Twinflame

K'aijeen ran, but not very far. She sloshed through the knee-deep water until she'd reached the shallows on the other side and there turned to watch Thal. She had hoped he would follow her but was not surprised when he did not. A dead branch with curling leaves hung from a loop of red thread on her side, and she took it in her hand, untangling it quickly. Her hands moved quickly and carefully despite the fear that was pulling strange, choking sounds out of her shredded throat. She tried to think of Thal's questionable mortality as a boon, but she couldn't manage to lie to herself like that. He was still just a body, after all. * Baoht Zuqqa Roh crouched in a muddy pool, his shining scales making him appear as a great stone. He held his bow and its arrow low beside him, just above the water, and the hot wind that wrapped him stirred up the surface with considerable ripples. He watched the first drake dealing with the thrown stones as the two others surpassed it to rush the man. This was the prey given him by Shan'Gai Chah? Baoht Zuqqa Roh should have sent two arrows back with the tracker. Perhaps his drakes had misread the scent. That happened sometimes. He would ensure his target after this one and his companion were dead. The fourth drake passed Baoht Zuqq Roh to one side as he lifted his bow and directed it towards the sick-looking child that had fled.

The green-haired girl, who had been called K'aijeen, drew back only slightly at first. She had memories of hunting sand drakes. Setting a trap. Harvesting one for its spine. She hadn't made the choice to do those things. She wouldn't have. It hadn't been right. But she remembered the feeling of bones and meat giving way under her small hands and improvised tools. She remembered touching the electricity of the dismembered nervous system. Hiding almost more from the unwanted memories than from the drake itself, K'aijeen backpedaled and spun, putting herself behind Thal and pushing herself flat against his back, her hands up on his shoulders. She looked around him as the drake came down the stones and headed for the water, shouting the whole way. Two more appeared atop the great stones near the water, following it, roaring in kind. Bestial roars still came from further south. The Ourobon heard them coming and began to flee clumsily, its unwieldy body moving with difficulty. But the drake did not chase it. It gave the fish no attention at all. The drake, pulling itself along on its belly but its head still as high as K'aijeen's shoulders, pulled itself into the water and continued straight towards herself and Thal. Its eyes burned with light. Its mouth opened to display teeth and tongue and oozing, petulant drool. K'aijeen grated out a high-pitched sound of fear when suddenly there was nothing but air and water and silt between Thal and the lizard.

