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 Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 7:05 pm
Beneath the feint glow of the crescent moon stood a regal lady decked in the deepest purple shawl around her neck. The golden doubloons jangled with every step she'd taken as she shook her age old constant companion, her tambourine. She had been lost for quite a time, though not for her own sake had she left the land she had grown accustomed to, but for the sake of another. Though moments later, the music flowed through her and the urge to dance coursed through her veins. Her tail swayed as her paws moved to the tune of nature and her tambourine. She knew she was back on the terrain she had not seen in many a moon, a place she had loved and a place she had lost. A world she could not, had not forgotten and which she wished to return to. Never again, if she could prevent it, would she leave the serenity that she felt in a place like where she was at that moment. The scent of the lilies and wildflowers growing while the birds sang their chorus and the frogs and crickets continued their orchestras. As she listened, her eyes closed, breathing the air in deeply and whispering, “I'm home,” though having been born to the gypsy wolves, she should not have considered the land she'd returned to as home. To her however, despite whatever others might argue, it was home to her, even if not in the exact spot she had long ago stood on. She'd dropped the tambourine and sat down, tilting her head back to howl in greeting to any passerby. Soon, she was certain, that Qaletaqa would appear, for he had gone on the journey with her to help they whom had requested help from Zigana. A moment of weakness she regretted, though she had done as she was asked, but it had not allowed her rising pack to flourish. The only one she had left now, was, Qaletaqa. Would anything ever be as she wished? She and Qaletaqa were not enough, but at the very least, neither of them were... alone. That was the only thing which had kept them going on their journey to return to the place they had come to think of as their home, even if they were forgotten by those whom they had known before.
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Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 8:41 am
 Nights here were temperate. Far, far different from his homeland of shifting sands, where the nights could be as harsh as the days and yet opposing in temperatures. Here, in this Telk, plants flourished . . . Obi'Tau tilted his head back and inhaled the scents.
He liked it here. He missed the lands of dust and wind, but this was a whole new world to explore: and that was not often granted to a wolf of his age.
As he moved, Obi considered stopping and sleeping, but something drove him forward. Bell-like sounds tinkled just within his range of hearing, certainly not something he heard on a normal basis. As the male drew closer, he heard a small cacophony of bells, as if something had been dropped, followed by a long howl.
How odd! Through the brush he could spy one wolf, bi-colored save for the moon and stars adorning her pelt. What she wore was new to him, though Obi'Tau had seen similar clothes on some wolves and humans in the desert. But that instrument on the ground before her . . . nothing he had ever seen before.
"Have I stumbled upon the beginnings of a party?" he asked congenially.
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Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 5:16 pm
The night was her world, born in darkness, raised in mysticism. Although she herself could perform no real feat with whatever mysticism there did exist. However, as she was still a descendant of the gypsy wolves that continued to roam the lands elsewhere with the humans her life had been to outsiders, a mystery. A life she did not wish to lead, roaming from place to place, but she had yet as to settle for the plight of another had kept her from her goals before.
She noticed not the nearing of another, the light breeze shifting the doubloons of her purple cloth and jangling them once more. The sound of them cloaking the advancement in her direction of the unknown wolf. She did, however as she opened her eyes and ended the howl of greeting glance in his direction, her eyes matching the color of the material she wore around her neck.
It was not Qaletaqa whom had arrived, though she was sure he would soon enough, for they had been traveling together for so long. The two had become close friends, but still her followers speech patterns remained odd and at times difficult to understand. Yet through their travels she had begun to understand his oddly spoken words and sentences better. This however before her was a stranger whom she could not recall having met before as she rose to stand.
”Hello,” she greeted him. ”A party? Perhaps it could be taken as such, but no matter where I go, the music flows and the dancing begins. That is the Gypsy Way.” She tilted her head slightly, ”And when the moon does glow, it is impossible to keep from celebrating, especially as I have returned to the area I consider home, even if I cannot call it mine. I am Zigana. Soon my comrade should appear, if he has not lost his way again.”
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Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 7:11 pm
Obi'Tau blinked. A dance in the moonlight, was it? He had never heard of such a custom, though he could see how one would be drawn to do so under the light of the moon: "moonshine", his packmates had called it. More like a state of mind than a belief, where a wolf could be driven to do things he would not normally, indulge in what might be taboo . . .
