Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Both the pace that the group kept and Tzirret's glum look meant that conversation was not lively on the way back to the ships. In his mind, Tzirret was cursing himself over and over for not getting to the point quicker.

By the time they rowed back, Tzirret had calmed himself down and was able to answer Ma'tanza easily. He had time to think about which ship he wanted to be on when they were approaching. "Tzirret will go with Ma'tanza," he said plainly, "he just needs to let Gallus know."

"Let me know what?" Gallus asked from behind where they were seated.

Tzirret twisted in his seat, "This one was going to board the other ship to stay with his new friends, is that okay?"

It only took two seconds and a thoughtful face for Gallus to decide. "Sure. Do you want someone in the pack with you?"

"No, Tzirret will manage."

Gallus smiled, "Very well."

Once Ma'tanza and Tzirret had climbed up the rope ladder and Gallus, Uthri, and Meesei were rowing to the other ship, Uthri spoke up. "Our grey kitty is doing pretty well for himself, don't you think?"

Gallus nodded to one side. "Yes. He hasn't come to talk to me in a while about anything, but so many new things are happening. He needs to learn this on his own so he doesn't depend on us, but...I just hope he's not trying to bite off more than he can chew."

"Well," Uthri chuckled, "Short of getting that buxom girl pregnant, I think there is little to worry about."

"Hircine forbid," Gallus said, shaking his head and grinning. When he looked up, he spoke to Meesei, "You know, I'm aware of our priorities, but I sometimes worry that we're getting too busy for our charges. One minute, they're just as you remember, the next, they're off finding new friends on their own and exploring the world." He hummed in mild astonishment, before levelling his tone, "Is it the same for Sabine?"

The Jade Stream

At Kyang readied herself to clash with the bandit again, she couldn't help but feel that she was being toyed with. It was possible that this guy was trying to stall them, but then again, he could also be enjoying it. An attack was about to come Kyang's way, but a flash of silver-pink suddenly interposed into her vision.

This wasn't the Torako that Kyang sat next to in a restaurant, even just looking at her stance made that clear. The hesitation and lines of dialogue seemed insignificant. When the next moment passed it would be burned into Kyang's memory. There was almost no sound to it, just a flash of reflected light on steel. Kyang saw a blade swing up for a single frame in her eyes before the bandit that she had been having so much trouble crumpled behind Torako. Kyang paled when she stepped to look around at the remains.

"How did...? How can...?" Kyang struggled. She felt something burn up her oesophagus when she stared at the pool of red insides in the centre for too long, so she turned away and swallowed her bile down. All the things she had previously heard about Torako suddenly seemed much more plausible. "We...ought to find Xin and Liu..." Kyang managed to say with strain in her voice, "Lead the way, please."

Kyang may have trained with the soldiers, but even that didn't expose her to a human corpse cut clean in half.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

T'drissi nodded and smiled sadly, "It would be a nice thing to hear from you again. T'drissi regrets that cannot provide you an address, but if you try to send something to Leyawiin, we will try to find it."

Gallus decided to wrap things up then. He stepped forward and gave Pudaga a firm handshake and a hand on his shoulder, and then hugged the others in the family. Afterwards, he tried to be sensitive to the weight of the situation while still emphasising their limited time. "We should head off now, Meesei," he mentioned, "Good luck, all of you. I wish you all the best."

With that, they made their way upstairs.

"No, no," Tzirret affirmed as he lightly took Ma'tanza's hand and turned it palm up. Everything seemed so difficult to do. He was fighting an overwhelming desire to back off, and it was showing in anxious body language. "It is just that...well, Tzirret has never been good at keeping secrets, even his own. He has...been...fascinated by-...no..." Tzirret stumbled over his words. He stopped to take a breath, "He wants you to have something important. Because there was a promise he made to someone a while ago that he needs to keep." He took his hand out of his pocket with the pendant, but it was hidden in his palm apart from the leather cord. "He means to say...that-"

"Tzirret! Ma'tanza!" Gallus' voice echoed through the chapel as he came up the stairs.

Tzirret's head snapped to attention, looking to Gallus with almost panicked surprise.

"We're leaving," Gallus beckoned them both.

Suddenly looking incredibly defeated, Tzirret let Ma'tanza's hand go and put the pendant back in his pocket without showing it to her. He slowly stepped to join the rest. "N-nevermind. It can wait," he mumbled sullenly with his ears pulled back.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Pudaga started to blink more rapidly by the time Daranus finished. The end of the translation had Pudaga nodding, before he turned his attention to Meesei. When she was interpreted, Pudaga let out a small laugh and a quick sigh, looking to Haressi, then Daranus, and then Meesei. "Meesei, Gallus," Pudaga blinked and a tear ran down his cheek. He gave a tight smile, "This one does not think there would be any more ways he could hope to be helped. We promise that we will not squander this second chance you have given us. Thank you." Pudaga looked to Daranus and Haressi again. "And thank you as well, priest, priestess. All of you...none have been so generous in this one's entire life."

At this point, Pudaga tried standing up, but ended up bending forward slightly and leaning his hand on Daranus' desk. He brought his other hand up to wipe his eyes and sniffed. "He has been given more than he deserves," Pudaga said with strain.

T'drissi stood up from her seat as well, put F'sresa on Gati's lap, and went to put a comforting hand around Pudaga's back. "You have all been most kind," T'drissi said with a smile. She was more collected, but no less grateful. "We will never forget."

