A Healing Tent: Pearl Lane [Open]

[Esther Iteya]

Esther had a suspicion something was still not right, but she was being instructed elsewhere. So she did what she was told. She moved to Laira to see if there was anything I could help with. When Kallera returned, she gave her a helpless side-glance. She didn't know what she had did, but she knew she couldn't quite fix it.

 

"Maybe we need some more water, if any of you would be so kind?" She said quietly, trying to move on.

[Amnesic]

As Esther moved away and Kallera returned, Fay let out an internal sigh of relief. It felt like she could breathe now with Esther not standing right beside her even though the Au Ra was barely a few yalms away. She caught the glance from Esther to the Elezen; it hurt, but at least she knew she could hold off doing anything more damaging for the moment.

 

“I don’t…nothing’s happened. Nothing at all,” she answered, with slightly more regularity. She had to force another smile, but she was hopefully getting better at it by this point. As the suggestion for more water was brought up, she looked directly at Kallera to see what she was going to do. Fay really did not owe these people anything, but she felt like she needed to do something at least to patch up the damages caused by her latent issues with Au Ra.

 

“I mean, I could go get some. Though, I only have two of these and it’ll take me an hour or two,” she said as she held up the water-skin in her hand, looking at the Elezen specifically.

[Kallera]

Kallera looked at Esther,and said "oh, maybe I can help Fay with that. Especially since I got my own." She showed the one she just bought. "I left your other one on your rucksack, Fay."

[Amnesic]

Fay looked at the Kallera questioningly- why did she want to join in? Oh well, it would be easier getting out of the gates with two people…

 

“Yeah, I already put the other one back in my sack… You can come, but are you sure you’d be able to keep up under the heat?” She had actually seen the failed chase, or at least the result of it, and this did give her a bit of doubt.

 

Fay was still going to do the deed regardless to ease her conscience about Esther, but she felt like a part of her was simply getting this water so she could distance herself from the poor Au Ra. She only now realized that the anxiety she had been facing was almost making her nauseous; making it even harder for her to understand the response. She had absolutely no problems talking to any other race, but with Esther’s kind, she seemed to struggle. She had only ever seen a few others, and the reaction had been identical even though she never got that close to them.

 

It was really odd. She had to wonder if she had that response before she had lost her memory.

[Kallera]

"Yeah, I think I'll be fine now." Kallera said. The heat was much the same as before, but it didn't seem like the sprint and lack of water from before. With the two heading out if the gates, Kallera had been curious about Fey's reaction, though Fey seemed like she wanted to get away from the situation. Once they were some distance from the tent, Kallera started to make some small talk.

 

"Ul'dah's pretty interesting with its sense of charity. Almost like its some thing of controversy. Though I can't imagine anyone having a problem with her being there. Pearl Lane is not exactly prime real estate, I heard they tried to avoid taking in Doman refugees because of all the homeless." That was puting it mildly. The Ala Mihgan refugees were still a problem throughout the nation. "I heard some Domans managed to come in anyway. You ever run into them?"

[Amnesic]

As Fe’lanah passed through the streets with Kallera, she could feel the annoyed and searching glare of the watch-guards upon her. She was not sure if the Elezen could feel it as well, but she had become somewhat of an unintentional pest to them because of her philosophies. Had Kallera not been here, she guessed that they would likely have chased her away or questioned her as due a reputation she had managed to form with the city’s local guard. It was easy to say that in her few days of consciousness; she had discovered that she and Ul’dah were not compatible.

 

Fe’lanah began to feel the urge to start preaching her philosophy to the Elezen, but seeing as she would still be helpful in getting out of the city peacefully, she managed to restrain as much of it as she could. Moving on to the question would likely be easier for the time being.

 

“Charity is just rare in there because most of them are too greedy to care about another’s welfare,” she answered simply, as if it was unbiased fact. She was able to reply in the tone she had before Esther had set her nerves into some form anxiety frenzy and the queasy feeling began to leave her. Creating distance seemed to remedy the problem quite well, but that was not exactly a permanent solution. A faint feeling that this conversation was about to become awkward formed in the back of her mind, but she ignored and decided to ask her next question in response anyways.

 

“What’s a Doman?” she asked in utter innocence. She honestly did not know.

[Kallera]

Kallera let Fey take the lead as they went to get water for Esther, the miqote was in no hurry, but she knew the way better. Her question left Kallera puzzled as to how to phrase it without leaving a bad impression of them.

 

"Well, they started showing up in Limsa and the Black Shround one day after having lost their country. The lot are kinda like Ala Mighans, except less 'rah rah!' and more 'ruu ruu'. They aren't so much bloodthirsty as awkward, but they do try to fit in. At least, that's my experience..."

 

As they reached their destination Kallera wondered if she was being too nosy with Fey. "I thought maybe you might have met some." She said with a unassuming smile. "just a guess."

