A Dangerous Task (Darkness)

by **Sira** on November 27th, 2012, 10:23 pm

Timestamp: 56th of Fall, 512 AV

Sira was quite annoyed. On the one hand, the Valintar had given Aidara permission to remove her collar for the day, allowing Sira not only to shift, but to not have the weight of the annoying thing around her neck. But on the other hand, the reason she was to have her collar removed was because she was being forced to transport supplies up from Thunder Bay, which meant a lot of heavy lifting. And Aidara didn't even have to do it, because there was another victim of the strange monster that had been plaguing Wind Reach all season and she had to see to him instead of helping her wind eagle.

That meant that Aidara wasn't going to be saddling her either, something that Sira was not at all happy about. And to make matters worse, instead of using her normal, nice, comfortable riding saddle she was going to be forced to wear a bulky pack saddle. All in all, Sira was very unhappy with the way things were going.

The dek that was supposed to be helping her had yet to arrive, and while she waited Sira simply lounged on the couch in her home, still fully clothed and waiting for the knock at the front door signalling that the dek had arrived. For the most part, dek were all the same to Sira. She liked to think that she was more caring than the other endal, and perhaps she was, but if she were to be honest with herself she could not deny that she sometimes thought of them as less than people. By and large they were dim witted or disabled in some manner, and while other wind eagles usually were given chiet to saddle them when their endals could not, Sira was always given dek, because dek were expendable. While she had never actually killed one during saddling, more than a few had been seriously injured by the tempermental wind eagle. To Sira, it was simply the way things were. Maybe she would be lucky, though, and the dek they sent her this day would not be a complete fool...

OOC :

by **Darkness** on November 27th, 2012, 11:50 pm

Darkness' mood was as bright as his name. The nearing winter had trapped him inside the city, and what he had seen as interesting peculiarities when he spent most of his day outside had soon become a bother to deal with every hour of every day. The way the humans here interacted with each other was completely alien to him, but instead of being left isolated he was forced to deal with them, he was expected to understand them, to follow their stupid superstitions and habits.

Then there was his caste. For the sake of satisfying his curiosity the half-Zith had agreed to bear with the treatment of a slave - and even worse, being treated as a slave from people whom he'd normally consider meat. Just that would've required an immense effort from him; and more than once had he left the city gates looking for something to slaughter before he snapped on one of the citizens.

But he wasn't even a slave! Even that was above his rank now. The Dek, in their vast majority... in a Zith colony they wouldn't even be considered meat, let alone slaves. Filth-ridden, diseased, and about as intelligent as the earth they stepped on; Dek were so far down the scale nobody would bother enslaving them. And he was being treated like he was one of those as well, like he was worth less than the space he took. It took his every drop of self control to not attack anyone in the city and, even compelled as he was by his focused curiosity, sometimes he wondered if it was all worth it.

But today, today he had the inkling that it was going to get worse. One of the humans, night take him if he managed to guess his caste, had demanded he saddled a Wind Eagle out of nowhere, given him some directions, and left - grinning. Darkness knew that kind of grin well, he'd seen it often in the faces of his family when they ordered slaves to do something particularly unpleasant or, in some cases, downright suicidal. His determination hardened right there: he didn't know what kind of plan that guy had, he didn't know why he'd been chosen as a target for it, but if the meatsack expected to see a Zith go down, he had another thing coming. Darkness was definitely not failing at some job they believed one of those drooling wastes of air could do, half-Zith or not.

So he'd followed the instructions he was given. First a visit to some depot or another to grab an absurdly large and heavy saddle - the heaviest one they had, he thought - then hauling that thing up to the Aerie's door, which he missed the first time meaning more time of carrying that stupid thing on his back. When he finally found it, he stared at the door, eyes narrowed as if the sheer force of his anger would be enough to make whoever was inside come and open it. After a few seconds of that evidently not happening, he raised one of his hands and opened it himself.

