Closed Caverns of Safety

[Johanne]

55th Summer. The Underground Forest.

Everyone knew of summer storms. The elders of each city in Mizahar feared the storms, the thunder cracking like giants smashing stones against mountains, the lightning striking like swift arrows into the cool flesh of the earth. Zulrav's rage was swift and destructive, tearing tree trunks apart and sending animals fleeing for hidey holes and dens, to wait out nature's rage. A summer storm could mean death for something small and weak.

For Johanne, it meant release.

To be trapped in a city of stone, in the bowels of the earth, could be stifling for Johanne. Everything was still and silent here. She missed the rushing air and the colourful trees of the peaks of Lhavit, she missed the flowers that could heal and poison in the same moment. She had been taken on an adventure, but she had never wanted to be. She simply wanted to witness an adventure. Now here she was, trapped in a city she could not understand. Every day was strange and difficult. Every day she worked for a city she held no allegiance to. It was not so much that she wanted to return to Lhavit immediately. It was more that she simply wanted to be somewhere the ground felt steady beneath her feet.

When they first heard the rumblings, Johanne was in the Craft Gallery, cleaning up after a day's work. She had mashed the pulp of yew trees, taking out the wood content and leaving only the fibres. She'd put it in the suspension, laid out nice and smooth, so that when the liquid drained out, over the suspension would be laid out an interconnected weave of fibres that when dry, could be turned into the sturdy paper one could write on. There was nothing else she could do for the day. Wiping down the benchfront, Johanne hummed softly to herself, before she heard it. The cracks of thunder.

The others in the Craft Gallery gasped, whipping their heads around to look upwards and out, to see the world around them fall apart. Perhaps the memories of the Djed Storm were too close for them, but Johanne revelled in the approach of the storm. Swiftly grabbing her satchel, Johanne ran for the exit, through the stone warrens as swiftly as she could, passing Inarta who had stumbled in from outside dripping wet. And out. Out into the Courtyard of the Sky.

Her hands raised up to the sky, her forest green dress clinging to her body, her hair becoming matted and clinging to her body, Johanne laughed. This was joy. This was release. Her cheeks dripping with water, she smiled. A bolt of lightning hit rock not far off, a deafening clap of thunder, and still she stood out in the elements, a challenge to Zulrav himself.

Johanne laughed in the face of the gods.

x

[Raif]

An immutable chip rested on the smooth olive skin that was Raif‘s shoulder. What had put it there was still too fresh a wound not to be forgotten, the crackle of lightning that blazed a jagged trail of alabaster fire across the caliginous sky stoking the painful memory of it all. But the Endal was not consumed by it as he had been then. Ivak could not escape from the belly of Skyinarta twice, nor take from him what had already been lost forever.

Standing upon the precipice of his aerie, somewhere between the heavens and the valley beneath, Raif gazed down to the lands his people called home. Despite the cruelties of the world they lived in, the Inarta had carved out a colony that had endured the test of time. Beautiful in its eminent design, avian motifs were etched into the pillars and walls that supported the expansive structures in which his people toiled. In the dark shadow of the thunderclouds however, such artwork was bestowed with a more macabre appeal.

Like ants he watched his people crawl away from the rain back into these structures, nothing more than small black dots from where the Endal stood as sentinel to his people. Water soaked his bare chest and filled his nostrils with its earthly scent, a clap of thunder sending a tremor across the fine hairs of his skin that sunk down into to the pores of his bones. He could almost hear Mabiri’s voice scolding him from afar, a faint image of her face wrapped tightly in a scowl.

If the lightning doesn’t catch you, the cold will, you know! Get back from there, you foolish boy!

Raif’s eyes briefly searched the ominous sky as if looking for some hint of her existence, slowly retreating from the broad opening back beneath its cavernous ceiling. Deeper within the hollow, his emptying sigh was accompanied by a ruffle of feathers, Zibas’ appreciation for the storm noticeably absent. Tucked away against the back wall and cradled within his nest, he could sense his avian friend’s hesitance.

She’s right. It‘s not safe.

