[Jaden Wolf]

((RP belongs in Baa'sek))

Kia

There had been a dark fog over Evelon, deeper in some places than others. It frightened many people and aroused the more scientifically and mystically inclined. But for the children of the Beach, it did neither. They were too young to be concerned with the whys and hows and too accustomed to dark things to be afraid. They knew real darkness, and they knew the adults in their lives would warn them and shelter them if it had anything to do with those malevolent Shadows.

So instead, they banded together in one massive game of hide-and-seek. They were positively giddy about it. It was probably a bad idea, so much could go wrong when one could barely see 5 feet in front of them, but that just made the children more excited.

[Jaden Wolf]

"Five. Six. Seven..." Kia counted aloud, hands planted over her eyes. Her voice didn't travel very far but somewhere in the mist, someone muttered, "why did we let Kia be it?" Someone else replied, "well I didn't want to do it."

"This is a bad idea," called another. "What, letting Kia be it? Or because of how dark it is?" asked the second voice. "Both," replied the third.

"THIRTEEN. FOURTEEN. FIFTEEN..." called Kia, pointedly growing louder to warn the voices that they were supposed to be hiding. Yeah, she could totally hear them, but no one cared about that, much less Kia herself. She knew what others thought about her and for the most part didn't give a crap.

[Jaden Wolf]

The child was uncertain how high she was supposed to count. She didn't think they had talked about that. Go figure, the others might very well have done it on purpose and gone off to do something else while she counted forever. Wouldn't be the first time.
"Twenty-seven. Twenty-eight..."

But then, she was pretty darn certain Tenshi and Trixi wouldn't do that. Pretty sure. Though it was possible no one had told them, but at least she'd still have someone to look for. Trixi sucked at this game and Tenshi was always with her, so it would be a very short game, but still.
"Thirty. Thirty-one. Thirty-two..."

[Jaden Wolf]

To think Tenshi would make allllll this other rules (quite ridiculous ones too) about where they were allowed to hide and how long they could play and that Kia wasn't allowed to hurt anyone. (That one was frankly, offensive. If everyone played fair then she would never have to hurt anyone. Duh.)
"Forty-one. Forty-two. Forty-three..."

She figured 'fifty' was a good number to finish at. It was a big place and she was allll the way at the west end of the Beach, across the valley. No one was going to be able to hide 'till at least 'twenty'. And that was if they ran and hid at the back of the Palace.
"Forty-eight. Forty-nine. FIFTY!" Kia shouted and spun around. "READY OR NOT, HERE I COME!" she screeched into the thick fog.

[Jaden Wolf]

Skipping quite casually down the barely visible path, Kia hummed to herself, not at all concerned about the game. Somewhere to her right a figure moved, and she paused, squinting at it. One of the kids wasn't walking back to where she was, were they? But no, Kia decided the figure was much too large to be a child and ignored it.

She was sure she wouldn't have to go very far, or even off the path, to find Trixi. The silly girl never understood this game, and Kia often wondered why the others even let her play. Kia didn't really care. Trixi was too dumb to avoid Kia so she quite liked having the girl around. Tenshi was never far, basically acting like Trixi's keeper whenever their parents or some other family member weren't around.

[Jaden Wolf]

Tenshi Yuu - Trixi Yuu

Sure enough, Kia heard voices up ahead in the dark mist.
"Trixi, if we stay out here, Kia will find us." Tenshi's voice was calm as ever, accustomed to dealing with her sister. "You don't want her to find us, do you?"
"Nooo..." whined Trixi in return, probably torn between the game and whatever had distracted her this time. "Then, how about over here?" there was a pause, and then, "You can bring the bug."

There was an exclamation of delight followed by the rustling of the sisters moving off. Kia rolled her eyes. Good-naturedly, she decided to wait a bit so they could try and hide before she 'found' them. She was a good friend. Well, that and she didn't want to deal with Trixi crying. Thankfully the girl didn't cry easy, but being singled out as the first loser always made her upset. When she cried, Kia often just wanted to hit her and tell her to shut up. Mama Maria said she wasn't supposed to that though.

[Jaden Wolf]

Bouncing on the balls of her feet, Kia huffed. She'd already waited 'till the count of fifty to start the game (because those were the rules), but now she was taking even more time and every second that passed made her want to hit Trixi for making her wait.

Plus, everyone else was going to find the really good hiding places if she let them run around too long. Kia couldn't show off if she couldn't find everybody.

Surely, she'd given the sisters enough time to hide by now...right?

