07-27-2018, 09:31 PM
((I am so sorry I forgot about this. I received a rather angry PM from a certain someone that I was dragging everyone down! [kidding. it wasn't angry. It was stern. ![[Image: 2.png]](http://b3.ifrm.com/static/emo/2.png)
] Feel free to PM me when I forget stuff like this again!))
With Blake at her side, Lythia and her warder emerged from under the heavy branches of a treeline at the crest of a hill. The crest was only a few paces wide and it dipped down sharply on the other side, but the hike was not unmanageable for an Aes Sedai in a good wool dress let alone the more tactical attire of a warder accustomed to such terrain. It was peaceful out here, Lythia noted with a wide scan of the horizon just before she and Blake began the more gentle descent back to the main clearing space. There were three tents set up down there, perhaps a two or three minute walk and they'd be back in time to meet the first arrivals.
Rising beyond the tents the view was breathtaking though. Perhaps a mile to the south wound Jangai Pass, and these the foothills of the Spine of the World were the setting of a terrain that reminded Lythia so much of those foothills to the Mountains of Mist that she amusingly kept checking the ground underfoot for hints of sand between the blades of grass. The Sand Hills was a memory far far back in her childhood, but so unusual was the remnants of a great ocean landlocked in the center of everything that she would never forget what it was like to squish bare toes through the yellow, scratchy "dirt" when she first saw it.
It was a good twenty leagues still to those snow capped peaks jutting suddenly up toward the sky. They looked so cold and isolated, draped with a blanket of green she knew to be pine trees. Those dangerous slopes was the intimidating older sister of where they were now. Wild animals would roam here and they did there, but likely those nearest had yet the aggression associated with a hungry winter. The air was not quite so biting here as the frozen wind to surely be winding through those hardy branches upslope. The forest was woodsy but not impenetrable. In fact, the square mile to be the location of her War Games to be patrolled by Greens and their warders was selected because of the specific balance of wild landscape and level of difficulty in crossing it. There were certainly bluffs and rocky crevices, areas of thick underbrush, half-fallen trees from old storms, but also paths clear enough to walk three or four abreast to walk and a few wider clearings as well. That wasn't all that was in those borders as well, Lythia thought with a smile for Blake just before she slid back beneath the serenity of her station. And she didn't just think about the spattering of old ruins from the Age of Legends stuck out there either.
As they arrived back at "base camp" the Green was shown around for a final survey of the preparations. The three tents were finished. The largest had a good pole holding up the peak of it and a quick glance behind the flap showed her a reconstructed table and travel chairs spread across the type of rug suited to take dirty boots at the end of a day. Six decent cots were set up along the sides and across the back, complete with a small pillow and down blankets, although the Aes Sedai to be sleeping on them would have no need to warm their own tent come nightfall. A topographical map of their immediate surroundings, including the war zone, was held down by paperweights on the table. Figurines were set around it, designating people, places, points of interest, traps, pitfalls...everything Lythia planned for this first Mission the Accepted would be attempting to complete. There were logbooks as well, but nothing was yet written on those pages except the list of names pre-assigned to their teams. She had no need to check the names of the first six Accepted to be arriving any minute. She'd been the one to select them first, afterall.
Lythia nodded, and with a small twist of Fire lit the small lamps in each corner and the larger one over the table simultaneously. The second tent was set up similar as the first, though the table within was smaller. The lamps in here were dark as well, something she took the time to remedy. Despite being midday, the sun was likely to fall behind those western slopes soon and a handful of hours and it'd be dusk. Of course, a handful of hours from now they should all be out patrolling the perimeter (or about to return from it). The cots in here were set up to match the Aes Sedai's tent, but Lythia knew not every Green to come was traveling in the company of only one warder. For those Sisters blessed with several gaidin, they'd have to work out sleeping arrangements on their own. Or take turns with the overnight watch. Then there were a few unbonded gaidin volunteered to assist, and of course, the two Accepted of the Sword.
The third tent was the smallest yet. A table large enough for two was in the center and flanked by four narrow benches that were currently pressed underneath the table proper to provide space for walking. Six cots likewise were in here, yet they were narrow and the pillows flat. The floor of the tent was a pallet rather than a rug but Lythia would advise the Accepted to sleep in their shoes when the time came, simply to be practical. She left their two lamps dark, as they could light their own if necessary.
