Near Shivias, [OPEN]

[Sari Nasuadin]

Day 10 of Winter, 510 AV

The roar of the Katshika falls carried throughout the valley, which housed the Twin lakes. Inarta walked on the shores of these lakes, some fishing. Amongst those, Sari sat, bundled up, her Katinu pulled tight over her as she tried to keep warm, a scarf over her neck, and a pair of mittens and knee-high boots. From under her hood, her bright blue eyes were narrowed in frustration, as she twitched a fishing pole in her hands to and fro, waiting for a bite. She had been here for a couple hours, and got repeatedly and repeatedly annoyed as she watched other fishermen pull their catches out of the lake, a satisfied expression on their face.

"Come on, just bite already..." She muttered, sighing. Next to her, her bow sat on the ground, with her quiver over on top of it. On her shoulder, perched atop a piece of leather she fastens over her shoulder, was her peregrine falcon, Nianii. He screeched, fluttering his wings, and Sari gave him an irritated glance, before returning her stare at the impassive fishing line. Her father would of have taught her to fish, but due to what happened when she was a child, she no longer had a father.

She wondered if this maybe, was a bad spot, so she pulled in her line, picked up her various items next to her, and started to walk along the lake, looking for a spot that seemed alright to her. She saw the grassy field farther up the valley, and sand at various areas around the lake. She stopped walking, and sat down again, starting to set up again for fishing. Soon her line was out, and she remained still, looking for any disruption of in the water.

[Sairque]

The tightness along Sai's shoulders and chest pulled pleasantly as she did a few stretches, a far cry from the stiff pain that had greeted her just a bell earlier. The warm waters of Shivias had always had a healing touch, especially after several hours of target practice with Kovac and Aidara. Flinging clinging strands of water-blackened hair from her face, the diminutive woman ran to the edge of the large boulder and leapt, body in tight control high above the gently lapping lake. Eyes out of focus, the looming bulk of the mountain gave way to overcast skies as she pulled her upper body backward in a back flip. Drawing her knees up to her forehead, she lost sight of the spot she had jumped from and closed her eyes, confident that she wasn't about to smash her face on the rock. By the time she had grabbed her ankles with her hands, her body had flipped over another full rotation, furiously spinning until the water rushed up to gather her in its deadly embrace. The splashes had returned and the ripples calmed by the time her dark head broke the surface again.

Satisfied with the loose state her upper body was now in, she turned her face down into the lake and stroked, crossing the lake toward the small pile of belongings she had left on the shore. Her wading body, water coming off her bare skin in sheets when she stood, could be labeled as a disruption. The young woman seated on the shore, staring out over the water and patiently holding her line, was scrutinized for a moment. "There are no fish over here," the whipcord slender Sairque called out helpfully. She snagged the towel from the pile and hastily drew it around her body, goosebumps already rampant over her skin. The fish here were wily ones, otherwise they would have been hunted to extinction during any one of the previous winters when the Inarta had run out of stored food and started starving to death. Brusquely, the absorptive material was scrubbed around to pull the heat-sucking liquid away.

Yellow eyes peered over at the fisher woman again. Sairque didn't think she'd ever run into her before. Discarding the towel, and shivering complete with chattering teeth, she pulled on her green bryda and a thick long sleeved shirt. A few knives were hidden about her person. After cleaning off her feet, they were hastily stuffed into the knee high boots and the scarves were wrapped around her neck. "Who are you?" the short woman inquired bluntly, curiously.

[Sari Nasuadin]

Sari sat, shivering slightly as the cold nipped her cheeks and chilled her insides with every breath she took. She saw a woman diving into the lake, pulling off a furiously fast flip, and smacked the water, the sound reverberating through her ears, and she felt at her feet the waves of the impact gently touch her feet. The woman called out to Sari, "There are no fish over here," To which Sari raised her eyebrows slightly. She had heard of fish in the Shivias plenty of times. She pulled her cloak tighter over her, her bones chilled.

When Sari looked up again, she looked at the diving woman, and saw intense yellow eyes. Interesting color.. Sari thought, as she took in the woman's clothing. Green bryda, same kind of boots Sari had, a scarf. As she took in the woman, she heard the far-off screech of a riding eagle. She listened to the woman's inquiry, noticing she was quite forward.

