The day was a cloudy day, and yet, a day full of anticipation for Kira. Her shoes crunched the dead leaves beneath her feet as she made her way towards the patch of land next to the butte. She'd set up a training dummy there because of the fresh air and the open space. Something she was grateful for. Someone with her condition needed to fight and practice in optimal conditions.
The giddy female arrived in front of the butte, her long blue strands flowed behind her. Kira was dressed in a short white skirt with blue stripes, dark grey boots and her usual armor top. The breast area was covered in metal for both protection and comfort while the rest flew easily under the influences of the wind.
With a quiet huff, Kira climbed the butte to find her dummy sitting there waiting for her. She set her pouch down, near a patch of grass and stood in front of her practice. With great flexibility, Kira managed to score the dummy on its neck. The body rattled, remind her that the crafter who had made it for her filled the dummy with several pieces of metal. They were meant to represent human bones. In fact, it hurt a little.
Kira was sadly out of practice and continued on attacking. A kick there. A punch there. A round about kick there. A stab there. A headbutt here.
It was tiring and after a moment, the warrior flopped near her patch with her long strands coating the ground. She reached inside her pouch and pulled out a small container of water which she quickly drowned. Her blue orbs stared up into the cloudy skies, at least it would rain today. Kira loved the rain but sadly could not spend too much time playing in it.
Why was Joseph, a Mender, a man who is usually in the solaris camp taking care of wounder hunters and sick people all the way out here in the middle of nowhere? The answer is, he was exploring. One thing that Joseph fears as a Mender is the coming of an epidemic infecting the the whole clan, in order to cure the epidemic medicine is needed and if the clan were to expand itself then more medicine would be necessary. Though the Fushe area provided enough berries and herb to treat the clan, but you can never be to sure of when you may need an extra supply, especially with the goddess they have.
Joseph knew that this type of job is usually left to the hunters, but being in the camp every hour of every single day can drive anyone mad, so Joseph had to go out. He expected no danger but just in case brought a small knife inside his brown colored bag. This bag also contained a notebook with writing utensils, a container of water and a pair of scissors just in case he saw any interesting plants. He wore his usual casual clothing of short white pants with red lines in the bottoms, a short sleeve white shirt with some red circles as designs, a pair of old boots, and a pair of gloves which he wore almost all the time since he has been working around poisonous things for so many years, it was normal for him to wear them everyday.
After hours of walking Joseph had made a few scribbles in his notebook about a couple of isolated berries and herbs but none in abundance to help in an emergency. It was at this moment that he reached the butte, which marked the middle point between the solarisclan and lunarisclan. He decided to climb the butte to look at the area and have a better grasp of where everything is. So with a couple pulls and lifts Joseph began to climb the butte. It was at midway that he realized just how out of shape he was, if he wanted to climb buttes and mountains he could have joined the hunters, but he knew his strength and stamina were never his strong point. But somehow he made it to the patch of grass at the top as he rolled over the edge of the butte and was lying on the ground looking up at the sky. Taking a couple huffs of air he looked to his side and saw that the grass turned from green to a blue. It took a moment for Joseph to realize that it was not grass but hair, hair that belonged to beautiful girl lying with eyes just as blue as her hair. For that moment Josephs mind went blank not knowing which words to say...
After resting for a few minutes, Kira realized the clouds were getting thicker and lightning was rumbling in the dark skies. It would rain soon, quite unfortunate actually. Now her training session was cancelled in advanced.
In mid though, Kira heard grunts of effort coming from the edge of the butte. Not too long after, a stranger lunged in front of her. His eyes were staring straight at her and yet he was not saying anything.
Uncomfortable, Kira frowned and began to stand. After several moments of silence, a smile spread across her lips. Her slender fingers were extended towards him, "Need a little help there?"
Her eyes quickly darted towards his raiment and belongings, he held a bag in his possession. It seems to her that it held mender items, only they would carry such a large bag.
