FIONNA (contd from her last POV)
Six hours later saw Fionna straggling about the Forest of Ice Mountains like so lost soul. The sun was already rising and it was already fully morning.
Mornings should co with fullness, but hers ca with an emptiness that only seed to resound with every step she took. She never imagined that the day would co when she would have a weakness, and she never imagined that said weakness would be her inability to find sothing....
...a simple hide and seek ga.
She was beginning to see first hand all the skills that she lacked, and if her current lonely situation was anything to go by, then it had beco startling clear that she lacked leadership skills.
Her team had not only scattered like the wind, but the sll of failure seed to hand on the drab morning air. Search as she may, rack her mind as she tried to, she ca up with nothing. All she could do was watch the resounding success of Yaren’s team with her two eyes. And for so reason despite the fact that she was moving around the mountainous forest without any destination set in mind, she kept on eting with Yaren’s put-together team.
The hard pill that the man was better than she was in sothing stuck in her throat like an errant fish bone. She had boldly dared to steal Yaren’s position at Daemon’s side... hell she had even gone as far as to steal the chance to torture Lykom Lupus from him. She had done a good job though, but it had beco apparent that simply knowing how to torture a man would not be enough for her to win this tournant.
The difference in her team and Yaren’s team was so blatantly obvious that she was beginning to notice little details about his team like the man that seed to be always stuck at Yaren’s side who was always chattering or cracking jokes. Jokes that Yaren never laughed to but wasn’t enough to deter said man. Fionna also noticed that there was one woman on the group... although said woman look like a girl for she was heavily malnourished.
Whenever they passed her by, Fionna would stare at the group’s composure and collective prowess with distaste. Yaren NorthSteed on the other hand never spared her any of his attention; unlike Marcus DireWolf who would surely say one or two scathing things at her, Yaren was a man on a mission who didn’t have the chance to spare anyone his attention. Ruthlessly, him and his group claid more and more objects without batting an eyelid while many other groups like Fionna’s could only afford to admire them from afar while not bearing any object of their own.
But no matter how bleak her situation might seem, Fionna hardly thought about giving up. There was still so many vast places to search, and she heard that of the over ninety objects that were hidden, only about twenty had been claid so far with just Yaren’s group claiming over five of the objects. Convincing herself that her situation wasn’t as bleak as she thought of it, she ventured deeper into the ice forest until she ca upon a desolate place where it snowed hard at.
Using a make do walking stick, she would pry at possible rabbit holes in search of sothing that resembled the object of the quests. She climbed a few more mountains on her own, dived into freezing lakes she found smack dab in the middle of nowhere, and even hiked up trails that were probably used by wild animals, but in the end, she ca up empty handed.
She was coming down from one such trail when a voice startled her.
"It seed to as though you know the Theta?"
It took all her years of training not to be jolted by the sound. As she whipped her head to the direction of the unfamiliar voice who spoke to her, she ca face to face with none other than the Sighter.
Fionna couldn’t find it in her to be shocked at the sight of the very man that Zina had recomnded was a good finder who had been made group leader and then proceeded to abscond said group.
"Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?" She said, staring the man straight in his eyes that seed to be a combination of iridescent colors that man his eyes glow different shades of brown at the sa ti.
Fionna drew back as she rembered the man’s initial inquiry. "Did you just ask about the Theta?" She repeated, narrowing her eyes at the man. When Zina spoke of the Sighter, she didn’t speak of the man like they were familiar. No, she spoke of him like he was a new discovery she had just stumbled on.
But this man was almost inquiring about Zina as though he knew of her.
"Both of you exchanged glances during the final address. I was inclined to think that you might know her." He shrugged carelessly as though he was just inquiring innocently, "it wouldn’t hurt to connect myself to a participant who has an inside connection."
Fionna was highly offended by the man’s words. "Do you think the Theta is that type of woman?!" She sneered. How dare the man abscond, only to co back and start spewing nonsense.
"Is she not?" The man said darkly, "anyway, it seems you do know her. I am called the Sighter, might I know how to address the woman who appointed leader without my consent?"
Was the man not a rude one. Fionna tossed her ponytail wet by the snow and her endless adventures that morning behind her. "I am called the Claw."
The man wasn’t amused by her sass. Instead, he seed to accept her introduction as he outstretched his hand out for a handshake. "Nice to et you Claw."
Simply because it amused her, Fionna found herself saying. "And you too, Sighter."
There was certainly nothing nice about the countenance in the Sighter’s eyes. Fionna had spent years learning how to read n, and she could tell for a fact that the man before her had an ulterior motive.
But everyone in the tournant probably had one so she didn’t dwell much in the thought.
"Where’s our group?" He asked.
Fionna chuckled while the Sighter produced sothing that looked suspiciously like a compact compass from his effects. "They have absconded."
The Sighter flipped the compass open while pointing it in the direction of East. "I guess it’s just us two lone wolfs then. Let’s make the best use of our ti before nightfall cos."
Fionna was tempted to ask him where he had gone off to in the first place. But she shoved away the urge to since it seed like for the first ti that day, she was finally heading in the right direction.
"Why East?" She asked as she followed the man’s lead. When it ca to learning, Fionna was just a little prideful.
Very little.
The original map of our group had peculiar markings that showed that our object could old have been in one of the mountains in the direction of the East."
"Three hours have long gone, they would have changed the position of another group might have claid it." Fionna said with a roll of her eyes.
"I’ve also had the opportunity to study twenty other original maps from different groups. It seed everyone’s object was hidden in the direction of the East."
Fionna froze as she seed to rember that Yaren was circling around the direction of the East in particular.
"But they could all have been removed."
His voice was carelessly bland as he answered. "True. But the Hiders would have left marks, trails, sothing that can lead us to the new location no?"
Fionna smiled at herself shrewdly while she nodded. "True."
And with that, they began to move East... just the two of them out of a team of thirty. But the curious part of Fionna could not help but keep thinking back to why the Sighter had disappeared for so long a ti, and why he had inquired about Zina at the first instance he appeared.
Reviews
All reviews (0)