Into The Mountains(COMPLETED)

Ch 9

Lisa POV

"Damn it Kunpimook! why can't you just admit that you were wrong?! You have to know it by now, even you aren't that stupid!" As we reached the door I could tell her anger had turned to tears. "I dreamt you killed my babies last night Bam, I don't want to think of you that way. I don't want to see that as a possibility. I knew when Jisoo took me in the forest that I wouldn't be accepted back into society, that my own family wouldn't take me back in after that, but you didn't have to prove me right."

"Rosie." I said, voice soothing as I helped Jennie inside, though she probably didn't really need it. "Not all your family abandoned you, thank you." I said, trying to use a teasing voice to lighten the mood. Imava frowned at me, both her hands on her belly and her brows knit in her unhappiness. "Hey Lisa, Jennie." She said quietly, all her loudness apparently spent.

She shifted awkwardly. "I guess I'm not helping today. I'll just go now, you can try some more I suppose." Jennie seemed nervous as she sat down in a chair facing the cell. "Hello, Bambam. I'm Jennie, Lisa's wife." She introduced herself. She'd chosen to come in her hybrid form, though it had been painful to use that form while she was still injured.

Bambam looked her over and snorted. "A little wild, but human looking. But I know what you really are, I didn't stab a woman." I sighed. "Bam, if you can't be nice to my wife don't talk to her or I'll have to come in there and have it out with you. It'll be worse that that brawl we had in the snow at the winter festival when I was 14, I promise." I said darkly. "You brought her here. I can't help it if I'm stuck here." Bam snapped back.

"Jennie insisted on coming. Something about showing you how the kin can forgive and be good people. Since you know. You nearly killed her when all she'd done was try to defend the town from your army, who went after a child that came running from a house looking for her parents." I knew my voice was getting more angry and tried to calm myself down, crossing my arms over my chest and leaning against the wall. Bam, surprisingly, didn't have anything to say to that right away.

"I don't expect you to like us. You don't know our people, and humans have long referred to us as hell beasts because the few times they've seen us, they've never tried to understand what we are." Jennie began softly. "We are very different from you in appearance naturally, but we aren't that different in kind. We want to live in peace, to have a family and to raise our children in safety. When threatened we will fight like monsters to protect our young and our homes, but would you do any less? To our people there is nothing we value more than our children. I would give my life to save them, and that was what I tried to do yesterday, but death and fighting aren't things we want. No one prospers from violence." She took a deep breath.

"I came here today because I love Lisa, and I don't want her to lose a brother to a lack of understanding, and because I wanted the chance to forgive you for nearly killing me. I know you were only doing what you thought you had to do. I hope you can come to understand that we're not monsters, even if we're different. I would like it if the children Lisa and I have together could get to know their uncle."

"I'd like that too." I added quietly. I'd assumed I'd be the fun uncle long before I was a father, but I supposed I'd taken it for granted that my siblings would be important in their lives. "Mmmm." Bam made a noncommittal noise, but he looked a bit sadly at the wall of his cell, I thought. "Maybe we should let him think about it a bit." I said softly to Jennie, running my hand over the back of her head, over her hair.

I'd leaned in to whisper, and I ended my words with a kiss on her cheek and a squeeze of her shoulder. Jennie nodded and got up from her chair, clearly in pain, though she tried her best to cover it up. She took my hand in hers, leaning close to me. "He'll come around." She said softly "He just needs time, and a reason not to hate us, and we can give him both. If he gets to a point where he's not going to hurt anyone we could move him to a place besides that cell. I can't imagine that is making him any more forgiving." I put a supportive arm around her waist and we headed home.