"You're very welcome," Gallus said with a warm smile.

Tzirret couldn't help but grin briefly at Ma'tanza's word confusion. Still, her response was kind enough for Tzirret to pause in consideration, and then say "Thanks."

For another few moments, Tzirret stared at the altar to Dibella and his smile shrank into a nervous frown. He dipped his hand into his pocket and felt his pendant again. Perhaps this would be a good spot to try and give it to Ma'tanza? They were alone, and this was probably the only time they would be alone until they next disembarked the ships. It was ideal, really, except for the time constraint. That, and there was still an anxious tide in Tzirret's head making him reel back and forth between confidence and reticence. He felt his heart begin to beat faster. Perhaps he could wait until they got back to the ship? There's not enough time here, right? He then clenched his fist and heard La'khay's words echo in his mind. He would get nothing unless he showed courage and took the chance.

After an awkwardly long time, Tzirret finally found his words. "Ma'tanza?" Tzirret asked with a quivering voice, "Could you show me your hand for a moment?" Tzirret stepped to turn and face Ma'tanza directly with his free palm offered up. His other hand was still in his pocket.

The Jade Stream

Oops! Wrong thread, @Chanda. Try the OOC tab. I'd say we've got room, but it's PKMN's call.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

All good. Don't get frozen in. G'night!

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Right, right." Pudaga swallowed and took another breath, "This one is Pudaga, he is a potter. Though, he will take any work he can..."

Pudaga went over the same details that he did when speaking to Haressi. He seemed a little tense with all the formal processing, but he also seemed over the moons to have this much help at all.

While the records were being taken, Gallus stepped up beside Meesei and murmured quietly to her. "Meesei, after all this, should we let the brother know why the family was taken into slavery? I remember something about a certain debt."

Tzirret grinned and failed to stifle his own chuckle as Ma'tanza laughed. He understood that it might have been confusing. "Well, they don't like to talk about that part of Dibella's domain. Tzirret thinks it is meant to be more about romance and friendships."

With a sigh, Tzirret looked down and recalled something that La'khay said. Something about saying compliments that make a person feel beautiful without saying it. La'khay only cited physical descriptions, but Tzirret knew that Ma'tanza would have heard them all by now. Still, there were other things that made her beautiful. Tzirret curled his lips as he thought of how to say it. He idly put his hand in his pocket and ran his thumb over his pendant. Now, don't overdo it like the first time you tried complimenting La'khay...

"You know, Ma'tanza," Tzirret turned his head to face her directly, "This one notices that...there are many things that people say about you. Unkind things." Tzirret felt his knees start to quiver already, but he tried to keep nervousness off his expression. "But, you don't seem to let them bother you. Other people would get angry or sad, but you don't get upset very easily. At the same time, you are not afraid to stand up for yourself." Tzirret smiled lightly and looked at the altar again, "This one thinks that makes you special. It is...more attractive than..." Tzirret's smile lowered and he trailed off, "...y-you know..."

Tzirret's trailing off was out of a fear that he may have overstepped. His mind was taken over by an insidious regret that was waiting to be validated by reprimand.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Oh dear. Welp, stay warm.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

A bit of a delay there. A storm came over.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Of course," Pudaga said as he watched the priestess, Haressi, descend the steps. The few minutes wait went by in relative silence, except for a few words between Pudaga and T'drissi.

When Haressi emerged and ushered them down, Gallus turned to Tzirret and Ma'tanza. "Hoy, Tzirret!" He said. He did not need to raise his voice very much to project the words through the large hall, "We'll be downstairs. Don't go wandering, now."

Tzirret snapped his attention to Gallus and gave a nod while Ma'tanza was speaking.

When the group reached Daranus, the family had to wait for Haressi to translate, but smiled and took seats when prompted. Gallus smiled and gave a nod in greeting, but opted to remain leaned up against the door frame with his arms crossed.

Again, Pudaga was the one to speak. He seemed a bit more comfortable now. "Greetings, priest. My family and myself have not decided what our far future should be, though we cannot travel until my daughter has recovered from her illness, and we do not have much to our names." Pudaga's tone was as modest as he could manage, given that he was effectively begging, "We are all prepared to work to live, as I told the priestess here. Any amount of help is more than we had expected, but right now we simply need paying work and shelter. This one hopes that we do not prove a burden, especially in language. Has Haressi told you our previous professions?"

When Ma'tanza mentioned La'khay's talent with painting, Tzirret gave a noted hum, finding it interesting. He remembered La'khay mentioning that she did paintings, but Tzirret did not know just how talented Ma'tanza was making her out to be.

As for the other art mentioned, Ma'tanza may not have known what it was, but Tzirret certainly did. In those arts, he had been a student of sorts himself, under La'khay's tuition. As he stared up at Dibella, he felt his face run hot for a few moments. "Dibellan Arts? Um...that's..." Tzirret didn't take his eyes off the window, but he awkwardly brought his hands up and jerkily clapped his palms together at different angles, failing at innuendo. With a tense frown, he just decided to use words anyway. "La'khay was probably not trying to insult you, but if you were known to be good at the Dibellan Arts...you would have the same...unflattering reputation that she does." Tzirret hazarded a sideways glance at Ma'tanza's face, but his eyes went to the altar in front of him. He added quickly, "Like Tzirret said, Dibella represents all other kinds of love."