Land of Water
Lace woke with a start, wet with the mist of dreams. She jerked straight up and looked around, shivering. Her heart was pounding so loudly she almost didn’t hear the rainbow bird. It was making the sounds at her again. she liked it better when it was singing. She was coming to hate the sounds, the sounds of the water people. She didn’t understand it at all, even less than when the bossy one was talking, its tone was all over the place so the feeling of it was lost to her, and the feeling was all she understood. She wondered if it was even saying anything or just making the sounds.
She shook her head and flopped back onto the strange pile of plant-ish stuff that she’d been using as a bed. It was.. like a hard plant fur or something. at least it was warm. She absently kicked the part of the square place shew as stuck in, the part she’d seen open before but couldn’t figure out exactly how. It didn’t really matter, she could have climbed or jumped out easily enough, if her foot wasn’t stuck in the hard vine thing. The hard vine clanked rocks in a jar and the opening part rattled in its place. She was just bored and trying to forget her dream.
She hoped it was just a dream because she was scared and alone and not a vision. It was a horrible thing of death and blood and it made her sick just remembering. She heard a sound and got to her feet, crouching near the opening part before peeking up over the edge.
The bossy one! She wanted to kick him in the face… he was like a.. a.. what did he remind her of? Ah! An Auyuite, a fearn beast! Like a fern beast watching baby Negh'eh stumble around. Knowing it can kill and eat them easy, but not making a move without its pack. She shuddered just thinking about it. He was making the sounds at some other water person, one she hadn’t seen yet, though they all sort of looked the same so maybe she had. It was the first one she’d seen other than the bossy one since she’d been brought to the place with the plant fur.
One of the strange animals in the squares near by moved into her line of sight and she ducked back down. The water people had looked her way. Where they making their sounds about her? Where they going to come and drag her around on a vine again?
She rubbed her hip where they’d burnt some symbol she didn’t know into her like she was simon fruit. She hoped the spotted water person that took Dog and Ladder before the bossy one came for her wasn’t burning them like fruit… and she hoped even harder that the water people never found the rest of her family.
Clyde Tradesfeld frowned as he put his riding gloves on. He wasn’t to thrilled that he had to leave so soon after requiring the sample merchandise. He wanted to see what all it was good for before striking the deal with the ‘supplier’. He wasn’t above working with pirates to get his hands on interesting and hard to find goods, but would it kill them do be a little more… orderly? Reliable? Timely? ...Clean? Ug, the ‘good captain’ Rustwell’s mind was as filthy as his moons forsaken boat. But despite that, it certainly looked as though he hadn’t manhandled the merch. He may be a filthy pirate, but he was also a businessman. That at least they had in common.
With a sigh he lifted the riding crap that dangled from a leather strap on his wrist and lightly smacked the head of the young farmhand he’d been talking too. The young man had gotten distracted when the new acquisition peeked up over the stall door at them, her big eyes wide and straw all in her hair.
“Don’t get distracted. Remember its the only one I have, so take good care of it. I’ve found it will eat fruit and grain fine enough. If it refuses a food just give it something else. My supplier mentioned some foods make them sick, think of it like a trodder, it knows what it can eat better than we do. And for the love of Nususare, don’t touch it or let it loose. Right now, as a rare commodity, it is worth more than you are, remember that.”
He didn’t wait for the young man to respond before turning on his heel and marching out of the stables to get in his cart.
“Tell me you understand..” Eric did his best to not make the evil eye at his boss for smacking him in the head with his damn trodder stick. He puffed his hair out of his eyes and turned to watch him get up in the drivers seat of his little covered cart. He was such a control freak, he could hire any number of drivers with his sort of money and power and what did he do? Drive his own damn self. “Yes sir, I understand.” “Good, I shouldn’t be long, a few days at most. If I hear of any mishandling or laziness i’ll have you flogged and fired.” “Yes sir.” Rotten ass… if he didn’t need the job so bad he’d quit already. Maybe he should, he was sure he could find stable work elsewhere. Only you had to give a long notice and be a bit of a suck up if you wanted to quit this job and not be blacklisted everywhere else along the coast. And he paid double what most paid. But did he have to be such a rotten ass about it?
Eric watched the cart pull off before heading back into the stables to see what this new one looked like. From the quick glance he saw he thought maybe she was a mouse or a rabbit or something. Nothing special really. Certainly nothing to get in a fuss over.
He gave the bird, Polly Aves, a look as he headed toward her. Polly wasn't really her name, it was some twiddly dingus bird name no one could pronounce. But Polly was the name his boss had given her. His boss seemed to have a thing for renaming all his slaves to having normal names.
