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Grassland.
There were a whole lot of names used to call this gigantic grassland. A very close knit location with the lore and the very roots of any tribe, clan or race of your choosing and was taught to be the root of life in many shamanic teachings. The great prairie was home to quite a few bipedal races although some of them hadn't quite shed the animalistic features, and was known to be strong people, grassland wasn't a very forgiving place. And all this was within the explored portion of the land, even exposed to civilization however questionable, it was a very commonplace sight to witness waging wars, stampedes, disposal of bodies and pretty much anything a lawless strong-eat-stronger kind of place could bring. And that was only the threats that walked on two legs.
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Inkalum.
Situated at the edge of the prairie inkalum was not quite a city or even a village. It was trade/guard post built around the border of a strong Empire, a alliance of a number of races. And at the center of it lay the barracks and immigration control-ish office of this world, headed by a strong officer worthy of the station here as the edge of grassland is always, a huge wide open liability. Travelers and wanderers, mercenaries and merchent-folk all passed through the close inspection here because if you are missing some documents and possess no records of basic system inspections followed through, there was the tendency to be ruthlessly hunted down by the forces of empire or heavily scrutinised upon entrance to a town and many other technicalities. The grassland was a good trade route if traversed through cleverly halving the time needed to deliver. It was worth it down the road to pass through here than to suffer later. The pseudo-fortress was on elevated ground facing the grassland of the greats and all other non govermental facilitiies stretched from it toward grassland leaving its back bare if you ignore the canals and defence mechanisms littered the ground.
A grey haired woman sat at the table watching the various kinds of very noisy people pass by the passage built of rocks along the fort. She bore the highest rank in this border control station and was retiring next year, been serving here for a better part of her life. The next head she trained for about twenty five seasons had shaped up good but wasn't strong enough to truly head the station but this years expedition may fix that, a couple of levels won't do you harm.
Well a few capable deputies would pull you over for a few seasons.
In her career shikah had dealt with many things. What kept her at the frontier unlike many other ladies returning to marry and raise children and stabalize in life was the intersting aspect of this job, the things that went through in a day at this far from noble society. Unexpected people and their weird circumstances and the combat made her struggle to climb the ranks for the "stability" her colleagues searched for worthwhile. Especially the combat.
Now she watched a few guards and a tribal looking little girl with roughed up exterior standing barefeet get into a awkward situation. She looked worn out and slightly hopeful and weirdly enough not the slightes bit nervous in front of the soldiers armed to the teeth getting frustrated at not being able to conform her intentions. Shikah stood up as one of the younger recruits pressed the hilt of his sword a second longer and witnessed following that his comrades go on alert as well while darting there. In a second she was there before things escalted furthur and saw that to her fascination few hilts had appeared around the girls attire at some unbelievable positions and she was holding a glistening stone-ish dagger was held blade side first by the little woman who dropped low to crouch.
"At ease."
With the short but sharp command soldiers stepped back and by turning her back to the girl shikah displayed that she was her friend. Turning without hesitation she was surprised to find the girl wasn't in combat posture anymore and was stuffing the dagger into somewhere around her waist that wasn't possible to view from the angle.
The girl stutterd through a few dialects obviously trying to communicate and with luck the third one she tried was something Shikah knew, at least some of it.
The language of the grassland was mostly grunts and spoken ooulala hoops not very surprisingly parts of one another. Because of the sheer amount of time shikah spent here she spoke quite a few, and it helped immensely at work too. She decided to add that to the bucketlist to teach the successor, something she missed.
"What i do to walk through place?"
"You not bad..You walk easy. You not..You don't. "
"You strong. You elder place?"
"I sikah. You?"
"I Debah. Call one Deb"
"Strange name."
"I, mother from here."
Soldiers stood there astonished as they watched there old commander subsided and handled the situation and chatted with the red haired little girl. Because she would retire next year many new recruits just crowded around sucking up to the next head while it was mystery to them how the old fogeys and even the next commander respected the hag so much. The experienced hands knew how many times the "hag" stopped their safe haven from crumbling down as well as how many times she crumbled it down herself. Shikah was a veteran and commanded respect from people, not pups.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
So the veterans watched in mild amusement as the old woman lead the girl by hand to her desk at back and slapped it to imply take a seat. Interestingly the short haired girl took that literally and sat down on the table placing her rust colored bandaged feet on top of the chair. Shikah grinned and sat beside her, the tables height just right her to slack her feet on the ground.
"You, how old?"
"I, ten and ten and ten and ten and four."
"Fourty four seasons...barely eleven,
Why you out tribe? You too young."
Red haired girl looked flustered for a second and tapping her hand nervously on a knee she answered and tried to explain fumbling for reasons.
