Sage passed a few windows on his way to the top and ended up in Curel's room again. It's owner apparently reached the safety of the Clan building before the others and had tropped the ladder to enable them to quickly and unsuspiciously enter the room. She must've been here for a while even, as she had settled down on one of the pillows around the TV and was reading in a book. Quiet rock music was sounding through the room of an artist that mixed Elfish lyrics with English ones. Curel lifted her head from her lecture as Sage climbed in and her face brightened up visibly.
A smile of relief spread on Sage lips as well as he saw Curel to be safe. He had not liked the idea that his desperate attempts at keeping her from harm might have been in vain.
"You're back!" she called and jumped up to hug Sage, before he could even get firm ground under his feet. Luckily, even a fully glomping Riverelf couldn't really push him back through the windowframe due to the pure difference in size and weight.
"You literally saved my life back at the bridge.", Curel explained with a deep, genuine thankfulness. "I don't think my bones would've survived punches from this thug."
"Uhm..." Sage responded lacking the proper social skills to deal with such utter praise, while Curel hung around his neck like an oversized necklace.
"Yeah, yeah, we're back.", Kyu said as she stepped through the window frame and made Curel drop down from Sage's neck by pulling one of her hands off him. Sage could notice a slight twitch in Kyu's ear as she heard the music in the room.
"Really, Curel? Garel Hurricane again?" she asked.
Curel gave her a hostile glare: "Hey, stop judging me for it. She makes objectively good music."
"She's a Rosh-Clan outcast in 2nd Generation and turned her back on her kin to collaborate with the Humans.", Kyu held against Curel. "She traded her clan and her identity for fame and loads of Human cash. She even appropriates our language for her monetary schemes."
"She never even knew her clan, because they had made her mother an outcast." Curel argued. "And she worked very, very hard to get where she is now..."
This argument went on between the two, but faded into the background for Sage, as this deep, unsettling feeling of having forgotten something crucial returned. It was the same kind of emotion that he had when looking over the skyline of Maranurr city, but this time he had a clear object of association in his mind.
Garel Hurricane.
Somehow this name rung a bell in his mind and a pretty alarming one at that. Something... dangerous surrounded this name. He tried really hard to convey an image of the feelings he felt about this name and for a brief moment he would see the face of a white haired elf with a confident grin. Someone placed her hand on his shoulder
"What's your opinion about this?" Kyu asked him from the side.
Sage twitched slightly, when Kyu tore him from his feelings of familiarity or at least recognition.
"Uhm... ", he said, slightly confused. "I... haven't listened if I'm completely honest."
"See, Kyu?" Curel said, obviously taking this as a supportive statement to her position. "This entire debate is so stupid, that he doesn't even listen to it."
Sage looked to Curel, surprised how skilled she was with twisting his words: "Hey, that's not what I-"
Kyu sighed and interrupted him: "Don't worry; it's not even that important."
Sage was actually a little bit surprised that Kyu would just let an argument rest like that, but when looking at her face he recognized that there was something else she was pondering. She looked towards the window and then to the door saying: "And the others arn't back yet?"
Slowly Curel shook her head which clearly seemed to unnerve Kyu.
She stood up and walked towards the door.
"I'll see if I can spot them, alright?"
Without waiting for either of them to give their opinion on this plan she rushed out the door and nearly slammed it into the frame, had Curel not stopped it by reaching for the doorknob in the very last possible second.
"Is she always like this?", asked Sage who had already raised his fingers to stick them into his ears for when the door slammed closed.
"You'll get used to it.", responded Curel and gestured to the group of pillows next to the TV: "Why don't you take a seat, Sage?"
He nodded thankfully. Maybe getting a bit of rest wasn't too bad after all of this trouble he went through in the past... three hours?
Really?
Only three hours?, he thought.
It felt like his life had been turned upside down since then, but maybe this was just due to the lack of experience he could draw from. After all, anything he could pin down as a memory in his mind had happened within the last two days. He dropped himself onto one of the couches in the living-room-area, taking up almost the entire space on it with his large body. Apparently even the couches had been designed to accommodate the smaller elves.
Curel raised her book again, as if she wanted to go back to reading, but after just a few seconds Sage could see her eyeing him over the edge of her book.
