Nimrod (01)

Taking in the air, Alban was at peace. He wondered if he used to like nature as much as he did now, but judging by his body before he started training he seriously doubted it. He was wandering around the trees, searching for the end to the beach. It was time for the frog to leave the well after all.

The grey trees were wiggling like always, their purple leaves swaying and dancing along with the slight breeze coming from the coast. Alban's hair was carried along with the gentle wind. Alban let a refreshing smile creep upon his face...but not for the reason you'd suppose. His instincts were kicking in, prey was hiding from him. The Wild Childe was never wrong when it came to manners regarding the wilds, after all.

He dodged his head and heard a soft 'thunk'; the arrow had found itself lodged into a tree. Raising the ground with earth magic, he quickly spotted the assailant ruining his wonderful walk. His palm generated intense flames before shaping it into a bolt. Just as he was about to shoot it, a voice was heard.

"Wait! Y-you DON'T have to shoot! I thought you were s-something else...!" The voice was light and airy, bearing resemblance to birds chirping to announce the arrival of the sun. It belonged to a female who was shivering against a tree, her grey skin blending in with it a bit. The bow that was previously in her hand was now on the floor, most likely to show she meant no harm.

Her grey skin bore likeness to an ash-stained alabaster vase, the shininess failing to be hidden by the shade of the trees. At least, that seemed to only be the problem when one wasn't directly behind it. Her ears were long and pointed, reminding Alban of elves, while her hair purple hair was braided into an updo. Her stature was demure yet curvy, although her body certainly didn't do her curves any favors. She was pretty much as flat as a board, with long legs despite her short size. The grey elf-like being had a simple tank top and skirt, although Alban noticed a shivering appendage wrapping tightly around the tree. It seemed that she had a long tail too.

The girl noticed his gaze, noticing that there were no trivial emotions like lust or anger. There was only her shivering face reflected clearly in his gleaming eyes. The grin upon his face that would be charming during literally any other situation looked like the devil crawled straight out of hell. Or...maybe it was an angel about to deliver the message of the lord's punishment. Not wanting to find out which was worse, she quickly opened her mouth.

"H-hey! You're a wildman, r-r-right? I don't know why you'd be wandering this way...it l-leads out of the forest!"

'Wildman, huh? It's been a while since I've heard that...I guess I'll spare her. She can talk, after all.' "Your clothes, they look...professional. Not many tears. Where'd you come from?"

"Nimrod. It's a town made of us Nimms...I can lead you there if you want. J-just, put the flame away please...you'll burn down the whole forest down!" The girl found her voiced trying not to quake before him. It was beaten into her head by whatever teacher she came across in her village...but she sometimes forgot. It had been a long time for her to experience this kind of fear, it wasn't something that could happen everyday after all.

The earthen platform Alban was situated on slowly lowered back into the ground. The hunter stepped off, directly arriving in front of the prey turned person. He leaned in quite a bit, his face directly in front of hers. He stared into her eyes, mentally daring her to lie to him.

"What's your name?"

"Nimra."

"Mine's Alban. Lead the way, Miss Nimra." The threatening face backed off, clearing Nimra's field of vision. The savage aura around the man seemed to creep back into him, although that did nothing to alleviate her fears. A predator that could hide their nature was much more dangerous than an obviously feral one.

And so Alban's peaceful walk through the woods resumed. Plus 1. Alban gazed with at Nimra lackadaisically, before quickly wondering how she got here. "Are we out of the Beach Of Infancy?"

"Umm, yes, where you met me was right at the border. You didn't just come from there, right...?"

Silence.

He wasn't obligated to answer, even if the girl before him counted as a person in his book. Besides, she lives out of the beach so she's gotta be a young adult...or an unfortunate child that wandered out of the beach wayyy too early. He didn't think this was the case as she looked pretty similar to him in age, but he refused to cross out any possibilities before he arrived at a conclusion.

"Sooo, are these woods your home? If so, it's a bit weird that you haven't seen more of us Nimms. We hunt here all the time, the forest is absolutely rich with lots of um...prey. As you well know, right?" The girl uttered a topic that Alban was interested in after some minutes of walking in awkward silence.

"Ever seen a jackal with an axe for an arm? Miss Nimra."

"Oh no, I at least try and stay away from those. I like to hunt the double soldiers that sometimes wander in here."

"I haven't seen any around here...I guess another cursory look will have to be made sometime."

"Yeah, they're real important for making weapons. Their skin is so hard and it's tougher than a lot of the cloth I've seen, so we like to make them into little decorations."

"You don't eat them? They taste good."

At that, Nimra suddenly shut her mouth. The handsome youth behind her was way too creepy...who would even shove that glorified piece of metal in their mouth?? Well, maybe a couple people from her village, but there weren't many that could do that and get away without so much as a broken tooth. A chill nipped at her spine, wondering what kind of monster she was leading to her village. Still, she was true to her word and would diligently deliver the demon—I mean the wildman, to wherever he wanted to go.

An hour of walking noiselessly transpired before Alban spotted some puffs of smoke in the distance. He figured he'd get there soon enough to see what they were from, but his curiosity got the better of him. Like a ripple in the pond, his deep voice skipped along the air quite similarly to a stone hopping across the water.

"You said a village, right? Why's there so many plumes of smoke?"

"We're about to have a festival...the smoke is preparation for the big fire. We also have a lot of blacksmiths that work tirelessly on their craft. And maybe some of the smoke is coming from the school of magic?"

'A school, huh?' Alban felt torn, really curious and eager to explore the world of mana that the place must have in its doors. However...tests...he didn't want to re-enter highschool hell. He felt such sharp pangs of pain in his head whenever he even tried to remember anything near a school.

"We'll be getting there soon...so I'll be the first to welcome you! Welcome to Nimrod, we're all pretty friendly over there so maybe you could try as well?" She looked slightly over her soldier and saw a face evenly decided with the emotion of excitement and despair. Uh, maybe she should just leave him be until they arrive...