Aiding the Spirits

Ashera stood by the crossroads, glowing faintly in the growing darkness. She seemed to be the first one there, as she had been told there were three others coming. She was nervous, not sure when the others would come, and slightly uncomfortable in the darkness alone so far from her village. The forest beside her looked dark and foreboding. She kept thinking she saw the shape of a man in the trees out of the corner of her eye, but when she turned to face the spot, there would be no one there. She shivered slightly, and pulled her soft cloak closed, covering the silken looking dress underneath. She thought she could see someone coming down the road in the distance.

Myrddin had been travelling for over a week, and while the village's finances were sufficiently high to permit him a moderately sized budget for his adventure, he was not pleased. The village could not spare a horse for him (not that he could ride anyway), so he had been walking for most of each day since his departure. This had left him in a foul mood, and as he walked, a near ceaseless torrent of complaints flowed from him.

After a while walking, Myrddin looked up from his boots, thinking he must be getting pretty close. In the distance he saw a crossroads with small figure standing at it. This is definitely the place, thought Myrddin, and the right time. Better say something to let whoever that is know I'm coming. As Myrddin got a little closer to the figure, he raised his hand above his head and called out "Hello there!"

Ashera jumped when she heard the call, as she had been peering into the woods. Now looking at the figure approaching she shivered and began to glow more. She looked around at her surroundings, nervous, hoping that the approaching figure was friendly.

She glows? Myrddin thought, for the figure at the crossroads was unmistakably female from his current distance. Haven't seen that too much. Must be Zath-blessed. When he was close enough to no longer need to call out, he spoke to the figure, "Hi, um... are you here for a, uh, mission, of sorts?" Although the girl was even smaller than him, and quivering, Myrddin felt nervous about approaching her, "'cause I was told to come here, now, to perform a service... I don't know too much of what's going on, since my information was frustratingly limited, but I'm here, now, nonetheless, and here you are, so that leads me to wonder if perhaps you might be, you know, involved in this whole quest in the service to the gods thing. Or course, you could not be, in which case sorry for bothering you, but I thought since this was the time and the place that maybe..."

Realising he was rambling, Myrddin trailed off awkwardly.

Ashera gave a small nod and shifted away from Myrddin a little. He seemed...odd to her and she was feeling even more nervous now. She saw another movement out of the corner of her eye, but when she turned to look there was nothing there. When she looked back at the road, she thought she could see someone else approaching.

In fact, it was quite some time before Jocasta arrived at the crossroads. She was uncomfortably aware that sitting on a horse silhouetted against the sky made her too much of a target from a number of angles if anyone cared to shoot. She listened for every rustle or twig crack as she headed slowly towards the glowing light in the distance. It was constant and unwavering, which presumably meant unnatural and thus godly, given her mission, but she laid her crossbow across her lap anyways. It always paid to be prepared, mostly because you couldn't collect your pay if you were dead.

By the time the approaching figure got close enough to visualize it was almost completely dark and Ashera was getting more and more nervous about the figure she kept seeing in the trees.

Ajax stepped out from the bushes and mumbled "it'll probably be better to introduce ourselves in front of a fire, I've already made camp not far from here." And then he gestured towards the approaching horse person, presumably asking if he should relay the information.

After standing awkwardly in silence near Ashera for as long as he had, the sudden speech coming from his left startled Myrddin. "Holy crap!" he exclaimed, flailing backwards as Ajax stepped out, narrowly stopping himself from falling to the ground.

Jocasta pulled her horse to a stop, looking over the party with a growing look of skepticism.

"The spirits sent all of you?"

Ajax looked over at the newly arrived figure, and grunted. He finally found a companion who seemed to be dressed in a manner he could agree with. Ajax said, "follow," and walked in the direction of his camp; he made sure to move at a slow enough pace for the others to follow.

Myrddin looked between Jocasta and Ajax repeatedly. "Um... um... um. Yes." He said, pointing at Jocasta after a few seconds of muddled confusion. "...And why?" he added shortly after, this time directing his speech at Ajax.

"I made camp," Ajax sighed, tired of repeating his earlier grumbling. Not stopping, but slowing down enough for Myrddin and Ashera to catch up.

Myrddin stayed where he was. "Yeah, I heard you the first time. Pardon me for not just trusting the big, bald guy with weaponry asking me to follow him into the woods." He replied. "Right now we're out in the open, which confers a certain degree of safety, especially to those of us with no notable martial prowess."

Ajax shrugged, and chose to gather kindling to start a fire while there was still enough light to see the twigs and branches laying about; Ajax decided to stay within earshot of the group, as they would probably need assistance if they were attacked by the local wildlife. He also didn't trust them to inform him of the spirits arrival.

Ashera jumped when Ajax stepped out of the woods, from a different area than she had been seeing a figure. She stepped away from the others, still shaking and looked at them all. She was feeling less and less certain of this little adventure the more she saw of the people.

She jumped and stared as a man stepped out from the trees. He carried a bow, and had a wildness to him that seemed to come from his eyes. His clothing was neat and practical. Something about him made her feel like she should not be looking at him, but rather at the ground by his feet. Taking another step back she made a small squeaking noise and moved to hide behind the horse.

Jocasta quickly pulled her horse a few steps over.

"Spirits above, girl! Don't you know to stay away from horses you don't know? You must like broken bones!"

Satisfied that the stupid girl wasn't coming any closer for the moment, she turned to the figure collecting kindling.

"I'm afraid I have to agree with the kid. You're a big, scary, armed man who wants us to follow you into the woods. Any proof you're from the spirits?"

Ashera made another small noise and mumbled to herself, "I was at least 3 feet from the horse..." then gestured towards the new figure, trying to draw attention to him without having to say anything.

Ajax noded in appreciation on the new figures attire; after, he turned to Jocasta to hand over the letter he found at the shrine to Yir on his latest visit, making sure he remained within the horse's line of vision.

The figure spoke, his voice commanding attention, "I have gathered you all here for one reason. As you were told before, the spirit of life and death had gone missing. You need to find her. If you don't, life as you knew it will cease to exist. While she is gone, no one can die, and no child can be born. This means that those whose lives would be cut short by a sword must lie there unable to stand the pain but unable to pass on, and unborn children will grow inside their mothers unable to come into the world. The spirits must attend to their own tasks, which is why you were given this task. Do not fail me."

Thankfully, Myrddin was not caught unawares twice in a row. Putting aside his frustration towards Ajax, he turned to the new arrival. "Okay... who are you? You're not Aram, are you? 'Cause you have this air about you that's a little unnerving, leading me to think 'god', and most gods don't tend to wear hunter's garb."

The figure turned to Myrddin and said, "You are wise young one, but can you also be brave? Only time will tell."
He then began to fade back into the trees.

"I'll take middle watch," Ajax suggested. He didn't like the sinking feeling he was getting about how long this would take.

Myrddin thought for a moment. "I'll take that as a yes, then." He muttered to himself before turning to Ajax. "So I guess we can take Aram's addressing us all to mean that you're really a part of this, then. I'm Myrddin, by the way. I'm from a village about 152 kilometres east-southeast of here. If we're all going to be going along on this ill-advised quest together, names might be a good thing to know."

"Ajax," responded Ajax, clearly unhappy. Ajax retracted the extended note, and slowly moved away from the horse. He started wandering in the same direction as earlier, and gestured for the others to follow.