nobodieshero-main

[nobodieshero-main]

a fun thing about mika, actually, is that he's such a wine snob - he's worked plenty of jobs that have required him to be at fancy gala's and ball's and just general fancy events and over the years he's just. picked up so much knowledge about different wine and how to drink it and what to drink it with and it's just something very funny to me that he's this real terrifying looking guy with scruffy facial hair and scars and a general dangerous aura and then he's like "ugh this red has been open for far too long, tastes disgusting, i'm not drinking this"

#mieczyslaw ''mika'' #nh: the splintering #mika

[nobodieshero-main]

ages ago i started writing a fic about ahria's childhood, and i just found it....she makes my heart hurt

#i put A Lot of myself into certain parts of her backstory and reading them through her eyes was. oof. #on the plus side her childhood nicknames are 'mouse' and 'sir blossom' (bc she was the Knight of the Blossom Lounge) #ahria

[nobodieshero-main]

slova being taught to suppress his casting, even though it was the thing that made him godly to the burrows, and then as he and rauka travel to the sea he learns how to...let go and let himself play with stardust and magic. he makes it rain when they're thirsty and warms the air when they're cold and by the time they get to that beach he's found a love for casting that he'd never had as a child. and it's the very thing that destroys them.

#me any chance i get ''what if i made to feed an ocean worse-'' #casting and feeling were the two things slova was taught to suppress and ignore #and what are the two things that destroy him and rauka in the end? slova's casting + his emotions getting the better of him #to feed an ocean

[nobodieshero-main]

i think i want the lavore's to be one of the oldest families on the continent and the only reason they're a nevmonesian noble house is bc they just Refused To Move. and then i think it would be funny if lhyr and morielle used to be one place, but when oveta used the river as the border to miednic they just split in half - so now there's the Miednic Lavore's and Nevmones Lavore's and they have a really petty fued going on

#im talking atlas's mum being stressed bc there's ''complications'' with a trading merchant and -- #''i just know it's your aunt trying to get back at me for what happened on your brothers birthday'' #worldbuiliding #i love atlas's family tree #like on one branch hes got one of the oldest noble families; on another branch hes got The Royal Family of nevmones #and then there's a third branch leading back to ariad and thala #atlas lavore #lavore lore #ha

[nobodieshero-main]

he's gonna be the most apathetic 10/11 year old you've ever seen in your life

i think im gonna name atlas's little brother mordred

#picture like. a mini atlas. but he's lankier and scowling 80% of the time #mordred lavore

[nobodieshero-main]

i think im gonna name atlas's little brother mordred

[nobodieshero-main]

im suddenly feeling really drawn to keika dying in prota, actually...what if atlas killed the man he loves twice over <3

#metaphorically and then literally #hmm #this is mostly a joke btw - the only way i know how to process hella killing beloved characters is by threatening my own

[nobodieshero-main]

what if atlas got called to morielle for his brothers birthday or something and what if keika was in lhyr on an errand w rua (literally right across the river) and what if they both spent all night staring at the ceiling mourning each other not knowing the other was Right There, what if atlas had an argument with his parents and left for the capital hours before rua and keika crossed the border into nevmones

oh boy atlas's side of ghosts is so empty 😭 trying to jot down the important info so i can work out a proper outline later and its like "keika does this, this and this. atlas works at the university <3"

#what if they just missed each other #keitlas

[nobodieshero-main]

oh boy atlas's side of ghosts is so empty 😭 trying to jot down the important info so i can work out a proper outline later and its like "keika does this, this and this. atlas works at the university <3"

#i need this man to be doing Something #once again i find myself fucked over by atlas' origin being 'get kissed by keikas character'. sigh. #i will figure something out #whats...9 more years. #one thing i DO know about atlas's side of the story is that he has guppy with him #and she is so so sad and wont tolerate anyone coming near her but she'll press her forehead to atlas's in the dead of night and mourn

[nobodieshero-main]

okay so i was thinking about ahuru, as one does, and i was thinking about how much i don't want her death to just. be keika's backstory, yknow??

like i don't want to reduce her to just the main characters motivation, which is why i try to give her so much life in any scene she's in. but i think i wanna like- so, ahuru's death literally shapes nobodies hero, right? there'd be no story to tell if she hadn't been killed. and that's kind of a Big Deal to me.

