Drache

How Much is That Doggie in the Window? (Ebonfort RP)

Waiting outside the gate suited Rilana just fine. She didn't trust herself to go into the yard and play with pups or she might be there all day. She lingered in the shade, watching Trix wade through the romping hound pups to meet the ridgebacks. There were dozens breeds in the world, many of which seemed rather dumb and useless to the practical fey woman, but she had an appreciation for a breed that seemed to add something to the world. She was also thankful that the blonde human had been willing to listen to her rather than shrugging her off as an outsider. It was apparent that Trix was a kind heart. After the terrifying events at the tournament it was nice to find something familiar to soothe her soul. Rilana winced a little and shifted her weight. There was an injury on her back that she hadn't been able to reach well enough to treat herself and her pack seemed to be designed to rub it uncomfortably.

When Trix turned back with not one, but two pups in her arms Rilana couldn't help but smile, an expression that filled her azure eyes as well as turning up her soft lips. "Two for a bit less than one of those black mongrels," she noted quietly, secretly glad to have thwarted the unscrupulous breeder down the road.

A sympathetic look filled her eyes as she moved to meet Trix at the gate and noticed that the shorter woman's eyes sparkled wetly. She reached up to say hello to the pups, scratching one behind their jaws and feeling their velvet-soft puppy ears between her thumb and fore-finger. She glanced back at the remaining pup. Even she felt a pang at seeing him watching his siblings depart. "If I didn't have another month-long journey ahead of me I would be sorely tempted to take him with me. But I don't think it would be a fair trek for him, and it seems I have already picked up one creature today." She glanced at the raven, who had flown across the road to a fruit cart and was eyeing a basket of blueberries with unmistakeable avarice and inching stealthily closer, yet giving herself away with jabbery muttering. The young woman minding the cart was eyeing the bird with a shrewd gaze, reaching for a thin stick in case the raven made a move on her produce.

"It was my pleasure, truly," the moon fey replied to Trix's thanks, her tone earnest. "A dog should be a worthy companion you cherish, not a burden. Thank you for bothering to listen to me. There are many who are leery about entertaining advic from foreigners."

The huntsman pocketed Trix's gold. He too seemed to feel a twinge of regret at seeing the herbalist walk away with only two, but he knew better than anyone that it would be quite a large responsibility for most people to train one pup, let alone three, and treble the meals for such a large carnivore was nothing to take lightly. "Be sure to let me know if you need any help with them, Miss. I can tell they're going to be well-cared-for. And don't worry about the third 'un. I've a mind to train him up myself." Selling his hounds was usually much more business-like: the dogs being bought as hunting tools rather than family members. The transaction with the young woman and the mysterious foreigner brightened his day.

Now that the purchase had been made and Trix seemed happy with the two steel-coated pups, Rilana stepped back softly, wondering if she should take her leave before her presence started to impose. "Well, I have some shopping to do..."

Wooden Swords Won't Be Enough (Ebonfort)

The moon fey was a pillar of calm in the noisy, clamorous chaos of the arena. There were fighters a-plenty milling around, some of them seeming oblivious to the true dangers, still intent on whatever faux-battle was on today's itinerary. Rilana's gaze followed the unnatural creature, watching the way it moved, the way it drooled grotesquely. It was like a mockery of living beasts cobbled together in a necromancers fantasy. It was wrong. And though her curiosity would have liked the chance to study this thing, the druid could see that it would kill more people before it was stopped. Like the time she took the shape of a wolf and hunted down a lynx with the froth, Rilana knew she had to act.

Once decided, her only hesitation was choosing which shape to assume. There were many at her disposal. A sabre-toothed cat came to her mind first, but even the smilodon was only half the size of dark terror before her. No, she wanted muscle. This was an unknown foe, and in her uncertainty she wanted power and a fury that would make up for her doubts.

The moon fey dropped her pack and started into the arena. A fleeing squire made to pass her but paused, turning to stop her, "Miss...it's not safe!" But Rilana side-stepped him, her slow steps turning into a jog. Eyes on the creature, her shape became a pale blur as she ran towards it. Larger, shoulders widening and arms growing longer until she stooped forwards on all fours.

