[Flashback] Escaping the Newest Sister (Aren)

[Devero]

Timestamp: Summer 65, 488 AV 23 Years ago Time of Day: Midday Location: Forest Just Outside of Kalinor Who: Aren Anazasz and 5 year old Devero Devero was standing upon a stool in front of the only mirror in his parent's home. He was talking into the mirror, using several things his Uncle Ventías had taught him for luring in surrogates. If he were speaking to an Ethaefal , he would say, "I must be an Ethaefal too, because I've fallen for you." If here were trying to pick up an Eypharian, "You shouldn't wear makeup, it's messing with perfection." He always liked this game. He knew that if his uncle taught him these things, they were guaranteed to work. Watching himself talk in the mirror was strange, but he could see his own reactions, which were apparently important. He had a line for an Akvatari, a race he'd never seen before. Apparently they were like moths! "If a thousand painters worked for a thousand years, they could not create a work of art as beautiful as you." Then he tried some lines that would woo any woman. "Damn! If being sexy were a crime, the Ochya would have you banished so fast!" "Excuse me, I think you have something in your eye. Oh wait, it's just a sparkle." He kept this up for several chimes. As the eldest male child, he was expected to bring back hundreds of thousands of women. At least that's what his Uncle told him he'd have to do, and his Uncle would never lie to him. His uncle told him that one year, he'd brought back over a million women! A million! He was the best of the best Harvesters. He continued his one liners in the mirror until some crying filled the house. He rolled his eyes a bit. He knew it was his little sister raising a fuss or something. How could he be expected to concentrate on the future of his family like this? He stormed out of the house, his billowy silk trousers flaring brilliantly. He roamed around the thin walkways for a longtime, trying to find something that could help with his studies. An older man waved him over, "Son, you look a bit lost. How about I show you some toy... err... I mean Training Equipment?" Wide eyed and easily manipulated, Devero approached the man. He began to pull several things out of a pack. One looked like two rocks attached by a silken cord. To an adult, it would look like a very shoddy piece of shyke. But to the eyes of Devero it looked amazing, "What's that do?" he exclaimed in an extremely excited voice. The man hesitated a moment, to think, a moment that went unnoticed to Devero, "It's uh... designed to uh... Trip up and capture surrogates of course! When they try to run, you throw it at them and it captures them like a snake!" He then pulled out a handle with a silk rope attached to it. "This, however, is a uh... training Lash! All of the Lash Masters in Kalinor started off using these!" Devero of course wouldn't know the salesman was lying through his sharp teeth. "I'll sell you both of these items for... lets say 5 Silver Mizas." Devero tried to remember what his Uncle taught him about bartering. Do you start low and go high? Or start high and work your way down? He couldn't remember so he just blurted out "That's not fair! I should be paying at least 9 Silver Mizas!" Devero crossed his arms smugly as if he'd won. The salesman couldn't believe he'd found such a prime sucker. "Alright kid, calm down, calm down. How about 7 Silver Mizas?" He knew he could drive the price up on these worthless trinkets. Devero knew that emotion was an important part of bartering, and he was about to win this barter. He stamped his foot, crossed his arms, "You Ser are a scoundrel! I will pay 15 Silver Mizas and that is my final offer!" The man nearly danced at his success. But he kept the act going, "Sure kid, sure, just don't cause a scene, you can have them for 15 Silvers. Now get out of here before the Ochya come running." Devero paid the man and collected his 'training equipment'. He was going to head outside, despite the fact that his parents told him almost daily to not go outside without them. He had to practice with his new equipment! He quickly found the nearest exit hole and was outside in the forest, squinting at the bright light of Syna. The woods here were so big! And Devero had always liked trees, but never really knew why. Maybe it's because climbing them was so easy for him. He wrapped up his training lash and stuck it in the waist of his trousers. He held his... what was it called? Surrogate Trapping...Catcher! That was a great name! Surrogate Trapping Catcher. Has a catchy ring to it. What to throw at though? He knew he couldn't catch anything alive yet. He spotted a sapling up ahead. He told himself that if he could catch it, he could catch a surrogate to help the web. He first started by slinging one rock over his shoulder, and then doing an over handed throw. He succeeded in hitting himself in the arm with the rock. He muttered a curse he'd heard from his Uncle, knowing it would bruise and that it would make his mother fuss over him. He picked it up again and tried a different tactic. He tried an underhanded toss. The Surrogate Trapping Catcher flew straight up in the air, spinning end over end. Devero dove to the side, avoiding the crashing rocks. He dusted off his silks, and picked it up. He would master this and become the best Harvester Kalinor had ever seen, even better than his legendary uncle. A couple of bells and several bruises later, the Surrogate Trapping Catcher was finally flying in a direction that was away from Devero's body. But it was not heading toward the sapling. It landed in a bush, getting entangled. He sighed loudly, and went over to the bush to get it out. While struggling to untangle it, he heard some grunting and snorting from the opposite side of the bush. He parted the branches and peered through, only to see a tusked hogface looking back at him. It squealed at him as Devero fell backwards in shock. The boar tore through the bush, and Devero took off running. He screamed in mild fear, and pumped his youthful arms and legs as hard as he could. His breath came ragged quickly in his panic and he stumbled over his feet at the base of a tree. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the boar was nearly upon him. He quickly scrambled up the tree trunk, looking back at the boar that had effectively trapped him. How was he going to get down now?

