Of an Odd Feather
Twenty-Fourth Day of Ikomi-eza (Ikomi Ascendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
"Let them watch, so long as they do no more," you say at last. If there is one lesson to be drawn from this world you have found yourself in, you reason it is this. "Many are the places under sea or over the top of mountains where aught may be found that is of note or of interest, but if we are to look over all of them then surely we would never reach the end of our journey."
Though the words are spoken lightly, such as to conjure the image of bumbling about this way and that, poking one's nose in the strange corners of the world for the sailors present, not a one among the leadership of the Fellowship misses the other meaning. If you walk into peril you might not walk out at all.
"Surely we are sailing aboard a more interesting riddle than any that we might be leaving behind," Zaia adds, obviously relieved at the reasoning.
For his part Antonio only nods once and then begins to call out the orders to the crew to make haste... as well as more invectives to the poor bastards on the longship. Jovial he might be in the face of success and with a jest on his lips even on the cusp of deadly peril, Antonio does not bear fools gladly in matters of his own craft.
Still the mist does not linger long beneath the gaze of even the winter sun in these southern climes, the vista before you widening into the wind tossed sea with nary a sign of Knikut watchers, nothing strange happening for all of that week as the ships turn north along the wooded coasts. Once you might have called this land wild, but compared to the windswept plains of the White Lands or even the Virokaia tribe lands this is a lush and sheltered land, and if one knows where to look, thick with peoples.
Small villages crowd along the shore where they had driven back the woods, living off fishing and fields of crops familiar and strange, yams and sorghum besides leeks and wild radish. More than once you stop to resupply. Though the sight of longships might drive the villagers into taking up spear, shield and axe to guard kith and kin, between the presence of the Pride, her crew obviously free and unbound on her decks, and the offer of silver in payment this final leg of the journey proves by far the most pleasant so far. Even the weather seems to have mellowed, such that the worst you face is heavy rain that falls with little wind and nothing in the way of thunder.
It might feel like it is weighing the ship twice over when it sinks into the heavy woolen clothes you have bought in Apuku, but it will take more than rain to sink the ship. The worst trouble you could be said to have over that span of time is when Henri gets into a brawl on shore in one of the villages over being cheated out of some of his last coins of the old world. At least Antonio assures you that the game was rigged, but whatever the case wiser heads prevail and the village elders decide that they would rather not earn the ire of their very well armed and otherwise very well paying guests. Henri gets
most of his coin back and a tongue lashing for his trouble.
Still the wind is more than fair and steady enough to make up for a wasted day, the villages grow larger as you travel north along the coast and soon enough the walls grow from sharpened stakes and daub and wattle to stone painted in colorful geometric shapes that in the evening shadows take on the guise of talking beasts among the leaves or of birds in flight ready to pounce. The men have less desire to linger on shore at your last stop over, though Zaia's interest more than makes up for it.
The walls are painted in the guise of guardian beasts, all of them predatory and all of them meant to keep out the strange and mischievous spirits of the wild, the
gripki, the
binki and the fearsome
lyrki, which are said to be born in the fires set of mortal malice. How much of what Zaia is jotting down is actually true and how much is the locals being more than happy to keep spinning tales for the foreigner willing to pay for their time you do not know for certain, but it certainly keeps him happy.
Lose 75 Icari
It is on such an evening as this that you go in search of the scholar in the local... temple of Yonla, the building of which can be distinguished from a tavern only by the carving of the 'most merry son of Ashinu', round of belly and of head that stands to the right of the door. It is there in the middle of a mostly deserted village by the shore perhaps still thirty leagues south of Orinilu that you witness a strange sight indeed, a small white owl no bigger than your forearm from head to tail feathers perched on the head of the statue as though it was waiting for someone.
After long slow look, turning its head from right to left and left to right, not hiding in the least it flies towards the ship... and when you come back in haste with Zaia in tow you find the strange bird perched upon one of the masts and obviously entirely willing to make its home there. You certainly had not forgotten the mention of owls in the magic of the tribe that holds the Mouth of the World but you are eight days and many leagues from their lands...
"Well you are certainly no fish..." Esha muses looking up at the bird.
"And I don't think we will be able to leave it behind as easily unless we chase it off," you finish.
Should you though, you wonder.
Antonio does not want any strange magic on his ship and Neios counsels that you not let yourself be spied on, but on the other hand Zaia notes that if the bird wanted to spy it has surely chosen an odd way to hide. Tom grumbles, not that he had likely meant you to hear it, that wizards are curious as cats so surely this would be the best way to spy on one.
What do you do?
[] Try to shoo the owl away
[] Leave the bird be
[] Write in
OOC: A bit more worldbuilding and an odd mystery for you to poke at one way or the other. Not yet edited.