"You really saved me back there." she started the conversation again, when Sage didn't say anything.
"I already said it was nothing." Sage said, not to boast around. It felt natural to him to save a friend during a fight. Then he was more surprised when Curel suddenly stood up and sat down on Sages belly, firmly demanding his attention.
"Saying my life is not nothing.", she said with an intense stare that looked all the more creepy due to her black iris and pupils that barely allowed to make out a difference in their colouring. "In fact it's a pretty big deal."
"A-alright." Sage backed off and raised his hands defensively.
A sneaky grin crept on Curel's face and gave him a glimpse onto her shark like teeth: "Hmm, isn't this a lucky coincidence. You save my life and the two of us end up alone in my room directly after it..."
Her small hands ran up his chest, until her upper body could lean forwards and get very close to his face.
Sage looked at her confused for a moment, and then he began to understand. Or at least he believed he was. She was flirting with him, wasn't she? Or was this...
"You deserve a reward for this. I'm one of the last of my kind on this continent after all." she said and pulled down the cleavage of her top until Sage could see what little breasts the girl hand. Even though there not being too much to see, this did make Sage blush nervously.
"W-wait C-Curel..." he stuttered. "I-Is this what I think it is?"
Curel responded with a smug grin: "Of course it is. I owe you a big deal; also neither of us are bound to the stupid rules of this Woodelf clan. We're guests here. So why not make out for a bit?"
This was way too fast. And this girl was way too confident.
"I-I think I heard somewhere that Elves and Humans..." Sage tried to contradict, but Curel just laughed.
"I'm glad that you're worried about me..:" she began to respond. "But these rules are for the Woodelves. More specifically, the Clan-Woodelves. I can choose not to obey the Clan rules. And I happen to find you hot enough to break them for you."
Sage was still looking for a gentleman's way out of this, as Curel leaned forwards and pressed her lips on his. For a second, Sage could feel a somewhat salty taste coming from her mouth, and then she was already pulling her lips back and skilfully slid off Sage.
He was still confused by the kiss and lifted his upper body up, throwing Curel a questioning look.
"Wait, why are you stopping?", he asked.
"I don't have much experience in this...", responded Curel with a smile on her face that Sage could not tell if it was forced or just a friendly gesture to show him that this was okay. "... but I do notice when someone is not in the mood. So... unless you changed your mind, we should stop, shouldn't we?"
Sage started at the girl for moment, considering her offer for the first time in a clearer state of mind then utter confusion.
Unfortunately he couldn't even consider her offer properly, as suddenly he heard a cute, yet strained voice calling out.
"I'm back! I'm back! Help me in before I fall!", yelled someone from the outside.
Curel went to the window and leaned out to ask: "Give me one reason why I shouldn't just drop you, Fluffypie. You just interrupted a rather important conversation of mine."
Said Inu looked up at the ladder: "Uhm... because we're very, very good friends?"
Curel rolled her eyes as response and said: "Alright... I shall let it slip this time."
With a sign and a groaning of effort she reached down and helped Inu up. It seemed that whatever this girl was, it was incredibly bad at climbing. She almost fell to the floor when Curel pulled her through the window, but could catch herself with her hands and knees.
Sage sat up to check if she was alright, but unfortunately these thick layers of clothing didn't allow for a clear look on her physical condition. It was also pretty visible now, that she wasn't wearing this attire out of sheer comfort. Huge drops of sweat were running down her forehead and her face was glowing with heat. What happened next was surprising to Sage,but only logical in retrospect given how Inu looked like she was close to a heatstroke.
"I... I need to get rid of the hat and dress, Curel!" Inu said with a slightly panicking voice. "I'm overheating!"
Sage wrinkled his forehead, stuck between worry and amusement.
"Of course you're overheating", she thought to herself. "If I ran around in the summer heat in this winter attire, then I would be overheating as well.".
"You can't!" Curel responded firmly. "You know what Kyu said! I can get you some cool packs."
"NO!" Inu shouted with surprising aggression in her otherwise peaceful voice. She dug her long, spiky nails into the cloth of her dress and pulled it off her body with a seemingly superhuman strength. In a rageful fit she reached for her head and threw the woolly cap to the ground, before tearing the sleeves of her top. Curel stood next to it, clearly willing to step in but not knowing what to do or say.
