Open Turn Around [Razkar]

[Tinnok]

Turn Around
50th of Spring 513, A.V.

The first thing she was aware of was how green it was. Syna's rays beat down like celestial weapons from the sky, and beneath them the abomination stood, soaking them up. Between her bare and callused feet lay a field, the likes of which she was sure she had never seen before. Grass the color of emerald, soft and squishy curled up between her toes. She was tremendously torn between the act of lying on the plush carpet of green beneath her and staying just as she was in order to better reach the sun's light.

Eventually though, she shifted. Her feet took slow and languishing steps, knowing that there was an end to this structure, somehow, somewhere.

It came only because she happened to be on a strange plateau. It's physical make up may have been absurd, twisted and thin, but all the half breed knew was that it kept her suspended, which was all she really required. Down, down, down below was a blanket of blue ocean, much lighter than she had imagined it would be, so much so, that she could not tell where the water ended and the sky began.

She looked down to herself and noticed that she wore a light dress, a piece of clothing that she was truly unfamiliar with. It was a deep crimson and stopped just above her knees, no straps to keep it aloft. She was quite unaware of how viciously she would rip the garment off if this place and these circumstances were true, and so instead she twirled within the confines of the light and airy garment, feeling a light breeze guide her dance-like steps, her long hair trailing like a fan around her.

When she had finished her circuit, she was faced away from the edge of the cliff that led down into the ocean sky. Half tempted to just fall back and see where it took her, the slightest inkling of something kept her from doing so, as if it were not yet time.

So instead she sat herself upon the edge, legs dangling, watching the shadows of fish far below her jump over the sky blue waves only to disappear a moment later beneath the surface. There was something so calm and peaceful about this place that she simply couldn't imagine ever having lived without. She attempted to think of things negative or worrisome, but couldn't even conjure a singular thought to the idea of it, and the small smile upon her face broadened into a grin.

Slowly, she became aware of another sensation. The sun's light seemed the same, the temperature hadn't altered, and as her fingers clutched the shining jeweled grass, she knew it to be the same as she first came. So what was different?

That was when she turned her head to see a figure shaded by sun directly behind her: And all she could do was smile.

[Razkar]

It wasn't the Suvan anymore, but it was a sea. But there was no Flotilla, no endless landscape of trussed-together ships, not even any... wait...

Razkar shook his head and it felt like he was doing so through a thick mist. It didn't hoke him, though, and his eyes were clear. But if that was the case, then...

He blinked and shook his head again, trying to look past the blurry edges to his vision. Every question or statement he had ended or was bisected by a "but", and all of them were relating to this strange place he'd suddenly arrived in. He couldn't even remember how he got there. He'd... gone to bed... and then... there was cool, green grass tickling his feet, and-

The Myrian looked down, and in doing so noticed the rest of him. He put his hands up through the air that seemed to flow oddly and saw the thin, azure robe that covered him. It reminded him of the clothing that he had seen Vanator wear, the Horse Lord he had befriended in Cyphrus.

Is that where you are? Back in the Sea of Grass? A pool of djed, maybe?

No, he left the Sea, we both know that. He's been heading north for weeks.

"Hey, do you mind?"

Razkar swallowed and choked down a shiver of fear. Wonderful. Now he was arguing with his own mind, even as it unraveled. He took a deep breath and looked around, squinting against the hazy, heat-shimmered horizon. There had to be someone out there, someone who...

The Myrian's lips parted as he saw the twirling figure near the edge of the field. There was something so familiar about her hair, the way it whirled and shone, but he knew it was impossible. This place was so strange and different, and she was still in the jungle.

Razkar marched across the plateau and found that it was... pleasant. The wind was cool and temperate, not raising goosebumps nor sweat on his skin. The skies were the clearest and most inviting blue. When he reached the edge of the cliff the sea was...

Weapons!

The Myrian felt panic break apart his mood and his hands flew to weapons that were no longer there. He was totally unarmed. Goddess, why hadn't he realized before? This place... it was seductive. It was tricking him. It felt like a dream, but...

"Hey!" He shouted as he marched towards the figure in a crimson dress, swinging her legs gently over the cliff and enjoying the view. Even as he spoke he felt an unease start to swell in him. "Where is... this... place...?"

She turned and Razkar's jaw dropped. Why... Why was Wolf wearing...

Razkar had so many questions, fears, worries, but in the moment it took him to look her up and down in her finery, they vanished without a trace or even leaving a note. Old memories came flooding back along with a smile he only wore for her, when they'd teased like the firm warriors they were.