[Jaden Wolf]

"Triiiiiiixiiii," she called out in her best hunting voice, loving the way it echoed hauntingly in the mist. She'd have to bear that in mind for later. "My spidey-senses tell me you 'round here somewheeere..." she called. Slowly, she stepped forward, one foot in front of the other with her arms out to balance herself.

"Come out, come out, wherever you areee!" she called out absently, more entertained by her own attempts to walk as though on a balance beam than she was hunting her dumb friend. A giggle sounded from somewhere ahead to the left, followed by a sharp shhh. Kia rolled her eyes again. That didn't take long.

[Jaden Wolf]

With a small, quiet sigh, Kia walked over to the Hollow Palms clustered around the palace. It did impress her slightly that she had to look around a moment to find them. Trixi's "hiding" barely ever constituted actual hiding. Sure enough, the girl's purple sneakers were sticking out of a hole in a palm's base.

Still trying to at least humour the kid, Kia shuffled around noisily on her way over. "Hmmmm, maybe are you...here?" she asked in a sing-song voice, barely managing to hide her increasing boredom. She rustled a nearby leaf and heard Trixi giggle. "Nope. Oh! I know! I think you might beeee..." she gave up and popped her head down to the hole level, shouting, "here!"

[Jaden Wolf]

Trixi shrieked, loud enough that Kia covered her ears. She straightened up and looked around while the other kid clumsily clambered out of the hole. Looks as though Tenshi had actually managed to find her own hiding place. Kia was a little bothered by that. I mean, she'd actually found them waaaay sooner, but just had to go and be the nice girl.

"You gotta go find Tenny!" chirped Trixi as she picked herself up off the ground. Kia sighed and looked over at her. "Duh, Trixi. It's hide-and-go-seek, she said, not bothering to be polite. Mama Maria always told her she had to be polite, but Trixi was too dumb to care.

[Jaden Wolf]

Shifting away from the tree Trixi was in, Kia poked her head around the adjacent trees. Tenshi couldn't have gotten far, nor did Kia think that she'd leave her sister to her own devices long. Trixi had a habit of doing stupid things. Trixi twirled along in Kia's wake, humming something that was probably supposed to be a song but was terribly out of tune.

Kia ignored her and muttered, "where on Evelon did she go?"

[Jaden Wolf]

Trixi's humming stopped and her face brightened. "Oh, she's right over here!" she chirped, pointing up at the top of the tree next to hers. Kia's eyes followed the gesture upward just as she heard, "Trixi! You're not supposed to tell her!"

Sure enough, there was the elder sister, clinging to the fronds of the palm. Kia was a little impressed she managed to climb up there at all, much less that quickly.

Trixi's eyes turned round as disks as she pouted. "I'm sorry, Tenny, I didn't mean to!" she cried. Tenshi sighed and Kia half-shrugged. Both of them had honestly seen that coming. Trixi just couldn't help herself.

[Jaden Wolf]

The elder sister carefully slid down the palm's trunk, and Kia eyed her descent skeptically. How on Evelon did she even do that without falling or scraping herself? Sometimes Tenshi seemed a little too perfect, and would no doubt do great things if she weren't monitoring her sister all the time. Kia was a little glad for Trixi then, she was jealous enough of Tenshi and quite enjoyed thinking that the girl was restricted. Yeah, maybe that was kind of ill-tempered of her but she honestly didn't care. Not right now, anyway.

[Jaden Wolf]

"Well," Kia spoke up once Tenshi was back on the ground, "I gotta find the others now." Trixi lunged forward and crushed her sister in a bear hug as Tenshi nodded at Kia. "Yes, I guess we'll help," she replied. Kia frowned. She didn't really want Trixi following her around the entire time. And she didn't want Tenshi finding people first and showing her up.

She eyed the sisters as Tenshi carefully pried off Trixi to save her ribs. Mama Maria would be unhappy if she made Trixi cry.

[Jaden Wolf]

"Well, I'm 'it', so..." she started, unsure what exactly to say without making it obvious to Trixi. She honestly didn't care how Tenshi felt about it. The elder sister seemed to clue in to her feelings as she frowned and narrowed her eyes at Kia. Her lips pursed for a moment before she smiled sweetly. Kia scowled. She hated that perfect smile.

"Well, yeah. It's Kia's job to find everyone," Tenshi started, turning to her sister, "And I bet Daddy's looking for us by now, huh?" Trixi seemed to think about it for a moment before nodding eagerly and chirping, "I wanna see Daddy!"