Letting the wrong things slip.(Sairque)

[Kikue]

Timestamp: 63rd day of Summer. It had been a week since Kikue last went through the gates of Wind Reach. Each time she shudderd. Each time she felt confined again. But she had to go to the kitchens to get her weekly supply of rations again. It couldn't be helped and she just had to put up with it. Each time she had to walk through Wind Reach, she saw the dek. And each time again she got mad about the treatment they were receiving. *I wish I could do something for them. Most of them could do a decent job, if they were given the chance and a proper master.*, she thought, *I'll be leaving here next season though. I should try to not let it get to me.* Kikue just had to deliver the game she had managed to catch and then go to the kitchens for food. But it was unusually busy on the streets. It was obvious in her eyes as to why it was so busy. She never returned at noon and she knew that it was the busiest time of all. It was the time where most of the workers would have their lunch. All sorts of vendors were shouting to promote their wares. Kikue was getting a headache from all the noise. It was really difficult for her to handle right now. Especially since she hadn't slept last night, just to get back sooner. She quickened her pace to get out of this busy place. *Peching crowd. I can't even get through here normally. And it especially doesn't help that I'm so peching small.* If there was one thing that could get Kikue more miffed then the crowd, it would be her size. She hated to be so small. It made it difficult for her to move through crowds, or get noticed. As a result, she was knocked over often and she cursed the one that did it in her thoughts, but she didn't let it out. It was usually someone from a lower kaste, but Kikue hated to use hers to punish the one that bumped into her. She could always understand why they did it. But it never made it even a little bit easier for her. She took a breather at the fountain. At this rate it would take her at least 2 more bells to reach the kitchens. *Aargh, isn't there an easier way to get there?*, she thought to herself. Kikue sat on the edge of the fountain, with her hands in her hair. It caused them to stand up rather ridiculous. Not that Kikue cared about that, unless someone would mock her for it.

[Sairque]

The strict figure paused outside her office door, studious expression freezing as her ears picked up on a cacophony emanating through the dim warrens. Voices. Loud voices echoed through the stone rough hewn tunnels, drawing the flight leader away from her duties and toward them in order to sate her curiosity. Brows drawn down over those austere features, the woman crested a bend in the corridor and jerked to a stop at the volume of people shouting their wares. Tucking the sheaf of parchment she had been perusing on the way to her office under an arm, the wiry woman broke through the wall of people and capitalized on the opportunity offered by a fountain with a tall basin. Leaping atop, beside a woman that was at first mistaken for a child at her diminutive size, with a nimble step, she took several moments to study the group, yellow eyes scrutinizing these people under furrowed brows to infer just who and why they were here. What was this? An impromptu market day? The entire corridor in this section was packed and blocked to any and all productive travel. Several warrens that met this one here had been completely partitioned off with carts of goods. An irritated frown twisted those sun chapped lips. “Hey, Crugi,” she barked, trying to be heard over the shouts of a particularly insistent glass vendor. Said vendor won that contest and the Endal waited for him to pause for breath before shouting out to her fellow caste mate again. The man glanced around, searching for someone that would call his name, but quickly returned to speaking with an attractive woman. A Yasiry worker judging by the bright shapes embroidered upon her bryda and the stains on her vinati. “Crugi! Up here!” This time he swung around, recognizing the voice and winced. The hesitation as he looked at his superior and tried to get out of attending her cost him his date anyway as the chiet saw a woman with greater rank wanted to speak with her acquaintance. Gleaning his disappointment, the sympathetic woman motioned him to stay where he was. “What’s going on?” He shrugged, glancing over his shoulder at the departing figure of his romantic interest. “I’m not sure, but I do know that there’s a load of ore that the mining team is trying to get through here to take to the gallery.” With an imploring look, he met her eyes, breaking in a grin when she waved him off to pursue his friend. The flight leader watched the writhing mass of people once more, looking for any other familiar faces she could trust to help with dispersing the crowd. “You, girl,” Sairque called to the small woman that had originally found this fountain for seat. Over her head, those yellow eyes caught sight of the miners trying to move through while in the unfortunate position of having to be respectful and differential to the Avora they needed to move out of their way. Again, her voice was swallowed up in the cacophony. “Girl!” This time her voice cracked with command forcefully enough to disrupt several females contributing to the clusterpetch. She took the opportunity to point toward the fringes of the crowd. “Get out of here before I find out what you’re really supposed to be doing right now. All of you.” Pushing them from the area with sheer force of will, the wiry woman dropped her gaze back to the woman she was trying to enlist for help. “We need to get this cleared up immediately. What’s your name?”

[Kikue]

As the crowd got even more noisy, the small Avora sighed deeply. She really wasn't in the mood for this noise right now. "Girl!" some woman shouted at her. Kikue looked up searching the person that had called out. "Can't she petching see I'm a woman, not a girl?", she thought angry. "Get out of here before I find out what you're really supposed to be doing right now. All of you." The small woman's eyes fell straight at the one calling out to her like that, but not before she said: "Who the petch......." Her eyes went wide open from the shock. She hadn't expected an Endall to appear right here. "Petch! A shyke Endall..... Why'd it have to appear right now? I really can't have this as well right now." A little reluctant she stood up and picked the small prey of hers up. She closed her eyes as the Endall asked for her name. She slowly closed her eyes and turned her head away, not really wanting to engage a discussion right now. "It's Kikue, Endall.", she replied as modest as she could, just hoping that she could get away form here. "Is there anything bothering you, Endall?", she asked the woman, unintentionally emphasizing 'Endall'. She hadn't intented to sound offensive, but her headache together with her disliking the Endall just let it slip out. "Please leave me alone, I really don't want to get an even bigger headache dealing with some stuck up Endall.". Even though she disliked the Endall a lot, she was at least happy that the crowd was dispersing thanks to her.