"Stop it, Inu!", she finally called and grabbed the girl wrists to stop her from further ruining her clothes. With an aggressive glare Curel stared into her eyes and said "We can't show this to anyone! I haven't raised you to become some lab-rat for overly curious humans!"
"He's a friend, isn't he?!" Inu responded, half shouting. "He saved your life! Show some trust!"
Curel looked helplessly back and forth between Inu and Sage, while Inu for the first time showed some of her skin without cover.
She clearly wasn't an Elf, but she also wasn't a human either. Her ears where neither round and short nor long and pointy, but were attached to the top of her head and had the shape of a felines ears with short, stubby hair covering it's outsides. And that wasn't the only part of her body that was unnaturally hairy as the back of her hands and lower arms were covered in short-cut fuzz as well. She was as muscular as Sage had assumed her to be and her shoulders where wide and powerful for a woman. The fur also existed behind her head and ran down her back until it disappeared in her clothing and finally reappeared in an extremely fluffy tail coming from below her skirt.
Inu sat down on the couch, next to Sage, panting and trying to her rid of the heat that was captured within her body. In all this time Sage couldn't take his eyes off her for even a second.
He was pretty stunned at this sight.
What was she exactly?
His eyes ran up and down her strong body over and over again in order to find a satisfying answer to this question. And strangely, his brain could actually come up with answers, like there were memories of hers related to this race that hid in a pond of murky water and only the active search would release them.
"Kyu is a sadist, sending me out in these clothes." Inu sighed and gave Sage a worried look.
Curel contradicted: "Inu, you know this is to your own protection. Each person that knows what you are is an additional danger."
Inu looked up and huffed:" I don't think this amnesiac stranger can pose much of a danger to me..."
She squeaked suddenly, as Sage touched her ears and turned around, protectively placing her palms over them.
"Those are... real." Sage said slowly, unable to take his eyes of Inu's head. Somehow this seemed... familiar to him. He knew he had seen such a creature before, but could not pin down where.
"Y-yeah they are..." Inu said, blushing slightly. "But please only touch them if necessary, they are quite sensitive."
"O-Oh..." Sage responded with a stutter. "A-Alright. I'm sorry."
Inu nodded and moved a bit away from Sage so he could properly muster her.
"So... this is me..." she said. "You would've found out sooner or later anyway. What do you think? Creepy, eh?"
Sage shook his head: "No, not at all. I find it... surprising... but it fits you."
"You think so?" Inu said clearly happy about this judgement." Y-You don't think I'm a freak?"
Again, Sage moved his head from left to right, still inspecting what he could see of her body.
"No.", he said slowly and added. "... but I would actually like to know what exactly you are."
"O-of course..." Inu said and swallowed hard. "I... I'm what the legends call a 'Wolfelf' or 'Wildelf' depending on the language."
"One of the Eard creations?" Sage whispered having absolutely no idea how he knew that. "And your race is supposed to be extinct. The 3rd Genocide by the humans...."
"You know about the Eards?" Curel asked, sounding genuinely interested, but also wanting to avoid talks about genocide against Inu's race.
"I know they are your ancestors." Sage replied to Curel. "Transformed after their two-millenia long journey over the oceans, on the great floating city of Ylaerk'Mar. But... I don't know how I can know this."
Curel nodded with clear respect, but even more interest into him written all across her face.
"You are more educated on the history of the Elves then nine out of ten Elves are. At least of who I have met so far.", she said, scratching her chin. "Maybe you are some kind of Alfaelogist. A scientist who researches our history."
"Uhhh...", made Sage as a response and genuinely entertained the idea for a second. Could this be who he really was?
If that was the case, the idea did not reveal anything new to him and his mind was still devoid of memories related to Alfaelogism.
"Hmmm.", he said hesitantly. "Maybe... who knows?"
Curel looked at him for a while, but when it got abundantly clear that she would not get more information from Sage, she stood up again and walked towards the door in the bedroom-section . "I am going to take a bath now. I'll leave the door open, so we can keep talking."
