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Post by Leretia Akuhi on Aug 30, 2016 7:02:23 GMT
Her earliest memory, like many others, was not the most pleasant one. She remembered darkness; black, white, and the whole rainbow of grey in between them. These were all the colors a world needed -- they gave intelligent predators the advantage of ambush, and crafty prey the power to hide. Leretia was the latter. Only a child by the standards of whatever her race was, she remembered playing in the dark, the light, and the places in between, but always alone. She would have to take in all of her surroundings, never get lost in the game, lest some terrifying shadow open its mouth and swallow her.
This dark world wasn't all lonely and dangerous though, there were travelers and natives. The large bug men, the d'ziriak were the first that she remembered meeting, and were the kind creatures who gave her a name. They called her little murk blossom, and she took the sounds, the buzzes and clicks that they made when they said it, as her own -- little Leretia. Her name was the first thing she could call her own, the first thing the shadows couldn't take away. For this gift, she would be forever grateful to the d'ziriak.
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Post by Leretia Akuhi on Aug 30, 2016 8:18:27 GMT
One day, little Leretia was playing in a long filed of shade, when the weather turned dark. A horrible breeze blew in, carrying the stench of death. For all the lack of color in the world, scent was a vivid sensation, and this wind smelled of half digested meat left out on a warm day. All of Leretia's senses snapped to attention and she scrambled to find the direction the wind came from. That was when she saw it -- a horrible mass of deepest shadow loomed toward her on the grey field. The mass floated along on a sea of legs and gnashing teeth, and the turning sight orbs atop the creature glowed a faded light that was something different from black or white; a new shade altogether...
No! The new sight was a trap; it was meant to distract her while she needed to run. Leretia scrambled for the edge of the forest as fast as her tiny legs would carry her. When she reached the slender, grey trees, she could hear the pounding of those terrible feet in the field behind her. The creature was doing anything but floating, and if she didn't find some sort of hiding place soon, she'd never live to repay the d'ziriak.
Trees flew by in the dark,and it felt like she had run for days without finding any sort of shelter from the icons shadow that chased her. The chill, dark air burnt in her lungs, and Leretia was beginning to slow. She felt tired, and she knew that tired meant dead.
Just as she wondered if she would really die like this -- out in the middle of the woods, eaten by a beast made of hunger and darkness before she had met more living creatures than she had fingers and toes, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She turned her path toward the shape under the trees, and was relieved to see it was some sort of dwelling. The shelter was abandoned by the loom of it, but was made of sturdy wood, and would hopefully be enough to hold against this storm of death.
Leretia dove through the front window of the house. It was a loud option, but the only one -- there was no time to stop to open windows and doors, so she covered her face with her arms, leapt for the window, and hoped she didn't die getting inside. The sound of glass shattering was new to Leretia, and it was the loudest thing she had ever heard. In her bewildered state, bleeding from her glass-borne injuries, Leretia panicked,and look around the room for anything that she could hide herself behind.
The room wsd bare -- tattered rags and woodeen things made to sit on lie scattered about, but non of it had enough substance to it to hide under or behind! Then she saw whag might just save her life -- a shield hung from the wall atop some sort of stone alcove full of ashes. Quickly, Leretia snapped the disc from the wall, and suddenly, the world around her slowed to a near stop. A horribly loud, howling, chill wind blew through the house, and all was slow and silent.
Leretia began to panic, but found that she couldn't move any more swiftly than the world around her, then her panic inexplicably turned to a sudden floating feeling, and her whole body relaxed. Black shadow of the darkest hue flowed from the cuts on her body, forming new, undamaged clothes from virtually nothing, a form fitting armless suit, complete with shoes and compartmented belt, all replacing the tatters that had all but completely ripped apart in the underbrush. The inky shadow substance next circled about her neck, then bounced and flowed and rolled down her back to form a cloak and hood -- just heavy enough to keep out the elements. None of this on the outside was important though, not compared to what happened on the inside.
Leretia knew the sound was in her head. There wasn't any particular reason, she just knew. It began with a greeting. The voice spoke in the bits and pieces of languages that she had learned in her short life so far, it cycled one word per language, piecing together different combinations until something 'clicked' in her mind -- the girl was comfortable with this insectile language; she had a connection to it. Good, it was a simple language of multiple sensations -- sound, touch, nuanced motion; easy to communicate with.
