Closed A feast for a Dek. (Iosha)

[Darkness]

Darkness sighed silently. Stronger than any concern about her mind-reading powers could be, Iosha had brought up many memories, both good and bad of his time at Xy. Normally, he could avoid thinking of these things - perhaps his life at Wind's Reach wasn't exactly comfortable, but at least it kept him busy. And busy, he knew, was something he needed, because he couldn't afford to waste time pitying himself, regretting what had happened. That was no way to get anything done. He knew that, and still, he couldn't help but feel something inside him that pushed him to give in to the sadness, waste his time reminiscing what could never be again. Flashes of his family passed through his mind as he tried to shake it off, images of them returning from hunts, bringing both slaves and their own dead. Still pictures, burnt in his mind, of the slaves that had been with them since he'd been born, as they talked with each other, ignorant of his surveillance. Their smiles, their chatter. How they banded together in adversity. The healer's voice broke him out of his reverie - had it really been just a few seconds? - and he frowned, displeased with himself. Again, he listened intently, his overwhelming curiosity making him forget any of his worries. The Konti seemed like the complete opposite from the Zith, at least emotionally. The sheer concept of being in complete control of one's emotions was hard to grasp for Darkness, and he knew a few Zith that would go as far as to consider it a sign of weakness. Not him, though, but he found Iosha's words more interesting than anything he could contribute, so he just listened - until the food was done. "Bland? Smells like the alpha's share compared to what they give us in the city." He sniffed the air appreciatively and jumped to his feet, eyes closed as he walked near the fire, a half-grin on his face as he thought of the recently acquired knowledge. "Honestly, that sounds great. You'd never have to worry about killing someone you like while angry. Our celebrations are wilder." He extended a hand towards Iosha's heart, then with a bit of guesswork lowered it slowly until he touched something too warm to be Iosha, so it had to be the deer. "Aha." The other hand extended too, cutting the animal into two halves, taking a bite off his part immediately, with a grunt of appreciation. "Lots of mating and fighting and food. I remember a hunting party losing three members after a particularly successful outing. Sometimes we get decorations, mostly made by slaves, though some of us are really good at working bones." Another pause, another bite."Never tried myself, never called me. Not many of us are called by decoration. In my case, too busy learning about non-Zith to have time for it, anyways." He shrugged as he bit again and, when he pulled the ever-diminishing piece of meat away, he had a mischievous grin on his face. "And speaking of learning about non-Zith, what's your power? And are there any of you who can change shape? Can you teach it?"

[Iosha]

Iosha watched as Darkness extended his sharp claw towards her, and she felt her heart start to race in her chest, and with a single flick of his claw, he cleaved the meat in two. It was impressive and terrifying at the same time, but she wasn't going to run away in her even if her eyes told a different story. The Zith complimented her on her self control, and she felt her eyes water slightly gave him a warm smile. It was something she had been struggling to maintain for a long time, but it get harder each passing day. She just wished she knew him better, so she thank him properly for compliment shown her. The konti knew he caught the deer, so she offered him the bigger of the two halves, and she started to chew the tough meat from the bones with her teeth. It wasn't the most elegant way of eating, but at the moment, she didn't seemed to care letting her hunger take over her manners. When he mentioned the quality of food the deks receive from the kitchen, she figured the deer was a feast to the Zith. She shook her head and said bluntly, “Honestly, the Inarta should learn if their workers are well feed than they can produce more quality work.” She bite into her meat, and she pulled off a hunk of meat with teeth and continued ranting, “In my mind, the upper caste should be thanking the Dek instead of ridiculing them. The Dek do all the work the upper castes don't want to do, and if the Dek ever stopped working the whole city would fall apart.” Iosha wiped her mouth with her arm, and the smiled at the Zith, “Sorry Dark. Sometimes I tend to forget my manners when I am in the forest.”

Iosha listened to him talk about the differences in the way of celebrating. The konti gathered by the way he described his people. The Zith seemed to live and breath by their primal urges, and she was intrigued at the way his people acted compared to her people. The Konti were the polar opposite of the Zith in every way, but Darkness seemed to be the bridge between the monsters of legend and the rest of the world. Iosha bites into her meat again as she wondered about his life before the Inarta. She figured the half Zith was shunned for his lack of wings. It was insipid reason, but she could understand why they didn't include him even if he was mostly Zith. Iosha blew a stray hair from her face and said softly, “Their nothing wrong with learning about the people around you. It will help you understand and anticipate their actions. Honestly, I think your people will benefit by the education about the outside world that you can bring back to them when you return to Xy.” When she was finished with bone, she tossed it into the fire. She giggled when the red furred man started grinning at her, and it felt like he was a wolf staring down a deer. She put up a hand and said calmly, “I am not laughing at you, but I never seen a Zith smile before...it is quite terrifying in a good way.” Iosha thought about his question for a chime, and she said softly, “I think you are mistaking konti for kelvics, Darkness. I can't change shape naturally like kelvics, but if I learned the magic morphing than I can change shapes when I am competent with the arcane art.” Iosha leaned closer to him and said quietly, “I don't want this information shared with every human in the city, but I am schooled the magic reimancy and shielding.”

