It's all in the Eyes {Evi | Aphrodi}

A man walked alone through the marshy terrain that he called home. From the horsetails that grew up from the water to the frogs hoping around it was business as usual. Mangrove trees sprawled through the brown muddy water that was covered in green algae in many places. Other trees also towered where the land was higher than normal and it looked like they were growing from deep underwater, though the land underneath was just higher in these parts.
 
The murky depths held many predators. Alligators were the most common but also the least dangerous. Their superiors, the Afancs, were much more ferocious. Afancs were weird alligator-beaver hybrid creatures that roamed the marsh and were literally invisible in these waters. Truly the Gods were bored one day when they made such a creature. Avoiding them was the best course of action but that wasn’t always possible. Oh well, Evi would deal with it when he got to it.
 
Evi remained on the edge of the marsh, avoiding the deeper portions of muddy water so as not to fight the gators and afancs on their own terms. Evi wouldn’t mind running into a gator though, at least the gator would provide food and weren’t too difficult to kill. Evi didn’t really want frog legs again though and fish didn’t exactly live in swamp lands. He had a Crayfish trap nearby, maybe he’d fry some of those up.
 
Evi continued walking alone along the edge of the Marsh. Eventually he’d need to get the guilds boats fixed up but at the moment he didn’t know any actual wood working so that wasn’t possible. Suddenly there was a loud splash and it happened in an instant. An Alligator was dead. It tried to sneak up on Evi, and had succeeded quite honestly, but Evi’s instinct allowed him to kill it. A tendril of flesh and bark stretched out from his back, ending in a sharp woody point that had impaled the Alligator and kill it. Thus was Evi’s power. The tendril swung around and flung the alligator off to the side where there wouldn’t be others of its kind. This would do well for food, Evi though as the tendril started to sink back into his body.
 

Evi bent over and inspected the dead reptile as he heard the rustling of leaves, Evi looked up instinctively to see a rather lovely Elven girl standing a few feet away from him. Evi stared blankly at the girl, a little curious. What was she doing all the way out here in a filthy swamp like this? Evi thought.


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Word count: 433
DP gain: 28

Lihua had a habit of day-dreaming. She would just go for walks, and when she finally snapped out of it, she was usually on bad whereabouts. This was no different, as the elven girl was now amidst a swamp with dangerous beasts all around. Dammit, she thought. But, now that she was here, and didn't quite know the way back, she might as well explore it. Future knowledge is not always necessary, but always appreciated. Lihua started to sing chants and arcane words, before a small blue layer covered her body for a second, and then disappeared. What was that? One may ask. Well, it was just a simple protection spell. It wouldn't protect her against anything that isn't a mosquito, but then again, mosquitos are the devil.

She then started to venture into the marshy lands. The mosquitoes, which would be the bane of her existence at this point, thankfully were not being a problem due to the barrier. Although, she still had to travel carefully, since the swamp waters were filled to the brim with predators who certainly would like a piece of elven meat for lunch. Avoiding the water as much as she could, she ventured through the swamp, hoping to find a way out of it.

Soon enough, she did not find a way out, but she found something just as helpful. Something that didn't want to kill her... Or at least that's what she thought. As soon as he noticed her, she shyly waved towards him, her peculiar eyes shining through the usually dark swamp.

Evi lifted the gator he had just slain and threw it over his shoulder. If he left it alone something might come along and try and steal it and Evi would have to find something else for dinner, he could always gut it and skin it when he got home to the guild.
 

Once, Evi had secured the large reptile in a comfortable position on his shoulder Evi walked over to the girl and stood before her. She was Elven, cute to, but something was off. Evi’s eyes wandered around trying to figure it out, having no regard for privacy or personal space as he leaned in and stared the girl straight in the eyes with his blank, normal expression, as if he wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary. “What’s with your eyes?” Evi asked bluntly with no regard for tact, not giving his name nor asking for hers. Her eyes were what was off. They weren’t normal. The color was initially fine but her pupils were all out of whack. They were cross shaped, and there was nothing in the dead center of the cross so it looked like she had two horizontal pupils and two vertical pupils all converging on one spot but never meeting. They were strange and had Evi’s attention and curiosity now, which could make this already strange encounter much more strange and much more long term than the girl may like. She didn’t really have a choice though considering Evi’s lack of self control.

