Homecoming (OPEN)

[T'caska Khevo]

Three glasses of milk and two hard boiled eggs, a combination that was doomed to fail.

 

T'caska stood at the airship landing within Gridania for some time now, her frame lightly slumped against a railing as she watched the ships come and go. Often a fresh faced adventurer from either Ul'dah or Limsa would step off and she smiled, seeing a brightness in their eyes. Some of them were so ready to go, clutching their shiny new swords or grimoires and peering around every corner as if the grand adventure was there, waiting to grab them by the neck and force its will upon their future. Her face squished up tightly as a rumbling in her stomach welled up from below.

 

Then the veterans came every so often. Some wore highly decorated and colorful armors or robes and she felt herself become envious, knowing that those had seen wonders of Eorzea she would most likely never get to enjoy. Others that she saw openly wore the scars of their battles upon their faces, arms, chest, or other exposed parts of their bodies. But the one thing T'caska couldn't deny was the vast difference between the two types of people that passed through here, it was the look in their eyes...

 

While the baby-faced youngsters looked so eager to start a story, most of the veteran's eyes either told a story of pain or heartbreak. As her stomach grumbled more and she clinched it tightly, T'caska shrugged off the notion to wonder what story her eyes might tell.

 

She had been standing at the airship landing for some time now, contemplating leaving for a night. Her lover was fast asleep at the Inn and T'caska had nowhere to be until the morning. Her spear training recently completed, she started feeling the draw to tie up her loose ends in Ul'dah. Having grown up there as a troubled orphan, she made both enemies and friends early in life. And while she had been living in Gridania now for some time to undergo said training and be closer to her lover, the Seeker in her longed for the Suns of Thanalan and the fire behind her eyes hoped to see her standing proud, lance in hand, and unafraid of what the homecoming may bring. But then there was the little girl in her, the scared little girl that wanted nothing more than to hide under a bed and live forever in the Shroud, never facing the demons she summoned in her younger years that now resided in the other city-state.

 

T'caska squeezed her stomach once more and grumbled under her breathe as she stared at the Airship Ticketer, "Three glasses of milk and two hard boiled eggs... What was I thinking?"

 

((oxford comma yo))

[Klynzahr]

The stairs seemed longer than they used to be.

 

Daniwyda Merlfalkwyn was acutely aware of the two kinds of adventurer roaming the land, just as she knew without doubt upon which side of the divide she stood. She had, by her own assumption, lost the hungry glint behind her eyes some twelve years before.

 

These days she preferred simple equipment, setting her weathered eye upon practicality above all else. The plain coat of chain mail could have easily heralded a mercenary or guard from any city state, while the old grey bag slung over her shoulder was likewise unmarked and unadorned. Only the solid great ax, hanging low across her back, remained to speak for the older adventurer's Lominsian origins.

 

In her youth, Daniwyda had been considered a fair, fine featured Sea Wolf, but years of hard exposure had left little untouched by their work. The sea green of her face was rough like leather, pitted with waxy burn scars, and scored by a early collection of wrinkles. They told a story of their own, tracing a somber expression on a face unaccustomed to displays of emotion.

 

She was simply another worn adventurer, moving on from the quiet hum of the twelveswood. Yet rather than striking purposefully towards the ticket master, like her fellows had before her, Daniwyda crossed the landing at a leisurely pace. Skirting the ticket booth she approached the open railing, with an oddly stiff and hesitant gait for someone bedecked in combat armour. Gingerly resting her weight against the convenient rail, Daniwyda permitted herself a low sigh, before glancing down to the young miquo'te at her side. For a brief moment, the adventurer allowed her steel grey eyes to linger upon the stranger's stark white hair and pale face. To the Roegadyn's untrained eye she appeared to be just another of the many young Keepers, leaving their home in the shroud to seek fame and fortune.

 

For a moment Dani was envious. She stood two steps, and a handful of gil away from a flight to Limsa Lominsia, well aware that she lacked the courage to proceed. With the temerity of youth far behind her, Dani found her eyes wandering to the steps that had brought her this far.

 

"Don't know what ye be thinking." She answered in a soft La'Noscean lilt " But I be thinking those stairs grow longer each time one follows them down."