The Wanderer's Kinship (Ari'Yahal, Dhanya)

by **Dhanya** on July 14th, 2010, 2:58 pm

Dhanya bleated loudly as Hirem stopped and stared and realised just who she was. Her short tail wagged merrily and she gently butted her head against his chest, as if to say, 'took you long enough.' At least she was quite small, being a pygmy goat and was thus much easier to carry that time around. By the time Ari'al asked her question, they were mere yards away from Dhanya's tent. She nipped at Hirem's fingers until he put her down, then limped away inside of it.

She didn't look back to see if he or his new acquaintances followed, she just picked up the nearest piece of cloth she could find with her teeth and rested down onto the ground. She wanted to change without staying on her feet, so she wouldn't fall over.

The flash of light was visible from outside and followed by ebullient, feminine laughter. Inside the tent, Dhanya wrapped the cloth around herself so that no sensibilities would be offended should someone come inside. She reached for the bandage she was using to wrap her swollen ankle and wrapped it, hissing between each gasp of humour.

"Oh, Hiiiiiiirem!" She called out, on a whim.

by **Hirem** on July 14th, 2010, 9:05 pm

As the goat, Dhanya..., escaped from his grasp and made her way into her tent, Hirem shifted his gaze to Ari'Yahal, and saw the suspicion in her eyes. He shrugged weakly, and explained, "Sorry, that goat reminded me of something..." It was a lame answer, and one that wasn't likely to satisfy the mother or her curious son, but there was only so much he could say with what he had, and hopefully his personal history was one topic they wouldn't want to delve into. After all, what truth could he give them? Oh, I just realized that this goat is my new friend.

He shook his head of the previous topic, and motioned for Ari'Yahal and Raziel to follow him deeper into the camp. "Come, I'll introduce you to the caravan master." He didn't press on them his insistence to switch to a new topic, but he hoped they got the message. Dhanya's true form was wheeling through his mind, laughing at him on little stubby goat legs. It was almost comical, but Hirem took it far more seriously.

Magic was a curious topic for Hirem, partly because he had experienced little of it and was told by his people to fear it and doubt it. Benshirans didn't trust magic in the slightest, a fact that was instilled in them since the days of Sagallius, the destructive mortal turned meddling trickster god, a threat that had come from the deserts of Eyktol. As for Hirem, he was indeed wary of magic, but was also curious of the power, since he wanted to judge it for himself. And Dhanya, who was surely magical, presented an opportunity for that.

Then, to Hirem's bad fortunes, the tittering laughter of a young woman emerged from Dhanya's tent. He grimaced momentarily, then spun around to face Ari'Yahal, smacking his head. "I forgot! I know who that goat belongs to! It's one of my friends, see. I was surprised by the goat following me in the first place, but now it makes sense. I guess it likes me." He gave a little fake laugh, smiling a tight smile at his fellows.

And then Dhanya called his name out loud, in a long drawn out cry that slammed in the awkwardness of the moment with a figurative hammer. "Oh, she must have heard me. Come, you must meet her." He approached the tent, hiding his face from his kin, and responded to Dhanya's call. "Hello, Dhanya. I met some new people out in the sands today." His face, however, was very serious, saying Be on your best manners.

by **Ari'Yahal** on July 15th, 2010, 8:48 pm

Ari'al could only watch in bemusement as the goat leapt down from Hirem's grasp and limped into one of the nearby tents. Her hands fell away from Zefirah's reins and onto Raziel's shoulders as she saw a bright flash of white emanate from the tent, followed by peals of laughter. Magic.

Ari'al had never trusted magic. It seemed to her that trying to get involved in it was more dangerous than it was worth. Besides, it was...unnatural. Unnerving, at least to her. The idea that a person could assume the form of another, or read her mind without her ever knowing any better, made her shiver. Leave that to the gods, she had always thought. Such things aren't for us mortals to play around with for our pleasure.

But it seemed that the...goat was magic? Something in the tent was, at least, although perhaps it wasn't the goat itself. She had no idea what sort of magic, since she had never really bothered to study the different branches of magical disciplines and figure out what they all were and what they meant. However, she could think of no other explanation for the flash of light she had just seen. Hirem was saying something, trying to explain away what had just happened, and she turned her attention on him. Had he known something was off about the goat? “What's going on here?” she asked, drawing herself up to her full height and looking him straight in the eye. Such tactics typically worked wonders on all the other people she had ever tried to work the truth out of.

