Seeing A Spider Isn't A Problem [Elspeth Abbott & Aemon Trahaearn]

"To save a life, I must fight for more than Ideals."

- Aemon

" "
Aemon had just began to get settled in his new home in the guild of Infinity Hydra, a legal guild within Fiore who’s goals could potentially line up more with his own than that of his previous guild Pharaohs Call. This was the sort of guild that would get their hands dirty and get involved against dark guilds, invoking justice. The atmosphere was also something he had to get use to again. Spending time out in the desert caused his body to adjust to that particular climate and the higher altitude needed some getting use to for a change. He also needed to adjust to the layout of the guild in order to prevent himself from getting lost again. Aemon had finally finished decorating his small already furnished dorm room. His wall had displayed various weapons, several swords,bows, and firearms and the sheets on his bed were red and black, appropriate colors for not only the guild but for Aemon who was constantly wearing that color scheme. Sitting on his bed with his hands folded in his lap he gazed upon his new room and smiled "Not bad." he said looked up at the weaponry "but of course never the best." he held his hand opened knowing full well that despite his impressive armory, his most impressive weaponry is stored in his mind, thanks to the weapon factory placed there to make up for his lack of magic ability. He let out a sigh as he stood up from his bed and looked towards the door "It would be best that I leave the confines of my room and make my way to the tavern. After all that is where the entirety of the guild tend to congregate and I couldn’t think of a better place to gather information." he would exit his room and navigate his way towards where he thought the Tavern was.

After managing to get lost for only a small amount of time he followed a couple guildmates who would lead him to the area that would be the tavern, he was able to conclude this merely from the amount of people gathered around as well as the layout of the area. The area seemed pretty normal at first sight. Aemon had made a simple order of some hot tea for the morning and was sitting on one of the benches backwards with his back pressed against the table and his tea cup held in his right hand while his left hand held a saucer. That was when the strangest thing happened, a woman with black hair hanging upside down by a white wire of some sort conversing with a member of the guild, he couldn’t hear what they were saying despite his increased hearing due to the number of people but seeing as it was none of his business he took another sip of his tea and merely closed his eyes and was prepared to focus on enjoying his morning tea and information gathering. However a soft voice echoed throughout the tavern as it was meant to be heard and being curious to who was speaking Aemon opened his eyes and locked onto the woman from earlier who was hanging upside down, she had requested that someone from the guild join her for her trip to the cursed lands for business she had to attend to and made it a point that she didn’t wish to go alone. Aemon looked around to see if anyone would answer but was surprised that not one single person would answer the call. He wished to aid her by offering his services but he had no intention of getting involved in business that wasn’t his to deal with so he stood from his table and turned to exit the tavern to head back to his room before exploring more of the guild hall, he had no idea of what would come next.

"To save a life, I must fight for more than Ideals."

- Aemon

" "
Aemon was on his way to exit the tavern ready to make his way through the guild hall and into town so he could get his bearings on the area or better yet he could make his way to the roof and simply use his bow to enhance his vision and get a panoramic scope of the town but that idea went up in flames when the slightest sound of a thwack which made him look back behind him to see a white thread sticking to his back. If not for his enhanced vision he would have missed it "What the..? What is the.." he was going to question what it was but that is when the sensation of being tugged on was felt. He could have pulled against it but that wasn’t in his nature, he instead just crossed his arms and let himself be dragged to whoever it was that the thread belonged to. "There had better be a good reason to why I am being dragged across the tavern like a puppet" he thought to himself but soon the whole tavern would spin to the left as he turned right due to a slightly harder tug on the thread, like a puppet Aemon spun to face the owner of the thread with his arms still crossed. His eyes remained narrowed as the owner would be revealed to be the raven haired woman who had the additional eight legs mounted on her back..like a spider. Aemon could have almost kicked himself "How could I have not realized it sooner, of course the thread would belong to the woman who has the anatomy of a spider." he thought to himself while looking at the pout that graced the woman’s pretty features and her golden eyes looking at him in a pleading manner.

Aemon was going to ask what the meaning of this was but was interrupted by the woman’s voice asking if he would come along with her on the job and then proceeded to smush his face with her hands while nuzzling her face into his. "Wha...what are you doing?" he would ask her confused by the act of endearment, of course part of him enjoyed it. He knew what she was doing and what it represented but he had not experienced it himself so it was more foreign to him than anything. She had started to plead in a manner that wasn’t that of a beggar but of a sweet lady who just needed some help and while hearing that it was her first job might have been enough to get him to agree but it was her calling for him to act chivalrous was what made him conceed mentally.  What she added to the end of her statement did interest him, she had been speaking as if she was foreign to earthland as a world but now wasn’t the time to inquire on it, first he had to create some distance between himself and this woman. Aemon brought his hands up to pry his face out from her hands that were smushing his face and he had patted down his outfit "Alright, fine you win I will come along if it means you will stop." he said before placing on and on his hip and kept his emerald orbs fixed on her "Tell me about this mission you wish to go on." he asked getting right to the point with his hand held open wanting to see the flyer for the job request.

