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What The Heart Wants

Wednesday, June 6th, 739 BSO; 9:56 PM

Ayo adjusted the satchel's strap that rested across her blue-purple hide, fiddling with it for what had to be the hundredth time since she departed the city. At first, it seemed surreal, but now as she took another step toward the Bitah'ta camp in the wake of the much larger Allosaurus, it was becoming far too realistic. Staring at the back of the brown scaled Allosaurus, she slipped a taloned paw into her satchel, lightly running the tip of a talon over the stopper of a vial.

Just one of the vials in the satchel had the potential to kill an Allosaurus, and she had four such vials. She hoped that perhaps the venom wouldn't work, that the various agents used in making the chemical substance would fizzle out or refuse to bind. She also knew it was a desperate hope because she crafted them herself.

The allosaurus before her shoved aside a large overturned tree that was leaning at an odd angle, propping it up with a grunt and revealing the well trudged path beyond. She saw countless footprints in the muck and she registered that all of them were belonging to either her species or allos. Clearly, they were on the right path, and any hope of her guide being lost vanished in an instant. Just like any hope of escaping whatever fate she was walking toward one step at a time. With a gulp and several carefully placed steps, she squeezed herself past the allo prop the tree up with his shoulder, and onto the path beyond.

As the darkness of the night truly encroached about her, she saw things getting strangely brighter. It was only after a time that she noticed the light was natural, rather than handmade. The lighting was from one of the many geothermal vents that ran through the jungle, providing it one of its many dangers: active lava rivers. Also, she mused while her tongue lolled out from between the serpentine-like fangs of her jaw, it explained the sweltering heat of this section of the jungle.

Camped nearby were at least twenty or some-odd souls, each of which was talking or joking. It looked like any plaza of the lower city, but unlike the lower city, there were weapons of war and protective armours scattered everywhere. And the bodies gathered around weren't talking about the latest trend or gossip but were discussing the brewing civil war in the capital. One she had inadvertently helped to create.

Standing at the front of those twenty-odd souls and along her path into the camp was her brother, a grin on his snout and his arms held wide, "Ayo! You made it," however his grin vanished in a heartbeat, replaced by a look of pure and utter malice.

"Good."

Friday, May 4th, 739 BSO; 9:12 PM

"My pick is Ayo, Clan Member of the Lower City," the words hung heavy in the silent chamber, everyone gathered momentarily unable to breathe as the words processed and people wondered if they'd misheard. Ayo most of all thought she clearly had gone crazy. She knew she had been dreaming about Kibwe somewhat, but dreaming was one thing and she certainly didn't think the raptor had been dreaming of her!

Then all at once, the room came alive with a multitude of shouting and screeching, hissing and growling. The first thing Ayo noticed and cringed away from wasn't the accusing looks of the few raptors around her that knew who and what an 'Ayo' was, but rather the utterly deflated look of the male below. He went from riding high on the coattails of victory to crashing hard, and it showed in every fiber of his being for several seconds before he was swallowed up in the surging crowd. During those seconds he was still visible to her, Ayo felt for him.

Not that she had long to do so, as shortly afterward the crowd figured out what this 'Ayo' was. Every other dilo in attendance had cringed and hid away, or otherwise made themselves scarce. She wished she had such forethought, rather than being rooted to her seat with her talons in a death grip upon the stone. She decided to try and ride out gracefully, standing with her snout raised high in defiance. However it only lasted a few moments before that defiance withered like a popped balloon. She realized she didn't quite understand why she was being defiant since she was only a dilo among a pack of raptors.

A fact that the Prophet was quick to remind Kibwe by shouting tones, rushing over to the young leader and hissing to him over all the commotion as Ayo stood upon her seat. At least, until she was shoved from behind by one of the raptors, making her stumble forward.

Thankfully, she wasn't terribly high up in the crowd and was able to catch herself before she tripped over another body or ended up snout first upon the ground. She skittered to a stop on the edge of the Heart procession, and they slowly pushed, urged, or cut her off until she found herself directed to the side of Kibwe by the rest of his Clan. It truly didn't help that her head hardly reached his chest, just further reinforcing the differences in species.

