Open the Forivec Coup, iii: a sanctuary.

[Caelum]

OOC Information : Welcome and well come! This is the open thread for the calendar event on the 20th of fall that states: "Slaves are liberated by captors outside the city, flooding the area with homeless." Help is needed! We need to tend to the slaves, health, nutrition, setting up of their camp, information on Riverfall and where to find jobs, and showing around the city, et cetera. All are welcome to join and I do not stand on ceremony with threads of this nature. That means there is no official posting order and you do not necessarily have to wait upon my reply before continuing. Please PM me with any questions, suggestions, or concerns. Timestamp: 20 Fall 514 AV When Decath Rhodes found out about the slaves released on the Sea of Grass just outside of Riverfall, he did something completely out of character and went for help. As a long time employee of Haev Provedan, the rather clandestine head slaver of Rattling Chains, Decath never would have considered giving time and effort toward slaves; but the rising winds of autumn swept through the prairies and through the city of Akalaks with the scent of change on its breath. There was only one man to whom Decath could run if it was not Provedan. That much he knew for certain. His feet therefore found a path to the edge of the third tier where Alements glowed like an ember, inviting and warm, and he shoved through the great, double doors to fall upon the proprietor. In a quiet corner of the kitchen, Caelum heard him out, hands propped on his hips and head bobbing now and again with a nod. "What do you mean the slavers just released them?" The ethaefal questioned sharply. "They just released them, Cae." Decath pushed out a frustrated breath. Dusky skin glowed in the sunlight streaming in from the kitchen's back door. "I don't know how else to say it so that you'll believe me." Caelum grimaced, noble features made malleable by disgust. He was uncharacteristically impatient these days. "Petch it. Fine then. How many are we talking about? Ages? Races? Give me a break down, Decath. I'm going to need a little more than there's a bunch of freed slaves wandering about." While he talked, Caelum walked around the broad shouldered slaver he had met almost a year gone and disappeared into his pantry. Assessing its contents, he said a silent prayer of thanksgiving that he had recently stocked it full to bursting with foodstuffs. Loaves of broad, wheels of cheese, and baskets of fruit found their way one after the other into wooden crates. "There's twenty, twenty-three. Human. Something like that," Decath explained. "Or at least that's what Yakob claimed and you know he ain't got eyes in his head to see with unless it's a lady, gold, or a lady dipped in gold." That gave Caelum pause, and he straightened to shoot a shrewd look back at Decath. "Are you telling me there aren't any women or girls in the lot?" "Maybe a smooth cheeked boy or two, but no. None with tits or a slit." "Mind your tongue." Caelum sighed and returned to his stocking of supplies. "Elise is around." "So what are you going to do?" Decath asked after a beat. His shadow split the sunlight in the pantry in half and his words lilted up at their ends, as if buoyed by hope. "What makes you think I'm going to do anything." Caelum frowned, and then loaded another round loaf of bread to the packages. Satisfied, he kicked two of them toward the pantry door and thus toward Decath and proceed to stack the remaining two and heft them up himself. Decath ducked down to lift the food crates and stepped out of the way to let Caelum exit. The slaver proceeded to fall in behind the ethaefal's lead out of the kitchen where they set the food crates down in the abbreviated hall. He then trailed Caelum into the attached infirmary. "Because you're the one who does something," Decath said finally, and he frowned at Caelum's back. "You've been the only one who does anything when it comes to petching Provedan, Cae. C'mon. These freed slaves? They'll be collected, and if they won't then they'll be butchered and you know as well as I Riverfall will look the other way." Decath paused, and then he smirked. "Besides, you're packing up medical supplies now too. You're doing something, aren't you?" "Do me a favor and find out for me what happened to the women and the girls," Caelum replied instead of answering. It was ridiculous to consider that turned-coat slavers near Riverfall would have had solely men and boys to release. He moved through his infirmary, glittering and peaceful in its greys, blues, and soft greens. Bandages, medicines, and a variety of other potentially useful items were collected and loaded into crates much like those into which he had packed the food stuffs. "Then tell Martin and Owen -- they're waiting on you, aren't they? -- to spread the word. There's food and medical help for the freed slaves to be found at the Knirin Gardens." A grin startled itself across Decath's face and he straightened from his slump. "Alright. I'll find out what happened to the girls. There going to be a price for the help?" He raised his eyebrows. Caelum's smile sharpened into a smirk. "No. This comes free. But I wouldn't mind it being put around I have a taste for secrets, and a special place for them for which I give out favors." "Same as always." Decath offered a mock salute and then swung around to disappear. * * * A bell and a half later Caelum arrived at the Knirin Gardens with a wagon full of supplies. The food and medical supplies that he had stocked out of Alements, he had further supplemented at the Warren and went on to add an interesting pile of sundry goods. There were a stack of rolled up tent supplies, fishing kits complete with bait and tackle, a pile of torches ready to be tendered into flame, and several boxes full of clothing in a variety of sizes. It included small clothes, foot gear, and jackets and cloaks. There were also three folding tables stacked atop each other and a handful of camp chairs. Caelum had taken the market and the Warren for quite a haul, and left a large sum of mizas in his wake. Caelum began unloaded the chair and tables first, grunting with the effort of lifting them himself, but he ultimately managed to haul them free of the wagon bed and lay them down in the sun dappled shade. As he did this, the first of the twenty some odd freed slaves began to trickle into the garden and warily approach. Word was spreading through the city like wildfire. Ledger : Moderator Note: I rounded things up to stay on the safe side. 1 wagon (35 gm), 6 four person tents (60 gm), 3 one person tents (6 gm), 25 bedrolls (5 gm), 25 winter blankets (12 gm, 5 sm), 10 flint and steel (10 gm), 25 waterskins (25 gm), 10 fishing kits (100 gm), 30 torches (1 gm), three folding tables & 12 camp chairs (25 gm), assorted basic clothing and footgear in various sizes (300 gm worth), additional food and cooking supplies (500 gm worth). Total: 1080 gm, 5 sm.

