#ka'sem

Varang finding out her childhood friends and father figure died.

It was quiet....It always was, Quaritch usually got updates from, what was his name...? She never cared to remember, her headaches from that demon girl usually distracted her from listening, mostly Zari would update them as well, her excited demeanor ever since that other skyman have her a gun was slightly infectious...

But there was none today...No joyful voice...No Wukula on the glowing screen she is used to seeing, no Rakx reporting for useless things like an animal she tortured, and no Ka'sem calling her to tell her about the gifts he saved up like he always had....But she never got worried, a strong leader should not doubt on the warriors SHE picked....Her 4 heavy hitters, what Quaritch called them, but to her they were so much more....

She find her body starting to show signs of worry, her tail wanting to go under her, her ears pinned back, her fidgeting hands, it was embarrassing...She was supposed to be perfect, a perfect leader with no weaknesses....Yet here she was, shaking like an infant ikran without its mother....

Then she hears it, a screen clicking on, she has never ran faster in her life, who was it today, she thought briefly, was it Zari, excited due to a new kill?, was it Wukula being his serious self, a facade she only knew he had, he could be as un-serious as his baby sister with the right people....Was it Rakx showing an Ikrans dead body as Quaritch grimaces in disgust...Or was it what she hoped... Ka'sem only waiting for Varang to come into the screen to show her a new trinket he found for her...But only one voice ring out....

"Major Bukowski, a little banshee told me we're down 4 of Varangs heavy hitters...."

.... She paused...A pain in her chest feeling like an arrow in her heart....What...? Dead....All of them...All her actions slumped, her shoulders, ears, tail, she had waited for these few months after the demon girl made her a coward....She hadn't slept, her hair ripped out roughly in the now rough waves....She was crashing....And this was the final straw....

She could almost laugh to herself....Eywa finally shows herself...Gives her headaches...Nightmares and now took what she held most dear after the mountain....Killed by weak and small threats...

"I will meet your expectations Tsahik...."

She remembered Wukulas promise, all the ones he made, so confident....

"Oh do not be so serious...We are alone..."

She had said, smiling as she did when teasing him like she did as a small child, she nudges his shoulder, finally teasing him to a smile as they hug, she always loved his hugs, the best one was when they found eachother alive after the mountain

"Is there any gift you want me to find specific for you, little spark...?"

The voice shifted to Ka'sems, one that she truly smiled at, she had thought about it, then she remembered, some crystals by a dry edge of the frontier, opals with the light of fire, she remembered having some before her mother died...But they were destroyed after the fire, she had wanted them for a long time, but she decided to give the task to him...

"Those opals that I had....Crystals with the light of fire...Do you remember...?"

Ka'sem chuckles, rolling his eyes, remembering how excited his little girl was at showing him, her big yellow eyes, her sharp teeth shining brightly.

"How could I forget....Okay, I will ask this...Human if I can fly over there...."

He starts to walk away, but is stopped by a thump on her back, he turns around, to see Varang clinging to his back, hugging him, a rare soft moment, he turns around and hugs her back, his hand on the back of her head, minding her headress, he rests his face on the top of her head, hearing her words come out soft, a command, yet the softness of a little girl.

"Come back alive, sempu..."

He felt his old, wretched heart soften, realizing, she was always his little girl, having no mate nor child of his own, she filled the gap that he has never had, he was always there when her father was not, taught her how to fight....Shoot arrows when her mother was too busy doing her Tsahik duties...She was his daughter, and he treated her like one...

"I always will, little spark...."

Varang has never felt....Hopeless and weak in her entire life, she starts to breathe fast, her eyesight blurring, little whimpers of sadness coming out her mouth, she puts her hand on her forehead, the same headache she has been getting intensifying like none of the previous ones, she didn't even feel the tears sliding down her face, finally letting out hics....The Tsahik and Oloeykte of the Mangkwan, crying....Sobbing even...Quaritch hadn't even noticed, until he looked up...

Varang was in the Yurt, hearing everything he said, gripping the side of her head, her ash starting to wear off for how hard she was sobbing, the black circles around her eyes now dripping down her face like they were made of ink, she was sobbing like a child, coughing, snot, tears, eyes red, Quaritch has never gotten up so fast for anything...Or anyone, gripping her into an embrace as Varangs walls....Everything, clawing into her and bursting....

She lost half her warriors, almost lost the only mate she truly cared for, lost to a girl who made her run like a coward, and now...She has lost the 4 people she considered family...She wails loudly in Quaritch's arms, she didn't care if her clan heard her....They would know how much she has had enough...Her soul plunging deeper into the black abyss of the faithless life she turned to...

2 weeks after her breakdown, Quaritch had approached her with a pouch, it sounded like it had glass of some sort....Volcanic glass maybe?

"The major found this one the old birds Ikran before he died....Said it was for you..."

Quaritch said, handing it to her, Varang took it softly, her appearance much better after turning her grief into strength, she opens it as her walls she tried to build back up so bad come crashing down, she reaches down and takes out the glass she was hearing....

Opals With The Light Of Fire....

... I'm sorry, will you forgive me for this, lmao 😭, our girl is having a ROUGH TIME, looking worse than grieving Neytiri, right here in this fic, her hair is out her braids, ripped out due to another breakdown she had about Kiri, so I'll go more into her descent into insanity later.

From the Ashes