He put his fists on his hips and cocked an eyebrow.

"What in Myri's name are you wearing, woman?"

Yeah, and who are you to talk, an unimpressed voice quipped inside his skull, just a little too late.

[Tinnok]

It was him, it was always him. Tinnok beamed up at the warrior, her expression wavering only slightly at his interrogation. "What am I wearing?"

She glanced down absent-mindedly at herself for a moment, enjoying the light fabric as the breeze ruffled it against her tan skin. Then her bright yellow eyes, mimicking Syna's light were back upon him. Now the sweet expression that she almost never cared to show was replaced by a more sardonic one, yet still felt with the warmth of the sun. "You look like some barbarian dandy..."

She paused to reconsider, eyes taking him in. "Actually, petch that, you don't look half bad, but don't pick on my clothes if you're going to be tramping around in those things, aight?" That was a bit more like the wolf deep down inside. She lay back along the grass, looking up at him and beckoning him to join her. Whatever fears and worries that the Eagle seemed to possess, they did not affect the usually wary wolf. She felt as if it had been forever since she'd clapped eyes upon him, yet also only the span of a day, but she knew however much time had passed, she had truly missed his companionship. What other male had such sense in his thick head as the clever Eagle? Few to none.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Her fingers gestured lazily to the sea. "I've only seen the coast around where those bloody Charoda live, but this...this is beauty. I can almost taste the blue I think...ach, what the shyke am I talking about?"

She smiled and looked up at him. "It's good to see you, Eagle." Something shaded the sunny disposition of the wolf then, if only for a moment, and then she smirked. "The dog misses you."

A flock of purple birds lit up like firelight soared over head and the Wolf...giggled, with delight. This was a perfect place, why had she never found it before? And how much more wonderful could it get with her and the Eagle there to enjoy it?

Suddenly she leapt up, the scarlet of her dress catching the light as nimble feet had her up and above the Eagle. "Why not a walk? Tell me of the sea you travel on, is it like this one?" Her enthusiasm and innocence was that of a child, but the adult abomination twinkled deep beneath the yellow eyes, excited, intrigued, but most of all...happy.

[Razkar]

"What am I wearing?"

Razkar looked down and snorted at himself. He felt a thrill of indignation but it just didn't take. It was like it was... outside of him, trying to gain entry and failing. Did he just expel it? Was he controlling that? Or...

The male stopped thinking about it. He was always thinking, always worrying and fretting. But what was there to fret about here? He had his friend, he was alive, and he was not in danger. A bemused smile crossed his face as he regarded the strange, flowing robes that were open down the middle, only his loincloth on beneath it.

"You look like some barbarian dandy. Actually, petch that, you don't look half bad, but don't pick on my clothes if you're going to be tramping around in those things, aight?"

"A dandy?" Razkar said, eyebrows high and amused, matching the childish grin on his face. He spread his arms wide and gave an exaggerated bow, like the knights did in that book Eranis read, about Syliras. "And you look like some barbarian princess who's never even seen dirt under her fingernails. Would you care for me to get your carriage, m'lady?"

They chuckled together and memories swarmed around him, but with them... warmth. Light and happiness and peace. Goddess, it had been so long since he'd felt the last two, without a worry about when they would end or what would take them from him. He followed her hand and landed heavily on his rump next to her, resting back on his elbow and smiling out across the horizon where sea met sky and he could not tell where nor did he care, because...

"Beautiful isn't it? I've only seen the coast around where those bloody Charoda live, but this...this is beauty. I can almost taste the blue I think...ach, what the shyke am I talking about?"

Razkar let his head fall back and chuckled, but a frown still creased his brow. He'd been to the southern coast and it was nothing like this. No plains or cliffs, just endless jungle and short, rocky beaches. There was hardly even any sand on them. But this was not like the Cyphrus region, either, nor the coasts he had seen from the deck of the Cuttlefish.

He shook his head and frowned out at the troublesome, mysterious coastline they lay above.

"Yeah, it's... stunning. But where is it? I've never even heard of it. It's almost like this is a-"

A word flashed in his mind and he felt a ripple make everything he was and was around haze. At once he quashed it, burying it, willing himself to tear the word from his mind in... whatever this place was. So what if this place was... that word? His friend was here. Nothing else mattered.

"It's good to see you, Eagle. The dog misses you."

