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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jul 23, 2016 5:13:25 GMT -6
Khan Yunis. The fabled Jewel of the West - or Jewel of Nabata, or Jewel of the Desert, she'd heard all three titles and wasn't sure which was the official one. Truth be told, Nayru didn't really care. Her dislike of meaningless titles was long standing and bordered on a bit of a pet peeve; it seemed so... crass to assign yourself a title, and most of them just SOUNDED dumb. In her opinion, anyways. Maybe it was just sour grapes that she'd never had a title, maybe it was legitimate criticism, maybe she was just a curmudgeonly boring horrible person; Nayru didn't really care to think too deeply on that question. Maybe there was a bit of truth in all of them. The dragon knew she wasn't exactly in the best place to judge other people, much less on something so meaningless as a title. But she and hypocrisy were old friends, never to be parted, it seemed.
Regardless, it was all a bit of a moot point, because she DIDN'T feel like a boring angry old person. She hadn't been to Khan Yunis in... goodness, it must have been nearly twenty-two decades now? She was excited if anything, albeit muted excitement admittedly given that she was a bit worn out from the whole Vinland adventure. Between the fighting on the beach with that one dragon against the oversized puppies, her forest adventures with Remus, the strange discoveries they had made during their exploration, the discovery of Taguel (by other people, which slightly rankled on her explorer spirit), and their... exceptionally strange discovery in the underground temple, it had been a bit intellectually much for even her. And she liked to think of herself as pretty open-minded! Nayru had her reservations about how Elibe as a whole would react to the discovery of another race, in some ways eerily akin to dragons, but she hoped that humanity had learned its lesson from the Scouring. Genocide was a zero-sum proposition - no one won at that game.
...In someways, Khan Yunis reminded her of the Arcadia of legends. Not the real Arcadia, though it was pretty cool, but the glorious golden city that had supposedly once ruled the world, or at least stood atop it. The walls here weren't made out of gold, but the mottled yellowish color brought it to mind, and being the main feature of most trade routes sort of brought to mind the legend of 'all roads lead to Arcadia.' Unlike the fictional ancient Arcadia, though, Khan Yunis was quite real, and uncomfortably realistic. The docks smelled of sweat and fish and brine and feces, a combination she didn't care to ponder too deeply, and people crowded and jostled in every direction, disembarking from ships or heading towards their ride if they were leaving the city. She wasn't BAD with crowds or anything, but Nayru was a bit frazzled already and it was difficult to keep perfect spatial awareness anyways with that much going on, much less the endless din of speech and action.
Normally this would've been where an intelligent, experienced traveler would start looking into lodgings for the day. Nayru, unfortunately, had been blessed(?) with unique durability and questionable decision-making abilities, which meant that her idea of 'lodgings' tended to be 'on someone's roof' and her general propensity to travel light meant she didn't really have much to safeguard, so instead she defaulted to her usual: wander around the city and sightsee! Or at least catch up with the last 217 years of local history. It didn't take long to disengage herself from the crowd and start wandering the city blindly, gradually moving somewhat away from the depths of civilization with her eyes everywhere but directly in front of her.
Honestly, it was a miracle she hadn't crashed into someone long before then, her brain helpfully supplied as she got a face full of... some sort of fabric-ey cloth-ey stuff and went sprawling. Turned out that dragons weren't immune to falling over if they lost their balance either. Whoda thunk?
Without any real harm done Nayru recovered pretty quickly though, righting herself in short order and dusting her ass off to keep the worst of the sand from getting everywhere. That had been her fault, though, so... "Sorry!" Her voice didn't sound particularly perturbed, rather easygoing and outgoing in equal parts, tinged with just the right amount of apologetic flavor to keep her from sounding too flippant... probably. Regardless, she might as well at least try to help her victim up. "Haven't been here in a while, was paying more attention to my surroundings than where I was going. Y'alright?"
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Aeos
Dragon
A Nabatan Dragon in human guise, with a love of food and traveling.
Posts: 441
Profession: Wandering Dragon
Affinity: Light
Dragon Element: Air
Profile: Aeos Profile
OoC Alias: Twilightfairy
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Post by Aeos on Jul 24, 2016 6:56:32 GMT -6
Nabata, Khan Yunis
The day was like any other. The sun was up, the country was hot, and the city was bustling with people. Khan Yunis was one of the few places on Nabata where the people could live here permanently. Unlike, the rest of Nabata there was water here in the port city. Water was either imported from other lands or draw out from the land via the well. The sea had water, while it was not drinkable, it provided a valuable food source for those who lived here. A whole manner of fish, snakes, and sea plants were harvested from the water for the consumption of the people. Aeos was no stranger to this coastal paradise. He had lived his life crossing Nabata on foot, following the sea shore for centuries. He and his parents often stopped in Khan Yunis as part of their migration. Like many in this city Aeos wanted to improve himself. He did this through travel. But, traveling in this age required gold. And so he set out to find a job and earn some coin.
Aeos was familiar with the in’s and outs of the ports. Merchants and sailors always had a demand for labor. People who could fix things, haul things, transport things, these were all things the young dragon knew how to do. He found himself a job moving cargo from one ship to the storage of a tavern owner. He knew the tavern man as he had worked with him before. The owner provided the dragon with food and lodging for his labor rather than gold. Aeos was fine with this. Khan Yunis was like every other port town. Full of its good and bad people. It was also full of tales of people whom were robbed or kidnapped at night. So, a safe place to sleep at night was sometimes more valuable than gold.