"I...I outsider. Mother outsider. Elder not like. I strong. Elder not like. I system two mark. I adult. Elder kick I out."
Shikah understood. Tribes were very closed off kind of societies. Outsiders or invaders often were killed on sight rather than communicating. Usually the next leading positions were passed on to the most talented young ones, and this particular elder must have felt nervous letting a outsider in to them.
"But system know."
"I kid." She tapped her chest. She then bent down to her knee to signify her height at the time. "Mother told I kid-I play. I carve bad stuff on elder home. I go out. I system two mark. I come back. Elder angry. I come back adult. I exiled."
"From where?"
"I walked long. I walked far. I hide big bad. I kill small bad. I walked one season. I tired. I felt calling. I here."
Shikah's eyes narrowed at the mention of the calling. It was a very rare phenomenon and this meant the red haired pipsqueak was special.
If you think its a mystery why shikah had to intervene at the provocation (grassland people are very touchy) it was because Deb was very strong. For an example the new guard recruit was only around seventy levels in basic system. This was already very strong brought up in a soldier family and because of the levels in advanced systems they had enough ability and skills to vie for such a position. Deb had at least two hundred or two marks in basic system and living in the grasslands she had lived in a life and death situation from birth and it had done wonders for her combat experience and half the people on her would be dead before older people intervened. Even the next commander only had four marks in basic system and this was ridiculously strong for any station other than Inkalum. Well the standards have fallen over the years because less people risked there lives over a level anymore. When Shikah was stated a deputy here in inkalum she was already a ten mark.
Shikah sighed. If she let go this very strong but very young chap walk she would be taken advantage of or she'd be killed. Shikah had a soft spot for young girls, her sister lost her daughter at six in a plague and because her sister was also infected, shikah took care of the young child in her final few days. At least her sister moved on and becausr of trauma had fifteen kids but the point is it left a impact on the old woman seeing how bad the young child wanted to live. She made a split second decision then and there.
"I elder here. I responsible. Will check system if true, you agree."
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Deb stared at her eyes for a very silent minute and nodded imperceptibly. So shikah took the childs hand gently and lead her up in to her quarters. There was the panel connecting identity recognition and criminal interrogation system of the empire sitting on a granite wall and she let go of the girl and stepped up front and placed her hand into the slot carved in a hand size square hole into the wall. Shikah smiled at the young girls widening of eyes looking at the granite changung real time to display her name, post and level. Even though she didn't recognize the letters one could read the gist out of the system display because system is universal.
"I want know you said true. If..I help."
"You strong. More than elder. Like mother. She strong. Lots."
Excitedly Deb walked up to shikah who still had her hand in wall and placed her hand in it as she stepped back. Shikah apologized in mind to the girl to what she was about to do. As the girl placed her hand there she secretly activated the memory overview of interrogation protocol and had a flash of the kids life at the back of her mind.
Fighting. Loads of fighting. Anger felt toward the short stout man shikah persumed to be elder. Mother. Blurry outline, so strong, tribe was scared to confront her. Sudden dissapearance of mother after a hunt outside. Kids trying to beat her but she also too strong. Vandalising and lots of irritating pranks. Exiled.
Broken memory bits were enough to shikah to paint the picture. She sighed again. System had recorded her crime as destroying of property and it only flashed yellow not red. So the village tricked her by exiling her when only some minor punishment administration will clear the "bad" status as the girl put it or it will in half a year. Unfortunate girl she might be but it really depends on the point of view. And that title blessed of earth was very high grade title..leaves one curious who her mother was.
"You are true. I help you. You felt the calling that way?"
Deb nodded. Shikah guessed so because of that title. There was a hole there six gallops toward and left to the mikha the next major city with mainly earth based monsters.
"I finish work in two season. I leave then. Until i teach speak. I leave, you with me."
Red haired girl looked suprised. Her grey eyes widened slightly and the dried blood on her face cracked.
"You help me?"
"I said so."
"But you stranger. You not reponsible. You not care."
"I old. I help young."
"......."
"You believe me?"
"You was true for I. You strong. You no reason. I trust you. Now."
"Smart girl."
Smiling shikah rubbed the pipsqueak's..Deborah's head. It was going to be very enjoyable year.
Shikah vandabona
Heavily decorated general that rose from general soldier to commander. Known to be as the grassland general as she spent majority of her career.
Repelled 4302 invasion attempts and 321 monster stampedes in records among other classified things in her career.
A rare confirmed dual class holder. Suspected to hold another class. One class specified as a melee specialist as the other is not known.
Eldest of the Vandabona house, a rare warrior among the merchant noble house.
Unmatched among her peers. Marital status single.
Title: The iron woman.