#yavril

Morgan woke up, the sun seeping through his window being the cause. He threw his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up, stretching his arms and legs as well as he could. He forced his tired body to attend to the door, which he opened and stepped outside of. "Two," he muttered passing it, 'next best thing'. He chuckled to himself as he passed the door with a moments thought, nearly tempted to knock and wake her up.

Yavril stayed in bed several hours past sunrise, though not nearly as late as she might have liked. Her body, though, refused to get any more sleep, and as such Yavril dragged herself out of bed around an hour after Mo had passed her room. She wandered downstairs carefully, looking drowsy.

Morgan was sitting at the bar, with nothing in front of him talking to the bartender, who was cleaning up.

Yav approached without caution, pulling up a stool next to Mo and greeting him with "Good morning!"

Morgan gave his attention to her, "Hey, did you sleep well?"

"Actually, yeah!" Yavril said, visibly surprised. "I expected less, no offense." She directed her last comment at the barkeep. Turning back to Mo, she looked him up and down; "What about you?"

"I slept fine." He remarked gently, "Do you... Want to get headed out?" "Yeah, if you don't have anything else you'd like to do! I don't mind sticking around for a while if you just want to relax."

"Anything is fine for me." He huffed leaning further into the bar. Yavril chuckled; "Well, I lost a good chunk of coin getting Aine back; we could look for work around here before we head off?"

"Sure, that's fine." Yav nodded; looking up at the barkeep, she asked "Any bounties? People looking for help?"

"Ah- well, I did hear someone's been stealing... Plants. Odd." She gave a chuckle, "Bounty out for them. No one wants to buy flowers or any sort of plants, cause this their is ruthless." Yav raised an eyebrow, amused; "Plants, really?" Turning to Morgan, she asked "Well, do you feel like saving some of our kin from the ruthless hands of these savages?"

Morgan chuckled and pushed himself to a stand, "Sure" "Alright!" Yav cheered happily, encouraged by having something to do. She slung her things over a shoulder and led Morgan out of the inn, giving the bartender a wave on their exit.

Morgan smiled at the cheery demeanour she adopted, "Where do we start? Asking around?" "Yeah - my first guess on the culprit would be one of us, maybe someone who doesn't understand why people have plants in their houses? I can't think of another reason someone would just steal houseplants. But I'm also wondering where they're keeping all these plants; it couldn't just be in their home or something, that would be too obvious. So one of us could look around for anywhere they might be hiding the plants, and the other could ask around, maybe check if there are any other Sylvari in town?"

Morgan nodded, "Well, there has to be sightings too, no?" "Exactly!" Yav chirped, enthused. "Ah, this is fun! Like investigating. So, which do you want to do?"

"Let's ask around for sightings, that way we might know what we're looking for." Shrugging, she replied, "Alright." Looking around them showed a few people outside, but mostly children playing games; it was still early. The only adults around were the ones whose jobs depended on it. Bakers, men and women delivering milk, seraph guards.

Morgan blinked around looking at the people, "Wonder if we could Find a florist, good place to start." Yav nodded; "Sure, probably. Big target." Indeed a florist's cart sat in the distance, but it was currently seemed unattended. "Over there?" Yav gestured to it.

Morgan began to head over there, dragging Yav with him, a small yet present smile on his face. The florist was fiddling with some flowers, setting up a bouquet. Yav chuckled as Mo dragged her along, approaching the florist. "Hey!" She announced them, "We're looking for the plant thief before he steals us."

The florist looked up tugging a lock of hair behind her ear, "O-oh." She stammered not catching on at first. She let out a small chuckle, "Oh, that's- funny." Her face dusting itself with pink, "That's- I'm sorry- how can I help?" She set down the bouquet she had been fiddling with. Aw, the woman was adorable; Yav tilted her head with a more gentle smile now; "We really are trying to help with the plant thief problem, actually. Figured you might have an idea, given your situation?" She gestured to all of the plants at the cart - some of which were honestly lovely.

She smiled sweetly and looked to them, "Oh- yeah... Well I've never... None of my flowers have been stolen- but my potted flowers and plants, they've disappeared, but more so my customers." Her face fell gently as she frowned, "I'm afraid that people just don't want to buy my plants if people are just going to steal them." "Any idea who the culprit might be? Stealing plants is pretty specific."

"Ah- I've never seen him, but- Franky- he's- my husband- he's in wood working, works himself to sleep most days and he tells me that he say some little Slyvari snooping around at night and thinks maybe he stole the Lilies I gave him for our anniversary. "Told you it was a Sylvari!" Yavril said, grinning at Mo. "Okay," she turned back to the florist, "So any Sylvari in town other than us?"

She shook her head softly, "No- but a while back we had a small group of about three pass through, I remember having the oddest conversation with them. They didn't want to stay in town- but I guess they wanted to camp around for a while?" "What kind of odd conversation?"

"They were just curious and kind of- concerned about something seemed nervous. And I don't mean to be presumptuous but they seemed young- you guys call them... Saplings... Right?" "Saplings, yeah..." Yav confirmed; "That's strange... saplings hardly ever get this far out of the Grove. How long ago was this?"

"Ahh- four days ago, ever sense those plants have been disappearing, but I don't know where they went." "So the plants started disappearing when they left? Weird..." She looked to Mo; "What do you think? See if anyone's spotted them? Seems like a real coincidence. Plus, three saplings out of the Grove on their own means trouble. And probably not the good kind."

Morgan shrugged slightly, "It's...possible- weird- but possible, and- even if how will we find them?" "Three saplings wander into town, at least one of these people has to have seen them leave, right?"

"Yeah...but they aren't staying in town-" The florist interrupted, "We don't get a lot of Slyvari out this way- I know what they look like..."

"Oh, perfect!" Yav chirped, "That would be really helpful, I'm sure we could follow their trail."

"Uh- well. I really only remember one but he was very very green" Yavril chuckled; "Ah, promoting Sylvari stereotypes, I see! Alright, well thanks for that." Turning to Mo, she asked; "You want to try and talk to the local seraph? Maybe they've seen them leave, or wherever they're camping, or..."

Morgan gave a chuckle to the woman, "yeah..." He said shifting his gaze to Yavril, "Lead the way." Yavril waved goodbye to the flower vendor before leading Morgan away; "Okay, so we need to find a seraph - they'll be wearing all armour, probably. And, at this time of day, probably around the town border?"

"Lead the way!" He recited again. Yav chuckled at him. "Alright!" She agreed, catching his arm with a hand and wrist and pulling him along at her rather energetic speed; they did find several seraph patrolling the edges of town, two men and a woman spread out along at least three fourths of the border. "Mkay," she offered Mo, still holding him captive, "Pick one!"

"Uh-" he motioned to one on the left, "she seems interesting." The seraph woman didn't look any different to Yavril than the others, but she ran with it, approaching happily with Morgan in toe. "Hello!"

The seraph woman turned, an eyebrow raised. "Hello? Can I help you folk?"

Morgan nodded, "We're looking for a group of saplings- three of them?" "Ah, saplings? Like- other Sylvari?"

"Oh- yeah, three of them, passed by a few days ago?" "Oh," the woman nodded, frowning in concentration. "Yeah. Yeah, they were the talk of the town for a few days. Strange bunch... But, ah, they left a while ago."

"Which direction?" Yav asked, eager.

"East;" The seraph pointed into the distance. "I don't know if you'll find them, though? That was.... three or four days ago."

"Ah, we know, thank you though." "Thanks!" Yav chirped; turning to Morgan she asked, "You want to split up, or just come with me?"

"Let's stick together?" He offered. Yavril nodded; "Alright, then. Of we go!"

Morgan offered her a smile, "I'm sorry, which way is east?" Yav chuckled and looked off in a seemingly random direction; "That way." In the distance, a cliff could be seen, and a small lake beyond it.

"Ahhhh-" he nodded, "Onward!" "Onward!" Yav agreed, pulling him off into the distance; they traveled over the green grass for a bit, as Yavril said "Okay, so I don't know how far they'll be... It's been four days, but if they're really stealing plants from the city...?"

"They can't be that far away." He continued on, "I doubt they'd travel far..." "If it is them stealing the plants. But if it's not, they could be pretty far by now."

"Well, how far do we say is to far?" "Uh, I guess anywhere you don't think a sapling could carry a large houseplant in the middle of the night."

He laughed, "Well where is that? Certainly to no settlement."

Yav chuckled, happy to see Mo laughing, "Uhhhh... probably nearby..."

Morgan and Yavril continued on for a while discussing the whole ordeal all the while drifting off the clear path. Eventually the pair found themselves in a small area with no tents or fires burning, but rather, holes dug in the ground and large or small house plants grounded in the soil. Hundreds of them. "Oh my-" Yavril uttered as the plants came into view, "I'm... Not hallucinating this, right?"

Morgan stopped and stared for a moment at all of the replanted houseplant. Suddenly scanning the area, "Woah- but- no one is here..." "Yeah..." Yavril noted, stepping forward into the field of replanted plants; "Why would they... steal plants just to replant them out here?"

Morgan blinked, "I don't know... Maybe they thought of it like....setting them free- you know?" "That's..." Yav had been going to say that was crazy, but... "I guess a bunch of saplings /would/ be confused to see a whole bunch of plants indoors... We really should find them; even if we bring everyone their plants back, which, uh, how? But- they'll still think they should be... saving them."

"They should probably return to the grove... Do we wait?" Yav nodded; "Yeah. They're bound to come back at some point or another." She stepped over a poorly replanted daisy, "If we leave, we could miss them."

"Do you think we'll scare them off if they see us?" "No, I think we'll be okay. We're not humans, and they're pretty far from the Grove. So long  as we don't look like wardens, we... /should/ be okay."

Morgan sat down and leaned against a tree, "Mine as well relax..." Yavril nodded, sitting down nearby. "Poor saplings, they must be so confused."

Morgan chuckled, "it's kind of funny." Yav's lips quirked up; "I mean... a little bit. But they're still just confused saplings. I suppose they got lucky, there are a lot more confusing things they could have run into before houseplants."

He nodded, "It just seems like such a silly crime." "Yeah... they don't understand human rules, I kind of can't believe their crime wasn't something like not wearing clothes in public, or something."

"I didn't even think about that, maybe they heard something and got a specific goal." "Maybe. Whatever it was, they're lucky we're here. Otherwise, I doubt the humans would be at all... lenient."

"How exactly do we-" Morgan stopped midden ranch addressing the sound of crunching leaves below someone’s feet. Yavril's natural instincts flared, and she turned around, hand on a holstered knife, in a split second. Stretching to turn while seated towards Morgan, she tilted her head up to see where the noise was coming from.

A bright green Slyvari with darker tints laced through his skin stopped in his tracks, a bewildered look on his face and a pot of lilies in hand. Yavril removed her hand from the knife, standing up to meet him at eye level - and honestly trying not to laugh. "Brother! We've been waiting for you. I'm Yavril, and this is my friend Morgan."

He looked between the two, who were much taller as he began to speak in a voice he used to make himself feel bigger, "Hi! How'd you- why're you- how- you're here? Hi?" Yav chuckled; "Calm down, brother. Your name is?"

"Nils..." He chirped slowly.

Yav nodded, "Nice to meet you, Nils. Again, Yavril and Morgan, but you can call me Yav if you like. Where are your friends?"

"They're away right now..." He shyly passed them and went to place the potted plant in a hole. "Okay, well-" Yavril grimaced as he sunk the entire pot into the ground, "We've been looking for you because in Ascalon Settlement, right over there, they've been complaining about plants disappearing." She looked over the field of houseplants Nils had managed to collect, "You, ah, wouldn't happen to know anything about that?"

He flashed his gaze to her, "Oh- yeah..." He looked back to the lillies covering them in soil, "I'm doing that..." "I figured," Yav said, looking out on the plants. "Can I ask why?" She figured she knew, but just for confirmation...

"Well, they just trap them and they deserve to grow..." He muttered engrossed in the planting. "Yeah, but, uh, they are growing in those pots. Nils. They're just growing where the humans can admire them. And they're pretty upset that someone is stealing all of their pretty plants."

"But... They need to be in the soil..." "The brown stuff in the pots /is/ soil, Nils."

"It's not good enough..." "Nils, this is just how humans do things. The plants were growing fine, I promise. We'd be able to tell if they weren't, right? And the humans like having a little bit of nature in their houses - they live in these brick things, nothing like our homes."

Nils folded his face in an upset manner, "It's not fair, it's not their lives..." Yavril let out a sigh; "Nils, these people aren't being cruel to their plants. They protect them. Not everything here," she gestured to the field, "Will grow in these conditions. With the humans, they have protectors."

Nils looked up to her, "That... Doesn't make sense..." "No? I know that plant," she gestured to a flower, "Likes very little sun. It's getting too much here. With a human, that wouldn't happen."

"But..." Nils frowned, "I don't want to hurt them..." "Leaving them here is doing more harm than good, brother."

"I'm trying to help.." "I know, Nils. Just.... come on, get up, huh?" She offered him her hand to help him up.

He left out a sniffle, "It's not fair to keep them in houses." Damn, he really was upset about this. Yav let out a sigh, crouching down to Nils' level instead. "They don't mind being in houses, Nils. I promise. They mind being out here in the scorching sun more. You can't stay here and watch them forever, what about the friends you were travelling with? It's going to be okay."

He choked out a sob, "I'll stay here and help them if I have too." And at that, Yavril hit her breaking point. Reaching out to envelope Nils in a hug, she muttered, "Brother, please don't cry..."

He fell deeper into a sob, muttering something incoherent about the plants. Morgan knelt down beside the two, still keeping his distance. Yavril offered Morgan a half-concealed glance in confusion, but just hummed vaguely reassuring things to Nils. "Sh... brother, it's okay..."

Nils began to hiccup in his moment, "S'not fair- jus- wannhelp." "I know, brother.... but there are better ways to help plants than this, trust me." Yavril ran a hand up and down his back, trying to calm the sapling.

"H-how?" He fumbled seeing no other way. "You-you could be a gardener in Astorea, Nils. You could maybe /talk/ to the humans, help them care for their plants better. Ask your friends for help, maybe?"

"B-b-but I don't know anything about them! You said I was killing th-e-em." He began to sob again. "N-not.... like that..." Yavril grimaced, holding Nils a little tighter. "But you could learn, right? I'm sure someone could teach you. And you can sense them, right? We all can, or most of us...?"

Nils continued crying, "I'm- a k-killer." He hiccuped "By the Pale Tree..." Yavril muttered, sinking to her knees in the grass, now. "You're not a killer, brother. You were trying hard - I'm going to help you fix it now, okay? We can get all of the plants back to where they're supposed to be."

Nils hiccuped and nodded forcing himself to stand. Yavril released Nils as he stood, but she didn't, examining the plants closest to her. "Okay... Good. It... might be best to tell the city where their plants are and have them come, ah, retrieve them themselves. We don't even have to tell them it was you - you can just offer to help, if you'd like to."

"No.. I don't want to hurt them more..." Giving Morgan a glance, Yav frowned; "Ah, you meant well, brother." As she pushed herself to a stand, Yav continued "You clearly care. You should try and help, if you can."

"N-no." He stammered ashamed of himself. "Pale Tree you're stubborn," Yav murmured, "Okay, what do /you/ want to do, then? Where are your friends?"

"They're in the town- I think?" "That's strange, no one thought they were..." Yav shook her head, "Whatever, at least come with us to find them?"

"Okay... They left last night." "Well, we'll find them." Giving Morgan a confused glance, she started to walk back in the direction of the settlement.

Morgan followed closing behind them as they soon approached the settlement. Turning to Nils as they got closer, Yavril asked "What do your friends look like?"

"Ah- Calium has heavy dark...bark?" He curiously said, "Very... Blue though- and the other one she's really white- Baetrius."

"Both women?" Aug 15, 11:32 PM

"Calium is a boy." He noted.

"Okay," Yavril nodded. "We might get more done if we split up?" She raised a questioning eyebrow at Morgan; "You could go tell them where their plants are and get the reward, I can bring Nils back to his friends? Unless you would rather not."

Mo didn't have time to give her an answer - as Yavril finished, a Sylvari man - clearly a sapling, with dark blue features striken by white here and there, and hair like tree branches, came running around a corner, looking back at something behind him.

Morgan stopped to address the sapling as he bolted around the corner, raising an eyebrow, "Calium?" He called the name, maybe a long shot, but he fit the bill. Calium's head twisted and he opened his mouth to say something, but he wasn't quick enough to stop himself - he crashed right into Nils and Yav.

Nils tumbled to the ground in his shaking and nervous form, he let out a groan as he crashed.

Morgan took the liberty of taking a firm step away from the group, he'd help once it settled in- if they wanted, Yavril was strong enough to hold her own, and as such stayed standing - if tilted and trying to hold the young saplings up - while Calium fell after Nils.

