Out in the world (Open)

A young mage girl in a lavish lavender colored robe with a regal black cape stood in front of the small town Windhaven's old wooden gates. She faced the wide open plains that stretched out as far as the eye can see. From here, she could glimpse how the creatures of the land interacted with each other. Nearby, a couple of slimes were hopping around seemingly oblivious to what was going on around them. Further into the horizon, a small group of goblins were gathered around a bonfire. Occasionally, a fairly large turtle with spikes jutting from its back would come into view and cross the dirt roads that led away from the town. Most people would stand in awe at this marvelous miracle of nature at work but not this girl, not Aerolyn Reed.

Now a fully-fledged apprentice mage, Lyn had just recently left home in her pursuit of knowledge. After some wandering, she had stumbled upon this small town of Windhaven mainly out of luck. She spent a couple hours roaming the streets and visiting the inns and taverns and was disappointed. After questioning the people there, Lyn found out that there was no library anywhere in the town. Annoyed that she had wasted valuable time and effort; she had to burn some excess steam.

So, there she stood at the town gates raring to set a few goblins on fire. She followed the path which lay directly in front of her and it didn't take her long to stumble across one of them. Like all goblins, he was ridiculously short and green- skinned. He also wielded a spiked club which had rust forming on its protrusions, probably because of non-usage. Lyn dashed towards the nearby bushes and waited for the goblin to walk-by.

Just my luck. She thought.

When the creature had passed where she was hidden, Lyn slowly crept out of her hiding place and held out her left palm in front of her. After chanting a few words, her eyes brightened up and a spiraling mass of red energy formed in front of her open hand. Three balls of fire flew out and hit the goblin on his back. The force of impact sent him flying a couple of feet away and he landed face down on the ground. A smile curled on Lyn's lips. Too easy

However, it was too early to celebrate. The goblin staggered to its feet and turned his head towards the young mage. His eyes were burning with rage. Without a second thought, he rushed towards Lyn, swinging his club like a madman as he did so. She was in trouble now...

Yvonne was strolling around the forest. She had nothing to do as a couple of minutes ago she had completed her daily archery practice. Now she just looked around the area, just checking if there weren't any lost travelers, evil killers or what more on the loose.

As she walked and walked she heard a noise coming from somewhere. It sounded like a crash or something. Yvonne didn't like that kind of sounds and she quickly started dashing towards that location. Once reaching the destination she was rather surprised. A woman, seemingly older than Yvonne, was fighting a goblin. 'Hmm... She looks like a mage maybe?' thought Yvonne. She had never really seen a magician before but thought that one would look like the one facing the creature.

As the girl was fighting creature alone and seemed to be in little trouble Yvonne decided to help her out. It was hardly when she was going to raise her bow against a forest creature without a reason but this time there was a pretty good one. She needed to help out a traveler, Yvonne didn't want anyone to have bad impression of these areas as it is her home so she quickly drew her bow with an arrow. She placed it on her bow, strongly pulled the string with her right hand and fired her arrow at the exact moment goblin started his attack. As the distance wasn't all that big between Yvonne and the goblin she was able to shoot rather accurately, hitting goblin's wrist that was holding the spiked club. Out of pain the goblin stopped it's attack and dropped it's club. It pulled out the arrow from his hand and wrapped his other arm around the wound to stop the bleeding.

Although it was a perfect opportunity to make a finishing strike Yvonne didn't do it. She wanted to see if woman was going to run away, hit the creature, launch a spell towards it or whatever she was going to do. Yvonne was curious to see what was going to happen now that the woman had perfect chance to strike.

Lyn's muscles tensed as the creature raced towards her in its mad dash, ready to jump to the side and avoid the goblin's rampage, but before he even got close, an unexpected turn of events took place. Lyn's sensitive ears picked up a short but shrill sound of something whizzing through the air. Immediately after, she saw an arrow pierce the goblin's wrist, making the creature let go of his weapon. Lyn examined his face as it winced in pain, trying to stop the bleeding, and took delight in the creature's misery.

