jeradorcaryn-blog

[jeradorcaryn-blog]

“Do you now?” they asked the singer as he sat down beside them. “Well, if I knew any good songs that I thought you’d know, then I’d request something.” They took another sip from the mug in their hands, the hood of their cloak pulled up and over their hair to hide their ears. Here was one of the few places they could go without being looked upon with a great deal of suspicion. “You sing well. Trust me, the people who frequent this place would definitely let you know if you weren’t doing a good job.” They smirked to their-self and finished their drink, waving down the barkeep for a second.

Jack had just gotten done performing one of his favorite songs. It’s about a roguish pirate, who falls in love with a mermaid, and turns into sea water.  He was in a small tavern in Arav, close enough to the Red Sea that he could gain information about any ships that would be setting sail soon with fat cargos, possible targets for him and his crew. It was especially crowded tonight and they were a good audience. He began to sing and play another song about a beautiful princess trapped in a tower as he scanned the crowd. As he sung the final note he bowed and headed over to the bar, ordering an ale from the bartender, he looked over at the person to his left and smiled, “So what did you think? I take requests you know.”

[jeradorcaryn-blog]

smugglcd:

ALEIA?! He thinks he’s misheard at first, so just stares at them with his mouth agape. It takes several silent moments for the stranger’s words to sink in. They’re looking for Aleia! Looking for their sister! Which means this stranger must be … Jera. Besides the occasional blasphemous curse, Tristan had never paid much attention to the Gods of men. And yet, in that moment he can’t stop himself thanking the Divines for this miracle. He says nothing of course, he’s pledged to protect Aleia no matter what so is unwilling to divulge her location just yet. There’s a small chance the stranger … Jera … is lying. He has to be sure before he reveals the truth. “A –Aleia? Very well, I’ll do all I can.”

It came as a great surprise when they seemed to have stunned the smuggler into shock. Jera stayed silent, trying to understand just why the man had completely stopped saying anything. The both of them seemed to have settled into a sort of tense silence, and just as Jera was building their-self up to say something to him, he spoke again and agreed to help them find Aleia. Their face lit up as much as they would allow past their walls, and Jera nodded, feeling more hopeful than they had in a full year of searching for their sister. “Thank you very much. I need to know the information as soon as you find it out.”

[jeradorcaryn-blog]

regncnt:

“Now you wouldn’t be attempting to underpay, would you?” Sabine purred, a minute flick of her finger had one of her guard’s hands clamping down on the shoulders of the minor scion attempting to haggle. Displeasure cut lines into her face, thinning her lips, as she surveyed the situation before her. “I dislike cheats, go.” A clear flick of her hand, a physical dismissal to accompany her verbal one, as the guard, let go of the boy and pushed him away. Half an ear waited for grumblings, none of which came. The boy tried to hide his scowl, hurrying away quickly, possibly to later receive an earful from his family for gathering the queen’s attention in a less than positive way. She arched her brows, looking pointedly at the bow. “Do you mind?” She didn’t wait for an answer, already having it picked up and held for her to examine. Her own hand’s very carefully did not touch the bow. There in the very back of her mind was the murmurings that this could be some type of plot; that there could be a layering of poison upon the wood. “This is fine work – not the best I’ve seen, but fine – it would make a decent gift. How much were you asking for it?”

Jera watched with a satisfied smirk as the boy was pushed to run along in the opposite direction, leaving them in a much better mood than they had been when the boy had shown up in the first place and had begun questioning where the wood had been retrieved, what they string was made of, and looking disbelieving when they had told him. They almost didn’t notice Sabine asking to examine the bow before she was going so and Jera could only keep a watchful eye on the weapon to be sure it wasn’t some sort of a plot to either shoot them or run off with the bow in her or her guard’s hands. “Only thirty,” they said, a bit annoyed at hearing it was not the best work she had ever seen, but then Jera supposed they couldn’t expect too much seeing as they were working in the middle of the forest where any bowyers in the kingdoms had access to so much more than that. But still. “Plus five for an extra string.”

