A Chance Meeting At Best

Characters: Fira and William

Location: Dirt Road

Mossflower - Dirt Road

A nice sunny day and Fira has paused by the edge of the road, crouched down with a small knife out, digging some wild onions out of the ground and into her bag, glancing around every other minute, check the road's still clear.

Orph comes down the path from the south, his eyes and large ears ever on the alert for danger. His boots are too big for him and his satchel hits against his back as he walks, his black trousers aren't rolled up as much of late and his his shirt still far from white hangs less loosely on his frame then it did before. The ratling is armed as always with dagger and buckler when out exploring which is how he's been spending most of the day thus far. Seeing the otter-maid he pauses a to smile cheerfully at her. "Hello, what ya doin?" he asks in a friendly manner watching her closely.

Fira is between road glances and though he's right there she doesn't seem to hear him even when he speaks. It's a couple of extra seconds before she gets that feeling of being watched she's come to rely on so much and she looks up for a quick glance round. Blinking in surprise as she sees him and her paw instinctively starts to go for her spear, but, well, he's small, she hesitates from actually grabbing it "...Hello? Sorry, didn't see you there" completely oblivious to him asking her a question.

Orph nods a bit, "Didn't mean t sneak up on ya." The dibbun may be harmless but the foot long dagger and plate sized buckler don't seem to convey that too well. "What ya doing?" he asks again curious as any other child.

Fira has noticed the knife but hey, she has one too she's been digging onions with. Thankfully she's not really sure if he's a mouse or a rat so one less thing to worry about "Heh, story of my life" for now he seems fairly harmless to her but she's still not taking her eyes off of him for many reasons anyway. She holds up one of the onions "Supplies...wandering out on your own?"

He nods at the 'supplies' part, his pack is partly filled makings for soup, then shrugs at the rest of the otters words, "You could say that. I jus like explorin th woods an places around em, there's not much else t do anyway."

Fira drops the onion into her pack and finally she picks up the spear as she stands back up again, quick glance going behind herself, more checking the area before full attention is back on him again, small smile of amusement appearing "Know the feeling I guess. Name's Fira"

Orph grins and offers a paw for her to shake, "William. Ya been t th Abbey south of here? It's a nice place, good food an lots of it. Almost worth stayin at if ya can put up with they're way of livin stayin there day in an day out forever," he chuckles, "Visit em often enough, but it's not for me. I gotta be out goin some place or doin somethin can't jus sit an listen t th Abbot, nice as he is, talk on an on about boring stuff all day long like some of them do."

Fira bows down again to shake the paw "Nice to meet you young William. Been down the abbey a couple of times when I was probably about your age. I'll give you food's nice but couldn't stay back then. Too many beasts for me as well, can't keep up with crowds"

Orph nods again, "Yeah it's not for everybeast, though last few times I've been there wasn't too much goin on, some new beast coming in but haven't really seen em too often but most of the older ones I've met wouldn't set foot outside their Abbey some th dibbun are th same though one has reasons for it, other's just scared of their own shadow. Where ya headed if ya don't mind my askin?"

Fira slowly starts to smirk "You're a talkative one aren't you? Can't blame them for not wanting to leave if they like the place. Me, probably home again soon enough. Bag's nearly full, should do for another few days...I don't travel, just wander about getting food."

"I travel some. Ok I travel a lot an wander a lot too. Learned how t make soup at th Abbey, it helps." he remarks cheerfully. "You live round here then? Got family or just you?" he asks tentatively knowing this can be a touchy subject with some beasts, it used to be with him too.

Fira doesn't seem overly bothered by it, ancient history. She shrugs a shoulder "Used to but guess everybody did at one point. Looked after my father till he passed away couple of seasons ago. Just me now, got an entire lake to myself...What about you then? All on you own?"

Orph chews his lip thinking over how to worded this answer and how much needs to be said, "I got a Pa, but he's off workin lot of th time. We go travelin' once in a while ..." Did she know he was a rat? She does seems to mind so far, but you can never tell sometimes. "Pa's an otter ... if yurr wonderin'." Should he have added that, he wasn't sure, well no taking it back now that it's been said.

Fira narrows her eyes slightly at the lip chewing. Is that mumbling? Oh no, he's talking again, that's fine, she hasn't missed anything. Thank goodness she's an old hand at this lip reading business, still paying more attention to that than anything else "Heh, another one of those strange little families seem to get. I'm sure as an otter he makes an excellent father but of course I wouldn't be biased at all" she smirks.

Orph ignores the otter's comments, thinking /She's looking at me oddly. Why?/ He chews his lower lip more trying to figure out if he missed something which would explain the otter's behavior.

Fira's smirk fades a little and she she frowns slightly, a little puzzled. That's silence right? She hasn't missed something? Silent beasts are apparently more confusing than talking ones as she once more gives the area a scan, nothing noticeable there so she assumes no noises coming from it. Back to the dibbun "...I'm still making sounds right?" her entry for oddest question of the year

Orph stops chewing his lip as the otter-maids voice interrupts his thoughts. He cocks his head at her puzzled, "Um, you're talking and I /can/ hear you. If that's what you wanted t' know." Of course the rat can hear her, look at those big e-a-r-s, he can hear her just fine.

Fira nods slowly, the smile coming back "Ah, good. That could have been embarrassing otherwise...Best to check sometimes, can't tell you see. Completely deaf" and surprisingly chipper about it too

Orph ohs. "So you can't hear anything? Anything at all?" he asks mischievously.

Fira gives him a very wry smirk "Not a thing and trust me, I know everything can possibly do to a deaf beast. I will send you flying into the week after next if you try."

Orph aws. There goes that idea. He considers talking louder for a moment but since she hasn't shown trouble understanding him so far why bother and if she does miss something ... well, he'll cross that bridge when he comes to it. "So ya live by a lake ya said. Somewhere in th woods I'd imagine. Guess you'll head back there huh. Pa an me live in th woods too, but we haven't been home in a while, been off doin stuff. I should head back an try an clean it up more ... was abandoned ages ago fore I found it, so it still needs lot of work done. It's called Moledeep an it's not too far from th Moss river ... up river aways from Camp Willow if that helps any. Visitors are welcome long as they follow th rules, but there not much t eat cept soup right now."

Talking louder only really works for those hard of hearing, given Fira's completely deaf she'd only know he was doing it from any change in expression "Heh, sounds like my place except it's less clean up and more patch back together. I think it's getting to be more patches than actual house these days. Still, yeah. Should get home and sort out food again. Shall bare in mind the Moledeep place though, never seen it before and it's a big wood to get lost in"

Orph heads for the woods, with grin he takes his leave of Fira. He walks backwards see she can still see his face as he calls back to her "Yeah being a mole den once upon a time ago it can be hard t miss or would be if there weren't gardens and an orchard around it. Been nice talkin with ya Miz Fira. Maybe we'll met again. An if any beasts asks, ya can tell em ya seen an talked with William th finder of Moledeep an likely th only rat round here an one what's not vermin less ya ask certain hares but I wouldn't." The dibbun doesn't wait for a response but slips behind a tree and turns around so he can see where he's going better and goes home to try and clean up the overgrown mess he calls home and wish the larder wasn't so empty. On the way back William decides take a detour to the Abbey for a bite to eat before started on all that cleaning that lays ahead at Moledeep.