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 Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 10:11 am
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Tapana wore many masks and sometimes it was hard to tell which one you would get. Some days that mask might be formality, other times it was far more casual - like she was an apprentice again, joking with her peers. Other days she seemed a little withdrawn and thoughtful; her eyes hard to read and her reactions hard to judge. Today, perhaps, was one of those days. She had a temper, too, and though it rarely came into fruition it had flared enough times that it was known by many pride members.
Still, today was not a day for anger. Today was one for curiosity and suspicion.
Word had gotten around swiftly when the newest Hongshan had arrived on the scene; swept into their lands on a hot desert wind. It had been so long since any survivors had reached them that it had been considered safe to say that any left out there were either converted to the Nergui or dead. So, what did this sudden appearance mean? Were they blessed with more strong members to help them combat their foe? Or was something else going on here? Could they be spies sent on some important task? Assassins come to take vengeance on their fallen comrades out on the borders? Tapana was not about to rule anything out and that was why these newcomers had been sent for.
She shifted in the sand, feeling agitated, and eventually set herself to pacing - regretting arriving early. Hopefully Agni-pariksha would be along and then, after her, these Hongshan refugees. Then she could judge for herself what lay in their hearts.
This was their first test as leaders. Failure was not an option. |
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 11:55 pm
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Fate, it seemed, had deemed that Agni-pariksha wouldn't arrive first. It had been an expected thing to happen, being summoned by the pride's leadership. Alamea walked slightly ahead of her mother, head high and expression hard. She'd taken the Nergui-sired medic's advice and tried to relax, recover, but she wasn't so keen to stay still. Her paws spread slightly as she walked on the sand, intent to not sink.
Not that she'd probably sink at the moment, there wasn't a lot of flesh to be seen on her bones.
Like her daughter, Pele had been expecting to get summoned. Serkan and Suli had told her such a thing might happen, after so long since the last Hongshan had arrived. A couple generations of Firekin had had time to be born and grow up between the last group's arrival, and the arrival of the last four.
Very unlike her daughter, she was nervous. It had nothing to do with anything she hid, of course. It was a combination of her lack of local language skills and ingrained fear about what meeting pride leadership usually meant. If she'd been summoned to meet with Rapha Oma, that probably meant she was being killed. "They're not going to execute us, are they?" She glanced fearfully at Alamea, dreading the idea that she had just reunited with Serkan and would now have to bid him farewell.
"I doubt it, they'll probably just want to ask us questions about the Horde. She gave a little scoff, ears shifting back, before Tapana came into sight. Well... This wasn't what she expected of a leader. She looked no different from the average member of the pride, no decorative pelts or bones like Rapha Oma. "You're not what I expect a leader to be, where's the pelts to set you apart from everybody else?"
OOC: Anything in italic is them talking in the Hongshan language, for reference ~ |
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Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2016 2:57 am
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Agni-pariksha was looking forward to the interrogation of the newly arrived Hongshan, not because she believed them to be guilty but because she was curious about them, she was one of them. The problem was that anybody who 'escaped' so late was almost certainly now a spy. She would enjoy trying to find out one way or another. She'd already interrogated her father for as much information on their families as he could remember, but he didn't know enough.
She arrived just behind Pele and Alamea.
"We are distinguished by our actions, not our appearances" she said, catching up in time to hear the question and passing them to take a place beside the very formal, serious looking Tapana. Her Hongshan was somewhat awkward from lack of immersion and practice, but she could speak it.
"So, are we all early or am I actually late?" she asked, glancing to Tapana, "And where are the other two?"
Adanna had been uneasy since their arrival in the Firekin but didn't let it show. She knew how it looked, arriving so late and not hiding the fact that they only recently had escaped the Nergui. After so long, a change in tactic like this, sending spies of a familiar, trusted background, only made sense. Fortunately for the late arrivals, that was not the case. Unfortunately, they would still have to convince the others of that.
She didn't worry about Pele or Alamea. Pele couldn't possibly seem suspicious and she could vouch for her daughter.. no, she was more concerned about Adeyemi and herself. Adeyemi was smarter than she had thought but he was also still the rough, arrogant lion who could thoughtlessly incriminate them with ease.
It didn't help that they did have secrets. She wasted no time learning about the religious background of the Firekin, they probably didn't care to hear what they knew.
