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 Posted: Sun May 28, 2023 4:57 pm
Heike 1 Her time spent with her northern cousins had been invaluable. Though she hadn't first intended on going that far north, had just been running from her heartache, Heike had quickly come to discover how much of a positive decision it had been in the end to go see the Alkidike. She'd always thought of herself as broken, a sham of a Sister who knew nothing about what it really meant to be a daughter of a Tree. Now, she felt more confident in herself. There wasn't anything wrong with her. She had just been confused before, a product of her having lived so far from her own tribe. Too much time spent on her own had made her too introverted and awkward around others. But that was gone. Or it a little gone. There had been loads of others who were just or almost as introverted at herself back in Emeka. It had given her a new appreciation for herself.
Now the real question was, did it give her a new appreciation for her blood cousin? It was time to leave and find Doesina, to go see her other blood family in Yael. Heike was ready for the next step in her journey.
The only problem was, finding the Elaria. Last she had seen her, she had been near Ast. So the Elidae had first gone there, searching around the town, peering in from the outside for any signs of a tall grey woman, There had been none. Made sense. She couldn't have expected her cousin to remain here for the few years it took her to find herself. Still, it annoyed her that she now had no idea of where the other woman was.
Was she destined to once more wander the forests of Jauhar in search of something? Heike sighed, turning her back on Ast to make her way back south to Neued.
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Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2023 3:04 pm
Doesina 1 Up until now, the Elaria had been randomly roaming the forest, going back and forth between Ast and Neued, worried that Heike would pop up in her absence. Her trip to Jauhar wasn't one of leisure, after all. She was here to deliver her cousin to her family in Yael, to do all she could to make Heike feel comfortable after that traumatic event that had taken place in Kiros. Doesina never wanted to imagine what it would be like to lose her own mother like that. Just the very idea of it was like a stab of ice into her chest. All her spare time here had been devoted to her duty to her cousin. But even one as patient as she could only wait for so long. After a while, her trips to Ast to wait became less and less. So much so that even the vendors on that Neued streets she loved to frequent had become so used to her company, that some would even greet her as she passed. Not all, of course. One couldn't expect good changes to come that quickly after so much war. The nasty looks and occasionally thrown object didn't bother her all that much. It wasn't like their fears of her were completely unreasonable.
That was where the day found her. Out in the forest some ways from Neued, washing the fruit that clung to her clothes and hair. A mob of people traveling on the roads who had hoped to scare her away with numbers, back to her own Sisters. Than had been surprised when she'd put up no fight, stunned into silence. That was the only part that ever hurt. The looks of fear on some people's faces.
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Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2023 5:24 pm
Heike 2 For weeks, Heike searched the forest, trying to find any hint of tracks to help her discover the direction Doesina had gone. Judging by the lack of anything on the ground, it had been a long time since the Elaria had been up this way. What little she knew of her cousin told her Doesina might have gone back south, to be near the Earthlings that she seemed to love so much. It was not something she herself could understand, this obsession with them. As a daughter of a tree, she was superior to them. Too important to congregate with them. Heike wouldn't even trade with them. If not for the fact she didn't know her way around Yael, she would have left her cousin here and gone to her next destination. She had no doubt the Elaria would be more than happy here with her obsessions. Than again, Heike knew how to survive in the wilderness. She had survived in Jauhar on her own for a year before having her peace interrupted by someone else. Surely Yael couldn't be all that different? Eventually she would run into an Elaria on her own who could direct her. She knew the names of her aunt and grandmother. She could find them on her own. Leaving Doesina here without any heads up was hardly a concern for the Elidae. She didn't ask to be found in the first place.
But that was not in her destiny. A figure near a stream came into view. A tall figure, dark grey in color with dark hair. Not an Earthling. Unless she had found a traveling Elaria heading for the Alkidike. The closer she got, the more the fine details on the face and body came into view. Familiar features.
Doesina. Finally.
Moving closer on silent feet, Heike stopped, her arms resting at her sides. What was that in the other woman's hair?
"Have people been throwing things at you?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 4:24 pm
Doesina 2 Doesina was humming to herself as she washed, the long right side of her dress held up in one hand while the other scrubbed aggressively over the fabric. She had a bit of soap perched on a rock next to her and she lathered her hand up in more of that, trying to get out a troublesome red stain from her pale outfit. Perhaps it might be easier if she'd just removed it altogether and sat down in the stream with it over her lap. The only thing keeping her from doing that was the difficulty at which the dress was to put on. So many strings to tie on the back of it.
Sighing at the seemingly impossible stain, she dropped the skirt and was raising her arms to he tie behind her neck, resolved to the decision when the voice came from behind her. The familiar voice that she hadn't heard for so long, but would never ever forget. Still as emotionless as always. Or, well...Not as emotionless as she remembered.
"Heike!" the Elaria screamed out, jumping out of the stream and instantly hugging her cousin, so fast she didn't see the wince that physical contact always made Heike do. "Are you done with the Alkidike?" Did that mean she could finally go back home? Oh, but her new friends. She didn't want to leave them so soon.
