"Shhh."  Sitting down next to her, Anton put an arm around her even as she leaned into him.  Light but she had given him a scare, and he was still scared.  It was a side he hadn't seen of Sohvi's, something she'd managed to bury so deeply that he had never suspected what she spoke of.  Rubbing her arm as he tried to think of what to say, there wasn't really much that he could.  Tell her it was alright?  It wasn't, it clearly never had been and she had never come to grips with it.  The way he had found her, the thought that someone had done that to her angered him but it was a small emotion compared to the worry he had for Sohvi.  He would help her first, then he could settle accounts with whoever had hurt Sohvi so deeply.

There was one thing he could say, something he was sure he had to, yet he was loathe to do it.  She had just begun to settle, yet the pain was still in there and buried deep.  It needed to be unearthed before it could be healed, or it would always remain in there, worrying away and burrowing even deeper.  Unsure of what would happen, he hesitated but he did what he felt was necessary nevertheless.  He just hoped that she trusted him enough to open up now that she had better control of herself, and that she knew that he was there for her.  "Sohvi, can you tell me what happened?"

The images that had occupied her mind ever since they had been triggered were starting to blur in with different ones. New life, old life... Joe, Jon, Eyes High, Anton, her mother, John, Ephron... everyone. She felt as if her head was about to burst with all the memories, good and bad that were flooding her mind. Was she going to go insane, on top of everything? Something between a sob and a laugh escaped her. Think happy thoughts, her mother had always said. But what did that hag know about anything. Oh, she'd certainly known well enough about some things. Sohvi shivered, something that wouldn't stop any time soon.

"I don't know why they didn't stop it." she whispered, clinging to Anton as he carried her off somewhere. Trackers lodge, probably. She could see his hut clearly, as it had been when she first arrived. A little on the shabby side, because Anton was rarely there, and a little on the small side because he lived alone. Nothing like the farm where she grew up. Nothing at all about Anton reminded her of her life before the howling. Maybe that was why she hadn't been able to remember it for so long. It was always easier to focus on the less horrible things. That's what she'd done back home as well, by naming Ephron as the bane of her existence, instead of...

She heard a door close behind her and Anton. The Tracker's lodge? His hut? the farm? The memories were all still blurring together. She instantly curled up and wrapped her arms around herself when Anton put her down on a bed. Her eyes were locked on the door, as if she expected it to open any moment. It made no sense, of course. Joe was miles and miles away. He probably didn't even remember her, and even if he did, he'd just think of her like some kind of devil, the way her father did. "I hope he feels dirty." she muttered, before looking at Anton. "That would only be fair, right? for him to feel at least a little dirty, after all he did to me."

He'd never seen her like this, not even close to it, and Anton was honest enough with himself to admit that it scared him a great deal.  The first words were familiar, and it took him a moment to place them.  The very first time he had given her instruction in the Wolf Dream, the apparition of that man when she had tried to manipulate her environment.  But that thought was quickly replaced with new ones as she kept speaking, of them all knowing something, of them not putting a stop to something.  As she buried her face in his shoulder and sobbed even harder, talking about how she had thought it was done with, his suspicions of what had her so upset became more certain but he didn't say anything of it.

Instead he simply held her close, rubbing hands along her back as he murmured that he was there, that he would take care of her, that she would be alright.  Simple things that he could do to help her, to try and calm her.  Keeping his mind open to Sohvi's, he began to send images through it, happier ones, times that they had spent together.  Showing her how to twirl a staff, games they had played like trying to teach her how to play chop, cooking together, anything he could think of that was warm and might help give her stability.  Eyes High was quick to follow, Anton could sense some of the images flowing from him as he rested his head on Sohvi's free shoulder, of times spent together.

The sobs lessened a little, but the hurt and the pain was no less keen for that.  Out in the woods was not the place to be, Anton needed to get her some place warmer and some water, things that would help her calm down.  "Come on."  Removing one of his hands from her back, she seemed to hold on tighter as if afraid he was going to leave her, but instead he slipped his hand underneath her knees and slowly got to his feet, picking her up as she held on.  "Its alright, I'm taking you to the Tracker Lodge.  Its ok, I'm not leaving you."

Murmuring what things he could think of to try and help her regain herself, Anton began to walk steadily away from the site he had found Sohvi with her in his arms.  Eyes High walking alongside as he kept communicating with Sohvi, both the man and the wolf united in trying to comfort the woman that they took away from that place.

