[FINISHED] Big Brothers

[riku]

Riku turned toward the castle as well once Rwaht had explained their next course of action. Armour wasn't something that the half-Oocca had ever considered it possible for him to wear. The hollow bones that were supposed to make him capable of flight did at least manage make him agile. He'd always assumed wearing anything remotely heavy would take away even that advantage, since getting hit at all usually messed him up no matter how well-guarded it was. Still, Riku was aware that his own constitution was as much to blame for his physical prowess as his bones, probably even more so. Working on that was probably a good idea after all. Riku would have to take some time to explain everything he knew about his various conditions to his new hybrid teacher, but for now the man seemed to have an intelligent mind worth listening to.

"Lead the way, Master Orin."

An apprentice to the Praetor of the Sentinels. That wasn't too unimpressive, was it? He could write home about that to let his family know he was doing better, but they'd surely think he was just telling stories to keep them from worrying. That was OK. He'd become someone not worth worrying about first, then present himself to them. That would be his way of paying them back for their love.

In the meantime there were plenty of people just as bound to the land as Riku was who also needed inspiration and protection sometimes. If he could the child of an Oocca and a Zora would happily provide that service.

[Riku Exit]

[Rwaht]

Rwaht looked at Riku, thinking of the Oocca Lord. Not because of any real similarity, no, but because of how the Lord fought. The Lord, like all of his people, was hollow-boned, and not ideally suited for close-quarters combat. The Lord, in a fit of hilarious but surprisingly effective madness, had long-since opted to fight by letting his opponent waste themselves on him, constructing defences both physical and magical to hold them at bay. When Rwaht had first met the Oocca Lord, he'd thought the man mad; surely an Oocca was no sort of fighter? But Rwaht had been wrong about the Lord, and now he took that lesson hopefully when he looked at Riku. They would find a way around his weaknesses, train him how to use a weapon, and then there would be one more good person in the world with the power to change it.

"Consider yourself led," Rwaht said dryly, walking towards the Castle, his new recruit in tow. He'd brought on misfits, psychopaths, a personal friend who had more complexes than your average city-state, and a gun-toting Mexican named Hulio who liked to shoot people with his "Johnson". Now he'd found himself a boy with frail bones and a dehydration issue. Weirdly, he felt a strange sense of pride.

[EXIT RWAHT]