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ooc: 527 words. .
Morning was cast under heavy shadow, the usually welcoming morning light, shrouded under the cooling front listlessly drifting over head. A sort of grey spread across the lands, bringing with it a heavy depression that brought usually activity to a slow, monotonous droll. But not all were affected by this cast of gloom, for a pair of wolves were enjoying themselves just fine. The Nomad female wouldn’t have been happier to have the little one Sarian to herself. The tyke had grown on her at an alarming rate, cementing this unknown bond made since their first encounter.
The role of caretaker was new to the Nomad, but she accepted it with a certain grace. She did not mind the odd hours in which the little one would wake her or the constant need for food and play. X’yrin was more than happy to oblige and in fact found the whole experience rewarding. Day after day, she looked forward to taking the little one out for a morning run or join her on a hunt for small game, even if the pup’s antics startled their query away. And this day was no different. But in the midst of all the excitement, she began to take notice of a concern. In the end, she would have to return Sarian to Shiloh and Kiara… of course that did not mean she would not be able to see the child again. Yet the idea of giving her up did not sit well. She was not a possession, but a living being that needed the affections and care of her ‘mommies’. Who was she to stand in the way of that? X’yrin did not like where her thoughts were going… She needed to speak with someone. And soon.
“Rin! Rin!” The Nomad was suddenly jarred from her thoughts to the whimpering of the pup at her feet. On the little one’s face was a look over concern, noticing her friend had stopped in the middle of their playing. “Rin play?” The Optime woman swept down in wild display to capture the giggle pup in her arms and bring her to eye level. Smiling, she nuzzled the little one’s nose, whining affectionately. “Of course ‘Rin play,” she assured her, lightly bouncing the pup in the air. “But would Sarian like to meet a friend of ‘Rin’s? Maybe she will play too?” The pup became a wriggled fit of excited giggles, almost too much for the woman to contain in her arms.
Sarian squealed to be let down then took off running into the open field of Dahlia with X’yrin sprinting after her. “No no Sarian! This way!” she laughed at the child’s eagerness. “We’re going this way!” But her calls were to no avail, the pup was on her own course with her caretaker behind to catch her. The Nomad hoped Lady Nayru was up for visitors. It had been a while since the warrior had spoken to her… And with these feelings for the pup growing stronger, her reluctance to give her up taking place over rational thought, she felt it was about time for a conversation before she did something drastic.
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Nayru took no notice of the gloomy day, knowing that the days grew more mournful until the spirits of winter emerged. Soon enough snow would be let loose upon the lands and the brilliant ice crystals would reflect the sun so the world became dazzling again. Until then Nayru was content enough to exist in the grey of the day, keeping to herself as she went about her chores. This day she had spent at the ranch. Now that Adonia was gone and hadn't returned there was more work than ever tending to the animals. Nayru did not mind, simply filling in what roles were vacant within Ichika no Ho-en. The small lady was up hour before sunrise and laid herself to rest hour after sunset. Once again she lived each moment with only the thought as to bettering Ichika, serving the members, and creating meaning. How she had become so lax and lazy in the arms of Gideon she couldn't quite understand, but sweeping through Cerne Rise had told her the man had moved on from Ichika, and that likely many others in the house had left as well. Nayru did not let this bother her, burying the dull ache that had threatened to grow in her core.
Despite her constant moving, constant working, the small woman seemed to grow thicker around the waist. This too Nayru was skilled at ignoring. The large quantities of meat that went into her body were uncounted, as if she did not feed herself as if eating a meal for four. Winter weight she would tell herself if for any reason her girth came to mind, and she would walk off the idea and perhaps the extra pounds with her brisk pace. It was this brisk pace that moved her away from the ranch and further into the Valley, where the voices of others welcomingly distracted the woman. First it was X'yrin that she recognized, and then the child that Shiloh had welcomed into Ichika. Why the warrior had the woman's child Nayru did not question, it seemed only natural for the whole pack to take on the role of raising their young. This tiny thought sent a jolt through Nayru's spine, and she shook away the idea quickly.
