Hello, Masked Demise here with another new story… Sorry I always do this to you guys. I have more plans with this one than I've had in a while and well… I can't get the idea out of my head and it's been a few days. I wrote all of this without any real struggles or blocks, and I actually got the idea when I was looking at stuff for Daybreak. It was a piece that Riot did when Xayah and Rakan came out, with a few Vastaya in trees, looking down at an army about to fight. On the right side is a Vastayan whose type we haven't really been told about, so I decided on this. I hope you all enjoy.
I sit at the edge of the water, letting it lap at my toes. In the distance, there are fisherman in reed boats, their hooks bob in the water, sending out circles of motion, spreading ever away from their source. Deep under the water, I see a small form tug on the line. The fisherman peers over the edge of his boat and scowls in the water. Not a fish, but a small child, yanks on the line again before swimming off, leaving bubbles of air climbing up, his giggles due to the mischief he has caused. The fisherman's mouth parts in what I can only assume to be a sigh, then he sits back down in his tiny, delicate boat.
Near me, along the shore, women and men alike are dressed in furs, thin, but covering most of the skin on their bodies, though it leaves their backs bare, letting thin, iridescent wings lay flat against their back. A few of them have spears, and they spread their wings, letting them flap, faster than eyes can see, lifting them up, higher and higher into the air. They are the hunters of my people, the Vastayan tribe called Strig.
The thing you can liken us to the most would probably be dragonflies. We don't have eyes like theirs, though our eyesight is enhanced. Our wings are just as delicate as theirs, and just as beautiful as well. Despite our beauty, we are also incredibly delicate, though magic has gifted us with the ability to entrance our prey and any enemies that would harm us. Our children are safe, they live deep under the water of the lake that we have claimed as ours. Gills let them breathe, and once they come of age, they emerge from the water. We all have emerged from the water.
Once we've emerged, we learn to hunt, to sew, to cook, to fight even in some cases. I'm a-
"Rhian!" a voice snaps, bringing me out of my daze. A woman, slightly older than myself stands over me, tapping a foot slowly against the ground. Long, black hair reaches down to the midpoint of her back, and violet eyes stare into me. Her chocolate-colored skin blends the look together, making her look absolutely beautiful. She grins, playfully as she stares down at me. She's my Alikhan, my mentor, Heliyah. "Daydreaming again, were you?" she teases. "I've been yelling your name at you for a while now."
I slowly stand up, rubbing the back of my head. "Sorry," I apologize. "Got a bit lost in thought I guess," I admit. "What was it you needed?"
She reaches forward and takes my hand, pulling me towards the forest. The deep tan of my skin is odd against the rich color of her skin, though she doesn't seem to notice. "You promised you'd hunt with me today. You wouldn't want to break your promise, now would you?" she taunts.
Heliyah means no harm, I know due to the time I've spent with her under her wing (sometimes literally). "I wouldn't, I enjoy hunting with you. Let me just go get my spear."
"No need," she tosses something through the air and I instinctively catch the object, my spear. The tip is made of bone, honed to a point, sharp enough to kill. It's attached to a long piece of wood that has been carved into the shaft of a spear, made smooth as to not be uncomfortable in my grip.
I run my hand along it before looking at her curiously, "If you had mine, where's your spear, Heliyah? I thought we were hunting together, not you watching me."
She turned her violet eyes up towards the sky and whistled innocently. "Hunting with you doesn't mean I have to be hunting. It simply means you're hunting and I'm with you."
"You just made that up!" I cry in protest as I jump towards her, trying to grab her to drag her to our house to get her spear.
The older Strigian has other plans however, and she jumps up, letting her ambery wings catch the air and she flies up into the air and towards the thicker part of the forest.
I sigh and shake my head, spreading my smaller wings, which had just recently grown large enough to let me fly. They turned the ground behind me a pale green, blue, and violet behind me as I lifted myself up into the air. Far ahead, I could hear the bell-like laughter of Heliyah as she tried to escape, though her giggles gave away the direction she was headed in.
Eventually, I caught up with her, but it was beyond the point where I should drag her to her house. I sigh and hug her instead after leaning my spear against a tree. "Heliyah why do you do this to me?"
"Who else would?"
"No one," I admit, and she returns the hug.
We sit like that for a moment before she begins to play with my hair, which is short, but black like hers. "You should grow this out," she comments.
"I'd rather not, it's how I like it, and it stays out of the way while we hunt." I tell her as I go back for my spear, holding it carefully in one hand.
"It'd look pretty though, it'd help with your magic," she insists as we start walking.
"Not if it gets in my face," I deadpan. "Let's be quiet now though so we don't scare any prey, okay Heliyah? You're the one who taught me to be quiet."
She nods, but that playful grin of hers remained. The two of us silently stalk through the forest, looking for something worthy of my spear. We run into some smaller prey, like rabbits, but they frighten and escape us before I can prevent them from escaping. We are about to enter a clearing when I spot a flash of brown. Heliyah doesn't notice it though, and goes to keep moving, but I throw my free hand in front of her to stop her. She seems confused, so I point into the clearing and finally get a good look for myself of what exactly I have found.
In the clearing is a buck, eating calmly from a bush at it's eye level. As it chews, it looks around, checking for danger. It's beautiful, and elegant, but it's also food. I know that it was what I should bring back for the tribe today. I work my way around the clearing, so that the wind blows in my favor, sending any scent of mine away from the deer as I walk silently into the open.
