I hope Tannin isn't still up there. Aara follows him to the fourth story, waiting outside the room while he gets his sword. When she looks around, the board she'd set up is still in place, but the vampire is nowhere to be found. Breathing a sigh of relief, she unpins her cloak and draws her swords.
Aara's up on the board, jumping around on it and testing it's strength. When she notices Goddard, she waves him forward. "Come on, up here," she says. "You need to work on balance."
"No, come on. Can't you use your tail to help you balance instead of hinder you?" She puts the tip of a scimitar on the board and turns both her feet outward. "Look, it's wide enough for both feet."
"You would think after all this time, it would help me balance," he chuckles as he gets up on the board. "I guess I never learned how to use it that way. Just used it as a 'ghost'."
Goddard stands comfortably on the board and smiles. "Ok...not too bad...not too bad..."
He begins to sing slowly and as soon as he lifts the sword, he falls off the board and onto his hip.
Aara bites her lip, trying not to smile. "Let's put the swords down for a minute," she suggests, sheathing her own. "Eglanor was right when he said your balance needs improvement, and you won't always fight on a flat or stable surface." She gives him a hand to help him back up. "Let's try a few dances steps, shall we?"
Aara laughs. "Just start slowly. The board will move under you, so expect it." She starts moving through the choreography of her drill without her sword, adjusting for the space he needs to practice.
Goddard begins to sing again. His movements are stiff and slow and then he falls again after a few moments.
Aara can see the snow get whipped around by Goddard's tail as he hits the ground. He quickly gets back up and onto the board. "I've got this," he says with determination.
He takes a deep breath and starts singing again. Goddard moves a bit stiffly and wobbles but sighs and tries to relax. He wobbles some more but does not fall.
He moves slowly and carefully and tries not to look down at his feet. "Ha see? I didn't fall," he grins and wobbles just a bit before steadying himself.
"This is hard," he grumbles before he goes back to singing.
Goddard still wobbles but hasn't fallen yet, so he tries to do a turn and ends his streak of staying on the board, falling on his shoulder. "Ow...I was doing so well too," he chuckles and stands back up.
Aara stands, drawing her weapons. Waving him back, she performs a series complex moves complete with spinning on one foot. When she finishes, she sheaths her swords and puts a hand on her stomach. "It's about knowing where you center of balance is. You have a tail, so it'll be different for you."
"Show off..." he mumbles. "Ok...I''ll figure out how to do this..."
He hops back up onto the board and he walks back and forth across it. Not trying to do anything fancy but trying to figure out balancing with his tail. The back of his tabard gets flipped around as if a strong wind was blowing despite how calm it is outside.
"Ok...stand next to me," he points to his left. "I'm going to...stand on one foot!" He says as if he were about to attempt some amazing feat.
Aara jumps down and stands on his left. "You know I'm not quiet tall enough to help you balance," she says, her head level with the bottom of his ribcage.
"It's not long enough to drag," he says, grabbing her hand, apparently grabbing his tail and putting it in her hand. "But I try not to do anything with it so no one notices...but father...I don't know how he did it...but he knew where it was...and he'd drag me by it if he had to," he laughs hard.
She laughs. "I imagine that was was often." The sensation of feeling something she can't see is strange, and she runs her hand up the length of his tail. "It just feels like skin," she says absently, moving her hand back to the end. "And- oh!" She laughs when his tail curls around her hand.
"It's nothing fancy. No spikes or anything," he pouts. "But I can hold onto things. I might even be able to hang upside down...never tried that though. That would look awfully suspicious," he chuckles.
"Later," he smiles. "This is the first time I feel comfortable even giving it a try so that's something! But I need three hours of practice at least. And then we can start teaching you to read. Then we can goof off."
Aara nods. "Back up there, then." She jumps up behind him and puts her hands on his hips. "Your tail isn't so long that it should throw you off balance too badly, but your center is here." She makes a slight adjustment to the way he stands, straightening his back so that his body is more aligned. "Does that feel different?"
She thinks for a moment. He's right... Then, laughing, she steps back. "You're a mutated death wizard with a penchant for pleasurable pain. A tail is no great surprise anymore."
"Hmmm...I guess," he chuckles. Once she corrects the way he should stand, he's much less wobbly and he's relaxed a lot more. Goddard finally hops down and grabs the sword. "I want to try this now. You think I'm ready?"
