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[Tailyn]

Tailyn’s Parrot Preserve
Spring 15, 518
10th Bell


Monkeys. Were. Evil. This small simple fact had been metaphorically cemented into Tailyn’s skull the previous season when she had witness a tiny baby parrot have its head bitten off by one of the monstrous things. Tai considered herself to generally be level-headed and practical about most things. She was probably just lying to herself.

“Abanath! Watch the parrots!”

Tai sprinted to her tent and slid into it, yanking her bow and quiver up from where they had been strategically placed near the entrance. With one fluid movement, Tai spun a hundred and eighty degrees and sprinted back out of the tent, hefting her quiver onto her back even as she ran towards the edge of the campsite.

Four pairs of birdy eyes and a single pair of snake-like verusk eyes watched Tai with varying degrees of curiosity, amusement and alarm.

Abanath was already used to this old song and dance. “Have fun!” he called back from his usual spot in the hammock without even looking up, stomach covered in gears.

A telltale, familiar screech echoed through the nearby clearing as a half a dozen monkeys scattered into the trees. Tai deftly yanked an arrow from strung an arrow into her bow and leveled it at one of the creatures as they fled into the thick of trees. She felt the tension in her bow reach its apex, and she exhaled and released.

A stray gust of sea wind caught the arrow and sent it into a nearby branch. “Shyke!” Tai snarled, and roughly strung another arrow into her bow.

The monkeys knew her by now, and were fleeing into the trees in considerable panic. Tai’s eyes focused on a flash of white hindquarters disappearing into the branches. Tai exhaled and released.

This time the arrow flew wide and sunk into the trunk of a tree. The shrieking monkeys vanished, their cries fading into the jungle. Grumbling, Tai walked over to the tree trunk and yanked her arrow out, testing the tip to make sure it was still sharp. Satisfied, she stashed the arrow back in its quiver. She quickly clambered up the tree where her second arrow had landed, and tested the arrow before confidently returning it to the quiver as well.

Still sitting on the tree branch, Tai sighed. A moment later a flutter of blue feathers landed next to her. Tai’s companion tilted her head at Tai and croaked out a greeting. Tai sighed and held out her arm in invitation for the bird to join her. Delicately, Blue climbed onto Tai’s shoulder and began meticulously grooming her feathers.

Tai’s bloodlust was far from quenched. Whenever those damnable creatures showed up, the inarta just saw red. She wanted to hunt down every last one of them, until Syka was free of them.

Tai looked a Blue and smiled wryly. “What do you think? Monkey hunting day?”

Blue turned her head around upside down and croaked something. Tai grinned. “That’s enough of an agreement for me.”

Tai moved Blue to the branch before hopping down and calling the bird back to her gloved fist. Once the bird was settled back in her usual spot on Tai’s shoulder, the woman headed back towards the underbrush, following the cries of monkeys. They seemed to be leading towards the Syka Commons. Tai’s fist tightened on her bow as she strung it over her shoulder.

(Words 563, Total 563)

[Turrin]

It was hot on the beach, and it was especially hot on his camouflage leather armor. Turrin was walking down the beach by the commons looking for tracks in the sand. For the last week, he had been observing large snakes sunning themselves in the warm sand on the beach. He was hoping to hunt one of the larger ones and share it with the settlement. Even if it had been two years since he left Wind Reach, he still had the mind set of taking care of the community. Joining the Syka Rangers were a definite positive for the half breed, and he started to feel useful again. Ever since he came to Syka, he had felt a sense of freedom that he didn't have in Wind Reach, and Syka was a lot more welcoming than Endrykas. With his short bow in his left hand, Turrin walked down the beach with his quiver filled with arrows on his left him, his talon sword and scabbard on his right hip along with his throwing ax, and on his back was his backpack filled with survival supplies. If he was ready to go into the jungle to follow a trail, he was ready.

Looking around the beach, he noticed the sand closer to the ocean was wet from the surf, so he stayed close to the drier sand by the jungle. Seeing a indentation in the sand, the hunter knelt down and saw the indentation of a human boot track in the sand. The treads in the vague shape of a boot print were a indicator that it could be a human track because there was clear tread marks in the sand. Standing up. Turrin continued walking down the beach looking for any indicator of a snake in the sand. Eventually, he came to a s-shaped track in the sand emerging from the jungle. The way the track moved the animal was move to and fro through the sand. He followed the s-shaped track down the beach and lost the track when he made it to the surf where the track disappeared into the water. Looking around, he saw a small grove of mangroves at the edge of the beach, and he wondered if the snake took refuge in the mangrove trees.

