Open Onwards, Feathery Steed

[Yisanareysin]

46th of Spring, 515 AV

Yisanareysin, son of Varisoyisana (daughter of Ssyniavariso), eldest of his clutch, viper of the Eyktoli nest, loyal servant of Siku and Akajia, was currently burdened with glorious purpose.

As he slowly clambered up the side of the building, Rey kept his head tilted upwards, keeping an eye on his prey. At least, he tried to. As it turned out, climbing a building without looking, even with the aid of the surrounding water, was not exactly the best idea Rey had ever had. He let out a slight yelp as one foot slipped off the window ledge, and the edge bashed his shin.

Owww

Reluctantly, he turned away from his chosen target, and focused again on climbing. There was always the risk that if he let the duck out of his sight, he'd never see it again. And he was on a mission, one which the duck was crucial to. If he lost track of this duck, who knew how long it'd be until he found another suitable one? But he was nearly to the top of the building, and if he slipped and fell, it probably be gone by the time he climbed up again.

Carefully, Rey replaced his foot on the window ledge, and pushed himself up. Alright, he could do this. Other foot on one of those weird diagonal wooden beams, hand grab a decorative stone thingy, push, other hand reaches up, and.... Success!

His hand broke the surface of the water, and landed on the edge of the roof. With that handhold, Rey was able to haul himself up onto the roof. Sort of. Halfway, really. He lay there, gasping in actual air, not terrifying breathable water, the edge of the roof digging into his stomach. Alright, from here he could just sort of.. wiggle... wiggle... perfect.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Rey stood up on the wet roof, and immediately turned around, praying for the long climb (and it had been a long climb, even if this was just a one story building.) to not have been for nothing. To his delight, the duck was still there, serenely floating along at around the same level as him. Carefully, Rey approached the edge of the roof, holding out his hand.

"Here, quacky quacky." The duck turned to look at him, and, to his delight, began paddling closer.

Rey hadn't set out with any intention of doing this. He really hadn't had any plans for today when he woke up. But the moment he had seen this duck, he knew he had to do it. The duck was one of the sillier looking ones, with a checkered purple and gold coloring, and three legs, but that wasn't what mattered. The really important thing, as far as Rey was concerned, was that this particular duck was the largest that he'd seen so far. It was, in fact, around the size of a young Eyktolian Desertbred (not too large, as horses, went, but, he knew from experience, big enough to feed five dhani youths).

"That'sss right, come close." He beckoned towards the approaching duck, his goal at the forefront of his mind.

He was going to ride that duck.

Snake Tongue : Common : Arumenic

[Trista]

Trista, Akvatari With No Interesting Titles, wasn't burdened with much of any purpose on this particular day. The problem with this whole "so much rain that it floods all the street with weirdly breathable water" wasn't the water itself -- at least, not for Trista. She was completely in her element in the water, and even if she hadn't been able to breathe it, her iron Akvatari lungs would have rendered that fact largely irrelevant. Her satchel, designed for use in Abura, was totally waterproof, and getting wet didn't bother her in the least. No, the problem had more to do with the fact that getting wet did bother her sketchbooks and pencils. She'd had to work indoors for days now, and if she had to do another still life of the small desk in her room at the inn, she was going to go crazy. So today, she had decided to see if it was possible to work on one of the roofs that was still above water. It hadn't been entirely successful -- although the standing water was below her, it was being added to from above at an alarming rate, and drawing in the rain wasn't the easiest task. She had flitted around in the hopes of finding an awning or an overhang where she would be able to set up in relative dryness, but hadn't been able to locate anywhere suitable. Trista was about to give up and go back to her room when she heard the voice. It didn't seem to be addressed to her, but the simple fact that there was someone else on the roof made her turn around in mid-air. The person -- an androgynous-looking fellow who was thoroughly soaked -- seemed to be talking to a duck. Given that, only a few days earlier, Trista herself had had a fairly long "conversation" with a duck, she wasn't in much of a position to be judgmental about the whole thing. "Her" duck, however, had been a pretty standard-looking brown one, while this duck was some kind of multicolored, extra-limbed abomination of alarming size. The man seemed eager for the duck to come closer, though he didn't give away his reasons for this desire. Regardless, the ridiculous scene attracted her curiosity. She had to see what was going to happen next. Softly, she flicked her wings and drew a little closer, though without coming between man and waterfowl.