The dragon had two large sacks of something on his person. He was carrying these sacks from the cargo ship to the tavern's cellar. The black haired man had spent the better part of ten minutes playing a mental guessing game with himself in order to determine the contents. He and the spirit of his dragon stone took turns asking each other questions about the bag. The latter of which comprised its questions based on what the body could feel of it. Is it heavy? A little bit. His body kept moving. Is it lumpy? No it's smooth like a sand bag. He kept walking. Does it smell? Actually it.. Oof. He had hit something or rather someone had hit him. Aeos fell down right onto his butt. He kept his arms elevated and managed to save the mystery bags from hitting the floor. Take that floor! The voice in his stone spoke. Aeos sat there for a few seconds. The guessing game and consistent walking divided his attention for so long that it took him a bit to realize he was on the ground. He shook his head slightly and peered over the bags of stuff to the person who collided with him. The woman seemed apologetic enough and even helped him stand up. The dragon appreciated the help. Most folks here would have just kept walking.
"Haven't been here in a while, was paying more attention to my surroundings than where I was going. Y'alright?" The woman asked. He looked at her blankly for a bit. Wasn't I on the floor a second.. Make with moving the mouthparts! He turned his gaze away from the woman. Closed his eyes briefly and opened them. His brain had caught up with him.
“Sorry I blanked out for a moment. But, I am alright thank you.” He gave the lady a soft smile and nod. This person is new here.. what do the humans do in this situation again.. Tell her to watch where she is going!
“There be many sights in Khan Yunis. But, do take care as to where you be going. Not everyone here takes kindly to being hit by anyone. Even if accidental.” He was polite with his words and speech. Much to the dismay of his stone. The spiritual voice of his stone wanted his other half to talk in a more fearsome manner.
“If you be new in town perhaps I can interest you in staying at one of the local taverns. The one I am currently working for has rooms available.”
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jul 24, 2016 16:18:09 GMT -6
Well, he seemed alright, in more ways than one. The other guy, despite his long hair, was definitely male - and surprisingly reasonably handsome at that. A slightly more genre savvy Nayru might have made a joke about him probably being a PC, but as-was the warm rush of knowing she HADN'T accidentally killed a puppy (or person) was a lot more pressing. What was really surprising was that tall dark and handsome over here hadn't dropped his load of... uh, nondescript sacks of... something. They looked pretty heavy, which made it all the more impressive.
"Well, that's good to hear!" Nayru spoke brightly, her relief at his well-being evident in her tone with all the simplicity, for good and ill, that tended to tinge her interactions when she wasn't actively trying to be mysterious and wise. "Just got off the boat, I think I was enjoying finally having solid ground under my feet again a bit too much." It wasn't really a good excuse per se, but it was the truth, more or less. She didn't hate the ocean, and she could swim, but there was something about being in a floating wooden tub in the middle of the ass crack of nowhere that was a little disconcerting nonetheless. She usually just stayed inside and read unless there was something pressing outside.
For now though, even if the guy seemed alright, he also seemed a little... out there? Not crazy or retarded or anything BAD per se, but distracted or confused or something. Nayru couldn't tell, but she was a bit worried that she had bumped into him harder than either of them had realized and he was a bit concussed or something. Or maybe he was always like that and she was doing him a great disservice in her mind. Nonetheless, it wouldn't hurt to try to make it up to him a bit. "Hey, why don't you let me make it up to you by helping carry those bags? They look pretty heavy, and you know what they say, two heads are better than one! I mean... it's more of an arm thing than a head thing, but..."
Waving vaguely at nothingness as if the gesture would somehow negate that train wreck of a line of thought, Nayru grinned at her newfound bosom buddy, or at least short-term companion until he told her to go pound sand - figuratively or literally. She puffed up, definitely figuratively this time, and jabbed her thumb into her chest. Again, mostly figuratively, she wasn't trying to impale herself. Not yet anyways. "Name's Nayru. Lifting heavy stuff's my favorite thing, second only to reading and punching people." Hm. Was that a bad introduction? The problem with having a mouth that worked faster than your brain was that sometimes her sense of humor forgot about silly little things like common sense and good taste and sanity.
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Aeos
Dragon
A Nabatan Dragon in human guise, with a love of food and traveling.
Posts: 441
Profession: Wandering Dragon
Affinity: Light
Dragon Element: Air
Profile: Aeos Profile
OoC Alias: Twilightfairy
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Post by Aeos on Jul 24, 2016 18:37:21 GMT -6
Aeos was a little confused at the woman’s offer to take the bags. Again very few people in the world would willingly help a random stranger off the street. Let alone help said stranger with lifting heavy bags of stuff. He could feel something coming off this woman but couldn’t quite place what it was. He compared the strange sensation to trying to figure out a nostalgic scent. Something that he knew and recognized from his past but could not remember what in the world it was called. The voice of his stone made a comment that this woman could be dangerous. It suggested that this woman was probably a thief or a con artist of some sort and that he should exercise caution. This upset him. Sometimes he disliked how his stone always seemed to perceive things almost always with negativity. There was a word for this. Pestilence? No. That’s the thing with the bugs.. Pessimism? That one. How many thieves run up to introduce themselves to their target.. With a tagline about how they like to punch people? That sounds very not thief like. Fine maybe it’s kidnapper like. Whatever.. Don’t trust her tell her to go! But, there was something about her that he felt as if he could trust. It was weird. Her speech was also a bit odd but it was refreshing. It was certainly a lot better then the speech uttered by some of the sailors and tavern wenches. The woman had introduced herself so Aeos felt as if he should do the same.
