As Ari'sora walked through the doorway into the kitchen, she could hear her sister giggling softly somewhere, but she couldn't see her anywhere in the room. That made her instantly suspicious. What had her sister done? She froze in the doorway, hesitant to enter the room...and that was exactly the wrong thing to do. There was a flurry of movement as something fell. Ari'sora raised her wings instinctively in defense, but that didn't stop her from being knocked down by something heavy. That "something" was wet, and it smelled strongly of fish. It didn't take a genius to realize that she had been trapped in a fishing net. And when her initial struggles did nothing to free her, she realized that it must be a weighted one. Mi'zuri stepped over her carefully as she walked into the room, wearing a big grin on her face.
"Ari the dullard, trapped in a net.
Caught like a rabbit in a snare.
White as a phantom, her heartbeats sound as rapid as the beat of the music for a tango.
While the monkey dances around while eating a mango.
Will Ari the dullard ever fight her way free?
Such are the mysteries of wonderland." Mi'zuri sang in a cheerful taunt.
Wonderland, indeed. Ari'sora scowled up at her sister as best she could from the tangle of limbs and wings she found herself in. This only made her sister laugh even more. Ari'sora was determined
to free herself. And when she did, she was going to tickle Mi'zuri mercilessly until she apologized for her prank, and begged her to stop. Her sister hated being tickled, and she hated having to apologize even more. It was a fitting retribution for putting her in this smelly, awkward position.
Her first instinct was to panic, and beat her wings furiously until the net fell off of her. She hated being restrained. But she knew from past experience that panicking wasn't going to help.
How many times had she been tied up or chained when she had displeased Ren'zar? Panicking then had only earned her chaffed, bleeding wrists and ankles. It wouldn't help her now, either, and it might do serious injury to her wings. But how was she going to get out from under the net? That was the real question. It was impossible for her to flap her wings and get the net off that way; there was far too little room to maneuver for that. Worse, her initial attempt at doing just that in her panic at being trapped had managed to get part of the net tangled around one of her wings. She wasn't going to get anywhere unless she freed her wing first. And since she was face down on the floor, that was going to take some doing. The first thing she had to do was get her arms free, and out from under her body. It took her several attempts to manage this, but she managed to rock and twist until she was on her side. Her left arm was still pinned, but her right arm was free. She shifted her arm carefully stretching it until she could reach her trapped wing. Then ever so slowly, she began to untangle it.
That took nearly a break, during which her sister continued to taunt her in a way that she probably thought was playful. But it only served to make Ari'sora more determined to accomplish her goal. Once her wing was free, she began to inch her way towards the net. This was a long, slow process that required her to curl her body up into a fetal position, and stretch out once more, inching along the floor as she did so. By the time she got to the edge of the net, she was exhausted. She tried to lift the edge of the net so that she could crawl out from under it, but it was too heavy, and she couldn't get a good grip on it in her position.
Once again, Ari'sora began to rock and twist herself until she was on her stomach again. Gripping the net with both hands, she was able to lift the edge just enough that she could get her head out. Then slowly, but surely, she managed to inch her way along the floor like a caterpillar until she was free.
"Took you long enough!" her sister laughed.
But something in Ari'sora's eyes must have warned her of her upcoming doom, because Mi'zuri's eyes grew huge as she took a few steps back. It didn't help her. Ari'sora lunged at her sister, and managed to grab her waist, pulling them both down in an undignified heap. Then she attacked. Her fingers quickly found Mi'zuri'a ribs, and she tickled her mercilessly. Her sister shrieked with laughter, demanding that she stop at the top of her lungs.
Ari'sora refused. Before too long, Mizuri's demands faded into breathless laughter, and gasps for mercy. Still, Ari'sora continued her assault. Mi'zuri held out for a few bits more before outright begging her to stop. Ari'sora continued to tickle her for a few trills more before she complied. But even then, she held her fingers poised and ready to attack again.
"What do you want?" Mi'zuri gasped, still struggling to catch her breath.
"I think you owe me an apology."
Ari'sora saw it in her sister's eyes; she was going to refuse. So she began tickling Mi'zuri once more. After a few trills, her sister had had enough. She begged Ari'sora to stop once more, and when Ari'sora did, she was quick to gasp out a reluctant apology. It was all that she was going to get, and Ari'sora knew it. So she stood, and looked down at her sister, who was still trying to catch her breath.
"I'm going to take a bath to get the fish smell off of me. Then I am going to the library. I'll be gone for most of the trial. There had better not be anymore unexpected surprises when I get back...or next time, I'll use a feather to tickle you with instead of my fingers."
Mi'zurl shuddered, and promised that she would be good. Ari'sora took a quick bath, and made certain that she didn't smell like fish anymore. When she was done, she got dressed, and headed to the library.
The walk will do me some good. Ari'sora thought.
It was damp and windy, but the cold wind didn't phase her. She didn't get far before she heard a young girl calling for her mommy. The girl sounded lost, alone, and frightened. Ari'sora knew what it felt like to feel like that, so she hurried in the direction of the voice. When she found the child, she looked to be six or seven arcs old.
