food and light. (open)

[Dor]

Dor waited, terribly still, until the old woman set the honey pastry on the counter. Only then did she reach for it, the wax paper crinkling between her fingers, and listened carefully to Dhatzu’s demonstration, though she had to tear her eyes away from the exchange of jade kinas glinting in the bakery’s warm light. “Thank you,” she echoed in Lhatvian, enunciating the words carefully, and received a soft chuckle from the baker while following Dhatzu back out beneath the stars and the celestial glow of Lhavit. Delicate bits of pastry were torn off the roll one by one and popped into her mouth. A quiet smile found her, remaining steady as she devoured the prized treat. It held the majority of her attention as she stood beside Dhatzu, ignoring the steady, pedestrian traffic swishing around them. One messenger veered too close to the falcon in his haste, causing her to step swiftly away and bump lightly into Dhatzu’s arm. Black eyes lifted, blinking at him, before she stepped away again and began to lick leftover flakes of sugary dough and sticky honey from her fingers. “There is an inn?” She wanted to know, at last willing to share her attention with something other than eating. Rocky aeries were perfectly acceptable, however it felt like ages since she had experienced a hot bath and a bed. “The treat was more than one coin,” she added, not having missed that little fact. She also owed him back his robe now.

[Dhatzu]

As Dor pecked intently at her pastry, Dhatzu again scanned the milling crowd for anyone that might recognize him. He hadn't done anything wrong, in fact, he could be commended for showing hospitality to this stranger. But there would be questions, and he did not want to deal with those right now. He wanted Dor to himself, in a sense. She was fascinating, really, and the acolyte hoped to glean more about her before she was distracted or drawn away by someone else. His surveillance was interrupted by the gentle bump of Dor against his arm, her truly black eyes almost startling him, so close as he looked down into them. The incident did not interfere with the kelvic's enjoyment of her treat, as she continued to dine without distraction. He grinned slightly as she carefully removed every trace of dough and honey from her delicate fingers. Dhatzu was not sure at first if Dor had heard his question, such was the intensity of the girl's attention upon her food. Once all evidence of the honey pastry was eliminated, her world expanded again to include him and the rest of scintillating Surya Plaza, and she finally inquired about a place to stay. An inn. There was the Shooting Star. Looking over the small woman, clad in his robe, wild haired, only a smallish pack in her possession, Dhatzu doubted she could afford it. After all, she had picked up a measly jade kina off of the street like a wayward street child. Meeting her eyes, he sighed, unsure of how to answer. Then Dor commented on the balance of some imaginary ledger she kept regarding their dealings. Perhaps it was time for a lesson in how humans behave. "Listen, Dor." He took a step closer, but not too close. For some reason he felt as apprehensive about approaching her as he did when he thought she was a regular peregrine. "Do you understand the concept of hospitality?" His question was sincere and lacked any hint of sarcasm. "The pasty was my treat to you, I am letting you borrow my robe until you don't need it anymore. You don't have to give me anything in return. This is what people do to welcome strangers." A fellow acolyte passed nearby, dressed in blue and white like Dhatzu, shooting the bare-chested fellow student a curious look and a raised eyebrow. Dhatzu scowled at her and focused again on the kelvic woman, suddenly more interested in setting things straight with Dor than what the others may think of he and his companion. "You do not owe me anything. I am happy to do this for you." "Now, as far as an inn," Dhaztu hesitated, biting his bottom lip thoughtfully. "Unless you have some real money in that pack, you will not be able to afford the only one I know of." He contemplated paying for her room, but he wondered how far she would take this even give and take thing to which she clung, and how long she planned on staying in Lhavit. "I could...help you pay for a room. Or to look for someplace else to stay if you would like."

[Dor]

Dhatzu spoke her name and in doing so refocused her attention upon him. Names were powerful, she believed, and in uttering them one was often calling for witness or weighing down a corner of conversation rather like placing a marker on a map. While he talked, she watched the way light shone in the dark of his hair. This was why she had come to Lhavit, for the stars, for the sky, for the light of it suffusing the entire horizon. Tales of Zintila’s city rang in her ears like promises, comforting and hopeful. “This is not what most people do to welcome strangers,” she remembered to reply after a moment. “Most people don’t welcome strangers at all. Or do they? Here in Lhavit?” A tilt of her head accompanied this latest question and though he stepped closer, she failed to restore the distance between them with a step back. The tattered jesses idled from her fingers, swinging lazily forth and back again. The second Dhatzu cast a glower at a stranger passing in a robe the same, envied color of that Dor was wearing, the kelvic went eerily still again. A slant of eyes followed the woman, a watchful frown offering warning until the other acolyte was swallowed by all the shadows the plaza’s light let grow. “Or is it just you?” Came the question in the vein of the last, conversation recollected as if it had never been stalled. “With the welcome and the,” she gestured at him, “Noblesse oblige.” A fancy phrase, that, for a girl who did not speak Common incredibly well; but the falcon remembered what words in her life had stunned with their impact. “How much is a room at an inn here? Or is it only the jade coins they take? I don’t have any of those, but I could exchange coins.” Her eyebrows rocked prettily upward as she met his regard head on, perhaps daring him to say she could not afford a thing again. A thought occurring to her, she added after a beat, “Dhatzu, not wanting to be indebted doesn’t.. Doesn’t.. Isn’t the same? There’s a different word for it. It isn’t like not having anything.”

