Hug the Children with your Nuclear Arms

If everyone else in the Rebellion thought as Quill did, that Akaelin only ruled through relation, then no matter how hard he tried, he wouldn't last. Mutiny or assassination would be around the corner, even in a situation such as this. "I think we should go one of the desert areas," Seff said, getting off topic. "Or at least the outskirts. I hear Fennec live there. I wanna catch one and keep it."

((I gotta go for tonight. See ya.))

"You may be in luck," Quill said. "Adyro, weren't you saying that there were a couple desert areas that you wanted to visit for possible warriors?"

"It possible, yeah," Adyro said. "There some warrior clans that no follow Nathifa, Set, or other pantheon gods. They follow pagan-type tradition and older gods, yeah."

"Then I say, lead the way, oh fuzzy one!" Seff declared happily, falling into a light skip beside Sayne.

((short.))

Adyro rolled his eyes at the fuzzy comment, but let out a short, barking hyena laugh and turning to Siva. "You fly, yeah?" he asked.

"Yup, I can fly real well," she responded. "Why?"

"If I go into biped form, you able to lift me to air, yeah?" He asked. "No know my way from here, I need high view."

"Sure thing!" As soon as Adyro shrank and was able to stand up on two legs, the same furry-leathery wings grew from Siva's back instead of her arms, enabling her to grab Adyro and lift him into the air.

"I'mma gonna get a likkle foxy..." Seff cooed to herself. "And I'mma gonna pet him, and love him, and name him Ricky."

((Sorry for the ultra short posts. Once we actually get into the desert, I'll have something. Gotta go for tonight.))

"There direction, yeah!" Adyro said as Siva's wings strained against the air, attempting to keep the two of them in the air. While Jetta's wings were powerful enough to easily lift herself and two other people into the air, her own wings were built for speed rather than strength.

"Good," she said, trying to give them a smooth descent towards the ground, though landing with a little thump and retracting her sore wings back into her back.

"Sorry, yeah," Adyro commented. "I can change form, but not really change weight, yeah. We go this way." The hyena took off at a brisk trot in a southerly direction. "Empassy and Vefip gonna join us on way, they scouting out villages."

Seff squealed with delight as she eagerly followed the hyena...thing. She was grateful for the fact that she didn't have to worry about burning, since she tanned so easily. Her friends used to tell her that she must've been half mexican.
Sayne would've loudly complained about going to the desert, but one, his voice was so low and stuffy sounding that no one would probably be able to understand him, and two, he would never risk that kind of embarassment.

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As the air around them started to get warmer, Yokos eyelids began to droop. The previous evening had been long and excruciating. Hel was getting bored with the birdy people, so more than likely she would call them off soon. However, this also left room for a potential new kind of punishment.

Yay.

He laid curled up in a ball inside the bag, his bushy tail covering his small, narrow snout. It would be nice to be able to take a little nap. His eyes shot open, one big ear twitching. No, no, no. He had to stay awake. He had something important to do...right? Right? Damn, what had he come here to do? His ear twitched again as he heard a rustling inside the bag, as if something was in there with him. But that wasn't possible. He had been the only living thing to jump in the bag. Maybe it was a zombie! Yoko clamped his eyes shut, trying not to think about it. Eventually, he drifted off to sleep.

Adyro stopped at a spot where the trees were starting to thin and the change in temperature was very noticeable. The green smell of plants was a lot fainter in the air and the air had become dry.

"We reach main village tomorrow," Adyro said. "It good rest here for tonight. If other two been doing job, than all tribe in area will meet us, yeah. We camp now."

Kitai dismounted Leartes with relief, stretching her back, which had become sore with a full day of riding even on a creature so smooth-gaited as the hellcat. As soon as Quill got off her horse, Kitai went to unsaddle the horse and take off the saddlebags.

As Kitai lifted the saddlebag, whatever had been poking Yoko in the side earlier now returned with full force. The foxed jerked away with a loud and audible squeak. He froze, realizing that there was no way that someone hadn't heard it. He had to get out of there. No! Play dumb. Act like an animal or something, and perhaps they might think that he was a wild fennec who had jumped in the bag. Fennecs could jump up to four times their body length after all. ...So....it would work...right?

Curious, Seff lifted the saddlebag flap and peered inside. Her eyes sparkled and grew wide as she clasped her hands together. "Ricky!" she squealed, lifting Yoko out of the bag. "Yay!"

((Note: I would laugh if Kitai recognized it as Yoko, got jealous, and punched Seff in the face. XD))

"Fennec? Around here?" Adyro asked with a puzzled look. "I not seen fennec in scrub forest."

