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 Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 11:21 am
In the handful of days that followed his departure from Kesris with age-old family friends, Akiyal was quick to learn that, like Sauti, Tale was not all that exciting. For a long while, the scenery wasn't even all that different from his own home. Flat, sparse smatterings of grass, rocks, a lake on occasion. Needless to say, it was not what Aki wanted or expected, and entertaining himself rapidly became one of his daily chores.
Kan and Janella stood not two feet away from him, conversing with one of the merchants about wares of some kind. Akiyal couldn't say with any certainty if Janella was barter for her own goods, or if she was trying to obtain supplies. Frankly, he didn't care. These activities didn't concern him. What mattered more was her son at her side, listening and trying to absorb the ins and outs of this apparently very delicate process.
He was far too focused in something boring for Aki's tastes. He cracked a small stick in half, hardly wider than a common toothpick, lined it up, and gave it a sharp flick in Kan's direction. There was no way it hurt more than an insect bite as it hit directly at the back of his neck. Kan winced and tossed a glance over his shoulder, caught Aki's absurd grin, and mouthed a silent, 'Stop it,' before returning to the task at hand.
Unfortunately, Akiyal was not a lip reader.
He collected a small handful of twiggy, simple weapons and began his assault henceforth. For the most part, Kan ignored him. It was more annoying than anything, and he could feel sticks starting to litter the back of his hair and clothes. It was tolerable up until the point where Aki grew bored with flicking them and instead deposited the remains of his arsenal down the back of Kan's shirt. That was the last straw. Or stick, so to say.
"I said stop!" Kan spat, whipping around and slamming the flats of his palms into Aki's chest, shoving him down and backwards and immediately into the path of an unsuspecting youngster.
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Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2016 5:41 am
Volkarosh was old enough for her father to let her go to the market alone. Not that Lashy hadn't let her do all kinds of things alone but Volkarosh knew the value of diplomacy when dealing with her newly reunited and very protective family. So she had waited for permission instead of doing the more efficient thing and just going off herself. They needed raw materials for various things, and pre-made clothes as well. She was growing and would need to wear clothes soon, even in the Jahuar heat. In addition, her father and Lashy needed clothes that were not fur-lined and fluffy. The poor men were either stripped down to their underwear, or overheating, and Volkarosh knew that that was a problem that needed to be fixed. She strode purposefully by the stalls, feeling very responsible and mature as she assessed the stalls and compared them to the small bag of goods she had to barter with. So far, nothing that worked, nothing she wanted to get... "Oof!" she exclaimed, a startled exhalation of breath as someone tumbled on top of her, knocking her down by their sheer comparative size. She shoved them off of her and got to her feet, brushing the rich dust of the Tale off of her skin. "Please be more careful!" she admonished them, fixing them with a very stern gaze, her hands on her hips. "You could have hurt someone!" A quick self-review assured her that that person wasn't her. Good.
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Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2016 9:25 am
From his position on the ground, Akiyal stared at the interloper. She was young, small, and strange-looking, though not absurdly so. He neither cared about nor minded any of that. What did bother him was the tone of voice she took, as though she were scolding a child. It probably should've been amusing to see a little girl scolding an older, larger boy. Aki was not amused. He was annoyed.
As he pushed himself to his feet, Kan stepped over to the youngster. "Sorry, sorry," he assured quickly as he reached to help the girl up. "It was my fault, I didn't see you back there, and-"
"Kaaaan," Aki griped softly. He collected a fistful of the back of his companion's shirt and tugged him away from the cretin, back into his own possession. Where he should've been from the start. He looped an arm around the smaller boy's shoulders. "There ain't no need to apologize to her," he informed his friend. Cool crystal eyes slipped to scope out the young female once more. "If anything, she should've been paying more attention to her surroundings." He gave a soft scoff of a sound. "Tch, and I'd think someone like her, small and alone, would be real careful where she stepped."
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 6:21 am
They were tall. They were very tall. Not as tall as Lashy or her Father, but still tall. She looked up at them, unintimidated... for now. "I wasn't the one who fell into the path." she said, still stern. It was, rationally, true. "Good day." she said, turning to go. In her mind, the altercation was over - she had been fallen on, she had gotten up, she had scolded the person responsible. The most efficient thing to do was to now return to the task at hand...
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Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2016 10:32 am
Never mind the scolding, this girl had the audacity to turn her back on him. Akiyal's eyes narrowed, fingers pinching and tugging at the cloth around Kan's shoulders as he sneered. She was rude, and yes, most children did tend to be so. But surely brats should be smart enough to curb their tongues when faced with older, larger, stronger, unfamiliar boys. She should consider herself lucky. It'd be better to learn with him than someone worse.
