Challenges

[Omio]

Len took the mask, pausing for a second to put the mask into his backpack, and then catch back up to Saira. Then he undid his own gas mask, bundling it up, and putting it into his hood, not going to need it for a few hours. Besides, they looked a bit strange with them on. Then she asked about town, and he figured to tell her what to avoid and what to expect first.

"It really depends on where in town you are, because you can generally divide it into four kinds of places. Two divisors to really worry about, too. First thing would be building-wise. If you're in one, life usually is half-decent; though I prefer to stay out of the crowded ones. Too much commotion. Crowds usually translate into bad news. Or, to cover two parts, crowded room, or semi-empty room. Then there's the streets. That's when a crowd is a good idea. A lot of people don't exactly mind if you do something seemingly normal or natural in any economy, but anything weird has to go on when there aren't any crowds, like me jumping onto walls and buildings, or using Firedust for anything, or whatnot. It all depends on intent."

He began to flicker his hands a little, as if to be signalling something odd to Saira. It was actually a language of its own, and one that wasn't too common to find, but when found, was a great asset. 'Do you know Han?' was what he said with his hands, seeing if Saira would actually know this language. He doubted it, but giving it a try would help now more than ever, since they were safe on travel.

[WolfEnchantress]

She listened with wonder, like a child would liseten to a story almost. He made them sound simple. Crowds were usually bad. Don't do anything wierd like jump onto walls, which shuoldn't be pa problem, seeing as she couldn't do it anyways. She wasn't quite sure what an economy was, and was about to ask, when Len began flicking his hands. She closed her mouth and blinked in momentary confusion.

Then she made a thoughtful face. She knew it was a language, that much was obvious, or at last it had some meaning, but had no idea what he meant.
"What are you saying?" She asked, perplexed. She's never seen any type of silent communication, aside from the wild hand gestures of bandits on occasion for silent raids, which wasn't saying much. Usually those were so mixed that even their own raid group had troubly getting what they meant.

[Omio]

"I asked you if you knew the language of hand signals I just spoke, and it seems obvious that either you don't, and want to learn it, or you do to some small extent, and are either rather curious as to how it works, or are interested because of a past experience, and remembering something from this as either a revelation or a nightmare." He was rather over-analytical all of a sudden, which proved to show the amount of worry going on within his mind. His face didn't show any effect, though. However, his running into a tree didn't exactly help, as he stepped backward-sideways-ish a little, though he soon walked around and past the tree.

[WolfEnchantress]

She listened to the rushed explanation and picked the one that suited best.
"I've seen the style of speak-with hands-but not this style. Only from bandits in the forest, which is rather unorganized and clumsy. and yes, I would love to learn." Somehow, the thought of being able to speak not only with mind and words, but hands as well, seemed fascinating. Maybe once they met up again with Sarora and Kimara, she could teach him how to speak with Sarora in her mind. He would be able to understand her, but speaking back to her-intentionally, anyways-would be almost impossible without practice. For those who thought too loud the dragon could often hear their thoughts, though it did take some effort.

Then Len ran into a tree. Surprised, she froze, and he stepped back, this time stepping around the tree. She worridly stepped to his side, inspecting him.
"Are you all right?" She asked, concern seeping into her words. He was acting a bit strange, and running into things was the polar opposite of how he'd been acting the past day and a half. "Is something bothering you?" The only thing she could think of was the men sent to kill him, which was a very good reason to be distracted.

[HoudiniDerek]

Kimara shook the grizzled head as Sarora flew off and came back. Once the dragon had settled and told Kimara about the stash of food, Kimara just smiled. "You are quite restless, Sarora. And flying in the daylight in a large hunter area is just reckless." Kimara looked reprovingly at the dragon.

"You are going to have to try to take your mind off of her. She has a few days to go to get there and back. She will be outside your mind range soon if she is not already and flying high in clouds so you can keep in minimal contact is not smart for us."

Kimara sat down and stared at the dragon. "What are you going to do when this test of Saira is over, Sarora?"

[Omio]

"...I'm doing too much of hiding my worse of emotions. I'm about as worried about going into town as you are, because I don't know their reaction. If the reaction isn't good, and you're with me, they'll be after you too, and I really don't want that... ...but other than that, I'm fine..." He brushed his forehead. It had a small scratch, but no blood.

Dusk was soon to arrive, as the sun was to their left by about 45°. Resting soon might be a good idea, but the town might also not be a far distance away. Whether to rest or not would indeed be an idea to talk about.

"Well, that sun's getting low. Think we should stop now, or keep going? I don't care either way, so that's why I'm asking you." ...I hope I can work up the courage to say something...

[WolfEnchantress]

Sarora stretched her wings, alernating between watching Kimara and the forest. She found people-watching a rather fun sport, like humans watched birds. Though, she knew it to be rude to the humans, and so only did for a short while. It was growing dark again. it would be her second night out. Alone. Well, technically with whomever she went with, but she wasn't sure that was much bettr. Sighing, she tried to focus on diferent things, not Saira.

**

Saira frowned.
"Kimara said it was a peaceful town. They shouldn't care. Well, I wouldn't think so, but I suppose I wouldn't really know, would I?" She thought a moment on their next question.

"I'd say we keep going. If we get there right at dusk, there will be not as many people on the strets, and no one will pay much mind to two travellers. We can find a room at an...inn, I think they're called." She suggested. She didn't know much about towns, but she figured thet if people were tired, they would notice less. And, in all truth, going into town during the day with all of the poeple out and about sounded about the least appeaing thing right now.