"This... this Dilophosaurus can NOT be your choice, Kibwe Feralheart! I don't know how things are run in your Clan, but they are NOT run like that here," the Prophet spat, standing tall and proud in front of Kibwe. Had it been anyone but the seven foot tall, pitch-black male, it might have been intimidating but as it were, Kibwe merely stared down at the snarling male and kept his eyes locked the Prophet's own.

"Tradition states that a raptor of a Clan must be bartered into or create a harem for status and position, and you? You have neither, no matter your claim as 'leader'. You have no harem, you thus have no power in the eyes of the Tuk'un!" it was the wrong line of attack to make on Kibwe, as his lessers slowly edged themselves in beside their leader, presenting a united front against the angered male before them. What Ayo found strange, however, was that they were forming that same screen around her, and Kibwe's mere presence drove her to adopt the same pose of defiance. He hadn't done anything but make a claim and stand snout-to-snout with the Prophet, but there was another kind of tension that had snapped all across the great hall.

The Prophet raised his voice, smacking the gnarled staff in his taloned grasp against the stone, causing the robe of black to swirl upward, showing Ayo quite clearly that the male's skin was sickly. An alchemist by profession, she could generally tell illnesses at a glance and she was utterly dumbstruck by whatever it was she was seeing.

Once again she noted that the Prophet was entirely featherless, but up close she saw that he was covered in a canopy of that pebbly hide that raptors had on their snouts, hands, and feet. Unlike the general browns or greys that such a loss of feathers would show underneath, his hide showed a vibrant, sickly green that nearly glowed and for all of her medical knowledge, she was unable to identify what plagued the Prophet.

She was suddenly snapped back from her examination as the Prophet's words brought about another silence, "...and I declare Kibwe and the entire Heart Clan excommunicated and unwelcome in the Temple until this... this travesty is rectified, and Kibwe steps down as their leader!"

That caused an outrage from every Clan, with leaders and secondaries shouting all at once. Some were agreeing with the Prophet, bobbing their head or adding their voices to his, while others were booing the choice, saying he had no right to meddle in Clan politics as such.

In the end, he smashed the end of that staff against the stone and snarled at Kibwe, "Out of my sight, heretic! And may the Tuk'un have mercy on your soul."

Kibwe didn't say a word; he merely bobbed his head in a respectful manner while keeping his snout expressionless. He turned and nearly as one, the Heart Clan did the same. Ayo got a brief rush as the black feathered raptor laid his taloned paw on her shoulder, but it was merely to direct her along as well. For the moment, she was fine with a raptor directing her in what to do, as she didn't want to be in that hall a moment longer. She just wanted to go home and pretend it was all a dream.

In the very least she'd get to do one of those things.

Saturday, May 5th, 739 BSO; 11:23 AM

Ayo growled as she slammed the door of her shop in another gossiper's snout. After the meeting at the Temple last night, she was quietly escorted home by one of the Heart's soldiers and told that she'd hear from them again at some point. She didn't doubt that latter bit, but she didn't expect news to travel so damned quickly throughout the lower city. Normally they didn't care one iota about the games of power the feathered ones played, but this time? This time they paid close damned attention, and it drove Ayo up the wall.

There was also still the meet with her brother's contact, a thing she was dreading to do. She wondered if she still even had to, as news clearly was all over the lower city. She couldn't be surprised if the leader of the Bitah'ta itself hadn't already heard the news. However, the news that she learned from the gossipers trying to pry the story from her was staggering.

The Seers, the smallest and newest Clan but the most well respected outside of the Tuk themselves, had declared the declaration of heresy as unjust and were boycotting the Temple until it was revoked. What was even more shocking was that the Claw Clan quickly threw in their feathers with the Seers and backed up the boycott. The only Clan that immediately ran to the Tuk's aid was the Talon, declaring that Kibwe should step down to save his own Clan some face.