But then a feminine voice rang out from the tent, calling Hirem's name, and he began muttering that the goat belonged to his friend, or something along those lines. “Come, you must meet her,” he was saying.

Ari'al glanced around the caravan, which seemed perfectly normal otherwise: people and animals bustling around, tending to their business. No other magic to be seen. Hesitating slightly, she ducked through the tent flap after Hirem, tugging Raziel's hand. He had been silent through the entire exchange, staring at Ari'al, and then Hirem, and then the tent, with confusion written across his young face.

Inside the tent, lying haphazardly on the ground as she wrapped her ankle with cloth, was a young woman with closely-cropped brown hair and the eyes of a goat. Ari'al stood stock-still, staring as she began to put the pieces together.

“Where'd your goat go?” Raziel asked, his mouth pursing in suspicion as he searched the tent for his new friend.

OOC :

by **Dhanya** on July 19th, 2010, 6:04 pm

Dhanya didn't understand Raziel's question. She could only speak the common tongue, though it wasn't difficult to guess just what the boy might be inquiring about. She smiled widely at him, laughing under her breath even then. She was still bruised and sore from her fall but it seemed the little things in life could still give her pleasure. Illusion and prankery were worth more than gold.

She caught Hirem's expression and bit her lip, eyes warm and entirely unrepentant. She understood his meaning but there was nothing in her gaze that implied she would heed his advice as much as he liked. They seemed to imply that she wouldn't embarrass him, though only if he was lucky.

"You wouldn't happen to speak common, would you?" She asked the little boy, "have these new people not got names? They know mine."

It seemed she would not be making their meeting entirely easy but now that she had made an impression, it was clear on Ari's face that she had managed to, she wanted to keep the illusion going. Her actions weren't born out of a sense of spite. She wasn't spiteful so much as narcissitic. Dhanya longed for new faces because she was at heart and by profession an entertainer. She hadn't put on a real show in over a month. If she could convince them that she was special, it would only do her damaged self esteem good.

"It's only fair, you know." She added, finishing up the wrapping around her ankle and leaning back on her hands to look at her new guests.

She'd have offered water but she knew they'd already had some and likely didn't need more, yet.

by **Hirem** on July 20th, 2010, 12:05 am

Hirem nodded in thought as Dhanya gave her response to their entrance, knowing that Raziel was likely very confused as to the state of affairs that was currently transpiring. He wondered if the boy even knew Common yet, but he was certainly a bright boy, if from impressions only. Just in case though, he turned to the young Benshiran with a smile.

"Her goat must have snuck off, I think. Quite a little sneak she is." He said this in slow Shiber, for Raziel's benefit only. Ari'Yahal was staring at the woman on the tent floor with the expression of one that finally solved a tricky puzzle, so it didn't take a genius or divine intervention to discern what she know knew. Hirem caught eyes with the proud woman, his own gaze one of knowing and he gave one slow nod. Not yet. He was saying. Later.

Raziel was better off not knowing the powers of this woman until the adults in the room found out for themselves, and then Ari'Yahal could make the decision whether to tell him herself or leave it be. Hirem had no right interfering in the boy's life, but if knowing the information wouldn't put Dhanya at risk in any way, then Raziel deserved to know. Despite their brief companionship, Hirem was already growing on this inquisitive young mind, much the way that two cousins might form a bond within moments of meeting each other.

"Dhanya, this is Raziel, from the tents of Keshet, of the sons of Rapa. And this is his mother, Ari'Yahal from the tents of Keshet, of the sons of Havid." The greeting was relayed out in full in the proper Benshiran style, if only to give the two foreign Benshirans in the room something reassuring on his part.

Though, truth be told, he felt himself be alienated by this confrontation. He did not know Dhanya very well, and had suspected from the beginning that she was a shapeshifter of some kind, but this new revelation still caught him off-guard. It was strange, he supposed, the kinds of things that you could find in this mad world of his. The desert certainly held many unknown things if you dared to explore it's depths, and Dhanya apparently was another secret that Hirem just stumbled upon.

by **Ari'Yahal** on July 20th, 2010, 3:44 am

As she stared unflinchingly at Dhanya, Ari realized she was caught between a rock and a hard place: she burned with wanting to know what the woman was and whether she was dangerous, but on the other hand she didn't want to frighten Raziel, and from Hirem's look she knew he agreed with her. She felt a tide of anger and frustration rise in her, which was a bad thing, because when Ari'al got angry, it usually resulted in yelling and throwing things until she calmed down.