Seeing an opportunity to take down the monster for good, she extended her hand once more towards the creature and began another chant. This time, however, a blue mass of energy swirled in front of her palm growing in size as it turned the surrounding water vapor in the air back into its liquid state. As Lyn's eyes met with the goblin's, a waterball flew at the goblin at bone shattering speed and knocked him to the ground once more. This time, the creature didn't get up. If it was dead or just unconscious, it didn't matter to Lyn.

She then turned her attention to the other issue at hand.

She shifted her gaze towards the direction the arrow came from and saw a girl wielding a bow just a couple of feet away. By the way she was holding her weapon, the archer still seemed to be quite a novice; she just got a lucky shot, so Lyn thought. Lyn eyed the other girl from head to toe trying to intimidate her. When the girl didn't budge, she straightened up her posture and glared directly into the her eyes. Still with her body facing away from the newcomer, Lyn began to speak. "What do you want?" She said coldly with almost no emotion in her voice.

A slight smile appeared on Yvonne's face as her thoughts had been right. The person was a mage, still she was pretty amazed by the power mage before her possessed, creating a pretty devastating attack out of nowhere. Yvonne didn't really know if all mages had that kind of ability but as the girl seemed somewhat cold towards her she didn't feel like asking it. She attached her small wooden bow tightly on her back again. Yvonne didn't really think that she and the mage were going to fight so she pretty much let her guard down.

"Well, I thought that I should help you out as it pretty much seemed like you were going to take a hit." the girl's voice wasn't the most friendliest. Once she had asked her question she quickly turned her eyes towards the goblin, glaring it's body. 'I wonder if it's dead. I hope it isn't,' thought the girl as she once again turned her eyes towards the mange and took some steps forward. She reached out her hand for a friendly handshake, young woman had seen some people doing it so she thought it was polite. "Do you need any directions? By the way I am Yvonne."

Young woman didn't really smile widely as she normally would when meeting a new person. It was mostly because of the cold tone she used against her earlier, still Yvonne was somewhat interested in a couple of things such as how mages cast their spells, what to they do and pretty basic stuff, so somehow she managed to slightly smile and put on a friendly face.

Lyn kept her eyes fixated on the ranger as she approached, watching every move she made for any sign of trickery. For all she knew, the person who "saved" her was a bandit looking for someone to victimize. Lyn didn't want to take her chances. She had just recently started her journey and she didn't have much with her at the moment. Being mugged now would make it extremely hard for her to go on. Before she got too close for comfort, the ranger stopped and extended her hand towards Lyn. The bowman had introduced herself as Yvonne and asked her if she needed directions. Still quite wary of Yvonne's motives, she continued to keep a straight face even though the other girl tried to be cordial with her.

"Funny, I don't recall shouting for help." Lyn said as she leaned on her staff. "And I am perfectly capable of finding my way back thank you."

Suddenly, Lyn heard a rustle from the nearby bush behind the archer. Her eyes widened at what she saw. Three more goblins jumped out from behind the foliage and they didn't look quite happy. They were shouting things in a language of their own and they seemed quite belligerent. All of a sudden, one of them pointed its finger to the dead or unconscious goblin lying on the ground a few feet away from the pair. They gnashed their teeth and began to charge.

As the goblins came closer, Lyn sidestepped to her right to avoid hitting Yvonne with the spell she was about to cast. She once again raised her left arm and began a chant. A familiar red mass of heat formed in front of her palm and three balls of fire launched at the approaching goblins. Two of the projectiles had hit their mark and two of the goblins were knocked back a few feet, however the third one had somehow managed to dodge and was now only a few steps away from Lyn. With her right arm, she held her staff in front of her and faced the approaching goblin. If he swung his club, Lyn would be ready to block. Through her peripheral vision, she saw that the other two goblins were starting to regain their balance. Drops of sweat began to form on Lyn's brow. She and the ranger were in a pinch now.

Tsk...Not good...

