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 Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 4:49 pm
Hunting a Dragon
837 words
Suluksati and Mahrani were out, but this time they were not hunting game to fill their bellies. They had been told that morning that, if they brought back a dragon orb each to present to the elders, they would be allowed to perform the clan's Ritual Argument during the beginning of the Blue Moon, which started in a week.
The sisters were excited: the Argument meant that they would be considered adults of their tribe, and allowed to do all sorts of things that had previously been unallowed to them. As adults, they could hunt in groups or find a mate or apprentice under the elders for war or philosophy, the twin passions of the tribe. It was an exciting prospect, so the sisters wasted no time in setting out to hunt down some dragons.
So far, they were doing well. The scent of not one but two Ysali dragons was in the air, and there were recent clawmarks on the trees, the signs of a Ysali pack's territory.
Suluksati still did not feel entirely happy about her adventure with the group and the deaths of the Peisio dragons. Over the weeks she had pondered it, she had realized that what had bothered her the most about the whole thing was at how lightly the adults had done it. They had taken so many lives without seeming to care.
Even with prey animals, there was a sort of respect: you don't take too many at once, and you didn't take the young or healthy; The old and the sick were taken so that the prey could replenish itself, and their hunting grounds would continue on for a long time yet. There had been none of that respect with the dragons, as if they were somehow not due the same consideration as other living things. And yet, they were enormously powerful and beautiful creatures. Why then, not? Why had her tribe gone so far out of the way to kill them? Why did they not care?
“Sulu! Look!” hissed Mahrani. Suluksati, who had fallen behind slightly in her thoughts, caught up. There, in a meadow, were two sinuous and very green dragons. They were sitting on one of the large flat stones found frequently in the Serenian forests. “Two dragons, one for each of us!”
Suluksati looked at the dragons with some misgiving. They were next to each other, their bodies touching and tails intertwined, implying intimacy. She shifted awkwardly from paw to paw. “I'm not sure... Maybe we should leave them be.”
“Oh come on, Sulu.” hissed Mahrani, “Don't be an uruu's a**. They're distracted – we can take them by surprise.” She snorted, grinning excitedly. “We won't get a chance like this again, Sulu. Come on. Lets take them out, get the orbs, and go home.”
Suluksati looked at her sister, then at the dragons, feeling a deep sense of unease. Her sister was right – catching a dragon unaware was the safest way to get their orbs, and it was difficult to do. Seren's fortune was smiling down on them by producing these two distracted dragons for them to kill. But... she watched as they nuzzled each other... was it right to attack them now? “Maha...” she began, about to protest, but her sister was already sneaking up to the pair. Suluksati sighed and followed suit, creeping along the ground like a pale shade.
With a warning flick of her tail, Mahrani pounced and Suluksati pounced with her, tackling the dragons and gouging deep into the pair's flesh before the dragons could react. The dragon's roared in shock and fury, but they had been taken by surprise and the two khehora had the upper claw. Mahrani's sharp fangs ended one of the dragons as Sulu grappled with the other, tumbling off of the rock with it before, with a swipe of her claws, tearing through its thick skin and into its heart.
“Are you all right?” asked Mahrani, peering down from the rock as the dragons turned to ash and left their gleaming green souls behind. Suluksati picked up the soul in her mouth and nodded. “Good.” said Mahrani, pleased, “Look at us. We have dragon orbs. Just one step more, Sulu. Just one more thing we have to do, and then we won't be children anymore.” Suluksati nodded as Mahrani picked up her own dragon orb.
She watched her sister take off in flight towards home and hopped onto the rock to do the same, looking down at it for a moment. The rock, once pristine white and the site of romance, was now stained red and the site of death. Her crest flattened in sadness and, suddenly, the orb in her mouth felt dirty and wrong. She flapped her wings hurriedly and took off for home, following her sister's light green shape, but the bloody, bereft boulder stayed in her mind. It remained, even as the elders praised her and told her to prepare for the day of the Argument.
