Pros and Cons [Xanthe]

[Ellis Danton]

Somewhere in Atton, not far from the Aurcaeli encampment...

When Ellis had left Niseca, he had intended on returning to Atton whether he was staying with the Aurcaeli battalion or not. In one case, he was going to be coming back because his leave was over and he had to do some more fighting. In the other, he was coming back to quit. Though, he probably wouldn't go up to Xista and tell her he was quitting. Still he would leave behind a note of some kind, it seemed like something that ought to be done - a dutiful thing to do.

On the way back, Ellis had been nervous. Not just his regular stuttery, shaking kind of nerves. No, he had felt as if he would defecate, and as if the moment he touched down Xista would know and would come right after him. Neither actually, happened, but when the Skyboat come to a halt, he was the first person off, and he avoided heading to the Aurcaeli encampment at the lake. Instead, he went the opposite direction.

He tore across the land, wanting so badly to get as far away as he possibly could from possible death and dismemberment that he did not take into account two very important points. The first: Death and dismemberment could very easily come from the hands of someone who was not Xista, especially because of the second: He was still wearing his uniform. The one that said he was a member of the Aurcaeli battalion.

Emerging from the forest he had trekked through, he was happy to see a lake. It wasn't really safe, due to the prospect of it being filled with bacteria and lightning, but it was a refreshing break from the heightened tension and unknown of the woods. He took a seat in the dirt, wiping his face of a terrified sweat and let a deep sigh emerge from his lungs as he worked on catching his stolen breath.

"You and I," He recited almost breathlessly as he took out his handkerchief and wiped his face, "We will find each other... Some day-" The words had come from Cherry, who had convinced him to leave the army. He had very soon after unconvinced himself that it was a good idea, but the idea was coming back and the words were a fine reminder of it all. It helped some that the words made him think of his absentee father - another very good reason to leave the service of the army.

[Xanthe]

Xanthe had been scouting the area with two others, trying to get a good estimation of the size of the camp and where their potential weak points were. It was good to know such things, especially since it seemed this group in particular was one of their biggest threats. Xanthe had taken an aerial view of the camp and spotted where she assumed the leader would be staying, due to the size of it compared to the rest of the temporary abodes. That would be where they struck should they need to make a move; perhaps with their leader out of the picture the rest of the group would fall apart. It was a long shot, but then again so was their entire resistance. A hundred and some Attonians against the rest of the world... she hoped they all killed each other before her tribe needed to get involved.

Their scout was cut short when the others were spotted by one of the guards in the camp. Luckily she had brought two lightening elementals with her, so they quickly fled and the guard was (hopefully) left thinking he had simply been seeing things in the storm. Xanthe left as well and met her scouts farther away, where she ordered them to return to the tribe and inform them of their findings. Xanthe on the other hand stayed behind, mainly because she had to be sure the guard raised an alarm. She didn't want to get too close, so she hung around a ways away from the camp and wandered the area, deciding to check for anything the soldiers may have dropped or left behind. It might help her to better understand how to fight them.

As she was walking, she heard a voice nearby and spotted someone sitting down by one of the lakes that dotted the area. Making her way through the trees in his direction, she tried to hear his words well enough to try to translate them, but she only caught a few and she didn't know what they meant. When she got closer though, but still nto out of the cover of the trees, she noticed the man was wearing a uniform. The same uniform she had seen on countless soldiers in the camp nearby. What could he be doing way out here, by himself? Surely he knew that such a thing was dangerous. After all, there were so many opposing armies in the country that going anywhere alone was pretty stupid.

She considered the situation for a moment. He didn't look very dangerous; in fact he looked kind of sad, but then again what did seh know about how the outsiders expressed emotion? Besides anger, of course. She had seen more than enough of that. He looked pretty strong though, so many he was out here because he didn't have to worry about anything, because he would be able to deal with whatever happened. Perhaps she should kill him, to rid herself of one more outsider. But maybe he would be like Ashlin, who had tried to teach her things. What could she learn from this man? If she didn't kill him, perhaps he could show her his weapons and she could learn about that. Perhaps.

Xanthe moved out of the cover of the woods, watching the man from a distance. "What are you doing here?"

