[Day 9 EE] Quest

[Ko]

((Expecting, I think?))

Around about the time that the cook fire near the supply wagon was starting to bustle with people preparing the evening meal, Ko hesitated before the flap of the tent shared by the gods-made-mortal and their human spouses. So much fine, strong cloth--it was almost the size of a small house from her village, certainly big enough to sleep many more than four people. No wonder it had to be packed in one of those Crab-built wagons; one person could never carry something like this on her back.

Kinsen Godswife said it was all right... She clapped her hands before the tent flap, the same way she would have outside the skin door curtain of of a house back home.

[Hantei Kinsen]

Nobody actually replied for a long time.

Then, as torches are lit around camp, Kinsen's golden hair can be seen approaching the are Ko is waiting for them. The Stag had just returned from a peaceful moment with her husband, watching the sunset.

"Oh, hello there, Ko-san. How are doing doing today?" She asks, coming closer to provide a bow.

[Ko]

"God's wife." Ko makes her tribe's greeting gesture with hand to heart, then, on second thought, awkwardly copies Kinsen's bow. "Today is fine. Quiet. I don't know why we stopped here, exactly, but it's peaceful."

[Hantei Kinsen]

"I believe we needed some fresh water and, well, it looks oddly lovely around here, doesn't it?" Kinsen smiles and tilts her head at the question to give a charismatic weight to it.

[Hantei]

Not far behind Kinsen came Hantei, the tall statuesque man emerged from the tent and gave Ko a small bow as well. He was dressed in his usual functional but well made garb and in the dying light of the evening his golden glow of Tengoku shone bright as the sun finished sinking below the horizon.

"Hello I am Hantei found of the Stag clan. It seems you are already acquainted with my wife Kinsen." His voice was light but strong, pleasant but commanding.

[Ko]

Ko repeated her slightly awkward hybrid greeting gesture, first pressing her palm to her heart in the shore people's way and then trying to copy Kinsen's style of bow. "Greetings to you, Hantei-kami." She straightened up, nervously tucking a strand of sun-streaked hair behind her ear. "Yes, I... your wife met me out hunting, back at the Crab Clan village. I didn't know gods had human wives before that." She tried a friendly smile, though the result was also a bit nervous-looking around the edges.

[Hantei Kinsen]

"Ko-san is an excellent hare hunter, I can say." Kinsen nods, coming closer to Hantei and smiling with her eyes closed to him. Turning to face Ko again, she mentions, "She also told me this interesting , yet tragic, story of her people. Being assaulted by giant monsters."

Kinsen frowns a bit, trying not to err. "Is that correct, Ko-san?"

[Ko]

"Yes, Godswife." Ko nods. "Except it isn't my village, exactly, it's, well, our neighbors. Cousins to my grandmother. They're plagued by dark creatures attacking their home..." She glanced from Kinsen to Hantei and back again, not sure if she should continue.

[Hantei Kinsen]

Kinsen nods and mentions with her head to Hantei that they should enter the tent. After all, they had a guest. "Come in. Let me prepare some tea for you, Ko-san. Please, continue with what you need to say."

Once inside, Kinsen readies up utensils and begins her work, allowing them time to discuss as much as necessary.

[Hantei]

Hantei nodded "Yes please come in, tea sounds lovely." Hantei says as he enters the tent with them and looks to Ko "Please tell me more about the plight of these people and the monsters that attack them."

[Ko]

"Thank you." Ko ducks her head entering the tent--a reflex that is totally unnecessary in this case, since the spacious structure is tall enough for the kami, let alone for her. Shemakes the spread-hand-to-heart gesture again; apparently it functions as both greeting- and gratitude-sign.

"Um. You see, Hantei-Kami, I'm, er... I'm on a quest." It sounded strange saying it out loud, but Ko tried to take heard in the fact that it was true. "I told your wife most of it already. It's not for my tribe, exactly. It's another people, who are kin to my family... they gave me hospitality when I was lost, and so I promised to find these Kami they told me about, and ask a boon for them." The fisher-girl's account was awkward; she felt the differences that she'd been noticing between her accent and these Empire-humans' one wrapping around her tongue as if to trip it. And perhaps she'd started in the wrong place...

"They're being attacked, and they can't defend themselves. They say the monster is too strong for them to fight... or maybe it's more than one monster."