Her smile flickered like a candle hit by a gust of wind for just a moment and Razkar cocked his head. He wondered... then stopped wondering. It did not matter. A flurry of wings and their heads jerked up, seeing a clutch of birds that perhaps no-one had or would see ever again take to the blue skies.

He laughed like a child. He felt the wind kiss his face and in yet another, closer flurry, Wolf was on her feet, dress swaying and dancing around her bare legs.

"Why not a walk? Tell me of the sea you travel on, is it like this one?"

Razkar laughed sharply as he got up to his feet... curious... no strain or groan in his limbs. They walked together through the long grass and he plucked a stick to hack idly at the passing stalks.

"No, not nearly as blue. Sometimes it's like a... muddy color. But only in the shallows, or by cities." He shook his head and sighed, tasting the salt on his tongue as he breathed in. "This is more like... I don't know. Like a painting, right? But beautiful."

Her words came back to him and he looked at her fondly, squeezing her hand. Some nameless hesitation had left him now, some creeping doubt that his waki... ahem... his other self had possessed. He smiled broadly.

"I miss you, too, Wolf. But not the dog. And not that petching Nasila." They kept walking and suddenly he stopped again, voice high and excited like a child and part of him wondered why it came to easily in this place: that joy and innocent wonder for the simplest things. "Hey! I made a charm with the Power of Bones, all by myself! It was from a Night Lion, these big tiger things in the Sea of Grass. I wish I had-"

But when he looked down, the pendant was there. Prayer beads and garrote wire and eight curved, black, rune-covered claws that he had carved himself. His fingers brushed it. Surely it hadn't been there before... had it?

"Oh... well, here it is!"

[Tinnok]

His hand felt warm and strong in hers, only perpetuating the almost dizzying euphoria she was beginning to feel with the scene that unfurled around them.

"If I am a barbarian Princess, I suppose you can be my...manservant. Not so different from Taloba, aye?" She winked, knowing he would simply be chomping at the bit with a response. Her mouth turned in the barest inkling of a frown at his description of the muddy sea he sailed upon. Also nothing compared to this one then, well that was good. No use in him experiencing something more beautiful than this.

"It is like a painting..." Somewhere her mind could grasp that something about the situation must be unrealistic, yet the rest of her shoved it away. There was such serenity hear as the abomination had rarely ever known. Why ruin such bliss with knowledge of the drudgery of what lay outside?

Despite the nature of the whole land, it was funny she still couldn't draw herself to just say the words that so easily slipped between his lips. Why was it easier for him than it was for her? 'miss' wasn't a hard word to say, so maybe it was the words around it that were more difficult? Yes that must be it. Her eyes shadowed again, but this time were interrupted by his excitement. Full lips split in an eager grin to see what he meant, and they opened in the appropriate 'O' shape upon seeing the necklace. "It's beautiful, Eagle! I didn't know you could carve!"

She broke their connection in order to feel the smooth surface of the dark bones, face drawing near his neck in order to glimpse the runes carved into them. She glanced up from her almost bird like posture into his gaze, her yellow eyes curious and excited. "A dark lion? Perhaps they are nicer to talk to than Myrian tigers, petching jerks the lot of them." her face zipped by his, somehow still smelling like the damp earthy ground of the Wilds despite the breezy location upon which they were located. She pulled away, hair clouding her face as she turned to face the plateau. She was still tempted by that cliff, the impossibly long dive down, but that inkling still stayed her eager feet.

Instead she dashed away, doing a cartwheel in the grass. Perhaps she should have been more nimble in this world, but as it was, she threw her heads up over her legs in what would have been a neat, if revealing maneuver, only to topple into the emerald sea face first.

"PISSING SHYKE!"

Very Princess-like.

From the depths of the grass a singular stone was pelted at the Eagle's chest, a mischievous face popping up behind it

[Razkar]

"If I am a barbarian Princess, I suppose you can be my...manservant. Not so different from Taloba, aye?"

With a flick of his wrist his imitation sword was tossed at her chest and the stick bounced off her. She just giggled away the impact and he smolder, still unable to keep the smile from his face. He wagged a finger instead, believing his threat about as much as she did.

"Keep it up, princess. I've knocked you into the dirst before, and I'm not one of those foppish barbarians who turns his nose up and hitting a female."

Razkar decided it best to leave out the part about most females where he came from were capable of knocking him into the dirt. Repeatedly. At half-speed.

"It is like a painting..."

