It’s Raining Plums.

[Ixzo]

2nd of Spring, 519AV

”Lolan, I have a gift for you.” Ixzo said, just as soon as the two reached the camp. The little Drykas girl was growing thin in the lion’s eyes. She found it easier to attract the girl to her camp when this was done, because the Kelvic never hungered for food. She did not live far enough from the city to stress her wilderness survival skills, but she relied heavily on her hunting skills. It was something she wanted to teach the young Drykas if she could, so that she too could not hunger so much as she did.

The lioness ducked into her ratty hut, pulling the shortbow from where it lay beside her long own long bow. The hip-quiver was fitted for someone of Lolan’s size and only held about ten arrows to Ixzo’s quiver which held upwards of thirty. For a tick the Kelvic paused, remembering the time when she was just a cub and her own father was teaching her how to anchor her bow to her cheek or fire on a moving target. She was nearly nine years old, thoroughly middle aged, and such events seemed so far in her memory she had nearly forgotten the sound of her father’s voice. The bat Kelvic had always been wise to her, having come from some eastern city like this hai-hole she was stuck in, but with laws and buildings that actually kept the rain away. She couldn’t recall the name of the city he had told her he was born in, but the lion cub had always been enamored with the foreignness of her father in comparison to everything else in the jungle. All this was so long ago, and yet Ixzo was younger than the Drykas human. Such a long-lived race, humans.

”What is that?” Lolan asked, signing her curiosity and pointing to Ixzo’s tanning traid. She didn’t have any pelts smoking at the moment so it was three sticks planted in the ground and tied together with smoked bark, and a cloud of white ash billowing out from underneath them.

”For smoking pelts.” She answered, and Lolan made a small ‘o’ with her mouth at the realization but did not answer. Ixzo sauntered towards her, with the short bow easily concealed behind her back, and stood in front of the waiting child. ”If you come hunting with me, I will teach you to smoke them.” She grinned at the girl, bare teeth. Suspicion crossed Lolan’s face immediately, and Ixzo’s carefree cheer faltered.

The Drykas stepped away slightly, and looked at Ixzo carefully for a tick before answering, and even then she did not respond to the Hunter’s offer.

”What do you have behind your back?” Lolan asked, cutting a quick sign for suspicion in the air. Ixzo rolled her eyes, and procured the short bow and quiver, holding them out to the small child.

”Did I not just tell you I had a gift for you?” She asked, shaking the bow slightly to urge the child to take it. Lolan looked less suspicious, but stepped forward to retrieve the new weapon, inspecting it for a tick before looking up at her.

”But what if I don’t want to?” Ixzo frowned at the doubt.

Why? She signed simply, and Lolan shrugged, looking back at the bow.

”I don’t need it.” She said, and then handed the bow back, scrawny arms looking thin compared to the bow. Ixzo’s mind branched off to remind her that she would need to strap some leather to her arm, otherwise it would hurt the child. The cat had gotten a thick callous where the bow string snapped her, but she remembered years of getting used to the bruises prior to that.

[Ixzo]

”And if I am stabbed or I fall ill? Who will feed you?” Ixzo asked, her thick Myrian accent hiding the hurt in her voice. A small part of her wanted the girl to follow in her footsteps, to be as eager about hunting and the wild as the cat was, but it appeared she wasn’t. Still, it was a useful skill and she wanted the child to have a way to feed herself, if not defend herself, in such a city where starvation was as common as a cold.

”I can get food without you.” Lolan tossed back, stuffing the bow in her pit and signing Independent, strong. At the lion. Ixzo felt an accusation in the signs, and hrumphed at the child, turning back towards her hut.

”I don’t think it is enough to sustain you, otherwise you wouldn’t be here today.” She muttered, ducking into her hut and swiping her own bow and quiver, attaching the thing to her hip. She wore her simple leather breeches which covered her thighs and tied on the sides. Her hair was held up in a tight knot by one of her green scarves, and a loose human shirt hung on her shoulders. A single waterskin was slung across her shoulder, the leather strap tight to her chest so that the waterskin hung by her hip where she could drink from it without untying it. Now her belt had her hunting knife, an axe, and her quills attached. The longbow which was nearly as tall as herself, was relaxed and unstrung, gripped in her right hand.

”Unless you are to tell me you came here because you wanted to spend time with me?” She asked the Drykas, a small bit of hope in her voice, but mostly she was anticipating the refusal of such an option. Lolan frowned at her, and glanced at where Ixzo was attaching her quiver, not answering the Kelvic but watching her hands and then copying them to attach the quiver to her own hip.

Let’s go She signed, a small pout on her face as she realized that Ixzo was right. Never having been the best at figuring out human emotions, Ixzo could not tell if she was correct that Lolan could not feed herself, or that she had come today simply because she had grown to like Ixzo. The lion gave a hearty chuckle and used her long strides to catch up with the girl.

It was only when they were a few paces out into the woods, not yet away from the smokey smell of her own camp, did Lolan speak up. ”So, what are we hunting today?” It was clear the Drykas had tried to sign, but Ixzo was not paying attention to the child’s hands. Her gaze was in the trees above, watching the new spring leaves. All her life had been spent learning what different signs of wilderness meant, but now she knew nothing. Not only was this environment new to her, but without winter, spring was not the same.

