Wonders of an Unknown Land [Rilkar/Ulrika]

[Ulrika&Timber]

Time and Date::27th December
Weather:: Cool, it hasn't snowed in days so the snow is starting to get ugly
Previous Threads?:: the lesson, maybe?

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Ulrika had been bored. And being bored meant her mind went astray, and naturally she had been a bit upset as her memories haunted her again. She had decided to seek out Rilkar's house.

The little viking had obviously met Rilkar before. On their first conversation he had pretty much sussed her out, which bothered her, but he seemed to know many things, that intrigued her. Perhaps it was because he was an outsider, she remembered following Sven around everywhere at first as well... But there was something else with Rilkar.

She enjoyed his stories of far off lands, and she felt like the knight understood her feelings. Unlike the Vikings who would brush off killings as if it was nothing and something to be proud of, Ulrika was glad there was someone else who death had taken a heavy toll on... She agreed that the honour of taking place in the halls of Vallhalla was great, but it was still tough.

However Ulrika had never actually been to Rilkar's house yet. She had no idea where it was. She had to rely on her tracking skills, following various footprints, with several failures. All the while Timber had been following her, sensing she wasn't quite alright, and was there if she needed the moral support.

She finally arrived at some shack that she hadn't seen before. There weren't many houses or huts outside of the village, so this was it... wasn't it? She approached, and Timber followed, warily. She could hear her companion slowing down and a slight grumble, so Ulrika turned around. Timber's ear plates perked in surprise.

"Calm down, will you? It's just a house." Timber snorted. It was quiet.

Ulrika opened the door and peered into the shack. "Hellooo?" It was dark, and it looked like no one was home. "See, Timber? There's not even anyone." She saw a glint of something reflecting the outside light, and wanted to take a look. Her eyes accustomed to the dimmer indoor light, and noticed many strange things. She hadn't seen objects quite like it. She noticed a sword hung up, almost bigger than hers. She knew it was Rilkar's house now, because he had brought it to the lesson! She had forgotten the name of it though.

Timber waited outside, her tail swishing anxiously. She decided to check the perimeter, just to make sure it was really safe. Was she paranoid? Maybe, but in her opinion she was looking out for her human, who had a habit of getting into trouble.

---

Thanks Moonpie, I got this RP idea because of yours schemes
AS IF I HADNT GOT ENOUGH RPS ALREADY

[Rilkar Olden & Sindyr]

  Overall, what a strange day.  His hunt had gone strangely well, better than he normally had luck with.  There was a duo of crossbow bolts sticking out of the heart and neck of the deer he was now quite literally struggling to drag home.  The slush that had formed over days of warming weather and lack of new snow had made it hard to gain a footing on anything in the woods.  He slipped and fell at least four times just climbing the small hill he was trying to clamber.  He never wore his armor on a hunting trip, it was too loud.  He never really cared about stealth, but hunting was always just something to get him away from his books every now and again, and it worked.
  Now he just had to get back to his little shack to bleed and clean it.  As he finally stumbled into the clearing, nearly four hours after he first left earlier that morning, he noticed a rather familiar night fury sitting in front of his humble abode.  He dropped the rather heavy buck and observed from the ridge line.  He knew who it belonged to, he just wanted to see what she was up to.
  "What are you up to Ulrika?"

[Ulrika&Timber]

Ulrika tried to remember what the massive sword was called, but quickly gave up. It sounded like something foreign. It was still impressive, how on earth did someone wield something like that? She inspected the other swords, though most of them were in their sheaths. She picked one up and took it out from it's sturdy leather casing. It was a similar shape as Kenna's swords; except it was thinner, and the hilt and pommel had intricate leafy designs. Engraved in the blade near the hilt was some strange markings she didn't recognise.

She gave it a couple of swings in the air, just to get the feel of it, before carefully sheathing it, and putting it back, being careful not to dislodge anything. She looked around a bit more, but things were a bit dim so she didn't see much. She saw a pile of books.

