Text
"Snake-tongue"
"Common tongue"
Internal thoughts
Sisas had spent his afternoon working more on his part of the deal - not the deal that he had with Fiachra, but the deal he had with his acquaintance. This included striking up short conversations with passersby, slipping in the occasional question about the places he was interested in. Sisas was no spymaster, however, and he knew that when he was looking for information, he had a tendency to not be terribly subtle. It went against what most people thought of snakes, but those were the ordinary snakes, not the Dhani. The Dhani were part human, and much smarter than ordinary snakes. The only thing they had in common was a form, but even that was a just a superficial resemblance.
Since the Dhani knew his own shortcomings - or at least, what others would consider shortcomings - he made sure to stay conscious of his information gathering efforts, trying his best to read targets quickly and accurately so as not to arouse too much suspicion; when he saw the beginning of suspicion start to creep across their faces, Sisas often diverted the conversation away from the topic he truly wanted to know about, or even sometimes cut off the conversation all together when the person he was speaking to became more suspicious than he would like.
When the Dhani was finished with his conversations, he retreated to Tent City, locating his own tent and making sure that everything was still in place before he settled back into it, Rikit following on his heels. The Dhani took out a wooden brush, holding it up for the dog's inspection. Rikit sniffed it, and then, when his tail wagged, Sisas smiled; Rikit had been sold to him already knowing several commands, both verbal and gestural. It was time to test out an idea. Holding out one hand, Sisas closed all but his index finger, so that his palm was facing towards Rikit with just the one finger left standing - the signal for 'sit.' At the same time, Sisas added the verbal command; but this time, instead of speaking in Common, he spoke in snake-tongue: "Sssit."
Rikit obeyed immediately, although Sisas suspected that was more on account of the gesture than the word. Nonetheless he immediately praised the dog, giving him a scratch and fussing over him for a moment. The dog accepted the attention easily, tongue lolling, and when Sisas pulls back, he shakes his head fondly. Dhani weren't known for their attachments to anything or anyone other than their nests; but Sisas didn't have a nest, not right now. All he had in terms of companionship was Rikit. He couldn't be blamed for getting a little bit attached, especially not when he was attached to such a useful creature.
Raising the brush again, Sisas set to work grooming Rikit; he'd heard that grooming was an important bonding process, as well as feeding. If he wished to cement Rikit's loyalty to him, then he needed to bond with the dog. Ergo, grooming. The bristles on the brush weren't the best, they were fairly scratchy, but Rikit seemed to enjoy the sensations, if the way he pressed harder against the brush as Sisas ran it through his fur was any indication. When Sisas was finished, he had almost enough hair to create another dog. The Dhani makes a face as he finishes brushing Rikit, getting out the last few stray hairs, and when the dog flops to the ground with a satisfied huff, Sisas opens the tent flap and sweeps all of the fur outside to be blown about by the wind.
As he's sweeping the fur out, Sisas makes note of the time; it's nearly half a bell before he has to meet Fiachra, and he still has to shift and find a way to the roof of the building that won't give away a seven-foot-long snake. Sisas turns back to Rikit, who's watching him through half-closed eyes. Holding out one hand with the palm facing towards Rikit, Sisas orders, "Ssstay." Rikit huffs again, eyes sliding closed, and Sisas rolls his. He knows, however, that the dog will stay with the tent, and should anyone try to break in to mess with Sisas's things, Rikit will handle them. "Good boy," the Dhani adds for good measure; Rikit just opens one eye to peer at Sisas before closing it and sighing. Shaking his head, Sisas leaves the tent.
It takes him nearly a quarter of a bell to reach the Drunken Fish, and another few chimes to figure out his path up to the top of the building. My best bet is to go up the back of the building, Sisas muses. There's trees and other buildings to use for cover, and plenty of rough spots for scales to grab. Satisfied with his plan, the Dhani slips into the bushes behind the Drunken Fish, and, checking to make sure that no one will spot him, crouches down and begins to shift.
The shift is, as always, painless, though it's not instantaneous like a Kelvic's. It takes Sisas half a chime to complete the shift, pulling muscles and bones in and rearranging them, exchanging hair and skin for rough scales that can puff out when agitated to make himself appear bigger. When the shift is complete, Sisas no longer sees the world in color, but rather in tones of grey pockmarked with little spots of heat. Tongue flickering, the viper makes his way through the brush as carefully as possible before lifting himself up and beginning to climb the building.
Building-climbing while in full shift isn't his favorite thing - and it's made more complicated by the small bundle of coins in a rag that he needs to carry curled in the tip of his tail(taking a page from Fiachra's book, so to speak), but the Dhani is even worse at climbing while fully human, where he doesn't have the advantage of scales to interact with the building's walls and do most of the gripping for him. Sisas is careful about his route, doing his best to pick a path that leaves him unseen, yet offers him the best points to climb. He rests briefly against one windowsill, the top half of his body curled up slightly, and when he's regained his breath, the viper continues on until he can slither over the top of the building and onto the flat roof. There are remnants of the day's heat on the material, and Sisas pauses for a moment, looking around; he spots a shape that looks like a blob of heat on two sticks of smaller heat, one clutching and cold object, and guesses that it's Fiachra. Satisfied that there is no one else around, the Dhani hauls himself fully onto the building, moving away from the edge before he shifts back to human, groaning when he's resettled in the bulkier form.
"There," Sisas says, extremely satisfied with himself. "I told you that I could meet you anywhere in Sssunberth."