This girl was a strong one, she would be its savior. It bargained with the girl. If she promised upon these moments that might be her last, that she would carry it to safety, it would lend her its power. Her darkness would be forever bound to its own, but in turn she would be safe and it would be free, and all at such a small price. It would not intrude upon her consciousness -- neither would be trapped, but instead their minds would become one.
It felt the girl's hesitance, and assured her that it did not have the time to explain if they were to live, but promised that it was not lying, and would not lie to her -- there was no reason to.
The voice in the darkness... it was something greater than it seemed behind that screen of black. Its words rang strong and hollow, like a great bell, but hollow only in a literal sense. As far as Leretia could tell, those great hollow words also rang true, and since she didn't have much time to argue or the luxury to refuse, she agreed to the voice's offer. She agreed... it would finally be free. It had been so long since it had tasted the air of a living world, of a *real* world. It quickly produced a contract that the girl would sign -- it directed her that she could now move her arm -- her fingertip was still coated in fresh blood from the glass, and that would do as well as ink. She spoke her name to the voice, and the darkness guided her hand in signing it...
As Leretia finished the last letter, they were free.
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Post by Leretia Akuhi on Aug 30, 2016 8:49:04 GMT
Time flowed back to its normal rate, and there was a loud trembling growing stronger quickly. The shelter began to shake as if a light quake had begun. Leretia thought quickly as the seconds ticked away, "We/I can not fight this, too much of my/our power is still locked away, our body is too small, too young to contain it...." Then a single thought rang in their head like that grand bell, "HIDE."
Akuhi wished she could access their power -- bleed dry this pitiful creature that chased her, consume its dying form in front of it as it passed to oblivion, but for now they had to hide like the chased animal they had been reduced to. She would live though, and she would grow. Leretia ducked into the corner of the room, and shadows bled from her healed wounds, she held her shield in front of her, crouched down, and became a lump of shadow.
With an earth-shattering crash, the titanic beast annihilated the front half of the domicile. Splinters flew everywhere, and gigantic feet and mouths clamored and gnashed about the shattered remains of the room. Shards of wood flew by and several of them pierced Akuhi's flesh as they bounced and lanced about. Despite the pain, she remained calm, empty of the fear that would have overtaken her minutes ago. The inky shadows of her form leaked out of these new injuries, sealing the wounds, and she patiently clung to consciousness, and waited for the storm to pass.
Having lost all trace of its prey, the gigantic beast remained, thrashing about for a few minutes before lumbering far off into the forest in search of new meat. Akuhi waited a few more minutes to be sure, then picked up her shield and tried to recall the path she had taken to get here. Leretia returned to her hidden home back near the d'ziriak camp, and promptly passed out into the deepest sleep she had ever allowed herself the luxury of.
*Note: None of these were spelling, grammar, or editing mistakes -- different names and references to self represent the quick bonding of personalities/psyches and how they come to refer to themselves as one.*
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Post by Leretia Akuhi on Aug 30, 2016 18:23:23 GMT
Over the next few years, Leretia adapted to her powers, and they grew as surely as she did. She kept them a secret though, as there was no telling what others would think if they knew. She had met precious few things that didn't want to kill her, and she would rather not add then to the ever growing list of threats.
In her spare time (that not spent hunting, foraging, or running for her life), Leretia learned from herself. Her new, ancient past was full of a wealth of arcane, if hazy, knowledge. Day by day, her newfound memories became clearer. She learned to speak, to read, to write, and to do all these in new languages. Eventually all of this knowledge was too much too quickly, and Leretia found herself in need of what she had learned was called a "book."
Somewhere in her mind, Leretia's other voice spoke to her. She knew of just such an item that she needed. Deep in the woods there was a pit -- deep, dark, and after this much time, she knew not what might await within.
It was a long trek to the pit. What could have made this crater? Oh, that's right, 10,000 years ago, the great beast of light, Gul'ra, was laid low in this very location. The task was accomplished by a ruthless witch of no small power, and she had been forced to use the grimoire that was much of the source of her power as the focus for the trap. Gul'ra's form was annihilated completely, but the tome was lost to the dark of the pit, and thw witch died of her injuries only days later. Leretia had been there to see her final moments.
