A Meeting In The Woods [Diana/Reida]

-The woods outside Columbus, Georgia, the ruins of the Remington home, 3:24 P.M.-

It was still a bright and sunny afternoon in Georgia when Diana arrived at the ruins of her former home. Dressed in a purple t-shirt, black skirt with pockets, white thighhigh stockings, and black tennis shoes, the blonde was not going to hide from anyone or anything with such an eye-catching outfit, but today the blonde was not here to hide. Diana was here to remember.

The ruins of the Remington house were still exactly as they had looked ever since she had last seen them two years ago. The roof and second floor had collapsed into the center of the structure and the remaining walls were jagged and weathered from a combination of exposure to the elements, termite activity, and a lack of maintenance... when seen from a distance the ruins looked like the bottom jaw of a woodland predator. Roughly ten meters away from the front of the house were a pair of granite tombstones that were aligned with where the front door of the wooden house once stood and arranged to be side-by-side in perfect alignment. They were the tombstones of her parents; Alvin Remington was buried beneath the left tombstone and Anna Remington was buried beneath the right one.

Diana herself stood a meter away from the two granite sentinels and looked at the names of her parents. The names had been etched onto the tombstones with such precision that Diana could easily read them without having to move any closer. As she stood and looked at the final resting place of her parents Diana began to wonder why she had come back to Columbus despite there being nothing for her here. Any furniture that had survived the collapse had long since been hauled away by scavengers or had rotted beyond use, so there was nothing for her to reclaim, not even clothing of hers.

Diana had spent the past two years roaming her home state looking for information on the "Vandenreich" while plying her trade as a hunting guide whenever the need for one arose plus fighting as part of a local militia whenever living reminders of the last war decided to come to the town she was staying in. It had been a fairly easy and peaceful existence... since her main expenses were for food, coffee, utilities, and rent there was enough money left over for her to save to put into traveling funds and she had not had to fight any Shadow Fall leftovers for a little over two months. If she had less ambition she would have continued that easy lifestyle forever, but Diana wanted something more out of life than being a wanderer going where the wind took her.

Diana wanted to improve her knowledge of the Quincy arts so that she could stand alone if she had to. Back when she still lived here she had received only basic training from her father Alvin and knew the basics of Blut, Kreuzen, and Steigen but had little aptitude for Gebet. Those shortcomings were of little concern when she fought as part of a local militia, but they were a liability when she had to fight by herself, which was thankfully a rare occurence. Diana wanted to become stronger so that when she traveled alone she could more effectively defend herself from threats if she had to.

Diana heard the wind pick up to the point it howled through the ruins of her home. There was still plenty of daylight, so she did not need to hurry back to Columbus just yet. She would stay here a little while longer before returning to town and getting a cup of coffee, then talking to the locals on the chance one of them could tell her about the "Vandenreich." Diana did not expect a full rundown of the organization... any bit of information would suffice for the novice Quincy.

Diana was busy standing in front of the remains of her house and thinking back to the decent old days when her parents were still alive and everything was all right. If the Shadow Fall attack on her home had not happened she might have continued living as a somewhat ordinary young woman. She might have applied for a university and gotten a college education, then tried to make a life for herself as an ordinary office worker or whatever her destined occupation was. However, fate had seen fit for her life to go differently.

Now her home was nothing but rotten and weathered wood waiting for one powerful gust of wind to finish what time had started. There was no furniture, no clothing, nothing of her past to salvage. Not even her framed high school diploma had been left for her to recover. The blonde supposed that was to be expected when she had been away from home for four years starting from the time she was eighteen years old.

When Diana finally returned here after a four-year stay in Central Georgia there was no glorious reclamation of her home where she cast down the demons and Hollows who had slain her parents and vanquished the literal demons from her past. There was no grand display of her improved Quincy abilities to show that she had grown stronger than she had been four years ago. There was no great battle to make up for her fleeing for her life upon her parents' orders while they fought a hopeless battle to buy their only daughter time to escape. Upon returning home Diana had found only a ruined house and the tombstones of her parents, which was hardly material for a spellbinding story of overcoming adversity to dramatically reclaim the family legacy and assert to the world that the Remingtons were down but not out.

Besides, the Remington "family legacy" was nothing but ghosts and memories.

