(PP-F1) Late Beginnings <<Horunka>>

[Amira 0]

@Sorra

Horunka was a small town to the north west of the town of beginnings. Amira knew that well enough by now. She knew all of the first floor reasonably well, mainly due to the fact that it was the only one she had ever visited. Every day she told herself that she would finally start training the next day, get strong, join the frontlines, be better than everyone else. It never happened though. For her it was always the next day just out of sight. It was almost as though she thought that one dayshe would just wake up with a boat load of SP without having to do anything for it. 

She certainly wasn't lazy, despite her very serious issue involving procrastination. She just had a feeling that life would take her where she was meant to be, and that it would give her the abilities she needed before she needed them. It was this belief that led to her carefree and listless attitude. She was more or less blown by the wind, not really doing muchother than wandering around on the first floor and listening to others conversations. They were interesting conversations for the most part. New from the frontlines was always nice to hear. She could almost icture herself joining up and being what people talked aboutas well. Tommorow. She would work on that tommorow.

For now she had the small hunting town in front of her, and the sun shining brightly above. There certainly werent too many people around and most of the people were there for the quest that was located in one of the houses nearby. Most players seemed to prefer the starting city oor Tolbana to this place. Tolbana was certainly more lively and had many more people. She enjoyed the peace and quiet of the small town compared to the bustle of the cities. She leaned up against one of the buildings on the outskirts and checked her hud. Every day she checked her messages as though she expected one to come and somehow change her life, but there was never anything interesting.

[Sorra 0]

The tavern was rather quiet this time of the day, most of its patrons either players who were out on quests, or NPCs who returned to their daily routines. The only ones who remained where the bartender, the randoms who were simply placed to take up space in the bar to always make it look as thought business was being made, and Sorra. The latter of the patrons was not even drinking, merely sitting and contemplating. His eyes were locked on the large, two handed sword that leaded against the wooden table in front of him, Daybreak. Before his sister died, she was able to pass her sword off to the man, as a way to always make sure that she was still doing her best to protect him. The bluenette smiled, wrapping his fingers around the brown handle of the blade. Well, she had given him the sword to protect himself, he might as well use it for just that. 

Pushing himself up from the chair, Sorra made his way out of the tavern, and moved directly towards the edge of the Town of Beginnings. Right after passing through the large archway that separated what was the safe zone and what wasn't he stopped. "Where am I even going...?" 

Sorra placed a hand on his chin, looking around at the tree filled horizon in front of him. From prior exploration, he knew that there were two towns he could visit.. Horunka, and Tolbana. It did not take long for the man to decide to try and make his way towards Horunka, remembering that the path to Tolbana was what put him and Natsu in trouble the last time. With Daybreak slung over his shoulder, the blue haired man started off on his journey towards the small hunting town to the North East of the Town of Beginnings. Sorra followed the trail, passed into the forest, and eventually made it to the town.. meeting no opposition along the way. "Well.. that was unexpected.." he said to himself as he entered the small town's safe zone. 

[Amira 0]

She noticed the man almost immediately as he entered the town. To say that was odd would be an understatement. Amira tended to get this dazed look on her face as she stared into space, and often times she ended up deep in thought, becoming less aware of her surroundings. Still, something about the man had caught her eye. Maybe it was the weird choice of weapon. Honestly two handed swords were a rarity in the game, most pople sticking to spears and one handed weapons. A normal person might just take note of these things and go on about their business, but Amira was sure that there was a reason that he had caught her eye. Fate had its way of working things.

She straightened up from her position against the wall and made her way over to him, picking her way through the sparsely populated outskirts. "I'm Amira. Thats an interesting sword you have there." She unsheathed her sword, waving her rapier around, her lack of skill or knowledge of what exactly she was doing obvious. "Mine's a rapier. Starter weapon and all of that. So what are you doing here in Horunka? Planning a little hunting venture?"

[Sorra 0]

The bluenette was stopped in place as a red haired girl approached him without warning. With no sort of hello or greeting, she introduced herself as Amira, and commented on the two handed blade that was slung over his shoulder. "Oh, thanks." he said with a small chuckle, turning his chin to look at the weapon, "I.. got it from my sister. Oh, I'm Sorra by the way." he turned his attention back to Amira, respectfully bowing his head in greeting. Continuing on with her talk of weapons, the redhead pulled a rapier from the scabbard at her hip and waved the blade around in front of her haphazardly. Sorra took a careful step back, watching to make sure the sharp tip of the blade did not reach him as she showed off how well it cut through the air. 

A wave of relief passed over the man as Amira lowered her weapon once more to ask if the man had any plans for visiting Horunka. "Actually, really just wanted to get out of the Town of Beginnings for a day.. Was going to try taking on some monsters on my own, but I guess the path I took was just too calm and peaceful, and ended up finding nothing." he rubbed the back of his neck. "How about you? Just looking to greet people with your rapier skills as they enter the town?" he chuckled, teasing the girl. 

[Amira 0]

Amira smiled at him. "Thats an odd sort of gift to get from a sister, but i guess she must be one of those badass sorts. I know a few of those myself." She said, unaware that she may be bringing up a tense issue. "I walk here fairly often and i dont usually meet many enemies. I guess that would be because weaker players tend to visit this place from the beginner town. Its probably a game design thing." She adjusted her stance, relaxing her shoulders and putting her weight on one leg more than the other, sheathing her rapier. 

"I come here a lot. Fate has a way of working things  and i believe that destiny will take me where i need to be when i need to be." She paused, aware of the fact that most people thought she was weird when she brought that up. It was probably best to change the subject. "I'm not much of a fighter. I keep meaning to train and get some levels, but i honestly get distracted so easily." She blushed faintly. "I dont think i've ever actually used this rapier for anything other than a pointer."