Deciding not to head into the mangroves by the water, Turrin walked around the edge of the grove for any signs of tracks. He wasn't having any luck finding any. Suddenly, he heard some commotion in the jungle, and he immediately pulled a broad tipped arrow from his quiver, placed it on his bowstring, and he knelt down in the sand by the behind a mangroves branch. The hunter was near the coastline, so he could see if a large predator walked out onto the beach. However, he saw nothing except the hoots and howls of primates in the trees. Standing up, Turrin had a feeling that he wasn't in any danger. He walked out of behind the mangrove tree and saw the all to familiar blazing red haired woman walking down the beach. He was curious if she was Inarta cause she was incredibly short. Regardless, Turrin decided to walk out to greet her with arrow in his right hand and short bow in his left hand. He walked up to her and said with a incline of his head, “I haven't seen hair as red as yours since I lived in Wind Reach. My name is Turrin, and I am new to Syka. May I ask you your name?”

[Alona Halloran]

---

The work in Syka was hardly glamorous, this fact was to be expected. It's not as though she imagined a beautiful island paradise would have equally beautiful work. However, what Alona had quickly found frustraiting was how limiting it truly was. When she had left Zeltiva, she had intended to travel light to ensure a safer and smoother trip. However, thanks to the disapearance of the Veronica, now hindsight practially screamed at her for coming so far without a single hammer to her name. She had made it work so far, but that still didn't take away any of the shame in her gut, now did it?

None of this was helped by the sound of shrieking that awoke her this morning. Jumping out from under the tarp that was currently her home, she was greeted by the sight of a local monkey just outside of her camp. The sight would normally make her wary, mildly anyway, that is until she saw a glint that made her heart stop. In the monkey's paw was a small, familiar metal object. It was a chisel, one of her chisels. Shocked, Alona stormed after the creature and it... predictably ran away, invisible in the treeline.

Before she allowed herself to panic, however, she reached back into her dwelling and checked her possessions. Aside from the missing slot in her case of carving tools, the rest of her backpack (and by extension, the rest of the tent) was accounted for... though not in it's place. Hurriedly, she went to fix it, while internally she swore at herself for not keeping a better hold on her property. A locked chest was going to be a necessity in her future. Once that was finished, she put on her pack, then her hands went straight for her shortbow, and the quiver attached to her pack.

By then, the monkey was barely out of sight, but she ran after it. This was how, a while later, the sound of tinny bells echoed closer to the Commons as Alona approached with sagged shoulders and sweat-damped red cheeks. She looked over at the two nearby, lowering the shortbow respectfully as she approached the strangers. "I'm very sorry to interrupt but, have either of you seen a monkey running past, and holding something shiny?" She paused, gulping between heavy breaths. She had run all the way from her land up north to here, and she certainly felt it. Her hair was wild underneath her sash, unbrushed, and her arms ached, to say nothing of her feet.

[Tailyn]

Tai was startled by a voice behind her and spun around, eliciting an irritable squawk from her bird companion clinging to her shoulder. The man’s dark hair and golden eyes were striking, and Tai felt herself tense up a little bit at the man’s words. Wind Reach? The man’s lack of red hair didn’t scream Inarta, although Tai couldn’t quite rule out his race just on that alone. Those eyes, in particular, were very Inarta.

She was fairly certain she had never met this man before, but there was always the slim chance that he might have heard of her, and Tai didn’t have the faintest idea on how her friends and relatives would have reacted to her departure those years ago. She didn’t like the idea of any part of Wind Reach having followed her here.

But, she reminded herself, that was hardly this guy’s problem. She didn’t know his story. Look at you Tai! Jumping to conclusions! This is Randal all over again, sheesh. Give the guy a break!

Tai forced a smile that after a moment warmed and came closer to a real one. “Nice to meet you Turrin. I’ve been here since last season. Started a parrot catching and taming business. I haven’t been to Wind Reach in, oh, three years I guess? No plans to go back. And um, no offense but I was kind of in the middle of...”

Before Tai could fully articulate the monkey slaughter she was planning for this days events, a young woman rushed up to the pair of them. Tai noted the woman’s brown hair, blue eyes, and stubborn stare. The words that came out of her mouth were of particular interest to Tai.