“Yes,” she said in the common tongue, trying to unclench her teeth, “I speak Common. Not well, but I can. And what are you doing in the desert, rakva? A pretty thing like you?” Polite enough words, she supposed, just not really the way she had spoken them.

Raziel cut in. “I speak Common too! I learned it, in Yahebah, there were -”

“Hush, Raziel.” She groaned inwardly. If Hirem had been paying attention to the boy's words, he would have learned that they had lived in Yahebah: another clue in revealing who she was. Raziel had spent nearly his first two years of life in Yahebah, and had picked up a good basis of Common, which was widely spoken in the city, before they left following Malachi's disgrace. He had continued to practice it with his great-grandfather at Jamilah, and probably had a better command of the language than she did herself. “We are both capable of understanding you. Dhanya.” The name felt strange rolling off her tongue; it obviously wasn't a Benshiran name.

She turned to Hirem and spoke in Shiber again, now that she was confident Dhanya could not understand the language. “I thought you were going to show me the caravan master?” She paused and deliberately shot a look in Dhanya's direction, making sure she understood that Ari'al was talking about her: she wanted Dhanya to know that she was a force to be reckoned with in case she happened to try something around her or her son. “What kind of company do you keep, Hirem?” It was undoubtedly rude to speak in a language the other woman didn't know right in front of her, but she was past caring. She wanted an explanation, and she wanted it now.

“Your leg is hurt,” observed Raziel in Common, pointing to the aforementioned body part. However, he seemed not to make the connection between the goat's wound and the woman's wound – it would have been quite a mental leap for a five-year-old, anyway – which made Ari'al momentarily grateful.

“Yes, how terrible,” she agreed, speaking in her thickly accented Common once more. “Tell us how you came to hurt it, Dhanya.”

by **Dhanya** on July 21st, 2010, 5:38 am

Dhanya had been born and raised in a city of intellectuals and socialites, belonging to neither group. She was familiar with being judged. She was even familiar with the concept of others wanting her to know she was being judged.

She was also very, very familiar with making other people uncomfortable.

In ways, a coping mechanism, in others a passtime.

"Oh, I'm a concubine, headed for Yahebah." She lied, a happy smile gracing her face and a glint in her eye. "Apparently it's not just the nights that are frigid there."

She spoke quickly, trusting that an unfamiliarity with the words would save Raziel from her subtext. It wasn't as if he needed to know about it, he seemed to be enjoying himself. Dhanya appreciated that.

"You speak very well!" She told the young boy, "perhaps you can teach me some of your language and we can laugh at how bad I am. You must tell me more about Yahebah."

She watched the conversation in Shiber between Hirem and Ari'al carefully. She could discern that Ari'al was probably talking about her and that she wanted her to know. The gauntlet had been thrown.

"I know it's been a minute but I still can't speak anything more than common." She said pointedly. "Perhaps Hirem or Raziel can translate for me?"

She waited a moment after the questions had been asked, still leaning back on her palms, making it clear that she wasn't going to let the moment slide. She was always going to be second best, second choice and second in, a fact that caused her no end of bitterness in her quiet hours. Dhanya's saving grace was that she had enough goat in her to rail against quintessential lesserness. If Hirem and Ari'al wanted to know her secrets, they would have to butter her up first.

She let the silence drag.

"Fell off a plateau." She said blithely, finally. "Hirem rescued me. He's a very brave man."

Well, she did quite like Hirem, she would probably tell him if he asked. Not while Ari'al was around, of course. She was probably going to hold off until either she learnt shiber or Ari'al decided to stick to common when she was in Dhanya's tent.

by **Hirem** on July 22nd, 2010, 2:03 am

Hirem closed his eyes as Ari'Yahal and Dhanya lashed out at each other with social gestures and silent taunts that hung heavy in the air for moments after they were issued. These two women were both trying to destroy each other; Ari'Yahal with her open threats and clear boundaries when it came to Raziel and Dhanya's way of making the moment uncomfortable as hell. Perhaps this was vengance from Yahal, sending two passion-filled women with short tempers his way.

Women with a lot of secrets, that is. Dhanya had forgotten to tell him that she was a goat, and now apparently Ari'Yahal and Raziel came from Yahebah. It wasn't a shocking revelation, but it brought back that unsettling sense of familiarity that Ari'Yahal had summoned with her name. Did he knew them from Yahebah? It was possible, but he never recalled seeing this woman, or at least seeing her that often. Raziel was unknown too, but he was quite young.

