• PM To Join • Spirit of the Lemon Tree (Pash and Kali)

[Niv]

4th Trial of Saun, 717th Arc

The heat wave caused by the thirds sun’s arrival, was so unbearable Niv was worried that her vines would shrivel into nothing and her golden sap would boil away. It was bearable near the sea, where the ocean breeze offered a touch of relief but still unmistakably horrible. Niv was on her bird companion Patcha's back as he flew over the cool waves to keep from melting. As a tropical bird, Patcha didn’t seem to mind the heat but Niv couldn’t help but look drained, even with the cool breeze washing over her tiny face.

As they flew aimlessly around the seemly endless ocean, Niv took notice of the boats. It seemed like quite a few people decided they’d rather be near the water than the sweaty armpit that Scalvoris had become. The boats that were out and about seemed to be drifting about leisurely, with people slumped over the edge like a tired sloths or lurking in the shade like timid raccons. The boats secured at the docks, also showed signs of people moving about but only at snail like speeds. The heat was simply too harsh for anyone to be energetic.

One boat in particular caught Niv’s attention, it was a fairly typical boat with a rusty orange hull. However the young tree that grew on the deck was a peculiar sight. It had bright yellow fruit hanging from its branches and seemed healthy enough considering where it was growing. Patcha was in need of a rest and Niv directed him to land on the ships mast since the tree itself was too wee to support his weight. Niv dismounted and leaped down into the tiny tree, and promptly laid out on one of the branches.

The shade of a tree was always the best, and Niv was thankful she was able to find it. She wasn’t sure how it found its way onto the boat but it didn’t matter, this was her tree for now.


Art credit to koyamori

[Pash Raj'oriq]

Even walking through town had felt like torture, and it seemed as though as soon as the second sun rose just a few trials ago, it had been bent on nothing but setting all of Idalos on fire. The heat wave was excruciating. There really just was no way to prepare for the huge shift in temperatures. On the streets around Scalvoris, there was no breeze. Between buildings, the air was still and lifeless, oppressive in their heat. Mirages shimmered in the alleyways where too much light flooded, teasing at water that was not there. Pash had just gone into town for some food—a few staples he could store in the cool pantry built into the floor of his cabin, a little spot in his hull kept cold by the bay’s frigid waters. He planned to spend the rest of the day out at sea, sloop just a half a break from the dock and the other moored ships, so that there was at least a breezy respite from so much heat.

He walked with Kali, of course, their haul of things to eat shared between them as sweat rolled mercilessly down his back under the dark leather of the vest he could hardly stand to be wearing,

“Mezo! It’s too hot, too soon.” The tall Biqaj groaned, winding his way through the docks with his usual familiarity. Everyone seemed to be moving so slow, a few dock hands had even stopped unloading the merchant ship to pant and wheeze in the shade afforded by the tall vessel and its sails. The breeze was slight, given how crowded the docks could be, and it wasn’t enough to be comforting, ”M’haps I should sail us back t’ those snowy mountains instead. We can cool off in th’ snow an’ ice.”

Pash smirked at that, aware that he didn’t have an immediate desire to return to those mountains. He could almost say he’d rather go back to the Immortal’s Tongue again, if only because he felt burdened by a bit of unfinished business, instead of ever seeing the Jungle or the Scalvoris mountains without some very, very compelling good reasons. He laughed to make sure the dark-haired huntress knew he was totally joking and not at all serious, resisting the urge to wipe his brow because if anything, the breeze of the sea and his sweat actually felt cool for a heartbeat or two. While it wasn’t an entirely unusual sight, Pash couldn’t help but note the bird perched on his sloop’s mast,

”A lil’ visitor.” Pash nodded in the thing’s direction, stepping onto his deck and setting his full rucksack down in the meager shade offered by the entrance to his hatch. Ellis, his lemon tree, looked particularly cheerful in the bright light of the suns, little green lemon-shaped fruits soaking in the rays and growing nicely, “Didja say es’ja t’ th’ bird, Ellis?” He teased, aware that speaking to his plants was an odd habit, one developed over the arcs of sailing alone for almost entire seasons at a time.

Off Topic

Don’t mind me, dropping in some Rakahi pidgin in here. You can find it in my signature. That’s a link!

[Kali'rial]

Kali'rial shifted the load she carried with a sigh, moving to pluck at the crocheted front of her dress as if it would give some airflow and relief from the heat. It was too much for the Desnind native, all the stone and hard surfaces with their reflective properties and blocking the wind, she was not coping at all. Already, unfamiliar with the lack of shade in the city scape, she'd managed to get a touch of sunburn on her cheeks, her usually tanned skin ever so slightly darker and redder than usual.