The sword swishes through the air as he sings. Goddard seems to be doing better with the sword than he was without it. "Hop up whenever you want now," he says before he starts singing a new song.
She draws her weapons, grinning. Jumping up, she intentionally shakes the board. He's improving so quickly, like he was made to do this, she thinks as their swords connect. With the limited footing available, they work in tight movements, the sound of steel on steel ringing through the air.
Three hours later, they leave the roof and return to the room. After stowing away their weapons and having lunch, Aara sits next to Goddard in the corner, listening carefully as he begins her first reading lesson.
Goddard pulls out the book he writes in and flips to the last clean page. He has obviously used it a lot and has had it around for a while.
The edges are worn and pages are ripped, but as Goddard flips through to the end, Aara can see all kinds of different and strange writing. All of it clean and crisp, despite the rest of the book looking like its been through battle.
He looks at Aara and smiles then flips back through the pages a bit.
"Druhir," he passes his finger over a paragraph. "Eltharin...Magic...Reikspiel...and," he looks over the newest notes he has taken. "High Nehekharan."
"I'm going to teach you reikspeil since that is what you will probably see used the most...well...once we leave this place and go back to the old world."
Aara nods, the beads on her veil making a soft sound and catching the light. "I'm sure it will be much easier to travel when I can read the road signs as well. Koroush gets us lost sometimes."
Aara does as he tells her, the sounds slightly altered by her accent. By the third time of repeating the alphabet and pointing to each letter, the thrill of reading has passed and determination has set in.
He chuckles. "I know you have your accent, but when you take letters and individual sounds like this, I notice it more and its adorable," he smiles.
After going over the alphabet and basic sounds a few times with her, Goddard then moves on to sounding out different letter combinations such as -sh and -th.
She nudges him with her elbow. "Now you're just teasing me." She goes back to repeating the letter combinations, stumbling slightly over a few of them.
After going over the combinations a few more times, Goddard goes back to the alphabet. He simply points to each letter, waiting for Aara to speak.
"Are you sure?" he'd ask after each letter, giving Aara the opportunity to change anything if she wanted to before either correcting her or telling her she got it right.
"How comfortable do you feel about the letters and sounds?" he asks. "If you want to go over them some more we can. Or we can start putting this together in a few words." He had the cook book in his other hand.
"That's mean," he chuckles, turning to the first recipe which is baking bread. "I'll let you sound out some words on your own knowing what you do about the letters."
He points to different words and waits patiently as Aara sounds out the letters and then tries to put together the words. Goddard chuckles at a few of her attempts and then helps her sound each one out properly.
"Br-eed? No, that's not right...br-ea-d... bread!" Aara almost squeals in delight. She takes her time, trying each word several times before getting them right. This makes my head hurt.
"Do you want to keep going? When it comes to training your body, it's easier and probably better to push yourself. When it comes to training your brain, it's best to not push it beyond what it can handle."
Goddard thinks for a moment. "Unless it's magic. Then you sometimes push your brain till you go a little crazy."
Goddard nods and puts the books away. "We'll do this every day after you help me train. You did really well today," he smiles. "I can only hope I did half as well with my training."
"I'm already pretty good with a large weapon," he gestures toward the scythe. "I just keep telling myself that it's the same thing...just shaped completely different with the weight in a totally different place and I just have to move differently but yeah...identical," he laughs.
"Identical, but completely different," she laughs. "I suppose I can see what you mean. All the same, you're doing very well." She grins. "Can we see if you can hang by your tail now?"
"I was hoping you forgot about that,' he chuckles. "But I did say I would try it." He stands up and removes everything from his belts, except for the two books. "Lets go find a tree."
Aara jumps up, grabbing her cloak and scarf. "How could I forget something like that? Nuur'eni, you have a tail, that's amazing! I can't believe you haven't tried it before now."
They head outside and Goddard looks up at the chosen tree. They aren't too far off from the tower. He figures the Autarii can still them, but they may not know exactly what's going on.
I wonder if they would even care...since I'm not an easily destroyed child...
"This is going to end badly," he smirks as he tries to figure out how to even start this experiment.
"No it won't. Just sit on a branch, wrap your tail around it, and lower yourself down. Like this," she says, jumping up on a branch and falling back to hang upside down. "Only I don't have a tail, so I can't move my legs."
