The Necklace-Tacita and Ayashii's First Meeting

== The Necklace ==
Tacita and Ayashii's first meeting
By Ami E. Bowen
"Mother, how do you know that I will even be compatiable with anyone there?" the young Draenei sighed, sitting on the edge of her bed with her mother, Khorah on one side. A scroll of archiac Draenei writing lay half-unrolled upon her lap and her finger marked her place, "I wish I didn't have to attend."
"Nonsense, my dove," her mother admonished, waggling a finger at her daughter, "Now, Tacita, you knew what would happen on your one hundreth summer."
Tacita nodded, laying the scroll away behind her on the bed and pulling her hooves up under the hemline of her simple gray frock. Wrapping her arms about her knees she looked at her mother, "I've known since I was sixty, Mother," she said, allowing a bit of sardonic human to leak through her voice, "I've heard the whispers passed between the young males and the looks given to certain females."
"Oh, you must pay no attention to that, Tacita," Khora laughed, the tip of her tail grazing her daughter's slightly in parental affection and reassurance, "You must go to your Rut Gathering with an open heart and a free mind, only then will your soul know who to choose."
"R-rut Gathering?" Tacita's dark featured paled slightly, "I...I've never heard it called...that...before..."
"Tacita," Khora giggled like a schoolgirl, "Don't tell me in all your years you've never heard...oh, but then you wouldn't. It's a nickname that was popular in my time and has mostly fallen out of favour."
"Good thing, too," Tacita nodded, "Or am I to believe that actual rutting goes on at these 'Rut Gatherings'?"
"No, no," Khora shook her head, "It is merely a...time and place for the oppunity of getting to know other Draenei your own age whose age of finding a lifemate grows near. Many Draenei family travel from all over Draenor to have their childen attend."
"I don't think I'm ready for a lifemate, Mother," Tacita said, her voice small and uncertain, "I'm...I'm scared..."
"Don't you know that is how every Draenei feel on the night of their own 'Mate-Finding Gathering'? You should have seen me, I was an utter mess. Your Grandmother Teerai was about to pull her horns from her head!"
"I miss Grandmother Teerai," Tacita said, almost to herself, "It is difficult to realize that she is gone. It doesn't seem real...does it?"
Khora's lips pressed together tightly and her tail lashed once...twice...before becoming still once more, "When she walked into that cave, my mother made her choice...as do we all. Something you will learn in time, my daughter, if you haven't all ready."
"I wonder why she had to, though," Tacita went on, her eyes taking on a far-away expression in her attempt to answer an unanswerable question about the past, "I wonder how she could have thought that entering an enemy dwelling could have been for the best..."
"Let us not talk of that, Tacita," Khora implored, "Please..." She knew her mother, Tacita's grandmother, had not been well for more than a few turnings of the seasons and that there had been a growing darkness that had been festering within the older Draenei woman's heart for far longer than the day on which she'd ended her life.
But, these were things to be discussed on another time, in another place and were still too raw to be shared openly with anyone, even her beloved child. Although, the memory of Teerai did remind her of something...something she had been meaning to give to Tacita on her one hundreth day of birth celebration, but the eve of her 'Mate-Finding Gathering' seemed apt enough.
"I have something for you, my daughter," Khora said, reaching into the neckline of her unbleached wool shirt, "Your Grandmother gave this to me..." She revealed a necklace strung with eight small green stones that seemed to catch the light of the small lamp burning in the corner of the room and sparkle dimly.
In the center of the small stones rested a large piece of light green jade that had been carved into the likeness of a doe's profile. Tacita was shocked at her mother's words. She was giving her the beautiful necklace which meant so much to her? The one bit of prettiness she allowed herself which she never, ever removed?
"...On the day of my own 'Mate-Finding Gathering'. It will aide you in your search."
Tacita raised her hands to ward her mother off and shook her head, "I...I can't take your necklace, Mother," she gasped, "It has been with you for...for...for I don't know how long! I couldn't accept it! I just couldn't!"
"You will take it, Tacita," Khora said sternly, grabbing her daughter's hands and forcing them into her lap while with the other she slipped the necklace, which had been strung using a length of thick leather rather than a metal chain, over Tacita's head and horns and around her neck. "Now, be silent, child and allow me explain how it will work..."
Tacita had listened to her mother's words but their meaning had been lost on her. She stood in the ancient copse, trees and brush years and years old, even older than the oldest Draenei, and at one hundred years she was young for a Draenei, grew up all around the edges of the grove.
The lowermost branches of trees had been strung with flickering lamps and fireflies, moths and other night insects buzzed, leaped and spun in mid-air around and about the decorations. There were round tables filled with treats of all flavour, colour and kind and musicians wandered to and fro playing everything from the soft and slow to the rollicking.
Draenei were everywhere. Tacita was amazed at how many showed up. Though, the older ones, she noticed, the parents and gaurdians, stood off to the side eyeing each other and sizing each other up silently. Thier children were, like Tacita herself, being slowly forced into the center of the copse, into mingling distace. Though Tacita had, for the most part, succeded in staying far into the background.
"All I want is to go home," she said to herself, "And finish translating those old scrolls..."
"Excuse me," a voice caught her attention as she leaned agianst the trunk of a tree, "Are you in the habit of talking to yourself?"
"Um, no..." Tacita turned to see a young male, about her age, with dark green-brown hair and a smile that could almost be called sly. Before she could turn from him again, he went on, "I myself never engage in anything so diplorable."
