Lyraciilee

K'hai Tia, there was a name K'yohko had not heard of in a long time. But he remembered the name, and the face although it had changed. K'hai, he recalled, came to the battle of Carteneu; along with himself and K'thalen, K'ile, and the others. Like so many, he too did not return from it. K'yohko had thought him dead, even when a woman told him it to be aether sickness or something strange like that, K'yohko had thought the sickness would kill him. But after all this time, he returned? Surely Azyema was playing some very strange and twisted game with him, and more certain still K'yohko found himself to be losing that game. "No. I came out to hunt." K'yohko replied cooly. There was no sense in lying. This man was family, unlike the other. If he should hunt for anyone, it would be his real family. Not some imposter outsider son of a Tia. "K'luha and K'ile have just returned to camp with an outsider. The Elders will be busy currently. Have you the strength for a hunt K'hai? If not, the camp is just down the hill." K'luha was getting unfortunately used to having no say in where she was moved or what was done to her. It occurred to her, that she might have been better off abandoning it all like K'piru and just leaving with K'ailia. But as they might say in Limsa, that ship had sailed. There was comfort in seeing what was left of her family again though. At least it was something. So K'luha tried to stay calm as she was moved, biting down on her lip while K'rahto and K'nahli carried her off to the shaman's tent. Her eyes moved to linger on K'ile's flaming hair and blue eyes. She hoped he wouldn't tell the Elders the truth, or rather that they would believe her over him. She had tried to take as much of the blame as possible. He was in enough trouble as it stood but... Regardless of all of the rest of that, she hoped that he would at least visit her while she was healing. But, if not, she knew at least that Tahj would be there. She still hoped he would come like he said he would. K'iara watched her brother and K'nahli haul K'luha away with a frown. Those two... what was wrong with them anyway? She shook her head and turned instead to K'zhumi. She reached her hands out so K'zhumi might hand her whatever bags or things she needed carried.

The undercurrent of rage faded fast the further he was from the camp. If he did not have to look at the stranger, if he did not have to be reminded of K’ailia, if he did not have to accept the outsider’s presence, then he could calm. It was beyond his understanding that the Elder could so easily accept an armed and arrogant stranger into the camp. Did they not think? If they accepted him into the camp, they had to feed and provide for him when they already could not do so for the countless family members. Why then, would they accept an outsider if they would not accept their own daughter? She was flawed and foolish but brave and confident and skilled. K’ailia should have been welcomed back before some outsider claiming a long lost worthless Tia for a father. But the bitter thoughts in his mind only left a bitter taste in his mouth, for K’yohko all too well knew that there was nothing he could do. The Elders had chosen this path, and he could not oppose them. He could never oppose them. If he opposed them, surely as the Nunh the entire camp would fall apart. What little dying family they had left would be shattered and the Hipparon would be no more but a spec of memory to the wandering survivors. That was a fate he did not wish to inflict upon his daughters or the women whom had mated with him. It was a painful thought. K’yohko looked back to the camp, his eyes honing in sharply upon the small moving figures and the scents that wafted up towards him. Would K’nahli listen to his order? He did not hold his breath that she would. She was too stubborn, too foolishly proud to ever listen. And in the coming days, she would learn to listen. K’yohko couldn’t help the bitter promise to ensure that K’nahli learned her place. He would not have another daughter exiled because they did not know respect. A strong smell suddenly entered K’yohko’s sense and he turned his head towards the source. Across the dunes stood a figure, a stranger. And yet the scent was not of a stranger. Although it had a strange smell to it, K’yohko could smell the undertones of home. He strained his eyes, trying to recognize the man. He was still too far away. K’yohko’s memory did not recall the miq’ote at that moment. K’yohko urged his Courel forward towards the stranger, hoping to get a better look and recall the strange face that seemed so familiar. He rode until he was only a few feet out from the man before dismounting in a swift motion. He stepped in front of his best and examined K’hai, his face as stony and unmoving as K’hai might have recalled it from so long ago. “You seem familiar.” K’yohko called out. He seemed an almost untouched figure of time. His voice as deep and flat as it had been five years ago.

