Two roads diverged in the woods - and I took the one most traveled (p)

Wandering along the road towards Hosenka, Vetis recalled the things he had done so far for the sake of survival and prosperity, things that had meant taking a thing or two from others. Knowing that the average human was quite greedy and did not like giving things to those in need, he had come to believe that breaking in and taking these things from their home would have been the better outcome for him. These things he spoke of were the clothes he wore right now, at least most of them. The black slacks, the socks and the boxer shorts he had stolen from the room of one of the mountain village's citizens were the only parts of the stolen attire he had kept with him. The sleeveless vest he wore, as well as his boots however, had not come from the Mountain village, though they too had been illegally acquired, as someone else might have put it. When passing by the main road leading up to Hosenka, the part where the path branched off to the north east and therefore the Hunting village had provided him with something he could not pass up on.

Walking in on a wandering merchant that had recently purchased the leather goods from someone who had produced them in the Hunting village, he had used nothing more than intimidation to get what he wanted. Handing the merchant the shoes and the shirt he had taken from Mountain village after picking out the black leather vest and brown leather boots from his kart, he hadn't done a single thing to harm the man. That said, he wasn't entirely dim and was quite aware of how the merchant had most likely thought that his life was in some sort of danger and that Vetis was an ordinary robber. Being entirely content with keeping up that charade so that he could dress up in clothes that made him feel presentable, he had taken his leave of the man shortly after. The way he saw it, he could have just taken what he wanted from the man without leaving him anything, or do what he did completely unseen later at night, though he simply hadn't felt like waiting that long for a change of clothing when he could just take them right away.

Besides, now, maybe the guy could get some compensation somewhere, or sell the clothes Vetis had left behind for a few bucks. In any case, it did not matter to him, as he had gotten exactly what he wanted without trouble or bloodshed. Continuing to just wander along the road towards the city, he kept his eyes and ears open, even his nose was contributing. After all, his senses were sharp, very sharp, sharper maybe than those of most predatory animals living within these same woodlands. Keeping him aware of what was going on around him, there was no need for him to be on his toes as he just strolled carelessly through the forest that was Sakuramori. Bringing up his right arm, he opened his hand and just stared at his fingers and his wrist, noticing that the throbbing purple veins had disappeared entirely. Securing him in the thought that all it had taken was time, he wouldn't go about trying to call forth the white flame magic Solmar used any time soon. As a demon, him trying to actually wield demon slaying magic had not been a good idea as just trying to conjure it had caused his entire body to reject it in the most painful way possible.

"It won't be long now before I get to Hosenka. There, I'll probably be able to take a weapon that sits well with me… might even do a few jobs to obtain some of the local currency, whatever that's called."

Thinking to himself as he slipped his hands back into his pockets, the young white haired man maintained his stride towards his destination. Whether he would find a weapon for him there was not something he doubted all that much, though what he really hoped for was that he might awaken some old memories by doing some sightseeing. Hell, it might just help him in actually conjuring up some of the magic he knew he had, but for some reason failed to get access to. Whatever the case, there wasn't a whole lot he could do about it while on the road.


(739)

When a voice suddenly made the presence of a woman known to him, the first thing he wondered about was how she had managed to remain hidden for so long without his senses picking up on her. From where he was standing, he could clearly hear a deer foraging for food at a distance of roughly fifty meters away from them, yet somehow this woman had managed to get this close without setting off a single one of his senses. It made him think about how his senses might not have been as good as he thought they were, though that made no sense at all. What made more sense was that this woman somehow managed to move around without alarming his nose or ears, meaning she was likely some kind of mage. Turning to see where the voice had come from, he saw a dark haired girl sitting on top of a branch higher up in a tree. From there, she spoke down to him, bringing up how she had expected him to kill the merchant at first.

Narrowing an eye as he raised the brow of the other, he kept his eyes on the girl as he let this sink in for a bit. If she had been following him the entire time since his encounter with the merchant, that meant that she had been around for quite some time already, yet he hadn't taken note of her even once. Whatever was going on here, he remained quiet as he listened to whatever else she had to say, all the while writing off the fact that he hadn't noticed her once on the fact that this body of his was quite new and might have needed some more time to adjust to the outside world. Not having the faintest clue as to why she would have taken an interest in him, she even brought up that there was some creature suspected to be prowling around here, though he knew that Solmar had killed that creature at least a month ago. Thinking that word might not have reached all of the villages yet, he shrugged his shoulders and responded to the peculiar girl.

