Flashback [bronze wood] The Arts of Reimancy

[Taylani]

Taylani squealed when the boar burst from the undergrowth, and even as the Dhani leaped in front of her, the dancer danced back quickly. Taylani had never had any training in anything to do with violence. Not hunting, not with any weapon not even a simple punch (though she has seen them and is pretty sure she could punch or kick) so her natural instinct was flight.

And flee she did, turning she sprang into a run barely thinking about the Dhani which would cause her some guilt later. This was the Dhani's idea, and the Dhani had bragged she could take care of a bear, let the Dhani do it was the only thing she was thinking as she ran. So she missed most of what happened. When she slowed, she realized she was not sure what direction she had ran to. She was sure she wasn't on the path though. Panting, her fear of being lost now causing her breaths to be even harder as she looked side to side. She faintly could hear Aka calling her, but in the forest she couldn't tell where it was coming from.

"Aka!" She calls back, bringing her hands up to her face to cup her lips. Panic trying to edge into her voice, "Where are you? I can hear but I don't know.." She thinks the voice might be coming from the north. She does the one thing lost people should never do, she leaves the area traveling north.

[Soshakuakamamushi]

As she dragged the boar, the Dhani kept calling for her companion. "Taylaniiii! Taylaniii!" But no sight of the human girl could be seen, at least not nearby. Aka dropped the boar and scratched her head, where did the girl go? "Oi! If thisss isss a joke, it'sss uselesss! I ssstill can find you, you know." The Viper shook her head, the human could think she was able to play hide-and-seek with a Viper in her Dhani form. Aka admired her guts, but it was horribly misplaced.

The reply she got in the form of her name made Aka turned her head to the direction of the voice, her keen hearing could deduce that the human girl was not playing around, she sounded afraid. There was only one conclusion to derive from this, the girl was lost. She might have run too far and unable to find her way back. "Oh for Sssiku'sss sssake! Jussst ssstay put, I'll come and get you." Sighing in exasperation, Aka began slithering towards the girl, lapping the air with her tongue to use the human's scent in guiding her. "!?" Suddenly, she detected new arrivals coming from Taylani's direction. There were more than one of them, something was heading to the girl. Aka didn't want to take chances so she slithered with all her might, her Dhani form dashing through the woods. "Taylani! Sssomething'sss coming to you!"

Meanwhile in Taylani's location, pairs of eyes were watching her from behind the trees. The eyes belonged to a pack of animals known as 'wolves'. The pack hunter noticed the lone two-legs wandering the forest, alone and lost, which meant a free meal in the canines' eyes. The alpha male, bigger than the rest of the six wolves-strong pack howled, signalling for an attack. Two of the wolves immediately charged in to pounce the human girl, their prey looked easy and weak enough, this would be easy. They didn't focus on the serpentine creature slithering fast to their location, but it would be some time before Aka arrive even with her speed.

[Taylani]

Taylani had no other senses then the five that humans are born with, she had no clue the danger she was in because she had no wilderness survival. To the girl, still no more then a child really, all the sounds in the forest was similar. All frightening, all a little spooky so without Aka's warning she might never have realized that the crunching of debris might not be just the wind blowing. She freezes, however when she hears the warning, and only then does she realize she was hearing something from behind her. Slowly turning, her foot pivoting and even now in her fear she does not sickle the foot hearing her instructor's exasperatedly yelling about no sickle feet!. Taylani turned just in time to see the wolf emerge from behind a tree, it was too close to flee.

Taylani screams a high pitched cry, even as she flings her arms up to try and protect herself when the wolf leaped. Wolf teeth clamped onto her forearm and exquisite pain bloomed as it's jaws snapped shut, its heavy body bowling her over. Wetness flowed down her arm, that still managed to keep the wolf off her somewhat, though she felt as if he was trying to rip her shoulder from its socket. Slavering, the saliva from the wolf dripping onto her face, the growling filling her ears as she squirmed and tried with all her might to push the beast from her.

HIs hind legs straddled her legs, his nails ripping into her skirt but fortunately not into her legs as the animal fought for traction. Taylani's free hand at first pushed at the thick dirty coat trying to push, but finally she began to beat it its head trying to make it let go of her arm that felt like it was getting mangled in the jaws of the wolf.

[Soshakuakamamushi]

At the girl's high-pitched scream, Aka knew things would go really bad soon if she didn't help as soon as possible. Aka flexed her tail and slithered even faster to the girl's location. This wasn't a story where a knight in shining armor would come and save the damsel in distress, no, this was a real fight for survival. Lapping the air, she smelled blood in the air. The girl was most likely bleeding. "Hang in there! I'll come to you! Jussst don't die!" Sure that would work well, but Aka couldn't think of a better motivating statement at the moment.

