#Khena Ridah

[worstcrystalbearer]

Day 19 - "Taken"

"Ah but, you simply must try the wine." "Oh, and the crumpets." "Don't forget the salt lick-"

Elections for the House of Commons had just concluded, and Uzuki had invited her two "employees" to a celebratory gala... Though it seemed member of the House of Lords had also been invited. Somehow, Khena Ridah, who'd made the trip over from Gridania, had attracted the attention of several men, vying for her attention. Had they somehow heard about her being a little wealthy, or was a cute miqo'te girl just that rare of a sight in Ishgard...?

Looking around in vain for Uzuki (she was somewhere else, talking to a neighbor that had just won his election), Khena's gaze instead met someone's she'd hoped to avoid: Her sister's. Bright blue eyes met gloomy purple eyes for just an instant, but it was enough; socially inept as Jana was, it seemed she understood Khena's plight from that look alone.

"Move along, the lady's spoken for." Jana half-shoved her way through the Ishgardian men, forcing them to disperse. "Thank-" "Sure, whatever."

-

But wait, didn't they look a little too similar for this trick to work? Khena couldn't help but notice that some of the gazes that came their way seemed amused, rather than lustful.......

[worstcrystalbearer]

Day 10 - "Stable"

The hustle and bustle around the Greatloam Growery was infectious as guild botanists of various ranks moved to and fro, scrambling to fulfill a mess of orders from all over Gridania. The news had just come to them about an "unseasonably early frost," and as if it was to purposefully make their jobs harder, everyone else who'd heard the news decided it was time to stock up on fruits and vegetables.

As a senior member of the guild, Khena Ridah was one among their number, going through a supply list a malm long while inspecting the produce for quality. But as busy as she was, the young miqo'te woman couldn't help but think back to when an "early frost" meant possible starvation. A shortage of vegetables now may mean a minor disaster for some restaurant's menu over the course of a week, not the loss of family members who were too weak to hunt prey that was already losing population.

Hmm... Perhaps this was making too light of a situation that could have real consequences. As she went down the list, Khena could see that a good portion of these supplies were for the Order of the Twin Adder, still engaged with Garlemald on the Shroud's eastern borders. Though that only made her strange nostalgia stronger, since that was the area she'd grown up in...

"Ridah!"

The guildmaster's sudden shout snapped Khena out of her daydreaming. Even as she stammered out a quick apology, she could only feel thankful for what she had now, despite the losses it'd taken her to get to this point. Even without her family, she never really felt alone.

[worstcrystalbearer]

Day 7 - "Morsel"

Guild Botanist Khena Ridah was out in the field (or forest, rather), completing assignments for both her Guild and the Twin Adders. On most days, this might mean culling a minor pest and checking on the state of the nearby flora, knocking down two birds with one stone. Today seemed to be a little different though, because the "minor pest" she'd been called upon to cull was the terrible cloudkin known as the Deathgaze. Almost draconic in build but with the features of an insect, and old enough to be mentioned in local folklore... Looking at the mark bill, bright blue eyes behind a tiny pair of nose-pinching reading glasses, the botanist could only assume that someone at the Twin Adders had given her the wrong mark bill by mistake... Or that this was some kind of test.

"Adventuring" really wasn't Khena's strong suit, and she'd normally try to avoid anything like it, but she already knew the cloudkin were usually sighted in the higher reached of the Central Shroud, so she only needed a plan to bring one down, figuratively and literally. Maybe this "test" would be simpler than it seemed... At the same time, she could only anxiously think that thinking this was was some kind of trap.

-

A few hours had passed and Khena's hunt continued. She'd left her chocobo behind at Bentbrach Meadows and continued west on foot, not wanting to have to protect it and herself, even if this made her trek longer. But now, she'd finally made it to the rocky area the locals referred to as the Sanguine Perch. When the Deathgazes came out in numbers, it seemed that they liked to hang the meat of their kills in the nearby tree branches... A ghastly scene Khena could only hope she'd be spared.

