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 Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 10:40 pm
___________________________beginning i It was hard to believe that the day had arrived at last. Jafar had never been one to think hours, much less weeks, or months, or years ahead; as such he had never really thought about this day or what it would be like to finally be told he could bring home his Lotus at last.
As far as he could tell, though, it wasn't very much different from any other day. The level of light that flooded what little of the scenery he could sense indicated that it was either a short time before or after noon. He could not feel the sun's warmth though, even though he was not beneath shade; it must have been cloudy outside. The few birds warbling songs of greetings and contentedness nearby did so without reservation; it wasn't going to rain soon.
Nor did he feel different, but he didn't pause to think much on this matter either. After long years of studying at Soriyu's required schools, the professors finally found him ready; in any case he was ready for the mid-day meal, so the sooner he found the Lotus, the sooner he could go eat.
Jafar took a moment to reconsider the many lessons he had to learn as far as picking a Lotus was concerned; what was normally a very simply act was often heralded as one of the most important points in a Lotus' young life. He had spent many hours in meditation trying to remember what it had been liked to have been picked himself; how disappointing must his life be if he had completely forgotten something which was supposed to have been one of the 'highest' points in his life?
He crouched down in front of the dark, rushing blur that signified the brook, listening to the quiet flow and fall of water lazily meandering across and between rocks on its way to nowhere. He had passed it several times in trips between Soriyu and Milva, and a few days of exploring the course of the brook entirely revealed a small static spot where water gathered into a shallow pool -- where lotuses grew; he'd recognize their scent anywhere.
He reached for the pool, skimming his fingertips over its surface in reflective thought; this might or might not be the most important part of a young Lotus' life. Lessons dictated that at this point, if the guardians were choosing their Lotuses for themselves, the utmost care be taken in choosing one. Jafar could almost hear the drone of the professor now over the babbling of the water: pick one that you feel a 'connection' with, it will speak to you, call to you, and by merely picking it up you should know immediately that it is yours.
Jafar tilted his head to the side but was unable to hear anything now beyond that of the water; perhaps the lotuses were asleep at this hour. Taking hold of a stable rock just on the bank, Jaffar leaned forward in search of where the water-flowers grew; when his hands grazed against the familar softness, he paused a moment to see if he could immediately feel that it was the One.
His stomach growled.
He repeated the process several times with several other flowers, and though they spoke in the way that nature does, none of them seemed to immediately proclaim themselves to be his. Trying to decide whether this was merely a stupid process or else the lotuses were far more wise than people gave them credit for, Jafar finally let out a long, smooth sigh and scooped up the next flower he came across.
When it was securely in his palm, he shifted his weight back solidly on the ground again and let go of his anchoring rock to focus instead on the lotus. Its color was lost against the muddled one of his own flesh; its open petals seemed strong and flawless though. He was sure that there was some trick to it -- perhaps the shape of its petals, or the shift in acidity in its scent -- that would signify the future traits of the child to come: whether it would be male or female, weak-willed or impossible. He could not remember any of them at the moment, though; he was sure that it would produce a healthy child and that was all he could particularly care about.
"Well," He spoke at last, standing up and addressing the tiny flower, "I am going to bring you home now. Speak now or forever hold your peace."
There was no response; Jafar smiled vaguely at nothing in particular and began to take the familiar, dusty road back to Soriyu.
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Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 12:09 am
___________________________beginning ii The trip was made in peace; the lotus was obviously not a talkative one and for this Jafar was glad -- he wasn't quite sure how interesting he would find topics of conversations like photosynthesis and the recent quality of rain water. His professors might be ashamed of the fact that he probably didn't have a 'veritable' bond with it, but Jafar was secretly reassured of his sanity to know that flowers would not start talking to him in the human way.
The quiet and stillness of the countryside soon gave way to the rising chatter and commotion of the markets of Soriyu, a golden-yellow space punctuated with large voids of brown where people set up shops and stalls.
Reflexively his hand slipped down to his waist where his cane hung, a simple length of wood he had picked up in his travels in the woods. Unlatching it from the thin cord that kept it there, Jafar took ahold of it in one hand and swung it rhymthmically from side to side in front of him.
It was not that he didn't know his way by now; though he certainly had difficulty the first year he had settled here in Soriyu, he knew his way fairly well by now to navigate the streets without much trouble. The reason for the cane was a much different one. He knew without being able to look that, at the sight of it, people would veer to one side of the road or other to give him a wide berth. This was a good thing; people tended to be amongst the most annoying of obstacles anyway.
A chorus of girls giggling and swooning reached his ears: he had just passed the guilds where Isaac was apparently on duty. His house was straight ahead but there were other matters to think of; wondering if he owed an apology to the lotus he still carried in one palm, Jafar turned down a side-street and mentally counted down the rows of stalls.
When he finally stopped in front of the one he wanted, Jafar was surprised to hear someone unexpected greet him from the otherwise extremely familiar stall.
It was not that he hadn't met Jerome, the son of the man who ran normally ran the meat-selling stand, it was just that he seemed otherwise so disinterested in his father's business. However, here he was, (theoretically -- did he have a twin brother Jafar didn't know about?), waxing poetic about how nice the day was.
"The sun isn't out," Jafar reminded him, "There have been many nicer."
"Aaa, you're right!" The man-who-was-supposedly-Jerome replied in surprise, probably more that Jafar had bothered to reply at all than of the actual subject matter (or at least one would hope so.) "Forgive me, I'd been reading poetry all morning and I suppose... I just fell into the style." Sounding slightly embarassed now, Jerome nervously arranged some things along the counter.
Leaving him to his mental poetry, Jafar allowed the silence to remain a little longer as he tried to decide what he wanted that day. It seemed they had just gotten a fresh load of beef, though he was honestly feeling a bit more like chicken... Perhaps steak would be best though, to build up energy and nutrition for the impending appearance of the chil--
As if on cue, Jerome interjected, "Aaa, a lotus!" The counter creaked beneath him as he shifted his weight onto it to lean over and peer more closely at it, and Jafar wrinkled his nose at the sudden addition of the young man's flowery cologne. "From Milva, no less! --Should it be out? Can they survive for very long without water?"