Kira wondered why this person was here, the butte rarely contained herbs. Plus, this man was surely a Solarisclan mender, as his face was not familiar in the slightest. A frown made her way to her brow, why was a Solarisclan mender in Otero? This close to the Lunarisclan border.
"Are you alright?" She asked after noticing that he was still staring without words and her hand was still extended to help him up, she felt like an idiot. Kira hoped he would accept her hand soon.
The girl in blue began to speak to him, but he did not register the first sentence. It was only after she stood in front him extending a helping hand that Joseph realized how dumb he must be looking right now. "Y-Yes. Thank you." Joseph said as he took her hand and pulled himself up.
It was only after he stood up that he was able to avert his eyes from this woman's face, he then noticed her clothing and the metal plate that covered her bust area, meaning she was most likely a warrior. Joseph has known many warriors from the solarisclan treating wounds and everything and he was sure he would of remembered a girl like her, so it possible that she came down from the lunarisclan. It was then that Joseph noticed the sparring dummy on the other side, which just helped to reafirm that she was a warrior.
After doing a quick scan of the area Josephs eyes returned to the girl standing and was one again awestruck by her beauty, but this was no time to be mesmarized, he had to say something. "Umm I did not expect to see anyone up here." Joseph said as he awkwardly scratched his cheek with his index finger. Never had he felt so awkward while talking to a girl. Joseph hoped to at least learn the name of this woman before the rain caught up to them.
((Do remember that Lunarisclan and Solarisclan are names, not nouns. Putting 'the' in front of it would be grammatically incorrect.))
After helping him up, thankful that the mender accepted rather quickly.
Kira smiled lightly, watching as the stranger in front of her fumbled with words and actions. The warrior began wondering if something was wrong with him but decided to ignore the thought.
At his next comment, Kira nodded, "That's right. I was not expecting anyone either." She motioned towards the dummy, "I was just training up here."
After a moment of silence, Kira walked towards the dummy and began to dissemble it. "It's going to rain soon so I might as well take it down now. What brought you here?"
Kira had half a thought to ask for a sparring match but he was a mender, they weren't always the best fighters.
Joseph was relieved after seeing her show a slight smile, she looked more pretty when she smiled. "Training? So I was right, you are a warrior and by the looks of it not from solarisclan." Joseph said motioning to the fact that she was lunarisclan, though since the clans were no longer at war it did not bother him. "Well it's always nice to see a new face." Joseph said with a big smile in his face.
Joseph looked up at the sky the moment the woman said it was gonna rain and then noticed she asked a question of her own. "I'm just doing some scouting, exploring the area trying to find any new herbs and berries outside from the usual spots. And well you know walking is some good exercise to stay in shape." Joseph said as he puts his hands together and stretched them over his head trying to show off a bit.
Noticing the stanger had started to dismantle the dummy Joseph realized he had be more a gentleman and offer a hand. "Do you need some help with that?"
Kira nodded, this was nice. This was how things should be, the two clans greeting each other with friendly expressions, not planning on murdering families. Maybe DaiFuyu was being too skeptical about the whole thing.
"Yeah, I'm from Lunarisclan and a warrior obviously." She laughed again, at how awkward that sounded. With a shrug, the warrior replied, "Yeah I guess so."
"It's a little strange that you would venture all the way out here for that. The butte rarely has any herbs to mess with unfortunately, you wandered here by yourself."
The cloth holding the dummy in place was not cooperating, causing it to tangle into a mess. This was a lot harder than she expected. When the crafter set this practice dummy here, Kira watched and it didn't seem all that hard. Pull here, stretch there, pull here again. It made sense but now that she was undoing it, the dummy was not as easy to dessemble as she thought. With a scoff and a sigh, Kira began losing hope before hearing the mender behind her offer his assistance.
"Uh..." She trailed, pushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear, "Yeah, thanks. It looked a lot easier when the crafter was doing it..." Kira stared above at the darkening skies and blinked as a drop of rain sunk on her eyelashes. Then another drop. And then another. "May be a little too late for that..."
