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Hoarfrost	The Wintersong Forest, forever frozen int the middle of a deep winters chill even in the warmest of summers. It's tall trees half encased in tombs of ice. Rivers frozen in their place for Gaia only knows how long, and a blanket of snow covers everything else. It is a peaceful quiet expanse out of place in the east. It is said though, some kind of god, beast, or spirit has made its home here. Some speak of a unicorn, or a creature made of snow, even as simple as a witch in the woods. Though the descriptions vary they have a theme. An albino protector of the forest it has also healed the wounded, woven impossible magics and whispered secrets to those who seek it out.
Neza	The Scholar had a new obsession. Fickle as the old man was, his jade still spent and so Neza would continue to play at scout and assessor. For most of her sorties, the results were lackluster; an abandoned ruin was just so or a legendary beast was nothing more than a leucistic ape. Each time she would seek some new flavor of mysticism to be met with things below a need for her. It hadn't been since she tasted the thrill of a fight by challenging a giant Lunar in the arena back at Great Forks since she felt satisfied with herself. She had let her skills sit fallow while she ruminated in humility. Now that she had reawakened herself, it was growing difficult to remain steeped in the dull and routine. But a job is a job and this one, tracking down the truth to a winterbound forest, is just such a scouting mission. She flits over the ground, moving with a fluid, lightning grace over the forest floor with her head low and her long body concealing cloak fluttering in the wind. Each long stride chewing the ground underfoot as she tears along. From the first snowy step, the coming of the great silence that comes with a winter, Neza stops, sliding to a stillness. She looks high, first, and judges the trees. It may be best to get the high views, but for now, she slows and walks along the wintery grounds, stepping with trepidation and memories of Wyld excursions past.
Hoarfrost	The forest is silent save for the creaking of the ice heavy trees in what breeze there is. Even those sounds don't travel far in the snow muffled forest. Most of the trees are tall firs and pine, but a few are deciduous limbs forever bare. As quiet as it is though it is not void of life. Tracks, big and small dot the snow. Big and small alike traveling this way and that, evidence of a unusually thriving environment for something so outwardly baren. Walking it's own way through the forest not far off. A creature almost lost to the sea of white save for eyes of bright ruby red. Too thin and delicate in places to be entirely equine in nature it's legs are almost more deer. It does have a horn but only one set dead in the middle of its head, long and twisted like it was made of porcelain. Mane continuing from where you would expect it down its neck, to along the length of its back to its longer tail. The creature steps silently through its forest. Feeling the intrusion into its home its weaves slowly and with purpose through old trees. Pausing now and then to sniff carefully at the air.
Neza	Each step brings with it the soft crunch of snow and frost. Step, step, step, until Neza stops. A curl of breath escapes from her tall collared cloak and the masking veil of beads. Only in brief moments of the beaded veil clicking and swaying are the bright aqua eyes that look from behind visible. She stands still and steady. She knows she has stepped from the usual forest into a boreal realm not unfamiliar from her past along Northern riverbanks. Familiar, but alien all the same. A long and steadying breath outward and Neza concentrates. A steady breath in brings the cold and crisp air. One more exhalation and the world falls into attunement. She listens beyond normal hearing. She sees the dance of light off snow and the twitch of branches under cold ice. She inhales and takes in a panoply of scents as her nostrils flit and flare. She is here to scout and survey, and only by being in tune to her senses, will she know what she is surrounded by.
Hoarfrost	The deeper into the forest one travels the more the energy of it can be felt. Essence is thick in the air, perhaps too subtle for the average mortal to detect but with the senses of an exalt its clear that this is no abandoned ruin. There is more yet subtle information. Life, or more accurately plan life grows just under the surface of the snow. The taste of the herbs and fresh greens almost detectable on the charm enhanced pallet. The place is strange and yet not like the wyld lands seen before. A sound, faint at first but still carefully approaching. Four legs, hooves. Moving closer though not directly. Carefully and at an angle. The creature is subtle but not supernaturally so. While it is in its element it perhaps foolishly thinks itself safe. Many mortals have come and many more and been scared away if they held ill intent, or they come begging aid. What reason does she have to believe this is not the same? So she closes in curious why this intruder has come.
