Closed Fit for an Eagle Princess(Azira)

[Drusilla]

"Really? You don't like birds? I would of never guessed! I understand the whole focus thing, sewing does than for me in a way. It let you take your anger out as well in a safe manner. It gave you freedom. I get it. As odd as it sounds I understand." It made sense if one thought about it, a women with pent up anger would make a deadly hunter. "I'm sure you have some amazing hunting stories! I'd love to hear some of them sometime. If you wouldn't mind...Also if you ever go after any Zith, let me know and I'll give you something that will give them the worst death." Drusilla smiled "The tie ones certainly are popular. I worry for the strapless ones, a wrong move and..." She made a motion of one's breast spilling out. "I've always found the tie ones to be more to my liking. They look the best in my opinion. I saw a leather under bust one with fabric on the top part of the bust. It was a simple design but it was nice, you know. A few beads here and there are okay. But I've seen some so gaudy! But then, yes we'll use a tie back design. Is the neckline of that vinati your wearing work for the dress as well?" "Well..." Drusilla made a face. "Most Symenestra wear something call 'wraps' just like it sounds we wrap ourselves in cloth. I wear them too, under this dress. The dress is kinda to hide them, make me look more normal to you guys. Here I'll show you." She pulled up her dress showing her fabric wrapped legs. "See? Our bones are hollow making us very light and that might be a thing that let's us climb walls. What breaks a human bone, shatters mine. So I thank you for not hitting me upside the head, you might of killed me." Drusilla gave a nervous laugh. "I'm not as bad as those in Kalinor, they avoid crowds. The dance floor at The Weather they see a deathtrap. It's why we fight at range, never at close combat. The only strong thing we have is our nails." She showed Azira her long claws.

[Azira]

The teen shuffled her feet. "It's not that I don't like birds, we just don't really get on. They get a bit... upset, I suppose when I'm around them so I haven't really tried interacting with them too much. They're nice, I guess and maybe I can try again at some stage," she explained to the spider. She didn't want the woman getting the wrong idea about her. Azira was an Inarta after all; they liked their birds. She couldn't understand how the Symenestra could channel anger into sewing--or what she had to be angry at--but if the woman said that it worked for her then it probably did. She shrugged at the mention of stories. She had a few she supposed. That incident with the bear, which was probably more embarrassing than anything else, the time she killed the boar, the stag hunt with Erade but not much more interesting than that. There was the Blue Elk but that hadn't been real or at least it hadn't seemed to be. A Zith was something that she'd heard of but knew nothing about. She nodded rather than asking what it was. No point admitting ignorance.

The other woman was in seamstress mode, commenting on the styles that were popular and vinati that she had seen. Her miming made Azira flush. It hadn't been necessary for the woman to draw attention to something that could have been left in her head. It didn't matter that they'd both come to the same conclusion, the huntress wasn't comfortable around such topics. They weren't something that she liked to come into everyday conversation. She tried to work around her embarrassment and focus on everything else that the woman was saying. An unconscious glance downwards that quickly returned to Drusilla. She cleared her throat. "Um, yes. I'm sure that a similar neckline would be just fine."

The huntress was ready to die of embarrassment as the seamstress made to pull up her dress, imagining the hem going up further than it did. She made a noise that could have conveyed interest, or an "I see" although she was more concerned with battering down the thoughts that had arisen from her assumption. Bones. She was focusing on bones. Apparently Symenestra were very fragile, a fact that perhaps many people didn't know. It worried her that she could have killed the woman though. If she'd slammed her fist into the woman's face as she'd intended, she could have rammed sections of skull inwards. Her skull was obviously easier to break than the norm and considering that a well aimed punch could crack an orbital socket, it wasn't pleasant to imagine just how much damage she would have done. The Symenestra would have been dead for sure.

