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 Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2012 6:26 pm
((This is a RP between Roniel Targaryen and Nisshou H. Roniel's soqs involved: Hayagriva, Shrivatsa, Beryl. Niss' soqs involved: Lorenna))  As one of the leaders of the Padmapani herd, Haya stood and listened through the various introductions and opening statements. Him and the herd had certainly grown more wary in the past years, but not so nervous as to suspect every stranger. These strangers, in fact, seemed a lot more interesting than the average wanderer. They were there with purpose and direction. Besides, he had never heard of a duo of flutters ever being able to cause much damage. Among all the soquili breeds he considered those the least worrisome, with the notable exception of his daughter.
The heat from the late summer day rolled down upon all of them, the sun shining brightly overhead. The weather wouldn't hold like this for long, Haya knew. It was only a matter of time before the leaves began to lose their color. the warmth of summer never could last forever. Always winter would come, and the memories of those they lost in winter as well. For now he remained silent, letting Shrivatsa take the lead as was more appropriate to her role as alpha of the herd.
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Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2012 6:35 pm
Hayagriva was a strong and silent presence beside her, as he often was. Shrivatsa never failed to find his proximity comforting. Something about the elder just exuded ability and security. In some ways he had even began to feel a little like the father she had never had. It had taken some time to get used to working with him, who was often more terse than even herself, but throughout the time they had managed to achieve a significant partnership.
She knew that Haya would already be talking if he was so inclined, which meant that it was her job to be the spokesperson for the herd. She still felt the familiar prickling of unease at having the focus drawn on her, but it didn't choke her to silence like it once might have. Now she could keep the awkwardness mostly contained on the inside. Though she was by no means as charismatic as her predecessor, Avalokiteshvara, she managed.
"You are welcome in our herd lands, Beryl and Lorenna. The Padmapani herd is happy to extend the lotus to you both." She inclined her head slightly at the two visitors after reciting the familiar words. After ceremony, back to business. "But what was it that you came here to ask us?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2012 8:24 am
This was the first real stop that she and Beryl had made on their long journey. The herd in the mountains had seemed like a good place to start as they were a halfway point between one side of the native lands and Carmine's Under Ground's head quarters. After this she intended to head further west to find someone closer to the jungle and after that she would work on filling in gaps and branching out. It was a tiring, complex task and Lorenna was not surprised that such a network did not yet exist on such a scale. It was a pain to get going but she would do it. There was no doubt in her mind about it. First things first, she needed to sell the leaders of this herd on the importance of a chain of information.
"We are here to propose a beneficial relationship not only between ourselves and the parties we represent but also for the rest of our kind in these lands." She said speaking slowly and clearly to make absolutely certain that each word sunk in. She planned on emphasizing how good it would be for everyone thanks to some information delivered by Khaa. She'd had the bird spying on them for the past few days so that she could select her angle. Bringing peace and security seemed to be the ticket with them.
"What we are doing is setting up a group of people to gather and pass useful information along about dangerous comings. Most notably to monitor the activity of skinwalkers and kalona and prevent them from striking those that are unprepared. I believe you can both agree that there is no need for more tragedy in these lands."
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Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2012 8:16 pm
 Beryl nodded in time with Lorenna's little speech. It was a good introduction, she had to give her that. Beryl liked the way that Lorenna laid things out point by point. It was similar to how she had managed the Underground's business transactions. A little bit of organization always went a long way.
For now, she kept her mouth shut. She didn't think she had anything to add that wouldn't sound corny at this point in the discussion. She looked with interest to the golden ornaments decorating the elder and the eerie lantern on the mare. She idly wondered whether it would be suicidal to try to steal from the elder. If they weren't here on other business she might have even tried it. There was no doubting that the metal bands he wore were pure gold. Enviously, she gazed at them while listening to the others talk.
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Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2012 8:29 pm
More tragedy in these lands.
"I see news of our tragedy has spread," rumbled Haya. He still felt mildly surprised whenever an outsider spoke to them of the matter. he supposed it made sense that word would spread. They had delegations from many herds from both near and far at the funeral. Undoubtedly, those soquili had taken with the story of their battle and losses back along their journey. Still, it had always felt like a personal grief to him. Part of him wished no one knew at all outside the Padmapani. No one could really understand what had happened if they hadn't been there.