[jeradorcaryn-blog]

adorcaryn:

Aleia shook her head with a small grin upon her lips, finding her sister’s words to be quite amusing. “Do not get too cocky, sister. Generally, it does not end well for most people.” The elf teased with a slight smirk upon her lips as she looked at the other – it was half-serious and half-playful. After all, the elven girl couldn’t lose anymore people. Her parents had already left the two younger elfs, the last thing Aleia wanted was to say goodbye to someone else she cared about. “Yes, of course.” Aleia nodded as she spoke, taking the bow and unstringing it just like her sister had taught her, hoping that she wouldn’t mess it up like so many times before – and she could swear she still had a mark or two from the time she thought she had the unstringing of the bow down to an almost perfect technique; until it was proven otherwise. “I don’t think I was made for bow and arrow, you know?” The elf mused, shrugging her shoulders as she finished doing what her sister asked, setting the bow aside when she was done.

Picking up the things Jera kept throwing at her (to divide the things they had to carry), the young girl scoffed at her sister’s words, shaking her head as she looked at them again. “I doubt the ruins have shown me all they have.” The elven girl spoke, keeping her tone casual even though just thinking about going to the place again made her excited. “How can you not?” Aleia asked, looking at her sister, raising her eyebrows in a quizzical manner as she kept picking up things, looking around to make sure she had everything.

“I’m hardly cocky,” they protested with a wide grin. “I like to think of myself as knowing where my strengths are. That can’t be a bad thing. We all have strengths in this world, Al, and mine is being a wonderful shot.” Once everything was gathered from the forest floor, they could start home, and a good thing too, as the sun was beginning to cast long shadows through the trees, its rays no longer beaming down from right above them. “Even if you weren’t made for it, which I highly disagree with, I like knowing you’ve got it with you. Daggers and knives can’t keep you safe from a distance. Humans likes to get up close to fight with their horses and metal armor, but from what I’ve seen, they tend to forget that there are other ways to take someone out. You have the advantage if you can get them from far away. Which is exactly why I want to fix the string on your bow,” they said matter-of-factly.

Laughing at their sister’s words, Jera nodded thoughtfully. “I’m sure they haven’t, but if you haven’t found anything more than you have in all the time that you’ve spent there, then no one will ever be shown everything the ruins have to offer,” they said. “I don’t need to find it interesting, Aleia. There’s nothing there that would captivate me like it does you. All I need in life is a tree with sturdy branches to make bows out of and our home. I don’t need runes or artifacts or whatever it is you find out there.”

[jeradorcaryn-blog]

queenfiona:

raising her eyebrows, fiona looked at them. “HOW many other paintings have you done?” the queen inquired, holding her hand out for the painting she had just bought. “i’d like to see your other paintings, if you have them.“

Jera bristled slightly at the question as they handed over the painting. “Only a few,” they said, trying to seem like a relaxed artist as much as possible. “I haven’t got any of them with me though, apologies.”

[jeradorcaryn-blog]

Ack, sorry to only do a few replies and run, but I have two shows to perform today in a town about two hours away. When I get home later (much later) tonight, then I’ll finish up all of Jera’s replies, and anything that might crop up for Anna. In the meantime, if you wanna plot, just shoot me a message. I’m sure I’ll have tons of time to message and be on my phone.

[jeradorcaryn-blog]

olelasanking:

“After all that we’ve been through…” Edmund clutched his chest dramatically and feigned dismay. “You wound my heart.” Of course, the young King was merely fooling around, both with the dare and with being hurt by her statement. He had only bumped into her in the busy marketplace a few hours ago and decided to befriend her because she seemed like a fairly interesting stranger. He was wearing a simple white linen shirt tucked into breeches, and had no crown on his head. Given his appearance and the casualness of their conversation, he doubted she even knew who he was.

Jera scoffed and shook their head, the smirk not leaving their face. It was rare a time that they found a human that they enjoyed spending more than a few moments with for business purposes. When they had been collided with by Edmund, they suspected they would get bored or annoyed with him shortly. Interestingly enough, Edmund was funny and captured their attention, but not in a bad way. Over the past few hours, they had grown to enjoy his company, a strange thought for them. “I mean, I could try. My sister often said I was a perfect shot,” they teased, remembering the instance fondly, if not a bit sadly.

