It took like 4 days but I wrote a new chapter! Here it is. Chapter two of the Daughters of Ala'a

  Chapter Two

Siamak lay on the cliff above a Pale One camp with two other Sisters laying beside her. Three other Sisters were protecting them and writing down the information as it came. Siamak and her two Sisters were deep in the Sharing, looking through their Scale-Sister’s eyes as they slithered through the camp, gathering information. Nihani slithered through a flap in one of the tents. She was looking for the information runner who had arrived here to rest that day. She had been following his scent trail through the camp and it led here. She flicked her tongue out once more, tasting the air. His scent was concentrated here. She slithered through the tent sticking to the edges as she approached the bed and the figure laying in it. She made her way up one of the posts the bed was on, and slithered her way to the pillow. Laying on it was the runner.

Speaking through Siamak’s lips, “I have found him. He lays sleeping in the open. Defenseless. I would like to kill him now.”

“No, Scale-Sister we need him alive for now. Once we have what we need from him, you may kill him then. In the meantime, you may make him Sleep.” Jalina, the Sister in charge of keeping track of the information they collect, informed Nihani. She clicked her tongue while she looked at her notes, the small firelight floating beside her head providing light. 

“We have enough Sisters. It’s time we destroyed that camp. My Sisters, make your targets Sleep, while the rest of us spill blood.” 

Jalina packed her notes into the pouch on her hip and sealed it, she waved off her fire light, while her other Sisters left the Sharing. Each Sister made her way to their feet, and they began to scale down the cliff, their skin blending into the night. The Sisters split up once they reached camp, each one going to take out a patrol guard. Siamak reached her guard and quickly put her hand over his mouth, while reaching around with her dagger and slit his throat deep enough that all he could do was gurgle. She silently dropped him to the ground and made her way to the tent where Nihani silently waited. 

Siamak slipped into the tent and immediately made her way to kill the other man sleeping in the tent with the runner, but Nihani had already done that.

“You were supposed to wait for us Sister. What if he had awoken before he died?” Siamak whispered as she walked to the other bed where Nihani was curled on the runner’s chest, looking smug as only a Scale-Sister could.

“I was wrapped around his throat before he knew what was happening, and then my fangs were directly in his throat. He died quickly. Shame that. He did not deserve an easy death.” Nihani uncurled herself as she spoke, making her way up the hand Siamak held out, and made her way to Siamak’s head and settled herself in place.

“Grab this one so we can burn this place to the ground, and cleanse it of their taint.” Nihani said, flicking her tongue out again.

“I taste much blood in the air. I think our Sisters are nearly finished.”

Siamak grabbed the runner and flipped him over her shoulder with barely a grunt. She left the tent and walked to the middle of the camp where her Sister’s were waiting, with two other people slung over their shoulders.

“We have what we came for. Let’s burn this place to the ground,” Jalina, said nodding toward one of her SIster’s without a person on their shoulder. 

“ Malika, you have the strongest fire. Make sure nothing else burns but the camp. The plains do not deserve to be hurt. They’ve done nothing wrong.” Jalina and the other Sister’s make their way out of the decimated camp, while Malika and their Scale-Sister, closed their eyes, and raised their hands to the sky. Between Malika’s raised hands, sparks formed. Then small flames that got higher and hotter. Malika threw their hand wide, and the fire jumped to the nearest tent and began to eat it. Then it jumped to the next and the next, then it jumped to their carts and all other evidence that the Pale Ones were there. Once everything was ash, Malika opened their eyes and lowered their hands. They walked to where their Sisters were waiting.

“Solana. You should make it rain so the ash can mix with the earth, and new life can rise.” Malika bowed their head towards another SIster who repeated the gesture. Solana moved slightly away from the group, and raised her hands to the sky. Clouds began to form, wispy and white at first, then they gained volume, and darkened. Thunder boomed, a flash of lighting and then rain started to pummel the earth and drenched the ground and the SIsters. A few minutes later it started to taper off until it stopped altogether, Everything within a mile had gotten a good bit of rain. 

Solana walked back to the soaking wet group and together they bowed their heads, and made a prayer to the Goddess just to make sure the ground was properly cleansed of taint. They turned their backs to the site, and made their way back to one of the Tribe villages that were housing them on their mission. It would take them all night to reach it, but they had each other to make the time go faster, and with the hefty weight  of their captives, the knowledge that they were one step closer to their goal. Finding the leader of the Pales Ones, so that they could put an end to them and their brutality. 

