Completed [Jungle Wilds] Purebred And Half-Breed (Tinnok)

[Soshakuakamamushi]

You bet it's easy. She kept her sarcastic remark in her mind, if Tinnok didn't have the capability of speaking two short syllable name, then Aka didn't know what to think of her. She watched as the half-breed took care of her bow, that bow could have ended her life earlier, but the woman chose not to. What Tinnok said about her parents eased her doubts, so the fact that Dhani females couldn't be impregnated by other races still hold true, Tinnok was a product of a male Dhani with a Myrian female. However, another issue replaced it, how could a Myrian and Dhani fall in love with each other? It must take a lot of understanding for two ever-hating races to mingle, let alone produce a child. "Uuuh, your parentsss mussst love each other very much..." She mumbled, but it was clear enough for Tinnok to hear, she assumed the union was indeed driven by love, one couldn't exactly mate while trying to kill each other. Aka didn't consider the notion of "involuntary forced mating" into her consideration.

Looking at the woman now, she could see some subtle scales adorned her skin, rather similar to the aquatic women of Mura, but more subtle. Aka unconsiously reached out her right hand to rub Tinnok's scales that was on her shoulder near to her neck. "....He?!" She realized what she was doing and immediately pulled back, breaking eye contact as she did so."I uuuh... s-sssorry..." Why should she apologize? She couldn't believe the woman's stature was getting to her. Aka occasionally glanced at the wrappings that held Tinnok's chest, her brows frowning each time. Good, the half-breed understood her viewpoint, it was her who was small, everything was just so petching big. However, Aka felt like the woman was saying that just to comfort her insecurities. Aka looked at her own chest and covered them again, even a fellow female Viper could say she had no visible secondary sexual trait growth. It was a good thing Tinnok haven't met another Viper other than her... well, at least she hoped it was the case.

"Hehe, Twenty-five? You're still a little... girl..." Her tease got quieter and turned into mumble in the end. By no means was Tinnok a little girl, she was bigger than Aka in every physical aspect there was. Taller, curvier, more toned, and gave off the impression of a female warrior. If Tinnok was a full-blooded Constrictor Dhani, she would make a very good Queen Consort or perhaps, Queen herself. What came next was one the most bewildering statements coming from her, she actually lived here? In this unforgiving jungle filled with predators, monsters, giant birds, and brute savages? Not to mention the occasional Dhani prowling around. However, her shock was eased a bit to know Tinnok was a daughter of Caiyha, that made sense, a disciple of the Nature Goddess living in harmony with nature... no matter how savage this "nature" was.

Aka noted the very elaborate tattoo on her right arm, it looked very alive like nature itself. Teeming with plants and animals. Wait... Aka reached out with her right hand and rubbed the "tattoo" again, it was not a tattoo. It felt real, so alive, even the leaves felt like the real thing. "O-oh wow..." Aka forgot about politeness and scooted closer, using both hands to examine the mark if Tinnok didn't make any actions to prevent her from doing so. "I-isss thisss Goddessss Caiyha'sss mark?" She looked up to Tinnok, she really expected the answer to be 'yes'. If not, then this mark was one awesome magic.

"You know, I..." Aka contemplated to show Tinnok her gnosis mark as well, the twinning flames she got from Ivak. But she would save it for later, not until the Half-breed asked or noticed. Even with her being naked, Aka's long hair and narrow shoulders somewhat covered it, but the reddish flaming hue should be obvious to the half-breed if she spared a focused glance at Aka's back.

"I came here..." What answer was Tinnok expecting? Why did she go out here in the night? "...for hunting, of courssse." Though Aka got the feeling the question was not directed as such a simple activity, it sounded like Tinnok was asking on 'why' was she here, in the Jungle, not in her desert. "...." Aka didn't know whether she should be honest or not, but Tinnok told about her family, maybe she could spare her some information. "W-well uuh, I come here becaussse... becaus-..." I accidentally killed my mentor, ran aimlessly, got lost in the jungle, almost died, but saved and enslaved by a Constrictor. Could she really answer that? Her lips trembled. Yes, she could, Aka needed someone to let this out of her chest, everybody in the Nest knew about it. Tinnok was a Dhani as well in a sense, she felt comfortable telling her.