Her eyes quickly scanned the area, wondering where they could hide shelter but one bad thing with Otero is that there were no trees except for the ones closer to Solarisclan. In another situation, she would have quickly sought refuge there but with a Solarisclan member here, Kira wasn't too sure if she could just walk there unscathed. Not like he seemed frightening but you never knew...
"Well I didn't really come up here for herbs, I came to see the view for the first time. It's a shame that the rain clouds wont let me gaze upon it more. But just between you and me I prefer cool rain over hot sun." Joseph said with a light chuckle as he made his next to the pretty warrior to help her undo the training dummy.
With a couple of pull of tugs on the training dummy Joseph realized this wasn't ass easy as it seemed. But step by step the two of them were able to carefully dismantle the dummy. "I'll give it to your crafter, he make some good sparring dummies." Joseph said as they finished putting the dummy away. At that moment Joseph began to feel some light rain hit it's back, a sign that he should make his was back to camp or at least to the forest, but that would mean he would have to say goodbye to this Lunarisclan member and that was something he didn't want to do yet. He needed an excuse to talk to her for a bit longer and then he heard her say an unfinished sentence.
"Was there something else you were planning on doing up here?" Joseph asked like he was offering his assistance. With this he may be able to learn more about their neighboring clan and creating a healthy relationship between clans can drastically help development of new ideas and practices to so they can both have better lifestyles.
"I assumed the rain would begin pouring in several hours, maybe even after sundown. I thought I would have time to go back to my den area and invite another warrior to spar with me." The rain, as though in response to her plans, picked up its force. The wind practically knocked Kira off her feet, though she caught herself. This was a storm, not just any rain.
Kira motioned towards a set of trees that could provide shelter. "Let's go there for a few moments?" She asked before jumping off the butte, landing in a crouch. After a few minutes, she arrived underneath the branches of the tree. The rain droplets were still able to reach them, but not as much.
This was an issue however, Kira could get sick really easily if she were unable to get home. The rain could seep through her pores, cooling her body to a temperature that could be dangerous. To others, it would induce a shiver, to Kira it could induce a fever or worse, an infectious disease.
Feeling the heavy weight of her hair, which was full of water, Kira began wringing the strands. Sounds of water splashing onto the grass was muffled by the sounds of thunder. Her hands traveled from her scalp to the ends of the strands, noticing she had a few edges that could be trimmed but nothing too drastic. The towel inside her pouch was quite moist, the rain was able to seep through, however, it could provide some sort of warmth for the warrior. She quickly set the towel on her shoulders and looked over at her companion, at least for the time being.
"Are you alright? You might want to wring your clothes since you could get sick..." Kira trailed, forgetting that he was a mender. In a state of confusion and embarrassment, Kira laughed and face-palmed. "Well you would know that, after all, you're a mender correct?"
Mother nature(or maybe the Goddess of Lunarisclan) really had a bad sense of timing. Just when Joseph though he had an opportunity to get to know this girl better, a storm had to come in and ruin a glorious moment. In an instant Joseph back was riddle with hard hits of rain, neither of them would stay on top of the butte, they either had to cross over to Solarisclan or Lunarisclan. It was obvious which choice to make since Solarisclan had more cover and was easier to get to at the moment. With a quick nod Joseph followed the blue haired warrior down the cliff, stumbling a little as he reached the ground and was quick to follow her into the covers of the trees.
From top to bottom he was covered in water and at this types of temperature being covered is cold water was not a good idea. So first priority was to remove the water from the body, the female warrior had already begun to do so by wringing the water from her. She then looked at him and told him to do the same but before she could finish Joseph had already begun to undress taking of his shirt quickly to reveal his slightly build body. He then continued to use the shirt as an impromptu towel to take some of the water off as he passed through his arms, legs and hair, and then continued to wring the shirt to take the water off. "You know, I know I said I like rain, but this is ridiculus." Joseph with a light chuckle trying to light up the mood a bit.