The Endal’s eyes narrowed coldly in the darkness where he could see his friend’s gray silhouette shuffling about. The mindless transmission of emotion left him feeling vulnerable; dangerous for a member of the red headed folk. And what would you know? I--

An overwhelming sense of calm passed from Eagle to rider in an instant, halting Raif mid-sentence and forcing his shoulders to relax. I sometimes wish the storm had taken me instead, he lamented.

Not for you to decide. And your meaning offends me.

It had been in Raif’s experience that trying to express certain abstractions with a mind that, while highly intelligent, still lacked a very tangible human condition, made it impossible to rationalize ideas that simply did not exist in the other‘s world of thinking. It was a relief at times, because it allowed for a blunt edge in conversation. But other moments, such as these, made it impossibly difficult to impart any small ounce of understanding.

What it meant for the Endal was that the conversation had ended until such a time when the Eagle’s sense of…pride? was given enough time to heal. There was still much of his feathered friend Raif had yet to fully comprehend, and likely never would. He felt like a child again, moving towards the door with disappointment in himself weighing his head and shoulders down.

I’m sorry Zibas. I did not mean…

You go now.

The lack of pain in the bird’s voice always felt unsettling, but it was the Eagle’s way of pushing aside anger for the sake of his counterpart. A massively framed bird of prey with a passion for killing was not something one willingly wished to trifle with.

Closing the door with a grating moan behind him, Raif allowed the social grievances between Endal and Eagle to slowly wash away with the water evaporating from his flesh. His mind, left wanting for distraction, took but a moment to find resolution as eyes swept towards the bow and quiver of neatly primmed arrows leaning against the wall to his left.

Fetching a sleeveless katinu up from the stone bench he had mindlessly flung it across when first coming in, Raif glided his arms through its summer warm cloth and fit the hem neatly on both sides of his exposed sternum. Slipping over to the door that led out into the warrens, agile fingers snaked around both quiver’s strap and bow’s grip before opening the door and leaving his humble abode as stark and silent as he kept it.

Deep within the halls, the roar of thunder outside still tumbled its way through dense stone, a lion‘s purr that made the mountain shiver with life. Fires from oiled sconces lit the Endal’s path deep into the bowels of his city, the chirrups of the Nari tongue filling the void from beneath where the masses congregated. The excited screams of some Yasi could be heard whenever the thunder boomed loudest, a threat to the colony turned into a game to keep the spirits light.

With neither time to spare nor inclination to wait for familiar faces to greet and ask him questions, Raif immersed himself in the mass of bodies that had run to find shelter from the storm’s ferocity. Weaving his way past with stoic indifference and the whisper of a glare threatening his eyes, the Endal’s mind settled on getting a little practice in at the Top Notch while the rest huddled together in the warmth of company to kindle stories of gossip.

But when Raif casually passed the entrance to the Courtyard, the slight hint of twisting movement within his peripherals startled his attention long enough to break his confident stride completely. Halting to stare agape at a woman embracing her own end with open arms, the Endal’s expression quickly unfurled into that of irritated disbelief.

The distinct lack of scarlet in her hair quickly claimed her as Outsider, a small touch of both envy and ire blossoming alongside Raif’s incredulity. While never one to shirk the chance to defy the touch of Dira, there was a separation in the Endal’s mind between dancing with death and welcoming it in as an old friend. This new creature, undaunted by her own bullish ignorance, was flirting with the latter. And somehow, the thought of her innocence being destroyed by nature’s carelessness did not sit well with her observer.

Soaked by the downpour within the first few feet of his hastened entrance into the Courtyard, strands of sable crimson became pasted to Raif’s scalp and were quickly swept behind with the flicking brush of a hand. Glancing up to the sky to gauge the snarling teeth of the beast’s gaping maw, bolts of light skittered across the gray rock and left scars of glass eyed obsidian in its wake. The percussive boom of thunder was only moments in following.

His posture was stiff with frayed nerves by the time he got to where she was standing, her arms raised in exultation with a smile that seemed to soften the severity of their situation. Without a word, Raif’s arm coiled around her slender waist and hoisted the girl from her feet, callously dragging her towards the entrance to the Courtyard with a glower darkening his brow.