Goddard clambers up the tree, using his claws to help pull him up onto the lowest branches.
Aara can see the loose bark fall off the tree when Goddard wraps his tail around the branch. He takes a deep breath. "Well...here we go. I hope all that snow breaks my fall."
He falls back and the branch shakes. His eyes are closed tightly. "Am I dead?" he laughs.
"He said not to trust you about those spiky porcu-things." Aara climbs up to the branch across where he hangs from and hangs upside down, facing him. "He also said you were a moose-face."
Starting to get dizzy, Aara turns herself right side up. After brushing back her hair and fixing her veil, she frowns. "Because you're afraid of people trying to kill you? Goddard, you're not a monster, no matter what you or others might think."
Goddard tries to reach the branch again but can't. Instead he slowly loosens his tail's grip on the branch, lowering himself as far as possible and then dropping down onto the snow.
"That wasn't so bad," he smiles, putting his hands behind his head.
"What I think of myself, changes with the people I am around. When I was around father, and even you and now Eglanor...I don't care. I'm me. I'm just...different. And you all understand."
"When I am around people who would kill me, if I don't think of myself as some monster and try to hide that, they may find out and then I'll either end up dead or I'll have to act like a monster."
"I suppose that makes sense. Or at least I understand it. People have expectations of what Walking Death are. How we look and behave. They want us to be calm and competent, unafraid and without hesitation or guilt no matter who we slay. They don't understand that sometimes it's horrifying." She jumps down, landing knee-deep in a snowdrift. "Uh..."
Aara laughs and uses twigs and snow to craft a scorpion. Pulling off her gloves, she chews her lip as she shapes the tail. "There, now my scorpion can attack your chipmunk," she laughs.
Goddard snaps a bunch of twigs up and sticks them into the chipmunk's back. "Now it's part chipmunk, part porcupine...all chaos," he attempts an evil laugh.
She looks up from her scorpion and sniffs. "No such thing," she says, making a human shaped figure and sticking two twigs in it's hands. "There, that's me. I can destroy your chaos creature."
"You are," he grins. "But does it have...magic?" he sprinkles snow over the chipmunk. "Huh? See? Magic." The twig tips a little under the weight of the snow on the leaves. "Um...that's exactly what happens when you cast a spell."
Goddard looks down at the snow and makes swirls in it with a claw. "I'm glad he didn't kill you...I'm glad I met you lecai. I think something would be missing if I'd never met you."
Goddard smiles then tries to blow some hair out of his face. When it doesn't work, he gets the dagger out of his boot and holds the blade in his teeth. He pulls his hair together almost at the top of his head. It's long enough that he might be able to tie it into a pony tail.
He twists his finger around the hair, grabs the dagger with his other hand, and cuts the little pony tail he could have had off. Goddard shakes his head and his hair falls into place.
"Was starting to bother my...lack of nose," he chuckles.
She absently ties a knot in the hair she's holding. "Probably best to burn it, don't you think? You're in a dangerous situation, some ambitious Autarii could come behind you and dig it up."
She shrugs, tossing the knotted hair behind her. "I don't know, I've just heard things. I don't know what magic your people practice." She grins mischievously. "In my country, there are people who use locks of hair to bewitch others into becoming their lover or slave."
Goddard gathers up snow with his hair in it and makes it into a ball. He then gets up and grabs the knot Aara threw behind her and adds it to the snowball, turning toward her and gesturing for her to follow.
"Well...get up! We have to throw it into the fire!"
Aara puts a hand on his shoulder. "I don't mean to make you paranoid, but what is the point of training you with a sword if someone can find a way to control you with a bit of hair? I don't know anything of magic, but isn't it possible?" She pulls out a dagger and cuts off a length of her own hair. "Here. Tie a knot and burn it. The old women say that's how to counteract a spell," she adds with a smile.
"Even a broken clock is right twice a day," she answers. "I may not know magic, but every girl past six learns how to bind a man to her. A mother doesn't send her daughter out to play without teaching her that at least."
I hope Tannin isn't still up there. Aara follows him to the fourth story, waiting outside the room while he gets his sword. When she looks around, the board she'd set up is still in place, but the vampire is nowhere to be found. Breathing a sigh of relief, she unpins her cloak and draws her swords.
