[IC] Ashes [EliteCommander and Vesuvius00]

[EliteCommander]

"I...understand your fear." Tarentek responded, his tone becoming considerably more serious. I know what trauma can do; it can destroy parts of your mind and make you feel things you know you logically shouldn't. I have had...recent experience with such horror, but even before that, I have seen its effects in others. War is rarely kind to its soldiers, and I have known warriors who have survived wounds that make them wish they had died. I suppose a disadvantage of my race's robust nature is how gruesome of experiences we can survive. Our bodies heal much more readily than our minds. I know trauma is very difficult to overcome, though not impossible. I have seen recoveries in the past, people who overcome their fears. I still believe you would benefit from trying to learn to swim, not only from the practical application of the skill, but from overcoming a wound of your mind. I believe it is best to plan for the worst possible scenario; in your case, falling into the water when no others are around. After all, when you found me, you were alone, and from the way your father reacted to your departure, I am assuming that is not too rare. Regardless, I cannot and would not force you to learn, but the offer remains open, should you ever decide to accept."

Tarentek guessed that Onyx would not wish to remain on such a sore topic for too long, so he decided to move on, allowing his tone to become more lighthearted. "Well, at any rate, I am sure there is something else I can do, aside from saving the lives of your entire village. I cannot do anything too strenuous until I recover, but I would like to learn more about you all. I still feel like I know so little."

[Vesuvius00]

"I feel like you know what you are saying, And I would like to believe what you say. I don't believe I'll ever go willingly into the water though, I like to be near it sometimes, when I go fishing or just because I like the smell." Onyx was glad that Tarentek had decided to switch topics, she could only think about this for so long...

"What is it that you want to know? More of what we talked about last night?"

[EliteCommander]

"That...is a difficult question, honestly." Tarentek responded just as the pair reached Onyx's den and stepped inside. He found a seat as soon as possible before continuing. "I mean, I feel like I don't know what I don't know, if that makes sense. That is, I don't really know what I need to learn. Back in Amman, I realized even just talking to traders that the customs of different places could be greatly different. For instance, in a small settlement outside Tel Aviv, it is a great insult not to wear shoes around their altars. Something to do with their religion, I believe. My people have thick scales and do not need shoes, so as you can see, we very rarely wear anything on our feet, unless there is a specific, practical need. If I were to go to their village, the thought to cover my feet would not even cross my mind. I wonder if there are similar differences between our people?"

Just as Tarentek did not know what to ask, he supposed Onyx would also not know what answers to give, since she also had no knowledge of Amman's culture. Still, there were certainly other ways he could learn about her people. "Perhaps, after I eat, you could simply show me around the village and tell me whatever comes to mind that you think I might need to know? Simply experiencing life in your village might help me to learn. Alternatively, I could just start telling you about my life in Amman, and you can point out anything you find strange, or similar to your own people."

[Vesuvius00]

"Alright, that sounds like a good idea. Is there anything specific you'd like to eat? I'm thinking that a Fish soup sounds good right now..." Onyx felt her stomach growl and moved to start gathering ingredients. While she did so, she continued speaking. "Obviously, there are a few places I'd be wary to take you, although if you simply wish to see what life here is like we can go see the market-place, or to Heillias' place of power." Onyx laughed as she thought about what might happen if they were to go to the shrine. They'd most likely run into a few of the children of her tribe, trying to find their future place among the tribe.

"You might see something inexplicable if we go to the shrine, although that could be a good thing." The rituals that go on there often have strange effects on the people involved. Onyx remembered that once, after her tribe had moved here, She had gone there to find her place and did a group ritual with her brothers and sister, and that's when her hair turned black. None of her other siblings had been affected, so they assumed it was a blessing of some sort, though they still don't know what.

[EliteCommander]

Tarentek nodded to Onyx, eager to have pretty much anything as a meal. "I would likely be glad to have almost anything you could make, but yes, fish sounds wonderful at the moment. As for where we can go, you would know better than I where is a good place to begin, but the market does seem appealing. In Amman, at least, all parts of society converged in our marketplace, even those from outside the city."

After a few more drinks, Tarentek finished off the remaining water in his canteen. He would need to remember to have it refilled before they left, and hopefully, he would be able to be more conservative with it for the remainder of the day. He had been able to drink quite a lot since he arrived, so he was actually to the point of no longer feeling especially thirsty. His hunger, however, was quite acute, especially with the scents of the ingredients Onyx was using being thick in the air. "Honestly, I believe the thing I am most excited to learn about you at this moment is your recipes. Food can be a wonderfully unifying thing, even across widely different cultures. Different cities prepare foods in many different, and sometimes delicious ways that you might not have thought to try. If nothing else, your people might appreciate some of the recipes I can give them." He said with a chuckle. "Anyway, while you are cooking, I might as well go ahead and tell you more about Amman. If you can think of any specific questions, I would be happy to answer. Otherwise, I can just tell you about whatever comes to mind." He offered.

