Heinous Omens [K-Tribe]

[Clover]

What was that? Why was K'nahli directing her anger at her? Whatever had happened to the blue haired huntress, it hadn't been K'mih's fault. She hadn't done anything, had she? Then why?

 

The girl's shy smile vanished, replaced by worry and confusion. She even frowned slightly, as if K'nahli's anger was starting to be contagious.

 

"K'nah--" K'mih started, willing to ask, demand an answer from her sister. Her voice was quickly interrupted by K'iara's as she approached the two of them. Defeated for that moment, K'mih's eyes could just lower to the ground, making it more than obvious that something was indeed wrong. Something was, wasn't it? Even K'iara should notice it when K'nahli decided to take her leave, as if spending any more time with any of the other girls was a waste.

 

K'mih remained on the spot, eyes down, half a frown above them. She didn't add anything to what K'nahli had already said. What could she say anyway?

[Lyraciilee]

K'luha's ears seemed to have made up their mind at K'ile's wandering with his opening line. They flattened down, and looking distinctly uncomfortable she shyed away from him. Her tail curled meekly around her bad leg, almost like a brace or support. The former huntress looked meekly at the hand he offered, her eyes lingering on it before darting up to his face for a moment, and then back.

 

"Talk?" K'luha questioned with a small nervous laugh. She pushed a cracking smile on her face, straighten herself up somewhat and pushing her hairs to stand straight through sheer force of will. "What talk? I-i couldn't imagine anyone-" K'luha trailed off abruptly as the nosy chocobo pushed its way forward and warked into K'ile's ear. A soft squeeze from K'tahja's hand brought her attention downward, and she tried to give a more genuine smile to her niece. Luha reached forwardly with her free hand and softly shifted to stroke the chocobo's beak. She had always enjoyed the company of the silly birds. Her own had made the journey to their new home admirably. Luha cast a sidelong glance at K'ile, unsure of how to feel or what to say.

 

"K'ile you should... rest... or lay down. We can talk later. Tahj wants to see the huntresses off and... that's what's important right now. Everything else can wait until later." Luha looked down to Tahj faintly and smiled a bit, patting her shoulder before starting to limp off towards the center of the tribe's circle.

-----

K'iara had gathered herself with K'nahli in tow to the center of camp. Most of the huntresses had gathered down, all speaking in excited and nervous hushed whispers to one another. K'iara herself enjoyed a small conversation with the second eldest huntress, smiling and flicking her tail behind her with anxiety. Every so often she let her eyes dart back over to the elder's tent, impatient for the moment they would appear.

----

K'yohko stood some ways off from the center of camp, far enough to hear and see but not to interact. His eyes glassed over all the women, wondering just what sort of prey K'takka had in mind. The idea made him somewhat anxious. What if there wasn't enough food here either? They'd still only just arrived. What if this place wasn't good? How could they support a pregnant huntresses if the conditions were incorrect?

 

His usual thin stoic expression pressed into more of a thin scowl, and his eyes narrow to look harder among the huntresses.

[Clover]

With a dejected expression, K'mih walked with the rest of the huntresses, albeit she didn't stand nearby K'nahli this time. She needed to talk to her sister as soon as possible, but the fear of meeting those cold eyes again was paralyzing. K'mih didn't need to face rejection right now; she didn't need to feel guilty about something she didn't even know.

 

When she timidly raised her head to look around, her eyes stopped at the figure of her father in the distance, as if he was the only comfort. Not even her mother, who was also getting ready for the hunt; just him.

 

His invitation for K'ile to visit his tent still rang her ears. Had it been anyone else, perhaps it'd been possible for it to have been a joke. But her father didn't usually joke, did he...?

[Xha'li Moui]

Rin glared at K'ile as he popped his nose before moving around him and cooing as he leaned into K'luha's touch.  Chuckling as he got off Li reached out and scratched Fubuki as the chickabo came around and nuzzled against him.  Yawning and trying to talk around it Xha'li turns his attention towards K'luha and asked "Would there be any issues with me coming to watch the ceremony?"

