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Aybek Magic Prompt 3: Never Alone

Keeping your newfound ability secret is bound to run into difficulties, and you may choose to share your new skills with a trusted friend or loved one. Has your character shared their secret with anyone? Have they tried to keep it hidden from everyone they know? Have they had any close calls near settlements or towns?

  The dusk was green, and the air smelt heavy with an impending storm. In the dry grass, creatures scuffled. No doubt they sensed the change in the wind and were searching for shelter. Aybek watched the sky for a moment, before an impatient snort from Bansari brought him back.
  “Sorry, girl.” He murmured, returning to his work on her mane. After a couple of days out on the flat steppe, bossing Mahesh’s herd around, it had become a net of tangles and knots. He worked gently, brushing through each section of smoothed hair with his fingers, and feeling a covert satisfaction as the mare relaxed under his touch. She gazed out over the grassland lazily, pausing when she landed on Batis grazing with the rest of the herd. “I’ll be done soon and you can rejoin him.” Aybek said. Bansari whuffed - good - but he could tell she was content enough to stand and be groomed for a while longer. He smiled to himself.

  “Aybek.” A group of quail startled into the air and Aybek jumped, hand shooting for his wooden amulet. He whipped around coming face to face with the voice’s source. The quail’s alarm calls echoed out and faded.

  Elder Lauj-Baatar loomed in the tall grass, shadowed by the wan light of a hazy sun. The whites of his eyes appeared to glow from within the charcoal painted across his face. Bansari flicked her ears back with a snort, giving Aybek an impression of disgruntlement - why was this old man disturbing them? She had half a mind to chase him off.

  Bansari’s stoic impression of the elder, who’s mere presence had never failed to unnerve Aybek since childhood, unwound some of Aybek’s nerves. He cautiously released his amulet and the breath he’d been holding.
  “Elder Lauj-Baatar. What… what are you doing here?” He flicked his eyes across the horizon - no-one else around. How had the elder managed to sneak up on them? Lauj-Baatar looked even more deathly in this lighting - somehow more so than when he performed the spirit passage in the dead night of winter. His scrutiny made Aybek’s skin crawl.
    “You’ve changed, boy.” Aybek’s eyes widened. He spun and roughly fingered the last tangle from Bansari’s mane
  “I- I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He pushed the mare off. She snorted and swished her tail at the pair as she left - there was no need to be so brusque with her. Aybek frowned after her; just as he’d felt they were getting somewhere…

  “We must talk, Aybek.” Lauj-Baatar’s tone was not asking. Aybek latched onto the grass and watched it sway with pursed lips and stiff arms. He swore he heard the elder snarl. “You have changed, boy. To ignore it would be foolish. That is why you returned, is it not? A mewling coward who does not want to face the truth.” Lauj-Baatar took a breath, and his voice softened, “I have seen the seed of change in you since the day I pulled you from your mother’s legs. And I have seen that same seed destroy the lives of others.” Their eyes met, and Aybek saw a burning coal of pain in the twist of his elder’s mouth. The rawness scared Aybek, in a different way from how the shaman usually scared him.

  “We will talk, and you will listen.” Lauj-Baatar said, “This is not something you can run from.”

Magic: Kinship (Zoolingualism)

Allows the rider to fully understand animal languages - body language, sounds, and emotion. Also allows the rider to be fully understood by animals.

Prompt 1 | Prompt 2 | Prompt 3 | Prompt 4

Description

Aybek Magic Prompt 3: Never Alone

Keeping your newfound ability secret is bound to run into difficulties, and you may choose to share your new skills with a trusted friend or loved one. Has your character shared their secret with anyone? Have they tried to keep it hidden from everyone they know? Have they had any close calls near settlements or towns?

  The dusk was green, and the air smelt heavy with an impending storm. In the dry grass, creatures scuffled. No doubt they sensed the change in the wind and were searching for shelter. Aybek watched the sky for a moment, before an impatient snort from Bansari brought him back.
  “Sorry, girl.” He murmured, returning to his work on her mane. After a couple of days out on the flat steppe, bossing Mahesh’s herd around, it had become a net of tangles and knots. He worked gently, brushing through each section of smoothed hair with his fingers, and feeling a covert satisfaction as the mare relaxed under his touch. She gazed out over the grassland lazily, pausing when she landed on Batis grazing with the rest of the herd. “I’ll be done soon and you can rejoin him.” Aybek said. Bansari whuffed - good - but he could tell she was content enough to stand and be groomed for a while longer. He smiled to himself.

  “Aybek.” A group of quail startled into the air and Aybek jumped, hand shooting for his wooden amulet. He whipped around coming face to face with the voice’s source. The quail’s alarm calls echoed out and faded.

  Elder Lauj-Baatar loomed in the tall grass, shadowed by the wan light of a hazy sun. The whites of his eyes appeared to glow from within the charcoal painted across his face. Bansari flicked her ears back with a snort, giving Aybek an impression of disgruntlement - why was this old man disturbing them? She had half a mind to chase him off.

  Bansari’s stoic impression of the elder, who’s mere presence had never failed to unnerve Aybek since childhood, unwound some of Aybek’s nerves. He cautiously released his amulet and the breath he’d been holding.
  “Elder Lauj-Baatar. What… what are you doing here?” He flicked his eyes across the horizon - no-one else around. How had the elder managed to sneak up on them? Lauj-Baatar looked even more deathly in this lighting - somehow more so than when he performed the spirit passage in the dead night of winter. His scrutiny made Aybek’s skin crawl.
    “You’ve changed, boy.” Aybek’s eyes widened. He spun and roughly fingered the last tangle from Bansari’s mane
  “I- I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He pushed the mare off. She snorted and swished her tail at the pair as she left - there was no need to be so brusque with her. Aybek frowned after her; just as he’d felt they were getting somewhere…

  “We must talk, Aybek.” Lauj-Baatar’s tone was not asking. Aybek latched onto the grass and watched it sway with pursed lips and stiff arms. He swore he heard the elder snarl. “You have changed, boy. To ignore it would be foolish. That is why you returned, is it not? A mewling coward who does not want to face the truth.” Lauj-Baatar took a breath, and his voice softened, “I have seen the seed of change in you since the day I pulled you from your mother’s legs. And I have seen that same seed destroy the lives of others.” Their eyes met, and Aybek saw a burning coal of pain in the twist of his elder’s mouth. The rawness scared Aybek, in a different way from how the shaman usually scared him.

  “We will talk, and you will listen.” Lauj-Baatar said, “This is not something you can run from.”

Magic: Kinship (Zoolingualism)

Allows the rider to fully understand animal languages - body language, sounds, and emotion. Also allows the rider to be fully understood by animals.

Prompt 1 | Prompt 2 | Prompt 3 | Prompt 4