The Southern Continent (part 2)

[Drusia]

Well, that ended easily enough. I tilt my head, paying attention to the Kobold language as Tamina and her friend speak quickly back and forth. I also put my dagger back in it's scabbard.

"<Who are they?>"
"<Oh, right.> Everyone, this is Riiki, lives in the village, we grew up together. <Riiki, this is Udo, Khoo and Drusia, they're helping me put a stop to the Ralkin.>"
"Thank-you, is... good... thing you do. .... Come."

I pick up a little when she introduces us. Not enough to grasp, yet, but I make a point to remember these words and their context. You never know when you might need to know a new language.

The waiter seems entertained by the flora and fauna. Udo seems to be entertaining himself with a snake. I turn to Riiki.

"The Ralkin are my enemy too," I tell him, keeping my words simple, but not patronizing. "They hurt my family." I pat my dagger to indicate what I plan to do to them. Then I smile and rest my hand on Tamina's shoulder. "Also happy to help a friend."

After all, it's always best to clarify who are one's friends, and who are one's enemies.

-- Drusia

[Jack Rothwell]

OOC Sorry peeps, went to visit my sis and didn't have net access. New post coming tomorrow!/OOC

[Jack Rothwell]

"Hi, my name is Khoo."

Riiki shook the waiter's hand and gave a nod of thanks to the elf while Tamina broke off from her reunion with a breif squeeze of Drusia's hand and went to help her knight protector. The native stooped and snatched the snake from it's seat on the staff. She lifted the venomous creature by the tip of it's tail and flicked it into the undergrowth.

"<Not very jungle savvy, are they?>"

"<It's their first time here.>" Tamina replied. "Come on, nearly home!"

Some fifteen minutes passed (during which Tamina clued Khoo in about a few of the beasties in the jungle at the young man's request) before the kobold village finally came into view. The returning resident stopped breifly with a squeak of excitement before breaking into a run which took her over the circle of stones that marked the perimeter and into the hundred square yards of cleared undergrowth that was the centre of the settlement.

The village, the travellers found as they caught up with the kobold, was simple but civilised. There were sturdy circles of huts with campfires as their centrepieces, racks of spears and pots full of water scattered around the site, along with poles embedded in the earth with hides stretched to scrape and let dry. The companions saw steps fixed to huge treetrunks which spiralled upwards to a higher floor of larger dwellings supported by the thick canopy of the upper branches. Some fifty of Tamina's tribespeople were scattered about of the village, who hailed her as she greeted them as cheerily as Udo had ever heard her.

A young kobold woman burst out of her home and tackled Tamina to the ground in a crushing glomp. The pair laughed and rolled around, kicking up sprays of damp earth before Tamina managed to extricate herself and pushed back to her feet.

"<Alleece!, how've you been? The village been ok?>"

"<You garlop!>" The younger woman aimed a playful swipe at Tamina's ear before letting loose another giggle. "<You didn't say goodbye!>"

"<Sorry, I didn't much choice.>"

"<Whatever. Leli's upstairs in her house, she'll want to see you.>"

The kobold nodded and waved to her friends in a 'follow me' gesture as she headed towards the bottom step of the nearest flight, the call of her tribeswoman ringing in her ears.

"<You're certainly keeping weird company these days!>"

"<I know!>" She called back.

[Alberich]

Udo had been thankful, and also impressed. So you could pick the local snakes up by the tail! His extremely dim grasp of the Kobolds' language didn't encompass the words - "The things you see me do, never ever try."

In a village full of scantily-clad kobolds, Udo was simply in heaven, and surrounded by angels. Or houris. He could've wandered around ogling them for hours, and if only the Great Hieronymous were here...but there was no time to dawdle. They needed to get on with vanquishing the Ralkin. Then come back to this whole village full of furry gratitude!

As he followed along, Udo had one question for Tamina - "Before we set off - do you think I could get hold of a spear?" The encounter with the snake had made him think he could use something with more reach than a knife, but more subtlety than a staff blast.

[Jack Rothwell]

"Spear? Yeah, sure." Tamina replied, she took a breif diversion from the steps to a nearby rack of the bone-tipped weapons. Kobolds had their own, low-tech versions of blacksmiths who put their bows and spears together, the results were often simplistic but effective. One of the weapons she handed to her companion could pierce the tough hides of some of the animals her tribe shared the environment with, at the right angle and with enough force was put behind the thrust, of course.

"<Does he even know how to use that?>" Riiki asked. The kobold was currently making his way with Alleece to a fire, where something delicious was cooking on a stick.

"<He'll be fine. Well... probably.>"

The male kobold stifled a smirk as the foursome mounted the steps and began walking to the upper branches.

"Like it up here." She remarked, as the ground dropped away. "Can go right to the top and see for miles." She indicated the rungs leading to the tops of the thick trunks with a gentle smile. "Might have a look after we see Leli."

