Wolves of the Steppe

Alaqa Qulaan's lips instantly turned to a deep frown of frustration at the answer, beginning to argue when the man once again cut her short. "Say what you will, but words are worth even less than than sack of metal, yeah? You either come up with something more to sweeten the deal or piss off." Her mouth snapped shut and her cheeks began to darken, ever so slightly, in indignant anger. But she knew there was little use in arguing, and even less coin in her pockets to make up the difference. But..

"This is all I have for now, but if you ferry me across the sea to Kugane, there are others of my tribe there waiting to cross. Others with coin. See me across now and I'll see that my debt is paid twice over when I return." She would just worry about where to get said coin later. "I swear it on my honor as a Qulaan."

Bujeg Qulaan stepped forward quickly, even as the hyur was beginning to frown and open his mouth again to deny her passage, holding out his hand between them, "Hold, hold." He gives the hyur an adamant look, which steams the hyur before ultimately he shrugs and turns back to his work, "Whatever you say, Bujeg. If you want to take responsibility for her, I wash my hands of this." Nodding, the Xaela peers down at Alaqa before gesturing towards the shore.

Alaqa Qulaan was prepared for a fight as soon as she sees the annoyed look on the hyur's face, but the wind is knocked from her sails the second that the other Xaela -- she had been so engrossed in her negotiating that she hadn't even noticed him -- steps between them. Compounded by confusion when the other not only stops the argument but speaks for her, she wasn't quite sure what to say or to think. She gave him a guarded look but nodded in turn, starting to head back to the shore -- but stopped and first took a couple back steps to snatch the heavy bag right back up over her shoulder. Now.. to the shore.

Bujeg Qulaan: "You. You said you were Qulaan. This cannot possibly be."

Alaqa Qulaan's normally calm mood, as still as the waters of Azim Khaat on a windless day, had still not returned after the confrontation. Once she stopped behind him and he spoke, she was instantly on the defensive. "I said I am Qulaan because I -am- Qulaan, and there are others waiting there--" She lifted a hand to gesture impatiently in the direction of Kugane. Or the direction she thought it was, at least. "--for me to return so that they may cross the sea to return home, no thanks to your criminal of a friend."

Bujeg Qulaan's face turns from a calm control to a snarl beneath the mask, which his hand then snaps up to to remove, staring back at her with his golden eyes, "And I say it is not possible, because -I- am Qulaan, and I saw my people get slaughtered by the Legion. I only survived my wounds because the Nem Khaal river swept my body out to this sea." He leans down to put his face close to hers, studying her. Squinting, trying to recognize her.

Alaqa Qulaan's slowly bubbling temper suddenly went dead at that, expression instantly turning from fire to ice as he snatched off the mask and claimed to be one of them. She tensed when he was suddenly in her face studying her, leaning back just a touch, but she studied him in return all the same. He seemed familiar, but almost all of her memories of the tribe were like looking at blurred old photographs now. It was hard to recall their faces, harder still to recall their names. But the other pirate had used his. Bujeg. Her brow furrowed then as she desperately tried to grab onto a decade-old memory. "There are others that survived," she admittedly quietly. "Not.. many. But there are."

Bujeg Qulaan leans back and crosses his arms, letting the wooden mask fall and clatter to the dock. "... I can't imagine... There was so much blood. My father's blood, the khan's blood.. -My- blood.."

Alaqa Qulaan flinches visibly at the mention of the khan, unable to help herself. Ten years and still the sight of her father dying on a hopeless battlefield was still far too raw of a memory, ever an open wound. "I remember.." she murmured, trying to pull her mind back from the past when it suddenly hit her. She perked then, a spark of recognition in her eyes. "Bujeg the Dzo-wrestler!" she exclaimed suddenly and abruptly. "Yes? My mind does not trick me?"

Bujeg Qulaan looks at Alaqa Qulaan in shock!

Bujeg Qulaan: "Yes... Yes, that's me... So long ago that was."

