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Familiar Strangers Of The Heart

Wednesday, June 6th, 739 BSO; 10:12 PM

After embracing her brother, Ayo was escorted alongside one of the lava flows, her eyes constantly looking sidelong at the bubbly flow of the orange goo beside her. She was thankful that her brother had hold of her arm, even if his grasp was anything but welcoming. Amadi was being forceful and aggressive, claws biting into the blue-purple hide of her arm. Ayo found she didn't mind the forcefulness at the moment, as it ensured that she wouldn't trip or take a misstep and have an unpleasant tumble into the bubbling liquid.

Eventually, she was pushed unceremoniously into a tent, catching herself before she landed snout-first and crushed her satchel. Chances were that her brother would have blamed her for it at this stage, even if it were his fault that the vials broke. She looked up from her prone position, glaring daggers at the male she had considered closer to her than any other. She never was in love with her brother, but she certainly had always loved him. Now? She wasn't quite so sure, not after everything else that had happened.

Amadi at least gave her a moment to compose herself, but it might only be because he was addressing the Allosaurus she had first met as 'Broth'. The allo was rather average looking with his brown scales, more so alongside the blue-purple hide of her brother; a genetic trait that he shared with her. It was funny, but over time she had actually come to like Broth more than her brother, and that was cemented even more now as she watched her brother cuff the allo upside the head. Just as a raptor would have.

While her brother berated the allo, she managed to look around the tent. It was plain aside from some obsidian-tipped weaponry and one large sheet hanging, obstructing the other half of the tent. She took it as just a sleeping quarter for her brother and instead turned her attention back upon Broth and Amadi.

"I have all four vials," she spoke finally, trying to spare Broth more harm as she saw Amadi's paw rear back. It seemed her plan worked, as his attention was turned back toward his sister with the allo grunting as he stepped out of the tent. The only sign that he even noticed what she had done for him was a brief nod of his head; but for Broth? That spoke volumes.

"Let me see them," Amadi spoke, holding a paw out toward his sister.

With only a moment of hesitation, she undid the clasp on the front of the satchel, revealing the four vials within. They were an inky black, reminding her almost of the feathers of a certain male she had become so intertwined with. She cupped one of the vials and grasped it hard in her paw, fighting with the temptation to throw it in her brother's face for all of a heartbeat before she handed it over.

"And this will work?" he asked, grinning widely as his sister gave a slow nod of her head. "Then let us test it," he commented, walking toward the sheet and ripping it down.

Ayo's eyes went wide as she leapt to her feet, trying to get in the way of her brother and the test subject he had drugged and bound upon the table that had laid behind the sheet.

Saturday, May 5th, 739 BSO; 6:05 PM

"No."

The single word uttered by Kibwe hung heavy in the air, leaving the envoy of the Tuk speechless. The Tuk Clan was used to getting its way, right down to the extent that hearing someone say 'no' to their request took time to process. And when it finally did register in the female's brain, she snarled at Kibwe, "Is that your final decision, Feralheart?"

The male merely nodded, standing up tall before the envoy and turning around. He saw no reason to be courteous to this envoy, considering his choice meant excommunication and a form of exile. It didn't matter how he tried to sugarcoat it, the answer was still going to be no. So he left the room, and Ayo, not wanting to be left alone in front of the momentarily dumbstruck female, followed along behind. She'd rather be with the black-feathered male than alone in a room with a seething female from the Tuk any day, regardless of her conflicted emotions around him.

"What will happen now?" Ayo asked quietly, following him as he weaved his way through the stone halls of his Clan's temple.

"I have no idea. No one in our history has truly stood up to the Tuk before," he frowned, "At least none that have gone into the histories."

"What was this about the Seers?"

He paused in his stride then, slowly turning to face her. And, some distance behind, Ayo heard the thumping of two spears Clanking on the stone - Kibwe's guard keeping their distance but nevertheless being his shadow.

"What do you know about the Seers, Ayo?" he asked, and she opened her maw before closing it with a shake of her head. Little to nothing, truly, "They were once members of the Tuk, but left because of oddities that were forming within themselves. They embraced those oddities, however, rather than shun them. The Seers are filled with raptors that society wouldn't have deemed acceptable, or those that have emerged with... special powers."

He frowned, "They are rumoured to be able to tell the weather," not that it changed much in their underground empire, aside from mist or fog clinging to it. The rain they got caused more mud than actual wetness, "to see the future and other strange abilities. Most of them also aren't as physically capable as the other Clans and they embrace those that are crippled. They went from being a small voice in the crowd to now owning a temple complex of their own, to match any other Clan."

