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Chosen and Bound

Started by DragonSong, January 28, 2017, 01:42:26 PM

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DragonSong

@Marakai Trin

Crying was a sign of weakness. Even at the age of seven she knew that. So when she felt the tears coming on, Amaya had run from the temple that her family called home, ducking into the thick jungle that surrounded her village and heading northeast down the side of the small mountain, eyes blurry and breath sniffling as she stumbled and fell, got up, then stumbled again until she finally came to the stream, a tributary of the small river that fed her home's water supply.

Even at seven she knew all this: where her people got their water, what they hunted and gathered best, how they were trained to fight, what weapons they used best, even how many babies had been born in the last six months.

She knew it all, but it meant nothing to her. Well- it didn't mean nothing. She just wished it did. Wished she could just be like the other little girls in the village, shrieking with giggles as they played their sing-song games in the village square, chasing each other through the gardens that surrounded the temple.

But she couldn't. By virtue of who and what she was, she knew she couldn't be like the other children, no matter how much she wanted to. She collapsed on the bank of the stream, panting and crying quietly. At least she'd gotten some distance from the village before she completely broke down.

She couldn't even remember now what had set her off- and it didn't really matter. She just needed to pull herself together so she could return and once again act her part.

She stared down at her reflection, distorted by the gentle current of the stream. Her tears subsided gradually, replaced by a solemn glare. Suddenly, without her fully conscious decision, she found her fingers clawing at her forehead, at the crowning horns that adorned her brow. Even when she broke skin, blood trickling from between her claws down over her brows, dripping onto the water of the stream, she continued to scratch and cry quietly.

Marakai Trin

Seven years, he'd lived with the old woman on the mountain. Some said she was a witch - often enough, she'd been visited by the people of the isle and those surrounding it, and they would address  her so. But he called her mother...despite the old woman's protests.

She said he was not her child, but instead was a miracle of magic, a being that proved that just because some beings were inherently evil, it didn't have to mean that evil was all they could be. His existence and his innocent view on the world proved this, she said.

On this day, he was told his purpose in life. The old woman had told him, just before he was formed, she had given the leaders of a particular village magical aid in begetting a child, and shortly after had a vision of the baby that would be born. The baby would grow into a young girl, tasked with much on her shoulders, more than a normal child aught to  have. And so, he was created to be her friend, her companion, and her guardian. This very morning, he had sworn to be all three.

And so she sent him off to find her, no tears in her eyes but a smile upon her aged face. He'd been given nothing but a name.

Ichiko Amaya. She would be known to him  as Amaya.

So he found himself following the mountain stream, continually down the mountain. Eventually, he had to stop, his ears picking up a sound.

The young boy, his skin bronzed by the sun and patched with blue and black scales, glanced back and forth with golden, reptilian eyes. The red frill upon his head caught the light just so, the webbed membrane becoming nearly translucent to show the spines within. He looked further down the stream, a forked tongue darting from between his lips to taste the air.

....blood. That's what he sensed. He began moving again, small clawed feet splashing in the stream. After a moment, he followed the curve of the stream and after passing the trees, he saw her.

A little girl, his age. She had horns, and clawed fingers. This...had to be her.

His golden eyes blinked, and he hurried towards her side. From just a few feet away, he could see the trickle of blood down her brow, and when he was close enough, he seized her wrist and pulled her hand away from her head.

"Don't to that... You're bleeding. Amaya."

He smiled down at her, forked tongue hidden behind white teeth. "Hi. My name is Mizaakarn."

DragonSong

Amaya gasped, startled that she hadn't heard or sensed another's approach. She flinched back from the strange hand, she stared up at who had stopped her attempt at self mutilation.

She blinked, rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hand, winced as blood dripped from her fingertips onto the bridge of her nose, then blinked again.

A boy. Her age, she thought. But...different. Very different from what she'd come to expect in other children.

"Mizaa...karn," she repeated slowly, her voice thick. She sniffed and swiped the back of her hand under her eyes. She must look like such a fright, all puffy eyes, runny nose, and blood trickling from the wounds she'd scoured around her horns.

"How- how do you know my name?" she murmured, staring up at him. "You aren't from here..."

Marakai Trin

Mizaakarn smiled down at her. "Mee-zuh-karn. You can call me Mizaak. Mother always did." His golden eyes shone with the light reflecting up from the water, and he blinked one time. "I was told your name by Mother...um...the witch." He turned and gestured up the mountain, pointing towards the peak.

"I was sent to find you. Moth- I mean the witch said I was supposed to be your friend and garden...goden...Guardian? Yes. I'm glad I was able to find you so quickly. But...why were you crying?"

He knelt down in front of her, both clawed hands resting on his knee, his other leg flat on the sandy riverbed.

"Oh....here. Let me fix your cuts." He turned one hand palm up, and with the other cut a line across his palm...but instead of the red blood of a man, what appeared to be water welled up around the cut.

