M
Ms.Ezra
Guest
Original poster
The Racuten Plains. A band of grasslands, savannah and shrublands which wraps around the world as a green border between the mountains where the ancient and mighty Forlers make their homes, and the rest of the world. It gets it name from the sole race which inhabits them, the Racuten who look to be half-human and half-horse, but you would call them that at your own peril; if you even got close enough to talk to them that is. The Racuten lived in a truly wild manner, more so than even the Barbin and Palerme, and shunned all contact with other races thus far.
Which made them a challenge for the curious of the world to examine. Vallis is only the latest in a long line of these curious souls. Who is Vallis? So far as anyone knows Vallis is a solitary scholar who dresses in simple leather armor over a blue tunic, and wraps her head in a light blue cloth to conceal all but her light brown eyes.
"The herd rested here, and moved on." Vallis says looking down at the hoof prints and wallows left by the herd in the thick grass. She has been tracking this herd for a few days now. "Moving slower, I think, because one of them is nursing an injured leg." She speaks aloud to herself very quietly and looks around cautiously. The Racuten went unharassed by the other races, but there were other dangers which prowled these plains for them. That's why she has a short sword and bow along with her other scholarly equipment.
She stalks up to a high hill, and takes from her pack a spyglass. You can see for miles around in the right spot in these lands, and Vallis hopes she can spot the herd still moving, as those wallows had still been warm and tracks fresh.
Tracking and recording her findings on the Racuten was, Vallis felt, a productive and necessary task for the young woman. They were the least understood of all the races on this world, aside from of course the people called Strangers. Now that was a fascinating topic, but one she couldn't readily study beyond what's been written by the Red Shield Guild and a few tomes from the Zylrel Grand Library.
"If only the Gods were kind." Vallis muses to herself while following the faint signs of movement through the grassland of the Racuten herd. As she looked to the next hill, those parts in the grass became fainter and she puts away the spyglass to begin walking to that vanishing point, where she'd repeat this process again until either she found the herd, or her feet tire out and force her to make camp a while. The latter was not likely. But that wasn't all bad. She could make camp, cook up some of the fish she'd caught when crossing a river that morning, and give Edea a call on the Seer Orb. Maybe her search for adventure had been more fruitful. As of now her only 'dangers' had been avoiding the droppings these beings left behind. Maybe they could even meet somewhere, like Doren, and catch up in person. It'd been too long, in her opinion, since they'd talked face to face.Vallis thinks this while keeping her eyes alert and forward on the climb up the next hill. Would be embarrassing to step in Racuten dung, or a rodent burrow hole, or walk right into that door…
"Door?" Vallis stops in place on the hill and her brown eyes go wide looking up at this door that was suddenly at the top. It was large, the doors wooden and set in a stone arch. "A door...a Stranger Door!" Vallis exclaims, almost squeaks with excitement at this discovery. The lore of Strangers said that sometimes, but not always, a Stranger entered this world from theirs through some kind of door. Sometimes they just walked, others were described by onlookers as just being thrown out of them. And here was one, right before her!
Vallis trots up to this door, hoping she can get up and at least touch it before it expelled whoever was on the other side and disappeared. Touching it may not be the wisest thing to do when presented with an otherworldly door, but she wasn't thinking cautiously right then. To her delight, it remains there when she comes up to it. She looks it up, then down, and around the other side. Yes, just as described, it was the same on both sides. There were even simple iron knockers on it. Vallis takes off her pack and digs out her hammer and chisel, and gingerly taps the chisel into the corner of the stone arch to get a sample.
One tap. Nothing. Two taps. Nothing. Feeling bold, Vallis gives the chisel five rapid taps with the hammer hoping to get at least one little chip off this wondrous thing before it vanished. But then the actual wood door flies open, and someone is expelled from it along with a gust of wind to go rolling down the hill. Said wooden door slams open and hits Vallis in the side rather hard.
"Graahhhh!" Vallis yells, dropping her tools and grabbing her arm. The door vanishes before her eyes and the woman kicks the ground in frustration. "Damn it all! It's gone!" She screams, then realizes "Wait! It's gone! That means…" She looks around, down the hill, and yes she sees someone at the bottom.
"Wait there! Dont you move!" Vallis tells the Stranger from the top before running down, still clutching her arm as it throbs with pain. The amulet under her clothing allows her words to be heard by the mysterious Stranger as their own native language, with perfect dialect. Vallis slows down as she gets closer, those eyes taking in his every detail while underneath the blue wrap she is grinning like a madwoman. "You...you are…." She notes the armor, the weapons "A warrior!" Vallis puts her hands together and looks to the sky "Thank you Gods! I swear I will never speak ill of you again for this gift!"
@Quake