"Goeie aand, Zigana. I am Obi'Tau," he introduced himself with a small nod, and smiled. "I would not be surprised if he does get lost. This land is expansive." He himself could testify. "Do Gypsies worship the moon, then? I have never heard of your kind before."
Being in one place most of his life somewhat limited his knowledge.
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Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 7:51 pm
Zigana, feeling threatened by his presence returned to sitting, though that did not mean she had allowed her guard to slip. Strangers after all, as she had learned, could be quite dangerous. Though he did not seem it and she did not mind the conversation which had been struck. She didn't quite get the first couple of words he had spoken, but the rest she'd understood. It seemed even she still had more to learn.
“It is a pleasure to meet you Obi'Tau.” Her jowls parted, allowing a laugh of a breath to escape. “That is true, but eventually he'll find me yet again. Hopefully he doesn't run into any dangers. Not many would understand his speech, which can make things quite difficult for him.”
She paused for a moment to consider his question, before answering him. “It depends, some gypsies do while others do not. There are various customs that we share among us, though we do not all practice them or have changed them. Gypsies never stay in one spot for very long and are constantly on the move, though I prefer to remain in one area, but I keep to many of the traditions I was brought up with. Though in my youth, staying with my family I have traveled far, but near here only once. Yet here is the place I wish to return to, always. It drew me in and has captured my spirit.”
She glanced back toward the crescent moon, that was now slightly hidden behind a whisp of cloud high in the sky. “Yet we do celebrate the moon, for it is as important as the sun. Though it is in the dark of night that so many things can take place without others being any the wiser, for in the shadows secrets lurk, mysteries that sometimes never get solved.”
Her deep purple eyes gazed back into his green, “It is the best time of the day or night for telling secrets.”
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Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 8:40 pm
"Secrets, is it?" Well it certainly felt like he had walked in a a secret; albeit, one that had been precedented by the ringing of bells and a howl. Obi'Tau pondered what ritual he had truly stumbled upon, for he found that words tended to pale in comparison with the reality of something.
But a wanderer's life he could sympathize with. "It reminds me of my old pack, what you say. We weren't gypsies, but we took advantage of the desert night to hunt and move - it was easier to combat the chill under the moon than the heat under the sun," he explained, also settling on his haunches, his tail loosely curled about his legs. While no shaman, Obi exuded a calm aura naturally, learned from years of a passive, patient life.
"We move for our survival, but I suspect you move for pleasure, yes?" Obi asked curiously. "Or does your moon command you?" He felt like he was poking in the dark indeed, with only questions being able to light the way. "Or . . . do you seek these mysteries of life?"
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Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 9:31 pm
“There are always secrets, if not from one creature to another than secrets of this world kept from the very creatures that live upon it and within it. The moon the most mysterious of all alongside the stars that light the sky at night, though no where near as bright as the morning light of the dawning sun.”
Zigana gave a dip of her head in understanding. “I left my birth pack some time ago, I had a wish to begin something new, but that may never come into fruition. Qaletaqa is the remnants of that time, before I was called upon to help in a distant far off land from these parts.” She blinked, “I do not recall if I have ever been on desert land, but I imagine it to be still beautiful in its own right, for all lands are, no matter how dissimilar. At least that is what I am inclined to believe.”
Her eyes seemed to twinkle, perhaps a trick of the little light that existed in the night as she tilted her head to one side a bit, “The moon, it is cooler than the sun it is true and if the day is too unbearable to do any activities it makes sense to do them all during the night and early hours of dusk and dawn.”
It had been awhile since she'd spoken so much, but it was not unpleasant, she only hoped she was not going to be thought of as a chatterbox, for there were often times where she spoke naught.
“I think for my birth pack it was a bit of both. They followed the humans, though only those that were gypsies. Yet even among them there is good and evil and one need tread carefully least they wind up in dire straits. So it was not the moon which commanded us, but it is the moon I follow now, as though compelling me to my fate, if there be such.”
“The mysteries of life? I have heard it said that the gypsies themselves are mysteries of life. Though I don't think myself mysterious, but perhaps it is the way of life that not everyone can understand. Though I do not think it a bad thing, to seek out the mysteries of life. Do we not all have something we are searching for even if we know it not?”
