Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

Kura sighed and ran her fingers through her hair as she walked home. She was almost there and it was good to be home. She'd spent the last few days sleeping in her office, and she was glad to be awa from the place. Speck was flying overhead, keeping her usual eye out for any trouble. As they neared her house, the owl spoke up in Kura's mind. "Kura, there's someone at the house. I'll go in for a closer look." the owl said, dropping several feet lower to the ground. "It's a woman, she just left the porch. Oh! Kura, it's Ela!" she said, excitement in her voice.

Kura looked up at that, seeing her little sister bounding towards her just as Ela called her name. Kura laughed and braced herself, returning bounding hug with one just as enthusiastic, if slightly less energetic. "Ela! It's so good to see you again!" she said, laughing. Ela was over a century younger than Kura, and Kura had even helped raise her from time to time. But for all that, her little sister was as dear to her as if they'd only been born a few years apart. "How long have you been back in Scalvoris?" she asked. When she had left to get her familiar, Ela had been in The Eternal Empire still. Then Kura remembered that the last time she'd seen Ela, she'd still had brown eyes.

Phelan materialized next to Kura and grinned up at Ela. "Ela, this is Phelan. Mother gave me her blessing just after I left home." she said, gesturing down at the wolf. Speck, who had known Ela since the younger mortalborn had been an infant, landed on Ela's shoulder and nuzzled against her cheek. "I also found my Sev'ryn familiar, a barghest-bunny named Rahmet. He's sniffing at your feet." she said. Rahmet, invisible to Ela's sight, nevertheless wagged his fluffy bunny tail at her.

As the spoke, Kura led the way up to her house. She had a number of things with her, mostly paperwork, but she had her bow and quiver with her. "Have you found a home yet? If you're still looking for a suitable place, you can stay with me for a bit." she said. Ela, last she looked, had vastly preferred caves and such to houses, but she might have changed her mind, and either way she'd need to find a good place. "We should go hunting, you know? It's been way too long since we did." she said, stepping onto her porch. Opening her door, she tossed her paperwork onto her couch, then shut her door and grinned her sister. "Still using claw and fang to hunt, or did someone finally convince you that a bow or javelin is a perfectly acceptable tool?" she said, grinning at her kid sister as she stepped off her porch.

Kura laughed as she embraced her sister, glad to see her in a way that that few could comprehend. For all that Ela was feral and uncanny while Kura was civilized and cultured, the two understood each other in ways that would seem absurd to a casual outside observer. Their spirits, born by their Domains, were closer than one might assume at first, and while the two were perhaps opposite sides of a coin, it was still just one coin.

Speck, for her part, adored Ela and had frequently gone to visit the feral hunter on days when Kura was held up with work meetings and the like. When the two started moving, the owl took off and circled around them, but stayed close. Phelan gave a canine grin at Alrur, less than concerned with the feral dogs dislike of feeling outhunted, though he wished to make friends with the other canine. Kura though, she grinned happily at Alrur. "Good to see you again, Alrur. Thanks for keeping Ela out of trouble for me." she said, her tone cheerful. Alrur, so far as Kura was aware, was no more intelligent than an average dog, but she liked to talk to him nonetheless. He was a good conversation partner, wasn't too hung up on the sound of his own voice.

When Ela said she'd found herself a good cave, Kura grinned and nodded. "I'd like to see it." she said, her tone completely sincere. She had stayed the night with Ela a few times, initially to make sure that Ela wasn't regressing back into a completely feral state, but she had come to have a strange sort of appreciation for her sisters choice of dwelling. There was a purity to Ela's cavern homes, a sense that the harshness of the world could not enter, and she'd occasionally gone to visit with Ela for a few days to escape the cutthroat world of politics she'd immersed herself in. Plus, Ela was always a good hunting partner and she'd always come back from those visits with a few kills of her own that Ela hadn't had the room to store.

When Ela said that she was still using claw and fang as her weapons, Kura only laughed and nodded. In truth, she hadn't expected anything else. At her sincere moment of emotion, Kura returned her sisters smile and nodded. "I missed you too. Not being able to visit you was the hardest part about leaving." she said, a sadness to her voice. Rahmet looked away with some guilt, but Kura sent a reassuring thought to her Sev'ryn familiar. She hadn't wanted to leave, but she'd needed to leave, even if she hadn't realized it yet.

"And I get not squandering your talents. It's why I always use my bow, after all. When one of your Domains is Archery...just feels wrong to use anything else." she said, laughing slightly. She knew Ela considered using the bow to be cheating, but they'd long since agreed to disagree on that. But it did bring a thought to mind and she pushed up her coat sleeve a bit to show her Fracture Scar, another new addition since she'd left home. "Besides, I've got a new trick to show you." she said, grinning slightly.

When Ela signaled her readiness, Kura nodded and let out a slow sigh, closing her eyes. When she opened them again, her iris's had changed to gold and there was a feral nature to her grin. It wasn't often that Kura let the feral side of her nature out to play, but she always did when she went hunting with Ela. It was one of the few times it was perfectly safe to do so. "Let's get going." she said, a fierce but friendly growl in her voice, like a dog playing with it's people.