[Sairque]

Distracted with the task of getting an entire impromptu market packed up and moved out, the Endal didn’t catch the shirking her new assistant exhibited. Almost loath to rip her eyes off the situation at hand, the authoritative woman finally pierced Kikue with those predatory yellow eyes. “See those miners trying to get through to deliver their goods to the Arms Gallery? I’d like you to help me clear the way for them,” the flight leader proposed, dropping from the side of the fountain with nonchalant grace. “Everyone else should start clearing out and getting back to work if they need to.” A rugged curse from the other side of the impromptu market rang out over the noise. Another set of irritated Endal’s had started screaming for everyone to get out of the way. Good, this shouldn’t take too long. Resituating her ledger beneath an arm, Sai glanced back at her help expectantly.

[Kikue]

Kikue twitched as she felt the glare of the endal on her. She looked at the miners she pointed at and sighed. She dropped her prey again and grumbled: "Petching endal, always stuck up like that." It was a bad habit of her to say her thoughts out loud, but she kept her voice low. Sairque could hear it if she payed attention to it. The small avora stood up and started walking towards the miners, relieved that it wasn't as busy anymore. She was thinking how she could get the miners to get through it easily, without getting herself knocked over as usual. Letting out another sigh, she figured that she had to use her caste for this. "I hate doing this. Couldn't she have picked someone else for the job?" The Avora huntress started to shout to get people out of the way. She had no choice but to follow the order of the Avora and used her caste to get people to move. It was a bit of a comical sight. A small woman shouting at people about a feet longer then her. It wouldn't take too long for people to start clearing the way for the carts.

[Sairque]

Since she was definitely looking right at the girl as she mouthed off, there was no hope of the austere woman missing the comment. Skeletally sharp fingers, a grip like stone wrapped over the petite woman’s shoulder, jerked her around to face Sairque. Coldly displeased with the unprovoked disrespect, Sai calmly cocked back her other hand and drove it into the girl’s cheek. Not only had she been more than pleasant to the girl, she’d refrained from berating her from not knowing any better than to allow lower castes to linger idly at this cluster petch. “Stuck up?” All she’d done was direct the girl to do what she apparently hadn’t had the sense to do herself. “What else would you like to share with me? I’m interested in your thoughts regarding my person.”

[Kikue]

As the small Avora felt the fingers of the Endal wrap around her shoulder, her eyes went wide open in shock. She realized then that she had spoken her thoughts out loudly. "Shyke! I said it out loud.......", she thought as she got jerked around. Her eyes showing that she was a little scared of the Endal right now. Because of the shock, Kikue wasn't able to react at all at the Endal's punch. It connected hard with her cheek, hard enough to knock the small woman down. Her cheek went a little red from the impact. She let out a short yelp as she hit the ground. Even though she didn't like being on the ground, Kikue didn't dare to stand up right now. She didn't want to risk that the Endal would think of her being defiant any more. Casting her eyes downward, the huntress mumbled: "I... I didn't really mean it...... I'm sorry, endal. Please forgive my rudeness." Kikue did her best to sound a little docile, just to try and keep the Endal from punishing her more. "Why do I always have to let the wrong things flap out of my stupid mouth. Look at what shyke I got myself in now.", she cursed herself in her mind.

[Sairque]

An unfriendly, but ultimately apathetic, gaze stared with unwavering mettle into the Avora's submissive eyes. For long moments the Endal waited, staring at the apologetic woman as though she didn't quite know how to react to such a debasing wallowing. "I would like to know what exactly prompted your comment, Kikue. It seems to be as though you have an unwarranted derision for my caste." Sai didn't step back or give any physical cues for the woman to get up, perfectly content to have this conversation with the hunter while she laid on the dirty stone. Someone jostled into her shoulder, and when her eyes returned to Kikue a new irritation flared dangerously in the yellow depths. This whole scene was turning into one big headache, but this little distraction proved a nice side task to wait for those other Endal's to get as much cleared up as they could.

[Kikue]

The Avora's eyes went wide open in shock as she heard her own name. How did that Endal know her name when she hadn't told her yet? She couldn't possibly know the names of everyone here, right? So..... how did she know? The avora couldn't come up with a good reason for that endal to know her name. She hadn't caused any trouble for them yet and it had been a long time since she'd been to the Valintar. Looking up timidly, Kikue winced as she saw the new irritation in Sairque's eyes. "Oh, god..... don't get angry, don't please.", she begged in her mind. But she couldn't let the Endal wait for her reply too long either. Taking a deep breath, she then said timid: "I just have a big headache.... and I take it out on others if I'm not careful. And when I came here in this clusterpetch, it just flared up. I was taking a rest on the edge of the fountain when you ordered me. I wanted to get my prey delivered soon, replenish my rations and go out for a hunt again." The small woman then shifted her body, so she sat on her knees, as if she were a small kid being berated on her behavior. She had told the whole story as far as she thought was necessary and hoped that she'd be let off the hook. "Please... don't order me to help clear up this clusterpetch. I hate having to stand in the middle. Just let me continue with my job and then I won't have to irritate you more then I already have."