ReplyDeleteGoddard quickly grabs Vampire's Bane and leaves the room. The faster I get this, the less blabbing I may get stuck having to listen to...
ReplyDeleteHe hurries up to the fourth story and smiles when he sees Aara already there. I don't know why...every time I See her, I feel happy...
Aara's up on the board, jumping around on it and testing it's strength. When she notices Goddard, she waves him forward. "Come on, up here," she says. "You need to work on balance."
ReplyDeleteGoddard frowns. "You want me to break my tail? Cuz that's what's going to happen as soon as I climb up onto that and fall..."
ReplyDelete"No, come on. Can't you use your tail to help you balance instead of hinder you?" She puts the tip of a scimitar on the board and turns both her feet outward. "Look, it's wide enough for both feet."
ReplyDelete"You would think after all this time, it would help me balance," he chuckles as he gets up on the board. "I guess I never learned how to use it that way. Just used it as a 'ghost'."
ReplyDeleteGoddard stands comfortably on the board and smiles. "Ok...not too bad...not too bad..."
He begins to sing slowly and as soon as he lifts the sword, he falls off the board and onto his hip.
"Ugh..."
Aara bites her lip, trying not to smile. "Let's put the swords down for a minute," she suggests, sheathing her own. "Eglanor was right when he said your balance needs improvement, and you won't always fight on a flat or stable surface." She gives him a hand to help him back up. "Let's try a few dances steps, shall we?"
ReplyDeleteGoddard grumbles a bit and leaves the sword on the ground. "Yeah let's try that," he hops up onto the board.
ReplyDelete"Let's try and dance a bit separably...it's not fair for you to get black and blue because I have the grace of a one legged cat..."
Aara laughs. "Just start slowly. The board will move under you, so expect it." She starts moving through the choreography of her drill without her sword, adjusting for the space he needs to practice.
ReplyDeleteGoddard begins to sing again. His movements are stiff and slow and then he falls again after a few moments.
ReplyDeleteAara can see the snow get whipped around by Goddard's tail as he hits the ground. He quickly gets back up and onto the board. "I've got this," he says with determination.
"Goddard, relax," she says, sitting on a crate at one end. "Loosen up. You can dance in snow, you can do it here."
ReplyDeleteHe takes a deep breath and starts singing again. Goddard moves a bit stiffly and wobbles but sighs and tries to relax. He wobbles some more but does not fall.
ReplyDeleteHe moves slowly and carefully and tries not to look down at his feet. "Ha see? I didn't fall," he grins and wobbles just a bit before steadying himself.
She smiled brightly for him. "Now do it again without wobbling."
ReplyDelete"This is hard," he grumbles before he goes back to singing.
ReplyDeleteGoddard still wobbles but hasn't fallen yet, so he tries to do a turn and ends his streak of staying on the board, falling on his shoulder. "Ow...I was doing so well too," he chuckles and stands back up.
Aara stands, drawing her weapons. Waving him back, she performs a series complex moves complete with spinning on one foot. When she finishes, she sheaths her swords and puts a hand on her stomach. "It's about knowing where you center of balance is. You have a tail, so it'll be different for you."
ReplyDelete"Show off..." he mumbles. "Ok...I''ll figure out how to do this..."
ReplyDeleteHe hops back up onto the board and he walks back and forth across it. Not trying to do anything fancy but trying to figure out balancing with his tail. The back of his tabard gets flipped around as if a strong wind was blowing despite how calm it is outside.
"Ok...stand next to me," he points to his left. "I'm going to...stand on one foot!" He says as if he were about to attempt some amazing feat.
Aara jumps down and stands on his left. "You know I'm not quiet tall enough to help you balance," she says, her head level with the bottom of his ribcage.
ReplyDelete"Hmmm....I feel safer?" He laughs and slowly lifts a foot up. For a moment, he's stable and then the excitement of success gets the better of him.
ReplyDeleteGoddard wobbles and falls over, on top of Aara. "You were right," he mumbles. "Much too short..."
Aara laughs, pinned beneath him. "You're balance is rubbish."
ReplyDeleteGoddard stands up and dusts the snow off, offering Aara a hand. "You knew this ahead of time," he grins. "Are you ok?"
ReplyDeleteAara lets him pull her up and dusts snow off her. "I'm fine. But what do you do when you walk? let your tail drag behind you?"
