In reply to Tarosh Long Neck (msg # 19):

"You will need to learn how to make your own decisions." Tarnessh conversed. "Often we are seperated or have to do things that only we know how to do."

----

Tarnessh watched the Morokanth cautiously, feeling his skin crawl at the sight of the mindless Gern. "You heard what she said. I wasn't there when all that happened, so let's all be truthful with each other and we'll get along well enough."

Kobal smiles again.  "First come first served.  Whoever claims a position first for the day can have it.  Besides, this way, everyone does their best - otherwise they will only have themselves to blame, haha!  Usually, those of our braves who follow the Condor take the front.  Recently I have taken the centre.  Join me if you want, Tarosh."



Kobal groans inwardly when he recognises the three males.  Just our luck.  Red Thorns ahead of us, angry morokanth beside us.  I hope Henal doesn't try anything again.  And that these three aren't supporters of that cursed Zakeen.

He bows to the Brinna.  "Thank you, Wise One.  Working together, we will help bring the Green closer to bloom."

The Morokanth look suitably confused by what is being said, as if they have no idea what the Rangers are talking about.

One of the females raises a hand in greeting

"I am Sour Claw, and despite what sounds like bad previous dealings with my people, have no ill intentions towards any of you."

Seeing the confusion on the morokanths' faces, Kobal decides it's best not to mention Zakeen further.

"Sour Claw, thank you."  He looks mainly at her, but turns to address all the morokanth.  "I am Kobal, son of Colnar Three Steps of the Prairie Thunder bison clan."  Introducing the rest of the Rangers, he continues, "Melock, one of our brothers, is being revived by the Wise Ones.  He will re-join us when he recovers.  We Rangers also wish no ill on any of you.  We hope that all clans and all tribes can come together in future."

Looking again the Brinna, he says, "Wise One, we would be grateful if you would bless all our party for our journey."

Henal grimaces at the sight of the Morokanth, but seeing Brinna's introduction he rides up and speaks.

"Let us leave any past dealings between our people as the past and make this journey safe and rapid. Let Waha and Eirithra bless our purpose."

He nods and nudges Carross with his knees to get him to move next to Kobal, "Once I've settled in, I'll take a place on the flanks."
This message was last updated by the player at 06:56, Wed 10 June 2015.

Ohanzee yawns loudly and turns his gaze to the North as the others go about their wordy introductions and preparations. He says to Amara and Hoskar We should stop at the Rocklands to pray and at Rhino Gouge to check for messages from others of our clan, perhaps even other clans of our tribe."

"Time presses though and the Shaman's cronies have a lead on us. Perhaps we should delay this until our return."</blue>

His gaze then falls on the Morokanth and their gern and he urges Wihakayda slowly over towards the shrubs where the males are watching over their herd. Unlike his fellow Rangers he shows no more discomfort with them than he would with any other nomads in such a peaceful interaction. Of course he has heard the story of the others, but that to him is something that happened to someone he didn't know and to whom he had no ties, nor is it any more than he has witnessed Hoskar do nor heard of Greeshar doing.

Perhaps also their shared connection to Darkness helps and he says in a friendly way "Greetings, I'm Ohanzee Shappa. I'm curious, are any of your gern fighting trained, I've always wondered how they fight?"

The largest of the Morokanth braves, an Initiate of Waha and much scarred, replies

"I will gladly demonstrate what they can do when we are out of the Oasis Blue Arm. You are the one that has tasted slavery are you not?"

All three Morokanth braves fail to hide their obvious amusement at the Ranger, but they stop short of being outright rude.

Before Ohanzee can reply Brinna begins to speak.

Brinna nods at Kobal's request first approaching Hoskar, handing the brave a large package, made from a Sable skin sown shut.

"Give this to the Morokanth Shaman at the Oasis, and only to her. It is a gift from the Earth Witch and is to help sweeten the deal when you seek aid from her."