"A day at the very least," Jafar answered politely and surpressed the urge to smack him over the head with his cane. If he had felt that the lotus was embarassed by the sudden attention, perhaps he could get away with it; as it was, it was either still sleeping or else didn't care. "I don't intend to have it out for more than thirty minutes, if I could quickly run my errands..."
Jerome didn't take the hint, and in fact only seemed to grow more excited. "Does it talk to you? --Well, of course, you're a guardian! Well, what does it say?"
The dusty-haired man was left speechless at this, and after a considerable pause, made an effort to arrange his features into his best approximation of a ponderous expression. "It says," he said finally, "'I would like a pound of the chicken.'"
There was another pause; when Jerome didn't reply, Jafar cleared his throat and peered down at his occupied hand. "Say please." He reminded the inanimate flower. "...'Please.'"
"Oh! Of course, of course! That's just -- a-amazing! Here!" Finally, to his relief, Jerome seemed to spring into action. The meat was soon carved and wrapped up, and not trusting the other man with the lotus, Jafar propped his cane against the counter instead to accept the package and slide it into a large pouch sewn into the side of his shirt. When he began to rummage for the appropriate payment, the other man protested. "No! Err, that is... You can have it, on the house, as an extension of our good wishes to your family-to-be."
"Oh." Jafar was genuinely surprised. It took him a moment to gather himself enough to reach for his cane again. "Thank you. I appreciate it."
"I'm sure the lotus does too! ...Right?" Came the enthusiastic reply. "Hey, maybe if it's a boy, you could name it after me, eh? It was nice to meet you!"
By the time Jerome had gotten to 'name it after me', Jafar had already began to quietly slip away, and it wasn't until later that he realized the last part had been addressed to the lotus.
Well. In all honesty, he hadn't even begun considering names yet -- but if, on the rare chance that it did turn out to be a boy, he was fairly certain it would not be a 'Jerome'.
At least he hoped it wouldn't be.
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Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 1:11 pm
___________________________beginning iii
Jafar had an easier time navigating through the small expanse of woods just on the outskirts of the marketplace; trees were solid and slow and fairly easy to get around, and were fairly good with hygiene besides. It was still anything but quiet, however, and almost rivaled the hustle and bustle of the marketplace in its own way; with Spring rapidly approaching, many of the hibernating animals were waking up from their long winter naps and suddenly found themselves with much more energy than they knew what to do with.
To the side he could hear squirrels -- it sounded like at least three of them -- fighting over what must've been a newly-discovered cache of nuts one of them had hidden and forgotten about, and still more were excitedly launching themselves through the branches to either watch or join in the fray. The birds, on the other hand, were concerned with an entirely different matter; searching through the woods for twigs and soft materials, they brought them back to their mates to help prepare for nest-building.
The trees themselves were blooming and uncurling their leaves; Jafar caught the distinct scent of apple blossoms and mentally noted their vague locations: in the fall these trees would be bearing fruit. To his right, and very much below, was the sound of young kits peeping softly -- he must have passed the fox den he'd thought was long abandoned. His house wasn't far, then.
Dark shady green and mottled browns soon gave way to much lighter shades as he entered the clearing. Jafar's lips twisted into a wry smile as he tried to imagine what this might look like to the Lotus once it was truly born; the wood he'd built it with was probably mismatched, and various flowery vines had begun winding up around the frame -- nothing he could do about that. He'd used some sort of grass for the roof, raised a few inches from the body of the house to keep it ventilated and cool, certainly not at all derivative of the style of Soriyuian architecture.
But ah well, he or she would survive; and if it was that displeasing, then Jafar was sure the Lotus would learn quickly enough how to arrange everything to his or her liking. Satisfied for the moment with this conclusion, he began tracing an invisible path to the front door of the house, leaning his cane up against its wooden side before undoing the latch to the door and slipping inside.
He only paused inside the one-room house for a moment -- long enough to place the package of meat on a slab of wood that served as a counter. He had set out a bowl of water there earlier -- probably for the Lotus, but now he had a quite different idea. Turning on his heel, he made his way outside and wandered around to the back of the house where the garden was.
It wasn't much of one -- yet. It still smelled more like damp earth than flowers, though the vegetable patch was coming along nicely. He had set out a few tulip bulbs to plant for the Lotus, but somewhere along the way he had grown unsure that it would even enjoy tulips and so never got around to them.
Just past his house, a small stream of fresh water flowed through from one lake to another; he had dug out another small offshoot downstream from that one, at an angle, with a hollow pit at the end that eventually filled and became a pond. It was there he kept his fish and grew water-flowers for use in salads; it was there that he thought the Lotus might like it best, as similar to its old home as it was.
At least, he thought as he bent down and searched through the mild jungle that crowded the edges of the pond to find a safe place to put the Lotus, with everything there it certainly wouldn't be lonely.
When he was at last satisfied with its position, he paused for a moment as if expecting something dramatic to happen. In his old tribe, there had always been a certain ritual about these things -- it had involved burning fires, song-chants, and dancing, with the Lotuses coming to life right in the midst of things -- but he had never joined in then and wasn't about to start now.
There was one part of it he could feel confident enough to replicate though: the guardians had always knelt in front of their Lotuses in his tribe, telling the flowers their names and speaking of what they hoped the Lotuses themselves might be. Snatches of the old language of the flowers returning to him, Jafar knelt down and addressed the general pond.
"My name is Jafar. You will be... strong, I hope, mentally. Attentive. And you will do all your chores when I ask. And not demand so many toys." He hesitated there and sat a little while longer, words forming in his mind but never good enough to say, and finally he decided that he could very well spend his whole day wondering if he did things right -- but, in any case, it wouldn't change the outcome of anything; now all there was to do was wait.
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Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 1:20 pm
___________________________Jafar's journal Jafar's journal consists of flat piles of strong sheets of bark into which he carves letters -- time-consuming for him to write in but easy enough for him, and others, to read.
I have brought the Lotus home from between Milva and Soriyu today. I put it into the pond in the back; the child should appear any day now.
I plan to remain here for quite some time, at least until the child is grown enough to walk and talk easily, and then we might return to Milva. I don't personally plan on settling anywhere, and would be content to live as a nomad. It depends on the will of the child, as it will be in charge until it's grown enough to become wholly independent.