"Are you lost?" she asked in concern as she approached.
The little girl looked up at her with wide, hopeful eyes, and nodded.
"I'm Maia, and this is my flunny, Cotton. Her name's Cotton cause her tail is as soft as cotton. Who're you?"
Ari'sora looked at the strange rabbit like creature for a few trills. It looked mostly like a rabbit, but it had brightly colored feathers on its legs, and where a normal rabbit would have ears, it had wings. It was kind of cute, and a flunny, as the girl called it was obviously supposed to be a kind of pet. She pulled her mind back to the task at hand, and smiled in what she hoped was a soothing manner.
"My name is Ari'sora. Where are you trying to go? If I know how to get there, I can take you." she offered.
Ari'sora looked around, but she couldn't see anyone running around frantically looking for Maia.
"I have to find my mommy! Can you help me?"
Ari'sora nodded.
"Of course I can. What does she look like? And where were you going when you lost her?"
Ari'sora listened to the girl's response, and her heart sank. The woman Maia described sounded pretty average in appearance. Not short, or tall, brown hair and eyes...nothing that might make she easy to find in a crowd. And the answer of "home" was less than useful as well. While she was starting to learn her way around some of the shops, Ari'sora had no clue how to fins a particular house.
"My mommy said that if I ever got lost, I should go to the library cause it's close to where I live. Mommy will come find me there...but I don't know where it is!"
Now that, Ari'sora could work with.
"Well I do. Why don't I take you there, and wait with you until your mommy finds you, okay?"
Maia beamed at her.
"Will you really stay with me until my mommy comes?" she asked.
Ari'sora nodded.
"Yes." she said simply.
Ari'sora brought Maia to the library. As they approached the door, a man walked out. Ari'sora frowned; the man looked familiar to her, and while she couldn't remember the man's name, she knew that he had come to see Ren'zar a lot over the arcs. Her eyes widened in fear. The man was a threat to anyone who crossed him. Would he blame her for Ren'zar being arrested?
The man froze when he saw her. His eyes darted to Maia, and that was all the warning Ari'sora had. He pulled a knife out, and rushed them, aiming for the little girl. Maia screamed in fright. Ari'sora shoved the young girl behind her, and spread her wings protectively. When the man got close enough, she buffeted him with her wings, using as much force as she could muster. He grunted in pain, and dropped the knife as he covered his head with his arms. It was obvious that the man had not expected her to fight back. And why should he have expected it? He never had before whenever he had decided to torment her before her guardian had been arrested. Whether it was the surprise of her fighting back, or the force of her blows with her wings, which seemed to be as effective as hitting an enemy, her ploy worked.
"Maia!"
Ari'sora looked up at the sound of the frantic cry. A man and a woman were running towards them.
"Mommy! Daddy!" the little girl cried out fearfully.
Maia's mother raced up to the young child, and swept her up in her arms. While this was happening, her father, who was wearing an outfit that told others that he was a member of the Elements took their attacker in hand. He began questioning Ari'sora about what happened while Maia's mother did her best to comfort her. Ari'sora answered the man's questions as best she could. Their attacker's connection to Ren'zar was enough to get him arrested, and the fact that he had attacked innocents only made his situation even worse.
As Maia's father led the man who had attacked them away, her mother came up to Ari'sora and thanked her for helping her daughter. Ari'sora blushed, and stammered something along the lines of it was something that anyone would do. She hated being stared at. It made her nervous, and as soon as she could manage, she said her goodbyes to Maia, and escaped into the safety of the library.
Once inside, Ari'sora noticed that a lot of the bookshelves were bare. Piles of books were scattered everywhere, making it look as if someone had managed to get most of the books back to the right sections, but had not yet had the chance to put them back on the shelves. Some of the bookcases were warped, looking as though they had suffered water damage, or damage from the damp air. But the section she was most interested at the trill was intact, and Ari'sora quickly lost herself in the language section.
Learning more Rakahi, and more about linguistics in general was something she had been meaning to do ever since she had met Rynata, and the woman had told her about the library. It didn't take her long to find a few books that looked interesting, and a free table to read at. What better way to calm herself down than by distracting herself with something she was very interested in?
Language families are groups of languages that share common characteristics. These groups of languages are often found in the same region. It is for that reason that the five main language families are known by region; Northern Idalos, Southern Idalos, Eastern Idalos, Western Idalos, and Central Idalos. There are some languages that are not part of a particular family. These languages may have originated in one city rather than a region, or be used primarily be one race. Rakahi is a good example of a language that fits both of these qualifications. It is a spoken language that is used primarily in Rynmere, and Ne'haer. It is also the language of the Biqaj people. Common is another such language. It is both a spoken and a written language. Common is a trade language, and as such, it is used everywhere.
Ari'sora nodded to herself, and added Common to the list of things she wanted to learn more about this trial. She knew a little bit of Common, and she could puzzle out a bit more since some of the words found in Scalveen were also used in Common. But she didn't speak it well, and if the language really was spoken everywhere, then it was something she wanted to be fluent in as quickly as possible.
