#ocnar

Tezuli paused, recalling all her mentor had spoken on. "He’s the Loa of storms.. he grants shadow hunters the blessing of lightning.. Da’ae says he scatters bone dust when it rains as a way of honoring him."

Ocnar raised his head up some, looking towards the sky, though his eyes were closed. “Indeed. Continue speaking. What is a representation of him?"

Tezuli wasn't prepared for questions like this; her knowledge had been picked dry already. A part of her began to worry - what if he refused to move forward, or thought she wasn't worth it? That she didn't truly want it? Even if she was now reduced to guessing, it was better than nothing. “... Lightning..? Rain?”

Ocnar’s eyes peeled open, and he turned to face her. “The feline’s roar, the grace. It is through Shango’s Mayhem, through his wild actions, that he brings.. what..”

“... Thunderstorms? The thunder and lightning, isn’t it?”

Ocnar reached his hand out to grab onto her ear, pulling it down some. He kept a firm grip. “Use your mind. Thunderstorms are dangerous. They can bring destruction. But also bring rain. As such, mayhem brings..."

The wheels in her mind began to turn. Even in the worst thunderstorms and typhoons, the greatest and most powerful hurricanes, there was rain. And after the rain fell...

"Growth?"

“Good. There is a sway to everything. It is through such mayhem and madness that new life can be born from the proverbial ashes...” His eyes narrowed. “The great feline has sharp claws, and razor teeth, but promotes a balance with Lukou to bring the rain...” He clicked his teeth. “Tell me some objects that could honor Shango.”

“.. Appreciating mayhem.. bone dust scattered in a storm, maintaining balance..”

Ocnar’s hand on her ear suddenly sent out an electrified charge. “Think outside of the walls that you believe to be in place.” He hissed. “If you were alone, not guided, what are things you would cast into Shango’s Maw.”

Tezuli gave a brief yelp, instinctively trying to pull her ear away from the charge. “I.. I’m not sure. Blood, bones.. trophies picked from enemies.. whatever it was he requested.” She wracked her brain. “A live sacrifice, perhaps..?”

Ocnar narrowed his eyes further. “Think... conductive metal, the natural prey of felines, shells from the sea, where all Shango’s rain goes...” He trailed off, “As such, pull from the basket. There is a blue jar.”

Tezuli nodded slowly in understanding, her ear still stinging from the charge as she pulled the basket in front of her, setting it down and fishing out the blue jar the Chief requested. An odd object, no doubt - she tilted her head curiously, wondering what it's use was.

Ocnar flicked his hand out to her. “Start stripping... not nude... but get the armor off. Leave the mask.” He commanded. By now the sky was heavy in dark clouds, small specks of rain tapping down occasionally.

The young shade blinked-- what. She glanced up at the clouds, then back down at the paint jar, but complied. Slowly, she began removing the nonessential pieces of her armor; boots, gauntlets, bracers, bow, spaulders, until she stood as dressed down as she could be, only her leg armor, harness, and mask remaining. As she dressed down, Ocnar spoke, informing her of the paints origins and causing her to again look into the jar. Made from herbs, shells... it certainly was a striking color. She was no artist, but she appreciate the effort required to make such a paint.

“Once you are stripped, I want you to start painting marks to Shango on yourself. Were you taught such emblems?”

Tez shook her head at his question. “Da’ae never mentioned emblems, no..”

“I see..” He chuckled, grabbing the paint from her. He tore off the top and dipped his fingertips into it. Carefully he started to paint a long lightning bolt down her arm. “Of course lightning is a bold icon of him... one that is recognizable.”

The two passed questions and answers back and forth as Tezuli watched him draw the bolt of lightning over her arm, down to her fingertips, pausing to write Shango's Zandali mark in her collarbone. It was a relief to her to know that the symbols need only be legible, not precise. That the important thing was to capture the soul of the sigil, what she felt was right. That she could do.

As Ocnar finished drawing the symbols along her arms, he instructed her to begin tracing over the runes behind him in bone ash. She glanced behind him at the charred circle, daring to ask what the emblems on her meant.

"... Conductor.." Was all he said as she began to work.

A strange feeling settled in her gut. Lightning, conductive metal, emblems that meant 'conductor'... somehow, she had a hunch of what was to come, and it made her nervous. She began tracing the runes as Ocnar spoke once more.

"Has Da'ae explained to you the trials? And what it entails for you?"

Tezuli moved around the circle, tracing another quadrant. “.. He did, back on the Isles, but.. most of what he’s said I can’t remember..” Her ears fanned down. “I’m sure it involves... a lot of hard work, though. And dedication.” At least, she expected it to.

“You are to ask for each of the loa to look down upon you and deem you worthy... Once you start down this path, there is no turning back. You either become a shadow hunter, or you fail and die... Or perhaps live with no loa that accepts you... Tonight, you will o longer look to your past Loa, tonight, you may earn Shango’s eye upon you. Now, is your last moment to turn back.”

Tezuli finished the next quadrant, moving around again as she listened. Her eyes were set in a determined stare at the runes and she shook her head. “I’m not turning back. What the Loa will, they will.. an’ may it be done.” She nodded.

Ocnar smirked lightly at this. “Very well... when you finish, sit in the center of the ring...”

The rain pounded down around the two now, falling in heavy sheets. It was almost as though Shango were commanding this storm himself-- quite likely he was. Tezuli continued to trace the last of the runes before glancing over them all. Giving a satisfied nod, she moved into the center and slowly took a seat, holding a meditative posture.

Ocnar stepped back some. “Turn, look out into the sky... Ask Shango for the chance... Ask him for his eye to fall upon you...”

