Cursed Lands Has Festivals Too... Right? (Event with Ruvel)

As Samira listened to Leona's story, her interest quickly grew. Her emerald colored eyes widened in shock and her mouth dropped when Leona had mentioned she had given the chief's son two black eyes after he had been far too inappropriate. Samira approved that such scum of the world needed to be dealt with, but to hear that the blonde had struck him in such a way came as a surprise. The Silver Wolf Mistress was a brave one. She certainly lived up to her title well before even acquiring it. There were consequences for her action, of course, but she was graced with a mercy that the chief understood his own son's error and had placed some of the blame on him. Leona was free to choose exile instead of a death that no person should have had to face. "I suppose the exile was a blessing in disguise if one were to think about it." Leona was free to leave the village regardless of her mother's wishes and explore the world and get stronger in any way she chose. It was a very extreme route to take to get there, but it had worked out nicely for the grand design of Leona's life. Even the exile was nothing to worry about anymore since it had been rescinded and Leona was free to go back to her village anytime she chose. An exile that was now welcomed back among her people with a power and status far beyond the scope of what it was when she had left. The village had set the motions to build their guardian without even realizing it beforehand. It must have been torture to think of what would have happened if they had murdered Leona instead. Samira did not envy them, for surely they felt foolish for it, especially that chieftain's son that had started the whole thing.

As Leona further explained the issues with her mother, Samira gently nodded her head. While she's never exactly been in the same boat as Leona in that regard, she could imagine what the blonde must had been going through. "I imagine it is hard for her. You are her only daughter, and she had set plans for your future. Usually a mother would like their daughters to take after them, continue along that same path of family tradition and legacy. The dreams and hopes she had for you were crushed the moment of your exile. Years worth of dreaming and hope is not an easy thing to change or get over. It is especially hard due to the general lifestyle of your village as a whole, as well. The other mothers in the village all have their sons and daughters playing their part as is expected of them. Your mother would see this everyday, and it would be a constant reminder of how far off you have gone from the life she had planned for you. She will require more time until her delusions and expectations finally break, and she is finally brought to the reality the rest of us live in. That, or a second daughter." There was something that Samira didn't mention either, and that was the possibility that one day Leona would actually settle down and pop out those grandchildren. Not because that's what her mother wanted, but because it was what she wanted. Leona was still young with a lot of time left on her bio-logical clock. Anything was possible for that long future that awaited her.

Samira let out a small giggle when Leona mentioned having much more to tell. "I do not know why you have not written a book yet. You have much to tell already. If you wait too much longer that one book will become a full series." As much as Samira believed they should be rushing over to the Ferris Wheel to meet up with their third companion and his guardian summon, she preferred to take her time. It had been his choice to leave herself and Leona back at the bonfire. They would catch up at their own pace. He seemed like the patient sort so he probably didn't mind waiting a few minutes longer. Although, it would have been quite funny if Leona had to tell her story for a second time that night if Ruvel ended up being interested in hearing it as well. That was okay though. Samira would listen to it for a second time if she had to. "By all means though, if you have more to tell I would be interested in hearing it. I have a spirit or two that claim people always live on in stories even after they have long left the world. It helps if people know the stories to begin with though. If you do not write your own books, I may end up having to myself." The Goddess was joking of course. Sort of. She'd give Leona a few decades to write it herself before she did.

(Word Count: 834
Samira Total: 11,528)

"Yeah, I gave the chief's son what for. In hindsight it was a bad move, but at the time I was stressed and more than a bit angry. He got physical with me, so I got physical with him... just not in the way he wanted." Leona said to Samira in all seriousness. There was no inspiring "girl power" moment to be had there, at least not from her point of view. Leona had a bit of regret for beating up the chief's son, but only because it led to her family being threatened with death. The Wizard Saint took a breath before continuing the unpleasant story she had kept to herself for over two years.

"I didn't think it was right for him to hold his title over me, Samira. He was talking a big game about me getting to be the future chief's wife, but what guarantee was there that he would have actually followed through on the promise? I'm sure he said that same line to every village girl he found attractive." Leona continued telling some of the circumstances behind the story so that she did not look and sound like a psychopath who attacked any guy who found her attractive. After that brief explanation she continued her story.

