Closed Looking for the Antswer

[Ines]

Summer 18th, 519AV
589

Ines knew that in these lands, fire ants were a part of life. One could not both be in Falyndar and not know the taste of a fire ant sting. It was so common that in Taloba, getting stung was nearly an unofficial rite of passage. One could not truly learn to avoid the nest until one felt the pain of disturbing that nest, which led to a common idiom: to step on a fire ant's nest; to learn your lesson.

Myrians were much like fire ants. Aggressive, seeking to drive out competition, and with a painful sting as a reward for disturbing one. They were also versatile, crafty, and resilient, and to earn the ire of the Myrians is to earn your death.

It was for this parallel that the kelvic sought to find for what reason they were suddenly infesting Syka, and for this reason that the girl was naked, lying in the sand and watching them march. Caiyha's blessing awarded her certain benefits, one of which being secure in the knowledge that they would not go out of their way to sting her. If she was messing with them, killing them, playing with their order then she would deserve the bite. If that were her intention, however, she would not deserve it in the first place. She had woken up from her mid-morning nap in the sand after feeling a curious few ants tickle her, but their touch offered no purpose to their tiny invasion of the beach settlement. They instead were more preoccupied with the questions of whether or not the bat was food or a threat. Satisfied in learning that she was neither, they, and the rest of the colony, ignored her.

Ines drifted in thought while staring at them, a finger drawing patterns idly in the sand. She could not remember encountering them on the beach before. It was near rivers, the basin, and the deep, damp, dark, rotting places under logs and stones where they belonged. It was also where she had inadvertently earned their ire, and came home with no small amount of throbbing bumps and pustules waiting to be rubbed with ointments and salves.

The kelvic felt particularly drawn to this task - as recently as she acquired the gnosis, it was never too early to start getting to the bottom of things. From the words of other local denizens, some who had been here for multiple years, this was not a common occurrence and quite distressing. She brought herself back to the present. The status of the ants in this particular trail hadn't changed. She thought that by getting down on their level she'd be able to find out more easily what was either drawing them to Syka or chasing them out of their previous home. Ines now realized that it would be much easier choosing one direction and reaching the source - or destination - rather than staring at the middle.

She decided on the closer locale, the settlement itself, and stood up to better follow the trail that had originally drawn her attention. This was a difficult task when groups merged, and she was quite hunched over as she walked further down the beach so that she could more closely watch them. It had never occurred to her to shake the sand out of her hair, and combined with a face and body flushed and sweaty from the heat and with even more sand stuck to her legs and body, she appeared tremendously disheveled.

[Kamilla]

Kamilla Circe Gordon

"What on Mizahar are you doing!?

Kamilla had been watching the hunched over, naked, sand covered woman inexplicably crawling her way across the beach of the settlement since she'd appeared in the distance and still had absolutely no clue as to what was going on. Finally, her curiosity and annoyance at the absurd behavior had piqued, a familiar itch in the back of her throat urging her forward. Answers were needed.

The naked woman would be greeted by a pair of black thigh high boots blocking her advance and if she were to look upward, her eyes would glide over a short black skirt with lace tail, some tan skin and a purple scarf wrapped tightly around a chest with hands firmly crossed over it. Kamilla's deep brown eyes would be found to be looking directly down on her, long dark waves of her framing an evidently annoyed and confounded face.

Up till the ridiculous woman's appearance in the distance, Kamilla had been casually seated on one of the many free standing beds strewn about the settlement for easy resting, trying her hand at drawing as she'd recalled that it had been something she'd enjoyed... once upon a time. It wasn't going well. After about a bell of attempting to draw the beach and ocean, she'd only gotten as far as drawing what looked like the guidelines of an actual art piece, most of her time spent flicking the annoyingly intrusive ants from the bed and her page until she'd had the last straw and used a tiny burst of wind reimancy to send all the surrounding sand flying up and hopefully send the ants with it.

It had been only moments after that,  as she'd attempted to resume her drawing and caught sight of the obstruction of a naked woman, slowly creeping across what was supposed to be the picturesque landscape she was doing her best to replicate, but failing at.