Following up on her announcement she went inside and pressed a light-switch, revealing a pretty spacey bathroom with a huge tub in the centre of it. With her foot she opened the tab that began to fill the tub with steaming hot water and then began to throw off her clothing in a way that Sage could have easily watched her if he had just turned around.
The young human was super confused about this behaviour of hers.
Was this more flirting of her?
Was this a threat to not try anything with Inu?
Or did she legitimately just want to keep the conversation alive as she was relaxing in her bathtub.
"Let's see, Mr. Smartypants...", Curel said with a grin that was so wide, Sage could hear it in her voice, even though he still had turned his back to her. "Do you know why I need to take a bath three times per day?"
Sage sighed: "Of course. Riverelves have adapted to a life close to or completely inside of water. Their skin has adapted to it and if they do not get water on it regularly, it will degrade into dry scales. It's known as Erass, a genetic sickness from which all Riverelves suffer."
"Fascinating..." Curel just responded to this display of pure knowledge, before she hopped into the bathtub.
"You... really know a lot about Elves, Sage." Inu said, seeming just as impressed: "I wish I knew so much about my race."
Sage laughed uncomfortably: "I just wish I knew more about myself. As it is now, my knowledge about Elves seems pretty useless."
Inu nods: "I... can imagine how you feel."
Sage raised a questioning eyebrow. Inu blushed uncomfortably.
"I... don't know my Name either." she said slowly. "My Mum placed me in front of the door of this Clan and then ran off. It's Kyu who gave me my name; because she thinks my ears look like the ears of a Shiba Inu. My full name therefore is Inu Shiba... Because Kyu logic."
"You allowed her to name you after a dog?", Sage asked in disbelief.
"It's not like I had much of a choice.", said Inu in response. "I was a baby back then. Curel raised me basicly inside of this building nearly my entire life."
"Still. This isn't very nice of Kyu, is it?", asked Sage with a sceptical expression on his face.
"It's just the way Kyu thinks. She shapes the world rather than learning about it.", Inu explained.
"Can confirm!", Curel called from the bathtub. "It's sometimes pretty hard to be around our personal mad goddess, but definitely an interesting life to live."
Sage looked at one of his two conversation partners and then asked, so loudly that even the second one could hear it: "So... Kyu... what do you think about her?"
Inu blushed, obviously taking this as too much of a private question.
Meanwhile Curel took much less offence in it and answered: "According to Kyu, the world revolves around her. Heck, she might even be right about that, all things considered."
"How did she get this way?" Sage asked interestedly.
Sage could hear a sigh echo through the bath: "I got a suspicion there... but that's a story she should rather tell you herself. It would be impolite to gossip around other peoples private past."
Sage was left even more curious but he didn't dig deeper. Curel was right in mentioning politeness when it came to Kyu's past Also, as if on cue, the door opened and Titania stepped in together with Kyu.
"I got one!" Kyu called upon entering, then immediately froze when she saw Inu with uncovered sleeves and without cap. "Inu!"
Said Wildelf twitched and sat back a bit, but this couldn't stop Kyu from rushing over to her and pressing her against the backrest by the shoulders.
"I told you not to show him." she said, remarkably pronouncing the last four words.
"She was overheating!" Sage felt like it was his obligation to throw himself into this conversation as he felt like it was partially his fault that it came to this situation.
"Can confirm!" Curel called from the bath. She seemed to like this catchphrase. "It was either getting rid of one or two layers of cloth or systemic circulation problems."
Kyu was quiet for a second, and then she sighed: "Alright... I just get worried about Inu a lot."
Said girl blushed, obviously appreciating the gesture and said: "Sage already said he wouldn't tell it to anyone."
"Oh I would actually like to hear that myself." Kyu said in a bittersweet tone and stepped with one of her combat-boots onto Sages knee. "Well?"
Sage, who had to look up to Kyu now from his sitting position was quick to nod and if it was just to get rid of the pain below his lap: "Alright, alright I won't tell."
"Promise." Kyu demanded.
"I promise!" Sage reassured which indeed, made Kyu stop hurting him.
"Alright... I guess we'll have to take your word on it" she said. "But seriously, Inu's life as we know it depends on this staying a secret. If you break it I'll personally rip your tongue out."