Due to Adyro's comment on the fox, Kitai took a good long whiff of the fennec, taking in its scent. Other than its gender, she couldn't tell anything about it due to a strong smell of...stable? How would a fox that seemingly would have jumped into her saddlebags have gotten a stable smell unless it had gotten into the saddlebags in a stable?

....Yoko? Kitai thought. Though that was what she suspected, saying anything about it would only cause trouble. "He is sure cute," she commented to Seff. "You should keep him." If that was Yoko, then he would be able to change form and talk to her when Seff fell asleep. She berated herself fr looking for Yoko everywhere despite her suspicions.

"I am going to keep him," Seff said happily, petting the Fennecs head. "I'm gonna find a big red ribbon for me and a little collar with a charm that says Ricky on, mm-hmm." She looked down at Yoko with wide eyes and a bright grin, deciding to give him a big, semi-bone crushing hug. Yoko squeaked as he felt the sudden pressure around is rib cage, and his face was pressed right into the owls boobs. He pressed his paws up against her and squirmed, almost leaping out of her arms. However, Seff had a tight grip, and wasn't quite ready to let him go. "No, no, no. You stay here Ricky," Seff scolded.

"Umm, look how late it's getting," Kitai said, glancing at the sky, which was beginning to grow dark. While any regular animal in its right mind would have tried to escape from Seff's crushing grip, what seemed to motivate this one was that it was getting pressed directly into her chest. Now that was something that wouldn't normally bother an plain animal. Now she was even more convinced of who it was.

"Yup, time to set up camp!" Quill said, hooking arms with Kitai. "I think it's time we had a sister sleepover! Why don't we go set up our stuff away from everyone else's, paint my toenails and your toeclaws, and tell ghost stories all night?" By the way she was acting, Kitai could clearly see that her twin was on the same wavelength as herself.

"Over-?" was all she managed to get out before being yanked away into a spot that had slightly thicker trees and shrubs than the rest of the scrub forest.

Inwardly, Yoko was a bit curious towards Quills words. No way in hell would she ever want to paint her toenails and tell ghost stories all night, so there had to be some kind of motivation for her actions. He thought back to Kamiras taunting, about Quill going psycho and killing Kitai.

But she wouldn't do that...would she? ...No, no she wouldn't.

Seff started to set up her tent with one hand, keeping her other arm wrapped firmly around Yoko so he wouldn't get away. He wanted nothing more than to do so though. At least he now knew that Kitai was alright.

"What are you doing!?" Kitai asked fearfully. The two sisters had sat in silence with Kitai starting to doze off for a while until it seemed most of the group had fallen asleep. Then all of a sudden Quill had pinned her down with one hand on her neck and the other pressed against a knife against her arm. Though it had seemed that she had no ill feelings toward her death, Kitai was now scared for her life.

"Making sure he'll come," Quill responded, slicing the knife across her sister's bicep deep enough to cause blood to start flowing. Kitai didn't know what she was doing until she smelled her own blood. Her twin's idea hit her and she went with it, not covering the sound up. If Yoko smelled that, it would make sure that he would get away from Seff.

"Cheerio," Quill scrambled out of the tent and leaped onto a waiting Leartes, riding off fast into the forest. Yoko would be unlikely to stop to listen to any explanations.

Seff had an obnoxiously loud snore.

Tucked firmly under her arm, Yoko hadn't bothered to move until he was absolutely certain that she was sound asleep. After a few minutes of snoring, he figured that it would be okay to move. As he started to wiggle free, something felt...not quite right. As soon as he got his head unstuck, the sharp scent of blood assaulted him. Not just any kind of blood, werewolf blood. More specifically, Kitais blood.

Damn it, Quill would hurt Kitai. With an audible growl, he scurried out of the tent and shifted form. Damn whoever saw him, he would be faster on two legs.

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"Kitai?" he breathed, flipping the tent flap open. He found Kitai on the ground, blood oozing out from her arm. He would have to kill Quill later. Kneeling beside her, he silently cursed himself for only being able to heal himself, not others. He pulled his shirt sleeve down a bit and applied some pressure to the small cut. "What happened?" he whispered subconciously, brushing a stray strand of hair out of her face. Why would Quill just decide to cut Kitais arm and then leave? He knew that his presence wouldn't have scared her off, Quill wasn't that easily intimidated.

"Don't worry," Kitai said. She took Yoko's arm out of the way and licked the blood off of her own arm. "She wasn't trying to kill me. If she had been, she would have either blown me to pieces or cut my neck, not my arm. I think she thought that Seff was likely to chain you to her ankle or something like that. It'll be fine by tomorrow." Kitai threw her arms around him in a hug, burying her face into his neck. "You have no idea how glad I am to see you."

