PM to join Rainy Days (Khida, Sama'el)

[Colt]

57th of Fall

Water was a beautiful thing. In the Sea of Grass, water translated quite clearly into survival. It was the base of life; life could not exist without water. Water was needed. Water was to be treasured.

But of course he, like all things, had a limit.

He had felt the expected stir of happiness when the rain began to fall, but now that happiness was completely gone. First there had been dubious unease, then there had been annoyance and now there was true anger. He had attempted to take cover in his nest, but now that was completely sodden. Three days, it had been, and the rain continued to fall. Continued to hit him, continued to touch him like so many little hands, and he felt like he was going mad.

The rain seeped through the lowest layer of his nest’s cloth and he angrily slid into the open. He couldn’t stay like this. He just couldn’t.

He wiped away the water that had already drenched his face and let out the loudest call he had ever made. He wasn’t quite sure where the falcon was, but he hoped dearly that she would be able to hear him over the rain. He circled the clearing where they had settled, calling over and over again just in case. Soon enough, however, the rain demanded his attention once again. He snarled at the sky, then spun on his heel and loped into Endrykas.

He had been learning the city, walking through it every now and again. Unknown memory was a commonplace for him now, and words and signs erupted into his mind almost constantly. He was remembering what it meant to be a Drykas.

Akaidras appeared at his shoulder, and the man turned and put a gentle hand on the horse’s cheek. Akaidras whickered in response, and together they continued into the tents. He made sure to continue sending out calls for the falcon to follow.

A tall shape loomed from the gray, and he approached to find another Drykas, hurriedly making repairs on a tent. The hunter barked in greeting.

Sunsinger? he signed.

The man nodded and pointed deeper into the city. “That way, along this path.”

He nodded and returned to his trek, letting out another call. He really, really wanted to get out of this rain.

Finally, the pavilion he was looking for loomed in front of him, causing him to let out an explosive sigh of relief. He approached, unsure of how to alert those within, if there were any, of his presence. He chirped, but the sound was lost in the rain. He frowned, then too a breath and barked. Perhaps that would be heard.

[Khida]

Rain. Rain that fell for days on end -- sometimes greater, sometimes lesser, but it still seemed to be always raining. One day was fine. Two days, you dealt with. More than that? If Khida had been the religious sort, she might have found a deity to complain at. As it was... ...she just dealt. She had found a small tree some distance from the city, not much more than a six-foot stick with half its normal complement of brown leaves. It pretended to be shelter, at least reducing the rain which reached her feathers. The water sluiced off, still, but it rather reminded the falcon of some of the summer storms she had weathered through -- and she honestly didn't care for the reminder. A familiar voice cut through the rain -- or what was probably a familiar voice. The sound was indistinct, but she knew it wasn't a bird's call, for all that it mimicked one... and she hadn't heard other humans imitate quite that sort of cry. Interest piqued, Khida leapt from her perch and flew up into the rain, moving in the general direction she thought it had come from. Maybe he had a better shelter to offer -- or at the least, he could give her something else to think about, something that wasn't the dreary, gloomy day. The call came again, and she knew it to be him for certain. The falcon oriented on the sound, flying towards it, noticing that it moved even as she neared. He moved. Until she finally found him, not moving at all, but standing before a tent. He yapped at the tent like a dog, a peculiar mannerism. Khida backwinged to land on the tent across from the one he was interested in, and judged that between the rain and his interest in the tent, he may not have seen her approach; she declared her own presence with three sharp calls: skee-skee-skee. Then, with water collecting on and dripping down her feathers, she waited to see what he did next.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

The Sunsinger pavilion was quarantined still from the rest of Endrykas for fear of the spread of the noxious pox. But the helpful Drykas would point him through the tent city's outskirts and toward the collection of tents. They still didn't have a proper pavilion, but things kept happening to get in the way: the death of his wife, the rending of the Web, the pox, too.

With the rain being so bad, most of his pavilion was indoors. Jyn tending his daughter and his chores, Denen in the tent that served as infirmary with the little bear that was Sama'el's son, Leto and Xnnn probably making glyphs or something, and Ronan out and about. Mealla too. It was Sama'el himself, the young Ankal, who slogged through the mud making sure the makeshift shelter for the horses was keeping them as dry as possible. It was Khida's call that alerted him to their presence, and he came to defend his pavilion if necessary with dagger in hand, but when he recognized Khasr, he smiled and put it away.

"Ho, friend," he said, being careful to accompany his spoken words with signs, which the wild man always seemed to understand better. "Are you ill?" He had to ask, because if he was, Sama'el would have to set up a tent for him away from the others and downwind so as to protect his family. If it was only a visit and he was healthy, all the better. The quarantine was not absolute.

[Colt]

He wheeled when the voice drifted from the rain behind him. He squinted at the figure, but stance and words soon identified him as the Sama’el. The hunter straightened and nodded in greeting.

He tilted his head at the question. He was vaguely aware of the pox, at least enough that he had done his best to limit contact with the city until now, and so he shook his head.

Instead he looked up into the pouring rain. In doing so he caught sight of the falcon and breathed a small sigh of relief; he didn’t know how he would react if she had been lost in the storm.

He looked back at the Sama’el, then back at the sky.

He gestured at the rain, and then with hands shaky from disuse he signed a single word.

Shelter?

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

Sama'el nodded and grinned, glad to know that the feral man was well, though he wondered if all this rain hadn't flooded out his crater. Certainly it was low ground and might be a fetid swamp by now. He waved the man over. Under the makeshift shelter for the horses, a twisted stump of some storm-blasted tree provided ample perches for the little kestrel, Hodei. A fierce eye stabbed first at Sama'el, then his companion. She fluffed her feathers and settled in to wait out the rain.

Sama'el indicated her, and then pointed toward the falcon. "Birds, shelter here."

Perhaps that falcon would want to keep dry under here, and all the horses were putting off some heat, too.

He put his hand out, hoping the man would recognize the offer that they clasp wrists at their reunion. Though he didn't know him well, he liked to think they were friends, or close to being so. And he had offered hospitality now, so there was that too.

"Hungry? Thirsty?"

[Limey]

Khasr Skill and Lore Rewards Skills Lore Observation 3 Water Is Life, But Rain Is Annoying Remembering What It Is To Be Drykas Khida Skill and Lore Rewards Skills Lore Observation 2 Rain: To Be Endured Flying 1 Additional Notes : Once again, Sammy, if you do come back, PM me so I can provide you a grade for this. Meh, ended before it started, really, didn't it? Still, at least you got something out of it, and Khasr, Khida, your writing was a pleasure to read, as always. Any questions or queries, please PM me.