Dude, where's my house?[Eridanus]

by **Ssafirsotibones** on March 25th, 2012, 6:28 pm

Bones listened as the odd humanoid being before him said that he was Eridanus... It took him a few moments to place the name, and then recalled the man he had almost eaten a while back, sparred with, and had some nice chatting. Though this person looked rather different, than what he recalled...

Though he did not have the best memory for telling apart humans... He had enough trouble telling the men and woman apart, let alone recalling all of there other bits of info... Not to mention them changing what they looked like!

Of course in that aspect he had little room to talk, as this person professing to be Eridanus had not known who he was at first, and thought he was a giant snake... So maybe he should cut him a brake on the appearance part...

Of course if he was lying, it did not explain how he knew were they had met, and what they had done... And that neither of them had noticed anyone watching them... The simplest solution really was that he was telling the truth, and he was also able to change form, as Bones could... Well probably not exactly as Bones could....

But Bones decided he trusted the person enough to take his offered cloak. Not to cover decency, as Eri was probably thinking, but as he was pretty cold. Snakes in general did not like the cold, and that carried over... Bones had spent the better part of the first 100 years of his life naked... And as a dhani, wearing clothes to hide your body was not as ingrained as in other societies.

He looked up at the moon once more, and Bones himself gave a forelorn sigh, looking up at the same moon he had seen back in Falyndar... At times he did miss it there, the warmth... The food... Family... More of his kind... Not being hunted and an outcast... Well the last one only inside of Zinrah, they were hunted by Myrians if they stepped a foot outside... Myrians, bottling them up unnaturally, was one of the main reasons he had headed away from home...

Recalling were he was, and what was going on, Bones looked back to the man calling himself Eri.

"Ssso... I sssee you are not sse sssame asss lassst time we met... How exactly did you do ssis?"

Bones of course was still trying to decide what he should say if asked about his changing... Saying he was a morpher might be a bad idea... People tended to not like magic... And he certainly hated being thought to be a kelvic... Though for safety reasons he would usually let this slide... Or the one he disliked the idea of the most... To tell the truth...

by **Eridanus** on March 25th, 2012, 6:38 pm

"You're one to talk, Bones," Eridanus chuckled conversationally. He watched the gladiator accept the cloak. He knew that it was not a matter of decency, for his experience with both morphers and kelvics told him that such people held very little regard for such matters - matters that were in essence a social construct.

The man looked at the moon, sighing as reminiscence of his own fluttered through his mind. It was all visible to the ethaefal's keen senses, and he wondered if the man perhaps had some form of connection to Leth. He could be over-thinking of course, for he knew the poetic effect the moon had on others.

"I didn't do anything, Bones. I am an ethaefal, one of Leth's chosen ones," The leth-born said simply. It was not like he was omitting any information, but he had made this introduction so many times that he was tired of giving the full story. He assumed that it would be a sufficient opening line.

If his acquaintance was curious enough to know more he would answer more, but this was his response for now.

by **Ssafirsotibones** on March 25th, 2012, 7:09 pm

At hearing Eri's statement, confusion came over his face, and he looked up at the moon once more... His next question would probably sound stupid, but Bones honestly had no clue about such things...

"Less.... He hasss sssomessing to do wiss the moon right? What isss he about? A god of... Jussst sse moon? And what isss an S-a-fall?" Bones took his time on this last word, trying to pronounce it right... Though he had likely got it wrong, or misunderstood... Weird things like that did not always translate well for him into common... He tended to think in snake language...

"And what do you mean chosssen one? Like wiss a god mark? It letsss you change form?"

Finally, Bones decided to answer a bit of what Eri had mentioned... Though he did not tell all... He also did not lie... Just stated a fact... It all depended on how much he pressed the point.

"Asss for my sssnake form... I have alwaysss been able to do ssat... I wasss born like it... You could sssay ssisss form here isss sse one ssat isss odd..."

by **Eridanus** on March 25th, 2012, 7:18 pm

"The God of the Moon indeed. One might even go as far as to say that he is the god that governs the night, just as Syna governs the day. A seasonal divinity, if you will," Eridanus explained.

A gnosis mark? He would be lucky that Leth even deigned to notice that he was missing from the god's domain in the Ukalas.

"Unfortunately, no. We were taken out of Lhex's cycle of rebirth in our previous life to join Leth in his domain. Unfortunately, the Valterrian ripped a tear in Leth's domain, causing souls like me to fall out into the mortal world of Mizahar. The results... is my current warped body. Mortal yet immortal. Untouched by the frailties of ages but vulnerable to the ravages of violence. In the day my form is that of my mortal form in my previous life, a vantha. At night when Leth watches over the sky I return to a distant echo of what little divine heritage I have."