“The vermin are everywhere,” Tai growled, teeth clenched in anger. “They’ve been harassing my parrots. I was about to go cull a bunch of them. Didn’t notice any of them holding anything, but they all like to hang together.” Tai lightened her expression faintly and gave the young woman a nod. “You’re welcome to come along with me if you like. The more arrows, the better.” Tai hesitated as she glanced at Turrin. “I’m not really sure if you have anything better to do, but I see you’re armed for ranged combat too. If you want to come hunt as well, then you’re welcome to join us.”

Blue eyed the pair, but after a moment the bird croaked her agreement. Tai stroked her companion’s headfeathers then turned to the pair with a grin. “I’m Tailyn,” she said. “You can call me Tai if you’d like. My friend here is Blue.”

[Turrin]

Still holding the broad tipped arrow in his hand, Turrin golden eyes just watched Tai when she greeted him. She told him that she was a parrot tamer, and that she had been away from Wind Reach for three years. It was about the same amount of time that he been away from his mother's homeland. After Aponivi died, he had no place in his mother's society. Also he already burnt enough bridges with his friends and peers that it wasn't safe to stay. When she said that she had no intention in returning to their homeland. He wondered her reasons for her statement, but he didn't know her well enough to ask. He will have to ask later when they knew each other better. Turrin said with a nod, “Fair enough everyone has their own reasons for leaving Wind Reach. Even me.”

Suddenly, the pair was interrupted by a young brown haired woman as she asked if they saw a monkey holding something shiny. Turrin shook his head because he only heard a tribe of monkeys in the jungle. The hoots and howlers the primates were making. He thought that their tribe was being attacked by a large predator. All were possible in the jungle. Suddenly, Tailyn let out a vicious tirade that triggered a smile in the former Endal. It had been years since he witness a passionate rant by a fiery Inarta woman. The last time that he witness one of these tirades. He was on the receiving end of a bowl being thrown at his head for no reason. However, he understood why she was upset. These primates were threatening both her livelihood and animals the woman inherently thought were sacred. When she introduced Blue to them, he gave the colorful bird a respectful bow of his head and said in Nari to Blue, “May Eywaat be with you always, Blue...”

Turrin looked at the brown haired woman and shook his head and said in common, “I heard the sound of primates as I was tracking snakes on the beach. I thought it was a large predator attacking their tribe like a large snake or cat, so I hide in the mangrove. Just it case it was a tiger.” Frowning, he continued, “I didn't see your thief.”

Looking at Tailyn, Turrin said with a viscous smile, “I can always hunt snakes at a later date, but I think these monkeys need to be taught a lesson for thievery and harassing birds. In Wind Reach, harassing birds are punishable by death, so I think we should bring some Inartan justice down on these vermin.” Looking at the pair of woman, Turrin decided to introduce himself to the brown haired woman, “My name is Turrin, and I am a recent arrival to Syka. My I ask your name, and what did the monkey steal?”

The former endal heard the sounds of the tribe of monkeys farther into the jungle. He knew if they stood their talking that they would lose their prey. The endal put back his arrow into his quiver and pull out his compass. He flipped the metal lid open and saw the red needle was pointing north. He listened for the faint sounds of the monkeys. He eventually heard a large howl from the direction of the jungle. He turned his body to the sound of the monkey, and he watched the dial turn slightly eastward from north. Turrin looked at the woman and said with a nod, “The sounds of them are getting fainter, so the tribe of monkeys are moving away from us. If we hurry, we should be able to catch them before they move deeper into the jungle.

[Alona Halloran]

Day/Season/Year

To be entirely honest, Alona was surprised to even get a remotely useful answer. So the response of 'no, but wanna go kill some?' caused her eyes to grow even wider. She had expected confusion, an unhelpful shrug, but... in hindsight, of course this was the answer she got. There was a reason it took her days to finally eat a mango without wincing at the scent, afterall. It felt a little rude, oddly enough, to be so harsh towards animals whose homes had been here long before any of them had arrived, even if they were annoying. At least, that's what she thought underneath the more pressing anxiety over her missing tool.

While the girl was not ignorant of the Inarta entirely, if she had overheard any of their prior conversations, it likely went right over her head. Instead, she let out a sigh of relief. "I'm not the best shot, and I don't want to slow you down in your task, but I really do need to get back the item that they took." She explained, then nodded towards the redhaired woman and her bird. "Thank you, Tai. I'm Alona. And err," She paused her introduction to glance at Blue, not sure if it would be too weird to thank him, but if the other man did it... "And hello, Blue. It's nice to meet you." She finished with a smile.

