Poetry in Motion [Sama'el]

[Raiha]

He could skin anything they found today - Raiha wouldn’t mind at all. She just wanted the meat for the birds, dogs, and cats for Sanctuary. She knew they were perfectly edible, and they didn’t taste too badly... but she would let the others eat it. She’d eaten them on Konti Isle when she was avoiding Mura itself. She wasn’t much of a hand at fishing, but whatever the birds could get, they shared. Except for rats, mice, voles, and snakes. Raiha did not like eating snakes. The birds could keep those.

“And you’d be able to skin it better than me,” she grinned, removing a rather ragged looking piece of furry moleskin from her pouch, that had not only been ripped by talons, but very inexpertly skinned. “My last attempt. I use it for a lure. My birds see it and they come for it - because they know that the moment they return for it, then will be rewarded... and a good hawk will always nail it, even if it’s just out of gr---” Raiha was cut off as Uzima came down with a whoosh, latching onto the gauntlet and grabbing at the lure, “--eed,” she finished, and rewarded the hawk with meat. She looked amused with that, but smiled at the bird, tucking the lure away and sending Uzima skyborn once more.

“The wanderlust?” Raiha nodded a little. She was understanding. For some, that really was the way of it. Travel was what they needed to do, it was how they made their life. To be cooped up all the time must be hard. She wondered if Kavala felt that way, felt the need to get up and go, to ride, to travel. She, herself, was such a homebody. Raiha could happily settle down and set up roots and stay in one place when she was comfortable, even if to grow you had to continue to put yourself in uncomfortable situations. Maybe one day, some day.

She was vaguely amused, though, when he called her beautiful, and didn’t completely know how to take that. It took her a moment to figure out just how to reply to it. Raiha had very little experience in flirting. Despite being the Akontak equivalent of a teenager, such things did not really hold her interest. She didn’t plan on worrying about any such things for another twenty years or so, if at all. “I like your horse,” she changed the subject at that. “Will you look at mine? Diallo,” she called her dog off of the hunt as Uzima nailed yet another mole, and the fat, shiny creature went the way of the first. “I’d be interested to know what you thought of her.” She let the bird sit on her gauntlet, motioning for Sama’el to follow. She climbed and straddled a wooden fence with her long legs, having a relatively easy time of it, sitting down on the wood, despite the bird on her arm and her occupied other hand - clearly, this was a practiced motion for her.

“I’ll do my best about a Kestrel chick. Kefi’s a little old, but with some luck, a male, and Eywaat’s blessings...” she turned back to the other pasture. “Yakiniiii!” the girl called, raising her hand upon which Uzima was perched to shield her eyes as she sorted through the tangle of the equine Auras in the next paddock. Eventually, a rather tall Firemane mare poked her nose out of the herd, and approached the fence. Raiha smiled at her, and used her elbow to rub along the horse’s long nose before closing her eyes again, and opening them to the normal world. That was better. As much as she loved Auristics, she was cautious about when it was quite sunny. “What do you think?” she turned back to Sama’el. “You’re the horse expert.” She had never heard tell of a Drykas who wasn't a horse expert. The mare was fat and spoiled, clearly. Probably too spoiled. "Yakini, this is Sama'el. Sama'el, Yakini."

