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[Open] "Palm Reading Up Tree. Please Ring Bell."

Started by Wisty, January 26, 2016, 08:07:50 PM

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Wisty

High in her tree home on the outskirts of the village, Kalali sat, carving the shape of a gecko into a thick driftwood branch. Her hut was formed by thatching woven carefully around the branches of the tree, giving the appearance of a large bird nest with a roof.  It was rather barren, save for a few cushions on the floor and some bowls of water and food. 

She made the finishing touches to her carving and took a step back to admire her work. She was proud of the amount of Common Tongue she had learned. Inscribed on the driftwood next to the gecko was a phrase in the language of the traders and wanderers. It read: "Palm Reading Up Tree. Please Ring Bell."

She hoped that the merchants and sailors would stop by her tree hut while visiting their village for trade.  She was not very good at hunting and her wings made gathering food in the jungle difficult.  She wanted to contribute to her village and she thought that trading goods for divination would be an ideal way for her to do it.

She climbed down the knotted vine ladder to the base of her tree house and propped up her new sign between two gnarled roots.  one of them had a rusty metal bell that she had bartered from a sailor a month ago.  She nodded and straightened up her sarong, knotted around one shoulder. Kalali flapped her wings once, grabbed the ladder in mid air and climbed upwards into her house, impatiently waiting for a guest to ring her bell.

Argroww

Ameena lay on the beach, her clothes drying in a most uncomfortable way after her long stretch in the water.  She knew she should have drowned, and had felt like she had several times over.  If nothing else it made a change from being locked up in a cell for...for...years? She didn't know, it had been so long and she still looked thin and malnutritioned.

Plucking her face out of the sand she wondered where she was, she didn't recognise the land she found herself in, but with some effort she got herself to her knees and then to her feet and staggered and looked around.  By some surprise she'd surfaced very close to a small port sitting next to a jungle, probably some kind of fishing village she guessed, she tried calling out, but all that came out was a hoarse croak that was not perceivable above the din of the seagulls and other daytime activities.

So she staggered along to see if she could find someone to help her because she was hungry, oh so very hungry.  The first building she came across was a home built into a tree, the sign in common indicated something about palms up the tree? Ameena wasn't sure she understood, but the instruction to ring the bell seemed clear enough, so she tugged on the bell cord.

Wisty

Kalali started at the sound of the clanging bell and scurried to the trap door. Her wings splayed out behind her, nearly knocking things over in her excitement. When she reached the door she paused to compose herself. She stuck her face out of the hole in the floor and her eyes widened at the being below her.

She nearly recoiled away from it, but as she stared, horrified, she realized that the creature was a woman. This was a damp and starved-looking woman, but one in need of help. She called down to her in the Yoreiqi language:

"Are you okay? Do you need help? Come up! Come up!" She paused, unsure if the fearful-looking woman understood her. She put her hand to her forehead in concentration and spoke again, in common. "You... come here? Hurt? Go up!" She waved toward herself with concern on her brow and wondered if the person below her was strong enough to get up the ladder on her own.

Argroww

Ameena looked up at the open door and paused wondering if going up a ladder right now was such a good idea, but it had been the closest building to where she'd washed up.  To begin with the face that appeared at a hatch style opening spoke words that Ameena did not understand and barely even recognised as words, she had been washed quite some long distance indeed.

However the face then clarified the instruction in a better tongue, yes she'd have to climb up the ladder.

Ameena steeled herself hoping she had the energy to get herself up the ladder and stared hauling and with some effort managed to get herself up and into the home of a young woman, although perhaps a little older in appearance than Ameena herself.  Ameena snorted at an internal joke that pretty much everyone was "young" to her.

As she pulled herself into the hatch she then collapsed to one side so she didn't fall back down and just lay there breathing heavily still not trusting her voice to actually work.

Wisty

Kalali winced as the woman struggled up the ladder and collapsed on the floor. Poor thing, she thought as she took a cautious step towards the limp body. She peered at the woman's face and was a bit surprised.  She was younger than Kalali had originally thought. She might even be a child, though it was difficult to tell for sure in her condition.

She fetched one of her cushions and wiggled it under the head of the woman... or girl?She reached towards the girl with fretting hands, but didn't touch her.  She backed away and fetched a bowl of clean drinking water. She offered it to the girl.

"Speak common?" She asked in a halting, uncertain tone, "Or do you possibly understand this?" She asked in her more fluid native tongue. She was near certain that this light-skinned, green-eyed creature was not Yoreiqi, but held onto a hope that she would not have to struggle to communicate in common.

Argroww

Ameena took the bowl eagerly, even with her immortality swallowing and regurgitating vast quantities of salt water left a rather nasty feeling in her throat, especially when you're underwater doing that.  So fresh water was just what she needed, but so was some decent rest and right now the simple cushion under her head felt ever so comfortable.

With some further effort she sat herself up and lifted the bowl to her cracked lips and sipped at the water, letting the liquid flow down her sore neck.  She knew her healing would sort the soreness out in time, but it would still hurt for some time yet.

