With princely permission granted and her cloak clasped tight to her chest, Remnii made her way through the sleepy streets of Lakeshire. Upon her staff, the sigil of the Church of the Holy Light provided a small amount of light for her by means of a cantrip. Most families were already tucked in, warm and cozy, for Winter Vale's Eve. Yet, from other homes, light still spilled from the windows in excess, candles burning bright and the faint murmur of celebratory voices could be heard throughout. She hummed with appreciation at the idea of the holiday, yet the lone sound made her uneasy given her reality.
Walking, alone, in chilly and unfamiliar streets certainly felt lonely. Even with the din of voices, her hoofsteps could be heard echoing off the cobblestone, her own breathing sounded loud. In the near silence she really did feel like the only Draenei for thousands of miles. For a brief moment, Remnii felt like a ghost. Her odd shadow did not quite fit upon the quaint pathways. The flicker of her magic, accompanied by a moment of self-consciousness, led her to stop and breathe.
Remnii clutched her staff, 'Anxiety is getting the best of me. Blessings have surrounded us this evening in revelation and productivity, both.'
Though the pang of loneliness lingered, she still smiled and shook her head. A Wintervale present, of sorts, awaited her in the form of a friendly face and a compass that was built around a piece of something familiar. She would only be here, alone, until she sought out the company awaiting her.
'For a first Wintervale, the Light was kind, indeed.'
Renewed enough to continue, Remnii only found herself turned around once or twice. She doubled back onto streets that she'd sworn she had (not) been down before. Despite her fuss, soon a familiar path caught her eye. With a sigh of relief and a small prayer of thanks, Remnii caught the sight of the Glade homestead.
Perhaps slightly later than she'd meant to, the Draenei finally trotted forth to meet with Aramar. She offered a wave of her staff into the dark, hoping that her distinctive silhouette would draw out the young prophet, for they had much to discuss.
The nice thing about Winter's Veil was that you never had to convince the kids to go to sleep. After all, everyone knew that Greatfather Winter wouldn't come visit if the kids were awake.
Aramar smiled. Robb and Kurt had already stashed all the gifts in the shed out back. Once they were sure everyone was sleeping, he'd help sneak them in and hide them under the tree.
Just call me Greatfather Winter's little helper, he thought to himself with a smile as his graphite pencil danced across the page. He had already sketched Spencer, Rex, Royce, and Tilly, draped across the floor in a big ol' straw mat with pillows and blankets, their arms draping on Soot like a giant, living stuffed animal. He had sketched the look on Colin, Carson, and Robertson's faces when he smuggled a half-drunk bottle of wine into his half-brother's room. He had already sketched Selya, Lucie, and Kira playing with the babies, too. He had debated sketching his mother, aunt, and Nana Grace as they giggled over drinks in the kitchen, but decided that he didn't want to ruin their family time.
They had invited Makasa to join them, but she declined before returning to her apartment, above the fisherman's shop. He glanced out the window he was curled around, the light still on in her window across town, his smile fading a bit as he did.
It's been the better part of fourteen years since Dad came to try to take me on his grand ol' journey, and just as long since Makasa's lived here. And yet, she's still just as distant as she ever was.
He didn't know much about her, to be fair. Her mother was a big-time pirate captain down south, her father one of many nobodies she had slept with along the way. Most of her family was dead, she knew as much. But in the decade in which they'd known each other, she was still a mystery, a silent, judging guardian he'd been saddled with, whether he liked it or not.
He laughed to himself, his breath fogging the window. His few vain attempts at wooing some of the local ladies had gone rather poorly because of her. If they didn't assume that he and she were an item, they assumed that Makasa was trying to scare them off.
Jokes on them, he thought, flipping through the pages on one of his older sketch books, she can just be that unpleasant at times.
"BOOF! BOOF! RUFF, ROOF BOOF!"
Soot had stirred from the Kiddie Pile and had begun to bark his low, window-rattling bark. The kids stirred and moved around nearby.
"Gweatfather Winter?" Tilly, the youngest of the puddle, asked sleepily.
Aram swung himself down from the window and moved over to them quickly and quietly.
"I bet it is," he said, a reassuring tussle of his youngest half-sister's head, "You better get back to bed quick, or you won't get no presents!"
She gasped before tugging on Rex's sleeve as he and the others began to stir as well.. "Shhh!" she said before flopping her head back down and closing her eyes forcefully.
The old hound had wiggled himself free and had pawed his way up onto the sil. His back legs were too weak to get up all the way anymore, but his wet snout smudged the window as he tried to take a peak. "What's wrong, old boy?"
