Completed [Hunter's Allegiance] Included by Association

[Khida]

Fall 7, 513 AV afternoon One thing had come clear to Khida as she gave greater thought to the city she now lived in -- her bondmate confirmed to its conventions not at all. Or so it struck her. He lived alone, with herself and the snake, not with other Drykas -- the horses alone didn't count, not in this. He lived in a small tent, spare and confined, not in one of the large and elaborate pavilions she saw all throughout the city. He lived outside rather than within, on the fringe, close and yet apart. And though he lived by hunting, he placed his camp always between the areas flagged with reds and yellows -- though it was the places marked with green which seemed to have the most to do with hunting. Like this one. In the height of the afternoon, there were only a few people out in the open spaces around the pavilion: a woman and two adolescent boys all occupied with throwing discs of metal at nothing. It was similarly unbusy inside, the pavilion walls raised to give a clear view within and without, letting the autumn breeze waft through. The interior was all but carpeted in hides; antlers and horns and the feathered crest of a glassbeak hung from the structure's support poles. Sometimes even the whole heads of beasts, their fur patchy and motheaten, yet eyes curiously bright. Khida stepped in, reached up to touch one -- "They're glass," came a voice from behind her, masculine, its tones hinting faintly at age. She turned to face the speaker, finding a visage to match the voice -- older, graying around the edges, but still far from weakened by his gathered years. He regarded her levelly, expectantly, and one brow arched as silence stretched on without any input from her. "Eye," he supplied in Pavi, resting a finger beside his own. Then he pointed towards the preserved and mounted trophy. "Glass." "Glass," she echoed, to acknowledge the teaching moment. Khida rubbbed her fingers together, recalling the cool familiar feel -- glass. "You're with the Dawnwhisper boy, aren't you?" he continued before she could say anything further, his Pavi now slow and carefully enunciated so the foreigner might catch all that she could understand. Without regard for any personal space, he reached towards -- though did not in the end touch -- the mark below her right ear. "Dawnwhisper's wife. What is your name?" npcNPC in question is Zethar Earthstone, from the location page.

[Tani]

Striders, Tani had decided, were far better suited to this kind of work. She paused beneath a faded green awning, wiping beads of sweat from her forehead. Her back groaned in relief as she set the yvas down in the dirt, hands sliding along the empty bags affixed to the girth section. The walk from the Glassrider Pavilion had only been a few minutes, stark red tents giving way to the emerald hues of Endrykas' hunters. Though with the yvas cradled awkwardly in her arms, her poor abused muscles insisted the journey had been far longer.

The training grounds that surrounded the pavilion were near empty today, hunters and their apprentices busying themselves with the business of seeing to the grassland city's recent influx of unwilling immigrants. It seemed most of the population had paused with their arrival, as though the city was holding its breath. Tani hardly noticed anymore. Spending summer among the raiders had quickly robbed her of any of the curiosity the new arrivals might otherwise have drawn. Instead, she found herself playing pack mule among half-empty tents.

Ignoring her protesting shoulders, Tani hefted the yvas and closed the last few feet to the pavilion. It was a clear day, and the breeze crept through the tent like a mouse through a food store, quiet, hesitant, yet strangely eager. Tani was glad of it, the wind whipping some of the sweat from her clothes. Familiar furs lined the floors, glass eyes staring into eternity. Tani tried not to shudder. Comfortable though the furs were, the stony-eyed trophies had always unnerved her. It wasn't right for prey to stare like that, not at those who hunted it.

Zethar had his back to her, the old hunter tending to one of the many prizes slung from the pavilion's poles. Though the two shared only a passing familiarity, Zethar was soft in a way some of the other hunters lacked, and Tani was glad it was him manning the tent.

"They're glass." Tani nearly dropped the yvas. Surely he couldn't have seen her. The man hadn't turned since she entered the pavillion. Heard her, maybe, but seen? As the man continued talking, Tani caught a flash of movement behind him. She lowered the yvas to the floor, gently this time, and edged her way to the right. Predictably, she'd caught Zethar mid-lesson. His student today was a little shorter then Tani, her clothing unremarkable. No clan colours adorned the brown robe she wore. More striking though, were the fierce golden eyes that stared out at Zethar, every bit as unyielding as the glass eyes of the trophies. Another outsider she noted with a twinge of distaste. She opened her mouth to speak before Zethar cut her off.
"You're with the Dawnwhisper boy, aren't you? Dawnwhisper's wife. What is your name?" Perhaps not. Tani had never seen the woman before, and she was without any obvious windmarks, but the latter could be said of Tani herself. She knew of Drykas that chose to live on the borders of Endrykas, had spent time among them, but the dispersed nature of those individuals meant she had little cause to meet many of them. She was still unsure whether the woman was friend or foe, but she would reserve judgement, for now.

