The Linguist, and the Blademaster

From Redwall MUCK Wiki


Characters: Aikuen, Fira

Location: Near the Govi's house, Holt Silver Water


Aikuen is laying next to Fira on the cloth. Just another lazy day of lounging for the otters. He has taken her paw, and rubs it with his thumb. He might be asleep, or he is awake and just laughing it up inside. At least he is not lost somewhere off in the woods.

Fira is still asleep herself but some sleepy part of her brain manages to recognise the feeling of a paw stroking hers and she closes her paw round it to give it a little squeeze.

Aikuen is still asleep himself, but he can jump from completely asleep, to wide awake in a flash. Sleeping by yourself in the wastelands will teach you that, really quickly. He was rubbing her paw in his sleep, but when she squeezes his paw, he grins awake and mumbles sleepily, "Well, hello there lovely..." he gives it another squeeze back, before going to cuddle up next to her, trying to get back to sleep again.

Fira obviously doesn't wake up at the words but the cuddling up does make her stir with a little snort and open an eye...She smiles dozily after a moment and snuggles on up to him "Hey there love"

Aikuen smiles warmly at her, and moves into the snuggle, so they are pretty much one snuggly otter. He starts to stroke her side lovingly "Hey there Fi..." and nuzzles her gently, "Sorry to wake you... You can go back to sleep if yah want... I'm just not gonna let you go... i don't think its possible..." and a small kiss to her head, and he mmms.

Fira due to her sleepiness barely catches half the words but as per usual she can assume it's somewhere along the lines of the usual morning words "Mmm. How early is it and should I be awake?" forcing her one open eye to focus on him a bit.

Aikuen blinks a little bit and looks toward the sky, and says sleepily "Hmmm?.... I don't know... About... I say... a couple of hours before midday..." so the otters have been laying in, not like it matters much. He goes to rub his cheeks against hers, "You don't have to be awake... ill watch yah, and you can go back asleep... I don't mind... Your so beautiful when you sleep. Course that doesn't really change, even if you are awake... Just... as... beautiful... all the time..." and a small proper kiss.

Fira smirks faintly at him and kisses him back, a paw moving up to rest on his cheek before she gives it a pat and finally sits up, stretching a little "Sounds like half the day's gone already" she's just not all that used to lying in.

Aikuen smiles at the kiss and the pat. Soon, he is lost to his own world for a minute. Her getting up brings him back to reality. He frowns to himself, when he sees her getting up. He didn't really want to move from their snuggled position. Even though she does prove a valid point. Aik sits up and scoots behind her and wraps his paws around her stomach, giving the belly fur a little rub. He peeks around her shoulder, with a small kiss to her cheek, "Well, what did you have in mind... I had an idea for what, we, could do..." he grins, "Did you have something..." another little kiss, "... in mind?"

Fira looks back round, over her shoulder and back to him, smiling still dozily as she rests back against him quite comfortably "Mmm? I'm still waking up, what exactly did you have in mind then?"

Aikuen chuckles, "Well...What, we, could do..." he places his lips onto hers, starts to kiss her roughly. Then he starts to move the kissing from her lips to her cheek and keeps going down until he is kissing her shoulder, giving it a small bite. His paws rub her belly fur roughly, almost like playfully scratching it, as he kisses her. Aik goes from the shoulder to give her nose a small lick. He then smiles and licks his lips, "Thats my big idea or... " he places his head on her shoulder, "Or you could show me around and stuff... that's also an idea..." Not his first choice, but it is an idea.

Fira isn't taken exactly by surprise, she could guess it would be something along those lines and she kisses him back, mmmming quietly at the attention before she smirks at him "Eh, we can look around in an afternoon and we'll have to go home soon" enjoy the peace while they have it.

Its now afternoon, and the otters are getting ready to take a stroll around the holt. Aikuen cant stop laughing for some reason, has he picks up a canteen to wear on his belt. He sneaks up on his wife and places his paws on her lower back giving it a little stroke, "I'm all set! heh... Ready to go?! OH lovely otter, that is Fi... Heh... Fi the otter!" he laughs stupidly.

