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Down Out of the Hills

Started by DragonSong, April 16, 2017, 08:03:19 PM

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DragonSong

Was it something she said? Vara blinked at the orc's evident surprise, frowning a bit. "Yes. Dragons," she said simply.

Why did that mean this Tala person would want to talk to her?

Shaking her head, Vara gave the thought a mental shrug and followed after Kojo as he lead her into the tent. She wanted to pause to examine the drawings on the outside more carefully, but there didn't seem to be time for that.

Entering, her eyes flicked around with a curious sort of wariness and she wrinkled her nose. Smoke. Not the brimstone and magic smoke of dragonfire, but earthy, herbal smoke. It was a new scent, and she wasn't sure if she liked it.

She froze when the older creature called her forward, looking from Kojo to the female warily. Cautiously, she crept forward after a moment, body tense and ready to flee at the first sign of trouble.

nephero

"It's okay," Kojo reassured, seeing how Vara tensed up. He let the tent flap close behind them, and moved over closer to where Tala herself sat, coils of lavender smoke coiling between them. He sat down on one of the provided mats, and gestured to the one beside him for Vara herself.

Tala hummed, cracking open a few nuts as she waited. Through the haze of smoke, her eyes found Vara, though it was clear that Tala couldn't even see the smoke in front of her nose.

"Vara, this is Tala, our shaman. Tala-meema, this is Vara, the--"

"The foundling. Yes, I know. Did you really try to stab him? Did you manage it?" Tala asked of Vara, her mouth pulled into a grin that only grew as Kojo grumbled.


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DragonSong

Despite herself, Vara almost laughed. She shook her head slowly, creeping a little closer. "Didn't stab him," she mumbled. "He scared me. I just wanted to scare him back."

Mostly true- that had been one of her sloppier attacks, more a reaction of surprise than anything else.

She shifted her weight from foot to foot, glancing around the tent and wrinkling her nose again. "This smoke smells...different," she commented after a moment, eyes flicking back to the shaman.

nephero

Tala all but cackled at Vara's response, to which Kojo could only continue to grumble something about him being stabbed not being all that terribly funny. The old orcess hummed in delight, and passed a bowl over the smoke towards the pair, shaking it a little insistently before Kojo took it, popping a few of the berries into his mouth before letting Vara have the lion's share.

"That's good, that's good. We all need a scare, especially the big younglings who think they've seen it all." Tala mused, scratching at her chin.

"I am sitting right here, you know," Kojo griped, only to be waved at in response.

"It smells different because it is different," Tala explained, reaching into the smoking bowl and stirring the contents with one finger. The ashes crumbled beneath her touch, but otherwise didn't seem to be burning too hot, instead releasing a thicker plume than the gentle wafting it had been before. "It helps me remember stories, being able to listen to them again."

"Ah, hearing the other world," Kojo tried to explain, gesturing vaguely to the air around them, as if pointing at nothing would help anything.

"Oversimple," Tala critiqued, "but close enough. What I'm more interested in, though, little foundling, is your story."


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DragonSong

Vara eyed the bowl, and cautiously took a handful of berries, but honestly she wasn't that hungry after the food Kono had offered her earlier.

Very slowly, she sat, still obviously tense and wary but at least now willing to take a breath and actually listen. "My story?" she repeated, cocking her head.

And why did everyone seem so infatuated with referring to her as "little"? She got enough of that from Da, thank you very much! Sure, she was small compared to these two-leggers, but Da had said she's was pretty average-sized, all things considered.

Of course, he could have been lying. He did that. She frowned, chewing at her lip as her thoughts started to spiral a bit.

nephero

"Yes, yours." Tala said, her tone a bit gentler now. Her gaze, blind as it was, lingered on Vara's face, and she hummed as the human girl seemed to retreat into her own thoughts. Kojo, for his own part, simply pulled the bowl of berries closer to himself and popped a handful into his mouth.

"You smell different, because you are different. This is true?" Tala continued after a moment, stirring the ashes again to bring forth another plume of smoke. "You're of the mountains, like us. Your family's of the mountains, like us. This is also true? Do you wear your family's armor to be more like them?"

"Meema." Kojo interceded here, sensing that this perhaps was not the best topic for conversation, grimacing a bit at Vara by way of an apology. "That's... not a fair question."

"It is a perfectly fair question," the old orcess huffed, "for a girl who comes to us in dragonscales. Or were you too distracted by a pretty little thing to notice?"

