"Come now, little ones. We must move before the storm settles in."
His younger wholly charges were having some difficulty focusing enough to follow the rest of the herd which made locating somewhere better suited for his flock that much harder.
Tapping his cane gently on the straggler to get her to move, everyone managed to start going in what he hoped was the direction of a safe pasture, away from the flooded valley.
"My, my… I heard Lumen travelled in flocks but had never guessed it would be quite so literal." A voice broke through the silence of the forest, coming from the top of one of the granite boulders littered about the steep valley.
He whirled around to the vaguely mocking voice to find a Witch perched on the smooth rock, her eyes shining with a mirth that was bordering on insulting.
"Umbra!" He growled, pointing his herding cane at her before realizing it wasn't his glaive and quickly lowering it, fighting a rising blush. "Begone, I have no issue with you."
She chuckle, jumping down from her perch and landing with a near soundless touch. The commotion made his flock shuffle away nervously, startled bleats marking their retreat closer to him.
"Ah, but I have issue with you." She tutted, and a pair of long revolvers materialized in her hand, twirling them with practiced ease as she slowly circled him "You're on Crescent Valley, Sage and I'm sure you can appreciate the issue?"
Balder blanched and looked up, trying to figure out where the sun was behind the lead coloured clouds so he could know where the mountains that bordered Sunrise Valley were. No, he was sure he was still well within the boundaries of his home.
"You lie!" He accused, having given up on trying to orient himself and deciding to pay attention to his interloper.
"I do not." She reiterated, pointing towards a mountain range to her left. "You've crossed to this side of Dusk's Peak, therefore, you are on our lands with your adorably fluffy clouds."
His stomach clenched in harsh knots as he tried to see where in Paradiso he had wandered into. If the Witch was telling the truth…
He spotted Dusk's Peak in the distance, the official boundaries of Sunrise and Crescent Valley and he was clearly on the wrong side of it. If the powers that be found out he had trespassed, however accidentally it has been, they would have his head.
With a slow movement, Balder coiled and glared at his interloper, preparing to summon his Formal and weapon when she dismissed him with a gloved hand.
She drilled him with a stare, grey eyes glinting with danger and power behind her butterfly glasses and black cowl. "Your kind are always so quite lucky, it must be the divine light guiding you I'd wager." He tensed again, hands itching to summon his holy glaive but she just quirked an eyebrow at him " I'm the only one who has spotted the bleaty ones."
She cocked her head and dropped her guns back into her summoning void. "Well, yet of course. It's only a matter of time before my Umbra sisters run into you and your suitably lost lot so I would advise you to go back by the mountain pass and stick to the river."
He looked around and couldn't feel any other hints of dark magic or of an encroaching coven. Balder relaxed a fraction of an inch, his back adopting a less solid stance and he leaned on his herding staff with a much more relaxed posture than what he was truly feeling. She didn't seem interested in attacking him or apparently reporting him to the authorities but nothing ever came free. "Why?"
The Witch shrugged and petted the lamb that had trotted over to nose at her charms with a gentle hand and he was scared when he didn't bolt back to his mother's legs like he did with everyone else. "I've spotted you a while ago and you seem to care a lot about your charges." She chuckled down at the small lamb when he nibbled at her wrist jewelry, undaunted by her large size. "I wager you really did get lost, especially since the rains last week pooled in the lowlands and it was no place to leave animals."
Of course, she wasn't supposed to know that quite so well if it was forbidden to cross territories without explicit permission from the sovereign clan but as with all rules, the real problem only started when one got caught. She was very good at not getting caught, much to her roommate's eternal chagrin.
"I can't guarantee you'll find pastures that are suitable back in Sunrise Valley but you should not stay here. " She couldn't, in good conscience, turn him into the authorities.
When she had spotted him by the river, she nearly turned tail and sounded the alarm. After all, she was on patrol duty that day and nobody had told her to expect a Sage barreling into the borderlands. In the 21 years she had lived, never once had she seen a diplomatic envoy or even known of such trips into their territory, so if it was to be expected, she was sure the job of keeping an eye out would fall to a high ranking Tribunal and not her, barely a full fledged Umbra.
When her decision was about 90% made, the flock streamed into the small meadow and their shepherd, not all that younger than her and about as gangly as her friend Clara, looked up and breathed what she assumed was a prayer.
He had fussed over them for a good while, pottering about his charges and checking for injuries with a methodical care she was surprised to see was ever so loving and tender.
So, she decided to wait and see what he would do and he looked so lost, she figured he was just trying to do his job to the best of his ability.
What was the harm in giving him a chance to leave? If he was a spy, the only thing he had managed to see was forest and rolling green meadows.
Balder kept silent for a few seconds, the only sounds were of his flock and their conversational bleats in the background.
His gut was screaming at him to be wary but he had no choice but to trust her. All things considered, if she had wanted she could have summoned a whole coven on his head and he was sure they would not be nearly as accommodating as this Witch seemed to be.
All he could try and do was venture through the pass and cross Dusk's Peak to safety, preferably with as many sheep as he had left with.
"I thank you, the flash floods have compromised much of our space and eroded some of my references…" He admitted, scratching at his barely there stubble in embarrassment. When the Elder had said his tracking skills could use improvement, it was most likely this he was talking about.
She laughed at his earnest statement and he could see the material of her cowl move with her grin. Good to know the Umbra across the valley had a sense of humor.
"I'm Rosa and I promise to let you go unimpeded if you can answer me just one question." She said, lifting her hand and twirling her index in the air, amusing ringing clear in her tone.
"There is always payment with your kind! Is it because your partnership with Demons?" He shot back just as fast, echoing her early statement with a dry tone, feeling more confident he would would manage to get away with his mishap.
"You needn't be like that, Sage. I just want to know…" She set her index to her chin and tapped in a mock display of deep thought, the theatrics as delicious as they were unnecessary. "Is it easier to shepherd when you are your own sheep dog?"
He burned a deep scarlet at her question and wringed his cane in his hands, the wood creaking in complaint. "Yes…" He mumbled which caused a bark of laughter from Rosa but he continued, determined to grind out a proper answer. Of all the questions she could ask! "It is actually. It does make things easier."
She chuckled a couple more times and he managed to take full stock of where he was and where he had to go next. Balder just wanted this day to be over so bad.
"Does that satisfy your feline curiosity?"
At her nod, he whistled loudly and a chorus of bleats answered him, the shuffling of hooves starting immediately. "I shall take my leave, then...Rosa."
She stood to the side as the mass of sheep went by, speeding up as they crossed her eyesight as fidgety flock prey were prone to doing.
The whole flock was a couple of yards away from her with Balder at the rear. He was probably waiting for her to leave his line of sight before turning into his Beast Within and really putting a move on his fluffy charges.
He stopped abruptly and turned his head back, golden monocle glinting in the weak afternoon sun. "I'm Balder, by the way and you have my gratitude."
"I shall use it wisely!" She said, setting two fingers to her forehead in a mock salute.
He chuckled and clicked his tongue at the sheep, finally leaving the valley and taking the noisy chatter of bleats with him.
That intersection of light and dark had gone well, all things considered.