[IC] Ashes [EliteCommander and Vesuvius00]

[EliteCommander]

Tarentek was slightly surprised that Haku'gil was willing to give away the flower, though he supposed it was simply a nice gesture. Even if it was only a weed to his people, Tarentek felt that he would have been justified in charging for it. Something that had no value in one place could be prized in another, and traveling long distances was expensive and difficult. Even though anyone in his homeland could retrieve one of those flowers for free, he was still providing a valuable service by bringing them to a foreign land. Regardless, it was a kind gesture that seemed to show the sense of community the Elissics had.

Tarentek nodded in response to Haku. "Yes, I know some of the troubles to the east. I was wanting to warn you of them, especially if you intended to travel in that direction. There is a group causing strife in that area, and it may not be safe to pass through, even by air. I am sure your wings can minimize the danger, but you could be in danger when stopping for camp."

[Vesuvius00]

"Well, there's no need to warn me away from the area. I'm going to the south next, and I hope that this group is not there already. From what I've heard of them, they take what they want with no concern for the people who are affected, and have no discerning eye for a sentry or civilian." Haku'gil shook his head and smiled again. "I hope you also take care in your travels, Tarentek. Onyx, I wish you the best of luck in your future, and may Olias watch over you."

He bowed as Onyx responded. "Good travels, Haku'gil. May Olias watch over you as well." She bowed as she finished and stepped away from the counter, waiting for Tarentek to follow.

[EliteCommander]

Tarentek repeated Onyx's farewell, then followed her away from Haku's stall. He hoped that word would spread of the Empire in the east so that travelers would not fall victim to them. Haku'gil seemed to suggest that they attacked travelers, though that was only a rumor. Indeed, most of what Tarentek knew about their enemy that did not relate to their military prowess was merely rumor. It was frustrating to have so little in the way of concrete information about their enemy, but hopefully scouting could remedy that issue.

"I did not expect him to be so friendly to an outsider, though I suppose that is sensible for a merchant. I assume that is one of the traits imparted by what you would call a strong heart. I am guessing I will not receive such a warm welcome from everyone, but I am still...encouraged." Tarentek commented as his gaze wandered off across the market. "So, what do you believe we should do next? We can move on from the market, if you wish. I am curious about the rest of the nest. What does one normally do in their free time in your tribe?"

[Vesuvius00]

"Once one is done with any duties they had that day, they are free to do whatever they wish. I like to go fishing, but that's outside of the nest, and because you don't have wings we can't just go flying around either. Usually, people of similar professions will group together in areas respective to their role. I would be with the one group that is still completely unpredictable, those who have not come of age." Onyx was leading Tarentek through the last of the crowd now, to a staircase cut into the mountain that led up to the center of the nest.

"We are different from children, in that we can take care of ourselves, but we are not adult because we have not been accepted into a role yet." Onyx started flying next to the staircase as she continued. "This leads to the center of the nest, where most of the people my age gather. I don't know any better way to explain our activities other than simply showing you."

[EliteCommander]

Tarentek did not quite know what to think about the group that Onyx belonged to: those who were not children, but not yet adults. His people did not have an analogous group, as children in Amman often knew from a young age what role they were going to pursue. There were some who changed their roles later in life, but they were the exception rather than the rule. He felt his own people's method would be more productive, but then again, he did acknowledge that some of his people became dissatisfied with their role in life, but could not change their path because they were already too invested in it. For the Elissics, that would not be quite as much of an issue.

Nodding to Onyx, Tarentek continued to follow her up the steps towards the center of the nest. As he had not yet fully recovered, he was already showing signs of fatigue from climbing the steep staircase, but he was not too exhausted to continue. "Alright, I shall follow your lead. The others your age, do you think they will be accepting of me, or should I be cautious?" He asked.