"Yes. But it's fine. Tell me about what you did!"
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 6:24 pm
Heike 3 By the Mother, why was this woman so clingy?
There was no stopping the hug once it was in motion to happen. Heike made a face, her hands limp at her side, giving Doesina the rare few seconds to do as she pleased before Heike would start pushing back at her, hands on her grey shoulders to put a wide bit of space once more between them. Made even worse than the affection was the fact someone had been throwing food at her. A bit of....Something clung to the Elidae's shoulder as she extracted herself from her cousin. She flicked it away with a look of disgust. Both at the food and what was said.
"It is not fine!" Heike shouted, turning her green eyes on Doesina, who winced at the tone of voice. "You shouldn't let them do that to you. Have some respect for yourself and your people."
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Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2023 9:14 am
Doesina 3 Doesina winced once more, again at the tone of voice from Heike. She sounded so much like her grandmother right now, stuck in the old ways of the Sisterhood. One could be both respectful of their culture while also respecting that of others. She was Elaria, it was perfectly understandable that Earthlings wouldn't take to her very quickly. Most didn't. Some did, the very rare few who took her as she was instead of wondering if she was playing some part to trick them. Elidae probably didn't have this problem. Heike had been welcomed by their northern family with open arms, she bet.
Forcing her thoughts to a stop, Doesina realized she had been scowling. Was she really turning bitter? She had rarely been bitter in her entire life. Only when a very young child, when she had been denied something she really wanted. But rarely as an adult. Seems the group throwing food at her had really bothered her after all.
"I do," she answered quietly back, playing with the hem of her skirt with one hand. "It's just...I get how they must feel. Do you really not feel empathy towards them?" Pointless question. She knew the answer already, even before she read the change in expression on her cousin's face.
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Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2023 10:09 am
Heike 4 What a thing to ask, by the very person who had been pelted by all manner of fruit, even some rotten by the smell of it. This was all the proof anyone needed that Earthlings didn't deserve pity or empathy. Or anything at all.
Before answering, Heike looked away from Doesina, towards the clear water behind her. She walked towards it, pulling out her almost empty water bottle, and crouched down to refill it, feeling the cool water splashing over her fingers and hand. It should be sizzling with the burring rage she felt inside.
"Why should I show empathy towards creatures who do this?" Putting the stopper back on the bottle, Heike remained crouching in the water, letting the fingers of both hands now trail in the water. "They don't show respect to anything or anyone else."
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Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2023 4:55 pm
Doesina 4 This whole conversation was quite exhausting to Doesina, who really couldn't understand this kind of mindset at all. As if every single Earthling in the entire known world were all of one hivemind. As if they didn't deserve to share the same earth as the daughters of the trees. Some didn't, no. She wasn't so naive that she thought everyone had enough good in them to warrant forgiveness and second chances. Some people were jut....Bad. Be they Earthling, Aishan, or Kahi. To think of an entire race as the same was unreasonable. But she also knew from experience with like-minded, stubborn Elaria back home that you also couldn't change how everyone thought.
Maybe their grandmother could help. Mayella had been closer to the war than anyone else she knew. Not involved in it, of course, since she was an Elaria, too. However, as the daughter of an exiled Alkidike, she had carried those same exteme beliefs for much of her life, until she had children of her own. Kioko, Heike's mother, had been a perfect example of a feared Elaria. Or so Doesina was told. While her own mother, Chrysa, had grown up with a different view. Over time, Chrysa had managed to change the mind of Mayella, making her a bit more tolerate of the other types of people who shared the world with her own. Not that she would ever go out and befriend any. Just tolerate. Perhaps trade a bit with. She was civil when around Earthlings, though no one would call her courteous. If she could do it, maybe there was hope for Heike.
Still...It was hard to let those comments go over her shoulders without saying anything else back.
"They're not all bad. That would be impossible, wouldn't it, with so many of them? Just like we are different, so can they be."
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Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2023 6:12 pm
Heike 5 Of course. Leave it up to Doesina to be sentimental and soft-hearted towards them. It was a common argument between them, their differing opinions on whether Earthlings deserved the same earth as they did. I mean, there were plenty of other places they could live. Places that were nowhere near the Aishans. It wasn't that she wished they'd all just.....Die. Vanish from the earth forever. She wasn't so heartless as that. They just made her uncomfortable. She only wished they weren't anywhere near where she was. That they could find their own lands to live on. She knew a lot of how she felt came from her mother. Maybe if she'd had more interactions with the other Elidae, she'd have grown up feeling differently. But she hadn't. She'd had no friends as a child. Never really wanted them. Being around others always made her feel awkward, so she'd always gravitate instead to the wilderness. Hunting or watching the animals. She'd often share the extras from her hunts with her Sisters. That had been the extend of it.
"That might be so," Heike answered, rising back up, shaking the water off her fingers. "But our kinds were not meant to mingle."
