you fill up my senses like a night in a forest

[bonecraft]

WHO: Roesia & you
WHAT: Being a weirdo.
WHEN: After the execution, after the Shepherds leave.
WHERE: Various.
NOTES: Blood.

the town square.
She comes into the village when it is late - the safest time. While the guards are on alert, the townspeople are, for the most part, asleep. The shadows are long, and Roesia knows how to ask the earth to keep her steps quiet. It's the world around her that made her aware of the danger - first the Shepherds and their hunt, and then the death of their quarry. It is that death that brings her into the town square.

In the village, she covers herself; long, dark sleeves and skirts, the hood of her thin cloak pulled down low. She carries a few leather pouches, strapped to her belt, and a hunting knife is tucked between the cloak. Slipping between the shadows, avoiding the scrutiny of the guards by yawning when one gets too close - just a young maiden, returning home, time to sleep...

When she reaches the site of the execution, she looks for the blood-stained earth. The body is gone, and she can do nothing for it - but his death does not have to be in vain.

the forest.
Maybe you've wandered deeper than you meant to. Maybe Roesia has wandered closer to the village than usual. Either way, there is a young woman with black hair and strange eyes gathering plants and mushrooms, placing her choices in a woven basket. If you smile at her, she will smile back. She is polite; Mother taught her well.

Comments

[pestler]

Charging at her is just about the least likely thing Finian is going to do, although he does seem a bit nervous. This could be anything from the strangeness of meeting an unknown person in the woods to being a boy still undergoing adolescence and seeing a girl who's so... This. He looks away before he stares, but part of him doesn't want to.

"Um. Yes," he stammers, rising to his feet, "thank you-- they're not-- they're not yours, are they?"

[bonecraft]

He's just a young thing, a buck still adjusting to the new weight of his antlers. Cute, she thinks, and smiles a little brighter.

"Not at all," she reassures him, glancing up at the leaves above them. The forest is her own. Roesia lives in her, partakes of her gifts and offers to her. Others use her and do not know what it is they do - it is why they don't go in too deep, she thinks.

"They grow where they wish - not bound by fences or carefully plotted land. Can you truly own something like that?"

[pestler]

It's not that the question is strange, perhaps it's just the way it's phrased-- not to mention, given in answer to another question. He resolves to take it as a no, the mushrooms aren't hers.

"I-... suppose not," he admits, offering a sheepish smile. He finds that he's blushing faintly, and angles his head so that it will hopefully be less visible: unfortunately, he's ginger, and that's worse than impossible. He glows.
"I've never seen you before."

[bonecraft]

He's blushing. Roesia keeps smiling, reaching up with inked fingers to push some hair out of her face.

"I do not come to the village much," she tells him - admits, even sounds a bit sheepish about it. Would that she could! Would that those in the village would learn of the truest way to worship, of the way the elements are all a part of them and that what they call profane activity is simply a natural extension of that. The gods have given them gifts, and for what? To have them thrown away?

"But my name is Roesia."

[pestler]

"Roesia," Finian repeats, trying to remember if he's heard it before. He doesn't know that he has.
"Um. Finian," he replies, thrusting his hand forward to shake it, his cheeks red and his smile wide; what else is there to do? "Finian Lanson. I'm the village apothecary."

[bonecraft]

She takes his hand almost curiously, like a cat gently reaching out to touch something with its paw, deciding what it is. She's more firm after a moment, though; she knows of handshakes, just seldom has them offered to her.

"Oh, are you? That's lovely." She means it, smiles at him widely and with white teeth. "The mushrooms are a great deal of help for that, I'd imagine."

[pestler]

He mirrors her smile, unable to help himself. "Yeah," he says absently, realizes he's staring, and nods quickly. "They are. Helpful." A pause, perhaps a little awkward, "...and tasty, sometimes."
Not everything has to be medicinal.

[bonecraft]

"Very," she laughs. "And some create wonderful dyes, too!"

Not that it looks like Roesia knows much about dyes, considering the black she's wearing, but... well.

"Are there any others that you're searching for?"