The Bracken Woods vii: curses

for @Delight? no pressure, know you're busy! but maybe they can have that convo about gender we discussed a while ago :)

 

for all intents and purposes, she was a member of this sanctuary. their border scent cloaks her pelt. she still fraternizes with their members (the women, of course). she contributes, if only a marginal amount, to their caches.

but it is in name only that Kaali has any allegiance to this place. truly, she hates it.

she hates the near-sighted choice she made when she dropped everything to follow Olive and Seabreeze. she could have stayed with the girl in the mountains, she could have continued her quest around the wilds, picking off victims when she could;

she could have fucked off until winter, and it would be comparable to this.

but now she was duty-bound to this place, and to the white priestess she'd silently sworn allegiance too. every morning, she curses herself for it. for falling head-over-heels so easily, with any pretty face and soft voice she encounters. she curses her soft heart for opening so readily to her sisters.

and she curses the men who run this place--

for without their presence, she would be content. just she, Olive, Seabreeze, and the babes.

their odorous presence here clouds every moment of her existence, and she fantasizes about slaughtering them when they sleep. if only the women she loves could live with that chaos--could welcome it, instead of the wrath they'd surely incur upon Kaali.

she curses them, too, for their ready acceptance of their saviors captors.

SQUEALS YES TY, tag for ref!

it has been some time since the androgyne stole away by himself. not because he has outgrown such petty ventures but because there is simply no time, between his children, between alarian. but seabreeze's arrival and zamael's disappearance have shook loose some feelings in him he has not had a chance to process -- and so he lets himself retreat, giving @Alarian notice (after their last conversation on running off he's not about to be a hypocrit). 

delight does not go far, submerging into the woods that remind him, a touch ironically, of the sweep. sometimes he wonders what would life be like if he'd not moved them from the forest, or if he'd moved them but not so far, stayed within the comfort of the tuktus. would he have his children still? would that be a bad thing? (he wouldn't have alarian and that would be a bad thing, so.)

the woods are not empty -- again he remembers the sweep -- he does not mean to trail her but it does not take long for their paths to cross, the chancellor recognizing her as the third woman who arrives with his seabreeze. he hasn't seen much of her but he has not seen much of anyone outside of his children and partner. chuffing softly to alert her to his presence delight draws into view, curious but hesitant.

she smells him before she hears him, wheeling as he makes the sound of greeting. her emerald eyes cut through the dim light of the forest like far-off twin lighthouses--

are they a warning? or a signal, to come into the shore's embrace?

"yes?" Kaali asks tersely, not at all her usual poetic, graceful self. why should she be? now that she has made a home here, and endeared herself to olive and friends, this man is off-limits. for some reason or another, the women had chosen to lean on this pack ruled by masculinity.

she cannot take his blood today, and she hates him for it.

he does not know her well enough to know if her short response is reaction to him or how she is in general -- but given how quickly she'd fled from their borders at their first meeting, he does wonder. delight makes no move closer to her, sitting instead. his ears draw forward, curious, any real pretense of authority thoroughly abandoned. 

"sorry," the chancellor offers reflexively. he pauses a moment, trying to think of what exactly he wants to ask. "i wanted to -- um, are you doing okay?"

Kaali laughs, an acidic sound that sizzles on the faint breeze that passes between them.

"that's a funny little word, 'okay,'" she remarks, giving the slightest roll of her verdant eyes. "everyone's idea of okay is different. i suppose, by some definition. . .yes, i am okay." the words tumble out of her mouth, soft and bitter.

her modus operandi is her shelter, her safe space. here, with this man she is not allowed to touch, she feels vulnerable, exposed. she. . .

she cannot feel his heartbeat, smell the musk beneath his chiseled jaw. this is the closest she can come to the man without destroying him, ruining her reputation here for good. she will have to flee, she cannot stay--

"can i help you?" she asks, cool tone at odds with the blood in her eye.

ah. maybe she is just like that. her passive-aggressive ire does not rankle him -- queenie was for a time his best friend and he himself is no stranger to cynicism. still it does not help him here. what is he even doing here? clearly she doesn't want him to pry. but she's part of the sanctuary, so it's kind of his job to pry, he reasons. 

(he's nosy. it's established.)

"fair enough," he murmurs, shrugging, "you seem.. unhappy. but you haven't left, so -- i guess i'm curious. how did you meet seabreeze?" why are you staying around? he leaves unsaid, but the implication is obvious -- to him at least. seabreeze and olive are a unit (something he has yet to find the opportunity to tease seabreeze about) with their children. kaali is: who? a stranger, lover, friend? delight can't tell. but boy if he isn't going to try to learn.