She said it so casually, as if she was threatening other people with the prospect of taking their ability to speak on a daily basis. Sage had the strong suspicion though, that this was just Kyu's specific kind of humour; half-ironic death threats.
"Anyway.", Titania involved herself into the conversation again and sat down on the couch. "That means only one of us is missing at this point, eh?"
"Laniel will make it.", Kyu assured her. "She ran south, so she will have the longest way back after she escaped from the police. In the meantime, why don't we turn on one of the TV and bathe in our glory like Curel bathes in water."
She picked up the remote control and took a seat between Inu and Sage while skipping a few channels. Titania dropped down in an armchair as well when Kyu finally found the news channel she was looking for and waited for the advertising break to end.
"And were back at the Avalon-Bridge to the John Bell District.", an overly tidy dressed, white Human female reporter announced into a camera. "Just half an hour ago, another despicable terrorist attack took place at this site, wounding four people and leaving two of them in critical conditions."
This was the moment, in which Kyu's face brightened up and she offered Sage a high-five. Reluctantly, he clapped his palm into hers. The news lady didn't bother their enthusiasm, but continued.
"According to eye-witness testimony's, the perpetrators of this violent attack where six Elves, coming from the clan-milieu, that is still running rampant in the old city and the Dublin District. Minister of internal affairs, Jon Welland has released a press statement on the attacks, condemning them as 'violent, hateful and coming from Elves, who do not appreciate the things that mankind has done for them.' He also announced that..."
The rest of the lady's statement drowned in a shower of 'boos' coming not only from Kyu, but from Titania and even Curel in the bathroom. The 'boos' soon got dissolved into mad laughter, as photos of the beat-up victims were shown and one of the guys from the bridge was interviewed, the one who survived the attack unharmed due to the pure fact he wasn't in the camp when the Elves attacked.
"That guy..." Titania pointed out amidst a short break of laughing. "...literally has a swastika on his biker coat. I wish I had punched him too."
Kyu nodded in agreement as the biker said into the camera, in English of course: "They attacked out of nowhere! We just camped by the roadside for two days and these Elf terrorists instantly attack upstanding citizens like us. Where is the government in protecting us in this?"
"I doubt this douche bag is even able to know such words." Kyu stated quietly. Titania nodded in agreement: "Yeah, that's not his statement, that's a Maranurr National Party statement, placed in his mouth..."
"This might come back at us..." Inu threw in quietly, but Kyu shook her hit.
"Doing nothing comes back at us." she replied. "Elfish history ever since the humans arrived is a series of events on which we should've acted but didn't."
"Hey!" someone called through the window.
Sage didn't know it was possible to turn off a TV as fast as Kyu did in this moment. The whole group stood up and walked to the window, where Laniel was finally climbing into the room. Even Curel stepped out of the bath now, with a towel wrapped around her almost non-existent chest to avoid getting stares.
"Welcome back." Titania said and helped her younger sister to get into the room without an accident. "What took you so long?"
Laniel winked at the group and said: "No need to worry about me. I took a route through the Neotonic district. The police don't go there."
While Sage had no idea what that meant, the jaws of every other person in the room dropped.
"Laniel, are you crazy?" Titania asked with true sisterly concern in her voice. "Mum will be furious."
"She doesn't need to know." Laniel answered obviously feeling the need to defend herself. "Also, what do you care? It was the safest route."
"Safest route?" Kyu asked with a hysteric laugher following up on it.
Curel stepped into the conversation with a concerned expression on her face: "Laniel, Elves disappear in that district on a daily basis and reappear as drug addicted, broken husks. That is nothing to mess around with."
"Erm..." Sage cleared his throat to demand attention for a bit. "Would anyone mind explaining what the Neotonic district is?"
Everyone looked at Sage, then back at Laniel and obviously, Curel concluded this was a great opportunity to refresh Laniel's knowledge on what exactly the Neotonic district was.
"The Neotonic District..." she explained. "Is on paper an economical zone created by the government and liberated from the boundaries and laws that limit the free market everywhere else. Some call it the Las Vegas of the Pacific. But in reality, it is a fucking dangerous shithole, where drug addiction, legalised slavery and forced prostitution are rampant. Elves who go in there are abducted, hooked onto some drug and released as whores for the Human tourists to enjoy. This is LITERALLY the worst place on this earth for a young woman to be."