Ulrika wasn't much of a reader, but from the pile they looked different. There wasn't many books on Berk, and Ulrika wasn't much of a reader, but the artistry in the spine intrigued her. She wondered what foreign books looked like.

Unfortunately the book was heavier than she realised, but managed to get it off. She was on her tiptoes and the sudden weight made her stagger back. She stumbled and fell backwards, falling into the swords! Thankfully they were sheathed, but they clattered with the impact. The tome lay heavy on her laps, slightly dazed. One final crash signaled the fall of the flamberge, only just missing her and crashing to the ground.

It roused Ulrika from her intital shock and her head darted around in shock. What had she done? "Oh crap." She shoved the book off her and tried to rummage the swords and fallen things back to their places, rather hastily and messy. She didn't want to get caught. She hoped she hadn't broken anything... Swords don't break, right?

----

Timber had been checking the area and returned to the front of the door. She could still hear Ulrika inside. A new noise came from the undergrowth, making Timber raise her head and ears in alert. Gripping the ground with her claws, she made a low warning noise, mostly for herself and Ulrika. She stared at the source of the noise, but she didn't see anything.

Then it went quiet.

CRASH!

The tense Night Fury jumped a metre or so in the air in surprise at the sudden noise behind her. She let out a yelp and looked to the door. Timber tried to peek through the door but stuff was blocking the way! It sounded like Ulrika was by herself though.

She heard noises behind her again and turned around. The noise must have alerted the mysterious behind in the undergrowth.

[Rilkar Olden & Sindyr]

  It wasn't long of a wait before timber began to sense he was there.  The extra weight from the package he was carrying definitely didn't make his approach any stealthier.  He sighed and observed for what seemed like only a few more seconds before a loud resounding CRASH! rumbled out of his once quiet home.  When Timber jumped out of surprise, he could only suppose it was because he was focused on him.  He took off from the underbrush still dragging his soon to be dinner for the next week.  Once he approached his house, he dropped the deer and gave timber a quick pat with a gloved hand and clambered inside to the new mess that awaited him.
  He surveyed the damage as he watched Ulrika frantically attempt to clean up the mess.  He stood in the doorway looking in as she stuffed things exactly into the wrong locations and completely frickle fracking up the organization he'd worked on for hours to save him time in finding things again.  He looked at Ulrika and Sighed loudly, putting his crossbow onto his bed and making his way over to the papers she was attempting to clean up.
  "Oh Ulrika.... Sit down."  His voice was a mixture of disappointment, but caring at the same time.  He was thankful she tried so hard to clean up after herself, but at the same time, it was still clumsy old Ulrika that stumbled into all of his things.  He pointed at the bed until she sat down before returning what she had put away to their actual resting places.  He put the flamberge back on the wall hanging the way it was before and returned the other swords to the rack underneath it.  He opened his notes and in an organized manner strew them out over his nearby desk to reorganize later.
  "Well Ulrika...  I'm sure you've got a wonderful story as to why you're poking around my house when I'm not here."  He set himself backwards on the chair at his desk, resting his chest against the back rest and his arms along the top of it.

[Ulrika&Timber]

A shadow in the doorway made Ulrika look up. It was Rilkar. She had a slight feeling of dread. She got up to defend herself - it was an accident - but Rilkar sternly told her to sit down. There was a tone in his voice that made Ulrika worried, and obeyed. But she wouldn't go silently.

"I didn't mean to-" But the rising tension cut her off; That, and she watched Rilkar take the flamberge and hook it back on the wall. Despite in trouble, she was in awe of how big this sword was. It was even bigger than Rilkar himself!

Timber had watched Rilkar storm to the doorway. The pat on the head caught her off guard, and she did not appreciate it, which made her snort and shake her head at him. But he entered inside, and she could hear the two humans talking. She approached watched from the doorway. Her ears flattened at the sight of the mess. She also made a disappointing noise. "Oh, not again..."

