[Yael] Ra Ra Rasputin (Nivalis/Mnyiri)

[Painted Moose]

The island of Yael was far from welcoming to Mnyiri, and honestly, she hadn't expected anything less.

From the moment she disembarked from the ship, setting her bare feet down onto the dock all eyes had been upon her and they were less than receptive. Many yaeli spat at her feet, even more guarded their children and ran. It was that reason alone that Mnyiri chose to spend her time alone in the wilderness; she didn't want to give these people anymore nightmares than they already had.

With Mvua by her side, Mnyiri traversed the foreign foliage, picking her way through great piles of brambles and keeping an eye out for open crevasses' ready to swallow her whole. Her faithful radaku stayed at her heel, perking his ears every so often when he heard a strange sound. He was on edge; and honestly, so was she. Even when Mnyiri made camp she never once lit a fire out of fear of being caught.

As a researcher she knew the risks, but Mnyiri pressed forward. If she were caught by the enemy then it would all be over, however, the chance at having some sort of knowledge about the elaria outweighed any sense of danger.

In preparation for her trek Mnyiri had removed all bells from her dreads, and covered her hair with a hood. It wasn't fool proof, but at least from a distance she would be safe.

Fluffesu

 

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

Despite her age and growing knowledge concerning her tribe, her duties, and her place in the world, Nivalis was still seldom allowed the opportunity to stray very far from camp on her own. For the most part, she found that she didn't really want to. There was no reason to. She hunted with her sisters and always sought the company of another Elaria when she went on herb-gathering expeditions. They were safer as a unit, and things hid in this jungle that she wasn't strong enough to face alone.

But every now and then, she had a twinge of recurring anxiety that bringing her sisters deep into this forest was one of the worst things she could do for them. She believed in hunting in pairs and that foraging wold be more successful with more Elaria lending a hand, but she couldn't forget the time that being in a pair hadn't worked as well as she might have originally hoped. Whenever her gut told her that she ought to go alone, she went alone.

And that was just that.

This was one such excursion. She hadn't strayed far from camp; far enough that her voice wouldn't carry and no one would stumble upon her accidentally, but close enough that if she needed to flee, safety was only a handful of moments away. Besides, she had the advantage of height. High up in the trees, high enough for sunlight to filter through the leaves, grew a large, pretty pink flower that served as the main ingredient for a calming draught. And as far as she was concerned, all of the Extremists could do with some of that.

With the flowers collected and tucked in an herb pouch, she prepared to descend. She made it far enough down to see the forest floor, but stalled when her minty gaze landed on a dark figure with brilliant white stripes. It was a small creature compared to many Yaeli four-legged beasts and certainly nothing she'd ever seen before. A moment later and she found its master.

At first, she thought one of her cousins had wandered off in search of her (a conceited thought, perhaps, but it wasn't impossible or even unlikely), but a second look proved to Niva that no, she didn't know this woman. She may not be especially fond of her Alkidike cousins, but she knew all of those that lived in Zinris. This was not one of them. Her gaze narrowed. No earthling stood so tall. It was definitely still an Alkidike, though why she was here, Nivalis didn't know. If she confronted her, she would be doing so alone...

But she was too close to camp to let this go unhandled. With a steeling breath, she made her way down from the tree branches.  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

Mvua lifted his head to sniff at the surrounding around, flicking his whip like tail into the air behind Mnyiri's legs. She reached out to tousle his mane with her fingers and ended up stopping to rub the outer edge of his ear. That seemed to calm him somewhat, and in truth, it helped with her nerves as well.

Mnyiri knew she was getting closer to extremist territory; or rather, she was already in their territory and she was either heading directly for their camp or getting close enough for every breath to be a little closer to her last. Her free hand clamped itself around the base of her spear, worrying grooves into the soft Matori wood as she picked her way through the jungle.

Then Mvua snarled and her heart dropped into her gut.

He had turned away from Mnyiri, curling around his mistress to both defend her and to get a better look at the enemy. It put her immediately on edge; Mnyiri was already at a disadvantage, with whatever was upsetting him at her back, so she turned sharply, moving so that she could see what exactly had him in such a mood.

As she did so her eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

Descending from the tree was the 'nightmarish' creature the rumors had spoken of. A young woman with grey skin and blood colored hair. Her antennae were curled, as if they were too long to simply stand out on their own. And as she moved Mnyiri caught hints of others as well...smaller antennae near her ears?

Reflexively Mnyiri reached up to pull her hood further down her face. She didn't know if there were more, or if they were close enough for this one to alert others, so she wanted to play this out as smart as she could.

Mvua, however, didn't seem so passive; his lips were pulled back from his gums, fangs displayed in a full on biting snarl. He was ready to tear this woman apart; all Mnyiri needed to do was snap her fingers.
 

