Re: An Unlikely Prophet

[Sandkitten]

"Yes, I am aware of that... just be calm. And quieter." His own voice is hushed as he takes in their surroundings, looking for context clues with regard to the buildings' meanings and functions. "I told you - I couldn't pinpoint him, but it shouldn't be long until we find him. I would guess no more than a couple of days. Just put a little faith in me, would you?" The farther into the town that they go, he notices they're getting more sideways looks from bypassers. He does notice that there seems to be a matriarchal power here, the women seeming to be the power players, so he nudges Grace up to walk about a half step ahead of him, but he steers her from behind.

[SharpestLife19]

She frowns, she should have more faith in him after all. With a lower voice she says, "I'm sorry, I'll follow you." She's nudged up ahead and reiterates. "Sorry, you follow me I guess. I mean, I'll try to be more trusting of you. I'm sorry." She continues on as he guides her along. She notices some of the glances and hopes they don't get too many of them.

[Sandkitten]

He finds what looks like a good place to check on her shoe problem, and steers her in there. Inside the door, there are a set of a few steps, and then another door - likely a method used to keep the sand situation under control. Inside the second door, they're greeted by a very tall woman with very light hair. When he tells her why they're here, she seems to smile, and makes a remark about how well trained she's kept her man, to be helping her look for something rather than looking for himself. That only serves as evidence that he was right in his intitial take on this society's inner workings. It's clear that Grace can't be mistaken for a child, even at her height - she's matured past that point, so the woman tries to help her find something to fit her tiny, dainty feet. Vincent makes himself useful by studying what they use for money here, and replicating the currency in a pouch he pulls from his pocket. He's still bothered by the fact that he's so warm - the elements here must have properites he hasn't encountered before, because usually he's completely unaffected by that sort of thing. It's quite annoying.

They end up having to find a large size of children's shoe for Grace, and it doesn't quite match the clothing she's been given, but they're a similar color to the reddish grass they saw earlier, which is apparently the closest they have to the find red emboridery that decorates her. Vincent settles up after insisting that he doesn't need anything for himself, and they're out of the shop quickly. "We're very likely going to need to find some provisions while we try to find the Son... here." He pours out half the pouch into another, and hands it to her. "Find whatever you think will suit you for a couple of days... I'll try to find some information. I'll find you when I'm finished."

[SharpestLife19]

Double doors seem to make sense to Grace. It's easier to keep the sand out that way. Grace blushes when Vincent is referred to as her man, but doesn't say anything about it. She just smiles and tries on the shoes until they find something that fits her. She blushes yet again when she has to wear child-sized shoes, but at least they fit. Grace doesn't mind that they don't match perfectly, they're good enough.

Grace takes a look around for a market or something like that. She only hopes that there are some foods that aren't disgusting and totally foreign here but she has doubts about that. "Ok, Vincent, I'll be waiting for you." She's a bit nervous to be going off on her own in this strange new place, but they have to do something and splitting up will take less time. So she goes off on her own way.

She tries not to show how nervous she is as she goes toward a large building that she guesses is the market. She had hoped it would be indoors, the last thing anyone wants is sandy food. Grace pulls open the outside door and stops in between them momentarily, trying to brush the sand off herself a bit. She then goes through the second door.

Inside the market is loud and busy. There are many different stalls and people everywhere, talking, bartering and selling their wares. Grace tries not to stand and stare, but it's all very overwhelming. She takes a deep breath and points herself toward one of the stalls selling food, weaving her way through the masses. She puts on a friendly smile and addresses the vendor, "Hello, can you tell me what you've got that will keep for a few days?"

The vendor seems a bit amused that Grace is so small, but she makes no statement about it. She kindly shows Grace some things that will last for awhile and Grace looks them over with uncertainty. She picks some things that look actually edible, though she still isn't sure about them, then she pays the vendor and thanks her. She glances around, wondering if they'll need anything else.

[Sandkitten]

Grace is left to herself for a short while longer, but Vincent doesn't disappoint her - true to his word, he finds her when he's ready, and he takes her outside, showing her their mount for travel. It looks quite a bit like a very large lizard - in fact, there's not much else it can be compared to. It's an enormous lizard, exceptional in the fact that it appears to wear a harness and saddle without complaint. On the back of the saddle appears to be a couple of bedrolls and bags, where she can put the food she's procurred.

