"But when will you be back?" Oxomoco asked as she handed over a neatly-folded shirt, her hand only trembling slightly. Her impassive face wouldn't show much emotion, Oxomoco had schooled herself well, but it showed in other ways if one knew what to look for. Xochitl did. She knew her sister better than anyone given that she'd practically raised her younger sibling from the moment she was born. 

"I'm not coming back, Xomo." Xochitl said, taking the shirt from her to tuck it into the bottom of her rucksack. "I'm joining the Landsguard and I'll serve there for many years." Her ears shifted back and she sighed, looking back at her sister. "You could come with me, you know, we could join together."

Oxomoco shook her head, "You know mother and father want me to go to the Whalaqee. They feel that they're probably my best option to learn how to control my powers." The pantheress looked at her hands. From a young age, Oxomoco had displayed fantastical magic ability, but no one in their tribe knew or understood such things. Xochitl had taken her under her wing and taken her on her ibruq hunts in order to give her somewhere to practice, to learn to master her fledgling powers. That was no formal training, though, just a way for Oxomoco to hone control so she wasn't setting random things on fire.  The Whalaqee were renown for their magic, drawn from the beasts and flora of the world around them, their magic worked in harmony with the land and its creatures. It would make a good training ground for the young magess. 

A wan, almost sad smile crossed Xochitl's features as she looked over her shoulder at her sister. "Then our paths are set, aren't they? You will go to the Whalaqee and I will go to the Landsguard.  You will hone your magic and I will hone my fighting ability.  When we are both trained, we will meet in Tuliyollal and head out into the wider world together.  All right?" The white, tiger-striped xbr'aal looked at her sister with a fierce determination, tail flicking back and forth at the thought of the sisters adventuring together into the unknown. 

"I'm going to hold you to that, you know." Oxomoco said, picking up a small statuette of a panther carved out of dark obsidian. In the light, though, it made the panther seem purple -- Oxomoco's favorite color. It had been a gift from her sister; she'd gone all the way to Kozamau'ka and Earthenshire to commission a potsworn to craft it for Xochitl's fifteenth nameday. It had taken Oxomoco a year to save up enough pels for it.  It was one of her most treasured possessions. 

Xochitl turned away from the rucksack, approaching her sister as she wrapped both hands around the small statuette as it still resided in her sister's hands. Leaning forward, she touched her forehead to Oxomoco's. "You can hold me to that. I'll finish my tour of duty with the Landsguard and we'll go see the world together."

Oxomoco made no reply save to relinquish her hold on the statuette so she might throw her arms around her elder sister. "You'd better keep yourself safe!" She said vehemently, her tail lashing back and forth. "No throwing yourself in front of ibruq like you did that one time! You nearly died!" There was a strain to Oxomoco's voice, a concern; she was worried and perhaps a little bit frightened for that the future held for them.  For her.  The Landsguard were the protectors of the realm, of all the peoples of Tural.  It was known to be a dangerous job, especially when one factored in the Tural Vidraal; dangerous beasts that lived long past their natural lifespan to become maddened, destructive monsters. 

Xochitl embraced her sister, still holding the statuette in one hand. "I will do everything I can to keep myself safe, but you know me, Xomo. I have to protect the people I'm with." She murmured, smoothing a hand over her sister's pale grey mane. 

"And who will protect me when you're gone?" Oxomoco whimpered into her sister's chest as she buried her face against it. "Who will sing my nightmares away?" This was hard for them both, Xochitl knew.  She knew it would be hard from the moment the Landsguard showed an interest in her fighting ability. She and Oxomoco had been inseparable from the moment Oxomoco could walk. It had been Xochitl who soothed Oxomoco's nightmares, tended Oxomoco when she'd gotten sick; just as it had been Oxomoco who had sat by her bedside, face all full of worry any time that Xochitl had gotten injured and gone to the infirmary. Oxomoco snuffled against her shirt. "Who will love me, if you aren't here to?"

The tigress made a small tch sound, tilting her head down to kiss her sister's forehead. "You forever have the key to my heart, Oxomoco. You are the first thing I ever professed to love upon this star and even unto my final breath you will be the last. Even if anything happened to me, you know that when you look upon Faro Ta'uj that I will look down upon you with all the love and pride I possess.  But I have no intention of dying or if I die it will be at your side fighting some ungodly monster that the two of us battle together."

A snuffle.  Oxomoco turned her face upward, regarding her sister with soft, heather grey eyes. "Promise?" 

The elder sister shifted her ears back slightly. Promises were dangerous things. How many broken promises had she endured in her short life thusfar? Could she do that to Oxomoco? Make some oath she had no intention of keeping?  Or one she wasn't even sure she could keep?  Xochitl shook her head at her sister. "No, Xomo.  I won't make you any promise that I'm not absolutely certain I can keep.  Just know that I will do everything in my power to see you again, no matter where I am, no matter where I'm fighting.  My first thought will always be of you."

Oxomoco grumbled, her tail lashed back and forth -- a small hissy fit, but it calmed in the next heartbeat. "Okay..." She mumbled in reply. 

Stepping back from her sister, Xochitl took Oxomoco's face in both hands to smooth her thumbs across the tear-streaked fur of her sister's cheeks. "Never forget how much I love you, chan bo'oyo'." It meant 'Little Shadow', a nickname people had given Oxomoco for the way she followed Xochitl around the village. Xochitl made it a point to take something that was a point of ridicule and turn it into something endearing just between the two of them.  Her sister was her shadow; Xochitl white-furred with black stripes, not unlike a white tiger while Oxomoco was a dusky dark grey like a panther.  Darkness and Light, Might and Magic.  They were two halves of a whole.

"Never." Oxomoco said, smiling up at her sister. "Let's finish packing. It wouldn't do for you to be late for your first day as a Landsguard." 

Just like that, her sister's mood shifted, mercurial as ever. Xochitl could only shake her head as she joined her sister in folding more clothes to add to her rucksack. There would be time later to worry about survival and their future.  For today, she just wanted to enjoy these final hours in the presence of the one person in the entirety of the world that she loved more than life itself.