The Wind Not Passing Through

by **Khida** on March 11th, 2015, 1:26 pm

Spring 3, 515 AV
before dawn

Khida dreamed of storm.

She dreamed the patter of rainfall against earth, layered rhythm impossible to split into anything so simple as beats. She dreamed the rumble of thunder in the distance, rolling in from the horizon like an unseen beast rushing past. She dreamed the insistent rush of wind, the whisper of urgency that heralded inclement weather; she dreamed the angry, clashing drafts that shared the sky willingly with none, smashing aside those foolhardy enough to dare their aerial paths.

Khida woke, and the roar remained.

Tentcloth rustled and fluttered, a loose cord-end thwapping intermittently against a post. Breezes ruffled through the falcon's feathers, tugging at their vanes, themselves soft of touch yet pulled in by a far greater maelstrom. Above, the dome of the sky progressed through shades of a clear dawn, heavy blue in the west, gold-brushed pale in the east.

Stormwinds raged, yet there was no storm.

She saw the horses, standing inward of the camp, their attention turned outwards. Ears pricked forward, tails swishing, she thought them to be cautious but not necessarily alarmed. Alarm would have included challenge, noise, impending action. The Kelvic turned to see what they watched, and saw... nothing.

A very active, noisy, forceful nothing.

Not so far from the camp as all that -- certainly not nearly as far as she would prefer! -- a broad swathe of young grass blades lay flattened against the earth. Just this side, more blades bent nearly double; they hardly even swayed, so constant was the rushing wind. Nearer still, the grass fluttered and flitted almost like little excited birds, teased to and fro in turn by gusts and eddies.

So small a space, to contain so much motion.

Most eerily of all, the path of the wind seemed to draw a curve across the grass. A vast and subtle arc, to be true, yet an arc nonetheless. An arc that bent inwards towards the city of tents... or perhaps around it. A great encircling that could not be seen, but whose intensity could very surely be felt.

It was incredible. It was impossible. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before, awesome and horrifying in turn. Falcon that she was, Khida found herself desperately wanting more shelter than feathers or tent might provide. A solid, secure place to take cover in.

Wind was just not supposed to do this.

Khida space Common | Pavi
other space Common | Pavi

by **Khida** on March 18th, 2015, 2:15 am

She waited.

She watched.

And still the wind blew.

It showed no signs of fading, no signs of lifting, no signs of steering from its bizarre course. Eventually -- after an eternity measured in mere chimes -- Khida provisionally accepted that it would not, that however strange the wind might be, it was not an immediate hazard to herself, her bondmate, or the camp. More to the point... even if it presented them some hazard, there wasn't a single thing she could do about so elemental a force.

She could attend to the horses, though, who seemed no happier than the Kelvic at the strange behavior of the wind. She descended to the earth and shifted, walking into the midst of the little herd. Drelah and Dainellas promptly bracketed her between them, accepting scratches and quiet murmurs as welcome companionship. It was hard to say whether they actually eased under her hands, or from the soothing sounds she offered; they still mostly oriented themselves to keep tabs on the flattened swathe of grass, still swished their tails with what she thought was the equine version of pensive watchfulness. Akaidras hung back a while, pretending aloof disinterest -- but even the stallion eventually admitted he wanted the reassurance of contact, too, and draped his neck across Drelah's back so Khida's fingers could scratch his coat.

The press of the horses helped offset the chill of the ever-moving air, but eventually Khida had to admit that her skin was growing cold. Extricating herself from the little herd, she ducked into the tent to assemble her clothes. Once she was garbed against the weather, Khida realized... if the wind encircled the city, if it was a barrier she could not pass -- and it certainly felt like one, a powerful current the falcon in her didn't even remotely wish to attempt -- there was no way she'd be going out hunting today. She'd have to do something else with herself, instead.

Did the wind truly encircle the city? Perhaps that was the first and most important question to answer.

So decided, Khida set off inwards, towards the center of Endrykas. She could listen there, and determine if anyone else had any clue what was going on. And if it came to that, she could head out the far side and find out if the wind curled around there, too.

Khida space Common | Pavi
other space Common | Pavi

by **Khida** on March 30th, 2015, 2:20 am

Khida walked past the inquisitive regards of horses and the pragmatic grazing of placid zibri, past dogs that barked nerves from the safety of distance and humans who spoke in hushed, wondering tones. She could not listen in easily on their conversations, and would not intrude upon their home ground -- not, at least, while she had the possibility of coming by information without disrupting anyone's territory.

In time, she caught the brighter, sharper tones of raised voices borne upon the wind. The Kelvic paused, turning to better pinpoint their origin. Following the sounds, snatches of syllables became whole words, and the broad shape of a pavilion emerged from the grass-shrouded horizon, complete with three people standing outside and gesticulating wildly. They were all nearly of an age, somewhere past puberty but not yet into their primes; one woman seemed slightly older, another somewhat younger, with the young man falling somewhere between.

