[Flashback] Enter My Ethereaum (Chemar)

[Sairque]

36 Summer, 501 AV Bathed in Leth’s glory, a small group gathered at the foot of the Edge of the World. Attention riveted on the shortest among them, they pulled off harnesses and checked their equipment. “Bet you all fifty pinions I can do that route blindfolded,” the female youth boasted in rejoinder to a preceding comment. Some in the group, ages ranging from fourteen to early twenties, just shook their heads and finished packing up. Others assessed the young chiet speculatively, but only one spoke up. “I’ll take that. Tomorrow at dawn,” the young glassworker challenged, drawing a wolfish smile from Sairque. “You coming back to my place?” he continued, enveloping her muscular shoulder under a soft arm and forming his lips into a greasy leer. “I’ll get you limbered up for the climb.” The group picked their way toward the tunnel leading back to the warrens, Sai and the insistent man bringing up the rear. “No, I’m going to meet my sister,” she informed him, shoulder meeting his ribs stiffly with every opposing step. “You know she can come back with us.” “No, we’re going to meet with some other friends.” “It’s way past your bed time, what could you possibly be going out to do?” “We’re going swimming down in the lakes,” ground out with a mounting glower. “You should really come back with me. You can go swimming anytime,” he informed her, oily voice thinning. “No, I don’t want to,” Sai told him bluntly, readying the knife tucked into the scarf wrapped round her swaying hips. “You know what I can do for you and your sister. You need someone to watch out from you, protect you from them,” he advised with thinly maintained concern. “I can give her a room in my friend’s aerie, you can stay with me. You know what’ll happen to her. Chiet mean nothing to them.” “I can take care of her just fine,” she snapped, palming the soft handle of the knife in a reverse grip and curling that arm, the one closest to him, against her chest. “I don’t need you and I don’t want you.” “I’m going to have you, and then we’re allgoing to have your sister,” he grunted, clamping the girl to his side to lift her off her feet and shove her against the wall. She tried to snap her hand down, sink the blade into the soft tissue above or below his pubic bone, but the angle her body squished into against him impeded the maneuver. Instead, the edge grazed her bryda, tip so sharp she didn’t feel the severing of her flesh. Her back scraped against the rough reimancy-formed wall of the warren, and the back of her head impacted sharply when his hand clamped over her lips. Power reduced to a level only able to produce abbreviated wiggles, Sai tried to pop the arm holding the knife free of their smushed bodies. It wouldn’t move and she desperately tried to rotate the blade around to face the unwanted suitor. She succeeded at slicing her own thigh several times. His hot breathe bathed her neck as he shoved his knee between her legs and adjusted his arm to pin her still while pulling himself out. In the gap created between them, she lost her tenuous grip on the weapon and it disappeared into the shadows clinging to them. Raggedly, she sucked air in through her nostrils, fighting for every gulp when his fingers shifted just enough to clear them. Panicking, her motions came with the strength of desperation, sweat slickened skin aiding in the escape attempt. She tripped over his leg in a lurch to the side, toward the populated areas of the warrens, but he just adapted, flinging her down to insure she’d hit the ground. He wasted no time in assuming the position. Even as soft as he was, her undeveloped physique couldn’t match up and he knew it. But stone was harder than her fist and gouged deeper than her nails; even as hard as his head was, his thick skull couldn’t withstand the vicious blows she brought down on him. Screaming with every down stroke, eventually the only sound was her ragged voice and the soft splat of his crushed head. Tears streaming down her cheek, she mewed and shoved hysterically at his pliant shoulders, trying to dislodge his limp weight. Heavy running footsteps echoed down the warren, slower than her heart rate but in no way comforting. By the time they found the man’s prone body, the girl had disappeared with her knife. By the time Sai made it to her date, which hadn’t been planned with Addy but with Chemar, she’d changed into a fresh pair, these ones deep green, and ripped up the ruined bryda to make a thin bandage. She waited at the designated meeting spot, knowing better than to wake up the entire Tisserand family in the middle of the night. That and it wouldn’t do for the man to be up and about while they snuck into his dreaming place. During the wait, she hid in a nook, relaxing in the shadows and finding herself lethargic in the aftermath of the busy day and adrenaline rush. The occurrence hadn’t been that unique, but they happened with increasing frequency as they twins aged. Addy had been safe in bed when she’d stopped in to change, otherwise Sai would have ditched out on their illicit dream-thing to hunt her down and castrate any and all boys accompanying her.

