How to be free (Ihnar + Eridanus)

[Ihnar]

Ihnar creeped out a bit at what appeared to be Eri just examining and staring at him. The pycon couldn't see the aura. What was this mysterious fellow thinking about now? Maybe he had gotten so weirded out by the pycon that he was going to leave, or worse, return him to the slave market.
The pycon would have done anything, if he could have, to keep Eri from abandoning him there. Sadly he could not stand or prove himself to be worthy of keeping and helping in anyway. He had seen people leave injured creatures behind all the time.

Once a bird had flown to a window and fallen to the ground, flinching. No-one had stopped to even look at it. Back then Ihnar had just watched the bird die, even if he had tried to help it the best he could. He recalled this happening to a mouse as well. Of course the animals had been small, but he was small as well. Was he to meet the same fate as the bird and the mouse?

'f-food' Ihnar whined silently. As he stared at Eri's shoes, he remembered that Eri was a human. He wouldn't know what pycons ate, since he hadn't even known what Ihnar was. Sometimes Ihnar wished he was a more common race. So few people knew what he was, or anything else about pycons. He had gotten pretty used to all the odd looks he got when he walked past people, but at times like these, being a more common race would have been useful.

'Clay is food' Ihnar added, pretty sure he would earn a rather odd look from the human now. The fear of being abandoned still bothered his mind. He had to come up with some sort of a plan to keep Eri there and not leave him. Then he had an idea. The person seemed like the curious sort. Perhaps he would like to learn more about his race? Maybe Ihnar could use his rarity for something good this time.

'S-sir. If you h-help me.' He took a deep breath and tried to keep his voice from shaking. He was very nervous about making an offer like this. 'I'll teach you.. about.. my kind.' There. He had said it. Ihnar glanced up at Eri from the ground, making a little smile as he did so. It was very hard to try to smile at the stranger, while still being afraid of him.

[Eridanus]

Clay is food? Eridanus blinked his eyes a few times, cutting the flow of djed into his eyes and his view of the pycon went to normal, the mist that signified his aura disappearing and the smell of clay (and a little raspberries, for some reason) disappeared. The pycon made a request for help, and Eridanus almost laughed, not because of the pycon's plight but because of the sheer ridiculousness of the situation. Of course he would help! He gave the little guy space only because he looked like he wanted to be far away from Eri. The clay figure only need to give the word and the Vantha would help him. He was not that calculative to be looking for a transaction in everything he did. "Alright, little guy. What am I supposed to call you anyway?" Eri gently lifted up the pycon into the cage, for he did not seem to have the strength to walk back, and Eri knew how much the pycon hated being touched. "Bear with this a little, buddy", the Vantha said softly as he gently put the pycon back into the cage. Closing the cage door, he draped the covering linen sheet down so that it would not be obvious he was carrying a caged pycon around, and he dusted his clothes down to walk out of the alley naturally. People looking at him would just assume that he was carrying a large cage holding a bird. Eri walked out of the area, and after more chimes he reached the the Seaside Market in Baroque Bay. Looking around, he found a merchant and he bought a pound of clay, which was pretty cheap in his opinion as compared to buying real edible food, and he brought his merchandise and the cage back to his usual quiet place in Stumble Alley - the Library. Fortunately, he was not accosted by anyone while making his way there, for it would be inconvenient for him to have to resort to combat while trying to care for this pycon, and he soon arrived inside the musty confines of the library of which he was usually its only occupant, and placed the cage on the table, removing the cloth flaps and opening the door. "There you go, I'm not sure how much you actually need, so I bought a pound of clay. Would that be enough?" Eri asked the pycon as he placed the entire pound of clay just outside the cage on the table, and waited for the little guy to proceed.

[Ihnar]

Ihnar managed to avoid getting an panic-attack from Eri touching him and putting him back in to the cage. For a while he considered getting out of the cage, and telling Eri that he could just walk. Being in a cage had that nasty trap-like feeling to it. However upon further pondering he realized he would just make things difficult since he couldn't walk, so he decided to let it be this time.
Perhaps it was because the tall man seemed to care. Actually it had been a long time he had had any sort of caring from another creature. It actually felt good. A sort of a warm feeling. He didn't need to be afraid around this person. It was really nice. He could feel his own body relax and his mind clear of all the nasty thoughts he had been having today.

