All dressed up and no place to go ( Haeli )

(This is a thread from Mizahar's fantasy role play forum. Why don't you register today? This message is not shown when you are logged in. Come roleplay with us, it's fun!)

The vast mountain range of Kalea is home of secret valleys, dead-end canyons, and passes that lead to places long forgotten or yet to be discovered.

All dressed up and no place to go ( Haeli )

Postby Brig on November 13th, 2010, 12:53 am

It wasn’t like any form of communication he’d experienced before. As a human, he could converse like any other man except that the senses that were his as a raccoon, sight, scent, instinct, combined with more human ones in the transition. He could communicate with ordinary raccoons and other animals as natural as could be. Except that the concerns on their minds were much simpler than his.

This was a wonder. She was human. Brig was sure of it. But even though his contact with human society was limited, it was hard to think it was a common trait. It wasn’t just words passing back and forth, but something that to the Kelvic felt completely more natural. He wanted to ask her how she did it.

He sensed that there were things that didn’t put her off as much as he’d worried they might. Then other things that he thought were unfamiliar. But he didn’t find it strange that she was unfamiliar with Kelvics. Brig himself had come across very few others like him, and he thought that some might keep themselves hidden from others. ”I was away in the forests when it happened,” he said as his dark amber eyes settled on the doll then drifted up towards the woman’s. ”when I got home it was too late.” He was sure that if he hadn’t been out prowling the wilds, if he’d been there it wouldn’t have happened. Or he’d have gotten them out.

Touch though, was something there’d been none of for quite some time, and it was the raccoon in him that welcomed it too. By nature he was hardly inhibited and modesty was a slippery concept. He went so far as to stretch out on his belly, the whole length of him and the purring that rumbled up from his chest made no mystery of his appreciation. Suddenly he raised his head again and blinked at her, there was something of comradery in the gesture. ”You’re like me maybe. I can make my home in the wilds but I don’t belong with wild creatures. They don’t know it, but I do. My mother and sister were human. I’m not, but something tells me it’s where I’m supposed to be.”

The more they interacted the more Brig realized that the coming Winter would stretch long and lonely in the mountains. He hadn’t felt it before, as much as he did now. With frozen passes and waterways, it would be weeks and weeks of solitude and the quiet of a snow blanketed landscape. If he didn’t venture into civilization soon, something told him that after today, he might feel it more than otherwise. But he sat up abruptly when she began to talk about her new home in Lhavit. His nose twitched and his head cocked curiously. ”You’d let me stay with you?”

”I can see Lhavit lit up at night, it blends with the stars. I’ve never visited a city before.” Truth being, unless settler’s cabins in twos or threes could rate as small villages, then those were the largest settlements he’d visited in his short life. ”I’d like to come. I don’t mind sleeping in a tree or on the floor. And I can help you with your place. I’m good at tinkering, at fixing things. You could teach me about perfumes,” he suggested, but it was plain he wasn’t reasonably sure what those were. ”And I can help you learn about humans.”

”What is your name?” he suddenly asked. But what he was, that took some thinking. How best to explain. ”There aren’t very many of us, I don’t think,” he ventured. ”My father was a Kelvic. My mother said that he was a bear in his animal form, and that he went towards the lights in the north. Kelvics aren’t just raccoons,” he explained, and sat back again on his haunches with as serious an expression as a raccoon could muster.

”They can be wolves or big cats, mice or even birds. My mother told me, that my father said that Kelvics were first made by magic long ago. From ordinary animals. But now we’re born with the magic inside us. No one teaches us how to shift. We just know. I think it, and it happens. It doesn’t hurt, and it doesn’t take any time. I could show you, if you want?” he wondered.
Image
User avatar
Brig
Natural Born Rascal
 
Posts: 76
Words: 89991
Joined roleplay: October 24th, 2010, 2:02 am
Race: Kelvic
Character sheet

All dressed up and no place to go ( Haeli )

Postby Haeli on November 14th, 2010, 9:22 pm

The raccoon had so thoroughly charmed her, Haeli was taken off guard. She laughed, a rare sound indeed, as he flopped over to enjoy her rubbing. On Haeli's part, she hadn't had much chance to touch soft fur. Raccoons were something she'd always steered clear of. Snakes were charming in comparison to the fierce masked thieves. She wondered even as she withdrew her touch and the raccoon composed himself if he was a thief as well. It didn't matter to her, not really, for she had nothing to steal. But sometimes when food was scarce, thievery was bad business.

It was his eyes that drew her. When he talked about his family being taken from him by fire, and how it had been too late when he'd returned. Haeli saw the blame in his eyes; guilt even. She felt the same herself when Ozantha had died. She should have been a better herbalist, a better healer, someone who had the power to stop death. She wasn't. Haeli looked thoughtful and spoke aloud. "Death comes when it will, Brig. We'd like to think we can change things, and maybe we can sometimes, but mostly we can't. Mostly it isn't our fault either. Life is bigger than both of us and finite. One minute your eating something that was living and the next minute you are being eaten by something else. That's why each day is special." She didn't say anything more about it, but her own look seemed determined, as if she was going to talk herself into enjoying things even if they were hard.

Strangers in a strange land, both of them.

"That sounds nice though, your offer of help. I could learn a lot from you, I think. And I know some stuff too. There's a lot of... tinkering to be done to get the building ready to open as a shop. It even has a place to do things, a workshop, thought I don't know what tools you'd need. People I don't understand a great deal about. I've only met a very few in my life. Traders mostly and some sailors. I was raised by a Dhani woman and I imagine they do things differently than humans."
Haeli looked thoughtful another moment and then smiled. "Yes, you can stay with me. This place is large and has rooms. You can have one for yourself if you'd like. Or there's always the tree i told you about if you like such things better. It's in Lhavit and it has a glass domed ceiling to let light in so we can plant things inside. I want to sell herbs, you see... maybe other forms of medicine. Scents, candles, perfumes... I know how to make some of these things and I'm sure there's other things I can learn." She added, looking scared suddenly. The expression crossed her face only briefly before she concealed it, but Brig would suspect it had to do with being in a strange place with a lot of responsibility.

