PM to join Adapting to Endrykas

[Taylani]

89 Fall 513

The late afternoon sun was riding low and fat in the sky, and the Tent City of Endrykas was finishing putting down stakes in their newest area. Already they were preparing to hit the southernmost part of their run, and while Taylani could not tell, some of the more adept at land navigation can already tell that they were beginning to move along the borders of the southern deserts. Thanks to their migration the air was just chilled, and did not hold the nip of winter like it would have in a stationary city. The stars were just starting to blink into being, as the sunlight faded fast.

One person moves along the outer pavilions, returning from a foraging run. There was slim pickings this late in the season, and since she was alone she hadn't wanted to leave the city too far. The red head moved with a basket bearing a paltry amount of smoothed stones from the near by water source, a couple of mushrooms and not much else. Though her clothing was now as colorful as the Drykas wont, and her brilliant shade of red hair was braided ...if some what messily thanks to lack of experience..just as a Drykas woman would there was something about her that screamed outsider. Perhaps it was the unsteady steps around the tent stakes, and though it had been a full season since she had been kidnapped and forced into the city, Taylani was still not used to many of the things that make Drykas life in Endrykas normal.

Her height, a five foot eight inch frame, put her tall enough to move with a grace that belied her hesitant steps. Her pale skin seemed even more pallid, and occasionally she would have to press a hand against her stomach and stop moving, swaying gently on her feet before she starts again. Her green linen breeches was stained at the knees with water marks thanks to her attempt at foraging.

[Reyaax Weststorm]

A bronze chalice swung back and forth rhythmically from Vangar's hand, allowing the red wine to splash out onto his tunic. He sang a tune aloud with a deep slur in his voice from the booze. Aside him was Reyaax with an assertive demeanor about him, though a hint of smile across his lips and a wooden mug wrapped in his fingers. He towered over Vangar as the two made their way down the beaten dirt road, one having more of a stagger in his step than the other. "It's good to have you back, brother," the drunker of the two brothers spat out followed by a slap on his kin's back.

Upon arriving to a 'surprise', Rey had taken in a whiff of wood burning. The aroma took him back to the forest. Envisaging the silhouette of embers and smoke rising through the tent's material. Endless specks of distant glows in the night sky illuminated the land. He'd continuously speculate what it'd be like if he'd never came back to Endrykas. The only worries he had was the road ahead of him and the wind at his back. That fraction of his life was over and a new portion was dawning, it was time to let go.

Vangar pulled the curtain doorway aside and gestured for Reyaax to enter. In the interval where the passage opened up, the blazing torches blinded Rey as he ducked down to avoid from hitting his head while slipping in. It had been so dreadfully steamy and humid inside the enormous pavilion. As the unaware relative's chestnut eyes began to adjust, the eyes oriental and somber, as realization arrived. It was a brothel. There was no telling it was anything else. Human women strutted around, majority without blouses on and the classic seductive looks about them. He caught obscure moans, grunts and screams of pleasure. Immediately wanting to leave but knowing Van would try to prevent him, he went with it.

Much sooner than expected, Vangar was making sweet love with a gal that couldn't of seen more than sixteen summers. Exiting almost as fast as he entered, Reyaax left the whorehouse reeking of rose and citrus blossom perfume without even having to come in contact with a harlot. The tenacious aroma nauseated him as he parted with his shirt by removing it and relinquishing the god awful smell.

The wind blew in tough, solid gusts as onyx curls of hair followed the breeze of nature's blows. Goose pimples rose to the pale, olive skin that had scars and other defects from battle upon it. As he hiked through the thick of grass parallel to the riverbank, familiar lengths of fiery red hair came into view. He felt the alcohol wearing off at this point as his mind became less foggy, sobering up. Pointing to the woman and bobbing his wrist up and down he called out to her "look, it is Ra'Cenglor." When he spoke, the name he referred to as seemed to be Pavi, his accent sounding fluent - whereas common tongue was undoubtedly his primary language though.

[Taylani]

The woman moved with the unconscious ease of someone who was self aware of her body. Though her direction was not quite as easy, for she was still unused to having to find her way around the tent city. Even though they generally set up in the same formation every day, every day it was a new geography even if it was only a few miles. It was hard on her, someone who was raised to use things like street signs, trees, and other stationary objects that she didn't have here.

Her basket was dismally light, but then again she hadn't expected to get much haul. So when she was interrupted by a man speaking to her surprisingly in Common. Turning, blue eyes caught a figure that she did not know but whose figure seemed vaguely familiar, one brow raising as she shifted the basket to one hip.