"There's another city about a day from here, that's the last place a caravan with the description I was able to give them was heard of staying - we'll go that direction, and hopefully catch up sooner than later. I figured this would be easier than walking." He looks over whatever she's picked out without giving it much scrutiny, and loads it up for her. "We have whatever small comforts we'll need to last a night in the wilderness, and I expect we'll arrive at the next town tomorrow. It's supposedly a great deal larger than this."

He climbs up onto the lizard's back, and the great animal flicks its tongue in and out, testing their air, but it gives no protest. Taking up the reins, he holds a hand out to her. "Come on up. The seat is more comfortable than it appears, so you needn't worry about being sore."

[SharpestLife19]

It takes all of Grace's sense of poise to hold in a scream at the giant lizard. She is horrified of it, it looks like something from a bad horror movie. She takes a step back, nearly dropping her goods. She has to take a moment to breathe before she could even respond to Vincent. She slams her mouth shut, realizing she was staring and tries to speak.

She's still very frightened by this beast and her voice comes out in an odd little squeak. "Do we have to take this? Aren't there horses or mules...anything but this?" She's too distracted by the horrific thing to even consider what Vincent said about tracking down the Son.

[Sandkitten]

Vincent is rather unamused at her reaction, which in retrospect should seem odd - he seems to have completely lost his sense of humor for the moment. But he doesn't think about it, as he's preoccupied with the discomfort he's in over the heat, and it seems to be affecting his head. He can't think of a time that he's had this kind of manifestation of discomfort, but if he had to guess, he would think it would be akin to a headache.

"No Grace, there are no horses, and there are no mules - this is what they have for transportation, and this is what we're taking. It's better than walking - faster, at any rate - so unless we want to walk through the desert for five days to complete a one day trip, we'll ride this. Please... just climb up. It's perfectly tame, and I wouldn't let any harm come to you even if that were not the case. The sooner we find the Son, the sooner we can leave the lizards, the sand, the sun, and all the rest of this behind."

[SharpestLife19]

Grace frowns, she didn't mean to upset him, this thing is just scary. She takes another deep breath and climbs up on it, not speaking because she's having trouble breathing while around this creature. She wonders why Vincent seems so annoyed. It doesn't seem like the reaction she would have expected. He always seemed amused when she was frightened or confused by something that he didn't feel that way about. She keeps her thoughts to herself, though and concentrates on just breathing for the moment.

[Sandkitten]

Once she's settled behind him, he gives her just a moment to collect herself, since obviously something has posessed her better senses with regard to the proximity of the animal, though he senses no real danger about the beast. He instructs her to hold onto him, and shows her how, so that she's not choking him around the middle. Satisfied with this set-up, he urges their mount to be off, and they start at a slow pace as they make it through to the other side of the town. Once they reach the wall, they pick up the pace a bit, but it's not a bumpy ride... perhaps slightly sidewindish, but nothing to irritate the stomach. Vincent's only complaint is that they need some sort of cannopy to block off this irritating sun.

He doesn't try to engage Grace in conversation while they ride, since she obviously takes issue with the ordeal altogether, but while they go on, his mind wanders, and he begins trying to puzzle out what the Seer's riddle meant. He doesn't make much progress, if any, but at least it keeps his frying mind entertained. There's a knotting in his core, and it only adds to his discomfort - this place really is doing a number on him. He'll be glad to get out of here in a day or two.

The city they're supposedly heading towards isn't even a speck on the horizon... that's primarily due to the dunes that they're traversing. He suspects they won't even know they're close until they're within a few miles of it, and they can catch a solid glimpse over these mountains of sand. But regardless, he's quite able to see some impossibly tall, rocky buttes sticking up over the dunes to the west of them. Well, to the left of them and in the distance... really, it's impossible to tell which way is west, since the two suns don't seem to rotate together, so the shadows are almost non-existant. He hopes that both suns go down at night, just to get some reprieve from this heat.

[SharpestLife19]

Grace holds on to Vincent so she doesn't fall off and has thus far managed not to hyperventilate or faint entirely. She feels like that is quite some progress considering how much she abhors this situation. She is glad the ride is not bumpy, that would really be the last thing she would need. She does wish that this place didn't have two hot and disgusting suns since one hot and disgusting sun is bad enough.

