The Wolf and the Wail. (Lyrik, Anju, Kayadin, Adair) [Interstice]

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

2nd Ascending Air, RY 770. 10 miles from Kokito Village in Dalend's Glade.



dies soon enough, leaving the glade and the camp eeriely silent. Even birdsong and the cicadas that had been singing their song go mute. The whole of the caravan slowly gets back to work, some of the children crying in confusion, most of the adults simply wary. The horses and oxen spooked easily enough, right now they're practically ready to bolt. But Jonas and a few of the others bring them to heal easily enough.
To Anju, Kayadin, Lyrik and Adair


Jonas will come trodding up shaking his head, tugging his hair back into the typical tight ponytail. "In twenty years of coming through this area, I will never get used to that sound. This part of Shale is cursed they say, because of that sound." You're all removing tent rolls and the little paper lamps to hang in the trees for the evening. No one's sure how long Jonas wishes to camp for now. But it's a nice spot, not too far from a clean creek and there appears to be good game.


The wooded area you're sitting in practically lies on three little hills overlooking a vast stretch of grassland, the actual road about two hundred yards away from camp, winding and dusty. The trees whisper in the soft wind blowing through, branches scratching together, communing. The world seems empty since the Siren stopped. Only a minute ago...but still. The lack of other sounds aside the camp and the wind is jarring.


"What do you all think of the Siren?" Jonas chuckles, his face becoming a boyish picture again.

 

[Yu Jie]

Kaya


Trying to quiet the wailing child next to her, Kayadin turned her dark eyes towards Jonas. "Well and good that you find that horrible sound amusing, Jonas, but some will find it hard to sleep tonight." With a hand roughened by years of wielding the hilts of her blades, Kaya made soothing noises at the tiny little girl next to her, rubbing awkwardly at a tear-stained cheek as pudgy little fingers swiped away tears from her eyes. "There now, Belen, that noise is gone for now." Small sobs quaked through the small body, a little arm wrapped around her legs. Prying the wiry little band from around her thighs, Kaya knelt next to Belen, bringing her lanky frame down to the child's level. "Go find your mother, you should be safe with her." Her voice was soft, but firm.


With a teary nod at her, Belen, one of the youngest of the gypsy children, ran off, skirts flying as she headed for her family's wagon. Relieved that the little girl complied so quickly, Kaya rose, making her way towards the horses. She clapped Jonas on the back along the way, pausing for a moment. "You could have warned us about it." With a hearty laugh, she moved into the shadows where the horses were, clucking at her mount, Athar. She made the same soothing noises for the soot-black stallion that she did for the child as she stroked his velvety nose. Her eyes wandered over towards the rest of her companions.

 

[Foxtailed_Teki]

With a jerk at Jonas’s voice, Anju started her typical job of setting up tents (her height making her a poor choice for lantern hanging). Fingers stumbled through the actions while her mind skipped about various terrors. That sound was worse than the best ghost story her step-father ever took the time to tell her. She knew, she remembered. If only the hair on the back of her neck would stop standing up.


The silence wasn’t helping. When all she heard was the camp and the trees above, it felt like Creation was watching them. Who knew what was out there waiting when cities could wail like that? What made a city cry like it was tortured? Anju rubbed the side of her head in an attempt to rid her memory of the sound.


As if.


“I agree with Kaya,†Anju half pouted before continuing bluntly “That was a horrible sound.â€


She continued setting up the tent. Anju’d bet money she was one of the people who wouldn’t sleep well tonight. The nightmares came often enough without a dreadful sound to egg them on.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

To Kaya and Anju


Jonas shrugs, "Such is life. They'll have to be used to it, we'll be here in the south for a time until we wind out way up the Stone Road toward Shalebridge or maybe toward the Voru Valley." Jonas was not a cold man, but certainly of the mindset that one had to adapt and grow with one's surroundings.

 

[Foxtailed_Teki]

Anju puffed out her cheeks. Nightmares were nightmares. It wasn’t her fault she suffered from them. It wasn’t going to be anyone’s fault tonight, or any night that sound came. That meant poor sleep for awhile! Or until people adjusted. People adjusted to a lot of things, Anju’d learned. Anju gave her mentor a sideways look, but if Jonas had to start over each time, it wasn’t going to be fun.


