A Partnership Forged, An Old Life Broken [Hadmycil]

[Kuhani]

70th Day of Spring, 510 AV

The midday sun had risen high in the sky and the winds had quieted down. The sands no longer bit at tanned faces, but instead aggravated ears and noses. The elders remained inside as the younger adults and children scavenged unsuccessfully for game. Kuhani, though old enough to help the others, sat within the tent of Ejuna, watching diligently as a younger boy was fed herbs and given smelling salts. His fever had lessened.

“There, there…” Ejuna said, smiling at the child. “Better than before, mm?”

The child nodded, eyes watering from the sharp scent of the salts. His toes were curling, but he did not grimace at the taste of the herbs. Inwardly, Kuhani chuckled.

“I’m lucky, aren’t I?” he smiled, gazing up at the girl with black eyes. Kuhani nodded, but refrained from grinning, as the boy’s stupidity had almost cost him his life. His eyes lowered before turning to Ejuna, who waved her arm toward the tent flap.

“Don’t step on any other snakes, mm?”

Sheepish, the boy stood and exited the tent, obviously embarrassed. As the flap was opened, wind rushed inside, causing both Ejuna’s white hair and Kuhani’s black to rise and flutter. Ejuna hissed and quickly raised her arm and closed off the opening. “Ehh, so inconvenient! “

Kuhani leaned forward and began to brush off the patient bedroll. Herbs and flower petals covered it now due to the gust of wind. “It’s just wind, Healer. It always passes.”

“Child, I was referring to the venom,” sighed the woman. “One mistake of a boy cost us our remaining stock.” Kuhani glanced at her before returning to work. “I can’t have you out in the desert alone, either. You would lie down and die within a few hours.”

Kuhani felt her body tense, but said nothing. It was true.

“Tell your brother to bring me some, mm? Either the snake or the venom…the former would be the easiest, eh?”

The small girl turned back to the elder woman, bowing her head slightly. “Yes.”

[Hadmycil]

Throughout the solitary trek into the unforgiving desert of Eyktol, where the sweltering sun baked all who stood beneath her, and the occasional sandstorm ebbed and flowed like the tide, Hadmycil was happily comparing colours.

The Pycon had traversed part of the Burning Lands relatively unscathed. He had been of a favourable shape and size against sandstorms, he discovered, and needed less water than the average traveller. What bothered the youngster most was a lack of entertainment. He had heard of stories from the people he had met along the way about horrific Eypharian Jackals and Tsanas which would gobble anything that moved, but they had not shown themselves to him just yet. As he continued walking aimlessly, he had chanced to look down at the ground-- away from the blinding sun-- and found, to his amusement, that he could camouflage himself easily in the sandy brown ground.

It had then turned into a game of colour-matching for Hadmycil, hopping and prancing to find parts of the ground that was of identical shade to his paws. It took his mind off the uncomfortable climate considerably, but also distracted him from watching his route ahead. With a flick of his tail, it hit itself against a solid, upright bark of some sort.

Are there trees in the desert? He turned incredulously behind him, only to find a person staring down at him. It was a boy with copper-coloured skin and jet-black hair. Hadmycil blinked. So did he.

The boy began speaking. He sounded very animated, but Hadmycil had no clue what he was talking about. It was absolutely not Common, unless he had suffered a greater impact at his nexus than he had expected. What distracted him most, though, was the boy's legs. They did not look the least bit Human.

"Ghaorytbsn?" This was what he was sure an old woman said, as she walked briskly up to them (trotting along on the same kind of legs). Hadmycil was about to ask her if she knew Common when she scooped him up and dropped him quickly into a bottle.

"Owwww," he grimaced as he hit the bottom. The woman obviously thought he was an ornament of some sort. She entered a tent and placed him on a shelf among many other bottles and left again, muttering something to the wide-eyed boy, who was still keeping his finger pointed towards the Pycon.

"Let me out! I'm alive!" he hollored, knocking against the glass, but the two people had gone and there was no one around to hear him.

[Kuhani]

The trip to her father's tent was spent at a lazy gait, combing her long, black hair with her fingers. Her thoughts drifted to settle on the upcoming ritual of adulthood, of womanhood. She frowned and sighed, gazing up toward the sky, eyebrows furrowed. It was coming up fast, her ritual. The desert would be unkind to her. First, the heat would cause her to collapse. Physical exhaustion would hit her within a few hours, she knew. Whenever she reached that stage, she would faint for the better of the day. Awakening at dark fall, she would have to face the creatures of the night...

Lowering her eyes, she peered at the busy camp. What was the point? She had never been much help to her folk, except the elderly she frequently tended. In reality, she had probably wasted more water than she saved as an assistant to Ejuna. A pang of guilt rose from her belly to rest in her throat, but it was promptly swallowed. Only a few more weeks and her tribe would be rid of her.

Her thoughts were interrupted at the brush of her brother's touch. She looked up, black eyes meeting twins. Kuhanu did not smile at her, though she could feel his hand trembling from excitement. Typical. Distancing himself.

“They found a Pycon out in the desert. It's in Ejuna's tent.”

Kuhani's pale lips lifted into a smile. “Oh? Well...I've never seen a Pycon up close before.”

Her brother did not reply. Instead, he nodded and turned from her, walking toward their tent with lean muscular legs. Suddenly angered, Kuhani spat at the ground. It was like she was already dead to him.

