In the country I cannot have [Kavala]

[Trista]

Spring 510, date TBD

They weren't kidding when they said "heavy rains may occur."

Frankly, Trista wasn't sure she had ever seen a downpour as impressive as this, not anywhere in her travels. She had grown up in a city where the time between rainstorms was usually measured in years, and she had to confess that she found the current storm a bit...excessive.

She had gone out for some fresh air, leaving Amaya behind to guard their "possessions" -- aside from some coinage, they had precious little. At any rate, she had been lost in thought, and hadn't been paying attention; the storm had taken her by surprise.

If she had been motivated enough, she probably could have managed to fly back, but the effort it took to remain aloft when king-size sheets of water were slamming against her wings meant that it would have to have been a life or death situation. So she had simply landed where she was, next to a stone fence that did absolutely nothing to protect her from the rain.

Admittedly, Trista didn't exactly need protection. She had spent much of her life underwater, and her Akvatari heritage meant that she was perfectly equipped to sleep outside in anything from Eyktol-level heat to Novallas-type freezing rain. But still, she looked -- and felt -- like a bedraggled mess, and would have appreciated any break in the weather that would have allowed her to freshen up and sit out part of the storm.

But that wasn't going to happen. Judging by the sky, nothing was going to happen except rain, rain, and more rain, and she was just going to have to sit here with her tail in the mud and her hair blowing into her mouth and wait for it to end. And wait, and wait, and wait.

[Kavala]

The strider mare, Glass, Kavala had been riding had worked a stone deep into her hoof. The Konti was out exercising her, putting her through her paces after having been working on her horsemanship to brush her up in case a potential sale came along. And when she'd come up lame, it was just in time for the torrential downpour to hit. Kavala had no true weather sense so she really hadn't gotten any inclination that today of all days would be a bad day to take a horse out.

Consequently she was on foot, a mare trailing her with a painful limp, both of them soggy to the extreme. White hair trailed down and mixed with wet wool which was leaking fabric dye down Kavala's arms, staining them red. The hem of her cloak, now mudstained, was starting to look tattered. It had never been properly tailored to fit her slight size so there was a good two or three inches of wasted fabric at the bottom that would now be ruined. Ruined like the day.

Kavala scowled, looking around for cover, and saw none but a stone outcropping with the oddest sight on it she'd ever seen. Half woman, half seal, with wings that looked as waterlogged as Kavala felt... the konti paused enough that the mare, who was paying no attention to where she was going, snorted and walked nose first into the small woman.

"Owe! Watch where your going." Kavala told Glass, then patted the mare's nose before turning back to the sight. She stared a moment longer then lifted her head and raised her voice to call out. "Hello there.... do you always perch in the rain like this?" She said.

[Trista]

Hello there...do you always announce yourself with questions that reveal yourself as an imbecile?

Trista didn't say the words that flashed through her mind, but she couldn't prevent herself from grimacing slightly. Admittedly, Akvatari weren't particularly common in this part of the world, but surely Trista's demeanor would give away the fact that sitting in the mud wasn't something that either she specifically or her race in general held close to their hearts. Seriously...either that horse had bumped the woman a lot harder than it had looked, or this particular Konti had rocks in her head.

"Not when I can avoid it." There was a dry sarcasm in her voice -- probably the only dry thing within twenty miles. However, her manners soon returned to her -- she was a stranger here, and it was probably best not to offend the locals, no matter how much they deserved it.

"I'm guessing that the same holds true for you." She brushed some of her sopping red hair away from her eyes, although the rain immediately pushed most of it back down again. Although her interlocutor hadn't introduced herself, Trista decided that this would be the appropriate course of action. "I'm Trista."

The Akvatari turned momentarily to the horse. Such creatures fascinated her -- there we no terrestrial animals native to Akvatar larger than a lizard, and her people of course had no use for mounts. The very strangeness of something like a horse rendered it intriguing, although Trista found her thoughts drawn to what it would be like to be thrown from one, and how persistent someone would have to be to get on one again after such an occurrence. Or stupid. The line between persistent and stupid was so thin that it often threatened to disappear entirely.

Her gaze returned to the Konti. Certainly she had nothing better to do -- or, more accurately, nothing better that she could do -- than sit here and talk to this woman, so she'd have to make the best of it. A silent prayer floated up to the heavens.

Avalis...this is one of your daughters. Please increase her intelligence and render her a decent conversationalist...

[Kavala]

She wouldn't have said it was instant dislike, but since Trista wasn't exactly human, Kavala caught the wave of scorn rolling off the Akvatari and quieted her thoughts, blocking out the woman's distaste. So, they were more beast than man, much like the kelvics.

Interesting.

"Having trouble avoiding it today, eh?" Kavala said, a smile playing across her face. It looked like the kind of smile someone would paint on a scarecrow - fake and unkind - as if even the scarecrow realized the joke was on the crow who was viewing it as someone real. Poor crow. Poor Trista. Perhaps the Akvatari communicated better in song or art. She'd heard something about that, though she'd never seen anything they'd actually rendered.