Fira hasn't got a canteen with her, she doesn't see it as a long walk and she'll just nick some of his if she has to. She smirks back at him "Well it's better than Fi the fish. Come on, you wanted the tour. Not that there's all that much to see on this big empty lake" she's started heading north, not going the route towards the swans this time.

Aikuen bounces behind her, "Yay, Tour! Yay, Lake!" this tends to happen, as he always feels really good after. He catches up, even though its not that hard, and he takes her paw, giving it a kiss and squeeze before going to wrap his arm around her. and grabbing her other paw in his other paw. Dual wielding paws. He laughs again and says, "I love... our alone time... our... little walks... our silly talks... your lake..." small kiss to her cheek, "And i particularly love you!" and a hug to go with that. He is just being silly, isn't he!

Fira just smirks at him and shakes her head softly, watching him bouncing about all over "Remind me never to give you too much cake, jumping all over like a loon" she oofs at the hug but does laugh quite happily too, going to slip her arm round his as she walks "Come on silly otter" she starts out pointing out ruined buildings almost straight away as they are dotted all over the place "Don't know who used to live in half these places, before my time but that one came down a couple of years ago now and they seemed to like their metal trinkets. There's what I think is a mini forge out the back covered in brambles so I'd guess little bit of a blacksmith. If they did weapons I haven't found them"

Aikuen Looks over at the building, not removing his hold over her. As you cant make him, even if you tried "Some sort of blacksmith Eh? That would make sense, or maybe they were some sort of crafter of metals. Like they made metal into stuff... Bracers, lamps... those kinda things... cant really confirm it, unless they have armor or weapons. But maybe your holt didn't need things like that..." he shrugs a little bit. And continues to walk with her, leaning his head against her, when he is not saying anything.

Fira cuddles onto his arm and continues to walk on past, nodding slowly "It's possibly...I mean it's a pretty quiet place, I've never seen anyone here who wasn't invited except for the birds. Plus holt 'Silver Water' doesn't exactly sound like it'd strike fear into anyone...I've never really found much out about the place. It must have been busy at one point"

Aikuen shrugs, "Well my holt was a center for conscription... so we had more blacksmiths then food storage facilities... Plus Holt Telhelum doesn't seem to be any less 'fear bringing' than Silver water... even though my holt WAS feared..." Aik then glances to each ruin in turn, "Must have been busy, as there is a lot of buildings here... Must have done something to... I'm guessing that this was a fishing Holt. Right?" he asks, before slowly nuzzling her.

Fira smirks at the nuzzle and playfully goes to push his nose away with a paw "They're mostly just houses but yeah, they probably fished...one of these days maybe I'll stop by Camp Willow, see if they've got records. They've got the Skipper of Otters there, you'd think they'd know where the otters were" several ruined houses go by before she even nods at another one "Definitely fisher there"

Aikuen sticks his tongue at her, at the push. But laughs soon enough, "They might... Never been to Camp Willow myself... heard stories... got invited to it at one time... to join the guard..." he shrugs, "I guess it really depends on what happened here... Why would they move away?... seems... odd... as this is a great place... Might be a record..." he then gives a poke to her other side, just for laughs. He then looks to where she nods, and true. You can see some of the more prominent nets they must have used, "Well... that explains what they did to support themselves... But this place still remains a mystery..." he shrugs again.

Fira slips an arm round his back after a quick smirk for the poke "Ever a mystery. Way dad talked about it just sounded like it sort of slipped into this. A family leaves, no one else knows it's here...I don't know, maybe something happened to make beasts leave. Certainly can't have had it's own Skipper in ages..." she nods to a particularly large ruin a bit further north "Think that's got the leadery rooms tacked onto it. Some sort of gathering kind of place, though could just be an eating place...can still get into a few bits of it though they don't have roofs anymore and have the squeeze a bit"

Aikuen nods some, and once she is back in his clutches gives a small kiss, "Could have been the lack of guidance from a skipper... That would be enough in my holt... just a thought" he sighs and looks to her, "Well if this place doesn't have a skipper now..." he goes to pick her up and twirl her a bit, "I have somebeast i would like to nominate..." he places her back down, "She is smart, and beautiful... tall... and kisses, just they way i like it..." he kisses her a bit longer again, and then chuckles. Yes he is being silly again. He wraps his arms around her again as they walk off, and looks to where she nodded, "Hmm? Like a mess hall? Maybe like the..." he then tilts his head at the last part, "Id be careful, so it doesn't come crashing down on you..." a bit concerned about that.

