Gotta Help Them All (for DSilence and MMRS)

"Living weapons. I guess a tournament with rules is better than open war, but still." The offer of stew caught him off guard for a moment, and he ultimately shook his head. "I'm not hungry, and I still want to know what it is you want from me. It's weird, and wrong, and I feel really bad for them but I don't know why you dragged me here or I fell here, or whatever the hell happened. If they're strong enough to take on armies than you'd be better off getting atadors to help you."

"You sure?" the old man said, pausing before he took another bite. "The amphorina I used was only recently ground, so it adds a little something to the taste." The old man continued eating his stew, though he may have eaten the second bite a little too hastily. He coughed a few times, but waved off any assistance. Instead, he took a pull off his wine sack, then took a couple of deep breaths.

"Sorry, but I love my amphorina," the old man chuckled. He took one more drink from his wine sack before putting it away.

"Now, what were you asking? Ah, yes, the atadors. As I said, only a small portion of the atadors have the skils that the trappers find useful. The rest are as normal as you and I, save for the forms they possess. Atadors are a primitive people, remaining close to nature. Those that do have the skills the trappers need, usually don't have the ability to manifest it in themselves. The trappers discovered the skills of the atadors quite by accident ages ago. Since then, they've honed their ability to bring out those skills, as well as ensure those skills are used only against those the trappers want them used against. The atadors can't defend themselves, and human beings have not motive to defend them. Which brings us to you. You may be uniquely qualified to aid the atadors. And you have motive." The old man gave Daniel a wide, toothless grin. "You see, Daniel, the atadors are the key to you getting home. Otherwise, how would you say it? Oh yes. You're fucked."

Even after all this Daniel felt the urge to help the old man through his coughing fit, but it lasted only a few moments before recovering. "I'm not hungry," he said again. Anything he ate now would just taste like ash and probably come back up later.

The rest of the argument made sense, and provided a sinking certainty that he knew exactly where this was going. "So you're telling me that only trappers can fight trappers. If this is leading to me getting involved in all this I have no idea why you think I can, or will, do anything for the guy that kidnapped me." Their situation bothered him, sure, but how the hell was he supposed to do anything about it? Up until Miyagi spoke of motive.

Daniel was silent at first, sure that he must have misheard. "Excuse me?" he said in a low, quiet voice. "You're telling me that you can't send me back? That you brought me here, you know everything about me and my world, but you can't send me back? Bullshit. You won't send me back, not until I agree to help with your crusade. Which I am not a part of. Sorry for the atadors. It's a horrible situation. But that doesn't give you the right to force me into going against people that blow up a goddamned army."

"I'm not forcing you to do anything, Daniel," the old man said. "You're free to come and go as you please. There's a road not far from where the stairs reach the bottom of the cliff. The atadors won't give you any problem, I suspect, and if you show a modicum of awareness, the few animals in the jungle who might pose a threat won't bother you either. Within two or three days walking time, you'll reach the city of Cacophony. Well, more of a town, really. It has more in common with the gold and silver rush towns in your history than a real city. You might find someone who can help you get back to your world."

"As for myself, it isn't that I won't help you, it's simply that I can't," the old man insisted. "The energy that I needed to bring you here isn't nearly as great as it would to send you back. Bringing you here went with the current. Sending you back goes against. I suppose there are other places in the world where the current is reversed, but I tend to stick to my own backyard, so I couldn't tell you where they are."

"No," the old man concluded, with the same toothless grin he had exhibited earlier, "Helping the atadors is going to be the best way t help yourself. Or you can start walk --- and what's that?" the old man said, rising to his feed and heading toward the cave entrance.

Daniel stared at the old man in disbelief, not sure if he wanted to shout angrily or scream in horror. Trapped in a world with talking animals that destroyed armies and slavers. Not knowing the first thing about anything. Told that the only way to get home was to completely destroy the world's social order. "How the hell-?" he started, still unsure of how he was going to finish the sentence, when the old man rose to his feet.

"Are you kidding me?" Daniel demanded as he quickly stood, following Miyagi towards the cave entrance. "You can't just drag me here and then tell me to go out on my own! I don't know what's going on, I'm just going to get myself killed or arrested or something! Even if I wanted to help what the hell am I supposed to do?!" He was still angry when he reached the cave entrance, looking around for whatever had captured the old man's attention.

