An offering to Wysar(Raiha)

[Kadrath Onktaka]

Timestamp: 15, Spring 512 AV. Dawn
Locations: Wysar's tower and then onto Sanctuary
Purpose: Sanctuary Work thread and part of the Seasonal Challenge
Status: With Raiha please

The strong forest smell of Sandalwood incense wafted along the air of Wysar's Tower, soothing all who passed it. They nodded politely to the twin priests standing quietly in one corner, discussing the merits of armed vs. unarmed combat, each one gesticulating his own point. They stared for a moment, noting that Kadrath was an Akontak, not an Akalak as they'd believed for the last forty-five years!

Kadrath was fresh from the bathhouse and needed to talk with his God before returning to Sanctuary. This was not a mission of your average platitudes to beg for a favor, but instead, the Akontak was there to give praise and ask counsel.

The proud man knelt humbly to the side of the altar and bowed his head, closing his turquoise eyes in reverence. A beautifully handmade carpet cushioned his considerable weight as he prayed fervently. His voice was an ideal and deep blend of both brothers praying as one in tandem, with no trace of discord between them.

"Great Lord and Father, you have blessed us greatly with so much this last season! After all of the fighting and secrecy we gratefully kneel before you as open equals. Raiha, the other Akontak we told you about, is pregnant with our Akontak daughter-we will be a father! And if it is your will, maybe she will then make a son to be raised in your ways."

His white smile flashed brightly against the deep indigo skin and the sincerity of their joy was open for all to see. Their hands folded peacefully on their lap and their harmony was a lesson in pure balance between both light and dark halves.

"Not only are we Kennel Master at Sanctuary now, but we have finally saved enough money to start a Kennel Business for our hunting dogs and cats-at long last. To offer our deepest thanks, please accept our first and finest hunting pair for your glorious temple when we have finally attained full breeder status."

They took a chime to further gather their thoughts and proclaimed,

"We vow to continue to walk in your ways of integrity, conviction, and discipline in all that we do. Our hope is to bring honor to your name and your mark. Again, we thank you for the multiple blessings that you have brought and continue to grace us with."

Rath and Uruk stood as one and touched a respectful hand to their Evantia before bowing to the priests and leaving.

As they exited the impressive azure Tower, they paused as Syna started her blazing ascent to the heavens. A single bird chirped itself awake in the crisp morning air and the Akontak headed back to Sanctuary with a big smile on their face.

A visit to Wysar always made them feel stronger, cleaner and sharper both physically and spiritually. They worked, loved and played hard but were grateful they were sound enough to do so. Wysar's way was the core of their existence and ever since they'd overcome their childhood illnesses, they'd spent every chime making up for that idle time.

They clucked to Kavala's borrowed horse, Lammas, urging him faster toward Sanctuary. There was much to be done today.

(When Rath speaks and when Uruk speaks.)

[Raiha]

Raiha was up and about well before dawn. The aftermath had had her up at all hours again. Cleaning up happened for her at odd hours, and there was a definite lack of secure feelings from not having the walls built up bothered her. Furthermore, Kavala had finally gotten her meeting with the Council today, and Raiha didn’t know how it was going to go. She could only hope that it would go well. She had no ability to read the future, as much as it would be a wonderful skill the acquire. Cleaning up more space had led her to where they had the mares penned up, and Raiha gathered her Firemane mare, attaching a set of reins to a halter and taking a hoof pick before leading her out. Once she got to the road, she checked her mount’s hooves with the pick to make sure that she hadn’t picked anything up, before using Yakini’s mane and her own long legs to climb up and right herself before nudging her sides and flicking the reins, clicking her tongue. Off they went.

