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 Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2004 8:54 am
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2004 12:46 am
Part 3, Post one of the Guppy Saga ~ Inspired by real life events.
Backdated to Saturday, November 27th, 2004
"So you really just had this whole fishworld just stored in your closet? A whole realm of plastic, glass and stone with heaters, light and tubing?" Indra settled at last on the light hood of after another excited flight around the fish tank. "It's just so... Wow. Do you ever think that we are also in a tank, Ms. Wasa? With the sun a light and the rain a machine?"
"Alas Indra, I have," Wasabineko sighed while inspecting the water heater at length, "but then I sobered up."
"Sobered up?" He cocked his head to the side, gray hair sliding off his shoulders "Doesn't that mean-"
"Nothing you have to worry about for several months yet Indra, if ever." She turned off the heater in defeat. The thing was most definitely busted. Even at the lowest setting it shot the temperature into the eighties and Wasabineko didn't trust that it would be consistent. Time to plunk down a good 60 dollars on fish she didn't ask for and definitely wasn't prepared to care for. She slipped the deactivated heater back into the tank lest it leave water stains all over the table cloth.
Inside the tank, several dozen guppies swam in various states of distress. Some were panicked, darting to and fro and breeching the surface only to be repelled by the plastic hood. Others just floated, some lopsidedly, in shock. Indra's state, on the other hand, was of unbridled excitement. While first intimidated by the idea of carrying for other creatures, the idea had grown on him. Especially the idea of carrying for fish, which could be housed in their own little balanced environment. The thought of a dog or cat that rampaged the entire house was just a little to chaotic for his tastes. But fish on the other hand. Well there was the schooling, and the need for the perfect ratios of alkaloids and the purity of the water. That was something he could understand and appreciate.
"Okay! I was watching them all morning and I think I have it figured out." He hovered before the broad glass front and left another pair of foggy hand prints to be wiped off later.
"Have what figured out?" Wasa replied with only half her interest, the other portion fixated on finding the model number for the heater.
"Their names, of course! You said it yourself that things should have names. I can't call them all fish now can I?"
"I don't think it's wise to get so attached Indra, knowing that some won't-"
"It's not about getting attached." He tried to assure her, though failing though no fault of his own. "Even if one dies it still deserves a name, right? So I named them all."
At this Wasa had to laugh. "The all look the same to me Indra, except that one bunch is yellow and the other bunch is orange."
"I see all sorts of differences. Patterns, shades, eyes, fins... you told me you were an artist. Can't you see these things?"
"They are a lot smaller to me than you. It's hard for me to tell with these tall eyes."
Indra looked back at her, a flinch of disappointment on his face. "Do I look like other feien to those eyes?"
"Of course not!" She gave him her full attention now, stuffing a note in her purse for the trip to the pet store. "There are no other feien that look anything like you."
"But if there was... if I had a brother let's say like Miss Kookaberra does. Would you be able to tell us apart?"
Wasabineko smiled assuredly, kneeling beside the table the tank rested on to be eyelevel with Indra and his fish. "There is no way I could mistake you from another, my little dumpling, my dimsum. Now," she took a deep breath as she tried not to laugh a second time. "Tell me the names of your fish"
"Well!" Indra took his own deep breath and pointed to the very top of the tank and to the left. "That there is Flavius, and then Fulvio, Huang, Pitambar, Xanthe and Xanthos, I think they are brothers, Lux, Cressida, Golda, Jin," He turned his attention to another cluster "Orfhlaith, Oriana, Rukmini, Vosgi, Worknesh, Zlatan, Aodh, Azar, Cinead, Conleth, Fiammetta, Fintan, Hourig, Huo, Ignatius, Joash."
Now turning to the back of the tank he continued his list, "Nina, Plamen, Pyrrhus, Amaryllis, Idril, Sindri, Fishel, Meena, Sienna, Aditya, Antiman, Antinanco, Arevig, Cyrus, Eliane, Eloise, Haul, Helios, Khurshid, Mehrdad, Sunngifu, Ochieng, Ra, Ravi, Ravindra, Samson, Saule, Sol, Sorin, Soare, Shimshon," back to the front, where all the guppies had since moved but he still pointed out each new face without a falter, "Sunday, Sunniva, Suraj, Surya, Svarog, Yoku, Sunne, Cassandra, Castor, Charalampos, Dai, Jair, Zeus, Disgleiro, Abner, Aegle, Apollo, Barak, Bergljot, Bhaskar, Hikaru, Jyoti, Lesedi, Lior, and Lucifer" He panted and turned to Wasa with pride puffing his chest.
Wasabineko tried to follow along but in the end trying to remember names while also trying to keep count left her in the dust. "Very impressive. Well I would say they are very luck to have a caretaker such as you. Now I have to go to the pet store and refill on some supplies for... all of them. Do you want me to put in a movie for you."
"Why watch something predictable and permanent when I can watch these?" he asked simply, flying to the hood once more.
"That's fine with me." She wasn't about to complain that her feien wasn't a couch potato after all... but she had to say that this had to be the weirdest child she had ever come across in her life. "I'll be back in a couple hours." She began to step out but then turned back at the last minute "Oh! And I know you were up all night watching over them, so get some sleep this afternoon... I mean it"
"Of course Ms. Wasa." He smiled back at her, trying his hardest to assure her "I will."
An hour later the excitement that had filled Indra had been leeched away. He gazed worriedly into the tank from where he sat, eyelevel with a small yellow guppy, Fintan to be exact. He was lying on his side, red and swollen gills flapping like busted billows. He knew what he was seeing. Elsewhere Sunniva bumped her fins to rise, only to since back down like a torpedo nose first into the gravel. They were dying.
Wasabineko had warned him that this would happen. It had been easy to accept it then, when the trout was the only one who lay in death from a violent act and all the others swam on. He didn't know about the languishing... the struggle. Under a leaf, just in the corner of his eye, Eloise didn't move at all.
So he could do nothing, could he? Well that he refused to believe. It was true that he accepted the actions of others but his own inaction was something that could not be abided by. What if, in all the times in his life he was threatened, others stalled because of some accepted fate? What if Wasabineko had left him when he fell from the shelf on his summoning day? What if Mister Talonfaust or Miss Berra had not stepped in to tend to him? Would he have wasted away? Would he have died? Would he be a pretty stone on a not so pretty shelf, be it Wasabineko's or the Shop's?
He stood, circling the tank and thinking of all the possibilities. What had the done for him when he was ill? Mister Talonfaust had used magic... but he didn't know how to magic. Sure the latent ability crawled under his skin and he desired nothing more than to hone it... but with no teacher and no time it would be of little service today. They had warmed him...
Ah this he remembered so clearly. He remembered comfort of the warmed water billowing over him on currents of air. It had surrounded him. It had entered him. With the lightest touch on his skin as it traveled on Kookaberra's breath, it had awakened him. Then there were the other times when it had given him peace... as recent as the night before when he longed to jump in the mesh basket that was to be the slaughter house but was content to simply lean over the gouts of steam that rose from the water.
Rightly inspired he checked the thermometer on the side of the tank. It wasn't even registering any heat from the glass. Frowning he breathed against the black strip, held his hand over it, and waited until a vague orange handprint appeared. It had to be the water, so cold in the drafty living room, that caused the fish such pain. How could Wasabineko leave without checking this? She had been looking the heater hadn't she. He threw his head back and then thunked it against the glass. "Tell me she didn't..."
He had to give her the benefit of the doubt as he flew to the top of the tank and dipped his hand in the water with the shiver. Oh yes, it was cold to his skin that craved the dank and stifling. Wary his eyes drifted to the heater hoping against hope but in the end finding disappointment. She had forgotten to turn the heater back on.
He pushed aside all thoughts of frustration at her flakiness. She was a busy person... but how hard could it have been, when talking to him and standing around the tank and being there in all senses of the word, that she forgot to turn it back on? No matter. After all she was trying so hard to get things back on track for both their sakes... he could see that plainly. He'd just turn the heater back on, go to bed, and she would never have to know how close she had come to endangering the whole school. Fintan, Sunniva, and Eloise were lost, and when Wasabineko came home he would bury them in human tradition.
He shoved his shoulder against the dial, hearing each click as it rotated. 75... 76... 77... a final push and the heater was set to a comfortable 78 degrees, just where the book had said. With a breath of relief he remembered his promise, though somewhat hollow at the time, to Wasabineko and took wing to his colander for an afternoon's rest.
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Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2004 12:47 am
Part 3, Post 2 of Guppy Saga ~ It sucks to be my fish
Backdated Saturday, November 27th, 2004
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Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2004 2:15 am
First Summonday
Backdated Sunday November 28th, 2004
Catching up is fun!
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Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 4:29 am
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Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 11:38 pm
An RP between Indra and Kookaberra. Part 1 of 2 (because some how we managed to kill the character limit sweatdrop )Quote: "You are positive when you say it's only going to get colder?""It's only done so for every December in the Northern hemisphere for as long as we have had calendars." Wasabineko turned her eye over her shoulder into the fleece-lined hood of her jacket where Indra clung to the hem, staring out at the passing world. "Of course you wouldn't be so cold if you hunkered down or wore a blanket like I had suggested before we left." Indra burrowed into the fluff, his ears flattening against his head. "It wasn't so cold last time." "Things change." The young feien didn't respond to that. Was hardly the reminder he needed at the moment regardless of how true it was. He edged into a corner so he might still see the town landscape as Wasabineko walked home from class, a coffee nestled neatly between her pinkened hands. They should have stayed in the coffee shop... even if it meant sleeping by the steamer until classes started the next day or, in the best-case scenario, spring. To the side of the road, a small shape first rustled in a shoveled-aside pile of snow and then emerged, looking wet and somewhat bedraggled like a very small kitten that had lost its way. However this particular kitten also didn't seem any worse for wear and, in fact, looked to be enjoying itself.
Kookaberra, her skin reddened with cold, shook forming ice crystals out of her hair and brushed white powder from her body and wings. Shalafi hadn't been kidding...the snow was fun on levels she hadn't even fathomed and was nothing at all like the sweltering heat that summer had engulfed everything in.
However, fun as it was, it had been a distraction from the reason she'd gone out in the first place and that had been to find out where Talonfaust had gotten to. Miss Karma had said merely that he'd gone somewhere with Irisa before collapsing in bed from the long drive to and from the Banff lodge to pick up her and Globin. It hadn't occurred to her that that 'somewhere' might not even be in the immediate area and that, as she frolicked in the snow, her father was wandering aimlessly in France trying to find her sister.
Burrowing down into the snow again, she searched for a moment before coming up with the trident she'd retrieved from her quest, its shaft and prongs glistening with droplets of icy water. It hadn't left her sight since she'd gotten back and she'd hoped to show it to -someone-...
Deciding it was time to go home, she emerged from the pile and hovered upward, turning first left and then right. It...really hadn't occurred to her as she'd been playing just how different everything looked when it was covered in a muted blanket of snow. Especially when it was starting to get dark.
Blinking her yellow eyes, her barings lost, she started off in the direction her instincts told her was right. "I'll make camomille when we get home. That's the one you like, Indra, with the honey and flowers." He was drowning her out now, not even really bothering to nod as she contined having learned that if left to her own devices, Wasabineko could keep herself well entertained with the mere sound of her voice. He meant that in the nicest way of course. He wished his attention could be so easily occupied and focused, rather than being inspired only to peer out into the scenery and wonder if anything might save this day from being exactly like the one before it. The monotony had been nice, and he was sure that he would be happy to get back to it in time. But for the past few days since the unfortunate guppy incident the only thing that weighed him down more than remorse was boredom.
