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((All hail Fooser, butcherer of tenses *tried to edit them all*))


Feraiden continues to move along at a decent pace. No more odd noises come from the surrounding darkness. As the night goes on, a clearing slowly becomes more and more visible up ahead. For the first time in a while, Feraiden stops puffing on his pipe, and looks ahead with more enthusiasm.


"Here we are."


Feraiden's quick pace now becomes a full jog at the least. The moon glows past the trees onto the spot where the man stops at. All around him are broken pieces of wood, and ruined stones, and debree.


"This was the first temple that was built by the lizards of this marsh. This was a long time ago though, a very interesting place."


He feels around the debree until his hands come across something, as if he was expecting this object to be there. He slowly pulls out a book from under some wood and small stones. He wipes some dirt off the softened cover of it, and places it inside of his cloak, safekeeping it.


"Hasn't been used for generations."


Right as he finishes his first action, he starts another, slowly moving wood and stones on top of what seems to be part of a skeleton, already mostly covered with debree. As his foot pushes the stones over it, it becomes completely unnoticeable. Feraiden quickly clears his throat.

He then looks back to see if they were watching him. Fooser mostly seems to be observing the shape and layout of what is left of the stone walls, not watching anything else.

"Here we are."

The man's words break the steady, muffled shuffling of their pace, and Sylveria looks up almost immediately. Caught by surprise at his sudden burst in speed, she begins running alongside the lizard in order to keep up. A branch snags at her arm as she leaps over a well hidden log that sharply appears in the darkness, and the iritated screech of a bat swoops through the canopy over her head, fading away behind her like an echo.

Before long, she stops shortly behind Feraiden as the trio burst into a clearing, starkly bare in the moonlight. Sylveria looks around in surprise, practically feeling the silence in the air of the empty temple ruins. Something small with a long tail skitters into a crevice between broken pillars, and a few ferns rustle, but not dangerously. Through her light shoes, Sylveria can feel the packed stone beneath her, caked with a mulchy layer of moss and algaelike grime. Her attention follows Fooser's as he gazes around at the silent, broken structure.

"Hasn't been used for generations."

With Feraiden's back to her, Sylveria glances over at his words just soon enough to see a small rustle under his cloak. However, she thinks nothing of it at the moment, and she only briefly wonders why the man would be bothering with a few pieces of debris in a ruined temple. Looking away again from the wide cloak, her eyes return to the crumbled walls, the rotting wood, the corners overgrown with wild swamp plants. Many curious questions run through her head, and she puts a few aside to ask later, at a time when perhaps they would not be standing in the skeletal ruins of an ancient temple in the marshlands.

The moon watches from above like a blank, pale galleon shaved on its side by greedy merchants.

"I guess this concludes Feraiden's history lesson for this evening. I hope you'll come back soon."

The man grins for a moment, but it turns back again to a quiet frown shortly afterwards.


The walk back was just as it was before. Fooser wasn't even sure what the point was, of walking through marsh to see an old temple for a short while, and then to go back, but it was better than awkward presence of his parents he supposed. A sense of time slipped from him, the walk back seemed much shorter. The entire walk itself he was also unsure about. He looked up at the sky, and oddly, the moon seemed to be in the same position it was when they started.

His friend was acting funny, maybe he was just bored. He had to be to walk out here in the middle of the night, right? Now the next issue, going back to his parents house. Things had not turned out as he had hoped, lousy actually. If he knew it would be like this then he would not have asked Sylveria to come at all, but maybe things would change tonight and tomorrow.

Before he knew it, the lights from the hut windows began to become visible again, though in few number now.


"Well then, we should get together and do something tomorrow night also, eh?"


Fooser shrugged hsi shoulders, looking around.


"I guess..."


Just like that, his friend was off to bed, and the figure of an elf and lizard stand in the dark in front of the home.

As frequently with returning journeys, the trek back to the coast side town appeared much shorter, and perhaps even less intimidating. Sylveria gradually begins to notice small landmarks of the marsh that she recognizes from the walk towards the ruined temple. Bit by bit, the town's dim lamplights begin to flicker into view, and the ground slowly becomes noticeably firmer. The musky humidity of the marshlands gives way to the warmer open sea wind, and the air is not nearly as dead.

The three make their way down a familiar street bathed in moonlight, and they soon arrive again at the doorstep of Slooser's and Sleasha's home. The trio slows down from their walk as they approach, and eventually come to a stop without going inside. Sylveria looks up at the other two in her company.