She always liked riding bareback. It allowed for her to find a better posture instead of relying on a saddle for a seat. Raiha watched and listened. Roads were often safer than the other paths, but they were outside the city and nigh on the grass. The sun was still down when she led Yakini into Riverfall, and down to the Night Tower. There was something that had been on her mind for a long time, and it involved one of the biggest secrets she had, and as she watched Kavala each day, as she put Tasival on a hip and brought him with her, she was beginning to question if it was something that could change Kavala’s life for the better. One more pregnancy that wasn’t her own choosing, and Raiha didn’t know what she would do. Find a way to break off the Undan, snatch Tasival, and leave. They’d never find her amongst the Drykas, try as they would. The Grass was a big place, and Raiha had no doubt that the Grasslanders would close around her and the little blue boy and keep the blue men well and truly away from them.

Maybe that would be better for her.

Raiha would never blame her for doing it, if it came down to it. The last couple of days... She didn’t know if they could get any worse. And yet, she couldn’t say anything, because if she did, then it certainly would. She dismounted, leaving Yakini secured in the horse shelter, pressing a kiss to the mare’s velvety nose before trotting up the steps, listening to the Makath all around her. It was a beautiful language, even if it wasn’t something she could share with others. They would never understand it. And that was surprisingly okay with her. If Akajia saw fit to mark them, then she would. But otherwise, it wasn’t something she could talk about with those around her. She made her way up the stairs, cloaked in darkness. She needed no light to see, and indeed, none would be forthcoming. Secrets were hidden here. This was a place of secrecy and privacy. This was somewhere where she could go to be alone in her thoughts. And yet, she came only rarely. Showing up here, by its very nature, betrayed her. It went against every instinct of privacy and self-reliance that she had.

But sometimes, she had to have a talk with someone about something, even if she never went into specifics, and never gave her secrets away. The priestess who tended the Tower, another Akontak, was a good conversationalist. Talking in generalities left both of them wanting more, but neither of them was going to get an answer out of the other, and they both knew it. Raiha knew that Salana was very, very smart. Give her an inch, she’d figure out a mile. In any case, she respected her. But today, the conversation was brief was Raiha stopped at the altar, kneeling, clothed in her black cloak. She lowered herself to her knees before it, toes touching as she pressed her palms together in front of her chest, lowering her head. She didn’t speak aloud. There were always other ears. For that reason, she liked the chapel in the Within, if only because she was far more certain of her being alone.

Akajia was an interesting deity. She could be very hands-off, or very attentive, whichever seemed to strike her fancy. Both sisters looked at her with a reverence that Kanikra certainly had for no one else. Thank you, Night-Mother, Raiha looked upon the altar, at the walls, letting the words come. For guiding us. For saving our lives. For showing us another world, and making us part of it. I have never regretted it, but we hold in us a secret that could change my friend’s life, if I can only give it up, she looked at the altar again, her hands still pressed together, her eyes becoming calm as she exhaled slowly. Please let there be another way of doing it. I wanted to show her some time, because it is a dream that we share, but it has become something I keep very closely.

We carry Kadrath’s child within us. May you see fit to show her this, so that I can involve her in this world to give her something that is hers. No one keeps secrets better than a child, her lips twitched. We thank you for what you have done for us, seeing some purpose for you to use, and trust that we continue to do so. She lowered her head, hands hands going to her lap as she bowed over them, remaining in that posture for a few times before placing a small ceramic jar of honey on the altar, and letting the shadows guide her out.

Yakini was still there, as she knew she would be, and Raiha hugged her mare’s neck as Yakini gave her the chin, exposing her neck and jaw for scratches. She smiled at that, releasing her and giving them, using both hands and all ten fingers along the mare’s jaw before untying the reins and gathering them back into position. She walked the mare until she had a piece of low wall to use to climb up, before heading for home. She wanted to be there to watch the sun rise. It was a beautiful thing, and they very badly needed beauty in their lives, if only to help them cope with the wanton chaos around them. She let her long legs dangle down Yakini’s sides as she rode, the reins threaded between her fingers, her wrists relaxed. She let the mare have her head - there was some way that Raiha never understood in that horses would go where you wanted them to if you just looked in that direction. She always figured that it had something to do with the weight shifting and the muscles. Maybe.