"Lhavit gives people places to open shops in. But they charge you coin for it at the same time. No one ever has enough coin to open their own place so they owe the city. Then, over time you pay the city back. It makes me uncomfortable knowing I have so much debt with this building. I feel good with a place of my own, but the uncertainty is still frightening." She said abruptly, her emotions infusing him. Excitement, determination, fear... all filled him from her. He could tell she was a lot more disturbed at the prospect of the city than he might have imagined, though she'd been there several days now. More than enough time, at least, to arrange a building.

"My name is Haeli. I've never heard of Kelvics, but that doesn't mean anything. I haven't been around a lot. I'd like to know more though. There's so much in the world thats fascinating. Why did someone create animals that are people and people that are animals? I would have love to know why unless its common knowledge." She added, studying him with new eyes. A man a man with a raccoon body and vice versa. "Yes, I'd like to see." She added, hesitant. She knew if he suddenly became a man she'd be less open with him. But then again, she wanted to see how the change happened.

"I can move my shape into another form as well, but its not an ability. It's a magic called morphing. It makes things easier in the wild when you can be what everyone else is and eat what they are eating."
Ahhh. That would explain her lack of fear about earthworms and indeed finding them suitable fodder.

"I can show you too, if you'd like to see."
She replied, believing firmly in the eye for an eye or a trade for a trade philosophy.


Image
User avatar
Haeli
The stars in the sky have all the answers.
 
Posts: 349
Words: 366819
Joined roleplay: July 2nd, 2010, 9:33 am
Location: Lhavit, The Unforgiven, Gyvaka Swamp
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Plotnotes
Medals: 2
Trailblazer (1) Donor (1)

All dressed up and no place to go ( Haeli )

Postby Brig on November 15th, 2010, 8:39 pm

He liked the sound of laughter. Not all of it, he’d heard men laughing once or twice before that made it sound somehow more cruelly amused than joyful. But when it wasn’t that, to the Kelvic’s ears it sounded like its own sort of music when it was let loose without restraints. His sister hadn’t been much more than an infant, while he’d grown at a more alarming rate than her. But he’d delighted in employing every antic that came to mind, just to make her grin and laugh deep from her belly. It might have been a rare sound for his new friend to make, but Brig’s ears perked and if he could have grinned in this form, he would have.

But she was right. With life came death. It was no different for animals than it was for humans or those more like them. And Brig had a foot in both worlds. She looked as determined as he felt at any rate, but there was nothing for it but to move on. She was maybe nervous too about things ahead of her. ”I’ll help you,” he maintained. ”I learned from a peddler, a fix it man my mother called him, how to make things work and put them together. I can’t read or write and I'm not very good at keeping numbers,” he worried. ”But I know what tools to use and I can get them.”

He’d never imagined a place outside, brought inside under a glass sky before and it fascinated him. It was plain to see in gleam of his eyes. ”I’ve never planted things, I’ve only dug them up. But if you show me how, I can do it. I know what plants you can eat and which you shouldn't, and where to find them. Which ones can help with an aching belly and which ones will cause one. I can do lots of things to help, and you can fix the…debt, faster.” It almost sounded as if he was tasting the word like he would sample a strange and exotic food for the first time. They were all very strange concepts, debts and time for paying in coins. But then he’d rarely seen his mother paying in coins for anything they’d needed. Instead she’d traded. Bartering she called it, eggs for cloth, vegetables or sewing work for other things. It must be very different in the city, he decided. It unnerved him a little, but he was determined not to show it in front of her.

”The peddler who taught me how to tinker said that he’d heard that the mage who made Kelvics, did it so he’d have company. I don’t know if it’s true,” Brig considered. ”It was a long time ago and those Kelvics are dead. But he said that our blood remembers it even if we don’t.” Of course, in his mind that peddler could have been pulling his leg, so to speak. He was the sort, after all, and in his cups more often than not. ”You’re a mage?” he wondered suddenly as he rose up, and then hopped down off the log when she agreed that she’d like to see him shift.

He’d never met anyone who could shift from one form to another, who wasn’t a Kelvic. But then of Kelvics, he’d met precious few of his own kind either. ”Can you pick what you want to be?” he asked, clearly fascinated by the thought of it. ”Or is it always the same?” Nevertheless, his curiosity was hard to miss. ”I’d like to see, if it doesn’t cause you pain,” he worried.

”I’ll shift then,” he decided and walked back near his sack where he rooted inside again, this time tugging out a pair of breeches by one leg. Indication enough that in likelihood, he wouldn’t be wearing any when the transformation was done. Nor a pelt such as he did now. With his back to her, he glanced once to make sure she hadn’t had second thoughts. Once he’d committed to the shift, there’d be no going back till the transformation was done.

He didn’t say anything, didn’t seem to make any gestures as he hunkered down on the ground, still as could be. And he didn’t disappear, so much as his raccoon form became enveloped in a soft, colorful array of swirling light, and transformed itself into that of a young man. Perhaps no older, or not by much, than Haeli was herself. If he was tall, it was difficult to tell. When the light ceased to swirl and evaporated into the air around him, Brig was left crouched down on his heels, much as he’d been before. It happened quickly, in the span of a few spoken words if there’d been any.

There was no shame attached to being left bare in the transformation. It simply wasn’t in his nature to think anything of how he, or anyone else had come into the world. But his mother had impressed on him enough that others might not hold a similar view. And in respect to that, when he rose up, he donned the breeches and laced them up before turning back fully around to face her. His black curls weren’t deliberately grown long, but overgrown a little and unruly all the same. And dark amber eyes not so different in shade than they’d been before.

