Closed Keen Eyes and Quiet Voices

[Khida]

Fall 57, 513 AV evening There was something she hadn't gotten yet, some essential trick, some key knowledge or skill. Sometimes, Khida's traps yielded prey -- grouse, hares, prairie dogs, once even a ferret. But success was the exception; more often than not, her check of a morning found them empty, and waiting another day before moving them rarely changed matters. She still took game in to sell to the Emerald Clan, because when all else failed she remained a falcon, with wings and talons and all her experience hunting in that form. Today had been a brace of hares, well-fattened by their gorging on grass seed and fall berries -- but the point was, Khida hadn't caught them the way she meant to, and that part was frustrating. Returning from her errand in the city, Khida paused in the midst of the camp and glanced towards the sky. Syna was perhaps a bell from touching the horizon; enough light yet in the day, if only just, for her to make another go at finding sites and emplacing traps. She had collected her failed snares this morning, and now ducked into the hunter's tent to retrieve them. Khida emerged again in short order with several lengths of thin rope tucked into the red sash at her waist, along with a bone-handled knife. Only then did she pause to really look at the other person presently in camp -- the girl who was quiet and meek and withdrawn, but had eyes she could use if she made any effort, and might help Khida make the best use of the day's last light. Or not, but the girl's manner still grated, and the Kelvic decided she wouldn't just leave her to haunt the camp and carry on in that way. "Hope," she said, breaking the vocal silence which had hung over the camp until now. But having the girl's attention, the Kelvic lapsed into silent speech, a habit of the hunter's which she unthinkingly imitated -- even though her fluency remained a far cry from his. You come, watch help.

[Hope Dawnwhisper]

It had been a long day, the girl found. A long day of doing nothing. No longer was it acceptable for her to spend bells upon bells in her small tent, trying her best to think of nothing and keep her mind blank of anything worth thinking of. She was to act, do, feel and think, all things that the girl was finding nigh on impossible to do. It was easy when Shahar took her out in order to teach her something; she was able to follow his commands and mimic his actions without putting too much thought into it. But it was the expectation that she would be proactive that she was finding so hard to deal with.

Today, she had found a secluded spot, out of the way from anyone walking by, yet in view of anyone, should they want to find her. Though part of her hoped they wouldn't. Luck was not on her side today, much like it wasn't any other day; she imagined it had abandoned her long ago.

Despite her name being called, it takes her a moment or two to register that he name had been called Hope... she didn't answer immediately, still unused to hearing herself being called that, as well as being reluctant to give up the identity she had been given by her mother as a child. It is his right. He owns you. You're no longer Isalie.

Opening her eyes, the girl glances around and she spies Khida using Pavi Sign to communicate with her. She knows what the younger is telling her, having seen the signs directed at her numerous times but she continues to stare blankly at the Kelvic. Sometimes, she found it easier to pretend not to know what was being said, whether they believed that she was truly ignorant or not. Sometimes, the looks she saw in the eyes of others made her think they knew of her attempted deceit. But it was still easier, still.

Knowing that the Kelvic also spoken the Common tongue sparked an unfamiliar pang of irritation. Her own grasp on the language was poor, but it was surely better than the grasp on the Pavi language that the two had together. Why couldn't she just speak in a more familiar tongue? Why does she even have to speak to me at all?

She shakes her head, and turns back to stare at the nothing that she had been so intent on all day. Maybe Khida would go away if she ignored her... Hope...

[Khida]

Khida watched the girl for a response, and the girl... did nothing. She saw the sign, that was obvious; the gestures were simple, ones commonly made in everyday conversation around the camp. She watched them, and she shook her head, though Khida wasn't sure if that meant negation or pretended incomprehension. In either event, the girl simply went back to staring into the distance. As if she could ignore the Kelvic away. That certainly wasn't about to happen. What went on in that mind, that she found its internal landscape so riveting? That she could abandon the outside world entirely, mind-sick prey just waiting for the predator to come along and eat it? She wasn't even active enough to find a predator, or jump off a cliff, or do anything else that would interrupt the dull placidity of the existence she obviously cared nothing for. It was stupid. If Khida had been someone else, she might have yelled at the girl. But words were not Khida's resort; even if she had chosen to shout, to curse and rail, in the hopes that would bestir the prey-girl into reacting, she didn't know what ones to string together in this circumstance. Instead, she abandoned words, instead striding over to the girl and sliding her hands under her arms. She would not just let the mind-sick prey sit there and pretend ignorance -- if nothing else, she knew come. Khida hauled upwards, dragging the girl upright until she could fix her gaze with a fierce amber glare. "Say no," the Kelvic demanded, her spoken words as brusque as her sign -- but now by choice, rather than lack of vocabulary. "Say it, or else come along. Huddling won't make me mistake you for an earless rabbit." Besides, Khida ate rabbits. It wasn't an imitation that she found discouraging -- only contemptible.