Ulrika didn't realise that everything had their proper place, even when she was watching him briefly rearrange her sloppy clean-up attempt. He gathered up loose papers and that book she was trying to get on his desk. He sat down and asked her what she was even doing in his house.

Ulrika kicked her legs nervously, she could feel she was in trouble. She did make a mess... But it wasn't that bad, was it? The concept that she had been breaking and entering didn't even occur to her.

"I was looking for you, but you weren't in. I-I saw you had some weird stuff so I was just looking. I was just looking - honest!" She didn't want to admit she was looking at a book. But she wanted to be honest. "I fell and made everything fall. I didn't mean to! It was an accident!" She said, trying to defend herself. As her excuses went on her tone raised, desperate to not have Rilkar be mad at her.

"I was trying to fix stuff and then you came..." He eyes wandered to the doorway, where Timber was. The dragon's head was tilted to one side, and as the girl looked at her, the dragon made a gruffing noise.

"Are you mad at me?" She said, slightly softer than before. She couldn't really read Rilkar's expression properly.

[Rilkar Olden & Sindyr]

    Her story was about what he expected from her.  He hadn't spent much time with her overall, but he knew that the girl was someone unique.  For someone so young she felt as broken as he did.  But she didn't have a method of coping with it like he did, at least as far as he was aware.  His journals were stacked high on shelves above his desk, various manuals as well as stories of lore and myth, fantasy and what could be considered science of the time was also hidden amongst his book based belongings.  He's glad none of it was damage from the fall, he might just have to castrate her if they were.  Well, that was the thought process at least.  He knew he couldn't lay a finger on her if he tried.  Perhaps making her do combat training the rough way for a day would suffice if she damaged anything... 
    He sighed audibly at her final question.  He could be disappointed in her, but never mad.  Upset, but never angry.  He remembered feeling just like her when he was a simple squire for the first year of his knight training.  "No.  I'm not.  Just disappointed in your judgement."  He looked at her squarely with a calming look on his face.  "You can't just enter someone's house without asking Ulrika.  If I'm not here, wait outside, or try back at another time.  You're lucky I got done with my hunt when I did, or else this may have ended worse than it did."
    He looked around at the book in question that had fallen on the floor, he noticed it was one of his old journals, stuffed with recent dragon notes and diagrams he'd drawn out of boredom or curiosity.  He found one he drew of Scratchet while she was sleeping and laughed in his own head.  He ran his fingers over the latin that scrawled the pages.  She couldn't read it, he knew that.  She couldn't read hardly at all, and he wasn't quite sure why, but it made him quite depressed knowing that she wouldn't be able to read his writing, or even the runic script of her own people.  He'd have to fix that down the line.  Who knows, maybe an opportunity would present itself.
  "So why is it that you were looking for me today?  Curiosity kill the dragon?"

[Ulrika&Timber]

Oh. He wasn't mad. That was alright then. He proceded to scold her though, and she avoided eye contact. Ulrika didn't like the way he was looking at her. She didn't really get the concept that Rilkar was on about - she'd go to people's houses all the time and no one was ever mad at her...

She perked up and looked at Rilkar properly when he mentioned hunting. She wanted to blurt out her interest, but it seemed like Rilkar hadn't finished with her just yet. She paused as Rilkar took the book and looked through it. Ulrika sat up in her seat, trying to look discreetly from where she was. She swore she saw some pictures! She could handle that.

Rilkar then asked her why she was looking for him. He didn't particularly use the right words though - Timber made a loud noise before Ulrika could even react. "H-hey that's not funny." Ulrika said with a sudden seriousness. "Timber almost got killed, cause she sticks her nose in EVERYTHING." She shot her dragon a glance and she retreated from the doorway slightly.

"Uhm... I was bored." She said half distracted, getting pu and leaving the shack. She hadn't told Rilkar her intention; near Timber, sure enough laid a buck, bigger than what she usually brought home, but thats because she was too small to carry big ones yet. The thing looked sorry on the snow, but something didn't feel right.

