips and required both hands to use. Different combinations equaled different letters in the current language of Cybertron. Every time her right thumb hit her right pinky equaled a new symbol. Twice meant a new word and three times meant a new sentence. She was adept at it. It was almost a quick as being vocal.

Using this method, she told him, <I’m fine Sir. I feel great.>

That was a lie. Her abdomen still hurt from the time three days ago. However, it was the only answer that would keep him from backhanding her across the room. She couldn’t break bones because of the time he infused her bones with living metal as she was just learning to walk but coughing up blood was not her idea of a good time. So, she lied.

He nodded, “That’s good.” He spoke in Cybertronian, “Eat something.” He dropped a collection of fruit in front of her, “Then we begin the next phase.”

She wanted to ask what the next phase was. She didn’t dare. He decided that it was happening today. So, if she did something to put him in a bad mood, he would backhand her, not let her eat, and still do something terrible to her. That was not how she wanted to spend her day. So instead she dropped to the console to sit cross legged. Shockwave waited to see her take the first bite of apple before turning away. He moved to the other side of the room where he kept his table and tools for experimenting on her. It was clean. He always kept it clean. The silver colored tools blinking at her mockingly. She quickly looked away.

Instead she focused on eating the pile of fruit that was in front of her. It wasn’t much, but she wanted more. She was always hungry. She was always tired. She was always hurting. She just wanted to be left alone, or better yet, to get out of Shockwave’s laboratory. There were so many problems with that though. For one thing, she didn’t even know where the laboratory was located. She knew that she came from a planet called Earth, but for all that she knew she wasn’t anywhere near that planet. She didn’t think she was on a spaceship, but she wasn’t sure. She didn’t even know if there was oxygen outside of the lab. It would suck to get outside and then promptly die. At least she would die outside. Then again, she didn’t even know where outside was. She never left this room. Shockwave liked to keep her contained.

She figured she was close to Earth. Decepticon drones would come form Earth to get repairs or bring news. She still didn’t know how far away it was. She didn’t think she could get there on her own, and she doubted any of the Decepticons would help her. So, for all intents she was suck in this terrible place and this terrible life. She almost wished Megatron would visit again. Shockwave would ignore her for days when those visits happened. They were rare though. Besides, she never liked the way the Decepticon leader looked at her. She looked down and the collection of seeds and steams. It seemed she had finished eating. It wouldn’t be long before Shockwave came over. She hoped he drugged her. He probably wouldn’t.

Transformers: Savior From The Heavens { Angel & Anna }

Designation: Victoria Crown
Nicknames: Shockwave will call her either Little Bit, if he is currently happy with her, or Stupid Child, if he is upset with her. Until she escapes from the mad scientist care she had no other names.
[i]Voiced By: Victoria has no voice.[i]

Theme Song(s): “Part of your World” from The Little Mermaid

Relatives/Relationships:
- Shockwave – Shockwave is the only other person Victoria has truly interacted with in her life. He uses her for his experiments. She does her best not to upset him too much. She is 3 parts terrified of him and 2 parts filled with hatred towards him.
- {More to come}

Gender: Female
[b]Age:[/bSomewhere between 16 and 21. Age has never been an important concept to her. At times she looks like she is on the younger end of this range. At other times she appears far older.
Height: 5 foot 7 inches.

Faction: She does have the Decepticon mark on the back of her left hand. Though it resembles a human tattoo it is more like a mark of ownership. It is done in Shockwave’s colors. She had no real loyalty to the Decepticons.
Rank(s): Prisoner, Experiment, Pet

Occupation(s):
* Survivor
* Human
* Linguist
* Archeologist.
* Experiment.

Abilities:
* Can read and write most forms of Cybertronian languages – Shockwave decided that the human needed to be useful for reason other than inflicting pain. As such he taught her all of the Cybertronian languages that he knew. Common Cybertronian was her first language. While she can understand spoken English and Mandarin, she cannot write either. As such she has no problem communicating with Cybertronians, but she needs a translator to talk to humans. She cannot speak at all since Shock wave tore out her vocal cords, but she does use a sort of sign language Shockwave developed. It involves touching her thumb to her other fingertips and required both hands to use. Different combinations equal different letters in the current language of Cybertron. Every time her right thumb hits her right pinky equaled a new symbol. Twice means a new word and three times means a new sentence. She is adept at it.
* Superior climbing skills – Due to being raised in a Decepticon base Victoria had to learn how to climb quickly in order to get around. As such she can climb just about anything in a matter of minutes. She doesn’t use a harness, but she does have a jerry-rigged grapple that she does use if she has no other choice.
* High pain tolerance – Due to Shockwave’s experiments on her Victoria has a high pain tolerance. She can basically walk off any injury and the ones that she can’t are deemed, at the most, slightly annoying. This does mean that she is often unaware of when she just needs to stop and let herself heal.
* Hidden strength – Due to the living metal adhered to her bones, Victoria is stronger than she looks. She is not as strong as a Cybertronian, but she doesn’t break bones, and can lift things twice her weight with ease. This living metal almost means that she can ingest and process small amounts of Energon. She still needs human foods.
* Competent analyst – Thanks to the scanner attached to her eye sockets, Victoria is used to processes a great deal of information. She is also adapt at ready the moods of others as this was a necessary skill for her to learn in order to survive.