Lightening cracked in the sky again and the rain seemed to redouble its attempt to wash all the soil from the surface of Mizahar all at once.

"She threw a shoe, worked a stone up in her frog, and is lame now. It happens sometimes. And so if we can't run, we walk and subsequently get caught in the rain." It was as good an excuse as any. Kavala wondered what Trista's excuse was.

"I imagine you aren't sitting out here all alone in the rain getting soaked to the bone because your horse came up lame though. What's your excuse?" Kavala asked, turning to gently rub the soaked nose of the strider that followed her. The animal wore no headgear and hardly any tack, only a thin yvas encircling her middle. "I am Kavala. Pardon my manners, but the rain has made me less than articulate today." The konti glanced up. Like Trista, she was a creature of both water and air so it truly didn't bother her as much as it did the horse. But the horse's pain and misery was rolling off the animal and infecting the woman so she was having a hard time not feeling just a little bit miserable herself.

"I don't know about you, but I can think of a whole lot better things to do than stand out in the rain and talk. Would you like a warm cup of tea someplace drier?" Kavala asked... if nothing more than to make an excuse to get the mare back home. She hoped the Akvatari would refuse her invitation, politely making an excuse to avoid the social nicety even though it was painfully obvious she was doing nothing else important.

Maybe thats what Akvatari did... sit out in the rain feeling... drab.

[Trista]

The woman didn't like her either, that was clear from her face. Then she gave her explanation for why she was out in the rain, which left Trista somewhat puzzled. She knew what a horseshoe was, but was at a loss to explain why -- or even how -- the animal could throw it. Maybe it was a Kelvic too? And although this was the perfect weather for frogs, she failed to see how that would have anything to do with a horse coming up lame. Was it a technical term? If so, it went right over the Akvatari's rain-soaked head.

Trista twitched her wings once. "It's not the best weather for flying," she said. "I got caught out too far, not paying attention, and it's hard to stay in the air when it's raining this hard. I haven't been here long enough to know the weather patterns yet." She shrugged, almost apologetically. "Live and learn, I guess."

The girl was surprised when the woman -- who still hadn't introduced herself -- offered her a cup of tea. Her curiosity showed on her face, and if there was one thing that Trista wasn't good at, it was walking away from a situation that had piqued her curiosity. Just in the last two seasons, this had led her to confront a mysterious shade at the bottom of a well, steal a scrying mirror from a locked tower, and acquire a Kelvic who now followed her around wherever she went. When she encountered a small piece of a story, she had to know how it ended. Perhaps it was the curse of being a storyteller, but whatever it was, it made it hard for Trista to resist her own inquisitiveness.

Although Trista often sat around feeling drab, she did not require any rain to do so, and though it caused her no physical discomfort, she still wished to go somewhere warm and dry. "That's very kind of you...ma'am." Again, Trista had no name to assign to this Konti. "If I can get there from here, I'd love a cup of tea. Thank you." She was back into her normal careful manners by this point.

At any rate, Trista would either have tea with a stranger whose horse threw shoes at frogs, or would continue to sit in the mud, in the rain. Or ponder the futility of life -- although frankly, that was something that lended itself to multitasking...

[Kavala]

She had introduced herself. Kavala couldn't help it if the woman hadn't been paying much attention to what the other was saying, too caught up in her own misery to focus outside of herself. "That's interesting. Your body is designed to swim through the water like you are part of that element yet your wings wont work when its raining or they are wet? Sounds like a a contradiction to me." Kavala said, starting to wonder how intelligent it was to stand out here speaking to an Akvatari in the horrible weather.

"I'd offer you a ride but... well that seems a bit awkward from a whole bunch of different standpoints, not to mention the mare's pain." Couldn't she grow legs or something? Seals moved up and down beaches just fine, though Kavala couldn't have said it would have been graceful to heave oneself and ones blubber about, especially long distances. "We're quite a ways from the sea here too. Beautiful view in better weather, but right now it's not that impressive." What did one say to a waterlogged leggless butterfly winged seal with the face of a woman. Kavala curiously stretched out her senses to see if she could catch a glimpse of the woman's emotions. Nothing.

Not an animal then. But a sentient creature.

It sort of surprised her since the act of sitting on a rock miserable in the middle of the rain seemed less than ... well human at the very least. "Is there.. well anything I can help you with?" Kavala asked abruptly and awkwardly. She felt, uncomfortable, looking at Trista - even talking to her. It was an uneasiness she couldn't put a finger on. "I feel bad just... leaving you here on this rock like a .... well... slowly melting in the rain." She was going to say something, but thought better of it. Truthfully she'd like to help if she could, though there was no way she could carry Trista's weight.

[Trista]

Trista's attention to the world around her was, to be gentle, highly variable. A gleam of sunlight on the crest of a wave, a lone figure in the corner of a room, half of a melody being hummed by a child -- these were things that she noticed instantly. But more prosaic things often escaped her entirely, up to and including the names of people that she met.