[Izmina]

K'tahjha peers between her aunt and K'ile frowning lightly as she studies the man's face. He really didn't look well. Why was he still not in the healer's tent? She smiles at the large bird, thinking of her Rhiki. He had been her mother's, and she worried about the old bird and babied him the entire trip over, but he had made the trip better than her aunt appeared to have done.

 

Tahj was shaken from her reverie as her aunt smiles down at her and pats her shoulder, beaming brightly back up at her Tahj is eager to join the huntresses and see the ceremony. As they head towards the center of camp, Tahj hears Li's question, and she smile back over her shoulder at him,"I don't see why not, so long as you're not underfoot."

[Twinflame]

"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?"

[Xha'li Moui]

Xha'li nods before grinning sheepishly and saying "Cook? Me?  That might not be the best idea...I'm more liable to set my tail on fire then anything else."  With a shrug he turns towards K'ile more fully and awkwardly scratches the back of his head, "I guess I could help a bit with the prep, so long as I stay away from the actual cooking part.  And no need to worry, I'll stay out of the way and observe during the ceremony keeping my questions to bug you with later Uncle."

[Lyraciilee]

K'luha looked to Rin, an outsider coming to the ceremony? Well, he was family. She was sure it would be fine. Especially if they were all together. She glanced down to Tahj, smiling faintly. She nodded in agreement, shuffling them all closer towards the center of camp where the huntresses had gathered. K'luha cast a concerned glance back to K'ile, biting at her bottom lip.

 

"No." She answered for Tahj abruptly, furrowing her brows. "She'll be with me.... we have the tent to finish setting up and some furs to sew." K'luha pushed Tahj's shoulder to push her lightly in front of K'luha. She glanced forward again and gripped Tahj's shoulder lightly. "We can talk about if you want to go later Tahj, but for now, please just go with me..."

[Izmina]

K'tahjha's ears droop slightly in response to K'ile's question and she hesitates. Cooking? She opens her mouth to answer but snaps it shut abruptly as K'luha speaks up. Tahj puzzles at her aunt's tone of voice but smiles up at her gratefully. If there was one task she was sure to fail at it was cooking. She obediently moves ahead of Luha and continues toward the  gathering of huntresses, eager to see the ceremony.

[Twinflame]

Why was everyone being so weird? At least Xha'li had his feet on the ground. It was just cooking. Even K'luha could've helped with that if she didn't look two steps from dead. Still, she did take comfort from others when she needed it, and it seemed she was taking K'tahjha.

"Eh, fine, fine." K'ile turned to walk past Xha'li, heading towards a different part of the camp. "Thanks. We'll need more help. Maybe I'll ask K'yohko to help me cook, eh?" He laughed at the joke, but his laughing hurt the base of his ears, so he stopped.

[Xha'li Moui]

Xha'li nods at K'ile before patting Rin on his neck, "Go on boy, I'm not going to be getting into any trouble in camp, just keep an eye on our chick ya?"  Grinning as Rin preens his hair quickly before urging Fubuki away Li goes off himself, heading towards the center of the camp and the gathering of elders and huntresses to find himself an out of the way spot where he can have a good view to see and hear what happens.

[Naunet]

The soil beneath K'deiki's feet felt different as she shuffled towards the skeleton of the tribe's bonfire, a tower of tinder and wood designated family members had spent several hours gathering and arranging. It crackled with a rigidness beneath her wrapped toes that the Sagolii dunes had never possessed, and when she closed her aged eyes, she felt the breathing of foreign spirits beneath its surface. It would take time to grow familiar with them, to know how to live alongside their new neighbors and how to seek their help and guidance. Luckily the elders carried great patience between them, even if the same could not be said for some of their younger family.

