Zana gazed over the waters beyond the ship as she watched the tattooed and lime streaked clan below along the shore. She balanced on the rail as the wind whipped about her frame and made the ornaments in her mane rattle and sway. She turned her orbs towards DaVinci and the silent male beside him. Her older brother spoke the language of the clan and he'd spent the time aboard the ship teaching her as well. While she ignored most of the shipmates during this time it seemed that she was a rarity that they couldn't get enough of. She hadn't realized how small she really was until the shifted clan members had stood about in all their glory about the deck.
Her ears flicked back as she tried to ignore the fact that she had to perch upon the rail to even be anywhere near the height of the warriors next to her. Her words were soft as she asked her sibling. "What do they expect of us.." she was silent a second before she pushed on. "What do you expect of me.." her voice slightly bitter as she narrowed her orbs, her claws chipping at the wood of the rail as she ran her fingers along the pouch that swayed along her hip, thankful that she'd brought the few weapons she knew how to weild. The whalebone spear pressed against her spine as she shifted to glance towards the warrior beside DaVinci, one of the few who'd tried to warm up to her. He flashed her a grin before turning back to the world before them.
DaVinci had learned how talented she was with the darts as she'd spent the first few days sulking and waging her own personal war against the gulls. She hardly ever missed and the poison that tipped the darts made certain to make it easier to collect her prey. The gulls though, she left to fall into the sea, to become the supper of the creatures of the deep. She still had her doubts about this all. Firefly hadn't even made it to the ship before she'd bulked, sometimes Zana wondered why she'd pressed on to board the ship alongside DaVinci.
DaVinci hadn't expected her to say anything, Zana had always been the silent shadow looming behind him, watching him, listening to the plans and stories of his youth and just studying him with those unnerving lilac grey eyes. When he realized that it had been his sister that spoke and just what she'd said he for once was the silent one. He really didn't know what they had expected of him, what they believed that he could do to restore order to the clan that he'd been adopted into and later become the heir. Now he was watching as the warriors of the clan pulled the large ship slowly and surely into the shallow bay, those that had been loyal to his father's line and the way of their world.
A moment longer he was silent before he shook his head and turned those stormy orbs towards Zana, the warrior child the men had taken a liking to and in some ways even feared. "I don't know kid, I guess we'll have to work on that.." he said as the planks were lowered onto the sandy shores balanced neatly between the two high cliffs. He wasn't for certain just where they were in the clan's lands, or if they even were but he was glad that they weren't going to be doing this alone. He let the others head down the planks and onto solid land, greeting brothers, wives, and sisters and kin. They had all retreated except Aisleran, the tall warrior striking a strange figure draped over the rail next to his tiny dwarf of a sister.
He gave the commander a sharp nod and watched as Aisleran too departed before he finally spoke honestly to Zana. "Zana, I have no idea what part you may have in this, Firefly was the one who suggested seeing if you would come along.. Frankly I'm surprised you did. You're something these folks would never expect to see on a war path and in some way I believe that they would judge you unfairly.. that perhaps will give you an advantage over them but there's still a lot to learn in a small period of time if I'm to even attempt to set things right here." His stormy orbs glanced down to the beach where Aisleran stood and waited for the two of them to join him. DaVinci glanced at Zana one last time before boarding the plank and eyeing her. "Come now, I'm sure we can find something or someone to entertain you until we get settled." There was mischief in his eyes as he waited for her to join him on the departure to the grounds below.
Zana was known to be a bit prickly and even whiny sometimes but she learned quickly and was skilled in many ways, some of them deadly and sinister even but it seemed that her brother felt that as long as they were on the same side that he could overlook her stash of darts and their deathly poisons. While the men on the ship had grown to respect her she didn’t believe that the folks of the land would. Her grey lilac eyes stared over the heads of the people below, wondering of quickly their fanfare would end when they realized that there was a stranger among them. She knew that they had accepted DaVinci and Firefly over time but she was nothing like her siblings. She sighed in annoyance and shot their heir a dirty look before speaking softly. ”That we’ll have to do…” she said as she stepped up to stand beside her brother at the top of the plank, her eyes settling upon the few faces below that she knew to some degree.