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Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 4:52 pm
Arguing my Case
1108 words
Suluksati wasn't sure if she was ready. When she had first started thinking about undergoing the Ritual Argument, she'd had no idea what she would argue about. She had thought about it and thought about it but had given up, deciding that the difficulty was why it was a test for adulthood – only an adult could thin of something to argue about and had the kind of thick-headed patience to do it for hours.
Now, though, she did have something to argue about, a topic that had been unexpected in origin but had grown until it had consumed her heart: Why did Khehora hunt dragons? It was a question she had never heard asked or answered, and she had tried to find the answer for herself – to no avail.
That meant that it was a perfect topic for the Argument, and hopefully she would find her answers there, in that rite of passage. She and her sister were to present their topics on the same day, though her sister would be going first. She had no idea what her sister wanted to talk about, not even a hint, and she wasn't sure she cared.
As Suluksati approached the cliff where the ritual would take place, she looked nervously at the elders and adults arrayed there to watch them. Her sister was up front, about to present, and Sulu gave her a nod of encouragement that was gratefully returned. She didn't really listen as her sister presented something about waterfalls and how they represented something or other. She felt guilty about not listening as her sister discussed it with the elders, but her own thoughts occupied her. Soon, it would be her turn, and she did not want to mess up.
Too soon, then, her name was called. She loped into the stage, glancing at the sun as it sank halfway down the sky, and then at her sister. Neither brought her any confidence as she cleared her throat.
“Elders, I am before you today to as a question, one I have never before heard asked.” she began, “I am young and inexperienced and far from wise, but from your wisdom I have learned that the heart is trustworthy in ways that experience is not. It is my heart, the seat of my soul and the light granted to me by Seren, that asks this question today...” Suluksati paused to take a breath, swallowing her fear. Well, that was the flowery introduction out of the way; time for the question. “Why do we hunt dragons?”
The elders murmured and chittered. “Well, child, they are ferocious beasts.” explained one of the elders, “We hunt them because they are dangerous.”
“But we do not hunt down baowi or borgnah, and they are also dangerous.” retorted Suluksati, “We do not kill many of those when we find them, because doing so would upset the balance of nature.”
“It is true” said one of the elders, “That to kill too many of a creature simply for what it is is wrong...”
“Yet we set out and hunt dragons without regard to their numbers?” Suluksati could see her sister's eyes widen, and her head shake from side to side. Drop it, Sulu she seemed to say, Drop it. Let it go.
Suluksati did not want to. She wasn't going to drop the subject.
“Dragons are different. They attack without provokation...”
“So do Magescans.” Sulu replied, “But we do not hunt them down and we certainly do not hunt them for sport. Besides, the dragons are provoked – we enter their territories and hunting grounds, after all. The dragons have every right to attack.”
“They do not.” thundered an adult, their massive body adding extra oomph to their sounds, “Dragons are arrogant. They have their lands, but it is not enough. They think all of Magesc is their territory: this, the power they weild, and their sheer size make them dangerous. They must be hunted to keep their numbers down.”
“Again, then why do we not also hunt Magescans? They think they are the masters of our world, and they hunt our kind and steal our eggs.” the more Suluksati spoke, the more she felt that what she was saying made sense, and the more frustrated she became with her elders.
“That is not the same. Magescans are people. Dragons are not.” said the elder. The absurd simplicity of their argument lit a fury under her tail.
“We came from dragons, and we are people. Does that not also make them people?” she said, struggling to keep the growl from her voice, “If we are civilized, we are people, correct? They have groups they live in, they have speech, they have a leader. Is that not civilized? How are they not people?” She hissed quietly, “And if they are people, how can we kill them so carelessly”
“Dragons are not people. They are barbaric animals that upset the natural order of things with their cruelty and magic” said one of the elders, “We were tamed from them...”
