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steak-n-popotoes · 1 year ago

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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."

#FFxivWrite2023 #FFxivWrite #Eryna Spellgrave #Caranar Bairon #U'zhango Odh #Beef Broganoff #haha. purrpose

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