[Johanne]

Oh, but this moment with the Gods battling it out above her, confirmed to Johanne one thing she had always known: she was very insignificant. How could humanity in all their strange and wondrous forms think that any single one of their feats of war, art and glory could hold a candle to this: pure, powerful rage? Lightning shattering the mountainside, rain drowning the lambs of Spring just born?

But this time, out here in the storm in a city where Johanne could barely say "hello" correctly, her insignificance didn't bother her so much. She had spent so many days bemoaning her inability to write, draw, sing, create. Johanne was well acquainted with her smallness, and knew that to the great beings of this world, she meant very very little. Today, though, that was okay: she was content to be drowned by the rain, torn apart by the winds. To die such a brilliant death would be beautiful.

Her dance with Dira was halted, though: the lights going down on the stage, the curtain drawn before the main act. Strong arms wrapped around the thin girl's waist, hauling her off like a ballerina, but without their grace or ability. Johanne's eyes snapped open, her hands hitting at the strong arms that held her tight. Her yells for this stranger to let her go were lost in the wind, in the screams of the thunder battle. It was only when the man unceremoniously dumped her in the dry entrance to the Courtyard that her protests would be heard.

"Petch you! What do you think you're doing?" Johanne glared at the Inarta who had hauled her from the storm, the man shorter than her, but undoubtedly stronger. "You had no RIGHT!" Johanne could turn and run back into the storm if she chose, but the moment had been ruined, shattered like a mirror. There would be no attaining that pure feeling of release and freedom. Not while this presumptive man stood by. Her cheeks were red with rage, her eyes fierce, her dress soaked and her hair mangled and dripping wet.

x

[Raif]

Thunder belted the mountainside in one malefic crack, shaking the very earth and the mortal feet which relied upon it to stand. It tempered the scar each member of the colony bore in solidarity, unbidden memories returning to quiet the voices of those who had witnessed Ivak’s return. Even Raif, a man who had sworn to himself not to relive that day while his eyes remained open, could do little to abolish the nettling thoughts which gnawed at the back of his mind now.

He was sopping wet by the time he’d fully retrieved her, his irascible nature peaked by the woman’s bruising objections against his arms. The thought to toss her unceremoniously to the floor had crossed his mind many times over, but he found himself only shoving her two arm’s lengths away just to remove any temptation for swift vengeance.

Russet eyes made it quite apparent he was in no mood for physical confrontation, right arm still outstretched with index finger shaking quietly back and forth while his left grasped the shaft of his bow against his thigh. He seemed perfectly content to hear her yell, though, a vicious grin blossoming across rain soaked cheeks. There was something about inciting the worst in people that the Endal took pleasure in, and he was glad to see that nature extend to one outside his people’s bloodlines.

Understanding the common tongue came more readily than Raif’s ability to wield it, but his mind was already convinced that if she wasn’t speaking in Nari, then she didn’t know it well enough to heed his warning.

“This not low lands. Up here lightning find you. Rock bring lightning. Up here, you die. No go out in storm again. That clear?”

His frostbitten eyes watched for recognition to form on the woman’s features and for resentment to subside, his feet slowly drawing his body in front of the doorway to block her from entertaining a single rebellious thought. Raif didn’t need to avert his gaze to know a host of other Inarta were observing them, their usual clipped chatter noticeably silent, and not because of the storm.

“You want out, I take you to safe place where sky not growl,” he spoke carefully, eyes attentive to her every move. Despite the tension he knew she felt, his curiosity in her remained.

[Verilian]

. Thread Award Johanne Lores: Working for a Place you have no Loyalty To, Enjoying the Storm, Laughing in the Face of the Gods, Feeling Insignificant in the Face of the Gods, Snatched from the Storm Raif If you ever return to us, please repost your request. Notes: Well, I couldn't award any skill points to this thread, but I gave you what lores I could think of. If you feel I missed anything, feel free to PM me. Sorry to see this thread cut short, I would have liked to see where it went. Anyway, good job, and keep writing! Also, please edit your post in the request thread to reflect that it has been graded. Thanks!