all you have is your fire

to be lit up from within

vein by vein

The combined efforts of the companions was readily accepted, and Melita continued to add the dried wood to the flames, watching them hasten, devour, and consume with crackling, satisfied pops. She offered a scratch of approval to Haai too, pleased and content with their helpful natures, quietly sighing as she stared into the miniature inferno. Her eyes glanced up as Sunjata continued to de-feather, and her hands reached out in offering. “I can pluck one.”

His question urged a ruffian, rogue smile to encompass her mouth thereafter though, as if she were about to recite one of her more grander adventures. “Those are from Remi! When we fought the giant vampire gourd.” Despite all the wounds, the nuances, the nightmares associated with it, the way she spoke of the experience hinted at a wild, savage, nefarious sojourn. “I even got to ride on his manticore shift, and shoot the fire arrows down at the pumpkin.” She mimicked the motion, as if drawing her bow again, sound effects accompanying with the pulling of an invisible, intangible string, and the sizzling noises of fire blasting towards outstretched vines. “It was amazing.” 10/10 would do again.

to be the sun

MELITA

i try to keep it in line, maybe i'm just not the one

A quiet hum of sound leaves Haai at the praise and scratches before she bounds away by Fangorn once more. And Sunjata, as he works to pluck the bird and get it prepared, lifts his gaze to Melita at her offering, reaching for the other Hel and handing it to her with a smaller smile. But his question is aired, curious as he defeathers the bird before him, gaze flickering up to her at the mention of Remi — something Cheshire gleaming in that smile of his.

“I don’t think I heard much about the giant vampire gourd.” He offers in lieu of wanting to hear the tale from her side. Still, he can’t help the bright chuckle that leaves him with the accompanying sound effects and the mimicked fight, wondering what had all happened that required Melita to have to ride the manticore into battle of a sort.

Still, it seems fitting for what he knows of his niece.

but you know i would

SuNJATA

to be lit up from within

vein by vein

She took the Hel in her hands and immediately began plucking, pulling the feathers out one by one, collecting them in a nestled circle by her feet, so they weren’t swept away by the wind. They could always use them for something else (and her first thoughts were for future arrows). Meanwhile, though the inquiry turned towards the gourd they’d toppled, and a wistful sort of grin came over her features. “There was this gigantic pumpkin – filled with blight.” Engorged and massive, Fangorn striving to reach it, with Melita having no idea it was the ruler, the sovereign, the mother of all of them. “Remi, Rexanna, and Samuel were all there too, fighting it. We didn’t want it to hit the Greatwood.” The blight would’ve spread then, like bramble,s nettles, thorns, and weeds, plaguing the land of the Fae. And to think Melita herself would get it too, unbeknownst to her.

“At one point Rexanna was squished beneath it. The vines grabbed me too, and I called for Ludo, who saved me.” A generous smile there too, full of mischief. “Then Remi shifted and I asked if I could come along.” Brilliant moments, fun and adventure when she likely should’ve been terrified; no fear, no apprehension, as they embodied the wind and flames. “We eventually got rid of it, and Arduinna rewarded us.”

to be the sun

MELITA

i try to keep it in line, maybe i'm just not the one

He watches the way she collects the feathers, and takes the pile of his own that he’s been working on and leans over to add them to her bundle with a nod as he settles back and listens in, working now to remove the rest of the feathers from the bird.  There’s a tilt of his head at the mention of it. “How big is giant?” Because as far as he knew, the largest ones he’d seen were… Big, but not quite huge or daunting as she made it out to seem.

Especially if it had squished their current queen. The thought causes him to snort, but nods in understanding. “I still haven’t met Ludo.” He hums in addition, focusing on the Hel in his hands before glancing over to her with some sort of mischievous grin. “What did you get from Arduinna?” He’d never met the Fae, but she had cured them all of the blight. He’d known that much.

but you know i would

SuNJATA

to be lit up from within

vein by vein

The youth accepted the pile of growing feathers, imagining them lining a nice pillow. Humming under her breath, hands busy plucking, memories only stirred from the amusement angles of the world they’d been set within. The first question drew her eyes towards cliffs nearby, or any other landmarks, attempting to signify the magnitude of the pumpkin they’d fought. “Probably about as big as those rocks?” She pointed to a few jutting high along the coast, broad and sturdy, towering and monolithic compared to the gourds’ offspring, Fangorn included.