It was like being back home again, the morning after he came to her for the first time. She'd huddled in her bed, determined to never get out of there again. Her mind had been blank, as she refused to think of... anything, really. As long as she just kept from moving it would go away. The memory would go away. Her sisters would go away. Her... Her brothers would go away. Everything would go away, and it would be fine, and no one would ever find out. That's what Joe said. What he whispered to her before he snuck out of her room. Her mother never should have insisted on her having her own room. it was all wrong. But she wasn't thinking about it. Just not... thinking.

Until her sisters started to shake her and call her name, and tell her that she was lazy and slutty and definitely not one of theirs because one of theirs would never be as ugly as she was. But that wasn't what Joe had whispered. It... Sohvi Her name again, but a different voice. Familiar, not so filled with bad memories that she'd forgotten all about until John... Shimmer! there was worry in the voice, the voice that had come at the start of her new life, the one without the memories. Or so she thought. Why couldn't she just keep them away, like she did before?

She turned her head, looking at the person who was shaking her. Not Runa, not Rada, not even her mom. Anton. This was Anton, who looked worried. Who had never tried to... and who had never hated her for what she looked like, or what other people thought of her. "I never wanted it." she said, repeating the same thing she said to him when Ephron showed up during her dream training. But it had never been Ephron. How could she have forgotten that so completely? She didn't even remember if it was just once, or if there were many mornings during which she refused to get out of bed. Her mother looked so worried, thinking she was sick, but at the same time knowing...

"They all knew." she said, her eyes wide as if she could see the faces of her family. All but one. His voice was enough though. "Oh Light, they all knew but they never did anything to stop it, and I never wanted it..." Even as she rambled she imagined her father's face, if there wasn't some kind of smugness behind his scowl. And Jon's face. Pious Jon, always on his knees for the creator but in the meantime he knew, and he didn't do anything. With another loud sob she burried her face against Anton's shoulder. "I thought it was over." she whispered between sobs. "I thought that if I'd just stop thinking about it, it would be over."

Sipping from his mug, Anton began to knead his forehead with a free hand as he disengaged his eyes from the ledger before him.  He knew there was an exceptionally good reason that he had never made a home in any one place, maintaining them was expensive.  Even with the funds he could pull on, favours he could call in if he were inclined to, it was still a lot for him to tackle alone.  Well, not alone as in he had no one to help him, he knew they were willing to, but some things could only be done by himself.  He wasn't sure if he was willing to inflict budgeting on someone else, or keeping an inventory.  Besides, as the Head he was the facilitator, the one who was meant to keep things in order, it allowed other people to go and do their jobs.

Twitching as his mind began to feel another consciousness trying to make itself aware, to communicate, Anton frowned as he left the dining room for the porch out the front.  Opening himself up to it, reluctantly, the jumble of images that spilled forth were enough to get Anton running.  Eyes High had been with Sohvi but she was hurt, he wanted Anton to come to him and was going to meet him halfway.  Taking great strides as he ran, Anton felt like his heart was going to burst as he ran for his life, afraid more than anything else of what was wrong with Sohvi.  All the images told him was that she was curled up against a tree, weeping, perhaps even clutching a wound of some sort.  His imagination was running wild with the possibilities of what could be wrong.

There was Eyes High, waiting for him only a moment to get close before he turned around and took the lead.  Following, he managed to keep pace as the wolf led the way, his paws tearing up the grass with Anton in close pursuit.  Panic more than anything was at the foremost of Anton's consciousness.  Light, if anything happened to her, he wasn't sure what he was going to do.  So he threw everything into each stride, adrenaline and more fueling the almost unnatural speed at which he loped behind Eyes High.

There she was, curled up against the tree and sobbing her heart out.  Almost leaping the last few steps, Anton sank down next to her, planting his knees in the earth as he reached over and shook her shoulders to get her to notice he was there.  "Sohvi?!  Sohvi!"  Still ignoring him as she sobbed.  Opening his mind to her, he began to try and get her attention with the wolf mindspeak even as he kept talking, trying to get through to her.  She wasn't injured, at least not seriously, but there was something else wrong, that was the only way he could explain the tears and the scent of panic and hurt coming from her.

The woods were somehow darker than she remembered. In a way it was as if the event had sent her back in history, to a time before her howling happened, and before she had learned to control her senses. Sohvi stumbled for the fourth time, landing on her knees again. The pants she was wearing would need knee-patches or they would be useless. Oddly trivial thoughts, but they were comforting. She used a tree to pull herself up from the ground, and kept on moving. As she walked she thought of little things, like the herbs she was going to have to plant next week, and the stew she could make from one of the rabbits she and John...

