If Only{{Kina/Ardell Dark Mabinogi}}You Could Have Looked Like That Sooner

Minutes passed in silence.

"...So...you and Ardell...?" Con piped up reluctantly, head resting against the tent wall. She wanted to crawl into some pelts and take a nap, so badly...a night had already gone by in which she stood awake.

"What about us?" Kina replied, sedatedly enough. She opened her eyes and looked at the elf, expression blank for the most part.

Con was silent a moment before responding. "You were together?" she asked, fingers twitching slightly in her lap.

"-Are together." Came Kina's swift correction, not liking how the question had been worded, "Yes, we are. It's why I came looking for him."

"Right," Con said after a moment. Silence.

"..Why weren't you captured with him?" the question rose without her even thinking about it, and immediately afterward she began to wonder at its wisdom. She didn't like this woman, and she worried it showed in her words.

"......" Kina was totally silent. She refused to dignify the question with any sort of response, and kept the silence in the air. She relayed her lack deliberate lack if a response with a stern look in the woman's direction.
Warning her far, far away from the subject.

Anger began to show on Con's expression. "We're all lucky we found each other there." she growled. "Otherwise we would have never gotten out of that Hell hole. We'd be dead. Or at least, I would be. I'd kill myself before letting myself live there without any plan to get out." her aggressive features slowly smoothed out.

"...Why am I telling you this?" she grumbled, realizing that this woman was the first encounter outside of that place in years. And what does she do? She complains about what they went through. The fact made her angry at herself, even. But she was already mad herself...at everything.

She grumbled something under her breath, turning her attention away from the human woman.

Kina watched the girl speak- but she caught something under that tone that she didn't like. A kind of...close affection. ....Just how close had that group gotten to one another? ...It certainly didn't lean Kina in the girl's favor in the least bit. She looked away from Con completely, hardly reacting to her story.
...When was he going to get back, already?

"...Are you planning to take him back with you?" Con couldn't resist the questioning impulses. "Will you make him leave us?" her expression was hard, violet eyes staring brutally on the woman.

"You think I traveled all this way just to see him?" Kina growled scathingly at the elven female. "Yes. He's coming back with me. Your group may not be able to hold your own, but I can hold mine just fine." She sat up, already feeling more energy than she had had for a week.
"He's coming home. Got a problem with it?" She challenged, eyes smoldering. Just daring the female elf to say something otherwise.

"You bi*ch!" Con cried, jumping to a stand. Rage made her body tremble as her fear was confirmed. "You can't just take him like that! We need him- all of us do!" she seemed about to leap at the woman.

Kina sat straight up- stock still. "...What did you just call me?" She snarled, clenching her fists. "....I really hope that was an accident. I'll give you one chance-- one. One chance to apologize."

"Hell no," Con refused. She showed no signs of recalling any insult. Her hand was near her weapon.

Kina gave an animalistic snarl, suddenly leaping from her makeshift bed and tackling the female elf to the ground.

There was a yell from Con as she was attacked, the elf pulling out her weapon and readying a swing to the woman.

Just then, the tent flap opened to reveal Ardell's surprised face. "Hey!" he called, stepping inside to pull the two apart.

Kina delivered a harsh bite to the woman's arm before she was pulled back by her elven lover. She whirled on him, eyes fierce as she pointed to the woman on the ground. "That-- thing needs to learn to keep it's damn mouth shut." She turned to the girl again, "Or I'll gut her so fast she won't have time to blink!"

Ardell glanced between the two, unsure of what to make of the scene. Con seemed about ready to plunge back into a fight, unconcerned about the bite to her arm. Her mouth opened to say something, but the male elf's look made her stop. She glared the human woman.

"You know what? You watch her again. I'm going to kill her if she's not out of my sight soon." Con stormed past the blond elf, shoving him lightly out of her way. Moments later, and her shouting could be heard as she gave orders to the other elves.

Ardell turned back to Kina. "...What happened?" he asked blankly, a little stunned by the display. He was used to Con's violent personality, but not to it being directed at anyone other than giants.

"Bitch couldn't let go of you." Kina growled sourly, examining her fingernails a bit too carefully. As if she were about to bite them clean off.
"Got pissed when I said I intended to take you back home. --And she WISHES SHE WAS STRONG ENOUGH TO TAKE ME!!!" The last part was a roar- the woman trying to let Con hear her. She wanted a fight- able-bodied or not.

Ardell flinched at the yell, the elf uneasily looking over his shoulder in the fear that Con would come screaming back at any moment. "Don't do that," he begged, then caught onto the rest of her words. "Wait- what? Back home?" he turned back to his lover, expression startled.

Kina glared back at her lover, expression annoyed. "Yes- back home." She growled, "What- you thought I came out here to catch a glimpse at you? I came here to take you home with me-- out of that hellhole." She pointed in the direction of the volcano. "Don't you want that?"

"Well, of course- I'm not going back to that place." Ardell said instantly, the idea of willingly heading back to the mines nothing but an instant sign of insanity. He would sooner jump head first into a golem's punch than do that. "But..-where? Has Filia been rebuilt?"

"To Ulladh." Kina corrected sharply, "To maybe stay with that fruit of yours- what's his name? ...Simon-- Yeah, Simon." She nodded, "I'm sure he'll take you in."

"Oh, yeah...Simon.." Ardell glanced over his shoulder. "...But...the others...." his eyes went back to Kina's.

"What about them?" Kina growled coldly, "I came here for you, Ardell. To get you out of here. I don't know them-- I want to gut one of them!" She glared at the door again, "...And I'm getting you out of here. Just you." Now her face became softer.
"....Ardell, you don't understand...I would have walked until I couldn't anymore. And then I would have crawled. On my hands and knees- day and night. Over anything- through anything..." Her eyes teared up, voice becoming choked, "...Just to find you again."

"I'm glad..." Ardell said softly, but then more loudly, "I don't want to leave them like this. Five people already died to get this far...and we never even encountered giants. They need as much help as they can get." the elf paused. Outside he could hear movement- the escaped elves going about their business.