Even the landscape seemed to be reflecting his impressions. Thick layers of snow turned every tree, every car, and every dwelling into a vague, organic shape resembling practically every other of the same size. As he looked up into the sky and saw it darkening into a soft indigo at the corners of the horizon, he realized that perhaps for the first time he had gotten worn out on the color gray.
As Berra continued down the street, the trident clutched to her chest as though it was a means of comfort, she became more and more certain that she had gotten herself lost. It would be easier, of course, if she could see such necessities as street signs, lawn decorations, and bushes, but all of them were practically invisible at the moment. Adding to the fact it was starting to get dark and the earth feien began to get worried. In her hands, the trident gave a slight vibration. "Its all right." she said, patting the middle prong as though it could understand. The 'stabby fork' turned out to be a little more than she'd bargained for once she'd gotten it home and gotten more acquainted with it the past day. It seemed to react violently to certain things...for instance, it didn't seem to care for the heat any more than she did. When she'd found herself unable to nap and vexed because of the heater running, in fact, the trident, gripped loosely in one hand, had suddenly become ice cold in her fingers and covered itself in crackling fingers of black lightning that stung her arm.
When Globin had tried to take it from her to investigate it during one of their stops on the journey back from the hill, it had shrouded itself, and Berra's left arm in imposing black shadows until he recoiled from it.
Berra's conclusion was that it simply needed time to get settled and socialized...and she found speaking soothingly to it helped. She hadn't yet linked the fact that each time it had reacted with such violence, it had been while she had been holding it and experiencing something negative.
Coming to a two-way intersection, she paused, looking up one side of the street and then down the other.
"I think its.....this way." she said aloud to no one, heading to the right and hoping she was correct as she looked for something--anything--familiar. Grey house... blue-grey house... pink-grey house. All terribly glum. At this point he was looking to the ground for small pieces of trash in the gutter. Now that was something worth the looking at. Bright wrappers from artificially colored lumps of sugar, a coffee cup with a minute puddle of frozen brew, a red and white feien...
Indra jolted to standing, catching one clear glimpse of her and calling out "Be-" before his foot slipped and sent him tumbling face first into the bottom of the hood with a muffled "ruh ruh rhph." "See? I bet you can already tell it's warmer down there." Wasabineko crooned before continuing on with the rant that had made her miss whatever Indra had been exclaiming about. The feien spat out a mouth full of polyester fluff, trying to keep a smile even in the seclusion of the hood. He didn't know who to blame more for the humilation, himself for tripping or Wasa for inadvertanly making a further joke out of it. Never the less the reminder of what he had seen brought him back to the trim. "Miss Wasabi I found... something I would like for my room... would you mind if follow a few minutes behind? I'll let myself in through the slot like usual." He darted off before she could even get a response out. No need to complicate things with consent today. Her knowing that he left with good reason would enough today. Wasabineko blinked, stopping mid story and stride. "Er... Just don't follow to far." She looked behind her to see him already gone. Her lips pursed and she called into the direction she had assumed he had flown off in, which humorously enough had been the exact opposite of the true way. "You can't complain it's cold and then take a walk while the snow is coming in!" Then, without her audience, fell silent once more. Indra fell several feet below eye level, even below Berra's altitude, and zipped through the cold air. Already he was inspired to meet up with her quickly before his markings iced over. It was quite a surprise to see her out here, alone, so far from home and in the company of a what looked like a water-logged twig from this distance.
He pulled up into the air as he crossed the street, not even wanting to toy with the possibility of being blindsided by an Acura or, even more poetic, a snowplow. "Berra!" Berra stopped in mid-flap, spinning around to face whoever was calling her. She knew that voice...
"Indra?" she asked, squinting against the gray of the drab weather until she saw a distinct bit of silver-and-flesh approaching her, confirming her question. "Indra!!" she exclaimed happily, zipping toward him to meet him halfway, stopping short of crashing into him and holding the trident safely outward and away as she gave him a brief and grateful hug with the unoccupied arm.
"Its so good to see you!" she declared, letting him go. She hadn't yet begun to panic about the prospect of being lost, but that didn't change the fact that she was very much relieved to see someone she recognized. "And you, Miss Berra, though I confess to being very confused." He pulled a step back and stratched the back of his head, shaking a stray flake of snow from his sheet of silver hair. "You are out in the snow, without bond or elder and-CAR!" He zipped to the side, easily clearing the draft of air that roiled of a passing pick up that could have easily sent the waif of a feien flying back a few good yards.
"Not that it really matters." He continued, showing a bit of Wasa's uncanny knack for picking up right where he left off. "I'm just so relieved to see that you made it back from your journey. I was only able to get the vaguest details... so I had plenty to imagine and then worry about." His eyes scanned her from ponytails to toe tips, looking for any blemishes from scars to pimples before nodding in satisfaction at her wholeness. With that assurance in place his eyes drifted to the three pronged wrought metal poker.
"I see you have started to accessorize..." Though his cool expression and subtle charm remained solid on his exterior, he could feel a certain itching discomfort below in the company of the weapon. It was a familiar nagging that he could not yet place. "Sorry I didn't let anyone know where I was going." Berra said apologetically, lowering the trident and choking up her hold on it so it wasn't quite towering over the two of them. It was clearly a weapon intended to be held by an adult and, while it wasn't heavy, it was a bit awkward for her at times. "I had to make plans and leave in sort of a hurry before daddy could find out and keep me from going. But yeah! I'm fine, and I found what Yanvir sent me for!"
Turning the trident over, the dim light catching the small yellow jewel encrusted in its top, she then sighed a bit. "Only, I came home and daddy was missing. Miss Karma said that he left to go with my sister someplace, but she didn't say where." she hesitated a bit. "I hope he didn't leave because of me..." "Well... missing might be a strong word." He mused aloud, folding on arm beneath his elbow and resting his hand in his chin in a classic pose. "I mean. You know he is with somewhere, with someone, and that someone knows where he is." He gestured to her briefly. "So nothing is really missing but you... that is to say you miss him. Funny how words work like that."
He paused, blinking as he let that response echo in his head and almost winced "You know that was supposed to be comforting right?" Subject change was in order, and the closest one at hand was in hand "So the ancient Yanvir sent you to find this?" He examined the trident without touch. Infact his hands were firmly clasped behind him now. "He most be either powerful or very generous to let you keep it. Its quality alone would give Ms. Wasabineko cause to salivate." "It makes sense, don't worry, Indra." she smiled, and then accepted the change of subject.
"Well, I know he's powerful..." she said, sounding a little uncertain. "At least he said he was...and that people should be afraid of him for it." her eyes wandered down to the weapon in her hands again. "But he didn't lie, at least. This was all the way in Canada buried really deep in a hill with no trees on it. I can kinda see why, since its a little tempermental...its last owner must not have liked it very much."
As though in response, the small yellow gem momentarily gave a faint glowing pulse before reverting back to nothingness. "But I guess I'd be a little cranky too if I was left underground in the middle of nowhere..." "So ill-tempered that even the trees shied away? I'll take extra care to stay on its good side." He looked over his shoulder to the street receding into growing darkness. "Listen. My bond's house isn't far. I think... no I insist you visit, at least until we know for sure that it's getting colder or darker. If it does either you must stay awhile." He had noticed quite cunningly that it had always grown darker at this hour. He was quite pleased to see his recognition of this pattern finally work to his advantage. But would Kookaberra agree? Perhaps a little more convincing would be needed if he was to secure her company and have just one hour's respite from another night of tedium.
"Or, tomorrow I can put on a warm napkin and look for Mr. Faust's realistic ice sculpture. But I'd need you to help carry it so... yes best you come inside." He wrapped his wings around his shoulders and let himself bob lazily on magic alone "I can also bribe with candy." Berra looked confused, wondering who 'Mister Faust' was, and then quickly realized he was referring to her father. He DID hate the cold, and maybe he should have been home a long time ago. But then, she felt he knew better than to simply stay outside and freeze...surely he would have thought of something to keep warm. Biting her lip, she looked over her shoulder in the direction she'd come, as though that might reveal Talon's whereabouts.
It -was- getting darker and Berra was well aware it would be night soon. Miss Karma and Miss Wasa seemed on good terms, and she was sure her bond would rather she took an unannounced stay over at someone else's house than spend the night getting further lost in the snow. And it HAD been awhile since she'd been able to see Indra. In fact, she hadn't spent time with him since he'd been brought to the house unconscious that first time.
"Okay, Indra." she agreed with a nod and a smile, her thought process only having taken a few seconds to work itself through. "It would be nice to get to see where you live. I actually haven't gotten to visit anyone's home except Shalafi and Miss Yeande. Well...and Koralu, but nobody was home at the time so we didn't actually go inside." "A considerate choice that, and a smart one this." He smiled, tilting his head down the street. "Ms. Wasabineko said that I am always welcome to have friends over and she has never lied, so my welcome is hers as well. I have room to spare, food to eat and you have a story to tell me Miss Berra," almost winking with his nod, "because I refuse to believe a fork expedition can be seen through without at least one good story." Berra grinned at this, seeming to brighten even more. When Karma hadn't seemed to have been interested in hearing about the trip on the drive home, put out from having to drive the extra distance to retrieve her and Globin, she'd grown a bit discouraged about her efforts. Globin certainly had been keeping his distance since they'd gotten back, and with Talon gone, she'd begun to feel like she'd wasted her time.
"I'd be happy to!" she said warmly. "And that's very kind of you and Miss Wasa, thank you Indra." He waved his hand over his shoulder, beckoning her onward down the lane. As cars passed be began making sport of the sudden swelling currents, letting it suck him in but then making a slick display of twisting and tumbling back out. It might not have looked as graceful as he would have liked. He wanted to be reminiscent of frost kissed leaves in a natural winter breeze. But it did look like a hell of a lot of fun and each successful bound left him in chuckles. He had forgotten liberating the company of another was, to be safe from sound of his own clamoring mind because someone far more engaging was near.
In the distance the house came into view. Wasa stood on the walkway, still waiting for Indra with the door ajar. Best get to her before she let all the warm air out leaving Berra and himself with a better option for warm huddled in the lamp of a street light. Berra kept up with Indra, having a bit more trouble with the air currents than he was due to what she was carrying, but managing all the same. She'd been very lucky that Indra had lived near here...already the shadows of dusk had overtaken the sky.
As Indra's home and bonded came into view, she waved, not sure if the woman could see them yet or not. "Hi Miss Wasa!" She called, glad to see another familiar face. Wasabineko squinted into the dusk, shading out the glare from the porchlight with her hand "Indra is that...?" She chided herself for even pausing. How many prebubescent, female feien did she know? "Kookaberra!" "Yes it is! I ran into her when I was looking at the pebble I spotted" He banked to the left, over the postage stamp lawn infront of the modest duplex. "It wasn't worth bringing home. Not when I had found something better." "Well hurry up! You're letting the warm air out of the house" Indra blinked at the pure lack of- oh never mind that sort of logic was par for the course in their house. "Better pay the woman heed..." He whispered back to Berra, making his descent to the icicle dripped railing only to hop up again as his toes hit ice. Oh he didn't like winter at all... Berra landed shortly after him, not jumping up quite as quickly. She liked winter just fine, but even so, the ice burned and bit into her skin just as it would anyone else who's element wasn't cold or something having to do with it.
"Nice to see you again, Miss Wasa!" she beamed at Indra's bonded, glad to see that she didn't always look so haggard and upset as she had the day she had first met her.
