Completed [Sanctuary Beach] The Art of War

[Silnas Windhoof]

She was still waiting for a reply from the girl when the actor gave a great shout. Skytrotter's ears pinned back against her head, nostrils flared, and her cat hissed, bearing his fangs. The height difference between them meant that Silnas had to look down at the boy, but his words infuriated her all the same. How dare he speak to her like this. Her hand tightened on the spear until the skin across her knuckles turned white, her jaw clenching until one could almost hear her back molars being ground into dust. "You stupid boy! She challenged me, and you're treating her like she's some sort of victim!" She pointed at Jorin, and jabbed her finger in his chest. "The only one here who is so weak is you!" There were a few seconds where it seemed as if Silnas' next action could be anywhere from pulling hair to getting into a true fight. Silnas knew a few of the actions she could take with her spear-- sweeping it under Jorin's feet, for instance, and then giving him a right slap with the wood across his forehead, something to leave a mark. But none of it was worth her time. Silnas turned, back stiff and straight, and mounted Skytrotter. The horse pawed the sand, arching its neck as it seemed to glare at Jorin and Uleru. All Silnas had to do was lean, nudging the horse with her feet to bring the horse to a trot. A few more paces, and she would turn that into a gallop, leaving them behind in the sand that she kicked up.

[Uleru]

Uleru watches the horse woman leave with the deflated feeling of an anti-climax. Jorin was right to scold them both and send her away, but the Otani cant help but feel that she was just cheated out of a rare type of play. Still, it was brave of him to stand within striking distance of that spear and talk her down like she is nothing more than a snotty child, yet at the same time incredibly stupid. What was preventing her from running him through with it?

Without speaking, the Otani turns her back on the retreating Drykras and faces Jorin, lifting up the ball of her right foot but keeping her heel on the ground. Through the top of her foot you can see a small amount of dijed gathering in a tight, pearly ball underneath. She turns her head this way and that, seemingly studying the process, and adjusting her weight as she balances on one foot. Despite the gathering formation, the opalescent ball seems to be getting smaller instead of bigger as she concentrates and gathers it tighter and tighter.

Then, with a sound like two wooden bricks smashing into each other, she forces the dijed into a funnel-like shape away from her and simultaneously transforms the pressurized mass into air.

The strong pop of air hits the sand and kicks up a rather impressive amount of sand. And as the human lifts one arm to protect his eyes the moulding reaches out and snatches his stick away from him. When the sand settles she pulls back and snaps the stick down across his shin like a frustrated mother dishing out punishment with an alder switch.

"You were lucky she didn't see fit to beat you senseless for that you moron! You have a talent for words, but come on!"

She cracks the stick across his shin one more time, for good measure, and then blows out her cheeks and hands it back. He is an interesting man, and his offer of a more peaceful afternoon doesn't fall on deaf ears, but she feels compelled to help him now wether he wants it or not, dammit.

"You need to learn how to use the stick and defend yourself. I cant help, not really, so when I try to take the stick again your going to have to improvise and fight back" the Otani demands, trying to copy the commanding tone of voice he used before but failing dismally. "The concern was appreciated, but you cant hurt me with it quite yet. Let me demonstrate."

Keeping eye contact, Uleru steps back and holds out her palm so he can see; that same ethereal white dijed is pooled in her hand. She holds this same hand to the side of her head over her ear, breathes in, and she pushes the dijed out of her palm in the similar way she did with the air; imagining a spiral leaving her body. But as it leaves her hand it doesn't become air but a thin spire of ice.

And she is able to impale the ice halfway through her head before the tip breaks off. She pulls her hand away, leaving the ice imbedded in her body, and does a kind of "ta-da!" showy motion with her arms.

"See? I'm not the same kind of fragile that humans are. Now pick up the stick, 'cause I'm going to take it away from you."

[Jorin Ertihan]

Season of Summer, Day 45, 513 AV

"You stupid boy! She challenged me, and you're treating her like she's some sort of victim! The only one here who is so weak is you!"

For a moment, just for a moment, Jorin thought that the fierce woman was going to kill him. He did not think she would strike down an unarmed man; he read anger and sadness in her, not bloodthirst. Still, he'd been wrong before, and if this gamble didn't pay off...

