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The rest of the trip is somber... the salors say something of I'll omens, more ships have vanished in the last year...
The ship arrives in Minos the next day. You are greeted by half-minotaur salors, and a few humans. They give you directions the the Red horn tavern, where the lodgeing is cheep. Other than that, directions are given to a spring to clean yourselves, however the equipment stores are all made for people the size of minotaur.
The locals aren't particularly threatening... mostly. A few eye the centaur, but are quite talkative with the fawn. You soon learn of the ruins near the center of the island.
Before Cantion makes his way to the spring, the fawn takes advantage of a few talkative minotaurs to ask more about them, like favorite alcoholic beverages, leanings on worship, and other general information.
Being a traditional greek, Patroclus looks a bit confused about the notion of cleaning up at a spring. "Do you have some amphoras of olive oil and a scraper? then he cleans up in the classic greek fashion of rubbing oil into his skin and scraping off the excess.
Nessius takes the glares in stride, after all, he was a powerful warrior of his breed in another species' territory. However, he is grateful he was, after all the cleaning equipment was for larger folk like him. Long handled hair brushes were a godsent gift.
His equipment all set-aside, he will carefully step into the spring without a care about his nudity. "Ah... very nice." he sighs. "Been a while since I was able to scrub down properly..."
Titaia thanked those who pointed them to the inn and in turn the spring. Her time on the ship, plus the unexpected combat, had left the Amazonian sorceress a bit on edge. Though she never would admit that small fact. She saw that hear equipment was properly stored and folded her clothes up neatly, placing them atop her bag, before sinking into the spring waters.
"This reminds me a bit of home..." She commented to herself as she slid a bit further into the waters till only her head was visable.
Kandoo left the ship in his usual silence and followed the others. He was impressed with everything he was seeing - as much as the secular samsaran had walked many lands, the pleasure of letting himself be surprised by a different visage is something he always struggled to never let go.
Once things are stored and organized, he goes to the springs as well. Coming from the arid deserts of Egypt, such places were like the true legendary oasis. For a moment he almost felt like a child playing in a pool, even though his movements were few and discreet. With closed eyes, he enjoyed each second of his bath.
I walk up to Cantion and ask
"Would you like to go for a drink before our next adventure?"
Patroclus will find a place to practice his fighting before he gets to bed early in anticipation of tomorrow's adventure.
After talking with some minotaurs, Cantion is approached by Marcus of all people.
"Would you like to go for a drink before our next adventure?"
The fawn is surprised, always thought paladins were all tsai-tottlers. Although he had thoughts of taking a bath with Titaia, the cleric of Bacchus knows unexpected drinking companions can often be the best kind.
Slapping the paladin on his back, Cantion beams, "Why, of course, Marcus! What a lovely idea! I'd be happy to!"|
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the springs aren't very solotude... several minotaur and their kin lounge about. Those kind enough to listen to Cantion memtion sweet mead, and even offer him a horn filled with it. The mead is strangely sweet, rather than the standard mead. When asked they say it's made with cider from local apples.
Titaia kept to her friends, though she did not come off rude if any of the locals spoke to her.
She looked from Kandoo to Nessius and offered a small smile. "This was not what I expected honestly. I figured we'd carry put this mission and return home. But I must say I some what enjoy this." She informed them as she moved back to rest against the side of the spring. "You know we don't really know much about each other, even upon the ship ride over we spoke little. Anyone wish to share? Or shall I go first?" Titaia asked.
"I'll go first." Nessius says from the center of the spring, where he's laid his equine quarters down to get the most submersion. From above the surface of the water, he appears to just be an absurdly muscled warrior.
"My clan travels nomadically, so I don't have a set home. I was foaled and able to run quickly, so I've been running and fighting all my life. My family raised me to be a striker, and hit our enemies in glorious combat!"
"Last year we hosted a joust between all the centaur clans. An Olympic challenge between warriors, only the greatest of our warriors would be allowed to visit the oracle." Nessius winks. "I won."
Titaia gave Nessius a smile as she raised an eyebrow at him slightly. "My mother and sisters would love to meet you. Pitty." Titaia said as she shifted slightly.
