Zion: Light of the New Moon Part 2, Ch 4.1 Bannihar
Zion - Light of the New Moon, Part 2
Chapter 4.1
Bannihar
Convergence
Iskiy and Lord Reis both get bonus xp and Bannihar gains 1 bonus Favor! The party was saved by many journal votes, so it looks like no Torment... this time. Instead, let's get them ready to meet up with Myre! This first post will involve the three Wild Landers and Raes. (Next week will be all Elias, Kayte, Roarg, and Sebastian.
Dana casually strolled along the highway; her bare feet didn't seem to inhibit her movement in the least. Iskiy absently counted time with the sound of her foot claws clicking audibly on the smooth stone. The shaman's every step held a hint of a dance, as if the very act of walking were a performance in and of itself. Iskiy was able to keep his eyes glancing about the road, looking at everything other than her, and yet he could practically invision her right next to him, sauntering along with an almost half-skip to her stride; her every step was melodious.
"Do ye dance much, Iskiy?" she spoke up out of the blue; Iskiy pointedly avoided looking her way, but he imagined her doing a pirouette next to him to accentuate her question.
"Um... I...." he glanced her way after a moment of hesitation, "No." She was walking casually, easily, almost boringly... and yet the sound of each step was in perfect tempo and created a sense of celebration with a vibrant, measured beat.
"Why?" it was a single word but it seemed to carry with it so much weight. Was she judging him? Was not dancing something that was worthy of being judged harshly? Iskiy hoped not.
"They... at the.... never... um... so little time..." he felt his ears reddening as his tongue failed the simple act of speaking, "training...and stuff."
"Ah..." Dana nodded thoughtfully, "Th' fault o th' guard barracks, hmm?"
How she managed to translate his poorly expressed argument was beyond him, but he did manage a mute nod of his head. The shaman grinned next to him and let out a melodious giggle, "So ye mean t'say that ye spent time trainin' on how't protect life, but not how t'live it?"
"We... did games... sometimes..." he meekly defended the barracks lifestyle, "...and stuff."
"Ah..." she nodded with that same knowing smirk, "An' I wager everyone always wanted ye on their teams fer these games, eh, boy-o?"
"Oh... well..." the scout deflated slightly, "not... not really..." he admitted, "But... that's because they were mostly cards... and... there aren't really teams in cards..."
"An' 'cause ye didn'ae fit in all that well..." she suggested.
"The Captain always made me feel welcome." Iskiy objected.
"Th' Captain, was it?" she inquired, glancing to him, "An', other than th' Captain, did ye have many other guards there with ye at th' barracks?"
"Well..." Iskiy shrugged, "A few..."
"A few?" she inquired shrewdly, "...or a few dozen?"
"Um... like... forty..." the scout offered, letting out a faint cough, "forty-something."
"Ah... ye had brothers-in-arms, did ye?" she inquired, stepping ahead of Iskiy so she could turn around to face him, walking back with the same casual trot as she had done walking forward.
"Exactly." Iskiy acknowledged with a nod of his head. He knew he was a bad liar; most of the time they put up with him, but he knew that he wasn't exactly well received once his antlers had grown in, "You have antlers." the scout commented. and he mentally slapped himself in the face-- the observation was just a little overdue.
She smiled at his comment, "An' so do ye."
Iskiy's first inclination was to smile back but, for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to do it, instead, he had to ask, "Why are you always like that?"
"Like what?" she questioned, moving to the right before facing front again, walking beside him.
"You're just..." he paused, "...so..." he searched for the right word, "...um..." he felt another blush coming on but he forced the first set of words out his muzzle that didn't sound like they'd make him die of embarrassment, "...not like other people."
Dana laughed all the more, and her vibrant release of joy almost made him join in; if he weren't such a reserved wolf he surely would have, but she did manage to get a smile out of him. "Nay... I be like ye be, an' ye be like I be Iskiy." The smile stayed plastered to his face for some time thanks to her rapid verbal slide through the tongue-twister that she had obviously chosen to speak, but the smile faltered just a little at her next words, "Ye just lost touch with who ye be."
"Then who am I?" he asked, one of the first whole sentences he managed that day without messing something up.
"Whoever it is ye wanna be, boy-o." Dana winked, "...whoever ye wanna be."
* * * * *
Raes sat atop The Risen, eyes alternating between the road ahead of himself and the cloth map he had draped across his lap. With the desert left behind them, it was only a matter of crossing the several miles of grassland to the city of Zion; despite his attempts to stay focused on the task at paw, the Champion of Bannihar was barely able to restrain his excitement.
Throughout his youth, Raes had heard the stories of the Holy City of Zion, the City of Five, Beacon of the Goddess' Light, and any other of the plethora of names by which it was called. Every time a traveler came to the temple in Bannihar there was no doubt in Raes' mind that stories would be told and if, by some chance, that traveler had news from Zion, the dog did everything he could to find a way to be present. Raes' heart and soul were dedicated wholly to Bannihar, but his imagination had only ever belonged to the City of Unity.
Lord Raes had undertaken the task of protecting the caravan because he was devoted to Bannihar and because it was his task as a Champion. He had volunteered to guide and defend Priestess Delier because she was like a sister to him, and because he knew nobody would do it as well as he. The dog was ready to lay down his life for Bannihar or for Kayte without question and, at least once during the journey, he had expected that he had but, each time, it was as if the hand of Tah'aveen herself had reached down to intercede... as if it were Her will that Raes the Unwanted were destined to see Zion before he died.