"There," the old man said, pointing to a shadowy winged form flying in the distance, barely visible against the starry night. "And there." Three silhouettes rose from the jungle. The silhouettes grew brighter as they ascended, heading straight for the winged form.

"That is a Sinocard," the old man said. "The Atador version of a dragon. Even a young one like that is easily twenty feet worth of rage and fury. The average Trapper wouldn't even think of looking in the general direction of one. And they are definitely a site you don't ever see. The last one I saw was...ten, fifteen years ago. And he was an old male. Finding a nubile young virgin Sinocard would be next to impossible. Catching one even more so. But someone came prepared."

The bright silhouettes easily caught up with the young sinocard and surrounded her. She fought valiantly, but they wore her down, pushing her down toward the ground.

"Normally, this would be a foregone conclusion, but they timed it wrong. Or perhaps they thought they should take the gamble."

The old man pointed to a small star that could be seen just above the jungle canopy. "That's Setidorpa. The morning star. And the spell the trappers are using begin fading with the approach of dawn. Look."

As the old man predicted, the silhouettes that had been herding the sinocard began fading, until they disappeared. The sinocard struggle for a bit, then began flying away.

"Consider yourself lucky, Daniel," the old man said, turning back toward him. "People have lived their entire lives without seeing a sinocard, much less one that a trapper would try to capture. But I'm sorry, you were saying something?"

There was something incredible, majestic and horrifying about the scene that played out before him. A dragon, a true dragon, a creature of myth that never failed to seize the imagination. It was just something primal and raw and amazing, a manifestation of everything that mankind feared and honored. And now men were trying to capture her, a free, thinking being being herded like a wayward beast. It wasn't until the sinocard was flying away that Daniel realized he'd been holding his breath, silently hoping for her to escape the hunt. It was like watching someone try to capture a god. His mind processed the rest of what the old man had said. A nubile, young, virgin...that old sheep said he was the wrong gender to worry about trappers...

Were only women captured? Not just women, the young and the attractive. If atadors were for combat than their gender shouldn't matter. Daniel could think of only a single reason they would go out of their way to try and seize virgin females. The thought made him stick to his stomach. Even if they were just animals they wouldn't deserve this, and as far as he was concerned he'd seen enough to be sure they were truly people.

"What am I supposed to do?" he asked again, his voice softer and quieter. His eyes remained fixed on the horizon, vaugely hoping he might catch another glimpse of the dragon.

"Haven't a clue," the old man answered with a shrug. "And by the way, it isn't what you're thinking," the old man added. "About the reason why the trappers want young, nubile female virgins. That particular...well, it's a rather cold and clinical, but subset is the only word I can think to use...that particular subset of atadors are the only ones who a skill can be coaxed out of. If it's any consolation, the atadors who are trapped remain virgins in every sense of the word. But that's the only good thing you can say about their servitude."

"Do you remember the ristata we saw earlier?" the old man asked.

"I guess that's something," Daniel muttered under his breath, finally tearing his eyes away from the skyline. "And yeah, the blue bird. I remember it. But you're the one that brought me here, you had to have something in mind. Some kind of plan, at least an idea of what it is that I'm supposed to be doing other than," he waved a hand vaguely, "just fixing everything, apparently."

He turned again, looking over the canopy. Cacophony. It was a starting point, if nothing else. Maybe he could find a library or a historian or something that could give him an idea of just how this world really worked. Maybe find some clothes that weren't his overalls, surely it would be super conspicuous if he wore it in town.

"The best I can explain it is thusly," the old man began. "I was hoping that the universe would provide me a solution. So I made a wish to the universe, and you're what the universe provided. Not quite as simple as that, but as close as I can get without going into years of study concerning the principles and theory behind what I did. And, of course, if you had all that training, you wouldn't need a better explanation."

The old man spat to one side and continued. "Now, I was going to use the ristata as an example. They're sharp witted, sharp eyed...well, they're just sharp. And a trapped ristata even more so. A trapper uses a fairly painful technique to draw out her hidden skill. Those kind of ristata can, for lack of a better phrase, 'sniff out' other atadors who have potential skills that a trapper could potentially exploit. So you get what I'm saying, don't you Daniel? The average ristata has a pretty good idea what's going on around him or her, but that subset we were talking about? You get a ristata who falls into that subset, and get her skill extracted, and she can find any female, virgin atador no matter how hard they try to hide themselves."

