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Familiars

Janarim - male - Black and Green He was a lovely black color with a splash of green on his head and a few green spots down his tail.

Adventure Log

In General
Asenath had been at her desk for more than long enough. She wanted to be outside right now. Winter was giving way to a glorious spring and she wanted to see the daily changes that set their hearts on fire after the drearyness of the winter season was over...finally.

Don't get her wrong, she loved reading and drawing but really that was quite enough now. She wanted to go for long walks on the trails. See the hijinks of all the animals starting to fall in love with each other. It was so stinking cute it made her giggle how brightly the male birds sang and danced for the females. The radaku howled long into the night the males showing their strong voices off, what a racket. Even her parents had been a bit more kissy with each other. That was cute too. They were each others special someone.

Other things in spring were much more exciting though. Like gardening and extra eggs from the family hens. Yay! She loved eggs and everything you could make with them. Sometimes she even blue out the shells on the colors and patterns she liked and then she would use those eggs in crafts and stuff.

Her family told her she was quite creative. She also liked to dance and anything to do with moving the body like exercise and dancing or swimming. She loved spending time with her sister and two elder brothers. They were so tall, all of them besides her and her sister. She thought having girls in the family were doing them all some good. Too many boys was no bueno.

She loved spending time with the radaku too and could often be seen doing extra chores. She was a good girl over all but she was slowly getting more stubborn and and tad rebellious. But that was after her chores were done.

Once all that was over she would read and play and read some more. Books were fun. She read the same ones over and over again. In particular she loved the ones with fairy tales and magic. Hands down they were the absolute best reads and she waited impatiently at the bookstore for them when her Dads brought her into town.

She would dance from foot to foot in excitement, something she had done right from toddler age apparently. Her dads called it cute. She supposed it was, she wasn't about to try to control it. Especially not when it came to books.

She was excited to see if her sister would pick up the love of reading that she had always held. The lady at the bookstore said she probably just hadn't found the 'one'. Apparently all it took was that one book to turn a non reader into a reader. She thought her sister liked story time well enough. Daddy would read to them after all to help them fall asleep at night.

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Martial Arts

Over time, and with a little help from her dad, she discovered another passion, martial arts. She did it to keep fit calm her mind, and so if one day she was accosted, she would be able to fight back to some capacity, much better than not knowing any at all. Dad always gave her exercises to practice in the interim between sparring sessions, sometimes her brothers would join in too. It was an insanely fun time, and she always looked forward to the wrestling matches, even though they had zero chance yet of failing to her muscles yet. Dad had said that there were ways for girls to kick boy's butts. He had promised to teach her when she was old enough.

In the meantime, she was determined to diligently practice all the exercises assigned to her so that she would be ready when she was able to kick butt and take names, (especially her beefy at least in comparison to her), older brothers. Lura was pretty buff and taller than Lyco. Lyco was more crafty and had sort of wiry strength. He was dangerous because he was faster and calculating. She didn't hold out any hope of defeating both of her dads, though they were far too strong and clever.

As per usual, she was a devoted daughter. She was lucky to have two dads that she put on pedestals her brothers were yet to ascend. She went through the practice movements again and again until she was slicked with sweat and gasping for air. Then she cooled herself down and unwrapped her hands hitting the showers hit different after a workout like that, and she felt relaxed and very healthy, overall, refreshed. She went for a short walk around the property and checked on all the animals, as was her morning ritual, before stopping briefly inside for some food. She could work on an empty stomach, but everything else required food. She ate light and was back outside almost immediately. She disliked being indoors when the weather was warm. Outside, winters made her sad, and she didn't like being sad for no reason who would so outside she went in spring, summer and fall, winter was to be suffered through and avoided in turn, but they were a very long way from winter now, and she could just enjoy herself. So she took the radaku and older janarim out for exercise and enjoyed every ounce of the exceptionally nice weather they had been getting. Later, she would spend time with her family, but she found that besides the breakfast meal, that time spent in the company of herself plants and animals was the best way to set herself up for a good morning.