Adeyemi trudged along at his sister's side, his face looking mildly irritated but truthfully that was his best attempt at looking neutral. He wasn't put off by any interrogation, though he was annoyed that his sister thought he was dumb enough to get them into trouble. Last he recalled, he'd gotten them out of trouble.
Still, squabbling amongst themselves wouldn't help, so he did as she said and shut his trap so she could do the talking. He doubted they'd let him stay completely silent but he could manage 'mostly quiet'.
"Are we late?" he asked, noticing the crowd at the designated meeting spot.
"Someone has to arrive last," Adanna responded, picking up the pace. She recognized the forms of both Pele and Alamea and gave a mental sigh of relief. She had heard they were here but she had not seen them herself, she was glad they had escaped.
Adeyemi gave a shrug at her response. She wasn't wrong.
They arrived at the meeting and each offered a respectful nod to the Regents. Adanna glanced over to the other Hongshan with a small smile, but then looked straight ahead again.
((Let's say they're not quite as dressed-up as their images yet, feathers and Adanna's "wings" yes. Other bangles no, not yet :3
I followed the italics = Hongshan rule. I say if we break into any Nergui, we go with bold xDD Though I doubt Alamea and Adanna want to show off that particular skill.))
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Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 3:14 pm
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Alamea's hackles began to raise at the expression Tapana had. A retort to unspoken, and potentially imagined, words were on her tongue, when Agni-pariksha approached. She looked at the other lioness, a small relief coming over her at the sound of the Hongshan tongue, before she let out a huff. She opted for the common tongue as she spoke, "We've just been accustomed to the Nergui ways, where those of importance wear pelts and bones to set them apart from the rest." She mulled over the question, frowning. How did she answer it? She looked to her mother, Adanna, and Adeyemi, wondering if they could put it better into words than she could.
She could see the unease that use of their native tongue put in Tapana, making Pele nervous. But the arrivals of Angi-pariskha, speaking the Hongshan tongue, and Adanna and Adeyemi, put her at ease. She took a seat, hoping the action showed trust in the situation, before she tilted her head. Carefully, Pele put the words she wanted to say in order in her mind. "They hoped our strength would lead to us joining, properly. Aimed to break our spirits, accept their ways."
"We resisted so long, strong enough to do it, surely we'd make good Nergui? But they gave up on us when we still refused, and left us to die." That was the way of the horde - Those too weak to continue were simply left to their fate, to die in the horde's wake.
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Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 6:05 pm
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Agni-pariksha let Tapana start. She was pleased with her success speaking to unfamiliar Hongshan in their own language, it was one thing to use it around here with the other Firekin-Hongshan, it was another to deal with just regular Hongshan.
Well, hopefully regular Hongshan.
She looked the four of them up and down quietly while they answered Tapana's question. They were hardly in excellent condition but for those who had spent so long as slaves.. not bad. If the younger one thought they ought to be wearing pelts and trinkets to look important, then the two bright red ones must have thought themselves pretty important.
Adanna hesitated in answering the question, allowing Alamea and Pele to go first.. and she nodded along to their answer. There was a lot of truth in that, they had lasted a long time as slaves and that increased their potential value.. but only to a point.
"If I may," she said, though hardly interrupting Alamea, "We certainly proved our strength and endurance, carrying on as slaves as long as we did.. but there are other traits they value that we possess."
Brother and sister exchanged a look and though Adanna was hesitant, Adeyemi was indifferent. He hadn't done so much investigating into the religious beliefs of the Firekin yet but he guessed they didn't want to hear that they had a few demi-gods moving in. That wasn't even the important thing.
"Adanna and I are seers," he said, returning a glare his sister gave him for jumping in, "For example."
Yes, well.. that was almost certainly what made her and her brother valuable to them. So Adanna didn't argue.
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 7:09 pm
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At this, Alamea could only shrug. "I'm not sure, myself. Something to do with their god?" She'd never particularly paid attention to what the rest of the pride was up to. Most of her focus had been with the inane tasks meant to break her spirit. She glanced at Adeyemi and Adanna, wondering if, maybe, they knew more. After all, they were the ones who were seers, not Alamea.
Pele, to the contrary, actually let out a laugh. "They think seers are lions, stole magic or something from what they call false gods." The fact she still believed, even a bit, in gods might have been seen as a miracle. After all, it had seemed like the gods had abandoned them to the Nergui. She had no answer, though, nor did she care to try and find one. At the end of the day, they were back with what remained of their pride where they belonged, and their pride had grown exponentially by becoming one with the Firekin.
