WARNING: This chapter contains some mild yuri. Just skip over the last five paragraphs if you absolutely can't stand it.

Thanks to the three people who reviewed! I was going to post anyway, but you inspired me to get it sooner. I really appreciate the enthusiasm.

Chapter 3:

Conversations

Marine was the first one to find Rody, shivering and pale as a ghost just outside Alma Kinan. Being a little girl, she didn't exactly know what she should do, so she immediately ran home to tell her mother. After the Kinanians had him recovering at the inn, she waited outside all day long, and when Estella finally came out, she told Marine, "Go find some toys to play with, little girl. Rody needs his rest."

Marine stuck her tongue out at the mean ugly girl and stamped her foot. "I'm not leaving until I can see Rody. UGH!"

Estella scrunched up her nose in disgust. "Ugh, indeed." The pink haired girl headed back toward her home without a second glance at the child, but Marine stayed true to her word. She sat outside for the rest of the day and far into the night waiting for Rody. She'd fallen asleep by morning with a grumbling stomach.

Rody yawned and stretched as he looked around the room. The dim natural lighting meant that it was morning. He hated knowing that he was probably going to have to pay for what he did at the waterfall, but there were other things clouding his mind - thoughts of blank faces and fires and... They were all jumbled together, so it was hard to discern what was an idea and what was just a daydream or a nightmare. He shook his head with a grimace and got out of bed. Morning breath. Great... Now he felt groggy.

He fumbled around the room until he found his shirt, and once he was decently dressed, he decided it was best to return home. Estella would want him training and training hard by at least tomorrow, if not sooner. He still had a lot of work to do on his earth magic. And his fire magic... And his magic resistance... And his - -

Rody tripped and went flying head first onto the ground, completing one full roll before he fell flat on his back. Coughing - and from lack of energy to get up - he tried to tilt his head around to see what it was he'd tripped over. He saw a small head with enormous brown eyes and thick brown hair staring him down with a look of...was that shock he could see on Marine's face?

Actually it was more like mild surprise, but Rody's imagination twisted it into something like horror.

"Marine, I'm so sorry! Honestly, I wasn't thinking about much and I... Well, actually I was thinking too much, but that's not the point. I wasn't watching where I was going and I didn't see you lying there and-"

"Roooodyy," Marine whined, trying to get Rody to shut up. Sometimes the boy just rambled on and on if he got into the moment too much. She gave him a raised eyebrow and a stern glance. Rody's eyes trailed from her face and over to the left, where he saw her pointing downward at a lazy, old, wrinkled dog. Old, but snarling at Rody nonetheless. "You didn't kick me. He'd been sleeping until you decided to kick him, ugh ugh."

Rody bowed his head and sighed heavily. When he looked up again, he thought several minutes must've passed because Marine had stepped closer to him and was eyeing him with a worried expression. The dog was a little ways off from the inn steps, sleeping in the shadows now. "I'm sorry. I didn't kick him. Um, not on purpose anyway... Sorry."

"Stop that!" Marine tried to stand up taller in front of Rody.

"Stop what?"

"Stop being sorry all the time! You're not sorry. You're great. So stop saying that."

"Oh..." Rody blinked, and then said out of habit, "Sorry."

Marine's voice took on a warning tone, "Rody..."

"Okay, okay. I'll stop." He smiled sweetly at the girl, and then realized he could've been home by then. His dark eyes widened and he took off in the other direction as fast as a barefooted rabbit on a hot grill in the middle of... "I'll talk with you later, Marine! I've got training to do! Bye!"

Marine stood there and pouted. She sniffled and rubbed at her eyes, and wondered why in the world she felt sad. But...she did know. Rody always had training. She never got to spend any time with the older boy - not anymore. He was the only boy she ever got spend time with, and if she had her way she'd see him every second of every day.

But she didn't have her way and Rody wasn't turning around, so she watched him go with red eyes and a knot in her tiny little stomach. Then she turned on her heel and headed back home for breakfast.

