Aching

[Siofra]

Fall 45th, 511 AV Dark eyes, tinted with a deep forest green, surveyed the small room rented for nothing more than a baggage hold. A long furry body lay curled at the head of a bed used as nothing else than a sleeping place for a ferret. It was quiet in the room as dappled rays allowed the woman some form of illumination to see what she was examining. On a whim, the woman stalked forward and shoved open the single window, allowing fresh air to wash the stale air out. The sleeping rodent on the bed twitched and stretched, whiskers blowing as they tweaked in the fresh air. "You are going to want to leave the room sssoon, animal." The woman said in a svelte voice, the sibilant "s" echoing long after she had spoken. The woman scowled at her own voice and bit at her tongue, trying to train it with pain to stop voicing itself like a scaly little serpent. She had to remember that she was a scaly little serpent. The woman cast a look towards the door, ensuring it was closed and it stayed that way. The morning was young and so it would be unlikely that anyone would barge in at the sounds of her transforming her body, yet she had to be wary. It wouldn't do good to have someone kill her for being a Dhani. Looking away from the door, she closed her dark green eyes, shedding her clothes to allow the transformation to proceed easier. She considered what she would do once transformed. With the window open she would be free to slip out and slither through Alvadas as her snake self, perhaps finding her way into basements that she couldn't access. With a sense of great relief, her body began to contort. Her legs fused and lengthened, bones cracking and splintering into several more. Her body thinned, elongated, her arms tucking into her torso and melting into their sockets which in turn changed into something different with a multitude of cracks. Her head morphed completely, becoming something serpentine and hideous. Her nose retreated only to emerge again as part of a snout, her tongue forked, her teeth shifted and some shortened while several grew long. Poison sacks formed near where she sensed her nasal cavity had once been and her eyes became slanted and malicious, lidless and eerie. As a snake, Siofra bore dark copper scales freckled with black and gold. A massive club sat at the very end of her body which was, in itself, thirteen feet long. Her tongue forked past her lips and she hissed, testing out the language that she was born into the world with. Snake-tongue words slid past her lips, her name. Tarssinssassha. The ferret woke at the words and began a frightened chatter, seeing an enemy that was just too big to fight. Ssassha only hissed and sent it fleeing.

[Shazvagrimkon]

Grim had woken early this morning to wander through the streets of Alvadas. Maybe he would run into a friend of his, or maybe meet new people. Whatever happened on this day, he hoped it would be good and exciting since he had nothing to do in the past few days.

While walking through the streets with pack on his back and the wind blowing gently through his loose shirt, a movement of shutters to his left drew his eyes up to a beautiful woman with long dark hair. She appeared to be as any human woman. Only something about this woman seemed different. He had no interest in any human women but looking upon her, he was reminded of a feeling from days earlier, facing a dhani in the tournament. That dhani was different then he was in many ways and filled Grim with distaste. This woman gave him a similar feeling only it was more familiar and inviting.

With these thought moving through his head, he watched until the woman disappeared from the window. Just before leaving the thoughts and walking on, he saw a small rodent run out the window and scurry into the street. Thinking quickly, Grim lunged at the animal and grabbed it, thinking it might belong to the beautiful woman. The animal showed no intention of being caught and squirmed in his grasp scratching at his hand for a few seconds before giving up. Grim then began to walk towards the inn while building up a small amount of djed in his legs and free hand. As he reached the wall he would use this djed to strengthen his muscles, jumping and grabbing onto the window sill and planting his feet on the wall.

Looking into the room, he expected to see the woman looking for her pet, but was greatly surprised by the sight of a large copper snake laying curled on the floor, looking up at him. After recovering from the initial shock, he began to speak in his snake tongue. It was much more difficult with his human tongue and mouth but he managed. “Hello. Would you happen to know where that woman went? And is this supposed to be outside?” He asked the last part while lifting the squirming rodent up to show it to the snake.

[Siofra]

The sught of the man clamberng in her window gave Siofra a startle. Instinctively her tail twitched, the rattle sounding in threat as she coiled and hissed. This person held in his hand her pet, her ferret, and she didn’t like that. For all she knew he could be threatening to eat it by waving it around in his hand as he spoke. The scent of it’s panic on her forked tongue was like a thick honey and it coaxed her tail into rattling more intently.

And then the man spoke in a distorted copy of the language Siofra recognized for the one she had been born knowing. He asked her where that woman had gone, and she flicked her tongue at that. Couldn’t he tell that she was the woman? Well, maybe not.

“That woman…?” She hissed back in the Snaketongue. “I ate her.” Her rattle continued to sound as she kept her green eyes upon him, never looking away lest he do something to attack her or kill her pet, her only friend. “That is mine.” She said now in response to his query about the lithe rodent.

“How did you get in this room?” She hissed now.

[Shazvagrimkon]

Grim was shocked to hear the snake say that it had eaten the woman. It seemed very unlikely that the woman could have been swallowed so quickly. But maybe it was possible. He held out the ferret in offering, “Is this your desert then?” As he held out the animal it squirmed and sunk its teeth into a finger carelessly too close to its mouth. The sudden bite caused him to drop the animal and curse under his breath as it dashed under the bed.

Looking back at the snake he was reminded of a fight and the opponent’s dhani forms. Perhaps there were more in Alvadas and this snake was one of them. “Hold on a moment if you don’t mind. This won’t take long.” Grim then quickly stripped of his clothing and let himself change form, his body changing from that of a human to that of a large black snake. “This is much easier now.” He felt the language flow from his snake mouth much easier than trying to bumble over the large human tongue. “Would you happen to be a dhani?” He looked at the snake opposite him and took in the view of the shining dark copper scales and the contrasting flecks of black and gold.

[Siofra]

The ferret bit the human, and if Siofra had the lips and muscles to do so, she would have smiled. As it was, she flicked her tongue out and tasted the animal’s fear, content in the knowledge that it had found the safest place it could. Her eyes glittered as she prepared to do something to frighten the man, but her preparations fluttered away as he stripped down. It surprised her greatly to see a nude man who was not another Ethaefal stuck in a different skin, as far as she knew, and it shocked her even more when his body contorted and shuddered into the form of a similar snake to she, with a rattle and everything. He was darker than she, black and not copper, and she felt a surge of warmth at seeing she wasn’t the only Dhani in Alvadas. The warmth died when she reminded herself that she wasn’t a true Dhani, but someone cursed to look like one. “Yes, I am a Dhani,” she hissed coolly, her rattle having not stopped shaking. It seemed they were even the same subrace of Dhani, which pleased the inner Dhani within Siofra greatly. “I haven’t met too many other giant snakes. Have you?”

[Shazvagrimkon]

“I have only run into one other dhani here in Alvadas and it was not under good terms. He was an opponent of mine in the tournament. A large dhani of a different type.” Grim said these things as he slid into a comfortable position on the cool floor.

As he lied there Grim noticed the continual rattling of the dhani’s tail. He tried to give a friendly appearance to settle any fears or threat that the snake might feel. This was a very interesting turn around to the day. Grim was happy to meet another dhani not to mention one as appealing as this. Without much experience being around his own kind, he hoped this meeting would turn out to be helpful and interesting. “It is great to meet one of my own subrace. My name is Shazvagrimkon but you can call me Grim.”