Snippet #1778766

Feeling a gentle nudge in its side, the mud-colored horse eased into a long and easy turn down rocky path leading away from Death Mountain and back to the sleepy confines of Karariko Villiage. Atop the docile and placated animal rode a young Shiekah named Aliah Valdean. The dirt and dust from the winding trial led the young woman to wear a lightly-colored wrap over her face and head. From beneath the cloth, her own dirty strawberry blonde hair and the red eyes of people opened to the world as she spoke softly and in hushed tones to the beast of burden carrying her light and agile frame home once again.

The ride was a needed one, something to clear her mind and reset her focus on the day. No doubt, it would be another day of training and instruction. The continued practice of her already-extensive skills in archery and close-quarters combat were something that she could handle without breaking a sweat. Grace and agility in the face of pressure and opposition was something that had come naturally to Aliah from the moment that she took from crawling to standing on her own two feet. Learning to work with others and train to becoming the next Sage of Light? Now that was something entirely different.

Aliah was good at what she did and she was loyal to those that earned her trust. That didn’t necessarily mean that she was an expert at playing nice with others or that she understood just how much she would be required to work as part of a larger team in the days to come. When it came to learning patience and the deeper ways of the world, the twenty-two-year-old woman still had a lot to learn.

“Hello, the camp!” She called out from behind the mask as she rode town into the town, passing the first number of shops in the place that had been the only true home she’d ever known.

“Has anyone seen Rala?” Aliah slid down from the mount, tied the horse to a post with a loving grace of the neck from her hand, and then pulled the hood and mask away to reveal her face.

“I swear, that girl,” she muttered to herself.