Giving Wasa a quick curtsy...or as much of one as she could manage with one hand occupied, she then followed Indra indoors as per the human's request. When she'd caught up with him, she lowered her voice a bit. "I didn't mean to take you away from your shopping." she told the steam feien. Indra coughed slightly and whispered back "I wasn't really looking at anything... I just saw you and didn't think Ms. Wasabineko needed to know unless you wanted her too. She can be... smothering when she isn't being completely oblivious." His voice raised again, now calling back to Wasa. "I promised candy! Do you still have that one kind? The one I said reminded me of Miss Berra?" It took her a second to recall what he was talking about as she had managed a to set filter for half the non sensical things he said and might have let that vague association fall through. "I don't know for-" She snapped her fingers in recollection. "Yes. Yes I do. But that is best with hot chocolate so I'll make that instead of tea, unless of course Berra would like something else." She raised her voice, as if the stray millimeters between Berra and Indra were cause for her voice to need to carry farther. "What would you like, dear? I have a bit of everything but No Coffee! I've told Indra a hundred times no" "A dozen, Ms. Wasa! A mere dozen!" he protested, not appreciating the exaggeration, especially not in front of Berra like this.
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Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 11:44 pm
An RP between Indra and Kookaberra. Part 2 of 2 (because some how we managed to kill the character limit sweatdrop )Quote: "Hot chocolate is fine!" Berra called back. "Thank you, Miss Wasa!" She bit back the urge to insist that Indra and Wasa needn't make a fuss over her being there as she was perfectly happy simply to sit and talk, because she somehow felt it would do no good. Plus, part of her was curious to see the candy that reminded Indra of her.
Deciding to disregard the coffee statement altogether, noting that it seemed to make Indra uncomfortable, she shifted her hold on the trident a bit and gave her wings a flutter as she changed the subject. "Aside from you and Miss Wasa getting to know each other, how have you been, Indra?" she questioned. "No more falls, I hope?"
She imagined that, much like she'd gone off on a quest without anyone's knowledge, Indra must have fallen into a routine with his own life in which interesting things of his own must have happened since she saw him last. With as little as she got to touch base with people, she didn't want to monopolize all of the storytelling. "No... no falls. I've actually been taking fairly good care of myself. There was this... but we can talk about that inside." He waved her along, giving no immediate indication of what further "inside" there was until it came into veiw. In the living room, atop a curio cabinet, sat an over turned colander beside a small bamboo fountain which poured water continously from one cup into the other. Once full the second cup overturned with a gentle 'tap' and spilled its contents onto the stone bed below. Indra landed beside the fountain and jogged up to the silver dome, pulling open a portal that had been ingenously cut from the metal and then riveted back in place on one side to create a swinging door.
"Wait here... I just have to clean up a little." He darted in before she could protest, but was back again just as quick, giving cause to wonder exactly was mess could have been such an eyesore and yet so easy to remedy. "Welcome Welcome then, to my humble seive." Berra was silent a moment in intrigue as she watched Indra vanish inside of the colander. Somehow she seemed more so interested in the structure of the small door than she did in the fact that her gray scaled friend lived in such an odd choice of housing. She scarcely had enough time to turn to admire the fountain before he was back again and she smiled broadly as he invited her in.
"How nice to have your own home like this." She remarked cheerfully, peering inside of the sieved before entering, making a brief estimation of whether the stabby fork could accompany her inside or whether it would have to wait outdoors. Deciding it would fit with little difficulty, she entered with it. "Miss Karma says she gave up setting up individual rooms after Daddy and Globin didn't use theirs."
She found herself enchanted with the way the light filtered in through the colander's many draining holes, giving just enough light to see things without squinting. "It's quite a comfort actually, having my own space. The outside has so much new information to offer at every turn. Constant movement. Constant input. Here I just have simple, familiar things, most of which I can push out of my mind at ease." And simplicity was a fair way of putting it. His trappings were few and far between. There was a simple bed, cut from small cracker box that had been painted over for aesthetics and given a fabric curtain, and some curious furniture that at second glance was revealed to be heavily modified sake set. To the north (because as a dome there were no corners to be found) sat a stack of containers. Chests, cups, and vials, all rigidly organized and strangely empty. The array looked more like an artist's installation than anything of real use. Beside it sat the green and red box that Berra had sent him before her quest, still tied tight and free of dust or wear. The only unrecognizable thing was a black lump, only a scant head shorter than Indra himself, standing near his cracker box posterbed.
"You can place er... Mister Trident where ever you like. Or it can sit with us at the table. Whichever" He was trying to best to decide exactly how to interact with weapon. He couldn't tell if it was personality or instinct that caused it to act as it did, but both were qualities of a living thing... and he wasn't about to be the target of a grudge from an object that could make an appetizer out of him. Berra, deciding that having the trident where she could keep an eye on it was good enough and not wanting it to become a detraction from their conversation, leaned it gently up against the colander's domed side near the door. The little earth feien watched it for a moment, as though ensuring it didn't plan on suddenly getting angry, but it remained where she'd placed it, quiet and...well...inanimate.
Satisfied that it wasn't going to cause any trouble, she ventured away from it and allowed her yellow eyes to wander about the various furniture and adornings of Indra's home. When her eyes fell on the red and green pixa box that, weeks ago, she'd had delivered to him, she felt a small surge of happiness, glad that he'd liked it. She'd not heard from anyone she'd sent boxes out to and worried that they may not have appreciated her assumption they would like a pixa.
The other items and arrangements made Karma's guest room seem a bit inadequate in comparison. It was comfortable, yes, but it didn't really have specially-tailored furniture for solely the feien who dwelled there. But then, that had never been a problem for her in the past so it was not something she was about to make an issue of. Miss Karma had plenty enough to worry about.
"It -is- a little like the outside world is filtered in here." she nodded in accordance with his earlier explanation of coming here to escape things. "But then, that's what a colander's for, right?" She stood where she was, waiting for Indra to make further invitations as she didn't feel at liberty to simply assume it was okay to sit someplace he may not want her to. Indra took his seat on a couch, or rather one of the cushion lined sake bottle halves, and stretched the rest of the cold from his limbs. He took note of Berra as she took note of him through his dwelling, wondering what she thought of it all. He wished it were the case that he didn't care what the other feien thought of him, but as a touch of nervousness pinched at his spine he knew the truth of it. He cared for Berra's, or for that matter anybody's, approval of his situation more than his own satisfaction. The small paper lantern fixed to the highest point in the dome swayed lightly with the weight of Wasabineko's footsteps across the hall.
"So. Is it strange being back, now that you have spent so much time amongst the dirt and wild?" He closed his eyes, trying to picture what the realm of her adventure had been like but knowing that he was falling short. "Or is one place just the same as the next?" "Its a little strange, yes." she nodded, venturing across the floor to where Indra had seated himself and moving to sit in an unoccupied sake cup. "But I can't say I didn't enjoy myself. I really don't think Globin would agree with me, but there's just something so...free, I guess, about being out in the open woods and mountains where nobody's childproofing anything for you."
She paused, recalling the storm that had befallen the valley when they had been close to finding the hill where she'd dug for the trident. It occurred to her again that she very well could have died that day if Globin hadn't been there and that she really owed him very much. "There were parts of it that I wouldn't ever want to relive, though..." she allowed. "Its nice to know I -can- handle myself on my own for the mostpart, but I don't think I'm ever going to be someone who can get by completely by their lonesome."
She shrugged a little "But I suppose there's nothing wrong with that. I just don't want to be dependant, that's all." He nodded, smiling. "I doubt being totally independent is really all that liberating. I would think that it would get... lonely." He tilted his head back, glancing again at the swinging lantern. "And even in the darkest wilderness... the deepest cave... our human bonds are still what give us strength to exist." He tapped his head forward again, catching himself before he went off on a tangent that would no doubt bore his company. "So yes. Better to be around those who can give us strength where we are weak... and can let us do the same for them when needed. But I don't think that's privledge that we children get to enjoy... my bond... your parents. I think they need to see us catered to just as much as we need to be our own keepers."
There was a light tap on the colander as Wasabineko arrived with the drinks. Indra took to his feet swiftly with a muffled "'scuse me." There were a few plesantries exchanged between bond and charge, a thank you and Indra was back inside with another makeshift accessory, this time a sawed of bit of bottomed tube serving as a pitcher. He placed it on the table and moved to his container collection where he took a curiously long time to select his cups. First his hand went for the green one... then stayed. His finger pressed against his lips in thought, then his hand went for a purple one, only to stop short a second time. After long internal debate the white and red cup now sat at his feet... but the process was not yet over. Now with the cups selected there remained the task of rearranging the remaining cups. All in all it took a fair minute longer than was neccesary to complete the simple task, not that Indra showed any notice of it. He returned to the table and poured some of the hot chocolate into the cups, offering the red one to Berra and then excusing himself once more. Berra accepted her cup and nodded her thanks, having watched the odd ritual of Indra rearranging the remaining ones. It seemed that Indra was very particular about organization, especially when it came to sizes and colors.
She was starting to be grateful that he'd not stayed long enough on his first visit to see the guest room, as he surely would have found it a nightmare of clutter. Not that she or Talon were messy by nature, but neither of them were very particular about organization. If it was out of the way and neat, it was good enough.
As he excused himself, she blinked and then looked into the depths of her cup. Hot chocolate was something she'd never had before and the warmth the cup exuded made her feel a bit uneasy. Tilting it up to her lips a bit to taste it, she recoiled before it could touch her mouth, the curls of steam making her feel dizzy as she set it down. It smelled heavenly, but until it cooled a bit it wasn't something she would be able to drink. She hoped Indra would understand. "Now of course I have no idea how you are going to carry it home, but here it is." Indra returned, carrying over his shoulder a hooked, red and white striped stick as if it were a spear. "It's called a candy cane. They actually come a lot bigger than this... but even this size is enough to last me all winter... and apparently that's the only time you are supposed to eat them." He stood it up on its end and held it steady. While only a miniature treat to the human senses, the candy cane had a good centimeter on the both and was thicker by far than the arms that held it. "But red, white, and-" he caught himself again from certain embarrassment "-Just like you!" Kookaberra immediately hopped up from where she was sitting, careful not to upset her hot chocolate in the process and approached Indra, looking up in some slight degree of awe at the candy cane. She was used to candy being given to her in small alottments when Karma would allow her to have it. A single skittle here and there, or maybe a chocolate chip. This was....huge.
"Thank you, Indra, but are you sure its okay?" she asked, looking a little daunted by the cane. It was a little funny considering the strange weapon that had been in her company for the past couple of days that hardly bothered her at all. "I mean....its a lot of candy." She found it hard to believe Miss Wasa would simply let something so large freely leave the house with a visitor. He was right, though, it WAS just like her colors. Up until then she'd had nothing to compare her red-and-whiteness to except for strawberry shortcake. "Well, my bond has dozens of them." He tilted it on its side and slid it onto the table. "Tells me she's been trying to give them away at this point or she ends up with half of them lying in a dish until next Christmas... which isn't to say that it wouldn't be okay if she only had a few. I want you to have it." Searching around the room he located a small sliver of porcelin left over from her tinkerings with the sake set. It was a primative tool, but a tool none the less. With shank in hand he chipped off a chunk of the cane and handed it to Kookaberra. "It's mint-like. That's why it goes so well with the Chocolate."
He nabbed up his cup and took a hearty gulp, downing half of the steamy beverage in a single gulp and looking immensely invigorated by the end of it. The creases in his wings softened a bit as he gave a relaxed sigh and sank into the couch, appearing, for a moment, in a state of utter bliss. She was unable to keep from smiling as she watched him and the fact it didn't take much to keep him happy. Indra was, possibly, Globin's polar opposite...the nerve-addled blood feien needed constant reassurance things would be fine and that the world was NOT going to topple down around his ears whereas Indra seemed to simply accept the fact that things were as they were and that he was able to accommodate and make himself comfortable in them.