[Amnesic]

Fay shook her head and shrugged. “I can’t tell you, I mean, I still don’t really know who you are talking about…I think I might know those other ones you mentioned, but I can’t really be sure.” The Elezen seemed like she was trying to drive this conversation in some direction, but Fay honestly did not know as to where.

 

By this point, they would have traveled quite a distance outside of the gates into Central Thanalan up towards a tall rocky outcropping seemingly in the middle of nowhere. As soon as they reached it, Fe’lanah slung her bag over her shoulder and began an agile ascent up its edge in a trained pattern, directly showing she had climbed it before had it not been assumable from her previous statement. It was hard to tell she was putting a lot of stress on her frail body as she performed the climb until she began to speak out loud in the midst of her scramble up the ledge; her words were audibly shaky and lined with grunts, but it mostly came out clearly.

“Stay…down there…I have…a… rope!” she managed to spit out in between moments of lifting herself up the outcropping.

 

Fe’lanah was not actually planning on trying to pull up Kallera, she actually had a makeshift climbing rope set up on top of the cliff so that it would make the ascent easier. Or it would have, had she actually lowered it before climbing down much earlier in the day. She tried to hide this spot from others mostly because it was where she stashed most of her things, but also because there was a very useful freshwater reservoir inside a cave at the top. The rope itself made of a dried vine and was tied twice around a large rock, currently bundled up alongside it to prevent anyone from getting to her menagerie of ragtag traveling gear or even knowing of its location.

 

She figured the Elezen was not likely to come back here anytime soon, so it would be safe enough to let her up here. She grabbed the coiled vine rope and hurled it out from the cliff side, letting it hit the ground below with a small cloud of dusty sand.

 

“Come on up!” she called down while gesturing with her hands.

[Kallera]

At first Kallera had no idea why they were heading out this far, but then it dawnd on her: water is likely to be not as fresh and at a premium in the city. She kept quiet as Fay climbed up. Kallera climbed up the rope, to what looked like a hideaway for Fay.

 

The homeless in Ul'dah seemed to make do with whatever was outside. and the outside was a harsh mistress. Looking around, Kallera noticed that the stash consisted of traveling and survival gear, and came up with a new guess entirely at to her behavior, giggling.

 

"I was just thinking, you've enough here to survive the city going to pieces." She said. "I wish I had thought of that."

[Amnesic]

“I know that I have enough in here to survive pretty much anything. It’s going to get a little lonely, sure, but I’ll live,” she replied, giving a light laugh and a smile. It was true after all; this little refuge of hers contained everything she needed to live out of society as she normally did and much more. “I’ve got enough water and mushrooms to probably last me a good, long time in this cave alone. There’s a reason I don’t live in the city!”

 

Across a wall in the farther left of the small cave, old logs covered in edible mushrooms had been lined up as a sort of indoor garden while the other side contained haphazardly placed and awkwardly shaped tools, leather straps, other sacks, and a few animal horns. In the back, a small light shaft radiated in from a crevice in the roof and lit up a massive water spring and its clear water. This was Fay’s little refuge, and wondrous as it may have been, she spent very little time in here and kept it closed up quite often.

 

As she led Kallera past her survival gear and up to the water source, she looked back to the Elezen. “Now, uh, what was it we were talking about a few minutes ago? Ala Domans?” she asked with a genuine confusion. She had already managed to lose track of it.

[Kallera]

"A Doman. They're this new refugee that's been showing up with the Ala Mihgans. I thought Iteya may have looked like one, I'll have to ask her." Kallera said as Fay began filling up the waterskins. "They seem a bit formal, idealistic, and a bit nutty when depressed. I have a friend that was like that. He had his ups and downs over finding his lost sister. I had to help him through it more than once."

[Amnesic]

Fay shrugged as she sat down to fill the water-skins. “I still don’t know. I’m not really that keen on noticing what people do… Oh, are they what you call the lizard people?” It was probably not the right way to say it, but she still had no idea on what to call them. She might have at one time, but she had assuredly forgotten it by now. She also may have had an idea of whatever her reaction to them was, but it was out of mind now.

 

As she was filling up the last one, she came up with an even better idea on how to sneak back into the city, yet she probably wanted to save that idea for a later time. Perhaps if she was still curious tomorrow she could use it to get back in.

[Kallera]

"Yes, the lizard people!" Kallera said, giggling as she carried one of the filled skins, "Anyway, we should be able to go back the same way right?"

 

The sun was still out, though it had lost much of its intensity. A play of colors danced across the clouds over head, Kallera took a look at the sight outside. "I wonder how Iteya's doing... You think she's in over her head?"

[Amnesic]

“Uh…maybe? I’ll be honest, I still don’t really understand what she’s trying to do in there,” Fay replied, grinning. She looked outside at the falling sun and blinked, a little confused. Had it really gotten that late? It would be nightfall by the time they reached the town again.

