Tira's fingers trailed lightly over the smooth surface of the wall, feeling the faint indents where a mosaic ribbon looped its way around the corridor. In the early morning cloud, high stained-glass windows could only do so much to clear the mystery of night, and the Alefprian palace was dark. Bare feet fell slowly, firmly, heel first, as if unsure. Blessed with the gift of silent walking by her past life as a nomad, Tira could hear all the more clearly the sound of her own heartbeat in her temples. [i]Geye.[/i] Breathe. She stopped. Felt her posture, rolled her shoulders and tried to loosen the tension in the muscles that lay dormant under her nightshirt. Breathe. Eyes flicked open- For all the darkness, it was easy to tell when her eyes were closed. Tira's night vision was keen, though she only noticed how much it had developed since the night she'd been found, cold, burned and spidery, in the city. Had probably been improving subtly since- Since she met- [i]Runati as-nu, Dansa?[/i] Damnit. Tira forced her hands into tight fists and breathed deeply. It rattled. Her hands splayed as far as they could and then balled again. [i]Geye. Geye, Tira.[/i] She lost track of time, but the moment subsided. Her heart was still moving too fast. Wetting dry lips with her tongue, Tira let her thoughts flow by, clearing her head the way she'd been taught, and inched along the rest of the route. Near the end, the determination to make it the whole way without breaking the quiet finally faltered before the need to find help. Besides, the door was in sight. She'd hear her from here. "Lakshmi?" Lifprasilians required lots of sleep, mostly due to their sheer size, a lot had to be organized in such a massive person's body, so Lifprasilians often rested a lot. In the middle of a cold Alefprian night, Lakshmi was sprawled out on a quaint nest of extravagant pillows, crimson, violet, and teal in their vivid coloration; each one created a mound of comfort for the tired Hero. It took a few more cries from Tira to draw Lakshmi's attention, as her weak voice was whisked by the winds from the bay. "A-ah...?" Lakshmi sighed, and pulled from its perch on one of three pillars, a thick coat that draped over her like a cascading waterfall of dim, heavy clothing. "H-hello?" called out Laki in the darkness of the night, pacing towards the sound of her name being called outside. She expected a Djinni, or some sort of specter, but what she found was the little girl, Tira. "Oh, h-hello," greeted the Lifprasilian, cute. "Do y-you need h-help?" she questioned, and extended her arm to the helpless girl. A good question, maybe, but it wasn't always the easiest to answer. Tira stopped for a moment. It was a rare thing for her to hesitate and she knew it, so she forced a faint bark of a cough and turned it into a smile. Showing teeth, as always. [i]"Ow'm,"[/i] said Tira- 'no'-, and tried to fall ([i]falling don't fall[/i]) into Lakshmi's coat, misbalanced, took a half-step nearer instead, and just pushed her head into the fabric. Coughed again, the laugh a little more honest this time, and much softer. [i]"...Maybe."[/i] Lakshmi smiled a meek smile, tired from a long day of drilling, she opened a gap in her coat, as if sucking the smaller human into a warm embrace. Which she did. "W-walk with me," said Lakshmi, taking small steps, while holding Tira up in her gentle grasp. "I want t-to show you ss-something." she stated, regardless as to whether or not the tiny nomad could understand her. Tira's grip of the First Tongue, once growing at an uncanny pace, had fallen apart since the night in the city. The gait the two took was stinted and odd, but soon enough the pairing reached the balcony within Lakshmi's temporary quarters, a half oval that extended slightly from the vast walls of Lifprasil's palace, with a stone cusp circumventing the sides to create a bowl. Lakshmi was sure to allow Tira's head to escape the confines of her coat, just so that she could see the view. "Even though I-I am s-s-sssure you have s-seen this view man-many times, I just w-wanted to g-gaze upon the c-city with you," Lakshmi said, attempting to be deft in her speech as a face peered out of her coat like small bird, flinched back from what she saw, then looked again, slowly. "This is h-home," she said, motioning to Alefpria in its entirety. Tira gripped tightly on the inner folds of the coat, dimly aware that she was backing up into the Lakshmi's towering ribs. Grounded herself in the warmth, inhaled, and opened her eyes. She could do this, she could look, no matter how high up they were. She was safe. "To m-me, and I hope t-t-to you, one d-day, it becomes something w-worth f-fffighting for in this chaotic world, n-no matter how weak it makes you. Do you have s-sssomething you would fight for?" asked Lakshmi, feathers upon her horns flickering in the evening breath of Galbar. "..." [i]Owt-as-ne ojanan 'fighting'?