so i think i'm going to symbolise the fuck out of birds. foreshadowing or whatever.

like when keika first meets mattie- he's in priah and he still doesn't have his memories back. he decides to go for a walk, just wandering through the mushrooms and the woods and then all of a sudden a game bird gets shot with an arow right in front of him. and when he looks up, he sees mattie with a bow and arrow, and that's how they meet.

and then in the next book it's revealed that Mattie is, technically, responsible for ahuru's death. it wasn't personal, in the same way hunting that bird wasn't personal, it was just...self preservation. they just shot an arrow and watched it land.

#i want the first thing for keika to see when he leaves the mahina woods is a dead bird #just. for every wrong path keika takes there's a dead bird waiting for him yknow #when he's in the library in the palace in prota he can hear the birds. and when he kills sasha they dont sing for days. #it also helps with my idea for there to be 'stop go back wrong way' signs all over the place the entire time keika's on the quest #like he's CONSTANTLY being told he's going the wrong way. he's not where he's meant to be. and every step leaves feathers in his wake. #im trying so hard to properly convey what i want to do with the birds but none of its coming out right #i'll just have to write it ugh #anyway #ahuru my beloved you will haunt every word in these books if it kills me #oh my god what if all throughout two ghosts he hears birds but never sees them...... #i might have to adjust the title slightly to allow more wriggle room for more ghost metaphors #plot stuff

[nobodieshero-main]

another old snippet <3

"How is traipsing through the unknown in any way appealing?" He grouched, refusing to acknowledge the eggshell cracking of his voice.

Puberty was a plague he was impatient to be cured of.

"I'm just saying." Ahuru said, graciously sparing him from her teasing as she pulled a jar down from the shelf, frowning at the label. "There's nothing wrong with a little adventure.

▪︎

Years later, Keika blinked awake to the crisscross of branches across a dawning sky, feeling aged in a way that had nothing to do with time.

He could still feel the shape of his response on the back of his tongue, the dry aftertaste of teenaged dramatics. "I've already had enough adventure to last me a lifetime."

Now his destination loomed above the trees like the jagged spine of a cornered animal. The X on a map he'd wanted to burn.

From the shadows of his ribs, nostalgia crept, childish eyes tracing the curves of foreign mountains and finding the echoes of home.

Home.

He missed its quiet streets, and the mornings spent covered in flour. Missed the way stepping into the library felt like the thunk of a lock sliding into place.

Beside him, beneath these unknown trees, beneath the shadow of the end, Atlas slept on.

He was an ugly sleeper, all squashed up lips and drool, morning breath that could put Guppy to shame, and eyes that stayed bleary and crusted for hours after the sun rose.

(It seemed, no matter how many blinks that man had spent asleep beneath the open sky, he had still not lost the indulgent habits of his noble upbringing.)

There were pieces of Keika, jagged and small, that still yearned for sunlight, and those pieces ached with an affection that took his breath away. Twisted his stomach in knots.

It didn't feel fair, how much Keika loved him. Not when it felt as though they'd be nothing but strangers in a handful of days.

Keika tore his eyes away from where the freshly cut curls of Atlas' hair stuck up unnaturally, a quiet punishment. It was cruel to even entertain the idea that Atlas wouldn't escort him home, wouldn't retrace his steps all the way back to the end of the world just to make sure he got there safely.

They still had entire turns of the moon together. He could wait a little longer before he mourned what if's.

Movement to his left warned him that the subject of his thoughts was preparing to wake, and Keika turned to watch the scrunch of his brow before he'd even thought to.

He wondered if Atlas had ever made bread.

He watched the flutter of Atlas' eyelids as he struggled to peel them open, looking gross and disgruntled. A cloudy sky waiting for the sun to break through.

Keika rolled his eyes so that he wouldn't smile, reaching out to pluck a leaf out of his partners hair and watching with deeply hidden delight as Atlas leaned into his touch. And there was the sun, hidden in the uneven lines of his smile as he forced his eyes all the way open. As if he couldn't bear to go a second longer without seeing him.

He wondered if Atlas would get along with Marlow, if he would let Keika teach him how to make bread.

