Onna'evatril: The life that surrounds us

[Syracuse]

Onna'evatril, having only recently returned to the Gate after business afar, has been sighted awaiting the team assembled by Elyssa the sun elf. The moon elf accompanied them into the sewers, rumor may reveal, to inspect the cause of the sudden outbreak of diseased rats spreading their ailment to local live stock and suburban wild life.

The elf may be seen over the next several days exhibiting... incredibly odd behavior. Willfully subjecting herself to the cold and damp of the sewers time and time again with a bottle of milk and a hand puppet that roughly resembles a rat, made from real rat's fur. Upon exiting the sewers each time, she huffs looking a bit flustered but still carrying a smile regardless.

Eva moves with absolute quiet and calm through the sewers. The smell sadly something she grows accustomed to each time she delves beneath the city streets of Baldur's Gate as the girl runs her hands along the stone walls, the velvet of green moss the only slight comfort in her environment of sharply cut stone and brick working. Even the forcefully directed flow of sewer water has a... unnatural sensation to it, carrying fecal matter and good only to those few rats that still live beneath the surface of the city. Her footsteps paused, to allow the hurried foot fall of what could be anything, really, pass by. She knew only that it was roughly of human weight and height. Four of them. And that they were off to somewhere in a hurry. The possible hunting of urban cut-throats however was far from her desire, instead kneeling down fifty paces from the man hole she had dove down to come all this way.

Excavating a brick from the wall, the girl brushes aside a heavy dirt and dust of stone. Smiling a bit off still as she reaches further within the wall, and pulling gently from its safety a small nest made of clean cloth, cotton for its softness and warmth, burlap for its toughness, and tucked within those fine materials... baby rats.

Oh, it wasn't that she could bring herself to hate them. No, she didn't -truly- hate anything alive. And there was a sort of charm to the little pink things, naked and vulnerable, blind and without a mother. It was just a far cry from the noble work she performed in Evereska. Going from taking care of lost and hurt yearlings to grow into magnificent stags and gorgeous does, to... well. Raising rats to scurry about the sewers. This was amidst one of her more humbling moments for certain.

But as the elf adorns her hand with the mock doll of a rat, and gently feeds the milk bottle alongside her hand to flow into mock teats of a simple beast, the pangs of honor besmirched quickly evaporated. They needed her... and. In a queer way. The city needed them. Them to carry off the refuse, them to eat what would simply rot in the sun for ages. Needed them to scurry about being caught by cats, to feed them, and again feed something else. Eva coming to the quiet realization that truly, all life great and small has a place within the world. A fact that was far too easy to forget when used to quietly stalking orcs beneath their noses, and evading more and more deadly beasts every day, walking right beside them with a smirk on. This was a simple, and humble task. And for a moment, she could forgive herself to forget this was a filthy sewer, and not the beautiful forestry she left so long ago.

Fed to their fill, the small ratlings receive a check up. The most gentle of hands seizing their tiny paws to check in the crux of their wrinkled, pink skin for signs of puss, boils - anything that could instantly turn their 'mother' from adoptive parent to the bane of their existence in an instant. Checking their little eyes, each time, for signs of crust and puss. Checking their mouths, and noses, for the foam of a mad animal's rage. Checking the growing fuzz of fur for signs of mange.

And each time... the druidess returns them to their nest with a long sigh of relief. Though nothing would cause her pause to crush them beneath the same brick that now acted as shield to their home, with just enough space for a small rat to crawl through on becoming old enough to wander away from home, she was not heartless. Even having to smash tiny baby rats would've caused the druid to frown, and bemoan for the rest of the day. But it wouldn't be this day. Nor did it seem to be for the week... Eva bides her time. Setting aside a few minutes each day, every few hours. To care for the future of Baldur's Gate's small, seemingly inconsequential eco-system. A system that had suffered, more than enough, already.

And the small elf would stop at the base of the ladder, each time. Smile sweetly and knowingly to a single brick down the path with a glint in her gold hued eyes. And ascend the railing as quietly as a mouse herself, to run a warm bath and enjoy a glass of wine.

[Syracuse]

Fear begins to grip the hearts of the refugees traversing the Coast Way as rumours spread after an attack by a gang calling themselves the Toecutters. Four men and two women were killed, apparently, and four more women and nine children are accounted as missing. The single survivor escaped but had all his toes cut off. Rumour has it that even the Flaming Fist are preparing to investigate further, given the state of the city and the importance of the southern trade routes at this time.

Eva looked onto her cousin Isioviel with a gentle smile, the pair having long since departed the simple but needed work of grave digging behind them. A since of quiet pride swelling the elf's chest as her wolf Sadie trots quietly along beside her.

This was not Eva's adventure. But she did so delight in in reminding Isioviel of old elven proverbs that rung true through the efforts of tracking.

"Recall, cousin. The man that approaches a bush seeking a bird. Should nolt be surprised at all when the bird is already in flight."

"Hold on to hope, cousin. To lose it is to absolve the senses of responsibility."

"Even now, the Moonbow watches over us and them. You have nolt yet failed."