"I'd noticed," Kojo grumbled, looking a little less than thrilled with where this meeting was going. "They're gathered, not hunted, if you're worried."

"I'm not worried. But tell me, Vara the 'average-sized', am I wrong?" Tala's eyes fell on Vara's face once more, bringing with them the ultimately unnerving sensation that she saw more than one might think.


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DragonSong

Vara looked back and forth between the two of them, frowning. She wasn't entirely sure she understood everything they were saying. What was "armor"? And why did her scales matter?

She folded her arms and hunched her shoulders a bit, glowering at the blind two-legger. "I don't know if you're wrong," she grumbled. "I don't know what you're asking." One hand slid down to her belt, ghosting absently over the discarded scales used to fashion it.

Even her knife was made of discarded dragon-pieces, if they wanted to look. An old tooth that had been carved into a blade.

But she didn't know why it mattered.

nephero

"See, meema, you're not even making sense." Kojo said, reaching out to pull the bowl of ashes away from the elder orcess and get the smoke out of their faces, as if that would somehow assist in making the woman less cryptic. "And moreover, she's just a human."

"'Just a human,' he says, of a girl who reeks of dragonfire. But no, of course, youngling, you would know better than I." the shaman griped right back at him. She took a deep breath, then, and let it out in a way that all but exhuded her annoyance with the younger orc. But, it seemed that she was willing to drop her previous line of questioning.

"Well, then, Vara the 'just a human', what brings you to this side of the mountains, aside from scaring and being scared of Mr. All Knowing and Wise Cowherder?" Tala finally continued, in what seemed to be a far less invasive form of small talk.


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DragonSong

Once again Vara found herself looking back and forth between the two of them as they talked. Was this...what two-legged families were like?

It was...nice.

She blinked when another question was asked and responded almost automatically, "Hunting. I was hunting." The words "reeks of dragonfire" stuck in her head and she tried to sniff herself surreptitiously.

She didn't think she smelled unusual.

nephero

"Hunting! This time of year?" Kojo asked. That certainly explained her hunger; if she still had to hunt this far into the colder portion of the year, that didn't say much about food reserves. The dragons in the high peaks were grand, lordly creatures, of course, but he sincerely doubted they kept much of a larder.

"And here we're causing a ruckus, bringing the tribe down to the plains," he continued, feeling a small twinge of guilt. It was easy to forget that not everyone followed their patterns, that these humans needed to survive in their own unique ways, that not all of them could rely on the sheer size that the orcs themselves boasted so readily.

Tala hummed in sympathy, most likely echoing Kojo's own thoughts, though she didn't exactly make a sign of it. There was the smallest crook to her mouth, however, a sly sort of smile as if she had caught Vara sniffing at herself. Which, of course, was utterly impossible. Either way, Tala didn't make mention of it, instead gesturing vaguely around the tent in a wide sort of circle.

"You can stay with us as long as you'd like. There's plenty to go around, this close to the trading months. Perhaps you might even show the pups a thing or two about scratching meat off the mountains in leaner times."


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DragonSong

Vara frowned at Kojo reaction, confused. What was so strange about hunting, at any time of year?

She waved him off though when he spoke of causing a ruckus. True, their presence was well...present enough that it had drawn her attention away from game, but there were always other hunts, other food to find.

She blinked at Tala at the sudden offer, eyebrow raised. "...Stay?" Could she do that? She'd been gone for a week or a little more sometimes on hunts, Da wouldn't be too worried about that...but did she want to?

One hand started playing absently with the ends of her hair and she tilted her head. "Maybe...a night?"

nephero

"A night it is," Tala said, brushing her ash-coated hands off on her breeches in a kind of finalizing manner, before reaching behind herself and lifting up a large walking stick. Using this, she lifted herself onto her feet, grumbling a bit about her bones in the process. "You can share a tent with one of the girls, or share here, if you like. Kojo can get you your bedding."

"Just be warned, you share with Paja, she kicks," Kojo said, low and teasing, "so try and sleep closer to her head if that's where you go."

"That is a remarkably private bit of knowledge you're spouting off about about someone's sleeping habits," Tala said, which shut Kojo up so quickly you could hear his teeth snapping together. The larger orc cleared his throat, and very rapidly changed the subject.

