#U'zhango Odh

[steak-n-popotoes]

FFxivWrite '24 - 19

U'zhango fussed endlessly with her hair, her clothes, her jewelry. Much as she loved to marvel at the works of Ul'dah's master goldsmiths and weavers, she was quickly beginning to realize that she had never before had reason to assemble her trinkets into one cohesive ensemble.

One of the caravans that still regularly passed through Forgotten Springs had offered a seat to a traveling painter, who was in turn accepting simple commissions for her room and board. Sadly, most of her sisters looked down upon such frivolities, so it seemed the artist had only closed on a deal with U'zhango and the Nunh. It wasn't that she was vain, U'zhango thought as she adjusted the loose top over her chest, she only wished to engage with anyone as worldly as this enterprising tradeswoman must be.

Now, would it be more authentic were she to wear her favorite hat? Or should she instead model the earring she but recently acquired, which honored Azeyma through its design and choice of stones?

She swore, she'd had an easier time of slaying drakes with nothing but her claws.

U'zhango eyed the piece as it dangled weightily from the end of her ear. She felt a little jealous of the other spoken races - with a pair of ears like theirs, she wouldn't need to pick one or the other at all. Maybe she would try the hat on again just to be sure...

However, as she reached down to lift it from atop her dresser, her touch was instead met with another, much smaller hand. "Bifu?"

U'bifu had been halfway through the process of snatching the hat from the vanity's edge when she tried to grab it. In fact, he was still slowly trying to slide it further down as she watched, no doubt in the hopes that she had somehow yet to notice. Perhaps her son had made the decision for her.

"You seem to be taking well to your pouncing practice, Bifu." U'zhango said as she gently took the beret from him and placed it atop his head, secure. "I didn't even hear you coming."

Bifu stared up at her with the faintest of smiles at his lips. Most may have missed it, but to U'zhango it was plain as the rising sun. Though he spoke so little, he did so love to feel included.

"And I see you're taking good care of your own jewelry, aren't you?" She tickled the plain titanium cuff that adorned his long Lalafellin ear. He used to want to try all of her (much more expensive and delicate) pieces on for himself, and wouldn't let it rest until she had bought him his own. It seemed his ears had lengthened faster than he could grow into them, like a kitten's.

"U'bifu," she said, using his signifier so he knew to listen carefully, "would you do me an important favor?"

He began nodding before he even knew what was being asked of him.

"Mother can't wear her favorite earring and her favorite hat at the same time. Can you keep this safe for me?"

In response, U'bifu reached up past his ears and smushed the beret down with both hands.

U'zhango's tail flicked in satisfaction. "Perfect. Thank you, Bifu."

She was still a little jealous.

It wasn't difficult to find the painter, as she was one of the only Hyuran women in town. After some brief discussion of what the service entailed, she moved to her easel while U'zhango sat down to have her portrait taken.

"Ahh... I just love working in Thanalan. My watercolors settle so readily into the canvas in this heat. Though I suppose it's not a canvas if it's paper, is it? Except it is mostly cotton..."

U'zhango wasn't sure she understood the distinction. "Is there a reason you've had me hold this vase...?"

The painter nodded back, attention still focused on her efforts. "I thought that a portrait like this could use some nice flowers to match." She was more open to U'zhango pestering her about her process and travels than she'd expected.

"Did... you have any particular ones in mind?" She couldn't figure out a polite way to point out that the vase was currently empty.

"Well, I've seen many blooms across many borders. I like to include some that I feel compliment my subject."

U'zhango resisted the urge to lean forward in interest. "Given that aesthetics are your trade, you must have a strong eye for such matters. I'm afraid I've spent the better part of the day trying to decide what to wear, and I'm none too confident in my choices."

U'zhango could see Bifu lurking behind the painter to study her work. He was doing his best to stand on his tiptoes so that he could peer over the top of the horizontal easel. She found herself wishing she could watch the image gradually emerge from nothing, too.

