[FIN] [Yael] Creepy Crawlers [Ze | Malta]

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Zekiel couldn’t have said the town’s name. Though he’d been told it, the memory slipped from as many things did. But he wasn’t bothered. He knew of it at least, and that much was wondrous in itself. He did not remember all its streets and alleys — for he hadn’t been down them all, for one — but he recognized enough to know that he had been to portions of it before.

And he had met someone here.

Malta.

That name he remembered. Names of persons, though, did tend to stick to him better than those of places. Names mattered to people, and it pleased people to know that someone remembered them. So Zekiel made a point to remember each and every name he learned to whatever extent his memory permitted it. He’d come — again — as part of an outing undertaken by the Sanctum, to provide food, blessings, and sermons to the locals. Once through with that portion for the evening, though, Zekiel was again free to wander. And wander he did.

This time with intent.

It never hurt to check in on a friend, after all.  

[DraconicFeline]

The Only Black Uke

Malta had thought that the dirty little settlment that housed Yisette's range and store went without a name for a long time, but now she knew better. Yisette's 'other' healer boyfriend called it 'the tail-end of nowhere', and Yisette called it 'this shithole'. For a while, Malta had called it, reluctantly, home. It was, after all, the closest thing to a home that she deserved, vermin-filled streets, wet-straw bed and all.

Apparently, though, according to a guest at the inn, it was named Mirka village. Mirka. It sounded so much like Malta... maybe she was the town, in all it's filth and worthlessness. It was a silly thought, but one had silly thoughts when they snoozed outside of the tavern, waiting to pick up the latest shipment of beast food, ale, and straw. She'd spent all night cleaning the stalls and trying to clean the Janarim's enclosure without being eaten. Yisette had kept her at it, lounging and drinking and somehow staying up all night laughing at Malta's suffering.

She could still hear the woman's voice taunting her:

Hey, girl, you did it wrong! Do it again, and this time with feeling!
Hey girl, you gotta get in there - right in there! What, me? Push you into the muck? You fell, you clumsy runt! Get up and clean!
Hey girl, don't skimp! I want to see my face in that floor! Yeah! My face!

And then she'd laughed. And laughed. And laughed. And then she'd ordered Malta to pick up her things and then finally fallen asleep drooling. Malta had tried to steal some sleep then, but odd clicking in the barn kept her awake and eventually she had to go do what she was supposed to do.

And so here Malta was - exhausted and waiting. If she waited and was very lucky, maybe they would lend her a wheelbarrow to bring everything back. Maybe, even, she'd get the tavernkeeper to help her... but probably not. He wasn't very helpful.  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Even as he drew in close on the building Malta inhabited — at least, as of the last time he’d been here — Zekiel’s eyes and attention wandered, skimming the landscape, appreciating cool push of evening breezes, and listening to the sounds of evening: the distant town chatter petering down, the scuff of leaves and dust stirred up by the wind as they danced down the allies, and animals—and night bugs.

Zekiel was fairly sure, actually, that it was just that — rumors of night bugs, dangerous spirits, haunted insects invading spaces they ought not be — that had rustled the nerves of the townsfolk, resulting in several requests that the Sanctum send several of their gods’ chosen to bless, ward, and banish where appropriate to cleanse the town of this unwanted presence. Zekiel did not mind bugs. He was aware that many took issue with them, but in the end, they were all also part of the gods’ creations and had their role to play.

But, if his role was to help in encouraging them elsewhere in this instance, he saw nothing wrong with that, either. For now, however, he let those thoughts rest as he came upon the appropriate building and peeked around. Ought he…knock on the front door? Investigate the barn? Walk about the establishment in hopes of finding some clue as to where Malta herself might actually be? Zekiel meandered, starting with an unhurried stroll about the property first before — upon hearing sounds from the barn — peeking his attention in there.

And oh, there were animals.

His expression brightened, and without a thought to anything that perhaps ought to have crossed his mind — private property, trespassing, the dangers of foreign spaces not well lit and animals that might be unfriendly to strange visitors — he moved in without hesitation to investigate.  

[DraconicFeline]

The Only Black Uke

Lucky, she was, to have the wheelbarrow, bad wheel and all. Malta fought to keep it upright as she bore it and its load along the uneven, un-maintained streets. She struggled to avoid potholes and sinkholes, which could lose her her things and drench her with mud. Her arms and back and legs and everything burned with exertion as she finally, panting and flushed, rolled up outside of the barn. She leaned against the wheelbarrow, exhausted, though she still had to bring the things into the barn and get them settled. The wheelbarrow listed to the side grumpily, and she yelped, bringing it back up.

Right. She couldn't leave it alone for a moment. She'd have to get it inside first, where she could prop it up against something solid while she lay down in the hay and rested for a moment. That would be nice.