Aki disentangled himself from his companion, taking the few long strides that would bring him back into range of the younger girl. "Now, now," he scolded mockingly as he gave a not-too-terribly-gentle tug at the back of her hair. "Don't leave without telling your new friends your name. That ain't the mature thing to do."
Kan cast a quick glance over his shoulder, back to his mother and the merchant she was dealing with. He probably shouldn't engage with Aki and his new 'friend,' but... Since the opportunity was here and in front of him, and might not be for some time again, he might as well take it while he could. He followed Akiyal's lead and stepped ahead of the youngster, shooting her a grin. "Yeah, yeah, aren't you a little young to be out here on your own? Why don't you let us help you?"
"I know," Aki purred. He plucked the girl's small bag of goods from her grasp and dangled it overhead. "We'll keep your stuff safe for you so strangers don't steal it."
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Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2016 7:56 pm
Volkarosh turned to look up at the Wind boy. She scrutinized him briefly, with a hint of annoyance. Why was he following her? It was illogical. "You're not my friend." she explained frankly. How could he not understand that? Falling on someone did not make you their friend. Meeting someone did not make you instantly friends. Friendship was love, love was respect, and respect was earned. So was ire. She didn't feel like explaining the whole thing to these strange boys, and apparently they didn't care. Many people didn't care about her logical, reasonable, explanations for why they should behave differently, she had found. "Stop touching my hair." she concluded, holding her hair so it wouldn't pull at her scalp, "Let go." Surely, he realized he was hurting her. She wanted to go and do her errand. Her dark gaze grew ever more frustrated as she glanced at the other boy. Her face was still, however, calm. It took a lot to make her show her annoyance... but she certainly was not happy. "I don't need your help." she said, releasing her hair in a moment when the other wind boy loosened his grip, "We're done h... HEY!" she protested, grabbing for her bag, to no avail. He was simply too tall. "That is mine!" she informed him. Her heartbeat was beginning to quicken, her skin beginning to heat in the blazing Tale sun. This was so annoying. "Give it back!" she leapt for the bag again, noticing that the other one was now blocking her path away from the two. What was this? What was going on? She didn't understand why this was happening. It was not logical. It was not according to plan. Her face began to flush with her exasperation, but she kept her expression calm... or as calm as possible. "Give it!" she demanded.
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Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2016 6:17 pm
What a smart-assy little brat. She thought she could complain and bark and dismiss him so easily? Not even possible. But having her things taken did seem to put a bit of a strain on her calm demeanor, which was worth at least an amused scoff from the Wind boy. Akiyal smirked and held the bag over her head, just out of arm's reach. "Y'know, if you're not my friend, I can't see why I'd want to give you much of anything."
So, he didn't. He gave the small sack a dismissive flick, above the little hybrid cretin, and sent it sailing away from her, where Kan caught it with an equally broad and obnoxious grin. Aki's fingers went to tug the girl's hair again, before she had the opportunity to scamper after her things. "Y'see, Kan is my friend. I'm much happier giving things to him. Look how happy it's made him." The other boy did indeed look pleased, and he gave the girl's belongings an overhead spin by the strap. If a few of her things fell to the ground, that didn't seem like his problem.
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Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2016 4:22 pm
Volkarosh grit her teeth against a strangled cry of frustration as she leapt for the bag. Her jump was no small thing - she was used to jumping and leaping and climbing, but the bag sailed over her head, into the arms of the other boy. She dug her fingers into her palms. "Give it back!" she insisted, though that tact was clearly not going to lead to success. It had been worth a try, though. As the boy began to spin the bag around, loosing contents all over the ground, Volkarosh decided it was time to try something different. "I said, give it back!" she said, she charged, suddenly at the other wind boy - at Kan, she supposed his name was, though it didn't matter - and shoving him, hard, in the stomach. Or at least trying to...
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Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 9:41 am
He didn't know what he expected of her. Not much certainly. Maybe she'd cry or run off to find an adult capable of handling the situation. Maybe she'd even just shriek until she got her way. That seemed like something children, especially female children probably felt inclined to do. And if she had done any of that, he might have laughed. What good were children if he couldn't take amusement in their antics?
Instead, Akiyal choked back a sound of startled surprise as the girl plowed forward, crashing into Kan's stomach and making the Wind boy stagger backward until he fell to the dirt on his rump. "Uuuugh, little twerp," Kan griped stiffly, holding an arm out to keep her at bay while dutifully keeping the bag out of her reach. "You don't need to go and attack people like some savage animal. That doesn't wanna make me give you much a anythin,' 'cept maybe a kick in the ribs."