"Myself, I'm the middle child of five. Two sisters before me, each from different fathers, and each almost a full head taller then myself. Then I have two younger brother, they have the same father however. Mother kept him around still trying for a daughter. However none of their fathers are my sire. Mother never named my father to me, and with my build I doubt he was of Amazonian birth." Titaia informed them with a sigh. "Tis not uncommon among my kin do not name the fathers. Especially if the child was not conceived upon the island. Though I do find it odd... my mother has named all the other sires of my siblings but mine. Have always wondered why." She said as she stared into the water.
She quickly forced herself back to the story at hand and continued. "My mother is General Maphili, so when I was very young I was being groomed to be a warrior just like my sisters. But upon my tenth name day the power within my blood awakened and all that grooming was thrown away." She said with a some what sad sigh. "Mother sent my away after that... to be schooled with those who had my talents." She leaned foreword, resting her chin upon her hands. "Needless to say they teachings bored me so upon reaching the age of which we are allowed to leave unescorted I left my home, with my mother's permission mind you, and a strong... urm... suggestion to see the Oracle." She laughed before adding "It was also hinted that if I was to return I should do so as my mother did, a child in toe."
The cleric and the paladin make their way into Red Horn Tavern. The fawn orders two hard ciders and passed one to Marcus. Before both men drink, Cantion prayed a blessing over the mugs, invoking Bacchus's favor.
I sit down with Cantion, & thank him for the drink. I make a smal prayer to Jupiter before drinking my ale.
I say to Cantion
"Thanks for going out to drink with me. It's been a while since I've gotten to go out for a drink. The Priests of Jupiter don't like drinking. I just don't get it. The gods drink all the time."
"Really?, questions Cantion."I would have not figured clerics of The King of The Gods to be tsai-tottlers. Glad you got free of their yoke."
The fawn takes another cool drink of hard cider. "So, Marcus, what brought you to the oracle again?"
"I'm an ambassador from Jupiter. Not really sure why though. Figured the Oracle would get messages from Jupiter occasionally anyway." Marcus says as he continues drinking. "Say, I wasn't here to hear why you came to the ORacel. Mind if you could tell me?"
You are all fairly impressive! - says Kandoo, slowly - I thank the gods for my chance of being amongst such living legends.
The words of the Samsaran, even if exaggerated, feel sincere.
I'm a wanderer from the far lands of Osiris. I lived many lives, but as much as these eyes saw, none of them were noticeable... Although all lives are, in their own, special. - he paused - My previous lives were those of small farmers and hunters, and I'm not much different in this matter. However, the goddess Neith shined a path in front of me.
His finger tapped slowly in the water and moved, forming a line against the small waves his own body were producing.
You see, all lives, humans, samsarans... Centaurs... Even animals and insects, they all matter on the fabric of that we call our journey. We're all together in a mystical, great hunt for something. For some, it might be riches, for others, it might be power, or revenge, or knowledge. At the end of the day, we're all moving on such hunt, even if we're not aware of it.
He stopped with his drawings.
Neith showed me, in my dreams, that my hunt should cross the waters from my sandy lands to your beautiful green ones, and there I ended on that same temple as you, hearing to those strange words.
Patroclus continues his beauty sleep.
"Say, I wasn't here to hear why you came to the ORacel. Mind if you could tell me?"
The fawn holds up his cup of hard cider and points. "Through this..well, not this particular cup, per say, but through the medium of alcohol, I was contacted by Lord Bacchus himself, in a drunken quasi-state of being, and commanded me to visit the Oracle the next morning. And so, with great personal hardship, I arrived at the doors of the oracle, and received the blessings inside."
As if any other beings were listening nearby, Cantion does several bows in his chair, listening to adulation only he can hear."So, young Marcus", asked the cleric in an expansive manner, "what did you do for fun, over there, with the clerics of Jupiter? Any sports? Lightning catching, perchance?"
"No lightning catching. That would have been fun though. We just sat around and wrote scrolls all day. That, and praying."
"Poor bastard", says Cantion, shaking his head.
"No worries, Marcus, you're with me now", the fawn says, as he thumps the paladin on the shoulder. "Stick with me, and I have you drowning in wine, maidens and adventure, and not necessarily in that order."
