Barrier Gulch [m] Asp

if things were chaotic by qiao's estimation, they got a whole lot uglier.

new faces; a man who was all teeth, shoving others aside.

qiao stood out of close range, waiting for the dust to settle.

is this what the dead felt like, while rabbling squawks of carrion-birds bickered for the choicest bit of organ?

something shifted in the first man -- he was almost begging. but it was the rudeness of the jodai that caused qiao's eyes to widen in scarcely disguised fury. it was the rest of them that demanded the fallen woman's space and crowded them! did they not see they interfered with progress?

and the woman! delusional with blood and child-loss. i am not dying, so you all can go fuck off with your lives now. qiao's lips twisted, bemused by the small flame of life within eset.

another arrived, bearing a gift so sweet, even death would smile fondly. qiao apprised him for a long moment, measuring the knowledge in his gaze and the strange torc around his throat. he brought death in that floral offering — and she wished for him to see she knew this communicated by the cold glitter in her eyes.  

in the end, between the jodai's egregious insult and her absolute irritation with the men that only served to muck up a shit situation further, qiao briefly entertained the sable man's offer. it would serve all but the dying woman right.

would they know?

i believe unless a single one of you is a healer, that it is you all that must give me space. qiao inferred calmly, though a gleam of some ugly emotion simmered behind her tone.

she took the flower, but did not employ it. she could do many terrible things with that flower, but not today.  now, would one of you kindly take this to the nearest spring -- she bent her head so the peltskin slipped from her skull. unfurling its contents, qiao nosed the dessicated moss ball towards the group. and bring it back here, sopping? which of them would volunteer, if any?

moreover, why were they now detaining one of the men? qiao looked to each of them in utter disbelief, about to take jasper up on his offer if it meant they'd learn a lesson about their own sheer stupidity.