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Thread Title: 「 Can’t Help Falling in Love 」 

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The wind carries the thick, sweet scent of fresh honey. It seems odd—impossible, even—to find the existence of a spring-time treasure in the dead of winter. Just as you are ready to shrug it off and move on, the soft buzz of a bee flutters past your ear and the distant chips of chickadees can be heard. Was this some type of dream? Have you missed the warm weather so much that these are the things you dream of? As you go to investigate, you see plentiful plants and other signs of spring. Part of you still doubts its authenticity, maybe go study the seemingly freshly grown flora.

Thread Participants

OOC partner: Cherry
Character 1: Ylva
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Desired skills: Healer, Orator, Herbalist
No triggers listed

OOC partner: Tskani
Character 2: Raelan
Alignment: lawful good
Desired skills: N/A
No triggers listed

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Tunnel of love badge!

Between a gaze drawn from moon-kissed ice, Raelan paused in his pursuit of the North, a tentative ear twitching among the gentle breeze that caressed his side. Cool and brisk, as one would expect, and yet…filled with something warm. Something rich. Something…familiar. He twisted a chin toward the sky, his nose giving a perceptive twitch as the notes of honey and spring met his senses with the feathered embrace of a hug.

Odd.

A contorted brow marred his features as a frown drew across his lips.

He still knew little of this world he had entered, but the smell of honey in the midst of winter seemed…impossible—How?

However, before the man can shrug the anomaly off, the soft fluttering wings of a buzzing bee wrangle past his ear. He turns, his paws moving in an arching circle as he tries to spot his newfound friend, one who certainly should not be able to survive in a season of cold.

But there!

He spots its quivering, buzzing body as the bee whips around his face and guides him forward as if begging him to follow it.

And follow it he must, even if his face resumes that facade of quiet confusion and practiced suspicion.

The softer sounds of springtime reach his ears the more he moves, and the further he walks, the air becomes…warm. Slowly, the great expanse of white he had formally known transformed before his eyes into a series of littering flowers and rolling hills.

What…the…

Hello? He calls out into the horizon, now a loping hillside, pieced together with beautiful rows of wildflowers of varying colors. This was definitely not the North…or the world he had entered.

His body remained rigid, even as his lonesome bee friend continued to buzz between his dark-tipped ear. This…wasn’t right…?

But why did a warmth begin to spread within his chest…and the softness of a smile begin to tug at his lips?

test

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The cooler weather was something that was not a surprise to Ylva. She had lived through enough seasons to know what to expect; even as strange as this land was, she had no reason to think that it would be any different. In all truthfulness, the idea doesn’t even cross her mind as she scouts ahead, mostly out of curiosity than anything else. It’s easy enough, then, for her to make a deal with herself.

If there’s nothing here to note, she can turn back. She knows how to follow her own scent, even through the snow.

As soon as the thought crosses her mind, though, Ylva catches scent of something else. Something sweeter and that brings memories of warmer weather with it. It’s fleeting, there just long enough to make her brows furrow, and were it not for the noise that it brought with it she would have brushed it off as a trick of the mind. They’re just as distant, too, but she swears on the Mother that she can hear birdsong- a totally different type of birdsong than what she would be expecting, at that.

It’s more than enough to make her pause, mind trying to wrap around what could possibly be happening, before she’s following the source of the sound. And as she does, the scenery changes as well, into something more befitting of Spring. She’s surrounded by wildflowers, rows and rows of them, and for the second time that day, she finds herself pausing.

If they were real, maybe she could bring some to Solvi? To Brynhild?

Before she can move to gather some, a voice calls out, and she twists to face the stranger, who looks just as lost as she did. It was safe to say that this wasn’t anything common, then.

Hello. She calls out in response, sounding a little incredulous, herself.

Raelan

His face is scrunched in a concoction of deeper grooves and worrisome lines as a smile worms its way across his features. There is a softness in his chest, a warming sensation that puts the Knight at ease, even as his own body resists. What has happened to the North? And what wrong turn had he possibly made? His expression is one of confusion, of hesitancy, and yet…somehow, interest as he forces himself to take the daring step forward.

The woman before him, short and slender against a backdrop of sun and flowers, regards him with the similar uncertainty he felt within himself. I reckon you are just as confused as myself, he quips as a pale gaze reaches hers.

This feels very unlike the North… he cannot help but comment as he wanders a bit further into the trains of flowers that litter the horizon. They are awfully pretty. Do you have any ideas…what has happened?

test

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Now that she can really get a good look at the stranger, Ylva is sure that the new area has had the same effect it had on her. Her own curiosity piqued, she takes the first few steps into the new land, half-expecting it to shift under her paws and reveal it was nothing but an illusion all along. It doesn’t, though, and the new grass tickles the fur on her legs and her paw pads.

It’s enough to make her stop, again, brows furrowing in complete confusion, for just a second. The stranger speaks up, and she blinks up at him, trying to shake the disappointment at the confirmation that he didn’t know what was going on, either. She’s not even sure how he would. As far as Ylva is concerned, nothing she’s seen could ever explain this. Nothing short of a greater being, anyways, and the thought makes her almost uneasy when it would have brought comfort before.

No. She confirms, with another scan of the area as if that will reveal any clues either of them have somehow missed. There’s nothing; just grass and blooming flowers and that still-lingering birdsong. It feels too good to be true. I wish I did, though.

Raelan

It is the softest click of his tongue that communicates his mild disappointment. They are both at a loss, it seemed. For where Raelan had expected to feel the brisk wind, cool and iced against his skin, it was the warmth of a summer day that greeted him instead. Where he expected to see the mounds of pearlescent snow, picturesque against a glistening burning sun, he was met with blades of grass and rolling hills instead. The scenery had shifted like magic, right before their eyes.

He prowled a few steps closer as a pale gaze glided toward the woman’s own. Care to explore with me? He asked.

Although Raelan would not wait for an answer before his paws would take him further, his nose twitched along a newly found onslaught of honey and sweetened dew. He smelled fruits in the distance, and be it his own grumbling belly or mere curiosity, he was determined to find the sweet-smelling source.