As he walked in, he tried to find words to properly express his purpose, and his extreme dislike of it. Failing to find anything that would do justice to this last part with his lacking knowledge of common, he settled for a simple:

"I'm here to saddle the bird."

OOCI edited it to remove some typos and for consistency. Dark does not knock on doors, and I should remember that.

by **Sira** on November 28th, 2012, 3:51 pm

Sira was lounged out on the couch fiddling with a loose strand of long red hair when the half-breed walked in. In a normal situation if a dek entered an endal's quarters without being invited, without even knocking, they would be in for a good beating. And that was the same amongst almost all the endal. At the very least they would be scolded and ordered out, but as soon as the dek walked in and announced his intentions Sira realized this was no normal situation. She was expecting some doddering fool, or partially crippled person, but she was expecting them to be an Inarta. The sight of the zith-blood had Sira flipping off the couch and scrambling to grab her talon sword which was lying on a shelf nearby.

While her exit from the couch might have been less than graceful, the moment her hand grasped the weapon her confidence and grace was restored. She pulled the sword from its sheath and spun to face the zith in one fluid motion, her feet sinking into a defensive stance as soon as she stopped moving. Golden eyes narrowed as she examined the creature before her, taking note of his claws, the color of his skin and fur, his lack of clothing, and the lack of wings. It was only until after she had examined every visible inch of him, and there was a lot to see, that her eyes rested on the saddle behind him and a frown creased her lips.

Petch, she thought to herself, They sent me a petching zith-blood to do the job? Is the Valintar trying to get me to screw up?

After a moment Sira lowered her weapon, though she never took her eyes off the creature. Her last encounter with a zith, though it was a full blooded zith had not gone so well, and even more recently Aidara had been attacked by one of the vicious creatures. Sira was more likely to kill a zith on sight than try to talk with it, but it seemed she had no choice with this one. She couldn't just kill it, that would likely get her in trouble even if it was just a dek. And she assumed that it had to be a dek, she simply could not see the Valintar allowing a zith-blood to be anything else. She had no choice but to work with the creature, but she didn't have to be nice to it. The endal walked right up to the creature, and then with the flat of her blade, struck it in the shoulder as hard as she could.

Attack me, she thought to herself, Show me you are just a Zith. She didn't wait for an attack though, she stuck him one more time in the same spot, then lowered her weapon and took a step back.. just in case.

"The next time you enter my aerie without permission I will cut your arm off, zith. You will knock on doors from now on, do you understand?"

by **Darkness** on November 28th, 2012, 5:39 pm

Thanks to the wonders of Zith hearing, Darkness had already known that he wasn't going to talk with an empty room when he entered. What he couldn't expect, however, was the inhabitant's reaction - she almost leapt off a couch, her hearbeat skyrocketing in an instant, grabbed a sword and turned it to the half-Zith; causing him to tense up in preparation for an attack. After that sudden burst of action there was a tense stillness while she took her time observing the Dek - and he did likewise.

She looked fit, and her actions proved it. To further confirm her as a threat, she seemed to handle the sword like it was another part of herself - the Zith could tell that was dangerous, even if he knew nothing about sword fighting. Young, but these were humans they were talking about. She could be as old as his mother for all he knew, and that meant more experienced than him. All in all, she looked like one of the few people he'd seen in this city who he thought could win a fight against him.

The uneasy truce was broken when she lowered her weapon and started walking towards him. Darkness' claws twitched, eager to spill blood, but he forced himself to stand still, constantly reminding himself of the reasons he was here - and how those would be ruined if he fought.

The sword rose, and Darkness grit his teeth in preparation for the cutting pain that never came. Instead, his arm was left stinging from the sword's blow - painful, painful enough to make him wish he could rip her to shreds right there, but he still managed to control himself, his sole reaction being to stare into the woman's eyes.

But then she struck again, and the half-Zith could feel himself losing the battle. His claws were starting to rise, a growl wanting to leave his throat. She stepped back before he could do anything, though, and that simple movement gave the Zith the opportunity he needed to get his grip back, his chance for revenge gone.