He personally didn’t like Polly. She was a snitch and a smartass. She always spoke slowly like she was talking to an idiot and her speech was monotone, flat, and nasally. She said it was because of her language being pitch based and that was how she learned it so thats how she said it and blah blah blah. He was pretty sure she was just trying to be annoying. “Well what has he got his britches in a bunch over this time? “ He asked her, trying to at least pretend to be friendly, leaned over the stall door to get a good look. well he wasn’t expecting that. The ‘merch’ was crouched down right on the other side of the door. she would have been a beautiful girl if it wasn’t for her lower half being that of some sort of beast, hooves and everything. And she didn’t have enough fingers.. it was unsettling. Oh and she had freaking horns growing out of her freaking head. The boss had said she’d come from the monster lands in the south, but he never mentioned her being one.
Eric jerked away from the door at the site of her. tri LeEeK akA tA, or 'Polly', cocked her head to one side to get a better look at the stable hand. What was he frightened of? The only difference she could tell on this new one was that it wasn’t wearing the fake feathers all over. Clothing clothing. Have the remember what they called their ceremonial garb. Poor naked flightless things. They had clothingless ones in all the time. Those ones never stayed here with her before though.
‘Okay, you’re smart. Maybe this one looks different..’ the darn things all looked the same to her without their fake feathers to tell them apart. “wh-at ah-reh you scae-red of eh-ree-ka” “Shut up, I’m not scared. It’s just freaky.” He went to take another look. “And its Air-Rik not Eh-Ree-Ka. Eric.” She bobbed her head in mirth at the irony of him complaining about missaying his name slightly when he called her a whole other name. pah-lee was not even close. “iee ah-ma sa-ree.” He bet she wasn’t, she did it to annoy him. He looked down into the stall again and had to jump back, again, to avoid getting headbutted in the chin, with horns. He avoided that, but he wasn’t fast enough to avoid her reaching out and grabbing his head with her creepy finger missing hands and pull him forward to slam her forehead into his. Luckily her horns pointed up and not out or he’d have holes in his head with the force she’d used.
He staggered back when she let him go and fell to his ass, clutching his head. Getting your head bumped into thing normally was rough, but that was nothing compared to this.. did she break his skull? Was he going to die? Lace snorted and pawed at the ground with her hoove threateningly. If he wanted to come in here and burn symbols into her he was going to have to fight! “Your head is the softness of fruit!” She warned him. Polly titled her head from side to side again. “ah-reh you deah-deh?” That would have broken every fragile hollow bone in her body, but the Oth were a lot more hardy than her. Well at least he had reason to be scared now, she’d never seen one do that before. Oh look at its feet! Even less grippable than a poor flightless naked Oth. More like the trodders that lived in her stable. That must be what he was seeing before. He was right that was different. How could she sit in a tree with those things? How sad, sad sad sad. She felt sorry for this one even more. But it seemed to make up for it in even harder bones. “Suits you right.” Another head popped up from another stall, a rather exotic looking skunk with her swirley fur marks.
“It’s rude, you know, keeping people like this.” She gave him a sneer. The woman was chained up in the same fashion as the strange woman, though her hands were also cuffed together since they found out quick she needed them to cast magic. Eric was too busy being concussed to bother listening to the woman complain again. He thought his employer had taken her with him, maybe it was just wishful thinking. She wasn’t his problem, but she sure could make herself his problem really fast. Caster class slaves were a nightmare to handle. “hees deah-deh. hees deah-deh” Polly flapped her wings and hopped around on the stall separator. “eh-ree-ka isa deah-deh.” Wow, he really did have a fruit soft head if he was still rolling around after one little headbutt… If only she could escape while he was down. Sadly the stone vine was too strong to break out of. Maybe if she had a rock to smash it with… “Should throw a celebration if he is.” He unfortunately looked too alive to her, she would know if he was dead because she’d see his spirit exiting his body. “why. new eh-ree-ka co-meh nes day.” she stopped flapping and cocked her head to get a look at the swirly one. Polly had been here a while, Eric wasn’t the first farmhand she’d had to deal with. There where many other around, some better some worse. It was the head of the house that was the trouble. And even if he was gone they would all be moved away to other houses. It was endless. This cold land was full of more and more of the sad flightless people, there was no where to go. “They won’t last long if the horned one keeps knocking everyone out as easily as she did this simpleton.” She gave a snort, jerking her head at Lace. “gota here someh howa.” Polly wasn’t sure how well the swirly one was thinking through what she was saying of if she was speaking in anger. “Something going on in here?” Another of the stablehands peeked in. “Geeze Eric what did you do?” He came over to take a look at him. He’d smacked his head so hard on something it was bleeding, did one of the trodders kick him or something? “is-eh he dea-deh.” Polly asked. “You’d like that wouldn’t you?” The new person glared up at the her. “What happened?” “nota like, nota unlike.’ She had no strong feelings over it one way or another. “Shut up, you evil bird.” The other person snapped, getting up to go get some help. “You stay up there.” “yeseh. upa here. safeh.” She didn’t want to go down where she was helpless. Eric was grumpy but he never threatened to eat her like that one. “You’ll be next.” The skunk told the man as he past in an eerily voice, knowing he was one of the superstitious ones. He shivered and picked up the pace. “Shut up, stupid skunk, what do you know?!” Polly bobbed her head, amused at how easily she’d scared him. “next. next.” “Dammit!” The man ran faster, all too happy to get the hell out of there. He’d heard she could suck your soul right out of your body. He ran to the worker’s building and closed the door behind him, making the others look up. “What is it? You look like you seen a ghost.” “That skunk witch with the swirls.” he panted, thumbing toward the door he was barring closed. “She cursed the stable master! He might already be dead! That evil talking bird won’t let me get close enough to see if he’s alive.” “What?” A few of the men got up. “Wait wait, she may curse us too!” “Moons I hate that bird.” “I heard the new one’s a demon!” “I don’t want my soul eaten.” The ruckus was getting loud as they argued who should go and if their souls would be safe. Well this might be a good time to work on that theory of her’s, that head smash gave her a good idea. Since she was next to the horned one she leaned over the fencing, her arms held out to show her she meant the strange woman no harm. Closing her eyes she mustered up as much leaked magic as she could to send the creature an image of her kicking the iron shackles with her hoofed foot.
Please let this work…. She was risking the chance of getting her head bashed as well, or the horned one missing with her hoof and crushing her hands. Though at this point she was willing to do anything, she didn’t want the ‘Master’ to decide to fully seal her off of her powers, she’d rather die. Lace gave her a wide eyed stare. She’d never had a waking vision before. Well, nothing for it but to trust her vision for now. She pawed the ground, snorted and then kicked the vines between the water person’s hands with all her might.
She let out a gasp and plopped onto the plant fur to hold her foot. Owwch! It was like stomping on a rock! She was impressed that the horned one managed to bend the chains some, it didn’t break it but it certainly looked thinner. She crouched down and used both of her own feet to press and shove at the links, having to wrap her arms around the chains some so her wrists wouldn’t chafe from the effort. “Come on!” She gritted between her teeth. Ugh it was making a small budge, but it wasn’t enough.
She tried digging deep for more of her magic, using a weakening spell on the restraints. It would tire her out, but she was desperate.
Panting from the effort she gave a grunt, the chains were now glowing a soft red at her using magic and the spell she was using against it. It slowly creaked from her efforts and bended. Lace finished checking her foot and got back up and went to peek over the divider between them. Oh! She was doing it! Maybe a another kick would help. She reached out, trying to get the water lady to come back over. “Let me help.” She heard the horned one speak at her, which she turned her head to look in her direction. She was reaching out, in a motion that showed she was wanting something.
Frowning she lifted her arms in question, indicating the shackles. Lace nodded and motioned for her to come let her kick it again. Shakily she got to her feet, the magic felt like it was getting sucked out of her and left her feeling drained. Hoping she wasn’t planning on revenge for hurting her foot she raised her hands to her. Lace tried to position her hands on the wall, excited that this might work. The vines on the water woman’s hands were alot weaker than the one that had her foot. There okay here we go. She pawed at the ground again, getting ready, then kicked the vines again. Polly hopped around, all this kicking was shaking the rafters. She peeked over to check if anyone else was coming or if Eric was going to get up. He was sitting now, holding his head and looking confused. The skunk woman heard the victorious sound of the metal snapping and felt the tingle of her magic coming back to her. With the chains broken it broke the inscription on them.
Flexing her fingers she did her unlocking spell and the chains around her own foot and her wrists. She still felt drained, she needed a bit of a boost. That Eric guy….he’d be a good candidate to donate. Unlatching the door, since she didn’t feel she could hop the door without flopping on her face, she walked out and over to Eric. “Time for you to do a little good for once.” “eh-ree-ka isa deah-deh. eh-ree-ka isa deah-deh.” Polly flapped and hopped around. She didn’t change her pitch with their language so when she wanted to draw attention to something she just said it over and over. “eh-ree-ka isa deah-deh.” “Please, not so dramatic as that.” She plopped herself into Eric’s lap then grabbing his shirt she covered his mouth with her’s and started tapping into his soul, sipping at it some. He was too out of it to resist, and really, when a beautiful woman sits in your lap and kisses you… you let her. Atleast that ws his philosophy. Lace peeked over the stall door, wanting to know what was going on. She was going to return the favor right? These water people were confusing. The skunk sipped enough on his lifeforce to leave him feeling more tired, but he would have enough to still live and replenish what she borrowed. For herself she felt more energetic and felt so much better now that she could use her magic again.
