Optimist

It is getting late, and it looks as though it will be another dark, starless night. There is a blue-scaled sith on the road headed toward the wilderness, his cloak's hood pushed back by the fact that he has been looking upwards at that sky repeatedly. It seems to concern him that starless sky. Even so he presses onward, moving at a slow but steady pace along the path using his quarterstaff as a walking stick.

Iuitl comes walking up the path from the same direction. She slows as she nears him, using her longspear in a similar fashion to him. She thumps her tail and greets him with a pleasant tone, insomuch as their native tongue allows that, "Peace upon your nest. What is on your mind?" The bird that follows her around can dimly be spotted following her by flying overhead, very difficult to see against the night sky. <draconic>

"Peace upon your nest." Zeke offers the greeting back in their native tounge, and it's clear that the words set him at ease. In fact the language does, as a familiar sound might. "This one is reminiscing upon the stars and what secrets they hold. The secrets ways of the gods and the source of the strife which plagues this place so." His green eyes lower, and he doesn't quite meet her eyes. <draconic>

Iuitl cocks her head in thought. She looks up into the stars, or the lack thereof, and contemplates that. "The ways of the gods? Why not just ask them? Or their followers? They should know these things. And as for the strife and plague... it is the same problems we all face every day, in a new form. This disease is an infestation of oozes that represents the failed experiment of a tragic man. The tower and vampire are a separate problem, evil things trying to cause more chaos or enact some twisted plan." She looks at him, trying to catch his gaze. "I just asked a few mortal men. No need to read the stars." She chuckles wryly, a raspy noise. <draconic>

Zeke lets out a low laugh, a chuckle of sorts and... he doesn't laugh much so it's a rough sound, but warm and welcoming. The sort of sound that could be infectious if he used it more. "This one is a follower, and this one knows far less than one would like. This one has talked to many others to learn the same things as you, but the answers bring more questions." Finally their eyes meet and it seems quite by accident. His green eyes are bright and intelligent; piercing in their gaze. "It seems that the gods intend for us to learn ourselves these lessons and slowly." <draconic>

There's more chuckling. She keeps eye contact for a few seconds. Iuitl opines, "They do much to protect us, and that is another way they do that. When we learn slowly and without coddling, we learn in new and different ways. We learn things even they, in their boundless power and majesty, could never have predicted." She spreads her arms out for a moment. "Is it not wonderful?" She beams with a glowing excitement. Seems she's passionate about this! "Yes?" She searches his face, trying to see how he feels about the whole grand mystery. <draconic>

He seems pleased and in good humor in spite of what had seemed before their conversation to be a state of worry surrounding him. Zeke shifts his staff in his right hand and his weight so that his right side is slightly closer to her. "Through hardship perhaps we learn more than we might otherwise. Certainly a child touching a hot fire learns faster than one that does not that fire is dangerous after all. Yes? This one does not know if it could be called wonderful... some lessons come at a painful price after all." The words darken the light in his eyes briefly. It seems he knows something of painful lessons. <draconic>

"Eventually that child will die as we all do. It will be before the god it, which it can question for such a strange and painful lesson. And it will receive an answer." Iuitl says, not perturbed from thinking of everything as wonderful. "Pain protects us. It's useful. Without pain, would we know something is harmful? Would we live very long at all?" She clings to that silver lining. "It is wonderful, to be able to feel pain and comfort alike." She isn't going to be deterred! <draconic>

Zeke blinks his green eyes at her, a little... offset himself by her words. "Ahhhh... perhaps this is so." He tries to sound agreeable, but he seems to disagree at least somewhat with Iuitl. "Tell me shaman-caste, do you serve the death-singing dragon?" <draconic>

Iuitl rubs a thumb over the haft of her longspear and answers him calmly, "I follow the eldest forgetful dragon. Death-singing dragon has important lessons, but I have no interest in the end of the journey. I prefer the middle, what we learn along the way." She looks him up and down. "Did I disturb you?" she wonders, not out of concern but out of mild curiosity. <draconic>

The blue-scaled sith nods twice as if this makes sense to him and then hesitates to answer her question. "No." There's no uncertainty in the word. "This one merely... Questions if pain truly protects us as you say." Disagreeing with her seems difficult for him and he shuffles his feet slowly. The left one winks in the faint light offered by the torches nearby. Not natural, but its so in shadow that it is hard to make out. "If it is so; this one turned aside from a lesson trying to be taught." <draconic>

Iuitl adds, "We can tell each other of our pain, so that we need not all experience it. So... what was this lesson that frightened you away?" She leans in with interest and a mellow enjoyment in her eyes. <draconic>

Now Zeke's discomfort is clear and he looks away from her, at the darkness beside her but not really her at all. "Once someone tried to teach this one that the world was a danger, and that this one was too... not meant for it." It wasn't exactly what he had been about to say, but it's enough. <draconic>

Iuitl looks him up and down, the vague answer making her seem a bit unhappy for several seconds. She rumbles her frustration. "That lesson wasn't worth learning," she surmises. She reaches out to pat his arm. Pat pat. Then she continues on ahead. <draconic>

He seems aware of her frustration, and shrinks back from it subtly. Just as he flinches away from her touch as though fearing being struck rather than gently patted. All of this without looking at her directly. Even with that consideration he is clearly very aware of her, and when she moves he follows in her wake. "Thank you, you are very kind to this one." <draconic>

"Am I?" Iuitl wonders, peeking back at him. She thinks on it, claws scritching under her jaw. "I suppose I am. If the world is painful, then there's no reason to add to it, right?" She shrugs, as if this were just a given fact. "Too many dark clouds right now anyways." <draconic>

"Wise words. Wise words." Zeke nods twice along with his own, watching her as she moves. His gaze is subtle, and he never quite seems to be looking at her when she's looking at him. "These are dark days indeed, but this one thinks that perhaps there are brighter ones ahead. This one has heard of fortelling dreams that we are on the bottom of a well. We can but go up no?" <draconic>

Iuitl notices he struggles to make eye contact. That's fine, she's seen that before. She chuckles brightly again. "Exactly." And then she jokes, "And we won't die of thirst, either." <draconic>

Zeke murbles, almost laughs, but grows silent without anything to really say. He seems comfortable in the silence though. Slowly withdrawing back out of the shell that her questions had drawn tightly around him. It seemed that the pain of his past had created quite a barrier; one that his long years had not been fully able to shuck.

-End