Returning Home

One

Zataya stood outside the door to the church, her armor mildly cleaned, her war hammer securely fastened to her back, her Scimitar in its hilt on her right hip. She had reached Caliphas not but an hour before. She was tired now alone, Pat-hill had left soon after Urrrah was revived to go find and rejoin her orc clan, Winter went back to her home in Thrushmore, Altair stayed in the city, and Urrrah took off on another adventure of his to explore the arcane. Zataya tried to get him to come home with her, but all was lost of the ifirit boy, returning to the church of Sarenrae was no life for him. Zataya took a deep breath before pushing the door open. Luckily there wasn't a service in session and the only person in the room was an elderly human man in the first row of seats.
"Sir..." she said tentatively, causing the man to look up and grab his cane beside him. He was in his early 80's now and had grown up with Zataya in this church. His golden yellow and blue robes shifted back down to just barely touching the floor as he began to shuffle towards her.
"Our little fire has returned?"  The man said, still making his way towards her, Zataya makes her way quickly down the aisle between the seats to meet the man, who quickly engulfs her in a hug. "We were so worried when you didn't come back... you don't have to call me sir... I am only ten years older than you, Little Fire"
"I am sorry... I didn't mean to worry you, but I made it ho-" she found herself with her voice stuck in her throat, starting to tremble, replaying in her mind the explosion.
"Little Fire, what's wrong?" The man said, placing her hands on the sides of Zataya's face.
"Shorty after I was captured on my mission. I found Urrrah..."
"Your little brother that ran away?" The man said, pulling her down into a seat.
"But..." she placed her hand around the amulet on her neck. "I lost him so many times..... Once I thought I lost him for good...."
"You don't have to tell me... Your room was kept clean if you just want to go rest. I'll let the others now that you are back, if you want that is." The man interrupts, putting his hand on Zataya's shoulder.
"Thank you... Please tell them that I'll meet them after I have cleaned up... I'll go, clean up and rest a bit...I haven't worn something other than my armor in months... Plus I need to get it repaired..." Zataya said her gaze locked up at the stained glass window behind the podium, the beautiful picture of Sarenrae assembled in dozens of panes of colored glass.
"I'll leave you to reconnect," he said, giving a small bow to her and standing, "oh, and Zataya..."
Zataya broke her gaze from the glass window and stood, facing the man.
"Your mother's tree is still alive and well if you wish to go sit up there before greeting the others." He said with a quick smile before quietly walking away into one of the side rooms.
Hearing that the tree was still doing well made Zataya smile, she walked through the corridor in the back of the main service room, heading to the rooms behind the church. She reached a mostly repaired but still semi-scorched door at the end of the hall, opening the door she found a semi-circular room with two beds, one on either side of the large room, separated by a curtain wall to give the siblings each some privacy. The base of a tower at the very back of the building. Zataya pushed the curtain over to the wall and tucked it inside the curtain box at the wall. Her side of the room was exactly as she left it the day she left. Her bed neatly made, her bookshelf filled to the brim with chaotically stacked books of various sizes, her desk covered in newspapers and a few cheap bottles of ink in various colors, she had forgotten how much she liked to draw. She used it as a type of therapy the priest suggested when her nightmares were worse. To draw out the bad onto the newspaper and then destroyed it in some way. She normally chooses fire. Something that made her feel strong. But there were times where the fire didn't work for dividing the memories again and she would pin the drawing up and leave them out during thunderstorms, letting the cheap ink get washed away in the rain and the newspaper melt.
The other side of the room was also clean. The way she had kept it clean in hope that Urrrah would return home, but he never did, not even now. There was a desk and a chair in addition to the bed, both charred slightly but still functional, old worn down tools sat on the desk. What Urrrah would use to design various structures out of wood and paper to burn and test his growing arcane powers on. Some of which would be Zataya's nightmare papers in efforts to help elevate her from the terrors that plagued her some nights. She carefully took off her armor and the padding that she wore underneath. Assessing the scarring she had gained over the past few months, a lot of these would not have even been healed yet if it wasn't for her magic and Winter's.
She went and got cleaned up and changed into normal clothes, a simple white tunic and long red skirt with a pair of shorts that she had sewn inside them long ago for personal comfort reasons. She let her hair out of the tight combat braids it had been in. Reaching the lower middle of her back when fully unbraided and smoothed out. She took out the hair beads as well. Letting her scalp relax from her hair being tugged in many directions. She loosely braided her hair and placed her armor on her chair, the mountain pattern bent and dented in places, stained with blood in others. She placed the padded clothing in a basket for her to wash later along with the desert clothing. She emptied out her things from her bag, many random objects that were collected on her journey. A jar of rocks, a few bottles of fire ink, lots of alchemist fire, and more.
She set the things on her desk, the swirling bottles of fire energy calling to her. She moved her attention away from the bottles and onto the next thing, she removed the sheets from Urrrah's old bed and folded them up, moving them, along with the pillows into Urrrah's closet against the wall, she placed the tools into a the basket that was used for Urrrah's clothes and placed them on top of the dresser. She slowly and with mild difficulty. Moved the bed, desk, chair, and closet to the corner of the semi circle room the two ends of the curtain, the box and the wall hook were also easy to deal with the box, while heavy, was movable, as was able to be drug so it was next to all of furniture she had just moved. She tightened the curtain rope so it was taught over the new, smaller length of the gap, and pulled the curtain so she could no longer see it. Almost doubling the space she once had available.
There was a soft knock at her door.
"Come in," she responded to the knock, standing and smoothing out her hair gently  with her fingers. The door opens, and in comes two elves, one in simple leather armor, the other in a slightly more metallic armor.
