[Nen and Nyx] The Muse and the Wild Man....

He would not. In fact, every time she offered, he would push her away from him and tell her to remain seated near the firewood she'd collected. He doesn't look over his shoulder to see if she is following him around or not, besides, cutting low lying, dead branches is not easy work. Most of the wood comes from the forest floor, and carefully he carries the prime pieces back, using a tree trunk as a base for their shelter. It was good that the trees were big in this forest, else he'd have had a harder time making a shelter. Carefully he erects a lean-to against the side of the tree, with the fire just outside of the tent. No need to set his furs on fire. He undoes some of the extraneous ones around his shoulders and drapes it on the ground inside the lean to. Leaves woven through sticks serves as her roof of sorts. He takes her arm and leads her inside the lean to. "Here. I will start fire" he says and goes back to the piled up wood ringed by rocks. He clucks his tongue and digs a pit beside it, then rings the pit with rocks, then stacks the wood like a tent. He gets out his knife and the flint and strikes it a couple times, before the sparks catch the tinder he tucked under the tented wood. In short order, there is a fire burning.

All in all, it took him three hours, collecting and building the lean-to, and getting the fire going.

Ari didn't like being pushed away and sent to sit like some precious doll. She sat there with her crossed under her chest as she watched him. A little part of her didn't mind watching him. Now that the fire was lit she looks around there camp site and sees some edible berries. She moves quietly in hopes he wont make her sit back down to the bushes and begins picking. Using her skirt she places the berries in it, she picks enough for both of them. /it wasn't a very big meal but should hold them over a bit.

He hadn't sent her away like some precious doll. He'd sent her away like the useless woman that she was. Andyr had come to realize that the women of his tribe were extremely efficient, and respectful. The women in the Southlands were much less so. He sat by the fire and watched as she went to pick berries. Well, at least she knew how to forage. Getting comfortable, he unlimbered the heavy belt around his waist and dug through some of the pouches, finding some salted meat wrapped in paper. He grinned, took a bite out of the meat (which was undoubtedly tough) and chewed eagerly, accepting the berries she'd picked for him. Ah, that was more like it.

Picking up a sick she draws a small pot in a patch of dirt. If she was lucky he would, she had seen some pine nearby and could make a tea from the needle. He may not like it but it was better then water. As she waited for his answer she listened to the silence trying to listen hard for the tell tale sound of running water. There. Looking over her shoulder she heard the very faint babble of a stream or creek. If he let her go and get water she could also wash some of the grime off her face. She didn't realize she had learned a few things from the animals like what was okay to eat and other good skills.

Well of course she could pinpoint the source of water, they'd only been walking along the riverbank for some time now. Sure, he'd led her away from the river to get some dry ground to sleep on, but ultimately, they were close. He stared at her drawing some, trying to decipher what it was. In the end, he decided it might be a container, and offered her a tin cup. It was used primarily for heating things over a fire. His wooden cup was meant for personal use. Anything else was too dainty.

With a smile she heads to the water. She had forgotten they were travelling by it for most of the day. With a sigh she crouches down and draw some water into the tin cup. It wasn't much but they could always share. Grabbing some pine needles from a tree on the way back she breaks them up so they will fit in the cup and then puts it near the fire to get the water to heat up. She adds a few berries into it to make it taste better, if she remembered right it was bitter with just the needles. She sits down beside him and eats the few berries she has left.

When he sees that the water is boiling inside of the tin cup, he gingerly removes it from the fire by grabbing it from the rim. He settles the cup down on the dirt in front of him and sets down his wooden cup, putting a cloth over it. He pours the contents of the tin cup into the wooden cup slowly, the pine needle/berry mixture catching on the cloth. Instead of dumping it, he balls it up and wraps it in paper before stowing it in his belt. He drinks from the cup first, then hands it to the woman. "Good" he says to her.

She gives him a smile before blowing on the liquid to cool it a bit. She would rather not burn her tongue even if she can't use it. She could still remember the other times she has burnt it and had it feel like a cats tongue. Taking a tentative sip she passes it back to him. With a sigh she stretches her legs out towards the fire to get the warmth of it to ease the ache in her feet. Her muscles ache when she stretched and she would have groaned if her vocal cords actually worked. She tries to stifle a yawn as she sits there.