#ah. characters who think they're at the end of their journey... #snippets #keitlas #let keika make bread with atlas 2024

[nobodieshero-main]

the splintering

so the splintering is a prequel to nobodies hero, and its set roughly a thousand years in the past, during a time thats referred to as "the splintering of the continent" bc this is the time period when the continent went from one country to four.

It tells three main stories (Oveta, who builds a kingdom; Ariad, who is tricked into doing something awful + Korahi, the last dragon) that are all triggered by the same event: Queen Nakia, the ruler of the known continent, decides to wipe out the dragon species.

Now because theres three stories going on, the timeline is a little wobbly bc everyones story starts at different times, but the gist is this:

Ariad is a master alchemist in love with Queen Nakias right hand man, and is tricked into creating a potion that allows its user to look at a dragon and know what it hoards. This is ultimately what leads to the success of Nakias genocide. Ariad is betrayed and heartbroken, unable to believe that the man he loved would trick him into doing something so awful and its revealed the the man never loved him in return and then he tries to kill Ariad, who escapes and flees to the south, where he meets his future wife (i love her).

Oveta is 14 when her aunty Nakia's mission is deemed complete, and their entire bloodline is stripped of magic as a punishment from the gods. In an attempt to win back the gods favour, Oveta kills her aunty and is then tried for treason so she escapes and flees to the west where she meets a man named Miezcyslaw "Mika" and later meets a girl named Kova. Together the three of them attempt to build an army to take back Omos, but eventually Oveta is swayed and decides to take the west for herself instead, thus the country of Miednic is born and the Splintering begins.

Korahi is at her cousins 12th birthday party, when her entire family is slaughtered by Nakia's army. She escapes with deep burn scars and a boatload of trauma and meets a water nymph (Kiko) when she crashes into her lake. The two of them become friends and head south together, falling in love along the way and befriending the Makai. They build a home and a life together but Korahi has always been full of wanderlust and she begins to travel the continent to record history as it happens around her, keeping detailed accounts of everything she sees and learns. Her notebooks are the most accurate recounts of the continent before it split. Unfortunately she is somehow recognised and captured in a western market (where she actually has a very brief and wordless interaction with Oveta, only a few months before she takes the west) and is then entombed in lava when it is revealed she cannot be killed. Due to a magical connection they share, Kiko feels the moment Korahi is lost to her and just falls apart, almost literally actually, and becomes the Mahina River.

Some notes:

Korahi is the dragon in Nobodies Hero + Ariad is Atlas' ancestor.

Mika is basically a sword-for-hire and meets both of his adopted daughters when they try to rob him.

Kova is a bear shifter, and has a big fluffy cloak she carries around that is actually her bear skin.

#plot stuff #the splintering #ive had this sitting here for ages idk why ive never posted it lol

[nobodieshero-main]

nobodies hero: the library keeper (book 1)

In the northern country of Omos, the ruling Prince Sasha has announced a quest. You see, there's a group of fanatics with a goal to bring dragons back from extinction (none have been seen in about a thousand years), and with rumours of one last dragon left hidden somewhere on the continent, the Prince is desperate to stop them.

He pleads for anyone to find this rumoured being before the so-called Flame Fanatics can, terrified that breaking this dragon free will cause it to unleash horror across the 4 countries.

Atlas, a young noble with a childhood dream of adventure, takes two of his friends - Cecily and her wife Ahria - and they set out to find anything that could lead them to where the dragon might be. Their search points them in one main direction: The Mahina Woods.

Infamously deadly, the Mahina Woods are an ancient stretch of forest trapped in perpetual night, and home to an even older race of warriors known as the Makai - owl shifters who walked the earth long before humans. It's a place of horrors and magic, often the setting of scary stories told at sleepovers or parent's warnings to be good or else-

It's said that no one who's entered has ever made it out.

Introducing Keika! a prickly librarian who wants nothing to do with adventures of any sort after leaving the Mahina Woods with his sister, Ahuru, when they were still children.

Atlas and his friends find Keika in a library in Arlet (a town that shouldn't exist) and Keika, begrudgingly, finds himself employed as a Guide.