But she didn't. She turned in a huff and left. Jorin released a breath he didn't realize he was holding, and turned back to Uleru, hoping that she was more reasonable. Instead, she was doing ... something with her foot. He had no idea what was happening, so he looked on with curiosity. Suddenly, there was a loud smash as a burst of wind kicked up the sand, causing it to fly into Jorin's face.

"Gah!" he cried as sand flew into his mouth. Lifting one arm and squeezing his eyes shut, he wondered why she would do that. As he sputtered and tried to spit out the sand, she had grabbed his tree branch ... "Hey!" ... and swatted him on the shin with it.

"Ow!" he cried.

"You were lucky she didn't see fit to beat you senseless for that you moron! You have a talent for words, but come on!"

Hey! That's not fair, she wasn't that crazy! Jorin thought to himself, but wisely kept his mouth shut. Without warning Uleru sent the branch smacking against his shin a second time.

"Ouch! That hurt!" he protested. She blew out her cheeks and handed his stick back. Jorin took it with wounded pride in his eyes.

"You need to learn how to use the stick and defend yourself. I cant help, not really, so when I try to take the stick again your going to have to improvise and fight back." she was saying. Jorin realized that she was trying to copy his tone from earlier. He smiled. He didn't even know he could use that tone until just then. Until that point, the only person he'd ever heard pull it off was his father.

"The concern was appreciated, but you cant hurt me with it quite yet. Let me demonstrate."

And with that, Uleru did an amazing thing, creating what looked like a spike of ice that penetrated her head! It was ... Jorin didn't know what to think. If that had happened to him he'd be dead for sure. Ok, maybe his wild swinging wouldn't hurt her. He knew so little of the Otani, basically nothing. Were they immortal? He had so many questions...

"See? I'm not the same kind of fragile that humans are. Now pick up the stick, 'cause I'm going to take it away from you."

Jorin nodded dumbly, just then realizing that in his astonishment he had dropped the stick. Holding it in front of him awkwardly, he tried to enter what he had hoped to be a decent stance.

That was when Jorin remembered how the fierce Drykas woman was standing. Facing forward, with forward hand and forward foot facing the opponent. Knees bent. Forward hand a quarter the way down the shaft of the weapon, weapon tilted at a forty-five degree angle. Big toe of forward foot pointed at target.

Jorin's back hand naturally found its resting place at the butt end of the staff, and he held the branch tightly in this way, mimicking the basic stance the fierce Drykas had inadvertently taught him. And he realized, that in this way he could guard in almost any direction, by tilting the forward end of the staff, just by moving his back hand. And, by taking this stance, the staff was protecting the rest of his body.

Smiling sheepishly, Jorin said, "Well, I'm as ready as I'll ever be. But, I noticed earlier you liked games. Well, why don't we play one now? Maybe less confrontational than the one the Drykas woman wanted to play, but I'm sure you and I could still have some fun!"

Jorin thought for a moment.

"How about, for every time you take the branch from me, I have to tell you a story from my past, about something I saw as an actor on the road. And for every time I prevent you from doing it, you have to tell me a story about your people! Want to play?"

OOCUseless trivia: the stance Jorin is using is a very basic stance in quarterstaff fighting, called the Forward Stance. He is right-handed, so it would be his right hand and foot that is pointing at Uleru.

[Uleru]

The Otani's hands find each other and she claps once in glee. A game? A game just for her? Thoughts of the missed opportunity to shake down the Dykras melt and she squares off with Jorin with a new kind of excitement.

"Yes, I want to play. You have great stories to tell me, don't you?" Like what its like inland, where the sea doesn't reach all sides and water is used only to quench thirst, the Otani's mind hums with enthusiasm. Unfortunately, this also means that she now really, really wants that stick. He is offering her stories, how can she let that go so easy?

The game commences without any verbal warning from the moulding. But magic (her only means of offence) has a pretty lengthy start-up time compared to a weapon, and the man would have sufficient time to prepare.

Thin, liquid-like res coats the mouldings arms from finger to elbow, giving her the rather odd appearance of wearing nothing but kid gloves. Her body ripples once, then she braces herself and drags her arms across the air in front of her as if pulling something very heavy.

Then her arms drag back as if with release, and her gills open with a relaxed breath.

But once the arc is complete she throws herself into the returning arc once more, with much more effort than previously displayed. She had been following the steady rhythm of the waves on the shore, but now she doesn't copy but pulls the next wave over onto the shore with a great gasp of breath.

