Welcome to Gaia! ::

( on the isle of valor)

:: Reaper waved to the company gathered to see him off. a small gathering of family and a few friends, and his ship began to set sail to lycia. He watched until he could see the crying of his adopted mother, or his best firends wave. He turned, and looked at the approaching land mass. the Elibe mainland. He was soon to embark on his journey to find his family. starting in the port of Badon ::

( reappear in lycia )

Krett swiveled his head to once again look at Takako. "Do you think our mystery man here knows we can still hear him?" There was a clear streak of amusement in his voice.

Lyle waited for Takako to almost get out of view and then took the time to look at the monk. He certainly was not a shield of force or anything close. If Lyle was going to survive, he'd need to have some more metal between him and anything sharp and stabby if war was coming. Besides, he'd never live it down with his family or clergy if he let two innocents run off to certain death. He also supposed he had that pesky conscience to deal with. It's one thing when an army already has ten healers to run away, but none...

"I can't believe I'm about to do this," he grumbled under his breath and then facing Krett, "I'll trust you not to ask me what the hell I'm doing, because it's very obvious that I don't even know what I'm doing. May the light of Etruria guide you on your path and to safety...and once again, I trust you'll have the good enough sense not to mention this anyone. If anyone knew that the unstrikeable was actually headed towards a war, they might begin to expect it."

Lyle tossed off his cleric vestments, his gaudy symbol, and his healing staff and stuffed it into his pack. Underneath all of it, he was wearing just plain traveling clothes and looked fairly average on is outside. An awkward bumbling youth with a full pack.

"This is crazy," Lyle thought to himself, "there's no way I'm going to be able to keep hidden from them. I'm going to have a pissed off noble and a pegasus knight on my already bad record. Eh. Maybe I can get out of the clergy if I fall far enough."

With that, Lyle tried to follow the lord and knight quietly from a distance keeping hidden from sight behind the trees when he could.

"Why couldn't they have taken a break from the God stuff to teach some stealth and camoflauge and tracking."

((You guys, I'm thinking of using JD's two-ships map for Main Quest Chapter 2. It could take place at a river port heading for Ostia. I think Takako (who would have followed Finn all the way to the port like any lovesick peggy) should bump into Lyle and Krett again. Then we could all be stowaways! Yay! surprised Then we could use the bridge one for Chapter 3 when we're trying to break into the castle. That'd be so hot.))

Takako hid silently, sitting in a tree branch above the river where the young lord slept. Maia was grazing in a plain over by the edge of the forest, and the cool shade from the tree shielded her from the afternoon sun.

Syvern? ... That was... his best friend. I had a best friend too, once.

She was wandering aimlessly for her own selfish, silly reasons. To follow this boy she didn't even know and who didn't want her help. It was probably best if she returned home to Ilia, but it was already too late. She couldn't return home empty-handed, to the town where so many faded memories lived.

Takako gracefully slid down from the tree branch, making only a slight sound as she rustled through the leaves. She turned and ran back to the plain in case the lord might have heard her.

"Nante muzukashii na koto, kata omoi wa
What a difficult thing it is, these unrequited feelings... "

Finn slowly takes off his circlet, breast plate and vest as he quickly dives his head in the water, in a weak attempt to clean his face and silver hair. Removing his head from the water, he runs a hand in his hair and prepares to remove his pants to bathe a bit: following his noble way of life when his whole body harden into a ready position: He heard a nois.

His blue eyes scan the woods for an instant, yet another sound is heard, making his hand run to his Wolf Beil before getting up. Leaving his equipment there, he begins to run in the direction he heard the slight sound and finaly, barely, recognize the Pegasus knight's silhouette.

Yet he doesn't get up his pursuit.

As Takako runs through the trees, she hears a sound behind her.

She turns her head for an instant and sees the shape of the young lord.

Shocked, she tries to run faster, but keeps turning her head back to see if he's still behind her.

... And trips over a fallen tree, landing face down in the leaves and dirt.