Naunet

"How would I know... how would I... well, I can say no to her for one." Blue eyes narrowed. "And trust me, I'm not too happy with her side of things either."

Thal couldn't hold back the scoff at that, his frustration getting the better of his usually easy-going attitude. "Nope, wrong again. That kid doesn't control me."

He shook K'ile at that and growled low before tightening his jaw and looking away a moment. When he spoke finally, there was only disappointment in his voice, "I'll give you wandering, until recently, but do I look mindless to you? At least I know what tempering means."

"I'm not pretending," He squeezed his eyes shut a moment before letting out a low sigh. His fingers tightened their grip in K'ile's armor and he lurched backwards, lifting the Tia as he stood. "I was gonna just disappear again. But then I see you trying to doom your whole family to Ifrit's tempering? That's..." He grimaced heavily behind the mask, blue eyes catching a glint of light. "I don't have to remember them to know how wrong that is. Maybe I should have killed you."

"Even when I'm just trying to help, huh," Thal muttered, sighed a dry, rattling sound. He leaned down on K'ile a bit, putting some pressure on the Tia's chest in warning. His tail writhed behind him, shifting the dirty cloth of his borrowed robe. "You were being very, very stupid. And if I was as evil as you'd like to make me out to be, I would've let you go ahead with your grand plan."

"Alright." And Thal did just that. Stopping without further comment, he swung K'ile's weight over his shoulder, gripping around the Tia's waist to bring him down hard against the ground. He followed after, pinning with legs and arms. Behind the mask, his features were drawn into a disappointed expression. "How do you think fighting's going to end for you again?"

When Thal could no longer ignore the Tia's stirrings he tightened his grip around the man and muttered a warning, "I'll knock you out again if you keep squirming." They were nearly free of the pass, which would lift a good chunk of the weight on Thal's chest, so he picked up his pace a bit despite the shifting body over his shoulder. "I'm gonna get you back to where you belong. But I wouldn't mind your help."

There wasn't much Thal could do about the girl's anger. Some of it he probably deserved, for leaving her with the Amal'jaa perhaps - or at least, for agreeing to help the hunter in the first place. But then he had every right to be angry at her, so a part of him wasn't too impressed with how quick she got pissy at him. He didn't point this out, however, choosing to walk in silence, and when silence became too boring he hummed a few, quiet tunes he must have picked up from somewhere but could never place. They reached the pass north in an unnatural time, having no need to stop for rest, and Thal's steps even gained a bit more energy as they made their way through it, happy to have some distance between them and Ifrit's children. The end of the pass was in sight when the Tia hung over his shoulder began to move in ways more noticeable than the occasional twitch of tail or ear, and it brought a frown to Thal's face. He said nothing to the man immediately, though, instead commenting apropos of nothing, "You and I are going to need to have a long talk at the end of this, kid." The "talk" didn't sound particularly friendly.

"I'm not gonna undress some guy just because he might have a better shirt." Thal shook his head. Blue eyes followed the slight twitching of a red tail in silence for a moment, and then he let out a sigh that rattled his chest. "Besides, it would just make him angrier, and I kind of want him not trying to kill us." The cloth shroud was also uncomfortable, blocking the clear desert air from his skin. He spent so long shrouded by the forest, it seemed ridiculous to wander around in a blanket when he didn't have to. "When we get past the canyon ahead, we'll stop and you can change."

As long as that hunter didn't send anyone after them. Or come after them himself. But Thal didn't voice these concerns; they were just unnecessary worry for the kid. He could handle keeping them moving easily enough. He didn't speak again until the fires of the Amal'jaa stronghold were only vague, nearly invisible glows on the horizon, leaving the two of them in shadow and moonlight. "On the bright side," he began, forcing a chipper note into his voice, "I've got you some new clothing." A pause. "Well, not new. But it's better than... that."

Thal let his own steps quicken as the wind picked up, trusting that the girl would keep up on her own. The shroud of dust made it difficult to see, but he kept himself going in the same general direction towards which they'd already been moving. He could make out the dark silhouettes of short ramparts, or the occasional large shape that must have been Amal'jaa. But dust storms were common here, and he heard no sounds of alarm that would suggest the beastmen considered the winds to be anything other than natural. After a short time, his feet his wood that creaked beneath his weight and swayed, and he froze for a moment. A bridge? He recalled passing over canyons with the hunter and grimaced. Ducking his head at the dust, which had begun to thin, he continued across the bridge at a somewhat more hurried pace. It was a good thing his body did not tire.

"Great, cover. Be my guest," he shrugged his shoulders against the weight of the Tia he carried, and wondered just how long the guy would remain unconscious. "Because if they do notice us, it'll be when they see supposed slaves to Ifrit just walking right off camp." He kept moving as he spoke, his voice as low as he could manage. The hood over his head cast a shadow over half the mask and completely hid his eyes in inky darkness.

"No one is." He tried not to look around too much as they walked, keeping to unpopulated paths and judging north as best he could. A few Amal'jaa looked their way, but he kept his head down and did his best to look as slave-like as possible. Hopefully it fooled them all. As the fortifications and encampments thinned out so did the cliffs and canyons, until Thal found himself faced with largely flat land, dotted with sparse shrub and the occasional low barrier or camp. "Might have to break for it soon," he muttered.