Turning his soulful gaze at the gladiator, he cocked his head in curiosity at the revelation. "Born like it? I'm afraid that escapes my understanding. Are you a talented morpher perhaps? Or might I even dare say... a snake kelvic?"

It was time for him to test his hypotheses bluntly. He was not one to usually do so in such a straight forward manner, but somehow he felt that the timing was right for such revelations. Under the moon light, two worthy combatants tested each other in combat, and now exploring each other's strange origins.

by **Ssafirsotibones** on March 25th, 2012, 7:59 pm

"Ssso... he isss jussst god of sse night ssen? Night and sse moon? Nossing elssse? Ssseems a bit bland to me for a god..."

Bones was trying to understand, he was... But Eri seemed to talk very fast when saying all this, like he had explained it all many times before... And so Bones could not quite keep track... Was bound to mistake or lose details...

And Bones did not quite understand some of what Eri said... There was a bit of a language barrier, as Bones tried to translate and understand the common language.

"Why were you taken to be in Leth'sss land? And you ssseem in pretty good ssshape for sssomeone ssat fell out of sse... Wherever... It sssounds like a long drop regardlessss... Ssso you change each night... You can't control it? How long have you been like ssisss?"

After asking all of these questions, it was Eri's turn to be confused. As he tried to voice things out, and explain things, Bones wrinkled his nose at being accused once more of being a kelvic. Those little short lived things... Stupid animals...

At this point there seemed little point in keeping the secret... And besides, Eri seemed sort of trustworthy... For a... Well not a human, but an S-a-Fall... Maybe they were better than humans, which for the most part were little better than kelvics, scurrying around in there short pointless weak lives... So Bones posed a question... To see what he knew...

"No... I am not one of ssossse animalsss... Ssossse ssstupid beastsss ssat take human form. You cannot sssee ssat I have more brainsss ssan a wild animal? And I am no powerful magician... Not in ssat sssenssse... I wasss born asss ssisss way, jussst asss it ssseemsss you were reborn changing asss you are... I wasss born a sssnake... And grew over a long time to what you sssee... Have you ever heard of the Dhani?"

The question was needed, as whether or not he had would say what needed to be said... Though most people in this land had never heard tale of his race...

speech :

by **Eridanus** on March 27th, 2012, 11:27 am

The ethaefal's eyes glazed over as he tried to process Bones' speech. He had a curious speech pattern that distorted his way of pronunciation. Though he was quite understandable in short sentences, which was all that Eridanus had exchanged with him so far, he was quite unintelligible when he went into longer sentences that flowed one after the other. The figurative cogs in his mind whirred furiously as he attempted his best to decode what the gladiator said.

"It's not really bland when he's the one responsible for bringing night. After all, if there was only Syna there would be no night and no moon. Just endless sun and the sky, and the beauty of the darkness would be non-existent."

He paused for a moment, and he realized that he did not know the answer to Bones' next question.

"I... I have no idea," He admitted quietly. "Everyday I seek to find out why, and perhaps in solving that mystery I can alert Leth's attention. But no, I cannot control it; my physical state is accurately and automatically defined by the time of the day. I have been like this, in your words, since I existed on Mizahar. The same as how you have been like that since you were born."

A Dhani? That was something he had not heard of before, though he could not admit to be surprised for the land of Mizahar had many sentient races that he had not possibly heard of. The variety was too huge for him to know everything unless he was a professional anthropologist.

"Have not heard of Dhani before... What is Dhani? What is their story?" He asked curiously. Usually races had some kind of ancestral home or story regarding their background. For example, Ethaefal were Leth's and Syan's chosen, while he knew that the Myrians were Myri's tribespeople who lived in the jungles of Falyndar. All of them except the humans, for no one knew where the humans came from.

by **Ssafirsotibones** on March 28th, 2012, 3:06 pm

"I did not mean asss he isss bland for ssat... Just ssat your dessscription isss... Sssurely ssere isss more to him ssan ssat... Usually ssere isss wiss godsss... Ssey are more ssan jussst sse basssest measssure of ssere domain..."

Bones of course often asked questions to which there was no answer... Or simply that the person did not know... So he was not to surprised that he had no answer to give him.

He was also not surprised that he had not heard of dhani. When compared to other races, there numbers were so few... Only a couple hundred of his own main race existed... And about the same number of the offshoot dhani... And out of those, only a few like him left the nest... So few people would know of them, unless they had lived near a nest...