"He didn't pose a threat, so I didn't see nor felt the need for it.."

Once she hopped down from the tree and landed on her feet like a cat, he was certain that she was a mage as most regular folk would have ended up with a pair of broken legs, if not more. Figuring this tied in with the fact that he hadn't heard her coming, all of these things started tying in together to the point where Vetis felt the need to be on his guard. Whoever she was, she made it rather clear that she had something to gain out of this, otherwise she wouldn't have followed him around even after she saw that he had no intention of killing the merchant at the time. When she wanted to know who he was and referred to him as a young one, he narrowed both of his eyes and made sure not to take them off of the girl. Given her own appearance, it seemed so very odd that she would refer to him as a young one, given how he personally believed himself to look older than her. For now, he would play along and see where things would go from here.

"It's Vetis.. though I can't help but feel like you left out your own when making your introduction."


(588 // 1327)

It was quite odd how the girl wanted to keep the conversation going, yet at the same time steering it as far away from herself as possible. Finding the way in which she did so to be quite suspicious, he considered just coming up with an excuse and going along his merry way as intended. Maybe it was just due to the fact that he had only been around for a very short while, but there was just something that bothered him about a person asking him about his name and what he was planning on doing while claiming they were themselves not up for discussion. Continuing to move along at a relatively slow and maintainable stride, he figured that if the girl was as interested as she was in him, she would most likely just tag along anyway. After all, it was a free country, at least for as far as he was aware, so he wouldn't try to stop her from doing what she was going to do.

"You know, it's odd when you ask someone for their name and refuse to give them your own. Some might even consider it rude. As for me personally, I just find it odd, but it doesn't concern nor matter to me."

Making that much clear right off the bat, the direction he was headed in could have told the girl something, given her some clues as to where it was that he might be going. After all, the only real inhabited places in this particular direction where Hosenka and Cedar. If she was a local here, or had been in Fiore long enough instead of sticking to one place like many of the city folk tended to do, she most likely already knew that much. If not, he figured sharing with her his destination would not be that much of a game changer for either of them. Still, he wondered exactly how much information he should be disclosing to someone who was supposedly interested in him, yet entirely unwilling to share anything about who she was and what she wanted.

"I don't really know why, but I feel this urge to go to Hosenka. It was where my previous ho- where my brother's story started, and I wonder if this is where I can find the beginning to my own. If not, I might be able to get some good food and a new weapon there."

Stopping himself from saying what it was that he was going to say, it would most likely have sounded odd if he had said it in any other way. When talking about a brother, he would probably sound the most human, something he most likely would not have achieved if he had referred to Solmar as what they truly were to one another. If he were to bring up the fact that he had been stuck inside of a host body for the past eighteen years as some demonic parasite, and that all he ever knew were the things he had seen through the eyes of someone else while having no control over the direction in which they were headed, chances were that this girl would either just laugh in his face for being some kind of lunatic, or that she would report him to the authorities for the exact same reason. Not really looking for any trouble right now, playing it safe seemed to be the finest option at his disposal.


(580 // 1907)

"Though they sound menacing and all, those are nicknames… titles even, none of those provide an actual name, which is what I'm more interested in if I'm being honest. I don't expect you to understand, but I've got a few… trust issues seems like it might be the right wording. So you'd have to forgive me if I'm not overly trusting towards a person who provides only nicknames."

Whereas some might be scared when someone came up to them in such a manner, Vetis was not one of them. He was a demon, so no human would scare him, though nothing in this world or the next would keep him from being cautious. His time with Solmar had taught him that humans were conniving creatures who were only out for themselves and their own gain, so he would not be dissuaded from that any time soon. Still, as cautious as he was around humans, and especially this human in particular due to the way she acted, he was not above hearing her out and listening to what it was that she had to say to him. After all, caution and rudeness were two different things entirely, and he wasn't the kind of person to act out of character and be rude for the sake of rudeness. For the time being however, he figured he'd give her a name he was content with.