[Omio]

He completely forgot about inns. Len, you're quite the thick moron. "Oh yes, those things. Sorry, completely gapped. I usually just stay at some abandoned building or whatnot. Sure, it's bad quality, but I kinda got used to it." And his thoughts wandered a little. I wonder what it'd be like to be at an inn, when I'm used to something so low-quality... Probably end up sleeping in, knowing my luck.

[WolfEnchantress]

"an abandon building?" She asked. "That doesn't sound very comfortable. At lest not compared to an inn. Isn't it like a house with a lot of seperate rooms or something? We'd get beds, I hope," She pondered the thought. What would an inn look like?

"Either way, this town is remote and hidden in the middle of a forest. They shouldn't know you, unless you've been here, and they won't suspect anything unless you go around jumping onto walls, like you said." She formed a picture in her mind of the town. What else was in them? Houses, probably. Inns. Street vendors. From there she drew a blank.

As they walked, signs of life came into view. A trap here, a trail there. A few houses scattered around. Despite her confident tone, inside she grew more nervous with every human-made trail or dwelling they passed, unconciously moving a step closer to Len, her eyes constantly darting around for people who might be out late at night.

[Omio]

Len wasn't all too comfy, either, but seeing the rather small size of it began to get him a bit more comfortable, and to his surprise, they didn't even bother paying any attention to him. However, he still kept his hand on his dirk. His poisoned one. He didn't even notice Saira come closer to him until a few dozen seconds post factum. Then he spotted an infamous inn, and pulled a few coins out of his pocket, sighing. "Here goes the possibility of me buying new medicines... Ah, well, I don't think much can be found here anyways." And he pointed out an inn, and a somewhat half-decent one. "This'll be our spot, I guess."

[WolfEnchantress]

Sair stared wide-eyed at the town. It was bigger than she expected, and it seemed that even with the people going inside to sleep there were dozens of people outside. She made a face and focused only on the inn Len pointed to, not looking at anything else.

She sensed Len's reluctance to spend money, and dug around in a buttoned shut cloak pocket, pulling out a few coins she'd acquired from ranom places.
"I can pay. I have no real need for money, after all," She said, shrugging. "Will this be enough?" She offered her hand, palm-up, to reveal about a dozen coins. Not being able to count money, she had no idea it was actually a fairly large sum.
"I get money from robbers, mostly, in the aftermath of their raiding on someone house. Sarora gets them down, and I take it. I figured it would serve a purpose sometime or another. I guess it was a good idea to save it."

[Omio]

He looked at the money with a bit of a wide eye, almost bawking as he put his coins away. "Might want to put half of that in your pockets! A room's usually maybe three coins, four at the most! Yeesh, that's almost asking to be burgled right there, showing wealth like that... That's one thing I forgot to tell you about the streets - flashing money's a bad idea. Anyhow, take the lead. You are the one buying it, after all, and your speaking's a bit more clear than mine." That, and I'd be better as a back-up.

[WolfEnchantress]

"Really? Okay.." Saira said, pocketing the coins she wasn't going to use. She'd no idea how much was there, but judging by Len's reaction, it was a lot. She quickly threw on her cloak inside out so that the dark blue side, the side that wasn't bloody, was showing, and reached for the doorknob, hesitating a moment, before sighing in resignation and pushing it open.

The inside was fairly large. One main room served as the lobby, with a staircase leading to the upstairs. an iron stove sat in the corner, containing a blazing fire, which a few chairs st in front of. To their left, a man stood behind a wooden counter. She shuffled over slowly, eyes down.

"Rooms for the night, please," She asked. He raised an eyebrow at her accent, his gaze flicking over them both suspiciously. She placed the coins on the counter when he didn't respond. Finally, the man nodded, and swept the coins into his hand, depositing them somewhere under the counter. He stared at them again, and Saira compared her clothig and Len's to the innkeeper's. They didn't fit in very well.

"Rooms are upstairs. The ones with a blue tag on the doorhandle are open. Red are taken. Choose whichever you wish," The man said finally, and she nodded, intrigue replacing curiosity as they headed for the stairs.

[Omio]

Having followed Saira in, and letting her be the spokesperson, which would get her slowly more experienced. Once the inkeeper spoke the legend of which rooms were available, he went up, nodding to the innkeeper before he did. Upon arriving upstairs, most of the rooms were geared closer to the door, rather then the end of the hall, where more windows were. He was somewhat quiet in speaking. "It's usually a better choice to stay nearby windows. They're an easy way to bail, if you need to. It'd be a kinda rough landing for you, but I could do it easily." And then he looked out the window, and a wall was almost 2 metres away. "Unless you jumped onto the wall. But that's if things get scary - which usually don't, around here." And then he pointed out the room - the very last one. "This'll be the room we take, then"

[WolfEnchantress]

Saira nodded, wondering what kind of trouble they could run into, but from the last few days, she shrugged it off. She was glad once they were upstairs-she'd felt the innkeeper's eyes on them the entire way up.

Inside the room was fairly big, with the essentials for a short-term stay. She was fairly surprised; it wasn't much like she expected.
"You can take the bed," She said, noting the small, neat bed in the corner. She'd only ever slept in a bed at Kimara's house, and sure it was comfortable, but she'd slept on the ground cushioned by her cloak and whatever was at hand her whole life. It had become as comfortable as any bed. She was perfectly fine either way.

One thing in the room fascinated her. A small oval of reflective glass hung above the dresser. She could see herself in it perfectly, just everything was opposite. She laughed, enthralled with it, waving her hand in front of it for a minute before leaving it and folding her cloak up.

"What is this?" She asked, referring to the mirror, of which she'd never seen. "It's like polished steel, but so much clearer."