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 Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 5:16 pm
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Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2014 9:49 pm
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Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2014 9:50 pm
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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2014 7:35 pm
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Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 11:17 pm
Cries in the Night
Ten tiny fingers, ten tiny toes. She was everything a parent could want and dream of. She had dark chocolate hair and bright blue eyes, as if the sky itself had dropped bits of it's own color into her tiny little head. Ogbonna couldn't believe just how small she was compared to his hands as his father, tired from assisting in the delivery, handed her to him so he could fetch Sangita another pillow. Frail, but strong, he could tell. His newborn baby sister, just... So precious, so... Sweet.
And so incredibly loud.
"Tavi, shhh, it's alright!" He cooed, balancing her against the thicker part of his arm. "I know this is all so new to you, little one, but there's no reason to cry. Big brother Oggie is here, nothing will hurt you."
Tavi went on to cry for the next hour until she'd had her first feeding, and soon fell asleep in his father's arms. Ogbonna, knowing just how tired his parents were, went into the kitchen and made a cup of tea. It was hard to believe that it was only a few years ago that he couldn't reach the tea kettle on the counter, and now here he was, almost as tall as his father and capable of so much more. He poured the tea out carefully and smiled, before wandering back and handing to cups out. His mother looked pretty pale, something that made him worry a bit, but he figured it was just the birth that had tired her out. His father, though tired, looked vibrant and healthy as he cooed down to the infant in his arms. He looked more than grateful to sit down with a cup of tea, though, and handed Tavi over to Ogbonna carefully.
"Ahhh, nice cup of tea." Mycah sighed, taking a quick sip. "That was quite a long labor! I mean, you were born early, Oggie, so, in comparison, Tavi's birth seemed to take forever."
"Ha! I must've been in a rush to meet you!" Ogbonna laughed, adjusting his hold on Tavi. "Shhh, Tavi, it's okay. All of Mez knows you've arrived by now."
He bounced the newborn gently until her cries became whimpers and marveled at the blueness of her eyes as they lingered upon his face. How could something so small make such shrill cries? He moved a finger to trace along her brow and smiled as she closed her eyes, as if she enjoyed the feeling. She was so delicate, and to think that, at his birth, he had been smaller. He'd come a long way since then...
"... Do you think she'll grow as strong as me?" He asked, looking up to his father again. However, his gaze moved along toward the window, having noticed a bright glowing outside it. A fire? This early in the morning? ... That didn't seem right. He stood and handed Tavi back to his father, before heading to the window.
"Oh, Chi's grace!" He cried, racing to pull on his gauntlets. "There's a huge fire at the edge of the settlement! Wake grandpa and everyone else, we need to put it out!"
He dashed out the front door without another word and toward the blaze. He could make out the forms of several people standing outside, including one that seemed to be using magic, and paused. Something wasn't quite right about this. Why weren't they putting out the fire? It was spreading to the rest of the village! Frantic, he raced toward the village's water storage, and screamed.
"The barrels are busted! They're trying to burn the village down!"
Then, a slam to the back of his head knocked him unconscious, leaving him laying amongst the remains of the barrels.
(Word count: 621)
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Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 11:18 pm
In a World Without Sound
The village was quiet when Ogbonna began to wake, but the lingering smell of smoke brought him to his feet. His vision was clouded and wrought with vertigo, making him teeter around like a drunk as he went through the rubble and slowly came around. However, once he saw the amount of destruction around him, he wished he could have gone back to being oblivious. Everything... Everything was burned. Houses, stores, the village square... Everything. He fell to his knees and stuck his hands in the dirt, unable to process the multitude of feelings as they rose to his chest. Who could do this? What kind of evil person destroyed an entire village? He sucked in a breath and screamed, only to realize that nothing had come out of his throat but silence. He screamed again, no sound. Again, nothing. Then, a firm hand came to rest on his shoulder. He spun around, tears streaming down his face, and grabbed onto the man behind him. His father was alive, and everyone else was behind him! Why hadn't he heard them before? Surely they had called out to him when he stumbled out! ... Why couldn't he hear him now?
"Dad! Stop! Wait! I can't hear you!" He sobbed, rubbing furiously at his ears. "I can't hear anything! What happened to my ears? Why can't I hear? Dad! Why?"
His father's lips were moving frantically as well as the lips of his mother who had raced over. Tavi was clearly crying in her arms, but he couldn't hear her. Nothing was making a sound. He couldn't hear his parents, he couldn't hear the other villagers as they gathered around him, he couldn't hear anything. He continued to rub at his ears and knock his head, hoping that he could somehow reset his hearing back to normal. However, after five or so strikes, his grandfather came to a kneel beside him and held his hands down. That wasn't going to work, it seemed, and the Guard looked to his grandfather helplessly. What was he supposed to do? How was he going to survive without his hearing? He heaved breaths filled with loud, croaking sobs, and forced himself to stand. There had to be someone who could heal him! Anyone! He couldn't live the rest of his life like this!
