None of Us Would Ever Come Home Again [closed]

[Naunet]

Thal rolled to his feet and dragged the Tia up with him. "Better off if ya don't struggle," he bit out and then shouted, "C'mon, kid!" before turning south, tail lashing and fur standing on end.

[Twinflame]

K'aijeen ran out ahead of them and swung her branch at the ground, stirring up dust, but in ever-decreasing amounts, as though she had already blown it all away. "Why do you keep bringing him?" Her voice began to grate as the dirt in the air got in the wound, and she placed her hand over it. "He'll slow us down, get us killed!"

[Naunet]

"Maybe I'm just being stupid," Thal grumbled. "No time for arguing right now, kiddo. Just run." Hefting K'ile Tia up off the ground, Thal moved as quickly as he could without outrunning D'aijeen. He directed them south and tried not to think too much on the sundrakes and Amal'jaa likely on their tail.

[Twinflame]

K'aijeen would not run ahead of Thal. She would not run far behind him. She stayed close to him, but far from K'ile, too afraid to deviate more than a few fulms in any direction.

 

In the direction that Thal ran, there had once been Amal'jaa beastmasters, carrying hooks and meat with which to command their Sun Drakes. Now, as Thal descended the robes, there were three abandoned black bodies, scales dully colored in the sun. There was very little blood to mark the demise of the Amal'jaa hunters, and very little sign that they had struggled. They were simply dead heaps.

 

No more bolts fell. The shouts of the Sun Drakes still came, however.

[Naunet]

Thal didn't question the bodies, suspected strongly the work of his Duskwight friend and accepted it. Welcomed it, even, as it was aiding them in escape. Cliffs jutted up on the horizon; he just hoped that they could keep ahead of the sundrakes long enough to make it to the rocks. It would be much easier to take shelter and climb out of reach of the beasts there.

[Twinflame]

The Sun Drakes only persisted as far as the corpses of their masters, where the smell of blood caught their attention and the glisten of vulnerable meat beckoned to them. Their death were much better at tearing past Amal'jaa scales than mere weapons would be, and they loudly converged to tear their way into gray gore and dark fluid.

 

Ka'ijeen did stop running, though, clinging to Thal as she went. When she could no longer hear the sound of the tearing teeth, and when no more bolts seemed to be following them, she said, "I don't think they're chasing anymore."

[Naunet]

"We're not gonna take that risk just yet," Thal spoke between soft thuds of his feet on the sand and tried to keep his grip on K'ile as secure as he could without jostling the Tia too much. "Keep going. All the way to the rocks."

[Twinflame]

K'aijeen obeyed. She didn't want to stop running. She thought there might be Amal'jaa hidden in high places out of sight, armed and furious, with more vicious Sand Drakes held back and starved to the point of desperation. K'ile had said the Amal'jaa would chase them. He had said he would kill, and they would kill. And K'aijeen believed that. She wished for the anger that should have made her feel, for the will to push against it, but all she felt was afraid.

 

When they arrived at the far rocks, as they climbed them, K'ile Tia took advantage of Thal's less steady footing and struggled against the man. "Put me down, damn it!"

[Naunet]

"You gonna go running to your beastman friends?" Thal was forced to stop his assent to struggle with the Tia, pressing them both against a steep incline.

[Twinflame]

"Twelve damned... stop it!" K'ile's ears pressed back on his head as he pushed against Thal. "And what are you going to do, huh? If you go walking me back to the tribe the Amal'jaa will just find me there, and then they'll just take whatever they want from the tribe without any say from any of us."

 

K'aijeen hurried to the top of the rocks and spun to look around them. Feeling exposed, she dropped to her knees and made herself very small, watching the two men beneath her.

[Naunet]

"And if I let you go and you go running to them, what? They all end up slaves. Not gonna happen. So." He jabbed one finger at K'ile's chest. "No, we're not going back 'til I'm satisfied you've got sense in your head."

[Twinflame]

"That's not going to do any good. They'll keep after me. Yeah, they'll only do it so long, but when they give up, they'll go somewhere else. And that somewhere isn't back to Zul'Farak." K'ile kicked at Thal meanly. "They'll go to the tribe."