Examining the candy in her hands she lifted it to her mouth and attempted to bite it, finding it hard to chew. However, the taste was pungent and immediate as the mint overpowered her tongue and seemed to fill her mouth with a phantom sensation of coldness. Her eyes widened briefly and then relaxed. Whatever this 'mint' was, she found she liked it very much.
Moving to sit again, she checked her cup to see if the cocoa had cooled itself any. Finding it still rather warm, she let it sit for a bit longer. "Has it been snowing here long?" she questioned, trying to get conversation going again. "I didn't see much of it up in Canada except on the mountains and we stayed mostly in the woods." He refreshed his mug and took his own chip of cane, enjoying their little make shift coffee house. "Not too long at all. It was sleet and rain for awhile, which I didn't mind. It was cold still, true, but the air was moist and tangible. Not this dry, chilling crisp we have now. When the air is wet I feel like I can float with ease on the currents, but dry it's like I'm struggling for a hold on nothing." He took another sip, much slower this time. "I'm glad the sun has chosen to hide awhile. I think it shines too brightly in the day without a cloud to hide behind. I'll welcome it back in time... just like how I was starting to miss the color in the streets today when before the grim and gray had been a delight."
He paused again, dropping the cane into his cup and letting it sit, leeching out red dye into the muddy liquid. "So tell me more of Cahnida. It sounds marvelously unsettling. Did you find feien, ones who without bonds? Or was it only fanged creatures and cold winds to be seen and felt?" Berra shook her head. "No, no feien from what I could see. Yanvir said he used to live there, though." She watched him place his portion of the candy cane into his cup and, after a bit of debate, she did the same, watching the hot liquid begin to dissolve it lazily.
"Its very big there....and there -are- all sorts of fanged creatures. The ones we were the most worried about were the hawks and owls, but we didn't end up getting directly faced by either. We saw them, but they didn't see us." she was quiet for a moment, reflecting on her trip. "I almost got eaten by a fox, though...and we got caught up in a storm toward the end of it that would have smashed me against a tree if Globin hadn't saved me." Her voice faltered a little, embarrassed by these two major shortcomings of her supposed 'independancy quest'.
"For the mostpart its more wilderness than it is people." she added, trying to keep going. "Not like here where everybody's packed in all over. There's a lot more room to explore." He appeared impressed on all fronts, from the description of the setting to the harrowing events that had played out for his one friend. "And here you sit with your prize close at hand! I would have to say that Yanvir was lucky to have you volunteer for the job. I'm sure he'd be greatly dissappointed in say... a homebody like me." He gave another lookover of his home and then an apologetic shrug. While the mere mention of Berra's tale gave him excitement, he felt no more drive to leave his home than he had before. The presence of the hot chocolate and a warm seat wasn't helping his nerve any. And there were other things pressing in his life... things that had to come before wanderings and quests."There's nothing wrong with liking where you are, Indra." she assured him, taking up her cup again and testing the warmth in her hands before daring to try and take a drink of the hot chocolate now that it had cooled some. The mixture of chocolate and mint was lovely...she would have to remember to ask Miss Karma if they had any means of making this when she got home.
"I wouldn't have gone myself except that I wanted to prove to daddy that I could handle myself." her eyes wandered to the trident leaning unintrusively against the side of the colander again and she sighed just slightly. "I'm really not sure if I proved that or not...and he's not around for me to ask either. Either way, I don't think I'll be doing anything like it again anytime soon."
"I'm surprised daddy left with Irisa because usually HE isn't very big on going far from home either...especially when he has things he still wants to get done. Before I left, he took his gemstone to Miss Yeande and was talking about merging with it someday, so I don't know what would have led him to just up and take off when he still had that to do."
She spoke of her father's gemstone casually as though it was simply a commonplace thing that he had one. After all, he'd had it since before she was born and, for all she'd known, it had always been with him. Indra's reaction bordered on comical. A slight intake of surprised breath at just precisely the wrong moment sent a shot of mint chocolate back into his cup. He quickly wiped the dribble and spray from his lips with the back of his hand. So... Mr. Faust had a gemstone as well had he? Well that wasn't such a shocking thing he supposed. However he certainly hadn't been expecting the revelation at that specific time as noted by his less than smooth attempt to cover his initial surprise.
"Really? Your father has a gemstone..." He smoothed out his wings, managing to regain a fair amount of his grace with a healthy dose of personal charm. "Those are quite rare, aren't they?" That lingering feeling of being watched returned, but he couldn't be sure of the source. Could have been his own gem, hurridly hidden behind a drape of cloth while Berra waited outside or perhaps the trident disapproving of his continued hoarding of the artifact... or both.... or just him imagining things. Regardless he finished his second cup and crossed his legs, tapping lightly on one knee. Berra nodded in confirmation of Talon, indeed, having a stone. "I really don't know if they're rare or not. Just that he has one and that Miss Yeande used to have one, but she merged with it." she told him, quirking a brow at his reaction and then passing it off as simply him having choked on his hot chocolate. "He says Miss Karma bought it from the shop for him as sort of a peace offering when her daughter hurt his wings really badly before I came out of my bloom."
She, herself, had only seen the stone on rare occasions as he was rather protective of it and only took it out from its hiding place beneath the nightstand when he sat on the windowsill with it to hold it in his lap and think. WHAT he thought about, however, she wasn't sure.
"It used to be an ancient of some sort, that's about all I know. Its round like a marble, light blue, and it has gold streaks in it...its really very pretty, but he doesn't take it out much. He says it isn't respectful to have it out for just anybody to stare at. I don't think he's quite sure what he wants to do with it yet." "I see... and what do you think of it?" he asked in all seriousness. "Do you think it's right?" Already he was finding it very hard not to let every thought that had passed through his mind on the subject of gemstones tumble from his mouth. He had long ago needed the mind of a person who could voice an opinion back. Speaking to the stone all this time... probably not healthy and certainly not a path to a valid argument. He rolled up every nagging thought and stinging truth into a single knot and picked forth a single strand to offer as his question. "Will you wish to be displayed and traded off for some coin when you die?" Berra cocked her head and was silent for a moment, thinking. "....I guess I don't know." she told him, shrugging. "From what I can see, we don't live very long and I don't think a lot of us really want to think much about when we die. I know that I don't."
She realized she was skirting the issue and attempted to answer him straightly. "If my stone was sold off specifically against my wishes to a complete stranger, then no I wouldn't think that was right at all....that would make me and everybody who cared about me very sad. But....when I'm a gem, I really won't be serving a purpose anymore either. I'll just be sitting on a shelf somewhere and dusted once in awhile. If I felt like I could still do something for someone else...give them my strength and powers to use to protect themselves when I don't need them anymore...then I wouldn't mind being sold off, no."
It was strange, trying to think of this. She wasn't even grown yet and to talk about dying felt wrong to her, despite the fact she'd already had several brushes with death on her quest. He watched her carefully as she spoke, measuring every emotion and discomfort that she let show. It seemed he was right to think that it had been wrong for him to dwell on these deaths while still so young to this world. Here Berra was over twice his elder and far more the wiser in the ways of the world and her words were filled with pregnant pauses where usually there were none.
He stood, moving behind the couch and to the velveteen lump. His fingers brushed over the cloth, untrimmed nails zinging across the weave until they dug in and pulled the cloth back, revealing the indigo stone beneath. "You feel it, don't you? You know what it is?" At first she had thought she'd offended him when he'd gotten up, and then when he unveiled the deep purple orb where once a hump of cloth had stood, she was unable to stifle a small gasp. The stone was nearly the same size and shape as the one her father had.
"You have one too..." she said quietly, sounding slightly in awe as she got up and moved to stand beside Indra, getting no closer than he was to the stone at the risk of being disrespectful. Perhaps it was the shaded environment but the deep purple gem seemed to radiate a sort of darkness at its core....it was, in fact, a bit like the foreboding shade that her trident seemed to give off now and then.
Yet it was a darkness that, when combined with its color and luster, was deceivingly beautiful all the same. "I-I found it" he managed to stammer, a little off guard at his own daring in revealing the secret he had been carrying since only a week after his birth. "Just outside the shop... sunk into the mud and grime." He placed his hand on its smooth surface, letting its subtle reflection of light darken his hand in ebony shadows. "Inside... feien were still gawking at the stone on the shelf but then leaving it in darkness once their interest waned."
"I knew it wasn't right... taking it like I did. But if who ever is in charge of such things would leave a soul to rot in the rain then I can't bring myself to trust them to decide who can watch over it." His hand closed into a fist and drifted back to his side. "And I don't want them to decide for me either."
He drew his eyes away from the stone, finding it hard as always, and settled them on Berra. "I understand how you feel... that you want to help people. But I don't want to be an object of desire only after I'm dead. If people want my help, then they can ask me for it now while I still can find some satisfaction in it." Berra listened, ears twitching a bit as Indra explained himself and how he'd acquired the stone. Looking a little troubled at how defensive he seemed to be, she approached him and put a hand on either of his shoulders, looking him squarely in the eyes.
"How I feel isn't how anyone else should feel, and I'm not saying it is." she told him softly. "You have to do what -you- think is right, Indra, and nobody should make you do otherwise. If you want your stone to be your final rest, that's all your decision and I'm sure Miss Wasa will make sure it happens that way for you if you tell her." The hands let go of his shoulders and dropped back to her sides. "And there's nothing wrong with wanting to help people while you're still around...that's how I hope to do most of -my- helping if people will let me. I'd feel like I'd done something very wrong if I was only useful to others after I was dead..."
She bit her lip then and then seemed to visibly try to shake off her mild upset. "....I'm sure whoever that once was..." she looked pointedly at the stone then. "will be much happier knowing that someone cared enough to look after them instead of being forgotten in the middle of nowhere too. You did a good thing, Indra." She hitched up the corners of her mouth in a smile then. "I should hope so." He smiled back at her, folding up the sheet in his arms and tossing it to the side. "Or we'll have words about it some day... either face to face or in our minds combined." He knew it was a righteous of him to still be considering the option of one day merging with the stone when at present he was so against the concept of being the passive component of the process. However if all he knew about feien lore was indeed true, only through merging and further bonding could he ensure that neither he nor the stone faced death again. Never mind the meglomaniacal undertones of his intentions. He certainly had no dark purpose in his mind. He only wished to serve both their needs equally, even if it meant a little sin before the redemption.
"I've never shown anyone before now not even Ms. Wasa. I was afraid that someone might take it away if they knew." He took a step back from the stone, steadily inching back to the couch but not turning away entirely. "But I am glad that I showed you. And I am glad that you understand." He sat again, still speaking to Berra even though she could not been seen. "And your opinions are good. Pure and honest... perhaps if I listen to them more over time I won't be so cold to the idea of sharing my soul with another should I die." Berra moved back to sit with him as well, coming away from the stone willingly. There was a certain something that was unsettling about being near gemstones. At first she had thought it was only her father's gemstone that had that effect, but having gotten the same odd vibe from Indra's she decided it was a trend that was upheld with all of them.
"I won't tell anybody." She assured him. "Nobody has any business taking it away from you when you found it after it had been there for who knows how long. Maybe it -wanted- you to find it." "A disturbing thought but not unfounded." He looked over to the trident that still pulsed with an inexplicable force. "And perhaps if someone did try to take it, it would be uninclined to leave. I shouldn't assume just because the soul is trapped in stone, it can't take care of itself to some extent or make a decision." He chuckled as he reflected over the conversation. "I think I just pinpointed why I was born with a full head of grey hair. I worry too much. You don't have a strand of it!" Berra blinked, and then joined his laughter. "I just try not to worry about things I can't help." she said warmly. "In the end it doesn't make things any better...Globin needs to learn that as well. If it makes you feel any better, he was born with a full head of -white- hair."
