[Bonfire PRP] Unravel [Fair Gecko][Fin]

[Scaramouche Fandango]

Fair Hunter wasn't fuming, she was brooding. Well, she was kind of fuming- but mostly brooding. As the two of them broke down the prey they'd gathered, the fiasco with the traps had her thinking. Somebody had to have taught Gecko about setting those traps. That wasn't knowledge you stumbled into- it was a skill you learned. Somebody taught her- but who? When Gecko had stumbled into her life, she was a bumbling, blathering weakling- she couldn't feed or fend for herself. The first week had been Fair Hunter basically bullying her back to her feet and aggressively trying to get her to eat at all. She'd decided to start teaching her after that because she didn't want her free-loading for the rest of her life- but it was looking like perhaps the time had come for them to part ways. Perhaps Gecko had been faking the entire time, or for at least the most recent part of it because she didn't want Fair Hunter to kick her out.

Which... after all this time, wasn't really what she wanted to do, was it? She'd grown... more than accustomed to Gecko being around, and what she'd said back then about her needing to move on... maybe she could admit to herself that it wasn't what she wanted after all. Maybe Gecko felt the same- but then, Gecko had some questions to answer. She wasn't sure how to go about asking them, though.

A curious kin approached her and she fixed them with a stare as she handed them a haunch of hare. She wasn't really one for conversation at the moment.  

[So Long Gay Bowser]

They had returned to camp with their kills, and many kin had seemed very happy to see all of the food! But Gecko herself was not very happy, no. This was not as joyous of a time as it should have been. The little ones were being fed, and many kin were thanking them for all of their food... and yet. It was always the and yets that she hated. Gecko offered her new friends smiles and nods as they ran to prep the food, but she just couldn't find it in her heart to REALLY smile. Not the kind of smiles she would give Fair Hunter, or Frog, or Peep.

Keeping secrets... was bad. Really bad. But her secrets weren't things she was really ready to share. She had been so tired, so broken and beaten... and going back to that was a very scary thing. Really, if it hadn't have been for Hunter, Gecko would be dead. Very dead. It had been so bad when she had first broken away... and Gecko just really didn't want to think about it?

Her giving away of food was very half-hearted. Typically she loved food, and other kin loving food, but this was different because Hunter wasn't happy. Hunter was... well. She wasn't happy a lot, but this was a different kind of unhappy.

"So. Um." She started lamely, not really sure of what to say. In reality, she didn't know what to talk about at all.  

[Scaramouche Fandango]

Fair Hunter snorted and stared at Gecko with something that... wasn't quite anger in her eyes. It was more like hurt- because that's what she was, much to her surprise. Why did she care about whether or not Gecko spilled her secrets? It wasn't like she'd spent months feeding her, teaching her to hunt, sharing things with her- oh that was it. Her guard and suspicions were up- this was what feeling used felt like! It wasn't an emotion she was particularly familiar with. She'd let Gecko get close, and now she was seeing why she didn't let kin get close. Gecko wasn't as helpless as she'd presented. That was what this boiled down to. She turned a cold shoulder to Gecko, ignoring her. She doled out food to all comers with a dour face and a snarl; all these kin, all of them meaningless. Why was she feeding them? Why was she bothering to help?

Finally, there was a lull in the line of kin wanting fed. It was just them... and the pig. Their eyes met over the prey and Fair Hunter couldn't hold it in anymore. "So what's going on with you?" She could feel something behind her eyes about to explode. "Because if you've been playing me... Gecko, normally I can't get you to shut up. But there's something important you're keeping from me. Isn't there?"  

[So Long Gay Bowser]

"There are..." Gecko didn't know where to begin. Shuffling uneasily, she fixed her stare on the dead pig between them. At least he was spared sharing an unfortunate history.

"Um. I am going to tell you a story, okay? It is not a happy story, no. In fact, it is kind of the opposite." She cleared her throat.

"So um. Once upon a time, there was a tribe of kins. They were not a happy tribe, no. They were full of the meanest and cruelest kin you can imagine. They did not celebrate the bonfire, or even believe in the Motherfather. They um. They believed only in themselves."

Another kin came by, and Gecko offered it a weak smile, doling out a chunk of the roasted meat. The joy did not reach her eyes.

"When babies were born to this tribe... they took up the way of the Totomas. They rejected their birth names and took up the names the tribe leader told them. There- there was one foal. The Silence." Here, Gecko's voice wavered.

"But... but there was a great and terrible secret. These kin, deciding they were the bestest of the swamp... decided there was no better prey than other kin. In secret, they would hunt and kill the strongest bucks of other tribes. The tribe's. The tribe's leader would feast on his body to take his strength."