"Well, I kinda ssstumbled and got lossst in the Jungle, coming from the North." She didn't want to tell about her accidental murder. "T-then a Dhani, a Conssstrictor, kinda uhm..." Rescued? Saved? No, it was enslavement. "found me and he uuh... took me in asss hisss s-..ss...servant." There, it held the same meaning... somewhat. Aka figured Tinnok would ask the identity of the aformentioned Constrictor, but she wouldn't tell if she didn't ask.

"Uhm... C-caiyha'sss mark, can it really make you talk to animalsss?" She heard some Phylonurist in Zinrah could touch a beast and made it calm down miraculously. No violence, no intimidation, just touch.

[Tinnok]

Her bowstring well seasoned, the Half breed slung the weapon back over her back and looked around for something else to occupy her time. Taking up her dagger once again she began slicing into the skin of the Okapi, gently teasing the hide away from the meat and muscles underneath. The whole pelt would be ruined of course, as Aka had very well eviscerated a good chunk of the body, but Tinnok was still interested in preserving some of those beautiful stripes around the legs of the creature.

She worked slowly, listening the Aka stammer next to her. She had an excuse for talking like an idiotic barbarian, but she couldn't see why the Viper had such an issue. It was like she was second guessing everything she told to Tinnok, though then again...it wasn't as if she could blame the Dhani for that.

Then she snorted, removing the dagger form the hide of the mammal so as not to damage her work. "Love?" Yellow eyes glanced up incredulously at Aka. "The word, rape, not love." And without anymore comment she went back to her work.

She was interrupted again when a finger brushed her neck, slits angling downward to see Aka already snatching back her hand. At the apology Tinnok only shrugged, and turned back to the Okapi. Slowly her blade sliced inch by inch, a soft sucking sound emanating from the congealing corpse. When she reached the haggard end where Aka had been cutting strips of the creature away, Tinnok rounded her cut and brought it along the creatures back, slowly sawing as she went.

At Aka's insult Tinnok smirked. "True, still have many things learn." She paused in her work as Aka caught sight of her Gnosis, watchig the surprise on her face when her joking question turned out to be reality. Tinnok twisted her arm to see what mysterious her strangler fig held today. Up in high in it's branches sat a yellow and green billed toucan, seperating a fig from a branch, a spider monkey hanging to the side, holding onto the foliage with two legs and a tail as tiny fingers cupped another fruit to his mouth. A Tamandua was sucking nectar out of some blossoming flowers on a lower branch, and wild long grass sprung up from the base of the tree, concealing the shadowed form of some predatorial beast lurking just out of reach. The half breed glanced up and nodded. "Yes, is gift from Caiyha." She watch the viper nearly share something with her, though what she wasn't sure, then leaned forward over the Okapi as Aka chose what bits of her history to tell her.

It only took a few chimes of cutting on Tinnok's, for the section of skin she worked with wasn't so big, and she peeled it back from the meat underneath, flipping the soft side onto her lap and using her dagger to scrape away the clinging inner matter that stuck to the skin, glancing up at Aka now and again to show her she was still listening. At the bit about coming here because she was hungry Tinnok chuckled, waiting patiently for a bit more info to be let out.

It all seemed reasonable, though her eyes narrowed when Aka said she was a servant. "I thought no Dhani was servant, why you still owe this snake anything?"

She could see Aka contemplating her response and decided to give her a little time by explaining her Gnosis. "It is not...talk, like speak, like we do." She paused a long moment, sorting out her thoughts and trying to find the right words. "You see what they see, feel what they feel, you speak in feels, color, mood, and they know." She sat back for a moment staring up at the sky.

"Hear grass below, leaves above, birds sing-" She paused, listening and then heard the bird call she had been referring to again. It was a warbler call, one she was familiar with, a local breed, but the sound was...familiar.

Suddenly Tinnok shot up, and grabbed Aka's arm, dragging her up as well. "Myrian scouts, close, I hear them call." She looked up at the trees, then back at the viper. "You climb? It easiest way for to hide." She wasn't sure the distance of the call, it was a standard call stating an area was clear, which could mean that they were moving away and wouldn't come into this section of forest, or it could mean they were headed straight for them.