In any case, she was back when she meant to be, the stolen bells unmentioned as she tended to Yakini, turning the mare loose again with the others and putting away the pick, reins, and halter. Her next stop was the kitchen, where she browsed the herbs and set the water to boil. Even though Kavala had miscarried, she could certainly use some tea before her council meeting, and Raiha wanted to look at her. She opened jars, combining the leaves of red raspberry plants, nettles, peppermint, and dandelion, putting them together in the metal ball strainer in the teapot as the water began to bubble and boil. She used the hook to pull it away from the fire, and one of the long-handled dippers to ladle water into the pot before putting the lid on it and getting some of the ceramic mugs. A little bit of honey went into the bottom of each, combined with a sprinkle of cinnamon, and these she stirred while the tea steeped. Honey and cinnamon, the herbalist’s erstwhile accomplice. It helped with everything.

When the tea was ready, Raiha poured it into the mugs, sipping hers and nodding to herself with approval and carrying Kavala’s in to her suite, knocking quietly before letting herself in and setting the tea up. She would get it when she was ready, and by then, it would have cooled down enough to make it drinkable. Like her shadows, she was in and out without a sound, closing the door gently behind her once more. The Akontak trotted down the path to the kitchen again, considering the time. Rath would be back soon. A third mug was prepared, and Raiha took them both outside. She was sitting on a low wall when he came in on Lammas, a mug of tea on either side of her, dressed in her leathers, her hair hanging behind her in a low plait. A number of the dogs ranged around her - all of the deerstalkers, and Raiha had apparently brought out Rock and Fidens as well. “The dogs are fed,” she told him, smiling. “And we have tea.”

[Raiha]

With the tea drank, they split up to go about their duties. Raiha needed to work with the deerstalkers, and Kiwidinok needed to stretch her wings. She made her way down to the Within, retrieving her gauntlets, putting on her belt pouches, and grabbing her own weaponry and hunting knife. She had what she needed in them to fly Kiwidinok, cold and breezy and windy as it was - she was strong. She would manage where the smaller birds were better off not attempting. She undid the leash attached to the bird’s jesses, before the pair headed back for the surface, the pack of deerstalkers following on her heels. The golden eagle hissed at them, and Raiha shook her head slightly. “Leave off of that,” she told her firmly. “You know the dogs. They are your hunting companions. They are not prey.” Falconer and eagle eyed each other as Raiha carried her back outside. “They flush game for you to kill, and you and I know it.”

There was no shortage of things to kill, cold as it was, this close after the storm. Kavala had her meeting at the council today, and that, too had been something worth praying for that morning. Please, please, please, let the council free her. Please. Raiha didn’t want to share secrets if there was another way to do it. Maybe they’d let her pay for it. If needed, she would put her own funds towards that freedom. They had a lot of rebuilding to do, and that in itself was going to be costly as well. She trudged over the snow, looking up at the sky, a faint blue, though the clouds were there. They’d see more snow, she was certain of it - it would take a few ten-days longer before the rains came. That was usually in the later half of the season, after all. But the rains would get there. The snow crunched under her boots, and she released Kiwidinok into the sky, shielding her gaze to watch the bird scream with approval at being able to stretch her wings again. She wanted to hunt, she wanted to kill!

Her attention came back down to the land around her, and she looked it over as Diallo and Dara looked at her, sitting at her sides and waiting for the command to start searching the ground. She looked down at them, and moved her hand from her side up slightly, jerking her head forward in indication. “Go hunt,” she told them, and her two started out, working the frozen fields, or what had been frozen fields, crosswise. Raiha encouraged a grid pattern, which worked well with additional dogs. She had seen dogs just hunt wherever willy-nilly, and that had never made sense to her. It was easy for a young dog to overrun a trail, but if they hunted in grids, they would usually pick it up.