To think, all of this just to get out of years and years of pressured tradition. Who would have thought? Ayo shook her head with a soft snicker before there was another gossiper pressing their way into her shop with a thousand more questions, "Out!"

Saturday, May 5th, 739 BSO; 12:32 PM

Ayo was wearing a large, oversized cloak over her blue-purple hide, trying to hide away from the world as she waited at a table in the same restaurant she had taken her brother to the day before. She could hardly believe that her life could get so topsy-turvy in such a short period of time. Just two days ago her life made sense and now it seemed every other hour brought a new unseen form of chaos upon her.

Her brother had said that her contact would be hard to miss but she didn't expect just _how_difficult that would be, as before long the large frame of an Allosaurus was sitting down beside her, making her nearly screech out in alarm. Still calming down from the swift scare, she leaned over and smacked the large male who merely grunted.

"I suppose I deserve that," the male confessed, sprawling himself out alongside the table afterward. At nearly eight feet tall, he was indeed hard to miss. "If you're looking to not draw attention to yourself, a cloak isn't going to help."

He wasn't anything special for his kind, at least at first glance - brown scaled and big enough to take up all nearby free space and then some, forcing her to scoot over slightly to truly give him room. Plus, for some reason, she felt as though she wanted to avoid as much physical contact as she could with this large male.

Ayo, however, saw that he was correct in his assessment, glancing around and seeing that every eye was darting her way and then quickly away again. "I think they're more staring at you. We don't get many allos in this part of the lower city," she commented, trying to deflect the blame away from herself while simultaneously trying to calm her rapidly beating heart.

"I assume you're my brother's... friend?" she questioned, making the male sprawled lazily nearby nod.

"Call me Broth," obviously not his name, as he reached over to what little broth she still had left and poured the entirety of it into his large maw with a disgusting slorp. Clearly, the Bitah'ta needed a more feminine touch in their ranks, Ayo thought - first her brother's burp and now this allo's table manners!

"Broth, right... Well, 'Broth', I'm sure I don't need to tell you a damned thing if you've been in town more than five minutes," the allo, to his credit, snorted aloud at that and gave an agreeing bob of his head. "So I can go then?"

"Not quite, little lady," he adjusted himself so he was eye-to-eye, and any aloofness he had shown before was quickly identified as an act. There was no room for nonsense in his yellow eyes. "You're on the inside. You can't imagine how long we've wanted someone on the inside. And you're really on the inside," he grunted, looking her up and down. "I can maybe see why this raptor might try and fight the system for one dilo, you look like a nice little lay. But your brother is also right," he shifted himself closer toward her, placing himself nearly snout-to-snout.

His breath was rank, telling her that he hunted recently - meat obtained within the temple city, lower or upper, was spiced and flavored. For some reason that just made her all the more uneasy around the large male, more so than his sexual comment he directed at her just a moment ago, "You are a spectacular lass, even if for different reasons than it was first assumed. You can see things we could never hope to see. Go places we could never hope to... so you?" He pushed a large talon against her chest, making her pale as she realized just how easily he could push it forward and spear her.

"You're still going to help us. I want you to meet me here every week, at around this time."

It would have been so easy for her to have never come in the first place, to hide away with her shop locked or to wander the streets until dark. It would have been equally simple to just tell her brother to shove his head in his cloaca, but she hadn't done that either. She took a deep breath. It was just information, right - it wasn't as if they were asking her to kill anybody. So she slowly nodded her head in agreement.

"Good," Broth spoke while slowly lumbering his way toward standing. Big and powerful he might be, but Ayo would never consider him agile. Truth be told, she was surprised he could speak as well as he did - most allos could only talk in grunts or very simple words. "I'll see you next week, little lady," he spoke, leaving quite the empty space in his wake.

Ayo placed her coinage atop the table and left with her brain a storm of conflict.