Her swift, elegant gait became a rolling gallop, tiny feet become paws thundering across the arena floor. Her clothing disappeared, replaced by a thick coat of snow white fur that rippled over thick skin and bunching muscle. Short stout black talons struck the ground, each impact causing a beastly grunt from her narrow snout. If given the space she could have run as fast as a horse, but the distance closed in a matter of moments. Underneath the wild guise Rilana was still herself, but her new shape brought a single-minded determination. In front of her was an Enemy.

Rilana reared up on her short hind-legs, a white wall crashing towards the chimera like a tidal wave of rage. Her black lips split wide to show three-inch canine teeth as she bellowed a hoarse roar of challenge, and behind them was ten feet and two thousand pounds of angry polar bear.

In the back of her mind, she felt Khona's presence, stronger than usual, looking out through her eyes and ready to help guide her the way she had once guided him.

The Silent Travelers (Ebonfort)

As Echo moved closer to him, Khona sat up and watched him, un-moving except for his eyes and the occasional twitch of the end of his tail, which he curled around his front feet. He kept his wings tight to his back, so apart from the black raptor-beak, he appeared very catlike in posture. He seemed to be watching Echo's antics with a certain amount of snooty disdain, because dogs were idiots obviously, but when Echo pounced on one of the talons sticking out from under his tail he pawed back at him, lifting himself up to his feet again, his wings unfurling slightly. While the pup was distracted, he reached around and pecked at Echo's tail, giving it a tug with his beak. He never spoke, of course, but he gave a burbling chirrup that, apart from anything else, seemed to indicate good intentions.

Rilana took the paper back and read it quickly, automatically offering it back as she replied. "Well I'm pleased to meet an uncommon wolf. Training wolves takes a lot of patience because they are smart enough to constantly test you. And a dire wolf can be especially strong and protective. I train animals where I'm from. I was in Ebonfort to deliver a war-horse to one of the Lord Knights, but I'm on my way to the tournament. I heard that it's not something to miss."

A puff of dust on the other side of the hill hinted the arrival of more travelers and Rilana pursed her lips a little. "If you don't mind, could we move off the road? I'm a little nervous about Khona meeting too many strangers at once." She whistled through her teeth and the gryphon glanced up. "We could talk a bit more about training if you like."

It occured to her that she was the only one talking, but that didn't really bother her. She took a few steps down the hill where they could rest in the shade, out of sight of the road.

The Silent Travelers (Ebonfort)

The half-elf's smile earned an easement of the strain in Rilana's face. The iciness in her blue eyes faded and she smiled in return. But nothing was said while Ayla dug out a sheet of parchment and gave it a scribble. The moon fey wasn't sure what to make of this, wondering curiously if there was some strange tradition she hadn't hard of before, or if perhaps the woman was simply a mute.

Taking the paper in her pale hand, she glanced at the words and then back up at Alya. The woman didn't seem to be expecting her to write back, so she took the whole thing in stride.

"The pleasure is mine. I'm Rilana Aurorime' and this is Khona. He's a gryphon, in case you've never seen his ilk before. They usually keep to themselves, which is probably good since they tend to behave like brats."

Thinking that his Mistress was adequately distracted, Khona had scooted a little further down the road and heaved himself to his feet. The front two looked like the cruel claws of an eagle, but the back looked like sturdy lion paws. He shook the travel dust from his wings, and one of the incredible long primary feathers fluttered to the ground. He flinched a little when Rilana called him a brat, the tip of his long fluffy tail giving a haughty twitch, and he reached out to bat at the feather almost nonchalantly, tilting his head back over his shoulder to gaze at the moon fey and utter a soft mew, as if to say 'You love me anyways.'

Offering the paper back, Rilana continued, unable to keep a small smile from her lips at Khona's antics. "And who is your direwolf friend? I have never seen a red one before. The packs around Frigmount tend to be all silver and grey like wraiths in the trees, with the occasional black."

The Silent Travelers (Ebonfort)

Several things happened all at once. Khona snatched the shiny flute and the rusty direwolf pup jumped up to get it back, beginning a very one-sided game of tug-o-war. Not only was Khona strong, but he was also terribly stubborn, and his beaked face slung back and forth slightly as he tried to dislodge the indignant pup. He even lifted one of his front claws, the wicked black talons coming up in an attempt to knock Echo off.