"Nils?" The sapling spoke in surprise, as he moved away from his friend, "What are you doing here? Were you not planting?"

"I was- b-but I was hurting the plants." He spoke, flustered. "Hurting them?" Calium asked, only becoming more confused as he pushed himself to a stand. He was a large man in more ways than one, and his dark and heavy bark gave him a strong and almost intimidating atmosphere he would have had to work hard to be rid of. Calium didn't. Offering Nils a hand, he continued "How? You were aiding them, no?"

"She told me I was hurting them..." He took Calium's hand and pointed To Yavril when he stood. Calium's questioning gaze turned to Yavril, who defended herself by raising her hands and saying "I only speak the truth, brother."

"And you are?"

"Yavril. Secondborn. My friend and I," she gestured towards Mo, "are just about your only friends right now. Where is the third of you - Baetrius?"

Baetrius came hurdling around the corner Aliym came from with a Money Tree in hand, "Cal-" he stopped dead in her tracks to look at the group. "Ah, I can guess," Yavril continued.

"Here, Baetrius," Calium waved the woman over, "they seem to have good intentions."

Baetrius slowly approached, the tree still in hand, "Uh- who are they?" "Yavril, Morgan," Yav introduced the pair quickly herself. "We're returning Nils and letting you know that we're going to tell the settlement where you've been putting the flowers."

Calium wore a confused frown; "Apparently they convinced Nils he has been hurting the plants."

Baetrius put the plant down on the ground, "That's absurd, you're going to give all the plants back?!" "Indeed we are," Yav replied. "There's a reason humans keep them in their homes, and they take care of them there. You can't just stay near that field of plants forever to keep them healthy - plus, it's theft."

Baetrius looked to Calium confused, "W-what is she talking about?" "The plants," Calium answered simply at first. "She believes we are hurting them by taking them ."

Baetrius squinted at Yavril, "Life deserves to be free, right?" She looked to Calium, "That's what you told us." "It is. It does." Calium nodded, staring down Morgan and Yavril.

"Okay, but the humans aren't keeping them captive, sapling -" Yavril groaned out, annoyed, "They're watering them and feeding them and caring for them personally."

Baetrius frowned, "They do what they need to survive, they don't need this." "Humans now have more than they need to survive - they like to have luxuries. Nice clothes, pretty plants, that sort of thing."

Baetrius furrowed her brow, "It's wrong to own lives like that." She whipped around, "Right Calium?" "Exactly." Calium watched Morgan and Yavril with a suddenly eerie gaze; "You will not return the plants to the humans. They deserve to be free. Humans cannot take lives on a whim for their own amusement."

Yavril grimaced - "No, it's not like that... And I don't think you ought to be trying to order me around, /sapling/. Morgan and I understand the world far better than you, you all would be wise to listen to us!"

Morgan took in a deep breath, placing a steady hand on Yavril, possibly to sooth her as he spoke to Calium, "Brother, the plants are lives, and lives deserve to be lived, but you are doing no good to place them in unsuitable conditions. They'll die. Regardless the people, they don't use them for amusement they take care of a nurture the plants, they care for them in a similar way that tee care for the young. We ensure they're healthy and safe." Yavril froze a little at the feeling of Morgan's hand on her - it was surely steadying, but she hadn't been expecting it. Morgan wasn't the type to touch others a whole lot. Once she got over the initial surprise, though, it certainly was reassuring.

Calium turned his steadily intimidating gaze on Morgan. A frown came over him as he soaked in the words - "Surely these humans cannot know how to truly care for a plant. They cannot hear them as we can. They must be better in our hands."

Morgan coked a brow, "You are aware that some plants are unable to sustain themselves in certain environments, yes? If so than you would realize that the people who take care of these plants care a great deal for their safety and ensure that the plants are properly taken care of. They get enough water, sun, they're in proper temperatures, but you guys don't understand this. You're endangering the lives of these plants, when before they were in danger." "Then explain the number of dead plants we found. Dead or dying, no care given at all. Some we were able to keep alive, but others - not. Perhaps you are right, but the answer should not be to return them to such clumsy caretakers."

"Oh? You speak as though we didn't find plants dying in your care? As though you yourself aren't clumsy. You're no better " Calium's gaze turned fierce - "/We/ care. Nils has been doing his best, as have Baetrius and I. These humans do not think of the plants as more than decorations, inanimate objects. Things to be admired or even ignored, not cared for as they need to be."

"That's where your wrong. They care for them, most of the time. However how ignorant does it make you, when you steal them from caring homes and murder them? Your intentions do not matter, Sapling. The outcome of them is what does. Not only are you killing the plants you cared so deeply for, but you're stealing. Going against human law, there are serious consequences." "We are Sylvari. Human law is irrelevant." Calium seemed sure of that, but something faltered in his eyes. "... But very well. The humans can gave their plants back. But only when we are satisfied they can properly care for them."

Morgan nodded slowly, slightly surprised as Calium gave up, "That's fair." He looked to Yavril removing his hand from her shoulder, "Now what?" Equally surprised Morgan had managed to calm Calium, she shrugged slightly. "We can tell the townspeople where to get their plants."

"No," Calium protested.

"No?"

"No. Tell the humans that we will lead them to their plants one on one, three at a time. When we are satisfied that they can take care of it properly, /then and only then/ may they take it back."

Morgan sighed slightly, "Okay, but, return what isn't taken back to the florist, she loves her plants and can't take care of them, then you tree have to return to the grove. Calium nodded, but froze partway in. "We will not return to the Grove. We have no reason to, nor the want." He glanced quickly around to the others in confirmation.

Morgan looked to Yavril curiously, reading her face for her thoughts on the subject. Yavril frowned, unsure what to think and displaying this clearly on her face. "You're saplings," she spoke, but not with the same amount of fervor she'd once held as she pondered the situation. "You can't be more than.... what, two months old? You're not prepared to be so far from the Grove. At least go back to Caledon? Human lands and people are much, much different than what we're like, and you need to be able to understand why their rules are important to follow /before/ you come here."

Baetrius frowned, "But they treat us like idiots!" She protested, "I don't get any of this its just not fair!" She stomped her foot down. Nils on the other hand wore a guilty face, still ashamed of himself and refused to speak another word. Calium nodded, frowning, "They do treat us like human children. We are more intelligent than that."

"Can you use a sword, sapling? A knife? A bow, a fire spell?"

Calium watched her carefully, not speaking.

"No, right? Can any of you?"

Baetrius fell silent now, insulted, but perhaps embarrassed. "Exactly. You might have basic knowledge, but you need more than that to survive out here. You need to be trained in your talents. When you're passed by a mentor, then you can try, but not before. I don't want to see any of you hurt for no reason. Understood?" She looked pointedly, but not angrily - more softly - at Baetrius.

Baetrius looked up for a second, "Ok." She hummed out, her stubborn fashions failing her now. "Okay."

Calium, surprised by Baetrius giving in, just nodded; it wasn't like Yav was going to stalk them, at least. "Very well," he spoke begrudgingly, "We no longer require your assistance, however. We will bring people to their plants one at a time."

Morgan looked to Yavril, "Is that okay? What about the bounty?" He spoke in a tone to quiet for anyone but herself. Yav nodded to him slightly, noting that - "Okay, how about this - you come with us, help us find someone in charge, we'll introduce you, get our bounty, tell them you're going to help, and then leave you to it. Sound fair?"

Calium considered her terms a moment before nodding. "I agree."

Baetrius nodded slowly, disregarding Nils, "Yeah." Yavril noted Nils' lack of input; the other two certainly over powered him. She shook the thought from her head though - that wasn't her concern, not right now. "Alright, let's go then."

Morgan nodded and began to head toward the town again, leaning toward Yav he spoke, "Who do we talk to?" "Ah. Not sure..." She muttered as the saplings followed them, "Human towns like this don't always have official leaders. Probably just someone with a lot of authority. Whoever controls bounties. We can ask around."

"Alright." He hummed, "Maybe start at that hotel?" "Okay, sure..." Yavril led them there quietly contemplative and when they arrived warned the saplings to "Be careful inside. Hopefully if you're with us they won't suspect you, since we just got in today, but you never know."

Morgan walked through the door as she briefed the anxious Nils, Cranky Baetrius, and Calium, who kept an 'angsty' sort of calm about him. Yavril followed him through when she was done, looking around, but finding no threat she glazed over most of them - even the man that had bumped into Morgan before, sitting inside again, mostly unnoticed and unnoticeable. Approaching the bar she smiled, "Hey, it's us again. Can we ask who's in charge around here?”

The bartender smiled slightly, "Oh- of course. That's my dad." She turned around without announcing her exit and vanished into the back room. "Uh-" Yavril began, blinking as the girl disappeared, "Well alright then." She turned around, offering a shrug to Morgan. The man did nothing to make himself visible to the pair, but his eyes sharpened, examining their movements, the way they interacted.

Morgan smiled at Yavril, for a moment, about to speak- but then an old man came out of the back, the bartenders arm looped around him for support. He wobbled to the front counter looking up the pair, "Hello." Yavril had smiled, tilting her head in curiousity before the man had appeared. "Hello," she smiled at the old guy - old people honestly freaked out Yav, she wasn't used to them. But, she was able to keep up appearances. "We've found where your missing plants are."

Shaking still, the man lifted his gave to Yav specifically, a smile sliding across his face, "Oh! Lovely!" Yavril tilted her head, "Yeah, they're buried in the ground a bit outside of town. We'd just like to collect the reward and then my friends here," she gestured to the saplings, "Have offered to help you in retrieving them."

"That's good." He gave an old giggle, "I'm afraid I'd break my back getting them myself, but you- no." The bartender smiled slightly, "Ah- the bounty- dad."

The old man nodded briskly, "Oh- why of course' He chuckled shaking his head, "Here you are." He passed off the gold to the pair. Yavril accepted the gold from the old man gratefully and with a warm smile, putting it into a coin purse on her hip before nodding thanks and turning back to the group. "Alright," she said, "We're trusting you. Do the right thing - /teach/ them, don't do it for them. You won't make any progress that way."

Nils nodded, a small hand on Baetrius' shoulder. Baetrius was an inch away from a slight grumble. "Alright," Yav nodded, glancing back at Mo, "Ready to go?"

Morgan nodded slowly. But shiftily tossed his eyes to the man in the bar, "Yav, we should talk, I think." A hint- of something. In his voice. Yav raised an eyebrow; "Ah, okay? Shall we step outside?"

"Yeah, that'd be lovely." Yavril nodded and with one final look back at the saplings stepped outside into the sun again. Crossing her arms, though not sassily, she asked "Everything okay Mo?"

"Not sure." He looked critically, "There's a guy in there... He's been watching us. And he spoke to me.." "Spoke to you? ...Okay. and said what?"

"He warned me about you." "Warned you about me...?" Yav repeated cautiously. "About what?" She was automatically going through anyone that would have thought poorly on Yav, enough to warn Mo off. He hadn't left yet, but...

"He just said you were trouble... That I should avoid you, and he's in there right now." Yavril frowned; "Why would he stick around...? That doesn't make any sense."

"I'm not sure..." Morgan frowned unsure of any possible direction. Yavril tilted her head at Mo; he seemed really thrown by this. "Something you want to do in particular? He might really just have been trying to freak you out."

"If that's the case then why would he have specifically targeted you?" Yavril shrugged. "If there was any reason he thought it would bother you... When was this?"

"Last night when you left me for a moment." "Oh, when I got rooms. Huh. Well if he's inside now, we could go back and ask him? I dunno, I've upset a lot of people, it could be anyone. It's probably not a big deal?"

Morgan frowned slightly, "Sure... I guess." Yavril frowned slightly; "Are you okay? You seem... I don't think this is a big deal, don't worry about it."

"It feels off." He commented, "it just does." "I'm fine though.." Yav let it go... For now. "If you say so." She led Mo back inside, walking ahead of him to look around. Little did she know, the man Morgan had pointed out was no longer around. "Which guy is he?"

"Right- well he's... Uh.." His face turned bewildered, "...gone." "Really?" Yavril looked around - she certainly didn't see anyone suspicious. A few humans, an Asura, the bartender... "I'd say you were seeing things, but I don't really see you making that sort of mistake. So... yeah, that is suspicious." He didn't leave while we were outside, we'd have seen him..."

Morgan shook his head slowly, "No, let's just, move on. Whatever." Yav looked around again, but still nothing seemed out of place. "Yeah... okay." As she turned to exit, she examined Morgan; "I think I've had enough of this place. Ready to head out?"

"Ah- yeah, of course..."

Yavril led Morgan out of the settlement, past the stone wall circling the buildings, and-

A powerful arm reached out and yanked Morgan to the side; someone pressed against the wall was immobilizing him, twisting his hands behind him as something cold and metallic and /sharp/ was pressed against his neck. "I warned you," a man's voice hissed "But did you listen?" Yavril jumped, turning to look at Morgan's attacker as she realized he was being pulled away - she opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the man - she could only see half of his face due to a hood he wore, but he seemed scarred. "Yell for help, lil' lady, and you don't get to say goodbye." Morgan tensed at first, letting himself be forced against the wall without resistance. Allowing for slight calm, he relaxed himself. Straining against any hold would do more harm than good. Morgan let out a low groan, recalling what the man had said the night before, "Problems." He repeated the mans words, "What do you want?" He managed to keep his calm, though being pushed against the wall still. "Oh, I don't want anything," he sneered slightly, "I was hired to find and take you out. And anyone you were with. Someone really hates you, pal."

Yav had her hand on the hilt of a knife on instinct though she hadn't yet drawn it. "Why with the warning about me, then? Why tell us this?"

"I'm not a savage. I have a code. A man should know why he dies. Besides, I wasn't paid for silence. As for you - guy clearly likes you. Friends, if not more than that. I was told to kill anyone he was with. My employer has nothing against you, just him." At 'him', he pressed there knife a little harder into Morgan's neck. "Any last words?"

Using the wall for leverage, he was careful not to allow any more pressure on his neck, but rather he pushed back into the man, a desperate attempt to knock him back. If the man wasn't overly alert at the time Morgan would have turned, effectively removing his wrists from the mans grips, and setting the field even. Unfortunately, it only worked because the man allowed it to work. When Morgan turned, he threw a punch hard enough to drop the man to the ground. "You could have died easily. Standing. With some dignity. And instead of saying goodbye or praying to whatever you people believe in, you choose to make it hard. I promise, Sylvari, you will not die as painlessly now-"

The man had no time to make good on any of his threats, not yet. Yavril, stepping past Morgan whether he was still standing or had dropped, put out a protective hand behind her as she threw her own punch for the man's head.

Morgan allowed himself to fall against the wall for support, still not giving in enough to black out. Though dazed, he left himself virtually unprotected, except for Yavril, of course. The punch threw the man's head backwards, tossing off the hood he wore. Beneath it the pair found a human man, scarred along his neck and some of his right cheek by some kind of fire or explosion. His hair was a dark black, his eyes a startling red, and as he recovered he pulled a knife from his hilt, slashing blindly and furiously upwards. Thankfully he was too far away to do any real damage, only managing to catch a bit of her chest with the blade. She responded by twisting his wrist to force it from him, the metal clanging to the floor beside Morgan. Yavril kicked it towards her friend and away from their adversary - a way to defend himself, if he wanted it - before using the grip she had on the human to twist him towards her, until his hand was near her face; the only way to get him to look at her. "Who. Hired. You?" She demanded, voice full of a forced calm.

"Don't fuckin' know her name-" the man spat, desperately trying to get out of Yav's grip, but she was deceivingly strong; she caught his other wrist, now holding one in each hand near her as she forced him to stop moving. "A blue chick- like you two-"

Morgan took a moment processing the situation. He knelt down to the floor to pick up the humans sword, "Acia...?" His furrowed brows deepened. He didn't want to ask why, he felt as though he already had the answer to that, but of course, "What did she tell you?" "Just your name," the man spat, "And where she thought you might be headed, the woman," he glared at Yav, "she thought you might be with. Easy enough to track two Sylvari when you're out of your jungle."

Yavril stared him down, "she's vindictive," she said, speaking to Morgan though not daring to take her eyes off of their assailant. "She's done trying to turn you, she's clearly decided to take out her rage by having you killed instead. Though I'm a little surprised she didn't have the /guts/ to come herself."

"Given the look on her face when she hired me," the man sneered, "lil' lady, if I don't report back to her I'd bet you she'll come herself."

"Probably."

"So let her." Morgan said briskly, regaining whatever it was he lost with that punch. For a moment, it almost hurt. It almost hurt to know that she'd want this for him. That regardless of what he'd tried to believe she truly did mean him ill, even if he knew that all along. It felt like he hadn't. He shifted slightly, watching his attacker, "How much did she pay you?" "Promised, upon completion. Enough that it's worth a little-" the man swung his leg out unexpectedly, knocking Yav off her feet and plummeting, "risk. Sorry 'bout that, s'just my job." At that, he turned right back around pulled another knife, holding it with precision as he threw it at Morgan.