It should at least know its tribe though. I will do my best to teach it neutral customs until we can determine its true origins.
Things to do:
Continue tanning the deer hides; they need a week still at least, and then must be chewed. I should start on the frame of the add-on soon, for I am told that they grow fairly quickly. It will be needing its own room.
Figure out best way of transporting child.
Find wild lavendar and dry it to hang by the ceiling. This will hopefully be soothing to the child so that it will allow me to sleep through the entire night.
I hope I am not forgetting anything, but I am sure that we'll both adapt.
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Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 6:35 pm
___________________________born The next few days passed without incident, for which Jafar was grateful. The lotus slowly but surely began closing its petals into a slumber, preparing itself for the inevitable metamorphosis that would transform it into a bleeding, breathing child.
Jafar kept himself busy in the surrounding garden, mostly poking about the growing vegetable patch and pulling weeds from the wild mess that had quickly choked the recently fertilized earth. He only bothered with the thorny vines and other plants that might endanger the child; the wildflowers were allowed to stay, at least for the time being, bringing a welcome and colorful scent to a place that he otherwise feared might be bland for a young Lotus.
To say that he was anxious was an understatement; he jumped at small noises and returned to the pond every half hour or so to make sure that the Lotus had not somehow drifted away from the pond in a display of defiance of the laws of physics. He was tempted to touch it, to see how far along it was, but kept his hands to himself out of sudden fear of somehow destroying it.
When there was nothing left to do in the garden, he brought his other tasks outside. He sat in patches of clover and worked at the deer hides he had been tanning, rubbing them, twisting them, and grinding them with rocks to make them soft and as pliable as blankets and future clothing should be. He chopped firewood in short bursts of activity, hesitant to leave the Lotus alone for more than fifteen minutes at a time. He had mentally mapped the child's new room for the house down to the finest details, having decided what to carve in the baseboards and the amount of money he'd need to buy all the necessary furniture -- before realizing that he had never made any concrete plans to stay there long anyway; with his luck they would be moving just after he had completed the new room.
Over the course of three irritatingly long days, Jafar had managed to completely exhaust his list of things to do. The hides threatened to fall apart if he worked on them any longer. The lavendar he found, along with bunches of sassafrass to make tea and wild bulbs to make salads with. He wove (or made his best attempt to; though it was undoubtedly ugly, it was at least functional) a sleeping basket for the child and hunted rabbits so as to line it with their fur. He at last resorted to making up new recipes, crouching over a fire and throwing whatever he felt like into a pot in hopes that it would result in something tasty, thinking about what the child would be like as he kept himself busy.
Although he was sure that he wouldn't care, when it came down to it, he secretly hoped it would be a boy -- someone he could relate to better at the very least. He would be quiet, he would be respectful, and he would be (dare he hoped?) grateful.
Jafar had been so lost in his thoughts, slowly contemplating all the male youths in his clan in his attempt to figure out what his odds were of obtaining a nice one, that he missed the slow, blinding glow the nearby Lotus began to extravagantly display. It was not when it seemed to explode in a flash of white, pale, petals but instead when he became aware of a sharp, strong burst of a flowery scent that he realized what was happening, and it was only just in time that he leaped forward and grabbed the newly-delivered child from the water.
Jafar stepped back from the pond with an unfamiliar weight in his hands, and he stood there for a moment, holding it up to the sunlight, and trying to figure out exactly what to do next. Slowly the strength ebbed into the tiny creature and it began squirming in his grip, starting with low baby noises that grew increasingly louder.
His new lotus charge was noisy, had seemingly no regard for him, and on top of everything else -- she was not happy.
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Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 6:36 pm
___________________________a_reconciling It only took Jafar a relatively short period of time to begin to agree with the Lotus' apparent unhappy judgement of its new world. He had almost panickedly began to think that perhaps it was sick, that somehow some harm had befallen to the lotus which, in turn, carried over to the child -- but he quickly learned that no, there was nothing wrong with it, it was just whining because it wanted to.
(He supposed that he would have probably felt the same way, if it came into the world wet, cold, and hungry as it was. This was hardly his fault, and he hoped the Lotus wouldn't later bear some grudge against him for this.)
She was by a fire he'd quickly built in the middle of the room, carefully dried and swaddled in some furs now -- not so much for her comfort but for his assurance that she wouldn't somehow magically learn how to crawl and decide that the fire itself needed investigating. He quickly hunted through the storage pots for bits of things that were safe for babies to eat before returning to her side, cautiously squatting down beside her and offering her a few grapes and then strips of dried meat.
She ignored the grapes, even when he pressed them to her lips in an attempt to show her that they were safe to eat -- the meat, however, she immediately snatched up, nearly sinking her tiny teeth into his finger in the process. This was (unfortunately) by no means a quiet process; shrieks of protest accompanied the grapes just as shrieks of delight (if there was actually any difference between the two at all) were made at the meat, slightly muffled as she worked her hands out of the fur to more properly cram it into her mouth.
He sighed, unsure whether to be annoyed or relieved at her apparent finickyness, and settled for being momentarily ambivalent while he listened to her messily chew at the food.
When she finished, he reached her and began peeling off the furs, laying them down over the dusty ground to mark something of a 'safe' area. When there was nothing left but baby, he plopped her down on the furs and sat down crossleggedly himself as he prepared to make the necessary introductions.
He carefully swept his hands over her head; the lotus itself, now serving as a cap, was sort of soggy and soft -- but as she grew used to her new environment it would hopefully strengthen itself as well. Otherwise, to his relief, it was fairly healthy, with all its petals intact and no detectable flaws. She became still at the contact, reaching forward and grasping his ankle tightly to keep herself upright while he made his inspection.
He began moving his hands downward and raised an eyebrow at what he found. She not only had hair -- soft, whispy tendrils of it portruding from beneath the hat -- but a lot of it, already reaching half-way down her back. She squawked indignantly when he tugged at it amusedly, and continued making insulted, huffing sorts of noises even as he reached up to loosen a tie from his hair. He quickly divided her hair into two clumps and messily tied some of the dark thread around each one, pulling it away from her face and making it less likely that it would catch and pull on anything when she would later learn to move around.
