Waking up early in the morning before the skyfire made it's way into the sky, Rii wife of Rai and mother of Kou would often wake up at this time and begin to work on several things.

Rai might be the villager leader in title but in fact most of the policies of the village come from Rii.

Such as the tribal laws, calculating the remaining water supply before having to move their operations to a different well.

Also she handled subjugation missions and the ordering of patrols of the desert. And cataloging the items they received from caravans that would breach the unspoken barrier of the ruins that they guarded.

Most of the new cloths and metals came from these caravans as they passed through the desert with a fever pitched pace. Not caring about their losses in the slightest.

After her morning of calculations were over, she would often head over to Kou's room to wake him up for morning training that was required of all the youths in the village. If she left it to Kou to wake up by himself he would never make a single one of the training sessions.

As she sighed inwardly.

Kou wasn't the most gifted psychically. But he outshined the other youths with his intelligence and ingenuity.

Something he obviously inherited from her thankfully.

His father on the other hand could be deem the biggest fool of the century.

But she still loved him. . . in a way.

As she approached Kou's bed she could see him squirming underneath the covers. A slight smile appeared on her lips as she grabbed a handful of the covers, ripping them off the sleeping Kou with a single tug.

Jolted awake Kou stared aimlessly in his room until he noticed his mother looming over him.

She just smiled and said. "Time to go to morning training Kou."

Kou could only inwardly curse as he hated the morning training more than he hated Elder Ru.

As Kou was getting ready, Rii headed towards her room to check on that idiot of a husband of hers.

Fighting a void serpent solo? really? how much do you disvalue your life she thought as she sighed.

As the old wooden door squeaked open

A man charming enough as if he was ripped straight out of a fairy tale could be seen on the bed covered in bandages as he stared out the window before glancing towards the doorway.

"Morning honey." the man said with a childlike smile on his face.

All Rii did in response was let out another sigh.

No matter what she did t reprehend him he still would continue to make her worry if he would one day show up as nothing more than a corpse.

Noticing his wifes sigh. "Oh come on i'll be fine in a few weeks!  you know how quickly I heal it's one of my strong points." he said as he winked at her standing in the doorway.

"Since you seem so spiffy I guess i'll leave the water calculations to you for the next couple weeks."

As she walked out of the room the sound of a grown man sobbing could be heard...

Next on her list was heading to the inner ring to visit her sister, Saai and to check up on the gossip in the village as well to see what mischief her son has gotten into.

A voice called out. "Bye mom i'm heading to training." Kou said as he grudgingly left the cool sanction of his home.

Heading into the kitchen Rii decided to bring some dried emerald lizard meat with her and a flask of raju.

Her sister loved raju more than anything. Probably even more than her..

Walking out of the house with the above mentioned goods in hand, Rii made her way to the inner ring towards 'Aunt Saai's Spindle'. She always found the name of her sisters shop to be slightly amusing.

The early morning beating of metal could be heard as she approached the inner ring. Ruku always such a hard worker.

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Making her way towards her sisters shop a familiar silhouette could be seen sitting outside her shop as if she predicted her forthcoming.

"Morning sis." Saai called out in a weak voice, she was never a morning person.

"Morning Saai." Rii returned the gesture then said. "I come bearing gifts." A slight smile appeared on Saai's face as she looked at Rii's hands.

"Ohh. is that Raju I see in your hand?" Rii almost began to laugh out loud her sisters obsession with Raju as clear as day.

"And some dried emerald lizard meat." Rii said teasingly as she dangled the goods in front of her sister.

She could picture a tail behind Saai wagging back and forth excitedly from the look she had on her face.

Finally letting out a slight chuckle as a smile formed on her face.

"So little Saai has that Kou of mine been up to no good lately?"

Chuckling Saai replied. "Just like always, that little one loves to tease adults.", "Just the other day he drew cat whiskers on Rakhi's face after he fell asleep. pfft."

A slight sigh escaped Rii's beautiful lips as she thought of the image of Rakhi with cat whiskers as she began to laugh herself.

"So I take it you heard about Rai already?" Rii said as she let out a audibly long sigh.

"Oh you mean how Rai got tossed around like a child in front of a void serpent and Ruka barely saved the day by overusing myth level spells and is now bedridden with a fiver?"

Looking ruefully at the approaching skyfire as it reached the highest point within the sky, the blistering heat of the desert of the forgotten rained down on the village.

"Sigh. that husband of mine literally enjoys making me worry." Rii said as she sipped a cup of Raju.

An amusing expression appeared on Rii's face the taste of the Raju registered on her tastebuds. The bitter taste was rather strong, she never knew how her sister could put down as many of these drinks as she normally did.

"I will never know how you manage to drink so much of this stuff." Rii said looking disappointed at the cup.

Saai just looked at her and cheerfully said. "You're just missing out." as she stuck out her tongue in protest.

Although Rai was technically the leader of the tribe many throughout the tribe knew the true leader was in fact Rii. Most of the Elders however disliked this as the thought of a woman being in control of their village unnerved their ancient attitudes on the world.

As Rii left her sisters shop she proceeded to head towards the outer ring to inspect the village walls and determine if they needed to increase the amount of guards around the village.

The act of a void serpent coming so close to the village as to be just within the Kuh's hunting grounds unnerved a lot of the normal folk throughout the village.

And it was her job to make sure they remained safe.

As she was walking along the wall she would often stop and greet the patrols of guards as they made their way through on their morning shift.

After the skyfire was midway on it's decedent from the sky she headed back towards home, dropping by the elder's building within the inner ring to drop off her reports, and the water calculations.

As she walked towards her house the baked sand taste assaulted her tongue as she spat out in disgust.

She would soon remedy that awful taste with a nice meal for her and little Kou.

And maybe some mush for that husband of hers.

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