 

As she approached the unlit bonfire, K'deiki withdrew her arms from the colorful wrappings shrouding her form to reveal a hefty bundle of short and long-stemmed herbs and grasses. Artifacts from Sagolii side-by-side with findings from their new home, a symbolic mingling of different natures unified by spirituality. She caught K'jhanhi's scent nearby and turned a weary smile towards his blurred silhouette. He stood to one side of the bonfire, leaning on a tall staff crested with feathers, bones, and woven braids of earthy fiber, which all clattered musically whenever he shifted.

 

"We begin," she said both to him and the other miqo'te she knew by scent who milled close by, and bent to tuck the bundle of herbs into the base of the bonfire. Their hunters were eager to be on the move, to begin learning the lay of the land and enjoy the thrill of such a new hunt, but first there was ritual. Standing back from the bonfire's frame, K'deiki lifted near-sightless eyes skyward and called out in a voice that carried further than her fragile frame would seem capable, "Azeyma, our Warden, has guided us to newfound security and prosperity. Let us now express our gratitude and prove our ability to make good on Her endless gifts."

[Xha'li Moui]

Watching the ceremony Xha'li leaned back on his hands and gently reached out with his aether as he'd learned under Hearer Kinzie, trying to get a better feel for the mood of the local elementals in the still air around the campfire.  With a relaxed sigh he grinned slightly as he felt a small breeze ruffle his hair before dissipating, it seemed the local elementals were around and paying attention to his father's tribe but had yet to form any opinion on them.  As the elder finished speaking Xha'li bowed his head slightly and spoke in a soft voice, "Watch over Menphina as they sleep, keep them safe so they might greet Azeyma when She rises once more."

[Izmina]

The excitement K'tahjha felt for the upcoming ceremony died as if someone had doused a fire with water. Spotting the elder stuffing ritual items in the massive pile of wood, Tahj's heart jumps jumped into her throat. Her ears flatten to her head and her tail tucks between her legs. Why now? Things had gone so long without anyone in the tribe learning of her fear of fire. Her feet felt like lead and refused to carry her any farther and she shoots an imploring look to her aunt.

[Twinflame]

K'ile came at the gathering from a completely different side than K'tahjha and Xha'li did. He watched K'deiki absently as he filed himself in among the huntresses, looking at their faces but giving his full attention to a pair of pink ears which he approached. Touching K'mih lightly on the shoulder, he leaned down towards her to whisper beneath the ceremony, "Hey, you're the firedancer now. Come on. I need to teach you something real quick." He gestured towards the area behind the crowd.

 

Among the Elders, K'takka moved her weary body boldly up to the edge of the piled firewood. It had been so long since they had been able to easily build such a fire. On a whim, everything assembled and ready to burn. She shook the string of bright stones on her wrist, and her fingers shook with age in response to the slight movement. The dryness of the wood was palpable. She could smell it. Her silver eyes could see it in the grains. She could predict the lines the fire would take depending on where it would light.

 

K'takka took bones from her robe, thin, brittle shapes plucked from the Sagolii. The were the bones of clean birds, the kinds who built high nest and cared for their young, who did battle with the buzzards and the hawks to protect their homes. Rare birds in the Sagolii, but she'd seen more of them in this place. Good omens. "We offer all that remains of the bounty of the past, to honor the bounty of the future." K'takka proclaimed as she placed the bones along the grain of the wood. She continued placing the bones, her baggy clothes swaying about her thin frame. Unlike K'jhani, K'takka was decorated in gemestones and cold, wearing purples and blue obtained from Ul'dahn traders in days past.

[Naunet]

K'deiki smiled at her Sister's voice, at the sacred words the old woman spoke. Soon perhaps they would be able to commit new sacrifices to the flame, but it felt right to greet this place with gifts of their ancestry for now.

 

"As we set light to these flames, we pray not only for our own prosperity, but for the health and well-being of the land we've come to sleep upon, of the creatures we've come to run alongside, and of the water that brings us all hope and life." Frail arms lifted, palms turned upward to the darkening sky. "We pray for good winds and for Azeyma's gaze to reach far on our hunts, and what bounty we find, we will return twice over, ever grateful for our existence."

