Closed One Passage at a Time [Eldetthal]

[Traverse]

One Passage at a Time

10th of Winter, 512 A.V.

A trickle of precipitation extricated itself from a deep grey sky, falling gently down upon a muted landscape. A chill wind blew icy flakes in swirls of lazy spirals as a reminder that this was Morwen’s time. Despite the cold, despite the frost that crawled at panes and bit at unprepared faces, there was something about this day. It would never be written down or recorded, nor remembered for any save a few, yet when these winds blew across Eldetthal’s shoulders, sweeping at his clothes and tugging gently upon his hair, they spoke not of frigid cold and unrelenting winter, but of change. The elements would not say whether it were bad or good, for change could merely be just that, but for him, skin a deep green, violet eyes staring out into the land, there was only one objective, and only one change to be had: The transformation of boy to man.

Two days he had been in the Sea of Grass, yet no sign yet of the quarry he sought. As the breeze rolled past, blades of vegetation wafting in the elements, the expanse before him truly felt limitless. Yet somewhere within he would find the Zith that was required to complete the final transition into Akalak adult hood lest he return to Riverfall a failure, and failure was not an option.

Every rustle and crackle of dried and dead plant life was the potential of an enemy. There were other dangers in this sea than the winged savages that were sought, but this trial was not taken with a group, but alone. Many would deem this foolish, yet Riverfall was a place that bred and raised warriors, and Akalaks knew their home just as well as the land surrounding it. Many would deem searching and finding Glassbeaks to kill just as foolish, yet Eldetthal had already done so, how hard could hunting Zith be in comparison?

[Eldetthal]

Eldetthal had restive towards his passage. This was an event that needed to take place since the death of his father but his nerves came from the trial itself. Why he needed to do it and what this moment was representing was why this needed to be done right. There would no mistakes here or trickery either. At times he would drift into a dream like state where he was thrown forcefully onto the stone back in the arena. The wind brought him back again and again which felt rude but the wind spoke the truth about the Sea of Grass. Everything had potential to be a threat and while pondering his actions that day in the arena was important, there was a time and place for it. His nerves did not come from being timorous but from this paramount event that will only come once. Everything must be done with a purpose and it was everything in Eld's power to make sure Thal understood.

Day two had passed as quick as it came but it did not matter how long he was here. It needed to be done. Day three is here and while the sun shone high in the sky Eldetthal looked towards the ground. Tracks. 'We can't be that lucky.' Eld thought. After further examination, it appeared to be another humanoid but it's construction was what was puzzling. It had a big toe and four little toes but the last toe was not side by side with its counterparts. A genetic defect?Eld thought a little deeper than visualized it differently. It was missing a toe. It had six but something caused it to one. It seemed far fetched to Eld only because of which toe would be missing. It couldn't have been in battle that it was lost, it was to clean. Could it have dismembered itself? but for what purpose? Eldetthal wanted to learn more so he set off in the direction of the prints but with only Grass in site, it will be a long walk.

[Traverse]

The grass acted as the pliant servant, bowing down before the Akalak as he traveled through it, only to spring back up after his weight had passed through, bobbing and weaving as a sort of farewell noting his passage. The trail he found was strangely easy to follow, broken bits of foliage and prints every now and then that seemed almost purposefully placed…unless of course the individual making them simply didn’t care if they were followed.

Whatever the case may have been it took barely a bell for Eldetthal to find that which he sought: The strange individual that would leave such a marred and disfigured print. The figure sat meditating in the grass, legs folded beneath him, hair long enough to be pulled into a club at the back of his neck, which was the direction the searching Akalak happened to approach from.

“I heard you were to take your Rite, boy.” The word was said with emphasis, after all, there would not be anyone who could speak such concise and particularly demeaning phrase after this day was done and still be accurate. A hard face that seemed to have been carved from the stone of Sultros itself turned to assess the young Akalak. The distinctive ridge that all Isur had made his stony gaze even more impersonal and uncaring, but there was a faint smile upon the stocky man’s lips. Tyder Sultros was a hard being to decipher, and his goals just as much. For instance, meditating exercises could be undertaken in significantly safer locals, yet the Isur seemed just as comfortable in the dangerous Sea as he would be at his forge. He blinked once, the only smidgen of movement he showed save for the rotation of his neck. “So, what are you doing just standing there, boy?”