The male gazed out over the wide and pristine ocean. The waves rose and fell and rose in perfect motion. Purple and green and white and azure birds swooped and dived... even those doll-fin creatures Edreina had told him about... he could see them in the surf. He shook his head, eyes almost overwhelmed. He was barely aware of the whisper that left him...

"... it doesn't seem real... does it...?"

She did not answer, and he was glad for it. Instead she focused on his pendant with the same child-like intensity that he had mentioned it, scrutinizing it like a maid at market, running her fingers over it...

Razkar frowned. Strange... he didn't feel it here. Items with the Power of Bones, they always... resonated. Whether raging with their power through an outlet or just humming gently under his heartbeat, he could always sense them. But here? It was just bones with scratched on them.

"It's beautiful, Eagle! I didn't know you could carve!"

A further question, but he chose to ignore it, shrugging in a way he hoped looked modest. "Practice, remember? And lots and lots of time." He snorted, running a finger over one sharp claw from base to razor tip. "You don't want to make mistakes when larking around with this djed, trust me..."

"A dark lion? Perhaps they are nicer to talk to than Myrian tigers, petching jerks the lot of them."

The male chortled at her langue, so unbecoming of her simple yet beautiful gown. She positively glowed in it, in a way that he had never regarded Wolf before. She was always in leathers or skins, as savage and merciless as the jungle she lived in, hunted in, worshipped as much as she did her Goddess-Queen. She was always... attractive, he supposed. But in a brazen, almost masculine way, exuding power and intimidation and a challenge to the world that the right kind of male found more arousing than the most fantastical maiden in a tower.

Razkar shook his head. Only now did he see it. Goddess, did that make him like one of those barbarian knights in the stories? He shuddered at the thought.

"Probably not. Bloody thing attacked us on a hunt. Ah, yes! One of the Blue Skins, but you'll never guess... he was raised in Falyndar! I've forgotten what clan, but Goddess, Wolf, they surely fucked the tiger raising him. Couldn't even track properly! Raised by the Children of Myri and-"

Apparently, Eagle had found a new focus for her eyes. Giggling and swaying, dark hair flashing, she launched herself into a carttwheel, smile spread wide over her face as he hair arced around her-

-dress flying up with it-

-landing with a thud rather than a whisper.

"PISSING SHYKE!"

Razkar nearly fell over laughing, bent over and shaking his head as she vanished into the deep carpet of green. "Ever the graceful maiden, aren't we? Shyke, woman, don't you ever-"

Thud!

The stone smacked into him from nowhere. His head snapped down and he watched it fall to the grass. Winking at him in the sun. Mocking him. Razkar straightened up, frowning, mouth open-

-another, smaller one hit him in the forehead.

"Ruros's cock, woman!" He said, blinking away the pain and stars and finding a pair of twinkling yellow eyes above a laughing mouth. "Oh, that is it!"

With a roar he lunged at her, still smiling, gods-damn-it all. He wanted to be angry but here, in this place? It seemed almost... like sacrilege. After a bare moment Razkar was on top of her, pinning her wrists, looking down...

The moment past. Clueless male never even realized it was there.

Instead his eyes jerked up to the cliff's edge, and he shifted his grip.

"Time for a swim, princess!"

[Tinnok]

She was aware that the color of the cloth of his robe seemed to match her dress for some strange reason, it was the one thought that flowed through her mind as she saw him lunge at her. Then of course she became very aware of exactly what he wasn't wearing beneath the robes. Suddenly he was on top of her, pinning her to the ground. The first thought she had was to think of a way to escape his grapple, use his superior strength against him. The second thought she had was tactical in an altogether different way.

Neither thought mattered, for what came next was him grabbing her wrists and heaving her upwards. The half breed yowled like a cat, all frustration and anguish though almost none of it was real. But truly, this is what she had been thinking of the whole time wasn't it?

As he shoved her toward the edge of the cliff a broad smile spread across her face. She felt the heels of her feet cross over the boundary between land and sky, and then his face was next to hers, glowering with triumph. She grinned back. "Yes manservant, time for a swim indeed."

And she closed her eyes and let her weight fall backwards. She couldn't be sure if his hands let go of her wrists before or after her plummet into the great blue abyss that was that mixture of sky and ocean, for all she could feel was the wonder of falling into it. Strange she had imagined falling so far at such speeds would be terrifying, but it seemed leisurely the way the wind pushed against her body and the folds of her dress whipped back and forth as the velocity of the abominations form increased.

