Celebrations part 13

Markus had to admit this had been the most fun he had experienced in a long time. It had reminded him of the fire celebrations in the mountains of Garrah that the clans had when they met.

The food and drink and helped much with the proceedings and a few of the settlement miners had joined at some point during the night.

People that had hard and dangerous lives tended to make the most of little moments like this to enjoy life to the fullest as one never knew when Zin came calling for the last time.

He found Alexis at some point.
"A wonderful night of celebration. Aquilo had not seen the like in a while..." He started offering her a mug of ale while he sipped at his own fermented yak milk. He had to admit he had developed a fondness for the strong gamey liquid.

"I know this might not the most appropriate time but I was hoping we could rope your help with a few problems the settlement is facing..." He started looking out for her reaction.

Alexis accepted the ale with a grateful nod as she listened to what Markus had to say.

“Go ahead. What problems are we talking?”

"Well, there is no hiding it that settlement is going to be a bit isolated in the next few months." He stared looking at the dying fire. "Supplies are going to be an issue with the war in the Plains." His mind raced across all logistics, stock, numbers, labour and production. "We could use some help with stocking up our reserves of food. Hoping we can get some help with gathering some supplies. Some hunting could go a long away to help us." He started with the easiest of the problems to solve.

Alexis remembered the Duke had wanted Gonyaul to get involved with farming out here, so the settlement would grow to be more independent from Ostiarium as fast as possible.

She had, however, not suspected there to be no plan b in case he declined. It seemed like an uncharacteristic oversight for the Duke. Strange. She would ask her friend if he was willing and able to get started on that. When he was back to his senses after that dance with Voah.

Other than that their group brought all the skills necessary for hunting and foraging to the table.

“I’m sure we can help with that.”

Markus lifted his mug and nodded his thanks. "Our biggest problem of course is the refusal of the miners to go back to work." He said looking at Alexis. " And since some of your expedition are here to explore, I was hoping you could put a group together to explore what was found down there..." He said knowing Tarmen had failed to get people to join him and was itching to get back down to the mine.

“Frespit mentioned, and he also pitched that idea. I think if we tell Boyce and Nicolaus that there are ancient structures just a climb away, it will be much harder to keep them away than to get them down there.”

She chuckled.

He nodded his understanding and hoped that tomorrow he could get something organised to put the expedition to use for the good of the settlement. And who knows maybe in the long run convince some of these people to stay around and call Aquilo home.

He looked around at all the shenanigans and merriment and noticed Alexis had not been dancing. He stood up and extended his hand to her.

"Dannsa?" He did not really wait for an answer and pulled Greyriver to her feet not letting her think too much on the situation.

Alexis blinked at the rather sudden transition from talking business to being pulled to the dancing area before she had a chance to try and back out.

A little flustered she let Markus have his way. Ah, what the ifrinn. Might as well.

The drums melody was now clear and dynamic, the pace fast. He hoped he remembered some of the dances he had seen in his time in Garrah.

The men, falls to his knees, leaps up, and dances with concise steps and strong, sharp arm and body movements. Unmarried couples do not touch; the woman dances in the centre of the man circle as she regards his display.

The man had to have spend a significant time in Garrah to not only be quite well versed in their dialect but also to have come across traditional dancing like this. Alexis had to ask him about it somewhere down the line.

But not right now. Now, there was dancing to be done and she intended to give as good as she got.
It was surprisingly easy to fall into the female side of this dance, keeping to her spot in the middle, but offering her own set of fast paced legwork and vigorous jumping.

Markus kept circling Alexis trying his hardest to keep up with her clean and sharp body movements. He was not originally from Garrah but had fallen in love with their way of living.

They kept pace with the meeting of the drums and when their paces were coming to an end the couple would interlink the forearm for a brief moment before sliding their hands across each others arms in different directions, until their index fingers brushed, returning to 'no touching' poses. He could see she was enjoying the moment. Hopefully remembering home.

He bowed to her in the end and thanked her for the dance, picking up their mugs to toast one final time.
"To new friends." He said with a broad smile.

She returned the smile warmly and wholeheartedly.

“To new friends.”