The girl rubbed the side of her head again. It wasn’t going to be fun.


“Why does Siren make that sound?†Anju didn’t want to get any closer Siren than she had to –which would be sensibly far away if Jonas was leading, but understanding made everything better. No, that wasn’t right. Sometimes it gave her more nightmares.


Maybe she shouldn’t have asked.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

To Anju


"To tell it true, I don't think many people still alive know. I certainly don't. It's been zoned off since the Shogunate, that much I know. The signs around it are written in old Shogunate civil codes, the newer ones are from the Legion and Shale's government. But...every night at sundown, it starts up like that. I couldn't tell you what makes a city wail like a banshee." Jonas sticks his hands in his pockets, shrugging sharply.


"I hear stories about people who go in, they never seen aga'n." He sighs, slipping into his heavy Eastern accent. As he helps set a few of the lanterns, he makes a wry face, realizing he slipped into his old speech patterns. Some of the girls giggle.


"I hate that..." Jonas snorts, shaking his head.

 

[Yu Jie]

Kaya


After feeding Athar a small lump of sugar and giving his neck a sharp pat, Kaya hung a few of the paper lanterns about, easy enough with her height. Something about Jonas' words made her both uneasy and curious at the same time. "Let us hope that is the only time we hear it tonight," she said as her long strides took her back near Anju's tent.


Her eyes wandered towards the direction of the siren, contemplating while her arms folded in front of her. "Still, it would be interesting to know what happened to those people." A glimmer of daring was present in her eye as she grinned at Anju and Jonas.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

To Kaya


"Yes, I'm sure dead cities are more than inviting." Jonas says, reaching up to hang a lantern. Camp is coming along nicely. Half the tents are in order to be set up. The wagons battened down and the cattle and horses are being fed, scrubbed and watered by the children. "It only wails once a night. Besides, we're many and more miles away. Probably...hmm...Kokito is...ten miles out that way and, hmm." Jonas turns around, focusing his black eyes on old Golgo.


He calls out in crisp Firetongue, speaking rapidly with the old Southerner with the beaded moustachioes.


"Hmm, we're probably twenty-five miles away or so, the sound caromes off the hills and over the wide open space like a cannon shot...I imagine a few of the villages nearby have closed up and moved on. One grows weary of such crying."

 

[Yu Jie]

Kaya


After staring a while into the deepening gloom, Kaya squatted down to start pitching her tent. With a backward glance at Jonas, she pushed aside the wrap she still sometimes wore around her head and chuckled. "Well if we get closer, maybe we can have a look at this dead city and see what lies thereabouts." There went that impish gleam again in her eyes.

 

[Foxtailed_Teki]

The lopsided grin that emerged at Jonas’s displeasure slipped away. She thought she was the silly foolhardy one! Something about being young at nearly every mentioning. Whatever adults said, at least Anju didn’t want to go to a creepy dead city that was walled off since-who-knew-when. It was fun to know Jonas didn’t know something, but that just made going to see it an even worse idea.


“If we get closer, the noise will be louder. Up to 25 miles louder!†Anju gave Kaya a piteous expression.


Wasn’t life interesting enough without dead city Siren? Ghosts and mobs and chimera and… the mental list went on for awhile.

 

[Yu Jie]

Kaya


"You don't have to come, Anju," Kaya said placatingly. "What Jonas said merely peaked my interest." She smiled as she tied the ropes that held the tent up tautly. "Old Shogunate codes? I wonder what they're hiding in there, if anything at all." Curious as a cat, she could never resist the unknown. Despite the terrible wailing of the siren, she was intrigued by the place. It was why her father used to call her little cat in the first place. She got into everything. The passing thought about her father quickly withered the smile on her lips.

 

[Negative Thac0]

Adair


Adair had been quiet for most of the meeting- for once. The eclipse's mind had been elsewhere, but talk of adventure had managed to snag his interest once more.


"Well, I'm interested at least." He grinned, poking his head into Kaya and Anju's conversation. "Even if the others don't want to come along, Kaya and I could always venture there on our own, right?"


