Log:Jakku: Stories in the Sand
Jakku: Stories in the Sand
Location: Reestkii, Jakku
Participants: Rheisa Dirleel, Raim Shah, Alana Zee
Another night in the company of Reestkii settlers, and initial jitters from both sides have calmed in the wake of generosity - odd and unwarranted as it may feel. People have clustered around a small fire in the central 'square' between dwellings. The reason for their gathering certainly isn't for lack of warmth. Despite sun's downing, it's still hot by most temperate beings' standards. There /is/ an intriguing smell bubbling out of a kettle there though - tea, perhaps - and a most intriguing figure hunched quietly near it.
Eyes closed, Rheisa prepares to tell her tale. It's the first of many, stored in her memory. And one must always start at the beginning. /The/ beginning. Of all things. Seated on her haunches, arms draped over her bent knees, head bowed and headtails resting upon the ground around her, the Togruta remains motionless as she listens to the curious bodies - mostly children creeping nearer to the scarcely clad creature.
The children aren't the only beings creeping, or at least moving, nearer to the Togruta. Raim walks slowly behind a group of the children, an amused expression on his features and his scarlet eyes narrowed in interest as they creep along, attempting to sneak up behind Rheisa and perhaps leap out to scare her. Raim has to stifle a chuckle as one boy nudges a little girl and they both point toward Rheisa's back and cover their mouths, giggling impishly at their cleverness and stalk closer.
The air whispers of their movements, even if their mouths hadn't made such silly sounds. Rheisa waits until they are almost upon her, then snaps her head upright (to the tune of many clattering beads) and stares them slyly in the eye from around the slope of a headtail.
"Chha!" She chirps. "Bahhlahetsk. Balahetsk!" She commands with a click of fangs in her native tongue, cupped palm masking a dried seed pod which she rattles to and fro with great poise as though to draw their attention deeper. "Tae'an storrry..." Rheisa begins as she always does in a bilingual blend of tongue and pantomime - much of the latter likely lost on the Jakku natives.
Raim laughs aloud as Rheisa flicks around as the children draw nearer and they squeal with laughter, charging forward at her and diving forward, wrapping their arms around her legs. They hug and then dart around her in a happy circle. Raim crosses his arms over his chest, watching the bright eyed Togruta with interest, standing directly before her.
Rheisa's eyes twinkle back at the younglings, teeth glowing white in the firelight as the sky above turns from periwinkle towards dark. "You ask, where Rrrheesa from," voice settling into a low, mysterious tone as she addresses to the children, pointing a slender finger almost accusingly at them. "Never you see someone like /me/," she strokes a hand up her left montral. "Today, I not tell only, but I show...storrry of Shili."
Rheisa nods, solemnly, and closes her eyes, inhaling deeply, audibly, through her nose. Once. Twice. A third time. She makes a little show of fanning some imagined essence of the Universe towards her. Maybe the funny smelling things steeping in the pot, as well. Chin bowed into her chest, she exhales thinly until her chest's as deflated as could be. Bicolored eyes snap open, framed now by a striped hunch of headtails. The tips of her montrals point at one body, then another, and finally with a crackling turn of her head (muscles needlessly clenched for effect) they point at a certain grownup before her. "The ancestors, the Marrrukki, tell me this truth. So I tell this truth to you."
Her gaze snaps back dramatically to the children and she shifts her weight to the balls of her feet. A subtle sway begins. "In the beginning of all things, h'muc darkness." Her hands come together, then flatten out, palms lowering gently to the floor, indicating the heavy presence.
"Darrrk was much sad. Alone." Rheisa continues, drawing a fist in towards her chest while her right index finger points towards the faint glow of a rising moon. "It sleep all of time, dream all of time. And sometimes, darkness hrrahk'ke Saan. /Dream/ of it. Something different than him. One night, he dream verrry hard, heart want so much to be not alone. Prrrish'ti," she holds a finger to her lips and drops her voice to a whisper. "Tiny something - something different - grrrow to be seen in the darrrk." Her eyes bulge in feigned surprise and she gawks over a dirt-nosed kid, then squints....studying.
"Slowly, slowly darrrk can see. It is..." Her closed fist - the left hand - flicks its wrist and as her fingers unfurl, a shimmering chunk of yellow geode dangles and spins from a necklace cord. The seed pod has either vanished, or been magically transformed! Never mind that something shriveled and brown now hangs from one of the many beads draping over her breasts. "Ze Saan."
To the tune of a few startled gasps from children, skeptical murmurs from adults, Rheisa lifts the pendant higher, as far as she can reach while craning her head back to 'bask' in the glory of the sun's newborn rays. The bauble catches the energy of the fire and casts little winks of it in all directions. "Now darkness have light. These two different things, touching now together, make darkness not be alone. Darrrk was so happy, have this company. Give reason to sing, to make music...to dance."
