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 Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2018 3:07 am
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It was strange, being out of the desert again. Adanna was surprised to realize just how comfortable she had gotten there. It wasn't much like the mountain but it was somehow closer than the open plains had ever been. Perhaps there was something else to it. Finding free Hongshan and embracing Firekin culture had been great boons after what felt like a lifetime as a slave to the Nergui. The least pleasant part of life in the desert was being reunited with her mother, but that was truthfully mostly for show. She blamed her mother for an awful lot but if she stopped being hostile for the sake of it, she was rather glad.
And, of course, none of those thoughts really mattered in that moment between the Firekin and the Mwezi'Johari because damn.. things were weird as hell out here all of a sudden. It started small but Adanna was now positive she was seeing lights flickering here and there, and more than once she heard a voice she couldn't place. She wasn't the only one who noticed but rather than being distracted by all the other speculation, she had wandered away from the main group to investigate on her own. She didn't get very far, though.. in part because she was feeling uneasy about all of the weirdness, and in part because she didn't have to go far to see more lights.
Perhaps it was because it was nighttime, but it was just all around bizarre. |
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Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2018 7:07 pm
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Huolongmai was doing her best to not let the outside world unnerve her. She had heard many stories of her parents' old lives, before they had found one another and decided that the Motoujamii lands were the safest place to live. The dragon-marked lioness had been extremely cautious whenever they passed decent sized bodies of water, and even streams; the story about her mother's near drowning had absolutely terrified Huolongmai, though she would never admit it. There was more water out here than she thought possible, and it took everything within her to now show weakness. She was here on a mission, and she needed to make her parents proud, and prove to herself that she was more than just a soldier.
Her olive eyes caught sight of a lioness from their group wandering off a bit. It was a quiet, if unsettling evening. The unnerving lights were something that Huolongmai half-assumed was just...something that happened outside of her homeland. Even with some non-Firekin reacting oddly to it, assuming it was quasi-normal made it easier for the soldier to accept their reality and ignore them at the same time.
As she started to get closer to the lioness, she realized that this was....what was her name? All Huolongmai truly knew about her was that she was Hongshan, but as someone born long after that conflict, it was a thing that felt like a far-away history, and not something that the pretty lioness was still actively living through. And she was pretty....how was she supposed to start a conversation?
And then, through her carelessness...snapped a twig with her right foot. She winced...damn it.
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2018 1:38 am
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Adanna was distracted looking up at the dancing lights in the sky, thinking about what it could mean and where to look for answers.. but she wasn't completely oblivious to her surroundings. Even feeling safe so close to the group, the snapped twig was more than enough to bring her attention back to earth and she turned to see who was intruding upon her quiet contemplation. A younger lioness, one of the soldiers who came along.. from the family whose names all started with Huo, she remembered, but that was it. It made it so much harder to learn the names when they were all so similar.
"Hello," she said, "Did you need something?"
She was blunt but her tone was sincere. So far, Adanna hadn't really made many friends in the Firekin and her immediate assumption was that Huolongmai would be passing along a message or an order or something, not just seeking to chat.
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Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 12:05 pm
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She was pretty sure that the lioness had seen her wince, as Huo had kept it pinned on her face for far too long. Twigs of that size were rather rare in the desert, so she shouldn't be too hard on herself...but she clearly wasn't a skilled scout.
She sighed, just slightly, before bobbing her head. "Honestly, no." She regretted her words immediately after they left her mouth, but she couldn't take them back. Her olive eyes raised upwards to glance at the moving lights, hoping to find a little clarity in their unearthly glow. "Strange lands, strange lights, uneasy feelings...it seems risky to not at least pair up when investigating."
Huolongmai knew she was making broad assumptions, but...she couldn't help herself. Adanna was probably perfectly capable of taking care of herself, but it still didn't seem like the correct thing to do, to go off alone.
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Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2018 9:51 pm
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Though Adanna was usually good at keeping a straight face, it didn't take long for her curiosity to show. The pause before Huolongmai sighed was enough time, and .. the assertion that they should paid up when investigating caught her by surprise. She wasn't wrong. Adanna was too independent and more comfortable out here than most of the Firekin, at least those born and raised in the desert..
"You're right," she agreed, "I'm not used to being part of a group out here. It suddenly doesn't seem so long since I found the Firekin."
She and Adeyemi had made themselves more than comfortable in the desert, Adanna had thought she was starting to forget a time before that. It wasn't a surprise that she couldn't forget the Hongshan or her time in the Nergui, it was the time between when they were on their own that was a surprise.