Slowly she stood, stretching her forelimbs forward, and one leg after the other back to loosen any tense muscles from sitting too long. She'd grown so used to movement that remaining still for long became somewhat difficult.
Her ears perked forward as she heard the sound of a familiar howl. “That will be Qaletaqa, but he's a couple miles off as yet I believe by the sounds of it,” briefly she howled to respond to him that she was nearby and safe. At least he was not lost to her for good.
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Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 9:50 am
Obi chuckled. "All wolves are a mystery, I believe, until one learns about them," he replied. "Though of course I know others may remain more mysterious yet of their own volition."
He found a certain irony in the gypsy being so open with her information. Perhaps not all secrets are so hard to pry. He himself didn't mean to keep the conversation off himself, it was just . . . habit. Easier to listen than to speak, react rather than instigate.
At the sound of the second howl, Obi'Tau turned his head towards the sound, blinking. "If we indeed are all searching, I hope he at least finds his way here first," he said, and chuckled once more. "A 'party' is hardly one with only two."
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Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 11:06 am
“You may be on to something there, though can one really learn everything about a specific individual? Do they not at least keep some things to themselves, most of them? Then too, after one has met and learned about them, life goes on does it not, creating new memories and perhaps new secrets too.”
She nodded at the last of his sentence, “Some, wish no one to know anything about them, I often wonder then what skeletons they hide in the back of their mind.” She was after all, not fortune teller and even those humans or wolves that had been within the traveling group of gypsies most had been all smoke and mirrors. The drawing of a deck of tarot cards by the humans or the tealeaves or even the thrown dice, perhaps no more than mere gimmicks.
“I hope so too,” a light fruity laugh rumbled out from Zigana, “That is true, about a party not quite really being one when it is only two.”
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Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 11:07 am
In the dark of twilight, his dark pelt was nearly unnoticeable save to those whom had grown accustomed to the dark or had themselves night-vision. The only other color upon him was the thin red lines along his legs and tail and a single swirl near his pale pink eyes.
He kept his head down low, as perusal, his tail tucked betwixt his legs, not wishing to draw attention to himself. However he realized he might not be able to run as swiftly to Zigana as he'd like with his stiff posture. Relaxing enough he picked up his head and ran over the terrain. Until he came upon other wolves, there was no need to show how truly meek he was, though he was by no means weak, but neither was he incredibly strong. He was average, but knew that there were those that would consider him weak and useless, labeled an idiot due to his inability to speak correctly.
He knew not how much time had elapsed, his tongue lolling out from his mouth as he panted, drawing nearer to Zigana. Though she did not appear to be alone. Once more his stance became that of a lowly creature as he approached the two sitting individuals one he knew and the other he did not.
“Hrrow,” he dipped his head down even lower were it possible in greeting as he walked up beside Zigana to gaze at the stranger.
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Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 5:46 pm
While not with particularly exceptional vision, Obi'Tau did spot a small flash of red seconds before the wolf presented himself some seconds later; his scent was easy enough to catch prior to that, though. Again he gave the wolf (probably the Qaletaqa one Zigana mentioned) a warm smile in greeting. "Hello there. Obi'Tau," the male said. "I mean no harm."
When was the last time he had? Hmm . . .
"We were speaking of secrets and dancing, neither of which I have skills in," Obi continued with another deep-throated chuckle. "I would make a chittering squirrel more graceful in comparison, and possibly more charming as well."
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Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 7:21 pm
Zigana glanced to her side as she took note of Qaletaqa's arrival, her loyal follower though in truth she had done nothing for him. Though there were all manner of creatures out there lurking in the shadows, or in the hearts of those who were out beneath the light of the sun or the moon. Ones who could be cruel over something like her pale pink eyed companion's speech impediment. Perhaps it would have been better had he been mute, but she still believed that one day he might well learn to pronunciate correctly.
“Hello Qale.”
She listened as Obi'Tau introduced himself, she knew Qaletaqa's at first difficult to pronunciate name was one of the few words he could say clearly.
Her eyes traveled back to Obi'Tau, “Everyone can dance, at least that is my belief, though each dances differently. It is not the skill which matters, but what is within the heart. Though your modesty is quite refreshing.”