The Akvatari shrugged, her bare shoulders rippling slightly. "It's not that my wings won't work when it's wet -- they work fine. It's more that, with all the water coming down, it's not easy to keep myself up. Imagine, say, trying to walk forward while fifty people are throwing pinecones at you; it's somewhat analogous to that."

Not, of course, that walking was anything with which Trista had any direct experience. Although she had a seal's lower half, it was just that -- a half. Regular seals had blubber and fur all over their undersides, and were low to the ground, enabling them to scoot forward; alternately, some could use their front flippers. But Trista's arms were no different from a human's, and using them as a means of locomotion was difficult at best. Scooting on her stomach was also something that was out of the question. She could move like the most graceful of dancers in two worlds, but in the third, she was almost as helpless as a baby.

Trista tugged absently at the strap of her satchel. Fortunately, it was designed to withstand being carried underwater, and so even the current downpour didn't threaten the contents. "If where you're going isn't that far, I can probably manage flying a short distance. The place where I've been staying is on the other side of the city, but if you're nearby, I can make it." She followed this with a short, rueful laugh. "Ah, I'm not in danger of melting. But I'm much obliged for your concern." Maybe this Konti wasn't going to be so bad after all. It was a possibility. Perhaps. Maybe.

[Kavala]

"No, its not far." She said, nodding, gesturing off into the distance at a looming building structure across what appeared to be a long grassy field. The Konti started forward, leading the limping mare following sedately behind. she was a woman of few words, one that looked more thoughtful than vocal as she traversed the long field, opening first one gate, then closing it... then another at the far side of the pasture. A third gate lead into an enclosed courtyard that housed a riding arena and a small round pen. Stalls lined the courtyard some housing horses, some empty with doors leading to the pasture open. There was general activity, though none of it seemed frantic or anything other than routine.

"I'll be just a moment." Kavala said, slogging through the mud by the courtyard gate leading the limping mare. She untacked the animal, stowed its gear, and turned in out into a large loose box where it proceeded to dip its head into the hay bin which was empty. Kavala grabbed it a fork full of hay and then turned to her guest, inviting her to flutter up onto a Veranda area that was covered though still outside.

Kavala took a seat then put a pot of water on to boil so she could make both of them some tea. "So what brings you to Riverfall? I don't think I've seen any Akvatari here before." Kavala said, setting out the items she'd need for the tea service. Trista was provided a large comfortable padded bench to rest on by the outdoor fire while Kavala pulled up a chair that was near a table where she'd set the tea service out.

[Trista]

It was perhaps for the best that Kavala didn't make any conversation during the trip to her home, as Trista wasn't really capable of making any back. True to her word, she was able to make it there, but it required intense effort, and all she could focus on was staying aloft.

Once there, she gratefully flitted to the veranda. A bench was made available to her, something for which she was more than a little thankful. For someone she had so disliked upon first meeting, this Konti was proving to be an admirable host. Perhaps she had been wrong.

Trista nodded. "I don't think most people past the eastern coastal cities have seen an Akvatari. As for me, I'm a..." She tried to think of the right way to describe what she was doing. "I'm a freelance artist. For most of the last year, I've been traveling, making sketches and gathering inspiration." More quietly, she added, "I heard Riverfall was beautiful."

She gestured with one arm, indicating the sweep of the property. "You have a carefully-kept home. Have you lived in Riverfall long?" Trista took it almost as axiomatic that a Konti living here would have come from some other place, though there was of course the possibility that she was mistaken. She shifted the strap to her small pack, resting it more comfortably against her hip.

[Kavala]

The Akvatari was polite, almost moreso than necessary, as the Konti watched her curiously. She wasn't exactly staring, but she was looking her fill in the guise of being a good hostess. The Akvatari were just... strange. They looked almost as if they suffered from a curse or a creators idea of a crisis of indecision. The Konti was too polite to voice such thoughts, but there was a morbid irony in the way these creatures looked.

Kavala smiled a little bitterly. "I've been here two seasons. One of the Akalak raiding parties intercepted a slave caravan I was part of and rescued me after I did something supremely stupid and got caught. I was bound to be a zith delicacy and was already playing whore to the slavers. I'll stay here until I pay the akalak back for services rendered." She said softly. "It works that way here. You get helped and then you owe a debt. They call women like me 'those that owe a lifedebt' It's usually a child for them... by one of them. Not such a large price, is it?" She added, chuckling slightly.

"I ran across Akvatari in Mura while I was there studying at the Opal Temple. I found your artworks intriguing... so it doesn't surprise me you are an artist. What sort of project are you currently working on, if I might ask? There might be some work here at Sanctuary. Our inner waiting room could use a mural of something calming and beautiful drawn on its walls." Kavala said, looking thoughtful. "That is, if you are willing to take commissions of such things." She added.