1. Adenah Thorgint: An Eye for an Eye

The story of Adenah being send out to do her Rite of Adulthood, it was my excuse to be gone for a few days in rp and decided to actually make the story just as I did for Sharyssa. Adenah is the recently returned daughter of Faralan Thorgint, born and raised in Hellfire where he was stationed back then.

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It was getting dark and a warm breeze caressed Adenah's naked skin while she was sitting ontop of a small hill. looking around the plains of Arathi. She had to narrow her eyes alot to be able to glance into the distance, the view before her blurred and unclear. The young woman shakes her head once with a deep sigh, her eyesight annoying her beyond imagination, It had been limiting her in many situations and this was one of them.
She had left Stromgarde a few days ago to complete her Rite of Adulthood and had been getting lost in the unknown lands ever since. Without a clue where to go or how she'd manage this.
As a Honour Hold Battlemage she had learned alot in war, knew how to survive but she had always been relying on her magical skills, right now she was unarmed and naked. Aside from the loincloth around her waist she wasn't protected, almost as naked as the day she had been born.

Despite the complete unfamiliar area and the new experience she found herself in she managed to remain calm, keeping her position upon the hill without much movement. Her eyes darted around occasionally to keep a small overview on her surroundings. The sun slowly dissapeared behind the hills and eventually the last ray of light vanished, leaving the lands covered in darkness with only the stars and the moons granting her some light.
With the darkness surrounding her she began to feel more at ease, the shadows made it easier for her to notice things in the distance because right now everything looked the same to her. Barely any colour and the blurred shade's in the distance all alike. Everything a black mass of shadows, nothing else.

A calm smile appeared on Adenah's face when she leaned down to rest her chin onto of her arms that had been wrapped around her tugged up knees. She didn't have to worry at all, so far things hadn't been too dangerous and she had confidence in her own skills, Afterall her mother was with her, just as Pa' had said, From the Halls she was keeping an eye out, and she'd make her mother proud, The woman who had taught her in the ways of the arcane, who raised her in almost impossible circumstances in Hellfire together with her father, Adenah had always looked up to her and admired her strenght,
Soothed by the night she allowed her mind to wander back to the days of her childhood. The rare occasions that they could have a “normal” life for only a short period of time, Purposly she avoided to think of the day that her mother had sacrificed her life to keep Ade out of harms way. Saving her daughters life at the cost of her own.

A soft rustling sound woke Adenah out of her memories, slowly opening her eyes again only to look straight into the large yellow eyes of an Owl that was now sitting before her. Both of them remained motionless and barely blinked, Animal and human just staring eachother in the eyes and it was then that Adenah felt how much they were alike,
Patiently Adenah did not move a single muscle, accepting the obvious challenge of staring back at the Owl without risking to scare it away by a sudden movement. The animal appeared to “think” the same and remained on it's spot while the minutes and then the hours passed. A sudden thrill would fill the young woman with a burst of realisation of what was occuring. Her Rite-animal had shown itself and she had to prove her worth to it. The only question remaining was: How?

Time kept passing, and eventually the sun rose once more, Bright rays of light shining down upon the duo and reflecting on the smooth and soft feathers of the magnificent Owl, The sight made Adenah smile, the beauty of the creature touched her deep inside, filled her with a strong feeling of connection and bonding. Differently from what she'd have expected the Owl remained even during the day and neither of them ever shifted or adjusted their position.
Ade's muscles felt stiff and sore but she held on, stubbornly refusing to be the first to give up. She did not even pay attention to her rumbling stomach or her dry throat, more time was needed for her to actually feel starvation or dehydration. They had found eachother and she wouldn't be the one breaking the connection and losing the one and only animal that she felt was the one representing who she was, who she had become or will be.
She lost track of time, sitting on the small hill somewhere in the far end corners of the Arathi Highlands, far away from Stromgarde and her family that she had recently found again.
Only the setting sun was a sign of the time that kept passing on, day changing into another dark night, and still both of them sat there and stared eachother into the eyes. One pair of bright glowing yellow eyes and one pair a soft glowing brown with a hint of light-blue. Even with her young age, the girls gaze reflected wisdom and knowledge, a lifetime of experiences uncommon to the years she had lived.