"X'yrin, Namaste my friend." Nayru's short legs somehow carried her quickly to the pair, and she turned and gave Sarian the customary bow as well. Children still puzzled her, having only memories of Eclipse's youth to guide her in how to act around them. Mostly Nayru treated them like miniature adults, having been treated as such by Conor and Bris during her own childhood. "What is the good word from you two today?" Cherry eyes peered questioningly at the two, the tiny Jiryu shifting the weight on her feet from left to right, and then back again.
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ooc: 566 words. .
For one so small, she was a spritely little thing, always keeping at least two bounds ahead of the long legged female. But her excitement was bound to be her downfall; those eager little legs could only go so far before her body tuckered out. All the Nomad had to do was patiently bide her time. “Oh, I will get you!” she called after the romping pup, smiling as she continued to give chase. At last she managed to herd the child in the right direction, deeper into the Dahlia Valley instead of toward the border.
Little Sarian was near out of breath, but was reluctant to admit defeat, even to herself. She pressed on til her little legs couldn’t carry her anymore and plopped down in the grass attempting to bury herself within the long blades away from the encroaching shadow of the female warrior. “Oh my,” the woman chided, noticing for the first time a familiar scent on the wind. She swept down to scoop up the pup, but missed as the still excited child bound for the feet of the two toned female. “Hi!” she piped, her tail wriggling so hard X’yrin feared it would fly off her body. Her smile never wavered as she lifted her muzzle to greet the Ryu. “Lady Nayru,” she dipped her head respectfully. “It is a pleasure as always to see you.”
Between the adults, the lone child attempted to busy herself by gnawing on the taller woman’s feet. She was quite determined to entice another playful game even though she was much too tired to do anything more than roll and giggle. To appease her, the Nomad wiggled flexed her digits a bit but made more move to start another game so soon. There was something more pressing on her mind. “There is not much to say,” she began softly. “Kiara and I have begun stocking for the winter. The trip Jaden and I took was successful… and the little one here,” she final gave the pup the attention she commanded, swooping down in dramatic fashion to bring the little one into her arms. “…is in my care for the time being. It is quite nice really.”
The woman felt there was little need to bring up the situation regarding Saluce just yet. A delicate matter like that would surely involve explanation, especially with his scent still clinging to her; perhaps something the woman did not want to get into just yet. Her assumptions involving Saluce and the lady before her were still alive and bothersome, but she knew better than to jump to conclusions… even if the darker ideas her mind conjured were slowly eating away at her. Her beloved Shepard had forewarned her that the mind was a trickster at times; forging assumed truths that were nothing more that lies crafted by fear. She would not fall to them… so long as she was able.
“But I must confess,” she digressed to her reason for seeking out the petite lady. “I have been feeling strange about this little one lately.” Instinctually, X’yrin brought the tuckered child closer to the warmth of her chest. “She is only in my care for a short while… but I enjoy having her around. It is strangely fulfilling…” gradually her smiled waned as she tread closer toward the thought that bothered her. “I don’t want to give that up.”
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[html] sorry for the wait luff, holidays, you know? Short short.370
X'yrin did not disappoint with good news and Nayru nodded as the woman rattled off each item on her list. Nayru merely took the information X'yrin gave her and did not try to infer anything. That the familiar scent of the great knight clung to her was not lost on the perceptive woman, but simply Nayru assumed it was none of her business. The man had come and gone before and Nayru knew their lives were separate on most days. If X'yrin was a part of his life now, or she of his', it was no concern of Nayru's until it was made so. Instead she listened attentively to the words X'ryin spoke, and her cherry eyes followed the movements of the woman as she scooped up the child.
Sarian was Shiloh's child, and yet she seemed comfortable in the arms of most any Ichikan Nayru had seen the girl with. And yet never had the Jiryu felt the desire to sweep down and scoop up the youngster for herself. It had always been the same with Melee and Range, though they from time to time looked upon her as a mother and she felt herself their guardian, Nayru had never felt the desire to be overly affectionate to the children. Teach and train them she would, but she could not make her words sugary sweet for their ears only. This had never worried her before, but the knowledge of her growing girth and lack of maternal warmth combined was something to fret over, if she allowed herself.
