Another mess gotten into... [open]

"Well Oda, this is just great." Matthew Swift frowned down at the map he'd been given before looking over at his horse. She ignored him in favor of snuffling for something to eat under a fallen log.

"I could have sworn we were on the right track, but I think your nose has pulled us off the trail." Should have been paying more attention. He reached over and swatted his horse with the map and she glared at them, rattling her quills.

"We know, we know. But still... Let's try this way." He picked up her bridle and he headed off on what they hoped was the way into town.

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After a few feet there was a high, blood curdling, almost-equine scream. A challenge scream to be precise, from a lightning mane. Followed by a loud, annoyed "SHUT UP YOU DAMN HORSE THIS IS A COMMON ROAD!"

Oda didn't rise to the bait. To be fair, she had poor eyesight and her hearing wasn't all it was cracked up to be, but then she was built for defense, not offense. Her quills rattled at the smell of the lightning mane and Matt glanced up from their deep contemplation of the map.

"We're locked and loaded. Fair warning," he called back. She couldn't fire the quills, but they were still nasty barbed things.

"SAME!" Aya called back as her and her idiot, fanged horse rounded a curve in the road. "Not attacking though, unless you feel the need to attack me." Lunkhead was a different story.

He loved getting his mouth on things.

And Aya was good at getting her fist to the top of his head whenever he started looking hungry.

He likely wouldn't enjoy a mouthful of Oda.

"Not at the moment," he said with a friendly wave and a smile. "We were just admiring the day."

Lunkhead would chew glass if it looked interesting! Hell, even if it didn't look interesting and he was bored. Not long on brains her horse.

"Good, I hate to have to shoot people before lunch." Aya nodded her head, her hatted head and coated self...hell, she barely had the tip of a pointy chin visible. "You headed toward or away from Wellspring then?"

"Is that where we are-" They cut him off. "We told you." Matt sighed and managed not to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"To be honest, Oda and I got a bit turned around and we have no idea where we are at all."

"We?" She arched an invisible eyebrow and lifted her head enough to look him over but good. Just in case. There were all sorts on the road, and a little plural wasn't an indicator of dangerous, but still, just in case.

"Follow the road behind you and you hit Wellspring, ahead, past me, is Turnstall. What were you looking for?"

They didn't bat an eye.

"Neither," Matt said. "We are dramatically off course, aren't we Oda?" He patted the beast's side and she sighed at him. "We were supposed to be headed for Maine."

"That...is a good deal away. You're in the midwest sir." And Maine was east coast! Her mount...started snapping at the local insect life.

Poor lacewings.

"What's in Maine?"

"Some wonderful tourist traps."

Oda had resumed nosing under rocks and logs for snacks of her own.

"Bit of a long hike for kitsch." Just saying. Aya folded her hands atop her pommel and looked the man over again.

"See better stuff in New York. It's a nice place now."

"Well, of course. But that just means that I'll have to deal with all of those people and we hate big crowds like that. Unless it's a good occasion. Like a festival or something. We don't see enough parties."

"I haven't seen Maine, so I don't know what shape it's in." She shrugged. "I have seen New York. Not as crowded as you'd think. Most people don't like crowds these days."

"Towns can be a bit much for me these days."

"Oh dear. Could be a problem, that. Safer in towns." She flared a bit when she said it, it was obviously something she honestly believed and worked hard to preserve. She was a hero like that.

"Folk in New York are good sorts though, if you want to stop in on them. They could tell you good towns with few people in them to bother you."

"Well, what are the towns here like? You seem like a trustworthy sort. Any interesting places to check on?"

"Mainly quiet places. Farming towns." She shrugged under her large coat. "Interconnected though. A very 'marry the locals' kind of place. Strangers tend to be tin traders and tinkers."

"And we are neither..." Matt frowned, thoughtful. "It's not a chase strangers out with tar and feathers kind of area, is it?"

Oda came up from her quest for insects and decided to shove her nose up under Matt's coat this time. "Hey! Nothing up there for you! You ate the last of my honey two days ago."

"Tend to be but not exclusively sir." Aya snorted and gave her horse another thump when he started showing interest in Odo's quilled tail (it moved you see). "They aren't the tar and feather sort but I don't believe you'd be invited to stay. If you're passing through you should be alright."

"Passing through is what we do best, isn't that right Oda?" The horse rumbled a bit and drew her sticky tongue over her nose, disappointed at the lack of treats.