[Soshakuakamamushi]

She watched the Half-breed making every use of the animal's body. Its pelt, meat, and fat. It looked troublesome and unnecessary to the Viper. She killed the animal just to be her meal, she didn't care about all the pelt peeling and other things. If Tinnok wanted them though, then by all means, she was done with the Okapi. Aka shifted to a more comfortable position, her scarlet eyes still scanning every inch of the woman's body. Then, Tinnok's reveal about the true nature of her parents' relationship made her body tense all over again.

"R-ra..ra-... hi... rap-..." Her breath hitched. She couldn't believe it, a male Dhani actually violated a Myrian female in such a way, condeming her to a fate worse than death by forcing the female to bear a child that had the blood of her race's arch-nemesis. Aka stared in disbelief, she knew about the vileness of her race, but actually meeting with a victim produced from the foul deed still struck her deep. Aka couldn't say anything to defend her race, nothing at all. Even with Tinnok not elaborating on the matter, her instinct as a female sympathized with the half-breed. "I-I'm sssorry..." That was all she could say at the moment.

What am I doing here... She began to doubt her role in this whole Myrian-Dhani war, she was a Viper stuck between an eternal fight between two savage races which kept on going by an ancient pact made by the Divines. God Ivak, maybe this is why you came to me? To change the fate of this accursed jungle? She found conviction. Yes, this must be why Ivak marked her as his agent, to bring change. With her flames, she would alter the course of this war, one way or another. Peaceful resolution looked impossible, but Ivak did the impossible by single-handedly bringing the Valterrian upon the world. Aka felt how foolish she had acted all this time, concerning herself with insignificant matters such as her own body and comfort where bigger, more important, matters still need resolving.

"...." Aka kept silent at Tinnok's calm reply to her little tease. How the half-breed smirked and just brushed away her taunt made the Viper felt really bad about herself. This woman was not only beautiful, but modest as well. While she was a child-like over-a-hundred years old girl acting like a spoiled princess, she couldn't compare herself to her anymore. Gritting her teeth, Aka tossed the topic away, replying to it would just destroy Tinnok's views on her.

"I sssee." She was right, the mark was a gnosis. The beautiful arrangement of animals and plants she couldn't name moved as it they were alive.

"I thought no Dhani was servant, why you still owe this snake anything?"

"B-becaussse, Sisster, h-he sssaved my life. If it not for Mamoru, I would be dead..." The Viper sighed, she realized about her revealing Mamoru's name to an odd woman in the middle of the Jungle. Aka shrugged, it wouldn't matter. Not like they were going to meet anyway. Mamoru would most likely try to kill the woman if he met her. Aka could understand Tinnok's logic though, some Dhanis just had no sense of gratitude, truly acting like how snakes were often portrayed in stories. Conniving back-stabbing petchers. Not her, she learnt to be grateful a long time ago. If it wasn't for the Nuit wizard, she would be mere scraps of bones buried beneath the sands of Eyktol desert.

"I sssee, so you can put yourssself in their eyesss and tell your feelingsss to them." Tinnok's explanation as simple enough. So the mark functioned as a way to empathize with animals and for them to empathize with her as well. Aka smiled gently, listening to Tinnok's story until she suddenly paused because of a bird's call. What happened next was so sudden, her arm being grabbed by Tinnok and her body forced to stand. She was about to ask why, but the Half-breed answered first.

"Myriansss..." Those foul creatures. She felt her gnosis flared as hatred burned within her, but due to Tinnok's story about her parents, Aka hesitated slightly. Just like how not all Dhanis were torture-loving Siku worshippers, maybe some Myrians were decent people as well. However, the ones who killed Dhani on sight definitely didn't deserve any mercy. This little hunting trip turned into another imminent fight for survival, just like always.

"C-climb?" Aka was confident with her acrobatics ability, but she lived for a hundred years on a desert, which didn't have trees on it. She could try to climb, but it would be clumsy and slow, not good for a life and death situation. "No, I can't climb fassst, Sisster." She got another idea though, a quaint little idea. "I can turn into my Viper form them coil around your body. Then you can carry me." She tried this tactic with Mamoru before in their fight at the Kandukta Basin last Summer, Aka was confident it would work.

