Let the Sunshine In - Baine & Leek narrative

Leek wanders the streets of the city somewhat aimlessly. She took her leave of the small group of merchants she escorted from Port Ffirst to Daring Heights, ready to spend the little coin she had received in return on breakfast and a pint. The merchants had been anxious to get to Daring Heights as quickly as possible but hadn’t wanted to make the journey at night by themselves. Some word of mouth had already begun to spread that the large goliath woman who had come to Port Ffirst a few months ago had been going around asking anyone who was hitching up their carts to leave town if they needed an escort. Upon sight of her, they asked, and she was happy to help. That’s what she did after all, she helped. She protected people. She enjoyed the journey.

Enjoying the journey is all well and good, but generally one wants to know where they’re going. Having not spent all that much time in Daring Heights, and she suddenly finds herself walking down unfamiliar streets of the northern slums in the chilly morning light. Must have taken a wrong turn...somewhere, maybe when she stopped to do her start-of-dawn prayers. Never one to look fate and destiny in the teeth, she continues to wander in those wee morning hours. The city is slowly waking around her, its citizens opening window shutters and slowly getting ready for the new day, some of them looking at the large goliath woman with interest as she passes - others ignoring her entirely.

She turns a corner and comes face to face with a large compound; high walls of red stone open to reveal the hard-packed earth of a training yard. Something tugs at her memory, a mention or a throw-away reference, but slips away. She ambles past and is about to start looking for someone to point her in the direction of the Ettin - she needs some sleep, that’s for sure, once she’s got that breakfast in her - when a booming bark echoes from inside the yard. It’s followed immediately by a whine that can only be described as petulant and a man’s voice seemingly answering.

“Will you settle down? You’re gonna wake the whole bloody neighborhood with your racket!”

The voice is familiar, but familiar in a way she hasn’t experienced very often--familiar in a way that tells her she needs to go find out who that is. She backs up a few steps and pokes her head through the archway, looking around.

In the middle of the yard, looking up at the roof of what looks to be the stables, bright red scarf around his neck and as sour an expression as a dog can have, is Frankie. She follows his gaze and sees a large silhouette outlined in the morning light, leaning down to speak to him.

“You will fall down and You. Will. Break. Your. Neck. I am not carryin’ you up here. Go bother someone else for half an hour. Varis! Go bother Varis, please.”

At the sight of Frankie, Leek’s curious expression breaks into a wide grin. It takes her a second to put two and two together about the dog’s owner, but the dog himself? She’d never forget a good fluffy friend. She looks up at the Half-Orc on the roof again (what was his name? Dane? Blaine? Oh hell…), and then back down to Frankie.

“Heya Frankie, what’re you and yer dad doing up this early?”

Frankie turns, and the sight of Leek he starts wagging his tail furiously, almost jumping on the spot but obediently not running off until given permission - something he clearly seeks, looking between Leek and the man on the roof.

“Uh, mornin’. Frankie, sit." The large hound reluctantly complies, letting out a small bark of consternation. From across the yard a window cracks open and a gruff, thick brogue reach them in the still morning air.

“Rosey, shut yer dog up or I’ll make ye do drills until midnight, understand?”

The window slams shut and Leek can practically feel the man on the roof wincing. He sighs heavily before standing up and leaping off the roof, landing hard on the packed earth in a way that surely can’t be good for his knees.

“Hear that?” he asks Frankie, walking over. “Got me in trouble with Red, you have. Nothin’ but trouble. Why do I even keep you around?”

He finally turns to look at the visitor, for once having to angle his head up at someone.

“Hey, I know you, don’t I? Big woman. We did a job together, didn’t we?”

Leek nods in response, all big eyes and big smile, and for as much as she wears her emotions on her face the twinge of discomfort that she feels remains safely hidden behind her conviviality. That was definitely where she remembers him from--that Job. That Job that Lathander told her to go on when she wasn’t ready for it, wasn’t strong enough for it, wasn’t able to do anything to help anyone at all. She didn’t understand then, and she still doesn’t. Why that? Why the cloud giants? Why throw her in the deep end? What was she meant to prove?

If only she was as smart as her mama, or as wise in the Morninglord’s ways as her daddy.

But now isn’t the time for thinking about it, for thinking about just how lost she’s felt here in Kantas, not knowing what she’s meant to do. Now she continues to beam positivity in the early morning light.

“We sure did. Can I come in?” She asks, pointing inside. Always be polite and ask permission to come inside, she was taught at a young age after barreling into someone’s home like a bull in a china shop. Lessons well learned. “I’m Leek Nackle, I’m real sorry, I don’t remember yer name. Yer dog’s Frankie though!”

“Right, right, that was the one. Glad to see you made it out of the Giant Mess alright.”

He holds a large hand out for her to shake. She comes around the corner at the invitation, taking his hand in hers for a vigorous shake.

His eyes flicker down to her gleaming breastplate and the large sun emblazoned on the front and he frowns for a second before shaking his head a little, clearly dismissing a thought.

“Uh, yeah, hi. It’s Baine. Baine Cinderwood.”

He nods down to the dog.

“That pain in my arse is indeed Frankie Cinderwood, and this-” he spreads his arms wide and gestures to the compound around them, “-is the Order of the Crimson Fist. Welcome. No one’s really awake yet or I’d give you a tour…”

He trails off a little, scratches at the mass of scars around his left eye and looks at her a little awkwardly, glancing between her and the roof he just leapt off of.

“That’s alright, I’m used to people not bein’ awake when I am now. Bit of an adjustment yanno but I got there. It’s good to meet'cha again, sorry it’s been a while.”

“Uh. Have you come to join? ‘Cos I’m not allowed to make recruitment speeches anymore, I don’t think, I scared the last one off. Talkin’ isn’t my strong suit, really. Better with fighting - are you here to spar?”

Leek’s eyes light up at the idea of a fight--not surprising, with how big she is, but she doesn’t miss the fidgeting, or Baine’s glances back at the roof.

“I mean I wouldn’t say no to a good fight so long as no one’s doin’ any killin’ or dyin’, but I was just passin’ by, and I heard you and Frankie so I got curious I guess. Ain’t never heard of the Order of the Crimson Fist before--hey, why were you up on the roof anyways?”

Baine’s face lights up as she speaks, a grin spreading at the mention of a possible fight only to slowly melt away a little at the mention of the roof. A small frown creases his brow and he shakes his head dismissively.

“Oh, that. It’s... uh, it’s nothing. No big deal. I go up there sometimes and sit and like, watch the sunrise I guess? It’s nice, watching it come up over the city. I talk to it sometimes, I dunno why. It’s stupid.”

There is a distinct difference between the wide, happy smile of a positive person who has been taught throughout her life to be pleasant, and the beaming spread that comes at the mention of something someone truly, deeply loves. The mention of something familiar, of what feels like an old friend, of something missing. It’s that sort of smile that brightens Leek’s eyes brighter than any fight could.

Anyone could watch the sunrise, of course, and anyone could talk to the sky in hopes that someone was listening, but Leek has never, in her entire life, been the sort of person to stop and think. She acts and thinks on impulse, and every impulse shoots and fires towards the one thing that she’s been worrying over in the last few months: the presence of Lathander, bright and warm and welcoming.

“That’s not stupid at all. I do it all the time, it’s how we talk to our gods. Sometimes you just talk, and hope they’re listenin’ in. Are you--Yer not talkin’ to Lathander, are ya? ‘Cause that’d be a hell of a lovely coincidence if I’d met another follower of our Morninglord and didn’t know ‘till now.”

He blinks owlishly at her a few times, confusion plainly written on his face.

“I- what? Talkin’ to Lath- who? Gods? No, no.”

He shakes his head once more, and laughs a little.

“Nah mate, nothing like that I don’t reckon. I’m just like… chatting to the sun. Sun’s not a god is it?”

He looks doubtfully at her, down at her breastplate and up again. When he looks up, her expression is entirely unchanged. Beaming, excited--overexcited.

“I’m not prayin’ or anything. I’m just.. Talkin’. And sometimes it…” he trails off, an uncomfortable look of growing suspicion on his face. “Sometimes it talks back,” he mumbles, very quietly, looking very much like he’s afraid of getting laughed at.

Baine talks, Baine tries to rationalize, and Leek listens. She really listens, and she hears it. Not what he’s saying, not the excuses, but the
rationalizing. She’s seen it before, it’s hard not to growing up in a temple and listening to people pray day in and day out. She can feel it in her stomach, a blossoming warmth in the sun’s rays; this is it. This is the answer to all of her concerns, her confusion, her feeling of being lost in this strange new place. She had written to mama so many times about not knowing what her purpose was here in Kantas, about not knowing why Lathander wanted her there and what she was supposed to be doing besides helping people, but this. This was what the dream was about, telling her to go to help in Zaa’Suul. It wasn’t the cloud giants, it wasn’t the fight, it was him.

She knew it. She just knew it. It had to be. What else could it be???

Sometimes, you walk in the direction your gut tells you to walk, you look around the corner because you’ve heard a familiar voice, and it’s all guidance, it’s all purpose. It’s destiny.

Her big hands take his, the jewel of the arcane focus of her palm warm against his skin.

“Prayin’ is just talkin’. Sometimes it’s asking for stuff but usually it’s just talkin’. What’s it feel like when the sun talks back? For me it’s like a warm hug, or bein’ piled on by puppies, or the soup my mama would make for me after I’d gone off on an adventure for a few days and came back all cold and tired. Like I’m layin’ in the sun and everything’s alright. It just fills my chest and feels like home. ”

Baine is staring at her now, wide-eyed. He swallows a couple of times, works his jaw and tries to form words but none seem to come to him. Eventually he cocks his head a little and narrows his eyes at her.

“You know what? Come with me.”

He lets go of her hand and turns on his heel, leading her away towards the stables. She catches a brief glimpse of a few mounts in their boxes before Baine urges her up a ladder and onto the roof.

“Don’t bring the dog up, he’s gonna kill himself,” he throws over his shoulder as he disappears through the hatch in the ceiling.

Leek follows, but not before giving Frankie a little scratch behind the ear. She’s reasonably confident the ladder will carry her weight since it carried his moments before. When she joins him on the slanted roof it creaks ominously for a moment but seems to hold their combined weight, for now at least.

Baine has settled down facing the rising sun and looking out over Daring Heights, arms resting on his raised knees and eyes far, far away.

“It used to be like.. Like, ants under my skin, crawling and, and buzzing. After everything in the war and after my mum, it felt almost like broken glass inside me. And then… the voice. And the comfort. That was nice.”

He turns away from the bright sun for a moment, his eyes almost as bright as hers as they meet.

“Now it feels like there’s something I’m supposed to be doing. It feels like a clean slate, like starting over, like a second chance. Like.. like all this violence that I do, all this fighting that I’m really fuckin’ great at, like it can be used for good. So other people don’t have to fight.”

Leek’s smile had faded into something more neutral while she listened, all empathy and attention. When their eyes connected again it grew and grew again on her face. She could bask in this warmth all day, every day, this connection while the sun rose into the sky.

“Is that.. Leek, is that a God?”

“Yeah, it is.”

Baine lets out a trembling breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. His hands shake a little where they’re resting on his legs.

Leek had mirrored his position without thinking about it, knees raised up and her arms leaning against them. She lifts her head from where it was resting against her arms, and looks out into the sunrise. Soon, they wouldn’t be able to look directly at it, but they had now, this moment, to see and be seen.

“That’s what Lathander’s all about. It doesn’t matter who you are, or where you’re from, or what you could or couldn’t’ve been, only what you can do. For other people mostly, to make everything better in the world, but for ourselves too. He wants us to be the best versions of ourselves that we can be. Lathander believes in us.”

The jewel on her palm feels warm, and she opens it to reveal the piece of fabric tied to her hand, her Focus: It’s a beautifully embroidered piece of cloth, with that same sun that is emblazoned on her tabard and her breastplate. A thin piece of amber coloured gemstone sits in the middle of that sun, and she runs a thumb over it, lovingly.

“I’m what we call a Dawnbringer, that’s what we call clerics in the temple. We’re supposed to go around and help people, heal them and make sure they know they’re on the right path if they’re doin’ something good and new. I’ve been here for months now and I don’t know that I’ve been doin’ what Lathander wanted of me, yanno?”

She turns her head again to Baine and she isn't beaming. Her smile isn’t blinding like the sun high in the sky, but soft and warm like the sun as it comes breaching over the horizon. She thinks she might cry, because suddenly she feels useful again, like she’s doing things right. She feels found.

“I think Lathander wanted me to meet you, and we messed it all up the last time. This second chance is all yours, you just need to take it.”

Baine looks back at her, clearly overwhelmed, a little frightened and hopeful at the same time. He laughs, a loud, incredulous thing bursting out of him.

“I didn’t think I could have one. A god, I mean. Lath- Lathander? Was that it?”

She nods, “Lathander, the Morninglord. He’s got a bunch of names but those are the main two.”

“Lathander,” he says again, trying it out. “You think I could be like you? A Dawnbringer? That sounds pretty damn cool.”

“A Dawnbringer’s gotta be trained in healing and care and stuff, I’ve been doin’ it since I was little. Spent a lot of time back home helpin’ people’s families when they died, making sure they were alright, and lots of charity around town too. I like fightin’ but that’s not usually what we do...You could be a Dawnknight though. They go out and fight, usually bring one of us along with them to make sure they don’t die fighting demons and the undead.”

He nods along slowly, a grin spreading across his face.

“Fight demons and undead in the name of the sun? Yeah, that doesn’t sound so bad. I don’t know exactly how to, though.” He holds out a hand to her in question. “Will you show me?”

They sit, side by side, watching over Daring Heights and its citizens in the early morning hours. The sun rises.