(Told progressively from Winter to her return to RhyDin)

The Search For The Fire-Flower

Fierce fires burned in the stone braziers that stood as tall as 'jira ever would be. The thrumming of tribal drums on the early Spring night was as heated as the promise of the coming Summer.

The horse shifted beneath the small woman and S'jira touched that equine neck with the gentlest of fingerstips. "Be at ease, Trygg..." Lips murmured the whisper to the beast that Panther had gifted her so long ago. She heard his front, right hoof pound into the soil beneath over and over again with something mixed of nervousness and impatience.

The daughter of Llothgar felt like a stranger in the wild lands where she had never, truly been free. She watched the normally nomadic peoples move amongst the long houses and round houses in a place where they met once a year as an enormous, disfunctional family -- and not seperate tribes. As she recalled to memory, the gatherings did not go long without some kind of upset.

Leather of the saddle beneath her made faint noises as she shifted her light weight upon it, then eased down enough to drop from the back of the very tall, black horse that was laid with a bed roll, packs of food, and more. With care not to do so too quickly, 'jira made her way towards the buildings, tents, braiziers and firepits...and the people of her homelands with a slight, uneven flittering about of her heart. S'jira had come in search of the Fire-Flower, leaving Kruger in RhyDin for possibly longer than a heart and head dare to.

The darkness of her gaze passed from left to right, beneath Trygg's head since she was so much shorter than the horse she drew alongside her as she walked nearer. The attention of others was on her immediately to see who she was or what threat she might prove. But other than cold and untrusting stares from men and women alike, none had stopped her from that approach.

S'jira had not been called that at all, by any one in the lands she had ever walked, but she knew it was for her. Only one lock of her hair was white and had been for a very long time. The small one slowed to a stop and held the reins in her left hand and touched Trygg's neck with her right, even as her head turned to steal a look towards the woman that had spoken.

By her appearance, her work leathers were very short and bells were fasted well about her left ankle. A brand was at her right, upper arm near her shoulder. Black hair mingled with fingers of auburn through it like a dying fire in the dark, was long and wild about the woman's face and shoulders. She carried a sack over one shoulder while arms were wrapped about a clay jug. Despite the rocks jutting out of the soil, here and there, the woman approached 'jira as if she were walking on the softest, coolest of sands.

"Song...?" S'jira glanced to the slave girl's bells and knew her meaning, then slipped a look back upwards to her face with curious caution. "Song has been missing for a very...long time." Slightly, she paused and continued. "Are any welcome during The Talks?"

The other woman, seeming a handful of years or more older than 'jira continued to look her over at length and with great study. "What is your purpose here, white-lock?" Brazen as the fires burning in the braziers not far away, she came to stand too close to s'jira.

"Please...s'jira.." Her hand lifted to touch fingerstips lightly against the line of her own collarbone, near the two pendants worn.

"Yes. The name is known. You were property to Master Gracus u'Lor."

Though it should not have mattered after all the years that had passed, the small one gently corrected the girl. "Not to Master Gracus, but his to his brother, Master Kiroth u'Lor."

"This is known as well." The girl rounded s'jira and the horse, smiling easily over the saddle and back of the mount with her height being a bit more than 'jira's. "Do you seek either of them, then? Perhaps another Master? " The woman's nose wrinkled as if a foul smell had wafted her way. "Though she have the smell of a free-born about you and you are probably ruined to these things, yes?" Laughter sounded and bells called when the woman turned slightly and repeated herself. "What is your purpose here?"

"To search for a sister of blood. To find one called Se'vrasi."

"Se'vrasi? Fire-flower..." Something in the other woman's face sobered and she regarded s'jira with narrowing, curious eyes of dark green. "It's not known if she's here, white-lock. But we will find out. Together, yes?" With that, she caught her by the arm and drew her towards the largest of the meeting houses.