For the first time he heard her speak, threatening to cut his arm if he didn't knock on the door next time. He paused for a couple of seconds, glaring at the human while searching for the words in Common that described what he'd do with her entrails if she tried - and then he remembered his previous analysis, and grudgingly decided to back down. His flaming temper, however, didn't let him do so quite as humbly as it might be expected.

"I will not return here, human, so hitting doors won't be a problem." He stopped staring at her to look around for the Wind Eagle. "Can I get on with my job now, or do you have more complaints? Maybe you have nothing better to do than hit me?" The moment he said it he realized he'd probably regret that sentence - but instead of apologizing, he flashed the woman a predatory smile.

by **Sira** on November 29th, 2012, 5:51 pm

Any predatorial smile Darkness might have flashed her was met with an equally predatory gaze. Sira was not afraid of the man, especially after he had taken the beating without fighting back. That meant he was already broken, or at least beginning to break. It meant that he feared retribution, if not from Sira herself, those that would punish him if he harmed her. He might have been fine, and Sira would have given him no further problems, had he simply remained silent and nodded his head. But his words only fueled the fire that was Sira, and the endal took a threatening step toward the dek.

"Maybe you are new here, but we don't like your kind. If you want to survive, you had better learn to watch that tongue of yours. You will do as you're told, and you will come back here if I tell you to and, you will knock."

Sira pointed at a large door on the far side of the room, which led to the eagle aerie that was technically hers, though she preferred to sleep in her warm bed next to her lover rather than out on the aerie. "Take the saddle through there, and try not to break anything on your way. Oh.. and if you are going to live here, you are going to learn to speak our language. From now on, I will only speak to you in Nari. You had better learn quick, too," she added, brandishing her sword threateningly, "I don't like it when my deks don't do as they're told."

The last part was in Nari, but Darkness would likely be able to tell that whatever she said was a threat from the tone of her voice. Perhaps she was being a little cruel, but Sira did not like Zith, and she did not like deks who talked back to her. Aidara would probably scold her for it in private if she had been there to see, but Sira didn't care. This zith-blood did not understand how things worked, and he needed to learn. With a mouth like his, Sira was certain he was going to receive far worse treatment than anything she would do to him anyway.

by **Darkness** on November 29th, 2012, 11:16 pm

The human was a fighter in soul, that was beyond any doubt. Darkness had the suspicion that even had she not been actually trained to fight, she would still stand up to him. There were always people like that, people who disregarded the odds and fought to uphold... something. Usually something stupid.

Darkness, on the other hand, had survived through more than a decade of being the weakest in a Zith colony, and he hadn't done that by letting his emotions get the worst of him. There were times where the right thing to do was to back off, admit defeat and move on. He knew the human wouldn't be happy with his last sentence. That might be useful later on, but right now he had to deal with the immediate consequences in the form of the angry human threatening him - again.

The half-Zith focused on his task - that was all he had to do. If he could saddle the sunblighted bird, then he could leave and, with some luck, never see that human again. He didn't stop to think how exactly he was going to do that without even knowing how the saddle went, he just focused on getting the job done. He refused to let this human, this meatsack anger him any further.

He couldn't avoid hearing her, though, just as he couldn't avoid feeling enraged. But this time he had a set goal, one he had almost reached. This time, he felt like he could control it. And while various retorts passed through his mind, from an ironical "I would've never guessed" to her statement of unwelcome to several threats of his own, he never opened his mouth, rationalizing that there was no point in engaging on a shouting war over something as... irrelevant as knocking on a door, even though the human seemed to think otherwise.

If he'd had the time to think calmly, he would've probably realized that this was not about the door at all - this was a matter of establishing dominance, a fight in which both of them believed that they deserved a different treatment by the other person. But that time wasn't available - he was being sent to, finally, do his job. The Inari being how she was, though, she had to tack on some extra orders - in this case, to learn their language - before saying something she perfectly knew the Zith couldn't understand.

