Tormented Tarns patina

for @Taktuq!

of course pharaoh had waylaid her with another errand. she was to find wedding guests for the ceremonies that would soon be upon them.

the sesh had stolen the opportunity to bring an herb-bag, and as she crossed between swathes of exposed earth, she recoiled at the spiderwebs and huffed in disgust.

soon, however, she fell to gathering, brushing spiders away with a practiced ease.

She took to the tarns as a wolf on a mission, a stick in her mouth to catch the webs as though she were catching fairy floss.

Taktuq tried to find old webs the spiders had abandoned or ones the elements had destroyed, and her luck ran fifty fifty. For a long stretch here she’d managed to collect webs with tiny spiders, at best. But as she reached for one strung low between trees, something big jumped out at her, eight fuzzy legs all a blur.

She jumped back and let out a shrill but muffled GRRRAAHHH!, as she smacked first at her face, then at the ground in a circular retreat, to try and kill the thing that had attacked her. EW, EW, EW!

<3 thanks for starting!

of course!

tavina jumped as a loud sound echoed through the wretched place. mouth twisted, limbs stiff, she waited for another echo, but it had dissolved into a more muted noise. perhaps doctor's intuition led her forward, a reluctant sense of duty to help if someone had been harmed.

she found a silvered young woman spinning and brushing at her pretty face. the sesh's ear flicked. she hid a smile and cleared her throat. "i unfortunately even saw a green one on the way up. disgusting."

Busy as she was with getting the spiderwebs off off off of her, she didn't even hear the woman until her voice lifted over the lay of this dreadful place.

Ugh! That's awful, I am so sorry, she flicked her paw a final time, and tried to take on some semblance of "normal behaviour", even though she could still feel the webs along the bridge of her nose. They clung to her like ghosts.

Thankfully, the spiders did not.

They have a horrible way of sticking, but it's a healer's dream, she remarked, a wry smile twisting her mouth, the webs, mostly. Is that what brought you this way, too?

Taktuq didn't even assume the woman might live here. She looked and seemed too dear for that.

"i hate them. but yes, that's why i'm here." partly. she indicated her carrying-bag, a long, folded piece of grass pulled from beside the serpent. "i'm from akashingo, that way." tavina's gaze was curious. "i'm a healer too. we're called "sesh" there."

she wiped away a spider and began to stuff the richly silken material into the fold of the leaf once more. "tavina."

Her gaze drew to the other’s bag on her cue, and Taktuq lit with curiosity. Oh! what a strange thing to carry! Yet it suited the healer. Unassuming, yet lovely, in its soft simplicity.

Oh, no, a gentle laugh accompanied her, I am more a guardian than a healer.

But saying so made her wonder if she  could one day match Tavina’s call. The thought was as fleeting as the spiders that ran from their paws.

I am Taktuq, of Kvarsheim. She gestured to the North. What was that language you spoke? Sesh? It is one I have not heard before. Nor had she ever heard of Akashingo but it strung in a way that made her think she had found someone other than another woman of the North.

her eyes were interested. "i was never made for guardianship. do you like it?" she left off her work to listen. kvarsheim. it was certainly northern, bringing to mind frigid rivers and great mountains.

"it is egyptian, i believe. that is where our pharaoh is from, and he has brought all his ways and words and culture here." 

her dark ears flicked. "he is remarrying soon. the gates are open to potential allies for attendance."