"What do you mean, it was my turn today? I cleaned the yogurt sacks yesterday!"

"No you didn't! That was three days ago! That makes it your turn now!"

"I did so! It does not!"

They seemed alike enough to be siblings, or perhaps cousins, kin of some close degree -- and they bickered like such, too. But they were not bickering over any subject of interest to her. Khida retreated back the way she had come, slipping away without either her approach or departure having been noticed by the three.

As she continued on towards the heart of the city, the tents became more frequent and more closely placed, intermingling stakes and tether lines a hazard to anyone trying to traverse between. Khida kept herself to the main thoroughfare, a broad swathe of grass trampled by the passage of many feet -- hoofed and shod alike. Here, she found more people, and more conversations with them, pieces of which floated past her ears.

"Look what Kelsin did to his clothes! I should make him wash them!"

"Nettle leaves! I have fresh spring nettle leaves! New prairie onions!"

"I heard the Elders are all meeting down at the Stalk Meet. What do you think's going on?"

"Let me go get that boy, he's probably off playing with the dog again anyway."

The vendor with his cart, passing through to drum up sales; he wasn't interesting. The mother with her laundry, the boy and the dog who ran headlong past, giggling and yipping all the way; they had no insights for Khida. But the other snippet seemed intriguing -- something about people in a meeting, a tone of question and concern, wondering at events. That suggested a possibility for answers to her questions. The Stalk Meet, she knew to be the center of Endrykas... so she was going the right way, and the Kelvic needed only to keep going.

Which she did.

Khida space Common | Pavi
other space Common | Pavi

by **Khida** on April 15th, 2015, 1:28 pm

Seven great tents, a large central fire...

The Stalk Meet was a distinct place, unlike anywhere else in the city; there was no mistaking it, not even from the vantage of earthbound human eyes. The great pavilions around it were marked with ornate carvings, colored ribbons dancing in the wind, cords woven into veritable tapestries of knotwork. Seven wooden posts as tall as Khida herself, carved with a symbolism the Kelvic had spent little effort on trying to interpret, stood before each pavilion, fronting the clearing...

...a clearing entirely devoid of people.

Today, the venue presented a marked contrast with the Stalk Meet of Khida's prior experience, which was routinely full of Drykas with one sort of business or another from dawn until dusk. The clearing was empty, the fire burned fitfully, and the pavilion tents had their outer walls lowered, concealing their interiors from inquisitive and prying eyes. The mentioned meeting, she supposed, must be going on in one of the tents. Unless they were all gone elsewhere, and just left the tents closed -- in which case, where was something Khida couldn't begin to guess.

"Hsst! Come away from there!"

The Kelvic turned to find a Drykas woman peering around the corner of a tent, some flavor of concern shading her manner. As soon as she knew she had Khida's attention, the woman insistently waved her over. Curious, and hoping the woman would have some information she could share, Khida moved to join her, and followed as the woman began striding away.

"You don't want to interrupt," the woman elaborated as they walked, whispering in that way which seemed quiet, but wasn't really. "They say Semele is meeting with the elders. Zulrav, too. You might make them angry if you intrude. Then they'd curse you for sure!"

Caution, and meeting, and don't... well, Khida had not intended to intrude on their business anyway, so she was fine with leaving. The woman also spoke names, one which escaped her mental grasp, another that sparked recognition. Zulrav... What made it seem familiar? Not that it really mattered; whatever the elders did wasn't her concern. She just wanted to find out what was wrong with... with the wind...

Oh.

Oh.

Realization clicked in Khida's mind, and she stopped short, spinning on a heel to stare back towards the Stalk Meet. There were at least two other tents in the way, by now, which meant she could see nothing of the clearing at all. But she stared as if her gaze might pierce the intervening canvas.

A god. In a meeting?

A god, really truly walking in the world. In her world, where things were solid and real, not merely ephemeral constructions of words.

Khida knew about gods, inasmuch as they existed, inasmuch as it was good to win their favor and bad to gain their ire. But to know that she had possibly been separated from one by only a few paces and an opaque canvas wall...

It staggered the mind.

Khida space Common | Pavi
other space Common | Pavi

by **Khida** on April 16th, 2015, 3:27 pm

"It sure is something, isn't it?"

The woman's voice interrupted the stall of Khida's own thoughts, providing a ready impetus for her to bring them back together. The woman's tone conveyed sympathy underlain with something more profound, what the Kelvic thought might be impressed astonishment -- or awe. Khida turned back to face her, finding a rueful smile on the woman's face and a posture consistent with the shading of her voice. "But I hope they go soon, and take their wind with them. The herds need to graze, the outriders need to come in, and we all need to go out sometime."

Yes, Khida signed, the gesture sweeping and sharp and emphatic. "The wind is all?" she asked, seeking clarification in the admittedly vain hope that maybe, maybe the answer could still be no. "All places, all the city?"