He soon finished and reached for her face. She seemed poised to attack his hands again (and he made the mental note to wear gloves around here from now on) but he managed to run through the motions fairly quickly: upturned nose, pudgy cheeks, wide, alert eyes, and big mouth. She grabbed for his finger as he began pulling away, and when he leaned in to try and disentangle himself from her, she promptly slapped both hands onto his face in an obvious copy-cat gesture.
He wouldn't have minded so much if she weren't so determined to find out whether or not she could yank his nose off.
He growled shortly down at her, and she immediately withdrew at the loud, disapproving noise, recognizing the universal signal for 'sit down and shut up.' At least she appeared to be a quick study, even if not entirely initially bright.
"What am I going to call you?" He finally spoke aloud as he twisted to reach for one of the small squares of deer-hide he had prepared beforehand. It was impossible to shop for clothes for a child that hadn't yet appeared, after all -- and just as impossible to shop for clothes for a child that didn't have any, either. Until he could go into town and pick up a few more appropriate things, she would have to make do with a deer-hide toga.
She didn't seem to quite get the point of 'clothes', though, immediately trying to squirm out of them the moment he fastened them on her (while he was at it -- strong, wiry limbs; a little vertically challenged though -- seemed she would become a small and quick little demon as she grew and he was not entirely looking forward to it.) "Phoo! Phew!" Was her loud, indignant response.
"Look. The truth of the matter is --" He hesitated there for a second, suddenly becoming increasingly aware of the sad hilarity of the situation. He was not about to start arguing with a child. "--Sit still and be good, else I will name you something really tacky like.. Mint."
She seemed to recognize the validity of the threat, for she fell silent after a few more whining noises. He felt her stare awkwardly up at him and couldn't help grinning at his own victory. "Now, what will it be?" He continued a bit more calmly. "Stella? Jun? Lux?"
These had all been names of famous woman warriors of his clan; she didn't react to any of them, however, and now that he thought of it, he didn't suppose he would've liked being named after someone either. He cleared his throat while trying to reorganize his thoughts, missing the beginning of a skritching that betrayed the Lotus' dishonest intentions, and continued with the more common names. When she, likewise, said nothing to those, he began (with some annoyance) again with of the most obscure, random names he could possibly concieve of.
"Qualia -- Jadhael -- Vir--VIRA!" This last part was punctured by a particularly loud roar as particularly unpleasant contact was made between his ankle and the sharp, tiny teeth of an equally, tiny little Lotus. He immediately swatted at her, leaving her to harmlessly roll off of him and back onto the furs as he swept his legs around to sit in a kneeling position instead, nearly sulking at the thought that he had just been upstaged by -- such a bratty --
Nearby, Vira made low, happy grumblings deep in her throat (remniscient of his earlier growling, though it was almost more like a kind of purring), obviously having decided that the world wouldn't be quite as bad as she had initially imagined it to be.
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Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 9:16 am
___________________________Jafar's journal
Is it possible to exchange a Lotus child after it has been born? This one is simply not right. It eats too much, won't be quiet, and plays dirty.
Her, rather. Vira. She seems to think my ankles are particularly tasty; she's attacked them so many times I am suprised that I don't leak water when I drink it. Her teeth are sharp; that and her obvious preference for meat signifies that she's definitely of a carnivorous clan. (I hope it's not mine, she's awful for a pup.)
I always knew there was something wrong with the logic of reassigning me of all people to babysitting duties, I just hadn't realized how inappropriate it really is until now. I think I would have more fun and actually sustain less damage hunting elephants than taking care of this child.
I'm sure things would be easier if I had some way of showing her that I am in charge, not her. This should be extremely obvious to her, though, I am at least ten times her size and am her only available way of getting food. Perhaps she's a little angry that she doesn't have as much power as she'd like.
Does it matter to me? This pup needs to learn her rank if we're going to properly get along.
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Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 2:13 pm
___________________________anchor And thus began the waiting.
For the most part, Vira was left alone in her own little world of fur-blankets and the little wooden toys Jafar had attempted to carve for her in one of his more deluded moods. She had a whole zoo of animals at this point -- little birds, large cats, wolves, elephants, zebras, snakes, fish -- but each one looked more like the next one than the animal they were actually supposed to represent. If Vira cared about any of this, she certainly didn't show it.
Jafar tried his best to interact with her as little as possible unless it was absolutely necessary. He kept a careful watch on her as all guardians should; when he went outside to work in the garden, she came with him to play in a particularly cushy spot of grass, becoming acquainted with flowers and insects. Instead of hunting, he set up traps, carrying her with him in a bundle when he briefly went to check them. Likewise, when he stayed indoors, so did she, babbling away to herself as she played with her animals, sticking twigs into the ground for trees and staging very many wars between them all.
This was an important ritual in a young Lotus' life, he knew, especially in Milva -- they must first establish a connection to the world in which they lived in now before anyone else. He would guard her and keep her safe, but she could not be allowed to bond with him until her existance was firmly solidified in the world. It was during this fragile time that Lotuses were most susceptible to death; unfortunately sometimes things went wrong and the souls would not integrate fully with their newly physical forms, leaving the earth to quickly claim them again. Perhaps it was only for the benefit of the guardian to simply not know their new charges until it was absolutely certain that they would, in fact, survive.
The only problem with this was -- it was nearly impossible to tell when exactly she had made the necessary connections. It was not that he actually particularly minded not having to entertain her all the time, but he did mind not knowing if everything was going as it should.
But as the sun made many journeys across the sky and back again, days melting into nights fading into days, Jafar felt his fear easing. He began leaving less and less offerings to the Guardian Spirits, praying for her health, until he stopped altogether.
In fact, it was not so much a partial lack of spirit he should've been worried about, but rather that the Mother, with all her infinite wisdom, had given Vira too much life. By the third day she was raging vicious wars with the bugs outside, relentlessly hunting and pouncing on them regardless of whether or not they had stingers, jaws, or families back home. When birds sang, she screamed right back at them. Flowers were shown no mercy; she ripped them up and, unable to find anything to do with them, threw them back down. And Jafar couldn't even leave her alone to work by himself in peace without being interrupted several minutes later by a tugging at his pantleg (if he was lucky; else it was a n** at his ankle.)