Fira laughs at the twirl and indeed the idea in general, kisses him quite happily again though "She's also conveniently the only known living otter to have lived here" the last part get a smirk "I've been climbing round this place my entire life, I can look after myself" she just to prove it she's now headed for the big building for one of the holes in the walls.

Aikuen laughs, "Well that helps... but you have my vote!..." then about her skills, "Well it still could fall-... and then she detaches from him, and is running off toward the big building. He blinks a few times at her, and seems really confused, though not surprised. Once his brain starts to kick in, he is quickly off running toward her, "Hey! Fi! Get back here you slippery otter!" he gets to the hole she climbed into, and he blinks at it, "I can fit through that..." well he climbs through just barely. He now carefully walks around the building looking for her. And he would yell, asking where she is, but doesn't see the point.

Fira is rather quick in the hole, a bit smaller and thinner as she is. She's not hard to find once he's inside as she's not gone far, standing about in the middle of the room on a pile of rubble that's mostly crushed one of the big tables in the room which lead her to the mess hall idea. The idea that lead her to the more council hall idea is the big, slightly rotted coat of arms that just about clings onto one wall with another partly obscured long table in front of it. A quick glance back and she spots him just squeezing into the room "Finest room in the holt, if not the best condition" she taps the pile of rubble under her feet with her rudder "Winter storm brought the last of the ceiling down few years ago, it looked better before that"

Aikuen looks around the room, as he listens to her, "This building has definitely seen better days..." he is not paying attention and a bit of rubble trips him up. He lands on his face...again... and he gets up and rubs it, "I gatta stop doing that..." he gets over to the coat of arms and looks at it, admiring it before going back over to Fira, "I bet it did look better... but it looks like the roof didn't destroy all that remains around here... " he glances a bit, "Must have been something in its heyday..."

Fira is rather nimble over the rubble but she's not known for falling flat on her face. She goes over to try and help him up but he gets himself up before she can get too far "Yeah...wish I'd seen it really. This would be nothing in comparison" as alone as she's been in the holt she does clearly love the place. She nods to one partly obscured door on one side "Kitchen over there aaand" she heads for another door, this time it's free of rubble but it's stuck open just enough to maybe squeeze through as it looks like it's holding up the wall above it.

Aikuen nods some, but remains silent, just listening to her. He looks off to where she said the kitchen is, and waits till she starts to move, before following her, "So this is the kitchen?" as he just is able to squeeze through. He is not quite sure about this place, but if she has done it many times, then why not. He just think to himself, better not touch anything... or else the whole building might come down.

Fira doesn't lead to the kitchen but a different door entirely and after squeezing through the door herself she pauses in what looks like it used to be a little study "Skipper quarters" she's of course long taken the only readable things in the place along with anything of value and yet again it's lacking a ceiling as it's long come to join the floor. Not that Fira seems to care as she heads for a bookshelf, climbing up it to peer over the wall "Can't get to the other rooms without climbing over walls, well, think opening the doors would bring down what's left of it anyway...hmm, looks like the place got a bit water logged" the next room does seem to be a little sitting room oddly enough but there also looks like there's a few inches of water everywhere in it.

