Taking the City

Fallon noticed Sir Axel's grim expession, though she didn't understand why is was grim. She stared at him trying to figure it out while he talked with captain ?. She gave captain ? a small wave when he said goodbye, Hunter gave a short nod with his head. He tried to keep his eyes on the captain, but he soon lost him in the maze of tents. His attention was drawn back to Sir Axel when he asked if the questions hadn't bothered them.
"No," he answered, "not really... What will happen now?"

Sir Axel was a bit surprised the two children didn't seem to mind the captain's questions. He wasn't really used to miscomprehending people like this. Just dismissing it as a side-effect of his lack of sleep in the end, he never let it show.

"Well," he replied casually, "whatever you want, really. You can leave if you want... or you can stay here with us." He paused for a moment, then added: "I'm guessing captain ? would be quite pleased with the latter option, I think he'll come up with a lot more questions shortly."

"Why does captain ? have so many questions for us...?" Fallon asked Sir Axel, unlike her brother she didn't really like it.
Hunter looked a little surprised at his little sister, normally she didn't really say anything. She must have taken a liking to Sir Axel when they had talked while he had been sleeping. Fallon on the other hand just rubbed her eyes for a moment before she remembered something Sir Axel had said earlier.
"You said you'd introduce me to the nymph," she said her eyes betraying her eagerness to meet a real nymph.
Now Hunter was really surprised, that was a really bold question for her. But then again he couldn't deny being very curious to meeting a nymph.

"Well," Sir Axel replied, choosing his words with care, "he's eager to know what the inner circle of the city is like, because that might help come up with a plan. He just wants this whole war to be over soon."

Then, when Fallon suddenly brought up that he would introduce her to a nympf, he smiled. "Ow yes," he said, almost having forgotten himself, "that's right." He looked around for a moment, wondering where Rose would be. It was easier to find people before the battle, as everyone stuck together with their own group back then. Now everyone seemed to mingle exceedingly - not to say Sir Axel opposed to this, but it did make it harder to find anyone.
Turning back to Fallon he said: "I'm just not sure where she is right now." He got up, then asked with a friendly smile; "would you likek to come with me and search for her?" he asked, "or would you rather wait here?"

"I'm all for the war being over soon," Hunter said. The sooner the war would be over the sooner they could have their normal lifes back again, or at least what passed for them as normal.
Fallon, at the moment at least, was more interested in meeting the nymph Sir Axel had promised her. She waited curiously while he looked around before looking back at her. She didn't have to think about the answer to his question, she just had to convince Hunter about it. She looked at him with big questioning eyes, she knew that he knew her well enough to know what she wanted. Fortunately Hunter didn't need much convincing, he hoped that he could orientate them better through the maze of tents if they went along.
"We'd like to come along," he said and they both stood up to follow Sir Axel to wherever he was going.

"Alright," Sir Axel said, "let's go look for her then," and he started walking.

The search started at the hospital tents, partially because those were close-by but also because a lot of the magically gifted had been or still were involved with healing of the wounded. Naturally, some time had passed since the battle, and everyone who didn't need constant medical attention had already been taken care of - this resulting in them not findig Rose there.
Incidentally, one of the larger tents in the hospital area smelled suspiciously of Afaafa - or, his smokables that is. Indeed, Afaafa had graceously (read: after a lot of protest) distributed his *ahum* suplies to be used as painkillers.
Coincidentally, Afaafa had started spending a lot of time with the hospitalized. At first there was some moral protest against this, but as he turned out to be quite enapt at keeping everyone's spirits up, he was allowed to stay as what could be considered the dimension's first clini-clown.

Right now Afaafa was sitting in front of one of the larger hospital tents, suited for up to 15 men. He grinned up at Sir Axel when he saw him walking up to the tent; "Sir A," he greeted him, "how's you?" Then upon seeing Hunter and Fallon he went: "who's the little people?"

Sir Axel pulled a weak smile at him; "this is Hunter and Fallon," he said. Then to Hunter and Fallon; "just stay in here for a moment, I'll go ask one of the medics if they know where Rose is."
He didn't really like leaving them with Afaafa, especially as he seemed quite baked, but he considered it a better option than taking them with him into the tent full of people with half their organs hanging out.

