Completed Underneath the Same Blue Sky

Tailyn cares for her parrots and reminisces with Abanath about days long past

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Syka is a new settlement of primarily humans on the east coast of Falyndar opposite of Riverfall on The Suvan Sea. [Syka Codex]

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Underneath the Same Blue Sky

Postby Tailyn on March 12th, 2018, 7:39 pm

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Tailyn’s Parrot Preserve
Spring 10, 518
Late Morning


Tailyn glanced dubiously at the tiny, ugly little monster that was her baby parrot. Lucky was a mishmash of feathers, skin and beak had an unpredictability streak a mile wild. Tai had been bitten by the tiny monster more times than she could count. She wouldn’t know it’s gender until it was an adult, but she found herself calling the creature him more often than her. She was positive that even the falcons she’d tended in her childhood hadn’t been as fierce as this monster was. Blue certainly hadn’t been.

The tiny creature balanced himself on the piece of driftwood that made up his perch. Every so often he would flutter his half-formed wings to keep balance. Sisi and Nobody, tethered nearby, watched the interaction with interest. Tai was convinced the birds delighted in her pain. Well, that or maybe it was just something fun to watch. Tai was positive she wasn’t imagining the wicked look in Lucky’s eye.

“Maybe I should just train battle parrots,” Tai mumbled to herself.

“What was that?”

Tai glanced away from the baby parrot and towards a nearby group of trees that hung a pair of hammocks. When Abanath wasn’t helping Tai with the parrots that was usually where Tai found him. A cluster of mechanical objects that Tai couldn’t identify lay in one hammock while Tai’s verusk guest lay in the other.

“Nothing,” Tai replied.

Abanath shrugged his thin shoulders and returned to whatever he had been carving. Tai wondered how he was capable of working laying down. It must take skill.

With a sigh, Tai turned back to her fearsome charge. Lucky stared at her with beady eyes. Eyes that showed no compassion or mercy.

“Can we please do this without biting this time?” Tai pleaded. The bird’s pupils contracted. Tai shivered. “Alright great,” she muttered, and reached for the baby’s food.

In the wild, parent parrots would regurgitate food for their young. Tai didn’t trust her mouth anywhere near Lucky, so she had devised a different solution. Every morning she created a mixture of various fruits that were chewed up and spat together on a leaf. She would then curl the leaf into a tube and feed the young parrot through it. It should have been a foolproof method. Somehow Lucky always found a way to bite her anyways.

“Alright, down the chute,” Tai told the bird, offering him the leaf tube. By now he knew what it meant and he opened his mouth expectantly. Tai inserted the tube into his mouth and watched carefully as the baby’s throat worked as he swallowed the pulp mixture.

Tai sighed as the last of the pulp slid down Lucky’s throat. However, before Tai could draw her hand back the tiny terror attacked. His beak clipped cleanly onto Tai’s knuckle, drawing a thin slash that drew a small gush of blood. Tai yelped and leaped backwards, a string of Nari profanity flying from her lips. Furiously, Tai threw the empty leaf to the ground and stormed off towards the beach, cradling her injured hand.

(Words 518, Total 518)
Last edited by Tailyn on May 13th, 2018, 6:02 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Tailyn
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Underneath the Same Blue Sky [Job]

Postby Tailyn on March 12th, 2018, 8:28 pm

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Tai’s pride was more wounded than her hand was. She paced for several circles on the beach before eventually heading towards the slick outcrop of rocks that extended into the sea. The tide was low enough for the rocks to be completely dry. Tai sat down on the edge of the rocks and sulked. What was she doing wrong with Lucky? Sure he was wild caught, but he should have been young enough to be imprinted. Tai brought her cut knuckles to her mouth and sucked off the blood, wincing at the coppery taste.

A flutter of wings caught Tai’s attention. Blue, ever attentive to her master’s actions, landed on the rocks at Tai’s feet and cocked her head. Tai smiled at the bird.

“Hey girl,” Tai told her.

“Hey,” Blue croaked back.

Tai stroked Blue’s head, and the bird moved forward, climbing up to Tai’s shoulder. The inarta sighed and scratched Blue under her wings, feeling her irritation fading like the tides.

“Tai? Are you okay?”

Tail glanced behind her to see Abanath carefully making his way over the rocks so he didn’t slip.

“I’m fine,” Tai replied. “Just annoyed. I can't seem to tame that rotten baby.”