"Always a cynic."

Well, she could see he wasn't one for a lot of company? People used plurals a lot and talked to their horses when they alone a lot, at least in her experience. "Then I don't see any problems for you here no matter which direction on the road you head. If you really are headed for Maine though you'll want to go East, so that way...and stay on the roads."

He had no problem with company, in fact they liked people. Always something new to learn and see. When they weren't grating against their brain...

"East. Right. Roads. We can do that." He says as Oda starts to tug him in the opposite direction, probably being drawn by the smell of some kind of food, which doesn't always follow roads.

Coming towards him, at a relaxed pace, were a pair of relatively normal looking horses with lizard feet instead of hooves, and scales instead of fur. Mostly, though, they just looked like horses. They pulled a pre-Solution Airstream trailer (of an expensive make) at the whim of the large black Katzu at the reins.

She lifted one hand and waved as she saw him and his own horse.

Matt looked up at the sound of footfalls on the path and waved in return. His own horse, the mix of giant anteater and porcupine that stood roughly the size of pre-solution draught horses, was nosing around for food while he looked over his map.

"Fine day," they called to her. He had a non-American accent, though it was a bit hard to place.

"Indeed it is." Arebah agreed, with a smile. Her own accent was Katzu territories by way of Virginia; and if his wasn't Katzu or British she wouldn't be able to identify it if her life depended on it. "I am Arebah Na. Are you headed very far East?"

Mostly British, but with hints of other places he'd lived over the years. Hell if he could remember what those places were though.

"I'm Matthew Swift. This is Oda. We're sort of wandering East by way of Getting Lost. You?"

"Fluffy and Spot." Her children named them when they were young. Neither horse was fluffy, nor spotted. "Along the Gulf Coast by way of rumours. I don't suppose you've heard of a missing shipment of medical equipment?"

He thought for a moment on that, reaching back into their mixed memories.

"Not a missing one, but I've heard a few stories of medical supply shortages. Could be related?"

Or it could be something he'd dreamed.

"Might be." she said after a moment, "I don't know that much about what we're after, really. I am mostly the transportation. Would you mind telling me what you know?"

"You have company in your trailer," they asked. "I don't really know anything concrete. We heard that there was supposed to be a delivery a few kilometers to the North that never showed and some people were rather upset by that. And there was talk of a group that looked like they had a lot of baggage moving at quite the clip. I didn't get much more information than that though before we were on the move again."

"I do, yes." Arebah agreed, "He hired me to help him find the lost shipment. Thank you for your information."

"Sorry we can't be of more help. I'll keep an ear out though if you like."

I would appreciate it." Arebah assured him, with a nod, "Letters sent to the New York Org tower will always get to me, I check daily."

"Org Tower." He should probably go give that a look... And they mave have drifted off again, sorry. It happened.

At least the look he had didn't seem totally vacant?

Arebah was, at this point, assuming Air. "Any post office will know where to send it to." she promised after a moment.

That drifting look was gone nearly as quickly as it had come in and they focused sharp blue eyes on her and smiled.

"We'll keep that in mind."

"Where are you trying to get, if I may ask?" she was Space affiliated, after all. Arebah hadn't been lost in twenty years.

"To be honest, we're not sure. I'm just going along, heading East. I think we're headed for Maine."

"Ah. You'll want to adjust your course significantly North, you're currently pointed more towards Delaware." Her eyes crinkled with amusement, mostly at herself for just knowing that.

"Oh, thank you! We have a terrible direction sense. Oda also likes to wander off all the time for things that smell good."

Speaking of, she was starting to investigate his coat for treats.

"Space." she said, and it said it all, really. "If you stop at a large town they may be able to get you a newer map." Because people always needed newer maps, as things changed.

"This one is pretty old..." Which would explain a lot. "Thank you again."

"You are quite welcome. Is there anything else I can help you with?" Since he'd been of assistance to her.

"Not that I can think of get out of there," he pushed Oda's nose from his pockets. "No treats. Unless you're headed in the general direction I am for a bit. Traveling together can be safer than alone."

"I'm afraid we're headed more South, towards the Gulf." she said with an apologetic shake of her head.

"Ah well. Be safe. Hope you and yours stay out of trouble."

"And the same to you. Enjoy your trip."

She, at this point in her life, loved to travel.

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Another mess gotten into... [open]

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