She was so rambunctious that even just looking in her general direction made him feel exhausted. With everything else, it seemed she wasn't born with a natural instinct of rank -- not in the world itself, much less in their little 'family.' Perhaps he was in denial too that this arrangement could actually work.
And it wasn't until several nights later that he even began considering her as one of his own kind.
He woke up one night to the sound of Vira's fussing. She rarely let him sleep entire nights, and he knew it wasn't something he could easily begrudge her for. He obligingly rolled over onto his side, not bothering to open his eyes but instead focusing his other senses. The wind had picked up outside, leaves rustling in a lullaby; somewhere out there an owl hooted. It smelled distantly like rain, but he brushed it off as the early morning signal of dew's arrival; the sun would come up soon. Nothing seemed off.
"Go back to sleep, Vira," He commanded her sharply, hearing her fidget in her sleeping basket. To his surprise, silence ensued; it was then he began to get suspicious.
Pulling the blanket off himself and sitting up, he slowly slid off the cot to the floor. The only source of light came from a candle lit at what he knew to be the familiar large effigy of a wolf on the other side of the room, mostly to keep wild animals and evil spirits out more than mere decoration. As it was, it was too dark for him to make out much of anything -- much less confirm that the young Lotus was alright -- so slowly he began to navigate to her sleeping basket from memory.
"Vira?"
The only response was a very low but very human growl, one that made him stop and raise an eyebrow. Did she see him as a threat?
to be continued cuz I once again forgot what I was going to write <<;
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Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 2:15 pm
___________________________friend_or_rival It took Jafar quite a while to finally solve the problem of transporting the newly-born Lotus -- and while he might have otherwise been content to merely stay at the house until she had learned to walk, he had discovered that he was running low on supplies.
(The right way of thinking, of course, was that the kind of 'social stimulation' a child would get by visiting the marketplace would reinforce positive behavior and interaction, but Jafar was not sure how all these things would be done when Vira was a monstrous girl who ate grass, terrorized bugs, and obviously believed that sleeping was for wusses.)
He thought out of desperation that perhaps he should just carry the child by the nape of her neck with his teeth -- that hardly hurt them, right? -- only he wasn't sure if people from other countries would realize this.
So finally he used one of the softened deer hides and sewed it messily into a makeshift sling, reinforced by tightly woven and thin straw-mats, one that would safely secure the child against his back in such a way that she could slump down and continue sleeping if she wanted, or else could peer over the top at the world beyond.
With this problem solved, Jafar took his cane from its usual resting place against the side of the house and began to make his way to the marketplace of Soriyu, being far more slow and careful than normal for Vira's sake.
The sunlight from the window in Seed's room lit up Lien's face. She didn't look too happy though. Seed thought that she was just really irritated without any sleep. She carefully picked her up, just like any other toddler, one hand around her butt and one hand gently around her neck. Lien leaned on Seed's shoulders and it looked as if she was sucking her thumb. All Seed could think about was how cute she was. It did startle her as to how she suddenly appeared, but Seed got over that part.
Seed was about ready to go out, and just sit in the fields that she loved so much. She opened the door in her room that lead into a very quite hallway, though you could clearly hear the chatting outside in the marketplace. When she walked down the hall, she walked slowly down the stairs, and something strange caught her the corner of her eye. She glanced through the white-pane window, and tried to see through the dirty glass, which looked like it hasn't been cleaned in ages, "Remind me to wipe that later...." she said to herself, being the total neat-freak she was. But through the window, she could see a man, with some sort of sling, carrying a child. She looked much like Lien, since she too had a flower on her head. Seed quickly realized, there had been a new guardian that has come, pretty much just like her.
She rushed down the many stairs and out of the door. She looked around and trying to find the man. She saw him, and he was very far away. "There he is..." She bumped into many people along the way, trying not to lose sight of the man. When she reached the man she exclaimed, "Excu--......EEK!" Seed then tripped on the ground. Lien perked up, though she wasn't hurt, and started to cry. Her cry wasn't as loud as other toddlers Seed had heard, but loud enough to turn some heads. "Ouch...!! Lien, are you okay?" Lien continued to cry. "Oh wait. You are still a baby, I don't think you know how to talk yet...what am I thinking...?"
Jafar might as well have remained oblivious to Seed's attempts to attract his attention -- he didn't realize that anyone of interest was directly behind him, much less one that had addressed him directly.
The familiar sound of a body unpreparedly hitting the ground -- tripping -- reached his ears though, and Vira surprisingly began to shift against him, but it was only when he caught the cries of a young child that he was at last convinced to turn around.
"Is the child alright?" He squinted and addressed the blurry shape of green lying against the ground. There was a blotch of white, and then darker colors streaming below that, mismatching the other figure -- was that separate? Neither of them seemed hurt -- at least, they didn't carry that sharp, acidic scent to them, though he could obviously be mistaken.
Finally Jafar moved forward, carefully feeling the ground with sandaled feet before shifting his weight onto either of them for fear of accidentally trodding on something or other, and finally bent down to offer whoever was lying there a hand.
Vira, meanwhile, was startled to make the discovery that she was not the only one who was able to make the Cry. The young Lotus child fought against the constraints of the sling, attempting to turn herself around so she could peer over her guardian's shoulder at the strange Thing she had caught a glimpse of before he had turned towards them, leaving her to face the other direction. She found herself unable to, though, and was left to making small, discontented noises.
"EEK! Watch out! You almost hit me!" Seed, got up, leaving Lien on the ground for just a second. She rubbed of the dirt on her shoulder and made sure her clothes weren't messed up. Lien was still crying, and lifted her hands up, wanting Seed to pick her up. "Wahhhh!!!" she blurted out. Seed then realized she had left Lien on the ground! "I'm sorry! What kind of a guardian am I?!" She picked Lien up and held her in her arms and cradled her. She rested her head once again against Seed's shoulder and then suddenly went back to sleep.