The thought of resting boueyed her in a guilty sort of way, and she braced herself to shove the wheelbarrow a few final paces - over the threshold, through the door, and into the earthy darkness. Yisette had long since left, presumably to sleep off her drink in her much nicer bed, though her bottles and flagons were still there. Malta would have to move those before she stepped on them accidentally.

Her eyes adjusted to the darkness, and... "Oh!" she exclaimed, drawing back. There was someone there! "H-hello?" she called warily, "Can I... what do you..." she squinted behind her glasses he was too young to be one of Yisette's 'boys', but why else would someone be this far in the barn, trespassing into this private space where she ate and slept? Unless it was a thief or criminal (!!!), but she didn't think so. From this distance, in this light, he looked... familiar... in a good way. "Wh-what are you doing here?"  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Zekiel had little sense of danger or self-preservation. His life and safety were, in his mind, ever in the hands of the gods. He didn’t intentionally set himself up for harm, but neither did he ever particularly fear or anticipate it. Whatever would be would be, and animals were a point of fascination. He rarely got to see or interact with them after all, and thus, before anyone came about to discourage him from doing so, he had moved in to investigate, peeking over this stall and then that with an open, childish enthusiasm lacking in the caution and maturity that his eighteen years perhaps ought to have granted him.

He reached over one of the stall gates, speaking some murmured invitation to the beast beyond it. He would like to touch, and if it wanted to touch too—

“Oh!”

Zekiel glanced, hand still hanging over the stall gate and dangling freely as his attention moved towards the source of the sound. As he spotted her, he beamed anew, pulling his hand back to himself and greeting with a wave. “Malta the Little Raindrop!” he said. “I came to visit with you if it would please you to see me, since we were within this area again and the gods permitted me the time to. Are you well?” His eyes flicked to and landed on the wheelbarrow in her control, filled with many an object which must have been weighty, and he stepped forward. “Might I help you with that?”  

[DraconicFeline]

"Oh!" Malta relaxed and couldn't help but smile. She hadn't forgotten Zekiel (and as she drew closer she could see that it was, indeed, him!), "Hello! I, ah, yes! Please!" she said, as the wheelbarrow attempted to dump it's contents onto the ground instead of where it was supposed to go. "If you could help me load off the hay onto that pile, there, that would be..." she trailed off, remembering what Zekiel was, "I mean, if you d-don't mind...!" Such a thing surely was beneath the dignity of someone like him, but he did offer and once the hay was off she could bring the rest into the feed room and the chore would be relatively done.

"I'm... I'm well! Yes!" she assured him as she set the rickety kickstand that would theoretically keep the 'barrow from toppling over, gods and spirits willing. "I mean... you... came to see me? Really?" She hadn't thought that their paths would cross again - after all, what were the chances that an unwanted unlucky orphan such as herself would see such an exalted person a second time? Of course, the chances turned in her favor if he wanted to see her, but still!

And he remembered her name!

"I'm really glad..." she managed, blushing.

The Only Black Uke

 

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Having already moved in, it took only another few steps and some repositioning to help catch at the side of and re-balance the wheelbarrow, and thus, immediately upon, “Ah, yes! Please!” he was doing so, and by the time she wound around to a stuttered, “If you don’t mind!” he was stepping to help lift its weight again, smiling and shaking his head. “I do not mind at all—I do like to help, and this is your space. I think I’ve been blessed already to see your creatures so I am pleased to be part of it. Are they all yours? And do they have names also?”

He tipped his head, surveying her flushed composure briefly — she must have been wrangling with the wheelbarrow for quite some time, to have worn herself so — before blinking at her latter comment. She was surprised he’d come to see her?

“Quite really,” he agreed with good cheer. “We do not so very often visit here and I remember you had a wondrous bird last I saw you. It is good to see you well though, even if you have taken to carrying…” He glanced to the barrow’s contents, “…a great many things about in the dark instead of birds. Do—?”

A foreign sound cut off whatever remained of his question.

A skittering. A rustle. Then, insectile clicking, and Zekiel glanced to the upper space over the doorway and threshold Malta had just come in from. Scuttled flat to the wall there was — from what Zekiel could tell from his limited vantage point — the oddest creature he thought he’d ever laid eyes on.

“Is that yours also?” he asked, his tone just as bright and good-naturedly curious as before, despite what almost looked like globulus pustule knobs scattered about the unknown creature’s back and body.  

[DraconicFeline]

The Only Black Uke

Blessed? He felt blessed? A priest felt blessed. By her creatures, but didn't that mean by her in a tangental way? Then indeed, maybe her luck was changing! Maybe the spirits wouldn't hate her so for whatever she did so long ago!

"Yes, I mean... They belong to my guardian." Just like she did. She only considered them hers in her heart, and she loved them so much -- even when she had to train and sell them. She shook out her aching arms but there was still more for her to do. But then it would be done, and that would be good. She began to lift out the bales of fodder.