Young woman was somewhat annoyed by her "companion's" reply. She actually shot a creature with her arrow and now she said that she didn't need any help. Although Yvonne was already hearing the noises in bushes she didn't pay much attention to them. As she had lived a long life in the forest she knew what those kind of sounds meant though but she felt like giving more attention to the mage standing before her. 'How evil woman,' thought the girl. Her head was full of thoughts, not only about the mage she was still somewhat curious what was running around in the bush. She heard some animals, a two or three, doing something behind her. As most of the creatures around that area were rather friendly she didn't feel like anything bad was going to happen so she felt like saying her opinion to mage.

"I thin ..." wanted the girl to start speaking but was canceled by mage's sudden movement, her jumping to Yvonne's left and readying her hand the way she had shot the waterball looking blast. On reflex the young girl turned around. She noted three goblins who seemed rather mad about their bro laying on the ground. 'Goblin's companions?' thought the girl. She watched as two fireballs hit their marks. For a second she quickly turned her head towards the mage, 'Guess that there is no way of leaving this spot peacefully now.' ran trough the girl's head. Once again she equipped her left hand with her wooden bow but before equipping it with an arrow she saw the mage being attacked again. For a moment she sighted and quickly used her right hand to grab a dagger attached to her left leg, throwing it towards the attacking goblin. "This is the last time I help you out!" shouted the girl, 'And if you don't say thanks it will be the last time,' proceeded Yvonne in her mind. The dagger hit goblin's mid section but as Yvonne's strength wasn't the greatest it didn't do much damage. The goblin didn't stop it's attack aswell, still his attacking power seemed to be way weaker.

As the young girl knew that she would have to take down two goblins on the ground sooner or later so she drew an arrow and fired it towards one of the goblins with her bow. She did three sequential shots in a row all aimed for the same goblin. As it had taken a fireball and three of Yvonne's arrows it didn't really feel like it was going to get up so the woman was readying for another shot already.

A dagger came flying from the Yvonne's wrist and impaled the goblin rushing towards Lyn in the chest. Blood started to drip from its midsection and it grimaced in pain. It let out a wail and rage began to apparent in its eyes. However, the knife didn't go deep enough to do any real harm and was only a minor inconvenience to the creature. It did however slow it down slightly giving the mage some extra time to prepare. Lyn's eyes darted to the young girl still as cold as before. Was she expecting some form of gratitude? If Yvonne was, she'd have a really harm time getting it from her.

Lyn saw that Yvonne had pummeled one of the goblins, that was hit with a fireball, with arrows that it didn't look like it was going to get up anytime soon. It lay motionless on the ground like it's other unfortunate companion. This time however, it was most definitely dead. Nothing could survive that many hits and still be alive; the arrows would pierce more than one vital internal organ.

The mage's attention was brought back to the goblin directly in front of her. While she was observing the ranger's actions, it had gotten close enough for a strike. It stood in front of her raising its club in the air. As it brought the bludgeon it wielded down in an attempt to maim Lyn's leg, the mage used the lower end of her staff to block it. The two weapons made a loud thump as they collided and and Lyn felt a faint sting on her leg. When she looked down, the club had hit her leaving a bruise, although, the damage would have been much worse if she hadn't blocked.

The mage cursed and with her free hand took the knife impaled in the goblin's chest by its hilt and jammed in deeper into the creature. It wailed once again as it let go of its club in pain and Lyn saw her chance to counter-attack. She swung her staff at the creature's head and Lyn could have sworn she heard a couple of bones break when she did so. The goblin flew to the side with blood gushing out from its chest. It was dead.

There was movement and Lyn saw that the last goblin was already on its feet, this time, rushing for the ranger. For a moment, the mage contemplated leaving the bowman to fend for herself but strangely, decided against it. She had to admit, the ranger had been great help so far. If Yvonne was expecting some form of gratitude, it would be this. Ignoring the mild pain coming from her left leg, Lyn raised her hand and pointed it towards the last enraged goblin. A waterball sprung forth and hit the goblin square in the chest. Once again it was knocked back a few feet and fell face first towards the ground. Although it was already badly injured and was in no condition to fight, the monster still struggled to stand but each time it got to its feet, it's knees wobbled and gave way. It was a pathetic sight to behold and Lyn scoffed at the creature.

