Page 1 of 1
Dust Bunnies
Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2023 2:41 pm
by Mirza
.
Ash 12 123
Mirza trekked into the desert in the afternoon. It was dry, hot, unwieldy weather, the sky clear and blue and the sand hot. It did not matter so much, though, as she flew out of the bounds of the city alongside her golden eagle Bird, a nearly empty bag with waterskins, arrows, and her bow clutched in her talons. It would have been easier if she had simply sprouted those avian wings, but she did not want to use so much aether to combine the forms of elf and eagle, nor did she want to draw so much attention to herself so soon after arrival.
She flew with some breaks for nearly an hour before she felt comfortable enough to assume her dragonborn shape once more. She hadn't seen many wyvern sentries on her way out, and she was not to be discovered by the Golden Guard — but an hour or two of hunting would certainly not be such a risk.
The hot sand did not burn her scaly feet, but she did not bring clothes other than a falconer's glove to cover her skin. It didn't bother her unusually so, even if her hand grew sweaty from the leather glove. Mirza scanned the rocks and sparse flora for a sign of rabbits or foxes — first visually, and then again with semblance, mentally amplifying the auras of any beast or animal she could see. She caught a rabbit hole and disturbed dirt and dust behind a nibbled-on thorny bush, and she stood there silently, Bird waiting on her arm.
It took a few minutes, but a hare — not thin, but not fat, either — crept out of the hole and made cautious hops in the direction opposite of Mirza. With a twitch of her arm, Bird took off, almost fast enough to snatch the hare, but it managed a few seconds of chase before it was captured in her talons. Just as quickly the rabbit was returned to Mirza and she held it up by the forelegs with one hand as Bird rested on her other forearm.
"Good hunting, Bird," She cooed in Ecitharese. "Beautiful mottled fur on these desert hares."
Re: Dust Bunnies
Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2023 4:54 pm
by Finn
A Silver Sentinel plied the skies atop a bronze wyvern. He had no identity with his veil raised, though that was as much to buffer the wind from his breath than any sort of decorum where he flew unseen. Over the rush of the air past his cloth-muffled ears, he could hear little, and so he focused on being the best sort of rider: one that didn't hamper his mount's ability to fly with the greatest economy of energy. But he also listened to the song of the skies, the symphony of the desert.
That was how he heard the death song of a desert hare. That was how he heard the allegretto thrum of a bird of prey. And that was how he heard a strange, sentient symphony. Though he didn't sense alarm other than the fading surprise, fear, and pain of the hare, nevertheless, he directed the wyvern to bank and descend in a lazy spiral.
Kherdroth screamed, but it was an announcement of his presence, no anger or hunger therein. Finn appreciated the pageantry that seemed inherent in the Solunarian culture, but this was not the time or place to inspire fear. Whoever this was didn't seem to be in peril, but they were far from even the unseen trails that the nomads followed. Ever since he had taken the Rune of Traversion, he had become even more fascinated by maps and cartography, and so he had studied those available to him in the city, and those that had come from Hilana's people.
The sword strapped to his back was theirs as well, a soul cairn he hadn't yet the skill to claim. All the same, he sang to it frequently, trying to calm whatever sliver of a soul abode within. Eventually, they would become partners.
The wyvern landed some ways away so as not to cause undue ruffling of feathers. Finn patted the wyvern's neck, saying, "Fine flying, Kherdroth. Rest now." He didn't have much draconic; the dragons refused to teach him. Still, he used what he had been able to pick up. The wyverns responded better to it than Vastian. He dismounted, took a few steps toward the... tall... dragonborn elf, and then paused. Well, she likely wasn't the sort to be afraid of a lone Silver Sentinel. All the same, he drew down his veil. A kind smile matched kind eyes.
"Salve, peregrina. Do you require aid?"
Re: Dust Bunnies
Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 1:14 pm
by Mirza
.