The Viper crouched down and began transforming to her snake form, her hair receeding, pale skin replaced by red scales with black spots, and her limbs fusing into her body. Thirty ticks later, a red viper as long as normal cobras replaced the petite girl. Aka hissed and slithered to Tinnok's body, coiling around her shoulder and torso. She hissed again, signalling she was ready.

While Tinnok moved, Aka would prepare her res in the form of four gaseous res-ball floating beside Tinnok's shoulders, two balls on each shoulder. When those Myrians showed up, she would launch them as fireballs and turn them into savage crisps.

[Tinnok]

Tinnok had truly wished to speak to Aka about Mamuro, which surely wasn't a common name...but now was most certainly not the time. At first, her yellow eyes were white with worry. Perhaps it was because the viper looked like a small child, or perhaps because she acted like it...or perhaps just because she had shared the Okapi, but she would be sad to see her die at the hands of Myrians...and did not want to die at the hands of the Myrians either.

Carry a Viper? Tinnok's eyes widened, thinking of Svan's smaller but still massive Dhani form. But she had said Vipers were small...

As Aka began shrinking and reforming, Tinnok shoved the Okapi pelt in her backpack, dragging out dark sections of leather in their place. She hadn't the time to attach the whole suit of dark Night Armor, but she was able to fasten the large section that went over her chest as well as her shins.

Her mouth opened in awe at the beautiful viper she was face with, being able to see slivers of red in the bits of moonlight that trickled down through the canopy. As the serpent circled around her shoulders, Tinnok began running back towards the tree she had descended from, reminded of Nissila her boa constrictor as the weight settled in. Her morphing ability was growing stronger, but Tinnok wondered if it was any faster....

The grass crackled and whipped at her legs as she ran, eyes staring at the dark silhouette of the trunk. As she ran she summoned up her djed, that pool of molten energy sitting right in her body's center. Like a warm light guiding her home it felt as it surged through her body flowing into the tips of her feet, the tips of her fingers. She felt as if the magic was remembering the use of this trick, and it was almost as if her nails began to lengthen on their own, without her pushing her will behind the Djed, which made those nails thicken, curve ever so slightly, and sharpen to a wondrous points. She growled to herself with the effort of summoning the magic faster than she had ever attempted, but also with the desire to escape this situation and not wonder if her life was about to end...for once.

So at a running sprint Tinnok lunged off the ground with Aka's form curled around her and she dug down into the bark of the tree. She had misjudged the distance a little, her depth perception off in the faint light, and pounded into the bark, elbows and knees scraping viciously against the rough substance. She winced but used the rest of the energy of her jump to start climbing the tree as fast as she could. Arm over arm, feet following in kind she scaled the bark, eyes glancing fervently around to see the torch light that would herald the scouts.

And right on time to her right she saw the glowing of orange darting wildly around the party of 8 scouts spread out in a fan formation. Tinnok's pace slowed immediately to a casual pace which slowly receded to motionless the closer the group got. Her arms and thighs felt as if they had been set alight, and her fingers strained with the effort of keeping herself balanced.

Tinnok closed her eyes, trying to still her breathing along with her motionless, praying that they would simply pass by. Her muscles quivered under the strain, but she held onto the tree like a vice. She couldn't slip, couldn't move, or she'd be discovered and they might both be dead.

And it was not her fault when the section of bark her fingers had been sunk into gave way and she slid down the trunk with a very audible crunching and crackling of barks, chips falling down onto a few scouts that were then passing by their tree.

oocI'll leave it up to you or not if they get into a death match after this, haha.

[Soshakuakamamushi]

Aka focused on exhuming her res from the scales on her body, the reddish gas hissed out of her form like small chimneys. As planned, they formed into four watermelon-sized balls floating near Tinnok's shoulders, two on each shoulder. They took their station and ready to unleash their wrath on their Mistress' command. This was one of the advantage of being a Viper, her Viper form was enough to be carried by an adult-sized human, Rattlers and obviously Constrictors were out of the question unless the aformentioned human was a giant.

Too focused in manipulating her res and lapping the air to search for Myrians, Aka didn't notice Tinnok's subtle morph. The Viper wanted to tell Tinnok to be careful, but... she doubted the half-breed could understand snake tongue. However, she would try nonetheless. Tinnok was a half-Dhani, maybe she learned some from her father? Well assuming her father actually took care of her. "Be careful, Sissster." Then she remembered the woman's father raped her mother. "Nevermind." She wouldn't understand.