The sands moved swiftly beneath him, and in a swift moment K'yohko and his courel had vanished alone into the sands. 'Do not hunt alone'. K'yohko would oblige her, only there was no one to join him in the hunt. He paused atop a sand dune far out and looked back to the small distant tribe. He saw what he was to them, what he must be, and lamented it. K'ailia had been alive and well, but was she not now? Or did K'yohko mean...? K'luha felt her heart drop as the realization sunk in. Her daughter was gone. Maybe not dead but, dead to her. Dead to her family. It was almost as if she had committed suicide. After all, she chose this path. That way of life that brought her so far away. She found outsiders her new family, and to K'luha? K'luha had lost another child. She had given everything her spirit let her give to K'ailia. All of her worries and actions were for K'ailia. For her well being and saftey. To teach her and show her the beauty of the world and their way of life. Perhaps it was time for her to leave. Perhaps it was Azmeya's wisdom that she take her knowledge and skill elsewhere. But the Tweleve forbid, K'luha did not have the strength in her to accept her daughter's choice. But what little she had not given away of herself, she would give to Tahj and K'ile. If they would accept it. It was how she had dealt with her son's death. And it would be how she dealt with K'ailia's. Luha glanced up towards Zhumi and the unappeitizing looking vial. She looked briefly to Tahj, passified from her panaic and instead taking on an expression of pain and weariness again. She took the vial and quickly downed it. If it would help her, she would drink it. The taste was something between vomit and other things Luha would rather not admit she'd tasted. It made her nauseaous and considerably dizzy. K'iara watched the scene nervously, stepping around the cart just a little ways away now. Her eyes drifted to the elder and her Uncle K'ile before turning back towards the cart. It was getting rather crowded over this way. But when K'zhumi shouted angrily to have someone carry Luha, she knew she could at least be of use. When K'nahli came over to the cart however, K'iara remained a few steps off for a moment, wondering what it was K'nahli would do.. Even in her naseusa and dizziness, Luha could recognize K'nahli's hair and voice. Although it took a few moments for her to recognize someone was even there in the first place. "K'nahli?" Luha asked, reaching a hand up to rub at her eyes as if to clear them. Still, they were blurry and unfocused. Perhaps she was just exhausted. Still, she offered a smile at K'nahli's appearance. "K'nahli it's good to see you again." Luha paused at the quest of pain. Where did it hurt? Why, well, everywhere. Her body, her head, her heart, everything was hurting right now. But there was Tahj here, and she still had her family. K'nahli and K'zhumi and K'rahto were all proof that she had her family again. Both Luha and K'iara looked to K'rahto when he demanded K'nahli stay out, and then that he would take her. K'luha looked a bit worried that the tiny tia was going to carry her, and K'iara looked peeved at her younger brother for being arrogant and rude. At least, K'iara had to think, K'nahli was a smart girl. A hip injury like this wasn't something K'rahto could carry alone without injurying Luha even more. "Do I have a say in who carries me?" Luha mumbled, still rubbing at her eyes. K'iara frowned and came up behind her brother, agitatedly reaching forward to pinch his ear. She oft pinched his ear to warn him when he was being rude or abbrassive. "Don't be rude Rahto. Use the board she was laying on earlier so you don't' have to hurt her hip anymore than it already is." K'iara pointed out the board before looking to Zhumi. Hopefully that would maybe pacify Zhumi for a moment...? Because if Zhumi was going to whack K'nahli and K'rahto, K'iara was already prepared to duck.

In K'mih's almost unbearable shyness, K'yohko found himself breathing evenly. Whatever it was, surely K'mih was unable to commit any great sin. She was, after all, too obidient to go against anyone's wishes. Perhaps that was not a good thing, but in a tribe with too many defiant youths, her obedience was a breath of fresh air. He would never have to put bowls on her head and force it into the sand to try and pound sense into it and even still never quite reach that stupid head... K'yohko brought his thoughts back around to K'mih and that moment. A favorite partner or daughter? The way K'mih asked, she was most certainly referring to if he had a favorite daughter, not partener. It unnerved him to be asked the very question he avoided like a hunting trip with K'ile, or more aptly the very death of his patience and self control. "No." He answered in a rather rushed manner, almost cutting K'mih off. "I don't have a favorite. I have never had a favorite. I do not favor one daughter or woman over the other. All are important and of equal value to me and the tribe." The answer was recited, as if K'yohko had long since been practicing what to say when it was asked. There was a moment of awkward silence before K'yohko narrowed his gaze at her a bit. "Was that... what they scolded you about? You wanted to be my favorite daughter?" He asked somewhat cautiously. It seemed odd to him, and yet made perfect sense. She was the obedient one. Of course there was a reason for her obedience.

