Avishraa Reloaded

It became clear, after the fact, that a more direct route to Ndzwachik might have been possible had Ta'skaaru been given directions by… well, someone else who could fly. Or, possibly, someone who could point, since its general location was in fact visible from not too far outside the inn.

Then again, the indirect route allowed a series of short flights around the rim of the Embrace, whereas the direct route had none; Ndzwachik was not straight up, and the direct route would have taken her over what was, for all Ta'skaaru knew, effectively a bottomless pit.

The bottomlessness of it was reinforced by the fact that their destination was, in fact, built into - more accurately, onto - the side of a titanic stalactite. There were… things growing from the stalactite's side, something like trees, though they didn't look like any wood that ever grew in a forest; and on top of these had been built platforms and little huts and tents. It all looked ingenious, but rickety.

Ta'skaaru landed carefully on one of the larger platforms, trying in the process not to collide with any of the small batlike things that were apparently the local inhabitants; they swarmed around excitably, screeching greetings.

~I don't think they get many visitors,~ Ehiphem commented, when it managed to pull itself out of its flight-induced euphoria. It had really enjoyed experiencing flight, though it had made things aerodynamically problematic. ~Even that Mailman must have a job getting here.~

The layout of the cavern made for interesting and abrupt vertical currents that had made flying less nice for Ta'skaaru than it would have been at home, where the air was almost always still. But it had been a pleasant surprise when a gust came from below, giving her a brief fright, then a happy thrill at the pleasant boost buoying her flight.

She nodded greetings to the inhabitants, unsure whether they could guess it was acknowledgement or not, but hardly able to think of a way to convey her polite appreciation any other way. She was rather large for the environment, and folded her wings back tightly, hunching herself down slightly, as not to take up too much space that others might be using.

'Do you know who we can ask about Kilnijush's delivery?' she subvocalised to Ehiphem. 'I'm not sure where to go from here.'

The strangeness of the inhabitants didn't seem to bother her at all, interestingly enough, but that resonated with what Ehiphem knew about her past. The world she'd come from had quite a few strange creatures and equally strange cultures, and while she was firmly introverted, her position meant that she had to deal with all kinds of pilgrims.

These bat-like sophonts were less strange to her than The Mailman had been, but there were more of them, and so the anxiety of harming or insulting one inadvertently was higher.

~We're trying to find out,~ Ehiphem said, ~but they all want to talk at once.~

Which was consistent with what Ta'skaaru could hear. The creatures seemed friendly but highly-strung, and even the ones that had calmed down enough to land had gathered around her and were babbling in high, squeaky voices. Though she could not understand them, she found, somewhat to her surprise, that bits and pieces of the lingua franca that seemed to be in use in the Embrace were starting to come to her. Was Ehiphem's understanding starting to leak into her mind?

Finally, after a certain amount of internal squabbling, a number of them started beckoning her to follow, and then took off again, flapping their way around the curve of the stalactite. Following them, Ta'skaaru observed that the platform appeared to be some kind of marketplace. At its outer edge was placed an ancient piece of machinery of unclear function, long disused and fallen into disrepair.

~An old sky-dock, we think,~ Ehiphem commented as they came to land. ~The Vongassitil must once have been willing to trade here.~

It looked like it had to be the heaviest part of the platform by a good margin and she found herself sceptical of its structural integrity. No doubt someone smarter than her at construction had affixed it there, but she couldn't help but struggle with an instinct that, were she to land on that part of the platform, she might unbalance the whole thing and tear it down.

Thankfully, there was no need to go near it, even if she might have otherwise been interested in the contraption. 'What kind of dock needs that many moving parts?' she thought, but to Ehiphem it was clear that it was not a real question, more of an acknowledgement of surprise in question form.

In any case, the marketplace had space for creatures her size, but she still kept with a low, respectfully compact posture. It would have only taken one idle motion of one of her wings to badly strike down one of the inhabitants here, if both of them were to be inattentive. Best minimise the risk.

She followed the cluster of bats along the market platform, letting them lead her to what would hopefully be Kl!nju'tch's delivery. From all she'd understood, it had already been paid for and just needed to be moved, but she was emotionally prepared for complications.

The marketplace appeared to be part place for actual commerce and part warehouse for things that did not need to be immediately used. Ta'skaaru's excitable little hosts herded her toward a shed from which emanated a nasal cacophony of scents of a vaguely foodlike character. It was hard to tell, in the midst of them, whether any would be straightforwardly appealing to her, but they reminded her that she really did need to find something to eat at some point.

The shed was guarded by one of the bat-creatures, who was, by the standards of its own kind, presumably fairly big and strong, but still only came up to the level of Ta'skaaru's chest. It looked her up and down. <I don't remember seeing you before. Are you Kl!nju'tch's courier this time around?>

“Yes,” Ta'skaaru confirmed. “I'm new here and Kilnijush offered to shelter me for a while in exchange for some errands.” She remembered the trinket the innkeeper had given her and the instructions for its use, resting it in her upturned palm to trigger its effect, summoning the strange light as a kind of stand-in for Kl!nju'tch's signature.

The guardian relaxed, though, possibly for completeness' sake, it gently took the disc and briefly examined it before handing it back. <Fair enough. Come on in, then.> It opened up the shed, where various unidentifiable foodstuffs were piled in crates or baskets. It took a pack hanging by its straps from a peg on the wall, and began to shovel small bars of what seemed to be some kind of spiced dried meat into it.

<The old lizard says these are popular with ver customers,> the bat said conversationally, <but as impatient as ve gets for them, we've always thought that maybe they're personal treats. What parts are you from?>

“I don't know the names of the locations here yet, I only arrived recently,” Ta'skaaru apologised, but relayed the question to Ehiphem, who might have caught the name of the region with the inn from any one of its inhabitants earlier. “My world is similar to this one, but I really hope I can make it back, staying away too long might be dangerous.”

There was a sound of collective astonishment from the bats hovering outside the door, and the guardian gaped at her. <You came from outside? Rode an Orb? …did you leave it at Kl!nju'tch's?> it added, a bit nervously. (Ehiphem interjected that the inn was at a place called Kwiiek's Crossways.)

“Yes,” she said, with some nervousness of her own, complementary to that of her temporary host. She was trying not to pay too much attention to the things that were going into the bag, for all they looked like dried meat. But as much as her gut was trying to convince her it was the most important package in the history of packages, it seemed a bit underwhelming if snacks were all she was to get for Kl!nju'tch - not because she considered it a poor errand, but because he had made it sound rather more important. And heavy, for that matter. Maybe there was a second part to the package? Or maybe he had just been low-balling his estimate of what she'd be able to comfortably carry.