"Their current Matron is Subira Sightseer, and like most of her Clan, she has a physical deformity - a bad leg. But she has the ability to See," he frowned. "She claimed to have one such vision when I was young, after my first feather. In fact," he lifted his forearm that the band of twenty feathers was upon, and flicked one of them with a talon, "that is her feather. She gave it to me when I finished, and told me I would have more than any male in our history."

He laughed at the memory, "Seems she was right on that, at least. It was her 'son' that was trying to tempt me during the Choosing. And she also offered me her daughter, too, to side with the Seers in 'trouble ahead.' I guess she didn't know I'd _cause_the trouble."

Ayo, during all of this, sat silent; she was trying to absorb the information and digest it. She knew, of course, that the Seers weren't one of the original Clans - even her education in the lower city taught her that, but she never truly understood just how different they were from the rest. "So she saw trouble in the future, but why would she back up your choice? You shamed her son!"

Kibwe arched his brow and clicked his tongue at that question, turning to walk but gesturing that Ayo should follow along, "You do know that wasn't actually her son, right? None of us know our parents. We are, as hatchlings, raised collectively by all the Clans. When we reach the age of maturity, we undergo our Rite. When we survive, we are adopted into a Clan and a family arch. My 'mother' was the former Matron, and my father the former leader. But birth parents?" he shrugged.

"I've heard rumors my mother was raped by an Allosaurus from the Bitah'ta, or that she was seduced by one of her servants. Needless to say, everyone is convinced that my father was an allosaurus, as rare as that allows offspring," as time went on, the raptors noticed that their kind could crossbreed with the other two species. As time went on, that got more and more taboo.

Kibwe, Ayo figured, was extremely lucky that his egg wasn't dashed upon a rock somewhere.

"So the Seers don't truly care that I turned down their son, and I gave them a reason for that change. They're making a power play, and it seemed that at least one other Clan," the Claw, "has thrown their feathers in with them. It's why the Tuk were here, really."

He led her toward a stone door carved into the hall like many others, but this one he gestured her toward. The entrance was merely covered by beaded tapestry, providing privacy without truly sealing oneself away in what no doubt would be a claustrophobic space. Within, she saw a simple bed and some furniture, though she admitted to herself that the overall size of it was larger than her own room.

"They wanted us to agree to back them in case war breaks out." The words startled Ayo out of her examination of the room, let alone wondering why she was led into it. She turned around and nearly bumped into Kibwe's chest, standing close together as they were. She felt herself flushing hot at the proximity, and found she was just glad that his scent was neutral.

She didn't know what she'd do if his arousal was on the air.

"War?" she questioned, taking slow breaths to try and keep her racing heart under control. Count backward from ten. Ten, nine...

"Yes. Four of the six Clans are already committed. Seers and Claw against Tuk and Talon. It leaves my Clan and the Feather as the only ones not throwing their weight in. And frankly? I don't plan to throw my weight in."

She thought on that for a moment before giving a slow nod, "I think I understand." Did she? That was debatable, and she certainly had questions, but she felt that she had been through enough shocks and questions for one day. "Where are we?"

"A bedroom," he offered with a very much put-on, straight face. It made her lift a paw and smack him on the arm. He raised a brow at her and she flushed, knowing after the fact that that was definitely not appropriate.

He didn't respond negatively but rather leaned over until his snout tip was close to hers, mere inches away. It made her heart race, thumping in what she assumed must have been quite the audible fashion. "It is your bedroom, to be exact. I want you here until this all blows over, one way or another. I won't be held responsible for leaving you unprotected out there," he commented, before licking the tip of her snout, his tongue barely brushing across her top lip.

It was only because he stood up again that she kept herself from doing anything rash. "Will you please accept?"

"I..." she gulped, feeling that budding heat once more, "Yes. I will stay here, at least until things calm down."

Then she was given a treat, though not one she expected. Kibwe wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly, showcasing his actual size and strength in the fact that she found her feetpaws dangling off the ground. But she returned the embrace, nuzzling in against his feathers contently until she found herself once again returned fully to the ground.

"Thank you, Ayo. That will help ease my mind."

