Chasing Legends (Augen, Schala)

[recon5]

Keine had just put the fishes onto a skillet when she heard Vandater's voice. A brief glance through history almost made her forget her cooking due to the pity she felt for the newcomer. She had to help immediately. "Vandater, come over here and watch the fishes. Turn them when you think the bottoms are brown enough and take them out when both sides are that way. The rice is in that wooden steamer over there, you can serve everyone if you can't wait any longer. I'll prepare the vegetables when I'm done with the visitor."

She went into one of the rooms and fetched a towel, then she hurried over to the door to let the young girl in, placing the towel around her as she did so. "Please, have a seat by the fire," she said, gesturing to the fourth cushion, "You must be cold and hungry after what you've been through."

Without waiting to see if the girl would sit, she went to the back of the house to fill the bathtub and began heating it, using her magic instead of a normal fire to speed things up. As unreasonable as she thought the girl was being for running away from her own home, the child was suffering at the moment and she had to help first. Advice could be given later.

----

Carlos was quite surprised at the girl's arrival. The fact that she was out at this time of the night made him certain that she wasn't from the village and her elaborate clothes indicated that she must be quite well off. He couldn't quite think of anything that might explain her current state but she seemed to be in enough distress already so he refrained from making any comments.

[Schala]

Kitria was also surprised that the girl had arrived, but nevertheless she greeted her with a warm smile and a friendly "Hello."

-----------------------

"Thank you," Caedir said as she sat down. "My name is Caedir. I've come to seek adventure, which is hard to come by on the moon."

[Augen]

Vandater had followed Keine's orders and was in the kitchen, watching the fish intently. She had never seen fish prepared this way. Then again, her people grabbed them as they swam by and swallowed them whole, but Vandater knew better than to do so around terrestrials. Nonetheless, she wasn't certain exactly how browned she was supposed to let the meat get. So she tried to remember the one Kitria had prepared earlier that day and checked the bottom, trying to compare it with the image in her head. Looked like it was just a little past time to flip it over, so she did so.

[recon5]

Keine went back into the house after she thought the water was warm enough and fetched more biscuits and tea for her guests. She then went into the kitchen, brought out the vegetables and dumped them into the pot together with the fish stock, which was now boiling nicely. Finally she went over to where Vandater was grilling the fishes and checked them, finding to her surprise that the Youkai had done a more than decent job of keeping them from getting burnt. "Thank you, Vandater. Go and have a seat and tell our new guest she can have a bath at the back of the house if she wants. Dinner will be ready very soon."

[Schala]

Caedir was very happy that she had found some new friends. Each one looked human but Caedir knew that appearances often decieved, and Caedir herself was not going to be deciet.
"I'm a Lunarian," she said. "My three sisters forbade me to go down to earth, but truth be told, I want to be a hero, so I left."

-----------------------

Wow. Caedir had revealed everything.
"I'm Kitria," Kitria said. "I'm a platypus youkai, and you are welcome to stay with us. I seek adventure too!"

[Augen]

Vandater walked back into the living room, looking over at the newcomer. "Hello, there," Vandater said, giving a slight wave as she smiled at Caedir. "I'm Vandater. I just recently arrived to these lands, and uh... There's a bath ready at the back of the house, if you want to use it."

[recon5]

Inside the kitchen, Keine busied herself with the last of the dinner preparations. She quickly fried two eggs and sliced the omelette as thinly as she could, then she scooped rice into four bowls and draped the egg strips over the rice before finishing up by topping each bowl with a pinch of dried seaweed and sesame seeds. Finally she placed each bowl on a separate tray along with a pair of chopsticks and a soup spoon.

Then she turned her attention to the fishes, placing each half on a separate plate and drizzling sweet soy sauce over it before placing some sliced pickled vegetables in the corner of each plate. Again, each plate went onto one of the trays along with an empty bowl for the vegetable soup she had boiling outside. After wiping the sweat off her forehead she took one tray to each of her guests, filled their bowls with the vegetable soup and finished off by refilling their teacups.

"Now, enjoy your meal. I have to go out to meet a friend of mine but I'll probably be back by the time you finish. Leave the washing up to me and try to get some sleep. You have a long day ahead of you tomorrow."

She left the house without saying anything else. The truth was that she hadn't any food left for herself after Caedir's arrival and she was going to visit Mystia's food cart for her own dinner. However, she was confident that Mokou would be there at this time of the night so her words about 'meeting a friend' weren't exactly a lie either.

----

Carlos smiled at Caedir and introduced himself as well. "You can call me Carlos. I'm just an ordinary human, or as ordinary a human as one can be in this land."

What he found interesting was her claim of being a 'Lunarian'. That obviously meant that she was from the Moon, which would fulfill yet another of the myths he'd heard in his own world- the myth of a Lunar race. This was truly a land in which myths came true. However... he doubted that the Moon was also within the boundary of this fantasy world, which would mean that his own world should have realized the existence of a Lunar race. Perhaps the governments of his world had been hiding this information from their people.

"You say you got here from the moon? I'd like to hear how you achieved that."

----

((OOC: In case my post wasn't clear, each character has a bowl of rice with eggs, half a grilled fish and a bowl of vegetable soup. They also have their own individual trays, spoons and chopsticks.))

[Schala]

Kitria started on the fish. "Thank you Keine-sama," she said.
She then turned to Caedir.
"So, what is life like on the moon? Is it extraordinary?"
After she heard Caedir's answer, which was very interesting, Kitria told her how Keine was taking them to see a friend of hers who knew about myths and legends.