“Give it time?” Abanath suggested, sitting himself down next to Tai. “I don't know much about birds but...well you don’t make a clock in a day.” He gave Tai a sheepish smile. Tai sighed but offered one back.

“I guess. All I can do is hope it gets better.” Tai glanced at Blue on her shoulder. The bird hadn’t taken long to grow accustomed to Abanath’s presence, and now quietly tolerated him. She had started grooming strands of hair out of Tai’s hair bun.

“I’ll tell you what, this lady wasn’t nearly so much trouble,” Tai said with a sigh.

“Really? What was she like?” Abanath asked, lightly touching Tai’s wrist.

A smile flickered across Tai’s face. “Well, she certainly looked the ugly monster part like Lucky. Just blue instead of red, yellow and green.”

Tai smiled at the memory. A tiny blue monster barely balancing on a perch made for a bird much larger than her, eyes wide, with none of the confidence she would have in her adulthood, screaming for food and shivering at every noise that permeated her sanctuary.

Abanath smiled at Tai. “She really was different when she was a baby, wasn’t she? Where’d all that confidence come from? She hardly seems like the same bird.”

“Oh well I guess with time she just got used to things. I started taking her out around in Wind Reach and acclimatizing her and she started getting...better…” Tai’s words trailed off and her eyes narrowed as she looked at Abanath, a slow realization dawning on her like a rising tide.

“Um, I didn’t say anything about Blue not being confident as a baby, Ab.”

Abanath cleared his throat and pulled his hand off of Tai’s wrist. “Maybe I should have mentioned… we verusk can read memories from people by touch.”

(Words 502, Total 1020)
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Underneath the Same Blue Sky [Job]

Postby Tailyn on March 17th, 2018, 7:18 pm

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Tailyn blinked at Abanath silently for a few beats. She scooted a few steps away from him. “What do you mean by… reading memories from touch?”

Abanath looked away from Tai and towards the sea. Discomfort radiated from his features. “I didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable,” he said. “So I didn't say anything. Basically, if I’m touching you when you’re remembering something then I can remember it too.”

Tai was quiet for a long moment. “Erm, right,“ she mumbled. Her brain was struggling to remember all the times that Abanath had touched her, and if she had been thinking about memories at the time but her mind was running blank.

“I haven’t read any of your memories before now,” Abanath offered.

Tai sprung up from her feet, causing Blue to flip her wings to maintain balance and squawk her protest.

“Well I mean that's fine for you to say since I don’t have a way to prove you wrong,” Tai replied. Her words hung icily as she turned from Abanath and walked back into camp.

Sulking was easier to do when Tai was busy. She was still angry about her hand, and now she was angry about Abanath too. That was the sort of thing that you should tell a person right?! She wasn't being silly here. Abanath should have mentioned it before!

Sisi whistled at Tai as she stormed past their perch.

“Time to eat!” she reminded Tai.

“Eat, eat!“ Nobody agreed from behind Sisi’s wing.

Tai felt a small stab of guilt. The baby got to eat first of course, but Tai had been so annoyed that she had forgotten to feed the others. Blue was untethered so she could forage on her own, but the other two birds were reliant on Tai for all their meals.

“Right, you’re right. I'm sorry,” Tai told them.

The birds all whistled and chattered as Tai walked over to a nearby tree, heavy with ripe oranges. A smile sprang to Tai’s lips at the birds’ excitement. She tugged an orange down from the tree, and tugged at the rind covering it. The birds would happily eat the rind, but a full orange was too much for just one of them. Using her nails, Tai carefully split the orange in half under Blue’s close scrutiny. Orange juices dripped down across her palms. Tai barely minded it, until the juice met her slashed knuckle. Tai swore loudly in Nari and dropped the orange.

“Tai?”

Tai glanced up to see Abanath coming in from the beach, a look of concern crossing his features.

“I’m fine,“ Tai muttered through her teeth. She was still annoyed with her charge, but it was hard to remain angry with him when his forehead was all wrinkled with worry.

“We should disinfect that all the same,“ Abanath replied.

Tai suppressed a groan. “Ugh, let's not worry about it. I’ve got work to do, I don't want to go hunt down a healer.“

“There might be an easier solution. Verusk blood has antibiotic properties.”

Tai stared at her companion, agast. “What is this, verusk sharing hour? That’s weird! Keep your blood in your body where it belongs!”

