Chaos Precip

TJ loved her companions. She couldn't imagine not travelling with them, but sometimes...sometimes she needed an hour or two alone. There were times when she just needed to sit and watch the night.

It was easier for her than for most, one of the things that Marluxia did to her was changing her eyes so that the dark wasn't so much dark to her, and the glow from bio-luminescent eyes was something she didn't even notice any more, not when she was out in the Illinois countryside, watching the glimmer of stars far above herself and listening to the dull roar of the city an hour or so's ride behind her. Sure it was dangerous to be out like that, alone, anywhere other than with a group of people, but...

It was beautiful, too. She could take the coat off, sometimes even her clothing, and simply sit with nothing between her and the weather but her fur. She could re-braid her hair, and not worry so much about keeping her sister and her ... friend ... entertained. She was a born entertainer, she loved her life, but sometimes it was too much.

She had to think, and she thought best alone and in the quiet. Sure, she could try to stay up late and think, but then she got into the sleep deficit of an Olia trying to under-sleep a Katzu and that just didn't work worth a damn. So taking a ride and thinking alone, it worked. She didn't do it more than once a month or so, not enough to make her travelling companions worry, just...when she needed it.

So that's where she was. Sitting on a hillside, wearing nothing but braids and fur, and thinking at the universe.

She didn't bother keeping track of how far she walked; once she split up with L's wagon, she simply...kept going. She stayed a day or two, earning her keep in a house or an inn, but she kept walking. Her feet toughened easily, quickly, and believably. Another adaptive perk of her race apparently, she was learning more all the time.

What mattered was that she walked through towns, telling her story in careful pieces until she came to a town she could feel L in. This was it then, the place to settle and start. He'd beaten her there by weeks, and that was perfect as far as the plan was concerned. Perfect as far as her current traveling companion went too. Apparently it was easy to find a native guide when one was short, blonde, and traveling alone. Just a trapper from 'around these parts' but he was happy to take her to town and give a good word to one of the ladies there so she could work for a place to sleep.

He may have also taken one aside and whispered about the woman looking for a good healer for a fertility problem. He was a good boy like that. She might have felt bad about lying to the man if there hadn't been bodies in this case, as it was, well, it was handy when the matron of the house clucked sadly and made sure Aya was settled comfortably.

Now there was nothing for it but to work hard, be sweet, if a bit bitter about a lost love, and...wait. The hooks were out and she could be patient as long as L didn't get hurt.

Aya fanned herself with her sun bleached straw hat and bent down to adjust the strap on her shoes. Shoes; not boots. Ugh. And even better she was walking beside their shaded wagon instead of riding in it because the character she was assuming would have very well broken in shoes and callused feet. She felt almost naked out of her gear (the linen shirt and pants wouldn't stop claws after all) but at least it was relatively cool.

And even worse, in her mind, was that she'd initiated all these changes in wardrobe so she didn't have any right to complain.

She managed to amble up beside the heavily shaded driver's seat and blink wide, blue eyes up at her companion. At least she didn't need help looking like an innocent, small woman? That was all genetics and she usually went to pains to hide it. "We'd been trading in Wae'shan when he got the idea in his head that no Water was going to help me...and where he saw a woman from his last trip with a child.. His, not mine. Law is simple back in our home town, Tant, an infertile couple can annul a marriage just by saying so...an he did, at Spring Faire. Front of everybody no less." There was a flare of hurt and confusion as she told the tale, simple words conveying a lot more to any mind willing to fill in the details.

Yes, she'd been practicing. Almost non-stop in fact. After all, she'd need to be able to lie properly.

The act slid away as she peered up at L though, worry in her voice. "You barely ate earlier, L, and you don't look good now."

Aya Brea hissed and stripped out of her jacket. The poor thing was covered in slime and who knew what else after the day she'd had (and her horse kept trying to lick it, that was weird). "Some days Lunkhead, you disturb me." She informed the lightning mane. Luckily she'd found this little box canyon to camp in for the night. She liked having walls around her when she was taking her coat off.