Gathering information on kalona and skinwalkers. It sounded good enough, but did she expect them to start poking their heads into kalona dens to count how many might be inside? If so, she was going to be very disappointed about the level of their cooperation. Haya wasn't going to compromise herd security for this, and doubted Shrivatsa would either.
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Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2012 8:37 pm
Somehow, everything always came back to the skinwalker attack on their herd. The hinting of the topic set Shrivatsa's jaw stiffly, echos of the fear from that day still ringing throughout her soul. Some of her veneer of placidity failed her now, and she took more of her own naturally dark cast. "We already monitor skinwalkers and kalonas." She gave a small gesture with her snout to indicate Haya.
"What are you asking us to do that we aren't already doing?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2012 9:19 am
Lorenna nodded her head at Hayagriva. "It should not be surprising to you. News has a way of traveling and what occurred was and is something to be concerned about." Lorenna managed to weave a little sympathy into her words. Just enough to keep herself from sounding heartless but not enough to distract from the purpose of this discussion.
"If you are already monitoring their activities then what I ask you to do is little and simple. Keep watching them and if you catch any hint of something going on, anything that is bigger than a normal hunt, anything that endangers soquili kind, send word with the crows. A friend is talking with them as we speak to ensure their participation." Lorenna only helped that Khaa was being properly convincing. He was far from the most intimidating specimen but crows were greedy creatures that liked a bit of shine and food in their bellies. Threats would not work but promises of splendor most certainly would.
"The crows will send word to us so those of us within the network can plan properly. This is not a one-sided deal, naturally, it will benefit you as well. You will be informed by the crows if anyone else sees something coming your way as well." It was a good deal, she only hoped they were intelligent enough to see that.
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Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2012 6:35 pm
Haya exchanged glances with Shrivatsa. It was an interesting notion. They had informal little agreements with neighboring herds to share information, but it wasn't an organized affair. It sounded like this mare was trying to set up a wider network than that, and she even made it seem like it might be efficient. Communication was definitely something that the Padmapani herd needed to improve upon. Haya had heard rumors from the Miakoda herd that their own resident leader and elder, Maion, was shocked to find out that Padmapani had been having troubles with skinwalkers. That was something they could have communicated better...
Sensing that it was his turn to speak up, he took a step forward and addressed the flutter mare. "I consider any presence of kalona be a danger to soquili. You never can know when they might decide they want larger prey on one of their 'normal hunts." He might be part kalona himself, but he had even less tolerance of them now than he did as a young adult.
"So you want to know what... if they seem to be scheming? What about random acts of violence? And are your crows always going to be stationed nearby so we can send word?"
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Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 7:00 am
Lorenna gave Hayagriva a half-smile. She liked the way he looked at things. He had sense enough to know that kalona were bad news all the time. She hadn't been expecting that sort of suspicion from one who appeared to be related to a kalona himself. Or perhaps he was suspicious because he understood better than anyone else probably could.
"I have it on good authority that they are already scheming, or at least one group is. I don't know precisely what but I do know that it is nothing good and they seem to be in a hurry to get it started." Lorenna noticed that she was beginning to scowl so she took a breath to compose herself. "Yes, if they seem to be scheming something send word. Deal with random acts of violence as you see fit. If it is something you feel you could on your own, do so. If it seems to be too much to handle, send word. There will be a flock of crows stationed here at all times so you can send out multiple messages. Khaa will introduce you to them if you agree to help."
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Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 4:22 pm
"Hayagriva..." Darkness clouded Shrivatsa's face. "Do you know the names of any of the kalona that attacked us?" They needed to know whether any of them might be the same. If there were familiar faces among Lorenna's enemies, they might have a little more to worry about than just hazy rumors. If nothing else, Shrivatsa remembered the faces of all those who had attacked.
There had been only one kalona among those that chased down the bulk of the herd, the one who had killed Bodhisattva. Shrivatsa could still hear his shrill laughter as if he was standing behind her that very moment. Even the thought of him made her ears flatten back briefly before she regained her composure.