'Ihnar' the pycon said shortly, in a blissful state of mind. His voice had now lost the shakiness it had had a bit earlier. As the cloth covered the cage again he settled himself in a more comfortable position. While doing so he quickly checked to see if he had any nasty hand prints left on his body by the man. He found none. Why had he even checked? The man had been so gentle and kind to him. Ihnar shrugged and decided to blame old habits for this.
For the rest of the journey Ihnar just laid there in the cage, occasionally slipping in to a light sleep.

As the cloth was removed and the cage door opened, Ihnar awakened from his current dream. He managed to take some shaky steps, just enough to get out of the cage. Then, not so gracefully he sat down. Ihnar stared at the pound of clay. Why on earth had the human thought he would eat a pound of clay? The smaller than average pycon found this very funny. At first Ihnar tried to cover his mouth with his hands. He soon found this useless as he giggled childishly at Eridanus.
'Yo-you expect me to... ' Ihnar had to keep a small pause to keep himself from further giggling. Hopefully the human wouldn't be offended by this laughter. 'a po-pound'. The pycon shook a bit.

It took a few more seconds for Ihnar to pull himself together. To prevent the kind human from thinking he was a lunatic, Ihnar decided to share a little fact with him.
'I weight two pounds... Sir. Would you eat half of your weight?' He said, trying to keep himself from collapsing in laughter again.

Ihnar however then proceeded to grab a bit of clay from the lump and eat it. It would be really rude to just sit there and laugh, while the human had been so kind as to offer him food. Not to mention he could still feel himself being on the edge of fainting from weakness. While eating he began to wonder how long it had been since he had laughed.

[Eridanus]

The pycon began to wobble unsteadily as he stepped out of his cage, sitting down with a bump when he exited the confines of the metal bars and staring at the 'food' that Eri placed on the table. Then he began laughing uncontrollably, bewildering the Vantha until he decided to explain that he could not possibly consume half his pound in pycon food. Eri shrugged, for it was always better to get too much than too little, and he was not sure how much these clay figures would require to sustain themselves. Anyway, a pound of clay went for the lowest denomination of currency of one copper miza, and if he wanted less the enterprising merchant would have sold it to him at one copper anyway, so he might as well take the whole thing. Furthermore, it would be cheaper and more efficient as he would not have to make a trip every time the pycon felt hungry. Fortunately, clay did not spoil like normal cooked food and so was much more storable, making it more convenient to him as a food source for the pycon. "Well, that means lesser trips to the market, ain't it?" He said to Ihnar, and as the little fellow began to take a bite out of the 'food' that the Vantha bought him, Eri rested his cheek on a palm as he propped his elbow on the table, looking at the clay figure with an interested look. He could not resist a more in-depth study, and he felt the familiar tinge of warmness in his body as he drew a tiny stream of djed into his eyes as he powered on his magical sight, studying the pycon further in a more relaxed setting now that they were out of immediate danger. He was in an interesting position of observation, for there were two lumps of clay, one 'predator' and one 'prey', but the biggest difference was that the pound of soft clay emanated a negligibly weak aura that was representative of its lack of personal djed, while Ihnar's aura - represented to the mage in the form of a white and light blue mist of fine particles - hung in a cloud that noticeable covered more ground. This would mean that this creature had its personal djed just as sentient creatures had, but the proportion of his aura to his size also told Eri that this creature had conscious intelligence like the other races which populated Mizahar, for normal animals would definitely have bigger auras than inanimate objects but their aura-to-physical size proportion would be noticeable smaller. Now this was interesting, for he had not heard of any animated golems that achieved any sort of self-sentience or any magical method to input some sort of self-regenerating or sustainable form of personal djed into a construct. This must mean that either there was indeed an organic race that was somehow made of clay, or that this construct was either made by some sort of wizard so powerful that he was able to bend the normal laws of nature, or by the gods themselves. "So tell me, Ihnar, what are pycons?" He said, careful to to accidentally offend the eating boy by asking if his origins would fit any of the hypotheses that he came up with in his mind.