She was definitely a morning person. Afternoons were good for naps, and she was always so tired the time night time came around, Laika loved the night, and so did daddy, but she lived for that bird song in the morning. Everything brightly colored woke up from its slumber and sang its heart out, or opened its petals to greet a glorious new day. Just as she crawled out and stretched, she would greet it too.

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She eventually named her janarim Yal, in keeping with the one syllable pattern for Dep, sound as a dancer was quite important to her. Every word and cadence had a beat which had a dance somewhere. She wasn't sure what she wanted to be yet when she grew up she loved movement and song but she thought battle might be fun too she could train her body to be graceful and deadly or perhaps go the way of the bandit? Who knew, she liked daggers too. The older she got the more things she found that she enjoyed.

Riding when her janarim had come of age had been a learning curve, but now she knew his movements like the back of her hand and had already started to train him to help her with trick riding. She would vault and handstand off his back and amaze the watchers which lets face it were mostly her family anyway. Asenath and Yal were hoping to put on a bit of a show together at the next harvest festival coming in the fall where the local community tended to converge to gossip, eat fair food and watch the rodeo which was always quite fun. This would be her first year entering herself and she knew that both of her Dads had put in long work to try and get her and the critter ready. She was super anxious about it but when the time came she thought they would do well. They just needed even more practice that was all. That was all life ever was, was the need for more practice and experience. She was glad that she had started this and now by crikey she would finish it too.

As time went on they got stronger and stronger, her tricks were still age appropriate for her skill level but were a bit more daring than when they started. When the time came to put the show on she was all dressed up and very nearly threw up. Why did this feel so different from dancing which she never got stage fright at all. She supposed it may be because she had to rely on Yal too. To come through for her and to carry her and to keep her safe. "Don't worry boy, if we do well or don't I will still feed you a big steak tonight, never you fear."

They got second overall, with an older competitor taking an early lead but still out of 6 possible winners she had come in second which she thought was quite good.

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Gone Fishin'


Asenath hopped from rock to rock by the pond by their compound. It was a fun place to hang out, she had brought Yal with her of course. Everyone else was enjoying their rest day as they saw fit. She had brought her notebook a book and a few sketching pencils in case she saw something cool that she wanted to draw or for if she got bored and needed a break from reality. Books were good for that, she liked reading but not to the extent of some people who couldn't exist without their nose in a book.

So long as she was outdoors she was happy and while she was here..she set a line on a stick and brought out a little case of hooks that she always had on her person, fishing was the most fun thing.. at least if you caught something and you couldn't catch something if you didn't have your lure in the water as her Dad had always said. He also said that half of fishing or hunting was just enjoying the outdoors with the possibility of bringing protein home. She supported that and Papa always made something spectacular with what she brought home.

She cast the line out and watched it plop into the water, slowly twisting the stick occassionally to move the lure and tweaking it to entice an unsuspecting fish if she could. There was something cool about fish..besides them being as a rule kind of cool to the touch. She wasn't sure if it was the scales the fins or the overall streamlined shape of them but they had always fascinated her. She even enjoyed the gutting and fileting when her Daddy had taught her which they did not expect considering how beside herself she was over the darn worm.

Now she mostly used bugs or just a hook and lure but rest assured she always had a small tackle box with the needful on her. Her line tweaked and she tweaked back questioningly. Yal looked up curiously from where he was digging in the bank presumably for grubs.

She couldn't imagine that grubs would give him all that much more protein but who was she to judge his diet, it was keeping him busy and out of the water. Somewhat atypical for his kind Yal loved water just as much as she did and she often fed him the crappy fish as a treat when she couldn't reuse them as bait. They both greatly enjoyed this quiet time and she made note to do this more often with him. It was bonding time and fishing time and relaxing time and with a janarim for a guardian the only thing she really had to somewhat watch out for were Menzuri and they did not prefer this location so she felt she was probably okay.

