[center][h1]The Sacred Law[/h1][/center] [hr] From the dark gloom of the forests underbrush, Tala watched the campsite of her kin as they made merry into the night. They danced and laughed and sang, leaping like pouncing wolves around flickering flames in the centre of the tribal camp. As if anything had changed. As if a single decision could unmake a travesty, suck rot out of a wound. When word of the initial split had reached her tribe, women had abandoned men. Firekeeper Lansa was well-known, even if none Tala knew could claim to ever have done more than glance her from afar. It was a tragedy, and there was justified anger and sadness at the loss. Still, to split away from all men for the crimes of a few - this made no sense to Tala. Work was now harder, new tasks that men of the small tribe had handled were now due to be relearned. What could and could not be eaten, how best to avoid attention from predators, how to secure shelter. This knowledge had been in the possession of men, men who were now banished for the crimes of others. Still, the other women celebrated. Loud enough to attract every animal, spirit and childan in the area. Burning the fire hot enough to be visible for miles. No concern for safety. Tala knew more than well that just because you could not see it did not mean there was no one watching. She imagined half the forest sat outside the range of their flame's luminant might, watching them with caution and hunger, just as Tala did. She frowned to herself and turned her attention back to the work she did in the dark. A sharp rock, ground many times into a thin edge enough to carve wood and fibre into better shapes. Her newest project was a set of sticks, different lengths, all sturdy enough to bend and swing, and sharpened to a fine point. Something to fend off the predators, be they beast or man. They'd grow tired eventually. The worship of their colorful fire spirit would dim, their bellies would be empty, and their bodies would call for companionship. There was no reason to celebrate, nor did she imagine any of them cared particularly for Lansa beyond the growing legend of the horrific crime. Now she was being exalted like some kind of martyr, who in her heroism illuminated the vices of men. Tala scoffed to herself. The story being spun alone proved women were as full of dung as almost any man. That wasn't counting the hard words, the constant infighting, the scheming to secure a good and popular man. Before all this anyway. She doubted that would change. Until such a time she was proven right, all she could do was distance herself, live with the caution she knew in her heart was necessary. Maybe if someone had done so before, all this would be different now. [color=Deepskyblue]”You sit away from the fire, why?”[/color] Came a deep voice beside her. The voice shocked her to her core, a deep chill rattling it's way through her spine and extremities as her senses battled pure panic and survival instinct. Her eyes shifted wildly to lay eyes on the source of the voice, scrambling backwards to assumed safety. How had she not heard anything before the voice spoke to her? It was a tall Childan man with piercing blue eyes looking down at her. He wore nothing but a loin cloth, his white hair long and braided. Which in itself was odd. He raised both hands, showing no weapons upon his person but hands were dangerous enough. He bent his knees and settled down beside where she had once sat. He motioned to her to sit back down. Tala breathed uncertainly, but eventually managed to press out a basic reply as she kept her eyes on this new arrival. "Light. Noise. It draws attention and makes it impossible to see beyond the camp. It dulls the thoughts of all, giving cause to celebrate when there is none. It's heat is a lie - brief comfort for a world of trouble. And it is dangerous." [Color=deepskyblue]"Ah. I see."[/color] he said after a moment of inscrutable thought. He took up a discarded rock and a piece of wood, beginning to chip away at it. [Color=deepskyblue]"Fire is dangerous, always will be. There is no shame in being afraid of it."[/color] He said next. [Color=deepskyblue]"No shame at all."[/color] He grinned at her. Tala watched the man pensively for a long time, letting her eyes settle away from the light to study this new arrival further. The flow of his muscles, the braid, the way his hands worked the wood. Eventually she deemed it safe enough to sit back up properly. “You’re not supposed to be here,” she warned with a small frown. “The others won’t take kindly to a man stalking about.” A few moments passed before Tala realized her own safety could be in jeopardy. A chill ran down her spine, alerting her senses to this primal realization. It went against all that she herself had concluded and reasoned earlier, yet she could not discount that niggling worry. What happened to Lansa could happen to her. Hurriedly she added a threat. “And don’t think about trying nothing either. I’m confident in my skill of driving this up your jaw.” Tala showcased the sharpened wood she herself had been carving on as if that would prove the point. Her eyes flitted to the camp, where women danced and laughed in the firelight still. It’d be a day at least before anyone asked for her. Would they care? Or would they abandon her to the wild as Lansa’s friends had done in plain sight? He kept on whittling and gave a small shrug. [color=deepskyblue]”Push fear from your heart, I will do you no harm.”