Pushing him back she got on up, flexing her fingers as she did. Ahhhhh she felt so good, and with her magic back she’d be able to escape this hellhole.
Knowing she needed to show her gratefulness, she turned to the horned one’s stall, and flicking her wrist the chains all popped and dropped to the ground. Lace’s eyes widened and she kicked the vine away from her. She stayed on her side of the wooden barrier, weary of the.. whatever it was she did with her hands. “What was that?” She’d never seen anything like it, apart from when she was taken, she didn’t even have a word for it. “Shouldn’t matter if it helps.” After having the horned one help her she decided that maybe she could convince her to join her in escaping, there might be some heavy doors she could kick them down. She used her translation spell, easier than making more of the silly hand motion stuff.
‘Keket!’ In her field of vision something floated around in the air and wrapped around her shoulders. ‘I missed you so!’ It trilled sobbed at her, the spirit guide that she had bounded to her since she was a child. ‘As I missed you, Seree.’ She rubbed the spirit’s head. “Oh! I can understand you!” Lace hopped over the door, still not sure how it worked. “How do I leave the water lands?” Oh no, she couldn’t just leave, she still had to find her brothers. She looked at the horned one up and down, “If you are like myself, not easily. We will have to find someone with a boat that won’t turn us back in.” She scratched her guide under it’s chin then spoke to it. ‘Where can we go that we can escape without running into all the workers?’ ‘To the west, but there will still be a couple of them.’ Hrm… well that’s better than a whole group of people, a couple is better than ten. Lace watched, wondering what she was doing with her hands now. How was she going to find her brothers? She didn’t know anything about this land. “I know you can headbutt well, but how do you fare of hand to hand combat?” She asked the horned one. “My guide can get us out of here fairly easy, but we may still run into a few people that will try to keep us here.” “I’m not sure I understand. That was just a headbut, it has nothing to do with fighting.” Hrmmm… she tried again. “If you had a couple of them on you can you shake them off?” “I don’t know.” She couldn’t even shake off the one that brought her there when he was yanking her around by the neck on a vine the first place she’d been. But if she wasn’t tethered.. she could at least run faster than them as long as they didn’t use the.. hand wavy stuff. “I can run.” “Good enough.” It seemed to her that her race wasn’t very violent, despite her appearance.
“Follow me then. I’m known as Keket.” She told her as she walked down the row of stables. “I’m Lace. its so nice to be able to talk with someone, maybe you can explain what’s going on. Why was I brought here?” “Possibly just because you are different looking. They’re collectors of people who they deem exotic or below them in their eyes.” That was what she had started calling the whole lot in her head, Collectors. Collectors and keepers was what they were.
“I believe they only took me and my people because of our different fur pattern.” “Collecting.. like fruit? Like wool?” she snorted. “I’m not wool! I am not fruit!” She shrugged, crouching around a corner and looking at a space beside her. “Their ways do not make much sense. I have seen some like the feathered creature made to work for their Chiefs.” “I don’t understand.” “I think they mostly use their collections for work.” She tried to rephrase it, understanding that her understanding to her own people may be different. The concept was beyond her. She tried her best to understand but just couldn’t manage it. “What is chiefs? How do you use someone for work? We offer them food and they throw it to the ground. They attack us like wild beasts with the hand moving and the loud sticks. They put us in their giant canoes and bring us to the water land in hard tents and wooden caves. I don’t understand why, how is this work?” “Chiefs are…leaders, heads of family or tribes.” She moved forward getting the all clear. “You haven’t seen what they’ve done with their collections once they leave here then. Eventually everyone leaves to go to other Chiefs, I hear them talk about putting them to planting.” “Oh! Elders.” She guessed. “What about you? Do you collect to? Am I a fruit for your elders?” She made a face, “No my tribe does not collect others. Like you I have been brought over across the waters to this place. My people are happy to keep to themselves and work with the spirits.” “Oh.. I’m sorry. I thought you were a water person too.” “It is easy to assume so, I’m sure I look the same as the others to you.” She nodded. “You look the same in the legs. Very strange.” Keket was nice enough not to mention that Lace looked even stranger in her eyes, then again she had seen some weirder things in her time in the spirit realm. ‘Two men ahead.’ Her guide warned, flitting back to her. ‘None to the right, but must make quiet.’ She nodded in gratefulness to the spirit and looked over her shoulder at Lace. “My guide says there are two up ahead so for now lets proceed quietly.” Lace looked around for a guide, not sure who she was getting information from. But she didn’t ask about it. There was time for questions when they were free of this place. She nodded and tried to be quiet, as if trying to outwit a naughty Ist who ran off with someone’s hat, or a stray Negh'eh foal.