Sunday, May 13th, 739 BSO; 12:02 PM

Ayo initially tried to return to life as normal, but she found that that was no longer possible. Not only was she getting a swarm of gossipers from her own kind, but she was getting raptors coming within her store to accost her as well. Nothing overly threatening, perhaps because of the guard that shadowed her every time she left the Heart complex, but it was enough of a worry that she eventually relocated. She packed up all her belongings and moved them into the otherwise plain room offered to her.

Not terribly long after that did she find it funny just how quickly the chaotic and different could become the new normal. Within a week, she had settled down in her room and already she was thinking of it as her new home. It was odd, yes, to not deal with the crowds of the lower city, an endless sea of faces that all looked familiar and safe; all like her own, save perhaps the odd visitor from one of the temple complexes.

Yet a week later, the reverse situation within the temple complex was the new familiarity and the oddity was seeing a snout like hers; it was almost jarring how quickly she got used to it. And after a few short days, it seemed the raptors of the Heart Clan were used to her, as they no longer glared at her or looked down at her for what she was. Now, she mused, they only looked down at her because she was shorter than they.

She didn't know if the change of opinion was because of her or Kibwe, but she hoped it was some combination of the two - she'd hate to think they were all behaving differently around her merely because the black-feathered male ordered them to.

Instead, she liked to believe that it was because she was being useful. She wasn't just mooching off of the Clan, eating their food and being a burden, rather she had reset up shop. It was a bit cramped, yes, working out of her room, but it had all the space she needed for her vials, tonics, and elixirs.

She had hardly finished setting up before she had her first customer; a female raptor by the name of Yeva Goldheart that came to her for help. Her name wasn't just because of her personality, but rather because she was one of the gold feathers.

Her whole body was money, more or less - and as such, it was little wonder that she came to Ayo for a cure when she discovered her feathers were falling out on their own accord. After a long questioning session and a few checks of the female's body, Ayo gave her a simple tonic for stress and told her to rest.

Turned out it was the best thing for her, and after returning a few days later, she swept Ayo up in a hug as thanks. Over time, Yeva returned and just sought out Ayo's company, finding that the two had plenty in common despite their differences. They were roughly the same age and both found themselves as oddities in the world they lived in; Ayo for her species and Yeva for the colour of her feathers. One could go down a hall without so much as being acknowledged while the other could go down that same hall and would be noticed by every raptor within, although the reasons for both were exactly the same: their looks.

Ayo almost pitied that the only reason poor Yeva got so much attention was that everyone wanted her feathers, not the raptor underneath them. She even jokingly told Ayo that she wished the tonic hadn't worked just so she could go bald and finally be without so much attention.

It was on that Sunday that the dilo found herself once again in the company of her friend, giggling while lying on the bed beside her, enjoying the physical contact of a warm body beside her own while sharing random stories of their lives growing up.

"So you were brought into this Clan from another, Yeva?" Ayo asked.

"I was originally Yeva Goldfeather - I know, on the snout, isn't it? I was traded into the Heart Clan during the time of the last leader when I had just really come into puberty. I went from being second in a harem to now being lost in the sea, even if I am a higher rank in the overall pecking order. But, I will admit that among the harem at least my feathers have some advantage," she paused and flushed, making Ayo peer over with an arched brow-ridge.

"Everyone wants more gold raptors - money is money, after all. So I get mounted regularly. I can't complain, and the jealous looks of those that are higher than me in the harem are amazing, I'll admit."

Ayo shook her head with a snort, "You raptors and your harem politics. I'll never understand it. We dilos only take a singular mate, and that can be short term or long term. We don't trade our lovers for power, but we don't feel compelled to stay with them forever, either."

"And then you have the poor allos," Yeva spoke, "who don't get to pick at all. Bred like... well... like animals," she frowned, shaking her head.

"Oh! I almost forgot," she reached into the satchel on her hip, one that Ayo was learning was rather common for most raptors to wear. After all, very few creatures wore clothing and as such things like 'pockets' eluded them.

Yeva produced a single, sealed scroll with the Heart symbol upon it, and passed it over to Ayo, "A certain black-feathered someone learned I've been spending a lot of time here, and asked me to deliver this next time I saw you."

Ayo had to resist the urge to jump up and rip it open in haste and instead she took her time to work her claw under the seal and pry it loose, letting the scroll unfurl and reveal the neat scrawl within.