Yellow eyes flickered open to see a flock of azure jays fade into the distance above her, and she wondered precisely when she was going to hit the waves...

SPLASH.

The strange sensation in her stomach lessened somewhat from her descent as the blue waters engulfed her. Hair became nearly black as water coursed through it, and calmly she returned to the surface, taking in a lungful air she wasn't entirely sure she needed. Feet kicked through water as light as air in order to maintain her head over the surface of the water. Eyes glanced down to see droves of strange and exotic looking fish swimming just out of reach. The water was so clear she felt like she could see for miles down into its aquamarine depths where underwater Tskanna grazed upon strange coral trees and tigers had fins and flippers.

But those creatures mattered little despite their beauty, for her mind was still on the man in the crimson robes. The word prince echoed through her mind as a strange after thought, but even the delirious half breed couldn't truly assess the word as is, and tossed it away, at least for now. He was simply the Eagle after all...though perhaps nothing was as simple as she was attempting to make it.

Then all of a sudden a spray of water showered her twice over as another splash ruined her strange and distant thoughts. Her head whipped around to see robes billowing out over the surface of the water and tanned head pop up. She grinned.

"So he can wrestle hapless women, hunt down Night Lions, fly off of cliffs, and swim. Is there anything the Eagle can't do?"

[Razkar]

"Yes manservant, time for a swim indeed."

He should have known by her tone what was going to happen, but he was too drunk on his own imminent victory. Then he felt thin but iron-like fingers fasten around his wrists, her own body going limp, tipping over the cliff that was not a cliff.

It was just the edge of the grass. No rocks or stones went down with them, kicked loose by their scrabbling feet. It was too... clean. Too perfect.

But Razkar wasn't thinking of that as he fell right after her.

"Ohyouunbelievablebiiiiiiiiiii-"

The final syllable was lost in the whirl of air as they both plummeted down and down towards the big blue. It got closer with every moment but the fall seemed to last forever, and just before impact, in those long blinks... Razkar felt calm. His clothes whipped around him but he did not feel the crushed air pressure anymore. He spread out his arms and felt like he had wings. Like he could almost feel the feathers on his body and could... soar.

For the briefest of moments, Eagle did. And then the water claimed him.

Even the impact was wrong. Razkar knew what it was to explode from airy surface to suffocating liquid, and this was different. There was the shock to his system, of course, but it was over in a moment. Submerged under the sea, his eyes were still open... but didn't sting. It was as if he was back on the surface, just seeing things through water eyes.

He saw the gigantic cow-like creatures below them, grazing on the sea bed like herbivores on land. He saw shoals of fish like the birds of the ocean. He saw... no... there were no sharks. Or barracuda. Everything was still peaceful. He knew that could no be so, but... but he didn't care.

Razkar broke the surface with a grin and laughed up at the sky, quickly finding a bedraggled head bobbing around not far from him. He cupped his hands and jerked them forwards, sending a minor tidal wave over the head with hair plastered to it.

"So he can wrestle hapless women, hunt down Night Lions, fly off of cliffs, and swim. Is there anything the Eagle can't do?"

Eagle chuckled and let himself lean backwards, limbs out, breathing steady... just as Edreina had taught him. He found himself musing that she would perhaps love it here, but would she love how easily the two land walkers had claimed her ocean? Hmm, now, there was a question for the ages...

"Much to learn among the barbarians, princess," Razkar said with his eyes closed, refusing to let that moniker go quite yet. He let himself float, become weightless on the waves. "Some of it actually useful..."

A moment. A chime. A bell. A day. How long did he float there? Finally a question bloomed in his head, unbridled and unconcerned by the fears of... that other place. He opened his eyes, guileless and...

Wolf blinked and almost choked back her shock. His eyes were no longer black.

"I will be returning soon, Wolf." He said, to her and the sky. "I know it's humid and dense and full of wankers, but... I miss home."

[Tinnok]

She tried to imagine what it was like where he had gone. Blue skinned men, people who had no real home and traveled atop horses in open fields of grass. Yes she had read too of the barbarians outside of her jungles. They did not interest her so much as the creatures. Strange bats, massive cows, nocturnal cats, bizarre insects, rare plants, and strange flying lizards, they were a Phylonurists wet dream really. But this span of space filled with strange sentient beings and creatures had also symbolize this strange imagined barrier between her and the Eagle: She tending to the jungle and he making his life abroad.