Aikuen enter the room, and blinks at it, as it is not a kitchen. He looks around a little bit, and nods, "It looks like a skippers quarters... Lacking in weapons, but..." Then his wife is climbing reading storage units apparently. He nods as she explains why. Fearing that the bookshelf might come down, if he tried to climb it also, he uses his own climbing skills instead! He finds where some rubble has collected against the wall, and he jumps off that and grabs unto the top of the wall, which would not be possibly if there was still a roof. He climbs up and goes to sit on the wall, looking into the sitting room, "Lack of roofs tend to do that sort of thing, did you ever try to drain it?" he then scoots over to be where Fira is. An otter on the Wall!

Fira enjoys her little exploring days, climbing book shelves is not the oddest thing she's ever done. She almost looks worried for a moment when he jumps onto the wall but it doesn't collapse so all's well. She shrugs a shoulder "I guess the Skipper took their weapons with them and what for? Could barely even keep my own house in one piece, rebuilding the whole holt is a bit past my skills"

Aikuen looks to her, "Sorry i asked... I didnt mean..." he sighs, "I guess you did have your own problems to deal with..." he taps the top of the wall, but remains silent as he feels that he upset her. He just looks off into the sitting room, bouncing his footpaws.

Fira is surprisingly hard to upset about it as she just shrugs lightly "Not really. I'm sure if I'd tried harder I could have made the house stop leaking. If I worked every day of my life I could even have rebuilt the entire place with time but where would be the fun in that? I'd just forever be a holt of one. I'd barely leave. I wouldn't have met Will and so met you and neither of us would be here right now...I think it's all worked out rather well so far. Place looks a mess sure but it's not the end of the world and it's not my fault or my job to try and reclaim the place from time, even if I'd have loved to see it back then"

Aikuen is not looking at her, but a big ole grin spreads across his face. After a bit of chuckling he looks back to her, and grins, "And me... not finding you... That! would be a tragedy..." He grabs her and hold her horizontally in his arms letting her rest in his lap. Quite the balancing act to do so, but he is is not even swaying "Then i'm glad you didn't try to work up the place... even though, if i knew you then... like i was born here... i would work night and day with you... to try and bring it back up... Just to see the smile on your face!" he grins and nuzzle her like he likes too. He is so glad that she is not upset, he hates that... even if its just for little things, he hates that feeling.

Fira doesn't trust the questionable wall enough to put anymore weight on it so she's resistant to leaving her bookcase. She does however settle her head in his lap, looking up at him at a bit of an odd angle "Would have been nice to have someone else living here" she smirks faintly "Though, if you did you wouldn't be you /and/ well, when you were my age, I was really young. It might be more obvious anyway"

Aikuen is not sure about the wall himself, but it does to be holding up quite well even with all the otters. He smirks back at her, going to stroke the top of her head "That's true, i wouldn't be Aikuen, or Aik... I'd be... Just another Mossflower woodlander..." he sighs and looks off, before going back to look at her with a confused face, "When i was your age... you weren't born yet... if that's what you mean... Would be quite obvious, as you wouldn't be here..." he chuckles, "I'm talking about if i was your age, and your were your age, now... I know it sounds silly, but..." he sighs, "I cant help being old... thank you anyway. And i would still help you..."

Fira smirks faintly and lifts her head up again to give him a kiss "In an ideal world we would have both been born about the same time and in the same place so I could have spent my whole life knowing you. At least we got there in the end and we are who we are for the wait...wouldn't change a thing"

Aikuen leans down to kiss her back, "I owe you a hug later... a big fat one!" he chuckles, "My girl is deep... I wouldn't change it either... i guess... everything happens for a reason. And if one of them changed... neither of us might not be here... together... in love... on this wall..." he glances down, "Looking at a small indoor pool." he laughs.

Fira chuckles lightly as well "Hey I've lived alone for a long time, the mind does plenty of wandering...there's another thing that might not have been the same if things had been different" she smirks and finally makes a move, climbing all the way onto the top of the bookcase "Come on, can't sit here daydreaming all day. Maybe you can make yourself useful and move something for me" she's already dropping down the other side of the wall, just grabbing hold of the top of it at the last moment so she doesn't fall and instead lands rather lightly in the pool of water that covers the floor.

