Nayl almost recoils when she hears her name spoken on familiar lips. She had heard sentence after sentence from the Amazon, and so there is no mistaking Naga creeping from the treeline to join her. The tranquility that had enveloped Nayl’s mind has been carefully unpeeled by the kindness cushioning Naga’s statement. Their meeting isn’t abrupt, at least. Quietly, the girl turns her head to look at the proclaimed leader, her eyes reduced to near slits. ”Why are you sorry?” but her question is quickly answered as the shifter settles comfortably in front of her, their gazes burning in unity. There had been tension, but most of it had been concocted by Nayl’s brash personality and her mistrust for strangers.
Her eyes roll away almost in disinterest, but her ears are closely listening, hungrily devouring Naga’s words. The shifter mentions the truths and what lies in her perspective of the situation. The information is offered on a silver platter with an apology as the grand topping. Nayl mulls it over with steadied breaths and an occasional shift of her body to brace against the cold. Her heart screams for the Jungle, its history lining the walls of her veins, and yet she can’t bring herself to openly trust Naga, a fellow sister. She sighs and blinks slowly. Without looking at the mare she replies, ”Don’t apologize.” Her pride is rattling the bars of its cage but Nayl fights to suppress it. ”You did what you thought best,” and everyone thinks they know what the right path is but in reality it is never up to them. Beqanna always weeds them out; things happen for a reason. ”I will admit that I didn’t appreciate such a quick grab for power when all of us were just relieved to see one another,” there is still an edge to her tone, but it’s just barely subdued and dulled by her sigh.
”I’m slow to trust,” she finally admits, but she assumes that the sisters have at least gathered that much about her, ”so yes, a bad first impression.” She won’t lie nor will she sugarcoat. Her brashness will either help or hinder her one day, but she never takes it into consideration. ”Just know that I do not hate you. Had anyone else been that way, I would have reacted the same. The Jungle has had its share of women who were eager to claim the throne but fell inactive and idle immediately after. They just wanted the title, to have their name marked in history.” Their eyes meet, Nayl’s orange to Naga’s green. ”I won’t allow that to happen again.”
She didn’t want to lead – not yet – but her soul is tied to the sisterhood and its success. Her life – her creation – is to help her home in any way she can.
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