The mage slowly walked towards the goblin corpse on the side and pulled out the dagger that was impaled in its chest. As she removed it, more blood spewed out of the creature and quite a sizable puddle of red liquid formed around it. Lyn then proceeded to make her way towards the creature stumbling to get on its feet. As she passed by Yvonne, she placed one arm on the girl's shoulder and began to speak. "I said I didn't need any help." After a moment, Lyn stood in front of the goblin seemed to loom over it like a specter. The creature, in a last ditch effort to save its life, tried to swing its club once more but it lacked the strength to do so. Each time it was able to lift its weapon from the ground, its arms gave way and it fell to the ground once more. "Pitiful," Lyn said.

She was going to put the creature out of its misery, using the ranger's dagger to do so. She raised her arm in an attempt to bring to weapon crashing into the goblin's skull. If Yvonne didn't do anything soon, the creature would die just like its companions.

Once again, after Yvonne had killed a creature she closed her eyes for a second. She had done so much fighting in the past few days so she felt pretty bad. She revealed her down attitude by believing that this was done to save the mage woman though. Still Yvonne had already loaded her bow with another arrow. She wasn't going to shoot it just yet though. She quickly turned her eyes away from the corpse towards the mage and goblin she was fighting. Her eyes were now bind by their fight. She was keeping an eye on woman's movements pretty closely, trying to make sense what kind of physical and close fighting abilities would a mage posses.

She examined every move goblin and the mage made. She had to admit that the mage handled the situation pretty good, of course not as successfully as a full fledged warrior would but still pretty good. A faint smile appeared on her face for a second when the woman had used her dagger to deal some damage to goblin. Once the fight between those two had ended she still found the mage pretty cruel. She started to wonder if all the adventurers were killing creatures emotionlessly but then again who was she to judge. Yvonne herself had killed some creatures.

As the young woman had been in a deep though arguing what life really was she didn't even notice the goblin coming after her life. Still, as the mage woman was preparing to shoot another spell, it was like a wakeup call for Yvonne. Because of mage's cold personality for a second Yvonne thought that she had been the target but from her eye corner she saw a green midget running towards her. She quickly turned herself towards the creature and shot her arrow when at the moment of releasing it the water ball made contact with the goblin, sending it flying few feet. The arrow itself flew somewhere in a tree. Paying little attention to the arrow she turned her face towards the goblin who was struggling to get up and somehow defend itself. Yvonne's face softened up, she didn't see goblin much of a threat anymore so she sheathed her bow.

She decided to start walking towards the girl but for her surprise the woman had already starting to pass her with Yvonne's own dagger in her hand. As the woman put one of her hands in Yvonne's shoulder young woman reached out her hand, hoping to finally get her gratitude and a dagger but for her surprise she got a pair of cold words. She was somewhat pissed but decided to stay quiet about it, after all the girl had saved her from taking a hit or two by shooting a waterball at the goblin.

Yvonne turned her head towards the woman who was now spectating the goblin on the ground. She heard woman mumbling something and noted how she raised the dagger. Only conclusion she managed to come up was that she was about to kill the goblin with Yvonne's dagger. On instinct she quickly rushed towards the girl and when the dagger had already fell half way trough she grabbed mage's hand, stopping the dagger from crashing down. "Isn't there enough bloodshed for today?" asked the girl from the mage. She watched directly into woman's eyes, trying to read any type of emotion out from them. "Although it is very weak right now it should heal after some time so you don't really need to kill it off." Yvonne didn't really believe her words, the goblin would die anyways, probably becoming a food for other creatures because of it's weak body but she just felt like she needed to do something to make herself feel better.

Before the deadly deed could be accomplished, a hand reached out and grabbed Lyn's own. The mage looked to her left and her eyes once again met with the ranger's. She listened as the other girl tried to reason against killing-off the remaining goblin. When Yvonne had finished speaking, Lyn turned her head away from the girl and wrestled her hand free from her grip. She dropped the dagger directly in front of the ranger's feet and with her other hand, pointed a finger at the creature suffering on the ground. "Look, stare long and hard at it." The mage turned her head and faced the goblin. The creature seemed to be in quite a lot of pain. It's face contorted and winced each time it took a breath. Most likely, its lungs were ruptured due to the impact with Lyn's waterball. "Don't lie to yourself," the mage said with a hint of annoyance in her voice. "We both know that thing's gonna die anyway. Do you really want to prolong its suffering?" Lyn paused for a moment as a gust of wind blew suddenly. When it died down, she leaned towards Yvonne and whispered something in her ear. "How cold are you?"