[Kyo]

A group of shaggy-ragged people stood nearby, and the young man could not turn away from them. He wanted more than anything to turn his nose away. Simply put, the group of people just did not smell good.

They smelled bad. Not just bad, but of bad. He did not know how else to think of it.

Kyo was coyote. He knew now that coyotes and human-forms had different thoughts on what could smell good and what could not. These differences were quite clear in Kyo's mind. Like, Kyo found that human-forms did not want to roll in excrement or in dead animals, but coyotes could have a great time doing just that. Human-forms, on the other hand, favored strong-smelling soaps and things called perfumes and lotions that burnt the nose from their unnatural stench. Those spice-smelling cleaners were sometimes worse than even a skunk's harsh choking spray to a sensitive coyote nose that was used to nature-smells.

Still, looking around at how the blue pissers were making disgusted faces, this time Kyo would have to agree with the human-forms-- this group smelled just awful.

There was something about the scent that put the young man on edge. His hackles would have been raised had he been in coyote form, his ears drawn flat back and his teeth bared to the gums. It wasn't that they smelled too strongly, though the scent came strong enough for even the blue pissers with their poor-scenting noses to be offended. But no. It wasn't that. Kyo was used to strong-smelling things.

More, it was what they smelled of. Not just waste and sweat and unwashed bodies and maybe-sick and bad food... but despair. They smelled of sitting in cages with muscles cramped and bellies crawling, clawing for food. They smelled of pain and torment that lashed their skin til it took on an ugly toughness. They smelled of insults hurled at them day after day, foul words from foul breath, and feelings of not being worth anything more than the shining pieces of gold they were sold for. To Kyo, most of all they smelled of crying-days. Alone-days spent apart from the ones they missed, separated from the ones who had gotten away or been left behind or who had already died from maltreatment.

It was driving him crazy. More than this terrible city full of blue pissers, with the angry, hating people and the confusion of what to feel. More than the scratchy clothes he had to wear on his human-form just to feel like he was fitting in and safe. More than having to keep his dogs locked up for fear that something bad might happen to them in this dark-filled place called Riverfall. The smell was just driving him crazy and it had to stop.

But he could not turn away. Not like some of the blue pissers, who shouldered the lost group of people aside or cast them evil, dirty looks like they should still be locked up tight. No, he could not turn away.

The young man knew what this small group of people were. And he remembered something very much like being that in his pup-days, before he had met his boy. And he remembered his boy coming and helping him and setting him free. And he knew he could not turn away when these ones --like the one he had been-- needed help. Because his boy would have helped. And so Kyo must help, too.

The group was standing around in a close huddle like lost young who don't know what to do. They whispered out a name to the blue pissers who passed them by, asked for directions even from one of those who spat at their feet. Knirin Gardens. The name was a familiar one to the young man, who had spent much of his time in this scary-angry place as far away from the pissers as he could get, which meant going outside the city gates or to open places within the gates that were called parks. The coyote-boy knew of the place that was called the Gardens. He could help.