And whatever is wrong with Vincent? Grace doesn't like the way he's acting at all. She almost wishes she could go home. There's only one sun there, there are no lizards the size of people and Vincent isn't there. She never thought she'd think something like that, she wonders if the heat is just getting to her.

[Sandkitten]

They're riding for what seems like hours - it very well could be hours, in these suns. But the obnixious orbs do seem to be making progress across the sky. Vincent is unsatisfied with their progress, however, and steers them nearer to the tall, rocky buttes. "I'm finding this fairly intollerable, so it must be excruciation for you. We'll find someplace in those rocks where there's shade to rest, and continue at nightfall when it's cooler. You can rest and revive yourself." He doesn't take any of that into account for himself - he intends to climb up one of those rock faces and see how far they've gotten. And hopefully, he can make peace with his head and stomach. This place is ridiculous.

When they reach the rocks, he takes them up a short ways out of the sand and looks for someplace sheltered. He comes to a point where it will be impossible to continue with the lizard, so he dismounts and helps her down, then tethers the beast in one of the great crevaces in the rocks. Shouldering the packs, he continues up with her, until they find the closest thing to a proper shelter as there is - the face of the butte, a parallel jut of rock perhaps ten feet out, and what looks like a piece of the jut broken off, forming a kind of slanting ceiling. The floor of the shelter is mostly flat, and after he kicks some of the stray rubble-rock away, he sets the bags and mats down. "This will serve for now. Make yourself comfortable - I'm going to see where we are."

[SharpestLife19]

Grace is glad that they are taking a break for a little while. It will give her some time to breathe properly again and try to stay out of the beating suns. She happily dismounts the beast and follows Vincent until they get to their little shelter. She unrolls one of the mats. "How will you be able to tell any better than when we were on that..thing? And don't you want to have a seat in the shade a bit?" She doesn't say it, but she wishes he would. He seems grumpy and that disturbs her since he doesn't usually have those kind of issues.

She takes a seat on her mat, sitting her pack down as well. She opens it up and surveys the food she got, trying to decide what would be the least offensive. She finds she's not drawn to any of them, but ends up with something she thinks is a fruit she's supposed to open somehow. She tries tapping it against the floor and it cracks. "Oh good."

[Sandkitten]

He's about to decline her offer outright, but now that he's in the shade, it is a rather nice change, and he's not sure why he would want to go about climbing the whole face of the mountain just to see where they are. He hesitates for a moment, but then unrolls his mat, and removes two of his layers, hanging them on a piece of the rock face that juts out. He also removes his boots for comfort, and then takes a seat across from her. He couldn't say why, but he seems relieved now that he's not so bundled up. The clothing seemed to help in the sun, but now that they're shaded, it's nice to feel the air on his skin. To his surprise, he finds that the air seems to leave a cool cling on him. Upon investigation, however, it's not air - it's water. He's been sweating. Not entirely sure how that's possible, he still knows that he'll need to drink water to put it back into his system, so he pulls out one of the canteens he filled for them.

"I was going to climb the mountain, and find ot how far I could see, to make sure my directions were good, and to decide how far we've gone." He wipes his mouth and closes the canteen, passing it over to her, and eyeing the fruit she's puzzling over. He feels slightly lightheaded, and opts to stretch out on his mat, his long chestnut hair splayed out over his back. "It will wait... at least a while, until the worst of the heat passes. It will wait." His eyes seem heavy, and he'd like to offer to help her figure out what to do with that fruit she has, but he's simply overcome with fatigue. He folds his arms and puts his head down, meaning to take just a few moments to let the lightheadedness pass, but sleep pours itself over him like a heavy blanket, and he's lost to the world.

[SharpestLife19]

Grace manages to crack the fruit but all she gets from that is an odd purple ooze. She hasn't opened it far enough to pry, so she slams it against the rock again. This time it bursts suddenly along the crack, causing large chunks to fly in several directions. One of the chunks hits Grace in the cheek and she wipes the ooze off her face indignantly, grumbling beneath her breath at this fruit.

Once she's wiped the goo off her face, she gathers up the pieces. She's rather glad none of them hit Vincent, he's acting strangely enough without being hit by goop. She realizes he has stopped speaking, although she thought he was going to say more. When she looks over, she finds him asleep which only makes her frown.

