Quote:<dl>
<dt>Jai</dt>
<dd> Your Kind</dd>
</dl>


"A Razor. I'll pay any cost. But your .. countrymen .. are not so willing to sell. I don't blame them. If I win, you find someone who will. Of a good age. Broken and trained." He wasn't sure if there were any unhealthy, sickly Razors out there, but might as well cover your terms well up front. Broken was a must. Trained? It wasn't like he was sitting on the long years of the rest of his life. Taking 6 months training to ride the animal would be worth it for most men, but may not help him very much. "Sooner rather than later." Aes Sedai may have hundreds of years ahead of them, but he calculated the odds for long life were lower for his kind.

She gave the go ahead and Jai prepped himself, folding his neck first one way and then the other, making a show of stretching his shoulders and cracking fingers, warm up worthy of serious wrestling. He took one last look at that pepper. Jon used to mention more often than not the hottest ones were green rather than red, small and wedged shaped rather than long and slender, and puckered rather than smooth. The slender thing in his palm couldn't be that bad. Not like those wedged shaped green things he made the mistake of eating as a lad. Popping those bad boys in his mouth whole. He plucked the stem off and tossed it away. Then gripped each end and snapped it in half, bending and breaking like a dry twig to minimal spray of juice. The scent wafted up after that. The open pepper in the air was enough to burn at the corner of his eyes. He didn't remember those green things doing that before.

A little hint of nerves touched his expression when he tore his eyes off the red-orange piece of art in his hands and checked Fate's. That half a pepper settling in her drink. Might as go for it. He shrugged, took a deep breath, and popped the first half into his mouth.

The heat was very sudden, but surprisingly he found the flavor of fruit rather than pepper. But that thought was quickly replaced by the 3rd chew. The mild taste faded to heat and the burning started with the explosion of saliva and juice on his tongue, then the first swallow spread the pain toward the back of his throat. He kept his bearings, but the struggle was obvious. Airways from mouth to throat to ears erupted in ferociously hot pain, then as the remaining pulp and flesh and crunchy seeds left his mouth and journeyed down the gullet, he was suddenly aware of his stomach, and not in a my-guts-are-falling-out kind of way but in the -i'm-going-to-claw-my-own-guts-out-with-my-bare-hands kind of way.

His jaw dropped open to get some cool air between his teeth, but no relief, and still the other half of the pepper waiting. A deep breath again did nothing for relief, rather it re-circulated everything all over again. Bloody Jon! Doesn't know what in the Blight he's talking about! Red, slender, long peppers are not short, small, green ones. Yet this red spawn of the Blasted Lands was not heat, not pain, it was awful. It was sticking a bloody piece of coal in your mouth.

He stole a look up at Fate Sedai.
"Its like swallowing cobra venom. Fun." Sarcasm. Laced sarcasm.

How the hell did she sit there with not but flush on pretty cheeks? While Jai's forehead erupted in sweat. It felt like his very eyeballs were going to swell and burst out of the sockets. Second deep breath and he reluctantly shoved in the other half of the pepper. This wave hit faster and hotter than the previous, if it was possible. The firebomb in his head burst out another layer of sweat, this time around his ear and along his hairline, brows collecting them and diverting the lines away from his eyes, which swelled with water, like every drop of water in his very body was trying to burst its way out. This swallow spread the heat down to the stomach, across his chest and warmed his very arms. He tried to get some cool air in again, but once more it did nothing but recirculate everything inside his head.

At some point, he wasn't sure when, he had leaned forward, elbows on his knees and hands rubbing at the pressure between his temples. The wince had left his face, but he clearly struggled. If his luck held he'd pass out, at least that much happened when his blood sprayed a new layer on that Fade's armor and guts fertilized the earth. But unfortunately, no such relief came. A few tortured minutes like that and it seemed the heat plateaued. He slid his hands from his temples and rubbed at the sweat layering across his eyelids.


"Jai, you are an idiot." He heard Jon's voice. Apparently his friend came over after Jai got through that first half and was standing with them ever since, even going so far as shared a few chatting words about sunset and ghost and cobra peppers with the Sitter. He even offered his friend the oosquai, but Jai heard not a sound of it. He didn't hear anything until now. But he finished the pepper! Why call him an idio.....

"Blood and ashes..." Now he knew. Some of that pepper was on his hands, and he just rubbed his eyes.
"Blood and bloody ashes!" What was the hot coal shoved onto his tongue was now pouring liquid steel straight from the smelter's forge in his eyes.
"Pit of Bloody Doom Jon! What are you buying these days?!" He looked around, looked up for Jon, looked for Fate. Saw nothing. A little panic hit him.

"Guys. I can't see."

Quote:<dl>
<dt>Nox</dt>
<dd>Oct 6 2016, 03:19 PM</dd>
</dl>
Aren't you nice!