A Different View (Revy pls)

[Siiri]

Timestamp: 71st of Fall, 511 AV - Midday

The journey back to Taloba for Siiri's band had been uneventful compared to the chance meeting with the two humans in their company. Save for a run in with a troupe of hostile, fruit-throwing monkeys, which Siiri had scared off with a mighty roar channeled from her maledicted tiger tooth necklace, she and her companions had a relatively smooth trek hike to the Myrian capital. Their progress was only slowed by the heavily injured Kai, who had occasional bouts of dizziness from her exhaustion (and sometimes threw up her meal) when Siiri tried to push their pace. The fang leader recognized it as signs of a severe concussion, and she switched up her people's roles so that Kai stayed with the two humans while Garou and Onna traveled up in the trees as the eyes of their party. She herself took up the role of scout from Garou, often traveling ahead of the main group to reconnoiter the best path to take through the dense jungle.

As they neared the city, obvious trailed became visible in their path and they took to walking along one of them, traveling in a more compact group. Approximately five miles from Taloba, Siiri gave warning to the two humans not to stray from their beaten path. She knew the wilderness around them then was littered with deadly traps and devious snares, designed to wound and catch any who did not know about them. She did not share this information with her guests however, almost wishing that they would tempt fate and disregard her words. The two did no such thing, to her mild disappointment.

Eventually, they broke through into what seemed like a very huge clearing, and Revy and Carsten caught their first glimpse of one of the oldest standing cities in Mizahar. A perimeter of one hundred yards of open ground, free of any plant life, framed Taloba's sturdy stone walls - a killing field for the archers that stationed along the ramparts, stalwart sentries that stood watch for any intruder who found their way into the clearing. Only Siiri's fang's presence halted any arrows from biting into the humans' flesh. In fact, Garou had to wave a predetermined signal to the closest archers when he noticed one of them taking a bead on the humans.

The massive stone wall that curtained the city was twenty foot tall, smoothened and covered with moss to make it slippery even for the best climbers. At the base of it were thick wooden stakes that pointed outward, and some of them still had the bones and carcasses of creatures that tried to break into Taloba impaled on them. The structure itself was thick enough to allow three grown Myrians to walk abreast along the wall top with room to spare.

As they neared the gate, the warriors standing guard there leveled their stout spears, pointing their weapons' tips at the two humans. Siiri held up a hand for peace, and was forced to grasp the shaft of the spear of one overeager Myrian who seemed to want to prod Revy with the sharp end of his weapon.

"They are with me," she explained in her native tongue. She hesitated, glancing at Garou for a moment, before adding, "Pilgrimage. Of sorts."

One of the guards seemed to want to argue, but his captain merely waved the group onwards. Siiri knew what the woman was thinking: they could explain everything inside. Besides, in a city anyone and everyone knew how to defend themselves, from the young to the old, the outsiders had little to no chance of causing mischief.

Inside, the humans were greeted by the sight of various structures, from the large clanhome compounds of the many Myrian clans to the small houses owned by individual people. Some were made of wood, while others were made of much durable stone. Others still were a mixture of the two. But the one commonality among these buildings was the prevalence of skulls and other bones integrated into their frameworks. The Myrians wasted nothing.

Presently, their group split up - Onna would take Kai to the healers while Garou led Carsten's to a place where he could stay, likely in the men's barracks. That left Siiri to take care of Revy.

"Welcome to Taloba," she said to the human mercenary, though her tone was neither warm nor welcoming. But it was not hostile or unkind either. Truth be told, Siiri did not know how to take Revy's choice of coming into Falyndar. Was she just looking to train among her people, like the few blue-skinned Akalaks who sometimes ventured from across the sea to do that very thing? She gestured to an avenue leading deeper into the city.

"Walk with me. How is you arm?"