ReplyDelete"It's not long enough to drag," he says, grabbing her hand, apparently grabbing his tail and putting it in her hand. "But I try not to do anything with it so no one notices...but father...I don't know how he did it...but he knew where it was...and he'd drag me by it if he had to," he laughs hard.
ReplyDeleteShe laughs. "I imagine that was was often." The sensation of feeling something she can't see is strange, and she runs her hand up the length of his tail. "It just feels like skin," she says absently, moving her hand back to the end. "And- oh!" She laughs when his tail curls around her hand.
ReplyDelete"It's nothing fancy. No spikes or anything," he pouts. "But I can hold onto things. I might even be able to hang upside down...never tried that though. That would look awfully suspicious," he chuckles.
ReplyDeleteHer eyes sparkle. "You should try it!"
ReplyDelete"Later," he smiles. "This is the first time I feel comfortable even giving it a try so that's something! But I need three hours of practice at least. And then we can start teaching you to read. Then we can goof off."
ReplyDeleteAara nods. "Back up there, then." She jumps up behind him and puts her hands on his hips. "Your tail isn't so long that it should throw you off balance too badly, but your center is here." She makes a slight adjustment to the way he stands, straightening his back so that his body is more aligned. "Does that feel different?"
ReplyDeleteGoddard thinks for a moment and then finally answers. "Yes. It does feel different."
ReplyDeleteHe then laughs. "Lecai...only you would find out I have a tail and be perfectly ok with it."
She thinks for a moment. He's right... Then, laughing, she steps back. "You're a mutated death wizard with a penchant for pleasurable pain. A tail is no great surprise anymore."
ReplyDelete"Hmmm...I guess," he chuckles. Once she corrects the way he should stand, he's much less wobbly and he's relaxed a lot more. Goddard finally hops down and grabs the sword. "I want to try this now. You think I'm ready?"
ReplyDelete"Be my guest. Think you're up for a partner?"
ReplyDelete"One step at a time lecai," he laughs.
ReplyDeleteThe sword swishes through the air as he sings. Goddard seems to be doing better with the sword than he was without it. "Hop up whenever you want now," he says before he starts singing a new song.
She draws her weapons, grinning. Jumping up, she intentionally shakes the board. He's improving so quickly, like he was made to do this, she thinks as their swords connect. With the limited footing available, they work in tight movements, the sound of steel on steel ringing through the air.
ReplyDeleteThree hours later, they leave the roof and return to the room. After stowing away their weapons and having lunch, Aara sits next to Goddard in the corner, listening carefully as he begins her first reading lesson.
Goddard pulls out the book he writes in and flips to the last clean page. He has obviously used it a lot and has had it around for a while.
ReplyDeleteThe edges are worn and pages are ripped, but as Goddard flips through to the end, Aara can see all kinds of different and strange writing. All of it clean and crisp, despite the rest of the book looking like its been through battle.
"You can write all of that?" she asks. "That's amazing."
ReplyDeleteHe looks at Aara and smiles then flips back through the pages a bit.
ReplyDelete"Druhir," he passes his finger over a paragraph. "Eltharin...Magic...Reikspiel...and," he looks over the newest notes he has taken. "High Nehekharan."
"I'm going to teach you reikspeil since that is what you will probably see used the most...well...once we leave this place and go back to the old world."
Aara nods, the beads on her veil making a soft sound and catching the light. "I'm sure it will be much easier to travel when I can read the road signs as well. Koroush gets us lost sometimes."
ReplyDeleteTurning back to the last clean page again, Goddard neatly writes down the alphabet, explaining how each one sounds and having her repeat everything.
ReplyDeleteAara does as he tells her, the sounds slightly altered by her accent. By the third time of repeating the alphabet and pointing to each letter, the thrill of reading has passed and determination has set in.
ReplyDeleteHe chuckles. "I know you have your accent, but when you take letters and individual sounds like this, I notice it more and its adorable," he smiles.
ReplyDeleteAfter going over the alphabet and basic sounds a few times with her, Goddard then moves on to sounding out different letter combinations such as -sh and -th.
She smiles back. "Good, it means I can go to Altdorf and charm all the men with my exotic looks and adorable accent."
ReplyDelete"You didn't need any extra charming 'tools' to bend men to your will," he laughs.