[Yisanareysin]

Fully focused on his duck, Rey managed to completely miss the Akvatari flying towards him. He waited impatiently as the giant bird paddled towards him, rain splashing into his outstretched hand. At least it wasn't glass anymore. That could have hurt.

As the duck drew close, he realized it was facing him head on. Rey had only ever ridden a horse before (and that, only once, for a few moments before it bucked him off and bolted), but it seemed to him like that was a less than ideal angle for him to get on to the duck's back/neck. Slowly, he stepped to the side, trying to guide the duck to turn to face him.

Perfect. Within a few ticks, the duck was (sort of) at an angle, giving him (sort of) decent access to it's back. It looked at him inquisitively, and he reached out to pet it's neck. At first it shied away from him, but returned after a few moments. Carefully, he knelt down at the edge of the roof, and swung one leg over the duck's neck.

It apparently didn't like that too much. With a deafening quack, it jerked away, bringing Rey's leg with it. Panicked and off balance, Rey reached out for the first thing he could hold on to. Unfortunately, that happened to be the duck's neck. It definitely did not like that.

The duck went berserk, quacking loudly and thrashing around. He grabbed on desperately to it's neck, his fingers digging into the surprisingly oily feathers. He was certain that his hanging on like a limpet was just making it angrier, but the other option was being thrown off, and, from how aggressively it was thrashing, possibly pecked to death. That would be fun to explain to Dira. Or whoever it was who dealt with dead people.

Distantly, he was aware of nearly hysterical laughter. He felt a flash of irritation before he realized it was him. One particularly angry jolt put a stop to that, as Rey narrowly avoided biting his own tongue. Still, he grinned like a madman as he hung on for his life.

He was riding a duck. Now that would be a story. If he survived to tell it.

As if hearing his thoughts, the duck stopped flailing for a moment. Before Rey had the time to be thankful, it gave one more loud, angry quack, and began to flap its wings. Water splashed up around them as the duck raised up off the surface for a few brief moments, before coming back down with a crash, somehow getting Rey even more soaked than he had already been.

At this rate, he was never going to be able to get off this duck. He'd just be stuck here for the rest of his life, hanging on to a giant bird. Maybe he should go move to a volcano and color his hair red while he was at it.

Snake Tongue : Common : Arumenic

[Trista]

Well that escalated quickly. Trista couldn't say that she thought much of the man's idea in re: riding the duck, although given that she didn't really have legs, riding anything was an alien concept to her. However, the duck seemed to think even less of the notion, and quickly began to make the man's life very difficult indeed. The Akvatari beat her wings, and flew over the where the kerfuffle was occurring. This time, she angled herself so that she was in the man's field of vision. "Here!" She stretched out her arms. "If you can jump off, I'll catch you." Trista wasn't actually sure she could carry that much weight, but it wasn't as if she had to fly him back to Abura. Simply fluttering back to the ground with him ought to keep him from coming to any harm -- provided that the duck didn't decide to chase them and flail them both to death. The instant after she called out, Trista was seized with a moment of insecurity. What if she was interrupting something important? What if giant technicolor duck wrestling was actually Alvadas' national sport? It wasn't actually any weirder than most of the things that went on here. Given that the man had been laughing hysterically only a few moments earlier, it was possible that there was some totally well thought-out plan that she was ruining. Her consolation was that, if anyone was obviously not from around here, it was an Akvatari, and so perhaps her ignorance would be forgiven if, for instance, this man was in fact Alvadas' Chief Animal Control Officer or something equally important. (She would have said "dignified," but A.C.A.C.O. or not, she wasn't sure that was an adjective that applied.)

[Yisanareysin]

Rey had had some bad plans in his time, and had participated in most of his sister's bad plans as well. While this plan was certainly not the worst he'd ever been part of (that dubious honor belonged to the Tsana Incident), it was certainly down there with the really, really bad ones. Expecially since he had no way of extricating himself from this one.

He was contemplating the possibility of just... outliving the duck when he heard someone call out to him. He looked up, expecting to find someone on the roofs, or maybe through a window. Instead, he was faced with the most bizarre illusion he'd ever seen, and he was riding a checkered, three legged duck the size of a horse.