Aki approached from behind, grabbing the girl's arm and dragging her backward. "Yeah, dumb little girl. You better apologize, or the rest of your stuff goes in the river."
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Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2016 12:59 pm
Volkarosh probably could have talked to the boys more and used her powers of persuasion to convince them to give her back her stuff, but she was raised by a wild man and borne to wild, fierce parents. CAtching the boy off guard with a shove and then running off with the bag had seemed the best way to get her stuff back with as little fuss and effort as possible. It was - it still was - a good plan. Volkarosh struggled against his arm, her eyes bright with exasperation. If she was just a bit bigger, and a lot stronger, it would have worked. Her arms were too short to reach and he, by virtue of being bigger, was able to keep her at bay. Volkarosh was just starting to contemplate biting him for his trouble - a reasonable if unpleasant tactic - when the other one pulled her back. Normally, name calling rolled right off of Volkarosh. She called Ruelash all sorts of names, and he called her names back, and it was affectionate and fine. In Jahuar, no one knew what to make of her collection of traits - blue hair, black eyes, tan skin, pink crystals. She was bigger than other girls her age (though not as big as Arronthain yet, to her dismay) and so words like 'giant' and 'halfbreed' and 'freak' and 'monster' were thrown around too. They were not so affectionate, but she didn't care. She was what she was, she was unique, and she just did not care. Even the word savage was not an issue - Lashy was savage, and it served him well. Thus, to be savage, when appropriate, was a good thing. It was the word 'dumb' that filled her to the brim with fury. She was not dumb, she did not have to apologize. They were dumb. They were unreasonable. They were pushing her around and calling her names and being generally uncalled for, these strange older wind men. This was out of hand. Volkarosh felt that it was, indeed, an appropriate situation for a little more savagery. Now, see, Volka, if someone goes and grabs ye like this, you gotta get outta it.Ruelash's fighting lessons echoed in her head as she let him pull her back, before turning his momentum against him and aiming a hard little punch at his stomach, right in the space just beneath the ribcage where it would really knock him down and hurt... maybe buy her enough time to grab her bag and run.
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Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2016 4:58 pm
Akiyal was not, by definition, a very good friend. He didn't precisely care how the little girl treated Kan, didn't care if he was alright or not, and frankly, he found it quite disappointing that a wee hybrid brat cold knock him over at all. The whole situation was, for lack of a better word, disgusting. He sneered.
The world they lived in was not a gentle one, and after watching her surprise attack on his best friend, Aki did have his suspicions that she wouldn't just be yanked around by him. It wasn't especially difficult to anticipate as much.
He still held one of her arms in his hand, and when she stepped forward, throwing her tiny little fist at his stomach, he stepped back, twisted, and released her, effortlessly guiding her much smaller frame forward before slipping an extra foot closer to Kan. He clucked his tongue. "It's no wonder you'e out here alone. Dumb, ugly, mean little girls like you probably have a real hard time making anyone feel inclined to stick around."
Akiyal stepped to Kan's side and crouched, collecting a few of the trinkets that dropped from the girl's bag before rising back to his full height. "But you're in luck, cause I'm real nice and in a gaming mood, myself." He inspected a small pouch, the contents of which he couldn't discern, before deciding, "Let's play fetch." Without waiting for a response, he pulled back and chucked her belonging as far as he possibly could.
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Posted: Fri May 06, 2016 2:16 pm
Volkarosh was furious. She was supposed to have hit him. It was supposed to have bought her time. Her plan had failed and she was running out of plans. And he was insulting her. You're the one who's ugly, dumb, and mean! she wanted to scream at his face, because he was. Ugly. Dumb. Mean. But he also was holding her arm, and she couldn't get out of his grip. Biting him was looking like a better and better option all the while. Volkarosh held her tongue, fuming and tense. He was picking up her things. What would he do with them? Nothing reasonable, she was sure. Her breath caught as he inspected the bag... and then threw it. "No!" she yelped, surging after it. It was going to fall and break everything inside it, and scatter everything else who knew where. And she wouldn't be able to find any of it. And she'd have to come home empty handed and then... and then what? She wasn't sure if things would be okay. She could hear something shatter on impact, could hear shouts of surprise and consternation, and the heartbreaking sounds of sand meeting her items. Wrenching herself out of Akiyal's grip, she ran for it.
