I do not own Karai or the TMNT.
Chapter Ten: Peaceable?
"Karai?" Once again there was no immediate response. Kit sighed and wondered if the woman wasn't being perverse and purposefully staying quiet. "Karai!"
"I am awake." Karai responded.
Kit found herself breathing a sigh of relief. "Good, 'cause for a moment there I thought I was going to have to talk to myself. Wouldn't want anybody thinking I'd lost it." She listened for a moment. Although she couldn't be sure she thought she heard an amused sound from the woman. Kit nodded and prepared herself for another silence until her nerves started to get jumpy again. However, Karai caught her by surprise.
"You said that you had not always been in New York." Karai spoke. Kit stiffened, that had been a mistake. She didn't know what information about her and the turtles' different pasts could do, but it could prove dangerous. "Have you seen mountains?" Karai asked. Surprisingly the woman sounded almost… wistful. Longing.
"Yes. I've seen the Rocky Mountains." She felt that answer should be safe. It was true, she'd seen the mountains. After living most of her life just a couple hundred miles east of them how could she not? She found herself relating to Karai's feelings as she continued to think about them. "They're beautiful."
"Beautiful?" Karai repeated. In the darkness Kit frowned, the woman didn't sound too good. She was talking in a way kind of like the guys right before they passed out.
"Yeah. They're really something. From far away or close up." Kit agreed. Her mind was racing, how to get Karai to focus on the conversation? "Are there mountains in Japan?" Stupid, of course there were.
"Hai." Came the response. Kit felt the fur rise on the back of her neck, Karai rarely used Japanese terms in her speech. "But beautiful? No. The mountains of Japan are…" a pause, "Majestic." She finished.
Majestic. The word fit. Like in the song; 'purple mountains majesty'. Kit smiled and drew in a small breath for a nostalgic sigh. She nearly gagged as her nose was filled with the scents of gas, dust, and blood. "What I wouldn't give for a breeze right now." She grumped.
"Yes, a gentle wind would be wonderful. Tell me, what is the wind like in your mountains?" Karai asked.
Kit could only gape into the darkness, that wasn't a very Karai-like question, but what did she really know about Karai anyway? For a minute Kit wondered who really knew what Karai was like. Saki certainly wouldn't have cared. She was the leader of the foot clan; not a good position for personal friendship, same with the non ninja employees. At her parties her acting could be seen a mile away. With so many masks did Karai even know herself?
Kit shook her head and reorganized her thought patterns.
Karai was an enemy; she had tried to kill Kit that very same night. Their peaceable conversations were only a way to pass the time and ensure that Karai stayed awake. And Kit only needed to give Karai medical attention because it was the right and honorable thing to do. End of story.
"Are you still awake?" There was no mistaking the amusement in Karai's voice with that question.
Kit smirked to herself. I deserved that. "Yes, I was just trying to get a clearer picture." She half fibbed. "The wind, in the Rockies… well, for starters it's usually cold. Crisp and dry. More often than not it's strong enough to knock people off their feet and I wouldn't have it any other way. When it slows down it smells of pine, sagebrush, and earth… especially on the rare summer day when the wind is warm…" She paused, Karai's the one with the head injury, what am I doing talking?
"Please, continue." Karai urged.
Kit nodded, her talking and Karai asking a question was better than the uncomfortable silence. "Well… in the summer, like I said, sometimes the wind is warm and fragrant. But normally it is cold, cuts right through clothes -or fur." Again that possibly amused sound. Kit kept her ears pealed as she continued. "The trees are so used to the wind that when it dies down you can see how their trunks and branches grew fighting the gusts..."