[SpringsSong]

Yereitia, Mudbelly/Ringed Lucain {Human form}

The moon was full that night when a streak of white filled the sky.  Anyone watching it would know instantly that the white streak overhead was a falling star.  There were some who merely watched it while others with slightly more nefarious natures ran back inside their living quarters to make preparations.  This wasn't any ordinary star, though--this Star was actually a girl hurdling towards the Roraldi forests at breakneck speed.

Every second that passed was stress on the girl's body.  When she was young, she gave up the life of a Demi-Goddess with two fathers and given herself up to the skies.  Now, she was sixteen, and returning to the planet that was her home and birthplace.  Faster and faster she hurdled down to the forest, unable to slow or control her descent.

At last... Boom!--she crashed in the middle of the forest.  There she lay, a beauty with golden hair and blue eyes, in the middle of the forest in a crater, with a necklace in her hand.  The necklace had a ruby gone clear in it, and would play an important part in her journey.  But the first part of her journey--finding out why in blue blazes her leg hurt so much.  Chances are it broke when she landed...

{1}

[[For Toxie and I]]

[ToxicShadow]

Kinshi

Even in the mid of night, one male was sure to be prone to staying awake. His sleeping habits were altered as he needed...The kind of person who could function for a few days on a few hours of sleep, albeit grudgingly but able, if he had to. Sure enough, the Kuhna was awake, nose in a book. Like he'd done time and time before, he'd stepped away from the usual life that was lived to venture into a less civil habitat. The forest...what better a natural and quiet atmosphere then that? Here he could focus on the task at hand. He could have peace and study what it was he wished. He'd been around for a few days, perhaps, having set up a camp of sorts.

Kinshi's eyes shifted frantically over the lines of text in the pages in which he was reading, all behind the rim of his useless glasses, going over what was known on the subject. What subject? The universe, of course. It was...a very diverse subject, to say the least. So many opinions on it. He wanted to sort them out, make some sense on them...He was hardly getting anywhere. None the less, he didn't stop. Well, that was, until...

The page was suddenly far more illuminated then the battery operated lamp he'd set beside himself would be able to do. The light it was blinding. His attention was taken from his reading, eyes scanning the sky to find what one would guess to be a falling star - a meteoroid burning up from friction - was dancing across the sky. No, plummeted at an unbelievable rate toward the ground. Before he could even think on the matter, the rumble of its crash shook the earth around them. His ears fell back from the sound of impact.

Much to his astonishment, it'd landed so close. Without a second thought, the first being on what an opportunity of study a meteor would be, he closed his book and tossed it aside. With haste, he snatched the lamp up in hand, and started those few yards away. Blasted trees. They made the traveling a bit difficult. He was careful to move in a straight line, straight toward, what he didn't know, was a young woman... Could you blame him for being cautious as he came into the area....

A crater. Of course. He brushed away some hair from his eyes, to get a better look as came closer....and closer.... What!?! A woman?!?
Kinshi dropped the lamp, it flicked. As intelligent as he may be, his mind wasn't fast enough to comprehend how this was even possible. A woman that fell from the sky? Really now? He didn't have time to logically think. Instead, he was slipping down beside her. Shy, yes, but no time for that either.

"Miss, Miss... Are you....You're hurt, aren't you?" Well she had to have been, after a fall like that. So the assumption was an easy one to make.

[SpringsSong]

The first thing that radiated through the demi-goddess' mind was the pain.  She groaned slightly as she moved to sit up, looking around her.  Her eyes fell onto her hand, which held the necklace in it.  She gingerly put it on, and then, looked at her leg.

Oh, bother. She thought to herself.  How did I manage this?  I thought that... oh, never mind. She thought as the voice reached her ears.  What in the world?  Someone was at the lip of the crater...  And he was asking of she was hurt.

"Well... let's say that if I tried to get up, I'd probably fall over, cringing in pain." She said, looking at her leg.  It was at a rather odd angle where it wasn't supposed to be.  Lovely.

"Are... are you one of them?" She asked.  She meant one of those that would chase after a fallen Star just to strap her to a table and carve out her glowing heart with an obsidian knife.  She hoped he wasn't...

{2}

[ToxicShadow]

O-K, that was definitely one way to say it, and most certainly assuring that she was not 'alright' from that....crash. Just not focus on that detail. He had to remind himself not to look at this situation for something to be impossible. He might have questioned if his eyes were deceiving him, only that he had plenty of faith in his senses to be right. They couldn't be deceiving him. And this was just great! Some breathtaking young lady falls from the sky, ends up breaking her leg, and they're in the middle of the forest! Oh my....What? Kinshi shook the onslaught of thoughts away from his head. There were other things to focus on, like trying to get her out.

