Cerulean Cape and you extend your hand

sorry for the wait bb!

they've gone far enough from drageda's borders that the redhead is beginning to feel a touch anxious. they haven't been away for long, and she's happy to be with @Furi, but she takes her duties as gona seriously and, well, she's a homebody at heart.

still - it's nice to see furi having fun, so blix doesn't say anything yet. they're probably almost done anyway. surely? surely. and she has to admit the beach down here is beautiful as she trots ahead a little bit for once, curious about the collection of tiny sea critters she's never seen before. amber eyes land on a large-ish spidery looking thing. intrigued, the girl approaches and carelessly goes to bump it with her nose, only to be met with the sharpest sting of pain she's ever felt. 

yelping, blix falls back upon the soil, the crab's claw firmly grasped around the tender flesh of her young nose. "augh, kom of! jok!" she swears, batting at her fiercely determined foe as she writhes in the sand, all dignity long since gone.

This time Blixen had taken the initiative to explore ahead of her though they’d been here before. It does not bother her any more than it would to be away on her own accord but after a little while on her own, as most of their separation goes, Furi gets a little bored and antsy and she swiftly latches on to the freshest trail of her friend to find her sitting in the sand up ahead. She hears her shout, but they are words she doesn’t know but they get Furi into gear and she rushes up to see her friend battling against something attached to her face.
 
Furi’s eyes widen as she circles around to her front and she doesn’t know what to do. “What are you doing?! What is that?” She feels the instinct to try and pull it off and save Blixen but she doesn’t know where to begin… or even what it is and so she stands there, dumbly, waiting for instruction.

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the blasted sea-demon is relentless - she rolls and shakes but it does not budge, clacking its other claw at her threateningly. blix is on her back when her friend arrives, still swatting at it helplessly, and she cries, "furi! em na nou sen klir --" too frazzled to remember to make the switch from trig.

after a few more seconds of struggle the gona goes limp, whining against the futility of her fight again this horrible creature's grasp on her. she looks at the crab. the crab looks at her menancingly and clicks its claw again. her nose hurts. "h-help me pull it off," she says finally, taking a deep breath to calm herself, and finally looks over at her friend, eyes fierce.

Blixen is flailing this way and that, rolling in the sand, and Furi wants to help! She doesn’t know where to grab or what to do and mostly she’s afraid she’ll do more damage or hurt herself. There isn’t anyone else around to offer help, either, because she’s looked over her shoulder a time or two and up ahead as well and there isn’t anyone. The girl calls to her, though, but speaks in the tongue she does not understand and Furi whines, awkwardly dancing on her paws as she moves to one side, hoping to find something to do that will help.
 
Instead, the other gona falls still on the ground and looks up at her, asking her help. She looks defeated in this moment and Furi frowns, stepping closer. Without all the flailing she can kind of see what she needs to do but she’s afraid if she grabs any part of it, it’ll equally pinch at her. “O-okay,” she says tentatively, lowering her nose for a better look. The body is wide enough that she’s able to put her whole paw on it, but not without the other pincher coming for her toes. Furi yelps with the sudden assault, drawing her foot back instantly, this time with the crab attached to her toe instead of Blixen’s nose.

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"ah!" blix cries triumphantly as the sharp pinching claw is torn from her nose - ow it still stings but definitely not as bad. she springs to her feet, ready to thank furi, only to see that the detestable sea demon has grabbed hold of her dear friend's foot in lieu of her face. "foto kripa," she growls at it, then lifts her gaze to her friends face. "how do we kill it?" she asks, hoping furi, being the more worldly of the pair, has some experience with these sea demons. the gona growls slightly as she circles the crab, just out of reach of its pinching claws but ready to dive in and crush it in a moment's notice.

Furi doesn’t have time to try and figure out what Blixen said—again in the other language—before she asks about how to kill it. Her only concern is in the moment is getting the thing off her foot. It hurts, pinches, and she’s worried he’ll tear her skin, skin that hasn’t fully healed from all the biting and scratching and chewing. In an effort to free herself, she shakes out her paw with little success, glancing at Blixen as she stands and braces herself, shaking her paw with vigor this time until it flings off her toes and several feet away in the sand. Part of her doesn’t even want to go after it after it begins to scurry (luckily away from them) but she does move a little closer to try and figure it out. “Maybe we should leave it alone?”