She shook her head and flopped back onto the strange pile of plant-ish stuff that she’d been using as a bed. It was.. like a hard plant fur or something. at least it was warm. She absently kicked the part of the square place shew as stuck in, the part she’d seen open before but couldn’t figure out exactly how. It didn’t really matter, she could have climbed or jumped out easily enough, if her foot wasn’t stuck in the hard vine thing. The hard vine clanked rocks in a jar and the opening part rattled in its place. She was just bored and trying to forget her dream.
She hoped it was just a dream because she was scared and alone and not a vision. It was a horrible thing of death and blood and it made her sick just remembering. She heard a sound and got to her feet, crouching near the opening part before peeking up over the edge.
The bossy one! She wanted to kick him in the face… he was like a.. a.. what did he remind her of? Ah! An Auyuite, a fearn beast! Like a fern beast watching baby Negh'eh stumble around. Knowing it can kill and eat them easy, but not making a move without its pack. She shuddered just thinking about it. He was making the sounds at some other water person, one she hadn’t seen yet, though they all sort of looked the same so maybe she had. It was the first one she’d seen other than the bossy one since she’d been brought to the place with the plant fur.
One of the strange animals in the squares near by moved into her line of sight and she ducked back down. The water people had looked her way. Where they making their sounds about her? Where they going to come and drag her around on a vine again?
She rubbed her hip where they’d burnt some symbol she didn’t know into her like she was simon fruit. She hoped the spotted water person that took Dog and Ladder before the bossy one came for her wasn’t burning them like fruit… and she hoped even harder that the water people never found the rest of her family.
Clyde Tradesfeld frowned as he put his riding gloves on. He wasn’t to thrilled that he had to leave so soon after requiring the sample merchandise. He wanted to see what all it was good for before striking the deal with the ‘supplier’. He wasn’t above working with pirates to get his hands on interesting and hard to find goods, but would it kill them do be a little more… orderly? Reliable? Timely? ...Clean? Ug, the ‘good captain’ Rustwell’s mind was as filthy as his moons forsaken boat. But despite that, it certainly looked as though he hadn’t manhandled the merch. He may be a filthy pirate, but he was also a businessman. That at least they had in common.
With a sigh he lifted the riding crap that dangled from a leather strap on his wrist and lightly smacked the head of the young farmhand he’d been talking too. The young man had gotten distracted when the new acquisition peeked up over the stall door at them, her big eyes wide and straw all in her hair.
“Don’t get distracted. Remember its the only one I have, so take good care of it. I’ve found it will eat fruit and grain fine enough. If it refuses a food just give it something else. My supplier mentioned some foods make them sick, think of it like a trodder, it knows what it can eat better than we do. And for the love of Nususare, don’t touch it or let it loose. Right now, as a rare commodity, it is worth more than you are, remember that.”
He didn’t wait for the young man to respond before turning on his heel and marching out of the stables to get in his cart.
“Tell me you understand..” Eric did his best to not make the evil eye at his boss for smacking him in the head with his damn trodder stick. He puffed his hair out of his eyes and turned to watch him get up in the drivers seat of his little covered cart. He was such a control freak, he could hire any number of drivers with his sort of money and power and what did he do? Drive his own damn self. “Yes sir, I understand.” “Good, I shouldn’t be long, a few days at most. If I hear of any mishandling or laziness i’ll have you flogged and fired.” “Yes sir.” Rotten ass… if he didn’t need the job so bad he’d quit already. Maybe he should, he was sure he could find stable work elsewhere. Only you had to give a long notice and be a bit of a suck up if you wanted to quit this job and not be blacklisted everywhere else along the coast. And he paid double what most paid. But did he have to be such a rotten ass about it?
Eric watched the cart pull off before heading back into the stables to see what this new one looked like. From the quick glance he saw he thought maybe she was a mouse or a rabbit or something. Nothing special really. Certainly nothing to get in a fuss over.
He gave the bird, Polly Aves, a look as he headed toward her. Polly wasn't really her name, it was some twiddly dingus bird name no one could pronounce. But Polly was the name his boss had given her. His boss seemed to have a thing for renaming all his slaves to having normal names.