Aikuen blinks at her and nods. He waits till she is successfully over before he follows. And since he is Aik, he is not as graceful when getting off the wall. He basically hops off the top of the wall and lands on his footpaws in a crouched position. He stands back up and looks around, realizing what he has done might have upset the balance of the building. He sighs, and sees that nothing is crashing down upon them so he looks back to her, with a small smile "What is it that needs moving? And i shall move it!"

Fira smirks at him again "Thought you might. You're stronger than me anyway. It's over the next wall yet" she gives the little sitting room a glance over as she walks through "Nice roomy place really" she heads for the wall to the back of the building, the door yet again holding up an unstable wall so Fira just hops up onto a chair and springs up onto the wall from there, pulling herself up and straight over into what turns out to be a little bedroom, though the roof is yet again covering the floor in all but one corner where it's just clinging onto a few broken beams. Sadly the wall's a bit worse than the last so Fira dislodges a block on the way over, an odd squeak sounding from the bedroom side as it just lands on her tail "Careful with the wall!"

Aikuen follows her and nods, wondering what it is that need moving. He glances about the room, before going to the wall, and waiting for Fira to hop over before he does. He was just about to perform the exact operation, when the squeak and yell stops him. Wondering what she could mean. Is it this very wall? But he is afraid for the safety for her, so he very carefully, but as quickly as he can, hops up onto the wall, and jumps over, "Fira are you alright? Be careful... please" He looks around expecting to see more falling objects.

Fira has had the good sense to move further away from the wall before he got onto it, she is also checking her tail rather carefully. Tiny little cut that she's stuck her thumb too till it stops bleeding "I'm fine, just a little bruised pride and tail too..." she nods to what's left of the bed under the rubble and the remains of a wardrobe that fell on it when it was knocked over by both a bit of wall and the roof "There's a chest under the bed, never been able to get to it though"

Aikuen moves over to her and checks her tail, "Well pride i cant fix... make it seem better but not fix... Tails on the other paw..." Aik cant help being a bit protective of her. He checks her tail, and nods, "Good... just a little cut then... Hopefully it wont come infected..." Yay, something to worry about! But Aik seems okay with it, as he gives her small kiss on the check, "Ill see to the chest... you... take care of your tail..." and he is off to see about a chest. He looks under, and around the bed, coming up with some sort of solution. He starts by removing some of the bigger rubble around the bed. He then gets a hold of the wardrobe and carefully brings it back up to a stand. It it was heavy, Aik made it seem easy. He then goes to look under the bed.

Fira sticks her tongue out at the idea of an infection, good thing it's just a little cut. She's feeling better by the time of the kiss at least and she gets out of the way for his rubble moving. Suitably impressed by how easily he makes it look too. The chest is at first only just seen between the rubble, just hidden under the bed. It's quite long and a little flat so it could fit under the bed at all, dusty but in good condition considering the bed kept it from getting crushed and everything else has kept the weather away. Nice looking wooden chest all in all.

Aikuen looks at the chest under the bed, guessing that this is what she was asking for. Its now easily movable since the removing of the rubble and wardrobe. He tilts his head at it and reaches in. Its stuck. He tugs at it for a minute, before setting his back against the bed, and lifting. Though the bed did protect the chest from the rubble. The bed didn't protect the chest from itself. When lifted the broken bed is taken off the chest. He drags it out and drops the bed back down, when it was successfully out of the way. He blinks at it, before lifting it, and walking over to Fira, "One Chest... thing..." he sits it down and looks at it.

Fira tilts her head a bit when he starts to struggle and there's a slight grimace when he has to move the bed but soon everything's taken over by curiosity "Knew that strength of yours was handy" she's quickly over to look at the chest, brushing off a bit of the dust off before looking at the catch, which needs a key. Hmm. A glance around doesn't see one "We'll have to see if one of mine fits it or break it open...either way be better to look at it somewhere a little more stable"

Aikuen smiles and blinks, "Don't know it that was a compliment... or were you making fun of me... either way, thanks, i try..." he then kneels near the chest and looks it over while she does, nodding, "You have a set a keys? If push comes to shove, i can break the catch, just wont be able to use it the same way again..." he stands up and shoulders the chest, when she comes to conclusion, "Righto, dont want it too open, and find out it was holding this building up..." he chuckles, "Alright im lost... lead the way!"

