Lost in the Woods (Nairore)

[Nairore]

x x

Traveling for all of his childhood. Nairore thought back to those brief conversations she had with her father about the day he had found her. Her mother had been with a tribe of bandits who kept on the move, Zenethil said she had been at least a couple years old, though she had no memory of traveling whatsoever. Had they really been attacked because they were bandits? Perhaps that campaign had been in search of the one male Gerudo, an attempt to snuff him out early? There was a lot of secrecy among the Hylians where Merik was involved, at least when she searched. It was obviously because of her blood.

He actively admitted to robbing a caravan, at least once. Of course she knew there were more, but the flippant manner with which he said so. Famine? It was a matter of survival. Was it okay to rob if you needed the supplies, the money, more than the person you were robbing? Trade caravans were run by rich merchants, and they carried much less than a good supply ship. Of course then there was the concern of pirates, but that didn't involve Merik anyway. Was it right to rob? And was it right to deny a civilization freedom to exist? Zenethil had always insisted that the Hylians would have helped had the Gerudo opened up diplomatically, but Nairore couldn't see why Merik wouldn't take that route if he could.

When he finished talking she merely grunted in acknowledgement. She didn't know what else to say. She didn't even know where the question had come from in the first place. Nairore's mind was quickly becoming a foreign place to her and she didn't like that. Instead of thinking too much on it she turned her focus back to the stars once again, this time setting out to find constellations her father had taught her and try some basic navigation techniques. She couldn't remember exactly how they went, but it was a welcome distraction for the split second she tried it.

"I'm not some lost sheep you can shepherd back to your flock, you know that, right?" she said, once more experiencing her mind as a foreign place. She had always been a black sheep, as it were, a stranger in every community she tried to exist in. Among the Knights, among the Hylians, even in Castle Town itself. She was desert kin, she didn't belong in civilization, so they said. Yet even if she were shepherded back to the flock by Merik, she would still be the black sheep.

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[Merik Dragmire]

"You aren't a sheep but you are lost Nairore, a blind man could see that." Merik said sincerely as he moved to sit against a tree.

It was clear that the girl was confused about her place in the world, he had seen it with many hybrids and though she wasn't one physically, mentally she was the child of two very different worlds. She wouldn't be able to find peace of mind until she sorted out the truth of her situation and unfortunately it was something that he could only do so much to help with. Zenethil had raised her under one truth and the King could do little more than to offer her his own truths.

"You're a wolf and in time you'll find your own way to where you belong."

[Nairore]

x x

A wolf? No, that wasn't an apt metaphor. Wolves lived in packs, worked together to hunt their prey, to survive. Nairore had always been alone, and a lone wolf doesn't survive. Nor had she ever a pack to begin with, not that she would recognize. Brilliant blue eyes closed as she bored with the stars, their meanings as obscure as the direction her life was taking her. Yet this was her choice, she had chosen to go this way, so was life really to blame? She was so confused about herself as of late, though this was the first time she even allowed part of that confusion to be visible to Merik.

She was a sheep and merely traveled from herd to herd, shepherded one way or the other. She didn't think for herself, she worked toward her betterment to please others. What would happen when she reached her goal, when she was the best? Where would she go from there? Back to her father, back to being shepherded around as he saw fit. Yet if she stayed she'd merely be shipped about as Merik saw fit. He was training her, she owed her life to the man, and knew that every day she went to bed at night she owed it to him further.

She also found it easier to go to sleep at night around him. Was that trust building where it shouldn't? It was hard not to come to trust the man you were traveling with when it was just the two of you. She knew she shouldn't be, yet it was all for the best, right? And even in the face of her trust he spoke lies to her, telling her she wasn't a sheep when he was clearly trying to move her, to gather her up with the rest of his flock. Even at her own insistence.

"Why did you agree to train me, then? What's in it for you?" she asked, the third of a set of seemingly unrelated questions, connected only by Nairore's own thoughts. It just seemed too convenient, too fortunate that she would bump into Merik like that, that he would spare her life and even agree to train her all for nothing. Gerudo were bandits, they reveled in riches, no? Yet what was he gaining from this experience?

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[Merik Dragmire]

Merik was silent again for longer than before and longer still until it seemed he might have fallen asleep against that tree when he finally shrugged.

