Thick mist crept along the solid, grime covered stone. The falls whispered a constant lullaby as the moons glossy shards of pearl barley sliced its way through fog, reaching desperately for gravities pull. Josette slowly unbuckled her leather boots, slipping a graceful leg into the water, testing its cool temperature on her sweat glistening skin. Her clothing was already damp from the air-born dew droplets, so the elf maiden dove head first into the deep, gothic pool of midnight. She surfaced, a relaxed smile on her face, curls flattened and pasted to her tan skin, long arms and legs circling to keep her head adrift the ripples.

Josette hadn’t noticed her trouble filled companion. Yellow eyes, barley at the surface, glared at her from beneath the tiny wavelets, disappearing into the gloom. Suddenly the creature tugged at the poor girl’s ankle, nearly snapping it two with its mass strength. Josette gasped in sudden pain and went under. Eyes wide and filled with terror, her assailant’s devilish face loomed before her, its horrid features filled with cocky malice revealing that it’s only intentions were to drown her for pure entertainment.

She kicked at it; movements dulled by the suffocating water, and cursed her ignorance to magic. The mixed breed, obviously it was half demon half….something, dragged her farther below. Despair bloomed in her heart, its tawny, thorn covered vines pricked her muscles, made her ache for air and moonlight, and took root in her brain pumping out the sweet odor of fear filled adrenaline. Her last effort at escape proved to be victorious as she vigorously darted to the surface, taking one last gurgle of the wonderful air that dared to tantalize her drowning body, before the thing made its final attempt to kill her.

OOC: Pretty sure the topic title wasn't that before... O_o Anyways, I can't figure out how to get Robyn to rescue j00r character so... yar. xD

IC:

Robyn was walking.

She did that sometimes. Just... walk. For no reason at all. Or if there was any reason, it wasn't one that she herself understood because she was pretty sure she didn't and didn't want to anyways. She wasn't walking because it was fun, or because it was entertaining, or even because it was raining and she liked to try and grab the rain out of the air and drink it or because it was snowing and she liked watching the snowflakes hit or skin and stay there, unlike the flakes that were burned to death by other children...

No... Robyn was just walking because she wanted to walk.

And she had been doing that for the last two or three days. She had *almost* gotten bored two or five times but had managed to persevere. If Mr. Fluffington could do it, so could she. Normally, she'd be playing follow the leader but today- and for the last few days, she was just walking. Moving ahead. Trudging and trudging and trudging. Mr. Fluffington was abnormally subdued and attentive. Perhaps he was relishing his freedom. Robyn didn't know. Robyn wasn't sure about it, anyways. He could have been thinking another of things, but all Robyn knew was that he wasn't trying to run away and she wasn't trying to catch him.

Robyn was walking. Robyn walked so far that the small little house she had been in was far, far away now.

And then she came to a pond-water-lake-thingy. Thingy. Yeah.

Robyn made a mental note to go and kick the Chef. He wasn't doing his job and giving her words that she was lacking like he was supposed to. Silly Chef.

There was a person in the pond-water-thingy. And as far as Robyn remembered there were lots of games that one could play in the water. But Robyn didn't really want to play because she wasn't in a play-ey mood. So she smiled and waved.

"Sowwy!" She called out, still walking forwards. "I can't play with you today! Maybe tomorrow!" And on she trudged. Walking... just because she wanted to.

His bow slung across his left shoulder, Allen had begun his exploring of the wonders of the world outside his hometown of Estolad a day previously, not having had a very good time of it. It had been strange having nobody else around for so long, having no house to return to at the end of the day, seeing all the unusual creatures that lived within the forest leading to...well, wherever his destination would be, which, after having been to the mountains and Lomedor, and having left in a direction different to the ones he'd taken to these two places, he was confident would be a place he hadn't yet seen, of which there were doubtless many.

Then there was all the walking, which could get exhausting after a while. Looking ahead of him through the mist that had started building up as he was walking in this area, he saw a lake, with something splashing around in it and...well, something walking by it. Whatever the thing was that was walking by the lake, it seemed human enough, but...different, somehow.

Ignoring that for now, he turned his attention quickly enough to the splashing, which, on speeding up his walk and getting closer, he realized was a girl, something under the water seeming to be attempting to pull her in. To help, or not to...it wasn't that he didn't care about other people, he simply didn't want to get involved in struggles...

Forget that, some kind of lake monster or something, quite possibly mindless for all he knew, was trying to pull the girl down, meaning it didn't, in his mind, fit into the whole good or evil nonsense.

Making up his mind and shifting his shoulder slightly, allowing his bow to drop to the ground, he unstrapped the quiver from his side, taking out one of the enchanted ice arrows he'd obtained on his short trip to Lomedor, then took a run and dove into the water, eyes widening in mild surprise as he saw the...creature, whatever it was, within the lake. Jamming the arrow into the thing's arm and forcing it to release its grip as the ice began to spread through it, he swam back, dragging the girl out of the water with him, watching the water cautiously to see if anything more would happen, not noticing whether that other...person, for lack of a better word, was still by the lake.

"Hey...are you ok?" he said in his somewhat deep, but calm voice, even kneeling fairly tall given that he was 6'4" in height, taller than anyone else in his town, looking down to the girl that he'd apparently rescued.