In truth, the eager solar was hoping no one else would want to go...

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

To Adair and Kaya


Jonas snorts, "I swear, trouble follows you like flies to the cow's ass." Jonas ties up the last of his lamps up in the trees, lighting them carefully, one by one, coaxing the glassed reagents inside. "Saeka would more easily dissuade our fine adventuring spirit, haha." Jonas shrugs out of his vest, throwing it on a barrel of tobacco in the back of one of the wagons, pulling out the poles for his own tent wrapped in a canvas bundle. "She'd call it foolishness and a touch less important than getting these goods to Shalebridge before the year is out."


And in your minds, the rather severe woman would say just that. Bah!

 

[Yu Jie]

Kaya


Grinning cheekily at Jonas and with a small tilt of her chin to acknowledge Adair, Kaya stood beside the tent she just finished putting up and puffed out her chest. "Yes, but who gets us out of trouble? The same two people you seem to think causes it, Jonas." She pulled out one of her daiklaives from the sheath strapped to her back and twirled it around casually before resheathing it in one fluid movement. "But what Saeka wants and all that..." she said with an overly flourished bow.


She grabbed Adair by the nape of his neck, the gesture very mannish, shoving him out of earshot for a second. "Maybe we'll get a chance at adventure yet, eh?" She clapped him hard on the back, a nice hollow thump, and laughed. It was the same boyish air of daring that got her into a lot of interesting adventures when she was younger.

 

[Foxtailed_Teki]

Anju





Anju shot Adair a look. Not helping! But for once, Saeka did, even if Jonas was the one talking. Anju didn’t dislike the woman, really, but she didn’t spare time for fun things. At all. Anju made a face as she recalled one sharp lecture she’d earned for her childish efforts. Saeka did not enjoy practical jokes, oh no.


After the two Exalted edged away, Anju looked at Jonas, “If trouble follows them like flies, how does it follow me?â€

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

To Anju


Jonas smiles, placing his own tent poles aside, kneeling down to help you tie off your tent. "You, madam, get in trouble because you have the touch of spring and the Changing Moon of Mother Luna in you as well. When I set that moonsilver into your skin, I could have gone either way with you: to be one of the Three Who Are One or one of the Hidden Moon Children. My gut finally lead me to the Hidden Moon and I know I've proven right. You are merely quicksilver like the rest of us, and too sly by half." He chuckles, patting your cheek as he stands to go set up his tent.

 

[Foxtailed_Teki]

Anju


A grin started and widened. That was the best answer she’d ever gotten, or at least, the most pleasing. It was a wonder to be a part of the Silver Pact, and received Luna’s gift. Her mind might skitter around the memory of receiving the tattoos, but the quicksilver itself was beautiful. It was the reason she’d put such priority on learning Claw Speak.


“That’s a lot prettier than being a cow’s ass.†The corner of Anju’s mouth quirked upwards for a second. As she glanced up to where the moon hung in the sky, Anju repeated herself, “A lot prettier.â€


Young though she was, unappreciative and disrespectful were not traits of hers. Even if he hadn’t answered her question, Anju properly revered Luna. There ways no way she’d actually compare being so blessed with an animal’s rear end.


Then off she half-danced half-skipped to the other side of Jonas’s tent to help set it up. The unorganized tune she hummed showed that Siren’s call was completely banished from her mind.

 

[Negative Thac0]

Adair


Adair let out an "Oof!" as Kaya's hand caught him off guard. Recovering quickly from his initial stumble, he brushed some blue hair away from his face. He couldn't help but find his exalted companion intriguing, even if his tastes generally ran towards the more delicate and demure. Besides, what warm blooded young man could resist the call to adventure?


"I suppose if we are patient, we'll get the chance." He smirked. "I'm honestly not sure what the others are so afraid of- its not as if we can't handle ourselves."


He let his mouth curl into a slight frown. "I suppose it is best to move these supplies along first, but afterward...." He winked at Kaya. "...is our business, right?"