This is perplexing. She can't think of a time he's slept. Ever. He mentioned before that he didn't need to, she can remember that. She will have to talk to him when he wakes, she doesn't want to trouble him now. She takes a hesitant bite out of the fruit, but is pleasantly surprised by it's sweetness. "Well, at least one thing is working out."

[Sandkitten]

He's obviously asleep - his body is completely at rest, and there's a rythmic rise and fall to his breathing - but he sleeps silently, no snoring, no fidgeting, nothing. Fatigue is foreign to his body, and the sudden need for rest, elemental reprieve and nourishment are new and difficult for him. As his body relaxes in perfectness, there are other consiquences to his unconsciousness.

It takes a few minutes, as his mind falls completely away from its waking activeness, but when the last thread of consciousness is lost, there's a soft thudding sound, as if a pillow were displaced, from his direction. There are no pillows, and even if there were, there would certainly be no one to displace them. But seemingly out of thin air, there are wings covering his back. Enormous in their size alone, but proportionate to his frame, and not at all the shining white or golden wings typical of the christian portraiture of angels. These wings are nearly the same color as his hair - chestnut, with spots and mottling of white at the tips, not very unlike a snowy owl's, but in stark reverse. Vincent sleeps on, quite unaware of this new development in his condition.

[SharpestLife19]

Grace was peacefully eating her bizarre fruit, thinking about everything that has been happening when suddenly there are very large wings appearing in front of her face. She lets out a startled shriek and throws her fruit in their direction before she realizes they belong to Vincent. Unfortunately, the fruit has already been tossed. She rises to her knees and scoots over toward Vincent, wiping it off and hoping he doesn't wake up.

[Sandkitten]

Grace's shriek falls on ears of stone, or cotton - whichever is more appropriate. Whatever the case, he doesn't hear her at all. He may feel the fruit, because the wing where her meal landed twitches, apparently an attempt to get the sticky fruit off, but otherwise he doesn't stir at all, or make any sound indicating a regain of consciousness. She's in the clear.

[SharpestLife19]

She breathes a sigh of relief that he doesn't move and wipes at the sticky. It doesn't want to come off his wing, but she does her best. She thinks maybe she should get some water to clean it, but she's not sure how much water they have and if it would be difficult to get more out in this desert, so she has to settle for the best she can do with her hands. She wipes the ick from her hands onto the hem of her outfit and goes back to eating her weird fruit. Things just keep getting stranger and stranger around here. And she can't find out anything until Vincent wakes again, so she waits.

[Sandkitten]

She gets to wait for a while. Vincent is still recooperating from his short stint as an evaporating wonder in the desert. Fortunately, his clothing helped keep him more hydrated than he may have been otherwise. But he's obviously not immune to the elements, or to himself. It's a good hour or so before he finally comes around, and when he does, he's groggy. There's a period of stretching, and yawning, and finally a curling-back-up-for-two-minutes-before-finally-deciding-to-be-awake, but then he pulls himself back into a sitting position, but that doesn't agree well with his wings, and he unconsciously readjusts them behind him so that they cross at the tips, more suitable for sitting.

He doesn't look any older, and his eyes haven't changed, but he's certainly not the statuesque man that he was before he brought her here. There's something less about him - something that brings her down to her level, and it may have something to do with the imprint on his face from where he was sleeping on his hand. His stomach growls loudly before he can say anything to her, and he looks down at it in a manner not unlike a small child looks at a book they've never seen, intrigued, but unable to read it.

[SharpestLife19]

Grace is pleased to see Vincent starting to rise and becomes all the more anxious as he stretches and yawns and lays down again. She grumbles at him, but waits a bit longer. She's watching him now, trying to decide what has happened here. His wings are visible, he's slept...

She's startled out of her thoughts by the growling of Vincent's stomach. She stares at him as if he's offended her, only because she almost more startled that his stomach just made that sound then when his wings appeared out of nowhere. Her brows furrow in frustration. "Alright, now that tears it! What is going on here? First you're tired, you're grumpy, your wings popped out of nowhere and now you're making stomach sounds at me! What is this?"