"Well then, we should get together and do something tomorrow night also, eh?"

The elfess wonders what Feraiden could possibly mean. She imagines that maybe it is a marsh folk custom to walk out to ancestral ruins and structures on clear evenings with acquaintences. Afterall, she had eaten something only a short while ago (was it short?) that she had never imagined she would be faced with. Surely the customs would be very different as well. Sylveria reiterates her own memo in her head to be very open to things while on the trip.

As she smiles and bids her wordless farewell to the departing Feraiden, Sylveria's thoughts stray to the behavior of Fooser's parents earlier in the evening. Their silence, though not greatly bothering or offending her, made her wonder. Strings of possibilities and considerations filter through her head. She wonders if it was custom. She wonders if it wasn't custom. In several different moments, the thought wanders through her mind of something being wrong by her own fault. She recalls the moment of trying to explain her lack of voice and words, and the awkward, curt response following. A nearly hopeful thought arises that maybe it really was just custom for lizards to speak very little in any occasion. Afterall, Sylveria had spoken to few lizards on Gobaith at all besides Fooser. But an insecurity rises again, and she tries to sort out her thoughts to determine the situation. Did she know enough about the town and the people she was standing amongst? What if it really was her fault? What if she had made something worse for Fooser? What could she ask, and what could she tell? She nudges them away. Something pushes back. A tiny fear creeps into the young elfess's heart, and behind her mute silence, Sylveria hides a distant but dreadfully familiar fear of fault without awareness.

In the brief instant of running thoughts, Sylveria turns her gaze from watching the dark cloak melt into the darkness and looks up at Fooser standing a short step across from her.

Possibly to their luck, everyone was asleep in the house when the lizard and elf returned. He took Sylveria's hand and showed her into a seperate room. After hugging her, he goes into the room right next door and tries falling asleep. After tossing around for a while, thinking of many things, he managed to do it.

But even in sleep he couldn't escape troublesome thoughts. He began having a strange dream. He was walking through the marsh that they had gone through the night before. This time is was different, he was alone. He moved along the soft ground step by step, not being able to stop himself, until he came to the ruins that Feraiden had took him to. It all seemed quite and peaceful for awhile, he sat on an old stone that was sticking out of the ground.

He seemed to sit on the stone, pondering for a while, until a strong wind started to howl through the trees. The tall grass and other brush in the marsh gave in to the wind, snapping back and forth. The familiar sound of banches breaking and stones moving came back again. Fooser frantically looks around at this phenomenon. As he stops turning his head, a boney hand comes down onto his shoulder. Slightly startled, he turns and looks upward and back at the source, to see a dead human, with pieces of flesh missing from his face, while other parts were in tact. He tried to push away and yell, but everything went black.


------------------------------------


Fooser woke up the next morning with a slight cramp in his neck. Outside it was a sunny day, and it was still fairly early yet. He rose from his bed and went out into the hallway. He could hear noise coming from the other side of the house, probably his parents up early getting ready to eat. He could only imagine what they might have said once the trio left last night. But why should he even care? They didnt seem to understand anything about him.

Seeing the door of Sylveria's room, he slowly opens the door as calmly as possible, and goes in to check on her.

"Hello, Syl. Time to eat, I guess. If it is something else that seems strange to you, then I'll definetly get you something else. There are a lot of humans that eat and sell more common types of food."

Fooser grins for a brief moment, before turning and motioning for her to follow. He walks down the hall into a more open room, where Slooser sits, reading a parchment, while his mother is again gone cooking quietly elsewhere.

"Greetings."

"Hello there."

Slooser looks up from the parchment for a brief moment at his suprisingly more welcome greeting to them both.

"Your mother is cooking fish, with burnt mushrooms and wolf meat. We can get your friend something else. What do elves eat anyways, leaves? Grass?"

((parchment! LoL!))

Sylveria follows Fooser down the hall. She bows her head and smiles amiably to the older lizard seated in the larger room. The recognizable smell of cooking reaches her nose. Slooser kindly and conveniently drops a synopsis of breakfast.

"Your mother is cooking fish, with burnt mushrooms and wolf meat. We can get your friend something else. What do elves eat anyways, leaves? Grass?"

Sylveria hesitantly shakes her head, not knowing how to trust herself to determine if the question was in jest or not. She then looks at Fooser quickly and shakes her head again dismissively, too embarassed to impose the burden of searching for other kinds of food just for her sake, despite the odd tossed salad that breakfast has proven to be. Sylveria tries to add a few specific gestures to help imply this, though painfully aware of more than just Fooser watching her explanation.

