A Morning In The Woods [Closed]

The first bird of the morning stretched its wings out and began to sing its early-day song. The Dawn Chorus had long since begun when Dorian finally opened his eyes and clambered out of bed. A small hut, just outside of Colburn, had been where he had made his bed for the night. A hunter's lodge, if you will. He smelled the crisp scent of gunpowder in the air, and used that smell to wake himself up. Getting to his feet and rubbing his eyes, he made quick stock of his belongings, ensuring that he had brought along everything that he had wanted to use. He wasn't fighting too hard right now, so a simple wooden quarterstaff was his weaponry of choice. Everything else remained in his armory back at his home. Several wrapped parcels of dried meats were spread out on the table, and while most of them were returned to his rucksack, Dorian unwrapped one and hungrily dug into the preserved venison. The strong, gamey meat woke him up further, and he quickly finished off the food. That would sustain him for a good number of hours. He had a trek to make. He wanted to make it to Glitterhold by nightfall, if he could.

He had plans to make way to Grandview. It was going to be a long trip, especially on foot, but it was a trip that Dorian felt he'd have to make this way. No self-respecting caravanner would want to take anyone within five miles of Grandview, and the ones who would take you to Grandview would sooner slit your throat and rob you of your belongings than actually take you to Grandview. It was a lose-lose situation, trying to go by vehicle, so instead he would make his way on foot. It was going to take him at least two weeks to get there, and all of his energy, but the prize at the end was apparently worth it. A man had sent him a message, informing him of something that was going down in about two months. A caste of mages were planning a raid that was not allowed to happen. They wanted to steal a large shipment of Void Steel, being sent through to Grandview. He didn't care about the details--he was just given information. These mages were sick, even by the standards of Grandview. He was informed that the citizens of Grandview were more than equipped to deal with these mages, but it was a nice idea to inform him anyway--in case he wanted a few easy thousand. He told his informant that he'd 'see what he could do'. The walk there probably wasn't worth the few thousand he'd been offered, but at the same time, he wanted a change of pace. It had been quite some time since the services of the Magebreaker had been requested.

Sticking to the game trails and using his generally-okay sense of direction, Dorian had started his journey in the direction that he knew would take him to Glitterhold. He wouldn't stay in the town, as that alone would be suicide. It was a landmark to him, nothing more. Of course, things never went the way you expected them to go. The sounds of something coming through the underbrush caused Dorian to immediately regret bringing along but a simple stick of wood, and when he turned to meet the source of the charging, he was certain that he heard a human voice shout after it. From the undergrowth, a black shape lunged at him, body colliding and pushing him to the ground. His back hit a stone and he made a grunting noise, but other than that he had little by way of reaction to this situation. There was a dragon on top of him. "Owwwww..." A hand went up and rubbed his temple, a movement which elicited a threatening noise from the dragon, "Woah there, just rubbing my head. It's sore." His motions were slow and deliberate, so as to avoid startling the beast. Another figure came from the undergrowth nearby, though Dorian recognized this one as human. And beautiful, at that. "This is... awkward. Uh, hello."

"Oh my gosh! I am so, so, sorry!" He laughed and waved a hand in her direction, shaking his head and smiling at her. "Don't worry... about it. It's fine." For some reason, just being near this woman seemed to have a calming effect on him. He figured that it was just her looks and nature, but at the same time he couldn't really think any more on it. She simply made him feel happy. Normally, he would be suspicious about such a thing, but he didn't really care right now. "That was mean! You're not supposed to push people!" Finally looking up, he saw the dragon giving her a snarky look. He didn't realize that dragons could show that much emotion, then again there was probably quite a lot that Dorian was unaware of. "I'm sorry about that. Are you alright? He looked up at her and gave her a small smile, moving some of his fringe off of his face, "I'm quite alright, thanks. A bit winded, but you never know what to expect from the Dragons. First time for everything, I suppose." He laughed again.

The girl bent over to dust off her knees, and apparently called forth the love of another creature, who came yapping out of left field. Dorian raised an eyebrow to see a little ball of fluff sprint underneath Serenity's legs and whoosh past her. A puppy, it seemed. This girl was in possession of a decent number of pets--well, he counted two right now--and all of them were somewhat hyper in their own ways. The puppy dashed over to Dorian's side and yapped at him, wagging its tail at a stupid speed. He sighed softly, reaching out and scratching the little puppy behind her ear. "Well... she seems to like you already." He laughed, "Which is funny, because usually animals avoid me." He shook his head and went to get up, when he noticed that the green-haired woman had extended a hand out to him. He reached out with his own hand, taking her hand and accepting the help-up. She had a strange look in her eyes regarding him, and then he looked at her a little bit more. She was... startlingly pretty. "Hi. I'm Serenity." He blinked and nodded, feeling the dragon push him up to his feet. He looked down and brushed some of the dirt and stuff off of his clothing. "I'm Dorian," He smiled at her. "So, you... spend a lot of time in forests like this?" He started, not really sure how to go on with it, "I mean, you don't seem like you've been out here for very long, so I gather that you're probably nearby, right?" Melisandru's words echoed in his mind. He still didn't know how to talk to women, that was for sure.

