Open Food and Cheer and Song Make A Merrier World

[Shiress]

10th Day
Fall 523

Shiress stood still, watching the crowd ahead a bit hesitantly despite the small hand in hers attempting to tug her gently but persistently forward. It was early evening, with the sun dipping toward the ocean and painting the skies with hues of orange and red. Teki torches dotted the edges of the ample open space, casting dancing shadows into the crowd. Music filled the warm, salt-scented air somewhere off the side of a large bonfire that hosted a dancing circle.

There were many more faces, stranger's faces, in this Tenday crowd than in the last gathering, and the majority of them had something very in common with the doctor: they were ex-slaves. This wasn't what gave Shiress pause, though. What caused Shiress to stop and study the new faces was the rumor that many of them belonged to those who had enslaved the newly freed newcomers. Slavers. Masters. Those who had once chained and bound these people now hid amongst them, claiming to be one of them.

In the days following the Iron Tiger's unfortunate crash landing along the Sykan shores, the catastrophic event solely responsible for the spontaneous freeing of these slaves, Shiress had treated many of the survivors and, though they were quick to divulge the fact that many of their captors had survived the shipwreck also, they were not willing, or, rather, too scared, to point these captors out, despite Shiress's passionate cajoling.

The thought of mingling with these...slavers, being kind to them, speaking to them as if they were one of their own, unbeknownst of the monster hidden within, made Shiress's stomach hurt. She'd happily pluck each and every one of the petchers from Syka and personally hand-deliver them to Dira if she knew who they were.

Somehow, Ian had managed to start Shiress walking again and was doggedly leading her straight to the food table. Or, more specifically, the table of all things sweet, his wide green eyes fixed on a bowl of candied figs. Shiress firmly diverted the four-year-old to a table with chicken kabobs and fried potatoes instead. After filling up a plate for Ian and one for herself, Shiress found a nearby tree and lowered herself down, resting her back against its trunk, her son plopping down beside her with a kabob in each hand. Shiress smiled, determined to enjoy herself despite her uneasiness.

[Quzon]

Quzon had no intense plans for the evening. The only real thing on his mind was just to preform chain-carries that obviously required him to 'carry' heavy chains around the settlement until he was tired enough to fall asleep.

The half-isur was not selfish when it came to any of his bodybuilding equipment. He let anyone who asked utilize them whenever they wanted. He was a man who enjoyed the sporty aspect of watching people achieve personal victories and especially though feats of strength or impressively bloody violence.

He walked the path leading from the sawmill all the way to the Syka commons this evening while wearing only a loincloth, his backpack, boots, and a fifty-pound chain draped across his neck. It was an accessory which aided his footfalls in making resounding thuds against the ground as a distant sign to anyone that he was approaching.

Quzon's shrugged his shoulders against the weight that fought to make his posture sag forward. "Come on." He cheered himself on as he breathed in deeply while tighten his abdominal muscles which stabilized his spine. He ran his palm along his side to massage the strain he felt along his obliques while ignoring the tension building at his shoulders.

He glanced around the Commons in confusion at the mass of tiki torches along with the gathering of people. To be honest, Quzon forgot it was a tenday or else he would have grabbed a swine from the Swells to add to the food.

With nothing to offer anyone, he made his way over to an empty area on the sand near the edges of the bonfires light; to be near the dancing but stay out of the way of any dancers.

He set his bottomless backpack down to pull out a variety of heavy ropes, chains, and metal bars. It annoyed him that he needed to leave the heaviest weights of the set at home since they were too big to fit in the mouth of his backpack. Once everything was laid out he just shouted one word as loud as he could.

"Lift!"

His grasp of the common language was not the best. He looked at anyone passing by and excitedly shouted the word 'lift' at them. The people who were ex-slaves seemed to not take kindly to him pointing towards heavy ropes, chains, and metal on the ground before he turned to go do squats.

He puffed out his chest out while bending at his knees and shifted his weight back into his heels to squat down as his hamstrings contracted to support the weight of his lowered frame. He gritted his teeth while pressing his heels into the ground to stand up to his full height with explosive force.

[Tazrae]

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