Dark Edge Village

((Expecting, but open!))



"Little troublesome one, if you've eaten someone's belongings your next life will be as a pair of boots... ah! Got you!" Several minutes of careful stalking are rewarded as Saksaha's hand closes on the end of a rope tether trailing from the collar of a small white goat. Busily chomping on some dandelions growing near the base of somebody's yurt, it either didn't notice her muttering to herself as she sneaked up on it, or--perhaps more likely--didn't care.

Saksaha loops the rope around her arm and somewhat belatedly looks around, hoping her performance wasn't too conspicuous.

Bantu had heard there were accomodations set up for the naga in this section of the camp, and so, trailing wisps of smoke from his pipe as he walked, he came out here to see if any of the creatures had arrived to the miai.

Instead he found a different, less exotic creature, a goat, being apparently led around like a pet by Unicorn woman. He offered the woman a bow, having arrived too late to observe her efforts to catch the creature and smiled as he rose.

"I am Soshi Bantu, I apologize if I've interrupted the walking of your pet."

Udo had been meditating outside of his yurt when the exclamation of "got you!" broke him out of his thoughts. He opened his eyes to see a woman capturing a goat, and a few moments later a Scorpion walk up to her and introduce himself.

Altogether, the scene was odd in a fun way, and Udo had always enjoyed goats.

Getting himself up, he also approached the two.

Kaizen burst out his yurt hand at his hip ready to draw steel. The exasperated shout directed at a potential enemy had his full attention. However it was not as expected. The perpetrator was apparently a goat of all things...

Slightly blushing the young Shiba bowed placing his hands to either side, "Ah, good day to you."

Ah, crap. There were witnesses. A lot of them.

Her cheeks coloring somewhat, Saksaha adjusts her grip on the rope and bows to the three men. "Good afternoon. I am sorry if I disturbed all of you." And, oh how I hope this little wretch hasn't gotten in to your travel rations, or any such thing...

The goat keeps chewing, unperturbed.

Bantu offered the two emerging individuals a bow of greeting as well, pulling his pipe out of his mouth before speaking.

"It seems that we owe this impromptu meeting to this scraggly creature. Does he have a name?" Bantu asks Saksaha.

Udo bows to each of them but decides to begin the conversation with silence.

The young Phoenix felt the fool and realized he had not offered his name. Rather than correct that oversight and interrupt what apparently was a budding conversation he remained aside like much scenery. He found the opportunity to check his clothing and pick at it in a few places that had gotten jostled in his rush to action. So much like the Dragon he found silence a good starting point, though likely for differing reasons.

"She is Fiyanggu," Saksaha says, still flushing a bit. And she is not scraggly! The little goat looks up briefly at the sound of its name, then almost seems to shrug when no snacks or other instructions are forthcoming. "It means, um, 'the littlest one.' She used to be smaller," she explains, unprompted.

She stands there awkwardly for another moment before realizing that at least one of the three guests had given her his name, and she really ought to reciprocate. "And I am Iuchi Saksaha, a shugenja of the Unicorn." She pronounces the word shugenja just fine, but with a careful emphasis that might suggest it's not the term she's most accustomed to using.

Kaizen in his enthusiastic way says to all present, "I am Shiba Kaizen a yojimbo of the Phoenix Clan. I apologize for my overreaction Iuchi-san." Having never seen a goat this close, especially as a samurai's pet his curiosity was piqued. He tried saying the name quietly to himself, "Flianguru.." The word didn't even sound right to him..

"This one is Togashi Udo, and it is a pleasure to meet you all."

Knowing how badly he would likely butcher the name, Bantu doesn't even try to address the goat. HE smiles at the two Northerners and introduces himself to them, as he previously had to Saksaha, but with a little more detail.

"Soshi Bantu, Scorpion Clan graduate of the Shiro no Uragiru dojo."

Before turning his attention back to the Unicorn with a definite curiosity in his unhidden eyes.

"I was of the understanding that your clan didn't number shugenja amongst yourselves? That your approach to the mystical arts was...different than our priests?"

"I see no need for you to apologize, Shiba-san," Saksaha says to Kaizen with a small but friendly smile, which she also turns on Udo when he introduces himself. Now, if you had cut up my good milch goat with that sword of yours, we might have words. But no harm done.

She stiffens a little in the face of Bantu's curiosity. "The forms may be different, but the spirit is not. We serve the spiritual needs of our people in the same way as your shugenja do, even if our rituals are not all the same."

"Better to follow the current, wherever the river may lead, then to try to row a boat on land," Udo says with a smile. "It makes sense to change for changing circumstance."

Now this was a discussion Kaizen could find interesting. While he did not speak to the kami his Clan was known for their mastery of the elements. The Shiba knew little, but of course found it fascinating. The returned Ki-Rin may have learned much away from the Empire and Kaizen for one was enjoying learning even the smallest fraction so far. "Apologies, different in what way?" Kaizen also wondered how tame the goat was. The Iuchi seemed to care for her pet, but the fact of escape and the thick rope implied an attitude of disobedience.

Kaizen considered the Ise Zumi's words and pondered that nodding.