[Revy Hiroe]

The journey was a painful one for Revy. Her arm was giving her a lot of trouble as she still had her possessions she had to carry and doing so with only one arm was, to say it gently, quite tiring. But as she hated to rely on others too much, the woman just kept her head high and carry it herself, no matter how exhausted she'd become. Upon ariving at Taloba, the mercenary wasn't in the least surprised in the way she got treated. After all, with the limited knowledge she had of the myrians, she knew that visitors were rare. The emotionless welcome, if it could be called that, by Siiri wasn't too surprising either, but her concern for Revy's arm was a little. From the little time Revy had spent among the myrian troop, she couldn't exactly seem to figure out how Siiri felt about her, nor could she figure out her personality. For that, she didn't have too much information. The only one that had spoken more to her, had been Garou, however crude it was. Either way, the woman didn't want to seem weak and replied: "It's no big deal. Besides, if this is all the damage I take when killing a dhani, I wouldn't even think twice about it and do it again at any time." Her words weren't exactly filled with emotion, but slight hints of her true feelings slipped in. Those were her hatred towards the Dhani and that she was sincere of what she had just said. Revy started walking behind Siiri, glancing around as she tried to take in the building style of the myrians. While it wasn't the most beautiful city she had seen, it carried an emotion with it. Though she couldn't quite put her finger on what that was, it didn't feel all that wrong. In fact, it felt more as if she found her place after wandering around for more then fifteen years already. So a strange calmness came over her, one she hadn't experienced like that before.

[Siiri]

As the woman replied, Siiri watched her with knowing eyes. Revy was trying to put up a brave front, waving away the question about her injury as if she was truly not discomforted by it. Siiri knew better, of course, having suffered something similar more than a season ago, and up to now, her arm still has not fully healed yet making everything difficult for her, from wielding her greatsword to doing simple and mundane tasks like reaching for a cup of water. She knew bravado when she saw it. Still, she could not help but appreciate the hint of anger the human had for Dhani, a sentiment she could easily identify with.

"They are, as you humans say it, a thorn to the side of my people," she agreed. "It is foolishness to engage one single-handedly though. We were lucky that snake was a young one. If it had been an older Dhani..."

Siiri did not finish her words, just letting the thought linger between them so that Revy could absorb the gravity of its meaning. The Myrian knew when how it would have turned out had it been an older, more experienced Dhani they had run into. The creatures were wily and devious, and the older ones seldom traveled alone when out to hunt - not for food, but for Myrian meat. The first Dhani to be sighted would have been the lure, drawing anyone in to attack them before the other Dhani struck, from a place least expected by the attacker. It would be well executed, and it came easily to the natural-born predators. More than a few over-eager Myrians had met their end over such a tactic. Needless to say, the two races had been at each other's throats for centuries now, and only a goddess' intervention halted the Myrians from an all-out assault in the Dhani's home city of Zinrah.

"We had best have that looked at. I need Tingu to check on my arm as well, see if I can finally take off the bandages. It's cramping my elbow whenever I swing my sword to the left..."

As they talked, Revy would not the numerous eyes that followed her as she walked beside the Myrian. Siiri had taken them through a side street, opting it over the more congested main avenues of Taloba in order to avoid the press of people. Even then, there were still plenty of Myrians about in the route they have taken. Children, already done with their studies and chores for the day, played in the dirt road, chasing each other or play-fighting with wooden weapons as they waited for their midday meal to cook. Even the adults tried to squeeze in as much work as they could before they took a break to eat. On one side was a man chopping wood to be used for the fires in the homes of his clan than night, and on another was a Myrian woman, heavy with child, demonstrating to her young daughter how to gut and skin a large, rodent-like creature. An old man sat on a wicker rocking chair, deceptively calm and peaceful if not for the long and narrow bamboo rod in his hand, which he used to smack the thighs of a preteen boy whenever the boy tried to straighten from his position of having his arms raised parallel to the ground and knees bent into a half squat. Likely he was being punished for some misdeed or another, evidenced by the chagrined expression on his face as his elder lectured him about what he did wrong. From where she was walking, Siiri could tell that the old man's tone was not harsh, more insistent than anything, as if he wanted the boy to understand the need to do better.