((Am trying to find a balance between 'Antisocial disad' and 'readability' here. Not sure if succeeding. ))

[Hantei Kinsen]

"Where exactly are they located?" Kinsen inquires, preparing tea for the three of them.

[Ko]

Ko would wait for a cue from Hantei to figure out whether she was supposed to sit or stand.

"They're our neighbors. We live on the shore of the great sea, far to the east of the Crab Clan village. East of the great salt marsh, with mountains and forest to the north." It seemed she must have gotten used to giving this directional summary; it's more practiced than the rest of her account of herself. "Since I started traveling, I heard people from other tribes name it the Lonely Shore, but we don't call it that."

She pauses, watching Kinsen preparing the tea--the name of the plant is familiar, if indeed it is the same plant whose leaves Ko's people put into soups and stews, but it's not a familiar procedure at all. Hesitating slightly, she adds, "There is one thing that makes it complicated, though."

[Hantei Kinsen]

Kinsen nods to her, while mentioning with her head where she could sit. Then, she drops the water around the leaf extract, submerging it.

[Hantei]

"Thank you." Ko ducks her head entering the tent--a reflex that is totally unnecessary in this case, since the spacious structure is tall enough for the kami, let alone for her. Shemakes the spread-hand-to-heart gesture again; apparently it functions as both greeting- and gratitude-sign.

"Um. You see, Hantei-Kami, I'm, er... I'm on a quest." It sounded strange saying it out loud, but Ko tried to take heard in the fact that it was true. "I told your wife most of it already. It's not for my tribe, exactly. It's another people, who are kin to my family... they gave me hospitality when I was lost, and so I promised to find these Kami they told me about, and ask a boon for them." The fisher-girl's account was awkward; she felt the differences that she'd been noticing between her accent and these Empire-humans' one wrapping around her tongue as if to trip it. And perhaps she'd started in the wrong place...

"They're being attacked, and they can't defend themselves. They say the monster is too strong for them to fight... or maybe it's more than one monster."

((Am trying to find a balance between 'Antisocial disad' and 'readability' here. Not sure if succeeding. ))

Hantei nodded "They should seek out the Empire and join us, that is something we afford our followers, protection. But I'm afraid we are still a budding people our selves and after using so many resources for this expedition I fear sending people to protect these tribesmen will be difficult. But we will welcome them into the Empire with open arms where they can contribute to building something lasting and in turn are well fed and protected."

[Ko]

Hantei nodded "They should seek out the Empire and join us, that is something we afford our followers, protection. But I'm afraid we are still a budding people our selves and after using so many resources for this expedition I fear sending people to protect these tribesmen will be difficult. But we will welcome them into the Empire with open arms where they can contribute to building something lasting and in turn are well fed and protected."

"Well, um... I understand that. You have to look after your own people. I think... well, we'll see, but I think my village might want to come in to your Empire, if we can still live on our shore. It's a good place! Some of you might want to come there too." Ko bit her lip to stop further rambling.

She cleared her throat. "But... for my cousins' tribe, um... they can't come to you, you see. They live in their own palace, underneath the water, and most of them can't live if they leave there. That's why they had to ask me to come instead of one of them."

[Hantei]

Hantei cocked an eyebrow at the young woman "They are not human these tribes people are they? surely not, if they live under the water. The presents a great many challenges."

[Ko]

"No, they're not. They are sea people." Ko nodded earnestly. She made a sound that might have been a word in another language, a bubbling one punctuated with clicks, and then translated, "Ningyo. That's why they need a god to help them--and why our tribe's warriors can't do it. Although we're cousins, the sea people and the shore people, hardly any of us can follow them down there. Not enough to make a difference."

[Hantei Kinsen]

"Ningyo?" Kinsen repeats the word, as if something in her body had already heard those same sounds Ko pronounced. "Can they live in land?"

[Ko]

"A few can leave the sea and walk on two legs, the stories say. Women chieftains and shamans." Ko's voice took on a telling-of-tales sort of cadence, even though she was very clearly no storyteller. "But it isn't easy for them. If one stays too long, or if she loses her fish-skin cloak, she can never, ever go back. Most of their tribe can't live away from the water at all--no more than you could live under the sea, Kinsen Godswife."