"But anyways, what is your problem?! You almost stepped on me!!" Seed was just trying to let out her anger from how klutzy she was, she was embarrased and hoped to try to blame it on someone else, she didn't mean to be rude.
"By the way...what is that on your back? She looks new around here...and so do you...But I guess that's just me not getting to know any other guys very well..." she said, trying not to say anything more to bore the man.
Confused at the other female's -- he knew now by her voice -- outburst, Jafar hesitantly withdrew his hand and more fully straightened again. "Aaa," He began to attempt to reply to her when she shifted rapidly into a different subject altogether.
...Well. Now he knew two more things: one, that she was a guardian herself, and the cry he had heard was her child indeed, and two -- she apparently wasn't very good at it. (Her own opinion, of course, he couldn't rightfully judge her...)
In any case, the child stopped crying and Jafar waited patiently for the other woman to finish babbling before he would try to get a word in edgewise. When her silence finally prevailed, he started at last, in a low, almost rumbling voice: "Please forgive me, it wasn't my intention to... strike you, step on you, or otherwise scare you. I heard you fall and thought you might have needed help, that is all."
Remembering that he still held his cane in his left hand, he tied the looped cord at the top around a similar tie at his waist, and bringing his hands to the elaborate knot keeping Vira to his back, he carefully loosened it enough that he could slide her around to the front and lift her out, leaving the sling to fall to the ground.
Though Vira had stopped fidgeting once the crying stopped, promptly forgetting what it was that she had wanted to see anyway, the young Lotus girl perked up at the sudden movement and blinked curiously at the two Things standing in front of her as she was brought into her guardian's arms.
"This is Vira. She was born two days ago. I have been living here for a number of years in preparation for her eventual arrival, so I suppose we just never came across each other. I am Jafar. It is nice to meet you." With politeness out of the way, Jafar was free to fall silent at last and so he did.
Vira, paying absolutely no attention to her guardian or his words, determinedly began to reach and make grabby fingers at the smaller Thing the bigger Thing was holding, the one with the Lotus like hers! She wanted it!
"Oh no...I think I did it again...I'm sorry for my ranting...I do that sometimes, and it annoys me, so I'm betting it annoys other people even more." Seed blushed. She knew that he thought of her as some strange, rude woman, which isn't a very good first impression. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry for assuming something before I knew what you were actually doing..."
"Oh! I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself at first...I'm Seed, and this little girl here is Lien, she just came to me this morning...I got the actual Lotus a few days ago. I have no idea why she arrived so soon though.. Well, Anyways, Vira looks soo adorable!" Seed was being very immature today with her many outburts and moodswings. She looked down at her feet, embarrassed, and noticed something strange -- a cane. "Wait...are you...blind?"
Meanwhile, while Vira, the other Lotus was glancing at Lien. Her head perked up, knowing someone was looking at her. She didn't know who though. She turned around, only to find another Lotus with her hands reaching for her. The other Lotus had a weird look on her face, it looked like she wanted to have her...Lien got scared and exclaimed, "Blooo....!!" which was her way of saying, "Aiee!! Help!"
"It's alright." Jafar frowned at -- Seed? Was that her actual name? -- Seed's reaction; she certainly was an odd one. She sounded young, though, and seems vaguely nervous, which probably accounted for a lot. "I spent many years trying to find the best way of being intimidating on mere sight -- so I suppose it's nice to know that I can finally do it without even thinking."
"It's nice to meet both of you though," He continued in a gentler tone, inwardly wondering what it was that Vira was up to, as determined as the little girl was to squirm out of his arms and very rudely meet the ground. He wasn't sure, either, how to respond to her compliment on Vira's adorableness -- while he had no doubt that the little girl actually was, what would he say when he had no part in it? 'Thank you'? 'Oh, good thing she is, thank you for telling me, now I won't have to throw her in a lake and start over'?
The question of his being blind was something he could handle, having answered it innumerably over the years. "Essentially, yes, I am blind."
Vira was meanwhile both fascinated and extraordinarily amused. It spoke! The Thing said something! She was not quite sure what it meant, but it could make noise just like her! She let out a small, childish shriek of happiness at this discovery, a friendly attempt at letting the other Thing know that she, too, could make a noise.
"Well again, it is a pleasure to meet you. And it is very good to know that you are...you know..." Seed was very uncomfortable talking about it, though Jafar seemed to be okay with it. "And I'm sorry I'm coming on a bit too strong."
Seed then perked up, she looked at Lien, who was on her shoulder, and realized that Lien was a bit frightened at the other girl. "Awww it's okay Lien, she only wants to play...You should be nice, I don't think she means to do you any harm. Want me to put you on the ground so you and Vira can play?" "Mmm....Mwa.." said Lien nervously. She looked to the ground and pointed, "Boo!" She anxiously scrambled around in Seed's arms, trying to get to the ground. "So I guess you do want to play afterall!" She let her down and looked up to Jafar and said, "I think they want to play, is that okay? Maybe we can go somewhere for a cup of tea?"
There was nothing Jafar could say to this that he hadn't said already, so he merely let out a thoughtful 'hnnn'.
What? What was this?! The other Thing dared to go somewhere without her? She was not done looking at her yet! Vira began strongly squirming in Jafar's arms who, sensing that he wasn't going to win this fight, set her down on the ground as well. Picking the sling up while he was there, he finally straightened and hoped Vira would play nicely with the other Lotus girl. Thinking that this constituted a satisfactory answer towards Seed's first question, he nodded to her second and confirmed: "Yes, that sounds fine."
Vira stood unsteadily on two feet in the same position Jafar had placed her in, but soon collapsed back to all fours. Undeterred by her fall, she giggled and crawled over cat-like to the other girl She crouching down low to the ground in front of her with her rump raised, growling a playful challenge and and waiting for her to make the first move.
Lien was a little scared, mostly because of the approaching girl. But she was tough, or at least she looked tough, enough to fight. She crawled up to Vira and poked her in the face. "Heee!" She didn't want to, or in other words, she didn't know how to play rough...yet, so she just played around with her.
"Yay! I know a great place a few blocks away. The walk may be long, but its sooo worth it! Come on, I can help you there." Seed gestured to grab Jafar's hand and said, "I can lead you there."