She hadn’t really expected DaVinci to speak further on her complaint but when he did her sharp glare softened somewhat as she ran her fingers along the smooth bone staff that was slung over her back. Silently she pulled the weapon from behind her and leaned against it for a moment while she contemplated just what her brother had said. When she returned her gaze to him it was steady as she spoke. ”I came because you asked, nothing more. Gabriel won’t like this if I make it back, but I don’t think he will say much on it.” He never did seem to have much to say she thought to herself before she took a step forward into her future.
The shift and dip of the plank under her feet didn’t seem to respond to her weight at all but that of their heir as he followed her. Something nagged at the back of her mind as she questioned him softly in their language, knowing that soon they would be speaking the foreign tongue of his people and little or nothing else. ”Why was Firefly’s suggestion so important, even Aisleran took time to reflect over it after he met me..” She had a feeling that he’d left something out about their annoying sister but she hadn’t pressed him on the subject, not when so many strange faces were before them, but now it seemed that this was going to be one of the last moments she had to ask so she took what she was given.
He tried to ignore the words of his sister but his ears gave a slight twitch to her words as a glitter of amusement lingered in his eyes. He knew that Gabriel would not be pleased that DaVinci had managed to whisk one of his clan members out from under his nose in the dead of night but she had come willingly and there was little that the leader could do, until she returned at the least. DaVinci doubted that he would be returning, he knew his duty here was more important than that of the pack he’d helped to lead in their old territories. He couldn’t help the ghost of a smile that appeared on his lips though as he shook his head. He hadn’t been much of a leader, always in constant trouble with Inferni, the ways of Souls had always seemed a bit strange to him, after his stay in Eire. Now he wasn’t so certain if anything could pull him back… even though there was a constant ache in his heart at that thought alone.
Ignoring the painful reminder he spoke softly in the foreign tongue as he raised his hand to the mass below. ”Aye, that he won’t..” There was little else that could be said on the subject, Zana knew just as well as he did just what lay between the leader of Inferni and the once leader of Phoenix Valley. Now there was nothing as he was leagues away from the lands they’d resided in about to set out on their own adventure that would become the stuff of legends. He chuckled at the idea as he asked Zana, ”You ready to be made into history?” His words were soft as his feet brought them to the end of the plank and onto the sandy beaches of his far away home.
There were faces here that he hadn’t seen for ages, and though it took him some time to match two and two together soon enough he even found names to match faces. He couldn’t help but laugh as Clanian appeared before him, the warrior had once been the weakest child among the clan but time had been right fair to him and he’d shot up into a broad shouldered soft spoken warrior. There was Uegal who was still the ugliest brute DaVinci had ever laid eyes on but he knew that the warrior’s heart was soft and gentle. Other faces swam before him, Tierlin, Caitban, Nesmed, Camran, and even Mabh, but a star among the long missed faces show through as the sea grey eyes of Breidhe, met him over the masses, causing the words that lingered in his mouth to turn to sand and wither away.
He gave her a silent nod as he turned towards Zana to answer her last question. ”Firefly would have been my counselor and advisor if she’d returned with us, she is a priestess of sorts to our people. She’s one of the ollamh.” he said almost absently. He wasn’t sure who would stand beside him as an advisor in this time of need now, for there was really no face above the crowd that he knew to be off the ranks but he would let that worry him later. Turning his eyes back to the crowd he began to mingle with the people, Aisleran had said that they needed to know he was real, that he had returned to them and so he would play the part for now until there was time for other things.
She couldn’t help but sigh again as she followed her brother. She knew that there had to be some reason why she was here but she couldn’t help to believe that this was not going to work out the way they had planned. She shook her head as she followed DaVinci down the plank and stood beside him on the sands, her eyes scanning the crowd as he was greeted by old faces. Aisleran stood solidly by her side once more, her constant shadow. She did her best to ignore the tall lithe warrior, knowing that he meant her no harm. She really couldn’t understand why he tailed her but she wouldn’t put it past DaVinci to have asked him of it seeing how she was not of their lands.