[jeradorcaryn-blog]

adorcaryn:

Although the Dorcaryn sisters had lost a lot, they still had so much. They had the forest around them, the trees that still danced with the wind, their mind was still connected to nature and their health was as good as they come – most importantly, though, they had each other. Aleia knew that being an elf was no longer a good thing; not in a world where they were looked down upon, seen as the scum of a land that they used to rule, many many moons before that very day. Aleia would’ve given almost everything to go back to those days, see the elven culture in all its glory and not just a faded memory in the mind of many. Thoughts like those plagued the young elf’s mind and Aleia let her mind wander far beyond what she was allowed to, especially since she had such a confined space to go out to and explore. A topic that brought her to that moment, behind her sister. 

“I know you would never shoot me. And you are far too good a shot to just fire without knowing who you were shooting at.” There was a playful tone lacing Aleia’s voice, her childlike manner growing quite obvious at that moment as the brunette kept walking towards her sister with a grin in her lips, just excited to be near them. “Is that a new one?” Aleia asked them, looking at her sister’s eyes before she let her own scan the bow the other elf held in their hands. “I went to the ruins, to see if I could find any other relics. I grew bored when I could not find any. You should have come with me.” 

Grinning at their sister’s compliments, Jera slung their quiver off of their shoulders and leaned it up against the old tree stump where the rest of their supplies were sitting. “I am a rather good shot, aren’t I?” they asked with a wide grin, a teasing note in their voice. “Unstring it for me, would you?” they requested, tossing the bow to Aleia before grabbing up their own bow and undoing the string before shoving it into the small pouch in the quiver, keeping it tucked out of the way. “Of course it’s new. Next I’m fixing the string on the one I made for you. It’s too loose and it’s been bothering me.”

“The ruins, huh?” they grunted in reply, not looking up from where they were packing up the supplies they had brought with them in order to fully finish the new bow, as well as a new quiver of arrows. This too, Jera tossed over to Aleia to carry, as it was easier for the both of them to split the weight than for them to try to and do it all on their own. “You’ve probably combed them clean by now, that’s why you can’t find anymore, dove,” they teased, standing straight. “I would have joined you, but I was working. Besides, I highly doubt I could ever find them quite so interesting as you do.” They slung an arm around Aleia’s shoulders, walking with her in the direction that she had come, back to their home in the woods, just a mile away from the Elven Temple.

[jeradorcaryn-blog]

smugglcd:

Sister. Tristan swallows his sigh of relief in an attempt to retain his expressionless features. The elven girl isn’t a bounty or victim which means he’s not endangering the life of another by agreeing to help this stranger. “You’re looking for your sister?” It was an honourable quest and he’d happily help, as long as the stranger provided payment of course. “Very well. Tell me about her -name, age, appearances, any possible leads on her whereabouts. When was the last time you saw her?”

Jera could feel their shoulders sag in relief at his agreeing to help them get the information that they needed. “She can’t be more than twenty right now. I haven’t seen her in two years so I don’t know if she’s changed physically much, but she looks like me as far as I know, long brown hair, large brown eyes, shorter than me, but not by much. I suspect she was taken by one of the Kingdoms, though I couldn’t tell you which one. Her name is Aleia.”

[jeradorcaryn-blog]

queenfiona:

“here” she muttered as she counted out the gold, practically SHOVING it into her hand. fiona examined the painting more closely, thinking of where in the castle she could put it . it wasn’t odd for the queen to be seen buying new things, it was something she did often, as she loved to fill the castle with things. “did you really paint this? you’re quite the artist.” 

Jera took the gold before recounting it swiftly just to make sure. Their lack of trust reached very far. They paused for a beat before nodding and tucking the gold into the satchel around their waist. “Thank you kindly. It is a favorite of mine,” they said, hoping that their quickly fabricated story could at least hold up to the scrutiny. 

[jeradorcaryn-blog]

FLASH BACK 

Jera tightened the string on their bow once more before pulling it back to see how well it would hold. Ever since their parents died, they had picked up and perfected the trade of making bows, knowing that they and their sister would need whatever money they could get from them selling the weapons in the various kingdoms. As little as Jera liked to admit it, coin was a necessity if they ever needed something that couldn’t be retrieved in the dark forest. Drundas only ever wanted payment through coin and that meant they needed to have some. Bows, when they could find someone to sell them to, it earned them enough money that they didn’t have to do it very often. After all, there were very few things that they needed from humans on a regular basis. Most of their needs could be found either in the forest or at the Elven Temple. 