[Chemar Tisserand]

Rae's breathing became long and slow, the rhythmic signal that she'd fallen into deep sleep. Chemar slipped from her bed, next to Rae's in the room that they shared. She padded across the floor in bare feet, gathering the things she carefully placed in a haphazard way so they appeared random and making her way toward the door. She dressed en route, peeling off sleepwear to replace it with clothes fit for outside her bedroom. After shoving a crumpled ball of her discarded clothes under a chair, she headed for the door, pausing with her hand curled on the latch to take a final look around to make sure she had all she needed. Chemar knew every spot on the Tisserand floor that squeaked or groaned under pressure, as well, she knew exactly how far the door could be pushed open before objecting to the bullying. Luckily, her childhood growth spurt had continued, stretching her into a tall lanky teen, with willowy limbs and a light step. Holding her shoes in hand, she edged out the door, closing it behind her with slow precision, letting it utter only the smallest metallic 'Click' when the latch caught. She paused, waiting for any telltale footsteps signaling that she'd been discovered. When no footsteps came, she placed the palm of her hand flat on the door, making a silent apology to her father for sneaking out. There was no bustling hum as there usually was outside the Dreaming Lady, just the heavy cloak of nightfall draped over everything within earshot and eyesight. In spite of her solitude, she still slipped along the halls, as hidden as possible, fading into doorways, and creeping through shadows cast. It was not a long trip to the meeting place she'd set with Sai and even though no one else seemed to stir, she practiced being invisible for her own amusement. She spotted her friend before being noticed, and moved silently along the overhanging shadow of an elaborate glass facade. She was momentarily distracted by its grandeur, but soon her emerald eyes returned to their search for a way for her to make an approach without tipping off her favorite monkey. Sneaky, sneaky. Sai, having grown used to Chemar's way of doing things, had butted her back against the wall of a doorway, leaving only one approach. She clenched her teeth together, a wide smile on her face..she so loved to take Sai by surprise.There has to be a way. Scaling the stone wall adjacent to the doorway to drop from nowhere in front of Sai seemed extreme, but she took a moment to consider it. Mapping the hand and footholds that were available, her analytical mind actually warming to the idea. She nearly had a route planned out when she heard the closing of a nearby door, and heavy footfalls as an intruder approached. disrupting her scaling plan. With a little jump start, she bolted into the doorway, toppling over Sai and gabbing her to hunker quietly in the corner. With her mouth next to Sai's ear, she whispered, arms wrapped around her to keep her still. Chemar may have been the only person alive, aside from Aidara, who could take this posture with Sai and walk away.. just walk away, actually. In a show of great faith, she even went so far as to lightly clamp her long fingers across Sai's mouth. "Shhh... someone is coming."

[Sairque]

