- Messages
- 21
- Character Biography
- Link
When morning came, Phelaia gathered up her cuudruu leather and cuudruu jerky, saving a slice to munch on while she packed up her camp, then stamped out what was left of her smoking fire. She walked over to Ketu and leaned up against his cheek, rubbing his softly rumbling neck with her arm.
“So, Ketu - if you’re still coming with me, I think we gotta go west, and go find that city between the oceans, in that green place. It’s gotta be all the way across the Asherah! To start, let’s try Tirnua. They got one of those portal stones there, and it’s all kinds of people trading from what Mister Balta used to say. I bet those traders know how to use the stone. And maybe a place with all kinds of people won’t mind the two of us that much. Maybe we can use that stone to cross the ocean.”
Ketu rose abruptly, his head rising straight up in excitement. Phelaia instinctively dug in, and was dragged straight up into the air with him. “Whoa!”
OCEAN! KETU FLY, KETU FISH!
The tiefling nimbly swung herself up onto his head, lying flat atop it as he confusedly turned left, then right, then started rumbling with laughter. She couldn’t help but giggle… wow, for the very first time since she was a very little kid in the slums… before…. But who wouldn’t? She bet it looked like something out of a puppet show, if there was actually anybody around to see it. The dragon lay back down, gently resettling its head on the ground.
“Yeah, I bet you could fly it, Ketu! But what if there’s no little island to land me on while you fish? I ain’t that good a swimmer, Ketu, I’d probably fall off an’ drown, and then no more ‘Ketu’s Phelaia.’”
The dragon fell silent, aside from his thrumming breath. He had no back talk for that one.
KETU FLY… TER-NOO-AH?
“Yeah, Tirnua. Now, some of the people I heard live there are kinda small, and I bet they might look like food to a big guy like you. The Straline, they’re little cat-people, I seen them sometimes in Thagretis. Traders. The Quill, they’re like, I dunno, little chicken-dragons I guess? Usually got their beaks in a book just as big as they are. Anyway, please don’t eat somebody by accident, okay Ketu?”
The dragon just rumbled. Phelaia clucked her tongue, hoping that meant ‘yes.’
She gingerly climbed down to the small of Ketu’s back, and the instant her finger-claws had locked into his scales, he stood, pranced, and lifted off. He circled wider and wider into the sky as they climbed, before relaxing into a southwesterly soar, riding the mighty mountain thermals to cross the Teeth once again.
Phelaia was captivated by the grandeur that spread out below them. The Teeth that towered ominously above the Malakath wasteland looked so different from above, streams and pools, falls, cuudruu herds crossing saddles, large nests of who-knew-what. After a few hours, olive-green dotted foothills came into view ahead as they passed by the last Tooth in the range. The red earth was brighter here, and the air felt moister. And the mountain wind was really getting cold - she was glad to be riding kind of a flying furnace.
Between a couple tree-dotted foothills sat the weirdest building Phelaia ever saw. It looked abandoned, probably forever. It was shaped like a bale, but way taller and broader, made of criss crossed metal hoops. Whatever used to be in the frame was crumbled at the bottom, leaving just that weird hoopy frame standing. What must have been a really fancy road once ran next to it, leading west. It was also crumbling. As she strained to look closer, Ketu started circling down to fly closer to it.
“Not too close, Ketu. I never been here before, I don’t know what to expect.”
As they flew lower over the ancient road, Phelaia made out wagon ruts in the spaces between the parts with the broken, crooked old flagstones. Well, somebody was still using the road…
“Hey, let’s go a little higher, Ketu, then follow that road west. Tirnua’s gotta be the most important thing nearby. This road might lead us there!”
Ketu rumbled, and climbed back up, before starting a lazy S-shaped soar, generally following the road. Every so often, they would pass another off ruined frame like before. Phelaia thought they must have been guard towers or something like that. After about an hour, they could see a caravan of small figures that Phelaia recognized as Straline, the wagons circled off to the side of the road, and the faint sounds of shouting. A dozen dark insectoid shapes circled back and forth around the wagons.. must be Chi-Xilixis! It had the look of a standoff, though actual fighting hadn’t started quite yet. Might not be long… but if they weren’t already fighting, maybe there was time to do something about it.