"Zethar." She kept back, still uncertain of the stranger. "This was Kyron's. He wanted it to get back to you." Her hands danced across her chest in no particular pattern, half-formed signs flashing and fading as she changed her mind. Why the yvas needed to be returned hardly mattered to her. She had been present when her bondmate had loaned it, and it only seemed natural that she should return it.

[Khida]

"Yes," she said; she was his wife, though that was to her the less important relationship -- and "Khida," for the second question. Her attention caught by the man before her, Khida didn't see the new arrival until she was directly behind the Drykas, where it became entirely impossible to not see her. The stranger's presence startled Khida, and she took the time to study the other woman, amber gaze direct and piercingly intent. She was tall, wiry, direct in her regard; she held herself with an alertness that her observer read predator into, though Khida could not have named what nebulous traits coalesced into that perception. The stranger interrupted, addressing the man in Pavi too fluid and quick for Khida to quite pick meaning from. The motion of her hands, she recognized better, the questing yet ultimately shapeless gestures of one sifting through words and finding none suitable. She didn't know what, specifically, the other woman had difficulty speaking of, but knew something of the feeling. "Tani," the man greeted upon turning to face her, offering a smile more amiable than merely polite. His hands lifted in a fluid gesture, their motion slow and precise, weighted with formal sorrow: I grieve with you. "Thank you for returning it," he continued, a more casual flicker of fingers emphasizing gratitude. Khida looked on their interaction with a distinct lack of comprehension, and a reserved sort of interest that didn't really care what they were about in its particulars. She noted the diffidence in their postures, the indications these two didn't know one another too well. The man glanced back at her, a glint in his eyes; distraction didn't mean he'd forgotten her presence. "And do you hunt, like the boy?" he asked curiously. His gaze slid to the cat Kelvic,that selfsame glint reappearing, though any hint of smile was only implied. "Tani here hunts. Maybe she would welcome a partner sometimes, hmm?" Khida gave the other woman a sidelong look, not exactly seeming the most thrilled by that notion -- or at least what she followed of it. "I have..." Whatever that word was. Friend, she signed, falling back on the one she did know. Though she continued to look at Tani, wary, cautious, thoughtful. ...who are you? she finally asked in silence, brusque yet tentative overture.

[Tani]

Tani nodded, acknowledging the man's thanks. Leaving the yvas behind had a finality to it that was far heavier than the physical weight of the strapping. Nonetheless, as much as she hated to admit it, there was a part of her that was glad to be rid of the yvas. It was just another reminder she didn’t need.

Zethar returned his attention to the woman lurking near the tent pole. Khida she’d said her name was. A sharp name, grating. It seemed to fit this fierce-eyed woman well. Furs curled around her toes as Tani shifted under the woman’s stare, doing her utmost to return it. Something in her unblinking gaze left the feline Kelvic uncomfortable; there was an aspect of predation in those yellow eyes. Despite the pavilion above her, Tani felt awfully exposed. Then Khida returned her stare to the Drykas and the feeling faded.

“Tani here hunts. Maybe she would welcome a partner sometime, hmm?” Tani straightened at the mention of hunting, her characteristic slouch vanishing. Though she was a tracker, at least as far as most of the Drykas were concerned, she saw little cause for the distinction. They all chased the same prey, albeit with her at the front. If this woman was a hunter too… She glanced at the steely-eyed woman, tracking her hands as they moved across her body, slow, almost methodical compared to Zethar’s natural ease, the woman seemed to be choosing her words carefully. Tani did the same.

Tani. She signed back, a nonchalant rise and fall of the shoulders indicating the regard in which she held the name. Hunter. As teacher says. She tilted her head back at Zethar in acknowledgement. Sign had always felt a curt language to her, tense, innate, and suited to hunting. The movements were more akin to unconscious body language to her, closer to tensing a muscle than speaking. Using it for a deliberate conversation felt odd, like consciously breathing. She switched back to Pavi, hands continuing to dart before her.