A choked sob seemed to echo through the otherwise silent woods. It was as if all the night time creatures were too startled by the event to make a noise, as if it loomed over them the way it loomed over Sohvi. A predatory memory, ready to sneak up on her and... She shook her head. Little things. She had to think of little things. Timewalker was home, probably looking serious the way she often did, pondering on something epic that had happened centuries ago. Something good, unlike...

How had she forgotten in the first place? She sank to her knees again, willingly this time because the memory just wouldn't stay away now that she finally found it again. She had screamed, bitten, kicked and clawed at John when it came back. All the things she never did when it happened. All the things she could never do, because she had to stay quiet, because if her father ever found out. She could hear Runa's voice whisper at her in the dark. "Hussy!" Jealous, because none of her eldest brother's friends would ever look at her the way they did at Sohvi, not knowing that the only reason they looked at Sohvi the way they did was because they knew. "Oh Light, they knew... they all knew." she whimpered, pressing herself against the tree to make herself as small as possible.

A faint rustling noise forced her to turn her head. Eyes High was watching her, his golden eyes fixed on hers. Another sob escaped Sohvi. "I can't..." she whispered, not quite knowing what it was that she couldn't do. "I just want it to go away... why won't it go away again?" The darkfurred wolf that had been her steady companion ever since her howling turned away and ran off somewhere in the woods. Again Sohvi heard her sisters voice as the girl turned away from her in disgust. Just like the wolf. Just like everyone would, when they knew. And John would tell them. He'd know. He could probably smell it on her, just like Ephron could. He knew. Shivering violently, Sohvi stayed where she was, her side pressed firmly against the tree. They all knew.

Tourneys. They had a certain charm to them that Rosheen found undeniable. Where there was a tourney, she would fight. It had been that way when she was but a trainee, pitted agaist Lonrick who defeated her one handed and blindfolded. These days she usually came out on top, especially in first matches. After hearing who her first opponent would be, she was no longer quite that certain. Cairma was good. She had improved much since having her child, and the reckless anger that she sometimes gave in to seemed to have faded to a minimum. Not that it was gone... Cairma was a berserker, after all. Where Rosheen weighed her opponents and sought their weaknesses, Cairma charged in, using brute force, speed and that ridiculous sword of hers to overwhelm her opponent.

Wordlessly she accepted Cairma's challenge, advancing with her sword drawn and with a little smile on her face. One thing that Vasya had managed to teach her that surprise was an element worth having on your side. Wasting time on idle talk was for fools, and Rosheen was no fool, even though people were lead to believe otherwise by her extravagant hairstyle. Her footing was sure and her blade high as she advanced, her stance challenging and yet defensive. She was not the kind of warrior who would give an opponent an opening in the first few blows.

But that was the problem with people of their skill. At times a few blows was all it took. She suddenly leaped forward, her blade following Arc of the moon even as her body prepared for Bundling the straw. What seemed like dozens of swift thrusts at Cairma's chest were all blocked by the immense sword. Rosheen swiped at Cairma's legs as soon as Cairma tried to raise her sword in an attack, which was instantly followed by a quick overhand thrust at Cairma's head. Rosheen backed away a few paces, letting her fellow grand master regain her footing. "Your turn." she said, still smiling at her opponent.

~Rosheen Tahn Sakhr

Grandmaster 

weeh :D

thanks all :)

and congrats all :D

A glance at the sun told her that, though time had passed, it wasn’t nearly as much as she thought had. Pacing up and down balance area was starting to get on her nerves. But shouldn’t she wait a little longer? Maybe Dovean had problems finding someone who could show her the way to her rooms. It was possible, of course. Just because it was rapidly approaching noon didn’t mean that the barracks were swarming with Tower Guards.

Pacing a little more, Rosheen thought of the training she still had to go through with dovean. The girl was terribly serious about everything she did. Worse than the average Shienaran, even, if you asked her. It was as though she wanted to prove that she was worthy to everyone she met, as if that would make up for the approval from the one she really needed it from, but wouldn’t get. “Family…” she muttered, thinking of her own. She’d never found as much strife there as Dovean seemed to find in hers.

She turned around to see Laurent approaching her. A small smile instantly curved at her lips. Now there was a trainee who didn’t take things quite as seriously. Oh, he was dedicated enough, convinced that he would one day become a warder of legends, but fortunately he was easy enough to get along with when he didn’t have his head up in the clouds. She called out to him, finding in him the solution to her little problem.

“Laurent, my dear boy, I’ve got a task for you. Dovean went to get something from my room, but she managed to get lost in the process. Do be a dear and locate your fellow trainee, and return her to her worried and impatient mentor.” She winked at him, and gave him a little shove in the right direction. “Off you go.”

