-=-The Realm-=- Open and accepting.

[Tanaquil_night]

Coursabal was quiet for a long time before answering, his deep raspy octaves low, "The same thing I find so disgusting within myself... We both sharpen the blades of our lives...until any who try to get close end up cutting themselves."

He looked down at the dark bundle in his arms, her black blood starting to stain the fur of his chest.  

[ManagerKyoto]

Yet, in sharpening our blades we hurt ourselves the most. I know exactly what you mean."

Pedrius gave the reigns a slight whip and the chariot had a short burst of speed. From the scenery below, Pedrius gathered that they were atleast half way there. It should only take about 1 or so more hours. Of which there was more arkard silence. Pedrius knew that there was more to Coursabal's distane of him. After a while Pedrius spoke again.

"That look you gave me, just before you go onto the chariot, what was that about?"  

[Tanaquil_night]

"What you ask for is the story of my life, Knight of the Holy." His voice was a soft raspy growl. It wasn't uncommon for players to keep their life in the Realm separate from their life in the Otherworlds. Here they could do things that apparently they weren't capable of out there...

Well, he wasn't a player. He didn't have the luxury of being able to hide the scars of his past by playing around with other peoples' lives. He looked down softly at the faded form in his arms. She had saved him from his past...and given him the chance at a future.

"I'll make a deal with you..." His eyes didn't move from the grayed body that he held like a child. "...I will tell you why I loathe most players... and why I hold such contempt for the Holy... if you would just so easily tell me who you really are out in the Otherworlds. When you tell me why you run to escape what's out there... then I will tell you why I am the way I am."

He has spent too much time around D'artra... she was starting to rub off on him. A year ago he would have just snarl and left it at that. But now... making exceptions? He shook his head softly, doubting the player known as Pedrius would bring himself to bare such personal information. At the moment... he even began to doubt himself.  

[Tanaquil_night]

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

It was quiet now.

One of the strange people had stayed, taking a seat not too far from the bedside. Dark eyes had followed the older woman's movements for a while, but there seemed to be no threat. After a while the other female fell into the silence they now shared.

It was stressed. A heavy silence. Hot and sweaty with the force of a pack of race-horses. There was a tube connected to her nose that made her constantly want to sneeze, but somehow breathing had become slightly easier.

For a long time she just let her eyes lash upon anything that moved... but then the pain returned and she could do nothing more than close them. Still, the sweet intoxication of sleep never came. It didn't matter how long she tried, there was no use. She couldn't remember. There was nothing. Nothing but a vast empty expanse where her mind should have been.

Though something twisted in her chest, dark sinking claws wrapping about her frail insides until all she knew was the dark shadows of sorrow. She didn't know how, nor why... but she was alone. It wouldn't have mattered if she had been in the center of a crowded room... for she was completely alone.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~  

[ManagerKyoto]

Pedrius thought for a minute about what Coursabal had said. When was the last he had told anyone what he did for a living or when in time he lived. With a sigh, Pedrius spoke.

"My real name is Nick Jones. My parents owned and operated a mulitude of successful Restaurants. And when they died, I inherited everything. You do not know how right you are about Otherworlds, Coursabal. I am from the year 2615 and our human race as expanded far beyond our solar system. We have met races the likes of which this world had never dreamed of. We have gotten to the point where if you want something, you can get it without any hassel. And that is why I came here. Here, I have had to work hard to get where I am. Instead of just being handed everything on a silver plattter. Here, I have forged my own name. Here, I have been able to do everythng that I was never able to in my world."  

[Tanaquil_night]

"I was still but a pup when the group claiming Holy's name broke into our Clan's territory..." Coursabal's eyes never left the grayed form of D'artra. "...they claimed to be, 'eliminating evil'... Only myself survived. I was helped by one who I had thought to be my enemy. I scratched out the side of his throat. When he finally got me to calm down he stayed with me for the night, guarding over me like a father would. The next morning, when I awoke, he left without a word nor sound... but there are no goodbyes in this world. What happens, happens and there's nothing anyone can do to change that. When I was nearly on my fifteenth year I was hunted by a pack of mages and rogue magic-users... and before I met her there was barely a city standing that would allow me within its walls... When she found me I had barely any of my fur, the fire was too intense, and... and I was being picked at by the carrions. In my delusional state I couldn't trust my eyes, but I could smell her... and for the first two weeks of healing I relied upon smell... and she smelt of him....."