When she arrived, a wolf had its jaw clamped onto the girl's arm with five more surrounding her, ready to pounce on the human anytime. "Ssss! Petching dogsss!" She hissed in Common, attracting the attention of the wolves. The animals saw one of the most strange creature in all their life, a large snake-like creature with humanoid arms. Aka opened her jaw, revealing her long venomous fangs, and flared her hood like an angry cobra. The wolves were visibly intimidated at the unknown being, but quickly recovered themselves as the alpha commanded the pack to forget about the human. The wolf released Taylani and joined with its pack in facing the Dhani. They snarled and barked, revealing their fangs to drive the creature away.

"Oh shut up, you mangy mutt!" If there was one thing these dogs feared, it would fire, and fire was her speciality. Aka prepared her tail to spring in case one of the wolves decided to attack while she held out her right hand forward. Gaseous res hissed out from her right palm and they gathered into a ball floating near her palm. One of the wolves decided to pounce, Aka quickly slithered away by springing with her tail, but the predators were smart as another one quickly followed suit and tried to tackle the Dhani down. The canine's body crashed with the serpent and they both tumbled into the ground.

"Gah!! Bitch!" She hoped the wolf was a female to make the insult fitted. Aka hissed in anger and grabbed the wolf's body with her left arm while her jaw clamped down, stabbing her twin fangs into the wolf, she immediately injected her venom, real venom this time. While the wolf thrashed in pain, Aka released it and pushed it away, she then brought her res ball to her front, facing the remaining wolves.

"Buuuurn!" At her command, the res ball blasted forward and ignited, creating a stream of flaming jet to launch for her palms. The animals were visibly surprised and afraid at the sudden fire, one of them burned and received fatal burn marks, three of them got singed, and the remaining two were unharmed. However, all of them were afraid to face against the fire-breathing serpent creature, the alpha deemed it was not worth it and commanded the pack to retreat. Four of the wolves retreated, one fatally poisoned and would die in a matter of chimes, and one burned to a crisp.

"Ha... ha... phew..." Aka inhaled and exhaled as she felt relief washed over her. "Taylaniiii! Are you here? Let'sss go back!" They had overstayed their welcome in the forest, it was time to go back. She didn't remember about the boar she left previously, Taylani's safety was top priority. Besides, Aka was tired with two consecutive fights where she used her magic, she wasn't sure she could face more predators.

[Taylani]

Taylani wasn't a trained fighter, but she was physically fit from her years of dancing, her muscles hard and firm. So every strike she managed to land on the wolf would have been hard hitting, unfortunately because she had never thrown a punch before she was doing it all wrong. So for every blow she landed, her own arm took most of the impact thanks to her keeping her arm completely stiff. Her other arm, in the maw of the wolf, was numb by the time the wolf bounded off her.

Automatically the girl-dancer curls into a ball, cradling her bleeding arm to her stomach, not aware that she was sobbing quietly. Fear and terror overrode everything in her mind, she didn't even feel pain in her arm though flesh was hanging off in alarming amounts..well alarming for a twelve year old. She had been completely stupid to come to the wood in the first place. Stupid to leave the safety of the city walls, where things were kept out. She heard the wolves howling, growling, and then finally yelping but she did not open her eyes from where she had then squeezed shut until the other woman said her name.

Slowly the girl rolled over, the fear on her face along with the tear tracks on her cheeks made her look every bit the child that she really was. Despite her height she was simply a young one, not yet learned in the ways of the dangers. She gingerly stands, stumbles for a moment but stays upright, her arm pressed to her chest, staining the unbleached dress bright red. "Please." She responds to Aka, her voice wan and trembling.

She moves with the other, letting the other lead for she had no clue where she was going now. Blood continued to drip out, but at a slower rate now that she was upright, and her arm was kind of elevated. Her uninjured arm was crossed over her so that her hand could press in her wound. "How did you do that?"

[Soshakuakamamushi]

Aka found Taylani curled up on the ground, frozen with fear. Moments like these truly showed the difference between someone who had fought and seen death compared to a pampered girl who grew up in a safe haven. Aka felt a kind of sisterly affection towards the human, similar to an older sibling. She slithered to the human and helped the girl up, her serpentine face looked smiling to comfort the crying girl. "Ssssh... it'sss okay, you're sssafe now." A scaly hand reached up and wiped the tears on the girl's flushed cheeks. In times like these, Aka truly acted like the over-a-century-old female she was.