ReplyDeleteShe nudges him with her elbow. "Now you're just teasing me." She goes back to repeating the letter combinations, stumbling slightly over a few of them.
ReplyDeleteAfter going over the combinations a few more times, Goddard goes back to the alphabet. He simply points to each letter, waiting for Aara to speak.
ReplyDelete"Are you sure?" he'd ask after each letter, giving Aara the opportunity to change anything if she wanted to before either correcting her or telling her she got it right.
She struggles with pronouncing everything correctly, but gets most of the letters and sounds right.
ReplyDelete"How comfortable do you feel about the letters and sounds?" he asks. "If you want to go over them some more we can. Or we can start putting this together in a few words." He had the cook book in his other hand.
ReplyDelete"Let's move on," she says. "I think I have it."
ReplyDeleteGoddard nods, opening the cookbook to the first page. He laughs when he reads the hand written words.
ReplyDelete"Father wrote this. It's the only thing actually written in the book. It's in Eltharin and it says...
'How to Boil Water
Put water into a metal pot
Put pot over fire
Wait until it starts to bubble and boil
If you mess this up, Sigmar help you'
What a jerk," Goddard laughs.
Aara laughs. "My brothers used to put vinegar in my boiling water when I wasn't looking. I thought I was a horrible cook."
ReplyDelete"That's mean," he chuckles, turning to the first recipe which is baking bread. "I'll let you sound out some words on your own knowing what you do about the letters."
ReplyDeleteHe points to different words and waits patiently as Aara sounds out the letters and then tries to put together the words. Goddard chuckles at a few of her attempts and then helps her sound each one out properly.
"Br-eed? No, that's not right...br-ea-d... bread!" Aara almost squeals in delight. She takes her time, trying each word several times before getting them right. This makes my head hurt.
ReplyDelete"Do you want to keep going? When it comes to training your body, it's easier and probably better to push yourself. When it comes to training your brain, it's best to not push it beyond what it can handle."
ReplyDeleteGoddard thinks for a moment. "Unless it's magic. Then you sometimes push your brain till you go a little crazy."
"Can we try again later? Master will be so pleased!"
ReplyDeleteGoddard nods and puts the books away. "We'll do this every day after you help me train. You did really well today," he smiles. "I can only hope I did half as well with my training."
ReplyDeleteAara rotates her shoulder where she'd been cut the day before. "You're doing very well. Much better than I would expect so soon, really."
ReplyDelete"I'm already pretty good with a large weapon," he gestures toward the scythe. "I just keep telling myself that it's the same thing...just shaped completely different with the weight in a totally different place and I just have to move differently but yeah...identical," he laughs.
ReplyDelete"Identical, but completely different," she laughs. "I suppose I can see what you mean. All the same, you're doing very well." She grins. "Can we see if you can hang by your tail now?"
ReplyDelete"I was hoping you forgot about that,' he chuckles. "But I did say I would try it." He stands up and removes everything from his belts, except for the two books. "Lets go find a tree."
ReplyDeleteAara jumps up, grabbing her cloak and scarf. "How could I forget something like that? Nuur'eni, you have a tail, that's amazing! I can't believe you haven't tried it before now."
ReplyDelete"I never thought of it as amazing," he laughs.
ReplyDeleteThey head outside and Goddard looks up at the chosen tree. They aren't too far off from the tower. He figures the Autarii can still them, but they may not know exactly what's going on.
I wonder if they would even care...since I'm not an easily destroyed child...
"This is going to end badly," he smirks as he tries to figure out how to even start this experiment.
"No it won't. Just sit on a branch, wrap your tail around it, and lower yourself down. Like this," she says, jumping up on a branch and falling back to hang upside down. "Only I don't have a tail, so I can't move my legs."
ReplyDeleteGoddard clambers up the tree, using his claws to help pull him up onto the lowest branches.
ReplyDeleteAara can see the loose bark fall off the tree when Goddard wraps his tail around the branch. He takes a deep breath. "Well...here we go. I hope all that snow breaks my fall."
He falls back and the branch shakes. His eyes are closed tightly. "Am I dead?" he laughs.
"Oh hey...I can hang by this."
Aara laughs. "See? Nothing to fear! You need to trust yourself a little more, Goddard."