The gigantic chasm now loomed in the ground before her. Without a second thought, Leretia attached a rope to a nearby rock, and leapt down into the yawning maw of that dark abyss.
There was no magic to the darkness, and it yielded easily to the girl. Her vision peeled the shadows back into a black and white landscape in front of her -- she was not at the bottom, but she was on the level of ground that she knew the ancient tome shared. Just another thirty or so feet to her right...
There it was! The book she sought lie upon what looked to be an all-too-perfect natural pedestal of stone. Leretia carefully approached it, and gently picked up the book. As soon as the book left the pedestal, the stand crumbled and a soft grinding sound echoed up from the bottom of the pit.
Looking over the edge and into the maw, Leretia saw that the lower region of the hole had begun to crumble. She hurried back to her rope, climbed to the surface as fast as she could, and backed away to safe, far distance. In minutes, the hole became a crater, and none would ever guess what had transpired there, in ancient times, or the 10,000 years since.
Leretia brought the grimoire home with her and began to examine its contents as soon as she sat down. At first the writing before her swam around the pages, and she was unable to focus on its meaning, then she instinctively relaxed her vision. She had done this before; she took in the entire block of writing at once, one page at a time, reading each as a diagram rather than a text -- they were instructions!
Each 'spell' diagramed its requirements -- ingredients, words, motions... All of these pieces would come together to produce rules indicated by the diagrams. She could do this! The spells in the back of the book still swam before her eyes, but the ones in the front were easy! She could perform these, and she could write them too. After all, they were only diagrams, right? A little magical ink, and she would begin her new journey into the arcane. Akuhi smiled, things were starting to turn in her favor. She would no longer be the prey in her world...
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Post by Leretia Akuhi on Sept 1, 2016 7:50:40 GMT
The magical tome that Leretia had procured from that dark pit was fascinating. The rituals contained therein were like a magical dance. The right motion in the right place, the right word at the right time, any of these could bring about fascinating results. She put all of her effort into mastering this new craft over the following days... weeks..... months....... years. She never neglected others any more than she had before, her studies simply took the place of the time she used to spend playing as a child. She had grown older, and turned her attention to more serious interests -- survival, training, studies, all things that would allow her to both live and grow.
One day Leretia was wandering the forest. Her developed abilities had moved her up the food chain in this cold, dark realm, and she no longer worried about every creature that might jump out of the darkness. There were many ways to deal with the creatures of the land, and... wait, what was that at the edge of the fields? It was a traveler! She always loved interacting with new people, but they usually came though the trade camps... what careless person would portal out into the wilds?
Leretia cautiously approached the figure at the edge of the forest. Now that she could get a closer look, she noticed that he was clearly lost. He looked about the world as if it were completely foreign -- a man displaced from his home. She could see that he must be some sort of adventuring hero, he was certainly dressed the part. The man wore a long, sleeveless coat over his armor -- a full shirt of chain mail and white tabard, with what she could only assume was a holy symbol emblazoned on the front. As he turned and observed his surroundings, she could see that it was an image of a blazing sword. He held one hand at the ready on a sword sheathed at his belt, and the other carried his helm under arm. The man muttered something and she could barely make out the words "sorceress," and "damned portal." As he talked, he puffed his chest out in a peculiar fashion that she had never seen anyone visiting the trading posts do. Something was strange here though... This man looked more like the guards that came with travelers than the travelers themselves, and she had never seen anyone with such an uncomfortably stiff demeanor.
Well, perhaps this man was accompanying someone and just got lost, thought Leretia. I should show him to the nearest trading post if for nothing more than his own safety. She drew her cloak around her before approaching the man, so as to hide her weapons and appear as plain as possible. Leretia walked out from behind the tree she had been watching from, and slowly approached the bewildered traveler. The man fit his helm over his head and looked as though he was about to walk away, so Leretia called out to him, "Are you lost out here? Maybe I can help."