“You mean we were 'civilized' by the Magescans?!” snarled Suluksati, “That we needed the Magescans's gods-granted influence to become people?! That makes very little sense. We are our own people, and we became such on our own.” She forced her voice to remain calm and collected – this was a civilized argument. But her raised crest betrayed her frustrated anger. “Were dragons not the first inhabitants of our world? If so, then they do not upset the natural order – they are the natural order, the balance in its most primal and unspoiled of forms.” she looked at the elders with defiance. “So. I ask again: Why do we hunt them?!”
“Suluksati.” murmured an elder, their voice quiet but stern. “You have passed your rite, and are considered an adult before the tribe. Stand down.”
“But... My question.” she said, surprised.
“Your questions and statements are noted, but the fact remains: it is tradition. In the end, we hunt the dragons because it is so.”
“But...”
“You may go, Suluksati.”
She stalked from the precipice, her crest falling. She was supposed to join the crowd and watch the next applicant make their case, but instead she kept walking, past the adults, past the onlookers, and past her sister.
Mahrani moved to block her. “What in Oblivion was that?!” she hissed, “Are you trying to embarrass us both?!”
“I don't want to talk right now...” snapped Suluksati, “Leave me alone.” and she stalked off to their lair to sulk.
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Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 4:54 pm
Turning Away
751 words
It had taken a while, but Suluksati had come to a decision. Her resolutions had been fuzzy on that day when she had seen the slaughter of the Peisio dragons, but they had since strengthened into a resolve that left nothing to her uncertain imagination.
She would have gathered up what possessions she had, but it became apparent that she had none. No items, no ties, nothing. There was nothing to keep her here. That was it, then; she would be going. She stretched her wings and readied them to lift her into the air.
“Sulu?” she turned, tensely, towards the voice.
She was about to do something rash and foolish, but it felt so right.
“Mahrani.” she said quietly, “I did not expect you back so soon...” Perhaps there was indeed something to bind her to her homeland. Perhaps there was one final voice of reason – her sister, her companion and friend from the moment she was shelled - that would stop her.
“What are you doing?” asked Mahrani, sitting nearby, her tail twitching with unreadable emotion.
“I'm... going.” said Suluksati, thinking about how she felt, and realizing that, for all her certainty of moments before, she didn't know how she felt at all.
“Going... where, Sulu?”
“Away.” the word hurt in her mouth. With it, she saw the loneliness of the path ahead, should she choose to do it. Did she really want to be a lone, hopeless hero? Didn't she want people? Didn't she want love and life? Suddenly, she really wanted her sister to talk her out of it.
“But where? And what will you do?”
“I don't know.” said Sulu, her wings drooping. What was she doing? Was she really sure?
“Yes you do. You always know what you're doing, Sulu.”
“I don't know where I'm going.” she looked at her sister sadly, “But...” she admitted, “I do know what I'm doing.”
“Oh? Well thats a start. What are you doing? What is going on?”
“Rani... I'm going to save the dragons.” it sounded stupid even as she said it, and her wings fell into a slump, “I'm going to protect them from others and themselves.”
“What.” Mahrani stared at Suluksati, “You jest.” Suluksati shook her head, feeling very small and foolish. It was a fools errand. Her sister would tell her so, and then she would put the notion aside and go dine with her. “You are mad.” The flat tone of her sister's voice was like a slap to the face. Suluksati looked up at her, startled and hurt. “You crazy vildean-brain... you're actually serious.” Mahrani growled, her voice growing scornful. “First you embarrass yourself and me and everybody in front of the elders and then you decide to do this?! You are crazy – crazy and stupid!”
Mahrani was angry and, suddenly Suluksati was angry too, angrier and more sure of anything in her life, as if it had all finally slid into place. “Yes! I'm serious!” she snarled, “And I don't care how embarrassed you were, it was a question that needed to be asked! And nobody answered it.”
“Yes they did! Dragons need to die. Its tradition. Thats all you need to know or care about.”
