Playing with Sandworms [story, ooc welcome]

[Naunet]

((The following takes place several years prior to the Calamity.))

 

***

 

Evening in Sagoli! A great clap of thunder was heard over the dunes moments ago, but not a cloud in the sky, so it could not have been thunder, could it? From out of the wastes came a young girl, innocent and sweet, hair like a red flower and skin the color of rich clay, careening through the tents of the nomadic Hipparion Tribe at a desperate pace, but this was not abnormal. She reached the tent she shared with her mother and leaped headlong at the flaps to make her entry, heedless of whatever may lay beyond, bellowing shrilly, "MOOOOOOM!"

 

K’piru had been kneeling on a skin stretched out across the hard-packed sand inside the tent, meticulously dividing dried herbs, when K'aijeen came barreling in. She was, however, accustomed to her daughter's energy and so though she noted the urgent pitch in K'aijeen's voice, she managed to not spill powders everywhere. Instead, she set down the small bone tool she'd been using and stood quickly, turning towards the door. Her hands were already moving to her hips. "Tell me what's wrong, now."

 

The girl dodged to one side once she was in the tent, and begin to dig through some paraphernalia piled about in the tent. "We got a big ol' chunk of worm and there might be a brain in it and I want to get at it while it's still warm and...” she took a deep breath and shouted, "MOM WHERE ARE MY TOOLS? DID YOU TAKE THEM AGAIN? I NEED THEM! MOM!"

 

K’piru huffed, exasperation showing on her features, "You know you aren't supposed to play with those things. Did you take it from the huntresses again?"

 

"MOM!" she lamented, then says, "Oh, wait," and ducked to one side, dug under a pile of furs and pulled out a concealed leather envelope, "Got 'em! I bet I can make K'airos' leg work better than it did before she blew up."

 

"You will do no such thing wi--what?!" It didn’t take much in the small space of the tent to step over behind K'aijeen and grasp her shoulders, spinning the young girl around firmly. "What did you just say? Blew up?"

 

"Mom! Don't get in the way!" K'aijeen dropped to the ground in an attempt to loose herself from her mother's clutches, "I'm in a HURRY! I've got a head to dissect and K'airos broke her leg and I wanna look at it!"

 

She turned from K'aijeen then with a sharp, "You will take me to her immediately" as she shuffled through some items in one corner, pulling out a length of flat, sun-whitened wood. Linen cloth lay folded nearby, and this too she snatched up.

 

As soon as K'piru unhanded her daughter, though, K'aijeen spun and jumped out of the tent, dashing off towards the desert. Turning back around in time to see the tent flap dropping closed, K'piru's tail lashed behind her and she hurried after her daughter. It was not difficult to follow her through the camp, but K'piru did not have the agile skills of those huntresses used to sprinting over dunes in pursuit of prey, so she was slow in catching up.

 

Not waiting for her mother, in fact likely unthinking that her mother could even be following her, K'aijeen ran straight for the corpse of the worm they''d blown up and began to pick through its bits. When she found the head, she opened the leather satchel she'd brought, pulled out her "tools" which were actually malformed metal rods twisted and sharpened into shapes suggesting torture implements, and began to harvest bits of its brain and neural fibers. Presumably there was a cliff immediately adjacent.

 

"Hey!" someone shouted. "Can't that...wait? I'm a little hurt over here." K'airos was lying on the ground, her back against the cliff face. Most of her lower body was covered in what was arguably worm pieces and skin. Her left leg was swollen at an odd angle. The lower maw of the sandworm layed a few yalms to her side, splattered across the rocks.

 

K'piru crested a dune with a wheeze and half-slid down the opposite side, squinting through the sun at the gruesome scene. The sight of it left her feeling ill, but then there was K'aijeen practically crawling over the thing and--"K'airos Thalen! What have you done!" The exclamation came out more urgent than demanding, and she hurried towards the shade of the cliff where her second eldest daughter lay. She knelt before her and brought a hand to her face.

 

"Mom don't touch her! I've got it!" With great reluctance and a huff of annoyance, K'aijeen shoved a bunch of fleshy bits in her satchel, and then grabbed her 'tools' before running over to where other two were, "I've got it! Let me!"

 

"No, you quite clearly do not "have it"," K’piru snapped, pressing the back of her hand to K'airos's head before letting her eyes slide down to inspect her leg. To the injured girl she said in a calm voice that hid her growing anxiety, "How long have you been like this? Do you hurt anywhere else?”

 

K'airos had kept her hands on her spear while she waited for her sister's return, and now she moved it to a side and lifted it upwards. She leant against it, eyes looking away from her mother into some meaningless dune far away. "Just a few minutes, and the leg."

 

"What's it feel like?" K'aijeen added, ignoring her mother's objections, kneeling down next to K'airos, and holding her tools like a pair of forks she was about to start poking at K'airos with. Tools, one might add, which as still dripping with worm-brains.

 

K’airos leant away suddenly at the gruesome sight. "It hurts!" she barked. "You are not going to open my leg up with those, are you?"

