Discovering Marn

[Sky Khaleh]

Sky jumped when Ryoko took her hand, she had soft skin, nothing like Sky's own hands that had been hardened by tending to her family's garden. Ryoko reminded her of the princesses in her stories, kind and beautiful with hair like gold. She paused, momentary lost in thought.

"It's a long story." Sky said somberly, her eyes becoming watery as the water works started. She shook her head, she would not cry in front of these people. She had just been through so much, so many emotions running through her heart it was a bit overwhelming.

Sky was thankful after Ryoko started talking again, good they wouldn't see the tears in her eyes. Ryoko was some kind of Magistrate, what ever that was. Sky could tell it was someone of importance, she was dressed in fine clothes and had shining hair.

Drayel mentioned how empty the park was, to her it seemed full of people. She couldn't possibly imagine more people, she had never seem so many people in her life here in this city. It was remarkable how different each person was and how they are seemed to be going somewhere important. Sky followed Drayel's eyes, falling on the couple huddled together with smiling faces. They were laughing to each other, sharing some inside joke only they knew about. This was another new experience for Sky, she had never seem people behave such ways in real life. They did, in fact, remind her of two birds on the limb of a tree huddled together for warmth.

Sky reached into her bag, pulling out a lukewarm piece of food she had never seem before. It looked like the outside was made of hard flaky bread, along one side it had intentions where someone had pinched it. She brought the food closer to her face, and noticed a brown sort of sauce leaking out of the side. She blinked, confused. She held the food out, offering it to Ryoko as she pulled out another one for Drayel. She held the delicious smelling food in both of her hands, offering each of them one.

[Ryoko]

Ryoko watched the couple for sometime as Sky looked at the food. After they laughed the two got close to each other again and started to talk. For most people just watching the couple would make you happy. The amount of joy they had just talking to each other is overwhelming. For Ryoko, the emotions she was feeling was that of loneliness and sadness. She wished she had someone like that. The one person she thought could e like that ended up stabbing her in the back. She was thankful that it happen, because she learned not to trust anyone. Ryoko's smile faded away she she continued to think about those things.

Until now she didn't even notice that Sky was trying to hand her some food. Ryoko looked at her with an emotionless expression. Taking a seat at the near by bench Ryoko took a bite out of the food she had just handed her. It was actually really good and was still warm. The meat inside the breed was still warmed and melted in her mouth. The bread was just right, it wasn't too soft or hard. Smiling Ryoko looked over at Sky and Drayel and said, "This is actually really good, I think I will start going o the store for food for now one."

[Drayel]

"I wouldn't. He's a bit of a foul if you're catching my idea." Drayel grunted as he politely accepted the food as well but didn't eat it, instead pulling out a cloth and putting it away for later. He'd just eaten after all. He glanced around the park again as he simply sat back and thought. Well, brooded more like him. Sky was clearly a bit of an optimistic woman, nearly childish if those dreamy eyes she kept giving off were any indication. Would she be staying in Marn long? Was she meeting up with somebody to live here? He hoped it was one way or the other, he knew full well she wouldn't last long on her own. Especially with her... appearance. Drayel sighed as he seated himself on the ground, shifting his sword out of the way to lay almost lazily on the ground.

"Do you have family here?" Drayel asked glancing over at Sky as he motioned to the open spot on the bench. "A young lady like yourself shouldn't walk around a city for long by yourself. A shove is not the worst that can happen in a day and you're quite lucky I was nearby. Thank you for the food by the way."

[Sky Khaleh]

Sky smiled at Ryoko, pleased that she had enjoyed the food. She took out the last pastry and took a large bite. Her blue eyes widened, she had never tasted anything so different. The bread was sweet and inside was vegetables and chunks of some kind of meat. There were so many different flavors and textures. She scarfed down the rest of it in record time, too hungry to care what she looked like.

Sky shoved the bag into her sack that she carried slung over her back, it was actually a large blanket made of different skins sewn together.

After hearing Drayel's question she felt a pang of regret. She sat down beside him, once again getting as close as possible without touching him, personal space wasn't in her vocabulary. "I left my family." Sky said, her eyes hazy and unfocused as she fiddled with her gold leaf pendant. She squeezed her eyes closed, she could feel so many emotions and they all threatened to cause her small body to explode. She tucked the pendant into her shirt and opened her eyes, staring at the ground. Something white caught her eye, she reached out and grabbed it hastily, holding the feather that had fallen on the ground in her hands to cover it up.

