Flashback Spying Is for Children (Lydan)

[Mihiya Darkmane]

Time Stamp: 24th Summer AV 510

She was approximately 80% sure that she wasn't supposed to be here. In fact, she was more than 80% sure, since Briseni had warned her that Akalak could be dangerous at times: violent, unpredictable, and prone to rage. However, Mihiya had seen with her own eyes that Akalak were simply bigger and bluer versions of the men that she had known her entire life. They were no more violent than average, no more aggressive. Thus, on a whim, she had made her way to the outskirts of Riverfall. As she had done so, she had noted that there were some Akalak out training, some fighting with Lakan and some wrestling. Those, Mihiya noted, must have been the men that fought without weapons that Lydan had mentioned. She still thought it a barbaric and unwise way to fight. Not that throwing stones with a leather band was any less so.

With soft footsteps she made her way farther away from her Pavilion. She was hoping to encounter Lydan again, she had loved learning about the Akalak from him, loved learning in general. She was a good listener, one of the things she had going for her, and she had no intention of not being a good listener when Lydan shared knowledge with her. The blue giants of Riverfall were so much different from the Horseclans of Endrykas. Besides, another encounter could give her a second chance to practice her common, which she spoke poorly at best.

She continued walking, however, she decided she would rest a moment and sank to the ground. Not, however, before she caught sight of a familiar blue face, towering two feet above her when she stretched to her fullest height.

[Lydan Verdjak]

Lydan, instead of the unorganized and foolish fighting that was happening just outside the gates of Riverfall, he counted himself much more disciplined than that. Besides, the common difference between a craver of bloodshed and a thoughtful warrior were distinctively different in his opinion. He sat there, aside a stretch of grass that was not tall but fair of length, enough to frustrate people who haven't been around that of the Sea of Grass for very long, or in Riverfall in general. He took no notice of the young girl, sitting there in the grass and performing basic exercise, push-ups, to be specific.

[Mihiya Darkmane]

Mihiya waited...and waited...and waited for Lydan to notice her and explain what he was doing. She knew he probably couldn't see her, which was unfortunate, because she didn't want to approach the blue giant out of nowhere, especially not when he was so involved in what he was doing. She narrowed her eyes...what was he doing? The men of Endrykas challenged their bodies with running, hunting, and fighting, never had she seen one engage in the sort of activity that Lydan was currently performing. She cocked her head to the side, eying the blue man. He appeared to be doing some sort of exercise, she supposed, for it did not look like an activity one engaged in for fun. Perhaps it was a fighting technique? Though, if so, it did not appear very useful.

"What doing, Lydan?" she spoke up finally as she moved closer to the man and sat within hearing distance so that they could converse. Whether or not he was eager to have her disrupt his training was of little consequence, he could always ask her to leave and she would comply...probably watching at a distance he could not see her at, but she would leave this immediate area at the very least. She was eager to learn fighting skills, but no one would agree to teach her, not even her family. This was unfortunate, as Mihiya had a great desire to learn and more than likely, great potential in fighting skills.

"Looks hard," she observed after a few moments. It did indeed. Whatever the man was doing consisted of bracing oneself parallel to the ground on only their toes and hands and then lowering themselves to the ground and returning to the starting position. It did not appear to be a pleasant thing to do. She would have mimicked, but she found herself uninterested in doing something that she would find unpleasant such as that.

Patiently, she waited for his response, watching as he did repetitions of this strange movement.

[Lydan Verdjak]

Lydan pushed and pushed himself parallel 'til he panted, counting in his head numerous times over and over as a headache emerged, he was exhausted enough to not notice Mihiya at first. The man had a simple obsession over the practice of health and bodily maintenance, and was as no exception to the Akalak's practice of fitness. As he kept working himself up and down numerous times, gritting his teeth with pain he frequently stopped for a few seconds to rest. His movements were steady at first, and then as he grew more and more tired he begun to show and visibly exhaust and panted to the point where one would imagine him on the verge of passing out on the grass.