"I'm not really around here... I'm a few miles in that direction." She pointed away from Colburn. Pretty much exactly away from it--an act which caused Dorian to chuckle softly. "Oh... No, sorry... Over there, near Colburn is where I'm at." Yep, he'd thought correctly. He laughed a bit louder at this, an act which got him a huffing noise from the dragon. "Understood. I'm... not from around here. I've been travelling for a while, aha. I used to live in Colburn, but went somewhere else when I left Rydian." He nodded and folded his arms, "I come out here to play with these two away from his house. Alain doesn't want these guys, well... this big dragon... anywhere near his house. He lives in this community with a lot of dumb rules and people watching and telling on each other if someone breaks a rule. It's really child-like in my opinion, but I can sort of understand... If a community agrees on a rule, everyone should be required to follow them, not just a few." Dorian raised an eyebrow. The girl didn't want people to see her dragon, because she was worried that her community would be against it? He sighed a little bit at that, shaking his head, "Yeah, I get what they're on about. It's probably a little bit frightening to them, seeing a dragon so close to their homes. After all, they only know Dragons to be beasts of murder, do they not?" He gave her a smile at that and wiped some hair from his face.

"So what are you doing out here?" He blinked, "Travelling... I've got somewhere I apparently have to be, but don't... I guess it's not really a priority. What happens will happen with or without me." He nodded at her, and noticed her approach him, taking the glove off of one of her hands. "Can I touch your hair? I like it." He went to respond, and apparently she didn't care. Her hand went up and touched his hair, running fingers through it and generally just playing with the locks. He wanted to say something, to tell her 'no', but he just couldn't. He sighed in defeat and let her continue touching it for as long as she wanted to. She stopped after a few seconds anyway. "I like it and the color. It's like my green hair, yep yep.  Nice and long and soft." He smiled at this, [color:0d82=#blue]"It is lovely hair, yes. A nice color and everything." He said, wondering exactly what was going on. Was he in some kind of dream? A pretty young lady was touching his head like this--what was going on? "So, uh..." he started, unsure how to continue, "Do you like it out here? In the forest, I mean. It seems quite cold to me, though I guess I can't feel it like most people," he laughed, motioning down towards his rather light clothing.

"You ask strange questions. Usually people ask things like that because they have no idea what else they could say." He tilted his head to the side and laughed softly, shaking his head, "You seem to have accurately hit the nail on the head. I don't normally talk to people out of place like that." He chuckled softly, placing his hands on his hips. "Don't worry about trying to make conversation. I live with someone who's pretty silent unless I ask him things, so it's no bother." He blinked, "I mean, I guess you can ask me things." He didn't really know what was going on right now. He had expected to be going to another place right now, and instead he was stuck talking to a new person. Curse the Twelve and their ways. He sighed softly.

"Oh... If you want, I could try to get you a little farther down your path... You said you had somewhere to be, right?" He frowned. "Honestly there's no need--I've given it plenty of time, I should be okay." He shook his head, red hair bristling over his back. "We'd be glad to give you a ride. Even if not flying, he's faster than walking. What do ya say?" He opened his mouth, breathed in to respond, and was immediately and brusquely interrupted by the introduction of another woman.

"I can tell you what I think about that!!" He blinked. She stepped towards the other girl and spoke at her, "Serenity, I've missed you so much! I went by your house, but you weren't there. In fact, the place looked abandoned, so I went to Aria to figure out where you were and Queen Aranhartte was kind enough to point me in your direction! He raised an eyebrow. She was acquainted with Queen Aranhartte? Who was this person? Why was he unaware of her presence? Even with his connections, he had literally no idea who either of these people were. Admittedly, he probably wasn't very accepted by Aranhartte. Most people inside of the Arcana circles didn't appreciate his presence or his line of work. "How have you been and why the hell are you out in the middle of the forest with a puppy, a dragon, and..." He stared quietly as she turned towards him, "Who's the hottie?" She had tried to whisper, but he was pretty certain the city of Colburn could hear her. He scratched the back of his neck and mumbled a few words in broken Braukan, before letting out a soft sigh.

"Name's Dorian Nicola... that's really all you need to know. I go by another name, but... I'm not sure people like to hear that name. They either get a cruel smile or a scared expression on their face. I don't think you'll smile cruelly." He sighed sympathetically, shaking his head, "You know, normally I'd whisper to a friend about your attractiveness," He directed this at Reina with a tongue poked out, "But since you've given me the option of saying it out loud, I'll just ask Serenity here," He grinned,

"Who's the hottie?"

