Solo In Search of Stone

[Ixzo]

32nd of Spring, 5120AV

Ixzo was watching the sun rise through the trees as she trekked into the city. She had rejoined civilization two seasons ago, and even then the kelvic had found herself doing so slowly. Less than ten days ago, an event had changed her perception of the forsaken squalor city. She had thought of it as a city of thieves and idiots, and people that she could not stand to be around. Although the raid of the baby-farm had not made her think any kinder of these despicable humans, it did show her that she wasn’t supposed to give up on them. There were those who did not create the chaos that was Sunberth, but rather tried to survive in it, and if she was truly a daughter of Priskil could she not be the one to help those who fostered hope?

And so she found herself passing the fowl-smelling slag heap, wary silver eyes watching an elder man drag an unidentified lump towards the eternally burning fire. He was far away and so she was able to watch his slow progression as she stalked towards the city. He was much older and whatever weight the smaller lump had, it bothered him. Unable to let an elder go without help, Ixzo changed the direction of her feet, walking up to him. Without a word, she grabbed one end of the lump in order to aide the man. He jumped at her presence, and stepped back, dropping his own half and brandishing a knife.

”It ain’t no good to you lot any more, he’s long gone. Let me burn him, you cruel fiend.” He snarled at her, his knife wobbling slightly in his hands. Not intimidated by a knife, Ixzo dropped the side of the lump she had offered to help, examining the polished blade. Due to his age and the care for his knife, Ixzo didn’t doubt he knew how to get it into her somehow before she could get away, but age had wobbled his hand and demented his stance, and she didn’t consider him a threat.

”I help.” She spat back, not sure what he had said, but trying to show she wasn’t trying to steal his trash from him. She nodded towards the slag heap, picking up her side of the lump again and raising her eyebrows at the elder. He looked at her for a few ticks longer before sheathing his knife once again and grabbing his end of the lump, grumbling something she didn’t understand.

”I’ll do this, I have to.” He paused when they reached the slag heap. Her nose had become numb to it’s terrible scent now, and she could feel the uncomfortable heat on her skin. She stepped back from the sack as he began to lug it over his shoulder. No longer dragging the thing, the sack head was able to open, and Ixzo watched as something recognizable fell out of it. A stiff pale arm, tinted an uncomfortable green, waved back at her. Ixzo paused and then swallowed, watching the elder toss the body into the fire. She hadn’t recognized the lump because it was too small for her to recognize it as humanoid. Anger was slowly building as she realized it was a child. She was no stranger to the horrors that adults would put children through, but she was horrified with her blindness. With her blind optimism of helping an old man carry his trash, and it was... A child.

[Ixzo]

As soon as the elder’s hands were free, she yanked the back of his shirt quickly, pulling the frail human to the ground. Almost sure that he would retaliate, she hopped back a few feet, spitting on the ground in front of him. ”You vile piece of shyke. Your mother should be ashamed of your actions.” She snarled at the man in Myrian, not caring that he would not understand. She was right in that he pulled his dagger, but his body failed him, and he was unable to regain his feet before she stuck a foot out to swipe them from beneath him once again. She was unsure about his knife skills and so kept her distance. ”Why you kill?” She growled in common now, wanting an answer. No child had sinned enough to deserve death, and the lion was angry with the man.

”What? No!” The man groaned, but did not put his dagger down. He did not attempt to stand again, but it was clear she would not go near his blade. ”I didn’t kill the child, he got sick!”

”Sick?” Ixzo asked, trying to wrap her mind around the concept. She knew what the common word for sickness meant, but it did not occur to her that it was a possibility. The Kelvic hated this city enough she assumed that every death was the result of murder, all of these despicable humans had to be evil, didn’t they?

”Yeah, like coughing and throwing up. He had the flu, people die from it all the time. What is wrong with you?” He explained, hand relaxing slightly on his knife, apparently shocked that someone would care for the death of a child. ”Whats’it to you?” He glared at the Myrian raised kelvic that towered over him, dropping her guard.

”I know sick. Why you have boy?” She asked, not watching his hands as closely any more. Before he answered her, she saw the lurch of movement, and the old man who had not been able to hold the dead child by himself was suddenly on his feet, knife slashing for her with a limber speed she did not expect. Ixzo had not been paying attention, and felt the cool slash of metal on skin before she could react. Hopping a few feet back to give herself room to adjust, she crouched and glared at the man, baring her teeth in warning. This animalistic reaction did not slow him, and he hopped forward, slashing again. She was able to dodge this time, and skittered out of the way, not watching behind her and nearly tripping over a rock. Thinking quickly she lunged for the rock, bringing it up as if to throw at the man. Although he was too quick, and the knife flashed in front of her face, uncomfortably close. Ixzo reached up to block the move with her rock, but instead felt the sting of metal on her forearm again.

