First time in a tavern (open)

[Acacia]

Thinking through the stories she had heard, she’d never heard any about people turning into animals unless they were gods. All the stories her mother had told were about horses, humans, and the occasional god. There was never any mention of a kelvic. “No. I have never heard of Kelvics before.” Acacia replied.

Was that something wrong? Acacia knew she was naïve. That was one of the reasons she left home in the first place. To see what else was out there.

Peering in the gloomy light, she looked closely at the wide eyes of Pygmy. Before, she’d found them odd, but had passed them off as a trick of the light. This time she could attribute them to something different. Looking back Acacia couldn’t figure how she’d missed the distinction. That Pygmy was not human.

Acacia’s eyes widened at her revelation. Looking away, towards the table, Acacia thought about that detail. Even though Pygmy affirmed she was something other, a kelvic, she acted kindly, amiable. One could say she was humane, even if she wasn’t human. That was enough.

Smiling, Acacia gazed straight at Pygmy, “So you’re a goat. I’ve never met a goat before. I suppose there’s a first time for everything.”

[Dhanya]

Pygmy took another sip of her beer, suddenly wishing for drunkeness to arrive fully realised upon her psyche. Such kind acceptance, without any apparent interest in her exotiqueness or reasons for being in Endrykas, was confronting. Like something she had always wanted but had never expected to recieve. A fainting couch would have been welcomed, in the circumstances.

Then Pygmy realised that as scary as considering that other people, especially other women like herself, might look upon her in a friendly fashion was, it was pleasing. Nice, even. She wondered if she'd be able to make a friend. Even Khiara and Vanator had viewed her as somewhat of a novelty at first and she had nothing but fondness and regard for the both of them.

"Yes, I guess there is." Pygmy replied, wondering if truer words had ever been spoken.

She drank some more of her beer, now halfway done with it.

"Would... Would you like to hear more of the story?" Pygmy asked, wondering just what Acacia's story was, something she hadn't though about before. She felt a little ashamed of herself.

[Acacia]

“I always enjoy stories.” Acacia gushed. “And I get the feeling this will be like none I’ve ever heard before.” Not that hearing a new story was particularly uncommon before.

For some reason, her usual excitement in hearing a new story was not the only excitement she experienced. Acacia felt like she wanted to know more about the small girl in front of her.

She drummed her fingers on the table until she noticed that she was doing it. Putting one hand on top of the other stopping it, Acacia put on her most polite face. It was something she did when her mother was impatiently waiting for Acacia to stop bouncing around so she could tell her story. Acacia stared straight ahead, hands folded, and tried to keep a straight face (something that almost never worked she was always too excited).

[Dhanya]

The alcohol was warming her blood and smoothing over her prior unease. She still needed to take a quiet breath and hold it, before she could exhale and speak again. The story wasn't so easy to tell when it came to her own part in it.

"I was born in that wizard's house and I lived there throughout my childhood, surrounded by large rooms and beautiful gardens. I wanted for nothing but company, even the servants that the wizard employed were too busy for me. I spent my days watching the wizard work as I had nothing better to do and when he worked his magic, the results were always surprising. I didn't know any better and came to care for him, there wasn't anyone else around to care about save my mother. Though I did love her deeply, I wanted friends as well and couldn't find any."

That's the poor little rich girl part of our story, onto the rest. Pygmy thought to herself.

"Eventually the wizard decided to find something to do with me and had me taught the arts of singing and dancing. He may have introduced the concept as a novelty, a singing slave seemed to be a new idea in his social circle. I performed for the elite while I lived with him, intelligencia and monied men and women. I've met konti and akvatari, as well as other races. I could tell you I was a prodigy but truthfully, I was light entertainment for the over-privileged and bored. I could have stayed there my entire life, I was dedicated to it as kelvics always are."

This was a gross understatement. Kelvic dedication could border on mania. No one loved so strongly. One thing had kept her from it, only one.

"My mother, she kept me from bonding to him. She could see what I could not, being born to that household and knowing nothing else. She made me wait, for a better person, for the right one. I was right to listen to her wisdom."

With one more sip her beer was finished, a sad state to be sure.

"The wizard's friend made a bid for me and he accepted. After all my years of serving him, he sold me for some shiny coins. The story might have ended there but for all his learning, the wizard was a fool. He told me he was going to do it."

Pygmy smiled in angry-fond rememberance.

"Needless to say, I hatched a cunning plan and escaped."

[Acacia]

“Ahh… you lost me again. What are konti and advatari? And I’m not clear on what you mean by bonding?” Acacia puzzled.

She was starting to feel warm from the beer. It was a nice feeling; she felt light inside. The happiest she felt since she left home. (She hated to admit it but she did get homesick). She giggled aloud, surprised to find that she was enjoying herself this much.