~Rosheen Tahn Sakhr

ooc: Laurent is joining your training as well, because I’m too lazy to come up with a different thread for him ;)

I think you were before Borac and Bryon, along the same time when Elia was Commander of the Guard.

That would make it about 5 years before the main timeline, I think.

Timelines give me headaches :p

Faerzyne is ok at 230+

Nyssa needs to be in 190+ (kids...)

Indira needs to be in 90+

Smiling as he walked over to the table, he held out his arms to help her down.  It had taken him a little bit to realise where he was, but this place wasn't unfamiliar to him.  While thiefcatchers were by no means gentry, they could end up in the most interesting places and it had been his distinct pleasure to visit this very room on at least two occasions.  Sweeping her off the table and lightly placing her on the ground, even though it wasn't necessary when she could have simply imagined herself there, Anton smiled at her as he patted her arm.

"You're doing well, these are the new skills that you are going to be honing for now.  Once you have these mastered, you'll have the knowledge of all the basic skills that any Wolfkin must have to be acknowledged as a Wolfsister.  We keep working on these, and you will be nimble through the dream, able to shift about as you wish and reach places that may otherwise be impossible to reach.  Just remember to always be careful, like anything in the Wolf Dream, it does have its inherent dangers."

"But, in the meantime we will work on your ability to follow others through the dream.  In fact, I have just the right idea."  Grinning at Sohvi, he reached over and touched her on the arm.  "You're it!"  At that, Anton vanished, he'd lead her on a merry chase before she managed to tag him.  Just had to keep sliding about the dream, see whether she could catch him or not.  Might even land her in some water again while he was at it, a thought that made him grin wider as he continued to slip and slide from place to place.

-

Still wide-eyed about being where she was, Sohvi didn't notice the mischievous grin on Antons face until he touched her arm "Wha.... hey!" she called out, watching Anton disappear before  her very eyes. "But... I wasn't even... gah." she threw her hands in the air and formed a solid picture of Anton in her mind. Doing as Anton had said in the first lesson, she appeared next to him. Just as she reached out to touch him, he disappeared again. "This is taking too long." she muttered, forming the image again. She lost several seconds each time she had to form an image of Anton, and her position relative to his. There had to be an easier way. Instead of letting go of the need and the image that went with it, she held on for dear life as she hopped from city to city, nation to nation.

Until Anton decided to pull a prank on her, and stopped in the middle of an icy lake. He stood there for a few seconds, long enough for Sohvi to catch up to him. Or so she thought. She slipped as soon as she moved, landing on the hard ice. "Oof..." she muttered, glaring at the laughing Anton. He wouldn't escape her that easily though. She pushed herself towards him on the ice, and this time, because of the momentum she had, she actually reached him on time. "Gotcha!" she said, grinning broadly.

"Well?" he said, helping her up from the ice. "Well what?"

"Aren't you going to run?"

"Oh... uh... sure!"

Next thing Sohvi knew, she was on the shore of the icy lake, trying to think very hard of a better place to hide.

It sounded every bit as difficult as she'd imagined. When it came down to it, following someone wasn't particularly scary, especially when that someone was experienced, like Anton. Now she would have to do it on her own, and she didn't have all that many memories to go by. She clenched her jaw for a moment, trying to come up with a place to go. In the end she settled on a place she knew from her memories, a wheatfield a short distance away from the farm she had grown up in.

She closed her eyes and imagined what it looked like at this time of the year. the memory filled her, and soon she could see it as clearly as if she was actually there. "I need to be there." she whispered. When she opened her eyes, she was. Instantly she sank into a low crouch, her head barely peeking out over the wheat. Now that she was there, she kind of didn't want to be. What if one of her brothers was accidentally dreaming a dream in which he entered the dream world? one of of her brothers friends?

Anton appeared in front of her, looking confused for a moment until he looked down. "Shht!" she said, pulling at his hand in order to get him to crouch as well. "They might be watching." She liked the mountains of mist a whole lot better than this place, that much was certain. She closed her eyes again, and imagined another place she knew relatively well. The tracker's lodge. She appeared in the center of it. Much to her surprise, it was empty. "I suppose the trackers don't dream of coming here when they dream." she muttered.

Anton appeared in front of her again, but Sohvi was already focussing on a different place. She wanted to see Mayene again, but instead of focussing on the shore she focussed on the royal palace. She'd only heard about it from stories, and read about it in books, but she felt like she could find it anyway. All she wanted was to go there, to the main hall. Just to see what it was like. She needed to go there... When she opened her eyes, she was standing on a long table. She shifted slightly, which lead her to knock over a goblet. "Blood and..." She looked up to see if no one had seen her, only to find Anton in the middle of the hall, smirking at her. "Oops." she muttered, smiling innocently at him.