But Rilana wasn't about to let her Familiar get away with this. Not only was he being exceptionally rude, unacceptable given how much time she'd spent teaching him to behave himself, but she wasn't sure how people in these lands felt about gryphons, or Familiars in general. Most people couldn't tell the difference between a Familiar and a pet at a glance.

The moon elf stepped close to the deadly raptor-cat and pinched his ear-tuft, dragging his head down sharply and forcing him to look into her eye with one of his own. He struggled briefly, letting out a protesting shriek. Rilana's face was stony and she produced a decent growl in the back of her throat.

"Let...it...go. Now."

There was a brief pause, but Khona averted his eye and the deadly beak opened, dropping Echo and the flute to the road. With one hand still clutched in the gryphons head-feathers, the druid eyed the wolf pup until she was sure he wasn't injured. Khona, embarrassed, flopped down to the ground, tail lashing against the dirt as he whined, a sound that was a cross between a bird squeak and a kitten mewl. His weight forced her to let go, but she still frowned at him crossly.

"I'm so sorry. He's nothing more than an overgrown magpie when it comes to shiny things. I think he liked your music too. Is your flute alright? I'll replace it if he's damaged it, the ruffian." She had thought to examine it herself, but had no intention of manhandling someone else's wolf pup to get it. Waiting for a reply, Rilana's cheeks had grown pink with embarrassment. Khona reached back and began preening his long wing-feathers, as though nothing in the world was amiss.

The Silent Travelers (Ebonfort)

Khona, being a little larger than the average horse, remained fairly solid after the bump, though he did flare his rather glorious white and black wings and produce a hissy sort of noise.

"Ssskrawk!"

The huge beast turned his head to the side, lowing her beak and peering Alya with a large vibrantly yellow eye, the pupil widening and shrinking with apparent randomness as he looked her over. The set of his head changed with short, bird-like jerks, each motion accompanied by the hollow clack of his beak. This close, she would be able to hear the faint hiss of his breath through the nares hidden in his plumage.

The long feline tail undulated behind his hindquarters, adding to his calculating stance. One of his ear-tufts twitched and his neck twisted around to look down at the young direwolf, and he gave a chesty growl of his own.

"Play nice, Khona," Rilana admonished him, poking the gryphon in his haunch as she moved towards his front to find out what had captivated his attention. The moon fey was looking thoughtfully down at the dire wolf pup, wondering what it was doing out here all alone, when she reached Khona's head, and jumped when Alya came into view quite suddenly.

"Oh! I didn't see you through Khona's fat head. I hope he didn't frighten you." She reached up to grab a fistful of Khona's plush fur. He was just as smart as anyone, but he was just as unpredictable as any wild creature. She looked Alya over and was relieved to see that the girl, or was she a young woman? didn't seem to have gryphon-sized clawmarks on her clothes.

Rilana looked up and down the road, obviously a little nervous about being seen. "Perhaps we should be going..."

But Khona had other ideas. He had torn his gaze from Echo and was looking at Alya's flute. He clacked his beak and produced a shrill piping whistle that could have passed for a flute noise, if it had been played by someone who had never played a flute before. Then he pecked at it with his huge eagle-beak, trying to tug it from the musician's hand.

How Much is That Doggie in the Window? (Ebonfort RP)

Rilana withdrew her hand, feeling foolish for putting her hand on a stranger. Smiling sheepishly, she moved with Trix to put distance between themselves and the dog breeder. The moon fey ignored his unspoken ire, not caring if he thought ill of her for interrupting a sale. Likely, troubling herself to steer Trix to a more reliable breed would come to naught, but it felt right to try.

At Trix's jump, the white and silver raven sprang from Rilana's shoulder and fluttered over to a fence separating the Ebon Brutes from the foot traffic. The dogs sprang at the fence, barking in a raucous clamour, frothy saliva on their lips. They were easy to taunt, and the raven amused itself hopping back and forth just out of reach, screaming "Bark bawk bark," in a mocking voice and then laughing rudely.

"I heard you say that you were looking for a guard dog," Rilana replied, getting right to the point without bothering to introduce herself. That would come later, if the pretty human was interested in hearing her out. "I fear that the only thing you could rely on these dogs to guard is their own dinner. I haven't heard of their breed before. I...I'm not from these parts obviously, but I do know that this man isn't the only one selling these...brutes." It was a fitting name, she had to admit. "I've seen at least one other today. I also know a little about dogs." She grinned a little, I know a little about dogs ringing as an understatement. "I mostly train wolves, bearhounds, and Moon-sledders, but I don't like the look of these."