[/color] He said after a time. [color=deepskyblue]”Though I have no doubt of your aim, I would question your resolve.”[/color] icy eyes bore into her. [color=deepskyblue]”Could you kill another? A brother Childan?”[/color] That questions burrowed deep into her core. It was an attack on many fronts -- on her confidence, on her beliefs, on her skills. His assertion that he was harmless felt like vicious mockery. Was it a threat? Tala found her fingers gripping the sharp stick tighter as she watched the bright-eyed man. "...If… If it came to that. Someone has to think of the safety of the pack. To- to make sure it never happens again." She cleared her throat and straightened her back, trying to appear unbothered even though her heart pounced with accusatory cowardice. "Might as well be me." His gaze was unmoving, like a frozen lake. Then he smirked and his gaze wavered, falling back upon his whittling. [Color=deepskyblue]"You think of safety. To make sure it never happens again..."[/color] An icy eye glanced at her, [color=deepskyblue]"Yet here you sit. All alone. Your pack sit over there, do they not? It seems to me you are only looking out for yourself. For your own safety. You would run in the face of a threat."[/color] he stated with coldness in his voice. Tala pondered this with a frown, but soon shook her head in defiance of his words. "I am sitting here because beside the fire one cannot see the danger stalking in the trees. If I must be alone to ensure their safety, then so be it." She nodded to herself, still gripping her stick. Perhaps some part of her would run, she thought, against a truly horrific threat. But someone had to think of safety. The old man nodded his head. [Color=deepskyblue]"Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps not. It would not be the first time. It would not be the last. Now,"[/color] he ceased his whittling and then blew upon the wood. A cloud of shavings and dust, far more than even she had realized was capable from that stick, blew up into the air. It obscured her vision for a split second but when it settled, held out to her was a strange tool. About as long as her forearm and no longer made entirely of wood. It's intricate handle was made of the dark limb, yes, but at the top there shone an icy blue sheen of something sharp. A flat, almost triangular disc. It was angled with a narrow flat end, all of which sat atop the stick. Like a cover of sorts. It looked like a bulging claw. He said but two words, [Color=deepskyblue]"Prove yourself."[/color] and then from the fire, there came panicked screams. Tala spun her head back to her people. Silhouetted against the backdrop of the flames was a large bat that was descending with flaps of its leathery torn wings. The beast snarled, thick bloody saliva dripping from its chin. What had looked like some sort of growth upon its underside, dropped onto the ground away from the flames. They looked like bulbous creatures and there were several of them. Next they began to skitter towards her people, pouncing with thick mandibles. Something primal gripped her heart, a deep and wholly natural fear gripped her as she watched these foreign beings descend on her kin. She did not think. Spurred by his mocking words and the offering, she felt almost prepared. This was what she had bragged her purpose was. Her fingers coiled around the straight-handled, sharp tool. Before she could produce a rational thought, a debate of safety and risk, she was on her feet, running through the thicket to intercept the monstrous but smaller creatures. Their chattering and clicking mandibles produced no real sounds, only unnatural shrieks and rattles that clamped down somewhere deep inside of Tala. Beady eyes, bulbous, almost pulsating bodies of some kind of flesh sacs and bloody chitin - everything about these creatures promised a lifetime of nightmares. Tala's long legs carried her to the fire and panicking people swifter than she had imagined - without thinking she put herself between one of the chittering bulbs and one of her campmates that had fallen on the ground and limply crawled towards the fire. Dyani deserved many things, but being bitten by one of these things was not one of them. Tala swung her gifted tool clumsily towards the creature, but it saw her coming and easily skittered aside, mandibles clicking and moving in a terrifying mess of darkness and blood. Screams were all around her. This was how she died, her mind said, crippled