[FIN, Biroki and Dyakida] The Song of Trees, Grass, and Fire

[DraconicFeline]

(Takes place before the Tea Party ORP)

Dyakida was pushing it. She was going far further than she usually travelled into the Jungle. But if she didn't push herself, she knew she would stagnate and become completely reliant on her sisters. A burden.
Except...
Maybe she had gone too far in this time. The soundscape was completely different, now.
She hoped she hadn't gotten turned around somewhere... then she would truly be lost.
She smelled the air. Interesting... It smelled of old fire, slicked with the damp Jahuar air. Perhaps... a little further? Just to investigate?
She took careful steps. If she heard earthling voices, she would hide as best she could. It was the only reasonable explanation for an old fire, a camp.
But perhaps there would be something interesting. And it would be an excellent landmark.... at least until the jungle absorbed the ashes and smells of the fire. She crept into what she felt became a clearing. She could feel the sense of opening, the difference in how the sound reached her ears, that told her that there was now sky where the canopy should be. If she could see, she would have seen the sun. Her outstretched, questing, careful hand touched what felt like a wall of charcoal.
What was this?  

[DraconicFeline]

Biroki occasionally came here to the old, burnt-out tree. He didn't know why, but whenever he was in the area and thought of his mother, he found himself drawn here.
There was probably a reason.
It probably wasn't even supernatural.
The tree had been an abandoned Alkidike home tree a long time ago. That was what Reshel had told him, anyway. It apparently burnt down when he was still a youngling. So, a few years ago.
Strange though. He would have been watching it burn, even then. He'd have been fascinated by how it had been burning, entranced by its beauty...
So no different than now.
Then again, nobody remembered everything they did as a youngling.
It was beautiful now. A charred pit of blackness, being overtaken by vines and life. Soon, the hole in the canopy would have closed up. It would be as if nothing had happened here.
There was a symmetrically ephemeral beauty about that fact. It was also not frequently visited by others, and it was quiet and safe from most predators.
He considered it a perfect place to think about things. Including its ephemeral beauty. He was observing it from the living branches of a tree at the clearing's edge, his lunch tucked safely in his stomach.
Suddenly, a movement of green came into his field of view.
Was that... An alkidike?!
His first reaction was to hide behind the trunk of the tree and peer out.
She hadn't seen him... in fact, she was acting... sort of oddly. Cautiously.
Did Alkidikes have to be cautious?
For a moment he entertained the idea that it was Briella. She was the only Alkidike he had ever met, and she had been nice. Well. She hadn't killed him. He wasn't sure if he could tell one bug girl from another. Especially at this distance.
But this one had shorter hair. Maybe she cut her hair? He doubted it. Maybe Hair was a status symbol... he'd ask her next time. If this wasn't 'next time.'
He wanted to make sure. He was glad it was daylight and his skin was dark enough to blend into the dark understory and sooty clearing.
He crept closer.
No.
Now that he was closer, she wasn't Briella. He was lucky she hadn't seen him yet.
He was about to leave very quietly when she started feeling the tree wall with a strange expression on her face. Concentration?
What was she doing?
He crouched down to watch, feeling secure in his dark coloration. He blended in well, his crystals dulled by the soot so that they looked merely like some glowing fungus.
He hoped.  

[DraconicFeline]

Dyakida didn't notice Biroki at all. His steps had been silent, whatever sound they would have made were masked by the noises of Jahuar around them, and by the openness of the canopy above them.
She felt her way along the soft, wet, rotten charcoal, her hands unknowingly dusted black now, her face slightly smudged with the stuff. It had been a great tree once. She could feel what was left of it's mouldering and decaying roots at her feet, squishing into the ashen ground as she trod on them. She carefully followed it to it's end, noting the curve. If it had been alive, she would have thought that it would have been a perfect home tree. It had been big.
She felt the end of the standing shell of charcoal and pawed at the air. Empty.
She followed the curve of the wall in, lightly brushing it with one hand's fingertips, her other hand stretched out, questing for anything at waist level. She needed to touch the wall to know where she was. She needed to know if there was anything at waist level so that it wouldn't trip her up.
The air had a damp, living feel. The kind of feeling one gets from deteriorating wood. Soft and moist. Her feet, too, were blackened from the ashen ground.
Suddenly, her foot- carefully placed, contacted something... something hard. Wooden feeling. She reached down to inspect. She liked to inspect things. you never knew where a good material for a weapon, either as its base or to make it unique, could be hiding. Especially since she couldn't see it.
She felt wood- softened and scorched, but definitely carved. A curved and flattened point, a continuation... was that a crossbar?
By the time she reached the half scorched and rotten disk at the other end, she knew what it was. It was a stool, in the alkidike fashion.
This had been an Alkidike home tree.
She further inspected the stool, then put it back down. It was likely not safe to sit on, so she crouched, twitching her antennae thoughtfully.
This was a good place to search. She was proud of herself. Her instincts had led her here, without too much trouble.
Perhaps she could salvage something here.
Getting back was a problem. One she knew she should think about, but that she... well... wasn't going to. For now, she contemplated how to go about her search.  