"I'm sorry. I hadn't realised." The Avora hadn't actually gone through with anything but that didn't stop her from feeling guilty. She didn't dislike the woman enough to want her dead and she wanted to try to get that fact across to the seamstress. She gazed at the woman's nails, more claw really than the brittle, bitten things at the ends of Azira's own fingers. "They're quite long, aren't they?" She winced. Well done. State the obvious, she thought, groaning internally.

x

[Drusilla]

"Maybe they pick up on your uneasiness and get flustered? I could see you with a Condor or a Hawk. I'm more for Corvids, myself. Like Scissor-tail Magpies! But I think I'd have to start with a Cape Crow first or a Ground Raven, besides I'm not sure if the birds would take to me.. I've handled bats before as a kid...One of the few pets you can have in a cave. But bird are something entirely different." Drusilla mused. Could she teach a bird, being what she was? Did the birds even care what you were? Wind Eagles did, so why shouldn't smaller birds too? Maybe she could find one more accepting of her appearance and race. Returning to the dress project Drusilla nodded, "So can I use the basic design of that Vinati you're wearing? The colors and decorations will differ though. Speaking of which, would you like beads or feathers or? Also do you have a preference for a focal point? Normally I'd put it on the side of the top where the strap meets the front, right here. Or at the hip, around here. I could bead the hem... There are so many possibilities. It's just up to you and what you want." She had begun drawing again hoping this time she was more on target with what Azira wanted. She looked to the sewing dummy wearing a half finished shell of a vinati. Drusilla waved off Azira's apology, "It's fine, really it is." Drusilla smiled honestly. Had she been punched, she'd of died. But that was a chance she took. "It takes us about ten years to grow our claws out like this. They're a pain to file, they're extremely strong. I've etched in stone with them. Supposedly they rival diamonds in hardness. I've always found them pretty."

[Azira]

The teen shrugged. She didn't know why birds had always reacted to her the way they had. They were intelligent creatures, they could pick up on things. It probably didn't help that she associated interaction with the creatures with her Yasihood. She had never been near a bird without hearing taunts ringing in her ears, even when the speakers weren't there to say them anymore. Her memory provided them whenever she thought too hard about it, the lingering emotions associated with such words stayed with her even when she didn't think. Drusilla could well be right although not necessarily for the reasons she was thinking. The birds didn't make her uneasy, what had been said to her concerning them was probably the source.

"It's probably because I'm a Wind Eagle!" It was a halfhearted joke, the laughter accompanying it hollow. She glanced away from the Symenestra, not willing to show that the birds she'd just voiced were actually in someway hurtful to the huntress. The woman might not be aware of the Inarta superstition and she certainly wasn't going to know that that superstition had been used against her. "No Wind Eagle will bond with you, Eagle Eyes. They don't let other Wind Eagles be their riders." She doubted that the seamstress would pry that much so there was no chance of her revealing that fact. It was bad enough that she'd allowed the woman know that she had been bullied but it would be worse if she went into detail about it. Further detail anyway.

"I think that a hawk would be handy. For hunting, you know. I don't know how choosy birds are though. If you get one young and feed it then I suppose it'd take to anybody, even a Symenestra." A faint smile found its way to Azira's lips, trying to provide the Chiet with some sense that she'd meant what she said. "What are bats like? I've seen a drawing or two of them but they looked sort of strange. Do they make good pets?"

Regardless of what topic they branched out into the woman always came back to the dress. True, it was the only reason that Azira was here but that didn't mean that she wanted to spend an age thinking about the thing, planning it and everything that Drusilla wanted to do. If she'd known that it would mean so much hassle, she wouldn't have accepted the spider's deal. It was too late to go back now though. "Sure, whatever you think." She couldn't bring herself to enter the same state of enthusiasm as the other but she still had to give her answers. "Focal point? You mean a place to draw someone's eye to?" The teen bit her lip considering. She didn't want to draw attention to her bust so anything above her waistline was probably a bad idea. "What about something around the waist? Something like feathers. Not at the hip but not in the centre. Maybe a little off-centre so that it's noticeable but not to perfect."

The girl laughed lightly. She was beginning to get into this now herself. She took paper and charcoal again, despite the disaster her first attempt at drawing had been, and set about sketching. As she drew, she continued the conversation. "Don't your nails get in the way of you doing things? How can you sew with them, how can you grip small things? I don't get it. They look... cumbersome." She wasn't sure if Drusilla was watching the movements of the charcoal or not but she tried not to feel too self-conscious. It took a few attempts to even vaguely copy the image in her mind's eye, each new attempt begun on a new section of paper until it was filled with lots of little lines.

