How to Defend Without Powers

Since I currently have no means of getting back to Jun'Jo and have discovered that I am in the forests to the far west, I have no clue how I got here or why I cannot perform normal speech and there is a bird man spirit following me around, yet refusing to help me return to my lord until I have recovered. Apparently, I had fallen ill during some ritual, only I don't know what in the hell he's talking about?! A good number of these spirits keep looking at me strange as well which is also starting to get on my nerves... a lot! Still, he starts to realize that I am a bit worried about the possibility of attack at the moment, so this avian spirit, who is referred to as Cinos, gets me a coarse buckler shield. He straps it to my left forearm and nods to me. "There you are, Master. Now you can be at ease." I nod to him and go to thank him, but of course, my speech is still undecipherable. He looks over at me and nods before telling me that I am welcome. Ahh that was pleasant... wait, he can understand me, but I can't understand me? Something tells me that I don't even need or want to try and make sense of that. This form of communication would continue for a while before my eyes start to get used to the sounds from the other avian spirits. Cinos doesn't seem to want me to wander around the village too much. I am unsure why, but I will have to find out soon.

EXP: 277
TEXP #2 (2nd thread)
Hybrid Starter Armor Claimed:

Coverage: Forearm
Type: Coarse Shield, Buckler, Targe
Density: 5
Cost: Common

I am sent back to the dojo where I have been resting tho to me it feels much more like hiding and staying out of sight. Since I could not fly back home to Jun'Jo yet, I would remain put. Cinos would be out in the village, while I remain with the female empath called Bahana by my avian guardian. She sings beautifully while moving around cleaning up and setting the place mats and trays for us to eat. This is taking place as I try to remember my fighting form. I need to defend myself. I need to regain my power. When I stop for a moment to think about it, I realize that I have this strange sense of pending dread. It is as if I can feel something coming. Some looming darkness that is searching for me. As I try to throw a kick that used to be excessively easy for me to perform, I feel a sharp pain in my ribs. I try to ignore it, but that is much easier said than done. The female empath rushes over to me, "Kautuka, you need your rest to regain your strength. You are safe here in Suunnveil. Just relax and rest for now. Cinos should be back soon enough then we can finally eat a meal instead of you just snacking on berries." I wished to defy her, but the pain surrenders before I can even start to formulate a plan. As I am about to inquire about why I cannot stay outside in the village more, there is a knock at the door.

EXP: 270
TEXP #2

The young maiden goes to answer the door. I sit down and a male spirit enters the room. She tries to stop the male and tell him not to disturb me at the moment, but he persists. Her empathic link with me allows me to feel her displeasure and it starts to trigger my emotions to match hers. The one difference is that in this current state, my emotions quickly darken and turn to anger. She quickly feels this, but before she can try and stop me, my voice strains as I exclaim, "She said no!" Energy releases from my right palm in a strong pulse that knocks him back a couple feet. My eyes show my anger and the more I try to control and fight the surging emotions, the faster they grow. It continues to boil until finally, I release a loud and powerful crow that orders subservience. The male spirit looks at me as does the female empath. With furious anger seemingly flowing out of my body, I address the male, "You dare defy me! Stand down! I awaken to this! This is not our way! I will not tolerate such behavior in our sanctuary! What is your business here?!" The male trembles as he drops into a full bowing position. "F-for-forgive me, my lord. I did not mean to disturb you." I look at him and the female healer rises and speaks to me, "Kautuka, please relax. He meant you no disrespect. Most of the avian spirits are not aware of your awakening. When you first arrived, you were not yourself, Master. Since you emerged into the village in your brief intervals, the spirits have begun to wonder if it is really you. Again, forgive them."

EXP: 314
TEXP #2 (2nd thread)

The energy swirling around me continues to gather as I feel myself getting stronger with the energy. As strange as this sounds given my normally calm and calculated demeanor, the more I give in to my emotions, the stronger my control over the energy seems to be. There is a fury brewing within me. She tries to calm me down, but that ceases when my glare falls upon her. Being nonviolent and noncombative, she backs away from me. The male avian does not look up and I speak, "I asked you a question. Do not make me ask again." My voice is cold and uncaring, which only adds to the dread. Apparently, what I am grants reason to be quite nervous and worried. Luckily for him, I actually do not know what I am. I do know that I am not fully human but that I am not fully spirit. I seem to fall somewhere in between. The male avian rises slightly while keeping his eyes placed to the ground. He tries to regain his composure before addressing me, "Kautuka, I ask your forgiveness, but she is correct. I admit to doubting your awakening. Rumors have spread about whether or not it is actually you or if someone is animating your body, but I no longer possess any inclination of doubt. I can feel an aura that I have never felt before and only heard about. With your permission, I will leave you to rest. You should strain your body on the account of my impatience. I will silence the rumors for you, Kautuka. As a means of making amends for my conduct." I breathe heavily before nodding to him. "Very well. I thank you." He lifts into the air and backs away towards the door. Once he is far enough away, he turns and flies out.