He takes them to the Mahina Woods, where they meet with the Makai (and Keika is briefly reunited with his mum) and things begin to take a turn for Atlas and his friend's quest. See, the Makai are some of the oldest friends of the dragons, and offer a completely unique perspective on the history they were taught.

Armed with conflicting information, and sobering prophecies, Atlas and his companions part ways with Keika on the bank of the Mahina River. Supposedly, they will never cross paths again.

Until Keika gets back to Arlet and finds his sister dead and his town in ruins. Not knowing what else to do, and unable to stomach staying in the town where he and Ahuru built their lives - Keika leaves, and decides to join the others on their quest.

Along the months they travel together, following the Makai's leads and avoiding the flame fanatics, Keika and his new companions grow closer - he and Atlas especially, as they find themselves falling from friends to lovers.

(Keika, meanwhile, is trapped in a downwards spiral of unprocessed grief and the increasing burden of losing pieces of himself. He's doing great (lying).)

They locate the dragon's tomb in the heart of Miednic, and find themselves locked in a minor battle with the flame fanatics who managed to beat them there. Grievously injured, Atlas begs for Keika to finish the job on his behalf - an entirely selfish request that will haunt him for years after.

Keika, unable to deny his lover anything, takes the sword he's offered and steps - alone - into the dragon's tomb. It's the first time he takes a life with his own hands. The dragon kneels before him in the body of a young woman, older than him but still young, with exhausted eyes.

"Thank you." She says, as the sword swings. Thank you, his sister had said, the last time he saw her alive.

Believing Atlas to have died of his injuries, and his friends to have followed, Keika once again finds himself alone and burdened by a terrible grief. A burden he has not been able to set down for many months and is now only heavier.

Lost, alone, and exhausted Keika stands high above the Seline River and steps off the edge.

#plot stuff #nh: the library keeper #finally mapping out the plots dfjhskf

[nobodieshero-main]

my baby with a baby

#shes good with kids! #i think a modern au ahuru would do well as a primary school nurse #ahuru #character art

[nobodieshero-main]

finally reposting the 2K of sibling fluff i wrote for @tbos-main like. 2 years ago. <3

Toa has two children, blessed with the dark hair and dark eyes of her people, skin kissed with the same olive brown of the mountains that keep them safe. Too young to lift their heads on their own, down-feather-soft and sleepy, they wrap their small hands around her fingers and she feels something deep and ancient shift in her ribs.

She hoots softly, a sound like drifting feathers, and smiles when they blink up at her curiously. One day, they will understand.

You are the shards of me.

In everything but blood, they are hers. Gifts, she will call them, left at the feet of Maurua for her to find and cherish. She does not allow herself to think of who would have left behind children so young to fend for themselves, does not entertain the thought that perhaps they were not meant to survive.

She grits her teeth against the hot flush of protective rage and exhales the anger through her nose. Hoots again, a promise this time, the strongest one a mother knows.

You are the shards of me.

Keika, she found wailing in the muddied shores of Mahina river, eyes glowing a bright purple as the nymph attempted to sooth the child with wandering dreams. She evaded Toa's questioning about the hatchlings wet hair, but it was not hard to piece the story together.

The river was cold in everything but her heart, the boys parents would not have made it far before meeting the fate they meant for him.

She had her son for only two blinks of Vietua, before she met her daughter.

Ahuru, she found nestled in the roots of a tree, chirping the same lonely cry that Makai chicks call when they cannot find their parents, wings filthy and still mostly bald- an age where she should still have been tucked away in her nest, safe from the dangers that lurked in Maurua's shadows.

And so, Toa had tucked the shivering hatchling in beside the first and ran hardened knuckles down the soft skin of their cheeks. Keika had scrunched his face at the cool and scratchy weight of Ahuru's hatchling wings, but had quickly settled against his new sister and Toa loved them so fiercely she ached with it.

Their eyes drooped, features so strikingly similar that it was as though they were meant to find each other, perhaps two halves of the same soul was split between them.

She hooted a third time, deeper in her chest and ending on a shaky croon meant to promise them safety in their dreams and the knowledge that she will be there to greet them when they open their eyes.

You may rest safely knowing that I will face the world with you tomorrow. If you cannot stand, I will lay with you and we will try again the next day.

