The Dauntless

The Twin Leopards nod in unison. "You come to us from Avistan, a distant land with different customs, different cultures," Ose Panin says.

"We are interested in learning, but also in you," Ose Atsu continues.

"Tell us, who do you each hold most dear?" Ose Panin finishes.

"My parents," Dorrak answers without hesitation. "I only hope to repay all the nights they went hungry so I would not one day."

Antoinette looks between her companions awkwardly for a moment. She considers saying something else to avoid having an awkward moment, but thinks about her general skill with lying and realizes that likely wouldn't end well. "Django."

Suki casts glances out of the corners of her eyes at the others before responding. "My companions. They accepted me, not without pause but easily enough, in spite of my... complicated past."

Django's face burns at Antoinette's admission. I'd be lying if I said it hadn't occurred to me that she might be into me, he thinks to himself. The person you hold most dear, though, that's... that's a lot to think about. Not now, not the time.

Looking up at Ose Panin and Ose Atsu and deliberately not at Antoinette, he takes a deep breath. It must have taken a lot of courage for her to say what she said and he doesn't think she's lying... so it's only right that he tell the truth too.

"My dad, your majesties. He's a good man with a big heart and I think he and your people would get along well."

Antoinette tries to hold composure but visibly deflates after Django's answer.

"Interesting."

"Two speak of gratitude,"

"One of affection,"

"And one of nothing,"

"Save in her tone,"

"Which speaks of a great deal."

"Two speak of family,"

"One of friendship,"

"And one of love,"

"Which is not answered in kind."

The two nod in unison again, not once looking at each other yet in perfect sync.

"Tell us,"

"What do you put into this world?"

"What do you contribute to clan, tribe, town, family?"

"What, as they say in the north, do you do?"

”I am a paladin of Ragathiel, the empyreal lord of righteous vengeance,” Dorrak replies, his tone somber. ”I bring justice to those whose sins are beyond forgiveness and defend those who cannot defend themselves.”

"I am just a woman. Forced to flee from her home," Antoinette replies, forcing her mind away from other thoughts. "I fight to save others so that the sacrifices my family made for me were not made in vain."

"Like my companion, I'm also just a man," Django replies. "But through the grace of Desna, I hope to be more. I want to help people, I want to bring them peace, I..."

He trails off, trying to think how best to say what he means- that he wants to heal the sick, and feed the hungry, and give a home to anyone without a place to lay their head, and stop the town of Breachill from being consumed in fire and lightning. Recalling the dreams, recalling the burning visage of the flaming dragon in the portal, and recalling the Ekujae's aversion to the name of the force of destruction which had once threatened their home and now might very well threaten his, he sets his jaw and answers the Twin Leopards.

"I want to be a light in the Darkness."

"I have no great and noble purpose like my companions," Suki starts, once more looking over the others. "My only purpose is more selfish, to distance myself from my upbringing. In truth, I bring little of note. A bit of knowledge, periodically faulty, and some skill with a weapon, nothing that another could not bring. But," She looks up straight into the eye of the closer sister. "I will not let this stop me. By some twist of fate I have wound up with these three, and I do what is necessary to assist them. Whatever may be necessary, be it within my power to do so."

"Such nobility,"

"Such humility."

"But anyone can speak of justice,"

"Salvation,"

"Light,"

"It takes a lot more,"

"To be what you strive for."

Ose Panin steps in front of Dorrak, looking up at him, tilting her head to meet his eyes. "I ask of you, ubhuti, what about yourself do you take the greatest pride in?"

Dorrak furrows his brow at that thought, thinking for a moment. ”Nova,” he tips his head to the warg. ”I have devoted myself to the destruction of evil, but I am proud to guide her towards a life of good.”

Ose Panin looks down to the warg sitting next to Dorrak, a thoughtful look on her eyes. "I see. This creature, it is a warg, yes? Then let me ask of you, small one. Do you believe, in your heart and soul, that you would give of yourself for others? " Nova looks at Ose Panin, then to Dorrak. Whatever she's looking for, she seems to find it.