/V\/V\/V\/V\/V\/V\/V\/V\

Yuiri slammed the cabin door open, and then she slammed it shut again once she was inside and kicking her boots off in a most aggresive manner. "That does it!" she screamed, "That's it, Yumi! I've had it with that wench's damn lies and broken promises! We've allowed Rody to stay this long, but how much longer until...you know! It happens!"

Yumi peeked her head into the main room from the kitchen where she was fixing dinner. "Yuiri, do you realize you're yelling very loudly? Again?" Her voice was a humble four notches lower than Yuiri's.

"Yes, dammit, I realize I'm yelling very loudly! And with damn good reason, too! I'm sending her back out of Alma Kinan tonight! I absolutely won't let that bitch stay another hour in our village!"

Yumi sighed. For the past three weeks Yuiri has boasted about how she's been trying to get Estella and Rody put out of the village for good. Three weeks, and the amazon-grasslander had tried everything in the book to get them to leave. From simply asking politely that they left to actually accusing them of committing a crime to get them literally kicked out, Yuiri's agenda consisted of nothing but plans to get rid of the magician siblings. "Have you tried asking them again?"

"YES I'VE TRIED ASKING! THAT'S WHAT I'M SO UPSET ABOUT!"

Yumi blinked. "Oh my... Yuiri, please sit down and stop screaming. I'm sure it wasn't nearly as bad as you're making it out to be--"

"Shut up, Yumi. Just please, please be quiet…" Yuiri glared at her friend for a moment, but after she was satisfied that Yumi was not going to speak anymore, she did exactly what she was told. She sat down on the nearest bench and took a few very deep breaths.

Yumi slid quietly back into the kitchen to finish her cooking - a nice fish fillet with Karayan spices and fresh soy sauce from the Duck Village; a rare treat for someone whose diet contained mostly berries and forest animals. She'd just got back from the market when she realized she'd forgotten the mayonaise, so she had to make another round trip out. Since she'd already wasted a full day, she decided to treat herself and Yuiri to something nice. She mentally gave herself thanks for doing that. Yuiri definitely needed some cheering up.

What was bothering her so much? The only thing keeping Estella in Alma Kinan was the fact that she claimed there was a vice versa version of the village, made up entirely of men. Everyone - even her own Rody - thought this was a pile of dog poo, but she claimed she could have proof of the alternate village if she had just six months to get it. Three weeks of slaving for nothing; if Yuiri could just calm down and stop worrying for a few more days, Estella and Rody would be sent away the next week. There was no way the woman could find proof of something that everybody knew did not exist. After all, she hasn't so far.

There was always the off chance that the All-Male Alma Kinan did exist, and Estella would find proof of it over the next few days. If that happened Yuiri would be tearing her hair out. Estella would be allowed to stay even longer in Alma Kinan to conduct even more research, and no one wanted that. Yumi was a little curious about why Yuiri hated Estella so much, besides the fact that she brought her brother with her to Alma Kinan. Their city was sacred because no males took residence in it. They were free to come and go, so long as they did not stay too long, but Estella had insisted they were staying quite a while to research Alter-Kinan. The Kinanian chieftess would not allow them access to the inn, but she did allow them property very close to the village walls. She allowed them to live that near, too near.

A few months after their cabin was built and they were officially living in the Kuput Forest, signs started to show up - signs that the village's sacred values were being tainted. Game grew scarce. Flowers would no longer grow near the shrine. Berries came up poisonous if they were near the village. Everyone could see things changing, even Estella.

But, since the chieftess had agreed the pink haired girl could stay, there was no changing what could not be unsaid. The Alma Kinan women were known amongst themselves as an honest, loyal group. They weren't about to break their own word, even for the sake of their beloved village. So they put up with plague for almost half a year.

Maybe that was why Yuiri was so upset. Maybe it was because her village was being corrupted by something she had the power to physically stop. It must be driving her mad having to sit back and watch her village's power wither away because of a fourteen-year-old boy. All she really had to do was take an arrow to...

Yumi cleared her throat. That train of thought definitely needed to be derailed. She looked down at her fish and wanted to scream as loud as Yuiri had. Burnt black and crispy and stuck to the bottom of the pan. She sighed again. Oh well. So much for mood lifting.

"Yumi!" Yuiri yelled. She sounded frustrated, although not quite as mad as before.