He held his hand up to her, water dripping from his palm in a trickle.

DragonSong

Amaya gasped again, both at the fact that he'd cut himself and that he didn't seem to be...well, bleeding. "Wh-why did you do that?"

She grabbed for his hand, childish fingers wrapping around his as she peered down at his palm.

Marakai Trin

Mizaak giggled a little bit, and wrested his hand away from hers to hold it over her head. "This is why!" If he were to be her friend and Guardian, he'd start now - by healing her.

The water-seeming blood would drip over her cuts, and with a shimmer they would disappear. The water would sink into the gouges, the skin knitting together instantly.

"...can't be a good Guardian if you're hurt." He smiled at her again, and then dunked his hand in the stream, and then held it up for her inspection. The cut was gone.

"See? No harm done!"

DragonSong

Her eyes widened and Amaya gasped. She stared at the stranger- no, Mizaak- then shook her head slowly.

"Magic," she whispered. It was elemental magic, which she'd always been taught was a twisting of the natural order...but it was also healing, which was divine and good.

Slowly, she started to smile. A little shakily, she got to her feet and held her hand out to him.

"Come with me."

-------------------------------------------------------------

Amaya blinked, coming back to herself. She was staring at her reflection again, but this was no rippling stream, the image of her face distorted in the water. This was polished glass, set in a gold and silver hand mirror that she set aside her bedroll with a sigh.

She hardly recognized the reflection staring back at her anymore. The round faced, wide-eyed girl was gone, replaced with a full mouth, high cheekbones, and eyes that were far older than her years.

Well. The face paint her mother had applied had done something to lessen that effect, highlighting her lips in red and adding to the rosiness of her cheeks, dark kohl accentuating the almond shape of her eyes. It took everything she had not to raise the sleeve of her kimono and scrub it all off.

With a soft breath, she straightened her shoulders and slipped through the door to her room, moving in a nearly soundless glide down the hall of the temple.

If she was lucky, she could slip out to the gardens before the day really started.

Marakai Trin

The boy that had been was now a man, standing nearly statuesque outside a certain young woman's door the same way he had for these past fourteen years. Just as Amaya had changed, time had had its way with Mizaak as well.

He'd grown massive over the years, having grown a height that allowed him to tower over everyone on the populace. He'd broadened as well, and filled his frame with powerful muscle. Over the years, the less human side of him seemed to have rose closer to the surface, as more and more patches of blue and black scales emerged from his flesh.

In time, he'd worried that he'd become all monster, all the time. But the growth of scales seemed to have lessened in the last several years.

He stood in the hall, barefoot with his clawed toes clicking on the stone floor every minute or so, a crude way of keeping time. One large fist was wrapped around a steel trident, a gift sent from his mother (he'd come to refer to her as such no matter what she said) upon his thirteenth birthday. He saw it as a fitting weapon, and carried it everywhere. Especially when he stood guard for Amaya.

....and speaking of Amaya, her door had just opened soundlessly beside him, and he seemed not to see him as she slipped away. His broad face split into a smile, and his forked tongue darted out one time before he called to her.

"....you might avoid getting caught this time, Amaya," he said, his voice rumbling from behind her. "You know you've got a schedule to keep....blasted thing."

He stepped forth from his little alcove, walking after her.

"....I'll make sure you don't get caught this time, though. What do you say?" He smiled broadly, his white teeth a contrast to his bronzed flesh.

DragonSong

"Spirits!" Amaya's hand flew to her heart and she whirled, eyes wide, then quickly narrowing to glower at Mizaak.

"You enjoy startling me, don't you?" she accused under her breath. Without waiting for him to reply, she cast an almost furtive glance from side to side and took a step backward down the hall. "Come on, then, and hurry up."

She sighed and rubbed at her temples, forcing herself to be careful of the elegant coiffure that had been made of her hair, adorned with a decorative comb and a jade hairpin.

"Just an hour," she muttered. "I just want an hour before the ceremony starts..."

It was barely daybreak, but she'd been up for several hours already, preparing for the harvest festival that would begin with her family's blessing of the village. And because she was Amaya Ichiko, Chosen Among Mortals, she of course had to oversee the whole thing, and provide the chants, the prayers that would call favors from the natural world around them.

Marakai Trin

"Startling you? You know...I've stood outside your door every day for the last....what, fourteen years, now? The date of that day is quickly approaching." He let out a chuckle, his deep baritone echoing in the hall before he caught it and cut it off.

He settled with a wide toothy grin and fell into step beside her.

"You chose excellent raiments for the festival. The very picture of elegance. I feel out of place walking by your side today, you know." His golden eyes flicked downward to look to her, his lips still smiling.

"So...what have you got planned for your one hour of privacy? Or do you simply seek peace before the festivities?"