,
“Land there, Ketu, quick! But not too close to them. I wanna try to talk to them.”
The eager blue dragon dove immediately into a swoop, causing Phelaia to dig her toe-claws in just to avoid flying up off his back. “You did that on purpose!” The dragon rumbled, puffing a hot blast of air to blow over her. He pulled out of his swoop fairly gently, though, gliding in, pulling up, then turning into a smooth landing trot.
The Chi-Xilixis backed away chittering, spears all pointing toward the tiefling and the dragon. Phelaia stood and carefully walked down Ketu’s neck, empty hands held high, her voice strong and as confident as she could make it sound.
“Hey, hey! We’re all talking here, okay? What is going on?”
There was of course a clamor of voices and chittering - both sides were apparently very concerned about which side the big blue dragon was on. A mottled, black-carapaced Chi-Xilixi, wearing only a green-stone amulet and a belt with sacks and pouches tied to it, stepped forward, gesturing toward Phelaia and the Stralines in a sweeping motion as the stone started to glow. Inside Phelaia’s mind, she heard thin, clack-voiced words in the Malak trade-tongue in her mind, as this spokes-bug began gesturing and chittering away. Yesterday, this would have kinda freaked her out…
Thiss iss TOKUA territory! Thesse fleabitten vermin trespasss, to take from uss and ssell to otherss! They hunt food and gather fruit closse to our nest! Next will be our eggss, if we do not sstop them!
Phelaia nodded sternly, crossing her arms, trying to look like the bossy dragon priests who settled merchant rows in the slums.
“Okay, that’s your side of it. Who speaks for the Straline?”
The Chi-Xilixis all started chittering, and several advanced a step.
Phelaia gestured with her hands at them to back off. “Hey, hold it! Are you crazy or something? You don’t want Ketu to think you’re coming at me, trust me!” The blue dragon quickly stepped forward to loom over her, his hot breath washing over and past her to be felt by the closest of the Chi-Xilixis, his head directly above hers now, looking slowly from one side to the other. She patted his ankles backward a few times to get the point across that she was holding him back.
The Chi-Xilixis all stopped, and a couple stepped back. The spokesbug clacked a command, and in a somewhat reluctant fan of motion, all their spears were stood up at ease.
“That’s better! - let’s just talk this out.” She gestured again toward the wagons. “Straline! Send your spokesman out, and quick!”
A tabby-furred Straline with golden eyes leapt atop the frontmost wagon, then dropped down to the ground with feline grace, bowing first to the spokesbug, then to Phelaia, before beginning to speak in Malak in a purring, lisping androgynous voice. They first addressed the spokesbug.
“We see now why the Tokua are angerrred, and we did not know we had trrrespassed. The Old Rrroad has always been frrree to trrravel, if dangerrrous! We took no eggs, we hunted only birrrds, and picked only figs. We go to trrrade goods at Tirrnua-town, forrr sundrrry supplies to brrring to ourrr ship. We have come frrrom yourr people, Tiefling, in theirrr mountain village. Our carrrgo is cuudrrruu leather, cuudrrruu jerrrk, and cuudrrruu marrrrow. Theirrr leaderrr may come, may inspect. If we speak trrruth, as we do, may we prrroceed dirrrectly?”
Phelaia puzzled a moment. A tiefling village? Maybe it was the one Mister Jhinn and Miss Ysra mentioned coming from…
“Well, I’m not from any Tiefling village. I’m Phelaia Hope, and I come from Thagretis. The Straline offer sounds fair to me, but what does Tokua say?” She turned back to the spokesbug, who was enduring a LOT of chittering from his people. It replied in a hasty, exasperated sorta huff.
The Sstraline cannot be trussted! All peopless in Malakath know thiss! How will we know they will not circle back to ssteal our queen’ss eggs? We have been forced here by the sswarm of green-backed Sshaxa! They sseek all territory! And we musst not losse sstrength if we are to ssurvive!