Vira sputtered indignantly at the other girl's daring, going cross-eyed with the effort. Even she knew in games of Might and Being Better Than You one did not simply go up to anyone and poke them in the face! She backed away, fingernails scratching against the dirt, and she began to sway her upraised backend from side to side to build momentum. Finally she unleashed a battle cry and launched herself as best she could through the air to pounce on the other girl.
Unfortunately for her, Jafar recognized the warning signs of a scuffle since her growl, and easily locating the very noisy girl, managed to scoop her off the ground before she could get very far in her counter-attack. Heaving her over one shoulder and keeping her in place, he turned back to Seed just in time to hear her proposition. "Alright, that sounds fine... Perhaps the pup will feel a little more friendly once we've arrived."
Lien seemed like a sensitive child as it was -- the last thing he wanted to do was to somehow lead to permanently scarring her by allowing Vira to play with her as if she were indestructable.
Not noticing Seed holding her hand out, he nodded and continued: "I will follow you then."
Vira squirmed unhappily on Jafar's shoulder, mentally grumbling at her apparent defeat. What a dirty, dirty trick, getting her guardian to stop her like that! The other Thing was obviously a formidable opponent -- but no matter -- one day...
A butterfly drifted past and all plans of childish revenge quickly vanished from Vira's mind as she followed its winding path with her gaze.
Lien backed away, knowing that Vira wasn't afraid to hurt her. "Mreww...." she quickly crawled behind Seed's legs, wanting Seed to pick her up. "Hehe okay okay." she picked Lien up and held her in her shoulders. "Okay the cafe is very close. I can lead the way there." She started walking down the rocky road, trying not to bump into anyone with Lien.
Lien giggled when the butterfly passed Vira's head. She too was excited. She had to admit, it was cute. Lien made grabby hands for the butterfly as it fluttered past. "Bloo!" If it wasn't for Seed, she would be crawling off, as fast as she could, to run after that butterfly, but before she could do anything, she once again, fell asleep.
When they were walking, Seed had a question she had been meaning to ask since she first saw him, "Can I ask you something? Why do you have so many scars? What happened to you?"
Grateful for Vira's sudden compliance, Jafar began to follow closely behind Seed, using the sound of her footsteps to guide him.
It was only once the butterfly had vanished from Vira's sight completely that she returned her attention to the other girl. ...What was she doing? Vira experimentally called a noise to her, and when she didn't respond, she let out a low whine. Was she plotting something? ...She had to stay on the lookout! Constant vigilance!
Jafar smiled to himself when Vira at last gave a great yawn and went limp against him, taking another one of the catnaps the Lotus children were widely known for. His attention was soon distracted by Seed's question, though, and it was obviously one he hadn't been expecting.
He stared at her questioningly, one eyebrow raised, and it took a moment for him to realize that yes, just because he wasn't aware of them anymore the scars had not vanished. Aaa, how many did he have, anyway? "I am from Milva," He began, obviously expecting this to illuminate many things, "I suppose I collected them over the years. I was a warrior and was expected to hunt... All of the scars you see are proofs of my mistakes over the years."
And then, either to change the subject or else to be polite, he finally voiced his own curiosity, "Where are you from?"
Lien didn't see Vira's look, since she was asleep. What do you expect from a toddler anyways? "I wonder what she's dreaming about..." said Seed with a grin.
"Ohh...I see...Milva, a lovely country. Well I'm sure everyone is proud of you, you are very loyal, or at least you seem like that. That is agreat first impression."
"Me?" Seed stretched out her arms and looked the to sky. "Truthfully? I don't really know. I just found myself here, in Edonisu, for as long as I can remember. I truly love to travel around all of Edonisu. I have visited all of the countries, and hope to visit all the islands too." she smiled. "But I love Fen, I go there all the time, more than all the other countries. I call that my "home," it is the only place that I feel safe. It is also Lien's home. She originated from Fen also."
Fen? --Aa, the scholar capital of Edonisu, that made sense. "...So you do not have any idea as to your true origins? Your guardian did not tell you?" That seemed like a rather odd way of bringing up a child, but perhaps there were circumstances surrounding it that he hadn't considered.
It must also have been nice to be able to travel so freely. "You have been to Milva, then?"
"Yeah. I don't really know if my guardian did or not. I have a pretty good memory, but it seems like all of that stuff wiped away in time. I hope to someday find out though. I was raised in Fen though, not born, but raised. I started to travel when I got older and my guardian died..." she said, trying not to cry. She was thinking about her her guardian treated her and...well she gets emotional when she does, just like when she thinks about her lover..."Ack..sorry.." she wiped her eyes and sniffed.
Before she started again, she tried to get rid of her tears and tried not to get all emotional.
"Ah, yes, I just traveled there recently, actually. It is a very beautiful place. I love their clothing designs, but I was too poor then to buy any. I hope to visit there again to buy some new outfits!" she put on a big smile. "Also the food there was great! You must have had a great childhood!"
Jafar frowned again at the tone of despair he could faintly detect in Seed's voice -- a rather sensitive young lady, wasn't she? He vaguely wondered if this was some sort of side-effect to recieving a Lotus child and whether he was supposed to be going through this himself. "Well, I hope you are successful in finding out one day," He said diplomatically, not wishing to dredge up any more pain for her, "As I'm sure you will be."
Aa -- clothing -- one of the aspects of Milva he didn't personally miss... He'd lost count of the number of people who suddenly began to think it was their god-given right to dress him since he lost the ability to properly color-coordinate his own clothes. "My childhood was pleasant," He conceded at last, "I was not the most well-behaved of children, however, so I cannot say the same for my guardian..."
Hopefully karma would not deem it 'fair' to put him through a similar trial with Vira.
"What is it like in Fen, then? I've only heard stories but who knows how much of them are true."
"Yeah...me too" she sounded very sad. "Mmm...yeah it must be hard...when you're...you know." she said. "But you look just fine to me! I think I've seen worse."
"Fen?" she said questioingly. "Well for me it was a beautiful place. Last time I was there was when I was in my teens, so I know a lot about it. Everyone there is very smart and strict about martial arts. I didn't paritcularly like martial arts, so I usually just sat down and watch. I was more the girly type when I was a kid...but anyways, we are really near to the tea house. Let's hurry up!" she yelled as she ran off, but still trying to make sure she was in Jafar's sight.