The cold of the night didn't affect Adenah, her calm and determined mind blocked out the uncomfortable feelings that were the result of her unchanged position for so many hours. The night passed again, another day starting when the sun rose high above the hilltops. It felt warm upon her skin and muscles, almost soothing and keeping her comfortable enough to endure even longer, long enough for yet another night.
She was tired, her eyes only small slits from the effort to keep them open but yet she did. No she would not give in to her exhaustion, not just yet. But it wasn't needed to hold on longer, the Owl didn't need day after day to have realised that it had found it's match, it had found his equal in the young woman before him.
The great Owl tilted his head and closed his eyes, breaking the eyecontact first and with that ending the challenge, Ade reacted with closing her own eyes and giving the animal a brief bow of her head respectfully, knowing her gesture would be understood as she felt it to be appropiate.
However she didn't know what she had to do next, had the Owl submitted or had she only just proven herself in the first of a series of tests. Yet once again the animal reacted as if had felt the questions that popped into her head. While spreading his large wings the Owl flew up into the sky above her head, making one single circle before it landed on her arms, his claws digging into her soft skin painfully. She didn't flinch and endured the pain, the weight of the animal heavy upon her arms as she slowly moved to outstretch her legs before her and slowly lower her arms untill their eyes were at the same level again.

Slowly breathing in deep and controlled inhales Adenah just waited for it to make the next move, her patience unending and unwavering during these tests of “endurance”, it didn't take long before the Owl hopped down from her arm, planting the long and sharp tallons onto the stone beside her legs. What happened next appeared surreal to her for a brief moment when she watched the grand animal lower his head and onto her lap in surrender while letting forth a low and encouraging hoot towards the young woman.
Only then, when she moved both hands to let her fingers wrap around the soft feathery neck of the owl she could feel the adrenaline rushing inside her, a slight nervousness causing her fingers to shake and tremble.
“Is this what you desire?” She asked in a low and almost whispered voice, uncertain if she was about to do the correct thing. The Owl uttered another sound, the volume louder then before and despite it feeling unrealistic she felt as if she could hear a certain respect and a slight hint of a command in the sound of it.
It was enough for her and with a quick nod her fingers tightened around the small and almost fragile neck. With a loud -snap- it was over, the owl remained lifeless in her lap with Adenah staring down at it in awe, letting one hand stroke over the feathers she had admired each day that the sun reflected light upon them.

She felt no regret at all, it all felt right to her, all she had to do now was decide which part of the slain animal she'd bring with her. But such question was easily answered when she rose to her feet with the Owl in her arms which she placed down into the grass at the foot of the hill. It's eyes were closed almost as if asleep. It was what she had felt first, the very first similarity she had recognised between herself and the animal, Both of them were at a dissadvantage with their eyes somehow. She didn't feel like pressing her fingers behind the eyes to remove them from the head, it didn't feel like the right thing to do, so instead she placed one hand onto the torso, close to the neck. Her other hand turning the head around once more, repeating it before suddenly pulling and tearing apart the skin and muscles to remove the head from the body.
Blood spilled down into the grass, colouring it a bright crimson and Adenah had to gasp for air, overwhelmed with the feelings of realizing what is the right thing to do, as if something else was guiding her.
But there was ... Her mother, the Ancestors and now .. the Owl. They were showing her the path she had to walk, watching her, helping her.
All made so much more sense now, everything felt right as she turned around with the head craddled in her arms against her naked chest. She even knew which way to go to return to Stromgarde and her family.

It was a really great read, I can't really say it needed more nor less, it was just where it should be, this story.

I really like it, Mich! Good job. ^^

Cheers ^_^ Glad you liked it.

Coming hot off the heels of my statement that I'd be off to bed, I figured I'd give this a quick read first. Grand stuff, Ade!

I really like reading the different ways that people write their rites; Adenah's was so introspective, almost gentle as she bonded with the owl, and it made a neat change! A good read -nod-