She took in her hostess, the girl looked young, quite pretty she figured and astounding coloured wings.  If Ameena were in better condition she might be able to appreciate the colouring more, but for now she just croaked "Common."

Wisty

Kalali smiled sympathetically as the girl drank eagerly from the bowl. She thought that the girl would speak common, but grimaced when she confirmed this. Kalali furrowed her brow as she translated one of her many questions in her head.

"What you name?" She asked, wondering if she should be standing so close to the foreigner. What if this was contagious? She had certainly never seen anyone in such a condition before unless they were very ill.  She took half a step back just in case.

"Is you sick?" She asked cautiously.


Argroww

"Ameena" she croaked again, a little softer, but not much, the little bit of water on it's own wouldn't help her throat much, medication or time would do that.

She considered how to answer the girl's next question, how much should she tell?

Ameena had been stowing away on a boat, after being locked up for years in a cell with only the other cell occupants to keep her company from time to time and often not even being fed she didn't trust people in her land very easily and had decided to go somewhere else, anywhere else.  A boat had seemed the best idea, but half-way through the journey she'd been caught.  Even that had seemed silly, given how long she'd gone without food the fact that she got caught stealing food seemed ironic somehow.  The captain saw her as a weedy looking thief, of no use to him what-so-ever and thus she was thrown overboard.  Of course the expectation was for her to drown, but her immortality meant that by the time she'd tired out from treading water and swimming she'd sink, drown, die then magically heal and return to the surface due to some odd ability for her healing powers to fill her lungs with air...but then it would happen all over again.

She'd actually lost count of how many times she'd gone through that cycle and by the time she'd washed up on the shore her conscious mind had shut down.

Given all that she just responded with "No, who are you?" Ameena didn't really want lengthy conversation just yet, although she could understand the girls curiosity.

Wisty

Kalali was glad that the girl was not sick. Maybe she had been lost? At any rate she looked starved.
"Ameena." She said and nodded. She gestured towards herself. "Kalali. This village mine home. I am seer in this village. You..." She paused to think of the right words, "you from not this village. You from.... Far village?"

She sighed. She didn't know if that was right. "Where did you come from, poor little thing?" she cooed in Yoreiqi. She wished she knew how to get to the girl's home. Perhaps there was someone there who would take care of her. She peered around the hut looking for something that might help the girl.

Argroww

"Far? yes very far" Ameena said in the harsh rasp she'd acquired.

"Connlaoth is where I'm from." she added.

Ameena scratched at her body, the clothing she was wearing was drying and the saltiness of the sea was making the clothing itchy as the salt crystallised. The little home seemed quite cosy, but also fairly sparse.  Even on the inside the tree-home somewhat resembled a nest with a roof, cushions were scattered about and seemed as much a place to sit as they were a place to sleep and various containers stored foods and such, her strong sense of smell picked up the different things to eat and her stomach gurgled reminding her that it has still been a long time since she'd eaten.

Wisty

"Connlaoth..." She had never heard of it. She wondered what it was like there. She noticed the girl looking around and Kalali became a bit self conscious about the emptiness of her hut. Before she could think too hard about the lack of ambience, sh heard Ameena's stomach growling. "Oh!" She exclaimed,"You want food. Take food!"

She grabbed at a box of berries and a bowl that contained some coconut peices. She wished she had something warm for her, but she had yet to build a fire pit after the last storm wrecked her hut.  When the girl was strong enough she ought to recover closer to the center of town, she thought, the villagers would take care of her together.

She nodded to herself as she handed the bowls of food to the girl. "Eat."

Argroww

Ameena did not need telling twice, she'd only been sick because her body was expelling the salt water to make room for the air whilst she was at sea.  She took the berries and gobbled them down with some haste barely registering how they burst in her mouth and released their slightly sour, but flavoursome liquid contents.

She was a little slower with the coconut, mostly because she didn't know what it was or how it should be eaten, but taste was pleasant and refreshing.  As her body accepted the food and started to calm down with telling her just how hungry she was she started to enjoy the food and noted how the coconut flavour worked well with the berries.

Remembering her manners Ameena managed a mumbled "Thank you" with her cheeks bulging.

Wisty

Kalali watched Ameena eat. At first she watched with amusement at her eagerness, thinking that she resembled a wild animal and smirking at her hesitation with the coconut, but then her brows knit together with concern. She had never seen someone eat so desperately before.

Ainu was up against a lush jungle full of food.  There were fallen coconuts along the beach and plenty of berry bushes as well. Roots and some plant foliage were edible, and there was an abundance of fish in the warm Tuor ocean. Why was this girl so hungry? Even if she had been lost in the jungle, there is no shortage of edible plants, and every child knew which plants were edible and which were not, didn't they? Her concern and curiosity soon outweighed her reluctance to interrrupt Ameena's meal.

"Why you so...." She gestured to her malnourished body, "hungry?" She cocked her head to the side. "What- No, Why...?" She exhaled sharply in frustration before speaking more carefully. "What in past make you very hungry? Were in jungle lost?"