”It’s still me, Brig,” he offered up. ”Just a little taller, and with less fur.” He suddenly felt a little self-conscious. In itself an unfamiliar sensation and he smiled as a result. And in the process offered a fleeting glimpse of canine teeth slightly longer and more tapered than an ordinary human. The only outward sign there seemed to be in this form, that Brig was something other than entirely human.
Image
User avatar
Brig
Natural Born Rascal
 
Posts: 76
Words: 89991
Joined roleplay: October 24th, 2010, 2:02 am
Race: Kelvic
Character sheet

All dressed up and no place to go ( Haeli )

Postby Haeli on November 16th, 2010, 6:47 pm

Strangely, Haeli was having a good time. Normally when she met new people there was a stress there, a strain, and severe caution as she did her business transactions. Often, with the sailors, she'd come as Ozantha's form or in the guise of a man and that made things easier. Sailors otherwise looked at her like predators looked at their food and it made her uncomfortable. With Brig though, it as different. She was first and foremost herself and he seemed fine with that. He wanted to talk and was willing to do so with an ease that made her smile once they'd gotten through the initial barriers.

And he could tinker. She knew what a tinker was, though she'd met very few, because whenever Ozantha had things that had stopped working, she'd always had to trade them for things that did work unless a tinker was along for a sail. Once one had happened by and while the ship restocked with fresh water and all the medicinal herbs and cures they could hold, Ozantha had put the poor man to work. Haeli remembered it well. After two days they had things in their small swamp cabin that Haeli had never dreamed possible.

"I know about tinkers. I think its lovely that you are one."
She said softly.
"You might very well come in handy with the garden. I think I can even pay you a little too." Well, very little, but then again she didn't need much and halving her salary wouldn't hurt anything. Besides, one didn't take advantage of people. One shared what they had for what others needed, including skills. "We can get some tools somewhere. I'm not sure where, but I know this building had a workshop so maybe it will not go unused after all." She added, looking thoughtful.

They talked longer and she came to know how he learned tinkering. She answered his question as well. "Yes, a mage, if that is what they are called here. In my home one needed to take many shapes to survive. Sometimes there was no food for one shape, but plenty of food for another. I can pick, yes, but once I pick I have to study a shape for a long time to be able to perfect it. I'm good with egrets which is a kind of tall waterbird. I can do a crocodile, and I've learned a swamp jaguar. Right now, because I'm not too good at it, I take a long time to shift and have to stay with something that is my body mass. I mean, the same size and weight I am. Later, if I get better, I can go smaller or bigger. I might even be able to learn how to take a raccoon shape. I mean, I can now probably, but I'd be as big as me and I think that would not be normal. But it would still be fun to explore the forest with you as you see it." Haeli said thoughtfully, her eyes sparkling with mischief for a moment.

Haeli carefully sat down on the fallen tree to watch Brigs transformation. She appreciated his modesty, for most men she'd met were proud to show off their bodies or thought nothing of baring themselves in front of her to relieve their bladders. Such actions made her uncomfortable for reasons she wasn't quite sure of but instinctively knew was wrong. Truth be told, watching him shift, she was astonished. It was a beautiful thing, so smoothly and quickly done it looked as if it bothered him not at all. And when he finished his transformation, the shift was so complete, so perfect, she couldnt help but admire the skill behind it.

"That was beautiful, Brig. Very neatly done. And.. well... you don't have to be shy. I'll show you why."
She said quietly, then unbelted her shift and slid out of it. Brig could shift like only a morpher dreamed of. Truth was, Haeli was a bit jealous of it. She could shift to anything, but it wasn't easy to do nor simple. She held no shyness, though her long blond hair gave her a measure of modesty. There was a fairness here, an exchange of wonder, as she gathered her djed and released it into her bloodstream to start the transformation. Haeli was neither smooth nor fast as she began warping her form. It looked painful too, though she didn't utter a word. Concentration and power lined her face even as her bones shifted. Her features rearranged themselves, and after what seemed like forever, a man stood before Brig.

He spoke.

"His name was Derek Salvi. He was the second mate of the trader Western Waters. He got sick and died. They brought him to our swamp to see if Ozantha could help him but it was already too late."
Her voice was deep, resonant, and she looked in her early thirties. "He was a nice man too. I remember him visiting many times. I studied his form many days after he passed to learn to take it. As long as I live someone will remember him and he will not be truly gone from this world." Haeli said, her voice definitely not the voice of the girl Brig had first seen. "I can do animals too, but its harder. It's a magic, Brig, probably alot like the one used to create your people. I could teach you." She said, leaning back against the fallen tree's form. He saw now why she was not shy around him. In this form she knew what it was like to be a man, have man bits, and feel like one. "Sometimes, when traders would come, I would use this shape because it is safer than my own. Men deal easier with other men. I am not sure why, but its something you learn fast when trading. And to learn to take the shape, you have to really learn the shape inside out. Otherwise it doesn't work well or you get undefined areas in your morphing. But anyone can learn. I learned." She assured him and offered him a smile. It was a man's smile, not one from a girl.

When he smiled though, she gasped. "You didn't finish! Your teeth are still sharp." She said with all the tone of a sister or mother gently chastising a child or brother.

Image
User avatar
Haeli
The stars in the sky have all the answers.
 
Posts: 349
Words: 366819
Joined roleplay: July 2nd, 2010, 9:33 am
Location: Lhavit, The Unforgiven, Gyvaka Swamp
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Plotnotes
Medals: 2
Trailblazer (1) Donor (1)

All dressed up and no place to go ( Haeli )

Postby Brig on November 18th, 2010, 12:52 am

Brig’s transformation wasn’t one that took long. He hardly thought about it really. It was someone else’s magic from long ago, passed down through centuries, blood and instinct to him and those like him. It took no real thought, in fact the Kelvic understood no more of the how or whys of it than he knew of the man who’d crafted his kind in the first place.