[Dhatzu]

The lhavitian watched as Dor offered a statement, a question really, that she seemed to have mulled over before delivering. Looking at the kelvic now, she seemed more....girl, her head tilted slightly at her frank inquiry, the leather tethers swinging back and forth lazily at the behest of her hand. Dhatzu gathered that the falcon girl had been among humans before, and perhaps he underestimated the kelvic's understanding of human society. In a flash, what had appeared as an inquisitive girl became the predator again as Dor boldy challenged the passing acolyte with a simple, dour look. Just as quickly, her eyes softened, as did the corners of her delicate mouth, and Dor offered a perceptive, if subtly accusatory, opinion regarding his hospitality. She used a phrase he was not entirely familiar with, but he recognized the root words, and deduced her claim. With a sheepish grin, Dhaztu took the long belt from around his neck and folded it with his hands. "In fact, Lhavitians are hospitable people. And I confess, perhaps I have offered a bit more...attention than I would normally. But it is not because I have to, it is because I want to." Dhatzu's spine straightened, his eyes finding Dor's dark gaze in the pale glow of the plaza's myriad of lights, and he faced up to the reality of his motives. "I admit, you are a rather...unique person, in my limited experience. That may have, unconsciously, inspired me to display kindesses beyond what, say, an old man with runny nose and the odor of an okomo would receive." So far, Dor had not shown the emotion of joy or mirth. Dhatzu had hoped his comment might elicit at least a genuine smile. "You know what Noblesse oblige means but you don't know poor? His remark may have had more of a sting then he intended, and the acolyte was quick to make amends. "I apologize, I don't mean to insult you." The lhavitian raised the hand holding the belt, using it to point to a side of the plaza where a large building adorned with columns and starfall sat. "That is the inn over there. The Shooting Star is a quality lodging, they charge 3 kina a night. That would be, about 3 gold miza's I believe, if that is the form of currency you carry. The coin you picked up was a jade kina, equivalent to about one copper-rimmed miza, if I recall. I don't know if they take miza's at the inn, but you could exchange to kina easily enough if you had to." Dhatzu paused, watching the face of the woman, still trying to find the language in the expressions of her features. She was not unpleasant to look upon, her appearance somewhat exotic. Maybe it was her eyes, dark and piercing, they seemed to see everything that went on around them. But Dor was not easy to read, and it made the acolyte feel a bit off guard.

[Dor]

“Equivalent,” she plucked that word out of his wealth of them to turn over in her mouth. “Equivalent,” she repeated, muttering now. The tethers were strung between the fingers of both hands, twisted until knotting and then knotting again. “Equal.” She went ponderously still and at length nodded. “Not poor. I was looking for equal. I wasn’t trying to equivocate.” Though her expression remained bland, a spark of humor caught in her eyes. She was teasing him again but with a sense of humor as clashing in culture as the rest of their interactions thus far. The kindly, harassed acolyte probably did not share a common enough vocabulary of experience with Dor to translate the kelvic’s wicked mirth. Truth was that Dor was altogether unprepared for Dhatzu’s attention. As unique as she was to him, the same could be assumed in reverse. Positive attention was not a thing to which she was accustomed, nor was non judgmental curiosity. Having experienced so little of either, to be confronted with it at this juncture meant that she doubted its veracity. In short, she did not trust him a wit. On the other hand, she was not twisting and vanishing into the wind, catching the anonymity of the crowd to make good an escape or otherwise departing his company. As a rule she did not like people, but between the jesses and the honey pastry and the enviously blue robe, she was dragging out her time with him. “Where do I go to exchange mizas for kinas?”

[Dhatzu]

Dor was indeed intriguing, and perplexing. They both had a fair grasp of Common, the language neither seemed to prefer but the one they shared, but the there was still concepts and intentions that merely grazed by Dhatzu's understanding. "Equal, I see. Equal standing, without owing anything one to another? I can see that avoiding any indebtedness to me is important to you." He unfolded the belt, whipping it around his neck again, the long ends dangling over his chest, his hands taking hold of each side, hanging. He hoped he had caught the gist of the kelvic's meaning. The lhavitian was beginning to see just how different the two of them were. "Do not misinterpret my intent, I don't want anything from you, other than maybe friendship." He threw in the last part, not wanting to sound uninterested. Dhatzu was interested, he wasn't quite sure how, but he was, and he didn't want to have her vanish just yet. But she also didn't seem like the friend-making type. The falcon girl was not particularly endearing or gregarious, at least not towards him. But there was more to her, he knew it, and that kept him trying. His last statement came out a bit awkward, and he hurried to distract attention from it. "Exchange? I am not sure, maybe you can do it at the Cosmos Center. Its the bright building over there, by the path to the gate you..." He forgot, she did not enter through the Amaranthine Gate. "..the path to the city's entrance." From around a statue of a stylized cat, a shadow snickered. "Night walker has a girlfriend!" The acolyte's head darted toward the shade, reacting out of habit. He replied in what would sound to Dor like unintelligible hushed whispers. "Hush you, go lie under a goat for a while, why don't you." Dhatzu retorted in Makath.