A quiet comfort comes in quipping of her Mistress' teachings, nearly sweeping the elf into a walking reverie of memories. The removed, almost ethereal sanctum of the Moonbow's church. The long and diaphanous gowns of elven beauties. The smell of crushed fruit and the constant trickling of clean water filling the air.

And her. Her, always watching Eva.

As the pair enter a forest clearing, Eva is forced from her world of what once was. Little in regret shows in her eyes, a chameleon of both the natural world and the social. Her cousin's finger extended towards the trees where rest perhaps one of Eva's favorite birds of prey.

The owl. Wide eyed. Sharp of sense and so very human in expression. Quiet and beautiful, looking on them just as much as they looked onto him. Eva's hand motions gingerly for Isioviel to greet the owl as the moon elf takes on a passive stance nearby. Merely listening as the two exchange intense looks far more meaningful in body language than words, right up until the owl is in flight.

The pair of elves take flight alongside it, for the first time in hours Eva's foot fall is audible. The druidess giving pursuit into a second clearing, where they come to rest and inspect the field.

She relents a small grin onto her cousin as the druid incants a spell to detect magic. For there was no other way such a hunting party could evade leaving even a single track in the dirt...



"Let us see what secrets yet linger within the Luminous Cloud." the elf's eyes open twice as wide. Gently plucking the spectacles from her nose to observe the scene.

[Syracuse]

"Yes... yes, this ought to do. This should do very nicely, don't you think little wulns?"

Eva's frame shifts and distorts from the bushes just outside the Mystran temple. What once was the long black ears of a silken furred rabbit soon became the long points of a creature only posing as prey in the world. Bespectacled eyes narrowed in quiet contemplation of the burrow she had dug out.

"Insulated well... julst wide enough for you lot. Without any curious hands, or serpents, to sneak about... yes, this will do -precisely- as we need, my little darlings."

Eva's smile flows from the burrow onto her swaddled chest. Small pinkish bodies only now growing traces of real fur in gave only the tiniest of shrugs in reply against her stomach and bosom, far too warm and comfortable, and far too asleep to register the elf's voice. She simply chuckles, keeping quiet besides while coming to a kneel beside the bush, her eyes darting expectantly to the fore of the Mystran Temple.

And of course. Just as her ears had indicated, a newcomer arrives to the scene. The dappled beauty of tiny Mimi, Aeili's wonderful little companion, come to the 'rescue'. As a surrogate mother, Eva hardly could have hoped for better. The rabbit possessed of a vast intellect, but still those traces of a wild animal lingered in its earnest desires to play, to tussle in grass, to chew on clover. That this plan came to fruition at all was nothing short of Angharradh's hand in the mortal world. A miracle made manifest.

The sewers had proven far, far too cold for her newly acquired little ratlings to survive on their own. The druid forced to carry them on her person and in secret wherever she went, all in an effort to keep their frail forms warm to her chest. While she was certainly satisfied to keep them safe, her feet yearned to travel these still new lands. Her skills still screaming for a challenge. And The Triune calling on her to learn. The Luminous Cloud holding still yet more mysteries for the young moon elf to uncover.

None of which really bore in mind the safety of such tiny, fragile things. No, this was far better. Eva grins until her nose wrinkles, comically matching the twitching of the rabbit's nose while Eva reaches to gently stroke over Mimi's ears. A gift lay before the rabbit in the form of a few mint leaves, forcing the rabbit to squeal with bunnish delight and stamp its feet with glee.

Eva's voice is quiet as she murmurs to the rabbit in Sylvan, a language she no longer had the privilege to enjoy on a frequent basis as she once did. A quietly spoken, "Thank you again, darling... please, express my gratitude to Aeili for me once more? And - this mint will be our little secret, hm~? ... just recall - if they start hopping like rabbits. Well. The Gate is a queer enough place, just... try to gently steer them away frolm such means of mobility, hm?"

The swaddle is lay beside the rabbit. the exchange made neat, and tidy, as Eva drifts to her feet and brushes her nails free of some lingering dirt, allowing Mimi ample time to struggle and rustle down into the new burrow, to warm the tiny darlings below. To teach them how to be proper prey animals. To bestow on them a wisdom quite uncanny to any beast in the natural world.

And leaving Eva to wander once more, with only the responsibility to return and feed her tiny charges.

[Syracuse]

"Oh! Oh - c'moln now~! Stolp that, I can't clean you when you act so!"

Eva was yet again reduced to a fit of giggles as the rats bounced, jumped, and decided to play tug of war with the linen cloth Eva was using to clean them up with, a few stray mushy dollops of oatmeal still clinging to their budding, soft fur. Forced to scoop them up one at a time as they wriggled and squeaked in mild protest, wanting nothing more than to charge into Mimi and one another, and hide beneath the elf's skirt to explore what could possibly be hiding underneath such long robes.

"Out olf there - out! Go oln, play with your brother! Oh my Gods - yes, I know, everything is just so exciting, isn't it!" Eva titters out a long giggle, shaking her head back and forth. Forcing her heavy pounds of hair to shake and shimmer - before another one of the sneaky little things fell right from her long raven locks. "... how did you even manage that? Mnhahahahaha - ulroyt, that's our little secret, I'll nolt have my head called a rat's nest~."