They are here... The Myrian's torch were more obvious than their already humanoid-shaped glaring heat-signatures. As usual, they looked trained and ready for battle as expected of a savage cannibalistic race bent on eradicating all of her cousins. If these bastards ever went to Eyktol, Aka was sure they would try to exterminate the Vipers as well. Aka noticed the clumsiness of Tinnok's movement, she was worried that even with her light weight, she was weighing the half-breed down. They must get over this quickly.

*CRACK!*

That's definitely not good. Time seemed to slow down as the Viper glanced into Tinnok, her serpentine scarlet eyes clearly delivered the 'oh shyke' message. It wouldn't take Caiyha's mark to understand Aka was afraid.

.........

.....

...

The sound and falling small debris were more than enough to alert the warriors of creatures hanging on the tree above, they looked up and through the moonlight, saw the silhouette of a snake perching on a humanoid creature. They were definitely Dhanis though some of them wondered on why the snake one was so small, maybe it was just a regular snake pet of the human-form Dhani. They began shouting in Myrian, alerting the rest of the scout. six of them notching arrows while the rest of them readied their gladius, waiting below the tree.

Aka hissed and commanded her first resball to ignite as she send it spiralling downwards toward the group, using the heat vision to accurately judge the distance and groups position. She flicked her tail, causing the fireball to explode, sending two Myrians flinging and body burning with fiery wrath. They screamed as the fire consumed their body.

The rest of the Myrians immediately shouted "Mage Snake!" and "Reimancer!" which only Tinnok could understand, Aka heard them as mere incessant ramblings of overgrown monkeys. Six arrows whizzed pass them, Aka hoped they would miss or Tinnok was agile enough to dodge. She took the time to ignite another fireball and launch it again.

The Myrians were more careful this time and the particular two who were targeted dodged out of the way by diving to the side. Aka wouldn't have any of it and commanded the fireball stop instead of exploding it, it hovered in mid-air between the two Myrians. As they recovered, Aka transformed the fire into a pair of two lightnings instead, each of them zapped the Myrian. One hit, destroying the male Myrian's heart while the other one narrowly missed but was blinded by the light. The Myrians were visibly agitated as only five of them were left. They became more ferocious as they realized they were up against magic, not claws or fangs.

OOCWooo! Fight fight!

[Tinnok]

Tinnok froze in panic, looking into the wide eyes of her viper companion, only to hear shouting from below as the first arrow whizzed by their forms. Petch.

She had barely noticed the strange orbs floating around them, so concentrated on scaling the tree and getting to safety she had been, but now yellow eyes widened, the whites showing around her pupils as two Myrians exploded in clouds of flames, screaming as the fire ate at their flesh and destroyed the foliage around them. So she had been right to fear the Dhani's fire then it seemed.

And not only fire, but lightning as well seemed to emerge from the center of another orb and wrap its electricity around two Myrians. But she had wasted enough time watching the violent show, and Aka wasn't the only one attacking. Tinnok let her grip go on the tree, falling down with the viper around her neck and landing nimbly on a lower branch, a few arrows sinking into the bark where they had been moments before. Lifting Aka from around her shoulders she set the viper down so neither of them interfered with each other's combat abilities. As soon as the snake coiled around the large branch they were upon, Tinnok flipped her bow off of her back and notching a barbed arrow into the smooth groove that had formed in the worn wood of the bow over years of use. Squinting one eye in the darkness, Tinnok pulled the string taut to her jaw and looked for the remaining scouts that hadn't been set on fire. The advantage of Aka's flames was that they Myrians now had a glare in their eyes, but the two dark figures in the tree would be harder to focus on, and Tinnok smiled, catching sight of a male trying to stamp out a burning comrade, and let loose her arrow. It sunk deep into his back, but already she was slipping another one into her bow, looking around for more targets.

Thwick, thwack, thwunk

The more barbed weapons flew out of her hands ground ward. One hit dirt, sinking in deeply next to a female's leg, the second one catching her in the stomach, and the third sunk deep into a male's thigh.