[Sandkitten]

Vincent looks at her as she - well, he can only assume that what she means to convey is rage, but it's rather adorable, simply because she's so out of her element, and it comes across rather more like a plea for information than as an unsettled erruption. His head and stomach take quite a bit of prescidence over the rest of him at the moment, given his needs, but he is acutely aware of the warm lump in his chest where she seems to touch his being without being near him. He can't imagine why it would come back to him at this particular moment, given the cirumstance, but he does recall that it's been a reoccuring theme with her since several years ago. He's never named it, except to think of it as unsettling, but he curiously regards it as a kind of fondness or affection, just now.

Still, that answers none of her questions, or his. And they're good questions. He's quiet for a moment, mulling over his answer before he opens his mouth. "Well... it doesn't follow form, but it would appear... I'm experiencing symptoms of being mortal. That leads me to believe that someone has cracked the Test open on me, without my volunteering, and without my knowledge or consent. The wings, um... well, I've always had them, obviously, but they were stored. How can I explain this..." He thinks, and spots a piece of the fruit she's set aside, so he samples that. "Well, think of it as having access to another dimension - an invisible closet, if you will, and I can put whatever I need into that closet, and it will always be at my fingertips, but out of sight. Though since my wings are obviously a part of me, connected - when I fell asleep, I couldn't keep the door shut, and they came back to me here." He frowns glancing to the side as he mutters to himself. "Though I doubt very much whether I'll have access like that while I'm in this condition."

[SharpestLife19]

Grace looks even more perplexed than she had before. "Ok, you're saying that instead of being warned, someone suddenly decided it was time for you to be mortal and since you are, you now can't hide your wings under the bed in your weird dimensional whatever that I don't really understand. So now can you please tell me WHY you are mortal? What good is that doing anyone and who made you that way? I just don't understand this." She shakes her head and sighs.

[Sandkitten]

He listens and nods as he eats whatever this fruit is - it's very good - and shakes his head as well. "If I knew that... then maybe I could have prevented this from happening. The only thing I can think... is that someone knew I was feeling like I was being watched and herded, and they planned my next move - they knew I would look for answers, and that search would land me here, the perfect place for them to press my fourty-days-and-fourty-nights on me... that's a figure of speech, by the way, I don't know how long it will really last. I don't know who, and I don't know why... other than that I must have been treading on someone's toes. I don't think they expected me to have you along for the ride, though - so maybe we can get some leniency on your account."

[SharpestLife19]

"Why would it matter to this supposed person if I am here?" That makes less sense to her then everything else. She just couldn't see why they would get special treatment because of her. Vincent had said he felt like he was being watched, and that he felt like he upset someone, but this was all so weird. There wasn't really any other way to look at it.

She sits again, passing Vincent the rest of the bizarre fruit. "Here, it's pretty good." She feels strangely domestic feeding a man and that thought makes her want to laugh. She holds it in and returns to more serious thoughts. "Alright, so you're mortal but we don't know how long. How will this affect our plans?"

[Sandkitten]

He sighs within himself, though it comes out aloud as well, when she pokes a hole in his would-be optimism. "Grace... honestly, I'm sure it won't matter to... whomever is doing this to me, whether you're with me or not. If anything, I should think that would give them more of a reason to "punish" me - that's what this feels like, whether that's correct or not - taking you out of your world, telling you things that no one under the Veil's influence should have access to... simply having contacted you, I opened the door just a little more for the risk of ill reward. I knew that... I suppose I just never thought it would catch up with me."

He takes the fruit that she gives him with a quiet "thank you", chewing it thankfully - he's always been able to nourish himself, but he's never had a mortal need to do so, and the food sits heavily in his stomach as a sickening reminder of the trouble he's gotten both of them into now. In this condition, he feels suddenly rather weak and helpless. He has no access to the gross power that he wielded as an angelic servant, and no access to his weapons or any kind of niceties to make Grace (or himself) more comfortable... and the worst of it is, until they can find the Son and figure out what the hell is going on, they're stuck here. He's unable to take them anywhere else.

Her question forces him to stop feeling so sick over the whole ordeal, and to actually think about how to resolve their predicament. "Well... it doesn't, much. We'll continue on to the next city and see what we can find out... at least I can keep us fed and watered, when we're there. Small miracles." He pats the satchel at his waist, sighing. "Other than our inability to travel somewhere less unfriendly, we continue on as planned. Except, at night, when it's less disgusting outside."

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