"Them?" He questioned, ears flicking. Honestly, he had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. His voice and expression seemed to portray this honest befuddlement. "Sorry, Miss, I haven't an idea on whom you're referring to..." He scratched the side of his head awkwardly...

Oh yea! "But I can't very well leave you down there!" He decided, jumping down the crater and skidding the short way there. What had gone over him? Usually not so quick to jump into things. But how could anyone in there right mind leave someone with a broken leg to sit by themselves.

Soon enough, he was crouched down beside her, not particularly looking at her eyes. "We're going to have to straighten it out." He declared the obvious after a very brief examination. It was obvious, but she couldn't just move her leg. They'd have to be careful to keep things in place so it didn't try to rip through the muscles and flesh.

[SpringsSong]

The girl breathed a sigh of relief when Kinshi said he didn't know who they were.  "Well, if you don't know who I am referring to, then you can't possibly be one of them." She concluded as he jumped down into the crater.

She listened slightly as he said that they'd have to straighten her leg out.  She gave a slight laugh as she said, "That is easier said than done, I am afraid." She knew she was probably stating the obvious here, but never mind that.  "Most of my 'sisters' were not as lucky as I.  Moments after they'd crash, a witch would appear with a black candle in her hand, grab the Star, and light their black candle and be at their lair.  Most of them did not live.  Those that did... soon found it pointless to live any longer." She said quietly.

{3}

[ToxicShadow]

Very correct conclusion. You couldn't very well be something if you had no idea what that something was. Okay, so it could happen, but in very unusual circumstances. This, as it was, was indeed an irregular happenstance, but not quite to that level. Kinshi knew who he was. Not very special, but he knew.

"Sisters?"He asked, conversationally as he was making mental plans. "Mind telling me...what's going on here?"No better way to ask that question. He wanted to know about this circumstance, but 'who' or 'what' she was wasn't an accurate enough question. Plus, he wanted to keep her talking, mind away from her leg, which he'd already started to adjust back into place. He was gentle and as careful as possible. Never had he a broken leg before, yet he felt as if he had some idea of the pain. Bringing her any more wouldn't be wise.

[SpringsSong]

Yereitia nodded.  "Not sisters by birth, though.  In my mortal life... I am almost ashamed to say that I am the only daughter of two fathers." She said.  She shook her head before she went on to the next question.

"As for... what is going on here... Well, you saw me fall from the sky.  I'm a Star." She said, almost bluntly.  "And, unless these days have long since passed, unless I find one of the witche's black candles and deliver the King's Necklace to the last surviving male heir... then my life is constantly in danger." She said.

{4}

[ToxicShadow]

"That's a rather normal concept these days." He continued to speak, only on the matters of having been born to the case of same gender parents. He wasn't particularly into the idea himself, but he surely was aware of such things. It was becoming quite a common circumstance that beings of the same gender were off breeding. "In fact, I vaguely know a male who has a total of seven children with a man. At the rate this world is going, it's becoming impossible to find anything wrong against it, even if there was." Basically, he was saying that she need not to be ashamed. She couldn't have chosen her parents. It was something she couldn't help.

"A star?" No, he'd heard quite a lot of things, but never really focused on such tales. He hadn't heard of stars falling from the sky in the forms of women. Just then, he snapped her leg fully back into place. Literally snapped, since it had been so bent out of shape. The Kuhna flinched at the sound, and began an attempt to figure out what to do here. If what she said was true... "I haven't ever heard of such things in my entire life." Nope. No black witch candles, no king to have blood. He knew royalty, yet that also couldn't have had something to do with her explanation. "None the less, I cannot leave you here. I have a camp nearby..."
Great. Bringing a female stranger to his camp. What was he thinking!?! Kinshi was sort of arguing within himself over it. He just couldn't leave some injured lady that, apparently, had no where to go lying in a crater.

[SpringsSong]

Yere winced as Kinshi snapped her leg back into place.  "Most people..." She started out, her teeth clentched slightly.  "...do not hear of us Stars in their true form, and when they do, they choose not to believe their eyes." She explained.  She offered a shrug as she said, "I'm not particularly ashamed of the fact that I don't have a maternal figure to follow, I'm more ashamed of the fact that I bear more of my 'father's' blood than my 'mother's' blood.  I... I have powers... powers that I do not understand... and cannot control." She said.  When he offered to take her to his camp, she smiled as she said, "Well... I guess I could come along..." She was teasing, of course; she would rather remain with the one that had helped her thus far than try and go out on her own just yet.

{5}

[ToxicShadow]

Pushing his glasses further up his nose, as they began to loosen as he'd ventured out here and got her leg in order, he slipped an arm around her waist and guided her closest arm over his shoulders, making himself into a support for her. Goodness, oh goodness. Kinshi was reacting on instinct. No time to let his pretty shy emotions slip through. No. Not while someone was in harm's way. Stranger or not. Woman, or not. Most beautiful woman he'd laid eyes on in his life, or not. Yes, he had to help her. Besides, the latter made him feel petty. He wasn't helping her because she was beautiful, he was because it was the right thing to do.