Lydan was oblivious to the young girl's patient waiting, the man was tiring and carried fresh scents of sweat, and an indication he had bathed recently if she had a good nose. His ears perked up as she spoke out, his concentration lost as he rolled over to the side, panting heavily. "Push-ups, they are hard after a while." He coughed a few times, and eventually weakly emerged to a sitting position. Smiling after Mihiya as he nodded his head, "Hello Mihiya, how are you today?" His smile was just as genuine and affectionate as the man was tired.

[Mihiya Darkmane]

As the man rolled to his side, she merely examined him. He was coated in a sheen of sweat, and appeared exhausted. The exercises, these push-ups, they seemed to have the effect of exhausting the man who did them. His words merely confirmed her assumption. The push ups could not have been easy, so she imagined they had some sort of purpose. Perhaps to strengthen him? That was typically the purpose of doing something, to improve upon it?

"They help to be better fighter?" she asked after he confirmed the difficulty and the name of what he was doing. She could only assume as much. The Akalak, from what she could tell, tended to have a rigid training schedule, in particular in regards to their training. She assumed that was because they were an all male race. From what she knew, the male gender tended to be more aggressive.

"Am fine. Bored. Everyone busy with baby," she explained thinking about the blue baby that lived with Briseni's sister. Briseni had explained to her that the baby was a blessing, Akalak babies were notoriously difficult to carry to term, whatever that meant. She agreed that the baby was a miracle, just as any baby was.

"How is Lydan?" Mihiya asked as she returned the warm smile. She liked spending time with Lydan, he offered a refreshing break from the people that were typically in her life.

[Lydan Verdjak]

He panted, laying there simply with exhaustion, the man was weak and frail. His eyes followed towards her and nodded, "I-I suppose so." They were mere push-ups, basic practices of fitness and exertion of daily energy to try and burn calories and gain muscle, but Lydan wasn't sure how much of his Common Mihiya would understand, so he spared her one overly unnecessary explanation. He was relaxed, yet tired and exhausted, the male gender had their tendencies for aggression yet Lydan was an exception to this case. He flexed his arm slightly, noticing the pain that struck it as he decided to just lie down and rest.

"Baby? You have a sibling, or otherwise extended family?" Lydan always had an affectionate desire to have children, irking the Akalak-only births of children. This was why he wanted to try and find a Konti mate, but he was not going to be close-minded and deny any other woman the chance. A baby, of whether race or gender, is still a baby.

"As for me, I'm fine, speaking of baby's I'm frustrated with my father's pressure to make me find a woman to conceive some with." He sighed, stretching against the grass.

[Mihiya Darkmane]

"I see," the girl murmured as she watched the man inhale deeply. He seemed physically exhausted, and this was a new sight. The big man represented Akalak strength in her mind and was considered a prime example. He had informed her that he was larger than most of his fellow Akalak and she saw no reason to dispute that point in her mind.

"Mother's sister has Akalak son. Cute, noisy. Needs attention," she explained best as she could. "Like him, but bored. Baby no sleep at night, give headache." Her Common was frustrating, but she felt that it was improving...or perhaps that was just her. Spending time around the large Akalak would help her with her Common, seeing as he didn't speak Pavi. She listened as he spoke of his desire to have babies.

"Babies cute," she repeated, "Why father want you to find mate? You find one in own time...pretty Konti female?" she said, a teasing lilt in her question. He had mentioned Konti before, that they were an all female race. After dwelling on the matter of how in the world they managed to reproduce, she had decided that Konti and Akalak should just be mates. This was a good solution, in her mind. No doubt, Lydan would impress a Konti one day that wandered into to Riverfall. She hoped so. To never find a mate would be sad.

[Lydan Verdjak]

As his lungs and rib cage expanded and expanded, his breathing intervals decreasing and decreasing, he begun to recover from the more than one hundred or so push-ups, and despite a raging head ache he managed himself to a sitting position. He wondered just what the nature of Mihiya's fascination with him was, but in the end thought nothing more than a chaste interest or admiration. A soon-to-be-fading childhood crush at best, flattery was his best response to the interest, flattery and information.