Lyn was starting to feel her left leg throb from the goblin's strike a few moments ago. She looked around the surrounding area for a bit and spotted a nearby tree just a couple of feet behind the ranger. She walked slowly towards it and sat down, the leaves above shielding her from the sun's rays. She rested her back against its trunk and proceeded to roll up the left side of her robe to see just how much damage the goblin had done to her. Although the bruise was fairly large, it didn't look too bad. She had to give Yvonne some credit though. If she hadn't stabbed the goblin with her dagger, the wound it inflicted would have been much worse.

Lyn sighed. It looked like she'd be staying here for a while, near the vicinity of Windhaven, at least until she was well enough to walk long distances again...

She looked once more at the figure of the ranger in front of her and honestly, Lyn was curious to see how she would react to what she had said. Would she kill the creature herself or would she let it die slowly. She also wondered whether Yvonne would wander off and leave her or whether she would stay and once again attempt to strike a conversation with her. Lyn shrugged her shoulders and focused her attention back at her injury. She touched it with her finger but immediately jerked it away when she felt the pain it caused. Damn it...

As she calmly listened to woman's words she got more and more confused. Her eyes were switching from woman to goblin back and forth. After the mage's last whisper the girl had made her mind up. She was cold, cold against the creature only simply trying to protect her pride. It was amazing what people could do to another by simply speaking few sentences, specially if those sentences are true. Her eyes stopped on the dagger mage had thrown in front of her and they staid on it. She raised her head for a moment to see where the mage was going. Yvonne's eyes followed her walking up to a tree. From mage's walk Yvonne noted that her leg seemed to be hurt, well she was hit by goblin's strike and Yvonne somewhat already suspected that they hadn't had the strongest of bodies. Yvonne didn't react much to woman's leg though, her head was already full of thoughts. As she calmly watched woman sit under the tree once again she turned her eyes towards the dagger.

Yvonne's eyes glided on a goblin for a second again. She wanted to see if maybe there was a way out, maybe the goblin wasn't going to die but saw that it was in deep pain. As she had already made up her mind earlier she picked up the dagger one the ground. Her hands were slightly shaking as she did it. Once dagger was picked up she walked up to goblin's left side and watched it. She also wrapped her other hand around the dagger and hit it downwards, aiming goblin's heart. Just before the impact she closed her eyes but felt how dagger graved deep into goblin's body. The goblin made one last scream of pain when suddenly it went quiet. Yvonne opened her eyes, it was somewhat interesting what she saw. The goblin's face seemed revealed. Young girl pulled out her dagger and closed creature's eyes. She struck her dagger into ground the clean it and then pulled it out, sheathing it again. It was funny how she felt. She had killed creatures before to stay alive but this time it seemed to be somewhat special.

She turned her body towards mage's. "It is strange," started Yvonne speaking, "I think I have helped you out and waited to hear thanks from you this whole battle but now I feel like I must thank you." Yvonne started walking towards the mage with a slight smile on her face, "Thank You." said young woman. She wasn't going to add the reason she thanked the mage for, she just felt like thanking her. Once again mage's leg gained Yvonne's attention. As she was now pretty close to the mage once again she reached out her hand, "Would you like me to take you somewhere you could rest?" asked the woman, "By the way I am Yvonne. What's your name?" kept Yvonne speaking. Mage's name never really reached ranger's ears.

From where she was sitting, Lyn could see the side of the ranger's face and saw that it reflected deep contemplation. Yvonne was thinking about something and the young mage assumed that she was questioning her moral stance on the issue at hand. Lyn's eyes were still fixated on the other girl as she picked up the dagger on the ground, taking note of how much she was trembling. When she approached the goblin and got into a position to stab the knife, a small smirk formed at the side of Lyn's lips; her words had gotten through to the archer. A short shrill scream resonated and hung in the air for quite some time as Yvonne's dagger pierced through the goblin's chest. As Lyn saw the creature's body go limp, she let out a yawn and looked at her injury once more. She wasn't concerned with what the ranger did after she killed the beast.