((Taking place after What Can be Found if You Trust the Gods, with some time in between and some important details intentionally left out.)) Will had poured out of the Bowl of Embers just like sparks from an overturned brazier. Baoht Zuqqa Roh, therefore, walked the sands. The sun did not burn as hot this far north, and his scales cooled. He clawed at his forearms in distaste, grinding his jaw and letting his pointed teeth click. The sun drakes noticed that their master had paused and turned, eight eyes glowing from faces the color of dust, to await his instruction. Their passive submission annoyed him -- they did not actively fear him -- and he exhaled a growl that burned the air like the breath of a molten fissure. The sun drakes turned more fully towards him, and their heads dipped, and their maws closed. Baoht Zuqqa Roh dropped down into a crouch and grunted instruction in a furious tone, gesturing, and the beasts followed his motions, obedient, quivering. When Baoht Zuqqa Roh stood, two of the drakes departed, moving fast in two different directions. The others remained, eager for instruction, growing more submissive each instant he withheld it. "Roh!" A grating voice shook through the stones. Baoht Zuqqa Roh turned to look behind him, the air roiling around him, and glared at the other Amal'jaa coming past the rocks behind him. A tracker, carrying a spear in one hand and a staff of calling in the other. This new Amal'jaa's scales did not glint as brightly, as though he were adorned in shale, or the tempering had left him ashen. The tracker raised his blunted claws. "Roh, word for Zan'rak!" Baoht Zuqqa Roh shook. A twitch flowed outward from his spine, hot through his shoulders and arms and belly, and he belched volcanic breath. "Am I called for?" The wood of his bow thrummed as it shook in his hand. "Shan'Gai Chah sends these words: You are to-" "His words? Now? Send Shan'Gai Chah a message for me!" Baoht Zuqqa Roh lifted his bow and knocked a two-meter metal shaft into it, lifting it and letting it go without giving the tracker a chance to flinch. It was not a glancing shot; the arrow stuck in the Amal'jaa's chest and punctured one of its lungs, the dusty bundle of unpolished scales dropping on its side in the dirt. Bahot Zuqqa Roh shook his bow at the tracker. "Drag yourself back to Shan'Gai Chah and deliver that before you expire, or die a failure!" It was a fitting gesture. Baoht Zuqqa Roh would not deserve his title as the Scorpion's Tale if he did not occasionally sting. The sound of a sun drake's call tore Baoht Zuqqa Roh's attention from his victim, drawing his gaze towards a rocky outcropping north of him. The beast was small and distant, but his sharp eyes could see its gaze directed still further northward. The sun drake shouted again, and Baoht Zuqqa Roh tossed his head back to let a very similar shout out himself. The two drakes at his feet responded, roaring at the sky, and moments later the fourth -- which had one southward -- called out as well. Turning his bow in his hands, Baoht Zuqqa Roh growled and grunted at the drakes before him, and they ran to join the northmost of them. Baoht Zuqqa Roh took another metal shaft and set in against the string of his massive bow, and his teeth clicked. "Not even Shan'Gai Chah has the right to interrupt a hunt he himself requested. Especially once the hunter has the scent of their prey." As he took his first stop forward, he exhaled a hot breath, and it stirred a wind that wrapped around him soundlessly. His scent was trapped by it, concealed from the nose of his quarry. His footsteps made no sound. He lowered himself and crept at a running pace northward, his drakes running ahead of him. * The green-haired girl pointed out the Ourobon. She smacked Thal on the arm to get his attention. "I found one. There!" She pointed more emphatically. Her clothes by this point had degenerated into little more than red threads that wrapped her shoulders, torso and hips, as though simply decoration for her burned away chest and the burnt hole through her back. The cloth tied around her neck did not perfectly conceal the wound sliced in her neck. The thin, dark corpse bounced in the knee-deep water and pointed at the Ourobon as though it was very hungry. Really, she was just doing her best to help Thal hunt. When she turned to look back at the Ourobon in the shallows, her gaze lifted to the sand-drake on the rocks, several hundred meters south of them and staring right at her. Her ears pitched back, and she looked vaguely troubled, though she knew that sand drakes rarely attacked full-grown Miqo'te in the wild. Then it roared, shouting at the sky above it like a wolf calling to its pack. And it was answered by others, an echoing series of calls throughout the southward rocks.

"Rest? I've been resting... not sleeping, of course..." K'ile grumbled, looking grumpy where he stood. He flinched when Xha'li spoke, as if the man's words hurt his ears, and gestured grandly. "Yeah, sure, do whatever. Just don't break anything and I'm sure it's... Y'know what?" He gave Xha'li a look. "Yeah, go watch the ceremony. Learn it, respect it, and then find me after. You and me have a lot of food to cook for the feast tonight." He turned to K'tahja, who was walking away from him and called, "Hey, Tahj, you want to help out after, too?"

"Oh, you're one to talk," K'ile started in at Luha. He could smell the distress emanating from her. He'd smelt it all the way from K'zhumi's tent, even through his dulled senses. K'yohko was an idiot to tell K'ile to leave him alone, that he couldn't give K'luha what she wanted. Typical of him. Given half the chance, K'luha would take what she wanted, whether K'ile knew it or not. That's the main reason he'd gotten close to her at all. She took comfort from him that he didn't know how to give. So, really, K'ile didn't even try. He just walked up to her and held a hand out to her. "I wanted to make sure you were okay. I'd started having nightmares where your legs fell off or something got in your blood. People had me a bit worried with their talk." Something warked loudly in his ear, making him cringe painfully. More offensive was the sudden stink of chocobo all around him, a stench more offensive than a week-old carcass. K'ile flinched away from the giant vulture and gave it a whimpy bonk in the beak with a half-formed fist.