 

She sensed movement next to her, K'jhanhi straightening next to the bonfire's frame. The staff he held clattered as he lifted it and shook the decorations braided along its length. Then he brought it down against the ground, and for a moment the sound it made was like a thousand rain drops. He lifted it and let it fall again, and the sound recurred. In silence he continued this steady rhythm, an echo of the heartbeat of the land they gave their lives to and of the Warden's heart that pulsed unseen far above them. It was the signal to begin the flames.

[Xha'li Moui]

Xha'li shifted in his seat as the male elder began to beat his staff into the ground.  Turning his attention outwards he paused as he realized that the tempo of his staff striking the ground matched the pulsing of the aether around them, or perhaps he mused softly the pulsing of the aether matched the tempo of his staff.  Rising he brushed the sand off him and moved to stand amongst and behind the bulk of the tribe with a grin he turned and bowed his head to Menphina as she rose above horizon before returning his attention towards the ceremony taking place before him.

[Clover]

Standing among all the huntresses, K'mih's head had risen to look at the elder as this one spoke. She heard the words and watched the fire, but her mind was with neither of them. Troubled thoughts were reflected in her eyes as they burnt with the reflection of the flames, until the brief touch of a hand over her shoulder put an end to her trance. She blinked. Before she could even turn to see who was trying to catch her attention, a male voice rang close to her ears.

 

She didn't know if the shiver that ran down her spine was due to the proximity or the reminder that she was the firedancer. Slowly, she finally turned to look at the Tia, all doubts and worries and submissive silence in her lowered head. Her eyes, however, looked at him as she followed.

 

It wasn't a moment to think about K'nahli. She needed to stop wondering.

 

[...]

 

Armed with his spear, K'rahto's serious and focused gaze remained glued to the fire. His eyes only danced briefly to the side, to a far away figure he could still recognize among thousands. K'nahli's position was never unknown to him, even when he feigned not to pay attention.

 

He'd be a hunter today, he'd try to be the best. But today, too, he'd continue being a Tia.

[Twinflame]

K'ile lead K'mih away from the other huntresses, out to the perimeter of the gathering.  He whispered, "Sorry, but you're part of the ritual from now on. It's important." He produced two narrow shafts of wood, each about half the length of a spear. He placed on across K'mih's palm and wrapped her fingers around it, his hand warm and calloused on her thin fingers. K'ile's gaze was neutral, but his twitching ears, low against his hair, revealed a certain tenseness of emotion. "Give the staff a flick. Start the movement in your chest and let it roll down your should into your hand lake a shaken rope. Imagine the bead as flint sparking the tinder in your hand. The fire will flow to either end of the stick." K'ile, holding the other stick, imitated the gesture he had just described. He wore no beads, however, so the short staff he held did not light.

[Clover]

K'mih's eyes fell on the small wooden staff that K'ile placed on her palm. She looked at his hand as his fingers touched hers briefly; bigger, stronger than hers. The hands of a male, one who could become her Nunh someday. The girl tensed slightly more at the mere thought. Looking at her uncle had become difficult, but she managed to raise her eyes and try to observe his movements. The ritual was important. She needed to empty her mind of anything else for now.

 

With a more focused albeit not any less nervous gaze, K'mih paid attention to what K'ile did. Then, she tried to imitate the same gesture. Not even knowing what would happen could prepare her for the shock of the sudden fire.

 

"Ah!"

 

When her stick ignited magically, her first and unavoidable impulse was to throw it out of fear. It only took her half a second to realize her own failure, but it was too late already; the fire staff was in the air, about to fall down onto the not so dry terrain.

[K'nahli]

Alone, but not isolated, K'nahli stood amidst the other hunters and huntresses as each watched the elders speak with an eager anticipation. The maroon-eyed girl looked no different to any of the other miqo'te there - save for perhaps her expression which remained stoic and untelling toward her inner thoughts. She should be excited by such a monumental occasion; that much she knew, but even after having convinced herself that she was better, "fine" even, she couldn't bring herself to even emulate such a feeling. As that thought crossed her mind, the girl could feel her eyes instinctively, edging sidewards in search of something, only to have them quickly drawn forward once more as she defiantly fought against that urge.