The second Yavril hit the ground Morgan grew overly alert. Not quiet fast enough to dodge knife completely, with astounding ease it missed its original target and instead made a gash in Morgan's arm. Impulsively he flinched and let out a defensive hiss. In a surprisingly quick and fluid motion Morgan lodged the knife in the mans gut, twisting it somewhat before falling back quickly. Instantly searching for the other knife before attempting to meet Yavril's gaze, if she'd give it to him. 

Yavril had grunted as she'd hit the ground, the wind knocked out of her completely. She recovered just quickly enough, if not well, to see Morgan looking at her and take in what he'd just done. Her eyes widened for a moment as she caught his gaze, but finally Yav shook her head.. Grimacing, she pushed herself to an stand, if at first an unsteady one - she wasn't going to be on the ground for this.

"Arghh!" The man cried out as the blade pierced his skin, and he stumbled backwards, a foot or two away from the pair. On instinct, his hand reached for the gaping wound, coating both palms in thick blood before his rage-fueled expression managed to return to the Sylvari. "F-fuckin- plant- p-people-" he ground out between his clenched teeth. Finding himself rather defenseless, he just spat at them- "You can-fucking- kiss my ass-" At that, the man pulled some kind of potion from his coat, smashing it to the ground and creating a large cloud of smoke in a split second.

Morgan gripped Yavril if possible, to alert to care weather he'd vanished or not. He attempted to get out of the cloud of smoke , Yavril in hand. Yav was within reach, freely allowing Morgan to pull her away; she hadn't expected that. He seemed like the type that would rather go down with a fight than run away. Though Morgan /had/ left quite the noticeable hole in his stomach. The cloud of smoke was large, but Yav and Mo escaped it soon enough - though the man was nowhere to be seen through the thick substance.

Morgan let out a low sigh of relief as they exited, "Let's go." He spoke as though it were a suggestion, but clearly he had already made up his mind Yavril began to nod, watching the cloud with a wandering mind - but cut herself off; "I- No, wait, we should- we need to talk about this-"

"That's fine- but can we please go." She paused for a moment, taking him in. "Yeah. Yeah, alright." He was still holding on to her, so she allowed him to lead.

Despite the scene that they had caused Morgan was stubborn enough to pull Yavril to the outskirts of the settlement without directing his attention to anything but his goal. Even after they reach the outskirts he continued, but slowly released his grip on Yavril until she was free. Yavril slightly rubbed the spot where he'd held on to her so tightly when he'd fully released her, though she didn't mind being held if it helped him. ...just maybe not so roughly. He was clearly very upset. There was a long pause before she spoke, a breath of hesitation and worry to her voice and tone, "Do you want to talk about it?"

He blinked softly, "Uh- no. We don't have to." "...I want to know what you're feeling."

He let out an indistinguishable chuckle before speaking, "Why?" "Because you seem... Spooked. I want to help. If you'll let me."

He blinked at her gently, "Uh- well, of course I'm weary, people are following me- but it's not surprising at the same time." "I honestly hadn't thought she'd do anything, let alone go so far as to hire a human assassin..."

Morgan looking away from Yavril, "I'm really... not surprised, it's not like she cares about me at all..." A hint of sorrow flooded his voice as he poured the words out, "She only cares about herself, she's probably just trying to cover her ass." The last bit came out exceptionally bitter for his sad tone. Yavril tilted her head, frowning sadly at Morgan. "You knew her better than me, for longer, but it really just seemed... Like you were some half completed project she couldn't get right. I think she's just... Blindly angry." Yavril paused, not sure what to say to mark such pain, but... "I'm sorry." She spoke, quieter than the rest.

Morgan squinted, looking away now, "That very well may have been the case. It makes no difference though... I think. Regardless, she'd determined and if she decided she wants me dead, then realistically that's what I'll end up being, either that or her." "It'll her or me before it's you, I'll promise you that much." Yavril spoke with a sharp edge to her tone. "And it won't be easy for her to find us if we keep moving, which I fully intend to."

Morgan kept his gaze away, "You don't need to fight for me." He spoke insistently, "it's not comforting to know you'd risk your life for mine." Yav was silent for almost an agonizingly long time. "I can't imagine not, honestly." Whether that was a comment on how little she valued herself, how much she valued him, how much she hated Acia, or how idiotic she was, even Yav didn't know.

"What's that supposed to mean?" "I just- ... I couldn't imagine any situation where someone I cared about was in danger and I wouldn't intervene."

"Why do you think that way?" He looked back to her curiously, "I can handle myself, you know." "Of course you can." Yav nodded once, "But I couldn't just watch you. I don't know why, just seems wrong."

"It doesn't have to. She's not after you... So it's better to keep yourself safe. Besides if you waste something on helping me then how will you help others?" "How can I pick and choose who to help and who to leave the the wolves? And she's after you which is just as bad as being after me."

"It's not" he laughed lowly, "it's really not, it's different." Yav shrugged; "Maybe to you." Clearly uncomfortable, she changed the topic away from her; "Anyway, Acia won't be able to track us easily if we keep moving."

"But we've been moving and she still found us." "She hired someone too. If she comes again, she'll come in person, and she's not a professional hunter."

"But she's far more determined. I wouldn't doubt her abilities." He shrugged releasing a sigh, "It just feels- unneeded and I want to be done with that- be able to forget it..." "The past has a way of haunting us," Yav uttered sorrowfully. "I wish it would leave you alone, but... You might find yours coming back sooner rather than later." Yav wished so much that she too could forget the past; she wanted to just... Get to know this Morgan, without remembering the horrors that came along with him. "... But I promise it'll be better, one day. This won't last forever. One day, all of this, me, Acia... It'll just be a memory."

He scoffed, "You speak as though you know that all of this is something I want to forget. But some of this is nice. I suppose that good comes with bad though." He rambled slowly, "and you can't promise that. You can't guarantee that it will get better, for all you know, I will never know a world where this is better." "Good does come with bad but- Pale Tree, Mo, how do you think like that? If there was never anything better... Isn't that what we fight for? How can we...”

"We don't. We fight, but you can't ever promise that things will change. Besides you shouldn't spend your time trying to get others to change, but rather, focus on believing and changing for yourself. You should do what you need to to keep yourself safe first, do you understand that?" He spoke to her as if he were her parent. It almost managed to amuse Yav, but given what he was taking about, she only responded to his tone with a slight quirk of her lips. "It's not necessarily trying to change other people - what needs to change depends on what needs to get better. Sometimes it's you, sometimes it's other people, and sometimes it's just circumstances. And I'm capable of keeping myself safe as well as everyone around me - but I'm also not going to put myself first when I am hardly ever the most valuable one."

Morgan let out a displeased sound, "I think it's wrong to value life like that, especially considering that if you were going to, that the person who would be willing to protect others would in fact be the most valuable." Yavril shrugged lightly. "I don't think that person would ever see it that way," she spoke carefully, she shifted uncomfortably, "But- regardless, that wasn't the point of this. Are you going to be okay? ...We could go back and confront her, if you think that might end it."

"I'm /fine/" he made an attempt to assure her, "I don't want to go back to her." "So you just want to keep going?"

Morgan waved his hand dismissively, "Yeah, I guess. Let's... Do that." Yavril grimaced; she felt like Morgan was just... Trying to force his past further back than it belonged. But she didn't know how to express that in words. "If that's what you want."

"It is." He assured plainly, "Sorry- I keep forgetting where do we... Go now...?" "Ah..." Yav glanced about, getting her bearings. "North East. Then just east." She gestured towards a plain path heading North, generally. "We're going for Lorna's path."

He nodded steadily, "Okay... Well- what do you want to talk about them?" As Yavril stepped on the path heading forward, she took a moment to consider. "Honestly," she thought aloud, "I'd like to know what /you/ want to talk about. You always ask me to talk."

Morgan forced a blink. Continuing forward with the strange Slyvari he spoke aloud among her, "I don't know. Honestly, I feel as though I don't know much, I have a lack of both basis of interesting knowledge and opinion of interesting things, which is why I always ask." "In my opinion, that's exactly what makes you interesting. You're fresher, with fewer biases than people like me. You have a unique way of looking at the world."

Morgan shrugged, "It doesn't much matter cause I'll loose that quality." "So take advantage of it now. And besides, you never /really/ stop being unique. Especially you."

He squinted his eyes in the slightest, "What's that supposed to mean? 'Especially me'." "Your experiences up to this point, the way you let yourself see the world because of them, it's unlike almost any other Sylvari. I doubt you could ever see it like they do. I dunno if that's good or bad, but..."

Morgan shrugged once more turning his head away, "I don't think that anyone could be uninteresting, honestly. Everyone is different, even if they were similar." "Maybe not, but some people have more unique opinions than others. Or more unique experiences."

"I disagree, I think some people are just better at telling the stories." He hummed lowly, holding his gaze to the floor. Yav shrugged, smiling slightly. "Maybe. Think you are?" Curious what his reaction would be.

He shook his head slowly, "No- I don't think so, I don't have an interesting mind for description, the romantics, those sort of people. They describe everything with a weird flourish of words, it's alluring." "Alluring?" Yav asked, slightly amused, "Have I managed to find your type?"

Morgan looked to her curiously, "What-?" After a moment, catching on he nodded, "Oh- no. It's just attracting, as though I could listen for hours." Yav smirked a little, but it fell into a soft smile quickly enough. "I'm glad. Hopefully you'll find someone to listen to for hours." Yav liked to think of herself as the romantic type, but she didn't really feel like saying it about herself. Somehow, it seemed pretentious. "When you're bored of me you can go on your own Wyld Hunt to find them!" Yav chuckled slightly at the thought of someone's Wyld Hunt, a Sylvari tradition to find or do something meaningful or valuable, being to find one specific person. Seemed like a needle in a haystack problem.

Morgan huffed, these ideas didn't appeal to him. Searching for something didn't feel like an option, or a pleasant one at least, and maybe if he was meant to find someone to listen to for hours.... Well maybe they were just meant to find him instead. He opened him mouth to speak- the strangest dream. Sitting in this great big garden like room with celestial ornaments hanging from the ceiling, but it all felt suspended, like the moment would never end. And she had been there and despite all her chatter, he'd completely understood, although he didn't listen at all, all in the moment he'd shut his mouth and let out a satisfying hum, "I don't think I'm the kind of person for that." Something about the look on Morgan's face, the quiet hum of contentment, meant Yav didn't rebut what he said. Only nodded. "Well, it wouldn't be the same, but I could just talk for hours. Maybe you'll get some practice." Amazingly, the sentence didn't include nearly as much sarcasm as the words might have implied. "I'm glad you're you here, though, really. I like having company more than I thought I would, even if... you know. So, ah, what are you the kind of person for?"

Morgan looked around as he aimlessly walked, "Well..." He bit his lip in a desperation for thought, "Well... This is fine." "Just fine? I'm insulted!" Yav smirked cheerfully; "Well, good." Yav opened her mouth to continue, not even knowing the exact words she was going to say, but she froze mid-thought; something felt wrong about her sentiment. It was just kindness, really - she so appreciated... just, everything he was, but something stopped her line of thinking before it had even begun. So, after a few moments of gaping, she continued with a stutter- "I-I ah. Well. If you could do anything, I'm sure it wouldn't be this. What do you think it'd be?"

He chuckled hoarsely, taking in a moment to acknowledge her response, "No, I don't think that I'd rather be doing anything else. Other things are fun but if you spend all of the time wishing you're doing something else, then how are you supposed to enjoy yourself?" "Well don't always wish. Wish now. Who'd you be with? What'd you be doing? Though- I agree with your point. I like to enjoy the moment. The sun on your skin, the air through your leaves, the birds in the distance...."

"I'm honest." He spoke softer now, "I wouldn't rather be doing anything else. If hardly experienced anything else more pleasant as it seems. Nor do I know many people. Even with what I do know, I don't wish anything more." Yav paused, honestly surprised to a calm. "...Really? I don't think I've ever met anyone that likes this life like I do. They want to make roots, fall in love, adopt some saplings, maybe... not this."

Morgan released a deep breath, not a sigh of discontentment or rather... Anything negative at all, "The trouble comes when people want to speed things up." He shifted his eyes to examine what her posture might let him know, "People busy themselves with finding things that aren't really meant to be found." He made a move to slide his hands in his pocket, a move that showed his contentment in the moment, "They don't thing that maybe the things that are really amazing about life are things that you find while you wait for things to happen." Forcing a blink, a confusing attempt to find his next sentence, "I don't think you can look for those things, such as love. I think it can be found, but it's better if you don't go looking, in that case it will find you somewhere vaguely unexpected, forcing things like that, it takes away what's so interesting about it." Yavril nodded, allowing her posture to visibly relax, one hand resting on a knife sheathed at her hip, but not threateningly - more like just something to hold on to. A grounding in a conversation of hypotheticals. " 'Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans.' " Yav spoke, so soft as to be a whisper, before she smiled more firmly and looked back up at him; "I forget who told me that, but it makes sense, huh? That's true about love - it really does just happen. I didn't have to work to love all of my other brothers and sisters. That was the predictable bit, though. Then there's things like- Rieran and this woman. Quai. That just sort of happened. But- isn't that the nice thing? At least, that's kind of how I see it. That's the good but about emotions; something that, most of the time, you don't /have/ to control. And- like you said, that makes it so much more interesting. It makes it worth it."

Morgan fell silent for a second, but it was disturbingly quiet, or awkward, or awful, it just was. Like many things were. Keeping his eyes on the ground beneath his feet he nodded, "Seems that way." His voice fell quiet, but still allowed her to hear. Yav caught on to the silence, his expression that gave her the indication there was something amiss. Did she ask? "What is it? Did I say something wrong?" She asked, a slight breathy quality to her voice because of the hesitation, trying to be calm and reassuring.

He blinked for a moment, registering her speech. He leveled himself with her gaze, so their eyes met, "No, of course not." He attempted to assure her, "You've done nothing wrong, I'm just not knowledgeable in finding love, so I'm not sure I have much to add." Yavril held Morgan's gaze, trying to see anything his eyes would explain about what he was feeling. "Well, you'll get there, of course." Yav was careful not to break eye contact, a way to reassure him, she hoped. "It sounds stupid but I think everyone gets at least one love. Doesn't even have to be romantic, necessarily. Like me; I get my brothers and sisters. If I have another, I'll be luckier than a lot of people are. You /will/ get there." Some part of Yav, a small part but a part, wanted to reach out and hug Mo, but the rest of her felt like she shouldn't.

Morgan's expression stayed the same, unknowing yet unwilling to show what he might. He nodded slowly, "I'm not upset about that, it's just how it is, and as I said. I'm not going to force myself." His gaze broke from hers, "I don't even think about it but when someone asks me to." "Maybe you should more often," Yav suggested carefully. "Wouldn't want it to slip away from you because you missed it, right?"

"I have a feeling I won't." He shifted in his step. "Oh? Why not?"

"Well I'll think about when it becomes important, does that make sense?" "Yeah. Of course. Though I'm curious when you think it 'becomes' important. I feel like love is always important, in some way or another."

"Well it isn't right now, not for me." Yav chuckled; "If you say so. Though I have to say I pity you. I dunno what I'd do if I didn't have someone to fight for."

"I never said I didn't have someone to fine for." His words rushed out, "I just said I wasn't thinking about love. You don't have to love someone to want to fight for them." Yav blinked; "Oh- I dunno, to me it feels like the same thing. Or I fight for the people I love, or... I dunno. It might just be me."

"Well, for me there is a separation from morally right, which is fighting for the lives that don't deserve evil, and loving someone. You can fight for someone you don't love, but as a general rule you always fight for someone you do." Yav raised her eyebrows, "Listen to you! I mean, you're right, but also... You know, I fight for the people I love in honour of them. Because of them. Not just... To defend them."

"Well- that's different than just fighting for them." He noted. "Yeah, I guess it is. Anyway, that's how I see it. I fight for all our brothers and sisters - in their name, their honour- that sounds cheesy, just- I don't know, to prove us as a new species... But also because of them - because they inspire me? Pale Tree, I sound lame. I'm going to stop now. You get my point."

"You don't sound 'lame' - perhaps heroically practical, but that's admirable. You think it's cheesy, but in reality there isn't many people who would be brave enough to do that, or even have an honest reason behind it." Yav let out an embarrassed chuckle, "Well, ah, thanks. Glad at least you see it that way. But, anyway, I ah, fight for us. What about you- what makes you get up and fight in the morning?"