Phelaia considered it a moment. “What if I swore to you that me and Ketu will go with them and make sure they go straight to Tirnua? We are going to Tirnua anyway. And we flew all day long, so Ketu's wings could use a break. This way, they're gone, your eggs are safe, and nobody dies. Okay, Tokua?”
There was a new clamoring, quickly silenced by another loud clack.
You sshow wissdom, Tiefling, and we ssensse no Sstraline liess in your wordss. The Tokua agree. Open your wagonss, Sstraline, that we may ssee the whole truth of what you carry through our territory! And no Sstraline trickss!
The wagons were turned back toward the road, and the donkeys re-hitched as wagon doors were unlatched, crates uncovered, vats pried open. Wax was fetched for resealing the vats. The spokebug clacked, then flitted off the wagon. The scene was repeated at each of the four wagons, until three loud clacks were issued.
Thiss time iss not a lie. They have no eggss and none of our goodss. Sstraline: do not be sseen north of the road, until you passs the ssecond tower ahead on your path. Thiss iss your only warning! We will watch you to the edge of our territory, and ssee whether you keep your word, Tiefling Hope!
The Chi-Xilixis didn’t leave until after the Straline wagons had gotten underway. They were good as their word, too, scouts buzzed after them, just within sight. Phelaia and Ketu followed at the rear for a while, until they had gone a couple miles. Then she walked up to the tabby Straline.
They mrowled as she approached, then greeted her.
“Ourrr thanks, strrrangerrr. I fearrr things werrre not about to end well. You will enjoy a discount at marrrket! We have morrre than ourrr ship will rrrequirrre.”
“That’s great and all, but you need coin to use discounts, and I’m all outta coins. But do you know anything about the portal stone at Tirnua? Where it is, how to use it?”
The tabby’s golden eyes widened, and they considered a moment. “We Strrraline do not use the porrrtal stone, but it lies beneath the rrruined towerrr just seawarrrd of the city. Howeverrr! The Quill speak of the porrrtal when we trrrade, and of the lands farrr beyond. Allirrria! The porrrt-town between the seas! That is wherrre we sail, but the Quill say they can go therrre in a flash of magic! Do I believe them? I will not say. But if you would know morrre, in Tirrrnua the Quill trrrade.”
By nightfall, a haze of light could be seen on the western horizon. The wagons camped in a circle below the third tower they had passed on the road - they had made it out of the Tokua turf. The salt-smell of the sea wafted over them, though they weren't in sight of it just yet. Ketu smelled it, rumbled happily, and leapt into the sky. Twenty minutes later, he returned with a sailfish. The Straline swarmed out in amazement, though he snapped at them, zealously protecting his prize until Phelaia jogged up. He dropped it a few feet in front of her this time. She carved herself a chunk with a knife, then laid her hand on him.
“Can the Straline have a piece to share? There’ll still be a lot for you, it’s even bigger than the tuna! I think they’re gonna help us in town.”
KETU’S FISH?… KETU’S PHELAIA’S FISH?…
His big blue head sulked a moment, casting melon-sized side-eye toward the cowering Stralines he had just nipped at, before he finally huffed a searing hot huff.
STIRR-LEEN EAT SAIL.
Phelaia patted him lightly on the leg, then told the Straline, who eagerly came with knives and a saw. Apparently the sail meat was some kinda delicacy for them. The sailback removed, Ketu gorged himself happily on the rest of the carcass. Phelaia set about making camp, starting her own campfire while Ketu was busy eating. It was a lot easier with the ground not drenched with seawater, and she was already frying her piece of fish in a dab of cuudruu marrow a spotted Straline had shared with her when Ketu padded over. She enjoyed her dinner curled up against Ketu’s paw, under the gleam of twin full moons.
WHY KETU’S PHELAIA BURN FISH?
“I don’t got green fire inside my belly like you do! So, I have to cook meat before I eat it.”
The dragon rumbled and settled down. Phelaia tugged her bedroll gingerly over to him, and curled up to sleep. She still worried about a lot that could go wrong, but hey, one day, one problem solved, and no Thanasissers had come yet. She hoped they didn’t trade in Tirnua. Luckily, the soothing, warm, thrumming and the drain of the day’s events eventually overwhelmed her worrywarting, and she drifted off to sleep too. A lonely green face, with kind amber eyes. A city between two seas… and it had a name, Alliria. And it still felt really far away, but a little less really far away. And that was something.