The man jumped slightly at the unexpected sound coming from so close by, and spun around with his hand ready on the hilt of his sword. Leretia stopped where she was and spoke quickly, "You appear to be lost. I can lead you to safet-" "DEMON!" shouted the heroic armored figure. "I *KNEW* that evil she-witch must have sent me to the hells! I will *NOT* be tempted from my faith by some DEMON WHORE!" The knightly figure charged her, sword drawn, and there was no more time for words or thoughts. Leretia's eyes spread wide as she watched the sword speed swiftly towards her neck...
There was a sudden flash of cloth, and the thunderclap of steel meeting steel as sword met shield inches from Leretia's throat. Demon? What was this fool ta- CLANG! No time to think. No time to stop. Need to move, thought Leretia as the knight pressed his assault. She pushed back, to try and break the momentum her attacker had built up. Leretia waited for an opening, and landed a solid strike to the side of the knight's helm with the edge of her shield, but she wasn't quick enough. His sword cut deep into her side just over her hip, and from the other direction, he swung with his scabbard... and sliced a deep cut along her collar inches from her throat... ? What? The dim light glinted off the edge of a second blade -- this man had a sharpened edge embedded along the outside of his scabbard!
Thrown off-balance by the near-mortal blow, Leretia had all she could do to defend herself. She was getting slower... losing blood. She had to run. She timed her movements... On the knight's next swing, she heaved forward and beat back his attack with her shield. The enraged man stumbled back a precious few feet, and Leretia quickly huddled behind her only bastion of safety. She uttered what she hoped would be the last words she would ever say in front of this man, and made a motion with her hand like she was pushing a spike into something. The knight quickly looked himself over, then laughed. He charged at her again, and after taking only a few steps, stopped abruptly and nearly fell on his face. Perfect, the magic had taken hold! Leretia turned and ran as far into the distance as she could. Once she had woven through the trees and further into the forest, she slowed down and took care to cover her tracks as she looked for a safe hiding spot.
She was barely conscious when she found the alcove on the other side of a great tree deep in the woods. Tired and cold, she sat down in the small niche and pulled her cloak over her for warmth. She said a small prayer to the spirits of the wild, and her hand glowed with a dim white light -- hopefully this would be enough. She touched the hand to the deep cut in her side, and the flesh quickly knit together as if a thousand tiny spiders were treating her wounds and sewing her body shut again. Within seconds, the spell had finished -- there was still a dull pain and a terrible scar, but at least she would live. Hopefully, her attacker would quickly lose her trail and die horribly in the forest. He was a stranger to this place, and obviously had no idea just how dangerous it was here.
Minutes passed. Leretia was no longer bleeding out, but yet they still felt like the longest in her life. She was tired and had nearly died. She needed to focus. She needed to empty her thoughts... A loud, heavy, eerie wind blew through the forest, the very trees shook with fear, their branches groaning and their leaves flying away toward safer places. A darkness filled the air and bled from her wounds; it crept across her body, filled the cuts in her flesh, brushed the terror and pain from her mind, and then... nothing. Akuhi checked her body to make sure her remaining injuries wouldn't hamper her performance. Her suit had coated and filled in all of the injuries on her chest and sides from the fight, and on her legs from the frantic run through the woods. She felt a sensation from the most recent: pain telling her that they had not fully healed yet. That would be okay, they wouldn't slow her down. She was satisfied that her body still seemed to be in working order after her short rest at the tree.
Akuhi knew what to do next. She waited deathly still in the alcove of the great tree and listened... did the fool intruder give chase? Again, minutes passed with no sign of the knight, then a crack... There was a snap of twigs and a rustle of leaves not too far in the distance. Akuhi waited with a silence that only the dead might emulate, and listened as the rustling and crunching of leaves grew louder. She watched as the knight walked by the tree, bent forward and following what path he had found through the tousled leaves...
One step. Two steps. On her third step towards the knight, she reached out and grabbed him by the collar of his coat with her shield arm. Before he could react, she flipped her knife and drove it through the collar of his chain mail. She pushed the knife down around the collarbone, behind the shoulder blade, twisted it, and wrenched it back out, tearing more flesh as she withdrew the blade. The knight instinctively pulled his shoulders in and stepped forward out of the coat in order to free himself. As Leretia held the coat, she realized that it was heavy. This man had been prepared, if stranded; his coat itself was a full set of armor that he wore atop his chain. Well, none of that mattered now. This man was going to die alone in the woods of a foreign land, with no one to see his end save Akuhi, and she would watch the light slowly fade from his eyes for his transgressions against her.