"Ah, the next part of your training."  Smiling, Anton spread his arms out before him as he explained.  "It differs slightly from finding a particularly person, which, incidentally is the same way you can find a specific object.  You can use that to travel specific places by the way, if you know a particular landmark, you can imagine your position in relation to that particular object.  For example, if you have been to the White Tower, you can imagine yourself infront of it and you will be there.  Its an easier way of stepping, and its easier to do as a whole."

"What you need to learn next is a bit more difficult.  You need to focus solely on the need and the idea of the place.  Say for example, you feel a need to go to a plain in Shienar, wrap this need around you and you will shift through the dream.  It takes a bit more effort, and also a good deal more caution.  When you step in this manner, you step blindly and you cannot be precisely sure where you will end up.  Its the same with trying to find an object through need that you only know of, rather than know, your need could take you anywhere and that requires care."

"For example, if you imagine a certain treasure that was lost, your need might take you to the bottom of the ocean where the wreck of the ship is and you'd drown.  So, be careful about how you use this skill, very careful and be certain of yourself.  The wrong decision and need could easily get yourself hurt or killed.  Now, I want you to try and do this step, the moment you disappear, I will follow after you and make sure you're alright.  Go on, when you're ready."

Before Sohvi was well and truly out of the stream, Anton was gone again. "No, wait!" she called out to the empty space in front of her. "I wanted to ask you something..." she muttered, pouting slightly. With a sigh she bent to pull off her wet boots, only to realise that there were easier ways to fix her attire. She focussed, and soon enough she was wearing the same thing she'd work before, only dry. She snatched the bonnet off her head. "Away, I said." It disappeared again, slowly as if to mock her efforts.

Then she went to work on moving herself to where Anton was. Far away, he had said. Sohvi didn't really have a grasp of far away. What was far away for someone like Anton, who the wolves knew as Farpaw? She found herself focussing on places again. "That's not the way it's done." she muttered to herself, trying her very best to clear her mind. "Focus on the man in stead. I need to be in front of the man. In front of the man. In. Front." she closed her eyes again, and embraced the need to be in front of Anton. When she opened her eyes again, she was staring at Anton, who was grinning at her. "So, where are we?" He pointed at something behind her, and the turned to look.

They were on a snowy mountain peak, well above the clouds. the air seemed thin there, and it was cold, though not as cold and thin as it would have been in the real world. "Woah..." she muttered, looking around. "Where are we?" Anton said something about the mountains of mist, but Sohvi wasn't really listening. "Follow me." he said after a while. "Huh?" she turned around, but he was already gone. "No, wait! I wanted to ask... gah." Again she closed her eyes, and imagined herself standing in front of Anton. Facing away from him this time though. "I need to be there." she muttered, allowing her need to take her there.

When she reappeared, she was standing on a steep cliff, with waves battering the rocks below her. "Woah..." she muttered again, taking in the sight of the ocean and the waves and everything. It was oddly familiar somehow. "Mayene." Anton said. Sohvi stood with her back towards him for a while, taking in the sights and sounds from the place where she was born. "Thank you." she finally muttered, but when she turned to look at Anton it appeared that he was no longer there to hear her words. When she focused on needing to be in front of him again she kept her eyes open, not wanting to waste a second of what he was showing her. "Tremalking." oddly enough she heard his voice before  the world around her became clear. "I don't even know where Tremalking is." she said with a little laugh.

The next place Anton took her was more familiar. It was where he first found her, when her howling had only just begun. Sohvi stood facing him again. "But now I know how to follow you. How can I get somewhere without needing to be next to a person? When I tried that earlier I just managed to create a stream."

Turning about as Anton heard the splashing and cursing behind him, he grinned as he saw Sohvi soaked.  He knew she wouldn't be able to resist once she had the idea, and he'd been proven right.  Besides, it wa sa good way to prove a point about the tricks in the dream, even though you could do things, people could anticipate what you were going to do and act accordingly, even doing something as simple as turning their back to the stream.  Offering his hand to her, he helped pull her free of the water and onto dry land with a grin on his face, it was always fun to catch someone out.

"Now, what we learn from this is that even though you learn tricks, people can still anticipate you and take steps.  We also learn that when I tell you to appear beside me, you really should appear beside me."  Anton smiled at the look that got, but truth was truth, she had no one to blame but herself.  "Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to travel a lot further.  Don't let distance bother you, distance has little meaning in the Wolf Dream as you should know by now.  But I'm going to take you a few places so you can see them for yourself.  Not the same as seeing them in the real world, but still breathtaking nevertheless."

