The Nexus

She'd strayed quite a ways from her usual haunts, more likely to stay hidden among the dense trees then to venture this far towards the plains, where the trees thinned, and the spaces were more open, leaving a gentle creature such as herself more vulnerable then she should have been comfortable with, though she certainly seemed to be at ease here.

She was tall, though perhaps not as tall as was common for her people, and incredibly slender. Her pure white hair a stark contrast to her rather crisp surroundings. Protruding from the center of her forehead was a small horn, spiraled as was common for her people. She wore nothing except sunlight of late afternoon, which she delighted in, often lingering under the warmth of a direct beam as she happened upon one in her wanderings.

Bebhinn walked slowly, each step calculated and careful as means to make up for her poor vision, and at the very least she seemed to be alert,her ears perked high for the slightest noise that didn't fit as she walked now amidst ash and stump where glorious trees had stood not so long ago.

She was unsure as to whether this was a natural devastation or not, though she sincerely hoped it was as she could not fathom the sort of person who would do something so terrible to something so beautiful, so old. Either way though, the damage was done and Bebhinn was here with a purpose all her own.

In her left hand she carried a satchel made of silk, and tied tightly at the top. Inside were seeds she'd collected over several days, they were from indigenous plants, ones of healthy, hardy stock, so as to hopefully take root in the scorched ground and grow. She would open the bag once in a while, taking a handful before securing it again, using her free hand to sprinkle the seeds liberally as she walked.

Yewlyn had dismissed him for the day so he might spend some time with one consort or another. Van had left him in a rather bad mood, taking to the air to clear his head. He had heard there was a fire not far from their woods and took off in the direction to survey the damage. He did not know the cause of the fire, but one could never be too sure if it was an attack or an accident. As he soared over the dead lands, his eyes spotted someone he did not expect to see there.

A plume of ashes rose as Vanname made to land, sending gusts of wind from his wings to steady himself. The dead tree particles moved in a flurry about him as his hooves made contact with the ground and he folded his wings behind him. The Vörn approached Bebhinn with a sour expression.

"What are you doing here on your own?" His voice was deep and gruff and he rarely ever smiled, but Bebhinn would understand his concern with her being in a vulnerable place without a guard. "It's not safe here. Whoever started this blaze could be back at any time." As if he might expect someone to be there just now, he glances around them. "Let me escort you home."

It was the sound of his wings that first caught her ears. She paused in her steps, and her ears tilted towards the source of the noise, long enough to judge that it was too large to be a bird.

His landing kicked up ashes,and Bebhinn raised her arms to protect her eyes, near useless as they may have been, from any stray debris. It wasn't until the ashes had settled that she she'd been able to pick out who her surprise visitor was, though it would have become clear seconds later as he spoke.

His sour mood had no effect in the slightest on her sunny disposition clearly, as she greeted him with a smile, that held maybe just a hint of guilt, like a kid caught in the act of breaking a rule. She opened her mouth to explain why she was here, but was cut off as he insisted that he escort her back home.

Her eyes widened, and she shook her head quite insistantly, though the smile hardly flickered. Normally she was quite an agreeable creature, so argument from her was probably a little foreign, no matter how sweetly she packaged it. "Now please don't be cross with me, but I can't leave just now, I've a half bag of seeds left to scatter.."

She held up the bag as if to prove her point, foolheardy as it may have been.

It was one thing he'd always liked about the albino girl: her reliably cheery mood. His tail flicked behind him as he considered her and her bag of seeds. "You should not have come alone," he said finally. It was clear that he was not going to sweep her up and take her home that instant by the tone of his voice; he'd given in. "At least let me help you and the work will be done twice as fast."

With another glance around them to make sure they were still alone, the Vörn stooped to take a handful of seeds. He moved to an area she had not yet seeded and began to work quickly, almost impatiently.