Ayo of the Heart Clan, Highest of the Feralheart harem, I - Kibwe Feralheart - write to you an invitation for you to join me on Monday, May 14th for a hunt. If you are to truly live with my people, Ayo, you must respect our customs, Ayo frowned at that part. It didn't sound like Kibwe at all and, if she had to guess, this was penned by him and his council, the foremost of which is the Hunt. You are well-educated, but in the eyes of a raptor, you've never graduated. Until you've finished your education, you cannot be a harem member. As such, I - Kibwe Feralheart - will accompany you on the hunt under the watchful eye of Subira Sightseer.

_ Your Mate,_

_ Kibwe Feralheart._

Ayo was thoroughly confused, "He wants me to go hunting with him?"

Yeva was handed the letter and after a few moments, she made an 'o' shape with her lips, "No! He's inviting you to earn a feather! That means... that means you're undergoing the instinct trial!" she held up her own forearm, showing Ayo the band of feathers on her wrist. Well, feather - she only sported one. Although she frowned afterward. "I've never heard of a dilo taking our narcotic before, let alone earning a feather. I don't know how he got permission from Subira for this."

Ayo didn't know either but she didn't have time to wonder about it, and she had far too many other questions and worries to try and figure out what leverage Subira and the Seers got from Kibwe in return for accepting her blessing for the hunt.

Monday, May 14th, 739 BSO; 2:56 PM

The first news of the day that Ayo had heard was that the fighting between the Seers and the Tuk had begun in earnest, as the two came to blows over a petty matter of temple boundaries. They both claimed the line between the Seer and the Tuk temples as their own ground and that it was no longer shared between them, and following that both sides posted guards. For several days it was a cold war of glares and threatening words, but one young male of the Seer Clan (according to the Tuk) or an older priest of the Tuk Clan (according to the Seers) crossed the line, leading to blows and the first casualties of the war.

Four were dead and three more gravely injured in the fighting before higher ups of both sides could pull their people back and out of the fighting, and Ayo's worry was just how long it would be before it engulfed the rest of the city.

It was little wonder that when she was delivered by a guard to Kibwe, she found him poring over a map. She took a step beside him and looked down at where his claw was tracing, following along the split of the two complexes, exactly where the fighting had been. "I've never seen a map of where we live," Ayo commented softly.

There were a total of six step-pyramids, one for each Clan. At the center of it all was the largest of the temple complexes, owned by the Tuk Clan. And arrayed around it in a pattern that almost looked akin to a star were the remaining five Clans - Heart at the north, Seer at the northwest, Talon at the northeast, Claw at the southwest, and Feather as the southeast. And arrayed in a ring around the complexes was the lower city; upon the map before her, it almost looked like a barrier against the jungle, the first line of defense and where thousands of her own people lived.

Another map alongside that one showed the jungle, at least in what detail the raptors had of it. It wasn't overly well cataloged, with many areas marked with a question mark or simply left blank. Even the slopes of their subterranean, cavernous home were marked out, though not in great detail. Over time, many sections of that wall had been shored up when it started to show signs of cracking with work teams, led by raptors, almost daily sent out into the jungle to ensure their world stayed hidden away from everything else. Ayo almost wondered why they went through with what no doubt was a painstaking, frustrating task. Perhaps there was something even more fearsome upon the surface?

Regardless, she returned to the previous map and traced a line from the Heart temple to the east, where she estimated her shop had been. It was funny how close she still was to her former home, and yet it felt so far away. She frowned and then looked at the map arrayed beside it, showing the layout of the Heart temple itself. Ten steps high and thus housing ten internal chambers of shops, storage, living quarters, council chambers, and other assorted property - and at the top of it was the tenth chamber, much smaller than all the others yet still grand in size when you consider it was for one being and their harem.

Currently the entirety of that space was just for Kibwe.

By the time that thought had crossed her mind, Kibwe turned away from the map and towards her with a smile. He was tired, that much she could tell right away. She had no doubt he'd been locked in the council chamber (which was on the seventh step, according to that map) for hours a day for the past week, trying to sort out the mess that he helped create. All while trying to stay neutral in the war as a whole.

It seemed that neutrality and the burning question that the letter left in the open the other day, was somewhat diminished - all answered when he spoke, "Subira has agreed to officiate our hunt, to confirm the kill, in exchange for a large harem swap. No - not my personal harem, but my numbers are... let us say much smaller now," he offered with a sheepish grin. It seemed he had to just give away several of his and the only thing he got out of it was her. A fantasy, but one he was still pursuing while he could.

It made her flush again, even if she knew that she was but a pawn in the greater scheme of things. For a time, at least, she didn't mind being moved around on the board, so long as she wasn't knocked off of it just yet.

