Invasion of the Treehuggers [Janis]

[Aydyn Blair]

The Second Cycle in Ponutis
in the Season of Winter

The snow tickled Aydyn's nose as she walked down the Jaedaxian boulevard. It was coming down in a light flurry, sticking to her eyelashes and dampening the clothe of her woolen hat and scarf. They were a pale yellow and stood out against the dark green of the cloak she wore clasped around her shoulders. Gloved hands pulled at the edges of the cloak, drawing it in tightly around her. Harsh winters were decidedly not her thing. She could easily dismiss the hard season as a reality, all part of nature, and yet she could not deny that she anxiously looked towards the coming of spring with its greenery...and its semblance of warmth. Most especially the warmth...even if she was well aware that warmth in Jaedaxia would not be the same warmth she'd have found in Natura.

Aydyn turned a corner and paused a moment, mouth tilting as she chewed on the inside of her cheek, blue-gray eyes sweeping over the buildings that stood so close together along the winding street. Things were still relatively unfamiliar and she was only just beginning to grow accustomed to the different turns and paths she walked regularly through the city. This street she did not immediately recognize and it took her a moment to place the name of a shop across the street. Not that she had ever been in the shop, she hadn't, but the bright red and gold paint was distinct enough to remember.

She confidently continued down the street. According to the directions she'd been given, she had to follow this avenue. That she could do without any trouble at all. The directions after that, however, would be the tricky ones and she wasn't quite certain she'd remember them or execute them so well. She recited them in her head as she walked, the purple of skirts swishing around her legs, her boots squishing through the slush that remained from previous snowfalls.

She tried to ignore the fact that the walk would have been a good deal better with company, but thus far all she had to show for her presence in Jaedaxia was, well, about as much as she'd garnered from any other city she had sheltered in these past few months.

[Janis Windrough]

A figure had been trailing Aydyn for a while now. A tan trench coat lurched over the shoulders of this tall and shadowy figure. He kept his distance and when needed, would casually lean up against a wall or duck around a turn only to quickly double back and continue his pursuit of the woman as she made her way through the streets.

The woman was obviously predisposed with her thoughts and wasn't paying entirely too much attention, if any, to the man who trailed her...plus the light coat of snow that was forming on the winter hardened ground made footsteps easy to follow, even for someone who had no training in tracking, which this man just so happened to have.

Who was this lurking shadow of a figure? Well it was none other then fellow druid and charming fellow Janis Windrough. He had been knocking around the city of Jaedaxia of late and imagine his surprise when on a relaxing stroll through park he spotted the very woman he may have started to fall for in Nexus Prime. Alas though, while he stayed in the Tigers she headed out to lead her life further.

But now, oh joyous fortune, oh great faith had brought them together again. Maybe. For all Janis knew Aydyn was now spoken for. That could complicate things. It had been a couple months since last they saw each other. He decided he wanted to surprise her somehow and hence the questionable stalker like behavior he was now exhibiting, and perhaps unflatteringly decent at.

As she turned one corner he saw her pull her covering close. She was cold. Not something he wanted her to be. This was the opening he was looking for. Without thinking about it too much he quickened his pace behind Aydyn and slipped off his coat as he approached her. He made sure to try and not draw her attention to him as he got closer. When he was just close enough he threw his trench coat over the fine lady's shoulders and as nonchalantly as if he had seen her only yesterday spoke: "Ya know a pretty girl like you could catch a cold out here in this weather...and all alone...I just won't let that be."

Yea sure, maybe he was a little cold now too, but damn did he feel suave. He would be smiling a goofy smile if she were to glance over at him in that moment. Would she remember him by voice alone? Never the less, he spoke one line to himself as he waited for her acknowledgment...Who ever said chivalry was dead?

[Aydyn Blair]

Aydyn was blissfully unaware that she was being stalked. Or followed. Whichever Janis felt sounded the nicer of the two (although stalked was probably more accurate). Had she known someone was shadowing her moves, she would have been considerably more discomforted than she already was, particularly given some of her past histories that included slavery and torture, not to mention other unsavory details. But her mind was elsewhere, focused on directions. She could not be expected to realize that one person amidst the rest traveled the same root as herself.