Neza	Thriving. The taste of the air. The scent of pine and herb cloying to her nostrils. The faint sounds in the snows. But it isn't Wyld. It isn't a place for her enemies. It isn't the fresh plucking of the scars of the past. And the weather is more agreeable to Neza than Great Forks has proven. She had almost forgotten how much nicer it was in climate. Even if the people there left much to be desired. 5t She stops. Under Neza's cloak, a clawed hand twitches at the threads of reality, ready to call a friend with a turn of her hand. But nothing for the moment. She doesn't feel the twinge at the back of her neck. She doesn't feel the moment of danger striking. But she knows something is there. She knows someone is there. The beads click and sway when Neza turns her head to make it clear she is focusing in the direction of the closing creature. But it may yet be just a creature, so no words are said. She stands, simply and presently, as green covered as the pine canopies.
Hoarfrost	A glimpse between two trees. A bit of tail over a bush. Nothing but the sound of its hooves on the snow for a moment before it steps out into the open. Almost surprised to see the green cloaked figure in the sea of white as it might be to see it. Time almost slowing to a crawl in the moment as it freezes. Two curls of breath curling from each nostril with each slow careful breath. Ears up scanning for sounds. For others that might be nearby waiting in ambush. Considering calling in friends of her own. Instead though the unicorn bows its head slightly and shifts its stance ever so slightly. Its simple body language but its reads clear as spoken words, almost loud in this white expanse. "Why have you come to my forest?"
Neza	A creature of sorts. Or some form of spirit? Curious nonetheless, and something to note for the Scholar's fleeting and fickle interest. Neza stands and watches, obscured in her cloak, hate and veil. Silent, head declined and brim lowered to the horned creature. But something inside twinges with recognition. A shared glance and an awareness of the moment. Words unspoken and yet shared. Neza answers in a soft tone, "Seeking out the truth to rumors. The answer is truthful and direct, if lacking the nuance and depth of information behind her purpose.
Hoarfrost	It takes another step closer tossing its longer mane from its eyes to get a better look. The tone of it's body language softens a little. "Knowledge for its own sake is a noble goal, but this place is dangerous. Things live here that mean no ill intent but would kill to protect their territory form the race of man." It surely comes off as a warning instead of a threat but nuance his hard even through the magic of the chosen. "It is my duty to protect them, and the careful balance of this forest." Moving again is a wide spiral around the cloaked stranger. Unable to really gather anything else beyond the voice. Stopping again only when a full loop is made and she is back facing the intruder.
Neza	A cold wind in the tree. A silent nod from the standing figure, signed only by the tilting of the wide circle brim of her hat. Neza's hand relaxes under her cloak, she is not ready to release her spear yet. No animal warns when it's about to attack. And spirits, by and large, seem to follow the same simple track. "Many places are dangerous," Neza acknowledges, "but forgive me if I trust in my own abilities. However, I thank you for your concern." Neza's head tilts, looking back out and away. The beads on her veil shake, and a brief bit of ash-blonde hair peeks from the stiff collar. "I come here as proxy for a scholar. He seeks to know everything he can. This place will interest him greatly." She turns her attention back toward the unicorn, "Am I right and presuming you would not like that?"
Hoarfrost	The Unicorn stands there in silence for a moment, seemingly considering the request. Bothered perhaps how despite the interaction the cloaked figure seems undaunted by either, the strangeness of the moment of the warning itself. "My concern is for the life that is here. If knowledge of what lives here brought more people ..." body language faltering as it is clearly in conflict. "I would love to teach those about the lovely creatures that live here though?" eyes widening ever so slightly with hope. "Would this sate your Scholar?"
Neza	Not something Neza expected. She admits as much with a simple statement; "I would take whatever you could say to discourage his attention." But her head lowers in a quick bob of acknowledgement. "If you so wish, what do I suggest lives here? Or who?" She asks, and then in a moment of showing some deference, she removes her hat and raises her head to look at the creature. Inhuman, a face long and rodentine, with equally long ears pulled away from the pointed nose. Ashen pelt colored as fog just paler than her hair. All making the brightness of her eyes apparent. "The Scholar I serve is a fickle man, but I am unsure what would be satiating."
Hoarfrost	Head tilting at the reveal of the other's face surprised at the sight but not at all put off. Instead she gives an equine curtsy, as she rises her neck and head writhed in a silver light shift into that of a young woman to the lower waist, though she managed to keep the horn. Her human frame matching the lithe almost fragile looking horse half. Naked she is mostly kept obscured by her long straight hair and seemingly unbothered by the cold. "It is much easier to talk like this, and if I am to assist in your task there is allot to say." Half using words and expression as she gets used to speaking again, it is clear she is all but holding back a deluge of knowledge. She manages to resist, 'tauric body taking another few steps closer as she becomes more comfortable with the other. "My name is Hoarfrost, it is a pleasure to meet you."
