A Diamond in the Rough [Social/Ani]

Droplets of the early sun's rays fall between the craggy peaks of the Jade Mountains, rescinding their shadows that envelope the lowly plateaus. Upon the sky, the blue gradient of dawn begin to encroach to send away night's bitter darkness.

Adamas, as was his morning tradition, had left the cabin at the first crack of dawn to run his daily 2 km— a feat he's performed countless times within his homeland. However, Kou has quickly proved to be far more unforgiving to this hopeless fighter; what was once a thoughtless routine has become a grueling trial of resolve. Jagged rocks prodded into his heels, the peaks forced his lithe legs to work harder than ever before, and the thinning atmosphere left his lungs starved and desperate for oxygen.

His shins would weep in agony, his feet would attempt to stall in protest, and his brain would warn of hazards to come in short glimpses of nothingness. Nevertheless, the boy weathered against his weak self. Step by step he ascended until finally he stood at the summit...

His eyes trace the mountain range while his mouth greedily drunk what little oxygen the air had to give. From on high, the quaint cottage of his Uncle could be seen, and so too could the daunting peaks which continue to loom over the him.

He still had much farther to go.

The cool whipping winds rolled down the peaks of the mountain as their howling filled the peaks around them making it seem as if someone was screaming into the early morning horizon. As the sun broke over the ridge its warmth blanketed the slope only to be occasionally broken by a whisp of wind. It was a standard day in the mountains and that made it a standard day for all those who claimed residence within the range.

For Ani, this day had also started off as usual as any other, before the sun had broke from the sky she hiked down the mountain to make it towards a spring found near a hidden ledge. While it proved to be a nice getaway for bathing she also went there for the bird that made its nest there. It was a golden crested horned owl, it was three meters in height with horns and feathers that were adorned with gold, but more importantly, its eggs made a wonderful breakfast. While at first, this had been apart of her workout path it had soon become a part of her daily habit and as she once again found herself leaving the spring after a nice bath she also left with breakfast in hand.

The hike up the mountain was a bit noisier with the sounds of animals that had woken up, but Ani had actually preferred this noisier nature as she listened to it on her walks as if it were music. Though after some time she heard a noise that clearly wasn't the sound of her favorite bird singing her a welcome home song. Instead, she heard the sounds of someone else nearby, someone who was hiking up the mountain. Her curiosity holding her captive led her down a different path towards the sound of the hiker.

As she rounded a corner she heard the sound to her left and her mental image of the world around her suddenly gave her a full map of the world that was around her. For Adamas this might've seemed like an odd addition to his work out as he would soon find someone rounding the corner from a path that wasn't quite visible yet. A two-meter tall woman dressed in partial military dress mixed with light armor had suddenly appeared looking off into the distance before her head would suddenly snap to look at him. If he looked closely into the dullness of her eyes he would see vision disconnected from the world, yet she obviously knew where he was.

"You know usually all I expect to find on this mountain is dinner, but it looks like I found a nice surprise this time." Ani spoke with confidence as she faced him, unable to look him in the eye she still faced him showing she knew where he was and that she was indeed talking to him. While she knew a random blind woman appearing from nowhere and noticing you might seem suspicious she kept her calm and addressed him further. "Pray tell, what brings you to my part of the mountain?"

A fire filled the young lads throat as he labored to regain his breath. It seemed the cold air favored him little, for the admixture it concocted in his lungs only served to further to pain him. This incident, of course, was when the blue-haired Amazon made herself known. Whether she had meant to or not, her approach was stealthy— or at least seemed that way to an addled brain.

Exhausted by his own ordeals, quite a good bit slipped his clumsy gaze. Her psuedo-military outfit, for example, should have stoked more inquiry from him along with her vacant eyes, yet precise "view" of him she had maintained.

No, what struck him most odd was her use of possessives. This was her part of the mountain? Who was she then? And why had his Uncle neglect to tell them of her. Through raspy interjections of his oxygen-starved lips, his words spoke with a fermented uncertainty. "I, uh, was just, uh, taking— taking a run... Working out, you know." His fingers fidget as he attempted some bumbling gesture of acknowledgement that failed to pass the his neurological toll posts. "Umm, I— who... are you?"