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

Nivalis hated pets. They were messy, disgusting, smelly, unmannered, unintelligent, and above all else: unnecessary. For companionship, she had her sisters. For protection, she had her spear. Animals were good for food and little else. Keeping one around as a playmate just seemed foolish. Niva grimaced first at the beast, then up to its master. The Alkidike woman looked a little too grateful for her creature's presence, in Niva's opinion.

The young mystic scoffed. She may not like animals, but she didn't fear them, foreign or otherwise. When the strange, four-legged specimen before her bared its teeth, she did the same. It was an ugly, mainland thing, and it thought it was vicious.

Still the picture of dissatisfaction, Niva's attention turned to the Alkidike.

They were closer now, close enough that Nivalis could say with confidence that she didn't know this woman, and as such, she had no business treading this close to her home and bringing with her a filthy creature that thought to snarl at an Elaria on her own territory. "Turn back now, cousin," Nivalis ordered stiffly. "We do not welcome outsiders onto our lands, Alkidike or otherwise."  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

Was she...was she baring her teeth at Mvua? Mnyiri never carried exceptionally high expectations for the Elaria, especially since they were being raised by mentally stunted, traditionalists on a secluded island, but she had hope for more than...this.

"Calm, Mvua. Manners." It didn't calm him; rather, seeing the elaria bare herself to him seemed to fan the flames of his aggression. Mnyiri had to physically reach out, grasp his mane and pulled him back. So far they were being peaceful; and if at all possible she wanted to keep it that way.

Goddess, but she didn't look happy, did she?

"Cous-? Ah, yes, yes, sorry." Mnyiri cleared her throat, having been caught off guard with such a greeting. "I don't have any intention of going forward; you obviously don't want that, and I don't want to go where I'm not wanted." Slowly, ever so slowly, she reached around behind her and pulled an empty scroll from her pack, opening it with a slow turn so that she could show the elaria that it was, indeed, a blank sheet of paper.

"I come as an envoy from the leaders in my village. They know nothing of your kind except what rumors the earthlings-" Was that an appropriate amount of hate? She hoped so, "-spin. I simply want the truth so that I can tell the others. That is, those of use that were too young to fight in Sauti and have remained in Chibale."  

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

Add 'untrained' to the list. Nivalis sneered at the creature and its master as the Alkidike buried a hand in its mane to restrain it. What good was a beast that couldn't even follow simple commands? It was worse than a 'pet;' it was just as bad as any savage animal, at this point. But as obnoxious as the creature was, it was neither here nor there.

Nivalis' gaze raised to the woman once more.

It wasn't very often that she saw someone unfamiliar. The last time she had, it had been just a head, the head of the woman Naqenni had slain in retribution for their fallen sister. Nivalis had already decided she didn't like unfamiliar people. She didn't want to look at them, she didn't want to speak to them, she didn't want them on her land. Everything about this meeting was unwelcome, and Nivalis felt confident that all of the Alkidike on the council, as well as the Matron would agree that no one, even a sister of their own, especially a sister of their own, needed to know anything about what happened in their camp.

"Let the earthlings say what they will," she muttered. "What happens on the mainland is no business of mine, and I've no reason to want to tell your camp leaders anything." She sneered. "Especially if they only send their lackey and don't have the decency to seek me out themselves."  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

The elders would surely curl up and die if they ever found out she was pretending to be an official 'envoy'. They were likely hoping she would be killed on this little expedition, but Mnyiri was already getting so much more information than she'd had before just by seeing the elaria. Of course, she couldn't raise her head fully to look at her, not if she wanted to keep her hood in place, but still...

"So you have nothing to say to them? Besides a bunch of hissy nonsense?" Maybe that was the wrong thing to say, but dammit, she had spent too long trudging through this hell hole of an island to end up with that. "Blah blah lackey, blah blah mainland," Mnyiri murmured, folding up her materials before stuffing them back into her satchel. Useless. She had to mind her tongue around the one elaria who wasn't about to tell her a damn thing, but really, what did she expect? It was just so frustrating; to have so much information trapped inside the mind of a woman who stood in front of her and not being able to tap into it...  

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

'Hissy nonsense.'

Nivalis' antenna curled in close to her shoulders, twitching with a barely leashed offense at the mainland woman who claimed to want something from her, but also showcased a bizarre sense of disrespect. It was almost unfamiliar to Niva, who, in her young age, was still used to her sisters treating her with reverence. She'd learned early that there was a certain unaccepted behavior when dealing with family, and as the mystic, she was expected to give respect as much as receive it.

But Alkidike or not, this girl was not family, and Nivalis had little patience for outsiders these days. "Nothing," she repeated in a clipped tone. "They banished my cousins here as a punishment and can't possibly expect they- or I would feel inclined to share information now."

