Two is Better than One? (Haasha)

[Tinnok]

Two is Better than One?
40th of Summer, 514 A.V.

Tinnok had not yet adjusted to Zinrah. Not to being surrounded by Dhani, not to living in a cave and not the trees, not the constant darkness, not to caring for Tsuya, who seemed so small and innocent amongst all of these monstrous snakes, not to any of it. On top of this the lethargy that had stricken the Dhani had sunk deep in her body, and the half breed assumed that this was just natural, barely noticing it had affected all of Zinrah, and assuming that it was just her body adjusting to living in eternal darkness broken only by glow stones.

But Tinnok was not one to sit still, was not one to give into weariness. Tsuya and her own wounds were still healing from their battles on the 30th, but a driving urge to train forced Tinnok from her moss covered sleeping place that morning. She had heard of the Training Gallery…though she wasn’t quite sure from where or who. All she knew was it was two levels above the cavern she had found for Tsuya and her, below almost any Dhani residence, a cavern infested with salamanders that seemed fond of both Tinnok and Tsuya, and were content to sleep beside or amongst the Witch and witch-to-be.

Slowly, almost like a drunkard, Tinnok made her way slowly up the tunnels from her claimed cave, one hand splayed on the wall to keep balance, forcing one foot in front of the other slowly, ponderously. If this was how living in Zinrah would be, she would need to get used to it eventually. She couldn’t escape into the jungle at every turn. She would have to live with this weakness and overcome it, whatever it took. These words seemed so noble and right in her mind, yet much harder when she could still see the shadowy entrance of the cavern and she felt like she had been walking for at least a bell already. Tinnok sighed, rolled her shoulders, and continued onward and upward

2 bells later

The half breed stumbled into the Training Gallery, surprised instantly by how open and vaulted the cavern was. She also realized when she found it that she was utterly alone, strange that a nest basically at war with Myrians wouldn’t have anyone training at this time. Little did she realize this was just one of many side effects of the lethargy gripping the serpents of Zinrah. She took a few shaky steps forward into the large expanse, then collapsed in a heap on the ground, realizing she had utilized almost all of her energy just to get to this point, and she had none to spare. So she folded up her legs beneath her and decided that if she wasn’t going to move, she would meditate. Concentrating on focusing her breathing, however was hard. Calming her mind was easy, it was like lifting a large boulder just to summon up thoughts, but now that she was seated in a comfortable position she felt her head lolling, eyelids heavy. She snapped her chin up, keeping her eyes closed and began to picture the calm pool in her mind where she could find peace and serenity. She pieced this scene together forcing any other extraneous thoughts out, finding herself in a wonderful peaceful place…then she fell promptly and utterly to sleep, the efforts of climbing up to this point in the caverns far too much effort for her energy sapped body.


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[Haasha]

Know your enemy. Know what he eats, what wine does he drink, how well does he sleep, and the way he battles. Haasha was sure that even though she hadn't made any open enemies among Dhani (for good), she already was in need of knowing all the things. If it wasn't for the Lethargy, she'd try to run off. It was too dark here, and it was so difficult to both breathe and stay awake.
Rumors ran fast even in the twisted city, and she heards some talks about a fungus already on the streets. They wouldn't get rid of it in the week, and neither would the caves ventilate quickly, she thought, but still, it was good. There would be soon agressive, alerted Dhani instead of relaxed and calm Dhani who didn't notice her. Haasha felt the gloom gather over her head, almost visible to the bystander.

She was wandering through the tunnels slowly, dragging her feet and strangling the gigantic yawns.
The routes should be remembered before the snakes wake and the place becomes a living hell. With that Myrian blockade, she's probably not going anywhere soon anyway...
The training grounds were as good as the last time she stumbled upon them, with the only difference - now she remembered the way back. It was rather long, but she wouldn't risk the shortcuts yet.
The training hall proved to be empty. No surprise, really.
The moment later the half-blood blinked and noticed the shape of something that was darker than the rock. Looked small, compared with the usual human forms of a Constrictor. It looked fairly... different somehow. Hasha could neither know nor understand the feeling.

She crouched by the person quietly, giving its an attentive look and wondering if snatching something like a purse and leaving quickly could be anyhow found out. She spent some time seriously considering the option.
No. It wasn't worth it. With this goddamned weakness she could run neither fast nor far. Sure, other's money didn't smell, so to speak... but getting caught at this stage would mean absolute faliure in life. As if slavery wasn't enough. Sure, she'd use her status not to get eaten, and it was beneficial for now, but it was hard to tolerate ksenophobic moods. Hard even now, what'd be when they all wake? A nest full of...
She sighed, shakily, and fell on her bottom by the shape, unelegantly.
"A weird place to take a nap, no?" she made her voice sound loud, the cockiness was there all by itself.