EXP: 330
TEXP: #1 (250)

Once he is gone, I exhale and look at the healer. "I am sorry if I scared you. I am normally..." She finishes, "Very calm. I know. That's what I typically felt while you slept. This side of you is not completely foreign either though. While you were between realms, I could feel flares of anger and raw, dark emotions swirling within you. It is alright though, Master. You regain control and understand how to channel both sides of you without a problem. I am sure of it." She smiles at me before she returns to preparing the meal to be ready when Cinos returns.

I sit down and try to retreat into my own thoughts again like I had done when I first awakened into all of this haze that is my current understanding or lack of understanding really of what is truly going on in the realm. Being disconnected from the Operative Network for this long has me at a loss for trying to describe the phenomenon. While my mind is growing stronger and more versatile, I am thankful that as of right now, I am still unable to attack targets with my mind. With this lack of control, that could be disastrous even if my mind is not fully as strong as it once was.

EXP: 233

Slowly, my breathing becomes my primary focus as it slows down in increments. Once it is steady and full relaxed, my body would technically slip into a state of rest as my mind drifts into a meditative state. This would allow me to confront my teacher of sorts. He needed to control his emotions as my ability to feel what he feels inside is far from a matter that I have full understanding of and as such, it presents a potential problem... loss of control and outbursts like earlier. While my powers are still in the process of recovering, I need to better understand things in order to deal with this. For that, I need him to tell me of his last memories before the realm was drained of its powers. Perhaps, if I have that information, I can come up with a plan to expedite the recovering of my powers.

The Spirit Aspect appears before me and looks at me wondering why I did not smite the avian spirit who disturbed my rest and defied my consort. I stop him right there and remark, "The Empath is not my consort. I don't have a consort." He shakes his head. "You will need to mate at some point and she has viable powers to mesh with yours... unless you wish your offspring to possess an aptitude for more offensive power instead." I remark that I have not given it substantial thought apparently. He shakes his head and chuckles at me. "Well, you will need to and soon. What about your padawan? She is attractive and possess a powerful mind, albeit raw and unfocused. Perhaps, she will do." Growing irritated, I tell him, "I did not come here and speak of this matter. You need to control the outbursts of your emotions for you are able to witness thru my eyes. I can ill afford such flares." The Spirit Aspect nods to me and tells me, "That is false. You can afford them as it will ensure that your subordinates do not challenge your authority. You are weakened as it stands and that is actually why you came here. Remember, Kautuka, that I am attached to your consciousness and as such, you have no need to attempt to deceive me and furthermore, you actually can't deceive me anyway. I will show you what you wish to see."

EXP: 432
TEXP #2 (2nd thread)

As entrances is given into the memory cortex of the Spirit Aspect's essence, I find myself in the past. Not too distant but still foreign to me. He shows me the past thru his eyes as he recalls it so that I can have a better understanding of what transpired and how to correct what has been done. It is a necessity in my mind. As I fade into the background of my own consciousness, I am drawn to an observational point of view within his eyes. As our shared vision comes into play, I finally realize where I am. I'm in the air. I try to make sense of this as my hazy vision starts to come into focus and I realize when and where I am when Cinos crows loudly as he moves into the South West Forests. He flies as fast as he can in order to make sure that he evades any ambushes by the enemy that also resides here.

Cinos is an avian spirit that lives in the kingdom to the far western edge of this region. A kingdom of spirits that are much different from the kami and oni that roam freely. They tend to keep to themselves and protect their own and their borders with great ferocity. They rarely venture out which keeps things in a good balance with their hostile neighbors. As I muster the strength to sustain consciousness for a while, I look up at Cinos. I try to get free to fly on my own and he looks down at me, "Be still. You have kept the Kautuka safe. Now I must keep you safe. We will be home soon, Master." He knew that it was me and not the human. Impressive. Still, I can fly on... argh. Or maybe not. It would seem that my injuries were a bit more severe than I first thought. Cinos tells me, "If I remember correctly, you should be able to heal yourself by absorbing my energy, correct?" My glowing eyes look at him and I tell him that I will do no such thing. He smiles and tells me that he will be just fine. He tells me to do it but I refuse and he tells me to either heal myself or he'll drop me. Considering that my injuries have already shown that I am currently unable to fly on my own, I see no alternative. "Siphon... Life." Talons of raw spiritual energy release from my body to Cinos' and dig into him tho he probably doesn't even see them and drain out some of his life force. The energy flows from the talons back into me. A moment later, the talons dissipate. Cinos release another crow, but this one is very soothing... actually too soothing... my eyelids get heavy and my breathing slows. Did he just force me to sleep...?

EXP: 492