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 Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2016 10:21 am
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>>>>>| Remembering the Past
Type |<<<
Versatile Prompt: Kiunyki |<<<
796 Words |<<<
The Oban war had happened long before her blooming, and she knew little about it. Still, as she had passed through Neued and Oba and Matori, she had seen it's remains. Slavery still had it's echos in the desert lands.
The Obans had sought to tame Tendaji, and they had failed. Earthling and Alkidike had come together and stood against the Obans. They had fought a huge enemy with better weapons and beasts of war, and the Obans had been the ones tamed instead. It was a testament to the dangerous and terrifying power of earthlings, the foul potency they possessed.
Kiunyki could see that this had happened in Sauti, too. She and her sisters had been led by two Mystics, blessed by Aisha and seers of the truth, born to lead the Alkidike. They'd had Aisha on their side. They had had strength and training on their side. But an alliance had come together against them, this superior force in ability and righteousness if not in number. And they, the earthlings and their own Sisters, had crushed the forces of the Matron beneath their feet. Of course, they were not the Obans; the Exiles would not be tamed. But they were exiled to a hellish land, away from the homeland they had fought for, cast out by their Sisters forever.
Had it just been their own Sisters opposing them, the Exiles – Kiunyki refused to call them Extremists because she did not think that their view was extreme, just right – would have won. They had the truth on their side, after all, and no Sister could truly fight a Sister for long. They were family, after all. Eventually, the sisters fighting them would have understood the truth and joined them.
But, with the earthlings on the field, this mutual understanding through combat was suppressed. Magic rained down on them and monsters leapt into the fray. Death had stalked their path, and Kiki had learned the horror of war. Of what Earthlings could do.
Kiunyki wished that the other Exiles – she considered herself one of them, even if they acted otherwise – would not dismiss the earthlings so. They called them vermin, worthless, and weak. And yet, the Earthlings had crushed them in battle and driven them away. Yes, they had allied with Sisters to do it, but that was the true nature of their power. Not just numbers, not just battle competency, but persuasion. They had turned their Sisters against them.
Just as they had turned her mother. Just as they had killed her mother. Kiki gripped her blades tightly, rage filling her with a familiar heat. Her mother had trusted the Earthlings, loved them even, and then she had gone into the woods with one of them and never come back. Earthlings were not to be underestimated. They were not to be trusted. They were a menace to be approached and destroyed with care and caution, not brashness or bullheadedness. Do do otherwise invited disaster, and the Exiles could not afford disaster. They were so few in number, and death was easy to come by here in this seeping place. One mistake, against the Earthlings or the land, and Yael would crush you.
Kiunyki could not voice her thoughts here. The Exiles looked on philosophy as weakness, and any acknowledgment of Earthling strength as blasphemy. Kiunyki had been among them for months and she still walked on eggshells. They had beaten her and turned their blades to her throat, these people she called her Sisters. She could not tell them how foolish they were. They would kill her, and that would be pointless.
But she could use her knowledge to protect them, and to record events so that they would not forget the lessons of the past. Her mother had been very fond of religious scrolls, had read them out loud to Kiki so that they could share the moment together. Kiki had not understood what her mother saw in those texts, but she understood their purpose.
One day, her writings might be all that the future Elaria would know. There was a good chance that other writings would appear, in the Matron's hand, calling for disgust towards Aisha's children and disregard of Earthling scum, but if Kiki's writings remained, they would tell the truth – of heartbreak and pain, of fear and hope, of wariness and careful, precise strikes. The future Exiles – the Elaria of the new generations – would have this at hand, and it would save their lives.
Because war was not glory. War was hell, and in it, they could not be thinking about mindless slaughter of vermin. They needed to be ready for anything the Earthlings threw at them. And they were, truly, capable of anything.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2016 4:56 pm
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Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2016 12:49 pm
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>>>>>|Lost Feathers
Type |<<<
Solo |<<<
642 Words |<<<
Kiunyki smoothed her collection of feathers onto her makeshift worktable, holding a rough string of thread between her teeth as she threaded her needle. The feathers were dark and scrawny, unlike the beautiful Talean feathers her mother had used, but they would do. They would have to do. They were what Yael had to offer.
Keratna fluttered nearby, eating a fruit he'd picked up from the ground. Kiki hoped that it wasn't poisonous, but Nondwa were fairly difficult to kill so it would probably not be an issue. Noticing her attention, the sweet insect fluttered closer, landing to nuzzle his head under her arm.
“Kera, stop...” she said, tickling his antennae awkwardly, “I'm busy, Kera...” Keratna snuggled her some more before fluttering off to nap. “Silly nondwa...” she said, smiling as she turned back to her crafting.