Nayru did not, and simply immersed herself in X'yrin's dilemma. Surrendering Sarian back to her rightful mother. That X'yrin felt such joy at the presence of a child was indeed wonderful, but Nayru knew that no one could cling to another, be it a child, parent or lover. "All things must be given up at some point." Even one's own life must be relinquished whether or not the being was ready for this. "We would not value them if their ultimate loss was not known to us." Perhaps this words were unhelpful, but having never known such a strong attachment to a child herself it was all the tiny woman could offer.
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ooc: 235 words.x.x believe me, I know. Puts you in the spirit but sucks all the muse.
Truth was the response she wished to receive above all else, and perhaps a friendly ear to listen to her dilemma. The Lady Nayru granted her both these aspects even though it was not necessarily to the Nomad’s liking. She looked down at the little one’s smiling face, exhaustion reigning over her tiny form. She looked so vulnerable and in need of care yet offered an abundance joy in turn. What better trade could she have asked for than this?
Gradually, her soft smile waned as the Ryu’s truth settled upon her troubled mind. But she was unready to succumb to it. “But not everything must be returned,” she contested with brows knitting with concern. “If something is better fit to serve a purpose elsewhere, then wouldn’t it be beneficial not to return it?” Intuitively the child brought her ears to attention, sensing the troubled tone of her caretaker. Softly she whined in worry that her friend had become upset.
Yet her innocence did not meet the woman’s gaze as it was locked upon the Jiryu, her form growing steadily rigid. “Why would we need to know loss to value them?” She drew the little one closer to her chest. “She is here with me now and I value her presence… her life. What good would it do to deprive myself of her when I value everything, her charms and her faults, here and now?”
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The lady did not relent and Nayru merely shook her head. The girl had never been one to try to persuade anyone in a particular direction or another, preferring to let others live as they would. Yet to give blessing to X'yrin to keep Sarian was wrong and Nayru knew this. The girl belonged to the heart of another, even if X'yrin had placed the child within her own. "Would Shiloh not say the same? That Sarian's presence better serves a purpose with her." It was all too easy to look at the situation from one side only, and harder still to accept the validity of the other side once it came to light. "Indeed everything must be returned. Does not this happen yearly? Life springs up and yet before winter it crumbles, returning to the earth. Only this is a symbol, to remind us of this truth as it applies to all aspects of our life. We cannot cling to anything X'yrin, this I know." Clinging to anything weighed a being down, Nayru knew that to be truly free one had to be free of all attachments. This she had not accomplished and so that X'yrin argued against her the piebald Jiryu took no offense.
"There are two sides to everything, is there not? Do we not appreciate warmth more fully once we have known the bitter cold?" Nayru then smiled at the child, the perceptive girl knowing that the words they spoke had something to do with her. "Perhaps you are right, in a way. She is here with you now, so should we not focus on that? Why worry over future events when, today, right now, us three are gathered? Let us enjoy this." Nayru looked to Sarian, knowing that she had to go back to Shiloh at some point. That woman surely valued her charm and faults as fully as X'yrin, and yet for each woman it probably seemed that her love for the child was greatest. To convince either otherwise was probably an impossible task, but Nayru couldn't help but hope X'yrin saw some logic in the words the woman had spoken.
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ooc: 324 words.
She was forced to recall a conversation emanating a similar air to this one. Not long ago when she and Jaden ventured the wilderness together to appease her restlessness, a topic carrying the same air as this was struck. And now, just as then, she felt quite irritated… but it was not for having to explain herself and justify her feelings. She was again set on the defensive position, tail lashing anxiously as in so many words the Ryu expressed her thoughts as wrong. Coinciding with her better judgment, she knew what the petite female said was true, but the rationale was overtaken by a strong, selfish desire.