She wondered if a day went by that she did not contemplate him. Just saying her own nickname brought up images and the past, and where precisely did they fit in this blue world the two of them floated in now? Her mind flickered to brutal scenes of blood and gore, faces hardened and cold, then looked into...

Were his eyes blue? She certainly would have noticed that before...right?

Silently, pushing the water slowly away from her she floated towards him, treading water in the strange warm liquid that both of them inhabited. His eyes were the ocean and hers the sun. They were still dark, but when they caught the light they shone like jeweled depths. She had liked his onyx eyes though...part of her wished to tell him that. She could have said anything then, those words that seemed to catch in her throat when she attempted them, a witty remark, perhaps even silence and a splash of water to diffuse the strange atmosphere of water that surrounded them. All that she could manage to form, however, was a singular question.

"Why?"

It was quiet, nearly a whisper. She had no illusions about his answer. A selfish part of her in this strangely fake piece of perfection wanted him to return just for her...the jungle princess, the feral beast living in the woods, but she was just a small sliver...perhaps even smaller than that of all of the reasons. But he had tasted freedom, why would he return to those shackles? not for temperature, not only to serve Myri's will, though it must have been a reason in part.

Did the jungle call to him as it called to her? Not as a witch or servant of Caiyha, but the same way in his very blood, willing it's child to return to that humid embrace? She couldn't say, but hoped that he would. She herself was unsure that if she parted from her beloved jungle and liked what she saw, that she would ever bring herself to return.

Her thumb reached up and brushed a drop of the sea water that collected beneath his strange blue eyes, brushing it away, awaiting an explanation. It was not that she did not want him to return...Goddess no...not that.

[Razkar]

The only question that mattered, and Razkar could not find an answer for it. For long moments he floated on the surface, calm blue waves not even coming close to washing over him, arms moving steady and serent just like he was taught but... strangely unnecessary.

Why don't you just stop?

He did... and he stayed afloat. In that surprising stillness he gazed up and up and even though the sky was blue and so familiar, it was almost as if it had a ceiling to it. So strange, this place-

A touch on his face. He blinked, locking eyes with Wolf and a tumult of emotions tumbled from them. She rarely, if ever, displayed any physical affection. Even their farewell embrace had been more his idea than hers. But her touch here was so soft, so gentle... so alien, in many ways.

But not bad. And it cleared his thoughts into one, solid truth.

"We saw... so much horror, did we not?" He spoke in a hushed, grieving whisper, and at his recollection Tinnok fancied she heard distant thunder from the clear skies. "On the blockade. In the city. The wilds. That... That cave. So much horror and misery... I could barely stand it..."

Now it was her turn to be shocked: he reached up and his glistening hand clutched hers. Whatever was said now, Razkar knew he need not fear recriminations, from her or his own ego. This place was... private. The world could not touch it.

"And after it was done, I felt... hollow. All the wonder in me was battered out and I breathed and ate and shit and fought, but it almost wasn't me anymore." The male smiled and his teeth shone. "You pulled me out of that. You and Aya. But the jungle did not seem like home. Too many memories, and so we left. She felt the same, I think."

He sighed, letting go of her hands and closing his eyes. His words gained strength and with every breath taken, more of her Eagle came back. The one she remembered.

"But every night I sleep without a canopy over me, or eat a meal from a bowl I did not hunt myself, or walk down a street and not see a single loincloth or Mark of Myri... I feel myself ache for that which I left. A philosopher from the Old Times wrote that "absence makes the heart grow fonder". Ha... Aya told me that. I didn't believe it."

His eyes opened again. To her continued surprise and a feeling that seemed like a queer mixture of disappointment and relief, they were onyx again.

"Now I do. I want to see the jungle again. I want to march and hunt with my clan, my fang... my blood by battle and friendship. I want protect and serve my people where they most need me." A needful desperation crept into his voice and his eyes shut again as if shamed. The water rippled, hard and fierce, like an eruption from underneath it. "I am needed. I... I can feel it. It pulls me in dreams and in every tiny reminder that I am the barbarian when I walk those lands."

A bitter laugh and a sigh that smelled of seawater and - she realized with some amusement - Taloba Grey. His favorite.

"It could be ego, I know, but... I belong there."

Razkar's eyes opened again and his body froze in the water, stiff and unyielding as driftwood. Just before panic could take her, fear for some ethereal malady seizing her friend, he spoke again.

"Wolf... you eyes..."