Searching The Sagolii(Looking for the K tribe)

[Naunet]

"Firedancer, explain this to us all!" The voice, ancient and rattly, strained to cut across the space from several yalms behind the huntresses. Its bearer, gripping a bone white walking stick that dug deep into the sand, lifted her wrinkled, drawn face to the standoff, and the wagon just beyond. The colorful wraps and bone beads swaddling her hunched body swung and clattered in a short gust of wind.

 

Back in the tent, K'deiki had not let K'ile Tia speak more than a few words before interrupting him with a sharp slap of her hand against the ground. So many had come to their sanctuary lately, with tales and excuses and pleas, and Elder K'deiki had had just about enough of these things. "Demonstrate to us a reason we should not cast all intruders back into the sand," she had said to him before exiting the tent with a speed perhaps surprising for her old age.

 

So now she stood, her worn ears swiveled back, straining to hear K'ile's footsteps behind her, while her pale eyes squinted through flurries of sand at the scene at the edge of their camp.

[Twinflame]

"If that's what you choose to do, then that's what you choose to do. I'm not going to defend the kid." K'ile Tia stood behind Elder K'deiki, his brow low over vexxed features, empty hands beside him, red-stoned bracelet still on his wrist. He hadn't expected them to make such a fuss over an outsider wandering into camp, especially one that arrived with family and just might be family. K'yohko looked like he hadn't been meditating enough or a vilekin had crawled into his pants.

 

His red tail flicking behind him, K'ile said, "If he is "K'zhuzu's kid, then he isn't that different from K'tahja: child of an outcast. You can treat him like an outsider if you want, but remember one of the main reasons we decided to relocate the tribe was to be closer to outsiders. So we could trade with them. If we don't want them in the camp anymore, we'll have a hard time trading."

[Naunet]

"We relocate for survival, firedancer," K'deiki sighed out, squinting at the blurry shapes ahead of her but unable to distinguish by sight who was friend and who was new. At least her nose had not failed her in her old age, and she caught the unfamiliar, earthy scents of the stranger almost immediately. "And you should know well our reluctance to accept even K'yohko's wayward daughter. But she is daughter of the nunh. This one..."

 

Her shoulders shook with a hacking cough, her frail body bowing forward. The reflex sent a shudder through her ribs, into her spine and down to the tip of her thinly furred tail. The spell lasted several seconds before she could recover herself and then she only said, "We have had too many visitors since you were last here, firedancer. Too many demanding change. Demanding forgiveness without regret, when they should have thought first to seek our support. My patience grows thin," and her body weary, she finished silently, bowing her head and trusting her nose to keep track of the stranger. K'zhuzu Tia's child. She wondered how many more outcasts were scattered from Azeyma's eye that they did not know of. She knew they could never replace the ones they had lost.

[Clover]

"O...oi! Zhumi!"

 

K'rahto's frown deepened when his sister started moving so carelessly, ignoring him. Hadn't she heard K'iara? Didn't she see the tension as some of the huntresses pointed their weapons to the single, unarmed stranger...?

 

...Alright, perhaps there was no reason for them to simply wait behind, as if the outsider posed a terrible danger for all of them. K'luha needed medical care as soon as possible, after all.

 

With a permanent annoyed expression, K'rahto followed his elder sister. "Don't just walk away without me, alright?"

[Lyraciilee]

Although K'yohko did not formally recognize it in his head, the faint magical charge given by Xha'li's necklace was keeping him so close to the edge he very well might jump. Almost everytime something magical came into camp, it ended in loss and tragedy and pain. Although he felt that static charge, his attention was so honed into upon the intruder he could not recognize his own loathing of it.

 

Xha'li's attempts at diffusing K'yohko only made the Nunh more cautious. He did not trust the outsider, not even when he claimed to be family. What proof did he have that K'zhuzu was really his father? They vaguely looked alike, but it mattered not. K'zhuzu was not welcome back at the tribe, and more certainly his illegitamite brood were not.