The ridge raised slightly in a questioning manner. Strange though it might be for Eldetthal to encounter an old family friend in the wilderness, it also wasn’t pertinent to his mission. Would he stay and converse? Or perhaps move on as swiftly as he had come?

[Eldetthal]

It was significantly easier to find Tyder Sultros than he thought it would be, or should be in fact. Being the Sea of Grass after all.

“I heard you were to take your Rite, boy.”

He knew Eldetthal was taking his Rite so why would he still refer to him as a boy. Tyder must be doubting that he would succeed in this trial but how could he? The arena held many people but one person in a faceless crowd stood out to a degree that Eldetthal could not ignore. 'Twas not for his battle mastery or even being a family friend but because he knew better than anyone else what the difference was between Eld and Thal.

“So, what are you doing just standing there, boy?” he said.

"I could ask you a similar question but I should get moving. Your tracks misled me, I thought you were a Zith." Eldetthal said with some hostility in his voice. He probably would regret it but all he could think of was that perfect breeze dancing with the grass and encouraging the loose clothing Eldetthal had on to do the same. Today was a day for change and nobody was going to slow him down.

So he continued on. Between the grass and sky, Eldetthal saw nothing out of the ordinary and was hopeful that he would be lucky to find more tracks. Of course he never did. So much time was spent looking for a clue that the object in search could have crossed his path at any moment during his search, but as Eld came to realize this he decided that Thal better take up the search. He would be more prepared for a fight if ambushed anyway. But once again, nothing for 3 more days. Would his Lakan ever find its mark inside a Zith? would he marked as a boy forever instead?

'Why can't it just workin my favor?' he thought.

[Traverse]

The days passed, bitterly cold and empty of trails. Of course things could never be convenient or easy when hunting for the winged savages. Zith were funny that way, not a race to abide by other people’s schedules, especially when that schedule involved their own demise. Eldetthal was no true tracker, but the prints he found were of quadrupeds, and even discovered an old set of Glassbeak tracks, though thankfully whatever reason had brought the several overlapping pairs of prints together seemed to have been fair in the past. Even as a hunting trip whose main purpose wasn’t to find Zith, the journey seemed abnormally lack luster, strange that when one went seeking danger there was little to be found, yet the other way around…

It was that night, merely a few bells after Syna’s setting. There were no fires on these nights, merely a pup tent and a sleeping roll to keep the Akalak warm. The lullaby of the Sea, rushing swiftly through the grasses made for a rhythmic setting. It was time to turn in, for today had been an arduous journey of walking, and rising before dawn was the Akalak’s best chance of catching his quarry. His green lids shut easy enough with weariness, though sleeping fully was an entirely different challenge. The white noise of the grasses made a perfect distraction for the chilly temperatures, and slowly Eldetthal began to nod off.

Crack.

There were plenty of ambient sounds to keep the paranoid vigilant overnight in the Sea of Grass, but there was nothing as distinctive as a solid foot of a bipedal crunching upon the ground. Whatever it was was large, and by fainter sounds that Eldetthal could pick out once alert, there was certainly more than one of whatever they were. It was when he began to rise out of his cocoon of the pup tent that he would hear a noise that every Akalak knew by heart: The rasp of leathery folds rubbing against itself as wings were being folded against a back.

Perhaps now it would become clear to the boy trying to become a man: The lack of signs, the utter quiet of the wilderness upon his travels, unable to find a single sign of his quarry. Perhaps he was not the only one hunting, not on this night, nor any of the ones previous.

[Eldetthal]

So much made sense now. 'Why was I looking for tracks when they can fly' Eldetthal briefly thought. Unfortunately there was no time to figure out where he went wrong, instead he needed to find out how to get out of this situation. 'Let's start with the basics like how much time I have and how many.' He took a peak out the front of his tent. He gently went prone and looked from the bottom in case they were watching. It seemed as though they were whispering and planning with large, broad movements. Most he couldn't make sense of but he started counting. 'One... Two... Three... Four.' seemed excessive for one Akalak but the Zith aren't known to underestimate their prey.

At this point there wasn't much he could do. He thought of a few scenarios like if he lied still pretending he never heard anything. One could enter the tent and stand over him but once Eldetthal heard the Zith was close enough he would feel a Lakan deep in his gut. But it's also possible that they may surround the tent and set it on fire so he would be purposefully trapping himself.

But it would be stupid to walk outside in the midst of them. He may demand a one on one challenge but I think he should simply wait inside the tent. He gathered what he could carry on his back that wouldn't impede combat and crouched in the center of the tent.