[Tinnok]

She was jolted out of a peaceful slumber by a light vibration of the ground and words quite close to her ear. It took her a moment to re-adjust to the room, glancing over to see a being that looked…familiar somehow, even though a moment of further inspection revealed that that couldn’t be the case. Surely she would recognize a female with such sharp features, an angular face. Her eyes were nearly the same hue as Tinnok’s own, however, and the half breed wasn’t familiar with Dhani having such eyes in their human form.

She opened her mouth to reply, and then her thoughts all sort of fell down and around her mind, as if sinking down a drain. It was so petching tiring, all this thinking, observing. She just wanted to go back to bed and this woman had disturbed her.

“Good as any place.” Tinnok said finally, her words sort of slurring together, which mixed with a heavy Myrian accent made the common all but unintelligible. She glanced around, then, all of a sudden lifted herself to her feet.

“You. You are here.” This…was true. Tinnok shook the sleepiness from her head, though this seemed like shaking water off yourself when it was pouring outside. “This is place for training.” She said again. Another true statement. “You come to train?”

As if to punctuate this request, Tinnok drew a dagger from her belt and took a few paces back, holding it up shakily, yellow eyes flickering from Haasha, to the blade in her hand, for a moment her gaze almost suggesting that she had already forgotten why it was in her hand in the first place. Then the slitted pupils seemed to snap into a sort of cognizance and she held the dagger more steadily before her.

“I train. Would train with me?” She said, her empty hand rubbing her eyes a moment, hips wavering uncertainly.


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[Haasha]

"Nah it's not." the half-blood grinned. "If anyone was here, you might have gotten stomped upon. That'd be a pity, right?"
She swayed back, standing up on her feet, and watched the woman more closely. She couldn't help tilting her head to the side when the Myrian drew the blade, making another half-step back.
"You're training." she repeated with an irony seeping through, then fell into thinking for a second or two. "Sure. But I don't have a weapon on me. So give me a moment..."
The suggestion was unwaited for, but, from the looks of it, the woman probably didn't have anything valuable on her... wasn't it strange that she had snake eyes, but wouldn't turn half-way, nor yet asked her the quite usual 'abomination question'? Haasha'd think it uncommon regardless of any circumstances.
While she thought, she stretched deliberately, made situps, turns and tilts of her upper body and head in turns, and thoroughtly shook the sleepiness off her
wrists, elbows and shoulders.
She had no idea how she was going to survive that, but the Myrian was slower, and that'd provide a chance to avoid attacks.
"Maybe, we could try hand-to-hand, but I'm not much in both disciplines, anyway. I could use some tries and erors, though... since I'm feeling a little more lively." she shrugged. "Haasha's the name, by the way. Yours?"
She didn't know - or did not remember yet - how to properly dodge a blow. But she could try learning once more.

This is speech. | These are thoughts. | This is Symenos. | This is Snake-Tongue.

[Tinnok]

Tinnok was mildly surprised the individual seemed game to follow her suggestion. But why surprise? This was the training area after all, it seemed only right. Once again her mind focused on Haasha’s features. Her skin was so pale. Tinnok had always considered herself pale in comparison to other Myrians, but next to this individual she looked as if she lived in Syna’s rays and…

Then Tinnok was aware she could not place a specific gender onto Haasha, and this became a new source of puzzlement. She was narrow with angular features, but the face, it did not lend to either a masculine or feminine portrayal. Haasha’s chest helped not a bit, she could see no breasts pushing against her shirt, and though her hips were narrow, everything about her was. The voice was helpful, at least more so than anything else, but it had a bit of hoarseness to it that left the half breed altogether uncertain. On any other day Tinnok would have kept her thoughts to herself, not wanting to be rude, but her brain was pulsing painfully at all this unnecessary thoughts.

“I am Tinnok. Haasha, are you girl, or boy?” She said, canting her head to the side with those deep yellow eyes inspecting the half Symenestra curiously. Almost before she could answer she began to speak again.

“And what are you? I am Myrian, Dhani. You not full Dhani, no? But never see person like you.”

With these questions out of the way, Tinnok eyed her dagger. If Haasha was going to fight unarmed, she couldn’t use her knife. Also, the more she looked at Haasha’s skin the more she was scared of damaging the being. She was small and thin, probably quick, but there was something that looked frail about her as well, as if a blow strong enough could simply break her into tiny shards of bone and flesh. The half breed chuckled at the absurdity of this thought, then sheathed her dagger.