Xha'li's refusal to walk away or back off did nothing but inspire more fury within the Nunh. So persistently these city cats came to spew their lies and poison. The boy's disrespect did nothing but mirror K'ile's similar disrespectful attitude; an attitude K'yohko would see abolished if it was the death of him. And it would, most likely, be the death of him. Too many things seemed to look at him with the intent of death. Too many enemies, too few left he trusted any longer. As Xha'li greeted K'deiki, K'yohko found a protective rage lashing out before he had time to think on it. All consuming and overwhelming, he outright roared at Xha'li and stepped between the city cat and K'deiki. His ears flattened and turned out with his rage that could not form words but only incomprehensible sound that filled the desert's vastness. K'yohko's hate filled eyes of purple never left Xha'li's form, but his ears clearly heard K'ile. It had been a long time since anger and hatred had consumed him so fully. Every part of him wanted to lash out. To rip apart the boy in front of him and show him his fragility. But when K'deiki called to him, he found even the elder's wisdom could not reach him where his hate had taken him. Finally he tore himself from the intruder's visage and turned on K'ile instead. "The boy is arrogance and caustic." He hissed at K'ile, his eyes darting between the elder and the formerly missing fire dancer. "And you-" K'yohko roared again, turning on K'ile fully now. "would not be so eager to welcome outsiders either had you actually been here to seem the kill another one of ours." And from his hip where he kept few precious things in a small pouch, he pulled out an all too familiar bandana. It smelt still of K'ailia even though it had been weeks since she left. With the same anger, he threw it at K'ile and looked angrily in its direction. "K'ailia is dead because of them. And I would not see another outsider so soon after it happened. I will not entertain this outsider or your supposed kindness at him." K'yohko snarled and turned sharply on the sand. His anger burned hot in the air as he mounted his courel and whistled for it to ride. "I will hunt for our returning family." K'yohko's courel stalked past the huntresses. K'yohko only too a short moment to meet eyes with K'nahli, a thin and stern look still smoldering on his face. "I will trust you, K'nahli, to see to it that this outsider does not cause more trouble when he is left alone." As the tension turned to fury from K'yohko, K'iara could help but shirk back a little. She had never seen him this angry before. It was a little frightening. Did he have only two emotions? Apathy and anger? Her eyes drifted towards K'zhumi, K'rahto, K'luha, and Tahj. She could help but to subtly walk towards their directions as if to protect them from both the outsider and K'yohko. Part of her agreed when he said it, that it would be best for him to go hunt and cool his head. K'luha found herself with her head placed in Tahj's lap. The younger girl somehow seemed to know how to soothe her pain by untangling her matted tresses. What would she do without Tahj? There was the sound of anger and yelling, a yell she knew from some time long ago. She strained her ears to listen in and heard only a few words of the conversation. Words she might have been better off not hearing. "K'ailia is dead...?" Luha croaked almost immediately towards Tahj. Her eyes forced open and looked panickedly at her niece. "It's not true. Tell me it's not true." K'luha very nearly begged. Her hand weakly grasped back at her niece, her eyes looking at K'zhumi when she noted the healer tending to her.

How was it with her cute and innocent face that she could look so disturbingly... not innocent? K'yohko addled his brain how it was that no Tia had tried to kill him to take her yet. There were some incredibly foolish Tias in his family and none with enough machismo to try anything apparently. Or maybe K'nahli was staving them all off with death glares and arrows. K'yohko thought inwardly he wouldn't be surprised if K'nahli had been interfering with any suitors for K'mih. How K'nahli herself had a suitor... when K'mih did not? He was baffled still. Still, K'yohko felt badly again. The way her eyes watered and she spoke with such a weak and pitiful voice. It made him want to cringe. Such a frail girl, maybe that was why she had no suitors yet. K'nahli scolding K'mih seemed odd to him. The girl coddled K'mih all the time. Why would she scold her? As for K'ile... K'yohko could only hold himself back from outright scowling. He was getting sick of that good for nothing Tia. Still, if everyone else felt the need to scold her, what could it possibly be? K'yohko tried to soften his gaze, although it mostly looked just a stern with his eyes softening a little. He relinquished his hold on her chin and instead dropped his arms to his side. "I promise I will not scold you for it." He wished he could say more of a comforting thing to his poor fragile daughter.