 

"Your very exsistance is an offence." K'yohko snarled viciously, moving forward at Xha'li again. The boy was as stubborn as a babe. Did he not realized he was outmatched? Did he think his chocobos could save him? He knew nothing, and he was nothing but poison. Naught could catch his attention from the intruder, save for the elders themselves. And it should happen that an angry elder emergered from the tent scolding K'ile, who followed behind. K'yohko took note immediately of K'deiki's prescence, which only served to further his aggression. With an elder about, what proof did he have that Xha'li was not here to attack them? They were the anchorstones of the tribe's culture. And K'yohko would not allow them to be harmed. He snarled again at Xha'li and stepped forward, meaning to push Xha'li further away from the camp.

 

Noting K'yohko's aggression, his courel did the same. The great beast snarled and stalked forward at Xha'li's chocobos, as well as the intruder itself.

 

 

K'luha slumped over a bit more with every rope that Tahj cut. She was too used to being bound and too tired to sit herself upright. As she leaned further over, her hip began an agonizing pain. Luha let out a sharp cry before forcing her hands down to hold herself up.

 

"Hurts... ow...damnit..." Luha cursed at herself. She hated being tied down, but she hated the newfound pain from her release.

 

 

K'yohko noted the yelp, but his viciousness nor his eyes strayed from Xha'li. He was aware of K'zhumi sneaking around the back, but he did move to stop her or her brother.

 

K'iara looked to Luha as well, a bit startled at the yelp. Somehow an elder charging out of the tent being upset didn't really surprise her. Still, K'iara kept her axe up and ready. Her eyes moved to K'zhumi and she grumbled a little. It wasn't safe for her to be running out with a limp like that but... she left it up to K'rahto to keep Zhumi safe for now at least.

[Xha'li Moui]

Seeing the courel approach Li muttered a soft incantation to put the chick to sleep before whistling soft and moving back so K'yohko was not right in his face and he was between the courel and chocobos, it was then that he spotted the older woman with K'ile, his uncle, behind her.  As K'ile had said he'd be going to see the elders when they arrived, Li surmised that this older woman was one of them, bowing deeply towards he spoke is a respectful tone, "I greet you in peace honored elder."

 

While he spoke however he did not take his attention off the big cat, one of his ears twitching as it tracked the beasts movements.

[Twinflame]

"It's not fair to just reject people out-of-hand for being outsiders." K'ile remained behind K'deiki, speaking more to her than anyone else. His body was bowed forward, arms at his sides in open posture. He did his best to sound subservient. "There's nothing wrong with being cautious. But we're not afraid of him, are we? If he can't hurt us and isn't being rude then aren't we just being bullies?"

[Naunet]

K'deiki tilted her head back, turning the deep lines of her face towards Azeyma's gaze, seeking silent guidance from the watcher, their guardian. The sun bore down bright and hot upon all of them alike, she thought, and would burn them all the same as well. Was this Azeyma's wisdom?

 

"K'yohko," she spoke, not looking away from the sky. Her withered hands twisted about her staff. "There has been enough trouble within our family for now. The strange comes to us with our missing. Perhaps there is a sign in that. We'll hear what he has to say."

 

The elder K'deiki would turn then, lowering her head, and begin to shuffle back the way she had come, though at a much slower pace. "Welcome him for now, and welcome our lost home."

[Izmina]

K'tahjha winced in sympathy as her aunt cried out from the pain in her hip. Slicing the last binds she carefully moved to lift K'luha's head and shoulders the small amount it took for her to slip under her aunt so she could cradle K'luha's head in her lap and help steady her hip. Her ears drooping apologetically Tahj murmured soothingly and stroked K'luha's hair and worked through a few of the tangles with her fingers.

 

K'zhumi sighed in relief as she finally reached the back of the wagon without incident. Climbing into the back with some effort due to her weak leg, Zhumi's ears flattened as she saw her patient for the first time, her sense of smell telling her more than her eyes that she must hurry. Kneeling beside K'luha, Zhumi frowned heavily as she noted the woman  was heavily dehydrated. Setting her book aside, she began pulling various herbs and powders from her bag and mixing them together. Taking note of K'tahjha for the first time, she handed the girl the vial ordering her to mix the contents thoroughly and looked back for her brother and the other bag of supplies.