His words had seemed to be the common tongue, though one was unfamiliar to her and she just assumed it was Pavi. His accent was not as harsh as the rest of the Drykas though, which caused her a moment of confusion. Was he another captive? Or perhaps someone raised outside of Endrykas but chose to be Drykas.

"Excuse me?" She asked, assuming he knew common well enough to not need her to find new simpler words from his accent. "Can I help you?" There was a chance he was simply a traveler escorted to the Tent City by the Watch. perhaps he was lost.

[Reyaax Weststorm]

"Mad woman," he bluntly told her. Feeling outrageously tall and growing with every lofty stride he took to near her. Broad shoulders stretched vastly beneath his neck that always seemed to catch his own perception through peripheral vision. It was likely that the redhead wouldn't understand the implication.

Night skies blanketed the land and shadows broke out to signify it was time for dreams. Excluding the twilight community who seemed to typically be the same kinfolk prowling the village each night. Reyaax's father used to tell him that anyone out after sundown is up to no good. Though most of these night folk were either guards or workers disassembling Endrykas for it's next route. Frequently when Rey was unable to sleep he'd stroll the midnight fields and often pass the laborers where he'd stop to watch them. These midnight strolls were occurring often for some time up until about a halfway through Fall.

Emotionless eyes, lips, and expression. Reyaax showed little sentiment in his body language or words as he spoke "It translates as the mad one or mad woman." As he explained to her, he would lay the palm of one hand on the back of his head and the palm of the other hand atop the first, causing his elbows to stick outward at the slightest angle towards her. "I witnessed your eruption and was told you've earned yourself a title." Pausing for a moment, allowing the slightest chuckle to escape his lips and his shoulders bounce from the minuscule laughter. "Although, I wouldn't let it get under your skin. The way it's said.." He took a few second pause. "It's hard to render it to common. I suppose the dialect it is spoke, it means that you are willful and strong. But crazy, very crazy."

[Taylani]

Taylani drew herself up to her full height as he nears, wariness etched in her features and something else that causes her lips to grimace. The grimace was for the wave of nausea that hits her, causing her stomach to rise but like most of her early sickness this is brief and fortunately passes before she has much time to dwell on it. Pushing the thick red braid back over her shoulder she quirks a brow, and tilts her head.

"I don't know about strong." She says, her chin lifting just a little but she does unconsciously put the basket she holds between the two. He seemed unusually large, considering her own height it has been a while since anyone has made her feel almost dainty. "But I suppose it is true to call me willful." Her words are spoken with a thought filled tone, not sure exactly what to make of this man who seemed to know of her. If he had heard about her ...sometimes frequent...outburst then likely he had heard of her ill-fortuned escape attempt.

"You have me at a disadvantage, as I don't think I know you. I am not ..." She paused trying to work the strange word on her tongue, but gives up instead said "I am not called crazy woman. I am called Taylani."

[Reyaax Weststorm]

Reyaax gave his new found acquaintance a deep grunt that sounded to originate from the back of his throat. He felt a forceful gust of wind wallop against his chest, sending an internal quiver starting in his stomach and coasting up his robust abdomen. Dropping his arm from their previous stretching position and tugging a tattered leather riding glove off his right hand then offering her his palm. As the hand hovered there, his palm pointing to the sky it could be seen from the luminous moonlight how beaten his skin was. Up and down his colossal bicep was odd looking circular wounds that had been scarred over but stopped at the end of his elbow and beginning of his forearm. Masking essentially the full length of his forearm was a hideous disfigured surface that looked like someone had gotten his skin to melting temperature and smeared the melting skin about his arm, conjointly, a portion of his hand taking some of the damage. Without delay, anybody with half a brain could tell it was a severe burn that had healed over.

If she would place her hand atop of his, he'd bow down and place his lips on the top of her hand for a split second. This being a tradition of his people. Always must they greet a woman with respect as so, this custom goes for all men, prior to them being wed. It would be practically inevitable that not a soul would ever catch Rayeex display this sort of respect or regard unless being shown to exceptionally close friends or family. Subsequently to momentarily resting his lips on her and raising - he'd greet her "Allow me to introduce myself; Rayeex Weststorm of the Diamond clan."

Once getting the formalities out of the way, he'd begin to amble on again. Tilting his head forward, gesturing for Taylani to follow. It was clear he was headed away from Endrykas, to the west. He fixed his footsteps to hers, almost cutting his regular steps in half. Walking some way before saying anything he turned to her and asked "do you ride?"