Although K'yohko did not formally recognize it in his head, the faint magical charge given by Xha'li's necklace was keeping him so close to the edge he very well might jump. Almost everytime something magical came into camp, it ended in loss and tragedy and pain. Although he felt that static charge, his attention was so honed into upon the intruder he could not recognize his own loathing of it. Xha'li's attempts at diffusing K'yohko only made the Nunh more cautious. He did not trust the outsider, not even when he claimed to be family. What proof did he have that K'zhuzu was really his father? They vaguely looked alike, but it mattered not. K'zhuzu was not welcome back at the tribe, and more certainly his illegitamite brood were not. "Your very exsistance is an offence." K'yohko snarled viciously, moving forward at Xha'li again. The boy was as stubborn as a babe. Did he not realized he was outmatched? Did he think his chocobos could save him? He knew nothing, and he was nothing but poison. Naught could catch his attention from the intruder, save for the elders themselves. And it should happen that an angry elder emergered from the tent scolding K'ile, who followed behind. K'yohko took note immediately of K'deiki's prescence, which only served to further his aggression. With an elder about, what proof did he have that Xha'li was not here to attack them? They were the anchorstones of the tribe's culture. And K'yohko would not allow them to be harmed. He snarled again at Xha'li and stepped forward, meaning to push Xha'li further away from the camp. Noting K'yohko's aggression, his courel did the same. The great beast snarled and stalked forward at Xha'li's chocobos, as well as the intruder itself. K'luha slumped over a bit more with every rope that Tahj cut. She was too used to being bound and too tired to sit herself upright. As she leaned further over, her hip began an agonizing pain. Luha let out a sharp cry before forcing her hands down to hold herself up. "Hurts... ow...damnit..." Luha cursed at herself. She hated being tied down, but she hated the newfound pain from her release. K'yohko noted the yelp, but his viciousness nor his eyes strayed from Xha'li. He was aware of K'zhumi sneaking around the back, but he did move to stop her or her brother. K'iara looked to Luha as well, a bit startled at the yelp. Somehow an elder charging out of the tent being upset didn't really surprise her. Still, K'iara kept her axe up and ready. Her eyes moved to K'zhumi and she grumbled a little. It wasn't safe for her to be running out with a limp like that but... she left it up to K'rahto to keep Zhumi safe for now at least.

Surprised. K'yohko read it plainly across her face. K'mih was surprised he noticed at all. And then worried. She was afraid of him still. And guilt? So she was indeed running from him on purpose, but then why was it? K'yohko awaited a satisfactory answer, but none was given. She mumbled softly and cutely, looking at the ground still. She could not meet his gaze when she spoke, and that meant she was lying. K'yohko did not trust words when people did not look at him when they spoke. K'yohko's ears twitched downwards. Why did she feel the need to lie to him? Had she done something unforgivable? Why was it that all his daughters apparently lied and did unforgivable things? He reached forward, meaning to grab K'mih's chin and lift it so she might be forced to look into his eyes and his stern angular face. "I can only forgive you for lying if you tell me the truth. Why do you run from me?" He asked a bit more forcefully. K'yohko did not mean to be frightening to his daughter, but his intense gaze and hard words might have frightened the poor submissive girl anyway. How he had ever spawned such a timid girl was beyond his own comprehension. At least he understood where K'nahli's arrogance and standoffishness came from.