[Lyraciilee]

Xha'li's refusal to walk away or back off did nothing but inspire more fury within the Nunh. So persistently these city cats came to spew their lies and poison. The boy's disrespect did nothing but mirror K'ile's similar disrespectful attitude; an attitude K'yohko would see abolished if it was the death of him. And it would, most likely, be the death of him. Too many things seemed to look at him with the intent of death. Too many enemies, too few left he trusted any longer. As Xha'li greeted K'deiki, K'yohko found a protective rage lashing out before he had time to think on it. All consuming and overwhelming, he outright roared at Xha'li and stepped between the city cat and K'deiki. His ears flattened and turned out with his rage that could not form words but only incomprehensible sound that filled the desert's vastness.

 

K'yohko's hate filled eyes of purple never left Xha'li's form, but his ears clearly heard K'ile. It had been a long time since anger and hatred had consumed him so fully. Every part of him wanted to lash out. To rip apart the boy in front of him and show him his fragility. But when K'deiki called to him, he found even the elder's wisdom could not reach him where his hate had taken him.

 

Finally he tore himself from the intruder's visage and turned on K'ile instead.

 

"The boy is arrogance and caustic." He hissed at K'ile, his eyes darting between the elder and the formerly missing fire dancer. "And you-" K'yohko roared again, turning on K'ile fully now. "would not be so eager to welcome outsiders either had you actually been here to seem the kill another one of ours." And from his hip where he kept few precious things in a small pouch, he pulled out an all too familiar bandana. It smelt still of K'ailia even though it had been weeks since she left. With the same anger, he threw it at K'ile and looked angrily in its direction. "K'ailia is dead because of them. And I would not see another outsider so soon after it happened. I will not entertain this outsider or your supposed kindness at him." K'yohko snarled and turned sharply on the sand. His anger burned hot in the air as he mounted his courel and whistled for it to ride.

 

"I will hunt for our returning family." K'yohko's courel stalked past the huntresses. K'yohko only too a short moment to meet eyes with K'nahli, a thin and stern look still smoldering on his face. "I will trust you, K'nahli, to see to it that this outsider does not cause more trouble when he is left alone."

As the tension turned to fury from K'yohko, K'iara could help but shirk back a little. She had never seen him this angry before. It was a little frightening. Did he have only two emotions? Apathy and anger? Her eyes drifted towards K'zhumi, K'rahto, K'luha, and Tahj. She could help but to subtly walk towards their directions as if to protect them from both the outsider and K'yohko. Part of her agreed when he said it, that it would be best for him to go hunt and cool his head.

 

K'luha found herself with her head placed in Tahj's lap. The younger girl somehow seemed to know how to soothe her pain by untangling her matted tresses. What would she do without Tahj? There was the sound of anger and yelling, a yell she knew from some time long ago. She strained her ears to listen in and heard only a few words of the conversation. Words she might have been better off not hearing.

 

"K'ailia is dead...?" Luha croaked almost immediately towards Tahj. Her eyes forced open and looked panickedly at her niece. "It's not true. Tell me it's not true." K'luha very nearly begged. Her hand weakly grasped back at her niece, her eyes looking at K'zhumi when she noted the healer tending to her.

[Naunet]

The worn tip of K'deiki's staff sunk deep into the sand as she came to a halt several steps away from where she had only moments ago handed out her decision. She bowed her neck forward until her forehead rested against the pale, dry wood, breathed in K'yohko's sharp, furious scent, and let him speak his piece without reproach. She could understand his anger; she had felt it herself and knew at least one of the other elders would likely agree with him.

But K'deiki was tired of this negative energy draining her family.

 

"Do not hunt alone," she spoke after the nunh's words waned, though not his anger.

[Twinflame]

When K'yohko spun on him, the muscles in K'iles limbs snapped tight against his bones. His back straightened, eyes opened, tail shot out behind him and his chin lifted. Instinctively, he expected K'yohko to rush him, and he was ready to fight the Nunh if he was attacked. He was always read to fight K'yohko. The Nunh possessed a maddened heart, where reason only dwelt on the best of days. He was a cruel and powerful man, unbalanced. K'ile Tia's readiness to fight the man was as inextricable as his readiness to sleep at night, to awaken at morning, to close his eyes against sudden light. Before K'yohko could ever attack him, well before the time came, K'ile Tia would be read to fight back.

