Rituals, [I]

[Allassanachassanya]

25th Autumn, 516 AV
Early morning
"Speech"

Today was the first time Ssanya was stepping foot outside the walls of Alvadas. At least, it was her plan. The city had transformed itself quite spectacularly just five days ago, into old, twisting spires of austere buildings, with looming gargoyles, columns and stonework. The city would look quite daunting, except for the fact that every tile and every stone was coated and covered, shimmering all over with reflective prisms of light. Each and every surface looked like a magnificent confection of glass and colours.

Ssanya was almost blinded as she stepped outside, her eyes assaulted with a reflection coming from the building opposite the Wolf's Cave. Breakfast had been warm porridge, quite satisfying to a cold snake lady. Now she was stepping out into the day, cloak wrapped around her shoulders, bag slung over one shoulder, empty except for a full waterskin. She was going to go hunting. After all, she needed something to practice her magic on, right?

The woman walked briskly through the streets, her boots thudding softly on the cobbles beneath her feet. In a way, she wished she could have left the trappings of humankind behind today, and ventured forth dressed in her Dhani form. Yet, she was still wary of the city she lived in. She'd seen many strange illusions, but she didn't know if people knew what were illusions or not. She'd rather not get caught out pretending to be an illusion if she weren't.

So, she walked without direction until someone was willing to point her towards the Sanity Centre, and by association towards the Gaping Maw. Today was a day for hunting her prey. She pondered as she walked, wondering what to catch herself. She was most used to rabbits, and decided if there were such a creature in these parts (which she was sure there would be), that she would get one of those.

She quickly strode through the Gaping Maw, and surveyed her surroundings. There was scuffed earth beneath her feet, the obvious signs of foot traffic from the gates. The landscape pushed out in front of her, and not too many feet from the gates there seemed to be a perfect spot for finding her prey. Now all she needed to do was get out of her clothes and shift into her snake form. She almost shivered with delight. There was something so very wonderful about being a snake out in the open. It got tiresome, sometimes, to coop herself up in her room whilst in snake form. She was sure it wasn't good for her.

[Allassanachassanya]

"Speech"
"Others"

With pronounced happiness, Ssanya found a stunted tree upon which to rest her belongings, and began to strip in the brisk air of the outside. She shivered slightly as her warm clothes slumped onto the floor, but quickly began to shift into her snake form. It was a difficult process to describe to anyone, a feeling of retraction but also one of growing. A mere chime later and Ssanya was feeling the dirt under her scales as she began slithering through the undergrowth.

The world seemed very different from down here, but she soon grew used to it as she marvelled at the soft sway of grass against her sides and the sounds and vibrations against her body. Now all she had to do was find her prey. She slid her body along the ground, avoiding any large bits of gravel that would surely damage her rattle. Yet she headed for protected ground as soon as she could, looking for rocks that she could travel under. The threat of predation had been drummed into her at a very young age, and the sands of Eyktol had proven to be the perfect place to learn of the circles of life and death. The death of her brother Yisess, eaten by a hawk at 41, was a reminder never to be careless.

Ssanya flickered her tongue in the air, feeling for prey. To her right lay a burrow. She stilled, and looked at it warily. It seemed to be in use, and it was the approximate size of a rabbit burrow. The earth outside of the hole was disturbed and the rich stench of droppings pervaded the air. Apparently, she was in luck. With a slow and steady movement, she approached the hole, her senses on high alert. The ground seemed still, but you never knew. Rabbits were a somewhat predictable species, but as she continued down the hole, she hoped that these particular rabbits would fall under the same predictability and not turn out to be some other kind of prey that she wasn't prepared for.

It was dark in the tunnel, full of scents of rabbit and earth. It was cold, too. Ssanya would be glad to eat the animal to benefit from its warm blood, but her ulterior motives prevented her from doing so. Feeling slightly disappointed that she would have to use conventional methods of getting warm, instead she tracked the scent of the rabbit, her tongue gently flickering in the air and her eyes tracing the faint heat signature up ahead. Soon enough, the tunnel branched out into a larger space, with roots hanging from the ceiling. In one corner was a ragged shape of rapidly breathing fur and flesh: her rabbit. Ssanya stilled, and surveyed the surrounding burrow. If there were any others nearby, she didn't want them panicking and disrupting her prey. Then, as the coast was clear, she slithered closer, and...

