[Windmount Stables] Tall Tales (Lissa Maze)

[Nivel]

6th day of Summer, 514 AV With a roommate now, Nivel was no longer woken by the rat a tat tat of Sera Grey at her door. For training sessions, the Pycon was put on a schedule and would need to come to come to her patrons room on the days specified. The sessions always started early in the mourning but Nivel never had any idea what type of training they would be doing. It wasn't a secret that the masked women had a love for mystery and surprise. As Nivel walked down the dimly lit hallway nearing her Patron's room, she could hear the voice of another much younger women. This new voice lacked the confidence and authority that seemed to always be present with every word that escaped the lips of Sera Grey. This was a much more softer one like the coo of a dove. Nivel's first thought was that Grey had arranged a sparing match, which got Nivel excited. It was hard finding people who were willing to spar with such a small opponent, let alone one that was being patroned by such an odd and infamous Mage knight such as Sera Grey Baxter. Nivel could have easily slipped under the small crease of the door but did the polite thing and knocked as hard as her tiny little clay arms could muster. “Good gracious dear, you didn't need to knock so hard” An alarmed Sera Grey wearing a mask resembling a lioness opened the door “come in, I have someone here that wishes to meet you” The pycon scurried in allowing Grey to close the door behind her. It was then that Nivel first caught a glimpse of the Mysterious visitor. She didn't seem too extraordinary just the typical run of the mill Tall Folk female. The only thing even remotely peculiar about her was her pointed ears, and her eyes, which seemed to have less white in them then other tall folk. “This is Patcha” Grey said while gesturing at the new girls direction “She will be your new mount” Nivel was very confused but also a little excited, she though only horses and dogs could be mounts. “Nice to meet you Patcha, having a Fall Folk as a mount will be wonderful!” Nivel cheered. A small noise escaped Patcha's lips and she gave a concerned look towards Grey. “Nivel you know of kelvics, do you not?” asked the Patron “Yes...” “well, Patcha in reality.. is a dog that can take the form of a ... Tall Folk.” “oooooooohhh That's neat” Sera grey looked at Patcha who had still not said anything. “Patcha you've stayed rather quiet through all of this, do you have anything you'd wish to say?” The young Kelvic's gaze never left the ground in front of her as she hesitantly made her response “...I hope to serve you to the best of my abilities” Grey seemed disappointed with Patcha's lackluster response but Nivel didn't seem to mind in the slightest. “I'm sure you will and I will do my best to be a worthy knight as well” The Pycon bowed with surprising grace. “Well now that you two have been acquainted, Lets head to the WindMount Stables” The knight stated as she walked over to grab a small saddle that layed on her bed “we'll be needing this” ----- A few ticks later and they arrived at the location and were greeted by a fairly open land scape and a calming breeze. The crushed emerald shards that decorated Nivel's Terra Cotta flesh were sparkling particularly nice in the early mourning light. At least the parts that weren't covered by her small leather dress and copper tea pot helmet. Nivel held her key shaped py-pole in her hand as she rode on the shoulder of Grey whom was dress extravagantly as per usual. The Mage knight wore a long purple robe with spiked armoured shoulder pads, and other than her mask her hair was tied up with many ribbons. The shy Patcha was now in her dog form and already had her saddle attacked to her back. She was a mostly dark brown corgi dog who seemed almost noble despite her stubby legs. “Okay Nivel, Its time to mount Patcha” Instructed The Mage Knight as she lowered the pycon to the ground. Nivel shook her head and walked over to Patcha “Okay now what you'll want to do fir...” Sera Grey was at a lost for words as she saw the pycon easily stretch her leg over Patcha and successfully mount her right off the bat. “oh excellent..well I guess you need... to start riding” By Grey's tone of voice it was clear she was a little disappointed she didn't get to use all the material she had planned. “Okay let's go Patcha” Nivel whispered cheerfully to Patcha “oh! there will be none of that” The knight said sternly “you cannot just simply tell Patcha what you want.. you must develop a rapport, to tell what the other is thinking” “how do I do that?” replied a confused Nivel. “why don't you tell her a story?” “how will that help?” “you'll get to know each other better, of course” With that Grey started to walk a distance away “I'll be over hear reading some Magical theory, come get me when you're ready to ride.” “This should draw her training session out a bit” thought Grey as she walked off. Nivel searched her Nexus for stories she had heard during her very short life, the only one that came to mind was the Pycon creation story. “um.. okay this story is how other Pycons like me were created..It started long ago before the humans came to mizahar. Harameus the God of Alchemy was a very caring and helpful god who made interesting creations for all the other gods but at the same time he was very lonely. The God lived with this loneliness for many eons until he just couldn't take it any longer. He took an entire mountain and smashed it with his firsts until it was a fine clay and with this clay he sculpted a child and named it pycon. Harameus adored his new child but it was short lived as the mountain belonged to a vengeful god who out of spite cut up the first pycon into tiny bits. However no matter how many times the clay child was cut it did not die, it just became many smaller pycon. Sadly the Pycon's life had also been cut short and could no longer live with their creator for they were no longer immortal. Haramous still loves and watches over his children but can only do so from a far.” Nivel turned her clay head and then yelled through her helmet “I told her a story, can we ride now!” Lifting her head casually from her book Grey gave a quick reply “no..it needs to be longer” “But I don't know any other stories” Nivel whined “Use your imagination”

[Lissa Maze]