“I no so good with no weapon, but I try.” She eyed her unarmed fists, curling them loosely, rotating her wrists and placing one foot back, the other forward, her body rotated to expose as little of herself to the being before her. This was an almost reflexive action, but she felt something soothing and right in it, allowing her mind to clear somewhat in preparation of the fight to come.

Deciding to start them off, Tinnok hopped forward, pushing off her back leg and darting rather quickly toward Haasha. She knew little about throwing a good punch, so instead she opened her hand and pulled all her fingers together flat and tight as she jabbed a rather dull blow toward Haasha’s stomach tips of her fingers looking to drive some of the wind out of her, trying to decide what to do with her legs as she surged forward. Whether or not the hit would land, Tinnok spun around on her front foot, hopping backwards and behind Haasha in an attempt to disorient and distract her opponent from delivering an informed counter attack.

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[Haasha]

Girl or boy? Not the most common question. Haasha felt amused by the small-talk they were having.
"A bit of both, I suspect." she snickered. "But I think that if I was more a boy then a girl, I'd be called harsh."
The common question came next. It was regular to hear it in this area, but mutual this time. The other half-blood gave her answer at once, though.
"No. I'm not-... anyone." she shrugged and watched the darker skinned woman sheathe the weapon.
Good. She was hoping for a hand-to-hand. Especially so after the common question was voiced. Haasha still took it that the woman didn't mind her. It felt different.
"I'm not good at all."
She watched the other woman closely, and the movements she was making were distantly familiar. It was like remembering the fall in which you hurt your head. Odd.
Her own hands were not clenched into fists, neither into open palms. She didn't think her fingers to be strong enough to handle pressure if unfurled, neither she was sure of the strength of her fist. Instead, her fingers were pressed closely together and curled only in the beginning of a second joint, thus creating a strong, firm brim of at least the index and middle fingers for precise hit. She immediately had to stagger away from the blow, eyes narrowing and tracking the movement, and she turned around, trying to get the swing of her other hand turn into a hit with the side of her hand on the other's neck, not realy sure what it would do even if it reached the target. Even if they both didn't know how to handle that sort of fight... Haasha felt like normally she would be naturally swifter, but Tinnok was definitely lighter on her feet. And maybe if it wasn't for the passing lethargy...
"I'd rather try dodging than hitting. She'll get tired earlier... and then..."

This is speech. | These are thoughts. | This is Symenos. | This is Snake-Tongue.

[Tinnok]

“I’m not…anyone.”

This comment struck Tinnok in her attack, which hit, but only barely. As she twisted and turned off to the side her head began to throb, vision spinning, most likely due to her relative inactivity prior now leading to a bit of a physical shock as she tried to slip into her normal combat routine.

“You someone.” She said firmly, grunting as Haasha’s hand struck the side of her neck, jarring the flesh and muscle there and stopping her from speaking for a few moments. She took a shaky step back and tried to compose herself, body commanding her to lie back down and take a nap, since trekking all the way back to the cave where Tsuya lay would be far too much effort to pull together.

She shook her head again, but this only made her vision swim again, sending double images of Haasha bouncing back and forth in her vision. Despite this she was able to slide a foot back once more, and enter a stance one more. She stopped moving altogether, focusing on her breathing, and where the half blood woman was. She wasn’t quite sure what her clever little comments had been about, but it seemed to imply she was female, not male.

Slowly the angular pale figure came back into focus, seemingly waiting for Tinnok’s next attack. The half breed inhaled slowly through her nose, and out her mouth. If she wanted to fight without more splitting pain in her mind she needed to move as little as possible, while remaining quick, as her opponent was the smaller and lighter of them, and could dodge many attacks she threw her way. So no more twirls, no flips, probably as little jumping as she could manage.

Tinnok darted forward, but slower this time. At first it seemed she was going to launch the exact same attack, her fingers were pointed in an arrow towards Haasha’s gut, her movements slightly slower, making it easier to dodge, but yellow eyes watched the half Symenestra to see which direction she would go in to dodge her attack, and as she did so, she stepped forward, turning slightly on her heel to bring a second attack, a fist this time towards whichever of Haasha’s hips was closer to her as she closed the gap between them.

She had kept her movements close and concise, but even now Tinnok still felt her head swimming, and her breathing broke its calm flow, gasps coming out of her mouth from resisting the lethargy.

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