ReplyDelete"I don't know...didn't my cousin say something about not trusting me? Maybe I shouldn't trust me...hmmm," he crosses his arms.
ReplyDelete"He said not to trust you about those spiky porcu-things." Aara climbs up to the branch across where he hangs from and hangs upside down, facing him. "He also said you were a moose-face."
ReplyDelete"How would you know what a moose face looks like? I might be one!"
ReplyDelete"I know they have big ugly noses, and you have no nose at all." She grins and sticks her tongue out at him.
ReplyDeleteGoddard makes a shocked face and puts his hand over his nose. "Oh yeah...you are indeed correct."
ReplyDeleteShe laughs. "How do you smell things? Is it magic?"
ReplyDelete"I actually don't know. I've never thought much about any of this other than trying to hide it any way I could."
ReplyDeleteStarting to get dizzy, Aara turns herself right side up. After brushing back her hair and fixing her veil, she frowns. "Because you're afraid of people trying to kill you? Goddard, you're not a monster, no matter what you or others might think."
ReplyDeleteGoddard tries to reach the branch again but can't. Instead he slowly loosens his tail's grip on the branch, lowering himself as far as possible and then dropping down onto the snow.
ReplyDelete"That wasn't so bad," he smiles, putting his hands behind his head.
"What I think of myself, changes with the people I am around. When I was around father, and even you and now Eglanor...I don't care. I'm me. I'm just...different. And you all understand."
"When I am around people who would kill me, if I don't think of myself as some monster and try to hide that, they may find out and then I'll either end up dead or I'll have to act like a monster."
"I suppose that makes sense. Or at least I understand it. People have expectations of what Walking Death are. How we look and behave. They want us to be calm and competent, unafraid and without hesitation or guilt no matter who we slay. They don't understand that sometimes it's horrifying." She jumps down, landing knee-deep in a snowdrift. "Uh..."
ReplyDeleteGoddard sits up and looks at Aara. "Need help?" he smirks.
ReplyDeleteShe tries to pull her foot up and feels her boot slipping off. Putting her foot back down into her boot, she looks up at him. "Yes?"
ReplyDeleteGoddard digs through the snow and gets Aara free. "I wish I had something like that to land in when I fell off that tree."
ReplyDeleteHe sits down onto the ground and starts to build small animals out of the snow. "Here's a chipmunk for my dear cousin," he laughs.
Aara laughs and uses twigs and snow to craft a scorpion. Pulling off her gloves, she chews her lip as she shapes the tail. "There, now my scorpion can attack your chipmunk," she laughs.
ReplyDeleteGoddard snaps a bunch of twigs up and sticks them into the chipmunk's back. "Now it's part chipmunk, part porcupine...all chaos," he attempts an evil laugh.
ReplyDeleteShe looks up from her scorpion and sniffs. "No such thing," she says, making a human shaped figure and sticking two twigs in it's hands. "There, that's me. I can destroy your chaos creature."
ReplyDeleteGoddard stabs a branch into the snow. "That's me!" He bursts out laughing.
ReplyDeleteShe smirks. "I know you're tall, but a branch? Giving yourself a lot of credit, aren't you?"
ReplyDeleteHe looks at the silly scene before him and tosses the branch behind him. He grabs a twig with a few leaves on it and sticks it on the chipmunks head.
ReplyDelete"See? It's such a big creature...I can ride on it's head."
Aara moves her figure to sit on the scorpion. "I think mine is more formidable," she laughs. "It's a good thing I'm cute."
ReplyDelete"You are," he grins. "But does it have...magic?" he sprinkles snow over the chipmunk. "Huh? See? Magic." The twig tips a little under the weight of the snow on the leaves. "Um...that's exactly what happens when you cast a spell."
ReplyDelete"It doesn't need magic. It has two pinching claws, a stinger, and me," she smirks. "I'm pretty scary, too."
ReplyDelete"We both know that I am the scariest," he growls playfully.
ReplyDeleteAara rolls her eyes. "Not really," she lies.
ReplyDelete"Awww," he sticks his tongue out at her. "You know is the scariest," he whispers, "Koroush! Haha!"
ReplyDelete"You're right," she laughs. "Even when he was younger, he was intimidating. When he caught me picking his pocket, I thought I was dead."
ReplyDeleteGoddard looks down at the snow and makes swirls in it with a claw. "I'm glad he didn't kill you...I'm glad I met you lecai. I think something would be missing if I'd never met you."
