1st Winter [Action]

[aryaunderfoot]

[Early this morning, somewhere deep in the woods, there is a wolf howling.

It's a long, mournful howl, and the wolf doesn't seem to want to stop. Occasionally, she'll pause for breath, and then throw her head back again after a moment's rest. This place isn't right. Her cousins aren't here, the smaller ones of her pack. The air is too warm, too full of the smells of spring. And the more she searches, the more she howls, trying to get some sort of answer out of these unfamiliar trees.

Around mid-morning, the crumpled form of a small girl can be found on the path leading from the village to the Battle Dome. She's not hurt, just very much asleep (and scrunching up her face with each wolf howl) and very much covered in grime (and smelling faintly of fish cart). And there's also the fact that she's in a New Feather dress. As the howling reaches a higher pitch, she awakes with a start, freezes, and tries to figure out what this place is. There's a chill in the air, yes, but it isn't winter building up to full strength. It can't be the Summer Islands, and it most definitely isn't Braavos. This place...

...is less concerning than the fact that there is a journal right next to her with "Arya Stark" printed right on it. She gives it an incredulous look for a moment before deciding that this must be a test of some kind. The kindly man must be behind it. With a shake of the head, the girl stands, pushes the journal with a foot until it's tucked out of sight under a nearby bush, and then turns back to the task at hand.

And tries to ignore the mournful howling that is practically tugging her in its direction. That's not something she needs to worry about. That was Arya Stark. Not her. She's nobody.]

[With so many things glaringly wrong with this place, she figures it's time to try scoping it out. The girl very cautiously approaches the village, keeping to the trees for cover until she's sure there aren't any Lannister banners flying anywhere. When there aren't any, it isn't much consolation; the buildings are huge, and the architecture isn't anything she's ever seen before. This place may not be full of lions, but it's not exactly a safe zone, either. She's not even sure what it is.

Eventually, she finds her way into town, going around to see what exactly there is to see here. She doubts she'll spot any familiar faces, but she still makes her way through all the shops in the main square, trying to get some kind of sense of what kind of town this is. The smith shop is familiar, the fashions in the clothing shop completely outlandish, the foods in the indoor marketplace entirely alien.

And she is so, so very lost. As she makes her way through town, the old phrase starts repeating in the back of her mind: Fear cuts deeper than swords. She can do this. She has to do this.

Towards nightfall, after much exploration and poking around, the girl makes her way back to the stables she passed by at some point. The horses are horses. That much is familiar, at least. This much she can understand completely. And the familiar, earthy, horsey smells are something of a comfort when you're trying to wrap your head around what in the world happened to bring you to a place such as this.]

[[ooc: Feel free to run into her at any point!]]

Comments

[aryaunderfoot]

[To her, this is warm weather. She pulls the sandwich a little closer, eyeing it with a mix of suspicion and hunger.]

Was the winter very bad?

[Since she missed it and all. It was supposed to be a long winter to match the long summer. Waking up in springtime has disoriented her.

And she figures the food is probably safe, or Kirk here would be dead as a doornail, so she just goes ahead and digs right in. After a few bites, she remembers that courtesy is a thing and mumbles:] Thanks.

[universal_charm]

Here? Uh, no, probably not considering the altitude we're at. I don't know how far north of south we are on this ball of mud, though, so I can't give you much more than that. But we're not under ten feet of snow and stuck inside, so, yeah, going to say it was an all right winter.

_{[He watches her eat, munching on his own with far less hurry.]}

No prob. I probably shouldn't eat this whole thing anyways.

[aryaunderfoot]

[She's fairly focused on this here food, because hey, she's still of a mentality that you need to eat when you find it. The food might be sitting right there in the shops, but the Malnosso could always change their minds tomorrow about being so free-handed. Besides, this gives her a moment to digest what he's saying.]

It must be pretty far south. [Nope, still not quite comprehending these mild seasons. She swallows. Probably better not to talk with a full mouth.] Where I come from, the snows even in summer got a few feet deep.

[universal_charm]

What? Seriously? Snow in summer? Even Antartica gets a break!