He stared at her over his cup, finally taking her in as the woman she was. She did have a lovely face, but her frame left much to be desired. She was much too thin for Andyr's tastes, and with this conclusion he decided that pursuing her would be worthless. He liked to be physically attracted, from the outset, to the women he pursued. He took a generous sip from the cup and leaned forward, tapped her shoulder. "Go sleep. Do not fall asleep out here" he said. He'd built the shelter for her.

With a nod Ari rises and wanders to the shelter he made. Laying down she wraps herself in her coat and drifts off to sleep. Her sleep was restless, images of the day she was cast from her home. They had stripped her of her voice, her mother screams still ring in her ears. So did the pain of her throat from trying to use a voice that was not there. She rolled around in the shelter and if anyone tried to wake her from the sleeping terror. They would come to realize she had one hell of a right hook.

Well it was certainly a good thing that Andyr didn't believe in disturbing people as they slept, nor did he care much to. He stood and left the camp, scouting the land a bit, staying close to the camp before he came back to camp. He was restless. He wanted to keep traveling, and more than once he'd just wanted to keep walking on as he scouted, and leave that woman there. But Andyr wasn't a bad man, and he certainly didn't want to leave a maiden in the forest because he wanted to keep traveling. He would, however, leave her once they reached people. He had things to do. A war effort to join.

Ari rose stiffly before the sun did. She had always rose before the dawn. It was the time when creatures either awoke for the night or went to bed for the day. Climbing out of the shelter Andyr had made she looks around for him. Not seeing him she heads for the stream to wash the sleep from her face. On her way back she picked some more berries and other edible fruit from the bushes. She hoped that when she got back he would be and she could surprise him with a breakfast. Stepping out of the bushes she spots him. She smiles and walks over and offers him something to eat from the pile.

Andyr was considerably cleaner than the day before. He'd taken a bath in the river just hours ago. His hair was still damp, and stuck close to his head, allowing Ari to see that the man's neck was actually quite bull-like, as well as the muscles leading from his neck to his shoulders. Andyr was quite muscular, and he seemed to be in the middle of skinning a kill. It was a snake. He'd carefully removed the skin. "That is ok. I ate last night" he said when she offered him the foraged berries. Truth be told, Andyr couldn't really handle most of the plant food down in the Southlands. It was far too sweet. He was used to the paste, fish and meat served by his clan. Although he did not mind the foods he'd eaten, they had messed with his digestion. "Get the furs from the shelter. Throw the wood to the ground, after I cook we'll be on our way" he said before he finished threading the snake meat onto a stick to cook over the fire.

Ari nods and does as he asks. Pulling the furs out one at a time and giving them a few good shakes to get some of the dirt and what not out of them. Her heart had sunk a little at the sight of the skinned snake, but she knew he needed to eat meat. She did eat it from time to time. Usually just enough to sustain her. She lays the skins out int he sun, then goes to the smoldering fire. With a few pokes she gets it warmed up so that way he could cook the snake meat. While she was crouched there sea gave up a prayer in thanks for the meat and that the snake's death was quick and fairly painless.

He was scraping the snake skin, trying to get as much meat off of it as possible, so he could make it into a wrap for his sword. Andyr liked to decorate his things with the skins of animals. As for his furs, he made sure to watch where she'd laid them before going back to watching the snake meat cook. "Did you do your business?" he asked her. "It is a long way and you just woke up. I am not stopping so you can go in the woods" he told her.

Ari was rather shocked by his question, but she had done her morning ablutions while down by the stream. She taken care of all the business she needed to. She figured they would be walking the whole day and she didn't think they would be stopping much especially for her. She also didn't want him to think her week. With the way he acted around her and treated her, she had to wonder if his people also treated their females that way.

A man simply didn't derive his treatment of females from nothing. Andyr's people were survivalists, a nomadic tribe of warriors who stuck out the winter and fought one another on a regular basis. There were alliances here and there, but territory was always fought over, and whilst women could wield weapons and fight, that would leave the men of the tribe with no one to raise the whelps, and with so many women slaying one another, there would be no women to get whelps on. The fact of the matter was, women were prized in Andyr's society as spoils of war and the treasure of warriors. Women were not weak in Andyr's culture, but they certainly were no match for men in combat. In fact, if Andyr had a Ice Plains woman with him right now, she'd have led him right out of the forest already. He missed home fiercely, and turned the stake moodily. Stupid war, stupid people. If the Southlanders were more like his tribe, he could have been fighting battles right now and earning glory for the land and his people. He might have even been able to persuade his tribespeople to follow him. He could have helped with so much, and even staked a claim for his people in the Southlands.

