[A Secret] It's Not Just a Game... (Tiki)

[Secret]

Timestamp: Summer 32, 511AV, Midday Location: Outer Petals Who: Tiki, Shurk NPC Thump... Thump... Thump... This sound resonated around a couple of Petals. It was a high sun day, the light casting black and green shades on everything. The weather was clear, the fog had already receded, an overall lovely day. Shurk could be seen sitting on the boards of a Petal, leaning against a tree. He was large, being a Jamoura, but had a more lithe, athletic look about him. And he could be currently seen throwing something round against a tree a good distance away, and it bounced back perfectly every time. Thump... Thump... Thump... A familiar flash of color caught Shurk's eye. It was the reason he was waiting here, and his lips curled into a big toothy smile. The small jaguar Kelvic was running around without real purpose like usual. Shurk cocked his arm back and unleashed an incredibly powerful throw. The ball was made of treated leather purchased from a traveler, and sewn together, stuffed with the untreated fluff from the Slugsuckle vine when it matures. This gives the ball a heavier weight, but a good bouncy quality too. It had an odd shape, rounded, but the leather patches gave it faces and edges. The ball flew threw the air, seemingly toward the feline. Shurk had aimed it so that it would pass in front of the Kelvic's nose. He wanted to gauge his reaction speed. If the Kelvic transformed and caught the ball, he would be quite pleased. If not, the ball would ricochet off the tree behind the jaguar and would likely strike it. Shurk watched intently as the ball neared his target.

[Tiki]

He was scooting along, Tiki that is, in search of…excitement! Excitement in learning that is; he was now feeling the passing of bruises on his sore body from the fight only over a week ago. The cuts had scabbed over entirely, and most were coming off clean. He looked so odd with the nicks in his pelt, the fur having fully returned. Worst of all, he walked slower with a bit of a gimp on his hind left leg. He must have rolled over a rock or something. Ah, oh well, the kelvic figured, he had been in worse before, this soreness was child’s play, well child’s play to a youth kelvic, perhaps. But yes, sweet discovery! What fascinating information would he gather today in the blazing heat of the magnificent sun under the loft trees of the magnificent – whoa!

Whatever thoughts the kelvic had in mind vanished as the ball soared past him, off the tree, and back, TIki’s eyes tracing its every move a distance of half a meter or so back. He remained fixated on the ball by instinct, but soon caught eye of its owner with a more intelligent part of him, and thus looked up to him.

I was just looking around is all, I tell you honestly, and out of nowhere this sphere penetrated the air before me and bounced on back. Ah, I hear it now, the sound matches up quite perfectly. That musical…thump, I might call it. It almost had a drum-ish tune to it. Here I thought there was just someone working, but of course this is Spires. When is there anything of the norm in Spires?Upon further examination, I found the source of my startling, to which I nearly jumped, nearly of course. Perhaps I’ll give him a skip and a hop and what not on over. Those eyes seem wanting of something, best I not keep him waiting.

After a pause, the kelvic settling himself once more, he approached the Jamoura. Within a good speaking distance, Tiki pushed up on his front paws and shifted forward. His eyes were wide and alert if any other objects were to zoom at him, and he had a silly little grin on his face.

”What’s that?” he asked in the common tongue. His grin grew a bit wider with his inquiry, but never the less showed great interest and enthusiasm.

[Secret]

The Jamoura had a mischievous twinkle in his eye. The Kelvic took the bait, with eagerness it seemed. Holding the ball in one hand, he used his fingers to give it a powerful spin, while balancing it on a fingertip. "Oh this? Surely you wouldn't be interested in a Sihk'Laya ball. Kelvic aren't that interested in competitive games are they?" Shurk said all this, knowing he was just further enticing the young cat. Shurk let the ball spin down his arm, behind his head along his shoulders, to his other arm. He snapped his wrist as the ball reached his hand, sending the ball high into the air. Shurk didn't even look up, he looked directly at Tiki. "Besides it's not child's play. It's quite a rough game. Now catch!" The ball fell between the two and Shurk let loose a massive kick. The top of his foot connected with the leather ball, and sent it speeding past Tiki's ears, high into the trees. The ball ricocheted off a trunk and went askew. If Tiki transformed, and raced to it, and changed, he might be able to catch it. Might.