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

He nodded amiably enough. If there was time when she was done hunting, he could do some skinning, but it didn't seem like the best idea to do it just now where the blood and flesh would excite the animals and possibly interest predators that might attack the horses after dark. That was something to think about when living the nomadic life, but even more so, he supposed, when stationary. He didn't have anything against settling in a place. Had he not been driven back to Endrykas, he might have settled in Syliras, taught those knights how to ride a horse, or perhaps even joined them himself. He wouldn't have been the only Drykas among their ranks. But to him, home was wherever he wanted it to be, but perhaps that came from having it taken from him at such a tender age. "I'd be happy to look at your horse," he averred, and followed her to the gate, smiling at the thought of a young raptor to train, whose shed feathers he could weave into a wife's hair. He let out an appreciative 'ah' when the mare separated herself from the rest, sounding like an connoisseur of fine Ravokian wines at the smell of a new sprung cask of some rare vintage. As Raiha juggled animals to give the horse some love, he just smiled. "She looks like an Akontak horse," he said approvingly. Horse looked up from his meal of grass and walked over to make the mare's acquaintance, too. He was an ignorant slut, but Sam loved him. When she turned to snuffle curiously at Sam, he offered her the back of his hand so she could get a good whiff, but no purchase if she decided he looked tasty. Once she had his smell, he climbed over the fence, keeping within eyesight and treading lightly so as not to startle her. But he put his hands upon her with a deft assurance, his horsemanship obviously not to be questioned. Not only had he trained horses since he could walk, but he had helped Serena Windmount birth foals and euthanize horses with snapped limbs who could not recover. In horse years, he was old and in horse ways he was wise. She didn't seem to mind him too much. "She's healthy and would certainly make good breeding stock. You might want to race Uzima with her, though. But I'm a Drykas and our horses are always moving. You don't want her getting too comfortable with a sedentary lifestyle." He gave her a final pat when his examination was through, scratching her in a difficult to reach place that always made horses melt for him.

[Raiha]

Yakini didn’t mind him at all. She didn’t have a mean bone in her body, it seemed. Raiha had spoiled the horse from the moments he had gotten her, and continued to do so even now. Perhaps a little less, if only because even though she had space to run in the paddocks of Sanctuary, Raiha certainly didn’t take her out on a daily basis to ride anymore along the wilderness of the undeveloped section of Konti Isle. She had spent as little time in Mura as possible, finding relief and some small measures of freedom away from others, when Kanikra had no one to antagonize, and seemed to recede in her head and give her some form of reprieve. Raiha hadn’t understood then that it was a valuable lesson that her sister-soul taught, the ability to find solace in solitude. The only difference between loneliness and solitude was perspective. But she understood it now. “She is getting chubby,” Raiha had to admit. “We don’t travel here like we did in Mura. I spent more time outside the city than in it, and I always took Yakini. Here, not so much. We take more trips in the fall than we do in the earlier months when we have to get supplies in.”

The Firemane enjoyed the attention, it seemed, while she met up with the horse on the other side of the fence before turning her attention back to the Drykas, blowing air at him and breathing in his own scent while he used the magic fingers on her. Raiha watched with interest. She knew that horses loved to be scratched, and she’d been doing it for years, and... clearly she wasn’t doing it right. Because her gold eyes were bright and curious as she followed his fingers as Yakini shifted her weight, pressing against him, almost ready to pin him against the wooden fence. He just had that touch with horses. Raiha had thought she’d known her pleasant-mannered mare’s sweet spots, and clearly, she had no idea. She actually climbed off of the fence while Diallo sat down, not sure what was going on now, and more or less invaded Sama’el’s personal space, instinctively mindful of his proximity with Uzima, as her eyes and face got close to his fingers, watching to see how he did what he was doing, at what pressure, speed, and just where.

“How do you do that?” she asked finally, curiosity getting the best of her. “I could scratch her all day and never get that reaction.”

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

"Perhaps you should take her and your menagerie out farther afield," he suggested mildly. Yakini certainly wasn't unhealthy, but weight had a tendency to grow if left unchecked, and that would be doing her no favors if she intended to ride the horse a long, long time. "The dogs and Uzima would probably appreciate it too." He didn't really know where some things came from. With horses, a lot of what he did was intuition and not something he could articulate or teach, but she could certainly observe and possibly learn a thing or two about Yakini from the way she responded to him. She was a sweet mare and he liked her instantly. "We also bond rather closely with our Striders. I'm sure you and she have a loving, trusting relationship but... Well, your attention is divided." He gave a glance to the raptor and the hunting dog, but without judgment. He was Drykas, ergo horses were a part of him. There was much to admire about the variety of her skill and knowledge and his admiration was evident in his voice, and there might have been a little admiration in his pants too, because she was quite close, quite exotic, and quite lovely. "She, er... she loves you, though. That's obvious."