[Aren]

Aren currently found himself in the middle of a jungle. This was not an altogether dire predicament, except for the fact that he didn't exactly know where he was, or precisely how he had gotten here. He would admit, at least, that the change of scenery was not an unwelcome sight. The akalak had gotten tired of mountains a week ago. He still could not comprehend how he came to be where he was. Inspecting his map, Aren tried to make heads or tails of it, before finally giving up in frustration. Those merchants in Lhavit must have stiffed him, he swiftly concluded. There was naught to be done about that now, however, as he had more pressing matters to worry about. Said matters seemed to revolve around needing to find his way out of this jungle and back to civilization, before he starved to death. Already there were barely crumbs left of his rations, and the akalak certainly did not have the knowledge to survive in his current clime, nor any other clime that did not involve buying his food, for that matter. Poor Aren's stomach was growling something fierce when he suddenly heard a commotion not far from his current location. "Maybe it's an animal... one I can actually catch, and then eat!" The akalak's mind swiftly jumped to a hopeful conclusion, even though it was just as likely that this animal he was hoping for would be more inclined to make a meal out of him, than the other way around. As the akalak approached the origin of the disturbance as quietly as he could, which wasn't very, he spotted the cause of the commotion. It seemed a boar, or some other similar looking animal, had treed what looked to be a person. A young boy, by the looks of it. The animal couldn't get to him, but he couldn't get down without risking a tusk, either. Figuring this was a gift sent from the gods themselves, Aren decided to kill the damn thing and have it occupying his belly as soon as possible. Right now, the only thing he needed to do was figure out the best way to go about executing that simple, yet elegant (at least he thought so) plan. The blue skinned hunter, at first, thought of sneaking up on the beast, but quickly dismissed the idea. He had never snuck up on anything in his life, and he doubted he was about to start now. No, he was going to go with what he knew best: blunt foce trauma to the head, or separation of limbs from torso until dead, whichever presented itself most readily. With a loud whistle to draw the attention of the boar, Aren unstrapped the massive scythe that rested on his back. As it fell, there was already hand there to catch it, and the akalak swiftly brought the weapon to bear with a single twist of his arm.

[Devero]

Devero saw the giant blue man before the boar did. What was an Alkalakali doing in these woods? His uncle told him that those people lived in a river. Well, he was blue, so he guessed that he could be a fish person. The man then whistled trying to get the attention of the boar. The hog glanced over at him and paused. Devero decided it was time for some lashing. After all, he had come out here to try it out. He pulled his training lash from his waist and unraveled it. What Devero didn't know was that the lash was not made of the proper materials to function properly, even without the sharp edge. So when he swung the lash at the hog, it did little more than a light thwap on its rump. It wasn't even enough to further annoy the hog. The creature turned towards the towering Akalak, and began to stamp its feet and snort. Devero continue swinging the useless string of cloth at the beast, most of the time just missing it. The boar roared at the man and began his charge. And at that exact moment, Devero's 'training lash' managed to curl itself around a hind leg of the boar. But this didn't hinder the boar in the least bit. What it did do was allow the boar's momentum to rip Devero from the tree trunk and fall hard into the dirt. The lash ripped from his hand as the boar charged at the Akalak. It would make a pass at the man and attempt to hit his sharpened tusks into the man's knee. After that it would turn around and attempt the same, only on the other side.

[Aren]

Aren barely noticed the boy's attempt to... whatever it was he was trying to do, until the fool child actually succeeded. While the kid remained safely entrenched in the treetops, the akalak hadn't needed to worry about him. Now, however, the idiot had gone and ruined that idea all to hell. Realizing that he could not longer fight the animal as he had intended, Aren shifted his tactics. Turning about and sprinting in the opposite direction, the akalak aimed to draw the boar away from the child, who was probably too stupid to live much longer anyway, even if he survived this day. The animal was faster than him however, and after a short run, he was forced to turn and face it, lest he be impaled in the back. "Damn, didn't realize how ugly you were..." Aren commented, almost like he faced a human adversary he was attempting to throw off balance. Scythe gripped tightly with both hands, the akalak focused himself for the task at hand: severing that ugly head clean off it's body.