All goes well until I'm right behind it, my spear raised and poised to strike. Suddenly, it's head jerks towards me and it moves to run. In an instant, I flash my wings out, angling them towards the sun as I have practiced since they've grown in. Light filters through them, creating beautiful, dancing patterns along the ground in shades of blue, green, and purple. The buck sees the shimmering colors and becomes captivated, losing its fear of me that it previously had. I know far too well that it will only last for a moment though, so as soon as it's close enough I stab my spear through its hide swiftly and perform my job as a hunter.
Its lifeless body lies on the ground and I look to Heliyah for approval. My Alikhan nods and I hand her my spear before I dashed forward to grab my prey. I grab its antlers and begin slowly dragging it in the direction of the camp. My wings couldn't carry me and the buck, due to its weight. We, the Strig were capable of flight, but it was impossible to carry something that weighed too much with us.
"This will keep us fed for a while, huh?" I ask Heliyah as I continue pulling it along. The sound it makes is a rough scraping at the grass, though there isn't much I could do to help it. It's not like I could've carried much else back though.
"It will. You have a good eye, and your magic isn't anything to laugh at either. You're an excellent hunter already, Rhian, and it's only been a few months since you emerged from the lake." She uses my spear as a walking stick as she follows behind me. It was tradition for the hunter to carry their own prey back to the camp, and the two of us, despite our closeness wouldn't break that. But to build up the strength needed to bring this back… I'll leave it at lugging countless weapons around for the rest of our tribe wasn't fun.
"Thank you," I murmur. "I learned from you after all, Heliyah." My wings shift at my back as I accept her compliment. I know I learned faster than the rest of the hatchlings, even when I lived underwater, but hunting felt natural to me. It was nice to be complimented though.
From there on, the two of us walked in silence until we reached the camp, and I smiled as I took it in. There were a few mud houses on the ground near the lake, mostly mothers who were preparing for the trip to the lake with their eggs. The eggs were safe above the water for a few days, but the sooner they were in the water, the better. We celebrate mothers here, and they get honored houses near the lake, but we don't celebrate our own mothers. I had no idea who my mother was, though all of them were nice and kind.
A bit further from the water, just inside the treeline rest some houses on the ground made of grasses and reeds. Most of the older Strig live there, though our leader lives with the rest of us, up in the trees. There is a sloped bridge that we have made for the elders to join us, though the houses are mostly for the younger Strig, hunters, and the males. The houses are built into the trees, and there's room at the entrances for us to fly in, if need be. If we don't have to though, there are paths that we have made of wood and rope. Alikhan and their apprentices live together, so after I leave the deer with one of the mothers, so they can prepare the food for the rest of the tribe, Heliyah and I head to our house.
We don't see the point in flying to our shared house so the two of us walk back. On the way there, we, unfortunately, run into the male who has been trying to court Heliyah, Evert. He's showy, like a bird, with violet and blue wings and brown eyes. He has orangish hair that sticks out amongst the green of the forest, which makes him a poor hunter, though he is instead a warrior, trained to fight and protect the members of our tribe. He is strong due to this, though Heliyah isn't exactly enthralled by his advances. She wants to be a hunter until she's old and unable to fly, not a mother.
"Yes, Evert?" she acknowledges his presence but is not at all enthused by it. She holds back a scowl, but the way she holds herself shows it far too well.
The other Strig is oblivious to this, however. Instead, he preens under her attention and his wings flutter a bit. "I was wondering if this beautiful Brienala would accompany me tonight, when we visit the lake isle when one of the new mothers leaves her eggs with the other children," he gave her a soft smile, one full of charm and invitation. Most of the other women would have fallen for him right then and there.
Heliyah, however, just laughed, "I've had a long day, hunting with my apprentice. I was just about to head home and rest, so if you'd excuse me," she grabs me by the wrist and huffs, pushing past him and towards our treehouse.
I understand why she doesn't want to become a mother, as I too enjoy hunting far too much just to give it up, but I don't understand why she doesn't just tell him such. That's for her to discuss with him though, so I take my spear from her and begin cleaning and polishing it. I consider asking why she acts like this to him, but decide its in my best interest to just not speak while she's in a bad mood.
Heliyah lets out a quiet huff, before throwing herself at her cot, not much more than reeds, and screaming into them. I don't question her, even as she rolls around on it for a moment, then gives up and just buries her face in it.
Just as I finish cleaning the tip of my spear, she quietly asks, "Would you like to go to the isle? I'm not going, but I won't stop you. And before you say you'll stay to keep me company, I want you to actually do what you want."
I pause, as I was about to do just that. I shake my head as I consider my options, then reply. "I'll get us some food, then I'll watch the moon. While it is fun to visit the isle, it still feels like I just left it when I emerged."
She accepts my answer with a grunt as she continues to lie there, so I get up and set about it. Someone else's catch from earlier has already been cooked by the mothers and made into a large stew. I carefully take two bowlfulls, and head back. The two of us eat, and through the meal, my Alikhan slowly recovers from her encounter with Evert. She ends up with one of the bowls on her head (she had to go clean herself afterwards) and proclaiming herself the new ruler of the Strig.
When I finish, despite her more positive mood, I do keep my word to go out instead of just hanging around with her. I head back to the shore and stare up at the water, staying at my reflection that is illuminated by moonlight. Leafy green eyes look back at me and twinkle in the water, and my cut hair rests just above my shoulders. After a moment, I sigh before laying down and just watching the night sky that had risen at some point while we were eating.
As I lay there, I smile as I hear the festivities at the isle. Singing, dancing, even the quiet buzzing of wings as the people celebrate new life with the rising of the moon. We are a happy people, and we are content. I just hope it will always remain this way.
Just a note, Brienella, is a compliment, basically meaning beautiful. I hope you all enjoyed and I will hopefully have another chapter soon. Please review to let me know what you think.
Masked Demise signing off.