[Ixzo]

Frustrated, she shot her other hand out to grab at his wrist but missed. Forgetting she was still holding the rock, she lurched for his other hand to try and slow him down. Instead the rock bludgeoned into his shoulder, and the man cried out. Reaction forced one of his hands to reach for the shoulder, and she took advantage of this, tossing the rock and grabbing for his wrist. She gave the elder no mercy, digging her claws into his wrist until his hand spasmed from the pain, letting the knife drop. She shot her foot out once again to hook him behind the knee, and stooped to pick up the knife as he fell. Not giving him a chance to feign weakness again, she stepped forward, placing a square foot on his chest and throwing the knife into the slag heap which they had found themselves a few meters further from.

She was breathing deeply, but she had not forgotten that he had chosen to attack her instead of answer her questions. For a tick she itched for her ax, ready to behead the man, when Crylon’s reaction to her similar activities last season rung in her mind. ”Why. You. Have. Boy.” She huffed out keeping her foot down enough to keep the man down but not crush him. As a result she had to balance most of her weight on her other leg, and could feel his first slash beneath her skirts, singing it’s pain to her.

”Argghhh….” The man groaned as if her foot was too much, and she merely glared at him, watching his movements. He was reaching for something in his boots as sly as possible, but the hunter could see his hand twitching and feel his hips moving underneath her foot. She reached down to brush her hand over his ankle, feeling the other knife, and yanked it out. Glancing back at the slag heap, she let the other metal weapon fly into the heap and glared down at the man again.

”Why you have boy?” She repeated once more, her breath coming more even as she tried to ignore the stinging in her thigh and arm.

”Gah, okay. He is- he was my grandson!” He groaned at her, and she stared at him quizzically, not understanding the relation. The man volunteered more information. ”My daughter sold him to the slavers for some extra coin, and he got the flu when the spring rains came. He wasn’t worth enough to save and so they let him die. I wanted to take him to the slag heap because… because it is the least I can do.” The old man let his head fall back on the sand in defeat. It took Ixzo a few ticks to understand what he had meant, but his story seemed convincing enough. Ixzo stepped off of him, but immediately leaned down to pat his pockets. She found a sack of coins under his armpit, a bottle of some vile smelling alcohol in his pocket, and no other weapons. Satisfied he would not try to attack her with blades again, she stepped back, but did not help him up.

These people weren’t all bad. They didn’t trust their surroundings, for good reason, but that didn’t mean everything they did was nefarious… did it? Ixzo watched the man gather himself and stand, clutching his shoulder gingerly.

[Ixzo]

”What the petch woman?” He asked, and Ixzo ignored him, facing back into town. She had to do what she came here for today, she felt as if Priskil was compelling her to do it, she didn’t have any other options. These people needed some form of hope, something to tell them that there was more than just brawling for one’s life, that there was a goddess who they could pray to, who would inspire them to do something more with themselves… Today she was going to build a shrine to Priskil in Sunberth. If it was anything like her lopsided hut in the woods, it would take days for herself to complete, but she knew someone who could help her. Someone who was also interested in her beloved Priskil, who she knew would help her. She had to find the Stoneman.

Only her memory did not afford her a name of a place where he may have been found, perhaps she hadn’t understood his language, or perhaps he had never told her. She had only met the strange creature once after all, but she was confident she could find him. After all, how many humans were made of stone in this godforsaken city? Rethinking her decision to walk away, Ixzo spun on her heals, stalking back up towards man. This time he blew up his chest and stood talk as she approached, invading his space. She was confident he had no more weapons, and he was too weak to fight her without any. ”I ask you question, you answer.” She stuck a finger on his chest, and he didn’t flinch nor respond.

”You tell me where I find stone man.” And confusion fell on his face.

”I don’t know of any stone statues in the city… there is Ovek’s—“

”No, no, live man. Stone man. Arm stone.” She gestured towards her arm, seeing for the first time the blood that was drying on her forearm. The man looked confused for a few ticks longer, looking at her arm then back at her.

”Oh you mean like the lady at the orphanage? My daughter tried to sell my grandson to her, but she doesn’t buy children, she just… takes them in, it’s weird.” He rambled, relaxing more. They seemed to have come to an understanding that neither wanted to murder one another, although she didn’t really understand the old man that well either.

”Yes, yes, or-phan-age.” She repeated the word tasting out the foreign name on her tongue. She was understanding the language better, getting good enough to understand that it was in the place where a location should have been grammatically, although she had not heard the word before, and the man’s rambling was not giving her enough context clues to understand.

”Where that? Where?” She asked, and he glared at her.

”I don’t know, that way.” He motioned towards the whole city, stepping around her and rubbing her shoulder. Ixzo huffed in frustration.

”Where in city?” She clarified, turning after him and stepping in front of him.

”Sunset Quarter, I think, by the bay.” He muttered. ”Would you go away now?” He glared at her, and she nodded at the answer, not at his request and turned away.

[Ixzo]

She had to cross the large river that lead to her hut so many miles out into the woods, and her wound were singing their pain to her now. Before tagging a Svefra boat to cross, Ixzo leaned down to the less than satisfactory water, watching the passerbys surrounding her as she prepared to lift her skirts to rinse her wounds. The sack she had brought with her that was wrapped around her waste was immediately sacrificed as she used the tip of her ax to help tear two strips off of the opening of the canvas sack. She splashed water on the shallow slice on her thigh a few times, carefully patting it with her finger tips to get the crusted blood off before wrapping the strip of cloth around her thigh. She did so tight enough to make sure it would not bleed any more, although it was clear the shallow cut had stopped more than a few chimes before. She had to readjust it twice to make sure she could still flex her thigh and use it normally. Only then did she begin washing the cut on her forearm. This one was a little deeper, although it had also stopped bleeding. It stung more to rinse it, but Ixzo merely bit the inside of her cheek and gripped the cloth to wrap it around the wound, this once she did a little tighter, just a little more worried about the wound bleeding again.