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Posted: Sat May 07, 2016 10:15 am
"Ah, Aki..." Kan groaned as the little girl tore off after her things. She really did seem quite distraught, and it felt unnecessary to ruin her belongings in addition to verbally tormenting her. "You might really could break something, throwing her bag around like that..."
The quiet snickers slipping from the younger boy ceased almost immediately. Aki was not opposed to torturing snotty little brats that didn't try to appease him any way they could. He was not sorry, and if her things broke, that was her fault. Aki's crystal gaze narrowed, and he turned to pin his companion with an unapologetic stare. "She tackled you. She hasn't done nothing to hurt me. If I'm breaking her stuff, it's only in your honor."
"I know, but..." Kan had the decency to look uncomfortable. And Akiyal hoped it was because he realized his concerns were a waste of breath. That the girl did not deserve them.
So, he grabbed his companion's arm, took a step in her direction, and muttered, "Let's help our new friend collect her things." He did not make it far. He should've expected intervention at some point, but when Kan stalled, Aki anticipated only needing to give just an ounce more encouragement. He glanced over his shoulder, smirk in place, and had only a gut-wrenching instant to register rage in Janella's eyes before the flat of her palm cracked against his cheek.
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Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 6:29 am
The bag had, apparently, dropped some of it's items in it's long arc to the ground. Some had landed safely, others had shattered. She was sure that some were lost, too, but she couldn't lose hope until she'd retrieved the bag. Maybe they were in there. She gathered up what she could, running from one lost item to another, scrabbling frantically at the ground and holding her things awkwardly in her arms. The busy market waited for no one, especially not a little hybrid girl, and she was met by many angry remarks and tutting as she tracked her bag as far as she could. Ah. There it was - right on the roof of an angry trader's stall. She reached for it, only to find that she was too short. "Excuse me..." she said, catching the glare of the trader, "But that's mine...""Oh, it's yours is it?!" he snarled, hitting the canvas roof with a pole until the bag clattered to the ground, scattering more of it's contents, "Dumb brat. Why can't you be more careful where you play?! Someone could have been hurt... look! You've already damaged my stall with your little games!" "I didn't throw it!" she said, surprised at his irrationality. "Doesn't matter. Your bag, your game, your fault, brat." He reached into the pouch and took out one of the pretty Jahuaran crystals that Volkarosh had brought, "I'll take this." he said, a satisfied smile twitching at his mouth. "That's not yours...""It flew into my stall, girl, so I'm claiming it." he nudged the pile of spilled goods with his feet and dropped the bag on it, "Be lucky I'm not taking the whole thing for the trouble it's caused, and let that be a lesson to you for being reckless!" Volkarosh gathered what was left of her things as the trader turned away. Indeed, some of them had been lost along the way, lost and gone forever. She frowned, her eyes pricking with the beginnings of tears as she stuffed all of the retrieved items back in the bag. This wasn't fair.
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Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2016 2:48 pm
"What'dja do that for," Aki yipped as he recoiled away from the Wind woman's hand. He released Kan as he did, and the older boy was promptly jerked back to stand at his mother's side. Akiyal groaned softly, rubbbed his cheek, and for the first time in the last several span of minutes, raised his gaze to glare at the older woman. Her eyes were on him, just the same.
Janella. Was. Livid.
"Is this how you behave?" She hissed, voice so low that it was almost carried off by the Tale winds. Her eyes were narrowed, lips drawn tight into a thin, nearly white line, while the rest of her face was a peculiar shade of agitated magenta. Aki couldn't recall a time when he'd seen anything like it. Not in all the time he'd known her, since he was a toddler. She yanked Kan's sleeve in the direction the hybrid female had scurried off in, though her gaze didn't leave Akiyal as she did. "Go help that young woman collect her things, and get your arse straight back when you're done. This is the most horrible thing I have ever seen my child do- And you," By little more than instinct Aki knew her words were meant for him. "You should be so lucky that I don't tell your father. How disappointed in you would he be? I just can't even fathom why-"
Akiyal's own crystal eyes had widened a fraction as the woman went on, and he stood stock still and rigid for the duration of her tirade, just staring at her up until that particular point. "Well, it's because she started it and scolded me and bumped into me-!"
"She's half your age! And size, at that!" Janella's hands were in the air, then on her hips, then crossed over her chest. "I know you were raised more proper than that, 'cause I was there for most of it, and I could tell you, your mother-"
"Shut up!"
"You shut up!"
It was around that point when the noises dimmed enough to be indiscernible and Kan managed to make it to the hybrid's side. "So, uh..." He looked appropriately sheepish. "You got all your stuff?"
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