Bujeg Qulaan: "But you... you I can't...."

Alaqa Qulaan seems relieved at the confirmation and not the least offended at his own lack of recognition. "Alaqa," she answered him, the next part slightly more hesitant. "Daughter of Oyuun Khan."

Bujeg Qulaan his mouth was agape then, as he peered at her, eyes searching her face, "... Cha--" And then she said her name, and at his near misnaming, he grimaces… And her sister, no less.

Alaqa Qulaan flinches at that, however, though she at least tries her best to mask the discomfort with a downwards glance and a cough. "It is good that you are here," she answers, if not a bit stiffly. "That is, perhaps not.. -here-, specifically. But that you survived. I am glad."

Bujeg Qulaan nods, "I am... I am glad others survived. I thought myself alone in doing so." After a moment of pause and a hand coming up to scratch his chin scales, his eyes go wide and he drops to a knee. "If you live, then you must now be Alaqa Khatun.. Balanai be praised."

Bujeg Qulaan kneels before Alaqa Qulaan.

Alaqa Qulaan nodded along with the sentiment, knowing full well the feeling. There was likely not a single one among their tribe that didn't, in truth. But as he suddenly dropped to a knee, her eyes widened in mild surprise. "N-no, that is.." With the shift in topic, she was now acutely -- and awkwardly -- aware of the heavy sack slung over her shoulder. She cleared her throat. "Our khatun is Saraghul, though I do not know if you knew her. She was the daughter of our udgan, Subetei. I only advise her now."

Bujeg Qulaan tilts his head to the side as he rises. "Saraghul... Yes, I recall her... We were.. near the same age... As were you and I, I believe... I recall hoping that she ended up my hunting partner at one point.. though it did not come to be."

Alaqa Qulaan seems like, for a moment, she might say something but ultimately decides against it, her lips pressing shut as she nodded her head. "She has grown and learned much in the time since our tribe was scattered. I am confident that she will be a good leader to us."

Bujeg Qulaan gazes upon Alaqa Qulaan in deep reflection.

Bujeg Qulaan: "If you believe so... I would meet her. If I can."

Alaqa Qulaan nods and, finally, even a hint of a smile comes back to her lips. "Yes, you can. You can meet her and the others, few as they may be. As I told the hyur before, the tribe is looking to return to the steppe and many still lie on the other side of the Ruby Sea." She paused, glancing back across the shore towards the hyur, then back to Bujeg. "Though in truth.. I apparently haven't the means to pay the Tithe myself, much less for an entire tribe. This is.. an unexpected challenge."

Bujeg Qulaan: "Your bag seems heavier than most I see pay with... What lies inside if it is not heavy with gil?"

Alaqa Qulaan stumbles at the question, making a face as she opens her mouth to try to explain. But words failing her, she chose instead to simply shuffle the bag from her shoulder and hold it out from him to take. "I would.. appreciate that you speak naught of this to the others," she murmurs. "It is hard to explain." If he took the bag and opened it, it would perhaps make sense -- not only why she did not wish to speak of it, but why the value of the contents had dropped in the wake of Doma's liberation. Inside were numerous bits and baubles of Imperial make -- small firearms, a limited supply of munitions, small pieces of magitek. Things that once had value when they had to be taken from Imperial corpses, but now could be found comparatively easier since they had fled the land or been put to the sword and left their belongings behind.

Bujeg Qulaan squints into the bag, before his eyes go wide and he urges her to close it. "... I see. I will take it to Tansui. I will cover the rest of the Tithe in Gyuki hides and meat. But when next you cross, you will need the gil our people claim to have in the other side. Wait here."

Alaqa Qulaan bobs her head in a nod at the instructions and heaves a soft sigh of relief. The problem, of course, would be coming up with such a sum of coin for the crossing. But that was a problem she could worry about once she reached Kugane. For now, she was simply relieved to have the means to cross -- and warmed by the rediscovery of yet another survivor of the Massacre, besides.