Tai hesitated as she spotted a soft, mysterious smile flit briefly across Randal’s face. What was that about? Tai had an idea of what it might be, based upon her interactions with Randal so far, but it wasn’t something she was ready to confront yet, and she pushed it away from her thoughts.
She listened with growing unease as Randal spoke of kelvics, the kelvic twins, and Syka’s proximity to the World Gate. A niggling suspicion wormed its way into Tai’s thoughts, and she couldn’t help but voice it.
“Syka...this settlement. Did you put it here because of this world gate? Because of this ruined city? This would have been nice to know before I moved here...”
Tai half mumbled her objections. She was not much of a fighter. She certainly was no hero. If she was anything, she was an entrepreneur. Syka had been a calculated risk, but one worth making if it helped her to pursue her dream. She felt the tiniest hint of resentment at the knowledge.
This information was counterproductive to her parrot business. But, she reminded herself as she smothered her annoyance, that was not Randal’s fault. Or mostly not anyways. Regardless there was nothing she could do about it. She would accept the knowledge, use it to the best of her advantage, and soldier on.
She listened as the man spoke of surfing and nodded along with him. “It’s certainly worth trying. Although uh...I can’t swim.” She smiled at him weakly. “There wasn’t much call for it in Wind Reach. I suppose it's worth learning when you’re surrounded by water huh?”
As the conversation moved onto climbing, Tai grinned.
“We could always start with trees. That’s my plan anyways. Knowing how to climb trees is bound to be useful in my job. I’ve got climbing gear and ropes. You could always borrow one of mine in a pinch.”
Tai did hope to one day move onto free climbing, but starting with a handicap should help her hone her abilities. And she would have to learn to scale trees if she wanted to raid parrot nests for babies.
As the two of them started down the trail towards town, Tai half closed her eyes as the noises of the jungle swelled up around her. Their were insects buzzing, the distant call of birds, the sound of leaves underfoot. It was so different than the sounds of Wind Reach, or even Riverfall.
There was an energy to Syka that practically permeated from every bit of humidity leaden air. The energy resonated with Tai’s own enthusiasm. Heat or no, it was a world she could get used to. A world she could call her own.
Tai listened, eyes still half-closed, as Randal spoke more of her family. In truth, she felt a sort of guilt. Night’s loss had been intense for her, because she’d loved that bird like the sibling her brother had never been, but in the end he was still just a bird and his time with Tai had been fleeting.
She wasn’t self-centered enough to imagine her and Randal’s experiences as anything similar. Randal had put time, effort, and love for many many years into his family, only to have it snatched away all at once. She could try to pretend she understood, but she didn’t really.
“At least you have your memories of them,” Tai offered. “I don’t know how much comfort that brings but well...through memories at least they’re not gone for forever.”
Briefly, Tai’s memory flashed to Sky Inarta. A cloudless sky, stretching over the peaks of the Unforgiven, white swords piercing the endless blue, and the scream of distant eagles…
Tai blinked away the memory. It was a place she would never return to. So memory was all she had.
“Memories are pieces we carry with us,” Tai said to Randal. “So I think those that we’ve lost are more with us than we think.”
As Randal spoke of the Inarta, Tai tilted her head. “Families don’t really exist there the same way they do elsewhere. Or maybe they do, but only for the Endal. Some people have families sort of, but it’s very informal. I was never…” Tai paused, the laughed.
“I’m not that great of a hunter. Good enough to be chosen for an apprenticeship, but that’s about it. And while I was good with the little birds, they just didn’t have the glamour or utility of the raptors. I made myself useful, so I wasn’t hated. But I wasn’t loved either. I just blended in. The Inarta appreciate talent. If I wanted a proper balanced relationship I would have had to have more of it.”
Tai decided definitively right at the moment to not go on about what an ‘unbalanced' relationship would have been like. Randal didn’t need to hear about the dark side of Wind Reach, and she was in no mood to tell him.
“I think that if your daughter had run off to a jungle, then you should be...” Tai had wanted to say ‘proud of her’ but the sudden, intense change in atmosphere struck the words from her lips.
Tai felt a small shiver travel up her spine as Randal took a stray lock of hair between his fingers. Was it nervousness? Excitement? She wasn’t really sure. The atmosphere between the two of them stretched taut, like a band waiting to snap.
The words were unexpected. With the atmosphere perpetrating their surroundings, the kiss wasn’t. If anything, Tai was more surprised that the kiss wasn’t more intense than it was. Tai hadn’t quite decided how to react to it when Randal pulled back. Blood rushed through Tai’s ears, making it hard to think…
“Common sense is telling me that I’m going to scare you.”