Her maw was clasped shut, sharpened teeth clenching down to suppress her irrational and hastily conjured words. Her strained silence was proof alone that what the lady Nayru said was right though such words of admittance were far beyond her capability to utter at this time. She tore her eyes away from the girl’s minute form choosing instead to please her eyes with the child’s smiling face. The angered swipes of her tail eventually calmed to a leisurely sway as again she form her peace from the child’s innocence.
“We should enjoy this,” at last the woman spoke quietly as was usual. “And I should be glad for this time with you, Lady Nayru.” Gradually the rigidity of her form melted away and once she felt that her gaze harbored no ill will toward the girl for her words, she returned her softened gaze to the lady’s garnet own. “I have been in need of a chance to be among the pack again,” she admitted with a bashful upturn to a corner of her lips. “With only Sarian and my-“what was he to her at this point? A friend? “-my friend as company, I was beginning to miss dabbling within the pack details. Has anything new happened? Or perhaps another celebration like Samhain on the rise?”
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Nayru watched the physical transformation of X'yrin, as her anger rose and then gradually subsided. That X'yrin could control her emotions well enough, even if she did not initially mask them, was a virtue. Nayru knew too many that would react without rational thought, flying in the face of whatever or whoever upset them. Yet that was not a warrior's way and Nayru was glad that the one of the guardians of Ichika seemed to know this truth as well. X'yrin laid aside, though surely not forever, what irritated her then and focused on the present, as they both had agreed was right and proper to do.
Moving past their current words, Nayru let her eyes linger on Sarian as the woman warrior spoke. Although Nayru caught the slight hesitation at "my friend" she said nothing just then, already placing by scent who this friend was. Did Saluce then have a romantic relationship with X'yrin? And if so, did Nayru care? The lady did not even allow herself to think of an answer to that question, merely focusing on the X'yrin posed to her then. Tidings of Ichika. Samhain had gone well, though memories of the night after the bonfire were patchy, and what she could remember seemed surreal.
"Hibernal will be upon us in no time. When daylight is at its shortest." The festival had carried over from Dahlia de Mai, and Nayru was determined to make it a meaningful celebration that year with their own Ichikan spin on the day. "That is the day we hunt in our lupus bodies, like the old ways. Alone or in pairs usually, and in the evening we all feast on what the pack had collected that day. Traditionally those who do not catch food do not eat, or eat last." Again there would be a fire, and rarely did they exclude those who were unlucky in their hunt from the meal, though often there was friendly jesting by those who had provided meat. Few were left who would remember a Hibernal before. Except perhaps Saluce, who had been absent from the Dahlian gathering as Nayru remembered.
Thoughts of the brutish man prompted Nayru of X'yrin's hesitation, and still Nayru was discreet with her knowledge. Though if X'yrin were as close to the man as Nayru guessed, surely X'yrin was not unaware that the Trembley man and the lady with no surname knew one another. It was better perhaps, for X'yrin to say this aloud, though Nayru was seeing less and less reason to keep the words to herself. "And who is your friend? Are they of Ichika?" Was it not better to break whatever tension might grow between the two of them if such matters were left unsaid?
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Word of another event brought a smile to the woman’s face as she was keen to further her experience with this pack’s gatherings and social occasions. It was not rare within her culture to come together and celebrate various occasions, but it was not often they were as entertaining as Ichika’s. After only one event the Nomad was convinced what other congregations transpired, she would take part and enjoy it just as well as she had the Samhain celebration. Even the thought of it made her tail sway with joy again, eager for this Hibernal to take place. A hunt sounded thrilling especially in a form so rarely used. Even without a set date for the event, the Nomad felt confident in her abilities to provide for this feast and would take great pride in having her prizes taken by the pack as a whole. Such fulfillment to be had.
X’yrin was quite content in conversing further on the topic but her silence was overtaken by an inquiry she thought would have been prolonged just a little longer. The woman felt her smile wane and body again became rigid on the defensive. She did well to keep her lips still aside from movement in uttering a word on behalf of an explanation. It was hard not to simply dismiss this question and assert her own assumptions, demanding the answers that her mind plagued her for from the Lady Nayru. However composure remained her constant companion, gently laying a hand upon her to ease down her tensed shoulders and caress down her back to smooth her bristled ridge.