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Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 4:29 pm
It was very unlikely that the group of troublesome kalona would have any matches to the ones that attacked Padmapani, but Haya decided it was best to eliminate the possibility entirely. For their peace of mind, they had to know what they were dealing with. He let himself drift back to the sights of that day. Yes, there were several kalona that stuck out in his memory.
"When we were attacked there were a lot of partbreed kalona. One of them was a kalona/cerynei mix. He was white with blue markings and antlers. His name..." There had been a mare with the enemies that had shouted something in alarm as the stallion, who was presumably her mate, was endangered. "His name sounded something like 'swan.' The second..." Haya forced a levelness into his voice. "The second was my daughter. She's part kalona and flutter. She has kalona horns and flutter wings. She's a light pink color... and a cat skinwalker. Black pelt. Named Samsara." A deadness came over him to say that name.
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Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 4:32 pm
"And the final one was pure kalona." Shrivatsa spoke up as Haya finished. Haya had met this kalona too once, but Shrivatsa's memory was more recent. "He was dark gray with red markings. His mane was purple, and like mine but longer. His wings were purple too, I think." Her jaw tensed and her teeth ground together in repressed anger and anguish. "He killed one of my cousins and laughed about it. He... just laughed."
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Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 4:57 pm
Lorenna listened carefully as each of the kalona or part kalona were mentioned. She painted sketchy outlines of the cerynei mix and the cursed skinwalker Samsara. She made a special note of the skinwalker. What an abomination. It was bad enough to mix flutter blood with kalona but to then curse what was already a disgrace to nature was sickening. It also made her very dangerous. Those two were not the worst of her problems, however. As the herd alpha began describing the pure kalona her mind began sketching. The troubling part was that she was filling in details that the mare hadn't said. In the end she was faced with a mental representation of a familiar figure.
Her lip twitched with contempt. "This pure kalona...did he have a grating voice and wear a strange sort of tiered metal plate necklace?" Lorenna didn't even wait for the answer, there was no one else she could think of that would match that description. "I believe his name is Xelloss...he's one of the group that inspired this idea." She said as she ground her teeth together. He hadn't been a part of the attack but in no way was he guiltless. He had known who Phibrizzo was the entire time and hadn't told them. They weren't friends. They never had been. He had probably been using them since the first time she had run into him in the woods.
"He works for a stallion named Phibrizzo. He's a flutter kalona and dark blue in color. You'll know him by his wings, they seem to be made of nothing but wisps of shadow and lightning. Don't be fooled by him, he likes to pretend he is a colt and he's good at it." She scowled openly this time. She would see his plans, whatever they were, fail. "Would you like to learn more of what I know or do you feel ready to agree to assist?"
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Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 5:07 pm
"We agree." Haya and Shrivatsa both said the same thing so closely together that they were almost in unison. Slightly taken aback, Haya blinked at his much younger partner in leading. That had been a little strange.
Haya hesitated a moment to make sure that he wasn't about to overlap with Shrivatsa again before continuing his thought. "You have our promise. We will assist you in whatever ways we can against this menace." He let out his breath in something akin to a growl. "Xelloss, is it? I'll remember that." Twice had this Xelloss kalona attacked the Padmapani herd. Once had been when Haya had been much younger, and then in the Mahapadma attack. One way or another, he wasn't going to get a third chance to hurt them.
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Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 5:14 pm
Shrivatsa was glad that Haya filled that awkward silence and let her hide her embarrassment away. Even though they both led the Padmapani herd, she still felt junior to Haya's breadth of experience. It seemed presumptuous of her to have blurted out the same answer at the same time as him, even though she knew she had just as much a right to speak as he did.
"But... we don't want to get drawn into a fight." This wasn't a new thought for her. It was something she and Haya had often discussed, both practically and philosophically. They wouldn't chase after the Mahapadma for revenge or retribution. They would seek to keep their herd territory safe but try not to go looking for trouble. They all still bore too many scars to go looking for more pain.
"So... count on us for information, but not for warriors. We are a peaceful herd." A look from Haya let her know that he agreed with her. Good. She hoped never to see such violence again in her life.
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