Closed Firefly and the gentile giant. [Aka]

[Sesverugahasari]

35th of summer In one of the more out of the way tunnels Ruga was curled up in his dhani form. A small bag filled with tools and odd's was laying next to his curled up coils. Two piles of large animal bones, from a panther to be exact, was also laying next to him. One heap was filled with broken and carved up ones. While the other pile was neatly sorted by size and usability. Ruga discarded his last failure in the trash pile and picked up another bone from the pile. Slowly turning it over in his hands. It was one of the panthers larger legbones. He considered the options of what he could carve it into something that could be worn. To large and unwieldy to be a bracelet of some sort, maybe saw it into pieces and use some strips of leather to bind it together in some kind of a belt. He did take some leather with him from his own cave. He still had three pounds of it back in his cave. He gave a small nod, that idea could work well enough. He took the tools he needed out of the bag and carefully began to cut the bone in five more or less equal slices. He was so caught up in his work that he didn't notice another person entering the same tunnel.

[Soshakuakamamushi]

Another rock gathered, another reddish slime of res produced, rinse and repeat. Such was the boring job of building and repairing the tunnels of Zinrah. As a Reimancer, this was one of Aka's two main jobs, the other one was the exciting "Patrol and Hunt for Myrians". Still, she couldn't be just out patrolling and killing Myrians everyday, Sister Aspia specifically told her to make use of her earth reimancy talents to develop the caverns of Zinrah. She sighed and began another boring round...

The Viper, in human form, willed her res to take a ball shape in front of her and held it out to the unfinished tunnel. The res gathered earthen material and slowly being covered by it, creating an ever-growing boulder. Once Aka felt it was large enough, she tossed it to the side, ready for her work partner, Senka, to pick it up and put it into the large basket. *THUD!* That was weird, she didn't know that the sound of a boulder making contact with the Constrictor's hands would be the same as a boulder falling to the ground. Don't tell me... She looked to her right and... unsurprisingly, Senka wasn't there! The Constrictor had left her... again! "Aaaaaargh! Sssenkaaaaa!" She always do this, one moment she was there, next moment she was gone. When she came back, Senka always used various kind of excuses, but it was mostly the nonchalant "I'm bored..."

Aka has had enough! What kind of partner just went AWOL like that? She gritted her teeth and controlled her res inside the previous boulder, floating it up, and momentarily abandoned her job to find the lazy constrictor and bashed her skull with it, a deep frown on her pale face.

It was until she stumbled upon an interesting sight did her frown lightened, a constrictor was fiddling with... bones. Aka tilted her head, interesting... Mamoru or Galbern never do that kind of thing before... was it some kind of Zinrah magic? Excited and curious, she trotted to the Black-scaled Constrictor, boulder still floating near her left hand.

"Hey hey! What are you doing with thossse bonesss? Sssoundsss fun... can I sssee?" She approached closer, closer, and closer "C-can I touch it?" She didn't even ask for his answer and went to touch one of the bones anyway, forgetting to control the boulder. It went tumbling to the ground and *CRASH!* trampled over a pile of bone, white powder flying everywhere as the rock crushed Ruga's precious materials.

"O....ooopssss...." Aka went speechless and put both of her hands to her mouth, eyes opened wide at her dumb blunder. This constrictor would definitely wring her neck. "I... uuh... I'm... sssorry..." What else she could do? She didn't have the power to reverse time.

[Sesverugahasari]

Ruga's hands jerked in surprise as he heard somebody speak upand his tool slipped, digging a deep furrow from the top of the bone to the bottom. The bone was useless now, he didn't have enough place to draw the circles now with that deep cut in the way. He dropped the bone in the thrash pile and focused on the dhani in human form who was disrupting his peace and quiet. His eyes flitted towards the floating boulder. A mage it seems, he pulled a bit of his djed to his head and let it flow towards his senses and weak aura's flickered in existence. His tongue flitted outside tasting the air, the distinct tangy smell of used djed was noticeable in the air. The small dhani crept closer and closer reaching out her hand to touch the bones he had gathered. Her poking his bones wasn't really that big of a dea. That and he could just taste the overpowering sense of curiosity in her flickering aura, drowing out everything else he might have sensed from it. "Sssure, just be..." she dropped the boulder she had been floating, rolling over his carefully sorted bones. "Careful." Ruga rubbed his temple to fight the oncoming headache. "Yesss, oopsss." he sighed as he lifted the boulder of his bones without to much trouble. He hoped at least a few bones had survived being hit with a heavy rock. an idle hope. "You ssshould be more careful when lugging around boulders." He dropped the boulder next to him. He could feel her overpowering excitement ebb away and was replaced by the bitter taste of fear. He put his tools back into his bag and uncoiled himself, towering over the smaller dhani. "I'm not going to hurt you, becaussse of a little missstake. I'll jussst have to get some more bonesss." He tried to reassure the little dhani. When he thought about getting new bones however an idea popped into his head. the little dhani was a reimancer, no doubt she could be of help when trying to kill another large animal. "How about thisss you help me with getting more bones and I'll forgive you for crushing this set?" He was going to forgive her for it eventually anyway. But she didn't need to know that.