The vinati shape was drawn again, the lines that made up the shape a little less wobbly this time. She added the straps, crossing them behind an imaginary neck so that it formed an X shape. The teen hadn't really meant to do that but now she could imagine the straps crossing before they went around her neck. She moved down the drawing until she reached the point where a vinati would normally end above the navel although it was now the waistline. The teen paused, trying to work out how to attach the bottom part. She decided that the seamstress could do with that. She just continued the line down from the side of the vinati, bringing it straight down and then drawing a curved line at the bottom before bringing it upwards and joining it to the vinati on the other side. The line that separated the vinati shape and the shape that didn't quite resemble a bryda formed a kind of belt around the waist. She scribbled below the line and a little to the left of the centre of it.

She turned her pathetic drawing so that Drusilla could get a good view of it, trying not to look at the Symenestra's better sketches as she set about explaining her idea for the front of her dress. "Okay so I thought that you could have these straps crossing over and then going behind the neck and that scribble is supposed to be a feather at the waist but... we've already established that I'm not good at drawing. And I don't know how the waist thing is supposed to work either so I thought that you might work that out."

x

[Drusilla]

Drusilla smiled and curtsied,"Well it's an honor to do your sewing Miss Wind Eagle, Mi'lady." She stopped, "That's right! Don't the Inarta believe if you have gold eyes you were a Wind Eagle in your past life! You know Symenestra can have gold eyes too? My whole family has my dad's gold eyes." Drusilla made an unsure face, "You really think so? Birds are so smart... I feel like they'd just know I ways different... I'm always the odd one out. I stand out here because of what I am AND in Kalinor my feelings towards the surrogates is viewed as extremely radical." She smiled, "But I'm glad I have my views, I'm proud of them." Picking up a piece of charcoal, Drusilla did a quick sketch of a bat, "They vary in size... But most in Kalinor are about this size or at least the one's we caught as kids. They're small and warm...kinda fuzzy... and they squeak! They're not scary like most people think. They eat bugs mainly. They made okay pets. If I visit Kalinor anytime soon maybe I'll try and get one for you... I preferred the Ranekissra, silk moths the size of sparrows!" Drusilla was a tad shocked when Azira took her idea book and began to draw, but she was happy that the teen was excited. "I've had my claws all my life so I guess I'm just use to them. I'd have a hard time without them as I don't know to do anything without them. I hold things with the tips of my nails I don't really use my fingertips." She nodded to the teen, "It sounds doable, and if something isn't I'll get it as close as I can! If I use a different color for accent does a red work?" She looked over the drawing.

[Azira]

She should have realised that Drusilla would get what she was on about, the seamstress lived in Wind Reach long enough after all. The woman obviously took it as a joke at first, even going so far as to curtsy to the huntress. Yes, the girl had been a Wind Eagle in a past life or so the myth said. It interested her the Symenestra could also have gold eyes, although the spider's wording suggested that everyone in her family had been golden eyed except for herself and her mother. Interesting. So was purple an unusual eye colour for a Symenestra to possess? "Your eyes aren't gold. Is purple unusual, or common?" The question couldn't be helped really, the eagerness to learn once again taking over the Avora. The insights that the Sym was giving her were interesting after all so why not probe her for a few more.

Birds the seamstress was unsure of, afraid that they would see her as different. They were intelligent but that didn't mean that they had to mind who owned them. As long as that owner was good to them, what would the problem be? Wind Eagles were an entirely different kettle of fish though. They didn't often bond with outsiders, preferring to stick with those who had some Inarta blood. It was probably because the Inarta were as much a part of the birds as the birds were of them. "I don't think that birds in general would be that picky but being honest I'm not exactly going to know. Wind Eagles are different. They usually bond with Inarta because... I think they seek something that's missing and we have it. I don't know what. Maybe it's a past life thing. Maybe those outsiders that bond with them were Inarta in the past, always seeking to come home, to become whole." She blinked. She had no idea where that concept had come from. It had just arrived in her brain from nowhere and reached at her lips just as suddenly. The Symenestra would think that she was full of shyke now.