"I can't say for certain...I think initially it might have been just to prove you wrong." he said, feeling a little cruel for saying it aloud. "Right from the start you were ready to throw your life away to try and kill me. Your father painted a picture of me, of our people, so vivid that you never had need to question it until I defeated you and let you live. When you asked for me to train you it was a chance to show you the way I really am, something that very few have ever been able to see. You'd know me better than your father ever could and maybe next time we fought you'd at least be able to judge me for yourself."

He reached back around the tree, feeling his limbs stretch as he spat out more blood. His gaze drifted to Nairore and rested upon her for a few seconds before he closed his eyes and waited.

[Nairore]

x x

Merik's answer was far from what Nairore was expecting, but then who ever expects to have their world view questioned so bluntly? Her eyes opened again, just a crack, and through her long lashes she stared up at the moon high above. What must it be like to be the moon, to go about your routine and have your purpose in life. It rose each evening and it set each morning, without fail, even if it couldn't always be seen. Everyone looked up to it, nobody ever saw it as out of place despite it being a giant glowing rock in the sky. In a way she could envy the moon.

She let out an audible sigh, then rolled onto her side so that she could see the King of Thieves where he sat on the other side of the fire. He was definitely not the same man her father had always hyped him to be. An evil tyrant, and dictator, who ran his people hard, forced them into a life as bandits. She had never questioned it, and now she had to wonder why. Had she been so naive to believe a man like that would even be hailed as a leader? He was simply looking out for his people, that's how she was starting to see it.

Her vibrant blue eyes flickered in the firelight as she stared at him. She didn't care if he noticed her staring. "You're not as evil as I had been told you were," she said solemnly, probably the closest thing to a compliment she'd ever uttered, the nicest thing she'd even said around Merik since they'd been traveling, for what it was worth. She knew her father would be remarkably angry if he ever heard those words when referring to Merik, but she was learning first hand that her father's truth wasn't always right.

"Maybe I won't try to kill you when this is all over," she said flippantly, a lazy attempt at humor as she reached to the supplies behind her and pulled out a blanket, setting it easily over her figure while keeping an eye on Merik the entire time.

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[Merik Dragmire]

"I live my life, I don't apologize to take care of my family. I killed men, and I ordered men to be killed; I've robbed and stolen to ensure the betterment of my people. The world isn't black and white... there are bad men who do good things and some good men who do great evil." Merik said seriously, feeling Nairore's eyes on him but keeping his own shut for the time being.

One of his eyelids opened lazily at the sound of her digging through her pack. Gold met Sapphire and locked with it as his other eye opened to join it's twin.

"You'll have to put a lot more effort into training if you'd like to even have a chance to try and kill me." he said with a quiet laugh as he reached for one of his packs and slipped it between the tree and his head. "Or maybe I'll just let you walk away with your life again."

[Nairore]

x x

When their eyes locked a shiver ran over her body. Nairore pulled the blanket to, as if she were cold, although the fire was doing its job warming her as she lay there. Her eyes lingered on his for just a moment before she found she couldn't hold the contact anymore and they drifted away, back down to where the flame lay not too far from her position. So carefree, dancing endlessly into the night. Such a vibrant glow, like youth filled with energy radiating from the flame.

After a moment her eyes found their way back to Merik, daring the trek from flame to man after the sensation that had washed over her previously. She still didn't know what to make of the shiver. Perhaps it had only been that. She looked up at him, resting there so confidently. His words were determined, he knew what he was talking about, like a practiced speech. It reminded her of her father in a strange way, that vehement single-mindedness for his cause.

Yet when she thought about it, there was a drastic contrast. Merik sought preservation and life, while her father sought blood and destruction. She knew her father was a good man, she knew it, but he was so set in his ways that he did not see the evil in his acts like she saw now. That last campaign she had run with him, the village, ran back through her mind. The slaughter of all those people. Surely there had to be a better way, her father was a healer by trade. They were not bad people, yet he had ordered them all killed because they were 'tainted'.

Wasn't she 'tainted' as well, born Gerudo. Perhaps the only reason she was even alive was because she had spent her entire life compliant to the man's every wish. He had given her so much so that she would listen mindlessly, treat his word as law. But this man was her father, she couldn't think like that. Those thoughts weren't hers, were they? Was Merik simply working his own wiles, brainwashing her like he claimed her father had? "I am so confused," she admitted into her blanket, not intending to say it out loud yet at the same time finding the words coming from her own voice oddly comforting. No matter what happened, she was still herself.

