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Reillan paced in the desert, he had gone for a walk, he couldn’t handle the crowds like he used to anymore, it was time to change things. Just like change had come to him when Keelthy had struck out on his own and left Reill. Keel was right he was strong enough to defend himself, he didn’t need Reillan to protect him anymore. This left Reillan basically jobless and a little bereft, but his brother had more than earned the right to strike out on his own, he had worked so hard for this new life that Reillan was having a hard time justifying his resentment. He was just not used to being alone, he missed his brother terribly and it seemed that Oba was a little more dull without him here. He sighed and plucked thorns out of his feet. What was he going to do with himself? There was only so much training with dummies one could do before one went absolutely stir crazy. He had named the dummie and everything and still he hated its fluff stuffed guts. It just wasn’t stimulating any more, not after one had experienced the adrenaline craze of fear and power that was melee battle. He shuddered at the memories. Battle was not present but it was also not boring. He hadn’t been able to find a sparring partner in Oba yet, perhaps he would have to go off on his own too and see the rest of Tendaji again.
The only thing he could think of now was to go off into the heart of the desert and look for four legged combatants, not the best fix and he was unhappy about battling wildlife but there was no other way to get ship shape at the present moment. Everyone seemed a little allergic to battle now. After the war it appeared that everyone’s drive for violence had been drained away..at least in his family, he was sure if he went out and insulted someone that he could get a brawl if he tried hard enough. Probably it wouldn’t take that much insulting either. He chuckled to himself as he thought about how desperate he had gotten. Poking battles from complete strangers ...what next. He hummed to himself as he walked, the quiet and lone ranger thing he had going on right now was actually quite soothing to his nerves. Oba was great but her cities sure were crowded.
It wasn’t too long before Reillan found himself in the middle of some really beautiful seemingly untouched territory, it looked like art come to life the red sand floating down the dunes making those cute little wave things, a large branch from a long ago flash flood. Artists couldn’t have painted it better out here he thought. Then he started to notice the foot prints. It looked about the right size for perzi. A perzi battle would be nice right about now, a cat or two to tide him over, he could work on his footwork. He admired perzi they were smart and nimble. Not even that hotshot iceling he had heard about had managed to tame one and he was a Beast Charmer. Reillan rather thought that this was because he was not of Oba himself. The spirit of Oba was asserting herself through her catlike creatures and had found the iceling wanting. He didn’t really resent Kiyelt if that was how you pronounced his name but he just thought that charmers would have a better time with the creatures they had grown up around. There were a few perzis in the palace that he and his family used to play with when they visited their family on guard duty or when they had to go for the most boring meetings in the world. Now that he was older Reillan rather thought that he wouldn’t be able to stay as a guard in the palace he wouldn’t survive the boredom. But his father’s job had awarded Reillan with some experience with perzi and that would help him here, or so he thought.
This was about the time he started seeing more footprints..these couldn’t all be from one animal..not even two unless they had danced here all night. There were a lot of perzi here, the wind had a tendancy of wiping away any sand prints that had been there for too long so these cats were very close by. Reillan used his ears to the best of his advantage and listened for rustles and watched for the telltale cascades of sand on the dunes. His efforts were met with silence until a violent meow made him turn. They had surrounded him and there were a lot of them, this particular cloudr was natural colored pale gold with black spots and dark crystals. They were beautiful to behold and rather fierce looking and there were six of them..he was a little outnumbered at the moment. Idly he thought he should have taken his janarim with him or rather Keelthy’s janarim. He seemed to swing back and forth between the brothers. Currently he was Keelthy’s and Reillan had no access to his help. Sometimes it wasn’t so smart to go out in the desert alone with little protection...what was he talking about he had a sword!
He pulled said sword and waved it menacingly at the perzi he was here for a battle and he meant business if they didn’t take head and leave him alone they might get hurt. But apparently these perzi were territorial. They hissed and growled and closed in on him. He swiped and missed soon he dropped fluidly into the sword forms, they were designed for situations like this and might let him win or at least escape the furry clutches of the angry perzi clan.
He ducked as one leaped for his head, but he was having trouble landing any hits while they had quite scratched him all over it seemed. Nothing deep but definitely they were harrowing him. Trying to drive him out, except the stupid cats had cut off his escape. He hissed back at them pulling his mask down so they could see his white teeth flash; a universal threat display among animal kind. They backed off a little and he charged at the smallest until it moved to the side breaking the perzi wall. He started to flee, the pack chasing him over the dunes. It was undignified but he didn’t want to get any more wounded. It had been a good battle some good exercise an none of them himself included had been badly hurt. That was how he preferred to keep it. They had won but now he knew where they were, they were beautiful and he wanted one. Maybe he would go after them in a smaller group if he could though six cats was a bit ridiculous to him. How was he supposed to focus on perfecting his form if there were 6 different targets all moving around him in a fluid dance. A beautiful dance to be sure but he would prefer to see it from the sidelines. He wondered if six people would ever have that perfect understanding of where each member was and what they would do next. The really astounding thing was that the cats had done it without words. How cool was that?!

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