[Soshakuakamamushi]

"...eh.... uhm..." Everytime she faced a constrictor in Dhani form, this always happened, overshadowed by a being much bigger and taller than herself. A being that could break every bone in her lithe body with just one slam or those crude wrestling moves. Aka found herself shuddering and she instinctively took a step back. It was odd that she didn't fear Mamoru, the Dhani who brought her here, as much as other Constrictors. She was more intimidated by stranger constrictors than the ones she knew.

"I... uuh... phew... okay..." That was a relief, this particular Constrictor was calmer than Senka. Senka would force her into a wrestling match should Aka did that to her precious belongings, Mamoru would well... they would fight and bicker at each other lik usual. "Ah okay... more bonesss... s-sssorry about that..." She sheepishly rubbed her head and fixed her black dress.

"Oh! Of courssse! I will help you!" She immediately answered, out of guilt and the desire to just get the petch out of her boring job. Besides, Senka even went AWOL, surely she could also do that... right? No matter, she would finish the tunnel later, no rush. Aka excitedly smiled and fixed her stance, not looking so cautious and intimidated anymore.

"Okay, I can help you kill sssome animalsss! Pleassse lead the way, brother!" She was always willing to launch her fire to something... be it Myrians, animals, or just training dummies. Looked like she would get another fun hunting session, with this... what was his name again?

"Uuuh... Oh yeah, brother, my name is Soshakuakamamushi, but you can call me Aka. What's yoursss?"

OOCShe would be following you in human form, Ruga.

[Sesverugahasari]

Ruga smiled at the smaller dhani as he saw her relax and almost jump at the chance of helping him out and undoing her earlier mistake. Her excitement at going outside on a hut reminded him of a younger snakeling that was allowed to go outside for the first time in their lives. His tongue flixed outside. He cringed slightly as instead of a single overpowering emotion that he could taste or smell from her aura, it was a jumble of emotions that he couldn't make heads or tails from. Tasted like crap as well. "Of course, now just remember I need the bones whole, so don't go and throw boulders at the animals to kill it." He said as he slung his bag with tools over his shoulder and began slithering down the tunnel, keeping a pace that the small little dhani could keep up with. He did wonder slightly about her size though. She wasn't a youngling, she was in human form. But no dhani he had ever seen had been that small. She wasn't a human either, or she wouldn't be walking around like this. Was she one of their cousins then? He didn't have to wonder about that to long. "Aka, ssso you are that viper dhani that they are talking about in the nessst. Explainsss why you are sssuch a sssmall one. My name is Sesverugahasari. Jussst call me ruga though, everybody elssse does." He replied. "Ssso how did a viper dhani like you end up all the way in zinrah."

[Soshakuakamamushi]

"Mhm~ whole bone it is!" Aka excitedly answered, putting her hands behind her head as she relaxingly walked beside The Constrictor. Aka would just use her fire reimancy to kill those animals. An immolation or two should be good since they mainly damages flesh and organs while keeping the bone intact. She examined the giant Dhani again, she felt so small... Dhanis were supposed to be a matriarchal race, ideally, she should be the one who dominates. But... she was a Viper in a nest full of Constrictors, her gender was meaningless here, she learnt that the hard way.

Though with her work of repairing the tunnels, building the nest, and killing Myrians, she had gain some sort of respect, most Constrictors still call her "small fry", the difference was that they used it in a friendly or mocking way.

When Ruga began talking to her, her head tilted upwards to gaze his serpentine face. "Oh... y-yeah... hehehe..." She fidgeted with one of her twintails, embarrassed "I'm that Viper yesss... b-but really... I-I'm not that sssmall... I'm bigger in my Dhani form" She tried to salvage some of her pride, but it didn't seem to be working.

"N-nice to meet you, Brother Ruga" She was somewhat eased, at least the constrictor wouldn't talk about her anymore. She was proven wrong almost immediately, he asked her about her history. Well, Aka was sure Ruga didn't mean any ill intent, he was just curious. Heck, what Constrictor wouldn't be curious finding a tiny fire-wielding Viper in Zinrah? "Well uh..." She was wracking for answers, at least she could just give him the brief version of her story "...I kinda got lost in the Jungle, Mamoru found me and brought me here..." Aka was hoping Ruga didn't ask 'why were you lost?' or something like that.

She just kept silent and continued following him, letting him took the lead in this hunt.

OOCI'll let Ruga take the lead for the hunt

[Soliloquy]

Aka

Skill	XP Earned
Socialization	+2
Observation	+2

•	Lores Earned
•	Bone Meal: Easily Attainable with a boulder
•	That awkward moment when a stranger ask you about your past
•	Ruga: Calmer than some Constrictors

Additonal Notes :

I'm sorry about Ruga going poof on this thread. It looked like it would have been interesting.
Aka: I wish I could give you more but this is the best I can do with what was written thus far.
Ruga: If you ever do return, please pm me so you can get your yummy goodies too :3

If one has any questions or concerns regarding thine grade, please send a private message posthaste and we can discuss the details.

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