Valentine Assignment 1

Valentine Assignment:

Markus was usually very at home wandering through the wilderness, but this was a strange forrest to him, and he was searching for a prey he'd never even seen. Normally he wouldn't have dreamt of hunting in the forests within Cantio's districts but his family was still in desperate need of money and the pay for tracking down the thieving faeries was too much of a temptation even for Markus. Of course, he'd asked Aetes, the only one who knew Markus had taken up "adventuring" for advice about tracking down faeries, but the only advice he'd gotten was "never mess with Faeries, kid." Not that Aetes had any experience with Fay, but he said that from all the stories he'd ever heard about adventurers who messed with Fay and come out the worse for it (often dead) he'd come to the simple conclusion that it simply wasn't worth it. "Never mess with Faeries, Kid," And Markus would have loved to follow the advice. He would have loved to have been hunting in the familiar lands around Sagittario or even at the hearth tanning hides while his brother worked his art on red hot iron, but alas, that couldn't be. The hearth would be gone and his families livelihood with it, if Markus didn't find a way of scrounging up some more gold, and it looked like hunting down these faeries was it. So he found himself wandering through the majestic forest trying to hunt creatures that he knew only from stories.

Later: 

Markus never expected to run into anyone else in the forrest, and that was the way he liked it. One of the chief attractions of the forrest for Markus was the solitude he could enjoy there away from the judgmental eyes and ears of people. So he was quite startled when he rounded an enormous oak tree and found himself suddenly beside a young woman crouched among the foliage at the base of the tree. Markus felt his face flush, he wasn't good with people at the best of times, and to be suddenly confronted by a young woman in a strange forrest, all while he was trying to hunt down a bounty on faeries, he felt rather like a small boy caught poaching apples. His immediate instinct was to run, but of course, he knew that would be a ridiculous thing to do, so he just stood there staring awkwardly at the young woman with orange hair and a placid face. 

A few moments passed when the woman suddenly asked, bluntly, though not angrily. "Are you lost, or what?" Markus was so startled by the suddenness of the woman's question that for a moment, he didn't have the sense to be affronted by the question. Markus was never lost in any forrest. Even when he didn't know where he was, he was at home in the wilderness, and could find his way in out and around it. "I'm not lost," He responded, only a touch of displeasure in his voice at being asked such a question. The question however jogged Markus's mind and he collected himself. The woman was holding a knife, and had several pouches fill of various herbs berries and mosses. "Of course," he thought to himself, quite relieved, "an alchemist." Thank the gods it wasn't a mage, he couldn't help thinking. Feeling quite certain that if it had been he would have said something monumentally stupid in his fear and ended up dead or quite possibly transformed into a newt. 

The woman was, in the meantime studying Markus, particularly his bow and his traveling pack. "You from Sagittario?" she asked again. Markus nodded. "Ahh, then I guess you're here after the Faeries. I can show you on your map where they live." This was an unexpected turn of good luck. Markus pulled out the map he'd bought the night before in Cantio and the woman began putting marks on it. "There," she said. "That's where they all seem to come from. At least, that's were I always seem to see them hanging out at." Markus was in the middle of thanking her as profusely as he knew how when she interrupted as though he hadn't even been speaking. If you're after the faeries, you'll be wanting some rowan. Markus looked at her blankly. "have you got any?" the woman asked. Markus shook his head in the negative, and the woman whistled disapprovingly. Well, you'd better buy some from me then. 

Markus had been so thrown off by the woman's brusk blunt way speaking that he hadn't the courage to even ask what Rowan was or why hunting faeries would warrant his having it, so instead he just handed the woman the last of his coins and put the pouch of red berries that were apparently Rowan into his sack. Thanks, he said. Don't mention it, the woman rejoined returning to the foliage she had been clipping and then over her shoulder as Markus was walking away, "Oh, and don't get yourself killed."