At any rate, it was now entirely too late to take back her question and Kamilla was left with nothing but curiosity as to exactly who the ridiculous stranger was and what exactly she was doing.

Words: 360

[Ines]

401

By now, Ines had been up and cooled enough by the breeze closer to shore that much of the sand stuck to her body had fallen off. Despite the ambient humidity and full sun, the bat was now fairly comfortable.

The ants she was following had a curious trail, though Ines came to think some chimes later that she may have gotten turned around. She was much further down the beach than she had been before, and in her focus, didn't notice. She also didn't notice the woman, now blocking her path, approach. The bat heard her question, but her harsh arrival crushed a few ants - and disturbed quite a few more, because they now swarmed up her boots.

The kelvic quickly began brushing them off her boots before they reached the intruder's skin. They were fast when they were angry, so there was no guarantee that she got them all, but she then had to refocus her efforts onto brushing the stragglers from herself.

"Do you watch where you are going!?" Ines shouted back. "Do you want to be covered in bumps?" She stood up and stepped away from the trail of ants so she wouldn't accidentally step on them herself. She tucked the hair in her face behind both ears, which more fully revealed the frustration on her face. This woman was either insane or stupid, and either would easily be the death of anyone in the jungle.

"Lucky that we weren't in the wilderness and that you only stepped into a stream and not into a flood." Ines frowned, and then watched the trail of ants. Their presence was so obvious to her, she did not consider that not everyone watched where they stepped. The woman's original question now floated back into the kelvic's thoughts, but she did not quite know how to answer the full intent of her actions, and instead beckoned the woman to follow her.

"I am trying to see why they have come here now, when they have not before." Ines' ambling direction would soon lead them to a veritable mass of fire ants, taking up a patch of the beach very close to the edge of the rainforest and who streamed both into the wilds and out, further into the settlement. "This," the bat would point at the swarm, in case the woman was still not able to notice, "is not normal."

[Torien Encinosa]