The knight stumbled and turned around to see his attacker, one hand on his sword, the other on his collar. "You... That's you... the demon..... isn't it." It wasn't a question, it was a statement of fact, and she saw no point in hiding her identity from, or arguing with, a dead man. Leretia pulled down the cloth that came up from the collar of her outfit to cover her mouth and nose, "You may call me Akuhi, and I will be your death in this place. It is not the hells you step in, and I am no devil or demon, I am only the monster that you made me into..." her words rang with a hollow tone, like a great bell deep in the woods. The knight stumbled and leaned forward against his sword. His helmet tumbled off, and when he lifted his head, she could see that the blow she delivered earlier had broken, maybe even shattered his left cheek bone. He grew pale quickly, and sat upon the ground at the base of his blade. As his breathing grew heavy, some small thing 'clicked' in the back of Akuhi's mind, and a great wind blew through the forest, almost to match the ragged breaths. It swirled around the girl, and her attire faded away into small dark wisps, leaving only a cloak, tattered shirt, and ragged pants behind. She still held that unassuming, yet vicious shield at her side, but the knight felt as if a bit of warmth had returned to the woods in these last moments of his.
Leretia could see the defeat and the horrible realization of what he had done, all reflected in the man's face. She did the one thing he was not expecting though, she stepped forward and spoke to him. "You are one of the lucky few it seems. Not many who cross me are given a second chance, but your case is unfortunate. Some good must stay in the world, and I see a small bit of that good in you." She touched a lightly glowing hand to the collar of the knight, and his injury closed and he felt the blood that was filling his lung drain away somewhere. "From now on, be the hero that I thought you were. If I'm going to be around, the world will need more people like you." Akuhi smiled a very unsettling smile. This mortal wouldn't understand the balance that she was keeping alive -- he wouldn't truly understand any of her actions for that matter, but there was something about him... He had the potential to be a hero of legend, and whether he knew it or not, he would play a role similar to her in the balance of things. There would be many more expendable transgressors, but this was not one of them. He had a part to play in things to come, for better or worse, and it was not her place to kill him... yet.
The knight could tell there was something strange and dark about this girl. His training demanded that he kill such an underhanded and ruthless creature... and yet now she was not. She was for all purposes, just another girl. Those yellow eyes of hers had thrown him off at first, and in the heat of previous combat, he had assumed her some sort of demonic temptress, but not it was plain to see that she was just a denizen of... whatever this place was. He must make some sort of reparations in penance for his actions... His coat! it was just the right size for her, though she had a much smaller frame than he, but in this horrible land of darkness, filled with the monsters he had been watching out on the plains, perhaps his apology could keep her safe for a while.
The knight offered his metal-lined coat as an apology to Leretia, and lacking much of any defense other than her shield, she accepted the offer. In return, she led him to the nearest trading post this side of the forest so that he might return home. The knight paid the portal toll, and before he left, made some sort of needless vow to be more careful before he rushed to shed blood. While a nice gesture, Leretia couldn't help but wonder if fighting his instincts completely rather than meeting in the middle and being cautious, wouldn't perhaps get the knight killed one day... Oh well, she thought. Fate wills what it wills, and as long as I didn't get in its way, it's not my problem.
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Post by Leretia Akuhi on Sept 9, 2016 9:05:08 GMT
There are many more tales to tell of Leretia's past, and there will be for quite some time, but for now let us settle on another important event rather than speculate of deeds done and those to come. It was late on the plane of shadow, for you see, as the cold months settle in on the material plane, so do they there, in their twisted mockery of the world most mortals call home. When the months grow cold, and the days shorter in the material however, in the shadow they grow cold and darker, until an abnormal chill settles across the land, and reality for its inhabitants shifts a precious few hairs closer to the negative energy plane. In these long, cold months, times become desperate and dangerous, as those who pass are more prone to rising as the vengeful dead than any other time of the year. These are the months that planar travelers avoid, and those who have seen them rarely speak of it. The plane of shadow is frightful and dangerous on a good day, let alone a whole season full of bad ones. Some travelers though, they come despite the few tales that are told, and the warnings not to go. whether brave, foolhardy, or just a bit touched in the head, these unfortunate souls bounce themselves off of the astral and into the darkness to parts best left unknown.