"If you don't mind me not calling you any of those things, I'll call you Hestia. It's the name of a girl I grew up with.. sort of. I always liked that name, and since she's no longer alive, I imagine she doesn't need it anymore. "

Hestia was, to him, a name he was never going to forget. Being a friend to Solmar when he grew up, it had been one of those people Vetis had always wanted to meet, but couldn't due to the fact that he was like a mental parasite, and therefore incapable of meeting people or doing much of anything. When he killed her in a blind fit of rage, she was one of the few people he felt remorse for, though that did not matter now. Solmar was never going to forgive him for what had happened, nor would he ever understand. And even if he did, it wasn't like he was going to actually bring anyone back. Feeling that the name of a dead girl would serve this woman well on account of how hard she tried to keep her own name hidden, it'd at the very least provide Vetis with something to call her. When she walked up to him and stopped but a little distance away from getting up in his face, which wasn't something he liked a whole lot, she let the cat out of the bag.

"I know for a fact that I'm planning on taking a feasible weapon from one of the local smiths. But for starters, I intend to get me some good and wash up. After that.. I'm not really sure what I'd do, though I imagine there are plenty of endeavors to get involved in. So if you've got something to share with me, I'll promise to at least hear you out."

Putting the ball in her park, Vetis would wait for the girl he dubbed Hestia to provide him with the details of whatever this "excitement" entailed. Not being the kind of guy that would step into things blindly, he would need some information, preferably plenty of it.


(587 // 2494)

“No, I don’t imagine she will.”

Agreeing with the strange girl, she seemed to be a lot like him in a bunch of different ways, though she was very different from Solmar. While he figured that she was about as human as he was, Vetis could clearly tell that she was differently oriented from most humans as far as thought processes went. Judging by how quickly she went with the name he had pinned on her for the duration of their little meeting out in the forest, he could tell that there was clearly something off about her. For now, he would just be going along with things until he felt like it was either going nowhere, or going down some path he did not wish to follow. At things stood right now, he very much planned on going to Hosenka, though he did say that he would hear “Hestia” out, and so he would not be leaving until he knew exactly what she wanted from him. So when she started talking about how she needed help collecting some payment, it made him wonder if he was to be used as a mere debt collector, a dumb set of muscles.

Listening into it however, it seemed that things were to be a lot more nefarious than that. Claiming herself to be some sort of business woman, it seemed that she had gone through some strange means of helping a grieving man who was now no longer willing to pay whatever it was that he owed her. Through some means, she had managed to bring back a man’s daughter to life, which was something Solmar had always been very cautious with ever since they ran into a necromancer that went around bringing back the dead under his command. And from what he had seen, bringing back those that had been dead for a while did not always retain much, if anything at all of who they once were. More importantly, Necromancy in itself was something he did not care much for as it was something that went against the laws of nature. Even as something that had been born outside of the natural laws, Vetis still knew to respect that when things had passed away, they were not meant to be brought back to the land of the living as such things brought with them a set of side effects.

“So what, you want me to act as a dumb set of muscles and shake down this man until he pays up for a job that wasn’t done in a way he felt was satisfactory? What happened to the customer being king?”

While it seemed like he shook it off with a fairly dry joke and a clean observation as to what was apparently being expected of him, what he really wanted to ask was whether or not she was a necromancer and if she had gone around tricking the man by doing a half-assed job on purpose. The way she put it, it seemed quite clear that the man did not trust her to be true to her word, which was why she was not allowed to claim what he owed her by herself and needed a third party to do so. From what he was hearing so far, he had to say that he was not entirely on board with any of this, as it seemed like he was being played for a fool while this person he was to be shaking down had been given a very raw deal by someone who clearly knew better. Wondering as to exactly what she had to gain out of doing any of these things, and making deals with people which she only partly lived up to when delivering, he imagined that she wouldn’t answer him truthfully even if he asked. After all, she hadn’t done so up until now, so there was no reason for him to believe that anything about that had changed. Still, not asking would be about as bad as just going along with things blindfolded.

“Jokes aside, what did you have to gain from all this, and does that mean you’re a Necromancer? Because the last Necromancer I met tried to kill me, and he had a vibe to him that was quite similar to what I’m feeling from you… so do be honest.”


(728 // 3222)