Early Morning (open/QR)

[Alistair Theirin]

Alistair found it to be a peaceful and beautiful place. It was quiet and relaxing. The scenery of the lake was just so picturesque that Alistair wished he could send a photo home to his Great-Aunt. She loved the time spent at the hunting lodge just as much as Alistair did. The scent of the stables and the leaves whipping around in the breeze coupled with the lake really reminded him so much of home. Alistair put a hand gently on a tree, they were different from the trees at home, but still trees were trees and the wind and sun was just as warm and inviting. Off a few meters, Barkspawn happily sniffed and jumped, marking his territory here and there. Alistair laughed at the silliness of the dog. He couldn’t understand how his dog could go from the extreme of happiness to a ferocious beast the next. Such was the life of a brilliant warhound.

A Naiad waved at Alistair from off of the canoe pier. Alistair headed over and had quite a lovely exchange with the lake nymph. Her name was a beautiful name, but Alistair couldn’t pronounce it. The ancient Greek popped into his head easily, but speaking it was a different story. She was accommodating to say the least, saying that it was alright to call her Seriph. It was defiantly cold out on the lake. The boats lazily bobbed up and down, and Seriph was in a good mood, promising to not drench Alistair completely before the water was warm enough to swim. Alistair thanked her as she swam off, leaving him alone to his thoughts. There was much on his mind. So many different things swimming around like an overcrowded fish tank. But this was not the time to think about all of the things that made him feel down and depressed. It was a nice day. Maybe later on he would take one of the stallions out on a ride through the forest or even go for a nice long workout in the arena. But today was quiet and there seemed to be nothing to trouble the camp. No monster attacks or someone’s prank going awry, it was nice to not have something to worry about.

Despite the cold wind whipping up off the lake, Alistair was warm and comfortable. The sound of the water lapping up against the dock and the feel of the warm sun on his face was comforting. Alistair gently set his sword and shield on the dock and pulled out a book out of his back pocket. The cover was faded leather embossed with a large red dragon, it was a favorite book of his that he had read back in his days of primary school. He ran his calloused fingers over the cover, tracing the flames coming from the dragons mouth. ‘There and Back Again’ was inscribed on the leather. Inside on the pages, the lettering was faded but still readable and the edges of the pages were well worn and loved. Alistair loved this particular book and the imagery that was conveyed amongst the pages. It wasn’t Robin Hood, but it was still a damn good book. A fairy tale in a way, but more adult then people could imagine. His imagination was vivid and he could just see the little Hobbit and the towering grey wizard in his minds eye. Maybe one day he would be able to tell children of his own tales, fighting the wicked DCA monster and telling a tale of triumph of the Demi-gods and taking back their rights as people.

Alistair brushed a strand of hair away from his face. The early morning sun over the horizon line was striking the lake to where you could see wisps of steam curling off of the lake’s glassy surface. A turtle wandered past Alistair at a slow pace, meandering till it plopped off the edge of the dock and made its way down to the depths of the muddy lake bottom, bubbles marking its descent. Alistair smiled as he returned his eyes to the faded looking parchment paper. This day could be nice and relaxing, save for whatever terrors the Hermes cabin decided to get up to.

[Lance Nicolas Shade]

It was not something Lance normally did, but for some reason today he woke early. The sun had not even began to peak over the horizon but he stood at his cabin door, fully clothed and awake as any owl. He had been used to staying awake until this time of day, but to wake up was not usual for the programmer. Though he could not say he was such any more, running back to camp and being put in charge of the climbing wall design was not the career he spent $80,000 on. He had wanted to create videogames, though he did find fun in watching people try and scale his creation and spent many long hours creating new types of wall depending on how people climbed.