He fell silent, lost for a span of time in thought, "I think I..." Keeping his gaze off her, "If I'm being honest I think I do it to make myself feel better... I mean, obviously, I do it to better the lives of others, but I think I feel the need to do that because of myself. To right my wrongs or something like that. But I also feel like I'd spend forever hating myself for not doing what I know was right." Yav took a minute to let that seep in. "That's good. That you feel like righting your wrongs and all that. That's why- why Rieran was wrong about you. "That's why... That is what shows that you're... Really, genuinely sorry. But doing a lot of good things, especially unrelated good things, doesn't necessarily right your wrong. Sonetimes you- have to just... Make peace with it. No amount of work to do good will help if you don't find it somewhere in your heart to forgive yourself - or at least understand and move on."

Morgan nodded, "Right. I know that, but I'm not ready to do that. And I'm not going to force it on myself, cause I don't see that making it better." "No, I didn't mean to force it. Of course not. But, work up to it, huh?" Yav could only hope she helped.

"It's just not realistic for me right now." He spoke firmly, "Maybe sometime, but that's not now...” I wish it was.

"Okay. Then you'll just get there." Yav smiled warmly. "Humans are always telling me that most of them travel to 'find themselves'. Maybe they're right."

Morgan chuckled, "That sounds- silly." "Humans usually are, in my experience. But maybe they're the diamonds in the rough!"

Morgan door his head slightly, "there race has been around longer, yes?" "Much, much, /much/ longer. They have people with great great great grandparents in their hundreds. Our oldest aren't even ten yet."

Morgan nodded, "Yeah- well perhaps they've given a or of thinking into how to live, and this is why they value such things." "Yeah, well," Yav teased, "they're also fleshy, squishy monkeys, so..."

Morgan squinted, " they're just different." He spoke in a mildly amused tone. "You say different, I say weird and not-glowy." Yav gave Mo a sideways grin; "I'm kidding. I just don't respect all of their values. Maybe I just don't get them yet. We'll find out, I suppose!"

Morgan kept an amused grin present, "Well I don't think you have to 'get them', you just accept its different." "Yeah, yeah," Yavril chuckled, "water is wet. I'll get used to it, eventually."

Morgan raised an eyebrow, "It seems strange that you wouldn't considering how used to most things you are." "I mean, I'm fine being around them, but their values are still a little strange. The way they see the world. We're closer to trees than to them, and it shows a lot."

"Maybe that comes with age?" He offered, "We're curious and adventurous, want to see things for ourselves? But they've already done that?" "A little bit. But not all of us are like that. ...Most of us aren't like that. So many of us stay near the Grove in Caledon. And besides, it's not just... I don't know. I've never really understood the human way of looking at the world. But you're right, it could come with experience, I just think there's a fundamental difference, somewhere."

"Well, we're- closer." He sighed, "Closer?

"Well- to the earth. It seems. Humans don't feel it like we do. Like the saplings who stole the plants. That was a kind of empathy for life that humans may fail to experience." "Not may - just don't. To us plants aren't much different than people. To them... they're decorative things, trivial. They take care of them, but they don't value them."

Morgan look curiously to Yavril, "Well you can't assume that for all humans, but that's the quality that I believe separates us the most." "Yeah..." Yav trailed off. "Maybe."

Morgan fell silent with the tone of her voice. It sounded far off. Almost like she could have been somewhere else, and he almost wish he could be there too. Yavril certainly was somewhere else, but where... She forced a smile and looked back at Morgan. "Ah, anyway. We can talk about something else"

"Yes, of course, but now it's your turn to find a topic." "Ah, damn..." Yav chuckled, "...The... Moon... Ugh."

"The moon?" He released a breathy laugh, "Ah- I can't remember where, but I heard this story about the moon. It was, if I remember, the moon was in love with the sun, and died every night to let the sun live? Or something, I think... I've heard a lot of stories like that. A few." Yav let out a chuckle, "I told you- I'm bad at this stuff. But... Oh, that's really sweet... I'm surprised that anyone in the court enjoyed that."

Morgan shrugged, "Uh- I don't know. I don't think that the court.... Is good, but they don't, they aren't- even the worst people like sweet things." "There was another... It's was lengthier though." Yav paused, "Feel free to tell it, if you remember it."

Morgan released a sigh, deep in thought, "Well, I think that it was. The sun loved the moon, so much so that the thought of the moon being alone and isolated in darkness was to much to bare. As a result, the sun burned brighter than ever, by- I guess... Crying- which is why it does- burn bright... But it did so that it may bring joy to the moon, if only to make the moons life better. Somehow the wrapping would be comforting...Or something of that extent. But it was more complex. The sun and the moon have been in love forever, they're meant to be, simply that. Meant to be in the same way that the wildlife is meant to grow, no one asks why, it's just how it is. But they were, so deeply so that every night the moon would walk across the stars, just to see the sun exist. Only to seek comfort in the presences of the sun, but they yearned for each over so much that eventually no one could separate the pair. As a result, the moment that they did, the stars refused to let them be together, insistent upon the fact that it was for the better, and that's where the other part keys in. Both literally and metaphorically the sun was the light in the moons life, and they cried every night, little did the sun know that by doing exactly as they were, their tears leaked through the stars and brought light to the moon, a constant burning reminder that they always have eachother even if only one of them knows. I'm unsure if that's how it went." Yavril was silent as if in respect for several moments before responding breathily, "That's... An amazing story."

Morgan gave out with a slight chuckle at that response, "You think so?" He asked though she'd already stated it, "Why?" "Yeah. Yeah, it's just... Amazing. I'm a romantic, that stuff gets to me. It's... Sweet. To think about someone caring so much, something so sweet being... Destined. You know?"

"I mean, it's interesting, I'm just not sure I can relate, you know. I don't understand it. For some reason." "I mean-" Yav blinked; "Not at /all/? Pain or loss or desire or destiny, even without the love?"

Morgan fell silent for a moment in thought, "Ah- maybe it's not so much I don't experience it as much as its, It's not significant." "A significant experience or significant emotion?"

"Both?" He squinted in reply, "Both- I know it's there so I know I experience it somewhat, but it's just not significant enough to change me."

"You have experienced pain, loss, desire." Taking a wild stab in the dark, she continued, "Letting things change you is natural. Letting things change you, or relating to them in a story... That's not weakness, or something bad. That's good. Growth."

He blinked at response, "Not sure it's that big of a deal?" She shrugged; "It is to me."

"Mmm" he let out a satisfying hum, "What now...?" Yavril paused, just allowing herself to smile for a moment before tilting her head as a suggestion came to mind. "I have an idea, but it's way different than anything you're used to. Up for it?"

Looking slightly taken back by the topic change, he nodded, "Sure." Yavril offered a tilted smile; "Ever heard of Lion's Arch?" If he decided to go, this was going to be one hell of a topic change - which, honestly, she needed in comparison to the heavy recent topics.

Morgan blinked cluelessly, "Right- of course- and?" "And- might just be the right thing for you. I haven't been there in forever, and it's barely a detour. Feel like meeting just about every species on Tyria?"

"Sure?" He spoke questioningly. Yav actually let out an amused breath - "I just realized it's nearby; we don't have to go. But, honestly, it's kind of amazing."

Morgan nodded slowly, "Of course- that'd be nice." He tilted his head to watch her move, "lead us there, yeah?" Yav smiled happily; "I think you'll like it. You can buy literally anything there, there's all sorts of people... I've only been a few times, but it's always different. Last time a whole bunch of norn roped me into an arm wrestle." As she spoke, she began to move again, now with a new destination in mind.

"Oh now that's /Crazy/ Yav. Arm wrestling- youre truly living on the edge." Catching the sarcasm, she rolled her eyes. "Have you ever seen a norn? Didn't think so. They're freaking massive." Oct 13, 8:41 PM

"Wrestling is not crazy." He noted shaking his head lightly. "It is when it's a freaking norn that's twice your height and could break every bone in your body with the arm you're touching."

"Well there's nothing exciting about losing, soooo.." "That's not the exciting part! It's the part where you're breathing in Norn breath full of alcohol, it's the part where they laugh after they beat you and love the fact that you're willing to try! It's the part where they invite you for more drinks, because now you have their respect!"

Morgan gave off a faint chuckle, "I mean, that's interesting and cool, but not crazy, crazy would be on the Norns side." "Why?"

"Imagine how many people are scared to be in a situation like that? Most likely that they weren't expecting the answer yes cause they probably get so many nos. So it was probably crazier, just to even see you try." Yavril chuckled, "I can say that it would have had to have been pretty crazy to be crazier than someone with a palm the size of your entire hand holding on to you."

Morgan looked at her amusedly, "You explain things in a lovely way." Yavril smiled, but also furrowed her brow a little in surprise and confusion. "-Oh? Ah... Thank you? It's just... A way?"

"I feel like we've walked this ground already? Just take the compliment, no need to deflect." He removed his gaze from her and placed in on the trail ahead of them. Yav let out a loose breathe. "You're right, of course. Thank you." She hated feeling they she was making Morgan uncomfortable, but...

"Do you know exactly why you do that?" "Uhm... I suppose not? But people have commented on it since I was a sapling, so I think it's just the way I am."

"I find that usually people have a reason, like this constant and underlying insecurity. I think it just makes you seem- uncomfortable in your own skin." "Well that's the truth. But I'm working on it." Yav smiled slightly, but even she wasn't looking at Mo anymore.

"I don't expect it to be me, but there should be some people who help you feel comfortable." Yavril stayed silent for the moment. Examining the ground with a trained eye.

"Do you have anyone like that?" "No."

"Is that because you refuse to let someone be that person or because no one wants to?" Yavril looked up to narrow her eyes at Morgan, not in anger or suspicion, but in thought. Finally admitting "I don't know."

"Hm," he let out a dissatisfied hum, "Honestly, have you even ever thought about that?" "No. Do you honestly think I should? Does the answer matter all that much?" A bit of her tone was sarcastic and disbelieving, but some of it was actually curious.

"Of course." He ignored any sarcastic tone, "You seem to know a lot about everything- or at least be curious, but you lack that when it comes to yourself." "It's probably at least a little of both," Yav spoke with a tired sigh. "And honestly, I don't care. Every time I'm around people, they get hurt, so whether it's me or them doesn't matter. I'm just going to stay away."

"Examples?" His brows furrowed in an instant. "Examples of what, Mo?" She asked, feeling exasperated. "People I care about being hurt? Rieran. You. The saplings when I was young."

"Are those your fault? Did they all happen because you were there?" He fell short. Not really short, but he looked to her and felt a pinch in his chest. He hated not being able to explain it to her, but at the same time, her expression felt wrong- and it almost hit him, "Nevermind." Yavril frowned in confusion at his withdrawal; that wasn't like him. There was something on his face... "I didn't protect you. Or Rieran. I left you alone together when I knew he hated you..." All of this was spoken in a murmur, only audible should Mo have been paying attention. "The saplings... I thought it was a good idea. Me." But she did finally look back up to Morgan's upset expression and ask, louder, "What is it?"

"Nothing-" he queued in, "I just don't want you to feel like I'm forcing myself on you, but I really don't know how to act." He wanted to fight her on her first comments, but stopped himself before me did. "Act? Act about what? Be yourself. You aren't forcing yourself on me."

"Well there isn't a point, because I don't think I could even change how you feel even if I did." "I don't want you to think you have to be false around me. Not yourself. Not if you do intend to stick around."

"I'm not being false?" He cocked his head to her response, "I'm simply not giving it all to you. I doubt that you want to here me lecture you on why I believe how you're feeling is wrong." Yavril stayed silent, wearing a silent frown as she processed. She honestly, truly, had no idea how to respond; her mind was caught up in a web too complex even for her.

"What's your favorite... Flower?" He chimed suddenly, in a tone that was hopefully gripping enough to pull her away from her confused thought. Yavril blinked; "F-favourite... Flower?" She was at least surprised by the abruptness of the question. "Ah... Lilies?"

"Oh? And whys that?" "Ah... I don't know, they're pretty? I knew a human named Lily once... Why?"

"No reason, honestly don't know that I've ever seen a real Lilly-" "Really?" Yav asked, "though I guess I shouldn't be surprised, they don't grow in the jungle..."

"Probably not." He omitted an amused breath, "But what about this Lilly, who were they?" "... Oh, a girl. A teenager. She thought it was so strange that she was older than me."

"You didn't know her for very long, did you?" "No, not really. She just hung around me for a few days while I was in Divinity's Reach."

"That seems strange." He commented curiously. "I think she just thought I was strange. I'd be surprised if she had ever seen a Sylvari before me."

"Well- you'd figure that it wouldn't be that uncommon, would you?" "Right, which was why it wasn't strange."

"I meant that living in a city like divinity's reach would be more diverse, though.." "No, Divinity's Reach is a human city. Finding any other race there is rare."

"Yes, but it's such a larger city." He spoke his thoughts allowed, "I wouldn't understand why." "I don't know why the races like to keep to themselves, but it's not just the humans. Finding anyone outside of their territory is uncommon. Even the Sylvari."

"It just seems so strange. I can't think of any reason why..." "Comfort. People like what's familiar."

"Life is familiar, not appearance..." "People are familiar. Customs are familiar. Buildings and streets and foods and time zones are familiar."

"See I just can't look at it that way." He shook his head briefly, but decidedly. "Me either," Yav agreed quietly. "But it's the way most people seem to be."

"That's so foreign to me." He lost himself in thought for a moment, "so how far till we get there?" "Me too..." Yav agreed lightly, before continuing. "Ah... A day's walk maybe? It'll be easier to tell in a bit."

Morgan gave off a soft smile, "Alright." His voice softened as it fell silent, "Did I ask you for your favorite color at all?"

"Ah, no, you didn't," Yav replied, caught off guard but happy for something lighter to speak of. "Yellow."

"Yellow, whys that?" "Ah, I don't know. It's very warm. Familiar. What about you?"

"Hm" Morgan released an interested breath from his lips as she spoke, "Ah, not really sure..." His voice trailed as he lifted his head to look at her, "Orange is lovely." Yav blinked in surprise, once, then twice. He couldn't mean...? "O-oh?" Was all she managed to say for a few seconds, utterly caught off guard.

"Yeah." He nodded, leaving his head down so he was no longer looking at her, "it's honestly a really beautiful colour, it's warm are inviting, comforting and honestly. It's amazingly consistent." He released a ridged breath, she wasn't responding. Should he continue? No, but that wouldn't stop him, "it's uh, the colour of endings, but not the bad kind of ending, the kind that's so beautiful and incredible that all you can really do is watch, because watching her is good enough. And you don't need to speak, cause it would only be insulting compared to the amazing things she does. Even just sunsets, they're constant and everyday they're something different, but equally as incredible as the last one." Yav smiled a little at the words; Morgan wasn't usually so descriptive in his thoughts, but this... Was lovely. She had to say she enjoyed it, agreed with it, but... "...She?"

Morgan stared curiously at the ground for what seemed like forever, "What?" "You... said she. Her."

"I did?" He looked up to her with a sudden realization, "I did...I...did- I didn't mean it... I think." Blinking at the look in his eyes, she wondered what she was supposed to take from his misstep, what she /could/ take. Some part of her had almost felt... she could barely admit she was disappointed when he said he didn't mean it, but what had he even been talking about? An idea flitted across her mind but she flicked it away, not daring to even think it. So she simply continued to ask careful questions. "You think?"

He shook his head, still landing on her face, "I do. I mean- I meant it." What did that mean? What did that /mean/? "So... Who is 'she'?" She didn't dare hope. Not possible. No.

"Ah- well-" He fell silent, "She's like a fire, passionate, constant, warm and inviting, comfortingly familiar, and the only reason that I feel like I might be out of the dark."

No. It couldn't be. It was only the old Morgan that felt anything about her. It had to be someone else. But... who else /would/ it be? The things he said... She could feel her heartbeat in the silence that followed as she attempted to process. As if playing a game, trying not to gain any kind of hope, she continued softly, a breath on her lips, "I'm... glad you have someone like that. That you're- you're out of the dark..."

Morgan for fully blinked. He felt like he was walking aimlessly, but regardless, he stopped at that moment, "You're glad I have you?" It took Yavril a moment to stop after hearing him, realizing he had stopped, and she turned back to look at his form - No. It couldn't be true.

...Could it?

"-... Me?"

Morgan stood watching her with a slightly softened expression, "Yeah. You, is that alright?" "... Yeah." Yavril said it without taking a second to think, but when she did... "Yeah. That's alright, I just... Didn't think that you thought of me like that."

Morgan stared at what seemed was just beyond her, "Do you? I didn't, but I think I had been."

"I- It didn't occur to me..." Honestly, she hadn't thought this Morgan was capable of feeling... anything like that about her. If she had thought anything, she'd pushed it away. Now... "I guess I do...?

Morgan furrowed his brow, "You guess..?" A smile tugged at his lips, "Tell me when you know?" Yav shook her head lightly - but it was nice when he almost smiled, that point when he almost.... "I mean- not... I just- never... thought that way. About you. Maybe the... old you, but I didn't think you'd-... I don't know."