Siiri eyed her companion, gauging the woman's reaction as she took everything in. She knew that part of the reason why Revy came to Falyndar was to fight and learn with vicious Myrian warriors, but she wondered what the human thought of her people now that she had a glimpse of the other aspects, those never told in the stories meant to scare both men and children about the blood-thirsty and barbaric Myrians.

They waded through a group of running children that seemed to be playing a modified version of Tag, one that involved using short poles to 'tag' the one who was 'it', the one being chased. It looked more like a hunt than anything else, where a group of children would run after one or two kids in order to poke them with the stick. The one who delivered the first poke would be celebrated by his fellows for his skill...before the positions were reversed and he was now the one being 'hunted'.

One of the children, a small girl really to young to understand the nuances of the game but was allowed to run with the other kids, bumped into Siiri's leg as she moved to dodge the one the girl was chasing after. The child fell to the ground on her rump, her lips starting to curve down in the beginnings of a pout. She gazed up and beheld the tattooed warrioress, with all kinds of weapons bristling all over her body, and the girl's eyes widened. Siiri reached down and gently pulled her back to her feet.

"Stand up, girl," she said in Myrian, amusement in her voice. "Your prey is getting away!"

She pointed at the boy the girl had been chasing, who had just long enough to look at them and stick out his tongue at the little girl, before running away again to dodge the other kids running after him. Siiri gave the girl a little pat on the butt to send her running but the girl only took a few steps before turning around to look back at her again.

"Is she going to get stabbed? Can I watch?" the girl asked in a heavily-lisped accent, pointing at Revy.

Siiri could only look at the woman she was escorting and laughed before waving the girl off as she and Revy continued walking. "No, but maybe she can have dinner with us. Run along now!" With a sidelong glance at the human mercenary, she switched to Common and said in a deadpan voice, "She was asking if you were going to stay for dinner."

[Revy Hiroe]

The eyes of the myrians that looked at Revy with suspiscion, anger or even hate, caused the human to feel a tad uncomfortable. Not that she was going to show it, but that didn't change that little fact. But still, just from seeing how the myrians lived, showed Revy that it was indeed a race that was savage. It was actually a bit less then she had expected it to be, but she still liked it. Her face still a bit emotionless, but it showed that it had gotten a bit harder for the mercenary to keep it like that. All she wanted to do right now, was break out in a wide grin. From seeing the game the kids played, to the young guy getting taught by the elder was just more proof to her that the race she saw as the ultimate warriors, was in it's average day life even busy with it. As a small girl bumped into Siiri, the human woman looked down on her. It wasn't really as if she was angry with the hold up or anything, but it could seem a bit like that. Besides that, the following reaction of Siiri did catch her by surprise. Seeing her as gentle as that was quite the surprise and in fact, it showed only a split second later on her face. Even though she couldn't understand what Siiri had just said, Revy could imagine it a little as she saw the face of the little girl. "I don't see why not, as long as I don't end up on the table.", the mercenary joked. It was a bit sad that Siiri acted that cold again, but it was imaginable gouging the reactions of the other Myrians. A stranger like her coming to Taloba was a rare occasion, that much she knew. Most of her own kind were too much of a chickens to even dare set foot near Falyndar, well.... except for that weirdo weak looking Carsten. "Would you care to teach me myrian? I'd be a bad visitor if I didn't try to understand your language at least. Even though I don't have too much to contribute right now, I'd like to help out where I can at least.", Revy proposed before thinking it through properly.

[Siiri]

The children resumed their play and the two adults continued on their way. Revy's question about learning the local dialect made Siiri think that the human was a little too eager to try and fit into the society. What was her purpose of wanting to understand the Myrian tongue anyway? To eavesdrop on important meetings, perhaps? It was almost always never a good thing to give an enemy an advantage, and learning how to speak Myrian would be an advantage for the human. Not something she could easily use to sabotage her people, of course, but an advantage nonetheless.