The warrior and him were in a pretty bad situation, if the storm continued they would not be able to last just by standing underneath some tree, they had to find better cover or try to make it back to the solaris camp or Vendi Duri. He looked back at the girl and noticed her cold with a towel around her shoulders. Before they made any decision he had to make sure she was fine. Joseph took of his gloves and walked over to her showing her the gloves "Put these on, they'll help you stay warm. Rub the towel against your shoulders, it'll cause some heat though too much since the towel is a bit damp." Joseph said as he placed his hands on the towel and began rubbing it woughly to show her how, as a mender he's used to touching many people so for the moment he did not pay attention to the personal space of this stranger.
"You know we've had quite a bit of conversation but I still don't know your name. Mine's Joseph." Joe said curious as to how to address this warrior, which for a moment he had forgotten that he was talking to a warrior who could easily kill him for being to close to her.
Kira laughed at his attempt of a joke about the rain. That was true, she'd forgotten all about that, despite that it was a few moments ago. Kira was too busy paying attention to whether or not this man could be tricking her or not. That was all forgotten now however, he seemed quite nice. In mid thought, Kira felt rough gloves being pushed into her hand. After hearing his order to put them on, having been used to listening to menders, the warrior quickly proceeded to put them on. They felt warm and a shiver ran its course through her body, the warmth was just exhilarating.
Soon after, Kira felt his hands continuously rub against her shoulders and forearms. Now this had gotten strange and dangerous. Kira got sick really easily, she shouldn't even be a warrior but this was her dream. Having someone, whom she did not know in the slightest rub against her, made her anxious and caused a different type of shiver. A shiver that wasn't caused from the cold.
"Thanks." She mumbled, looking at a piece of hair strand as though it were the most fascinating thin in the world. The warrior subconsciously rubbed the towel against her shoulders for warmth and looked up at the sky. It didn't look like the skies would let up any time soon. "Doesn't look like it's going to stop soon."
At that moment, Joe curiously asked for her name. Kira shivered again, from the cold, "Everyone calls me Kira, as in light." It was strange telling someone her own name, it was so far from what she really was. Her body was the epitome of the opposite of light. "They say the goddess blessed me but I doubt it..."
A surge of anger rushed through her veins at the multitude of times someone would walk up to her and tell her that she was alive thanks to some goddess! Kira scoffed, "Like some goddess would..." She shook her head, forgetting where she was for a moment. The person with her could possibly be a firm believer in Solarisclan, Kira wouldn't want to disrespect his belief if they were as such.
"Kira... that's a pretty name. A lot prettier than plain old Joe, that for sure" Joseph said laughing a bit. His awkwardness that he had the first time he saw her was almost completly gone, it now felt comforting and warm to laugh with her and hear her laugh. However the smile turned serious when heard the comment about her goddess, it's true that the goddess of Lunarisclan had nothing to do with him, but still the feeling of people relying and believing in these goddesses did not sit well with him, but the way Kira mentioned the goddess was not of admiration but more like disbelief.
"The goddess huh... well I guess blessings occur in a lot of places..." Joseph said as flashbacks of the heatwave that killed his family went through his mind "even if people have to die to make one..." Joseph said beneath his breath hoping Kira wouldn't hear it as he turned to look the other way and crossed his arms placing his hands beneath his armpits to keep warm. He quickly shook those thoughts from his head knowing that at this moment they would do him no good. For now he had to help Kira get through this, since he was in solarisclan land it was his responsibility to safeguard her.
"Anyway the goddess isn't giving her blessing now and she's not gonna help us get out of this storm." Joseph with a heavy tone of voice, which he didn't use normally. " We can try to make our way to my camp or try to build a small tent to wait out the rain." Joseph said turning to Kira seeing her shiver, he knew he had to find a way to keep her warm fast.
Joseph seemed as though he didn't believe in the goddesses, which was a dangerous territory to tread on. There were many devoted beleivers in the clans, anyone who didn't believe in the goddesses could be shunned. Almost as if in response, thunder clashed in the skies causing rain to fall even harder. This was getting worse rather quickly.