The woman hesitated before responding, blinking at the Kelvic with what seemed to be surprise. When she did answer, it was with syllables carefully enunciated, her voice pitched a bit louder than it had been before, as if greater volume might compensate for any inadequacy of Khida's understanding. "Yes, the wind is all places -- all around Endrykas," she added at the last. "No one can go out or come in through it." She hesitated after that statement, glancing between Khida and the direction of the Stalk Meet as if she had something else to say, but wasn't quite willing to say it.

Probably, humans being humans, she was worried about being rude.

Khida guessed she was still concerned about the Kelvic possibly interrupting the meeting and angering the god -- or gods? had she implied there were more than one? -- in the meeting. I go, she gestured, hoping to put the woman at ease. A wave of her hand indicated the city beyond them. I go away.

Good, the woman signed, a most emphatic affirmation. She paused again, then added something along the lines of you do share well, or perhaps it was you speak well. Either way, it seemed to be a compliment, a phrase of positive intent. Khida nodded briefly towards her, then took her leave, walking back into the thick of the city.

A city cut off from the outside world, until the god of winds chose to release it. A god who very possibly stood in one of the tents behind Khida even now, physical and real.

As she walked on, winding her way between tents and around herds, she considered this. The idea of a god having power over winds was not so different from the humans she knew to have power over fire and water; that was simply a thing of magic. Gods -- if the words of the sun-man were to be believed -- lived in the sky or perhaps beyond the sky... somewhere that surely only magic could touch, for it was a place the falcon had never even glimpsed the edge of in all her days of flight. So gods were magic, was the straightforward conclusion... which fit with the many things they were supposed to know and see... but apparently they were also real as she considered magic not to be. Real enough to meet with the Drykas leaders -- or at least the god of winds was so.

What about other gods? What about the goddess who seemed most important to her daily affairs?

Did Caiyha walk where the land was wild? Was she real somewhere out there too?

Khida space Common | Pavi
other space Common | Pavi

by **Khida** on April 20th, 2015, 3:49 pm

Khida's forward motion stilled, her gaze turned towards the distance, her attention cast out into the untamed expanse of the Sea. Are you? she asked in the silence of her mind, framing the question to herself as much as to that unknown, abstract divinity.

If Caiyha was real in the wilds, and all the wilds were as her territory, would their paths someday cross?

That... was a somewhat daunting thought. Not frightening, precisely; but the Kelvic had no real expectation of what a god did in their domains and their divinity. As a god of hunters, of the Cycle named after her, was Caiya as a predator? That was a relationship Khida at least understood, although she would hope not to be seen as prey by such a one -- and if a god, great and powerful, were also predator, surely all others would be as prey if it so chose. Daunting to consider, indeed.

But if the god were otherwise, as outside simple predator and prey as the subtler aspects of Cyphrus life Khida had begun to explore... If not predator... then as the ants to aphids, as Drykas to cattle? Were the wilds to the goddess as pets, or livestock, or even children -- as the Drykas might consider Striders?

Did a god have family?

There was an even stranger thought, one which she might have to ask of the sun-man sometime. As for the other...

...it did not matter today, when Endrykas was severed from the wilds by a wall of wind. Besides, the wilds were a vast area to all be considered territory of one individual, even if that one were of that mysterious ilk called gods. Khida might live out her life entire and never cross Caiyha's trail. If she did -- if the goddess was real and dwelt in the wilds instead of the sky and her path crossed Khida's -- then the Kelvic would give the goddess the respect and caution due a territory holder. One of different kind, to be sure, but she did not have the foggiest idea whether a god might consider her sort competition or nuisance or just part of the background... or even prey. But that too could be determined if it needed to be, when it needed to be -- just as she had learned where she stood with glassbeaks and bat-beasts and other creatures of the Sea.

That resolution put her on somewhat more comfortable mental ground -- at least she had a tentative place in her worldview for interactions with a god. One that did not need to be more definite, here and now, because it was a potential that might never be realized. In the meantime...

In the meantime, she could not go out to hunt. She had little to do in Endrykas itself... except, perhaps, to follow up with one of her own family. Thoughtfully, Khida touched the mark on her neck, both the same and yet different after yesterday's exchange. An exchange after which the Drykas woman, their wife, had chosen to return to her other family. Something which even in the day after struck the Kelvic as odd; didn't she belong with them, now?

Since Khida was already here, in the midst of the city, that was what she would turn her attention to: finding the newest addition to their kinship, and comprehending what had been so important as to draw her away. Accordingly, she oriented herself on the sun and the proximity of the Stalk Meet, considering where she had seen the Nightsongs establish their pavilion most recently... and set off in that direction, leaving gods and the troublesome quandaries they evoked behind -- if only for the time being.

Khida space Common | Pavi
other space Common | Pavi

by **Ssezzkero** on May 12th, 2015, 1:46 pm

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Completed The Wind Not Passing Through