Appearance:

{ Found via Google }

Victoria is 5 foot 7 inches and far too thin for a human her age and stature. She has lean muscles that come from years of having to climb to get wherever she wants to go. She has dark wavy hair and dark eyes. Looking into her eyes gives the viewer the impression that she has seen all of the universe’s secrets and chooses to keep them. She moves with a strange level of grace. Adhered to her face is a scanner that looks like a pair of black glasses. While the scanner is active a scrawl of data can be seen constantly changing on the screen. Surprising the only marks of the torture she suffered is the Decepticon mark on the back of her left hand. Shockwave thought it was a bad statement of his own skill if he left scars.

Shockwave would dress Victoria in loose clothes that could be easily torn off by one of his clawed fingers. Upon being give the right to wear her own clothes, Victoria will choose shirts with far too many buttons or zippers. She wears a pair of fingerless gloves to hide the mark on her left hand. Her pants are tight on waist but fall loose around her knees and ankles. She wears a belt not to keep them up, but to make them harder to take off. Her whole wardrobe is difficult for anyone to take off. It is still comfortable enough to climb in. She does have a row of silver piercings in each ear, and she likes the noise wearing too many bracelets create.

Equipment
- Scanner
Victoria’s scanner is permanently attached to her eye sockets. It is made of living metal and she can control it both mentally and by running her fingers over the sides in certain manners. It can increase her vision’s range, allow her to zoom in and out on objects, create a heat map, give her a limited form of x-ray vision, and detect other patterns. Until she learned to decipher the information it mainly just gave her a headache.

- Grapple
Victoria jerry-rigged a grapple out of parts Shockwave left lying around. She uses it to climb in order to get places. She only uses it when she has to, and when not in use she keeps attached to her waist. She takes extremely good care of it. Even though she tries not to use it she admits that she needs it.

- Knife
This is the only weapon that Victoria has. It is a human size knife made out of living metal. It is not extremely useful in a battle against a Cybertronian, but she can use it to grab on to something should she need to break her fall. Since it is made out of living metal, when it is not in use it forms a bracelet around her right wrist. When she needs it she flicks her hand and it forms into the knife shape. It looks like a stiletto dagger/

Personality:
Being raise by a psychotic Decepticon mad scientist that used her as his personal lab rat, did wonders for Victoria’s metal state. She is twitchy, jumping at the slightest of noises, and terrified of any movement made towards her unless it comes for a source she trusts completely. She has never been allowed to leave the room where Shockwave does his experiments. As such she has both claustrophobia and agoraphobia. Loud noises are also not her friend and she does not sleep well at night. Nightmares and unpleasant memories wake her frequently. She also trained herself to be awake in an instant just in case.

Victoria has no social skills other than knowing you probably shouldn’t kill someone just for looking at you funny. She is disinclined not to hurt anyone as she doesn’t want anyone to suffer even a fraction of what she has suffered. Other than that, she doesn’t know how to start a conversation, how to act in stores or other public places, or have any idea what the words please and thank you actually mean. This comes from the fact that she never really interacted with anyone other than Shockwave as her body grew.

Another side effect of her seclusion is that she is endlessly fascinated by anything new. Even the simplest things, such as snow or chocolate, can have her staring in awe for several minutes if not hours. Upon being liberated from Shockwave, Victoria wants to see the world and all it has to offer. She knows that she comes from Earth, but she has never seen it before. She would like to see as much of it as she can before she dies. Her interest is less scientific and more childlike. Her favorite question is “Why?” or “How does it work?” She wants to learn as much as she can.

Victoria doesn’t trust easily, but once you have her trust you are stuck with her for a long time. She may not be able to do anything tangible for you, but she will give you her heart and mind. She is not familiar with the concept of love, (Dececpticons teaching a human about love? Yeah right.) but she has a vague idea of what loyalty is. If you are loyal to her than she will be loyal to you.