"Now that I think of it, we have some bread and some farm stuff in one of the cabinets in the back. Why don't you go get them Foos?"


Fooser nods and quickly goes to the back, figuring Sylveria wouldn't want wolf meat and mushrooms that looked like charcoal. Perhaps it would have been a better idea to have brought this extra food up last night...oh well, he didnt know.

The moment his son leaves his sight, Slooser turns his gaze back to the elf in front of him.


"I think I should apologize, for probably seeming rude, and I probably have been. I'm a cranky old lizard, what can I say. Thing is, you are the third elf I have seen in my lifetime, I don't know the slightest thing about them. And my son said he was bringing someone he cared for, and...I guess I was a bit suprised. The fact you dont speak either, very suprised. Because if it wasn't for having a guest, and not seeing us for so long, this one would be blabbing away like...like I don't know what. A large contrast indeed."

As he says "this one", he points down the hall in the direction Fooser left for, with one of his long claws.


"We don't see many things like this, but I guess I can accept it."


He sits back, and as Fooser re-enters he clears his throat and goes back to reading what is on the parchment.

Fooser meanwhile carries a couple pieces of bread and some vegetables, probably bought from one of the local human merchants. He holds them up to himself and sniffs them all quickly.

"Yup, they're good. Time to eat I guess."

Soon after Fooser leaves on his search, Sylveria finds herself standing before an apologizing lizard. As Slooser speaks, a remarkable sense of relief gradually comes to her at the words he says. His explanations and more cordial nature give the elfess a bit of comfort, and she begins to dismiss some of the previous sense of friction that she had felt the evening before. The faint hope glimmers in elfess that Slooser speaks for his wife as well as himself.

"We don't see many things like this, but I guess I can accept it."

Sylveria is only left a brief moment of puzzlement at what the old lizard refers to before the sound of Fooser's return reaches her ears. She can't help but grin to herself a little as he brings back a few more familiar foods in his arms. She says a silent word of prayer to no specified benefactor, and a similarly unspoken plea to the lizard family for their extra trouble.

The food was decent, at least the wolf meat. The mushrooms were a little TOO burnt, and they crunched in his jaws. Sometimes they were better this way, but not always. He wondered what his father said to Sylveria, he heard his voice drift off as he was coming down the hallway, but he didn't hear what. Sylveria's normal behavior meant that it couldn't have been a bad thing, he guessed.

The rest of the day was very uneventful. He could only imagine what Feraiden had in store for them tonight. Perhaps climbing a mountain through an avalanche in order to see a place where some famous priest let out some flatulence. The knock on the door came, only a little bit before the sun was gone, so they would soon be finding out. The dream from the previous night was still in the back of his mind. It all seemed a bit strange.

Despite the odd happenings, he felt that the trip must seem very boring for Syl, they have been doing nothing but sleeping, eating, walking through town, and going to strange ruins.


"Greetings Fooser."


The cloaked figure came in, in the same manner as always, flipping his hood off the moment he came in. Fooser walks over, and Feraiden bows to him. Feraiden looks at Fooser oddly for a few moments before speaking.



"Everything alright, yes?"


"Of course, of course. What's in store for tonight?"


"I'm not really sure actually. Just a walk about the village, maybe go down toward the sea a bit?""


Fooser shrugs, and then looks over to Sylveria and motions her along with them as they go out the door. A sharp contrast is seen walking out of the light house to the dimming outsides. There was only enough sun left peeking over the horizon to see a bit without the aid of a torch. Feraiden pulls his pipe out and lights it, his usual ritual when staying outside for longer periods of time.


"The sea is always nice on evenings like this."


The dock was a very short walk from the home, as he remembered before from when they had arrived. Feraiden lights a small lantern at the end of the dock, making the view a bit more clearer around the dock itself. He looks down into the water, looking for fish, and takes out a fishing pole that was laid on one of the boards.

Fooser puts his arm around Sylveria, and looks at the small sliver that is left of the sun.


"You doing alright?"


He stood there with Sylveria and his priest friend for a while longer as the sun set, and they remained quietly.

Compared to the venture of their first evening, the walk to the docks is admittedly easier. It is much better lighted than the moonlit hike through the marshes, despite the sinking sun. The drifting smell of the smoke from Feraiden's characteristic pipe mingles with the ever remaining odor of dried fish and generations of creative bait. Sylveria tips her head to the side and watches small waves lap against the verdant, algae covered dock pillars as they walk across the wooden planks. The walkways are worn with years of wind, sea, and the tread of both inhabitants and visitors. Occasionally Sylveria passes a seabird or two perched nonchalantly on a dock post. They seem hardly phased by the presence of either humans or lizards (or elves) in such close proximity, and have little problem flying and diving, eating and squabbling around the docks.

