The war between Clans. Cheeky X Stakie

[Stakie]

A jungle filled with mystery. A war breaking out between clans, most unsure as to why they are fighting. A few adventurers take up the task as to find out why. A need for this seemingly senseless war to stop! We'll do it one way or another.

[Cheeky Stoat]

The river water was particularly murky that morning as the merboy hunted through the river reeds with nothing but the sharp claws at the end of his webbed hands. He didn't need sight to navigate the rivers of the jungle, the sensitive fins that covered his body did that. To hunt, all the young merfolk needed was to taste the water that flowed downstream as he breathed. Jaetyn was small, lithe and athletic, typical of his kind. The fresh water rivers of this tropical location didn't offer much space to those who grew to be too large. What little skin he had on his face and stomach was ghostly pale, the scales black with bright green accenting them.

He hunted almost lazily, already satisfied from the fish he'd caught earlier but reluctant to return to his home yet. At 8 years, he was nearly full grown and ready to begin his rites into manhood, already many of his friends had completed that journey yet he waited. Jaetyn knew he was ready and if chafed at him that his father held him back. The merboy swore that it was because his father just didn't want to let him go but it wasn't fair to the would-be merman. Angrily he lashed out at the reeds nearby, tearing their stalks before instantly regretting his rash actions. It wasn't the fault of the reeds that he waited, they too were only just trying to live.

Looking up to the surface and the bright world up there the boy drifted with the current toward home. A large rainfall had ended not long before, which was why the river was so murky, and the sun shone brightly in this area of the forest. Cautiously, and maybe a little rebelliously, Jaetyn swam up to break the surface and look around. The fins on his face furled out boldly, as if challenging an enemy to think it could take him on. The world up here had always looked so strange, and the two or three times he'd travelled on the earth with his family had always felt so restrictive. There was no up and down in that world, you were trapped with your body on the ground (almost like going from 3D to 2D). There was no reason for him to be on the earth but he'd never done it on his own before...but men and women did it all the time, and was he not past ready to be a man?

Determination, if nothing else, took the merboy to shore where he began the humiliating process of dragging himself up out of the water, there was nothing graceful about the process until his whole body rested on the bank. He almost changed his mind as he waited for the changes to take place. His parents had always warned him that this was where the merfolk were most vulnerable, on land between changes, but Jaetyn's determination to prove his manliness got him here and stubbornness kept him.

[Stakie]

Boe was traveling south from her homelands and in need to fill her canteen for the trip ahead. From afar she was easily spotted and identified as a northerner. Her bright white and blue armour setting aside any doubt of where she was from. A quiver and bow strapped across her back and a small tiara combed the front of her oddly coloured hair. The purple locks in disarray as they fell to her shoulders.

The small binturong knelt next to the river, her canteen submerged. Her ears turning this way and that as she gathered the water. Once she was done she turned to look around. It was quite the scene, one she had to mentally take in and store. She snapped the canteen in place and stretched, ready to be on her way.