[SpringsSong]

"L-Leave her alone!" Verno yelped as he leapt out from his hiding place, dashing at the Hollowheart at full speed.  Before he could even think about what he was doing, he jumped into the water and swam towards the Hollowheart, his eyes spelling out certain confrontation to the Hollowheart.  "I mean it!  Let her be!" He warned, swimming closer.  One could only wonder what he was thinking...

{16}

[Polaris]

Shard swivled his head to peer at the little kuhna through bleary eyes. His eyesight wasn't very clear over the water or anywhere else for that matter. The only thing he could really define was the smell of ancient flames coming at him. Now there were two sets of ancient flames. Which one was his target? Shard growled, swinging his head from one kuhna to the next, backing out of the water to get his bearings.

Isis gasped as Verno jumped into the water, and darted out from her hiding place while Shard was distracted. "Hey SHARD!" She called, trying to draw him away from Verno. The poor little kuhna didn't know what he was getting into. If Shard got them both... well Shard wouldn't care if he had two captivess instead of one.

The hollowheart turned his head towards Isis's voice- he could now recognize it after having to rely on scent alone for so long. Forgetting about the kuhna coming after him, Shard lunged forward at Isis again, who waved her tails at him- just taunting.

[SpringsSong]

Verno growled as the Hollowheart turned to Isis' taunting voice.  Oh, no.  She was so not doing that... He continued to swim forward, his tiny body gliding through the water as he came straight towards the Hollowheart, his fangs barred as he leapt out of the water, his tiny claws ready to fight--although he knew he did not stand a chance.

{17}

[Polaris]

Shard veered away from Venro as the darkflame kuhna's fire burned his skin. Shaking his head back and forth, the hollowheart retreated slightly. He was being attacked with flame and water! What a rotten day. Snarling, the hollowheart backed off. There would always be another chance to catch that kuhna, one when there wasn't another around to protect her.

Isis grinned. Dispite Shard's superior size, he had lots of trouble with water and fire. That was the only reason she'd managed to evade him for so long- her flames had proved a strong deterrant. As long as she had them, she was safe. Or so she thought.

While she bounded over to Verno and was showering him with purrs, Shard was slinking back up the rock wall. He would wait out of sight- untill the time was right.

[SpringsSong]

Verno smiled as he looked up at Isis--except that he did not need to look up at her anymore.  He looked at his paw and smiled, then frowned.  "Black fur and dark flames... the marks that an angel and a demon leave when they create children." He murmured, remembering his half-sister talking about how his mother had bred with a Calamikuhna to give four more kits--himself being the only one marked considerably by the hell-fire.

"Are you all right, Isis?" He asked.

{18}

[Polaris]

"Mmhmm!" She nodded, then pondered upon his words before. He'd grown in the confrontation, in more ways than one she could see. She wandered out of the water, now that she was safe from Shard for a while. Rotten hollowheart.

Peering at his coloration and flames, Isis wondered at her own making. "An angel and a demon?" she thought outloud, "So a calami and a preluhna? That..." Her eyes widened slightly as she realized he was in the same situation she was in.

"You know..." Isis again looked into her own pale flames, and her white fur. "You took after your father in looks but your mother in heart." Nodding, she looked at her paws. She knew who she took after, deep down inside.

[SpringsSong]

Verno nodded slowly.  "I... guess that's true.  I wish the same could be said of my brother.  He took after my father in all aspects--thievery, trickery, and just... well, a Calamikuhna through and through." He shook his head as he looked in the direction of the Hollowheart.  "Why was he trying to capture you?" He asked, curling his tails around his hind paws.  He wasn't about to let Shard just capture the female without a fight.

{19}

[Polaris]

"Well..." Gosh, she didn't want him to ask that question. "Um... I... took something of this other hollowheart's, Fury, and, I, I ment to give it back! But then... I, ah, left the refuge and she sent Shard to come and get it for her." There. He didn't need the details. Not yet. Not unless she really needed to tell him.