The mage had expected Yvonne to leave after she had freed the goblin from its misery and was shocked to hear her voice. Wide-eyed, Lyn watched her walk towards where she sat. When she stood over her, the archer did the strangest thing, she thanked her. Lyn stared at Yvonne with a confused look on her face. She had hardly done anything that had reciprocated this remark from the ranger. In fact, she was the one who was supposed to do the thanking, not Yvonne. A few moments later, the other girl had offered to take Lyn to a place to rest and introduced herself yet again. She probably thought that the mage hadn't heard her the first time.

From all that had happened so far, Lyn concluded that this woman wasn't a bandit. If she was, she would have forcefully tried to take her belongings a long time ago. Although, the mage was still questioning Yvonne's motives. Why was she acting all cordial and friendly around her? Maybe she just wanted to make friends, however, this possibility was totally blocked-off from Lyn's mind due to her innately cynical nature.

"Ye-yes, I already know your name," Lyn said in her usual cold and distant tone of voice although stammering a bit when she began to speak. Ignoring the ranger's outstretched hand, she began to stand up by herself, using the tree trunk as support. Then, to prevent herself from falling down, the mage leaned on her wooden staff. She would also use this as a walking stick.

Right now, Lyn didn't have much of a choice. If she had opted to stay there, more goblins might arrive and the situation would turn dire. Also, she couldn't possibly walk back to Windhaven in the condition she was in. Going where Yvonne was taking her would ensure that she'd at least be safe for the time being.

"Who I am isn't important but if you insist, you can just call me..." Lyn's voice trailed off as she thought of the right pseudonym to give the ranger, "Caster."

Yvonne kept glaring the mage, examining most of her movements. She seemed to be arguing about something in her mind but Yvonne wasn't really good at reading people's emotions so she didn't really start trying to figure out what she was thinking. Young archer calmly listened to woman had to say, then she remembered that she really had introduced herself in the beginning. As the woman tried standing up on herself Yvonne's smile disappeared. Once again the mage hadn't accepted her hand so she quickly raised it towards her face, watching if it was dirty or something. It had a fresh bloodstain on it but nothing more. She started rubbing it with her other hand, getting them more and more redish until she ended up getting little pissed and drying them in her amour.

She then quickly turned her attention back to mage who had already stood up, leaning on her stick. She examined it, thinking if it boosted up her spell power but the thought disappeared when the mage finally introduced herself as caster. Yvonne was somewhat disappointed that the mage didn't entrust her real name to her but at least now she had a name to call her by. "So ... Caster, I am going to take you to my home for a little rest." Yvonne didn't really wait for reply and started walking off in the opposite direction she had came from. She walked down to a faint pretty narrow trail. She started walking it pretty slowly so the mage would catch up to her. At least she had something to do. At her free time Yvonne trod the trail so it would be more comfortable for caster to walk, also throwing off some bigger branches.

She kept on walking for some time, a pretty short distance till she finally came up to a clearing. The ground was pretty flat but although Yvonne walked there every day the grass was still beautiful and soft. The creatures didn't come around that area since it is surrounded by special plants that's smell most of creatures hated, still humans or beings close to them could barely smell it. On the clearing there was a small cave. Once she was almost at the cave she looked back, watching if the caster still had followed her. Although her leg was injured she still had kept up with archer which made her pretty happy. She pointed her finger towards the cave, "Here." The cave's inside wasn't very dark, it had several small holes in the ceiling so the sunlight would shine trough it, revealing a little self made bed covered with leaves to make it soft, a ring made out of rocks where Yvonne made a bonfire. There were also two books next to the bed, "Archery for beginners," and "Philosophy of Life." As Yvonne couldn't read she didn't care about the second one at all since it had no pictures in it, still the Archery book was nicely illustrated. Basically it wasn't much of a home but had everything Yvonne needed for living there.

