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

[thefinaljedi]

Yes, actually. Dune peppers in flatbread is something we do have.

[Luke picks up a lemoncake himself, taking a nibble and smiling.]

This is new to me. Not bad, Cat.

[He gives her an approving nod.]

Has anyone told you where you are, yet?

[aryaunderfoot]

[She nods back, absently turning over the sweet roll in her hand.]

Somewhere called Luceti. Some people calling themselves Malnosso brought us here. Nobody can say how, though, except that it was some kind of magic.

[thefinaljedi]

That's about right.

[Luke wanders over to a table, taking another absentminded nibble]

Where are you from, Cat? Anything like this? Plastic aside.

[aryaunderfoot]

[She shakes her head.]

No. We hardly have any magic at all. And there isn't so much food where I came from, either. The war and autumn didn't help the harvest much.

[thefinaljedi]

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.

[He eyes her up and down again. She looked like a poor victim, rather than anyone really caught up in all that.]

You had a poor harvest? Does your family work on a farm?

[aryaunderfoot]

[She shakes her head again. This is Cat's story, after all. Not that any of her other names were farmers' daughters.]

No. My father worked on a ship and died at sea. I've been working for a fishmonger ever since. But I've heard there's hardly any food left in Westeros, across the sea. It's all the sailors talk about when they come in from those harbors.

[thefinaljedi]

And where do you come from, then?

[Fishmonger's daughter makes sense too.]

[aryaunderfoot]

Braavos. [It takes her a moment to remember that nobody here seems to have heard of Braavos, so she goes on.] It's a city built on a bunch of canals. I was born in Westeros, but I don't live there anymore.

[thefinaljedi]

Braavos. That sounds like an interesting place to live.

[He gives her a half smile, pulling out a chair for her.]

I grew up in a desert. On a farm.

[aryaunderfoot]

[She pauses for a moment before she goes ahead and sits in the offered chair.]

How did you get enough water to grow anything?

[Sure, they have glass houses in Winterfell, but that can't possibly be enough to counter all that heat and sun.]

[thefinaljedi]

Where I'm from we have machines to pull water out of the atmosphere.

[He laughs]

That's...what we farm. Water.

[aryaunderfoot]

[Oh. That makes a lot more sense. Water must be big business in a large desert. The girl nods her understanding.]

Are there a lot of water farms where you come from?

[thefinaljedi]

Quite a few.

[He leans back, remembering working on the farm.]

It was all I really knew till I was seventeen or eighteen. Boring, really. Nothing like sailing, I imagine.

[aryaunderfoot]

I usually just sell the daily catch. The ships don't like having girls on board.

[Still, a faint smile twitches onto her face.]

But I get to talk to everyone, even the sailors. That's fun.

[thefinaljedi]

So you get news from home that way?

[aryaunderfoot]

[She shrugs.]

It's not really home anymore. [Nowhere is.] But I do get to hear news from all over the world that way.

[thefinaljedi]

I suppose that's fair.

[He actually manages a laugh.]

I guess it's the same for me, Tatooine is hardly home anymore.

[aryaunderfoot]

[The fact that he's laughing about it is strange to her, but she decides not to call him weird out loud. It's interesting, in a way.]

You don't seem too upset, though.

[thefinaljedi]

I grew up, and became a part of a wider universe, I suppose.

[He gives her a wry grin]

I don't suppose people can travel the stars where you're from can they?

[aryaunderfoot]

[She frowns, shaking her head. Is he pulling her leg?]

No. I didn't know you could. Even the dragons couldn't fly that far.

[thefinaljedi]

Our worlds are different.

[Luke reaches into his pouch, and pulls out a small toy. A model X-Wing he'd found in the shop, and sets it on the table.]

Our ships travel between planets.

[aryaunderfoot]

[She inspects the little toy X-Wing closely, frowning thoughtfully.]

It doesn't look like any ship I've ever seen.

[thefinaljedi]

It flies, Cat.

[He points to the afterburners on the back]

These let it fly.

[aryaunderfoot]

[Okay now she knows you're full of it. Not the best jape she's ever heard, either.]

They do not.

[thefinaljedi]

[Luke smiles tellingly at that. He can feel you don't believe him. So, with a wave of his hand, the little toy will start to just float around the room]

They very much do.