"You're gonna draw attention if you don't stay low, kiddo," Thal grunted and stepped around K'aijeen. "I'm not really a fan of killing people anyway. So stay quiet and preferably out of sight while we get through this."

"Stopping him from being the biggest idiot since... well, since a while, probably." Satisfied that the way was clear for now, he walked forward and did his best to keep his steps purposeful but unhurried. He was just another miqo'te slave, possibly dragging around some soon-to-be-tempered captive. Oh the irony. He bit back a rough chuckle at that, digging his fingers into the Tia's leather armor. "Let's just get out of here."

"Don't blame ya," he grumbled and followed after. The exit became more apparent despite the fumes the closer they got, and he slowed as they approached it, blue eyes narrowing as he tried to smell through the gases. Shifting the Tia's weight, he pulled his hood back up over his head and had to hope that the girl knew how to just stay out of sight. He didn't particularly fancy trying to fight his way out of the Amal'jaa stronghold.

Thal hadn't noticed anyone in the tunnel with him, until a thundering crack that shook the walls and ceiling around him stopped him in his tracks. He spun just in time to catch the movements of a thin form in the shadows, and tensed, prepared to fight, until her scent reached him. He grimaced through his relief. "Sorry for all that trouble, kid," he muttered and turned to continue running. He adjusted K'ile to a more comfortable position over his shoulder. "You don't happen to know a way out of here, huh?"

"Maybe." Thal bared his teeth in a rebellious grin that went unseen behind the Woodwailer mask, though he was far from happy. He kept taking slow steps around to one side, anxious to figure out an escape plan. He could make out the shadow of another tunnel to his right, unblocked by the Amal'jaa hunter. Of course, it could very well just lead him deeper into more Amal'jaa - or it could take him somewhere he could sneak his way out of. What was another miqo'te thrall of Ifrit, after all, so long as K'ile went unrecognized. "If you kill me, you can't get your revenge anyway. So I think I'll kill this guy on my own terms - and that would be, not here." Before he'd even finished speaking, he was running, lunging to the side and ducking down in anticipation of the hunter releasing his bolt.

"You make me do the dirty work; I get to decide when the punishment's done," Thal snapped and darted his eyes about in the fumes. He didn't bother responding to the hunter's comment on the kid, and a part of him figured she was safer underground anyway. Instead he breathed in the air, catching the stench of the hunter in the sulfuric reek of smoke, and started sidestepping in an arc around him. How to get out of this place was his present problem.

Blue eyes flicked to one side behind the mask, glaring into the smoke and shadows around the cave. He couldn't see clear enough to make out any form, but he didn't have to see to know who spoke. He growled wordlessly, pulled one arm back, and then brought down his fist into K'ile's face. He felt the Tia's nose crunch beneath his knuckles and hoped it had been enough to knock him out completely. Not waiting, he stood and pulled the other man up with him. "You won't have to worry about him anymore. His family deserves to take out whatever punishment they would want on him."

"I know," Thal bit out, mostly to himself, as he shrugged his body and finally tore the spear from his side when K'ile's grip fell away. It pulled free from his flesh with a wet squelch and an unsettling sensation, but he forced himself to ignore it as he tossed the weapon to one side. Locking his knees on either side of K'ile's hips, he pulled his own weapon free of the Tia's armor and discarded it just as he'd done the first before gripping the other man by the collar of his armor. "I'm not gonna kill you," he muttered at the groaning miqo'te. His ears lay flat in his hair, tail lashing violently above him. "But I'm definitely gonna stop you from making such a stupid decision." As he said this, he slammed K'ile down against the ground once, in part for emphasis, and in part to ensure he was good and dazed, if not completely unconscious.

Thal released his weapon with one hand. He felt K'ile's own spear jamming into his side and a numbness spreading from it, but without pain it was easy to ignore; what was one more hole after all of this anyway? Instead of shoving at the blade slicing into him, he dropped his weight down upon K'ile, pinning him with both his body and the black metal barb, and then swung his free arm around to knock the Tia upside the head.

Thal barely felt the blade of K'ile's weapon cut into his side, no pain from it just a pressure that sunk inward. Brushing the sensation aside with an animalistic growl, he pushed and twisted, catching his own weapon further on the Tia's armor and then jerking to one side and slamming down hard. The action, if successful, would pull the Tia off his feet and bring him down to the ground as though he'd been hooked.

The mask covering his face faced the onslaught stoically, though Thal's posture buckled down, vibrating with tension. He ignored the heat, instead waiting for K'ile to come close. Then he jerked his own weapon up, and both spears clashed against one another, throwing sparks between them as he sought to deflect the blow. He followed through with the motion, twisting the dark barb hard to knock it solidly into K'ile's chest.

A growl echoed in his tattered chest. The palms of his hands and feet felt numb, but that wasn't something he had time to think about now. Resecuring his grip on the dark barb, he crouched lower, shifting away from the sluggish flow of molten rock. He didn't like being forced into defense; his instincts told him getting the first - and last - hit in would be his only hope of beating K'ile Tia again, in this state. But for now, unless he wanted to risk melting his legs off, he had to hold back. He glared towards K'ile and didn't respond.