An Undisclosed Location, Wilderness

[Krow]

"AGAIN" the familiar voice shouted, followed by an even more familiar sound of wood cracking harshly on wood.

"AGAIN" it continued, followed closely by the same resounding CRACK.

"AGAIN" this time the woosh of air was not met by its familiar cracking sound, but by the painful sound of wood on flesh and the reactive yelp of the bejewelled Mystic Wood Elf opposite him.

Her wince was but momentary as she found her footing again. Crow was pleased with his apprentices progress, the spot that he had chosen for this mornings sparring session was once again perilous. A fallen tree over a rushing river, a single foothold slipping here could mean death if neither of them were careful. But that was the northern way.

"AGAIN" Crow shouted, advancing on the woman and bringing his gnarled staff down to bear on her. This time she was ready, with one fluid motion she brought her own staff above her head to block her mentors blow, and at the same time swept it across his jaw hard enough to knock Crow off balance. Taking advantage of his momentary weakness she seized the opportunity and followed her sweep with a reverse in momentum, bringing the back end of her staff to the back of Crow's knees and took his feet out from under him.

Crow landed harshly on his back on the fallen tree above the churning waters, but simply laughed and raised his hand to ask for assistance regaining his feet. "It's taken awhile but I think you're finally starting to get better at fighting." Crow continued with a grunt, getting to his feet. Regarding him for a few moments with that familiar quirk in her smile Kaja retorted, "That or maybe you're just getting to old to fight, and if I remember, me beating you means you cook breakfast."

Crow followed Kaja down from the fallen tree, making way to their small campfire deep within the forest where they'd been secluded for the last four months. Within a few moments the tribesman had the fire going and the only sound surrounding them was the crackle of wood burning and the smell of ash, a smell that Crow had come to recognize as morning. "The leaves are beginning to turn apprentice, soon you're going to face your final test before we head back to Parson's Breach. I pray to the spirits that you're ready for it, but it is going to be much more difficult than knocking me flat on my back."

Kaja regarded these words silently, her eyes weren't even on the portly painted man, they were watching the woods, transfixed by the life and magic within them. She watched her mentor take a rabbit from one of their traps and skin it very nonchalantly, something that used to make her wince to watch. These last four months had been hard on her, but they had been exactly what Crow had wanted, they had showed her the meaning of beauty below the surface.

Spitting the rabbit and placing it over the fire Crow regarded his apprentice. She'd changed drastically in the months that they'd been away. She reminded him of himself when he was a boy, when he had learned of his power and when he was forced to grow faster than the boys around him, to learn to lead, to teach and to know the value of life over death. He regarded her now with much more respect than when they had first met, her eyes had always been inquisitive and deep as pools, however in the past few weeks those eyes had changed. Crow knew what that change felt like, when naivety was shed and made way for the burden of adulthood.

Crow knew that Kaja was frightened, he knew that what she was frightened not of her final test, but what lay beyond it. Passing her final test would mean that the two of them would return to Parson's Breach, where they would leave the beauty of these woods and trade the tranquility of the life felt here for the chaos of battle, rage and death felt in the Breach. Crow also knew that the girl that had entered these woods would have been swallowed by that hatred, however now the woman that would return with him would be a powerful ally.

What Kaja did not know was that their crusade would merely begin in Parson's Breach. Over the last few months Crow had realized the scope of what he and his fellows would have to do to make their world safe. He had to get back to work. He had a lich to hunt, frost giants to kill, a tribe to rebuild and then the Dark Reaches.

A familiar grimace washed over Crow's face and he turned once again to his apprentice, "Kaja, I want you to go on your final test today. After breakfast. You will be doing this alone, however there is a cave in these woods about an hour's walk from our camp. There you will face your final test in whatever form it chooses to manifest, the spirits will both decide this and will help you defeat it, remember your tools, remember your lessons, and remember why we fight."

Kaja stood, taking her portion of rabbit, that steadfast eagerness already in her eye, "And when I return this evening after finishing my quest we're going back to the Breach?" Crow nodded, "Than, when I come back, having completed your little 'spirit quest' you owe me a reward."

Popping a questioning eyebrow Crow asked, "What kind of reward are you expecting of me?"

"Your real name." Kaja finished, ripping a piece of meat off of the rabbit as she gingerly began trodding through the forest.

 

[wisp]

((OOC: Just to keep things clear, I approved Crow's posting on my perspective in his post, to keep the flow of the story going.))

Kaja scrambled out of the cave in the dim light of approaching evening. Her limbs scrambling, feet and hands seeking purchase, she ran. As she had been taught, both here and back home by her more dexterous brother, she took the most difficult path she could manage. Her aim was to slow her pursuer, maybe even dissuade it. Behind her was the angry, bowel-quivering sound of a bear. Sweat, smelling thick with effort and fear, coated her skin, as did something thicker, hotter, stickier. There was a searing pain on her face that she had yet to choose to acknowledge. Now was not the time for pain, now was the time to run. And run she did, her breath coming in ragged gasps, her bare feet propelling her ever forward.

Time ceased to exist for her in her flight, so she had no idea how long she had been running when she finally realized she was not being chased. She slowed, fell to her hands and knees, tried to regain her breath. Her chest heaved and her stomach was cramped and turning. As her lungs began to calm, the rest of her body woke up and the pain of her face refused to be ignored any longer. She bit back the urge to cry out, fingers shaking as she touched her left cheek. A stinging pain and blood came away with her touch. She suddenly realized she was having trouble seeing. The hit she took from the bear, she had dodged the worst of it but perhaps it had still made some contact. The sound of a nearby stream called to her and the Tari-Nor got to her feet unsteadily.

Dizzily, Kaja made her way to the water, peered in at her wavering reflection. And, for the first time in her training, she screamed. Hoping the distorted image was to blame, the amount of blood making things look worse, she splashed her face, sobbing with each burning touch on the open wound. The stream took her offering of blood away from her in breaking clouds, flowing downstream. She looked again and her fear was confirmed. Three long gashes from forehead to jaw and the eye that was once so inquisitive was now a ruin. Blood welled and replaced that which had been washed away. Kaja ripped part of her shirt and used it to hastily bandage herself before she began the walk to the camp.

Had she failed? She was alive. The bear was alive. What was the lesson? Had she failed? Was Crow going to change his mind about her? Had she failed? Beauty...the thing she loved so much, the thing she sought everywhere, hers was taken... But no, Crow would say that this, this terrible scar was proof of beauty, of something deeper, stronger, more true. The Tari-Nor squared her shoulders and held her chin high. Though she was hobbling back into camp, though she may have failed the test, she would not give in to despair, she would not allow beauty to be stolen from her through some surface thing. She would face what was coming and she would be strong as oak, flexible as willow. She was alive.

 

[Krow]

His rock dug into the earth of the fire pit once more, Crow scooped up another small heap of ash and soot from where their breakfast had cooked and poured it into his drinking horn with the small, flat stone he had acquired on his mornings meandering walk. He used the small flat rock to stir the ash and soot into the waiting water in his horn, already thickening and turning into a black paste. Crow's thoughts were of his apprentice, he worried for her though he did not fear for her. He knew that she was more competent in her abilities than he was when he had taken his final test of manhood, she was more than prepared for what was ahead of her, though he wondered if she would understand the lesson.


He stopped stirring the mixture in his horn and returned to the campfire, which was still giving a thin and lazy trail of smoke to the sky as it warmed water for tea that was being made in preparation of Kaja's return. With a thin twig he stirred the pot of water so that the leaves on the bottom surfaced and danced in silence to the swaying of the whirlpool beneath them, "How alike we are in these trying times," Crow said to no one, "How I envy your blissful ignorance." His attention now more fully on the pot as he watched the leaves eventually re-submerge and swim back to the bottom of the pot.


The tranquil silence of the forest was interrupted just then by a familiar roaring. "A black or brown," Crow thought to himself, "Definitely not a grizzly, we're not that far north yet." Unconsciously his hand went to his horn, his middle and index finger dipping themselves in the inky black mixture and raising it to his face. He began to apply his morning paint, a ritual he had learned at a young age that was very dear to him. Thinking of his apprentice he sat back down, "A bear? Really... I am not one to question the wisdom of the spirits but Kaja the Bear Hearted? Of all the animals whom I thought would speak to her, mother Ursa was not one of them." His left eye now covered in black paint, with small flicks of his fingers used to make the impression of feathers on the sides of his temple. Pouring some of the water from the tea pot into his horn he began again to scoop some of the ash and soot from the earth at his feet.


***


It had taken her far longer to find her way back to camp than when she left that morning. She stumbled nearly every step, and when she stumbled her head hurt that much more. Kaja had used what she had left of her own ability to try and stop the bleeding from the gouge in the side of her head, however there was still fresh blood trailing down her arm and leaving a sizeable trail behind her. She wasn't sure how long she'd been walking, she hoped that she wasn't lost in the woods, though she was pretty certain that if the bear wanted her dead it would have followed and killed her by now.


What would she tell her mentor? She had been worried she failed her test, but after thinking about it awhile longer she was absolutely sure of it. He was such a stubborn man, all those trophies, all the skulls he kept of all the manner of creatures that he killed. He must relish in the hunt, his damn tribe and their stupid ways nearly got her killed!


She winced at the pain her anger flared in her eye, her vision blurred and she stumbled once more. Throwing her other arm in front of herself to break her fall it fell harshly onto a rock, sending another tremor of pain through her body and back around her bleeding, bloodied and mangled eye. With a soft plomp she sat down, exhausted, angry, and ready to weep except for the intense pain in her eye she just sat, defeated in the forest. She was sure that when she found her mentor that he could easily mend the damage to her eye, he had barely used any power at all since they had come to this forest.


She didn't like this feeling, beyond the intense amount of pain she was in she felt something new, it felt like she wasn't whole and assumed it was because when she had looked into the water at the damage the bear had done it had ruined her beauty. She had wanted to experience life, she had wanted to hear stories and make a few of her own when she had left her people, she couldn't wait to become a storyteller herself! However this... this wasn't a story... this was messy, this hurt and it tore at her soul to even look at herself in this state. This wasn't what she had been told about as a little girl, these weren't the valiant stories of beautiful men and women defeating the forces of evil and bringing light to the world. This was evil making her world ugly. This was the corruption of good. This was War and she wasn't sure she was ready for that... was she? Her brow furrowed as she heard the crack of a log on fire, followed by the familiar smell of a campfire. At least she was closer than she thought to home. Lifting herself painfully to her feet she started stumbling in the direction of the campfire.


***


The paint on Crow's face had had the time to dry and start to crack in the noon day's sun before a beaten and bloodied mess stumbled through the brush about twenty feet to his right and promptly fell face first into the dirt. He stood with a jump and quickly made his way over to what appeared to be a very tattered and bloodied apprentice. His hand was emanating a soft green glow even before he had reached the heap and he quickly rolled her over to inspect the damage. Her face was... a mess, and it looked like she'd had a good number of broken bones internally, his face grew grim as he worked his power into her, forcibly mending her wounds with power that he had been granted by his spirits. Crow was glad she had fallen unconscious when she had found her way back here because this amount of forced healing this quickly. When he was satisfied with how she looked he picked her up and carried her to her bedroll, lowered her onto it and wrapped her head where most of the bleeding had come from so as to help his mending powers more while her body slept.


Turning, Crow made his way back to his seat, pouring himself some tea as he began the long wait for Kaja to regain consciousness, "Well, she's in better shape than I was after my final test." he mused to himself. He hadn't been nearly as brave as Kaja when his elder had told him that on the night of his twelfth birthday he was to complete his boyhood by killing the animal the spirits had chosen for him to bring back to the tribe.


“This is going to be a long night I think.”