It was these seasons that Akuhi loved the most. Other times of year, she would take privacy over all of the travelers and the disturbed and disgusted looks she saw from the corners of their eyes. She would enjoy the solitude that allowed her to study in peace, and would visit the trading posts occasionally to socialize with her neighbors and exchange her services for the supplies she needed. She did a bit of everything, from cleaning, grounds keeping, and medical care, to less savory services under the cover of night -- "pest" extermination, "message" delivery, and even on one occasion "emergency surgery," and as she performed her day to day and night to night tasks, Leretia loved every minute of it. The dark months though, they were different. They were colder, and filled with looming death. They were better...
During these months of the year, Leretia would spend all of her time at the local trading post, abandoning her house to the all-consuming darkness. Her more permanent company was always welcomed with open arms by the d'ziriak that ran the market. During these months, traffic was low through the posts, the portals in remaining mostly dormant. Once in a while a new traveler would come to trade, but they would usually be too wreathed in fear over what they had walked into to throw violent looks at Akuhi as they passed. This meant that she could spend these months walking the streets virtually un-harassed since her presence paled in comparison to the greater, more ominous threat. It was during these winter seasons that Leretia felt like she truly belonged somewhere, and it was always the time of year that she cherished most. It was amazing how the looming, ever-present threat of death could force even the most prejudiced of people closer together by necessity. Akuhi knew that not everyone truly cared for her, only the d'ziriak did for sure, but it was a fun time to imagine, and to pretend that she really 'belonged' somewhere.
Winter was indeed Leretia's favorite season, but this winter... this was a special one. it was this winter that the d'ziriak merchants that had watched little Leretia grow up decided to finally open their stock to her in its entirety. There was much merchandise that they considered unsuitable for those of a young age; arcane texts, alchemical supplies, various drinks and substances, and many more things had been off limits "until she matured further." This winter, on the anniversary of her finding day was when the merchant council had met and agreed that she was old enough that she might be allowed to peruse their full stock. This winter, Leretia met with a whole new world that opened itself to her. This winter, it was exceptionally dark and cold. This winter... she made her first friend.
When they met, it was late on Leretia's finding day. Akuhi had just spent the last few hours scribing some new spells that she had formerly never seen in the merchants' stock, and was on her way back to the tailor's house where she stayed during these winter months. The winter festival was coming up at the end of the week, and every year she boarded in the tailor's basement in exchage for her help in designing and crafting the costumes and formal attire for the following week long celebration. Leretia was pondering a new design for a dress when the portal opened. She was deep in thought about what sort of material to use for the frills and trim when the girl stepped out. And she had finally decided o-- 'THUD!' Akuhi tumbled to the ground, disoriented, as her head rebounded off of someone's arm. Their thick, firm bicep, covered tightly with a beautiful metallic skin that glinted in the torchlight. Akuhi looked up to see the face of the person she had rammed her skull into, and was sure she would meet with yet another gaze of disgust from some armored colossus of another realm. Instead, she looked along an outstretched arm and into a beautiful smiling face of burnished steel, and found herself for once with little more to say than "Wha? Who?"
The face's smile widened, and it grabbed her hand and effortlessly pulled her to her feet. The stranger's eyes were an odd, but beautiful color that was close to what shade made up shadows, but somehow more 'pretty,' and her hair was the same shade she remembered the eyes of a childhood monster being. 'Red,' she recalled learning from her long history one day, but this red was of a darker, more velvety hue. "Watch out. I'm pretty tough," laughed the friendly stranger. "You could get hurt!" There was a soft clank as the young woman tapped the metallic skin of her arm with a knuckle, but Leretia didn't notice that. All she could think of was, 'Yeah, you *are* pretty.'
"Hey." The stranger waved a hand in front of Akuhi's face. "You there?" Leretia snapped out of her embarrassing daydream in front of the stranger... *about* the stranger, shaking the thoughts to the edge of her mind as she whipped her short hair about. "Ye- yeah, I'm fine..." Wait, what? This traveler spoke the aklo tongue fluently. Travelers from the surface world always spoke that weird, clunky language... common the d'ziriak had called it. It was supposedly the most widely used dialect in other lands, and yet this radiant foreigner spoke not common, but her own language in conversation. "You speak like me?" asked Leretia, clearly thrown far off balance at this point. The stranger smiled again and replied "Yeah," in common -- one of the few words Leretia had come to understand as a sort of confirmation of the correctness of a question, followed by, "Languages are a bit of a hobby of mine" in aklo again.