The change in Haeli, it fascinated him and from the first she’d dropped her shift, he kept attention riveted on her. Of course there was a practical interest, he didn’t want to miss any of the change. But he was unabashedly male as well, no matter the form he was in. It would hardly do to deny that he appreciated their natural differences. It took longer at any rate and as she began the shift, he’d first watched in wonder. Then moved round her curiously as she changed shape before finally settling down on the log. He didn’t say anything throughout or dare touch, no matter his curiosity. It looked like it hurt already.

He liked the idea that she could choose to learn and shift into a raccoon like him. She could tell that the possibility appealed to him and he’d told her so. The places they could explore together and the adventures they could have. She was right though, if she was much larger than him in his animal form, the others would surely know it. It would be the last time though, that one of those oversized eagles in the open decided to dip down and give chase to one of his kind, without at least thinking twice about it.

That she could choose though, he was one or the other. He was both in truth. He might like to learn to shift like she did to know what it was to choose, what it might be like to fly above the forests and peaks, but he’d wondered again if it was painful.

But he never expected that when it was done, she’d have changed into a man and his eyes widened in surprise. He’d expected another animal maybe, a bird, but not a man. It took a second and he blinked, and flashed a fleeting, tentative smiled. The form was as convincing a male from head to toe as any human he’d ever seen, or heard, when she spoke. Brig immediately concluded that she was much nicer to look at as a female, and he grinned wider at the thought. ”Does it wear off?” he wondered. ”Or can you stay that way as long as you like?”

”Does the person or animal you choose for changing have to be one that’s died?” he asked and then decided, ”I think that Derek Salvi would like it that you chose him.” And then he laughed aloud when reminded of his own incomplete transformation. He hardly thought of it, though it was plain as could be when it showed. ”These,” he said of the canines that were different than a human’s, ”stay no matter which form I take.”

”You’re giving me a place to stay,” he said then after a moment of quiet, thinking again of the city of Lhavit. ”and company and friendship, a family. I don’t need coins. I’ve got some already that my mother left behind. I can use them for tools and things, and I want to earn my keep, do my share.” He considered things for a moment longer, a thoughtfulness settling into his expression when he added. ”I’ll come soon if it’s alright, a few days? I have a friend…Not a Kelvic but a raccoon. He’s old and he can’t prowl or fight like he used to, and his pelt is getting scruffy. I’m not sure he’ll get through winter without good shelter and plenty of food. He's my friend."

It seemed that there were more than enough human tendencies in Brig to make him want to help cheat nature a little, and buy his animal friend a little more time if he could. "I want to find him before I go, and show him the burrow I made where he can stay warm. Where he’ll be safe from wolves and big cats, and have plenty of food through the winter.”
Image
User avatar
Brig
Natural Born Rascal
 
Posts: 76
Words: 89991
Joined roleplay: October 24th, 2010, 2:02 am
Race: Kelvic
Character sheet

All dressed up and no place to go ( Haeli )

Postby Haeli on November 18th, 2010, 6:28 pm

Haeli gave Brig an awkward grin. That was, in fact, the best way to describe what he clearly saw as a woman wearing a man's body. He was a guy and understood how to move around being a guy. There were a lot of guy-specific things. To him, knowing the truth, she just looked well plain uncomfortable; feminine. To another man who hadn't just seen her as what she really was, they'd most likely see a delicate-tempered male, one ill suited for tavern life at all. The weirdest thing of all was that her form as a man seemed to small for the man's face and hands. It was as if she couldn't really shift bigger and she needed to in order to properly mimic Derek's shape. "There weren't a lot of men around to study. I just saw them briefly, and I learned this shape after he was dead." Haeli explained, shifting awkwardly and then finally standing up. It was as clear as a high mountain stream that she was awkward in the situation. "Someday I'll have someone in a man's body around to watch more closely and to figure out how to mimic better. I couldn't even figure out, last time I wore this body, how to relieve myself. You men are so awkward. That should be the easiest of easy and instead I got it all over me." She said, sounding embarrassed and effeminate, not in resonance but in content. "And your odd parts... " Her hand trailed down to poke at her manbits distastefully. "... get in the way of everything. I'm glad, Brig, I was born a female. I don't know how you stand it. Especially these big feet and hands. Even yours are large." She said in a gruff unHaeli-like voice, lifting one foot then another before looking at his pointedly.

Well, one thing was for certain. Haeli had firmly established nudity didn't bother her in the least. She'd also established she'd never probably even remotely thought about things men and women often think about when nude together even though she was well old enough to be having such thoughts. She was far more concerned with anatomy, how things should look, their function, and how to mimic them. She took a few steps and though he might have been waiting for her to seem too small or two awkward for the shape, Derek's body seemed to move well within her control. She'd practiced, obviously, enough times that she could get away with BEING Derek to the untrained eye. Someone like Brig though, someone who knew the truth, wasn't fooled in the least.

"It lasts a while - as long as I want - but it will eventually return me to what I truly am if I stop feeding it or hold it too long. But if you maintain the djed, you can keep up the shape. I'll show you, Brig, one of these days, if you'd like." Haeli promised. Ozantha had taught her, she could definitely teach someone else. "No, it doesn't have to be something that died. It just has to be something I studied. I could study you and learn how your fur looks, your toes work, that sort of thing, and be able to morph into a raccoon. I had to study a crocodile to learn their shape. I used a stillborn hatchling." Haeli added, looking thoughtful. She took a few more steps, flexed her arm muscle and studied it intently, then let the arm fall back to her (his?) side. "The thing with Morphing is that its just a magic. It doesn't change who you are inside, your soul, Brig. You just are who you are. The shape is almost irrelevant." Haeli added, then marched back over to the log to sit down. She sat like a girl, carefully and delicately.

