Story name: Making Aquaintances
Author: Tatsushu
Publication date: January 15, 2001 (TSA-Talk)
Date: late November or early December, 706 CR (at least 3 days)
Location: Metamor Keep (baths, library, Ryuo's residence), Euper (Gyrfalcon Tavern)
Overview
Ryuo spends the day with Rois, and gives her apprentices some martial advice.
Summary
Part 1
As Rois is exercising in the Keep parade grounds, Ryuo rides up on his horse Kaze and greets her. After talking a bit about their horses, Rois invites Ryuo to a local restaurant that serves warm sake. On the way, Ryuo tells her how Yamato is doing lately.
The tavern owner Michelle greets Rois, who introduces Ryuo. After putting Kaze in the back stables, they are brought to a table by the back that Rois uses. Over sake, they discuss the upcoming winter, and Rois talks a bit about her family back home. Rois raises the topic of translation services; in addition to teaching him to read, Rois would like Ryuo to give her three apprentices some private lessons, both on magic and on discipline. Ryuo agrees, and Rois tells him to meet them in the baths.
Part 2
Despite his hangover, Ryuo sets off to the Keep baths, remembering the tasks that his sensei pushed him to perform. Along the way, Ryuo meets a wolf who looks feral, yet has an intelligent look to him.
He meets Ryuo and her apprentices at the baths; Rois also tells him that she has arranged a meeting with the Duke's scribe to help his reading. As they discuss, Ryuo is suddenly lost in a memory of the hot springs in Yamato, where he met his first love. Rois suggests she get some breakfast, and so they leave. As Ryuo dries off, the wolf from earlier enters and follows Ryuo outside. Ryuo rejects its offer to play, and so it leaves.
After breakfast, Ryuo tests each triplet's combat abilities. Drake is the strongest and has the most reach, so Ryuo suggests a great sword; Colin is too weak to handle anything but a staff or short sword. Aisha is interested in a war fan, but Ryuo instead suggests the naginata, a warrior woman's glaive. Rois asks Ryuo to train them twice a week, both in traditional weapons and in Western fighting techniques.
Ryuo and Rois then leave to meet Sindia, who presents Ryuo with a Follower missionary canticle, written in Yamoto-go and Common, along with books on letter writing.
Days later, Ryuo works long into the night, carefully practicing his writing and reading aloud the Follower canticles.
Characters
Main Characters:
- Rois: A female gendermorph, a mage, whose lower body has been replaced with her steed's Rakurai. As a former samurai from Yamato, she is able to speak Ryuo's language and show him around the Keep. She also asks his advice for her three apprentices.
- As a young man, he had older brothers who inherited most of his family's estate, leaving Kishu with a small plot of land. Rois suspects she would nowadays likely be disowned by her family.
- Kishu had not been the most studious of samurai.
- Ryuo: A warrior from Yamato, apparently a two-tailed fox morph, secretly a natural-born kitsune. He is barely able to speak the language of the Keep, though with Rois's help he is slowly learning. Rois asks him to give her students some private lessons and teach them discipline, scheduled twice a week. He is also given a translation of the Canticles to learn to read Common.
- While riding Kaze, he wears loose casual clothes. In the early morning, he wears wooden geta and baggy four-paneled hakama (which has a small hole in the lower corner of the left arm sleeve) and an outer kariginu.
- Though he has tried sparkling wine and beer, he doesn't like it, and much prefers his native sake.
- As an Inari, he feels playful instincts when around Wanderer. Ryuo, however, prides himself and the Inari on resisting base instincts.
Minor Characters:
- Michelle: A female gendermorph, owner of a tavern in Euper.
- She can only speak Common.
- Colin: A child morph, one of Rois's apprentices in magic. When Ryuo tests him, he finds him too weak for anything but the wakizashi (short sword) or jo (short staff).
- Drake: A dragon morph, one of Rois's apprentices in magic. The strongest of the three with the most reach, Ryuo recommends the nodachi (great sword) for him.
- Aisha: A female gendermorph, one of Rois's apprentices in magic. She liked the gunsen (fighting fan) most, but Ryuo recommended the naginata instead.
- She is shyer than Colin or Drake in entering the pool.
- A large gray wolf in the Keep who acts both wild and intelligent.
- Sindia: A leopard morph, the Duke's secretary. She recommends some books for Ryuo to read — a translated book of the Canticles into Yamato-go, and some books on lettering and how to speak Common.
