Fervent Solace

[Sujamma Addict 514]

Fervent Solace

 

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Cast, wait, snag, repeat

 

      This was the daily routine of a young Tigrasi. The Kharajyr was what we would consider a young adult in the real world — and as most young adults are, this one was as reckless as ever. It was a miracle that he had survived his first shipwreck, and even a bigger one to have survived the escape from Vailor.

 

Cast, wait, snag, repeat

 

Muja, like many of the other young Kha’, had lost his parents when he was but a cub. His mother took her own life after being driven from her home and his father had upped and left.

 

He was twenty-five now.

 

      South East within the Isle of Ceru was now where the Tigrasi found himself. Sutica was a large city — perhaps half the size of Al-Khaleed, but still large — with only three ways to get out: the two bridges on the North and South ends of the city, and if you could swim, the surrounding lake. A few tall skyscrapers overlooked the water’s front, and the rest of the marble buildings all screamed utopian. Paved stone roads rounded and swirled in between houses and underneath smaller bridges, all seeming to connect to various open centers where small local businessmen have set up themselves up in hopes of beating an inflated economy. In Oren’s Johannesburg, Muja felt like an archetype molded by a vapid city that was thrown amongst its meandering, glittering rabble — Sutica and Haria, on the other hand, were both empires opposing stigmatization and open to concoctions of diversity. Individuals felt unique in their own way and adversaries against this multicultural stance either bit their tongues or left to wander the Isles of Axios — and sleep in trees in the case of many other ostracized Kharajyr. They were hunters after all, or at least a portion of them are.

 

      The situation is much different for a Kha who grows up without learning how to properly use their robustness to their advantage. Many Kharajyr quickly became orphaned at birth and had been raised in environments and cultures that would be shunned by the united Kha-folk. This would deem the orphans as  “Ape’kha” as they had conformed to a society that was not theirs to be a part of.

 

      Perhaps, Muja thought as he waited patiently for a fish to bite, he was already brandished as one. There would be no other way for him to know unless he decided to seek out his people out. He would not have to look far to find an answer. A certain Pantera with four shallow scratch marks, two lined across his eternally shut eye, stepped quietly out onto the pier, approaching with a tentative step. He halted a half meter or so behind the Tigrasi, his chin tilted slightly up to gaze upon him.

 

“Muja..?”

 

Muja’s breath hitched, his concentration broken from the nostalgic sound. He turned and simply stared, face dull of emotion while he took in the sight.

 

      Zinawr, like Muja, no longer lived in Haria, residing to spend his time with his wife (Bunn in the language of the Kha), “Var’osh, who had been perhaps a childhood friend to Muja. They met once again later, talked briefly about their past, and went on their separate ways again.

 

He couldn’t tell her how he felt.

 

     “Zina-!” the Tigrasi started before having his fishing pole abruptly jerked out of his grasp, flying into the fresh waters below. He shut his eyes, avoiding contact with the water as the sight had started to give him a sense of vertigo a few days after his arrival to Sutica. “Sheeit…”

 

Zinawr, who was about a decade older than he was, chuckled, “Sorry.”

 

Muja paused for a moment before letting out a boisterous guffaw as he quickly embraced the Kha who’s canoe he had stolen all those years back.

 

      For what felt like hours, the two reconciled and talked about their life’s journey up to this point. Muja pulled out a small pearl he had been saving for the Pantera in hopes of paying off the canoe incident.

 

      Zinawr sighed in defeat, realizing the Tigrasi would not take no for an answer. “Zinawr supawses eet would be a nice gift fou’ah Var’osh, mul’ta then.”

 

      A while later another Kha would appear, this time it was another Tigrasi, though much thicker and broad-shouldered. He towered the two Kha by at least a foot and looked as if he could easily tear them both to shreds.

 

“Sa’vi, Tepah,” Zinawr mumbled, clearly seeming as if he knew the giant who was now slowly standing bi-ped, ears flicking back and tail hanging low.

 

His eyes narrowed on the two as he spoke. “Speek weeth pride per, naw reason tuu sound suu low.”

 

      Following a short silence, Muja almost immediately inquired as to the whereabouts of his father. Zinawr had no idea, and neither did Tepah, but what the aging Tigrasi did know would change Muja’s view on everything.

 

 

The truth about his father and mother, his sister whom he had never met,  his relations to Zinawr, Tepah, and even Var’osh which left Muja baffled. Following a brief intro, Tepah took Muja to his home.

 

 

And told him the rest.

 

 

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Muja began. “Do yaw remembawr Keera from Xerdali?”

 

“Tepah ees aware uuc Tepah’s ex wife, yes.”

 

“Hm? Really?” he canted his head to the side, perplexed, “Keera never told Muja.”

 

“Yaw… nawt aw guud point tuu talk awbout yaw banished ex husband no’aw ees eet?”

 

“Mmh, suppose not.” The young Tigrasi huffed. “Muja thought maybe Tepah knows where Inaijo ees.”

 

“Aw… Eet wuuld nawt surprise Tepah eef Inaijo went off tuu die. He was never thaw same uunce Paido left him fur Tepah.”

 

Left his father for this brute? “Muuna? She left before Muja could remember.”

 

Tepah chuckled, “Heh, where shuuld Tepah start?” he muses, “How awbout, when yaw Muuna first got tuu thaw island?”

 

 

---

 

 

Muja rose to leave, noticing Zinawr standing outside in the rain. He heard enough and needed to think.

 

“Aw? Duun’t like eet here een Sutica?” Tepah asked, misty-eyed.

 

      “Nah,” Muja said, finally looking back to Tepah, “But a story ees not what Muja was after when he came to Sutica.” He swallowed, forcing a weak smile. “There ees now two others Muja  haws to look for.”

 

Ja’Tepah Goldhand of Orvar rose up and pocketed a pearl Muja had given him earlier. He bit his lip for a second before replying.

 

“Let Tepah give yaw some advise rafikee, aw realm ees uunly suu large. Duun’t throw yaw life away searching when yaw could be living with those thawt thaw Goddess wants in yaw life. They will return. After awll, yaw came back entuu Tepah’s.”

Muja would leave, now for the first time ever, questioning his journey.

[Bvie 1754]

"The new guard, the Kha. He made it to help you see."

 

Her small hand wraps around the lapis and sapphire jewel that lays upon the peach skin of her chest. 

 

"A Kha?"

 

"Indeed. He said it'd let you see Muja better."

 

Her fingers stop stroking the jewel, the question of when they began not even dawning upon her, as she focuses on his words.

 

"He said...what?"

 

He shifts as he adjusts the necklace on her.

 

"The Kha? He said you'd see much better. I just need to utter a word to activate it."

 

The confusion on her face disappears and is replaced with emptiness.

 

"Oh....of course."

 

He grunts and utters a word of strange origins and light floods her once dark world.

 

 

[Wendigo 786]

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