Neza	Wyld warped as she is, Neza still carries herself as human as she's always been. The high collar still covers much of her, and lets most focus come to her eyes. They look cold, distant, mercenary as the woman is herself. She still sees and hears and smells every shift in the terrain, and concerns herself a great deal with the light and the shifting of the woman's body. "I've found it is much easier to listen when the other is speaking," she says, in jest even if her tone is poorly modulated and flatly lacking in emotion. Too serious and steady. "I am Neza," she replies with a short ducking of her head. "I am willing to listen if you need to speak."
Hoarfrost	In many ways the pale woman is the diametric opposite. Warm, with bright eyes full of an exited energy almost ready to overflow. There is a kind of young naivety that can only come from the same person that jumped to trust the stranger in her home. The moment has her and while she is present almost eager to be closer the world begins to fall away around her and Neza. "There are so many things here, both flora and fauna. I collect them, I've made this forest a kind of sanctuary for the rare and dangerous, to protect them and the people who might stumble into them. I have extensive notes on them all." Voice unabashed excitement, hooves trotting in place that underlines the final difference. Her disinterest in appearing human at all.
Neza	Born and raised among mercenaries of the river, even wyld-warped does Neza exude a certain Northlander appearance and demeanor. She crosses her arms under her coat, and shifts her weight onto her hip. The adjustment seen mostly in the sway of the cloak and a tilt of the woman's shoulders. Her attention shifts from one side to the other, eyes briefly narrowing and an ear twitching at Hoarfrost's words. "A menagerie, then?" she asks, the question humming on her throat. "With a strange keeper." She turns her focus to the tauric woman and adds, "But one that isn't Fair Folk." She has run into them, they've marked her, and she knows when one is about. And this woman isn't setting those subtly tuned senses off. "What would you show to a Scholar from the City of Temples?"
Hoarfrost	"A menagerie would imply captivity or an exhibition." Turning and trotting at a slow pace deeper into the forest. Pausing if Neza does not follow. "I can understand the confusion. I perhaps misspoke when I said collect, but understand I am attempting something a bit more complex than a zoo." Little by little as she speaks movement in the forest increases. It starts slowly with a bird fliting through the trees or a squirl peeking out from a high branch. Before long stranger things begin to move in the shadows of distant trees. Some of them very large. "I'm weaving an entire ecosystem." "No, im not of the Folk. I've never had the -ah ... pleasure?" face scrunching up not sure if the politeness was appropriate. Perhaps unsure even who she is talking to, not having the tuned senses toward the wild the other does. "I hope you will forgive me the mystery. I too am among the rarities living here. Some would hunt me if given the chance" Moving to a small clearing, a shabby looking hovel occupying the far side, barely standing under the weight of the snow on it. More curiously though is the massive ball of fur, larger than a Clydesdale that lays near its center. Holding out a hand she speaks now in wispers. "One creature I have studied for a long time is in fact native to this very forest. Though they where thought to old live in the farthest reaches of the North. A Winter Wolf." The creature unfolds slowly getting to its feet. Standing at over three and a half meters tall. Back to the two its nose raising to smell the air. Its breath not the same cloud of condensation but icy mist that freezes the air instead.
Neza	A comforting correction. A short moment of reprehension at the thought of wandering into some obsessive collecting Faerie or Spirit was the foremost concern at hearing Hoarfrost's explanation. And given Neza's own appearance and the danger she represented, conclusions had nearly been jumped too early. However, the moment of concern has passed with the giddy eagerness of this woman and Neza's own confidence allowed her to follow close to hand. Or to hoof. "It is not a pleasure. I have seen them reduce my brothers in arms to song and songbird alike," she says with a cold and bitter edge. "But we all have secrecies to keep. For whatever reasons we might have. I apologize for intruding on your land. You've already been more than gracious a host for it." She hears each shift of the snow, and the sight of the birds flitting, but the smell comes quickly of the great wolf. It is large, and for a moment Neza wonders how it would measure to the Mountain Lunar she had fought. "I am from the North," she says, "But I never strayed far from the rivers." A sudden thought. "There are many hunters who would come here for that pelt alone. Let aside a bounty if any of the locals let fear guide their pocketbooks."
