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 Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2015 10:11 am
Callum's low slung pants had dried, but in the itchy way that wet fabric tended to do when worn for too long. It made him shift to compensate for it, which wasn't all that out of the way considering he was already a bit twitchy to start with. The swordsman moved past Nim to lay his weapon among scattered possessions. In his crouched state, for the briefest moment he made eye contact with Faulina before avoiding her gaze as well.
A long, drawn out sigh accompanied him as Callum stood up to his full height. When he turned back to Nimueh, he was little more chipper with a tired sort of smile bringing some life to his features. The offer of fish had him surprised, but he couldn't muster up the energy needed to truly show it. "Did you...did you do more fishing?" The fire played an odd spectrum of color across the younger man's skin, reminding Callum of the stories of ice rainbows he'd been told as a child. Those sorts that would light up the skies of Zena on rare occasions if you were lucky enough to catch it. When he was a child they had been a grand concept, but now...now he believed it.
He moved closer to the fire and sat crosslegged with his elbows coming to rest on knobby knees. His braid pooled around his hip, frayed bits of hair popping out here and there with a swath of it framing his face. Before eating Callum brushed the hair away, tucking as much of it as he could behind his ears.
Even though he was holding the skewer, Callum couldn't muster up much of an appetite. He took a few polite bites, mostly because Nim had put more work into this than he needed to, before pulling it away. "No no, you take it. You're growing and you'll need all the help you can get. Besides, I don't think I'm as hungry as I thought I was. My eyes were bigger than my stomach, I guess."
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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2015 7:05 pm
Nim frowned, almost to himself, watching Callum as subtly as he could. Rejection was one thing, but with Callum acting so stiff... perhaps he really had insulted his friend more than he'd realized. Callum may be smiling, but Nim wondered if an apology would put his concerns to rest? While pondering this, he nodded at the question, taking another bite of his own meal, then paused when Callum denied it, claiming that he wasn't hungry - and accompanying with yet another statement that referred to Nimueh's apparently unacceptable age.
Maybe he really wasn't hungry... but given how eager they'd both been for fish, earlier, he found it unlikely. He gave his friend a look, clearly disbelieving, and even opened his mouth to call him out on it, but instead he closed it and shook his head, sighing quietly to himself. A change of topic seemed to be in order. He finished his own fish quickly, then set the empty skewer in the fire (so the wood wouldn't go to waste), patting his hands against his knees and leaning forward towards his friend. "I hope you gain more of an appetite by the time we're back in Zena - my mothers will feed us until we can't stand any more! I can show you where we fish, like we talked about - or you could help with the roati until we're ready to move along. The little beasts really are quite sweet, if you're anyone but me that is." He cracked a smile. While it was true that callum may not even want to go back to Zena with him, after what had happened, he had seemed pleased with the idea earlier.
And if Callum had reconsidered their status as traveling partners... then now would be a good opportunity to confirm it, right?
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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2015 8:12 pm
Instead of finishing his own fish, Callum whistled thrice in quick succession, bringing Faulina's attention his way. It only took a quick wave of his skewer to bring the kinfa closer to him. Her little talons clipped along the ground, wings fluffed up from her nearly asleep state. She hopped up to bite into the fish, her beak clasping around the skewer before backing away from the fire to eat her meal in peace.
With his hands now free, Callum shifted his position by bringing his left left up to his chest to use as a head rest.He wrapped his arm around the limber limb lazily, allowing his crystallized hand to rest on his foot. "Your home sounds like a wonderful place. What are your mothers like? And what's a roati? I don't think I've heard of them before."
He was deflecting any confirmation on whether or not he would actually be going to Zena. Nimueh seemed so passionate about it, though, and Callum hated the thought of dousing that spirit. "Do you have any other family back home?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2015 9:01 pm
He was still unused to having a familiar around, that when Callum whistled and the kinfa came down with a flutter of wings, he jumped a bit, watching her warily. While she was harmless, and he was no stranger to dealing with beasts, Nim still wasn't much good with animals, even if she seemed to like him when they first met.