[Vesuvius00]

Tarentek was almost to the top when he asked if he should be worried about the others, Onyx landed at the top and waited there for him as she started. "They wouldn't be much different from most of the adults, but will likely be too shy to try and pick a fight with you. I don't know if you're aware of this, but you don't look as kind as you seem to be."

"You look tired, would you like to rest here for a while?" Onyx took flight again and continued. "I'll go ahead and tell them about you if you like. The place is just around the corner of this ruin." She gestured to a tall shell of one of the old buildings that were scattered all across the nest. "You can come when you've caught your breath."

[EliteCommander]

Tarentek gave a chuckle as he sat down on a large rock along the path. So it was fear that was keeping some of the others from attempting to harm him? It was not his preferred method of staying safe, but at the very least, it was preventing anyone from getting hurt. Tarentek had no intention of picking a fight with anyone, and he would try to run if he could, but if pressed, he would have no choice but to defend himself.

"Perhaps it would be best if you told them I was coming, instead of suddenly surprising them with me." Tarentek answered. "I should be fine in a few minutes. How about you go ahead and tell them what you need to tell them, then come and collect me. That should give me more than enough time to rest." He suggested.

[Vesuvius00]

"Alright. I'll be right back." Onyx said before she flew over the top of the ruin. She landed softly, standing on a narrow strip of the wall as she watched the group below her. She recognized the different clumps of 3 or 4 that were friends and then the few who were off doing their own thing. Drifting down until she was next to a group that she usually joined whenever they played games that needed even teams, she waited until she was greeted before speaking.

"Hey Onyx. You're quiet as always." The speaker was the 'leader' of the group, and a friend of Opal's.

"Good day Daimos. I'm respectful, not quiet." Onyx had barely finished speaking before another one spoke up.

"That's the same thing! Quiet until spoken to, that's 'respect'." The speaker now was one that seemed to consider herself everyone's friend, and was Daimos's sister. "You lack the guts to make anyone angry."

"Why would I want to make someone angry at me? Kesi, your name does not have to define you. You are not meant to cause trouble all the time." Onyx couldn't help but smile at her as she tried to come up with a retort, but interrupted her before she could say anything anyway. "I hope you all have at least heard about what happened yesterday. You have to start paying attention to the tribe's affairs eventually, so the sooner the better."

Daimos shook his head along with his sister. "Nah, we don't care about that stuff like you do. I'll worry about it once i'm a sentry."

One of the others spoke up after Daimos had finished. "I heard about it, I think. Do you mean about the Outsider that's staying here until he's healed from an attack on his tribe?"

Onyx smiled. "Yes, that's exactly what I mean Akili. At least you being true to your name is a good trait." She waited a moment while Daimos and Kesi made their objections before speaking again. "I have him with me, would you like to meet him?" The response from the group was immediate and hilarious. Damios and the other boys recoiled a little but then started getting exited, while Akili and Kesi stared at Onyx before stepping closer and asking her questions.

"I'm going to go get him now. I told you so you'd all have time to prepare before you actually saw him. I've been showing him around and he wanted to know what we do for fun here." Before she heard whatever they may have said next Onyx took off, flying back over to where Tarentek was.

"Hello again. Are you ready?" She asked him after he had noticed her.

[EliteCommander]

Onyx was not away for too long, but it was enough to at least allow Tarentek to catch his breath. As usual, he caught the eye of pretty much every sentry that flew past, but even without Onyx nearby, they did not approach him. He assumed that, as long as he kept to himself, he would be left alone no matter where he was.

Once Onyx landed nearby, Tarentek stood up from his rock, letting out a slight groan as his joints popped. Fortunately, they were now at one of the higher spots in the nest, so no matter where they went after cresting the hill, it was probably going to be downhill. "Yes, I'm rested enough." He answered, walking with her a short distance to see the area at the center of the nest. From their current location, he could see many groups of different sizes, but mostly of the same ages. Just by looking, he could not tell what any of them were doing, nor who specifically they were meeting, so he waited for Onyx to lead the way.