with fear. Her body wasn't listening - not quite so ready to surrender. The bulbous beast made a lunge for her, and Tala found herself backing over Dyani and toppling to the ground, hair warming up fiercely to the roaring fire behind her. The beast lunged again, and Tala swung her sharp weapon to ward it away. The cold edge dug weakly into one of its many legs, leaving a solid hack, and the creature withdrew with a screech. It was all the time Tala needed. Her free hand rustled beside her to grab a branch from the fire, and ripped it free as she fought to clamber back on her feet. When the creature bared it's black mouth once more, Tala responded with a desperate ursine roar, and drove the burning branch straight into the beast's maw. The creature shriek and shook, terrified and in untold agony. Tala lunged again, swinging her shining weapon from above, smashing and hacking into the bulbous growth that made up a large part of the creature. The fleshy sac gave way under the sharp pressure and exploded with a sudden shower of dark liquids. The monster shrieked and lunged at her, and Tala's panicked, furious hack struck it in what she imagined was it's face. It fell quiet after that, dribbling black and red liquid splayed out on the soil. Overcome with frustration, fury and desperation, Tala turned to find her next quarry. With all the bulbous creatures dead or dying due to the campsites' makeshift resistance, the giant bat shrieked as it attacked another, Kalani, who held out a burning branch to ward it away from the women with child. It was across the fire from her and moving in close. There was no time. Dripping jaws snapped and shrieked as Kalani did her best to fend off the creature - to no avail. It had set its sights on both her and the others, and their fates were sealed. No amount of flame could keep it from it’s bloodlust. Tala felt powerless, a strange sensation of itching fingers and gut-wrenching frustration building deep in her core. Running to meet it was a fool’s errand, if it could even be intercepted from the ground. Something snapped in her then, the last rope that bound her fury and frustration. The sharp weapon made itself known in her hand, an instrument of death beckoning her to complete her journey. She did not know if it was desperation, panic, or anger. With a furious roar she threw her arm forward, letting the sharp hacking tool fly free from her hand, slipping from her fingers into the warmed air to sail through the licking flames of the firepit. It careened like a missile, spinning like a furious avalanche towards the unaware beast. It looked like it would miss, that her aim had not been so true. Yet it looked as if her eyes played a trick on her and the beast so subtly was blown into the path. A wet thud, barely audible. A bone-chilling shriek of agony and rage echoed a moment later. Then death as the tool had found its mark- the heart, and it dropped like a rock. It stained the ground with dark blood that looked black in the flamelight. She had done it. Her tribeswomen were saved. Before they had anytime to even collect themselves, the man appeared. Their were audible gasps and frightened shouts as he stood upon the edge of the clearing. Only the flickering light of the flame could he be seen. He smiled and his form changed. It grew taller and his eyes glowed icy blue. It was the Spirit Father. That revelation was too much for Tala. Her muscles expelled the last remnants of her vigor, and her knees buckled under the sudden weight of her exhausted form. She fell to her knees, staring at the smiling Father, an expression of disbelief, relief and pained emotions all at once. It was hard to think - to process what had just happened. What those creatures were, who was hurt - questions she'd ask when the world made sense again. When sanity rushed back in her mind. For now she was content to replace the fear of death with reverence for the Spirit Father. He held up a hand, and the fire seemed to dim. A cool and gentle breeze rushed over them all and relief came to those that needed it. He strode forth and spoke as her tribe all fell to their knees. [color=deepskyblue]”Rise my daughters, rise. Show reverence to me in other ways, do not kneel. For kneeling is oppression.”[/color] he continued his walk before coming to a stop before Tala. He extended his hand to her. [color=deepskyblue]”You have done well, Tala.”[/color] Tala looked up at him in disbelief and awe. She extended her hand to his, taking it firmly after brief hesitation and pulling herself from the ground with the aid of his implacable grip. Doubt and shame struck as her heightened mood reminded her how unfriendly she had been to the Spirit Father. His praise seemed hollow next to the expectant fear that he could admonish her yet and be fully in the right. She could not dare to presume what transpired in such a great being's mind. "Thank you, Father," she eventually squeaked out, managing to disappoint herself with the lack of respect in her tone owing to fatigue and the rush of life all at once. "I-... I did not know…" She hastened to explain. [Color=deepskyblue]"Move fear from your heart. Not all is as it seems in this world, never assume what's before your eyes is truth."