[/i] It was true- Tira [i]was[/i] always fighting. Struggling to live and breathe and run and jump. That was how she lived, every moment, every day, fighting to outpace herself if no one else could. And sometimes she [i]had[/i] tried to think why. Not in her darkest hours, but in the memories of them. She could never find a real reason. It was just who Tira was. 'For myself,' maybe, was an answer. [i]In-ly kara.[/i] Or- Tira held the coat a little tighter- maybe [i]in-nu[/i]. 'For you.' "Dunno," Tira said out loud. Lakshmi shrugged, twin fires granting ambience to the two from either side of the balcony. "F-fffair enough, I guess it t-takes time to f-figure out these t-things-ss." she said, and held Tira tighter, droopy eyes gazing down at the top of her smaller head. [center][h3]* * *[/h3][/center] [i]Thwap[/i] The Lifprasilian in front of Lakshmi found a crude cut on his head, followed by a blazing headache as the hero exploited an otherwise minute fault in his defensive stance. Only days from from that moment of comfort, and the First General of Alefpria was back in the Eastern Barracks beating up Alefprian trainees. How tiresome. However, Lakshmi found it appropriate to bring the small Tira on her excursions into Alefpria as of late; she thought that maybe the variety would be good to help her recover, and rebound stronger both physically, and socially from whatever had stricken her. "Tch... You're so cruel, Commander." sighed the Lifprasilian opposite to Lakshmi, before the Bay Commander himself sauntered to center stage, giving the incapacitated trainee a motivating kick in the ribs. "Bah! You younger types don't try hard enough, go lay down in the shade, it'll do ya some good." ordered the fat Lifprasilian, before he adjusted his large straw hat. Watching from close by, and perhaps far less depleted than Lakshmi might have assumed, Tira tilted her head at the Commander, musing as she sat on the ground in a loose sprawl. Lakshmi, bless her heart, was always more hesitant with her than her friends in the city. It was relaxing. Tira's energy, though, was starting to grow pent up. "No n-need to beat him up anym-more, they aren't very u-useful if you break them." reproved Lakshmi, giving the Bay Commander a swift bop to his nose with her quarterstaff. An unexpected second bop followed from a smaller, brightly decorated pole. Tira gave a small cackle and stepped back, bouncing slightly on her heels. Quiet though she was, she'd covered the distance between the wall and the Bay Commander with some speed. The Bay Commander paused "And who are you?" he asked Tira, adjusting his pants with both hands. "That's Tira," said Lakshmi with a surprising lack of stutter. The girl waved vigorously. "Ah," he nodded "Hello Tira, I am Hogarth, the Bay Commander of Alefpria." greeted Hogarth. "Does she speak?" he asked Lakshmi, pointing down to Tira, who found the comment richly amusing, and threw a wide shrug; grinning without saying a word. "Bah," said Hogarth, simply. "I'm gonna lay down in the shade, why don't ya show her a few things while she's here?" "M-mmaybe I will." Lakshmi said in turn, while Hogarth hobbled to a spot nearby, next to a pair of exhausted trainees. Tira waved him away. "W-would you like to learn sssomething?" Laki asked, "S-something about fighting?" The comment pulled some slightly more serious attention from Tira, then eagerness. She could never refuse offer like that! "Okay," she said with a nod. An old habit came back unbidden, and she settled into a loose guard stance, holding the tent pole low and horizontal in both hands. "Now?" "Are y-you ready?" Lakshmi asked, prodding at Tira's belly with her worn quarterstaff. "I w-wouldn't want to hit-t you with your guard down. You n-need to hold it higher." Her eyes widened. [i]"Ne as tlareuk nu?"[/i] A note of disbelief in her tone. "I mean- I can fight- [i]You?[/i] I mean." Faint giggle, and Tira raised her hand as high as she could. "You tall." The idea excited her more than she knew how to really say. Rare and precious is the parent who lets their kid fight them. "I'll g-go easy on you, you haven't been g-given mmuch training," Laki reassured Tira "I'll c-count down from three." she explained, holding her weapon at her side. "One, t-two-" Tira punched her in the belly. Lakshmi grunted, her torso nearly taking a bend. "Bah! That's a smart girl!" yelled Hogarth, summoning a few whoops from the surrounding trainees. "Hold it higher!" There wasn't time to laugh, though some of the trainees in the sidelines had. Tira's fists had already snapped back to her staff as she moved to sidestep her adoptive mother. There was a twinkle in Lakshmi's eyes, and despite the pre-emptive attack, her reflexes were quick. The quarterstaff that [i]was[/i] at her side hopped along the sand, and met Tira's