Orange Is Not A Clan Colour (SoW AU)

Chapter 2: Sendaria villages

(above music is just chill, has nothing to do with the chapter)

(Also note: female ardoni have dark stripes wrapping around their horns, and Kinsley has one horn this way, one horn male)

I woke up, smelling smoke from the just put out fire, and slurred my words together, asking: "Philip? Frances?"

"Here. You really passed out ya'know, it's already midday! The fire got out by itself, by the way," Frances announced.

"Midday?" I muttered, "I must've been exhausted then..."

"Well you did use your song, after all," Frances replied. She thought for a moment, "Also, we caught an animal! A sheep!" She quickly got behind a tree, "Where is it? Where's Jeb? Has he run away?"

"She didn't put it on a leash," Philip whispered, loud enough for me to hear.

"Frances, I'm sure it'll get back to you at some point," I calmly assured her. I was too tired to really process information, and I got up, feeling a bit dizzy. I picked up my bag, putting the song in the sack. (I just looked up the definition of 'sack' to be sure and one of the translations was 'Spanish wine' 0-0)

"What song is it?" Philip asked quietly, not really sure it he should be asking.

"I... honestly don't know," I answered him.

"Well it's an amazing song!" Frances commented, me chuckling at her cheerfulness.

"Can you do it again?" Philip asked, clearly curious but hestitating.

"Well... the song may have activated in the heat of the moment. Like I'm in danger, and I need some kind of protection...?" I said, shrugging when I spoke. Frances' eyes were full of curiosity about the subject, while Philip had a more subtle, interested look, "Have you two read something about it?" 

"I read that it drains a lot of energy the first time," Frances began enthusiastically, "but that you'll get used to it eventually!"

"I-I only learned the basics. The four pillars, and that stuff," Philip explained. We all suddenly turned around, hearing a cry of death, "d-did you hear that?"

"Kinsley, I'm scared." Frances shivered at the sound.

"W-whatever it was, is not here. Now, we should be traveling further, shouldn't we?" I said nervously, "Pick up your bags, lets go." We traveled further to the east, the many rivers of Sendaria coming in sight. I was getting quite annoyed with them, but they did have some information about the songs. In the sunlight, I catched the inside of a cave decorated and made as a home, signaling a village nearby.

"There's a cave there!" Frances called out.

"I know, Frances. Let's go in there," I told her. I knocked on the hard rock at the entrance of the cave, the smell of cooked chicken filling my nose. "I think someone is cooking chicken?"

"That would be me! What can I help you with?" someone asked, turning his head around the corner. He was a Sendaris ardoni, around 98, and his markings resembled many circles and occasional stripes. The colour of those were a dark cyan, which I haven't seen much amongst Sendaris, "Wait, from which clan are you? It looks like you're a Nestoris?"

"I mean... I was born in Nestoria, if that counts?" I explained to him.

"Eh, good enough," he challenged.

"Excuse me?" I protested.

"Hey, no offense," he began, "but cross-clans and non-gendered Ardoni are not exactly welcome here."

"And why wouldn't they be?" I sneered to him.

"You were born this way, you know?" he insulted me.

"You seriously think I choose this?!" I continued, not noticing the children standing next to me flinching at my shouting.