Only Vietua could keep them from her now.

---

Kei-Kei was sitting on the steps of the meeting house, kicking his legs eventhough he always said that he didn't do that. Māmā told her not to ruin her brothers fun though, so she made sure not to point out that he was doing it. It made him frowny, which made Ahuru frowny because she didn't like it when her brother was frowny.

Māmā says it's because she loves him. Ahuru likes that word, it's her favourite.

It was so much her favourite that she decided to share it with Kei-Kei, so she leaned forward to peek over his shoulder. "Aroha ahau ki a koe!"

Kei-Kei grinned, another of her favourite things, and turned to place a loud and messy kiss against her cheek, the way their māmā did. "Aroha ano ahau ki a koe." He returned, before turning around with a happy sounding hum.

It felt happy too, warm and soft around her toes as she wove more feathers into his hair with gentle claws. Their māmā had taught them how to twist hair into braided ropes and Ahuru loved to braid her brothers hair.

This time she wasn't doing it for practice though. She was doing it so that Kei-Kei wouldn't feel left out just because he didn't have feathers like everyone else. He said that he didn't care, but sometimes he lied about silly things like that so Ahuru decided she'd take matters into her own talons and had spent all morning preening her wings and digging through their nest for any feathers she didn't need.

She'd even grabbed some of their māmā's, and the star-white stood out very nicely against Kei-Kei's dark hair and Ahuru's downy green-ish feathers.

"Kua oti koe?" He asked after a little bit, careful not to turn his head while her claws were still in his hair. Ahuru's feathers ruffled at his impatience, even though she knew it wasn't real. Kei-Kei could sit still forever, if he really wanted to.

"Awe." She promised in a mutter, tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she gently twisted another feather into his hair.

Now Kei-Kei would have his own feathers to show off, the way everyone else did, and then he wouldn't have to feel left out anymore.

She paused for a moment, tilting her head to the side before looking down at her own wings that were keeping her sitting up so she could use her feet without falling over. Even though she wasn't a fledgling yet, they were very big wings, bigger even than māmā's when māmā became a bird.

One day, she would take Kei-Kei with her when she flew, and then he would never be left out.

---

Keika sneezed, pressing a forearm to his face to give his eyes a break from the painful brightness of Rawetua's rays. He missed the cool darkness of the woods they'd left behind, and felt a new bitterness wash through him.

Ahuru was handling it a little better, though she kept her eyes squinted in between weird dramatic blinks like she was trying to force her pupils to hurry up and adapt. She'd been using her wings as a sort of shade, holding them up above their heads, but it was tiresome and her shoulders had begun to hurt so Keika had suggested they take a break and just deal with Rawatua for a bit.

He was regretting it, but not enough to ask his sister to put herself through any more pain.

They'd climbed over an odd, random, wooden structure that resembled a half-built wall and had been walking across an open stretch of grassy hills since then.

His eyes were still covered when Ahuru suddenly stilled beside him, a wary chirp shuttering against the back of the teeth as her ruffled feathers brushed his arm.

Cautious, Keika lowered his arm and blinked against the brightness before his vision cleared and he froze.

There was a creature a few arm-lengths away, staring at them with wide, strange, yellow eyes while it chewed on something. Its body was big and round and covered in a layer of short grey-white fur, with thick clumps of fluffier looking fur hanging off of it in a seemingly random pattern.

It stared at them, still chewing, and they stared back, still frozen.

Ahuru tilted her head, and looked at him with wide eyes before blinking once.

What is it?

Keika widened his eyes in response and shook his head, strands of hair falling into his face at the movement.

I don't know.

Together they both turned back to the creature, to discover it had finally stopped chewing and appeared to have turned to face them properly, alert in a way it hadn't been before.

Keika almost felt... threatened. He could tell by the way Ahuru's wings fluffed up and lifted slightly that she was feeling a similar way.

And then the creature made a sound, a sort of gravelly bellow and they both jumped in fright, Ahuru's wings shooting up to curve over both of them protectively.

The animal flinched back and ran away until it was at a safer distance, before turning to look back again, seemingly wanting something from them.

And then suddenly there were more, bulky white creatures ambling up the hill towards them, all watching them with the same yellow eyes.