(Words 528, Total 1548)
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Tailyn
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Underneath the Same Blue Sky [Job]

Postby Tailyn on May 3rd, 2018, 5:03 pm

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The hurt look that Abanath gave Tai made the Inarta woman feel a sudden stab of guilt. She knew full well that she tended to say things without thinking about consequences, and the last thing she wanted was to hurt Abanath’s feelings.

“Um… I mean… “ Tai started, struggling to think up a counter to what she had said a moment before.

“No, it’s fine.” Tai didn't have to be a mind reader to catch that thin sheet of ice clipping Abanath’s words. “If you think us verusk are so weird, then I won’t trouble you with stories about our weirdness.” Coldly, Abanath turned back towards his hammock.

“No! Wait, Ab! I’m sorry!” Fiercely, Tai seized Abanath’s arm and felt the verusk stiffen underneath her touch. “You know shyke just comes out my mouth sometimes. I’m seriously sorry. I didn't mean it.”

“So you were lying when you said that verusk are weird?” Abanath said without turning around and tone still frosty.

Tai gritted her teeth. “Listen Ab… the place I was born… we really weren’t used to people who were a lot different from us. Since I left there it’s kinda been an uphill battle not to fall back on old habits. I’m really trying Ab. Seriously.”

Tai thought she might have felt the tension in the verusk’s arm lessen slightly. But he still didn’t turn around. “I suppose I can understand the blood thing. But is having your memories read really so bad?”

Tai had to think very carefully on how to respond to his question, her mind whirring. Why exactly had it upset her so? As she thought, the realization hit her in a flash.

“It’s not so much the mind reading, it’s that I didn’t know you were doing it, ” Tai replied hesitantly.

“Why does that bother you? It doesn't harm you does it?” At this, Abanath finally turned around to look at her. Tai bit back her knee-jerk, irritated response and swallowed it at the gentle, inquiring look he gave her. He really didn’t understand why such a thing would upset her.

“Listen, I um… I can explain but it might take a minute. Let me feed these little monsters first, okay?” Parrots didn’t understand emotional discussions and Sisi and Nobody had been hopping back and forth on their perches, occasionally letting out small shrieks so Tai didn’t forget their meal.

Abanath nodded and headed back towards his nest of hammocks. Hand still twinging, Tai carefully picked up the pieces of fruit that had dropped on the ground and offered them to Sisi and Nobody, placing them on the ground at the feet of their perches. Cheerfully, the pair dropped off the pieces of driftwood and set to work tearing into the fruit. Tai made sure that the pair’s tethers weren’t tangled and would allow them to easily get back on their perches when they were done, then she turned and walked towards the hammocks.

Abanath had politely cleared Tai’s hammock of the usual mess of tinkering tools that occupied the space when Tai wasn’t present, and Tai eased herself down into the hammock with a sigh, turning so she faced her companion. Abanath’s strange reptilian eyes stared at her inquiringly. With a sigh, Tai began.

(540 Words, 2088)
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Tailyn
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Underneath the Same Blue Sky

Postby Tailyn on May 13th, 2018, 6:01 pm

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“Okay, so. I was born in Wind Reach. Have you ever heard of it?”

Abanath shook his head. Tai sighed in reply. “Of course you haven’t. Dumb question. It’s a city on a mountain, filled with Inarta, people like me. Red hair, fiery tempers. You know.”

“Can you show me?” Abanath asked. He held his hand out towards Tai, not quite touching her, but making his intent clear.

Tai balked for a second, then sharply reminded herself that she was attempting to make an effort to explain herself. “Sure,” Tai said, not quite able to conceal her discomfort but smiling through it anyways in an attempt to reassure her companion. Gently, Abanath’s fingers brushed against Tai’s wrist and Tai thought of her old home.

“A city in the sky,” Abanath said, voice tinged with wonder. “Filled with birds.”

Tai smiled sadly as a melancholy sort of nostalgia filled her. The Inarta wanted Abanath to first see the city in the fullness of its beauty before she was forced to dredge deeper into its darker heart. She picked an older memory. She must have been eight or nine, still full of excitement, potential and optimism. And the world in its entirety lay sprawled under her feet. The tiny red-haired girl that was her stared out from Skyinarta, over the frost crested peaks of the Unforgiven, the sky dyed with the deep crimson and violets of a late sunset. In the distance, a group of wind eagles soared, casting enormous shadows against the snow covered ground. Frost tickled her nose. The height made her dizzy. But all she felt was sheer elation.

