An auspicious start.

[Escke]

When there's one person, it's quiet. When there's two, it's chatty. When there's three, it's becomes noisy, noisy.

So goes the saying, but when you slap another fourty dozen in there, well, it'd probably be something like the Grand Entrance to Avaren.

Big, wide eyes took in the plethora of people coming and going, busy with their daily activities. Small, worn, and dirty hands clenched and clutched at each other as person after person jostled by, their objective the only thing on each human (and not so human)'s mind. Tired feet barely dodged being trampled by boot here, hoof there, talon there. Talon? What was a bird doing walking around?

Nevermind.

Escke, overwhelmed, took in the sights as they passed the teen by. This didn't help her confused state of mind at all, no sir. She wasn't even sure how anyone could have ended up here, let alone herself. It looked like it was just as crowded down in that center area, too. She sighed. How she was ever going to find her father in a place like this, she didn't know.

It didn't help that every male passing her looked a lot like her father. As if they were all some sort of... non player character. Generic. Standard Issue. Get your Missing Fathers here, discount today, no worries about earning that cliche!

Another sigh, and Escke began her little way through the people passing through the entrance of Avaren. She knew there was a big world out there, but to think there was one right here where she stood was hard to take in. Living with a small family Out There could do that sort of thing to you. Of course, she hadn't lived with her standard issue small country family in over ten years, but that was besides the point.

It wasn't like she could remember those ten plus years.

She supposed it was good that she was in such a big crowd, though. In a place like this, no one looked too closely at who was passing them by, or noticed the tell-tale "ungirly" angle of her jaw bones. No, no one here would bother noticing that her hair was not that natural long hair that girls had, but was actually rather tired looking as it hung about her waist.

She smiled her first smile in this strange new city. What would she find in this place? Her Father? Probably not. A Mate? It's a bit early for that. A Life? Let's see, shall we? An overlong, useless introduction? Well, we've already taken care of that.

Escke held her breath and stepped forward. Now was a time for New Things. Now was a time for Good Things. Now was a time for...

She fumbled as she accidentally stepped on the back of someone's foot, propelling herself forward and straight into their back, smacking her face into them in the process, nearly knocking her out. She fell back, dazed, nearly trampled by some passing animal.

An auspicious start.

[artemis]

Callista, with her black dress and black cloak covering her beautiful features, was passing by with her black stallion following her closely. She didn't sit on his back a lot. The only time, really, was when she needed to get somewhere fast, or probably away from somewhere fast.

Her mind was busy with trying to get through the crowd. At least it was a nice day. Not too hot with a nice breeze to cool the sweat that was dying to get out. She had the hood of her cloak up to shadow her face as always, even during the day it worked nicely.

So long as the breeze didn't become any stronger than it was.

Her long travels had lead her here, in search of her sister. They hadn't seen each other since the tradegy in their old farm house. Callista wasn't even sure if they would ever find each other again, even if twins had a special psychic bond.

When her thoughts continued with what her sister could look like now, they were suddenly interrupted by somebody falling into the back of her, knocking her off balance and stumbling to the ground.

Her stallion, Lupercus, kindly stopped as soon as this collision occured, and lowered his head down to his companion to help her up. Once she was up, with her cloak and dress straightened out, her hood back up and shadowing her face, the stallion carefully took a couple steps back and lowered his head to the girl, offering for her to wrap her arms around his neck so he could help her up.

Callista took a deep breath, and yelled over the noise of the crowd to her, "Hey, are you alright?"

[Escke]

Oh, dear. She was on the ground. That was never a good place to be, especially in a crowd. One could get stomped on, flattened, even get gum in their hair. This was just terrible. But oh, someone was reaching to help her up! How wonderfu-

Oh my god. Escke thought, desperate as the, the, the monster approached her. Big, dead looking eyes. Gigantic nostrils. Gross, oversized hairy lips.

Her savior was a horse.

She was too scared to scream. She was too shocked to run. She almost wet herself. She'd avoided this problem by not focusing very heavily on those big mounts passing her by, but one of those heads popping up by her in an unguarded moment... Well, that was just too much. She hated horses. Hated them.

She shakily brought her arms up to their elbows and tried to push herself away, crawl away, drag her poor body away from this beast.

"Hey, are you alright?"

She heard the voice, and finally it registered. Shakily, not looking anywhere near the horse, she pulled herself up. Her breathing was heavy, deep, scared. It wasn't good that she could be shaken up so easily by something so... simple. She couldn't help it, though. Self conscious, now, she made sure not to make eye-contact with the, the, the monster.

"I'm okay." Her voice was quiet, too quiet for this crowd. Deciding not to try again with a vocal reply, she simply stared at the ground and nodded her head up and down a couple times. She wanted to apologize for smashing into her back, but wasn't sure how to do that in a place like this. Perhaps it was better to lead her somewhere quieter? And she could offer apologies, or-or-or some money, or some kind of special service? She didn't know.

So, shaken up, shy, and nervous, she lifted her head upwards and looked her Assaultee straight in the eye. What should she do now?

[artemis]

Callista frowned at the girl's reaction to the horse. "Oh, I'm very sorry." she pushed the stallion's head away from the girl, and stood between her and the horse. "I didn't mean to scare you, but I promise my horse will not hurt you." she said, trying to comfort her, trying to help her calm down. "I obviously don't know what happened to make you frightened of the creatures, but this stallion wouldn't hurt a fly."

She was at least able to lip-read, so she understood Escke when she said 'I'm okay'. She smiled softly at the girl, then jumped as she realised she hadn't introduced herself, "Oh, my name is Callista." she curtsied, then finally, patiently, waited for the girl's response.