"Oh! That's... food and supplies for the animals. It's what I do here." she hefted the bale onto the pile, "Among other things." She picked up the next bale. "I think they all have names, and if they don't, we can give them one!" Like you gave me! Naming Yisette's beasts was complicated. People liked the ones with names. People also liked the ones without names. People were strange and unpredictable. Malta gave the creatures names anyway.

Malta paused, midway to the pile. Had she heard a strange sound? A clicking? She assumed that it was Zekiel's pretty, pretty jewelery. "Hmm?" She looked where he was looking... and then squinted at what appeared to be an insect made of crystals. "Ahh...!" she said, half exclaimation and half sigh of awe. She quickly tossed the fodder on the pile, leaving it in a percarious place and nearly straining her arms, and quickly returned for a closer look. "No it's not! I've never seen it before!" she crouched, leaning forward for a better look, "I don't know what it is!" She beamed, "But it's so cute! It's so cute!" she practically bounced with excitement, "Right?"  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

“It’s…” Zekiel eyed the creature. Insectoid, with a great horn protruding from its head, a coiled — potentially poison tipped — tail that looked to have many intersecting parts, and a thin stretched canopy of extra connecting flesh between and around said tail and its legs, almost as though it might fly or glide. “It is, ah…”

He tipped his head.

Cute?

Did he think it was cute? Was this what cute was?

He smiled. “Well, it is very wondrously interesting to look upon, I should think, yes,” he said eventually. “And even if it is not yours it has taken an interest in your space, which is quite grand on its own, particularly since it pleases you to have it here. Perhaps if we gave it a name the gods would have it stay long enough that you may learn of it. Oh, and what it is!” he added as an afterthought. “It seems it must be something if it is here, and if not a janarim or a barbal trout…who do think might know the name of what it is?”  

[DraconicFeline]

The Only Black Uke

"It's definitely not a janarim!" Malta said, giggling. She knew janarim very well, thank you. "And um... maybe..." Maybe Yisette would know, but she didn't want Zekiel anywhere near Yisette, and vice versa. Maybe one of the ranch hands? Not likely - most had never left the ranch. One of Yisette's suppliers? Were any of them here? "I don't know, but I have a book." She didn't think it was in it, and she never forgot a page, but maybe it was in a passage she simply hadn't looked in.

"If giving it a name makes it stay, um... could you give it one?" she said, standing up. If the gods were involved, it would probably be best if the priest was the one appealing to them to let a strange beast stay in her barn long enough to learn what it was and make it her sweet bug baby pet Kyaaa look at it's little chittery mouthbits!

It was so cute. "I'm gonna get the book!" she said excitedly, positively wiggling up the ladder to her loft.  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

DraconicFeline

Malta was excited.

Zekiel’s expression warmed in reflection of it, watching with curious fascination as she pondered their circumstance and then chittered when she did speak. She certainly was a girl of great spirit.

“A name?” he repeated and looked to the beast. “You might name him Toko. A great explorer, having ventured within this place where none know his origins. If you know nothing of him perhaps he calls from the deep jungles as Matchitemin did. There are so many wonders there I think, and beasts and smells, we might not ever know the depth ourselves.”

Perhaps the insect ought to have been the center of his focus, new and strange as it was, and he did inspect it. When Malta moved to ‘wiggle’ up a ladder to attain her book, however, his gaze moved to her, and stayed there. Her body had a fascinating way of carrying itself.

“Is it a good book?”  

[DraconicFeline]

The Only Black Uke

Machitemin? Who was that? They sounded interesting. Or scary. Sometimes, the two were conflated. "Toko?" she said as she clambered onto her loft, listening to Zekiel's melodious voice as he spoke. Gods, the way he used words... it was so pleasant and smooth. Not rough at all, not like the people she knew... the people she'd known for her whole life.

"That's a very good name." striding on 'all fours' like an animal over her blanket and (mostly) soft hay and hidden stashes of food. She dug out the parcel wrapped in a ragged cloth and unwrapped it to reveal her treasured book, hidden to prevent it's theft.

"It is a good book!" she said happily, "It's about all the animals of the world." she tucked it under her arm and contemplated the ladder for a moment, "Most of them, anyway." She hustled back down, oblivious to his gaze.

"I've heard of Toko... are there books about him? Because I would surely..." her thought trailed off as she landed and saw the bug again. It had found a small morsel and was eating it, raising it's little claws to it's mouthbits. It nibbled with such earnest urgency that she couldn't help but be distracted.

"Awww!" she cooed, her free hand moving shyly to her chin, as if to hide the silly smile on her face. It was so cute!

But what was it?

Yes, right, the book. She coughed a little, embarrassed, and opened the book, flipping to pages that seemed relevant. Where did wierd insects live? The jungles of the Western mainland, she seemed to remember. So she flipped to the index of the species of that far-off place.