Voe
“So, Ketu - if you’re still coming with me, I think we gotta go west, and go find that city between the oceans, in that green place. It’s gotta be all the way across the Asherah! To start, let’s try Tirnua. They got one of those portal stones there, and it’s all kinds of people trading from what Mister Balta used to say. I bet those traders know how to use the stone. And maybe a place with all kinds of people won’t mind the two of us that much. Maybe we can use that stone to cross the ocean.”
Ketu rose abruptly, his head rising straight up in excitement. Phelaia instinctively dug in, and was dragged straight up into the air with him. “Whoa!”
OCEAN! KETU FLY, KETU FISH!
The tiefling nimbly swung herself up onto his head, lying flat atop it as he confusedly turned left, then right, then started rumbling with laughter. She couldn’t help but giggle… wow, for the very first time since she was a very little kid in the slums… before…. But who wouldn’t? She bet it looked like something out of a puppet show, if there was actually anybody around to see it. The dragon lay back down, gently resettling its head on the ground.
“Yeah, I bet you could fly it, Ketu! But what if there’s no little island to land me on while you fish? I ain’t that good a swimmer, Ketu, I’d probably fall off an’ drown, and then no more ‘Ketu’s Phelaia.’”
The dragon fell silent, aside from his thrumming breath. He had no back talk for that one.
KETU FLY… TER-NOO-AH?
“Yeah, Tirnua. Now, some of the people I heard live there are kinda small, and I bet they might look like food to a big guy like you. The Straline, they’re little cat-people, I seen them sometimes in Thagretis. Traders. The Quill, they’re like, I dunno, little chicken-dragons I guess? Usually got their beaks in a book just as big as they are. Anyway, please don’t eat somebody by accident, okay Ketu?”
The dragon just rumbled. Phelaia clucked her tongue, hoping that meant ‘yes.’
She gingerly climbed down to the small of Ketu’s back, and the instant her finger-claws had locked into his scales, he stood, pranced, and lifted off. He circled wider and wider into the sky as they climbed, before relaxing into a southwesterly soar, riding the mighty mountain thermals to cross the Teeth once again.
Phelaia was captivated by the grandeur that spread out below them. The Teeth that towered ominously above the Malakath wasteland looked so different from above, streams and pools, falls, cuudruu herds crossing saddles, large nests of who-knew-what. After a few hours, olive-green dotted foothills came into view ahead as they passed by the last Tooth in the range. The red earth was brighter here, and the air felt moister. And the mountain wind was really getting cold - she was glad to be riding kind of a flying furnace.
Between a couple tree-dotted foothills sat the weirdest building Phelaia ever saw. It looked abandoned, probably forever. It was shaped like a bale, but way taller and broader, made of criss crossed metal hoops. Whatever used to be in the frame was crumbled at the bottom, leaving just that weird hoopy frame standing. What must have been a really fancy road once ran next to it, leading west. It was also crumbling. As she strained to look closer, Ketu started circling down to fly closer to it.
“Not too close, Ketu. I never been here before, I don’t know what to expect.”
As they flew lower over the ancient road, Phelaia made out wagon ruts in the spaces between the parts with the broken, crooked old flagstones. Well, somebody was still using the road…
“Hey, let’s go a little higher, Ketu, then follow that road west. Tirnua’s gotta be the most important thing nearby. This road might lead us there!”
Ketu rumbled, and climbed back up, before starting a lazy S-shaped soar, generally following the road. Every so often, they would pass another off ruined frame like before. Phelaia thought they must have been guard towers or something like that. After about an hour, they could see a caravan of small figures that Phelaia recognized as Straline, the wagons circled off to the side of the road, and the faint sounds of shouting. A dozen dark insectoid shapes circled back and forth around the wagons.. must be Chi-Xilixis! It had the look of a standoff, though actual fighting hadn’t started quite yet. Might not be long… but if they weren’t already fighting, maybe there was time to do something about it.
,
“Land there, Ketu, quick! But not too close to them. I wanna try to talk to them.”