As they moved through the docks, the Sev'ryn looked at the equally suffering Biqaj with a chuckle as he mentioned Isahllr, flashbacks of the not so pleasant kind coming to her mind.

"I'm almost tempted to take you up on that offer. Almost." Her brow raised slightly on the last word, very clearly indicating that the almost was a resounding 'never'. Glancing up at the bird on the mast as she followed him on deck, the brunette closed one eye to see it as the bright Saun suns glared down at them. Dumping her load beside Pash's, Kali'rial groaned and moved to join him beside the lemon tree.

"Immortal's how can it be this hot! I swear Desnind is never this bad. Maybe the trees cool it down some." Leaning on the rail, she closed her eyes and held still, trying to get any breeze that might come up off the water. Her hair was pulled up in a makeshift bun to keep it off her neck, but even then the thick dark tresses still made her sweat.

"You talk to that tree so much, one day I swear it's going to talk back to you." Chuckling the Sev'ryn reached out and brushed his fingers with hers, a suggestive smile on her dusky pink lips. If truth be told, she had on occasion spoken to Ellis as well, especially in the morning with a cup of tea in hand and checking him for any sign of disease or insect invasion. The lemon tree was almost like a pet, and valuable for its citrus fruits.

"You know, qua'ma, we could shift the sloop out on the water. Away from everyone else...maybe loose some of these clothes. You know, so we can...cool down?" Her voice had become a little softer, a little breather. It was mostly true, what she was saying. To move out on the water would be cooler and they could then be as unclothed as they like without too many prying eyes. Perhaps though, her suggestion wasn't as innocent as it could be.

[Niv]

A young tree growing on a boat was an odd enough occurrence that Niv decided to see what spirits made their home in it. The Tunawa gently closed her eyelids and focused her mind on energies beyond the pool of the physical world. It didn’t take long for Niv to feel something near by, though the presence was but a faint whisper. Niv opened her eyes expecting a false alarm but drifting among the thin branches she spotted the sparkling emerald glimmer of a young etherial entity. It had the silhouette of a whale but the size of an acorn and didn’t seem to show any signs of recognition or understanding. It simply swam through the branches with no worries or concerns.

“Hello..” Niv whispered in the spirits direction as she gently waved her arm to gets it’s attention.
The Anak slowly turned in the direction of Niv and stayed motionless for a moment. Without warning it made a few strange noises that sounded like rustling leaves and clattering acorns. It was likely the closest thing Niv would get to a greeting from this spirit. Niv hoped all spirits weren’t this bad at conversation, but she had a suspicion they were.

Niv went quiet and still at the sound of approaching footsteps on the dock floorboards. She relaxed and got a bit curious when she heard the sound of a familiar voice she knew to belong to Pash the bard. The Biqaj man had noticed Patcha but not Niv, and she was going to keep it that way for now. She gently couched down and stayed as still as she could and listened. A sly grin grew on her face as she thought of a trick she could pull.

Niv heard another familiar voice and it unmistakably belonged Kali the sev’ryn huntress, two birds with one stone. The two unsuspecting victims sat near the tree allowing Niv to eavesdrop on their conversation with little trouble. This kept Niv from missing a wonderful suggestion from Kali about a tree talking back to Pash. Niv clutched her mouth to hold back the giggles that nearly irrupted from her mouth at her dastardly idea.

“You have awoken the great Lemon tree spirit with your strange words. I am eternally grateful and will repay you with three wishes.” Niv stated boldly with an resonating voice much deeper and extravagant than her normal one, at least thats how Niv intended it to sound.
“what will your first wish be Mortals?”

Art credit to koyamori

[Pash Raj'oriq]

“Someone told me once ’t were good t’ talk t’ ‘em, y’ know. Prob’ly m’ aunt ‘r a cousin—” Pash laughed, rolling his shoulders in a shrug. Green growing things could be found both on land and in the sea, and the seafaring minstrel had found he sort of enjoyed the challenge of keeping land-plants alive on his little sloop. After so many ten-trials of working at Cally’s, he’d also become a bit curious about growing more food and herbs on board, though the intricacies of such a gardening endeavor were quite beyond his understanding. He kept meaning to ask Faith questions, and was determined to do so before the end of the season.

“—Jus’ some o’ them? No’ all?” Kali was taunting him with the lightness of her touch and the tone of her voice and the tall Biqaj grinned—losing clothes? Zanik only knew he’d never say no to that, but as he began to turn and make a coy show of unmooring The Muse from the dock, something strange and unexpected happened instead:

Ellis talked back.