I am overthinking all of this, Siiri thought. Maybe she just wants to be able to communicate better...

The warrioress shook her head, and without any explanation to back the action, Revy might interpret it as a refusal. But Siiri could not help it; being suspicious of outsiders had been ingrained to her at a young age. The Myrians did not need the help of outsiders of hundred of years, holding the Falyndar region on their own since anyone, even Myri herself, could remember. They had prevented empires from exploiting the natural resources of the land, survived and rebuilt their civilization after a world-shattering event, and had wiped out any and all outsiders who had tried to take the land for themselves - all on their own! What made this human think anything she could contribute would help the chosen people of the Goddess of War? Besides, Siiri was not entirely sold on Garou's theory that Revy had been lured to Falyndar by Myri's silent call to train in their city and be a better fighter. Not yet, anyway.

"Why would you want to do that?" she asked. "All that would do you is understand any insult my people would utter in your direction."

Her words were spoken matter-of-factly and not meant to alienate the human mercenary, though not understanding the Myrian culture herself, Revy would likely take it the wrong way. This did not occur to Siiri, however. She was used to being honest to the point of being tactless, but such was her way. Were Revy observant enough, she would notice then the stark difference between her own kind and the Myrians, if Siiri was to be used as an example. Whereas some humans would pretend false courtesy and politeness in front of someone they would rather see dead, Myrians such as Siiri would openly declare their dislike and desire to kill the person and it would come out as truth rather than opinion. Subtlety was seldom practiced, and in some extreme cases, hardly even understood, among the Myrians.

"The traders and merchants here, they speak Common well enough that you can get what you need from them," Siiri added, as if that little, unrelated fact settled Revy's inquiry. "Well...usually. You may find your silly gold and silver coins of little value here. Traders, they like bartering, especially if you have items that are hard to find in our land. Like steel."

She gestured at Revy's sword and her finely crafted shield.

"Those would fetch a fair price. But don't worry. I think there is a...how do you say?... money-exchanger person... in the Plaza. I forgot his name, only had to deal with him once or twice. You can go to him after I've shown you where you can rest and keep your things.

"But first, we get your wound looked at."

They had stopped in front of a small-sized hut made of wood and bamboo. If Siiri had brought Revy to a place of healing, the human would be left to wonder why the structure wasn't any bigger. There should be enough space to house those who were gravely injured or severely sick. Instead, the building before them only seemed large enough to house a single person, if at all.

Without a word, Siiri opened the bamboo door and vanished within the confines of the hut. Revy would notice something strange about the door - it had no lock, not even a latch or anything to prevent outside entry. It was similar to the doors of all the other houses they had passed by earlier.

With no instructions from the Myrian to remain outside, Revy was free to follow inside. Then again, had she been thinking about the differences of humans and Myrians, she might wonder just how the hut's resident would take the unannounced entry of a foreigner into her home.

[Revy Hiroe]

The mercenary's face went back into a more cold state. She felt her anger boil a little, but right now wasn't the time to fight. She had to keep her head out of trouble if she wanted to properly learn here and get to see Myri. "Except for the fact that I follow the rule of: 'One who doesn't work, doesn't eat.' I want to know when someone insults me, so I can teach them otherwise. I don't like being insulted at all. And that means by no one.", she lay the emphasis on the word 'no one' since she'd even attack a leader if he or she would insult her. When Siiri mentioned the selling of her sword or shield, Revy was immediately on her guard. Those two things were something she'd never, for no price, would let go of. The shield was the only possession she had left of her family and her sword was the only thing she could use to do her job with. Her armor on the other hand was more for protection and thus could be sold, but it was something she'd rather avoid as well. Luckily for her, Siiri mentioned a money trader only a bit later, which made the mercenary a bit relieved. As Siiri stopped in front of a small hut, the human woman was a little taken aback. Such a small hut for an infirmary? How could all the wounded fit in it, because there had to be quite a few here. What was even more of a surprise was that the door didn't even have a lock. Didn't the people here need to protect their stuff? Or was it so that there was just no theft? If the latter was the case then Taloba was a much better place then any other hellhole of a city Revy had visited. The mercenary didn't really want to dawdle outside, since Siiri did seem like an impatient woman at times. "Well, if they don't lock it and Siiri just enters like that, I hope they won't mind a human like me. Have to have my arm looked at anyway.", she thought as she soon followed Siiri into the building.

oocSorry for the crappost, but my brain seems to be giving out.

