Written Wonderland

Ren's crooked smile at her offering made her grateful that she had suggested this first. She didn't want him to think her a fool.

But his confidence began to waver a little as he began speaking.

"I guess... I did realize, I can't know that these are safe for you, if your stomach is different from mine. But I don't know of any species these are unsafe for."

Afterward, she watched him pop one of the berries into his mouth, and she lowered her hand a little. She watched him eat with curiosity and finally decided he was probably right.

Jaz knew the food she had brought with her, albeit filling, wouldn't last her long here, especially without touch. It was good to know which food was a reasonable gamble at least.

She wasn't hungry anymore, but she had already picked these berries and didn't want to waste them.

Cautiously, she rolled the plump, conical thing between two fingers, looking at the tiny pistels that protruded from each little round seed. Closing her eyes and whispering a tiny prayer of thanks to the plant, she finally put one into her mouth.

It was more tart than she expected, and she made a tiny sound of surprise and shook her head a little, giggling. Suddenly embarrassed that Ren had made no such outburst, she tried to shake it off quickly and gestured ahead of them to suggest they keep walking. She kept the last two berries curled safely in one hand.

Jaz lowered her hand slightly, contemplating. She would need to take many risks in this world. Ren understood that in the silence, and he guessed she grappled with that truth. After a moment, she rolled a berry gently between her fingers and regarded it, taking in every detail of the fruit that she could. Then, she closed her eyes, her lips moving just subtly as if in silent prayer, before she finally placed it in her mouth to taste it.

She made a tiny sound of surprise and then giggled, and Ren couldn't help letting out a hopeful, cautiously relieved sigh of a laugh; while the reaction was a bit more pronounced than he might have imagined, it was precisely the reaction he might have hoped for, had he gotten so far as to hope. It was cute, if he was being completely honest, as was the way she seemed to quickly grow embarrassed about it and gesture toward the path to encourage him to keep going. He gave her a gentle smile, simultaneously refusing to let her save face, but at the same time - he hoped - reassuring her that there was nothing wrong with her reaction. Only then did he turn to start walking down the path again.

((OOC: He'll probably say something in a couple minutes, but seems content to walk in silence for a little while, so we'll leave it there, in case Jaz wants to respond and/or speak up next.))

Jaz thought Ren would take her cue and start walking again, but he just stood there looking at her, a slight but unnerving smile the only change in his face.

She grew uncomfortably indignant, her stomach and lips clenching. She began to wonder if she dared walking around him to continue herself before he finally relented and turned back around.

She let out a quiet breath in relief, feeling released somehow, and remembered how he had commanded her back in his cottage.

Wondering again if it was sane to trust this man, she followed along the barely disturbed path, reassuring herself that, if he wanted to hurt her, he would likely have done it already. He had realized the significance of his command, hadn't he? He must have.

But maybe he was taking her to someone who would abuse that power. And then what when she carried only untested, unfamiliar magic within her? Could she escape while surrounded by other humans?

She hadn't realized that her breath had quickened with her fear, well above and beyond the exertion of their walk, and she tried to breathe deeper, trying to calm herself.

She wanted time to figure out this new magic. She wanted to run a thousand experiments, but she needed quiet and concentration for that. She thought briefly about trying to grow the vines hanging from the trees around them, maybe trapping Ren in them just to prove she wasn't helpless, but she suspected that would only fan the flames of whatever predatory instincts she had seen in that unnerving smile. No, for now, they needed to trust each other. He was, theoretically, doing her a favor.

Ren lead them down the path in silence for a few minutes, settling back into his stride and contemplating the journey ahead.

He realized, though, that Jaz' breath was growing slowly but steadily more fearful behind him. He almost turned to look at her, but then he heard her breathe deeply to try to calm herself, and he decided he'd allow her this moment of privacy, at least.

"We're almost to the road," he said after a few more moments, once it sounded like Jaz had mostly calmed. "From there it's about an hour more to the village."

He let silence settle in again after that, waiting to let Jaz chew on the hunk of time they still had ahead of them. Though, after a moment, it occurred to him to second-guess whether she had the same ways of telling time. Did she have the same sun where she was from? Was her home a star in his sky? Or did her home have a different sky altogether? It made him a little uncomfortable to wonder - sort of like losing his balance, even though his feet strode across the ground just fine. He'd probably ask her about it even so... once he could figure out how to put it into a sensical question.