Saturday, May 5th, 739 BSO; 1:25 PM

She had hardly left and digested her meeting with 'Broth' before a raptor courier discovered her in the crowds. It seemed that, indeed, the cloak just made her stand out more than her hide would and with a disgusted grunt at it, she removed it and folded it over an arm as the raptor handed her a sealed letter with the Heart Clan's crest upon it. There was a curiosity in the feather brain's eyes, and she was in no mood to entertain more questions and gossip. She hissed at him and the raptor got the message, swiftly bobbing his head and taking off to his next delivery.

Truly, there is a sense of empowerment in bossing a raptor around, she thought.

So she made her way toward the Temple Complex of the Heart once more and was swiftly directed toward an antechamber before a vast meeting hall. She heard shouting from within and saw many bodies arrayed in a U shape within, some of whom she recognized from the night before and others that were entirely foreign to her. She was kept out by one of the flanking guards of the door, a silent spear pointed at her chest. She didn't need a second warning.

After what felt like an eternity, but truthfully must have been just a few moments, Ayo's boredom and worry were broken by one of the raptors leaving with a snarl on his snout. "...won't even stand behind the Clan supporting them!" the raptor hissed, making his way out of the temple while quickly being followed by a small procession of raptors that were clearly from a different Clan. Ayo was then ushered in by the same guard that had pointed the spear at her chest, though she warily kept her distance from him as she did so, to the effect of nearly bumping the other guard flanking the door.

Every soul within the room stopped speaking at once, their gazes all turning upon her and stuck in the zenith of all their gazes, she found herself unable to move until a certain black-feathered raptor cleared his throat. "Ayo, sit at my side. We were just discussing my... choice."

Ayo, grateful for the rescue and not seeing anywhere else to sit made her way along the length of the room to the head of it, settling herself down to Kibwe's right. The conversation picked up again, all at once, as if she wasn't there. For a moment she wondered exactly why it felt like that?

Because, as it turned out they were all talking about her without so much as trying to include her. Kibwe was the only one that hadn't done so and that possibly could be because he hadn't said a single word since she sat down.

It was after the multitude of voices died down and finished their squabbling that Kibwe cleared his throat and stood tall to address the members of his Clan. And when Kibwe stood, he certainly took hold of the room; his sheer size seemingly cowed even the most aggressive speakers into silence, "I am going to stand by my choice, but I will not get involved in the Seer's powerplay. Let them play their politics."

Cowed into silence at first or not, someone in the room found his spine and stood. She noted it was specifically one of the males to Kibwe's left, and the male bowed his head respectfully before practically snarling his reply immediately afterward, "A game of politics that you started! You took this... this featherless one as a member of your harem. Fuck around all you want, Kibwe, but you cannot break generations of tradition!"

"Can't I?" Kibwe replied, the feathers atop his crest slowly raising as he stood straighter. It was a pose of challenge and the other male recognized it at once, sitting back down to try and appease the larger male as Kibwe continued. "It is tradition, not law. Traditions change as we change. We make _new_traditions; we have to make new traditions if we are to change ourselves." Ayo had a feeling it wasn't just about her any longer.

"Just like it isn't traditional for a young male, not even in his thirtieth year to claim the title of Clan Leader. Just like it isn't traditional for that same member to remove the elder Council and replace it with instead quick thinking, bright minds," Kibwe was certainly agitated now, as his feathers were standing on end, almost doubling his outward appearance as he glared down at each and every male aligned to his left-hand side. Seemingly they were those that disagreed with their new leader, the old guard.

"Even those I don't like," he directed specifically at the male who had talked before him.

"Just because tradition exists, doesn't mean it can't change." Kibwe finished, settling down to hushed murmurs of agreement or disagreement based on where in the room the raptor sat.

"Regardless," the male from earlier slowly stood again, wary that Kibwe might verbally attack him once again, "you can't take this Di-... take Ayo," he corrected himself following a swift glare from Kibwe, "as your harem member. Tradition or not, it has caused all of us to be declared heretics! We, the Children of the Tuk'un, can't worship the Tuk'un!"

