User:Thaeus/soj/e1

The Saga of Julia

Episode 1 - A Tia in the Road

FIVE DAYS AFTER THE SUMMER SOLSTICE, 704 CR

A cool breeze along the trail provided a welcome respite from the sweltering summer sun, while a pair of blackbirds danced in the cloudless sky, swooping along in fanciful loops and arcs, providing two lonelyshadows from the cloudless sky. Together they took off vaguely southwards towards the sea, passing over patchy forests and a patchy dirt road, onwhich someone dedicating a bit too much of her brain for cursing themidday sun, the stifling heat, and the utter lack of drink, walked.

Julia Lightscale crested a small hill in the road overlooking thelands about: the ubiquitous forest, the mountains (both east and west),the meandering path to the south, and that great giant edifice to thenorth. Noticing this, she stopped and took the opportunity to get her first good look at Metamor ever.

The Keep was her home, of sorts, for the past five years. In all that time she hadn't once left it (twice she was drafted for patrol duty, but upon arriving at the armory after staggering from the Deaf Mule her commanding officer immediately discharged her). From this distance it looked like it had grown out of the ground like a collection of ornate and delicate marble stalagmites, with towers and buildings arranged in a cluster fighting each other to reach the sky. Her impression was that it was a large group of weird rocks piled up on top of each other, which from a strictly literal perspective was true.

She really didn't want to leave. If she had an option, she'd be getting lunch at Donnie's right now, and more likely than not, he'd be giving her the impression that she really ought to go home sometime. But, and this is the important thing, she'd have a delicious steak in front of her and a something cold to drink in her left hand - she wouldn't be here hungry, thirsty, and alone.

Alone... She already missed the Keep, and Donnie, and her fellow barflies, and for that matter, her nice tidy room filled with a multitude of barrels of Donnie's good stuff she had taken pains to acquire last fall. She also missed the way people of all sorts ran around doing all the important business while she could lay back and enjoy life. It's amazing how much she had come to really on her fellow bar-mates - they were nearly her family, though not quite.

But those thoughts weren't uppermost in her mind. As said earlier, most of her brain was dedicated to cursing the sun, the heat, and the lack of drink (specifically alcohol, although at this point she almost considered water acceptable).

Dammit! It's hot and dry and I'd kill for a drink!

Unfortunately, she reflected, I can't go back. I've gotta deliver some stupid little scroll to some weirdo way the hell down south, where it's even hotter than it is here. I bet they have deserts. I bet they don't have forests, or mountains. I've never actually seen a desert, or even a beach, but I have a damn good idea just what they are, and they aren't interesting at all.

Shortly after leaving the Keep, she had opened and looked at the scroll. It was bare except for some strange markings scrawled across the top, which she guessed were the Pyralic tongue. Whatever she was delivering, it was a pretty short message.

She stopped for a moment to adjust her plain utilitarian backpack. The straps rubbed and dug into her shoulders. For the fifth time, she dropped it to the ground and rubbed the blood back into her shoulders.

The endemic thirst got to her again. Without really thinking about it, she reached down, pulled out a wooden flask she won in a poker match, uncorked it, and rediscovered in a burst of irritation that it was empty. This time she noticed that the dry wood had cracked in the heat and therefore her trusty container was now officially worthless.

"Damn it!"

She threw it into the bushes, which absorbed it with barely a rustle, not the satisfying crack or crash she hoped for. While staring into the bush, both a groan and a sign crept out of her gaping mouth. Standing up, she reflected that at least her shoulders felt better.

It was time to go again. She grabbed her bag and this time carried it in her left hand - a rather off balance position, but it wasn't too bad and her shoulders were near declaring mutiny. After a bit, she managed to ignore her thirst and enjoy the walk in the sun, the rustling of leaves, and the squirrels hiding between the tree-roots, but when she absent-mindedly reached down for the bottle again, the mood was broken.

"Damn! That's it! I'll even drink water!"

There was only one main road from Metamor to the cities to the south. A few other tributaries branched off through the forest, but there was effectively no choice when heading to and from Metamor. Thus, Julia should not have been quite so surprized when she rounded the bend and ran into someone unexpectedly.

Sitting back against a tree by the side of the road was a rather peculiar girl.

She was short - if she stood up, she'd only reach Julia's shoulders. She had short brown hair, pointed ears, and a big grin on her face. Her clothes were both bright and colourful - mostly pink and purple - a definite contrast to the browns and greens of nature around her. Over her right shoulder was something, but Julia couldn't see what.

"Uh, hey, what are you doing here? And more importantly, do you have something to drink?"

"Hi!" the girl in the road said in a perky, high tone of voice. I am Tia!"

"That's good, now do you have something to drink?

The girl sprang upwards. "And you are?"

"I'm Julia. Now, you wouldn't happen to have anything with you..."