Slowly, the pair took a few testing steps back, watching the creatures warily for any reaction. There didn't seem to be one, so they continued in the same backwards fashion until suddenly, simultaneously, the creatures started following at a curious pace.

Iekua help them, were they telepathic?

The thought sent a bolt of ice down Keika's spine. There were plenty of tani in the Mahina Woods that could communicate in all sorts of strange ways, it's wasn't at all unbelievable that these creatures could as well. Mā- Toa had always told them that the outside world was very different to the woods they lived in, but maybe she'd been wrong.

And then all of the creatures were making that strange noise, loud and terrifying and they were ambling closer and Keika and Ahuru were stepping back and then they were running so Keika and Ahuru did too.

Keika's bag swung wildly and smacked him on the backs of his thighs as they sprinted away, Ahuru flapping her wings every few steps to carry her further faster much to Keika's betrayal.

"Tāria ki ahau!" He demanded, tempted to throw his bag at her just to get her to slow down and not leave him behind with those things.

Some sister she was.

From the sounds of it the animals were in pursuit, jostling one another and trampling the grass in their efforts to catch them.

Curse this strange land, Keika thought a little hysterically as he watched Ahuru flap her way over another of those half-built walls and onto the wide path beyond it. Her long hair streamed behind her, strands getting caught in the feathers of her wings, and Keika was just glad he'd left his braided behind him as he threw his bag and then himself over the wall after her.

Lungs burning, his boots slipped a bit on the rocks as he scrambled back onto his feet before following his sister until they found a bridge to scramble underneath.

Keika had feathers in his mouth and a foot in his stomach as they shoved at each other to move faster, before pressing together to take up less space. Keika had his bag pulled to his chest, heart pounding against his ribs while Ahuru curled her wings around them both in an instinctive need to hide.

It was hard to hear anything through their panting and the sound of blood rushing in his ears but he was hopeful that they'd outrun their pursuers.

It was awhile before either of them felt safe enough to venture back out into the open, peering around the edge of the stone bridge back the way they came to reveal an empty road.

They looked at each other, hair now a mess and littered with leaves and cobwebs, and Keika felt the hysteria from before come bubbling back up as laughter. Ahuru stared at him for a moment, like maybe he'd finally lost it, before she cracked a grin and then they were both laughing.

It loosened something inside of him, a warm and vibrant joy rushing through his veins as his fear gave way to relief and he decided that maybe they could survive this.

He had Ahuru, despite everything, and as long as she was by his side he knew everything was going to be okay.

They fixed each others hair, frequently breaking out into giggles that petered off into amused grins as they picked out leaves and combed their fingers through it. Ahuru re-braided Keika's hair and he tied hers into a knot, up and away from her neck, before they made their way across the bridge and continued on their journey.

Niskaiua would lead them somewhere they could be safe, all they needed to get there was each other.

---

The man who had lead them to the room seemed kind, with his smile and the way his face had softened in surprise at Ahuru's nervous rambling.

Apparently, neither of the languages they knew were common here.

They weren't used to being unable to talk their way into or out of things, but it seemed unnecessary in the face of the mans open hands as he'd gestured for them to step into the room.

It was bigger than was expected, likely meant for an adult rather than two fledglings, and the nest was shaped oddly but... it was dry, and it was warm and it was dark and Keika suddenly felt the now familiar urge to cry creep up his throat.

"Tēnā-" Keika hesitated, but it was the only language he had, and he could only hope the man would understand the sentiment. "Tēnā rawa atu koe."

The man's face scrunched a bit, one eye narrowing more than the other as he, presumably, attempted to figure out what Keika was trying to say before his face cleared and he nodded. The words he spoke in return were weird, the sounds familiar but put together in a way that didn't make sense. Still, Keika thought he understood.

He was accepting their thank you.

He left them shortly after a long and strange conversation in which they each tried to communicate in a way the other could understand.

There was a lot of gesturing and speaking slowly, littered with bouts of laughter and excited clapping whenever they had a break through.

It was ridiculous. And a little frustrating.

In the end they figured out that the man was telling them they could stay for as long as they needed to, and he would find them some food later, much to their shared relief.