Smiling, he patted her on the shoulder.  "Also, don't try and appear behind me again.  In fact, from now on, need to appear infront of me.  Otherwise it won't end well, I'm warning you."  At that, Anton disappeared.

Sohvi couldn't hold back a little squeal of fright when Anton suddenly appeared behind her. She hated it when people did that. Her displeasure at being scared soon faded into glee when she discovered that she was going to learn how it was done. All the things she could do with that. it would be brilliant. She could be the one to sneak up on people now, and she could see the world,  in the dream at least, and... another yelp escaped her when Anton demonstrated it's uses again.

"Alright, alright, it's useful..." she muttered, willing him to get on with it already. He explained the objective of the exercise to her, and showed her how to do it. Then he disappeared. "But..." she started, expecting to get more of an explanation from him. "But I don't know how." she muttered to herself. it was something about need, and then it was supposed to just happen? It didn't make any sense at all. She closed her eyes, thinking of the stream. Maybe it was the same as making things in the dreamworld? if she just got a clear enough picture of the stream in mind, she'd just go there?

The sound of running water brought a smile to her face. When she opened her eyes, the smile faded again. "Oh no..." she muttered, staring at the little stream she'd created right in front of Antons house. "That wasn't supposed to happen. With a sigh she made the stream vanish. "So what am I doing wrong?" Maybe she shouldn't focus on the stream, but on Anton instead. Or rather, on appearing behind Anton. She smirked. "Revenge will be mine." With that thought it wasn't too hard to 'Need' her way to the stream. She closed her eyes again, feeling that it would be easier that way.

With a splash she appeared behind Anton, right in the middle of the stream. "Blood and Ashes!" she cried out, immediately clasping her hands in front of her mouth in an attempt to pretend that she didn't just curse. Apparently the need thing worked, as she had appeared right behind Anton. She just hadn't counted on him being with his back to the stream.

"Hi."

Grinning as Sohvi whirled about, Anton poked her stomach.  He'd waited until she was outside his door then used a very simple trick to do what he had just done.  A trick that he was going to show Sohvi tonight as she had gotten a good grasp of the basics, perhaps she would become a Sage or a Watcher.  Anton knew she wouldn't be a Ranger and he had his doubts about being a Tracker.  She could make a good one if she was willing, but her inherent shyness made him wonder whether she would even seriously consider it.  Something they would discover when the time came though, not before.

"Today, we're going to try something new.  Specifically, how I just managed to do what I did then.  See, all your training so far has been focused on imposing changes around the Wolf Dream, using your will power to make things occur.  Thats all well and good, but there are other ways to do things in the world of dreams.  Need is a very powerful force within the Dream with it being so malleable.  In this case, if you need something badly enough, you can guide yourself to it.  Just then for example, I needed to be behind you, I felt the need greatly enough that I shifted from where I was to where I needed to be.  Just to show you again."

Anton blinked out of existance, disappearing from Sohvi's sight only to be tapping her shoulder from behind her, causing her to whirl around again.  "Now, I'm going to go by the stream a little bit down aways.  I want you to stay here, and hone the need within you to be beside me.  Hone the need, feel it intensely, and you can shift through the dream world and appear beside me.  Trust me, once you get this down pat, you can save a lot of time around the Dream.  But, I'll see you there."  Smiling at her, he simply vanished again from her view to reappear beside the stream.  Walking over to it, he then turned his back on it.  If she even thought about appearing behind him to get her own back, she was going to get a surprise of her own.

In the meantime he waited, confident that Sohvi would be able to achieve the feat.

The area around her cottage was never quite the same when Sohvi appeared there in the dreamworld. Sometimes things that had been gone for weeks already were still lingering there, as if the cottage clung to their memories, while other things that were new were still missing from the dream. It had taken some getting used to, but as long as her basic surroundings were the same, she was fine. Even though she now shared her home with Anwen and Timewalker, she rarely saw them out in the dreamworld. Anton had mentioned something about everyone having different starting points, but she didn't really understand that yet. All in all she was just happy that she appeared in front of her home, instead of somewhere less appropriate.

Closing her eyes for a moment, she got rid of the dress of amadician cut she was wearing, and changed it into something a little easier to move around with. Loose breeches covered by a loose tunic, and subtle leather boots. It was a lot more comfortable than the tight stuff John seemed to prefer on her. After a few moments of contemplation, she snatched the bonnet that always appeared off her head. "Begone, you..." she told it, and being the obedient bonnet that it was, it shimmered in her hands for a moment, before disappearing. She knew it would be there the next time she entered the dream again though. It was a stubborn thing, the bonnet, and one of the few reminders of her old life that she couldn't seem to free herself from.