It was another bright day on the appreciatively quiet beaches of Syka. Torien was coming from the north towards the area that the duo of women were at. Where tree swings sporadically hung from the heights of trees. Where a few pavilioned cul de sac like structures were large enough to either be suitable to sleep within and make a temporary home from, as well as a few which could be put to use for a group gathering. The shade, always a welcome respite against the suns' heating gaze from above. Such a heated gaze was his to enjoy whilst he jogged. He minded not the darkening of his skin where as some men from other regions were strictly pale and merely reddened. He agreed with others , a time ago, that humans looked better with their skin darkened by the sun. Not entirely to the state of being bronzed, but a caramel, if not tawny and similar colors. It was a healthier aspect to the mind perhaps. Something that lured his eyes to other women as well, for their flesh was similar to his own. None the less, Torien soaked up the rays most willingly in his beginning weeks in Syka. He did so even now whilst he jogged down the beach. He was eager to become as big and strong as the founders of the community, who were like models for him to become an equal to. Yet, he knew it would take time, and more effort than merely laying about on the beach contemplating his existence. Already he had obtained a light sheen of sweat, the sun was scorching, and the work out was already testing his endurance and agilities limit. Something he knew must be remedied as soon as possible before he'd begin trekking too far into the wilds. If he were in hawk form, he could easily fly away from danger, but it would risk losing anything on his person. Thus, it was being considered wiser to be able to run away too, and to do that, he had to ensure he was able to run, fast enough, and long enough to avoid any who would chase him through the woods and put him in unknown peril. Anyways, It was whilst he was jogging that he spied a young woman's' figurine righting herself onto her feet. Where'd she come from? He knew not, but suddenly, she was there, priorly unseen whilst she'd been laying about in the sands. And naked for that matter. Interesting it was, to view a woman without clothing on. He was still young, and had not the opportunity to see a vast array of women without clothing. Thus, his attention was instantly fastened upon her flesh, some of it mind you laden with a layer of the sands she had been prone upon. A recollection of an earlier accomplishment of his own. It was whilst he viewed her, he hoped politely enough not to be considered a complete pervert, that she began moving about, stooping forward and bending this way and the other. It was not hypnotic, or even luring in a sexual manner. For one matter, she did not even have the curves to offer such an innuendo of female companionship. But, if one were a man, and that is all you thought about, then you could very well come to an assumption that she was luring him towards her. Assumptions were terrible things. ‡Needless to say, his jogging allowed him to close the distance faster than walking by double the speed. It was as he began to worry, and found himself discovering beads of anxiety forming in his thoughts about what to do, that a second woman angrily began approaching his target of interest. ‡Well that covered his worries, and any propaganda that she had stood up suddenly now that he was approaching, and began moving in such ill-experienced manners. A perk of a dark brow drew into place as he watched the duo for a few moments as he grew closer and closer. He minded not the view of the beach, or even more, of women on it. He was already in earshot, and eavesdropped on their words. In the background, to his left, the sound of the waves curdling against the short was improved the scene further. ‡He finally drew near enough to join in as the freckles became apparent upon the young woman, freckles in places perhaps that clothing should be concealing as well. He found himself unable to restrain his will or discipline himself from discovering if there were freckles, elsewhere. ‡Yet, if the other woman followed her not, he decided he would as gestures were made to encourage that someone would. It would be something to do at least. If they headed into the trees, perhaps he would be of aid. He began gauging the distance from their position on the beach, to the location in the tree line where his gear was stowed at. Not too far away. But after the short debate on which of the two would be the wiser, he figured the one who now led would not be the sort to go too far into the tree line without proper preparation. It only made sense. But just in case. ‡Like an older brother, his jogging turned into a walk. The heat of his body riddled the air with his exertions to regain his breaths and slow the tempered pacing of his heart back to a normal speed. He wore merely his loincloth, and it's wide flaps of cloth that hung from his waist and his back long enough to conceal his privies. He was not provocatively large enough to be as big as Randal, so he was comfortable enough to not feel too intimidating as he dared to join the group. It though, was beginning to soak up the small amount of sweat that his exercises had begun to release. ‡He though, said not a word, merely followed the women, and enjoyed the view. A keen grin curling upon his lips of perturbed innocence. -‡- Word Count : 996 -‡-

[Kamilla]

Kamilla Circe Gordon

The moment she'd spoken the naked woman was patting urgently at Kamilla's boots, the sudden action startling the mage to the point that she could do nothing but stand there and watch, though she soon realised what the other woman was doing. Deeming the patting beneficial to her own wellbeing, she allowed it, up until the last of the ants was brushed away, making sure to step out of the stream of ants that she'd interrupted after finally noticing them, but despite the woman's assistance, Kamilla felt a sharp stinging prick just beneath the rim of her boot.

Sucking air through her teeth as subtly as she could, Kamilla reached down to pluck and crush the insolent biter between her two fingers, casually discarding its corpse for the rest of its kind to find as a warning, or so she'd like to think. The sting was painful but bearable enough that she showed no real signs of it, still more consumed by her intrigue of the unclothed woman, her frustrated comments ignored by Kamilla who didn't feel the need to warrant them with any sort of answer or reaction... As if she would miss an entire 'flood' of the dammed creatures anyway.

Red lips parted as Kamilla made to repeat her question, her impatience rearing it's head as the itch in back of her throat did the same, but luckily there was no need as the woman finally gave her the answer she was waiting for. The strange women seemed rather distracted by her little investigation, which only intrigued Kamilla more, despite the fact that she hadn't really given the ants much thought at all. Of course she'd noticed the drastic increase in their presence in Syka in comparison to the season before and had heard many a resident complain about it, but that had been as far as her thoughts went. Now, hearing the odd woman say she was trying to figure out why it was happening made her realise that despite being insects, she was right, there must have been some logical cause behind it and now she was curious too.

Deciding she'd follow, Kamilla made to turn around, noticing a man walking slowly in their direction as she did but paying him no mind as she spun about to follow the nude young woman. If he knew to mind his own business, given the slow pace the two women were travelling at due to the odd one's bent over posture, he'd pass by soon enough.