Well, Eva had witnessed such playful behaviors in young animals time and time before, of course, but today it just seemed vastly more meaningful. Her gentle fingers tickling at their sides, leaving them to bound sideways, backwards, roll about - no direction seemed out of their curious reach and exuberance. In a city of so many dour moods, and stern expressions... Eva felt at peace embracing happiness. Pangs for home echoed through her heart, still, but today they served as joyful reminders of what she was meant to do with her life.

"Oh that's it - you're ull going to get it now!" Even Mimi had gotten into the throw of things. Though Eva could swear the sweet rabbit had tried not to, even Mimi at the end of the day, intelligent more than half the peasantry that surrounds her, still enjoyed thumping and lightly rolling over little furry things smaller than herself. Before bouncing swift circles about them when it was the rats turns to give chase after her wiggly cotton soft tail.

Eva snatched the playful little things to hold to her stomach, and lean back against the banner of Mystra looming over head. Her huge golden eyes cast upwards, absently rolling her fingers across their heads and tails while reminiscing. Clouds, as usual. Dreary and looming. But a swollen full moon wouldn't be stopped by them, enshrouded by the Luminous Cloud into a ever mysterious sigil of promise.

It was a small gift. But a gift, she was sure of it. A truly queer and abstract gift from Angharradh. Something to smile about, despite dizzying woes and so very, very many dour expressions... a chance for Eva to just be Eva. While little animals enjoyed being little animals.

[Syracuse]

In the small hours of night fall, two elves can be seen departing the temple of mystery. In their care, a rabbit and a woven basket of reeds.

Few might see the contents of the basket as the moon elf flipped the lid open, depositing several rats along the cobbled stone street. She spends a great deal of time stroking their heads before heaving a door into the sewer ways open. The rats are sent scurrying into the night, while the moon and sun elf watch.

The two speak quietly under the moon and stars for quite some time, with one of their voices sounding upset. The pair depart to their respective worships. The sun elf, to the temple of Mystra, and the moon elf to the woods outside the Gate.

"You have to go, now."

Eva did her utmost to maintain a 'stiff upper lip' to them. Small pink noses, large round ears and beady sets of eyes regarding the tall moon elf woman as she held the door open for them to slip away. She had spent three days collecting a small pack of rats from the woods of fine health compared to what things await her small charges.

They didn't pause for a moment. Though 'befriended' as well as the elf could manage, their instincts burned to move into the cover of darkness, and begin their lives anew. But Eva's rats yet lingered, seeming not to understand.

"I said. You have. To go, now." More tears welled in her eyes. "Go oln. It'll be okay. Recull wolt Mimi taughlt you ull."

Slowly, their furred forms walked on into the sewers. Tails dragging and with a eye cocked onto their caretakers behind them, before each and all was disappeared into the sound of running water. Til each had walked out of her life again, slowly bringing the door closed with a rusted hinge's scream masking her sniffles, requiring Aeili's comfort to not make a scene.

Well, not -more- of a scene than she already was. Missing the prodding of their cold little noses already. And she hadn't really imagined their fur, when well maintained, could be as soft as they'd been. Gone was her little blessing of familiarity within the Gate, on to their new lives of rummaging through a empire of dirt beneath the city.

It took a longer time than she would've liked to regain her senses. Drying her eyes and spectacles of so much emotion. But, Aeili was right. Though Eva doubted the next time she'd enjoy leading little creatures til their adulthood would be soon, it would be eventually.

A bit deflated, Eva departed the scene of their farewells with another stroke over Mimi the rabbit's ears. Keeping her gaze level ahead as she strode past the Flaming Fist by the city gate, and out into the wider world at large.

[Syracuse]

It was a miserable moment. Seeing her kin, wary, but happy across a river. A personal Rubicon dividing her from her kin that blurred into some fashion of portal through time. Eva rolling her shoulders beneath the heavy brace for wood on her back.

The brace was far from the heaviest thing she was carrying. So she did little in voicing her discomfort over it as the straps had bruised her shoulders, and the tight brace stole much of her graceful posture to a rigidness she would've voiced was more like a Helmite than an elf.

A few fingers drag across her painted lips where that taste still lingers. A ghostly reminder of what elven blood had tasted like, a specter that now loomed and harassed her with woe. Struck up all for the tyrant attitude of one kin that just wouldn't back down.

The weight isn't shed, but a number of tears are. A few glances from kin across the river force her to step back, step by step, to distance herself and keep their curiosity from blossoming into concerned steps towards her.

She couldn't explain the sin she carried, regardless of how righteous the motivation had been so long ago. She couldn't remain with her kin, happy and guiding them. Exile from paradise, once again, had thrown her to the road.

Swollen gold eyes reflected every glint from the moon and stars, until the sun came on the horizon. Watching a sleeping village slowly awake for another day, Eva's labored breathing only growing as she watched her people, yearning for their company already.

A sickened hack exits her lips as stress threatens to induce vomiting. It's time to leave. And so, she's gone. Trackless, and into the woods.