Lulled into a sense of solitude by the silence in the warrens, Sai sank into the shadow, leaning against the doorway. Time passed unmarked in the dark, the wait flashing by as Sai slipped into musings about life and where she needed it to take her. A door shut somewhere and the youth barely glanced up, no one leaving a house at this time would bother a kid in a corner. The lone set of footsteps followed as expected, but before she’d even registered another’s presence, a scuffling sound provided hasty foreshadowing. Fractionally turned toward the creeper, they bore her to the ground with little struggle and, with unsettling familiarity, whisked her further into the shadows. The physical dissimilarities between this attacker and the one from earlier registered: the solidity, hand size, grip strength, but most poignantly the scent. Words hissed through the dark, familiar in their cadence and timbre, but Sai’s mind couldn’t unwrap itself from the panic of fingers locked across her lips and stifling the air flow through her nostrils. Knowing something wasn’t right, but unable to latch onto what exactly was happening here, the young chiet snapped her elbow back into the taller figure’s torso, hoping for a delicate target, and whipped her head back against attacker’s face. Transported back to the very real struggle just half a bell earlier, her actions were edged with desperate strength and panicked instinct, this was no attempt to wrestle a playful friend into submission. The softened scalp, flesh sensitive from smacking against the wall earlier, wrenched painfully when it missed the target and once again smashed into stone. This cry, more of a grunt and abbreviated bark of agony, broke the hesitant silence of the night. “Petching corpse!” she shattered the quiet, feeling her advantage over the now defensive assailant. Pressing the change in roles, Sai broke the other’s grasp on her, whirling around to face them and one hand reaching for their throat. In the weak light stretching to reach them from torches down the warren, Sai’s snarl froze, yellow eyes wide to take in every flinching feature of her closest friend. Breathing heavily, lips dropping to return her teeth to a state of decency, she released the hold on the girl’s throat, hand sliding down until her fingers dug into her collar bone and held the shaking limb against her chest. Finally, her wondering gaze dropped to the blade that almost hadn’t been stopped in time. There it glinted dully, quivering, poised to gut the elder Tisserand sister. Naturally, as anyone in this situation would, she imagined not the rapist lying limp and heavy in the shadows, blood splattered and pooling, but Chemar. Long red locks blackened in the thick fluid and bits of bone and innards exposed for the curious observer. Tucking the blade away, where it would patiently lay in wait for the next person, the wiry girl patted the other girl’s chest before dropping that hand too. “That could have turned out nasty.” A heavy sigh heaved, the breathe taking worry and concern with it. “What are we doing tonight?”

[Chemar Tisserand]

From the instant her innocent attack was reversed, Chemar knew better than to make any sudden movements. Every muscle in her body froze as soon as she saw the glint of Sai's blade. By comparison, in 'lank' alone, Sai was a little thing but she had a grip like a vice Petch she is strong! As soon as the recognition materialized in the smaller girl's eyes, her grip softened, and as she released it Chemar's hand went to her throat, rubbing gently. The withdrawal and disappearance of the blade was a signal to Chemar, she launched at Sai playfully, now that her presence had been revealed, and toppled over her friend. In a tangle of arms and legs, she straddled the girl, looking down at her with a beaming smile. "Good grief Sairque, one of these times you're really going to hurt me." She lifted the very bottom of her vinati, revealing a jagged cut along her ribs that had begun to heal. "It's going to scar though. Good thing I like scars." She grinned, looking for a smile on her friend's face. "At least it's begun to heal though." If all had been as it should be, by now, Sai would have retaliated and had her in some complex grapple that grated her face against the ground like so much cheese, but she just lay there. Though still perched on her partner in crime, Chemar looked down, an invisible force tugging her brows together. "Who was it this time?" Though the faces and names were missing, Chemar could have recited the events of the day as if she'd been a fly on the wall. A lump grew in her throat as she considered what she unfailingly knew, and the muscles along her jaw tightened. "Did they hurt you? Bring them to me... I'll make sure they never get another good night's sleep." Of course, it went against everything her father had taught her, but Chemar's heart was crushed each time Sai came to her in this wounded state, even though she nearly eclipsed it with her denial. She scuttled back a bit, taking her weight off Sai. "Tell me what happened this time, we are not moving from this spot until you do." She crossed her arms and leaned her back against the wall. Gold ringed eyes focused on the tangled, red headed waif...waiting.

[Sairque]