[Siiri]

Inside the hut were two other Myrians, one a male warrior with more daggers strapped to various parts of his body than Revy would care to count, the other a stern-looking, middle aged Myrian woman. The male was sitting beside a table where his arm rested, a nasty gash running the length of his forearm. The older Myrian appeared to be applying a dark, pungent poultice over the man's wound. Revy caught Siiri exchanging something in the Myrian tongue with the man just as she entered, to which the man turned to her, inspecting her with cool, calculating eyes.

"So this is the 'guest' you mentioned," he noted, giving Revy a once over before grinning at the human mercenary. "Looks well rounded in the best of places."

Siiri laughed and again said something in Myrian. Even to Revy's untrained ears, the foreign word sounded obscene. The man only chuckled at the comment.

"Don't believe everything you hear about our people, White Bread," he said. "Some of us actually like outsiders. I'll show you around. You can call me Paen." He winked at her and moved to extend his hand.

Or tried to. The elder Myrian smacked him on the head the same time Siiri made a rude, snorting sound. Paen settled back on the chair with an embarrassed expression on his face and the herbalist continued her ministrations on his arm.

"Sorry, Tingu," he said with false contriteness, grinning despite the blow. "Siiri's friend is distracting me. Maybe I should knife her instead?"

The man laughed, though Revy would be able to tell that his words were meant as a jest. It seemed Myrian humor revolved around inflicting violence.

Siiri, for her part, could only shake her head at her fellow Myrian's antics. She turned to Revy and motioned for her to sit on the other chair in the room, one beside a table in the far corner of the room. As soon as the mercenary did, the Myrian warrioress took the mortar and pestle, the dried leaves and jar of thick, mud-colored paste left untended on the counter beside Paen and Tingu and made her way towards Revy.

"Seems you found a friend here already," she said offhandedly. "Not that I'm surprised. Tooth likes women of all colors and...hrm...breed."

Siiri did not meet Revy's eyes as she said this, having an inkling that her words came off as rather insulting. That was not her main concern about the short exchange between the human and her fellow warrior, however. She knew that some of her people preferred taking mates that were outside their own kind. She herself had developed a romantic relationship with her bondmate - a Kelvic! But she felt that was different compared to when a member of the opposite sex took interest in a foreign woman. Any offspring that would result in their coupling would be looked down upon, and such things only served to dilute the Myrian bloodline. It weakened her people, in her opinion. But she did not share any of this to the human.

And so Siiri worked quietly, scooping a good amount of gunk from the jar and deposited it in the mortar before crumpling the dried leaves between her fingers and mixing it in with the paste, and then grinding the paste and leaves so that they blended well together. Occasionally, she would stop and peer at her work, spitting a good amount of her saliva into the mixture when she found that it had dried. She did not stop to consider that the human might find it all quite disgusting. That was how she had seen Tingu prepare the unguent, so that was how she prepared it. She did not even know what the paste was made of, though she was certain what the dried leaves were. They had plenty of it back in the barracks, some boiled as tea, the remained used to clean wounds.

"Guava leaves," she explained to Revy as she spread the thick mixture around the human's wound. "It will clean the bite better than Onna's poultice did, and it would sting less, too. You can come here every day to get some of this mix from Tingu. Just tell her I sent you. Of course, you have to pay her for the materials used. After you get your metal coins exchanged.

"Your arm, she would have to look at, though you may only need to have the sling replaced. But I am no expert."

She paused, thinking that the human may have questions for her.