The two took off towards the scent, Kura drawing her bow as they hunted. It was a good feeling, to have Ela hunting at her side again. "Keep an eye on the deer. Some of them are more aggressive, tougher." she said as they hit the woods, both Mortalborn picking up the trail of prey. This was going to be fun indeed.

Kura laughed as Ela dismissed the threat of the deer. "Tell you what, lass, you fight an Oh Deer and then ask me that question. Same goes for the thrice damned thwarthogs." she said, before falling a bit behind Ela as they approached the source of the scent. Ela was usually ahead of Kura when they hunted, since her powers and skills were more suited to close range hunting, while Kura was best at a distance. This time was much the same, Ela and Alrur taking down a single deer with no harm to themselves and solid teammwork. Kura, however, showed the benefits of over a century of experience. There was a whistle through the air as her arrow hit the first of the fleeing deer in the throat, downing it with a single shot. Then a snarl came from where the deer were running and they turned, Phelan snapping at their heels. Her second shot wounded another one enough for Phelan to easily overtake it and finish it off. The third fleeing deer she let go. No need to finish it off as well, and it would find more deer to be with, as was their way.

Putting away her bow, she approached her the deer she had taken out with her first arrow as Phelan dragged the deer he had over to Ela. Kneeling, Kura put her hand on the deer, making sure it was dead, then nodded and started dragging it back to her sister. "Standard deer, I think, are starting to become too little of a challenge for you, Ela." she said with a laugh. She remembered when Ela had struggled more with deer, but then, she had been younger then. She had set her deer down next to Ela when a snarling, hissing noise emanated from the trees. "MOVE!" she yelled, drawing her bow and diving out of the way just a large deer charged through the underbrush, with elongated fangs and glowing red eyes. There was only one, thank goodness, but it was still an Oh Deer.

Kura had drawn and fired without properly aiming and her arrow just bounced off the animals hide. It turned and charged at her again, and again she dove out of the way. "The throat and eyes are our best shot, but be careful!" she called to her sister, drawing another arrow and keeping it primed, waiting either for the deer to charge again or for it to give her a clear shot, as right now she had a good view of the flank, but not the neck or head of the creature.

Kura laughed at Ela's remark about having grown. "Aye, I remember you tryin' to tackle down deer when you were much smaller. Kinda cute, really, when it wasn't givin' me and mum panic attacks." she said, just before the new troublemaker showed up. Ela jumped at the deer in her standard fashion, but she missed her target and did minimal damage to the side of the deer. "Ah, shite." Kura said as she started to pour her Power into the arrow, golden cracks appearing along it's length. "Phelan, go!" she said as the deer injured Ela with it's antlers. The wolf charged at the same time as Alrur, both canines working not quite in tandem, but as a team.

However, there was an offbeat to their teamwork. Alrur was, comparatively, stupid and Phelan had to keep changing tack to keep his teamwork with Alrur at it's most effective. Fortunately, Phelan and Alrur weren't the only animals fighting the Oh Deer. With an owlish shriek of rage, Speck dived from above, talons extended. Deer and birds didn't traditionally fight and the monstrous animal was not expecting an attack from above. Speck's talons raked the Oh Deer's left eye, causing it to reel from the sudden damage. In the confusion, Phelan jumped and grabbed the deer by the antler, forcing it to keep it's head low to the ground. Around this time, Kura finally launched her arrow, peppering the aggressive deer in several places along the side as it multiplied. They weren't killing blows by any means, but they distracted the big fanged beast. Between Phelan and Kura, it's attention was firmly on the elder of the sisters as it tried furiously to dislodge the wolf. "Ela, now's your chance!" Kura said, priming another arrow in case she needed it.

Ela finished off the Oh Deer quite handily, and Kura grinned to see the sight. Her little sister was still rough around the edges in a lot of ways, but she had a lot of potential and even a not-negligable amount of raw skill. Still, she had gotten decently injured and Kura looked at the wound. "Yeah, we'd best get you to a healer. Fortunately for you, I know the best healer on the island." she said, helping Ela to her feet. "Do you want to take the deer, demon deer included, to your cave first? The Oh Deer is good trading material if you need it, at least." she said, her tone cheerful.

If Ela wanted, Kura would help her take their kills to her cave. If not, she'd take the time to get them off the ground so that they could be retrieved later. Either way, once they were done, she led the way out of the forest, heading towards Faith's house. "Faith has treated me before, she knows Mortalborn pretty well. I'll warn you though, she may be small, but she's as stubborn as the Empress herself." she said, her tone cheerful. "So don't be thinkin' she's goin' to let you get away with tryin' to sneak out without a full treatment." she said, her tone cheerful.

When they got to Faith's house, Kura knocked lightly on the door in case the kids were asleep. "Faith, you home lass?" she asked, her tone cheerful. When Faith opened the door, Kura gestured to her sister. "This is my little sister, Ela. The pup got into a fight with an Oh Deer, got her shoulder sliced up somethin' fierce. We were hopin' you could fix her up." she said, smiling slightly.