Quill chuckled as she saw Yoko enter Kitai's tent. Now it was probably time to really get lost unless she wanted to hear some noises that she would rather not. Though the blood proved to be effective, she didn't fancy getting decomposed in a plan to get Yoko away from Seff.

((Gotta go for tonight.))

While he was glad that she was fine, Yoko still didn't like the idea of Kitai getting hurt in any way, let alone in some random scheme to draw his attention. He wrapped his arms around the werewolf and pulled her into a sitting position, a real smile gracing his features for the first time in weeks. "I think I can take a guess," he said warmly, resting his chin on top of her head. He reminded himself that this was probably just hormones at work, and not to get his hopes up. It would be his luck that he loved a woman who just wanted to be friends. Never would he admit it though. The last thing he ever wanted to do was pressure her, or ruin what they already had.

"How have you been feeling?" he asked, trying to get his thoughts away from things he'd rather not think about. The twins had obviously gotten a little bigger since the last time he had seen Kitai. He knew of some of the things that came along with pregnancy, such as the whole throwing up in the morning thing, and constantly having to go to the bathroom, but didn't know when they started.

"A lot hungrier than usual, but otherwise really good. And I have a craving for strawberries." She laughed as she remembered Quill's pregnancy and her same craving. "But I should probably stay behind with the rest of the Rebellion until Arakil takes me back to Chalca. I'm not in any state to fight right now."
Kitai took Yoko's hands and guided them down to rest against her slightly swollen stomach, where he would be able to feel the fluttering heartbeats of the twins that were growing inside her. "Yoko-" Kitai had started to say something, but then stopped herself. She didn't know how he would react to what she had wanted to say.

((so..I was watching SNL last night...hosted by Taylor Lautner. That would've been "eeewww"...except there was a "Team Edward vs Team Jacob high school girls" skit and he played a Team Edward fan....also making out with a picture of Robert Pattinson's face during the skit. Great quote from it - "Yes, I know, notebooks are for notes, not for kissing" XXDDD))

Yoko tucked the information about the strawberries away in the back of his mind as he listened to Kitai speak. It was so good to hear her voice again, especially when he was never certain if it would be the last time or not. When she guided his hands down to her stomach, a feeling of pride washed through him, and he knew that she would be an excellent mother for their two children.

“Yoko-”

If he had had a heart, it would’ve sunk right into his stomach. Was that uncertainty, laced behind that simple, two syllable word? The fox let out a small breath and slid one of his hands out from under Kitais, resting it on top of her hand. “I’m sorry, Kitai,” he said softly. “I’ve been too forward lately. I know you just think of me as your friend and I don’t want to pressure you by being stupid. I’m very grateful to you. If I had never known you, I’d have gone through the rest of my life numb, medicated or not.”

He rubbed her index finger with his thumb, wishing that he could remove his gloves and feel her skin beneath them. However, if he so much as grazed her with even the pad of his fingertip, both Kitai and the twins would simply decompose, like a twisted version of King Midas.

There were only three simple words Yoko wanted to say to her now. Three words, three syllables that would either drive her away, or pull her closer.

((Gah. I wish I had seen it. I was working last night. TT^TT))

Yoko had guessed wrong.

Relief and concern washed over Kitai at the same time as Yoko spoke, voicing his concerns that he had been selfishly using her as a sexual object when he thought she thought he was still only her best friend. But after this latest, longest period of separation from Yoko, she had come to realize that he might have become a lot more to her. What now made her certain was the fact that she had left with the patrol rather than staying behind in the tunnels like she would have been safe and could have helped with the war effort by forging and fixing. It was a completely selfish decision on her part, especially considering that she always put the Rebellion first over all else. She had forged blades out of silver just so they would stand more of a fighting chance despite the danger that came to herself by fighting with the lycan toxin. Kitai had cut off her own sister's head when she had been about to kill a human member of the Rebellion. She had always known what had to be done for the group, even if it made herself miserable.

But not this time.

This time, she had chosen to go with a group that would have to be ready to fight off enemies, despite her inability to fight with the children she carried. She forwent being useful through the fires of the forge to take this opportunity for one reason, and one reason only: there was no way Yoko could have gotten into the tunnels unnoticed. The aboveground group was her only chance to see him again, and now that had been granted to her.

"Yoko, you are stupid," she said, responding to what he had said just before. "I'm stupid, we're both stupid. Stupid for not having the courage to say it earlier." Kitai adjusted her position so that she straddled Yoko's legs and so her face was level with his, looking him in his coffee-and-milk shade of brown eyes. "Yoko, you're more than my best friend. I love you."

"Yoko, you are stupid."

He looked down at the ground sheepishly, realizing that he had probably just offended her when he didn't want to make her anything short of happy. He wanted to be there for her every moment possible, but lately those were becoming fewer and fewer. After tonight, he didn't know if there would be any more like this. Yoko wanted to keep his promise to the werewolf, but more than that, he wanted her and their children to be safe. If the only way to do it resulted in his death, then so be it.