And so, when the coat came falling around her shoulders, she yelped in surprise and spun around, nearly shoving it from her shoulders as her blue eyes went round in shock. She stared at Janis, mouth hung a little open, and for a moment seemed frozen. She just looked at him, mouth closing shut, opening again, then clicking firmly back into place. Her cheeks went a little red at the reaction she'd just spun out at his sudden approach and finally she seemed to find her voice, a wide smile flitting over her mouth at this rather unexpected but very welcome surprise. She was changed from the last time he'd seen her. The scars that had traced along the side of her throat and climbed up against her cheek were gone. She wore the rest, but they were hidden away, although the telltale lack of a finger remained in the limp socket of her glove. But the scars at her face were gone at least, lightening her appearance significantly.

"Janis!" The single word tumbled out of her, blurted into the air before her breath sucked in. She still stood there, rooted to the ground, as if she wasn't quite sure she really saw him. Her time with Janis in Nexus Prime had been a brief one, but a time she had enjoyed nonetheless. It had done her good to feel that warmth from someone else after what she'd been through and some part of her had regretted not staying in Nexus to see what could have been.

She seemed to notice his coat for the first time and it shook her from her daze as she reached up and tugged it from her shoulders. "Are you trying to catch your death?" she chastised him, holding it out. She felt a little self-conscious as she stood there in front of him. Some part of her wanted to feel that physical reassurance, just a simple hug, as if to make certain he really was there. The rest of her was just too shocked to find him standing on the same street as her in the middle of Jaedaxia. "What're you doing here? In Jaedaxia." His own goofy smile was met by a broad one of her own.

[Janis Windrough]

"Ya know Ayd...I try to be nice you just keep bringin' me down!" he said with a laugh as he retook the coat and slipped it back on. He was referring of course to when she had refused his coat in much the same way in Nexus only this time he figured he wouldn't both insisting that she keep it on. Well, so much for chivalry. Janis chalked the rejection up to "motherly instincts" because of her little comment...not that Janis knew particularly what it was like to have a mother but had he had one that seems like something she would have said.

He had to admit, it did feel nice to have the warmth of the coat on his upper body again, but still, he could just have easily gone without. But what of all this, there were more important things to attend to. He saw that Aydyn could hardly believe her eyes to see him there, but it was a happy surprised. He offered her his arm to take hold of providing some of the physical reassurance she saught without what Janis thought was might be overstepping his bounds. Once again, he didn't know what Aydyn had been up to since last they were together.

"Let me walk with you a bit?" He asked and then continued on to her question. "Oh well...ya know I go here I go there. I actually stopped over here before heading over to Nexus and felt my stay was far too short so I decided to make my way back. Said good bye to the Tigers and made my way out" He figured the question warranted the return question. "What about yourself Ayd, your looking great...what have you and the little one been up to?" referring of course to little Noah, the daughter of the woman.

[Aydyn Blair]

"Bring you down? Why would I do that? I'd rather see you warm. Besides, who wants to listen to your teeth chatter? Not me." Aydyn was not about to see someone suffer the cold simply because she was marginally cold herself. She tugged the gloves a little tighter around her fingers and did the same with her hat, making sure her brown hair and the yellow wool cap were warm against her ears.

She took his arm with a smile and did not feel much shame at all in walking close against them as they walked. It was, after all, cold and walking shoulder-to-shoulder was a trace warm than walking with some few inches between them. "I guess I can suffer your company for a bit. It's good to see you again," she added, a yellow-woolen hand reaching out to cover his and clasp at it.

"So you're only here for a little bit?" She was disappointed, but not surprised. She recalled from before that Janis did not always stay rooted for long. She envied him a little that freedom, but would not have traded over her daughter to have that ability to wander as she might have once done. He had not outright said that this trip would be a short one as well, but the 'I go here, I go there' was indication enough. "I came up this way because I heard they were offering jobs at a local academy for children. Things weren't working out in Demios, so I came here." She hesitated, wondering for a moment if elaborating on what hadn't worked out in Demios...and decided that perhaps he didn't need to know about Stephan.

Feeling unaccountably self-conscious and even a trace embarrassed, Aydyn cleared her throat and added, "Noah's well. An ordinance old now. She's even talking a little." She grinned proudly and the tone of her voice was proud. She cared a good deal for that little girl.

"I'm only running an errand now, but I would like to catch up with you a bit. Hear more of what you've been up to. Besides, it'd be good to have someone around that I know I can talk to. I've been too busy getting settled to see much of the city yet. Maybe that's worked out--now I have someone to see the sights with." She chuckled and gave his hand another squeeze.