[Sorra 0]

Sorra's ocean blue eyes rose to the seemingly endless ceiling of the First Floor, staring at the fake clouds that slowly drifted over head. A soft smile spread outwards to his cheeks, "Yeah.. she was." he said with a small chuckle, before finally returning his gaze back to the redhead who stood in front of him. "That could be a good point.. There's usually more monsters on the road to Tolbana. I guess since this is only the next town over, its Aincrad's way of helping out new players.. or giving them false hope." Sorra felt a bit of silent relief as Amira relaxed herself, sheathing her rapier yet again. He knew that in the town she would not have been able to hurt him if she decided to showcase her skills again, he would just prefer not to be met with the sharp end of a sword today. 

The blunette brought his free hand up to his chin, loosely holding the edge between his knuckle and thumb as he listened to Amira talk about her belief in fate's hold on her life. "An interesting outlook.. especially given out situation." He admitted back to her before she seemed to quickly change topics to something else. "Well, that makes two of us." he let out a nervous chuckle, "I don't have much experience at all.. maybe fought a few monsters here and there. But I'm still only level one, so I have a long way to go before I feel confident enough to move to other floors." Sorra rose a hand to the nape of his neck, "I wouldn't mind giving a combat a shot with you if you'd want, I mean going to find a monster or something.. not fighting each other." Sorra stammered over his words, hoping the girl originally understood what he meant.

[Amira 0]

Amira raised an eyebrow slightly. She honestly wasn't surprised by Sorra's view of the game as unfair. "I cant say that i think the people who designed this game to be unfair. Honestly the worst part of the game is the player killing function. Other than that its fairly easy to not die. Just like real life you have to be careful. All of your actions carry a weight that they wouldn't in a normal game." She said, gesturing with her hands as she spoke. "I believe in the inherent goodness of humanity, and as such I cant believe that the creator of this games intentions were evil." Her short lived rant done, she paused to consider the rest of what he had said.

"Generally I wouldn't go with a steanger out to fight monsters, but i have a good feeling about you." She smiled at him, brushing her vibrant red hair back behind her ear. "I dont have much gear, but im sure we'll be fine as long as we play it safe." She looked off into the distance thoughtfully before whispering to herself, "Perhaps this is a sign...", under her breath. Maybe fate had gotten tired of her childish antics and decided that it was time for her to move on. She hadn't done anything productive for a good while anyway.

[Sorra 0]

Placing a hand on his hip, Sorra shifted his weight with a small chuckle. "Well.. I'm sure designing the game they did not have the idea of unfairness in their mind.. but I think trapping us all inside with the actual risk of dying isn't exactly what I'd call fair." Amira's thoughts were more on the game's actual design and how things worked, let alone the unexpected tragedy that they were all experiencing. He took the girl's words about it being simple to not die to heart.. and he supposed that she was correct. After almost getting killed, and watching his sister die trying to protect him, Sorra was nothing but careful, especially at the level he was at. It was what kept him within the city walls for so long. "Despite whether they were evil or not, you're right. We still have to be as cautious as ever."

Part of Sorra was hoping she would not have agreed to go out to find some monsters to fight, especially after admitting she had no gear either. "That makes two of us then." he said with a nervous chuckle, "But I'm sure you're right. As long as we stick together and we are careful, we should go fine." The blunette looked back the way he had came for a moment, remembering the lack of monsters on his trip over here. His gaze then turned past Amira to the road that led out of Horunka in the opposite direction. "Maybe we will find something interesting if we head out North.." his sense of adventure peaked as he looked off beyond where he had not yet traveled.

[Amira 0]

"Honestly maybe actually fighting isn't a great idea, but we could always just go exploring, Who knows, maybe we'll find something cool." In the back of her mind she hoped that they might somehow find a new location, but honestly the first floor had basically been combed over. They would really have to go delving in order to find a new location. There were plenty of cool things still aorund on the first floor however. The past had shown that many of the quests that had seemed static had actually evolved. Generally these quests were combat based and their evolutions were even stronger versions, so.... She didn't want to find one of those. She glanced over at Sorra. 

"Age before beauty!" She stated with a broad smile and a wink. She opened up her HUD and sent him a party request, considering what they might find. This was more than likely going to end up as a sightseeing adventure or a hike, and she planned to avoid combat as much as possible. "If we see a monster we turn around and go the other way, okay? Unless we're sure we can take it on. I just want to make sure that we have some sort of plan before we end up in that sort of situation." She had been out in these parts once before with a much more experienced fighter and she had felt quite sae. This time of course, her partner was seemingly just as inexperienced as herself and she felt it best to set out some ground rules. It was certainly possible to go against fate, and doing dumb things and dying was certainly one way to go against one's destiny.

[Sorra 0]

Sorra's ocean blue eyes trailed back to Amira, who was quick to change her mind about going out to fight. He could not deny that he was just a little disappointed, but he also figured it would probably be for the best.. being he was still level one with not a lick of experience. However, she did bring up exploring.. which caused his neutral expression to spread into a wide grin , "Now you're speakin' my language." Sorra could not help a chuckle when Amira insisted that the blunette take lead in leaving the city. He was going to suggest it anyway, but still found humor in the way she initiated it. "Alright, follow me then."  Still moving in the original direction he had planned out for them, Sorra led Amira to the Northern end of town. As they stepped from the small forest that hid Horunka in its leaves, he slowed his step and looked at the two roads that forked in either direction. 

"Hm.. I think if we follow.. this road.." he pointed towards the path on his right, "It should bring us to Tolbana town." He turned to look back at the red head, "I know its another town.. but should be a bit of a longer trip than the Starter City to Horunka.. and should be a lot more to see as well. Including the mountains around it, if we were up for a hike."