"But...if he hadn't been worried something bad would happen, both of us would have been caught completely offguard when bad things -did- happen, so I guess I see his side of it too." she relented. Some people, sadly, had just been settled with the role of being a worrier because no one else seemed to want the job. "Hmmmm." He hummed low in his throat. "Easy come easy go. I'll worry today and be carefree tomorrow, just you watch. There are two faces to this mirror yet." He leaned back in the couch, propping his feet up on the glass table. "Take your time with your drink, then perhaps I could convince Ms. Wasa to play a movie or some such."
He hadn't seen many movies yet, but he had noticed the profound effect they seemed have on people. By merely watching actors play out roles of happiness one could feel it in themselves. It would be an excellent distraction. "Something funny, perhaps. And popcorn as well for a little bit of dinner." Getting ahead of himself again, he tried to think of what might be a kink in his plan. "Does Ms. Karma know where you are, or should my bond give her a call of she hasn't already?" Berra winced a little with guilt at his question and looked to him with a sheepish smile. "No, Miss Karma doesn't know where I am, I'm afraid..." and how could she? Berra hadn't been expecting to run into Indra while she'd been out, after all. "If she could call her, that would be great...I know she gets kind of annoyed when we up and run off on her. Daddy says she almost disowned him when he went away for two weeks without telling her where he was going."
She found her bond to be a reasonable woman, but sometimes her anger got the best of her. In a lot of ways she was like a very diluted version of Talon when it came to making kneejerk decisions when she felt wronged about something. "Then I'll be right back. Make yourself at home and all those things we say." He stood for the third time and headed for the door, looking over his shoulder as he opened it. "And thanks again." With a bit of a shifty look, and a mercurial smile he reached out his finger in plain sight and attempted to poke the black trident playfully. Berra watched passively as he did so and the trident seemed to have no ill effect in reaction to Indra's touch, remaining in whatever state of dormancy it had been in since she set it down. Smiling a little, she settled back in the sake cup. "You're welcome." she nodded, preparing to wait. And with no further pestering he took his leave, winging into the kitchen to tend to the rest of the evening distractions.
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Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 5:35 am
Indra and Berra Discuss Artifacts and Life Berra's panicked flight had tapered itself off to a troubled retreat. She'd calmed herself enough to be capable of rational thought again a few moments after leaving the house and was now deeply considering whether her quest had been a good idea or not. The trident, she was becoming sure, had been hidden so far away for a reason. Most likely, a good one. Details of what had happened in the guest room were still sketchy to her as it had all seemed to happen so fast, but she was near-positive the weapon had attempted to overtake her.
It wasn't like her to be upset, much less to be resentful or envious of others...the feelings, while they'd felt justified and natural to her at the time, made her feel sick and terrible now. She didn't want to hate Talon, much less her sister...and there was no reason she should...especially over something as petty as a quest.
Coming to a stop, finally, she paused and looked about herself, finding that she was, again, in a place she didn't recognize. Well....more appropriately, yes she DID recognize it, but still didn't know where she was. She'd been here a few days ago, as a matter of fact, when she'd gone out wandering in hopes of finding her father.
This was where Indra had found her, as she recalled.
Indra....maybe he would know what to think of all of this. Her first impulse had been to go to Shalafi, but Shalafi was more a practical thinker and less a deep one. That and attempting to find Shalafi where she currently was didn't seem to be an option as she only knew the way to one place from here.
Biting her lip, hoping that he was home or not otherwise busy, Berra racked her brain for the direction the steam feien had taken her a few days ago and slowly retraced her steps to Wasa's front door.Beyond the door and into the living room Indra reclined, reading Wasa's abandoned notes as his bond tinkered again with the christmas lights that bedecked the bookshelf. Gaugain and Van Gogh... an odd relationship that one and with such an abrupt ending too. He fingered one of his long ears, pulling on it slightly and then letting it flick back to its natural slight droop.
Days later Kookaberra's words still gave him steady assurance. He hadn't gone as far to consult his bond or even show and explain the stone that still sat in his colander, looking harmless and still but with a presence that chilled. Perhaps after this "Christmas" his bond had been putting so much stock in. He could hardly deny her the joy of a worryless holiday season or, at the very least, a season with one less worry.
He stood and stepped to the corner of the note book, dragging a slightly snow dampened sheet over to reveal a new page of hastely scribbled dates, and facts. "You're right, Miss Wasa. I should have gone to class with you if I wanted to keep up. Half these words are useless if I can't see the paintings they are talking about."
"Then read some of my other notes... or for a real treat the text books. You've seen me at class I spend half of it just drawing anyway."
"Hmmm. Suggestions?"
"Would depend of course on what you would like to learn."
Indra thought that over, tapping his index finger on his lips. "What I want to learn is..."Berra flitted up the walkway and paused outside of the front door, her ears twitching as she listened for sounds of activity. Either Indra and Wasa were both keeping docile and quiet, or they simply weren't home. While the cold still didn't bother her, and nor did the prospect of sitting out in it waitingfor their return, she rather didn't want to be by herself at the moment.
Well...that in mind, there was really only one way to find out. Moving to the side, she located the doorbell and heaved one tiny shoulder against it, wincing as the muscles in her arms sang out in a throbbing ache as she flexed them from the trident's earlier attack. She was gratified to hear the muffled chime of the doorbell within the house and flew back front-and-center on the doorstep at what she estimated to be eye level with Miss Wasa to wait.Indra stopped mid sentance and pivoted on the notebook. "What was that?"
Wasabineko blinked at the feien as he stared on perplexed down the hallway. "The doorbell. Haven't you... have we never had company since you were born?"
"Not really. Is that what that bell meant? Someone is here to visit?"
"I can only assume. However it might not be of the 'believing in fairies' sort... so better you stay here until I know who it is. If I say 'just let me hang up the phone' then that is your cue to hide, alright?"
"Okay..." He wasn't sure about the whole hiding thing... not when in the middle of the other wise logical living room there was an overturned colander with a door but he wasn't going to question it.Berra rubbed at her lower arms vigorously, as though she was cold, though she was simply trying to awaken the muscles so they wouldn't cramp. It already was starting to feel like hundreds of tiny pins had been set into her skin.
Hearing what sounded like a voice from inside, she paused in mid-movement and looked hopefully at the door, waiting to see if it would be answered.The door swung open and Wasabineko opened her mouth in exaggerated greeting but stopping silent as she found herself nose to feien. "Berra?"
"Berra?!" Indra's ears pricked high as he dove off the sofa and glided swiftly into the hallway. "Is it really Berra?" he landed on Wasa's hat and crawled hand over hand onto the felt brim until she was in clear. "Hi!"
"Yes, Indra... it is Berra. And you were supposed to wait! You are lucky you heard right. What if it had been... a bear... or-"
"Hullo, Miss Berra!" He exclaimed, speaking straight over Wasabineko. "It's great to see you again so soon!"Relieved greatly to see familiar faces, it was all the little red-and-white feien could do to keep from flinging herself at Indra, Wasa, or perhaps both in sequence. She didn't even seem perturbed at Indra calling her 'Miss'. At the moment, he could have called her 'Zulu -- queen of the dwarf people' and it wouldn't have phased her.
"Hello Indra. Hello Miss Wasa." she said, keeping her voice as steady as she was able. "I hope I'm not interrupting...may I come in?"Indra crawled further forward on the brim until his hair head and hair flipped over the side to peer into Wasa's face. "May she?"
"Of course she can." She stepped to the side slightly, wondering what could have brought the young feien to her door alone for a second time. As much as she wanted to believe it was for Indra's company, she had a feeling there was some other cause.
Indra on the other hand was a flutter in excitement. She had come back! He wasn't as socially akward as he had initially thought. Perhaps he was, indeed, a bit charming as his bond had protested on several occassions. Better than the boost to his ego was of course Berra's company in itself, something that had been sorely missed since she had left the morning after he had found her at a street corner with her trident... which she didn't seem to have today. There. Right there it finally clicked that something might not be right. He pushed off Wasa's cap and drifted to the feien's side, wrapping his hand about her wrist gently and pulling her in from the cold. He smiled, not wanting to be caught in an akward situation should his hunch be false. "I know you like playing in the snow... but we have a freezer for doing that inside."Allowing herself to be pulled, she smiled faintly. "That's okay...it doesn't need to be cold." She hesitated and then bit her lip, looking down and to the side, waiting until they'd left Wasabineko behind them before even attempting to elaborate.
"Sorry for coming over without warning you first." she said, ears drooping a little. "I just..uhm..." Well, this was an awkward situation. How exactly did you explain that you had been attacked by something that wasn't even alive? For the umpteenth time since leaving the guest room, she wondered if she'd simply imagined it all. But then, the vague ache in her arms reminded her that she couldn't have.
"I need to talk to you, Indra....I think there's something very wrong with the stabby fork." She said it grudgingly, not liking to admit she'd made a mistake any more than anyone else...however, the fact she'd inconvenienced and frightened too many people over obtaining it and, in doing so, had possibly brought something very dangerous into the feien community made her feel terrible."Something... wrong?" He looked over his shoulder and saw Wasabineko retreat into the kitchen, no doubt to make a tea or a cider or whatever other ritual she did for company. Nodding for his own reassurance he turned towards the colander and ushered her inside. Something wrong with the artifact? Had she broken it and was afraid to tell the elders? Had it turned on her? He set a blanket out on the couch and gestured for her to sit, a bit of a luff in his wings from the rush of concern. "It's no trouble, coming to me and Miss Wasa. You know you are welcome anytime. I can't think of anything I have done in life so far that would be worth brushing off the debt I owe for the day that I needed your help, so don't let that worry you at all."Perhaps it was the fact that she was gearing herself up to recount what had happened in the guest room....or maybe it was just the way he seemed to shift his gears so suddenly from cordial to concerned, but as she seated herself on his sake bottle couch, she squeezed her eyes closed, a tear rolling out from beneath each lid.
She hesitated a moment and then began speaking. "I think....I did something bad by bringing it back." she began. "It--today when I woke up from trying to nap, it felt like it wanted me to hold it, so I picked it up and I suddenly felt very upset."
Berra left out the details, still ashamed of the angry thoughts she'd had about her father and sister. "And before I could stop it, it just seemed to--seemed to be feeding off of that feeling and used me to fire this big blast and--" she trailed off, wincing. "--Indra, what if someone had been there? What if it -wasn't- just the wall I hit?" In talking about it, it occurred to her for the first time that she very well might have seriously hurt or even killed another feien had they been there. And she'd been carting that trident around like a child with a teddy bear all this time...she'd even brought it into this very colander. What if it had gone off sooner?
She gave a shudder and sniffled.He absorbed each of her words carefully, determined not to fail her by some fault of his own. By the end of it he did not appear shocked, afraid, or angry as might have been expected. Actually he seemed a hair calmer now that the realm of what was "wrong" was now a smaller, more defined one. "I don't pretend to understand magic, and how it works... we can work that through together. But right now," He lifted a finger and flicked a tear away before bringing the blanket over her shoulders and holding them as she had done for him, "are you alright?""I'm getting there." she said, tensing a little and then bringing up a hand to wipe at the other eye. "I didn't mean to...." she trailed off and then shook her head. "It just scared me, that's all." Her yellow eyes, still a bit shellshocked and wide, looked as steadily as they were able back into his glassy grays.
Ordinarily, she would have shrugged off the wing-cramping warmth of the blanket, but the weight around her was comforting, like being hugged by unseen hands. It was ironic how the saying 'You never appreciate what you have until its gone' applied to this situation as she found herself wishing her father was home to offer her the very protection she'd been wanting to worm away from.
