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 Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 5:53 pm
The elders sat in the meeting room, whispering among themselves and talking of the orders of business for the day. Not much was being said at the moment Jerarda barged into the room, but what conversation was being had was abruptly stopped with the dawn of her entrance. The two sentries rushed in after her, only stopping when an elder shot them a look. They bowed their heads and returned to their posts outside of the hut.
The elder in the center of the room, the one holding the highest position, placed her arms gently on her chair's armrests and addressed Jerarda calmly. "We can all see that. We can also see that you have something I can only assume is for us?" She gestured to the bloodied bag Jerarda was holding. Eshe and Yansa were also a part of the meeting currently under session. Yansa's brow was furrowed, anticipating Jerarda's great reveal; while Eshe just stood, looking not at but through the bag, her mind seeming to be in a far off place.
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Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 7:27 pm
There was part of her that wanted to throw it at the elders, let the blood soaked sack drop on their laps and see the look of dismay on their faces. But she had too much 'respect' drilled into her growing up and thus she refrained. She had to choose her words carefully, to have the most impact and hopefully the desired effect.
As to show disrespect to the plunder in the bag she dropped it to the ground beside her, it hit with a resounding splech.
"As I understand it, my loyalty was being questioned, as I had brought not only a hybrid but a male shifter to our islands. To prove my loyalty I was issued a test, a test of course that was handed out to younger sisters to prove themselves. " Jerarda started calmly, slowly...to show that she understood her position and hoped to convey what...she was suggesting she did.
"I traveled to the forests of Jahaur and was met with great hostility upon my arrival..." Nudging the bag with her foot she pushed it out towards the elders a smile on her face, one that seemed almost sadistic as she was eluding to the fact that the hostilities...were humanoid.
"The hostilities were..dealt with and I brought back proof to show my loyalty to my sisters and the great mother tree."
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Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 7:52 pm
The elders shifted in their chairs with the disrespect of dropping the sack within the room they were all occupying. Jerarda was surely pushing her boundaries in this situation.
Her words rang through the room and was greeted with silence. The elders showed nothing on their faces, then most of the room darkened with horrible realization, everyone grimacing. It was only Eshe who openly looked sad and displaced, though her eyes still looked as though they were elsewhere.
The highest elder frowned and furrowed her brow, contemplating the actions that she could take next. She opened her mouth and quietly, but with incredible sternness in her voice, answered Jerarda. "Jerarda... Young Sister, if you have done what the council has come to believe that you have done, actions will have to be taken." She let the silence surround them once more.
Eshe moved forward. "Jerarda, tell us that you have not committed such a horrible thing as you are implying." Her words were covered in anguish for the life she believed to be lost. The others in the council might be thinking about war coming, or other such political disputes, but for Eshe at least, it was nothing but anguish for the moral corruption that would be implied with something so vile.
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Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 8:08 pm
Relief, that was the only description she could use at this moment was relief. It washed through her as if it cleansed her soul and she felt at peace. So her people were not trying for an all out war with the other tribes, still though it raised questions within her.
"Is it not our teachings Eshe that we are the protectors of the forest? That the shifters and other tribes defiled the world and must be punished? Was not the shifter and the hybrid treated with such hostility and distrust upon their arrival not how we are suppose to react with outsiders? We must protect the great mother at all costs...and take back the forest for it belongs to our sisters." Such practiced words, though she never truly answered Eshe's question, never stating what was in the bag and drawing out this uncomfortable encounter even longer.
"Was I not punished...because I dared to trust an outsider...my loyalties questioned because I trusted the words of a shifter?"
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Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 8:30 pm
Eshe stiffened at Jerarda's back talking. This was not only something she wasn't used to but something disrespectful. The elders could visibly be seen thinking the same thing; that Jerarda should hold her tongue before more discipline should befall her.
She spoke with slow words, trying to get through the bitterness that resounded through the room with Jerarda's words. "Jerarda. We are a proud people, but we realize that times are changing. We do not seek a war with the earthlings. We do not seek anything less than peace with them." She straightened her back and narrowed her eyes, for the first time focusing solely on Jerarda and not through her. "This does not mean that we willingly invite outsiders into our island and close to our only source of children and Mother. You know that. Only a fool would see otherwise. What you did was something to benefit the whole of the Sisters if the situation were true, but dangerous none the less." She opened the palms of her hands and held them out in a gesture to Jerarda and the room as a whole. "The council saw this and offered light punishment as a consequence to your actions. Her look was back to stern and her look of anguish returned to the edges of her eyes and mouth. "Now Jerarda. Tell us what you have done. What have you brought us today?"
Eshe was as serious as anyone had ever seen her and even the rest of the council was in a state of shock at the discussion they were witnessing before them.
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Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 8:40 pm
Jerarda took a deep breath and then relaxed as it was the answer she had been hoping to hear she dropped the expression on her face and replaced it with a genuine smile. It was time to pay her respects to her elders and perhaps put forth a plan to help bring the clans together.
"You do not know how ...pleased I am to hear this my elders, and now I shall explain my actions..."
The story was lengthy, all respect was given to her elders as she told them of her journey, the dying forest, the swamp and most importantly the strange bug like humanoids that had attacked her. She spared no detail and for once didn't glorify her own actions and deeds. Jerarda had grown up some and knew when it was time to boast..and when it was time to be serious.