All for naught.

The Southlanders were soft. He was traveling towards the forces of invasion, the Surahnian Rebels.

Ari sat there listening to the song of the forest. She looks in one direction thinking she heard something. Slowly rising she walks a little away from Andyr. It was night time when they had mad camp, so many other animals wouldn't be awake. But now.... as she moves closer she could hear it. The faint sound of cattle lowing. Which meant there were people nearby, she almost felt sad that soon they would be parting. She would not be selfish and not tell him. She was sure he would be mad if he found out that she would keep that from him. Beside she would hope that after this little trek she could consider him a friend. She waves her arms around to get his attention, hoping she wouldn't have to throw something at him if he didn't see her.

He saw her waving her arms around in his peripheral vision and turned. As he walked toward her, he heard the sound of a cattle lowing. People. Cattle always meant people in the Southlands. "You want to head toward the cattle?" he asked. Honestly Andyr didn't befriend women, and it wasn't because he couldn't like them, it was just that he couldn't identify with them. There was basically nothing he had in common with this maid and there wasn't anything he thought he could gain by being her friend. He just didn't think of women the same as other people did. Maybe if he met a battle-maiden (fabled in his tribe) he'd befriend her, but she'd have to call him worthy.

Ari nod, then pulls out the pad and coal. Isn't that what you wanted so that way you can continue with your travels? She walks over and hands it to him. Sighing she watches the flames in the small fire as she waits for him to read. Taking the fire poker she begins to draw aimlessly in the ash and dirt. They were noting but whorls and other marks, some looking somewhat tribal. If her father hadn't chosen for her to be the muse of animals she would have loved to have been the one for art.

He stared blankly at the writing. Gods but he couldn't understand it. He'd asked her for no contractions, as it made it ten times more difficult to puzzle out the meaning, and all he got out of it was: what you want... your travel. Andyr's brain had simply garnered as much of what he understood about the written language to allow him to pick out familiar words. Although he'd spent a lot of time on the word 'continue' he had no idea what it was, and travel was a close second at being a mystery to him. Irritated, he drew several of Wodan's symbols and tossed the pad back, flicking the piece of coal at her. "Are you trying to make fun of me?" he asked her. "I told you I can barely read" he said and sighed. "I will take you toward the farmers. Then I will leave. Okay?" he asked her, taking the snake off of the spit and peeling a string of meat away from it. Ah, cooked all the way through. He began to eat, heedless of how hot the food was. It came from years dealing with the Frost and relishing the stinging heat of freshly cooked meat.

Angry for him throwing her things back at her. She picks up a rock ready to throw it at him, thinks twice puts it down. She grabs a stick and was going to throw that. getting frustrated she stomps her food and picks a bunch of berries and throws them at him instead. She didn't want to truly hurt him but give voice to her frustration and anger in him. She almost had half a mind to stick with him and teach him how to read and write just so that way he could understand. So that way no one else would feel the frustration n trying to understand him. Scooping up her coal and her paper she looks at the marks he put on it. The marks were familiar but she didn't know why.

The berries would have been irritating if he hadn't remembered a similar situation with some whelps whose game he'd stepped on back home. They'd gone to get something to throw at him, and for fear of actually hurting him, threw nuts at him instead of rocks. It had been annoying, but they hadn't scattered when he'd risen and barked at them to quit it. They'd evenly told him that he ruined their game and that they wanted another. Being whelps he shrugged and got them a new game. Best to appease them than to have a crowd of them under foot, always.

So, she was a whelp.

He turned his head to her and watched her. "You are going to be with the farmers when I leave, yes?" he asked.

Ari shook her head, she needed to get to a city only there could she possibly find someone to help get the curse off her. Walking over she sits down next to him and draws a city into the dirt. With a sigh she runs her fingers across her neck with a forlorn look. If only she could remember why she needed her voice back and who it was that took it away from her. All she could remember was to time before the silence when she could talk and sing to the animals.

Since he'd descended the Ice Plains into the Southlands, he'd only been in one actual city, so it took him some time to place her drawing. Once he did he shrugged. "I am not sure where I travel. Either I am going to a town or I am going to a bridge. I want to get to a bridge. Beyond it is the town I want to go to. You will follow all that way?" he asked her.

It would have been easier to ditch her, or to dump her on the farmers, but Andyr was not a bad man. He helped those that asked for it. It was his way.

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