Age: 28
Gender: Male
Species: Equita (horse-shifter)
Subspecies: Show (arabian)
Height: 6'0"
Build: Burly
Hair: Strawberry-blond (shoulder-length, fluffy)
Skin: Olive tan
Eye: Blue-green
Origin: Maura-zin, Searched on Aranas
Status: Bonded at Darkling Dawn / Clothing-maker
Searcher: Ohkyt, with copper Zugpferdth
Card: The Hierophant
Element: Soul
Zodiac: Gemini
Personality: Had he been naturally born on Aranas, or encountered a Judge, he would likely have become a Judge as well. Fair and steady, he's not one to hastily come to judgements. However, with Noinae, he's unusually short-tempered, perhaps owing to his distaste of flaky personalities. Still, with most folk, he's pretty competent and patient and one that people go to with questions and problems.
Description: Preferring his centaur form, Ravi usually wears a simple shirt that doesn't get in the way of his work. His clothing is all made by himself and his many years of work are evidenced by his calloused and pin-pricked hands. As a travelling clothier, he's become quite tanned and possessed of the naturally muscular build of all horse-shifters.
Gender: Male
Colour: Brown
Age: Adult
Size: Medium-Large
Dam: Green Schutzth
Sire: Brown Septonomonath
Clutch: #7
Origin: Darkling Dawn
Personality: Larger than the average Old World brown, Mendath is still more nimble than most his size. He's agile and surprisingly lithe; a physical creature, he's quite at home in any terrain and can survive just about anywhere. He rather enjoys hauling things around and will likely be set to work as a "draft horse" when Ravi gets his travelling clothing business underway once more.
Ravi looked up, whisking his equine tail with irritation. The centaur turned, regarding the dolphin-shifter girl with a raised eyebrow. "That's the eighth time today that you've asked that. It'll be done when it's done and no sooner, and you know that. And stop that fidgeting, would you? It's making my hands twitch just watching you." He grunted. "Go find something else to do for now. I'm busy."
Sighing, Noinae plodded off, heading around to the other side of their travel cart. They'd been wandering for weeks, going from town to town to sell Ravi's goods. She didn't know what had spurred her master to go off like he did, just packing up and going without notice to the other guildsmen. Now, they were set up in a clearing, a quiet place in the heart of the rustling green woods, so Ravi could start to replenish the clothing that they'd already sold. In the meantime, she practiced her own skills at tailoring, but her crafts were, well, embarrassing. She always pricked her fingers more than the cloth, but she kept trying; after all, that's how Ravi got his start, right?
Noinae flopped onto a log, looking through the trees at a small creek. It babbled and burbled all day and reminded her somewhat of her own home and she wished for deep water to swim in again. For a while, they had stayed at an ocean-front town and that was like heaven for the young dolphin-shifter, who spent almost all her time in the water, much to Ravi's dismay ... and relief. But, they'd returned to the forests and now she found herself anxious and terrified; the creek soothed her, even if she couldn't really swim in it.
Lost in her reminiscing, she didn't see or hear anything out of the ordinary. The glint of light on steel, the soft rustle of leaves and the crunch of twigs being broken underfoot; bandits snuck into the campground without being seen, much to the misfortune of the travellers.
The flash of a hooked dagger wasn't the last thing Noinae remembered seeing, but the sight of her own blood spraying out of her sliced neck. She half-turned, catching only a glimpse of the man who had struck from behind and slit her throat. Then the ground came roaring up to her and the darkness consumed her.
Ravi struggled, rearing and plunging, driving his hooves into the skull of one bandit after another. But it was a sniper who caught him with two carefully aimed arrows. Even without their deadly aim, the centaur would have died; the poison on the arrows would have seen to that. With a sigh and Noinae's name on his lips, Ravi passed from life into death.
The bandits would have what they will, but, as the legends go, the eyes of the dead will always hold the image of their killers.
***
At first, Noinae thought that it was all an awful dream. She awoke in a tangle of fruit-laden bushes and vivid wild-flowers, her body drenched in a cold sweat. First, she made sure her throat was whole and the lack of blood on the ground around seemed, at first, a reassurance. But when she tried to hear it, she discovered to her growing horror that she wasn't by the creek and the bushes were like nothing she'd ever seen before. Tears trembled in her eyes as she sat up and then stood, despite the dizzyness that threatened to send her to the ground.
"Master? Master! Where are you, Master Ravi?!", she cried, her voice sounding tinny and distant to herself.
A feeble moan from a nearby bush indicated that something was, indeed, alive and twitching. As Ravi's head lifted from the verdant tangle of leaves, Noinae burst into terrified tears, running to him and reaching out for him.
Biting back his own fears and the tears that threatened to fall from his own eyes, Ravi could only hold the servant girl while she quivered and sobbed and told about her terrible dream in broken sentences. He already knew the truth, knew it as soon as he saw the plants. They were dead and their souls were now to be judged. Deep down, he hoped he'd lived as good a life as he thought he did.
"We will find them again, Naenae.", Ravi whispered, stroking the girl's hair. She was as a daughter to him and, now, he felt more powerless than ever to protect her. "We will find them and they will fall. Don't you worry."
