[Matori] She Sells Sea Shells [Sajah | Liylasa]

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Sajahka walked barefoot.

Over the sand, over the shells, over the occasional bit of seaweed brought in by the surf and along the waterline so that when the ocean rolled, it licked at his ankles. If he spent enough time in it—walking it, seeing it, feeling it beneath his feet and breathing it in with each inhale—then one moment soon, this would feel right. It would feel familiar.

It would feel like home.

Oba was not home, as he had come to tell himself. It was the home of his masters and keepers, of slave owners and those who had once been slave owners or would have been now if it were still permitted. It was home to pain, cruelty, and a broken system of twisted people. But still he wore it with him like a second skin that he couldn’t shed. It was in his scars, in his veins, and in every muscle, all grown from Oban food—and perhaps most importantly and frustratingly, it was in his mind.

All his memory, his history, his life was there, and perhaps it had been only naïvete that had let him think it would be otherwise, that as soon as he simply made it to freedom, all that he had there would be shucked off and left at the border.  

[OpticPeach]

Liylasa was the other side of the coin. Having been raised in Matori she only knew of the sand and shells. She knew the beach and the Matorians, but even with it being home to her she never felt like she fit in. She was overly invested in finding treasure, at least that's what some said. Others simply didn't like her because of her hybrid blood. She thought she looked Matori enough, she had the blue skin, the similar spots. There were also things she had they didn't though, and that alone was enough to make a lot of them nervous. It was why even as a youngling she stayed by herself for the most part. She only really bothered older people when she was really wanting to hunt for treasure, but even now she had decided against it and instead was off hunting by herself again. She spotted Sajahka before she really registered his presence. She tended to ignore anyone that wandered around on the beach unless they directly influenced what she was doing.

Though if the person could be convinced to work for her.

"Hey! Hey you!"

The Only Black Uke

 

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Sajah did not expect to be addressed. Why would he be, when no one here knew him yet and he was a foreigner in his own homeland? And if it were him they were seeking, it would have been a familiar voice, surely: Nyko, Xewai, or one of the other persons who had participated in their rescue. Not—

He looked, out of curiosity, and blinked.

—a small child?

Upon looking, it did in fact appear that despite his assumptions, the child was addressing him. Why he couldn’t guess, but then children tended to have a wider and less predictable range of wants on occasion than adults, so—he paused, turning to give the girl his attention, one eyebrow raised. She was—odd looking, he noted belatedly. While at first pass, he had simply assumed, between the location, her blue skin and hair, that she was exactly what he’d have expected: a young Matori girl. The closer she got, however, this proved to be a mistake.

Purple crystals and long, delicately pointed ears most definitely set her apart. Still, she could not have been that old, and was clearly not dangerous, so he waited, at least, to find out what she needed.