Mri'tia meets Shinkir, miscellaneous sketch, about Engama, Danrick's father, Mishor and Kenbin
Mri'tia heard the screams from her shop. Something had gone terribly wrong in the market square the next street over.
"Stay here, guard the shop, I'm going to see what's going on." Her two apprentices stared after her wide-eyed.
Shouts and screams got louder, there was chaotic movement between the buildings that opened onto the square. One word finally came clear to her ears and her heart nearly stopped right there. Shabenay.
She had the choice, go back to the shop or stick her nose into something she might not come out of. The commotion shifted to the right. They were being chased down the next street over. She felt a pull towards them, it was hard to describe, but she couldn't bear the thought of doing nothing. If the people caught up with them the Shabenay were as good as dead.
Mri'tia bolted down the street parallel to the Shabenay's track. She tucked into a narrow alley and paused just long enough to be sure no one could see her. She couldn't think, she just had to do. She shape-shifted into her human form and rushed down the alley, bare feet slapping against the hard ground. They were close, the shouts were getting louder again. This had to be the stupidest thing she had ever done. Twenty years of careful concealment and here she was on the edge of complete exposure.
No thinking. A blond human girl appeared. Mri'tia reached out and grabbed her, the girl's momentum swung the two of them around each other and into the alley. Mri'tia made an effort to not completely slam the poor girl into the wall.
"Shinkir!" The young Frineir yelped behind them.
The third was a darker human boy who cocked his head at Mri'tia in curiosity, an odd emotion given the circumstances. Gosh, they were young, just adolescents. "Follow me if you want to get out of here alive." Mri'tia let the girl go, she took a few short, bouncing steps down the alley, ready to open up her stride if they chose to follow.
The three looked at each other. "No choice," the girl said, "let's go."
Mri'tia lead them down the alley and pulled open a door that exposed a stairwell to the roof. The angry sound of the mob vanished as they climbed upwards before bursting onto the rooftop.
"I trust you can handle yourself from here." Mri'tia said. She barely caught the "thanks" as she ran back down the stairwell. It wasn't until she found herself in a quiet corner of the city that she stopped, breathing heavy, her feet aching. She shape-shifted back into her natural form. The pain in her feet lessened and her heart slowed somewhat.
Three of them! She had gone twenty years without a whisper of another shape-shifter and three of them appear out of nowhere. And she could feel them. Feel them! Her head was spinning and not just from lack of oxygen.
She made the slow walk back to the shop.
The metallic snap of the trap springing shut caused the fox to jump and try to spin in the small space, the food at the end forgotten. It frantically scrambled from one end of the wire cage to the other.
It was a good half hour before it settled and rediscovered the hunk of meat that had caused it to investigate the trap to begin with. A cautious sniff around the morsel's edges and the fox deemed it edible and gulped it down greedily.
It was hours before the two-legged creature showed up. The fox had seen them before, but always at a distance. They had odd smells, something like a large preditor, but also a strange mix of things it couldn't name. Sharp scents that burned and others that were compounded and powerful like a skunk's ovewhelming spray, but didn't smell like any natural thing in the forest. The fox pushed itself into the furthest corner of the cage. The creature approached, making low murmurs as it came. The movements were slow, but not stalking, amost cautious. What did such a beast have to fear from a fox?
The fox curled it's lips and rumbled a threat. Maybe a little indimidation would cause the two-legged creature to go away. The beast kept up its low rumbling tones and reached down and lifted the cage, fox and all, straight up into the air. The fox scrambled and the creature grasped the cae with both forelimbs to steady it, keeping its constant stream of sound going with little variation. The fox braced itself in the corner as the creature walked, swaying the cage in a steady rhythm.
The creature stopped at a strange object that smelled sharp and strong. Its cage was slid onto a platform next to other cages, some empty, some occupied. The creature pushed up part of the platform and it slammed into place with a vibrating, mechanic clunk. There was another thunk and a something roared to lifeand the sharp burnin smell became stronger. The platform rumbled with vibrations and started to move.
"We're academics. We're not trained to fight."
Engama was a result of the wars. There may have been two schools in eastern Ela'yas before the wars, most likely one north and one south to take advantage of the Anlizer and Solnerrith rivers and the concentration of people around them. Those two schools were both destroyed, most likely the one Kallon saw with Luskan Pogenhyuns was the southern one. Kallah's goal was to destroy the Meim and when it was obvious humans were bent on the eradication of Klamon it shifted to the destruction of all human infrastructure and knowledge centers. Klamon helped build it? humans didn't deserve it.
Back to Engama. It was build as secretly as they could manage as remotely as possible. The school is pretty much self-sufficient. It was built after the majority of the fighting had settled, at least 50 years prior to the start if Fire Forged Key. Danrick Mishor may be the second or perhaps the third Hafitch at Engama.
Dohman was one of the few older schools that managed to survive, or perhaps it was just rebuilt. Being aligned with a major port it was either an early target or heavily fortified and protected.
"What are you doing, Dani?"
"Trying to find answers! You don't just lose two dozen people. Something happened on Ostrin and it wasn't a freak storm."
I suspect Danrick's father tried to discourage him from pursuing what happened to Ranicka and the others on the final, fatal trip to Ostrin. I'm sure Danrick's search for answers helped lead him to Gilbreizhyem's journal and the full cause of the rift between Man and Klamon.
If the dragons exist on Ostrin it would only be a matter of time before they attempted to migrate north again to Alast.
"You missed the excitement, Kenbin." Danrick said as Kenbin entered his office to report. "What else could have happened?" Kenbin questioned. "Sray Hillenbohn's father paid us a visit."
Kenbin's eyes popped wide open. "Krands, Danrick, how did that happen?"
"He coerced Sherod Kalden into bringing him. Kalden was under duress, I admit, but it was more mental than anything. It went better than I could have imagined it going. He was here long enough to confim Sray was fine. We were all lucky, just Sherod Kalden and Kith Serrith have been added to the list of people who knows he is alive."