The eager blue dragon dove immediately into a swoop, causing Phelaia to dig her toe-claws in just to avoid flying up off his back. “You did that on purpose!” The dragon rumbled, puffing a hot blast of air to blow over her. He pulled out of his swoop fairly gently, though, gliding in, pulling up, then turning into a smooth landing trot.
The Chi-Xilixis backed away chittering, spears all pointing toward the tiefling and the dragon. Phelaia stood and carefully walked down Ketu’s neck, empty hands held high, her voice strong and as confident as she could make it sound.
“Hey, hey! We’re all talking here, okay? What is going on?”
There was of course a clamor of voices and chittering - both sides were apparently very concerned about which side the big blue dragon was on. A mottled, black-carapaced Chi-Xilixi, wearing only a green-stone amulet and a belt with sacks and pouches tied to it, stepped forward, gesturing toward Phelaia and the Stralines in a sweeping motion as the stone started to glow. Inside Phelaia’s mind, she heard thin, clack-voiced words in the Malak trade-tongue in her mind, as this spokes-bug began gesturing and chittering away. Yesterday, this would have kinda freaked her out…
Thiss iss TOKUA territory! Thesse fleabitten vermin trespasss, to take from uss and ssell to otherss! They hunt food and gather fruit closse to our nest! Next will be our eggss, if we do not sstop them!
Phelaia nodded sternly, crossing her arms, trying to look like the bossy dragon priests who settled merchant rows in the slums.
“Okay, that’s your side of it. Who speaks for the Straline?”
The Chi-Xilixis all started chittering, and several advanced a step.
Phelaia gestured with her hands at them to back off. “Hey, hold it! Are you crazy or something? You don’t want Ketu to think you’re coming at me, trust me!” The blue dragon quickly stepped forward to loom over her, his hot breath washing over and past her to be felt by the closest of the Chi-Xilixis, his head directly above hers now, looking slowly from one side to the other. She patted his ankles backward a few times to get the point across that she was holding him back.
The Chi-Xilixis all stopped, and a couple stepped back. The spokesbug clacked a command, and in a somewhat reluctant fan of motion, all their spears were stood up at ease.
“That’s better! - let’s just talk this out.” She gestured again toward the wagons. “Straline! Send your spokesman out, and quick!”
A tabby-furred Straline with golden eyes leapt atop the frontmost wagon, then dropped down to the ground with feline grace, bowing first to the spokesbug, then to Phelaia, before beginning to speak in Malak in a purring, lisping androgynous voice. They first addressed the spokesbug.
“We see now why the Tokua are angerrred, and we did not know we had trrrespassed. The Old Rrroad has always been frrree to trrravel, if dangerrrous! We took no eggs, we hunted only birrrds, and picked only figs. We go to trrrade goods at Tirrnua-town, forrr sundrrry supplies to brrring to ourrr ship. We have come frrrom yourr people, Tiefling, in theirrr mountain village. Our carrrgo is cuudrrruu leather, cuudrrruu jerrrk, and cuudrrruu marrrrow. Theirrr leaderrr may come, may inspect. If we speak trrruth, as we do, may we prrroceed dirrrectly?”
Phelaia puzzled a moment. A tiefling village? Maybe it was the one Mister Jhinn and Miss Ysra mentioned coming from…
“Well, I’m not from any Tiefling village. I’m Phelaia Hope, and I come from Thagretis. The Straline offer sounds fair to me, but what does Tokua say?” She turned back to the spokesbug, who was enduring a LOT of chittering from his people. It replied in a hasty, exasperated sorta huff.
The Sstraline cannot be trussted! All peopless in Malakath know thiss! How will we know they will not circle back to ssteal our queen’ss eggs? We have been forced here by the sswarm of green-backed Sshaxa! They sseek all territory! And we musst not losse sstrength if we are to ssurvive!
Phelaia considered it a moment. “What if I swore to you that me and Ketu will go with them and make sure they go straight to Tirnua? We are going to Tirnua anyway. And we flew all day long, so Ketu's wings could use a break. This way, they're gone, your eggs are safe, and nobody dies. Okay, Tokua?”