[Vesuvius00]

"Go ahead and just tell me what ever you want to. I normally sing or talk to someone while I cook anyways. We'll go to the market after we eat." Onyx smiled inwardly at what he'd said about maybe telling her some of his recipes. "I would like to hear about the things you like to make. I greatly enjoy cooking, It's always fun to do and no two meals are ever exactly the same."

[EliteCommander]

Tarentek smiled as he leaned forward, resting his arms on the table in front of him. "Well then, perhaps I should start with our food? There are some simpler, traditional dishes that go back to our city's founding, but in my opinion, the most interesting ones are those created more recently. The more trade we had with other cities, the more ingredients we could access from more places. My favorite dish involves ground meat, usually from our livestock, but you can usually substitute whatever kind of animal is on hand. Most will still taste fine. From there you mix in a selection of vegetables. Peas and carrots work well, or anything with a similar kind of taste. Lastly, it is all covered in your choice of cheese, also from our livestock, and placed inside of a sort of bowl made from a kind of layered bread. I wish I had some of these ingredients with me so I could show you myself how it is made. Some of it, especially the bread, I cannot really describe too well with words if you're not already familiar with it. Although, I might be able to take a look at the ingredients you have available and write down some recipes I know how to make from them." He suggested.

When thinking about all of the foods he had tried back in Amman, he realized that many were made from ingredients that Onyx's people might not have access to, though that did lead him into his next point of interest about the city. "Really, many parts our city were like that. Connected through trade, I mean, and not just of goods. Ideas were a commodity as valuable as gold to my people. They could be valued in much the same way as crops, metals, or anything you might sell in a marketplace. Of course, some ideas were bad ideas and ended up being worthless, but good ideas were well-rewarded. People from other places were sometimes surprised to see that we try to apply customs from other places to our own lives to see if they improved them. Evidently, some other settlements place great value on traditions and are reluctant to change them, but for us, I suppose you might say that finding new ideas is our tradition. As I explained yesterday, knowledge and learning are central to our beliefs. Some cities and villages took offense to us using their customs, and I did hear some arguments from them that made sense to me about why they did not like it, but to refuse ideas that improved our lives would have been against our beliefs."

[Vesuvius00]

While Tarentek was describing the dish, Onyx couldn't help but notice the similarities between what he described and one of the dishes that her mother had liked to make before she left. "First of all, that sounds really yummy. Secondly, I think I've seen my mother make that, and third, If you want to look through my ingredients, you're more than welcome to." Onyx smiled at the smell that now filled the den, a mixture of spices and fish. "The meal is almost ready, I just have to make sure it doesn't burn now."

As she watched the food, she continued her thoughts out loud. "You say that your people adopted traits and traditions that would improve your life? While we don't have much contact with outsiders, we have adopted some practices. It's kind of a necessity for us because we move around so much. One that we had to get used to when we moved here was hunting more at night than we do during the day, because it is cooler at night the creatures we hunt don't come out until after dark, which we figured out after watching a rival tribe of ours that lived in the area."

[EliteCommander]

Tarentek found himself watching the meal Onyx was preparing more and more eagerly the closer it came to being finished. He had never been so hungry in his life as he had been for the past few days, and it certainly showed in the way his mouth watered looking at the stew. Nevertheless, he was able to stay focused enough to respond. "That is sensible. The heat of the desert is quite prohibitive to some of its creatures. Although, the colder nights can be just as hostile for us. Usually, for the non-scaled races, their bodies make heat on their own which allows them to stay active in the night, but the same is not true for us. When it is cold, our bodies become cold, so we must rely on the world around us for heat. Many of our customs relate to that need, though I suppose you would have little reason to adopt them. Well, actually, if the night became particularly cold, you might benefit from our knowledge of how to stay warm."

Pausing for a moment, Tarentek thought on what customs from Amman had originated from elsewhere. There were many to pick from, though that also meant it was more difficult to remember specifically from where they originated. "A lot of our practices were influenced by other settlements, partially or completely. The robes we wear outside have shifted in style to better keep out the wind, and are made from better materials like cotton, instead of hide. Earlier in our history, we bartered for goods and services, but from Jerusalem, we adopted their system of using coins for transactions. Their coins were fully accepted in our city, just as ours are in theirs. Some settlements sacrifice livestock to their gods, and while we have no need of that particular practice, we did learn that they tended to have surprisingly effective methods of breeding healthy animals, since many of those sacrifices require perfect animals. As for adopted practices that caused problems...oh, I can think of one. We adopted Tel Aviv's nesting habits. Our eggs have to be protected both from threats, and the cold for about three months before they hatch, which is quite similar to the Yaar, the race which controls Tel Aviv. They used a method of nest building that was surprisingly rigid and kept the eggs at the perfect temperature, which we of course adopted. The issue came with the fact that the shapes their nests form is an important symbol in their religion. Each nest becomes a sort of altar to their fertility god, so they took offense to the fact that our nests were not dedicated to their god. However, those nests allowed more eggs to survive, which meant that if we stopped using them, more of our children would die. That was something we were not willing to do."