Humming softly to herself, she walked over to Anton's home. She knew there were easier ways to go there, but she didn't quite trust herself yet. Who knew where she'd end up if she just tried to go there instantly? she might end up in the Trackers Lodge, or the farm where she grew up, or maybe even the ranger training ground. She didn't quite trust herself enough yet to take that gamble. Maybe Anton could teach her how it worked tonight. He always made it seem so easy. "If only it was that easy." she muttered as she came to a stop in front of Anton's home.

Sohvi Darwin

Fiery anger set Brand's usual cheerful face into a scowl. Fiery anger, something he would usually grasp the Spring for, fueled into his expression, bringing a tension into his body that he could have used to break something with. Instead he used it to silence Cairma. "Are you insane?" he asked her, his voice dangerously low. "You speak as if you had a right to attack a Tower Guard in my yards. MY YARDS!" the sudden roar brought forth a flinch from the woman he regarded as a sister. "You weren't in control of yourself, the situation you are in and the situation you created when you decided to 'give an old Daisho a black eye'."

He rose from his seat, placing his hands on his desk even as he loomed over Cairma. "This isn't about your ego taking a blow because someone you don't even know insults something you barely even understand. This is about you picking a fight in my yards for the wrong reasons. Look at him." Cairma stared at him blankly for a moment. "I said look at him!" after a few more moments of hesitation, Cairma tured her head to look at Shoar. "Is this man your enemy? Is he a trolloc? a Myrrdraal? A dreadlord, perhaps?"

Cairma opened her mouth as if to say something, but Brand cut her off. "What he is, is just a former warder, returning to the yards as a Tower Guard. He has some issues settling in, but is this your problem? Your responsibility? Are you Cairma, Commander of the Guard?" There was a certain softness in his voice when he continued. "No. You are Cairma, warder to Jaydena. You are Cairma, Mentor of Connor and Xilanin. You are Cairma, soon to be mother of your first child. None of these functions make fighting with Shoar your duty. Had you been in control, you would have removed your students from the discussion, and you would have summoned someone who is in charge of dealing with Tower Guards who are out of control. Had you been thinking, you would never have endagered yourself and everyone involved the way you did now. Instead you seem to think that you were in control just because you managed to get out without harm this time around. You disappoint me."

He sat back down again, looking oddly defeated. "Well? Anything to add before I come up with a way to keep you two out of trouble for the time being?"

~Brand Ryota

Commander

in need of a drink.

Whinge whinge whinge. All Brand really heard was a claim to having been temporarily insane. It wasn't something that eased his already rather grim mood. He turned to look at Cairma. Who was pregnant. Who should. have. known. better. "Light." he muttered, sitting back in his chair. "What am I supposed to do with you two? You claim this is your fault, Shoar, but it's Cairma that has been training here for the past fifteen years or more. It's Cairma that has experienced life while I was Commander. Therefore it is Cairma who knows that I won't tolerate fights among the Guards and Warders if they're not spars."

"If you were looking for someone to rage at, you should have come to me." his eyes were on Shoar now. "Cairma is lucky that she's far enough along in her training to be able to avoid getting damaged in an ordinary brawl, though the Light knows she certainly doesn't have the mental capacity to avoid one like she should, but you could have been faced with someone less skilled. A trainee, light forbid. You... both of you are living, breathing weapons, capable of doing more damage on a whim than some people manage to do in their entire lives."

His gaze turned to Cairma again. "I expect better from both of you. Whatever your current personal situation is, you must remember your responsibilities, not just to your own Aes Sedai, but to all Aes Sedai. You are both masters, so this responsibility stretches beyond that. You are supposed to be the examples on which the trainees here base their lives, their hopes, dreams and aspirations. And yet you can't even restrain yourself because someone says something you don't like?"

A look of disgust was plastered on Brands face. "I can't let this slide. Both of you may think you have a valid reason to lose control, but you will understand that no reason you could ever come up with is good enough. You will show restraint. You will be examples for trainees and younger Tower Guards, whatever your intentions for the future are. We are at war here, not with each other, but with an enemy who will stop at nothing to destroy us. This enemy will use our weakness against us. So if you two could do me a favour, and stop acting like a bunch of halfwits who can't even keep their calm in the face of some harsh words, I might actually get the opportunity to show our enemy that we are not weak, and that he will not be able to turn us against each other.

