[D1 LA] Taking the horse out

[Iuchi Dong-Ha]

"Ay, City of Sorcerers. Never seen it myself, though. Stories say that Iuchi-shiryo stole their secrets and based on their powers, developed what we now call meishodo, the way of the names of creation. Our magic." Dong-Ha brushed one of the several trinkets dangling from his robes. "Stories say he barely escaped with his life, and that the sorcerers were immortal." He tried to explain. "As for the giant birds, I have only ever seen few, from far away luckily. Rocs they call them, beyond the mountains. Big enough to lift a horse from the ground, and ever hungry."

[Matsu Yurio]

"Immortal sorr-cerr-roars? Sounds like something of the South."

He shook his head in annoyance and swayed slightly on the horse.

"These birds actually exist?"

His Akodo trained brain immediately began to think of their effect on a battle and how to neutralise them.

[Iuchi Dong-Ha]

"North from here, anyway." Iuchi shrugged. "Stories I've head´rd don't go into further details, they only detail Iuchi-shiryo's hardships and his discoveries. Perhaps for a reason." Immortality had never been popular among the samurai. "Aye, they do. There is a vast desert... a vast plain of sand... and nothing but sand north from here. Mile after mile nothing but sand and sand hills. Well, I guess there are some mountains too. So, the rocs, as the birds are called nest on the mountains, hunting for goats, camels and sometimes... humans. They say that their feathers are made from steel and their beaks can split man in half." One of Dong-Ha's hands made a cutting motion over his abdomen.

[Matsu Yurio]

"We not allow such a thing to exist here if they are such a threat. They would be hunted and put down."

He gave a sidelong glance.

"I am not familiar with the term Karr-mell either. Some variety of goat perhaps?"

[Iuchi Dong-Ha]

"There aren't many of them left, I guess." The tone made it obvious he had no idea why the Dahabi had not eradicated the Rocs. "And they live on steep mountains so, you'd need lots of people who can climb well. Or who have enough flying carpets."

"Ca-mel is a beach much like horse, almost as tall as Poppy, though slower and more wobbly. They have a bumps on their backs." Dong-Ha took time to draw two mounds in the air. "Though some have only one. Strange creatures, they can go for days without drinking. The Dahabi, the people of the sands, say that the camels have waterskins under their skin, where the mounds are."

[Matsu Yurio]

Well it made sense to carry extra water in a desert, but the karr-mells sounded like very strange creatures indeed, and a flying karr-pett must be another form of large bird so no need to ask about that.

"I assume they are impossible to ride then if they have a hump where I am sitting now. Much better to have horses."

[Iuchi Dong-Ha]

"Well, with the ones with two lumps, you can kinda sit between them. With the ones that have one lump... it gets more tricky. But yes, they are more beasts of burden than actual steeds." More vague hand gestures were used to detail the uses of the strange animals.

"Think you can manage the reins?" Dong-Ha offered them to the Lion. "Just don't try to gallop.."

[Matsu Yurio]

"This is hardly the setting for a cavalry charge, Iuchi-san. I believe I will be fine."

He took the offered reins with a slight smirk, not considering at all what the lack of stirrups would mean for his ride.

[Iuchi Dong-Ha]

"True enough." Dong-Ha nodded. "Poppy's a good horse. She got me out alive from the Dark Ride. Couldn't ask for more." A hint of sadness sneaked into the man's voice as he mentioned the Unicorn's journey home. Meanwhile Poppy, uncaring that stranger hold her reins, kept her steady pace. She was used carrying sleeping and comatose riders after all.

"So, how are things in Lion lands?"

[Matsu Yurio]

They plodded along while Yurio dredged his memory for the very few riding lessons he'd had. Well, it couldn't be that hard to pick up quickly, could it?

"Orderly and well maintained. As we have the biggest standing army in the Empire there are very few miscreants and brigands that would dare challenge our authority to administer those lands in the name of the Emperor."

He totally and utterly didn't say a word about the taint blasted ruin of Shiro Akodo.

[Iuchi Dong-Ha]

"That's good." Well, unless the large army meat that the Lion were planning to take back their former lands. "Such people are everywhere, and they all have their reasons." Not like the sands didn't have its rebels. Someone was always unhappy about the current rule. "They'd behead all the brigands they caught. That kinda discourages people picking up the profession."

[Matsu Yurio]

"Brigands here face the same fate. Their souls sent to Meido and no doubt an even lower return to the Celestial Order once Emma-O has passed judgement."

[Iuchi Dong-Ha]

"As it should be." Dong-Ha muttered quietly. "Though that probably doesn't apply to the brigands back where I come from. No kami, no Fortunes. Their souls... go to meet their own gods."

[Matsu Yurio]

Yurio chose to ignore even the notion that the Unicorn were gaijin. Just spacially challenged Rokugani, as lost wouldn't do either.

"They are not part of the Celestial Order and deserving of whatever fate they meet."

[Iuchi Dong-Ha]

"I guess." he shrugged. The idea that some were lesser because they had different parents didn't sit well with a man who had seen all the riches.. and the poverty in foreign lands. Yet he deemed the topic perhaps too radical for the occasion. "You mentioned you have ridden a horse few times. is that common among the Lion? For what I've understood most samurai don't have horses of their own."