DragonSong

"Yes- and every day for fourteen years you've insisted on tucking yourself into that little alcove like some sort of sneak-thief...though honestly how you eve fit anymore is a mystery that baffles me," she muttered, rolling her eyes and resisting the urge to stick her tongue out at him childishly.

His question brought another sigh and she raised a hand to drag down her face, then caught herself and shook her head. "I just need a few moments' quiet, that's all," she murmured, turning down the hall that would lead them out into the small temple's courtyard.

Marakai Trin

His amusement was far more discreet this time, just a quiet chuckle that took place more in his nose and throat than his mouth. "Well, where else am I supposed to guard you from? Right outside your door is the furthest I dare go, and I am not allowed within your chambers. I daresay that I'll somehow have to move a bed within that alcove as well, with the hours that you're made to keep."

He rounded the corner with her, his trident held easily at his side, careful not to tap it's butt on the stone. He could see the light of the breaking dawn ahead.

"Hmm. Odd that there's no one scampering about this morning. Perhaps you're in luck - nobody will even know you're out of your room except us."

He stepped into the garden with her, but remained at the entryway. "Peace and quiet awaits. I'll let you know if anyone comes, Amaya, so take your time."

DragonSong

She gave him a small smile and nodded. "Thank you, my friend. I won't be long."

She stepped out from under the half covered porch into the courtyard, a peaceful garden of winding stones and the occasional small plant, with a koi pond in the center.

Marakai Trin

Mizaak stood guard, as always, the blunt end of his trident planted on the ground. With his coloration and complete lack of motion, one could almost mistake him for a bronze statue. The only movements he made were that of his eyes, keeping himself occupied by simply taking in the scenery.

Mizaak had an epic amount of patience. Over the course of the last years, he'd discovered that within his sight range of the little alcove he'd occupied, he could count three thousand four hundred seventy six bricks, including the stonework on the floor and the large slabs that made up the ceiling.

There was no such thing to count here, so he settled with simply taking in every minute details of the plants and flowers in his field of view. He could hear nothing, save for the occasional small splash as the koi rose briefly to the water.

Mizaak let out a contented sigh and smiled to himself. His duty tended to be very drab, but he was happy with it. So long as he was near her and she was safe, he was content.

DragonSong

Amaya made her way through the garden to sit herself beside the pond, legs curled to the side as she traced her fingertip over the surface of the water.

A few of the older fish, massive creatures with strong spirits in their own right, rose to the surface and suckled at her finger, thinking she might have brought them food. She smiled and tapped their scaly heads, then settled back with a sigh.

She looked over her shoulder. "Mizaak." She held a hand out to him. "Come here?"

Marakai Trin

The large man turned his head at the sound of his name, seeing her reaching toward him. He smiled fondly at her, and stepped lightly onto the first of the stones that made up the path through the garden. He made his was in her direction, moving with deliberate slowness to avoid disturbing anything.

In a moment, he stood above her. "Yes, Amaya? What is it?" he asked, his voice quiet to avoid disturbing the sanctity of the environment.

DragonSong

She smiled and patted the ground beside her. "Just sit with me. Take a break, just for a few moments. Spirits know youbprobably need it even more than I do."

Marakai Trin

He chuckled a bit, and did as she bid him to, settling down to sit with his legs crossed over one another. He laid his trident down behind him, and released his grip on it for the first time since he'd risen hours before.

"Thank you. Though standing in one place isn't exactly strenuous work." He turned his head and grinned at her, before he turned his attention to the water.

Unlike her, when he dipped his finger into the water, the koi all immediately fled to the opposite side of the pond, and he sighed. Part of him was a natural predator to these fish, and all others.

He glanced up at Amaya with a small smile. "Well, at least I've still got a friend in you. Pity the koi can't tell the difference, though. For all their wisdom, they still can't tell thendifference between the monster and the man."

DragonSong

Amaya frowned at him and reached to lay her hand over his.

"They're fish, Mizaak. Creatures powerful in spirit, but they survive on instinct." She smiled. "Anyone with sense can see what you really are."

She glanced at the pond again and her expression fell slightly. The horns that circle her brow bore a ragged red line near their base, a scar that had never quite healed properly.

She shook her head. "You're no more monster than I."

Marakai Trin

He turned his hand under hers to grip her fingers in his, smiling gently at her reflection in the water. He too saw the scar, but his thoughts of that memory were fond ones. He knew how she'd gotten that scar, and it was their meeting that had stopped it from getting worse.

He touched a finger from his free hand to her refection in the koi pond, gentle ripples spreading from the contact. "Perhaps now. But the water shows the truth of me. You, at least, don't have to deal with that."

He looked away from her reflection to look at the woman who had cast it, and smiled. "No matter, though. You could have wings, a tail, and nine eyes and I wouldn't think less of you for it. We can be monsters together."

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