Noinae hiccuped and her tears began to abate as she looked up, her red and puffy eyes glistening with the uncertain determination of the frightened. "Are you sure? But what ... what if we can't?"
"We will."
***
The whole day was spent exploring their new world. Hunger bid them try the fruits of the world and they found them to be sweet and edible; they didn't get sick afterward and Ravi made a note of what they had eaten just in case. They set up a tent out of immense leaves, using branches and twigs to assemble it, and Ravi slept as if nothing had happened. For Noinae, however, things were not so easy. She trembled and shook, sweated and cried, and, finally, she couldn't sleep any longer. The dolphin-shifter got up and went to a creek they'd found earlier -- the waters were sweet and cold, like ice -- and sat along the banks of it to peer into the swiftly moving water. Lunar reflections rippled and flashed and she looked up at the moons that laid claim over the heavens. Too many moons, she thought to herself. Sighing, her eyes fell back to the water and its watery imitation of the things around it.
It was then that she caught sight of something strange and miraculous; two dragons were drinking at the water a short distance down ... a good omen, she recalled. One was coppery, the other purple, and both were drenched in the liquid silver of the moonlight; they were beautiful, in other words, and Noinae's breath was caught in her throat. As silently as she was able, she stood and crept further down the creek, sneaking glimpses at them, sipping at them with her eyes.
One lifted its head, the purple one, and the dolphin-shifter's eyes locked with the alien and shifting eyes of the dragon. She didn't know she held her breath until her chest ached and she forced herself to breathe.
"She likes you.", the whispered voice of a young woman drifted to Noinae's ears and the girl whirled to see who was speaking. It turned out to be a human, a woman slightly older than herself. "Her name's Erkundenth."
"E-Erkundenth?", Noinae stammered, sneaking another quick look at the dragon.
"Mm-hm. And I'm Nystoa.", the woman turned, whistling softly to something off in the bush. "Come on out Ohkyt."
It was not a human as Noinae expected, but a centaur who made his way out of the bush. A centaur like Ravi! Well, almost. He was more powerfully built and much larger, but a centaur nonetheless. His gravelly voice was friendly, if a bit low. "Greetings. I'm Ohkyt.", he pointed his thumb at the copper dragon and added, "He's Zugpferdth. Hm. And he tells me that you came with someone he'd like to meet."
"R-R-Ravi? That, he, well, he's my master. He's still ..."
"Sleeping? No. I'm up, child.", Ravi's arrival startled Noinae more than the dragons or their friends. "You need to sleep, Naenae."
"I couldn't, that's why I was here. And then, and ...", Noinae's voice failed her, her words tumbling into stuttering syllables.
"That's okay, miss. It was fate that brought us all here. Zugpferdth says that you -- Ravi is it? -- was the one he sensed.", Ohkyt rumbled, extending a foreleg in a traditional centaur greeting.
"Ravi it is. And you?"
"Ohkyt. That's Zugpferdth, the copper one."
Ravi nodded, eyeing the dragon with admiration and a small bit of wariness.
"And I'm Nystoa. Erkundenth sensed something about your friend, Naenae, here."
"It's actually Noinae.", the dolphin-shifter murmured, reddening a bit.
Nystoa could only smile. "Noinae. Ah. Well, look, both of our dragons agree that we should ask you this question. It's very important, so please give it careful consideration."
Ravi grunted, but Noinae nodded emphatically. "Of course.", the girl murmured.
"They sense that you, too, could ride a dragon. One day, you might even be able to return home, to take care of business there.", Ohkyt said. "Think about it, at least. It's a life-altering commitment ... but one that is very much worth it."
"We will give it consideration.", came Ravi's rumbling reply, before Noinae could spill out her own answer. The girl was all but bubbling over in her enthusiasm, but Ravi nudged her aside and whispered, "Watch yourself. Tomorrow we'll give them our answers, but to be overeager right now is not appropriate."
"Yes, Master."
Ravi lifted his head, looking at Ohkyt. "We'll give an answer in the morning."
"Good. Our camp is right over there, so if you need anything, we're more than willing to share."
"Thank you."
The pairs split their own way, heading to their respective camps. And that night, both Ravi and Noinae slept hard, dreams of dragons flittering in their heads.
***
The next day, they went to the camp of the dragon riders, carrying a few breakfast fruits with them.
"We have our answer.", Ravi stated, looking at the two riders who had apparently been up for quite some time.
"Mm? Will you come with us?", Nystoa asked, picking at her own breakfast.
"We will. But only if we will be able to go home when it's all over."
"Well, when the dragon is grown, he or she will be able to take you. We will take you to where you are needed most, if you wish.", Ohkyt raised an eyebrow.
"Right now, you mean?", Noinae squealed, clasping her hands with delight.
Nystoa laughed. "You are so much like Minwei and Delfea! We'll take you now, yes. And someday, you really should meet those two."
"I will, I promise!"
And as soon as breakfast was done and over, the riders and their new companions mounted up and soared off to another world entirely ...