A frown creased Rilana's brow and her lips pursed in an icy sort of way as she glanced back at the dogs, who only barked louder at the raven when their noise went un-acknowledged by their master. How could the moon few convey what she knew, which was more instinct than education, in just a few moments to a complete stranger. "Being scary isn't enough," she started, a bit slowly at first as she collected her thoughts. "Dogs that act like this are just as likely to terrorize you as some thief because they are too unruly to train."

The druid didn't want to say anything directly damning about the dog breeder, but it was clear that she thought the man was trying to upsell his mongrels unfairly. Rilana gestured politely down the street. She had seen a breed she recognized and would rather recommend.

"I would, but my advice is free. I'm not interested in your money. I noticed a huntsman with some duck dogs and hounds, but he also had some Mountain Ridgebacks. Some people call them Stone Dogs or Stone Crest Hounds because that's where they were first bred. The miners used them for protection against the dangers of the mountains and the entrances to the Underdark." Provided that Trix came with her, she brought her under the shade of a redbud tree so that they could observe the dogs behind the fence. (As they moved away, the raven followed, leaving a pasty white smear on the Brute Hound breeders fence.)

Most of the new dogs were obvously hunting hounds, their long ears and distinct baying bark giving them away. But resting in the shade was a pair of large steel-gray muscular dogs with black markings at their feet, chest, and muzzle. They had a short, glossy coat, triangular ears that folded neatly at the sides of their face without being too droopy, and thin tails that curled up gently at the tip. But their most noteable feature, apart from their watchful, stoic gaze, was a ridge of fur down their backs that appeared darker than the rest as it lay against the grain.

Unlike the other dogs, these lay calmly in the dusty grass, peering up at their observers without giving anything away. There were three ridgeback pups playing nearby, but like their parents they seemed less rambunctious and more reserved, pausing after an ear tug or a pounce to look around. They seemed dignified, but something in their eyes was, rather than half-crazed, was standoffish enough to imply their worth as guard-beasts.

"Just watch."

Rilana walked up to the fence and put her hand on it. She had the attention of both the adult ridgebacks, but they didn't get up. Some of the other dogs came up to the fence, tails wagging and smiling mouths open with tongues lolling, but the druid ignored them. Rilana moved towards the gate. No reaction. She reached out and touched the gate-latch, and the male ridgeback stood. The moon fey jiggled the latch until it clanked and the 70lb dog gave a single booming bark, his muzzle in the direction of the huntsman, who was currently selling a pair of tan hound pups to a half-elf, but his green-grey eyes were on Rilana.

"Fayo, easy," the huntsman said in a deep voice, moving down the fence to help them. Fayo seemed to relax, the stiffness in his tail easing, though the watchfullness didn't lessen. "Can I help you, ladies? I still have several hound pups left from the summer breeding. They'll be ready for hunting by the end of Saffra." He did a slight double-take when he looked into Rilana's porcelain-doll face but his honest smile didn't falter.

"Actually I was just trying to explain the merits of the Mountain Ridgebacks as a guard breed to this young lady. Yours are quite handsome." She put on what she hoped was a winning smile. The huntsman seemed surprised, but at what, Rilana failed to deduce.

"Oh? Well it's actually lucky that I have pups this year. I keep Fayo to guard the other dogs. He is quite smart. But a friend of mine came down from Stone Crest with Briga last year and took ill so I ended up with her and soon after that, a litter." He turned to Trix. "Your friend is right. Ridges are smart and loyal as they come. Training 'em early is important, but unlike some of them more popular breeds they'll protect you without messin' up your house and runnin' off honest visitors. I have a bitch and two dog pups, and if you're interested I'll let any of them go for thirty-five gold pieces. That's fifteen less than I charge fer hounds, but it wouldn't sit well with me since I didn't plan for the litter."

Both Rilana and the huntsman glanced at Trix expectantly.

The Silent Travelers (Ebonfort)

It was strange, winging her way over the meadowlands with no backdrop of icy mountains against the sky. It was even disorienting to the fey, who, in all her years of roaming, had rarely been out of sight of those steadfast landmarks. Something in her wished to alter the angle of her wings and speed north, homeward, but the talk in Ebonfort about the Tournament and its associated faire had made it sound too good to miss. At the very least, she reasoned, it would be prudent to connect with other animal handlers like herself.