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word count: 251
Total words: 684
DP gain: 45

Ah, but of course. Her eyes instantly turned into the focus of the conversation. That both annoyed and flattered her. In one hand, people could totally notice other aspects of her besides her eyes! She had good hair, a good frame, was cute... Why it had to be all about the eyes? But on the other hand, her eyes probably was what made him so interested on her, so she could use this to sway him into helping her. She then did a small curtsy, being careful as to not get her robes more dirty than they were already, trying to show some respect for the person that's going to be her saving grace in this situation. "W-Well, its family stuff. I suppose it was just passed upon me... But so..." She twidled her fingers, nervously giggling. "I'm kinda lost. Can you heeeeelp me? Pleeeease!"

After that streak of begging, she went closer to him and lightly tapped his chest with the end of her staff. Soon enough, all the water and other liquids started being sucked out of his clothing and hair, before forming a small ball of dirty water, which she promptly threw back into the swamp. "I can do more cleaning up as payement for your help..." After that, she quickly regained her composture with a smile on her face, before looking at him in the eyes and smiling. "The name is Lihua. Could i perhaps learn yours?"

Family stuff? The answer Evi was given was not satisfactory enough to satiate Evi’s interest in the situation. It was evasive, a ‘I don’t want to answer but here’s some half-baked answer to shut you up’ kind of answer. Evi doesn’t take those kinds of answers once he’s interested in something, though the only way one may have noticed he wasn’t satisfied was his continued attentiveness towards the girls eyes. Evi wasn’t going to get an answer continuing to argue the issue though and left it alone for the moment. If he kept the conversation going maybe he could pry those lips open a little more.

The elven woman claimed herself lost, which was somewhat obvious, being this deep in the swamp with those kinds of clothes makes little to no sense. In an offer of good faith she began using magic and Evi felt his clothes starting to become less wet, especially around the shoulder where he had a giant death lizard on his back. The brown in his white shirt was also removed, which was quite nice. Now Evi kind of owed the girl a bit of help. The girl then gave Evi her name, Lihua. It was important to get people’s names, Evi figured. “E,” Evi replied, refusing to give him actual name. Evi quite disliked his name and just went by E.

“So which way are you heading?” Evi asked as he leaned himself out of the girls personal space and back into a more upright position. Depending on where this girl wanted to go determined how to effectively get out of this swamp. Of course if it was getting too late to head that direction he could always take her to the base and just take her that direction in the morning. If he was lucky enough to get that he might get an opportunity too ask about her eyes some more.

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Word count: 317
Total words: 1001
DP gain: 66

Oh crap, he didn't look satisfied with that answer in the least, his face said it all. And she was sure of it. Reading faces was a little trait she developed back in the Elfic capital. With eyes like those, many people would either avoid her or deem her weird and strange, but not outright say it, of course. But, they would usually give their true feelings away somehow. Eye movement, frowning, and many other small things that otherwise could get forgotten. All of it was captured by those same exotic eyes, which she was currently using to look back at the staring man.

After sometime, he gave her a name... Or a letter, in his case. "E." sounded like a short version of a name. Maybe he didn't want to give out his full name just yet? That would make sense, since they had barely met, and she was from a different race. Although, it was a tad rude to not give your name to someone who had already given their name to you. But then again, she was hiding most of the information of her eyes from high, so she supposed it was a fair trade.

But then, he asked something else. Thankfully, not about her eyes, but about her destination. And from what she could remember, she was trying to get to a town, but the normal path was filled with mountains so she decided to try and take a shortcut through this swamp. And as we can see, it didn't quite work out for her. She twiddled her fingers for a bit, before sighing and speaking. "I was trying to get to Aladema Town, but the path is filled with mountains so i tried to take a shortcut... And now i'm lost, hooray..."

"Aladema town huh?" Evi thought out loud as he looked up in a bit of thought. “You probably won’t make it by nightfall,” Evi explained as he kept thinking about the speed they could get there. “If we hurried we’d just barely make it out of the swamp but you’d be stuck camping till then. You can stay in our guest room for the night for 1000 Essence. If you need food and water we’ll charge another 500 or you’re free to hunt your own. ”

The guilds lack of funds meant every small coin counted and camping out in an Afanc infested swamp wasn’t exactly a good idea. Her eyes were interesting enough to Evi that he’d like to get another opportunity to discuss them more so he kept the price fairly cheap, though the place wasn’t exactly a five star hotel to begin with so he wouldn’t offer a fortune just to stay a night.

