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 Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 4:19 pm
It was a strange sight that met Arc's eyes when he stepped out into Taj's private garden one evening. The darkness was broken by a soft glow of lit lanterns, glimmering on the falling water of the fountain, and glittered on the length of fine chain that dangled from the branch of a small tree that grew there. Arc paused, hardly even seeing the hunched form of his closest friend, Rajakhrev. He approached, but was immediately aware that Raja was not in a mellow state of mind by any means.
"Good evening, Raja," he greeted him mildly, opening himself to bear the brunt of whatever troubled the large satyr. He found a perch close by as his friend rumbled something that might have passed for acknowledgment. Raja however was well restrained and said nothing more. "Come now, surely you have more to say than that," he cajoled, folding his legs under himself.
"It's this thrice-cursed bird!" Raja growled, gesturing upwards at the bird from which the chain dangled. Arc glanced up at the small, glaring bird. Yes indeed, she was glaring. He frowned and turned back to Raja.
"Has she been causing problems?" he asked in a low voice, fully intending on ending the cursed female's life then and there for causing his dear friend such grief. Bad enough that she'd enslaved him and his mate, but to now continue to plague them? It was indecent in every way. It had to stop.
"No no," Raja groaned, tugging on the beard he'd been growing recently. It had come in much darker than his hair and it gave him a very distingushed look, under normal circumstances. "She isn't really making any trouble... not really." He gave the goatee tip a last tug and turned to unburden himself on his friend, as Arc had intended.
"I can't really blame the cereature for being unhappy," he explained in a tortured voice. "You know how I've been magically imprisoned, even as you have!" Arc blinked, not having made this connection between himself and the woman that had been trapped in bird-form. He had to admit, Raja had a point, and he was a little ashamed that he himself had not made that connection of empathy. "When we first brought her to our room here, she began to gnaw her own foot off," he large satyr told him, staring at his large hands in his lap. "But apparently the chain's magic would not allow this sort of escape, for it always healed her before the limb could be severed."
Arc winced. That couldn't have been very comfortable to watch. "Eventually she gave that up, and now she just sits and glares at us, or stares mournfully out at the garden." Raja waved a hand to forestall whatever he though Arc might say. "I take her out there sometimes, of course, but she never flies, never moves. She just hunches on whatever I put her on and glares about herself as if she would destroy the world, if given the chance." This brought a shudder to both men, having experienced an attempt at that very thing. "I can't hardly stand to have her look at me that way," he mumbled, drawing Arc's attention back to the present. "I feel so guilty."
Arc opened his mouth to comfort his friend, that it wasn't his fault at all, but before he'd done more than draw in a breath, Raja was continuing his story. "So I started spending more time out of our room. But that made an even bigger problem for me." The satyr ran a hand over his face in agonized distress. "Rissa has grown as tired of it as I have, but moreso. Who could blame her? This angry female glare always on her... and from her own former captor besides!" Raja shook his head and groaned again. "She has told me repeatedly to get rid of her, and I fear she'll soon make it an issue of either the bird goes or she does!"
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Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 4:51 pm
It was a serious problem, Arc could see. He wasn't entirely sure right off what could be done, though he opened his mouth to offer some sort of support. Once again, however, Raja continued on, having paid no attention to Arc's reactions. "I've thought about just killing her, or simply setting her loose, but I can't bear the one, and the other i don't think is something I can do, since someone else cast the spell!" The frustrated satyr pounded one clenched fist on the rock where he perched, the dull thud speaking volumes of the strength and frustration behind the blow.
"The only thing left that I can think of is," he took a deep breath and finally met Arc's eyes, "to give her to you." He caught the delicate chain in his fingers and offered it to his friend and master, his face contorted with unhappiness. Arc's first impulse was to relieve his comrade of his distress, but good sense prevailed.
"Now hold on just a moment," he said, scooting a little away from the offered chain. "Have you asked her what she wants?" He nodded towards the now squawking and apparently outraged avian. "It seems she has her own thoughts on things, despite her shape." Only too true, considering what she'd been doing since she'd been captured. "Why not ask her?"
Raja gave him a skeptical look. "All she'll do is start screaming to let her loose, call me names, so on and so forth," he replied. Arc gave him a stern look. "No, I haven't tried talking to her," he admitted grudgingly. "Do I really have to?" It was really the only option left, though it did not promise any ready answers either.
Arc turned to the fuming bird, who had fluffed up all her feathers and looked nearly twice her actual size. "Become human," he commanded her firmly. They both waited. The bird glared at them. Nothing more happened. Raja growled.
"You will obey him, for he is my master, and the master of your master is your own as well!" It was practically a roar, a great indicator of just how much Raja had lost his equillibrium and serenity. He gripped the chain tightly and glowered at the bird. "Do as he says!"
The shape on the slender branch shimmered and slid towards the ground. Soon the woman they had confronted in the slave market stood before them, the slender chain bound about her ankle. Her teeth were gritted and hatred poured out of her eyes. Even so, she stood stock still and did not move. Arc glanced at his friend and arched a brow encouragingly.