He put his nose to the wind, eyes shutting at the simple pleasure of the feeling. "Half a year after we had been traveling together, after the healing had been complete, I met him again, this time by her side." a soft smile turned his wolfish lips. "You should have heard how happy the cursed bloke was... saying how now both his children had returned to him. When D'artra went to bed he told me... told me everything. It's been 12 years since she's been able to find her way back to the Otherworlds... to that life out there. To that life that she can't, for all the reason in the world, seem to recall. She only remembers what she knows of here. Of this world."

Slowly he turned towards Pedrius. He'd tease him later and maybe call him 'Nick' instead... but not now. That would come later. "Unlike you she didn't come here to earn what she wanted, but more so to escape what she didn't... at night you can hear the pain... the sadness... it eats away at one....."  

[ManagerKyoto]

"Breath at a time. I know of the feeling, but have felt it in a long time. At first I came here to escape the pain that was my life. But after only being here for 2 months, I realised that I could do much more. I found that I could make up for everything I had been lacking."

Pedrius paused and thought back. Thought back many years.

"I remember some of the higher ranked Players talking about a Lupine clan that needed to be dealt with. I was against it the minute I heard about it. Honestly. It was not Holy's way to just wipe a clan out without first sending some one unbiased in to scope it out. I did over my services as the inquisitor, but I was rejected. They said someone with a bit more experience was neede. And the man they selected had a known vendetta against all Lupines. When the call to action was made, I basically had to hang up my cross. Sadly, most of the Players that attacked that day fell from Holy's side to Darkness's bossom. I, since that day, have been hunting them when ever they show there ugly heads. They have become marked men."

Pedrius looked at the reigns and tightened them alittle. It hurt even think of how those men of honour fell. It hurt to think that Pedrius had at one stage been worse then most of those men were. It hurt to just remember the pain he had inflicted on so many souls.  

[Tanaquil_night]

"I've come to trust near to no one in this horrid world." The lupine's words were quietly serious. "And at the top of that list of distaste remains Magic-Users and Knights of the Holy... beneath that flows a list too long for even you have time to hear of."

His fingers pulled D'artra's body tighter before his eyes peered about curiously. "The Tied Gryfon should be beyond that ridge up there... nestled between the cliff and the forest."

Sure enough a small haphazardous two story building stood just beyond the tree line. To most passing travelers it might be overlooked easily. It took one who KNEW it was there to find it. The first sign that it dealt with people who preferred to do things out of the light of others.  

[ManagerKyoto]

"Well, we should settle down here then. We don't want to attract too much attention to ourselves."

Pedrius pulled on the reigns and the horse dived for the ground. At the last minute, they pulled up and the chariot came a complete stop. Pedrius stepped down and waited for Coursabal to do likewise.

"You go on ahead with D'artra. I'll hang back, out of sight until I know it is safe for me to enter. I don't think my kind would be so welcome here. I might even bump into one of those marked men as well."  

[Tanaquil_night]

"This is a place of refuge, Nick, not a place for fights." Coursabal turned his muzzle to face Pedrius, his eyes calculatingly faxated upon the male. "If you do not draw that blade of yours no one will even cast you a second glance, regardless of what or who you are. It's all part of the rules of the Tavern. If Cassie approves of you you're protected in there, if you come in under a patron's wing, you're protected in there. If you start anything you're immediately disposed of."

He turned and began his steady way towards the tavern, calling back in raspy octaves, "Though if your wish is to enter alone and unguarded, then so be it...."

It was a simple choice, really. And strangely enough, the lupine seemed to enjoy the fact that it wasn't a choice at all. Either this Pedrius went in with him, or there would be a large chance of trouble following them about like a derranged love-sick puppy.  

[ManagerKyoto]

"It is not a matter of being protected if I go in. It is a matter as to whether or not I go in at all. You did not listen to a word I said not more then 15 minutes ago. All you did was listen to me name and forget the rest."

Pedrius clicked his fingers at the chariot. The reigns around the horses necks, as well as the chariot, turned to dust. The horse on the other hand, quickly as possible, run back up to the heavens and awaited their next summons. He turned to Coursabal and gave him the good old evil eye.

"And if you ever refer to me as "Nick" again, I will have your hide as my winter coat. When I leave this world, I am Nick but not here."  

[Tanaquil_night]

"You assume much about me, knight."

D'artra had always said assumptions could get someone killed... then again, where was it that her instincts had gotten her?

Coursabal shook his head almost sadly before clutching D'artra's form to his chest and steadily walking towards the tavern. His raspy voice came back formally neutral as he slowly moved away. "I thank you for your assistance. You need not worry for the sake of the inhabitants of this world, no harm has come to them. You've done your duty."