“Hm. What would you ask about if you did?” Melita had never much questioned Ludo’s tactics, even after the whole blight and Ascended debacle. It was a difficult line to cross, but for a girl always maligned somewhere along justice or revenge, she’d understood the herald’s notions. At his final inquiry, she smiled; brief flickers of the lovely Fae rekindled, before sacrificial alms. She lifted her arm, indicated the string around her wrist. “My bow bracelet!” He’d likely seen the aforementioned weapon in action many times before, but not how it was rendered. She dropped feathers and half-plucked Hels for a moment, mimicking a gesture of drawing the taut strings of her favored munition in her arms, and the bow appeared out of the vestiges and ether.

to be the sun

MELITA

i try to keep it in line, maybe i'm just not the one

He pauses and follows where she points, spying the large rocks as part of the cliffside, head tilting slightly as he considers just how fucking big it had been. Giant is apt, it’s certainly no small thing. “Oh.” He offers with a quiet chuckle, gaze flickering back to Melita and imagining it with a larger version of Fangorn – quite amusing to say the least. But then he announces he hasn’t met Ludo yet, and the subject shifts toward that.

And what would he ask? He had a hard enough time asking Safrin for things. A snort leaves him as he finishes plucking the bird and grabs the dagger he always keeps with him, beckoning Haai closer to heat up the metal portion of the knife with her flame before he waits for it to cool and work to cut off the pieces they didn’t want. “You know, I haven’t thought about it. Probably something ridiculous, I’m sure.” A small crooked smile crosses his face with that.

But then, he asks her what she’d received from Arduinna, gaze flickering up to follow as she raises her arm to show off the bracelet, where the bow had appeared and his crooked smile crosses into something bigger. “Quite the useful gift, that one.” He inclines his head toward it, chuckling at the mimicking gesture of her using the bow. “We had guns in Korofi. I think you’d probably be good with them, like you are with your bow.”

but you know i would

SuNJATA

to be lit up from within

vein by vein

After the oh she arched her brow, uncertain if he was impressed or not. It didn’t really matter; she’d had a grand time (and had no idea that when she returned to the Grounds, she’d be paying for all that broken, debauched amusement). She allowed it to settle off into the ether, another one of her actions and events, maneuvering her eyes back to the Hel and the amount of feathers left in her pile. The bird itself was almost naked, and she had no problem plucking the remaining plumage, and handing it back to Sunjata.

“Don’t waste a herald’s time,” she warned, but her grin was bright and ebullient. Asking for something ridiculous might suit Sunjata’s whims, but she couldn’t imagine many deities corresponding to inane, ridiculous requests. Something from the heart or the mind would do just fine.

Her bracelet and bow tucked away, Melita nodded at this range of approval. “Oh, I heard about guns from Adam.” And that took a little more somber pitch in her tones, the smile flattening. It’d been very brief, while she’d trained him with quivers and training arrows. “Were you any good with them?” A mocking chuckle followed, shaking her head in the sea breeze.

to be the sun

MELITA

i try to keep it in line, maybe i'm just not the one

There’s a chuckle that leaves him as she tells him not to waste heralds time. A light smirk crossing his face as he takes the bird from Melita to prep it and attach it to the stick to hover the both of them over the flame once they’re fully prepared. “Me? Never.” He flashes a smirk that shifts into a grin at Melita’s insinuation. “But I’m sure me being one of Safrin’s might not help in that matter. Might have to answer to my own herald about why I went.” A shrug to that, before he’s explaining guns and Korofi.

And his gaze flickers to her when she talks of Adam, a pang in his gut at hearing about his lost friend. One Sunjata had a hand in losing, the reason for it. So he swallows hard, lip curling slightly in a frown but he nods nonetheless. And nods again when she asks him if he was good with them. “I was.” A quiet answer at first before he leans back to look at the sky briefly, gaze drifting back to Melita after a moment. “I started training with them when I was eleven.” And he’d used them, from eleven until he’d come here. A grand total of fifteen years.

but you know i would

SuNJATA

to be lit up from within

vein by vein

Her bird taken, hands no longer full, she grabbed hold of the piles of feathers and thought to slip them in one of the pockets along her bag. Her brow arched significantly at his summation though. Gods and their jealousies, heralds and their envy, their preferences. Her main predilection had always been to Ludo, merely because it had been the first to speak to her. Before that, it was the God of the Sun, transfixing, beautiful, blinding, and brilliant in his mass of fire, and something about that aches too. Would he have minded, with her eyes turning towards rags and shawls now? “Might,” she answered, a snicker resting along her lips again, cheek dimpling at the foolish indications. “Would it be worth the risk?” A hum, gilded and innocent floated thereafter, as if she had no idea at all.