"All the young, female virgin atadors have skills like that," the old man concluded. "If that sinocard had gotten trapped and trained, I guarantee you that would have changed the political landscape of Nomekop."

The pokemon vibe had made Daniel assume the skills were on the level of pokemon moves, fire and lightning and so forth. Things that made them fighters but not much else. But something like this seemed impossible, and yet it was so. He was far past the point of questioning the reality around him.

"No wonder they try to catch them," he said quietly, returning to the cave. He was quiet for a few more moments before he spoke again, staring into the fire. "How do the trappers work?" he asked.

"How do this trapping and...extraction work? If all of this is true than the only thing that could stop them is other atadors. And if I have to torture them or something just to have a fighting chance, than you can tell the universe to get stuffed. I'm not doing that, not even to get home."

"To be truthful, I have no idea how one goes about training a sinocard," the old man admitted. "Ristatas, they use something like...I believe it is called 'waterboarding' in your world. The techniques vary from atador to atador, but the common theme is a technique to invoke strong emotional responses."

"As to what the universe expects, I don't think it expects you to duplicate whatever the trainers are doing," the old man explained. "If this was a fire, the trainers are tossing petroleum to exacerbate the situation. How would you doing the same solve the problem?"

"I don't know, I don't know how any of this is supposed to work," Daniel said with a groan, shutting his eyes as he sat by the fire. Waterboarding birds to make them find virgins. It sounded completely insane, and yet here he was. "Strong emotional response. There's got to be something better than torture to get that."

He leaned back on his hands, tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling. "Look, there's got to be something you can tell me. This is really messed up, and if I can do something to help I will. But I don't have any idea how, or what. A starting point, an idea, hell even a guide to get me to town."

"You might trying to talk to that little ristata," the old man suggested. "Since she escaped from her trapper, she might know something." The old man bent down and rummage among his powders, before he produced a clay bowl filled with blue powder. "Toss that in the fire and it should draw her attention. She's going to be skittish, though, so I'd talk fast and convincingly. Well, that's what I would do if I were you. If I were me, I'd get on with my other appointments. So if you'll excuse me..."

And with that, the old man literally walked into a cave wall and disappeared.

"Talk to- And what am I supposed to say?! She's probably just going to bolt the moment she sees me!" When Miyagi failed to answer Daniel stood with him, still looking at him in disbelief. "You can't possibly think that this is going to-"

And then he was gone. It took Daniel a few moments of staring dumbly at the wall and even walking over to knock upon it before being forced to accept it. It somehow made everything even more unreal, but there was no point in whining about that any further. He was alone in a cave, and apparently the universe wanted him to destroy a society's entire way of life. Fan-tucking-fastic.

He took a deep breath, shutting his eyes for a moment. Alright. No point whining. He'd moved forward his whole life by doing what needed doing. Now he just needed to keep it up.

Step one. Inventory. A quick search revealed that his bag had fallen forgotten beside where the pool once was. His phone was soaked and wouldn't even turn on, though it wasn't as if he expected it to be useful. The old man's pot of stew still steamed over the fire, and there were a few granola bars tucked into one pocket of his bag. His wallet had some cash and his cards, probably all useless. What he did have was his multitool, definitely useful, a change of clothes, wet but useful, and the backpack itself.

He changed quickly into a t-shirt and jeans, the only other clothes he had, and tucked the multitool into his pocket. Everything else was put back into the bag.

Step two. The ristata.

Half-expecting nothing to happen, Daniel sighed as he sat before the fire facing the cave entrance. Picking up the bowl of powder he sniffed it slightly, wondering what it was supposed to be before tossing it into the flames.

The flame turned blue for a few seconds and then...

Nothing happened.

The sun began rising, and in the jungle below, the sounds of the night were replaced by the sounds of day.

And still nothing happened.

Then suddenly, there she was. The ristata that Daniel had seen earlier. Staring at him, and looking ready to fly off at a moment's notice.

Silence but for the crackling of the fire, and Daniel sighed. With a disappointed groan he fell backward, laying down upon the hard stone. "Didn't think so," he said aloud. With a deep sigh he felt his eyes shut, suddenly tired. He'd woken up only a few hours ago, and it already felt like a lifetime.

He wasn't sure how long he'd lain there before he pushed himself up, stretching to ease out the kinks in his back. There was no point in waiting around any longer. Maybe if he started walking he'd end up back home, or in the hospital, or whatever. But when his eyes opened his whole body jerked back, clearly surprised by the presence of the six-inch tall bird woman staring at him. "Oh, sh-!" He clamped his jaw shut before he could curse or shout out in surprise.