Without much hesitation, Kyo approached the group. He was not good at what his human-mind called numbers or counting, and so he did not know how many of them there were. But there were not that many. This group was hardly larger than his own family-pack, which was just him and his Brother and Sister. There was a person for every finger on his human hand, if he held them up to compare the numbers. Or so he thought.

"Ah, Gahr-dens come." Their hollow skull-like eyes watched him, and he thought again that being near them might make him crazy, very-real crazy, and he wanted to run away from them and their reminding scent. But the thought of his boy held him in place. It hurt to be so close to something that set him so on edge. But his boy would have been with these people, he knew it. And so Kyo had to be with them too.

"Gahr-dens," he said again, trying to be clear, and though he did not see understanding in their faces he thought he saw that they knew he was trying to help. He wasn't making mean-faces at them, not like some of the blue pissers, and so that had to mean something. He saw they knew it meant something. Meant he was different. Like them.

"Come," he murmured, and reached out a hand.

The grown-ones, the adults, they didn't move, only watched. But the smallest, a boy so thin as to be a skeleton and only as tall as Kyo's chest, reached back. Bony fingers grabbed around Kyo's. At the touch something jittered deep in him, making him feel he had the heart of a mouse, beating so fast. His own longer fingers grasped back, pulling the boy nearer to his side. The boy leaned on him, and Kyo's heart skipped again.

He reached out his other hand. This time, a man took it.

Together they walked. It was slow going; the men and their boy were tired, with eyes like dark holes where there was hardly any light, like the black places in between the stars or a deep river on the coldest of nights. More than once they had to stop. One of the men had a bad foot which pained him to walk upon-- he was not the one who had taken Kyo's hand, but another. By the time they arrived at the Gardens, though, he was the one who leaned heavy on Kyo's shoulder with another man helping him along on the other side. The boy clung tight to Kyo's waist, and the other men crowded in so that Kyo could feel them nearly stepping on his heels.

Once at the Gardens the young man saw immediately where it was the group must go. There was a big cart-thing that he did not have a name for, and a beautiful horned man was taking things down, setting them around. There were boxes of things, what Kyo saw to be clothes, what he smelled --even through the men's stench-- as food, and he thought there were other things, too, things the humans he had brought might need.

The group hobbled over to the cart-thing. Kyo remained in front, giving the horned man --a sun-man, he thought, like the sun-girl he'd met on the beach-- a hard look, though he didn't let his teeth show. He did not very much like any of the pissers in this city, only a very few out of those he met... but this one must be good, right? He had to be if he had brought these things to help the people.

"You, ah, friend?" he asked, voice wary, "You make people--" he held up the hand that was intertwined with the boy's, to indicate these people here,
"--good? You well-come? You make good live?" He knew he needed more words, better words, but these were all he had. So he turned and looked pointedly at the things the sun-man had brought. "For people?" he asked, thinking that would be clear enough.

Around him, the little group looked on. Their faces, no longer just empty and scared, were hungry, like the pups he had found long ago, left by their dead mother also to die. Just as Kyo had helped those pups, he would not let these be hurt again. If the sun-man wanted to hurt, he would turn into coyote-form and fight and bite until either he or the man lay bleeding.

If the sun-man was wanting to help, though... Kyo would be willing to help him back, with whatever the man wanted him to do.

[Zydrunas]

From whisper to wild fire, it was enough of a word to even turn the head of Zydrunas when he returned to the city proper after another failed hunt. The quarterstaff was dragging behind him, the faint glimmer of sweat from a mad dash through the grass and the dirt stains that worked its way across his clothes - not that it seemed to bother him too much at present. He gave a shrug as he idly picked away and turned his head about to the chattering, urgent voices of the locals. It was from the back pocket he pulled out the thoroughly folded city map and begun to spread it, eyes trying to pick out the described location. A certain Knirin Gardens by all accounts- not that he was completely sure on how to pronounce it.

Regardless, if it was not the points of the occasional individual that looked to guide him then it was the trail of the supposed slaves that guided him quite easily in the general direction. They moved slowly, possessed almost with nothing more than the flickering of a tiny spark within their gaze - waiting almost to be snuffed out by the smallest breeze. And whilst the procession passed, the Dhani continued to watch, silent as he tried to comprehend the seriousness of the ordeal.