- She is in her twenties. She has delicate human-like fingers. She wears a simple elegant floor length dress, with a jacket for the cold.
- She is a Follower. Ryuo finds her lithe and supple, with graceful dainty table manners.
Cameo:
- Kaze: Ryuo's horse. He is small, stocky, and dextrous. His name means "wind".
- He has a distinct saddle.
- Shandranax: A waitress in Michelle's tavern. Though her name is unstated, she is clearly Shandranax, due to her current slow change into a cat morph.
- Currently, she has just started her change. She is a dark-haired girl, mostly covered in black fur, with a humanish cat-like face.
Important Mention:
- Otani, Ryuo's sensei in the Jistuei-ryu school of swordsmanship. He lived many years ago, when Ryuo had only one tail. He was an old human, but had a youthful vigor that even Ryuo today struggles to match. He was able to see through Ryuo's human disguise, but had no prejudice against kitsune.
- None of his other students stayed for very long. It isn't clear whether Ryuo stayed long as well.
- Aoi, an Inari or Kitsune whom Ryuo fell in love with. She was about the same age as Ryuo. Ryuo believes her to have died in the attack on his village.
- She had cream colored fur and soft eyes. She had a demure manner.
- A lock of her fur remains in Ryuo's possession.
Referenced:
- Rakurai: A kirin, Rois's steed, physically fused to Rois from a wizard's spell.
- The emperor of Yamato. He was recently installed, and is working to take control of the government from the Shoguns.
- Mark: A male gendermorph, Michelle's husband, with whom he owns a tavern in Euper.
- Hough: A child morph, the Keep's Ecclesian priest.
Locations
- The winters of Metamor are (up to this point) cold but fairly mild; blizzards are rare and only last a day or so. The weather mages help manage the weather.
- Metamor's baths are located in the Lower Keep, adjoined to the gym. Their marble architecture is slightly out-of-place with the Keep's.
- The baths have a worn, slick tiled floor. There are alcoves in the wall for storing clothes. An archway to the side leads to the rest of the Keep.
- Michelle's tavern is near the heart of Euper, in what was once a stable and carriage house; the stables are still functional. The tavern serves authentic Yamato food.
- The back door of the inn has been modified to be as wide as the nearby cellar doors. They are only a little bit shorter than Rois. There is a long table near the door that matches Rois's height (and is likely especially for her).
- Near Rois's home (presumably in Yamato) are volcanic plains where she would ride Rakurai.
- The wild lands on the northernmost tip of Yamato are known for their barbarians, and for cold winters with snows deep enough to bury men.
- Otani's village lay in the mountains surrounding the Capital. They receive frequent snow in the winter.
- Ryuo's village was near a natural mineral hot spring, which smelled of sulfur but were believed to cure stress and illness.
Society
- Kirins move faster than any living normal horse.
- When Inari receive their second tails, they are considered adults.
- The Inari have secret paths they use without an illusion, the only safe way they can travel. Ryuo's clan was able to give him an illusion to travel outside.
- Among the Yamato-style foods served at Michelle's tavern are warm sake, strips of dried squid, and pickled fruit.
- In Yamato, foxes, especially Kitsune, are considered demonic. Inari, on the other hand, are thought of as messengers of the gods.
- Their religious texts include the Books of War and the Sayings of the Enlightened One. They write in illuminated scrolls with elaborate calligraphy and dioramas.
- Nodachi are longswords, but are too big and unwieldy for most people.
- The Sokuhara Shoguns have held control of Yamato's government since at least the late 690s.
- After Rois left Yamato in the late 690s, and before Ryuo left in the spring of 706 CR, there has been a new emperor of Yamato, who is trying to put his royal family back into power.
- There are rumors that the Fujina clan is secretly working to regain power.
- In Ryuo's village, snow is not cleared from the roads.
Chronology / Story Connections
- When Ryuo had one tail, he trained under Otani.
- Shortly after Ryuo and Aoi got their second tails, they fell in love.
- Ryuo and Rois last met in A Brief Introduction.
- Michelle's tavern has a new lock on it, out of recent concern for lack of security.
In-story timeline
- On the first day, the air is cold, and there is a light snowfall, which is apparently early for this time of year. The streets are fairly clear of snow, but there is an occasional snowpile and snowman.
- On the second day, Sindia is busy that morning, but is available to meet with Ryuo that afternoon. The kitchen is serving warm bread — a special occasion, or a usual occurrence?
- "Days later", the wind is howling outside. Ryuo is said to be studying long into the night.