Rilana tucked her gyrfalcon wings and dropped down towards the grass, stretching out her talons to take hold of a branch on a stubby, stunted tree. Clusters and copses of trees were scattered across the fields, the remnants of orchards and farms whose buildings had already faded back into the earth.

From where she was, the moon fey could no longer see the road, protected by the slight roll of the land, and as she released the branch and dropped down, she transformed back into her own shape, landing in a crouch in the dry grass. The slid her pack from her shoulder and let it fall against the base of the tree, and as the weight fell from her she realized just how tired she was.

She felt a flicker of thought at the back of her mind and knew that Khona was looking out at the world through her eyes. Feeling his thoughts was no longer quite as startling as it had been those first few weeks.

"Let me out."

The flight from Green Fall had stirred the gryphon inside her, and she felt his yearning to stretch his wings as surely as if they were her own. Rilana wished that his Mark had appeared somewhere she could actually see it on herself. She looked around to see if anyone was watching, not comfortable with being observed while performing magic that was still new to her, and concentrated.

Setting Khona free was easier than absorbing him as a Mark had been. Her skin prickled as the Mark disappeared and an ethereal blob of light seemed to rise out of her flesh like breath-mist, congealing and expanding into the six-limbed shape that grew more solid until Khona's shocking yellow eyes were peering down at her. He had no lips, but Rilana sensed that he was smiling.

It was tricky to keep her Familiar from flying too high. She wasn't sure she wanted travelers to see him from the road.

"Khona! Try to keep out of sight." He grudgingly complied, until a sound caught his ear-tuft and he turned his head. Rilana lunged forward to stop the gryphon, coming away with only a fistful of white fur as the cat-bird leaped up and circled over the hill towards the road, wings out-stretched as he looked for the source of the flute music.

"Get back here!" Rilana ordered, slightly flustered and a little worried as she raced up the hill after him.

How Much is That Doggie in the Window? (Ebonfort RP)

It would be time to travel home soon. The sunny warmth of fall in these southlands was beautiful, so colourful and nearly overwhelming to all the senses. Rilana felt she could spend years wandering those verdant, fragrant woods, learning the secrets of many new animals, but the events of the tournament had left her shaken as well as injured. The moon fey was always pale, but as she stood in the shadow of a huge oak tree speaking to a man leading a mule and cart, her silvery hair lacked its usual opalescent luster, and there was a faint shadow under her striking azure gaze.

"So you're from Frigmount, eh?" the man asked, and Rilana offered a hesitant nod. That she was a fey was impossible to hide, and she didn't want to lie, but being so far from home was starting to wear on her nerves. But the man with the cart full of birds, his long limbs and hunched back reminding her of a scarecrow, was so animated and kind that her pink lips curved up into a smile.

"That's right. I work with birds a bit too, though there aren't many raptors in the Frostfell. My favourite is the snow owl."

"Ah, the white owl. What I wouldn't give to see one of those pale beauties." He turned to reach through the window of the cart and after a moment of jiggling, pulled an enormous tuft-eared owl out of the dark interior. The motion set a collection of carved amulets around the man's neck clanking together with a musical woody clatter, and Rilana realized that she was seeing a huge collection of effigies, each beak and feather carved in excrutiating detail. The aged man obviously had an affinity for avians.

"This is Fleck. Not my smartest bird, but he holds a special place in my heart. He's a horned owl." It's head swiveled to look at Rilana, each orange eye blinking one at a time, and it puffed its striped neck feathers up almost arrogantly.

"He's beautiful!" Rilana gasped earnestly, resisting the urge to lift her arm. Unlike the bird man, she wasn't wearing a leather glove to protect herself from the inevitable lacerations of talons.

"Beautiful! Bah-ah-ah!" A raspy, mocking tone came from inside the cart and Rilana turned curiously to look for the source of the laughing voice. There were many birds inside the cart, some tethered to perches by their jesses, some in cages, some appearing to simple roost inside of their own accord. It was impossible to tell at a glance which of the dark shapes were the bird-man's Familiars and which were simply trained.