That had been Kamilla's thinking,  but after a chime of following the naked woman at a crawl of a pace and a notable lack of the man passing by, Kamilla began to grow suspicious. Had he simply diverted his course into the jungle? Surely not. Had he turned around? Perhaps.

Unable to quell her curiosity as an ominous feeling began to pull at gdr thoughts, Kamilla cast a very subtle glance behind them and sure enough,  there was the stranger of a man following close behind. What did he want? It had been a chime and he'd said nothing. Something felt off so she cast another subtle glance behind them and, this time, noticed the unsettling smile upon his face,  her face then went to the odd woman's naked bending form and a very different feeling began to overwhelm her.

Spurred on by her emotions, glistening lavender res began to form on the tips of Kamilla's fingers, which she hid by holding her hands in front of her. She had grown up in Sunberth where no woman was ever truly safe, raised on cautionary tales of the dangers all women in the world faced, a very real threat and something to live in fear of, something she had lived in fear of for years being a powerless young girl in a lawless city, but she was not powerless anymore.

By now Kamilla's anger at the thoughts of what the perverted man was doing had heated to twice as much as before, thick viscous lavender res pouring from her lips and into the sand beneath her feet while the res on fingertips of her clawed hands had grown as long as her fingers.

What did this man think? That they would just allow him to stalk after them with a ravenous smirk on his face,  he might as well have been licking his lips at the sight of the poor innocent exposed woman. She would not allow it.

By now her breathing had grown into deep angry breaths, the thoughts of whatever depraved things were probably running through the deviants mind spurring her anger on before she finally spun around, res elongated claws bared and a dark look in her eyes.

She gave no time to react, the moment her eyes had found their target, now even closer to them than before, the spikes of res on all ten of her fingers flew towards him, solidifying into sharp ice on the outsides while maintaining their res cores. "What do you think you're doing?" She did not shout, instead speaking in a low and seething tone as she willed her ice spikes to hover inches from his face, neck and body, one pointed at each of his eyes, some dangerously close to his throat and others aimed at the soft exposed flesh at his sides.

"How long have you been following us? Did you think we wouldn't notice you? Or did you just think we were too powerless to allow it?" At this point it was safe to say that Kamilla had allowed her childhood paranoia to work her up into somewhat of a frenzy. "Well? She taunted, her head tilting to the side as the res that had sunken beneath the earth began to rise from the sand, taking the form of a growing elongated sharp spike of stone pointing right between his legs.

Kamilla had never killed a man before, but she couldn't help but think that it would be so easy to will it at that moment. It might even be enjoyable. The feeling of power was intoxicating and, combined with her anger, it created a very lethal coctail. "At least try and explain yourself." As she poke the shards of ice rattled threateningly.

Words: 1050

[Torien Encinosa]