Laniel looked at Curel angrily: "Hey, I have used this place several times to escape the police and it always worked well."
For a moment, everyone in the room looked at Laniel with a mix of worry and anger, then Titania said: "Yeah... Mum really doesn't need to know about that. But you also need to stay away from it, okay?"
Laniel rolled her eyes and nodded: "Yeah, 'Mum'."
In the true style of a rebellion teenager who wanted to avoid a conversation, she walked into the room, past everyone else and looked at the TV: "Are we on air already?"
"Why would you be on air, I wonder?" an old, creaky voice from the door-frame asked.
Everyone turned around with different levels of shock and surprise mixed in their face. Especially Kyu's face also showed an additional layer of nervousity on her face.
It was Kyu's Grandmother, who entered the room, seemingly out of nowhere and obviously pretty angry. Her walking-stick tapped on the ground periodically as she hunched slowly toward the group of seats that the girls had gathered around, throwing each of them a mute, but furious glare.
"Sit down.", she commanded before anyone had the courage to speak up.
"Can I maybe get some clothes first?" Curel asked shyly, but a simple look of Hlaya was enough to make her comply. "No? Shame..."
Everyone walked over into the living room and squeezed themselves onto the couch, while Kyu's Nan sat down on the armchair on the opposite side of the room, before saying: "Given the amount of celebration I heard from this room, it seems I am correct to assume you are the ones who beat a bunch of Humans to bloody puddle on the Avalon Bridge today?"
"Not Humans, they were Nazis." Kyu corrected her Grandmother in an impressive feat of aggressive defence. "And I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."
"I guess, a Riverelf, two Humans and three Elves, one of which has iconic white hair band together on a daily basis to beat up Humans?", she asked.
"It could've been anyone." Kyu responded. "There are a lot of Antifascist groups out there, where Elves and Humans fight these Nazi shits together."
"Oh really?" her Grandmother said. "Then what is this?"
She reached into her Dyun's pockets and pulled out two of the face masks that they had used during the attack at the bridge this afternoon.
"I suppose you recognise these? I got them from your room and they are clearly visible on the footage which the police has." she said with a threatening tone in her voice.
"You searched my room?" Kyu asked angrily, but her Grandmother just shrugged.
"You are not married yet, so I am responsible for you." she said, calmer on the surface but at least as worked up as Kyu was inside. "And I am not letting you go down the same path as your mother."
"My mother is a hero!" Kyu shouted aggressively. "Don't you dare question her achievements for us!"
"What achievements?" her Grandmother shouted. "Your mother, my daughter, was lured in by some bullshit promises of terrorist groups and then she died for them. She achieved nothing!"
"SHE'S NOT DEAD!" Kyu shouted furiously, clenching her fists and jumping up. "AND IF SHE IS, THEN SHE DIED AS A MATYR!"
Hlaya didn't respond to this, she just looked up to Kyu with endless disappointment and deep sorrow in her eyes. Everyone around Kyu seemed to fear she would start wrecking the room any second now and Curel was desperately gesturing towards Kyu to calm down.
Instead, Kyu went on a rant: "She is out there, fighting the fight which the Clans should be spearheading, while we are sitting here, doing nothing but working into this godforsaken Human machinery that they use to enslave us! Our race is not a race of cowards that surrenders without a fight! My parents are proving this, but you seem to be hell-bent on destroying anything that she builds up! You are COWARDS! And I hate all of you!"
With these words she lifted her body up from the couch, kicked violently against the table and ran out of the room.
Hlaya stood up shouting with all authority that she could muster in her voice: "Kyu Hsaya Ptaha, STAY!"
But Kyu ignored her, leaving the room and slamming the door in exactly the same manner you would expect it from an adolescent stuck neck-deep in her puberty. She was leaving behind her Grandmother and five of her friends in shock and speechlessness.
Unfortunately... or luckily, depending on the perspective, her grandmother didn't seem mad anymore, but rather sad, even depressed.
"This isn't your fault, Hlaya." Curel said as she refused to speak up. "Kyu is..."