That, she had simply done to spite him. And while Darkness was resigned to not being able to jump on the woman and rip her - not during the daytime, not tired as he was - there was nothing preventing him from twisting her instructions. If she wanted obedience, she had better give the right orders.

"It will be my pleasure to not understand you, human." Was his reply, as he lifted the saddle once more and moved to the large doors he'd been directed to, slamming his fist on them before walking into the aerie itself.

Once on the other side of the door and out of the woman's sight he breathed out slowly, heartbeat drumming in his ears. He felt exhausted, he felt furious, he felt humilliated, but felt proud. Proud because, despite all of the temptations, despite all the opportunities, he'd managed to retain control. It was as hard as he remembered, but he could do it. He grinned, his spirits suddenly lifted and feeling like he could take on anything the human had to give. He'd soon be done here, and then the human wouldn't call him ever again - why would she when there were a thousand more compliant Deks around than him?

by **Sira** on December 3rd, 2012, 10:09 pm

Sira almost laughed at the Zith-blood's response to her demand, almost, but instead just raised an eyebrow as she watched him drag the saddle across the room and through the large door. He was a fiery one, that was for sure, although it might just be stupidity. Sira had never spoken to someone of Zith descent before, but his attitude did not surprise her that much. The Zith were fearsome opponents, though in an aerial fight Sira could dispatch them easily enough. Their claws were dangerous, but she was bigger, smarter, and stronger, and her talons were just as sharp. At least, this was how Sira viewed herself. Her experience with Zith were limited, and she had only encountered them in her human form, but she certainly did not think they were capable of fighting her as a wind eagle. She wondered if the dek had been told of her, that she was a kelvic, that she was the bird, as he so rudely called it, that he was to saddle.

Sira followed Darkness into the aerie, taking her time. She waited until he was watching, or at least looking in her direction. Sira so enjoyed taunting the deks, who could never hope of having a woman like her. She really was a bit full of herself, but she was beautiful and she knew it and though it might have been cruel, she loved watching the male deks squirm. This one at least had something of a decent body on him, though it was covered in fur, but he was a zith-blood, and that meant he would never stand a chance with her even if he wanted to. But.. he was a zith-blood, and Sira had heard stories of the passionate zith. She hoped taunting him would be as entertaining as she thought it would be.

As soon as he was looking her way Sira began to strip, starting first with her vinati which she pulled up over her head, stretching as she exposed her bare chest, before tossing the shirt into a corner of the room. Sira was very proud of her looks, though she spent little time or effort on them. She had a wild, natural beauty about her, never bothering with human things such as makeup or brushing her hair over much. She did the bare minimum, keeping the knots out, and making sure her body was clean, but she rarely dressed up and never wore makeup or the scented perfumes that other women so enjoyed. Her bryda came next, she was not wearing boots since she was just in her own home, and that slid off soon enough leaving the redheaded woman completely naked for the zith, and anyone flying by, to see.

Nudity had never bothered Sira, she preferred it in fact because it made it easier to shift and clothing just felt unnatural. But she did love flaunting her body because she loved the reaction of people who saw it. Whether she got a rise out of the zith, or he looked away, Sira would be amused whatever happened. She kelvic walked over to the dek, kneeling next to the saddle and straightening it out a bit.

"It will be easier if you lay it out like this before hand," she said in common, already having forgotten her earlier comment about only speaking in Nari, or perhaps just not caring. She had only done it to spite him, after all, and she did not really care what he thought.. though calling her out on it might earn him a beating.

