Ash 31st, 122
The jungle canopy was loud with the abundant and varied cacophony of bird calls, insect sounds, roaring of frogs, and the laughing of monkeys. The sunlight shone through the leaves, casting soft shadows upon the jungle floor. Dark brown eyes peered out from beneath a large and dense bush, one whose shadow seemed to wrap around all the creatures hiding within it. Still, the huntress had her skin checkered with the camouflaging spots of her first totem from her childhood, the giraffe. Norani was watching a junction where two animal trails converged into one. She felt her stomach rumbling, reminding her of why she was out here. Food supplies had gone low and hunting hadn’t been as successful as of late. These creatures seemed smarter and far better adapted to survival here than the young Orkhan. Norani had forgone eating breakfast this morning so that Yeva would have some when she finally awoke.
Norani reached within and pulled some aether out, to feed the gentle winds that lazed through the foliage here. She asked them to leave her scent upon her person, to not carry it off on their journeys, and they readily agreed, giggling at such a strange request. She shifted in the damp soil, waiting, hungry but determined and patient.
Neff neff.
Norani perked up her ears at that. She followed the source of the sound toward the bend of one of the adjoining paths. Then it came around the corner, strutting proudly. Norani had heard of these beasts but had never hunted one herself. It was a large wild boar, with large, glowing multicolored tusks. It looked fat and meaty and her stomach growled so loud she thought the pig might hear it.
Especially when it stopped, snorting, looking directly at her location beneath the bush. Then it turned away, sauntering over to a tree. Norani gripped her chakram, getting ready to burst from her hiding spot and throw the blade. But the winds were oohing and ahhing at something. And she stopped herself. She watched and she waited. And the pig proceeded to scratch its rump against the bark, snorting happily all the while. An unamused frown grew on Norani’s face, unsure why the winds were acting in such a way. Then the pig turned, scraping its tusk on one side.
It let loose an incredibly loud and piercing screeching noise, so terrible that Norani had to clench her eyes shut to endure the noise without giving away her location. That tree must be metallic with the way it sounded. The sound was carving itself into her very bones and made her want to crawl out of her own skin.
But then it stopped.
Norani forced her eyes open, hearing the winds laughing now, having known this noise was coming and likely helped to carry it far and wide. The boar was turning around, presumably to do the other tusk, when Norani saw a long, thin shaving falling from the trunk, roughly the size of a card.
A card.
She thought back to what Yeva had asked her upon their arrival here. Her elven friend was building an Oracle Deck for her readings and asked that Norani create the first card. Norani wasn’t really sure what was required for such a thing, but thought that this might be a sign.
Skreeeeeee.
Norani grit her teeth so as to not bite her tongue as the boar annoyed every being within miles. Norani cracked an eye open and saw that the boar’s neck was glistening wet. She cast her squinted eye on the damaged part of the tree from the first tusk and saw it leaking a silvery sap. Curious.
Finally the boar stopped its petulant racket making and began rooting around in the foliage, eventually disappearing from sight. Norani dragged herself slowly out from the shadowy bush, going to brush the damp soil from her front only to find none there. She glanced down at the soil which thrummed contentedly and she fed it a bit of aether, thanks for keeping her clean. She slowly walked toward the metallic tree. She cast her gaze up into its foliage, seeing silvery glints along the edges of the leaves. Something in her gut told her that they’d be terribly sharp.
Looking at the bark, it was smooth, coppery in color, though matte in color. She ran her fingers over it, following it downward as she knelt by one of the spots the boat had carved up. The sap had a red and green swirling in it, and Norani touched it. It was warm. She brought her fingers to her nose and found it smelled like the air when lightning struck close. Interesting. Norani blew on the sap and the winds around her joined in, drying the sap on her finger tips. It hardened, fitting to form around her fingers. And when she bent them to test it, it did not resist or crack. With her other hand, she brought up her chakram, tapping it against the hardened sap.
Tink tink.
Her eyes grew wide. It was metallic when hardened, but still flexible. Fascinating. She bent down further picking up the largest bark shaving. It was far brighter in its coppery appearance on the underside of it and heavier than it appeared. It was decided, she would find a way to make this into Yeva’s card.
Neff neff.
Norani stiffened. She slowly cast her gaze to the side to see the large boar peering at her from behind a fern that was dropping ashy spores when moved. It snorted again. A challenge. Norani was too close for comfort, and reached out to the winds around her. She cast them toward the boar, to distract it by temporarily blinding it with their strength. And they happily answered the Elementalist.
But as the winds came near to the boar’s tusks, the winds dissipated with sad little sighs and the tusks glowed a little brighter. Neff neff! The creature charged out of its hiding spot and Norani summoned a bunch of wind to shoot from the bottoms of her feet. Her knees nearly buckled from the instinctual use of her magic and it sent her shooting upwards, the boar charging through the space she’d been moments before. Norani was tossed off balance, severed the magic and tumbled roughly into the fern the board had appeared from, which promptly ignited. The Orkhan rolled away from the fire, hissing at the mild burns on her arm as she stared down the boar at a more comfortable distance.
She drew a melee chakram in one hand, keeping her throwing one in her other. She crouched low, tensing and coiling the muscles in her body. It seemed her magic wouldn’t work in the proximity of those tusks. She couldn’t let it get too close. Who knows what it could do if those tusks got ahold of her? The beast started charging once more, and Norani slashed her chakram forward, a guiding motion for the winds she had swirling around her. But she didn’t aim them at the beast, but rather at the ground before it. This sent leaves and dirt and debris sprawling up into the boar’s path, as Norani herself dashed off to the side, maintaining that safe distance.
The temporarily blinded boar crashed once more into a whole patch of those ferns, setting off a large conflagration. Norani coiled her body then ripped her throwing chakram forward, sending it soaring toward the boar’s exposed neck.
Klang.
The chakram bounced off the glinting sap that Norani now could see that had worked its way into the fur around the pig’s neck. She swore in Ecitharese but stayed where she was. She was pumping water from her feet into the soil around her, flooding it, asking the earth to accept the water, forming a deep and wide pool of mud around her. The boar shook the debris from its eyes and moved away from the fire, spotting her once more. It roared and charged her once more, and she stood her ground, roaring back, as her Orkhan scales came forth, her tusks growing, her claws extending.
And the boar ran straight into the thicker mud, getting lodged, now squealing in its confusion. Norani walked calmly through the mud, the elements giving her way. The more the boar struggled, the more stuck it became and the more exhausted it grew until it became still. Norani watched it, reaching out with a hand, not wishing to cause it unnecessary suffering. She closed her eyes, feeding her aether into the creature, away from its horns. She felt the aether charging with the creature’s form, and she returned it into her, acquiring it, adding it to the tattoo on her back.
In her native tongue, “Thank you for the sustenance you will provide. We won’t waste anything.” Then she used her chakram to stab between a pair of ribs and into its lung and heart. The creature went still.
Norani sighed.
Dragging this heavy pig out of the mud and back to her and Yeva’s hut was going to take all afternoon. And she still needed to find her other chakram.
Her stomach growled loudly and she shouted at it “I know!”