[Vesuvius00]

"I know how to keep warm just fine, thank you." Onyx said as she put the finished soup on the table, spooning it into two bowls and placing one of them in front of Tarentek. "I don't ever have to worry about being too warm or cold, my fur keeps me at the right temperature no matter what. Although, what do you mean by eggs? Your people are not liveborn?" Onyx had seen creatures whose young had to remain in a pouch or egg before they were strong enough to move about on their own, but she had always equated those traits with rodents and birds, not creatures like Tarentek.

[EliteCommander]

"Thank you." Tarentek said with noticeable enthusiasm as soon as Onyx placed the soup in front of him. He wasted no time in starting on his anxiously-awaited meal, which he found rather appetizing. In truth, he probably would have found almost anything to be appetizing at that moment, but he felt the soup was legitimately well-made. His focused shifted to the food almost to the point that he forgot to respond to her question, though he did manage to remember after a few moments.

"Oh, yes...I mean, no. No, my people are not born directly from their mothers as some other races are. Our females lay eggs, which hatch just over three months afterwards. In the meantime, they must be protected so the child can develop within. I have not personally had the responsibility of taking care of an egg, but I had friends who had children. They described the experience as stressful, but rewarding." He said before giving a chuckle. "Although, that description probably fits having children in general, regardless of the race. In any event, some of Tel Aviv's people were angry with us, but the positive effects of our trade ended up outweighing the offense, so no war or fighting came as a result. Overall, we had few reasons to go to war other than defense. Some settlements fight based on their religions, but our gods do not usually call us to war. Indeed, our worship is quite different from many other cultures I have seen. We do not have temples, or rituals as other might think of them. I believe I mentioned this before, but knowledge is our worship. If one wishes to show homage to Jhala, they must seek to improve their mind. The closest thing to a temple in our city were our centers of learning, our schools. I mentioned several instances of our people taking influences from other cultures, but this is one case in which others learned from us. Jerusalem created a university after learning of ours. Well, I do suppose my people were originally influenced by writings from the Humans, but ours was the first city in this area with a university. So as long as they are able to fulfill their normal duties, anyone in our city can attend free of charge, even visitors. Well, if space is limiting, citizens are granted entrance before visitors, but no one is charged. Our university represents one of our government's largest single expenses."

[Vesuvius00]

Onyx was glad that the soup had turned out so well, even if the topic of conversation confused her. "You allowed other races into your city, and taught them? That seems counter-intuitive to me. If you worked so hard to uncover the knowledge you are continuously seeking, why give it away? those outsiders could have used the knowledge you gave them to plan an attack on your people." Onyx shook her head and continued eating. "That is one of the main reasons we don't talk to outsiders most of the time."

[EliteCommander]

Though Tarentek had not yet commented specifically on the soup, he was quite visibly pleased with it. He certainly intended to complement her on the dish, though as was common with his people, he would wait until the end of the meal to give his full opinion. As for the present topic, he was also quite eager to talk about his people's system of education. It was a point of pride for his city, and by extension, himself. "Ah, well, I should specify that some knowledge was considered to be secrets of the government. This mostly consists of the secrets of our weapons and defenses, including how to repair human weapons, creating gunpowder and ammunition, and building our fortifications. I am actually one of the few privy to some of those secrets, since they related directly to my role within our military. Otherwise, though, our knowledge is freely given to any who wish to learn. Now, it is true that most of the students of the university at any given time were citizens of Amman. Comparatively few outsiders are willing to come and live in Amman for the years required to receive a comprehensive education. However, they certainly exist, and we are happy to teach them. You see, spreading our knowledge through the world ultimately improves the lives of those who receive it, and eventually, that improvement will reach us. Settlements that learn better farming practices will have more food, those that learn better domestication techniques will have more productive work animals. All of this knowledge creates more wealth wherever it goes, and the common threads between it all are the people we educate. That is how the improvement returns to us. To learn what they need, these people spend years in Amman, not only learning from their classes, but connecting with the city. They become familiar with our customs, they form friendships with their peers and create bonds that give them ties to our city even after they leave. Though there are some exceptions, most of these outsiders become allies to us, or at the very least, remain friendly with our people. And remember, these people are creating wealth elsewhere. Those that become merchants often make trade deals with us that would not have existed otherwise, and if we are lucky, some of them will even grow to influence in their own cities. To us, educating someone from another city is to make a friend in another city."