The cleric then seeks to gain the attention of the bartender to indicate they want two more ciders.
"Glad to be here. I'll pay for this round."
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The bartender huffs, the halfminotaur a runt, big as a human and nearly indistinguishable save for his ugly face and horns. "So, yer here on the word of the Oracle? Don't that mean that there's somethin' here? Some powerful monster?" He asks. "Say, there be word oh a powerful monster under the castle ruins... the father oh my kin. The great minotaur himself. The Child of Minos. However he might be dead, given the thousands and thousands of years he been down there... leagend says it's a labyrinth...
Seeing no need for subterfuge, Cantion speaks truthfully. "I believe that it, friend."
The fawn offers the half-minotaur a seat. "Any more information you can share would be greatly appreciated. But..I can understand if you can't or don't want to", ponders the cleric aloud. "Would the inhabitants of Minos be upset if we killed..as you said, 'the Father of your Kin?"
"Well aren't we an interesting bunch!" Titaia said with a small laugh. "I wonder if the others have such interesting tales. I mean after all I'm sitting here with a man who walked thought the barren deserts and another whom is the best warrior his tribe has to offer."
With that she looked around the bath house and commented. "Does anyone know where our new friends are? I mean I know Patroclus wasn't too keen on coming and joining us, but what of Cantion and Marcus?" She wondered aloud.
I wouldn't be surprised if our fawn companion had sought... Refreshments... On the city. - said the Samsaran, smiling - Well, not that it condemns him. His spirit is clearly colorful.
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the bartender shrugs, "to be honest, I don't think you can kill 'em, given how old he is. Creation of Apollo I think... sacred cows and such. when the king had the best Bull kept for himself, and gave Apollo second best, the god felt insulted and ah... well you know the gods...' the man shivers and shakes his head.
Cantion holds his hands up and away from the bartender, "We know. We know.."
"Yet", the fawn continues, "despite coming into the world as a curse of the Gods, the Minotaur's progency have no only survived, but thrived, in an almost straight defiance of The Gods."
Feeling a little tipsy due to the hard cider, the cleric pulls out his chair and stands on it, in a oratory fashion.
"No other race", Cantion expounds in a loud voice, as if to address the whole bar, "can say that they collective pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps, and instead of just being another cautionary tale of defiling the Gods than the minotaurs!! Through their own industry and determination, minotaurs have become a naval and world power unto their own, and for that", hiccups Cantion, "I salute you!!"
And with that, the fawn empties his cup, and sits down once again, to what he hopes is a round of applause.
"I would bet the tavern. It's been a few minutes since cantion last had a drink." Nessius suggests jokingly. Scrubbing his flanks with a long handled brush, he sighs.
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Titaia gave a small laugh, she had to agree that was the most likely place. She stood, and made her way closer to Nessuis. "Here let me help." Titaia said as she held out her hand for the brush. "Unless that is an insult to your kind? I must admit I am unsure."
Nessius holds out the brush. "Not at all." he says. "Helping get each other clean is a communal task."
Titaia took the brush from him and set to work as she would if she was cleaning her sister's horse. Working with the flow of the hair and putting enough pressure to get anything deep in the hair out. "Back home, family mostly does this." She explained as she worked. "Though it's normally only while one is young. When I was only in my sixth year my eldest sister would help me bathe. She always said that she'd have to drag me in and hold my waist with her legs as she washed my hair." She smiled at the memory before continuing. "Though the brother Who came after me was the opposite! You had to drag him out of the water."
"Heh." Nessius replies. "Many of us as foals avoided water until we were forced into it. Then, it would be hard to get us to leave!" he soaps up his hair and rinses it with a bucket. "Of course, the adults drove off the water predators first. No sense in risking a foal to a crocodile or serpent."
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Kandoo just kept his silence, now, and gave space so Titaia and Nessius could chat more privately. Swiftly he moved to leave, still delighted for the clean water - one of the rarest commodities where he was from. He muttered a prayer for Neith, then went to have his rest.