Aram peered out the window, where he saw a peculiar, cross-shaped light waving in the darkness. Had he not seen that specific silhouette of horns and hair earlier, he would have perhaps mistaken her for a princess, an angel, or perhaps a demon in the darkness.
"Shh, shh, it's okay, ol' buddy. She's a friend."
"Aram?" Ceya called, head peaking out of the kitchen. "Is someone there?" She waved him over so that they could speak quietly as to not disturb the kids further.
"It's alright, Mom," he whispered back. "Just a friend from earlier."
His mother pouted. "You're not thinking of sneaking out with another girl right now are you? We have guests over!"
"Wait, when do I ever...?" Aramar sigh-laughed. "Mom, you know I'm not...I don't- You know what, that's not important right now. It's the tall one. The draenei I was telling you about. Remnii."
"Oooooh," Nana Grace called out from the kitchen. "I like that one. Invite her in for drinks!"
Aunt Fern laughed, sliding a pitcher of water closer to her mother. "Mom, I think perhaps the drinks should be over 'fore too long, yeah?"
"Poppycock!" she said, draining her stein with a satisfied sigh.
"Just don't stay out too long," Ceya said. "Robb and Kurt need your help moving the gifts, and it's not as safe as it used to be late at night."
"I know, Mom. I'll be fine. I'll bring my blade. I'll be back soon, alright?"
Ceya nodded and hugged her little boy, her inebriated self significantly more clingy and concerned than would normally be - and that was saying something.
"I love you, Aramar. You know that, right?"
Aram smiled, rolling his eyes well above her eye level as they embraced. "I do, Mom. And I love you too."
The young militiaman broke from the hug and headed towards the door, grabbing his sword-belt and strapping it on as he ran outside, closing the door gently as he did. He waved a hand at Robb and Uncle Kurt, who were sharing a drink and a smoke outside the armory.
Finally, he caught up to the draenei, softly lit in the night.
"Hey," he said. "You came back. I... Well, uh, I didn't know if you guys were going to come back. Sorry you missed dinner."
He turned back and pointed to the cottage. "Nana Grace wanted me to invite you in for some mulled cider and wine, if you wanted any. She's... a bit in her cups already, but Ma and Aunt Fern will keep her up and at 'em."
Flinching at the domesticated frost wolf-- a dog, as the humans call it, she took a breath and raised a hand toward Aramar's figure.
With a shuffle and a pause, she waited with a slight shiver. Standing still in the cold made her skin crawl with cold creeps. She stomped on her hooves and danced, slightly, shifting her weight to keep her blood flowing. Even in the warmer climates of the south, Remnii still found the chill unpleasant.
As the human arrived, she smiled softly and offered a true wave, "Hello Aramarr!"
With a tilt of her head and a considerate, complex, look she shook her head, "It is okay. While I cannot speak fully forr my companions, know that time is of the essence forr us. If we came off as shorrt, I apologize. Yourr family's kind offerr was appriciated.
"As forr yourr offerr now? Would you be willing to take a walk firrst? While we talk, I would rratherr have a clearr mind. If they arre awake when we get back, perrhaps, we may parrtake then?" Remnii chuckled.
Aramar nodded. "Sure thing. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a bit of a route that I walked whenever I need to clear my head... and I kinda wouldn't mind that right now, either. And I wouldn't worry about the offer - I doubt they'll be awake much longer, if their slurring was any indication."
The two began to meander, walking down the coast of Lake Everstill. The crystal water was frozen over entirely in the narrows nearby on the western edge of the lake, but as the lake expanded and deepened as it spread to the east, the middle sections of the lake glittered as the unfrozen water reflected the moons' light.
"Don't worry too much about the curtness either. I probably came off a bit... strong, heh. I guess I've been on edge recently, too. I think just about everyone has been."
The last sentence was, perhaps, said a bit more wistfully than he meant it to, as he once again glanced to the fisherman's shop.
"Still, I apprriciate the offer!" Remnii smiled softly, "a walk sounds wonderrful, then. I will have to trrust yourr judgement on how, uhm, deep they arre in theirr vessels?"
While the quaint village still felt foreign, the draenei was immediately thankful for the presence of another beside her. The night seemed to take on a softer edge as she was made to stop and look versus simply hustling from one destination to the next. She was still cold, though.
Taking in Aramar's tone, Remnii nodded. Her tail swayed and her tone was thoughtful, "People will act intuitively when the worrld is on the cusp of change. You can feel it in the airr. It is a harrd feeling to descrribe, is it not? Forr some, it comes in agitation, forr others, excitement. Of courrse, those arre not the only two rreactions, but I've found them to be most common.