[Vesuvius00]

"Would this, university, still be running now? The empire that has annexed your city will now have access to all that information, and even if they already knew about things like farming and such they will still benefit from the other knowledge that you mentioned. They could also use your city's ties to all the tribes that have made these interactions with your people to cause them to join their empire without any of them knowing what actually happened to your city." Onyx didn't like to think about how much smarter their enemy most likely was than her people, and she couldn't stand the fact that Tarentek didn't seem to be worried about it much.

"Which scenario would be worse," She started, "If everyone were to join them willingly and never be themselves again, or if we all died fighting them and possibly stopping the spread of them? I can tell you now that all the tribes of my race, whether friend or foe, will not give their freedom up to this empire."

[EliteCommander]

Tarentek paused a moment, then shrugged his shoulders. "I cannot say if the university is still open. We know so little about our enemy that it is impossible to say without actually going to Amman. If they want to keep the people they conquer happy, then they would keep the university open, but if they are more restrictive and controlling, then they would close it. As for our connections making others join the Empire, I would worry quite to that extent. Asking a settlement to give up its sovereignty and join a larger empire is a much larger request than asking for a good trade deal. Still, those connections may give them some diplomatic advantages if they learn about them. Not enough to make other cities surrender immediately, but it is something to worry about. Although, we might also consider how we can use those connections to our advantage. If we can reach these sympathetic individuals first and tell them what has occurred, we might be able to convince them to lend us aid in fighting back. That would have the added effect of making them skeptical of any offers coming from Amman, as they might think the Empire is forcing my people to make them. Indeed, they may very well do that."

By this point, Tarentek was close to finishing his soup, though he paused just before his last few bites to make one more statement in an exceptionally determined tone. "And I can assure you, the scenario I would choose is to fight to my last breath to end the lives of those who destroyed mine."

[Vesuvius00]

"Good. Would you like more soup? Or rather go explore the nest now? You may have more when we get back if you want." Onyx was glad to hear Tarentek's determination as she stood and started cleaning up her place. "Hey, do you know any songs? I believe I mentioned earlier that I like to sing while I cook, so do you have any songs that you like to sing?"

[EliteCommander]

"Sure, we can explore the...nest, as you say." Tarentek said as he stood up from his seat. "You should lead the way. I am sure you will know much better than I where would be best for me to go. And I trust you will let me know if I am about to make some terrible mistake. Though, before we leave, I would like to take a moment complement your soup. I find that it was quite well-made." He said as he began to help her clean as well.

Once Onyx asked him about his singing abilities, he stumbled over his words for a few brief moments as he was forming a response. "Oh, um, well...no, I don't. Sing. I don't sing. My mother liked to, but I never really picked it up. A lot of my focus went into my studies on technology, so I never really had time to pick up any musical talents." He explained somewhat nervously. It was true that he could not sing well, but it had not been for a lack of trying. His mother had loved to sing, and he tried to learn, but was terrible to start. He might have improved, but teasing from other children had stopped him from trying before he could gain any musical talent.

[Vesuvius00]

"I get the feeling that you already have a sense for what to and what not to do, although I will stop you if you are about to do something offensive." Onyx had to force herself not to laugh at how he had stuttered in his answer about singing. She got the feeling that there was a little more to his reason than what he had said, although she didn't want to say anything about it. He'd probably tell her later if it was in any way important.

As she lead him out of the den, another question crossed her mind. "Tarentek, I mean no offence when I ask this, but are you considered 'normal' among your people? I can tell you that I am not among the 'normal' group here. Most think i'm... lost."

[EliteCommander]

Tarentek found Onyx's question to be curious, and unexpected. He had never thought about whether or not he was 'normal,' though that fact likely meant he was. If none of the others had any question about his place within society, then they likely had no issues with him. "I have not really thought about that before, but I believe my people would consider me to be normal. I am a warrior with knowledge and interest in our technology, both of which would be considered honorable among my people. Beyond that, I have not done much that would be exceptional. I suppose the most they might find strange about me is that I have not yet found a wife, despite being at the appropriate age. Still, that is not terribly uncommon." He explained briefly as his face took on a more concerned expression.

"What do you mean by 'lost'? Do others among your people take issue with you?" Tarentek asked. Given all that Onyx had done for him, he did actually find that he was sympathetic to any potential struggles she might be facing.

[Vesuvius00]

"They don't really think that I'll be able to function as a part of the Tribe once I come of age, because I have not yet found my Niche." Onyx had hoped that Tarentek would have been in a similar situation, but what he said made her think that he was more like someone in the role of a Sentry, a heroic role that the people looked up to. "Currently, I am in training to be a healer, however healers usually have a stronger Soul than Heart."

"I believe I had mentioned something about Spirit, Soul, and Heart last night when I had asked you about your beliefs. My Spirit is strong, my Heart is strong, but my Soul is weak, and Soul is what matters the most when one comes of age."