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Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2016 12:47 am
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Pele's laugh caught Agni-pariksha's attention while she remained very quiet and thoughtful on the information being revealed, allowing her partner to ask the ever important and obvious question. At Pele's revelation, she chuckled right along with the other lioness, unable to maintain the same stoic sincerity of Tapana.
"So they have the right god and seers have stolen the magic of the wrong gods?" she asked with a chuckle, "Well s**t, it's hard to beat religious motivation."
Never mind that every other pride likely had their own god and their own opinions of the other gods.. she knew the Motoujamii had Finar-si once but had turned away from their religion. Almost immediately, she wondered if the conviction that came with such devout, intense belief in a greater, guiding force was what made them so vulnerable to the Nergui in the first place.
Adeyemi glanced at Pele when she explained why seers were so valuable, having missed out on this particular tidbit when discussing the situation with Adanna. A look at his sister said she already knew what Pele said and he frown.
"Not entirely wrong, then, are they?" he muttered grumpily, looking at Adanna.
Adanna was distracted by Agni-pariksha's chuckle and observation about fighting something working for a 'greater power' .. but her attention turned right back to Adeyemi when he stupidly gave an obvious hint to their source of their abilities. She expected to discuss the lesser known factors in the fall of the Hongshan with the Regents (and Nawvlee) but she wasn't so sure about Pele and Alamea. On one paw, they were Ayira's children and could hardly be blamed for her presence in the Hongshan. On the other, they were still Ayira's children and whether or not she was the only reason the Nergui showed up, blame could easily transfer to them.
With a short, annoyed sigh and refusing to look at her brother again, she focused on the Regents when she spoke again.
"The false gods are the ones with a physical form. Those you might meet wandering the savanna, living in a mountain or .. founding prides in the desert," she said carefully, "Their god seemed more abstract, but so did their leadership structure.."
It was not something she ever got a good grasp on through all the meaningless busy work meant to break them. They had leaders, it was hard to place who was at the top.. she hadn't seen anybody who was, she wasn't sure anybody did.
"They were hunting one of these so-called false gods when we escaped," Adanna added, "It's a big to-do when they get on the trail of one."
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Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 10:31 am
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Tapana wanted to laugh, too, but somehow the sound stuck in her throat and left her feeling short of breath and anxious. Talk of seers and gods brought a mix of emotions surging in her chest. The time of Finar-Si had always been of great interest to her and this seer power even more so. Her eyes darted between the four Hongshan faces before her, tracking their words, trying to dissect meanings or create theories of her own.
"Is that why the Firekin were targeted, then? Were they seeking our long abandoned goddess, Finar-Si? Did they ever give motive for their attacks?"
With a low growl, she tapped the claws of a forepaw against a stone she had found in the sand and ground her teeth together in thought. Would they truly start a war with a force like theirs just to get at a goddess? And if that was the case, how would they even have heard of her name? Most new members had no clue, let alone strangers speaking their foreign tongue. She shook her head, casting off the idea as quickly as it had come.
"If we were to ask, would you be able to tell us where the Nergui have settled?"
They were overdue a visit...
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Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 11:23 am
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She gave an impassive shrug. "They consume any pride in their path, I don't know why they attacked. They weren't chasing what they'd call a false god, as far as I can tell. Most of the pride here doesn't believe in any gods anymore, from what I've learned, and any who do mostly brought it from outside and hold on only on a personal level." She'd run into one lion with wings on his back and stripes on his legs, talking of a goddess of the swamps. Why anybody would want to live in a swamp, though, was the FIRST question she'd had. He'd kindly pointed out that chasing the ghosts of adopted family wasn't the ONLY reason he'd moved to the desert.
Pele also shrugged, unsure herself. "The Firekin do not worship a god, maybe that is why the Nergui were interested?" She shook her head, frowning. "I am only guessing, though." Whatever the Nergui's reasons were, THAT much she'd never learned. Guards had loose tongues about some things, but not about ALL things. She looked over to the siblings, wondering if, maybe, they knew more.
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Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 4:13 pm
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"We may be able to figure out where they went," Adanna said thoughtfully, glancing to the mother and daughter, "Given what the four of us know of the Nergui from our long stay, and our abilities.. it should be possible."
Though she'd never had much chance to exercise her strange abilities to peer into the past, present and future, she was learning quickly and was confident she had enough focus and determination to push them in the direction they needed.