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blixen dips low to the ground, red-ticked hackles raised and teeth curled in a quiet but insistent growl as she watches the demon - watches furi shake the demon off her paw (a little annoyed she couldnt do that so easily) and send it flying into the sand. furi says something - suggests leaving it alone - but blix does not pay her mind, jumping after it with intent to kill.

but she hesitates as she's about to close her jaws around it and the crab flails, snapping threateningly. startled, the gona falls back and watches as the menancing creature throws itself into the sand and scurries away. "stupid demon," she mumbles, flopping over onto her side to look at her friend piteously. "is my nose bleeding?"

Furi isn’t sure whether or not Blixen hears her or ignores her because she jumps after the crab, snapping her teeth but she’s quick to retreat back and leave it alone. On another day it would amuse her something so small manages to survive two wolves but right now she isn’t sure what to do with it or about it. They don’t even know what it is and maybe that’s all she needs to leave it alone, especially since it’s already proven hostile.
 
She hadn’t realized at first her paw still lingered in the air except for the throb where the claw had attached. There’s a small puncture on the inside of her toe that she quickly licks at until Blixen pulls her attention away. Carefully, she sets her paw down in the sand and turned to look at her leathery nose. “A little,” she says and, without thinking, leans in and laps at the front of her muzzle to wipe away the blood.

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furi says a little, and then leans in, and wait what is she doing --

blix starts a little, surprised, as her heart skips a beat in her chest. and then feels incredibly silly because it's just a lick, and that's a normal thing between friends, especially given the circumstances. blushing incredibly red under her gingery pelt, the gona scratches at the ground and sheepishly says "chof." 

awkwardly the girl shuffles, looking down at furi's gingerly-held paw. "is your foot okay?" she asks, but doesn't give furi time to answer before adding, "i think i'm ready to go home.."

Furi does not register at first that Blixen is startled. There’s a slight withdrawal but the deed is done and she pulls back, glancing her over and realizing her new demeanor is a little different. She offers what she assumes is a thank you and nods, smiling a little, and feeling a wave of warmth in her own cheeks. The action had been more intimate than anything they’ve done before but it’s over and she tries to move on, listening as her companion announces she’d ready to go home. She only nods a little to the original question but shrugs it off—it’ll be fine eventually.

“Me too,” she tells her with a thump of her tail though she doesn’t move to stand and leave. They are tired and run down and Furi wants to curl up and go to sleep, feeling a little agitation from being on the go for the last several days. She has enjoyed their time exploring and has run into their own number of others but it will be better when they are home.

After a moment, Furi clears her throat and shifts awkwardly on the soft sand. “Will you… uh, will you teach me some of the words from the language you speak?” she asks, ears falling back with mild embarrassment. A part of her feels she should already know it but the logical part slips through, reminding her that it’s not possible for her to have known, just as Blixen wouldn’t know the language of her mother (or father, but that is irrelevant since she does not know it either). “I guessed chof means thank you?”

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a wave of relief hits her as furi agrees -- part of her had been worried her friend would be upset with her for pushing to go back too soon or something. and, well, she does have a history of putting her foot in it with the silvery-dark girl, though why she doesn't know. feelings are not her forte.

blixen has already turned and started the walk home when furi asks her about her language. surrounded as she's been her whole life by wolves who speak it, sometimes she forgets her friend wouldn't know it. looking over her shoulder with a smile, she chuffs an agreement. "'course," she says, "and yep, chof means thank you." the ginger pauses, waiting for furi to fall into step with her and asks, "d'you have anything specific you wanna know?" still smiling.

She doesn’t expect to leave right away after all the commotion that just happened but her agreeance seems to give Blixen enough motive to do just that. It takes a few seconds for Furi to register she needs to move along but at the same time, the girl agrees to teaching her. She’s never learned a language other than the ones her parents spoke to her, and it has been a long time since she’s been exposed to anything remotely related to her mother. That one blip with the ghost-like creature had been the last and she isn’t so sure she knows enough to be useful. It’s irrelevant in Drageda, it seems, because they speak their own tongues too.
 
Once she’s caught up and side by side with her friend, she hums to herself in consideration. “What’s nomi?” she asks. “You use it a lot.” There is never enough context to figure it out, or to be sure, especially when she doesn’t know as much as maybe she should.