Hoarfrost	Hoarfrost gives an apologetic look to Neza. "I can assume then your's is not a hereditary or natural form?" despite the earlier exuberance her tone flips to an almost clinical one. "I could attempt to repair the damage? Though I have never attempted such a thing on one touched by the folk, I have healed many afflictions in the past." These things are often sore subjects of for those that bear the scars of abuse Head turning back to the massive wolf that is beginning to wonder off out of the clearing. Likely for the best that monster looks like it could eat someone whole. "They have in the past, I have come against them a few times. I've mostly used tricks and guile to spook them off."
Neza	"You are not the first to suggest I need help," Neza says, head inclining with some amusement. "Am I so hideous as to warrant pity when it isn't mistrust or fear?" She laughs, though distant it may be it is honest. "The way I am now is a scar I have earned. It is no fault of mine that others distrust me for it. Besides, it does not impede me. If anything, I have grown stronger for it." She puts her hat back on now, though the bead veil rests behind her head. "But I know you speak from kindness, please understand that it would be an insult to my fallen brethren to deny the wounds I've taken." She keeps her attention on the great wolf parting, she silently judges her ability to take it down. Not that she cares to, but it is in her nature to size things up. "Tricks and guile are well and good, but I have met some who are more," a pause, "Direct in their actions. It's difficult to confuse a mountain."
Hoarfrost	Hoarfrost doesn't shrink away from the explanation of the circumstances. Simply smiles and gives a soft nod. Watching the great beast lumber away. For the briefest moment it might even seem as if they lock eyes. "I would never dream of taking a piece of you like that. It was rude to overstep like that." Head turning to give Neza an earnest smile. "I will then spare you the clique comparisons of uniqueness all around you. I will, however welcome you to spend as much time as you like in my home Neza. I've noticed you seem oddly comfortable in the cold." Giving a meaningful glace to the forest around her. "Mountains?" voice a little confused, feeling like she should know what is meant, the term should at least ring a bell. "I know my luck will run short someday. That's why I hope my friends will come to my aid. I heal and help everyone I can, animal and human alike. Maybe that is foolish but I'm no fighter."
Neza	Clad in her cloak and hat, pelt coated face to the wind, Neza nods at the rather appropriate assessment of her tolerance to the cold of the wintery lands. "I have more than just this cloak on," she says, laugh in her voice. "But I am from the Northlands. This is familiar to me. Brisk, but I am not so accustomed to the warmth of the south just yet." A wave of a clawed hand that comes visible from under her cloak. "Nevermind. I am speaking of a great warrior to the south." She pauses and considers for a moment. "I feel that now is a time to inform you that I am a mercenary by trade. My skills are open to more than just a single scholar's interests."
Hoarfrost	"I admit I have yet to travel so far from Great Forks that It could be said I had traveled to another direction." Voice wistful at the thought. "I have dreamed of traveling so far but there is so much work to be done. You are lucky to have seen so much of creation." Eyes going distant and a bit dreamy. "I hope you can feel a bit at home here." "This has been a most fortuitous meeting then." Hoarfrost gives a wider smile, and clapping her hands together, in a way that says 'its settled'. "Then might sharing the info of my home for your current mission be enough for a down payment for your services if I find myself in the need Ms. Neza?"
Neza	"It's a great deal easier to travel when you are paid to do so," Neza makes a joke, but she keeps quiet on the unspoken loss of world and identity that makes traveling all the easier for a person. And the refusal of hospitality in most places once they see a face that offends them. Neza may be comfortable with herself, but others are not so. But at the offer of quid pro quo over more concise compensation the woman isn't so amused. However, as she looks around at the snowed surroundings, at the landscape alien to the forests of much of the East. She smiles and she nods. "That would be fair price," she says, "With a caveat of food and drink should I be here on martial matters." Always pays to include the dinner with the price of service.
Hoarfrost	The wolf is long gone now only a patch of green where it had disturbed the snow as it slept remands to tell of its presence. Hoarfrost steps into the clearing and to the sad little hovel of a house. "I would have never denied a friend food and drink when they come to visit. "I have gathered some wonderful tea, it opens the blood vessels and warms the body." Inviting her into not just her forest but her home. "We will have lots of data to go over to appease your client. I'll also get out my journals -ah do you have paper for notes?" It looks like Neza may be here a while.