[django]

Traveling to the Sanctuary was colder and windier then Gaul he anticipated. Perhaps next time he'll study his weather reports a little more closely and plan trips after the thaw. 'Oh well, its good for the kids. It'll give them a good story to tell when they get older and tell their young ones about it.' Gaul thought to himself and cracked a smile. 'Although they are probably planning to purge me at this moment.'


"Were almost there!" Gaul shouted over his should, trying to get his muffled voice over the gust of wind. "Just a little further, were not too far." They soon came to a frozen river and followed it up stream.

[Rilla Treespirit]

As she sat huddled on the horrible creature known as star, Sarani'ka wondered what on earth had possessed her when she decided coming to the surface was a good idea. The place was dreadful, cold and windy. Her eyes were squinted, trying to see as the wind blew tears from them. The fact that she'd been stabbed and that the wound, now mostly healed, was itching certainly didn't help to improve her foul mood. She strained to listen to her father's shout, but most of it was lost to the wind.

"-we alm- ere! -further- too-far." Was what she caught. Did that mean that they were close to reaching their destination? She certainly hoped so, so that she could kill him once they arrived.

They started following a river turned to ice, she glared at it angrily. If she were in a better mood it would have occurred to her that this might be quite a nice scene to paint. At present she was too annoyed with life in general and her parent in particular.

[Bamawing]

Oh Sharess, it was COLD.

Pon'i held poor little Thun as tight as he dared, but she was shivering against his chest. At least she was nearly recharged. A few more days and she would be fine. He had never actually stayed at the Order of Serenity before, but fervently hoped they would offer shelter to him. He and Thun both needed the rest.

He recognized some of the landmarks around - most were covered in snow. There was the river - oh good, not much further now. Gaul called something but the wind and snow muffled it. Probably encouragement. It was only another hour's walk. On horseback it would probably be less.

Thun sneezed and Pon'i hugged her a little tighter. "Not long now, my little one," he whispered, knowing full well she didn't speak drow. His warm emotions calmed her, though, and she relaxed in his grip.

[DeadPigeonGolem]

Serra'tae was about ready to call it a life and hunker down in a snowdrift somewhere to slowly die of cold. He was blinded by the blowing wind that caused his eyes to water and the tears to freeze to his eyelashes. The winter clothing did absolutely nothing, and he was pretty sure that he'd be eligible for the position of Illhar'ess when they defrosted. Thank Sharess they were nearly there...

((Posting to express interest, not much for me to say?))

[django]

The group followed the river and pushed against the winds. Although there was no snow, the ground was hard and had a light coding of frost.

Gaul felt relived when they came up to the gates if the Sanctuary. This cold was starting to get him as well. The iron door opened and a warden and templar pair came out, "Halt who goes there." The warden shouted over the wind. "I'm Gaul templar of the eight eyes." Gaul shouted back and took off his helmet, "Did you get the message I sent ahead?" "Yes we did templar Gaul. Bring your horses around back, we have a stable in the back and get yourselves in. I imagine your trip was a cold one." "Yes it was. Thank you."

"One more thing, this is Poni Dendle. " He pointed at Poni in the back. "As the rules for outsiders, he'll be responsibility as long as he's here." The then turned back to his group "Get yourselves inside and get warmed up. I'll take the horse to the stable."

[Rilla Treespirit]

"Oh goddess be praised!" a frozen young warden cried as she caught sight of the sanctuary. Very soon she'd be out of the cold and inside, hopefully with a warm cup of tea in her hands. Once they were up close and finished their shouting over the wind conversation, she hastily dismounted, or rather fell off the damn thing when her foot got caught. She put a hand to her side, to check her injury; fortunately she fell on soft snow and wasn't hurt only covered in snow, most of it went down the back of her neck and up her sleeves. She got up and dragged her helmet off her head swearing foully, her words were swallowed by the wind.

At Gaul's words she staggered inside only too happy to be out of the cold. It was immediately quieter. "Greetings," she gasped once inside, doing a funny hopping, waving, stamping dance as she tried to get the feeling back in her poor fingers and toes. She got rid of the snow at the same time. A young 'ssu boy stood waiting inside the doors to hurry them through an archway as they came in and into the next room which had a big fire. "Oh thank you so much, I am Warden Sarani'ka, and you are?" She asked of the boy but didn't receive any answer as he'd moved back out to hurry the others in. She felt rather foolish.

[DeadPigeonGolem]

Serra'tae cried in relief. Or maybe it was the wind and the cold. He couldn't tell anymore, he just wanted the waaaaaarrrmmmth.

Step one, get into building.

Step two, dump wet and heavy cloak.

Step three, remove armor.

Step four, practically leap into nearest fire.

"Yessssssss..." Serra'tae sighed as he got as close as he could without actually falling in. "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrmmmmm...."

[django]

The front door opened once again and Gaul enter along with the warden and templar pair. "Sharess has blessed you Templar Gaul. We had an eariler winter this year then what was expected." The warden said. "Yah, I noticed." Gaul said biting back the sarcasm as best as he could, while shaking off the snow from his bear skin cloak. "Its good to be inside a stone buidling for a change."

The boy who rushed everyone in and retrived a mop and bucket and began to clean up the snow on the ground. Gaul walked over to the fire and hung up his cloak. Another Drowssus came into the room, "So you are the new pilrims. I reconize you Templar have you been here before?" "I have lady Shia'fe. This is my daughter Sarani'ka, and that cold lad over there by the fire is Serra'tae. They are here to speak with Judicator Lioshi. The Olath and Embre, are Poni and Idoh."