Sylveria looks out to the sun, a vibrant sliver sitting on the horizon, sinking so quickly into some distant boiling pool of the sea that she could track its disappearance by merely watching. As the begins to fade, she glances over to see Feraiden waking a lamp to life on the end of the dock. Like a small yellow moon, its light jumps to the waves just below and begins to scintillate with the dance of the ripples in an instant.

"You doing alright?"

Sylveria gives a grin and nods her head. She tucks back a dark lock of hair fluttering enthusiastically against her cheek by the approaching evening winds. As the sun vanishes into the ever unreachable waters, Sylveria looks down off the edge of the dock into the dim and nearly opaque waters. She peers for several concentrated moments, though to little avail. A murkiness characteristic of portside ocean water films the upper surface, and Sylveria finally looks up again, wondering wordlessly if Feraiden had any intentions to do some evening fishing, and what kinds of aquatic dwellers could indeed be caught in these waters.

What was there to do in such a small place? He felt that the trip with trashed sailors was more eventful than staying on land in this settlement. There were no hostilities between towns, no bandits, no bar fights, no orcs, it all seemed weird in a way compared to Trollsbane, seemed both good and bad.

Feraiden was unable to catch any fish. He claimed that it was the light from the lamp, or even the smoke from the pipe. But Fooser figured it was the fact that he was a human, one who couldn't hold a reel to save his life nonetheless.

The night was going just as the last had. They stopped at the front door before going in, Feraiden bowed and went off into the darkness, the other two stood in the darkness for a moment, then went in. His parents were already asleep, so he showed Sylveria to her room again, hugged her, and then went to his own room. His eyes slowly closed as he fell into slumber again. Unfortunately, his sleep would not be uneventful again.

--------

Fooser's eyes slowly opened at a small rattling he in the hallway. He leans up in his small, but comfortable bed and peer around, his eyes still blurry. He felt a cold win come in through the window. As his eyes began re-adjusting, he saw the wooden door to his room creep open slowly. It opened bit by bit, until it was about halfway open.

His eyes adjusted until they became focused, on the same deformed human from his dream the previous night. He didn't really seem frightened this time. It just looked in at him, but seemed to be speaking to him without words. Beware. Fooser just looked at it, as if paralyzed, and the door slowly closed just as it opened, slowly but surely, and the wind and noises went with it. He sat back in his bed, almost dazed, as if pondering these strange dreams, and everything went black again.

-------

The next day was quite welcoming, just as yesterday was. The sun blasted through the window with great energy. Fooser slowly raised out of his bed, slightly startled about having another dream, but not seeming to care too much. He had overslept a bit, he could tell by the suns positioning. The noises of food preparation came from the other end of house, as usual. Fooser makes a quick change of clothing before flinging open the door, and stopping right in his stride going out. In front of him, and all down the hallway leading to his door were muddy footprints.

Perhaps his father had gone out earlier this morning to get something and came back in? No, he could quickly tell there weren't lizard feet. He slides his feet along the ground to try and wipe off the footprints, but they are quite dry on the floor. Sylveria might have gone outside...perhaps she couldn't sleep...or...yes, that's probably it.

He moves down the quiet hall, keeping a gaze on the prints on the ground, and lightly knocks on Sylveria's door. After knocking, he realized waiting for a verbal response would be useless and he opens the door to her room.

Fooser enters the room, recieving the hug from Sylveria. He does the same back, and steps back slightly and looks at her.


"Greetings, Syl...you didn't happen to need to go outside last night, did you?"

"Mh, alright. I guess it is time to eat...I think there is still some decent food for you."


Fooser grins for a little bit, then walks out into the hallway, trying to ignore the faint muddy tracks that go towards his room.

At the end of the hall, Slooser sits again, just about to get up for food also.


"Fooser, Sylveria, hello."



"Greetings father, what is for breakfast?"



"Trout and cooked toad, smells pretty good. Oh. Your mother said we were running low on cooking and heating wood, could you go into the woods and grab a few logs?"



"Sure. You have more food for Syl?"



"Yes there should be a couple days worth left. Though I would highly recommend the toad, but I wont force the poor lady."


A voice comes out of the other room.

"Sss, are you allsss coming?"