Kira frowned at his offer to come to camp, naturally, that would be Solarisclan's camp right? That was an even more dangerous situation to be in. She shivered at the thought, or maybe the cold, of entering enemy territory. Kira stared down at her feet that were currently standing on Solarisclan territory, well...maybe further into the territory. "I don't think that's such a good idea."
Kira stared back at the distance between her and Lunarisclan's mountain. She would have to cross over the butte, land on the other side while avoiding the mud that was sure to form there. She would have to run, exhausting her energy and strength making her way to safety. Arriving at the medicine den, Kira would surely be spotting a slight fever which could turn fatal the next day. Judging from her condition, that would surely mean death. Meanwhile on the other hand, Kira could possibly seek help in Solarisclan's medicine tent... She was currently stuck between a rock and a very very hard place.
"I don't.." Kira trailed, shaking her head and finally decided to accompany him to the clan. Before though, she decided to reassure herself, "Do you think... that would be alright? I don't think your leader would appreciate it..."
Yomi was never a kind person in regards to Lunarisclan. The few times she'd met the small leader, Kira was impressed at her size and skill. Encountering the wrath of such a person could surely lead to issues in regards to the treaty. Should she risk it? No. The better question to ask is, could she risk it?
"Well nature can't be controlled, we can only sometimes predict what nature is gonna and even then our predictions are mostly wrong." Joseph trying not to let the mood get so down though the weather didn't help in any way. He turned to look at the sky seeing some lightning coming down from the sky, it was definitely not safe and if they stayed there's a possibility that some wind might pick up. Kira was looking too cold to stay out here in the rain, and Joseph wasn't looking too hot, he was used to a more heated temperature so the decision to leave and go to Solarisclan camp was the right, but Joseph had not thought it out completely. As he heard the worries from Kira, he remember that not everyone in the camp was welcoming to a Lunarisclan, however this was a time of peace, someone had to make the first move to prove that the two clans could coexist normally.
As Kira agreed to accompany Joe back to the camp he gave her a nod, as he put his shirt inside his bag and was ready to head out when he heard the next worries from Kira. It was true that Yomi was extremely hard to handle, as she thought everything had to be according to her way. Many of clan members respected her out of fear, however Joseph rarely had any trouble with her since his job was to simply save lives and he made a fine job at that. But he could be facing trouble depending on what mood she's in. But in this moment he had reassure Kira that nothing would happen to her, he was gonna make sure of that. "You shouldn't worry about that. Though it's true our leader can be a bit... difficult, she was the one who wanted a peace treaty between the two clans. I can't imagine her doing anything that might start another war. If anything she'll probably whip me a bit for coming all the way out to no mans land without a word." Joseph said with a quick laugh at the image of little girl whipping a grown man. He then looked at Kira hoping she wouldn't take that last remark seriously. "That was a joke."
Now with his bag hanging from the side Joseph put his hands together blowing hot air through them and then grabbed Kira's arm right above the gloves he had given her. "Now stay close to me, you don't wan't to get lost in the woods. We should be about half an hour away from camp." Joseph said as he started walking while holding Kira's soft and cold arm. He really needed to get her some medicine, Joseph though as he cover his mouth with his free hand and coughed a bit. He also need to get some medicine to...
Kira wondered about this decision, she was swaying but knew what she had to do. It wasn't the option she preferred but it was needed. Joseph seemed to reassure her, she smiled a little uncertain. The rain was picking up, causing mud to gather around the tree roots.
Joseph felt his hand wrap around her wrist, dragging her through the rain and towards Solarisclan's camp. After he announced the amount of time it would take to get there, Kira shivered in anxiety. Her wet hair was matted to her, now, pale skin. Her shoes were digging into the mud, and not before long, her blue orbs landed on a large tree. This tree could only be found in Vendi Druri.
"Only took 14 minutes to get here..." She muttered, her temperature increasing by the minute. In fact, the area his hand was touching felt cool. Kira's drifted a little but regained stability. This was not good at all. She couldn't pay attention to where she was going.