This next wave breaks onto the shore and rushes the few feet up the beach to them as if a great force were behind it. When it reaches Uleru and Jorin it is above their knees. And its when the wave has reached the peak of its inertia that she lets go and starts towards the human.

She lashes out at him as the water starts returning to its home. Its still high enough to slow him down (though not for long) but its the shifting sand under their feet as the tide takes it away that she is aiming for. If she can get to him while he is faltering with his stance...

Her hands curl into hooks and she moves to swipe it by the front end of his staff. She is not very strong, and if it came down to a wrestling match for this round she will lose sorely. But she knows for sure that she has a wicked grip, and she will not lose if the man makes the mistake of trying to swat her away. If she could just get a hand on it!

[Jorin Ertihan]

Season of Summer, Day 45, 513 AV

"Yes, I want to play. You have great stories to tell me, don't you?"

She seemed so excited, so happy. Jorin couldn't help but smile at that joy. He was glad his suggestion of a game was so pleasing to her. He thought she might like it, and he figured that since she said she could be bribed with words, the promise of stories would pique her interest.

Still, he couldn't help but feel he might have just sealed his fate for that evening, as he watched her hands take on a strange pulling motion.

Jorin had, of course, known about magic, in the most general sense. He had spent fifteen years of his life in Zeltiva, with the students of magic and mathematics and philosophy and a hundred other subjects running around. It was almost impossible not to be generally aware of the basic existence of certain magic, but even so, he'd never seen it performed before. Not like this.

She seemed to be ... pulling something, and for a moment Jorin had no clue what was happening. He tightened his grip on the branch, took a half-step back, unconsciously digging his feet into the soft sand. He still had no petching clue what to do here. Just because he accidentally got the basic stance down, didn't mean he had the training to back it up.

Uleru's arms drew back, and a large wave crashed into Jorin's legs, throwing him off-balance. Fortunately, the bent knees allowed him to retain his composure a moment later, but by then it was too late. Uleru had already come in for his stick, hands curled and grasping for the end of it. Out of pure instinct, his left hand propelled the staff toward her, trying to bat her away as his legs found uneasy purchase on the shifting ground.

Suddenly, Jorin realized his mistake, but too late. He saw that if she grabbed the stick she could wrench it from him before he could regain his footing. Indeed, if she grabbed it now, not only would she win the stick, but his stance would be disrupted and he would end up with a butt full of wet sand.

Oh, please, don't have seen through my mistake! Jorin thought. But it was too late to do anything but carry through with the "attack".

[Uleru]

It was quick and smooth and just what Uleru was aiming for. She catches the leading end of his staff and her fingers wrap around it like a vice. His stance starts slipping away with the moving sand and he falters, just for a second, but its enough hesitation for the moulding to give the weapon one good tug and the whole thing comes free from his hands.

And all too willing to add insult to injury, Uleru brings the stick back down to crack across the humans other shin. He's going to have himself a nice collection of bruises once this is done. At this point the human finally completely loses his stance and topples over into a mess of gritty sand. And Uleru takes this opportunity to pose, leaning on the stick with hip cocked and hand on her waist like the conquering hero.

"Aha! You owe me a story hu~man!" she sings with exuberance. The last of the water drains away back into the natural break and the Otani plops down in front of the man, legs crossed and an expectant smile pulling at her watery lips. "So, tell me how you got here. How did you travel? What is it like so far ashore? Who did you travel with? Was it by horse?"

[Jorin Ertihan]

Season of Summer, Day 45, 513 AV

Jorin's heart fell when Uleru grabbed the end of the branch. Of course, he thought to himself as she wrenched his weapon free. She probably even planned this. The sudden motion of Uleru taking his weapon, combined with his already unsteady footing, meant he was teetering on the edge of falling over. Without warning, she then cracked the stick across his other shin. "Ow!" he complained, before giving a surprised whoop as he landed butt-first into the wet sand.

"Oh man, this is going to take forever to clean out," he moaned, but he was grinning good-naturedly. Well, alright. So he lost this round.

"Aha! You owe me a story hu~man!" Uleru sang out, and Jorin just grunted. Then she plopped down on the sand before him and fired off questions rapidly.

"So, tell me how you got here. How did you travel? What is it like so far ashore? Who did you travel with? Was it by horse?" Jorin laughed good-naturedly and held up a hand to slow the Otani down.