"We're almost to the road," Ren said, pulling Jaz from her thoughts. "From there it's about an hour more to the village."

Jaz nodded, though Ren could not see her. An hour more. She wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but it sounded like perhaps they had already walked an hour. Couldn't be much further then.

Would they meet others on the road? Would she run into other djinn? Before she got excited however, she brought sense to the forefront. If Ren hadn't known about her people, they couldn't be common here. Or they stayed hidden, like perhaps Jaz should have.

Jaz had the impulse to reach for Ren's hand--it would have been a great comfort--and her hand lifted a little, but she settled it back down and instead decided to put the last two berries into her mouth. Gods, she was going to need an awful lot of food if no one was going to touch her.

Otherwise, she was content to keep looking around herself at all the novel plants. The vines curling up the trees continued to draw her attention. They looked... happy, paired as they were with their trees and the rest of the greenery. She listened closely to the gentle squelching underfoot and stepped lightly to avoid the small bulbous plants--or maybe fungi--that grew up from there.

They passed a fallen log, and Jaz was fascinated by all the many-legged creatures stirring and working along the rotting bark. So much brown, earthy decay so unlike the ashen decay of the goddess' realm.

But, despite her fascination and insatiable curiosity, Jaz kept pace with Ren, her speed a little uneven as she bent and looked before dashing a little to catch up, determined to make a better impression on the people of this village.

The "road" wasn't much when they got to it. Just wide enough for a single horse and cart, perhaps - and indeed, on inspection, there were some faint signs of wheel ruts having been worn, though the forest was only mildly deterred. There was still the occasional tree branch to hold out of the way, the occasional bush gently grasping at legs, but they were much fewer and farther between, and overall the forest seemed to mostly lean out of the way, making space for travelers who came through. The path they had come from disappeared quickly, easily camouflaged by comparison to this new more spacious route, intimate though it still was.

Ren tried several times to ask Jaz about her home. He wanted to know more about her, where she was from, how she got here. Curiosity tugged at him, but each time he thought he had a question on the tip of his tongue, he'd look over his shoulder to see Jaz enrapt with some new bit of flora in her attention before hurrying lightly to catch up with him. He slowed his pace subtly over time, contenting his curiosity somewhat with just simple observation. There must be many differences between their homes, at least where plant life was concerned. He liked that she was so curious about it all, though.

Finally, over time, a question managed to fully form on his lips, which he asked Jaz as she hurried to catch up with him after her most recent curiosity indulgence.

"What kinds of plants grow where you're from?"

A wave of homesickness washed over Jaz as she considered the more obvious path now ahead of them and the last bits of incense on her belt dropped their ash. Nothing of this place reminded her of home. While the trees still formed something of a tunnel overhead, this section had hollowed itself to make way for travelers, it seemed. Jaz looked behind her, trying to memorize the path they had come from but found that it was almost indistinguishable from the rest of the unruly forest. Would she ever need to know how to get back? It seemed unlikely. The fae gate was probably not going to appear in the same place twice, fickle thing that it was, and she doubted that she would travel back to Ren's cottage without him. But, still, she mentally marked the stones near the area in the hopes that she might remember them.

Ren must have noticed Jaz' interest in all the flora earlier because, once they had taken a few steps along the new path, he finally asked, "What kinds of plants grow where you're from?" A rush of sensation burst into her chest as her homesickness finally had something to focus on. Memories and images burst forward into her mind, competing for attention. But mostly, she thought of the night-blooming flowers that had been the last of her home to see her leave.

"Many of our flowers bloom in the light of our moons. Our sun is obscured much of the time so is much less harsh and direct than this one." She braved a glance above them, looking at the expansive blue of the sky and only peripherally gazing at the force of this realm's yellow blaze. "It's clear at night in many places, especially above the forest, in our mountains." This was harmless, telling him about the landscape, right? It wasn't as though he was going to find her village by description alone.

Either way, she was reluctant to stop talking now that she had begun.

"And our trees, the trunks and leaves are primarily black, though they glint purple in the moonlight." Jaz thought of the nights she had spent with some of the others, having traveled down the mountain just far enough to gaze up through the canopy of trees and revel in the streams of moonlight as they touched her naked skin.