Arrogance of the young had always been a pain in K'yohko's side. Truly, it was nothing new to him and although it always annoyed him, he should have been used to it enough to ignore it. To call it the ignorance of the foolish youth and let it pass for nothing more. But for some reason, the arrogance of the outsider here now ran wrong against K'yohko. His felt his blood boil at the boy, who insinuated to know anything about their culture. As if he were one of them, as if he belonged here. Not only that, but K'yohko had never introduced himself as the Nunh. The boy was making rather grand assumptions, although this particular one was correct. His brows furrowing down into an angry stare, K'yohko barred his fangs at Xha'li as he stepped forward again, meaning to push Xha'li back with physical force if the boy wouldn't move on his own. "You are not welcome here." K'yohko repeated, every word an emphasized and angry hiss. His hand moved to grasp his sword tightly. "There are no elders to see you now. You are not welcome in this camp. I do not care were else you go, but you will not stay here." K'yohko's courel snarled and feinted forward at one of Xha'li's chocobos. With a small but swift backwards motion of his hand, he signaled the other huntresses to the ready. A few of the huntresses tentatively grabbed their bows to the ready, others stepping back, but they still outnumbered Xha'li greatly. K'iara looked to her sister, her ears flattening. An old injury? K'iara had been out when K'luha returned. They weren't very close, so she had only heard about it vaguely... But Zhumi was out of the tent quickly and K'iara grabbed another bag of supplies and hurried after her sister. The sight the greeted her was one of thick hostility in the air and she paused at the back of the huntresses and moved a hand to stop K'zhumi as well. If there was a fight going to break out, she didn't want Zhumi in the middle of it. She instead looked to her right where her brother, K'rahto stood. She pushed the sack of medical supplies at him and pulled her ax from her hip. "Watch K'zhumi." She order at her brother harshly, her raspy voice sounding tense with the scene in front of them. K'iara took her place towards the front with the other huntresses whom were baring arms now. She twirled the axe in her arm and stared down at Xha'li with her burning blue eyes. She did not know what was happening, but if the outsider was posing a threat to her family, she did not need to know. K'luha stirred faintly at Tahj's gesture. She felt better with the cool water on her face and the thick and crusted grime removed from at least her face. The elder woman faintly recognized there was a tension off to the side, but couldn't quite comprehend what was happening yet. Her attention instead remained on Tahj as her neice post of the goings on at camp. "That's good, that's good... we always need more huntresses..." Luha smiled faintly, giving a small nod of her head. When Tahj suddenly mentioned her bindings, Luha thought for a moment. "Ah... right. I had almost forgotten. K'ile did it. Because I wouldn't stop getting up and getting hurt again. S'not my fault really..." Luha shrugged, as if the motion would remove the blame from her and shift it elsewhere.

"K'zhuzu? A father?" K'yohko's voice betrayed a hint of surprise. He had barely known K'zhuzu, other than to know he was a weak fool who abandoned the tribe because he was too afraid to return after failing his trial. Maybe that wasn't a truth about K'zhuzu, but it was what K'yohko remember of him. As for the comment about K'ile, K'yohko shot a glare back where the fool had gone off to the elder's tent. His muscles tensed visibly, and he had to restrain himself from chasing after the little fire dancer. Instead, K'yohko looked back to Xha'li and snarled beneath his breath. He had promised himself already; no more outsiders. No more people trying to poison his family. There was enough death here already. "K'zhuzu failed his trial and ran away instead of facing the elders with his failure. Having a son of his return here when he could not even prove himself a man to us is nothing but proof of his disgrace." K'yohko's tail flicked agitatedly behind him, but his face was made of unreadable stone. His eyes spoke only of a loathing for his cocky intruder, and his voice was hard and flat. "That's all for you to know." K'yohko snarled, his hatred betraying his face and voice as he stepped forward at Xha'li. His courel snarled as well. "You are not welcome here." K'iara slipped into the tent with her sister and looked around for supplies she might need. It worried her that Zhumi still retained a limp, but she seemed to be mangaging alright otherwise. "It's K'luha. K'ile returned with her and someone else. An outsider." K'iara paused in gathering things to shoot a worried look to Zhumi. "K'luha looks really injured. And K'yohko looks like he's out for a fight." "Zhumi...?" Luha repeated hazily, her mind trying to pick out people and faces she hadn't heard or seen in what felt like a very long time. After a few moments K'luha seemed to recall the girl. A pretty girl, very pretty, who had studied outside of the tribe for a strange but effective type of medicine. But she had come back home, unlike K'ailia... K'luha turned her head a bit more and coughed before she looked at Tahj again. "Hey, I'm not... dying... It's okay. It'll be fine. Don't cry." Luha smiled at her niece and chuckled.