-----------------------

Caedir was very happy. She was eating her rice when Kitria asked her about the moon.
"Oh...well to you, it's like nothing you've ever seen before. The rocks are like diamonds and the water is very nice. But to me, it's all too...ordinary."
As to the bath, she had just arrived, so she wanted to relax. "No thank you," she said.
And how did she get off the moon?
"Well...it took a lot to not get found by my sisters. I had to keep hiding behind rocks and things and then finally I was out of sight enough to go fly down to earth, and it was easy seeing as the moon was full."
When she heard about where Keine was taking the group, she became excited.
"Maybe at last my chance to be a hero!"

[Augen]

Vandater paused and said, "Well... In that case, I think I'll head over there myself. I'll see all of you later," she said with a wink before walking off torwards the back of the house.

[recon5]

A million questions popped up in Carlos' head at the girl's mention of 'flying' down, but he didn't raise any of them. It was likely to be magic again especially since she mentioned the full moon making it easier.

Still, he didn't see how 'being a hero' could be worth giving up one's home and one's family. It was a common sentiment back in his own world as well but he'd never understood how people were willing to sacrifice so much for a bit of adventure. While he himself hadn't been completely happy at home he hadn't left by himself either and he was sure that his parents and siblings were worrying about him right now, although he tried not to think about it too much since he wasn't likely to get home anytime soon.

"Won't your sisters be worried about you? What will you do if they come to this land to find you?"

[Schala]

Boom.
That last question had struck Caedir speechless. Her mind, too, began to explode with thoughts. What if her sisters did come looking for her? If they were really only trying to protect her when they told her not to leave...
She said nothing. The solemn-yet-shocked look on her face was no match for everything her mind was saying. And it was buzzing with all these questions and answers that led to more questions that led to answers that led to questions...
She traced it all back to the beginning. When had this all begun? What sort of other turn might her life have taken if said event had not happened? Where would she be now? Had she made the right choice? The wrong choice?
Or was it not a matter of right and wrong, but something...deeper?

[Augen]

Shortly after Vandater had found the bath at the back of the house she undressed, got the hot water ready, and then sat in there for a while, enjoying the steaming waters and the opportunity to be alone. Just her, the water, the silence, and...

A head. The beast-head of one of her people, his humanoid head drifting out from the emptiness where the neck should be. The eyes were soulless, and it was clear that the last emotion they ever held was one of shock and fear. It looked like the steam and all of the water in the bath had been stained red with his blood.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Vandater closed her eyes and let out a loud scream, jumping up and extending her claws before she opened her eyes and realized... The head wasn't there. The water and steam were normal... Everything was normal except for herself. Was it all an illusion?

[recon5]

Carlos leaped to his feet when he heard Vandater's scream and in his rush to get to her his crystal ball rammed into a doorpost and cracked it. He stopped only to move the ball out of the way, more worried about his friend than about what their hostess might say of the damage. It took him a handful of seconds to find his way to Vandater but when he got to her it seemed like the threat had passed. The girl's frightened expression meant that something had happened, though, and there might be lingering effects. "What's wrong? Were you attacked?"

----

What Keine had said of her house was also true of the entire village, to a lesser extent. Concerned villagers began to gather on the other side of the wall, trying their best to look in and see what had caused the scream, and soon there was a sizable crowd of men, women and children milling around the back of Keine's house.

A moment later the crowd suddenly fell silent and parted from the back to allow a small figure to pass through. It was a young girl with violet hair who commanded the respect of the villagers despite being two heads or more shorter than most of the adults. The girl made her way to the wall and turned to face the crowd with a stern expression.

"What do we have here? Has peeping become an acceptable pastime nowadays? You should be ashamed of yourselves."

A burly man with a stubble-laden face stepped forward. "Akyu-sama, we heard a scream and we came to see what happened."

Akyu placed her hands on her hips and glared at the man, making him back off. She then pointed to the window which was quite far above her head. "I'm sure most of you know that this is the bathroom. Would it have hurt for you to go in from the front? What would you have done if it had been a Youkai attack? Seriously, I can see why Keine complains about her job."

The villagers began to shuffle their feet, their faces becoming sheepish. Many of them left at that, the women herding their children home with them, and eventually only the burly man and a handful of other meatheads remained, confident that their strength would be useful if Akyu let them do anything. Akyu sighed and looked at them. "That's much better. All of you, follow me around to the front door. I'll try to get hold of the people inside and if they don't answer you can put all that muscle to good use."

When they got to the main entrance, Akyu rapped sharply on the door and called out to those inside the house. "Excuse me, we heard a scream from this house. Has anything happened?"

[Schala]

Kitria jumped when she heard the scream. She was about to run into the bathroom when there was knock on the door.
"Excuse me, we heard a scream from this house. Has anything happened?"
Kitria opened the door to see a...child.
"I-I don't know," she stammered. "I was just about to go see."

-----------------------

Caedir's musings were interrupted by the scream. Oh, wow. Another mind explosion.
What had happened? Was Vandater okay? And the girl--who did she think she was?
Thought jam aside, Caedir decided to go into the bathroom and see what had happened. She saw Carlos standing there.
"Are you all right, Vandater?" she asked calmly. So calmly that you would never know her thoughts were spinning.

[Augen]

"What's wrong? Were you attacked?" "Are you all right, Vandater?" These were the words Vandater heard just as she regained her senses. She turned to see Carlos and Caedir standing there... And let out another scream as she quickly covered herself with one hand and tossed a bar of soap straight for the seer's head.

At first she didn't realize she had done so. She had acted faster than she could think. She calmly reached for a towel and put it around herself as she got out of the bath. Then she decided that she should probably explain. "... Sorry about that. I saw... something in the water. A head, and a lot of blood... But then it was gone. I think... I think it was just an illusion. Don't worry... I'm not hurt." Indeed, she was unharmed, but she was still shaken up by the whole experience.