He personally didn’t like Polly. She was a snitch and a smartass. She always spoke slowly like she was talking to an idiot and her speech was monotone, flat, and nasally. She said it was because of her language being pitch based and that was how she learned it so thats how she said it and blah blah blah. He was pretty sure she was just trying to be annoying. “Well what has he got his britches in a bunch over this time? “ He asked her, trying to at least pretend to be friendly, leaned over the stall door to get a good look. well he wasn’t expecting that. The ‘merch’ was crouched down right on the other side of the door. she would have been a beautiful girl if it wasn’t for her lower half being that of some sort of beast, hooves and everything. And she didn’t have enough fingers.. it was unsettling. Oh and she had freaking horns growing out of her freaking head. The boss had said she’d come from the monster lands in the south, but he never mentioned her being one.
Eric jerked away from the door at the site of her. tri LeEeK akA tA, or 'Polly', cocked her head to one side to get a better look at the stable hand. What was he frightened of? The only difference she could tell on this new one was that it wasn’t wearing the fake feathers all over. Clothing clothing. Have the remember what they called their ceremonial garb. Poor naked flightless things. They had clothingless ones in all the time. Those ones never stayed here with her before though.
‘Okay, you’re smart. Maybe this one looks different..’ the darn things all looked the same to her without their fake feathers to tell them apart. “wh-at ah-reh you scae-red of eh-ree-ka” “Shut up, I’m not scared. It’s just freaky.” He went to take another look. “And its Air-Rik not Eh-Ree-Ka. Eric.” She bobbed her head in mirth at the irony of him complaining about missaying his name slightly when he called her a whole other name. pah-lee was not even close. “iee ah-ma sa-ree.” He bet she wasn’t, she did it to annoy him. He looked down into the stall again and had to jump back, again, to avoid getting headbutted in the chin, with horns. He avoided that, but he wasn’t fast enough to avoid her reaching out and grabbing his head with her creepy finger missing hands and pull him forward to slam her forehead into his. Luckily her horns pointed up and not out or he’d have holes in his head with the force she’d used.
He staggered back when she let him go and fell to his ass, clutching his head. Getting your head bumped into thing normally was rough, but that was nothing compared to this.. did she break his skull? Was he going to die? Lace snorted and pawed at the ground with her hoove threateningly. If he wanted to come in here and burn symbols into her he was going to have to fight! “Your head is the softness of fruit!” She warned him. Polly titled her head from side to side again. “ah-reh you deah-deh?” That would have broken every fragile hollow bone in her body, but the Oth were a lot more hardy than her. Well at least he had reason to be scared now, she’d never seen one do that before. Oh look at its feet! Even less grippable than a poor flightless naked Oth. More like the trodders that lived in her stable. That must be what he was seeing before. He was right that was different. How could she sit in a tree with those things? How sad, sad sad sad. She felt sorry for this one even more. But it seemed to make up for it in even harder bones. “Suits you right.” Another head popped up from another stall, a rather exotic looking skunk with her swirley fur marks.
“It’s rude, you know, keeping people like this.” She gave him a sneer. The woman was chained up in the same fashion as the strange woman, though her hands were also cuffed together since they found out quick she needed them to cast magic. Eric was too busy being concussed to bother listening to the woman complain again. He thought his employer had taken her with him, maybe it was just wishful thinking. She wasn’t his problem, but she sure could make herself his problem really fast. Caster class slaves were a nightmare to handle. “hees deah-deh. hees deah-deh” Polly flapped her wings and hopped around on the stall separator. “eh-ree-ka isa deah-deh.” Wow, he really did have a fruit soft head if he was still rolling around after one little headbutt… If only she could escape while he was down. Sadly the stone vine was too strong to break out of. Maybe if she had a rock to smash it with… “Should throw a celebration if he is.” He unfortunately looked too alive to her, she would know if he was dead because she’d see his spirit exiting his body. “why. new eh-ree-ka co-meh nes day.” she stopped flapping and cocked her head to get a look at the swirly one. Polly had been here a while, Eric wasn’t the first farmhand she’d had to deal with. There where many other around, some better some worse. It was the head of the house that was the trouble. And even if he was gone they would all be moved away to other houses. It was endless. This cold land was full of more and more of the sad flightless people, there was no where to go. “They won’t last long if the horned one keeps knocking everyone out as easily as she did this simpleton.” She gave a snort, jerking her head at Lace. “gota here someh howa.” Polly wasn’t sure how well the swirly one was thinking through what she was saying of if she was speaking in anger. “Something going on in here?” Another of the stablehands peeked in. “Geeze Eric what did you do?” He came over to take a look at him. He’d smacked his head so hard on something it was bleeding, did one of the trodders kick him or something? “is-eh he dea-deh.” Polly asked. “You’d like that wouldn’t you?” The new person glared up at the her. “What happened?” “nota like, nota unlike.’ She had no strong feelings over it one way or another. “Shut up, you evil bird.” The other person snapped, getting up to go get some help. “You stay up there.” “yeseh. upa here. safeh.” She didn’t want to go down where she was helpless. Eric was grumpy but he never threatened to eat her like that one. “You’ll be next.” The skunk told the man as he past in an eerily voice, knowing he was one of the superstitious ones. He shivered and picked up the pace. “Shut up, stupid skunk, what do you know?!” Polly bobbed her head, amused at how easily she’d scared him. “next. next.” “Dammit!” The man ran faster, all too happy to get the hell out of there. He’d heard she could suck your soul right out of your body. He ran to the worker’s building and closed the door behind him, making the others look up. “What is it? You look like you seen a ghost.” “That skunk witch with the swirls.” he panted, thumbing toward the door he was barring closed. “She cursed the stable master! He might already be dead! That evil talking bird won’t let me get close enough to see if he’s alive.” “What?” A few of the men got up. “Wait wait, she may curse us too!” “Moons I hate that bird.” “I heard the new one’s a demon!” “I don’t want my soul eaten.” The ruckus was getting loud as they argued who should go and if their souls would be safe. Well this might be a good time to work on that theory of her’s, that head smash gave her a good idea. Since she was next to the horned one she leaned over the fencing, her arms held out to show her she meant the strange woman no harm. Closing her eyes she mustered up as much leaked magic as she could to send the creature an image of her kicking the iron shackles with her hoofed foot.