[/color] he said to her in a fatherly tone. He then turned to all of them. [Color=deepskyblue]"Now I come with a most sacred law. As Tala and Kalani have demonstrated; You must always protect your fellow women. Lansa's death could have been avoided if a voice had stood up for her."[/color] at the mention of the firecharmer, many heads looked down in shame. [Color=deepskyblue]"You must never allow it to happen again. Be kind to another, be strong. You are not alone, you are together. For with this law, it brings a reckoning. You will become stronger than any man but if my law is broken, then you will become weak and frail. Do you understand?"[/color] his icy gaze fell back to Tala, as if she was the one who could answer for them all. Tala felt a fire in her heart grow from smoldering embers of exhaustion to a confident blaze. The words of the Spirit Father were affirmation of her own thoughts, a higher standard with which to face the world. She had been judged and found worthy. That sensation brought elation, and she swore internally never to break away from that divine praise of her convictions. “Always,” she responded with a firm tone, finding her mind steeled against the doubt she had felt at first. “If I do not do my part, I do not deserve the kinship of my peers. I will defend and avenge my people.” All around her, the tribeswomen began to swear it so. That no women would fall under their gaze, that none would be abandoned in their time of need. Tala was the catalyst of a great change and because of that, her name would become legend. The Spirit Father pressed a thumb into her forehead and from it an icy chill ran through her being, infusing her with power. [Color=deepskyblue]"Your task is this, find those responsible for the Firecharmer's death. When you have found them, your heart will know what to do."[/color] his finger fell away from her. [Color=deepskyblue]"I tell this to the rest of you, spread this sacred law to the rest of your kind. Already it is infused within you, but they must know why. Now go. Go and be well."[/color] A wind gusted between them all and the spirit Father was swept up within it, lost in the night as the fire roared back to life. Tala exhaled slowly, eyes lifting to scan for the Spirit Father, but eventually coming to examine the gentle cloud of heat expelled from her mouth as it vanished in the once more building heat of the camp. She closed her eyes as others started chattering, debating his words, discussing the attack, examining the beasts. Tala did not listen. She heard only the command levied upon her. A purpose. Lansa could not be returned, but she could be avenged. Was that what he meant? She would know when it mattered, he had said. With that simple guarantee, she pushed the matter aside for now. She did not respond to Kalani, who inquired about her state. Instead she pushed to her feet, and walked over to the felled winged beast. The sharp tool had struck it cleanly, and it now seemed lodged in it's body - a sheet of ice having spread over the wound. She gripped the shaft and ripped it loose with a loud crack, ice crystals and frozen hide coming loose in chunks. The sight and sickening sound sent a shiver through her spine. There could no longer be any doubt what manner of tool this was. She turned to the others, a few following her movements with cautious interest. "I'm going to need to go on a journey." [hr] [hider=Summary] Tala is a Childan woman who is skeptical about fire and loudness, preferring her own company where it is quiet, because it draws attention. She meets a man and they talk. He asks her why is out all alone and calls her a coward basically. She refutes that, with many an inkling that she could be at his mercy at any moment. But wait he gives her a tomahawk and then suddenly her tribe is under attack by the blood guys King made. She goes and kills them all and then Chailiss shows up, tells all the wamen they mut keep to his sacred law, A woman must always protect her fellow woman. They become doubly strong but if they break that oath they become weak and frail. He sends Tala on a mission to find Lansa’s killers and she takes it up with a keen eye. [/hider] [Hider=Vigor] Chailiss starting 7 (+1 for Yesaris week) vigor -1 to create a champion, Tala the Childan hero -1 to create an artifact, Frozen Tomahawk. Freezes the longer it stays in organic material -1 to bless/curse all the Childan Women in the north with increased strength (naturally stronger then the strongest man) with the caveat that if they fail to protect another woman they become weaker and frail. Ending 4 vigor [/hider] [hider=Spirit] Tala Starting = 0 +1 for post +1 for major char +1 for medium length Ending = 3 [/hider]