The slight cheer that Ele had managed to recover drained away every step towards the camp. Yeni had shouted that they were grounded as she left, and weren’t to leave the camp until told otherwise. It was a fair punishment, and so she accepted it. Besides, it was novel to be grounded by her mother, Drax had never done such a thing - partially because he was hardly ever around, partially because they were so alike he approved of her actions and activities - and so this, was new to her. She had a lot of work to do that would benefit from being grounded, anyway.

Half way back to camp, Ele pulled off from Kiko and leaned against a tree, looking at her for a few moments and then dropping her head as if pondering something. Kiko would give her the time to think, which turned out to be a mixed blessing as Ele would step forward and pull Kiko into a passionate kiss. Far more than any playful thing, this was incredible, and made Kiko weak at the knees. 

“I’m leaving. You don’t need to taint yourself, associating with a beast like me” Ele would whisper after breathing off the kiss, turning to head away from the camp and into the Forest.

Stunned by the exclamation, and filled with a fury that Ele would just abandon her so easily, Kiko would turn.
“Ele” she called out, waiting for the Kitsune woman to turn around before knocking her into a wild stumble with a slap to the face. 

“What the hell?!” came the shouted reply, Ele holding her red cheek and looking back at the wild Kitsune.

“Look at my necklace” Kiko ordered, her eyes burning with a furious rage that Ele would just leave her like this after everything they had been through.

“That’s different! I-I can’t control this!” Ele’s words did nothing to pacify Kiko however, who just yanked off her Necklace and threw it into the woods.

“Well now neither can I, so take me with you” 

“Don’t be reckless, Kiko! You can still get this under control” 

“I am not going to accept that in a fantastical world of fucking magic, you can’t control whatever the hell it is you have!”
“You don’t even know what it is! How can you be claiming I can control it so easily?!”
“Because I am not going to give up on you, not going to give up on this! I won’t let you throw your life away just because you are feeling morbid!”
“It’s not even my life!”

The argument grew in heat until Ele shrieked at Kiko, and stunned her into silence. 

“Wh…what? Do, you mean?” Kiko’s voice stuttered, off balance from this sudden revelation.

“Why do you think I needed a Glamour?” Ele asked, tears running down her eyes from the stress of the situation. Sometimes things hit hard and close, and it took time for the Kitsune Mentality to kick in. “I don’t belong to the Kruskis Clan. Not a single person there is at all related to me. I just slide myself in here like a parasite looking for some semblance of a life. And now…and now…” her breathing hitched and her body shuddered, eyes closing tightly and fists clenching.

Blind to the world, Ele missed when Kiko wrapped her arms around Ele and stroked her brilliant blue hair. 

“Then let’s get married” Kiko exclaimed, her voice full of confidence that it shocked Ele out of her mounting hysteria. “If you don’t have a person related to you there, then I will become the person related to you. If that is what it takes to keep you, I will do it” Kiko continued, burning with passion to solve this problem with the biggest hammer that she could get her hands on at the moment.

“You’re insane” Ele eventually commented, staring at Kiko, drained from the explosion and now the slow dissembling of her Mentality.

“Yep” was the short reply from Kiko, spoken in exactly the same confident tone. “Now let’s get back to camp, and on the way you can explain to me what the hell has caused all this” Kiko would then take Ele’s hand and head off towards the Camp.

Ele, was silent for a few minutes, so Kiko took a meandering pace. Eventually, she got her feet under her and began to speak.

“So, I’m a Raiju. We are a sub-race of Kitsunes, descended from the Thundertail, Raiju Monatari. She was apparently a Magus without peer when it came to electrical powers” Ele started.

‘Mmhmm. So powerful in fact that her Magic latched to her soul and changed the genome of every child of her bloodline. The Five Great Mikos were definitely worthy of being called great’ Vanaet put in, and Kiko relayed that to Ele. 

“You…you can actually speak to Vanaet?” Ele asked, her eyes bulged with amazement.

“Mmm, I kept it secret because it sounds awkward to admit, but we are engaged now so no secrets” Kiko replied.

“Well…there goes my life’s dream” Ele replied with a soft laugh.

Not sure if it was a joke or not given the previous tone, Kiko would just stare and wait for Ele to carry on.

“It’s…I wanted to become a Sei-Bushi of Vanaet so I could ask her why I am like this. Why Raiju and Salamanders are born different from their brothers and sisters.  But, now it is such a simple reason, a reason I can do nothing about…I’m doomed to be like my parents after all” Ele would slink back to the pit of despair, though Kiko would not allow that.

“Bullshit. You’ve got awesome ice powers and apparently the descendant of a Kitsune so powerful she changed the very TNA of her children. Giving up is so not in your wheelhouse” Kiko exclaimed, skipping in front of Ele and walking backwards to stare at the woman.

“...Maybe. I haven’t looked into Raiju very much. But my tribe….we, abandoned the facade of civility. We were monsters as much as any you find out there in the forests. And that’s what people think when you say Raiju” Ele would look down at her fingers - cracked from the use on the swordsman - and it was clear that Ele that something had gone down to prompt her leaving this tribe and forsake them. 

“So it’s settled then. We are grounded, so lots of time to ourselves. We are going to steal the training ground, get Eternia to ref, and get a handle on these bloody powers. Raiju and Blood Moon. If you ignore our fear because of what they do to us, how is it any different to swordsmanship?” Kiko asked, stepping over a log behind her - Kitsune senses yay - and staring at Ele.

The idea of wacking this issue till they got a mastery of it was definitely not something Ele had ever thought of. Fear was certainly a reason, because of how wild she got in that state. But..could it really work? 

“Heh. Is this what it is like to be married?” Ele asked with a tone that was trying to be coy, but was still pretty emotionally fragile at the moment.

“It is when you marry an Ator. Now come on, camp time. Anyone who says anything gets a punch in the head”