There was a long silence between K'mih and her father, where his daughter's words rang through his ears. K'yohko's ears twitched faintly, taking in his daughter. She still looked young in her face, but her body said otherwise. She was a young woman; healthy and able-bodied. It seemed strange to him, that his most innocent and submissive daughter would wear something that revealed herself so. Perhaps not only because of the heat, but he felt like a dress that draped over her form cutely might suit her better. Then too, was her hair. When had it gotten so long? He was sure she had kept it in short pigtails for the longest time. When now, had it become to long and framed her face like it did now? K'yohko's lips narrowed faintly, and his stern eyes never flickered and betrayed his thoughts. And finally, his tail flicked behind him faintly. He knew he had to speak with her... but how was he to talk to her without her simply running away again? What way could he break his question to her gently so she might understand and cease to fear him in whatever way she did? "Why do you run from me?" His voice came out deep and stern. Very much not the gentle touch he had wanted to portray. K'yohko very silently lamented his inability to be anything but stern and harsh with anyone. Even if he had wanted to be like K'thalen; loved by all, friendly, and if nothing else, careless, he could never be such a thing.

The small group certainly did not enter the camp unnoticed. Far before they entered, they had been spotted several times over by huntress and the Nunh as well. K'ile was easy enough to identify, even from afar. His scent still had its usual subtleties to it and his fiery hair stuck out like a Amal'jaa camp in the desert. What was more questionable was the other who drove the carriage. He smelled of foreigners, and after the last stroke of foreign entry, K'yohko at least, was certainly not happy to see another one. The last thing to notice about the carriage was a semi-visible form in the back, that smelled familiar but faint. It smelled sick and weak and almost tainted. At least to K'yohko. He smelled a corruption to it, and it made him frowned as the carriage pulled up into camp. Along with the other huntresses who had first noticed the carriage, K'yohko waited at the entrance they made to the camp. Alongside him was his monstrous Courel. The Nunh had found it long ago and raised it, and it was well known as his mount and hunting companion. The Courel snarled towards Xha'li as he came close, but K'yohko quieted the beast with a firm hand to its shoulder. As K'ile called to the camp, K'yohko's ears perked up. K'luha? Was it she that smelled that way. So sick and... The red-headed Tia hopped off the cart and left a demand with a huntress. A particular similarly red-headed huntress. K'iara looked to her Uncle, similarly fierce blue eyes blinking before her whole head nodded. A place for the stranger and his birds? "But Uncle," K'iara called out, her deeply raspy and injured voice probably sounding particularly notable towards Xha'li. She reached a hand for her uncle, but he was elusive as ever. Off he ran to the Elder's and she turned to look at Xha'li for a moment. There was a very tense moment that ensued. The huntresses looked to one another and to K'yohko. The Nunh's face did not change from its harsh and stoic expression, but his eyes lingered angrily after K'ile's trail only to turn back and linger angrily at the outside that K'ile had brought. When it seemed K'yohko might strike the outside away, a loud voice seemed to startled everyone. K'tahjha came bursting through the group, and even K'iara had to dodge out of her way as the excited girl sprinted to the wagon. K'luha had only been half-aware of their arrival, and less than half-aware when K'ile tried to coax her into being agreeable with healers. What she was aware of however was Tahj's voice when the girl screamed for her and her hands when her niece pet her hair and ear. Luha lifted her head, the blankets falling away from her and smiled at her niece. Her face was gaunt and fifthly, along with the rest of her. "Tahj... How are you? I'm so sorry... we were gone for so long. There are so many things that happened but... did K'ailia come? I heard she came back to the tribe but... and my brother, did he...?" K'luha paused before shaking her head a bit and reaching up to grab onto Tahj's wrist lightly. "I'm so happy to see you again Tahj. I missed you." Luha smiled at Tahj and reached up with her other arm to hug her sister's daughter. K'yohko's attention had turned intently to K'luha and K'tahjha for a moment. He listened to their moment, and felt a deep current of anguish. K'ailia... He would not let another daughter end as she had. He turned his head to K'iara. "K'iara. Get K'zhumi awake. K'luha will need her medical attention immediately. She should be well enough by now to tend to her." K'yohko addressed, his deep and cold but commanding voice easily turning the attention on him. K'iara looked from Xha'li to K'yohko before nodding. "Yes. I will go." K'iara turned sharply and dashed off far into camp, to Zhumi's tent. She only hoped her sister was there. K'yohko looked back to Xha'li and stood to his full height. He stepped out in front of the huntresses and looked down to the outsider with an unmoving expressionless face; but in his eyes it was clear his hatred for this man. "Why are you here? What is your business?"