Salen is then given a leather satchel, heavily embroidered with the runes of Life "This is for you my nephew, take care and watch over your cousins Sand Fox and Nixa."

Finally she goes from beast to person to beast, anointing each with holy oil

"Blessed is Erambrath the first Bison....Mother of our Mounts.... and Blessings to Father Rhino, guest in our lands....Protector of his Children....High Llama, Impala and Morokanth too...."

"Erambrath walks the walk" chants the priestess "See how the ground trembles. Warriors of our people guard them well....See the dangers....Defeat the enemy....Come back strong."

Then once everyone is ready the large group heads out through the Red Thorn camp and out into the Wastes beyond.

Ohanzee falls silent as Salen's aunt performs her blessing ceremony and then when the ride out remains with the Morokanth riding alongside them as they walk their beasts. He isn't phased by their amusement at his history, being the butt of a laugh is as much a Raven's way as laughing at others. He speaks easily as they ride "It is true, I have tasted slavery and it is a taste that does not agree with me."

He smiles "I was taken by a dozen or so of the Red Thorns a day away from here when I was travelling alone to the Giant's Finger Holes. If it doesn't kill you you can learn form it and that is not something that will happen again!"

His smile broadens "And it could have killed me so easily, but I chose to speak of what I have accomplished and in so doing won the meeting ceremony and won my life." He wonders if the morokanth will take the bait and ask him what he has accomplished or show indifference.

Looking at the gern again he asks "Do you bind spirits into them, or even awaken them?"

As they pull out into the Wastes beyond the oasis one of the Three Morokanth braves pulls out two serrated bones and begins to rub them together. The noise is enough to make those hearing it shudder, and after a minute of rubbing the brave is rewarded by far off grunting and barks.

In the near distance another small group of Morokanth appear, a pack of Hyenas milling about their legs. Several of the beasts come bounding towards the Rangers, intent on welcoming their Morokanth travelling companions.

This new group consists of another three braves and eight fully grown and domesticated hyenas.




"Some are awakened yes, and trained to fight" replies one, his attention on one of the hyenas as it bounds up to jump in his arms.

"Ah Mauler it is good to see you again."

Reaching into a sack the Morokanth pulls out several dried Gern ears and throws them up into the air for the hyena to catch.

"Who's a good boy then?"

The young Raven brave laughs at the sight of the tamed hyena pleased to be reunited with it's master. "They're friendlier than the hyena that came when I summoned the ancient Hyena spirit. Still, they were good allies that night, side by side we fought a great pack of hyena broo and wiped them out. It is a shame so many of their numbers perished."

The Morokanth greet each other warmly, with the latest arrivals accepting the news that they were to escort the Rangers to their oasis with obvious reluctance.

Nevertheless they fall into place and once more the group continues on their journey, both groups mingling despite obvious differences and thus enabling Rangers to converse with their odd travelling companions if they wished to do so.

Whilst the other hyenas roam far and wide Mauler stays with his master for the moment, causing Mordy to jump up on to the back of Salen's Bison and the various Manul cats to hide well out of view.



Respect shows on the face of the Morokanth when he hears this

"You called a Hyena spirit? Who taught you to do this? The Spotted man?"

Ohanzee looks quizzically at the Morokanth as he repeats the mane in a questioning tone "The Spotted Man? No, I've never heard of him."

Before an answer can be given he continues "No we'd, the Rangers that is, had been trailed by hyenas for days, perhaps weeks if it was the same pack. Always out in the dark, always hearing them, sometimes even catching a glimpse."

"Between us we had debated why they were paying us more attention than is normal and Melock, my fellow Raven brave and I decided that the best thing to do was to ask them."

"So as the others stood guard a javelin throw away I performed a ceremony, sung a summoning song that I had composed, it... just seemed right, seemed to fit. Melock helped with gifting some of his soul to the calling."