The winter and spring season always presented an interesting hunting situation, and with Kiwidinok stretching her wings out overhead, Raiha was not too worried about the eagle. She knew where her dinner was, and she wasn’t about to leave her falconer in the meantime - the dogs had to start flushing prey out in order for her to kill, and that was what she had to work on today. Diva, Diasra, Dynm, and Delilah, the oldest four that Kavala had brought back for her last year, along with Dara’s remaining pup from her litter late in the summer, Diamond, crowded around her, tails wagging, all of them ready and eager to go, go, go. “Go hunt,” she gave the hand sign once again, the oldest four hurrying off to get into it. Diamond wagged with anticipation, and Raiha swatted him on the rear. “Go on with you,” she urged him. There was no better lesson than experience, and hunting in the snow was a unique challenge.

He’d soon find out why.

She watched as Diasra found something, the white bitch barking, but more or less standing in place, confused. She smelled them! She did! Where were they?! Diallo’s path soon crossed hers, even as Diamond came running, eager to get in on the action. She raised her eyes skywards. She was going to have to really work with that one, though she couldn’t entirely blame him for leaving a scentless trail in favour of something that had definitely been found. And much to Diasra’s delight, Diallo barked and began to dig into the snow, their combined weight cracking the crust that had been on top, his tail pointing upwards as the rest of them joined in on the action. The rest of them, that was, but for Dara and Dynm. Dara was still working the pattern, and Dynm... where in the Akajia’s name had that dog gotten off to in such a short period of time? She turned slowly, noting instinctively where Kiwidinok was, judging by her cry, and hurrying off at a trot, her weight on her toes, trying to stay on top of the crust rather than sinking through it, which would only slow her down, and that she could not afford.

She had her mace at the ready as she heard Kiwidinok scream with glee, and Dynm’s roaring bark of challenge, as she crested a small hill that had been formed from the snow and wind, finding a small pack of those damned wild dogs she had chased off of a Kelvic last year. She wasn’t surprised to find them here - if they were desperate, and they likely were, any remembrance of prey locations was better than starving. She whistled for Diallo, and realized the potential mistake - she drew the dogs’ attention towards herself, even as Dynm growled and snapped. One of them went for him, and more still came for the female, even as Diallo pounded snow. Her eyes flicked upwards, and she let out another whistle for Kiwidinok, holding her heavily-gloved arm upwards, and bringing it backwards in a swooping motion. There was no scream, this time, as the bird’s wings cut through the cold winter air, her speed and control a thing of beauty to the Aknotak, her legs back until the last minute as powerful, talon-tipped feet grasped the dog’s neck, the force of impact cracking the bones in the animal’s vertebra where neck met spine, sending them both down into the snow. Raiha took her chance, then, as Diallo went to Dynm’s aid, grabbing the eagle’s feet with her hand, lifting her off of the carcass, and sending her into flight.

Kiwidinok’s desire to hunt was not sated by one single kill. It couldn’t be, Raiha knew, and the raptor hungered! At times, she wondered if Kiwidinok had been trained by Kanikra - the two were very, very much alike. She was aware of Diallo having grabbed one of the rounded ears of the dog that had attacked Dynm, pulling its head back, exposing its throat for Dynm to rip out. The eagle circled, watching, waiting for directions. What Raiha did love about the bird was that she was not afraid to go after big prey - given the opportunity, she would attack a deer, even a stag. All Raiha had to do was ask. She whistled for her hunting partner, even as she gripped the mace with her left hand, and braced herself, swinging the flanged weapon in a circle, feeling her shoulder flex and move, as the mace came from below, trying to connect it with the dog’s head as it snapped at her. It missed, and the dog jumped, grabbing the cold iron handle, trying to shake it from her grasp, as Raiha signaled Kiwidinok again.