K'yohko was awake long before anyone else in the mornings. When the sun was still hidden, the Nunh was awake with the whispers of the sands and the wind. For his entire life, for all his life, the Sagoli had been his home. He knew it intimately. Every movement of the sands, every shift of the wind; they all spoke to him like an old friend or a mother might speak. And when he awoke he found a quiet place to speak back to them in his own manner. He spoke to them of his daughters. All worried him now. With one having abandoned her home, he wondered if his choice to stay mostly out of their childhood was a good one. But what else could he have done? He was not a teacher. He refrained from speech at most times. And certainly, communing with the sand and wind was an art and practice lost on children. Should he have been sterner? Crueler? Nicer? Should he have become like K'thalen? The questions were never answered by the sand or the wind or the sun, but the rising of the sun put his mind down from its doubt. Doubt did nothing for him now. There was only but to move forward. He stood as the sun warmed his broad shoulders. A soft wind seemed to carry his glance off towards that of one of his younger daughters; to K'mih. All of his daughters were strange to him. More noticeably since the Calamity. More noticeably of recent. K'mih did not oft come to him. But she had never run from him like a child before either. K'yohko moved silent across the sands, a mere specter across camp until he stood just behind his daughter. "K'mih." He breathed out her name easily, although it felt somewhat strange to his tongue. "We need to speak."

K'luha looked down to the bracelet when K'ile mentioned it. She had forgotten she was even wearing it at all. But now that she remembered, the stones seemed to feel pleasantly warm on her skin. They reminded her of pleasantly warm people she used to know, and the void left in their deaths. Luha reached down and rolled the bracelet off her wrist before handing it over, a deep sadness overtaking her face still. "They're already angry. What more can they do? You may as well set me alight with the damned thing. I don't think I'm going to be anything more than a burden to the family anymore. I lost two children, wasted countless resources, and now I can't even hunt or craft. Maybe they'll exile me. That's what we do with people who can't pull their weight after all..." K'luha frowned and glanced off towards the burning blue sky. She sickened herself the way she was feeling so sorry for herself. But there was no way around it anymore. She couldn't just suck it up and fight through this injury. That had only made it countless times worse. Frustrated, Luha sipped at the canteen while her ears flattened against her now long but somewhat matted and tangled hair.

K'luha frowned deeply. Family coming home... Her thoughts turned to K'ailia. Her daughter, where had she gone to? What had happened at the tribe? No doubt... no doubt she was already gone from that place. Something in her very soul told K'luha that. That her daughter was gone to a place where she couldn't reach her. Luha pressed the canteen to her forehead for a moment. Her lips moved to a silent prayer. 'May her brother's spirit guide her to prosperity and happiness I cannot give.' Trying to school the pained expression on her face, Luha turned her eyes lightly towards K'ile. "Maybe... but I would trade him for my own son or daughter in a heartbeat. Exiled tia's sons come back to us, but my own daughter turns her back. It sickens me." Luha turned her head away somewhat sharply, bitter at the keeper for reasons that were not his fault.

Some keeper from the tribe? What...? That didn't make any sense. At least, until she heard it was K'zhuzu's kid. Luha's ears flattened and she glanced back towards the Keeper before back at K'ile. "I met that kid in the tavern back in Ul'dah... I don't think it's a great idea to take him to the tribe with the way K'zhuzu was..." K'luha muttered before grumbling. She looked rather fiercely at K'ile on the comment about blood-brothering with Amal'jaa. Her ears flattened and straightened and then flattened again before she just picked up the canteen and sipped from it. "You should drink some water too." She finally settled on grumbling.

Sometimes, K'ile was very dense. Well, all the time but sometimes more than others. K'luha was satisfied he at least figured out to come close to her, enough so she could whisper towards his ear. "Who the hell is in the cart with us again? And why are you letting him drive?" She hissed lightly.

K'luha took the canteen with a small struggle and tried to settle back down into her prison. She was rather tired of being stuck where she was already and very much was looking forward to getting out of it. She glanced back to K'ile as he addressed the other. Conjury? If she heard the damn word again... Luha narrowed her eyes towards the stranger before looking back towards K'ile. "Hey, come here."