 

That time was not now. The bandanna in the sand was a familiar gesture, smelling of the girl that had foolishly gone ahead. It shifted in the wind and settled. The migrating sand tried to bury it, like a corpse. It reminded him of the trappings K'aijeen had left behind when she'd walked into the sands to die. Looking on the bandanna, listening to K'yohko's accusations, it felt familiar. It felt nostalgic. It felt...

 

Something turned inside the Tia's belly. Like a hibernating animal sloughing the mud from it emaciated body, something nauseous rolled over inside him. It made him sick.

 

It made him smile.

 

As K'yohko Nunh fled from confrontation with his own bitterness, K'ile's blue eyes slid in their sockets to watch him. From the shadowed veil beneath his red hair, as though from behind smoke and fire, K'ile peered at the monstrous man. His smile was small, and his head did not turn. His body remained still and his arms at his sides.

 

His tail flipping behind him twice, K'ile turned to K'deiki's back and spoke in a very small voice, like a hesitant breath, to keep his happiness out of his tone. The Tia instead sounded humble. "I have to the apologize to the Elders for being gone so long, and for mistakes I've made. I hope they can forgive me. We can make things right again if we all work together."

 

K'ile Tia's fingertips were numb. He felt like he had climbed a very great height up sheer rock -- so high that he had lost sight of the summit -- and just now found the utmost cliff, gripping it fast in shock. His hands curled into light fists. He smelt K'luha and K'tahjha on the wind, K'airos on the cart, but no sign of K'ailia or K'aijeen. It was like succulent blooms to his senses. It was like the morning air the instant before he began to dance.

[Naunet]

"We hope there is truth in your words, firedancer," K'deiki shook her head slightly and shifted her wiry, ratty tail beneath the many wrappings that obscured her body. Sand blew past her face, chafed her weathered nose, sunk into the crags of her features, and with one hand she tightened the cloth about her head. A defensive gesture.

 

"In all her wisdom, Azeyma still shines, and yet we all find ourselves wary of being burnt once more."

[Izmina]

K'tahjha's ears flattened at the sound of her very angry father outside, she hoped no one else would be hurt, but could not look out to see with her aunt's head cradled in her lap. She frowned as she caught a few words of the conversation drifting on the wind and hoped K'luha had not heard them. The immediate look of panic on the woman's face however told her the hope was futile.

 

Quickly shifting the vial of thick, noxious liquid she was stirring for the healer to her opposite hand, Tahj grasped her aunt's searching hand with her own and gave it a firm squeeze. "K'ailia was well and whole when she left camp."

[Clover]

K'rahto didn't get on the carriage when his elder sister did. He just stood in the back, taking a look at what was found inside. K'luha didn't look right. He didn't know what the hell had happened to her, or how K'ile had allowed such a thing to happen, but it didn't look right. The boy's frown deepened. A Tia would always be a Tia, right? K'ile wasn't much better than him.

 

"K'zhumi!" K'rahto stretched his arm with the medical bag to her, eyes deadly serious. K'luha needed his sister's attention now, and this was everything he could do to help. Other than that, he'd have to wait and make sure that his sister and her patient were safe from the stranger, as if that miqo'te posed any real threat to the tribe's huntresses and even the Nunh himself. The Tia didn't trust him, of course not, but he very much doubted that the newcomer would stand a chance in this situation. Why did he even have to play the role of a bodyguard?

 

He diverted his gaze to the angry Nunh, paying more attention to studying him than to the scene itself. With darkened eyes he observed his expression, his movements, even the menacing way his voice sounded. K'yohko was unmistakably the Nunh; if K'rahto wanted to take his place someday, he'd need to become like him. Simply beating him in combat wouldn't be enough, though that was already a feat. He had to become the impressive and respected being K'yohko was.

 

With the same frozen expression, honey orbs moved sideways and stopped at the sigh of a certain huntress. K'nahli Yohko, the proud and arrogant archer who had rejected and treated him like an inferior being. She really was K'yohko's daughter. Had she been born male, she'd have been Nunh material with no effort. The mere thought didn't but deepen K'rahto's frown.