The Tree of Astra (LadyAnnaLee and Blackfridayrule)

Darin found herself pausing in her walk as she heard what Ridahne said. The human wasn’t sure she wanted to ask to clarify things. Were they really going to train under the light of the moon? That didn’t sound like a smart way to train. What did people do on nights when there was no moon? Did they train in the dark? More importantly, if they really did train in the dark, did Ridahne really think that it was a good idea to have her, clumsy trips on everything possible Darin, to train in the dark? That just seemed like it was asking for trouble to Darin. Some would get seriously hurt.

That didn’t even take into account the fact that Darin planned on being asleep when the moon was high. It was harvest season, so even though the days were getting shorter, the sun was in the sky for a long time. Darin had stayed up late the night before. She had been up with the dawn. She didn’t plan on even starting the end of her day until the dusk. By the time the moon was high Darin would be exhausted. That would be a great combination; a tired, clumsy, Darin and a sharp, pointy, weapon. There were so many ways that could go wrong that Darin wasn’t even sure she could count them. Darin had been looking at the sun to gauge how much time the day had left before turning to look at Ridahne as the Elf moved to pump water. Had the Elf thought of those factors? If she had had she decided they didn’t matter. Darin didn’t want to bring them up. She was just so tired of fighting with Ridahne. They had fought everyday they knew each other. Grey Rock didn’t count.

Darin left Ridahne at the water pump, “I’m going to see if they need help in the kitchen.”

Enter the kitchen meant entering a busy hive of activity and chatter. Darin hadn’t even needed too ask before she was given a knife and set to cutting apples. They were green and Darin could tell that they didn’t come from The Tree. She noticed that they were being turned into pies. Darin didn’t hesitate before starting to cut and core the fruit. She soon lost herself in the methodical actions. She was not as quick as The Workers around her. She was trying to make sure she didn’t get any more injuries. When the apples were done, they moved to peaches. Then there were cherries. It seemed like today was pie day at The Farm.

When the fruit was cut up and poured into the pie crusts people began scrubbing their workstations. This was something Darin could do both quickly and with quality. She understood the importance of being clean. A person couldn’t use dirty tools after all. When her skill with cleaning was seen Darin was given the task to help clean dishes and utensils. She scrubbed while The Worker next to her rinsed. Further down the line someone dried and someone else put the dishes away. It was an efficient line. As the work was finished people were released one by one to go clean up for dinner. Darin found herself being one of the last ones released. She stayed until there was little to no work to be done.

The Siren male in charge of the kitchen told her, “You do good work Seed-Bearer.”

Darin pushed her sweaty bangs out of her face, “It needed doing. I’ll be back after dinner.”

The Siren with blonde curls and dark skin laughed lightly, “We’re on chore rotation. Some one else will come clean up after dinner. Since you worked kitchen duty, weeding, and recovery today you are permitted to rest after dinner. I sincerely doubt that you will though.” He held up a finger as if to scold her, “I don’t want to see you in the kitchen though. Go help in the stables or something.” He then shooed her out of his kitchen, “Go get cleaned up for dinner. Make sure those clothes make it to the laundry.”

Darin nodded with a smile on her face, “Yes sir!”

He called after her, “Good night Darin.”

Darin scurried up to her room to find another change of clothes and a bowl of lightly scented water. She used the water to clean up her face and arm as best she could without hurting the new stiches on her arm. She changed into the new outfit. This one fit a little better than the first one. She imagined whoever was dropping clothes off was still trying to get an idea of her size. Once Darin was dressed, she headed downstairs to the main hall. She could hear the type of chatter than came with group meals. She was starving. She hadn’t had much to eat today. She entered only to have every eye in the room turn to look at her. She waved nervously as she moved to sit in the chair next to Ravi. She imagined that there wouldn’t be much difference between last night and tonight.

Darin quietly asked, “Have you seen Ridahne? I haven’t seen her in a while.”

Ravi smiled, “I’m sure she will be down to dinner soon.”

The Tree of Astra (LadyAnnaLee and Blackfridayrule)

Ridahne was upset about something, and Darin wasn’t sure what it was, or even if it was her place to pry. She didn’t think she was upset about Taja. (The name was settled. That’s all there was to it.) Darin also didn’t think the Elf was upset about staying just one more day. If anything, the warrior seemed upset about going towards Azurei. Darin clicked her teeth together as she thought. Hopefully they would spend enough time wandering other places that Ridahne would come to grips with the fact that they had to visit Azurei. Of course, Darin was going to have to do the same thing. She wasn’t sure she wanted to go to a place where they knew who she was without her telling them. The Farm was different. The Farm was safe. The human wasn’t sure Azurei was safe at all. Then again, no place was truly safe.