[Hope Dawnwhisper]

Blades of dry grass stand above the pale ground, where the mud is also rather dry. Yellow and cream on brown is what the girl sees: bland, dull colours. It seemed to be all that she saw, throughout her whole life, and she was only just realising it. Just like the Syna's light and heat of the summer and early autumn had drawn out all colour from the grass, the colour had long since drained away from Hope. If she knew what the name that her Master had given her! she would have laughed at the painful irony.

"Hey!" The exclamation of surprise escapes her lips before she realises what is happening. For a moment, she is relatively surprised at the strength of the Kelvic; Isalie might still be malnourished and weak, but she was still a fully grown woman. Her momentary surprise is cut short, however, when the Kelvic speaks harshly to her in a language that the pair shared: Common.

The young woman pushes herself away from the younger, to stand up on her own, a pang of embarrassment seeping into her mind. The strict words shock her into silence, though, and she spins on the spot to stare at the Bondmate to the man who bought her, mouth slightly open as a visual display of her shock.

"I cannot say... 'no'..." Comes the reply, and she speaks slowly making it clear that she thinks the concept of a slave saying 'no' was beyond unacceptable. She would know. However much she liked the idea of doing exactly that, she would never risk her skin over such a word, in any language. Shahar and Khida had not yet threatened or hurt the girl they bought, but she was forever waiting for the day they decided they had had enough of her attitude.

Khida's other utterance, however, Isalie cannot answer, wondering what 'earless' meant, and whether or not it was crucial to the understanding of the sentence. What was she being described as..? "Um... Huddling?" The girl asks softly, "I was just sitting. I didn't think you needed me for anything..." her words are a lie, but the other woman frightened her, and she feels the need to say something inn an attempt to placate her. Nibbling on her dry, chapped lower lip, she fights against the urge to drop her gaze the the ground, like she is probably expected. Instead, she keeps her eyes trained on Khida, trying to gauge her expression to see whether punishment was coming her way.

[Khida]

oocA post, at last! Sorry to make you wait so long... The girl pushed Khida away and stood upright on her own; the Kelvic did nothing to resist this. The girl stared, and blinked, and gaped at the mouth, becoming less a frightened rabbit and more a stunned one. And then spoke a bunch of complete nonsense, which was just -- bewildering. The Kelvic tipped her head, taking a moment to blink back at Hope. Thin lines of puzzlement etching themselves into her brow. "You just did," she pointed out on the topic of 'no', her tone matter of fact but not disparaging with that statement. Manifestly, Hope could speak the word. And that was that, as far as Khida was concerned. The second part of the girl's reply, however, earned her a scornful huff from the Kelvic. "You look up, you hear, you see. You just pretend not to notice, like the rabbit hoping a hawk's shadow will pass by. Hoping if you're still and quiet enough, I'll think you noticed nothing." Khida met the girl's gaze steadily, lips pressed into a distasteful line. She made no move to approach or threaten, however, and didn't seem to care that Hope stared right back at her. She didn't, really, seem to give that even a second thought. "And now you lie about it. Stupid." The analogy started to break down there; stupid rabbits got eaten, while stupid humans just got talked at -- in this case. But the girl seemed scared enough that she might expect to be eaten, which was just... well, stupid. Khida glanced up towards the horizon, where sunset's colors had yet to appear, but would in not so much longer. Time was wasting while they chattered -- perforce, Khida was now done chattering. "Come if you're coming," she said abruptly, turning and striding back through the camp.