Pash blinked, his somewhat wicked expression fading from his sea-weathered face as his lagoon blue eyes snapped into focus onto his little lemon tree who had, these past handful of arcs, never had anything to say before,

“I—what?” The seafaring musician raised his hand as if to touch the tree he’d cared for without ever a second thought, but hesitated, calloused fingers hovering in the hot air between himself and the little lemon-bearing plant, “Wishes? What kinda’ spirit ‘r you t’ be able t’ do that? D’ you have a name?”

Of all the things that first came to his startled mind, Pash worried he’d been doing Ellis a disservice, though clearly the voice had said otherwise. He also wasn’t entirely convinced his little tree was … well … telling the truth.

Or something.

This was completely out of the blazing blue skies and he looked to Kali’rial as if she’d tell him she heard nothing or that he should wake up now.

[Kali'rial]

Chuckling at the Biqaj's quick acceptance and adaption of her idea, the brunette huntress leaned on the railing to watch him move and unmoor the slop in a rather over the top display that only he could pull off. He was the worst influence on her it seemed, and the Sev'ryn couldn't resist making a move towards him, with all intentions of planting a seductive kiss on his person. Before she came into contact with him however, something entirely new and surprising happened

Ellis talked back.

There were plenty of times in Kali's lifetime where she had been caught by surprise, even dangerously so, and in most of those times she'd kept her cool. Yes, maybe she'd cursed in colorful Xanthean, or drawn an arrow with heart in her ears. Once, that she could recall, she'd screamed. It had been however, in sheer terror that she was about to plummet to her painful death.

When the small lemon tree spoke however, in a voice that sounded almost commanding, the hardened huntress let out a short sharp scream of surprise and back peddled from Ellis with shock. Looking at Pash, there was no affirmation from her for the bard to indicate he was hearing things, her wide blue eyes staring at him with the exact same expression.

"I was only joking, you know that right?" She said with a confused tone, all suggestive or coy motions completely washed away by the possibility the tree was talking to them. Not just talking, but proposing it could grant wishes.

Had Ellis always been alive?

Oh Immortals...

The Sev'ryn blushed deeply then as she turned back to look at Ellis, with the slow realisation that the little citrus plant had been in the galley of The Muse when they...well...whilst they had...heartily expressed devotion to Zanik many times over.

"Indeed, what is your name Spirit, and how long have you been...around?" The brunette had regained her composure, moving a little closer and looking at the tree carefully. Never in her life had she heard of a Lemon Tree Spirit.

[Niv]

“The kind of spirit dat is very very powerful of course.” Niv answered Pash’s question with as much finesse as her voice could muster. “I was cursed to live in slumber as a seed for many many arc’s waiting for deh one who would nurture me into a tree and help me uh…reclaim deh power dat I once had.” The Tunawa was both surprised and delighted that not one but two of her friends believed her ruse. Though the pressure to maintain her deception and keep out of sight was now on her shoulders. Both Pash and Kali moved closer and Niv could see Kali examining the tree closely. Niv stayed as still as she could but was sure that Kali would spot her clothes and her teal vines that didn’t quite blend with the tree.

“My name..” Niv bit her lip and let her glassy eyes search the back of her mind for something impressive. “I don’t know how teh say it wid deh limited mortal words but you can call me by the name you gave me.” Niv already forgot the name Pash had used but it didn’t seem like they would really notice if she continued to play coy.

“I’ve been alive for sooo sooo many Arcs …Like.” She paused again and fought the urge to count with her fingers. “I forget how long but I probably knew your father’s father’s father.” Niv wasn’t sure how long the tall folk live but if they were anything like trees, they lived for a long time.

“I see all but…I am a spirit and don’t know what mortals want. So please tell me what you wish.” Niv waited patiently to hear what both of her friends would say.

The actually nature spirit who lived in Ellis seemed to stop as if it was listening as well, At least thats what Niv assumed.

Art credit to koyamori

[Pash Raj'oriq]

“I helped y’ grow an’ wake up, did I? Well, how special be that.” The seafaring musician laughed, unable to keep himself from grinning broadly at the thought, even though he didn’t believe it for a heartbeat, “’S jus’ dumb luck you’re here with me ‘stead ‘f on some pirate ship ravaging’ th’ Orm’del sea, so thank y’ much for th’ offer o’ wishes … I guess. I’ll say I deserve ‘em since y’ do.”

There was something familiar about the “spirit’s” voice, though Pash couldn’t immediately place it.