Bebhinn nodded her head good naturedly as he gave in to her request, though she'd known he would, accepting that she probably shouldn't have come alone, though she suspected that if she'd asked for a guard to join her on this venture, that she would have been told to focus her attention on other matters. Perhaps she was wrong, but it had influenced her decision to walk here on her own.

She offered him the bag so he could take some seeds from it, and watched for a moment as he moved on to spread them quickly, obviously keen on getting her out of there. She didn't care so long as the job got done, so she picked out a handful herself, and started forward again to spread them, making conversation in a good natured fashion, should he be close enough to hear her. "Where is your charge this afternoon? I would have though you'd have more princely priorities, then to come visit a burned section of forest."

Van's ears pulled back at the question. "I was dismissed for the afternoon. His Highness has other matters to attend to that I am not... privy to." His feelings felt as burned as the land they were standing in and it felt somewhat appropriate for him to be there. He wanted to move the topic of conversation off Yewlyn as swiftly as possible or else he was going to get more irate.

"Do you know what caused this fire?" Just because he had no gotten report on why the trees had burned did not mean Bebhinn hadn't heard some rumors flying around.

Bebhinn knew well enough about the Prince's escapades, it was subject of much speculation amongst those who liked to gossip. She tittered into her hand at the unspoken subject, a sign that she was at least aware of it, though perhaps not one to speak of such things. She made no more mention of it.

She happily changed the subject with him, shaking her head in response to his question. "I had hoped it was natural, beyond that, I've not the slightest idea. Have you got an idea?"

Her laugh made him tense somewhat. Yewlyn was his Prince and he was very protective of the other man, even if his feelings were forgotten in the mix. The fact that Bebhinn might understand what the Prince was doing made him flush, but it was hidden under his fur. He let the topic go as she had, but he was much more stiff in his movements.

"It doesn't feel natural." Everything about the burn spot made the hairs on the back of his neck stand, but maybe that was his own paranoia. He rarely ventured into the plains alone. "I do not think the centaurs or the plains people would wantonly burn part of their land."

Bebhinn didn't notice his body language, not able to see much more then coloured blurs where he stood, and thus was unaware of his discomfort, though she certainly would have apologized for it, had she. Perhaps it was better this way though, as further discussion would likely have done more to increase then to alleviate it.

She let her smile fade into a rare frown, as he informed her of his suspicions. "If not natural causes, or the the inhabitants of the area, then who could do such a thing? Should we have concern for our own woods?" It was unfathomable to her, that someone would do something so terrible of their own volition.

He glanced up from scattering the seeds and caught he frown. He shook his head, sending waves of inky black hair around him, but realized that probably wasn't the best way to communicate with Beb. "If a threat should present itself, you can rest assured the Vörn will see to it. Van's hand fell to the short, flat sword attached the belt around his waist. The weapon was rarely removed, but every now and again be needed to reassure himself he still had it.

"Never the less, we should not linger here. Just in case." He doubled his efforts to finish the seeds, moving further away from her.

Bebhinn had all the confidence in the world in the Vörn, and their ability to protect their slice of forest, and the people within it. The reminder was nice though.

Reassured that nothing terrible would happen in their own neck of the wood, and understanding of his want for haste, she too would begin to spread her seeds more quickly. She would continue moving forward in the direction she'd been heading and in turn straying further still from where he was.

Vanname was diligent in checking on her as he finished off the seeds. He didn't like that she kept moving further away from him, especially because he wasn't sure if the girl could still see him. Feeling anxious, he threw the rest of his seeds and walked back toward her, hastily. "Are you almost done?" He sounded somewhat impatient, but it was only due to nerves. The burnt area was so quiet from the lack of wildlife it made him restless.

Nahnaan was on a mission, and it showed with each purposeful step that she took. Her mouth was set in a grim line and she seemed to be looking for something. Her tiger warg followed closely at her heels, his nose to the ground. It wasn't long before she was in plain view of the vorn and what she assumed was his charge.