"I don't know what you may be talking about, but perhaps you won't need to fear powers. If they are a part of you, then it's part of who you are. You'll figure it out." What else could he do, besides try to comfort her with these words? As for people not believing, I couldn't say I'd believe it, if I hadn't seen you lying here in this crater. Careful." The last word was in regards to her getting onto her feet, or foot, as he stood up, guiding her with him.

[SpringsSong]

Yereitia limped along with Kinshi, taking in what he said about her powers and trying her best not to put too much weight on the broken leg.  After a couple of minutes, she said, "Oh, where are my manners?  My name is Yereitia." She said, smiling slightly.  "I'm sorry that it only now occurred to me that I had not told you my name." She said, laughing lightly.

{6}

{My muse has deserted me.}

[ToxicShadow]

In truth, Kinshi didn't really mind how much of her weight Yere put on him. If it was practically her whole weight, it wouldn't have mattered, because he didn't want her to get injured any farther then she already was. Just a little strain for a short time was nothing at all, in the long run. Besides, he may have been something like an intelligence geek, but if he constantly was traveling out in the wilderness like this, it must have toughened him up to a decent degree.

He blinked when she said her name. He liked it. "That's a very interesting name." The best compliment someone unexperienced in addressing females could come up with. In translation from Kinshi-speak to that of the norm, he pretty much just said her name was beautiful. "Lack of manners?" He echoed as an inquiry. "No need to apologize. I have forgotten as well. The name's Kinshi."

Right about then, they arrived at his makeshift campsite. In truth, it seemed pretty overstocked for just one person, especially to carry. How in the name of Zu'hai had he gotten it all out here? That wasn't very important at the moment. What was important was the Lucain woman's health. Giving her assistance, he helped her to sit down on a cushion set on the ground next to a few stacks of books. Many of them labeled in regards to the universe and outer space, a mixture of both scientific and mythological readings. A stack for each.

[SpringsSong]

[[Memo to self: add this to bookmarks and actually remember to REPLY...]]

Yere smiled.  "Kinshi... that's a nice name." She said, limping along on her one leg as a few stray strands of golden hair fell over her face.  "So... you live out here a lot, yes?  I am guessing that you prefer the life of the forest realms to that of the city?" She asked.  She had watched the cities from the skies, and they were always so busy and bustling with activity--and hardly any of it was good activity.

Her eyes widened when they got into the camp.  When she was set down on the cushions, she stared at the site in amazement.  "How in the name of the Triumvirate did this all get out here...?" She asked as she looked at the books.  Now some of those looked interesting...

{7}

[ToxicShadow]

"I suppose that you could say that I do." Kinshi offered in response to Yere's comment about his living situation. "It's quiet here. Good for work. Though I spend a good bit of time in cities as well." He really did get around a good bit. Wherever his current subject of study lead him, that was where he went. He held no complaints about his life. It was a wonder how he didn't get lonely, being by himself so frequently. Perhaps his work kept him too busy for that...?

He started mentally shuffling through everything at his camp, trying to locate anything useful in this situation, like first aid supplies. While he didn't exactly know how to fix a broken leg, but he knew basic ideas. Then again, what with her not exactly being a normal living being... He scratched the said of his head for a moment, thinking something else over.
"Humm?" His gaze shifted back to the young woman. "Oh. I carried a lot of it here, bit by bit... It also helps when you know a few mages." With the last of his words came a shrug. Because he rarely had time to clean up one camp before moving off in pursuit of something else, the teleporter of the house tended to assist him when he asked. She helped everyone of the same house, no matter how well she knew them. She and the Kuhna really didn't know each other.

"Erm, I'm new to this sort of thing," this whole thing about Stars. "but, well, is your body the same as the others, like me or some other average person?" Oh Zu'hai, that sounded...weird. Awkward. "I mean, with your bones. I hope you don't heal at our rate. That's awfully slow..." And he couldn't provide care for her for such a long time, especially if people were after her.

[SpringsSong]

"Mages?" Yere inquired, her head tilting to the side as she thought for a moment.  "Interesting, quite interesting indeed.  I knew a few mages a while ago... I'm not sure any of them are still around, but..." She shrugged as she looked at the necklace around her neck again.  Hm, confound this blasted thing that had to be given to the last male heir of the kingdom...

"Hm?  Oh..." She said, looking at her leg.  "Well... I'm most certain that I can heal a tad bit faster than your average human... I am not certain, though.  I have not seen many of my kind live long past their entrance into the world here." She said, chuckling a little bit.  "But enough of that..." She said, her voice trailing off.

{8}