"You were born in the desert, right?" she asked, looking at Huolongmai curiously, "I'm sorry, but I can't remember your name."
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Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2018 11:47 am
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"It is my first time away," Huolongmai replied quietly. "Although I know that isn't the same for everyone, it still seems like a risk." Assumptions and assumptions, but the lioness couldn't help herself. Perhaps she was only projecting her feelings against Adanna, about how new and vulnerable she felt. How exposed she was feeling.
Huolongmai had a lot of growing up to do.
"Ah," she started for a moment. "Yes, I was born there, though my parents were ex-rogues. They are...not in any important position, so I take no offense at not knowing my name." Her mother was a decently skilled soldier, but with the massive amount of soldiers there were, it didn't mean many knew much about her, or her family.
"My name is Huolongmai," she nodded. "I ah....do know you, though it is merely by hearsay," she flushed. Gossip was not becoming, but a common enough reason for the spread of information, if worthy enough.
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Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2018 12:03 pm
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Longmai. Right. That was.. one of the names, alright.
"I'm not surprised," she answered at the admission that she was known to the younger stranger before her, "I suppose Adeyemi and I made quite the entrance, and stand out more than we might realize. But let me formally introduce myself! My name is Adanna."
Adanna thought about being a late-arrival Hongshan in the Firekin, and how she in particular had been talking with the Regents so much.. and, of course, how her mother had shown up and confirmed what they had guessed about her.. and now she was one of only a few Hongshan on this particular trip..
"What do you think of the roguelands?" she asked, looking around them and then back up to the sky, "What do you make of the strange lights?"
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Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2018 12:08 pm
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She was loathe to admit that she participated in the gossip (even if it wasn't malicious), but felt pleased and flustered that Adanna seemed perfectly fine with that explanation. It helped the scaled-lioness relax a bit, at let her olive eyes wander around a bit more to look again at the lights that she mentioned.
"They are....strange. I admit, I find myself nervous when we come across bodies of water. The grass is so strange under my toes, and I feel myself missing the comforting warmth of the sand, always present under my paws. The trees are perhaps the most unsettling; I know what they are, but they stand so quietly, ever watching. I find all of these things a little harder to take in than the strange lights, to be honest. At least those remind me of the wide open sky full of stars back home."
Ah....she spoke so freely, she felt embarrassed. "It is...my first time away from home, it that wasn't obvious." And it should have been; Firekin did not just roam the wild rogue lands on their own, for any reason. She found Adanna's presence relaxing, unlike how she felt with some of the other soldiers.
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Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2018 12:21 pm
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"Interesting," Adanna said thoughtfully, looking back from the sky to Huolongmai. There was so much newness to being out here for the first time, and it was a big change from desert terrain.. it wasn't a surprise that the grass and trees were so much more distracting than the lights. It didn't help Adanna, either, that she had a greater understanding of the divine and supernatural than the typical Firekin (or Hongshan)..
Maybe the lights were nothing to worry about, but it still made her uneasy.
"I can tell," she said, smiling, "But that's a good thing. It's good to know more about the world. Are you hoping to become a sentinel?"
Though Adanna had other plans, she was entertaining the idea of that being her public job.. and she would have to make friends if she wanted a say in the groups she traveled with. Maybe this was an opportunity!
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Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2018 8:18 pm
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Adanna nodded as Huolongmai answered. If her parents didn't have especially distinguished careers, there was no set path for her to follow.. and there were only so many directions to go in the Firekin, and the best bet was to be a soldier. That wasn't of particular interest to Adanna herself, though Adeyemi seemed to be enjoying it..
"I'm thinking about what I want to do, too," she answered, smiling, "I like the desert but I wouldn't mind having the opportunity to leave every once in a while. The mountains were my home, and I've been to a few different places now.."
There were other factors, of course, but talking about gods and how they affected your life was not a safe topic for just anybody in the Firekin.
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Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2018 4:24 pm
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"You can," Adanna said, closing her eyes for a moment and thinking back to a time before the Nergui came to the mountain, when life was simpler for them all and before they lose everything. She was forgetting the mountain, she realized, but still looked back fondly.
"There are mountains where we're going," she said, opening her eyes and looking back at Huolongmai, "You'll have a chance to see them up close."
Climbing to the top was doubtful, but Adanna knew that the Nergui lived on the other side of the mountains. She remembered hearing that about this pride they were going to.. there was a good chance that some of the Firekin would be going into the mountains.
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