[Janis Windrough]

Janis enjoyed chatting with Aydyn immensely. Even if they were just making small talk right now. He would feel great walking besides her and discussing even the most mundane of things.

So she had been in Demios since their time apart. Well he knew what that place was like and he also knew what things not working out there was like. He decided to simply nod at this and continue on. This woman obviously had a lot of secrets Janis didn't know about. She had a daughter for crying out loud. There might be a time and a place where Janis might want to hear about these things and gain to some insight, but now was not that time.

"Well, I don't know how long I'll be stayin' to be honest...never really do." He said in response to her comment. His chest dropped a little when she questioned his staying around. It was true, Janis never let roots form deep anywhere. He couldn't even manage a full era in Nexus. He didn't want to make promises that he was going to be here a while that he wouldn't be able to keep. So he did what he usually did. Deferred to a joke. "Maybe I'll just have to sweep you along with me if I leave this time." Of course he knew he was not totally joking when he said that.

The good new of Noah was very nice to hear indeed. The baby was so little when last her saw her. "I'll have to come by and see the little lady sometime." He said with a smile. "So where we off to Ayd? I'm happy to keep ya company until you need to scurry off. I wasn't doin much but goin' 'round for a walk when I spotted you. Still trying to learn this place" With that they kept walking, open to where the day would lead them.

[Wynd]

It was an avenue in Ponts. Jaedaxia was a city for walking, or for taking cabs from one part of town to another for no reason except to stare, maybe listlessly, out the window. There was always life on the streets, even in the winter cold. The row houses and spiral staircases and the apartments on the avenues. The people were pretty and the city was big but it was human. You could walk down a street and feel as though it was your city, as it was everyone's city. It was an intimate city.

There was a couple kissing in a doorway. Three children were scampering around in the snow. A man was standing on his balcony smoking.

And there was Nadja. She was twirling around, dancing in the snow, letting her cloak and skirts flutter wide around her. She was a young woman, with short black hair and bright blue eyes. Fragile and crazy. She belonged in an asylum.

"Excusez? Do you see that sign?" Nadja stopped Janis and Aydyn, and pointed at a tavern sign, 'L'etoiles d'hiver.,' with three big white stars around the name. "If those are the stars, where's the moon? Can't you tell me where the moon is? I've been looking for it for hours."

[Aydyn Blair]

Aydyn canted her cheek and turned her head slightly, looking off down the road rather than at Janis. She didn't want him to see the wide, hopeful smile that had split across her mouth at the idea of heading out somewhere, wandering. It had been a while, perhaps since Noah was born--though she had traveled, she tended to let cease her travels for long periods of time, taking root in one place or another until she grew bored or anxious and moved on. It would be nice to be swept along on someone else's travels. But even she was aware of the burden that she caused, she with her baby to watch over and the small horde of cats in her keeping. Plus, he was joking. Just joking.

"I wanted to stop in at the bakery, pick up something for Noah--and for me, of course," she flashed a grin at him before looking away again. "Then maybe stop at a herb store and pick up some seeds or seedlings. Nothing terribly exciting, which means you're not obliged at all to keep up with me."

Aydyn wasn't quite sure what she felt towards Jaedaxia just yet. The place was cold, certainly--very cold--and the people seemed friendly enough. That they were mostly of a pretty sort sometimes made Aydyn uncomfortable and self-conscious, by and large because she recalled the network of scarring at that had once marked her throat and the bottom side of her left cheek. Visible scarring, the sort that usually made people wrinkle their noses and cringe. It was gone, but it was hard to forget sometimes that it was no longer there. It had been gone for far shorter a time than it had been present. Still, the people seemed nice enough and the place leant a somewhat comforting feel to it that made it easy to relax her arm against Janis's as they walked.

As the woman came into view ahead of them, the one spinning and dancing, Aydyn thought very little of it and diverted her eyes to look elsewhere. She might have grown in a small community and lived in many in her time, but she had also dwelt in cities and had grown accustomed to averting her eyes to strange things. She glanced up at Janis and would have continued their conversation had the woman not approached them, effectively jerking Aydyn to an abrupt stop.