At least what Drusilla talked about was a more real. Bats, silk moths, even the use of her claws. What Azira had said was nonsense. Well... the bit about getting the huntress a bat as a pet was a bit nonsensical but the seamstress obviously meant well, trying to find a replacement for the birds that were the common pet in Wind Reach. "Can I use a bat to hunt with?" she asked, a light laugh accompanying her words. There would be no point having such a creature just for company. It seemed a bit pathetic. If it had a purpose then it wouldn't seem as bad. Not that she had a problem with company, she'd just prefer good human company to that of a mute creature.

The spider wasn't overly enthusiastic about her idea but she didn't shoot it down straight away either. She seemed willing to make it work so even in spite of Azira's poor design and drawing skills, it could still come to fruition. She had no idea what the woman meant by an accent though. "Sure, red will work," the teen replied, nodding enthusiastically at the idea. No need for Drusilla to know that she hadn't the foggiest idea what she was going on about now. Let the woman work out herself, she was doing it anyway.

x

[Drusilla]

"Light colored hair and eyes are more recessive, so in a way they are somewhat rare. It goes gold, red, then purple. The same with hair black to grey to ash to white. The reason everyone has my Father's eyes is because his genes dominated over the surrogates' genes, giving them his jet black hair and gold eyes. Papa always told me I looked just like my mother, Sernillia." She grinned. "He called her Serni for short." Her mind drifted to thoughts of her parents are teenagers, happily goofing off and flirting without a care in the world. They were made up memories she knew, but she hoped deep down that these fictions were somewhat true. Her father had made it sound like her mother had been the center of his world, his shining star. But just as her mother had been a beautiful star in the cosmos, another woman this one a black hole was waiting for tragedy nearby. Drusilla looked at Azira, "Wait, outsiders have bonded with the eagles before? I never knew that... I assumed one had to have the fiery blood of an Inarta for one to even consider you. I mean I've rode passenger on Aponivi, Turrin's eagle... He's nice, but I assumed it was because Turrin and I are close and that it was more tolerating me for his rider's sake..." Stopping to think, Aponivi always seemed to greet her even allowing her to hug the large bird and coo over him. The rest of what Azira said seemed deep, "You could be right, them seeking out something they lack. Do you think and be honest, do you think I could of been Inarta once? I mean I was practicality led here by Inarta... Maybe I just want to be one in the past..." She looked down. She paused and thought about the question. Could one hunt with a bat? Drusilla had never thought about it? "I'm not sure... But if anyone could teach one to hunt, I'm sure it would be you! It would be more for caves but I'm sure you could gradually take it out into the open. They do like to chatter or the one's kept as pets did." Drusilla mused they made cute noises in her opinion. "Okay red it is!"

[Azira]

A seemingly simple question didn't receive an equally simple answer. Drusilla had to launch into an explanation of the traits that Symenestra could have and why. Her mouth hung slightly open as the information just kept coming. It seemed that the seamstress had a tendency of rambling if she was given her head. Azira didn't have the slightest idea how the woman could be stopped so just let her continue, reasoning that this gene talk would end eventually. The explanation ended sooner than she expected and she was left scrambling for something to say, some comment to show that she had listened. How did one show interest. "Oh. That's nice." Her eyes closed and she repressed a groan. What was that even supposed to mean? It's nice that you have recessive traits? It's nice that you look like your mother? It had just come out and hopefully the woman would take it on some positive sense rather than thinking that the huntress was just strange. Thankfully the woman seemed distracted by what she'd said about the Wind Eagles.

"They do bond with outsiders, yeah. Not often but it happens." The girl scrutinised Drusilla, wondering. Was the woman interested in the prospect of bonding with one herself? While it was a nice idea in theory, it probably wasn't something that was likely to come to pass. Still if she wanted to dream, let her. "Turrin's an outsider. He carries some Inarta blood but not all. He wouldn't be considered truly one of us. If you're born here and you look wrong for an Inarta, the wrong coloured hair for instance, then you'd almost be considered an outsider. That's what the throwbacks are, outside of what's normal." The teen filed away a certain piece of information that Drusilla had let slip. The spider and the barbarian were close. Now she wondered what close could mean. She thought that she'd heard that an Endal had taken a Symenestra for a lover but it had seemed like rumour. What if it wasn't? Now that she thought on it, she'd seen the pair together when the Valintar had made his announcement about the measures that would come into effect in Winter. She hadn't thought anything odd about it, had hardly registered it with everything else that was going on at the time but now... Was there something between them? Were they together? The teen wasn't going to ask or anything so it was to remain a mystery until she heard or saw anything that would confirm or go against her suspicions.