"Oh, don't mind her. She likes to cause trouble," the man said, replacing the owl back onto his perch. "I've tried every trick I know to get her sold but she just keeps coming back."

"Trouble. Double trouble! Beautiful trouble. Ba-ha-bawk!"

Rilana found herself looking into a round beady blue eye above a long white beak. Not a raptor of any kind, she realized. And a moment later she forgave herself for not recognizing the species because instead of the typical glossy blue-black, the raven was stark white with only a bit of silver under her wings and breast.

"Oh my! I've never seen a white raven before. She's lovely. Is she one of your...one of yours?" Rilana barely stopped herself from speaking too loudly to the man about their shared gift of Familiary, having come to understand that in these southern lands magics of all kinds were treated with much more suspicion and fear than they were in Frigmount, and she wondered if it had something to do with the strange cut-offness the ice capital seemed to have been suffering.

The moon fey didn't hesitate this time, and when she reached out towards the bird it hopped from the small counter onto her wrist, cocking her head to look up at the woman.

"Never seen -bawk- lovely."

"Not one of mine," the bird-man replied, watching as the raven hopped up to Rilana's shoulder and pecked experimentally at the intricate silver circlet on her brow. Rilana raised a hand to stop the bird and she quickly fluttered up from her shoulder only to land on it again as soon as Rilana lowered her hand.

"Now you stop that," the moon fey instructed, squinting at the bird out of the corner of her eye.

"Stop. No you stop." They glared at each other for a moment, but the raven looked away first, tucking her head back to preen herself casually. Rilana gave a firm nod.

"I think I'll be heading back to Silent Rise with an empty perch," the bird-man grinned, reaching over to close the wooden flap across the window of the cart.

Rilana's silvery brows furrowed as the man's meaning escaped her, but when she understood that he meant her to take the raven she shook her head, alarmed. "Oh no, I couldn't possibly buy her from you..." she reached up to try to scoop the bird from her shoulder, but it deftly avoided her fingers, hopping from one shoulder to the other or hovering just out of reach.

The bird-man laughed, lifting a skinny leg to slap a knobbly knee. "Don't worry about it, my beauty, I've done sold her twice and she came back. Most like she'll come back again, but if she doesn't it'd set my mind well to know she's with you."

Rilana smiled, her pale cheeks flushing slightly at the vote of confidence from the stranger, biting her bottom lip as she glanced at the bird on her shoulder. "In that case, if she decides to stick with me I'll treat her as well as I can."

She chatted with the bird-man for a few moments more as he readied his cart, speaking in quiet tones and insinuations about the magic of Familiary. They even walked together for a time until their paths parted. Doctoring herself after the fight with the thing had depleted Rilana's medicine bag some, and she wanted to stop at the market for some fresh supplies. She had also decided to splurge a little and get herself some honey, a rare delicacy in the Frostfell.

She passed by the livestock and came upon the dog kennels, her steps slowing with curiosity. Some breeds she recognized, others, primarily the ones with short coats that wouldn't do well in the north, she did not. But the name of the breed meant little against how much the druid could know just by looking.

With the muttering of the raven in her ear, she looked at the soulful eyes of large, heavy-coated livestock guardians, and she noted the piercing watchfulness of guard breeds, the frenzied energy of vermin-hunters, and the rangy loping gait of hounds. She was eyeing a couple of the grown Ebon Brutes, one of her brows quirked dubiously, and happened to overhear Trix and the dog breeder. His tone, in addition to the obvious untruth of his words, rang falsely in her ears. The Druid could see with her own eyes that these large, dark dogs were behaving like feral mongrels. They had a frantic energy that promised destruction and countless time spent in fruitless training. Even the adults squabbled and snapped, and they had a slow stupid bark that Rilana instantly hated.

The slender moon fey eyed Trix as she fished into her money-purse, trying to decide if she had any place to intervene. Had she been in her own city she wouldn't have hesitated, but who knew how these warmlanders would react?

It was the outrageous asking price that made up her mind, and deciding to take the risk of being dismissed for delving into someone else's business, she reached out to put a cool, gentle hand on Trix's arm.

"Please," she began, her foreign accent obvious from the start, her tone calm but with a note of urgency as she looked down at the shorter woman. "Can I speak with you for a moment? I think you're making a mistake."

Ebonfort

omg Thwirt you're making me blush. ^^