"Actually, I try to think on what sort of flowers represent you on a personal level. Bleeding hearts, shrinking violets, forget-me-nots..." Her eye turned up toward U'zhango for a few moments to compare before she spoke again. "Roses - so romantic. Though if you don't mind my saying, ma'am, you look quite lovely in the finery you've chosen."

U'zhango felt her cheeks tinge with warmth as a smile spread across her face, much as she tried to remain still and solemn for the portrait.

The artist returned the expression even as she made to capture its image. "There you are. Warm and bright as the sun."

For a while, the only sound between them was the soothing scuffle of brush against paper.

Eventually, the painter leaned back, satisfied. "Come come, tell me what you think."

U'zhango stood from her stool and hurried over to where Bifu and the painter stood. Upon the paper was her own image, rendered in shades as light and delicate as the spring waters with which the artist had daubed her palette. In her arms was a large bouquet that must have been conjured entirely from memory: a large golden sunflower presiding over an arrangement of other blossoms in rich yellow and purple.

"They're beautiful..." U'zhango breathed.

"No less so than your dear self."

"I know of sunflowers, of course, but these others-"

"Gyr Abanian wildflowers. Resilient, and all the more lovely for it. Make for a fine pigment, too. Not familiar with them?"

"I'm afraid my world has only ever been as large as Thanalan."

"Well, I do hope you'll see them someday."

[steak-n-popotoes]

FFxivWrite '23 - 10

"So, you do not know wherrrre the boy has gone?" U'odh Nunh asked. He spoke with his back turned, addressing them over his shoulder. "That simply won't do, will it?"

Eryna's eyes narrowed. "You do know something, don't you?"

In the span of a heartbeat, Caranar spun the older man around and seized him by the collar.

"Do you always succeed with a show of brrrute force and blind courage, I wonder? The nunh I once fought also believed that his strrrength would save him. He was wrong." Despite his words, something sparked alight in his eyes at the rough treatment, something proud and defiant. "And now I am nunh." Few among his sons would dare to lay a hand on their father; to display such bold foolishness.

"Stop. Where is he?"

U'odh Nunh slapped Caranar's hands away in response. "Across the desert to the east lies an Amalj'aa encampment. There dwells a warrior renowned both for his strrrength and his guile." He paused to assess the state of his clothing. "I gave the boy a test, nothing more."

"You sent him after Amalj'aa alone!?" Eryna shouted.

Caranar turned and charged through the door, headed in the direction of the encampment.

Astride her chocobo, Eryna was not far behind.

U'odh Nunh's lip curled into a smile as he watched them crest the dunes and disappear. The test had begun.

~~~~~

U'zhango watched in silence... for what felt to be an eternity.

Amalj'aa came and went.

From her vantage point, U'zhango saw them clear as day. For hours she watched, until she could distinguish between them by their warpaint and the weapons at their side. If she were to deal a decisive blow, she would need to strike true.

The encampment's primary war band consisted of many grunts who were direct subordinates of a single superior warrior, distinguished by a necklace heavy with trophy marks.

One would think that the simplest way to defang the fiends would be to slay their strongest warrior... but U'zhango Odh was her father's daughter. To face this proven fighter was to court failure, as so many had done before. Her aim laid where vulnerability and value crossed.

U'zhango felt every muscle in her body tense up as her pupils grew wide and her tail lashed in anticipation. She pressed herself flat into the sand amidst the dry desert grass. Her prey had appeared.

Sporting a distinctly decorated, yet by the same token untested spear, one Amal'jaa broke away from the group. He passed through the encampment's gate, alone, and stalked over to the spring near where U'zhango was hidden.

The wind rolled over her back, sending a shiver up her spine. She was ready to pounce. Before her, bearing a pensive gaze into the branches of a sun-baked and shadeless tree, was the Amalj'aa tactician who organized raids on merchant caravans in order to gather unbelievers for Ifrit's pyre. There was no need to face the encampment's finest fighters if she could but destroy their greatest mind... Her father would be most pleased.

The time to act had come to pass.

U'zhango lunged forward, fang and claw bared. She swept across the sands in a low stance, ready to swing for her prey's tendons and strip from him the ability to stand.

But before she could close the distance, the tactician spun and dashed his lance along the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust and debris that obscured her vision and sent her off-balance.

How did he know!? U'zhango thought. He had acted without hesitation, as though he knew she was there. Of course! The wind!

When the wind changed direction, her scent must have been carried toward her prey. Such an amateur mistake, more typical of a mewling initiate! She had allowed her confidence to narrow her vision.

And her opponent knew an opportunity when he saw one. He was on her in an instant, charging shoulder first to turn her moment of unbalance into a window of vulnerability. The two toppled over with U'zhango's back to the sand and her 'prey' putting all of his weight into forcing his lance past her defense and between her ribs.

Need to live! She thought as she gripped the spearhead. Need to kill him!

The bloodied shard of stone sank closer and closer to her breast.

Kill him! Kill him!

A whistling sound whispered into her opponent's ear as a feathered arrow lodged itself in his skull. The weight shifted suddenly off the lance as the Amalj'aa slumped sideways. From the direction of the encampment's watchtower, a mournful cry echoed across the desert...

As U'zhango rolled away and pushed herself out of the dust, the sight of her rescuer filled her with equal parts relief and annoyance.

