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 Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 4:37 pm
It had been a very, very, impossibly long day. He was tired. Very tired. His magic was low, nearly drained, and his mind... well, it wasn't falling apart. Things just weren't very clear anymore. Each patient and situation had ceased to be indvidual - they were just another patient, another problem, another thing he had to deal with. He needed rest... he needed a break. He needed someone else to take charge for a while while he just recovered from all the life and death he had to deal with from this day. He had found someone, at least, who coud handle things for a while, and so Biroki excused himself to take a breather in a clearing near Neued. He leaned against a tall, imposing tree, and ran a hand over his darkened face. He hadn't been out there on the battlefield, but it had been bad enough to be back there, seeing all the bodies as they came in, worrying about Zuri yet knowing he couldn't worry. He drank some water from a canteen at his hip, closing his eyes and relaxing his tense - surprisingly so - muscles as he did. He still hadn't found her, and he was still so worried. Right now, though, he just wanted this day to be over.
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 6:20 pm
Zuri had been healed by some of the healers, and was feeling better than before. The battle had taken a lot from her, and than coming to find that neither of their daughters were with Biroki just stressed her out more. If she would have known that he wasn't going to look after them than she wouldn't have gone and fought in the first place. Ikkio was with strangers, which worried her to no end, and although Ikuri was with her friend Yaholo and his twin boys it didn't make her feel any better. It was Biroki's job to look after his daughters.
She had retrieved the two of them, thankful both of them were unharmed, and was now looking for her husband. She was mad at him, no mad wasn't even the right word. After searching she finally saw him. Before walking up to him she let go of Ikkio's and Ikuri's hands that she had been holding and turned towards the girls. "You see those kids over there, go and play with them and I'll come get you when I'm done talking to your father." she told them both as she kissed their foreheads.
They would no see their parents fight.
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 6:22 pm
She was having fun with the twins when mommy came and got her, with Ikkio with her. She had been looking for her sister, and thankfully her mother wasn't mad at her for losing her sister. That would suck!
When her mother kissed her she looked over at Ikkio. Something was up, but she didn't want to say anything. The twins would talk soon enough. Hopefully her sister would know more of what was going on than she would.
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 4:20 am
Ikkio had been super important. And now she wasn't. And she was pissed.
This was the summation of her mood as she walked along with her mother and sister. She wasn't important anymore and it was their fault.
As her mother spoke, she looked over at the kids playing and, briefly, contemplated playing with them. But she had been important, and thus, had been better than them. She looked back at her mother and pretended that she wanted a kiss from this woman on her forehead. She was pissed. The woman didn't deserve the right to kiss her forehead. she'd taken her away from her important thing. But also important was keeping Mommy on the hook, so she smiled her big, innocent, sweet, sunny, lying smile.
"Okay Mommy!" she said, hugging her leg briefly. She watched her mother walk away, holding onto her sister's hand almost absently, her expression fading from innocently cheerful to thoughtful, her eyes narrowing in that cold an predatory expression that she sometimes forgot to mask.
Finally, she turned to her sister, a small smile on her face. "Ikuri..." she said, almost gleefully, but not quite, "Mommy is up to something." she said, matter of factly. "Do you think Mommy can get in trouble?" the thought was inconcievable - Mommy DEALT in trouble, she didn't get into it. But what if she could?
"I wanna know what she's doing." said Ikkio, feigning boredom and disinterest, her voice casual. But she did want to know. "Dpn't you?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 5:09 am
Biroki didn't know he had been spotted or followed to his little rest clearing. He took another drink of water and ate a few pieces of dried fruit, but he couldn't taste their sweetness. Even my tongue is tired he thought, rubbing his eyes.
He heard footsteps on the stiff twigs nearby, but didn't pay attention, not until they were close and stopped. That pierced the exhaustion clouding his mind, and he took his staff in hand. What if it was an Oban, sneaking into the jungle? What if it was a straggler, gravely wounded? What if it was a traitor?
He turned suddenly, ready to conjure magic - healing or fire, he could handle a bit of either - from his tired body when he suddenly paused, stunned.
"Z-zuri?!" he said, his eyes wide with surprise and wonder. He let his arms fall to his sides. "Zuri! You're alive!"
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 7:47 pm
Her girls were go good. She had always wanted a sibling that was the same age as her, and she was glad that the twins had each other. It also made things easier on her when now that they were older. Instead of having to entertain them at all times they could just entertain each other. It was nice.
She started to walk towards her husband once she was sure that her girls were out of the way. The way that he looked at her even annoyed her. He said it was such surprise. Of course she was alive, why wouldn't she be? She told him she would live and she did. She wasn't going to leave her children, unlike him of course.
"Yes my love I am back and alive." she said with a smile as she embraced him. It would be a happy reunion, but she was too mad for that. "Where are the girls?" she asked as she backed away from him and looked around. She knew were the girls were of course, but he didn't know that.
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 7:51 pm
Ikuri smiled as her mother walked away, making sure that she didn't leave her sisters side this time around. When Ikkio asked if she thought their mother could get in trouble Ikuri laughed. "No, Mommy can't get into trouble." she said with a smile. Her mother had went to war and was still around, she didn't have a problem with trouble. She was trouble if anything.
When Ikkio asked what if she wanted to know what her mother was doing Ikuri nodded. Of course her sister would think of this, she knew that she didn't have to say anything. "Come on, we need to move fast." she said with a curious smile. She didn't mean anyone any harm, she was just curious.