She darted forwards, and lunged. Her fangs sprung down, and she bit into the rabbit's neck, savouring the slight scent of blood as she penetrated its skin. The venom poured into the creature, and it twitched and kicked as it awoke to its death. Ssanya hung on, wrapping her body around the rabbit and biting deeper into its neck until finally the creature died. The process was simple, but she had been lucky in that there were no other rabbits in the vicinity. She strongly suspected that the other animals in the burrow had either died or been eaten.

[Allassanachassanya]

"Speech"
"Others"

It was hefty, difficult work trying to drag the rabbit out of its lair. The process would have been made a lot easier if she had hunted her prey out in the open, but it was what it was, and she had to make the best of it. The only technique she had figured out was to bite into the animal's neck and push it in front of her, with her head buried uncomfortably in its fur and her tail digging into the earth to push her forwards. The repeated movements of pushing, pulling, biting, and gripping were tiresome, but in a way they worked. Eventually, and with much effort, she pushed the rabbit out into the open.

She was sorely tempted now to stock up on flesh, as the scents and textures of the creature lingered on her tongue and in her nostrils, yet she reminded herself the reason for the hunt and stopped herself. She slithered over the still-warm body of the rabbit and checked both left and right for predators before beginning the process of shifting back to her naked, human form.

In thirty ticks, the snake had morphed back to her woman appearance, naked as the day she was born, and shivering as cool breezes caressed her skin. She picked up the limp, placid form of the rabbit in one hand, and scanned the scenery for the tree she had left her belongings at. She soon spotted it hardly any distance away, and walked through the low bushes and gravel towards it.

With her clothes now back on her frame, she rummaged quickly in her bag for her knife. She had to act fast- the blood was probably already running cold, and she knew that it would be difficult to drain it otherwise. She sawed roughly at its lower feet, and hung it from her hands to let the blood seep out. It took longer than she liked, and her arms were beginning to grow tired from holding it up as she waited for the process to be over.

By the time it had finished, she had accidentally managed to splash blood down her trousers, and she had stained the toe of her boot. She scrubbed dirt over the top of it, but obviously she would have to be more careful next time. A flicker of cool wind whisked her hair into a brief fluster, and she wrapped her arms around herself for a moment. Gods, it was cold.

That was her decider. She quickly stuffed the now (mostly) bloodless rabbit into her rucksack, wrapped in a cloth, and began the short walk back towards the Gaping Maw and then onwards to the Wolf's Cave. She would continue her work there, in the warmth of her abode.

[Allassanachassanya]

"Speech"

There were always a multitude of reactions when anyone ever entered the communal space of the Wolf's Cave. Today was no exception as Ssanya strode through their midsts, avoiding the gazes of strangers and Kelvics, who were obviously smelling the fresh scent of meat in her rucksack. In no time at all she had wound her way through the semi-busy space to the small tunnel that lead to her quarters. The cave system that made up the Wolf's Cave wasn't overly warm, at least not out in the corridor. Her room though was warm, simply because of what she assumed was her closeness to the main space. Conversely, that also meant she often stayed up late at night, trying and failing to drown out the more exuberant sounds of excited and jovial patrons.

As soon as she was inside, she shut the door firmly behind her and rested upon her bed for a moment, carefully untying the cloak from her shoulders and draping it over the edge of the bed that acted as her makeshift wardrobe. Then with a yawn and a stretch, the woman unfastened her rucksack and withdrew the cool form of the rabbit.

The cloth it was wrapped in was slightly stained with blood, but the folds of the material fell open delicately to reveal the pathetic form of the rabbit lying within. Ssanya stared at it, dead in the eyes, which were glassy and limpid. She had placed her chest underneath the small table provided with the room, but now she ignored the rabbit for a tick whilst she struggled to pull it out and withdrew two decently-sized clay basins and her wickedly sharp hunting knife.

A short trip to the bar later, and the woman had returned with one of the basins filled with water. She grabbed the carcass and dumped it into the other basin, before picking up the hunting knife and considering where to start. Yet before any of that, she fingered her mother's bone, and closed her eyes. Dear Caiyha, thank you for your bounty. Thank you for letting me take of your children. And Siku, I pray that you accept the gracious offerings of my craft, and let me honour us in my own way. She smiled wryly before opening her eyes and breathing deeply. Right. To business.

[Allassanachassanya]

"Speech"
"Others"

It was messy business. Her knife was wickedly sharp, but even with neat, careful cuts the rabbit wouldn't skin easily. The flesh was stiff now, the life's warmth of the furred creature had seeped out and left the carcass unwieldy, b she did the best she could. The rabbit's broken body lay pooled in the waterless basin and it's ears were stabbed to the tabletop with her other knife to keep it in place. Her other hand gripped the neck of the animal firmly, as she made two small incisions into the bristly fur of the rabbit. Once that was done, her slaughtering knife dug into each foot, as she tried to be careful not to slice the bone, and cut all around the feet to loosen the skin.