 

"Give her space, K'aijeen," K'piru ordered tersely and moved the items she'd carried over the dunes and dropped nearby closer to K'airos. Her hands felt the girl's leg carefully. "I will demand explanations for this later. For now, I want you both to do exactly as I say. K'aijeen, hold this," she held out the thin, flat plank of wood to the younger. "K'airos, do not move."

 

Still not complying, K'aijeen pouted, "If you fix it I won't get to get a good look at it!"

 

"Aijee! My leg's not a sandworm!"

 

"And I will treat it with proper respect, but this is a learning opportunity!"

 

K'piru looked up from K'airos's leg only briefly, long enough to snap at K'aijeen, "If you will not help your sister, then sit down and be silent." She then cast a briefly apologetic glance towards her other daughter and lined the plank up with her thigh.

 

K'aijeen deflated visibly, looking greatly depressed. Her ears lay flat against her head and her tail was limp on the dirt behind her for a few moments. Then she just muttered, "I know you were gonna ruin this," and spun to her feet, turning away.

 

"Push against me, Airos, please," K’piru said and waited just a second before pulling sharply and suddenly on the girl's leg. There was a rather sickening crunch.

 

K'airos pointed with her eyes at the tools K'aijeen was holding in her hands. At the same time, she pushed her leg against her mother with instinctive obedience. She shrieked loudly as her bones were realigned.

 

Antimony winced despite her years of practice with this - it was her daughter after all, which made such incidents far more painful - and pressed K'airos's leg against the wooden plank before beginning to wrap the strips of linen around it. "We'll get you something for the pain back in camp, dear," she tried to work a soothing tone into her voice, past the worry and irritation.

 

"That hurt even more!" she protested, making a painful face to her mother. It didn't last, though, and she shrugged in shame. "I'm sorry."

 

K'aijeen moped back over towards the dead worm as if nothing was happening between her mother and K'airos.

 

Frowning, K'piru continued to wrap the cloth, taking care not to move the leg overly much. She caught her other daughter's movement out of the corner of her eye and spoke up then, "K'aijeen, I'm going to need your help getting her back to the tent." Her tone made it clear this was not just a suggestion, and inwardly she hoped that offering the girl something to do would distract her enough to keep her contained.

 

K'aijeen must've missed the tone, for she objected, "I've got to get this while it's still warm and got all its aether in it! If I don't then the whole thing's pointless."

 

"It's fine!" K'airos said, leaning on her spear. "I'm fine. I'm sure I can walk now!" she added as if it was somehow the perfect argument.

 

"No, you will do no such thing," and then to K'aijeen in a sharper tone, "This is not a debate. I don't know what you've done to this worm, but you've hurt someone, K'aijeen. So get over here and help me get her standing." She finished wrapping the leg then, tying off the cloth tightly and moved up towards K'airo's shoulders, feeling her skin for any undue heat or chills.

 

K'airos opened her mouth to protest. And she did protest. "It's not her fault! I miscalculated! I stood a few ilms too close...or maybe I used too many bomb claws...or maybe I misjudged the worm's density...!" She paused, took a breath and added: "Or maybe all of that."

 

"Oh don't think you're getting off the hook either, K'airos Thalen," K'piru warned and, seemingly satisfied with the rest of her daughter's body, went to take hold of one arm.

 

K'aijeen threw a glare at her mother that no daughter should ever use on a parent, "I said no, mom! K'airos and I worked hard on this! K'airos did this for me! It would be ungrateful of me to just leave it here!"

 

K'piru let her grip release from K'airos's arm and stood then, turning towards K'aijeen with a heavy frown. "Do not argue with me, K'aijeen. I don't know what you two were thinking, going after a sandworm by yourselves - with a bomb of all things. You're both lucky you're not dead! I won't stand for this. Drop your tools and get over here right now."

 

K'airos used the spear to shift her weight into it and stand very, very slowly, keeping her broken leg a few ilms above the ground. "Mom...! The meat will attract other predators. She won't be able to come back later for it!"

 

"I'm almost done!" K'aijeen dashed the last few yalms to the shattered worm head and starts to dig around in it.

 

"We'll send the huntresses for it. They aren't far. I won't--I refuse to lose either of you to your stupidity!" She strode after K'aijeen and, moving up behind her, went to take hold of one arm.

 

Waving one of her 'tools' at K'piru in a useless warding gesture, K'aijeen said, "It's not stupid! I'm not stupid!"

 

"Then don't risk your life and the life of your sister for a... a sandworm!" She was undeterred by the waving of the tool and tugged at K'aijeen's arm. "Come, now."

 

K'airos had not moved at all after standing up, her leg limping uselessly under the rest of her body. "Aijee" she started "If you stay, some other beast could surprise you. So, please, obey mom?" Her face was tilted down, but her eyes looked at her sister

 

"Mom! You never understand!" K'aijeen struggled against her mother's grip, and she was old enough now that that meant something. She didn’t immediately respond when K'airos spoke, but after a moment, she said, "Okay, okay! Stop touching me!"

 

K'piru held on for a moment longer, though it was difficult with how forceful her daughter was being in attempting to escape, before releasing her and pointing sharply towards her sister. "Help me move K'airos. When we get back to camp, I want you to find your father and explain to him exactly what happened."