ankle as she stepped aside. Once it made contact, Lakshmi simply sweeped the leg with an arm. Realisation hit Tira only an instant before the ground did. A wheeze upon impact. Had Tira been wiser, she might've rolled to one side, but Laki didn't trigger as many danger impulses as she rightfully should have, so Tira simply clambered up to one knee and twisted to the side where she had last seen Lakshmi, two-handedly sweeping the tip of her pole with her. Lakshmi simply drifted backwards, her quarterstaff remained stiff at her side, moving stock within its position. It did not move to punish Tira, however, Laki bent a knee, and struck the girl with her foot. She didn't move to injure the vulnerable human further, instead, she backed towards the opposing end of the arena, at this point in her extended lifetime, Lakshmi never really thought about her movements. It all felt like base instinct. Tira's crouch had lowered her center of gravity, and when her newfound trainer knocked her upside the ribs, she soon caught her weight with a palm on the ground. Still, she was glad for a chance to stand up. [i]"Occip, ow'm?"[/i] It felt like it was too soon for Lakshmi to step out of the bout, though Tira had been squarely put in the ground twice; and, much that she'd never admit it, probably needed a moment's rest. "Come again." Lakshmi asked with intense clarity. Language was, admittedly, a blind spot to Laki's stead on Galbarian knowledge. "S-sspeak the first tongue, Tira d-dear." she sang, the language of Lifprasil's knowing cascading from her mouth, to her adopted daughter. "'kay," said Tira, and came at Lakshmi again, bouncing lightly on her heels until she was close enough to bat Laki in the waist. Her pole glanced dishearteningly off toned Lifprasilian muscle. Lakshmi huffed, she tilted at the impact, but her stance hardly wavered beyond that, she then swiped Tira's feet out from underneath herself, again, as punishment for her overt aggressiveness. "Say it again, pleasss-se." she requested, keeping the weathered base of her quarterstaff pressed to the small, vulnerable human's forehead, who blinked. "O-kay?" Tira cycled through her vocabulary, looking for the words. They'd come naturally to her, a while ago, but not any more. It was an easy enough sentence, though. "[i]Ow'm-[/i] No- [i]Occip-[/i] More. More, no? All done?" A smile graced Lakshmi's gray lips "Well - do you w-wwant to take a break?" she asked Tira, retracting her quarterstaff. "Y-you received quite a b-b-beating." Her enthusiastic charge gave a wheezy laugh, nodding, taking Lakshmi by the hand and pulling herself up, leaning on her foster mother's thigh. [i]"Woo-oo!"[/i] came the sound of excess excitement draining from Tira's body. She'd probably ache the next morning, but she'd enjoyed herself. Her legs gave way and she slid down Lakshmi's knee. [i]"Woooooooo,"[/i] breathed Tira, dizzily, as the adults fussed. She raised a tired arm and gave them a comforting sign-of-horns. It was the first time she'd take an injury on the stage. After the seventeenth, she stopped counting. [center][h3]* * *[/h3][/center] Night glowed. Scitis and Vigilate competed with Periditus to see who could cast the most light. The result was clear vision, the stage visible almost down to the fine colour on its banners, though the hour was well past midnight. Tira stood on the packed earth, watching her feet trace circles over the chalky ground. A blanch of moon-white illuminated the stage behind her, where her new clothes lay. She'd passed it about eight times now and still managed to avoid looking at it. Her toes made smooth arcs without thinking, lunged and kicked and bounced. She wasn't in day clothes, let alone uniform, but her body knew the way. She exercised herself without even thinking. A stray kick brought her front back to the stage, and she faced it in a guard stance, as if she were fighting the arena itself. There they lay. A suit of bronze scale, and a black staff with a silver blade. Tira released her muscles and let them bounce as she walked, winding down her heart rate. She leapt onto the old wooden fighting-ground and sat crosslegged before the weaponry. The naginata fit easily into her hands, like her quarterstaves always had. Only a little heavier towards the one end. It had been left behind by a beautiful Hero, and was now being given to her. Because, Lakshmi said, they were going to war. And Tira had to fight... Tira reached into her shirt and pulled out the obsidian knife that now hung on a cord around her neck. It shone in its sheath, sharp as it ever was, and she saw a glimpse of her own face in its blade. Her teeth still gleamed through the slash in her cheek. ...Again. She could remember every moment of the Breaking of the Peoples. It was a day non-urtelem called Angelblood Ridge. When demons spanned between earth and sky, when faeries and seraphim took to the air, where chaos and order met and a girl named Tira lost her only friends. All her wounds had healed, and still it felt so fresh. [i]Runjon leep toh-dne?