They looked quite the pair. Two men, not a stitch of clothing on between them, conversing in a serious tone out in the middle of nowhere.

She began transforming back almost as he began to speak, explaining about the coins and his friend the older raccoon. It was far easier to go from something borrowed to something true, so her loss of shape was faster, her body melting and reforming into Haeli. When her transformation was complete, she bent down and picked up the shift, gently shaking the dirt off the cloth. "Does nudity bother you, Brig? I never wore many clothes in the swamp unless we had company or I needed them because the sun was too hot or the air was too cold. Ozantha said there were rules though, and clothing was one of them among other people. If we are going to be working together, we might as well get some guidelines going. It doesn't bother me, but if it does you, I'll always try to remember my things." She said, slipping the shift over her head and smoothing it down over her body. It was really a very functional thing without much fashion. Looking at her clothing and her dress, Brig would have guessed her impoverished. She had no jewelry, no material things she clung too, nor seemed to need any. Her little pack was battered and her waterskin was obviously for water and nothing else.

"Its good that you are going to show your friend a better place. If you'd like, invite him into the city. He can live in the garden out back. I've noticed lots of creatures living in Lhavit. Maybe you could check it out and bring him in later when the weather gets colder? There will be food enough to share, I'm sure." She said standing up again.

"I was just learning the lay of the land around the city. I wanted to see its creatures, and maybe study one of the animals they use as a mount here. If I can learn to be one of those, I might be able to carry what I'll need to carry from the swamp back to here." She said, fussing over supplies she had at Ozantha's cottage and not here. "I only have thirty days to get my business open, and there's so much work already to do." She said.

"I plan on walking the rest of the way around the ridge, skirting the forest, to see which trails lead down and which are dead ends. Would you like to come with me or just go talk to your raccoon friend first? I know that is important." Haeli said, studying the man so near her. It was actually nice having someone to talk too without tapping her gnosis. It was also nice that he was easy on the eyes, and could see something of his raccoon in the mischievous expression he seemed to carry with him. "I was also going to find a place to wash, but all the water is so cold here.

"The swamp had hot water leaks and potholds of warm mud. They were great to get clean in. I haven't found anything like that here. Have you?"
She asked hopefully.

Image
User avatar
Haeli
The stars in the sky have all the answers.
 
Posts: 349
Words: 366819
Joined roleplay: July 2nd, 2010, 9:33 am
Location: Lhavit, The Unforgiven, Gyvaka Swamp
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Plotnotes
Medals: 2
Trailblazer (1) Donor (1)

All dressed up and no place to go ( Haeli )

Postby Brig on November 20th, 2010, 4:57 pm

Whichever form he was in, male was male. Brig hadn’t really thought of it before, and hadn’t had a reason to. She wore a man’s body, had a voice like any other’s in timbre at least. But no, it wasn’t quite right at all. Even male raccoons, as opposed to female ones were easily spotted in size or movement, picked up by their scent even when they were a mile away or long gone, or heard from their calls. He'd never mistaken one for the other. But then by design, his instincts were different than a human's were. Or maybe it was only that he didn't think them away.

He grinned a little, his eyes lit with the realization. But then he knew already that she was a woman wearing a man’s body for effect. Others wouldn’t realize though…And maybe he could help her a little.

After all, she was at a disadvantage. If she was in a man’s body, then she’d need to learn to move and behave like one for it to be convincing. She’d have to learn to mimic what came naturally to him or other males. ”You can study me if you want to,” he decided when she, he sat down beside him, so differently than he did. It simply wasn’t in the Kelvic to view the prospect as an odd one. Human society’s constraints and modesties weren’t his. And something made him think those were learned, like rules, rather than born to them.

”You should stand up when you go, with your feet apart,” he offered easily for her troubles with operating the odds and ends. ”You can aim it where you want it to go. But you should never go into the wind.” The last was a very important piece of wisdom, he thought, that she should always keep in mind. But of his hands, he grinned again and held his own up in front of him, and waggled his thumbs a little. ”These work better for some things though, even though the claws are gone. But not the feet, my raccoon ones can turn backwards and grip, and I can go down trees forwards instead of having to back down like other animals. You can study both of my forms, if you want.”

”I’m glad you’re a female too,” he decided when she shifted back. It didn’t strike him as strange so much, seated beside another male, at least in appearance, who wasn’t wearing a thread. But the male in Brig very much preferred the female in both action and appearance, for completely male reasons. ”No, nudity doesn’t bother me at all. I don’t like clothes much. I don’t like shoes more,” he decided but then frowned, remembering the lessons his mother had tried to impress on him. She was only partly successful.

”But humans wear clothes and have rules. They don’t like it, it makes them…uncomfortable,” he said, repeating almost word for word his mother’s lessons. ”Unless it’s in private between two people who like each other a lot and don’t mind. You should wear clothes around company,” he decided. ”If you don’t, other men will look at you in ways you don’t want them to. And want to take things you don’t want to give them.”

”I’ll ask my friend when I find him,” he said and smiled when she offered the old raccoon a home for the winter. ”He’s wild, not like me and he doesn’t trust humans. But I think he might come if I’m there. He won’t want to come indoors, but in the garden outside, I think I can convince him. You don’t need to worry so much about food. I can hunt. Not just frogs.” Speaking of those, they’d been almost forgotten and he’d reached out once to turn them on their spits, and now pulled off a leg and handed it to Haeli. And took some for himself as well.