"I'm Reina!" She blushed and hid her face behind her hands. Well, that had most certainly garnered a damn reaction. He caught a slight grin along his lips. Something about Reina really made him want to tease her more. "She's a friend of mine. We worked in Aria together before I moved out." He blinked. Okay then. He decided to avoid teasing further, and waited to see what else would happen. A small thought of time nudged at the rear of his mind, but he really didn't mind right now. He was being entertained by two particularly attractive women. Serenity had curves, while Reina had an appearance that he really couldn't seem to take his eyes off of. He shook his head in assumption--they clearly both had men of their own. Why wouldn't they? Besides, he wasn't even considering a relationship at all, was he?

He blinked as they spoke to each other, not really taking in too much of what was being said. He knew about Brauk's predilection towards weaponry, as he'd done a bit of his training there. "I received training in Brauk as well... my sword training was through a Master... Kilgore, I believe." He nodded, not really caring if he elicited a response or not, "Oh... Hm... What's your other name? And why is it apparently scary?" "Yeah... I'm a little curio-..." He had opened his mouth to say something along the line of 'I don't really want to talk about that one', when he was interrupted. A few things happened here and there, and then Serenity seemed to ask Reina the strangest question, "Do... Well... Do you think... that maybe, I don't know... You want a dragon?" He blinked. Well then. That was surely unexpected. At this moment, Dorian felt like a bit of an intruder in a conversation between friends.

"What." That would've been his response as well. "The man I'm living with... He lives in a community that has certain rules, and unless I want to move out or get him kicked out... I have to get rid of the dragon. I haven't even been able to name him because of it... I love him and I want someone who would take care of him to take him... I trust you for that." He tapped his chin, understanding that sentiment. "Sure. I'll take care of him for you, if Dorian helps me do it." He raised an eyebrow as he caught on to what was being said, "Waaait, wait wait wait. What."

The two girls erupted into their own tittering of conversation after this. Things were said back and forth that Dorian didn't quite get. Eventually the subject came up that made him stare blankly at the two of them. "I want a boyfriend, damn it, and rarely do I come across a man as polite and attractive as he is." "...You and I both know you'll chicken out the moment he tells you that you're his. You're scared of men, Reina." "N-No... That's not true anymore! I worked on it and I've gotten over that fear." Uh... did he get a say in any of this? Y'know what? Fuck it.

"Sure, I've got nothing better to do anyway. Even if it is just a ruse to get me alone." He shrugged and grinned softly. It was possible that she was just going to chicken out when it came to the fact, but he could most certainly enjoy the companionship either way. And he didn't really feel like killing mages within the next few weeks. So sure. "I mean, if you're willing, that is. A pet like that is a big responsibility, you know." He grinned teasingly.

Things happened, while Reina reaffirmed her own courage regarding the dragon. She apparently had every wish to remain like this, strengthening her resolve to look after this young beast of burden. He smiled quietly as he watched the pair converse between themselves, and laughed softly when the dragon knocked the woman over. It had been quite some time since he had last had a chance to live like this, simply standing and smiling with people, not caring about the petty arguments between men that forced their hands. It was a nice feeling, and even if nothing else came of it, Dorian was certain that at least he'd finally be able to call a couple of people his friends. He placed his hands in his pockets and yawned lightly, blinking a couple of times when he heard himself being addressed--he was certain it was himself, since Serenity's voice had gone from facing away from him to going towards him, "Are you up for the task? Reina will take on anything and everything someone throws at her, will you?" He blinked a couple of times and lowered his gaze, stretching out a little as he did so. Serenity's eyes were this unusual combination--there was a definite seriousness in that expression that he could see, but it was combined with an almost playful note of challenge. Even if he hadn't wanted to before, that expression made him want to take on the challenge, to prove to her that he was worth everything she thought he was--and more.

"Considering the nature of my pet projects usually, I think I can handle this kind of challenge," He chuckled softly, shaking his head, "It'll be refreshing, frankly." Folding his arms and watching the pair play was giving him a warmth in his heart that he had not felt in quite some time. He thought back to his days at the Academy and smiled warmly and genuinely--if Serenity had been paying attention to his face, she would see that the smile was indeed different... almost reminiscent. The lines on Dorian's face were deep when they were there, and if he had removed his clothing right then, every scar would tell a story. The story of a man who yearned for moments like these, and very rarely got them. "I think I can do it." It took him a moment to realize afterwards that Reina was not paying attention to anything bar the dragon, but it seemed that Serenity had more to say. The seriousness in her expression further increased, and Dorian felt the absolute need to listen to her.

"Thank you..." He went to respond, but it was clear that she wasn't done, "She can be a handful... but she's sweet and very, very gullible... So, please... don't hurt her." Once more, he went to respond--but the words just couldn't escape his throat. What could he tell her? That his life was in danger every day? That if anybody recognized her as being with him, that they might just decide her as a target? No, he wouldn't allow that. "And don't let anyone hurt her." Serenity would see that honest and genuine smile fade to become something a little bit more wry and pained. "I don't think I could handle it... if I lost another person. So don't worry. I'll protect her." He replied, and continued to watch Reina with a pensive--yet happy--expression.