 

===

 

From her spot, K'mih's heart stopped at the mention of K'ailia's death. When...? How...? Her mind raced, and quickly remembered the linkpearl K'ailia had given her. If nothing was clarified, she'd have to call her dear sister to confirm her well being...

[K'nahli]

A wave of sheer relief had washed over K'nahli from the moment K'deiki and K'ile had both intervened. A soft sigh escaped past her tinted lips as she sought a momentary comfort from gazing into the sand that crunched and shifted beneath her feet. In truth, she was doubtful that she could have said anything that would have succeeded in even slightly pacifying the nunh's temper. He was a good man, no.. a great man..... one who sought only the best for his family.

 

The girl blinked slowly in thought.

 

But even so, he was still just another person to whom K'nahli had difficult expressing herself to. Her words, were she able to so much as even find them, would likely never reach him.

 

 

A few seconds had passed before she tilted her head upward to study him once again. Though she could clearly see his lips moving, she had now grown deaf to the entire exchange as she fell into an unknown world of her own. The aggression that sought to control him was clearer than any Sagolii sky as it rolled expressively through his every body movement to the point that it could almost be felt bubbling, fervently and deeply within his veins. His anger was an unusual concoction, an elixir created through the many secret and fermenting emotions that had long remained hidden beneath his stern yet unafflicted appearance. It seemed to be only now that the girl was realising the truth. At the heart of it all, he was still only miqo'te. Relied upon by many but seemingly leaning on no-one else in turn. K'mih had quietly been K'nahli's source of comfort since the days of the Calamity, a person to which she could reveal her more fragile side to when she had felt the need to, someone from whom she needn't shield her emotions in fear of ridicule or further heartache; but... who did K'yohko have?

 

The girl blinked slowly as she fell down into the depths of her own pressing thoughts. To the perceptive of those whom did not know the girl, she may have subtly hinted towards an expression of worry and even concern. It would not be a simple task to forget what K'mih had told her, she thought to herself as she bit the inside of her lower lip - but... K'yohko was not to blame for that. It was wrong and childish of her to turn her disapproval toward the situation on him when he, blind to what K'nahli herself had known, had done nothing to deserve it.

She would not lie to herself. She wanted to be able to talk to him, to say something that might help calm him down and soothe his mind - even if it was only a feeling born now out of her own guilt upon seeing him behave like this; but that, as she well knew, was not something that she had any affinity for. Her father was hurt, that much was obvious. Though his wounds lay a secret beyond what his flesh alone could betray, and despite everything, even this small feeling of familiarity and closeness that had presented itself in the form of his sudden anger, she felt that she could never help him.

 

 

She observed alone and in silence as the older tribekin continue to converse in a fashion that, had she been listening, would have proven to appeared more like a contest of spitting violently, contrasting opinions. Though the focus had moved away from the stranger and instead came to be a disagreement between K'yohko and the firedancer K'ile, it still carried with it it's own form of tension, though not one that would be found to be of any concern to K'nahli. The girl's expression softened into something akin to relief for a moment. In the end, K'yohko did not entirely submit to his emotions.

 

 

"I will trust you, K'nahli, to see to it that this outsider does not cause more trouble when he is left alone."

 

 

The mere mention of her name had caught the girl off-guard, sound suddenly returning to the world around her as her father's voice claimed her back into the realm. Maroon eyes - that had grown wide with surprise - traveled across the saffron sands on which they stood to meet with K'yohko's brief gaze. His mauve eyes were as sharp as ever as he requested, no, commanded her assistance with the matter of the outsider. The girl shifted uncomfortably on the spot at the mere thought of involving herself with the outsider's business. Had it been at any other time she likely would have immediately contested such a request and sought a more reasonable person to pass such an unfavourable duty on to. Though this time it felt very, very different. All that she could do was oblige.

 

A hesitant nod was the girl's only answer as her eyes fled to the corner's of her eyes as though trying to hide her obvious disdain for having been bestowed with such a mundane task. After a few seconds, her gaze once again sought out K'yohko's large form as it briskly departed from the group; alone. She continued to watch his large, muscular back as he hastily abandoned the scene, and hopefully his uncharacteristic anger, behind him.

