|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 8:35 am
 There were many things that Uzuri missed about the open, dusty veldt of her youth. The Kawani lands were beautiful, in their own harsh, unforgiving way, but they could not compare to the soft loam of the oasis or the gentle warmth of the high pridelands. Some days she longed for the feel of cracked earth beneath her hooves. Others, she wondered if the savannah grasses were only sweet in the confines of her memory.
Today Uzuri missed the sun.
What mad logic had led the Spirits of this place to make the sun set after only eight short hours of daylight? Was it punishment for a long-forgotten transgression? Did a trickster god mesmerize them with patterns in the stars? Uzuri could make neither heads nor tails of it. And now she was stuck in the snowy wilderness with only thin patches of moonbeam to guide her.
The Priestess slid carefully down an icy slope, and muttered a prayer for the Orisha of the Crossroads to grant her safe passage until she found a place to rest her head for the evening.
Perhaps it had been a mistake to wander from Prince's court in the pursuit of knowledge. The leaves were rustling with more than the wind, and Uzuri had no doubt that it was only a matter of time before she was found by predators on the hunt.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 2:08 pm
While the night might have seemed overbearing and unfriendly to Uzuri, it was something else entirely to the stallion perched atop the next rise. The kirin's neck ached a bit from his head-up pose, from keeping his gaze fixed on the stars that peeked in and out from between the clouds, but he didn't pay any attention to it. The ache was an old friend, and he was more than used to it by now. Perhaps when he was old he'd be able to tell the weather by it.
A sound from below caught his interest, and he warily turned his eyes away from the heavens and back to earth, wincing a bit as his neck protested the movement a little more strenuously than usual. There was another Soquili below him, sliding down one icy slope into the hollow between his star-gazing perch and the next hill over. How odd.
The kirin weighed the possibilities for a moment, then nodded to himself. "Good evening," he called, politely, though he did not come down, his silhouette stark against the flickering, clouded-clear sky.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 12:11 pm
"Wha-?"
Uzuri gave a jump of alarm, and wipped her head around to see who had broken the silence. For a moment she'd permitted the Orishas to lull her into a false calm, with promises of high pine stands and gentle starlight, endless snowfields and frozen waterfalls. Now she feared to pay the price for her inattention.
"Oh!"
Oh.
Oh.
It was only a male.
A rather etherial-looking stallion was staring down at her, with moonlight reflecting off his delicate scales. In Uzuri's lands there were no males with snakeskin on their backs, or hair on their faces, or such an intricate, branching horn. Those Eastern Spirits had an interesting sense of aesthetics.
"Er. Oh my. You caught me off-guard. Forgive my poor manners."
And thank Yemaya that her mask had remained in place, saving her from appearing very undignified in public. Uzuri was almost tempted to laugh. Had the Masquerade Queen's curse made her as skittish as a filly? Should she cower and run at any hint of the unexpected? Ridiculous.
"I had not thought to meet a Kirin in these lands, after departing from the company of the Ambassador of the East."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 11:16 am
Luan Qi Sheng tilted his head the other direction, partly in curiosity, but mostly to get the crick out of his neck. "The Ambassador of the East... ah, yes, the gathering of many. It was foretold," he said, calmly, flicking his gaze up towards the heavens again, though he moved only his eyes, not his head. "There was a dark portent when the stars spoke of it. Did all go well, in the end?" He shifted, and paced down the hills a little ways, his ears perked in a friendly - and curious - manner. His cloven hooves gave him sure footing even on the frost-slick ground.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 3:20 pm
"That is so," Uzuri said. "Depending on one's definition of 'well'."
Dwelling on the events of the Masquerade Ball did little to improve her mood. The Priestess' muzzle was slick with sweat, the cold bit into her flanks, and her skin threatened to crawl. In contrast to the graceful Kirin, she felt unbearably awkward. She should abandon her mask and stand with the pride of her foremothers. And yet-
And yet. Uzuri could wander the whole of the Kawani lands, and still not leave that bruja's curse behind. So long as fear haunted her steps she could not abandon the disguise that had shielded her from evil. It was a charm, a ward, a callus on her soul.
She'd run to fetch the Prince when the blanket of sorcery descended upon his guests, and then fled from his court as soon as his festivites were over. Perhaps she was a coward after all.
"The Prince has taken to his throne, and the Witch Queen has been banished to reaches none can name." She smiled wryly. "Yet I still feel the stain of her spells on my soul, as though I had bathed in a slick of oil. I cannot say whether it is the same for your Ambassador."
Uzuri tossed her mane, trying to clear the fatigue from her body by getting her sluggish blood moving. Was she truly so weary, that she'd bluntly express her feelings in front of a stranger? For shame!
At least it was only a male. An immigrant wanderer, such as herself, that she need never see again.
She cast the stallion a curious, evaluating glance.
"You speak as though you know much of divination, for a stallion. Does your Seer live close to here? Is she your sister, or your mate? I- er."
Oh, blast it all. Uzuri was acting like a foal still unsteady on her hooves. It was highly embarassing. Her pride could barely stand it!