At Turrin's introduction, she nodded as she looked up at the taller man. "It was one of my chisels. It's not very large, about... yea big?" She awkwardly held out her hands while still holding her bow and one arrow, then curled her fingers into a box of the approximate shape of a woodcarver's chisel. "They seemed to like how the metal shined, so I imagine it shouldn't be too hard to find, what with them waving it around."

The sounds eluded Alona, but luckily Turrin was there to point them out. She nodded again, readjusting her grip on her weapon, pointing the arrow down into the sound. "Yes, of course. Are we all ready?" She asked, looking back at the smaller redhead, smiling. She had hunted before in Syka and was slowly relearning her skills with the bow, but it was still a way until she could use it truly comfortably. Working with these two seemed the best way to work on that, which was rather convenient, all things considered. She could only hope their hunt wasn't in vain, at least.

[Tailyn]

Tai couldn't help but feel fiercely vindicated by Turrin’s words. She had had a slight worry that these two wouldn't take her mission seriously. Abanath seemed to treat her hatred of the beasts as some sort of grand joke, so Turrin’s approval bolstered the Inarta woman’s resolve.

“I think Inarta justice is exactly what these monsters deserve,” she replied with a savage smile.

Alona’s look of wide-eyed shock at Tai’s proposal nearly caused a bubble of a laugh to slip out of Tai’s lips. The birdkeeper suspected this woman hadn’t had much experience with the Inarta ‘get shyke done’ attitude. Tai replied to the young woman’s faltering answer with a spirited grin and a clap on the back.

“Truth be told, my own skills have slipped a lot since I lived in Wind Reach. I couldn’t even nick one of those damn things when I was shooting at them earlier. We can improve together Alona, yeah?”

Both Turrin and Alona’s greeting of Blue tickled Tai, and Blue herself seemed intrigued by their attention on her, first clipping her beak thoughtfully, then preening underneath their gaze. She croaked in surprise when Turrin spoke to her, and tilted her head at Alona’s words. The bird seemed relaxed enough in their presence, which was one more weight off of Tai’s mind.

Tai listened with half an ear as Alona described the object taken from her, but she was far more focused on tracking the shrieks of the monkeys with her ears. Turrin’s suggestion to get going was greatly appreciated, and Tai gave the pair a quick nod.

“No time to waste!” she said. Then without waiting she started off in the monkey's direction at a light jog. She still wasn’t fully comfortable in the jungle, so she’d prefer to reach the beasts before they headed too far past the Syka commons.

At a light jog and with Tai’s hatred fueling her energy like dry wood to a bonfire, it didn’t take the woman long to catch up to the creatures. Clicking her tongue at the flash of white scampering in the branches above, Tai yanked her bow off her back. Recognizing the movement, Blue fluttered off her partner’s shoulder and onto a nearby branch. The woman pulled an arrow out of her quiver, pulled her bowstring taut, then slung an arrow at the nearest flash of white.

Once more the arrow flew wide, sinking into a nearby tree trunk. “Shyke!” Tai hissed, frustrated. She still had not yet managed to land a single blow, and it was not improving her temper.

[Tailyn]

Grades are here!

Tailyn

XP Award:

• +1 Acrobatics
• +2 Weapon: Shortbow
• +1 Observation
• +2 Socialization
• +2 Hunting
• +1 Tracking

Lore:

• Abanath: A Faithful Watchman
• Acrobatics: The Slide and Spin
• Parrots: Always Curious
• Monkeys: Must Die
• Weapon: Shortbow: Exhale To Steady Shot
• Hunting: Aiming Through the Trees
• Turrin: Probably Part Inarta
• Tailyn: Hesitant Towards Other Inarta
• Socialization: Inviting New Acquaintances to Hunt
• Alona: Not Used to Inarta
• Tracking: Following Animal Sounds
• Weapon Shortbow: Firing Quickly

Turrin

XP Award:

• +2 Tracking
• +1 Stealth
• +2 Socialization
• +1 Observation

Lore:

• Tracking: Snakes Leave an S Shape
• Stealth: Hiding Behind a Tree
• Socialization: Making an Introduction
• Tailyn: Doesn’t Want to Return to Wind Reach
• Blue: Tailyn’s Parrot
• Alona: Met While Chasing a Hammer
• Tracking: Using a Compass

Alona

XP Award:

• +1 Observation
• +1 Endurance
• +2 Socialization

Lore:

• Syka: Lacks Supplies
• Monkeys: Thieves
• A Locked Chest Is Necessary To Keep Tools Safe
• Endurance: Keeping Pace While Following
• Turrin and Tailyn: Inarta

If either of you want to continue this, let me know!