The Palisade would not dock. It had no shortage of supply due to ample unused cargo space, and thus Aonghas would find himself being rowed to shore by three wiry Krytan sailors. As the thin trio unlashed the boat and began to cradle it down over the railing, Aonghas retreated to his cabin, gathering the rest of his gear before re-emerging on the deck. Captain Cross halted him on his way to the ropes, wordlessly offering his hand for good luck. Clasping calloused palms, the two wordlessly nodded with stiff grins, like-minded in their love for new horizons. Without another thought, Aonghas stepped to the edge of the deck, handily reaching out to slide down the ropes, braking lightly to land with a heavy thump on the reeling rowboat below. The five hundred meters or so from the ship to the Blood Holdings dock was uneventful. Aonghas took a hand at one of the oars, figuring these men had put in enough work for their singular fare. As the small craft bumped noisily against the dock ladder, he climbed with ready, rested feet to the top, waving back at the sailors as they made their way to the ship again. Turning, he surveyed the bleak dockyard, now relatively quiet in the early night. Deciding on a course that took him northeast to the nearest bridge to the North side of the river, he set out, intending to walk through the market on his way to the clearest memory he had: The Red Dragon Inn.

Adapted from LiveRP, the following is co-written by myself and Emily Rose, edited for pace and style.

As he sat there with a busy expression, Aonghas went over his options as his sea-chilled bones warmed with fire and bitter tea. Deep in thought, the sparse noise of the common room reached him as distant rattles, barely heard, and thus he didn't notice as Emily Rose entered, blonde tendrils curled and whipping as she walked through the door clad in coveralls. Her fingers moved to brush those strands from her face with ease. Blue eyes glanced about as she stood there, trying to figure out just what to do next. She quickly moved towards the room and washed her hands. A bit of grease was smugded on her cheeks and nose while she shifted from foot to foot, trying to at least make sure that her hands were clean. When she finished, the girl lifted her head and gave a pleasant, glittery white smile to Cat. "Hello, Darlin..." She nodded as she shifted in place. A soft sigh fell from her lips and she wriggled a bit until just the arms of her coveralls were wrapped around her waist, revealing a black tank-top worn underneath. Pausing, she pulled a small device from her pocket and flipped it open. Softly she began to speak until finally she shouted "Oh....Oh yeah...No worries...I'm just a few miles south of that location. I'm sure I can get there...Give me a few moments to chow down." Nodding as she continued quietly again. Aonghas was halfway through his third mental inventory when the feminine voice shanked itself between Scissors and Stiching Kit. Blinking rapidly, he located the source of the sound, giving Emily a quick up-and-down look before dropping his head. Cradling the piping-hot tin cup with his fingertips, he slowly takes a sip, and resigns himself to a break from his current predicament. Emily's brow perked up and she turned to look at the man at the hearth. Her head leaned to the side, she slowly made steps toward him as he regarded her advance with a neutral stare. her eyes were wide as if she has seen a ghost, the better look she got of him she shook her head. "Nah..." She murmered, smiling to him and nodding. "Sorry....thought you were someone I..." Cutting herself off, she coughed to keep herself from saying more and turned about, starting for the kitchen. Attracted to the thought of any distraction from his own thoughts, Aonghas blurted "Wait!" Half catching himself in surprise, and managing to spill scalding tea on his hand, illiciting a cringe and sharp intake of breath. Emily jumped and spin about, eyes going wide at the blurted word. Her brow perking higher still, she found herself losing her thoughts, unable to figure out what was going on. "Do I.....really.....know you?" Slightly confused, Aonghas licked the back of his burnt hand, managing an awkward answer. "Er...perhaps to see me you might." His brow furrowed as he tried to diplomicize an answer. "I stayed here a while, more than a year past. "And before then?" She asked in curiosity. Her form leaned to the side. She contemplated him for a few moments, brushing a few golden strands from her face. Blue orbs locked on him as she weighed and considered what she was thinking. The thoughts running through her head were childish, too pathetic to believe. "Before then..." Aonghas answered, "...before then I travelled." As patrons started to fill in from the cold street, he seemed to start, realizing he was forgetting himself. "Eh...would you like to join me while you eat' Pardon me for being direct, but I heard you talking, and I also find myself with need for a quick meal before departing." He motioned to the chair opposite his table. A nod left her and she sat across from him. Brows were still furrowed while she gave a simple pout. She was still trying to work out where she knew this man from; at least other than where we was already thinking of. Fingertips rubbed her hand softly and she gave a meek swallow. "Have you ever been to Earth?" She asked with genuine curiousity. "Urth?" He mispronounced. Reaching down, he drew a small loaf of bread from his pack, wrapped in cloth, and set