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[Kiyevanie]

[After this, Rowellan takes Enya to the local seamster's shop to receive her own cloak; they even talk her into a pair of moccassins.  Rowellan then escorts her to the barracks where the trio will spend the night.  She finds it...odd...]

Rowellan nodded. "Yes - it's a bit of a military setup." She had stopped unlacing her boots and looked up to Enya now. "It's common for men and women to travel together, to fight together... so, when we come to any barracks, of course we share them. Back at home, in the towns and villages - well, young people either live with their parents until they take a mate - or until they leave their home for work or becoming a soldier or whatever else they want to do with their lives. We usually only have separated rooms when we're really in a tavern with separate bedrooms or something." She curiously looked at the girl. "How do your people do it when you're out travelling?"

[Random the Navigator]

" 'Pends on how we go," Enya replied, almost in the dutiful manner of a schoolchild.  "Only one fit on Ikran to fly; same for riding horses or bulls or sharks or big, long-neck sea turtles.  To sail short, houseboats be like house-anything elses.  To sail far, long canoes got little huts on 'em, only one person fit, so we take turns.  Have seen that in Realms, too, with people on watch; and I can sleep with a Soul-friend watching over me, not need nobody else.  But for people who go walking and not have Soul-friends, be nowhere to go but more of Alola; and ev'ry village there got girl-huts and boy-huts, 'cept Kahuna's house, which be like this in back, and then whole families visit at once.  Aunts, uncles, cousins, grands; or maybe ev'ryone from school together; or maybe group of people visiting from another Island...or even other lands like this one, 'f you ever want to see my home.  But I not a group or a class or a family; used to having own space when do travel alone..."

[Kiyevanie]

Bjorn's mind was already busy drawing pictures of the means of travel Enya had just been describing. "You ride on what?" he asked. "Sharks and Sea-turtles? And.. Ikran? You fly them?" His tongue stumbled a bit over the unfamiliar word, but there was also a bit of awe in his voice. There weren't many animals in Midgard that flew and would be big enough to ride.  Apart from the lone female dragon that was terrorizing Malmohus, there only were her smaller cousins, the wyverns... and those one were so ferocious and wild that nobody would even think of trying to tame them.

[Random the Navigator]

There was nothing "by rote" at all about Enya's description of her People's flying mounts.  "Ikran, yah!  They be much like Wyvern, 'cept back legs be also wings; have seen both, Wyvern on way here--Wuffels take care of him.  Ikran got biiiig chin-crest, too, for skimming waves to scare fish.  And they be big enough for grown-up Seafolk to ride!  But first you gotta go to where they nest, way high in mountains, and challenge them.  Is like gaining Soul-friend, that way, 'cause Soul-friends appear to you, but you gotta prove you strong by fighting them before they agree to go in a ball.  Only Ikran not be from your soul, and they not go in balls.  Be Soul-friends a different way: Ikran recognise you, she know you and her be for each other, kinda like finding mate.  But you still gotta fight her and prove it.  Girl Ikran be best, because be largest."

[Kiyevanie]

When Enya described Ikran both Northerners did a rather good job of synchronized jaw dropping - not so much about the fact that Enya's home had creatures comparable to Wyvern, but about the fact that they actually managed to tame fierce creatures like that so they could use them as flying mounts...

Before Bjorn's inner eye a whole epic story unfolded - he hadn't seen an Ikran, but had run into his share of Wyvern.  He doubted that the Midgard equivalent would ever stop to check if one of the travellers crossing their way might be something like a soul companion, but if it was possible in Enya's home - wouldn't that make stories and songs worth to be sung on every campfire?  "Female Wyvern are taller too..." he mused.

While Bjorn was halfway busy composing a song about an encounter he had never seen, Rowellan's eyes widened in awe.  "Wow...!" she breathed, her mind producing pictures much similar to Bjorn's, just that Rowellan's approach was a bit more hands on.  "How?" was her next question, then she bit her lips.  "Maybe what Wyvern and Ikran got in common is mostly the looks?  Never has a hunter been able to charm or befriend a Wyvern - it just doesn't work on dragonkin."  She sighed.  "I know 'cause I tried..."  And there was a weak hint of regret in her eyes.