"Let'sss go back to get my clothess and the pendant you gave me, then we'll return. I'm ssstill hungry but I'll get a meal or two in the Rearing Ssstallion." She held the girl's shoulders from behind and urged her to move, they needed to return as soon as possible. "We ssshould get that wound patched up, know any good healer around? I know there are sssome in the Sssothing Watersss, right?" The Viper hoped the girl knew her way around the fortress. With all those years spent cramped up in the stone coffin, she better be. Aka acted calm about the matter, injuries and wounds were nothing new to her. She was very old by human standards, she had seen her share of gore and after witnessing her mutilated brethren in her slaughtered nest, the Viper became rather insensitive to witnessing physical harm.

As they walked - and slithered - in silence, Taylani decided to ask her a question. Though it was unclear, Aka assumed the human was asking about how she did her magic. The Viper was more than willing to answer, subtly bragging about her power. "It'sss a branch of magic called 'Reimancy', Taylani. It allowsss me to manipulate the elementsss. Fire and lava isss my favorite, but I'm alssso able to control earth. The greatessst can control all elementsss." Aka made a counting gesture as she recounted the four main elements and three para-elements one by one. "Fire, earth, air, water, lava, lightning, and ice, seven elementsss. I'll massster them all someday!" She pumped her right fist, a determined and cheerful gesture to break the silence.

They finally arrived at the previous clearing which wasn't that far from Syliras, Aka immediately slithered to her clothes and began transforming back to her human form. Her body shrunk, crimson scales receded into pale skin, her tail splitting into a pair of legs, long ebony hair grew from her head as it turned from serpentine to humanoid. Thirty ticks later, a small girl replaced the serpentine creature, then Aka put on her clothes and pendant. She glanced back at the human, motioning her to hurry. "Let'sss go, we're not that far." Syna was still high in the sky and hopefully no more predators would come to them, unlikely due to their close proximity with the mighty fortress.

Aka began walking faster towards Syliras, but if Taylani needed to slow down, she would compensate but she would urge her to travel faster. Staying put would do them no good, also, she was starving!

[Taylani]

Taylani nodded at the other woman, grateful for the comfort even from a scaled hand. She swayed a little any time she looked at her arm but that was just at the sight of all the blood, as long as she wasn't looking at it then she was fine for the most part, there wasn't even that much pain. Not as much anyway as Taylani thought there should be when a wolf had you in its mouth.

All she really wanted was to get back to the comforts of the walls around her. She never wanted to be outside of them again. "I don't know any healers personally but I do know where to find them." She responds slightly dazed, as she allowed herself to be moved through the pathways. Listening to the reimancy the other talked Taylani shivered, but the idea that there was something out there that allowed people to defend themselves was an interesting one.

She was fearful of her mother's anger when she found out, for there would be no hiding the wound for long. Probably ground her for years after this, but still that was preferable to staying out in the woods. "I am sorry you missed your meal." Taylani offered as she waited the Dhani to shift back to human and dress.

Taylani didn't need any urging, her arm was starting to throb again, and she just wanted to be done with the day. So she scurried, half running with the other woman, though the run back was far less graceful as the run there.

[Soshakuakamamushi]

"Nah, it'sss fine..." In truth, it was not fine. The girl screwed up everything, if she didn't run away, they would be enjoying boar steak by now. The human-form Viper sighed, it couldn't be helped. How could you expect a dancer young girl to stay calm in the face of a wild animal? The Viper overestimated the girl's bravery. She said she wanted to see a bear, but she quivered at the sight of a hairy pig. Aka was beginning to think she was lying through her white teeth. Meh, whatever... It was not worth it to push the issue further, Aka liked the girl, she just wished for her to be more courageous, it would help her a lot.

As they half-ran to the fortress, Aka examined Taylani's wounded arm again. It didn't look that bad, she'll live, there were a lot of healers in Syliras. "Good then, I heard they ussse sssome kind of power to heal your woundsss inssstantly, neat eh? A divine power for a goddess named... Rak-something." The healing power of Rak'keli worshippers were famous, almost everyone who fought regularly knew about it. Aka just didn't care much about the history behind that power, she was never a religious person. In fact, she even didn't care much about Siku, the Serpent Goddess-Queen. Siku never gave Aka her mark, unlike so many of her brethren. It was supposed to be the birthright of every Dhani, but apparently, Siku forgot to mark some individuals such as her. This made the Viper ignorant regarding religion and the gods.