Though it was hard to distance herself from the insistent yet unconsciously formulated knowledge of where K'mih was at any given moment, she failed to notice her departure upon K'ile's request and continued to assume that she lingered somewhere nearby, not that she would have been served any comfort from knowing the fact.

 

And so the girl continued to quietly stand and wait, her thoughts no less than completely scattered with embers of a dimming hope - the now, seemingly, naively-conceived idea that perhaps the upcoming ritual would finally steal her from useless thoughts, and more.

[Twinflame]

K'ile tried to catch the short staff, but quick movement made his head hurt and his arm just dropped weakly. Afterward, however, he followed and plucked it off the ground, stomping out the sizzling weeds among which it had fallen. "I said it was going to catch on fire. You really need to get used to that, firedancer." He turned back towards K'mih, spun the burning staff in his fingers once, and held it out to her again. "Come on."

[Twinflame]

Having positioned the bones, K'takka stepped back from the fire. She grinned at it, the wood honest and dry. Real wood that would crackle and shout, roaring in the voice of a lion to the sun in the same way a wolf howls to the moon. The old, dark woman stood like burnt wood in tanned leather, silver eyes gleaming from beneath the wiry brambles of her hair, and her claws shifted. She shook her wrist and the red stones clicked, flickering. Their power was not diminished from having given one of the stones to K'mih. They were still many, still powerful, the soulstones of the firedancers of the past.

 

Her next part in this ritual was simple. Normally she would light the fire with a spark, but not today. Today, she shook her wrist, and the firedancing stones lit up.

 

Shapes illuminated in the pile of wood, tracing the lines of bones she lain. The bones resting along the wood immolated, red heat lifting from them and tracing the shapes, giving them definition, taking shape. Plumes of fire lit on the two dozen shapes as they stirred, small birds with bodies of flame perched on the wood. Their heads turned about, looking at the Miqo'te gathered around them. Then they spread their wings, and spread their bodies, and flattened across the wood.

 

They became the bonfire, sinking into the fiber of the wood and crackling across it. The flame dropped fast into the kindling, growing hot an instant later, and reaching high above the gathering. It crackled and spat, howling with the rush of eat. K'takka took a far step back, smiling up at it, chuckling at the ferocity of the fire she'd lit.

[Lyraciilee]

Fire. K'luha had almost forgotten Tahj's deathly fear of flame. Almost. She felt the young girl stiffen in front of her and caught her terrifed glances. K'luha tried to offer a reassuring smile, pressing her hands to Tahj's shoulders and squeezing there firmly. Her eyes were firmly fixed upon the bonfire and the ceremony at the center. It was tradion. It was important. And it was important that K'tahja not fear the flames of Azyema. Even though fire had taken her mother, it also gave life.

 

The sound of K'jhanhi's staff was soothing. For a moment, the sound felt as if it could envelop K'luha and hold away the despair. But it was only for a moment before the sound seemed to turn back to sound.

 

K'luha's eyes lifted to the shimmering beads along K'takka's wrist. They would light the fire now. Roughly and abruptly, K'luha took Tahj's shoulders and pulled her around, pressing the girl's face to her chest to shield her.

 

"Just hold onto me, okay? It'll be okay." K'luha whispered softly, hugging her niece tightly.

[Izmina]

K'tahjha felt her aunt's hands spin her around so she couldn't see the fire being lit. She buries her face into her aunt's shoulder desperately trying to block out what was going on behind her. The girl's whole body goes rigid as she hears the massive fire roar to life, crackling and popping, consuming the large tower of dry wood. Unbidden, visions of flames licking up tree trunks and roaring through their small camp, flash through Tahj's mind, she whimpers faintly and buries herself more tightly into her aunt.