It was weird, realizing that they hadn't really had a chance to just... sit and talk about these sorts of things. Not that you had to open up and share your life story with anyone you traveled with, of course, but after being in eachother's company while traveling, he had come to take it for granted. Flushing in realization, considering having felt so utterly sure of his affections for Callum, he smiled at the questions, but still felt strange about answering them. It felt weird to go on about himself - certainly, it wasn't very interesting, right?
"A roati is... a small creature, with long fur and horns. We use them for meat or fur, but mostly milk." He laughed softly, thinking of the roati at home - many of which didn't seem to like him, try as he might to take care of them properly. "My mothers are... they're very warm. They're merchants - much better at it than I am, really. I have a 'sister' too - well. She doesn't like me calling her that, but she's kind in her own way." After talking about them for a moment, Nim fell into a fond silence, thinking of home, battling the rush of homesickness that talking about them brought.
After thinking it over for a long moment, Nim looked up at Callum once more. "I think you... mentioned a grandmother. When I was younger, I mean. Is she still - is she doing well?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2015 9:31 pm
Catching bits of Nim's unease around the kinfa, Callum grinned and decided to razz him a bit. "Too bad she isn't at her full size yet. If she was we could ride her across Sauti easy." He craned his head to watch as the orchid avian ate her fill. Some day she really would be that large, and her gynophobic behavior could prove deadly. At some point he really should try to make curing that a priority.
"They sound almost like capramel in a way." Callum fought back a yawn. The warmth from the fire coupled with his mostly peaceful mind state were working their magic on him. Nim's little laugh was just as warm. He hadn't realized how big of a relief it was not to be rejected for his earlier stunt the moment he came back. This...this was nice.
After nearly dozing off in the silence, Callum was jolted back in a mild state of consciousness by the turn in questioning. For a moment he didn't respond, and instead turned his tired gaze to the fire. "I hope she is. I haven't seen her in a long, long time..." He worried for her, but remembering the older shifter turned his grin into a fond smile. "She wanted me to settle down, find a respectable profession and marry a nice girl. Something to...to change things." The smile turned to a frown in a matter of seconds. "She's a good woman, and she deserved more than I gave her."
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 1:02 pm
Until this moment, Nim had been grasping for some sort of conversation starter, something to move them away from the tension of before. So he sagged in relief when Cal accepted the change in topic, and continued on - becoming a bit more relaxed as the conversation went on. Of course, then he had to go on about kinfa.
Eyes widening, Nim looked at the small bird with further distrust, making a soft sound almost like a whine in his throat as he finally gave Callum an almost plaintive look. "You're joking - they get bigger?" He didn't know what a capramel was, and he was tempted to ask, but he didn't know if he wanted to hear about more strange creatures from the west. So he, too, grew quiet, watching Callum as the man's eyes began to lower. He felt guilty for bringing it up - not only because it roused his friend, who desperately needed his rest after their travels, but also because the topic seemed bleak, judging by Callum's response to it. He tried not to think about the mild shock of jealousy that pulled through him at the idea of Callum marrying.
He had to remind himself, once more, that he had no claim to his handsome companion, but it did little to lessen the reaction. Nim watched his friend, unsure what to say about this revelation. He didn't know what had happened between them, of course, and anything he said may come off as ignorant of the situation. Nim watched Callum intently, head slightly lowered, as if he was contemplating the man before him. Maybe Callum was right; it wasn't as if Nim knew what had happened between the two. But it still seemed wrong that Callum felt so badly about it. "Perhaps. But maybe, regardless, she'd enjoy a visit from you?" It was a quiet suggestion, nothing more.
Hah. Hypocrite- he felt much the same about his own 'mother', back in Jauhar. His eyes hardened, turning his back to the fire as he retrieved his collection of rocks from his bag - something to keep him busy. "You should get some rest - I can take first watch."