"Adorable, I've rarely even seen any other children in my life other than slightly, well-grown Akalak youth, and I soon discovered pregnant women or random mothers didn't take kindly to a random Akalak man's questions about ... parenthood." He flashed a slight smile at Mihiya's complaints, or rather opinionated expression, they were what he would expect. "Babies usually have trouble sleeping at night, they cry often, Akalak babies can especially be aggressive sometimes. It is a reason why the father must be close at hand, because the baby may seriously maim or injure the mother in some er .. situations."

He offered a pained, brief smirk at her question. It was something he was not of the most comfortable answering to, "While Konti are preferred by my own general race, I am welcome to any woman that would have me, Nakivak or potential wife." He shrugged his shoulders, "And sometimes they can hold pretty high standards, or are just flat-out untrustworthy of some Akalak men, the massive ones included."

He frowned at Mihiya now, "Nakivak are women who are bound by a contract to have children from Akalak men, by the way."

[Mihiya Darkmane]

"Many babies in Darkmane Pavilion. Ankal's wives very fertile." In truth, she hardly knew what she was saying regarding teh fertility of the women of Chastral. She was merely repeating what she had heard in passing. They noted that Briseni had raised three strong children and that his second wife would no doubt produce many as well. There was talk of Chastral taking a third wife, even, which concerned Mihiya a bit as the only single woman she knew of in the Clans were only a few years older than herself. It was frightening, to think that she may someday find herself the third wife to a man as old as Chastral.

"Aggressive?" she pondered that thought for awhile, "Dangerous? Reason for Akalak man to take son away?" This concerned her. Her relation had a great love for her son and it seemed that if this aggression was true that she might be in danger. She hoped that the Akalak man who fathered the boy would take care of her, otherwise there would be more for her family to mourn, as if they had not mourned enough.

"Akalak good fighters. Protect women from dangers. Sea of Grass, Cyphrus dangerous. Good fighters make good mates. Good husbands too." She frowned at this concept. Women not wanting to have good warrior husbands confused her. Strength was valued on the Sea of Grass in general. Strong men and women meant strong children, and she knew that most of the Drykas woman worried that their sons would die in some tragic accident. It seemed to her that an Akalak would sire some of the strongest sons. Of course, there was the sobering recollection of the fact that the mother would likely die long before her son did...

His mention of Nakivak and his explanation of the word made her frown deeper. Women who had contracts to have children? Were they somehow paid to have children? She was repulsed by the very idea.

"Are Akalak so few to pay women for babies?" It was a concept she had never heard of before and it was one that made her cringe. Was that what had happened in her family? She sincerely hoped not.

[Lydan Verdjak]

His brow perked, up his eye venturing away as she spoke about her father and their family, the man's expression entered an unreadable one and let's leave it at that. Moving a palm over, he pat Mihiya's head, just a random sign of affection. "You have a lot of other children in your household then?" He smirked at that, he was familiar with the quarrels of siblings and sibling-look-alikes. He curled his arms over each other, resting his hands in his lap after rubbing his shoulder. The man had an ache in his shoulder and it was a foul one, the cramp had been appearing and disappearing throughout the day, and he was irritated with it.

"Aggressive as in, having the tendency to, I guess, play with the mother a little and not understand boundaries that might hurt the babies mother. Or when breastfeeding it might get angry or frustrated if it feels the milk isn't coming fast enough, generally it's considered safer for a man to raise the baby." He gestured as he spoke a few times, trying to communicate the point even with her poor understanding of Common, he was being helpful as he can now. "Of course, some babies are different, I think I was one case. There's also sometimes rare cases of .. an Akalak man and his woman raising a child together, let alone marriages." He paused, "Well I guess they're occasional."

Konti women were different, influenced by a less warrior focused culture and more of an obvious matriarchal one, but Lydan only knew half of this and had a vague understanding. "Konti women don't care for fighters, well, I think not usually." He shrugged, "It's my society that values women in general, Konti women who come here are either invited because we need people to populate the place with, or come here to look for someone to sire a child from, mostly they're looking for romance." It was an opinion that likely inaccurately judged statistics, but hey, it was one.

He looked to Mihiya, and smiled again. "It is very complex, Nakivak women generally are given benefits in society, and they have a lot of control over their own contracts, it is up to the women whether it entitles any form of compensation for their er, 'services.'"