K'ile ducked away from K'yohko's hand, and even just that motion hurt. "I'm nto going to go crawling into your tent like a woman who's had too much to drink. Leave me alone, will you?" He turned to start towards tent the K'yohko had indicated earlier. K'ile sniffed at the air, narrowing his gaze. he couldn't see much, but he could smell K'luha and K'tahja moving together, and he could almost make out their voices. So he began to follow that smell, though he had some difficulty distinguishing it from everything else assaulting his senses. Once he'd gone a few steps, he decided that he wasn't that far behind and called out, "K'lu-! Ow." He cringed, the volume of his own shout hurting his ears.

"Can't give her... what? I'm not trying to..." K'ile cringed, putting his palms to his forehead. "Augh, it makes me headache worse just thinking about it! I can't give women what they want. Women don't want anything except, uhm. Everything. I guess. Ow." He gave the Nunh an aggressive frown. "K'yohko, stop trying to make my head hurt with that stuff! Like you know anyone anyway. I've never seen you talk with anyone for more than two minutes straight."

K'ile Tia struggled pitifully at the Nunh, every movement hurting like nails were shifting inside of his skull. Still, he managed to squint up at the much larger man, scowling, "I am not going to wander. I'm not blind. And don't think I'm going to delay my challenge against you. I can beat you whole or injured just the same." He turned his face out towards the camp, sniffing at the air, ears turning this way and that. "Now, where's K'luha's tent?"

K'ile didn't burden K'zhumi with any more of his shifting. He moved as quickly as he could out of the tent, enduring the ache in his skull as he did so. The momentum that came with moving quickly helped ward away any dizziness, so he kept moving despite the strange scents that assaulted his compromised senses. Her placed a hand over his face as though to ward them away. The instant he stepped outside he was overstimulated by the many new smells of Eastern Thanalan, the fresh camp, and all of the people. His head throbbed. He stumbled, tried to stay upright, lost his balance and fell to a knee. He heard voices and movement, but couldn't make any of them out. Why had he thought this was a good idea? K'ile didn't want to end up on his side, so he got up and started moving again. Where did he even think he was going? He'd had someplace in mind, but he couldn't think. * K'takka paused one last time before entering the Elders' tent to look back at K'yohko and, again, shake her head. "She is good with a bow, but does not know the techniques the huntresses use. She is uninitiated in the ritual of the hunt. Remember, she did not grow up with it. When she understands, she can go on a blessed hunt. Now, go." The woman moved into the tent, finally, her gaze and her attention moving to the actions of the other Elders and the preparations for the hunt.

K'ile Tia scowled at the wall of the tent as though it were to blame for his poor health. His eyes were dark and only barely open, just the act of staring painful. Everyone had been looking at him like he'd done something stupid, but they didn't know. What was he supposed to do? The dead should not walk. Especially not him. As if seeing K'iara walking around like the man reborn in female form wasn't bad enough, K'piru's wicked daughter was pulling him out of the earth and marching him back to the desert. He should have known he would lose that fight. Everyone always did. K'thalen had never been defeated as Nunh, so why would things be any different now that he was undead? It had taken bad luck, betrayal, and a world on fire for the man to fall last time. Of course he wouldn't go down to anything K'ile had, even if K'ile had decided to go all out. K'yohko would've crumbled like a bullied child, but K'thalen hadn't even flinched. So it meant nothing. As long as the dead walked elsewhere, it meant nothing. K'ile would get his strength back and defeat K'yohko. And in the meantime... It seemed the Elders wished him to suffer K'zhumi's scowls. The sound of the tent shifting in the evening wind hurt his head, and K'ile pushed on his eyes as though he could supress the ache. It felt like his skull itself had been bruised. He didn't like it. It bugged him. He growled and pressed on his eyes and didn't want to be here. He had nothing against K'zhumi but he didn't want to be here. And she didn't want him here either. "I'm going." He snapped, slamming a fist down in the dirt and lifting himself up. The motion hurt. He felt dizzy. His ears brushed the wall of the tent and for some reason that sensation throbbed inside of his head. "For a bit. Just. To get air."

"No." K'takka snapped this with ease, lingering between the inside of the tent and the outside of the tent. "You are not a hunter. You are the Nunh. And it's time you started acting like it." She spoke firmly, but without any kind of disdain or frustration. She was just adamant. "Your job is to produce many strong children. Your job is to fight Tias. If there are no Tias to fight then you have not been doing your first job well enough. No, tonight you must make one of the huntresses your prey, K'yohko."

((Those who want to understand K'ile's situation should read at least the most recent post in this other RP thread over here)) K'ile Tia had gone missing while scouting the narrow pass between Southern Thanalan and Northern Thanalan, ahead of the tribe's movement through that area. he should not have been away from the tribe alone; everyone knows not to go off on their own. K'yohko Nunh had made such a mistake days prior and the entire tribe had suffered as a result. K'ile had been one of his chief detractors for his trespass. And yet K'ile had made the same mistake not days later. All that was left of him in the pass was his discarded spear, burnt and blackened, and spots of his blood dashed on patches of quartz in the middle of the sand. K'takka crouched over the quartz in the middle of the pass, noting the way it shone like glass in the sun. There were orange crystals ringing it, shattered into small fragments, and her silver eyes narrowed in suspicion at them. As she brushed a hand over them, the red stones on her wrist shone. "Hm." "Elder?" The tribe was around her. The huntresses watched her carefully, seeming less worried about K'ile and more worried about what the Elders would decide to do. K'takka looked to the other Elders, K'deiki and K'jhahni, noting their expressions. K'takka glanced at the Nunh, then back down at the quartz. Her eyes closed, and she breathed deeply, smelling the blood and the earth, the old stink of dead bodies inexplicably lingering in the air. Then she opened her eyes and pointed her shivering claw at two of the huntresses. "You and you. Track him. Retrieve him if it is safe. Leave him and find us if he is not. We will not wait for you." The women nodded. The two women were dark-haired with tinges of red in their eyebrows. Children of firedancers two generations removed. It seemed appropriate. The tribe left the pass and moved north-east as though nothing had occured. K'takka did not wish to hear another word about K'ile Tia, neither about his disappearance nor his return. She did not speak to K'yohko about this. She did not ask after any of K'ile's family or friends. K'takka did not entertain any discussion about the feast or the challenge. It did not matter to her. The tribe was moving, and she kept her eyes forward. * "We will not stay here." K'takka's tone once again brooked no argument. It never did. "But, Elder," the huntresses' thin arm extended towards the corpse of the goobbue and the many plants that grew around it: fruits, herbs, edible and medicinal roots. "This is the location which K'luha, K'ile and the others said would be best." "They did not have my sight." K'takka's silver eyes opened wider, and she stared into the fetid, clouded eyes of the goobbue, like dirty marbles set in the dome of its head. Its mouth hung ajar with rigid teeth preserved. The same plants that grew around it grew over its flesh as well, wrapping it like a skull. "Young people might see life springing from death and mistake it for beauty, but I see nothing but ill omens here." K'ile Tia had been found in the settlement of Drybone, surrounded by Ul'dahn healers. Some might have called that a good thing as well, but K'takka was beginning to sense ill omens in the Tia's unexplained movements. The man had been skirting the challenge of Nunhship for almost six long years, and now it seemed like he was walking the precipice of death. His red ears laying flat against his head, sitting on the wagon as one sick -- he was injured -- he lifted his darkened eyes and spoke to the Elder. "K'luha and I slept a night below the goobbue." "As I said. Ill omens." K'takka turned to watch the other elders as she spoke. "West some malms, nearer the water. Open sky beneath Azeyma. We will camp there." She waited for the input. The tribe waited with her. K'ile Tia frowned and closed his eyes, resting a hand on top of his head. The huntresses had found him concussed and bruised, with a swath of black and blue across his neck where he had been strangled near to death. Given the burned spear and quartz, K'takka had expected him to have been burned, but he was not. She found it suspicious. He had been sustained by the healing magic of outsiders, but was weak and could not be permitted to sleep for fear that he would not awaken. He'd claimed that he had been attacked by bandits from Gridania. K'takka found it suspicious. Her thin tail swung behind her, fur patchy, swaths of ashen black flesh making it pull unnaturally and shiver. She glared at the Tia with her silver eyes. He did not notice. * The tribe was almost as quick to set up camp here as they were in the desert. The ground was harder here than in the desert, and it was a challenge for some to drive their tentpoles into the ground. They used spear and stone to help in digging. The tents, as always, followed the same layout, with the Elder's tent in the center and the healers' tent nearby, food and storage ringing a great central bonfire and public gathering area. Personal tents circled the outer edge of the camp. The organization was interrupted in some places by rocks too large to be moved, but this was a minor inconvenience. They did not dig a well. For the first time in the tribe's history, they were within walking distance of fresh water. Standing just outside the Elders' tent, K'takka could see the stone daises that stood as monuments about the pond. She could smell the fertile water and the pungent herbs that grew around it. Plants were everywhere. Small animals, birds, and insects were plentiful. No one would starve here. No one would thirst. "K'iara!" K'takka snapped suddenly, turning her gaze to their oldest and most reliable huntress. Behind her, inside the tent, the sounds of clattering bone and pot could be heard, the other Elders working not only to settle into their new home but also to prepare the fetishes and blessings that the tribe relied upon. K'takka gestured to the red-haired huntress, beckoning her nearer. "Gather the huntresses. We Elders will proclaim and bless the first hunt in mere minutes. Be ready." She then turned to go inside of the tent, but paused, and frowned back at K'iara. "And send someone to the K'Zhumi's tent to check on that damned Tia. Ask him about his foolish challenge. And ask K'luha about it too! Give her a chance to withdraw her support! She might just save his life."

"The dominance fight comes later. That was just..." He gestured over his shoulder, but ran out of words. He didn't want to bother thinking about how to describe it or what it was. "Just a thing. Hey, kid, that's a lot of background and I'm not going to remember most of it. Just have yourself a nice bath and don't think about it. You'll be fine." At this, K'ile tried to walk off again.

"Oh. Uhm. Sheesh." K'ile's ears fell down. He hadn't been expecting any kind of openness from the kid, much less some Outsider's sob story about matriarchs and twins. He tried to cobble together a response that was more than incoherently blathered syllables. "I'm pretty sure Yohko and I weren't wrestling like you and your twin. That was totally diff-... Uhm. Hey, you know, just... Uhm." His tail flipped aout in the water behind him, and a moment later, he swung it to splash a bit of water in the Xha'li's face. "Stop pouting. Remember the good stuff and forget the bad stuff. Family's important, so you're lucky you had more to go looking for. Not all exiles get a second place to go to."

K'ile rose after some time, turning his back on Yohko. He considered that entire business finished. As was the last "bath" he ever planned on taking in his life. He turned his back on Yohko and trudged towards the shallower end of the pool, intent on exiting the springs as far as he could get from everyone else. As he went, he passed Xha'li, K'zhuzu's somewhat more useful child. K'ile muttered, unable to disguise the sense of disappointment in his voice. "Hey, what're you whispering all quiet and sad for? I thought people were having fun."

K'ile lay dazed in the water. His body was still heavy with the weight of K'yohko's body slamming down on him, reeling with the disorientation of being thrown over and submerged. His body ached in the various places that Yohko had grabbed and held him, not the least of which being his hips. That particular ache went all the way through to his tail, with shivered in the water. He sat up by necessity, so that he wouldn't drown, but stared straight down at the water in front of him. His body was more alive with remembrances of Yohko's skin than it was with the feeling of his own movement. That was not the reaction he had expected. At all. Damn Yohko. K'ile bit his bottom lip to try and overwhelm the lingering sensation of Yohko's teeth. Maybe K'ile should've kissed him first, so it couldn't be turned around on him, but it was too late for that. Yohko had won. This time. K'ile sat silent, defeated. And he was even more wet now. His ears twitched above his head.

K'ile knew this game. He'd plaid it once or twice on Yohko when they were kids, back in the one or two years of his life when K'ile had actually been bigger than Yohko. Of course, usually it was just K'ile pinning Yohko down and forcing the shy kid to tolerate someone else in his personal space. Yohko would always go crying back to his mother, and then K'ile would get scolded. But not here. This was Yohko trying to outplay him. "Hey, where'd shy little Yohko go? You aren't going to beat me, you know?" K'ile's smile stretched. One of his ears twitched to free some water droplets from his fur. He turned his face sideways and leaned forward, so their cheeks were along side of each other, so his breath was brushing the side of K'yohko's head. "But if you want," He extended himself over K'yohko's body, so he could speak directly into the Nunh's ear. "After I beat you in the challenge in a few days," His tail lifted and swung back and forth above them. He dropped his voice low, so low, so maybe even Yohko wouldn't even be able to hear it. "I can be your Nunh, and you can be one of my women..."

K'ile kept K'yohko pinned at his hips and all four limbs, bending down so his face was close to the Nunh's face. He smiled broadly, and tried to speak in a tone of fake confidence, knowing every else could hear. "Just saving you from being the center of attention. Thought that might be a bit much for shy little Yohko. It's nice to see you out playing the water with the other kids for a change, though."

K'ile Tia's face hurt inexplicably, and he hadn't expected to find himself pinning K'yohko face-up. He wasn't going to let himself pause in confusion, however. He needed to secure his advantage while his still had it. The much smaller Tia stradled K'yohko's waist, pinning the man's large legs with his feet, pushing his wrists down in the water. K'yohko could maybe sit up far enough to breathe, but the need to do so would help K'ile keep him pinned. Hopefully.

"Dodge. I am dodging!" Kile crossed his arms with a huff. Now that he could see the waterbombs coming, there was no way K'luha would be able to get him.As she launched another of the water bombs towards him, he stepped to the side of it easily. He heard K'iara shouting at him, predicting her frustration. The low grating of her voice made her sound ferociously vengeful, and he turned wide-eyed to look at the woman, her skin wet and shining in the bright sun, hair as bright as his own, eyes shining blue at him. "What?" She knocked him backwards. He hadn't even seen the blow coming. Stumbling two steps kept his footing, put put him directly int he path of K'luha's second water bomb, exploding over him and his immediate vicinity. At least it washed the mud off him, but it left him scowling. He shivered in the wind. "Ugh. Thanks, K'iara. At least I didn't get you wet on purpose." The splashing and shouting continued as he glared at K'iara, his ears flat on his head. The whole tribe had regressed to children at play, it seemed. He was not surprised to hear K'nahli's angry shouting over everyone. He was a bit surprised that he didn't hear K'mih getting in on the fun, since being an overaged child was pretty much her them. Too far from the oasis to be struck by simple waves, K'ile was spared the diver's retribution. He raised his gaze just in time to watch K'yohko Nunh rise from the water with that expression of static neutrality on his face. K'ile's ears stood up in surprise, blinking at the large man. Of all people, K'yohko? Really? And he managed to do it without any cheer at all, like a stone pretending to be a plant. K'ile looked over at Xha'li's laughter, watching the strangely pale halfblood moving to jump into the water at the Nunh. Brave, for a man that K'yohko was likely still mere seconds away from killing. Also, perfect. K'ile smiled. "Okay." He dropped low, gripped the ground with every toe and finger, tail lifting high behind him, and launched himself forward, kicking sand at K'iara as he bolted away. If there was one thing K'ile could do, it was run quickly. His arms extended out to his sides and his legs moved beneath him quickly and quietly, skirting around the oasis bolt-quick. K'luha was looking off to one side. K'yohko was looking at K'luha, standing in the deepest part of the water. And Xha'liu crashed down in the water, loudly, creating the perfect distraction. K'ile's entrance was fast and slight, his small size working to his advantage. It was his greatest disadvantage compared to K'yohko, the largest man in the tribe. It wouldn't matter now, though. K'yohko might try to dodge Xha'li's wave, but he couldn't avoid both that and K'ile. The small Tia was sure his target was helpless. "Bath time, kid!" K'ile threw himself at K'yohko's back, at full speed, hoping to knock the Nunh into the water and maybe even pin him there.

