[Knirin Gardens] Speaking to Yourself (Nisana)

[Azurk]

Season of Spring, Day 12, 511 AV

"You speak too much," Kalik said aloud in Tukant. Azurk could hear him clearly, for in this rare spell, the soul brothers were sharing consciousness. Kalik maintained dominance with his hardened will, but Azurk could perceive all the details of the world as it bumped past. "If you had the notion of strength in you, then that woman would be yours. It was by your insolence that I failed to snag her. If you had not interfered, she would be ours and your name would be honored!" Azurk did not respond to Kalik's curses. "You have ruined your own chance, Azurk." Kalik spoke loud enough that his voice could be heard by passers-by. They were running. Kalik was running, jogging around the Knirin Gardens to sharpen his fitness and condition himself. Azurk normally preferred walking. But he had been on a run two days ago and truly enjoyed himself. Perhaps he would soon take a liking to it. He considered Kalik's spiteful words and felt defensive. Kalik noticed this. "What have you to say?" Azurk was not being allowed to speak, but he could think enough for Kalik to know. Your words are lies. You have no care for me. You want my name for your own. But it is MY name. "Your name? It was your name, once. But I waited patiently as you squandered it." And you were the one who interfered then. "I did not. I did not interrupt your chance in the Arena. You failed there on your own." You put me there. You have done all of this. And your lack of reserve will make it worse. "I have the discipline we need!" Kalik near yelled this, and his disregard for social conventions was perhaps made apparent by his talking to himself, but it was enough for Azurk to be silenced. Kalik realized his strange behavior in the quiet that followed, and he stopped running, glancing about for onlookers.

[Nisana Curare]

Nisana needed a break. The last few days had been straining her patience thinner and thinner. First her injury, then that cat, and of course all the unwanted attention being an injured woman drew from the dark skinned brutes of the city. She had known of no real places to possibly get away, but finally today, as she stalked about the streets glaring at any Akalak that so much as looked at her, she had stumbled upon this garden.

The pooling of the water was a vague reminder of the Blue Grotto back home, and when she wasn't immediately bothered by any of the lumbering brutes about she eagerly had taken up position on one of the benches beneath a tree. With her eyes closed she had enjoyed some relative quiet, aside from the crash of the water, and had finally started to feel like she was relaxing some.

All that was broken as a voice started to intrude on her thoughts. A conversation would not have bothered her much, but this voice was talking with no other side to the conversation. When the voice then rose in volume, shouting into the pleasantness Nisana had been enjoying, her amethyst eyes opened and glared at the source of the noise.

Of course it was one of the dark skinned brutes, and apparently one who was sick in the mind. His gaze turned to her for a moment, but Nisana did not look away and just continued to glare. She wanted him to know of her distaste of his outburst. Maybe that would encourage him to move of and bother someone else with his conversations with the air.

[Azurk]

OOCI completely forgot to denote the blue spoken words as Tukant, so allow me to mention that before I cause any problems xD

No one uttered a word, and for a second Kalik suspected that it was because he had caused a disturbance, though he did not much care for the fact. As he looked around, however, he realized that no one spoke because he was mostly alone, save for one delicate figure resting atop a nearby bench. She was delicate and eerie, for her skin was a haunting, white mist, and her hair was a black river, and her eyes shined out as two beacons of darkness. Indeed, if Kalik had a mind for ghost stories, he likely would have mistaken her for an apparition during his initial glance. He had been somewhat hunched after coming to standstill, but the creature continued to stare him down, and Kalik accepted this as a challenge. He would not surrender to something so frail. He straightened his posture and raised his broad shoulders to full height, for she was an outsider here (and he was ignorant of his own quarantined status as a Cerulean, for Kalik did not squander any effort on maintaining consistent or logical thought) and he was comfortable in exerting his dominance. In three ominous steps he narrowed the gap between them, and his shirtless chest puffed out, for he perhaps revered his own muscular ridges more than anyone else, and he did not waste this opportunity to brandish them like fangs. His hair was tied in a ponytail behind his head for convenience, revealing the entirety of his face. He stared back at her, but he smirked also, since he was so infatuated by his sense of power. "You are unhappy, human?" His voice was little short of a rumble; deep and somewhat raspy, as one would expect from a large beast. "Then Riverfall you can leave." He used the Common language slowly, and his accent and syntax were awkward nonetheless.

[Nisana Curare]

Nisana's muscles tensed as the dark skinned brute strode towards her, but she refused to budge. She was ready to move if he attacked, but she would not back down from him just because he was tall and trying to look imposing. The words he spoke only soured her mood, and she barely managed to keep from snapping an angry reply to him.

"I am no human," Nisana spoke slowly, her fangs flashing briefly as she clearly pronounced each word, "And the city is not causing my unhappiness. I was quite enjoying the solitude and quietness here," she left the last of her thought unspoken, "Until you came along."

She was frustrated, but she was not foolish enough to blatantly pick a fight with an Akalak. As clumsy as the brute may be he could still probably break several of Nisana's bones if he landed a solid punch, even with the black carapace armor that she wore. So she kept her body tense, ready to dodge if he made a move to attack her.

