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 Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 10:29 pm
 Birdsong, or Call, as she preferred to be called, stood overlooking the beach on a vantage point that she had pulled herself onto. Though she had struggled to carry her heavy body up to that point, you would have never heard her complain. She gazed down at the beach with an affected apathy that made her lack of apathy almost as obvious as if she had let her true emotions show. Any other time, the apathy would have been real, so well hidden from herself were her emotions, but now pregnant, Call was filled with too much hope, determination, and desire.
She had always wanted to be accepted as a Tidewalker by her own merit; everyday she worked until she could work no longer, but still she was not worthy. So she never joined in on the fun. She stood by her shunned siblings as other tribe members partook in the joy of the ocean. She had left the beach for the first time in search of another way to prove her worth.
If she could not be good enough, then she would have children who could be.
Her relationship with the Totoma had been a passionless affair, a simple transaction of genes. So now here she stood, knowing that Bitterleaf would never bless her clutch; the mare had not even blessed the clutch she had been born of and her mother was a Kimeti. She wished Bitterleaf would though, a sign of approval.
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Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2013 8:57 pm
Eventually someone else will climb onto the rock Birdsong stands on: but not heavily, swollen with young. The kimeti that suddenly appears next to her does it with a lean bunching of muscle and a force of will: he is not even out of breath when he makes it to the top of the outcropping. The sun is hot, where there is no seaspray to cool the air, but Longstride does not seem perturbed. His blonde hair, bleached nearly white by salt and sun, ruffles in the wind, and for a moment he stands in companionable silence next to the acha. Longstride: upstart, Legendary, tester of limits, womanizer, and father of quite a few Tidewalkers. It is not unusual for him to be down among the other kin on the beach, racing back and forth across the sand in his eaglehound shape with his tongue lolling inelegantly out of his mouth -- so clearly, something has driven him up here. He is a stag, with the Motherfather's intuition. "You should be down there having fun," he says at length, "instead of baking up here for no reason." It might have come off as harsh, but Longstride has always been almost insufferably direct. "Bitterleaf doesn't like anyone. Not even me."
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Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2013 1:22 am
Call said nothing when Longstride came to stand by her side. She held no ill will towards him, but also no particular good will. They were as they were. He a Tidewalker despite his wanderings and she, if she could admit this type of longing to herself, desperate to be one in more than just name.
They were familiar enough that Call felt no need to say anything to him. She was not here to prove herself to him, though now that he presented himself to her, his blessing would have to suffice in replacement of what she truly wanted.
His words did not seem harsh to her, in fact it seemed an undeserved kindness. Her eyes flickered momentarily from the sea to rest on his beach-worn form before going back to the sea. "I don't expect Bitterleaf to like me."
She laughed then, just a little and it came out sounding empty and hollow for she had long forgotten what it meant to feel more than simple longing. "I don't want her to like me. It is not a matter of being liked but of being worthy. I was born an Acha and my father is a cripple, for those two facts I am less a Tidewalker than those who are born otherwise."
But that was not something that necessarily needed to be explained. He knew Bitterleaf well enough.phoenix kiss Don't worry about it! o w o
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Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 10:33 pm
"Meh," Longstride says, shaking his salt-coarsened hair out of his eyes with a pattering sound. "Cove's an acha and he takes more watches than some of the kimeti here. Don't let Bitterleaf determine things about you. She's not you." After a moment, though, he seemed to come to a conclusion, and then tilted his head as he asked, "You're worried about how she'll take the children, aren't you?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 10:54 pm
She didn't respond to Longstride's point about Cove. She knew where she stood in the tribe.
"No," she responded, not a pause to be taken to think. She had made her decision long before she had left the beach to find a mate. "I'm not worried."
Her expression was cold, flat, when she spoke after a short pause, "They won't be born here. The Totoma will come with me. The Acha will live if they live and die if they can't, but they will not be for the Tidewalkers."
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Posted: Sun Dec 08, 2013 2:51 pm
He almost opened his mouth to ask, then why have you lingered here? -- but he didn't. In its eternal benevolence, the Motherfather had granted Longstride a measure of discretion, and he drew on that now. He felt like someone had poured cold water over him: maybe a touch of realization that he, too, probably didn't give acha the respect they deserved. Instead, he opened his mouth, closed it, and then said, simply, "May they have the strength and fortitude to know their limits and to make the right choices." Amorpheous you are number two to have rendered Longstride speechless. good job! 8D
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Posted: Sun Dec 08, 2013 8:36 pm
She was not really answering his unspoken question when she next spoke, though she had perhaps sensed the sentiment without really knowing she had. She said, with an air learned nonchalance that could barely disguise the fervent belief that drove her, "I was born here and my journey began there. I have strength enough to finish what I started."
'My acha children will not have to' was left unspoken because it was born of an empathy she could no longer acknowledge; she did not know how.
She stood silent for a long time after that. Finally though, she turned to look at him fully before saying, "Thank you."
And with that she turned away from her vantage point and began to descend. She had work to do.phoenix kiss took so long to find typo darn me I'm not sure if that's at all a good thing considering why. xD It still makes me smile though, which is terrible thing to smile at. And I think we're done here? Thank you so much, phoe! ♥
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