Sari replied simply, "Sari." She looked up at the woman, her blue eyes passive. With a grunt, she stood herself up, dropping the pole. Her limbs ached, chilled by the cold. Her falcon, Nianii screeched, turning his head to the side to examine the new acquaintance. Sari bent over quickly to pick up her bow with her left hand, which was draped in small scars. She looked at the woman, and asked, "Who are you?" While Nianii started playing with one of the bead strands in Sari's hair.

[Sairque]

Well, she hadn't meant the whole lake, just the area that Sari was fishing in. Having just been swimming through it, the vicinity had appeared void of most fish. She could have been wrong, though. Either way, it seemed that Sari had decided to give up her endeavors in favor of making acquaintance.

Bundled up tight, the warm materials obscuring her lithe body and replacing it with rotundness, Sai closed the distance between them with long strides. Tipping her head back to meet Sari's eyes, some nine inches above her own, she gave a cool smile. "Sairque Catabasis," the flight leader answered with her name and then her Eagle's. There was always the possibility that the fisher woman knew the Wind Eagle. Sharp eyes roved over the woman, blatantly sizing her up. They lingered on the bow. "What do you do?" Sari wasn't an Endal, nor had she ever seen her in a hunting party, that meant she had to be a craftsperson or something else. She was certainly too old to be a Yasi. Perhaps she worked with the birds, as Aidara did, the falcon on her should suggested.

Realizing her mistake, as her scalp started aching with cold, Sai pulled the scarf from around her neck and tucked it partway into a pocket, then snapped her neck forward, whipping her hair over so she could thoroughly towel it dry. She spent several minutes doing this, aware of the danger moisture presented in climates such as these. When she finally dropped the towel again, straightening, she set about plaiting the blood red locks with deft fingers. Glancing up at Sari, then over to the discarded fishing pole, Sai cocked an amused eyebrow. "Doesn't look like you're having much luck this morning."

[Sari Nasuadin]

Sari pulled her cloak tighter over her, but her endeavors failed to warm her, as her body was still sapped of warmth. But it was better. A bit. She examined the other Inarta woman, taking in her appearance with more detail. Sari listened politely as the woman introduced herself, and Sari's eyes widened a small amount when she heard the woman, Sairque, repeat a second name. It took Sari a second to remember that most Inarta had no surnames, and therefore Sairque must be an Endal.

Sari had heard the name Catabasis a bit, and come to think of it, she had heard of Sairque as well. Sari listened to Sairque's inquiry, and replied, "I am a falconer. I take care of the hunting birds, as well as other things." At this, Nianii stopped messing with the beads woven into Sari's hair to turn and look at Sairque with a narrowed eye, and the ruffle of a feather.

Then she noticed that Sairque was taking some time to wipe her hair off, and quickly fastened her quiver and bow to her back, as Nianii went back to trying to decimate every bead in Sari's hair. Then Sairque stood back up, and pointed out Sari's lack of luck, to which Sari nodded, putting on a more formal demanor. After all, this was an Endal...

[Sairque]

Sai nodded faintly, her suspicion of the woman's occupation confirmed. She might know Aidara, as the twin volunteered to work with the birds when she wasn't attending to her healer duties. A leather tie was pulled out of her pocket and used to secure the end of her thick braid. Shaking her head, the thick length was flicked over her shoulder, swaying across her back and coming to a stop in the smooth curve of her lower back.

The lack of response to her comment drew out into a silence. Yellow eyes skimming over the steaming lake surface, no attention payed to the raptor fixated on her, she rubbed at the tight mass of bloodless scars covering her right hand. The hand didn't appreciate the abrupt change in temperature, and putting it in a pocket would help little at this point. At least this way she could message it. Hmn, maybe a trip to the Dreaming Lady was in store for this evening. The faint lines of tension in the body next to her brought a sigh.

"Is that what you want to do? Take care of birds?" she asked skeptically, glancing over at Sari with a quirked brow.

[Sari Nasuadin]

Sari noticed Sairque fasten a leather tie to her braid, securing it. Sari pondered why an Endal had taken interest in her in the first place... Then, She felt a pain on the back of her head- Nianii was now pulling on the strand of beads, and tugging the strand out of Nianii's beak, she said softly, "Stop it, Nianii."

Sari looked down, seeing the eagle rider rub her right hand, which were covered in scars. Sari wondered if she had done falconry also... Maybe she could ask. Sari examined her own scars on her left hand, remembering the first days of her falconry. Shaking herself out of memories in time to listen to Sairque's question, and she replied, "I take care of them, I train some." Sari said, "Some birds are quite annoying at times," Sari gave a pointed look at Nianii on her shoulder, before sighing, and asking, "How did you become an Endal?"