”I can hunt for bigger and better things. And fish, if you like,” he told her. ”I’d like to come with you though, I can find my friend later,” he offered with a wide smile. ”I know most of the trails around here. Not just the wide ones but the deer trails and the hidden ones. Where the ends are and the switchbacks.” Standing up, he gathered up his things to stuff back into his sack, and meaning to leave it for now, he carried it back to the deep burrow and dropping down on his heels, stuffed it deep inside before rearranging the dry and browning reeds again.

He divided up the remainder of the frogs, handing her more in the process before he made pains to snuff out the fire and coals first with loose dirt, then soggier soil from the water’s edge. ”Not far from here there’s a place where the water comes out of the hillside,” he considered. ”The water is green where it collects at the bottom but it’s clear and warm. I bathed there once in my human form. The cold water doesn’t bother me when I’ve got my pelt. But the heat is better when I don’t,” he concluded with a knowing grin. ”I can show you where it is if you want?”
Image
User avatar
Brig
Natural Born Rascal
 
Posts: 76
Words: 89991
Joined roleplay: October 24th, 2010, 2:02 am
Race: Kelvic
Character sheet

All dressed up and no place to go ( Haeli )

Postby Haeli on November 21st, 2010, 6:32 am

The air had a chill to it, the decided promise of winter just over the horizon. It was still warm enough to go barefooted and with only a shift, but not by much. Leaves were crimson and gold and looked to be painted in a riot of color as if by the accidental hand of some landscape artist looking to make the aspen and laurel that flanked the hillside pop out of the scene. "Thank you..." She said to his offer of letting her study him and the explanation on how the pipes worked with and without wind. She'd heed his advice and take him up on his offer. But the truth was, she already had been watching him carefully; studying him. It was a habit picked up from years of yearning to learn things but having no books nor schools anywhere near. Her eyes followed the curve of his face and the way the chilled wind teased at the subtle curl in his dark hair.

Brig was easy on the eyes.

Some creatures weren't. Even some of the humans Haeli had met were scarred or smelled bad or hand lines and wrinkles that made being near them distinctly uncomfortable. Scars bothered her most of all. It wasn't for any aesthetic reason, but namely because they promised violence or at least a life filled with violence. But Brig almost had a newness to him, as if he hadn't been around long enough for his skin and hair to wear the marks of time and circumstance.

He smelled different than most men she knew as well. Unwashed bodies and the old acrid scent of sweat often drove her to keep her distance from sailors. But the kelvics scent was a light clean musk intermingled with almost a spice that she couldn't name. He smelled good. He smelled clean. The thought brought a smile to her face, though only a small one. Big smiles weren't something Haeli was used to producing and certainly not for tiny little thoughts like how Brig smelled.

Haeli had the urge to touch him again, like she had when he was a raccoon. It was something she'd not normally felt towards others, wanting them to keep their distance where she could watch all of them at once. Watching, for her, was a life saving habit. But she kept her hands neatly folded in her lap as she listened to him and only shifted her weight slightly so her knee bumped him. The warmth that then flooded her leg from him brought another distracted smile as she quietly thought about what it meant. There was something about Brig, something she didn't understand, that made her wonder about him.

Haeli had never met anyone like him. He was the best of both worlds she lived in, someone who walked on the edge like she did - only he seemed to belong there where she did not. Kelvic. She tasted the word in her mouth and let it echo around her thoughts. It was a fascinating concept. She'd have to learn more.

Learning more meant watching him which she did with a quiet intensity. She responded to his comments though, either by nodding or making comments of her own. "I feel like a stranger among them and all their rules. I've maybe seen twenty people, humans that is, my whole life. And I grew up being treated more like a Dhani than a human. But I want to make a life here, where I can travel back and forth between the city and swamp. It's too hard, now that Ozantha is gone, to live alone. I'm glad you are going to stay with me, at least for a while, and maybe your friend too." She admitted, dropping her gaze to her hands and letting her hair screen her expression.

Shyness was an unexpected emotion in the face of gratitude.

Caiyha was kind. Haeli knew that much for certain. The Goddess had lead her here to this point and put her in this raccoon's pathway so that each of them would have an easier time of it for a while. The witch smiled then, softly offered a short prayer of thanks, and lifted her face to meet Brig's eyes.

"There's always plenty of food, Brig. Don't worry. And I know you can get bigger things. I have no doubt. But it is important to talk about it, especially to wild creatures who wander in search of it. We'll make sure there's always a lot. I'll grow it and you'll help. And maybe you can tinker around with things to make growing food easier. Ozantha always used to use mirrors to concentrate sunlight in the winter or to place light inside where it normally is dark. If you are good at fussing with things and making things that seem like nothing be something, then we'll work well together and there'll be food. I promise. Because we won't have a lot of time to hunt, not for a while. I have thirty days... to make things doable. Then we'll grow it." She said, looking thoughtful and determined. "There's a big workshop too. You can probably have your own things for sale out of it, stuff you tinker with." She added, encouraged.

She munched on the cooked frogs as she spoke, oddly still, but following his actions with her eyes as he repacked his bag and moved it off somewhere hidden. The witch was glad Brig had rescued them for she'd forgotten all about their dinner. Brig had a grace and calm collection to his motions that Haeli admired. Working around the fire, moving in and out of the deadfall, the girl followed him with her eyes. Most would have found it disconcerting. She wasn't used to admiring other people. She was used to being suspicious and wary of them. It was a new sensation for her.

And then they were walking. He had a long purposeful stride that she found easy to match. The path he took made her nervous though. It was something Brig might have noted earlier. She liked bypassing trails and taking her own way, even if the walking was harder. It felt strange to her to traverse pathways others had already used. The threat of ambush would have been too great in the Gyvaka. Here though, she trusted that Brig knew what he was doing.

