Topic: The Adventures of Kith, the Cat, and the Khatun
Subject: Cellar Talk Collab
The wagon rocks gently and she lays on her back, staring unseeingly up at the herbs thrashing about from the ceiling, the jars lightly clanking, strapped as they are to the shelving lining the walls. She’s humming a tune she’s been working on, and watching as the sun breaking through the cracks above her illuminate brief clouds of dust, swirling about the cabin.
* * *
She sings it to him, and when he has the tune he harmonizes with her, and the smile she feels spread across her face as he does makes it nearly impossible for the words to continue to fall from her lips, so he kisses them instead.
* * *
He is tearing at her, an undead, relentless, skeletal, beast in a rotted uniform that whipped around wildly from its mutated body. Wake up Kithran. Its claws dug deep into her as it ripped away at her dress. Its red pin-pricked eyes and maw laughing at her, laughing at her screams, at her pain. Time for you to go home. It lifts her blood-streaked arm in one hand, the talons of the other breaking the skin at her neck, and with a curdling giggle it bears its rotted teeth and rips into her arm.
* * *
Kithran shoved the creature at her side away from her, drawing her dagger, the other missing from its place at her side, “Wh-who, what are you?!” Her entire body protested as she forced it up into a crouched position, an instinct for survival being the only thing keeping her from collapsing.
Aranwen does not fall back as far as Kithran might have liked, taking the momentum and softening it with her knees, until she's crouched in a similar position as Kithran. She offers a gentle smile, holding her hands outstretched even as she keeps a grip on the bandage roll in her left hand so it doesn't fall to the floor, "Good morning, Kithran," she speaks with a calm voice, "Relax. Rest. I am only wrapping your wounds. You haven't been moved. You are safe."
She squinted as both the creature and memories from the night before began to take form. The bladesinger. The Sylvari.
Kith closed her eyes and willed her heart and her breaths to slow, turning her back to the wall once more and wincing as she slid back down. After a moment she looked over to the warrior and holds out her hand. "Thank you, bladesinger, you saved our lives. I can manage my wounds from here. I prefer to do it myself."
"Ah," Aranwen looked away in slight embarrassment, "Are you sure?" She asked, "I apologize if you do not like being touched."
Kithran sighed, “I do not, but if you must in order to keep me on this dismal plane, the gesture is much appreciated.”
Aranwen passed the bandages to Kithran, before sitting back on the floor, resting her chin on her hands as she watched, "In all the haste last night, between departing that keep and your passing out, I realize I never gave you my name," She noted, "I am Aranwen Galandel," Kith nodded in acknowledgment and Aranwen tilted her head in thought, before she asked, "Were you also captured and brought to this city?”
Kithran finished the wrap on her arm and looked over at the Syl, “No, not at all. I traveled here from Ertain at word of some wizards offering some thousands in reward for some book.” She lifted up a hand and wiggled her fingers, a small smirk on her face, “I’m usually fairly good at procuring lost or wanted items, but as you might imagine, this was a bit of a different experience than I am used to.” She tilted her head towards the fitful Kazari, “That is how I met the fuzzy warrior here.”
Slowly, Kith willed herself to stand to see how that felt, gazing back at the bladesinger for distraction from the discomfort, she asked, “And you? How did you come to be here?"
Aranwen breathed a sigh, "That's a relief to hear," she gave a chuckle, "Never know what might be in a book, or how well protected it might be," she observed.
Aranwen paused a moment then asked, "Following a path, I suppose," she replied, "I generally avoid this land, but this time around I was targeted by slavers who thought a lone Sylvari was an easy target. I overheard them speaking of a buyer, which I reasoned was in Dravnor."
She shrugged her shoulders, "Bit of a long shot, but if I can cut the head off that organization, maybe, maybe it will..." she fell silent before she shook her head, her golden eyes refocused, "I'm just glad you haven't been attacked. Even if you are skilled with blades, I'd rather that not be a risk for travelers, especially young Syl."
Kith stopped in her stretching and narrowed her eyes at the bladesinger, "Do you mean me? I am no Syl." She paused, glancing once more at Aranwen's ears and irritatedly touched her own, "The only thing my mother left me was a bit of blood. I am only half-Sylvari, I hope that does not disappoint you."
Aranwen frowned, but it was not a look at Kithran, her golden eyes distant as she processed what she had just heard, "Left? Left?!" Closing her mouth, she set her jaw, her eyes steel, "I cannot fathom abandoning a child," she muttered, her voice cold before she took a breath, unclenching her hands. When she looked at Kithran, her eyes were gentle around the edges, "She disappoints me. You deserved far better. I am sorry."
Aranwen's eyes then looked to the side, distracted by movement, and it is just as well, as even though Kith had opened her mouth to reply, she wasn’t sure how to respond to such sentiment. The bladesinger stood up, "Stand back," she warned Kithran, "Your friend is stirring. It does not look the stir of a peaceful awakening."
Kithran looked down at the rustling Kazari and jumped back, noticing then what Aranwen meant. Ch’dau thrashed violently, shifting so hard the momentum took up up to his feet, “Come,” he growled, his eyes open but not seeing either of them, “and I will take you all with me!!!”” And he roared, the sound monstrous in the confines of the small stone cellar.
She took another step back as he swung madly in the air and felt Aranwen move swiftly in front of her, careful not to touch the thief, but still protectively before her. In the midst of the Kazari’s rage, her soothing voice cuts through the air, “You are not there,” Aranwen tells him, “You are here. Hear my voice. Feel the ground beneath your feet.”
Kith watches clarity fall slowly over Ch’dau’s demeanor, and she can’t help but be reminded of the grace with which Aranwen’s song tore down those guards from the night before. Calm, cool, steady. As the bladesinger continues, Kith walks out beside her, holding her empty hands up before her.
“You are here,” the Syl woman continues, “you are safe. You must rest, Silver Cat. Your wounds need to heal.”
Ch’dau’s eyes still dart around the room, his posture still nervous, though not so frantic as he seems to realize he is in a wine cellar, and not some witch’s dungeon. His eyes finally fall on Kith, and she grins back at him, “Whoa, there, cat-beast, easy, it's me.” She makes the motion of stabbing a dagger through her head, “Kith good, remember?”
“Kithran?”
“Yeah.”
She watches his claws retract and relaxes as he does, “You,” he looks to Aranwen, “you are the Bladesinger I heard?”
The Syl nodded, as well; “I am.”
And with that the Kazari gave a great sigh, “Forgive,” he rumbled, wincing as he sank onto his haunches, “I… I thought…” He shook his shaggy head, then, and chuffed out another sigh as he took up the dagger at his feet. “Where are we rrow’ka? What has happened?”
Kith sat back down in front of him, her grin now one of delight, “First, be sure not to lose that again,” she gestures to the dagger he picked back up, “It was my very first, and I would hate for something to happen to it.” She then gestures to the room at large, “And you are in my humble home.” The majority of the tale being told from Aranwen’s perspective, as she was the only one fully aware of what had happened after Ch’dau had decided to throw Kith out of a window, the bladesinger and the thief recount how they came to be in a dark wine cellar underground.
As the story concluded, Kithran looked back and forth between the two warriors, both incredibly different in stature and style, both so powerful, “So Kazari, Bladesinger, what are your plans from here? I have a few of my own, but I think we could all benefit from the help of the other. What say you?”
Posted on 2019-10-17 at 21:01:22.
Edited on 2020-02-12 at 15:13:57 by breebles
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