It was a bit of a struggle, but she finally worked her knife to loosen the skin just enough for her to dive her fingers between the flesh and the pelt, and pull. With the knife firmly embedded into the desk, the woman could jerk and yank the skin away from the flesh and pull it off the limp carcass. Her mind was blank and she worked methodically, washing her hands and her knife from time to time to get rid of the slippery, dark blood that occasionally bled onto her fingers.

She deposited the pelt on the table once it was off, and swept her brow with her sleeve before diving back into the work. Now she was removing the flesh from the bones, which were the only parts she wanted. The offals and flesh she would leave outside- presumably some hungry animal wouldn't ask questions as to why all the good bits of the animal had been cut off and left without bones, and the evidence would be eaten. She began the process of cutting and tearing, with bloody fingernails getting caught in the lean meat of the rabbit and her knife getting slick with bodily fluids.

It was messy work, and it took her just under a full bell for her to finally have the cleaned bones before her. She packaged the carcass and flesh into the bloodstained cloth and took a quick trip out to the streets of Alvadas, bearing in mind to always keep the inn in her sights as she covertly dumped the flesh behind a low wall running alongside someone's front door. Her gaze darted left, then right, and she hurried back to the Wolf's Cave and back to her craft.

Excitement was growing now, she could feel it. The stirring of that unearthly desire to practice her magic. She felt her fingers to almost be tingling with anticipation of the skeleton that awaited her.

[Allassanachassanya]

"Speech"
"Others"

The bloodied water and the bloodied bowl were pushed to one side as she carefully cut the remaining few tendons and scraps of meat off the bone. She washed her hands, and tied her hair back carefully, her fingers slowly tying loose strands into an even looser plait at the back of her head. Then she dug into her rucksack and brought out her notebook and quill. Her fingers were shaking as she unscrewed the ink pot, the tattered quill kept carefully between her teeth. The black ink dripped two moonless, pitch dark spots onto her extended fingertips, and she sucked the bitter ink into her mouth, staining her teeth and making her frown with the unpleasantness. But it cleared the fog from her mind, and she concentrated as the nib of the pen dipped ever so slowly into the inkpot and she began to sketch her ideas out.

She had chosen, initially, the rabbit's front left foot bone. It would be perfect as a anklet, tucked away beneath her clothes, kept flat against her skin. She had a goal in mind, and although she did not know if that particular rabbit was a fast or slovenly one, she assumed that it would have the same, instinctual fear of capture like any other prey animal. It was this that she wanted to capitalise on.

Her quill scratched the page of the parchment, drawing a series of narrow, straight lines enclosed in a double-thick layer of circles tightening around the centre. Around that, she scribbled a thick mass of energy and passionate, jagged tears, then around that again she swept her quill in a narrow, thin line to encapsulate the entire design.

She tilted her head back, and admired her handiwork. It flowed, she thought, and not badly either. The design was large though, and would be impossible to fit onto the small rabbit's foot at that size. She also needed to paint it on, to give the malediction circles some kind of permanency. So, with deft fingers, she searched through her chest until she found paint and paintbrush, nestled close like lovers. Once these were prepared, she began to paint a smaller design beside the original sketch. The paintbrush was her favoured working equipment, and she smiled with a fierce smile as the paint lay down on the page and obeyed her every gesture and stroke.

[Allassanachassanya]

"Speech"
"Others"

The paintbrush was thin, and the bristles kept carefully softened and trimmed so the lines she painted were smooth and without much error. She wasn't an excellent painter, but she was careful. That made the difference, as she swept the minute lines and curves of the design in the black paint. She made a few mistakes, but... a mistake was just a name for an adjustment, and so she tried to weave the error into the design. For the most part, it worked. With a final smile, the Dhani maledictor picked up the foot bone and considered it as a charm.

First, she dug out the engraver's toolkit from her chest and searched for the hole boring tool. She would need to buy cord on the morrow, so as to make the anklet properly, but for now she focussed on boring two small holes- one into the 'ankle' part and another into the thickest part of the toe. It was a tricky space to manoeuvre, especially considering the size of the foot. Her heart slipped to her throat as she felt a strain in the bone as the boring tool dug into the bone, but after a quick adjustment she felt it going through properly.