The upper part of it was fairly humanish (it wasn't really humanoid unless it had legs, was it?), a human woman with red hair and eyes the same color as his own. The rest was less human. A pair of huge, blue wings, like those of some colorful fluttering insect, and the lower half of some sort of huge, furry fish or something. Or something seemed like a good guess. Rey didn't exactly pay much attention to fish, but he recalled them being a lot flatter. And less furry.

Also, it (she?) had spoken to him. Now, Rey could hardly claim to know everything about Alvadas, but he had noticed that none of the illusions had ever spoken Common to him. Growled and chittered and quacked, yes, but never spoken. So that was something worth investigating. If he could just get off this duck without breaking something.

Having been distracted by his feathery, thrashing mount, Rey hadn't exactly comprehended the creature's words, but judging from the outstretched arm, it did look like she wanted to help. There was a half tick where Rey worried that if she was an illusion, she wouldn't be able to hold on to him, but the large, quacking, and very illusory duck soon put that fear to rest. This was Alvadas, afteral, and if there was one place where the distinction between reality and illusion had no real meaning, it was here.

Carefully, Rey shifted into a more stable position, and then leaped (or was flung) from the flailing duck, grabbing on to the arms of the insectfishhuman person/illusion.

"Bye Quacky." He called out cheerfully.

Snake Tongue : Common : Arumenic

[Trista]

It seemed that Trista wasn't interrupting some sort of ancient Alvadan tradition after all, given that the man was willing to abandon the duck. Fairly quickly, he had half-jumped, half-fallen off the duck, and was (fortunately) headed straight for Trista. She exhaled sharply as the man flew into her arms. As luck would have it, he wasn't all that big -- probably heavier than Trista, but also shorter. She wrapped her arms around him, trying to get a secure hold. Her initial guess had been correct -- there was no way she'd be able to fly anywhere while carrying him. However, she beat her wings furiously, which allowed for a sort of controlled fall back to the ground. It wasn't pretty, but it didn't have to be. All that was necessary was for both of them to return to terra firma without suffering injury. With a soft splash, they fell below the surface of the illusory water. It wasn't that much farther to the street, and Trista managed to make their landing a safe one. She landed ungracefully on her posterior, but nothing was hurt but her dignity. As soon as she had come to a complete stop, she released the man from her grasp. She glanced upward, but she didn't see an impending divebomb from the duck of doom. With luck, it would go on to haunt someone else's field of vision, and leave her and her new...friend?...to the rest of their days. The Akvatari looked over at the fellow whose acquaintance she had just so strangely made. "Is...does this happen often?" A wry smile played at the corner of her lips, as she contemplated the strangeness of a city where that wasn't an unreasonable question. "I'm Trista, by the way." There had been so little time for introductions while fleeing the angry beak of a monstrous psychedelic duck.

[Yisanareysin]

Well, this was a new experience. The possibly illusory possibly person was able to grab onto him, and began to flap its (her? probably her) wings. To Rey's surprise, he could feel their fall slowing with every beat, though they were still definitely falling. Those wings must be stronger than they looked, if they could bear the weight of them both. Although frankly, they looked to him like they couldn't lift up much more than a medium sized dog, if the average insect's wing to body ratio was any indication.

On the other hand, he turned into a snake with a humanoid upper half, who was he to talk about bizarre physical characteristics.

Somehow, they managed to land on the street more or less completely unharmed. He even managed to land on his feet, though the moment the creature let go of him, he realized just how dizzy he was after that duck ride. Gingerly, he sat down, not really wanting to fall over when he tried to walk. Shaking his head slightly to clear it, he turned to his rescuer when she spoke up.

"Happen often?" He parroted, a little puzzled. "The duckss? Or the riding? The duckss hass been here dayss already." He grimaced slightly as he heard the sentence come out of his mouth. That was entirely too many "ess"s in one sentence. "The riding, then jusst me that I've- that I know." It was possible, he supposed, that there might be others who had had the same idea. Hopefully with better results.

Rey nodded when she introduced herself. "I'm Reyssin." He told her, smiling politely. "Good to meet you." He paused for a moment, but continued, his curiosity getting the better of him. "Can I assk, what are you, exxactly? I had never seen any like you before."