Fira smirks faintly and leans over to aim a little kiss at his cheek "It's a compliment" she leaves the chest to him for now and the escape route to her, choosing the wardrobe "I've just found a bunch of keys over the years, might get lucky and find one fits...thinking the easy way out now we've got something to climb" she quickly scales onto the top of the wardrobe before offering a paw down "Pass the chest up here, I'll hop over then you can climb up and hand it down to me"

Aikuen smiles at the kiss and aims a little one back at her, "Thank you then!" he nods and walks over to the wardrobe, and holds up the chest "Here yah go... Don't...Please don't drop it on my head... or my tail" He makes sure she's got a good hold on it before going to climb the wardrobe himself. The wardrobe wobbles a bit, but remains standing. He goes to sit on the wall and wait for her to get down before handing the chest to her, "Here... I promise not to drop it on your tail!" he laughs.

Fira smirks back at him "Promise" and she drops down into a combination of grass and brambles. It's not too bad. She looks back up again and takes the chest again with a little chuckle "Will you stop mentioning my tail!" soon as she's got the chest she moves out the way so he can get down too.

Aikuen laughs, "No i wont! Tail Tail Tail Tail!" he grins and drops down after she moves out of the way. He gets up, And what's with him and nature growing on him! He pulls off some of the more prickly vines, "Stupid... grass... erg..." before going to pick up the chest and shouldering it, "Alright Mrs. Tail, tail... Lead on! Lead on!" he gives a small kiss to her, and chuckles.

Fira aims an elbow lightly at his side with a little smirk "You want to head back and see if we can get it open or are you keen on seeing the ruins of every other house in the place?"

Aikuen oofs at the elbow, and chuckles, "Lets head back and see what's inside this ole thing... As i don't feel like carrying it around to every building... Plus, with this thing in my paws... I cant hold your paws... or you for that matter..." he makes a pouty face, "And that would make me sad..." he then grins and laughs, "Come one... we can see the rest of the place later! We can stay as long as we want, not like were in any hurry!" he gives a small wink.

Fira smirks and loops an arm round his back to solve one problem "Others will think we've gone missing by now" she's headed for home though, or the tent next to home anyway. Doesn't take too long to get there before she ducks into the tent and comes out with a few keys held together with string and tied to another loop with three more keys on it.

Aikuen chuckles, "Nah... sounded like they were glad to get rid of us!" he sighs, "We can leave whenever we feel like it... I just enjoy our alone time..." he laughs and plants a kiss on the top of her head. They get to the tent and he places it on the cloth. He sees her go off to the tent, and slowly return with some keys, "I wonder if any of them will work?" he takes one of the nearby apple, and starts to munch on it, just watching her.

Fira looks through the keys as she sits on the cloth in front of the chest "I just wish I could remember where I found all of them...Well, don't think it's going to be one of the big ones" she makes a couple of guesses, trying a few keys before amazingly enough one seems to fit...and then get stuck. She frowns "Think had better not have rusted inside..." she pushes it in his direction "See if you can get that to turn"

Aikuen tosses her his half eaten apple, "Here catch... Ill see what i can do..." he gets up on his knees and looks at the key. He gives it a small turn. Nothing. He tilts his head at it, and wipes his paws on his pants, "Okay... Hopefully, it wont break..." he twists the key sharply in its socket.

Fira clumsily catches the apple and watches. There's a little bit of creaking before a sharp snap, thankfully not of it breaking but of the lock giving way and opening after years of disuse. Fira doesn't know it at first but after a quick tilt of the head when his paws move she puts the apple down at her side and leans forwards to open the chest. It give a painful squeaky sound when it does open, not that Fira knows about it. It's open though! At first it seems full of scraps of paper, letters, a couple of books and she does give the odd one a glance over "Hm, really old things..." she tilts her head when her paw comes across something quite a bit harder than paper and levers it up, equally surprised when it turns out to be a sword. Little decorative maybe but still a perfectly good one.