Speaking of Raziel, Hirem knew he had to take the peacemaking route if only for the boy. He didn't want the two women to clash on any account, but with an impressionable young mind in the room, this was just unacceptable. He clapped his hands, drawin Raziel's attention to him. "Yes, Dhanya did fall. Very scary. But I saved her, and the Caravan Master let me stay with them. How about I fall, and you save me so you can stay here?" He stuck a thumb out towards the entrance of the tent, indicating that they should get moving.

But, he had to address the questions posed to him via the previous conversation. He drew himself up to his full height, and eyed both women with a disapproving glare. "Dhanya, when we get a chance, I'll teach you Shiber. It's only fair if you can hear what we say." He said this in Common, a possible risk with the young boy around, but he could keep his language safe for him.

"Ari'Yahal, I try to keep harmless company. I only met her yesterday, so I didn't know about... that, so I'm suprised as well. And answers will come." He shot Dhanya a look that said that he wanted those answers, and then he snapped his fingers. "But come, let us meet the Caravan Master and get your supplies. More talk can come later."

by **Ari'Yahal** on July 22nd, 2010, 9:18 pm

Ari'al's heart was knocking against her ribs with the force of her combined anger and uncertainty, and adrenaline made her lips curl back from her teeth like an animal. That the woman was a witch of some sort was enough to make her dislikeable, but she said she was to be a concubine...? Enough with the games, she thought, reaching up a hand to brush away the locks of dark, curly hair that had escaped her head covering. “I don't know what you're playing at, Dhanya, but I intend to find out,” she hissed quietly, trying not to let either Raziel or Hirem hear her, her bright green eyes sparking.

“ -can we, Momma? Please?” It was Raziel, trying to get her attention as he tugged at her hand, his face lit up with a smile. “Hirem says I can rescue him! And we can stay...”

She was a bit baffled by his words, seeing as she hadn't really been listening to Hirem when he spoke, but her son's voice centered her somewhat and took her attention away from Dhanya. “I – yes, Raziel. We'll be here for a little while, I suppose, while we restock.”

“Oh, good. The desert isn't very fun 'cause there aren't any people. It's sad.” Ari'al felt a pang in her chest, and she closed her eyes briefly as she bent down and hugged Raziel.

“We'll stay with the caravan as long as you want, if the caravan master says we can. Maybe we can find some other little boys for you to play with, hmm?”

He shook his head, smiling slyly. “I just wanna play with Hirem.” Ari'al smiled in return, remembering the times when she was young and all adults seemed to have a magical and unattainable poise. As long as he doesn't want to play with Dhanya, she thought, shuddering. I don't trust her as far as I can throw her. Hirem, at least, had been nothing but kind to her so far, and she felt a sting of regret as she realized she'd inadvertently been rude to him by slighting his friend and then insulting the kind of company he kept.

“You're right, Hirem, I'd like to talk to the caravan master and see if we can stay for several days. But make no mistake, there will be talk later.” This last was directed at Dhanya, whose goat eyes were unnerving her more each passing minute. Ari'al swept regally out of the tent, and Raziel darted out afterwards, at Hirem's heels.

OOC :

by **Dhanya** on July 23rd, 2010, 12:42 am

"I doubt it." Dhanya snorted, looking at both adults with displeasure. "You're still in my tent."

As Ari'al swept out, she decided she wasn't going to invite her in again. In her mind it seemed the humans were ganging up on her. They wanted to know her secrets and as far as she knew, they were both more dangerous than she was.

She decided not to tell them anything. The most anyone knew about her was that she was Kelvic. She hadn't told them anything much else, aside from her taste in food, music, dancing, clothing and ways of styling her hair.

If Ari'al and Hirem tried, they would just learn a whole lot of nothing. They'd both lost some of her regard for mistrusting her openly in her own tent. The boy was sweet, though. She was going to be doing the child-watching when it was needed in the next few days, her leg had left her useless for other chores. She could always speak to him then.

She'd noticed Ari'al silencing him when he mentioned Yahebah. Children always knew more than their parents thought they did. Maybe she'd find out more about why Ari'al so disliked her upon meeting her.

"Stupid humans..." Dhanya muttered to herself. "All got a stick up the ass. Better off as I am."