"To save a life, I must fight for more than Ideals."

- Aemon

" "
Aemon had to admit that it was quite nice to see the spider woman smile the way she did, it showed him that she was completely grateful for his willingness to join her on this mission she seemingly needed help with. It was even more apparent to him this was the case when she clasped her hands almost as if she was filled with joy but upon crushing the flier a bit she held it out for him to take which he did in a polite manner where he waited for her to release her grip rather than just ripping it from her grasp. She had began to explain briefly mentioning that the job would be taking place in the cursed lands where there would be an abandoned cabin awaiting their arrival, he paid attention to her while his eyes scanned the flyer reading it to himself "Dear Old Friend,

I don't know if you remember me, but I need your help. A strange curse has swept across my homeland, destroying most of the population. I managed to escape and am now in hiding, but while I was escaping from those creatures, one of them bit me. Within the envelope I have placed my current location; I am currently at an old cabin in the Cursed Lands. Please, come as soon as you can, as I am beginning to feel rather feverish.

Yours Truly,
Terrence Burgass
" as Aemon read the letter it seemed to be more of a personal favor than a job but wasn’t willing to dismiss the possible reward from the client, this Terrence fellow. He had half heard her almost describe him perfectly in regards to his travel experience but gave more attention when she seemed to shy away a bit mentioning that all he had to do would take her there and leave without any obligation in aiding her with it. She had shrugged her shoulders which signaled Aemon to speak "It won’t be a bother but if I am already taking you that far out there is no harm in my helping you. Besides I don’t believe that I could actually bring myself to leaving you along in a place that is called the Cursed Lands so I will be joining you for the duration of the job." he would hold onto paper into a square for a while before handing it back to the spider woman. Aemon was about to ask the girl when she would like to leave but she realized a fat that he himself had yet to realize and that was there was a lack of a proper introduction between the two. She went first after apologizing by stating her name was Elspeth Abbot a new member to the guild as he was and she finished off her introduction with yet another apology in regards to her expression of affection she had shown him when she pulled him close. A slight blush appeared upon the stoic features of the man but quickly vanished upon realizing her sudden silence was a way for her to wait for him to say something "There is no need to apologize Ms.Abbot, my name is Aemon Trahaearn." he said to her with a smirk on his face as he placed one hand on his hip and kept his eyes fixed on her as she asked if they should get going mentioning that the person seemed to be in trouble which was the same vibe he had also noticed from the letter as there was a certain sense of urgency about it "We can leave as soon as you are ready." he said as he began to head towards the exit of the tavern with the town entrance his destination "We can take a carriage as far as they will take us and then from there we will have to make do. Are you prepared for a bit of a walk miss?" Aemon’s thoughts wandered to her apology for her excessive display of affection and while he wouldn’t ever admit it there was something about it that made him sorta want a bit more of it, something that he never truly got as a child. Instead true love and affection for who he was he only had the attention and pressures of what he should be or become and it were those sentiments made his heart like stone so if anything seemed to be a sign of him rejecting her affections from here on out it wouldn't be due to his negative outlook on her but on his on past rather. Could she be someone who could soften his heart he wondered.

"To save a life, I must fight for more than Ideals."

- Aemon

" "
Aemon noticed the features on her face contort for all but a moment, showing signs of something foremost on her mind that was bothering her, he was curious to what it was and even a slight bit concerned. He wasn’t sure if something he had said somehow caused her to become upset but after he had agreed to go with her she mumbled under her breath a thank you to which Aemon merely said "You are welcome." right before the woman reached out and snatched the flier in which he had folded from his hand eyeing it down with a frown at first but then he watched as her eyes widened as if she had just realized something. He was curious to what it was she realized, perhaps there was some sort of hidden message on the back of the paper that she could only see but it was the act of her unfolding the paper so it was still folded in half longways seemingly mesmerized by the paper and the act of folding and unfolding it, as if it were a foreign concept to her but when she had returned the paper to it’s original form and size she looked at Aemon with now a smile on her face. He put his hand on his hip cocking his head ever so slightly to the side "Never seen folded paper before?" but his mind allowed him to recall something she had mentioned before, how she referred to Earthland as an abstract thing and referred to humans as creatures all signs pointing to her now being from this realm. He couldn’t help but allow his curiosity spark wanting to know more about her but knew that would come about later as their journey would progress but he would get the basics out of the way by giving his name to her as she had for her. He would hear her repeat his name and then after a small bit of thought she would say to him that she liked his name, the words would ring through his ears and a small faint red would appear on his cheeks surprised from the compliment but then would cross his arms and close his eyes returning to a more forced stoic look "It’s just a name, nothing special about it." and that wasn’t true at all, had she known his family history she would know name came from the first king to receive the power of the dragon that dwelled within his soul.