"Well, he's not a Nod-Wanda." she said, shaking her head at the image in the book and the description. "He doesn't have the right wings..." or any of the other parts. She flipped through it, frowning a little.

It was entirely possible that it wasn't there in the book at all. At least it was there in person, though, clicking away with it's little claws and webbed legs. "Uhm... Maybe it's..." she turned the book towards Zekiel to show him a sketch that looked somewhat like the creature before them. Perhaps. If it had bigger eyes and longer, sharper mouthbits. "This one?"  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Zekiel’s gaze followed Malta—or, what of her he could see from the ground as she crawled up and partial view of her was swallowed by the loft. He saw no reason why it shouldn’t appreciate what view remained, and looking upon her was far more intriguing in that particular moment than looking more at the bug. She was the one engaged in the important task at hand after all; they would examine the bug more after she retrieved the book.

Besides, from her look of raw enthusiasm upon locating it, it must have been a wondrous book indeed. He beamed back at her. “‘Most’ is a very good place to begin looking for one of something,” he agreed. “Otherwise as to books, I could not say as I haven’t read so very many myself.”

His attention followed Malta to the bug again as she cooed, evidently re-infatuated. ‘Cute,’ she had said. He studied the creature again. Much as it was an interesting choice of words, he could not bring himself to necessarily ‘agree’ with the assessment. But she seemed pleased just the same, which was far more important.

When she gestured again to her book, this time with a suggestion in mind, he looked to that and— He tipped his head. “Perhaps it is. Is it of our lands? Or sent on a very long journey by foreign gods…they have done so, in times past,” Zekiel said, almost musing now as he eyed the critter again. Ottolo had been a very different variety of godsend — and brief — but a stranger just the same when he arrived. “Perhaps they are intended as gifts.”  

[DraconicFeline]

The Only Black Uke

"Really?" The idea was shocking. Even in the orphanage, there had been books. Ragged, dog-eared, hard-worn books that had seen better days. And Malta had devoured them from the moment that the symbols on the pages had meant something. The idea that someone could be surrounded by books - because surely, the Sanctum was full of books somewhere in it's mysterious depths - and not read them was completely bizarre.

"No, I think it's from... really far away!" Malta said, trying to comprehend it. "A place called... Joohar? That's what it says." More and more, she thought it was the creature illustrated in the book and that meant... But it was impossible. It should be impossible, for a place to be so far away. The mainland was vast and dangerous and full of mystery and fear, but perhaps...

"M-maybe!" Malta said, with no little hope. If it was a gift, then surely it couldn't be bad! Nothing that cute and chirpy could or should be. And if Zekiel didn't think it was a harbringer or misfortune, then she believed him. He'd be the one to know.

Poor thing... if it was at the end of a long journey, sent by gods, then it was probably really tired. "Then we should keep it!" she said, belatedly realizing she'd said the word 'we'. Imposing the creature on him. "I-i-i mean..." she backtracked, "I'll... take care of... of Toko! You don't have to." She reached out towards the creature carefully. She wasn't stupid - it did have, after all, claws and a possibly venomous stinger.  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

“Joohar,” Zekiel repeated.

In his studies, those lessons arranged for him and his fellow church-chosen by the Sanctum, he had learned of the mainland—to some very limited extent. Due to the exclusionist nature of their people and culture, however, it all for the most part seemed very mystical and exotic. Strange and alien lands crafted by foreign gods. Presumably. He couldn’t begin to claim to much about it, and though Ottolo had spoken some of his homeland, there didn’t seem to be overlap there, either.

He wondered how large the mainland was. Yael itself was substantial — all of Zekiel’s world, but nevermind that — and yet, he continued to get the sense that the mainland was not only likely to be at least that large, but substantially more sizable still. Outsiders’ maps seemed to suggest as much, not that he had ever had opportunity to see one himself—instead, he had caught snippets of frustration from the locals. Foreigners being wildly unreliable and ‘grossly exaggerating’ their own perspective on the maps they brought in or things they spoke of, and so forth.

Talk of ‘Toko’ finding a new home brought his thoughts back to ground level and the present moment. He blinked. “Oh, wondrous! He will be among the best housed of foreign visitors.”

Perhaps it ought to have occurred to him to ask or inquire as to whether she knew the first thing about how to tend to, feed, or otherwise shelter and care for a beast the homeland of which she still wasn’t perfectly certain, let alone species, particularly if it came from a far shore with an alien diet. But it didn’t. So far as Zekiel was concerned, the girl before him likely knew infinitely more about beast raising than he did, and if she was excited about it and pleased by the concept, well—it couldn’t be all that bad, could it? The gods dispersed their gifts in odd ways, and this one seemed welcome enough.

He was not about to question it.