“My name is Aeos. Pleasure to meet ye Nayru.” He was still a bit hesitant to let her have one of the bags. Not that he doubted her ability to carry the sack of mystery powder. But, he was concerned that if she was a thief, he might not be able to catch up to her. Even with the power of his stone helping him in that situation, the city provided its own share of obstacles that he might not be able to overcome. Crowds and alley ways which would hamper his ability to run after this woman should she actually be a thief. Then he’d have to go back to his boss and explain how he had lost the sacks of stuff. That was not a conversation he wanted to have. Ah.. whatever it's just one bag.
“I.. well if you insist on helping. Here. Take one bag.”
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jul 24, 2016 19:20:43 GMT -6
"Ah, heavy loads. My other favorite thing!" Nayru chuckled with a little "hee," vaguely amused at how many favorite things she seemed to have. It was true that she did have a fair number though, if only because she didn't like to pick a single favorite. Maybe it was weird but she'd always been like that, with friends (back when she had those, anyways) and hobbies alike. Picking a single favorite felt like it demeaned the others. As she thought, the dragon wrapped her arms around the coarse fabric of the sack experimentally just in case it was full of nails, or swords, or spikes, or spiders. Spiky spiders. ...Spikers.
Fortunately(?) there were no dastardly spikers to be found - the bags were full of some sort of particulate material, or something like that. Maybe grain? Salt? For all she knew they were full of friggin' sand. Nayru hefted it easily nonetheless, resisting the urge to show off or do anything too fancy with it, but while the bag was a good weight by human standards, it was hardly notable to her. She didn't want to imagine carrying multiple of them at once though, which did raise her estimation of Aeos up a bit - not necessarily for the weight, but the balance and vision issues. Carrying several would easily be enough to keep her from reacting for crap to situations, but Aeos had apparently been managing fine for some time.
"Jeeze, what's in these things, sand?" Haha, that would be crazy. "I can see the headlines now: 'Nabata running out of sand - shipping in fresh stock from across Elibe.'" It had been a good sixty... two or three ish years now since she had really done much with bags like this though, she thought, unbidden memories of that farm near the Sacaen-Ilian border she had stayed at before things - well. No point in thinking about that too much now. Nayru pushed herself to move onward from that line of thought, taking refuge in human companionship for the time being if only as a stopgap. The irony of the wording wasn't lost on her. "Aeos, huh? That's a cool name. Makes me think of 'Aeons.' Always thought that was a cool word. Ages, eons, aeons, concept of eternity, all that good stuff."
Aeos... how odd. She had already made the aeons connection, but for some reason, there was something else about the name that rankled at the back of her mind. She couldn't think of it off the top of her head though, which wasn't surprising - it wasn't a common name. But that meant there WAS something somewhere in her memory banks, if she actually cared to search for it... which might take some time if it was too far back or had been merely a passing reference. Erim had been able to access all the information she knew almost instantly, but for Nayru it had always been a bit of a struggle, even before she, well, that whole business with leaving Arcadia and going crazy. She still had an inhuman memory sure, but going any deeper than a surface level took time and effort.
Not like she needed to remember right now though. It'd come up in time, and they were just walking these sacks back to... wherever they were going. Uh. It might not hurt to find out. "We taking these to that tavern you mentioned or what?" It was a safe guess considering he'd mentioned he was working there, but for all she knew he just had a fetish for carrying bags of sand around and she was getting in the way of his happy hour. ANYWAYS. "So hey, Aeos, what's your story?" She didn't really try to hide the fact she was eyeing him up and down, Nayru had never been very good at subtlety and lying in the first place unless she really worked at it. "You look more like an adventurer than a worker to me, though I'm no expert."
Ok, THAT one was a lie. Three and a half centuries of wandering Elibe - she'd gotten to be pretty good at picking out people who didn't belong. This Aeos guy definitely didn't fit the bill of a normal worker. There was something else in his eyes, his movements, his wording that put that notion to the sword. He didn't really look like a warrior either, though, which kinda killed the idea of him being something like a wandering swordsman temporarily down on his luck. It was sort of a mysterious air - not like 'I'm secretly the emperor of Elibe' mysterious, he didn't feel like he was TRYING to act mysterious, just a sort of innate clash that she had cued in on... sort of. Admittedly, she had been wrong before. Maybe he just liked reading books during his time off and she was looking too far into this, but it wasn't uncommon for adventurers to take temporary jobs either.
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Aeos
Dragon
A Nabatan Dragon in human guise, with a love of food and traveling.
Posts: 441
Profession: Wandering Dragon
Affinity: Light
Dragon Element: Air
Profile: Aeos Profile
OoC Alias: Twilightfairy
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Post by Aeos on Jul 24, 2016 21:23:08 GMT -6
“The bags are not that heavy. Just bulky.” He chimed in as Nayru went ahead and helped herself to one bag. These bags were not heavy to him. He had cheated a bit with his work and drew some trace amounts of power of his stone to help with the lifting. Aeos shoulders and arms were relieved to have the extra weight pulled off. He waved for her to follow him as they made their way towards the tavern. Nayru made a comment about the contents of the sack.