 

Though his sudden request had stolen some of her attention away from her personal concerns, it still lingered stubbornly somewhere within the depths of her own thoughts.

 

What was this strange feeling tugging at her heart?

[Izmina]

K'zhumi took the second bag from her brother and favored him with a small smile of gratitude, the expression was rare, as were the times she actually noticed her sullen brother unless they were argueing, but she quickly returned her attention to her patient.

 

Zhumi's ears flattened as she heard the yelling and her mood turned dark as she saw it's effect on her patient. Idiots! Stupid male posturing. she thought angrily,K'luha did not need the extra stress as sick as she was. Observing K'tahjha try to calm her aunt somewhat mollified Zhumi as well, perhaps the outsider wasn't useless after all. Catching K'luha's panicked gaze she smiled reasurringly and patted her arm, before reaching for the vial Tahj was holding. The liquid it contained was thick and unappetizing looking but as she held it for K'luha to drink she spoke sternly,"This will not taste good, but you must drink it all and keep it down. It will help absorb some of the toxins your body has been building up." 

 

 

Turning her attention to the second bag of supplies K'rahto had brought, she began sorting through the herbs and powders, when a sudden twinge in her leg protested the long kneeling on the hard floor of the wagon. Annoyed Zhumi raised her voice to any who could hear, now that it had fallen silent outside. "How am I supposed to work in this contraption? I need someone to carry this woman to the medical tent!"

[Xha'li Moui]

Xha'li felt his ears fold back and tail fluff out as K'yhoko's anger became a burning presence in front of him, while with out even noticing it his left hand started to slip behind his back to grab the spear that was lying several yalms away next to his crook and bags.  With a sheepish grin he returned his arm to his side, but remained tense until K'yohko rode off, and was out of sight beyond the crowd surrounding him whereupon he breathed a sigh of relief and visibly relaxed.

 

"K'ailia's dead?  When did that happen?" Xha'li whispered softly as he bent down to move Fubuki back towards the other birds and finish setting up his camp for the night.

 

 

((Fubuki is the chocobo chick, got tired of always saying the chick, and since he's now been named IC I'm using it here even though ICly the chick won't be named for another moon or so after this))

[K'nahli]

K'nahli's long, slender ears flicked and twitched suddenly upon hear K'zhumi's agitated call for assistance. Having been engrossed in her own thoughts, she had completely forgotten about the injured K'luha who lay just out of sight in the back of the carriage. The shaman's harsh voice sliced through the air like a steel-tipped arrow aimed directly for the blue-haired huntress, as she would have had herself believe. It was a welcomed excuse. Perhaps with that, someone else could tend to the unsavoury introductions of the outsider.

 

Hastily, K'nahli turned away from the group; her powerful legs taking her toward the chocobo cart that lay just outside of the camp's borders with the quick strides of a jog. Numerous, soft clouds of saffron were kicked up into the air behind her, creating a faint trail that almost seemed to dance in the wind before being carried away by the gentle, rolling, desert breeze. As she drew closer to K'zhuzu's alleged son she couldn't help but to allow her eyes to flick toward him for a brief moment. A sharp glance passed over his form only to retreat away once again before she believed he would have felt her stare. Subtle and short-lived as it was, the girl was sizing the male up; determining his strength and potential should he be foolish enough to try and stir up trouble later on.

 

Just as quickly as her thoughts had turned to the male however, they had removed themselves from him once again, satisfied with her assessment, as she eagerly made her way toward the back of the carriage from where she would take her first glance inside and see K'luha for the first time since she had left the camp.

 

 

".....!"

 

The girl's vibrant eyes immediately grew wide with shock upon beholding the feeble stranger who lay weakly on K'tahjha's lap. It was a very strange, almost unnerving sight to behold. The proud and independent K'luha - as K'nahli had always known her - had never been one to show weakness, and yet seeing her like this now was enough to make even K'nahli feel compelled with worry. The woman was in far worse shape than she could have imagined. The girl's maroon eyes refused to remove themselves from the sight before her, fixated and interrupted only by a few uncertain blinks as though she were verifying that her eyes were not deceiving her.