[Vesuvius00]

Onyx led Tarentek to Daimos and the others, who watched them the entire way. When they reached the group, no one said anything, so Onyx decided to do introductions. "Everyone, this is Tarentek. Tarentek, meet Daimos, Kesi, Akili, Geda, and Helaheim." Onyx motioned to each of them as she said their names, and each of them nodded or waved in responce.

"Yea, and this is Onyx. Though I guess you know that already." Daimos said as he stepped up next to Onyx and placed an arm across her shoulders. "My name means 'King-like', so of course I'm the leader here. Onyx isn't really one of us, but she's good for when we need another person to play Felldan with us." He shrugged as Onyx forced him to let go of her to go stand by Akili.

"Wha- Of course she's a part of our group! She's my friend." Kesi said to Daimos as she attempted to cling to Onyx's arm. Looking at Tarentek now she spoke coldly. "My name means 'Trouble'. Keep that in mind if you try to mess with me or anyone else."

Onyx was about to tell Kesi off when Geda stepped forward and held out his hand to Tarentek. "Geda. Means 'Rock'. Nice to meet ya."

He was immediately followed by Helaheim, who nodded to Tarentek but did not copy Geda's gesture. "I am Helaheim, and that means 'Guardian'. Me and Geda are twins, I'm the more talkative one."

Akili was silently watching what happened, and made no move to say anything before Onyx prodded her. "Akili, your turn."

With a sigh she gave in. "Greetings. Im 'Intuitive'." Leaning in to Onyx she whispered, "Is it safe to be around him?"

"Careful Akili, he might hear you." Onyx whispered back before speaking so everyone could hear. "Now, I assure you all that he's more worried that you'll attack him than ant of you should be about him attacking you. He was near-dead just yesterday, he doesn't have the energy to waste."

[EliteCommander]

Tarentek stood stoic through the introductions, trying to make sure he remembered each name and what they said about themselves. He had started to gather that the meanings of their names were important to them, moreso than with his own people. In Amman, names almost always had meaning, but since those names were given shortly after hatching, their actual meanings were not strictly assumed to apply to the individual. He supposed that might also be the case with the Elissics, but they at least seemed to speak of their names more frequently in introductions.

"She is certainly not wrong. My wounds were severe, and it will likely be another week before I am fully recovered." Tarentek explained, though with his robe covering all except his head, and the very end of his tail that poked out from under his robe near his feet, the evidence of his injuries were not visible. "Fortunately, starvation and thirst were a greater threat to me than anything else, so I believe I will be fine. At any rate, as Onyx said, my name is Tarentek. Its meaning is 'Favored-of-the-Gods.' I do not know a great deal about your people, but I find I am learning much today."

[Vesuvius00]

Everyone seemed to calm down after what Tarentek said, so Daimos spoke up. "Well, Onyx told us already that you wanted to know what we do for fun here. Wanna watch us play a round of Felldan?"

No one spoke against the idea, so Onyx began to explain the rules to Tarentek, as well as the point of the game, while the others cleared an area big enough to play in. "Felldan is a game involving two teams, usually having three people on each and the members of each being the opposite gender than the other team. It is exactly the same as another game, Heildan, except in Felldan it is against the rules to fly. There are two objects, one belonging to each team, that the team has to guard while attempting to take the other team's object as well. The objects may be carried or left i one spot to guard, but once a choice is made then that is how it must stay for the rest of the round."

Akili Interrupted her then. "For example, if a team decides to have their object carried by a member of their team, then that team member is the only one allowed to carry and guard the object, and they can't put it down either. The round is won by the team that gets the two objects together first."

[EliteCommander]

"Certainly, I would not mind watching a game." Tarentek said to Daimos, then looked around briefly for a place nearby to take a seat. There were no convenient rocks like last time, but there was an area of the ground that looked to be out of the way.