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Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 5:19 pm
Apparently having a more human face to challenge him helped Raja a bit. "You can just stop glaring, girl," he boomed at her, rising to his feet. "I'm not the one who bound you, nor am I the one who chose to enslave another." He crossed his arms across his mostly bare chest and stared down at her. She continued to glare back, just as fiercely as before, though her lips were firmly sealed.
Arc cleared his throat. "You... might need to give her permission to speak," he whispered to Raja. The satyr colored deeply, though whether from anger, shame, or some other unnamable emotion, one could not tell.
"You may speak freely," he said sharply. "Though mind yourself carefully or back to a bird you shall be!" He gave the chain a short tug to emphasis his point. Her eyes flickered down at the chain, and her jaw muscles flexed tensely before she opened her mouth.
"What do you wish of me, oh mighty masters?" she mocked them, though with none of the supporting body language the words alone would have included. She still stood stiffly at attention, nearly every muscle in her tall frame tensed.
Raja looked stung by her scorn, but recovered. "First, what is your name?" He cleared his throat, torn between embarassment and anger at the memories. "I never learned it during our travels with you." Arc quirked a brow at the mild wording, but kept silent. Best to let Raja deal with this himself, rather than sticking his two cents in.
The woman continued to glare aggressively, but finally replied sullenly. "Amora," was all she said, her jaw jutting forward as if she were trying to intimidate them with expression only. Arc's temper flared but he kept it to himself. She was not his servant, not really, no matter what Raja said.
"I'm not sure you are aware of this," Raja said in a low rumble, "but I have a name. You never bothered to ask, but I will tell you now, so that you will know whom you serve." He stood just a mite straighter, his shoulders back just a wee bit more, chin raised and eyes flashing. For once, he looked like what he was. "I am Rajakhrev, Lord of Spring in the realm of the Labyrinth." Before her expression could reveal what she thought, he opened a hand at Arctang and introduced him as well. "And this is the one whom I serve. He is Arctang, the Pie Bird, god of Numbers and servant of both Creation and Destruction."
There. Now to see what she made of all that.
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Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 6:36 pm
Her expression flattened out into a cold stare, fury buried behind carefully chilled uncaring. The chain around her ankle glowed sullenly, as if to mimic the foolishness of its wearer. Such cold disregard was the antithesis of what would free her, but that was as yet a lesson unlearned. "Am I to call you lords, then?" she sneered. "Pie-face and Spring-beard, more like." Her words were biting, bile gushed from a heart with care only for itself. Arc rolled his eyes and looked away in disgust. Raja had a stronger stomach for it though.
"Foolish girl, to hold such hate," he murmured. "Do you not know that it is your attitude that holds you prisoner?" She made an ugly face at him and her arm twitched, as if she wanted to make some further rude gesture but didn't. Or couldn't? Perhaps they had only allowed her to speak, not move. It didn't much matter. "I can see there is no middle ground to be reached by words," he said, though with little regret. "But I tell you this. If you continue to act so hatefully towards myself and my mate, I will shut you in a box. You will have food, water, and air to breathe, but you shall see no light, hear but little of the world, and be spoken to never." He leaned forwards, beautiful face stone hard in his resolve. "If you can behave at least civilly, we will allow you back on your perch in our room."
Her eyes narrowed at him, considering and calculating. She might not be the brightest of mortals, Arc mused, but neither was she the stupidest. "Tell me how I must behave," she grated out, teeth clenched tightly.
"You will not glare at us as if you wished to sink your tiny claws into us," he stated sternly. "You will no longer harm yourself in an attempt to escape." That was more his soft-heart than Rissa's wish, Arc knew. "You need not be happy, Amora," the satyr said firmly, "but you must at least allow us to live in peace while you are with us." He waited for her to nod her reluctant agreement. "You will eat and drink as you should," he added warningly. "You are in my care, and I will not see you harmed, even by your own foolishness."
She gave him a queer look, almost bird-like in its intent inquisitiveness, a slant to the head and a sideways twitch of the eyes. Arc nodded silently to himself. Perhaps he had given her something to think on during her imprisonment. But it was time to end this on that note, to prevent her from souring it with her spitefulness. He could see it rising again in her eyes, and he would not allow it. He rose to his feet then beside Raja and waved a hand (more imperiously than he tended to normally) at the woman. "Return to your magicked shape, and remember these terms you have agreed to.
The fury and hate smouldered in her eyes the few moments she remained in human form, and once she was a bird again, her head was low and shoulders hunched, looking for all the world like a sour old rook instead of a delicate songbird. "Come now, Amora," Raja rumbled as he lifted her on his hand, his gentle spirit provoked to sorrow by her return to hatred. "I promise to care well for you. Come, no more anger." Dutifully the small bird flipped her wings and shook her body. When she settled, however, instead of hot hatred, she had donned cold disregard. Raja sighed deeply in sadness. Arc slapped his other shoulder gently.
"At least cold bird is better than flint and fire," he quipped jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. Raja gave him a half-smile, but shook his head. No, it would be a long while before Amora would learn her lesson and free herself. Both men knew this, though Arc mourned it less than his friend did.
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