The soft sound of wind on water would be excellent, or so the though that passes through his head seemed to say. He began to wander toward then ocean, an obvious choice but the sand was not something he wished to walk in currently. He felt lazy and sand would only make him use more energy. Lance diverted wandering into the forest for a short while, animals began to gather around him, and he greatly stroked their fur in his daze of though, or lack there of. Slowly he migrated toward the lake, the sun reflected of the surface waking him from his stupor. The cold breeze sent ripples through the mirror like surface, light dancing off it like a disco ball. Lance stared at it unmoving before something nipped at his hand, angry at being ignored. A yelp escaped his lips as he snatched his hand back, more out of surprise then pain. Lance looked around to find not only a family of elk, but wolves, a rather large bear and some song birds. He sighed and lay his hand softly on the elks muzzle.
"There, there. You don't have to bite me" again he began to move, this time toward the cabin and dock. Lance noticed a person there, and hoped that another human would at least tempt the creatures to leave. As he went animals lined up on weather side playfully fighting over the right to be next to lance, and there for in range for pets. Some didn't care and simply liked being there to watch, or root for others. Lance could not help but step lightly and quietly, he always moved that way, but the creatures around him making enough noise to alert anyone to the Hermes child.

[Alistair Theirin]

Alistair frowned as he heard the deep growling sound of Barkspawn behind him. Alistair had learned to trust in his dog's judgement. He frowned as he placed a hand on his longsword and stood up. There was a loud bark and his dog charged forward, acosting a guy swarmed by other animals. A few of the wolves made him a bit wairy, after having a run in with them a few days ago , he proceeded with caution as Barkspawn jumped on the guy and proceeded to lick him from head to toe. The guy must have had an affinity for animals or something, but unless it was a girl, Barkspawn wasn't much friendly towards others.

"Sorry mate, Barkspawn is normally more well behaved then this." Alistair apologized as he pulled his dog down by the collar. Barkspawn whined as he sat down at his master's feet. Alistair put the leather bound book in his hand into his back pocket. He didn't want to loose something that was so precious to him again. "Bit of a chilly day out isn't it?" He had seen this guy around a time or two before, but didn't know the guys name. It still had only been about a month since he had gotten here and he was still meeting many new faces. That was something that was great about this camp, slowly but surely Alistair was making new friends and even with people that he normally wouldn't try to make friends with.

"Alistair Theirin, Son of Arete." Alistair extended his hand to the other male while keeping an eye on the creatures that seemed to have gathered around this guy. He wasn't sure what to make of this new person just yet. But Alistair would be nice and maybe deliver one of his witty oneliners that he was oh so famous for. At least there wasn't a chance of being knocked flat on his arse by some irritated girl who wanted a high born non bastard boy for a date instead of him. But those days were gone for the most part, despite getting knocked around by a chimera the other day. But the alpha wolf he had slain prior to the confrontation with the monster was what had hurt him the most. not physically, but he felt bad for having to put down such a beautiful creature.

[Lance Nicolas Shade]

The plan had only slightly worked, getting jumped by another animal had seemed to chase off some of the others, despite them having just walk around with a small group of wolves. Perhaps it was the natural predatory urges of creatures, some ran and others chased. A deep sigh of relief escaped Lance as he sat up after being tackled. "No worries, even the most well trained animal tends to get wild around me." With a now empty lap the few remaining creatures piled onto Lances legs belly up waiting. Lance started to pet them again. "As you can see I've been gifted with an unusual ability to attract animals. Perhaps to make up for my ability to scare off people." Lance did his best to not let his observant side take over, trying not to notice every little movement and piece of information about the young man in front of him. Men tend to get more offended when another man notices such small details.

Lanced looked up from the animals as the man continued to speak to him, the first burst of conversation was about all Lance had for the day. He supposed it was a little chilly out, but the animals had radiated enough heat for him not to care too much. He looked out onto the lake and made a feeble nod, his mind searching for something else to say. Something not about the book that was placed in his back pocket, the calluses that pointed to a good well practiced fencer, the slight change in skin tone for shield practice. The tiny details where what Lance noticed first, and the only things he could think of to talk about

"Names! Yes, names. I'm Lance Shade, son of Hermes..." He looked like he wanted to say more, and he did, but nothing came to mind. After a quick once down hand shake he learned from a German Lance turned his head back to the animals at hand and continued to scratch them, a rabbit started thumping it's leg as he scratched it's chin.