Qaletaqa dipped his head again to Zigana's greeting. She always seemed to find it easy to speak with strangers, though he himself remained weary of them. Not quite for Zigana's sake, but he wished her safety and longevity.
His eyes however did not stray from the stranger, “Irm Qaletaqa.” (I am Qaletaqa) he introduced himself, not knowing that Zigana had spoken of him already. He did not know either how long the two had been conversing.
“Narunkrn'ee 'oomltl trntleaz.” (No one can be completely talentless.) “Crnooshang?” (Can you sing?)
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Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 5:24 pm
Somehow, he mostly understood Qaletaqa; his impaired speech was not so different from the multi-lingual (and often guttural) languages amongst the desertkin. A hearty bark of laughter issued from his maw as he translated one word. "Sing, you say? The gods would smite me where I sit if I tried," Obi'Tau replied cheerily. "No, no. My talent lies in stamina for travel, endurance against the elements, and a willingness to listen. Practical, yes, and what has saved my life on more than one occasion, though the wind has rubbed this wolf rough in the manner of social company. Asking for more would be greedy, however."
He shifted a little to nibble at an itch on his fur. Sometimes he wondered if there was possibly a flea on him . . . Always bugging him in inappropriate moments.
"There is a saying in my pack: Geniet jou gawes, want hulle is joune alleen. Loosely, it means 'enjoy what you have been given, for there is no purpose for gifts without guidance.'"
Beat.
Obi wondered if he should continue in the conversation, or simply let them take it as they please. It had been so long since he spoke at length with other wolves, let alone participate in a ritual.
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Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 8:22 pm
Qaletaqa blinked, here was someone who seemed to understand his strange speech, whereas so many had ridiculed him and thought him a base-born idiot during the times of travel. He believed himself to be at least of average intelligence, what did speech have to do with it anyway. Happy was he, that he need not have run into someone who would have made fun of him yet again. It seemed Zigana was safe, though he would never completely relax his guard, but enough to enjoy the night sky and the sounds that accompanied the lateness of the hour.
“Trrvrkl?” That was one thing he had no talent for, because he was prone to getting lost, his sense of direction was the worst. “Irhrznuu trntfrz trrvrkl.” (I have no talent for travel.) “Ir deznchliz.” (I'm directionless.)
Zigana smiled, “You do seem to have a willingness to listen and I do not often talk the ear off of another, but we have been so long without company on our way back here to Telk. Not that we have not conversed amongst ourselves, but I find that I was in quite a hurry to return and so got ahead of Qale a number of times.” She sighed, shaking her head, somewhat bashful of her impatience to where it had left Qaletaqa lost. “So when I noticed, I'd turn around to return for him.” Though she was not about to agree or say that her traveling companion had been directionless, even if it were true that he did oft end up lost.
At the saying he spoke of she blinked, “That is quite profound, I think, I would have to agree with it.” She did enjoy what she had been given, though there were those who had been given nothing that they could enjoy due to the cruel lot that fate had dealt them. Though she felt certain that someday they might break free of their restraints, be they mental or otherwise and find the path they were meant to take and enjoy the lessons of life along the way.
She rose fully to stand, “Now that Qale is here, we can begin and sing the anthem,” she cared little that he could not sing the words properly, it was what came from the heart in word and deed that counted the most not its pronunciation. “You may stay to watch if you wish, or even join in. Even those who claim they cannot sing nor dance sometimes just circle about or simply enjoy the sound and display.”
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 4:21 pm
What Qaletaqa said then, even Obi couldn't figure out. He paused, trying to replay those words, and had nothing but a slightly confused look. The male quickly wiped it away, however, and returned to his smile and nodded. Nodding couldn't do much harm.
But here was something! "The gypsies have an anthem?" Obi'tau queried, slightly surprised."It seems counterintuitive for the mystery part . . ." But who was he to judge generations of tradition? Not even the ones he observed (or used to, in some cases) made sense. "I will spectate this time if you do not mind, Zigana. I'd hate to detract from the beauty by stumbling along." He sat up a little straighter in preparation, ready to take in something that apparently was not as common as the eclipse of a moon or sun.
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