"I don't speak common... yet. But I would really like to learn a bit! Maybe over a cup of tea?" asked Leretia as she valiantly tried to wrangle in the blood vessels in her cheeks and stifle a blush. It wasn't too late yet, and with all of this kindness that she had never known from a stranger, what would be the harm in asking?
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Post by Leretia Akuhi on Sept 10, 2016 8:02:28 GMT
Sometimes, the right things just happen at the right time. The gods know that Akuhi's entire life, both of them even, hadn't seen a whole lot of these right things, or even any sort of right time beyond an opening for survival between the jaws of death. Leretia had just borne witness to one of the events falling under the former category, and awestruck by both good fortune, and a fluttery feeling inside her body, she had still managed to squeak and stumble out a proposal for late night tea. The stranger smiled at this and gave her approval with a nod. As Leretia pointed toward the tea shop and turned to begin walking, the large metallic woman stepped up along side her and slapped a heavy arm down across Leretia's shoulders. "Shouldn't you ask my name before taking me out though?" the young woman said, then let out a hearty chuckle. Akuhi felt all of the muscles in her throat bunch into a fist sized wad and her cheeks turned a dark grey as she felt all of the blood in her body rush towards them. The Metallic angel continued her giggling, and Leretia thanked whatever god was watching over her that the pretty girl on her shoulders hadn't noticed her stiff collar and blood grey cheeks. "Oh, I haven't asked yours either, have I? Well, there'll be plenty of time to get acquainted over tea!" Both of the girls took a step forward, one wondering what interesting tea might be served in a place like whatever this was, and the other hoping that the fluttering in her chest would calm down and that her bumbling wouldn't mess anything up.
In no time, the pair made it to the tea house together. They sat at a small table, one where the view of the town square was beautiful. The wood for the giant bonfire had been arranged in the center in a beautiful construction that displayed all of the nonthreatening wildlife that roamed the shadow plane. The burning of the effigy display was an old rite, one that the people knew didn't serve its original intent, but they carried on with as a fun tradition. The bonfire was meant to call out to those animals that were displayed, so that their winter sleep might end and bring about the first light and the beginning of spring. This was the conversation the two had had on the way to the tea shop, and Leretia felt surprisingly at ease being asked about her homeland. By the time they had actually reached the shop and been seated, she had visibly relaxed, which she was grateful for, as they were now sitting face to face, and the metal maiden would surely be able to tell if Akuhi was nervous.
"Alright," spoke the shining young woman in front of Leretia, "My name is Imanijize (Eeh-mahn-eeh-jit-zey), but you can call me Iji for short." She winked as she said Leretia could call her 'Iji,' and Akuhi felt little bumps raise all across her arms. The beautiful metal traveler's words always had a melodious ring to them as though spoken through an instrument, and it distracted Leretia for a few moments until Iji asked, "What's yours?" Leretia snapped out of her daydream again, and quickly decided to give the name that the d'ziriak had given her, after all, that was the name that most knew her by, and it might be weird to admit to having two names. "I'm... I mean my name is Leretia (Leh-ret-see-ah)," she spoke the syllables carefully, since outsiders often had difficulty with the d'ziriak language. "Okay Leretia, lets get to know a bit more about each other. We'll take turns asking questions about one another -- you first." The conversation began slowly at first. When the waiter came to take their tea order, Leretia helped to explain the different flavors to her new friend Iji, who didn't seem to know anything about this place. By the time tea was served, the two were chatting and asking questions back and forth like old friends. Leretia told Iji all about her home -- its sights and its dangers, and how travelers didn't seem to like it much, but it really wasn't such a bad place to live. In return, Iji regaled Akuhi with tales of the land she was from -- a wonderful, but also dangerous place rife with life and something she called 'color.' Leretia asked what color was, and Iji stopped and cocked her head, "What do you mean?" Leretia felt maybe she knew what Iji was talking about, and pointed to Iji's red hair, "Are 'colors' like, 'red'?" she asked quizzically. She explained that travelers always seemed to have unfamiliar shades woven into their clothing, and she could never quite place a word to these unique sights. Iji noted that there indeed wasn't much color in this realm, and she confirmed Akuhi's suspicion about the word 'color,' whilst also doing her best to describe the different colors in the world back home.