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[Merik Dragmire]

Merik watched fighting back a grin and laughter as he saw the shiver pass through Nairore that he knew had nothing to do with the temperature. He held her gaze a little longer before she looked away and then he took the opportunity to smirk for a second. Soon enough he found that her eyes were creeping back to him.

"It makes sense that you're confused, what you know is coming to blows with what you're learning and you're going to have to sort the truth out from the whole."

He reached into his pack and dug around before pulling out his own blanket and tossing it over to her.

"You should have told me you were getting cold earlier; not that I'm surprised seeing as you were hardly able to dry off after your trip up stream."

[Nairore]

x x

Nairore couldn't help but scoff at his words. It was an understatement, to say the least. Whether she'd been indoctrinated or not, what she had before was comfortable, safe. She was good at what she did and didn't need to think much beyond that. Had she been a tool? Probably, but she couldn't know that, and that was what was so infuriating. Seeing the other side like this made her question motives, action, made her question everything that had once been comfortable, and it left her scrambling for something to hold on to.

Anything.

She saw his blanket fly through the air and land not too far from her. Close enough to reach if she wanted it, as his words implied, but she knew exactly what he was doing. He was trying to give her a way out, to allow her to save face. He had seen the shiver and he had noticed how she had tried to hide it. But the fact that he had seen it meant there was no point in hiding it. His offer was gracious, but it contradicted itself. She stared at the blanket and made no move to take it. "I'm not cold," she said simply, casting away any attempt at illusion.

And then she laughed. The sound was so foreign to her that she didn't know what to make of it, so the laughter went unhindered. "This is like something out of a fairy tale, you know? Mysterious man who was once the enemy comes up and challenges everything the naive heroine believes in, showing her what is right in the world. Next thing you know we'll be sleeping together," she said dismissively, turning once more onto her back and staring at the stars. "Is life with you always this interesting?"

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[Merik Dragmire]

"Yeah I know you're not..." Merik replied with just a hint of an apology apparent in his tone. "But you could have said you were and we could have pretended that was all it was."

He stood up and walked slowly towards Nairore, his eyes upon her as the distance between them became smaller and smaller. With the clear tension between them and her words about fairy tales he could only have one true purpose for crossing...

He stopped a bare foot from her and stooped to retrieve his blanket from the ground before returning to his pack and replacing it.

"I hate to break it to you, this has been fairly quiet compared to what typically occurs."

[Nairore]

x x

She smirked at his comment. Of course he knew. Nairore found it was hard to keep secrets around insightful people. Like her sister. Lori always had a knack for seeing right through her. She also had a knack for knowing what to say to her, and Nairore found herself missing her. Eyes found the stars and she wondered if her sister was in bed yet, or if she was up looking at the stars herself. A familiar thought crept into Nairore's mind that brought a smile to her face. Whatever Lori was doing, Nairore hoped it wasn't with a guy.

Speaking of, Merik got up and moved closer. She watched him out of her peripherals as he advanced across camp, wishing she at least had the knife she'd been sleeping with during their trip handy, but it was still with her stuff. Her fist clenched under the blanket, until Merik picked up his own blanket and returned to his spot to give her a delightful insight into the condition of his life. He had misinterpreted what she had meant, lost the sarcasm.

"Good, let's hope they pick up. I don't like being left to my thoughts, I've always worked better on instinct alone," she mused and laughed. "This routine is leaving me too much time to think. That was always where my sister excelled," she said, then realized what she had said, actually mentioning her sister to this man. She couldn't put Lori in direct danger like that. But was there any direct danger? It didn't seem like it would be overly high on Merik's to do list to hunt down her sister.

No doubt there would be some quip coming about Gerudo instincts. Merik displayed quite a bit of pride in his people, that much was obvious, and reflecting on what genetics alone allowed Nairore to do compared to the Hylians it was obvious. She shook her head and turned her head back to look at him. "Where were we supposed to be going before you got lost?" she asked, deciding to play the one card she had. She had enough of her own thoughts, her own dilemmas. It was time to take a hold of the conversation and turn it back toward Merik.

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[Merik Dragmire]

"Yeah my sisters are the same way; one is always trying to out-think me before I have a chance to get into trouble and the other is always...well she just spends a lot of time thinking up new things." Merik replied after Nairore slipped up and revealed the existence of her sister; it wasn't something he had initially planned on telling her but he figured he could offer her the little nugget of information in exchange.

Her question about where they were going, though not entirely surprising, did catch him a little unprepared as she hadn't seemed to interested in the destination at any other point in the journey. And while he had no intention to tell her what he truly sought, he had no qualms about revealing the first stopover on the trip.