"... I don't," she says quietly, but speaks a little louder and a little more confidently for her second statement. "But I would like to." Ose Panin stares the warg down, before a small smile of approval appears on her face. She nods, then steps back.

Ose Atsu comes forward this time, approaching Django. "What of you, Umzala? You say you are just a man, but no man is truly, completely humble. What is your greatest pride in yourself?"

Django thinks for a moment. "I'm not sure how to answer," he says. "Before a few weeks ago I'd have said my healing skills, but... I don't know. I am proud of the good that I do but I don't know if that counts when I'm just following my calling."

"I see," Ose Atsu nods. "I can see it in your eyes, Umzala. You do not know your own worth, but you admit to this shortcoming. Truly, your greatest strength is your humility. I respect this." She nods to Django, then turns to Suki. "Imakishwa. I see much pain in you. You carry yourself not with humility, but with self-doubt. Confront this now and tell me, look inwards and find within yourself what you are most proud of."

Suki's head drops, her eyes closing. A long moment passes as she thinks, before her fist clenches. Her head snaps back up towards Ose Atsu, and when her eyes snap open they are a brilliant crimson. "My fire." She says, and as she speaks twin bursts of flame erupt around her hands. "A fire raging out of control burns, it consumes, it destroys all it touches, I know this all too well," She says, as the flames flicker along her arms, tracing unseen patterns in the flesh beneath her sleeves. "But tamed, tended, focused, it banishes the darkness, it can be used to warm, to create, to temper. So too do I feel. It would be so easy to lose control, Gods know I have hundreds of excuses. But no," She unclenches her fist, and both flames instantly flicker away as her eyes return to their normal amber. "I control my passions, I do not let them control me. I focus the flame of my heart towards the light, the forge creating great works, rather than the all-consuming destruction. And I take pride that every day I win this fight within myself to maintain my focus." Her eyes close again as she finishes speaking, her head dropping as she pants slightly, drawing forth that answer as exhausting as many a fight.

The firelight illuminates Ose Atsu's face, and an amused look graces her face. "You sold yourself too short before. You have a way with words as well as with your fire. Your control is admirable, as is that which you control. Do not focus so hard on controlling it, though, that you forget to let it burn."

Finally, Ose Panin stands in front of Antoinette, reaching down and lifting her chin with a finger to stare into her eyes. "In you, I see a different question. Each of them needed to look down and find their pride. In you, I cannot see it. There is something there, but it is not out of your grasp. Instead it hides away. Of you I ask: are you proud of who you are?"

"Yes," Antoinette states without hesitation. "I have struggled in the past with self hatred, and I think there is always room to improve one's self. But overall I am proud of who I am, proud of what I have become, and proud of what I can accomplish. I see no reason to hate myself."

There's a manic glint in Ose Panin's eyes, clearly pleased with this answer. "If you are truly proud of who you are... then show yourself. All of yourself."

"If the leadership demands so of me, I will. I hope for all of our sakes you can control the response though," Antoinette replies.

Then she stands up and transforms into her hybrid form.

Ose Panin grins broadly as Antoinette grows into her full hybrid form. There are gasps from the myriad elves, but no one dares interrupt when the ruler asked for this.

"As I thought. You are uqalekisiwe. Your body is tainted, corrupted, by this curse."

"But your soul remains untouched," Ose Atsu interjects, nodding as well. "You walk this world with a terrible curse, and you use it for noble cause."

"In spirit, you are as keledi, yet you hide this triumph away in fear. Which is, perhaps, wise."

"Others would respond poorly. People who do not understand you would react in fear."

"But you need not hide from us. And all the Leopard Clan should know you need not hide from them."

"Stand tall, Uqalekisiwe. Stand tall, Dauntless." The Twin Leopards turn their heads as they speak in unison, regarding each of you in turn. "You go forward with our blessing, as friends of the Leopard Clan. We have spoken." The pair return to their seats on the palanquin, and with a clap of Ose Panin's hands, it raises again, and is carried away.

