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 Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 10:16 pm
There were Radaku behind the trees, assessing him with glowing eyes. He was formidable, but - they could see - he was weakening. He would be easy now that he had been run. They had lost packmembers because of him, but sometimes you had to lose to gain. They barked at each other, coordinating, before they erupted from the trees, surrounding him on all sides. They were not going to let him attack with his hand-fangs again. They would take him down, and the twoleg pup as well, and take back their own pup in the process.
A cry came from the brush behind Ruelash, and a fireball rushed out, blasting one of the Radaku with explosive force. As the Radaku recoiled, nursing its burned side, a figure stepped out into the singed air, a shifter male - his hands crackling menacingly with elemental magic. He gestured, a lightning bolt streaking from his hands to strike another Radaku, who yelped and backed away.
The Radaku yipped and called among themselves, drawing back. A two legger that threw fire. This changed the equation. They backed down, looking regretfully back at the pup that they had to leave behind. They couldn't get the pup back now, not without heavy casualties, and they knew it.
The Shifter kept his magic up until the Radaku left, before slumping, seemingly exhausted. He took a deep breath before he approached the little girl. "I-Ikkio...?" he said, almost puzzled, his face blossoming into confused horror. "It is you. S-sweetheart, why aren't you with mommy?" he gathered the girl into a hug, "A-are you all right? Are you hurt? Oh baby... you could have been k-k-killed!" he said, hsi voice shaking horribly as he hugged his child to him.
Ikkio watched with facination as the Radaku leapt from the bushes. It occurred to her that the man who had gotten her her Radaku could die, and the thought intrigued her. She had never seen someone die before.
Her heart raced as it never had before as the flames licked at the Radaku and they left. She stared at the shifter man, not recognizing him at first, cloaked in magic as he was. She was still stunned when he began to talk and when he finally hugged her. Then she did know who he was, and was amazed at how different he could be. That was interesting, more interesting than the man had ever been before. But now she knew - he could be interesting, too.
"Daddy...?" she said, halfheartedly hugging him. It was biroki her previously boring father, and she knew she was in trouble.
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Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2014 4:12 pm
Ruelash tried to go after the running Radaku, but he felt lightheaded all of a sudden, dizziness threatening to overtake him. he leaned against a tree, willing the dizziness and creeping eerie chill to go away. "G' away." he growled, managing to glare at Biroki, "Those were my prey" but he couldn't really summon the energy to be too angry. Mostly, he was just mildly upset. His eyes slid exhaustedly to the child, before returning, with some effort, to the shifter man. Well, the brat was safe. That was something.
Direk gave the shifter a far fiercer glare of her own. Not that she wasn't happy that the fangy, disgusting predators were away, but this one had made fire appear, making him a threat. Also, she didn't like anybody, so that was a mark against him to start.
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Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 7:05 am
"I'm s-sure they were." Biroki said, giving the man a once over. "Are you all right?" Stupid question... of course he wasn't. He was covered in injuries.
Ikkio knew she was in trouble. She knew she was in so much trouble. "Daddy..." she said, hugging her father's leg and glaring at Ruelash. She didn't want to be in trouble and she wanted the ice man to go away now that he was done being useful. "He's a bad man, Daddy. He hurt me." which wasn't entirely untrue - he certainly looked like a bad man, and he had knocked her out of the tree. On cue, she started crying, a skill she had aquired very early on.
Maybe, if Daddy was angry enough at this other man, she would get in less trouble. She sort of wanted to see Daddy's reaction. Ooo! Maybe the bad man would get burned!
Biroki looked down at his daughter, shocked, then back at the man, appraising him with intense and critical eyes. "Is that so." he said, his hands tightening on his staff.
Ikkio, safely out of sight, gave Ruelash a brilliantly victorious smile, her eyes glittering with cold mischief.
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Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 7:12 am
Ruelash felt dizzy. Ruelash felt sick. Ruelash felt too exhausted to be sick. He was vaguely aware that he wasn't bleeding as much as he should be.
"Of course I aint, ya stupid..." he reeled, clutching against the tree, his eyes wide. "Oog..." he felt so heavy, so cold, so tired...
He managed a bloodshot and incredulous look at the little girl. "Are ya... Wha'?!" What the hell was this? One moment she was crying and the next.. smiling? What was she, Bergchi lady of death? Pff, no.
"Didn't lay a..." he trailed off, collapsing finally onto the ground. The soft, soft ground. The soft soft warm ground. "Din'n touch her." he mumbled, struggling to keep his eyes open.