"I confess that I am in need of wise counsel. The remedies of the veldt are far beyond my reach here."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 8:56 am
Luan Qi Sheng bowed cordially, in the style of the East - or, at least, the equine adaptation. "I See for myself, and the stars and lady moon lay out their tales and portents to my watchful eye. So it has been for our people for generations, though we are scattered." He shook his head with a sad sigh. "I feared that the cloud that covered the moon - the Witch's sigil - would blot out all... and yet a wind blew it away. I am glad to see the movement echoed in our own dance." He came a bit further down the hill. "I am sorry to have missed the Ambassador, but such events fell far from here. I would not have been in time."
He reached the bottom, then, and gave the strange, masked mare a kindly look, the expression kirins had mastered centuries, millennia before. "I will look to the stars for you if you are in need of counsel, or you are welcome to use my gazing-spot if you know them yourself, and do not require my introduction." What kind of help could she need? The dark portent had stained her, and she needed to be purified... that much he could understand. Perhaps moonlight and starlight would help, or failing that, the touch of his horn.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 10:33 pm
The male wished to divine for her? Oh. Oh, dear.
Uzuri couldn't truly count herself surprised. After so many years in the outlands, she was well aware that other cultures saw things differently than hers, with their patriarchs and princes. Yet the idea of stallions communing with the Spirits still didn't sit right with her sensibilities. It felt dissonant. Wrong. Like the idea of eating meat.
Naturally, Uzuri was a better diplomat than to express her concerns. And in any case, if the Orisha of the Crossroads had engineered this moment, then she owed it to the spirit to play out his gift. She'd humor the kirin. He had a very kindly look about him, and she was certain he meant well.
"If the stars are your only guide here, then I'm afraid you'll have to read them for me." Uzuri chuckled wryly. "My people don't read the heavens. We read the earth. We know that the bodies become part of the land and the trees when they are gone. So we throw the cowrie shells, or look to the flow of the sand, in order to divine the wisdom of our ancestors. Even in death, mothers will not forget their bonds with their children."
Her gaze swept over the desolate forest, taking in the shadows between the trees. There was little life within these snowfields. Only cold white, and unforgiving dark.
"But the will of my foremothers rests far away from here."
She canted her head towards the stallion.
"It shall not be an imposition?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:02 am
"Cowrie shells, is it? Your land is by the sea, then? Yet... not of the sea, for I see little of the nautical persuasion in your dress," Luan Qi Sheng observed, then smiled. "Certainly. You were fortunate to escape the dark portents; the stars have smiled on you. Do you seek the future, the present, or even your own location? They hold all of those things, and more." It might just be that she was lost, wandering in the night like this, so far from home.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:56 am
Uzuri raised a skeptical eyebrow, beneath the shelter of her heavy mask. Her ears flicked with bemusement.
"I need- a direction, I think. To know where I must travel in order to lift the weight of darkness from my back. I come from the plains of the veldt, where the two-leggers are dark like charred wood and the sea is bright with sunlight. I have far to go before I may return there."
Far, as in forever, unless something happened to her elder sister. Uzuri could never pray for such a thing. Neema was a great High Priestess, who would bring many blessings to their people.
The mare stretched her neck to peer up at the heavens, and immediately felt her muscles twince with protest. Her neck wasn't used to carrying around a five-pound block of carved wood as it was.
"Is there a star up there to guide my path, mtume?"
The Ambassador had not given his name. She would not ask this mtume for his, either. Her curiousity might cause insult.
(("mtume" means "messenger/prophet" in fangirl Swahili. XP))
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 8:57 am
"There are stars to guide every path," Luan Qi Sheng replied, with a confident, gentle smile - of that he was certain, regardless of how things were on the ground. The heavens were unshakable. He did tilt his head to one side at the odd word she spoke, apparently in reference to him. "You have come far indeed; I am not familiar with that particular tongue. I shall ask, if you give me your name so the stars will know who seeks their counsel. My name is Luan Qi Sheng," he added.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:29 am
Luan Qi Sheng. Hmm. The syllables were fluid, yet still foreign enough that she feared they would stumble clumsily off her tongue if she tried to pronounce them.
"Good evening to you, then." Uzuri dipped head in a quick bow. "I am Mwanamketakatifu Uzuri; a Priestess of the Unyasi Veldt. I suspect you will wish to shorten that to Uzuri."
She'd been fearful and brooding before she stumbled across this fellow, yet now she felt perilously at ease. The questionable validity of his scrying services had little to do with it. Perhaps this was the true power of a Kirin of the East, or perhaps it was merely the balm of civilized conversation.
Either way, the Stallion at the Crossroads surely had his hooves in it. She would find a proper bit of vegetation to burn in thanks.
"You must have come a long way as well, Loo-ahn Quee Sha-eng. Are you in search of new views of your heavens?"
She shrugged her shoulders, in a gesture indicating that he should lead the way to whichever gazing point he preferred.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 3:38 pm
"That is it, exactly," Luan Qi Sheng said with obvious pleasure; not only had she identified his own far-flung origins, but she had pinpointed his reasons for being here, so far from his place of birth. "Perhaps it is a long way to come for such a thing, but even the slightest shifts in one's view can change a thousand stories."
A priestess, was she? That was interesting. "What holy beings do you follow, Priestess, if I may be so bold?" He tilted his head to one side and smiled, his curiosity clearly genuine, not feigned.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
