Welcome to Gaia! ::

Naqenni’s bare toes gripped to rough, textured rock. One hand already clutched to a fat vine, she swung her second up. Touch, touch, touch—there. Finding a grip, she crimped the tips of her fingers, securing her hold before she drew a breath, and hoisted herself up. Her feet scrabbled at the porous earth and stone. Her heart beat itself against the inner cage of her chest. For all of a half moment, a tiny fragment of doubt seeded itself: she might fall, if she lost her grip, and tumble all the way back to the rocky below, a pitiful broken body for her mothers, sisters, and cousins to find—

Then, she was up.

Of course she was up. She couldn’t actually fall—that would seem a great waste of Elzira’s intent, wouldn’t it? Still, despite the wild surge of satisfaction and self-assurance, Naqenni’s pulse remained hard and fast in her chest and throat for several long moments as she caught her breath, and then turned her gaze further up, and out. Yael was not home to her cousins. That much she knew and had long since known, even given the small number of years she had to call hers. A tale repeated again, and again, and cause for much lingering want among them for a land that no longer was.

Yael was, however, her home. All her life to date, it had been its mists that swallowed her when she walked the earth, its long vines that she saw providing ladders up the high rocks, its surging, angry dark sea that lashed at the coastline, and its tall, looming jungles of trees, thick and strange to her cousins, but only natural to her eyes.

In her earliest years, she hadn’t the capacity to travel beyond the small encampment that they called theirs. She was a child then, and too small to know better. After eight passings of all the seasons, though, and pushing towards her ninth year, the warnings of her elders had begun to seem far less appropriate. Misplaced, even, and stifling.

Perhaps the land was alien to them, but it was her homeland, and her destiny, eventually, to win over this land, but also take back what was once stolen from her foremothers. How could she chase that destiny if they never let her learn it for herself? She couldn’t. So, making an executive decision on her own behalf, Naqenni opted to ignore their standards.

It felt the best up here, regardless—perched on the high rocks and amidst the tangled trees with the island winds dancing over her shoulder blades and through her hair. One day, when her limbs were longer, her muscles stronger, and her hands trained into a natural mastery of battle-craft, having this land underfoot would feel natural as breathing, and there would be bigger goals to attend to.

To be fair, company was not entirely unexpected.

As closely as her tribe of mothers and cousins watched over her, Naqenni fairly rarely got even an opportunity to slip out unattended, and rarer still were the occasions that it lasted any significant portion of time. This had been one of those, however, and wrapped up as she was in her own thoughts, the second voice startled her—but not enough, fortunately, to disturb her perch. She peeked down at the speaker.

One of the younger of her cousins, though still many handfuls of years older than she, and not immediately familiar to her. Naqenni curled her toes, debated, and then shrugged.

“I couldn’t if I tried,” she said. “Elzira wouldn’t let me die yet. Mother says she has much bigger plans than that. I’m not, though. Trying to die, that is. I’m practicing. If I climb a lot now, there’s nothing I won’t be able to later. I’ll know everything that’s out here, and how to get to it, and how to get past it, and that’s what I’m going to do. What are you doing out here? Were you hunting? It doesn’t look like you caught anything if you were, or was it very small? Or did my mother send you for me? If you tell her I was out this far, I’ll tell her it was your idea, and that this cut on my leg was your fault. What’s your name?”

Naqenni eyed the woman for a long moment. Pensive. Debating. The snap of ‘Get down here,’ sounded like a demand at best, and she wasn’t fond of following anyone’s ‘orders.’ That wasn’t her job. However, she had explored for quite some time, the day was waning, and if the woman had been out and about in the forests of Yael, perhaps she had interesting tales to tell. So, of her own regard — and not because she was told — Naq shrugged, found her footing, and began working her way carefully down until she was low enough to hop from the rock formation and to the soft earth.

She studied the older woman, and then perched her hands behind herself, folding them there at her back.

“I wouldn’t ‘tell’ on you if you didn’t do anything wrong,” she said. “I don’t care, so long as you don’t tell Mother Iza…” A rare pause ensued as she considered it. “Or anyone else. Other than that, I don’t mind you so far. Even if you didn’t catch anything. Were you scouting? Did you find anything else interesting? Or any of the earthlings? I’m ready to go about on my own, you know. Nothing finds me when I do. But no one listens when I tell them so. Few people listen at all. But you seem to…I like that.” She glanced up. “And your hair. How long have you been gone from camp?”

At ‘…but I killed it…’ Naqenni perked up, immediately attentive as her attention darted towards where the Alkidike motioned, and her pulse picked up in spite of herself, her lips making the tiniest ‘o’ of curiosity before she schooled her expression back to something more ‘dignified.’ “How many were there? Was it just you—did you kill them all? What do they look like? I heard that they’re hideous, and that half of them are mutated into a deformed shape…”

At the latter part, she huffed, opening her mouth to say that she could handle whatever Yael threw at her—the thought was truncated, however, by a hand in her hair.

“Aaayyyy—don’t-!”

Her eyelids narrowed in a squint, cheeks puffing out of their own accord. ‘Cute,’ she said. ‘Practical,’ though, seemed to be a compliment, and ‘cute’ was at least intended as one, even if it didn’t entail the connotations Naq would have preferred. She eyed the older woman. Perhaps it could slide this time.

“I’m Naqenni,” she said. “But you knew that.” Everyone in their tribe knew of the first three, or this was certainly Naqenni’s impression, given the closeted nature of their camp and how pivotal their arrival was. She’d never had the need to introduce herself, even to the women she didn’t know at all herself. “So it’s only fair you should tell me yours, you see. And I’ve been gone only…” She squinted towards the sky. “Maybe an eighth-day. Not so long. I’d like to go longer though, the camp does get boring when there’s naught to do…”

Of course, there was always something to do, and Naqenni was not a fan of wasted or idle time, but generally the more interesting of the things seemed to take place out from under the careful and ever-watching eyes of her mothers and cousins.