Chunk. Tinnok was hurled backwards against the tree, wind knocked out her lungs, and cried out in pain as her head slammed against the tree. Looking down at her chest she saw a regular tipped arrow imbedded in the chest piece of her dark night armor, precisely where her heart was. Releasing a long breath she ripped the weapon out and shot it back down into the fray, aiming carefully this time to hit the male with the thigh wound in his other leg to match, but in her rush to shoot she didn't realize the arrowhead had bent against her armor and it swerved off, uselessly bouncing upon the ground.

Tinnok cursed and grabbed another barbed arrow from her quiver, waiting to see what Aka's next round would do before pursuing any survivors.

[Soshakuakamamushi]

"Ssshyke!!!" The Viper hissed in fear as arrows whizzed pass them, but fortunately Tinnok was agile enough to jump down from the particular branch into a lower one. The woman set Aka down, this made her instinctively coiled around the tree branch, afraid of falling down upon the cold, hard, unforgiving ground filled with Myrians. The remaining two res-balls of course followed her and they were now floating near her head. She looked down, her own flames disrupting her heat vision so she ignored it and relied on her normal vision and keen sense of smell and hearing instead. Those monkeys shouted in a language she didn't nor care to understand but they sure sounded agitated.

The Viper saw Tinnok springing into action, launching arrow after arrow. With each satisfying sound of arrows piercing into flesh and a scream of agony from the Myrians, Aka knew they were one step closer to victory. The Viper looked down to locate any moving Myrians, for the one motionless would be assumed dead by her. There were about four of them left, with two wounded and two still up and about. Aka was actually impressed on how fast they both could mop up these monkeys, but she figured they got the first strike and position. She learned that day the importance of the element of surprise.

Aka hissed, combining the two res-balls together, creating a rather large res ball, ignited it, and sent it whizzing down to the group of remaining four Myrians. The Myrians, ones who were still alive, went wide-eyed at the flaming boulder raining down from above. The two healthy ones tried to dodge, but the two wounded ones said their final prayer to Myri. The Viper hissed and...

*BOOOOOOOOM!!!*

Caused an explosion of flames erupting from the large fireball. The shockwave and heat burned the two wounded Myrian to a crisp, sending one healthy monkey flinging lifelessly as the fire consumed her body, and singed the final one. The lone survivor of the scouting group figured it was not worth it to continue fighting, the male Myrian would tell about this and they shall have revenge. Ignoring the pain and heat from his singed face and torso, the male bolted from the location, slightly limping but adrenaline fueled him. Aka wanted to chase him, but she was on a branch and, as embarassing as it may sound, afraid to climb down on her own. "Sissster! Get that one! Get him!" She hissed at Tinnok, hopefully the Half-breed could understand her gesture.

The jungle below was visibly burning due to her flames. She got some extinguishing to do after this. Felt like deja vu...

[Tinnok]

Tinnok's eyes widened as she watched Aka decimate the remaining Myrians., eyes darting around. Sure she had killed....one, wounded a couple, but Dear Goddess of Nature, she had killed all of them. It put her own combat skills into serious question. Was this the true nature of Reimancers? The ability to simply decimate all they touched? Well, that seemed quite evident by the way the greenery was burning so swiftly.

She was watching the giant explosion of flame when she heard Aka hissing desperately in what she could only assume was snake speak. Getting the gust of the message her eyes darted around, blinded by the flare of the fire, she focused, finding a retreating form illuminated.

She grabbed one of her regular arrows, and notched it, drawing back swiftly, but taking her time with the shot, carefully lining up the head of her arrow. He wasn't moving fast, but she might only have one shot before she'd have to get down from the tree, and if another scouting party was close enough there wouldn't be time for a ground pursuit.

Both eyes opened, and like she had been taught so long ago, her breath exhaled as the arrow flew from its spot in her bow, flying across the sky and landing solidly in the back of the limping Myrian who subsequently toppled forward face first to the ground.

Not sure if he was dead, and fearing the fire would spread and alert another party, Tinnok lunged into action, flipping her bow onto her back, and leaping down onto a connecting branch and slowly moving down on the tree a bit more slowly than before. She hadn't realized when her claws had slid back into her skin, perhaps when she was concentrating on getting her shots right, or right after she had slipped, but the djed and had released the transformation.