"You can't?" It was Ayo that spoke, surprising even herself. Kibwe beside her arched a brow but gave a quick, silent nod of his head in approval. She took a deep breath to steel herself and pressed on, now having put herself on the spot. But what surprised her more was that none of the Raptors tried to speak over her, "I've never even the Shard before last night, and I revere and worship it just like you all do. Does that make me any less faithful?"

That led to a quiet murmur among the raptors around her and a quick bob of the head from Kibwe as the Raptors gathered around in Council slowly nodded their head in agreement. Ayo was surprised to see even a few of the left-aligned heads bobbing to that thought.

"As.. true as that may be," the left male spoke again, "that won't sit well with all of us. And it's also the... the principle of the matter! Being barred from the temple? What do they take us for, Di-," he had the sense to flush and quickly sit before he finished the sentence, which saved him from Ayo's ire and, perhaps more importantly, Kibwe's.

The Council then fell back into the same discussion of tradition against law, progress against stagnation. Ayo seemingly mirrored Kibwe during this, in phasing out most of it. There were only so many times she could stand to hear the word 'tradition' before she felt like she'd vomit, so she busied herself instead by looking around her and by watching the mannerisms of the feathered ones instead.

It was much like one of her own species' town meetings, but less chaotic. Less shouting over one another and crying out to have their voice heard over the din. Yet for that organization, it seemed as though they hardly got anywhere. It was almost as if the featherheads could argue and debate for the next thousand years and not accomplish a single thing.

That was when Kibwe finally stood and declared the Council closed for the day, the conversation had _still_been going in circles about tradition against law, worship against the threat of excommunication.

However, the surprises of the day weren't quite over for Ayo who was prepared to find her way back toward the lower city. Just as she was making her way toward the exit, Kibwe stepped beside her and cleared his throat, "Would you mind walking with me, Ayo?" She nodded, finding she had suddenly lost her voice. How could she say no?

Saturday, May 5th, 739 BSO; 5:39 PM

Ayo was escorted by Kibwe and two guards toward a different wing of the complex, past a vast multitude of rooms, both private and public. It was strange to see a world so like hers and yet so fundamentally different. These featherheads, these raptors were practically strangers despite being neighbors and walking along she saw so many similarities to herself.

Once Kibwe had taken her where he desired, he dismissed his two guards who hesitantly accepted the dismissal and stood watch at the entrance to the balcony that she now stood upon with the black-feathered male, within beckoning distance. She didn't know if the two were that loyal, or thought that she could do something to him. The latter, to her, was almost amusing.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry, Ayo," he spoke, leaning himself further over the ledge and looking upon the vast expanse of the lower city and the jungle beyond. The view was breathtaking, and Ayo nearly lost herself in it, standing hip-to-hip (well, sort of) with Kibwe and staring out across the landscape. She lived right on the edge of the great jungle, and yet her world always seemed so small in comparison to the view she now had in front of her.

"I needed a way out of that choice," he continued despite her silence, "and you provided one." He frowned, looking sidelong at her, "Honestly, I'm not sure I would have had an answer otherwise. I would have been trapped in tradition and law," he snorted as he looked away, staring down at the dots on the horizon that were doubtless an endless number of raptors, dilos, and allos. "I would have been happy, or grudgingly accepting of it perhaps. But," he stole a look out of the corner of his eye. "We all had a chance to be something we weren't that night."

Ayo flushed at that, stopping herself from outright denying it and stumbling over her words in the process. She allowed herself a moment to think before she spoke. "Perhaps you're right. We both got to make choices that night that we wouldn't have otherwise," her brother pushed her toward the fate she now held and Kibwe was caught in the waves. It stunned her to think that such a small creature, an alchemist from the lower city, had swept a Clan leader up in the ripples of her choice. Let alone that the waves would crash back over her and nearly drag her under.

Yet here was Kibwe, not tossing her aside but rather casting her a line to drag her back above water. "I can't truly take you as a member of my harem. I knew that the moment I made the declaration - my people would never accept it in the long term. But it buys me time." Time for what was something he didn't expand upon, merely turning to face her as she turned her attention away from the view and back upon the black-feathered male.