 

Her plans had been very short-sighted and accordingly had not accounted for this. The guards were heavier at night and she could not just send the Elezen back with her water-skins. She had no qualms sharing water on the spot, but not when they would leave her vicinity and especially not when they would go back to that avaricious place people called a “city”; in result, she was not going to let the Elezen deliver them. Besides, who said how long they planned on keeping them? That little idea of hers she had thought of earlier was going to have to work.

 

“About getting back into the city…”

Oh, this was going to be hard to explain, so she might as well go through with the first step beforehand.

 

“…Actually, just wait a moment or two, I’ll be right back, okay? Don’t try to take anything; I’ll be able to tell.” She went towards one of her piles of things and retrieved a bucket, which she promptly filled, and went outside with it. She did not think that this was that much of a secret, it was really just a quirk she had wanted to work on hiding. Really, it just happened by accident and she got used to it...

[Kallera]

Kallera put up her hands, saying "sure."

 

As she was waiting, a marmot started to make its way towards the mushrooms. She picked up on its squeaking, but paid it no mind until it started rustling the mushrooms with its teeth.

 

"Oh, Shite!"

 

She ran after the marmot, trying to chase down the little thief.

 

"Get back here!"

[Amnesic]

“What? What is it!?” Fay called back into the cave, alarmed at the sounds of conflict. To her luck, she had been right at the point of finishing the uncovering her secret and she was immediately able to run back into the cave’s entrance to see what had happened.

 

Stepping into view, she had undergone very large change in appearance. Her slightly pale and tan skin looked like it was washed away into a sickly pale color with a slight pink tint to it. Right under her eyes on her cheekbones were two fading tattoo marks and a line of blackish freckles passing over her nose. To top it all off, her hair had gone from the sandy color all the way to a pure, glaring white as if it freshly cleaned cotton. She still visibly wet, and her clothes were sticking to her to show her frighteningly bony and mousy body structure.

 

Fe’lanah looked around frantically and spied the marmot. Hehe, was she afraid of it? Oh wait, no, she was chasing it down.

 

“Stop chasing him, you’re just scaring him,” she called out as she sat down on the cave floor. She waited for it to stop and gestured to it. She did not know really what the gender was at this distance, but it was a good guess since she had not seen a lot of females around. “Come here, little guy. I’m not going to hurt you…” She had by this point already forgotten about her major appearance change.

It was simply just a lot of dirt and sand: it made for a nice way to hide her pasty appearance.

[Kallera]

Kallera comically flopped on the floor, arms outstretched as if she tripped on something. Dust notwithstanding she was fine. Fay had looked considerably worse for wear, though stoll in high spirits. After getting up, Kallera stammered for a response " I--um it just, you know, yeah. Do you need a disguise or something?"

[Amnesic]

Fay couldn’t resist her urge to giggle at Kallera’s fall simply because it just looked so silly. She figured Elezen must trip a lot being so tall; being short did have its advantages.

 

The marmot took its chance as Fay was distracted and made its escape by running past her, straight out the cave exit and out of sight. She merely stood up from the ground and looked over her shoulder to where the marmot was last visible. “Huh, that was smart of him. I swear they get cleverer every day,” she quietly said and continued to look for a little bit before she looked back up at the Elezen.

 

“Oh, er, this was supposed to be my disguise. The air will dry me off by the time we get back,” she said innocently. She retrieved the other two waterskins, threw them into her rucksack, and began to rummage through a box until she pulled out a crudely made straw bonnet. She tied it on her head as she walked towards the exit with a smile on her face. She probably looked really odd, but the guards wouldn’t suspect her as long as she tried to swap her voice around a bit.

 

“The guards won’t normally let me in the city. Not like I care though, I don’t really like it in there,” she said with a bit of sass in her voice and a smile.

[Kallera]

Kallera dusted herself off once she got up. Fay sounded like that sort of person, who enjoyed her freedom outside, and a general distaste for the guards. The two had that in common. Yet the city held opportunities no one else had. "Sounds like I shouldn't be worried." Kallera said at the sassy response, she must have been at this for a while now. "I'll let Ietya know if she asks. Let's head on back."

 

They headed out of the cave where the rope down awaited them. "You do look like you need a new hat." She said on the way.

[Amnesic]

“Why would I need a new hat? There isn’t a thing wrong with this one except for some marmot chewing. Besides, I won’t have the time to be making another one if I keep having to make these silly trips to this nasty city,” Fay replied before quickly sliding down the vine to the ground.

 

She kept a decent but lethargic pace for the most part across the desert, only really stopping to look at burrows and what seemed like random vegetation. She yawned after a little while and began to briefly languidly sing a line from a song.

 

“…I come from the land of plenty…”

 

It was a bit out of tune considering she was mostly just saying it, but the rhythm was there.