[Tiki]

Games, why of course I loved games?! Who silly little creature wouldn’t? A silly little sad creature I bet you! And that sly smile, why in the world…such a funny people the Jamoura, this one funnier than most. Bah child’s play huh, I’m sure I can handle any rough game this old ape can – and of course I jumped, the Jamoura shot at me again. No, I wasn’t scared…just shocked!

The kelvic sat seemingly dumb with his transfixed eyes and that widening grin. By the time the ball did go by he was following is with his eyes and head. The command resonated in his ears, and his grin became a full bloomed smile. He darted after it, hopped forward as a cat. He chased it out, but it was too late; he adjusted his course accordingly and leapt for it. In that graceful moment of air time he exposed flesh again and snagged the ball. They went off course together and tumbled. He held the ball in his arms triumphant.

He rolled a moment before getting up, the ball pressed against his chest with the left hand. His mouth opened to yawn as he peeked to the side, and he let his free hand comb through his hair. He had it all along, oh yea. He snapped back and upped his pace to a jog. He’d hold onto the ball for a little bit longer, just so nothing else starts flying around. He was back in short time with his grin speaking a great deal of his outlook, funny.

”That sounded nice and all, but you still haven’t told me how to play. I’ve had a few fights; I’m out on my own. I think I can handle a game.” There might have been a bit of an attitude translated, all the same it was overlooked by his comical attempt to mimic the ball spin. The ball fell and he clumsily caught it. He looked back up a bit red faced and ready to laugh. ”What is Sihk’Laya though?”

[Tiki]