The holes were slightly wonky when compared to each other, but it didn't matter. The only thing that mattered really was the malediction. She could feel all her attention leaning forwards to that matter, as she picked up her paintbrush and tried to tie down the burgeoning, throbbing excitement of using her Djed. She couldn't hold it back though. She had never been able to, once she had reached the stage she was at. Any attempt at leaving the task would be pointless- now she had to follow through, and create her creation and see where and what she got.

Her paintbrush was held in a now dead-steady hand. Dipped in fresh paint, with half wiped off so as not to create splodges, she began at the very centre. The straight, thin lines were painted first. These represented the speed and alarm of the rabbit. Her paintbrush wavered, once. Then she continued, painting the rest of the design onto the fresh, pale bones of the rabbit foot. The scratching, enclosing, thick dark lines representing the predator, and the final line enclosing it all to keep the fetish contained and usable. With a deep breath, carefully checked over the design, searching for cracks or deformities or mistakes.

Her eyes scanned feverishly across the tiny item, her hands ready to correct and fix anything out of place. But all was well, all was in order. Now came the magic. The Dhani woman hurriedly cleaned her knife, wiping away any remaining blood on a spare cloth. Then, she focussed herself, and drew upon her Djed. It was her essence that she spun down into the middle finger of her left hand, her intentions and her desires for the object. Her life's blood, holding the very primal power of her magic. With a small nick of the sharp knife point, her finger dropped three neat, crimson spots of her own fresh blood onto the very circle of the charm, and she activated the rabbit's foot talisman.

[Allassanachassanya]

"Speech"
"Others"

She sucked her finger to clean the cut, and the fresh, iron tinge of the blood in her mouth brought her to her senses. She was released from the quickness of malediction in action, and the sounds of the Wolf's Cave flooded back to her concious. Her room came swimmingly into being, the walls drab, the desk littered with mess and scrunched up, bloody cloth, ink and paint lying side by side in harmonious blackness.

But despite the mess, she was grinning. It was euphoric, every single time she did it. Ever since the first time her mother had guided her through the stages, ever since she had made the first talisman all by herself as a youngling. Now she was independent, alone in a distant, bizarre city, and she still found the same comfort and elation in her craft. The talisman was a simple thing, with its black lines now softly raised by the introduction of her blood and her Djed. Black and white, tied together neatly with malediction. She was hesitant to pick it up though, and dared not try it yet. Besides, there were other things to prepare before it could be finally worn.

The woman carefully wrapped it in a scrap of cloth, and nestled it into the chest. The brown-haired Dhani shivered once as a cool breeze crept under her doorframe, but she began to wrap up everything that lay sprawled across her desk. The lid of the paint was screwed back on, as well as the ink pot. The quill and paintbrush were washed gently, and Ssanya cut a few loose bristles. They were left to dry on the top of the table as she poured the bloodied water out of the window, first checking to see if there was anyone about. Her bloodied clothes were bundled together, as well as the butchering cloth, and she tied them into her rucksack to wash them at a later date.

With a last, final sweep of her room, she checked for any other lingering displays of malediction. She knew it would be dangerous to be found out as a maledictor. It was everywhere else, she she had no reason to think Alvadas would be any difference. Time had taught her to be cautious when it came to magic. Finally assured that all was well, the small snake stripped and climbed into the bed. The day had been cold, and she was feeling it keenly. The feverish movements of magic had given her a peaceful kind of sleepiness besides, so she curled up, her knees by her chest, and drifted into sleep.

[Madeira Dusk]

Grades Awarded!

Don't forget to edit/delete your grade request!

Ssanya

Skills

• Observation: 3XP
• Tracking: 1XP
• Hunting: 1XP
• Endurance: 1XP
• Embalming: 2XP
• Drawing: 1XP
• Malediction: 2XP
• Painting: 3XP
• Carving: 1XP

Lores

• Hunting: the scent of rabbit
• Embalming: draining blood
• Embalming: how to skin a rabbit
• Malediction: weaving a mistake into the design

Awards & Retribution
+Malediction fetish, made from the foot of a rabbit
+Washed bones of a rabbit
+Pelt of a rabbit

Notes

Great thread! I like seeing Ssanya all predatory and slightly scary. And as always your writing style is very fresh and clean and easy to sink into.

I gave you Embalming for the process of Ssanya doing unspeakable things to that bunny. But let me know if you want the points put into Carving or Butchering instead, since I wasn't quite sure which was most fitting.