[Ellis Danton]

Xanthe's voice broke him out of his reverie which had recently turned from thinking about Cherry and the song to determining what would be good about quitting and what would be bad about. He had come to the determination that should he quit, he would likely be killed, and should he not quit he would likely be killed. Fantastic, had been his final thought before Xanthe's impaired English filled his ears and caused him to jump in a frightened manner.

He fell backwards, quickly beginning a struggle to get back up. His hand felt around behind him, propelling him into a backwards crawl away from where he believed he had heard the noise from. Of course, he was wrong with his assumption, since he was moving closer to Xanthe this way. Luckily for him, there was one rock slightly larger than the others, big enough for him to look down at it. When he moved his head back up, he caught sight of Xanthe behind him and stood up quickly turning to face her with a scared expression upon his face.

"What... What am I doing? Well, you see... I um... Well I... I... Am just loo- just sin- just sco- just... Well, I'm just," He stopped himself, gathering a breath and trying to collect himself. Trying to keep himself from saying something that would get him killed sooner than he was anticipating. "You see... ma'am," He hoped that was in fact the gender. It looked like a female, but based on the things all of the infantry soldiers in the Aurcaeli army were told, one could never be too sure, "I was m-m-m-m," He stopped again, taking a deep breath.

Alright Ellis, calm down. If you're careful, you won't end up dead. Or, well... At least there will be a smaller chance of ending up dead. Which is always better than having a one hundred percent chance that you will in fact end up dead. Right now, this is your chance. Maybe she can help you. In... out... in... out and- "So I was merely trying t-to... think of how to quit. The-the-the... The army. I mean. How about... Er... How about you? What are you doing... So... So cl-close to the c-c-camp? It... Well you know that it... That it's dangerous for... F-for someone l-like you." Then again, it wasn't just dangerous for people like Xanthe. It was also dangerous for people like Ellis. It was dangerous for anyone who wasn't Pelagia Xista or Ashlin Driel. Ellis supposed there were probably more people around that it was alright for, but those were the only two he knew of.

[Xanthe]

Xanthe was surprised that the man had not noticed her earlier, or that he had reacted with such shock when she asked him what he was doing. After all, he was wearing the outfit of a soldier and surely a soldier would be on guard when he was out and about in a place such as this? But apparently she had come across the only soldier in the world who was about as observant as a worm, and who evidently was so out of sorts that he started scurrying backwards, right toward her. She watched with vague amusement. And she had been considering the fact that he might be a legitimate threat. Ha. Maybe she should kill him, to put him out of his misery.

He continued crawling toward her until he looked up adn spotted her behind him, which caused a frantic jumpt o his feet and a terrified look on his face. She couldn't deny that she liked striking fear into the hearts of her enemies, but this was just sort of pathetic. The man looked like he could wrestle a bear and come out victorious, yet here he was cowering in front of her like a little rat. Pitiful. Her judgmental thoughts were cut off when he began speaking, and she tried to translate what he was saying. He repeated her question, sort of, but then went on to say.... well, she had no idea what he was saying. He appeared to be incredibly nervous and his words came in jumbled clumps that she couldn't figure out. Then he blessedly stopped speaking and took a breath. Maybe he had seen the lack of comprehension on her face and was trying to find words that she would maybe be able to understand?

No, no he wasn't.

More words, a pause, another few words, and another pause before he launched into another assault of unrecognizable vocabulary. At one point she was fairly certain she heard him mention the army, and ask what she was doing, and she recognized 'dangerous', so she figured she could work off of that. But how to reply? She was scouting, but she shouldn't tell that to an enemy soldier, even if she could figure out what it was in his language. Common, as Ashlin had explained. The language was called Common. Way to remember, but that didn't have anything to do with what was going on right now. It didn't help her figure out how to answer his question. She thought back to being asked that question before and figured she could re-use her answer. After all, it was... partially the reason she was here. "I live here. In Atton." She mentally thanked Kikuriku for repeating her answer the right way, so she knew how to say it properly.

[Ellis Danton]

Ellis once again found himself thinking about his options. It seemed a bit more pressing at this particular moment in time. You see, if he was to quit the Aurcaeli Battalion, this girl(?) would have no real reason to kill him. She(?) still might. They were savages after all. Still, quitting would increase his chance of not getting killed by this Attonian. The cons? He would probably be killed by Xista. That death would also probably be extremely painful and drawn out. Of course, he assumed that a death by savages would be the same.