It was this same calming composure that gently parted her lips and kept her words as light and soft as she knew them to be. “He is of Ichika, Lady Nayru… but was made part of our whole only recently. I believe you know of Saluce, my lady.”
ooc: 315 words.
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"I do."Nayru could have left her words at that. The woman had inherited her biological mother's strange ability for complete composure, if she so desired. Where Cercelee had in all cases hidden her true emotions, Nayru was more selective when she donned her masks. Because of this Nayru allowed others to form closer bonds with her, revealing herself more readily to the Ichikans, and yet also because of this they never knew if or when she was hiding some thought or emotion. Simply most thought they could read the lady as they read anyone else, and Nayru did nothing to correct them. So that Nayru showed no expression except a soft, slight smile was an indication of nothing except that she might be pleased with X'yrin's confession.
Yet X'yrin again had grown rigid and it was not Nayru's nature to wish to displease any of her pack mates, least of all one who she counted among her personal friends. What caused such discomfort for X'yrin at the man's name spoken out loud, or perhaps in the face of Nayru's relation to him, the lady could guess not but simply she tried to ease whatever unknown transgression had occurred. "He was of Dahlia de Mai. As was I. " Nayru did not add that Saluce had left his heart in Dahlia de Mai whereas she had carried it across the mountain to Ichika. She did not say that Saluce had left her before and come again, only to repeat the painful cycle. She did not express at emotion at their shared past home. Merely she provided this information, which she guessed the warrior might already know.
"Razekiel must have admitted him." Though as Nayru said the words she knew them to be true. The woman, whether told explicitly or inferred from what the land told her, knew most of what transpired in Ichika. Saluce's scent had lingered around the borders for some time, and Nayru had paid it no heed for the man had not again called out to her. She had found it intermingled with Razekiel's, and then within Ichika, and Nayru still had not sought out the man. Still she saw no reason to, just then. Merely she looked up at X'yrin, her cherry eyes trying to read any unspoken words in the woman's face, and smiling as if to say herself "How lucky he has found a friend in you."
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The Nomad had never been in this predicament, if one could call it that. Nothing ever needed to be assumed or suspicious of because there was nothing that warranted such irrational reactions. The Exultare was naturally a content woman as was made through mental discipline and distraction through rigorous training. But ever since her admittance, new and strange feelings were becoming part of her whole, not unlike this ill-felt sensation brewing in the pit of her stomach. She harbored no personal qualms against the lady Nayru nor Saluce whose company she had come to enjoy. But this uncertainty that plagued her mind, she did not like. Not knowing the circumstances were what ate away at her composure and made her stance rigid even when met with the face of the kind lady.
The male in question had hardly talked about his past, only his word upon their reunion was all she had to go on. She knew next to nothing of this life lead before her meeting him…and it was becoming more imperative that these absent words be spoken. Perhaps further talk with the lady would grant her access to this history, perhaps even a little insight into the man himself. Yet she could not make her maw move agreeably, even with the possibility to learn just an arm’s length from being within her grasp. She need only ask, but felt strangely out of place in doing so. Skepticism kept her lips sealed when they should have been opened in question.
“I see,” whispered words at last parted her maw whilst her burning eyes averted those of her lead. She knew there was nothing to fear from her, she need only ask what she must to dispel the doubt from her mind. Yet there was no cause for her to doubt anything, she reminded herself. And even ‘that’ counter thought troubled her more. Her head was throbbing with concealed questions and blatant confusion for what stemmed these reasons of doubt and latent fear. So much that the woman brought a hand to her head beneath her veiling bangs. “Forgive me, my Lady Nayru,” the woman groaned whilst clenching her head. “I would like to speak with you again… but… I don’t think I am able to right now. This is very confusing to me,” she confessed, already turning to leave. She could think of nothing more to say now, not even a parting word as her culture advised. She simply walked away in hasten stride wanting more than anything to return to her den with Sarian and wait out the pain til it ebbed away.
[Swift Exit]
ooc: 435 words. Stubborn thing.
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