They nocked an arrow and drew the bow back, focusing on a knot on a tree only about fifty feet away. Loosing the arrow, they watched the arrow head drive into the soft flesh of the tree with a dull thunk. Pleased with the results, Jera grabbed another arrow and aimed for the exact same spot, focusing carefully on their target. The rustle of leaves behind them gave them pause and as the weight of the draw began to take its toll, they spoke. “You know, it’s not very smart to come up behind someone holding an prepared weapon,” Jera mused lightly, knowing that it was either someone they would be happy to see, or not. They relaxed their arm, turning to look over their shoulder with a cocked eyebrow and half smirk. “You should know that better than anyone.”

@adorcaryn

[jeradorcaryn-blog]

olelasanking:

Edmund might be the most powerful man in all of Olelasa, but he’s still a boy through and through. He can’t stand boredom of all things, and when it strikes him, recklessness usually ensues. “I’ll grant you five hundred gold coins if you could shoot an apple straight off my head.”

“I could also shoot you straight through the head and take the money anyways,” Jera mused, taking a bite of her own apple, and looking at him with a distinctly amused look. Her hair was down and forward to cover her ears as always and although she wouldn’t say it allowed with the fear of being caught: humans truly could be stupid sometimes.

[jeradorcaryn-blog]

queenfiona:

“i only sent him away because i wish to buy the painting for myself.” she replied with a small shrug, her eyes moving to the painting in their hands. “how MUCH was it?” fiona questioned, holding a small pouch of gold in her hands.

Jera shrugged as well, gesturing to the thing once again. “30,” she stated curtly, not feeling at all bad about having lied about painting the thing herself. She just wanted to be done with the transaction and away before something horribly happened and her lineage was revealed. “I’m glad you like it,” she said, attempting to steer the conversation into lighter territory.

[jeradorcaryn-blog]

smugglcd:

Just because their an elf doesn’t mean they’re not some kind of bounty hunter. Tristan may have little respect for the laws of men but he won’t be evolved with the hunting and potentially killing of an innocent. He keeps his emotions steady, not daring to let the stranger see his concern because if anyone dared discover he had a heart his reputation would be ruined. He wants to know why the elven-girl is so important to this person before he commits to anything. “Why do you seek this elf?” He asks, his tone sounding as bored as ever. “Is she valuable?”

“She is to me,” Jera answered gruffly, bristling at his constant interrogation. She could not understand the ways of humans, especially when it came to asking them for help. They always wanted to know so much more than the basics to do the job and the more she had to deal with them, the more they frustrated her. If she didn’t need him to help her, if she could find Aleia on her own, then she would, but she had been trying that for a year and a half and it had gotten her no where. “She is my sister.”

[jeradorcaryn-blog]

smugglcd:

He scoffs. “Please. You can search the five Kingdoms from Arav to Olelasa but I assure you you’ll find no one more capable than I am.” It’s a fine bow but Tristan wouldn’t know where to begin when it came to selling the item. He ought to shun the elf. He doesn’t though because they seem desperate. Damn his charitable tendencies. “Very well.” He says, “What information do you need?”

“Maybe not, but if you won’t help me, then I’ll hedge my bets.” Pulling away after his concession, Jera crosses their arms. “I’m looking for someone. An elf, missing for a couple of years, which means she’s probably off in some kingdom. I want you to tell me where she is. I don’t care how you find out, I don’t care about your methods, but I want to know where to find her.” 

“I can give you as much information about her appearance that I know from the last time I saw her, but I need to find her.”

[jeradorcaryn-blog]

smugglcd:

( open starter )

“Of course I can help you.” He says from his chair. He seems almost bored and plays absently with a coin as he talks. “The real question is, what are you willing to give me in return?”

Jera narrowed their eyes at him. “I will give you the bow and all the arrows I have on me, or I will sell them to get money to hire some other competent smuggler. I’m not even asking you for an item,” they leaned forward and put their hands on the table, trying to gain some leverage in the deal, “I’m asking for information. You are capable of that, yes?”

[jeradorcaryn-blog]

queenfiona:

“did you not HEAR them?” fiona asked the male, shooting him a glare. “if you can’t afford the painting, move along.” she spoke harshly. she normally wasn’t one to intrude on other’s conversations, but she found it hard to ignore this one. 

Jera watched the man slink away until he was completely out of sight. Part of them wanted to say that they hadn’t needed the help, that they could handle themselves when it came to hagglers like him, but doubted that it would get them very far. “Thanks.”