She’d been warned that the folk of the old ways were weary of newcomers and might not take to her well, the warrior status that the men aboard the ship had granted her did not help in the least. She just gritted her teeth as she turned her sharp gaze to DaVinci, catching the faltered words and misty eyed look cast towards some tramp positioned a degree away from the throng of his people. Her words were dry as she spoke up in their language. ”This would not bode well for Romeo’s fair Juliet I don’t think..” the words icy as the strangers finally seemed to take notice of her appearance. She turned her gaze towards Aisleran who gave a twitch of his maw to show that he understood quite well the point she’d been trying to make.
While DaVinci had been speaking of Firefly’s role in the lands Zana did little more than nod. The few times she’d met the fierce woman that was her kin she’d learned that there were some things she need not question. Though Firefly was very flamboyant in her own life and ways she had always seemed to require some degree of respect. Perhaps this was why, this calling of hers from across the sea. Zana nodded silently to his words, knowing that she would question Aisleran when she had a moment. While there was little she could do she didn’t like the silence that had crept among the people while she’d spoken or the space that had suddenly appeared around them as they seemed to realize that she was not a child. She narrowed her eyes at the folk and was quiet as she waited, knowing that DaVinci would announce her presence now, seeing how no other time seemed better.
DaVinci had stiffened slightly when the words his sister uttered were in the tongue of the clan and not their own shared language. He turned slowly towards her and spoke in plain English. ”You’d do well not to speak such words aloud in mixed company, you do remember what value they hold me in.. And where did you learn of Shakespeare anyways?” He couldn’t help but catch the grins of the few men who had come aboard their ship who knew Zana and who had learned their language as they’d shared their own tongue to the slight woman. He didn’t say anything to change the look on the warriors faces but instead he held his breath a moment before turning towards the people, his arm swept to the side to reveal his sibling fully to the clan.
His voice was strong and assuring as he spoke. ”Zana mab Iskata has journeyed from the Inferni clan to assist us in reclaiming the throne. The ollamh Firefly has spoken well for her and I trust she will be accepted well into the ranks of the warriors who protect us.” The murmurs that arose from his words in their tongue caused his skin to prick as he turned his gaze upon each and every member that had come to greet them upon the shores. He knew that she would have a hard time being accepted until she could prove herself to them but he had paved the way in a savage sort, knowing that the hot headed ones among their clan would make claim and challenge her for the rank she had not justly earned within their lands.
His eyes turned to Aisleran who seemed to be regarding Zana fondly as she stood straight and tall, meeting the crowd with her hawkeyed glare as she waited to see what they would make of her. DaVinci wondered how she missed the ways of the warrior who fawned over her, but he was quickly reminded that though she seemed older she hadn’t even reached her first year of life. She was very much a teenage warrior and unschooled in many ways. He caught the attention of Aisleran for a moment, holding his gaze until the man looked away. Aisleran had learned by DaVinci that things were not the same in the far away territories that Zana had come from and that there would be no arranged marriage for the woman nor would she be one who was easily swayed into excepting the ways of this clan. DaVinci didn’t believe that the male would press his luck or challenge for her hand and DaVinci wasn’t all together sure that his small sibling would ever truly be able to take a mate.
He tried to push away from the thoughts, knowing from learning with the healers that unless she bore a child of her own stature that she would die in childbirth and take the babe with her. He had no hand in health though as what was expected of the son of the lord he had learned the ways and workings of his people. He worried that if the girl did choose a mate what would happen but he didn’t know how to voice his concerns without causing a rift between the two of them. He finally looked away from Zana and her shadow warrior before he let the crowd take him back into their greetings.
Zana glanced at DaVinci when he spoke of the words she’d challenged him with. Her ears pinned back slightly as she realized that she could not take the tone that they’d shared so well aboard the ship. She sighed and grumbled to herself as she looked away, wondering if he would even be her kin after this was all said and done. She bowed her head and spoke ”Aye, you will always be my brother though, they can’t take that from me… besides, why do you need to know where I learned to read.. or of Shakespeare.. It’s fitting though, no?” She knew damn well that he knew how fitting it was. She always knew that he wouldn’t push on with the subject at hand so she fell silent. It wasn’t long before he began his introduction to the clan.