Suluksati rounded on her sister, her teeth bared. “No. Its. Not. We were taught to ask questions and discuss our world. What did you discuss? Waterfalls. Wonderful. I asked a important question, I did not get a proper answer, and now you call me insane for asking?!”
“Yes!” hissed Mahrani, “You want to protect dragons? Why? How? They'll only eat you if you try!”
“Want to bet on it, Rani? I can handle myself.” Suluksati stretched her wings again, “How? I will find a way! Why? Because it is right!” she flapped once, warming up her muscles. “I thought we fought for what was right, Rani. Do we?!”
“This isn't right. It's stupid and you know it.” snapped Mahrani, “I can't believe you. Fine!” she turned away, “Leave! Do your stupid quest and never come back!”
“I won't!” called Suluksati. And then she took off and flew away, knowing it to be true: she would never return, one way or another. Her quest was stupid, foolish, and insane, but the young orakovan knew, deep in the light of her soul, that it was the right thing to do. It was the only thing she could do.
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Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:01 pm
Family Outing
Eowyn, Mara Hunt: Suluksati, Samael, Kekeovonnai, Vazarri
198 words
Suluksati had wondered where Samael lived for some time. On the times that she had fluttered onto Eowyn, she had tried to seek it out, even encountering clanmates of his from time to time.
But now, finally, she was going to find it.
She laughed, inwardly and bitterly, at the irony of going there with his children. She had, she realized, been attracted to him for some time and, well... If he had a mate, and it was as stable as it seemed, then she was likely out of luck.
A shame her feelings wouldn't just blow away in the breeze, like so much else in her life, but she supposed that was what feelings did, stick where they weren't welcome.
She was Happy for Samael. She liked Samael, and he had beautiful children.
Who was she, an insane khehora on a ridiculous quest, to stand between that?
In the end, of course, it did not matter. There were more important things in this world, this present, this eternity than unrequited feelings. Like... the stone monsters, and protecting orakoi from them.
As she looked down at the two orakoi bouncing beside their father, she smiled. It was for the best..
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Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:10 pm
Overtures
Taming, Serenia: Giogimar - Failure
174 words
The creature was right, of course. If she could not bring herself to go to one, she must go to the other to get the power she sought, and she did seek it. Very much so.
Just because she feared the dark land did not mean that she could not visit, briefly, and undergo the ritual. She would have to confront her fear eventually, of course, and going before the blood moon would help a lot, she was sure.
She just wished it was during the blue moon instead, when her magic would be heightened, but she knew she could not wait. No. She had to undergo the ritual soon, or else she might not survive to do it.
She left the vicinity of the khehora tribe's territory and set off North-Northwest, towards Eowyn and, eventually, Soldul, taking flight over the ocean that day and resting, briefly, on the way on one of the small isles in between.
She would do this.
She would gain this power.
She no longer cared about the cost.
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Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:23 pm
Protectors of Large and Small
Battle, Eowyn, Raemos vs Suluksati: Victory: Suluksati
407 words
Suluksati kept going, a ball of light until night fell, forcing her back into her khehora shape. She righted herself with a few frantic flaps of her wings and was soon gliding again, her route as straight as an arrow towards the Northwestern edge of Eowyn. The first thing she noticed once the immediate threat of falling was out of the way was how thirsty she was: incredibly, impossibly so. Her mouth felt as parched as the desert itself, and it was starting to make itself known in her joints and sinews. She had to find water. She had to rest.
Fortunately, she smelled – just below – a small amount of water. She landed, desperately seeking, and came across a well, covered to protect it from the sandstorms.
She manipulated it awkwardly with her claws, dragging at the bucket on the line as she had watched the magescans do and, having managed to not snap the rope, gulped down the water with sloppy indulgence, feeling its coolness trickle into her parched and empty stomach.
Gods... Seren... She loved water.