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Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 6:06 am
He embraced her tightly, breathing in her scent, muddied by blood and battle and sweat. He could feel his heart melting with how happy he was. That out of all the what ifs and nightmares, this should be the outcome. That his Zuri would come home safe, and sound, and whole. "Oh Zuri." he nuzzled her, cheek to cheek, "I was s-so... so..." she backed away before he could finish, leaving him confused and vulnerable. "The girls?" he said, momentarily off guard. The girls. Where were they? His heart caught in his through, briefly, with worry, but he calmed himself down. No, those two can handle themselves. Sort of....
Then he rememberd. There was no need to worry! He knew where they were. "With Yaholo!" he said, though he couldn't hide the blush that crept across his dark face.For a moment, he hadn't known. But Yaholo had had Ikuri, and probably had found Ikkio and they were likely all safe and playing with those boys of his. Right?
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Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 6:28 am
"Hmm." Ikkio wasn't so sure, but it certainly seemed that way. Mommy was trouble itself. And trouble couldn't get into trouble. "Yeah, we don't wanna miss whatever Mommy's doing" she said, giggling, grabbing her sister's hand and following where their mother had gone.
Ikkio stopped suddenly, hearing voices. "Thats daddy!" she whispered to Ikuri, intrigued. "Daddy's there!" she tugged Ikuri towards the brush, "Lets hide!"
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Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 4:21 pm
Zuri frowned. Well it was good that he knew that much, but it took him much to long to answer. Plus while it was true they had been with Yaholo, that didn't where they had been during the battle. Yaholo was fighting, so they couldn't have been with the man then. The very fact that Biroki had named their friend meant he didn't know where they were earlier.
"Yaholo? But Yaholo was fighting earlier. Where were they than? Please tell me that Yaholo didn't take them and his boys to the battle field?" she knew he wouldn't do such a thing, Yaholo would never risk her children or his own. Though she wasn't sure she could say the same about her husband.
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Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 4:30 pm
She smiled and laughed. It was so rare to hear her sister laugh. If Ikuri would have thought about that she might have worried for her sister, laughing at the thought of trouble and during war time. But she didn't worry about it, she was just going with the flow.
She followed her sister around and when she heard her father she almost went out and hugged him. She hadn't seen him since the war started! But than her sister whispered and she realized they were doing something secret, hiding like her sister suggested.
"Why is mom asking about where we are? She knows..." Ikuri whispered to her sister.
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Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 6:09 am
Ikkio was puzzled too. Mommy had just left them in the camp, and she would know. Daddy wouldn't know because daddy had been...
Something clicked in Ikkio's brain. Daddy had been busy. Daddy wouldn't know where they were, just as he hadn't known where they had been before.
"Mommy does know." said Ikkio, awed, "Mommy is playing a game." a game that Ikkio had thought she was the only person who could play. "Mommy is asking him where we are, because he doesn't know and she knows he doesn't know, so when he says something he'll be in trouble either way." she explained, whispering excitedly.
It was her game. She understood it. But it was HERS. How did mommy know how to play it. "If daddy lies, she'll catch him - and he'll get in trouble. If Daddy tells the truth, He'll get in trouble." Ikkio frowned. "It was fun to play alone, though. We didn't need him around. You had fun and I had fun. I dunno what the problem was." she mumbled, to herself.
She'd been cautious of Daddy because he knew when she lied. She'd thought she didn't have to worry about mommy because mommy was stupid.
But if Mommy could play the game... Maybe she should be careful after all...
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Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 6:15 am
"N-no! Of course not!" said Biroki, horrified at the thought, "I s-saw them playing with his twins. They were all together!" he said. That had been before the battled, but kids stuck together. "Yaholo went off to fight, and the kids were playing." he said. He'd maybe glimpsed them once or twice when he'd gone out of the tent to get supplies at the very beginning, before the fighting had broken out. "I'm s-sure thats where they were when Yaholo found them." Only too late did he realize what he'd said. He hadn't been watching his children, he hadn't been paying attention. He was 'sure' meant he had no idea.
He had a very bad feeling about what would happen next.
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Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 12:14 pm
The frown on her face only deepened. Sure? He was sure that was where the children were when she was off fighting? Let's say he was right, even if the girls were with Yaholo's twins that didn't make them safe! All four of them could have been kidnapped! She didn't ask a lot from her husband, and when the two of them decided that she would go to war they also decided that he would come to heal but he would look after the girls. If she thought for even a second that he wasn't going to watch them she would have never gone to the war!
"I should have stayed home. I should have known you wouldn't have watched them. You know how much trouble Ikkio can get in, and you know that Ikuri will follow along. They could have been kidnapped, they could have been harmed by getting in the way, hell they could have ran away for all we knew. Thank the Gods they are safe, but that is because of them and not because of you like it should have been." Zuri wasn't screaming, she was talking very calmly, but that just made things so much worse.
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Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 12:17 pm
Ikuri nodded, though she was still a little confused. A game? That didn't look like much fun to her... And than her sister explained and she frowned. That wasn't a very nice game. The two of them were safe, why did it matter that daddy didn't know where they were earlier?
"Yeah, we were safe... Mommy didn't seem mad at us? Do you think she will try to play this game with us later?" she asked worriedly. She didn't want to get in trouble like her father was. She didn't want her father to get in trouble. She had never seen her parents fight and wasn't excited to witness it.
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