They were a people born to hate and hold grudges, and though Nivalis had never been personally slighted by the mainland, it was her duty to keep her sisters' ideals close at heart. Mainlanders couldn't be trusted, especially not with knowledge. There were still several paces between them, a distance Niva had kept up due to a sensible wariness. But feeling ever-so-slightly bolder, she stepped forward. "Take your beast," she gestured to the creature, "and leave. I will do you the courtesy of telling my sisters of a intruder after a full day's passing. If you are wise, that will be enough to make your way far from our territory."  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

"No wonder your kind are labeled as extremists." Mnyiri muttered. It may have been intended as a quiet slight, but the woman knew nothing of whispers. She didn't understand it and quite possibly never would; this black and white view of what was right, wrong, and what needed eradicated. And perhaps that's why she was allowed to go wherever she pleased, and this prickly puss was stuck on her island.

When gestured to Mvua snarled, moving one paw closer to the elaria. Mnyiri reached out to brush her fingers against his skin, intermingling them into his mane. It calmed him somewhat, but she knew he wouldn't stay that way for long. She needed to move.

Mnyiri clucked her tongue with a little snort. "How generous of you." She had no intention of leaving, simply because this one insisted she should, but she would make herself harder to find. There was still so much she needed to learn before returning to Chibale.

But, it was becoming apparent she wasn't going to get that by sticking around here. So, with her pointer and middle finger, Mnyiri gave a mock salute to the elarian, intending to turn and leave when the action knocked more than a few of her dreads loose. They tumbled out of her hood, spilling over her right shoulder like snow.  

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

Extremists.

It was what her cousins were called, and the word didn't feel as much a slight as the other woman probably thought it should've. 'Extremist' tendencies were all Nivalis knew. They were what she'd been raised on, and thanks to the still fairly recent (in terms of time of existence when compared to other races), nothing else had yet had a chance to blossom. There were no alternatives to being an 'extremist' in her camp. Her minty eyes narrowed, and she held her head high.

But at least the Alkidike woman seemed to take heed of her warnings and looked ready to depart. If she chose to linger and was caught by someone more volatile (and experienced with handling intruders), then it wouldn't be because Niva hadn't tried to give her the option to flee. She'd done all she could and said all that she'd been prepared to say.

In that moment, at least.

Nivalis' gaze fixed on the sampling of long, white dreads that spilled forth from the woman's hood. Immediately, her expression puckered into one of even greater distaste than it had been previously.

White dreads. She knew of only one of her cousins who'd colored their hair. None of her sisters ever had, to her knowledge. It was a sign of disrespect, to go out of your way to chance something the goddess had so intentionally given them. That was Niva's first thought upon seeing the woman's hair, an intentional change. She couldn't go so far as to think in terms of hybrid or not. She'd never seen a woman of mixed blood, being that Elzira couldn't create them, herself.

"Your elders sent someone so disrespectful of their own culture to learn about mine?" Niva murmured quietly, head cocked lightly to one side and expression some combination of pensive and indignant. Was it their goal to disrespect her tribe? Would she put it past them if it was? They had banished their own family to lands that were initially night unlivable to them.  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

At first Mnyiri didn't understand what the other was looking at. She narrowed her gaze, almost going so far as to shrug her shoulders and ask what was so fascinating before it dawned on her. The brush thick, dreaded hair against her collar bone was all she needed to know things could get very ugly very quick.

Her most immediate concern was what the other would choose to do with this knowledge. Obviously her elders would have taught her against anything that didn't look like her or her cousins, which mean abnormalities like white hair wouldn't be easily explained. Maybe she could pass it off as a mutation, something that would take the attention away from her hybrid gen-

Disrespectful? She just looked...disgusted, which wasn't great, but it was a look Mnyiri had familiarized herself with over the years. There was no immediate need to attack and dismember, which mean...that she still didn't know Mnyiri was a hybrid. Hah! The git thought she had some kind of weird dye job, which was as amusing as it was terrifying. She was STILL in hot water, but nothing as terrible as she may have been otherwise.

"I'm sorry if my dye offends you. Really, I am, it was...made in error. A youthful mistake." She pawed at her locks, clearly torn over something. It may have come across that she was upset over her decision, but really it was the word 'mistake' that stuck with her. Mnyiri was proud of her colors, but for the sake of her life she couldn't say it.

"My elders are hopeful that this trip can reform me. To help show me what it is that I lack and to make me into a better being." It wasn't untrue; they were definitely hoping this trip would change her. They WANTED the elaria to attack her for what she was just so she would get out of their hair. Too bad Mnyiri wasn't keen on rolling over and dying.  

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

An error. Nivalis' expression pinched from distaste into an outright snarl. It was clearly an 'error.' She wasn't blind; she could see as much without being told. Such disrespect. Such blatant physical destruction of the features her goddess had given her. It had been the woman's own choice to make. Whether she felt ashamed of it now or not didn't change that. The upset on the Alkidike's face meant nothing. She didn't even have the decency to defend her own actions to someone who, for all intents and purposes, was an outsider to her.