[Hope Dawnwhisper]

* Hope * * The girl just stared dumbly at the woman; she was aware that the Kelvic wasn’t her biggest fan, but she was still surprised at the virulence and distain that coloured her voice. In a different time, and if this woman was someone else, Hope might have retorted with equal irritation. But she reminded herself that the woman in front of her was the bondmate of the man who had bought her, and was consequently not to be argued with, lest it brought down punishment from her owner. Still thinking of herself as little more than a slave, Hope would always be careful to keep her tongue in check. She was used to it, anyway – the insults of her uselessness and lack of value. And she had never had the opportunity to cultivate any form of wit, so she would not be able to offer an comeback even if she had wanted to. She probably was, as Khida put it, stupid. The term didn’t insult the young woman, however; much like everything else, she couldn’t bring herself to care about what the Kelvic, or anyone else, thought of her. She was taken aback at the abrupt words, but she considered it in a matter-of-fact way. “So what?” With little thought to what she was doing, Hope followed Khida, making effort to keep up with the brisk pace of the woman. She had tried to lie, and had been called up on it. Just like her way with words, Hope was not all that adept at lying either, and now, with both females aware of this, she had little choice but to follow the other. "Who ever said I had a problem being the rabbit?" She spoke quietly, continuing the metaphor that Khida had begun. She was unsure, and uncaring, if Khida had even heard her, but she said it nonetheless: a rare voicing of her opinions and feelings. It was the first time she had spoken aloud of any such thought. It wasn’t that she actively wanted to die; Gods, she didn’t actively want to do anything, and such a thing would obviously take effort on her part to achieve, effort that she wasn’t even willing to give. But the rabbit didn’t have to do anything, other than exist, to be caught by the hawk. And then, and only then, would the rabbit be useful to the hawk. It was a morbid analogy, but Khida was the one to bring it up. The huntress seemed unable to accept that people could be anything other than strong. But Hope wasn’t Khida - she wasn’t a predator, she had only ever been the prey. And she had accepted her lot in life; someone had to fill the slot of prey, or there would be no predators to hunt them. She said none of this to the Kelvic, though, beyond what she had already said. Hope doubted that the other would understand that the prey were not weak, they were survivors, and would always be as such. But even survivors had to die.

[Khida]

The girl plodded out in Khida's wake, her steps loud in the grass. But then, so were those of the Kelvic, brittle stalks snapping profusely under pressure. Yet neither were so loud as to block out the rabbit-girl's words, however soft-spoken. Khida paused to cast a glance over her shoulder, surprised more by the momentary boldness Hope demonstrated than the content of her statement.

A beat's pause; then a lift of her chin, a softening of feature that didn't quite achieve smile. But tentative approval -- perhaps. "Then be the smart rabbit," Khida directed. "Not the stupid one." Mind-sick, her hand gestured unthinking; a phrase of motion which did have disparaging cant, and always had, every time she gave it shape.

It wasn't truly the rabbit part which rankled her, after all.

Khida turned her attention forward again, resuming progress through the grass. As they moved farther away from the camp -- and from Hope's earlier display of irritating behavior -- her pace slowed, strides becoming shorter, more casual. Her head swiveled slightly left to right, back and forth, amber gaze scanning the grasses.

Abruptly, she stopped, apparently spotting what she had been searching for. The Kelvic raised an arm to point, not high, but at a shadow in the grass, a slight thinning of stalks with a hole at their base. A burrow of some sort. "There, you see?"

Common | Pavi | someone else

[Hope Dawnwhisper]

Hope

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Arm resting beside her, hope's palm was outstretched and facing the ground. Stem after stem of the long grass brushed over the outstretched palm, tickling and scratching at her as they walked. The broken ones scratched; they were the blades of dried grass that had sharp ends, the ones that pricked against her skin as if bitter about how they had come to be less than a whole. Others, blades that nature had allowed to grow, they were refined and soft, and caressed the soft skin of Hope's palm. Looking down, she watched the grass bend as she walked, and so she missed Khida's expression, unaware that the peregrine Kelvic had even turned to look at her.

"You miss the point," she replied instantly to Khida's own response. Part of her must have been expecting Khida to misunderstand - how could any tiger know how his prey lived, or what his prey thought. She wondered if Khida had respect for what she killed. Hopefully she was grateful that the extinguished life would grant her sustenance, but was she respectful? "You kill rabbits? Maybe the last rabbit you killed had thwarted you countless times before."