"Thank you for coming with me."
She said softly, then smiled when he told her he knew of a warmsprings. "I'd like to see it!" She said, her excitement growing. "Better yet, wash some of hte city off me as well..." Haeli added. She trailed after Brig like a fawn would a doe, and seemed to soak up everything as they passed. Plants that were new to her she broke off bits and tucked them into her shift's pocket for study later. As they walked, she kept a firm eye on Brig. The rest of her senses she kept on the surroundings.

As they walked, she spoke again. "Brig, if it isn't too painful will you tell me of your family? Of the place you came from?" She believed everyone was a measure of where and who they came from, regardless of what they said or indeed what they wanted. Ozantha had claimed it so. Haeli had believed it. And even as she asked the question, another grouping of leaves were broken off and tucked into her shift. She was studying things - the land, its plants, even its animals - as she followed him.


Image
User avatar
Haeli
The stars in the sky have all the answers.
 
Posts: 349
Words: 366819
Joined roleplay: July 2nd, 2010, 9:33 am
Location: Lhavit, The Unforgiven, Gyvaka Swamp
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Plotnotes
Medals: 2
Trailblazer (1) Donor (1)

All dressed up and no place to go ( Haeli )

Postby Brig on November 22nd, 2010, 7:14 pm

She had a secretive smile, Brig thought. The instincts that stayed with him through the transformation from beast to man told him a lot. But not the particulars of thoughts going through another’s mind. Still it brought a quiet grin to his own face when her knee bumped his. And sensations with that brief touch, that he’d never quite experienced before in his human form. Yearnings, yes, he knew all about those. Settlers and passing travelers sometimes had pretty, smiling daughters even if they were forbidden. But from a distance, nearness and touch was something else completely. And now, it surprised him that the sensations weren’t only physical ones.

He understood her need to find a place to belong and there was a quiet understanding in the gold gaze that looked back at her, and he nodded. They weren’t so different at all. For him, there was an urgent need that transcended every other. One that had been crafted into his very being and hadn’t diminished through dozens, hundreds of generations before him. Something the Kelvic couldn’t even identify or understand, but it was like a relentless ache that drove him to seek companionship, bonding, a place to belong. ”People don’t belong by themselves, alone,” he decided. He intuitively knew that Kelvics didn’t, nor even choosing their animal cousins for company. But he thought that humans were no different in that respect.

He hadn’t thought of selling things before, but the suggestion made him tilt his head curiously, and then he nodded again. ”If I can find out what humans like, what they want and what would be useful to them, I could,” he decided. ”Those mirrors, I can do that too and maybe fix up ways to move water to the gardens, so we don’t have to haul so much in buckets,” he suggested.

Ordinarily Brig would've taken to narrow spaces, along shallow ravines and springs, or even above the ground along wide branches as he moved through the forest. Scampering across more traveled paths here and there, or following deer trails more briefly than not. But he worried she’d have a harder time with the terrain, so opted instead to take even greater care than usual identifying any potential threats along the way before they had a chance to become one.

The colder temperatures of winter weren’t far off. He could already feel and smell them in the crisp air. Soon, many of the animals that chose to winter deep in their burrows would be gone and out of sight and even the travelers would be fewer. It would be quieter, more still for weeks to come. The Kelvic had already been feeling the impending isolation that winter would bring. But he’d had nowhere to be, nowhere in particular he'd wanted to be. Not until now.

He was aware of her, just behind him, always aware of just where she was, when she sped or slowed her footsteps or she paused. It was awareness that was also protectiveness as he remained alert to their surroundings. Observation, scent, sound. He paused a few times himself, peered either into undergrowth or up in the canopy with nostril’s flaring and eyes narrowed. Once a rabbit was flushed out the growth in front of them and another time he grinned when a hawk fussed down at them from his lofty perch. Brig seemed to recognize the bird, and the bird, him, maybe as rivals.

”My family,” he finally uttered when she asked, but it took a few seconds and came with some melancholy. ”It was my mother, my sister and me. My father was gone before I was born. My sister Laire was my twin, and my mother grew things, she sewed and raised chickens for eggs. She traded for other things we needed. My home wasn’t far from here, maybe a week of walking,” he decided, though in truth he’d not gone far and had lingered and backtracked many a time. ”She was pretty, like you are but with dark hair and eyes,” he said, ”and she liked to sing. She was always singing or humming. Out in the garden, or in the kitchen early in the morning or late at night. She never told anyone I was a Kelvic though, and didn’t want me to tell them either.”

He stopped again suddenly and tensed, even bared his teeth impulsively while his crouched posture seemed to discourage Haeli from moving closer or past him. There was a moment, while he sniffed the air before finally relaxing some and straightening again. ”There was a wolf here, he left his mark when he passed, but he’s gone now. The scent is stale,” he decided before taking up his previous pace again. ”The spring, it’s just up ahead.” Just around the bend and down a steep slope as it happened, and so close that the flow of water could be heard above the rustling leaves as it gently tumbled over smooth rocks into the natural pool below.

He was curious though, and had been from the first she’d mentioned it. She was human, but she talked of the woman who raised her, who wasn’t at all. He’d wanted to ask from the start, but had worried it might upset her. Now, curiosity got the better of him. ”Ozantha, the woman who was you mother. You said she was a Dhani. I’ve heard it, the word, but I only know that a Dhani isn’t a human. What was she like?” he wondered.
Image
User avatar
Brig
Natural Born Rascal
 
Posts: 76
Words: 89991
Joined roleplay: October 24th, 2010, 2:02 am
Race: Kelvic
Character sheet

All dressed up and no place to go ( Haeli )

Postby Haeli on November 29th, 2010, 10:30 am

His words echoed so truthfully through her that Haeli gave a sigh of contentment. Ozantha used to say something similar. It was the reason she fled Zinrah for the swamp; to be free in her beliefs and to pursue her own interests. Haeli grew up being told such things and understanding that freedom was the reason they lived so far from others in such an isolated manner. It was astonishing to her, really, how clever Brig seemed. She had no doubt he'd ferret out what people needed most and set up clever things to aid the garden she was attempting to produce. It just reinforced to her that animals were every bit as intelligent as people, even the kelvics, who seemed to be both yet neither.