Although the lupine held a higher respect for the Knight of Holy it was difficult to forget the years of hatred and loathing that had built up off of individual instants. It was hard... to forget a life-time of hatred.

Maybe he had been wrong about this one knight. He knew it. There was that familiarity that sparked a link between him and D'artra. There was that light touch of indifference. Still... he was a player. And like all players he would end up leaving in the end. Better now... than later.  

[ManagerKyoto]

As Coursabal strode towards the "Tied Gryfon", Pedrius looked around for somewhere to rest and wait. Glancing around the clearing, a few places stood out but there was only one in his mind. It as a large flat rock underneth a large tree. The trees branches were spread wide and cast a shadow over the entire area.

He strode over to stand ontop of the rock and spied everything around him. From here, Pedrius could clearly see the tavern and the more trodden paths to it. This place would be prefect.

Pedrius sat down at the trees base and leaned against it. After a little repositioning, Pedrius felt comfortable and tired to relax. But in little of where he was, he was unable to. All he was able to was just sit there and think.  

[Tanaquil_night]

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Another doctor returned, and dark eyes narrowed suspiciously. Where was everyone? Who were these people? She felt her body shudder, and could do nothing to hide it.

The older woman had fallen asleep in the chair, her shawl wrapped about her shoulders tightly. The man in the white long-coat walked over slowly, smiling softly.

"Hello there...just going to do a routine checkup, is all, nothing to worry about." His voice was gentle and trying to be kind, he was just doing his job. But... there was something about his jacket... about the unyielding ammounts of white... that made D'artra want to scream and thrash. She tried to shift away from the man as he reached for her left wrist, but her body wouldn't comply. Tears burned unshed behind her eyes as she glared at him.

He laid two fingers upon her wrist with feathery softness, but even that caused her delicate skin to revolt in pain. When he pulled away he frowned as a set of dark bruises began to form where his fingers had been. Then he explained, "When you get stronger that'll stop happening."

He then turned to check her drip. When he replaced it with a new one, a sickeningly yellow color, he then offered her one last smile before warning, "Tomorrow you start thearapy, we've got thet best in the country coming out here tonight, so I suggest you try to get a bit of sleep..."

He glanced at the sleeping woman and sighed before stepping over to her. His fingers lightly brushed her arm and she startled away. "Mrs. Earins? Ma'am, you should get home, we'll keep good watch over the little lass, okay?"

The woman stiffled a yawn before looking from the man to the bed-ridden girl then back again. Reluctantly she gave off a little nod of her head. "Yes... yes that might be best."

She stood and adjusted her dark shawl, her eyes falling upon D'artra's all-too-skiny body. She smiled in a warm-hearted way, but all the dark eyed child felt was a growing coldness.

"I'll return next I can, okay Deckiartra?" Dark eyes just followed the woman as she left. Once the man was finished up he too left, and she was as alone as she felt. She shut her eyes, the tears burning pain down her face. maybe they would bruise...

~*~ ~*~ ~*~  

[Tanaquil_night]

Barely an eye moved when the Pearly Lupine entered the barroom of the tavern. A pair of men sat in the far corner, their features obscured by the darkness as they spoke in subtleties. No doubt plotting something. But even so, it didn't matter. All here respected the house rules. Regardless of personal preferences. If you couldn't carry a level of respect then you weren't allowed to stay foot in the place.

He carried the young female's form passed a pair of gambling gnomes and a dark elf that was warming his hands by the fire. Passed the battered round tables and a snoozing goblin. In this place apprehension and doubting fears were put aside. There was no segragation. No racism or hatred. It was a haven for those that wished to escape the world they knew. Only peace was allowed within those barn-board walls. Only peace.

Twin colored eyes found the proprietor and it only took on glance from the aged woman before she gave a slight nod of her head, her pale eyes looking at D'artra's form almost mournfully. "He's in the back... though I don't know how much good he'll be... he went on another bender last night..."

Coursabal gave a nod of his head. There was barely a night when the Corvierian man didn't go on a bender. He had once even been so bold as to proclaim himself the... well, the King of Fermentation. As he turned towards the door that rested beside the stairwell a lightly calloused hand brushed his arm. "Cour... The Lady Snikit is with him...try to remember you're still in my home, please?"

He gave a deft little nod of his head. Snikit and him had very strongly opposing opinions in cerrtain matters. Still... she was Alacade's friend... Alacade's and D'artra's. He sighed before going into that room and disappearing into the shadows it held within.