"We're coming!"



"Ill grab the wood, Ill be back in a little bit Syl."


Slooser gets up and heads towards the other room, motioning the guest to come with him. Fooser smiles and hastily exits the house, grabbing a hatchet that lies on a barrel outside of the house and heads into the woods.

The toad and trout was exceptional as usual. He offered some to Sylveria, not really expecting her to try it. Perhaps he was putting her in an uncomfortable situation by offering these odd foods and questions to her. He should try and limit that, she seemed like a nice person, obviously a bit quiet though.

Slooser digs into his toad with a wooden fark and sharp edge. He eats it very quickly, very apparent it is to his liking. Although he eats quickly, he also takes his time and gets more trout and toad, taking even longer to finish his food.

Meanwhile, they had placed "normal" food for Sylveria at her usual spot at the table. Once Slooser completed his annihilation of the toads and trouts, he lets out a large groan "uuuungh". After eating, a slight revelation comes over the older lizard.


"Shouldn't Fooser have been back by now?"

Slooser gets up semi quickly from his seat at the end of the table and walks to the door. He opens it up and peers about the immediate area, not seeing anything. He notices the clouds starting to come in from the sea, perhaps some rain typical of the season to ruin the sunny streak they have been having.


"I don't see him, did he mention anything about going somewhere to get something?"


The older lizard looks back and forth between his wife and the elf guest.

Slooser stands at the door for a second more, and then closes it slowly.


"Probably went to buy something before the merchants close up. It's afternoon already, almost lost track of time because everyone woke up later today. Weather also isn't looking too good."


He looks around the general area around him, possibly looking for something, then he decides to sit back down at his seat, though this time he doesn't take anymore to eat.


"It's always a sharp contrast here, beautiful sun and ocean, then the storms roll in from the sea onto the coast. Very different from under the water, but I like it here, it's an interesting place. What's the island you two live on like? I've never even heard of it until Fooser moved there years back.."


He looks over at the elf from his usual seat at the table.

Slooser looks down at the drawings of the elfess, giving a look of not understanding everything, but getting the essential points nonetheless, and nods every once in a while to her gesturing and drawing.

-----------

The older lizard and the elf continue small talk for a while longer, until it begins to get darker out, not just from the clouds, but the fact that late afternoon and early evening had arrived. Suddenly Slooser stands up abruptly from his seat.


"Damnit. He might have gotten lost, I'll need to go find him."


He throws on a cloak to shield himself from the light rain outside. He goes over to the door and swings it open, the sound of the rain coming into the house gently. He peers back at the guest.


"Could use a pair of decent eyes, if you don't mind."

Feraiden sat in his small wooden hut, reading a scholarly book about Tanora and different perspectives on the teachings of her followers. He puts the book down, feeling a bit drowsy, and slightly nauseous, probably because of the weather. The rain started hitting the roof of his house, making a gentle drumming in the background.

It wasn't right of him to have taken them there, or was it? He saw Fooser and Sylveria just the other day, and everything seemed fine, there was nothing to worry about. He put various thoughts to the back of his mind, as he looks around his hut, realizing he has to go pick up a few things before all the merchants head inside.

He puts on his usual brown cloak, with blue and white linings, and heads out the door, pulling up his hood right before the rain comes down onto his head. He notices that perhaps he was a little too late, half the merchants had run into the small run down tavern/inn, and the other half got back inside of their docked ships, that bounced quite wildly with the waves.

Feraiden stands nearly alone in the rain, only with a few stragglers left scattered around, as he hears a louder voice coming from nearby.


"Fooser! Where in the hells did you end up now?!"


He turns and begins walking right as he hears this, and stops as the words process through his mind, and as he sees the older lizard and the elfess only a little ways in front of him. The horrible feeling in his stomach and head got worse.

Feriaden stands in the rain, in wonder at what has happened, and why Slooser and Sylveria were outside in this weather at this time of evening. After a short while he begins walked over to the duo, his feet go through small puddles that have already began to accumulate on the ground.


"Slooser...Sylveria? What is going on?"



"That son of mine apparently got lost. Sent him out into the woods for some wood, and he never came back."


Feraiden nods slowly, slightly alarmed, but not showing it.


"Slooser, friend, go back home and keep things quiet there, I can handle this. Ill need one other, so Sylveria, come with me."


Slooser merely nods in confusion, but also understanding. He turns and begins to jog back to his home to check up on his wife. Feraiden turns around and begins walking back to his home, expecting the elfess to follow, but without giving any order or gesture.