Crash Landing

leader

*Mae*

"Why in the Fates would you say such a thing? Zaxton was our leader for a long time–"

The nicer giant of a man before started to speak his piece of mind but the more aggressive one, Zaxton I should say since that was apparently his name unless it was a title though I highly doubted it, hissed in response as he glared at his cousin with a look of death that could have incinerated the younger, friendlier man if looks could have killed.

"Zion! Hush now!"

Zaxton ordered loudly, and a bit rudely if you ask me, for his cousin to shut his mouth but the words were already out in the open air.

They couldn't be taken back now and my mind was spinning with wonder at what Zion could be applying.

Was he perhaps speaking of a time that Zaxton could have ruled when things were more peaceful?

Or maybe they were even more dangerous and deadly then than they are now?

Sure, I didn't know them for more then a few hours or a day at most but now, it felt as if I could understand a bit of the reasoning behind the protective and guarded stances they took, especially speaking of Zaxton, that is.

But nevertheless, as much as I tried to steel my expression, my eyebrows raised up at their interaction, wondering why Zaxton would try to shush his blood related family member so quickly and so harshly when Zion was only relaying this information to me so I wouldn't disrespect their traditions and formalities in some manner that I was currently unaware of.

And whilst I'm sure that there are many traditions, formalities, demeanors and habits what have you that I'm either disrespecting or flat out insulting, I wasn't exactly sure how my attempt at a sort-of joke could be taken in a rude way.

Was I somehow insulting Zaxton's ability to rule over his own people?

Is that why they're reacting in such a fierce way?

I wasn't sure what I had done wrong in what instance but I was quick to apologize for my actions, mainly because I didn't know how they dealt with such mistreatings and the last thing I needed right now was to lose my head over a simple misunderstanding.

Literally.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, ya know, disrespect you guys in any way. It was just a joke."

Zion huffed as he crossed his arms with a bit of stubbornness while Zaxton rubbed his jaw as his eyes blatantly scanned over my frame as if he was either checking for any signs of weapons or checking me out.

Either way, I didn't know how I felt about the sudden interest in attention over my figure and so, my arms wrapped themselves around my midsection in a sort of hug, concealing and protecting my figure from their prying gazes like I was hiding a dark secret.

Yeah.

The dark secret being that I didn't know if they were into cutting open people's bodies and eating their flesh like cannibals here, if that was just the standard or not.

Zaxton's eyes watched my nervous movements with a silence that spoke volumes but when he did speak, I hadn't exactly expected the next words to come out of his mouth with such ease, even as startling as they were.

"Mhhm…If you speak the truth and you are female as you say you are, we may have no choice but to disguise you for fear of entrapment and persecution."

My eyebrows raised up even further, an action that I didn't think was possible until now, as they nearly dared to enter my hairline and disappear completely.