She reluctantly following the line of her the woman's finger towards the sign with its three stars. A more mean spirited person might have said 'the cat ate it' or 'it's right there, can't you see it?' but not Aydyn. She was simply too nice for her own good. "It's probably on another sign, that's all," she suggested gently, with a look towards Janis that suggested they just try to leave the woman to her own devices.

[Janis Windrough]

Janis listened intently with the side of his mouth curled up into a grin. He often couldn't keep a smile off his face when he was around Aydyn. He was so caught up in his own thoughts he didn't quite catch her smile when he mentioned taking her away with him. The thought of some sort of pastry right now actually sounded delicious to Janis right now. "I wouldn't think of leaving you to walk this town by yourself! What sorta guy do you think I am!" said Janis, of course a little sarcastically because he knew Aydyn was a capable woman...a fellow druid at that. "Plus, you're excitin' enough for me." It seemed Janis's rough charm was in full swing tonight.

Just as an idea or two might have been creeping into Janis's head from the couple kissing in the in the doorway he was interrupted by the seemingly crazed woman who was going on about stars and the moon and whatnot. Someone dancing for the hell of it wasn't all that odd to Janis to be completely honest. His last teacher in druidism would beat him up every morning and be dancing to nothing but the sounds of nature.

He saw that Aydyn wanted to move on after adding her own comment so he didn't feel the need to linger, but Janis smiled at the woman and pointed up towards the sky, for that is where the moon resided on a nightly basis and every once in a while during the day. "Might wanna look up darlin'" and moved on to continue with Aydyn.

[Wynd]

"But it's not on another sign. I've looked all over, everywhere! It's not it's not it's not it's not!" Nadia plopped down onto the street in frustration. Janis pointed up and suggested the sky. The snowing clouds shifted and revealed the moon. "Oh."

So Aydyn and Janis kept walking. They came to Calle des Arbres, one of the busy streets running through Ponts. There were a lot of people out for the evening here. The street lights were all in blue glass so the light and the snow and the people were all tinted blue. There was a band playing inside a pub and the music filled up the street with a swinging brass nocturne.

"And on sax, ladies and gentleman, Dizzy 'Man' Jones." Applause.

Up ahead the street a little a man was being chased by two Protectorats. He was coming up toward them and bumped straight into Aydyn, bowling her right over. The two police officers were hot on his trail. But he'd dropped something when he collided with Aydyn -- it was a bag, and in the bag was just a leather-bound book of poetry by somebody named Yevgeny Gladkov.

"Excuse me. You haven't seen a girl around here, short black hair, blue eyes, and um, a little bit off-like, in the head, you know, have you?" The speaker was a short Jaedaxian man in a suit, concerned-looking.

[Janis Windrough]

As they continued on past the slightly crazed woman, Janis continued the conversation. He largely ignored the hustle bustle around them and focused on the fine lady he was sharing this early evening with. The music from one of the passing storefronts only slightly twanged in Janis's ear causing more of a passing thought of interest then anything else. Were the two of them still even on the way to the bakery? Janis didn't know and truly enough he didn't really care.

As they turned another corner Janis was about to say something, something most likely devilishly charming, but those words never escaped his lips. He was rudely interrupted so rapidly when all was said and done he didn't even remember what it was he was going to say. Soon Aydyn was on the ground and a little while down the road he saw two officers making their way towards them. And the cause of all this ruckus seemed to be a small man. Janis's immediate feeling was hot with rage as Aydyn had been ripped out of his arm and now lay on the ground. He quickly bent over to help her up and make sure she was ok while flashing the man a dirty look. "Are you ok Ayd? That was a helluva unexpected blow..." He saw the bag with the book in it but didn't really pay much attention.

The man started to blurt something out about a woman and as he made sure one last time that Aydyn was all right before he really listened. That, however was all it took for what he was saying to register and him to realize he might be talking about star lady from a little while back. He flashed Aydyn a look of confusion and concern to see if she had come to the same conclusion he had, those officers bearing down ever further.

"Yea...I think we might have..." he said trailing off, still puzzled. He left anything more to add up to Aydyn as he kept on eye on the man and those officers trying to process what could possibly be happening.

[Aydyn Blair]

The druid was content to leave the insane girl behind them as she sat down and stared up at the sky in amazement. Insanity was rarely comforting and as harmless as the girl had seemed, a girl never knew when the unhinged dipped further into their instability. She'd been around a few to know and had no desire to see the girl exert some sort of violence simply because her shattered mind could not handle the reality around her.