She turned to Rilkar. "You haven't bled it." She approached the thing. Some of the blood from the crossbow wounds had spilled on the floor since it had been left there. It wasn't much but Rilkar's comment and the visual cue shook her a bit. She stared at it a bit longer than she realised.

She blinked and snapped out of her zoning out. "Uh, yeah. Let's, do that. The meat'll get weird if you dont." She said shakily. Trying to distract herself and hide her plight, she was fed up of Rilkar figuring her out all the time like some crazy soothsayer or something, she quickly began trying to haul the thing to where it was obvious the slaughter process happened before.

This was merely her hunting habits that she had engrained for a long time now, and was natural to her. Thinking about it made her conscious of the scar on her shoulder. No! She had to concentrate! She managed to haul the legs over her shoulder but the majority of the corpse was still on the ground. She slipped on the icy surface beneath the snow and stumbled on the spot, making her grumble and shiver.

[Rilkar Olden & Sindyr]

  "Sorry for the figure of speech.  I bet Timber doesn't poke his head around traps anymore though, right?  The figure stands true."  He meant to continue and ask a few more questions before she cut him off halfway through to talk about the Deer he had left outside in a sorry position to rush in and check on her.  Did he seriously just think more about her than his stuff?  Normally a trader's number one possessions were his goods.  They were the trader's livelihood, should anything happen to the goods, he would be ruined as a trader.  He caught himself looking over her as he passed her to look out the door.  He was checking neck and face for any bruises from the falling items before looking up at Timber.  "Everything's fine Timber.  You can relax."  He said as he turned his attention from the dragon outside to the deer.  As to what Ulrika had interrupted him to say, advice nobody asked for about something he's had to do for a while to provide for himself on the trade routes.  He couldn't help but scoff a bit when she told him what he needed to do.  It was almost refreshing to have someone telling him how to do his job.
  "Ulrika, I know what has to be done about the Deer, but for now, its fine where it lay.  We still need to find out exactly what it is you came in here looking for, and what exactly you were hoping to find in that book."  He smiles to her softly before hauling her to her feet and carefully herding her back inside and closing the door before all of the warm air from the fireplace escaped.  He was sure she had to ask him a few things, why else would she look for him even in her state of "boredom".  So he thought he'd help her out and possibly tell her stories or explain some things when she felt the audacity to ask.  A few drinks and he was sure he could handle anything she threw at him.  He took a swig from his flask before sitting in a chair by the fire.  "I'm sure you've got questions for me.  Don't hesitate to ask, it is why you came to begin with, am I right?"

[Ulrika&Timber]

Suddenly Ulrika stormed out of the house, slowly followed by Rilkar, to Timber's surprise. She had to back up quite a bit to let them out. She wasn't quite sure what was going on, her head raised and earplates erected to show she was alert. The older human, Rilkar told her to calm down. Seeing Ulrika in no stress or harm, she could calm down a bit.

After failing to carry the deer herself, she felt Rilkar haul her up to her feet. She struggled in protest, but failed as he easily carted her back inside. "No - we gotta - " But as the door shut behind her, so did her protests - she lost and she wasn't happy about it. Ulrika didn't like losing. She lost frequently enough as it is. She watched him moodily as he took a swig and sat by the fire. Ulrika pulled up her arms to cross them. Rilkar asked her to ask him questions.

Truthfully, she hadn't really planned ahead when she got to Rilkar's house. She had been bored and she didn't really know where he lived, but she knew now. After the deer incident, the blood on the snow was bothersome to her, but somehow coming inside without the open door almost formed like a psychological barrier between her awful memories and the present. Not wanting to disappoint him anymore, still keeping up the attitude, she shuffled her feet and glanced once again at the flamberge. "How heavy is that? It's bigger than I remembered at the lesson."

