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 Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 3:25 pm
 Khael tread a bit haphazardly amidst the thinning treeline toward a meadow, intent on doing little more than lounging in the long grass and enjoying the sun. She knew that in a couple of months the weather would begin to cool as fall encroached upon summer's coattails, but for now summer lingered and she chose to enjoy the warm temperatures while they still afforded her their soothing warmth. She thought little of her careless meandering, confident because she knew the area well and in spite of her lack of sight she felt comfortable here.
Only it would seem that the one time she found herself being carelessly confident she was quite thoroughly punished for it as she tripped over a tree root and dove face first into a bush. The branches seemed to have taken a liking to her horns, for when she finally got her feet rather clumsily beneath her and tried to make her way out she found them firmly embraced. Even with the might of a Nightmaren's strength behind her the bush held firm, and fortunately enough it held her neck at precisely the right angle to aggravate her old spinal injury.
With a soft whine of distress the femme dropped herself to the ground and curled up in a slightly more comfortable position and began pawing at the branches with the claws on one of her forepaws in an effort to see if she could dislodge the clinging foliage that way. All this seemed to be awarding her at the moment was a series of small cuts and scrapes from stray twigs and a tickling inside one of her nostrils from a leaf which caused her to sneeze rather loudly. And incidentally to make her head feel like a rattle as the bush denied her free movement and wound up shaking her skull around more than was necessary.
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 4:12 pm
 Kajik was slinking through the underbrush, minding his own business, when he heard a most peculiar sound in the air. It fell somewhere between the whine of an injured canine and the mewling of a hungry kit.
He stopped short in his tracks, kicking up a small cloud of dust and surprising the ticks that had been trying to jump into his coat. By all accounts this was supposed to be a very fortunate day, which was why he'd bothered to leave his little burrow in the first place, instead of curling up by a particularly pleasant root and waiting for his big sister to stop by with dinner. He shouldn't fear something terrible befalling him. So why not check out that plaintive noise?
He could be brave, if he wanted to. If he bit his lip and puffed up his tails and pretended that he was very, very large. Big sister would be proud of him if he tried.
And so the bobtail adjusted his course to go investigate the noise. He scrabbled over logs and under bushes, catching pine needles in between his claws, until he finally came upon a clearing and the femme within it.
Kajik took one look at the curve of her horns, and gasped with shock, quaking in place. He was to terrified to even scream.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 9:16 pm
Khael was busy pawing at the offending bush when Kajik neared, having managed thus far to scrape a great deal of miscellaneous twigs, leaves, and bark from the outer edge of the branch she was worrying at but not quite managing to disengage it from her horn. And she hadn't even started on whatever branch or branches had her other one ensnared.
She could not see Kajik, and the leaf litter masked his pawsteps, but the gasp was audible and made her jerk in suprise. The bush seemed quite displeased with this and promptly jerked her back. For a moment this left her neck at an odd angle and bone and muscle that hadn't healed quite right pulled and protested by shooting pain down her back. Khael was unable to completely stifle the pained whimper that welled up and quickly curled back into a less hurtful position. There was very little she could do at the moment if her suprise visitor decided to visit harm upon her.
She could hope, though... that the suprised gasp and the fact that the other had not yet made a move meant whoever it was would at least be nuetral. Maybe even helpful, but she didn't trust her luck enough to really hope for that. "I, ah... ssseem to be ssstuck. I don't sssuppossse you could help, perrrhapsss?" Her tails fidgeted nervously in spite of her attempts to calm them, and she was fighting the instinct to cower since she lacked the ability to properly fight back or flee.
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Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 1:25 pm
She was talking to him! With hissing!! Like some dire serpent crawled up from the caverns that Alcyone had warned him away from. Kajik had never liked that place. It smelled of acrid, unnatural chemicals, and unearthly cackles echoed forth from its depths in the middle of the night.
"I d-don't-"
He jumped back to huddle behind a dead log, occasionally gathering the courage to peer up over the top when he wasn't shaking like a leaf in the wind. It sounded like the nightmare was in pain. The idea of leaving someone like that made Kajik sick to his stomach.
Alcyone would tell him to knock it unconscious. Forepaws about the neck, then twist and press, until the enemy was knocked out. But Kajik didn't think he had the heart for that. His big sister and that peach fellow she was friends with were far beyond his understanding.
