Welcome to Gaia! ::

The introduction Thrain received from The Lairs consisted of shadolwings attacking his new home, failing to properly save his one friend's home and then meeting a woman he was pretty sure he was supposed to know. Ok, wait back that up. His maybe friend. Shaheen seemed... A tenuous relationship at best. Still, that did nothing to fix the horribly dampened beginning of return to Clan life for the Death Guardian. What in the world was he supposed to do with... What had just happened!?
Shadow creatures had attacked and he'd done really, downright embarrassingly for a Guardian fresh out of training and ready to show his moves, and then... And then the Priestess that he couldn't place was all slumped over onto the wall and just.... Today was going really poorly, alright?!
"Alright, let's get you... Somewhere other than here..." Thrain began with a sigh, not at all bothering to ask if it was aright before he bent down and scooped up the Priestess. It was an easy task for she was not at all heavy and he was honestly used to carry way larger things than just a ghoul.

"I... Am not a healer. Is there one you know of or prefer that I may take you to?" He asked with a very serious look, half because he was worried about her and half because he was trying to figure out why she was so horridly familiar. Part of the reason he had not yet asked her name was because he wanted to figure it out on his own, but the rest of him was afraid to ask because if he was wrong, then it would mean whoever she reminded him of was probably dead. And that was a reality he was continually facing without having to actively seek it out.

Even though he had tried very hard to be careful when he picked her up, there really was no way around making the injured Priestess just a little more hurt by trying to move her. Thrain winced when she hissed, murmuring a quick apology that he repeated a few times as he stood still in hopes she would adjust herself to the least painful position. For a few additional moments he stood there, large arms held out from his own body and still, worried he was doing this all wrong. Oh, who was he kidding? Undoubtedly he was, but there was little else to be done at the moment. The time for gentleness had ended once he'd scooped her up, so now all that could really be done for the Priestess was to get her somewhere she could be helped. Which, given how much of their home now seemed destroyed... Left little option.
It also did not help one bit that Thrain knew almost next to nothing about the place. Maybe two days had passed since his arrival and he had not yet worked up the nerve to go exploring. At least not until now.

A small chuckle left him as he stood there, the small ghoul in his arms considering her options. The irony of the situation was that should she tell him of the healer she wanted, he could not honestly find it without her help and therefore continue to be a burden on her when he was supposed to be the opposite. And no matter how he felt horribly silly over the whole thing, it would not do to mention it so he let it slip from his thoughts, grateful that she finally spoke up.
Only, it was not in any general direction and he was left to stand there a moment longer to decide for himself. His mouth twisted slowly with consideration before he nodded softly. A group of thoughtful Horsemen a bit back from the battle had begun to set up some lights, as well as what seemed to be healing of a sorts. That would be the place then.
"As the lady commands." He told her with a small smile before he shifted his weight carefully onto his other foot. It would be a slow go as he did not want to rock her too much, but he started softly at the sound of his name.

A puzzled face turned down to the woman, eyebrows knitted for a moment as he studied her. How could she know--
"Nergui, by the Goddess you're alright." It came out all in one breath, a quick offering of thanks as he gingerly pulled her close into the best imitation of a hug he could offer at the moment.
Never, not even for one moment since he'd been told in that dead cold of winter, did he dare believe he would be given the grace to honestly know someone who survived. But, oh, how wrong he had been.
"You have changed." This time he spoke more fondly, though still with a mix of wonder in his low voice. Now he pulled her back, still in his arms, to look her over. It was those eyes! They had changed most of all and confused him! How very interesting...

An odd emotion overtook him, something like a deep shift somewhere within himself. Everything felt raw suddenly and he ducked his head for a moment in attempt to push the emotion back down. Now was not the time to examine what he felt, to realize that the sight of the small Priestess all grown up and here safe in his arms when he'd thought her dead was enough to unhinge all his carefully crafted protection against sorrow. This small ghoul was breaking him and she'd hardly said a thing.
With a small noise that sounded like a mix of a growl and a 'harrumph', he frowned. Honestly it was just an attempt to gain control over his threateningly rampant emotions, but it was still a frown.
"Change is not always a bad thing, kind lady. You look fretful, but I like your changes. They are pretty." Oh except wait that was kind of forward. Uhhhh-- "N-not that I mean-- Well unless your changes are due to something negative which now that I think about it they probably are? But Goddess knows you are still beautiful, they have not changed you unless--" Filter, what was a filter?
The Guardian huffed a sigh, screwing his mouth up into even more of a frown as he suddenly refused to speak. If all he was going to do was insert his foot into his mouth, then it was best just to hush up altogether.

