Flickering light of a candle moved in the breeze as it softly wafted through the tree hut. The pelt that normally hung over the door was swinging, rolled up with a dark hand print against it. Inside the hut the flickering light was on a hand-formed candle in the corner. On the wooden floor there were dark smears of color on the floor, leading into the deeper area of her hut. From inside the smaller wooden door was steam from her warm bath, candles lit nearby. What little light offered showed the aftermath of her outburst earlier.

A metallic taste was on her lips as she had settled into the dark water, submerged down to her neck. Already the blood on her body had been lifted by the water, swirling into the darkened color. Her face, however... despite the darkness of the water she could still see the darkened brown speckles and color over her face.

With a long exhale she pulled the last bits of adornment from her hair and let it fall into the water, staring back at her bright green eyes, pulling her hands together in the water to bring it closer to stare back down at herself. The words hadn't left her yet... how she screamed at the human boy. Thousands lost to your fear. Lives destroyed because of your weakness. Why was it that she even bothered to explain it to him? One human lost was only a single drop in the bucket of FEAR mules, a death that should have been quick. Decapitation, a slice across the neck, a femoral artery. The human body was very weak, after all. Hunters were different and not AS weak, as she learned, but as part of War and as a skilled warrior she should have dispatched him as soon as she saw him

So why hadn't she?

Iyari dropped the water in her hand and leaned back, submerging herself in the water and coming back up so just her face was above the water and she stared at the small skylight looking up into the darkened branches above. Another deep inhale and she closed her eyes, listening to the rippling of the water. On her face the dried blood was running, dripping off of it and she thought back to it.

Something about the way he looked, the pure ignorance on his face. As if they weren't even aware of what they had done... Ignorance is no excuse... The thought was bitter, laden in hatred and internally she felt like the fire rise up again and she slapped the water, sending the ripples to the edge of the tub and she stretched out her feathers from the water and exhaled again.

Maybe it was the ignorance that made her so damned angry. Those eyes filled with momentary pity, sadness... They weren't allowed to feel sorry for it. Iyari snorted and moved under the water, releasing bubbles slowly as she thought it over again. Adrenaline rushing in her veins, the anger swelling from within, the cracking of his bones and rush of the brightly colored blood as it washed over her and pooled at her feet. That feeling against the optic nerve inside of his skull and her tugging of severing it... it felt raw, it felt savage, it felt... good.

For her emotions, anyways.

It was far detached from the words of her mentor about the skillful warrior, that was something for certain, but as much as Iyari adored her and appreciated the older horsewoman's mentorship, doing the tedious tasks for so long now had resulted in stagnation. Basics, weapon care, obstacles, sparring... since the loss of the islands and merging of the clans it had where she had buried her emotions.

Buried so far that she hadn't even really thought of them until she ran into the hunter. Her mother... could she even remember her face? She could remember her father's... couldn't she? Something was painful about trying to think. Senga/ One of his old pelts hung in her hut as a reminder of her younger brother who had wanted so desperately to be an executioner. Fuzziness hung over memories, blocking them away and it irritated her, causing her to groan.

But the rage persisted through all that. Maybe it was that she hadn't had ever given herself the time to think it over, and saying it then was a deluge of the emotion she hadn't yet dealt with. Though it was sloppy, it had helped her. It unlocked something in her, letting that fire move through her and into her body. Quickly she submerged again before getting out, flicking her wings and wrapping herself up in the wool towels she had made, blowing out the candles and pulling the plug on the tub, moving back to her bed covered in furs.

That's enough of that. The inner voice came strongly. You did what was needed, what was deserved. Stop fighting the emotion, let the fierceness flow.

Iyari laid back, her wings stretched out and her bright green hues looked back to the small table near her bed. The small, wide bottomed bottle had been corked and inside was a bright blue eye staring back at her, cleaned and ready for viewing and she reached out to it, holding it above her and staring at it with a smirk. The inner voice was right, it was enough to sulk and over analyze her actions. It was a successful mission. If the boy died, it was one less hunter. If he lived, then at least he had one good eye to see what else was coming.

Emotions were surging through her, like she was awake again. She set the eye back down and she looked back at it. "Don't worry, you might be joined soon enough." She said, with a darkened, but gleeful voice (at least, gleeful for her). A dark idea was forming, one that should have been dealt with a long time ago. That didn't matter to her though. As long as they had to watch, and lose, just like she had to watch as the clans were devastated.

Maybe someday soon, they would finally get justice.