 

[Yu Jie]

Kaya


Kaya frowned in the direction of Saeka's wagon. "Like I said, what the sour old woman wants...she'll get." She folded her arms once more, staring at the other man, weighing him in her mind. "They'll need us to stick around a while for when they move everything to Shalebridge or wherever it is this caravan leads us. And if you're still around after that and have the balls to go see this dead city?" She grins evilly at the Eclipse. "We'll just see then, won't we?"


She was about to walk away when something made her pause. "It comes to mind, I don't think I've ever sparred with you, Adair. Would you feel up to it sometime?"

 

[Negative Thac0]

Adair


"Oh trust me, I'll be around." He chuckled. "And I will want to see this dead city. Its too much to pass up. Don't go underestimating me already!"


"Hmm?" His expression changed when Kaya mentioned sparring. Common sense would have the young man turn the offer down- it was an almost laughably bad idea.


"Sure! It should be interesting." He smiled, giving a thumbs up. "I don't think I've ever seen you fight either, Kaya. I'll bet its pretty cool since you use two swords and all."

 

[Yu Jie]

Kaya


A honey brown eyebrow with tips bleached by the sun rose in a perfect arch at Adair's words. "Swords? Are you sure you want to spar with me using swords?" Her grin was fierce even as she reached behind her in a lightning quick motion, the twin daiklaives appearing in her hands. "Swords or fists. I leave it up to you."

 

[Negative Thac0]

Adair


The Eclipse gulped when he watched Kaya's panther like movements. Good gods, she was fast.


"It would have to be swords." He admitted with a blush. "I actually don't know how to fight bare handed at all." He pulled his sword off his back- while it was only slightly longer then Kaya's paired weapons, the golden blade on Adair's Ardonight was almost comically thick and squared. In spite of its bizarre shape, it was an undeniably beautiful weapon, and Adair held it well enough.


"We'll just have to use the flat of the blades, right?" He smiled, hiding his slight nervousness. Why was it he felt like he was going to regret this?

 

[Yu Jie]

Kaya


"Swords it is, Adair." Kaya's blade hilts spun in her hands with a swift flick of her wrists, the sharp edges catching the firelight as the blades twirled in the crook of her thumb and fingers. She motioned him to follow her with a quick tilt of her head, indicating a flat, grassy area. Free of rocks, and far enough from the tents, it was lit enough for them to be able to spar decently without accidentally maiming the other.


Or so she hoped.


She left him to stand in the middle of the patch of grass and started circling him, with bent-kneed steps, slow and steady, the short swords held firmly in her grasp while her keen gaze followed him. "Let's see you earn that name of...what was it again?" She lunged forward suddenly, the flat of her blade tapping him lightly on his left side. "Quicksilver Falcon?" Kaya laughed and backed off, settling down into a half crouch, waiting for his move.

 

[Negative Thac0]

Adair


Adair blinked, and laughed, Kaya's playful blow only seriously injuring his pride. He had waited for this opportunity for a long time now.


"You're amazing Adair!" She would cry. "Truly, I've not met a finer warrior in all my life!"


He planted his feet, taking up his standard fighting stance, one based on foot work and quick blows. Gripping his blade tightly, he brought it around with a flourish, thinking to strike his partner softly against the broad of her back, to show his deftness with a sword.


When his sword clanged against Kaya's weapons, he was obviously surprised.


"Oh dear..."

 

[Yu Jie]

Kaya


Both of her blades rang with the sound of metal against metal as she shoved his sword away easily. Her left hand followed through with the parry even as she closed in on him again and tapped his abdomen with the blade in her right. "Keep watching for openings, Adair." The teasing tone was gone, her voice gruff as she called out little hints.


"Watch where you put your feet."


"Don't let down your guard."


Kaya never let up. Swords were her life. Swords were what kept her alive. She advanced, thrusting whenever his blade was elsewhere, fully taking advantage of her twin weapons as she whirled, ducked and parried. Soft blows landed on arms, legs, sides. But he was getting faster.


She paused, chest heaving from exertion as her left daiklaive clanged against his weapon after coming downwards in what would have been a wicked blow. "Good, very good." There was a look of pure satisfaction on her face when he got it right. She was grinning hard.