"You don't have to?" He’d nearly convinced himself with this false sureness, "You're perfect- perfectly fine." "No- it's not that- Ugh." She wasn't getting her point across, but the more she spoke the more she felt like she was screwing up. She took a step closer to him, in the hopes that maybe he would be able to see something in her face that would explain... something. "I'm not saying this right. I want to th- but I don't know what you want and- Pale Tree, Mo, you always get to me. I..."

Morgan did smile at this, "do you want to think?" "I'm.. not sure what I think about. I want to... ah..." It was such a shame both of them seemed to speak in these half thoughts, these partial truths - it made understanding what they both wanted so much more difficult.

Morgan sighed, he made an effort to pull her in closer, still unsure if he should- could- kiss her. Still, he made an effort to be close, with that he pulled her into him closely.

Yav blinked as Morgan pulled her in closer; no doubts about his intentions anymore. She could tell that he was exasperated with her hesitation, but suddenly it didn't matter anymore; He was /right/ there. He was touching her. Did she dare? She did. If you aren't taking a risk, what are you doing, right? Leaning in quickly before she could change her mind, one hand on Morgan's upper arm, she pressed a careful kiss to Morgan's lips.

Morgan hadn't known what to expect from her in the moment. Whatever it had been, it wasn't this. He’d been watching her face the whole time and when shed brought it closer to his he was oddly comforted, then she went for it. He wouldn't have, but she did and in a way he loved that about her, the consistent passionate ability to get what you want. He shut his eyes and allowed her to kiss him. It was so simple. A small act, but it seemed to him to be more than that, not complex, not unimportant, but under estimated. There was more in there than a kiss. Call it what you will, passion, motive, love, familiarity, something new though. When she’d eventually pulled away, he wouldn't have known what to do then.

As Yav leaned backwards, she examined Morgan's face for a reaction, for anything. He seemed at least content - that was good. A ripple of anxiety shot through her form, nothing she hadn't anticipated, but somehow... it didn't bother her. As if everything had been leading up to this, it felt right. It felt like... more than a kiss. What do call it she had no idea, but the feeling... was... like nothing else. "Does that... make it a bit more clear?" She breathed after a few moments, almost hating to break the comfortable silence.

Morgan blinked, trying to read her face, but nothing new was there, "Yes- i think so...i mean- i know. Yeah. That was nice? Different."

It was Yavril's turn to smile lightly. "Yeah. To all of that. I... guess I hadn't thought that you - this you - would... feel like that about me. I know the old you did, or thought you did, or... but..."

“Well i just... can’t imagine who wouldn't...." he shifted his gaze around her and landed somewhere in her eyes again.

Yav felt a slight flush fill her cheeks, and she could only look at him for a few seconds before she looked down towards their feet - still very close together... "That's... inaccurate..."

Morgan lifted one hand from her lower back, gently gripping her chin and tilting it upward so he could see her eyes, "i dont think so. I think youre enough to make most people feeling this way.. and i dont even know what this is."

> Yavril blinked in surprise as Morgan touched her face, tilting her up to look at him as if he needed to see her. "Something... good. ... Would you believe it if I said that about you?"

Morgan gave a soft response, "I think you have a better track record than i do, so i wouldnt."

"Then maybe we're both hypocrites."

Morgan frowned slightly, "I make strangers feel vastely different than you do, hm? They run from me, but for you? Theyre interested, and pleased, all for valid reasons."

No. No, you see yourself as this... scary person, this different man that people don't understand... But that's not you. You're kind, and you're passionate, and you're careful and dedicated."

"Then why did Rieran act that way towards me?" He spoke almkdt harshly as he allowed his grip on her to loosen and release.

He wasn't getting away that easily. Yav replaced his grip with hers, the hand already on his arm moving to hold it steady and the other at his hip; "Because he was scared. Because he's been hurt, and because you were there. He would have... latched on to anything to be terrified of. And because he thought he was protecting me. But I don't need protection from you."

Morgans eyes flickered, soon meeting with the floor, "I think he should be..."

Yavril's immediate reaction was to reach out and touch him, and she only hesitated a moment before placing a hand on his cheek to gain his attention. "You are not something to fear, Mo. Never."

Morgan looked away from her, a crushing feeling of defeat putting inside him, but not the defeat that says that she won this. It was the kind that felt more like He was finally able to admit to himself that he'd never get over all of that. And again it hit when he thought about her reaction to that, and worries about keeping her near, and the way Rieran would treat him, or force her away. The worst though was how he almost believed Rieran, maybe she should be away from him, or at the least not trusted alone. He didn't believe her. She could see it in his eyes. Those /fucking/ eyes. It broke her heart the way he thought of himself, and with nothing else to do she simply stroked his cheek with her thumb, hand still on his face; "I don't know how to prove it to you, Mo... Please... Tell me what to do. How to prove it to you."

His eyes flickered, "If you want me to be honest, I don't think you can." There was more he could say. He could talk about what he's done, he could tell her that he felt the kindest thing he could do to right his wrongs is to feel bad, he could let her know that he can't let if go cause he feels like he relives it, and he hurt her, he was unable to stop himself regardless. It was wrong the whole time, and he knew that, but he kept it up, and maybe that's the worst part, but she was far to forgiving. What kind of person looked at their own abuser and felt this way? The kind of person smart enough that they knew that the man standing in front of them wasn't their abuser. Yavril had known three different men named Morgan - a shy sapling, a cruel courtier, and a damaged man. Not one the same as the others. This sentiment was lost, though, in the tangle of vines in her mind that struggled to think of some way to show him he wasn't who he thought he was. "You're so hard on yourself..." She murmured lowly, nudging his head so he'd have to look at her, "You just... Can't think things like this... You can't..." Even Yav wasn't sure if he couldn't because she didn't want him to or because she didn't believe it was possible.

Morgan's expression softened when he rested his eyes on her, "We should... Keep moving..." His words flowed, long and drawn out as though he were paying the majority of his attention to something else. And he was. Yav smiled softly, a reassuring look as she brought her hand away from his face and allowed some amount of space to come between them - but she didn't totally abandon him, instead sliding her hand down his arm to take his hand and stand at his side.

"Lead the way?" He offered now, pushing the topic away. "Alright," she spoke carefully as if this peace was something she could crack. She took a few careful steps with him beside her, just to test them.

Morgan took the steps with her and then continued, quiet now. There was a silence, not uncomfortable, but strange, maybe a little sad. Yav didn't know what to say, to do, to believe... How could she make him see the truth? The silence had fallen remorseful and there was a lingering sense of... Something unfinished. "You're not that way to me," she hummed, careful.

Morgan stayed quiet, emitting a small hum to satisfy her.

Morgan looked to the ground, "Where will we stop for the night?" "We may have to camp on the road. There's not much out here until we reach Lion's Arch."

"When do you want to stop?" "Whenever you get tired," she spoke simply.

"What if I never get tired?" "Then we keep walking."

"Really?" He cocked a brow, "You'll never want to stop?" "Not if you don't want to."

He shook his head, "That's a huge lie." "Yeah, well, it's one I'll hold to as long as I can."

Morgan looked to the ground again, the pair would keep walking and talking along the path until night fell upon them. When night finally did fall, Yavril let out a sigh - "You need rest," she uttered, a slight forceful aspect to her voice.

He squinted at her, "Why just me?" "Because I get the feeling you're not going to listen to me otherwise."

"You need rest too." They'd come to a completely stop in the middle of the wooded path.  "I'll take it when you do."

Morgans features sunk with a relief of her not directly fighting it, "Where do we rest then?" Yav gestured openly; "Where-ever you like. I can find firewood."

"I'll help you." He insisted, "Then wherever I suppose." Yavril let out a sigh, but didn't try to argue with Morgan, only heading into the forest to find useable wood.

Morgan watched her walk away slowly, till she was only a small glow in the distance. It took Yavril a while to find enough wood for a fire at a slightly drowsy rate, but she did eventually return to Morgan near the side of the road, dumping the wood on the ground before rolling her shoulders with a sigh.

Morgan looked up to her, "Rest now?" With a deep breath, Yavril sank to the ground next to Morgan and began to fiddle with her wood. "... Maybe..."

"You should, I can start the fire." Yavril resisted for a few minutes, shuffling about with the wood before finally giving in and leaving the pieces alone for Morgan to put together.

And Morgan did so. He strategically placed the wood and then light it, after a moment there was a small spark and the wood caught on. By the time that Morgan was done, Yavril was lying on her side, using her pack as a pillow whilst watching the flames crack.

Morgan shifted back, away from the fire, "Are you tired now?"

Yavril glanced up at Mo, managing a smile; "you'd like that, wouldn't you."

Morgan looked down at her carefully, "I'd like for you to get some rest, of course." Yav let out a partially amused, partially exasperated breath. "I will when you do. And then when I'm good and ready."

"I am resting." He assured her, "I'm resting my eyes on you, is that not enough? Yav stared at him for a solid minute before replying in an exasperated, if slightly teasingly, way; "You know it isn't."

"Just as relaxing, if you ask me." Yavril rolled her eyes; "Mo. Get some sleep."

"I will, when I'm ready." "Well I won't until you do. So."

"Why not? I'm a big boy." Yavril raised an eyebrow at him, "Are you really?"

"I'm sure, otherwise this might be weird." "Indeed. But did you have to say it like that?"

Morgan smiled, "because I'm a big boy." "Okay, that's more than enough," Yav chuckled.

"You tired of me already?" "Never. Just want you to get some sleep."

"I'm fine for now, I promise. I'll sleep later." "No. Sleep now. It's a good plan."

"But I'm not tired." "Don't care. Get on the ground."

"What ever you say." But he didn't. "See, you say that, and then you don't do it."

"Cause I'm not tired." "But those are the rules. I make them."

"Bullshit." "That those are the rules, or that I make them?"

"Both." He leaned back till he was laying in the grass right beside her, "Is this more of a compromise?" Yav smiled softly. "That's a start, yeah. Though you know I don't give up easy."

"You're gonna have to learn to compromise.” "You can't make me," Yav teased.

"We'll see..." "Pff."

Morgans eyes shifted up to the clearing in the trees, an opening showing the stars like it was especially for the pair. Yavril noted where Morgan was looking and glanced up with a small smile. "It's a nice night, huh?"

"It's okay." He stared blankly. Yav managed a chuckle; Morgan's curt statements were somehow endearing. Yav found herself appreciating the simplicity. "Just okay?"

"Yeah." He nodded shortly, "it's here every night." Forcing a blink, "Wonder loses its place with time." "Or with pain...?"

Morgan turned his head to look at her, "I'm not familiar with the concept. Honestly... part of me feels that would cause it to grow, but I suppose if that were the case people would be a lot less stoic." "I'm not sure I understand." Or rather she knew she could take that a few different ways and wanted clarification.

"I'd imagine pain would pursue wonder, help you find amazement in the small yet beautiful things in the world, but I suppose that would be wrong, because if so more people would be a constant wonder, no?" "I don't think many experience pain like we do. On this scale, or in the same way..."

"What makes you say that?" "I don't know... How many Sylvari can say they've gone through the kinds of things we've gone through? The Nightmare Court, the torturing, the friends... And even besides that, I never-... No, that's stupid. But... yeah. I just don't think it's the same for others."

"Maybe not, but it's not impossible "Of course not. We're just... different."

"Mmm." Morgan hummed and slowly his voice died out. "I wish you weren't. It'd be easier..." Yav murmured, watching the fire crackle in the background.

"Still tired?" He spoke changing the subject. "Meh. You could call it that."

"Sleep, Yavril." "Or I could look at the stars more."

"Or you could dream about it" "That's less fun."

"Not exactly. It's a break, you should take it." "Break doesn't have to mean sleep."

"Sleep is a necessity, Yavril." "Meh." Dec 9, 3:14 PM

Morgan turned his head to look at her curiously again, itching slightly to pull her closer to him, he released a sigh, "So no sleep tonight?" "If I fall asleep it won't be on purpose." Mon, 9:47 PM

Morgan turned to face the stars again, "Is it supposed to be cold?" Now it was Yavril's turn to look at him curiously; "Is what supposed to be cold?" Mon, 9:53 PM

"The night?" "I don't know... One second." Yav sat up slightly and seemed to turn more alert as she accessed old ranger skills to try and determine weather.

Morgan watched her with a hint of amusement in his eyes.

Yavril, determining that no, it wasn't going to be cold that night - or not very, especially with no hint of wind - looked back at Morgan quick enough to catch the amusement in his eyes. "Something funny?" She asked, an eyebrow sarcastically raised.

Morgan blinked at her sudden response, registering it, "Oh- no- not at all." He spoke in a sudden rush as though he may have been intimidated by her. Morgan flashed his eyes away from her. Yav's gaze softened slightly; she leaned back down to the ground. "Well..." She uttered carefully, "It shouldn't be very cold tonight." And after a beat; "Something wrong?" Morgan decidedly shook his head, "Not at all- everything is okay. And you?" Yav smiled lightly; "Yes. Except that I'm worried you're lying okay." "I promise, I'm okay." Morgan exchanged a gentle look with her. Yavril didn't know she really believed him, but she chose to. For now. "Alright. So what are you thinking about?" "Sleep, mostly, and you, and the stars." "What a list I find myself in. I'm honoured." "Of course- the list ranks as so- You, sleep, stars. And I'll tell you why. Because I was thinking of you- and how you wouldn't sleep, which in turn made me drowsy, and you, stubborn, of course that led to be comparing things to you, such as, as stubborn as a horse, and of course brighter than the stars, or perhaps prettier, but definitely more noticeable- and here." Yavril flushed a little, but in the dark out was utterly unnoticeable when her orange skin, her glow, and the fire light were all taken into account. What Morgan was able to see was the small smile, something more genuine than normal, creep across her lips. "Well,I don't know about all that. But, you've got yourself quite a train of thought... I'm flattered. Though- if you're drowsy, go to sleep, Mo. You deserve it." Morgan stared blankly at the stars, "I'll sleep eventually, probably soon." He'd been too distracted to look and view her smile, which honestly, would have been a perfect example of how she was more- appealing- beautiful- mesmerizing- whatever the word was- than even the stars. "Good." Yavril said, content and a huge hypocrite. There was a long pause, and Yav just gazed up at the stars, soaking in light - and something occurred to her. "Mo..." She spoke cautiously, "I'm not just... Dragging you around, am I? This... I don't want you to... This kind of life isn't for everyone - I sleep on the ground most nights - and I don't want you to stay just because you have nowhere else to go." Morgan had turned to his side, his eyes closed shut. There was a slight movement in his form as he made a sound, "Hmm?" An incoherent and sleepy version of his own 'response'. Yavril let out an amused breath. "Nevermind, Mo," she spoke endearingly, resting a warm hand on his shoulder, "Go back to sleep." Almost indistinguishable from the last noise, Morgan released another, in response to her as he drifted a little further into a sleep. Yavril's smile grew as she watched Morgan drift off; there was something indescribable about him; a calm, a subtleness, a deeper understanding, that she envyed. Watching him, thinking about what he said made her realize, though, that between everything else, he was certainly handsome. She couldn't remember the last time she'd thought of someone as handsome.

With her active mind, the night passed quickly, and though Yavril didn't wish to, she didn't have the age and training she would later in life to keep herself awake for several days at a time. When Morgan would wake the next morning, he'd find a burnt out fire, and Yavril fast asleep right next to him. Morgan woke up slowly, rising and looking over to Yavril, who was sound asleep. His expression softened on her, but he stayed quiet for a minute, before speaking quietly, " Yav..." A light sleeper, Yav shifted slightly, eyes opening up in surprise to look up at Morgan, not yet shiftiing. "-Good morning...? Right?" Morgan stared down at her and nodded, "Yeah- morning," Yavril's face crept into a smile, and she pushed herself up by her elbows (narrowly avoiding Morgan's head on her way up); "The weather's going to be good today..." She noted. "Really? How far until we reach lions arch?" "We can probably get there today." "Ready to get started then?" Yavril stretched her arms above her head; "Sure, why not-" "Are you hungry?" Yav tilted her head, as if checking her internal organs. "A little. You?" "Same." He stood up from a seated position. Yavril reached out a hand for help getting up, a silent message. She didn't ask for help; even such a small thing as this was out of her character. Morgan blinked slightly, without commentary he extended his hand to grip hers and help, pull her up carefully. Yav smiled warmly; "Alright; Do you feel like rations or trying to catch fish?" "Never had fish." Yavril tilts her head; "Really? I don't love it, but it's quick and easy." "I'll leave it up to you?" Yav looked around; "I usually prefer hunting, but I don't know how itching you are to get moving." "As I said, it's up to you, I'm simply here to follow." "You don't have to, you know. You could lead, if you wanted." "But I'm watching and listening for now." "For what?" "Anything, just make up your mind." 

