[Yael] Two Angry Bugs (Ai/Akacia)

[Painted Moose]

It had been several days since Ai returned from her 'expedition' into Yaeli territory, and she was still as pissed as ever.

The young warrior paced the shoreline, stopping occasionally to pick up shells and fling them as far as she could into the sea. Whatever had possessed her sisters had to cease. Several had gone with her to clear out a group of earthlings, four in fact, making their group five in total. It was simple; exterminate the earthlings, take what supplies seemed valuable and burn the rest. Ai should have known they would choke at the last minute. At least three of their group had been elaria, out on their own for the first time, and the other alk that had gone with Ai was soft. She left the elaria have their fun making mistakes, and nearly costing them the mission when one yaeli took off.

If she hadn't been the one to track him down their position would have been compromised. And worse yet, upon her return, they had been seen torturing the damn things! Swift, clean kills; that's what Ai was teaching them. That even though their enemies were beneath them they should have respect for anything with the gall to fight them.

The older sister didn't see the problem, but after Ai had cut the heads off the remaining Yaeli even as the elaria poked and prodded all had gone silent. In a fit of rage she had threatened to have every single one of their antennae removed before storming back to Zinris, then through the camp itself and onward to the shore line.

And now...now she was exhausted.

Exhausted and pissed.

Fluffesu

 

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

Akacia told herself it wasn't shame at what she'd done that kept her locked almost exclusively in the confines of her home for several days. In the aftermath, she'd assured herself that she would defend her choices and explain boldly to anyone who questioned her. So far, she'd only had to tell Layeta why she'd copped off all her hair- her dreds, and she was decidedly not looking forward to telling anyone else.

Her caretaker had been miffed, yes, and rumbled incessantly, even days later, about how disrespectful the younger generation was. And to the goddess Akacia had sworn to while her sisters began praying to a new Mother! Disrespectful. An ill-conceived idea. Wrong.

It wasn't what Akacia intended.

But it was too late to go back. She couldn't, wouldn't, and didn't want to. Or so she said. And if she said it enough, she and everyone else would believe her. For several days, she stayed in her home, cooking meals for her guardian, fletching arrows, running over and over in her head why this was a good idea, until-

She could see Ai from her window. The woman moved and a quick clip, clearly disinterested in stopping, and Akacia watched her until she was out of sight. Did she imagine the frustrated set of the other woman's shoulders? Perhaps. It had been some time since she last spoke to her... Which was strange, considering the more recent development in their relationship...

If anything was worth leaving her house for, it was Ai. It didn't take Akacia long to decide that. She slung her bow and quiver over her shoulder and set off at a trot in the direction Ai had been headed. She followed silently for a long while, watching, observing, and wondering. Ai did look upset already. Would it really be the smart thing to do to engage her now?

If it wasn't, she would find out soon enough, one way or another.

When the other Alkidike dipped to collect a shell, Aka was at her back, and she reached to brush two fingers up the back of her leg in silent greeting. And appraisal. "Ai," she hummed. "What are you doing out here?"  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

The mocking laughter of the elaria still rang in her mind, and it made Ai scream. She kicked up a flurry of sand, stubbing her toe in the process on a hidden stone, which only made her angrier. In the middle of her fit she reached down to snatch the stone up from the sand, and threw it with all of her might into the ocean.

She screamed one again; for once in her life far from silent in her fury. Ai didn't know what she was yelling at now, but she was looking out across the ocean, as if cursing the very earthlings who had sent them here and cursed her to deal with...with those brats!

Admist her rage the sensation of fingers against her leg startled Ai. She jumped, spinning around with a pointedly furious glare only to shift into a sort of shocked pause. Her breathing was still ragged, lungs pumping like wild beasts inside her chest, but Ai's expression had started to soften.

Had.

Until she got a good look at Akacia.

"...what happened to you?" She stepped forward, hesitantly reaching out to the other's gnarled mess of hair. Those once beautifully curled dreads were almost gone...The thought that Akacia might have done this to herself never crossed Ai's mind. Why would it? What self respecting sister would dare do such a thing to herself?

Instead, a reformed snarl curled her lip, "It was those brats, wasn't it?" After all, who would have had a bigger grudge against Akacia than the elaria she so openly detested? "I'll skin then. I'll force them to eat their own dreads and then I'll string their corpses from the highest tree. Just tell me which ones did it."  