"You know what? Why don't you come to my home some day and I can show you all of the colors in the world," Iji offered. "Besides, I wonder if you'd look any different when you got there yourself... you might end up looking even more cute," Iji mused. The fluttery feeling came back, and Akuhi quickly hid her blushing cheeks behind her stein. "Hey, it has to have been hours, where's the sun?" Iji suddenly asked. Leretia didn't understand, "What do you mean? It's winter -- the sun won't be back until spring." This sparked a whole new line of questioning from both of them that didn't end for hours. Eventually, both girls felt the weight of exhaustion settle in. "I've loved our chat, but I'm afraid that I really need some rest," yawned Leretia. "I would offer you a room too, but my house is out in the wilds, so I am renting the tailor's basement for the winter," Leretia shared, not wanting to seem inhospitable to Iji. "What? Basement!?" Iji exclaimed. "No, come with me. I'll rent a nice sized room at the inn and we can share it!" Leretia was shocked and confused. Was this how people from Iji's realm normally treated those they had just met? Were they all this caring and generous? Iji gently grabbed Akhui by the hand, "Come please, I insist. A beautiful girl like you shouldn't be living in a basement. I planned on staying for a while, so why not keep me company? I'll see if they have a room for two, and we can make it fun! We can walk the town and you can show me the sights, and we can go to the festival you mentioned together!" Iji's excitement at the whole idea was visible in every fiber of her body, and Leretia simply stood there, entranced, staring at Iji's full, glinting lips until she realized she was being asked a question, and snapped back out of her wonder and into the real world. "Yeah, I'd really like that. It sounds like fun," she replied, and the two ran hand in hand to the inn.
Iji burst throught the door to the inn and excitedly ran up to the front desk, Leretia stumbling behind and almost being dragged by the arm. "Do you have any available rooms for two?" asked Iji. The stout, pale dwarven innkeep looked up at the pair in front of him and smiled, "Of course! We've always got a bit of room before the celebrations! Travelers are sparse around now after all." In a flash of coin and key, Iji made the exchange with the jolly little man, and darted off down the hall, pulling Leretia with her. 'What an adorable pair,' thought the inkeep. 'It's a good thing I had more rooms converted to couples' suites, or they mighta had to sleep in separate ones! Ah to be young and full of energy...'
Leretia watched the doors fly by as they ran down the hall. It looked like the inn was busy -- all the rooms seemed occupied. The room Iji had rented was the last one at the end of the hall where they had come to a grinding halt. They were lucky to have gotten the last one it seemed. Iji opened the door and they walked into the room... it was..... a couples'room? Without a thought, Iji simply dove over onto the bed with a rough bounce, while Leretia stood frozen in place. She had never shared a living space with anyone, let alone slept in the same bed. "This must be some sort of mistake..." she started, but Iji quickly cut her off. "Ah what's the matter? yeah it's a couples' room, but this looked to be the only inn in town, and we got the room at a bargain price! So it's one bed -- it'll keep us a bit warmer in this cold-as-the-hells weather!" Leretia watched Iji bounce once for emphasis and decided that she was right. She looked at her friend's genuine smile and decided that sharing a bed with such a beautiful girl for the night certainly couldn't be any worse than sleeping in the tailor's cold, damp basement.
The next several hours (night or day, it was hard to tell in the winter) went by, and both Akuhi and Iji slept the soundest they had in months. When the two awoke, they dressed and planned Iji's first tour around town. There weren't many sights to be seen, but the pair loved each other's company, and as the week went on, they continued to stroll around the town and get to know one another better. Halfway through the week, Leretia asked Iji to come to the tailor's with her so that she could fit her with something nice to wear during the festival. Iji agreed, and the two set out for the tailor's house dark and early the next day.
*For those of you who saw the word stein and got confused, yes, the tea house in question serves pints of piping hot tea.
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