"Anyway, the fire should be going, let's go get a good spot," he said, a little rushedly and a little darker in the face he had been a few moments before. He gestured for Vara to follow him out of the tent, shortly followed by Tala herself, though the old orcess seemed content enough to take her time.

There was definitely a difference, as it seemed with most things, in what the orcs considered a fire and what a regular-sized person might consider a fire. For the tall behemoths that they were, the size of the fire was decent; enough to provide a fair gathering of the tribesmen with equal shares of light and warmth. To a human, however, the billowing flames were huge, likely able to burn for hours and hours and hours before it finally died out on its own.
A few families lingered a bit further away, with plenty of blankets to both sit upon as well as keep wrapped around their shoulders. The littlest orcs, anywhere from Vara's hip to just over her own height, seemed to vy for whatever space they could find closest to the fire and thus to where the action was, running back and forth around the circle until they were chided for playing so close to the flames.

Upon spotting them, Paja waved both her arms excitedly, gesturing at the open space on her own blanket for them to take a seat upon.

"Vara! Sit with me! And bring that stinking oaf with you, if you must." She grinned, baring teeth and tusk as she did, though it seemed it was all in gentle teasing for how Kojo snorted.

"As if you have any place calling someone stinking," he retorted, nudging hard at her shoulder before taking his own seat on the blanket.


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DragonSong

Vara once again found herself glancing between the two-leggers curiously, but she didn't ask the some dozen questions that were pressing at her lips. She got to her feet to follow Kojo out of the tent.

The fire felt familiar. It wasn't dragonfire, but it was something. Vara crept as close to the heat as was comfortable, getting some distance from Paja and Kojo as she did.

"Why?" she asked, tilting her head at them and gesturing over her shoulder toward the flames. Her eyes flicked between the two of them, turning over Tala's words in her mind.

"Are you mates?" Her head cocked the other direction. It seemed to have been what the blind woman was implying, but she couldn't be sure. She'd never been good with "hinting" at things, she'd prefer it just be said straight out.

nephero

Are you mates?

The question seemed, for an instant, to hang in the air between Vara and the orcs, before Paja doubled forward in earth-shattering laughter.

Kojo, at the least, had the decency to look embarrassed.

"Oh, oh, he wishes," Paja wheezed, wiping at her eye with one hand. She took a deeper breath, giggled a bit, and then shot Vara herself a decidedly unsubtle wink, "though if you're interested, the position could available."

"Paja, no." Kojo muttered into his own hands, which just earned another amused snort from the orcess at his side.

"Oh, so prudish. But honestly, no, we ah..." the orcess hummed and hesitated, trying to find the polite way to phrase it, "neither of us are... interested in anything the other might provide."

Kojo, for his part, gazed up into the night sky, as if willing some great beast to descend from the heavens and straight-up kill him.


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DragonSong

Her eyes widened slightly and she tilted her head from side to side. Oh? Ohhh.

She thought she understood, but... "You don't like males?" she queried of Paja, completely oblivious to any impropriety that might exist in the question. It was followed by a shrug. "And sorry, but no. Won't be around long enough to...take the position. And I don't think I like females."

She was pretty sure.

Her eyes flickered back to Kojo, noting the hue of his cheeks, then back to Paja. "Is he okay?"

She was so absorbed in her own curiosity, she didn't even notice the sudden shift in the wind that sent the bonfire flickering, accompanied by distant thudding sound.

nephero

Paja, for her part, only grinned more widely as Vara continued her little line of questioning. Unlike most of her tribesmen, Kojo included, she was far less... shy about certain matters, a nasty little habit that her elders said she picked up from those flatlander traders. It was funny, however, to not be the only one tormenting her friend for once, and so she stifled a little giggle even as Vara summarily rejected the offer.

"Oh, he'll be fine, he's just in utter agony for his delicate sensibilities, is all," she commented, giving Kojo a nudge with her foot. That seemed enough to rouse him from whatever horror he had been mired in, and he shot the orcess a glare.

Whatever he had been meaning to say, however, immediately flew out of his head as he picked up on that gentle, distant thud. That was odd. As far as he knew, the cattle were all contained, and more to the point, the sound seemed to be coming away from where they were penned.

Had one of them gotten lost? He was sure that hadn't been the case, but with the moving time on them and an entire clan to get down the mountains before full winter, well. Sometimes things slipped.

The thudding sounded again, and Kojo frowned. Sometimes very big things slipped.