While Ani couldn't quite see the boy she was starting to get a grasp on his general size and age from his voice, though she was really only guessing as best she could from her newly trained senses. It was only recently that she had developed a method or a technique better to call it to in order to see by vaguely sensing her surroundings using sound and other vibrations. That was her purpose for being in the mountains truly, to flex this sense of hers.

However, it seemed she had found something more interesting as she listened to the confusion of the boy and his excuse of exercise. With a soft chuckle, Ani had turned and sat down on a rock facing away from him, but responding soon enough. "Didn't your mother ever teach you to give your name before asking?"

Though she had played stoically at first Ani couldn't hold the face for long and started to laugh before continuing. "The names Ani, I'm the leader of the Azure Raiders, we're an independent mercenary corps with a fort in this mountain and this area around it is our territory." Ani didn't seem worried to be giving out this information, in fact, it seemed like she was bragging about it a bit.

"Now, I have two questions for you, who are you?" She paused for a moment between her second question as her striking blue hair hid her face for a moment. Finally, she pulled a waterskin out from her bag and held it out in his direction as she still looked away from him, with a soft smirk on his face. "Are ya thirsty, kid?"

The youth's head had spurned at least half a dozen dizzy thoughts, most of which contained his breath that had been forced into gridlock along the airways. Included among the regulations that strapped his throat was a ban on words and even syllables, for the cold teasing of his newfound acquaintance made his chords swell with misunderstanding. He thought her frustrated with his curt questionnaire; and, though he tried to quell such an outcome, his tongue flickered like a lit candle in a blizzard, errant and futile.

Only in her jolly chuckle did he grasp truly how futile his fumbled, choked words were because her frustration was never there. The bafflement that felled his tongue could only be told in the rosy hue that captured his cheeks. Solomon had not played him, but Ani certainly had. In the knee-jerk was a flare of anger, of resentment, which ultimately fell to the wayside from her jest by rows of embarrassment. In contempt and in manners, the boy hesitantly gave his name, "Adamas... Adamas Regas"

In return, she gave him an offer: a cup to quench that unruly burning. An ace tucked in her sleeve to prune that ill-will. Sapphire orbs eyed the gesture in doubt, for he was already a fool once and needn't anymore reminders. Ultimately, he'd reach for her waterskin with a cautious hand. "Uh— yeah... If you don't mind..."

The waterskin would part from her hand quickly and she would step back after he had taken it, and unlike the first time, it was a genuine act as it was indeed freshwater that the woman had gotten from a spring along her path. It still tasted fresh even and with the minerals from the spring, it would likely parch the thirst he had from his workout.

"Don't worry I may like to have fun, but I wouldn't harm a boy for no reason." Ani would let him get his fill before she would wait for him to offer it back and take it for herself. "This is a great place to train, I often use it myself, tell me, why are you out here training though, why are you training?"

Ani smiled as she would soon enough pull out some more rations from her bag, a trail mix and some jerky, perfect food for a hike and exercise through the mountain, she was seemingly prepared as she gave her final sentiment before receiving answers. "I find plenty in these mountains, what were you seeking?"

While she spouted her questions, Adamas would partake in Ani's charity.

A gulp... then another... then another— and soon enough, what was meant to be just one sip became a gluttonous frenzy for life as his scorched throat propelled him to drink deeper from the cup. By the time he managed to pull his greedy lips from the waterskin, its contents rapidly reduced to half-full (or half-empty— pessimism pending), and his lungs begged for pure oxygen. So, it moved, from greedily consuming the gift of a stranger, to greedily consuming the gift of nature— indicating his brains inability to properly prioritize his needs. Nonetheless, he'd regain his breathe; and, in tow, an appropriate amount of blush for his shameless display. Sapphire eyes looked to the waterskin then to Ani then back to the waterskin then back to Ani— at least forming a triple take as the full weight of his stupidity began to press down on his psyche.

"I... Here you go," his pass back was remarkably speedy, must be the extra blood pumping. However, in exchange, his eye failed to stay on the mercenary, and instead turned to some undescriptive jag on the mountain face. At least, the prior exposure of his foolishness made his following answer easier to form. "To get..." A hopeless sigh interjected his words, but Adamas carried on sharing his childish fantasy. "This sounds silly. but... I want to get strong. That's why I came here with my Uncle... and his protégé."

His ending words formed fast and lightly to express reality in half truths.