"My people do not have a game like this one, but we had other sports with similar concepts. I was quite fond of playing them myself, especially with my fellow warriors. Sports can serve as great exercise, as well as great team-building and morale-building events. In Amman, they were not something one ever quite grew out of. I think every settlement has at least one game they like to play, though I tend to prefer the ones that allow for a wide variety of tactics and strategies. This one seems to fit that description; although, I do not know exactly how it is played yet. I suppose I will see for myself once you begin, but I am curious, why is it that the two teams must be of opposite genders?" Tarentek questioned. Among the Karisskan, males and females were nearly identical apart from their roles in reproduction, so any sort of gender separation was entirely foreign to them.

[Vesuvius00]

"The teams represent Heillias and Fellagang fighting over the support of the people, or here the two objects." Onyx explained. "The team of males represent Fellagang because he represents Spirit, and the team of females represent Heillias and Heart. Back when the game was made many believed that males always had a slightly stronger spirit than females, who were believed to always have a stronger heart because of the role of raising a family."

"Speaking of the two objects, what are we going to use?" Helaheim asked Daimos. Daimos thought for a moment and pulled out a knife.

"We can use this as one of them." He said while Helaheim and Geda agreed with him.

"No! You can't use a knife to represent the people! It has to be something that actually is like the people." Kesi cried.

"Oh yeah, like what?" Daimos snapped back.

"Like, something soft and beautiful, like me." She grinned at her joke while Onyx started to growl at her.

"How can you be so...!" Onyx trailed off, not allowing her anger to get the best of her.

"Oh, Onyx! We can use your shawl!" Kesi said, ignoring Onyx's growl. "It's soft, and the pattern is beautiful." She walked up behind Onyx fast enough that Onyx couldn't stop her from taking her shawl from her.

"Well great. You guys have your item, what's wrong with ours?" Daimos said.

"Maybe you should use a rock or something." Akili offered with a laugh.

"There's no rule about what to use. The knife is fine." Onyx said tiredly. "Can we just start the game please?"

"Yea. Just figure out what you're gonna do with your object. Game starts when mister 'Favored-of-the-Gods' over there says." Daimos called over to her as his team began to talk among themselves.

Onyx motioned the others closer so they could do the same. "Can I please carry my shawl at least?"

"Yea, but don't tie it around your neck like you normally do or those idiots will choke you when they try and get it away." Akili whispered as Kesi passed Onyx's shawl back to her. "That means me and Kesi will be working on getting the knife from them though. You'll be on the defense all on your own."

"I've no problem with that plan. Daimos gave the knife to Geda to hold." Kesi said before yelling to the boys. "You better keep that thing sheathed! No injuries this time!"

"Alright, I'm going to tell Tarentek to start the game now." Onyx said as she retied her shawl around her waist, just below her wings, and walked over to Tarentek. "Daimos wants you to signal the start of the game. Personally I don't care how you start it, just do whatever you want to. Most adults like to shout 'Felldan' to start it though." Onyx didn't wait to hear anything Tarentek may have said before going back to her team and taking a stance between Kesi and Akili to wait for the start of the game.

[EliteCommander]

Tarentek still found it strange that Elissics could have different attributes just based on their gender, but as he thought about it, he started to make some sense of it. Male and Female Karisskan had the same average height, weight, strength, coloration, and most other physical characteristics, but that did not seem to be true of the Elissics. It was quite visibly obvious which ones were male and female, even tot he untrained eyes of other races. It was possible they had different attributes, which created differences between them in their culture. It was something he could ask about later; for the moment, he focused on watching the game.

As the group was making their plans, Tarentek was a bit surprised to hear his name mentioned. For whatever reason, Daimos said he wanted Tarentek to start the game, though he was not really sure when that would be appropriate. He would have asked, but the two groups quickly huddled together, presumably to make plans for the game. Tarentek was silent and confused when Onyx finally walked over, and he remained confused as she returned to her group.