Raes the Unwanted... it was a name the Champion had not thought about in years. Raes the Unwanted... it was what the orphans at the temple had called him. Unlike the rest of the cast-offs, Raes had been handed over to the temple past his whelping age; most of the orphans were babies when they were abandoned, but not Raes-- he had known his parents. The pain of abandonment never truly left him, but, he also reasoned, his success within the temple, the rank of Champion, and the service to Tah'aveen had all but completely filled that void.
No matter what temporal forces were at work against him... no matter the fact that his parents turned him over to the temple... no matter the name given to him by the listless, unguided masses within the orphanages, Raes had become somebody. He gave his life in servitude to Tah'aveen, and she had shown him the love that no mortal ever had. Raes had withdrawn from the world, embracing the Goddess as everything that was important to him because, he realized, he was just as important to her; all of her children were, and she would never abandon him.
He used to think that Tah'aveen's love was everything, but, in Her infinite wisdom, she showed him the error of his ways. By her grace, the trip to Zion had become a greater learning experience than he could have ever imagined. Despite the death of far too many loyal souls, the Goddess had taken the horrible loss and turned it into a far greater lesson than anything less could have provided. Lord Raes had spent so many years never letting anyone get close... never bothering to understand or empathize with his fellows that he had missed out on so much.
Kayte Delier loved him dearly; he'd known that ever since they each became a sanctuary for the other amidst the chaotic times in their childhoods, but he didn't realize just how much they meant to one another until the moment they thought they would only see one another again in the Goddess' Light... he had nearly died but, in that moment, in Kayte's eyes, amidst her tears, he had seen a sorrow he never thought he'd see on account of his passing. In that moment, he felt complete.
Lord Raes had no doubt that he would one day die defending Tah'aveen, her faithful, or the temple. He had assumed that his deeds would be sung in praise to honor the Moon Goddess... he had hoped that his funeral would be a lasting testiment to the divine will of Tah'aveen... but never, not once, had he thought that anyone would cry for him. That one small thing suddenly caused everything to come into focus; Raes had spent his entire life seeking the love of the Goddess from the Goddess herself that he ignored the truth of life: Tah'aveen's love could be seen in the actions of those who cared about him. Lord Raes could smile because he realized that was not Unwanted.
* * * * * *
Jules remained at the back of the caravan, constantly glancing over her shoulder. It wasn't that she was expecting them to be followed, exactly; it was more force of habit. The thylacine trailed the wagons by a good ten or fifteen meters. 'The Risen' rolled along the Highway, still in relatively good condition despite the stone patchwork that had been applied to it nearly two weeks prior-- their Geomancer obviously knew his craft.
It hadn't been an easy trip for Jules by any means... not that any real time in the Wild Lands ever had been. She had skillfully managed to avoid the notice of most of the group, but, other than Priestess Delier knowing the truth about her she felt that she had managed to pull it off... and, once she took into consideration the considerable talents of the group, that was no small feat. Almost as an afterthough, the thylacine smoothed out the shoulder guards on her leather armor; were she like most other females the tight fit of her chest piece would have caused great discomfort but, as her lover Dresna put it, Jules was forgetful-- It was the mouse's idea of a joke: "You misplaced your 'mammories'."
"You're a far better merchant than a comedian, Dras." the Wild Lander said quietly to herself as she trudged along the seemingly endless Highway behind the wagon. Although it felt like they'd been apart forever, Jules was reasonable enough to understand that it hadn't even been a month... and there'd been plenty of times when the two had gone entire seasons without seeing one another. Of course, the thylacine had to remind herself, that was before Dresna had expressed an interest in Jules... and vice versa.
The Wild Lander let out a faint shiver as she remembered the mouse's nimble fingers as they slid into her pouch; the feel of the merchant's tonue against hers; the euphoria of her lover's dexterous tail as it-- another casual glance back at the road behind her suddenly caught Jules' mind in mid-thought. The thylacine's purposeful gait gradually ran out of speed until she stopped, gazing up at the enormousm swirling fog bank of energy stretching from the ground, high into the sky. Thunder crackled from it, sometimes arcing up into the sky and exploding and sometimes lashing out to cover a section of ground in scorching flame.
Jules froze in place, eyes rising higher and higher into the sky as she took in the gigantic mist wall of divine spite. Another surge of lightning crackled out high overhead, igniting a low-floating cloud and causing it to shower magma down onto the ground below. A blast of energy struck the earth half-way between the highway and the rapidly-approaching anomoly but, rather than an explosion, a geyser of water erupted from the soil, and a large lake developed immediately. Jules could feel the fur on the back of her neck rise up as tenticles emerged from the pool, reaching eagerly toward the group despite the great distance between them.
Even though she had never seen one in person, the thylacine knew all the signs to realize what she was looking at. Up to that point she had been frozen in place; two seconds later she had absolutely no trouble moving... quickly. Up to that point she hadn't been able to find breath, let alone the ability to speak; five seconds later she had absolutely no trouble screaming... loudly. "TORMENT!" She only needed to say it once; as soon as all eyes glanced back behind the wagon there was no doubt. At that point, the entire party was moving significantly faster.