 

Letting out a small groan and kicking a peace of meat away, K'aijeen said, "Dad's gonna be on my side," and trotted over to K'airos. "Didn't even get a good look at your leg before she set it."

 

K'airos raised her leg up to knee height and looked down to it. "It's just swollen."

 

Following, K'piru said, "Don't move it like that, Airos," and went to stand alongside her daughter. "Support her other side, K'aijeen." She didn't have to bend much at all to get her shoulder under K'airos's arm; the girl was already nearly as tall as she.

 

Being significantly shorter than K'airos at this point, K'aijeen also got under her sister's shoulder fairly easily. Though to less effect.

 

K'airos felt very awkward very suddenly. "Can we avoid telling the others about this? Let's say I just fell off while training!"

 

"No, your father deserves to hear from the both of you the explanation for this disaster," K'piru replied flatly, "As do I. Beyond that, it is on your conscience."

 

"We didn't do anything wrong!"

 

"You've worried me sick," K'piru sighed and began moving forward, slowly and supporting her daughter as best she could.

 

"Think about it, mom! We killed a sandworm with only two people and suffering minimal injuries!" she said cheerfully. "That's mathematically and... and geometrically sound, too, I'm sure!"

 

"Minimal!" Her eyes looked skyward briefly. "Minimal! You could have died! You'll be lucky if you don't lose your leg from infection!"

 

"It's not that bad," K'aijeen protested, "You're being ridiculous! You're just all scared and panicky! I shouldn't have told you what was going on!"

 

"I...but...you won't let me lose my leg, right?" K'airos' asked, though it was really a dubious statement. After that, she stayed awfully quiet.

 

"I won't allow it," K'piru reassured, feeling a touch guilty at bringing such a possibility up, but - "But you must understand the gravity of the situation you put yourself in! That both of you put yourselves in." She turned a frown past K'airos to K'aijeen.

 

"Woulda been worth it if we'd gotten everthing I needed! But since we left it behind now it's all for nothing."

 

"Nothing is worth losing your life over," K'piru concluded. "Nothing is worth losing either of you. By the Twelve, I knew you wanted to play with a sandworm, but I never thought you'd..." Her ears drooped slightly as they continued back towards the camp. K'airos tried very hard to come with something to say, evidenced by how she kept opening and closing her mouth. No word came out of it, though, and eventually she stopped trying.

 

The tents were visible by now, fanned out across a flat stretch of hard-packed sand between dunes, and K'piru sighed with relief as they descended. "We'll stop the hurting soon, Airos."

 

After sulking for a few minutes, K'aijeen said, "I'm not playing, and we weren't going to die. You're wrong."

 

"I don't want to argue this, K'aijeen," she replied a bit wearily, much of the bite having left her voice. "Go, find your father. I'll take care of K'airos from here."

 

K'airos shifted her weight towards her sister, inclining the head and resting it against hers. "Yes. Tell him how exhilarating the explosion was!" she said smiling. Then straightened her posture and looked over K'aijeen. "And how we are never, ever going to do that again."

 

Extricating herself from beneath K'airos shoulder, she said, "Next time we'd get it right." And then, she was running off into the tents, "Don't cut off her leg, mom!"

 

"What were you thinking," K'piru said as her youngest disappeared and the two of them continued at a slower pace. "You must stop encouraging her like that. It's not healthy!"

 

"It was a good plan!" K'airos protested. "I just...I guess I...and then it just...!" She moved her free arms outwards, representing the explosion. "...maybe less bombs next time. Oh!" She turned her head quickly towards K'piru. "Don't you think that having such proof of my bravery would make me a better huntress at the eyes of...?" then she paused. "Yeah, less bombs next time."

 

The harried mother could only wince at that. "Let's... focus on getting you healed up first." They'd made it through the tents without interruption, and K'piru helped her daughter inside her own, and down to the floor. "You must be more careful... This mess! Did you bathe in the thing, too?"

 

"I did not expect it to spray its innards all over me!"

 

"Of course. I can tell there were plenty of things you didn't expect," there was that lecturing tone again, "Which you might have thought of had you given what you were doing even an ilm of consideration."

 

"I considered it longly! It was the safest way to get Aijeen a sandworm head without the other huntresses." K'airos couldn't hide her annoyance when she replied, "It was a good plan!" she insisted.

 

"Where you went wrong was when you agreed to get her a sandworm head," K'piru chided none too gently. Leaving K'airos on the ground for a moment, she moved to one side of the tent and began rummaging through some supplies. "I thought I made it clear you weren't to do such a thing... least of all go out hunting on your own! Do you know how dangerous that is? There's a reason the huntresses travel in groups!"

 

"Aijeen was with me!" K'airos accompanied this statement by throwing her arms up into the air vehemently. "Two people are a group, too!"

 

"That," K'piru said firmly, "is a pair. Not a group." She turned around with several rags and a jar of something pungent. The rags she dropped near K'airos. "Help me wipe yourself off and then we can make sure you don't lose your leg," she added somberly.

 

K'airos pouted, but kept quiet and obeyed her mother.