74th of Ymiden 722
Kisaik did enjoy his time in the Sweetwine whenever he got a chance to be there. Not only because he was Song-forged either. There was just a benevolence and serenity that came along with the wonderous forest. He enjoyed this even more because he employed Ashan's Cognizance, to feel what the forest felt. This initially led to nothing but positive feelings and serenity. However, as he walked along, he became aware of something troubling.
The feelings coming back from the flowers and herbs and trees came back slightly skewed. They told of hands that picked too much, took too much from them. Entire groves of flowery growth are plucked for their special properties, and trees cut down in their prime before the time for culling. Kisaik frowned as he meditated upon these sensations and followed them to their source. Within a few breaks, his walk took him to the entrance of a large hut, made from gathered stone piles that formed a foundational wall, and then dirt and wood that made up the body of the hut and thatch on top.
It was here that the source of the disturbance originated.
He sensed strange spiritual emanations from it. Depressive and oppressive emanations, beyond the sensations that were aroused from the plants surrounding him. He'd not felt such a strong spiritual conflux of sadness concentrated around one place. He wondered at it. Frowning, and determined to get to the front of the problem, he walked up and knocked on the door, rapping it with his sword handle, which he summoned to his hand.
"Hullo! Open up there! I wish to have a word with the owner of this dwelling!"
There was a noise from within, and then a shuffling of objects and accoutrements. Eventually, the door did open to reveal an old human man, back bent over, and graying balding hair. His nose was crooked, and he had every appearance of the evil witch or wizard from fairy tales. Kisaik's frown deepened. "Hullo sir, would you mind if I come in?"
"What's the meaning of this!" The old man asked. It was then that Kisaik realized he wasn't looking down at him, but across the way, perhaps expecting someone larger to have arrived. Kisaik cleared his throat, and then used rupturing roar to get his attention. "Down here!" The booming voice was enough to get his attention sure enough, and he cast his eyes downward at Kisaik.
There was a glint of something in his eye, but Kisaik couldn't decipher the intent behind it. Perhaps it as mischief, or else just annoyance. Kisaik couldn't always tell with humans, their emotions were so hard to read without having the ephemeral emanations that most Tunawa gave off.
"Oh... a tunawa... My, you must be lost?"
"Not quite, sire. I was wondering if you might let me into your cabin!" Kisaik kept frowning, "I have been following a trail of trampled flowers and grass and trees to this location. Have you permission from the Office of Natural Affairs to set up such a laboratory in the middle of the wilds?!"
The old man scratched his chin for a few moment, twirling some loose chin whiskers that were there as he seemed to consider the creature beneath him. "Why don't you come in then! And we'll see what we can make of this unfortunate misunderstanding..."
Without warning, without much of a 'how do you do', the old man reached for Kisaik's form with unearthly speed, grasping him within his tightened fist.
"I say! Unhand me this instant!" Kisaik demanded
The old wizard smirked a vile grin, and shook his head. "I've need of a new donor, and here we have one presenting itself right to my doorstep! I shall use your sap to distill the existing admixture..."
"Wait what! Are you some kind of alchem..." Kisaik growled as he squirmed in the man's grip.
"Aye I'm an alchemist, little twig-man. And now we have full compliment of male and female tunawa. I can start to breed you all! Soon I shall be able to make the finest of tunawa alchemy!"
The man's penchant for monologuing gave Kisaik a convenient insight into his motivations. Why did Villains always do that?
Regardless, it wasn't good to hear what he was doing to Tunawa. He saw the female tunawa that he now shared a cage with. Two of them, one green-leafed haired, and one with pink macadamia blossoms for hair.
"I shall be back!" The old man said, "Konsu has plans for you all, and he needs a special ingredient from the wood before he can harvest your sap!"
Kisaik frowned after him, as the man went through his cabin door, and shut it behind him. The tunawa looked around, and saw many of the makings of a alchemist laboratory. A fine alembic, seemingly made for high-temperature distilling, and other beakers and glasswork for the storing of materials.
Yet, for now Kisaik had to turn to the tunawa he shared a cage with. "What have we here? Ladies?"
"I'm Ce'Nija." Said the green-leafed tunawa, with a somber tone. "And this is Àìdá'tuli. We come from Rharne..."
Kisaik knew Rharne, and had visited there once upon a time. "I see... Well met? I am Sir Chip, tunawa knight. Don't worry, I shall get us out of here, before the old man can come back..."
"It's hopeless." Said the pink-haired tunawa, with a little piteous mewl of a cry.
Ce'Nija shook her head, "Come on," She wrapped an arm around the shoulder of the pink-haired one, and lifted her up. "We've got to trust that Sir Chip can find the way out, if he says so. What's the harm in trying?"
"The old man might use one of us for... kindling." Àìdá'tuli moaned at the last utterance.
Kisaik's frown turned into a full blown scowl at this point, so furious was he at the treatment of these tunawa. Someone really had to teach that old man Konsu a lesson, that one didn't simply capture a tunawa without inviting a heck of a whole lot of mischief and trouble.
Ce'Nija looked up at Sir Chip, and shrugged. "She's inconsolable. I don't know what Konsu did, but it's making her quite upset."
"Anyway, how are we going to get out of this cage? It's made of steel and hard wood!"
"No cage can hold an adored of Ashan!" Kisaik exclaimed, for once smiling for Àìdá'tuli and Ce'Nija, trying to dispel the bad feelings. With that said, with a swift kick, he undid the lock on the cage door. It wasn't by his own strength, however, but by the power of his mark that he was able to undo any confinements that were set upon him. Magic or mundane.
The door flung open on its hinges, and Àìdá'tuli and Ce'Nija looked on with wonder. "How..."
"Nevermind! Let us flee!"
Thus the three tunawa made their way out of the cage. Kisaik opened a brief portal, which made the way from within the confines of Konsu's cabin walls, to a safe distance outside. He held it open for a good few moments, allowing both of them out. But once they were both through, Kisaik let it close behind them. He whispered through the portal, and perhaps the sound carried, "I will be along in a moment, I have unfinished business with the Old Man!"
This said, he shut the portal, and began sky-stepping his way up toward the cabinets of the old man's herbal drawers. There he found many seeds, seeds and unrefined flowers that he'd picked from around the Sweetwine Forest. In Kisaik's fury, he grabbed a few of these, not sure from whence this sudden burst of mischief had come. Other than wanting to punish Konsu, that is.
Once he'd satisfied himself with the amount of seeds stolen from the man's cabinet, he blinked in and out of there, but not before pulling over the marvelous alembic that Konsu used in his experiments in distilling the sap of Tunawa.
The alembic, in the wake of Kisaik's departure, fell to the ground, shattering into a hundred pieces.
This done, Kisaik found himself outside, beside the two female tunawa, who apparently had come across Aquarius. Àìdá'tuli cowered, while Ce'Nija stood in front of her, impassive before the large dragonling. Kisaik smiled, genuinely happy to see the creature. "Well! I see you've met Aquarius. Don't worry, he's quite friendly, and will not harm you. He's my steed!"
"You... Ride that?" Ce'Nija asked, amazement on her face. Kisaik nodded. Then with a hand extended to either of them, led them onto the saddle of the creature, and up to its very head where he seated them.
"Away Aquarius!" For a moment Kisaik thought about demolishing the home of Konsu, but thought better of it. Even a misguided villain like him deserved a home. Thus they flew off toward the safety of Sweetsong.