"The waters around my home, at least those we use to bathe in, are far too warm for snakes to use and we have no crocodiles to worry about. Most of our danger is within the forest around us. Large cats and the like." She explained as she moved around him to work on the other side. "There are snake our there however. But they often leave you alone if you are careful. We had a wolf problem when I was in my nineth year but it was quickly taken care of." She smirked, remembering her eldest sister had been apart of that. She looked around and saw that Kandoo was gone and gave a small sign. "It seems another vanished. Was it something I said?" She wondered.
Nessius looks around. Other than natives, they seemed to be the only two of the group remaining. "Have we been here too long?" he asks, standing, his equine portion displacing large volumes of water.
He blinks, staring into space for a moment, thinking of the conversation... "You don't... think... ?" he asks, "They were... giving us privacy?" He blows air out his nose, the action surprisingly horselike."Ridiculous!"
Titaia couldn't help but laugh. "If it is so ridiculous, why do you seem upset at the thought?" She questioned as she raised an eyebrow. She set the brush aside, finished with her work, and set about taking care of her hair. "It may have been that he didn't feel he had more to add or that he was finished." She stated as she slowly ran her fingers through her hair, making sure to work the soaps thoroughly into her hair. When she had finished that she leaned just so that her hair fell into the water and began to work the soaps out. "Besides even if you where correct is, my company so poor?" She asked as she straightened up quickly, flicking her hair back.
Nessius shakes his mane of hair. "Of course not. You are a great warrior, good company, and... quite pleasing to the eye."He gives her a slightly flushed smile. "Not used to considering the beauty of races not my own."
"Flatterer." Titaia stated with a smirk as she turned her attention back to herself to finish her bathing. "Tis an odd statement for you to make. After all was it not but upon the docks and the Oracle's city you said you where not interested in me?" She questioned him without even turning to look at him, but kept her attention on finishing her bath.
"I said that you were quite beautiful. I did not say I wished to breed with you." he replies, his eyebrows knitting together for a moment as he straightened out his thoughts. "There is a difference. A very significant one. Now, if you had a good set of flanks and shapely hooves..." he gives her a joking wink.
Titaia laughed as she rinsed off. "There is magic for that you know." She joked as she got out of the spring, picking up the cloth she had brought to dry herself off with. She focused mainly on her hair with it as she continued. "Besides, you said it yourself, centaur males with human females don't produce children. Be a crime to waist your time." She stated before she wrapped herself in the cloth, the air finally getting to her. "I'm going to dress and see about getting a good dinner for the evening, then lodging. Maybe even see about finding the rest of our merry little group."
He gives her a nod. "It takes me a while to dry off, I'll catch up."
She offered him a nod in return before heading out to get dressed and gather her things. Once she finished dressing, she made for the Red horn tavern to get dinner and a room.
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The bartender sighs at the Fawn's words. Look, it be the grace of Apollo we even live. Then it is by his will we thrive. So let's keep it down... besides we are hardly a city state if at all a world power..." the bartender snorts, waving when the others arive. Hello, you must be the others this Fawn here came with... he chuckles, gladly giving you rooms for a cheap price, although for Nessius he doesn't have a suitable room but he does offer a spot in the stables.
"I hope our.... companions haven't been giving you too much of a headache hmm?" Titaia asked with a smirk as she took a seat next to Cantion and Marcus. "I figured you'd come and join us in the springs, but Kandoo and Nessius did point out that Cantion would more then likely go looking for a drink first." She smirked.
"Not so", Cantion confided, "believe it or not, the drinks were Marcus's idea. Although now that I know the paladin a little better, I'm not surprised. Those clerics of Zeus he was formally associated with kept denying themselves of Bacchus's blessings. Lucky for him", continued Cantion, with a little slap on the shoulder to Marcus, "the Fates saw fit for the paladin to have an adherent of The Wine God onhand, to ease him into this important step in his life."
"By the Gods, I am so amazingly humble," grinned the fawn.
"They serve a nice hard cider here. It's quite refreshing."
"Cantion, one who is humble does not say, "I am so amazingly humble." That just shows how proud you are in truth." Titaia pointed out as she ordered a drink from their tavern keeper before looking to the paladin. "I would think Zeus's own would drink a bit more. But then again, mayhap not." She gave a small shrug as she leaned on the bar. "Well I'm sure it wasn't a hard argument on your part."
"His clerics never drink, but I do plenty." He says this as he waves for another drink.