But, I guess if the topography, axel tilt, and general distance from your sun, that is plausible. Still, kind of sucks. What, do you never get to see anything green?

[aryaunderfoot]

[She understood very little of that. Slang and science aren't quite up to par in Westeros.]

Of course we do. Just because it snows doesn't mean the snows don't melt. And the south hardly ever gets any summer snow at all.

[universal_charm]

Well, you would figure not. It's the south. Generally places near the equator never get snow at all - assuming by south you're heading for an equator.

[aryaunderfoot]

[This is a blank look being given over the remainder of the sandwich.]

I don't know if it is. They still get snow in winter. At least, most places do. I don't know if Dorne does, it's in a desert.

[universal_charm]

Hmm, then probably not. Deserts are deserts because they don't get rain and there's not enough moisture in the air for snow to form, even if temperatures drop that low.

_{[He suddenly paused and considered Arya.]}

You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?

[aryaunderfoot]

[There's some injured pride over here as she draws herself up straighter.]

I understood that. The desert is too dry for rain or snow.

[And very little before that made any sense.]

[universal_charm]

Yeah, that about sums it up.

You done eating?

_{[He nodded at the sandwich.]}

[aryaunderfoot]

[The girl gives the last couple of bites of sandwich a look. She's honestly pretty full, but it doesn't taste all that bad and hey, you eat what you can get. She shoves the rest of the sandwich in her mouth and nods.]

[universal_charm]

Well, good. If you get hungry again, the food and stuff here is free, so you don't need to worry about it.

[aryaunderfoot]

[She nods again, swallowing the last of the sandwich. She's still not sure she really buys this "everything is free" thing, but everyone just keeps bringing it up, so maybe it's the truth. For now, at least.]

Someone said that even rooms are free here.

[Searching for confirmation. Or even just more information. "It's all open unless it isn't" leaves some room for filling in details.]

[universal_charm]

Yeah, pretty much. You can try living alone if you want, or you can room with somebody if they have room.

_{[He looked at him, biting the last of his own part of his sandwich.]}

You figure out where you want to live yet?

[aryaunderfoot]

[She shakes her head.]

No. It doesn't really matter to me. All the buildings look the same.

[The tall ones, that is. They all look like tall, square towers with lots of windows and no other embellishments. They're not like the low shacks she's used to seeing for housing, and they're not like a castle, either. It's all really weird.

Just one more reason why camping sounds like a better plan.]

[universal_charm]

Well, I guess that depends if you know people here already or if you want to live alone or don't mind making some new friends. It's kind of up to you, but inside is going to be better than out, even with winter ebbing.

[aryaunderfoot]

But I don't know anybody here. [And she's not sure she wants to live alone, either, although she doesn't share that.] No one else around here is from Braavos. At least that I've seen.

[universal_charm]

Braavos is your home country, I take it?

[aryaunderfoot]

[Absently, she bites her lip. "Home" is a lofty word for it. Nothing is "home" anymore.] It is now. I was born in Westeros, but I now live in Braavos. Where are you from?

[universal_charm]

Hmm, well, country wise I'm from the good old USA, though I was born in space technically. I grew up in Iowa, and then went to Cali to study at Star Fleet. So I'm from a lot of places, you could say.

[aryaunderfoot]

[Yeah, you lost her again, but that last part explains it all.]

You travel around a lot. You're not in a mummer troupe, are you?

[He could be a mummer, with how easily he smiles...]

[universal_charm]

_{[ He had to pause a bit and think back through his English Lit classes to figure out what a mummer was. He thought he had it.]}

Uh, mummer means an actor, right? A traveling actor in a group?

[aryaunderfoot]

[She nods. After all her time talking to the mummers in Braavos, she's come to realize that they seem to be everywhere, even though the word isn't always the same.]

Some of the ones I know are better acrobats than actors.

[universal_charm]

Well, hate to disappoint, I am no mummer. I work for Star Fleet. I'm Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

[aryaunderfoot]

A captain? [She's gotten fairly close with several ship captains ever since arriving in Braavos, and that would have been one of the last guesses she might have had for what this man would do. She can't help a faint smile.] You don't look like you've been sailing all over the world, either.