He shrugs the shrug that is familiar to any who have spent time with him "It must have been right enough because an ancient and powerful spirit came along with the pack. We talked, we entertained, he spoke of aiding us in a quest that mingles with our own I think."

"And then the chaos things arrived. He spread a great purple magic through his children to aid them, those brave enough, strong enough to remain and fight whilst the rest vanished into the night." There is respect and even admiration in his voice as he remembers the night, something that he would never have dreamt of some few seasons ago.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:17, Wed 10 June 2015.

Tarosh watches the Morokanth with interest, not having had much experience dealing with them. Carross gets slightly spooked by the arrival of the hyenas, but after Tarosh whispers soothing words in his ear, while scratching between his ears, Carross soon calms down. When he gets the chance, he watches all the Rangers, trying to get a feel for the group. "You know Kobal, if someone had told me last season that today, I would be riding with such a mixed group to kill a bunch of harpies, I would have laughed in their face."

Tarnessh noticed the fetishes on the Morokanth. "I see you have fetishes that protect against disease. Those would have definitely come in handy when we were stuck in that Chaos Storm out in the wastes. Perhaps we could trade for these fetishes the River Folk gave us that repelled biting and stinging insects."

The nearest Morokanth shrugs uninterested "We are not bothered by either, unlike you we have the skin of true warriors. And our fetishes are not things to be given up to the first Sun fucker that comes along."

It's one of the Morokanth warriors, a gnarly fellow, who like his companions wears the mark of Darkness with pride.

Greeshar laughs out loud at this and begins to sing a song about how Thunderbird bested Sun Hawk, way back when the world was full of nothing but clouds, rain and thunder.

In the distance the Rhino Rocklands can be seen, appearing as if floating above the midday haze, before it scorpion filled badlands, little shade and almost no vegetation.

The Morokanths look unhappy, probably to Tarnessh's amusement, but their lead scout says that they are heading for a deep walled gully which will lead them through to the Rhino grasslands beyond.

From overheard chatter it seems that the darkness creatures plan to travel late into the night and early in the morning, resting up during the next midday sun. They're only travelling now because of their desire to put distance between them and the Giant Finger Holes for some reason.

During the journey Amara asks one of the Morokanth if there are any stories that can be shared about the Spotted Man. Given the groups problems with hyena, Amara thought it might be wise to learn more about this spotted man, if he was an adversary or if he could assist the band with resolving the issues of hyena trialing the clan.

"Yeah well, check this out." Tarnessh said, and then raised his hand and revealed the awesome power and utility of his opposable thumbs. "See, we have the hands of true warriors." Then he looked him square in the eyes. "And if you want this to work out well for you, you'll remember that. Keep in mind that since I'm bonded to Sun Hawk, that's not a threat, that's a promise. I've been nothing but welcoming, but the Sun burns darkness."

Ohanzee groans quietly at the exchange between the two, but when Tarnessh speaks of burning away Darkness he pipes up "Maybe the sun can push away the Darkness and maybe not. One thing is certain though, Darkness can exist without the light, but the reverse I'm not so sure about. When the Bright Treasure is about Darkness is still there, pushed under a tree or behind a rock but still there. Take light into a cave or bring it to the darkest of nights and you just make the Darkness just out of reach all the stronger for it's presence."

He leans down on his rhino to look closer at the hyena walking next to him alongside it's master.

"Do you have any pups to trade at your oasis?"

Tarosh joins in the singing, but in certain places in the song, he sings different words.
When he see's the shimmering rock lands, he points to them and asks the Rhino riders, "Have you been there?" He wipes the sweat off of his, mostly bald, head and then taking out a skin of kumiss, he has a deep drink then offers it to the other Rangers.

"I'm always up for debating philosophy with you, Melock. We'll just need to wait until we're at camp."

Ohanzee gives Tarnessh a strange look and then speaks very slowly "Me Ohanzee. You Tarnessh. Too much sun on your head? Get some shade." and then bursts into laughter.