Aydyn let herself fit comfortably alongside Janis as they walked, eagerly returning the conversation with the starved interest of a person left too long alone with a small toddling child for much of her brightenings. She had turned her cheek slightly to look over at Janis when the trio came barreling down the alleyway and had barely much time to register at all that she stood in their path. Even when she did have the presence of mind to at least consider moving, she was bowled into, struck with a force that sent her sprawling backwards in a heap of cloak and skirts.

There was some degree of panic in Aydyn with the familiar onslaught of the brief assault, but the quick, worried words from Janis reminded her that she was in Jaedaxia, in good company and had merely stepped into the wrong path at the wrong time. She grabbed at his hand as he helped her to her feet and nodded mutely, still dazed and startled, in some attempt to reassure him that she was fine. When she was capable of drawing in breath and forming words, she squeezed his arm and murmured, "I'm fine."

She stepped slightly to the side and her foot nudged against something soft, but firm. She looked down, spotted the book, and promptly bent to pick it up, extending it towards the man she supposed had dropped it. "This is yours, I think."

But her attention was grabbed more by his question than the book and she shared the exchanged glance with Janis before nodding, angling slightly to gesture back in the direction they had come from. "Maybe. You might try back that way a bit. She was sitting on the ground, staring at the moon when we left her."

[Trouble]

As Aydyn was giving the man directions to find the woman the men from the protectorate caught up.

"You there, Gladkov! You step away from those people you murderous cretin! There will be no revenge killing in our city - you leave justice to us. Now you'll learn the hard way - we're civilized here." The man from the protectorate grabbed the man in the suit in a most uncilillized manner and threw him to the snow covered ground. As he was falling he threw the book back to Aydyn. The book landed several feet away from her in the snow.

"I swear I didn't do it. They think I killed a man - he killed our parents. I didn't. That woman is my sister, she knows who the killer is. Give her the book. It's the only copy. It's the reason they're all dead. Tell her I need her to remember! She's in danger - he'll kill her if he can, I know he will. I did NOT kill that man!"

It seemed that insanity was in the air of Jaedaxia. The man seemed nearly as insane as the woman had. The protectorate didn't let him stay and finish his rantlings, but dragged him off through the snow screaming his innocence to the skies the whole way, causing good citizens to stop what they were doing and stare at the scene of justice in progress.

The silence when he was gone was heavy. The book lay in the snow, half buried.

[Janis Windrough]

Janis watched this whole incident with a lot of confusion and soon intrigue. He hung on every word of the crazed man. What if what he was saying was true!?! What an idea. Murder and mystery and whatnot. There was little to no doubt in Janis's mind now that the woman who was looking for the moon was the very same sister of this man.

After the man was gone Janis shot his eyes back and forth from the book to Aydyn. For a moment he hesitated then he went for the book. He picked it up and then with a smile and wide eyes he looked at her and said "why not?" with a shrug and a smirk. He grabbed her arm without waiting for much of a response and started to make their way back to where they had encountered the woman. He stopped around a corner right near the store with the stars on the sign and turned to Aydyn. "If she's still there, I say we give 'er the book...whatta ya think?" and with that he would check to see if she was there as well as wait for Aydyn's response. He didn't wanna jump into this whole thing if she didn't feel comfortable about it but he hoped she did. A bit of intrigue could be good for the two of them.

[Aydyn Blair]

Aydyn didn't really have a lot of time to react.

One moment there was a lot of talk of someone murdering this man and this other man murdering this other guy's parents, then a book was being tossed at their feet, the man was being hauled off, and Janis was grabbing Aydyn by the arm and nearly dragging her along with him back in the direction that they had come.

She went along with him because it was the only thing she could think of to do in those moments, feeling a little scrambled. Who had murdered who? And did Aydyn, a mother, really want to get mixed up with murders? She had a daughter to think of. A life that couldn't be abandoned to random danger. But she went because it was Janis and he was tugging at her, excited and smiling and he had the sort of smile that was hard to simply turn aside and say no to.

"You're not going to look at it first?" she asked him, a trace surprised. Not because Janis struck her as the dishonest sort, he didn't, but because...it was the sort of thing she wanted to do. She wanted to see what was inside the book. What was so important about it.