Tezuli glanced over at Ocnar before breathing in and looking skyward. Letting the rain fall on her face, she let her eyes fall shut as she blocked out the world and prayed. “Shango... I come here before ya as earth to be molded.. I pray that ya deem me worthy  of ya blessing, of ya eye. My hands will be ya tools, my being ya vessel. I surrender myself to ya now, an’ may ya will be carried out.”

The sky continued to pour rain down on the two, yet no change came. The thunder boomed, the sky roiled, but no sparks flew between the clouds.

Still she prayed. “Ya are the mayhem that brings about growth.. without ya, there is stagnation. Be the mayhem that forces me to grow, this is my prayer.” Her brows knit in focus. She’d sit here all night if she had to.

The clouds rolled ominously above, rain still falling in heavy sheets that threatened to smear or smudge the runes on the ground and her skin. It was then a heavy bolt shot down and hit her, the impact jarring in its own, her vision starting to black out.

Her whole body lurched at the force of the bolt, her eyes shooting open in a momentary mix of fear and pain before her vision not-so-slowly started to fade. She forced her eyes to close again, mouthing what looked like, ‘I will not fail ya.’

As she lost consciousness, though, a sound reached her ears. Faint, but just audible enough to catch her attention.

A growl.

Not just any growl, though.. a feline growl. Her breathing hitched in her throat, a sense of awe and hope washing over her as she collapsed to the ground.

Coming to slowly, she could barely understand Ocnar's words, the whole of them sounding entirely underwater. When she did manage to open her eyes, she had a hard time focusing the two Chiefs before her into one image, and though she could speak, her own words didn't make much sense to her. She knew it was Zandali, but her head still spun. In the midst of it all, though, she did manage to fully understand one phrase:

"You survived, Shango is now watching over you..."

The two traded a few more words  before the Chief finally left her to pray, to appreciate what she was becoming and truly understand the hurdle she crossed. She settled down, and the feeling of awe once again washed over her. Once in a while, she swore she heard a faint, nearly-inaudible growl, and the hair on the back of her neck raised.

Her past was the first to come, and with it, pain. She saw her home go up in flames, other Shatterspear fall to the ground broken and bloody. She saw the shock in her mother's lifeless eyes, keeled over her loom. She felt her brother pull her away to safety. As they fled, she saw her father fall, pierced by a ranger's arrow. As her brother urged her to run, she felt the fear of being absolutely alone, and the past slowly began to muddle into black.

The present was the next to come, the sharp pangs fading to a dull ache. She saw Zul'Gurub, she saw the clan. Her friends, her family, all those she'd spent time around. She felt a fire growing in her gut, a ferocity and determination to protect them. She refused to let what happened in Darkshore happen to these people, her family. Whether she still blamed herself for the loss of her first home mattered little; this was her home, and Loa have mercy on any soul who dared to harm them.

Tezuli's ears fanned down sharply as the future came to her, her expression twisting slightly. What had all been so clear before was nothing but blood red. The fire in her heart was slowly stamped out, replaced by dread and fear, and the ache she felt as she grieved the loss of her parents. She heard a familiar laugh, twisted into something dark and horrid that she'd only heard before in nightmares. Her fists clenched and she tensed before jerking sharply awake, just about rolling off Da'ae as she brought a hand to her mouth.

All she knew was pain. Pain in her gut, pain in her head, pain everywhere. It was as though her head had been clamped in a vice, her limbs stretched in every direction like rubber bands, and her insides moved entirely where they shouldn't be. Da'ae pushed a bucket her way, and she wasted no time. Pulling herself to sit, Tezuli hung her head  over it as her stomach turned itself inside out. Not at all used to such severe protesting from her own body, the Shatterspear gave an involuntary whimper. She only had enough time to catch her breath before the convulsions began again, still vomiting violently into the bucket with shaking shoulders.

Tezuli hacked out a few more wet coughs, sputtering and just.. sitting there for a moment, shaking. With a grunt she pushed herself back, wiping her face with the back of her glove and shaking it onto the grass. She looked between Da'ae and Ocnar, tired and unsure.

Da'ae stood then, gesturing behind him for Ocnar to move back. "Your test begins. Fight me- to the blood." He pulled that new bow off his back, tossing it aside.

The fight was quick, but hardly painless. With her world and innards still reeling, Tezuli was sluggish. She moved like pond water, and her mentor knew it. Every punch or kick landed to her gut, and she crumpled inward. Through dumb luck or just-quick-enough reflexes, though, she finally succeeded. With a stab to Da'ae's leg, she brought blood.. just a bit too much. Reeling back from one last smack to the head, she processed his words.

"You passed- you passed- auch. You-you're my Shade now-ow!" Maybe she had stabbed him a bit too hard. Whoops. But the words echoed in her head all the same.

She almost couldn't believe it.

Tezuli's ears fanned up slowly as Da'ae spoke. "I did..?" She didn't even try to stop the grin that formed over her tired features, enough energy left in her to sputter out an, "I'll make you proud. B-both of you."

Ocnar shook his head. He walked forward, one hand grabbing Da'ae's shoulder, the other stooping down. He smeared a finger through the blood on his leg before abandoning him to walk to Tez. "Yes, you passed this trial. But it is only a doorway to many things to come. Just because dis door es open? Does not mean ya will make et through the threshold..." he reached the bloodied finger up, and went to smear it in a line running down from one of the eye holes of the mask.

Soon she was dismissed, with instructions to sleep and eat, to let the poison leave her system--

POISON?!

Her queasiness came back in a rush at the word, and she abated it by walking at a snail's pace back to the city. When she arrived at those great gates, she stared up, feeling like she was seeing them through new eyes. The fire in her gut sparked to life again, lips pulling up in a tired smile. Yes, she'd protect them. All of them. No harm would come to them so long as she drew breath.