"I need a healer! A healer who can fix this!" He announced, folding his arms. However, as soon as his arms settled against his chest, he noticed that something else wasn't right. Where were his gauntlets? He had them on before he'd been knocked down the night before! Somebody had stolen his gauntlets! He screamed again and clenched his fists.
"Who stole my gauntlets?" He growled, his face growing red. "Who destroyed my village? Who did this to us?"
He looked among the faces before him and asked, again, and again, until he was sure he could read their lips. Bandits. A group of good-for-nothing bandits had come through his village, desecrated it, and stolen his gauntlets. He'd never felt so angry in his life! What made them think that they could do this? He fumed, cursed, and kicked at the rubble. They wouldn't get away with this... They would pay!
"Did anyone see where they went after I got knocked out?" He asked. Again, he had to ask multiple times, earning several fed up stares from the crowd. It wasn't until someone had the bright idea to write the answer down that Ogbonna finally understood. They'd fled toward the mountains and taken someone hostage, a Shaman called Marus. Ogbonna remembered meeting Marus the day he moved in and couldn't fathom why a group of bandits would want anything to do with him. Marus was a hybrid, a leaf-ice-wind hybrid to be exact, and a very nice one, too. Ogbonna's face scrunched. It didn't matter who it was they'd taken, these bandits needed to be brought to justice!
"Grandfather, once I'm healed, may I borrow your Gauntlets? I've got some bandits to beat down and a boy to rescue." He said. He waited a moment as his family appeared to argue about his request and folded his arms again. Then, the crowd began to disperse and his father tugged him up to his feet. The blonde's head shook no several times and remained firm against Ogbonna's furious nods. Didn't his father understand that he needed to go to the mountains? He had to avenge Mez! He had to get his gauntlets back! He had to rescue Marus! His father, frustrated, went to fuss over Tavi and his mother, leaving Ogbonna to wander after his grandfather. He could tell by the way Moka winked at him that he was aiming to help and grinned when he was presented with an old pair of gauntlets. They were worn and a bit too big for his hands, but Ogbonna slipped them on gratefully. Then, they looked each other in the eye for a while. The look Moka was giving him was nothing short of pride, and Ogbonna couldn't help but beam right back.
"Don't worry about a thing, grandpa. I'll take care of everything." He said, saluting the Berserker.
Moka's mouth moved briefly and paused, before resting into a smile, which Ogbonna understood. His grandfather believed in him, and he didn't need verbal communication to receive that.
(Word count: 892)
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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 3:28 pm
 (This journal doesn't count toward his solos because it's written in first person. However, it's still part of the story arc of these solos)
6/10
It's been two few days since the village was vandalized by bandits. My hearing still hasn't come back yet, even after a healer came by to work on my head. They explained that a head injury was to blame for my deafness and that it wasn't impossible to get some of it back in the long term. I'd need to go see a healer often for a session or two, though, which I don't have time for. I'm going to the mountains bright and early tomorrow to start my search for the bandits and Marus, as well as my stolen gauntlets. Even if my father doesn't want me to go, I'm going. It's my duty as a guard to protect and serve my village, and I won't let anyone stop me from giving them what's due. Besides, what good am I around here when I can't hear? I can't hear my sister crying or my mother calling to me. I'm not useful here. The least I can do is try to go out and get information, right? Maybe someone out there saw the bandits on the run that night and could help me find them. Or, I could easily be captured and killed...
It's worth the risks.
Anyway, with all of that aside, I was given this really weird animal by villager today. They explained that it was from Oba and they'd brought it back from Neued. It's called a Perzi, or a Perzai, they weren't sure, and I've named him Kujo. He likes getting his belly rubbed and his ears scratched, but his tail is absolutely off limits. I've seen him open his mouth to make sound, but because I can't hear anything, I don't know what he sounds like. He doesn't seem to mind that, though, but my dad says it's an annoying sound. I guess I'm not missing very much? I don't know.
It's so weird not being able to hear, but... It's not impossible to surmount. I mean, I've been through worse. Or, well, I've seen worse. People losing limbs, heads cut off, there are a lot worse fates than losing your hearing. I just need to learn to get used to it and remind people that I'm not being rude, I literally can't hear anything they're saying. It'll be easy when I get the hang of it, I'm sure.
I need to get back to cleaning the village up, I'll write more when I get the chance.