Aikuen is glad that the key didn't break. As that was the first thing the popped into his mind at the snap. He smiles and opens the chest showing it to her. He watches her pulling out papers and books. He blinks at them and tries to go to read some of the letters, "Wow... Your right... This stuff is really old... cant even make out the accent..." he shrugs and puts them down and continues to watch her pull out stuff. Then there is the sword. He blinks at it, and mumbles something, "Oh... wow..." he just blinks at it.

Fira pulls the sword out to have a better look at it, squint at a few little letters of some other language "Hmm. Well the letters, I saw some common tongue but it's kind of typical. The whole place seemed to have a habit of writing in well, it probably had a name but I've just dubbed it 'old Mossflower otter' speech, it's got things in common with common tongue, it's just not quite there yet. At a guess the place probably didn't adapt to the common tongue so quickly since it's rather disconnected but seen older stuff at the abbey in the same language from other otters" she gives him a slightly apologetic glance for rambling on "Languages, fascinating, heh" she rests the sword across her lap and reaches back into the chest to pile up the letters, take out the books, generally make sure there's nothing else in there.

Aikuen tilts his head at her, listening intently. He may not be as fascinated with other languages as her, but he is willing to listen and learn. Plus she is a good teacher, just need to learn to space her speech. And he makes a good student. Aik gives a small smile, and a kiss to her in return at her glance. He chuckles, "I know you like them... Do you know what it says in 'Old Mossflower otter'?" he nods to the sword.

Fira smiles faintly, still she feels it's one of her more boring interests. She's quite happy to be seen flying out of trees on bits of rope, she's less happy to let everyone know she actually likes working out what really old writing says. She follows the nod to the sword "The letters, probably, the sword though..." leaving the letters alone again she picks it back up the sword and slowly shakes her head after a moment "It's not old Mossflower otter, that's just it. For the most part old otter has most of the same letters, sometimes the same words, this though is a different alphabet...I mean that one there does kind of look like one of the strange letters old otter has, just...um, fancier...I could ramble at you some more or I could just say I don't know /yet/...can be sure I'm going to find out though. It could be even older, that though would be interesting" perked up again at the idea, can just tell she's thinking about it, compare it to any bit of language she knows. Probably one of the few beasts in the world who finds the writing more exciting than the sword.

Aikuen smiles at her as she rambles and explains. Even if he doesn't really understand much she is saying. He still listens, like she was the last beast on earth that he will ever here. He lets her voice fill him, and he grins. He looks over at the sword, and then back to her, "I'm sure you will figure it out one of these days... and be sure to tell me as soon as you do... Here let me see..." He takes the sword and scans it, "Writing on swords are usually written to bring some sort of... guidance to the bearer... a way to focus there energy into a single source..." he moves it from paw to paw, "Definitely for some sort of... Well... i can tell you it was NOT made for war... Its, too pretty... Might have been worn by some higher up..." he flips the blade, "I hope that helps in your translation..." He knows weapons as much as she knows languages. Though Aik is more interested in the writing right now.

Fira looks slightly impressed and nods slowly "Explains why it was kept in a box too I guess. Interesting though. Maybe some sort of gift in response to something? The words being whatever it was given for...or worn during a ceremony. Looks like it's still sharp enough but I see what you mean, most swords do tend to look a lot more simple and practical"

Aikuen looks to her and nods. He stands up and walks a little bit away from her. He weighs the sword in his paws and balances it the hilt and the blade. Aik shakes his head and places it in his preferred paw. He starts to do a basic fighting pattern with that type of sword. Twilling the blades vertically, and slices from shoulder to shoulder to his 'Opponent'. He continues to do this for a little bit, doing different patterns until he shrugs and walks back to the cloth and sit down. He sighs and places the sword back on the ground, "Definitely not, used in battles... odd weight pattern. The hilt clinks together. The size is also weird... too long to be a short blade... too short to be a claymore..." he shrugs, "Worn during a ceremony...that's my guess... But its is bloody sharp..." he shows his paw, where a small gash is, "Wasn't expecting that in a ceremony blade..." he hmms.