Mirza always fed Bird's first kill to her — after the hunt, a reward and treat to her eagle. She had slung it from a loop on the side of her bag and was scanning for their next prey when she first heard the alert of the wyvern. It descended too quickly for her to assume her disguise, and she had already been seen anyway. A disguise would not help the fact that she was undressed save for the falconer's glove.
She sighed when she saw that the one who approached her was a Sentinel. Perhaps she did not mind Sentinels, save for the fact they always seemed to be in everyone's business, and it was better than a Golden Guard wyvern-rider as she was, apparently, under the purview of the Silver Sentinels for the time being. Mirza recognized the draconic for what it was, but she too did not quite speak the language of dragons.
She turned herself wholly to face the Sentinel, Bird perched on her closed, gloved fist. His face was revealed, and he was not an elf, which felt more surprising — even though she had seen human Sentinels thus far, he did not seem Vastian like they did.
"No," She answered. Mirza looked to her bird, and then to the desert beyond, to the wyvern — some distant kin it might be — and back to the Sentinel in one smooth scan. "I am hunting." She took a step to the side, not away from the Sentinel but not towards him, either, and noticed a lizard she did not recognize sunning itself on a rock.
"Go, Bird." She murmured in Ecitharese, and she leapt off her fist, lizard in her talons before it had much chance to realize it had been touched. Bird did not return with this lizard, and swallowed it whole. Mirza had little use for lizards, but rabbits had pelts, lucky feat, and more meat than the tiny snack Bird consumed. She held out her gloved fist once again and the eagle landed on it in a flutter of wings.
Mirza looked back at the Sentinel and realized he was still there, and took it as a chance to indulge her curiosity. "Do you have falconers? Or do the human nomads?"
Re: Dust Bunnies
Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2023 2:32 pm
by Finn
No, she said. Well, it certainly didn't seem as though she did. He watched her prove her point, sending the raptor up long enough for it to claim its snack and return to her. Kherdroth watched with even keener eyes, still as a statue; he could have inhaled the little lizard and the bird as well, but he would not hunt without permission.
Finn continued to watch, fascinated. His ears perked at the foreign tongue. He could not place it, which was strange given his penchant for picking up languages since his time at the Kalzasern Academy. His head cocked to the side, curious.
When her attention returned to him, he smiled, his reaction not shrouded by the veil hanging below his jawline.
"Aye," he replied. "Nomads and city-dwellers alike hunt with desert raptors, or keep them as pets. Even the pets must be allowed to hunt, though. They are never domesticated." He wished that Hilana were here; his friend would have more knowledge about them within the Vastian context. She might even have plans to get into falconry herself. The Vastian woman was a polymath if ever he had met one, and she was a lover of all animals - except Orkhan; well, he didn't think of them as animals as she did, but then he only knew the civilized Orkhan of Kalzasi.
Her aura was marked by the border control, so he knew she was allowed to be in the realm. Her presence and location would be noted in his mission briefing, but otherwise, she was fine. She wasn't doing anything wrong. Sometimes things happened or people just existed in ways that Finn didn't think to question, but he had been reminded on numerous occasions of things that a Kalzasern citizen wouldn't know, so he was trying to get into the habit of doing things the Re'hyaean way.
Finn briefly scanned the slipspace around them, aligning that map with a mental picture of the nomadic maps he had seen and copied. He had always enjoyed poring over maps, but since Zef had initiated him in Traversion, he had become something of a cartographer, his mind wanting a firmer grasp on the sense of space that came with mastery of the Rune.
He pointed east.
"There is an oasis about six leagues east from here," he said. "There is a good chance one of the tribes will still be there. You can see them hunt in person."
Finn did try to be helpful.
Re: Dust Bunnies
Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2024 1:16 pm
by Finn
Review
Experience: 10 xp for use at your discretion.
Injuries: N/A
Loot: N/A
Notes: As this hasn't moved in 6 months, I'm reviewing it. Hopefully, Mirza will return!