"Dhani... We were birssed by Sssiku, goddessss of sssnakesss, along wiss her mother Caiyha, the goddessss of all ssat livesss and growsss..."

Looking over at Eri, Bones stared him right into the eyes, a serious expression on his own face.

"I am a true dhani, a conssstrictor dhani! In the image ssat our creator formed usss. We are what all dhani ssshould be!"

Obviously feeling rather strongly about the fact that the other kinds of dhani were not true, he continued on, spitting off to the side before speaking of them.

"Sse ossersss... Sse tiniessst venomousss vipersss... And sse ssslight club tailed rattlersss... Are not true dhani. When sse world nearly ended, and sse magicsss poured acrossss it, ssey were changed, mutated, by sse forcesss, to what ssey are."

"A falssse imitation of sse true dhani nature... Only jussst better ssan humansss... But not true dhani..."

speech :

by **Eridanus** on April 2nd, 2012, 5:47 am

"If there is, Bones, I am not aware of it," The ethaefal replied, voice calm but inflected with subtle, bitter turmoil within. He was trying to discover what it was as well. Knowledge was the key to unlocking the mystery surrounding his circumstances.

He had heard of Caiyha of course, though what little he knew was that she was the goddess governing nature. Siku was a name that escaped him, though he was not surprised that this unknown race - the Dhani - had a patron god. Almost all of the races had one patron god or another, except the generic humans. Even the vantha had Morwen, but the true origins of the generic stock of humans remained a mystery.

"What do you mean by rattler and constrictor?" The ethaefal asked. He was of course unaware of the different variants of Dhani, and so in his mind he was beginning to assume that these names were merely labels of tribes or cultures rather than actual genetic variants.

by **Ssafirsotibones** on April 3rd, 2012, 8:05 pm

"Rattlersss and conssstrictorsss... Are technically dhani... But different..."

Bones tried to explain the other dhani, though he was not sure exactly how... They were dhani... But not the same as himself... And were physically different... But he would do the best he could...

"We all were once sse sssame dhani... From the image Sssiku, and mother Caiyha created usss in... Looking like my kind of dhani do... But sse wild djedsss of ssso long ago changed ssem, over sse centuriesss..."

"Sse vipersss... Lived in the land of sssandsss... And ssey were ssshrunk by sse djedsss... And grew a viciousss venom in ssere bite... Ssey are sssmall, maybe asss long asss a man isss tall asss a sssnake... And much fassster ssan any human can be..."

"And sse rattlersss... Lived in sse northern cold foressstsss... Ssey grew sssmaller, and grew a clubbed tail... Ssey fell between sse two... SSey are faster than usss conssstrictor, and ssstronger ssan sse viper... And have a weak poison... And are about twice asss long asss sse vipersss..."

Bones was not quite sure how to complete the wording... What to say to make it make sense...

"Ssey are no longer dhani sse sssame asss usss, but are mutated... Wissin sse race of dhani, ssere are now ssree kindsss... Usss true dhani... And sse osser two lesssser formsss..."

Now Bones looked with finality, obviously not wanting to speak any more on the subject. Clearly trying to change the subject, he turned to the one who called himself Eri.

"Ssso, tell me more of ssis god, Less... You have explained him on sse sssurface... But sssurely ssere isss more to him ssan ssat... Tell me of him, and what he ssstandsss for, not jussst a vague dessscription... I can sssay grassss isss green, but do I truly underssstand it? No, much more to itsss nature isss needed..."

speech :

by **Eridanus** on April 4th, 2012, 2:06 pm

"Leth is also the god of change. Everything remains stagnant without change, and only with constant evolution and change can we progress individually and as a whole," Eridanus said, saying the only other thing he really knew. That was what Leth stood for after all. "Like the moon, he also governs Reflection and Thought, and it is through these actions that one can arrive at the Suitable Agent for Change, and to progress along that Chosen Path."

Peering at Bones curiously, the Dhani who claimed himself as the true child of Siku, Eridanus questioned, "Why do you seek such interest in Leth?"

Had the Moon God done something to draw the Dhani's attention or was the snake merely curious? Leth had been absent for the entirety of Eri's existence on Mizahar, and he wondered if what he knew about the god was merely a fabrication, or some sort of lie mentally placed in his mind. If not for the garbled memories he had of the Tamed Beast Who Was Syna's Lover during his divine seeming and the existence of other leth-born he might have simply assumed that he had gone mad.