She stood up fast, Drayel's words echoing in her head. What of they saw that feather, what if they found out what she is? Surely they would not be this kind. She clutched the feather to her body, glancing around to make sure no one else had seen. Her eyes were wide with fear, once again poised to bolt at any minute. She waited for one of them to hurt her, looking back and forth between Ryoko and Drayel. Maybe they hadn't seen. She liked them, she didn't want to have to run, she didn't have anywhere to run to.

[Ryoko]

Ryoko listen as the they talked, her eyes where focused on two birds preach on a tree. The two birds didn't even notice the people walking below them as the started chirping a duet. It was a wonderful thing to listen to, but mid-way the two birds started flying around he park. They were now to far for her to hear and turned around to focus on Drayel and Sky. Ryoko almost jumped out of her seat when Sky stood up rather fast. She didn't catch what they where talking about and was trying to figure out why she was so afraid again.

Standing up she looked over at Drayel with a confused look. Looking back at Sky Ryoko asked, "So what do you think of the park Sky?" She hoped that this would relax her since she looked so jumpy again. Looking around she notice some red and blue flowers next to them. The red flowers had petals that where overlapping each other. On the other hand the blue flowers only had four petals each. Ryoko pointed at the and ask both Drayel and Sky, "What do you two think of these flowers?" For her it showed that two different type of things could live in harmony next to each other.

looking back over at Drayel she smiled as she walked over to him. Stopping next to him she waited for what the two of them thought about the flowers. Trying to ease the mood she looked over at Sky and smiled at her again. She figured the best thing right now was to look as harmless as possible since it seemed like Sky was jumpy about everything.

[Drayel]

When Sky leaped to her feet, so did Drayel. His hand flew to his hilt as eyes immediately scanned around them for danger. She was spooked, wasn't she? So what was dangerous? He eyed around them, even after Ryoko kept talking as he tried to locate the source of her fear. He backtracked mentally in an attempt to find what caused her startling.

She'd grabbed something out of the air. He hadn't seen what it was of course, she'd swiped it too fast. Yet that didn't seem like something to get spooked about. He forced himself to appear relaxed again, hand still kept firm on the hilt. He didn't want to upset her more then she'd been but it was clear something was wrong. He couldn't settle until he figured out what happened.

"I understand your previous incident leaves you rather jumpy but may I ask you not move so suddenly next time?" Drayel asked dryly as he stood awkwardly beside her, lips curling in a forced smile. "I'm afraid my training makes me rather twitchy as well. I don't want to accidentally skewer an innocent passer by mistake."

He couldn't help the scolding that came from his tone. Not only was this woman alone, but she was damned naive as well. He sighed a little as he let his hand drop from the hilt and looked instead at the flowers Ryoko mentioned. He didn't really notice them at first, his constant passing of the place making it seem almost monotone.

"They are pretty though." He agreed dully. "I don't know the names of them, but I believe there are purple ones around here too."

[Sky Khaleh]

Sky let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding in. Her eyes were drawn to the flowers that Ryoko mentioned, they had bright colors much like the people she had seen. Sky looked deeper, picking out the soft bed of clover that grew underneath the flowers. She stuffed her feather into her sack quickly, than bent down and plucked one of the clovers. She held it up, a smile crossing her face.

"I think the flowers are wonderful, Ryoko." Between her fingers she held a clover with four leaves. "This one isn't like the rest." Sky mumbled to herself, she plucked one of it's leaves off, making it like the others. She set it back down among it's counterparts.

Her eyes were drawn to Drayel, feeling ashamed to have started the kind knight. "I-I'm sorry." She drew her eyes to the ground like a scolded child. "I didn't mean to make you upset." She drew her cloak together, the huge garment seemed to eat her body. "I just...I've never met anyone outside of my family..." She looked at Ryoko and Drayel, wondering what they thought of her, they must have grown up in this city. "I thought...I thought I might find a place to live here, but I didn't know things would be so difficult." She blinked, trying to keep the tears from her eyes. "I don't fit in anywhere, I am so stupid for leaving, I should have listened to my mother." She bowed her head, hiding her guilt. "So stupid..." She mumbled to herself.