It was quiet in the camp, so for the time being Kiunyki was making an anklet. An anklet, much like her mother had once worn. Even though she didn't speak much about the woman who had pled for her and who inspired her, Kiki still respected her. Every day, Kiki paid her respects to her wonderful, beautiful, spirited mother. This would be a part of it.
She began to sew the amulet together, twisting rope and stitching feathers into it until it was a full circlet that wouldn't become undone. “I wonder if maybe I shouldn't have made it into a bracelet instead?” she mused out loud to the sleeping nondwa. A bracelet, after all, wouldn't get clotted and soiled with mud. “I can modify it now, no problem.”
She picked up the anklet to fit it to her wrist and realized, to great dismay, that one of the bigger, prettier feathers was missing, making the design asymmetrical. She looked around frantically – where had it gone? It had just been there, moments ago! She'd laid it out herself!
Funny, though, how she remembered almost this exact thing happening to her mother.
Memory overwhelmed her – the scent of steam and rampant growth, the sweet smells of decay and birth. The warm, oil-and-pigment-and-love scent of her mother, the smell of glue. Blues and purples and browns, bright light and soft darkness. Memories.
Home.
Kaalnia, her mother, had often worn headdresses, and often had to repair them. That was what she had been doing one day, Kiki by her side, when Kiki suddenly remembered her cursing – a big, bright green feather had fallen away and gone missing! Kaalnia had started looking and Kiunyki had been pressed into the search. They'd looked all over the house, the settlement, and even a short way into the woods before they'd found it back where they'd started, underneath Kaalnia's seat.
Under the seat?
Kiunyki checked the rock she sat on, and then under it, before wilting in disappointment: her missing feather wasn't there. She supposed that it wasn't such a big deal. She could find a new one to replace it, and it wasn't much of an aesthetic loss. But the memory... Kiki loved it when her present life paralleled the past. It made her feel connected to that past in a special way, as if Kaalnia could still be here. This had been a perfect sort of moment for that to happen, and it was disappointing when it didn't . But reality didn't have to conform to the patterns of the past.
She turned to modify the amulet and spotted something odd about her pet. His little clawed feet were tangled up in some string and – she knelt down to investigate the resting insect – the feather!
She restrained herself from a chuckle, retrieving the feather and bringing it back to her work station. “It's always in the last place you look.” she said to herself. That was her connection. It was all she really needed.
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Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2016 1:55 pm
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>>>>>|I've Had Enough!
Type |<<<
Growth Solo |<<<
2332 Words |<<<
Kiki emerged from the shadowed foulness of the Yaelian swamp, bleeding from thorn scratches and beast bites. She was filthy, her clothes stained, but her eyes were fierce as she trudged resolutely out of the muck and mist. One of her blades shone in her hand, helping her clear a path and fend off monsters that dared to attack her. Her other arm was occupied, supporting a pale, sick sister who lolled unsteadily as she moved, barely able to walk.
The grounds of the settlement now safely underfoot, Kiunyki set the other young woman down carefully, her strides growing increasingly confident as she approached a group of sisters. They stared at her, and she stared back, anger flashing in the facets of her eyes.
“I've had enough of this s**t.” she snarled, “Either accept me as a Blade, or kill me and be done. I won't play your games anymore.”
+++++
Kiunyki trudged through the nasty Yaelian swamp.
It all started as a game for the Extremist sisters to play with two young pariahs, but to Kiunyki and the other girl with her, it was very serious.
“So. Jilinwa, right?” she asked the other Sister. She'd never really had a chance to speak to the other sister, let alone meet her. She knew that the other was an Extremist, brought into exile with her mother, but that her position in the settlement was close to her own.
“Mmm... and you're Kiunyki.”
“Call me Kiki, if you want.” Kiunyki looked around nervously, searching for movement and danger amidst the fetid air.
“Kiki. You can call me Lin. If you want...”
“Not Jil?”
“Only my mother calls me that.”
“Oh.”
Their conversation was innocuous, but it hid the tension they both felt. Neither of them were well regarded by the other extremists – Kiunyki was considered suspicious because she had arrived a year after the exile, and Jilinwa was considered a coward due to her reluctance to take up a weapon and fight. Her mother had gone into exile, and so she had gone. Though she claimed to believe in the cause, some sisters felt that she didn't really believe at all, that she was a rat in their midst.
Jilinwa's mother – who was a powerful warrior and well-situated in the hierarchy of the Extremist settlement – was the only reason that Jilinwa hadn't been attacked or outright rejected. Between their status in Zinris and their connections to their respective mothers, they had a lot in common. Perhaps that was why the older Sisters had lumped them together in this game they had cooked up.
This test.
