Guiding Light [C-Rank Mission] {Solo}

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1 Guiding Light [C-Rank Mission] {Solo} Thu Jun 14, 2018 4:27 pm

Honnari

D-rank

EP : 6

146

Character sheet
Chakra:
$Guiding Light [C-Rank Mission] {Solo} Left_bar_bleue$

$Guiding Light [C-Rank Mission] {Solo} Empty_bar_bleue$

(300/300)

Mission Details:

The courier from a few days ago had invited Honnari back to the Administration building. But that bushened tail, and lively bravado was all but gone this time around. The welcome wasn't as warm.

He got straight to business. "Right, so, here's the deal, Honnari." His light eyes scanned documents and table scribbles. "Guy comes back from the forest within an inch of his life: says his family's still out there."

"Out --where?" Honnari's thin voice trilled

"I don't know! Official word says the wilderness towards the Naka River but--"

"--I think I may know where that is. I know that area like the back of my hand. I shall retrieve them, if that is what you ask of me?"

The courier dithered for a bit, referenced a sheet again, and a bead sweat riveted down the bridge of his nose. Then he looked at Honnari, staring as if he was holding the universe together. "If you don't mind? We'd really appreciate this--a lot!"

"It is no inconvenience. I will take care of this, you have my word." Honnari beamed a bright smile, settling his helm to fit. The courier breathed a sigh of relief, his shoulders slacking. He gathered the sprawled documents and began to stack them again the table. It seemed as if he was on top of things.

The courier smiled at Honnari and examined him in obscurity. Honnari did not particularly look like someone to trek through dense forest and decrepit environments. Why should one suspect? His clothing was nothing short of regalia, and his accessories were much to gold and gaudy. He did not look dressed to carry out a mission, much less the place he needed to go. Had it not been for his sincere tone and reputation, he would have been passed over.

"Thank you so much, Honnari. Just keep an out. Poor guy says they were by a small stream just trying to get some water. I'd assume that's a delta of the Naka."

Honnari had high hopes. He knew just where to start then.

***

Honnari felt well equipped. For he had made many a trip from this area of the forest and back within hours time. So noticeably, he would not consider being this deep in the wilderness "lost".

Maybe tired.

Wilderness in hot climates was understandably dense. The grace of the sun was like a breath of life for the coarse grass, tenacious ragweeds, tall trees, and thick-greenly leaves. Giving everything the energy to grow firm and strong. Unmoved by the heat, so certainly unmoved by the cries of woman and children unlucky enough to be ensnared by it's maze. Bow in hand, quiver pigging his back, Honnari carefully maneuvered around thorny bushes and their sand-spur counterparts. No doubt a hell for anyone not used to this environment. The family had probably been out here for a day or so, and there were many factors working against them. Hunger, dehydration, heat-stroke. Honnari's eyes scoured, letting his sight be the signal.

This place was so big. Even he still got turned around, here and there. "Poor souls. Which way would they turn? Which way would they go?"

Honnari remembered again that the courier said that they were last by the delta. And if survival mode has gotten the best of them (And with the state of the man, it must have), they would either stay in the water's vicinity, or follow the length of it.

He had to think. The first stream he could imagine, began just near a rise of land east of his current location. Which made sense, because that is where the ravine started. That's where he had to be.

In the forest the sky vanishes almost completely, only a few fragments of blue remain-- like scattered pieces of an impossible jigsaw puzzle. The air is rich with the fragrance of leaves and loam, damp too. Even so many hours after the rains have passed, the soil remains wet, slowly releasing its heady fog. Outside is the noon daylight, the powerful rays of early summer, but in here everything is cool and the colours have the softness of that time just before twilight. The only movement is the occasional bird, startling in a trees or a squirrel dashing up a nearby trunk. The sound of running water in the brook has the same hypnotic quality as music, Honnari wants to stop just to drink in the sound, but he knows he has a task.The huckleberries are mostly red, tart but with just the right amount of sweetness.