Slaves were one thing - a concept that was not foreign to him - he had seen them when he had spent his time in Ahnatep. But they had appeared to be looked after and maintained, in the loosest sense of the word. Though, he would not admit that they appeared to be little more than cattle once more - but at least everything was clean there. But this was different, and whilst the base principle seemed the same he could not help but feel there was something distinctly wrong with what he was seeing in this instance. The head turned, the body swayed in an almost curious, snake like fashion, and then he promptly stepped in the general direction the few were travelling - with the occasional glance down to the map for guidance.

The gardens were beginning to fill when he did finally get there, the tell tale signs that there was indeed movement abound there. Just beyond he spied a cart, the shifting form of the Ethaefal as he tended to the load, and the few slaves that had been Shepherd to the location by the starting of a few helping hands. With the pitter-patter, he gave the slow and careful circle round, a careful look to the expression once more of the slave. So hollow, a darkness almost. It left him wondering if the dream of Riverfall was quickly turning into that of a nightmare. He only silently prayed he would wake up quickly before it took him down the path of unwaking madness.

"Caelum Goatman! Hallo there!" the voice of the Dhani chirped across the heads, a broad wave into the air as if to attract attention. There was another already speaking to him, but that did not deter him from continuing his broad stride over. He gave only a perplexed look to the speaking stranger, and then carefully proceeded to lean his quarterstaff against the cart. It was with a mighty clap of hands that he simply grinned at both men, absent of any ill intent, "Heard the word. Figured you'd want help, dah?"

He gave a point to the tents then, his entire head almost swivelling to gain a better understanding of what exactly was being supplied on this occasion. Food and medicine, he had heard - but this looked more like some mass camping expedition. "What do you want and need me to do, comrade? I can do many a thing, need to point me though. I can put up the tent if you want? Good at doing that," he then gave a lean, and a small turn of the point to the other, "Or you want your tall friend to do that?" Instruction he had given, and it was something he would rather have before getting ahead of himself - besides, it looked as if Caelum possibly had a plan in mind if he had supplied so much equipment.

[Yra]

"What is happening?" The words peeled from the lips of the curious Etheafal as she basked in the rays of Syna's joy- a bittersweet sensation, as the weeds of disenchantment pushed their way into the garden of love and faith and questioned the love of the sun-lady.

The woman she spoke to, a dark ruby thing like an Akalak but with white hair as if to contrast a real Akalak's, mumbled something unintelligible and returned on her way. Her arms had been laden with provisions. There was an air of compassion and sadness on her broad shoulders.

Yra cocked her head, curiosity piqued further by the notion that there were still kindhearted people in the city that slowly grew madder. Yra herself did not understand many things, and this incident was filed with that in mind. Done mulling over the significance of a female Akalak carrying her belongings, Yra decided to kick herself into action and investigate it herself.

She followed the red woman, happy she was easily distinguished by the colour of her skin amidst the blue and violet that otherwise dyed the city indigo. There were a fair few people heading in the same direction, an outcome Yra had begun to associate with events that greatly affected the city overall. She wondered if something had happened, like the brawl in the pub, or new people rising from the sea.

Finally, Yra's red-skin had arrived at the Gardens. Immediately, she caught sight of the wagon, and before it, she noted a familiar face and took a long moment to recognise it. Citrine eyes narrowed, but a smile blossomed across her face, and she darted forward to greet dog-man, perhaps recognising a sort of kinship between them that came with finding the world confusing.

She saw who he addressed and spared words of greeting for the gilded sibling painted in Syna's dreams. "How may I help, Caelum?" She did not understand compassion, less so now that the breath of change had filled her lungs, but she understood that other people cared if she showed she did. To the dog-man and the humans grasping him, she offered a flighty smile, but she awaited Caelum's leadership in this moment before doing anything regarding the one she'd recognised.