[Revy Hiroe]

Revy entered the shop and blinked a couple times to get used to the different light inside of the house. Right then she noticed a man, with numerous daggers strapped to him, eyeing her out. Her face immediately turned almost sour. A male's attention like that was something she'd rather avoid. Too many men had lost their lives because of their.... 'interest' in her. The obscene sound of Siiri's remark didn't elude the mercenary's ears, but for now she didn't act on it. As she heard the invitation of the man, her hand crept to her sword, laying on it a little restless. She has had too many of those kind of pickup lines to feel safe about it. Right now she didn't want to kill anyone, but if it was for her own protection, any hesitation would just be thrown away. The human woman sat down at the only leftover chair. "Tooth? The guy sitting there?", she asked the myrian a little confused. She had heard him call himself Paen and not tooth. But that quickly made place for a small amount of surprise as she saw Siiri spitting in the mortar. It didn't disgust her, in fact she understood slightly why saliva was used. She herself had used it to clean wounds she got in the wild when water wasn't available. Giving the male a glare as Siiri kept silent, Revy said: "That guy had better watch out, I don't like guys trying to..... score with me. Most of them tried to do more eventually and they all ended up dead." Her face kept serene and clear of emotion the whole time. The only thing where one could see what went on inside her mind was her eyes. Those were filled with anger and a slight hint of sadness. Even though she didn't show it, some of the deaths haunted her. Not because the guy died, but because of the wives they left behind, or the kids. It reminded her of her own situation.

[Siiri]

"Tooth," Siiri repeated absently as she wiped clean the unguent that spread too far from Revy's bite wound with one of the strips of cloth lying around the table. "That's just what we call him in the barracks. Look at him, more daggers than he has teeth. So. 'Tooth.'"

She inspected her handiwork before wrapping Revy's injured hand with the cloth she had just used. Her efforts were clumsy but the end result was functional; the cloth didn't fall off the human's hand at least. Hopefully, that was what she was meant to do after applying the mixture. She was never sure if Tingu made the unguent dry up first before applying the bandage, even during the many times the older Myrian treated her. She just never paid enough attention to those kinds of details. If a certain procedure helped heal a wound, did it really matter if she waited or not?

Revy's warning, though not really directed at her, was a little confusing for Siiri and it showed on her face. "Score?" she asked, wondering what the human meant. It was the first time she's heard the word used that way. Was the human talking about some sort of game she wanted to play with the Tooth? Siiri was certain they had been discussing the man's interest in Revy.

"I don't know what kind of game you want to play with him, but Tooth plays hard. He beat me once in weapons." Siiri scrunched up her nose as if the memory did not sit well with her.

"Once," she repeated, as if it had some sort of significance, though Revy would likely not understand. "Never happened again."

Siiri obviously did not like losing. Ever.

[Revy Hiroe]

Hearing the confusion of the myrian, the mercenary looked at her a little amused. "She doesn't know what it means? Well, I'll tell her........ and that guy beat her in combat? What kind of a fighter would he be then? If he fights with daggers only, I could probably learn how to fight those kind of things properly.", she thought. "What I mean is guys that try to get a woman laid with sweet talk. Had a couple of them before that tried to do so, or even tried to take me by force. Most of them just wound up dead..... especially the persistent ones.", Revy explained with disgust coloring her voice. "By the way... once my arm is healed up, I want to have a spar with you again. I really enjoyed the fight with you... even though I lost.", the human then said. She twitched a little as she said that she had lost, something that was extremely rare for her. The only other one she had lost to was Isa of the silent death, the one who taught her the way of the Katana. "This time, I'll make sure to beat you.", she grinned widely as she said that. "I'm going to beat her this time and prove that I'm worthy of these myrians. I wanted that the rest of the world was like them, then it would be so much more enjoyable to live in. Too many weaklings that are too scared to fight and too many backstabbers if you ask me.", the mercenary thought as she started to picture her fight with Siiri. Her annoyance started to show on her face and it could be misunderstood for annoyance with the bandages Siiri had applied, even if Revy wasn't in the least annoyed by that.