The pair made their way through the windy field, the nearby monsters minding their own business ignoring them. The slimes were busy converging near a nearby fruit bearing tree while some spiked back turtles just watched as Lyn and Yvonne passed by. They didn't run into any more goblins which was lucky for them. The ranger had led Lyn down a narrow trail. Despite her minor injury, she was able to get through it with almost no problem mostly because Yvonne had intentionally slowed down for her. They reached a clearing and Lyn could see that there was a cave nearby. At first she was reluctant to go in, once again having second thoughts about the ranger's motives. She contemplated turning around and walking away but she knew she wouldn't get very far. With no other choice, Lyn walked into the cave.

The sight that greeted the mage was one she wasn't expecting. The only light that entered the cave came from the several small holes that were punctured in the ceiling. There was only one major piece of furniture Lyn could see, a self-constructed bed made of wood and leaves. There were also a few medium-sized rocks in the cave that could be used as chairs. It didn't look much like a home but who was she to judge how other people live?

Lyn slowly made her way to the ranger's bed and sat on it's edge. Her eyes then wandered the caves interior once more when they eventually fell on the sight of two books that were placed just beside where she sat. She picked up both of them and flipped through their pages. The first one, was a manual about archery, something that didn't quite appeal to Lyn. She closed the book and placed it back down and picked up the other one. The Philosophy of Life ehh? The mage briefly skimmed through its first few pages, stopping occasionally when a particular passage piqued her interest. After a few minutes of reading, Lyn's eyes darted to Yvonne's. Holding up the book, she said in her usual tone of voice, "What do you think of this?"

As Yvonne's eyes trailed the mage she calmly started thinking, 'I wonder who she is.' Yvonne noted that the mage had taken interest in one of her books and it seemed like she started reading it. As Caster seemed to actually start reading it Yvonne decided not to speak for some time, who knows. Maybe if she would say something the mage would turn back into her cold personality. Ranger rested her back against the rocky cave wall and started watching the mage. Just now when she had gotten a longer look on the woman she noticed that she was actually an elf or at least elf like creature. Yvonne assumed that by Caster's ears. After a minute or so she stopped thinking about it though, it seemed too much of a bother to put another troublesome thought in her head.

As some more minutes passed Yvonne became rather bored. Suddenly she heard Caster speaking, actually asking her a question. Ranger quickly turned her head towards the woman and saw she was still holding that one book. As she two seconds what to say she finally spoke, "It should be good to start a fire ..." Yvonne was the type of barbarian who didn't care about books with no pictures at all. She started walking towards Caster, once next to bed she sat on it and peeked on what page the mage was at, trying to somehow find out if she was interested or bored of the book. She leaned her head more towards Caster's, glaring her ears with a little bit of thirsty look. Yvonne wanted to touch them. With a little bit quieter voice she spoke again, "You see, I don't really care about books." She wasn't going to add that she was a person who couldn't read, after all Yvonne didn't want Caster to think of her as a complete idiot.

Lyn eyed the woman as Yvonne made her way towards her. The ranger stood in front of her and looked at the page she was on. Her eyes scanned it for a few seconds before she straightened up once again. Then, she told Lyn that she didn't really like books in particular. The mage shrugged her shoulders and set the book down on top of the other one. Why Yvonne didn't want to talk about the book, Lyn didn't care. She had her reasons and Lyn didn't feel like prying into her head right now.

A small breeze blew into the cave which caused the mage to shiver. The walls that surrounded this place acted like an insulator that reflected the sun's heat and blocked out its rays. Needless to say, it was quite cool inside the cave. From what she had said earlier, Yvonne was planning to make a fire. Lyn's eyes shifted to the small circle of stones which were blackened at the inner side. This was most likely where the ranger made her fires. She also noticed another thing, there was no firewood inside the cave. This meant that Yvonne would have to go out and get some. It would take time for the ranger to do this task and Lyn didn't want to wait; another breeze blew which caused her to shiver yet again.