He glanced at Cairma, who looked as if she was sitting on hot coals. "Is there something you would like to add to this? Some other vague excuse as to why you lost control out there? Out with it..."

~Brand Ryota

Commander

he who speaks too much :D

Though Brand was aware of a certain commotion that went on not too far from his office, he chose to ignore it. It was better for everyone that he did, really. No one wanted to be told to stand down by the commander of the guard, and the commander of the guard didn't want to reprimand anyone. But there were days when it seemed that his very purpose in life was to remind people of the fact that they were behaving like idiots, and that their idiotic behaviour would get them nowhere. After a swift knock, the door to his office opened, and Brand realised that today was going to be one of those days. "Sir, there are people f..." A young trainee, with a face still filled with childish roundness which seemed to make his wide eyes even wider.

"Yes, I know." he cut the boy off. He did know, after all.

"But they're going to..."

"Yes. I know."

"But sir! they will..."

"Out, Bradley. I don't want to hear about it."

"Oh. Uh... but... oh..." Looking properly deflated, the boy left his office and closed the door behind him. The corners of Brand's mouth quirked upwards in a smile that didn't reach his eyes. Idiots. Bad influences, the lot of them. Ginae would no doubt call him out for it. And then Thera. And maybe even Bryon, if he was particularly lucky. He could just hear them now... Another knock interrupted his doomy thoughts. "Enter." he grunted, looking up from his desk to see a mohawk with a woman attached to it appear. "Sir." Rosheen Tahn Sakhr inclined her head. "Yes, I know." Brand said, looking defeated. "There are people fighting outside."

"No they're not." She said, grinning at him. Then she stepped aside, making room for Cairma and Shoar. "They were fighting though. I figured you'd want to have a word with them about that." With another nod, she walked out of the office, leaving him all by himself with the pair of scrappers. "Gee. Lovely. Sit." he ordered, nodding at the chairs in front of his desk. "Would you two like to explain your behaviour before I yell at you, or after?"

~Brand Ryota

Commander of the Guard

not impressed

A soft humming could be heard coming from the brook close to Sohvi’s little cottage. The source of the humming stood in the centre of the brook, with her breeches rolled up to her knees and a wreath of flowers in her hands. Unwatched and unworried, Sohvi wandered down the stream, enjoying the coolness of the water and the simplicity of her life. Not that it had ever been complicated, not even before she went through the Howling, but it had certainly been different. There had been menacing elder sisters to deal with, and troublesome elder brother, and… well, a lot of things. Now that she’d moved out of Anton’s home and into her own, she only had herself to tend to. She had classes and she went hunting and she learned what it meant to be wolfkin, but all it all, it was blissfully uncomplicated.

If one chose to forget about the other wolfkin, of course. Sohvi had never been a beacon of social light, and it showed. She was shy, aloof even, and chose to do much by herself, even though Anton urged her to meet with the other wanderers and wolfcubs. She tried, of course, but whenever she met someone, things got complicated. Things had gotten complicated with Anton, when they argued about spending time with wolves. Things had gotten complicated with John, because she didn’t know what she wanted. Things were complicated with Timewalker, simply because half of the time she didn’t know who the other woman was supposed to be.

Still humming to herself, Sohvi avoided the complicated things in life. Or so she thought. A whiff of something attracted her attention. Clean. Maybe Anton? She stood still and lifted her nose a little, sniffing at the air. Not Anton? One of the Candarr Sisters, perhaps? She flinched slightly at the thought. She liked all of the sisters, but they were just a little too… complicated. Especially when they were together. But from the scent of things, there was just one. Which one though? And why did she smell like Anton? Sohvi blushed slightly when she thought of reasons why a woman might smell like a man. Surely Anton wouldn’t. It was impossible to think of him that way. Wasn’t he everyone’s big brother?

“Hello?” she finally called out, sending out an image of herself at the same time. The sun shimmering off the first snow in winter. Shimmer. “Helloooooo?” it took a while, but then an image came to mind, as if the person to whom the scent belonged had tried to hold it back at first. It was as if the sun suddenly shone brightly through the trees, warming a cold that Sohvi didn’t even know existed before. “Korenna? Is that you?” she was fairly sure it was. She was the only person Sohvi knew who possessed such an overwhelmingly sunny disposition.

~Sohvi Darwin

Shimmer

I'm in  ;D

I mean... *looks harmless and cute and stuff* ;)

When I started we were already on Paths and disciplines, so I'm just a Balance and Misdirection girl, I'm afraid.

One that could kick all your butts, but oh well :p

anyway, I think the old disciples are ok for non WS-raising rp's, and a great way to confuse the hell out of newbies.  ;D