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

Oh. Maybe it hadn't been the best idea to reach out and touch the other woman unintroduced. If Akacia had been uncertain as to Ai's current mood, she wasn't now. The screaming and throwing things... It was almost childish, though more than irritating, it was actually amusing to see the other Alkidike let off steam in such a way. But Aka couldn't recall hearing her ever scream like that before, and she decided it wasn't worth it to point out the humor in the situation, just in case Ai was the type to be offended at everyone in her current state.

Hopefully the upward quirk of her lips didn't betray her. "I hope it wasn't the ocean that offended you, sister," she started with a soft smile. "Even I'm not so foolish as to try and win your favor by taking on the forces of-"

Her words stalled abruptly when Ai's gaze landed on her. The shift was dramatic. Rage, hesitance, then more rage. So maybe not that dramatic of a shift, just a brief pause that sent a tendril of uncertainty snaking down Akacia's spine. She'd always planned to tell Ai the truth, of course. She wasn't one to hide things, but for half an instant, she thought she might agree. 'Yes, it was the Elaria. Someone snuck into my hut at night and I woke up like this.'

Instead, she swallowed thickly. "Er, no, no it wasn't them, it was..." 'Training exercise. Complete accident.' No. No, dammit. Just the truth, plain and simple. "I did it myself." The words likely sounded as forced as they were. "Everything is changing, so, I decided to make one of my own, of my own power." She tried a smile again, or as close to one as she could manage. "It's messy, I know, but it's much more manageable, and I think the color is pretty nice..."

But that was all irrelevant. It really didn't matter than much compared to what Ai had been screaming about moments prior. "But you didn't answer my question. Why are you yelling at the sea?"  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

There was no doubt in her mind as to who might have caused it that when Akacia admitted to having done this..this atrocity to herself that Ai was stunned. For that small bit her mouth hung open, the woman at a complete loss for words as her brain tried to process the level of self-mutilation Akacia had accomplished and to make sense of it. "You?"

Ai closed her lips and retreated into a silent state. Her pupil-less gaze wouldn't venture away from Aka's head. In her mind she was still envisioning those lusciously full curled dreads that had seemed to bounce when the other alkidike was in a foul mood.

Now they were gone, and replaced with...with...

"It's...hideous." Giving false compliments wasn't in Ai, and she wasn't about to hold back with Akacia, no matter their involvement. "The color is unnatural and makes you look like a hybrid." She tried not to curl her lip, really she did, but-

"I don't...I don't know how to say anything nice, and I'm sorry for that." She breathed heavily through her nose and released it as a shaky, aggravated breath. "The hunt didn't go well today and I just-" There was just too much happening at once and Ai couldn't figure out how to verbalize an emotion for it.  

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

She ought to have lied.

No, no, that wasn't the proper way to think of it. Ai deserved better than to have someone who cared about her lie to her face. Though Akacia did secretly wonder what the other Alkidike would have done to any of those Elaria girls if they had been the cause of this. If she'd planned on looking at them like she looked at Aka, the resulting confrontation should at least have been interesting. But her gaze was pinned on Akacia, and the resulting spark of irritation that ignited in her own gut was anything but fair.

She couldn't tug her darkened eyes away from the other woman's, and instead just found herself growing increasingly more tense the longer they stared at each other. It was hideous. Aka knew as much. She'd been in a foul mood when it'd happened, with no desire to make things pretty, and she knew Ai better than to think she'd mince her words, but...

Well, none of it happened like she expected. Aka had to force herself not to grit her teeth as hummed out a quiet, low, "You don't like the color?" Without waiting for a response, she snatched up Ai's arm and lifted it so her forearm, with the small teal markings were close to her hair. "I was careful to choose one our mother gave us, if not in the exact place she'd intended... I've always liked this color and thought if I was already being dramatic anyway..." She shook her head and released her sister's arm. "But it isn't important. Dyes fade and hair grows. It will return to normal soon enough."

"In the meantime, if there is anything I can do to put you in a better mood, I would be glad for the distraction. And it sounds like you could do with having your mind on other things."  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

Ai didn't feel the need to dignify that question with a response. You don't like the color? That much was obvious; she detested it. When Akacia snatched her arm Ai's darkened eyes narrowed, her lip curling back in a quiet snarl. A color their mother gave them? Their mother gave them black hair, and Akacia should have been honored to keep it!