When Sir Axel went into the tent, Afaafa looked up at Hunter and Fallon with mild curiousity. He was sitting on the ground with his legs over eachother, his exotic-looking pipe sticking out of the far corner of his mouth. When he smiled at them, the pipe wobbled dangerously, looking as if it was going to fall out of his mouth any second now.
"Hello there, little people," he said in a mellow voice, "what brings you here?"

Fallon followed Sir Axel closely while Hunter did his best to orientate himself as they walked. Neither one of them like the smell the air took as they walked over closer to one of the bigger hospital tents. There noses wrinkled a little and they both tilted their heads at the sight of Afaafa. Neither one of them had ever seen a human man which such a dark brown skin tone.
Fallon moved a little closer to Hunter when Sir Axel told them to wait outside the tent with the brown man in front of it while he went inside. It wasn't so much that Afaafa's skincolour scared them, it was his smell and the smell of his 'supplies' that they didn't like.
"We want to meet the nymph," Hunter said after a moment of silence in which he concluded that they were the 'little people'.

Afaafa tilted his head at Hunter and Fallon, very much as they had done just now, when they said they wanted to meet 'the nympf'.
"O, you mean flowergirl!" he concluded after a long moment of thinking. He had met Rose, of course, but his mind never really registered her as a nympf, rather than 'that pretty girl who could make plants grow really quick'.
"Ow yeah, she's probably outside of the camp somewhere," he said, "not enough green for her to play with here."
After saying that, he blinked at the children and seemed to be taking them up with a little more care. "You two are wearing pretty weird clothes," he said, clearly not inhibited by any form of manners, "is that really comfortable?" To be fair, he didn't really have any ground to say that; his clothes were pretty out of the ordinary too, most resembling the clothes of Sa'Ida's people but even not really fitting in with those. He didn't seem to realize this though.

Moments later Sir Axel left the tent again. "She's outside the campsite," he said to Hunter and Fallon, "South from here."
He halted next to them, looking at Afaafa with something of a tired expression, reading in his mind; 'you could've just asked me that, mr. fancypants...!'
Afaafa didn't seem to grasp for a couple seconds after Sir Axel gave him that look that the man had read his mind. In reaction he just pulled a big grin and replied; "it's your own fault for eaves-dropping inside my head."

"Fair enough," Sir Axel sighed. Then he turned around to Hunter and Fallon and said: "let's move along?" and started walking again.

Neither Hunter nor Fallon really felt like responding to Afaafa when he said that the nymph was probably outside of the camp. They could completely relate to it, they were big fans of nature as well and they really missed it having been without it for so long.
Both of them frowned when Afaafa said that their clothes were weird. Admittedly their clothes were dirty, worn down beyond repair and mostly not the right size for them. Though it had fitted better before they had been trapped inside the bubble. But they did what was needed, provide warmth and hiding what they didn't wanted other people to see.
"It's all we have," Hunter answered, "besides your clothing isn't all that ordinary either."
Fallon was relieved when Sir Axel came out of the hospital tent and told them pretty much what Afaafa had told them. But unlike Afaafa Sir Axel actually took action to guiding them to where they needed to be. Disliking the scent that surrounded Afaafa the children were quick to follow Sir Axel to the Southern end of the camp.

They passed through the seemingly endless sea of tents - or at least, that must've been what it seemed like to someone who didn't know their way around - to eventually end up an open space.
Immediatly around them there were akers of land, where the city's crops where grown, and farther in the distance lay grasslands and woods. Some of the aker's crops had been lost in the battle, but further in the distance there were still plenty of healthy growths.

Somewhere, in the middle of these trampled crop fields, there was Rose. It wasn't hard to notice her, considering she was the only thing standing up straight in the otherwise flattened grain field around her. Besides that, she was doing some slow-waving movements with her arms - which probably looked very silly to anyone not familair with magic.

Sir Axel gestured to Hunter and Fallon to come along as he stepped over to where Rose was. There used to be a fence sepperating the different farmlands, but these had demolished in the battle as well, saving them the trouble of climbing over them.

Rose didn't notice them coming up at first, being too focussed on her magic. It wasn't until they were only several metres away that she remarked people where near. She looked up a little tensed, but relaxed when she saw it was only Sir Axel and two unfamilair children.
"Ow hello Sir Axel," he said in a friendly voice, stopping the waving of her arms and smiling at them.
"Hello Rose," Sir Axel greeted, smiling back at her, "I hope I'm not disturbing anything?"
"Not at all," Rose said, "I was just- o well, nevermind. How can I help you?"
"Well... There's a young lady here who is really curious as to meeting a nympf." He stepped aside, gesturing towards Fallon.
Rose looked at Hunter and Fallon for a moment, then smiled and said: "nice to meet you two." Then to Fallon in a chuckle; "jeez, I'm flattered."