“It’s beautiful,” Abanath murmured. “I could never have dreamed the like.”

“Yes,” Tai agreed. She may have left that place, but a part of her heart still remained there. Even the bitter taste of unpleasant memories couldn’t overwhelm the wonder she still had for that endless blue expanse.

With an exhale, Tai turned her memories to the interior of the mountain. She was older now, perhaps sixteen. An aspiring young hunter, plucked from the caste rank of the children, the yasi, expected to prove herself as a talented hunter and with much expected of her. Here there was still optimism. But that optimism was tinted with a hint of wariness. In Tai’s hands, she cheerfully carried a beautiful glass ornament, fashioned like the tail feathers of an eagle with twine attached to the top to hang. It had been a gift from a handsome and talented young glasscrafter, and Tai had every intention of hanging it in her room where it could catch the light, and cover her space in a rainbow of red, gold and green.

“That sure is a pretty ornament. I want it.”

A sixteen year old Tai spun around. A man, ten years her senior, smirked at her. Expectantly, he held out his hand. Tai eyed the man’s beautiful appearance, his fine clothes, and the wind eagle feathers hanging from his perfect fire red hair. Tai felt a rush of anxiety and indignity. Then she slowly handed it to him.

“Why did you give him the ornament?” Abanath asked.

Tai focused her attention back on Abanath’s intense gold eyes.

“He was an Endal,” Tai explained. “The Wind Eagle riders. They can take whatever they want from someone of a lower class. I was an Avora, the artisan class, as a hunter. So an Endal could demand whatever they wanted from me.”

Tai sighed and cleared the memory from her mind. “That’s one thing I don’t miss about Wind Reach. After I left there, I didn’t have to give away things that were precious to me if someone higher classed than me asked for them. I could live on my own terms. I’ve become used to being able to keep things, to have ownership without worrying it will be taken away.”

“Ah.” A light of understanding flickered through Abanath’s eyes. “That’s why you were angry with me. By reading your memories without asking, I was taking something without your permission.”

Tai nodded, causing the hammock to sway slightly. “It probably sounds silly to you. But ownership is something that is important to me.”

“As a verusk it’s a little difficult to understand, since we share memories so freely,” Abanath replied. “But the way you’ve explained it, I understand. I’m sorry for not asking.”

“And I’m sorry for overreacting,” Tai replied. The pair of them spent a long comfortable chime of silence together, the understanding and appreciation between them needing no words to explain.

A shriek finally broke the relaxing silence. Tai peeked over the side of the hammock to see Blue perched beside Nobody, snapping at him playfully while the male parrot grumbled his disapproval.

“Back to the grindstone,” Tai chuckled, swinging out of her hammock.

“Tai,” Abanath said seriously. The ginger turned back towards the verusk and raised an enquiring eyebrow.

“Next time I’ll ask,” he said.

Tai grinned at him in reply and patted her friend’s shoulder. “I know you will. No harm done.”

It was strange to think that now there was someone she could share her memories with, without words. The blue sky of Syka that she now lived and worked under now seemed not quite so far from the white crested peaks where she had been born. With more pleasure than she expected, Tai turned back to the work at hand.

(899 Words, 2987 Total)
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Tailyn
Crazy Parrot Lady
 
Posts: 95
Words: 87326
Joined roleplay: January 22nd, 2018, 10:28 pm
Race: Human, Inarta
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Underneath the Same Blue Sky

Postby Tailyn on May 20th, 2018, 7:47 pm

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Grades are here!


Tailyn

XP Award:
  • +4 Birdkeeping
  • +5 Socialization
  • +1 Foraging

Lore:
  • Lucky: A Monster
  • Birdkeeping: Feeding Baby Parrots
  • Verusk: Can Read Memories Through Touch
  • Foraging: Oranges are Good to Eat
  • Verusk: Blood Has Antibiotic Properties
  • Tailyn: Doesn’t Like Things Taken Without Permission
  • Windreach: A City in the Sky
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User avatar
Tailyn
Crazy Parrot Lady
 
Posts: 95
Words: 87326
Joined roleplay: January 22nd, 2018, 10:28 pm
Race: Human, Inarta
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets


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