[/i] How long had it been? She remembered the guards she had met when she woke up in Alefpria. She remembered the first time she met Lakshmi. She remembered introducing herself to the street gang of Lifprasilians who had become her earliest friends- Tyufik, Kunonok, and Lonar. She remembered training with Lakshmi and Susa. She remembered finding Dabbles when he first came to the city, a panicked, lonely mess. She remembered her waking nightmares, and how a gibbon with tails had guided her way to health. She remembered Lonar's decision to enlist as a warrior. She remembered Dabbles rising to notoriety as the friendliest and slickest money-changer in the city. She remembered the second and third visit of the Grand Parade. She remembered Tyufik and Kunonok getting married. Tira sat and put her head between her fists, gripping the knife. She remembered a drunk Susa shooting a bull yeti for a bet. She remembered Lonar being promoted to officer and towering over every other soldier at the ceremony. She remembered when urtelem began to write. She remembered the sixth and seventh visits of the Grand Parade. She remembered Kunonok adopting his first child, Tyufik yelling for joy. She remembered the Sculptor den before it burned down. Tira began to rock. All the days between then and now came streaming back to her. She remembered the light in the sky that they said was two gods fighting. She remembered Kunonok dying at sea. She remembered the first wrought iron, the great secret of Alefpria. She remembered Lonar and Lakshmi fighting as equals. She remembered running through the streets with Tyufik's daughter, like she'd always done with her gang... How many years? How many years did all those days add up to? And now Tyufik's daughter was getting married, and the Grand Parade was marking its thirteenth Alefprian exhibition with elephants and standing stones, and Dabbles was in charge of a giant ship, and Lonar armed her forces for a great war... Tira clenched her teeth and buckled, shaking, then threw her head back and- [i]"GRAAAAAAAH!"[/i] She'd kept her knife to remind herself that she was a fighter. [i]That this was the core of her being.[/i] And no matter how hard she tried, she knew she could never forget. The truth stayed still, even as days turned to years turned to decades and Tira played in her city, sixteen years old for ever and ever... And now those years were gone, and her friends were gone, and she was on the bloodstained road again. And she was still sixteen. Tira grabbed at her dense black hair, hair that had been short and ragged not so (so, so) long ago. She brought up the knife and slashed at it, felt the familiar tug, the exact same sound her hair had made when she'd done the same thing generations ago. She let it fall to the ground. Now nothing had changed. Now she was just another wandering child, off to kill for the friends she had made. So be it. Tira picked up the naginata and was in scale armour before she knew it. Her knife disappeared into her shirt and she flexed her lean muscles, ready to fight once again, like she always knew she would. Ready to take up the burden she was so perfectly made for. A shadow appeared on the wall. Tira turned, and saw Oevadia, the Emperor's mount, perched in her silken robe and looking down with curious moonlight eyes. She broke into a smile. Alright. One more day of childhood. Tira slipped off the bronze cuirass, and soon enough Oevadia spread her lightless wings, and raced into the dawn. [hider=(wow Tira's been a character for ages hasn't she?)] Yeah wow, I haven't written anything for her in aaaaages. Half of this post is already year-old content. [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/3792078]Here's[/url] the post where we get to know her friends. [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/3918965]Here[/url] is where she finds the Godkiller and the Sculptor parasite is purged from her. There are other posts too, probably in BBeast's compendium, but those will get you in the mood if you feel like it. Anyway! Tira wakes up at night after a trauma-related panic attack and goes to Lakshmi for comfort. Later, she spars with Lakshmi for fun and practice. Much, much, much, much later, she's about to embark for the Battle of Xerxes, and has to come to terms with the fact that she's spent a long, long time just living in Alefpria as a kid, and other than learning to handle her post-traumatic stress and getting even more absurdly good at fighting for her size, she's basically on the exact same page she was on before she left for Angelblood Ridge. She knows she's destined to fight for a cause, and so it's finally time for Tira to grow up. [/hider]