‡Syka had a reputation for having nude people upon it. Whether it was a particular area of syka closed off from others, or if it was just the small percentage of kelvics who naturally went about clothe less, Torien knew not. Yet, it did indeed fill him with a humorous smirk that he was able to finally follow one about, even if it was for a very short time. ‡It did not take long at all, to him at least, for the other woman to begin to act differently, if not annoyed, at his joining in to the "investigation". He had only over heard the last portions of their conversation, and had grown interested enough to follow for obvious reasons too. Torien did not stick around to voice such to her questions. ‡Instinctively, as soon as Kamilla turned towards him with such uncontrolled malice, he felt he must have been a true and lethal threat if he was instantly attacked merely for the act of following them. Whether it was a perverted act or not. She exhibited a completely different rulebook than the one he was used to. Perhaps her past had a part to it. Perhaps now, there was a man following them, her, who represented some past threat that she could finally eliminate and wreak vengeance upon. Vengeance that so many men in her past so bitterly deserved. And here was one, a stark resemblance that resembled those men she so loathed, one she could kill so easily now that she had grown with such immense power. Power she could punish with her mere fingertips. ‡Torien knew her not, nor was he expecting to be attacked. A greeting and perhaps brief introduction was expected instead. As soon as those shards of res'd ice were sent towards him, he didn't stand there and wait for them to disembowel him. Instinctively, defensively, he twisted out of the way. The air a blur of his movement as his adrenaline took over and threw himself to the ground. Strands of his dark hair whipped around his head, being cleaved and cut into seperating lengths in their movement as they swished against the ice shards that were meant for his head at various angles. ‡As soon as he hit the ground, another object arced from the earth, tearing through the flesh along his still remnant thigh. For the body followed the movement of the hips, the core of the torsos movement. His legs were left in place as he moved to evade, and blood spurted through the air as flesh was lacerated by the biting sting of ice. Ice that perhaps sent spasms through his flesh as the contact froze the separations of skin where it was torn. A double bladed weapon that would do well to protect her companion with ease. ‡Torien was not accustomed to such menace from women. The cloth at his waist flipped through the air as it clung to his hips. His hands hastily dug through the sands to pull himself forwards and prevent himself from falling onto the ground entirely. Still in the mindset to flee, and run for his life, he did just that. The tear in his thigh did not go through it, nor injure the muscles within enough to prevent it from being used. But the blood loss would catch up with him. And the shock of the ordeal would begin to set into his mind in coming moments afterwards. ‡Curses spewed from his chapped lips that were still dried from the vigor's of jogging. Jogging that had worn him out enough where his endurance was not something to rely on. He though, felt himself pumped up on adrenaline, and wanted to be as far away as possible from the two women. Lesson learned. -‡- Word Count : 630 -‡-

[Ines]

wc: 600

Taloba was a very safe place. A city of warriors with a religious decree not to kill each other and where breaking the rules could leave to being ostracized from a society that could hurt as easily as they breathed... For someone born there, like Ines, it was almost an excruciating transition into the "real world". One wouldn't expect a life growing up in such a city to lead to a sheltered life, but the kelvic was also not treated with the same expectations and training as her Myrian kin. She was not adept at fighting, and she had a status relegated to more of an extremely useful pet than anything else. She was willing to work with her clan's charges, and so that was what she did, growing up much too quickly to have ever been taught much more. Perhaps a real Myrian would have been more careful.

So it was no surprise that Ines hadn't noticed the man following them before, especially as she had been much too focused on watching the ants. The two trails of ants had lined up so carefully, marching in parallel, and absorbing the bat's already focused attention. She did notice him, however, after the woman she had originally dragged along for this endeavor started yelling. The kelvic stood up suddenly, her neck snapping to the source of her new companion's enmity - a man, dressed in as little as possible, as befitting the beach on the daytime. She hadn't been able to catch the first words out of her mouth, but she heard the tail end.

Powerless to allow...what? The main was obviously threatened, and an unexpected glint of light led the kelvic to notice the tiny shards of some translucent thing aimed around his body, their sharp tips only visible by Syna's glint. A droplet of something landed on the sand from the spike, and the bat could tell that the material was something very cold. Despite their current residence poking in and around the new arrival, they were coming from the woman beside her, as was the rising spike of earth beneath him. Ines had seen this sort of thing before, but she wasn't familiar with it even remotely. The shards glittered mercilessly around him, nearly perfect in their symmetrical alignment around the sensitive pieces of his anatomy - eyes, neck, sides.

"What..." Her sentence went unfinished as the man lurched and fell, cutting himself and his hair on her supernatural implements and beginning to run away. "just happened?"

Ines reached a hand out to the shards, still floating in their dripping eminence. The kelvic was not old and was not worldly, and she had never seen ice, let alone knew the name. They still hovered in their symmetrical positions, beautiful in their immediately apparent destructive power. She withdrew her hand upon her finger reaching close enough to feel the cold emanate from its surface.

"What did you do?" The ants were forgotten for this moment's new curiosity. The man had run off without a word, and the whole thing had happened much before she had a handle on the situation. "What did he do?"

Ines's confusion turned slowly, cautiously, into awe. "How...did you?" Her hands had made a few half gestures, pointing that soon melted into flailing. She looked back down at the ants, who had paid no mind to the altercation of the much larger creatures.