[Raiha]

She would certainly consider it. It was advice, not judgment, and he did have a point. It was going to have to be that, or cut down on what Yakini was getting to eat. She smiled a little and nodded, angling a bit to see how he was scratching at her ears. It was interesting being at Sanctuary - she was simply not a horse person. Oh, she loved them, especially Yakini, but Kavala, Akela, Aweston, they all knew and understood horses being Drykas born and raised. “Even if it’s just her and I,” Raiha amended, “and I devote both hands and all of my attention, I still couldn’t get that same reaction out of her. It is fine. Some people are natural horsepeople. I’m not one of them, I’m afraid. So I watch and try to learn.” That was the way of it, was it not?

“But you’re right. She is one part of a team of four,” Raiha smiled. “I trust her, and she trusts me, or so I hope,” her eyes were warm when she looked past him at the mare, and stepped back out of his personal bubble and back to the fence, bringing her long legs back over the barrier, her hands still full. “Shall we go skin these?” Back to the courtyard, it seemed, where they could sit in the sun and work. Blood could be sluiced out of there, after all, and wouldn’t entice predators in to the horse fields.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

He nodded and let her hands find Yakini, hoping that a bit of a model and her hands on the horse would help her find that intuitive understanding of what a horse wanted. When the mare reacted favorably, he knew that she had picked up a bit of something, anyway. "You're right. Soon enough I will be marveling at how you have four different species working in tandem. And then I'll be trying to figure out how you do it." He grinned and nodded again, bidding Yakini farewell as they turned back toward the Sanctuary. Though he wasn't the greatest at skinning animals for usable pelts, it was something he was going to have to get better at so he could make his own material for leatherworking. But it would be good for him to help Raiha and the others here, as they would make good allies and friends in the future. "Sure, I'll do the bloody work."

[Raiha]

“Practice,” Raiha said with a grin as she seated herself opposite of the young Drykas man at the table, putting the morning’s catch out in front of them. Groundhog, mole, rabbit. She took the rabbit herself, and let him pick which of the others he wanted to start with. She didn’t just look at the rabbit, though, she looked at him, and almost through him, checking out his aura without scanning it for details, looking for one particular thing. She’d seen it on Vanator, Kavala, Akela. And it was there on Sama’el, too. She blinked and let it go, then, before she took the hunting knife off of her belt. Uzima perched on the fence, and Diallo made himself comfortable on Raiha’s side of the table. She began to skin the rabbit, turning it over on its back and making slow, careful slits around each of the rabbit’s hocks before working her fingers in there, testing to make sure that she had cleanly cut the skin. She took her time with it - skinning quickly was not something she did unless she was absolutely starving. “I’m not afraid of bloody work,” she grinned at him. “And skinning, done properly, shouldn’t be bloody. It’s just removing the skin from the carcass.

How sentimental, Kanikra remarked sarcastically. He endeavours to prevent the pristine lady with her pure, unsullied hands, from getting them dirty, just like how they would take their own cloak off and lay it over the muddy field so milady does not have to darken her feet.

He’s being nice, Raiha rebuked her mildly. Besides, he’s a Webwalker. Or, at least, he’s tied to the Web. Didn’t you notice that? I want to ask him about it... so we’ll see what he tells me. Perhaps we can learn more from him. Maybe trade knowledge of falconry in exchange for that of webbing. He is younger than Vanator. He may be more forthcoming. Webbing was of interest to both of them, particularly the secrets that it held.

Not bad, Kanikra allowed. It was always nice to see her sister learning and actually analyzing a situation in front of them. They may have been the same age, but Kanikra had a tendency to consider Raiha the baby of the two of them. But just remember what I said before. Out of fifteen that flatter, at least fourteen---

--Lie, Raiha finished for her. I heard you the first time. What, do you want to play with his head?