Only once she was satisfied with her wounds not opening up again did she trek back to the top of the bank, and try and flag down a ship to take her across the mudway. Once on the other side, she kept her head down as she walked, not wanting to look at anyone or anything too closely, lest they distract her again. She knew where the Sunset Quarter was at least, it was near tent city where she had always met Lolan. Her mind pinged at the pain of the child, but she kept walking, determined to find the Stoneman. Whatever an orphanage was, she was glad he would be there.

By the time she had reached the sunset quarter, she realized not knowing a thing about what an orphanage was would not help her track Crylon down. Keeping her guard up, but not straying away from talking to strangers, she searched the eyes of the people on the streets around her. They all avoided her silver gaze, but a young lady was unfortunate enough to meet it. Ixzo stepped forward, into her way and began speaking, trying to lure some answers out of the stranger.

”Hello,” She greeted the person this time, hoping an actual greeting would not earn her another brandished knife. Still, the woman stepped back, quivering hands reaching for something under her belt, it was clearly meant to be a threat of a knife, but as Ixzo looked at her face, she realized she was just a child. ”No harm, question.” She clarified, sticking finger up as if to stop the reveal of the blade. ”Where is… or-phan-age?” She asked, and the girl looked confused for a tick, silently raising a hand to point at a building.

”Uh, there?” She said, questioningly. Ixzo glanced at the building she was pointed at, but did not care to question the strangers confusion.

[Ixzo]

”Thank you.” She spoke the common phrase with perfect clarity before ducking away from the woman and bee-lining for the building, not waiting for a response. There was a somewhat large area in front of the building affording the place some privacy from the street. She saw four children twirling beneath a tree, being taunted by another child up in it. Ixzo loved children, and couldn’t help but stop by them to see what they were singing.

It was some quick tune in common, and they were holding hands and running in a brisk circle around the base of a tree while nut shells rained down from atop of them where the fifth child was trying to chuck them at the kids below. One thunked one of the smaller boys on the head and he screamed and giggled breaking the circle. As if they all knew exactly what to do the other three begun climbing the tree, and the boy who was hit with the nut was trying to capture them and keep them from climbing the tree. It was an odd game that she had not seen before, and just before she was going to ask the children to join in, she heard a harsh voice from the building.

”What do you think you’re doing?” The sharp voice of a woman stalked into the courtyard. Ixzo was surprised how closely the woman resembled the Stoneman. This was a stonewoman. Although her stone arm was on the right and not the left, and it was a color different than Crylon’s black arm. Putting her hands up innocently, Ixzo repeated her greeting which seemed to make hostility hesitate. ”No harm, question.” She said, and the woman paused, raising a single eyebrow.

”I look for Stoneman, like you. But black arm, name is Crylon.” She said, and the woman’s curious brow furrowed into confusion.

”What you think just because I am Isur, I know all the Isur in the city? Bah, humans are so thick.” Ixzo took a quick breathe in, a little confused by the rambling.

”You do know Crylon?” She asked, unsure if that was what the woman had said.

”No! Have you even tried checking a forge?” She rolled her eyes, and Ixzo didn’t quite understand the gesture, but nodded slowly.

”Okay, I look at forge.” She agreed, glancing back at the children with a mild longing in her voice. She was a mature woman now, but the opportunity to play with children was always tempting to the lioness. Still, it was still early enough that she had to find Crylon if she wanted to get the shrine built in a reasonable time.

”Wow, you’re especially thick aren’t you?” The woman asked, raising her eyebrows with an amused smile on the corner of her lips. Unsure what she meant, Ixzo nodded in agreement. The short woman laughed at her, and then waved at her. ”Okay then, whatever. Get away from my children, then.” She said, shooing Ixzo as if she was a common housecat. Not bothered enough to be offended, Ixzo begun walking out of the orphanage. She knew where the city forge was, at least the one where she had gotten her hunting knife from.

[Ixzo]

Acrobatics 1
Brawling 2
Endurance 1
Interrogation 4
Intimidation 2
Investigation 3
Medicine 1
Philosophy 1
Rhetoric 1
Wrestling 1

∆ Can Sunberthians be good?
∆ Common: ‘Orphanage’
∆ Even the worst people deserve hope
∆ Help from a stranger is not welcome in Sunberth
∆ Investigation: Finding Crylon in the city
∆ Medicine: Cleaning and bandaging shallow cuts
∆ Memory: Crylon’s opinion on death
∆ Orphanage: Where lost children are cared for
∆ Philosophy: Priskil can bring out the good in Sunberth
∆ Rhetoric: Using words to appear less intimidating
∆ Self: Doesn’t understand sarcasm