The latrines were set up just downwind of camp, opposite to the cookpit already warming tonight's meal. A horse hitch was staked up on the outside of their camp as well, for while not every Sister and warder would be in the saddle, several would be. Especially those patrolling the farer sides of the war zone perimeter.
Satisfied with the progress, Lythia deemed everything set, especially since the final wards, traps, and springs were laid down by her own hand - some inverted, some not - within the game area. She gave the call and a Gateway opened.
She waited with hands lightly clasped in front of her, wrists just grazing the leather belt wrapping her hips. From one side lay a tapering dagger, far longer and thicker than the belt knife she frequently wore while journeying. This would slice the carotids through the thick neck of a frenzied black bear if she needed it to do so. Her pine green dress was of stout wool, with narrow sleeves and a wide collar that tapered toward her shoulders. A gray cloak was clasped at her neck, but the skin of her chest and narrow lines of her collarbones was bare to the winter chill. Yet despite the wind hitting her face, her flesh did not pebble nor her cheeks pink with discomfort. Her copper-gold hair was pulled at the sides of her temples but the remaining flowed down her back except where it pooled in the pushed off hood of her cloak. Her ring was the only glitter of jewelry to her, just as the silver chain of medallion was the only hint of accessory to the collected, patient warder standing at her side. Where Lythia would be able to walk about the woodland with ease, Blake could stalk silently through the thickest of it and never be seen. Browns and grays were the color of his wardrobe, leather more often than not. A belted sword a reminder of noble bearing as well as his skill with its art sat quiet at his hip. He wore the dizzying fancloth of his warder's cloak rather than the traditional coat of an unbonded gaidin, and of course the brilliant blues shining with promise of his life-sworn oaths to defend the Aes Sedai beside him never ceased their surveying.
it was these two, but Lythia more predominantly, which greeted the Accepted that came through the Gate, then finally the Aes Sedai that created it. A respectful nod for her Sister beckoned her fellow Green to come and stand beside her, and a lifted finger acknowledged the six curtsies. She studied each face closely, lingering on the two that were aspirants to the Green Ajah as though recognizing a young, promising cousin.
] Feel free to PM me when I forget stuff like this again!))With Blake at her side, Lythia and her warder emerged from under the heavy branches of a treeline at the crest of a hill. The crest was only a few paces wide and it dipped down sharply on the other side, but the hike was not unmanageable for an Aes Sedai in a good wool dress let alone the more tactical attire of a warder accustomed to such terrain. It was peaceful out here, Lythia noted with a wide scan of the horizon just before she and Blake began the more gentle descent back to the main clearing space. There were three tents set up down there, perhaps a two or three minute walk and they'd be back in time to meet the first arrivals.
Rising beyond the tents the view was breathtaking though. Perhaps a mile to the south wound Jangai Pass, and these the foothills of the Spine of the World were the setting of a terrain that reminded Lythia so much of those foothills to the Mountains of Mist that she amusingly kept checking the ground underfoot for hints of sand between the blades of grass. The Sand Hills was a memory far far back in her childhood, but so unusual was the remnants of a great ocean landlocked in the center of everything that she would never forget what it was like to squish bare toes through the yellow, scratchy "dirt" when she first saw it.
It was a good twenty leagues still to those snow capped peaks jutting suddenly up toward the sky. They looked so cold and isolated, draped with a blanket of green she knew to be pine trees. Those dangerous slopes was the intimidating older sister of where they were now. Wild animals would roam here and they did there, but likely those nearest had yet the aggression associated with a hungry winter. The air was not quite so biting here as the frozen wind to surely be winding through those hardy branches upslope. The forest was woodsy but not impenetrable. In fact, the square mile to be the location of her War Games to be patrolled by Greens and their warders was selected because of the specific balance of wild landscape and level of difficulty in crossing it. There were certainly bluffs and rocky crevices, areas of thick underbrush, half-fallen trees from old storms, but also paths clear enough to walk three or four abreast to walk and a few wider clearings as well. That wasn't all that was in those borders as well, Lythia thought with a smile for Blake just before she slid back beneath the serenity of her station. And she didn't just think about the spattering of old ruins from the Age of Legends stuck out there either.