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Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 7:24 am
Biroki watched as the young man collapsed. "Ikkio..." he said, shaking his head, "I don't think this man hurt you." The man was covered in grave injuries, while his daughter was unharmed. "Or, if he did, he was protecting you." He preferred to think that she had misunderstood, though he had long suspected that the girl lied a lot. That aside, the man's wounds were very bad and he'd lost a lot of blood. If he was let be, he would likely die. Biroki knelt next to Ruelash, his healing magic flowing from him into the weak body. "Ikkio, stay near, all right?" he said, casting his spells.
Ikkio hugged her Radaku to her and pouted as her daddy disbelieved her and started helping the man. No. No no no. That wasn't how it was supposed to work! She stomped at the ground, frustrated. "But he knocked me off a tree! An' he grabbed me!" she said, glaring at Biroki.
She was curious, though. Was the dumb man going to die? That would be interesting!
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Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 6:08 pm
Ruelash half listened to the little bratling prattle on her... well... not-exactly-lies. He wanted to say that she'd deserved it for trying to break their deal and for generally being a little annoying imp. But - bergchi take him - he felt so comfortable just then, between the soft, earthy (or bloody?) forest floor and the soothing healing magic that was making him, bit by bit, more alive. He couldn't summon up enough energy to glower, let along move his face from the mud, let alone tell off a toddler. He did grumble a little, though, at how much annoyance he had to put up with when dealing with other people. And groan as his muscles and veins and sinews were knit together by magic. He could at least make those small sounds.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 9:43 pm
Biroki was thankful that his magic seemed to be working. It was not easy to get his magic to heal instead of burn, but this time it was doing its job. He finished his work and gave the young man a pat on the shoulder. "There. You should be much better now. I'd suggest taking it easy for a while, but y-you'll live..."
Ikkio watched sullenly. "Daddy, lets go." she said, hoping to distract him from the man. She had what she wanted. "I need to feed him!" she patted the radaku's still-squirming head. She needed to feed him so he would recognize her as master. And be HERS. Plus, it Wasn't good if Daddy talked to the man. She didn't know why - just that it was a very bad idea for her to let it happen. She tugged at her father's pants with her free hand. "Goooo..."
"In a moment, sweetheart..." he said, standing up, hugging her shoulder to his hip absently, "So, Ice T-tribesman, what were you doing out here to start? Do you have family here?" It woudl be... interesting... if this was a relative of Zuris, hitherto unknown. He had no idea if there were other Zenans besides his wife in the jungle, but Jahuar hid stranger things...
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2014 1:15 pm
Ruelash still didn't feel like moving, but he at least felt alive. He almost didn't feel like staying still, so he pulled himself to a sitting position and glared balefully at Biroki. "No family." he growled. He didn't quite resent the mage - or sage? Ruelash had no idea. - for saving him, but he was pretty close. "I'm lookin' for a beast tamer named Lasarra. Wanted to ask her... somethin." he looked away, his eyes falling on Direk. Alive? Yes. That was good. "Do ya know where I kin find her?" he figured he might as well ask the man. Why not.
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 6:46 am
Lasarra? "Yes, I do." Biroki stood, crossing his arms and looking mildly at the young man. "She doesn't live too f-far away. You just head..." he pointed to the North, "... and keep to the p-path to Emeka. She lives between here and there." he nodded, "I think she may have a sign up, though the j-jungle tends to overrun things. She has a lot of business, and is a n-nice lady to boot, so I think you can f-find your way there from the path..." he looked over at Direk. "Is she yours?" he asked. It was an odd beast, but he and his wife kept a raoti and a mammu in the tropics. He'd seen odder.
Ikkio glared at Ruelash, daring him to tell on her. If he did she'd kill him. She would. she thought, trying to bore that promise into him with her little eyes. She didn't know how to kill him, or even how to actually kill, but she'd do it, she would. Or she'd have daddy do it. With fire.
"No." she piped up when her father asked. She knew she shouldn't push things but she just couldn't resist. "She's mine. He gave her to me," She was mean, but Ikkio wanted the black Aldabuck. She anted her very badly. It was worth the gamble. "She's mine." she reiterated, smiling slightly, her gaze intense and daring.
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 6:58 am
Oh good. Lasarra didn't live too far away? So he could stumble there. Good. Good Really good. "Emeka? Path? That one, the big 'un?" The one he'd been on? That was good too. He'd been going the right way in this wet hell. He knew the rest - she was busy and a nice lady and he'd certainly paid her plenty for Direk.
"Yeh. She's mine." a fit of coughing, as his lungs healed from their beating in the residual magic, stopped his rudeness. And you can't have her. he merely thought. He stretched and tested his arms and legs experimentally, wary of the tingling he felt as feeling came back to him.