OOCPermission granted from Creeper If a jamoura could smile, Shurk was smiling, creepily that was. It took an odd mind to devise such an odd activity in a place like Spires. The hook was in, and now it was time to reel him back. The kelvic cub had no idea of what Shurk had in mind for him, or the city. Shurk had reached his arms out to Tiki for the ball, who willingly agreed and lent him the ball back. With a light shove, Tiki was pushed down on the ground to sit and be lectured by ole Coach Shurk. At least the jamoura liked the ring of the idea, his eyes still twinkling brightly in his minor triumph. Tiki was just smiling, without much of a clue as to what the jamoura was so happy about. “Now listen here, little kelvic, my name’s Shurk, your new coach and employer. You’re Tiki if I’ve heard right about you, and I am a fan of yours,” said the towering jamoura, giving Tiki the occasional nudge on the shoulder or rub of the head. kelvics were adorable things. He was eager to continue his lecture though. This wasn’t just a game to Shurk. Tiki wouldn’t have caught on though. He was still a bit bewildered by this jamoura’s forward nature. “Now you’re here asking me what this Sihk’Laya ball is for right, what Sihk’Laya is? Right? Right. Now I’m going to tell you, but you must keep it a secret… Can you do that, Tiki?” Yea, sure! Why not? Tiki nodded his head in vigorous agreement. While figuring out what this Sihk’Laya game was all about sounded interesting, the idea of keeping secrets just peaked his interests a bit more. Why Shurk trusted a kelvic, or wanted his involvement was still a mystery, even after he was told. Tiki had an alien enthusiasm to him indeed, something beyond the Spirian norm. With the right amounts of encouragement, recognition, and reward, Shurk could have Tiki flipping for him. What he had in mind was of equal craziness of course. “Good, good! Sihk’Laya is a game, something of my own imagination. I take a look around here and can’t help but wonder everything’s so boring. Then it hit me, even our most active Hahk’Shatar are standing in bushes all the time! We need something to get us moving, right, to get us on our feet and hands and swinging and shouting. That’s how I came to discover Sihk’Laya. It’s really simple; you just take his ball, and put it through a hoop. Now there will be a hoop guard, and a few others trying to stop you, but you’ll have your own team too. Sounds brilliant, right?” Tiki hadn’t really thought it over that much. Tiki was still lost in what Shurk found so boring about Spires when he was still learning. A few hundred years in the same tree might do that to a jamoura, he supposed. “Now here’s what I need you to do… Me and a few of my buddies are liking this idea, we have a team going and everything, but we need some more help in putting a field together, to play. You see my hands, Tiki? These are some big hands. This is where you come in…” Shurk went on about the wonderful details he had in mind. Shurk aspired to build a stadium among the trees that the Spires would wear like a crown. High up in the canopy, all Spirians would be able to join in the fun amongst the overhanging branches if not on the field themselves. “It’s a wonderful idea, isn’t it? I know you’re just so eager to get started, but you need to know there are some rules first. I’m not talking about the game, Tiki, I’m talking about this project. I don’t think old white and fuzzy is too thrilled with the idea just yet, but he will be. He just needs to see the joys it brings to all inhabitants of The Spires. Hahaha! Ha…ha, until then though, hmm ha…you need to keep these rules in mind though: The first rule is, don’t talk about Sihk’laya. I’m not entirely sure, but I think some of these old apes are getting ideas of their own, and they won’t be taking mine anytime soon. “The second rules is, DO NOT TALK ABOUT SIHK’LAYA! I feel the need to reinforce this to you especially, chatter box. I see those lips flapping in the wind when you start talking. Bbbuuuurrrr!!!” Shurk put his finger to his lips and started to wiggle it up and down as he pushed the air out, a funny noise. Tiki laughed. He was listening intently of course. Shurk just knew enough about him to keep his attention. “You need to promise me Tiki that you won’t. This means very much to me. If you accept these terms, I will tell you about Sihk’Laya. Do you accept?” “I do, Shurk!” Tiki said with enthusiasm. Shurk was on him, covering his big mouth and his screaming. He didn’t want to attract attention, and there was Tiki, shouting out their secret deal on the petal commons. “Good, good, Tiki. Just keep it down. No one needs to know, remember? That’s right, that’s right, now then, the game… Like I said, it’s simple. You put this ball through the hoop, and then you score. You get one point. Now the field is divided into three parts, each end had a hoop for each team. Each team has a guard at the hoop. Each team is also allowed to have seven other members, plus the guard… You know how many that is, right? Look here… one, two, three…” Shurk counted his fingers off to Tiki and had him do the same. Tiki started getting the vague idea numbers. This one was one, those were two, three, four, and so on. Tiki counted up to the total eight