[DraconicFeline]

She hadn't noticed him, which he thought was a good thing. He even dared to get a bit closer.
He hadn't seen the stool before, though it was clearly here for quite a while. He didn't want to get THAT close yet, though. She would surely see him, and then what?
Just because Briella hadn't attacked him, didn't mean that This alkidike wouldn't!
Then again, though... She didn't have any weapons on her... Nothing more than a small dagger.
That was odd. Didn't Alkidikes have lots of weapons? One of the boys from the village had told him this after he had returned that day.

Briella hadn't been armed to the teeth, but she couldn't have been that much older than him... So maybe she would later?
Another thing to ask her.
He knew he should play it safe and run, but the way this one was moving intrigued him too much. What was she doing?
Her stance- crouched, eyes closed, antennae twitching...
She was like some sort of primal guardian, testing the air for signs of intruders.
Beautiful but... probably... deadly. Not bound by mortal rules... Like a... Spirit, or something. Of the jungle.
He had to get just a little closer...
He was unlucky. His crawling moved something, and it shuffled loudly in the damp ash. He froze, terrified.  

[DraconicFeline]

Her head snapped up and towards the noise, Antennae stretching out stiffly as if they might contact something. Hr hand drifted to her side, where her dagger was.
That had been a sound. A shuffle. Not a rustling leaf, not a call in a nearby tree. Something or someone was nearby. Warm energy flooded her, and her ears strained to pick up something, anything.
"Hello?" Her hand touched the hilt of her simple dagger, "Who's there?" she hoped to Aisha that it was a who. Not a what.
She began to regret the headstrong pride that had her come out here alone. She was smarter than that- what had she been thinking?!  

[DraconicFeline]

He tried to stay very quiet and still, pretend he wasn't there... for all the good it would do.
Come to think of it, why didn't the Alkidike see him? She was looking right at him...
Maybe he was better at this than he thought!
He felt slightly smug and extremely terrified as he crouched down and hoped that he would remain unseen.  

[DraconicFeline]

Dyakida's ears strained for a sound. Her heart pounded. Her dagger was now out of its sheath. It wouldn't be much good, but it would do SOMETHING when and if whatever it was got close enough for her to know where to use it.
if she listened, really listened, she could hear breathing. But that could be the rustling of the wind. She picked up a long, thick, slightly rotting plank and backed up against the wall, prodding the plank in sweeps in front of her. If something came from the front, she would either prod it or confuse it enough to make it go after something else...
Her thrust with the plank hit something soft and yielding,a nd she gave out a cry, jumping against the wall, dagger at ready, antennae twitching.
There was something there!  

[DraconicFeline]

Biroki was not expecting her to do that with the wood! What was she doing, anyway?! He had been trying not to move, but the prodding shoved him with such force that he couldn't help letting out a grunt.
"Ow..." He covered his mouth and kneeled as she took on a threatening stance.
"Oh no oh no! I'm so sorrypleasedontkillme!" He reached for his sparks in case he had to fight.
"I w...was j...just..." He began, petering out into a stammering mess. He stood and took a step back, in case he needed to run.  

[DraconicFeline]

Dyakida frowned, lowering the dagger.
First, this was a voice. That meant someone, not something.
Second, It was afraid of her, stammering so much that she could barely make out what they were saying. Except for "pleasedontkillme". It took her a while to get that, but the message was loud and clear. Afraid. Someone was afraid.
Third, it was an odd voice. It was not Alkidike. It was too deep to be. That meant... what? Shifter? Something else? She couldn't tell. And she had never met a Shifter before.
Another male... actually yes. Once. He was the male mate of one of the alkidikes... Back in Chibale. At a distance. With her sight. She had never heard one. He had been a color of Tan that she had found funny, she remembered. Was it tan? It was hard to really remember, now that those memories of seeing things were starting to fade...

"Its..." She felt a bit odd. "Its all right, I won't hurt you. Can you, perhaps tell me what you are?"
She had faked calmness for so long, that she could call it up now. She sounded... acted... calm and serene...
But inside her heart was racing.
She wanted to prolong his... if it was a he... realization that she was blind. She was at a disadvantage, a huge one, if he were to attack.  