Landing with a heavy thud on the ground she realized she had left Aka in serpent form up in the trees, but only hesitated for a moment before running towards the location of the male she had shot. She dodged the growing blaze of fire, it's heat pressing oppressively towards her, and found the male lying in his own blood, but not yet dead. He coughed and sputtered, trying to rotate his form, but Tinnok simply drew a dagger from her belt and slid it cleanly across his neck.

"My apologies." It was a bit cold, but Tinnok still did not want to offer prayers to beings that had been so recently her comrades in arms.

Standing up she surveyed the damages...which were quite vast. She did not know if Aka had a way of recalling her flames once they were made, so instead she decided to practice her own Reimancy. Not sure what to do at the source of the great explosion, she instead moved to a smaller fire, and closed her eyes, trying to focus among the crackling and smoke that surrounded her. She felt a warmth flood through her as res lifted up and then split off, flowing down her arms, and coalescing in her palms, where she brought the silvery liquid up through her palms. Smashing both hands together she then drew them apart slowly, hoping to make a dome of res that she could then transform into water and drop onto the fire. She spread the shape out, thinning the shining liquid inch by inch, until she felt a sort of tug, as if the limit of this object's size had been reached. It looked like a vaguely circular, clumsy contraption, and she felt sweat break out upon her forehead that wasn't related the heat directly in front of her.

Taking both arms she lifted them over the small blaze and willed the silver res into water. She watched as the opaque substance turned clear, and after a brief instant of hovering between her palms, dropped onto the flames with a sizzling splash.

Paranoid that she hadn't summoned enough water, Tinnok grabbed up a large umbrella leaf and smashed it down on the flames as well, jumping upon it to protect her feet as well as hoping to stamp out the flames. She felt a heat rise into her soles, but no burning sensation, nor anymore red and orange licking flames. Satisfied she turned to the huge blaze, wondering precisely what to do.

[Soshakuakamamushi]

The man was getting away, Aka ran out of res-balls and would have to create another. Even with her expertise, she suspected she wouldn't have enough time before the survivor darted behind the trees and thick vegetation and with her heat-vision blocked, not to mention being up high on a tree branch, she couldn't make chase. It was entirely up to Tinnok to stop him.

She saw the half-breed took her stance, her toned body looked trained in using her arrow-launching weapon. A moment of concentration and a sharp projectile launched from her. A tick later, a sharp scream of pain could be heard, indicating her arrow had hit. Aka was awed and worried at the same time, unlike her loud reimancy, the Half-breed could take someone down in the Jungle from the trees above and... no one would even notice until it was too late.

"Wait, Sissster!" She shouted after Tinnok when she climbed down. There were two things wrong with what she did. First, the fire was still burning below, Aka still needed to extinguish it; second, did Tinnok forget that Aka couldn't climb up on her own? She should realize it applied to climbing down as well unless Aka just dove to the ground... which wouldn't be good. The Viper didn't realize Tinnok was going to finish the last Myrian.

"Heeeey! Hey! Get me down! Get me dooooown! Sissster!! Are you deaf?!" She shouted in desparation as Tinnok didn't go straight to helping her, instead trying to do something about the fire. That should be Aka's job and the Viper was confident she could do it in a far more efficient way than Tinnok's overgrown-leaf smashing method. Aka hissed in annoyance and figured she could help from up here, her res control was proficient enough to reach the flames. The Viper concentrated, flowing her djed inside her to exhume more res, she began to feel the first sign of exertion from reimancy, still rather far from overgiving but by Ivak, it was pleasurable. Let's cast more! Show this half-breed how powerful I am! Sssahahahaha! Right? Right? No one can beat me! Not even the jungle!

*CRACKLE*

Her concentration was stopped by a loud sound coming from below her. That definitely didn't sound good, Aka could feel the branch she was on rumbling. Actually not just the branch, but the whole tree was rumbling. The flames below had consumed its bark and it became fragile, this tree was going down soon. "Oh... ssshyke..." Why did she even bother waking up today? Aka couldn't do anything and just closed her eyes as the whole tree collapsed to the side, bringing her with it.

