It was approaching morning by the time the newly formed group of Samuel Cydan, Alchemy Testerossa and Ryra Alyan began to get near to the small village of Estolad. Their journey had lasted many, many, many hours and they were beginning to truly tire now. They had stopped to rest only briefly before continuing on in the dark. All the noises of Arda seemed so much louder and more intimidating when you could see nothing around you. The group had for the most part remained quiet. Alchemy was insistent on discussing various things early on in their journey, until the topic changed to their lives and history; none of the three were too willing to go in to much detail. Ryra had curiously sprung a question to Samuel about where he came from, to which he simply smiled and continued walking on.

Even for the incredibly fit wanderers of Arda, this near sixteen hour walk with virtually no pause for breath was a truly difficult task. The walk would have been easier had they properly stopped to rest, but they were all driven to reach their destination quickly, for different reasons. Samuel was determined to reach his destination so he could find things and people to aid his quest. He was in search of equipment, gold and quite simply rest and food. His need for recuperation was essentially the only truthful thing he had told his companions. Ryra was clearly driven by suspicion, as anyone could have figured out. Samuel continually noticed a dubious expression on her face when she looked at him. Alchemy, on the other hand, was driven by her seemingly limitless energy. Samuel had almost grown to like her in an unusual way. He felt she was slightly overbearing and awkward sometimes, but she was, in a strange way, normal and good. He knew, deep down, that something was wrong with him; he knew he was falling into a dark pit, spiralling deeper and deeper, and the decency and innocence of Alchemy was one of the few things keeping him from plunging to the bottom of that pit.

They had, most thankfully for Samuel, avoided any confrontations with any wild animals or violent passers-by. They passed through the seemingly endless Salquedor Grasslands until finally, to their great relief, they cleared the large outdoor training arena and were within just a few hundred yards of Estolad. They picked up a bit of pace and at last reached the boundaries of the village. There was a small forest area surrounding the Village, with a large path going through it, leading to the heart of Estolad. The group walked down the path and paused to enjoy their surroundings when they finally reached the Estolad town square. It was a beautiful little town in its own way. There was a small cliff face on one side of it and plenty of greenery. The homes were small and the shops and Inn were few, but fairly large buildings, constructed of thick stone and slate roofs. At this time of the morning, the village was silent. The Inn, like most in Arda, was open constantly to tempt the travelling passers-by in.

”I believe the Inn is just over there on the left. Go on ahead; I will join you there shortly. I must attend to something briefl- or maybe you would prefer me simply to say “I have to do something real quick. See you soon”? Informality just does not become me, unfortunately…” he finishes with a comical frown. He stands and waits for them to walk on to the Inn before dealing with whatever business he has in mind.

Bored, exhausted, tuckered out, spent and moaning. Alchemy had never been in any of these conditions before, having the absurd ability to amuse herself with a seemingly infinite stock of energy. However she was getting pretty close to at least one of them, the journey had been rather quiet, long and most of all uneventful. To be honest, Alchemy would have given both legs for something to happen to break the dense atmosphere that had been building up, and probably would have if something like a wild beast had attacked or something along those lines.

After what seemed like an eternity of walking the sun had begun to peek over the horizon, illuminating the small village and its little houses, shops and stuff. Alchemy rubbed her eyes upon seeing it, having almost fallen asleep walking, and her face immediately lit up, showing no signs whatsoever of the fatigue that had hung over her before.
"Wow, it looks so pretty!" She found herself saying.
Alchemy wasn't the sort of person who kept her thoughts to herself, most often she found herself saying things she didn't mean to and letting slip information she'd prefer to keep to herself. Despite this Alchemy did nothing to stop this problem, and carried on being reckless, thoughtless and incredibly enthusiastic about whatever she did.

She glanced over at her two companions she'd met at the falls the afternoon before. The first one was Ryra, a fire elemental and that was about all Alchemy knew about her, however she liked Ryra, she had a liking for anything that wasn't normal. The second was Samuel, certainly the most interesting of the three, he had apparently ended up in a storm without so much as being wind swept, and it was he who had insisted on going to Estalod in the first place. Not wanting the two to leave her behind Alchemy had followed them, ignoring the painfully long walk to the village.

Once they entered the small village, Alchemy did naught but stare about and fidget. The place was small, a bit like her, and it was pretty, a bit like her, and was extremely active for a village of its size, just like her. Alchemy felt instantly attracted to it, constantly turning about and walking backwards to admire what they'd just left behind. Upon doing this she didn't notice when they stopped, at least not until Samuel spoke. Alchemy seemed to snap out of a trance and immediatly turned around again.
"Huh?" She stopped as Samuel finished what he was saying, using the same polite speech he'd used yesterday "okay, fine." Alchemy replied "you can go, philosiphate or scribe or whatever it is you do."
She waved to him as he wandered off doing whatever it was he was doing, and most possibly wondering if 'philosiphate' was even a real word.
"So," Alchemy turned to Ryra "what now?"

Exhausted. Utterly and completely exhausted. It was a new feeling for Ryra, who was finding that she was feeling 'new feelings' everyday ever since her master had died. As she stumbled into the village of Estolad behind Alchemy, her legs feeling like lead weights had been inserted into them, she couldn't help but wonder why she had agreed to accompany Samuel and Alchemy into Estolad.

The fire elemental frowned as she felt the dirt of the road clinging to her. Fatigue had seeped into most of her muscles, making each step a nightmare. The elemental wasn't one to enjoy baths, after all, she was a fire elemental not a water elemental, but perhaps if the water was extremely hot, she might make an exception for tonight. The dirt on her and the prospect of a bath were doing nothing to help her mood, though, and she hadn't forgotten any of her past suspicions.

Samuel had avoided her questions the entire trip to Estolad, and Ryra couldn't help wondering why. It wasn't as if she had much to say about her history. She had only spent two years on Arda, and most of those years had been with her master. All in all, she didn't have much of a history to speak of. But for Samuel, she knew it had to be a different story. After all, he certainly didn't seem like an elemental to her.

She listened to Alchemy's words, turning to the human. Did she ever run out of energy? She had had the same amount of energy ever since they started the trip and she was acting like she had never seen a village before. She was a human, and most humans lived in villages, so Ryra doubted that that could be the case.

"Yeah, it's pretty enough," said Ryra to the girl, "Hopefully, we can get a decent meal and a place to stay for the night..and maybe I can get off my feet. Then, I'll say it's pretty."

Her feet were killing her, figuratively speaking of course. She turned to Samuel, hoping that the next thing he would say would be that they would head for the inn. She didn't know how much more she could take before falling over...or dissolving into fire right there and then and burning up the entire Estolad. It would be so much easier if she could just transform into something else like other elementals could do. Of course, she would be giving up her human-like features, but who really cared about them? She was tired of living a lie anyway.

It's real easy to be tired of lies when your whole life is one... she thought, placing a hand on her face and feeling the smooth skin beneath her fingertips. Her face wasn't her face. Her name wasn't her name. It was nothing but a lie. She had never been anything more than a puppet dancing on strings to the songs played by her master...and yet she couldn't bring herself to hate him for it. Somehow, she knew that if her master returned, she would become his puppet again, if only to stay with him a little longer.

She frowned, turning to Samuel as her heart began to ache, and pushing the thoughts away from her mind. She didn't even make a comment about his attempt to be informal. She was too weary for that. Instead, she nodded and turned to Alchemy as the girl asked her a question.

"To the inn to get something to eat and to sit down," she replied, walking off towards the inn and hoping that Alchemy followed along behind her. Chasing after the red-haired human all over Estolad did not seem like a good way to end her day.