"Save your people!" Nyla exclaimed. "How? How can he save your people? What they need is a lesson in morals, not a savior. Tell me, oh, pitiful princess of the Jix, what would my people become if humanity had not stepped in and told you to fuck off? What would we be?"

Pinetil, already in an emotionally vulnerable state, flinched at Nyla's words. "There are other races than the ones that I mentioned; they are mostly used as Pleasure species, and your people would most likely become one of them."

"Oh well, that's great." Nyla said, turning to Cal, "Yes, Cal, please save these people so that they can make sure that I become nothing more than a bedwarmer! That is not what friends do to their friends, Pinetil! Gods above, and you had the audacity to accuse humanity of wanting to fuck everything in its path."

Nyla stormed off, with Artie behind her. Nyla gets out the door, and halfway down the stairs, when she finally takes a breath and calms down, realizing she may have been a bit harsh, she turned back to go to Cal and Pinetil, Artie left to deal with the others in the hall. When Nyla got to the door, she heard Pinetil's voice and could see through the cracked open door.

"...like she thinks I don't know those things. I know my people and the church are morally bankrupt! I wish I could change it. But I can't. That is why I asked you."

"I know," Cal said, letting her vent, and still sitting where he had been. Pinetil still knelt in front of him.

"I do what I can, as does my mother, but if we push too hard, they will have us killed as heretics! Then there would be nothing we could do!" Pinetil surprises Nyla then by bursting into tears. Nyla felt bad and moved to go and comfort Pinetil when the woman spoke again. "I want nothing more than to change. I don't want to be the way that my people are."

Pinetil took Nyla and Cal by surprise when she suddenly rose up from her kneeling position, sat on Cal's lap, and wrapped her arms around his neck, planting her lips on his for a long, wet, kiss. "I may be an ambassador, and I may have some social mores about other races, but I can not deny what I feel when I look at you, Cal."

Cal quickly stands up, gently pushing Pinetil away from himself. "Pinetil, I am essentially the property of Humanity, and until you and or your people renounce their horrid practices and until you can figure out whose side you are on, you should probably refrain from touching me like that."

With that Cal turns to leave and sees Nyla, tears streaming down her face sprinting down the stairs. Cal lets out a deep sigh, "Well fuck."

Nyla cries as she runs into the Venwood forest surrounding the Clan Hall. Somewhere deep in teh back of her mind, she has a brief flash of memory as this is roughly how she left her last clan and met Cal. She knew this was a bad move, but she did not care, she needed to be away from everything.

The tears continued as she moved further and further into the woods. She thought something that surprised her, "I hate Pinetil!"

That thought almost brought her to a standstill. Even when she had first met Pinetil and known what she supposedly was, Nyla had not hated the Jix Princess. She had been surprised at the thoughts that Pinetil expressed, and had even worried that they might come to pass. But Cal had been there the entire time, unafraid and completely willing to demonstrate why these things would be bad ideas. But now the thought that Cal might pick Pinetil over herself? It was unbearable.

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"Then again there is a chance that he may not pick anyone. I am being childish. Cal is a man of many, many years. And besides, all I have heard, admittedly it is a small amount, is that Cal has not had many, if any, relationships." Nyla continued running into the ever-darkening woods, lost in her own thoughts. She finally comes to a conclusion. "I think... I think I love him..."

She comes to a stop, breathing hard, resolving herself to return and tell Cal how she felt. In that moment as she turns back from the direction she thinks she came from, she realizes just how deep into the woods she is, and how dark the sky is. She turns slowly trying to orient herself using the few stars she can see beginning to fill the sky. When that proves futile, she sighs, and yells out loud in frustration, "Great Nyla. Just great!"

As she finished yelling, and thinking that maybe her outburst had not been wise, she hears a thud, followed by a chittering sound that any member of any clan could have recognized. She turned to see the six white glowing eyes of a Droxxik.

She looked at the insectoid herbivore and knew that it would kill her without a doubt. While it may not eat her, she had invaded its territory. Every instinct in her body told her to run, but she knew that the Droxxik were among the fastest creatures on the planet. Faster than a Hilvorn beast, and certainly faster than her. So she did the only thing she could, she faced the Droxxik, and prepared to dodge.

The Droxxik were a species of insect that fed exclusively on the sap of the Venwood tree. It had a sharp and powerful beaklike snout that it used to bore holes into the incredibly dense trees. It used the sap as a coating on the outside of its carapace as well. This resulted in a creature who while blindingly fast, could also withstand any attack that Nyla might produce. Nyla chuckled as she reviewed what she knew of the creature. She had run into the woods wanting to be alone, but now she wanted nothing more than for Cal to tell her not to worry as he crushed what he would shurly find to be an annoying insect.

She snaps back to focus on the Droxxik, just as it lunges at her. She dodges and hears the Droxxic impact with the Venwood Tree behind her. Hoping that its strange snout wast stuck momentarily, or that it was disoriented, Nyla took off running as fast as she could, hoping that she was headed in the right direction. As she ran she screamed for help.

She begins to see more of the stars as she sprints as fast as she can and realizes she is headed in the right direction. She nearly burst into tears of joy, thinking to herself, "I'm going to make it! I'm going to make it! I'm....."

Her thoughts are interrupted as pain blooms from the back of her right shoulder, and she watches in horror as the snout of the Droxxik tears through her flesh and emerges from the front of her shoulder. The Droxxik rips free, and moves back, watching her fall. Nyla's eyes fill with tears, as she closes them, unable to fight the creature in front of her.

She hears the chittering cry of the Droxxik and braces herself for the impact she was sure would end her life when suddenly a feeling of psychic power washes over her. It is not the cold, calculating, near god-like power of Cal. Nyla opens her eyes to see Pinetil step from the trees, an aura of silver emanating from her body, as she gazes upon the Droxxik. The Droxxik in turn, faces this new opponent, making its chittering call. Pinetil smiles cooly at the Droxxik rasing her hand as if to wave at it.

"Bugs should be squashed," Pinetil says and slams her hand down in the air, sending a wave of silver power at the Droxxik, which is instantly flattened into the dirt, its carapace making a horrible crackling squelch as it dies almost instantly.

Pinetil goes over to Nyla helping the smaller woman to her feet and wrapping her should wound with a bandage that seemed to materialize into her hands. Once first aid had been completed the two women walked back towards the Caln Hall. As they break teh treeline and head towards the door, Pinetil turns to Nyla.

"We need to talk." The Jix princess said staring intently at Nyla.

Nyla gulped wondering what unpleasantness Pinetil might have in store, but she steeled herself and nodded. "Very well Pinetil. Lets talk."