"And how arre you feeling?"
Aramar thought for a moment, scratching the stubble at his chin. "Not agitated. Not excited, either, I think. I... guess frightened? I..."
He hummed as he thought. He stretched his arms behind his head, folding them behind his neck as he walked. "I heard about the war," he said, his voice low. "We're... we're real close to the front. One of the closest. If things go badly..."
He looked around to the sleeping town. He didn't want to say it.
"I want to do the right thing and protect my friends and family... but how do you do that when the world seems so... big? Unstoppable? I'm a damn good swimmer, now, but I feel like I won't be able to keep my head above current even if I try."
Nodding, understanding on a level that she feared to admit this early in the conversation, Remnii watched Aramar closely. A soft, considerate, look played upon her face as she nodded.
"An arrmy, a fighting forrce, is not made up of one individual, but many people, many hearts, fighting to prrotect what they love," Remnii shared, offering what little comfort she could. "Take hearrt that you arre not alone, if you would like."
Smiling down to her human companion she placed a hand over her heart, "Yourr carre is moving, Aramarr. My baseline idea, if you would hearr it would be to focus and find yourr passions. When you do carre deeply about something, pathways will open up forr you. You can find wherre you can make a difference, even in the most frrightening of times."
She hummed, continuing her thought train with curiousity to see if he'd answer truly, "You do not have to plunge yourrself into cold waterr, you know. What do you enjoy doing? What makes yourr hearrt glad, even when things seem overrwhelming?"
He chuckled. "Plunging myself into cold water, actually. I've always enjoyed swimming. Sorta have to as a young boy in Lakeshire," he says, gesturing to the half-frozen lake. "But drawing's always been a passion of mine, as you might have guessed from the sketchbooks."
"I always liked exploring as a kid, too. Me and the guys would go diving for buried treasures, catch spiders, and climb around the caves out near the quarries and cliffs. That is, till we found a dragon inside one of the caves. You can bet we never went back there again!"
As the duo meandered towards the docks, they could spy a figure out on the ice near the docks. Though it was at a distance, the periodic flashes of blue magic and the glint of steel belied the truth of the skater's identity than otherwise. Aramar leaned on the railing of the woodwork that lead down to the pier. "I enjoy practicing my swordplay a bit too... though I'm nowhere near as good as Makasa. And from the looks of it, maybe not more than her either," he said, gesturing down to where Velameestra practiced her bladedancing in the distance.
"Oh!" Remnii laughed, hand covering her mouth, "You have such varried interrests, I think that is wonderrful to keep life frresh!"
Her eyes flickered to the ice, following the channels of icy magic that Vel summoned forth. Remnii raised an eyebrow, "I would love to watch herr morre closely someday. Did you know? I did not know that she could do that! I have much to learrn in this worrld, about her people and her spirit, itself."
She chuckled again, but turned back to encourage Aramar, "What she may brring to a sworrdfight, how she has learrned, and what you have learrned in yourr own prrowess? I believe it may not be a matter of comparriing oneself to another, so much of asking what you can accomplish together. You likely know things that she does not, and that goes frrom herr to you as well.
"In between, all of this," Remnii questioned, carefully, "you've joined the Lakeshirre Militia and you've hearrd the Voice of Light? You cerrtainly know how to keep yourrself busy! Do you everr have a dull day?"
"I try not to," Aramar said. "Honestly, for as much as I claim to want things to stay safe and boring, I've always had this... this wanderlust. I wager I can thank my dear old dad for that."
He turned around, leaning against the pier so he could face Remnii, the practicing elf now towards his back. "I know it makes me a bit of a hypocrite... but as frightened as I was when I saw you and your princely escorts roll into town, I couldn't help but be excited. I thought, 'This is it. This is what I've been waiting for.' I... feel kind of bad saying it, but I also think I'd feel worse if I didn't."
He sighed and shook his head. "I always felt like I was supposed to get on that ship with my old man all those years ago. Even Robb and Ma gave me their blessings... but I... well, I didn't. For whatever reason, I didn't. Maybe I was just angry he walked out on us," He lifted his eyes and looked back to Remnii. "Maybe I just wanted to make my own decision. I dunno. But, I guess all of this is making me start to wonder if the Voice of Light wanted me to stay here so I could meet you."
Aramar smiled, but interrupted himself with a blush. "Um, ah... So that I could, you know. Help you. And stuff." He cleared his throat.