Please let this work…. She was risking the chance of getting her head bashed as well, or the horned one missing with her hoof and crushing her hands. Though at this point she was willing to do anything, she didn’t want the ‘Master’ to decide to fully seal her off of her powers, she’d rather die. Lace gave her a wide eyed stare. She’d never had a waking vision before. Well, nothing for it but to trust her vision for now. She pawed the ground, snorted and then kicked the vines between the water person’s hands with all her might.
She let out a gasp and plopped onto the plant fur to hold her foot. Owwch! It was like stomping on a rock! She was impressed that the horned one managed to bend the chains some, it didn’t break it but it certainly looked thinner. She crouched down and used both of her own feet to press and shove at the links, having to wrap her arms around the chains some so her wrists wouldn’t chafe from the effort. “Come on!” She gritted between her teeth. Ugh it was making a small budge, but it wasn’t enough.
She tried digging deep for more of her magic, using a weakening spell on the restraints. It would tire her out, but she was desperate.
Panting from the effort she gave a grunt, the chains were now glowing a soft red at her using magic and the spell she was using against it. It slowly creaked from her efforts and bended. Lace finished checking her foot and got back up and went to peek over the divider between them. Oh! She was doing it! Maybe a another kick would help. She reached out, trying to get the water lady to come back over. “Let me help.” She heard the horned one speak at her, which she turned her head to look in her direction. She was reaching out, in a motion that showed she was wanting something.
Frowning she lifted her arms in question, indicating the shackles. Lace nodded and motioned for her to come let her kick it again. Shakily she got to her feet, the magic felt like it was getting sucked out of her and left her feeling drained. Hoping she wasn’t planning on revenge for hurting her foot she raised her hands to her. Lace tried to position her hands on the wall, excited that this might work. The vines on the water woman’s hands were alot weaker than the one that had her foot. There okay here we go. She pawed at the ground again, getting ready, then kicked the vines again. Polly hopped around, all this kicking was shaking the rafters. She peeked over to check if anyone else was coming or if Eric was going to get up. He was sitting now, holding his head and looking confused. The skunk woman heard the victorious sound of the metal snapping and felt the tingle of her magic coming back to her. With the chains broken it broke the inscription on them.
Flexing her fingers she did her unlocking spell and the chains around her own foot and her wrists. She still felt drained, she needed a bit of a boost. That Eric guy….he’d be a good candidate to donate. Unlatching the door, since she didn’t feel she could hop the door without flopping on her face, she walked out and over to Eric. “Time for you to do a little good for once.” “eh-ree-ka isa deah-deh. eh-ree-ka isa deah-deh.” Polly flapped and hopped around. She didn’t change her pitch with their language so when she wanted to draw attention to something she just said it over and over. “eh-ree-ka isa deah-deh.” “Please, not so dramatic as that.” She plopped herself into Eric’s lap then grabbing his shirt she covered his mouth with her’s and started tapping into his soul, sipping at it some. He was too out of it to resist, and really, when a beautiful woman sits in your lap and kisses you… you let her. Atleast that ws his philosophy. Lace peeked over the stall door, wanting to know what was going on. She was going to return the favor right? These water people were confusing. The skunk sipped enough on his lifeforce to leave him feeling more tired, but he would have enough to still live and replenish what she borrowed. For herself she felt more energetic and felt so much better now that she could use her magic again.