“Oh they could be sandbags. The tide can be fickle sometimes in certain areas around the city. In order to prevent flooding into homes that linger in those areas sandbags are used to make a wall.” He paused for a moment. Nayru made a comment about Nabata importing sand from another place in Elibe. And that got him thinking as to what other place on this continent had sand like this? He had been on several other shorelines around the world and none of them matched the composition of Nabatan sand. Some sands were too rocky, others had a different color, and some shorelines had no sand at all.
“That.. would make for an amusing news piece. But, I think these sacks be full of flour rather than sand.” He continued on his way occasionally glancing back to make sure Nayru was there. The woman had made a comment about his name. She compared it to other similar sounding words. Words he had read in books.
“Few people openly comment about the nature of time and concepts of eternity. You sound a lot like the philosophers or scholars whom dwell in the archives.” Ah. Yes. The scholars. He had forgotten about them. They were humans who focused their lives reading and studying things. He and his family would occasionally see scouting parties of them at ancient ruins. He admired their curiosity and dedication to learning about the past. He felt a similar connection to then in their pursuits of the ancient unknowns.
“Are you a scholar like them? Traveling seekers of knowledge are not uncommon here. Not to mention you seem to have an eye for details. You be right I am an adventurer.. sort of.” Sort of? Why sort of? He thought about it for a bit. His mind raced with all of his battles and encounters up to this point. He thought of his time in Bern, Lycia, Ilia, Vinland, and Nabata. He remembered Euphemious pie challenge, he remembered Locke, he remembered bandits, undead, that wyvern in the mountains. We've done a surprising amount of fighting and exploration. The other half of him mused, and he agreed. There was no way for Nayru to have known this. Nayru had asked him what was his story. His story wasn't much. He was a nomad of Nabata who eventually converted to nomad of the world. Khan Yunis was just a pit stop to him.
“My story is pretty plain. I was born and raised here in Nabata. One day I was on a spiritual journey in the mountains and realized I needed to see more of this world. I have been traveling ever since. In order to travel one needs gold. Gold is earned through work and well.. here I am.” He made a shrugging motion with his shoulders and held up his bag.
“You? What be your story? I knew few educated women who could lift flour bags like that. Most lift books.. but that does not seem to have the same effect on strength like stock bags.”
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jul 24, 2016 22:10:24 GMT -6
"I dunno, these sacks are a bit heavy to be full of flowers," Nayru said with a completely straight face, or at least it would have been completely straight if there wasn't a crap-eating grin slowly growing on the corners of her lips. It didn't get much further than that, but it did ruin the 'totally straight faced' thing. She was pretty proud of that joke after all, it was only reasonable considering that it had been pretty witty if she did say so herself.
As Aeos gave his little speech about sand and then segued into answering her question, Nayru initially lagged behind a little before realizing she wasn't going to be able to keep up worth a god damn unless she focused on the task at hand rather than gawking, so she resigned herself to more or less ignoring their surroundings and moving up to keep pace with Aeos. It'd work better for conversation anyways, and besides, lagging behind would totally make her look like a wuss who couldn't keep up with mr. hardass over there, and that just wouldn't do. Girl had to have SOME level of pride after all.
Scholars... yes, she supposed it wasn't an inaccurate assessment. Nayru didn't exactly think of herself as a scholar, but it was true that she studied the past and much of her previous adventuring had been directly in that vein, exploring dusty ruins and the like. If you stretched the definition a bit, you could even say that her delving into her own past was in some ways along those lines, given the necessity to dig hundreds of years into the past - the chimera and subsequent site in Bern, her hunt for Erim, and the like. Nor was she any less into the 'normal' scholarly things these days, given that her adventures in Vinland had been to explore, you guessed it, dusty old temples.
Granted, she and Remus had found a LOT more there than they had expected, and more than just knowledge at that - but that was a story for another day.
"I - guess you could call me a bit of a scholar, yeah." There was just enough hesitation in her words to hint that it wasn't the full story, but Nayru was still looking for the right words. "Among other things. I've been traveling for a while," which was a minor understatement given it was 350 years but really who cared about the details, "people watching, checking out fabrics," she vaguely gestured at her sash with her free arm, "sampling local delicacies, mostly pastries admittedly, all that Epicurean crap." The dragon chuckled. She wasn't big on philosophy and certainty hadn't planned her life around it, but things had turned out that way a bit. "I also got dragged kicking and screaming into monster hunting recently... I'm still a bit of a newbie at it but hey, nothing like learning on the job, right? Got a good partner... well, two now, I guess, which makes it a lot easier than going solo."
...It was ironic, really. She'd lived ten human lifetimes and only recently actually learned how to fight. Oh, she'd had to defend herself before obviously, but that was just using her natural gifts like a sledgehammer to solve problems - not learning what it was to be a warrior. Somewhere along the way she'd gotten into it, learned to deal with ther pain and exhaustion, even started enjoying it.
Nayru still wasn't sure how she felt about that.
"But hey, it's cool you were born in Nabata. Born and raised here myself as well. Well... not HERE. It was further east. I didn't even know Khan Yunis existed for a long time." Which was quite true, as it happened! Nayru had not been an... ideal... geography student, and Arcadian knowledge of modern politics was by necessity vastly behind what was actually happening - she doubted many people there aside from Athos and possibly a few others even knew that Elibe had recently been wracked by war. An interesting clash - perhaps the greatest repository of knowledge and sheer brilliance Elibe had ever seen - and yet the most clueless of modern events. Perhaps it was natural for scientists and sages to care little for politics, or perhaps Arcadia was just special in its own way.