Darin gave her head a shake as she moved on to a sort of more pleasant topic, “Yes. We do need to use our time wisely while we’re here. I was hoping you would be willing to show me just a little bit of what it means to wield a knife, or maybe even my, sickle, in battle.” Darin pause a moment before continuing, “And maybe you could start teaching me Azurein. We have a long way to go, so I feel it would be best to know as many languages as possible.”

Darin actually knew two languages. She knew Astran, which was the common tongue that everyone in Astra seemed to know. Then she also knew a particular dialect that was only used in Lively and her little village. The Traders that came to Lively each year didn’t know it, but that was the way it was for most citizens of Astra. They all knew at least Astran and then their own regional dialect. Darin also knew enough to understand what was being said in the language the traders used, but she didn’t know enough to really speak it. She hadn’t used her home language since she started this trip. She knew that there were people that could identify where you came from just by your second tongue. Darin didn’t want that at all.

Darin considered Taja. It seemed the bird would be sleeping for a while. He looked a little better and didn’t seem to be in as much pain as he had been. It was most likely safe to leave him for the night. Darin could check up on him in the morning. Besides, Talbot had returned from wherever her had gone to get food. The human figured the horse would be a good watcher for the hawk. Darin picked up the cloth the rabbit had been in before slowly standing. She left the hut slowly; it wouldn’t do for a wrong sound or move to wake Taja back up. Soon she was out in the evening sun,

Darin turned to Talbot, “Come and get me if Taja needs something okay.” Talbot nodded as Darin smiled and ran her hand a long his nose, “Thanks Talbot.” She then turned to see that people were getting ready to head in for the night, “It looks like the workday is over. I wonder what’s for dinner. I’m hungry.”

That wasn’t exactly true. Darin had snuck out the window and as such missed breakfast. Then she had been looking for and taking care of Taja, so she had missed lunch. It felt like her stomach was trying to eat itself. She had managed to stay hydrated, but a person could not live on water alone. She hoped dinner was a simple affair. She wasn’t sure she could do another party like the one last night. She wasn’t sure what Ravi planned for the evening, but she wasn’t sure that she would like it one little bit unless it was just dinner. After dinner they needed to start the knife lessons, and Darin would have to start looking into restocking her supplies. She was almost out of food, so really it was a good thing Ridahne had some along when she had.

Darin started heading back to the farm Main Farmhouse, “Come on. We should see if there’s anything we can do to help with dinner. Though in a place with this many people they’ll probably just kick us out of the kitchen, but I bet we can find other things to do.”

That was probably true. It a place with this many people, meals were probably something that you could cook a lot of in a small amount of time. Soup and porridge were probably frequent meal choices. Darin was okay with that. Both were staples back home. She liked both though she also liked having other things. Then again, she didn’t tend to be picky about what she ate; when she did remember to eat. She tended to forget more than not. She figured as long as Ridahne didn’t pick up on that bad habit she would be fine.

Darin spoke as she continued walking, “Hopefully we can find some way to repay them for all the supplies we’ll be taking. I don’t think they’ll let us leave without restocking, but I hate the thought of just taking their supplies without giving anything back.”

The Tree of Astra (LadyAnnaLee and Blackfridayrule)

Darin led the way towards the small hut, “I know what it means. You told me once.” She tapped her injured arm, “I figured it was fitting.”

What Darin didn’t tell Ridahne was that she thought the bird should have an Elf name of some sort. Talbot was a land creature and as such had a human, or Child of the Stones, name. This creature of the air, or yet another Child of the Skies, needed a name that matched. The problem was that the only Elf words Darin knew were Azurei words, and she didn’t know many of those either. She knew maybe three. She supposed if she was going to do this trip around Astra she might want to learn as many languages as possible. It might now make the job easy, but it would at least showed anybody who cared that she was trying.

Aa they approached the hut the human asked her steed, “What do you think Talbot. Is our new friend behaving.” Talbot bobbed his head in an approximation of a yes as Darin smiled, “That’s good. Why don’t you go get something to eat? The Tree knows you’ve earned it.”

Talbot nodded again before heading off. Darin lead the way into the darken hut to see the hawk perched on the same perch she left him on. Darin was not surprised to see the bird open his eyes to glare at her with suspicious eyes. She would be suspicious too if something bigger than her took her to a place she didn’t understand. She carefully unwrapped the bundle of rabbit and place it in front of the hawk.

She spoke quietly, “There you go. You must be hungry.”