That Sunjata had been good with guns didn’t surprise her; seemed the type to wield whatever came into his hands. She thought nothing of the age though – because she’d been far younger when the world fell apart, when she was forced to use anything as munitions. “What’s your favorite now?” She could hazard a guess towards the daggers, but she didn’t know what else he utilized in other circumstances.

to be the sun

MELITA

i try to keep it in line, maybe i'm just not the one

Her snicker leaves her lips and Sunjata lifts his gaze to meet her gilded ones as he rotates the birds again, a small smile playing on the corners of his own. “Something tells me… No.” He chuckles back, though the thought is there. At some point, he imagines he might want to go and speak with the herald, all while of course minding the fact of his own. He’s one of Safrin’s. Not Frey’s, not Ludo’s. Safrin. And he knows her enough to know that it might look quite odd for him to go and investigate someone else.

The talk of guns takes over, and he focuses on her again as he sits back to let the Hels cook in place a bit longer. “I like bows too, but my favorites are probably daggers now.” A small smirk to that – the fact being that he had given her a gift of that very weapon. A dagger, with the multihued rock she’d admired when they’d been in the Greatwood together.

but you know i would

SuNJATA

to be lit up from within

vein by vein

That Sunjata might think or deign to waste a herald’s time struck a chord in her – she hoped it was mere amusements and nothing more. She’d only ever crossed into Ludo’s path when she needed guidance, when she had ideas, when she’d thought herself weak, futile, and pathetic; uncertain of how to reciprocate any efforts on the cosmic being’s behalf. Keep extending where there was life, keep trying to maintain those edges of daring, of provisions, of taking the tainted plains of Ascended stretches and making them better. She’d yet to fully understand how to entertain the latter, or even go about doing this, but her bullheaded tendencies could eventually land her somewhere.

So she rolled her eyes. “I enjoyed Safrin, that brief time I saw her.” Stars and galaxies, constellations and opulence, a beatific view of the sky, things she couldn’t ever dream to touch. “Have you started doing anything else for her?” Since the ill-fated quest amidst the Fangs?

Bows and daggers, well enough to match, and she shrugged her shoulders, a ruffian smile following at the thoughts of gifts. “My makeshift bows and arrows saved us many times in the Rift.” Which was why she favored them. “Staffs made of branches too.”

to be the sun

MELITA

i try to keep it in line, maybe i'm just not the one

Ah, but it wasn’t wasting time. Sunjata knew better than that – it’s why he’d always went to Safrin with a goal, ever since the first time. Arriving, suggesting that he wanted to Attune. And since then? Building temples and shrines, in the future, becoming a blade of sorts. For the most part, he’s left the gods to their own devices, finding his issues far more internal rather than airing them for godly intervention. Not like it mattered much anyway.

Still, a chuckle leaves his lips as she mentions that she liked Safrin. “She’s certainly something.” Sunjata agrees fondly, a small smile to that. “I’m considering asking her what I can do for her. Like how she has Ronin and Amalia.” He rumbles as he reaches forward to rotate the birds again.

But he listens as she talks of makeshift bows and arrows being a salvation in the Rift, and Sunjata nods to that. His gaze flickering back over toward her about the comment of branches. “Did the Rift have magic there?” He asks, wondering if it had been something only he had missed out on in the grand scheme of it all.

but you know i would

SuNJATA

to be lit up from within

vein by vein

Safrin had certainly garnished some success in gaining followers, if Sunjata intended to apply himself in the same stead as Ronin and Amalia. “Good luck,” she laughed, unaware, uncertain, of how deep the bonds embedded, or what the tasks required. Her familiarity had been going to Ludo for guidance, support, or establishing ideas, some ever-ready notion within the back of her mind for a new weapon, a new means to an end.

She watched the birds rotate, placing more dried wood within the crackling fire. Fangorn nestled himself by her legs, and she reached down to scratch him when Sunjata prospered his inquiry. Magic had been an absolute certainty – the lightning scar embedded and raised along her back was a sure sign of its infamy and tactics, waged upon her by a long-dead Ampere, risen from watery tombs and graves. “Yes,” she swallowed, a shrug to her shoulders, the grin gone somewhat, though she couldn’t quite fathom why. “I just didn’t have any.”

to be the sun

MELITA

i try to keep it in line, maybe i'm just not the one

Luck is one thing Sunjata imagines he’ll need when it comes down to it. Pledging himself to the deity that he’d soon realize would grant his friend a child — one not necessarily unwanted, but a surprise and a shock, a reminder of what the hunter had lost. But he nods to Melita regardless, edging back in the sand with a hum of a chuckle. “Thanks.” A wry smile sent her way.

But the question of the Rift and her solemn captures his attention, and he nods thoughtfully to that. “Well.” He begins with a slight stretch, leaning back on an elbow among the warm dunes. “I’m glad you’re here, regardless of the shit the Rift put you through.” A softer smile, because gods knew he needed every piece of family he could get. Something tells him she does too.

but you know i would

SuNJATA