Yav chuckled; "Alright, fine. I'll go hunt. You wait here, yeah?" "No, I'll come and help." "No offense, Mo, but you're not trained to hunt; this is really something I should do alone." "Teach me?" He offered curiously, "I can't simply be useless my whole life, can I?" Yavril's face split open in a smile; "Hey, really?" If nothing else, she loved to talk about Ranger things. Morgan nodded a little bit, confused at her sudden excitement, "yeah." Yav chuckled, not only happy at the prospect of passing on knowledge but at the look on Morgan's face. "Okay; alright, leave your things here. You have to travel light."

Yavril led Morgan through the basic tracking steps; masking their scent, prepping weapons, walking carefully, tracing footsteps. Finally, they got to the point where they could attack a nearby deer. "Keep quiet..." Yavril said lowly; she had a much different presence when she was hunting, incredibly noticable; like she was a deer herself. She carefully notched an arrow... Morgan did so, staying silent for the time, observing Yavril, opposed to the deer. Raising her bow with a steady hand, the woman tilted it sideways to get a better angle. "You want it to be a painless death. A deliberate shot." The arrow between her glowing middle and index finger, she turned to glance at Mo for a split second to smile reassuringly before refocusing - not everyone could deal with this part. With a quick release of string that made a quick twang on soft wood, Yav hit her mark; straight through the deer's head, killing it instantly. Morgan watched, a carefull look on his unmoving face as the deer fell with a thund. Any other wild life feeling from bushes, up trees. "Not sure I could make that shot-" "You have to  be steady with the bow..." Yav murmured, standing to step over the bush and to check the deer over. "I shake too much..." "Me too," Yavril uttered in an otherworldly way, like she wasn't right next to Morgan - close your eyes, and you would have believed she wasn't there. "But not with a bow." Closing her eyes a few seconds, she rested a hand on the deer; "Live life well and fully, and waste nothing. The only lasting peace is the peace within your own soul." With that, she began to collect the deer to wear over her shoulders. Morgan watched her carefully, "where did you hear that?" Yavril tilted to look at him; "Don't you recognize it? It's from the Ventari tablet." "No, I don't. I didn't know that." "Well, it is. ... I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I just like to recite it after hunting." At that, she lifted the deer over her shoulders with a slight wince- "Ready?" "Sure, would you like some help?" She glanced at him - truth be told, the whiplashes in her back were aching under so much weight, but for now she thought she could handle it. Besides, no need to remind Mo. "I'll be fine, thanks. I'll let you know if I do. Just lead the way, yeah?" She offered a comforting smile. He blinked curiously, and nodded beginning to follow her. It took a little while, but eventually the pair reached the fire again. Yavril sunk to a crouch, but this part she... admittedly struggled with. "...I might need help getting it off..." Morgan gave off a faint chuckle and got closer to her, steadying the dead corpse and helping her relieve the weight. Letting out a slight groan as the weight was lifted off of her, she let the deer slide off her back beside her.  The trip to Lion's Arch was a long day spent, but despite some silence Yavril failed to find any discomfort in Morgan's presence - though if the same could be said for him, she had no idea. Entering the city was certainly something else - Yavril had to brace herself for it. An almost criminal hub, it was flooded with people you couldn't trust. But for every bad apple there's a good one, and in Lion's Arch there was an abundance of guards, merchants, people living day to day lives, if not particularly well. It was a city in some ways and just a mishmash hub in others.

As the pair approached, their conversation was cut into by the loud ramblings of men nearby - "That puzzle is crazy," one of them insisted, "Nobody that's gone in has come out the other side alive - you can smell their corpses and hear the sounds of the pirate laughing as they all fall." Morgan and Yavril had incidentally both stopped walking at the instant sound of a challenge, "What?" One of the men turned to look at the pair, an eyebrow raising in the process at the unusual race. "The crazy waterfall thing, north east. If you get to the top, this pirate captain taunts you, says you can't beat his challenge. No one that has ever taken him up on him has come out the other side alive. We don't even know if there is another side." Morgan blinked curiously, "Is that all you guys know about it?" "We're not crazy enough to try it ourselves, if that's what y're asking. No one survives that. Not even you crazy Sylvari." Morgan looked back to Yavril, "Well, why not?" "C'use you'd die. Guaranteed. With those twig arms? No chance." Morgan shook his head, "Sounds like you're just scared to do it yourself." The man laughed, a horrendous noise; "Ha! Can you believe this lettuce head? Think you could get out of there alive, huh? I'll bet you 100 gold you can't." Morgans face turned like a sharp turn- determined now he looked to Yavril, "We could do that, right?" Yav already wore a cocky smirk when Mo turned to her; "Duh." Morgan snapped back to them, "DEAL!" The guy cackled, wickedly - "Alright, come on then, shake on it!" He thrust out a hand ungracefully. Morgan did instantly, a sudden peak of excitement at the challenge. The guy smirked; "Come on, I'll take ya to the top."

Leading them to the top of the puzzle was a trek indeed, but one Morgan and Yavril took in their stride. Through hidden pathways and mysterious bushes, and up rocky pathways, the trio found themselves at a cave opening down into a waterfall - that looked suspiciously like a large gaping jaw. As they arrived, a haunting voice echoed through their ears; "Think ye have the cunning and strength to get through me traps? Do so, and ye can have a share of me plunder." Morgan walked slowly to the edge of it, not nothing to look back at Yavril before he himself went sliding down the cliff into the dark of the cave. "Mo-!" Yav yelped, but didn't wait long  before turning back to wink at their bet-er and diving after him herself towards the pool of water she realized was at the bottom - past some honestly terrifying rock spikes. Morgan had landed in the pool, his  clothes now soaked, "Harsh landing-"

Yav chuckled - "The best kind!" The pair found themselves inside a small pit, of sorts, with rocky steps up to what must have been the ret of the puzzle. Morgan looked amused at her, "Really?" "Of course!" Yavril already seemed happier, more alive here than she had been in a while - she thrived on the challenge. "You're insane." "Yeah, you love it too. Feeling okay? Ready to go?" Morgan nodded delightfully for a moment and he breathed in the air, noting the horrid smell. Yav chuckled at the look on his face; "Enjoying it down here? Come on!"  Morgan began to move with her slowly, as the lights grew increasingly dim, he reached out for her hand, "So we don't loose each other." He offered. Yav raised an eyebrow to Morgan, but did take his hand, affirming herself. As they entered the next part of this cavern she could see another benefit; they seemed to have to climb up stone walkways into the distance - at least she'd be able to keep him from falling into the water below.

At the top of this rocky pathway upwards, it seemed to narrow drastically, until finally it reached a point where, as if it was an entrance, a wall barred their path in alll directions but one narrow entrance. Just inside, a blue light hovered.Calling out, that voice spoke hauntingly again. "Few have escaped Chompy's vicious maw. The last one to do that was me first mate, a lad by the name of Shane."

Morgan pushed threw the narrow hall pulling Yavril behind him.

As they entered, Yav bent slightly to examine the blue orb - but the moment she reached out to touch it, it seemed to jump, flitting off in the distance as a voice sounded again. "This way, if ye want to escape with all your fingers and toes!" Yav raised an eyebrow at the blue thing, quickly disappearing - "Do we follow it? Trap?"

Morgan nodded, "I think we should follow it.""But that's just a gut feeling."

"Come on then!~" With a wild grin, Yav yanked Morgan after the thing as it disappeared around a corner - a dead end. "Aaand- oh. This ain't right! This ain't the way at all. So remember this dead end, for soon YE may be dead... and at yer end... er- or something." Yavril released a sharp laugh at the voice, as the blue orb spun around to turn right at the first crossroads, rather than left. "Let's see now... 12 paces north... because I've been married 12 times... Wait, wait, uh, does Bess count? I don't know about that. She was a little on the flimsy side. Kind of a- kind of a wispy girl..." As the blue orb led the pair through the maze - and several fake walls that took a few moments to understand - they came out the other side into darkeness lit only by the orb's blue light.. "Oh, yer still with me, eh? Not bad, buttercups. Perhaps ye are worth o' sharing in my spoils! But not me rum!"

Morgan had managed to stay quiet the whole time, seemingly paying more attention to Yavril than to the orb. 

The next path clear; ahead of them even farther up - but in a flash, the blue orb disappeared, plunging the pair into darkness.

Morgan huffed slightly, "No light anymore?" He almost called out to the orb, and tightened his grip on Yavril's hand.

Yav squeezed Morgan's hand - "Hey, we're okay, we just gotta keep going." She pulled him ahead, where the light did indeed return on a walkway above a huge pool of water below them - stones to the right intimidated, threatened to fall at any moment.

Morgan watched her carefully, "Keep going...?"

Yav raised an eyebrow at him teasingly; "You sure you're not scared of falling in?"

"Yeah, I'm sure, we'll be fine."

Yav chuckled. The pair found that the only way that they could progress was climbing stagered rocks up ahead; And at the top, they found a long hallway full of spears protruding from the walls on intervalls. The blue orb reappeared, and the voice sounded out again - "To survive this path ye must follow me directions exactly! Now... slooowly inch forward... and..." Sudddenly, the sound dissolved into loud snoring before cutting out entirely.

Morgan crept forward slowly.

At the wrong moment, unfortunately - Just as he pressed forward, spears burst out around him, pressing against his shoulders and arms and head and receeding after a few moments.

Morgan let out a shocked yelp- mixed with some pain at the non-serious wounds he'd just attained.

"Morgan!" Yavril yanked back on him from the other side- "Okay, hey- we need to time this."

Morgan nodded slightly, "No shit-"

Yav let out a sharp laugh - "Come on. You want me to try? Too scared?" She teased him, nudged at his rib.

Morgan shook his head, "No-"

Yav sighed lightly - "Okay, ready? We're gonna do this." As the Spears activated again, Yavril watched them with caution - as soon as they started to recede, she jumped through them, mercilessly pulling Morgan along with her as she continued to lunge down the hall.

Eventually, out of breath, almost the pair reached the end of the death traps with- a few- minor injuries.

Past a few more traps, sassy remarks by the captain, and more jumping between unsteady rocks than Yav would have liked, the pair found themselves at a crossroads. Three drops, and no other way to go - a red light hovering over the right drop and a green light hovering over the left drop - a blue light hovered over the centre drop. "Ye've come to the final test: Dead Man's Drop! Before I trust ye to share me plunder, ye will have to trust me. Two of these holes lead to instant death, and one will bring ye to me treasure. But how will ye choose? Just remember where ye are, and that will be yer answer."

Morgan blinked slightly, inching closer to see if he could nearly peak down into the dark depths.

Morgan would have been able to see nothing at all.

He backed away, and turned to Yavril, "What'd he say?"

"Ah... that we'd know which way to go because of where we are. ...This has got to be the reason that no one gets out of this place alive."

"Really? This? I doubt it." He turned back to the 'doors', "Well- where are we?"

"Ah..." Yav paused, thinking of a map of Lion's Arch. "South... east. At least in Lion's Arch."

"Maybe the south-east tunnel?" He looked at her in a shifted fashion, "But that seems so small to gamble on."

"So... the right one? I mean.... what else do we do? We don't have anything to go on..."

Morgan have her a dead stare, "But- is that worth our life- we've only discussed it for less than a minute."

"You want to keep discussing? About what? What else could it mean?"

"You want to gamble then?"

"That's my whole life, Mo."

Morgan gave her a skeptical look, "Well it isn't... Exactly mine."

Yav shrugged, crossing her arms; "Alright, then let's do it your way. What else could it be?"

Morgan thought for a moment, "It could be referring to- the direction we've been headed even, wouldn't even be surprising if the answer was the opposite of the logical answer, or through a hidden passage."

"I don't think it'd be the opposite - no one would ever get it right. And... we can look for a hidden passage, but I don't see much around here... And we've been heading... North east? I think?"

Morgan looked around, "It's just- possible the answer isn't the one staring you in that face."

"I... don't see any other ones even vaguely glancing in our direction, though."

Morgan fell silent for a brief moment, "Alright."

"Alright?"

"We can follow your gut."

Yavril paused, taking in Morgan's expression - "Okay. I'm gonna go down first. If I don't call back up, take another path down. You figure it out, okay? Promise?"

Morgan squinted at her, "No?"

"No what?"

"You're not going alone."

"There's no point in us both possibly dying."

"Well, there's a pretty good chance that we're both gonna die anyway."

"But let's maybe increase the odds of at least one of us surving?"

"Then I'll jump first."

"Is there any part of you that actually believes that I'll let you do that?"

"Is there actually part of you that believes I'll let you jump first?"

"Seeing as I'm about to do, it, yeah!" At that, Yavril used all of her might to push Morgan off his feet and with one easy step backwards she plummeted down into the earth.

Morgan fell backwards for a split second, being caught off guard. He instantly collected himself and lept after her.

At the bottom of the hole, Yav found herself plunged into icy cold water - she was above only just long enough to watch Morgan desperately clamber down after her and plummet beside her.

Morgan eventually found his head out of the water, he tossed a glare to Yavril.

Yavril pushed her head violently out of the water wildly, a wild grin on her face.

Morgan groaned, ""That was foolish."

Yavril

"No, that was fun! What was foolish was you following me."

Morgan rolled his eyes, it being unclear how upset he really was, "Wrong, what was foolish was you jumping without me, we're a team, right?"

Wading a little in the waters, Yav nodded - "OF course we are, but when it's life or death, that's a bit different."

"I don't see how it is, and even at that, what makes your life less valuable than my own?"

"See, thing is that two lives taken are worse than one. And I'm older. Less potential."

"Old doesn't mean theres less potential there."

Yav let out a sigh; she knew Morgan wouldn't like what she had to say so she chose to just... avoid the topic. "Mo. Come on. I'm just glad we were right, can we just be glad we were right?"

Morgan nodded pulling himself out of the water now, pushing thoughts aside, "What now...??"

Yav followed Morgan out of the water, pushing her short leaves of hair backwards - it was a little strange for all of her hair to be out of her face, she wasn't used to it. "We... keep going?"

"But where?"

Standing in the small, now well lit cave, Morgan pushed forward to the only clear exit. not looking back to see if Yavril had decided to join him or not.  The pair, if Yavril followed, which surely she did would find themselves in a musty, poorly lit cavern that seemed as though it would cave in on itself as soon  as it got the chance. Near the back of the empty space crafted nearly into the cave itself was a stair case, which a throne was placed at the top of, beside which. The ghostly figure stood. He let out a cackle,  "Ye may have found me treasure, but ye'll never escape this chamber to spend it!" Once more  his speech broke with laughter, "Hope ye brought a deck o' cards. Starvation takes a while."

Yavril just rolled her eyes at the ghost of the man and his exaggerations; surely there was a way out. Instead, pushing past Morgan and up the stairs, she opened the wooden chest at the ghost's feet. Inside, well, more gold than the two of them could carry in their pockets. Yav stumbled back at the immensity of it, only barely not tripping backwards over the stairs as the lid of the chest swung backwards and thudded against the wood.

Morgan didn't pay much attention to Yavril's actions, but instead instantly began looking for the exit, running his hands across the walls looking for maybe a false one.

"Uh, Morgan?" Yav asked, a little awed.

Morgan blinked slightly, looking away from the wall, "What?"

"...There's enough gold here to get us a house. Like... a big one. I can't believe- we have to have been the first people down here in decades - longer, maybe..."

Morgan focused in on Yavril's positioning, getting lost more in the way she held herself rather than her topic, "A house? We'd never use one." He stopped for a second registering the other commentary, "I thought that was a given. Judging by the bones scattered about."

"No, I'm not- just- I'm just saying, Mo, this- is a lot of money. If we can get it out of here, we're set." Yav stood, placing a hand on her hip as she contemplated the area around them from her (barely) elevated standpoint. "If we can even get out, I guess."

"The exit has to be through a wall or something, right? I think if we run our hands along it we can find a false wall maybe." He placed his hand on the wall again, "And I'm not sure we can carry all of that out..."

"Might not be that complicated..." Yav supplied, looking to the right wall. There, a crack in the already destroyed brick structure absolutely lead... somewhere. Stepping off the stone platform, the orange Sylvari disappeared without a trace between the brick.

Morgan traveled to the crack where she vanished, "Yav?"

Yav's head popped back out, narrowly avoiding hitting Morgan's in the process; amused, she chuckled - "Found the exit."

Morgan let a smile pull at the ends of his lips, "Nice, are we going to try and take some of the gold?"

Yav smiled herself; Morgan didn't smile enough. It was like a treat when he did. "'Course. C'mon, fill your pockets. Then we'll go collect our debt from that guy, and we'll be set for a good while."

"Ehh- alright." He shifted into the centre of the cavern and began to fill his pockets, "You too right?"

In form of an answer, Yavril appeared over Morgan's shoulder with a flicker of orange light before rounding him to do the same, offering him only a smirk.