Fira curiously watches his little training exercises, haven't never had a sword herself she's not sure how he can tell anything from the movements but she trusts he knows what he's going on about. Smirks slightly at the gash, tiny worry at first but she sees it's only a small one "Between my tail and your paw it's had a little blood out of both of us. More than it seems this thing...though could just be whoever owned it didn't like having a ceremony blade they couldn't also fight with" she reaches out to take it back for him, try and copy what he did when he was testing the balance.

Aikuen licks his gash, and goes to watch her. He see what she is doing and draws his own sword and balance it in his other paw, "See how mine is perfectly balanced about one inch or so, from the cross... And, on that one..." he points to the other one, "The balance is almost 1/4 of the way up the blade... it makes it a very weighty swing... that may because of the silver lined in the blade." he then shrugs, "You could fight with it... but it will break real quick. It maybe because that it might be rusting... or they didn't forge the blade to the hilt.. Not sure... But the hilt and the blade are no longer one whole item..." Yes, he does knows his swords. He blinks and gives the same apologetic looks back to her, "Sorry... I just like blades..." and small smile.

Fira grins a little at his apology "Pay back for my language talk" she does actually find it interesting too. She looks back to the sword again "So it has silver in it? Kind of fitting for this place. Pity it's no good, never found a weapon here before, well, less you count fishing gear. It's very nice looking all the same"

Aikuen tilts his head, "Silver? Hmm? OH!... Silver water..." he laughs as he just got that, "Its still a wonderful blade... It may have belonged to the skipper..." he hmms, and sheaths his own blade. Swiping back his apple he begins to much on it again, "Fishing gear as weapons... barbaric..." he chuckles, "So, what are you going to do with it... The papers, letters... the chest... and the sword. As they are your belongings..." and he nibbles on the fruit.

Fira snorts at the 'barbaric' thing, smirking again "/Dear/ your wife has a what is basically a rock tied to the top of a stick for a spear, mind yourself" she shrugs at the question though "I don't know, it's a rather nice chest if a bit stiff and I would like to read through the letters. I guess I'll take the sword home too, still got to find out what it says after all...heh, going home with quite a bit more than we came with"

Aikuen looks fake scared at Fira, trying not to laugh, "Well yes /darling/... your spear is..." thinks of a better word, "Not... modern..." he scoots over to her and puts his arm around her, "But, its still better than what i was thinking... Nets and tridents..." he laughs and plants a small kiss on her with a chuckle, "I said we would take home gifts... 'Here have a letter!'... What you want to take home, ill gladly carry them... as long its not... you know... HUGE!" he grins, and places his head on her shoulder.

Fira laughs at the thought "Don't worry if you can't read it, trust us, it's a really old letter. We'll have to stop by the market on the way back to get them something, I can't imagine we'll find much here" she smirks down at him for the last bit "Have I mentioned how much I like large really heavy bits of furniture?"

Aikuen nods on her shoulder, "Yep, see what we can find their... something, shiny..." then her last statement makes him look up at her, looking really concerned, "Wha?..." he blinks a few times, "...You... want to take a chair home or something?" he thinks about for a few moments, "Ummm... Okay..." not getting that she might be joking.

Fira laughs as he doesn't get the joke and she just wraps her arms round him and gives him a kiss "Don't worry about it, I like your back in one piece"

Aikuen blinks a few times at her, as he is still not getting it, and he never will by himself. He does grin at the wrap around, and does the same thing to her. Wether he got it or not, he likes this. He gets this. Aik plants a small kiss on the top of her head, and strokes her back, "Thank you for concerning yourself with my back... I like it, as its the only one i got..." he chuckles and cuddles up to her. Fira smiles faintly and goes to rest against his side, closing her eyes. Aik chuckles and kisses the top of her head again, "I love you Fira..." Then they lean back, to go being one snuggly otter again.