*CRASH!*

The Viper was thrown from the branch, flinging helplessly to the ground, but softened by the various leafs and her small weight mitigated the damage. No bones broken, at least she hoped so, but she would feel these sores and bruises tomorrow. Surrounded by the flames, Aka didn't worry about it and continued where she left off. Opening her jaw, streams of reddish gas flowed out from her mouth and it gathered over her. The res ball then acted like a beacon of flames, attracting the flames around it with great efficiency. The Viper kept attracting them until the flames formed one very large ball of flames, bigger than the ones she used to destroy the Myrians before.

Before the devastation could spread further, Aka transformed the flames into one wave of powerful wind orb. She let her res harmlessly released its control over the air and they flowed like wind gust to the trees around them. The worse was over, Aka gasped for breath as tired eyes looked at Tinnok. "We did it, Sissster..." The ground was blackened, the trees were burnt, but the forest would heal as always.

Aka then began transforming back to her human form, growing larger, limbs spawning from her sides, scales receding into pale skin, and long black hair spawned from her humanoid head. Thirty thicks later, a small girl was laying prone on the very same ground occupied by the snake earlier. "Ha... phew... we, we survived. I hope there are not more of thossse petchersss..."

"Sissster, why do your own kin hunted you? Did they immediately assume you are a Dhani? How could they know?" Aka was curious, Tinnok looked Myrian enough except for her eyes and subtle scales. Her bronze skin should be enough to not provoke those savages on sight, right? They couldn't see her eyes from far away.

[Tinnok]

While Aka was screaming at her from above, Tinnok was contemplating the flames. If this was the power of Reimancy, perhaps she didn't want it. She couldn't imagine destroying so much of Caiyha's wealth, even to preserve her own life. Aka's philosophy was correct, and the jungle would grow back swiftly, just as strong and rampant as ever, but as the viper collected the flames with her power, sweeping them off into the sky, Tinnok walked over to the tree that had protected her, laying her palm against the trunk, then her ear, then her arms around it's base.

She felt the tree, but also felt the dull aching pain of the fire, embers snuffed out, but damage done. This tree had been old, not old enough to be so thick and hardy as the massive trees that one couldn't fit five people's arms around, but big...and so much older than either her or Aka. She wondered if the flames had reached deep enough, if they had gutted the tree or it would be able to recover. Not this year, nor the next, nor the next, but perhaps the year after, it's bark would grow out, shedding the broken and ashen pieces and grow strong again. She felt the burns of the plant through her skin, and her Gnosis ached somewhat. Perhaps it would never recover, and it would simply collapse upon the ground in a year or two, providing shelter and sustenance for insects and moss, traveling Agouti in need of a place to rest. Either was fine she supposed, and slowly the witch separated herself from the tree, glancing glassy eyed over at Aka, realizing that she was back in human form.

"Apology for not getting you down." Tinnok said, shaking her head to clear the last lethargic remnants of the tree from her mind. "You not hurt bad?"

She began walking through the ashen remains of the clearing, finding the Myrian bodies, and checking to see if her arrows could be salvaged. Most had been incinerated by the last fireball Aka had thrown as the grand finale of their fight, but Tinnok discovered the one in the back of the final Myrian alive, and another single barbed arrow which she ripped out from a female's leg who was missing most of the left side of her body because of the flames, the arrow leaving with a wet sucking sound, bits of muscle and tendon attached to the hooked appendages. Tinnok cleaned it off, and whispered a small prayer to Dira to guide their bodies back into Myrian forms to fight another day...

Then she realized belatedly Aka had asked her a question. A question which had so much meaning weighing behind it. Tinnok let out a long breath, rubbing her chest where a large bruise must surely be forming from the power of the arrow.

"Matter little if I Dhani or Myrian, I commit ultimate crime, and am Myri's child no more. Kill my own people. Was hunted for season, but Caiyha's gift let me hide and live. Better they no know where I am, though, so better kill them, so no one can tell of me."

She said everything solemnly, then turned to Aka slowly, eyeing the viper. "You go back Zinrah now?" There fight was not quiet, and would surely bring predators of two and four-legged variety after the meaty remains of their kills or in search of fallen comrades, it wouldn't be safe here for long. Tinnok had surprisingly, enjoyed her time with the strange little Dhani, but like all things, she assumed it had to end and bring her back to her solitary existence.