The languages found in Northern Idalos are: Cerke, Murnasian, Basa, Perwarshian, Pij'thak, and Sulnysian. The Southern Idalos family group includes the following languages; Banumi, Grovokian, Arathnaka Runes, Umhini, Dydahi Etch, and Xototi. The languages of Eastern Idalos are Omyeric, and G'ni. The languages of the Western Idalos family group are Athivelienic, Irarian, Nysin, Anume, Nidtaic, Rifaish, Dregneen, and Naratrien. And finally, the languages of Central Idalos are; Pailtic, Ku'aric, Ominowa, and Yjik.
Ari'sora took detailed notes of what she was reading. She was fascinated by the sheer number of different languages there were. Was it even possible for someone to learn them all? Ari'sora couldn't help but want to try.
She could start by becoming fluent in the languages that interested her the most; Xanthea, Common, and Rakahi. From there, maybe she could try to become fluent in at least one or two languages from each of the language families mentioned in this book. Were there jobs that one could do that revolved around knowing a lot of different languages? Maybe a teacher in the university Rynata had mentioned? She would have to find out. Languages were fun! And how great would it be to truly love what you did for a living?
After the first few chapters, Ari'sora quickly found herself lost. This book was clearly meant for someone who knew more about linguistics than she did. So she got up to put it away. While she was up, she stopped to browse the shelves until she found a book geared towards teaching people how to speak Common. When she returned to her table, she added it to her small pile of books, and picked up the one on Rakahi. Then she began to read once more.
This book, like the one she had picked up to help her learn Common was meant to teach a non speaker how to speak the language. The preface warned that Rakahi could be a difficult language for non Biqaj to learn. Ari'sora ignored the warning. She was determined to master learning it, and once she made her mind up about something, very little could change it. Besides, she was far more interested in the fact that Biqaj could tell where someone who was speaking Rakahi was raised due to very subtle but specific accents and undertones that could be heard when certain words or syllables were uttered. The first chapter of the book listed both the alphabet and the numbers from one to one hundred, and gave the reader clues on how to pronounce everything. Ari'sora was careful to write all of this down in her notes.
Ari'sora gave her notes a once over to make certain that everything was in order. Then she moved on to the last book she had picked out. Like the one about Rakahi, this book had the alphabet and the numbers one through one hundred written out in Common, with guides on pronunciation. But further chapters got more into learning words and simple phrases. So she learned simple greetings like "hello," :goodbye," "good morning," "good afternoon," "please," "thank you," and the like. She also learned "yes," "no,' and simple phrases like "My name is..." and "I speak little Common." Perhaps most importantly, she learned the phrase "Can you speak Scalveen?"
She took careful notes on what she was reading so that she could practice everything later. But she also said each new word and phrase she learned several times, wanting to memorize as many as she could. The faster she learned Common, the better, as far as she was concerned.
When Ari'sora was finished reading, she got up to put the books she'd been reading away. As she was putting the last book in its proper place, she heard a dull crash. A few trills later she heard another one. And a third. Then she saw the bookcase next to her falling. There was no time to react. She started to run, but by then, it was too late. She was pelted by a rain of books, and pinned to the wall by the crushing weight of more than one bookcase.
Her entire body hurt, but the worst pain was in her left wing. She was trapped. She
hated being trapped. Ari'sora's mind shut down as panic took hold. Her right wing beat furiously in an instinctive attempt to free herself, but the movement only shifted the weight of the bookcases even more solidly on her left wing and shoulder. The added pain, and growing exhaustion brought her back to her senses, but she felt sick with terror at the thought of being trapped.
"Help! I'm trapped!" she called out frantically in Scalveen.
Off Topic
This post covers the following challenges:
Creation Challenges
2. Create a time when your character was seen as weak, or showed signs of weakness in front of another PC. (This can be Memory or Present time).
3. Write a thread where your pc starts to plan / plot or put in place something for their future.
6. Have your character OR an Npc your character is often around create a song, poem, or tall tale about your character or another PC or NPC.
7. Have your character create a short term goal and then reach said goal by the end of the event.
9. Create a tense/awkward situation that your character has to manage to get through somehow by using a skill they've never used / have no points in.
***acrobatics to get out from the net she was trapped in
10. Let your character create their own path through,around, and/or over something difficult that they must get past. (Either literally or figuratively)
Story Challenges
1. Have your character encounter a unique regional-specific fauna.
3. Have your PC visit a unique location within their city and meet someone they didn't expect to see there! (This can be PC or NPC and may be someone they know or a stranger.)
4. Include somewhere in a single post the words: heartbeats, tango, dullard, phantom, and wonderland.
8. Find information about a missing person/bounty/or otherwise lost person that someone is trying to find. Become part of their story.
9. Save an animal/or any being of any race from anything from theft, to death.
Growth Challenges
7. Have your character guide someone somewhere or be guided somewhere.
8. Have your character meet a new PC (Can be VIA Emea).
9. Use a moment from your character’s past to learn something new about to-trial!
10. Train/practice a skill your character has been meaning to work on.