Hope glanced up as the pair continued to walk, and she saw the movement of the woman's hand. Was it a sign? Hope didn't know, so she didn't allow her mind to linger on it. Maybe the discussion was pointless... could too people, who were so very different, see eye to eye? "But that last time you catch it. Was the rabbit stupid? No. It won nine battles and you only won one. Maybe the rabbit was too tired from all the energy it took to win." The woman's pace slowed and Hope caught up a little before also slowing her pace. She spoke no more, instead watching the swift movement of the Kelvic's head as, presumably, she looked for something.

Eventually, Khida's arm shot up, motioning towards where she wanted Hope to be looking, and Hope obediently turned to gaze in the general direction. Ticks passed. Maybe a chime, or even two. Orbs travelled slowly, gazing left, then right, sometimes she focused but she hadn't been told what she was looking for,so how was she supposed to know when she saw it. “No.” was her monotone reply, as if her answer would be obvious.

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[Khida]

oocI let this sit rather a while, didn't I? Sorry about that!

The girl claimed Khida missed the point; in actuality, she missed Khida's point. The Kelvic regarded her levelly, briefly considering whether it was worth them continuing to talk around one another. But this was Hope, and she was talking, engaging. Being invested in something, even if only by the least amount. She probably ought to encourage that.

"It's not about winning or losing," she disagreed. "Being caught is not stupid, it's just unlucky. All things are hunted sometime, and all are unlucky sometime, maybe unlucky enough it's their last time." She could tell stories -- but it wasn't really Khida's goal to persuade Hope. Either the girl would finally understand, or she wouldn't. The Kelvic was growing weary at this struggle with words, at trying to communicate across their eminently different worldviews.

She continued to regard Hope for a moment, then turned her attention back to the grasses around them. Look close, her hands sketched. "There's a burrow." She moved towards the point in question, but not right up to it, continuing to examine the hole from a shorter distance away. But from the nearer vantage, and knowing what to look for, she could pick out a thin line in the grass: worn earth and flattened blades that suggested the burrow was actively used.

"I need to find more places to put traps. I thought you might be able to help," Khida remarked, reflexively adding more look, more find in rough sign. She glanced back towards the girl, trying to get a sense from her demeanor if she was at least willing to put forth some effort into the task. Probably, Khida wouldn't get anything but that characteristic flat response, or even no response at all. But Hope had been talking, conversing... maybe she would also engage with the task at hand.

Maybe.

Common | Pavi | someone else

[Hope Dawnwhisper]

Hope

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OOCBetter speed than me! We should probably round this off and start a present day thread!

Hope said nothing in reply to Khida’s opinions on the lucky and the unlucky. It was clear that both were stubborn enough to stand their ground, and to continue believing in what they wanted to believe. They were too different, it was as simple as that… Khida was a huntress, a creature that could somehow take the form of a bird of prey, and Hope… well Hope had been the prey. Yet maybe their differentness was what would ultimately make the two complement each other. It was the first time that Hope had really bothered to understand the shape-shifter’s opinions. At the very least, it was nice to talk in a language that - whilst not being her native tongue - was more familiar to Hope.

Allowing the conversation to slip entirely into that for the location of the rabbit burrow, Hope squinted her eyes, making a heart-felt effort to see what her preceptive companion could see. As Khida directed her, and moved closer, Hope followed slowly behind. If they were looking for a rabbit hole, and Khida had come out here to hunt, then Hope assumed that silence was a necessity. She moved quietly, not really sure of how she should be moving stealthily. Her hands were held out in the air, balancing herself as her legs stretched in exaggerated, almost comical paces. She touched her feet down to the ground softly, toes first, then lowering her heels.

In reality, she probably made a substantial amount of sound, but to her own ears, she found herself impressed with her efforts. A small, proud smile even began to play at the edges of her lips. Finally she saw it, and her arm flung out, her index finger striking Khida on the back as she did so, and she pointed it out, proving that she could see it. “There it is!” she hissed, her voice becoming more animated than it had in a long while.

When Khida went into more detail for the purpose that she had brought Hope out her, the girl’s arm dropped, and the colour drained from her face. Obviously she had suspected the region she had come out, and of course, Hope had eaten plenty of meat in her time… but she had never actively killed her own dinner. And definitely never thought of harming rabbits, cute as they were. “You want my help in… laying traps for the rabbits?” She stared at Khida for some time - half a chime at least passed, as Hope did little more than swallow and stare. Until, finally, “What do I do?”

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