Heavenfall

(OOC - Thread is entirely open. Expecting someone to show up)

She had her tools out and was working on an arrow, another next to her. Phi didn't spend every day doing this, but it was one of the best ways to make sure that she never lacked for the necessary supplies when she was on the hunt. Just one of those duties she was expected to do in pulling her own weight. She wasn't especially good at the art of bow and arrow making, but she was good enough to maintain her equipment and replace basic arrows in a pinch, and really? that's all that she needed.

Looking at the arrow tip, she glanced around the camp, noticing a bit more tension. There'd been trouble, she'd heard. Hopefully nobody dead. Dead meant fewer to fight when the time came.

Ryoko had set out about the camp after hearing there was trouble... it didn't feel right, being here on the road without the caravan. How did anyone get things done without the camp drums to tell them what was happening?

She's have to teach these stone hut builders how to travel some day, clearly, else they'd spend half their journey chasing their own shadows.

Pausing in the clearing, she noticed a woman fletching new arrows.

Maybe she'd been there?

Walking over, she asked, with surprising forwardness, "Hello. Did you fight people today?"

A glance up at the woman and red eyes met red eyes before they met horns. One horn. Two horns. The ratling's comments the other night made her eyes narrow a fraction, but she didn't tense up. The woman was allowed to be here, so ... she was probably safe. Great fortunes, how does she walk in all that clothing? Isn't she suffocating in all of that crap? Oh right, she'd asked something, hadn't she? Phi grunted and shook her head.

"Patrols were quiet when I went out. Heard there was trouble. Nobody came back for burial. Probably ok." Probably. She was duly cautious, but she also wasn't going to let it stop what she was doing. She was good at putting holes in people, not patching them up. She looked up at the woman again for a second, pausing and squinting. And, in that moment, she said what was probably the most un-erudite thing imaginable under the circumstances.

"You have horns."

Ryoko blinked.

Well that was good, no deaths.

"Yes. I do."

She quirked her head. "Is that a problem?"

"Heard about horned people from a rat the other day. Expected you to be taller." And dumber. Don't forget dumber. Oh, she forgot to say dumber. she had a tiny bit of tact. She squinted again and shrugged. "If I can work with talking rats while following glowing god people on my way to save a glowing god person from a hole in the ground, I can deal with horns." It was said matter of factly enough, though at the same time it did kind of leave something to be desired.

She gestured at her forehead, about where the horns would have been. "Why?"

"Work with rats?"

Ryoko raised an eyebrow.

"Why? My mother had them. She was 'taller' like your rat friends said. What else did they tell you? That they kept people like her as slaves?"

"That was the gist of it, yes. They were their old slave stock. Went crazy when Fu Leng fell." She shook her head and shrugged. "Surprised you'd work with the ... what'd they call themselves? Nezumi. Considering that. Just know 'of' the big horned ones. But no. So, you're half like that then? That mean you're strong like them?" She didn't add 'you going to go crazy like them' to the question. She figured that would be kind of an obvious thing to mention, and the girl probably didn't know anyway.

Who ever knew if they were going crazy. "You can call me Phi, if you want."

"Phi. No, I'm not so strong."

She sighed.

"It seems children are usually more human than ogre."

With a shrug, she added, "I didn't know there were any nezumi along... but obviously those in charge trust them... so I will try to be... polite."

The way she said it expressed doubt.

"If they mess with Tago, I will strangle them with their own entrails."

"Don't let them shackle you again," she said, starting to work at the arrow while they talked. "That's my take on it, but that's on you and yours not to let it happen. I'm sure you've got your ways." As she worked, she glanced over at her and then nodded to the spot across, if she wanted to sit down and join properly. "Who's Tago? I'm guessing not you?"

"My drummer."

Her expression was calm, and she took the seat. "I'm Ongaku no Ryoko."

"I'm surprised we have Nezumi along, but I suppose they would know the lay of the land."

"As of a week ago, very little surprises me, and a few things are just unexpected. Next, we'll have someone with three eyes, or none." A shrug. She parsed the name with difficulty. "Ryoko then. Far as I understand, we're following the rats because they know the land. I'm trying not to piss them off because the know it and I don't like getting lost. More than that... you're the first 'ogre' I've met, and they're the first Nezumi."

She lived a sort of sheltered existence up in the mountains.

"Reasonable."

Ryoko shrugged.

"As I said... if they leave us alone, I won't cause trouble. But they better not think they have a right to Tago or me... we're free. And we intend to remain that way."

"A good way to think of things. You should want to be free, want to be your own. If you don't, you are already a slave. There is a difference between serving someone, working with and for them, and being their property." She grunted and set one arrow to the side, her lips turning down in a frown.

"Don't care if they're good at what they do. Relying on slaves makes them weak. You should rely on your own strength."

"In that we agree."

She sighed.

"My tribe doesn't do business with slavers - even when a powerful village offered us a great deal to join with them, we refused them because they kept some of their own as slaves."

A small shrug, and she glanced at the arrows. "So what tribe do you call home?"

"Hikaru. We're mountain folk. Live off the land, and if the times are too tough, we'll raid what we need. The mountains aren't too forgiving to folks who can't take care of themselves." She snorted and laughed. "We've been wintering north of the Scorpion lands, past the marshes for a few years. Shitty land, but they don't want it, so it's ours for now."

"Scorpion lands?"

Ryoko indicated her ignorance with a shrug.

"So you were like the.... Noriaki, I think it was? I have encountered others who raided. I suppose my tribe is lucky - we herd, so have had no such need."

"The difference," she had a tightness to her voice. "Is that the Noriaki were, for years, mostly raiders. They relied on others for their needs. We did that only when we had to. If we could live off the land, barren as it was, we did so. A Hikaru should live by the sweat of their own brow."

She grunted sourly. "Akodo may not be a man I have much respect for, but he will probably reign those thugs in." In fact, if Yamadono was any indication, and what he said was, it was probably already happening. "But you are lucky. The land does not bear harvest well. It is rough, does not like to be tilled."

"Ah."

She nodded faintly. "The lands we travel are not ideal for farming, we don't think. The villages we pass are small."

Shrugging, she went on, "We take our herds from place to place, to keep the land from dying. That way we are always near our bounty."

"Ah, you're herdsmen. Of course, no that makes perfect sense. An entirely different path." There was no judgment in her tone. She could appreciate following the herds like that, working the land always on the move. It was definitely not their way, but she could definitely get it. She didn't envy it, though. She was no nomad. "You... should talk to this Shinjo sometime. I hear she's a bit of a free spirit. Just saying."

"What is it like, to always move about?"

"In some ways, peaceful. You learn to be close to your caravan - we form larger caravans during the big moves, but when we arrive we spread out into many camps. It allows us to make use of wide fields."

With a nod, she added, "The best days are when we are on the wagons, playing music and seeing new hills rising over the horizon."