Wait, what?
Tai narrowed her eyes at Randal as clarity snapped back into focus. But before Tai could speak, Blue acted.
The parrot had tolerated Randal’s relentless flirting. She had tolerated his small attempts to befriend her. She had tolerated the light touches to her human, and she had tolerated Tai’s tolerance of these things.
But the kiss pushed it. Blue, still on Tai’s shoulder, fluffed her feathers, clipped her beak, and fanned her tail. If Tai hadn’t been so distracted, she would have known exactly what all those signs meant. As was, Tai had no opportunity to prepare as Blue launched herself off of Tai’s shoulder and straight into Randal’s face.
The scream Blue let out was a worthy battlecry, and godsdamned terrifying to the recipient. She beat at Randal with her wings, clawed with her talons and snapped with her beak. The barrage was so sudden and unexpected that it took Tai a moment to react.
“Hey!” Tai snapped to her bird. Only years of practice and an incredible comradery with her companion gave Tai the confidence to seize her bird from behind, pinning her wings to her side. Tai turned and flung the shrieking bird into a nearby tree.
Tai tensed, expecting Blue to launch herself at Randal again, but the bird perched on the branch and death glowered at Randal, feathers fluffed up and beak parted.
Tai did not apologize for Blue. Maybe she had not intended quite so harsh a punishment for Randal, but Blue had conveyed a similar point that Tai wanted to state.
“Alright, listen here,” Tai said, bringing the full force of her confidence to bear and raising herself up to her full height. She seized the collar of Randal’s shirt and yanked on it so the taller man was closer to her eye level.
“I like a good bit of flirting as much as anyone but we literally just met! This is my first day in Syka! Slow the shyke down!” Tai’s Inarta accent came through once again. She had been reminded of the occasional Endal who hadn’t taken no for an answer and had to have the point proven to them fiercely. She liked Randal, but this was way too sudden when she had a million other things on her mind.
“Secondly,” Tai said, feeling her irritation rattling her words. “On one hand you claim that I’m brave for having come here, a woman alone. Okay fine. But a breath later, you try to tell me that you’re worried you’ll scare me?! Come on! Which is it?!”
Tai’s grip tightened on Randal’s shirt for a moment, but her eyes softened slightly. “Look, I like you well enough. If you want to give it time and you can put up with me and Blue then this can maybe be a thing. But don’t insult me by pretending I’m some delicate flower. We clear?”
She listened with growing unease as Randal spoke of kelvics, the kelvic twins, and Syka’s proximity to the World Gate. A niggling suspicion wormed its way into Tai’s thoughts, and she couldn’t help but voice it.
“Syka...this settlement. Did you put it here because of this world gate? Because of this ruined city? This would have been nice to know before I moved here...”
Tai half mumbled her objections. She was not much of a fighter. She certainly was no hero. If she was anything, she was an entrepreneur. Syka had been a calculated risk, but one worth making if it helped her to pursue her dream. She felt the tiniest hint of resentment at the knowledge.
This information was counterproductive to her parrot business. But, she reminded herself as she smothered her annoyance, that was not Randal’s fault. Or mostly not anyways. Regardless there was nothing she could do about it. She would accept the knowledge, use it to the best of her advantage, and soldier on.
She listened as the man spoke of surfing and nodded along with him. “It’s certainly worth trying. Although uh...I can’t swim.” She smiled at him weakly. “There wasn’t much call for it in Wind Reach. I suppose it's worth learning when you’re surrounded by water huh?”
As the conversation moved onto climbing, Tai grinned.
“We could always start with trees. That’s my plan anyways. Knowing how to climb trees is bound to be useful in my job. I’ve got climbing gear and ropes. You could always borrow one of mine in a pinch.”
Tai did hope to one day move onto free climbing, but starting with a handicap should help her hone her abilities. And she would have to learn to scale trees if she wanted to raid parrot nests for babies.
As the two of them started down the trail towards town, Tai half closed her eyes as the noises of the jungle swelled up around her. Their were insects buzzing, the distant call of birds, the sound of leaves underfoot. It was so different than the sounds of Wind Reach, or even Riverfall.
There was an energy to Syka that practically permeated from every bit of humidity leaden air. The energy resonated with Tai’s own enthusiasm. Heat or no, it was a world she could get used to. A world she could call her own.
Tai listened, eyes still half-closed, as Randal spoke more of her family. In truth, she felt a sort of guilt. Night’s loss had been intense for her, because she’d loved that bird like the sibling her brother had never been, but in the end he was still just a bird and his time with Tai had been fleeting.