He realized then how dumbfounded the savage looked at what he was saying. He was confused at first, but then he realized that they did not speak his language. They didn't know many words in Common. Not from what he had seen. They had tried to use diplomacy. Once. It didn't work. There was no conversation to be had. He supposed this would probably be for the better that she didn't understand him, then perhaps she would not be one to make fun of his stutter. She didn't know what a stutter was, after all.

After some time, the native spoke. He was told that the savage lived here, and he briefly thought of how dumb she must be before reminding himself of the language gap. Besides, it was not as if he was much better with his constant mangling of the language that he had been brought up knowing. In fact, it was far better. He had asked what she was doing here. It was obviously the one part of what he said that the savage understood. "W-well... Of course you d-d-do," He claimed, nodding his head and biting his lip as he reached habitually for his handkerchief, "I mean... You are a... an Atton-person. At-t-t-tonese. Atton... Attonian? That ssssounds right... Uh, you... you live here... Live here because you b-b-b-born here. Yeah. That makes sense, yeah. B-b-but what I m-m-meant, because I knew you were... Att-t-t... Attonian? ...Well I meant to say wh-why are you... Uh... G-g-guess you d-d-don't underst-stand."

He gave up with that question. Was it really all that important anyways? She was near the camp, and that was that. She(he?) probably knew what she(he?) was doing. More so than him, at least. He was clueless as to what he was doing. As to what he was going to do and as to what he was not going to do. He really knew nothing. Well, he knew some things. But all of those things were completely wrong. Shaking himself out of his head, he continued talking, trying to put off the suspected inevitable death that was sure to come, "Wh... What is your n-name? Do you... Do you understand 'name'? I-I..." He pointed to himself, "I'm Ellis." He put his hand down quickly, realizing that he wasn't really supposed to give out information about himself, especially to the indigenous. "I su-suppose I shouldn't t-t-t-tell you th-that. But... I g-g-guess I w-want to. Tell you that. I-I don't know why... I just... Sorry..." He concentrated on not stuttering, in the hopes that she would understand his question, "What is your n--" He paused, feeling a stutter coming on. He took a breath, let it out, and then continued, "What is your name?"

[Xanthe]

Xanthe crossed her arms and listened as the man once again attempted to communicate with her despite the fact that she clearly had no idea what he was saying. While she waited for him to stop, or to say something she recognized, or to attack or run away or, hell, do something that was more interesting than what he was doing currently, she considered the pros and cons of killing him where he stood. After all, he was one of the outsiders and he would no doubt be part of the attack that would inevitably be made on her people (unless he was dead by then, of course) so there really was no reason she should even be considering this. By killing him now, she would have one less soldier to worry about when the time came to fight.

Of course, by killing him now she would also be attacking a man who was clearly scared half to death already and that would not be honourable. After all, he had made no move whatsoever to indicate any hostility toward her, and was in fact trying (and failing miserably) to converse with her. Besides, one soldier wasn't going to make or break the outcome of the war. Maybe if he was an important member of the army it would be beneficial, but he was clearly one of the lackeys. He had no skill at public speaking and he was horrible at hiding his fear - two things that were vital to anyone in a high-ranking position.

Finally, the man stopped speaking. She waited expectantly while he seemed to consider his next words, and then finally she understood what he was saying. He asked for her name, although it was hard to pick out if that was actually what he said. It sounded weird and broken, but it was definitely an inquiry as to her identity. She would have replied, but he continued speaking and - what a surprise - she couldn't understand what he was saying. He was making absolutely no progress. This was exactly why they hadn't been able to communicate. They were so... dense. Finally, he repeated his question regarding her name and then stopped speaking. "Xanthe," she informed him. "You are?"

[Ellis Danton]

Ellis had never before taken into consideration how lucky they all were in the first world outside of this dastardly place. They all learned and spoke the same language. It was modern, it was right, it made some semblance of sense. Sure, some people learned other languages - ancient languages, religious languages, languages that allowed them better control over powerful magic spells - but it wasn't mandatory. What was mandatory was speaking the common language. How else were you going to communicate? That was of course the fault. Most didn't know how to communicate outside of the common language. Sure, there were artists who could draw pictures or musicians who could illicit emotion... But actually having a conversation?