As she shared her water with the boy and she relaxed against the rocks she would let out a deep breath that seemed to follow the world itself as the breeze of the cool mountain tickled at her cheeks. With her ears tuned towards the shy boy, she could hear as he sighed and changed his pitch. It all fell on her ears as she took another long sip with her thoughts on his answer as if it were deeper than it was.

"Y'know a blind woman has better hearing, right?" She said knowing it might've embarrassed him, but in her eyes there was no reason for him to be especially to a woman who had spent her life doing so even before she knew she sought it. "There's nothing wrong with wanting to get strong, and it doesn't matter what brought you here, what matters is your resolve."

It was then that the woman pulled out a second waterskin, but this one was not filled with water but instead something a bit more, enticing for the relaxing woman. As she uncorked it and let the sweet red wine pour from its container straight into her maw the woman seemed to drink until there was nothing more left to drink. With a body as large as hers and a weight as hefty as hers, the Imuchakk had no fear of getting wasted as this was nothing more than a drop into a larger river that was her blood. With a long sigh that brought back the wind with it, she put her skin away as she once again turned to face the young man a poem spurting from her lips as if it were the well of wisdom she had just consumed to nothing.

"I am the goats I am the tree's
I am the Land, Sky, and Sea
Look here and look there,
check everywhere you see
look close and look far
and everywhere inbetween
that's where you'll find me
I am everything and nothing
I am your last dream."

With her poem done the mercenary would look upon him with blind, empty eyes as the muse of nature fell away with the creativity she had spurted within the moment. "Strength is the path everything follows, even if it doesn't seem like it, so tell me, how strong do you want to be?"

The flush of the dawn beat red on his cheeks as Ani flaunted her superior hearing. Though his mouth on swift work to scrap up some undignified retort, he quickly shut such moronic proceedings as: "I didn't see you were blind," would probably confer an eternity of munitions for the blue-haired giant to wield. So, he kept quiet and listened as she did speak, though at times her words came as a lost to him. However, none struck him quite so dumb like her final question— which admittedly was abundantly simplistic, yet he struggled all the same. His arms crossed and his mind withdrew to quantify a goal that had not once been thought of in measure.

"Strong enough to beat everyone up." No, that sounded too cliche to say. "Strong enough to earn his Uncle's respect!" No, that sounds too embarrassing to say. "Strong enough to pummel my junior into the dirt!" NOW THAT JUST SOUNDS RUDE!

Those sapphire orbs beamed open as if they bore witness to freshly struck Gold. "I... want to be strong enough to leave an impact. He stepped forward and around Ani to the cliff face his eyes were constantly glued to. With a clenched fist, he'd make light contact with its hardened and rough exterior before turning back to Ani. "I want to be strong enough to punch through this."

Ah, so it was Fool's Gold he struck; a fact which he awoke to like the rising dawn— messy and delayed. His look, which had just shone with brilliant commitment was now covered in a sweltering realization he had just spoken the absurd. "W-well maybe not like, uh, m-mountain, but like— uhm— a boulder? A boulder... N-no that's still s-silly doesn't it?"

When Adamas started spoke Ani followed his words, literally and metaphorically as she hung onto every word and would walk and pace to the areas she heard his speaking come from. The answer, the stutter, and the correction fell on her ears as a smirk would crack across her lips as she heard what she wanted to. With a sharp turn on her heel, Ani would take a deep breath and face the mountain as she took a firm step forward.

"No your first answer was perfect, you should always strive for the impossible. For every time you fail you get closer to what you reach for, if you never want to reach the higher peaks you will not get there." Her lips parted at the end of the statement, pursed as she took a deep breath the cold air of the mountains filling her lungs. "One time someone showed me the kind of power I never knew existed, and I reached for it a total of three times, and I desperately failed the first two times, but then."

"BRANDISH, GAMIGAN." As she spoke those words an earring fell from her ears and glow brightly, transforming into massive metal arms which were even taller than the amazonian woman that stood there. Its gilded fingers curled up into a tight fist as the right fist frosted over like the tips of the mountains around them, and the left began to glow a deep heated orange before they flew forward. With a thunderous blow, the freezing cold and blistering heat collapsed on one another in a grandiose explosion as earth shattered in front of both of them.

"I finally took that power at the cost of my sight, but every, single day, I keep, pushing, FORWARD!" Her words were punctuated with her fists as they would pummel forward, her feet shifting as she twirled her body backhanding the powerful fist into the same point she kept beating into. "Every day, another task, I fall and I get back up, I win effortlessly, I find a harder challenge."