She thought, as she rested, briefly, from lapping up the water of Raemos. When had the kind little magescan grown up – into a fighter, no less? She had thought that, like her friend Esmeralda, the boy would have been a scholar, or a philosopher, not a fighter.
Yet it had clearly been him, and he had fought – and admirably so – against her, a powerful force to be reckoned with.
She sighed sadly and lowered the bucket down for another drink. Well, that was a shame for him. She would rather he have taken a more peaceful path in life. She should have worked on him more, influenced him more. But she had been too polite, too shy...
No longer.
She would go to Soldul.
She would complete the ritual.
And she would make sure that no child she met would ever become a dragon-killing warrior.
She would make sure.
She put the bucket back and, as she turned, her muscles bunched to launch, her eyes caught a sign, half buried by the sand.
“Medrol Ranch” she thought it said, though her ability to understand written magescan was mediocre at best.
”Hmm.” the name seemed familiar, but she could not place it. Ah well.
And, with a great and mighty burst of her powerful wings, she was off, back on her journey to Soldul.
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Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 4:34 pm
The Power to Protect
Khehorian Ritual
123 cWords
Suluksati felt newly born, as if she had never truly seen the world before now.
Everything was clearer and yet it was also more hopeful.
She had power now, and she knew how to use it. Rhazes had helped her figure out how to walk and had offered her clothes – just a pair of pants – but she had declined it.
She had thanked him politely and then, awkward in her new form, had left for the coast, to return to Eowyn and seek out Toki or Samael, whichever she encountered first: She wanted to show them what she had become.
And then, she would begin her quest again. This time, as she had promised the dragon's souls, she would not fail.
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 2:41 pm
Moo
Suluksati and Avani
222 Words
Suluksati settled into the comfort of the shack, nibbling on a piece of jerky that she held between her claws as she curled up in a feathery ball and prepared to return to her much - needed rest. Avani, the young Orderite, had been kind to provide such a place for her, and Suluksati was grateful for it's safety and warmth and comfort, something she was often lacking in. She wondered how she could repay this great kindness – certainly not with what she had on her, unless her discarded feathers were worth something to the Orderite. It would have to be later, alas. She would have to look out for an opportunity to give kindness to the orderite, because Suluksati would not leave such a debt unpaid. If she did, then she would have to admit that she had lost all civility, and that was something she refused to acknowledge.
No. she thought, settling in, her eyelids drooping, she had been quite civilized. Unlike other khehora of Avani's aquaintence, apparently... well, if Sulu was in the area, and if Avani was being inconvenienced by some other feral lout, then Suluksati would be happy to step in and teach them a thing or two about civility. She snorted at the thought, and allowed herself to drift into the blissful arms of sleep...
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 2:48 pm
Wreckage
Adventure, Suluksati and Esmeralda
137 Words
Suluksati, in a brief moment of solitude before her friend returned, thought about the meaning of what she had seen. And done.
The khehora she had fought had been of her old tribe, her sister among them. She had clawed them, rent their flesh, killed them... all to protect a village of magescians. She shook her head, unbelieving as she cradled it in her claws. When had she become so skewed? When had her own kind become less important than another kind? Why had she gone all that way for something she cared little for? For Magescians? For creatures who were not dragons or children?
She didn't know why, but no matter, it was done. She hummed quietly as she heard Esmeralda's return. What was done was done, and she would have to settle the why later.
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2015 9:13 pm
Towering to the Skies
Kekeovonnai, Suluksati, Malta
252 Words
Suluksati didn't know how she would have responded if the pudgy alchemist had told her that they had been hunting dragons but she was glad that she didn't have to find out. It was always nice, to her, when she met someone who was not hunting dragons. When someone was honestly threatened by a dragon, and had not brought that danger upon themselves, Suluksati was happy to intervene on their behalf. Her goal was not a world ruled by dragons, but one where life was harmonious with magic, as it was meant to be.