Pushing him back she got on up, flexing her fingers as she did. Ahhhhh she felt so good, and with her magic back she’d be able to escape this hellhole.
Knowing she needed to show her gratefulness, she turned to the horned one’s stall, and flicking her wrist the chains all popped and dropped to the ground. Lace’s eyes widened and she kicked the vine away from her. She stayed on her side of the wooden barrier, weary of the.. whatever it was she did with her hands. “What was that?” She’d never seen anything like it, apart from when she was taken, she didn’t even have a word for it. “Shouldn’t matter if it helps.” After having the horned one help her she decided that maybe she could convince her to join her in escaping, there might be some heavy doors she could kick them down. She used her translation spell, easier than making more of the silly hand motion stuff.
‘Keket!’ In her field of vision something floated around in the air and wrapped around her shoulders. ‘I missed you so!’ It trilled sobbed at her, the spirit guide that she had bounded to her since she was a child. ‘As I missed you, Seree.’ She rubbed the spirit’s head. “Oh! I can understand you!” Lace hopped over the door, still not sure how it worked. “How do I leave the water lands?” Oh no, she couldn’t just leave, she still had to find her brothers. She looked at the horned one up and down, “If you are like myself, not easily. We will have to find someone with a boat that won’t turn us back in.” She scratched her guide under it’s chin then spoke to it. ‘Where can we go that we can escape without running into all the workers?’ ‘To the west, but there will still be a couple of them.’ Hrm… well that’s better than a whole group of people, a couple is better than ten. Lace watched, wondering what she was doing with her hands now. How was she going to find her brothers? She didn’t know anything about this land. “I know you can headbutt well, but how do you fare of hand to hand combat?” She asked the horned one. “My guide can get us out of here fairly easy, but we may still run into a few people that will try to keep us here.” “I’m not sure I understand. That was just a headbut, it has nothing to do with fighting.” Hrmmm… she tried again. “If you had a couple of them on you can you shake them off?” “I don’t know.” She couldn’t even shake off the one that brought her there when he was yanking her around by the neck on a vine the first place she’d been. But if she wasn’t tethered.. she could at least run faster than them as long as they didn’t use the.. hand wavy stuff. “I can run.” “Good enough.” It seemed to her that her race wasn’t very violent, despite her appearance.
“Follow me then. I’m known as Keket.” She told her as she walked down the row of stables. “I’m Lace. its so nice to be able to talk with someone, maybe you can explain what’s going on. Why was I brought here?” “Possibly just because you are different looking. They’re collectors of people who they deem exotic or below them in their eyes.” That was what she had started calling the whole lot in her head, Collectors. Collectors and keepers was what they were.
“I believe they only took me and my people because of our different fur pattern.” “Collecting.. like fruit? Like wool?” she snorted. “I’m not wool! I am not fruit!” She shrugged, crouching around a corner and looking at a space beside her. “Their ways do not make much sense. I have seen some like the feathered creature made to work for their Chiefs.” “I don’t understand.” “I think they mostly use their collections for work.” She tried to rephrase it, understanding that her understanding to her own people may be different. The concept was beyond her. She tried her best to understand but just couldn’t manage it. “What is chiefs? How do you use someone for work? We offer them food and they throw it to the ground. They attack us like wild beasts with the hand moving and the loud sticks. They put us in their giant canoes and bring us to the water land in hard tents and wooden caves. I don’t understand why, how is this work?” “Chiefs are…leaders, heads of family or tribes.” She moved forward getting the all clear. “You haven’t seen what they’ve done with their collections once they leave here then. Eventually everyone leaves to go to other Chiefs, I hear them talk about putting them to planting.” “Oh! Elders.” She guessed. “What about you? Do you collect to? Am I a fruit for your elders?” She made a face, “No my tribe does not collect others. Like you I have been brought over across the waters to this place. My people are happy to keep to themselves and work with the spirits.” “Oh.. I’m sorry. I thought you were a water person too.” “It is easy to assume so, I’m sure I look the same as the others to you.” She nodded. “You look the same in the legs. Very strange.” Keket was nice enough not to mention that Lace looked even stranger in her eyes, then again she had seen some weirder things in her time in the spirit realm. ‘Two men ahead.’ Her guide warned, flitting back to her. ‘None to the right, but must make quiet.’ She nodded in gratefulness to the spirit and looked over her shoulder at Lace. “My guide says there are two up ahead so for now lets proceed quietly.” Lace looked around for a guide, not sure who she was getting information from. But she didn’t ask about it. There was time for questions when they were free of this place. She nodded and tried to be quiet, as if trying to outwit a naughty Ist who ran off with someone’s hat, or a stray Negh'eh foal.
Comments