Erixianti
The woman was approaching her, that much was certain. The girl swallowed, wrapping her arms around her small body. The woman did not attempt to touch her, merely stayed a suitable distance away. The angelic figure was much taller than the younger girl, a fact that she was well aware of.
“Do not fear child. My name is Khalimandaria, and I wish you no harm. What brings you to this desolate place?” What was she to say? She doubted the woman would go away, even with a proper answer. She furrowed her brows, tilting her gaze downwards and shifting slightly.
"I... am Erixianti," The deer skull clattered to life, speaking in a soft wisp of a voice that barely had any strength to it. She was always so nervous around other people! She wished that she could somehow project the answers to them preemptively so that she wouldn't have to deal with all this conversation. It got her in a tizzy and made her nervous... "I am looking for someone, my protector."
She looked at the woman from underneath her long lashes, letting her bangs cover the top parts of her eyes. She would just have to tell herself that this being was not scary. If she did that, she would have nothing to fear, right? It did not seem like the knightly woman would be harming her, if the approach was anything to go by. So all she had to do was stay calm, relax
But that wasn't the whole truth, now was it? No, she had to find the boy, the one in Eludrest. He was in danger. That was her first prerogative. The city was a dangerous place, even for one such as herself. The beings there, they were not the same kind of shades that she controlled. No, they were only imprints left behind by old inner selves who no longer had a link to the waking self. A mere visage of a memory that leeched off others... Far different from her shadows who were coherent and conscious.
If it came down to fighting, which she hated and wanted to avoid at all costs, would she make it out okay? Part of her realized she was counting on the boy to be capable, in that sense, to make up for what she could not do. Maybe it would be wiser to open up more to this woman after all. If there was no sense of aggressiveness, then there was no harm in companionship. She just had to learn to be less scared! She wanted friends, right? One didn't get those by always running away from the first person that approached!
"I am... headed towards the city, actually," The skull spoke a bit more clearly, the tone filled with more surety. "There is someone who I need to retrieve from there," Nevermind the fact that she did not know him. It took all her strength to force the next words to pass from the deer skull's mouth. "A-Are you going in that direction as well?" She nearly shook for how much effort it took! Oh, how she wished Quinera was here. At least the jester was able to talk to people a lot better than she was...
Some heroine she was, barely able to communicate and fearful of the slightest interaction. She could only hope that time would aid her in getting better. She gestured ahead of them with her hand, pointing towards the edge of the boundary to indicate where she needed to go. "It's that way," She mentioned quietly, unable to hold the woman's gaze. The skull portrayed the urgency she felt. They had to get there soon. Before the boy found himself in an irreversible situation.
Compendium
He was being a show-off again, wasn't he?
She sighed to herself, running a few fingers across the holographic image. He always made things difficult, not that he intended to. She knew that, of course. He did not know of her, he did not know of here. But she knew of him and Enforcer had always been the type that enjoyed a flare. Perhaps it came from his affinity with fire. She placed her hands atop her lap as she gazed at the small figures within her reconstruction of the Dreamscape. They could not sense her watchful eyes, surprisingly, the lucid ones were not aware either.
She suspected it had to do with... no, she daren't even think it. She had a brief moment alone, a lapse of peace that surely would be shortened if she so much as thought of her... ward. Yes, that would be the polite way of putting it. The dreamers were all so... oblivious. Almost like young children. And here she was doing her best to defend them without them having the slightest clue.
He had stumbled, no, he had sensed that small group located by the campfire. Hopefully that would keep Enforcer busy-busy enough for her to shield the others and keep attentions away from those that really mattered. Indeed... the girl with the skull fascination and that angelic knight would act as a beacon for the scattered dreamers to gravitate towards. But they were not who she really had to protect.
That little witch was going to owe her a lot more by the time she was through with all this.