The food he brought was odd. It lacked the smoky flavours of what they were used to, and the plants that had been served with it were strange and new. But it was warm, and tasty.

They were given a bath - a warm one - and Ahuru had used her wings to "innocently" splash him as he'd been getting dressed so he quietly vowed to steal all of the strings she used to tie her hair.

The nest was large, and a strange shape, but it was comfortable and the blankets were warm. Ahuru flopped onto Keika as soon as he'd laid down, and even though she was half his weight the air was punched out of his lungs through sheer force. She cackled at him and the tugged at her hair until she stuck a finger up his nose and he was distracted by trying to bite it.

It was a rare moment of immaturity that they hadn't been granted since before they had touched sunlight, and Keika reveled in it as Ahuru dropped her weight back onto his chest and tucked her head under his chin.

She draped her wing over him like a blanket, one soft and warm and familiar, and they quietly hooted their night wishes, the sound shaking through each others ribs in a comforting echo.

---

"I can't believe you actually hit him." Ahuru scolded, mouth twisted as she ran a dampened cloth over her brothers knuckles, gently rubbing her thumb over each of them to check for damage. The water had cost her one of her under feathers, the ones that were steadily turning orange.

He hissed and tried to pull his hand away and she chirped angrily, a sharp sound that reverberated through her skull.

Be still. Behave.

A warning and a threat rolled into one, as she glared at him until he rolled his eyes and relaxed his arm so she could pull it back towards her.

They were sitting on the bridge over the Rue river, sky pleasantly overcast in the way she knew Keika enjoyed, legs crossed beneath them, knees pressed to the curve of her wings she bent over his hand and wrapped it in the clean linen she kept in his bag.

Some kid, a harvest or two older than them, had heard Ahuru introduce Keika as her brother to a girl she'd met in the markets and had decided to say something about the legitimacy of their relationship. Asked how it was possible, claimed they were lying for attention.

Like either of them, with their odd accents and the way they still stumbled over the common tongue, needed any more attention.

"You're my sister."

Ahuru looked up in surprise at the steel in his voice, the sheer icy confidence of it as though he were willing to dare even the gods deny him that simple truth.

Her heart ached, though not in pain.

She remembered a five year old boy - still just a chick - letting her braid feathers into his hair because she thought he felt left out, when really all he'd needed was her to play with him to be content.

The smile that broke out across her lips cracked Keika's expression like the sun as it broke through the clouds to bathe them in a golden warmth that, once, they would have shied away from.

She leaned up into his space to press her forehead against his, crooning and pushing the sound up into her nose to make it wobble. To make it mean more than she could put into real words.

You are all the pieces of me I could not live without.

#i think about this all the time btw #i think about ahuru braiding feathers into keikas hair and the both of them running from sheep and keika punching someone for her #makai siblings #snippets

[nobodieshero-main]

theres still so many posts i need to move over from the old blog goddamn

#just went back in and stood there like 'ah.'

[nobodieshero-main]

some of the made up animals in nobodies hero, i dont have that many yet honestly but i'm working on it

Karru - a cross between a kangaroo and a thylecine/tassie tiger. they have the general body shape of a kangaroo, but a longer, sharper snout, and longer arms. they come in various shades of brown. with darker striped marking down their spines and sometimes on their faces. they're omnivorous.

Kosu, sometimes called Kosu Dogs - aka, Death Dogs, these guys are like the nh equivalent of dingoes and wolves. the name comes from 'Kosuktua' the god of death, dying and general decay. Kosu look like your average canine, but have that spooky unnatural laugh like a hyena and their bite is awful. it's not necessarily that they're venomous, and more that they've got that many killer germs in their saliva that bites get infected almost instantly and usually the only solution is amputation. they're pack hunters and almost as determined as humans when it comes to tracking and following. if you notice them once, you'll often continue to notice them for several days after until you either prove yourself too much to bother with, or you hit a town.

Giant Snow Hare - native to Miednic, they're pretty much what it says on the tin: giant hares. their size can be anywhere between a small dog and a small horse and they come in white and grey.

i dont have an actual name for these yet - a type of big cat native to nevmones, they're nocturnal and keep to dark, damp places. they have bat wings and eat fruit and are insanely loyal - there are many cases of these cats adopting people haha

#creature files