The Day of Thunder

Xiaochen couldn't entirely claim to know what Name magic was, so she elected the most Ki-rin way of handling the problem.

"What's Name magic?" A beat. "Pardon my ignorance."

"That would be good. I'm starting to feel the wet down in my bones." She smiled. "These trees don't touch off quick, do they? Fire-wise, that is. Sometimes you get a kid makes an oops on the steppe and it's a wall of fire for a mile or three."

Xiaochen bit her lip in thought. "Um...you said heterodox Isawa, maybe. How heterodox are we talking? I mean, is this ritual the furthest out there that they go, or is there more?"

"Oh? Otomo-san is a skilled roller, then?" She laughed breezily. "Back home we don't roll the cubes; it's Shagai for us. You make them out of sheep's ankles. Actually, there's not a lot of making involved. They're really just ankles. Sometimes the Moto, that's a tribe quite a bit further west, where...

"Circumlo-" Xiaochen shook her head slightly to break the spell. "Our elders sometimes get that way, too. Now, I do not mind a turn of phrase or a bit of cleverness to break the weight of days." She smiled pleasantly. "What does 'circumlocutive' mean?"

HT: Kakita Asamura, Doji Tsumeru, Kakita Akinori, Doji Moroi, Kaiu Totoro, Doji Koushi, MEGACRANE Kobune: Daidoji Fuichi Elixyverse: Otomo Haruki, Doji Kenshin Vulpine Regime: Asahina Kiriha New Winds: Bayushi Jiro Kyuden Shika: Kitsuki Hajime Cyberpunk: Jorsalfar Burning Sands (Wayback): Bakari, Ra...

Makime wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 20, 2023 8:15 pm

Shiro Hiruma was close with greater than 50% dead

The Undead phase was very expensive.

Xiaochen raises an eyebrow. "A long way for an old man to walk when he's got a young man to do it for him. Anyway, we've--that's Lady Shinjo's people--had scouts observe folks plagued by dreams converging on this spot, so where there's trouble, the Otaku ride to fix it. That's how it is." She smiled...

"I expect not." She sighed, then brightened back up quickly. "But then, that is why Otaku-ue and you and I have come here! We'll soon see things put right."

"I agree! That's a part of why I was so pleased my tribe entered Lady Shinjo's service. There's certainly been less call to raid in the past years. Mostly ritual stuff. Coming-of-age, like." She shrugged a shoulder. "But no, no horses that climb trees, sad to say. Not many trees to speak of, either....

"So you hunt as well? That is a role I often provide for my clan! Almost always on horseback, though. When I am not hunting, I am tending horses. Or shooting people." She shrugs. "Not as often as when I was a girl, though."

Xiaochen nodded firmly. "I was worried that I would not be able to shoot this problem. I am very grateful that you have reasoned a way around this."

Blundering through conversations being a Ki-rin pastime, Xiaochen answered breezily. "I'm from the grasslands out past the mountains to the west. We move around constantly, we follow the herds, you see, so it is difficult to give an exact place." She shrugged. "What about you?"

"Oh?" Xiaochen leaned forward slightly in clear interest. "And how does that work?"

She sighed. "He's still quite small, so he does not always tell the full story, you understand?" She paused, as though that were not a rhetorical question. "But things like getting lost in tall grass, and the sound it makes when it is growing. The true problem is that it can be difficult to wake him...

"Oh, that sounds delicious," Chouri said with a smile. "We managed to get some rice for the feast in a couple of days. It wasn't easy up here, but I think it would be very nice. I'd have loved to see those fields. I visited the grasslands to the south a long time ago, Otaku-sama, but I would love t...

She nodded once. "I have." Then she focused her attention on Ainuri. "And what of you, stranger? You haven't the markings of the settled lands, I see."

Xiaochen stopped, cocked a smile and replied. "Otaku Xiaochen, of Lady Shinjo's people. The Otomo are Lord Hantei's, yes?" Her eyebrows rose slightly as she remembered the next step. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Otomo-san." Another pause as she visualized the page... "Have you had rice?"

Xiaochen's reply is to nock an arrow and pivot to the new disturbance. She doesn't quite give the Otomo her back, though. Not yet. Not with what she's encountered on the road. She gestures with her head in the direction of the song to indicate her intention and begins to move that way by circling do...

Warmed and re-booted after her pleasant morning with the headwoman, Xiaochen stalked into the woods determined to bring in an animal to repay her host's hospitality. She had the subtle bow-leggedness of one accustomed to the saddle, and none of the legendary stealth of the learned master Seppun or h...