Training

Kaeruko was sweating from running the training session with those who were able. Her long silky hair was tied up, and her grey eyes seemed to stare intensely at those in front of her. She did not allow a single one to slip from her gaze, fixing stances and yelling at them to try again when it was done wrong. There were a few groups, three or four who were working on archery, five who were working on swordplay, eight working with spears, and two who were working on hand to hand combat. She was managing to train them all at the same time. The knowledge belonged to Inga, but once she took hold of it she had quickly made it into her own. Inga watched, impressed with how quick she had managed to figure everything out. It was as if she had years of battling experience under her belt. She was certainly not planning to stop, at least not until Kumako came running up. 

"Kaeru! Working hard I see. Can you take a moment to come talk?" They asked, holding the bone-made axe over their left shoulder. Kaeru glanced back at them for a second, finishing the set she had each group working on before she stood normally and bowed. 

"Everyone, please take a break. Good work so far." She said, turned towards Kumako and wiped her brow with her forearm. Inga jumped up from his sitting place, trotting over to join her. "Okay. It is probably a good time to stop and start having some tea and lunch anyways. Inga looked as if he was getting bored." 

"It is true. I was bored! I barely have to do anything now. Kaeru is really a natural at this whole military leadership thing." Inga huffed, though in truth he was quite happy with how much she had grown. He himself seemed to look a lot healthier than he had previously. His skin was less sickly, and his hair shone. The only thing that still remained odd about his appearance was that black mark over his eye, something that Kumako had felt too awkward to ask about. He was a strange spirit, after all. Although he looked like a child, he was no kid. He knew way too much about way too much. It kind of scared Kuma a bit, but Sitria trusted him immensely so Kuma tried their best to not let him get to them. Kaeru too seemed to get along well with him. 

"Kaeru is amazing, isn't she? I really don't know how she does it all. Then again, she has always been incredible. Even when we were kids, she was always good at everything she tried to do." Kuma beamed as the three of them made their way to their Yurta, which thankfully had been built up. They were no longer staying with Himeko and Hitsugaiya, since it was a bit crowded with all of them and the giant white bear certainly did not help much. It was still poorly decorated, yet Kumako and Kaeruko had discussed how lovely it would be if they could decorate properly. Their matching mugs sat on a box next to the tea kettle, the frog and bear facing out towards them. Sitria was sitting within the yurta already, her large form filling an awkward amount of space. 

"Hi Sitria." Kaeru waved at the bear, placing her things from practice down with a heavy thump. "I am going to put the tea kettle on. Would you like tea as well?" She asked the white bear, who merely shook her head in response. 

"No, I am okay. Is it okay if I talk while you make the tea?" Sitria asked, though she intended to speak regardless of whether or not Kaeru approved of it. She had far too much to discuss with them to wait for tea, especially if they wanted to finish this before it got dark outside. As it was, they had to secure the borders of the tribe before night fell considering the increase in attempted attacks by those of chaos. The oni trees would help ward off some of those smaller creatures, but it still was not worth the risk at present. Kumako sat down on a pillow and pulled their legs and arms close, shivering from the cold. Kaeru put the tea kettle on the fire and immediately went over to Kumako with a blanket, placing it over their shoulders. Inga sat next to Kumako and tried to wiggle his way under the blanket as well. Kumako relented and lifted their arm, and Inga moved in to cuddle with them. 

"Go ahead, Sitria. I figure this must be important anyways." Kaeru mused, kneeling by the fire as she waited for tea to boil. 

"Thank you. Now that the matters of the oni have been settled, it is time for us to begin our next steps. Chaos will continue to rear its ugly head until it has consumed everything in its path. If we are going to survive this, we will have to strike it down before it becomes too powerful to handle. I sealed chaos away long ago, but--" she paused momentarily "It did not last as long as I would have liked it to. As much as it pains me to admit, my methods were flawed. That is why I have thought long and hard about what we could do differently. My conclusion was that we needed to find another spirit of significant strength. It took me a bit to think of who would fit such a thing, and then I realized it was always in front of me. The sun spirit. He is an old spirit, as old as I. He lives down in the south, in a place where night ever comes. It is hot, and brutal, and far away from the chaos." 

"Do you mean Qasr Alshams?" Kaeruko asked, staring at Sitria intensely. 

"Yes. I am surprised you know of it." Sitria noted as she shifted slightly to become more comfortable. 