Argroww

Ameena paused her hand part way towards her mouth as Kalali's curiosity was exposed.

Ameena knew she was immortal, and people often reacted badly to immortals for some reason...in fact some even assumed she was a vampire...even when she was standing in a mid-day sun and thus clearly not.

Still, she'd been given food and been treated well so far, so maybe Kalali had earned the truth?

"I've been at sea, or more accurately in the sea, maybe for weeks, I'm not sure.  I cannot die, but I can suffer the effects of death."  Ameena explained, her throat already feeling better for the berry juice that flowed down it.

She wondered if that was likely to help at all.

Wisty

Kalali frowned. In the sea? Can not die? Effects.... She did not know that word. She was certain that there was something strange at work here. She scrutinized the girl, her face growing a bit less friendly as she kept her guard up. She didn't know how to ask the right questions in common. She was realizing with embarrassment that she did not know as much of the language as she thought. She glanced at the girl's hand. It was still holding food so she could not get a good look at it.

"You say you not die in the sea." Kalali asked carefully. "Can not die in the sea? Can not die always?" She shook her head. "Give me your hand? I read palm to see." She closed her eyes and tapped her forehead on the word "see". "I can see and understand?"

Argroww

Ameena had little experience of fortune tellers, although she remembered that way back on the farm there had been a few travelling ones, last time her fortune had been read she was mostly told some pretty generic stuff that could have applied to anyone so she didn't see much harm in allowing Kalali to read her palm.

Holding out her hand Ameena waited to see what typical clap-trap this woman would tell her.

Depending on how Kalali's abiltiy works she'd see a life without end, curious and savage yet intelligent red furred man-like wolves, an immense battle between demonic forces and some other great power with the suggestion the wolf men were on that side.  Ameena's own future would be very unclear however, the only obvious thing that her life was intensely long and yet full of her own death at the same time (highly confusing for a fortune teller.  otherwise feel free to make stuff up because for an immortal person anything you do suggest may happen at some point or another!

Wisty

((Ooc-thanks for the tip!!))
Kalali took the girl's hand gently. She spread out Ameena's fingers and began to scrutinize the line that swooped around her thumb. This was the line that explains a person's life. It was deep and solid, with no breaks. A long life. It had many small lines that cross-crossed it in all the way from top to bottom. Many injuries? Perhaps many deaths? She wrinkled her nose. The other lines on her palm were fairly normal, and Kalali could glean nothing else by simply reading.

"No move please." She said, and wrapped her hands around Ameena's.

Images floated in and out of her mind. First she saw her own life: flying, learning to hunt rodents, her tattoo ceremony. Then images began to shift and grow fuzzy. She saw a very different land. There was no lush jungle and the people were all very different. She saw darkness and hunger and thirst. She cringed and nearly pulled away. Then she saw drowning. She saw drowning over and over but never dying. She saw herself. She pushed past the psychic resistance of the future and saw, all at once, a million possibilities. She saw death in many forms, love, hatred, pain, loss, sorrow.  There were monsters and beasts with red fur and an overwhelming number of images, all the while Ameena appeared the same age, the only changes occurred in her expressions and in her clothing.

Kalali drummed her hand and walked away, across the room. She did not understand what she had seen. She turned to Ameena and furrowed her brow.

"Your future very long." She said after a moment. "And I see you drown and alive." She paused. "You do not grow?" She looked at the youthful face and wondered how old this girl really was.

Argroww

"My past is quite long too." Ameena said matter-of-factly.

"No, I don't grow, or change at all, I'm forever stuck looking like I'm 16, except my hair and nails, they grow at a normal rate, I think."

Ameena studied her hand that Kalali had held, she'd felt a curious tingling sensation as the woman practiced her arts, that was certainly different to any of the travelling fortune tellers she'd met in her travels, brief as they'd been.  She then looked at her clothes which were unpleasant to say the least having been subjected to sea-water for weeks, or even months and some sun-bleaching.  However she didn't have any money or any idea of what do to next.

"So, Kalali, is there a seamstress around here, or a market that sells clothing, and any way I can earn some local coin?"

Wisty

Kalali was caught off guard by how calm Ameena was. She would not die? Ever? What would happen if she just kept living? Kalali was horrified and she was sure it showed on her face. She was stuck with the realization that this young girl could be much older than her. She suddenly felt like a child. She tried to compose herself before responding to Ameena's question.

"You need clothings, go to village elders. In the center of village" She shook her head. "You need not to give money. You need help. We help you." She grinned. "Later when we need help. You help we- us! You help us later." She wrinkled her nose at Ameena's strange clothes.  "We not have clothes like this."

Argroww

"Noooo, I don't suppose you do, but right now anything would be better than this." Ameena said.

After having eaten the food her body was already processing it at a hyper-rate along with her enhanced healing, almost before Kalali's eyes Ameena was going from looking haggard, tired, sun-burnt, de-hydrated and a plethora of other conditions to having a healthy glow of life to her.

"So, center of the village huh? sounds like a plan!" The young woman said, acting almost bubbly in contrast to the girl who had almost dragged herself up into the tree house.

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