[Lyr]

Lyr heard of the escaped slaves from the slaves themselves. She was out for a walk, a quiet walk in the wispy autumn shade, her fleecy blue cloak wrapped around her shoulders. There was no one else around, and she didn't think to wonder where they all could have gone. It was a quiet street she was on, it must have been the airs' frosty whispers of winter. As soon as her path met a larger road, though, she was immediately barreled into by some weird dirty people who were not looking where they were going. "Hey, watch it!" She said, whirling to see who had been so rude. It was two men, both stinking like old filthy sea water. Lyr stared. Their appearances were disheveled, their clothes tattered and blackened by...she noticed several of the stains on the men's clothes appeared to be blood. "I-" She started, now bewildered by the two men's presence. Riverfall did not open its gates to people like them, at least not normally. So who were they? They were moving on now, but one looked back at her, seeming startled, like he hadn't realized she was there until just that moment. "Sorry." He said, looking perfectly ashamed of bumping into her, the Ethaefal forgave him immediately, hurrying to catch up to the men, "wait, what-whats happened?" She asked dumbly, "you look hurt." The man who had spoken before looked at her sideways before hurrying his pace, dragging his companion along with him as if afraid of her. "I can help!" Lyr said, frustrated with them now. She trotted after them, growling at them to let her help them. "Come back!" But they only ran faster, tripping in their haste to get away. She followed them until the roads ran into lush grasses and flowers, there she saw the slaves. It was obvious now, what they were, though why they were in Riverfall was still a puzzle. Lyr sought out her two men, the two with bloodstains on their shirts. They were moving with another group of slaves toward a large wagon. The group of slaves swayed in at the edges, leaning towards each other, and away from blows they were sure would come. The slim Ethaefal pushed into their midst, placing herself right between her new charges, who didn't seem to notice her this time, or were to distracted to object. Lyr craned to see over their heads. It wasn't hard to see, the men, most of them fairly young, were bowed by hunger and fear, and soul-deep sorrow. There were three non-slave men standing at the wagon, and a woman. One of the men, and the bright woman were Ethaefal, each blessed by Syna's rays, splendrous when Lyr was plain. The daughter of Leth frowned, she despised dealing with Ethaefal. She didn't know what it was about her own kind that made her so uneasy...But she didn't care anymore. They wouldn't, couldn't recognise her like this. She hoped. Pushing away her anxiety, she grabbed an arm each of her charges and marched them straight up to the wagon. "These two need food." She said loftily, adressing the men as a group. "Clothes too." She added, though it was obvious what the men needed. Lyr paused, her brow creasing. "Please."

[Caelum]

A crate full of medical supplies had just been placed on one of the picnic tables when people began to arrive en masse. Caelum straightened and dusted his hands on the thighs of his pants, plain, bark colored riding leathers. The long sleeves of his tunic were shoved up to his elbows, revealing muscled forearms. He was a vision of strength and nobility in the full light of the sun, and disgustingly healthy too. The contrast between him and the gathering of shambled slaves was stark. “Friend,” he told Kyo, listening to the carefully patterned questions. Old eyes traveled over Kyo moved on to take in the familiar faces of Zydrunas and Yra and finally Lyr who, like Kyo, he did not know. Despite this fact they were easily distinguishable from the released slaves. It was to them Caelum’s attention was directed, and he took them steadily into his regard while being greeted, questioned, and addressed by the others. He listened politely, grateful for their arrival, but he made his study of the slaves as he did so. He began to count heads and mentally marked their relative ages. They appeared to all be some variation of human or another, though it was likely a few kelvics were in the bunch. It was a visual inspection, an overview of the general condition of the slaves from clothing to evidence of injury and illness. At the same time, he was listening to the divine chains of Nikali’s gnosis rattle and sing inside of him. They translated to him a hundred intricately interconnected facts regarding the needs and desire of the slaves surrounding them as well as those who had come to help. Slowly, Caelum blinked and shifted his weight. It let his arm brush against that of Yra’s in a friendly gesture and he lingered there for a tick, three ticks, and then shifted back again. The physical contact helped clear his mind, forcing him to focus on the map of Yra’s needs. He had chosen her because she happened to be standing close to him and also, perhaps more importantly, Yra worked for him and as such he was already familiar with the map of her desires. All of this took perhaps ten seconds, his mind snapped into pieces like bones between his hands. It was a meditation practice that had come to serve him well, and he assigned a portion of himself to processing all of the data received. Then he pushed that piece right into the back of his brain and delivered those gathered a slow growing smile. It was overwhelmingly reassuring. A hand rose in a flowering motion outward from his chest, small but eloquent, and punctuated his previous declaration of friendship in two ways. The first was on the back of that hand coiled Rak’keli’s winged serpents in opalescent gold. The gnosis mark, one of the most well known throughout Mizahar, declared that he was a healer. The second was the fact that the gesture was actually grasslands sign language for friend. He suspected that at least some of the slaves would be familiar with Pavi, though he opted to speak Common for the obvious reason. “Yes, I’m a friend. My name’s Caelum and I own Alements here in town. I’m also a physician -- a healer -- and we have plenty of food, clothing, and medical care for everyone. There is no charge. I am happy to be of help to all of you. I ask only for your patience while we set things up. Please stay. I’m going to help.” That stated, Caelum’s attention turned to those who had come to volunteer. The smile he gave them was full of relief and easy gratitude, a growing cheer suffusing the heavier deep of compassion in him. “Hey. What’s your name? And yours?” He asked this of Kyo and Lyr respectively, curious, before continuing. “As I said, I’m Caelum. These are my friends Zydrunas and Yra. I’m so glad you’re here. I could really use some help. The wagon there has food I’d like to see unloaded onto one of these tables and the medical supplies onto another. There are tents – yes, Zyd, that’d be great if you took charge of setting those up. There are bedrolls and other camp supplies that be stored in them for now. There are also some cakes of soap and linens. They can take a quick wash in the lake over there before changing into the new clothes. If someone can maybe help set up one of the larger tents for dressing privacy? Or use the canvas as a screen for the lake?” He was clearly open to ideas and suggestions in this regard. “As for the food,” he moved on, “We have fruit and water, juice, stuff to make sandwiches, et cetera. Nobody gets more than one sandwich and a single piece of fruit for right now. They could make themselves sick if they gorge.” He paused, looking from face to face, to see if there were any questions. “I’m going to finish unloading medical supplies first and do some triage. Alright?” Later on, once they had the slaves immediate needs seen to, they would need to come up with ways to get them more permanent housing and (hopefully) jobs. It wasn’t likely that Riverfall was going to allow a campground in one of its most beautiful parks for long.