He takes in all the air his lungs will hold and expels it slowly. These hikes in the forest are like a trip out of his life, a visit to a place where the measuring of time is done only by the rising and setting of the sun.

'This is not a time for gawking.'

The trees grow so thickly that there is no undergrowth at all. About his feet are only the browned remnants of branches and needles that have fallen in the recent high winds. He stumbles across a path in dismay with tree remnants, he can't see it, so instead he wends his way through the skinny trunks that grew so tall, racing for their share of the sun's rays. In places they are so thickly clumped that he must alter his path or risk his quiver becoming wedged. The air has that smell of woodland before rain, perhaps above the canopy there are clouds fit to burst. It is dark for this time of day, so perhaps soon the filtered light will be accompanied by water droplets.

When the forest boundary came into view, he knew a large body of water was near; it was the Naka River. He came to it on a knee. He was looking for tracks. And there they were, as clear as day. They trailed up the stream, one set of footprints obviously smaller than the other. Interlacing taproots embroidered the Rivers edge. And deft sense would carefully negotiate each one as to not trip. As he studied the tracks, the indents left in dirt tracing the river were detailed. These were fresh, and that meant that they were close.

Honnari patted up his silk robe and glanced up at the sun out of habit - thick canopy galore. With an audible grunt he continued to look up at the sky for the sun position. Even with all the brush he could tell that it was at least three hours or so before dark, that was not good. Half-annoyed he took a step and almost fell over some kid. With a choice swear word he righted himself; five foot- seven of frail, albino skins doesn't do well hitting the dirt. It was some girl, covered in mud and dressed in not much more than a rag. Her face was a perfect picture of misery. He was practically a giant to her and with a face like dried lava he had scared grown men, but she stood rooted to the spot. What could possibly be so bad that she'd take a risk on him for protection?

He swore again. At nightfall the heat of the day would evaporate along with the last sunrays, that shiver of hers would soon be hypothermia, she'd die. The village wasn't that far away. And if he'd found the girl, he'd find the mother as well.

"Are you an angel?" She asked Honnari, doing her best to keep up with him. He smiled, and lightly squeezed her hand.

"I'm not, little one. The village sent me here to rescue you two. Tell me, what were you all doing? And, how did you get lost?" She grew silent. He shouldn't expect coherent answers, or even a coherent conversation from a dehydrated grade-schooler.

"There she is!" Honnari followed her finger, to a clearing were a worn woman lay unconscious. Hair splitting at the ends, and scantily clad in tattered, bush-torn rags. She looked half-dead. Honnari catiously meandered to her person, and got down to her on a knee. She was moaning. Still barely wake.

'Poor, fragile soul. Her daughter must have went looking for help, when she realized her mother was out.'

He looked at the mother, and then the daughter. No doubt she had a tenacity to herself to be better off than her mother. Or maybe, this was a result of a few self-sacrifices the woman had to give. An open palm gently handed on her forehead. A little hot. Though he couldn't tell if it was a running fever, or the elements.

"You don't look so good." Honnari said. A veil of energy ripped through him. Charka now giving him the strength to burden the weight of the woman. Her eyes struggled open, irides sneaking a glance at the helmed man. She was smiling a little, a smile with a twist to it, like the smile of a child who is determined not to weep.

Carrying her in his arms, Honnari feels her weak gaze. He looks down as her irides, to weak force her eyelids open, steal glances at him. His soft lips stretched into a smile but it didn't quite reach his pale eyes. They were lit with sadness, and the forced expression of the contrary on his mouth would have looked comical to someone if all of their hearts weren't feeling heavy. For a few moments she stared at Honnari, almost sure her expression mirrored his.

1 Guiding Light [C-Rank Mission] {Solo} Thu Jun 14, 2018 4:27 pm

Honnari

WC: 1618

Mission Complete!

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