"So you see, what I have in the bag is the head of a creature that attacked one of the mages in the mire...I came to test the elders...and I am happy with what I have come to discover today. I understand my actions were...disrespectful and I will accept any punishment with a light heart as I know my sisters and our people are evolving past bitterness and war. It is time we forged alliances with the other tribes..perhaps we can seek out what is killing that section of forest., or seek out the strange bug people and see if we cannot establish peace with them."
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Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 8:49 pm
Eshe stood back at Jerarda's words. It would take time for her to calm back down again, after something so serious and grave, and she couldn't handle much more discussion for the day. She returned to her place in the shadows of the meeting room near Yansa and breathed deeply, near sighing with relief.
The other elders weren't as relieved as Eshe. They sat back in their seats and looked from one to another at the bug mages that Jerarda mentioned. Was it true? Could what Jerarda be speaking actually have happened. The warmth in the room flooded and another elder, near the edge of the line spoke up. "Jerarda, what you have spoken just now might have to come sooner than any of us expected." The elder sighed and put her head in her hands. Something was wrong.
The elder in the center of the room spoke up now. "Are you sure the creatures you are talking about are true? You are not mistaken in their appearance?"
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Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 8:55 pm
Jerarda had thought that the elders would be relieved that her entire intent had only been a facade but instead as she had gone on to tell of the mages in particular they seemed even more uncomfortable . Now it was her turn to look confused and serious.
"I know what I saw, there was two of them...and it would be hard to mistake the mandibles coming from their mouths as anything else but bug like. " The young woman confirmed as she then looked from one elder to another,
"These...creatures...they are not unknown to you...are they?" It dawned on her slowly and now she wondered if it had been such a good idea to help the bug mages out.
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Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 9:03 pm
The elders looked from one to another and back again. No, it was not unknown to them. The elders to the side began to murmur to one another, whispering to each other the things and secrets that they fear the most with the news. The main elder looked to Jerarda and sighed heavily. "Jerarda. They are not unknown to us, but have been dormant for a very long time. The elders have passed down this knowledge through the generations, in hopes that one day, if these creatures ever would come back, that they would not be unknown to us."
The elder stood up from her seat and came forward, closer to Jerarda and looked into her eyes. "Jerarda, these creatures are an ancient evil. They destroy and eradicate everything they touch and hibernate for centuries. It is the plague upon the land, and a close guarded secret between the races of Tendaji. The last time the whole of Tendaji took up arms together was to rid the world of this inherent evil."
She looked at the sack that Jerarda had brought with her. "You can be sure if you saw two, then there are many more where that came from. The area you left must be there new 'home'. They infest the area that they live in with death and bring nothing but misfortune with them. Do you understand the gravity of the situation we are facing Jerarda? If things worsen and encounters begin to occur in Jauhar, we may have to take action."
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Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 9:16 pm
Jerarda felt as if a rock had been dropped on her foot. So...it had been wrong of her to spare the lives of those two, and here she thought she would be doing the better thing by sparing their lives. Now she felt like a fool, but how was she suppose to know that they were innately evil?
"....Is it because of them ...that the forest was dying?" She inquired sounding very worried, after all if they could cause a forest to die what else could they do? "It was wrong of me to help them....I should of gone with my first instinct..." The young woman sounded bitter, after all how could she be so hard on herself when she didn't know that they were bad?
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Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 9:30 pm
The elders, that usually seemed so cold and distant, tried to offer their consolations to Jerarda. The elder that was facing her took her hand in hers. "Jerarda, there was no way of you to know what you were getting yourself into. You should be happy to have just gotten away, and with all of yourself intact."
She let Jerarda's hand go and stepped back, gathering herself back together. "They have been called the Hands of Death through the ages of our knowledge of their presence. The call upon the Menzuri to aid them in creating a new nesting grounds and slowly they spread to kill everything they touch. It seems that they only flourish in the face of death." It was a nasty business having to know all of this and being able to do nothing about it. But with such hard times looming menacingly over their heads, there was nothing they could do but to pray to the Great Mother.
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Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 9:35 pm
There was only a little in the way the elders words could console her, after all she had let a great evil live, but from now own she vowed to take them more seriously. She would not let them kill the forest and those who lived there.
The fact that she was learning all about these things she felt that it was her responsibility to locate them and bring their destructiveness at a end. "If they are hands of death I feel it is only my duty to request I be put in charge of locating these creatures and putting an end to them. Or at least seeing about forging new treaties with the tribes...we will need the help from the others if we have any hopes in defeating them."
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Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 9:45 pm
The elders listened to Jerarda's request and turned to each other, murmuring once again of the news brought forth. It was odd for them to cause such a commotion while a meeting was in session, but the startling news that was just brought about was reason enough to break normality.
The elder addressed Jerarda once more, Yansa joining her this time. "These are both valid duties that must be taken care of and things need to be addressed before any such measures can take place. But we hear your words and Yansa alone cannot take on such a task. Jerarda, when the time comes, you may travel with Yansa and forge alliances with the tribes once again. Our people are not strong enough to take on this evil alone."
Yansa nodded sternly, accepting the partnership that was to come. "You may train as a warrior of our people in order to prepare for the coming battles."
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