[Ihnar]

Ihnar focused on eating, giving a nod at Eri. Rather too much than too little. It made sense. Now he wondered if he should pay Eri for the food he had brought. That's when Ihnar realized something. His belongings were nowhere to be seen. Seeing as he had had no home in Syliras, he had usually just carried everything around in a backpack. Now said backpack was no where to be seen. Apparently it was either lying somewhere on the streets of Syliras, or more likely in the hands of that selfish thug who had tried to sell him. He was broke. How was he supposed to support himself if the human lost interest in him?

For a while Ihnar just store at the table under him, nibbling at a piece of clay absent mindedly. He gave a quick glance at Eri. Again the man was just staring at him. There was something different about the way he was looking at him, but Ihnar couldn't figure out what it was. It felt really bothersome. Ihnar carefully waited for Eri to stop staring at him in that creepy manner.

Then he asked what a pycon was. Ihnar had nearly forgotten about the deal they had made! The little pycon tried to form some sort of a logic explanation of what a pycon was. It was surprisingly hard. His mother had taught him some basics about this when he was younger. She had said he would most likely need the information when meeting with other races. Ihnar dug further in to his memories.
'Uh. W-we are.. um..' Ihnar began trying to find the right words.
'Well... uh.. We.. start out as little clay balls... and.. a woman pycon gives birth to us...' A little pause.

'I... am.. one year old. So.. we age.. a bit differently.. and...we have this.. thing.. in our heads. It uh.. keeps us alive.. Nex..us. I think it's called nexus.' Ihnar wasn't sure if he should be telling this bit of information to a stranger, seeing as he could now kill him.

'Oh yeah! We can also.. uh. Shape ourselves.. it hurts though..Like this..' Ihnar focused on his already mangled arm, managing to restore it to it's proper shape. Little black dots appeared on his vision as he had to lay down to prevent knocking himself painfully on the table.

As he finally managed to focus his vision, he saw that his left arm was at least back to it's right shape. Although a nasty pain beated in his head. He couldn't manage to pull himself back up anymore. Ihnar felt really tired now. He wasn't quite sure what was causing it. His slightly hungered state or the pain.
'S-see?' He said and smiled weakly at Eri, still sprawled on the table.

[Eridanus]

Eri nodded, taking in the information all at once though he would need some time to analyse that. Still, this creature was interesting in its own way, for he was the first of its kind that he had seen. Furthermore, the pycon seemed like an innocent to him, and it would not hurt to keep him around. Cutting the flow of djed to his eyes, he blinked a few times and looked at the pycon normally, saying, "You're welcome to hang around here, Ihnar. I just request you to be discreet with our location." The large amount of disjunct information he gathered from both his aura-reading and from the pycon's own mouth did not make sense to Eri right now, and he would need some time to digest this information. "Well, continue your meal. I'll be further back at the library if you need me", he said, before heading into the inner recesses of the library. It was not that he did not want to be around Ihnar, but as they were at the entrance of the library the rays of the sun were shining through the window blinds, illuminating its musty confines. Eri needed a darker place to meditate, and so he went to the darker corners of the library and sat down, settling down into a deep meditative trance to consider his plans for the next day as well as to finalize his judgement and perception of this pycon.

[Archelon]

Thread Award "..." And the Results!!!!: Eridanus : SkillName 1-5 How/why? Auristics 2 Persuasion 2 Negotiation 1 Larceny 1 instead of subterfuge- describing a pondsi scheme Impersonation 2 Observation 2 Meditation 2 Lores: Slave Markets(basic); Ihnar(basic); Knowledge of Pycons (poor) Ihnar : SkillName 1-5 How/why? Observation 2 Stealth 2 socialization 2 Rhetoric 1 Lores: Slave Markets(basic); Eridanus(basic);Knowledge of Ethfael(poor) Would you like some extra turtle sauce ? : Interesting keep them up