Stretched out beneath the taller girl, head gingerly rested back against the stone floor and dealing with the weight and pressure of Chemar’s bony ass on her injured thigh by gritting her teeth, Sai studied the new pink flesh. It had happened one of the other rare times Sai hadn’t been expecting a physical tussle for greeting. At the time, Sai had just shaken her head and Chemar had commented on her own need to get quicker. Tonight was a poignant reminder that life flared only for so long as Dira allowed. Clumsily brandishing her little knife would hurt friends just as easily as deter aggressive men. Though, rocks did seem to be more effective. Brow furrowed, Chemar stared at her and she realized she’d missed something; belatedly, she ran over the questions that she’d heard but not registered. Sai shrugged as best she could. “Same old, same old,” she muttered, eyes cutting away and undermining the casual phrase. The finality of this evening’s struggle was in fact a first, and though Sai didn’t know for sure if the man was dead, he sure had been awfully limp. Easing to her feet, bumps and bruises becoming more and more prominent as the evening wore on, the unkempt little teenager poked her head around the corner and eyed the silent tunnel. When morning came Syna would gradually flood the tunnels with light, beams bouncing from mirror to mirror. “I think I killed him,” she admitted abruptly, gingerly fingering the knot on the back of her head and glancing down at the blood that had leaked through the impromptu bandage and spotted black on her clean bryda. She didn’t look at Chemar. Dira stalked among them as busy as any flesh and blood Inarta. Famine, wildlife, stunts, there were any number of ways to die. Duels, brawls… As many fights as the average Inarta got into it, it took a different kind to deliberately kill willy-nilly. They’d been the ones she’d avoided growing up, the only ones she’d hid from. There was something…wrong…with them. She wondered how many times one had to kill before they found out which category they belonged in. They had something extra in there, inside them, or they lacked something that other’s had. Finally, yellow eyes flashed in the torchlight, coming back to Chemar. “Do you think that makes me any different?” Because self exploration was damning in a way that prescribed judgments could never be. Even if Chemar was the most considerate and conscientious person Sai had ever met; a girl with a distaste for lying, an unerring sense of right and wrong, actively working to attain a position easing people’s minds. Reaching out, she tugged on her friends arm, dragging her out into the hall and toward their predetermined activity for the night

[Chemar Tisserand]