She wasn’t self-centered enough to imagine her and Randal’s experiences as anything similar. Randal had put time, effort, and love for many many years into his family, only to have it snatched away all at once. She could try to pretend she understood, but she didn’t really.
“At least you have your memories of them,” Tai offered. “I don’t know how much comfort that brings but well...through memories at least they’re not gone for forever.”
Briefly, Tai’s memory flashed to Sky Inarta. A cloudless sky, stretching over the peaks of the Unforgiven, white swords piercing the endless blue, and the scream of distant eagles…
Tai blinked away the memory. It was a place she would never return to. So memory was all she had.
“Memories are pieces we carry with us,” Tai said to Randal. “So I think those that we’ve lost are more with us than we think.”
As Randal spoke of the Inarta, Tai tilted her head. “Families don’t really exist there the same way they do elsewhere. Or maybe they do, but only for the Endal. Some people have families sort of, but it’s very informal. I was never…” Tai paused, the laughed.
“I’m not that great of a hunter. Good enough to be chosen for an apprenticeship, but that’s about it. And while I was good with the little birds, they just didn’t have the glamour or utility of the raptors. I made myself useful, so I wasn’t hated. But I wasn’t loved either. I just blended in. The Inarta appreciate talent. If I wanted a proper balanced relationship I would have had to have more of it.”
Tai decided definitively right at the moment to not go on about what an ‘unbalanced' relationship would have been like. Randal didn’t need to hear about the dark side of Wind Reach, and she was in no mood to tell him.
“I think that if your daughter had run off to a jungle, then you should be...” Tai had wanted to say ‘proud of her’ but the sudden, intense change in atmosphere struck the words from her lips.
Tai felt a small shiver travel up her spine as Randal took a stray lock of hair between his fingers. Was it nervousness? Excitement? She wasn’t really sure. The atmosphere between the two of them stretched taut, like a band waiting to snap.
The words were unexpected. With the atmosphere perpetrating their surroundings, the kiss wasn’t. If anything, Tai was more surprised that the kiss wasn’t more intense than it was. Tai hadn’t quite decided how to react to it when Randal pulled back. Blood rushed through Tai’s ears, making it hard to think…
“Common sense is telling me that I’m going to scare you.”
Wait, what?
Tai narrowed her eyes at Randal as clarity snapped back into focus. But before Tai could speak, Blue acted.
The parrot had tolerated Randal’s relentless flirting. She had tolerated his small attempts to befriend her. She had tolerated the light touches to her human, and she had tolerated Tai’s tolerance of these things.
But the kiss pushed it. Blue, still on Tai’s shoulder, fluffed her feathers, clipped her beak, and fanned her tail. If Tai hadn’t been so distracted, she would have known exactly what all those signs meant. As was, Tai had no opportunity to prepare as Blue launched herself off of Tai’s shoulder and straight into Randal’s face.
The scream Blue let out was a worthy battlecry, and godsdamned terrifying to the recipient. She beat at Randal with her wings, clawed with her talons and snapped with her beak. The barrage was so sudden and unexpected that it took Tai a moment to react.
“Hey!” Tai snapped to her bird. Only years of practice and an incredible comradery with her companion gave Tai the confidence to seize her bird from behind, pinning her wings to her side. Tai turned and flung the shrieking bird into a nearby tree.
Tai tensed, expecting Blue to launch herself at Randal again, but the bird perched on the branch and death glowered at Randal, feathers fluffed up and beak parted.
Tai did not apologize for Blue. Maybe she had not intended quite so harsh a punishment for Randal, but Blue had conveyed a similar point that Tai wanted to state.
“Alright, listen here,” Tai said, bringing the full force of her confidence to bear and raising herself up to her full height. She seized the collar of Randal’s shirt and yanked on it so the taller man was closer to her eye level.
“I like a good bit of flirting as much as anyone but we literally just met! This is my first day in Syka! Slow the shyke down!” Tai’s Inarta accent came through once again. She had been reminded of the occasional Endal who hadn’t taken no for an answer and had to have the point proven to them fiercely. She liked Randal, but this was way too sudden when she had a million other things on her mind.
“Secondly,” Tai said, feeling her irritation rattling her words. “On one hand you claim that I’m brave for having come here, a woman alone. Okay fine. But a breath later, you try to tell me that you’re worried you’ll scare me?! Come on! Which is it?!”
Tai’s grip tightened on Randal’s shirt for a moment, but her eyes softened slightly. “Look, I like you well enough. If you want to give it time and you can put up with me and Blue then this can maybe be a thing. But don’t insult me by pretending I’m some delicate flower. We clear?”