"W-when were you born? What day, what time? I- if this is a trap to try and eat me, I'll figure it out!"
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Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 6:10 pm
It sounded as though her visitor had scrabbled slightly away, over a log. Khael lifted her ears high to listen for a long moment between his initial stammer and his next set of words. She was confused slightly for a moment at the question about her birthday, but his exclamation that he would not be caught if she was attempting to eat him struck her psyche much like being physically kicked in the gut by something far larger than the little bobtail. She cringed away from the words, from the thought, this time causing the scar tissue on the back of her neck to press on her nerves and leave her feeling tingly and slightly numb.
"I... I don't know... I don't rrrememberrr..." She murmured it softly, perhaps too softly to hear, she wasn't paying as much attention to the things going on outside of her now. "And I wouldn't... I..." Her voice cracked slightly, brokenly, and whatever she might have said faded into a distressed whimper and the big, scary Nightmare tried this time to crawl further into the bush to hide from the terrified, defenseless bobtail.
"If you mussst hate me forrr what you sssee me to be then jussst go away. I won't botherrr you." She was used to it, after all. Eventually Llyr or Tamri would come looking for her and help her out of her predicament. Perhaps even Valefor, though she hadn't seen the Aeon for quite some time now. Khael felt so very alone at the moment, none the less.
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Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:03 pm
"H-hey! That's not fair! I didn't say anything about hate!"
Kajik stifled the urge to hide his head in his paws. It was very nice behind his log. Very secure. It was hard not to feel saver with a nice, big chunk of wood between himself and the rest of the world. Sure, bits of it were rotting, and the lichen made its bark look worn and frail, but it was still thick and solid. That was enough for Kajik. It would have to be, for now. Who knew what horrors lurked beyond it?
Oh, he wished it was night-time right now! He wished it very, very, very much! If only Morgan or Alcyone were here.
"Y- you can't-" He dithered. "I'm not a bad kitsusagi. I'm not! B-but my sister always said, if you let them, Nightmares will hurt you, and I have good reasons to be afraid! Not everyone is a fighter! I- i- it's good to be cautious and not s-stupid!"
He wasn't a coward.
At least, not a big one.
It wasn't a sin not to be brave when you were quite small. Not bothering Nightmares was a common-sense rule right up there with avoiding bear caves and running away from wolves. It was as fundamental as any law written in the stars.
"A- are you sure you don't know when you were born?
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Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 2:59 pm
"You judge me basssed on my appearrrancsse. You do not know me, and get you automatically asssume my actionsss arrre sssomething otherrr than honessst. Perrrhapsss it isss not hate, but it isss not a farrr crrry frrrom it in my exssperrriencsse."
The bush kept her from being able to manuever properly. She was basically stuck with her back and legs exposed to all and sundry should they decide to take a swipe at her. It was unsettling. And the other's words... yes, they were sensible, but it made her feel no better.
"Not all of the Nightmarrren arrre ssso evil. Jussst asss not all of the norrrmal kitsssusssagi arrre all sssunssshine and rrrainbowsss. I will be the firrrssst to admit it would prrrobably be betterrr to rrrun frrrom one... it isss jussst frrrussstrrrating forrr me. I wisssh I did not have to hide myssself frrrom frrrom... everrryone. Ssso many would attack me, jussst forrr being what I am. Even among my own people, becaussse they would judge me weak."
His question caught her off guard. She had been too distracted by her own thoughts to really pay it much attention the first time, but now she found it quite curious and out of place. "Why do you asssk, little one?" Only one way to find out why it seemed so important to him. "And no... I do not know. If you arrre willing to peek frrrom wherrre everrr I am sssure you have hidden, look at the back of my neck. I lossst my memorrriesss to that wound. I am lucky I did not lossse the ussse of my legsss."
She sighed, shaking the bush again ineffectually. "Pleassse... I would not harrrm you. I jussst want out of the busssh, but I can not sssee to frrree myssself frrrom it..." She could sit and scrape at it for a couple of hours to loosen it enough to get out, she was sure, but it would leave her utterly exausted and probably convinced that leaving the den again, ever, was a bad idea. At least until Tamri and Llyr managed to convince her otherwise once again. Sometimes her family had more patience with her than she had with herself.
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