"Felldan? Wait, what does 'felldan' mean?" Tarentek asked as Onyx was walking away, but he received no answer. With the two groups waiting for his signal, however, he had to say something. "Uhh...Felldan?" Tarentek shouted with noticeable uncertainty in his voice.

[Vesuvius00]

Even though he sounded fairly confused, Tarentek started the game well. Onyx could hear the hushed laughs from her teammates as they rushed forward to confront Geda. She was only able to watch their skirmish for a short amount of time however, because Helaheim and Daimos were beside her in seconds.

Daimos almost got hold of the shawl around her waist, but Onyx sidestepped out of the way so he almost ended up falling on his face. Not stopping for even a moment, Onyx kept dodging Daimos until she accidentally backed into Helaheim, who then tried to immobilize her so Daimos could untie the shawl from her waist.

"Onyx! We got the knife from Geda! Hurry up and give those two the slip!" Onyx couldn't see Kesi, but the victorious lilt in her voice was enough to make Onyx smile right in Daimos's face.

"That's my cue." Onyx said as she ducked out from Helaheim's grip and started towards Kesi and Akili, who were throwing the knife between the two of them so that Geda couldn't get it back. Onyx nearly tripped though, because Daimos still had a grip on the shawl around her waist. Turning quickly, Onyx raked her claws across his hand, causing him to let go. She didn't smell any blood, so she knew she had only surprised him, rather than actually injuring him.

Untying the shawl as she ran over to Akili, Onyx waited for Kesi to throw the knife to one of them so they could win the game. A second later, Akili caught the knife and passed it to Onyx, who held up the two items in victory. "Heillias wins this round!"

Daimos, Helaheim, and Geda all walked up to her and congratulated their team, while Onyx gave the knife back to Daimos. Daimos shook his head at Onyx while the others started arguing about whether or not they should play another round.

[EliteCommander]

Tarentek was not expecting the game to be a hand-to-hand skirmish for control of the items, though he supposed he could not think of any other way they would get control of the items. He wondered what kind of other rules existed for what one could and could not do other than what he already knew about. Obviously, they did not want to seriously hurt each other, but he was curious what kind of force was acceptable for retrieving the items.

"Hmm, so the game is quite literally a fight for the items?" Tarentek commented from the sidelines. "My people do not quite have any games like that. We simply spar if we wish to fight, though I can see how this might be more entertaining. I am curious, what are the finer rules of this game. I gather that you don't want to hurt each other, but what can someone do to claim an item? That round was quick, but I did notice that Onyx used her claws at one point." He questioned. Competitive games in general were something that interested him, even one as seemingly simple as this. If he were in a better condition, he might have asked to join, but he doubted he would be very successful at present.

[Vesuvius00]

"Well, there really aren't any rules past how the game is played. Any amount of force is allowed, and encouraged, in both Felldan and Heildan. Although Felldan tends to have less injury because of the no-flying rule." Onyx started explaining. "I, uh, actually prefer to play Felldan because of this fact."

"Yea, what with all the injuries you got the last time you played Heildan, I don't blame you." Daimos said to her before joining in the other's argument.

[EliteCommander]

"I see, so it is essentially sparring with another goal. I think I understand how that would work. Obviously, you do not want to cause serious harm to your opponent, but you do not go into it intending to hold back any more than necessary, correct? That does sound like a skill-building exercise, something I wish I could ask to join." Tarentek began. He shifted slightly to a different sitting position, feeling the ever-present aching of his muscles as he moved.

"Unfortunately, I do not think I would last long at the moment. I will not be able to do any serious training for at least a few days. Perhaps shooting or archery practice, but nothing greatly physical for the moment. My robe covers my wounds, but they are...significant." He explained.

[Vesuvius00]

Onyx looked at hom with concern. "Do you want to go back to my den and rest? I have something with me that can dull the pain if not." Onyx began fishing around in her med-pack until she found the pills she was looking for. "You can just take them with some water." She said as she offered the pills to him.