All of this was too much, her being here alive, what had just happened to the Lairs, everything. Flustered and fretting, Thrain hurried them both over to what looked to be a small stone fence, or a barrier of some sort with a relatively flat surface. He needed to sit down, just... Just a moment. His resolve had been shaken and a moment to collect himself was necessary.
Without words he lowered the Priestess onto the wall before he seated himself next to her, one hand rising to fist against his temple. It was an old habit, a physical embodiment of stress. Unaware exactly that he was doing it, but wanting more news he cast golden eyes to the ghoul at his side.
"Did... Is anyone else here?"

In a way Thrain really was judging the woman he kept close, but not in the manner the whispers might goad her into thinking. The consideration he gave her now was something more like comparing a flower to a seed. The seed had burst forth bright and colorful and new, similar to what it had been but different. All the potential had been there, it was just time for Thrain to realize it had come true. Whatever small, budding creature he had known Nergui to be, he had left her as that and returned to a glorious flower.
The shake of her head accompanied by the averted gaze momentarily made the Guardian bristle, not so much in something angry but certainly in the regard that he was worried. Yet before he could say anything else, or even before he could shift her, the worried expression turned into some semblance of a smile. A part of him realized she was mostly just laughing at his awkwardness, which was something he'd developed recently. Feeling so displaced in his new home, especially given how little he'd be around anybody else but other Guardians in training, Thrain was now much less confident than he'd once been. Even if his former confidence had been something silly and naive.

"And we make things even better than it once was... Yes?" He offered with his own small smile. At least, that was what he had hoped to accomplish. That was what he could hold onto now.
Surprise colored his expression when Nergui took the hand he was quick to turn over into her grasp, having not realized he had put it to his temple. The remark she made was a surprise and he did grin in actual warmth now.
"Ah! Bastion! That is good to hear!" But that left more questions than answer. Why had she said Bastion first? What about her older sister? Her parents? Thrain wanted to ask, he really did, but the two-toned color of her eyes still his tongue.
Something had changed her, something had crept into her when she had fled the Islands. But what was safe to ask after and what wasn't?
"And what else have we managed to keep?" It was the best way he could think of to ask after the changes she had sustained.

"I can work with a plan." And he could. Never one to be without a goal, Thrain found it all the more distressing that there seemed so little he could do at the moment. The fact that he had been mostly unable to help the further destruction of the Lairs from the shadowlings attack did not help that feeling either. That was a defeat he would carry with him for the next few weeks, regardless if he hadn't been alone in said defeat or not. Nergui was helping soothe his otherwise hurt ego, but she could not mend such a blow, not when he was still so new to this starkly different life than the one he had hoped to return to. Not when he still continued to fail his people.
An odd feeling overcame him as the Priestess's smile fell, as her face took on a sadder countenance. Though he was not privy to such, the Guardian was sure that memories rose in her mind to play out their sad little story. He was sorry that he had asked, but at the same time he was not. He knew the mare was strong enough to stand a few reminders of her pain, or at least had learned how to cope with all of it. No, the odd feeling he experienced was a sort of dread.
Bastion had survived the fall of the Islands, but the others in Nergui's family, others that Thrain had once known, had not.
The realization of such left him feeling suddenly hollow and on edge.

That awful feeling might have persisted had the Priestess not taken his hand, had not woven her fingers with his. That small touch made another feeling take over the other, something he could hold onto. This was Nergui, his old friend. The little filly who he had promised to protect, who had seen him off to his training and who had been waiting for him upon his return.
The words she spoke moved that feeling in his chest through the form of the hand not held in her grasp. That free hand reached up to clasp lightly at the space between Nergui's shoulders and push her forward into a hug.
"And I will protect what we have left." Thrain told her in a low, solemn voice. Naturally larger than she, he was able to duck his head down and momentarily rest his chin atop her head, a small moment to pray to the Goddess that all this would turn around. That he could change his failures and protect what had been left behind.