Naqenni puffed. She needn’t be told by anyone to ‘shut up’, but the quickness with which her company shifted gears and began actually answering her questions helped to calm the peeved bristle that came with the initial words. Naqenni opted to focus on the more interesting, valuable portion of the conversation: battle, tactics, and the native outsiders.

Males.

Those were the ones she heard were deformed. Shoulders often broader than natural with strange, especially mashed and box-looking faces, and not even the smallest of breasts. Of course, many wild, animal species came in ‘male’ and ‘female’ to make mating pairs amongst themselves since they had no mother tree. But even in animals, the two often didn’t look distinguishable at all without closer inspection. To imagine that they shared an island with females shaped at least grossly like themselves, but also grotesquely shaped counterparts was obscure at best. Not to mention, although admittedly very limited, nothing that she had heard about species with a separate ‘male’ counterpart necessary for making blooms seemed positive.

Then came, “Fearful long range fighters can never best a determined close range warrior…” and Naqenni felt her gut bunch in a wary knot, thoughtful. Perhaps it was true. Fearful much of anything rarely triumphed against anything, in any case. The more she saw of her cousins, however, the more she witnessed them turning again and again to their blades, and while she had every intent of learning to use them, at the back of her mind, she still—

Well, it mattered little in the moment, and she dusted the thought away for further consideration later. The latest ‘find’ to come from the bag captured her attention wholly. After a moment though, she squinted at it, perplexed.

“What…is it? It doesn’t look like a weapon…” She studied the shape, the piece of clear material, and the frame. It almost looked like— “Do they wear that on their face?”

Ai.

‘Ai, Ai, Ai,’ Naqenni thought, mentally repeating the name to commit it to memory. She wasn’t the least bit fond of making ‘promises’ to anyone. Particularly promises to follow instructions that had not yet even been given. She did, however, want to explore further. She settled for a nod and a half-grin. “Let’s do that. Is there anywhere on the island you haven’t been? Is it big? I’ve only been to the coast nearest to camp…but soon, I will see all of it.”

“A shield,” Naqenni repeated, more to herself than to Ai. It seemed an odd thing to need: a shield for one’s eyes. But perhaps earthling eyes were especially sensitive. Or perhaps those of the islanders here were weak and dysfunctional. Regardless, the bent scrap of a device looked interesting in its obscurity, but was likely of little use to her or their tribe personally. Unless, as Ai said, there was some magic in it.

That might be worth at least understanding, though Naqenni had no personal knowledge of or deep interest in it, beyond knowing how to defend herself in her later years against foreign earthling witchery.

Her expression livened immediately with the final question. She had explored the coast to as great of an extent as she’d been allowed, including the caves that dotted portions of it—wet, mossy rock and the sheen of dampness after the tides withdrew and left the ocean-soaked structures open for climbing about in. She had not yet, however, located a full river underground, or been lead to see one, despite having heard in passing that such reservoirs existed.

“Which one? Where is it? I’ve not yet—only the caves along the coast, but I do want to, definitely take me there,” she said. “Is the water fresh? Of the drinkable sort, or is it from the sea? How far is it? Have you seen more than one?”

Once bid to follow, Naqenni — for once — shut her mouth, her attention instead flitting about to take in their surroundings and, in particular, the exact direction they were headed. After all, she knew where she had been, and if she made note from there of where they were going from there, she could find such a place again on another occasion. Perhaps on her own, if the situation permitted.

As they walked, she listened, and scouted for landmarks. The soft rustle amongst the trees, twittering bird call, and the potential activity of nearby beasts to cause the occasional crackle of leaves or a swish of a branch up ahead—all these things kept Naqenni’s antennae alert, and provided more than enough distraction, when not prompted to talk again, to keep her quiet. She didn’t even bother to comment that she wouldn’t get winded just from walking; that seemed to go without saying.

She did, however, keep her ears perked, as though — if she listened just closely enough — she might be able to hear the water rushing below the ground in this underground ‘river’ when they drew near. Since she had only seen water above ground or in the seaside coves, it seemed rational to guess that she might. Then, at long last, a question occurred to her which seemed worthwhile voicing.

“The river, is it deep enough to swim?”

Naqenni trailed her company, and when they came to a steeper dip in the landscape, she mirrored Ai and crouched low, bracing her movements with grips to available exposed roots as she shimmy-scurried her way down the slope. At the bottom, she rocked back onto her heels, and then up onto the front pads of her feet, peeking forward.

Too strong of a current to swim.

“Tchhh,” she ‘remarked’ aloud, slipping around Ai and forward the moment she spied what must be their destination: a yawning chasm in the earth, like a cave entrance but at ground level and tunneling down.

Closer inspection — available after she hopped to its edge and stalled only a half inch from toppling inward — showed that it did cut down a fair way, though the rock looked as climbable and varied as most of the rest of the terrain. Deep within it, and shadowed by the overhang but still glinting with with softer, reflected light, was the rushing river, beating the stone smooth on either side of it and undoubtedly making much of it slick, not only with dampness, but the natural moss and algae born of such dank, moist environments. Naqenni cupped a hand around her lips, angling her voice inward.

“Hawoooooo—ooooo!” Her voice echoed faintly down the tunnel, though most of the reverb was swallowed by the rush of water. Without waiting for permission, or even thinking to ask, Naqenni scouted for a gripping point, studied the way down, and then hoisted herself over.