[Sairque]

The observation about some of the birds under her care earned a low chuckle from Sai, and Nianii didn’t much look like she minded being called annoying. A few bird anecdotes came to mind, passed along from her elder sister, and Sai’s smile widened. She even dropped the matter, Sari’s desire to work with raptors, seeing as how the woman didn’t actually answer her question but changed the subject.

Yellow eyes dropped to her hands, the left one working the strong palm of the curled right one, but stared beyond them into the past. “I was out on the Edge of the World, ten or twenty feet down the cliff, when some kid fell off with a fledgling eagle,” actually, he tossed the eagle off in an attempt to teach it to fly and then fell off after it, but… “I saw them go screaming past so I dove after them,” she shrugged with a self deprecating glance over to Sari. “Because, clearly, my body smashing into the ground with theirs would make everything better. Luckily, Catabasis was flying by and snagged all of us.” The rotund figure scratched at her head, brow furrowing. “You know, he yelled at me for almost an entire bell for being so stupid. I felt so little that I didn’t realize until the next morning he’d bonded with me,” Sai gave a tight smile, as though to say ‘Yeah, that’s how smart I am.’ She left out a lot of the details, but it was easier to get the bare bones for her. She wasn’t one of the great story tellers that could make a listener feel like they were rushing headlong toward jagged and bloodthirsty cliffs, their heartbeat pounding in their ears and the wind ripping the air from their throats. Or the debilitating effect of a talon wrapping around their waist to keep them from the fate they were so sure they were experiencing , even while sitting in a circle around the fire, just listening.

One silent chuckle, that right hand lifted and fingers waggled, the mess of scars adding additional texture to the appendage. “That little eagle did this to me when I tried to grab it. Figure he was determined to fly and viewed my help as interference.” He was a stubborn thing, even today. Sairque shook off the memory, the incident recalled fondly now that enough time had passed.

"How old are you?" She asked suddenly, with that same blunt expectation.

[Sari Nasuadin]

Sari felt another painful tug at the back of her head- Nianii was playing with her hair again- but all she did was pull the beads from Nianii's beak, and listened politely to Sairque. An Interesting story... Sari thought, Jumping off cliffs and becoming an Endal for that is not what you would call average. She wondered if she would ever be an Eagle Rider, when Sairque's next question jolted her out of her thoughts.

"How old are you?" She asked, and Sari noticed that same bluntness as last time. Sari knew better than to point it out, so she answered the question, "I am 21 years old..." And then in the back of her mind, she thought, and 14 years since the incident... She immediately dismissed that thought, as doubt and fear would start to settle in again, and Sari would question on whether their deaths were her fault or not, even though common logic said it was not.

Sari once again jolted out of her thoughts, noticing her fists were clenched slightly. With a sigh, she loosened up and decided to put her mind on other things. Sari pulled Nianii's lure from her pocket. Nianii bolted to attention, and stopped chewing the glass beads in Sari's hair. The lure was simple, just a couple of feathers and hard pieces of leather surrounded by a couple layers of wrapping of a softer leather. Sari gave it a quick twirl, throwing it up in the air, and watched as Nianii took off for it.

[Sairque]

Having finished the story and received an answer for her question, Sai stifled the urge to heave a impatient sigh at the disinterest in conversation the girl had on top of the stiff set of her shoulders. It appeared the girl had little interest in continuing their acquaintanceship and was uncomfortable for whatever reason. The steam on the lake was just so interesting, or at least, Sai was staring at it like it was.

"I guess I'll let you get back to your fishing," she offered easily after some time of silence, eyes dropping from a massive dark shape slowly circling down toward them to the falcon chasing the lure. "You know, if you don't have any luck with the pole, your bird can fish for you," added in afterthought. A nod up to the ever approaching Wind Eagle. "That's what Catabasis does while I'm hunting."

The Eagle was easily more massive than any other in Skyinarta and his shadow intermittently cast them in darkness on his way around. Finally, he extended his legs toward the ground and pulled back sharply, one of his wings whooshing over their heads so close that they could have reached up to touch the trailing feathers, coming to a short and jaunty stop some twenty feet away from the two women. He folded one wing, and for whatever reason, left the other one covering them like a massive pavilion canopy.

Sai glanced over her shoulder at him and smiled lopsidedly, getting an angelic blink from the bird in response, but it couldn't allay the mischievous amusement she knew he felt.