The Remingtons did not hail from a distinguished Quincy lineage and had no spectacular feats of arms to its name. It was a small family of American Quincys who had lived in the woods of Georgia. That was all there was to them.

Diana stood facing her family home recalling memories and the ghosts of memories until she heard a female voice behind her. Diana kept her hands at her sides and turned around slowly to face a woman who seemed friendly enough. It was odd to see someone else this far out in the woods, but they might be a hunter passing through who was overcome by curiosity when they saw someone with long blonde hair wearing a casual outfit that included an eye-catching purple t-shirt. Diana knew that her outfit would eventually draw someone's attention, but she had not anticipated meeting someone so soon.

"Hello there." Diana replied politely and calmly.

"It is no problem." Diana assured the stranger in her usual polite but laconic way. Diana was not going to attack the other woman for trespassing on "sacred Remington ground" or anything like that. The other person had no idea of the significance of the ground she was on and the blonde was not the type to suddenly get aggressive with people over things they honestly did not know about. It would have taken an egregious offense like the other woman deliberately destroying the tombstones of her parents for Diana to get angry enough to attack.

"I am the only one in the immediate area." Diana answered the question posed to her. Part of her hoped that the stranger would not take offense to her tendency to get to the point instead of offering the usual pleasantries first. The blonde knew that that behavior could come across as being brusque and had been told that several times when she was in school, but the other part of her was not overly concerned about what people thought about her manner of speech. Even in the happier days when her parents were still alive and her life was as "normal" as it could be for a novice Quincy she was not given to verbosity, not even around family or the few friends she had.

Thinking about what she was going to say for a moment, Diana soon came up with the words to a question of her own. The question would be a simple one and whether or not it was answered was up to the stranger.

"What brings you here?" Diana calmly inquired.

Diana listened to the stranger tell her that her destination lay further east. She also heard that the other woman was paying a visit to deceased people who were of importance to her. Uncertain as to what to say to that, the blonde opted to say nothing at all until she could come up with something worth saying. That took a minute or two, but when she finally had something to say she did not waste any time.

"I am sorry to hear that." Diana said to the stranger upon hearing the purpose of their journey. It might have sounded like an empty platitude offered only to sound less curt than she had probably sounded up to this point, but the blonde was being sincere. She was standing right in front of the evidence of her own loss, which still hurt despite it happening what seemed like a lifetime ago. It was not the sort of pain that made Diana break down and cry behind closed doors or feel like there was no point in living, but it was still pain nonetheless. She had lost her family on this very ground six years ago... Diana knew all too well what losing someone she had cared about was like and she was not going to make light of the stranger's reason for traveling.

Taking a quiet breath, Diana took a step to the side and waved her left hand to show the property behind her.

"I used to live here." Diana informed the stranger, her left hand positioned to call attention to both the tombstones of her parents and what used to be her house. What was once a sturdily built wooden house was now nothing but rotting wood and memories. The ramshackle ruins of the Remington house and the basic Quincy skills she possessed were the only "inheritance" her parents had left her.

"Hollows were responsible for what happened here, not you." Diana calmly responded to the woman's apology for the hand the former had been dealt by fate. Realizing that such a statement might sound like a brusque dismissal of sympathy that had been offered in good faith, the blonde stood in silence for a brief moment to consider her next words carefully.

"I appreciate what you said nonetheless. Thank you." Diana added. Whether or not that mitigated the accidental brusqueness of her first remark was up to the stranger to decide. Diana turned her gaze to the tombstones and looked at them as she thought about the offer of temporary lodging the stranger had extended. In truth she had no need for it because she had rented a hotel room, but she wanted to let the other woman down gently because she had been nothing but polite to the blonde. Once Diana had what she wanted to say in mind she turned back to the other woman and made eye contact.

"I appreciate your offer, but I have a hotel room in town and can visit one of the local restaurants. If all else fails I can raid the snack machines." Diana politely declined the offer. Processed snack foods and fast food were far from the best meal options, but sometimes the blonde did not care about trivial details such as "healthy eating" and just wanted something convenient. If she was keen on a healthy meal she could always visit the local grocery store and grab some ingredients for a salad. Diana would decide what she wanted to eat when she got back to her hotel room.