"What is it?" Yumi asked, looking back into the main living room.

"I've been yelling for you for five minutes!" Her frown and the growl in her voice faded after she paused for a second, searching for the right words. "I need to talk to you. Right now."

Yumi looked back toward her ruined fish and shook her head. She told herself to forget about that, and walked into the room. She took a seat right next to Yuiri on the bench. "Yes?"

"Rody...You know what will happen if he...he..."

Yumi's eyebrows knitted together and she finished Yuiri's sentence: "...takes a flower from our garden?" Yuiri nodded grimly at the well-placed metaphor. "You're absolutely right - I know what will happen. But I also know that Rody seems like a good boy. His sister keeps him so busy he doesn't even have time for that. Surely he wouldn't dream of--"

"That's just it. We don't know what he's dreaming of. What if he is? What if his screwed up little teenage mind has already conjured up a way to get to one of our girls?"

"Well... Then we'll just have to keep an eye out. He's only got a few more days here, Yuiri. It's not like he's been planning something for six months. It's like you said - he's a teenager. He's got too many other things on his mind to be worrying about...that."

"But... He's a boy, Yumi, a teenage boy." Yuiri sighed and ran her fingers through her short, cropped brown hair. "A stupid little boy with a bitch for a sister..."

"That reminds me," Yumi interrupted, "I was hoping you'd tell me what has you all up in a tizzy with Estella."

Yuiri looked up at her friend darkly. "She's just overstayed her welcome, that's all."

Yumi shook her head. "No, somehow I think there's been something more said between you two."

"It's nothing!"

Yumi placed her hand on Yuiri's shoulder, but the older girl jerked it away. Yumi looked at her sympathetically. "Tell me...? Please?"

Yuiri sighed through gritted teeth, but she looked at Yumi with sadness in her eyes. "She's a very… shallow… person. She takes everything for granted, lies and cheats..." Yumi could see the tears in her eyes now, waiting on the edge to fall down pale cheeks.

"And..."

"And... ... And she insulted me. She told me I was nothing but a...a tree-hugging, breast-licking lesbian! Okay? Now you know why I'm so fucking upset! Over a stupid, childish, name-calling quarrel!"

Yumi gasped and held her hand delicately over her mouth. So...Estella must be totally homophobic, then. Still, that was no reason to make fun of someone's sexuality in a village full of girl-girl couples. "Yuiri... Surely you didn't take her seriously. It's part of our culture here to take part in courting women, you know that. What in the world does she know? She's an outsider." Yuiri said nothing, staring down at the floor and crying silently. "Here," Yumi said, taking the older girl into her arms, "It's all right. Um, I had some fish for us, but I think I was distracted and...it kind of got burned..." Yuiri looked up and had the hint of a smile tugging at her sad face. "Yeah, it's the thought that counts, right?"

"Oh, you..."

Yuiri tackled Yumi and nestled her head under Yumi's chin. "Feel better now?" Yumi asked. Yuiri nodded.

"Much better..." She looked up into Yumi's eyes. The room's atmosphere changed now that both girls had talked and settled another day's conflicts. "Yumi...? Can I--?"

Yumi smiled sweetly and pressed her finger to Yuiri's lips. "Ssh. Of course you can." She paused and let Yuiri kiss her softly. She tasted of maple leaves. "You know I love you...?"

Yuiri nodded. "I do. And I love you, as well, Yumi. As my friend, and...more." They kissed again and again. Time flew by as evening turned to night - when they both realized they were kissing in the dark and quickly speeding toward doing more.

"We should retire for the night," Yumi said, breathless and more than a little nervous.

Yuiri nodded, though her eyes betrayed her. Yumi could tell she wasn't ready for sleep yet. "Bed sounds nice. I'm beat..."

"All right." Yumi sighed as she slipped into her bed. She lay awake for most of the night, worrying about things she felt she shouldn't have to worry about. Soon, my love. She sighed again. Her eyes felt heavy. When all this mess has worked itself out, I will show you how I truly feel…

Update 06/30/08: I edited this chapter a bit more, and I'm going to (hopefully) write a new chapter soon. :) Cheers!