"Vaalyun... Syndra...", Zataya says with a slight bow, immediately broken off by them wrapping their arms around her, Zataya almost melts in their embrace. Her caretakers, the two who took lead in raising her and Urrrah
"Zataya!" Syndra almost coos the female elf cleric tightening her grip around her, while Vaalyun loosen his and steps back. Vaalyun was a Paladin, the one who Zataya trained under, he moves over towards Zataya's armor and weapons and inspects them.
Zataya smiles, hugging Syndra back, being careful not to poke the elf in the face with her horns.
"Brother Ander said you had returned and we just couldn't wait. I am sorry if we bothered you..." Syndra says, taking a step back to look Zataya over, "oh, your neck..."
Syndra reaches up and places her hand across the knotted scar across the right side of Zataya's neck, left from a chain whip avenging her kidnapper but a month back, healed over by the power of Sarenrae and her friend Winter.
"It's alright, my scales and Sarenrae protected me from any major damage..." Zataya says, placing her hand on top of Syndra's.
Vaalyun inspected her armor quietly, he had never been much of a talker, which Syndra assumes most of Zataya's poor communication and conversation skills came from. He walks back over to Zataya and sets his hand on her shoulder.
"You have done well. Welcome home."
His touch is warmer than Syndra's, despite him being covered in his mostly metal armor, it's strangely comforting, like a father's touch. Something Zataya had longed for most of her young life asking her mother about her father and where he went off to.
Zataya's mother was human, her father an effreet, a fire elemental humanoid who left her and Urrrah with their mother shortly after Urrrah was born, Zataya just over a year old. Zataya, being the more human looking of the siblings, was treated fairly for a good portion of time until her horns and scales began to grow and she began the ability to produce flame.
Urrrah on the other hand did not fair nearly as well, born with the more common reddish skin color, he stood out immediately even before his horns began to grow. His ability to create fire also was an major factor in how he stood out from the mainly human society. His ability came sooner than Zataya's did and stronger. This lead to many experiments, many of which out Urrrah in trouble. Branding him from a young age an arsonist threat. As if he didn't know if something would burn, he would find out.
Even now as an adult, Zataya struggled to produce enough flame to light more than a few fingers, suppressing it from a young age did not do the ability well. Occasionally she could pull a cone of fire from her hands but using it made her feel bad and so it was always ever a panic driven choice.
After their mother was killed, Zataya feared that she would also be outcast, her horns poking out of her hair now, charcoal scales on her neck and forearms becoming increasingly harder to hide, and for his own safety, she kept Urrrah basically at her hip.
To her surprise, the city's branch of the worshippers of Sarenrae took them in after helping the city drive off the frog-like creature that killed their mother and many other folk in the city.
She was thrilled to not be alone, people here could protect them, and Urrrah and her would be safe as children of the church. That is when they were introduced to Syndra and Vaalyun, the elven pair that was tasked with raising them and keeping them out of trouble. Their platonic relationship first was confusing to Zataya but after time it was normal to see her caretakers acting more like friends then the married couple that the other members of the church saw them as. Zataya didn't know if Syndra and Vaalyun were married or not, it was not her knowledge to pry. She loved them both as her and Urrrah's adoptive parents, although she never believed that Urrrah saw them that way. Urrrah had just turned 16 the last time Zataya saw him, but a baby for ifirits, from what little she had read in the libraries, most ifirits were not considered adults until they were 70 human years of age, even if they physically grew up to adult size at the same rate as humans.
Zataya came out of thought to Vaalyun wrapping his arms around her and the sound of herself sniffling.
"I am crying?" She says, learning into Vaalyun's embrace more.
"Sush" He says simply, holding her head close to his chest, "don't speak, you need a bath"
Zataya gave out a slight chuckle as Vaalyun tightens his grip on her, "I'll go take a bath soon, but you have to let me go first Vaalyun, I am home."
The grip of the elf tightens before he lets her go and takes a few steps back away from her. "I am proud of you" he states, softly nodding to her before turning away and walking out of the room.
Syndra watches as her partner leaves and comes up and hugs Zataya again, "your mother must be so proud of you Zataya," she scoops Zatayas chin up in her hands, "probably more proud then Vaal and I are of you"
Zataya felt a flutter in her throat, she did not know if she was to tell Syndra that she had found Urrrah or to keep that to herself. It clawed it's deeper, until she gave in, Syndra had turned to leave the room.
"I found Urrrah" she blurted out, sharply inhaling after as if speaking of him would take him away from her again.
Syndra paused and turned halfway back to Zataya, "He is a wildfire. You can not control him Zataya, he will follow his own path from the ones that the Gods lay out for him. He will be safe, he made it this long hasn't he?"
With a quick smile, Syndra turned back and continued out the door, closing it softly behind her, leaving Zataya in the room alone again.
"Urrrah..." She mumbles to herself, wiping the remaining tears from her face. "Please be safe, don't do anything to get yourself in trouble...."
Zataya went and cleaned herself up, counting the new scars and rebraiding her hair, placing the two large oval shaped beads at the top of her braid and tying it off at the end.
Looking herself over once, smoothing out her creases in her shirt and long skirt so they were a bit more presentable. She stepped out of the washroom and headed back to her room where she gathered a small necklace from a drawer on her desk.
Retrieving a small Angelic ankh on a blueish-silver chain. She places it around her neck, Zataya feels it's warmth on her chest as a soft coo rises from her window as a dove taps its beak on the window sill, possibly scooping up a bug.
"Thank you for your approval my Lady" Zataya says smiling at the dove before it flies off. "Time to go see mom..."