After the saddle was straightened Sira stood and walked to the center of the room, pausing to point at the discarded clothes. "Do make sure to fold them before you leave, and place them on that shelf," she said as she motioned to a nearby shelf. After that the Sira that was suddenly vanished, a cloud of bright glittering smoke consuming her entire body as she shifted from human to bird form. When the smoke cleared, where there had once stood a naked human woman, was now a large and powerful golden feathered wind eagle. Sira shook her head from side to side, clearing the smoke a bit, then focused her eyes on the dek. It was unlikely he had ever been up this close to one of the eagles, considering he was new to the city, and many found their first experiences with the birds quite intimidating. Sira didn't do anything to help the matter either, snapping her beak in the direction of the saddle rather than speaking into the dek's mind to prompt him to start. It wasn't going to be a pleasant experience. Sira hated being saddled almost as much as she loved to pester those who saddled her. That meant with every pinched feather, every strapped tightened too much or not enough, every mistake was followed with a dangerous snap of the eagle's beak or a complete resettling of her wings and feathers which often resulted in the saddle sliding off. It was always a time consuming process, but for one who had no idea what he was doing and who Sira especially felt like tormenting, it would be a nightmare.

by **Darkness** on December 4th, 2012, 11:21 pm

Still grinning happily, Darkness turned to look at the Endal as she walked into the aerie herself, not trusting her enough to let her out of sight. His grin vanished into a confused frown when the woman started taking off her clothes, though that didn't last long either.

Five minutes ago, the half-Zith would've said that clothes had nothing alluring to them, that they were only a crutch humans used to mitigate their lack of natural fur. Now, he wouldn't be so sure, and what bothered him most was that he didn't know why.

It wasn't as if the human was doing anything special - she was just taking her clothes off, like many other humans before her - but there was something special about it. Something about the way she did it, or perhaps about herself, made the movements much more alluring than they should be. If before the Zith didn't trust her enough to let her out of sight, now he simply didn't want to.

The Zith watched as the pieces of clothing fell, interest clear in his eyes as his body reacted like any young man's would in this situation, his complete nudity and growing excitement leaving nothing to the imagination. His mind, however, reacted in a completely Zith way, feeling no shame about his obvious interest in her body. Instead, his thoughts switched pace from joy to lust - after all, she was pretty good looking, even if she was furless and a human, and for the first time in a long time Darkness wished he had better vision during the day. Like she could read his mind, she walked closer, letting him have a clear view for several seconds.

His claw stretched out to grab her shoulder as she knelt, but he instantly took his hand back when she spoke, reminding him that he had a job. Good looking as she was, he had a job to do. Perhaps there would be time for it later or perhaps, he realized as his senses slowly came back to him, she was just trying to get him in trouble again. It wouldn't surprise him at all if some man came in yelling about disrespect to their mating rituals and a duel, and he was slightly disappointed when nothing happened.

He looked at the saddle, almost memorizing the way it was set after Sira's manipulations, and returned a grudgeless: "Thank you." Whether he was referring to the woman speaking in Common or to her help with the saddle, it was anybody's guess; though it was clear whatever rage he'd contained before was now gone - his Zith blood made his temper explosive but also volatile, and in the woman's distraction the fury had all but disappeared.

What was left, then, was a focus on the job to be done and a definite appreciation for the woman's body which would have to wait until he was done. In order to be done, however, there was something still lacking from this whole scenario. The bird to saddle was nowhere to be seen.

When he was asked to take care of the discarded clothes he raised an eyebrow, internally asking himself what gave her the idea that he knew how to do that, but he nodded nonetheless. He was sure there would be more fighting over that later on, but he was in no rush to bring it forth.

And then, all in an instant, the woman was gone in a puff of smoke, the giant bird in her place snapping its beak at the half-Zith, who was taken completely by surprise.

Darkness froze for a brief instant before instinctively falling into a crouch and stepping back. His foot touched the wall behind him and, with the fight-or-flight instinct reduced to just one option, he let off a loud snarl, claws twitching to his sides in anticipation of the fight.

His eyes narrowed, any kind of rational thought vanished from his mind. Given a few seconds, he'd snap out of it - and straight into awe of the bird, threat forgotten as he'd move around it to better see it.