Looking back over her shoulder to the spot where Shard had disappered over, she shivered. That stupid hollowheart. She knew he didn't mean to hurt her, but... with those sharp claws and teeth... and then there was the chance of being dropped on the way back... he didn't care if she died. He just wanted that dirty old length of cloth.

[Polaris]

{Double post. Ignore this}

[SpringsSong]

"I see..." Verno said quietly.  "So... were you borrowing this item?  Or were you intending to hide it from this Hollowheart?" He asked, quickly followed by, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to.  I mean, I won't think any less of you if you choose not to tell me."

...wait WHAT?! He thought to himself.

{20}

[Polaris]

"Um... I was going to put it back after I took it... oh this isn't working!" She cried, fusterated again. "It was a stupid dare, and I was stupid and did it, and then..." she sighed, "I lost it. And now they're mad at me but if I tell them I don't have it they'll just be even madder and I can never show my face at the refuge again..." She scowled, turning her head away. She didn't want to have him looking at her like that. "I took the dumb hollowheart's cloth ribbion thing around her horn 'cause it'd impress Hita and Eriea said it would work and he wouldn't ignore me anymore. I just.... urg! She said that no one had every taken a hollowheart's ribbion before, that it was impossible, and, and..!" Isis was ranting now and couldn't hide the tears anymore, "She set me up and now it's all my fault! Why is she so mean to me?"

{13}

[SpringsSong]

Verno stared in shock for a minute.  "Hey, hey... come on, I'm sure she didn't mean for it to end up that way--setting you up, I mean." He said, laying a paw on her shoulder.  "But this Hita that was ignoring you... Oh, never mind that." He decided, shaking his head.  "The things that people will have other people do to impress others when maybe all you need to do is, like... slap the person who's ignoring you in the face and say, Talk to me for a minute!  I'm tired of you ignoring me!, and then talk to them.  Worked for my sister..." He shrugged, and then sat down beside her.  "Out of curiosity, who is this Hita and what is this Ereia's relation to you?"

{21}

[Polaris]

Laughing, Isis's eyes lit up at Verno's idea. "He's too tall. I'd have to stand on a step stool. And Eriea's a preluhna back at the refuge... apparently a perfect little angel. Well, to everyone but me. We share a mother. Shoutu? I think that's her name... " She did a weird little nose twitch as she said the preluhna's name, as if a bad smell accompanied it. "Hita is the doctor... he lives with the other ancient kuhnas, and I wanted him to teach me how to be a doctor, but he never listens to any of my questions and shoos me out of the room whenever I try to watch what he does. He always has the same lame excuses when he does answer me though, 'I'm still learning, I'm not a doctor, I can't teach anyone when I'm still a student, and more stuff like that. He won't even tell me how much pressure to apply to a knife wound!" Scowling again, she added, " 's like he thinks I'll hurt someone..." Noticing the paw on her shoulder for the first time, she smiled weakly again


{14}

[SpringsSong]

Verno's ears swiveled at the name.  "Shotou?  Hm.  I seem to know that name, somehow..." He said, shrugging.  "Must have been heard in passing, when I was helping my trainer organize her, ah... breeding lists." He said, shuddering at the thought.  "And this Hita... He is wrong to just shove you out like that.  You'd not hurt a fly... unless in a life-or-death situation in which the only way you escape is to fight." he said.

{22}

[Polaris]

"Yeah, I never met her," the little pink and white kuhna said shrugging, "But that's what I told him! And he just... urg. He thinks ancients shouldn't heal, for some reason. I think he's got some sort of problem with our fire. Well, fire in general. Dunno what he'd think about yours." She openly stared at his flames. They looked so... so natural. Like real fire, not witch fire. Isis found herself almost moving to touch them, but then remembered what she'd been told. 'Never touch another's fire... It's like touching their soul.' Of course, Isis didn't think her soul was worn on the outside, or any of the other weird things the other ancients thought about their fire. But still, she refrained. Something inside her said it would be rude, almost a taboo.  

{15}