But, it was as she said; dyes faded and with Akacia's base color being so dark Ai suspected the brightness of her current 'style' wouldn't remain so for long. The longer she looked at the cut the more she became used to it, but that color....

Ai just shook her head. There was no point wasting more energy raging over things she couldn't change. "I don't know why they let them behave as they do. Instead of a quick kill the sister I went with allowed the elaria to torture our enemies. There is no honor in that; it's demeaning. Once the soul has left the body they can do as they please, but until then-" Ai inhaled and exhaled in an attempt to calm herself.

"I've grown bitter in my old age."
 

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

Akacia's attention wandered back toward the water and the waves lapping quietly against the shore. She was not personally opposed to the torture of earthlings. Demeaning or not, some of them deserved it. What they didn't deserve was the mercy of a quick death and the honor of simply losing to a more skilled warrior. They ought to be punished for having the audacity to stray so close to Alkidike, or Elarian, lands that they'd been caught, and sometimes a heavily mutilated body was worth leaving behind for other to learn a lesson from.

But there was also a certain degree of skill that needed to be present when leaving an adversary alive longer than necessary. Earthlings could be dangerous, and if they were given the chance to strike back, it could end poorly, particularly when backed into a corner and threatened.

Ai could probably handle herself. Whatever sister she'd been with could probably handle herself.

The Elaria girls were another matter entirely. They were still so young and probably still so unversed in proper technique. Akacia supposed there'd likely been an eager excitement for having the opportunity to slay any who opposed them, but that leant itself to recklessness. They could've been hurt. Akacia scoffed. She liked to think she wouldn't care if a few little girls learned the proper way of things the hard way, but...

"You sound angry on the earthlings' behalf," she hummed thoughtfully. "Don't waste your frustrations on how little girls dealt with the enemy. They don't deserve your consideration. If you're angry at the Elaria, take it on them. Leave the poor ocean alone," she added with a sharp grin cast from the water back to Ai's face.  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

"I am," she huffed, perhaps a little too petulantly. The whole thing was a waste of her frustrations, but it didn't make them go away. She felt them all rolling inside of her like barbed thistles, pinching her innards whenever a particularly spiteful thought came to mind.

She had wanted to shave them bald, and let them return in shame. Surely that would have brought more fire down upon her than Ai truly wanted, but they needed to learn what the consequences were for going against her orders. And maybe that was just it; maybe she was more pissed at being ignored than she was about what they'd done in the first place.

What was the point in teaching the little shits if they weren't going to pay attention and-

"Maybe I should just take it out on you instead. You frustrate me enough to deserve it." She was still annoyed, but the words were spoken light enough, perhaps a little playfully.  

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

Akacia's gaze never quite managed to leave Ai's face from that point on.The woman before her was beautiful when she was frustrated (even if the emotion was needless), and her dedication to their new cause was somehow more inspiring than any before. Dedication to training Elaria was annoying when anyone else did it, but Ai proceeded was such a genuine fierceness and vigor. Akacia still didn't like the Elaria, and she certainly thought they deserved very little of Ai's time and teachings (particularly if they were going to ignore her so easily), but it also felt like none when be better suited to the task, so she said as much.

"If anyone else were to take them on, I'm sure they would allow our young cousins to walk all over them. But you'd never allow that, would you, Ai? They're young and need a firm hand to train them. Don't give up so easily."

Despite the annoyance in the other woman's next words, Aka felt herself unable to do anything but grin. She knew that Ai likely was offended enough to mean it, and only a fool would take her words as anything less than completely to heart. Particularly when she knew she had done something reasonably unsavory with her hair, to her own person, in Ai's eyes. But Akacia couldn't keep the amusement from her tone. "You're welcome to," she replied. "If it would ease your mood at all."  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

"Of course not." She curled her lip at the notion. Why would she? If given the opportunity the elaria would run them off the island, and she'd come too far to claim this land as her own to be outcasted by a bunch of bratty, gray worms-

"It would." Ai stepped up closer to Akacia and slipped an arm around her waist to draw the taller woman's hips against her own. She lifted her leg just enough to rub her right side against her girlfriend's, but frustrations from earlier weren't so easily tamed. They kept her hold firm, though not enough to hurt, just enough to stay tense. "I just don't know how satisfying it would be. Can you make it worth my time?"  