But if he didn't have that time and the Wind Eagle threatened him in some way again, there was no doubt that the Zith would strike back, just like any cornered animal would.

by **Sira** on December 11th, 2012, 3:48 pm

Sira would not threaten him again, at least not until the actual saddling began. The beak snap was not actually a threat, anyway, but was her way of signaling that he should begin. She remained still as he began to move around her, allowing him to get a good look at her. Sira was proud of her human body, but even more so of her eagle form. Her feathers shined in the sunlight pouring through the opening of the cave, golden with hints of blue throughout. The blue was a result of the djed storm, but it only made Sira all the more unique.

After what Sira deemed an appropriate amount of time for Darkness to spend oodling her, something Sira truly did not mind but she knew she had work to do, Sira snapped her beak again in the direction of the saddle then settled down onto the ground so that it would be easier for the zith to get the thing on her. Sira knew it was not going to be a pleasant experience, for either of them. If she thought about it, she could probably make things much easier by speaking to him as he went along and explaining the process, and also by not struggling, but Sira was stubborn and moody and rarely thought things through that way. At least not when it came to getting saddled.

Really, they should have sent two deks, or at least a dek with experience, but at least the zith-born appeared physically fit. Often the deks who serviced her were barely able to lift the saddle off the ground without help, especially if they made Sira mad and she lashed out at them. Broken ribs were a common enough thing down at the infirmary, and Sira herself had broken a good many of them.

The way Sira had positioned the saddle, Darkness would have theoretically been able to simply slide it on over her head and down her back, then buckle in all the straps and be done with it. That much was obvious, especially when Sira lowered her head so that he could do just that. It should have been easy, simple.. but it never was. Before he even got the saddle half way on a feather, one that was probably already loose and ready to fall out, snagged on one of the straps and was plucked, causing Sira's head to snap up and knock the saddle aside. The large bird let out a short, angry shriek before shuffling her entire body as she resettled and lowered her head once more, glaring angrily at the half-zith as he struggled to get the large saddle back into place.

OOCFeel free to make up some reactions for Sira in your post. She is extremely temperamental, so pretty much anything goes.

by **Darkness** on March 17th, 2013, 3:07 pm

Darkness' immediate reaction was to step back and leave the saddle as soon as Sira struck it, so it went flying off the eagle's back, progress completely undone.

"Don't know why I expected you to be easier to deal with in this shape." He muttered, loud enough that she could hear it, in common, and staring right into her angry glare - certainly not to himself. He was still tense from the previous fright, and he could feel his movements were tense, slightly jerky; not an ideal state for something that he could tell would require patience and precision.

So he took a few deep breaths and, when he felt his pulse return to normal, got near Sira once more, grabbing the saddle on his way.

"Try to stand still this time." Whatever intensity the glare had lost, it regained instantly. Not for the last time, he felt grateful she couldn't talk right now. And, for a couple of seconds, he awkwardly stood next to the eagle, waiting for it to lower its head so he could try to saddle it again, while she just stared at him.

Finally she moved, giving Darkness had another shot at putting the saddle on her. He repeated the same maneuver as last time, if only more carefully to keep what happened last time from repeating.

He had a relatively small amount of success - when the saddle caught on one of the feathers, Sira lashed out straight at him, hitting him square in the ribs as he jumped back. The saddle, of course, fell in a tangled mess next to the bird, half attached to her, and she promptly flung it as well.

Dark grunted when the blow hit him, feeling a popping in his chest. As he landed from his jump and took a breath, a dull pain swelled from the impacted area, and adrenalin surged through his body.

"Look, you flying bag of meat." He growled through grit teeth, forcing himself to be rational despite the anger . "I'm here to put the saddle on you. If you don't want to be saddled, then say so and I can leave. If you prefer some other Dek did it, I'll find whatever idiot you want, and you can beat them." He paused for a few shallow breaths. "Otherwise, stop being a kid."

Completed A Dangerous Task (Darkness)