It’d been at least a season since he’d spent any real time with the Tunawa who was impersonating something much greater than itself in his little lemon tree, and so while the diminutive words reminded him of someone, he couldn’t entirely put a finger on who. Still, the voice stumbled over a few words and seemed to waver in its purpose, causing a slow grin to creep into his expression. If it had been a truly powerful spirit, then surely it would have made itself known by now, visually, and it would have been much more confident in its existence and its own name.

Lagoon blue eyes traveled over the branches and bright green leaves of his lemon tree, a few growing lemons on Ellis promising a decent crop of the little fruits to preserve and find creative uses for over the coming seasons once the suns finally set and the cold cycle began. He thought he caught a glimpse of something that wasn’t at all a part of his tree, but it was only a brief view of a color or two that weren’t what he was used to seeing on Ellis. A little hint of color and a bigger hint of green that didn’t match his lemon tree’s foliage. Shifting his gaze to catch Kali’s periwinkle blue, he winked and nodded his head as if to get her to notice, too,

“Well, spirit who can’t pronounce their name—” It was all the tall Biqaj could do not to laugh a little at that, irises shifting into an emerald hue in his amusement.

As if he knew he'd asked the worst possible of questions, the seafaring musician held out his hand, calloused palm upward toward the sun, and offered it to the tree expectantly, as if he somehow expected the small voice to have an equally small wish-granting spirit to go with it. He gave pause in order to let Kali’rial make a wish or a guess or a comment, too, if she’d like, curious to see if she was more or less suspicious than himself. Their expressions may had given them away, he thought, for Pash’s face wasn’t quite as excited as it could have been had he not been nagged with a bit of doubt.

“—M’ first wish would b’ this: t’ see you. I wish t’ see th’ face o’ th’ spirit o’ wishes an’ lemon trees. I’ve only met an Immortal, no’ any spirits, an’ so I wish t’ see th’ powerful bein’ that’s been livin’ in m’ lemon tree all these arcs without me knowin’.”

[Kali'rial]

Kali looked between the tree and the Biqaj, as though she was suddenly suspicious of him somehow playing a joke on her. The Sev’ryn didn’t do jokes particularly well, so her humour was not at all tickled.

It was only the movement of the man’s eyes to hers with a wink and a nod that made the huntress realise this wasn’t Pash, however there was something he wanted to show her. Turning her periwinkle gaze back on the tree, the brunette southerner ran her eyes over the tree again. Granted, the sailor knew the citrus plant better than she did, but now that he’d pointed it out, Kali did indeed notice something slightly off in the branches. Something that didn’t quite match the rest of it.

In fact, now she thought about it, that voice was somewhat familiar.

Crossing her arms, the huntress smirked at the bard with an arched brow, thinking for a moment.

”Indeed. It’s quite amazing. I am but a mere mortal, and have never met Immortals or Spirits. I wonder if you’re able to commune with other spirits? Perhaps to send a message?” Looking at the tree again, she tilted her head slightly this way and that, trying to get a better look at the thing in Ellis.

How long exactly, had it been in the lemon tree? Her previous embarrassment still lingered with a little annoyance, not enough to be angry or upset, just...hopeful that it wasn’t too long...

[Niv]

Niv’s brows pinched together and she puffed her cheeks at Pash’s question. She had been found out, which was disappointing but as Niv let out a deep sigh she released it was for the best. It was hard pretending to be something your not, especially something like a spirit. She pushed herself up of the twig and peeked her head out at the two.

“Okay you got me,” Niv crossed her twiggy arms and contorted her face into a pout “How did you know? my disguise was wid out fault.”

“I can talk to spirits doh” Niv looked to the Nature spirit who made its way over to Niv and hovered just above the tunawa’s head. “Doh they rarely talk back.” The knowledge of Sev’ryn familiars was not commonly shared, so Niv would assume Kali’s interest was out of casual curiosity. Niv definitely enjoyed spirits but they were far less interesting then she though. Beautiful and mysterious for certain but simple. The ones she’d encountered since her blessing, seemed to only hover around things like mindless drones. She was unaware of more intelligent and stronger spirits in the world.

She found a seat on a lemon and began fanning herself with the corner of her cape. “It’s much better here den in dey city, I don’t even know heat dis bad from Desnind.” She remarked as she panted and sighed.

“Umm..” her neck jerked slightly and her eyes popped open for a tick. “Could I live on dis tree?” Niv blurted out but quickly turned to pleading when she realized she might receive a no. “I’m with out a home at the moment and dis is lemon tree is much cooler den the trees in deh city. I afraid I burn to ash if I stay in city.” Niv knew this was a bit of an exaggeration but it wasn’t too far fetched. It really was unbearably hot.

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Oh I completely forgot about this thread I'm so sorry for the massive delay."

Art credit to koyamori