[DraconicFeline]

"Oh, O... okay..."
He got carefully to his feet and backed up a bit, so that he would have plenty of space to run if he had to.
Briella had said the same thing, and she hadn't killed him... but were all Alidikes good to their word? Not every Shifter was.
He wasn't too surprised (though he was flustered as usual) by her question.
Briella hadn't seen a shifter before, who was to say that this Alkidike had never seen a shifter before?
"A... I... I am a Sh... Shifter. Um.... And..." Well, maybe she hadn't seen a Male before either. Brie hadn't. He felt bad for them... not for not having seen a male, but for seeing him first...
"And... Um... Um.... I'm a...also a Male t... too, but... B...but I'm not the B...best f...first impression..."
He took another step backwards.
"M... My name is B... Biroki... Y... Yours?"  

[DraconicFeline]

Dyakida couldn't help but smile. He sounded like he was shaking like a leaf, poor thing.

"Dyakida. It's a pleasure to meet you... B'Biroki?" She couldn't tell through his stammer.


Maybe he had had run ins with Alkidikes before. Maybe those hadn't ended well.
But obviously he had survived them. She wondered what sort of expression he had on his face. Fear? Panic? She couldn't ask him that...
Or could she?
No no, she didn't think that deception would work. If he had had a run in with an alkidike, he would know enough about facial expressions to know that they were similar...
Or would he?
Eh. She wasn't THAT curious.
"What are you doing this deep in the jungle?" she honestly had no idea whether this was deep or not. It was far away from her home. That, to her, was deep.
"Do you live near here?"


 

[DraconicFeline]

"Biroki"
He corrected, taking another step back.
"I d...don't live near here, I mean i...its near here but not Th...that close..." he rambled.
"I was j...just... looking around... I c...could leave...?"
He fidgeted and looked at the treeline. If he made a run for hit he could be in a tree shortly.
He looked back at her.
Then again, she wasn't going to hurt him, and if she was like Briella, she would keep to her word.
"Or... Or I could stay?"  

[DraconicFeline]

"I don't mind if you stay, Biroki..." He might actually be helpful.
"Why were you looking around here, Biroki? Are there many herbs in this area?"
She would be surprised if there were, it seemed that she had found her way to an Alkidike home tree, and those huge trees left little room for herbs.
That, or the Alkidikes that lived in her tree had plucked the field clean before Maya had led them there.
She didn't know. When she had arrived, her vision had been blurring. The tree had been little more than a blue fuzz.
And now? She had no idea. She just knew that the area around the tree was fairly herb-free.
"Or are there interesting items to be found here?"
She wasn't sure how she felt about a shifter male looting an alkidike's home tree...
"I'm looking for interesting things as well."
But she supposed that it would be better if the former possessions of dead sisters fell into her hands and got remade into weapons. That was all right.
 

[DraconicFeline]

"I was just... L... I c...come here s...sometimes. Its a n...nice view of the sky..."
He hesitated and took a step closer. She had said he could stay, right? He wasn't going to die.
"I g...guess theres some herbs here, b...but I don't know how to p...pick them right... So I leave them alone... The p...plants that l...like sunshine..."
He took another step and carefully kneeled down. He had felt a bit rude backing away, but had thought he might have to run... but if she wasn't going to kill him he figured he would be polite and get down to her level, since she was still crouching. He was still at a distance where, if she lunged, he could still get away.
"I d... don't know if there are i..interesting things here but m...maybe if we l...look together we can f...find something? I... I l...like pretty th...things, like trees and light and b...bugs... Thats what I l...look for..." He stopped for a moment.
Alkidikes had black eyes, right? Well Briella did, anyway. She had had eyes of black, deep and wise like the eyes of an insect.
This one... had silvery eyes. Almost milky white.
"Y...you have pretty eyes..." He blurted, staring.  

[DraconicFeline]

Dyakida relaxed.
Things sounded like they would be fine. He sounded amusing. He also sounded like he was coming closer, but he didn't get too close.
She smiled a bit as he talked. He had an... innocent voice. He reminded her of Briella, actually. If Briella was shy.
The thought of a shy Briella made her want to laugh, but she kept it inside.
She didn't say anything though. He was... entrancing to listen to. His soft voice and stammered explanations. They were oddly fascinating.
His last statement startled her and she could hold back no longer.
She burst out laughing, unbalancing and falling back against the tree. She felt tears of mirth flowing from her eyes and she wiped them away.
"Ahahaha! Do I now!" She couldn't stop for a good minute.
Eventually, though, she managed to cough and calm down a bit.
"Heh. You're a strange... man, Biroki. So tell me. Are my eyes really that... 'pretty?' How so?"
Nobody had actually told her that her dead eyes looked... well, anything. Her sisters avoided the subject and she didn't ask or care.
Until now. What a curious supposedly shifter boy- she could tell he was young from the way he spoke, a prentice at most- he was.