"Those sound like great ideas. I bet it wouldn't be hard to find out what people wanted. Your family must have benefited greatly from your ingeniousness." The witch said.

As she kept watching him with her golden gaze and it occurred to her that they had similar eyes. When she was worried or afraid, her's went to his exact shade of amber. Ozantha used to remark on them, speculating that she was Vantha at least in part by blood though her irises never did stray from the yellow spectrum. Of course, Dhani had eyes her color and in shades of green and red too. Haeli could morph her own, but she rarely did so. The girl never did put much thought into her appearance unless she was trying to be something other than a girl.

Haeli didn't know he spared her tougher passage by sticking to the game trails. If she had known, she'd have laughed lightly and set off through the nearest thicket to show her stubbornness and resolve. Her skin already wore the marks, light scratches and skinned knees, of similar past endeavors. Game trails were dangerous, so too was easy ground. Haeli had learned a long time ago easy dangerous equaled dead and tough dangerous most often meant life. It was a lesson Brig himself probably knew.

He knew the wilds, that much was for sure. Haeli watched where he watched and noted the creatures he became aware of. There was an ease to his manner, as if they were denizens he had already hashed things out with and came to an understanding. The hawk made her smile. For swamp hawks were just as arrogant as mountain hawks, it seemed. The rabbit Haeli regretted, for it would have made a nice dinner. She wasn't, however, wearing a form that could easily make that little dream happen. So she settled for some fall crabapples that had lingered on the branch so long their tartness had gone sweet. She munched one from the handful she gathered as they walked by, slipping them into the pocket of her shift, and offered one to Brig. Haeli by nature was a forager, never passing up easy food when it presented itself.

As he talked about his family, Haeli sighed softly. A mother! He'd had a mother and a sister. No father though, but it seemed that was not something he'd missed. "What is a twin? That sounds like that made your sister extra special." The witch said. Haeli knew animals were sometimes born in pairs and that was common in a great deal of species. Truth be told she didn't know humans birthed usually singularly nor that a multiple birth was so special it had its own name. In fact, she'd never seen a human baby before coming to Lhavit. The first time she'd seen a mother carrying one, she'd stopped and stared. The same was true of children playing in the street.

Swamps were easier than cities. Babies were born with tooth and claw already intact and not nearly as breathtakingly adorable as the few she'd already seen within Lhavit's walls.

"You were blessed to have a family. Caiyha be praised for it. I am sorry they are gone, but at least you know their names and their smiles and who they really were." She said thoughtfully, feeling Brigs sadness over their loss, but at the same time glad that he'd had them for a time.

Brigs abrupt shift to a defensive posture caught her off guard and she immediately halted, opened up her hands to show them empty of weapons, then started to slowly back up while dropping her gaze and not meeting his eyes. Her body language was so clear, so concise, the animal in him couldn't help but read it loud and clear. No threat here. No ill intent. Weaker. Not wanting to fight.

His explanation brought her relaxation, and she moved forward almost crowding him and then touched him. It was only a brief contact on his shoulder, but there were questions in her eyes. They were gone in an instant, masked by confusion. And though he didn't know her well, having just met, he could tell instantly she was feeling similar things to what he was feeling; protective, concerned, unsure.

"Why didn't she want anyone to know you were kelvic, Brig?"
Haeli asked abrutply, wondering if Brig's mother didn't like what he was or was just protective of him.

Leaving him to answer her at the base of the spring, Haeli grabbed handfuls of her shift and tilted her head to listen. Hearing the water, she smiled mischievously and set off fleet footed down the steep slope. Going down was easiest when one went fast barefoot, barely touching the ground from one downward leap to the next. She laughed like a child would, as if she challenged him to a race, and set off for the spring to see who'd be down to it first.

Her feet were toughened from living a life without shoes so there was no reason to withhold charging down the path. However she did so lightly, never sinking her feet in at all. Deerlike was the best way to put it as the human took off and disappeared down the trail. Brig could easily catch her for she wasn't moving so fast as to evade him, if she could in fact at all. And once to the bottom and overlooking the spring, she paused to give him a chance to answer her question and in turn answer his own.

After hearing why he wasn't really allowed to reveal he was Kelvic, Haeli slipped off her shift when she thought it was safe enough from her review of the spring bowl, and began to morph. Taking Ozanths dhani form wasn't hard nor did it take Haeli long. It was the easiest form she knew and one she'd lived beside all her life. When the transformation was complete, an elderly dhani stood before Brig. Well, perhaps stood wasn't the right term. Only the torso resembled humanity. The lower body was that of a coiled constrictor, looped in and upon itself. Haeli's features were that of an elderly woman's.

"Ssssssshesss eassssier to ssssshow than tell."
Haeli said, and moved around a little giving Brig a good look at the Dhani. "Sssshhe was exiled from her home for worshiping Caiyha. SSSSiku is the Goddessss they prefer. Sssshe couldn't be allowed to live and still worsssship Caiyha. Not in her home. Sssso ssshe moved to the sssswamp." The Dhani said before slowly morphing back into herself.

"Can we swim here to bathe?"
Haeli said after she had returned to her full and correct form. If it were allowed and recommended, Haeli would start to wade in.
Last edited by Haeli on December 1st, 2010, 6:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Image
User avatar
Haeli
The stars in the sky have all the answers.
 
Posts: 349
Words: 366819
Joined roleplay: July 2nd, 2010, 9:33 am
Location: Lhavit, The Unforgiven, Gyvaka Swamp
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Plotnotes
Medals: 2
Trailblazer (1) Donor (1)

PreviousNext

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests