Ul'dah was a hard place to figure out. The scents were mostly mud and filth, and after awhile the stink of Hyur sweat got stuck in the nose and left everything else obscured. Brass Blades took their food. How could swords take their food?
Of course the could not, so Brass Blades had to be something else.
K'ile Tia crouched in the market, near a wall, watching throngs of people move around each other like mingling currents of water, pooling in tight eddies around market stalls. He'd figured out that "Brass Blades" were people, armed and armored in red and brass. It made sense. Ul'dahns had no sense for names, so it made sense. Rusty shivs.
He'd made headway. Shipping crates that were confiscated by these so-called Brass Blades were stored. Near the markets. For investigation. The Tia had asked on Blade about it, and been laughed at. Another had gotten angry and warned him off. K'ile wasn't fooled by any of this: it was thievery. It should be illegal, and it was, yet it was not. Ul'dahn gamesplaying to confuse and heckle.
K'piru had said she'd take care of it, before she's left them with the job undone. How had she intended it? She was a money-juggler. Perhaps it was an act that Ul'dahns valued, like fire-dancing.
He couldn't be sure. All he could do was crouch and glare and ponder how and where to apply force. His tribe had laws against attacking tribe-mates, but not against attacking Ul'dahns. And the laws of the Ul'dahns? Obviously worth less than the gil K'piru juggled.
*
K'hai ran through the streets at a full on gait, leaping over lalafells, bounding around lumbering Roegadyns. Till finally the scent trail led him to the markets.
He raised his nose once more, taking in the scents and finding K'ile's once more he moved through the markets, more careful this time, before he found his prey.
"K'ile Tia!" he bellowed, as he approached.
Hearing was not one of K'ile's primary senses. He could hear just fine, and he did hear his name, but he didn't notice that he'd heard it. A strange scent reached him around the same time, a harbinger of someone's approach; it was both familiar and strange. It carried the salts of distant seas, plants he'd never encountered, mineral waters. But also something of home, too, even if it was vague and old.
The Tia lifted his head and let his ears fall back over his hair, shifting his gaze around the tidal motions of human bodies. He caught sight of what looked like on of the taller, broader breeds of Hyur, decorated with a Miqo'te's ears and strangely colored marks on his face.
The uniqueness of the look drew on unsettling memories, and the hair on his neck and arms stood with a warning chill. He straightened his back and watched the oncoming figure with inklings of dubious recognition, but said nothing.
K'hai approached K'ile. Yes his former muscle mass was gone, but even now he was toned enough to look formidable.
"You are to return home immediately. Or do I need to drag you there myself?" he growled. He took his mission with a deathly seriousness, as his lions tail wagged with hostility.
K'ile blinked up at the phantasm. A strangely thin form of a man, pale perhaps, similar but just slightly removed from memory. "Uhm." He frowned. "Depends where I'm going?"
K'hai narrowed his eyes, "To the tribe camp. My sister told me my niece left the tribe and you had invited her to go back there. She has left for the tribe camp!"
Through the veil of red hair over his face, K'ile's blue eyes narrowed in suspicion of the man. "You're dead."
K'hai snarled, "Believe what you want. I don't care if you think I returned to life to rip your spine out. You need to get back to camp before something bad happens to K'ailia!"
"It'll take me a week to get there," K'ile said, "I can wait five minutes to figure out why a ghost is telling me that K'ailia's done something dumb." His voice grew suddenly challenging, "Is there a reason you would want to rip my spine out?"
K'hai crossed his arms, "Sister indicated you were responsible for her  foolish decision. And believe me. I've got questions of my own. Why is sisters hip broken? Why is my niece now an exile? Why was I told to find and send you straight back to the tribe camp?"
K'hai's tail continued wagging, "But I am Tia. I do not ask. I do."
"Things are complicated on my end," K'ile replied, trying to sound casual despite the obviously defensive posture. Though he's crouched on the ground, he looks like he's prepared to be attacked at any moment. "Are you dead or not?"
K'hai's tail stopped wagging and he looked at K'ile, "Sorry to disappoint, but I am very much alive. Not to mention I am feeling as though my stomache is in a fight with a sandworm because of this damn sickness."
In a slow motion motion, K'ile rose and turned towards K'hai. Being a particularly small Miqo'te, he was roughly half the size of the massive man, and yet he looked like he was ready to defend himself. "And what do you remember from Cartenau?"
K'hai looked at K'ile, his expression a lot softer than it was, "I remember them damn garleans everywhere, then the red moon decided it wanted to explode."
K'hai looked up, as though he was reliving that day, "So many shards of crystal and stone assaulted me.... and then something washed over me. I thought I was dead. But then I woke up to a changed world."
The much smaller of the two Tias inhaled enough air to fill both of their lungs, but said quietly, "Did you see Thalen die?"
K'hai looked at K'ile, "No... During the fight, I got separated with my unit."
His frown on his face twitching between varying degrees of suspicion frustration, K'ile was silent for a long moment before turning his eyes away from K'hai and back to the Brass Blade he'd been glaring at before. The strange tension in the conversation robbed all value from K'hai's survival. If the man was alive, that was one less thing the world had taken from them that day. But there was no joy or relief in it. Not for K'hai.
"K'ailia is a fool. If she had a single reasonable thought in her head she would've waited until I'd gone back to the tribe to move. She's going to ruin everything and that's nothing new."
K'hai scowled, "She is family. And what, in Azeyma's name, could of made her leave the tribe? Regardless, I want to get back to the tribe quickly. Is there a way? I will take my sister with me if you want."
"You can go if you want. From Ul'dah it's a week by Chocobo and that includes the trip through the Sagolii." He paused to marvel at how easily he'd summoned that information, when not long ago he had not so much as seen the city. "I'm not sure about moving Luha that distance yet. And I've got better things to do than help K'ailia fix her mistakes."
K'hai frowned at this, "What could be more important than family?"
"More family," K'ile replied, easily. "The Sagolii has been in drought ever since the Calamity. More than five years. The tribe is starving. I had intended to bring food back with me, but," he nodded in the direction of the Brass Blade he'd been stalking, "Ul'dahns have taken the food. Outsiders using their imaginary authority to steal from us. I'm not going back to the tribe empty-handed, and I'm not leaving Luha either."
K'hai looked at the Brass Blade, "Since when have we let outsiders dictate when we can eat then? Are they storing our food stuffs inside that room?"
He looked back to K'ile, "You've grown soft. These Ul'dahn's are city people. They know not how to treat the land. Let the land show them a lesson I say."
"I haven't grown soft," K'ile said, "I've grown cautious. I don't know where the food is. I'm trying to decide whose ass to beat."
K'hai slapped K'ile on the back, "Follow me, I've an idea, that wont require us expending our muscles."
And without looking back, proceeded to the exit of the market.
The much smaller Tia was knocked from his crouched position to his knees by K'hai's much larger hand, and he glared up at the man's receding back in annoyance. Still, a few seconds later, he was on his feet and trotting to catch up to the man. Taking up pace beside him, he said, "It's been a few years since I just straight beat the shit out of someone. If your idea works I think I'll be disappointed."
K'hai laughed, "This idea is sure proof."
A few minutes later, they were in central thanalan, looking at a rather large swarm of biting insects.
K'hai smiled, "Should prove a distraction enough to get past them morons to find your wayward food." pointing at the gnats.
Crossing his hands over his chest and looking doubtful, K'ile replied, "They have bugs in Ul'dah, too. You know even if we do get past them it is /a lot/ of food. I wa splanning on providing the tribe with a feast."
K'hai laughed, "they may have bugs, but not THOSE bugs"
He looked at K'ile, "Just how much food are we talking about?"
"It was being transported by carriage before," K'ile answered, watching the insects. They looked big enough to be honestly dangerous, especially in those numbers. "Too much for Luha and myself and one other to carry on our own, with two Chocobos to help. If it was just a few bags, throwing bugs at the problem and running off with what's ours would be fine. But with this it gets complicated."
K'hai rubbed his chin, thinking over the problem.
"So what happened to the carriage that was hauling it?" he asked.
"Stopped in Ul'dah and stripped clean. And then," he paused, blinked, and his brow furrowed. "What, you mean the actual carriage and driver? I don't know. Might've been sent back to Gridania? Or he's still around."
K'hai smiled, "If it's as much food as you claim, it would take some time for them to empty such a carriage would it not? City dwellers are lazy. Why work to unload, when it would be simpler to just take the whole kit n kaboodles."
He looked back to the insects, "We gather the insects, and you were always a better climber than me. You drop them on their heads and I go find your carriage of food."
"You're betting a lot on this mischeif, K'hai. If the food's not in there, or if they did unload it, or if the carriage is unmovable, or if there's more of them than you're assuming..."
K'hai looked back at K'ile, "What do you suggest we do then? Go through their system? Food would rot."
He stood up, "Or we can forget about the food, and just go home and try to assist with the hunts."
Looking up at the sky, he growled, "We are Hipparion Tribe. We don't cower at thievery, we face it head on."
He looked back at K'ile, "You are too cautious now. If the family is suffering, then caution be damned. Our people are more important than a city full of fat thieves."
Watching K'hai with a straight face while he moved through his many points, K'ile replied, "If we don't think this through then we're just being stupid, and I'm no idiot. Still, it's better than just beating up Brass Blades until they give us what we want."
K'hai smiled, "Well if you've got a better idea, I am all ears. Though I'd still love to see them tough acting guards dancing around trying to avoid those stingers."
He let forth a bellowing laugh, imagining the guards screaming like little children trying to avoid the insects.
"I'd still like to see how you plan on moving the bugs without getting yourself in trouble."
K'hai grinned, "That one is easy."
He pulled out the bottle he used on his trip that carried water and dumped it onto the ground then looked around.
"What is the one favorite food of biting insects?"
"Blood," K'ile answered.
K'hai nodded and spotted his prey and lept forth. In a couple steps he had hold of a marmot that let forth a mighty squeel. He carried it back.
"No need to kill it, but if you would be so kind as to extract a little blood into the bottle."
Watching K'hai's movement with curiosity, K'ile managed to appear reserved still. His gaze was evaluating, judging, as if watching for K'hai to make some subtle movement that would give something away. K'ile's hand found his hunting knife with practiced ease, and when he complied with K'hai's request, there was no mercy shown to the creature that K'hai had captured.
Once the bottle had sufficient blood, he set the creature down and then turned his focus back to the bottle.
"Some times, the simplest solutions, get the best results." and picked the bottle up and raced it towards the swarm, sat it down, then high tailed it back to where he was.
"Watch and learn." he said smiling, as the scent of the blood attracted the insects who began swarming into, and onto the bottle.
Once he was satisfied there were enough inside the bottle, he charged back out again and corked the bottle, squashing what few were still outside and held his prize up triumphantly.
"Bottle of bugs," K'ile labeled it dumbly. "And this is your secret weapon to break into the warehouse of Ul'dah's armed thugs."
K'hai nodded as he walked back over to K'ile, "Drop these lil critters on them guards, they will be too busy trying to fend them off, and we can simply sneak in."
He smiled, "From there, we wing it and adapt as the situation warrants."
"I don't like winging it," K'ile said. "Not in this situation. If the Ul'dahns throw us in cages not only doesn't the tribe get the food, but Luha is left alone and I can't go help K'ailia."
K'hai frowned, "Well you're idea was to find one, beat them up, and hope they give you back the food. My idea, we sneak past dancing guards. We could always go ask sis what to do."
"Eh," K'ile spread his arms, "She'll just tell us to let her take care of it, and then do something stupid without asking our input. That kind of thinking is how she messed up her hips. No, you're idea is better than mine, so... whatever."
K'hai frowned at that, "You have a lot to tell me once we get the food back and on our way there. If this plan is to work though, we must leave immediately."
He handed the bottle over to K'ile, "You can find a way to release these on the guards, then go get K'luha and meet outside. It will be simpler if I go in alone."
Accepting the bottle, K'ile couldn't help one last protest, "Luha shouldn't move. She almost died because she was too stubborn to let her hip heal, and might have if K'piru hadn't come along to take care of her."
K'hai frowned at that, "Then why was she not in a bed?"
[2:26:37 AM] Twinflame: "Because every time I threaten to tie her down she gets all sad and pouty."
[2:28:07 AM] K'ailia Yohko: K'hai seems to think for a moment, "Come to think of it, moving her could be difficult for you. However, your small stature might better get past them, than my own."
K'hai smiled, "Change of plans. I will do the chucking, you do the sneaking. I will get sis and meet you outside this gate."
Frowning more deeply, "I don't like this change. Have you ever seen me try to sneak? I don't. And nobody's moving Luha until I say so."
K'hai frowned, "Since when do you claim my sister? Look, it's not that hard. And I suspect she will listen to her brother, better than you."
"You've been gone for five years. You've missed the worst parts of everyone's lives. Don't pretend you know where anyone stands or who will listen to who." K'ile delivered this in a tone of false amiability. "I don't claim anyone, but you don't know what you're stepping into. I'm grateful for your help, but what I said stands: nobody moves Luha until I say so."
K'hai sighed, "Regardless, I realized, you are still in much better shape than I am. I am feeling a bit better being out here. But being in the city still makes me ill."
He looked at K'ile, "You are small, agile, ane I am large and cumbersome. I am not at my best like I used to be. And she's apparently moved herself anyways. I found her drinking that Ul'dahn poison"
"There's a difference between walking to the tavern from her inn room and going out on the streets."
K'hai frowned, "Then lets go with a different plan. Forget the food and just take her home. Unless you know someone on the inside that can get the food back quickly."
Gaining an edge of suspicion once more, "Why is she necessary to this plan?"
K'hai looked at K'ile, "Way I see it, taking back food that is ours, them thieves would do everything they can to round all of us, and anyone associated with us up."
He turned towards the Sagolii gate, "But fine, if you want to worry about food and not move her, or go back to the tribe camp as she bid, then I will." aggitation clear in his voice. He was quickly starting to lose patience with K'ile.
"You've changed K'ile. And I'm not so sure why you are so hessitant to return to the tribe. But I also couldn't help but notice the bracelette"
K'ile pulled his wrist away as if to defend the bracelet, and both his teeth and hostility showed, "Everyone notices it! You're five years too late to give a shit, so don't start now." The small Tias hands curled into fists for a moment, then he forced them to release. He threw the bottle of bugs at K'hai, "We'll go through with your plan, but I won't move Luha until we have the food and the carriage is outside the city. Then we'll all go back to the tribe and and help Luha's idiot daughter."
K'hai caught the bottle easily enough, "Fine. I wont move her. But don't act as though I don't care. I thought of nothing but the family since I awoke."
Without another word, he marched back towards the city. K'hai was not happy, but at least he'd make sure to take that aggression out once he chucks the bottle where it needs to be chucked.
Following after K'hai, K'ile stewed for a long moment before saying, "Sorry. I'm not being fair. I'll feel better once we're out of this damned city."
Of course the could not, so Brass Blades had to be something else.
K'ile Tia crouched in the market, near a wall, watching throngs of people move around each other like mingling currents of water, pooling in tight eddies around market stalls. He'd figured out that "Brass Blades" were people, armed and armored in red and brass. It made sense. Ul'dahns had no sense for names, so it made sense. Rusty shivs.
He'd made headway. Shipping crates that were confiscated by these so-called Brass Blades were stored. Near the markets. For investigation. The Tia had asked on Blade about it, and been laughed at. Another had gotten angry and warned him off. K'ile wasn't fooled by any of this: it was thievery. It should be illegal, and it was, yet it was not. Ul'dahn gamesplaying to confuse and heckle.
K'piru had said she'd take care of it, before she's left them with the job undone. How had she intended it? She was a money-juggler. Perhaps it was an act that Ul'dahns valued, like fire-dancing.
He couldn't be sure. All he could do was crouch and glare and ponder how and where to apply force. His tribe had laws against attacking tribe-mates, but not against attacking Ul'dahns. And the laws of the Ul'dahns? Obviously worth less than the gil K'piru juggled.
*
K'hai ran through the streets at a full on gait, leaping over lalafells, bounding around lumbering Roegadyns. Till finally the scent trail led him to the markets.
He raised his nose once more, taking in the scents and finding K'ile's once more he moved through the markets, more careful this time, before he found his prey.
"K'ile Tia!" he bellowed, as he approached.
Hearing was not one of K'ile's primary senses. He could hear just fine, and he did hear his name, but he didn't notice that he'd heard it. A strange scent reached him around the same time, a harbinger of someone's approach; it was both familiar and strange. It carried the salts of distant seas, plants he'd never encountered, mineral waters. But also something of home, too, even if it was vague and old.
The Tia lifted his head and let his ears fall back over his hair, shifting his gaze around the tidal motions of human bodies. He caught sight of what looked like on of the taller, broader breeds of Hyur, decorated with a Miqo'te's ears and strangely colored marks on his face.
The uniqueness of the look drew on unsettling memories, and the hair on his neck and arms stood with a warning chill. He straightened his back and watched the oncoming figure with inklings of dubious recognition, but said nothing.
K'hai approached K'ile. Yes his former muscle mass was gone, but even now he was toned enough to look formidable.
"You are to return home immediately. Or do I need to drag you there myself?" he growled. He took his mission with a deathly seriousness, as his lions tail wagged with hostility.
K'ile blinked up at the phantasm. A strangely thin form of a man, pale perhaps, similar but just slightly removed from memory. "Uhm." He frowned. "Depends where I'm going?"
K'hai narrowed his eyes, "To the tribe camp. My sister told me my niece left the tribe and you had invited her to go back there. She has left for the tribe camp!"
Through the veil of red hair over his face, K'ile's blue eyes narrowed in suspicion of the man. "You're dead."
K'hai snarled, "Believe what you want. I don't care if you think I returned to life to rip your spine out. You need to get back to camp before something bad happens to K'ailia!"
"It'll take me a week to get there," K'ile said, "I can wait five minutes to figure out why a ghost is telling me that K'ailia's done something dumb." His voice grew suddenly challenging, "Is there a reason you would want to rip my spine out?"
K'hai crossed his arms, "Sister indicated you were responsible for her  foolish decision. And believe me. I've got questions of my own. Why is sisters hip broken? Why is my niece now an exile? Why was I told to find and send you straight back to the tribe camp?"
K'hai's tail continued wagging, "But I am Tia. I do not ask. I do."
"Things are complicated on my end," K'ile replied, trying to sound casual despite the obviously defensive posture. Though he's crouched on the ground, he looks like he's prepared to be attacked at any moment. "Are you dead or not?"
K'hai's tail stopped wagging and he looked at K'ile, "Sorry to disappoint, but I am very much alive. Not to mention I am feeling as though my stomache is in a fight with a sandworm because of this damn sickness."
In a slow motion motion, K'ile rose and turned towards K'hai. Being a particularly small Miqo'te, he was roughly half the size of the massive man, and yet he looked like he was ready to defend himself. "And what do you remember from Cartenau?"
K'hai looked at K'ile, his expression a lot softer than it was, "I remember them damn garleans everywhere, then the red moon decided it wanted to explode."
K'hai looked up, as though he was reliving that day, "So many shards of crystal and stone assaulted me.... and then something washed over me. I thought I was dead. But then I woke up to a changed world."
The much smaller of the two Tias inhaled enough air to fill both of their lungs, but said quietly, "Did you see Thalen die?"
K'hai looked at K'ile, "No... During the fight, I got separated with my unit."
His frown on his face twitching between varying degrees of suspicion frustration, K'ile was silent for a long moment before turning his eyes away from K'hai and back to the Brass Blade he'd been glaring at before. The strange tension in the conversation robbed all value from K'hai's survival. If the man was alive, that was one less thing the world had taken from them that day. But there was no joy or relief in it. Not for K'hai.
"K'ailia is a fool. If she had a single reasonable thought in her head she would've waited until I'd gone back to the tribe to move. She's going to ruin everything and that's nothing new."
K'hai scowled, "She is family. And what, in Azeyma's name, could of made her leave the tribe? Regardless, I want to get back to the tribe quickly. Is there a way? I will take my sister with me if you want."
"You can go if you want. From Ul'dah it's a week by Chocobo and that includes the trip through the Sagolii." He paused to marvel at how easily he'd summoned that information, when not long ago he had not so much as seen the city. "I'm not sure about moving Luha that distance yet. And I've got better things to do than help K'ailia fix her mistakes."
K'hai frowned at this, "What could be more important than family?"
"More family," K'ile replied, easily. "The Sagolii has been in drought ever since the Calamity. More than five years. The tribe is starving. I had intended to bring food back with me, but," he nodded in the direction of the Brass Blade he'd been stalking, "Ul'dahns have taken the food. Outsiders using their imaginary authority to steal from us. I'm not going back to the tribe empty-handed, and I'm not leaving Luha either."
K'hai looked at the Brass Blade, "Since when have we let outsiders dictate when we can eat then? Are they storing our food stuffs inside that room?"
He looked back to K'ile, "You've grown soft. These Ul'dahn's are city people. They know not how to treat the land. Let the land show them a lesson I say."
"I haven't grown soft," K'ile said, "I've grown cautious. I don't know where the food is. I'm trying to decide whose ass to beat."
K'hai slapped K'ile on the back, "Follow me, I've an idea, that wont require us expending our muscles."
And without looking back, proceeded to the exit of the market.
The much smaller Tia was knocked from his crouched position to his knees by K'hai's much larger hand, and he glared up at the man's receding back in annoyance. Still, a few seconds later, he was on his feet and trotting to catch up to the man. Taking up pace beside him, he said, "It's been a few years since I just straight beat the shit out of someone. If your idea works I think I'll be disappointed."
K'hai laughed, "This idea is sure proof."
A few minutes later, they were in central thanalan, looking at a rather large swarm of biting insects.
K'hai smiled, "Should prove a distraction enough to get past them morons to find your wayward food." pointing at the gnats.
Crossing his hands over his chest and looking doubtful, K'ile replied, "They have bugs in Ul'dah, too. You know even if we do get past them it is /a lot/ of food. I wa splanning on providing the tribe with a feast."
K'hai laughed, "they may have bugs, but not THOSE bugs"
He looked at K'ile, "Just how much food are we talking about?"
"It was being transported by carriage before," K'ile answered, watching the insects. They looked big enough to be honestly dangerous, especially in those numbers. "Too much for Luha and myself and one other to carry on our own, with two Chocobos to help. If it was just a few bags, throwing bugs at the problem and running off with what's ours would be fine. But with this it gets complicated."
K'hai rubbed his chin, thinking over the problem.
"So what happened to the carriage that was hauling it?" he asked.
"Stopped in Ul'dah and stripped clean. And then," he paused, blinked, and his brow furrowed. "What, you mean the actual carriage and driver? I don't know. Might've been sent back to Gridania? Or he's still around."
K'hai smiled, "If it's as much food as you claim, it would take some time for them to empty such a carriage would it not? City dwellers are lazy. Why work to unload, when it would be simpler to just take the whole kit n kaboodles."
He looked back to the insects, "We gather the insects, and you were always a better climber than me. You drop them on their heads and I go find your carriage of food."
"You're betting a lot on this mischeif, K'hai. If the food's not in there, or if they did unload it, or if the carriage is unmovable, or if there's more of them than you're assuming..."
K'hai looked back at K'ile, "What do you suggest we do then? Go through their system? Food would rot."
He stood up, "Or we can forget about the food, and just go home and try to assist with the hunts."
Looking up at the sky, he growled, "We are Hipparion Tribe. We don't cower at thievery, we face it head on."
He looked back at K'ile, "You are too cautious now. If the family is suffering, then caution be damned. Our people are more important than a city full of fat thieves."
Watching K'hai with a straight face while he moved through his many points, K'ile replied, "If we don't think this through then we're just being stupid, and I'm no idiot. Still, it's better than just beating up Brass Blades until they give us what we want."
K'hai smiled, "Well if you've got a better idea, I am all ears. Though I'd still love to see them tough acting guards dancing around trying to avoid those stingers."
He let forth a bellowing laugh, imagining the guards screaming like little children trying to avoid the insects.
"I'd still like to see how you plan on moving the bugs without getting yourself in trouble."
K'hai grinned, "That one is easy."
He pulled out the bottle he used on his trip that carried water and dumped it onto the ground then looked around.
"What is the one favorite food of biting insects?"
"Blood," K'ile answered.
K'hai nodded and spotted his prey and lept forth. In a couple steps he had hold of a marmot that let forth a mighty squeel. He carried it back.
"No need to kill it, but if you would be so kind as to extract a little blood into the bottle."
Watching K'hai's movement with curiosity, K'ile managed to appear reserved still. His gaze was evaluating, judging, as if watching for K'hai to make some subtle movement that would give something away. K'ile's hand found his hunting knife with practiced ease, and when he complied with K'hai's request, there was no mercy shown to the creature that K'hai had captured.
Once the bottle had sufficient blood, he set the creature down and then turned his focus back to the bottle.
"Some times, the simplest solutions, get the best results." and picked the bottle up and raced it towards the swarm, sat it down, then high tailed it back to where he was.
"Watch and learn." he said smiling, as the scent of the blood attracted the insects who began swarming into, and onto the bottle.
Once he was satisfied there were enough inside the bottle, he charged back out again and corked the bottle, squashing what few were still outside and held his prize up triumphantly.
"Bottle of bugs," K'ile labeled it dumbly. "And this is your secret weapon to break into the warehouse of Ul'dah's armed thugs."
K'hai nodded as he walked back over to K'ile, "Drop these lil critters on them guards, they will be too busy trying to fend them off, and we can simply sneak in."
He smiled, "From there, we wing it and adapt as the situation warrants."
"I don't like winging it," K'ile said. "Not in this situation. If the Ul'dahns throw us in cages not only doesn't the tribe get the food, but Luha is left alone and I can't go help K'ailia."
K'hai frowned, "Well you're idea was to find one, beat them up, and hope they give you back the food. My idea, we sneak past dancing guards. We could always go ask sis what to do."
"Eh," K'ile spread his arms, "She'll just tell us to let her take care of it, and then do something stupid without asking our input. That kind of thinking is how she messed up her hips. No, you're idea is better than mine, so... whatever."
K'hai frowned at that, "You have a lot to tell me once we get the food back and on our way there. If this plan is to work though, we must leave immediately."
He handed the bottle over to K'ile, "You can find a way to release these on the guards, then go get K'luha and meet outside. It will be simpler if I go in alone."
Accepting the bottle, K'ile couldn't help one last protest, "Luha shouldn't move. She almost died because she was too stubborn to let her hip heal, and might have if K'piru hadn't come along to take care of her."
K'hai frowned at that, "Then why was she not in a bed?"
[2:26:37 AM] Twinflame: "Because every time I threaten to tie her down she gets all sad and pouty."
[2:28:07 AM] K'ailia Yohko: K'hai seems to think for a moment, "Come to think of it, moving her could be difficult for you. However, your small stature might better get past them, than my own."
K'hai smiled, "Change of plans. I will do the chucking, you do the sneaking. I will get sis and meet you outside this gate."
Frowning more deeply, "I don't like this change. Have you ever seen me try to sneak? I don't. And nobody's moving Luha until I say so."
K'hai frowned, "Since when do you claim my sister? Look, it's not that hard. And I suspect she will listen to her brother, better than you."
"You've been gone for five years. You've missed the worst parts of everyone's lives. Don't pretend you know where anyone stands or who will listen to who." K'ile delivered this in a tone of false amiability. "I don't claim anyone, but you don't know what you're stepping into. I'm grateful for your help, but what I said stands: nobody moves Luha until I say so."
K'hai sighed, "Regardless, I realized, you are still in much better shape than I am. I am feeling a bit better being out here. But being in the city still makes me ill."
He looked at K'ile, "You are small, agile, ane I am large and cumbersome. I am not at my best like I used to be. And she's apparently moved herself anyways. I found her drinking that Ul'dahn poison"
"There's a difference between walking to the tavern from her inn room and going out on the streets."
K'hai frowned, "Then lets go with a different plan. Forget the food and just take her home. Unless you know someone on the inside that can get the food back quickly."
Gaining an edge of suspicion once more, "Why is she necessary to this plan?"
K'hai looked at K'ile, "Way I see it, taking back food that is ours, them thieves would do everything they can to round all of us, and anyone associated with us up."
He turned towards the Sagolii gate, "But fine, if you want to worry about food and not move her, or go back to the tribe camp as she bid, then I will." aggitation clear in his voice. He was quickly starting to lose patience with K'ile.
"You've changed K'ile. And I'm not so sure why you are so hessitant to return to the tribe. But I also couldn't help but notice the bracelette"
K'ile pulled his wrist away as if to defend the bracelet, and both his teeth and hostility showed, "Everyone notices it! You're five years too late to give a shit, so don't start now." The small Tias hands curled into fists for a moment, then he forced them to release. He threw the bottle of bugs at K'hai, "We'll go through with your plan, but I won't move Luha until we have the food and the carriage is outside the city. Then we'll all go back to the tribe and and help Luha's idiot daughter."
K'hai caught the bottle easily enough, "Fine. I wont move her. But don't act as though I don't care. I thought of nothing but the family since I awoke."
Without another word, he marched back towards the city. K'hai was not happy, but at least he'd make sure to take that aggression out once he chucks the bottle where it needs to be chucked.
Following after K'hai, K'ile stewed for a long moment before saying, "Sorry. I'm not being fair. I'll feel better once we're out of this damned city."
![[Image: Collage_banner.png]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/179079766/Collage_banner.png)