Lowering the geode to the packed dirt beneath her feet, her subtle bob and sway becomes more energetic, hands drumming an imagined rhythm on the ground. She throws her head back anew, giving a happily trilled cry, then stops abruptly, canting her head aside with a mischievous wink. "But when come together, something /special/ happen. They create...shadows. The childrrren of dark and light, sa'daar, made many shapes to give company. Safe, in arms of Saan, they showed many beautiful colors. The dark and the light were pleased with their children, and gave powers to do many things."
There's another observer, not much bigger than some of the children there. Alana Zee is hanging back, listening intently to the quiet voice, giving Rheisa all her attention. At the sleight of hand, she even breaks into a smile. But her expression is generally one of sadness, and her gaze flickers round the children as they watch Rheisa and she watches them.
Kneeling, Rheisa swoops her right arm up towards the sky and fabled Saan. "Some of their children went to live in the sky..." she plants her left hand down on the ground with a forward lean and flourishes her right arm back to midline after a quick pass around her head. Sitting in her palm is a hand-carved, wooden bird. She tosses it to make it 'fly' in the direction of a little Teedo child nearby. The reptilian boy, wrapped in protective rags against the sand, snatches it out of the air with stubby, scaly fingers and covets it defensively.
"Some," Rheisa continues without pause, "Lived beneath the shadow of others, the trees." Her right hand traces the length of a serpentine headtail and it ripples in the wake of her motion. Deft fingers pass briefly over her belt's pouch before bringing to bear a tiny, wooden snake, which gets pushed through the sand by a forefinger, to the grubby knees of a an adolescent girl holding her infantile sibling in lap. Eyeballing the gift skeptically, the girl nervously tucks some hair behind her ear and picks up the snake.
Alana Zee hangs at the back, watching with eyes swimming in tears. She brings up a wrist to wipe angrily at her cheeks, ashamed of the tears glistening in the firelight, and then wraps her arms tight about her chest to hug herself. She rocks a little on her feet.
The exaggerated expression on Rheisa's face reduces back towards the realm of normal, or at least less manic. Her vibrant eyes bore holes through her younger audience, leaving the adults to listen - or ignore - as they wish. "Others," she drops her voice to a near whisper and sits back on her heels, /in/ the trrrees." Her left arm rolls a little and one might notice the heavy hide of her loin-girdling skirts shift just before that hand opens to reveal a rotund little creature - bipedal with huge eyes, montrals, and long arms. This effigy is kept for herself, for now, and sits in her lap.
Rheisa pats her lap-dwelling statue on the head. It resembles a prehistoric form of what the Togruta may have been or is simply a shoddy version of what they ARE. "This child," she confides with another pat, "was born last. And so it came to know what all the other creatures born before know. It veeeery smart, and soon this child - part Darrrk, part Sa'aan - did not be afraid of ANY!" She cuts a hand through the air as the sign of 'nil'.
Eyes wide in the darkness, Alana stares, entranced. At the sharp syllable at the end she visibly jumps, perhaps along with others in the audience, and lets out a rueful gasp of embarrassment at her startlement. She scuffs her feet and then falls still once more, listening and watching.
"They make tools to grow power, do more things!" Rheisa grabs the air slowly with an emphatic hand. A soft 'tsk' sucks between her teeth and she shakes her head, expression becoming quite sober. Worried, even. The tips of her headtails shiver. Or perhaps it's just the play of firelight's flicker as she adjusts her footing beneath her. "Soon, these children - the Togrrr - forget who made them, because so easy to make new life by self. To take other life, eat it, and grow strong. They did not fear the Sa'aan, because it bring them warm, and show where to get food. They did not fear the Darrrk, because they eyes SO big, they still see what darkness try to hide from them." Pausing, the Togruta frames her own nocturnal orbs (seemingly 'normal' by humanoid standards) and blinks widely at the enraptured faces staring back at her. The flames dance off the reflective layer in her eyes.
"The Saan, she sees this is bad. Bad for her children in the sky, the grass, and the water also. She say to Darrrk, 'My mate - we must make another child, one to make the Togrrr share his food and remember he does not have most power." A bony, accusing finger points to no one and yet everyone as she pivots in a slow circle, bare heel grinding audibly into the barren earth.
Alana Zee is rapt. Silent save for her faint breathing, she stops rocking, listening to the tale of the Togruta. She moistens her lips and wipes her eyes again, listening to every word.
"So..." Rheisa continues on after completing her circle, "a new sa'daar is made." Her voice takes on an eerie lilt, striped body moving with contorted, creeping motions in the shifting firelight as she 'stalks' the children. Heavy layers of beads and other give-away adornments displayed openly upon her chest sag forward, clattering and rustling together with a rhythmic sway (as do the little bits of what was hidden BY all that handicraft) Fueled by the soft, tittering sounds of giddy fear and anticipation, the Togruta pauses to peer at a little boy who stands half hidden behind his mother’s protective skirts. Despite cowering there, he giggles and slaps a hand playfully at the intruding montral.