Briefly he shut his eyes, taking a deep breath. "Ok. Hi," he said softly, opening his eyes and straightening up to sit cross legged at the fire. He kept his hands in his lap in clear view, hopefully showing her that he had no intention of doing anything like trying to grab her. "This...this is weird. An old man somehow kidnaps me, leaves me in this cave, and the only thing he leaves me is whatever was in that powder to try and talk to you...a bird."

This probably wasn't going well. "Uh...if you're hungry there's stew," he nodded towards the pot. "I've got some granola too. It's nuts and grain and stuff. My name's Daniel." He was starting to feel more and more foolish, like he was talking to his cat back home and expecting a real response.

The ristata remained motionless, her head cocked to one side, as Daniel rambled on. Finally, she turned around, and pointed to an odd looking fastener to the mask over her face, then looked back at Daniel.

It was a moment before Daniel realized what the ristata was trying to tell him. She was so small he hadn't even noticed she was wearing a mask, mistaking the black material for her beak. "Oh. Right, ok," he said, slowly lifting a hand from his lap. Moving carefully to avoid scaring her he reached towards the fastener, fumbling for a moment before working out how to release it.

The ristata turned around, rubbing the side of her cheeks while working her jaw from side to side. The mask was peaked so as to make the casual observer think it was hiding a beak, but the ristata's face looked quite human. Attractively human, even.

"Thank you," the ristata finally replied, in a quiet, soprano voice. "The catch is such that only a human can open it." The ristata kept a wary eye on Daniel, but did not move further away from him. "You are with Dragoi?" she asked.

The mask was dropped onto the ground as daniel leaned back, briefly surprised that the ristata didn't have a true beak under the mask. A moment later he wondered why he was surprised; it wasn't as if he knew anything about what creatures like this should or shouldn't look like. "You're welcome," he said in the same quiet voice, briefly unsure if that would make it more comfortable for the tiny woman.

"The old man brought me here, but I really wouldn't say I'm with him. I'm from...very far away. He thinks I can help the atadors out, and I can't imagine how." As he spoke he very slowly reached for his bag, unzipping a side pocket to pull out a granola bar and rip it open. Breaking off a piece he held it out, offering it to her. "If that mask has been on for a while, you must be starving."

"It is possible to eat through the mask," the ristata told Daniel. eyeing the piece of granola he was offering her, but not moving toward it, "Though it is not a pleasant experience. The Trappers believe that it keeps a ristata's unique sense heightened, though whether this is true or not, I cannot say. You don't have the aura of a Trapper, but you don't have an aura like Dragoi either. I cannot say that I've seen a human like you. What are you?"

When the ristata didn't move towards the granola Daniel glanced around, finally finding the old man's forgotten soul bowl and nudging it in between the two of them. He placed the chunk of granola on the edge, balanced so it would stay out of the soup remnants, and leaned away from it. Maybe she'd be comfortable taking it if he wasn't holding it. "...I don't know. I'm human, but I'm not from around here. Not from anywhere around here. I'm not a trapper, and I have pretty much no idea of how anything outside of this cave works other than what Dragoi told me." He sighed, shaking his head slightly. "What I really need is someone that can tell me at least a little of what this place is like, and what happens with the trappers."

"Trappers!" the ristata said in harsh, barking tone, leaping away from the proffered bowl. "They are cruel and unyielding. They want only power. We are taught to avoid them and, at a certain age, those like me will live in distant places, even away from our own people, until we are old enough to become matrons. They used water on me, like I was always drowning, until I could see all around me, then bound me with leather and spells." The ristata smirked as she added, "But my trapper was young. Foolish! I bided my time and waited for a chance. And I did not find any atadors for him before I fled," the ristata said triumphantly.

"i'm glad you escaped," Daniel told her, nothing but honesty in his words. "And I'm glad he didn't use you to trap anyone else." For a few moments he was silent, trying to work out what it was he wanted to say. "...I fully understand if you refuse, but would you be willing to tell me where your former trapper is or where you abandoned him? If he did it to you he may try to do it to another ristata. Not to mention whatever other atadors he may have captured."

The idea was half-formed in his mind, a vague notion of defeating an inexperienced trapper and rescuing whatever atadors he had. After that...well, he'd figure something out.