ReplyDeleteAara smiles and puts her hand over his. "Me too, nuur'eni."
ReplyDeleteGoddard smiles then tries to blow some hair out of his face. When it doesn't work, he gets the dagger out of his boot and holds the blade in his teeth. He pulls his hair together almost at the top of his head. It's long enough that he might be able to tie it into a pony tail.
ReplyDeleteHe twists his finger around the hair, grabs the dagger with his other hand, and cuts the little pony tail he could have had off. Goddard shakes his head and his hair falls into place.
"Was starting to bother my...lack of nose," he chuckles.
"That's how you cut your hair?" she laughs. Picking up a lock, she toys with it. "I've heard great magic can be done with a lock of one's hair."
ReplyDelete"Hey...it looks good doesn't it? It's a proven method of hair cutting," he laughs.
ReplyDelete"Hmmm...should I bury it then? Don't want any curses on me," he laughs. "Well...not any more curses. I have enough wrong with me."
She absently ties a knot in the hair she's holding. "Probably best to burn it, don't you think? You're in a dangerous situation, some ambitious Autarii could come behind you and dig it up."
ReplyDeleteGoddard looks at Aara, a worried look on his face. "You really think we should burn it?"
ReplyDeleteShe shrugs, tossing the knotted hair behind her. "I don't know, I've just heard things. I don't know what magic your people practice." She grins mischievously. "In my country, there are people who use locks of hair to bewitch others into becoming their lover or slave."
ReplyDeleteGoddard gathers up snow with his hair in it and makes it into a ball. He then gets up and grabs the knot Aara threw behind her and adds it to the snowball, turning toward her and gesturing for her to follow.
ReplyDelete"Well...get up! We have to throw it into the fire!"
Aara laughs and follows him. "What if I've already done it?" she teases. "Some say it's as simple as tying the right knot."
ReplyDeleteHe stops in his tracks and thinks for a moment. "I...hmmm...I'll figure that out later." Goddard keeps on moving.
ReplyDeleteAara giggles as she falls behind him.
ReplyDeleteGoddard tucks the snowball away before he gets to the tower.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure they already think I'm insane. But this...this won't help.
Once he and Aara get back into the room, he quickly tosses the snowball into the fire and watches it melt and his hair burn.
Master...smart move!
"I know I know," Goddard mumbles.
Aara puts a hand on his shoulder. "I don't mean to make you paranoid, but what is the point of training you with a sword if someone can find a way to control you with a bit of hair? I don't know anything of magic, but isn't it possible?" She pulls out a dagger and cuts off a length of her own hair. "Here. Tie a knot and burn it. The old women say that's how to counteract a spell," she adds with a smile.
ReplyDeleteGoddard takes the bit of hair and just tosses it into the fire. "To keep you safe too," he smiles. "Just in case..."
ReplyDelete"I'm worried about what someone else might do."
She laughs and leans against him. "So you don't care if I've bound you to me?" she asks lightly. "That's rather interesting, nuur'eni."
ReplyDelete"You've already admitted...you know nothing of magic," he snickers, putting an arm around her.
ReplyDelete"Even a broken clock is right twice a day," she answers. "I may not know magic, but every girl past six learns how to bind a man to her. A mother doesn't send her daughter out to play without teaching her that at least."
ReplyDelete"Girls don't need magic for that. Even a great lord of magic can't do what women can do," he laughs.
ReplyDeleteShe laughs. "You're probably right." Looking up at him, she bites her lower lip. "Are you still worried about being in Har Ganeth during death night?"
ReplyDeleteGoddard remains quiet for a moment, obviously thinking. "No," he finally says. "As long as we are smart, we'll be fine."
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ReplyDelete"Good. Your talk with Eglanor must have put you at ease. At least you're not grumpy anymore," she laughs
ReplyDelete"Oh I'm still grumpy. I just won't be so generous with my grump," he laughs.
ReplyDelete"But...my cousin has taught me a lot...and still has a lot to teach me."
Goddard then says softy, "He's oooold..."
She snorts softly. "You're old, too."
ReplyDelete"No no...I mean...ooooold...like probably a few hundred years old..."
ReplyDelete"Good, he has lots of practice with grumps Luke you."
ReplyDelete