Flashback H[a]unt.

i.

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The Wilderness of Cyphrus is an endless sea of tall grass that rolls just like the oceans themselves. Geysers kiss the sky with their steamy breath, and mysterious craters create microworlds all their own. But above all danger lives here in the tall grass in the form of fierce wild creatures; elegant serpents that swim through the land like whales through the ocean and fierce packs of glassbeaks that hunt in packs which are only kept at bay by fires. Traverse it carefully, with a guide if possible, for those that venture alone endanger themselves in countless ways.

H[a]unt.

Postby Maore on July 1st, 2018, 6:49 pm

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18 SU 266 AV

.It wasn't often one found traces of the loose dead upon the Sea of Grass. Many of the inhabitants were Drykas, and so tied tightly to the Web where they'd find a new life either as a strider or another Drykas, as the stories told. Younger Drykas who weren't tied to the web, or foraying parties of Akalak who performed hunting and raiding parties on the Zith and glassbeaks were common enough, though they often died and moved on. The lowest denomination seemed to be non-Drykas humans, like escaped slaves that'd pulled themselves out of Kenash's sticky swamp or tried to run from the Zith and Akalak, or merchants that'd underestimated the Sea of Grass. The Zith weren't a factor in any of her considerations regarding death; she thought of ghosts, and the Zith didn't possess the capability to become ghosts. It was wrong, but she'd been conditioned to think the Zith didn't have souls like the rest of the grassland's inhabitants.

It was the human dead that she encountered more often in the form of loose bones from dead camps, scavenged by other Drykas and picked clean by carrion birds. You could tell when a camp was disrupted by Zith, or glassbeaks, or night lions by the bones and if they'd been encountered by Drykas or other foreigners by what had been done to the dead. Her group of Drykas liked to let them lie there, out for the Sea to reclaim, but other humans pretended to hide their dead by burying them, like they didn't think the Sea of Grass could still take what it wanted whether or not it was put under a layer of dirt.

Astarael was on a hunt with a few of the more skilled trackers and archers and their unskilled peers. She'd come with a bow of her own, a quiver of twelve goose-feathered arrows, and a two-headed spear, in case she was dismounted and needed to hold off an assailant in close range - Syna forbid personal defence be necessary. She was mounted on a strider she often favoured, Euna, who'd moved her across the Sea of Grass for a few years now, although she'd never chosen the Ethaefal as someone to bond to. It seemed a privilege for Drykas only, and she was still new to this society.

Derik Sunstrike was leading them, a competent hunter with years of tracking and providing for his family under his belt. He'd brought several of his own children and a couple of the Ankal's youngest. Astarael had convinced him to take her along after several nights of pestering - 'I need to learn how to provide', 'I don't want to continue depending on others', and the like - that he'd eventually caved on. She was persistent. There were things she felt she needed to learn, and no third brother of the Ankal was going to slow her down on getting what she wanted.

He'd been who led them to the recent remains of a disemboweled horse, mauled by the claws of a Zith and left to rot in the tall grass. Derik had shown them the evidence; a fingernail that had been pulled off by the attack had been his first piece of proof, and then he'd shown them the tracks left behind when the creature had landed. The creature's feet were small and feminine, but she'd likely not be alone. According to Derik, the corpse was several days old, and the Zith who'd done this were likely long gone, but he warned his hunting party to remain wary regardless. The monsters were capable of flight, the horses and their mounted riders were not.

They moved on, leaving the body behind. As the Zith had preyed on it, it wasn't fit to be brought back to the families. Bells later, they found the rest of the group that'd accompanied the dead horse, a ruined collection of tents, a dead firepit, and the torn remains of a small animal that Astarael initially assumed to be a dog, although Derik soon corrected her with "hunting cat".

Her interest in the dilapidated collection of abandoned tents was what kept them there. The general consensus being that the Zith had carried off the human inhabitants, if they'd not eaten them then and there. The Ethaefal, knowing only like ten things about humans who weren't also Drykas, didn't think much of their camp. Their horses were gone, and if they'd had any shiny things, they'd been taken too. The younger hunters were interested in the camp, too, and were picking through the remains of the abandoned belongings, chattering about stripped tent fabric being used for personal fashion and taking back a few bones to string into jewellery.

785
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Maore
the void behind my teeth.
 
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