She smiled at Keke as he bounded forward into the family lair, pleased with how he had helped her with the rescue. He was growing up, and she was grateful that she was there to see it. It was almost as if they were her own family, her own clutch, and that made her unbelievably happy. No, not happy... at peace. Even if they didn't love her, that was fine – she could see it in their eyes. She would never be their mother, but she was proud of the two younglings all the same.
She had to be.
After all, she would have no hatchlings of her own. Unless... Unless Samael's behavior was anything like it seemed.
Unlikely. She was honored that he let a madwoman like herself near his children. For now, she was content to protect them and to hear their stories, and to know she had some part in them. Any part at all.
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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2015 6:34 pm
The Great Dragon Extermination
Suluksati and Maeron
145 Words
Suluksati crash landed in the Serenian forest, clawing her way beneath a sheltering rock to allow herself to heal. Misery and rage dueled within her, and blood stained her claws and feathers.
She had failed.
As they had before, and as they would be again, the dragons of the lake had been slaughtered, mercilessly and cruelly slain for protecting territory rightly theirs. Their souls had rained into it, taken by the water and by their two legged murderers.
Seeing that khehora on their side, knowing that – bonded and not alike – her kind was as ruthlessly aligned as theirs, she had felt so horribly betrayed. She knew she was crossing a line, a line she could never re-cross.
And she didn't care. She had thus far stopped herself from killing, but she could see now: that was the only way to stop the murderers.
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Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2016 1:25 pm
On The Winds
535 Words
Sulu glided mournfully on the breeze. It was the dark of the Blood Moon, a momentary reprieve from it's hateful rays. Suluksati, of course, was alone. She always was, and would always be. Occasionally, a young apprentice would fall in over their heads in a dragon hunt, and she would aid them. The hope inside her, that maybe she could change them or drive them away from the path of the hunt, would never die. No matter how many times they ignored her. No matter how much dragon blood was spilled. Suluksati had to hope. She had to.
Suluksati's quest had brought her into many people's lives, but never to stay. Always, it was temporary. Always, she was disappointed. Not a one, with the exceptions of Esmeralda and Samael, could be considered her friend, and many were enemies. Some even hunted her, like they hunted the dragons.
Fools.
The thought was not without irony. She herself was a hopeless hero on a hopeless quest, a queen of fools. Suluksati could not delude herself: the use of dragon souls for power was firmly entrenched in even the primitive cultures of the beast races, and the dragons dug their own grave when they attacked settlements. What else could those residents do but defend themselves? What could a parent do but destroy the threat to their child? Suluksati understood why the hunts happened, and she understood, also, why she couldn't stop them.
But she also knew she had to try. Her heart told her that the hunts were wrong and disrespectful, foolhardy and dangerous, and certainly done more often than they needed to be. Philosophically, morally, intrinsically, she felt they were wrong. It was her fate to feel that, and her fate to fail, but she knew that, when a dragon devoured her or one of her hunters murdered her, she would have died doing what she felt was right.
However...
She knew this was not the case with her sister.
Her family and tribe appeared to have gone mad. As of late, Suluksati had deviated from her endless patrols to trail her sister's raiding group from on high, watching them carve a swath of bloody, careless destruction across Serenia, savaging all who stood in their way. She didn't have to follow very closely – their path was hard to miss. Nor would it be hard to miss for the hunters sure to come this way.
The hunters would be justified if they killed the khehora. They would get praise, acclaim, and money. And of course they would - her sister and those that savaged the land with her were vicious, a menace.
And Suluksati was just as justified in trying to find a way to stop them, one that didn't involve her sister's blood on her claws. Her tribe had never been militant. Warriors, yes, but philosophers first and foremost, preferring to avoid Magescians where possible. To become raiders and pillagers, ravaging the land with only brawn as their ally... it was too great a shift for Suluksati to believe.
Something must have caused it. Something must have driven them mad. And Suluksati hoped to stop them before the hunters did. She owed her family that much.
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