[Kyo]

"Friend," the beautiful man said, and that was all he needed to hear. The Caelum-one, he said he was a friend, and so he must be.

It helped that the sun-girl had appeared. Kyo felt a rush of feeling in his chest at the sight of her, like snowmelt in bright sunshine after a frosty winter-- relief. He gave her a wide smile, showing his teeth but in the human-way, the nice-way, not as a growling threat. Her being here made him feel more at ease about all of this, even though it hurt his eyes and his heart to see the two sun-beings standing so close together, as if two pieces of clear, morning sky had fallen to the ground. Kyo may not like most of the pissers in this city, but he did like the sun-girl-- Yra, his human-mind put in. She was most definitely a friend. She knew the Caelum-one, which meant he truly was a friend, too. Just like he'd said. And he, in turn, new the Zyd-one, so that one must be good as well, right? The only one he didn't know about was the other female, the not-shining one whose name-call he didn't yet know. He would remain cautious when near her.

At the asking for his own name, the young man nodded once, saying, "Kyo." He turned, gave the sun-girl another smile, then turned further and looked at the one that had been called Zyd, who was going to be 'setting up tents'. That grouping of words sounded familiar in the coyote-man's ears, as if he'd heard them long long ago, but Kyo could not quite figure out what they meant. Something, he thought, to do with some of the other things the sun-man, the burning-man had brought, the things that weren't clothes or food or soaps for washing.

The Caelum-one had given many different directions. Some of them had meant getting the no-light-eyes, the dark-eyes-people clean. Kyo thought this was the best idea for doing now. Besides scrubbing away that awful caged-up smell, he knew that human-types liked to have clean hands for eating, and clean wounds to wrap their bandages on, and clean bodies for wearing clean clothes.

Somewhat strangely, though, human-types also liked what the Caelum-one had called privacy. Kyo wasn't certain what exactly that was, or why it was so important, but he believed it had something to do with going bare-skin. Humans sometimes didn't want to be seen bare-skin.

Perhaps these ones needed to have their bodies hidden because they were afraid of exposing their forms and being punished by the pissers because of it. That was the same reason Kyo was wearing a simple loose shirt and ragged pant-things now. When entering the door-place, the place that was called the Land Gates, Kyo had gotten turned away for going bare-skin without clothes. Maybe the dark-eyes, then, were scared that they might be hurt for removing their clothing where others might see, or even thrown out of the Land Gates and into the big open place called the Sea of Grass. These fears made sense to Kyo, even if the rules that disallowed bare-skin made him twist his mouth in irritation.