With a final punch she would throw the fists down at her side the dust flying off as she turned around from her target, she couldn't see it but as she turned around Adamas would see as the water from the earth pooled where the rock had once been and spring was now formed. "If you follow me I will give you the hand, the support you need to get that impossible strength."

Weapon Equip:

Magoi: 280/290

How does an ant describe man? An entity over 750 times larger than itself. An entity with a pool of knowledge too incrompeble for its lesser to conceptualize. An entity so mighty by compare the simple act of breathing is a hazard to the meager bug. Man and God is in much the same way, and so too is Adamas to Ani.

He is a fresh-faced man, still young— still full of childish notions and ambitions. The might of magics— of Djinns— the way the earth shuddered under hand and fist— lest a not speak of her wisdom— everything was... everything was too much. The pill Ani had offered was too large to swallow, so his merely hung agape in disbelief.

No, he was not a Man who found a God, but an ant who stumbled upon divinity.

"I-uh." He stuttered for once without a hint of shame. "Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhh." Globs of sweat began to run across his brow, an impressive feat given the frigid temperment of the mountains.

"Can... can I take... take this home and... sit on it? Please?" Ah, there's the shame, the unhinged embarrassment he had made a bed fellow with— thankfully, it seemed to make him more endearing than a nuisance, or so the audience behind the fourth wall had informed — I mean, ahem.

"I-I know its really, really silly and I should clambering for this chance with you— Imeanlearnfromyou—" breathe Adamas, breathe! "But I came to Kou to learn martials arts and to learn them from my uncle. Not to learn whatever absurd, cool and amazing spectacle that was..." The boy huffed in discontent. His brain was all hot and bothered by the workout, it was not fit to finesse a response to infinitely greater beings than himself.

"I... I suppose your offer just feels... feels like I'm cheeting, in a way... God, do I just constantly sound silly?" He leaved little room to respond, or even breathe. "I'm sorry, ignore that. I just," another breath vents the heat tainting his cheeks red granting his thoughts some leeway. "I would just like time to think it over," a wary sapphires meets her glassy opal. "Is that, okay?"

Ani almost wanted to begin laughing once again as she heard the bashfulness that he was feeling, but also the assumptions that he was making. However, more importantly, the earnest feelings he was sharing with her made him seem more like the perfect student for her. Her large hand, cold at first from the air and then warm as the callouses gave way to supple muscle as she gave him a pat on the cheek and then rested it on his shoulder. She wasn't able to look him in the eyes as she might've wished, but she felt a moment of earnest intimacy was necessary to establish this bond if she truly wanted to teach this boy. Her djinn equip fell aside and there stood a mortal, a mother, a blind woman, and someone who had turned herself and everything around her into monsters.

"As you should, I've learned martial arts from the slaves of Heliohapt, from the various fighters of reim, and Kou where I spent my most my time I learned how to take the fundamentals taught to me by others and apply them to the styles taught to me by my master." She said remembering the man fondly, her words matching her feelings and the moment as she continued speaking. "He taught at a dojo where people came to learn to wield weapons, but his personal style called long arm was all about how the weapon was just an extension of the body and every bit and piece of both should be used to their potential."

She reached and squeezed an invisible spear with her free hand, one that only existed in her mind but she knew that her point could still be made even if she couldn't make another show for Adamas. "He paired people with weapons that he thought worked best for them, he had more than you could ever imagine, but because of him I developed my own style."

With her sentiment about her own master, she decided that was enough to share with him, if he accepted her offer then she would be able to show off her style to him some more. Sure, there was how she used her spear but more importantly to her how she incorporated movement and power together. If he was capable and willing she would make him the first to learn her Primal Dance and prove her sentiment that race did not matter that it was the individual did. With this, she let go of his shoulder and would turn back on the path she was on beforehand.

"Learn from as many people as you can Adamas, and as few as you deem." She said with a soft little chuckle and a wave off, as she started to walk off, although slowly as she wished to finish out her conversation with the boy.. "If you'd like to add me to that list there's plenty I can teach you depending on your interests, but if you're interested in seeing what skills I developed to earn this power through trial and error over three dungeons then my settlement isn't far from here if you follow this path."