"When I told you to take care of Kyu..." Hlaya interrupted Curel, getting louder again with each word. "I didn't mean help her to conduct terrorist attacks!"
Upon the last syllables, she slammed her wrinkled hand onto the couch table and looked up with tears in her tired eyes.
"What should we do?" Titania asked in defence of Curel. "If we would not help her, she would try to take on these arseholes all by herself. And it's not like they didn't deserve it."
"That doesn't matter!" she shouted with a frail voice, that was clearly on the brink of collapse. "Her actions get more radical and more dangerous each month! This isn't graffiti spraying and helping homeless Elves anymore, this is real political terrorism with real political consequences!"
Everyone was just quiet, looking down on their knees.
"You have to restrain her.", Hlaya continued. "Especially you, Curel. I put you in charge of her actions so you stop her from blowing herself up, not to provide her the materials she needs to do that!"
"I'm sorry..." Curel responded quietly. "I guess I screwed up."
"Yes you did!" Hlaya confirmed and sighed then, like a judge considering the verdict for a last time. "You all get shopping duty for this week. The ENTIRE shopping duty. And I will have to think up an appropriate punishment for Kyu. And later, there will be a personal talk with each of you. Now go back to your rooms and think about what happened today."
With these words and another angry glare at the group, she stood up and walked towards the exit of the room. Everyone waited until she was gone, then Curel stood up to get her clothes, while Laniel left out an annoyed sigh: "Shopping duty."
"The entire shopping duty." Inu added.
"Kyu is definitely going to pay for it this time", Titania said, clearly mad on her little sister for dragging her into this.
Everyone stood up, except for Sage who felt like this got way too personal way too quick for him, especially as an outsider. He was now legitimately involved in this clan's family business... and all of this because he wanted to steal some eggs?
Slowly he dragged his body back into a standing position and turned his head after the group, that was already leaving the room. Slowly he followed them, but was interrupted by a certain Riverelf who was currently getting dressed on her bed.
"Hey uhm...", she spoke up to stop Sage from leaving. When he turned to he rshe left out a careful smile and said: "Thanks for... today, I guess."
Sage wasn't sure what she meant by that and he was too tired of the intense drama to investigate it.
"No problem.", he just responded and threw her a quick, nice smile before actually heading out.
Way too much happened in a way too short time.
Inu belonged to a supposedly extinct species that for some reason looked familiar to him.
Kyu was... well... being herself. And atop of that there was now this whole Clan family business that he was getting involved in.
With a numb feeling in his stomach he went back into his room and sat down on the edge of the bed. For a while he just let his thoughts circle and ultimately decided that it was best to take a rest from the chaos and exhaustion that his body had to endure this morning. A tired sigh escaped his mouth as he laid back on the blanket and closed his eyes while the summer sun was slowly purging the morning cold from his room. He didn't really fall asleep but rather entered a murky state between dream and reality in which he was exploring the endless abyss in his mind for clues of just might have once been there. The sun was already setting behind the mountain-ranges that surrounded the city, when a knocking against the door of his room ripped him from his tranquility.
Blinking a few times in confusion he stood up from his bed and opened the door. It was the first time someone visited him in this room.
"Hello, stranger without memories..." Kyus grandmother greeted in a quiet tone. Her voice sounded weak and exhausted as if he had shouted too much today for her old vocal chords "Would you mind a little chat with an old, worried woman?"
"N-not at all..." Sage reassured her and stepped aside so she could enter his domain. "C-come in."
Hlaya nodded thankfully and headed straight for the only chair in the small chamber, an old office chair by the tiny table next to the window. She sat down and gazed through the room, from left to right, inspecting his inventory.
"Hmm..." she finally said. "They really did only give you the bare basics, didn't they? I hope your time here is not uncomfortable."
"N-no, not at all..." Sage reassured with a slight déjà vu feeling crawling up the back of his mind. "It's just... a wild ride, honestly. Having no memories makes everything a bit... overwhelming."
Hlaya nodded: "I understand that and I am truly sorry for the inconvenience my granddaughter has put you through."
Sage made an off-putting gesture: "It's nothing I can't deal with. Though, I admit I have a lot of questions."
"I expected that." Hlaya said in a polite tone, which may be stemmed from her trying to go easy on her now strained voice. "That's part of the reason why I'm here. To answer your questions... but also to make a request for you."