[Rilkar Olden & Sindyr]

  Always with the fussing about.  He understood she had a few issues and that she had her own methods of coping with them.  Few weeks beforehand they had talked about some of their past experiences, and, they shared alot in common.  What first started as just trying to get her to come inside, when she started to drag it towards the shack he detected a bit more than just the need to clean it.  As soon as the door was closed, she changed her tone but remained the same defeated and grumpy Ulrika he knew, but the urgency she was expressing earlier was gone.  He sighed at the fact he may have just averted a few flashbacks. 
  Upon his question, the first thing her gaze turned to was the formerly chained up to the wall flamberge.  He looked it over, and it had been forever since he even last tried swinging it.  He laughed quietly to himself and took it off the wall.  Taking the now rather dull blade, so dull that he actually holds it by the blade and it isn't even considered close to cutting strength.
  "Why don't you hold it for yourself and find out?"  He waits until she takes it before continuing.  "The one's I had at the lesson were crafted by Kenna specifically at my request for the lesson.  She still has them I'm sure." 
  He leans in close, "I'm sure she would part with it if you asked nicely."

[Ulrika&Timber]

Any shadowy thoughts almost were entirely dispelled as Rilkar allowed her to try and hold the giant sword. "Can I?" She said enthusastically, holding her hands out in expectation. She beamed as he handed her the sword. He gave her the hilt and gingerly took it, but as he let go of the blade he weight settled in and her arms sank as she tried to keep it somewhat level. Despite it's size it wasn't as heavy she expected it, but it was still kind of heavy from what she was used to. "Cool..."

Ulrika watched the point dip as Rilkar spoke. She couldn't really hold it like that forever. "I don't think Kenna likes me much, though," Ulrika began to rant. "I keep losing her knives and breaking things - it's never my fault though! She doesn't believe me." Ulrika tried to regain height in the blade's point, admiring how the light shone on the wavy blade. She readjusted her grip on the hilt. "She didn't beleive me either when I asked for a Night Fury saddle. No one believed me that I got a Night Fury either..." She trailed off, it did bother her that she wasn't taken seriously when she needed to, but she felt like Rilkar would just be like the other grown-ups, so it would be another defeat she didn't want right now.

She handed back the sword before her arms began to hurt. "What is the point of a big sword like that anyway? When you're close to people you can't really move this like a shorter one, can you?" Ulrika said, whilst flexing her fingers.

[Rilkar Olden & Sindyr]

  "To be honest, I would not have believed you either, until I saw Timber."  He started in response to Ulrika mentioning her shenanigans with Kenna.  He didn't mind her.  She knew blacksmithing very well and he would require her service again soon to repair his armor.  Poor old suit had seen better days.  He looked over for a second to see the numerous deep cuts and the occasional dent  in places.  The crimson waist coat and shoulder cape covered the shoulders and waist of the suit on its stand.
  He turned back to her and the blade as she looked over the dull yet still gleaming undulating blade.  She could carry it quite well, to his surprise.  He smiled as he tried to remember exactly how the blade was intended to be used.  It has been ages since he'd even seen anyone use it.  Last time he'd seen anyone attempt to use a flamberge, or even a claymore, was during the fall of his home.  "The flamberge is a two handed blade that's intended to cause deep cuts due to the jagged blade."  He adjusted himself and pointed to the various parts he was talking about.  "The blade has a reach far greater than any longsword and is used to strike from a distance.  Normally the person using the blade would be located in a formation of others using the blade as well, creating a wall of slashing blades."  With the end of that he pulled a moderate sized book from his shelf and opened it up, showing Ulrika the techniques used for the blade.  "This manual explains the pictures shown in rather good detail.  The problem is that its written in latin.  Even I have a hard time reading the writing in this book."
  He pages through the book more showing oddly drawn pictures of people in weird outfits and varying styles of armor and clothing wielding different types of blades, hammers, and the like.  There's even a few pages on war archery. 

[Ulrika&Timber]

Ulrika frowned at Rilkar's response. Though somewhat not surprised, she was disappointed that yet another person probably wouldn't have believed her, either. Her eyes watched Rilkar as he inspected his set of armour, that stood proudly on a stand in the corner of the room.