She was used to the thick dark canopy of the jungle, where one could find prey or predator more likely to be above them than below. Or even the wide open ranges of the plains where any and all things one might need was at their feet below them. These strange eastern forests were some mixture of both, with things above and below for which she could hunt or find. Although it was within the first few days of Spring, the plants were eager to bloom and fruit, and she had found small green lumps coming from flowers in the trees beside her camp. She was obviously going to wait until they were ripe to forage them, but in the meantime she had an idea for them.

[Ixzo]

”Those.” She answered, stopping where she stood and pointing up to a tree, where the soft fresh green fruit lay. They were small round things which were clearly not at all formed to what they would look like, but she had never seen them before in her life and so had no name for them.

”Plums?”

”What are those?”

”You don’t know what plums are?” Lolan asked, a peculiar sound to her voice. Ixzo looked down to see the young Drykas had a sly smile on her face and a quirk to her brow which suggested confusion… no, not confusion at the question… incredulousness. Lolan looked at her as if Ixzo was the dumbest thing on earth for not knowing the name of a northern fruit. Unfortunately, it was a look that Ixzo was used to.

”Perfect.”

”Wait, you’re serious?” She asked, and this time the little drykas actually signed the word for crazy, not hiding her accusation.

Not crazy. Ixzo dismissed the sign. ”You’ve got one goal today: Get me a… plum. With your arrow.” She said, sticking her own bow into the grass so that one of the ends rested in the dirt.

”I’ve literally never even touched one of these before.” Lolan held up her short bow, as an excuse.

”It is already strung, you just have to shoot.” Ixzo said. She had the instinct to take the bow from the child’s hand and show her how to knock her arrow, find her anchor, and aim. But Ixzo had another goal set in mind for the day, a goal completely separate from teaching the girl to shoot. She also wanted to teach the girl dependence. Lolan was not yet twelve and she had already been on her own in a strange city whose language she didn’t speak. Luckily Ixzo had spent time with the Drykas and knew how to speak to them, and what most of their customs were, but without that knowledge, she never would have gotten as close to Lolan as she did. Ixzo had broken the girl out of slavery, but had done so by murdering her captors, which had scared Lolan so much the divinator had fled. The fact that Lolan trusted Ixzo enough to return to her camp with her was a huge leap in the past few seasons alone.

”Fine.” Lolan grumbled, pulling an arrow carelessly from the quiver. She inspected the bow for a tick, and then held it out with her left hand, so that the ledge for the arrow was in her grip, and the smooth side where she was supposed to hold it would not hold the arrow. Ixzo was almost certain that the girl was right handed, having seen her write and do things with that hand, and the fact that she might not be scared her for a tick. She would have to get another bow! And today’s lesson would be ruined, and it would be possible Lolan would refuse a second bow….

But then, silently, the girl switched the bow in her hands, and adjusted it until she was holding it correctly. Good girl. Ixzo praised in her mind, stepping back. She glanced behind her quickly to sight a tree and lean against it, out of Lolan’s way but still watching.

[Ixzo]

With much difficulty Lolan nocked her arrow, and then raised the bow. It was an actor’s mimic of the stance a bowman should look like, and Ixzo wanted badly to step forward and correct her, but she knew she couldn’t. Lolan was barely scraping by in life. With survival in that city, she had learned to be scrappy, but one could not thrive on scraps. She would have to learn the importance of support, especially as a Drykas. Horses worked better in herds. Cats worked better in Prides. Perhaps Ixzo had something to learn too.

Lolan pulled the string back, clearly struggling with the weight, and before she had completely pulled it back, she let it go. The arrow loosened before the string snapped, and fell blank to the ground. Ixzo laughed.

”Shyke!”

”You only have to—“

”I got it.” Lolan dismissed Ixzo and pulled another arrow, not bothering to pick up the one at her feet. This time her stance was just as terrible, but her hold on the arrow was marginally better. Again she couldn’t pull the bow back completely, and so when she did let go, the arrow flew into the ground a mere meter away and far to her right. This time the girl grabbed her arm, massaging the sting of the string, a sensation familiar to Ixzo. The cat sighed, but did not say anything.

Again Lolan notched a bow, and as far as the cat could tell, nothing had changed. Ixzo was standing far enough back from Lolan that she let the Drykas make her mistakes. Veering her attention from the young bowman, Ixzo pulled the string on her long bow, bending the wood against the ground and then hooking it into place. She checked the tying on the opposite end as well before adjusting the bow in her grip. Lithely, she pulled a bow from her quiver and set up behind the girl. Pulling her string taught and anchoring her bow in a familiar place, Ixzo adjusting her aim until she was eyeing one of the tiny plums in the branches, and the tree trunk that was a mere few feet behind it. Carefully she took a few steps to the left to make sure her aim was correct and that the arrow would land in the tree as she had anticipatd.

Thunk!