"It wasn't just him holding his title over me that made me angry. It was being treated like a toy that existed only to make him happy. It felt like once he was done with me, he'd throw me aside and move onto the next toy until he got bored with it." Leona explained a bit further, employing a comparison to a toy to make her point. While she would not have submitted to Joshua's advances anyway, the fact that she was far from the only village girl he had "wooed" made the decision to fight back even easier. Why should she willingly get intimate with someone who only saw her as a plaything for the night before moving on with his life without having to deal with the consequences of the one-night stand?

"There was no winning in that situation, Samira. If I'd let him have his way I would have been called a whore by the entire village. If I didn't let him have his way I'd get into trouble for some made-up reason. Since I couldn't win either way I chose to get into trouble on my terms, which were to give him a good reason or two to keep his hands off of me." Leona finished the explanation without the slightest hint of bravado. She had been thrust into a no-win situation that fateful night. If she had given in she would have been labeled a "whore" and treated badly by a judgmental village. If she had not given in she would have gotten into trouble anyway because the chief's son had a lot more influence than the daughter of a scribe and could say anything negative he wanted and have it stick. Faced with that unpleasant situation, the best she could have done was to get into trouble on her terms and make lemonade out of lemons.

When it came to the subject of her mother, Leona could only sigh. That was another no-win situation Leona had been thrust into. Sophia was hellbent on getting Leona back to Nebdoui to stay and have children. Leona was hellbent on keeping her current lifestyle as a traveling mage who controlled her own life. Poor Leonidas was stuck in the middle with no way out; he too had been placed in a no-win situation because he was expected to have children.

"Maybe my mother means well, but if she had really wanted me to stay in the village she should have married someone besides a traveling trader. My father's stories of the outside world were one of the biggest reasons I wanted to become a traveling mage. Then I actually got to travel to some of the places my father talked about. Why would I want to go back to a desert village after doing everything I've done and seeing all the places I've seen?" Leona told Samira before asking a rhetorical question to hammer her point in. There was no possible way Leona could give up everything, return to Nebdoui, and be happy after everything she had seen and done up to this point. Leona then frowned.

"That's exactly the trouble, Samira. Sophia had everything planned out for me and she can't handle any setbacks to her plans. She's trying so had to get me to return home to get her plans back on track, but I'm refusing and that's making her even more upset. It feels like the only value I have to her is having children and that's driving us further apart. If she were the village leader I could kinda understand where she's coming from because marriages with the leaders of other villages tend to cement alliances, but she's just the head scribe, so dynastic ambitions aren't really an option." Leona expressed how she felt about the rocky relationship with her mother. While her mother might have had a point about Leona having to play her role in the village, the way Sophia chose to emphasize that obligation was what drove the Wizard Saint away from her mother. To Leona it sounded like her mother only wanted her back in Nebdoui in order to have grandchildren. Being reduced from a Wizard Saint and Guild Mistress to an ordinary villager whose only purpose was to have children was something the Wizard Saint could not tolerate. Even though her pride was subdued despite her name and accomplishments, Leona still had pride and it would not allow her to be reduced to a common housewife without a fight.

"What I hate the most is how she wants to reduce me to a puppet, Samira. She wants to take away my right to have my own life and ambitions just so that she can have grandchildren. I hate it." Leona said to Samira, letting a flash of anger show through. While her pride was normally subdued, this time it showed; she was determined to not be reduced to her mother's puppet and was determined to retain the titles she had won through hard work. Sometimes Leona emulated her big cat namesake in more than just ferocity in hand-to-hand combat. Then just as quickly as it came the anger subsided and Leona calmed down enough to talk about writing a book on her life.

"I'm not sure how many readers will be entertained by a book of my life story. Most readers want a story of a character who's destined to do great things with a noble goal going forth into the world to accomplish it. Me, my adventure didn't start off due to a great destiny. It only started because I refused to get knocked up by the chief's son and beat him up and got exiled from my home village. And I don't have a noble goal... I'm just taking things one day at a time and fighting things that ordinary people have a hard time handling, like serial killers with magic, large packs of werewolves, or necromancers." Leona admitted to Samira. Then she thought about what she had said a bit more.