She thought it looked actually pretty cool. She didn't really want to say it out loud, though - she was a Viking! Ulrika was proud of the Viking Way, and all the stories she had heard of brave heroic vikings all seemed to only wear pelts into battle, because they were so great. She didn't grasp the over-exaggeration of the stories so didn't question their realism. Those stories often talked about how they got to Vallhalla, but Ulrika seemed to overlook that.

Rilkar turned and began to explain the sword. She couldn't quite picture the strategy he talked about though. "Flam..berge?" Ulrika repeated, trying the strange foreign name. "That sounds so weird. So its like an axe... but a sword? Cause you hack at stuff... and stuff."

He took out a different book, smaller than the one she had tried to reach. She folded her arms as he told her everything was written in the book. She did take a glance at the pictures, though. She noticed the writing looked a bit like the symbols she saw on the sword earlier before rilkar had come in. She hadn't seen "latin" before so she hadn't the foggiest what anything was, not that she could read her own people's writing, anyway.

As Rilkar flicked through the pages she saw various strange images and things, but not long enough for it to sink in. Rilkar paused on a page but instead, strangely, Ulrika was attracted to the text-side of the page. She stuck her finger on the page, pointing at a rather intricate-looking Initial with a picture of some kind of bird in it. She didn't make out that there was a letter in there. "That looks pretty." She commented.

[Rilkar Olden & Sindyr]

  "It is a strange word to say in the viking accent.  But the sword is a sword in every sense.  It is just a very large sword."  He runs his fingers over the blade in Ulrika's hands to point out once again, the differences between a sword and an axe.  "The blade is long, intended to cut and slice through a dragging motion.  An axe is a splitting chopping action, and is the complete opposite."  He tried not to burden her with too much info, but it was just an impulse to explain to those who shared a common interest in knowledge, or at least the pursuit of learning more about any topic. 
  He watched her look over the book as he paged through it and she payed far more attention to the page heading letters than the rest of the text.  He figured it was because it was an easy to read letter compared to the rest of the page.  He thought back to the fact that she couldnt read, and it made him actually quite upset.  "Hey, if you want to read into the manuals, I could teach you how to read latin... I could also teach you runic if you wish.  Its a lot of work, but its easy to practice.  If you're ever interested, seek me out and I'll help you out.  I'd help you with anything you asked for honestly."
  He thought about what he just said for a moment.  He actually volunteered any time he had available to a young girl so long as she needed help.  He laughed to himself internally.  He may regret that decision down the line, but at the moment, he really didn't mind having someone who's actively interested in him.

[Ulrika&Timber]

Ulrika watched him as he ran his finger down the wavy blade, explaining the difference between the sword and an axe. She didn't really understood, but she wasn't going to ask. All that mattered to her is that the weapon cut things in two or not.

Rilkar offered to teach her to read. It flustered her slightly, averting her gaze and propping the sword against the bed, trying to make it balance to it wouldn't clatter to the ground and make another big mess. "I was just looking at the picture." She said, not realising there was a letter in the clever design. She folded her arms, stubbornly defiant. She still disliked a lot that he figured out about her without anyone telling him, but at least the very few who knew about this didn't call her out on it all the time. "I don't need to read." She replied bitterly. For Ulrika, this was true - she learnt to fight through experience and instruction when availiable, she hunted game for the village and spent time doing small tasks and chilling with classmates or Timber. That and getting into all sorts of adventures. She didn't see or think how reading would benefit her. Not that she knew what reading entailed, anyway.

Ulrika moved away from the sword and Rilkar, and looked at stuff around his room. Now he had brought that up, it seemed Rilkar had a lot of books, which made her frown even more. She noticed an interesting-looking stone jug on his desk and felt gravitated towards it. She picked it up to inspect it - but it had liquid in so she was careful not to spill. She looked inside but couldn't see what it was, but she could smell something. She brought it up to sniff.

She wrinkled her nose as alchohol played havoc with her senses, and turned to Rilkar. "What's this?" It didn't smell like anything she knew of before.