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Old 12-11-2003, 03:52 PM   #224
Amanaduial the archer
Shadow of Starlight
 
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Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: dancing among the ledgerlines...
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Eye

Not half a mile from the Inn, was a small enclave of trees, their leaves apparently eternally in the throes of autumn. If any passer-by had chanced to stray a few metres from the path and look behind the wide trunk of the closest of these trees, they would be greeted with a rather unexpected site, although it was apparently camouflaged: a woman, her hair the same autumnal browns as some of the leaves, and covered in the leaves: leaves nestled in her hair, which was loosely tied back, strands falling over her face, leaves almost burying the ankles of her high leather boots, and yet more strewn across her dark tunic and drawn up knees clad in fine brown breeches. Her eyelids flickered delicately, the eyes underneath them following the dreams that flitted through her head, a private theater.

If this passer-by continued to watch, they may have seen a greyish brown bird land to perch on the branch above the dreamer, black ink-droplet eyes watching this lean, leggy character, apparently one with autumn, to see whether she was alive or simply a sprite turned to stone in the manner of a troll. Well, it could happen...

When he wasn't rewarded with any movement save the constand flicker of the woman's eyelids, the bird decided to move things along a little and to check if this really was some strange form of troll turned human turned to stone. Leaving its perch, it flew down the few feet before alighting elegantly on the sleeper's head. The result was spectacular.

"Gargh!" Aman gave a rather unlady-like yell, unearthing herself in a flurry of leaves and wings as she bird, understandably startled, took flight again. In her feet in a flash, Aman looked wildly back at the spot she had been sleeping then, loosing her balance, she promptly took the oppurtunity to collapse again. But as she did so her sharp green eyes took in the path and she froze before grinning at her own foolishness - fool, if there was anyone on the path, they would have seen or heard the chaos of Aman's untidy wakening already. Absent-mindedly picking a leaf from her hair, the woman stared at it for a moment, bemused, as she tried to recall her dream, looking up from the leaf into the tree where the bird, from a higher perch than before, was watching her warily.

"Pio!" She clicked her fingers suddenly in revelation, causing the bird to start slightly, shuffling its feet but not flying off, intigued by this emerald-eyed stranger. Noticing the bird starting, it seemed dream and reality seperated themselves at last and Aman herself stepped back, causing the bird to do the same, a strange dance in the middle of the trees, a small browd bird and a woman still covered with leaves. "I do apologise," the woman said, then waited. No reply. Bother. "Are you....?"

Still no answer from the bird, although Aman fancied there was pity in it's eyes. Well, pity would not come from him, so it was indeed simply a little brown sparrow that she was speaking to, despite the likeness...but if one is going to make a spectacle of oneself, there is no-one better to do it in front of than one of Nature's own messengers. Hesitating and with the vague ideas of her dream flitting through her mind, the woman then picked up her pack and slung it onto her back, fastening her cloak, a dark, weatherbeaten garment, deftly at her throat, before starting towards the path. When she wasn't rewarded by wingbeats behind her, she turned back to the tree where, sure enough, the sparrow was still watching her curiously.

"Well, are you coming then?"

~*~

Accompanied by the little sparrow who had in the course of their journey devoured both Aman's life-story, idle ideas on her dreams and the crumbs she found and fed to it, and who she had become quite fond of, Aman pushed open the door of the Seventh Star, her destination since she had woken up. Looking around purposefully, Aman's eyes alighted finally on a woman of elvish countenance, seated at a table with...Aman's jaw dropped as she saw the two dark haired children, a boy and a girl, as similar in appearance as it was possible for such a pair to be. She had seen Pio, the mental image from several years ago, in her dream, heard her friend sending the message...but she had not seen the twins yet, not since they were but very, very young, her last image of them being when she fastened the necklaces, one gold, one silver around their necks...

The elf's eyes suddenly flitted around the huge man in front of her to Aman and she smiled, surprised, but not too much.

"Pio!"
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