Another leg of boar, and Gecko nodded to the hungry-looking creature. She suddenly found her appetite failing her.

"When The Silence came of age, it was her turn. But she was not given a buck to hunt, no. The tribe's leader brought to her a foal. The daughter of a young tribe, someday to take its lead." Gecko's eyes stayed planted firmly on the pig.

"The Silence killed... well, um. Silently. The weight of her tai- her body could be used to. Um. Crush the life of another's lungs. They didn't even have time to scream. So this was what The Silence was expected to do with this foal."

"But... this foal. She um. She did not fight like the great bucks did. She said please. Please, I want to live. And it was the first time someone had spoken nice to The Silence. The tribe raised her on hatred, biting at her neck when she failed. She did not know what to do with this niceness! So The Silence and the foal made a plot. A great plot. They would bury the foal in the mud, and when the tribe came to check on The Silence, she would pretended to have devoured her."

Gecko cleared her throat uneasily.

"So um. She bit at her own tail, and took the blood and stained her face. When the tribe's leader came... the foal was gone, and The Silence was bloodstained. But the Silence was, um. Silent! That was what she had always been told. Not to speak. So even his questions did not raise an answer. When he grew too suspicious, The Silence began to panic. He was not nice. But the foal had been! So she buried the tribe's head in the mud, and took the foal and ran."

Was she crying? Whoops! That wasn't good. The kin in line for food next gave her a weird look, to which Gecko simply smiled and handed off the meal. She was this far into the story already! No quitting now!

"The foal... was left with her tribe. Guarded, loved. But The Silence was a traitor to her kind, so she ran. And ran. And ran. For days and weeks, she did not sleep, did not rest, did not eat. The other kin would take back the strength in her flesh that she had taken from them. Finally... after so, so long of running, the tribe gave up. The Silence had run for too long- she was left to rot and die."

She swallowed to get rid of the choke hold on her throat. Why was it so hot suddenly.

"But The Silence had been lucky. She found food. So much food! Miserable and weak, The Silence ate her fill. And it was so good! And The Silence vowed then and there that she would not be Silence anymore. She would take her swamp name. And she would eat! And she would not... not let anyone be hungry enough to eat their friends again."

Gecko barked out nervous laughter.

"Did you. um. I mean," she wilted, "Did you... notice? That for all you worried about food... we never ran out? I. Um. I worried. So I always made sure..."

...and the words died after that. With an uneasy hiccup, Gecko bowed her head and ducked out of the service line.

" 'm srry."  

[Scaramouche Fandango]

To hell with the serving line, Gecko needed help. In her haste to get to her, Fair Hunter knocked over a couple of hungry kiokote. In the end, she was much faster than Gecko. Chasing after her, she said nothing- no shouting, no snarling, no sneering. She just- held her. She cradled her friend and just whispered "shh, shh" over and over, letting her snuggle her cheek into her neck and cry it out. She understood. Gecko was not good at metaphor. She felt something inside of her- something else. It was still anger, but not at Gecko. Gecko was an innocent. Gecko was the purest thing this swamp had to offer, and in that moment, Fair Hunter realized a fundamental truth about herself: that she would go to any length to protect her. "Never again," she murmured, kissing Gecko's forehead. "Never again, and that's a promise. It's ok. I'm here. You're with me and you're safe and it's never going to happen again."
 

[So Long Gay Bowser]

With a gross hiccup-sob, Gecko pressed herself against Fair Hunter, completely and utterly embarrassed. It was not a part of herself she liked to think of- or one she even liked to acknowledge. She had been such a nasty kin. Just gone along with what she was told. And that's why Hunter was so important. She was angry, but she didn't kill other kin. She didn't bite Gecko when she did wrong. Again, a little hiccup-sob escaped her.

"I- I didn't want to hurt you. And I was so nasty," she sobbed, letting her tail affectionately brush against Hunter. She truly was the best best-friend the swamp had to offer.

"I'm sorry."  

[Scaramouche Fandango]

Hunter gave a little chuckle. "You could never hurt me. I'm too tough and spiky." She held her friend a little tighter, giving her a reassuring squeeze, then looked down at her. Her cheeks were slicked with tears- she hated seeing her like this, and she couldn't imagine that the attention from the others was helpful. "You wanna get out of here for a little bit? Go down to the water, look at the stars?"
 

[So Long Gay Bowser]

" 'm glad. I would never want to hurt you," she mumbled, still horribly embarrassed. Gecko still nodded along to the offer, pressed softly against Hunter as they headed down for the waterside. She was... so, so lucky to have such a great best friend. Anyone else would have run. But Hunter... she was so brave, and so good. She understood.

"...I wanna see the stars," she agreed, bumbling off sadly with her best friend.