Stifled or not, that laughter was contagious, and Aurus found himself laughing too as he answered. "Oh this conversation was definitely one that a sylvari overheard. Mad Mardine is a charr of some small infamy--he's a scientist." He struggled to keep a straight face as he said the next part, but pretty much failed and had dissolved into laughter by the end of the sentence: "His research is on methods of hurling food--living food--safely into a siege-bound fort."
In short, Charles was right that the charr were warriors through and through. So much so that even their craziest inventions and schemes were inspired by the problems of warfare.
It took a moment after all that for Aurus to regain his composure. It was pretty rare for him to lose himself to laughter that way, and he needed a moment before he could say more. Presently though, he did manage.
"Actually, this field was far less populous when I was still in the Dream. After all, there were only a dozen sylvari alive in the whole world at that time, as opposed to the many thousands whose combined memories and deeds populate the scene here now.
"I am sure that I must have seen things here, seen this space--the Grove always felt familiar to me from the moment I awoke--but it is not what I most keenly remember, not what most stayed with me.
"As I understand it is with humans, so to it is with us: you dream many things, but when you awake, you may remember only piecemeal flashes. Narratives become hazy, it becomes unclear how you got from one place to the next or how events are connected. Once you awaken, what becomes most important about a dream is not what you saw, but the attempt to express it, recapture it, find the right words to keep it alive. Your mind focuses on whatever had the most impact.
"The thing I most keenly remember from before I awoke was a vision of mountains." By this time, Aurus was no longer laughing at all, but instead had a serious, thoughtful expression, like he was recalling something very personal and intimate, something that had changed him as a person. "They were snow-capped, and mist clung around them, and they extended seemingly forever. I can't remember how I moved through them--it was like flight, but not--and as I moved the landscape changed, the light changed. I saw desert canyons and old lava flows and vast cliffs of ice and some things I still have no name for."
It would be hard to extrapolate from his experience to that of most sylvari though, he thought--like Charles had said, he was an outlier. He gave a slightly apologetic smile. "Everyone's Dream is different."
Cattlepult: a real GW2 thing...into which you must climb and get shot out of. No lie.
In short, Charles was right that the charr were warriors through and through. So much so that even their craziest inventions and schemes were inspired by the problems of warfare.
It took a moment after all that for Aurus to regain his composure. It was pretty rare for him to lose himself to laughter that way, and he needed a moment before he could say more. Presently though, he did manage.
"Actually, this field was far less populous when I was still in the Dream. After all, there were only a dozen sylvari alive in the whole world at that time, as opposed to the many thousands whose combined memories and deeds populate the scene here now.
"I am sure that I must have seen things here, seen this space--the Grove always felt familiar to me from the moment I awoke--but it is not what I most keenly remember, not what most stayed with me.
"As I understand it is with humans, so to it is with us: you dream many things, but when you awake, you may remember only piecemeal flashes. Narratives become hazy, it becomes unclear how you got from one place to the next or how events are connected. Once you awaken, what becomes most important about a dream is not what you saw, but the attempt to express it, recapture it, find the right words to keep it alive. Your mind focuses on whatever had the most impact.
"The thing I most keenly remember from before I awoke was a vision of mountains." By this time, Aurus was no longer laughing at all, but instead had a serious, thoughtful expression, like he was recalling something very personal and intimate, something that had changed him as a person. "They were snow-capped, and mist clung around them, and they extended seemingly forever. I can't remember how I moved through them--it was like flight, but not--and as I moved the landscape changed, the light changed. I saw desert canyons and old lava flows and vast cliffs of ice and some things I still have no name for."
It would be hard to extrapolate from his experience to that of most sylvari though, he thought--like Charles had said, he was an outlier. He gave a slightly apologetic smile. "Everyone's Dream is different."