Snake Tongue : Common : Arumenic

[Trista]

Reyssin may not have known what Trista was, but after hearing him speak, she had a fairly good idea what he was. She'd spent enough time in Ahnatep to have encountered a few Dhani, and a couple had visited Abura when she was much younger. It was either that or he had a highly unusual speech impediment, and she'd bet on the former. She was fairly sure, however, that he wasn't going to eat her -- not here on the street, anyway -- and she'd just helped him get out of a tight spot, so she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. "I more meant the riding than the ducks," Trista said wryly. "I've only been in Alvadas for a season or so, and I didn't know if the ducks were something that happened every year, or if there was some kind of duck-riding contest that was a city event." She shrugged. "If there's any place in Mizahar that would sponsor a giant angry duck-riding contest, it would probably be Alvadas." She was unsure as to whether the sardonic humor translated, and so she laughed for good measure. People unused to the dryness of her humor often didn't know exactly how to take her. It was more of a problem abroad than in Abura, where that sort of thing was more or less par for the course. "It's good to meet you, Reyssin," she said. "As for me -- I'm Akvatari. From an island east of Eyktol." He must not, Trista thought, be from anywhere around there. "I haven't seen any of my people here in Alvadas, nor have I ever spoken to one who's been here." She was, indeed, a long way from home. "Are you from Alvadas then? Or hereabouts?"

[Yisanareysin]

Rey's eyes grew wide when the supposedly not an illusion Trista told him where she came from. Well, that was quite a surprise. And somewhat suspicious. On one hand, the Viper nest had been fairly isolated, and when he left, he had only stayed in Ahnatep long enough to hitch a ride on a caravan heading west. It was, he supposed, sort of possible that he had just never come across this race before. Sort of. Realistically though, something smelled fishy, and it wasn't her. Well, it was, but metaphorically, not literally. If her bottom half was, in fact, some sort of fish. Could fish have fur instead of scales?

Concentrate, Reysin

Right, focus. Muse about fish later, he told himself sternly.

It seemed likely, to Rey, at least, that she was lying about where she was from. But why? Now there was the question. Perhaps she was trying to keep the location of her home secret. Eyktol was far enough from Alvadas that most people around here would probably just accept it as fact. Rey could understand that, though he found it was usually good enough to just tell people he was from "around Eyktol, in the desert" with a hand wavy motion. Perhaps she was even lying about her race. "Akvatari" wasn't a word he had ever heard before, and it sounded a little more human than Eypharian. Perhaps a magically accident gone wrong, or something.

Of course, it was also possible that she was an illusion, and that she was "from" Eyktol because Rey himself was. Ionu did act in mysterious ways. This, he was going to investigate.

Well, if she was lying, and he told her he was also from Eyktol, she might visibly react in fear of being caught in a lie. If she didn't react unusually though, it really told him nothing. A fairly feeble prod for information, but she had asked where he was from.

Feigning nonchalance, he responded to her question with a wry grin. "From Alvadass? No, thiss place is too cold for me. I come from Eyktol as well. A small town, a little far away from Ahnatep. It'ss not well known, very few people come and leave from there."

The best lies, Rey knew, were the ones that were actually true.

Snake Tongue : Common : Arumenic

[Trista]

Trista didn't detect any of Rey's suspicion, and she responded to his answer with a nonchalance that required no faking on her part. "Oh? I stayed in Ahnatep for several seasons, when I was finishing my second voyage from Akvatar. I didn't really see much outside the city limits though -- I was practicing my drawing, and there were so many interesting subjects in the city itself. Though I can't say it's the friendliest town in the world." Truth be told, she had been inspired by the architecture, and by the appearance of the people, but most of the Eypharians she had met had been somewhere between cold and downright hostile. It wasn't a culture that was particularly accepting of outsiders -- not even of the Akvatari, even though trade between their peoples happened all the time. "But that's a long way from here," she added. "Are you working here in Alvadas? Or did you just come to see the sights?" She gave another small laugh. "I guess that's what I'm doing, and I'm even further away from home than you." This was already the longest conversation she'd had with a Dhani (again, assuming her guess was correct), but Rey seemed pleasant enough -- certainly unlike the ghoulish stories that sometimes circulated among sailors on the Zeltivan ships. But Trista wasn't willing to put a whole lot of stock in the Zeltivans' opinions of people they'd never met, even if their geographical knowledge was unequaled in Mizahar. People would say anything when cooped up on one of those ships for season after season.