Oddly enough, her head was still clear. She understood most of what Pygmy was saying. She was a commodity and sold. “You’re a person, not an item.” Acacia protested, “I’m very curious to hear how you escaped.”

[Dhanya]

Pygymy had never met someone who was so unaware of the other races. She questioned her own storytelling skills once again and resolved to ask Khiara about how to be more engaging.

"They're other races. Even in Endrykas there have been Konti, I've heard people speak of them." She'd heard it mentioned that there were Konti in Van's family. "They're white and they're shiny and all of them are women, they all have special powers. You'd know if you saw one. The Akvatari have wings and instead of legs, they have a seal body. They swim and write poetry and are rude to people."

Yes, Pygmy had met Akvatari before. Akvatari were learned people, poets, artists and philosophers. Kelvics were, by comparison, largely illiterate, fast-living and not at all fond of the deportment that the upper class lived by and used to separate themselves from those they viewed as beneath them. Pygmy had yet to meet an Akvatari that she liked and there had never been an Akvatari that had liked Pygmy. Even her patronage of the arts was ignorant of structure and often purposefully disregarding of form. From an Akvatari's perspective she was making a mockery of song and dance, and perhaps she was. She preferred to think of it as a reclamation and Akvatari as snobs. It was racism in a simple form and the feeling was largely mutual.

Konti were different. Pygmy envied them because they were lovely and everyone liked them. They had grace, well, Akvatari had grace as well. Pygmy had to make do with style and a forceful personality. It wasn't the same. She admired Konti, well aware that she would never hold a candle to one.

"Travellers come through the sea all the time, haven't you met any?" Pygmy asked.

[Acacia]

“The sea of grass is vast and wide. The only travellers I ever see are the infrequent Drykas passing by and the ones with four hooves.” Acacia commented. “Plus, neither of my parents are overly social people.”

Acacia’s favorite guests were always the horses. When they ran the endless green of swaying grass, became waves of neutrals. Their colors ranged all across the spectrum: warm browns, frosty whites, fiery reds, dark blacks, smoky grays. The horses were even more numerous than the colors. When they ran past, the herd would last from sun up to sun down, filling the horizon as far as the eye could see.

The rarer guests, the travelers, only ever stopped to refill their supplies, more often just waving as they walked past her family’ home. Their parents would grin politely to those who stopped, waving off all of their questions and refusing to let anyone stay. The travelers were always Drykas, always.

[Dhanya]

It sounded to Pygmy as though Acacia's parents lived out on the Sea. Pygmy knew first hand just how dangrous it was. She didn't know how anyone could manage it.

"So, I guess you live out on the Sea all year then." Pygmy said. "What do you do? I know it's pretty deadly out there."

With glassbeaks that were scary and giant worms and other things that hated bipedal life like Pygmy hated the flute.

Pygmy had no idea how you could live in such a place. It was why she stuck to towns.

[Acacia]

To Acacia, the sea of grass was her home. Surviving there was her way of life, her routine. It was like dealing with snakes: if you handle it right, you don’t get bit.

“It’s not really as bad as people think. It’s just that people are careless.” It was the simple things that kept her family alive, well the majority of the family alive. Even someone who grew up on the plains could get careless.

“I’ve only seen glassbeaks once or twice. My family doesn’t know webbing well enough for it to be affective, so we don’t try. Instead, we always keep a fire lit among other things. My brothers all learn close combat and the girls learn archery. I left before I learned how to shoot a bow.”

That had made her mother furious. It was stupid of her to cross the plain alone and cocky of her to think her stallion could outrun anything they encountered. Acacia decided she should learn to protect herself before attempting another crossing.

“The most distinctive time seeing a glassbeak was when I was still small. We had just moved camp, and there was a small raid. I was six or seven. Some of my siblings managed to drive them away, but not without injuries. It was terrifying. Most of the time, since we don’t move camp often, they know to avoid us.”

The best way to deter a predator was to be higher up on the food chain. After destroying a few nests, the glassbeaks learned there lesson.

“And I’ve never seen a giant worm. Too much water where we live I think.”

[Dhanya]

Pygmy could see that a careful person might be able to avoid some of the trials of the Sea but from what Van had said, even care was sometimes not enough. She no longer wandered anywhere outside of Endrykas after dark.

It seemed the drykas would remain a puzzle. Just when she'd thought she was starting to figure them out, too.

"That's pretty impressive." Pygmy said, surprised that a glassbeak would avoid anything. "It's getting dark out, I think i better head home. Nice meeting you, though!"

Pygmy smiled and waved goodbye to Acacia, ready to return home to ponder what she had learned that night.