[Azurk]

Kalik faltered slightly, reducing the aggression in his stance as the woman rebuked him. He briefly examined her from head to toe as she told him that she was not human. He wondered, then, what she was, for she appeared human, at least to his dull senses. He did notice the unnerving size of her fangs as she talked, and Kalik wracked his brain for ideas as to her race. "No human? What, then?" Perhaps she is some sort of ghoul, he thought to himself. Her skin was nigh sickly in his eyes, especially in Cyphrus, where the colored Akalak and tanned Drykas roamed. She was surely of some distant land, and that notion piqued his imagination. She donned an outlandish armor. Kalik had seen similar sets, but none that were so intent on imprinting a connotation of power as this. At first impression, this woman seemed rather evil. And Kalik could only think of a few races that carried such implications. "From where are you, and what in Riverfall do you have to do?" He asked, all traces of a smirk now gone from his lips, replaced by lowered eyebrows and a tightened mouth.

[Nisana Curare]

For a few moments Nisana simply stared at the Akalak after his questions, appalled at his command of the common tongue. It was seeming more like there was something wrong in his head, but that didn't comfort her much. A brute like that without a solid mind controlling the body could be very dangerous.

"I am a Symenestra," she continued to speak slow and pronounce each word clearly, almost like speaking to a child, "And I am from the grand city of Kalinor. I came to Riverfall because I wished to. I had heard of it from stories and merchants, and wished to see it for myself."

Of course it was a lie what she was saying, but it could not be difficult to fool someone so simple and addle-brained that he could barely speak common and talked to himself.

[Azurk]

Kalik's expression twitched as the woman identified her kind. He recognized the name Symenestra. Their presence in his life was limited to stories told heartily around a fire in Takula Outpost, and even such incidences of communal storytelling were rare among the Cerulean. In truth, he knew nothing more about the Symenestra than what was suggested by the fringes of their reputation. "You are spider-folk?" She had an eerie way about her, and she seemed confident in her speech. His size had clearly not been enough to shy her away from standing up to him. Kalik's eyes squinted. "Kalinor? I know not this place." He looked to his right, and then to his left. The sound of the waterfall was gentle but it was enough to mask any conversation from a distance. He could feel the beating of light-rays on his back, and he wondered if the sun would easily singe the pale woman's face. "I know no spider that travels far as this," he said. "Where are your other legs?" He laughed and placed his hands on his hips.

[Nisana Curare]

Nisana gave a soft sigh as the brute called her a spider-folk. At least it was better than that hateful Widow title some called the Symenestra. Still, the title rankled and she responded to his question with a little bite, "Sy-me-ne-stra, not spider-folk, or do you prefer to be called tall-meat-folk instead of Akalak?"

She was not surprised he didn't know of Kalinor, and she honestly had no desire to tell him about it. Neither was she amused by his joke, "I need no other legs. Even with only one hand," she flourished her left hand, her right being wrapped and splinted at her wrist as she tried to let it heal from her injury, "I could climb any surface faster and more easily than you could."

"Now," Nisana leaned back slightly and crossed her arms carefully in front of her chest, "Was there a reason why you were yelling at yourself, or do you just do that from time to time?"

If he was going to continue bothering her he could at least answer some questions for her, because he was certainly not any good as a provider of shade against the sun.

[Azurk]

As Kalik listened to the words of the Symenestra, he wondered whether there was anything in the world that did amuse her, because apparently she was not easily entertained or contented. Her biting words did not lend themselves easily to his ears, and he had a brewing urge to teach this foreigner a lesson of respect while in lands far from home. He lowered his gaze to her damaged arm. Whatever she had done must have rendered that limb partially useless, seeing as it was in a sling. Kalik supposed it was a common occurence among such a small and frail race as the... Symenestra. He started to reassume his more threatening, heightened stance, annoyed by her insolence in a city he considered to be his own. "You hear me yell?" Kalik sneered through the colorful tattoos on his face. He was hoping she had forgotten that incident, for he was not prepared to speak to her of the Akalak secret. Besides, he wanted no recognition of Azurk to be had. He dodged the question. "You do not know: I am Azurk, great warrior of Akalak." He crossed his arms with pride. "You think to ask me questions? Who are you, Symenestra, and what man watches over you here?"

[Nisana Curare]

Nisana's muscles tensed as the Akalak rose up again, sneering at her as he asked his questions. She'd let her anger get the better of her and now the situation was getting dangerous again. She needed to try and calm things down, and so she took a slow breath before she responded.

"I am Nisana Curare," Nisana said slowly, giving a small, slightly respectful nod to Azurk, "And," she contemplated lying for a moment, but quickly decided against it, "I have no man watching over me. I take care of myself."

Noting the great amount of pride at Azurk's self-declared title Nisana decided to try that direction as a possible way to calm the situation, "Might I ask, Azurk, what type of warrior you are? What weapons do you fight with? I do not know Akalak society well," hopefully the question would encourage him to boast more, and thus cut into his agitation.