She remained there for a moment, waiting for her spirit to calm. Sunken eyes glanced back toward Ejuna's tent. Interested, though upset that she was prompted by her brother, Kuhani returned to the healer's home at a slow jog, slowing every few seconds in order to keep her heart rate down. When she finally arrived, she entered and peered about.

The healer was not there. Probably speaking with the Wayhali.

Pausing when her ears picked up a tiny voice, her eyes shot to the source. Bottles. Drifting closer, she watched as one object inside a bottle moved, knocking against the glass. Eyes widened and she stepped forward, reaching out instinctively, but immediately drawing back.

“Are you-” she began in Tawna, but quickly switched to Shiber, a common tongue in these parts. “Are you a Pycon?”

[Hadmycil]

Bottles were not a very good place to dwell in for long. Hadmycil emitted a low growl of irritability, scratching his face with his paw. His father had used to chide him whenever he did that, saying it would form scratches on his face. Scratches that were not the mark of adventure or wisdom, his father liked to say, were as good as fakes.

Hadmycil's father would probably consent to this behaviour now though, or perhaps even partake in it himself, if he were trapped in a bottle on a table like the young lion-cub Pycon was now. There was nothing much else to do, really, and it was horribly hot and stuffy in there. Hadmycil turned to look closely at the contents of the other bottles. They mostly stored brown flat pieces of things he had never seen in his life. The nearest bottle of pieces chillingly resembled the skin of a horse. He shuddered. These odd people surely did not consume them as food?

A girl entered the tent just then, and he looked hopefully at her, wondering if she would have the sense to free him. She crossed the tent ever so slowly and bent to peer down at him, making no move to uncap the bottle, though. When she opened her mouth, it was with a foreign language that she spoke at first, before reverting to the language the boy and the old woman had used earlier. Hadmycil wanted to tell her she need not have tried, for both sounded equally foreign to his clay ears.

The girl was probably asking what he was doing in the bottle. He had no idea himself.

"I'm a Pycon," he replied in Common. "I don't suppose you're Human, though. You don't speak Common and you look different. My name's Hadmycil. Now that you've established I'm a Pycon, you must understand that our people aren't suited to living in bottles. Do free me instantly, please."

[Kuhani]

Kuhani blinked twice, mouth turning into a frown. Well, this was bothersome. She had heard words such as Pycon, which was the same in her language. So the creature was a Pycon. Interesting. However, the rest of his words were lost to her. Sighing, she knelt down and covered her head with her hands, frustrated.

"Eya~," she sighed under her breath in frustration. Looking up, she pondered the small creature for a moment before pointing to her breast. "Kuhani." She said it slowly, unsure if he, if it was a he, could pronounce it correctly. She then pointed to the creature and then beckoned, as if asking for something. In reality, she was attempting to get a name from him without any other words. It would be easier to pick out and understand.

This would require a lot of acting if the two were going to get anywhere. Kuhani, anxious, began to glance at the door every few seconds, wary of intruders. If she was caught in the tent without permission, then the Healer would have her scolded.

[Hadmycil]

It had come as a shock to Hadmycil that anyone-- no, any community could have survived so long without knowing a word of Common. Was Common not... common after all? Goodness, how had they managed to trade and mingle with other cultures with a language barrier looming perpetually in front of them? Hadmycil was extremely interested in this new language the girl was speaking, which sounded more melodious than Common, but he was keen on learning it at his own pace, in a cosier environment than this.

"Kuhani," he said slowly, and the girl nodded in recognition. That was probably her name. Too many probabilities made him insecure. "My name's Hadmycil. Had-my-cil. But that doesn't matter. You can call me anything you like. But if you really want to get to know me better, though..." he gesticulated wildly with his paws, his tail flicking slowly from side to side, and then pointed upwards. "Out," he said. "Let me roam free." He made a prowling motion. He hoped they understood body language at the very least. He realised he could not be sure just how high their collective level of intellect was.

Footsteps could be heard outside the tent. Someone was padding in. The girl stiffened. Hadmycil was afraid she was going to run away, and he would be stuck here again. He pressed his nose against the glass bottle, peering desperately at her. "Quick!"

[Kuhani]

Well, the Pycon's name was Hadmycil, that was sure. Kuhani wasn't really capable of putting the sounds together without some of her accent bastardizing the pronunciation, but...eh, it would do. As he (the timbre of the voice was lower, deeper than a female's voice) began his acting routine, she held out her hand at the sound of the tent flap opening. Quickly, she grabbed the bottle and stuffed it into the opened neck of her shirt before tying her vest together, hiding the bulge.

Turning her head, she gazed at the tent door, hopeful that the intruder hadn't seen her theft. It was Ejuna, yes, but only her silver hair flowed through the opening. She was speaking with someone outside. Sighing, she looked around the tent for some kind of exit, but was aware that if she snuck out, and someone saw, it would be obvious that she had done something wrong.

Kuhani approached Ejuna, averting her eyes. "Healer, the Pycon has escaped," she said quietly. The elder spun her head to look at the girl.

'What are you doing in my tent, girl?" She snapped, entering with heavy, violent steps. Another member of the tribe Kuhani didn't recognize joined the two. "What have you done?"

"Nothing!" Kuhani raised her hands in innocence. "I came to see the creature, nothing more, elder. When I came, he was not here."

Ejuna's eyes widened and her teeth clenched, anger beginning to rise.

Kuhani could tell this wouldn't be good.

OOCGo ahead and help me out with the Healer. Write what you would do if you were in that situation, haha.