Every pained movement from Sai, eroded a little bit of Chemar's insistence on knowing the details of another brutal day until tug on her arm jerked her out of her role as inquisitor altogether. In her own way, the waif that now dragged her down the hall had told her everything. Patched together in a way that Chemar had grown accustomed to deciphering. "Dead, is it? Really dead? Did you feel its pulse to be sure? Did you mark its breath?" Chemar had a strange habit of referring to those that wronged the people she loved, as 'it', reasoning, that anyone that lacked the fortitude to resist tormenting those weaker, or less powerful than them, did not deserve her consideration as a human. Being tugged along by Sai was fine for the moment; she was still processing her last question. "Different from who?" She gathered the hem of her bryda in one hand to keep from tripping over it as they raced through the hallways. "You've always been different from them." Chemar smiled, thinking of their own differences, the straightforward assault from Sairque, and the sometimes confusing, circuitous methods of Chemar. Somehow, the two of them had forged a friendship that at this point, was only enhanced by their stark differences. "That's why we get along. It doesn't make you different than you were before...you were defending yourself." She pulled lightly on Sai's hand, slowing her down. "Quiet now, we can't be discovered." Hers was the voice of conspiracy, and after letting go of Sai's hand, she stood behind her, long fingered hands resting on the smaller girls shoulders. With her face poised cheek to cheek with Sai, she created the illusion of a second fiery haired head attached to her shoulders, she began to whisper, looking closely at the door of the Dreaming Lady. "I have the key, we just need to be as quiet as we can...until we're inside. Pa can hear a mouse at the Edge of the World from his bed." The front wall of windows was illuminated by only one light, an amber lantern that was encased in a stone basin and left to burn always. Chemar's father thought it added warmth that would draw people in even when the shop was closed, an inviting reminder to those that passed by, no matter what time of day. She chewed on her lower lip as they closed the distance to the shop. Reaching a thin hand into the waist of her bryda while the other remained perched on Sai's shoulder. She produced a key and after one final look down the hall each way, unlocked they door and pulled her friend gently, but quickly, inside. When they were safely on the other side of the door, she blew out a long breath and returned the key to her bryda. With a smile that was as bright as the candle in the basin, and relaxed, now that they had reached their destination without discovery, Chemar took Sai's hand and led her toward the dreaming chambers. Even though they two of them had walked the long corridor back to the chambers a hundred times, Chemar could never resist stopping to trace one particular line of veining. It was her favorite; the very first time her father had walked her down this hall she'd found it. With the tip of her long finger softly pressed on the vein, it was almost as though she let it lead her toward the chambers. "Isn't it perfect?" Even though her eyes did not stray from the glowing series of lines, she knew Sai's expression, and could picture her smirking, still surprised at the sense of wonder Chemar retained after experiencing this same event, year after year. That smirk was usually followed by some comment about how easy it was to entertain her, but not this time. Treating their late night subterfuge as an actual dreaming appointment, Chemar paused; turning to her client, and with a very professional voice began her session. She straightened into her full height, still holding Sai's hand. "You may begin to feel a little light headed, just breathe deeply. The dreaming chambers are just ahead." The quizzical look that was Sai's response, pulled a chuckle from Chemar, and she continued in a hushed voice, as though some hidden mentor was grading her performance. "Just go along, you, are my very first real client." She giggled unprofessionally, then cleared her throat and stood tall again. In her head, she went over the things she'd heard her father recite to his dreamers. "Please remember, miss," She smirked at Sai as they started walking again. Miss. Both of them laughed a little, before she continued. "Nothing that you experience in your dream can follow you into your waking life, so please, relax, I will be with you there, and when you awaken here." She stopped dead, and turned to Sai. "How did that sound? Good?" They continued, Chemar waiting for a response. With practiced ease, she guided Sai into the first dreaming chamber, pausing to look at the collection of hypnotic veins. Not this one. Her inner voice commented, driving her to seek out another room she felt more suitable. This was an instinctive action, not done because of any training her father had offered, but simply a gauged reflection of the person she would walk with. Somewhere along the way, she had absorbed the 'temperament' for lack of a better word, of each chamber and could fit the room to the client without fail. She chose the third of six chambers and began to get Sai settled on the pallet. "The longer you remain, the more the mountain will comfort you." With gentle hands, she moved to her friend, taking her by the shoulders. Chemar's eyes seemed to need no adjustment time in the chambers, the golden that ringed her pupils had a strange quality that picked up the smallest of light sources, leeching the light for their own. Knowing that she was unusual in this way, Chemar guided her friend to lie down. Decorum would usually then place her somewhere near, against the wall perhaps, but with Sai, she took a spot on the pallet next to her. Lying on her side, with a curled arm to support her head, she glanced at the profile of her best friend. "Are you ready?"

[Sairque]