"We were...and I suppose still are on our way to the Palace of the Fairy Queen. I'm seeking some information that I believe might be held within Titania's library. Unfortunately the Forest likes to constantly change and be an absolute pain to travel through unless you have a Fairy guide; its not impossible but its proving more difficult than I expected it to."

[Nairore]

x x

Merik had come to the forest with determination when they had first set out. It was where is path was immediately set. Once they'd entered the forest and her training continued just as it had always been, that is, training without using the forest, she quickly discerned there was no training purpose behind the forest as a destination. So she figured he had something in mind, but as the days went by and he became a little more uncertain it had become clear to Nairore that he was getting lost.

"And I suppose if you don't know where were are then you don't know how to get out. If the forest changes then there's no trail for us to follow back," she mused, eager for any topic to distract her thoughts at that point. Granted in grasping at anything she was also inadvertently lowering the defenses she'd worked hard to keep solid this entire time, and so her voice found itself more and more. Not that she was overly talkative in the first place, but it was what she said that mattered. Now her words became less filtered.

"Though if you knew the forest always changed it might've been a good idea to set your course by the stars," she continued on that thought, remembering what she'd been taught by her father's navigator one night while they sailed the ocean. The man had been making a move on her, but the information was useful so she had let him think it was fine. And instead of hurting him she had merely made a threat and he had gotten the idea. The sky never changed and the stars, while they too traveled across the sky, always found the same locations. North was always north, and there were always signs to point the way.

A thought did cross her mind, however. Titania was one of the racial leaders, she knew full well. Her father had schooled her in modern politics. They all had an awareness of each other, but some knew each other more than others. If Titania had spent any time in the castle with Zelda or even with her own father she could've easily picked up on Nairore's existence. Enough, anyway, that word could get back to her father from Titania if she wasn't careful. Nairore bit her tongue, however. Merik had his business, there was nothing saying he would even bring Nairore along for that business. In fact most signs pointed otherwise.

Nairore found herself most surprised by the tinge of disappointment at this reasoned conclusion. This man was becoming more and more familiar to her, and she found somewhere inside her she wanted to see him work, to see if he was always like this. Her father was seemingly more and more wrong about the monster he had painted for her.

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[Merik Dragmire]

"Don't worry, I highly doubt you'll be lucky enough to have me as the last person you get to see before you die; I figure another day or so and we'll be at the Palace." Merik retorted with a slight chuckle.

He nodded in appreciation of her second idea, a thought he had shared the first time he had made this journey without a guide. Unfortunately the Palace was deep within the forest and thus...

"The Palace is in deep and gaps through the treetops to the sky become rarer the further you travel. So, while your idea is clever, it only works for a time before the forest opts to thwart you."

And now that he considered it, he was going to have to remember to disguise himself before they arrived as per Titania's wishes. Perhaps that bard form he had used when they had met in Westport, for old times sake even if nothing would come from it.

[Nairore]

x x

Nairore gave Merik the honor of a smile, however brief, at his comment. It was a fairly empty smile, but her features were such that any sort of smile seemed to make them ten times better for the witness. It was a rarity indeed, to smile to anyone who wasn't her father or Lori, which was to say that her defenses were crumbling wildly as her mind was spinning, her thoughts constantly returning to the same confusion, the same fog rolling in despite all her efforts.

She sighed then. It would be a restless night for her. If she took first watch she'd be stuck in her thoughts but she might get a good sleep afterward. If she took second watch she would have a very broken sleep at best and a groggy morning. Perhaps she could doze in her saddle as they continued on, but then as the forest got thicker they would see less horseback. Why was this fog even creeping over her? She was never an emotional person, yet all she felt that night was a mismatch of every emotion she fought to overcome.

"I imagine I would be excluded from your business in the Fairy Court," she said, not sure if it was hopeful or disappointed, the fog blurring even that line for her at that moment. Should she voice her concerns about word getting back to her father to Merik? It was a concern she was certain he knew, but she didn't want to keep it fresh on his mind lest he decide to torture the Hylian Commander by sending him word himself. That was the last way Nairore wanted Zenethil finding out she lied.

"Which shift will you be taking tonight?" she asked, completely unrelated but also a concern on her mind. Either way she was going to have a restless night. Merik could at least get his share of sleep while she silently tortured herself in vain attempts to clear the fog in her mind and find her proper path.

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