PM to join Kin Beneath The Skin [Khida]

[Duende]

　　

58 Spring 515 AV
Dawn-break

　　　　Syna had barely peeked her sleepy eye above the inky horizon, setting the sky alight with fantastic hues of reds and oranges with the promise of a fair day. A gentle breeze carried the lingering chill of night, refreshing and awakening sleep-riddled senses. A perfect morning for hunting.
　　　　Kahtra had awoken early. Life was harsh in the Grasslands, and she was learning quickly to make use of every moment Syna gave light to work. The Kelvic had integrated into her new family with an obedience forged by her past ownership, quietly and helpfully. With time amidst the kind, warm hearted Drykas, she might open up and shed her shell. For now she had been content with her focus on adapting to the way of life of the Drykas. It was very different to the cushy life she had known in Kenash.
　　　　This morning the Kelvic had spent time tending to the pavilion's humble zibri herd. Her time getting to know the animals in the last 20 or so days had been tough. Her predatory mindset saw them as stupid animals, with little to endear. She was walking back to the tents with wrinkled nose in her plain features, the pavilion bucket and animal grooming kit swinging in her hands. Her skin, unused to working outdoors, was covered in half-healing blisters, gradually adapting to the chores she had taken to.
　　　　It was early days yet. The Kelvic would gain an understanding of the animals she helped to tend as the season would pass—even grow a fondness for them as she discovers their individual personalities. Her fondness for the Dawnwhispers themselves was a budding rose. The day before she had spent time with Naiya, and got to know the woman a little better. A smile flickered along her cracked lips then as she reminisced of the yesterday. While Naiya had not known how to be with Kahtra at first, the two had unearthed their mutual interest in dance and a tentatively warm bond.
　　　　Setting the bucket and grooming kit down, the young Kelvic loosened her dirty-fair hair from the knot she had wound it in and stretched her arms upwards, arching her back—reminiscent of a cat stretching languidly. Sighing appreciatively, the Kelvic's keen green gaze peered round—sighting a family member she had spent least time with, yet was most intrigued by.

[Khida]

Khida watched the sun rise from her accustomed roost, slate-feathered falcon perched atop a pole of her bondmate's tent. He had already gone out for the morning survey of his traps; Khida had watched him go, feeling no great inclination to stir from her perch just yet. The peregrine shook out her feathers and idly preened at a few, while amber light brushed the tops of distant grasses, closing upon the camp in a swift and inexorable -- as well as intangible -- wave. That dawnlight woke color from the grasslands, living echo of its own vibrance: many-petaled yellow, blobs of orange, spires of purple. The grass bloomed, and bees hummed, and birds warbled --

-- and cattle groaned, muted little rumbles that Khida had come to recognize as their own form of chatter, something like the call notes songbirds chirped to one another. Or maybe not. She didn't actually comprehend the zibri; they could have been communicating anything.

They weren't, in any case, communicating it to her. The falcon tipped her head to peer towards the little herd, and coincidentally towards the one who tended them this morning. She was another, even newer addition -- and another who was not human. It felt strange to be living with a fellow Kelvic, after so long apart from her parents, and so long around people who didn't even know Kelvic until Khida introduced them to the word.

The light-haired Kelvic stretched in that slow, involved way which seemed to be particular of cats; Khida saw the three young hunting cats perform it many times a day. She looked up towards the falcon, who blinked back down at her for a few ticks, simply observing.

Then Khida broke off the regard and dropped from her perch, settling to earth and shifting in a whorl of light. She was done observing; time to do -- though the first act to be done involved ducking into the tent and acquiring clothes, for even with Spring well along, human skin needed covering to keep warm. She dressed for hunting -- wrap-shirt and pants and shoes, sash and knife and trap-rope. She even grabbed bow and quiver and protective gear on a whim before departing the tent, although the odds of hunting anything with it were low.

But she, too, had traps to check. They would not collect themselves while she lounged in the sunlight.

Khida space Common | Pavi
other space Common | Pavi