Dead, is it? Really dead? Did you feel its pulse to be sure? Did you mark its breath? Despite the gloomy worry, her callous dehumanizing earned a brief chuckle. It died off under the stifling image of smashed skull and the vaporous knowledge that Chemar’s words stemmed not from comedic relief but an attempt to cope. The method with which one made peace with a death that had deliberately or not happened at one’s own hands could say a lot about a person. Thankfully, Chemar sidetracked away from the focus on Sai and whether or not she was missing a vital bit of humanity or had something nasty in there with her. She could hide under the pretense that she had needed to kill him to defend herself. Yes. Because she was different. Not because life held no meaning to her. That’s why we get along. A smile tugged at her lips, trust Chemar to analyze their friendship and figure out how it worked. All she knew was that the Ape made her feel comfortable and didn’t seem to mind her attitude. Chemar pressed against her back, hands heavy on her shoulders, and impressed upon the shorter girl the importance of silence. Didn’t have to tell Sai twice, the head of the Tisserand household always made her feel uncomfortable; waking him up during illicit activities couldn’t be more undesirable. The span between themselves and the amber glow of the Dreaming Lady’s entrance extended along the corridor; yellow eyes rotated as far as they could in their sockets, Chemar’s face a pale and warm blur at her cheek. Sleep tugged at the delicate eyelids. Maintaining silence, she snuck along to the door and followed through, only breathing when they were safely inside. Fingers wrapped round the spindly ones of her companion, thick calluses numbing her to the soft, tender flesh of the sheltered girl, Sai inhaled the thick, overwhelming air of the chambers. It settled in her lungs like normal, fresh air, but soon it would lull her into a more impressionable state. Or something. Maybe it induced something like an intoxicated coma. Chemar had explained it to her one time, but she wasn’t sure how it all worked in conjunction with the Gnosis marks the Tisserands sported. She knew, even if the only hints were the way those thick red locks bounced along Chemar’s back, that the girl’s eyes were all big and mushy, enthralled by the spell the Dreaming Lady cast. Sai was a little more resistant, but refrained from commenting on her awestruck friend. Just this once. There was something different about this visit. Chemar had a stricter step, a more purposeful bearing. And a speech. Aha. “That was good, yeah. It was just like your dad, except he gets embarrassed when he giggles like that,” she deadpanned, too tired to even care if the good natured teasing went over well. “You’re actually going to be in my dream with me?” Bumbling around a bit in the dark, unfamiliar room, ignorant to the selection process, Chemar’s guiding hands thankfully pushed her to and onto the pallet. Clambering up, she stretched out, head tilted toward Chemar to keep off the tender knot, with her hands folded atop her stomach and feet shoulder width apart. A gentle snore answered the dreamwalker’s question, the discomfort of the soft tissue in her throat hampering inhalation forcing her to roll over onto her side as well, smacking her lips as though dreaming of a tasty treat. And she was. Thick, sweet, steaming, tender rolls waited on shiny silver trays that had shiny silver bows for legs. Each one perched around the cross legged girl, both she and the food settled precariously on the edge of a tall cliff. Grass blanketed the area, thick, lush blades, the springy kind that provided real padding. The kind that didn’t grow anywhere near Skyinarta. Sai grabbed two rolls in one hand, a plum on the verge of bursting and a wedge of cheese between two fingers of the other. A bite of cheese, a bite of roll. A bite of plum, a bite of roll. A bite of cheese, a bite of plum. Face contorting in distaste, she mollified her tongue with another mouthful of a heavy aromatic roll. Around her, the world dropped away. The sky expanded, the cliff top shrunk to just the size of her picnic, and mountains and trees stretched further and further below. She alone, of all the inhabitants of Skyinarta, feasted in peace. Flesh untouched, as it hadn’t been since she was a baby, no bruises, no scrapes, she glowed in the mid day sun. Crimson locks caught the sun’s vibrancy and danced happily beneath it. Groaning in delight, she switched out the plum for an apple, the crisp flesh cracking off, her teeth apportioning a chunk too large for her mouth. Chew, chew, chew, chew, Chemar. Eyes brighter than any gem ever mined from the mountain, or any glass creation, Sai looked at her friend. Chemar, looking just as Sai always saw her, zoomed up the mountain on a cloud. She rested on her belly, arms thrust out in front of her, as though the cloud went wherever her fingertips pointed, and toes pointed out sharply behind her. How the cloud held her weight was anyone’s guess. It was just a little thing, a little streak of fluffy white that didn’t hardly extend from the girl’s thighs to her ribs.

[Chemar Tisserand]