about tearing off a small chunk while considering the question. "No, I don't recall the place. Is it far from here?" She returned with a soft nod. "Quite a ways actually..." Settling into the chair, folding one leg over the other, her head leaned to the side as she attempted to figure our a bit more from each line and detail on his face before murmuring. "Why in the hell do you look so familiar?" Reddening a bit under wind-battered skin, he grinned tightly, swallowing a mouthful of bread before answering the lovely girl. "My friends tell me I have the most regular features for a man." He chuckled hoarsely at that. "A bronze standard in look, if you will. Perhaps you know a man cursed with likewise normalcy." "Nay...there is something about you I know I could never forget. It just seems like I know you...and not just talking about those random dreams I have of walking down a moonlit path or riding besides you in a car...it's almost as if in another world—" She cut off, cheeks turning bright red as she sat. Emily knew she had said too much. Aonghas had stopped eating now. His expression soured slowly to a flat frown before he opened his mouth to speak. "You're not...a wandering seer of some sort are you?" He waved one hand dismissively in the air between them. "Because I have no spare coin for a dredging on the past. I'm not so old as to have forgotten my own tale." Sighing, Emily shifted and shook her head. "Nay, no seer." Slowly she rose to her feet and bowed her head. "If that be what you think, sir, then...I suppose this is where I should take my leave." Blue eyes closes for a moment as she nodded, opening again as she looked towards the fire and made to turn. Still, she had to wonder why he felt more like a memory than a dream. Rolling his eyes, Aonghas rapped his tin cup on the table as she turned away. He wasn't about to argue a stranger back to his table, and certainly one he knew had business elsewhere, so sighing he went back to his bread. Suddenly Emily's mind clicked into overdrive, and she spun about. "Aonghas of the house of Ailein!" Her eyes went huge as she realized what she had just said. "Oh crap..." She added, then in one quick move turned about and made to run. The red on her cheeks deepened. Mouth full-packed with half-stale bread, he started at the girl's sudden exclamation, firing a few particles into his tea with a cough. Staring with a cocked eyebrow as she caught herself then spin in place, he reflected for a split second on how damned fit she looked from behind before berating himself for being so distracted. Emily quickly moved away, wide-eyed. her form was brushing out towards the back door before she paused and turned again. Arms were stuck back into coveralls before she muttered. "Car's that way..." Brilliant shades of red on her cheek, she cleared her throat and continued back toward the front door, scatter-brained. Now having a hard time swallowing, Aonghas spit what remained in his mouth into the roaring fireplace, then turning leaned back in his chair to watch the strange girl's spectacle. The lass was clearly confused about something, and having just spent ten days at sea, he wasn't in any sort of shape to help her sort it out. Crossing his arms, he settled on at least watching her leave, trying to get a last hint at why she had shown such shocked interest. Stopping at the door, Emily signed and turned to look at him over her shoulder. Those hues of blue were almost twilight in the lighting; they even looked ready to spark to life. Exhaling she whispered. "Welcome home Aonghas..." Hair fell over her face as she turned once more and started out the door. Shaking his head, aonghas turned back to regard his mangled loaf and spoiled tea before the girl reached the door. Hissing sharply once, he pitched the rest of the pathetic meal into the fire behind him before wiping his cup out on his shirt and stowing it. Leaning back again to rub his face in his hands, the hairs suddenly shot up on the back of his neck. Slowly, he turned back toward the door, only to see it closing behind the girl. Screwing up his face in one last grasp at making sense of the odd occurrance, he contemplated the strange sheen around her figure as it bounced down the stairs. Arms out in front of him on the table, he clicked out of the side of his mouth twice out of habit, dismissing the issue as he grabbed his rigging and headed upstairs to take a room. Outside, Emily turned on her toes to regard the inn once more curiously. A skipping beat formed in her chest and she cursed to herself. Back up the stairs she went and into the door, suddenly crying out as loud as she could get it. "Aonghas!?" She looked around and then to the back door, seeing that it was firmly shut she turned to look towards the stairs, gambling on the second floor and rushing upwards. Something screamed at her to move the best she could. Swallowing painfully, she started to look about as she got to the hall, wide twilight eyes searching toward each door in turn. Moving briskly as usual, Aonghas had settled on a room near the stairs, locking the door behind him and making his way to the bedside. Underneath the sound of his rigging and weapon thumping to the floor, he hear a shout from downstairs, but dismissed it as regular common room fare until he heard stomping up the stairs. Instinct unlashed his battle cleaver, and he glaced quickly out the window before pacing over to stand just off to the opening side of the door. Swallowing, Emily started forward down the hall. A soft tone left her lips in a heavenly voice. "To figures floating through the air, one embracing the other...while you embraced your beloved...just days before you were torn from each other..." She prayed in her mind that he was listening. "I watched it all through her eyes...the intimate moments you two shared...the pain she felt when you were pulled from her side..." Tears formed in her eyes. "I know I may not look like her, but deep down inside...I am her...in a sense...and something is telling me...telling me...to make you look in my eyes to see what you see. Please...Aonghas....please." Silence persisted for a long while as he stood behind the door listening. Then, with a sharp clack the bolt was thrown, and the door flung wide. Sharply Aonghas took a big stride forward, stopping mere inches from the girl's face and locking into her eyes with his. There was no humour in his face. Twilight hues looked back at him as she stood there staring into the likewise blue eyes of the warrior before her. Deep within, sparks were dancing hopefully as she whispered. "My heart keeps skipping a beat when you are near Aonghas..." She drifted into memory, but kept his gaze. He held there for another minute, carefully considering her. Motionless as yet, he finally spoke. "You're Ren alright." Tossing one hand behind his head, he turned away from her and strode back into his room, leaving the door open and making for the bed. Cringing with a sudden headache, he exhaled heavily before flopping backward on the small cot. Blinking at his words, she perked a brow and leaned so that she was just looking in the door. Not sure if she had been invited or rebuked, she opted for leaning against the door frame. "Is that a bad thing?" Unmoved, Aonghas wiped his face again with a broad palm. "I don't know yet."

In the spirit of this story forum, that being an evolving and different narrative for each entry, the following is taken directly from LiveRP, with no editing for pace, style, or otherwise.

After the last scene, Aonghas and Emily parted ways on good albeit abrupt terms, leaving Emily confused from being shuffled off, and Eoin retreating quickly from the Inn unnoticed. We pick up the tale a few days later, in the Southern Glen...

A fleeting afternoon sun warming his back, Aonghas set his rough hands against his hips, frowning in concentration as he stared at the shoddy lean-to before him. Banked against a young poplar, the hastily assembled construct was a real shame; far too sparse and unconcealed considering the man building it should be a master at fieldcraft. He shook his head. "Too much time in a command tent......damn, Eoin was right..." Emily was peering at the engine in her truck. Wrench going crazy to a few things while she muttered to herself," Damn engine....Damn....damn....damn engine!" Growling she shifted a bit so that she was was compleately in a lean against her truck. Coveralls and tennies the only thing in sight while one foot lifted and her figure dipped forwards. She almost fell in the engine! She was so frustrated at this point with the damn thing that her face was red. Aonghas furrowed his brow in a last stich denial before sighing with resignation. "Damn field commission..." he muttered, cursing the words of his mentor before beginning to tear down the shabby improvised shelter. As he knelt to his work, removing the bows of cedar from the canted roof, he heard a clanging and cursing from far beyond the tree line. Standing and shifting to the side, he was able to spot Emily, now bent precariously over a contraption he recognized as an automobile. Her figure spun from the truck and she shoved the wrench into her tool box. Growling again she pushed blonde locks from her face and shifted so that she was starting to peel off her coveralls. A black tank top was on her form as well as black jeans. She wriggled until her tennies were pulled from the leggings of the coverall. She grumbled so that she was turning to walk back towards the truck. Opening it she tossed her coveralls in and grabbed her jacket. She was turning and starting to walk up towards the city. As Emily frustrated over whatever mechanical problem she was suffering, Aonghas watched as she suddenly slammed her wrench down, causing his eyebrows to perk slightly. She certainly had a stiff lip, he considered; perhaps she would be fine walking the several kilometres back to the southern gates, even with the darkness setting in of the late November day. Besides, he certainly needed practice at his current pursuit. The thought made him twist slightly to regard the pathetic lean-to and with a snarl he was off. Jogging quietly from the tree line, he continued at pace until his footsteps could surely be heard by what he knew were deft ears. Emily's head turned wildly as she heard the steps. A brow perked up and she swallowed, not in the mood to be followed this early into eve and alone. Her swallow came and she looked back to her truck in the distance. Biting her lip she turned her eyes towards the truck in the distance and she swallowed. Great, maybe she should have brought her wrench along, she was human afterall. This was the only issue she had, in this form she had no powers to defend herself with. As he approached, his brows furrowed in confusion...why hadn't she seen or heard him yet' He remembered Ren as being posessed of incredible sensory ability, even in human form...and hadn't this girl foremost acted as though she was posessed largely of Ren's attitudes" Figuring that she was ignoring him for his impatient and hasty retreat from their conversation just the previous day, he continued on, now topping the small rise between them, only a few metres away in the darkness. Emily turned her head to that very ridge and she crouched down. Brows furrowing while she folded her arms behind her back. Frowning as she shifted. If she had any ablilities other than the ones she had gained from Ren in the transfer, they had yet to show themselves. This form of Ren was surely the weakest, but that wouldn't stop her from seeing him. Somehow that alone made her heart skip a beat. She shot forwards and cried out," Aonghas!" Hope in her eyes, for some reason she felt safer when he was around. Coming to a loping halt at the sudden outburst, Aonghas smiled and waved, not feeling the short six-hundred-or-so meter run from where he left off. "Emily, how are you? Sorry to come up out of the blue like that; I saw you walking alone and was wondering if you'd like some company. Where are you headed?" Her run didn't stop she had ran so fast towards him that she had almost tackled him. Arms were thrown around his neck and she hugged him close to her. Her face buried in one of his shoulder and she whimpered as she spoke," I thought you were some creep that was following me. Scared the wits out of me..." Swallowing while she clung to him," My truck broke down and I was going in town to run to my shop for some parts." Chuckling, he patted her back a bit, slightly disarmed by the sudden and unfamiliar affection. "My apologies, lass. It seems I misjudged your instincts a bit." Smiling, he gently held her off at the waist, an awkward expression and slight flush coming to his cheeks. Eyes danced at him while she smiled to his words. Caressing his cheek a bit softly she did it as carefully as she could. Biting her lip while she smiled to him," After the other day I wasn't sure you ever wanted to see me again." It was true. She didn't know what to make of his haste to see her off that day. After all she was afraid that she had said something quite wrong to him. His skin thrilling to the touch of her hand on his cheek, he dropped his hands from her waist and twisted to the side slightly, clearing his throat with a fist to cover the cough. "Ah yes, well..." He began, stumbling over his words at first. Feelings of desire were quite jarring after nearly a year without. "...I assure you I meant nothing by it. Simply had to get about my business; I trust you know how starting fresh in a new place can be. Shall we be off?" He gestured with an open hand up the road. Smiling to him and seeing that pink on his face she bit her lip. Her head turned a bit so that she could look towards the road and she nodded to him lightly. She traced her hand down over his shoulder and nodded to him," Sure. That is if you don't mind walking me." Smiling to him softly and lightly while she slowly slid from holding him so tight. Her eyes lifted up to him and she looked in his eyes curiously. "No, of course not." He started off beside her, settling into a steady and habitual pace and stance; slightly fast, right hand draped over the handle of his leg-strapped cleaver, the other swinging easily at his side. She continued to walk besides him as her arms folded behind her back. Stopping for a moment she turned to the side and looked to him," I have something for you. Something I meant to give you before you left....Actually two things..." She nodded to him as she folded her arms behind her back and into the bag she had manged to strap over her shoulder before leaving her truck. Irrationally annoyed at the sudden stop, he suppressed the feeling and turned to face her. "Oh' What's that?" A glit of silver was in her hand as she looked in his eyes. Holding out her hand she held it out to him," I bought it from Hina..." Nodding as she opened her hand to reveal a silver watch with an axe engraved on the outside. Smiling softly to him and swallowing," Remember that day?" He searched his mind briefly. Whatever the memory was, it escaped him now, lost amid a sea of specific information too concentrated to support nostalgia. Shaking his head as his eyebrows raised, he took the object, and held it up close to his face to see in the dying light. "It's quite nice." He regarded her. "Unfortunately I don't remember the day you mention though." Nodding once more she turned to walk once more. Frowning while she worked out what to do from this point. It seemed that all her efforts to rekindle who she was with him were failing. She didn't want to lose him and the more she thought of losing him the more her chest hurt, and her head lowered. Sighing she closed her eyes and folded her arms behind her back. Biting her lip once more she whispered," It was a good day....You bought something that day too....Though I don't know what it was. I never got the chance to look at it." His pace slowed for a second as his mind sparked to life. Eyes widening, he wore an expression as one who finds something that had been hiding in plain sight all along. "Perhaps that's it..." he muttered to himself, before drawing his battle cleaver and holding it blade down to regard the butt. There mounted in the side of the wood was a flat silver broach in the likeness of a wild rose, it's gleaming metal burnished to a fine polish with wear, and shot through with myriad flecks of deep garnet. "I've never carried jewelery, so perhaps this was meant to be your gift. I can't even remember having it mounted."