The girl quickly stepped onto the road and released the bag slung over her shoulder. It was decorated with bright colours and purple fringe, and seemed very out of place lying on the dirt. Squatting, she untied the knot on the top and pulled out a silver capped cubic container with a spout sticking out the top.

"Here you go!" she said and offered it to Julia, who snatched and unstopped the box and immediately began chugging. After her thirst subsided enough, she pried her lips off of it and yelled, "What the hell? This is water!"

"Yes! Water is good to drink!"

"You kinda stupid, aren't you? I want something to" - with emphasis on the last word - "drink!"

The girl ignored that and asked, "Is Metamor Keep that way?"

Confused, Julia scratched her head and replied, "Um, yes, yes it is."

"Well I'm going the other way!" Her inflection made it sound like a bright, positive, and cheery statement... one that barely made sense, but sounded nice all the same.

Julia became a bit more concerned. "That was Tia, right? What are you doing out here?"

Once again, the girl ignored her. She started climbing the largest tree by the road. On her way up she disturbed two blue jays, a squirrel, a racoon, a hornets nest, and a pair of socks someone had left up there years ago. She poked her head out of the canopy and looked up over the castle.

"So that's Metamor Keep! It doesn't look like a multifoliate rose at all!"

"What? Um, no, it doesn't. A rose, anyway."

The girl jumped down and pointed at a little clearing on the other side of the road baking in the sun. With a gesture: "This is where a signal tower is going to go." She turned back around to face Julia and noticed the blank stare as well as Julia's general state.

"You look weird and tired."

"Of course I am! I've been walking all day, I have a hangover, and I don't have anything to drink! No, water does not count! So of course I'm bloody weird and tired'!"

In anger, she threw down her military backpack and threw the silver bottle into a bush with shining green leaves. A few choked breaths later, she started crying.

Julia was a wreck. Her hair was tangled, as usual, full of split ends, as usual, but now leaves were added to the mix. She wasn't vain, but for some reason that was really bothering her. Her dusty black pants and shirt, which she had worn since seeing the Duke in the morning, were now quite clammy. After the meeting, she didn't have any time to go to her room and collect any of her stuff. Besides lacking a change of clothes (she had three sets which she alternated roughly on a monthly basis), she missed her barrels of that sweet, sweet alcohol she longed for. Just three flasks - that's all she wanted! Courtesy of Duke Thomas, she had a spare outfit stowed away in her pack that would have made her somewhat more presentable, but it was to be saved for when she met the King of Pyralis. Besides, it would have been too hot to wear and, considering her luck, probably dirty already.

"Damn you, good and just and fair Duke Thomas Hassan the Fifth! I'm going to miss Joyous and Boisterous Hour thanks to you!"

The girl from nowhere looked at her sympathetically. "You have the pantagruel, don't you?" She pulled out another flask from her backpack, identical to the first, and handed it to Julia, who stared at it quizzically, sniffed it, then slammed it back.

"That's better... oh yeah!"

She leaned back and let the alcohol (or so she it assumed it to be) take effect. Amazingly enough, it had the effect of stabilizing her mental state. Somewhat. Unfortunately, she continued to drink and it started getting to her.

"You know what I need?" she said, then paused for a few seconds, thinking a bit and letting the drink get to her. She settled down against a tree as Tia watched her. At last she yelled out, "I need a woman! I haven't had one in years! They're all just" - she used her favourite euphemism - "canaries now!"

She waved the cubic container a bit to emphasize the point.

"I mean, I go to the bar, I get 'em some good stuff from Donnie, and that's hard to get, mind you, and we talk, we start hitting it off, we're laughing and having a good time and getting' along great, but when I ask if they want to go to my room with me they just give me that damn look and take off! What's up with that? I'm a hero, for crying out loud! Damn canaries!"

Tia didn't say anything, and didn't ask what a canary was. She had an idea, though, but she kept it to herself. Politeness is a virtue, after all.

"I hate that look! They all use it! It's like they're saying they're better than me, you know? I mean, how stuck up, eh?"

Something occurred to Julia. At this stage of inebriation, the act required both her eyes to widen and her mouth to flap up and down without any sounds coming out.

Finally, she collected her thoughts and said, "Tia, eh? What are ya doin' out here anyway? Don't you know that there are Lutins all over the damn place? I mean, I'm an old hero, so I'm not worried, but you're just a kid, and..." Her voice trailed off as she tried to think of a point.

"Tia don't worry bout Lutins!" the girl said in her cheery voice. At that she looked into the forest on both sides, and she wasn't concerned at all by what she saw. To an extent, she was relieved.

"Well, what are you doing out here? You're obviously not from Metamor, so, are you from..."

She had to think for a few moments. The local geography was not her strong point at all.

Tia interjected, "Midtown?"

"Yeah, there! I'd better get you home."

"Tia come along!"

Julia just stared for a moment.

"Uh, okay... well, lets get going. You do have more of this" - she pointed at the flask - "stuff, do you?"