Ogbonna
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Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 1:50 pm
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 6:39 pm
Mountain of Misunderstanding
Sneaking out of the house that morning was harder than Ogbonna liked to admit. After all, he couldn't hear how his feet sounded against the earth anymore, so for all he knew, he could sound like a Mammu stampeding along a field of glass. Thankfully, he grandfather had woken and helped him gather what remained of his things and saw him out of the village before his father could wake up to stop him. Though silent, Ogbonna was thankful and gave Moka a hug around the waist before taking off in his usual fashion. He sprinted down the path as the sun rose overhead, hoping to gain as much ground as he possibly could, and watched the mountains steadily approach. He could make it there by nightfall if he wasn't stopped, and for the sake of his sanity, he hoped he wouldn't be. These bandits were crazy dangerous and had kidnapped a villager, who knew what else they were capable of! He needed to get there quick!
However, fate didn't seem to wait to play his cards the way he wanted them to be. The smell of smoke once again pulled him from his thoughts and made him take an abrupt turn down another path. Was it another blaze set by the bandits? Had someone forgotten to put out their campfire? He shuffled through the trees, thoroughly unaware of how much noise he was making, and came face to face with... A completely normal campsite. He stood, dumbfounded at his own stupidity, and shuffled forward. It appeared empty, but the fire had been freshly put out, which was the source of the smokey smell. However, as he bent to inspect the fire, a figure from the side caught his attention and made him stumble backward. It was a dark-skinned woman with her arrows drawn, and from the look on her face, he could tell she wasn't happy.
"Sorry, sorry! I was worried!" He shouted, raising his hands in the air. "There was a fire that nearly destroyed my village three days ago, I thought this might've been another one! Please, don't shoot me!"
To his relief, the woman paused and lowered her bow, giving him the chance to scramble into a seated position. However, she appeared to be shouting at him as he did so, and opened his mouth to shout back.
"I got smacked in the head and now I can't hear, ma'm!" He said, scooting backwards as she drew closer to him. "I'm serious! I can't hear you! Ma'm, please, stop!"
Finally, after pleading for several minutes and being tested in many ways, the woman simply sat beside him and shook her head. Yes, lady, he was deaf now. Someone smashed the back of his head, gave him brain damage, and now he can't hear. Hard to believe, right? He rolled his eyes out of habit as the woman clapped her hands in his face and clapped back. They clapped back and forth like this for a while, Ogbonna's claps being utterly off beat, until he couldn't take the game any longer.
"Alright, listen, I can't hear you!" He snapped, moving to stand. "I don't have time for this. I have to go to the mountains and rescue someone who got kidnapped before the bandits decide to kill him. So, goodbye, have a nice night, sorry to bother you!"
He took a few steps away from the campsite and wandered back to the path again, shaking his head as he went along. However, he wasn't more than five minutes away when the woman popped up next to him again. He screamed, flailed, and stared at her.
"What are you-Why did you follow me?" He exclaimed, his face scrunching. "I told you, I can't hear you and I have to get going! Goodbye!"
The woman remained persistent, much to Ogbonna's annoyance, and followed him back onto the main path. He'd tried everything to shake her, honestly, from running through the trees to straight up hiding, but she seemed to know exactly where he was at all times. He didn't like this, he felt cornered, like an animal! And the fact that he had to keep checking for her was even worse! Didn't she want to go back to her campsite? Was she bored? Interested in him? He couldn't help but give her a glare every time she crossed his plane of vision, and soon, something began to dawn on him. She would smile back at him, not creepily, but nicely. Like, she was trying to be friendly. What was her deal? Was she going to follow him all the way to the mountain? Why would she want to follow him all the way the-
He paused abruptly and allowed the woman to catch up with him, his gaze slowly turning toward hers. Something... Something was beginning to make sense, and yet no sense at all.
"... Do you know someone by the name of Marus, ma'm?" He asked, tilting his head.
To his surprise, the woman nodded furiously and began to talk. He gave her a very blank look until her mouth clamped shut and her face flushed, something that made him chuckle. Okay, so she knew Marus, then she was following him because she knew what had happened. ... But then who was she?
"How do you know Marus?" He continued, giving her a once over. "... Are you related?"
Again, the woman nodded furiously and tried to use her hands to explain something. He studied her motions carefully and shook his head. He didn't understand anything she was trying to explain. The frustration about this showed on both their faces momentarily, until, finally, the woman bent to the ground and began to spell something out in the sand.
"M-O-T-H-E-R, oh! You're his mother!" He exclaimed, smiling. "Chi's breath, I thought you were some stalker, no offense! What a relief! I guess you're following me so you can find Marus, too?"
There was more nodding from Marus' mother and more words were etched in the dirt. She also knew who had taken her son and tried to burn down the village. The people they were after weren't just bandits, but Wind family of Marus' mother. Marus' father was leaf and she was a wind-ice woman who had moved to Mez because it felt safer than staying with the group. However, this blew up in their face when the group found them and, out of spite, decided to burn down their home and kidnap Marus. She wasn't sure if the group had intended on letting the fire spread to the rest of the village or not, but they'd gotten what they wanted regardless.