Hunter tried to keep track of where they were and how they were walking, but lost track rather fast. There were too many tents and they looked too much alike. When they came out of the tent maze the first thing they saw was the forest in the distance. Both of them had spend most of their lives in forests and missed being in one, but then they saw the woman standing in the bare fields. At first they couldn't place the arm movements, but they quickly placed it as something to do with magic.
Fallon was obviously got more and more excited the closer they got to Rose. Hunter was excited as well, but he hid it quite well.
"Hey," Fallon said playing a little with her skirt nervous and shy, a small blush on her cheeks, but her eyes glinting with excitement, "I'm Fallon and this is my brother Hunter. What kind of nymph are you?"

Rose couldn't resist a small endeered giggle at Fallon's timide behavior. "I'm a flora-nympf," she anwsered her, leaning over a little to minimize the height-difference. "So plants and trees and grass, things like that," she explained, in case Fallon wouldn't understand.

She then crouched, putting her hand on the ground. She closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment, and then a small white flower, a daise, appeared from there. Flora smiled and picked it up. "See?" she said, holding her example up in front of Fallon, and handing it to her if she wanted it.

Sir Axel couldn't help but smile at all this cuteness; he didn't realize until now that he could really use seeing something this cheerful.

"So Fallon," Rose asked, "why did you want to meet a nympf anyway?"

Neither Fallon nor Hunter needed the explanation Rose gave about what a flora-nymph was. They may never have seen a nymph in real life, but if you quizzed them on it they would answer 9 out of 10 questions correct. They knew, because they were nature spirits as well.
Fallon all but let out a small squeel when Rose held out the newly grown daise. She carefully took it from her and looked at it more closely. When Rose asked her why she wanted to meet a nymph she looked over at Hunter. A long moment of silence passed as the siblings stared each other in the eye. All Sir Axel would be reading in their mind was from Fallon: 'Can I?' and Hunter: '...' as well as what he had seen from the rebels so far and mainly how they've been treating 'others'.
With a sigh he nodded and Fallon bit her lower lip before placing both her hands on the sides of her helmet and taking a deep breath before taking it off. The sun caught the strange colour of her eyes almost immediately, but that would probably not be what Sir Axel and Rose would notice first. For having grown from between her snow white hair were two goat-like horns.
A moment later Hunter had taken off his hat, though his eyes were a within the human eye colour spectrum, his hair was the same snow white colour and he too had two goat-like horns.
They were fauns/satyrs, spirits of nature.

When the children took their hats off, Sir Axel couldn't help but look at them for what might be considered a stare ((fine, it is a stare, but he doesn't like to admit he'd do something so rude XD)). It wasn't that he didn't know they were hiding their appearance for a reason, it was just that he didn't know what to expect. And as he'd never seen anyone like them before, he did need a moment to take it all in.

Rose on the other hand didn't seem suprised at all. Instead, she seemed enthusiastic to see they were fauns. "Ow look at you," she said in a cheerful voice, "I haven't spoken to a faun in over 80 years!" Her eyes turned from Fallon to Hunter, then back to Fallon. "And you might be the prettiest I've ever seen," Rose added to her. And that was not just an empty compliment, the coluor of their hair - especially in combination with Fallon's eyes - she absolutely admired.

After a moment, her expression became more stern as she asked; "why were you covering yourself up like that??" This was, quite obviously, Rose's more childlike, naïve side talking.

Fallon looked at the helmet in her hands, uncertainty oozing off of her. Hunter on the other hand had his eyes flickering from Sir Axel to Rose and back again and again and again, looking for any sign that they might need to make a run for it. He relaxed though when he saw Rose her enthusiasme.
Fallon blushed a bright crimson when Rose said that she might be the prettiest faun she's ever seen. She was at the vurge of tears, happy tears to be precise. She had hoped, dreamed for something like this, but never really thought that would happen.
Hunter was happily relieved as well, much like Fallon he had never thought this would really happen.
Fallon looked down again, somewhat ashamed, when Rose became stern. Hunter was quick to come to his sister's aid though. Mainly because it had been because of him.
"Because our parents got killed because of the law..." he answered his throat tighting. Fallon rested her head on his shoulder, saddened.