Her mind wandered as she landed the fish, focused on the moment but once she had it in she day dreamed a bit. She held up the fish for Yal's inspection. He seemed to think it was pretty good. She gutted it and put it in her travel bag before resetting the hook and line out to tempt more fishies to her basket. The next few fish were small and ate young sport fish so she gave them to Yal who swallowed each whole. They were not very big. He likely wouldn't get many fish that he could actually chew as those of that size would be released to continue the population or taken home for dinner or to be smoked and dried for later, or used as radaku chow. Fish was never ever wasted at their household and she felt that that was how it should be. She knew there were people out there that based their diet off of plants but to her young eyes they always looked hungry. She loved meat of all kinds and figured if you were going to eat it you should be able to catch clean and cook it yourself.

If you didn't you were not honoring the circle of life and might not take the best care of the meat that a critter had to sacrifice its life for. Perhaps these were deep thoughts for a youngling but she was still glad that she had them. She was a person who reflected a lot on life and sometimes on her own actions. She didn't want to make people angry and at this young part in her life she cared a great deal about what the important people in her ilfe felt about her. Apparently that would change as she got older according to her Dad and may get worse as a teenager to taper off into nothing as an adult. She was pretty sure Daddy only cared what Papa thought most of the time and Daddy unlike Papa tended not to sweat the small stuff.

She wanted to be independant and a free thinker, that was the other reason why she read so much. She knew that she was approaching the time when she would be considered a prentice and not a youngling any more and she wondered how that would change her outlook on life and if Keket too would change with the added responsibility of being a prentice. She would make sure to help Papa out more and keep up with her chores. Then in prentice stage she would have to decide on the path forward but she was having some anxiety about how exactly to chose said path. It wasn't a yes or no answer though she knew in her bones she wouldn't be a scholar or something along those lines. Though she might like to use magic. Apparently it was quite normal to not know what she wanted to do with the rest of her life and it wasn't like she couldn't dabble in things. But she thought that the extra effort of finding someone who was not a family member to mentor her in her chosen path seemed a bit intimidating. She half wanted to go on adventures and she also half wanted to stay at the compound for the rest of her life, with her parents and siblings and all of the wonderful critters.
She spent the rest of the afternoon in the dappled sunlight with her janarim her book and her fishing pole. Later she would come to realize that this was what life was actually about and that stress and worry were entirely made up by others to make others miserable. It was an awfully silly system and she would spend part of her life devoted to combatting it.

Something that her father had never quite figured out. She realized that that was why he spend so much time training, to burn off all the extra anxiety and worry that plagued him. Part of that she was sure was because he was a Dad and that was what Dads did when they had kids. They worried and carried on.

She too would carry on. She carried the fish she caught back home and laid them clean and fresh out on the table for her Papa to do with as he saw fit. She knew he loved getting new ingredients. She did too. Sometimes Lyco would go pretty far and do his best to bring back some foraged things. Often there were berries, mushrooms, bark, lichen and other things. This added a good variety to their diet and kept them from getting bored which happened more in the winter months when there was less fresh things. Luckily Jauhar always provided as there were some trees that preferrred to escape the oppresive heat of high summer and fruit and flower in the cooler months of fall and winter.

She liked all the seasons for their own reasons. After dropping her fish off she tended to Yal and made sure his every need was met and that he got all the snuggles and cuddles that a youngling could offer something that was quite a bit bigger than she was. She did her best and when it came time to doing his back she just climbed up there and scritched under plates that he couldn't reach, making sure that no sand remained from his mud and grub digging earlier.

This was perhaps her favorite time of the whole day, being able to properly bond with her critter. Ever since he had been given as a birthday gift she had showered him with love affection and adoration. He was the most important thing in her life and had the capability and loyal bloodlines to save hers as well. She hoped he never had too, hoped he never went throught what Dep had done but in this family each protected their own as now, as always blood would be thicker than water. Though some friends may be considered family if they stuck around long enough. She liked that outlook. As there were some that though they were not shifters were family just the same. Daddy was pretty close with the beast ranch people because of his father and that was how Asenath had learned about it.

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