"I guess you could say I've seen and done a bit of everything. Settling down just never worked out for me so I gave up on it a while ago." Somewhere around the time she went berserk and killed the family that had saved her life and protected her and given her a home she might well have stayed in for decades, good times. "The more I learn, though, the more I realize how much I don't know. History is weird and it can be very difficult to tell if retellings of it were accurate unless you were there yourself. There are so many stories that were never told - ancient ruins with no modern records, tongues so old that I'm pretty sure they predate any language I've ever heard of... and who knows what else was lost? There might be entire cities waiting to be discovered under the shifting sands, lost in the Scouring or even millennia before. No one even knew the Taguel had ever existed - until we found them chilling in some backasswards island half an ocean away. What else is out there?"
There was a sense of wonder in her voice, Nayru unconsciously slipping out of her usual seemingly careless manner of speaking as she waxed eloquent - perhaps a bit too much so - on a subject so near to her heart. It was absolutely amazing how little they actually knew. How little anyone knew. It wasn't a human or a dragon thing, though living for half a millennium definitely gave her an advantage, but simply that so much had been lost and no one even knew it. Maybe Elibe had once been a magitech paradise with technology this modern world couldn't even conceive - a First Age of unparalleled splendor. Maybe there had been races besides the Taguel, eradicated in Scourings of their own even further in the murky past. Perhaps the gilded city of Arcadia HAD actually existed and simply been buried beneath Lycia, or even Nabata, by some primordial superweapon or long-forgotten vengeful deity.
As for being there to record history herself, unfortunately, she usually wasn't. Not only had she spent three and a half centuries trying to stay OUT of the light of history, but Elibe was a big damn place. Even if Nayru started chasing historical events, ten more would happen in the time it took her to catalog one, so she had long since given up on her early, naive ideals of actually being a proper recorder.
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Aeos
Dragon
A Nabatan Dragon in human guise, with a love of food and traveling.
Posts: 441
Profession: Wandering Dragon
Affinity: Light
Dragon Element: Air
Profile: Aeos Profile
OoC Alias: Twilightfairy
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Post by Aeos on Jul 26, 2016 13:17:17 GMT -6
“As a fellow Nabatan, allow me to be the first to say, welcome home.” He spoke with some genuine joy in his voice. There was always something about meeting a fellow Nabatan that put him in a chipper mood. Possibly due to the fact that only a Nabatan could truly understand the beauty of the desert.
“Well if you be a somewhat of a scholar then I'll be somewhat of an adventurer.” He smirked lightly. The tavern was close now. Aeos could make out the cellar doors. They were open but guarded by a man with a red bandana.
“I understand what you mean regarding the ruins of the desert. Whole cities could be sleeping under the sand and we may never see them. Oh! You've been to Vinland! I went there and explored the island and what it had to offer. Twas truly a beautiful place.. full of glorious natural wonders. Befriended a bear. I pray the humans of Elibe do not ruin such a place.” His mind flooded with memories of Island. How he had explored the forests and rivers of the land. How he had seen the taguel hunt monsters for food. And how the monsters hunted them. It was a place of nature.
“It is not a backwards place.. I find it to be the most natural place in the world. A representative of all facets of nature both beautiful and horrible.” He nodded. One day he would show his parents the place. Maybe the air there would do them good. He remembered how magically charged the air was and it felt really good.
“The monsters of Elibe are awful creatures. I've had my fair share running into them. Fighting them. Running away from them.” Eating them. Again his mind went to Vinland and to the remains of a dead bael. He suddenly had a craving for roasted bael legs. He shook his head lightly.
“Speaking of pastries… the flour here will most likely be used to create some. Though they aren't nearly as sweet as something like apple pie. However, the spicy meaty mix will keep you fuller longer. If you wish we can order some.”He stopped and nodded to the guard. The air around the tavern was full of strong food scents. The port town had a huge variety of spices to pick from since it's imported from other places.
“We are here.” Aeos went ahead and placed his bag on the side of the cellar. Among a pile of other stuff. There were people shuffling back and forth between the cellar picking things up and putting them away for storage.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jul 26, 2016 23:30:47 GMT -6
"I gotta admit, it sure feels a lot less weird to be dressed like this here than it does in Ilia," Nayru joked. Mostly. There was more than a kernel of truth to it though; after long enough she had just given up entirely on clothing herself appropriately for the climate. She didn't need to in the first place, what did a friggin' dragon care if they weren't THAT affected by the temperature anyways, and she had stopped caring as much about the occasional strange glances and questions as well after a few centuries. It was a sort of - strange feeling honestly. When she had been fresh out of Arcadia, all she had thought about was what others thought of her; if they knew she was a dragon, if she was acting enough like a normal human bean, if they thought she was weird, if she looked weird. Now... well, obviously there were certain circumstances that strongly rewarded her not being too open with the dragon thing, mostly 'cuz she didn't want to get dead, but otherwise it just seemed less relevant than doing stuff now.