The wild dog learned the meaning of stuck between a rock and a hard place, then, as Raiha grabbed the head of the mace, bracing it in place, still hanging onto the handle as she pushed it into its jaws, bracing and holding the weapon in place, her eyes on the bird as she dove from the sky, wings trimmed for maximum speed. At the last moment, Raiha dropped the weapon, letting the wild dog have it, only for the golden eagle to connect with it, sending both of them onto the snow. Raiha had seen no other option but to let it have the mace for the moment before Kiwidinok connected with it - else the force might enough have been enough to break the bird’s legs when there was so much resistance and nothing to help absorb it. “Good girl,” Raiha breathed, giving the eagle a chunk of meat at last, checking on the dogs. Dynm had what looked like a superficial scratch on his shoulder, and even now, he was worrying one of the corpses. Diallo was making his way over to her.

“I’m fine. You alright, big guy?” she massaged his ears as Kiwidinok flared her wings and hissed. Her kill! “Here, Dynm, let it go,” she told him, checking her mace for damage. The cold iron, as she suspected, was fine. It went into her belt as the young deerstalker came loping over, tail wagging, and she let go of Diallo to inspect him. “Just a scratch,” she sighed. “You are trouble, my good sir, but a good dog. Good dog." He had nerve, and you couldn’t train that - they had it or they didn’t, and Dynm had it.

[Raiha]

She eyed the hides of the painted wild dogs. Two of them were in relatively good condition, what with broken necks, and the other, well, that Dynm and Diallo had mangled, was a mess. But it would be meat, it would be hides, it could all be used. Nothing should go to waste. Especially with the chances of their stocks going low while they were repairing and rebuilding and renovating. Everything they got their hands on would be a good thing, and she couldn’t just leave the corpses there for them to attract more predators. To just leave them was an insult to Caiyha.

Raiha lifted Kidiwinok into the sky after another scrap of meat, letting her flap and ascend, circling, watching, waiting for another opportunity to hunt and kill. “Come on, Diallo,” she told him, putting one of the neater carcasses over his back, hoping to keep it relatively steady as she grabbed the other, putting it over her shoulders before pacing through the snow to the dead dog that had had its throat ripped out, turning it upright as blood soaked its fur, steaming in the cold spring air. The added weight sunk her down with a crackle below the crust of the surface, and Raiha tried not to growl with frustration. It was going to be a long walk back. Diallo was almost having the same problem - she had to shoo Dynm off about ten feet in order so that Diallo didn’t crack the crust with the dog on his back.

The carcasses deposited for now, Raiha and the dogs got back to where the others were digging in the frozen field. Dara and Diva were hard at work, and she sent Diallo off to join them. His larger weight could help crush through the snow, and she almost wished she could borrow Fidens for this. He was larger still than Diallo, but he lacked the agility that her deerstalker possessed. He checked out the snow, and began to rise up on his hind legs, slamming his weight down on his forelegs, almost bouncing, working to weaken the snow. This wasn’t his first rodeo, but for the other deerstalkers that had come from Endrykas that summer, it was theirs, and Raiha watched the younger members of the pack digging, sniffing, and circling before coming over to them. Kiwidinok circled in the sky, and Raiha dropped her bottom down on the snow and used her heels to help, even as Diamond tried to climb into her lap at that. “No, off with you,” she told him. “Dig,” she mimicked the motions with her legs, even as he wagged beside her, adorably confused until she took one of his paws and scraped the nails at the snow. He barked at her as she released his paw, and he tried it. “There you go,” she encouraged him, getting to her feet as the snow sprayed.

She felt it quaking under her, then, and began to wonder what had taken to hibernating out here. It had to be something, she knew, because she felt Kiwidinok’s interest in what was going on on the ground. It wasn’t the dogs - the bird wasn’t interested in them, because despite their killing of the attacking wild dogs, the deerstalkers didn’t look like them or wolves or coyotes. The eagle circled in the sky, winging, waiting with ill-concealed anticipation. Granted, considering the disaster that had struck at the turn of the seasons, it was any port in a storm, but here? This had to be a big den, if it stretched from end to end. She studied the two locations where they were digging. She would bet that they were on the trail of the same thing - and they were just going to keep on digging until something was unearthed at either end. Possibly that was the entry and exits, but considering the inclement weather, the ends had been covered and frozen down. And then the snow seemed to explode.