players to a team so far, and Shurk looked at him approvingly. He continued to Tiki,”So now that each team has a total of…how many players?” He looked at Tiki. “Eight! I mean…eight.” Shurk grinned, nodded, and went on, his hands doing their best to gesture and denote the divisions and locations of each part and player against the empty space over the petal surface. “Each team is allowed two players, besides the guard, in the hindmost section by his goal. There are then three from each team in the middle, and two at the forward position. If we have the offensive team, how many do we have forward?” “Two.” “Center?” “Three.” “And in the back?” “Two?” “And…?” Tiki stopped to do the math for a moment. Shurk was raising his chin, ready to correct Tiki before the kelvic shouted again, being sure to beat out the jamoura in this competition of mathematical minds, “Three! I forgot the guard.” Shurk grinned. Kelvics were useful after all. “Good, Tiki. Now, how to play: You hold the ball like this, this or this, but never like this, or this, or this either. You see?” Shurk demonstrated how many ways a jamoura was capable of grasping the Sihk’Laya ball with all limbs and digits and joints. Tiki knew his body wasn’t capable of such motions. It’s a jamoura thing. Tiki didn’t figure himself being able to play, and had to ask a question after Shurck finished demonstrating how the ball is not to be placed under one’s chin, in the mouth, or between the rear cheeks. “How can I play though? I can’t do that.” Shurk hit a dead end with that. He had yet to consider how other species could play. There was no way of putting a handicap on this game, and really it was meant to be a test of skill and agility, more than brute strength. He had an explanation in mind though. “Just hold onto that question, Tiki. Let me explain this first. Now players can move in their own zones, the guard having his own special zone where only he can play, no one else. Other players can move forward or back from his zone, but should try to stay in his own. The guard must stay in his own zone at all times. This means most players will play in two zones, but the center players will probably play on the whole field. “Now, moving the ball: Players can throw the ball across the field, but the other team can intercept it too, and move toward their opponent’s hoop. The ball can also be passed to another player in a hand off. Remember how this thing bounced off that tree past your nose?” Tiki remembered. It also took his face off when it did zoom past. “It’s extremely bouncy. I’ve been working on it for a while now. I’m still working on the model a bit. You can bounce the ball off of the trees too, to a team, or if you’re going to score. It bounces on the bark really well, the ground too. Most sturdy branches will support it, from what I’ve tested… “Right, now we know how to play, who can play, where to play, but not so much how to play like I said I’d tell you… How to play, although you really already know, is to get this ball through your opponents’ hoop and score. The ball can only go through the front of the hoop. The guard needs to stop the ball from going through, and work the ball back toward his opponents’ goal. “Some other rules: No combat or rough housing, no weapons or armor. The only contact allowed is the closeness needed to take the ball from the other team. A jamoura can grapple another to tear the ball away, but only for a brief moment. We don’t want to see jamoura hugging each other when they are playing Sihk’Laya, now do we? It’s a game of skill and agility, which is where your answer comes in. There’s not much muscle needed except for your grip and throwing…arms, for you. I want to hang some slugsuckle vines down, grow them overhead to be nice and strong for the jamoura players. The hoop will be somewhere above the petal for good bounce shots, and we’ll try to make the stadium as much as of an ellipse as we can. Some wood in the honey-glue ought to do the trick…” Shruk was crouching before Tiki rubbing his chin in thought of the stadium’s preparation. It was becoming a reality, and he could focus on the details. Tiki sat intently listening to the jamoura in his ramblings. Although intrigued, he would need to see this game in action first. Some practice plays could help him out. “It’s really more strategy, the more I think of it. You need to have sound plans, and good team work. The action is very live and quick paced. With the right plan before, you can run over the other team with your scores. You need to pace yourself of course. I’m guessing the game might last up to a bell, with fifteen chime intervals. The final ticks of a good game can be so precious when it comes to scoring. I don’t foresee any need for penalties yet… I’d like to think only the most prestigious players will have the honor to play at this stadium for games. Really, I’m working on it. Maybe some free shots. I might need some penalties soon actually… Maybe a free toss in or one-on-one shot with a player and hoop guard. We need to set up stadium boundaries to stay in. Besides wanting to keep the game in Spires, you don’t want to know how many times I’ve lost this ball, and what I’ve gone through to get it back! oh the things I’ve seen crawling around looking