A low purring sound begins deep in Rheisa’s throat and her mouth opens wide to reveal an unfurled pair of glistening fangs. Venomous? Maybe………She hiss/yowrrrs something otherworldly in imitation of the dreaded beast.
Raim smiles from his vantage point as Rheisa stalks and then gazes at the timid boy, his teeth glinting in the dance of firelight. Finally, he takes that last step forward into the ring of light cast by the flame. His chest is bare, revealing the tattoos that line his back and chest, his arms still crossed comfortably over his chest. If Rheisa were to look his way she would earn herself an amused smile and headshake before his eyes go back to the children.
Rheisa is in the zone! Looking a bit possessed, she /does/ flick a glance at the shifting blue figure before settling a predatory smile back at the boy. "Akuuul...is his name. Strrrong is his spirit." And the Togruta pounces, making a grab for the small child, which causes many of the others to shriek and scuttle back a few feet. Her pounce purposefully fails, of course, coming up with only a handful of desiccated dirt. The boy hiccups, watching with nervous laughter now from the /other/ side of his guardian.
There's Alana, grinning somewhat shamefacedly at the sudden jump she made at the pounce. It's like she's one of the children, wrapped up in the story, oblivious of the whole galaxy as her attention remains only on the storyteller and her imagination roams wild.
Raim chuckles aloud, his deep voice rolling across the open night air before he goes back to watching the children scurry for cover. His eyes shift toward Alana, watching her so swept up in the story and his brow furrows a small bit thoughtfully.
The blend of laughter, mutters, and quiet gasps are music to the Togruta's 'ears'. She's also likely thankful - or should be - that there wasn't the sound of a blaster bolt knee-jerking response to her sudden maneuver.
"He become the only thing the Togrrr fears," Rheisa maintains her crouch and slyly watches those around her. "But that is enough. Forever does one fight the other - for food. For home. The Togrrr grows much smart still, as time pass. Keeps alive, that way. Must always keep moving," she walks two fingers through the dirt, "and can never forget the power of Darrrk and the knowing of Sa'aan now, because Akul is always there. Waiting." There's a dramatic pause as Rheisa lowers shakily to a knee, near her original position by the scalding embers.
"And he will remind," she nods sagely as a scarred headtail flexes aside to reveal thicker scars that round her shoulder before vanishing into the cleft between scapulas. "Such is the story of Rheisa's home, where she come from. This truth, I give to you." Her posture continues to sink until she's sat haunches on heels, knees on ground, hands on knees. The same three breaths that preceded the story are drawn anew. In...out. In...out. In...and her head bows forward on the 'out', montral tips hovering just over the sand.
Alana Zee exhales, releasing the breath she never knew she had held. She moistens her lips and squeezes her hands together, not applauding but trying to hold on to the story as though it were a physical thing, even as it starts to slip from her memory. Raim does not clap either, he not familiar with the concept of tribal story-telling, though obviously alert enough to think Rheisa is in the midst of reliving some important cultural construct, something of her heritage that it is important that applause not interrupt. A low, awkward mumbling circulates amid some of the adults, unsure what to make of her, her story, or the lapse of silence that concludes it. A few shuffle off to seek solitude in their own huts, hauling sleepy children along with. The rest return gradually to talking among themselves, some offering wary smiles in her direction.
Rheisa straightens out her posture, still sitting on her heels. "Thank," she says softly to no one. And everyone. Sensing that the hour is late and activity waning, she takes a cue from the herding parents to say "Sleep now and maybe tomorrow I tell why Togruta have stripes." Blinking clear the residual intensity from her stare, she looks a bit sleepily herself up to Raim, then casts a glance to where she thought she'd seen Alana lurking in the shadows. "You like?"
Alana Zee remains well back in the shadows, although she doesn't make any move to flee or approach as she spots Rheisa's gaze hunting for her. She sinks down on her heels on the cooling sand, resting her chin on her knees and wrapping her arms around her legs, gazing distantly at the storyteller without really focusing on her.
The storyteller from Shili gathers her feet beneath her and stands. It's time to turn in. But before she does, there's one more prop to relinquish. Rheisa turns her head a few degrees, searching the darkness beyond for one who she suspects has been there all along. Maybe it was just a lone creature she'd detected, sniffing along the ridge line on hunt for refuse or wayward residents. Or...
Pacing four steps out from the fire's ring, she puts a little distance between herself and the rest of the camp. The residents milling around the area are too preoccupied with resuming their bedtime routine to pay her much notice. Rheisa plucks the little wooden Togrrr from its cradle in her palms and bends at the waist to plant 'him' firmly in the ground, facing the northern expanse of dark. Her gaze maintains a lock over something or someone unseen, there, but she slowly releases the effigy from her grip. It's left to stand alone against the elements while she seeks softer refuge.