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

"Worth your time?" Akacia parroted, her antenna twitching and teeth flashing as her fingers pinched and tugged in at Ai's hips. She tucked a hand down and around the thigh Ai held against hers and lifted so her girlfriend's leg was hoisted against her hip. "I'd think the task of making it 'worth' anything would fall at least as much to you as it did to me." She dipped, catching the other woman's bottom lip in a biting kiss and sucking lightly before shifting to rest her forehead to Ai's. "You are the one who suggested it, after all."

Akacia knew as well as Ai did how... frustrating this island and its blooms could be. Many of their older cousins had settled in well enough on Yael that they hardly seemed to notice the absence of their goddess' presence in their lives. They abandoned the 'old' for the new so easily... Yael was still no home to Aka, and she rebelled against the idea that it was whenever someone had the gall to present it to her. She didn't think she would ever be happy here.

But it was, at least, somewhat easier to forget the trials of their days when she was with Ai. So much had happened that she was unprepared for, but she wouldn't have met this fierce woman otherwise.

And Ai didn't seem terribly aggrieved by her cosmetic changes. The corner of Akacia's lip quirked upward. "But if you've found a more satisfying means of relieving your frustrations, by all means, feel free to engage. I won't hold you back."  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

[7/10]

"Not even if it means leaving this island?" She flexed her legs hold around Akacia's hips and brought herself as close to the other as she possibly could. One of Ai's hands moved to dive under Akacia's arm, slipping around her back and splaying out against the smooth, muscular flesh. The other made it's way toward her head, reaching up to massaged the scalp found there.

"We'll never make it to Chibale on our own, but if I could just see Jauhar one more time then I could leave on my terms." It was no secret that Ai still yearned to be closer to her true goddess, but just being close enough to home to see the luminescent leaves as she'd remembered them would be enough for her.

"And on the way back," Her fingers danced along Akacia's spine, "We can make a stop in Oba...and kill my sister."  

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

Akacia's teeth flashed in display of an almost feral grin at her girlfriend's assumption. There were probably few things more worth her time than getting off this island for however briefly. That was what she'd said she was going to do when she chopped off all her hair... She'd been ready to move on and wanted to. So many of her sisters were settling into their lives here, but it still just didn't feel right. Akacia hated the idea of settling, of being uprooted from her home and forced to just deal with the new life she'd been given...

But Ai was correct in that two sisters could not make it to the islands alone, let alone reclaim them, and Akacia would be damned if she would beg any of her mainland sisters to please allow her to return home. No. No amount of desperation would cause that.

The beautiful, intelligent, passionate woman before her probably had the right idea, though. Chibale would be forever restricted to them, but Jauhar was expansive territory that her mainland sisters couldn't possibly control all of, regardless of their efforts. They wouldn't see Aisha again, but to spend even a bit more time in the familiar land of their blooming and raising... "It sounds like a date," Aka hummed in amusement as she leaned to touch her lips to the column of Ai's throat.

"We'll take out any who have displeased or offended you, and then perhaps we can return to these forests in a... more right state of mind..." For all her grievances and upset that this wasn't her home, there was still no question as to where she'd return when all was said and done. Zinris was where her family lived now. It was where she'd met the woman of her dreams. It was where she'd live out her days, once her restless heart was satisfied.

But until then- "Why do you need your sister slain, exactly?" Though if she was in Oba, of all places, that seemed like reason enough.  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

Ai felt herself rising up as her one solidly planted foot pressed against Akacia, willing her body closer to her girlfriend. The leg wrapped around her hip flexed, urging the other to keep going. It seemed so natural for her to be here, on this beach, so close to someone who actually understood her. Ai had never expected to find a connection like that, and yet...here she was, ire melting away just because of a pair of lips at her neck.

"Mmm," she murmured in agreement. She would paint the mainland red with blood, and take as many heads as she could in the process. What could be more relaxing than that? They would have to be smart about it, though, so as not to draw too much attention. Ai had no doubt that with their skills combined the pair could fend off a mob, but an army? Not so much.

"Iona's part of the problem, Akacia. She fought with those disgusting vermin and raised her arrows against us. I would have slain her myself, but the man she took up with knocked me out." It still made her stomach churn. How could she? What kind of an alkidike would willingly abandon the teachings of their people to be with an earthling male?

"By the time I woke up I was bound and tossed over his shoulder as they brought us to the boats. She was crying, Aka; it was the most revolting thing I've ever seen."