for it… Do you know what things are piled around the jungle floor? It doesn’t smell like Caiyha’s temple, to say the least. I need to make more of these too… There’s so much to be done, ugh.” Shurk meditated a moment on his own preparations. Tiki looked at him with bright eyes thinking about the game, but he still had a question. It sounded like a wonderful idea. He’d like to play some time. “Oh yea, and we’ll need a judge. Maybe a…a “game deacon” or something? I don’t have a title just yet, but we’ll need someone to make sure the rules are followed. You can even do that. You just need to make sure you can keep up to watch the ball and players. No foul play, you know? You can watch from the ground, swing from side vines, or maybe even some platforms. Those will need to be reinforced for the ball…” Shurk returned to his mental note taking. “We may need a few game deacons, really. I need a better name too, maybe. I like the ring to it, game deacon, don’t you? I just don’t want the old ape to be more upset with me than he already is, hahaha! yes, this is good, this is very good. “Well, Tiki, do you have any questions about the game at all, or anything to say?” Tiki nodded his head, and asked once more, “What is Sihk’Laya?” Shurk game Tiki a puzzled look, hints of what might have been frustrations crossing through his eyes, a twinge in fact that he had just explained everything there presently was to Sihk’Laya, and the kelvic didn’t give him a bit of attention. “Weren’t you listening to what I just said…?” Tiki nodded in affirmation. “Then what do you mean ‘what is Sihk’Laya?’ I just told you everything there is to know.” “I still don’t know what Sihk’Laya is though. What does it mean?” Shurk had his palm on his forehead in a split instance of Tiki’s reasoning. The kelvic wanted to know what the word meant in common terms. Shurk had already done Tiki the favor of translating to common terms for him, unaware of the kelvic’s enthusiasm for Spirian culture, or at least the native tongue of the jamoura. Shurk hadn’t figured Tiki to be interested in language so much. “It’s not my favorite part of my brain child, but the name means circle-ball. The ball, laya, is aimed for the hoop or circle, sihk. It doesn’t translate as gracefully to common, I know, but hoop-ball, Sihk’Laya, has much hope for a jamoran pastime, don’t you think? You’re still interested, right? I intend to pay you too. I’ve heard you’re a traveler, and I’d like to use your skill and muscle while I can.” Tiki wasn’t so sure what muscle Shurk meant, but he was still very interested. “I’m game.” Punny stuff, Shurk laughed about the kelvic’s knee-slapper wit. “Excellent, Tiki. Report back here tomorrow, same time, and I’ll lead you back to the crew. We have some things to pick up on the way as it is. The space is cleared, and we can get started as soon as possible. I’m hoping to finish the stadium by summer’s end, and hopefully put on the finishing touches come fall. Taldera’s winters are cold, Tiki, and colder yet in the frozen north near Avanthal, the frozen city. Icy winds cut skin like your claws. I figure if we give it a nice aesthetic touch, something pleasing to the eyes, perhaps some flowers for those women already courted – although they might like a look at the players anyway, haha – and, and I’m not sure what else. Maybe we can set up a place to eat and drink while you watch the game, hmm? I think we can make that work. Grath might even consider opening another place of business for us? Wouldn’t that be a site? So many plans, Tiki, but we need to start basic. Like I said, be here tomorrow. Oh, and rest up tonight. We have some heavy lifting to do tomorrow.” Shurk had been playing with the ball the whole while. He was walking away still toying with it. As of the moment, he was probably the best player in the Spires – not that anyone else even knew how to play. Tiki was eager. He had been hired to help build the stadium! Wait… “Why am I helping Shurk build a stadium?” It wasn’t like Tiki had much better things to do, and he’d get paid as it was. Tiki went off to enjoy his day, sleep well for the night, and prepare for heavy lifting the next day, whatever that meant.

[Creeper]

As Tiki was settling in to sleep, his sensitive ears would hear a voice he recognized as Shurk's. But the Coach wasn't talking to him, but another. They greeted each other like old friends, and his voice was deep, low, old. "It's about time you found yourself a partner in your hare brained schemes. Now you can stop dragging me the roots to play with you." Shurk replied, "You'll miss it you old coot, what's the score now between us? 3015 to 3013? Surely you won't let me keep on winning like this?" The voice replied, "3014, you always forget that rainy day six decades back." "Okay Marn, how about one more, on the roots way beneath the temple, for old times sake? It was always your favorite place to go when you were feeling a bit upset."   Skills Detection: 1 Observation: 2 Interrogation: 2 Running: 1 Acrobatics: 1 Mathematics: 1   Lores Spirian Game: Sihk'Laya Contact: Coach Shurk Do NOT Talk About Sihk'Laya Jamouran: Sihk means Circle Jamouran: Laya means Ball Marn: Goes to the Roots Beneath the Temple When Upset   Other Jamouran Language: Basic Notes!