"So... I guess we're on the same page now. We're both trying to rescue Marus." He said, nodding. "Alright, then, enough waiting around! We've got a lot of ground to cover before nightfall!"
----
There wasn't something quite right about how things went once Ogbonna and Marus' mother found the bandits. First of all, Marus wasn't there, and secondly, the bandits were comprised of four young people who already looked injured. All in all, the battle had been straight up weird and ended poorly for them both, with Marus' mother beaten silly and Ogbonna being held down by a really unhappy Massif. Nothing made sense anymore, not at all. All Ogbonna knew was that this Massif was huge, shouting, and spitting at his face.
"I'M DEAF, YOU IDIOT!" He screamed back, once the Massif seemed to pause in his yelling. His words made the Massif's face fall and, slowly, he nodded. What? What was being understood that Ogbonna couldn't hear? Suddenly, the Massif picked him up, draped him over his shoulder, and placed him with the others in the group. Everyone else looked to him curiously as the Massif spoke, and eventually a girl from the group rose and began touching Ogbonna's head.
"Hey! Wait! That's where I was hit, be careful!" He cried, wincing as a cold sensation moved along the back of his head. Was she healing him? He looked to the rest of the group and arched an eyebrow to the Massif, only to pause as the first voice he'd heard in three days brushed across his ears.
"C-a-yo-heme?" The girl asked.
"...Barely, just, barely." Ogbonna replied, rubbing at his neck. "You sound like you're buried under a pile of rocks and mumbling."
He paused, his gaze moving across the group again, and slouched in embarrassment.
"Uh, I have no idea what's going on here." He said, his lips pursing. "I thought we were chasing after bandits, and Marus was supposed to be with them... You guys don't look like bandits... I'm really confused."
The group quickly began to chatter, which sounded like a mess of garbled nonsense to Ogbonna. It made his head hurt and he quickly went to cover his ears as the group suddenly hushed. The Massif had made his way in front of Ogbonna and hushed the group after seeing his distress, and placed his hand on Ogbonna's head.
"M-orry ki-bu- sh-icked-ou." The Massif said. Ogbonna tried his best to make out what he'd said, but didn't quite understand. The Massif repeated himself a few times and continued to explain the situation, only for Ogbonna to completely lose his hearing again towards the end. From then forward the conversation went through writing again, and finally Ogbonna began to make some sense of the situation again. Marus' mother had lied to Ogbonna and tricked him into letting her follow him by saying that she was looking for Marus. As it turns out, Marus' mother had set the blaze on the house during an argument over Marus' chosen lover, a male among the group in front of him. Luckily, the group was there to rescue Marus and his father and get away before his mother could catch up to them, and led to a safe-house in the mountains. Marus' mother had been the one to smash the barrels so they couldn't put out the blaze, which lined up with what Ogbonna had found that morning. However, the explanation for Ogbonna's head injury and resulting deafness was something the Massif apologized for greatly. He had been chasing Marus' mother and, in the darkness, confused Ogbonna with her. Ogbonna laughed this off and forgave him.
"Wow, this is... Insane." He sighed, shaking his head. "And I thought this would be a rescue mission, it seems you guys have that covered! ... Can you still take me up to Marus just so I know he and his father are okay? I can't just go home without that information."
The group smiled at him and agreed, much to his pleasure, and they began walking up toward the safe-house where Marus and his father were staying. It was a bit of a trek for Ogbonna's body and the chill was nothing to be laughed at, but once they reached the house, Ogbonna was more than eager to see if Marus was alright. He bounded through the door, grinned, and found himself face to face with a large group of people. He noticed Marus in the middle of the group, his hands bound and face taped, and felt his skin crawl. He'd been tricked again!
"Why are you doing this?" He screamed, flashing a glare to the group behind him, only to find that they were being restrained and bound just like Marus was. What the hell was going on? Was Marus' mother telling the truth or was the group they attacked telling the truth? He didn't have time to think any more on the subject, he was being surrounded! He managed to get some hits in, but was ultimately overcome and tied up like the rest. All he could do from where he lay was watch as Marus was untied, ungagged, and given once overs by the rest of the group. Why... Why were they untying Marus? Nothing made sense again! His eyes filled with tears.
"Please, let me go!" He cried, looking up to Marus. "Marus, it's me, Oggie! Mycah's son, remember me? Please, tell them I have nothing to do with this! Help! I'm so confused!"
But Marus simply shook with fear as the group stood in front of him and shouted back at Ogbonna. Ogbonna tried to shout back, but after all the fighting and shouting, his energy was spent. His voice trailed off and his grip on situation slipped. Soon enough, he passed out, slumped over the shoulder of the Massif tied up next to him, and prayed that the past three days had been nothing but a dream.
(Word count: 210 cool
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Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 1:29 pm
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