~~~~~

From a safe distance away stood Beef, one hand on his bow and the other behind the bowstring, an arrow loosed moments before. His hands did not tremble, and his aim was true.

Caranar tossed the spear aside as the Amalj'aa veteran ceased moving.

Eryna stepped around the body and inspected Caranar's wounds - surface-level, all - before setting about mending them.

"The hells... were you thinking?" Caranar managed, still attempting to catch his breath.

"This is not the sort of fight you pick alone." Eryna added, giving Beef a stern but concerned look.

Beef looked between the two in confusion. "Fight?" Hadn't they been the ones to start the fight?

Caranar hoisted him under his arm. "C'mon, kid. We're gonna have a talk about this back in town."

~~~~~

If U'odh Nunh was surprised when the three crossed his doorstep mid-scolding, he gave no indication. "Tell me, adventurerrrs: is our old nemesis dead?"

Caranar plopped Beef down in a seat and crossed his arms in disapproval. "The Amalj'aa's dead, if that's what you're asking."

"So the spear served its purrrpose." he nodded. "And you passed your test."

"I believe you owe us an explanation, and it had better be damned good." Eryna replied, having tired of tests and games long ago.

"The spear? It belonged to one of his brrrothers. I knew when he spied it from afar, he would be unable to rrresist venturing outside the encampment to see for himself."

"No. About why you were willing to endanger Beef so carelessly."

"Endangerrr?" U'odh Nunh chuckled, a low purring rumble which rose from his core. "I asked that he did nothing more than place the spear and observe. U'bifu Tia is as much a child of the U as my own daughters, blood or no. I had no doubts that he would fulfill this duty as rrrequested."

He shot a sharp look to Eryna and Caranar. "The test was for you."

Eryna placed a hand on her hip, while Caranar's eyes narrowed.

"I know this boy. He would give his life for a strrranger. I can see from a glance that you lot are prrrepared to face Titan. What I needed to know before I let you journey a single step furrrther with my daughter's son, was if these strangers would give their lives for him."

The Nunh glanced to Beef, aware that he had broached a delicate topic in mentioning U'zhango. "Well? You're filthy, child." He waved a dismissive hand toward him. "Go have a bath, you've gotten dust on my carrrpets."

As Beef hurriedly excused himself and trotted off to the bathing spring, his family watched him go.

Something sorrowful and unspoken hung in the air.

Caranar closed his eyes as though he could shut out the conversation that he knew had to happen.

Though she ached to tell Beef the truth, Eryna continued to tell herself that the time still wasn't right.

U'odh Nunh sighed heavily. "Now that I know I can trust you with the matter of his safety, I suppose we should discuss the matter of his hearrrt."

[steak-n-popotoes]

Finished another backstory drabble!

Hope you weren’t looking for light-hearted Beef shenanigans bc that’s not what I’m deliverin’, we have to get through lore first

Before U'Zhango Odh sat Bifu. U'Zhango had been tasked with keeping night vigil over Bifu and his parents while they were staying in Forgotten Springs, peddling their wares and providing the U tribe with those supplies that can’t be obtained via a hunting party. In return for the merchant family's services, the U provided them with shelter from both the blazing heat of the Sagolii Desert and the equally relentless Syndicate that had driven them from Ul'dah. The merchants had been forced to cross Thanalan with their son in tow, even though the local fauna's diet makes the area the last place a Lalafellin child should