"The last hunter Zethar sent with me crushed the trails." She mused, earlier discomfort forgotten. The implication was clear. Can you do better? "We had to resort to traps." The word dripped from her lips like a particularly virulent poison.

[Khida]

The strange woman signed something which might have been a phrase, a description, a repeat of her name; Khida didn't know what significance to assign it, and its meaning remained obscure. But she went on to make gestures which were more clear: hunter, assent, teacher. Teacher, Khida echoed, a small and stilted twitch of fingers which seemed unconscious, unthinking, no more than echoing her momentary glance to Zethar. He gazed steadily right back, offering no word or sign to further influence the women, his expression as obscure as could be. Finding nothing in the man, Khida looked again to the woman. Her expressed opinion of traps glanced off the falcon Kelvic, receiving the disregard of unfamiliarity: Khida didn't use traps. She would, if and when she thought about it, but for the present that subject was a complete nonstarter. As for trails... amber eyes regarded the woman levelly, with no sign of offense at the implications her words made. No sign that, in the end, she cared what Tani thought of her skill; skill stood on its own, whatever other people's opinions. But Khida did look thoughtful, considering the tall woman, then at the last shook her head -- slowly, in dismissal of concern rather than negation. Ground you, prey follow, she signed after a long pause, these gestures familiar and more fluid in their execution. I fly.

[Khida]

mod noteTani's player is going on hiatus, and gave permission for me to use her character in closing out the thread. Her newfound peer, this other hunter, this Tani, took Khida's assertion with seeming surprise -- and a faintly disdainful loft of her chin. But the falcon thought it was as much appearance as actual caution, scoff for the sake of scoff. "Fine," the woman said, and "we'll see how you do." Khida said nothing in reply, and after a beat the green-eyed woman turned away from her steady quietude. She offered a more polite farewell to the elder teacher, before withdrawing into the tent-city beyond. Khida watched her go, attention drawn away only when the man gestured for her regard. "You'll have to tell me how that hunt works out," he remarked, voice smooth and level but a curious glint in the man's dark eyes, a hint of smile around the edges of his expression. She thought him amused, and perhaps pleased -- somewhat like a raptor freshly sated, comfortably satisfied, just a little smug in his success. Something else seemed to occur to him, and he gestured to the trophy head she had earlier examined. "In fact, bring your kills here afterwards," he continued, hands fluttering through companion signs she mostly understood. "From that hunt, and any others you make later on. The Clan will buy the kills from you." Canting her head, Khida considered this thought. Most of her hunting, now, went to feed herself and the camp directly; so did his, but so too did he sell some of it, and the mizas from that selling bought the tents, the clothes, the tools, all the things which the Dawnwhisper camp needed and could not be foraged from the Sea. She herself needed little, but the others needed much -- and as they were his responsibility, they also became hers. More mizas could benefit them all; meat, they obtained in relative plenty. Yes, Khida signed, hesitating a moment after to find the Pavi words she needed. "I will hunt, come here... to you," she assured the man, as the equivalent of to sell eluded her. He smiled his approval, gesturing thank you and something else she didn't understand. He opened his mouth to speak again, but other voices cut across before his could even start -- young voices, eager, excited; the two boys returning from their practice, leaning on one another and gesticulating wildly as they laughed and groaned over revisited successes and failures. The teacher turned to attend to them; Khida withdrew from the ruckus they made, having no further business here. She would find the Tani woman another day, and bring kills to the teacher to sell as she had them -- all of which arrangements had come entirely unlooked-for, even unasked-for. But she hunted, and she lived with Drykas -- was wed to a Drykas -- and that apparently brought her the same consideration he received from these people. It remained to be seen whether she really desired such. But if it did benefit the hunter and the rest, it would be worthwhile to go along.

[Taylani]

XP Award!

Khida:

XP Award:

• +1 observation
• +2 social

Lore:

• Shahar Dawnwhisper: Part of yet apart from the Drykas
• Taxidermy: The eyes are glass
• Tani: Predator within

Notes: These are comments.




Tani:

XP Award:

• +1 Observation
• +1 social

Lore:

• Hunting: Crushing trails leaves traps as last resort.

Notes:

Comments :

Feel free to pm me with concerns about your grade. Don’t forget to edit/delete your grade request..

TAYLANI