Ixzo’s eyebrows rose as she watched the arrow completely obliterate the unripe plum and land solidly into the trunk that she had been aiming for, no trace of fruit on it.

”I did it!” Lolan exclaimed, and Ixzo looked down to see another arrow laying sideways a few strides to the girl’s left, clearly fallen instead of launched.

”No you didn’t, look.” Ixzo said, stepping up behind Lolan and pointing to her own arrow. ”That one is mine.” Ixzo corrected, striding past Lolan and ducking into her long bow. She stepped over to the tree and wrapped each of her large palmas across the base, propping her foot on the roots at the bottom. Like she would as a cat, she used her grip to climb the few yards up the tree and snag her arrow from the wood, hopping back down and facing Lolan. ”Gather your arrows, what are you waiting for?” Responsibility, expectations. Ixzo signed, pointing her own arrow at the shortbow bolts and then inspecting the tip as she returned to lounge at the tree behind where Lolan was standing.

[Ixzo]

”Ho-how did you do that?” Lolan asked, ducking to pick her arrows after gaping at Ixzo.

”Practice. Would you like me to teach you?” Ixzo asked, and she watched carefully as Lolan hesitated with the offer. Something unidentifiable flashed across the girl’s features as she tucked her arrows back into her quiver without inspecting them. Ixzo grimaced at the carelessness.

”I mean, I guess. I don’t really need to learn this.” The girl tried, fiddling with the string on her bow. Ixzo shrugged, pulling another arrow from her own quiver and knocking it.

”Okay.” She said, pulling the string taught and letting it go, aiming for another plum. This time the arrow shot back and she heard it disappear through the trees above. She listened for a tick to see where it came down, sure that it had too much force in it to get stuck. After a few ticks she heard some rattling more than a few meters away. ”I’m going to go get that.”

As Ixzo walked, she heard the soft crunching of fresh grass and old grass under Lolaan’s feet behind her. She had heard the direction her arrow had fallen and when she reached what she thought was the spot, she started looking down on the ground.

”You aren’t even that good.” Lolan whined, and Ixzo just shot a glare at the child, ignoring her. Although she talked big, the cat did not actually want to force the child to do anything she didn’t want to do. She did want to put her in situations that would force her to rely on Ixzo and teach her that it wasn’t the end of the world if she did, but she supposed it would go slower.

”Sorry.” Lolan said quickly in response to the glare, and Ixzo looked away, up at the branches to see if she could spot the arrow. During the day her vision was not nearly as good as during the night, but she was also getting distracted in her searching. ”I just don’t want to learn the bow.” Unnecessary. Lolan emphasized. Ixzo sighed, turning to the child.

”I don’t care if you want to learn the bow.” Ixzo said, honestly. She didn’t know how to be a parent. She didn’t know how to formulate sneaky life lessons that these children she had a habit of caring for would look back at and understand, not like her own parent’s had. Her attempt today to do so had failed miserably, simply because Ixzo was not going to force anything on Lolan that the little Drykas didn’t want. ”I want you to learn how to feed yourself. And I want you to learn that it is okay to lean on people. To lean on me.” Trust, family, survival. She emphasized her words. At the sign for family, Lolan’s face twisted with an emotion she didn’t know.

”You aren’t my family.” She said coldly. Without warning she shoved the bow and quiver to the ground, spilling the arrows out, and sprinted away. Forgetting to care for the items, Ixzo started after her, ducking into her own bow in a familiar warrior’s move. It was only once Lolan reached the river that Ixzo remembered the items. Forgetting about the single lost arrow, Ixzo turned back and grabbed the short bow and quiver, clutching the mere ten arrows in her other hand. The cat jogged the items back to camp, tossing them into her hut to land where they may. She flung off what little clothes rested on her. A little frustrated and a little worried, Ixzo took on her lion form, falling onto all foru paws a mere few ticks later. She began sprinting out towards the bank.

She was not so worried that the girl would get lost, after all it was a fairly simple route from the city to her camp, and not far. But Ixzo wanted to make sure she was safe. The cat had no issue picking up Lolan’s fresh scent and sighting her tracks where they dipped from the fresh spring grass to the dirt and mud river bank. As far as she could tell the girl was still running. The lion padded after her at a quick stride, but not bothering to run. She watched her tracks and her scent and within a few chimes had caught up with the girl. Lolan was walking again, shoulders drooping and anger in her stride. Deciding it was best not to confront the situation, Ixzo fell back slightly and drifted into the treeline, following the figure at a slower pace. It was a little over a bell and a half to reach the city, and she didn’t mind wasting her daylight sleeping time to follow the child. Regret was fleeting and misplaced. Ixzo should have given her food before she provoked her. She probably should have not been so relaxed with what she was trying to do, but all of that was in the past now.

The lion followed the girl until she could smell the slag heap and see the rich gardens. Where the treeline thinned near the city, the kelvic paused. Silver eyes watched the child until little leather-wrapped drykas feet stumbled onto the dirt road, and disappeared behind a building. Ixzo licked her paw a few times and ran it behind her ear before turning back to make the long trek back to her own camp. Lolan would be fine, Ixzo would win her over eventually.