Dorrak rises to his feet during those last words, and once the Twin Leopards float away, he lets out a deep breath he hadn't realized he was holding in.

Antoinette likewise sighs with relief. "That went better than expected, to be perfectly honest."

Nketiah lets out a breath of her own. "Yes, the Twin Leopards are a bit... eccentric. And more than a little intense. That could honestly have gone either way." As she says this, the last bit of sunlight vanishes as the sun fully sets, and she glances up. Around you, elves begin putting out torches and candles (and putting cloth coverings over Suki's firefly jars). Nketiah glances up as this happens and smirks. "That sounds like my cue." She stands up and heads to the center of the feast area, and everyone present forms a circle around her, leaving room for the Dauntless at the front. She turns her head, looking at the crowd in silence for a moment, before smiling. “Come, children of the Leopard Clan!” Nketiah’s voice calls out, clear and strong above the sounds of the festivities, and there's an almost ethereal, magical quality to it, affirmed by the fact that even though you all hear Taldane, the Ekujae around seem to understand her. “Night has fallen! Let us call a moth to tell us a story!” Nketiah waves a hand, and a dozen warm lights appears in the air.

“I have caught a little moth!” Nketiah says, dramatically clutching one of the lights in front of her. She opens her palm, and the light has taken the shape of a moth. “It has a story to tell. It is a story of a Great Darkness.”

The Ekujae respond, the dialect similar enough to Elven to be understood. "We will listen."

"There was once a time of anguish. A time of destruction. A time of night so dark that even moths refused to fly. From a hole in this night came a Great Darkness, who saw the world suffer, and thought only that it wanted to see more suffering. The Darkness sought to burn all that remained, until there was nothing left but ashes." As she speaks, the lights around Nketiah begin to dance around her, forming into shapes. Several take the form of a great and terrible dragon, rising on its haunches with its jagged maw stretched open to devour all in front of it.

“The first people that the Darkness found were a brave people, who stood before the Darkness with their weapons and did not run." Most of the remaining motes of light change into humanoid shapes brandishing spears, standing fast against the dragon. "The Darkness sought to destroy them, saying, ‘You shall fall before me, for I am Death and I am Fire.’ But the people were not afraid, and replied, ‘You shall not break us, for we are the guardians of this land, who stayed to defend it when all others fled.’" The dragon and the warriors charged and clashed with each other.

“Oh, what a terrible battle it was! The people shattered their spears against the Darkness again and again, but no living being could pierce its hide." Battered and beaten back, the warriors regrouped around five individuals in a circle. "At last, the greatest among the people, the kindest, the most righteous, gave their lives to forge their souls into weapons for the people to wield." The five in the center of the circle, raised their arms, and then dissolved back into light, merging with the ends of the other warriors' spears. The combined light glows brightly, piercing the night. "Oh, how their souls burned, like bright coals in the night! The people took up the souls of those they had most loved, and in wrath split the skin of the Darkness." And indeed, this time when the warriors charged forward, their spears struck true, pushing the dragon back. "They spilled the blood of the Darkness across the whole of their lands. They broke the horn and teeth from the Darkness and flung them into the sea. Yet still the Darkness would not die!"

The last few lights form into a golden archway, which the warriors push the dragon back towards. “The people forced the Darkness back into the place from whence it had emerged. The people trapped it in the space between spaces." The dragon is forced into the archway, writhing in pain and anger as it goes. The warriors, their task completed, move to stand in front of the archway, spears poised. "The people swore they would stand guard so that the Darkness could never escape to threaten the land again.

“Could the people imprison the Darkness forever, when even the best among them could not defeat it? Was it foolish to expect them to try?” Nketiah pauses, the lights fading out, and then says, “That is the story that we have been given.”

“We will remember,” the other Ekujae reply.