"I'm stupid, we're both stupid. Stupid for not having the courage to say it earlier."

His eyes quickly darted to hers as she shifted to a rather provocative position. He moved his hands to either side of her waist, subconciously wanting her closer, and at the same time wanting to make sure she didn't fall over backwards. He thought he knew what she was going to say, but didn't make any assumptions. It would be way too good to even be possibly true.

"Yoko, you're more than my best friend. I love you."

And there it was. Three words, three syllables he hadn't had the courage to utter. Three simple little words that he had wanted to hear for so long now. They wrapped themselves around his frayed mind, giving him something solid and certain to hold on to. But was it even certain? Or was this simply a hormone fueled confession? With his luck, it was the latter, though he despreately wished not to believe it.

"You always were far more brave than me," he breathed, sweeping Kitais bangs away from her forehead to gently kiss her there. He let them fall back into place, slowly sliding his hand to her cheek, looking into her beautiful green eyes for what felt like the last time. "I love you too," he said softly, feeling a sense of comfort and contentment at finally saying it aloud.
A knot formed itself in his stomach, as that little tiny voice in the back of his mind nagged, 'It's not going to be like this forever,' and a big part of him knew that that tiny little voice was right. If this wasn't a hormone fueled love that would come to pass, then he would die, either by Hels hand, or one of the Rebellions.

He would never have his happy ending.

Kitai saw Yoko's hesitation and sad, almost fearful look in his eyes as he gave her a light kiss on the forehead. She too was worried about what would be the end result of this war, especially when it seemed to have no resolution that didn't result in Yoko's death. If not for carrying the kids, she would have already resolved to do away with herself should he die. Even though there would be lots of people around to help her no matter how the war ended, there were too many kids beginning to grow up without one of their parents. She couldn't even for sure count Quill's help with this, since from her manner it seemed that she was fully prepared to go back to the abyss after this trouble was passed. An involuntary yawn escaped from her mouth as the long day of travelling finally began to catch up with her.

Despite her desire to have all of Yoko for as long as was possible, never knowing what the last time she would see him would be, right now she and their children needed rest. "Yoko, will you sleep with me tonight?" She asked. "I know you'll probably have to be gone tomorrow, but please wake me up before you go." Kitai took Yoko's hands and lowered them both to the floor, where she pressed herself against him even as she felt exhaustion and sleep overtaking her.

"Of course," Yoko replied, answering both of her pleas at once. What he would've liked was to lay there all night, into the next morning, all throughout the afternoon, to the evening, and then repeat. He held her close while she pressed herself up against him, listening to the steady sound of her breathing, her heart beating steadily in her chest.

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Sunlight streamed through the wall of the tent, not catching the fox by surprise. His eyes had been open the entire night. While he wasn't tired, he could've been able to sleep. However, there were so many thoughts whirling through his mind that unconciousness had been out of the question. People were going to start waking up soon, some possibly arriving at the tent to check on Kitai. Yoko propped himself up on his elbow and nudged Kitais shoulder.

((For whatever reason...I'm listening to Titanic music right now. XD))

Kitai gazed, frightened, as two opposing sides rushed at each other with weapons drawn. It took her a couple heartbeats to recognize the scene in her dream: it was the battle in the Salinas civil was that she had almost died in. The enemy outnumbered them, had superior forces and - wait, was that Akaelin? She shook her head in confusion as she saw the leader of the Rebellion charge past the dumbstruck werewolf with Nathifa by his side. Now that she was looking closer she could see that everyone on the side she was fighting for was in the Rebellion, while the silhouettes of four horsemen and three gods came into view over the horizon.

A bloodcurdling scream

Kitai whipped around to see that one of the riders, heavily cloaked, had used their horse as a decoy and was now wreaking havoc within their group. But she gasped when the horsewoman turned her head to reveal the face of Quill beneath the hood. Her sister lifted a blade and ran it through her stomach, causing the mental pain of knowing what had just been done along with the physical pain. The last thing she saw before passing into darkness was the form of Yoko rushing toward her, and the shape of his brother sinking his teeth into his neck. The darkness closed in and she could see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing. But she could smell something.

something dead

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Kitai woke with a start as Yoko nudged her shoulder and instinctively clung to his arm desperately, her eyes wet with tears. Everyone was safe and there was no battle, but part of her dream had been real - she could smell something dead. However, the scent was easily identifiable as the carcass of a deer, which judging by the crunching sounds and smell that accompanied it was being eaten nearby by Leartes. She tried to put her nightmare behind her as she opened her eyes to look into Yoko's

"Good morning," she said.