K'luha tried not to laugh at K'ile, which wasn't too hard since she was mift at him for refusing water when he also needed it. Was it a self-sacrifice competition or something? Apparently. If he wasn't going to drink it maybe she just might. "It's huge." Luha snorted faintly before weakly reaching out towards the canteen. "And if you're going to be stubborn I'm going to drink it then. Give it here."

K'luha heard a voice that wasn't K'ile's and blinked awkwardly. There was another person with them? She couldn't turn to see him, or it, but it sounded vaguely familiar. But the lack of assuring 'we have tons of water' was very concerning to her. They were already burnt out and if he had been pouring water on her... Luha made an unhappy face and pushed the canteen back towards K'ile. She couldn't bring herself to drink any more of it, or rather spill it. Since she was doing far more spilling than drinking. K'ile was right about one thing though, the elders wouldn't be happy to see her in this shape. She was certain that being so physically injured now was going to get her in more trouble than K'ile was. She was going to be a burden, if she wasn't one already. K'luha half-paid attention to the conversation, instead thinking to herself before looking back to K'ile. "I'll be fine. I don't need more water. You should have the rest. And the elders can come to the shaman's tent then. I won't have you getting yourself in more trouble than you're already in with your big mouth." K'luha insisted, seeming to regain more of her natural self after some hydration.

At K'ile's words of encouragement, K'luha lifted the canteen again and sipped at it clumsily. She still didn't feel like she could just drink, or more accurately, spill the entire thing on herself. So she only took a bit more before pausing again. "I still feel... out.... of it..." Luha replied, shaking her head faintly. There were awkward pauses between her words that ought not to have been there. But there was a smolder of her usual fire at least in her tone of voice now. Thinking of returning home and seeing the shaman, more of her mind returned to her. "We have to see the... elders... first. They... we're in trouble...." Luha shook her head a little again and frowned before trying to push the canteen back towards K'ile. "Do we have more water...? Or... is this... the last?"

Home...? Were they really? K'luha couldn't quite recall where she had spent the last few weeks doing what, but she recalled that home was good and she had long since been wanting to return to it. Luha vaguely made out K'ile's form, if only because of his bright red hair, and the motion he made. She weakly reached a hand out and took the canteen, her fingers having trouble grasping it firmly. But she managed to hold onto it and brought the canteen to her lips. Luha a few small sips, trying not to waste water but spilling more of it on her than she really was able to drink. "I feel woozy still... lightheaded." Luha replied, still speaking with a somewhat slurred tongue and half-glassy eyes.

K'luha lifted her head a bit at the dousing, making a somewhat loud and incoherent noise. Her head remained lifted for a time, and she blinked some of the sleep and fever from her eyes while she tried to look around. She struggled vainly against her bindings and frowned. "What...? Where... " she mumbled, words finally coherent if not confused.

K’yohko straightened himself as he looked upon K’deiki. She was not of his grandmother, but he respected and cared for her all the same. She was an elder of the tribe, one with great wisdom. Wisdom he only hoped would not be completely wasted on the youth. His throat ached faintly with so much useless blathering, but he persisted on. “My daughter had left us in ignorance. In our difficult hours, I would propose amnesty for her. I see that she cares for us still, but does not wish to stay with us and I see opportunity for amending this. Let her live in Ul’dah. Let her remain our family, free to return and interact with us. She can ease the burden on her mother with her aid from Ul’dah. We frequently trade goods and supplies there. Let K’ailia become our anchor for supplies and sent them to us so we do not have to travel as far.” While it wasn’t quite what they had agreed to, K’yohko could tell that his daughter did not return to stay home. He was also quite sure she had new family in Ul’dah that she did not wish to relinquish. This was his final solution. He was not sure even K’ailia would accept such a thing, but she would also never be able to say he did not try for her.

K'yohko paused outside of the elder's tent at his daughter's request. To learn from him? It was no so easy to teach, much less learn from someone like himself. K'yohko was all too aware he was a severe teacher. Too severe for most to learn much other than bitterness at him. "If you could learn from me, I would teach you." The words settled over the silence for a moment before K'yohko ducked back into the tent and awaited for K'aila to do the same. By this time, K'nahli had left and only the elders remained. K'yohko frowned faintly at her absence. He would need to track her down sometime soon. There were things that needed to be addressed between K'nahli and K'mih. K'yohko's eyes turned over towards the elders and he gave a short bow in respect to them. "I have a proposal, if you would hear it."