Filth. The word came to Nivalis on a hiss of a thought, whispered in the same tone that she'd heard the matron speak of those mainland Alkidike who would go so far as to mate with earthling scum.

Was this cousin like them? To Niva, it felt like all of those who'd stayed behind surely must be. Nivalis had known that her cousins over the great salt sea weren't as well off mentally as those who'd traveled here. How could they be, if they treated themselves like this or allowed their sisters to treat themselves like this?

And then, then they had the audacity to send their problem child to her island? No. Absolutely not. It was unforgivable. Nivalis' words started as a low scoff. "I don't care what they want," she retorted briskly. "They dishonor me, my tribe, and themselves by sending a creature like you here. Worse that they can't even 'reform' you themselves; they rely on others." She still knew so little about this Alkidike, but the respect she felt for her was low enough that Niva didn't mind putting her back to the other woman. "I've been lenient in giving you a chance to retreat that you probably don't deserve. If I see you again, it won't be as such."  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

[7/10]

The longer Mnyiri had to deny her heritage the more she felt sick inside. It was as if her true feelings were being repressed and transformed into a keldari; on that sunk it's fangs further into her heart the more she tried to fit what this woman wanted from her. Well, turns out she didn't want anything from her, nothing was going to please her, and Mnyiri was pushed past the breaking point.

"A creature like me?" Mnyiri snorted. "You know nothing about me. You won't even try! You bought a shitty story at face value, and I have to wonder just how far your stupidity goes. I mean seriously! You could have shot me down at any point, but you listened; what, not getting enough attention back home? Or maybe you just like hearing yourself talk?"

She didn't mean to go off like that. Mnyiri had been trying to stay civil; to keep her mouth shut, to keep her head down and pretend like she actually cared about what this one had to say. But honestly, no amount of research in the world was worth hearing this kind of talk.

"I don't need to be reformed, and they didn't send me. I only said that so you wouldn't stab me, but I don't even know if you're capable of it." She released her hold on Mvua, allowing him to move a few steps in front of her. "I wanted to know what you were like, but I shouldn't have even bothered. You're just young; young, arrogant, and blind."
 

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

Nivalis was prepared to turn her back to the woman and walk away. She ought to have long before this moment, since she'd already told the Alkidike that she wasn't interested in hearing anything she had to say nor being a part of whatever information-gathering she was doing. Niva knew that neither she, nor her sisters, nor her Extremist cousins wanted to make friendly with the mainland again, and though she was their mystic, she wasn't of an age yet where she could stand to make such decisions on her own.

"You have consistently had much more to say than I have," Nivalis retorted, spinning on her heel as she'd intended to put the mainlander at her back. The potential was there to be attacked, she'd as good as opened herself up to it from this position, but mainlanders were weak, and while Niva hadn't seen fit to shoot or stab this one, neither had the other Alkidike. Nivalis decided she wasn't afraid of her or her ill-trained beast.

She cast a quick glance over her shoulder. "And my tribe and I have nothing to gain from listening to even even acknowledging a liar." Since it sounded an awful lot like the Alk was admitting to the entirety of their conversation being one big lie.

Nivalis stepped farther away and attempted to steady her racing heart and quick breathing as she did. Her training was coming along as well as anyone might expect. She was young, yes, but blessed with Elzira's gifts and destined to be a leader. She exhaled and shifted her weight, feeling foliage and dead leaves beneath her bare feet. She pushed at them with her magic, calling forth a gust of wind to lift and carry them toward the Alkidike's legs, and as they did, they lit with a burst of heat, the edges catching ablaze with flames and dancing across the ground to catch others on fire. Niva scoffed softly. "I do not need to shoot you to hurt you."  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

"Yes, do ignore the one contact you've had from the outside world and rot in your swamp. Forgive me for interrupting you from that." Mnyiri's blood was boiling. She had wasted so much time in coming here, and the embarrassment of knowing deep in her soul that this trip was doomed to failure, from a research perspective, from the start didn't help. There was nothing to be gained here save for a cursory analysis of their physical traits. Honestly, what good was that going to do her? Any earthling on Yael could have given that information to her. This was nothing to take back to the elders!

She needed a sample. Something physical to bring back and shove underneath the elder's nose. It wouldn't be right to attack someone so young, and yet, it wasn't as if the other was shirking from a confrontation.

The spark of magic licking at her toes surprised Mnyiri, even brought out a sharp inhale, but it was just enough to steel her resolve. "Mvua," She barked, "attack." As blood thirsty as her radaku was he wouldn't go for a killing blow without her permission, so there was little worry in her that he would maim the girl when he took off. The radaku leapt at her back with a full snarl, jaw opened and prepared to snap down on her shoulder.