[Taylani]

Taylani was utterly confused by this big man, his scars, his size, and even his mannerisms might speak of something that was to be feared. However his gallantry and his words were friendly and easy. So when he offered his hand to her she hesitated, wondering briefly what he wanted of her and one hand instinctively traveled to her belly protectively but the other does raise just to see what he was up to, thinking perhaps he was going to shake her hand. However when he bent low and pressed his lips against her hand, she almost dropped her basket in surprise.

He introduced himself, and for a moment Taylani allowed her thoughts to turn to his burns. Instinctively, though there was little love lost for Drykas with her, she felt a sorrow at the horrible pain she imagined he must have gone through. The sorrow passes across her face as she has lost the ability, or rather the will, to mask her feelings from her face. But before she could note it he was beckoning her to follow.

That she couldn't do. She might have been a soft city girl, brought in captivity to this place but the idea of leaving the tent city nearing dark -not counting her escape attempt of course- was out of the question. To leave the city and the safety there in with a stranger, a stranger that made even the dancer at five foot eight inches tall seem small , was even more outrageous.

" I am sorry, I can't..." She stopped, suddenly, her stomach spasming suddenly, and unlike the last bout of sickness this one did not diminish. Rushing forward, quite coincidentally she brushes past him, seeking to move just a little away from the tents but even in the mad dash she kept the knowledge that she needed to stay within sight well in her mind. Falling to her knees, bent over and silently thanking the gods that her hair was braided and thus out of the way as her dinner rose past her lips and onto the ground.

It doesn't last long, but she stays on the ground for a long moment to try and let the humiliation of being sick in front of someone pass. To try and move the attention off of what just happened she sat slowly back on her knees, smoothing the light purple colored blouse down over her stomach again. "Yes I ride..not very well..but yes. I am learning."

[Reyaax Weststorm]

A puzzled look arose on Reyaax's face for a trice. Promptly feeling foolish, as a single cackle erupted from his lips. "Smart girl," he told her an instant before she sprinted away. "Very smart girl," he told himself aloud, evidently in a joking manner as if she was running from him. The tone of his voice never seemed to change. While amusing himself with the comment, his head prepared to shift towards her but heard the heaving. He caught a glance of her discharging but turned his head forward to avoid the scene, assuming she wouldn't want to be watched.

It hadn't been until she came back when he realized there was a child within her. "Is it to be a boy or girl," he questioned her, swapping subjects. Wanting to know whether she hoped for male or female. When he asked, there seemed to be a hint of sincerity in his words. Before then he spoke without interest and apathy. He'd always had an odd sort of appreciation for children and the genesis of life.

Understanding that Taylani could not leave the city grounds, he gave her the same gesture as earlier. Except this time he bobbed his head towards Endrykas. "I must make a visit to the city's Fletcher if you'd like to accompany me," he said. Reyaax still needed a bow for the hunt if he wanted to put in his share of slaughter. In the years before all he had used were traps and his blade. He was a fairly skilled trapper and swordsman, yet he knew if he learned to shoot a bow he could bring much more to the table.

[Taylani]

Once she had composed herself, Taylani picks herself up off the ground adjusting her clothing on her before turning back towards him, her face pink but she lifts her chin almost defiantly. Mainly just to avoid even more embarrassment then having voided her stomach in front of him, she picks up her foraging basket once more and moves closer to the city. She wasn't surprised at his knowledge that she was with child, even though it was still fairly early and her belly was still flat. She had been a captive, and if he had heard of her temper then he knew this well. Though she hadn't realized exactly what had been expected of captives until Fallan had bought her at the auction, she knew now that the ticket to release of captivity was a child.

The fact that she had been a captive, and just gotten sick in front of him made it not surprising that he guessed her condition. Fortunately the sickness, though never really confined to morning, was light and not really all that difficult. For the first time though, she smiled when he asked about the gender, it was an unconscious smile one she hadn't even realized she had given. To see it, it would have been difficult to believe that this woman had once threatened to kill any child Fallan got upon her by force. Now she smiled, if not brightly, it was still a rare upturning of her lips. "I know not. I don't care either, though it seems boys fare much better in this world."

She gauged the time when he asked if she would accompany him, judging it to be early enough that Fallan would possibly be still with his brother Skylar with the leather. "Sure, I can walk with you." Taylani turned, hesitated for a moment, before choosing a direction. "Endrykas still gets me twisted.." She had no knowledge of how to see the web that helped to guide all Drykas. She shouldn't even know about the web, if it had not been for a teenaged healer that spilled the secret she wouldn't know. However, knowing doesn't help since she couldn't see the tendrils that tied everything and allowed Drykas the ability to navigate the grasses easily, so she relied on tent markings.

As she walked, she hesitated but asked simply out of sheer curiosity, "Those burns..." She started, gesturing to his arm. "How did you get them?"