He raised an eyebrow at her response, returning the silent favour he turned and headed toward the exit, the sound of coins echoing through the cavern

Yavril followed in quiet contemplation - the pair pushed forward through the stone wall to find sand, covering the rock lightly - though the hard stone disolved as the sand increased, as starlight from outside lit their walk more and more. Finally, they could see grass, the tips of trees, and they came out of their dark cave into the light of the stars. "I hadn't realized it was late..." Yav muttered to herself. She walked ahead of Morgan out into the clearing, but was stopped short with a quick gasp at what she saw; a ghost - the transparent form of a decaying body, man - leaning against one of the rock walls. "Aha. You survived, did'ye? The cap'n was never the friendliest of men when he was alive, and he's worse now'n he's dead..." There was a moment of silence as the ethereal being's voice seemed to echo eerily in the ears of the two Sylvari. When Yavril found it in her to respond, she spoke simply, softly; "I wouldn't have wanted to meet him alive." The decaying ghost of a man only smirked and nodded, as if she had passed some kind of test, and made no further movement. With a glance back at Morgan, Yav simply moved to continue on their way.

Morgan had kept his eyes attached to Yavril, noting her response more than anything. He continued past her, as he found a small ping in his chest as he follow the woman.

Pushing past tree fronds that blocked the continuation of the path, the sound of a small waterfall in the distance knocking against stone pattered. Continuing on past it and the small river it had created led to a cliff, a larger waterfall, and a small lake below. Yav took a moment to glance up at the moon above them and admire the night before turning to Mo and asking "Do we jump, or try and climb down?"

"Jump." Was his instant response.

Yav grinned; he didn't have to tell her twice. Morgan wouldn't have had a moment to blink before Yav had lept off the ridge, an orange blur in the night just before she disappeared and a massive splash sounded in the small lake below.

Morgan chased after her quickly, following her like she was the only clear thing in his path, the only light in a pitch black room.

At the bottom, Yavril let out a laugh; "Ha ha! Needed a bath." As Morgan came down behind her she propelled herself backwards and pushed wet leaves from her face; "Hey!"

Morgan let out a silent laugh at Yavril's reaction to his landing, "Did you expect me to stay up there?"

"Weeeellll...." Yav said, falsly mulling it over. "You never know. Glad you didn't?"

Morgan pushed himself through the water closer to Yavril, "We should get out."

Yav did a dramatic spin, purposefully getting Morgan's head wetter than it already was, "But it's nice!"

Morgan let out a groan (Of sorts) as the water 'impailed' his face, "For you." HE offered almost playfully.

Yav chuckled loosely at Morgan's expression, his groan; "Yeah, for me! You best learn to enjoy it, I ain't letting up."

"Well I could just leave you here, to bask in the wetness alone."

"Are you likely to?"

"That depends on if you think I will?"

Yavril tried to catch his eyes for a minute, unsure what he expected from her, that crooked smile on her face, the one she especially wore when she was thinking. "... Nah, you're not going anywhere."

He pushed himself back away from her in the water, "What if we loose out loot out here, hm?" He offered.

Yav chuckled, taking his distance as... well, distance, and pushed herself to float on her back, the weight of everything she carried less when she was floating. "Then we'll dive for it."

Morgan watched her amused, "You're so relaxed." Morgan tended to live his life in a constant state of being tense andhe found himself wisked away in her simple nature. He watched her, falling silent for the time being, this all felt a little to much, a little too good to be reality. He felt like he'd forced himself to close to the sun to safely get back down, and he likely had.

Yavril had found herself lost in the stars that twinkled above their heads, the dazzling lights and their slow crawl across the black. So much so that when Morgan spoke, it was foggy - and not just because water was getting in her ears. It was as if his words had had to push through whatever barrier she always put up between herself and reality. As she blinked back to just that, she didn't shift, but said "You say that like it's a bad thing."

"That's not how I meant it, it's just so different from me, I feel like I'm never relaxed."

"Maybe that's because you refuse to enjoy the water!"

"I don't not enjoy it, it just is-" He stopped for a moment, "There are few things I enjoy without forcing myself to."

"Like what, pray tell?" She asked curiously, still on her back.

"I find your company enjoyable."

Yav smiled small-ly. "Good, I'm glad. This would get hard eventually, if you had to force yourself to enjoy being around me."

"I don't think so. I'm stubborn enough to keep it up, but either way that's not important."

Yav let out an amused breath, but said nothing in reply, the conversation having taken a heavier feeling than she was willing to give in to. Instead, she just swung her arms slowly back and forth through the water, enjoying the feeling of it against her bright body (despite the fact that it was soaking her clothes and seeping into her skin).

"It feels like you make the whole body of water light up." He noted in a mesmerized tone.

Yavril blinked, looking up for a moment at Morgan for a moment, finally pulling her head from the water; "I can't quite not, given."

"It's nice." He spoke softly, "It looks really nice."

"Flatterer," Yav replied in an equal tone as she pushed herself vertical again, allowing herself to bob a few times below the water before returning.

Morgan smiled smally, "Ready to get out now?"

Letting out an overdramatic sigh, she smiled and replied "Ah, if we must."

"Well we've aught to go find those men, no?"

"Think we'll find them? This time of night?" Yav pushed forward, gliding past Morgan and into shallower waters.

"We might." He offered, "At the very least we should remove our clothes if we're going to keep swimming 

"Fair point, fair point," Yav replied, though she was half tempted to laugh and wink at his words. Stepping to shore dripping wet, she whipped her arms a few times to her sides, water coming off in a spray. "I think I'd rather swim myself tired, get some sleep, and then find them in the morning. Don't feel obligated to join me, I'm sure you'd love some shut eye." Yav began to take off her heavier gear; her pack, the jangling purses full of coin, her bow and arrows.

"I'm fine- I'm not ready to sleep just yet."

Yavril shrugged loosely; "Your call." Pulling off the light jacket she wore, beneath it was a t-shirt - though meant to be loose, it hung off her form awkwardly at the moment, sopping wet as it was. She pulled that off too - like most Sylvari, Yavil wasn't particularly shy about her body. Beneath it, a simple petal-ly, white, bra-like piece wrapped around her chest. She kicked off her boots and tights of sorts she wore beneath them, but kept on her pants, tied with several strings in a corset-like fashion at her waist. A grin and a moment later, she had a running dive back into the small lake past Morgan.

Morgan shored himself up striped his clothes with a relative ease, taking no care in 'indecency' He layed the grubby once clean clothes out to dry and watch Yavril who went directly back into the water.

Yav dove beneath the surface, eyes opening up as the bubbles dispursed from her plunge; her own light was indeed the only thing lighting up the dark waters, other than some moonlight. She could see small fish through the water; like most animals, they didn't scurry away at Yavril's presence. Instead, she floated happily among them, one of them - if only for a moment. When she could no longer hold her breath she burst out of the water again to eye Morgan on the shore; "Not brave enough to come back?" She called.

Morgan called out to her from the shore, "I'd do nothing if I swam out to you."

"Why not?"

"Well I'd just end up watching you, and I'm doing that already- cause I- I don't need to do anything else to be happy right now?"

Yav smiled warmly - she almost wanted to push him, but perhaps she had done enough of that for one day. "Alright, then." Returning to below the water, Yavril scavenged, as a child might, for lost tresures, forgotten things, small shells - of which she found some. An old arrowhead. Several small shells, and a few large ones, the bone of something that she hoped was a fish. Morgan got the joy of being on shore as she blindly threw such things at her pack.After an hour or hour and'a half of this, Yavril finally removed herself from the water, a tired but happy smile adorning her face.

Morgan had been awake to watch every small part of it. It was amusing and endearing how interested she was by such silly or small things. He watched her finally come out of the water, "Ready for some sleep now?"

Stretching her arms outwards, Yav nodded; "If I can manage it. Plus, I'm soaked, so. Maybe I'll put together a fire first."

Morgan furrowed his brow, "How'd you get soaked?" He spoke almost sarcastically.

"Oh ha ha, very funny, you should pretend to sleep before I decide to come over there and smack you." Yav grabbed some cloth from her pack and began to dry herself off as best she could. "I'm gonna go get firewood. I'll be right back."

Morgan stayed silently amused as he watched Yavril sway out of view.The woman returned a few minutes later with a stack of wood, as much as she could carry, that she plopped down on the ground between the two. In another few, she had a small fire going, and Yav was warming her hands on it, eyes blinking slowly in tiredness.

Morgan found himself laying down and looking up at the stars. Waiting for Yavril to allow herself to drift off, he found a strange peacefullness in the glow of the stars, the same strange peacefullness he'd find in the warm glow that Yavril gave off just my smiling. It felt like the stars crafted her to let everyone down here know what they were missing up there. He forced a blink and shifted his head to watch her tired eyes rest on the fire, "You should sleep."

Yavril's slow head movement to look at him probably confirmed just that, but she didn't give in quite yet. "I don't usually."

He nodded, "At least lay down then, okay?"

She waited a long moment, just watching him, before she nodded. "When I'm dryer."

"You're not dry enough already?"  He looked her over. He opened his mouth to talk again, "I had a great day."

Yav smiled in the small way of a tired person. "Oh? Why?"

"I don't know, it was just- exciting- I've never done something that scared me that I still did- and liked it?" He laid down again, looking at the stars.

"That's my whole life," Yav chuckled.

Morgan let that same smile creep onto his face, "We should do this more- we could make a list of things that we need to do together."

She tilted her head; "What do you mean?"

"Just a list of all the things we are going to do together and we can run around and do them all together."

Yavril grinned endearingly. "We should. Really,we should. Maybe in the morning, when I can think."

"We could buy in a journal in the marketplace and fill it up."

"We have the money," Yav replied, chuckling.

Morgan nodded, "yeah... we have enough for anything really."

"Yeah - trust me, that's a helluva luxury."

"Is there anything you've always wanted?"

"Hmm... Ah, nothing comes to mind. Huh."

Morgan exhales a little more than usual, "That's interesting. Usually people have something like that, no?"

Yavril does the same. "I dunno. The things I want you can't buy."

"It's all unimportant..."

"What is?"

"Material things... It's just not important in the same way."

"... Yeah. Yeah, I agree. People are more important. Moments. Places."

"True, but I guess it's sometimes nice to be able to pull along memories of people, ones that you can hold."

"Maybe. I think the important ones stick, though."

"I think even important things either with age...."

"Maybe. I guess I'll find out when I'm older."

"Maybe we won't" He shrugged, "are you dry enough to sleep yet?"

Yav looked at her hands, tested her hair. "Yeah, I suppose so."

"You should." He suggested softly.

Yavril shifted away from the fire, a little closer to where Mo way on the other side, so that when her head hit the ground it was near his. "The stars are so nice..." She murmured.

Morgan turned on his side to watch Yavril, he'd have enough of the stars that night, "They're alright."

"Just alright? Look at them!" "I've been looking at them all night, if I keep doing it in never gonna see all the other beautiful things around me." "Can't be any more beautiful than this..." "That's not true, sometimes the most beautiful things are the least practical." "I don't have the energy to work out what that means right now..." Yav spoke dreamily. He breathed slightly more out of his nose, "It means that the most beautiful things aren't the ones that you look at first." "You have to work for beauty, sometimes. Not with the stars, though." "You'd often find  that the most beautiful things are effortless, but I think that the world has a way of letting a lot of that go unrecognized." "How do you mean?" Yav murmured "Well, everything that I see right now is that way- effortlessly beautiful, even if it isn't obvious that it is. There isn't one thing in my presence that isn't in some way beautiful." Yav turned her head, letting the side rest in the grass to glance over at Morgan with a look. "That depends on your definition of beautiful. Yours may be flawed. Or biased." "It can't really be either, considering it's more of an abstract concept." "That's just... arguable." "Not exactly, I mean, even considering that your feelings for objects affect how appealing you find it? So in a way it's like how peoples taste varies." "Maybe. I can't think of an opinion now, but I'm sure I do have one." Morgan gently closed his eyes and rolled back onto his back again looking up at the same stars. Yavril didn't close her eyes, nor shift away from looking at Morgan yet. "It's a nice night..." She murmured, but barely loud enough to be heard. "It's alright." He murmured back to her. Yav exhaled in amusement. "You're nice..." She said in a similar murmur, but by then she was already shutting her eyes in sleep.  Morgan didn't respond to her, he found himself lost in the bizarre moment as he stilled himself focusing in on the stars above their heads. He could have say there for hours- and he did, but after a while he found himself dozing off slowly, but surely. Eventually the sun rose to say hello, the light of it gently woke those who it touched. Honestly, it had been days since Yavril had slept in any significant amount, and not nearly so restfully. The sun did not wake her this morn. Morgan found himself awake relatively early. His eyes shifted down towards the lake and for a breif while they'd rested on Yavril, completely content for the time being. It was a few hours, honestly, before Yavril woke up, far later than she was used to. She shifted first, moving away from the fire, now simmering out in the daylight. Morgan rather than sitting around and watching Yavril sleep for hours, which he did consider, left a small pile of clothes in his place and had vanished into the lake atleast an hour before she woke. Yavril blinked at the sight of Morgan's clothes in a lump on the ground as she pushed herself up to a stand, and, suddenly realizing where Morgan must be, looked to the lake with a laugh, trying to spot him. Morgan was easily spotted when taken into account he perked up when he heard Yavril's slight laughter. Turning himself slowly in the water to view the now awake Yavril, "Hello." He called from a distance in the water. Yav tilted her head, raising a hand in the air to groggily greet him; "Good morning! Having fun?" Morgan watched her softly from the water, slowly he swam over, closer to the shore, "suppose so, wasting time- how'd you rest?" He spoke drifting out of the water and towards his clothing. "...Well, strangely enough. I can't quite believe I slept so long, it must be nearly mid day." Morgan looked above into the clearing in the trees, "It's not there yet, better you slept anyway?" He offered noting the positioning of the sun in the sky, not quite at halfway- yet. His gaze straightened to Yavril before he eyed his shirt and pulled it over his head. "Arguable, but maybe." Yavril stood as Morgan dressed, offering him a glance as he did, before standing herself to stretch; she wasn't wearing a shirt, still, and rummaged through her pack for one. Finding it, she pulled the thing over her head in what any human would consider an unladylike manner. "Everything is arguable with you, hm?" He offered to her as he finished dressing himself and waited for her. "Everything is arguable." She said, giving him a teasing look. When she was ready, she picked up her pack off the ground, still mostly packed. "Ready to find a certain douche? Don't want to wait to dry some?" He looked down to himself, the dry clothes sticking to his body slightly. He lifted his gaze again, "No point, I'll dry faster if I'm moving anyway." Yav lifted her hands up; "Alright, if you say so."  Morgan smiled slightly, as if he was physically incapable of smiling larger, and reached a hand into his hair, ruffling water out of the leaves. Morgan started walking promptly, expecting Yavril to follow after him, "Should we go back to the top and look for him?" He offered.

Yav smirked and followed him smoothly; "Of course." The pair found themselves navigating lion's arch. Morgan would have found himself lost within the first thirty seconds if it hadn't been for Yavril, whom knew exactly where to go, and she did, she lead them to the top of the puzzle once more, where the man had been waiting for presumably the last 24 hours

The guy's eyes widened as he watched the two mount the hill in the light of the sun; "I said I'd give y'all two days, but I didn't a-a-ctuallly think...." Morgan looked almost... elated to see the man so awe struck before them, "It was 100 gold, right?" He looked to Yavril playfully. Yavril adored the look on Morgan's face when he looked back at her.