Initially, floating precariously on a cloud was unnerving to Chemar, but by the time she reached Sai's perch, she was sprawled out like an eagle, her arms extended and toes pointed like a graceful dancer. The smoky fingers of the cloud tickled her belly as she reached her friend, and her laughter increased as she saw the king's spread of pastries and fruit that Sai seemed to wear as a skirt around her hips. For a few moments, her attention lingered on the cloud carriage; she would have to remember how much he enjoyed it. Chemar was grinning brightly as she watched Sai, her eyes sparkled with humor at the sight of her friend grappling a world of treats to decide which one she fancied most. "I might have guessed it would be food." Light laughter rang around them, and Chemar's mouth began to water as the curls of sweet aroma threaded to greet her nose. Just as her hand reached to share in Sai's bountiful picnic, a stealthy movement caught her eye. Caught in thrall, Chemar cocked her head to the side and watched as the outer blades of grass on Sai's pedestal began to slither toward her. They began to expand, their thickness growing to that of a length of solid rope and their speed increasing until they reached Sai and coiled around her arms and legs. The grass ropes snapped tight and Chemar gasped at her friend was locked in place, her hand darted out so quickly and without thought to try and free Sai that she teetered precariously on the cloud, nearly falling. WhatdoIdo!! The calm authority that Chemar possessed before sleep dissolved into thin air as her mind reeled. All the training seemed useless as she watched the treats that Sai had enjoyed so morph into a mass of tendon and teeth. Each sweet treat latched on to the small girl's body, sinking jagged rows of gleaming ivory into her skin until the small parcel of grass grew red with her blood. Chemar took a deep breath and leapt from the cloud to the gruesome pedestal barely grasping the edge. The toes of her boots dug into the sheer wall looking for a foothold as her fingers grappled at the slick blades of grass, none of which had the strength to support even her thin frame. Breathe.... The only sound she heard was the long intake of breath. The air filled her body, pulling the speed of the passing moments from the world around her. A clamp of teeth drove into Chemar's hand, and she flung it away, all her concentration on gaining control. The wisp of cloud returned, rising to meet the soles of her boots and lift her to a level where she could step onto the small platform. Her heart still raced, but she did her very best to keep herself from panicking. The treats gone, all that remained were the ravenous balls of teeth that still tore into Sai. As she stood, the same beasts began to cling to her legs, using twining, rope-like tendrils to climb higher. Between the flurry of brushing and sometimes unlocking them from her skin and limbs Chemar began to feel pain, searing and deep. She locked eyes with Sai, able to see only one solution. With a blade that seemed to sprout from the tip of her finger, Chemar slashed at the restraining blades of mutant grass, and grabbed Sai. With more force than intended, she yanked the girl from the ground, hearing the sickening sound of bone on bone as her friend's shoulder shifted beneath the pressure, Just go Chemar...DO IT! She launched herself at Sai, forcing both of them from the safety of the pedestal into a free falling plunge toward the unforgiving ground. I'm sorry.. I'm sorry.. I'm sorry.. She kept repeating it over and over again as her grip on Sai, who seemed to have passed out from sheer pain, grew tenuous, her hands slipping over her blood covered body each time she tried to sure up her embrace. "Sai..it's okay.. it will be okay.." She barely recognized her own voice as she tried to comfort her friend, the WOOSH of speeding air, thundering her ears as she focused on the ground below.. "Wake up!!!" She knew it would not work, but she had to try...

[Sairque]

Awareness and body separated. Sai watched herself slip limply from Chemar's desperate grasp; the girl frantically snatching at her blood slickened body and trying to comfort her in a voice strangled with a myriad of self-reproaching fearful emotions. It was most certainly not going to be okay! They were plummeting straight into the ground! They would be useless once they had smashed into the mountain side over and over again before gravity finished with them and deposited their bone shards sprinkled innards on the valley floor. What would they do then? "Ooh, darling dears, why leave the party so soon? The main course hasn't yet been served!" The familiar voice came out of the mountain side, boulders and rocks grating together like vocal chords. But she'd cleaned herself before eating! And she hadn't stolen the food, not one bite! The Endals had dropped it off, saying that they had to hunt for food! She hadn't done anything wrong! Swooping on the tumbling girls, Sai's hair having braided itself at some point and wrapped around Chemar's wrist like a lifeline, brooms with wispy meringue wings swept them with firm, stinging strokes toward a fast approaching green pedestal twin to the one they'd tumbled from. In a fall disjointed from the heart-stopping motion they'd previously been enjoying, the girls landed in a tumble atop it. And when they rolled to a stop, they were in the kitchens of Wind Reach. And covered in grass stains and dirt clumps. The brooms darted around them, meringue wings beating as softly as the bristle ends swatted painfully at the girls. Sai's awareness and her dream self collided again, the girl dreading the figure in front of her. It was the chef lady that held a grudge against her from all those years ago when she'd come in dirty and then never showed back up for her bendi tasks. The chef's face was as red as her hair, and the ruddiness camouflaged the smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks. "You'll eat sweets without asking for a bit of permission, but you take offense to them biting back?"