K'zhumi, quick to uphold her duties, had already made a start on helping K'luha in whatever way that she could, but even so, the wounded miqo'te was still clearly in a lot of pain. K'nahli remained idle on the spot as she hesitated for a second or two longer before she finally clambered into the carriage and placed herself alongside her pitiful aunt.

 

"Where does... it hurt?" the girl asked hesitantly as her eyes scanned across K'luha's fragile body, unsure of where to place her hands without causing further pain in the process. Did her pain extend beyond her hip? It didn't look like it but she certainly did not want to risk it.

 

With an injury like this, K'nahli remained unsure of how they could move her safely back into the camp by hand. Her countenance was unmistakably scrawled with total shell-shock as her glance moved from face to face, searching for proper instruction for what to do next.

[Clover]

"Stay out."

 

K'rahto's voice could be heard behind K'nahli, cold and even aggressive. The tense circumstances were added to his already unfriendly nature, making him curter than the habitual. He climbed the carriage as well, looking at an injured K'luha with a permanent frown.

 

"I'll take her."

 

It wasn't just that he was sick of the huntresses treating him like an useless Tia. He was truly concerned about the injured woman.

[K'nahli]

K'nahli passed her glance back toward K'rahto, squinting her eyes slightly as he suddenly snarled at her. In truth she hadn't given much attention to anyone's presence other than the injured K'luha and their shaman, K'zhumi, whom tended to her. Regardless, her expression remained adamant with worry; absent, too, of her usual firey nature as she succeeded in suppressing it, even in spite of K'rahto's arrogant and icy demand.

 

"K'rahto..." her voice trailed off with uncertainty as her eyes briefly diverted toward K'luha's injury.

 

"Her hip might be broken. You cannot expect to carry her alone like that, you could easily hurt her.."

 

A slight waver in her voice revealed the lack of confidence that it carried with it, though it wasn't enough to deter the girl. Until someone else instructed otherwise, she would not bend to K'rahto's command.

[Clover]

The Tia's frown deepened.

 

"Do you want to leave her there, then? Of course it's going to hurt, but it must be done."

 

He stepped closer, making his intention to carry K'luha even more clear. All he needed was for K'nahli to step away.

 

"Move if you're not going to help."

 

[...]

 

As K'yohko walked away and the huntresses seemed to lower their weapons, the foreigner returned to his chocobos, willing to do as much as spending the night in their camp. From the distance, a pink haired miqo'te looked at him. She waited a bit to make sure that the situation had calmed down, before she decided to approach the male.

 

"Where did you come from?"

 

K'mih's voice sounded from behind the boy. She looked at him with curious and innocent eyes, hands crossed behind her back. There was no visible threat in her attitude.

[K'nahli]

K'rahto's words made the girl flinch. A puzzled expression momentarily occupied her features as she studied him curiously. Why was he being so difficult? Had she done something to offend him? Silently she sought an answer, though regardless of what his reason may have been, it wouldn't have affected her reaction.

 

"Perhaps you should clean the eighteen summers' worth of sand out of your ears, tia. I was merely suggesting that you not risk unnecessary discomfort for her by insisting on doing it alone" K'nahli returned snidely as her eyes narrowed into more of a glare.

 

His snarky attitude was testing her temper quite carelessly and even her concern for K'luha would not be enough to keep her calm if he persisted the way he was. Maroon and amber waged a silent war against each other in that moment, neither of the two miqo'te having the humility to heed the others' words with any grace. They were very much alike in that sense, but their similarities were not seen positively in either case. It seemed to be that the pair only saw eye-to-eye when they found need to exchange glares.

 

 

"..tell me what I must do..." K'nahli added eventually, trying to retreat from her approaching sense of anger and back to the issue at hand. Contempt, however, still burned fervently within her eyes.

[Lyraciilee]

The sands moved swiftly beneath him, and in a swift moment K'yohko and his courel had vanished alone into the sands. 'Do not hunt alone'. K'yohko would oblige her, only there was no one to join him in the hunt. He paused atop a sand dune far out and looked back to the small distant tribe. He saw what he was to them, what he must be, and lamented it.