"Until things are calmer, however, I can pretend," he extended a talon down toward her, palm up. She hesitated for a moment, "I can pretend, Ayo, if you can pretend with me." She didn't know why she placed her talon upon his own, what led her to step closer to his frame, but she did.

She detected faint scents of arousal in the air and it sent a shudder down her spine. She knew it was instinct, that driving force that all of them fought with, but for a moment she was okay with instinct, with surrendering to it. A saner voice in her head told her to step back and snarl at this male who dared get her stuck in this crazy world, but every other part of her wanted to her to just throw herself at him. She was on the verge of picking the winner in that internal fight when a spear thumped against the stone behind her.

She jumped apart from Kibwe after that thump, like she was a child with her talons stuck in the shipment of raw meat. She realized just how flushed she was, her blue-purple hide taking on a nearly pink hue around her cheeks and, from the warmth she felt, no doubt under her tail as well. What was it about this damned feathered one that flustered her so? She'd never been attracted to physical prowess before, or she'd feel faint at every Allosaurus she saw!

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Feralheart, but a messenger from the Tuk Clan has arrived. They have an... ultimatum for you. They are waiting for you in the Council chamber," the guard bowed before Feralheart and just otherwise ignored Ayo. Ayo decided she much preferred being ignored over a look of disdain, anyway.

"We had best see what they want," Kibwe had collected himself it seemed, as that spicer scent upon the breeze had all but faded away and she no longer saw that look that had been in his eyes. It wasn't hunger, even of a sexual sort - it was animalistic. Primal. She filed it away to figure out in its entirety later only to realize that he had said 'we'. She was being invited to hear the Tuk's choice.

"Should I leave? They might see me as an insult," Ayo spoke, looking sidelong at Kibwe.

"Insult or not, it won't change their message now. If they can't wait until dawn as is traditional, then why should I return the favor?" he spat the word traditional as he said it, clearly balking entirely at that word. Most of his choices seemed directed at tradition, like a teenager rebelling against the decisions of his parent.

But a teenager never started a war, she mused to herself.

Saturday, May 5th, 739 BSO; 6:02 PM

The Council chamber looked positively empty to Ayo, standing alongside Kibwe; the only other souls within were the messenger from the Tuk Clan and four guards spaced around the corners of the room. Ayo's alchemical and medical eye once more saw there were patches of feathers missing or thinner, and the hide underneath was the same sickly grey-green that the Prophet sported. Was it something plaguing the whole Clan? And if so, why had they not sought help?

Before she could mull over the mystery longer, the female raptor before her hissed out her message, "Kibwe Feralheart, leader of the Heart Clan, I come before you as a legal envoy from the Tuk Clan and the Great Prophet himself. He has sent me to apologize for his rashness in excommunicating your whole Clan and is willing to remove the decision before it is in the records tomorrow morning."

Kibwe stood silent, a stone-like figure before the sickly female in front of him. Ayo expected him to leap at such a thing, as clearly his Clan was uncomfortable with the excommunication. But instead Kibwe stood his ground and the female, after a pause, continued to speak.

"There are two things you must agree to first, however. The Seer Clan has declared that the Tuk is corrupt," that was news to Ayo and from the brief look of shock that crossed Kibwe's snout, it was to him as well, "and has been excommunicated without being able to be redeemed. We will allow your own Clan back if you declare your support and loyalty to the Tuk Clan," a declaration of martial strength, Ayo took it, "and if you dissolve your current harem," the sickly female glared straight at Ayo with those words, before meeting Kibwe's eyes once again.

"Null your harem _and_take a member of the Tuk in her place."

Kibwe didn't think it over for long; in fact, he hardly let her finish speaking before he himself gave his answer. It was a single word containing two simple letters. And they would change the course of the next several months. Looking back many moons later, Ayo realized that he could have agreed and life would have continued as it had; she would have gone back to being a simple alchemist and Kibwe a leader of some sort or another.

Instead, he said two simple letters and that kept her life complicated and confusing, intertwined with Kibwe and his Clan.

"No."