"We should look around more." The witch looked back down at the rows and swarms of the ants, and she began following their trails into the jungle, determined to finish her original task.

[Kamilla]

Kamilla Circe Gordon

As the man turned to dash off, cutting himself in several spots in the process,  Kamilla found herself both surprised and disappointed. For one, she'd had no intention of actually hurting the man, regardless of how perverted his original goals may have been, unless he had continued to try something after what was clearly a threat. It didn't matter now though, as she watched the man grow smaller with distance, part of her was curious as to whether or not she would be able to hit him with one of her ice spikes from such a great distance. She recalled the little target practice challenge against the warden initiate Keene years ago, his reimancy skill had been far superior to her own back then, something he'd proven by striking a bird with one of his ice projectiles with ease, despite how far up the bird had been. Maybe she'd reached his level? Part of her was tempted to try and the spikes simultaneously pointed themselves in the fleeing deviant's direction, spurred on by her thoughts, but she lowered them a tick later.

Sighing, Kamilla turned to find the naked girl, immediately spotting the confused expression upon her face.  Apparently, the entire situation has gone completely over her head. Perhaps she wasn't the brightest? After all, she was spending her day flowing ants, but, then again, Kamilla had kmowingly chosen to join her, which almost felt worse.

Another sigh escaped the mage's lips as a palm went to gently cup her face, before casually brushing a stray strand of dark hair out of her face, brown eyes setting on the clueless woman. "That man... or boy, has been following us since I started following you, and staring at your bare form..." She let her words linger, hoping that the implication would sink into the naked woman's mind, "... You need to be more careful... or at least more aware of your surroundings."

Whether the woman understood or not, Kamilla was unsure, but it seemed that the moment had passed and now she was far more interested in the floating icicles, closely inspecting one of them. She sighed once again, wondering what kind of childhood would leave someone as seemingly naive as the woman was, a familiar curious itch in her throat making itself known once again, "... I just scared him off with a little magic... you can take that icicle." As she spoke, Kamilla release her grip on the rest of the floating ice spikes, leaving them to form harmlessly to the sand except for the one the bare woman was inspecting. She'd wait until the woman either took hold of the icicle or chose to leave it behind before transmuting it's internal res to ice as well.

And, just like that,  the woman's attention had returned to the ants and their behaviour,  with a curious Kamilla following close behind. "I'm Kamilla by the way, what about you? Where do you come from?" She was genuinely interested, to the point that she was just itching to know about the woman and her origins.

Words: 518

[Ines]

wc: 532

Ines nodded, realization setting in. She had heard of this happening to members of her clan, being unknowingly stalked by Dhani for a purpose unrelated to death. Herbs were known to help with pregnancies resulting from assault and rapes, but some women didn't take them and carried the child to term. Such a thing was nearly unheard of between Myrians, however, as it was an easy way into getting a man's bits cut off and then left to bleed out in the dirt. It had never occurred to her something similar, or an attempt of something similar, would ever happen to her. The kelvic thought herself much too small and thin to ever inspire such an act.

Ines took the shiny icicle, as the woman called it, into her hand. It was much colder than anything else she had felt before, and was quickly melting into water in the combination of her grip and Syna's light. She muttered "Interesting..." before licking the water left in her palm after it melted. The bat looked back up at the woman. Magic was in Taloba, but it wasn't usually practiced in her clan or her family. "That is scary, but interesting."

A debt that the witch had not realized that the woman, Kamilla, had incurred was now paid off. "Thank you for protecting me, Kamilla." She held up the index finger of each hand next to each other, and wiggled one of them with the statement. "I protected you before," She now wiggled the other finger, "So we have now helped each other." The kelvic wrapped the two fingers together for a few ticks, and then dropped her hands entirely.

As she resumed following the ants, she started answering Kamilla's questions. "I am Ines, of the Ivory Tusk. I come from Taloba." After about a chime of going into the jungle, the kelvic realized that she should find someone else to guide them further. The witch was safe from animals, but that was hardly the most dangerous thing in Falyndar. They were in the thin parts of the jungle, the beach itself still visible, and she abruptly turned around, following the ant trail back to the sand. "We should find someone to come with us, unless you know how to navigate better than me?"