"And Vinland was... well, it was a trip, that's for sure." She hefted the bag as they approached what she assumed was their destination. "I didn't mean backasswards in a bad way though. If I didn't have business on Elibe I'd just live there. That much magic in the air is intoxicating." Nayru's chuckle was short but genuine, her words partially in jest but not far from the truth. If she ever did end up living to be 20 million years old and got to a point that she didn't feel willing or able to follow her current trajectory, Nayru did think that she would rather live on Vinland than even Arcadia - for a young dragon born long after the Scouring, that first experience with an atmosphere similar to pre-Scouring Elibe had come close to literally being a drug of sorts. She had never been able to taste that much magic outside of in small glimpses after her own transformations, and her magic, well, honestly it kind of smelled too much like burnt ozone to really be enjoyable.
Pastries and pies. Hmm. "I think I could get to like you, Aeos. No lover of the fine culinary arts can possibly be a bad person." She lightly slapped him on the back as if to punctuate her point. Again with the mixed meanings, her words light and airy and yet also couched in a sort of sideways truth; there were certainly stuck-up jerkasses who liked food too, but really enjoying life and its beauty and deliciousness took a special sort of person, she thought, someone who was able to admit there WAS beauty in the world and revel in it. Maybe it would sound a lot dumber if she said it, but it was something Nayru believed nonetheless.
Without any reason to hedge further, she plopped her own bag next to Aeos's, slightly rougher than actually necessary but much less carefully than she naturally would have if she hadn't caught herself first.
Pie, huh...?
For some reason that seemed to set something in her memories tingling, though as with all things, there was simply far too much information, too tightly compartmentalized, for it to suddenly bring something critical to mind. Not for the first time Nayru wished she was better at managing information, but she was the dumbass who had decided that collecting a gazillion people's life stories and becoming a pseudo-historian was a good idea, so she couldn't really blame anyone else for that.
Well, she'd get started working on that with some of her consciousness for now while devoting the rest to far more important matters... like eating! "Sure, why not? I don't think I've ever visited this tavern before, maybe it'll be a smash hit." Honestly, the last time she'd been in Khan Yunis this block hadn't even had a tavern, she was pretty sure, though Nayru was a little fuzzy on what HAD been there... maybe a whorehouse... or five. It had been quite a few years and she hadn't really thought much about it at the time, so it would take an inordinate amount of time and mental capacity to find that info for very little reward; not a great effort-value ratio. "Lead the way, o Aeos, and let us partake in the finest of meats, the rare and elusive long pig."
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Aeos
Dragon
A Nabatan Dragon in human guise, with a love of food and traveling.
Posts: 441
Profession: Wandering Dragon
Affinity: Light
Dragon Element: Air
Profile: Aeos Profile
OoC Alias: Twilightfairy
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Post by Aeos on Jul 27, 2016 12:28:00 GMT -6
Aeos turned around. It was here that he was able to get a good look at Nayru. Her clothes reminded him of the fabrics found in the street market. The designs and patterns that Nabata was known for, he supposed the sash looking part reminded him of the Sacean nomads. The style of clothes she wore reminded him of his mother's. It was sari like but his mother's style covered more. Then again a sari could be work a multitude of ways.
“I can see how your clothes would pose a problem in the cold.” Nayru spoke of Vinland. And he was mildly surprised that Nayru enjoyed Vinland. He wasn't sure if she meant literal or figurative magic when it came to the air of the island. For all he knew Nayru could have been some sort of sage. He couldn't tell.
“I learned all of my tastes via experience.” Several hundred years of wandering around Nabata and the rest of the world exposed him to all manner of foods. It also exposed him too all manner of cooking too. “I am a good cook too. Learned from the best and have been perfecting my craft since. Though sometimes it's hard.. certain dishes I crave require things I do not have.” He shrugged. He then motioned for Nayru to follow him. Together they went through the back of the tavern. Through the kitchen and out towards the seating area. The kitchen was very well organized and busy. There were various sections of the kitchen specifically for certain jobs. One end of the kitchen was for making dough. Another for meat and meat filling. Soup was done in a giant kettle in its own fireplace. This tavern was known for its food rather than its rooms. It was mildly famous around the city and the sailors seem to enjoy the food. The kitchen was run mostly by women. Each of them had head scarves to keep their hair out of the food. They were expected to wash their hands often and keep their stations clean. Aeos would help them out with the dishes during the night hours. It gave him an opportunity to eat the leftover food that didn't sell or that was burnt. Eventually they came up towards the end of the kitchen and out towards the workers dining area.
“Phew. Good thing we found some chairs.” These chairs were just old barrels someone had pulled up to the table.
“Sorry we cannot eat out in the front where the guests are. I am technically an employee.” I'm not supposed to bring anyone here either. He looked around. He knew the workers occasionally brought lovers or family to the back for a quick bite to eat. Aeos quickly got up and grabbed two triangular pastries. They were scored on the top which indicated what they were filled with. He handed one to Nayru.
“They are still warm. So it's fresh. Eat before it gets cold.”
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jul 27, 2016 18:15:35 GMT -6
"I'm, er, more of a connoisseur than a cook," Nayru admitted a tad sheepishly. It wasn't that she was BAD at cooking or anything, she had a competent grasp of the basics, she just... wasn't especially gifted at it. Basic soups and stews were about the limit of her culinary expertise, she simply didn't particularly enjoy it so she had learned to feed herself and called it a day. It was pretty boring honestly, she almost would rather have been a fantastically bad cook so at least it'd be a story worth telling, but her cooking was fairly simplistic and rote - good enough to eat and (somewhat) enjoy if your standards weren't too high, but nothing more.