"Then again, not having a great destiny means that I'm free to have my own goals and ambitions. For example, finding my father, getting the bandits in Desierto to back off of attacking my home village, and keeping Silver Wolf going in addition to my Wizard Saint responsibilities. All in all it's not so bad, but the story will need a lot of editing to make interesting. A LOT. That and a writer who's better than I am." Leona added quickly with a bit of humor. Her story had a lot of potential, but her biography or autobiography would need a lot of editing and skillful writing to make it flow well enough to be interesting. Leona had went on a lot of adventures, but she would need to pick out only the most interesting ones and write those down in order to make a readable book that was not thick enough to be used as a doorstopper or a blunt weapon.

[Post Word Count: 1,380]
[Leona's New Word Count: 9,950]

Samira remained respectfully quiet as Leona continued to talk more about the circumstances regarding the chief's son. As she listened, she began to understand Leona's position more and more. It was hard to imagine that at one point someone with the title that matched Leona's could have been in such a position in the first place. It was awkward even trying to picture it. But, everyone had to start somewhere, and it was that particular event that set Leona on her journey. As horrible as it was, it was a significant highlight of her life. Still, the summoner thought it was a sad situation. Her fellow mage had been in a no-win scenario that no woman should have ever been in. In her mind she wondered just how many women that chief's son had turned into a village whore or how many suffered from a falsely created rumor by rejecting him. "I hope after what you did to him he learned some valuable lesson. If only so he can become a better leader for your village if he is to take the place of your current chief one day." As far as Samira could assume, the leadership roles were inherited and passed down to the offspring of the current holders of the titles. It was common enough among villages and even countries. Thus far from Leona's story Samira didn't consider the man to be leadership material. Of course, that was just her opinion and nothing more.

The topic of Leona's mother brought up even more concerns. Samira still had her opinions about that, but she didn't say much more. It wasn't her place. Before randomly meeting Leona at the Cursed Lands festival by chance she didn't even know the woman. It wasn't exactly in the right to pretend she knew more than she did. She wasn't even a therapist so even listening and giving "expert" advice wasn't in her power. It was a sensitive topic that seemed to be really taking a toll on Leona's mind and heart, but at that moment Samira wasn't going to touch it with a ten foot pole anymore than she already had. The most she felt comfortable doing was nodding as she listened to let Leona know that her venting was being listened to and taken seriously. "Things may get better between you two. It just might take a bit more time and patience." Whether or not Leona had that amount of patience and tolerance within her was still up in the air. She represented courage, not the virtue of saintly patience. Samira did hope the two could come to an understanding at some point. Leona's mother seemed to miss and need her daughter, and if it bothered Leona that much then she probably wanted to still be near her mother as well. Family matters are complicated.

At first, Samira was disappointed that the book idea wasn't one Leona approved of, mostly because the blonde felt her own story was uninteresting. Oh, how wrong she was. The story was still in progress! There was so much material already that any Wizard Saint and mage fan would gobble up immediately! By the time Leona died there would be much more! Unless it was tomorrow. Or in five minutes. Even then though that could be an entire chapter or two! As Leona spoke more on it and thought about it a bit more she seemed to take the idea more seriously and like it a bit more than she originally had. Samira laughed a bit at Leona's small bit of humor at the end. "I am positive that one exists somewhere." But, just in case, Samira made a mental note to look into Leona's adventures and missions. If no one was going to write it then she certainly was!

The two did finally reach the Ferris Wheel, but to their surprise Ruvel was nowhere to be seen. They did take a long time chatting so maybe he got bored and left. There was no note or summon left behind to really clue them in on the mysterious disappearance. Although, based on his earlier episode he may had just felt ill and had to leave quickly. So the trio became the duo for the rest of their time at the festival grounds. The strange twin sisters didn't bother the Wizard Saints again, and there were no more public ritual ceremonies. Once the fireworks ended, the festival was normal, besides its location. Although, unknown to the two esteemed mages, there was more going on behind the scenes. That would not be the last time they would encounter those that were a part of the secret cult. But, it would likely be their last peaceful encounter with them.

(Word Count: 789
Samira Total: 12,317)

Leona's Total: 9950
12,317 + 9950 = 22,267
22,000 used for 100Y Freeform which starts Here
Disregard Ruvel's WC