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 2:18 pm
"Not in the least," Callum chuckled. "I've known more than a few riders that use them as mounts. It's nearly impossible to tame a grown kinfa, but the hatchlings can be won over. They're scavengers, mostly, since there isn't many that can take them on. One day I plan to release Faulina upon my enemies to drag them all down into the abyss." Day by day, year by year she would grow until none but her own kind would rival her. Callum would miss being able to coddle her, though knowing that she would be able to protect herself should something happen to him was comforting.
Callum released his hold on his knee to stretch his legs out before him. His bare toes danced along the edge of the fire before he pulled back just a smidge. His hands nimbly pulled his braid over his shoulder, worked the leather tie off and began loosening the plaited hair. In it's natural state the glacial strands have a wave about them, but after being wettened and left in the braid they were almost curly. "You think so? Maybe one day I'll go back to Jauhar and see her."
Nodding to Nimueh's suggestion, Callum laid down next to the fire in favor of returning to his bed roll. The warmth had too strong of a pull for him not too. The action, however, brought his head fairly close to Nim, but for now it didn't bother him. Already his eyes had closed, breath beginning to come out in even puffs, when he murmured, "I'm sorry about earlier."
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 3:15 pm
Why would Callum torture him by telling him they got bigger? He would just... need to make fast friends with Faulina, before she got big that is. The idea of the small, tiny thing becoming so large that she wouldn't have natural predators was so strange that Nim wondered if, despite his assurances, Callum was pulling his leg.
Callum didn't seem offended by his suggestion, however, and instead was preparing for bed, so Nim let himself get distracted by digging in his bags for his accessory supplies, setting them in neat piles beside him. By the time he settled to sit once again, with a small bag of assorted rocks, and a spool of twine and cord settled by his knee, Callum had settled on his side next to the fire, his hair settling in wavy curls beside him, gleaming in the firelight. He would have seemed utterly peaceful, laying as he was... but as Nim idly began to unwind the twine from its spool, he noticed, by the light from the fire, that his friend had thin scratches running down his cheeks.
He paused in his motions, brow pinching in concern, but ultimately he decided not to call attention to it, though their presence brought him back to attention. Nim was used to creeping through forests, running after a hunt - and he knew scratches from trees and what they looked like, when branches whipped across your face. These were not those kinds of scratches. Nim tugged his eyes away, instead focusing on his beading - retrieving a strange square of what looked to be fine fish scales from his bag, which he began to quietly rub over a rough hunk of bright blue rock, polishing it down quietly.
"Don't be, it's ok." Nimueh responded, his voice deep and soft as he tried to coax his tired friend to sleep. The rejection hurt, but the growing realization that his friend had been injured somehow by his flirtatious actions hurt more.
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 3:28 pm
Although his eyes were closed, Callum knew the familiar tinks and sounds of Nim preparing to work his magic. They were faint, especially over the steady crackle of the fire, but it left him wondering vaguely what he would work on tonight.
He stretched one hand out to place his hand on Nim's thigh, opening his eyes for just the briefest of moments. He was so warm..."It's not okay, I shouldn't have run away from you like that. I should have stayed...I shouldn't...have left you alone..." Giving into a rather large yawn, Callum laid his head over, closed his eyes and drifted off. While his arms slacked, palm sliding down a bit across Nim's thigh, it still remained.
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 4:52 pm
Nim's hands paused in their work as he glanced down at Callum, but after those warm words he resumed, lips lifting into a small, private smile. For a short time, he continued his work, thinking about the apology. It hadn't been necessary for Callum to apologize, but he had anyway; was he worried about Nim's reaction? More than that though, it warmed the hybrid more than he could explain, knowing that Callum cared enough about him to insist on it. Eventually he set his work aside, too distracted to continue, and gingerly set his hand over Callum's, giving it the barest of squeezes, not wanting to wake him up.
This trip wouldn't go on for forever, it might even be close to ending, if their exhaustion was any indication. He would need to go home, with the mammu, and subject himself to whatever punishment his mothers gave for wandering off on this unplanned excursion without any warning So he'd enjoy these moments while he could, and let that be that.
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