Bubbles erupted into an underwater hurricane as a black form stroked towards her and the...thing. The vice on her ankle went stone cold, tearing away with vicious disappointment. The pain of the monsters farewell twist made Josette inhale, smothering herself with lake water. She started having spasms, her lungs begged for the cool relief of air.

As the bust the surface of the rippling pool. She clung to her savoir; her bogged down body slapping the earth as a dark puddle oozed around her. His concern was lost as she heaved up and ocean of ingested liquid, sputtering for a breath of life.

Her golden locks were plastered to her pale skin. Shivers ran up and down her slender form, silhouetted by droplets of water that jumped from her shaking shoulders. Gasping like a trapped rabbit the elf girl enclosed her quivering legs in the cave of her arms, bringing them to her chest.

The man who saved her was kneeling quite close, also sopping.

"Thanks… "she whispered, rubbing herself down, trying to get some circulation. The day was still humid but her brush with death left cold and shadow filled.

Shortly after Allen had checked to see if the girl was alright after that incident, she coughed up a good deal of it, meaning that it would've been ideal had he shown up sooner, but nonetheless wasn't too late. Good enough, he supposed. After all, he was just a normal man, he could only do so much. Too bad everything on him was soaked, though.

"Thanks..." he heard the girl whisper as she rubbed herself to try and warm up. Noticing the ears now that the struggle was over, he wondered if she was an elf of some kind. He'd heard they had strangely pointed ears, though had never yet seen one. Never yet seen much of anything in the world outside his village.

"It was no problem," he said, unwrapping the wide shawl from his neck and starting to wring it out across its length. "I don't think that...creature...will be returning to the surface anytime soon after I froze its arm, but I can't in all honesty be sure. The world outside Estolad is still quite strange to me..."

Now that the shawl was fairly dry after a few moments of wringing it out heavily, he offered it to the girl he'd apparently just saved, something that could hopefully help her warm up faster. As for himself, he didn't all that much mind that his clothing and hair were plastered against him, and wasn't too cold, having spent a fairly short time in the water.

"Thanks..."she repeated, timidly grasping the fabric between her outstretched fingers. It was a bit itchy because it was damp, but the gesture was kind and she was grateful for the warmth it permitted for she was feeling a bit light headed.

Morning was walking on to the scene. Pastille pinks and sizzling yellows were slowly painting the sky the color of daylight. As the midnight blue ebbed away birds started chirping their morning to do's and cheery hellos.

Random curls jumped from her head, crowning her skull with a wet, tangled glory. Her cheeks colored rosy red and her eyes gleamed.

"I'm guessing your knew to the area?"she pried, voice hushed by the noise of mother natures morning choir.

The girl repeated her thanks as she took the offered shawl from Allen's hand, and, remembering his gear, he took the time to look behind him, not completely confident that his shortbow and his quiver of normal and ice arrows would still be lying there where he'd left them some feet away. Fortunately, they were, and he was thankful for that at least.

"I'm guessing you're knew to the area?" the girl asked, and Allen nodded, wondering if it was really that obvious. Sure, he was wearing fairly common, inexpensive clothing, but no doubt many people quite more aware of this world than he did as well, didn't they? It would only seem practical, though now he thought about it there were probably more wearing armor than simple clothing.

"That I am. I'm just a simple villager from Estolad going out into the world for only the third time in my life, so the places and creatures about are rather a mystery to me. My name is Allen, by the way...might I ask yours?" he inquired, returning his attention to the girl as the sounds of nature, only slightly familiar to him, began to ring out through the morning light as the mist began to very slowly subside.

Josette. She smiled. Her eyes remanded wary, though, guard up around the stranger. Listening to the short enlightenment on his life, the elf was shocked to hear that he had only traveled from his small, secluded village 3 times out of all his days. Josette being constant traveler, didn’t meet many people, men especially, who sat at home, in one simple town for years at a time.

So, Allen, were exactly have your adventures taken you? Questioning him curiously, wanting know where his assorted journeys had taken him. Observing, she noticed how the man gazed over his shoulder, almost protectively. Following his stare she saw his weapons on lying on the ground like wounded soldiers.

Josette's question as to where he'd been before brought up vivid memories of his other three trips out of Estolad, most notably the first, which had given him a desire, if relatively small, to see more of all that he'd been missing by living a secluded life. It had been to the big city of Lomedor, a transportation mission with two others, and how he'd gotten into it he couldn't recall. Then there was the dragon he'd met, and an escape from a herd not too long afterwards on the third trip out.

"Thus far I've been to Lomedor, assisting on a small transport mission, and getting my first taste of the world outside everything I know, including in the form of bandits, unfortunately," he began, recalling the one that he himself had shot down, an experience that was relatively difficult on him to this day. He hadn't taken the man's life, but he'd harmed him enough to remove his consciousness for a few hours. "After that I travelled alone to the mountains, going so far as to end up meeting a dragon, then the grasslands, which was...an interesting experience, to put it one way."

"And you?" he inquired. "I'm sure you must have been to many places, seen many things. And the deities...I've been rather interested in those since I first heard about their existence in Lomedor."