 

 

K'ailia had been alive and well, but was she not now? Or did K'yohko mean...? K'luha felt her heart drop as the realization sunk in. Her daughter was gone. Maybe not dead but, dead to her. Dead to her family. It was almost as if she had committed suicide. After all, she chose this path. That way of life that brought her so far away. She found outsiders her new family, and to K'luha? K'luha had lost another child. She had given everything her spirit let her give to K'ailia. All of her worries and actions were for K'ailia. For her well being and saftey. To teach her and show her the beauty of the world and their way of life. Perhaps it was time for her to leave. Perhaps it was Azmeya's wisdom that she take her knowledge and skill elsewhere. But the Tweleve forbid, K'luha did not have the strength in her to accept her daughter's choice.

 

But what little she had not given away of herself, she would give to Tahj and K'ile. If they would accept it. It was how she had dealt with her son's death. And it would be how she dealt with K'ailia's.

 

Luha glanced up towards Zhumi and the unappeitizing looking vial. She looked briefly to Tahj, passified from her panaic and instead taking on an expression of pain and weariness again. She took the vial and quickly downed it. If it would help her, she would drink it. The taste was something between vomit and other things Luha would rather not admit she'd tasted. It made her nauseaous and considerably dizzy.

 

 

K'iara watched the scene nervously, stepping around the cart just a little ways away now. Her eyes drifted to the elder and her Uncle K'ile before turning back towards the cart. It was getting rather crowded over this way. But when K'zhumi shouted angrily to have someone carry Luha, she knew she could at least be of use. When K'nahli came over to the cart however, K'iara remained a few steps off for a moment, wondering what it was K'nahli would do..

 

Even in her naseusa and dizziness, Luha could recognize K'nahli's hair and voice. Although it took a few moments for her to recognize someone was even there in the first place.

 

"K'nahli?" Luha asked, reaching a hand up to rub at her eyes as if to clear them. Still, they were blurry and unfocused. Perhaps she was just exhausted. Still, she offered a smile at K'nahli's appearance. "K'nahli it's good to see you again." Luha paused at the quest of pain. Where did it hurt? Why, well, everywhere. Her body, her head, her heart, everything was hurting right now. But there was Tahj here, and she still had her family. K'nahli and K'zhumi and K'rahto were all proof that she had her family again.

 

Both Luha and K'iara looked to K'rahto when he demanded K'nahli stay out, and then that he would take her. K'luha looked a bit worried that the tiny tia was going to carry her, and K'iara looked peeved at her younger brother for being arrogant and rude. At least, K'iara had to think, K'nahli was a smart girl. A hip injury like this wasn't something K'rahto could carry alone without injurying Luha even more.

 

"Do I have a say in who carries me?" Luha mumbled, still rubbing at her eyes.

 

K'iara frowned and came up behind her brother, agitatedly reaching forward to pinch his ear. She oft pinched his ear to warn him when he was being rude or abbrassive.

 

"Don't be rude Rahto. Use the board she was laying on earlier so you don't' have to hurt her hip anymore than it already is." K'iara pointed out the board before looking to Zhumi. Hopefully that would maybe pacify Zhumi for a moment...? Because if Zhumi was going to whack K'nahli and K'rahto, K'iara was already prepared to duck.

[Izmina]

"That is quite enough!" if Zhumi's voice had been any louder it might have scared off the area wildlife. Ears flat and eyes flashing angrily, she spun to stare at the small gathering. "At least one of my siblings is capable of thinking." she smiled briefly at K'iara. "You may both help. Use the board so K'luha stays flat and her weight doesn't shift. " Glancing back at K'tahjha who was still cradeling her aunt's head, "You can help carry my things back to the medical tent.' Zhumi knelt by K'luha and placed a small leaf in her mouth,"Keep this under your tongue, no matter how careful those two are it will hurt. This herb will help."

 

K'tahjha sat quietly while everyone around her argued over who would carry her aunt, jumping as Zhumi began to yell. Finally it seemed settled and Tahj relaxed, slipping carefully out from under K'luha, she began to gather the supplies as Zhumi asked her.