“Do you think that's it? Over there?” Kiunyki looked at where Jilinwa pointed with her training spear.
“I don't know...” Kiunyki squinted. Jilinwa was pointing to a plant with brilliant blue leaves sprouting from a muddy slate base. She waded over. “No, the leaves are the wrong shape, and the blue isn't glowing... And it doesn't have the red central bits.”
Jilinwa sighed. “I'd hoped we could get this over with quickly...” she admitted, looking out despondently into the murk of the swamp.
“Me too.” Kiunyki agreed, wading back to her, “I guess we keep going, then.”
Their task was to seek out a certain plant deep in the swamp. It was a rare swamp plant, known to have medicinal and potentially sacred (or semi-sacred properties). It was in the dangerous swamp, and required sharp eyes and a brave heart to find in the muck and mists.
The older sisters had set them to this task, and made it clear that, if they refused, they were both in for a beating and further harassment, nothing new. However, the task was sweetened with the promise of recognizing them as true Alkidike. As, maybe, Blades. Kiunyki was hungry for acceptance, and, as she looked at the other sister, she could see that she was the same. They'd had, in a very true sense, no real choice.
So they sought the plant, and prayed to Elzira that they would survive, and that promises would be kept. Yael was a dangerous place, not to be underestimated.
+++++
Not to be underestimated, indeed. It had been a quiet walk, the mud sucking at their feet, their goal nowhere in sight. Quiet, in that moment. And then, in the next, black-colored beasts surged through the muck towards them.
“Look out!” Kiunyki cried, shoving Jilinwa out of the way of one of the hurtling beast's serrated claws. She drew her blades as they ran into the twisted Yaelian trees for cover. The blades fumbled out of their sheaths and she nearly dropped them, but she managed to hold them at the ready as they were driven into the nearly impassable roots. Kiki grit her teeth. They were...
“Outnumbered!” Jilinwa cried, “We're outnumbered!” She was shaking, her eyes wide with fear. Kiki couldn't blame her – she was looking death in the face, after all. “We can't win! We need to run! We need to go back, we need to...”
“Shh!” Kiki said, steadying her with a firm hand. “Shh...” she waited in silence until the beasts in pursuit moved on, snuffling, to seek them in a different spot. “We can't do that...” she said quietly, “If we go back, we'll be branded traitors and fools. You know that.” It was better, Kiki knew, to die in battle against swamp monsters than to live like that. “We need to get the plant!” Kiki knew that the other Alkidike understood, “We need to find it – it's here somewhere. I know it. Come on...” she started to climb the tree. It was a mere shadow of the trees in Jauhar, and slippery as ice, but it would give them a vantage point and, perhaps, a little safety.
“What if they...” Jilinwa glanced towards where the monsters still growled and snuffled, “Climb?”
“We'll figure it out.” said Kiki reassuringly, “If we have to, we'll figure it out. In the meantime, wood is better than mud, isn't it?”
“I... I guess.” Jilinwa said, uneasily... but she climbed.
“All right.” said Kiki, standing on a bough, one of her swords returned to it's sheath, “Lets see where this takes us.”
+++++
There it was – the plant, glittering like silver and blue dew in the grim swamplight. Kiki bit back an exclamation and pointed excitedly. Jilinwa grabbed her joyfully, eyes wide and gleaming. They'd found it! Their quest was over!
Now, they just had to grab it. That part would not be easy for, just below them were the beasts that hunted them. But still – They'd spent so long searching for it in the oppressive Yaelian forest that finding it was victory enough for them to savor for a moment.
Eventually, though, they needed a plan. “What do we do?” Kiki whispered.
“Just get it, I guess, and then climb back up here?”
“And figure out where we go from there? All right- sounds good.” She sheathed her other sword and handed Jilinwa a length of rope. “Here, I'll get it.”
“You? Are you sure?”
“Yeah, it'll be fine.” Kiunyki began to climb down the tree. The moment her feet hit the muck, she dashed for the flower, extracting it root and all from the ground as quickly as she could. She ran to the base of the tree and began wrapping it in cloth. “Got it!” she said, tying it to the rope, “Bring it up to you.” Jilinwa began to lift the plant to her, and Kiki made preparations to climb the moss-slimed tree. A sound behind her made her freeze. “Uh oh.” she murmured, mostly to herself, as she turned around to see... something... arise from the mud, eyes aglow and angry. “Uh oh!” she exclaimed louder as she scrambled desperately to the top branches, “I think we need to go!”
Jilinwa nodded, tying the plant to her back, “I've got it!” she said, “Lets go!”
They ran along the branches of the tree, the enraged beast in pursuit. For a while, it looked like they were outrunning it handily, and Kiki crowed as her mother once had in her hunts. The running, the race – it was exhilarating.