Well, good for you, she wanted to say, but kept her mouth closed. She was taking an instant dislike to the boy and crossed her arms over her small chest, lowering her horns dangerously to allow her feelings through. The boy didn't seem to notice.
"Why don't we get away from here," he said, grasping Tacita's upper arm and pulling her close, "You're reeking of pheromones, you know...I can smell your heat..."
The necklace resting against her collarbone under the neckline of the dark green and black dress she'd decided to wear remained still and unchanged. Whatever it was meant to do to help her find her lifemate wasn't happening now.
"Let me go!" Tacita jerked her arm away, "Leave me be, please." For the first time she regretted staying away from the center of the grove where everyone was, by now, dancing and talking loudly and excitedly as the music intermixed and grew louder.
"No female has ever refused me," he said, "But, perhaps we got off on the wrong hoof. Allow me to introduce myself. Aly'Qul Jeroi-Xxan'Zah," he said, bowing formally, adding, "Kondokry Kry'stal!" a Draenei blessing/greeting which meant roughly, "May your hooves never crack!"
Tacita didn't say anything. She wouldn't give the idiot the time of day. She turned away from him. "Do not ignore me!" he cried, sounding like a child about to have a tantrum, "Don't you ever turn your back to me unless you are ready to bare it for me!"
"How dare you!" Tacita cried, having never been spoken to in such a manner, much less from someone she'd never even met before. Was this what a 'Mate-Finding Gathering' was all about? She wondered, trying not to cry, being abused and humilated by boys like this? "Just go away and leave me be!"
"Not until you tell me your name," Aly'Qul sneered, lowering his own horns at her, an unspeakable sign of violence, a warning for her to do as she was told...or else. Tacita trembled slightly, taking a involuntary step backwards. For a male to harm a female in any way other than in the passion of a consenual mating was more than taboo among their people. "And I will decide if I still wish to...be with you."
Before she could do anything, he reached out and had his hand wrapped about her upper right arm once more, squeezing hard enough to hurt, "Your name?"
"Please...let me...be..." Tacita tried again, knowing she would have marks on her skin in the morning.
"Hey!" Both Tacita and Aly'Qul turned thier heads at the sound of the new voice, "Are your ears merely decorations on the sides of your ugly head or didn't you hear the young woman?"
"Mind your own business," Aly'Qul snapped at the newcomer, another female, this one a few inches taller than Tacita and built like she meant business. She wore thick leather armor which looked to have been crafted by a rather skilled Draenei leatherworker and carried a bow and quiver of arrows.
Her pale hair, the same wheat-colour as Tacita's own was pulled from her face by a thick band. Her tail swished back and forth behind her as she narrowed her eyes at Aly'Qul, "Let her go...now. Or I will be forced to make you let go."
The boy had two choices. He could either let Tacita go and be on his way or he could do something stupid. Guess which one he picked? Throwing back his head, Aly'Qul laughed mockingly, "This one is mine," he said, "Go find your own, Ph'eet'Hwher."
The silence that came between the three after the last word was spoken was epic and worthy of a whole story all on it's own. Tacita had never heard anyone openly call another by that...that insult. She could tell her rescurer wasn't sure, at first, it was evern directed at her. But, when she did, the silence was over.
It happened almost too quickly to follow. One moment the male was still holding onto Tacita's arm, the next he was sprawled head of tail in a thick sticker bush yowling like a cat whose paw had just been trampled on. The other female was rubbing one fist and wincing, "Why do they always have such hard heads?"
Tacita felt a warmth against her chest where the jade lay and looked down to see a faint green light glowing from under her clothing in the shape of a doe's profile. She looked up again and caught the other's eyes. "Is it supposed to do that?" she asked, pointing towards Tacita's chest, "Your...necklace I mean? It's glowing..."
"I think so," Tacita said, smiling for the first time since she'd arrived, several hours ago, "My name is Tacita Teerai-Khora," she said, bowing deeply, introducing herself in the formal way, which was her given name followed by the names of her mother and her mother's mother.
"Ayashii," the other female bowed as well, reciting her own family names softly, before stepping close, "He didn't hurt you, did he?" she asked, running a light finger over Tacita's upper arm, "I've delt with his kind before. They are always the same."
"I will be all right," Tacita said, holding her hand over Ayashii's, allowing a bit of healing power to flow though her fingers and wash over Ayashii's hand and into the skin and muscle of her arm, relieving the ache and the possiblity of any bruising by the next day, "Thanks to you,"
"Your necklace..." Ayashii said, instead of answering Tacita's gratefulness, "May I see it?"
"Of course," Tacita said, bringing it out from under her gown, "My mother gave it to me...she said it would help me...help me find a...a...lifemate..." she grew suddenly shy as her sentence came to an end, realising what the glowing and the warmth of the jade peice against her skin had meant.
Ayashii nodded, and lifted her left arm, pulling back the sleeve. She uncovered a bracelet that was different from Tacita's necklace in all ways but one.
"A piece of jade," Tacita said, "It's shaped like a..."
"My mother told me if was called a 'quill'," Ayashii said, "It is something the scholars use...to write with."
"Yes, I know," Tacita said, excitedly, "I have one at home..."
"Tacita," Ayashii said, "Mine feels warm..."
"It's glowing!" Tacita blinked at Ayashii's bracelet, at the glowing peice of quill-shaped jade, "As mine!"
"I think..." Ayashii began, knowing that they would be finishing the sentence together before the thought was even fully formed in both thier minds, "You are my lifemate."
Fin