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Lissa Maze OOCSorry for the short post, trying to catch up on posting right now! Let me know and I can edit if there's not enough for you to work with. Another day at the stables meant another day with horses, but even Lissa was eager for her break in the warmth of summer. Today, she was only workin in the morning--very early morning. It had been a busy, exciting day at Windmount stables for a rather easily excited young groom. One of the mares had given birth to a foal! As a rather inexpert horsewoman, Lissa hadn't been involved, but the more experienced ones had seen her trying to see in and given in, letting her watch. The foal had come out adorable, of course--a dark bay, darker for the wetness of his coat. Smiling still, Lissa tried to decide if he was so little or so big for a baby horse. Foals weren't like ponies. Ponies, she'd noticed, were just differently shaped. They were shorter and stouter usually; they had proportions that weren't really like horses. The foal, even as a newborn, was so clearly a baby horse that he'd elicited a gasp of delight from the girl, who had seen foals before but none nearly so young. His legs seemed to big for him, his hooves too small to balance on...but he'd managed it. And he stood up. That had been the truly amazing part to the girl--he'd stood up, soon after being born. This was why she loved horses, she thought happily, gratefully drinking some water as she walked out of the stable. They were so well...well-made, for lack of better words. Humans weren't nearly so good. It took them time to stand up (she tried to think of how long but realized she didn't know, generally children at the Welcome Home having been past the motionless infant stage upon arrival). Lissa blinked as something sparkling caught her eye. She blinked, focused in on it, and smiled. There was a sight to behold. A vaguely familiar figure of one of the experienced knights with...a pycon...and a corgi. The pycon, she assumed, had to be a squire--why else would a knight sit there watching?--nd the corgi...well, she didn't know about the corgi. Slowly, the obvious dawned on Lissa. A Pycon was too small even for a children's pony, so one would need a smaller mount. Like a dog. The thought of this Pycon riding into battle on a corgi caused a giggle for the girl, but she tried to straighten out her face. This was going to be interesting. Lissa got within earshot of the odd trio just as Sera Grey finished instructing her clearly skeptical student to tell a story. Perfect! Lissa loved stories. She saw no reason not to double-dip on this one and listen in too. Maybe she didn't need to develop any sort of rapport with either the dog or the pycon, but that was no reason to miss a good story. The story of Pycons made her smile, tucking away that new bit of myth, but even a charitable listener had to admit that it wasn't very good. The Knight seemed to think so as well, because she told the Pycon to tell another. Lissa decided the knight was out of regularearshot, as the apparent squire had shouted to get her attention. She waked casually over and sat down cross-legged in the grass near the corgi and the pycon. "That wasn't a very good story, you know," she said bluntly, smiling a bit to soften the blow. "The thing about stories...you have to care about a story when you're telling it. You can like what it says or hate what it says but if you just want it over then it can't be a very good story." That said, she realized that she'd forgotten to even introduce herself before jumping straight to criticism--perhaps not her friendliest introduction ever, but what happened had happened. "I'm Lissa, by the way. I work here--" indicating towards the stables. She reached out a friendly hand towards the dog, looking at the small clay figure for a response.

[Nivel]

Nivel turned and looked up at her critic, The pycon was surprised but it only showed in the sudden jump of her ears. She turned back to her patron to see if she agreed and the masked women was quick to agree “The young women is right, I would have expected much better from someone who spends most of their day playing make believe games” Grey jabbed before properly addressing Lissa “Pleasure to meet you Lissa, I am Sera Grey Baxter, this is my Squire Nivel and her mount Patcha” “Thank you for the feed back Lissa” Nivel said hesitantly while still remaining cordial “I will work on a better story but I just need a moment to think.” Grey was right, Nivel did like to imagine things and she was told a guite few stories about the Syliran knights by her mother. Although pretending to be a vicious tiger or a giant 6 armed ape didn't seem like the same thing as telling an actual story and in Nivel's Nexus what she'd heard of the knights was fact not fiction. Nivel decided the best way for her to make a convincing story was to use one of the tales of the knights but spice it up with some her make believe creations. She though she would use one of her favourite stories about the knight Melna, a fearsome and honourable warrior that was the patron of Nivels mother before she died of old age. That gave Nivel her protagonist, but she needed to give her story conflict. Most of the stories that the young pycon was told involved Melna defeating bandit leaders and worshippers of a dark god but Nivels story needed something more interesting. The tiny Squire took a deep breath to calm herself and organize her thoughts before jumping into the story telling “There was once a tall Folk named Melna, she was a Knight well known for her...fighting and....Honourable nature. She defeated many smelly bandits, evil mages and worshippers of the dark that was until she met her match in the....” Nivel paused to think of a name for her new creature, her face wrinkled a bit in concentration “Hemrackalog...It was a bizzare creature made of...” she looked out into the distance at the green covering the landscape “..grass...no!...wait...rocks.. it was made of rocks, and while it had the torso of a regular tall folk it had the lower body of an earthworm and...it had the claws of a praying mantis...except they are made of steel...and..-” Nivel was interrupted by Grey who kindly told her to move on with the story. Nivel hung her head down in defeat and continued her story “The Hemrackalog was an indestructible force, it could burrow underground in the time it takes someone to take a breath and it's claws could cut through almost any metal. Many tried to defeat the beast but it was far to strong for them, their only hope was Melna who was the only one of the Knights that hadn't been gravely injured. She grabbed her spear and went out to destroy the creature...” Nivel stopped and her face wrinkled again “ I can't think of how to continue” They pycon admitted reluctantly. “Well you...stated a story” Grey said doing her best to be encouraging “and it was...interesting” The whole time Patcha was squirming impatiently under Nivel, The dog had no idea why they were telling stories instead of doing what they originally set out to do. She would occasionally put her front paw out and dangle it out in hopes that they would realize her intentions but they seemed far to distracted by their silly stories. The poor kelvics was also having a bit of social anxiety now that another stranger entered the picture and turned her face away form the new intruder in an effort to pretend she wasn't there and winced slightly every time Lissa started talking. In refusing to look at Lissa, Patcha failed to notice the humans out stretched hand.