But then the beast crashed into their tree, knocking them to the ground. “Aiieee!” Jilinwa cried as they fell, scrambling to her feet and fumbling at her bow. Kiki struggled to her feet, managing to draw one of her blades... but she was too late to help Jilinwa, as a jagged claw gouged the other Alkidike's chest. Jilinwa screamed, and Kiki managed to slash at the beast, driving it back as she grabbed her Sister with her free hand.
“Stay with me!” she implored her, parrying the beast's paw with her blade as she staggered through the woods towards Zinris, “Don't die!” She defended herself with all the fury that luck and practice had given her, and she heard the beast scream as her blade sliced through hide and flesh. “We're going to make it through!” she said, as she moved forward, “We're going... to make it through!”
+++++
Kiunyki had fought the beast. She had been bruised and battered, her sword-arm weakened through heavy use. Something, somewhere in her body, was broken. But she – and Jilinwa – had made it. They had survived. And they had succeeded.
“I've had enough of this s**t.” she snarled at the sisters that had sent them there. They looked so surprised – had they not expected them to survive? Well, they had – they both had. They would just have to deal with that. “Either accept me as a Blade, or kill me and be done. I won't play your games anymore.” Kiunyki was done with this – all the nonsense she had put up with. Was she not their Sister? Had she not fought by their side? Had she not crossed the whole of the land to join them? “I won't stand for being treated as an outsider.” her gaze softened as she looked at the injured sister, though only a little. “Not anymore.”
“Uh.” Was the response she received. Truly, she felt, her sisters had not expected her to come back at all.
A large shape, silhouetted briefly against the dying sun, strode over to them. An adult shape. Kiunyki watched them defiantly. “I see you and my daughter have returned from your task.” Kiunyki did not relax. Just because this was Jilinwa's mother did not mean that they were exempt from her indignance – she too, Kiki was sure, had been complicit in the troubles she had endured in her time there- The troubles she had had enough of.
They – all of her exiled sisters – had treated her poorly. Her and Jilinwa too. “Yes, we did.” Kiki said. She untied the bundle with the plant from Jilinwa's back, trying not to jostle the sister too much in the process. “And we brought this back.” she said. She watched as the woman picked up the bundle and inspected the contents. “As requested. So.” She hefted Jilinwa onto her shoulder to straighten her. Jilinwa's eyes fluttered open.
“M... mother...?” The girl said weakly. She was pale, and her injuries were severe. She needs help! Kiki wanted to scream, but she had a sinking feeling no one would care. Not even her mother.
She needed to make them care. “So.” she snarled, “After searching through the whole swamp, fighting off vicious beasts, and nearly dying for our trouble, are we finally worthy enough for you?” she glared at any within her gaze, “Are we finally worthy in your eyes of being Daughters of Aisha?” Or... she hadn't come up with an 'or,' yet, but this was the moment of truth.
Jilinwa's mother seemed to ponder this as night darkened the sky. Slowly, like the calls of night bugs, jeers rose from their Sisters.
“Ha, look at them, couldn't find a simple plant without getting torn up.”
“I bet the girl dies.”
“Serves her right for being a weakling.”
“Worthless worms. Barely Extremists – barely Alkidike - the both of them.”
“They will never be worthy.”
“Haha, never!”
Jilinwa's mother raised a hand to silence the speakers. “I believe,” she said, her voice full of quiet authority, “That these two have accomplished the task assigned to them, and have done so admirably. Moreover, they have shown themselves to be able fighters and willing to die for their tribe. So.” she dipped a finger into a pouch of pigment at her waist and approached the two of them. Kiki tried not to flinch away as she reached out to them. The pigment was cool on her face as she felt the woman trace the ancient sigil onto her forehead. “I mark you both as Blades of the tribe.”
Stunned silence, not the least of which from Kiki. That had... actually worked?
“Thank you.” whispered Jilinwa, breaking the silence.
“Ye... yes, thank you.” Kiki followed suit. She was a Blade. She was actually, finally, a blade. She looked around her at the stunned faces of her sisters, and she knew now that things would be different. Very different.
“Continue to serve your tribe well.” Jilinwa's mother said, turning and walking away, “Now go. Recieve medical attention. Tell them I sent you, and all should be well.”
“Yes, Warrior Jihil.” Jilinwa said. She could not stand on her own, so Kiki carried her off. “Congratulations... Kiki.”
“Congratulations too, Lin.”[/color[ she said, feeling solidarity for her Sister – more solidarity than she had ever felt for another being in a long time.
“We... we did it.” she said, before slipping out of conciousness. Kiki hastened to the healing tent – she would not let her Sister's... her friend's... new promotion be in vain.
+++++
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