[Darkness]

Darkness nodded emphatically when Iosha mentioned the Inarta's lack of knowledge regarding the Dek. He'd seen, felt himself how the higher castes treated the Dek, and while he couldn't argue that most Dek made horrible workers on their own, he already had quite a few ideas to improve their productivity. For the ones that didn't improve, well, there was no reason to keep maintaining them either, which should end up being another incentive for them to perform up to par. The meat, however, kept him from properly wording all this plus his agreement; which was pretty much summarized in an agreement grunt - or at least a grunt - while he chomped down his food. Iosha's apology about her manners was met with an amused look from Dark's eyes, his mouth full of meat as his claws rended yet another chunk to eat. "Manners," he started, pausing for a moment to gulp his meat down. "Are stupid." Was all he managed to say before he started with the next bite. He just listened to her talk as he ate, his piece bigger than hers so it had a couple more bites in it. She acknowledged that it was right to want to learn about the people around him and, to his own surprise, Darkness found himself pleased with that. Immediately came to his mind the question - why? - but he left that for later. He didn't have the time to inspect his own trail of thought right now, when there were things to be learned around him. He only caught the tail of her next sentence, but she seemed to think he was going to return to Xy. Well, she couldn't be any wronger, but Darkness was not about to tell her that. Her comment about the 'Zith smile' only managed to make his grin even wider, amused as he was at the thought of her finding that terrfying when she'd been pounced upon not that long ago. His grin was wiped off his face almost immediately when she replied, though, replaced with intent attention, to the point where it might even be scary. A magician she claimed to be, though whatever reimancy and shielding might be he had no idea. He waved his hand when she mentioned her secrecy concerns. "Who would believe a Zith's word over anyone else's?" He replied with a half-smile, poking fun at the lack of trust he got. "Your secret's safe. Same with your power." He continued, smile still present, though this time a bit more smug. "I'm still your enemy, after all, so it makes sense to keep your advantages to yourself." And, fortunately for her, she'd given him the information he wanted; she couldn't shapeshift, so it wasn't directly related to his primary pursuit. This, in turn, meant that he was not overwhelmed by curiosity and, while he didn't like being denied knowledge, the Zith could live with it. "I have no idea what..." Darkness cut himself short midsentence, turning around abruptly. Something was coming, and whatever it was it didn't care about stealth. And it was big, it was far too big to be moving at that speed, but it still was. "Put it out, climb a tree." He hissed, crouching lower, opening his arms in what might've been a welcoming gesture were it not for the twitching claws at their end.

[Iosha]

Iosha wasn't really worried if Darkness could keep her secret because in truth most Inarta would go out of their way to avoid the whole Dek caste in general. They were considered the vermin of the Inarta, and most of these outcasts were thrown out of their society from no fault of their own. Most were deformed, handy capped, or to mentally slow to function in the society dictated by the upper castes. In this compassion less society, the strong will always have power over the weak. It was sad, but it was the reality in the city in the volcano. Darkness did make a point that Iosha didn't want to reveal all her secrets to him, and she respected him more for his consideration. The konti knew in time their relationship could change, but at the moment, they were just two strangers in the middle of the Unforgiving sharing a fire. However, she decided to dismissively laugh at his comment about them being enemies. She knew they already moved past the part where they disliked each other on principle alone. Also the Zith had shown her respect that the rest of the Inarta people seemed to lack or forgotten the concept of respect. The konti bite off the last piece of meat on the bone, and she listened to Zith talk.

When Iosha finished with her meal, she tossed it into the fire. The konti smiled at her furry dinner companion who still had his back turned to the fire. He was about to make a comment, but suddenly, the Zith jumped to his feet baring his claws to the tree line. She heard Darkness tell her to get into the trees, but before she could react a large mammal lumbered out off the underbrush and looked straight at Darkness. A couple meters away from Darkness and the bear, Iosha took a defensive position behind the fire trying to figure out what to do. The bear's eyes looked at Darkness, and it immediately stood up on his hind legs, shown his own claws for the Zith, and the creature let out a mighty roar in the direction of Darkness. Iosha realized that Darkness was showing a act of aggression towards the large predator with his claw out for all to see, so the bear met his challenge by taking two powerful swipes with each claw at the red furred Zith. The first and most powerful swing from his right claw was aimed straight at the head of the Zith, and the second the left claw was aimed at the left side of the abdomen. The konti watched and was shocked at how quickly the swings came one after another from the bear. To the konti, it seemed like the bear was used to fighting other bears, so she prayed to Rak'keli for a moment to keep Dark safe during the fight.

Iosha watched the scene unfold around her, and she knew she needed to do something otherwise the bear would maul the Zith to death. Looking around for her sword or bow, she cursed to herself when she saw them sitting on the other side of the fire by the conflict, so she decided to use her next best weapon. Iosha lifted her right arm and aimed the palm of her hand at the bear. The konti started to picture the lone candle in the darkness to clear her mind of all distractions. After taking a deep breath, the blond hair woman started focus her will to summon her inner djed just in front of her right hand. Iosha was surprised at how quickly the sphere formed in her hand because seasons ago it was much more difficult to hold a the res in a particular shape. Suddenly, the milky white sphere started to form and swirl, and as it turned the res started to attracted the flame and the heat from the campfire. Feeling the heat start to build from the ever growing sphere of fire, she tried to stop the fire ball from absorbing to much of the flame and heat from the campfire, but Iosha realized she was quickly loosing control for her ever growing fireball. The konti realized she needed to get rid of it soon before it completely consumed her. She kept moving her hand, so the fire bolt kept lining up with her target. When the fire was completely consumed by the fireball, she yelled at Darkness, “Dark, you need to move NOW!”

[Harrier]

Iosha

Skills	Amount
Observation	5
Socialization	5
Negotiation	2
Wilderness Survival	3

Lore

Book: Edible and Leafy plants of Kalea

Poisonous Plants: Dira's Root

Sharing your camp with a Zith

Campfire stories: Zith are monsters

Zith anatomy: Built to kill

Helping Darkness

Survival: breaking branches for a fire

Zith Legend: The Great Rending

Additional Comments: I gave you some Negotiation for finding a middle ground in Iosha's interaction with Darkness. Enjoy your grade!

(c) abstract