[Devero]

Devero was hurting everywhere. He wanted to go home, he wanted to find his mom. The outside world hurt. A lot. He looked up and saw the boar charging the man. Should he run away? After all he was just a kid. But then a saying his uncle had popped into his mind. "Dev, you are the firstborn son of my brother. There's a lot of responsibility on your shoulders. So in everything you do, get stronger, get better, until you are the best Harvester anyone's ever seen." Harvesters could do anything! His uncle had told him that he had killed thousands of mercenaries in his travels. And if the firstborn son of the Nerium Web couldn't help kill a boar, what sort of son would he be? As he pushed himself up, his hand brushed against a stone. There was his Surrogate Trapping Catcher! He picked it up, and tried to sling it sidearmed at the boar, just knowing it would fly true this time. But instead, the rock first hit him in the back, and when it swung forward, it flew high above the boar, and looked like it was about to wrap around the man's arm that was wielding some strange weapon. He groaned. He just knew he'd made things worse.

[Aren]

As the boar drew near, Aren himself charged at it. He was't quite insane, though, a this was all part of the plan. The new plan. The new plan he had just conceived right this very instant. It didn't even hinge on the animal becoming frightened by his display of insane courage and running away, or anything. The akalak felt rather proud of it, in fact. As the two combatants were poised to collide, Aren leaped up onto the head of the boar, with the intention of using it's body as a springboard to fuel a mighty downward swing of his scythe. As he was in the air, however, in the process of shifting his body in the opposite direction, his legs suddenly found themselves entangled by something. Flopping to the ground unceremoniously, his weapon barely in his grip, Aren was kind of panicking at this point. He didn't know what had happened, and he certainly wasn't willing to bet on the lives of the two intelligent beings in this conflict. He did, however, find himself suspecting the craftiness levels of the animal he was trying to kill, at least before he realized just what the hell was wrapped around his legs. With a growl, the akalak looked back at the boy he was trying to save, whose idiocy was now threatening to get him killed as well.

[Devero]

Devero watched the strange man flop to the ground. It looked like it hurt a lot! The boar was running, and about to turn around to make another charge at them. With the man on the ground, Devero knew he could be killed. And a Harvester doesn't let people die by his own mistakes. A Harvester intentionally kills people. Never by accident. Devero half ran, half stumbled over to the giant man, and put himself between him and the boar, now turning around. Devero began to scream, yelled, when he saw his Lash on the ground. It must have untangled itself from the boar! Devero quickly picked it up and began waving it around, without any real training in it, but he was desperate. "This is my prey boar! You can't have him!!!! I'm going to be a Harvester!!!" He yelled in Symenos, his native tongue appearing when stressed. Much to Devero's surprise, the boar stopped and looked at him confused. Then with a snort and a stamp, it turned and ran into the brush, disappearing from sight. Perhaps it was intimidated? Or maybe it just didn't deem them a threat anymore. However, Devero counted it as win, and began whooping and hollering. He had almost forgotten about the man though. He turned around, and helped unwrap his training toy from his legs. In Common, "Sorry about that Mister, I'm still training."

[Aren]

Aren barely had time to react when the beast came around for another pass. He was about to put everything he had into his, admittedly limited, reimancy skills... when the boy he was struggling to save simply refused to make his job any easier. Standing in front of the akalak like a shield, the child faced down the beast, which would have surely impaled him without much difficulty. He shouted down the boar in a tongue that Aren did not recognize, and the blue skinned warrior honestly thought the boy's own stupidity would claim his life this day. "Get the hell out of the way!" Aren shouted, thinking that their only hope was using his reimancy to buy enough time to get on his feet. Fortunately, this idiotic kid's suicidal plan miraculously seemed to work. The boar retreated, for reasons that the utterly relieved akalak could not fathom. Somehow, he doubted that it had anything to do with what the boy had done, but he had to admit that did seem to be the case. As the little hunter aided in removing his own toy from around Aren's legs, the blue giant couldn't help but smile at the kid, ruffling his dark hair playfully. "Train more," he quipped, as he was finally free of the strange contraption. Of course, the akalak recognized that the same should be said of him, who had nearly gotten killed by a child.

[Poison]

THREAD AWARD!

Aren:
Skills: Wilderness Survival 1, Stealth 1, Observation 1, Weapon: Scythe 2, Running 1,
Acrobatics 1
Lores: -

Notes: I couldn’t come up with any good lores for this thread, Aren. If you think, I might have missed something, let me know. Devero, if you ever come back, send me a PM, and I’ll grade your posts as well!