[Random the Navigator]

Enya eyed the wishful thinkers coolly.  "Na, you not gonna tame Wyvern," she said flatly.  "Is not just looks he share with Ikran; do think Ikran be dragon-kin too, dragons meant to live at sea.  Wyvern who pester me did feel little-bit the same.  But what Ikran got that Wyvern not has got be history - long, long history with my People.  Other-name besides 'Seafolk' be 'Ikran People of the Eastern Sea.'  How Ikran nowadays know to feel for Seafolk she recognise in her soul?  Is 'cause as long back as she remember, Ikran of her Clan have carried people from ours.  She ask Mother, Grandmother, ancestors from an Age ago; she can even ask Mother-god, 'cause Ikran got holding-hands part too, and her ancestors will say."  She picked up her braid again, then draped it over her shoulder and smoothed it down.  "Very name 'Ikran' means 'We who carry.'  Is own name for selves.  Is part of who they be.  Wyvern not have that history or that pride.  They stupid and childish, thrashing around like simple beasts, not Seeing that we do better together than against."

[Kiyevanie]

Now it was Bjorn's time to sigh. "Eh, so we got the childish cousins of your Ikran, huh?", he asked with something between amusement and resignation.

"And they're still in their Terrible Two's", Rowellan added, talking about Wyvern. "Experts in temper tantrums and hissy fits." The regret in her eyes deepened. "Good way to put it - they don't realize that together is stronger than against. Heck, I'd already be glad with them deciding to just leave us alone. I hate that with them it's always do either kill them or - on a good day - drive them off violently."

"Your ikran though", Bjorn now went on, his eyes bright with interest and curiosity, "sound more and more fascinating." He shook his head with a lopsided grin. "Imagine - dragonkin having a history, as a clan themselves but also with your People, communicating with a goddess, sharing..." He gave Enya a smile. "Your home sounds like a place full of wonder for so many things."

"One of them being how Wuffels managed to deal with a Wyvern. Hey, by now I know not to underestimate any of your Soul Friend", especially as now Rowellan knew that those Soul Friends actually were aspects of Enya herself, "but still... wow!" She had felt the smooth stones in Wuffels' fur and wondered if the puppy just had thrown them at the huge beast. "Seems you forgot something when you introduced her - besides everything else she's your courage too, I'd say."

[Random the Navigator]

Now that was a story Enya could get her teeth into!  A real story, not just an explanation for things; she liked talking about her home and culture, bringing a little of Alola's sunshine into her listeners' eyes, but nothing beat sharing her actual adventures.

"Was very simple, yah?" she grinned.  "Wyvern be two things: Flying and Fire.  Wuffels be Rock.  Rock not hurt by Fire, and any slinger know that stones be best thing ever to throw at Flying things.  So Wuffels shoot stones--big ones.  Then when Wyvern not get the message, come back 'round and pester us again, we wait 'til he fly too low--and Wuffels make sharp stones erupt from ground, hitting Wyvern real hard in stomach!  Wyvern decide that maybe our patch not be the best land to hunt over that day and sorta stagger off, however you stagger when flying...  So fun!"

[Kiyevanie]

Rowellan first started chuckling, then finally laughed out loud. "Ooooooh", she grinned, "I would have liked to see its face! Yes, a few rocks thrown at their sensitive spots will do the job - we usually just don't get close enough, not being fire resistant." Her respect for tiny Wuffels - just snack-sized for a Wyvern - just grew a few notches more.

"That beast probably just looked quite as insulted as that bear we met on our last patrol". Bjorn too was grinning widely. "You know - the one we disturbed when he was just about to try if there might fit another fish in his already almost bursting belly when we tried to cross the river."

"Oh dear..." Rowellan grinned. "Yes, he was deeply insulted, probably cause he was just to stuffed to really chase us away... but, to his defense, it was Fall and he was just trying to fatten up for hibernation. So he got every excuse to be a bit... um... clumsy. That Wyvern though..." She rubbed her chin. "Maybe I should polish my skills with a sling."

[Random the Navigator]

"Na, you already good with arrows," Enya observed.  "Just make arrow with round stone head for if you just wanna give warning.  Is a good thing my Wyvern go 'way with just Wuffels' rocks, 'cause otherwise I woulda had to have Kilvanä make sandstorm or throw mud!  Kilvana be Earth or Ground, which not does bother Flying things but is very good to smother Fire."

She sat on her bunk, one close to a window so she could greet this country's excuse for a Sun in the morning, and swung her feet for a little bit. She was pretty sure by now that her companions had picked up on the way she broke absolutely everything down into its elements, or would soon; and she was also pretty sure that if they learned to do the same thing, they could do what she did, perhaps even to the point of gaining Soul-friends.  Rowellan had a wolf-ally already, and somehow she sensed that the necessary child-likeness had never really been extinguished in either of them...

But she'd made the group think enough big thoughts for an evening.  And anyway, the mattress gods were coming for her; once down, she would remain in their clutches until the Feast of Sunreturn unless her subconscious remembered she was due for an adventure in the morning.