"Ow, oh yes," Rose replied in an apologetic, slightly ashamed voice, "I'm so sorry." She hessitated for a moment, then asked in a small voice; "when did this happen?" She looked at them with great, big eyes, clearly feeling very bad for them.

As she started thinking about this, she was starting to make herself pretty angry; "ooh, that horrible king! And his horrible laws...!"

Sir Axel was a little surprised. He hadn't really seen Rose angry before - and admittedly, she still didn't come off as intimidating in the least - but he felt he should calm her down. He put his hand on her shoulder, and reminded her with a comforting smile; "that's why we're here. To make sure things like that can not happen again."

"Three, four years ago," Hunter answered in a small voice before falling silent again. Fallon had so little memory of it all that every time their parents were brought up she got sad again. She had no idea what her parents had looked like.
To cheer herself up she decided that now that it was out that they were fauns she could use a little magic. Putting her helmet on the ground she locked her hands around the daise as if it was a living being, closed her eyes and opened both her eyes and hands a few moments later. In the palm of her hands was now a small pixy-like being that had a lot of similarities with the daise she had just held. It quickly took up out of her hands and flew (harmlessly) around her and Hunter and Rose and Sir Axel.

Rose's expression  brightened immediatly as Fallon released the pixy from her hands. She chuckled as it flew around her, then as it flew around a quite fascinated Sir Axel.
"Waow, that's pretty good!" she said to Fallon, "where did you learn that?"

Fallon smiled a little as well when the pixy flew around all of them. She crouched a little to search the barren ground for a few leaves. When she found them she held them in her closed hands for a moment again before releasing more flora pixy. They all flew around them and then around each other and then around the field.
"I don't know," Fallon answered, she looked at Hunter to see if he remembered, but he just shrugged, "I've just know how to do it for as long as I can remember..."

Rose smiled at Fallon said she'd just always been able to do this magic, understanding this from personal experience.
"I see," she said with a nod, "it was the same for me. Though I got better at it, and learned more things once I went to school."
She then turned her gaze to Hunter; "can you do things like this too?" she asked him curiously.

"School...?" Fallon tilted her head slightly and looked at Hunter, but he didn't really knew either. The word school was something they both had heard of and had heard it being used during their trips through various cities and villages, but they didn't really know the meaning or concept of the word. And until now they had been too afraid to ask someone about the meaning, because it would draw attention to them. When Rose looked at Hunter and asked him if he could do things like that as well he nodded.
"We are capable of similar things... not exactly the same, but alike," he answered not really knowing a better way to explain it.

Rose nodded in reply to Hunter, understanding how the powers and abilities of siblings were usually similair but rarely identical. "I see," she said, "I understand."

Sir Axel, in the mean time, seemed more interested in their clear absent knowledge about the whole concept of 'school'. It wasn't that he was really surprised that they hadn't been to school - or that they didn't really know what it was, to be honest - but still he felt this important to ask; "you two have never been to school?" he asked after a brief moment of hessitation.

Hunter was happy that Rose understood what he had meant, without having to try and explain it more. Both him and Fallon looked up at Sir Axel when he asked if they had ever been to school.
Fallon shook her head with big eyes, not sure if that was a bad thing or not. Hunter shook his head as well, though a little more hesitant. They both didn't have any idea of what school was, but Hunter was suspicious that it could be dangerous. Especially because he had heard plently of kids their age complain about it.

Sir Axel could read in their minds how both Fallon and Hunter thought about school, and he felt that - at the very least- he should clarify it was not a dangerous thing.
"A school is an institute of learning. So whatever it is that the school specializes in, the teachers try to teach to all the children - or students, rather - who go there."

Rose looked at him with amused interest, as he tried his best to explain something that rarely needed explaining.

"Some students don't like school all that much though," Sir Axel proceeded, trying to ignore Rose's amusement - though to be fair, he couldn't surpress a small grin himself, "because it requires a lot of work. And some people would rather be lazy than learn."

Fallon tilted her head to the side as Sir Axel explained what school is. Hunter frowned a little as he tried to understand, though failing.
"Why don't they just learn from their parents?" he asked when Sir Axel was done with speaking.
"Or learn by trial and error...?" Fallon added tilting her head the other side.
They both didn't understand. It had been the way they had learned it. Or at least in Fallon's case she learned most things from Hunter, but she understood that it was more common to learn it from a parent and just plain life experience.