The huntress wasn't the only one musing as she realised when she gave her full attention back to the conversation at hand. "What? Oh, I don't know. I don't understand the past life thing at all. I could have been anything in a past life. If it's possible I was an eagle then I could have just as easily have been a Symenestra or a Kelvic. I can't see why you can't have been an Inarta in a past life but then I'm not anything approaching an expert on the subject." Maybe it was something that she could try to look into though, she thought as she flashed a small smile in the Sym's direction. Who would know such things was a wonder though. Someone religious, someone who understood something of the gods. She assumed that it was them that were in charge of such things after all, or one of them in the very least. Perhaps something that she'd done in a past life was being paid for in this one as well. It'd certainly explain her bad luck. It was a thought for another time, one that she might be able to put to someone at some future date.

The Avora wondered why the seamstress seemed to have such confidence in her abilities. She'd never seen how she interacted with creatures so how could she believe that the girl could train a bat to hunt? The extent of her interaction with anything alive was to shoot it or harm it in some way, or to treat it with a certain degree of wariness; that meant people were included. A shake of the head, incredulity in her expression. "You really think that I could train a bat? I doubt it. Wouldn't have the patience or the know how. The people who train birds might have a better idea although birds and bats aren't the same thing. They'd be better off trying than I would," she explained, watching the woman closely to see if the comment had in fact been in jest. She didn't think so but then how could she know for sure?

The teen couldn't make head nor tail of the woman but the feeling might be mutual. Was there a way for her to be subtle in her information gathering so that the woman wouldn't realise how ignorant she was about this accent thing? The girl could only try and hope that her fishing wouldn't be recognised for what it was. "So this red accent... how's that going to work out? Just so I have an idea of what the dress is going to look like. Give me an example of what you want to use it for." She tried to keep her tone one of casual inquiry, being careful not to show too much interest and perhaps give away her hunger for the information. If she could get that much out if the woman then she might be able to determine what an accent was and hence fill the gap in her knowledge.

x

[Drusilla]

Drusilla let the teen's comment go. She seemed like she was thinking about something. She was tempted to ask what was on the teen's mind,but decided it better not to ask. The teen was probably thinking of all the other places she could of been rather than here. Drusilla looked over Azira's sketch, she was pretty sure she could make it work. Tearing out the page Drusilla set the page next to the new page, carefully transferring each major feature and worked down to the tiny details. "Yes, I can make this work...." The Symenestra said tracing the picture with her finger. The possibilities were endless in her mind. She unpinned the fabric on the dummy. Looking over the dummy's curves. It was almost a perfect match to Azira's. Moving back to her work area she began making a pattern for the dress using the dummy's measurements. Various measurement tools were scattered about her desk. Every line had to be perfect. The pattern was of a strapless dress with a lovely twirly bottom. A second pattern was added the skirt's underskirt. Or to the one wearing the dress a pair of cleverly disguised Bryda. Once again the lines had to be perfect. "So you view Turrin as an outsider? In Symenestra terminology he's a Dra, a half. But he still has Inarta blood. Dra are viewed as lesser because they taint a limited gene pool, but they aren't really considered outsiders." Drusilla stopped for a moment thinking, "So in your eyes, Turrin is as much of an outsider as I am?" Drusilla gave a chuckle "You guys sure are sticklers for looks... However if you continue to breed amongst yourselves the chances of your child becoming a dek will increase, due to inbreeding. The Inarta may be facing a fate much like the Symenestra a diminishing gene pool. Outsiders are needed if the Inarta race wishes to stay strong and widen the gene pool. Or that's how this outsider sees it." Drusilla glanced up for a tick. It was a pretty good bet she had angered the teen. Drusilla smiled, "It would be nice if I had been one, but I must of done something awful in my past life being born what I am. Maybe you were an Eagle Kelvic?" Another strange thought crossed her mind. "Do you think we may have known one another in the last life? Like everyone we know, we've always known in each life. Maybe our names and faces just change..." Drusilla trailed off. Suddenly a giggle came from the seamstress, "Humor me Azira. Maybe we were Eagle and rider! Maybe we did amazing things that are hidden away in old books!" Drusilla giggled again."I know it's highly unlikely, but wouldn't it be something if it were true?..." Carefully cutting out the dress pattern Drusilla shrugged, "You'll never know unless you try and if it didn't work out I could always just keep the bat as a pet. I like the little noises they make. People give them a bad reputation they really are sweet. I honestly think if one put the effort in to training ANYTHING, it can be trained even a fish. So it's more of would you train it than could you." She had moved to the second pattern, "Oh you know like using red beads instead of gold because the red would stand out more. Or something like that red feathers."