"Well, I was a part of a traveling acting troupe, called the Traveling Thespians! We go around from city to city, putting on shows and plays. Some of the plays are pretty old, maybe even from before the Valterrian, though I don't know that for sure. And sometimes, they were written by our own people! The land beyond the shore is varied and different, though."

Jorin leaned back, unconsciously rubbing his poor bruised leg. "There's the area around my home city of Zeltiva, full of huge trees that sometimes blot out the sun. The reach so high you can't even see the tops, their green and brown branches arching over you, forming a green and gold canopy. Birds chirping in the branches, creating a cacophony of noise. And at evening the crickets and frogs chirp all through the night. The whole place smells like dirt, and sap, and life. And everywhere you look, there are different colors! Reds, yellows, blues, and greens, from flowers and vines and lizards and insects, the whole forest is alive with it. And through this forest we traveled to the Fortress City of Syliras."

Jorin grinned as he remembered that place.

"It's an imposing sight, Syliras. A mighty fortress of rock and stone, all gray and huge and looming over you. No green in there, except for carefully shepherded gardens. People of all sorts coming and going, of every gender and race, of blues and whites and browns, all mingling together. We stayed there for a bit, performing at local taverns, before taking the Kabrin Road to Riverfall."

Jorin paused a moment before continuing.

"The Kabrin Road stretches from Syliras to Riverfall. I believe it also stretches in the other direction, but as I've never taken the Kabrin that way, I don't know where it ends in that direction. The initial parts go through forests as well, but then you reach the Sea of Grass. And it really does feel like a sea. Miles and miles of nothing but tall green grass, as far as the eye can see. The grass waves gently in the wind, almost like the waves of the ocean, and you can hear the sounds of wild animals in the distance. There is not as much smell there, but there's a fresh, earthy scent, and the sharper odor of the grasslands once you get further in."

Jorin groaned as he stood back up. His legs were aching, and his back was sore, but he was sure that this was useful practice. After all, he had often heard that practice didn't count unless something was sore.

"We did travel by horse, and by carriage. The troupe had a few carriages to carry the heavy stuff. Those horses though; sometimes they were stubborn as mules. There was this one time, we just couldn't get them to forge a stream. It wasn't even that deep! So we had to take the long way around. Cost us two days' travel." Jorin grinned at that memory. "The troupe had tried everything to make the horses move. One of our men even tried a juggling act! I'm not sure why a man juggling on the opposite shore would make a horse move, but by that point we were desperate."

Jorin put out his hand, silently asking Uleru to hand his stick back. "Anyway, that's how I got here," he explained. "Let's play again! And don't think I'll fall for the same trick twice!" Jorin exclaimed with a smile.

[Uleru]

Uleru sits spellbound as Jorin talks about his life inland. She is leaning forward over his stick with huge, round eyes as if he were describing some great treasure or mystical place. But every time he would catch her eye she would look down through her knees as if she has just been caught doing something shameful. She finds it confusing how fascinated she is by the stories about the land, stories about people, when her only concern should be the ocean. She is tasked with the will of Laviku, and the will of Laviku rides on the ocean. That is her one and only responsibility. But then why is she so curious!
 
When he at last has answered all of her questions and indulged her in a story, he stops and motions for her to give back the stick. But the Otani's eyes are so glazed and she is so intent on his words she almost misses the gesture. With a startled little shake she wakes from her stupor and quickly hands the weapon back.
 
"Ah, yes. Yes, lets play again", her smile mirrors his as he playfully exclaims that he wont fall for the same trick again. And Uleru decides, right then, to test his boasting.
 
They step back a few paces and go back into their various poses. Uleru is squared off with him but oddly relaxed, holding one hand in front of her and the other tucked behind her back. The hand in front of her starts to glow in that now familiar way, and res rises from her palm to make a large, spherical mass. She coaxes the ball bigger and bigger until its roughly the size of four of her fists, and, peering through it, the Otani cant help but giggle at Jorins warped reflection.
 
Once she is sure its large enough, and she has all of her control, she winds up like a pitcher and throws the sphere. But not aiming for Jorin, but at Jorins feet again. It hits the ground and splatters into a thin sheet just as the Otani pulls all of her will and turns the res into ice.
 
Lets see if he can keep his footing this time, she inwardly smiles, and runs up to make another grab at the stick.