She thought of her favorite flower, its blue and purple blooms and its shape, its texture, the way the pollen was visible as it caught on the breeze and wanted to tell Ren about it, but the words felt thick in her mouth. How could she accurately describe such a wonder?

"I think..." Jaz said, hesitating, "I think I could show you some of my memories of what grows there, if you'd like. I'd... I'd need to touch you." She wondered if she was being manipulative in this request. Yes, on some level, she thought she could share memories with him like she could with her fellow djinn, but she wasn't fully convinced it would work with a human. And how much of this request was simply that she wanted to touch him?

She wanted to add that, even if it didn't work, her touch wouldn't hurt him, but she didn't entirely know that for certain, just as he didn't know for certain about the berries. It seemed that he would need to decide what risks he was willing to take just as she had. Jaz wondered how far his curiosity would take him.

Jaz seemed more than happy to answer Ren's question, and he listened quite happily in turn as she described flowers that bloomed in moonlight; a consistent overcast during the day and clarity at night; blackened trees that glinted purple. Something about the descriptions sounded a little... unnatural was the word that came to mind, though he recognized the blatant subjectivity there. But, they did also sound beautiful, especially when he thought of how some of the villagers might respond. Oh, sure, some would be spooked, but those weren't the villagers he intended to introduce Jaz to, at least not immediately.

"I think..." Jaz said hesitantly, pulling Ren's attention back to her voice, "I think I could show you some of my memories of what grows there, if you'd like."

He glanced to her with a mixture of curiosity and nervousness, his mouth a flat line and his eyes studying Jaz' expression.

"I'd... I'd need to touch you."

He frowned a little at that, his gaze turning back to the path ahead. It wasn't that he disliked the idea exactly, and a brief temptation did flare for it. How often did he even have the opportunity to touch someone else? But, he wasn't ready for that. He wanted to trust her, but he didn't fully. The risks just weren't worth it. Not yet.

"Maybe after we get to the village," he said, his voice lifting a little, trying to be gentle. He knew he'd been harsh with her in their early interactions, and he didn't want to regress to that. But, he also wasn't about to apologize for holding this line. He did hope, though, that she would understand.

Ren turned around to look at her, and Jaz studied the flat expression of his face, her hopes falling. He looked uncomfortable, even if his face wasn't immediately showing it. That was a no, then. She should have expected as much, but she couldn't seem to stop herself from hoping. Wasn't he lonely? Was anyone else ever in his house? Somehow, she doubted it. So, she supposed, she was grateful that she had gotten this far with him given that.

His voice was soft, barely audible, when he said, "Maybe after we get to the village." Her heart leapt into her throat at the thought. She could certainly wait that long. Oh gods how good that would feel. But then an uneasiness settled over her again. Was he leading her on? Tempting her so he could trap her? Were they even going to the village?

She wanted to ask something, wanted some way to be more assured of his intentions, but everything she thought of fell flat, and they walked in silence for some time while Jaz brooded over it.

There was no one else on the road, but maybe that wasn't altogether unusual. Jaz sighed heavily after a long time.

"If you're leading me to... I don't know. If this is... I'm not defenseless, you know," she finally said. "I don't want to hurt anyone--anything--but I can, if I have to." More quietly, looking down at her feet, she added, "Please don't make me. That's not why I'm here."

Jaz was quiet for some time as they walked. Ren could practically feel her brooding, but he couldn't begrudge her that. Eventually, she finally gave a heavy sigh and spoke up.

"If you're leading me to... I don't know. If this is... I'm not defenseless, you know."

Ren couldn't help a soft, bitterly amused little sigh of his own. Of course, it was only natural that she didn't fully trust him, either. But what were they to do about that?

"I don't want to hurt anyone--anything," Jaz added, "but I can, if I have to. Please don't make me. That's not why I'm here."

Ren sighed a little more earnestly at that, the exhale slow and thorough. He glanced back at her, seeing her looking down at the ground as they walked. He thought about stopping to talk about this seriously, but the sooner they got to the village, the easier this would be. At least, he hoped. He also just wasn't sure what he could say.

"I want to introduce you to the village priestess," he finally offered, hopeful that it might help to put Jaz at ease if he just gave her a little more information about his intentions. "You don't have anything to fear from her. She is kind and welcoming to travelers, and will do what she can to help." That much, he knew from experience.