Taking a deep cleansing breath and letting it out slowly, she nodded once. "....I'll be okay." she said in a voice that was barely above a whisper.Indra gave a relieved sigh and a smile. "Whew. So that's the most important part and we got through it okay. The rest should be much easier." This was his first soothing... he hoped he was doing okay. He had heard about how these things could go wrong but as much as the prospect of failure daunted him he pressed on. Sitting back on the coffee table he gave Berra a once over and nodded. "Now. Try to make me explode." Berra's look of troubled upset faded into one of confusion as she looked to Indra, blinking cluelessly.
"....what?" she asked, her ears perking a bit from the drooped state they'd been in for the last several minutes.With his smile now a shadow of a smirk he explained himself further. "Well we have to make sure the problem is the trident and not something else, so," he stood up and spread his arms, "I want you to try with all your might to make me explode. Little pieces are preferable. If it doesn't work then we know you are not evil. If it does... well... it was wonderful being your friend and no one will ever want to cross your path the wrong way I imagine."Berra's ears quickly resumed their drooped state at his words. It had never occurred to her that it might not be the trident at all and might, in fact, be her who had caused the destruction. She shook her head briefly but fiercely.
"I could never do that Indra. Not to you, not to anybody." she said quietly. She doubted she was capable of it anyway, but even that small nagging 'what-if' in the back of her head made her cringe at the thought of one of her best friends disintegrating to pieces because of her. Maybe she would try later on something that she couldn't hurt...a rock, perhaps."Okay I was only trying to get a little smile out of you. I know you could never be capable of such at thing." He sat beside her again, looking across the table into matching, empty couch. "I just think it's funny to imagine you Mistress of All You Survey with your trusty fork and everlasting candy cane, smiting all who displease you... which would be no one." Berra, though not in much of a laughing mood, was taken offguard by the mental image and felt a small burst of dry laughter escape her mouth as she, again, wiped at her eyes.
"I appreciate it, Indra, thank you...." for a long moment, there was silence. Looking to him again, she spoke, sounding almost afraid to ask. Most likely because she knew he'd be honest, even if the answer was negative, no matter how positive of a spin he'd try to put on it to keep from offending her.
"Do you think it was wrong of me?" she asked, her fingers fumbling with the hem of the blanket. "I already upset people enough with this quest, but what if the fork is something dangerous? I brought it right back into the middle of things. If it hurts someone, that makes me a bad person."He took a moment before answering, knowing by some instinct that this was the question not to be taken lightly. "I think... that if there is any fault anywhere, it's in the ancient that sent you. But... I'm not convinced that there is any blame to be had." He traced a line of his palm idly as he let his thoughts flow a little more freely. "You wonder 'what if a friend had been standing between me and the wall' but you don't ask 'what if it had been an enemy?' Sometimes... it's not hurting. It's protecting."
"It's a fearsome thing, that trident. It's frightening that such things of power exist... like the humans and their guns and cars. But I feel safe knowing our weapon is in your hands. It... probably just takes some getting used too. Like flying, for example. There are bumps and falls and rough spots... but eventually we get our wings on all right."She listened raptly as he spoke, taking all of it in and allowing her eyes to slip closed. Maybe he was right....she tried to imagine the situation differently -- not as herself unintentionally blasting a friend or loved one, but protecting a friend or loved one from a hostile intruder.
Frankly she wasn't sure if she'd even be able to do that much if it came down to it...it simply wasn't in her nature to be resentful or to hurt others. But...if she ever had to, she supposed that the trident certainly had power enough to aid her in it. Maybe it WAS just a matter of harnessing it and getting used to it.
But--but still! What if she hurt someone while doing that or---
She dismissed that thought for the moment, deciding she'd thought on it all she needed to. It was entirely a possibility, but it hadn't happened. And now that she knew it was capable of happening, that was all the more reason to be careful.
At length, she opened her eyes again, a single tear, and the last from the look of it, clinging to the rim of her eye a moment before falling unheeded. "Thank you." she said quietly, grateful to have some sort of positive outlook to all of this after not being able to find one on her own. "I needed to hear that." And with that, she allowed herself a smile that seemed to be her usual self trying to shine through the clouds settled over her attitude."Then I am glad I could be the one to say it."he leaned back in the couch and let his eyes drift to the stone. There was a lesson to be learned here for them both... he just hoped understood his own before it came to a head. He needed to learn more about this stone. Who it was... how he or she had died... and lastly why it had ended up outside the shop and layered in filth.
But just as Berra had let her worries rest, he refused to let his start an new. His hands folded themsleves neatly in his lap as he gave a sidelong glance to Berra. "So...""So..." she repeated, shifting a little and letting the blanket slip off of her shoulders, no longer cold. She supposed harping on the current problem would do nothing but lead to them going around in circles and that would get tedious in a very short while.
"How's the stone...?" she asked, trying to make conversation as she realized she hadn't come better-equipped and with only one thing weighing heavily on her mind as her hands unconsciously rubbed at her forearms again."Hasn't changed... so doing as well as you last saw it I guess." He puffed a bit of breath, fluffing up the sparse hairs at his brow. "I think sometime soon I'm going to have to gather up the sand and consult an ancient. They might not be much help, but I owe it to that soul to find out what I can before any decisions are made for either of us."At this, Berra's brow knit itself a bit. "Does that mean you're going to talk to Julius or Yanvir about it?" she inquired. Talking to Yanvir no longer seemed like the best idea, considering what had resulted from accepting his guidance in her case....then again, maybe he wasn't the same to everyone. Maybe he just hadn't thought she was worth his time, being a child.
She shifted around in her seat, finding she was at an awkward vantage point to look at the deep purple stone from her angle and moved closer to Indra to see it better from his vantage so she wouldn't put as much of a strain on her neck.He stayed put, letting her draw close as he continued to observe the stone whose features were already part of his permanent memory. "Sometime soon. I think I am still to young to this world to be worth their trouble and I'm not about to ruin a chance at truth by being impatient. I can't wait too long... but I can wait long enough." He softened his gaze, relaxing as if a highpitched signal only he could hear had finally ceased and let him sit at ease. "No hurry...""I don't know much about Julius..." she said quietly. "...Miss Yeande said he's very regal and someone who deserves a lot of respect. She didn't say anything about Yanvir, but he's very...spastic, I guess. Its very hard to get a straight answer out of him." Her eyes peered into the depths of the purple stone.
"But talking to either is something you should put consideration into....maybe you'd get better results than I did if you actually went with questions in mind. I just sort of dropped what I was doing and ran off assuming they'd have time to talk to me..." She couldn't help but wonder how things might have been different if she'd seen Julius that night instead."I've had a lot of time to think of questions... and I have more still. But I don't think I will ever really be ready. Even if I suceed in getting an answer I might not like what they have to say." He shook out his hair, clearing his head and actually enjoying the slight fanning that his shoulders recieved. "But I thank you for your advice. I feel far more prepared now than I did before."
He leaned back again, stretching his legs out before him before letting them plop back to the glass floor. "For being only children... you and I seem to have a lot to think and fret over." He turned his face to hers. "If anyone is going to remind us to be be carefree and enjoy this while it lasts... I think it's going to have to be ourselves."Berra smirked a little and patted one of the steam feien's shoulders "Seems that way." she nodded. "Even though it seems they expect us to know everything even when we're kids...and I've seen a lot of grown-ups who act like children, for that matter. Its like growing up is optional or something." she sighed, inwardly comparing her mother to her father.
Talon took everything too seriously and Tahki didn't take anything seriously at all unless it was directly threatening her. She wondered if you could really base a serious loving relationship on that.Indra, strangely enough or perhaps not, had no parents to compare. What he knew of adults he new widely by reputation. Sure he had met a few, but must of what he knew game second and third hand from his bond and her connections. And though he loved to the hear the stories of how Berra's father emerged from his bloom convinced he was a dragon and other antidotes, the more he heard the more these elders didn't seem like feien at all, let alone fully grown, functioning members of a reconstructed society. Then again, he just as easily could be over analyzing the issue.
He tapped her on the nose in response to her patting and pulled back the now abandoned blanket. It was good... to be relaxed now together and in the seive forgetting if only a moment their respective artifacts.Berra recoiled slightly, crossing her eyes briefly at the tap and then smiled before settling down on the couch beside him, trying to shake off the remnants of earlier. The trident was all the way back home...wherever that was from here, at least....and it wasn't going to be a problem. It would still be there to deal with later when she'd had more time to think about what she was going to do with it.
It was a great comfort to have friends who cared about her that she cared about in turn. She hoped when her father returned that he would be in a compromisable state of mind about letting her have more freedom to visit people. The idea of having to lapse into the same regiments as before made her feel a little sick and she unconsciously cringed a bit closer to Indra.He furrowed his brow, feeling the cold earth feien become more rigid at his side. Though his fist reaction was to ask what was wrong, he reminded himself that Berra had yet to need urging when something truly bothered her. He had made himself clear. He was there to be confided in whenever she needed even if and when she couldn't be the same for him. Without pretense or feint he slipped his arm behind her wings and cupped his hand over her shoulder, cradling her neatly in the space between torso and limb. Berra blinked, surprised by the sudden boldness, but didn't protest. It wasn't quite the same as the protective cocoon of wings Talon held her in whenever he'd felt she was being threatened somehow (whether there was really a threat or not, it seemed), but it was welcome all the same. She didn't really have many people she could go to for comfort...well, verbal comfort, yes, but not physical. When it came down to it, it seemed like that was the purpose mates served and she knew she was still a bit young for that.
"I'm not keeping you from anything, am I?" she asked, scooting a little to prop up against him as long as he was offering the invitation.Indra thought nothing of it, really. He had seen it in paintings in Wasa's history books and occassionally in a movie and now one had ever looked unhappy so it seemed a perfectly acceptable thing to do. So far he felt no adverse affects, so he considered his course of action a rousing success until proven otherwise. "No. I was doing nothing at all really. Just some reading that will be there whenever I get bored."She nodded and settled then, seeming resolved. She didn't want to take him away from anything that might have required his immediate attention as it was rather rude of her to come over unannounced and expect him to deal with her in the straits she showed up in.
The cold from outside slowly depleted from her until she, more or less, assumed a warmer-than-room-temperature feel again and the stinging in her forearms was slowly dulling itself to a distant tingle, thankfully. And her warmth he drew into his own, enjoying for the first time what it was to have the heat of another fuel himself. It was pleasant, unlike any other time he had shared a lingering touch. Wasabineko's hands were thick, jerky, but impossibly gentle, making him feel insubstantial when in their grasp. And then there was the burial... the clammy feel of rotting scales as he 'dealt' with his mistakes. Indeed. This was a good feeling.Sitting up a bit, she let her eyes wander to the top of the sieve, watching the light from outside filter in through the many orderly holes in its surface. Despite her uncertainty about such an odd choice in home the first time she'd visited, being in a more reclusive mindframe today it almost seemed perfect....it really -was- like the real world didn't exist when you were in here.
"Indra?" she asked, trying not to let the silence get to be too cumbersome. "I'm glad you're my friend." It was a simple statement...she was. If she hadn't ever met him, after all, she'd have had nobody to go to today and, when she thought about it, might not have ever found her way home from a few days ago either. He watched the pinlights fade and twinkle as a gust of wind outside shook the tree which had been making patchwork of the light of the sun. Clouds, tree, seive, each obscuring the light further and further... and yet still enough remained to shine upon him and his friend. "Likewise, Berra. Likewise."Nestling into his shoulder a little more, comforted by the other's presense, she closed her eyes, though not to sleep. She thought better when she wasn't distracted by surroundings. Everything was such a jumble right now....and who knew how long until everything settled itself into some semblance of normality? She wasn't particularly worried about getting home either....Miss Karma seemed to have given up being quite so clingy with her feien as they always inevitably ended up leaving anyway and hadn't even noticed Berra was missing last time.
