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[15. Despair]

He closed the door to his aunt's house tightly held on for a moment. He wanted to twist the knob and walk back in. He wanted to stop everything, then and there, and pretend he didn't have to leave.

He wanted Chel to be there.

He'd only come here to say goodbye to her. He should have known better than to expect her to be here, or to want to talk to him. He shouldn't have even bothered to call her cellphone, because it went to voice mail just like he knew it would. He hadn't known what to say in the message, so he didn't leave one.

He'd exhausted his options, and he couldn't just wait around for her. He had a tight schedule to keep to now, and that's what he had wanted.

He leaned his head on the door for just a moment and took a deep breath. Tried not to think about all the things Chel could have come up with to make him stay.

He turned away instead, and walked down the steps he'd climbed a million times. He walked away and had no reason to look back, because she wasn't even there to say goodbye.

[3. Wisdom]

She had always admired the way her father carried himself and dignity and wisdom. He had always put his family first, and nothing seemed to faze him. She remembered his initial resistance towards her going to Amityville, but how he had also relented. She remembered how her parents both came all the way to watch her partake in the horsemen trials and achieve success in it. And how, for the past few months, he had taught her about the family business.

He was right, then, she was still too young and naive. Perhaps this was still true even now. But he had always known when to let go, despite his immediate instincts. And now, she could only hope to become more like him and do him proud.

[20 March - 3/3 Quest complete]
[+1 level]
[+1 loot card]

Theme: Beginnings

It was awkward living it someone else. After the...moment...with his parents, things had become a bit easier with Astridr. But still, this was new. It was new and it wasn't quite scary, but it was close enough. He always felt like he was walking on glass, and things were growing more tense by the day.

He left to go do some training. He had requested that he keep some training up, just to not fall behind in his duties, and she had assented. But halfway there he realized he'd forgotten a gauntlet he had wanted to try out, so he hurried back to their quarters. Walking in he was graced with...something he really hadn't expected to hear.

From the bathroom came an off-key warbling, and he stood, transfixed in slight horror, as the door opened and Astridr walked out, clad in a towel.

For a moment they stared at each other, then he could hold it no longer.

By the time he had almost finished laughing she had joined in. He chose that as their beginning.




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Theme: Hope

Auditions coming to a city near you!

The advertisements were everywhere, and Taani wouldn't have avoided them if she could. In fact she kept stealing them off of bulletin boards, hoping fewer people would see them. Auditions! Auditions.

This was her chance, and what a chance it would be! There was absolutely nothing that could go wrong with this, she was talent just waiting to be discovered.

She hoped.

2/3

As she watched the previous image of her beginnings, it started to fade and trickle into that that caused her to smile all the more. It was just a simple dinner with her and her father. They had those, every Thursday. Just her and dad. As she watched for a moment her smile dropped, hear ears docked... and she grew sad. Tears pricked her eyes a moment before she rolled them back to push back the tears before gritting her teeth and rubbing her face a bit with her other hand.

3/3

The bitterness of that last vision settled heavily on her heart. She gritted her teeth and the water started to shift again. She was about to stand and walk away, done with the water if this is what it was going to show her... but the image that came into view was muddled and it was hard to focus. It was a collage of images, it was her, but not... these didnt feel like memories. It was a series of events that had happened... but as if she had reacted differently in them. Ways she often stayed awake at night thinking about... all of those 'what ifs' she could have changed....

Theme: Normalcy

Sometimes, just the standards were good. It was good to just get up in the morning, eat an apple, go train, and then sit down to a hearty meal with friends. Train some more, shower, and head back to tend to a few things before lunch. Normal was good.

Normal didn't stop the gaping hole in his heart from grieving.

But normal did help it not hurt so much, day after day.




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Theme: Repeat

"1, 2, 3 and 4

5, 6, 7, 8.

Faster!"

The clapping and counting kept going, and Taani let herself go. One movement flowed into the next, going from her the core of her chakra to the tips of her fingers. She breathed, trying to remember to focus on grace and clarity, fluidity and expression. She had done this enough, repeated the steps a hundred time, and this time she could feel it working, knew when they finished that she had done precisely everything perfect.

She couldn't understand why she wasn't chosen.

Fear was something of great important to them. As a whole. The central structure of their lives and no single being could survive without it. But it held it's own dual sharper edge.

It in turn earned them hate and spite from those they gathered it from. Something that... left him with mixed feelings. He'd read about hunters, never personally run across them. But he knew that humans despised them for what they did if they would go to such lengths to try and stop them.

But they only did what they did to survive. It was what they, in turn, had been made by the humans to be this way. So... who was really wrong there?

A fun question to ponder. Because fear, as it was, was a complex topic.