After that little exchange he headed for the exit with Elsie as she told him to call her following him out the door of the guild hall and down into town where they would catch a carriage, of course he would allow Elise to go first as proper manners would dictate him to do and that carriage would take them as far northwest as it could before reaching a region where the carriage would come to a dead stop of course making them lean forward in their seats, which Aemon would instinctively put his arm out to catch Elsie from possibly going too far forward. Aemon would knock on the carriage "Is there some sort of trouble?" he would ask the driver who would shout from his seat in the front of the carriage “No problem, we have reached your destination.” Aem would look out the window "This is the cursed land? I had expected it to look more horrific than this." The driver would chuckle “Oh no we are still about five miles or so out from the border of the cursed lands. This is your stop.” He let out annoyed sigh "So you are saying you can’t take us any further than this?" his voice also had hints of annoyance throughout it, the driver could sense it and responded “I can but I won’t. I want nothing to do with those cursed lands.” Aemon heard the answer and while wished to get into a conflict with the driver but looked at Elsie and chose against it. "Fine, if that is how it’s going to be then so be it." He would reach across and open the door for Elsie to exit first and he would follow after standing next to her and would give her a smirk before walking up to the carriage driver giving him his payment before walking up next to Elsie positioning his arm so she could loop hers around it so he would act as the escort he was being but would stop when the Driver would stop him. “Excuse me sir, this isn’t the amount that we agreed to when you climbed aboard. "That’s right but considering you dropped us off no where near our destination I feel that wage would be more than enough. Good day." he would then continue to lead Elsie in a gentlemanly way. "I am truly sorry that we must walk this far. Had I know I would have picked a different mode of transportation." he would say and as they walked somewhere between point a and b he would ask her a question "Elsie if I may ask, could you tell me about yourself perhaps where are you from? I do hope you can forgive my curiosity."

"To save a life, I must fight for more than Ideals."

- Aemon

" "
Aemon could sense the sudden flood of tension and hesitation radiating from the beautiful spider woman. It was during this moment of silence that Aemon began to question himself if he had crossed the line asking her such a personal question so abruptly. He had just about considered retracting his question but stopped before the action started when Elsie had begun to speak. She sounded distant at first and pulled away from him creating distance between them which further reinforced the idea that he had crossed a line with his question. She had continued to speak confirming his suspicion from before which was that she was not native of Earthland but belonged to the celestial spirit realm of all places and that she was a relatively new spirit but hearing her say only a few millennium now which to a human was no small feat and smirked and even gave a chuckle showing his amusement of her words. "Only a Millennium you say? Maybe that is no small feat. No normal human has ever come close to such an age." he would say adding his two cents into the conversation but would continue to listen to her as she further her explanation of how she did not know her way around earthland very well. She had even shared her true name with him and he repeated the name Aranea in his mind so not to forget it. Aemon would then speak once he was sure that she was finished speaking "Well now, that is interesting. I know of the spirit realm and have even belonged to a guild that was run by a spirit but outside of that this is my first honest interaction with a spirit such as yourself. Perhaps someday we can have an actual discussion about it. I find it a curious thing. " he would say to her as he looked forward again retaining his stoic facial expression "If you have any questions for me you may feel free to ask me anything if you desire that is."

After walking for the next five miles they finally reached the thick wooded area of the cursed lands near the coordinates that would lead to the haunted cabin somewhere within it. The trip to this specific area took a while and it would have taken them less time if he had chosen to reveal his wings to fly them here but between his dislike of his own magic and his lack of thinking about it. Aemon took notice of the area and the strange sort of energy he felt surrounding them and it sent a shiver down his spine "I don't know about you but there is something awfully eerie about this place. We should be on our guard. " he would say with himself readying his hands to materialize a weapon just in time to hear a rustling in the brush. "That scent. Something smells rancid."