The Abomination and The Giant Purple Man
5th of Winter, 495 A.V.
5th of Winter, 495 A.V.
The trill of a tanager skate across the Tempered Steel encampment just outside of Taloba's great walls. It was just light enough to see your hand in front of your face when a bleary eyed girl slipped from her hammock and tumbled gracelessly to the floor with a grunt. Despite the clumsiness of the beginning of her attempt, her narrow body curled up into a short tumble forward popping back up onto her feet in a brilliant recovery only to promptly slam her head into a post with a crack that left her dazed for several moments afterward.
Cursing and rubbing her head the girl glanced around. The place she resided in was a small back room, away from the rest of her clan, taking a few still dazed steps out into the yard she saw others waking and going about their morning chores. Scouting parties relieved each other, a few hunters were sent out, some men were grinding grains and plants to supplement any meat for breakfast and lunch, other children were carrying water buckets to boil over the fire, or clean clothes. Tinnok dashed out to grab a broom and began the process of sweeping each longhouse out, a time consuming task with so many, and one which was only the beginning of the pile of chores she'd have for the day. Eventually the other children would go off to schooling in the city, rarely would Tinnok ever join them, but for the most part she was grateful she didn't have to. Her days were inundated with endless tasks, but she was slowly learning that carrying the heavy water buckets, or scrubbing the longhouse floors, or even cleaning up the disgusting scraps of carved up animals was better than the looks she was given. The children that had grown up with her from the Tempered Steel were rarely ever...kind, but they tolerated her to certain extents based on the individual.
Every time she went into Taloba, however, it was only a matter of time till someone caught sight of her eyes, or the strange glint of her skin and then it was all over, she had yet to enter the city and not have some scene made, and since the last time...Krisha had basically ceased ever bringing Tinnok with her to the city...and the half breed did not mind one bit.
Done with the first longhouse and onto the second one, keen gold eyes caught a hulking form hauling water as easily as carrying a pile of ferns. Even in the low light she could make out the dark and different quality to his skin, like a shadow had been lifted up and shaped into a hulking male. She knew of Dor'gen, and that was as far as she knew, he was born from a Myrian mother, yet looked precisely like the giant blue men of a land far away, in a fantastical city that was ruled by men and not women, and that most Myrian females had some strong opinion of if brought up. She had once tried to ask Krisha of this land and received only silence for it. She was never sure how she felt about the giant man, who was nothing like a Myrian, yet carried their name. Did she feel badly, for he was normally treated better than herself? Was she glad that he, who as far as she could tell was much older than many in the clan, had found a home here? She paused, and truly these thoughts were for an older mind than the half breed child with a broom, the only real thoughts pervading her mind then were curious ones, of where the giant purple female women were, and where his pointed ears came from.
Getting a side glance from another child, Tinnok hurried into the next house, wistfully thinking about the free time she might get if she did enough tasks that someone felt a bit of sympathy for her, or simply ran out of things a young child could accomplish.
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