[Chemar Tisserand]

When her recognition of their location snapped into place, Chemar had an immediate sickness in her stomach, whether from her failure to really take care of Sai, or the sight -even in dream- of the red headed chef, she felt like her stomach needed emptying. Deep breath. Deep breath. The phrase looped in her head as she tried to get control of anything about this dream. A flash of green and yellow flared as she scanned the room, and all at once, the brooms fell to the floor with a clatter. At least that worked. She felt some relief until the drilling glare of the chef caught her attention. Her chest began to tighten and suddenly the floor began to feel as though it were coated in honey, allowing no movement from her current spot. The chef lifted her hands at her sides, commanding an army of the same possessed sweet that had been attacking just moments ago, and they began rushing like a grim wave toward the two girls. Chemar glared at her feet, willing them to move as the sound of the snapping teeth and the sticky slapping moved closer and closer. In a stroke of luck, Chemar affected another aspect of the dream and the cementing honey at her feet, released. Think think think think think... Panic was gripping Chemar as she tried to figure a way out of their current predicament. This was a mistake. The betrayal of her confidence came early, and she squeezed her fists so tight that her nails carved half moon cuts into her palms. How could this be going so wrong?! She had witnessed this more times than she could count with her father, but as the dream eroded the grasp of her own knowledge she began to think she may have doomed both she and her best friend. Suddenly an idea snapped into her head, clear as a ringing bell and most certain to work. With all her concentration, she began to focus, attempting to send wave after wave of frigid cold from the soles of her feet. Green eyes were eclipsed when she squeezed them closed, trying to block out anything that might act as distraction. That wet sound of the syrupy treats moving over the floor slowed, as did the snapping of their razor teeth. She heard the sound of cracking crystals but dared not look for fear of losing concentration, but the sound of running cracks through ice began to fill the air and she wagered a half open eye. The chef stood in front of her, arm outstretched in a reaching lunge toward Chemar's throat and her mouth was carved into a horrible angry grimace. The sight widened the young dreamwalker's eyes to the size of bowls and like the ice she had commanded, she froze for a moment in her own fear. Sai! Her eyes followed the line of deadly treats as it led to the monkey soldier, they had just begun to reach the leg of her bryda, clinging like icicles. As Chemar's gaze moved on a panic gripped her, for the freezing solution she'd found had not stopped with their common enemy, and the sight of Sai encased in a prison of ice was the sight that greeted her. Wave after wave of panic gripped Chemar, making the palms of her hands moisten with sweat as she ran to Sai. Both hands slapped against the crystallized vision of her best friend and stuck to the ice like wet flesh on cold metal. "I'll get you out.. I will.. " She nodded with spastic quickness, trying to convince herself that she could do it.. there was no noticeable response from Sai, and Chemar felt the food she'd last eaten rise in her throat carried by a tide of bile. Her hands were stuck to the ice as though part of it and to remove them she had to rip a layer of flesh from her palms. The pain of the rended flesh along with the sight of blood gushing from palms was more than her stomach could take, and she threw her body forward retching the contents of her stomach onto the icy floor. Spasms kept forcing the sour fluid past her lips until there was nothing left. The first thing she noticed was a perfect bloody print of each of her hands pressed into the fabric over her knees, when she stood, those prints were mirrored on Sai's icy cage, only instead of blood it was a thin layer of her skin. Chemar was suddenly and inexplicably calm, her head cocked to the side as she looked between the two sets of hand prints. After a moment of thought, she reached to the bloody prints and began peeling them from her bryda, prying one edge, then then other, she was able to remove each of them in a single, unmarred piece. Free from the heat of her body, they became solid as she held them, flat and rigid like a perfect key. With slow fascination, she placed each of the prints into over the corresponding layer of skin, then covered those layers with her hands, ignoring the free flowing blood. An unconscious smile curled her lips as she rotated her hands away from each other like a fan, that familiar sound of cracking ice sounded as the frozen encasement split in a perfect line down the center. Of it's own volition, the ice parted, opening a path for Sai to step free, unharmed, and safe. Chemar took a step back, still smiling, but with no small amount of disbelief coloring her face. "I can't believe that worked."