[Jorin Ertihan]

Season of Summer, Day 45, 513 AV

When Jorin stepped back he had no idea what to expect. He suspected that she'd use her magic again, because after all, it seemed to be her only form of offense. Still, if she was going to do that wave trick again he was determined to not let it work. He recognized that a big contributing factor to losing his balance was that the sand beneath his feet was very unstable. But he noticed also that his bent knees gave him some level of stability.

Deciding to test that, he decided this time to lower his stance even further, until his legs were almost at a ninety-degree angle. In this stance, he couldn't really hold the staff the way he did before, so his right hand went even further down the shaft of the branch until it was about halfway. His left hand remained at the butt-end, ready to send the business-end of the stick in any direction.

Uleru had decided to form a large sphere of something. Jorin had no idea what it was, but he hefted his staff anyway. If it was a mass of water, he felt confident his new stance would withstand it. Being so low to the ground, he had a lot more stability, and although he had no offensive technique to speak of, this stance felt quite defensively solid. All he had to do was swing the staff away from Uleru's hands, which would force her to grab it in the center. His superior point of leverage meant he'd probably win that tug-of-war.

Suddenly, Jorin remembered that the Otani also used air. Recalling the ball of air that had kicked up so much sand, he adjusted his position a bit more, so that if he was blinded by sand, the end of the stick was not pointed directly at Uleru and thus easy to grab. There wasn't much he could do to prevent her from leaping for the staff anyway, but at least this way he'd make her work for it.

What he didn't expect was for her to throw the ball at his feet. At first, he thought it was a ball of air after all, and tried to shuffle back. That was a big mistake, because it wasn't air, it was ice. His shuffling negated his bent knees, and with the ice beneath him the advantage of the low stance became a disadvantage. Uleru didn't even have to swat him on the shin this time, as he fell flat on his back when his back foot slipped on the ice, the stick falling out of Jorin's hands as he reached back to try to arrest his fall. All he ended up doing was slipping some more, looking like some beached fish flopping helplessly on shore.

Jorin didn't even notice Uleru running up to grab the stick. All he could see was the puffy clouds above, and he laughed at his own silliness. This was going to be a long day.

"Oh man, that wasn't fair!" he grinned, as he struggled to get to his feet despite the slippery ice beneath him. "I didn't know you could do that! Well OK, that icicle trick should've warned me." Jorin sighed. "Oh all right, I guess it's another story then. What else would you like to hear about?"

[Uleru]

"That was surprisingly easy...", she hears herself say, holding the stick as if she has no idea how it got there. There was no barb in the phrase, just a baffled sort of surprise. But none the less, she won. Its time to reap another reward.

Though on second thought...

Seeing Jorin struggling to right himself is very amusing, but it also looks like quite a bit of fun. The summer sun has quickly melted the thin sheet of ice so that the sandy texture shows through, but that can be fixed.

Another conjuring of res is produced as a sphere in her hand. She builds it up, adding and adding through her palm. And when she deems it suitable, she tucks one hand behind her back, does a low underhand wind-up, and tosses the mass of res like she's playing bowls on someones lawn.

As the res rolls away from her it leaves a meter-wide strip of ice behind it. The Otani's face is furrowed in very human lines of concentration as she exercises all of her control over the difficult magic. The the rest of the untransmuted res only gets so far as three meters away from her when it starts slowing down. And without warning a few seconds later she loses her field of control and the rest dissipates into the salty air.

That was highly disappointing, but not that bad. And now there is a fresh new icy patch to play in.

"Come!" the Otani barks, grabbing her new friend by the upper arm and all but throwing him (and herself) across the weeping ice like its a children's slide. Laughter sparking in her chest and her body takes on a silvery colour as it reacts to her happiness as she plays on the sheet. Her slick body makes her traction even worse than his, and she finds herself flat on her belly more than once as she tries to get up. And eventually she gives up and just rolls around, legs tucked in and giggling like a child.

But the hot summer sun decides to limit her fun and melts this creation too, and she finally sits up, still still wearing the silvery colour on her body and looking appropriately sheepish for her outburst. "Ah, yes, where were we? Oh! The game. You owe me a story... Tell me about", she taps her lip as she thinks. "... Tell me about Zelvita"

She's never been to that port city, and she hasn't heard much about it except when the Sevfra talk and compare their ships to the Zelvitans. He said he was born there, so the actor must have some stories to tell of the place.