“Just don’t get eaten if you do decide to hunt,” Evi joked as the slightest of devious sneers appeared on his face. “Today I’m eating this ugly brute if you want some.” Evi gave the Alligator on his shoulder a slight lift to emphasize what was on the menu today and hopefully that alone would make it clear that there weren’t exactly a whole lot of other options for her unless she wanted to hunt. There isn’t a whole lot of variety in the swamp and nice food was practically nonexistent. If you were strong enough, Afanc was pretty delicious but Alligator and Crawfish was usually the norm. Afanc’s were rare and good at hiding in the water so hunting them in particular was quite likely to get you hunted yourself. Evi figured she didn’t have much choice in the matter based on how she looked. She seemed like she was from a more well to do family and that swamp food wasn’t exactly appealing but swamp hunting was even less appealing than that.

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word count: 330
Total words: 1331
GP gain: 88

Lihua couldn't help but sigh at the mention of prices. She found totally fine for someone to tax a stranger like her. Its not like he was making a favor for a family member or anything, so she had no business to argue over it. His place, his rules. And she didn't have much of a choice either, so having the option was a god send.

The problem was on the fact she was short on Essence. She had spent so much on supplies for her traveling, that she barely had enough to weigh something in her bag. That was bad... She double checked her pockets to see if she had any change left. Nothing. She groaned, before reaching for bag to see how much she had. After counting everything, she had about 300. Not even close to pay for the rent.

She then looked back at the swamp, and let out a loud gulp. She couldn't dream to try and camp there. She would get devoured, her notes would sink into the mud and everything would have gone to waste. So, she turned back to Evi, a bit of dread in her eyes, as she handed him the 300 Essence, looking down for a moment before looking at him again, clutching her elbow and sighing. "I know its not much... And you have many reasons to just tell me to get lost... But please, i'll die if i go on my own. I can do cleaning and other services to pay the rest, but please, let me in..."

Evi closed his eyes let out a sigh of resignation. “Fine but you’re working the rest off. The place can use a good cleaning anyways,” Evi replied as he took the money from the elven woman. The place really could use a good cleaning, of course, it needed a little more than a good cleaning. Half of the walls needed to be replaced because they were starting to mold and floorboards were getting creaky. Evi had to dig his foot out of the floor a few times because a board broke under him already. It was becoming a giant pain. Evi doubted she could solve all of that but even if all she did was tidy up a little that would be fantastic.

Evi turned to walk towards the guild base, alligator in tow. “Come on, I’m not hunting you down if you fall behind or get lost! Don’t tread close to the water or the Afancs will eat you.” Evi told her. He walked towards the guild quietly for a good distance for what was about ten to fifteen minutes. “So why are you heading to Aladema? Something interesting happening?” Evi questioned the woman. Evi wasn’t always able to just leave whenever he wanted and desired some information about the surrounding area. Aladema wasn’t the most important place in the world but it was the closest town to the base overall, not that any towns were all that close. They regularly asked for assistance with minor stuff though. Routing and driving out wild animals was what the crows normally did. One time they got hired to hunt down a serial rapist who had messed with the daughter of the town’s mayor. That guy regretted that decision.

Evi’s thoughts wandered but his eyes and attention remained on the elf, so his thoughts would immediately turn to whatever she was saying whenever she decided to answer the question.

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word count: 317
Total words: 1648
DP gain: 109

When he said that she could stay with the money she had, Lihua couldn't help herself but squeal in both relief and happiness and hugging Evi, even if that made her a tad dirty due to where he had been through and with the big and wet alligator on his shoulder. Not that he needed much help with it, but Lihua cast a spell to make the reptile lighter and easier to carry as she followed Evi, taking a look at the surroundings and making mental notes of everything. She also listened very well to his advised, staying a good distance away from the water. Yeesh.

As they walked, she listened to what he said and asked, letting out a quiet sigh. He really wanted to get more info on her eyes, didn't he? And since he was being so nice... She needed to tell him the truth, out of generosity and as a way to pay for his care towards her. Using one of her hands to brush her hair away from her eyes, letting them open to full view as she spoke. "I went to Aladema Town in search of a traveling hexmaster. Thought he would be someone that could tell me what this curse that my family is all about... But, not even he knew."