"Zyd," he said, fully able to borrow others' words once he'd heard them, "Ah, help Kyo...? Set canvahs-screen, or larger tent, for lake. For, ah... priv-ah-cy? Make priv-ah-cy-place for make clean good." He didn't know what a canvas-screen was any more than he knew what exactly a tent was for, just that the Caelum-one seemed to think it was for privacy, which the dark-eyes needed for their cleaning. He knew the Zyd-one had been told to do the tents, and in the young man's mind this large-privacy-tent was the most important of all... since he thought the people needed to be clean the most. He would have set it up himself, but he didn't even know what it was, and he hardly understood why it was needed. For a long long time he had been in the wild, away from people, until he had come to Riverfall. He was still learning all they did, and all their things tended to confuse him.

That said, Kyo ushered his small group to what he now knew was called the wagon. He leaned forward and sniffed, then untangled his hands from those of his people and instead wrapped his arms around a holding-box-thing that smelled of soaps. He thought the things that Caelum had called cakes of soap and linens must be in this one. Not too long ago he had been thinking that soaps just did not smell good to a coyote's sharp nose. But any smell was better than the dark-eyes' smell right now.

"Come," he said to his group... and looked around at most of the other dark-eyes that had shown up. "Come," he said again, a little louder. "Lake. Ah, wash." With that, and another glance at the Zyd-one to see if he was coming, he began to walk towards the nearby lake. His group of dark-eyes-people trailed along with him, and he thought he heard some others straggling behind.

[Zydrunas]

It seemed, quickly at least, that Zydrunas was not the only person to hear the call for help. His eyes gave only a blink as the she-ethaefal made her approach, a gentle lean back as he rather pointedly looked her up and down. Eventually they settled on the horns once more, and it was with a flicker to Caelum that the Dhani proceeded to rub his stubble with careful thought. There was more of them, these goat people. He mused for a moment if children possibly existed, but chose on this occasion not to ask any particular questions on the goat people of Riverfall.

And then there was the other, hornless and human. There was another curious blink, a glance down to the firm and strong grip she had taken upon their arms, before turning back to Caelum - expectant almost for him to suddenly voice something. His fingers twitched, a gentle click of the beads around his wrist, and then he met that smile that only sent a nervous shudder down his spine. Reassuring to some, but in the case of Zydrunas it set off the internal alarm bells of paranoia and not to trust. Yet it wrestled, and the words of logic and direction spurred him into action.

Whilst Caelum begun his talking to the others, it was Zydrunas who begun the careful removal of the tents. There was only the hum of approval as he chose one of the larger tents, followed by a firm nod to the man to his wishes when looked upon, "Then I will do the tent. Do not fear, I am good at putting them up."

He flashed only a grin, an arm wrapping around the canvas and poles as he secured his grip. His muscles strained for a moment, trembling slightly before he hauled it up onto his shoulder. His cheeks gave a puff, the free hand momentarily fumbling back for the tent pegs and mallet, and when he did grasp them did he give an a second nod to all of those about him in. He raised his chin to Kyo, and without a second thought simply followed after him and the gaggle of slaves that hung to his shape - much like ducklings to a mother duck. Of course, his pace was a lot slower, steady steps as he let the weight cling to him and reduce his generally preferred light steps.

"Dah, Kyo, tent for privacy," he responded back, "A private place for the clean to... clean?" He could barely shrug with the weight on his shoulders so instead he continued his waddling steps at the back. It allowed him time to muse and work out what exactly was going on. Slaves, free, clean, hurt, hungry - the orbs gave a glance at their backs - broken mentally? Even the hollowness in his eyes were not absent to him. But it lead to the question of what exactly - besides the obvious - had they gone through to be like that?

When the late met them properly, it was then those few feet away from the shore of it that the load was lowered and the Dhani proceeded to get to work. Placing down his tools he proceeded to separate the tent into parts, eyes flickering down to it. Poles, pegs and canvas - it flickered in his mind as he considered exactly on how to put it up and what it would exactly look like. His brow creased, and the hands turned to the ground sheet as he begun the process of pegging it out tight - it seemed like the best place to start after all. He did turn his gaze up to Kyo however, and sometimes returned his attention to what was going on behind him with the others - what where they doing? What was their plans? And then finally he gave a point to the basket, "Give them the... 'oap. Cleaning thing. I'll have here up and covered in a few for them. Hopefully."

[Yra]

A lot of things went over Yra's head, forcing her to furrow her brow as she considered the meaning in the directions Caelum gave his happy group of helpers. It interrupted the smile she'd given in response to Kyo and the curious glance she'd brought over the one named Zyd and the one who yet did not have a name.