And then the little runt said something and all care was forgotten. He leapt to his feet and attempted to lunge at her bare handed, his face twisted in wrath. "YE LITTLE LYIN' b***h" he roared "SHE EN'T YOURS." hadn't he told her that from the start?!
He tripped over himself, his newly healed muscles and ligaments and blood vessels stiff - temporarily - from the magic and exhaustion. He managed to right himself, snarling, as vicious as a wild animal, at the little girl. His eyes growing wider and more wild as he came to a realization. "And you'da got me lost in th' woods, to, Pointing me wrong like that!" he growled, part amazed at the whole thing. He made a grab for her. "You little..."
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 7:09 am
Initially, Ikkio was afraid when the man lunged at her. He was a scary man, and quite big, and he had killed a radaku. But when he tripped, she managed to resist the urge to laugh at him. As it was, her small giggle was lost in the man's cursing. She gave him a smug and victoriously regal look from behind her father's leg. She'd won, he'd lost, and Daddy was gonna kill him now.
And that meant she got the Radaku AND the aldabuck AND a good story to tell her Mommy and her Sister to get them to be all nice to her. Yes, the story about the bad man who tried to hurt her. She could almost crow with laughter. But that would ruin anuything. Instead, she would watch him burn.
Biroki slammed the man back down with his staff, striking him again until he was sure the man wasn't getting up for a while. He'd zapped him a bit for good measure.
The air around him crackled with magic and repressed fury, and it was hot, as hot as the blazing Tale sun and just as unforgiving. Biroki - mild Biroki - stood straight and tall, holding his daughter protectively to him with one arm, while the other held the staff up for another strike.
"How dare you." he growled, "Call my daughter such names." he raised his staff up high, and it glowed with firelight. "I am Biroki, Sage of the Shifter tribe, and I will not let her be tormented by such insults." He slammed the staff down, striking the ground beside Ruelash and sending wisps of steam from the heated mud. "You know where you are going." he said, his voice quiet, his eyes still glittering with that inner fire even as he rbrought the staff back to a nonthreatening position. "And I leave you and your beast to it." He took Ikkio by the hand. "Now be out of my settlement." he said. His words still spoke of fire and death, but his aura was calmer now, less deadly but still imposing. "And let me not see your face again." He turned and walked away, Ikkio in tow.
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Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 7:00 am
Ruelash watched them walk away, still stunned from the lightning. Eventually, he struggled to his feet, gazing lingeringly down the path they had taken. He grinned. That had been amazing. That had been such a rush, to be at the verge of death, with that burning, vicious aura. He hadn't been scared. He'd been excited. He wanted to fight him, but the sage and that lying little brat child had long vanished into the trees.
Hmph. He grunted, dissappointed. He had what he neded, anyway. Time to find Lassarra. He brushed himself off and set out in the direction the sage had pointed.
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 5:10 pm
As they walked away, Ikkio was puzzled. Why hadn't daddy killed the man? Why were they just walking away? She didn't understand why her father had done what he had done. The man had tried to attack her and had called her bad names. Daddy was a scary man when he was angry. It wasn't often that she saw it, but sparks should have flown, literally. And Daddy had been angry. So why was the man not dead and burned to bits? She cuddled her Radaku to her, looking down moodily as she was tugged away. She felt her father's grip tighten around her hand and she looked up at him, surprised.
Biroki's teeth were grit as he led his daughter home. He was fighting to push down his anger and think about what had just happened. The thoughts he needed to think boiled and bubbled - he'd need to have a moment to sit down, cool down, and think to figure out if he had done the right thing by letting the man live, and this was not the moment for that. He had to get his girl home.
But one thing was clear, very clear, in his mind, and it was not right, not right at all. He squeezed his daughter's hand and stopped. "Ikkio..." he fought to keep his voice neutral, but there was a bit of magical residue in it, some of the fire's heat and the lightning's edge. "Ikkio, it is not good to lie." he said. He squeezed her hand again, for emphasis, looking down at his daughter and holding her eyes with his own. "It is a very bad thing to do" he said. His voice felt oddly calm and clear to him, despite the edge it carried, almost as if it wasn't his own. But it was, and he had to say what he was saying, and he had to say it now, before she forgot. "and you are not to do it ever again." he squeezed her hand one more time, as if to drive home the point, before he turned back to the path and continued moving, her in tow.
Ikkio felt something inside of her still like a small bird before a predator as her eyes met her fathers. She saw a seriousness in them, and there was a clarity that scared her. He sees me she thought, momentarily afraid, He knows. she flinched as they moved on, watching her father warily out of the corner of her eye.
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