The mage held out her left hand palm face up and closed her eyes to concentrate. A mass of heat started of materialize and swirl around in a contained circular shape suspended above her hand. When it had grown to a suitable size, Lyn opened her eyes and tossed it lightly in the air. It floated slowly towards the circle of stones on the ground and suspended itself in mid-air once it had reached its center. The flame would last for about an hour before it burned itself out.

Lyn sat staring at the flickering flame for quite some time when her sensitive ears twitched and picked up movement from nearby, just beyond the border of the clearing. It sounded like six to eight pairs of feet walking. It was most likely another group of goblins looking for them. They had after all killed off quite a number of their brethren. Even though Yvonne had said that monsters usually avoided this place due to the nearby scent of the flowers, Lyn had a feeling that a search party wouldn't leave any stone unturned. If the group nearby were goblins, would they attack? or wouldn't they? Only time would tell...

[Sorry, I am very busy these days, barely found time to post.]

Yvonne, still thinking if she should touch caster's ears or not didn't pay much attention to mage's movements. Yvonne was already used to cold weather and she didn't even notice the small breeze. while still looking at mage's ears with thirsty look she calmly started raising her hand, slowly making it's way towards the ear. She didn't notice much going around her but once a red flash brighted up the scenery a little it caught her attention. She looked how mage had casted another spell this time making fire. 'Spells really are quite useful,' thought young woman for a second. She didn't let the thing bother her much though and quickly moved her eyes back to elf's ears. After caster's ears twitched Yvonne snapped ... She moved her hand towards mage's ear and softly pinched it with both her index and middle finger

[It's aight >.< I iz busy too]

Lyn sensed something in the room she was in, something more dangerous then the goblins just beyond the outskirts of their abode. The air had become heavy all of a sudden and she started to grow uncomfortable. Her eyes met with the ranger's once again, and this time, they shone with a hint of yearning, almost like desire. An instant later, the other girl brought her cold fingers towards Lyn's left ear, the mage, too shocked to do anything. Yvonne pinched at them lightly and Lyn blushed somewhat.
Unable to control herself, Lyn swatted the ranger's hand away.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!" She screamed out loud.

Her ears twitched once more and the mage quickly darted her eyes towards the direction of the entrance of the cave. She could hear footsteps come close and stop just before they entered. They had heard her. Most likely, they had pinched their noses as not to smell the horrible scent of the flowers that only monsters could smell. She stood up from where she sat, although she struggled to keep her balance. She turned her head towards the ranger and whispered in her ear. "6 of them, at the entrance."

A few moments passed and it appeared that the goblins were reluctant in entering the cave. If the two of them could stay quiet enough, hopefully the monsters would leave...

For a second, after Caster had yelled at her, young ranger felt a feeling pretty close to being scared but she quickly managed to shake it away. Her eyes calmly followed as the mage stood up and whispered in her ears. The only thing she could come up with was that there were six persons or creatures near the cave. Her feeling was proven when she aswell heard the noises. Yvonne glared the mage for a second and noticed that she tried to stay as quiet as possible, from that she read out that she probably didn't want them to be heard. 'They are probably creatures... No way I can take on six of any creatures that live in this forest.' thought the young girl. The mage wasn't most reliable person at the time aswell. Yvonne wanted to say to caster that she should sit down at the time being, right now she looked pretty weak and maybe she could even fall down and create some noise which once again would have some of its own consequences.

Although Yvonne couldn't read nor write she was still smart enough, knowing what would happen if the creatures would find them ... well if they had hostile plans at least. The ranger wasn't going to take that risk though and just in case to prevent any chance of mage falling down she took a hold of one mage's shoulder. For a second a little scary thought hit her head though. Caster didn't seem to like being touched and Yvonne thought that she might go screaming around again. On reflex she quickly but quietly mumbled, "Sorry." Hoping that her actions didn't cause any trouble she quickly made her eyes look at the entrance of the cave. 'If they were able to pass the plants then they must have pinched their noses or simply plugged them with something.' thought the girl. If their noses would be pinched the archer and mage would gain little advantage because goblins could only fight with one hand, still he hoped that the situation didn't lead to a fight. After all the cave was somewhat small, it wasn't the best place for long ranged such as a mange and ranger to fight in.