"Ellis," He answered her. He had thought of other words to say beforehand, but it became quite evident that the more words he used, the less likely she would be to understand. he had said his name before, after all, and between all of his other jibberings and jabberings she had not realized it - had not understood it. So, he would wait to continue. He would think over what he should say, hopefully in a way she would understand. He did not take into account the fact that while he thought, a silence would fall between them, the only sounds being the clashing of the thunder and the gushing of wind.

After more moments of silence where he tried his best not to even move a muscle but to blink or breathe, he finally came up with what to say. There was only the prospect of her not understanding what he was trying to say now. Perhaps she had heard it from the people he worked for, or people like them, before. Before they started fighting. Before they started destroying. Ellis looked around, surprised at how different things seemed to be all about. He saw smoke rising from almost every direction and he wondered - is that a camp, or is the site of destruction? He heard gunfire, clanging of swords and he wondered - is that just practice, or is someone trying to kill another? "Peace," He finally said, mentally crossing his fingers in the hopes that she would understand. It was something that was more understandable than his usual mutterings. He wasn't stuttering. He was thinking so much more, he was considering everything to a greater extent, and he was saying less. And everything came out smoothly. Please understand me.

[Xanthe]

Ellis. What was with these outsiders and their strange names? Ellis. She committed it to memory and wondered what Ellis was doing here. Not the general 'to fight and kill and take what wasn't his', but what specifically brought him to her home. What had been so appealing about taking over a land that was clearly already occupied that he had thought made up for the fact that he would most likely be killed? Was he always a soldier, or had he only recently decided that he would be good at it? She assumed the latter, because although he could clearly hold his own in a fist fight, he had very little soldier quality.

She wondered what he was thinking right now. He must be thinking something, because he wasn't trying to speak anymore. Unless his kind didn't think? That would explain a lot, actually. He broke the silence by saying something, but it seemed he had finally caught onto how to speak to her, because he only said one word and it wasn't broken up like most of his other words had been. Peace. It was what the first ones had said, the ones that had gotten here before the fighting started. And it was what the people said who were here but did not fight her people. It was also what had been said to her many times only moments before the person who had said it tried to attack her while they apparently thought she let her guard down. It was a strange word and although she thought she knew what it was supposed to mean, she didn't know if she could trust him just because he said it.

She decided that he probably meant it, because he didn't exactly look like he was planning any kind of attack. Then again, it was possible that he could have just put on this whole thing as an act to kill her, because although his death was unimportant in the vast numbers of outsiders that were here, when there were only a few hundred of her people, killing one made a big difference. Especially when it was her. Would her people be able to overcome the loss of morale if she were to be killed? She doubted it. They had already lost so many and each time a scouting party was destroyed or captured, she found it harder and harder to convince her people that they were going to be fine. She found it harder and harder to convince herself that they were going to be fine.

She nodded her agreement to Ellis. "Peace." But now what?

[Ellis Danton]

When she replied, echoing his sentiment, he let out a breath he had been holding out of complete nerves and let his shoulders fall. He felt as though he might collapse - from the relief, from the fear, from the plain fatigue. He simply felt himself unable to stand anymore. So, following his body's orders (he simply hoped she didn't think he was moving in some sort of threatening way) he sat. He crossed his legs and let his hands rest on his knees, his back losing it's forcibly straight posture.

"Xanthe," He finally said, thinking through everything and finding that it made words that much easier, "Atton..." He had to think of what he wanted to say. He wanted to know more about this place, about these people Xista had failed to inform her soldiers and the people of Aurcaele about. About the fact this land they were fighting for were more than just a home. "More of you?" He finally decided to ask, hoping she understood. Hoping she wouldn't think he was trying to get information to use against her. In fact, he was looking for information to use against him, really. In a roundabout sort of way. If he were to be told about them, about who they were... If he were to find out how human they were, he would have to quit. He would have to leave the army... and such a thing would likely cost him his life. He had heard Xista didn't look very well on such actions. These questions I have... could be the end of me, He thought, with a morbid sense of pride at the fact. He could be making good.