Maybe. We’ll see what results you get first, though. Kanikra wasn’t interested just yet, which was, perhaps, the best thing, as far as Raiha was concerned. The issue was more when her sister-soul took an interest rather than the other way around. Otherwise, she could get away with observing quietly and listening. Never knowing that there was another there was an advantage Kanikra preferred to keep.

She lowered the blade, beginning to make cuts along the inside of the rabbit’s thighs, using her fingers to keep from cutting into the membranes that kept the blood in place. No need to make too much of a mess, after all. Careful, careful knife work. She glanced at him, continuing until she had cut enough to to peel the skin away to the rabbit’s hindquarters. The knife went on the table, as she took the rabbit’s ankles in one hand, and used the other to slowly ease the skin down over the midsection, her eyes on him. “Do you use the Web when you travel?”

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

"Of course," he said with a smile, taking the groundhog and pulling out his hunting knife. Thus seated, he began to make careful incisions the way Utine Redpelt had taught him. His skill was not great, but he was mindful of his work, which prevented a good amount of mistakes. He was quiet about his work for a while as she had her silent conversation with herself, eventually peeling the edges of the incisions away from the flesh, then using one hand to hold that edge tight while his knife worked underneath, separating skin from the rest. Concentrating hard, he didn't even notice if her silence went on too long. She was a comfortable person with whom to share silence. But when she asked out of nowhere about Webbing, he very nearly lost a thumb, thankfully only nicking himself and not bleeding much at all. Still he hissed, glanced at it, then started working studiously again. He nodded, though, in answer to her question. She lived and worked with Kavala and Riki; surely she knew more than the average person, but he did not know that she was part of either of their pavilions, their clans, whether she should be privy to the Drykas Mysteries. "I'm a Watchman," he said simply.

[Raiha]

Silence was golden. Even if shouting was fun.

With great solemnity she took in his reaction. Whatever he had expected her to break the companionable quiet with, that clearly had not been it, and he’d ended up cutting himself over it. Raiha felt sympathy, where Kanikra was merely bemused. Shock could do that. But it had an element of surprise to it that brought about what she rather thought was an honest reaction as opposed to a scripted one. But the effervescent young Drykas could have been exaggerating, though why he would go so far as to cut himself over it... That didn’t make sense. Sure, it carried on the charade, but still...

Perhaps she was reading too much into it.

The Akontak lowered her work and wiped her hand on her clothes before reaching over, and closing her fingers over the bleeding appendage. Her blue skin seemed to glow, though it was merely the light around her hand as she used Rak’keli’s power to clean out and close the torn skin before returning to her work, her eyes still on him. There was definite interest in her eyes, however concealed. “A Watchman?” she repeated thoughtfully, her voice quiet. Diallo panted from where he lay beside them. “Does this mean that you guard the Web? Or look for those who are lost in it?” The rabbit’s fur was set aside, and Raiha began to go over the carcass, checking to see whether or not it was fit for consumption by the people or if it was going to the birds, looking for unhealthy colours and spots in the membranes and organs.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

He watched her invoke the goddess and heal his small wound. It seemed such a trivial thing to merit divine intervention, but the ways of gods and men were strange. That much was always true. Perhaps it was the intention of the healing more than the scope of it that mattered. A true healer, it was said, could not let an injury pass untended. An aspect of love, he thought, though the grateful smile he gave her had a flicker of something wicked, but it was gone as he returned to his work with the harvesting of the groundhog's skin. "A Watchman," he agreed. "I guard Endrykas, and the Web. It is a tool and part of who we are, but the shamans speak to the dead." Of course, that did not mean that Sama'el hadn't seen some of them, lonely, wasted things barely there enough to recognize his astral body as differentiated from their pinprick world of whatever need had kept them from moving on under Lhex's wheel. "I can tell you some small things about it," he hazarded, "but I cannot initiate you on pain of death, and it must remain a Drykas mystery. Unless you are accepted into a pavilion or clan. I do not mean to disappoint you, but I have sworn oaths."