Her people knew of the creatures and she thought it was lucky to spot them here in the burnt part of the forest. Maybe they knew what had happened! She didn't even wait for the man following her to catch up, she jogged towards the two of them and bowed. "Great children of the All-Spirit. I am happy to have found you. I have need of your aid." She would wait for them to respond before she went any further.

Tek took his mission as seriously as he took everything else, which meant that his face was held in a tight pinched state as they moved around. He was focused and his eyes were ever wandering unwanting to miss a single clue that could lead them to their quarry.

When Nahnaan jogged ahead he snapped his eyes in the direction she'd gone, and followed swiftly after though he pulled up short and stood off to her side with arms folded across his chest and dark eyes carefully watching the vorn. Hopefully the creature could help them.

Bebhinn was nearly finished with her bag of seeds, which was convenient since it would seem that Vanname was quite eager to leave now. His impatience was noticeable, and understandable, so Bebhinn was thinking that perhaps she could concede to have him escort her home now, she'd done what she'd come for.

Perhaps his fears weren't as baseless as she'd expected though, as quite suddenly footfalls could be heard jogging towards the pair, six feet at first, and then six more following at a run. Bebhinn was now glad that Van had joined her here, because her poor vision made the approach of strangers somewhat unsettling.

As they drew closer she could now see they were people, people with animal companions. Probably they were as safe as any, but exercising caution, she stepped back a couple of paces, putting the Vörn between their surprise visitors and herself.

Despite her caution, her smile was friendly and open, more so when the female asked for their aid. What luck they'd been visiting this neck of the woods, to be here to offer assistance to these people! "Certainly we will aid you however we can..." Probably she should have asked what it was they needed help with before saying something like that.

The moment he heard feet approaching as an alarming rate, the vörn ran in front of Bebhinn and fanned his wings out defensively. His hand was pulling the sword from it's scabbard in case the threat was serious. The amount of footfalls he was hearing was concerning, but all they produced was a woman bowing before them. Van was still tense and his feathers were fluffed to look more threatening. He might have been about to speak, but a second plains person showed his face and his attention drifted.

Bebhinn was offering help and he gave her a concerned look. He was used to taking orders... and if the verndari wanted to help these people and asked him to do so as well... he would. So long as they were not a threat. He eased back a little bit. "What would you ask of us?"

Nan hadn't meant to startle the vorn, and she backed up a few paces and bowed again. "Forgive us for startling you great creatures. Do you know what caused this fire? It was not natural." That much she had figured out for herself. "Friends of ours were here hunting. We have found no bones, so I can only assume they escaped. Have you seen them?" It came out in a rush, she was eager to find her friends.

Tek had kept his eyes on the vörn as it came into view startled and ready to defend its verndari companion. That made him tense but once Nahnaan started to bow again and speak he slowly relaxed his body and offered a formal bow of apology himself. Nan was getting to it about their friends and that was good because it didn't seem like the other barbarian was going to speak too much. Though now he reached down and absently petted his animal companion who was rubbing it's head against his leg, he hoped that these two could give them some direction.

Bebhinn stayed rather obediently behind Van, respecting his need to assess the safety o the situation, that didn't how ever stop her from peeking around his wings curiously a couple of times, though of course she couldn't see much regardless.

Her smile faded some as she learned that they had lost friends. How terrible, she hoped they hadn't perished in the fire!

"There is nothing living here that we've seen, everything has fled or died with the trees...Vanname, did you see anyone when you flew over?" She wished that she had better news for them. She was unsure for the moment how they could be of more assistance to the pair... her own usefulness in looking for people was somewhat limited.

Van's eyes drifted between the two plains people and he finally relaxed his grip on the sword handle. The weapon slid back into its sheath and his feathers lay flat. He crossed his arms over his chest and folded his wings behind him, but still stayed planted before Bebhinn.

He snorted as Beb address him and shook his head, causing his hair to flutter around him. "No. I did not see a living thing until I found you." He eyed the plains woman again and one of his ears fell back. "But I have seen no bones either, as you have said. I have not yet encountered the cause of this fire... Have you found tracks of any sort?"