Pele's words stuck with Agni-pariksha. The Firekin had no gods, because they said they didn't need any gods.. and now, thinking about the potential consequences of that was hurting her head. She was only happily distracted from the thoughts when Tapana asked if they might be able to locate the Nergui.. and a small grin appeared on her face.
"They've gone quiet, it'd be nice to take advantage of this," she commented, looking to Adanna when she suggested they could do it.
Adeyemi was silent now as the conversation steered away from motivation to what to do next. He knew Adanna didn't want to talk about their mother, and he didn't necessarily want to either but he didn't like not talking about it any more than that. It seemed it would wait for when they could talk to Nawvlee as well.
"I'll be no use in hunting them down until we know where we're going," he said gruffly, knowing he gained little knowledge of his captors and having no interest in pushing his abilities, "But I'll gladly help take the bastards down if that's where this plan is headed."
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Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 10:44 am
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The Nergui, it seemed, were a mystery even to those who had spent some time with them...unless, of course, this was all some elaborate trick on their part. Tapana still wasn't convinced that the four of them were not spies, though this conversation had settled her a little.
Maybe if they could aid them in locating the horde that would put her mind at ease...
"If you all assisted us in this, it would go a long way in earning our trust," Tapana admitted after a moment. "We have trackers and sentinels of our own. With their skills and your knowledge and...abilities, I think the possibility of finding them would be high indeed."
Then to Adeyemi she gave a stern nod, "we have a number of Firekin eager for their chance at vengeance and who am I to deny them?"
With a short huff, she glanced at them all before continuing, "if you truly are who you say you are, we should have no further problems. Some words of advice, however. I'm not the only one who might be suspicious of you. There will be others. Those of you with 'gifts' would be wise to keep them under wraps for the time being." She looked to Agni-Parkisha to see if she had anything else she would like to say before they brought this meeting to a close. No doubt it would be the first gathering of many if they truly were going to set out after their enemy.
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Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2016 12:31 pm
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Pele let out a quiet hum, ears folding for a moment. "Serkan did warn of that, yes." They had, after all, been gone a VERY long time. It was easy to understand why lions would be suspect of the four Hongshan who were the last to escape the Nergui, so long after everybody else that some members had cubs and others potentially grandcubs. She looked to her daughter, to the siblings, head tilting. "Do you think the last camp would be good place to start?"
"Yeah, it might..." Looking back to Tapana and Agni, Alamea said, "We don't know for sure where they've gone TO, but we can point and maybe lead you to where they WERE. It's not much, but it's at least a start, right?" With a group that big, they had surely left evidence of what direction they'd gone in, as well as other markers of their presence. She was willing, though, to do anything to garner their trust. They only had their entire pride to lose if they failed, but everything to gain with the trust won.
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Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2016 2:08 am
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Tapana's reminder to the group that the four late Hongshan would remain under suspicion for some time yet made Agni-pariksha straightened herself up and put on a more serious expression. The four seemed to accept it, and as reluctant as Agni-pariksha was, she had to accept it as well. She couldn't be blinded by the fact they were known Hongshan, that could have changed.. without the shaky excuses provided, she was sure it was almost certain to the more wary of the Firekin.
"If you can point us to where the Nergui last were, I'm sure our sentinels and trackers could make use of that information," she said to Alamea, then looked to the brother and sister, "And if you learn anything useful, come to us."
She paused and looked over the four of them again.
"Nawvlee is hoping to talk to all of you, as well," she said, "He'll want to judge for himself if you can be trusted."
Agni-pariksha was looking forward to hearing what Nawvlee made of all of this. His desire to believe them to be true would be stronger, but his suspicion would be as well. But he would know them- or was far more likely to know them.
Adanna was getting ready to ask about Nawvlee and his absence at this particular interrogation when Agni-pariksha mentioned him and his desire to speak to them separately-- or so she implied. She was relieved to hear they still had hopes of talking to him directly before letting the truth about their mother out. On a grand scale, she suspected the Firekin simply wouldn't care and ultimately the information she had would be inconsequential.. but it would have consequences for her and Adeyemi if it became known.
"We'll do all that we can," she said.
Adeyemi's gaze shifted with each new speaker but he ultimately didn't say anything else. He gave a grunt to show his agreement and that was it. He'd be more interested in talking to Nawvlee and the other Hongshan.. but then again, he hadn't done much to look into that before this visit with the regents. The soldiers were probably the most interesting, maybe he'd actually start there.
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