'This is it.'

[Traverse]

They were talking alright, but on an ultrasonic spectrum that Eldetthal had no hope of hearing. It was one of the many traits that made Zith the wonderful predators which they were: Flight, A Brilliant Sense of Hearing, Supersonic and Ultrasonic communication, and night vision: what better nocturnal predator was there? As he waited inside the tent he could hear steps approaching, not all four…no, two? He heard the low grumbling chuckle of one of them, and identified the noise directly to his right. The tension was audible for the Akalak, what were they waiting for, why not just rip open the tent and begin this battle?

Well, in a manner of speaking…they did. With a grunt and the sound of wings snapping open, Eldetthal would suddenly find his world turned quite around as the two Zith on either side of the tent grabbed it and began flying up and up into the air. It was a slow climb, Akalak’s were not small creatures, and a being made primarily of muscle wasn’t something you just sent soaring into the sky. That being said he was most certainly being lifted off the ground, and it wouldn’t take long for this to pose a problem for him.

However he chose to escape the tent that had just become a rather suffocating prison, one of the Zith was waiting below upon the ground. He was lithe black male with braided black hair that glinted crimson in the light of a gibbous moon, and wielded a wickedly curved scimitar, probably a conquest from some other hunt. As soon as Eldetthal landed, which would cause a level of winding depending on how long he waited to get out of the tent, the male Zith would charge him, attempting to deliver a vicious kick to the ribs to his opponent.

If Eldetthal took note, the fourth member of the party, a lithe female with her wings folded neatly around her with a cloak, seemed only to watch, with no intention….at least yet, of joining the fray.

[Eldetthal]

Eldetthal knew what most Akalak knew about Zith. One thing he learned tonight was that they could communicate on a frequency that he himself could not. More research needs to be done on that later.

Thal was very impatient at this time, they knew he was here and staying inside a tent could trap him so what was he waiting for. Eld explained the element of surprise while they waited. 'Anything that your opponent does not know about can be used against. For example our water bottle during the fight with our father?' That was a painful topic but Eld stopped there as he probably made his point.

They started to approach the tent, but only two? Not many scenarios were plausible with just two out of four zith. 'Think, Think!' Eld breathed.

Then a chuckle to his right. Thal wanted this to be the surprise when he tears through the tent and guts him like nice little piggy. This feeling overwhelmed him and just before he actually jumped he was lifted off the ground.

'Now it makes sense, the other two are probably waiting on the ground for when I decide to jump out.' Looking down he sees a lithe black zith but the other one. She was just standing there. No weapon drawn, nothing to indicate command from up here, and certainly was not elder zith. What was she doing? Why was she here in the first place?

'Only one way to find out,' he yelled as he jumped out of the tent.

[Traverse]

The female surveying off to the side smiled a bit as the Akalak landed with a solid thump onto the ground. Eye contact was made between the two grounded creatures, but no words were shared, only intent gazes.

The Zith before him snarled and gave out an earsplitting cry that sounded like bat squeak multiplied a hundred fold as he charged Eldetthal, giving him no room to rest or maneuver as the battle cry escaped from the deep recesses of his lungs. The scimitar rotated dangerously in his grasp, as eager for blood as the Zith was. Taking advantage of Eldetthal's recovering state, he sent out his foot in a vicious kick toward the Akalak’s rib cage, sword ready for the inevitable retaliation.

Laughter reigned from above as the torn tent was dropped to the ground, both Zith watching the fight from above. The beat of leathery wings acted as a strange echoing chorus to the fight commencing below. Perhaps it would remind Eldetthal of the arena on that day, facing against one opponent with spectators on all sides. Of course, those spectators hadn’t been winged savages that were like as not to kill him if won this fight, but still…
.

[Eldetthal]

"You like... Pain?!" Eldetthal spoke as loud as he could though he needed to breath. The intense screech forced him to cover one ear but only for a moment as it was time to fight. The charge came. A downward swing before a roll. Another. Another. Eldetthal swept the leg. A stumble but no fall. Four feet on the ground, dancing. A thrust. Two more swings. Like a knife another earsplitting scream. Why won't it stop?! Low blow. A new scream.

Eldetthal spoke to the female watching, saying "You like this?!" hitting the zith's leg, "You like that one?!"

It was clear now that the zith enjoyed seeing him upset, not whether he was pain, but what next?