"You must have had a long trip. Dinner will be ready soon and you are welcome to dine with us. But first let me take you two to see Judicator Lioshi." She smiled.

[Rilla Treespirit]

Serra'tae's rush to the fire made Sarani'ka giggle in amusement. She quickly stifled it, horrified that she would actually do something so absurd as giggle. It was completely ridiculous. "Don't get so close you'll burn yourself!" she scolded tugging him a little further away from the flames. Mainly so that she could get closer to the fire herself. She tugged off her boots and socks. She was sooo glad to finally warm up her fingers and toes.

She got up as her father and the warden, templar pair walked in. She was standing next to him when lady Shia'fe entered. She touched her hand to her forehead respectfully when introduced. Listening to the lady's words in polite silence. The thought of dinner made her mouth water. So the judicator here was named Lioshi then. She was curious, she knew that the pilgrimage was important but had no idea why. Assuming that meeting the Judicator would answer her question she nodded and moved to follow her, both eager to go and reluctant to leave the warm fire. Then thinking that she really shouldn't be meeting a judicator barefoot she stopped and hovered uncertainly.

[DeadPigeonGolem]

"Blurg!" said Serra'tae as he was tugged back. He shuffled side ways and huddled close again. "With all due respect, ma'am, I'm pretty sure that if I jumped in the worst that would happen would be a slight scalding." He looked up when the Warden told them to go speak to the judicator.

"Ah, well, it was good while it lasted," sighed Serra'tae. He looked down at his clothes. They'd gone from soaked to merely damp in the front. Tolerable. "I hope it is sufficient for me to wear my under suit, lady Warden."

[django]

"I think a change of clothing is in order." Gaul said as he rustled his daughter hair. Quickly become one of his favourite things to do. "I think Judicator Lioshi could wait a few moments more for the young ones to get changed."

"Well if that is the case." Lady Shia'fe smiled warmly and gestured with her hand to follow her "We should show you to your room. If you please follow me."

The room was simple and plain in design, with two beds and pair of cots that were also brought in for the extra visitors. A table sat between the beds, a candle holder and candles sticks were stocked in the drawer. A small fire place with a small stack of wood and box filled of coal for heat was ready.

A change of clothing was also brought in for their stay. "If you need to relive yourself, we have chamber pots and stalls just down the hallway. When you are ready to see Judicator Lioshi, meet me in the Guest hall."

[Bamawing]

Pon'i was amazed at the gentle... well, serenity of the Order of Serenity. It just looked like a nice place to be, and he was honored to be there.

He was very surprised to hear that a judicitor was in residence, but as usual, kept his face politely cheerful. It surprised him how much he didn't want to be left alone, though. These people could probably brainwash him in a matter of hours. He piled his belongings onto his cot and changed quickly, opting to change into his own clothes instead of the ones provided. He hoped that wouldn't make anyone angry, but... all this white felt odd.

Thun was not fully relaxed, but Pon'i wasn't sure if this was due to anything odd in the Order itself or just the fact that she was in a strange place. Sometimes it took her a while to calm down. In any event, he relaxed as much as he could. There was no sense letting her go off here, even if her musk stores were not up to full capacity.

[Rilla Treespirit]

"Hmm a change of clothes would be wonderful" She batted her father's hand away in exasperation. "Not a little kid you know." Despite the scowl and the irritated tone of voice it was clear that she was more amused than annoyed. Just as long as he didn't embarrass her in front of her friends or people she had to work with often it was fine. After all, she had no intention of working with Serra'tae, pathetic excuse for a templar as he was, and the people up here hardly counted. She was unlikely to meet them again and they seemed so much more relaxed anyway. The whole place gave off a pleasant peaceful feeling. So different to the way things were back home.

She stared around the room she was shown to; then without further ado she took off her armour and changed into the clothing provided for her. The clothes turned out to be a white dress and a purple shawl. It wasn't too different from the clothing she wore back home, except that it somehow made her feel beautiful. While she wasn't one to think about her looks much when she did she would never have considered herself anything more than average, pretty at best. In this case, while it was a fairly plain dress and in no way different from anything else she regularly wore, she felt beautiful. Perhaps it was something in the air or maybe it was because she'd just come out of the cold and was warm again for the first time in what felt like years. She shrugged it off as nonsense and walked out into the hallway to wait for the others.

[DeadPigeonGolem]

Serra'tae changed into a tunic and pants, both in white, and draped a clean strip of his last cloak (the first one he wore got torn to pieces after a wolf raid involving an axe man required it to be used to bandage injuries) over his body as a sash. He wrapped his headband over his eyes as was proper for the Templar uniform and, using mana-sense, moved into the hallway.

Sarani'ka shone with a pure, clean light on his mana vision.

"Greetings, Lady Sarani'ka," said Serra'tae, bowing. "You look beautiful."

[django]

Gaul couldn't help himself but grin widely at his daughters scowl and comment. He loved to antagonize his children every now again. "You two go on ahead. I need to get checked by the healers." He said as he started to undid his chain mail and slipping it off with a painful grunt. He let it slip off and fall on the floor unceremoniously; along with his spider silk armor he wore underneath. Reviling his purple bruises from the fight he had with the wolf man and his pack.

He examined the purple and black coloured one on his fore arm, he was still unsure if it was broken or not. "I'll be back shortly." He said as he slipped on a black shirt from his back pack and left.

* * *

In the guest hall Lady Shia'fe approached the young Warden and Templar pair. "Are you two ready to see Judicator Lioshi." She smiled warmly "The Judicator is ready to see you."

(go ahead and write what you guys feel like doing with Judicator Lioshi. )