"Where are you from, Kamilla? Do you have a clan somewhere else?" She posed back to the woman, who may have been able to pass as Myrian herself if she dressed and acted differently. "I am not really Myrian myself, but I grew up with them. I never left Taloba, really." The kelvic shrugged. "I had never seen an icicle before, either." Living in Syka was learning experience after learning experience. She had no idea that she didn't know so many things, and the number was quickly outpacing the new things she was learning.

"Have you had to deal with strange men often, Kamilla?" Ines's thoughts returned to the earlier situation. "In Taloba, if a man starts thinking with the wrong head..." The bat mimed a snipping motion and hoped to get her point across. "I think you were ready to do the same thing, if he did not run away."

[Kamilla]

Kamilla Circe Gordon

Interesting.

Dark brows furrowed together. It had not been the response Kamilla had expected after explaining to her what the man's nefarious intentions may have been, but then the naked girl didn't seem to respond to anything the way she'd expected. She was curious about what exactly the odd woman found so interesting about the ordeal, but decided not to question it any further. Thankfully, despite not showing any real signs of it, the woman at least acknowledged that it was a 'scary' situation, yet still interesting. "Well, just try and be more careful from now on." Kamilla added, waving her hand dismissively, wanting that portion of their discussion to be over.

She'd thought the ordeal was behind her, but apparently the other woman had other plans, telling Kamilla that they were now even. Once again the mage frowned in confusion. How on Mizahar were they even?.. The ants!? She was amazed. It seemed this woman really did have no concept of urgency. Protecting someone from the horrors of a man was worlds above dusting a few ants off of someone's boots, though the bite she'd received did still sting and she was glad there hadn't been more.

Another sigh.

She supposed it didn't matter, as long as she wasn't indebted to the woman in either of their minds, Kamilla didn't really care. Besides, it seemed that trying to talk logic with the naked woman would be more effort than its worth. "I guess so..."

Just like that, their hunt for the source of the fire ants was back on, the entire ordeal with the man seemingly discarded in the sand and finally Kamilla was given a name with which to identify the nudist.  Ines... of The Ivory Tusk? From Taloba? It was an odd title and she'd never heard of this Taloba place... the itch in the back of her throat urged her to ask more about the woman and her past, but Kamilla new better than to indulge it by now, it only got worse the more she entertained it. She'd learned that much throughout the season.

Doing her best to supress the urge to learn more about the woman, Kamilla remained silent, following close behind Ines until they'd begun to enter the first line of foliage separating the beach from the jungles. She was uncomfortable with this development, but the naked Ines didn't seem to notice. "Uh, should we really be heading in..." but before she could finish the thought, the strange woman abruptly turned around and over back towards the beach, having seemingly realised the same thing. "I agree. I've had some... bad experiences in the jungle already. Also, you might want to cover up more." Ines was afterall, stark naked, while the jungle was full of intrusive plants and animals.

Having seemingly avoided another perilous venture into Syka's horrid jungles, Kamilla let out an inaudible sigh of relief... and then the questions began. "Zeltiva..." she lied, though she was beginning to wonder if it still counted as a lie even though it's what she'd told everyone for the past seven years and there was no one alive who could protest. "... and no uh, clan." The itch in her throat flared once again hearing a bit about Ines' own origins.

Next came a question about strange men. Had she been forced to deal with many strange men in her life? Certainly,  just not strange in the way the nudist meant. "Not really, but I was taught to be cautious." An understatement as a young woman growing up in Sunberth, "Though if he'd persisted, I just might have." The thought of enacting her own justice through use of her reimancy brought a small smile to Kamilla's face.

There was a brief moment of silence following her answer,  in which the itch made itself known, the familiar temptation of curiosity urging Kamilla's lips to part. "Uh, Ines... tell me about your life in Taloba." She needed to know about this place that had no icicles. She only hoped that she'd sounded natural and not overly inquisitive.

Words: 691