After a few moments, the main gates of Syliras were visible not too far away. The duo exited the forest and was immediately spotted by a knight patrolling nearby. The tall female knight with brown hair and equally brown eyes caught notice of Taylani's wound and approached them. "Excuse me, young ladies, may I humbly ask what happened?" She wanted to ask on why two young girls were venturing into the jungle, without any visible survival equipments whatsoever to boot, but the knight stayed her tongue for courtesy.

"Oh uh... we uh... played in the foressst and..." Aka wasn't sure if she should tell the truth, she might arose some suspicion of kidnapping a human if she told the knight she was a Dhani. One of the serpentine race bringing a young human girl out for a 'hunt', that surely would make a good story... to get herself executed. "Uh..." This was bad, she couldn't think of any good reason.

"Yes?" The knight raised an eyebrow, the long-haired girl was peculiar, she had red eyes in the shape of slits. Perhaps the girl was a Kelvic, some cat kelvics got those trademark slits on their eyes. The girl's sibilant speech also intrigued her, it was so pronounced and exaggerated compared to the lisp she found in some humans. Still, the female knight didn't want to assume and waited until one of them explained what happened. "We need to get you to a healer, child, but I also need to know on what happened. If you were perhaps attacked by a hostile creature, I need to notify the Order to search and hunt it down."

"Pssst..." Aka approached Taylani and whispered to her ear. "A little help here... can you uuh.. make sssome ssstory inssstead? Jussst tell her you fell down or sssomething... pleassse." She pleaded, hopefully the girl wouldn't rat her out. Aka half-expected Taylani to do so out of contempt for dragging her out into the woods.

[Taylani]

Heading toward the gates, Taylani hadn't even thought about how the knights might take a wounded citizen child accompanying a Dhani non-native Syliran to the gates. She didn't think about how the magic might cause some problems. However Aka's words resounded in her mind and she tossed her red hair back over her shoulder, trying to appear as nonchalant as possible.

The knight was intimidating, as a citizen she knew well the penalty for disobedience or breaking the law in even the most tiniest fraction. So when they were being questioned, Taylani's mouth dried and she almost couldn't speak. Blue eyes widen and she fumbled for words, and thought she might faint just from the worry about what the knight would be ready to do.

She sniffled a little bit, trying to organize a story, before she realized the truth would be much more effective..if not the exact truth. "I was dared to go to the woods...so I did. I didn't think it would be dangerous..." She was telling the truth but she was also adding a little bit of 'little girl' to her voice, greater impact she hoped. "A..a wolf attacked me..I guess he was hungry or something..Aka showed up and ran it off some how...Maybe by whacking it with a big stick.."

She looked up at the knight, widening her eyes extremely wide, and letting a tear slide down her cheek. "It hurts so much...please Ser, can I go to the healers now?" This might have been too much, Taylani wasn't a trained actor so she might not have seen a cue to tell her when enough was enough. However she didn't break her child-character, possibly because it was only a little exaggerated otherwise it was herself.

[Soshakuakamamushi]

"Ah, I see. Please be more careful next time, the Woods are dangerous." The Knight believed Taylani's altered story on what transpired in the Woods. Lone wolves, those who didn't have a pack, were more aggressive and hostile compared to their pack counterparts. It wouldn't be far-fetched for one of them to attack a human. "Thank Sylir you're alright, young lady and..." The Knight eyed the other girl with the slit pupils. "Thank you for helping." She then offered a hand for Taylani to take. "If I may, I'll take you to a healer myself. Will your friend come with us?"

Aka was taken aback on how good Taylani acted. It was not really an act as what she told the knight was the truth, only altered changing the 'magic' part into 'stick' and not mentioning Aka's transformation into her Dhani form. Even with her height, she could still pull off 'scared little girl' act with her large adorable blue eyes. Even Aka felt pity, this girl would grow up into a nice performer and acrobat. At the knight's offer, Aka politely shook her head, she didn't want to mingle further, the knight might suspect things. "That'sss okay, Sssera. I uh... have to home, my parentsss are worried." Aka then gave a wink to Taylani, gesturing to her that it would be best for them to split up now. Without waiting for a reply, Aka immediately dashed off to the main gates.

"Wai-... *sigh*" The Knight wanted to stop the young girl, but she figured it wasn't all that important. Taylani's wound came first. "Alright, looks like it will be just the two of us, let's go, young lady, to a healer."

OOCAlright! This should be my last post for the thread, Tay! It has been a pleasure threading with you. Post your last reply then I'll put it for grading.