"Alright..." Sage said. "What do you want me to do?"
Hlaya shook her head: "I'll answer your questions first. My request will only make sense with some context."
"Understood." Sage replied and sighed before speaking up again: "Tell me about Kyu... What is the deal with her mother and these radical actions? Why did she completely tilt when you mentioned her?"
"Getting straight to the point, eh?" Hlaya sighed again and the one eye that was not covered by her mourning-cut seemed to glitter sadly in the evening-sun "It's not easy to talk about this for me, especially not to a human. But Kyu has a keen interest in you and it is necessary that you know what is going on with her... so you can keep her from harm or at least save yourself from damage. Our family is a bit... complicated. Titania, Laniel and Kyu refer to each other as sisters, even though this is only half true. While Laniel and Titania share the same father and mother, Kyu has a different mother, stemming from her father's second marriage with my daughter."
So that's where the different looks come from, Sage thought to himself, but didn't dare to interrupt Hlaya, who continued after short pause.
"I... never really liked her father, Tuhar. He was a political radical who almost threw this Clan into chaos with his idealism. He was part of a communist movement that took a part of the Elves in this country by storm about fifty years ago, when we fought for recognition by the UN. They thought they could unite the Clans under a single banner and cause a revolution that would end the Human rule over this country. Laniel's and Titania's mother divorced him over his idea of a bloody civil war, but Nadya... My sweet little Nadya became completely absorbed by these ideas."
It obviously got progressively harder for her to talk about the subject. No wonder Kyu and her Grandmother couldn't agree on this, when such a great amount of emotions was involved.
"She was only fifteen when she started attending the communist rallies and 17 when she became Tuhar's left hand in the Clan. I don't know how old she was when they started dating though... well she was definitely too young to be with a man in his mid-fifties. I accepted it back then, because I thought it was just a phase, but it wasn't. They gathered followers and began to openly question the leadership of this clan. This went on for months, until they staged an uprising and tried to take over this building by force. Luckily no one was killed, as they couldn't quite bring themselves to kill their own families over an ideology. The Clan's leader banished Tuhar and everyone who supported him from the Clan. They accepted their punishment, but Tuhar made one request... that his pregnant wife would be allowed to stay until her child was born. He said they were going to move into a combat zone and that it was not the right place for a woman that was expecting a child. Though the wife he mentioned was not the wife that the clans leader had married him to nearly twenty-five years ago but it was my poor, misguided daughter, who stood next to him with a bulge in her belly and a loaded shotgun in her damn hands."
It was pretty clear that Hlaya was fighting back the tears now, and Sage realized that this was the edge. He sat up and tried to calm her: "Alright, I get the message. You don't need to tell the whole story."
Hlaya sobbed once, twice, then swallowed and shook her head again: "No... This is necessary for you to know, if you want to fulfil my request. I'm almost done anyway."
She took a deep breath and continued: "She spent four more months ostracised with the clan, gave birth to Kyu in her room and then packed up her shotgun, her fucking communist flag and her military jacket and just left. No one has ever seen or heard of her again. That's twenty-one years ago now."
Sage swallowed heavily as the entire story was finished and looked into Hlaya's grieving eyes: "And now you're scared she will follow her mother's path?"
"Scared?" Kyus Grandmother asked with a hysterical sub-tone in her voice. "I'm terrified of her making the same mistakes as her mother. She lacks the shining, commie-figurehead that Nadya latched onto to radicalise, but she is radicalising by imagining her mother as this role-model. She is going down a path that she believes her mother has laid out to her. I did everything I could to stop this from ever happening, but ever since I told her the true story of her mother when she turned fifteeen, she was hell-bent on finding her and... Do something to bring about this dammed dream-castle of a revolution. I can't watch this anymore."
Sage nodded, slowly and carefully.
"And what do you want me to do?" he asked.
Hlaya looked up again, pleading.
"She seems to look up to you. I know right now it seems like she is just dragging you from adventure to adventure, but I've seen this kind of behaviour before, in her mother." she said with slight desperation in her voice. "I want you to stay close to her. And I want you to do what Curel and her sisters are failing at. Please... try to moderate her."