[PRP Chibale] One Plus One [Bhijil]

[bobaTJ]

 

[DraconicFeline]

grasshopper pie

Bleh. I've written worse starters.

Chibale. It felt so different here than in Jahuar. Hijil knew the jungle - she knew it well. Here, the plants were much the same, the smells, also the same. But yet different, for there were Alkidike here. Everywhere. Surrounding her.

It was easy, however, to fight the shrieking instincts that told her to flee, to hide, to seek the shadows and the heights. Bhima was with her, and Hijil had promised her this. The double security - of her wife's strength and of the bonds of their love and promise - were enough to hold her. This trip was something long due.

She looked at Bhima and managed a smile. She was okay. She had to be okay. They were almost there.  

[bobaTJ]

Bhima knew how uncomfortable Hijil must be. She wasn't quite herself. That wasn't to say that Hijil wasn't often quiet and introverted, but this was different. Her mannerisms had changed. The poor thing must be horrified.

When Hijil managed a smile, Bhima smiled back and squeezed her hand. Most of the extremists were gone, sure, but not all of them. Some had retreated back home rather than deal with the exile. Luckily they hadn't come across any yet, although they were certainly getting a few odd or flat-out aggressive looks. Nobody had approached them though, not yet. Bhima was large, even for a Sister, and she and Hijil were both a bit muscle-bound. It would be unadvised to try and start anything with a brick wall and its lover's pair of slashing blades.

"This will be amazing," she assured Hijil, "I know that Aisha will bless us. I know it." How could she not? Their love and strength had crossed time and pain to come to this. They were an admirable couple, interracial or not!

DraconicFeline

 

[DraconicFeline]

grasshopper pie

Hijil nodded. She didn't really question that Aisha would grant them babies, even if she wasn't entirely sure how that was supposed to work (to be honest, she wasn't even particularly clear on how earthling babies were made). She didn't know what to do, for Aisha to bless them, for their children to come into the world, but she figured that she would know when she got there. Or she would follow Bhima's lead. Or she would just try some form of asking for a child and hope that it would work.

"Bhima?"

Hijil tried not to crush Bhima's hand or jerk back in startlement at the Alkidike that approached them. Their face was openly anxious and wary. They stared at Hijil for an uncomfortable moment before turning to Bhima... and only to Bhima.

"Bhima, what are you doing?!" they asked, voice passionate and horrified. A scar notching her ear and crossing her face bore testament to the skill of a Sister's in the Extremist battle, and invisible scars on her heart bore equal testament to a daughter who had chosen exile over her family.  

[bobaTJ]

Bhima heard her name and began to turn at the same time that she sensed great anxiety in Hijil. They had traveled so far without meeting anyone Bhima sort-of knew; the type that wouldn't already know that she was with a Shifter and so might have new words to share. She saw Foladia and couldn't manage a smile. She looked the Sister up and down. Oh boy.

While they had not fought side by side during the battle with the extremists, they had fought together. They had met years ago during the festival and spent some time together after the battle.

Bhima's brow furrowed and she finally responded. "I am going to Aisha." There was no emotion in her voice. It was not to be wasted on this dissenting woman, and it was clear she was dissenting from the horror in her expression and voice.

DraconicFeline

 

[DraconicFeline]

grasshopper pie

Foladia reacted with reflexive unease, though surely she had expected that answer. Why else would a full-blooded Alkidike be on Chibale with a full-blooded Shifter? "But..." she said, her voice wavering, "So soon after the... after the..." she struggled to find a word for the extremist rebellion that did not paint her daughter in the dark light of the schism. "Split?" she shook her head, as if Bhima was doing something unthinkable or risky. "Don't you think it's too soon?" she glanced around her quickly, nervously, unconciously, as if someone might be listening - or worse, seeing. "Why now, Bhima?" she asked, struggling. It was clear she disapproved. It was also clear that she was afraid.

Hijil reacted to that fear, moving closer to Bhima as if she could shield Bhima with her bulk from whatever caused that fear... or be shielded. Hijil wasn't sure which. She didn't like what this other Alkidike was saying, and the fact that she was talking, clearly, about Hijil without looking at Hijil at all felt... insulting. Hijil wasn't sure what to do about it, though - did she speak up? Or did she remain silent, listening, waiting this disturbance out as she always did?

Nervous, she hesitated in her decision...  

[bobaTJ]

Bhima's brows furrowed and her eyes narrowed. Really? What did the extremist fold have to do with her own life? She had not fought with the extremists. There was no perceived break from her own pattern of morality.

"No," she said frankly after only a moment's hesitation, "We have waited long enough. I had come to the festival with plans to plea with Aisha then, but the extremists rioted and I lost my chance." She said the word 'extremists' with a certain sharpness. She knew well that Foladia's child had been one of the exiled, and what did that say of Foladia? She had not judged the Sister before, but now she couldn't help but wonder. What sort of upbringing had the young woman had to strike out against Tendaji?

"Now is the time, all else aside."

DraconicFeline

 

[DraconicFeline]

grasshopper pie

"But... But..." Folaida was stunned at Bhima's pointed words. "The riots - yes." She grabbed onto that "Those could happen again! How many Sympathizers do you think remain in the Isles? In Jahuar? Don't you think that if you came to Aisha to plead for a child, with the wounds of exile still so raw, that they wouldn't do that again? That there wouldn't be another schism? Another exile? Another battle against our own?!" She shook her head - her hands stayed away from her weapon, it was clear that she was not willing to draw it to prove her point with an actual crystal point "You Cannot do this, Bhima! Something so irresponsible, so soon..." Unsaid was Folaida's desire for them to hurry away, and possibly to not come back and do... this. "This is not the time. You should go home. Go home and wait, for things to be better..."

"No." Hijil said. She'd had enough of this. Folaida stared at her in shock, as if she'd just noticed Hijil standing there - unlikely, due to the shifter's size and nearness. More likely, she just hadn't expected Hijil to speak. Hijil rarely expected herself to speak. But she felt this deserved words. "We're done waiting. Now is the time." she echoed, her face unreadable but her motion - slightly away from Bhima - was definitely aggressive. "Please go." she said.  

[bobaTJ]

"Do we really seem the type to be overtaken?" Bhima asked, gesturing to the blades at her hips with muscular arms. Then the unthinkable happened and her gaze snapped toward Hijil. She was... speaking. No, not only was she speaking, she was being confrontational, and to a stranger no less! After a moment of shock, Bhima's hand went behind the Shifter and rested in the small of her back.

All this did was cement the idea that she and Hijil were meant to have children; that Hijil wanted it just as much as she did herself.

"No idiots will choose to battle when they were beaten. I suggest you heed my wife's warning and leave. We will be leaving here accompanied, and if I see your sneer even once more..." Yes, she was a little miffed at this near-stranger trying to tell her what to do.

DraconicFeline

 

[DraconicFeline]

grasshopper pie

Hijil was angry. Hijil was a little scared. Bhima's touch was comforting, but also encouraging. She stood up a little straighter, rising to her full height of about a head shorter than the alkidike. But she felt bigger than that.

"But Bhima..."

"Please. Go." Hijil rumbled, "Stop saying these things. We listened. We say go." she said. She could feel her heart beating wildly, her body tensing. She was so afraid of what she was doing, but she also felt like she couldn't stop. It was like a... well, she had no idea what an avalanche or rockslide was... but she compared it to a wave upon the beach. She felt like she had been building up, silently, and now was tumbling down upon the shore, unable to stop her movement forward. Verbally speaking. "Because we are going."

Folaida opened her mouth, as if to comment back, but she could see that she was outnumbered. And outmuscled, though she was a decently strong warrior herself. Instead, she backed away from the pair and shook her head. "I hope you don't regret this, Bhima." she said, "I hope we all don't."

Hijil felt like growling, not unlike a beast, at the note of threat in the woman's voice, but she was not the sort of person that growled. Just go she thought at her instead, Please just go... Hijil didn't want this to become a fight. She didn't want to hurt anyone, but if it came to that... If...

Fortunately, Folaida left them with those ominous parting words...  

[bobaTJ]

The ghost of a smirk cast itself on Bhima's lips. Foladia was still addressing her, even as Hijil was the one to speak. Let her have her little racist diatribe. The majority of Tendaji would stand behind them and their little hybrid babes. It was a different world than the one she had grown up in.

Foladia finally left and Bhima turned to Hijil. She tried to offer her a better smile than her body told her to allow and touched Hijil's cheek. "Don't let it get to you. There will always be dissenters."

DraconicFeline

 

[DraconicFeline]

grasshopper pie

Hijil relaxed as the Alkidike backed off, managing a similarly strained smile in response and touched Bhima's hand. She was going to try not to let it get to her. She was sure that the woman had been spouting mud anyway - how could they, two women in love, cause trouble? Hijil didn't want trouble, and wasn't going to look for trouble. But she wasn't going to back down from her promise just because of trouble. "Yes." she said. She hadn't thought there wouldn't be dissenters. Just because she didn't have to worry about shifter family on her end didn't mean that she hadn't thought about it. She'd just thought that the other Alkidikes would respect Bhima's wishes a little more. "But we'll deal with them." she reached for Bhima's hand, eyes darting to the path. "... Do you think there will be more?" she asked quietly - though for Hijil, that kind of quiet was at about normal speech. "Because if any others come up to us... like that... I think I might... Uh..." she looked at Bhima guiltily, "Shove them." And that would cause trouble... but it was the sort of trouble she would feel justified in doing.  

[bobaTJ]

Bhima shrugged and gave Hijil's hand a squeeze.

"I don't know. Maybe. I knew her... I mean, I sort of knew her. We fought together," she admitted. There would be dozens more dissenters, she was sure, but not all of them would be so forward as Foladia. People felt that they had more of a right to scold you when they recognized you. Others were liable to be intimidated by their size, as a couple or even alone. There would be glaring, just likely not much more upfront offense.

Then she chuckled. She looked up to the sky and shook her head. Shove them. Hijil was capable of so much more than shoving. She looked back down to her lover with a smile on her face.

"Don't worry, I don't think we'll need to be shoving anyone," she said. They walked a short while longer before she spoke again: "What will we do if we have a boy?"

DraconicFeline

 

[DraconicFeline]

grasshopper pie

Fought together? "When?" Hijil asked, curious, "Was it... was it Oba?" She remembered the Oban war. That war had been awful, true, full of bloodshed and violence... but it had also marked when she and Bhima had finally reunited - the end part, anyway. How her life had changed, in a matter of years, from achingly empty to beautifully full, was truly amazing.

"Oh. Good." Hijil looked around them nervously, just in case. She hoped that she wouldn't have to, but if it came to that... She was pretty good at shoving. And punching. And, while she did not want to get into a fight, she knew she would fight. She'd had plenty of practice fighting the jungle for what she needed to survive - she was willing to fight for what she wanted, too.

The question came as a surprise. Sure, Hijil had thought about children, and her dreams had left plenty of room for their gender, but actually thinking about a boy... Hijil suddenly realized she knew very little about boys. Not much about girls, to be sure, but at least she and Bhima had been girls once. Were young boys really so different? What if they were. "W-well, I guess we'll have to... come up with boy names." she said nervously.

"What did we have again?" she asked. Nerves pushed the list of names - discussed between them on hot nights beneath the stars - right out of her head. Thinking of names was a welcome distraction from the disdain she could feel around her. Likely, she was feeling more than was there, but still... there were a few glaring (or at least squinting) Alkidike present.

Better to think of the names of her children to be, than to think of the women who would not approve of them.  

[bobaTJ]

"No," Bhima said and shook her head a bit sadly. "We fought the extremists together. Her daughter was one of those exiled." It was a sad story, sure, but it was one that dozens of Alkidike had had to face. Bhima had been a friend to them, even s vehemently as she disagreed with the extremists, even knowing her lover was a Shifter back home.

She smiled to Hijil and produced a sheaf of parchment from her bag then.

"Ishida, Abeni, Nena, Gamelen, Donastin, Abel, Mwana, Mwale, Aver, Lila... That wasn't all, though. Since the beginning Bhima had been writing down names they had come up with, and she had even continued during the battles with the extremists. It had kept her sane and optimistic. She turned the parchment to show Hijil. "Not that it had to be one of those, of course."

DraconicFeline