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Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2023 6:24 pm
Doesina 5 Doesina pursed her lips stubbornly, knowing this argument could go on forever with neither woman relenting to the other. No matter how much she knew Heike should relent. This belief was silly. Why shouldn't the two get along and co-exist together? They could learn so much from each other. And the Earthlings spent so much of their time on their trades and hobbies, that trade would be so lucrative. Sisters could offer their combat skills to the people with less ability with weapons or defense. It'd be the perfect set-up. Her own mother often traded her specially made teas and blankets with the Yaeli nearby. Doesina saw firsthand how beneficial it was to both parties involved. And it wasn't just her mother. Other Elaria also bartered with the Yaeli. She bet even a large portion of the Alkidike Heike had just visited did the same thing.
But saying anything more about it would be a pointless use of energy.
Instead, she changed tactic, wading back out into the stream and sitting down in the water, once more picking up the hem of her dress to continue to wash out the stain.
"What about the Kahi?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2023 5:25 pm
Heike 6 Expecting more of an argument over a familiar topic, Heike was caught more off guard by the change in direction Doesina had taken. Her cousin had never really spoken much about the Kahi before. And when she did, it was always the same way she did about Earthlings. That is, in such a way that made Heike wonder if Doesina truly understood that a Kahi was not the same as an Earthling.
But what did she think? Well, that was the question. A question with an answer even she couldn't accurately give. Heike had never really thought much of them. She'd seen them even less than other Elidae, usually while they were in the water during her hunting trips alone. She'd never tried to approach them or suggest that she might want to talk to them, so they'd kept their distance and she kept hers. But what did she think of them?
"I don't know. I've never had much cause to give them much thought before. They're kind of...Odd, I guess." Than again, everyone not a Sister was odd to her. Thinking about how they were all born was...Disgusting. No elegance, just a painful mess. What kind of an existence is that?
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Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2023 5:44 pm
Doesina 6 "Just odd?" Eyes down on her work, Doesina's voice had a very distracted tone to it, as if she wasn't even fully paying attention to the answers to her questions. She was. Very much so. And found it very unfair to be so critical of one type of person over another. They could all intermingle together. Or so she assumed, since Elaria, Alkidike, and Earthlings all could. Kahi didn't have young trees, why would they be any different? They didn't have another source for reproduction that was still so young, it could only manage its own. Their reproduction was like an Earthling, from their own body. Thus, just like an Earthling. Right?
In truth, the Elaria had never met a Kahi before. Never even seen one from afar. Or if she did, she mistook it for another Earthling, seeing as there were so many of them everywhere. While Kahi, she was lead to understand, located mostly on a series of islands very to the east of Yael and south of Belrea.
"What makes them so different that they're just odd and Earthlings get worse words to describe them?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2023 10:33 am
Heike 7 Near the stream was a stump. Not nearly as wide as the grown trees by far, this had clearly been a much younger tree that had been cut down, judging by the clean cut. Heike sat down on it, pulling her bow over her head to prop up against the back of the stump, while her spear she placed on her lap, both hands gripping the shaft. She leaned back slightly, giving a sigh of annoyance. These conversations were draining and she could feel the tiredness seeping into her body as Doesina kept talking about it. Why couldn't she just accept things were this way and leave them be? It wasn't like she was going around, killing Earthlings. She just wanted to be left alone. It didn't seem like anything worth fussing over. Like she was doing something terribly wrong. She could even go on ships, so long as she had her own space the entire time with as little contact as possible with the rest of the passengers and crew.
Maybe they'd get lucky and run into a returning group of Elaria or Alkidike visiting relatives in Yael that they could join up with.
"Is this really what you want to talk about right now?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2023 2:35 pm
Doesina 7 Did she? No. It wasn't a very pleasant conversation for Doesina and she could tell it also wasn't for Heike. But it also felt like a necessary one. If there was a better way of discussing it, without either side getting so worked up, she didn't know of one. She knew it was pointless. Could hear the strain in her cousin's voice that told her not to continue. She couldn't help it. It never did anything to stop her from trying. Her mother would tell her the same thing when she'd get something into her head as this was, spending too much of her time trying to convince others of her side. Not everyone could be persuaded. Some people were just too stuck in their ways.
"Maybe not," the Elaria admitted, lathering up her hands for the last bit of stain left that stubbornly clung to the same spot she had been scrubbing at for so long. "But still--"
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Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2023 4:17 pm
Heike 8 "I don't want to talk about it!" Her voice had been loud and very harsh, the suddenness of it making Heike drop her own spear from its sitting place on her knees. It clattered to the ground the sound even louder in the now silence of the forest. Even the rustles of the docile animals in the canopy had ceased. Probably terrified that some fearsome beast was about to start hunting them. Other than the soft sound of the water running over the rocks in the stream. Reaching down to grab the fallen weapon, the Elidae straightened back up with it, noticing the lack of scrubbing sounds that had been a constant. Neither woman said a word, just sat in silence for a while, Heike tense with anger at her cousin's stubbornness of the topic. She silently practiced the calming ritual taught to her by Lali. Breath in slowly and deeply, than breath out. Repeat this as many times as was needed to achieve eternal peace.
If Doesina wanted to remain quiet for the rest of the day, that suited Heike just fine.
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