The kitchen they passed through was familiar in its own way; not in that she recognized it specifically, but a sort of nostalgic feel. She had worked in a few similar ones as odd jobs in the past, never as a main cook for obvious reasons but it had always been an interesting job nonetheless. And free food. That helped. Aeos seemed to know where he was going so Nayru simply followed without incident, slipping through the activity lithely with practiced ease.
The actual eating area was - well - not exactly a five star, world-class diner, but the barrels brought... flavor to the surroundings. Aeos's explanation for their surroundings was pretty simple and accurate, and Nayru nodded at it. It was a pretty common solution for taverns and the like after all. "It's fine." She grabbed the proferred pastry punctually with a half smile, retreating to what she rapidly decided was her side of the table and the barrel-slash-chair that was now her... brown... throne. "And thanks, Aeos."
Huh. "These things aren't half bad." Nayru's little proclamation came in the wake of a first bite, the meaty goodness warming her heart and soul. Or at least tasting pretty good. Maybe a bit of both. "Reminds me of Ilian pirozhkis a bit." She took another bite, nodding approvingly. "You know, when you think about it, it's amazing how many variations there are on the concept of a stuffed bun filled with something else - vegetables, fruits, oatmeal, meat," she nodded at their little meal of sorts at the last word. "On paper they all have the same concept, and yet there are so many fillings, so many different ways to prepare the bread, frying and glazing, crepes and pastries..." She took another bite - partially to punctuate her words, partially 'cuz that crap was pretty good. "If you pushed the definition a bit you could even include the common sandwich under the same definition - meat surrounded by bread. Amazing how much versatility there is for such a simple concept, innit?"
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Aeos
Dragon
A Nabatan Dragon in human guise, with a love of food and traveling.
Posts: 441
Profession: Wandering Dragon
Affinity: Light
Dragon Element: Air
Profile: Aeos Profile
OoC Alias: Twilightfairy
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Post by Aeos on Jul 29, 2016 15:30:33 GMT -6
"You are welcome." At least that's what he thought he said. In reality his mouth and cheeks were so stuffed full of warm pastry that he was pretty sure the words sounded like a muffled version of itself. Muffled and probably missing several syllabus in between. But he managed to get the tone of sentence correct and that was enough to satisfy Aeos' politeness. His mother always told him not to talk with his mouth full. It was considered to be rude in some cultures not to mention there was the off chance of choking. But, the dragon was hungry, and he knew good food like this was hard to come by. He knew that as an employee his meal time was short as he would inevitably be forced to go back to work for his room and board. He at least had the decency to cover his mouth as he spoke so Nayru couldn't see the mash of wet food that was in his mouth. He spent a few moments chewing and then swallowing his big bite of pastry.
"I'm glad you like them." He spoke again. This time with a empty mouth.
"I'll have to visit Ilia for one of those pirogi things that you just said." He took another bite of pastry. Nayru spoke about food concepts and Aeos nodded in agreement. There were so many different variations of the same kind of food out there in the world. He supposed that the reason people made so many different kinds of the same foods was because people would get bored of eating the same thing. He knew this for a fact as one year their rations were tight one year, and his mother was forced to make the same porridge thing for like a month. He was grateful that he never went hungry during that hard time but he was also very sick of porridge slush meal. He shook his head softly. He also remembered his mother's other foods and how she had virtually a million different ways for making stews, soups, and stock.
"I understand. My favorite desert for now be apple pie. As per a friend's suggestion I have traveled up and down Bern in search for the best slice of it. And in those travels I have seen it and had it in so many different ways. One town might make it with a hard crust. Another with a soft crust. One may use just one type of apple another may use an assortment of apples. Each of those pies are different, unique, and delicious.. but yet they are all still pie." He paused for a moment to eat what was left of his meal. When he finished his small slice of heaven he spoke once more.
"You could even take the idea a step back.. take flour and water. Together they make a dough.. and that dough has so many ways of being prepared. When baked it can be turned to bread. When boiled it turns into dough balls to use as a substitute for meat. When thrown in sauce it causes it to thicken so that you have more to put on your plate. Old bread can be used as bait for animals like fish and moles." He counted on his fingers.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jul 31, 2016 2:35:25 GMT -6
"Pirozhki, not pierogi," Nayru absentmindedly corrected the other dragon. "Pirozhki - singular pirozhok - is more of a small pie, baked; pierogis are basically overgrown dumplings and boiled instead." There was no disparagement or disappointment in her words or tone, simply a concise explanation, a recitation of fact born from when she had made the same mistake long ago. At the time she hadn't thought anyone would care that much, but OH BOY did she learn that lesson the hard way. $&#^ing Ilians. The snow drove them to madness, Nayru was fairly sure.
Apple pie, huh? That rang a bell, or maybe two, and Nayru inclined her head backwards and closed her eyes for a brief instant as she focused entirely on her search. Gone were the constraints of sight and sound and thought and existence, only a constant stream; nay, a deluge of data that threatened to consume her whole, to fragment her consciousness and pull her away in parts. But it wasn't her first dive, and so the Nayru self simply stood and allowed it to wash over her, like a mountain in the path of an avalanche. Words and thoughts and visions and memories flowed past her in fragments, ghosts of a past that she was but a voyeur in.
Your future frightens me.
Change will come.