Her arm started to cramp and, hoping Indra wouldn't mind, she did likewise to him that he had done to her, her hand resting on his opposite shoulder.Indra sank down, drawing his legs into the couch and situating himself for an extended stay. He dragged a few pillow closer just incase their loose structure should crumble when one or both inevitable succumbed to the lure of dozing.
Wasabineko stood in the living room, her teacup in hand and the usual container for Indra empty in her palm. She was unsure what to make of the quiet. She was used to the strain needed to hear feien voices, but she was confident that not even a whisper was to be found in this room. It could mean one of two things. The first is that she had only assumed that they had gone to Indra's colander, when in truth the had wandered elsewhere. The second was the they were there and, either conciously or unconciously, were being very very quiet.
Finally, after deciding that none of the above could be considered her business, she left filled the clipped tube with some herbal mint tea and set in on the counter. Warm or cold, it was always a welcome treat.
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Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2004 9:08 pm
HAPPY SECOND SUMMONDAY INDRA ^^
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Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2005 10:42 pm
There was a knock at Wasa and Indra's door but when it was answered there was only a small bundle left in plain view so it would not be stepped on. It was wrapped in a pice of red cloth and tied with string and there was a small note labelling it as a gift for Indra and a short letter written:Quote:
Dear Indra-
Happy Holidays. My name is Valsharess and I was your secret santa. It is not very secret of course but rather interesting. I do not know you very well but I made this gift for you out of the little I could gather about you from others. If it is insufficient or you dislike it, please let me know and I will do my best to make amends. Perhaps we can meet some day? It would be rather interesting to see you in the flesh, so to speak. Farewell.
---Valsharess---
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Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 8:19 pm
Indra sat on the windowsill, watching the hail ricochet and bounce over the pavement outside. It had been quiet in the house over the last month, even though Wasabineko had been home from school. Their afternoons and evenings were spent in quiet reflection over books, art, and the occasional film. As boring as it all sounded, he had actually been quite comfortable and content. There had been no jolts or rough spots in his life as of late, just a smooth ride of day-to-day existence. Somewhat disapproving, Wasabineko had fallen into the habit of calling him "the hobbit." She had even gone so far to fashion him a thin reed pipe out of metal tubing that had been pulled through a drawing plate then flared on the sharply up curved end by a jeweler's hammer. It was a joke, but a functional one in the end.
Gingerly he tore apart another sticky leaf and jammed it in the bowl. Another fine, relaxing afternoon of squeek!
Okay well perhaps he had been over looking that part. Aside from the pipe he had received another small surprise on his summon day, and that was the arrival of Pebble, the mystery of the red and green box that Berra had given him ages before.
Pebble was, as far as Indra understood it, a mouse, but not the common mouse that would serve Indra better as a steed than a pet. He was a pixa mouse, gray and small enough to fit in his own miniscule palm. To this day Wasabineko only smiled and nodded whenever Indra referred to him as his small size and like coloring made him impossible to see against his own gray markings. She was convinced that Pebble was merely an imaginary friend that Indra had dreamed up to counteract the loneliness of the winter months.
Pebble hopped up onto Indra's shoulder and dove into his hair, forming his little nest as he almost always seemed to do at 4:17 in the afternoon provided that it was not a Tuesday or an early dinner time. Indra, used to this by now, merely stood and dipped his pipe through the flame of the burning oil lamp that Wasabineko had left burning on the sill for his benefit. Just another afternoon.
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Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 4:48 am
Pink Pastel Pencil of Doom (... and Exposition) At the time she'd left, Berra didn't care where she was going as long as it was away. The way Talon and Silva had both looked at her...like she was something dangerous....hurt in ways she hadn't thought possible. Dangerous was the last thing she wanted to be to -anyone- let alone her father and someone who had offered to train her.
When the initial shock had worn off, and the following upset that followed had begun to quell itself, she had simply allowed the wind to blow her for a bit, knowing she couldn't go home just yet...it was too soon, something told her.
At length, she had found herself in a spindly aspen bordering one of Gaia's main paths and had seated herself among the branches, curled into her wings and trying to get ahold of herself. She made a rather conspicous sight, however, as winter had robbed the tree of its leaves and a stark white red-tipped cocoon of feien wings was noticeable if someone should look upward.Blending in far more effectively was the mottled-grey Indra, garbed in his winter wear of a soft, polar fleece poncho and braided yarn scarf. Wasabineko still insisted on inventing menial tasks for him to perform while she was mired in classes at the university. He took them on without complaint, knowing that it made her happy to see him occupied rather than sitting about the house with no agenda. In his mind, however, he felt that having time to review her texts was far more beneficial to him than wandering in the snow, freezing his nips off to buy that one carbathello pencil she still needed to finish off her latest assignment.
He sighed, rounding the street corner and drifting up a few feet, not feeling in the mood to dodge cars especially with the equivalent of an obnoxiously pink pastel-lance balanced over his shoulder. Was his peaceful existence as a counter cozy/ book mark really all that bad? Perhaps he was a disappointment to his bond. At his age other feien had already undertaken quests, or, even more frightening, bred. Neither seemed to fit very well in the niche he had carved out for himself. Berra reflected on the last hour or so in her mind, hugging her knees to her chest as she tried to recall what had happened....it had been like the last time, she realized, when she had lost control of her feelings and had blasted a hole in the guest room wall....and also, just like last time, she had fled the scene, afraid and confused.
She felt more justified in her actions this time, however....this time there had been actual danger involved. If she had aimed the blast even slightly more to the left or the right, it might have connected with Talon or Silva. And if it had, and she had been responsible for hurting them in possibly-irrepairible ways....
She choked on another sniffle, not allowing the thought to come into clear focus and force her to face it. WAS there even a role she was meant to play, she wondered vaguely? About the only thing she seemed to have been successful at had been maintaining a small scattering of friendships. Everything else -- being a good daughter, being the sole barer of a dangerous artifact to keep it out of the hands of others, being an apt pupil -- had blown up in her face. His ear twitched just slightly at a noise that didn't quite blend in with the gentle billowing of his own wings and clothes. It was to abrupt to be the rustling of leaves, and first glance did not reveal the presence of a human. But his bond had warned him. When you were still scarce of 3 inches tall, almost anything that could grunt loud enough for him to hear was bound to be large enough to cause him trouble.
Advice and instinct prevailed and without even knowing if there was danger to be faced, he darted to the nearest source of cover, the nearby barren tree. Bracing himself against the trunk he held the blunt pencil as a pike and scanned the area before something caught his eye on the bough below him. He squinted, focusing in on the object. A miniscule figure, and with markings as red as blood on snow? Well there could be no way his eyes were deceiving him.
Now... what could his one friend be doing all the way out here, once again without bond or kin in tow? Perhaps she was coming by for a visit and stopped to take a rest? It was by no means a short jaunt from her own home, and he imagined such a journey would take him several breathers to complete. Well, as much as he would have liked to give her the joy of surprising him, it could be just as fun to thwart her. Such playful twists in life were the things that stories were made of after all.
With a slight smile he drifted stealthily down a few inches, still trying to blend in with the bark incase he had to flit quickly out of sight. Carefully... and oh so gentle, he extended out the pencil and tapped her unsuspecting shoulder just once. The immediate reaction was a jolt as Berra seemed to try and take flight before unfolding herself from her wings, succeeding only in jumbling herself up horribly. and nearly toppling from her perch on the branch. Heart racing, she managed to free herself from the temporary prison her wings had become and whirled to face Indra, yellow eyes wide, rimmed in red and glistening with tears.
At seeing who it was, she relaxed noticeably and tried to fashion a smile for her friend, as though the last moment hadn't happened. Their last meeting, she recalled, had been preluded by similar events...the fork frightening her, making her flee the house, and going to him for solace as he was the only person she could think to go to. She didn't want him to get the wrong impression that comfort was the only reason she sought his company...she hadn't even been -looking- for him this time...
"Hi, Indra." she said, rubbing quickly at her eyes and trying to make herself presentable, much in the way a chipmunk that has just taken a trip into a rain barrel will groom itself and still look pathetically bedraggled. "H-How'd you get here?" Picking up on her current state wasn't difficult. In fact, to be greeted by such tears and the possibility that he might have been their catalyst jabbed painfully at the topside of his belly. Never the less he pressed all nagging guilt and doubt into a tiny bead and swallowed it. In its place he gave the brightest and most soothing smile he could muster (which, after much practice, was becoming quite the well honed reflex.)
"On the street? Simple enough. It's the one I live on." He remained smiling, even as his mind chirped, with what seemed to him a mocking delight, that clearly she hadn't been out to visit him at all. "Now in the tree? That is a little harder to say. I was taking cover because I heard a noise, but now that I am that fairly sure the noise was you I have no reason to hide. You are certainly no predator to flee from."
At this, she bit her lip against another bout of tears as a still-raw nerve was twanged. But there was no way he could have possibly known what had happened to bring her here, so why make things more awkward by dissolving into tears again? As she looked at the grayscale feien, smiling brightly at her, she found that the smile was infectious....or somewhat so, at least, as it made her lips quirk up and a bit of laughter escape her.
"I just....sort of ended up here." she admitted, her fingers coming up to unconsciously fidget and twist at the bottom portion of one of her pigtails. She wondered if she ought to tell him why she had been wandering in the first place....he, being Indra, would understand. Or at least would make his best effort to. "I didn't mean to scare you, I just--" she hesitated, her fingertips still fiddling with her hair. "--I just haven't had the best of mornings, that's all."
"Ah." He said, almost cooing with his soft voice. His voice was always just a touch stronger than one might expect from such a small creature, but still maintained smooth edge all around, making it neither grating nor threatening. It effortlessly carried clean tones like the strikes hand-bells. It could very well be his best feature above all others. "Such things do happen, bad mornings." He eased down, straddling the branch and laying the pencil across his lap. "But I've seen several good afternoons ride in on their wake. Perhaps you'll see one today? I'd certainly be willing to help you find one."
He dropped his chin onto his propped hand, ducking his head down a few millimeters below her and appearing just as innocuous and well meaning as always. Miss Wasabineko wasn't due home for several hours and her damnable pencil would be no worse for wear no matter what request Berra might have for him.
Kookaberra found that she really couldn't tell him no....what would she say, after all? That no, she would rather stay in the tree and sulk for the rest of the day? She didn't want to, in all honesty, but part of her felt like she deserved to for what had transpired back home.
"I think I'd like that, Indra, thank you..." she nodded, sitting up a little straighter. At this point, it didn't really matter anyway, she supposed. Talon, Silva, and the fork were far behind her where she could no longer have access to any of them and cause any further damage today, so what else was there to do except pick up the pieces and salvage what she could?
For seemingly the first time, she noticed the pencil he was carrying and blinked at it, wondering why he had it with him or if, all things considered, it even mattered.
He gave a downward glance at his pencil and flushed at shade to match it. "Yeah. It's pink... Very. Very. Very" He gave a dramatic wince, "pink." He set it back on its flat end and stared up at the garish point. "Guaranteed to scare of anyone with taste... though given how rare that such a thing is perhaps we are not as safe as I thought..." He glanced down the street thoughtfully. "Perhaps there is somewhere else you would prefer to go?"
With all do respect to Kookaberra and her elemental inclinations, he simply was not at the top of his game in the brisk cold. Even now, without the constant expending of energy to keep him warm, his extremities were beginning to feel quite numb. If only it would rain again... that was a cold he could cope with.