[Dor]

Dhatzu of Lhavit wanted maybe to be friends. That idea was so unexpected that Dor ended up staring up at him with incredulity. Lightless eyes went wide before she shrugged a little to herself, apparently turning over this concept in her mind while he pointed out the glittering Cosmos Center. “Cosmos,” she echoed him, rather liking the feel of the word in her mouth. It left a small smile on her face that faded with the acolyte’s unintelligible whispering. A sharp glance was made in the direction he looked and she stepped back. It was in an attempt to remove herself from the traffic of the market place, ultimately spinning on the balls of her toes to duck into the mouth of an alley where there were at least two directions blocked by star-made walls. “What was that?” She wanted to know while dropping her pack to the ground and following it with a swoop into a crouch. “Was that Lhavitian?” A jerk was given a tie of her pack and she tugged out a soft worn chemise, a faded blue shirt and a pair of worn, buckskin color trousers like rabbits out of hats. “What are you talking to?” So she did have clothing. More to the point she had it with her all along. It was an indication of her strange sense of humor, her complete lack of concern for anyone’s state of dress or a combination of both that had her traipsing around in poor Dhatzu’s robe. Bouncing back up to her feet, she shrugged out of his robe with a final, admiring sweep of a hand across the material. Starlit shadows mottled fair skin that covered all small, hollow bones and lean musculature. A handful of super fine scars cobwebbed, glinting silvery as she tossed Dhatzu back his robe. She jerked the trousers over her hips raised her eyebrows in expectation of answers, clearly not having placed any value his earlier concerns regarding modesty. “Thank you,” she told him in heavily accented Lhavitian, mimicking his lesson in the bakery. “For,” once she tugged the chemise over her head and the shirt after, she spread her hands palm down and wide. Everything.

[Dhatzu]

The conversation with the shadow occurred before Dhatzu realized what he was doing, and as he turned back, Dor was ducking into a narrow space between two buildings, the space cast in deep shadows, though his eyes could penetrate them easily. The acolyte slipped into the narrow alley behind the kelvic, casting a warning glare behind him at the shadows lurking at the entrance to the space. Dor was digging into her pack. So, she had clothes all along. The woman was so odd. Then she started asking questions. His gnosis was not really a secret, most everyone at the pavilion knew about it, if only by whispers spoken as he walked by. But the course of conversation with the falcon girl was tenuous at best as they still stumbled over language, and the curious, unreadable expressions Dor offered him made him wonder if another strange revelation would just muddy the waters. But then again, he was young and for some reason wanted the standoffish animal girl to like him. "Um, well, I have a gift." He began, watching as Dor dressed, distracted enough not to realize that maybe he should not watch her change her clothes. But her skin, the structure of her form was so unique, he found he examined it not so much with a lustful eye, but with appreciation of its strange qualities. "I can speak with shadows." He shrugged as if it were nothing significant. If she could change into a falcon, why could he not have something amazing about him too? The lhavitian caught the tossed blue robe, slipping it back on over his torso and wrapping the belt around it once again. Once she had tugged on her pants, Dor turned to him, an air of finality in her demeanor. She uttered her gratitude as best she could in his native language, an indication to Dhatzu that she thought enough of him to address him in his own tongue. She finally shimmied her garments over her bared chest. Dhatzu looked at the kelvic with amazement and some sadness. It occurred to him that she had just recently received her freedom, and surely wished to explore and move about in her human form unhindered. Her ways were not his ways, nor his thoughts her thoughts. It was time for their paths to diverge. Dhaztzu spoke up in Common again. "Well, I guess I will officially welcome you to Mizahar. It was a pleasure to meet you Dor. I hope our paths may cross again." He bowed slightly, feeling awkward at the formality of the gesture.

[Dor]

The falcon girl went still with surprise, hands caught on the slope of her hips and mouth agape. Laughter erupted. It was soft at first, but it built into a throaty gyre that dipped and dove between gulping breaths until she was clutching at her stomach and biting her lip in an attempt to restrain the next flight of humor before it could launch. “Yes,” she gasped with a whistle of breath. “Yes, you do speak with shadows. You spoke with me.” Remaining words were lost in a spill of hiccupping giggles, murder hair splashing into her face as she bent down to scoop up her pack. It was slung over her shoulder when she straightened, leftover laughter flashing a lightning grin at him. “Sometime you should tell me what shadows say when they talk back,” she informed him and rolled forward, bare feet slipping her past him through the alley’s mouth and back in the direction of the gloaming plaza. “Until then, make good your luck, Dhatzu of Lhavit.” As this was a woman who believed in making ones own. There was a slant of black eyes up at him and if her steps slowed for but a moment, that too passed into the night and vanished into the wind just as she did into the denizens of the star city. It was time to keep on, stop coddling herself and say farewell to the company of a welcoming stranger with a glorious smile.

[Dor]

END