There was a new clamoring, quickly silenced by another loud clack.
You sshow wissdom, Tiefling, and we ssensse no Sstraline liess in your wordss. The Tokua agree. Open your wagonss, Sstraline, that we may ssee the whole truth of what you carry through our territory! And no Sstraline trickss!
The wagons were turned back toward the road, and the donkeys re-hitched as wagon doors were unlatched, crates uncovered, vats pried open. Wax was fetched for resealing the vats. The spokebug clacked, then flitted off the wagon. The scene was repeated at each of the four wagons, until three loud clacks were issued.
Thiss time iss not a lie. They have no eggss and none of our goodss. Sstraline: do not be sseen north of the road, until you passs the ssecond tower ahead on your path. Thiss iss your only warning! We will watch you to the edge of our territory, and ssee whether you keep your word, Tiefling Hope!
The Chi-Xilixis didn’t leave until after the Straline wagons had gotten underway. They were good as their word, too, scouts buzzed after them, just within sight. Phelaia and Ketu followed at the rear for a while, until they had gone a couple miles. Then she walked up to the tabby Straline.
They mrowled as she approached, then greeted her.
“Ourrr thanks, strrrangerrr. I fearrr things werrre not about to end well. You will enjoy a discount at marrrket! We have morrre than ourrr ship will rrrequirrre.”
“That’s great and all, but you need coin to use discounts, and I’m all outta coins. But do you know anything about the portal stone at Tirnua? Where it is, how to use it?”
The tabby’s golden eyes widened, and they considered a moment. “We Strrraline do not use the porrrtal stone, but it lies beneath the rrruined towerrr just seawarrrd of the city. Howeverrr! The Quill speak of the porrrtal when we trrrade, and of the lands farrr beyond. Allirrria! The porrrt-town between the seas! That is wherrre we sail, but the Quill say they can go therrre in a flash of magic! Do I believe them? I will not say. But if you would know morrre, in Tirrrnua the Quill trrrade.”
By nightfall, a haze of light could be seen on the western horizon. The wagons camped in a circle below the third tower they had passed on the road - they had made it out of the Tokua turf. The salt-smell of the sea wafted over them, though they weren't in sight of it just yet. Ketu smelled it, rumbled happily, and leapt into the sky. Twenty minutes later, he returned with a sailfish. The Straline swarmed out in amazement, though he snapped at them, zealously protecting his prize until Phelaia jogged up. He dropped it a few feet in front of her this time. She carved herself a chunk with a knife, then laid her hand on him.
“Can the Straline have a piece to share? There’ll still be a lot for you, it’s even bigger than the tuna! I think they’re gonna help us in town.”
KETU’S FISH?… KETU’S PHELAIA’S FISH?…
His big blue head sulked a moment, casting melon-sized side-eye toward the cowering Stralines he had just nipped at, before he finally huffed a searing hot huff.
STIRR-LEEN EAT SAIL.
Phelaia patted him lightly on the leg, then told the Straline, who eagerly came with knives and a saw. Apparently the sail meat was some kinda delicacy for them. The sailback removed, Ketu gorged himself happily on the rest of the carcass. Phelaia set about making camp, starting her own campfire while Ketu was busy eating. It was a lot easier with the ground not drenched with seawater, and she was already frying her piece of fish in a dab of cuudruu marrow a spotted Straline had shared with her when Ketu padded over. She enjoyed her dinner curled up against Ketu’s paw, under the gleam of twin full moons.
WHY KETU’S PHELAIA BURN FISH?
“I don’t got green fire inside my belly like you do! So, I have to cook meat before I eat it.”
The dragon rumbled and settled down. Phelaia tugged her bedroll gingerly over to him, and curled up to sleep. She still worried about a lot that could go wrong, but hey, one day, one problem solved, and no Thanasissers had come yet. She hoped they didn’t trade in Tirnua. Luckily, the soothing, warm, thrumming and the drain of the day’s events eventually overwhelmed her worrywarting, and she drifted off to sleep too. A lonely green face, with kind amber eyes. A city between two seas… and it had a name, Alliria. And it still felt really far away, but a little less really far away. And that was something.
Voe
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