Rude Awakenings

I dive right to the bottom of the bath, and Change with all the speed I can manage. Damn damn dam DAMN this is bad... surfacing, I shoot the two girls a would-be cheerful smile. "Um...hi. I didn't realize anyone else was here..." I tail off, having uttered one of the worst cover lines of the century. What do you say, anyway? "Water's fine?" "You have seen nothing, these aren't the droids you're looking for?"
I stare back at them. Well, at least they aren't screaming. Or running.
"Sorry if I interrupted."

"Oh no, not at all." Lily crosses her arms. "We were just talking about how there is absolutely nothing sinister and otherworldly about us."

"Ah..." I look from Lily, who is quite obviously enjoying this, to Kunishi. "Well...nothing sinister, anyway." I shoot a glare at Lily. "You don't have to smirk at me like that. You know I've Dratsie blood. It's a pool. It's like cats and cream. Or you and shiny objects."

I watch the two talk. "You... You were an animal before.... You... You're a spirit. You're a tanuki! You lied to me just as the stories said you would!" I stand ready to run out naked if need be. "Why would you save me from a demon!? Why!? Saving me for later?!" Fear filled me as my voice echoed through the chamber. My mind hums with fear as I feel like I'm going to faint.

I hold up my hands placatingly. "Kunishi, I'm not a spirit, I'm as flesh and blood as you are! I don't-" my words are cut off as she squeaks, trying to back up against the wall, her dark eyes huge, staring at my outstretched hands. I glance-and curse myself for a damn fool. My hands. I forgot to glamour my hands. DAMN. "Okay, look, I'm sorry I lied to you, yes I look a little weird but I swear by river, earth and air I won't hurt you, okay? I swear by the Gods and the Mother Herself. I eat fish, not people! Look, Lily's human, Liam and Kaija are human, and they live with me. My father was human. I am a kind of shape shifter. But I'm not dangerous to people. I'm sorry I frightened you, and I'm sorry I hid what I am from you, but I did so to avoid...well, reactions like this. Now, calm down." I imbue my voice with a memory of how it felt to learn new concepts in a book I was reading, sitting by a fire on a cold day;comfortable and quite pleasant, intriguing and fascinating.

The edges of my vision blur lightly as I feel the world start to slip in my fear. Then it stops. This awkward feeling of being shunted between two forces fills me and I slide down onto the bench. Her words seem to calm me but I feel it, this other feeling is bubbling just beneath the surface within me. There is a great splitting in me and I grip my head and cry out in pain.

I push myself forward through the water, and climb out, stepping forward, "Kunishi, calm down, you're okay!" There's flashes of red-brown pain through her head. She must be digging her nails into her scalp, or cramping a muscle perhaps? I kneel beside her. "Calm down, you're going to hurt yourself."

Lily stares as Liv moves closer to Kiau, even as a paniced look crosses her face. Jumping down, she calls to Liv, "Pool times over, 'mother'." She points at the door. "To much, to fast. OUT."

I glance sheepishly at Lily. "Try and get her calmed down?" I glance again at the girl, wanting to soothe that fear...and stand, turning away. "I'll be in the kitchen. When you want to talk."
Pulling on my clothes, I tramp back into the kitchen, drop into the chair and put my head in my hands. "I should have stayed in bed." I groan into the woodwork.

The moment she leaves all of the feelings I had before rush through me and I scream once more as the darkness consumes me.

I catch myself on my hands and knees before the bench panting from the very depth of me.

knocking the sword aside and into the pool, Lily lunges and wraps her arms around Kiou, pinning her arms to her sides, locking the grip into place. "Calm," she hisses, face to face with the now savage woman struggling to escape her grip.

"Release me.". I match eyes with Lily intensely. "You've been good to her don't make me do something she'll regret.". I will protect myself no matter what. Even if such protection calls for a preemptive strike against Liv.

"No." Lily looks into flat, dark eyes, all trace of the innocence lost as ever feature hardens. "Who's the horse and who's the rider, Kiou?" She tightens her lock as tight as she dare.

I rush into the room and stand beside Lily and the new girl. *Kiou, will you trust me?* I think to her as I speak to Lily "Lily, you were sent to calm her. Get off! You want to pick a battle, fight me. You were sent to calm her, not make matters worse!" I speak to her as an equal, working not to condescend to her but to show her the importance of her task.

"OUT Kaija," Lily growls, "Don't antagonize her."

"I'm antagonizing her??? I'm the one riding her back?" I step closer, "I am here as a friend, not to fight."

This other girl, Kaija, I remember her. She stole the sword, our sword. Going limp in Lily's hold, I use the downward momentum to pull the woman off balance. Quickly, I hook my heel around one of her legs and move to toss her. Grandfather was clear on his fighting techniques and I loved every lesson.

Lily retains the lock doggedly, even as the momentum carries her over Kiou's back and into the floor, dragging the smaller, lighter girl after her. The impact winds her, but through tearing eyes, she manages to get a leg lock on Kiou's left leg.

Gasping, she rasps, "Who's the rider?"

*Forget it.* I send to both of them. *I see I have no place here.* I say as I curse at Lily and walk away.

I grit my teeth as Lily's hold refuses to break and I am carried with her. The impact only serves to anger me further and dig my nails into the soft skin of her sides over her rib cage. "Release me! I don't care about your rider crap!"

Growling, Lily shifts her hold, one arm at a time, to a full nelson, using the pressure on the spine to force the girl's hands from her ribs even as she controls the head, avoiding a headbutt.

"Where's the one I spoke with, tag on?"

"Sleeping! You all want to kill us! You spirits and demons! She may like the house but it's lies! It's all lies! I'll see you all split in two before I sleep again! I swear it!" I flail looking for proper leverage. I've never really come in contact with a hold like this.

I walk from my bedroom to the kitchen, stretching and yawning as I go. I see Liv sitting there, her thoughts a royal mess. *Something's wrong, sister? Do I need to go annihilate Djehuty?*

"No..." I say, my head in my hands, "It was me that screwed up. Badly. Again."

"Meh, we all make mistakes." I say as I sit beside her. "What's happened?"