'Seen worse'? Well, Jafar supposed that was a compliment... "Thank you," he said carefully. He didn't have the chance to comment on Fen further, either, before the other girl proclaimed the tea house to be in the near vicinity and rushed off.
It took most of his concentration to continue following her, especially with the added difficulty of the distance put between them -- but finally he realized by smell alone that he was standing in front of what must have been the aforementioned 'tea house'. "Is this it, then?" He asked, hoping that she was standing nearby -- else he must have lost her completely.
"Yup!" exclaimed Seed as she was standing right in front of Jafar. "Though a little bit to close..." She had almost no breathing room. She giggled. "Well here we are. I can get the tea we can talk out here if you want. What kind of tea do you like? I'm a fan of green tea myself."
Just then, Lien woke up, probably because of the smell of the tea. She let out a yawn and blinked. Her eyes were still very droopy, but she could manage to stay awak for a while. "Ah! Hi there!" exclaimed Seed as she saw Lien open her eyes. "Mrrr...." she said with sort of an angry tone, I think Seed was a bit too loud.
Taken aback by the extremely close proximity of Seed's voice, Jafar immediately backed away. "Aa, my apologies..."
What was that? Oh, yes, tea. ...But green tea? What did they put in that, grass? "Green tea would be fine..." He said at last, mentally wincing at the image of it he had in his head. He was never going to convince Vira to eat her vegetables, though, if he wouldn't even try a new flavor of tea himself. "Shall I watch over Lien for you while you run inside?"
Crouching down and arranging the sling over the ground, Jafar gently placed Vira down on the make-shift bed. The young Lotus girl was still fast asleep, fingers occasionally twitching as she dreamed things to be forgotten soon upon waking. She let out a deep snore from time to time, a surprisingly loud noise for someone so small.
"Oh, okay! Green tea it is then! And yeah, it would be perfect if you could watch over Lien while I go get our tea....I'm sure she will be fast asleep in an instant though. Seed gently put Lien down on the bed that Jafar made for Vira, suprisingly, they both fit on it fine, with still enough room for a third toddler.
Seed walked into the tea house, ringing the bell on the door. She walked up to the man who was taking the orders and she said, "Two green teas please!" The man nodded and repeated the order to the woman beside her that Seed assumed made the tea. The tea was handmade and they used leaves, not the bag, which made it even more delicious!
Lien, as assumed, again doze off to sleep, her head at Vira's feet and her feet at Vira's head. She was a very quiet sleeper, but would occassionally push or hit Vira in the leg when she snored.
Jafar remained crouched in front of the 'bed' -- he wasn't willing to leave Vira behind even for a moment to see if he could find a chair. She was asleep at the moment but there was no telling the end to the destruction a young Milvan could do left unattended...
Vira was not having a good time of sleeping, either. She normally slept very lightly, dozing in short bursts and only really waking up when there was anything of interest around, but even this was made difficult by Lien's excessive movements. Careful to keep silent this time lest she be foiled yet again by her guardian, Vira rolled over onto her belly and squirmed along the deer-fur, sneaking up to Lien's legs before sinking her teeth into her ankle.
It was a playful bite and she didn't do it very hard -- at least not with the intention of hurting the other girl, just merely teaching the Thing a lesson.
Seed was waiting a while for the tea to come, but it eventually was done. "Thank you, and come again!" said the man who handed Seed the tea. She held one in each hand, trying not to spill any.
Lien's eyes widened and she fidgeted when Vira bit her leg. She started to cry for a little bit, then suddenly went back to sleep. She thought, "Ouch! I'm going to get her back!" she scrathced her head as if she were thinking. She looked at Vira's back, and her eyes ran up her spine as she thought, "Bingo!" She went up to her and tugged hard, or at least it seemed like it was hard to her, on her two pigtails sticking out of her head, waiting to see the other girl's reaction.
Seed say the two toddlers playing around, thinking it was nothing, though to them it was war. She slowly put one of the cups on the table on a plate. She said to Jafar, "I think they will be okay, here is your tea!" when she said that she took a sip of her own and let out a sigh.
Jafar was doubtful of this -- Vira had nailed him pretty good with her fingernails, though he had trimmed them as best he could before inflicting her upon the public. Thinking that she knew what was best for her own child though -- perhaps playfighting was just as important in Fen as it was for Milva? -- Jafar at last left the two children and followed the sound of china clinking against a table. Reaching out and finding the edge of it, and then searching through the air with his other hand for a chair, he at last located one and slipped into it. "Thank you," He said gratefully, finding his cup and raising it to his lips.
Vira yowled at the hair-pulling, turning towards Lien and huffing indignantly towards her. First she kicked her and now this! She was clearly the superior one, especially because her hair was shinier! Such disrespect could not be tolerated! "Gihgrhe," She said, clearly meaning, 'apologize to me right now, peon!'
She otherwise made no move to counterattack though -- perhaps she had something nefarious up her sleeve, or perhaps she was so blinded with her own pride that the concept of 'strategy' was completely lost on her.
"Mmmhmm!! Of course. I am happy that you are able to come here with me. I don't come here very often, and I'm happy that it's with you. You are a great person. Though you may be judged differently because of being blind, but you are a very kind person at heart." Seed said in between sips. She blew the tea first, to show her manners, and then took small sips, trying not to singe her tounge.
Lien was very angry at the child for saying such rude things. She said, "Gerro!" which meant something like, "How rude! I won't apologize now! meanie!"
Just then, Seed's eyes widened as she just realized how late it was getting! "Uh oh! The sun is already setting! We've been here for a really long time now! I'm sorry to cut it short, but I think I have to go!" she felt very rude to just leave right in the middle of her tea. "Here is where I am currently staying at." she said as she wrote it down on a napkin. She neatly folded it and handed it to him. "I'm not sure I will be there in about 2 weeks, but I will try to see you again soon! I will probably stay around the area though." She then picked up Lien, just as she was about to hit Vira, and ran off, "Byee!!"
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