Out of the small circle of deerstalkers that she had been coaching, the biggest rabbit Raiha had ever seen in her life was racing for its own, as the dogs gave chase. Kiwidinok saw it, of course, and turned on a miza, flapping after it as the Akontak hurried after the dogs giving chase. She whistled sharply, making Dynm hesitate, at least. That was something, even if the other three didn’t stop immediately. She couldn’t blame them. Big prey and it was running. “Dynm, Diamond, Diasra, Delilah, STOP!” she shouted, bringing all four dogs to a screeching, almost comical halt, as Diamond and Dynm crashed into the two females who had been chasing the pony-sized beast. She was pretty sure it was a rabbit. It had that shape. But it was a mossy green. And it had four ears.

At least it doesn’t have two heads and eight legs, Kanikra told her dryly.

Not helping, Raiha retorted as she watched Kiwidinok close in on the prey animal, the coast now clear. The eagle had all the room in the world to do her part as Raiha followed at a distance, the dogs clustering around her. Diallo and Dara hadn’t abandoned their hole, just in case anything else came out of that one, but the digging had stopped - the giant rabbit was what they had smelled, and now they were just guarding the end as a precaution. By now, the rabbit was almost out of sight, by the time Kiwidinok made her move, bringing her legs forward, banking her wings, and letting the force of impact break the racing mammal’s spine. There was a shriek from the bird at that as they tumbled, and Raiha ran, her heart half in her throat, worried that her proud, malevolent eagle had actually been hurt in the pursuit, but she worried needlessly - her feathers were in disarray, but her wings were held out, and her sharp talons dug tight. “Up,” Raiha told her, offering Kiwidinok her glove, and a piece of meat. “You did good,” she told the bird, smiling at her, shooing the dogs off as they came to inspect the now-dead rabbit.

She hadn’t seen anything like it in her life. It wasn’t natural.

With the golden eagle balanced on her arm and the dogs ringing her and the kill, guarding and waiting for their next instruction, Raiha focused on clearing her mind so that she could focus on Auristics. It came far more naturally to her now, but she still had to concentrate on it, focusing on the djed and opening her eyes. While her gaze seemed far away, she was just looking at the world of auras around her, scrutinizing the aura before her, picking at the threads of information that presented themselves. It was a rabbit. And a rabbit that was only three seasons old, too. Female. But what she found fascinating was the magic activity. That was like a tangled ball of yarn - it was everywhere. She ignored the bird on her arm to study it, sorting and manipulating the jumble into a useful string of information. The rabbit had been mutated by wild djed, which still surged gently, even though it was now gone. The foremost pair of ears was new - it wasn’t as old as the rest of the creature, as was the greenish tinge in the hide. Its underbelly was a mottled white and grey, and Raiha was pretty certain that under the green, there had been a woodsy brown.

She checked over Kiwidinok’s feet, as she had been the one to come into contact with the rabbit, stroking the yellow toes with her gloved finger. Nothing there that wasn’t supposed to be. Good. Because Raiha did not want to lose that bird. Kiwidinok nipped the glove, and Raiha pulled it away, looking at the bird, at her resplendant colours. Impatient, but pleased. The eagle was finally satisfied with that rabbit, and she wanted her fill. Not in a bell, not in five chimes, but right then. “And you shall have it,” Raiha grabbed the rabbit by its older ears, and began the long walk back.

[Gossamer]

. Character: Raiha Experience: Riding +1, Dog Handling +3, Falconry +3, Mace +1, Auristics +1 Lore: Keeping Akajia’s Secrets A Secret, Dealing with Wild Dogs, Goodies: Painted Dog Hides, Dog meat, Rabbit Pelt & Meat Additional Notes: You might keep in mind that golden eagles are extremely heavy and hard for just one person to carry. I know when we flew them before irl we had to have a perch that extended all the way to the ground just to support them when we held them. Otherwise nice thread.. great attention to detail. .