As they arrived back at "base camp" the Green was shown around for a final survey of the preparations. The three tents were finished. The largest had a good pole holding up the peak of it and a quick glance behind the flap showed her a reconstructed table and travel chairs spread across the type of rug suited to take dirty boots at the end of a day. Six decent cots were set up along the sides and across the back, complete with a small pillow and down blankets, although the Aes Sedai to be sleeping on them would have no need to warm their own tent come nightfall. A topographical map of their immediate surroundings, including the war zone, was held down by paperweights on the table. Figurines were set around it, designating people, places, points of interest, traps, pitfalls...everything Lythia planned for this first Mission the Accepted would be attempting to complete. There were logbooks as well, but nothing was yet written on those pages except the list of names pre-assigned to their teams. She had no need to check the names of the first six Accepted to be arriving any minute. She'd been the one to select them first, afterall.
Lythia nodded, and with a small twist of Fire lit the small lamps in each corner and the larger one over the table simultaneously. The second tent was set up similar as the first, though the table within was smaller. The lamps in here were dark as well, something she took the time to remedy. Despite being midday, the sun was likely to fall behind those western slopes soon and a handful of hours and it'd be dusk. Of course, a handful of hours from now they should all be out patrolling the perimeter (or about to return from it). The cots in here were set up to match the Aes Sedai's tent, but Lythia knew not every Green to come was traveling in the company of only one warder. For those Sisters blessed with several gaidin, they'd have to work out sleeping arrangements on their own. Or take turns with the overnight watch. Then there were a few unbonded gaidin volunteered to assist, and of course, the two Accepted of the Sword.
The third tent was the smallest yet. A table large enough for two was in the center and flanked by four narrow benches that were currently pressed underneath the table proper to provide space for walking. Six cots likewise were in here, yet they were narrow and the pillows flat. The floor of the tent was a pallet rather than a rug but Lythia would advise the Accepted to sleep in their shoes when the time came, simply to be practical. She left their two lamps dark, as they could light their own if necessary.
The latrines were set up just downwind of camp, opposite to the cookpit already warming tonight's meal. A horse hitch was staked up on the outside of their camp as well, for while not every Sister and warder would be in the saddle, several would be. Especially those patrolling the farer sides of the war zone perimeter.
Satisfied with the progress, Lythia deemed everything set, especially since the final wards, traps, and springs were laid down by her own hand - some inverted, some not - within the game area. She gave the call and a Gateway opened.
She waited with hands lightly clasped in front of her, wrists just grazing the leather belt wrapping her hips. From one side lay a tapering dagger, far longer and thicker than the belt knife she frequently wore while journeying. This would slice the carotids through the thick neck of a frenzied black bear if she needed it to do so. Her pine green dress was of stout wool, with narrow sleeves and a wide collar that tapered toward her shoulders. A gray cloak was clasped at her neck, but the skin of her chest and narrow lines of her collarbones was bare to the winter chill. Yet despite the wind hitting her face, her flesh did not pebble nor her cheeks pink with discomfort. Her copper-gold hair was pulled at the sides of her temples but the remaining flowed down her back except where it pooled in the pushed off hood of her cloak. Her ring was the only glitter of jewelry to her, just as the silver chain of medallion was the only hint of accessory to the collected, patient warder standing at her side. Where Lythia would be able to walk about the woodland with ease, Blake could stalk silently through the thickest of it and never be seen. Browns and grays were the color of his wardrobe, leather more often than not. A belted sword a reminder of noble bearing as well as his skill with its art sat quiet at his hip. He wore the dizzying fancloth of his warder's cloak rather than the traditional coat of an unbonded gaidin, and of course the brilliant blues shining with promise of his life-sworn oaths to defend the Aes Sedai beside him never ceased their surveying.
it was these two, but Lythia more predominantly, which greeted the Accepted that came through the Gate, then finally the Aes Sedai that created it. A respectful nod for her Sister beckoned her fellow Green to come and stand beside her, and a lifted finger acknowledged the six curtsies. She studied each face closely, lingering on the two that were aspirants to the Green Ajah as though recognizing a young, promising cousin.