Suddenly, a screech, and a shadow overhead! The Miqo'te huntress dived sideways, skidding hard along the dirt, as a pair of talons raked the air above her. A better fighter might have been able to recover or even counterattack, but all Khena could do was scramble on all fours to get a vague distance away before taking the time to jump to her feet. Taking her bow from its back-holster and an arrow from her quiver, thankfully both still in good shape, she needed search for only an instant before finding her quarry- Again, diving right at her. But this time, she was ready.

With a single fluid motion practiced thousands of times over the years, Khena quickly knocked her arrow, draw her bow back, and fired. The arrow struck true; suppressing panic had let her first shot go right into the cloudkin's mouth, sending it crashing to the ground before it could complete its diving approach. Again, Khena forced herself to the side in another dive, flopping onto her belly as the Deathgaze tumbled into a crumpled up heap. Breathing heavily, she adjusted her glasses back onto her face and took another look at her hunt mark bill.

"They want me to hunt three of these things?!"

[worstcrystalbearer]

Day 3 - "Tempest"

Young huntresses Jana and Khena Ridah were arguing. Again.

The sisters had always bickered, ever since they were being taught how to hunt in the Black Shroud by their mother, who usually had to break them up. But today was different, because their mother was dying.

As if it wasn't bad enough that the Calamity had devastated the forest, forcing every Keeper of the Moon family to find new grounds on which to hunt, disease had begun to spread amongst the refugees trying to get into the city of Gridania as they waited to be approved by the Hearers. A group from Gyr Abania further east had already resolved to make the journey south to Ul'dah, which was the course Jana demanded her sister help their sick mother take. Khena, on the other hand, didn't think their mother could make the journey, and opted to stay in the Shroud and wait for the Hearers to let them into Gridania, or at least for one of the city's Conjurers to take a look at her.

The two teenagers couldn't see eye to eye, and kept raising their voices. One argued that the Gridanians would never see them as anything but poachers, the other countered by saying Ul'dah would never see them as anything but free labor. When Jana suggested that their mother's illness would only get worse in the cramped and dirty camp, Khena would interject with the conditions on the road being even deadlier with monsters displaced by the Calamity.

In the end, the two sisters couldn't come to an agreement, and it was Jana who forced herself out, taking her meager belongings with her to Ul'dah, where she could scratch together whatever money she could earn to pay for medicine. Khena stayed behind and eventually entered Gridania, then began trying to earn money as a huntress and gatherer. But no matter what either one of them did, their uncoordinated efforts could pay for too little, and within a year, their mother passed away.

The two sisters continued living their lives apart, and eventually fate would bring them back together when a new life needed safeguarding, that of the Doman refugee Uzuki. But over the course of the years, there was one thing neither could ever forgive the other for.

[worstcrystalbearer]

Day 20 - "Duel"

"A job? In Ishgard?"

Khena looked at the letter in misbelief. MogMail from her sister had almost entirely ceased in the decade-ish since their mother had died, and here was a letter saying she'd both taken in a child and was offering a job working under her... Under the child! Even if she didn't want for work in Gridania and didn't feel like she owed Jana anything, her curiosity won out in the end. She would need to pack something warm...

-

It was a strange situation to be sure. Jana's ward had teamed up with an Ishgardian politician to rent an apartment building and establish a new branch office for her financial business on the ground floor. Meeting Uzuki for the first time, Khena couldn't help but be taken in by her bright, blue eyes... Eyes that reminded her of herself. Before she could tease Jana about them, the young lady slid a sheet of paper to her.

"A contract, as well as what the work entails. Your sister... My guardian, has been doing it in Ul'dah for some time and assured me you would be alright at it?"

"'Alright'?" Khena seemed a little taken aback.

"Yeah, 'alright'." If Jana hadn't meant it as a stealth-diss before, she meant it as one now.

Even someone as conflict-averse as Khena couldn't help but puff out her chest at the blatant provocation by her only enemy in the world. Without even reading the contract, she moved for the quill Uzuki had offered her.