"So... what? We go off to the jungle, get drunk, kill, and I get a feather?" Ayo asked.

Kibwe gave a deep-chested laugh, his head tossed back and his exhaustion momentarily forgotten, "You're closer to the truth than you think. Honestly, we don't even know if the drug will work. If it doesn't? The hunt is called off instantly," dilos were known for their high poison tolerance, after all. But that didn't make them immune to it.

"In raptors, it brings out our most primal instincts. We become animals. We fight one another to determine pack order and then we hunt. It is a controlled hunt, however, as we leave traces of our target everywhere prior to getting entirely addled. Scent rags, preplaced tracks, that sort of thing. It doesn't always work, some hunting parties go off-path and are lost forever, but it is a risk we all know and accept."

He frowned, "I won't lie. One of us might die. I might kill you during the pecking order phase since you're a dilo and not a raptor. You might even kill me during it. Anything and everything can go wrong and I won't force you to go through with it. Say you don't want to and I'll let you walk away now."

She didn't answer immediately, even if her mind was mostly made up already, and the reaction was almost worth the indecision by itself. Kibwe's expression was one of worry and a trace of fear, both wanting her to accept and yet worried about what might happen to her, to them, should she do so. But in the end, his fears weren't justified, and she bobbed her head. "I'll do it, Kibwe. Just show me where."

Or perhaps her stubbornness not to back down from a fight that was bigger than her was exactly what he feared.

Monday, May 14th, 739 BSO; 3:48 PM

Nearly an hour later while circumventing certain sections of the complex that were in Tuk claws, the pair made it toward the preordained hunting grounds. It was on the Seer side of the city and located on the far side of the lower city, upon the jungle border. Despite having lived in the lower city for years, she had never gone beyond its safety and out into the jungle before. It was as alluring as it was terrifying, and now she had no choice but to face it.

Arranged in a semi-circle before the jungle were members of the Seer Clan, roughly six of them. Ayo had no doubts that they were the Matron and her guards. She had even fewer doubts about which one was Subira Sightseer.

At the center of the half-circle was an older female, one with a gnarled leg. It looked like it was caused from birth and yet the Seer still had one brightly coloured plume dangling from the band on her wrist, faded with time yet no less purposeful for that. Subira, like her son (who, Ayo noted, was standing beside her and tossing glares her way) was eye-catching, even with her feathers slowly going gray with age. She oddly shared the same vibrant, if fading, purple as her son which make Ayo wonder if the two were genetically related; though hers was outlined by a dark green. It gave her the appearance of a songbird, and Ayo had little doubt that leg injury or no, Subira had turned many heads in her youth.

Perhaps even more as she got older.

"Kibwe. Ayo. Welcome," Subira intoned, bowing her head before her fellow leader - a gesture that Kibwe followed suit with before approaching and nuzzling his cheek to her own.

"You look as radiant as ever, Sightseer. I take it that Tendai and his harem are fitting right in?"

"Yes, and my daughter thanks you for the match. She is enjoying her new harem members - and her new position." Kibwe and Subira nuzzled cheeks once more and then stepped apart, formalities and niceties taken care of.

"All I can say is that I'm glad it is you Seers and not the Tuk that oversee these hunts, otherwise this would never have been allowed," Kibwe commented, looking sidelong at Ayo, "for many reasons."

"And be glad that we produce the narcotic in-house, rather than buying it from them anymore. I bought the recipe from them a few months ago, after all," Subira offered with a wink at Ayo. It made the dilo wonder just how much of this Subira had seen before it came to pass, or if the 'Sight' was a lie and she was just really, really good at guessing.

One of the other Seers stepped forward with two large goblets that were filled to the brim with an orange, swirling substance - the narcotic, no doubt. She took the goblet from the Seer and grasped the metallic, bronze worked cup in both of her paws.

Looking in the goblet that was handed to her, she didn't see her reflection like she might in a goblet of water; instead she swore she saw images. Reflections of other things, of fantastical shapes and realities. It was then that she figured out that the drug was some sort of hallucinogen. It must trick the mind into those more primal of instincts, rather than truly reverting it.

"And this will work on me?" she asked Subira, looking her straight in the eye - something her followers silently grumbled at, but that Subira hardly took notice of.

"It will."

With a deep breath and a sidelong glance at Kibwe, who nodded at her, they simultaneously lifted their cups to their lips and swallowed.