[Naunet]

"So you'll hold them ransom." Blue eyes narrowed behind his mask, and he bit back a grunt at K'ile's kicking. One foot shifted and slipped on loose rock, but his bare toes found purchase again. "Y'know, you're not making much of a case for me to keep you alive. You trying to tell me that family of yours would be better off moved somewhere else and with you dead?"

[Twinflame]

"I'm not holding them randsom, I'm telling you what will happen, regardless of what you or I do!" He kicked out again, trying to knock Thalen from the rocks.

[Naunet]

"Stop!" Thal barked and spun, dragging K'ile around until the Tia was facing outward away from the rockface and Thal's back was pressed against the rock. "You want to condemn your family?" He snapped roughly. "Or do ya want to cooperate and maybe work out a solution?"

[Twinflame]

Grunting as Thal dragged him around, K'ile punched at the man's arm. "If the Amal'jaa try to take the tribe by force, it won't work! The tribe's too strong, they'll fight, but they'll be outnumbered and most of them will probably die. You think I want that?"

 

"Don't try to talk to him!" K'aijeen shouted down at Thal. "He's going to try to lie to you! Remember what he said!"

 

"Hey, butt out!" K'ile glared at Thal. "If you hadn't encouraged her so much when she was a kid we'd have all been a lot better off."

[Naunet]

Thal nearly lost his grip with one arm when K'ile punched him, and he struggled to resecure it. "Don't go holding stuff against me I don't remember," Thal muttered. "Ugh. Y'wanna talk about being stupid, look at the mess you've made. Did I get to clean up a lot of your messes when I was alive, too? Tell me there's a solution here that doesn't end with a bunch of people dead or enslaved."

[Twinflame]

K'aijeen let out a long, low groan. "He's going to lie!"

 

K'ile ignored the girl, pushing against Thal again. "The Amal'jaa know the tribe will fight back. The plan was to empower me so I could bring the tribe in willingly. Just because I go away or change my mind doesn't mean they won't move against the tribe anyway."

[Naunet]

"Gah--Alright!" Thal finally released K'ile, but not gently. He pushed the Tia to one side and turned immediately, muscles poised to chase or defend. "Stop with the hitting, okay?? Seems like I'm the only one here who actually gives a damn what's gonna happen to all those people, and I don't even know them!"

[Twinflame]

K'ile rolled to get his balance under control, sliding down the rocky slope a few fulms before catching himself. "I'm doing this for them. You're probably not listening."

 

"Stop letting him talk!" K'aijeen tried once more.

[Naunet]

"I'm listening. Y'know what I'm hearing?" Thal slapped one hand against bare rock. "A buncha wormcrap! 'I'm dooming my whole family, but I'm doing it for them.' Ya know how stupid that sounds?"

[Twinflame]

"I really don't know. How stupid can something sound to an idiot?" K'ile punched the rock and shook his head, wincing as pain radiated from his skull. "Augh, are we really going to argue about this? Again? I'm not dooming anyone. Except you, if I get the chance, but you've got Thal himself on your side or something."

[Naunet]

Thal blinked. "I have... myself? On my side?" He shook his head then, ears fluttering, and lashed his tail against the rock behind him. "Hey! Yeah! We're gonna argue about this. I mean--no! We're not because there's nothing to argue about! You're not gonna give over a bunch of people to be tempered. Just isn't happening."

[Twinflame]

"Well thanks to you the offer's probably off the table anyway!" K'ile gestured vaguely northward, then southward, then just spread his arms and didn't know where to gesture anymore. "At this point the best I can do is talk the tribe into surrendering. Or take all the weapons or something. But you're just going to beat me up again, so, hey, what are you going to do about it? Yell at me about, and nothing else!"

[Naunet]

Thal groaned at that and pawed at his hair with one hand in frustration. "That was kinda the idea behind talking and, y'know, working it out together. That's too much, huh? Don't wanna work with the dead guy. Ugh." He kicked at a loose rock, sending it skittering down the side of the rockface in a small cloud of dust. "Alright. My solution? Go tell the people who fight those guys for a living that there's gonna be an attack. Get your family some protection. How's that for a dead, stupid guy?"