169

furi follows her (of course) and blix resumes walking, just so very pleased to be heading home. her nose still smarts and she'll probably have a little nick in it for the rest of her life. stupid kripa. 

for some reason blix is surprised that furi asks about the word nomi. she'd assumed it was obvious, but -- "mother," she explains. "heda is my nomi, my mother. we don't use it for mother because that'd get super confusing," she adds, emphasizing 'mother' to mean wildfire (and completely oblivious to the idea that furi might not have realised she has two mothers). the ginger hums, looking ahead and trying to think of some other common phrases. "sha means yes, hei is hi - though i guess that one's kind of obvious.." she glances at furi, curious to see if she's following along or not.

“Oh,” she says before she really understands. A few seconds later, oh.

Blixen has two mothers.

Furi doesn’t know much about the reproductive system of wolves but for some reason it still surprises her. Through Witchbaby, she learned it was possible to like another girl, but the idea they could have families hadn’t occurred to her. If they can like one another, then why not? She glances away from the fiery girl and looks to the ocean, processing the meaning of nomi far more deeply than necessary, missing most of what she says next. At least they’re easy words she already figured out. 

After a moment, she realizes there’s been a long pause and she swings her head back, mouth agape as she tries to think of the first thing that comes to mind. “Uhhh…” Her cheeks burn. “How do you say my name is Furi, who are you?”

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eventually the ginger glances at her friend, curious about her long pause. "what?" she asks, confused. even if furi somehow hadn't known about nomi and mother - well, it wasn't like, weird or anything. no on in drageda made a big deal about it and no one'd said anything at redhawk caldera either so as far as blix knew, two women having a family together is the norm in the teekons. 

furi asks her a different question and blix lets it go easily with a shrug. "hm," she says - she's not usually translating this way around and it takes her a minute to put it together. "ma tag in furi, chon yu bilaik?" she tells her slowly, careful to enunciate the words so that furi can better hear them. "and then i'd say, ai laik blix, ai'm yo lukot." she grins playfully, leaving it untranslated for furi to puzzle out.

Furi shrugs off any attempt for elaboration. She has plenty on her plate to sort and categorize before she makes any attempts at explaining it to Blixen. It might not be a good idea to ever bring it up, anyway. 

For the time being, she focuses on the new task at hand. She listens to the words spoken to her, trying to keep up as Blixen continues without giving her a chance to try. “Ma tag in Furi, chon what?” The words are simple on their own but stringing them together feels like stumbling through mud. It’s clunky and it’s not smooth like the common or tundrian tongues. It shouldn’t be too hard, though, as most words she’s able to determine what she means by tone and the fact some of them sound like words she does know. 

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she grins when furi repeats what she's said. her pronunciation isn't perfect but it's pretty close, and it's not exactly a difficult language anyway. "yu bilaik," the gona repeats, her tail wagging. "stanop," blix praises, "good."

She doesn’t realize Blixen has already tried to quiz her once so when it happens again, Furi swings her head to look at her friend. The repeats over and over in her head, one word slightly different than the previous one, as she tries to find the right pronunciation, but she isn’t certain and it no longer sounds real in her head. “Stand up?” she questions with a quirk of brow and slight tilt of her head, something rather comical despite the stress riding heavy behind her mask. Trying to separate from the last revelation has done enough to throw her off and she straightens back out, moving clunky through the sand. After a second, she realizes the translation quickly followed and she shakes her head, hoping to ward off any obvious embarrassment. “Right.”

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"oh, I guess it does kinda sound like that," she says. a lot of words in trig sound fairly similar to their common counterparts, or to common phrases, but blixen has never thought too deeply about it. she's not a linguist. "chon yu bilaik?" the ginger asks her lightly, seeing if she's retained it yet (and mostly just enjoying the company as they head back home).

Furi smiles when Blixen realizes it but she does not say it again for her to try. Her cheeks still feel warm from a moment before so she doesn’t say anything, and instead listens when Blixen offers something else in return. What she said earlier, what she asked to be translate, and her tail swishes. “Furi!” she chirps, though a beat later she wonders if she’s supposed to say the meaning. Trying to brush it off, she wags her tail and sticks with it, though slightly worried she’d gotten it wrong.

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she grins, bumping her shoulder against furi's playfully. "sha," she says with a wag of her tail, and the rest of the walk back to drageda is filled with blixen explaining more phrases until furi grows tired of it.