This thread is closed. Siiri, Miharu, Mihai, please.
While it starts in Taloba, the majority of it will take place in the Wilds.
53rd of Summer, 511 AV
It was early in the day, the sun just barely up. Despite the thick clouds overhead, beams of Syna's light made it through the city, lighting it up and giving hope despite the torrential showers that freakishly, there might just be a dry day, because the rain coming down now was hardly more than a light shower. They were more than halfway through the rainy season in Falyndar. The basin had flooded - and on a daily basis, the rain was almost oppressive. Almost. But despite that rain, the jungle flourished. The Myrians weren't cooped up - they never were, because children that tried to hide in doors would soon find themselves carted outside by their parents and deposited in the rain to play. Riamm clung to the head and hair of their bonded child, their waterproof fur acting to allow the little ones to see more than three feet in front of them. True warriors never allowed anything to block their eyes and ears, of course, and that meant getting used to heavy rain obscuring their vision and working through it. Some sections of Taloba were muddy pits, one corner of the training yards in particular, and the littlest children had to be rescued from it, because contrary to their expectations, it was a lot harder to swim in mud than it was in water.
The big stone bathing pools often used for the Tskanna were flooded with children playing in the water. They were kept full, easily, by the sheer amount of rain that came down from above, and no matter how much of it the Tskannas used for drinking, there was always plenty of it. There was always encouragement to be out in this - whether they were playing or working - for it was one of the gifts the Goddess of Water brought them. Perhaps a little too enthusiastically, but it was a gift nonetheless. Any child who complained about it was often reminded of the fact that there were places where there was no rain and almost no water. Did they want to go live there, in that horrible dryness? No? Then go play in the water and praise Makutsi for the wild rains that came.
Siiri & Miharu
Siiri was learning just why breaking a limb, be it arm or leg, wasn't a barrel of laughs. The original break hadn't hurt that much - she had taken far worse - but it was the tedium of being careful with it while it healed. It gave her a new perspective and far more respect for those who had broken something and had to sit and deal with the healing process. This was her busy season. This was the season in which her family had to go out there with other crocodile hunters and thin the numbers and keep the beasts far away from preying too much. Floating stomachs, they were. Dangerous floating stomachs.
And she was stuck in the city.
Oh, she wasn't inactive - in fact, she had seemed to have been assigned to teaching younger children, with whom she could use one hand far easier in basic techniques and such, and practicing her own weapons. She had plenty f time to practice, too. Not only did Siiri have work to do in this shyke, Miharu had been put to work as well, and she was in charge of the mud pit. That meant she had to keep an eye on it through the rain, and rescue children that had gotten stuck there. She was getting used to it - but no doubt that Miharu, like her bondmate, wished for the rain to be over with already, because really, wasn't this enough water for the season? Maybe some of it should go to those dry places, because the jungle couldn't possibly hold any more.
They had just finished their morning meal when Siiri heard the bloodbeak's squawk. The only bloodbeak in the barracks was Iami's menacing pet, and that meant that the officer and chief armorer of the Myrian army was in the dining hall. "How's the arm doing?" Iami clapped Siiri's good shoulder and Miharu's as well before dropping her voice. "The Goddess-Queen wants to see you and Miharu. Said it's important, so I'd hurry up and get moving."
Mihai
Raiiiiiiiiiiiiin. So much raiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin. This was his first summer in Falyndar, and it was shocking just how much water there was. And it didn't stop. When he'd asked Her about it, she'd only laughed and told him to have fun and practice swimming, and that was when he'd cut her off by shaking out his fur. That had evolved to the Tigress pinning him to the ground with one massive paw and threatening to crush every bone in his body unless he showed more respect to the Goddess-Queen. Then she had climbed off, and just Looked at him, teeth bared, every time he so much as made a move to get up until Myri told him he could.
But in all seriousness, he had actually been taken out hunting in it, and had been shocked at just how strange and different it was - hunting by sight and smell was almost impossible. It became a strategic game of instinct and thinking and being intelligent, because if you didn't think, you came home empty handed. And while no one starved in Taloba, there was a certain amount of 'what do you MEAN you couldn't find anything?!' in some glances.
But today, though, the sun was shining, the rain was light, and Mihai knew without at doubt that She wanted him right then in the palace. He knew it to the core of his being, and one did not keep Her waiting.