Paja seemed to be about to say more, at least until she herself picked up on it, and in a moment both were on their feet, Vara between them and the fire. The other gathered orcs seemed to also sense something was amiss, and pulled the children closer inward, nearer the fire, much like Vara herself.

There wasn't much that could threaten the orc tribe, of course; their size alone negated most natural predators, and a general inclination to leave the dragons to their higher peaks meant they rarely butted heads over territory or hunting. Every moving time meant a culling of the herd at any rate, great cows brought up the mountains and sent off as offerings to the great beasts without so much as a passing glance between them.

This low off the mountain, there was very little reason for the pulse on the earth, and it was with that in mind that the adults of the gathered tribe pulled together, passing along hatchets and ropes and bows and arrows in preparation.


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DragonSong

Vara frowned again as she tilted her head at the two of them. "Sens-i-bil-ities?" she repeated slowly, trying to piece the word together and figure out what it meant. Her Da may have had the gift of tongues, but he'd mostly spoken Drakyn with her when she was growing up, her education in Common was...lacking in some areas.

She looked at Kojo, then Paja, then back. "Does it matter? If he likes males and you like females?" She'd met a rather stuffy old dragon who seemed to look down on such relationships, but Da had always grumbled insults behind the drake's back, so she'd figured it was a rarity.

Of course, she couldn't really pursue her line of questioning before the two-leggers were on their feet. In fact, everyone seemed suddenly wary. She frowned as the distant thudding noise finally solidified itself in her ears.

Ah.

Wait- why were they grabbing weapons?

She scrambled to her feet with a frown. "What are you-?"

The thudding was suddenly deafening, and a massive shape blotted out the stars above their heads, soaring in a wide arc over the bonfire with a gust of wind that nearly snuffed the flames. With a sharp, almost falcon-like cry, the dragon came to land scant yards from the campsite, head lowered and teeth bared, tail twitching back and forth and the horns of his crest raised in a threatening display.

"Where is the girl?"

Vara sighed. Ever dramatic, no one could say her Da wasn't protective.

nephero

The collective gasp that shot through the gathering of orcs was almost a wind unto itself for how forceful it was. Those that had grabbed weapons dropped them immediately, as if somehow the tools had grown venomous teeth and had started biting. Those closest to the front and thusly the dragon dropped their heads and raised their arms in a placating bow-- as if this would somehow be enough to keep one of the great beasts from smiting the whole lot of them.

Kojo and Paja were no different, their eyes fixed firmly to the ground, getting an excellent show as to how the pebbles rattled and rolled beneath every step the dragon took. Kojo stole a glance beneath one raised arm to look at Vara who-- who looked just absolutely and utterly unimpressed, bordering on annoyed. Not exactly the kind of reaction that was in any way normal, but then again, this was the girl who lived with dragons--

Wait. The girl.

Still keeping his head low, Kojo gently pushed his way towards the front, keeping his palms out to show he had nothing with which to do any sort of harm.

"Ekram vobisi, we mean no insult," Kojo began, pushing his words so they might carry over the wind and sounds of the very young orcs crying, "just to rest the night in peace."

He chanced another look over at Vara amongst the far taller orcs gathered, all of whom but Vara seemed downright shaken. Ironic that the tiniest among them was the one least afraid of what might happen. Then again, if Kojo was guessing right, this was--

"...Are you, uh, Vara's... da, then...?"


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DragonSong

Ka'toh growled as the orc approached, the air around him heating in a subtle enough threat display. Another dragon would have recognized that he was gathering fire in his belly. "Vara." He lowered his head slightly, crest still flared and lips pulled back in a snarl. His eyes flickered over Kojo's head to the gathered two-leggers.

Vara rolled her eyes and slipped between the orcs to move forward. "Da, I'm fine. I found tracks, and-"

"Foolish girl!" The dragon snapped at her in the native tongue of his kind, making her wince at the volume of his growling voice. "You could have been killed! Have I taught you nothing?"

"They aren't dangerous," Vara replied in kind, though her human mouth and throat couldn't quite capture the exact sound of the dragon's language, the feel of crashing stones and snapping fire made words.

With a snarl, Ka'toh darted his head forward and snapped his jaws closed on the back of her tunic. She yelped as she was pulled into the air, dangling like a kitten from her mother's mouth. She squirmed and her father growled at her.

"Da! Put me down!" Still wriggling, she tried to reach back and bat at his nose. Her eyes flicked down to the orcs and she hissed, "Sorry about him..."

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