The sun beamed down upon her face. Moist heavy air lingered instead of the light fresh air that the girl was accustomed too. Her ocean blue eyes fluttered open but instead of greeting the sky, all that hung above were thick branches that only allowed spots of light through. Attie pushed herself into a sitting position as she observed the rain forest surrounding her. Only one question remained on her mind. 

How did she get there? 

"Hmm. Sitting around here won't get me any answers." She commented to herself, "I'd better check my journal to see what happened. Wait…"

A sense of panic spiraled through her as she realized her bag was no longer strapped around her shoulders. Jumping to her feet, Attie searched the area for any sign of her stuff. She found nothing until she looked in the tree above her. The bag was dangling off one of the higher branches by the strap. 

"Now how'd that happen?" She muttered out loud. 

Attie rubbed her hands together to prepare for the climb, she began to use the branches to make her way up the tree. She slipped once but managed to recover quickly. Once she made it to the top, she snatched her satchel and took a seat, going through the bag to see if anything was missing. Her journal still remained. After pulling it out she flipped through the pages to find where the last thing she'd written down was. After reading the passage, everything made sense.

Little did she realize that a rugged thief was hiding in one of the bushes on the ground. He had his bow and arrow pointed towards her back, ready to shoot……

Such an easy target. Blind to his presence. Ignorance of the threat he possessed. Distracted by her own cares. An easy target, for sure. Now then, should he take her leg to ensure she couldn't give chase, or her life so that she may never speak of his actions? These thoughts filled his mind as he notched an arrow into his short bow, confident that, at this distance, it would do the damage he wished for it to do. The wind was light: enough to ruffle the leaves of the tree, but not enough to affect the arrow itself. A good day indeed.

Quietly, his hands raised up, slowly and quietly pulling back on the string to his bow. Carefully, he took his aim, eyes scoping down the tip of the arrow to his projected path. He let out one last, small sigh before aiming to catch his breath, and yet…. haze? A shiver started to go down his spine, his arms… His entire body began to shiver, not of nerves, not of chill. Since when did it get this cold? Did she notice him and was acting ignorant?! Her guard seems down at the very least, so he should act fa–

"Awaken, my blood, and grant me thy ice," was chanted from behind the rogue in a draconian tongue before a wall of ice formed between him and his target. The sudden voice and spell caused the man to lose his grip on the arrow, making it fly forward, but not into the intended target, but the forming and rising wall, which in turn caught the arrow within its grasp and was raised higher into the air, soon followed up by the rogue himself. However, he was not raised up by the ice itself, but by the hand of the maiden that forged it herself, holstering him up by the collar of his shirt. "I don't mean to be rude here, but not only were you planning on looting this poor woman of her goods, ut you would leave her abandoned with a fresh wound and no source of medical supplies? May as well give her a death sentence for a simple bag–"

"Screw you, you bitch!" he snapped back, hand grasping a dagger at his belt before thrusting it into her side, a large grin on his face as he did so… before it vanished away into shock. The fabric that wrapped around her body was unphased by his knife, but it was just a fabric… right? Even if there was chain mail underneath to protect the fleshy bits, the fabric would have been pieced, yet why did it seem like all he hit was a piece of armor? A faint glow turned his attention elsewhere, back up to the face of the woman he attempted to assault. An obsidian shard around her neck was glowing faintly and her face, while trying to hold its smile, was certainly quite irritated…

The sound of his skull being tossed into the wall of ice certainly echoed through the region, letting the rogue's body to fall over on the grass as Jesgil brushed herself off. "You just had to take it that extra step, huh?" she muttered as she stepped around the ice wall, the ice itself slowly cracking as it adjusted to the air's natural temperature and the impact from before. "Excuse me," she called out to the woman near the tree, "but are you alright?"

At first, Jesgil would have seemed pretty normal for a human dressed up as a maid, outside of her hair which spoke more of crimson, yet the roots held more of a silver strand to them and with some bundles of hair along. However, smaller details would be more notable the closer she stepped forth. Her ears, while they held a point like a elf's, were much shorter and fatter. Both her hands seemed to have missed a pinky digit as well. However, the most notable were her bare feet, walking upon the balls of her feet as her heels were raised much higher. Toes were much smaller, but that didn't seem to matter as what would have been nails had now taken the shape of talons.

Attie remained utterly oblivious of the threat that lurked in the bushes. Her attention appeared to be grasped in the journal. She brought out a quill to begin writing new information down. Just as she was about to reach into her bag, she heard the sound of an arrow and then saw the ice wall rising up from the ground. Spinning herself around to see the attackers, Attie realized that she was not alone in this green rain forest. Standing on the ground was a beautiful woman with bright orange eyes and a strange outfit.

The beautiful woman held a rogue by his shirt's collar. Attie opened her mouth to speak but then shut it again. It would be better to watch and see what was to happen. As Attie listened quietly to the woman speak, she learned that the rogue was planning on shooting her with an arrow and stealing her bag. Why did everybody seem to have such a high interest in her bag? Surely the simple clothes Attie wore would be telling enough that she didn't have a large amount of money? 

Instead of answering politely, the rogue cursed out loud and attempted to stab the maid with a dagger. Yet the woman's fabric remained unscathed. Attie began to write furiously in her journal and began writing a description of the scene that was playing out before her. The beautiful woman's clothes were some sort of armor? The obsidian shard around the lady's neck almost seemed to be glowing. Were the strange clothes the reason why the woman seemed to be protected? Or was it the obsidian shard around her neck? That and thousands of other questions raced through Attie's mind as she watched. 

The sight of a human's skull being smashed into the cold ice wall was new to Attie. She attempted to draw a picture of it. The sketch looked as though somebody took a sword and mashed it against a tree. Finally, the battle had been won. The beautiful strong woman called out to Attie.

"I'm great!" She exclaimed

Attie made her way down the dry tree and jumped to the ground, using her hand to steady herself. Then she rushed over to the stranger like a dog who'd seen a squirrel. 

"That was amazing! Who are you? Where did you come from? What are you doing here? What is your life story? Where are we? And can you teach me how to do that?"

Excitement glistened in her deep blue eyes. Not only did this woman just demonstrate a large amount of strength and power but she also seemed to have a high level of confidence. She wanted to know absolutely everything about this stranger. 

The woman seemed alright as she had plenty of strength to get herself down so easily before joining up with the wandering maid. However, the burst of rapid fire questions was certainly overwhelming. At the very least, though, they were simply that: questions. No real chaos that needed the shard's power to help overcome thus returning it to its dull state. "Now now, one at a time please," Jesgil asked a bit nervous, despite the gleam of curiosity and excitement that flooded her eyes.

"First off, my name is Jesgil Yamar, and I am a wandering maid traversing these lands in order to aid those in need. As for why, I have thought it would be best to give me some time to relax and enjoy the natural hot springs Apoy has to offer. However, since I have been here since the early hours, I thought I would explore a little bit. Can I assume that by you asking where we are you are not native to this land? Or did you perhaps found yourself falling out of an airship?"

As the air around them warmed up and mana was not being concentrated, the ice wall suddenly began to crack before a chunk gave way and crashed upon the earth, causing it to shatter like glass. However, not a spec of water was dropped from it, despite the ice shrinking away at a quicker pace. "As for that, I am afraid it is hard for me to teach you that, as its more of an innate power that I trained rather one that took hard study. However, if you cross the ocean to Parvpora and visit the city of Iria, I am sure the College there would be willing to teach if you have the potential."

Still, two questions were being neglected as she turned back around to the fallen rogue before working on binding his arms together. "If you don't mind, could you carry his bow and arrows for me? I am sure the people of Apoy would be glad to imprison someone who threatened your life, or at the very least get patrol from the mainland to take him in for us.

A look of surprise befell Attie as she had not predicted that the stranger would ask her questions, for it was the first time that anybody had showed curiosity in her. 

"Oh well I have absolutely no idea how I ended up here." Attie began to explain, "When I checked my journal the last entree was a description of how it felt to be drunk. I suppose I have been black-out drunk. Or at least that is the only explanation I can come up with." 

The drinking was merely an experiment to learn about the experiences of alcoholics. Seeing as she remembered next to nothing, the experiment appeared to be a failure. Instead of letting herself become disappointed, she focused on Jesgil and the possibility of learning magic from her. It became clear that learning from the lady would be impossible and that she would have to find this information from Parvpora somewhere. Attie pulled out her journal and began writing the locations down for future reference as she would not give up on learning that magic. Even if it took her forever to learn it, she was determined to be able to use that magic.

Suddenly a bow and arrows were being offered to Attie. She swung the bow around her shoulder and dumped the arrows into her sack but the smell of the weapons were….off. Turning her attention to the rogue, she began to sniff him and his clothes. Attie noticed a small slip of parchment paper sticking out of his back pocket and snatched it to read. The slip of parchment provided answers for all the questions that she hadn't bothered to ask, seeing as he was knocked out and all. Folding the paper back up, she returned it to the rogue's pocket and turned to Jesgil. 

"Could we see where he lives first?" She asked the lady, "I'd like to ask his daughters a few questions. Then we can send him to the jail or give him to the patrol. You seem strong enough to keep him in captivity anyway." 

"His… daughters?" Laying in front of her was a man who attempted to kill her with the intent of mugging whatever kind of goods she had… and she wanted to see his daughters? Wait, how did she even know he had family of any kind? Honestly, it did not take her long to figure out it was probably from the scrap of parchment she took from him to look over, despite it being an invasion of privacy.  A heavy sigh escape her lips as she muttered an apology to them unconscious man before pulling it out herself to take a gleam of it.

It was a simple little note sprawled with large letters done by hands that were not used to the quill, it seemed. No sense of true uniformity meant whoever wrote this had not gained the writing dexterity many taught adults had. Clear signs of one who had not adapted themselves to writing and are in the midst of learning. Put that together with calling the middle-aged man Dad, it was obvious to tell it was a child of some sort, but why use daughter? Couldn't it have been a son of some sort? And how did she know there were multiple?

Please don't tell her she was being set up…

A light glow began to emanate from the obsidian shard as she processed the potential chaos and trap she may be walking into, but she felt confidant enough to be able to handle herself if that was truly the case.

"Fine, fine," Jesgil admitted, "but if anything goes wrong, you will take responsibility for this, correct?" Lugging the man to his feet, Jesgil adjusted him to hang over her shoulder.. "Just note that if he lives in the woodlands and not in the village, I will not bother to seek them out," was her final warning before she worked herself back to the main road and to the village.

"I'm fine with that." Attie said, "Thank you…by the way. You did save my life." 

Turning her attention back to the hunter, she crouched down and took another sniff of his scent. She stood and began to follow the scent with her nose. All her senses were suddenly heightened. Her eyes could see a small bird from far away and her ears could hear a babbling creek in the distance. Yet her most powerful sense was her nose since everything seemed detectable. She could even follow the hunter's scent back to where he came from. Following the trail, she could also pick up other scents along the way. It seemed that this hunter wasn't the only one who would go out into the woods but it appeared as though he was the only one out there currently.

"If you were wondering….I found two longer hairs on him while I was sniffing him up and down." She explained, "Most boys don't have long hair, although I suppose he could have sons with long hair."

Attie showed the two hairs to Jesgil then placed them in her pocket in case she needed something to track the kids down. Despite being extremely observant at the moment, she normally wasn't this observant. A smile appeared on her face as she was able to spot the village up ahead. Stopping in her tracks, she turned to the lady and gave her a nod to indicate that this was where the stranger lived. 

"…I wanted to ask his kids a few questions about his behavior." She began to explain, "As you probably noticed, the rain forest hasn't been in the best condition. I imagine that would cause animals to flee or to find other places with more food. This is just a hunch…but I suspect his behavior has to do with the fact that he cannot find any food to sell. I mean look at his bow! This is a hunter's bow, not a fighter's or theif's bow. But he also smells like alcohol so he might just be the drunkard of the town. I want to know for certain what he's like and what the consequences of putting him in jail will be on his kids. It may or may not be a good thing." 

She decided to be upfront with Jesgil on what was going on within her mind. Attie hoped it would ease Jesgil's suspicions and make it easier on them both to get the job done. She looked to Jesgil to see what her reaction might be.

"You would actually be surprised how wrong you may be," Jesgil chucked as the hair was brought up. "There are some nations that actually see men with long hair as handsome, and others use it to symbolize how long they have had peace, only to be cut down when a war approaches so that it may not get in the way. I am sure these things will come to you as a shock at first, but its the knowledge of the land and the people you meet that can help you expand. It would be wise to also be as open minded as possible."

It wasn't too hard to find Kinigoh Village. After all, they were the place a ship to get on and off the island, as it was the only part of the land that had been civilized. "But are you sure?" Jesgil questioned. "Even if they could not gather as much meat as before, they should still have plenty of vegetation to go around. Not only that, but I am pretty sure its not yet time for the chief to send a gift to Apoy, either…" It has been, what, six years since the last present sent to the volcano? If she had no real idea about the ways of this island, some of the details would probably shock her. "Besides, it could be that the hunting season is just about to end, too. After all, you cannot simply gather all the animals on the land for their meat without consequences, no?"

Still, it bothered the Draconian: Why was she so carefree about this, willing to find a light in someone who tried to shoot her? He could have shot Attie to kill, the shock could have caused her to fall out of the tree, the wound could have gotten infected if she had no medical kit… She wanted to let a man to cause a spur of chaos back into the land. It was like she wanted to pity him and hope that Jesgil would feel the same way. But no. This man, though a tiny wave, was still a source of chaos that had to be put back into control. A shame she will have to have his family watch him get dragged away.

"Well, we cannot simply stop here. Let's get going, shall we?"

"That's fair. In all honesty I don't know much about humans. I only know what some have told me so if there is more information, I'd like to know it." Attie explained, "Perhaps on my journey I'll be able to learn just as much as you have." 

She began to walk down the hill to get to the village. Her footsteps were careful so that she wouldn't slid or fall as she had on going down previous hills. Thoughts whirled around in her mind as she internally debated the situation. What was the right decision? Was there even a right choice? She picked up a stick to begin playing with it as she finally spoke. 

"Their vegetation might have been damaged too seeing as the rest of the world seems to have decreasing plant-life." Attie explained, "I think it might be some sort of spell or magic that is causing it, although I can't be certain. Besides, when food starts running out I've noticed that people become desperate, even if the situation may not be the worst yet. Anyway this is all just my theory. I might be completely wrong about all of this which is why I want to ask his children to see if they have all the information. And, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask something of you before you turn him in." 

Just as she was about to speak, her foot slipped out underneath her and she landed on her back. A sigh escaped her lips as she realized that she slipped while going down hill again. She slowly pushed herself to her feet and continued to walk, only with more caution. 

"Anyway I'd like you to ask around and see what the punishment for attempted murder or attempted theft is." She said, "I don't want him to face consequences that are unfair. I've seen some towns that will whip a person over a stolen piece of bread, even if the thief is a child. Going to jail or something along those lines are fair consequences but I will never send a person to death unless it is absolutely necessary, especially if the crime is just against me." 

Attie saw the village getting closer and closer until she finally arrived. The village was filled with busy people bustling about as little children were running around the streets. Everybody in the village seemed to be rushing about trying to work and barely had the time to notice the new strangers who were dragging a hunter with them. Attie turned her head to Jesgil and gave her a warm smile. 

"His house isn't far from here." She informed Jesgil. 

Don't… know much… about humans? As far as she could tell, unless there were some inherit traits being hidden away under her garb, she looked pretty human to Jesgil… Well, maybe the way she acted was not exactly human. After all, she seemed to have sniffed him like a dog.

"I can at least tell you he will not be punished severely for attempted theft like he would be in Edgora," Jesgil commented, "but most regions would have some form of detainment for attempted assault, worse if he was tried for attempted murder." Would she still be this kind to the man if Jesgil was but a moment later and found her leg impaled by his arrow?

The busy state of Kinigoh was certainly unnatural. Sure, the place was often deemed more as a tourist destination with its hot springs, but right now the commotion was off. The chieftain, especially, seemed worried as his mulling thoughts escaped his lips. "Oh, what do we do? What do we do?! Apoy has never acted this way before. Was the last gift to him not enough? No, he wouldn't wait this long to say something. But what should we do then? Oh, the folks who an make such an offering are either too young or are not pure anymore. Surely, there is something we can do…" Sure, the mulling was done in the native tongue so that guests to the islands would not easily catch what the panic was about, but his worries were written all over his face.

"It seems we may have caught you at a bad time?" Jesgil stated to him as the pair headed to the hunter's supposed living arrangements, which made the burly man leap out of his trousers in shock.

"O-Oh, forgive me. I-It is not much much you should worry about. B-Be sure to enjoy your stay… But, if I may ask, is there a reason why you have Gustav carried over your shoulder as such? Did he get wounded during a hunt?" As much as Attie wanted to keep this man's record clean, Jesgil would not hold back.

"Wounded, yes, and if by a hunt you mean another's belonging's." Her eyes shifted over to Attie. "He held a drawn arrow at this woman when she was distracted, and unless he was trying to get a hawk that was right next to her, I can only assume his aim was to do her harm in some form." The chieftain's face grew a bit paler as it seemed yet another item to worry about was tossed onto his plate. Still, he fixed himself up fast before the other could notice and called out in native tongue, summoning a couple more men to haul off Gustav from the Draconian's shoulder.

"We will try and learn what happened from this at a later time. I am sorry for his actions, but to help understand what happened, I will ask for testimony from the two of you at a later date. I do hope for your cooperation then." His mind mulled elsewhere as he tried to mutter solutions to himself in native tongue about Apoy's change of behavior.

"Sorry I could not stop that," she told Attie as she scratched the back of her head, "but I am assure you he will be alright."