Daughters of Ala'a

 Without further ado, meet Siamak and Nihani. Two of the Daughters of Ala'a

Chapter One

She knelt in front of her mirror and placed her braids into a warped bun on the crown of her head. She mixed the clay from her Tribe with water and painted it on her skin in the symbols of her Tribe, her mother, her line and her SIsters. She placed her armor on one piece at a time, her undershirt, then her thickened leathers, her hide boots. Then came her metal gauntlets, then the knives her Tribe made from the special metals in the mountains they nestled against. She rose to her feet, then made her way over to her companion, curled around herself nestled on her bed in a sunbeam. 

Her companion’s scales were a deep grey with its edges dipped in light copper. Her diamond shaped head gleamed with dark grey eyes, and when she opened her mouth her palate was as black as night. 

“Is it time my sister?,”  her companion asked her, with her forked tongue elongating the “s” sounds in her words. “Time for vengeance? To spill blood? To feast?”

“It is time Nihani. We will turn the clay red. We will breathe in their blood, drink it and feast on it.” she replied to her Scale-Sister. 

“Then let us be on our way Siamak. We have much blood to spill.” Nihani slithered up Siamak’s arm, up her neck, and wrapped herself around Siamak’s braided bun and neck, with her head resting on Siamak’s forehead right between her brows. Siamak made her way through her home and out the beaded door, she and her mother spent hours making. She gently caressed the beads on her way out. She made her way to the center of the Tribe, where the rest of her Sister’s were waiting with their Scale-Sisters positioned like Nihani. She took her place in the semi-circle around the Tribe Matriarch’s Meeting House. 

Siamak and her Sisters bow to the Tribe Matriarch as she exits the Meeting House. The Tribe Matriarch was a tall, round woman, with deep dark glowing skin, covered in the clay drawn symbols of their Tribe. Her hair was black peppered with silver, done up in a braided bun, with her Scale-Sister adorning her like others. The Tribe Matriarch was adorned in her ceremonial battle leathers, woven through with thin threads of their mountain metal. 

The Tribe Matriarch bows to them, “Daughters. It is good to see you all assembled here in front of me. The best warriors in our Tribe. I wish it were for better reasons. Unfortunately, you go forth to mere out vengeance. The Pale Ones have been raiding the Tribes at the edge of our lands. Killing, raping, and stealing our people. We have finally learned where they have been taking them, and where they have been raiding from. You will kill them all. You will make them regret ever stepping foot on Ala’a land. They think we are easy prey, because they raided our farming Tribes. They will find this prey has teeth. Spill their blood. Make the clay run red. Scale-Daughters feast. Leave only bones as warning. Let them know,  Ala’a is NOT theirs for the taking.” 

The Matriarch stepped further in the semi-circle of her Daughters and they formed a complete circle around her. She began to sing and dance and her Scale-Sister began to writhe to her beat, Her Daughters closed their eyes and began to move with her. Stepping out of the shadows of the buildings and encircling the Daughters, the other villagers joined in. They all moved in the Ceremonial War Dance, and each word spoken and sung by the Matriarch and Tribe was a spell. A spell that strengthened their Daughters both Scale and Skin. It thickened scales and skin, enhanced speed and skill and sight, it made them ready for anything. The Daughters of Ala’a were going to war.

Meanwhile...Where I've been

        Hi! So it's been nearly 5 years since I've actually posted anything on here. Or written any words at all. Um  in the last five years, I've been diagnosed with Major depression, and anxiety, and one of the things antidepressants take from you is your creativity, which for me was a sacrifice worth making, otherwise I wouldn't be here today. Because not only was I depressed, I'd also become disabled which made my depression worse. I suffer from Chronic migraines and Post-herpetic Neuralgia, and both leave me with indescribable amounts of pain daily. While they are both manageable with medication, dealing with that and work - Hey I'm a certified chef now - left me with little in the tank to write. Then 2020 happened.       

         Another blow to my, admittedly already fragile body. I contracted Covid -19, and while a relatively mild case, it's left me with a warped sense of smell and taste, both things you need to be a chef, and with no clear idea if I'll ever get them back to normal. Then not to mention the breathing problems and inability to stand for more than a few minutes because Covid has literally set my feet on fire - my doctors don't know how, or why that's happened or how long that gonna last so MORE fun - has forced me to resign from my job, since I physically can't do it anymore.

        I say all that to say, I actually had the urge to write today. So I sat down and wrote what was in my head and I'll post that in a minute. About the Watcher though, I hope I'll be able to go back to that, now that it seems my brain has room for words. It's gonna have to wait though, because Siamak and Nihani need their stories told. I'm not going to try to keep a schedule, because that would literally overwhelm me now, but I am going to try to write a few words a day though, even if it's just 30 words and I end up hating them at the end. Anyways thank you for reading my rambling words.