Kyuden Shika

"Sounds about right. Big friggin' birds."

"You're making a good case for me wanting to talk to them and not really to fight them. Rukh-riding is the stuff of legend, generally the climax of a tale and something that happens at most once in a hero's life.

And a rukh isn't supposed to be something you can just kill with a stray arrow. It requires powerful magic... But I guess the Phoenix is covered on that front.

But like, do you do nothing but fight them? As discussed earlier, actual war is but a small portion of the soldier's life. There must be time when you are at relative peace with your neighbors, and where there's peace, there's trade, and where there's trade, there's talking happening."

"Oh, I try not to fight them at all. Generally speaking, if they raid across the border, we go thump them a little, but I've also stood watch along the border and just... like. Watched them."

He shrugged.

"They're just people, unfashionable as it is to admit. A bit weird to us, but..."

"The world has its monsters and magical creatures, but I have yet to visit a place where they outnumber the people. Even the most unwelcoming spots of the Burning Sands have more human travelers than djinns."

A thought.

"Well, I guess one of the reasons for that is that the Crab Clan does its job well. The Unicorn and the Phoenix have it easy in their border-related duties compared to them."

"True enough. When I have to fight, it's usually just human beings who die the same way I might. The Crab..."

He shook his head.

"Some of the ronin I've worked with had served with them. They say it's every bit as awful as the Crab claim."