Maybe it's my ties to the earth.
[ ] mentioned apple pies, which I've never had
Something jostled at her subconscious and she reacted instantly, grabbing at it within her mind, dredging that memory from the depths as the details came back to her.
"Food. The other dragon I met recently - Aeos was his name - he mentioned food as well. Am I missing out on something critical here? Aeos mentioned apple pies, which I've never had... What is your favorite human food?"
Locke. Lycia. Bandits. The carriage. Yes, that was it; Nayru could feel the details of the memory floating back as fresh as if they were new. And in their own way, they were; she could remember almost everything about the scene perfectly, reliving it from the perspective of the her that had existed then. Locke, the Earth dragon, the one who had believed she was destined for so much more, the well-meaning but intense young man who struggled to connect with humans and envied her struggle. The one who believed that thought and wisdom were a future they should aspire to, but one that was not near. Yes, he had mentioned an Aeos and a fixation on food, on apple pies in particular. But he had given no details, no age, no description, no hair color or disposition or nature.
The dragon opened her eyes and returned to the present after a mere moment had passed in reality, likely a digression that would be taken as taking a moment to compose herself for whatever reason going by her past experience, focusing back in on Aeos with eyes ablaze with thought. Was there something else to this chance meeting that she had missed, some clue to ascertain?
Admittedly, Aeos's last comment about bait was mostly lost on her, but the rest stuck to her consciousness like cloying sugar. The fastidious detail and interest in the subject of food. It was perhaps - rude to not respond in kind to what he had said, but she had been taken quite off balance by it. And while Nayru herself wasn't entirely cognizant of the extent of it, she was a bit... unbalanced immediately after returning from memory diving, a cost she knew intellectually but often failed to recognize as it happened. So where she might normally have had the presence of mind to string things along, or at least feign ignorance, instead she simply cut to the heart of the problem.
"You're the Aeos that Locke was talking about, aren't you?"
[OOC: and today, class, we learned why Nayru has no friends]
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Aeos
Dragon
A Nabatan Dragon in human guise, with a love of food and traveling.
Posts: 441
Profession: Wandering Dragon
Affinity: Light
Dragon Element: Air
Profile: Aeos Profile
OoC Alias: Twilightfairy
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Post by Aeos on Jul 31, 2016 20:25:44 GMT -6
“Pyro.. pig.. pirozhki. Piro-zi-ki..” His mouth fumbled with the syllables. He knew few words with the letter zh in them. He wasn't sure how to properly pronounce it.
“Pir.. oh.. forget it. I will simply ask for tiny Ilian pies. Perogies or piro.. pirozhki.. whichever either one of them will be delicious.” He nodded and decided to just go with it. He rummaged around a few cabinets and found two wooden mugs. He took some time to locate the water barrel. When he did find it he crouched down and drew some water from the dispenser.
He returned to Nayru with the two mugs of water. He handed it to her as a gesture of hospitality. Granted this place wasn't his home but he still extended that same politeness. The water wasn't warm. But, it was cool enough to refresh a person. Especially after spending a few hours in the hot desert sun. He noticed her to be lost in thought. He couldn't imagine what it was she was thinking. Perhaps, she was thinking more about the inner workings of food and their origins.
But, she had asked him something out of the blue, that took him off guard. He looked at her with his eyes in mild shock. She knew Locke. And then it hit him. That thing he sensed off of her a when they first met. He sensed power off of her. Power that was similar to his own. Similar to Locke's. Perhaps she was a dragon too.
“You know Locke?”
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jul 31, 2016 23:44:43 GMT -6
And there it was - the look of shock and guarded understanding she had been watching for. It didn't really matter what Aeos had said, Nayru would have known the answer regardless of a verbal confirmation or denial - she didn't have the unnatural ability to read and understand people like many dragons did, but it was hard to live for half a millennium and not pick up on some of the most basic concepts. It didn't confirm Aeos was a dragon or anything, of course, simply that the name meant something to the other man. Something more than just a casual acquaintance. As for what the implications of that were - well - they would burn that bridge when they came to it.
"Green hair, fancy tattoos, looks like a young guy but talks a lot older?" Nayru looked down to her newfound water, holding it carefully between her hands. Swirling it a little as she thought, watching the ripples of water. It was sort of like history in that way - one small action, a gentle push, reverberating ever greater like the wake of a stone thrown into a pond. Was that what she and Aeos were doing now? "Apparently not as sold on apple pie as you either, he seemed pretty disappointed when I mentioned food as a hobby." The dark-haired dragon smiled wryly, giggling a bit at the thought of what she was saying. It almost felt as if she had BETRAYED Locke, when at most he had just made clear his lack of appreciation for the finer points of good food.
"Yeah, I met him in Lycia recently. He and I argued about what justice was for a bit, but it turned out we had a lot more in common than we realized initially." It was a gross oversimplification, but essentially true. Locke had been partial to a more reactive, eye-for-an-eye methodology; Nayru didn't care to think of herself as a moral authority, but was quite willing to take the role of judge, jury, and executioner all in one when necessary.
But much as with Aeos a moment ago, it wasn't what she said that really mattered. On the surface, nothing about Nayru's comments was really all that far out there. It was in the subtleties, the implications, of what she said that the truth lay. How Aeos chose to read into it was up to him. She certainly wasn't going to just admit to being a dragon in a crowded tavern with eyes and ears everywhere.
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