be. It was a necessary risk, as Bifu was far too young to be left on his own- which is exactly why an icy, heavy feeling of dread had gripped U'Zhango's stomach. Her nightly watch had been rather uneventful since the merchants' arrival, but tonight Bifu was sitting alone on the doorstep of his family's quarters. "Bifu? Why are you outside unattended? You should not even be awake this late." Bifu didn't respond. He didn't even react. Whatever was going on, it had caused him to go into shock. "Shite." Loathe to waste time in what seemed to be an emergency, U'Zhango took a risk and rushed past the open door without calling any of her sisters for help.

Unfortunately, it was already over. Bifu's parents lay sprawled out on the floor like discarded dolls. Next to the two were their overturned goblets, the ruby red contents soaking into the rug below them. Had the circumstances been different, one may have assumed that they were just sleeping. It didn't take an alchemist to piece together that the merchants had been poisoned. By the look of things, the family had sat down for dinner after setting the table with wares taken from their Ul'Dahn home. No doubt the cups had been laced with something far more potent than their wine. Bifu was probably only spared because he was too young to partake. Along with the food on the table, the small bodies had already gone cold, as dinner had likely been served hours prior. Yet, Bifu had only come outside of the house in the past few minutes... Twelve have mercy. U'Zhango returned to the boy, quietly shutting the door behind her. After bracing herself mentally, U’Zhango addressed him again. "Bifu. What did you see?" But again he only stared back, trembling. He'd seen enough. Keeping Bifu and his parents safe had been U'Zhango's responsibility, and she had failed. The Nunh needed to be notified of what had become of his guests. U'Zhango gently lifted Bifu off of the doorstep and carried him, cradled in her arms, to the Nunh's quarters.

U'Zhango sat at her own table, exhausted. U'odh Nunh had confirmed what U'Zhango had already guessed. Bifu's parents were assassinated by the Monetarists, the selfsame group that had threatened the merchants into leaving Ul'Dah, all because of their efforts to offer relief to Ala Mhigan refugees. The cowards were known to use poison so that they may pin their murders on those who had handled the cups last, but it seemed that this particular deed had been delayed by the family's escape to Forgotten Springs. At best, U'Zhango would have been assigned unbearably dull or menial duties as punishment for her failure in such a vital task, and at worst may have faced expulsion from the tribe, but she had instead volunteered to take on the mantle of becoming Bifu's caretaker. The boy was an orphan now, and while the U placed value on those who can fend for themselves, none were so cruel as to simply abandon him in the Sagolii, especially given the fact that he had been orphaned while under their inadequate protection. While U'Zhango may have faced steep consequences for her failure, that possibility wasn't what had driven her to adopt Bifu. Though he now slept peacefully in her own bed, U'Zhango could not push the image of Bifu's unfocused eyes from her mind, staring through her as he struggled to understand what had happened. Though he was unlikely to find her at fault for his parents' death, U'Zhango knew that she may as well have poisoned their goblets herself. "And after we had all given U'Mhelgo so many ribbings for taking in her Lalafellin ward..." U'Zhango mumbled dejectedly. "I'll have to scavenge materials and make him his own bed when I wake up. If I can even sleep like this to begin with..."