"There is an old story from Qasr Alshams that I love, that is all. I don't think our tribe has ever come close to the Janub at all. Although Kami may know more than me about that. " Kaeru thought hard as if she was trying to find a deeper memory on the topic. It was not something that they had spoken about that much. 

"At least you know something. That alone is a positive. Let me tell you a bit more then. The Qasr Alshams used to be a simple temple of a small tribe, Shaeb aljanub. Eventually this tribe grew to a mighty kingdom, vast and rich. The spirit that aided them to get to that great status was Ruh. I believe if I recall correctly, his name simply means spirit. That alone should give you an idea of his strength and capabilities. Ruh Alshams was later what he came to be known as, since other spirits became well known to the people. I digress. Eventually with competition for resources, water, food, gold, Ruh Alshams saw that his people were dying. To prevent that, he sealed off Qasr Alshams and within it took his prized people with him. There they remain to this day, with no one able to go in or out. Ruh Alshams shows great favor to the Janub still, as you can tell since we have shorter days and longer nights here. That is due to him. If we were able to speak with him… I feel as if we would be able to convince him that chaos is a threat that even he will not be able to shut out if it goes that far south." Sitria felt her embarrassment warm her cheeks, even though she did not really have cheeks in this form. "It has been a long time since I last spoke to him… and I do not particularly want to, but if it means protecting our people here, I am willing to do it. However, I will need your help. He won't let me come near, but… humans with good hearts are allowed within Qasr Alshams. You could easily get inside to find him." Sitria took a moment to pause. She looked about the room, trying to see how the others felt about this. "I know it may seem like a lot, however… he will be able to seal away the chaos without unnecessary bloodshed and loss. It is the best option that we have." Kumako shifted and reached towards their sister as she handed them their bear cup. Inga made a face, however he soon ended up just laying in their lap as they sipped their tea. Kaeruko sat next to Kumako and gently laid her head against their shoulder. 

"So, we have to travel all the way to Janub, and then to Qasr Alshams, to convince this sun spirit that he needs to leave his home to come up here to deal with chaos for us?" Kumako asked with a raised eyebrow. 

"Yes." Sitria responded, sitting up like a human would and crossing her large paws. "It is a lot, but I firmly believe that this is the best way to deal with it." 

"I can understand that. I think we can do this, however it will be difficult. We would need to prepare properly and get the tribe set up to defend themselves more properly against the chaos. I am curious though, how did you seal away chaos the first time? Why can't we just do that again?" Kaeruko asked calmly. Sitria seemed to flinch at the question. 

"We cannot. There is no reason to discuss how I did it previously because it did not work. It would be a waste of our precious time, and as it is we are running against the clock." Her words shot out like arrows. Kumako made a face in response, which made Sitria realize that perhaps she had been too harsh. "That is just to say, please trust me when I say that this is our best option. I doubt that we will be able to do it the way I did it before. Ruh is hard to deal with, yes, but he cares for humanity as I do. He will come around, I am sure. The hardest part will just be getting there." She felt as if she was begging. Sitria was not one to beg for anything, but this was one of those rare situations where she desperately was avoiding something that the others could not see. She bit the inside of her cheeks, a strange sight for such a large bear. 

"Well, we have to trust you. It is not like we have much other choice anyways. If you believe that this will be the best way to defeat chaos, we will do it." Kumako said with certainty and authority that almost surprised their older sister. She bit her lip, a similar habit to Sitria. 

"Do you realize how far that means we must travel…? It will take a lot and we don't have the man power to make that happen without abandoning the tribe. Even if we leave everyone here and go on our own, how could we possibly make that journey by ourselves? Even with Inga and Sitria, we are only human--" 

"Mostly human, remember" Inga chimed in, lifting his head lazily from the lap of Kumako. "You are not normal people. Besides, we could easily gather extra support along the way. Liberating the people who need it from chaos whilst going to meet the sun spirit. Two birds with one stone, so to speak." He giggled in delight. "It would be a fun challenge." 

"Inga please do not encourage reckless behavior!" Kaeruko scolded, yet she relented with a drop of her shoulders. "I will do what you think is best, Kuma. I do think that this would require us to leave Kaminoko here, as well as Renatsu. I would not quite enjoy traveling without her, since she knows far more about the world than we do but.." 