Walls and her guns at hand.

Guns which also needed cleaning.

"Salamanders. Goo spitting, million tailed salamanders. Well, at least you're fed." She snorted and kicked her horses nose away from her jacket again. No useful salvage from the nasty things, even the meat was inedible by human standards. Pity. There'd been a lot of them.

No time like the present to start cleaning. The coat would have to boiled over a fire or something to get all the goo off. Luckily there was some storm wrack to burn. All told it was a cozy, if weird smelling, little campsite within an hour or so.

Critters and Storm Beasts were not suppose to have Space abilities. On top of scales, claws, and a body larger than most houses, Space abilities were just plain cheating.

Of course, no one had forced her to grab hold of the thing when it tried to escape. This particular beast though had run rampant through a few dozen smaller homesteads along her circuit using the storms as cover and she just couldn't let that continue. Of course she'd ended up in the godforsaken part of who-knew-where desert without a horse, but the damn beast was very dead now.

Very, very dead.

She was covered head to toe in dust (and she didn't like to think about the goo that was under that dust) by the time she limped into the nearest town and even breathing through her bandanna hadn't saved her throat. It took long minutes of rinsing and spitting at the nearest water source before she could even actually swallow, never mind the taste of that initial swallow. When she was able to peel her tongue off the roof of her mouth enough to talk her very first words were "Get your hands off me."

It probably sounded rougher than it felt because the poor, hassled Water jumped away from her like he'd been bitten. Water powers just made her itch and it made her snappy. "Sorry." She muttered after another mouthful of water. "Just a little banged up and you don't need to be touching what ever else the damn thing spit on me." Hell, it could be an allergen for all she knew, then she'd get lynched for incapacitating a town doctor!

The Water blinked at her a moment and dusted his hands off. "You're not the merchant?"

Aya couldn't help the grin as she took off her hat and started beating the dust out of the poor thing. She had never been mistaken for a merchant before. "Nope. Ranger Brea. Rode in on a Storm Beast so where the hell am I?"

"Oh." The man was kind enough to hand her another glass of water and a stiff brush for the dusting bit. "Had a merchant come in from up north and collapse, I was expecting him. My apologies for the hands Ranger."

"Don't worry." She was more than willing to forgive now that he wasn't touching her. "Collapsed huh? Heatstroke?" Made sense to her, North being a bit cooler and having trees as compared to the furnace this town was built in.

"From what witnesses told me, looks like he's sick with something." The Water admitted. "He should be here any minute if you want to stick around."

"I might. Still, where am I?"

"Oh, right! Crater Wall, Nevada"

That...wasn't any place she'd heard of, and she'd heard of most little towns. "Great. Where you're post office?"

"Post Office?"

Better and better. Looked like she wasn't going to get a letter off to her friends for a quick teleport back home. "Alright then, where can I buy a horse?" And hopefully look at a map. A map would be really good. "And a room for the night so I can wash up?"

"Just down the street Ranger, can't miss them really."

"Thanks for the water." She put her hat back on so she could touch the brim in lieu of goodbye and headed back out into the heat.

They said goodbye to Momma as the skies began to dance with wisps of color. The storms gave the older woman a headache, and she really didn't need to deal with Pierce during the damn things. Brea'd been handling the boy since she'd wandered into town with a dying Nevada. They had a valley they rode to; not far from the town but far enough nothing nasty would take place in the town limits. It was a cup of stone carved in the desert ranges with a cave deep enough to make the horses feel safe.

Even better from Brea's perspective it only had one entrance. Any other way in required wings or a healing ability beyond what most predators ended up with. Razor edged stone was nice. Except when Pierce landed on it. To be fair that had only happened once, and he'd healed up fine once the town meds got their hands on him.

Pierce started whistling cheerfully as true chaos clouds broke over the horizon. Annoying as hell but it was how Brea judged how long they had. An hour, tops, from the point he got cheerful enough to whistle. Long enough to get the horses stowed and a campfire going. Long enough to quick-toast a crawler and get it into her charge's stomach. He wasn't hungry of course, but it was better than dealing with the power hangover...

