Meisa's Intro

Karin Sørensen

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The nights of the urban world were far different from those of the wilderness. In the cities and towns, the nights were alive and bustling with activity; they were bright with lights and cheerful faces; they were loud and boisterous—but, most of all, they never seemed to allow the creatures that were seduced into their grandeur to sleep and to rest.  The nights of the wilderness were an entirely separate species; they were lit only by the rays of the moon, the twinkling of the stars, or the flash of lightning in a storm; they were quiet and solemn, with every sound and movement having a place and purpose—they allowed the creatures of the sun to sleep, and the creatures of the moon to roam as they pleased.

For Karin, who was accustomed to the latter and had been for many years of her life, it was a stark contrast that needed time for adjustment. The sounds of the city outside her window disrupted her rest at night; she sat in her room some nights, staring at the wall or out the window while silently begging for the cacophony of cars and people to end.

Such was the previous night. She sat cross-legged on top of her bed sheets, miserable from the noise and the lack of sleep. As she played with a strand of her hair, her eyes were heavy and dreary but without relief. Most nights, she was able to close her window and have the world outside be sufficiently muffled, but, it seemed nothing would have sufficed. After moving to the side of the bed, she got up and walked to the door with a yawn.

She walked down the hall and down the stairs, stopping when she noticed someone standing in the lobby. Although late night guests were to be expected—the guild did run an inn, after all—it still struck the huntress as peculiar that someone would be possibly be looking for a meal or lodging this late at night. Though a whole night had passed since she had last changed, she was still dressed in her outfit from the previous day—a pair of grey-blue jeans and a long white shirt, with matching silver boots—purchased after she had joined the guild in an attempt to build a more “urban” wardrobe. She rested her hands on the back of a chair, quietly acknowledging the presence of Jiyu--who had stolen the words right out of her mouth.