[Azira]

The seamstress was becoming more and more absorbed in her work and the teen wondered if it might not be better to withdraw and leave her to it. The dress, its design and creation, were likely to take over the other woman and she doubted that Drusilla would be interested in their conversation continuing. Despite the preoccupation in the woman's manner, she seemed willing and able to continue the conversation even as she busied herself with different things, sketching, unpinning fabric. It was interesting to watch her at work, the same fervour in her gaze that had often been in Azira's when she hunted or used her bow. She hadn't imagined that such an occupation could ignite such passion within someone. Her eyes followed the other's every movement as they talked.

Her head shook backwards and forwards in answer to Drusilla's questions. "He's not an outsider because of his blood. He's an outsider because he wasn't born here, didn't grow up here. He's not pure Inarta either so he isn't really considered a throwback." The fact that the spider was giving advice on keeping the Inarta going as a race made the teen snort with laughter, head shaking in disbelief. "We've no problems with outsiders. They come, we give them work, they become one with us. There's many a Svefra that's wandered into the city and caught someone's eye. Then you end up with halves. That's just one example. We aren't against outsiders or their blood. They're still outsiders though. That's all I'm saying." The young woman wasn't trying to say that outsiders were somehow inferior to the Inarta. They were just markedly different from the natural heirs to the volcanic mountain. It was something that was to be acknowledged, their difference and uniqueness. There were few of them in the city compared to the large volume of redheads after all so they were going to stick out anyway. Drusilla did after all so why not others?

The teen shrugged. "There aren't that many outsiders that wander in here either you know. What are we supposed to do? Queue up behind them to sire children on them, or with them?" The girl snorted. It was far from practical and the Inarta weren't like the Symenestra either. They were free lovers. They weren't going to come up with some logical plan for reproduction. They were too passionate for such things.

Her eyebrows rose at the woman's comment about having done something wrong. "That doesn't have to be so. Maybe you have to be one race or another at some stage and this time around you had to be a Symenestra. If you'd done something wrong then you'd be a monster this time around but you aren't. You didn't agree with being one, turned against it." It was just a thought. It probably didn't have any grounding but it might make Drusilla feel better about herself. The huntress knew that people who felt good about themselves were less likely to turn on her. It was something that she sometimes went to the effort of doing although less these days than she had in the past. She supposed that the other woman was worth the effort though. There was only so far that she was willing to go however.

"You were my rider? Sorry but I can't humour you on that. Although if that superstition is true then I would have had a rider, which is a weird thought. Maybe there are people that I know from past lives but I doubt that they're here somehow." The huntress had never felt that there was anyone who was in any way familiar to her but then how much would she be able to know about her past lives? The teen had no idea. She watched Drusilla as she cut, wondering how such a thought had occurred to the woman. There were plenty of things that she'd said herself that seemed to have come out of nowhere as well so maybe something similar had happened to the Chiet. Apparently it could just pop into her head if she thought about it or maybe she'd already been having thoughts along that line without letting herself know anything about it.

Laughter erupted from the girl and her hand clapped over her mouth belatedly. She bit her lip, trying to reconstruct some of the guard that had crumbled so abruptly. She couldn't necessarily trust Drusilla yet so she tried to regain some measure of aloofness. "I don't think anyone sane would train a fish, Drusilla. A bat, maybe but not a fish. Doubt I'd have the patience for training a bat though. Wouldn't be worth the effort." The girl watched the spider for a moment as she went about her work, nodding at the accents explanation. Maybe she should escape while she could, the woman was busy after all. Would now not be better than later? She might risk letting her guard down after all and that would no doubt be bad.

"Do you want me to go?"

x