He started laughing when the screaming thunder broke...and stole her hat playfully when the rain began. Rather than waste time chasing him, she just calmly loaded her rifles and chose her perch. Pierce would start playing tag with raindrops or something soon. And he'd completely forget to watch his back when the meaner beasties also came to play in the storm. Forget? Hell, he'd probably try to pet the damn things...

Momma'd had a hell of a time keeping him safe before they learned Brea wasn't effected by storms.

Brea had a hell of a time not shooting him most trips. Fatally anyway. They knew some good healers.

The storm fully broke with the sound she imagined Gods would make, deafening her even though she knew Pierce was laughing. Then the lightning began, curtains of beautiful, twisting light that scored the valley walls in designs only Pierce understood. He'd burned something like those designs into her coat years back, said even she needed something pretty sometimes. Her adopted brother was an ass. She had a hell of a time explaining the pretty pictures on her coat.

Not that she ever considered a new coat. It'd been Nevada's. Plus it was made of the toughest damn hide they'd ever taken off a beast. It helped her shrug off some of the elements. Like...the little bolts frizzing past her head "Watch it!" she growled, knowing he couldn't hear her. He wanted to share. The storms made him forget she didn't play catch with lightning...

Yeah, he was lucky she loved him.

And right on cue, as Pierce was glowing like a lightning bug in the center of the storm, there came the first customer through the pass. She could always tell. Usually hit them too. Hit them often enough to drop them before they reached her perch, much less Pierce.

Reload, don't worry, you've got all the time in the world kid. You've got my back, I trust you...

Time enough at least. Before she knew it the storm was petering out and Pierce was making sand angels on the ground. "Whooo~~~ Breeeeeeea! You gotta...you gotta....oh...heeeeey Brea your eeeears are showing..."

"You stole my hat. Gonna need that back." she noted dryly.

"Awwwww man." Pierce pouted "That'd be...so...so...mannnn. Danny'd bug out, and you'd get dates. Aya! Dates! You could be a girrrrrrrrl and Mother'd make you dresses an....an..."

"And they'd drag me off to a lab to find out why I'm not sick. Then you'd be all alone with no one to ramble at."

"Oh..." Pierce murmured, as if this was the first time he'd heard it. "Well, you can wear bonnets." he allowed.

"You going to pick up my rounds? Handle the guns?" she kicked a carcass out of the way, heavy boots thudding into something scaled, then offered her hand to help Pierce up.

"...your guns are creepy! They cracked my collarbone! Demon guns!" he batted at her hand playfully instead of taking it.

"They're modified and you were holding it wrong." she snorted, capturing his hands and pulling.

He stood, for a moment, looked down from his lofty height of almost-six-feet...then collapsed sideways against the much smaller person. "Aya! You shot me! Again!" he wasn't screaming in pain just...annoyed. Miffed? He wouldn't be feeling any pain if they got him to a med before the high wore off.

"You slagged a rifle." Brea muttered, crawling from under the man and going to retrieve the horses. "Come on, we need to get you back, then I need to get back up here before night to harvest these...and hell, we've got those feds coming in...tonight? Tomorrow?" Given that most beasts in the storms were unique, harvesting their skins and such made wonderful trade items. It helped out when Aya needed to find parts for slagged guns or supplies for her rounds.

"Dunno! Don't care!" Pierce giggled "I was bait!"

"Yep. Come on, up you go..." she half-dragged him up the saddle, then strapped him down with cord she'd thoughtfully stuck in a pocket of her duster. That done, she stalked off into the valley to find her hat and pull it down firmly over her ears. There, all better. Just a ranger with a pointed chin and blond hair showing under a hat now.

"Heyyyyy...Aya....Brea....girl gun lady? I'm tied to a horsssseee..."

Pierce flapped against the cords, and she leaned over casually from her own mount to smack his head when electricity sparked along his fingers. "Down boy. We're going home." This time, when he started singing, she joined in. It'd been a good storm.