"She needs to train her successor and maintain the barriers around the tribe. If she leaves, everyone would be screwed. Renatsu too is the only one besides you who can fight decently well and train. I honestly don't want to drag anyone else into this business anyways. It is our fight. Even if we do not succeed, it is for the better of the world. We have to continue to fight for what is right, even if it means that we are risking everything ourselves." Kumako declared, feeling rather determined to do what was right. "We have to defeat chaos and seal it away again. If we do not, then the rest of the world will continue to be at risk. It won't matter what we have done to protect the tribe. We can't fight it off forever. Plus, what happens when we die. Who will protect everyone then? We have to do this Kaeru." 

"Wow, that was mature of you to say. I agree, Kaeru~ This is the best way we can assure that chaos will not destroy everything. You are both mortal and will die. Even if I were to stay around after your death, I cannot fend off chaos at its strongest. Neither can our dear goddess, clearly." Inga lazily forced himself to sit up properly, his head tilting to the side slightly. "This is a human truth that you must accept. Your survival is not enough." 

Kaeru pursed her lips and glanced down at the cup of tea that was growing cold in her hands. She gingerly took a sip, placing the frog decorated cup down again and taking a deep breath. Once this small ritual was completed she turned towards Sitria with fierce grey eyes. Sitria thought for a moment that they looked stormy, as if there was a world deep within those eyes. 

"I understand. So long as we are all aware of the risks. I suppose that in this case, we are risking death either way. We need to discuss our next steps then. I am assuming that you would want us to move within the next month, if not sooner, right?" Kaeru began to run through the list of things that they would need to accomplish between now and then. It was long, but if done right, she thought, it would be more than possible to accomplish everything. 

"You seem to have already come up with what we need to do." Sitria said with a small laugh. Her laugh never did seem to fit the form that she was taking right now. Kumako almost wished she was able to flip between this and her more human-like form. Then again, perhaps it was for the best that she looked like this. Her actual form was… a bit hard to take in. It was almost too pretty. 

"Don't assume that!" Kaeru started, before she once again relented with a drop of her shoulders that had tensed up. "You are correct though… But still it should not fall all on me to come up with things." 

"But you are so good at it, Kae~" Inga hummed, picking up her tea cup and taking a sip of her tea. She tried to bat him away, only for the spirit to trot away before she could get him. "Come on, this is where you thrive. Sitria clearly is not good at planning ahead, and I doubt that many thoughts go through Kumako's head at any given time." Kumako made a face at his comment, but refrained from joining the fray. 

"Fine! I will figure things out for us all. But it will require a lot of work on everyone's end. Do you have a timeline for when we should leave?" 

"Two weeks at most." Sitria said, smiling a toothy grin. "You can make that work, can't you?" 

"Of course I can." Kaeru responded sourly. "It doesn't mean I would like to but… Give me the night. By morning we will all discuss a plan and then share it with the others. I cannot believe you really are making me do this.." She sighed deeply. "But I suppose it is better than winging it." 

"Thank you Kaene! You are the best, really. I would be so lost without you." Kumako hugged their sister tightly, kissing her cheek. The lavender marked girl seemed to take this as enough payment. 

"You are welcome… Now Kumako this means I need you to make dinner tonight. Can you manage that?" 

"Yes yes! I got it. You can count on me, Kaene! You focus on your scheming." 

"Scheming sounds like I am going to commit a crime, not like I am trying to figure out a way for us to save humanity and save our tribe." Kaeru made a face at her sibling. Kumako giggled in response. 

"Scheming just fits the face you are making more. Anyways, I will go start getting things for dinner ready. You focus up. Inga, Sitria, come help me. Kaene needs silence when she had to figure stuff out." 

Inga began to protest but Sitria put a large paw on his head as if to say "not now". He grumbled as he walked out of the Yurta with the white bear. 

"Do you think we can really pull this off?" Kumako asked as they held the opening of the yurta up so they could leave. They didn't look at their sister, worried that she would have that same expression on her face. Kaeru didn't look up either. 

"I don't know. But it is better than dying without fighting." She spoke quietly, almost in a whisper. Kumako nodded and then turned their head to smile at her.

"You are correct. Let's do this!" And with that, Kumako went off to get dinner ready whilst Kaeruko was set on figuring out a way to prepare for the long journey they had ahead of them. She was certain that it would not be easy, but then again, nothing about this last year had been easy. If she survived all of that, and if Kumako had returned despite all odds, perhaps it was possible that they would be able to save humanity from chaos. Perhaps all their loss and pain would be worth something. Kaeruko pulled out a journal that Kaminoko had given her and took out her quill, staring at the blank paper before she began to write.