Now that the bird wasn’t freaking out Darin had a chance to look at him properly. He was most certainly a he, but that was alright. He was a mostly a light brown colored that reminded Darin of lightly toasted bread with darker brown spots that reminded her of brunt bread scattered throughout. He also had some white spots and a white chest. His eyes were a deep amber color. He was eyeing the small bites of food warily, and Darin was starting to worry that she was going to have to hold him down to feed him. Suddenly, his head darted out to snag some of it, and Darin let out the breath she hadn’t realized that she had been holding.

She turned back to her conversation with Ridahne, “I suppose I could name him Toast. He looks like he could be named Toast, but that just doesn’t feel right.” She gave her head a shake, “I’m not sure. I really like Taja. For lots of reasons.” She tapped at her own chest, “Anyways that’s a good story. I suppose the only way we know if that if becomes a when is if we head towards Azurei. Is that where we are headed? Are there spots in between here and there that we can stop at. I don’t really want to take a direct route to anywhere given the nature of this trip.”

Darin knew that they had to leave The Farm soon. They couldn’t stay here forever or nothing important would get done. She was thinking one more day in order to resupply and stock up. Hopefully, Ridahne would be good with starting her knife lessons tonight. Darin was tired of being the hopeless one of the two of them. Taja let our a shriek and the human turned to see that all of the rabbit was gone. She smiled as she slowly held out a few fingers. Taja pressed his head against the fingers for just a few seconds before tucking his had under his good wing.

Darin whispered, “Good night Pretty Bird.” She turned to Ridahne, “We should start getting ready to leave The Farm. I would like to leave bright and early not tomorrow morning, unless you want to leave then, but the next morning.” She was leading the way out of the hut, “What do you think?”

The Tree of Astra (LadyAnnaLee and Blackfridayrule)

So, I am beyond exhausted, and my parents are showing up a day early. I'm not one hundred percent sure when I will get you a post. Late Sunday early Monday at the latest. I know what want to. I'm just not sure when I will have time to write it. Please forgive me.

The Tree of Astra (LadyAnnaLee and Blackfridayrule)

Darin wrinkled her nose as Ridahne smeared the ointment on her check, “Itchy.”

She spoke lightly; not in complaint but as if she was stating a fact. She also did not take the whiskey. She never cared much for alcohol. She knew it didn’t take much to get her drunk. Unless she planned to fall straight asleep, she tried to avoid it. She did lean backwards in her chair and squeeze her eyes shut. She also slipped the ball of her thumb or her other hand between her teeth. When the pain started, she exhaled sharply though her nose and bit down her hand. She didn’t think she would break skin since she was wearing the leather work gloves. She did have a matching set of scars on both hands from where she had done this before. Her mother hated it. Her mother could never stop it. It was Darin’s preferred way of dealing with pain. She only removed her hand when the stitching was over.

Darin smiled as she heard Ridahne’s dry joke, “Haha. Very funny.” She leaned forward to look at the neat stitches, “Though I might just lose this arm by the end of this trip. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest.”

This was now the second injury to the limb in question; her shoulder and now her arm. Darin knew that losing a limb would not be the worst fate in question. Even losing two would not be a problem. Losing three or four might be difficult. Still, as long as long as she was alive, she had a fighting chance to fight till the end. She already knew that she was going to have to fight for a long time to come. Some of those fights might be physical. She could only imagine what going to Azurei would be like; a whole country of people like Ridahne. It was mind boggling.

Darin ran a finger along the edges of the salve, “I was thinking,” Her entire attention was on her arm, “Taja.” She quickly looked at Ridahne though her eyelashes before hastily looking back down, “I’m not sure I said that right.” She said it a couple more times each with a slightly different inflection, “Taja. Taja. I’m not sure. I like the way you sound when you speak Azurein. I would ask you to teach me, but I know I would butcher it. I can’t even speak my only tongue right; at least according to the elders. And I like the thought of Talbot and my new friend matching; Talbot and Taja. I won’t. I can think of something else. If you rather I pick something else.”

Darin’s attention was fully on her arm. It seemed stupid now that she said it out loud. It had seemed like such a good idea when it was just her, the hawk, and Talbot. Darin absently put her finger in her mouth. That wasn’t the same as the stuff Ridahne had used on her shoulder the first time. She absently wondered what the difference was. Darin gave her had a light shake that wasn’t important now. She really should have come up with a better name for the bird. She felt like such an idiot.

She suddenly stood, “I should go check on him and make sure he eats. “She grabbed the small packet of rabbit, “Thank you for this.” She seemed unsure again, “Would you like to come meet him? He should be calmer now that he’s had some rest. I’m not sure though. I’ve only done crows and sparrows before. Oh! And that blue jay once. I’m not sure if birds of prey are any different.”