Tents. Caelum wanted tents built. She'd never seen a tent, but looking over the supplies that Zyd took, she couldn't figure out what they were meant to build. Her mouth turned down, the slightest hint of a frown. Yra wanted to be useful, not useless, and she was quickly beginning to believe she'd be the former and not the latter. She struggled to come to terms with this disappointing thought before she latched onto something else that would be necessary.

"I will make sandwiches and give food and water," she told Caelum. Quickly, her frown was traded out for a ghosting smile. Yes, she could manage that. It was like cooking, but without heat. The concept of gorging was foreign but she could tell that it was a dire thing, perhaps fatal. Yra didn't eat and didn't know hunger enough to realise how great theirs was.

She reached for the baskets of food, hefting them out and placing them down at her feet and beginning to edge them from the wagon. She felt it prudent to bring the people away from Caelum before they overwhelmed the healer, and maybe start some sort of station set-up where either one of them would receive people first before the other.

She did this without question, not even to identify who they were helping, or why. She was just under a season old and followed the lead of the knowing, trusting Caelum's ability to direct her. However, she was not beyond the need for reassurance yet.

With a quick glance at Caelum, to make sure what she was doing was approved, she brought her baskets to the furthest table from him and began to unload. Bread and cheese and fruit. Empty waterskins. She knew bread and fruit did not always agree, so she placed the fruit at the furthest from the bread, and then began tearing the loaves into smaller portions.

It was apparent that Yra did not in fact know how to make a sandwich. What she was doing, however, was tearing the bread, finding a knife to slice the cheese (and nicking herself in the process as she handled the blade), and simply placing a slice of cheese upon the pieces of bread before deciding the sandwiches were good. With a pleased smile, she looked up to find an unexpected audience with the obvious appearance of morbid starvation, at least to her.

The Ethaefal cocked her head for a moment, incredibly curious at the sight of something so unexpected and alien, before smiling at them. Smiles were reassuring, she'd noted. Smiles told people that a friend was near. Yes, smiles helped. They did not smile back, but that dark and haunted look in their eyes lessened some.

Without words, she began handing out the food she'd taken. As Caelum had directed, it was one 'sandwich' and one piece of fruit per person, and she also added in a waterskin.

[Lyr]

The group tending the freed slaves was small, but looked able, much more able than lyr felt. The two children of Syna didn't seem to recognise her as Ethaefal, which was releaving, and saddening. Lyr had almost no contact with the other fallen ones, she always feared they would be different somehow, or that they would think she was different, or unworthy. Those thoughts faded as the man in charge-Caelum-started addressing the group. She listened while she watched the rest of the group, Yra the other Ethaefal, and the two very strange men. Both men spoke with very distinct accents, the taller of the two-who wore near rags himself, seemed to speak very little common, but he seemed happy, friendly, and eager to help. The other man, Zydrunus, was equally strange and she felt he was not native Rivarian either. Lyr held onto her two charges as she listened, the rest of the slaves pressed in on them, tired, starving, and hopeful for food. She thought a few were beginning to realize they might hope for freedom as well. It felt good to hold onto another human being, to be surrounded by them, even stinking human beings who had almost forgotten their humanity in their agony. She had been spending far too much time alone recently. "I'm Lyr," she said, looking around at the other individuals, including the slaves, and trying to decide if the least broken ones were paying attention to anything but the food. Lyr sent her slave companions with the other men to wash up, in privacy. She was sad to see them go, and would find them later to make sure they got what they needed. Then she sought another way to be helpful, not that she had been very helpful thus far, and decided her only talents lay in carrying things. She quietly moved around to the side of the wagon and started unpacking the camping supplies, which was, everything everyone else wasn't unpacking. As soon as one of the tents was set up she started piling bedrolls and blankets in a corner, there were also fishing things which she recognised, waterskins, and numerous other items she was unsure about. Luckily she got the bedrolls and clothes inside the tents before the men started streaming back from the lake. She just hoped they wouldn't get them all wet, it was a shame there were no towels. The rest of the things she piled on the grass beside the wagon or tents, she wanted to leave space inside the tents for people to get dressed, as not all the tents were set up yet. It was hard work, she didn't have to carry anything far but there was a lot to unload, and the Ethaefal enjoyed being busy. She needed to help people, even when she forgot she wanted to. She started humming to herself as she worked, quiet enough that no one heard her, a lullaby tune she couldn't remember where she'd heard.