The man, in turn, nodded, still rather in shock, as he pulled the coinpurse from his waist - there was only a split second warning for his next move in which his gaze hardened and his eyebrows furrowed before he acted, angrily though not accurately throwing a knife for Morgan. Not accurately was right. The knife hardly 'narrowly' missed him. The chuckle on Morgans face turned into a calculative gaze as he spoke his next words, "Oh, so you can't keep with the deals you make?" He offered, not making a move to continue the aggression, but offering Yavril a chance to choose where to take it. Yavril was swift and vicious, grabbing the arm that threw the knife as Morgan spoke and twisting it behind him, gaining control of the man before he could do anything else. Morgan watched Yavril as she moved impressively fast, in a strange almost adoring way, "I don't think we even need to gold Yavril, we can leave?" "Yeah." With a swift motion, before he could get another word in, Yavril hit the man over the head, and he dropped to the ground. "He'll be fine - just to make sure he doesn't try something." Morgan didn't say anything, but a look let Yavril know that he understood perfectly. He held his arm out as if offering Yavril to take it, "That's that then- where to?" "To buy a journal?" Yav asked, taking his arm with a hint of irony - and a hint of not. "I haven't forgotten. I might've been half asleep, but I haven't forgotten." Morgan nodded slowly, a soft chuckle escaping his list, "Of course, but we'll need something to write in it as well, no?" He offered as they started walking, "We'll have to find a market place of some sort." "Oh you're a smart one, aren't you," Yav said, voice dripping with so much sarcasm it could have cut your bagel. "Of course. This time of day there should be a market up." "take me there." He Hummed slowly allowing her to guide him. Yavril easily led Morgan further north west, where the city was coming alive with light and activity; the market she spoke of was a large, bustling place, one that you would hear before you saw it, with all the screaming children, shouts of advertisements, and talking adults, discussing the latest gossip with people they only managed to see here. As they approached, the bright tents set up caught the eye against the still slightly yellow sky, before the multicoloured and varied crowd. While the people were mostly humans of all shades, there was a fair share of norn, asura, and charr. Even- a sylvari or two? Maybe it was a trick of the light. Morgan looked about the large marketplace and sorted himself through the crowd, Yavril's wrist in hand as he began to search for a stand with leather bound books. Yavril didn't mind much that Morgan was leading her about; with anyone else she'd have minded. With Morgan, well. "See any?" She asked, as she was pulled haphazardly through the crowds. Morgan kept concentrated, silent as they waved through the bustling marketplace. Out of the corner of his eyes, a bright yellow stand, lined with elegant leather bound books. Morgan looked to her, "Yeah." She smiled brightly at the books; "Oh-!" She approached the stall, carefully picking up one of the books; inscriped on the front was an artstic image of the sun. Morgan watched her carefully, his eyes shifting to the book, "Is that the one you want?" "Oh; Oh, I don't know, what do you think?" She gestured to the rest of the books; she'd only picked up the first one that drew her eye. "I think it will do a good job of being written in, no?" Yav chuckled; "I think that any of them would be." Morgan nodded, "Of course, but you like this one, right?" He reached to tug the book from her grip and look it over, running a finger across the smooth cover, "it's a good book." He gave his glance to Yavril. Yav offered a tilted smile to Mo, holding on slightly to the book, a bit teasingly, before releasing it. "Yeah. Most books are good books." Rolling her eyes, she snatched it right back - "Oh let's just buy it already!" And rounded the corner of the stall with the quickfooted step of a ranger. Morgan stood still for a moment as she took the book, a glint of amusement in his eyes as she rounded the stall. Morgan calmly followed her around the corner, staying silent. Yav approached the vendor, waiting patiently as the woman dealt with other customers before turning her shy case like gaze on Yav, who handed over their book. The woman gave Yavril a gentle smile, looking down as she took the book, trying to reframe from staring at Yavril and her vibrant colours, "This one is five silver." She chimed from the other side of the stall. Morgan moved till his stood by Yavril's side, digging his hands into his pockets he pulled out a handful of silver pieces, and offering them to the woman. The women gently offered the book back to Morgan and took the gold pieces, "Thank you." Morgan offered her a false smile, "Of course." He took the book, offering it back to Yavril. Yav just watched, amused, as the woman watched her and Morgan forced himself to be a social creature; "Thank you," she said, accepting the book. "Let's get you out of here, you look like you might blow up." The woman nodded slowly, looking down and quickly attending to another customer. Morgan turned to Yavril, "Did we need a pencil?" He disregarded her previous comment.

"Oh, I'm stocked." Yav went into her pack and shuffled about as they walked away, finally pulling out a stick of led, sharpened indelicately at one end and wrapped by vine, wood, and flowers. She offered it to him with a raised eyebrow. Morgan watched her as she pulled it out, paying no attention to where he was headed, just following the woman. "That looks very lovely." He noted as she pulled it from her pack, "You've got the book, haven't you? Keep it for yourself." "We should find a place to sit down and write. You know a good spot?" "It's ours," Yav insisted. "And absolutely. Follow me!" At that, Yav took into a bit of a jog; the spot she had in mind was a distance, but absolutely worth it. A natural rock formation led up to the top of a huge, rocky mountain - very treacherous, but at the top, should one dare to reach it, there was a large space that looked out onto the vast city and waters it edged. Morgan released a breath of amusement as Yavril instantly broken into a jog, but he followed her with wide strides. Questioning slight as to why she'd drag him up here. He remmebered though. She was- peculiar, but everything she did, regaurdless of the hike, was absolutely worth it.  So he began to question her less and less. Yav raised her arms above her head for a moment; "The only thing that would make this better would be if there was a water spray, but the height is great too." "Yeah, it's lovely." He commented, sitting down suddenly, "Shall we start?" Yav turned back and dropped her heavy pack to the ground as she sat in front of him. "Absolutely." Flipping to the first page of the journal, inside the cover, Yavril rote her name in what a human would have called a signature. At that, she offered it over to Morgan. Morgan raised a brow as his eyes lifted from the book to Yavril's gaze- if he could catch it, "You want me to sign it?" He clarified. 

Lilia Sombrea looks out across the jungle, gripping her staff. Her mask would cover most of her facial features, except her eyes, which glittered faintly in the sunlight.

Yavril approached cautiously - the Syvari had been standing for a while, and Yavril was curious. “Hello, sister,” she said.

Lilia Sombrea turned around upon hearing the Sylvari’s words. She blinked once, then smiled slightly underneath her mask. “Greetings. What brings you to the Jungle?”

Yavril sighed. “Orders,” she hoped it was enough to avoid more questions. “And you?”

Lilia Sombrea: “I am here to help with the fight against Mordremoth, as I suspect most are. Then again, there are other reasons… And orders? May I ask from who?”

Yavril rolled her shoulders. “From the Pale Tree.” She was clearly not willing to give up information. “Have you been having trouble Pact forces? If you are, come to me - that’s part of my job.”

Lilia Sombrea raised an eyebrow. “Really? As for trouble with the Pact, no, not really. Minus a few untrusting soldiers, of course, but oh well. We can only work to gain their trust…” She sighed, pausing. “What is your name? I don’t believe I’ve seen you around the Jungle.”

Yavril nodded along - she knew the struggles of dealing with the mistrustful. “Yavril. I’m Yavril. And you?”

Lilia Sombrea slid her mask off, putting it in her bag hanging at her side before responding. “I’m Lilia Sombrea, although I tend to go by Lily.”

Yavril frowned, eyebrows furrowing in focus. She switched to a drastic, happy smile almost jarringly. “I believe I met one of your friends in the Grove. Her name was… Riva?”

Lilia Sombrea smiled as well. “I see she has returned… Yes, she is one of my friends. She tends to help out around here. What did she have to say?”

Yavril: “We didn’t talk over-much about anything significant, especially because I remembered something Mother had asked me to do and I may have run out very quickly. She was nice, though. Seemed to think of this place in an optimistic way, which is nice.”

Lilia Sombrea chuckled softly. “That would be her… always trying to be optimistic. Have you been out to Tangled Depths?”

Yavril: “Ah, not much. I haven’t had much cause. Have you?”

Lilia Sombrea nods. “That’s where our current camp is. Trying to find a way into Dragon’s Stand…”

Yavril: “Are you having trouble getting in?”

Lilia Sombrea shrugs. “The main entrance is guarded by Mordrem… A frined and I were scouting around it the other day. Either way, a few others are researching about ley energy and other things still, so we want to give them time.”

Yavril nodded along. “Ah, yes. The researchers should always be made a priority - frankly, much of what they say I don’t overly understand, but I’ll get there, and they’re gathering fantastic data.”

Lilia Sombrea nods. “So what else have you been doing out here?”

Yavril shrugged. “Gathering information for Mother, primarily. Trying to keep the Mordrem at bay.”

Lilia Sombrea: “Ah, how is that going?”

Yavril looked around at the waning day and sighed, “They just keep coming, honestly. And I really should be getting back to it.” She flashed a soft smile at Lily, bowing slightly. “Stay safe, sister.”

Lilia Sombrea bows.

Tasedyn sat quiety in the misty garden, a small green dagger in his hands. He ran his fingers down the shape of the blade, eyes closed as he searched out any chips and weaknesses.

Yavril had entered the grove of bamboo quietly, looking around with a smile. She hadn’t visited in a long time - too long. She was startled by the other Sylvari; she was usually alone. “Hello,” she greeted him, looking around.

Tasedyn lifted his head when greeted, opening his cloudy eyes. “Ah, hello, didn’t hear you coming. Waterfall.” He smiled. “Did NIall send you to find me? I told him I’d be awhile.”

Yavril tilted her head. Niall? “No, I don’t know Niall. I’ve just been away from the Grove for a while and thought to visit. I’m sorry if I’ve bothered you?”

Tasedyn just shook his head, wrapping the dagger in leather and tucking it away. He reached back behind him for his staff, using it to pull himself to his feet. “Nonsense. That must be why I didn’t recognize you voice. I assumed he’d sent someone, always worried.”

Riva Delmare sighed happily, looking around the garden until she spotted the two Sylvari. Curious, she decided to go say hello. “Hello. Sorry to interrupt, but I don’t believe I’ve seen you around before. Who are you?”

Yavril smiled, “I’m sure he means well.” She opened her mouth to continue, but the new woman spoke, and Yavril swiveled to look at her. The bamboo grove certainly was popular today. “Hello! My name is Yavril. You likely haven’t seen me because I’ve been in and out of the Jungle on orders from the Pale Tree. This is-?” She cut herself off, looking to the man.

Tasedyn turned to the sound of the second voice, nodding to her. “Tasedyn. I tend to hole myself away too much, you not recognizing me is probably my fault.” He smiled. “It’s a little hard to hear in here, so if there are any others watching, hello to you as well.”

Riva Delmare smiled. “Pleasure to meet you both. I am Riva. I too have been out and about in the Jungle, helping a friend of mine, but I returned here about a week ago after she went to Tanged Depths. So, what brings you two here to the garden?”

Yavril grinned up at the waterfall, “I try to visit when I come back to the Grove - it’s beautiful here, even if it is loud.” Upon consideration, she turned back to Riva. “I happen to know a lot of the Sylvari in the jungle. There aren’t many of us, after everything. What’s you friend’s name?”

Riva Delmare: “Her name is Lilia Sombrea. She prefers Lily, though. As for the lack of Sylvari, I’d assume so… most I know have either turned, or went out into the Jungle to help fight back.”

Tasedyn tapped his scarred chin, considering their words. “I come down here when I want to work sometimes, if no one can find me they won’t pile more tools nearby, right?” he paused. “Is the jungle interesting? I… have never actually left the Grove, to my regrets.”

Riva Delmare: “Yes, it’s quite gorgeous once you get past the mordrem and giant jungle creatures. There are waterfalls, and up in the canopy you can glide for hours…”

Yavril nodded politely with Riva, but there was a frown on her face. “Travel from the Grove all you like, brother, but to be quite frank… I would recommend that as few Sylvari enter the jungle as possible. It is gorgeous, I admit, but the carnage… and the close proximity to Mordremoth is hard on some. I’d wish that on none of our brothers or sisters. And the Pact forces are frightened of us.” She turned to Riva, “I’m afraid I can’t say I know your friend.”

Riva Delmare: “True… As for Lily, I wouldn’t be surprised. She tends to keep to herself, unless she’s with those she trusts. She also sticks to the shadows when moving about. How far into the Jungle have you been, Yavril?”

Tasedyn laughed softly. “You don’t need to worry about that, I’m not traveling anywhere anymore. I can’t even imagine the logistics, getting out there.” He gestured to his face. “Besides, I wouldn’t be able to properly appreciate the beauty.”

Yavril: “Ah, fairly far, but I only go so far as the Pale Tree needs. I keep busy.” Yavril cocked her head at Tasedyn, totally oblivious and finding his remark a little odd. “Oh, What makes you say that?”

Riva Delmare: “What did she ask of you, if I may ask?”

Yavril: “Ah, some of it is confidential, but I mostly assist the Pact forces, keep the Pale Tree and Sylvari informed.”

Riva Delmare: “Ah…” She then turns to Tasedyn, waiting for his response.

Tasedyn shrugged. “I wouldn’t be able to see it. And from your words all I’d hear is screaming and demands.” He smiled again.

Riva Delmare: “Oh, that’s unfortunate. But lucky in another way, I guess. That way you won’t feel the Call as strongly, if at all.”

Yavril paused a moment before she read between the lines. “Oh, I see.” she muttered, finally getting it. She frowned at Riva slightly in disagreement. The Call was not something that required sight.

Riva Delmare sees the frown, and as if reading her mind, speaks. “I know the Call doesn’t require sight, but if he doesn’t travel anymore, then he wouldn’t be going to the Hungle. Which is why I said it wouldn’t be as strong.

Yavril groaned to herself - she really was out of it today, and totally oblivious. She must have been more tired than she’d thought.

Tasedyn: “Here? No, I can barely feel it. Though it does bother me, at times. Not being able to trust what was always there is… disarming.”

Riva Delmare: “Indeed… we must overcome it, though, if we are to win this battle.”

Yavril shrugged. “you must be one of the lucky ones. Some Sylvari hear it strongly even here, including me. Though it is strong in the Jungle. I envy you, honestly.” She turned to Riva, “I agree.”

Riva Delmare: Honestly, the only reason I go to the Jungle is because I need materials from there for my experiments, as well as helping out Lily and her Order. Other than that, I stay here and research.”

Tasedyn dismissed it with a gesture. “I’m lucky in the fact I can easily pick out what is ridiculous and what is not. Leave for the jungle? It’s silly. Though I have had to work on more weapons lately. I almost miss fixing shoes.”

Riva Delmare tilts her head slightly. “What is it that you do here, besides work on weapons?”

Yavril smiled cheerfully, “Are you a Shaper, then?” She had deep respect for the Shapers, and was always happy to meet another one.

Tasedyn nodded. “That is what I do, yes. Though nothing grand, anymore. I’m quite good at weapons, I would like you to know.”

Riva Delmare: “That sounds fascinating. Do you enjoy it?”

Tasedyn gave a shrug. “Ah, it’s really all I know. I let myself get too wrapped up in my work when I started, and now, well, it keeps me useful.”

Riva Delmare smiled. “Cool. What do you do, besides help out with the Pact and such, Yavril?”

Yavril smiled, ready to answer, until she had to pause. What /did/ she do other than help the Pact and the Tree? “I’m a Ranger,” she finally said, “I’m rather old - I travel quite a lot.” Riva Delmare: “What places were your favourite to visit?”

Yavril grinned, suddenly on rapid fire. “Oh there are so many! I loved the major cities, especially Divinity’s Reach. Oh or the Norn lands - there’s a hot steam sauna… somewhere.”

Riva Delmare: “Oooh… you’ll have to show me someday.”

Yavril: “Absolutely!”

Riva Delmare: “I’ve only traveled to a few places… my favourite being Brisban Wildlands, or Queensdale.”

Tasedyn just listened quietly, not having much in common to talk about. He really hadn’t ever left the Grove, it was always some other day until he couldn’t.

Riva Belmare turned, noticing Tasedyn’s silence. “What was your favourite thing that you crafted?”

Yavril looked back at her dog and gave him something out of a pouch on her hip.

Tasedyn shrugged a little awkwardly. “I don’t really have a true favourite, I suppose. I’ve never done anything grand. Mostly I repair more than I begin.”

Yavril nodded, “That’s interesting. I imagine there’s a lot of market for repair, with the conflicts lately.”

Riva Delmare: “Ah… that’s cool. Do you have any other hobbies?”

Tasedyn held up a hand, palm out. “My life isn’t that interesting, it’s okay.” He dipped his head, closing his eyes for a moment. “I’m fine just listening to you discuss what goes on outside of home.”

Yavril chuckled, “Well, honestly, I don’t know what to say much. I don’t know what is going on in the Grove lately. I could tell you all about the drama of a Pact Sylvari and a Pact Human, though.”

Tasedyn turned his head in Yavril’s direction, more out of courtesy than anything. “Is that what you’re hiding from?”

Yavril chuckled awkwardly - “H-hiding?”

Riva Delmare looked between the two, being silent for a moment.

Tasedyn just smiled at her.

Yavril didn’t really know how to respond to that. Maybe she was hiding - she  didn’t really find she could connect with anyone after leaving for so long. Being so connected to the Pale Tree made her distant, and after time… she shook out the thought; now was not the time. “I don’t think I’m hiding.” Before anyone could argue with her, she smiled at Riva, “What is it you do?”

Riva Delmare blinked in surprise, but smiled. “I do many different things… I work with the Durmand Priory, and helped uncover new places and artifacts, as well as clues of Tyria’s past. Lately, I’ve also been experimenting on different things using a mixture of jungle plants and water. I’m hoping to find a way to reverse Mordremoth’s corruption, or at least slow it down, if that is possible. I tend to travel various places as well.

Tasedyn: “With water? That’s interesting enough, I suppose. I’m not sure how using what’s possibly corrupted will find a way to stop it.”

Riva Delmare shrugs. “I’m fighting fire with fire and hoping for the best, I suppose. If that doesn’t work, though, I might try some other ingredients. I won’t stop until Mordremoth is dead, or I have found an answer.”

Yavril nodded along, until something sparked in her eyes and she jolted. “Oh! I’m so sorry, but I’ve just remembered that I have to take care of something.” She bowed, and then ran off without a reply.