Water fell over the Elder, despite K'yoko's incidentally blocking it. He had saved her the force of the crash, but it had swelled over his shoulders and fallen on her thin form. The very thin old woman became even thinner as he hair was wet down and smoothed over her head, her clothes sticking to her skeletal frame. Still for once, her gleaming silver eyes were concealed behind her hair, leaving only her tattoos and broad, toothy smile visible. She cackled up at K'yohko and poked him with a clawed hand. "You are worrying if you are doing the best for the tribe, when what you should be worrying about is whence came your attacker and what recompence you can extract upon her." K'ile's entire body stiffed when he was stuck with the water. He stood straight and his tail stuck out behind him, ears high on his head and eyes wide looking around. The water had dazed his sense of smell, wrapping him in the mineral scent of mud and moss. Still, he managed to see Xha'li's belated second water bomb meant for him. His instinct pulled him to the side as though it were fire flying at him, and he rolled into the sand just as the water whooshed by him. The sand stuck to his already-wet body, though, coating his arms and shoulders in mud. "Augh, stop that!" K'ile stood once more, brushing the mud off of him. "You're wasting water and you know I don't like getting wet, Luha!"

K'ile leaned away from K'mih, eyeing the young woman. Then she turned and left, and K'ile just watched her go, frowing, for several moments before turning to K'iara. "Now what'd you have to talk to her like that for? You know it's not like you're piling on the children either. Not that I'd blame you with K'yohko around, but that could've been turned around on you pretty fast." He stepped forward and turned to her, trying to imitate her mocking tone, though he notably did not imitate the raggedness of her wounded throat. "Say, K'iara, you're of age. Think you'd like to have some of K'ile's kittens?"

"K'yohko Nunh gets one week. Just until we get to the new camp site." K'ile replied, deliberately ignoring K'iara's teasing. He was glad that K'mih was as well. "K'yohko's primary role in the tribe is being a father. Besides that, the most important job he has is to defend his title against Tias. That's it. He should not have gotten himself injured. He let his guard down, and if he loses because of that, he deserves to." His ears twitched, and he quirked his features. He tried to soften his tone. "Anyway. I hope he is at full strength when I fight him. I don't want him to lose too easily or get injured in the fight."

"Yes, I do. As soon as I can manage it." K'ile's tail flicked behind him. He'd noticed K'iara's grumbling, but hadn't been able to discern it. When she kept her words beneath the scar tissue in her throat, it was like she was trying to speak by rubbing rocks together. He kept his attention on K'mih. "Being Nunh doesn't mean anything if there are no Tias challenging it."

K'ile Tia did not balk at having his attention pulled away from K'iara. He seemed to be having this same conversation constantly, each member of the tribe taking turns in confronting him about his actions. K'iara deserved her turn, he supposed, but it wasn't often that K'mih -- one of Yohko's children, though he couldn't hold it against her -- was forthright enough to request his attention. His ears standing up and his expression softening, K'ile turned his gaze down to K'mih, blinking at her. "Uhm. Sure. What's up?"