While there was no fanfare for her she was accepted in some silent way by the people at the words of her brother. She offered no speech of her own, just stood there daring them to challenge her here and now. She didn’t believe that this was all of the clan left who hadn’t sided with Malchan, DaVinci’s own kin in a way who has slain DaVinci’s uncle and taken her siblings role in leading their folk. She had learned from Aisleran that many of the men had balked at the break in tradition and had fled to the halls of Trhieclan and their Lord Calhnan mac Dreithe had sheltered them. Though the people of Trhieclan were not of the same make of Eire’s Faolan people they held a small stake of land along the strait that separated their lands from that of DaVinci’s clan. Zana really hadn’t understood it all but Aisleran had said that technically DaVinci’s people were not just of one clan but of many. His blood clan had held grounds as the leaders for many years but the position that DaVinci was heir to was overlord of five separate clans of many people. This had been hard for Zana to gather and yet standing on the beachhead she was beginning to believe that perhaps Aisleran had not been kidding her.
She moved past the people to perch upon a dune, her eyes scanning the people as she thought on her brother’s words. DaVinci had stated her as being Zana mab Iskata, explaining that their people followed the matriarch of their lineage, declaring that no one could possibly know who their father really was. She had thought hard on this and finally had realized that there was truth in the words of old, though she didn’t like taking the name of the woman who had scarred her so in her childhood. She glanced towards DaVinci who had once been DaVinci ‘Dait Nasphrite, changed to DaVinci mab Iskata upon moving to these lands and being accepted as one of their people, when he had been adopted into the lord’s family he had been taken in as DaVinci mab Eidhe, his clan mother being the sister of the current lord, the only sister of the lord. When she was found to be barren she’d taken DaVinci as her own and the clan had accepted it, at least his blood clan had. She really didn’t know what to make of these people but she was trying to learn.
When the crowd turned back to DaVinci she spoke softly to herself, noticing that Aisleran had once more followed her. ”It will happen tonight, once the exhaust of our journey has hit and weariness is upon us..” The male beside her seemed to nod in agreement, knowing that Zana would find her challenge when she was at her worst. She made a face as she ran her fingers along the staff as she thought on this all. It seemed that her own way had already been carved for her here and she wondered just what Firefly had known that she hadn’t.
He didn’t answer her and he knew that she’d expected that, instead he’d just let the words fall between them. He wondered if she’d shared her story of Romeo and Juliet with Ryan. A deep aching within his soul made him turn his face back to his people, knowing that he had left that world behind and he didn’t believe that there was any return to it. His eyes moved on to the people who greeted him as he felt his sister move away out into the crowd. While they brought him up to date on the world around him now he silently watched her carve her way through the throng of the wild folk and perch upon a dune. Aisleran followed her as seemed to be his way now, the warrior knew that he was suppose to be at DaVinci’s side but the male said little of it, knowing that Zana would be viewed as the mother of his children unless Firefly or Magdalena was to return to these lands.
Emotion caught in his throat again as he turned back to the people, knowing that he’d done the small woman wrong not telling her the whole of the tale, hoping that she would come to understandings on her own. Why Firefly had seen fit to place Zana beside him and not come herself he would not know until he found himself beside her to ask the questions that burned in his mind. He eased away from the truth as quickly he was caught up in a conversation with Nesmed about the latest scouting parties and what they had come up with on his kin’s whereabouts and pounders over why he hadn’t tried to make claim to the Trheiclan lands yet. DaVinci believe that it was that his far kin didn’t believe that the small gathering would be able to find DaVinci in the foreign lands and now that he had returned it would take the enemy a while to realize what was truly at stake.
DaVinci was beginning to feel the stretch of the journey on his soul as he raised his hands to the people and declared, ”While there is much to come we have been at sea long moons and it is time to celebrate the return of our warriors as on the morn we will prepare for what awaits us!” Aisleran had schooled him in ways to rally the people and DaVinci caught sight of the man nodding, not knowing that his approval wasn’t to the king to be but to his sister kin who had realized what was to come that night, even if DaVinci was slow at it.
The folk of Eire began their ascent up the cliffs where their horses and chariots awaited the gathering. They would return to the lands of Trhieclan’s halls and the feast that was to come. DaVinci was met once more by his sister as he accepted her hand into the chariot that he would drive to at the front of the masses. He had neglected to speak on their methods of travel but she seemed quiet and reserved, not fearful or prickly at the way they took to their new headquarters.
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