They reached the top floor and stepped onto thick wooden boards of a craftmanship that spoke of the trading connections the tribe had. Grendell, after all, recieved regular imports from Lorrel who in turn did business with the kobolds in exchange for the goods only a species of natural hunters could be replied upon to acquire. The central building was a wider and deeper structure built over the branches of the biggest tree in the village. The foliege was cleared directly above it to let a thin plume of smoke that rose through a circular hole in the dome roof of the house.

"Elder's hut." Tamina said simply. "Leli's home."

The kobold sensitive ears picked up the sound of a handle being turned. The door opened and the Elder stepped into view. It was obvious the greater age of the humanoid in comparison to the one they were with. The woman's fur was a greying blonde colour which highlighted the lines in her face and the stone colour of her eyes, however, the Elder's advanced years (all thirty-five of them) were yet to remove the fitness from the woman. She met Tamina halfway at a jog and hugged her student hard.

"<This is a wonderful surprise. I didn't think I'd see you for months.>"

Tamina sniffed, holding back the tears which threatened to flow any time the kobold was in an overly emotional state. And managed to get her words out.

"<I'm glad to be home." She whispered. "<But I bring back bad news.>"

Leli released the young woman and rested her hands on her shoulders.

"<...about the Ralkin?>"

Tamina nodded, Leli gave a rueful smile.

"<I wish I could say I wasn't expecting it. But later... rather than sooner.>" She sighed and put her hands on her hips, staring at the sky as if seeking divine guidance, then turned her attention to her student's companions.

"My apologies." She said, in perfect human speak and a voice touched by the slightest of quavers. "And my thanks for returning my student to me. We owe you a debt."

[Alberich]

Udo absolutely adored Tamina, in all her sweet lovely deadliness. But if this older-but-still-hot kobold wanted to borrow him for a little while to "pay a debt," she could do that anytime!

He bowed to the elder and said, "We're glad to do it, Your Eminentuality. She's brave and skilled and a mighty huntress of bad mice! And men! And that's what we're here to do some more!"

[Jack Rothwell]

Leli spared the man a nod and waved a hand towards the front door of the hut. The group entered a wide, circular room with a pair of smaller rooms beyond boxed off by hanging fabric. The small fire sat in a depression on a well of raw earth, surrounded by stones and with an iron pot bubbling gently, suspended over it by a tripod of metal. The room was furnished by numerous rugs, cushions and wall hangings of bold, colorful design. The elder sat, and motioned for the group to join her. Tamina squatted next to her teacher and pointed a finger to the pot with a hopeful noise, Leli nodded, Tamina beamed and scooped up a wooden bowl and ladle.

"So The Ralkin are moving again."

"Leader's recruiting people." Tamina said, through a mouthful of stew. "Seen them."

"Then that's a bad situation for anyone they're near." Once everyone was seated Leli turned her attention to Drusia. "I imagine an elf's business here must involve the half-elf leader who escaped our last confrontation? Aleron Harland, I believe his name was."

[Graybeard]

Khoo took all of this in wordlessly, but not without coming to a troubling realization. I'm not going to be very useful here.

Pretty well any Sashi Mu graduate knew some basic self-defense magic -- Force Bolt, Shield,and so on. Khoo was no exception to this rule. However, apart from target practice, he'd never used his offensive spells on anything larger or more dangerous than the vermin that hung around the store room at the restaurant. (Admittedly, some of the mice were disturbingly large. How did things like that get into the ecosystem of a sky city, anyway? He decided he didn't want to think about that.) Between what he'd seen on the way to (and inside) the kobold village, and the way these people were talking, it sounded like they were facing a set of hazards far beyond anything was he was used to, and he didn't have much spellpower to help deal with it.

Well, as he thought about it, that might not be completely true. Specialization in air magic ought to be worth something in a combat situation. With some embarrassment and a guilty conscience, he thought back to the Whirlwind spell he'd used in some of the early flight testing of the glider ... and to torment the obnoxious teaching assistant in his Third-Level Evocation course. He sure hoped nobody at Sashi Mu ever got around to wondering how a windstorm could strip a girl naked in the great mall, without disturbing a hair on the head of anyone around her...

"Uh, would you mind telling me more about what a 'Ralkin' is?" he asked, to get his mind off that particular youthful peccadillo.

[Jack Rothwell]

"They're a cult of magic-users who dabble in things best left alone." The Elder said.

"Summon monsters, and use mind control." Tamina added, putting down her unfinished bowl. "Came here years ago when I was little. They tried to make us... umm..." She lifted her hands and danced them as if they were attached to string."

"Puppets." Leli supplied. "They made some of us troops for their cause the last time they attacked this place. If you're going after them, young man, be aware that you'll have a lot of lackeys of Aleron's to go through before you can cut the head off the snake. Or, if they get their hands on you, you might find yourself dancing to an errant half-elf's tune for the rest of what will be a very short life."

[Alberich]

"If you're going after them, young man, be aware that you'll have a lot of lackeys of Aleron's to go through before you can cut the head off the snake."

"Yeah!" grinned Udo. "We'll go through 'em like sharks through mackerel!" And we'll go through their pockets like...like... another shark through some more mackerel. "But where do we learn how to find 'em, and what kind of assets they've got?"