"I can't suggest much. There is home... or perhaps the coffee shop up the road. It's a little tricky to enjoy without a bond, but if you are resourceful and quick on your feet you can usually nab a knosh." The pencil dropped back on his shoulder as he simply started ticking off the various shops and eateries that lined the row leading up to the university "Sushi, bakery," he looked up at the pastel yet again with a begrudging look "artstore, books, pet store..."
Berra, again, laughed a bit in spite of herself. The pencil was, indeed, an eye-searing shade of pink and she could only imagine why it was that Indra had been sent out to get it. She moved to stand, her arms pinwheeling a bit for balance on the branch before she caught herself. "Well..." she began, spreading her wings a bit to even herself out. "You said that this was your street, so going back to your home would probably be easiest..."
Putting him out was not something she intended to do...and aside from that, she wasn't sure she was of the right mindset to explore a new shop. Perhaps later when she'd shaken off the remnants of her previously-dismal mood.
Indra stood as well, leaning on his rose-staff. "Very well. It's only a few short blocks that way. Are you well rested enough to manage?" He bent his knees and sprung, vaulting up a few inches until the magic of his wings kicked in. It would be nice to have her company once again. Even know he understood a little more that Wasabineko meant when she insisted he explore, both in the physical manner as well as the metaphorical. He should spend more time trying to discover and map out the lives of his kin. A few minutes alone with Berra enriched his life more than an entire evening of books.
She nodded and, following his example, sprang into the air as well with a flutter of her peppermint wings. "I'll be okay." she assured him. She wasn't tired at all, really...save for emotionally so, but even that was beginning to make somewhat of a turnaround.
It was really too bad Indra didn't live closer...for that matter, it seemed as though none of her friends, save Shalafi, were within direct flying distance. Whether he knew it or not, Indra seemed to know exactly how to steer her mind off of rocky terrain and back onto the beaten path and it was a skill she greatly appreciated.
Looking to him, pink pencil and all, she waited for him to lead the way as, frankly, Miss Wasa's house could be in any direction from here.
"Just this way" he drifted perpendicular to the street until he reached row of rooftops that lined the street. It had been pointed out to him early on that a flash of color near a rain gutter was not nearly as conspicuous as a dash of color suspended above the sidewalk. Once on course he moved at a leisurely pace, far more at ease now that his blood was circulating again.
"So. It's been some time since you and I have seen each other. I've been wanting to visit, but I was afraid that I might be in the way of something important." His words felt around, gingerly trying to assess what might have gone wrong. It probably should have waited until the reached the house, but he didn't want an awkward silence roughening the matter up either.
The silence expanded for a moment after he spoke before Berra seemed to realize that remaining silent wasn't going to present itself as an option to her without being rude.
"No." she said, shaking her head a bit. "Nothing important." She wondered how much she should divulge about what had gone on recently....or even what had brought her out here today. "Daddy is back from Europe, though." she began, deciding that was safe enough ground. "He says that my sister found what she was looking for...and that gemstone I told you he had? I guess he must have merged with it before he left...he looks very different now."
"Really?" He flicked his ear, jolting a loop of hair that had dangled into his vision back into a straight lock. "How do you feel about that?" Though he wanted to let her express her feelings on the subject, he admitted to himself a selfish agenda in asking. The stone in his sieve remained a strong focus in his daily life, one that more and more he was trying to tear himself away from in spite of the difficulty. There had even been a point, though infinitesimal and easily dismissed, that he had regretted bringing it home.
She shrugged slightly. "I don't mind it, as long as he's happy...I wish he'd warned me first, but I kind of wasn't here when it happened." She smiled faintly, still entertaining the idea that the time he must have merged must have been roughly the same time she'd found the fork.
"It gave him a lot of changes. He has new markings, horns, one of his fingers transferred over to the other hand, and he acts....well, he's quieter now." she settled for. It sounded better than 'he acts like he has no soul sometimes'. "But he says it was worth it, even though it hurt, and I'm happy for him."
"Wait, so" he looked at his own slender gray hands "one of the fingers left this hand... and went to the other?" He folded a finger down on one hand and then just started at the other, trying to imagine it with an additional digit. "How..." he caught himself and then chose his descriptor carefully, "...unique." Suddenly he found himself imagining himself dark purple from head to toe with a third arm popping out of his chest and only one leg. He looked a little green.
She nodded in agreement. "Just like that." she confirmed. "And they're green now, from here to here." she reached out, tracing a fingertip from just below Indra's second knuckle up to the tip of his finger. "All of them. I think its the thing he's most worried about people noticing...everything else he doesn't seem to mind."
She looked to him then, cocking her head a bit. "Are you okay, Indra...?" she questioned, noting he'd paled just slightly.
"Oh," He nodded reassuringly, "I'm just fine. I was only... imagining what it must have been like." Even if he had a long while to think about it, as he usually needed to reach any profound conclusion, he still wouldn't be able to fathom it without first experiencing it.... and that was something he now placed at the bottom of his list. Strange appearances aside he wasn't about to do anything that would change the way he thought or felt without first knowing how the scales might tip or outright topple over.
He pointed forward, shaking out his hand from the tingle of the cold and Berra's touch as he did so. "There it is!"
Berra followed the direction of Indra's point, finding themselves overlooking Miss Wasa's house. "Oh..!" she blinked, having never approached the house from this angle before...no wonder she didn't recognize it. "I didn't know we were so closeby."
It was strange, she mused within the private chamber of her mind, that she had followed the same seemingly-random path of wandering twice in a row...albiet, she had been slightly off-course this time, but it was uncanny.
Indra sped up a bit, eager to be out of the cold and safe from the prospect of catching the eye of a perched kite. Conversation was bound to flow easier once their bodies found comfort. It was the inevitable flow of things. His mind drifted back to the last conversation they had, of the notes they touched upon. Would todays be much the same? He had noticed right out that Berra was without her pronged companion once more, and he guessed from her bedraggled state that she hadn't left it behind out of indifference.
Berra followed after him, likewise looking forward to being inside....not so much because the weather was bothering her, but because indoors offered a certain degree of security that the outdoors lacked. It occurred to her, as though briefly touching upon Indra's train of thought, that she really should have safely placed the trident out of Silva and Talon's reach before leaving....though she trusted her father not to purposely involve himself with something that had already demonstrated itself to be dangerous. He'd likely put it somewhere safe...or at least somewhere where it would be out of mind.
....she hoped.
Indra turned a sharp left several feet from the front door, along the side of the house. He landed on a ledge with a small window no more than foot tall. The sliding glass panel was propped open with a square of thick canvas blocking their entry. "It's hardly as welcoming as the foyer, but it beats trying to squeeze through a vent." He ran his hand down the fabric and pressed until he heard the familiar sound of Velcro separating. He held the flap open for Berra to step inside. "Keeps the weather and bugs out. Miss Wasa thought of it.... I just wish there was a better place for it than the bathroom window."
Berra, accepting the invitation, landed on the ledge behind him and nodded in thanks as she passed inside through the flap he was holding open for her. The velcro was not a bad idea at all...she would have to see if she couldn't remember to mention it to Miss Karma and perhaps solve the problem of having to leave the guest room window consistantly open.
"I don't mind." she said over her shoulder, leaving enough space that he could venture in after her. "Its good that she leaves you a way to get in and out when she's not home...Globin told me once Miss Karma went shopping and forgot he was out visiting a friend, and when he came back, he had to wait for an hour until she got back to unlock the door for him."
"Luckily she thought of it before anything like that could happen." He followed after her and then shifted the cloth back into place, fusing the Velcro seams once again. "Just another thing to encourage me to spend a little more time outside of the house. Same with the clothes." He unwrapped his scarf and wound it a few times around the pencil. "Let me just set this inside the 'studio.' The living room and the sieve are just down the hall if you turn a right outside the door. I insist you make yourself at home." He still remembered her red face, lined in tears. "The water in the fountain is fresh if you need a drink or a little splash. I won't be far behind you."
"Okay...." she said, a bit uncertainly. She wasn't really used to casually bumping around in strange places, but if he said it was all right...
She drifted out of the bathroom and, as per Indra's instructions, took a right that carried her down the brief hallway and into the open environment of the living room. From there, locating the sieve was a simple matter of memory. The pigtailed feien nearly headed directly inside and then paused, seeing her reflection in the sieve's metallic surface. Though distorted, she could see plainly that her face was a bit puffy from crying and that her eyes were slightly bloodshot.
Well, that wouldn't do...especially when she was trying to give the impression that she was all right now so that Indra wouldn't worry about her. She moved to the fountain, kneeling on its rim and catching some of the cold water in her cupped palms which she gratefully washed over her face. She wasn't sure if it helped her -look- any better, but it certainly made her -feel- better.
Meanwhile Indra turned a left into the second bedroom (more like second closet) that Wasabineko had converted into a workspace long before his arrival. Entering this room always made him grateful that he could fly, for unlike the rest of the house, which was kept meticulously clean, this room was a constant and treacherous wreck. He assumed that the carpet was the same color as that in the rest of the house, but it could be neon orange with olive green spots for all he could tell.
He made his way over to the desk and dropped the pastel pencil into the round canister with the rest of her collection, scarf still attached so she wouldn't have to ask if he had remembered. It wouldn't have been the first time she had forgotten what he had sent him out to buy. In fact once she had sent him out to buy the same tube of gauche twice, an item that he particularly detested as it required tugging coins in order to leave the exact change. The owner of that shop was probably becoming baffled at how money ended up jammed in various displays.
He scanned the desk surface. Wasabineko looked to be in the middle of another one of her multimedia pieces. There were beads, brightly lengths of ribbon, feathers, and bits of paper just to start. Looking down the hall and knowing Berra was waiting he thought fast, pulling together a few minute clippings of decorative verdant chenille string woven with gold thread and a single brass pony bead. He pursed his lips and found the longest strand and threaded on the bead. In the knot he tied in glass seed bead and the jewel like bits of a peacocks feather. It was nothing fancy, but it might bring a smile to her face. Perfectly innocent as well, seeing as how he had missed every summon day of hers since they had met after all.
Having finished washing her face, and the dried tackiness of tears gone from her cheeks, Berra slipped off of the edge of the fountain and returned to the sieve. It took her only a moment to fumble open the small door and allow herself inside, into the comforting patch of shadow within. There she paused a moment, allowing her eyes to adjust to the darker area before proceeding directly to the sake couch and seating herself to wait for Indra.
From the same place it had been last time, the purple sheen of the gemstone winked faintly at her...almost as though it was watching her. It momentarily made her arms prickle with gooseflesh before she looked away, relocating her eyes to her lap...it was strange. Even though it felt as though it was staring at her, she felt as though it would be rude to stare back.
There was a twitch of movement, though it was hard to tell if it was simply a passing shadow over the sieve playing with the light striking the stone... at least at first. The second rustle was far more definite. Kookaberra was not alone in the colander.
Indra gave the string a testing tug. It should last her at least until she grew, though he imagined that the two of them didn't have much growing to do given their present height. It probably should have bothered him, how miniscule he was, but then again the first feien he had ever met was just his height. He never had a chance to feel out of place or over shadowed.
He pulled off his poncho and tucked the necklace inside, figuring that it could wait for an opportune moment and if none arrived this afternoon than the surprise would not be spoiled. A few passes of his fingers through his flaxen hair and he was ready to go.
Berra's ears perked almost instantly at the noise and her eyes immediately went back to the gemstone, as though it might be the culprit. The orb of indigo, however, remained as stoic and still as it always had. If it WAS the source of the slight commotion, it was being stealthy about it.
And then she heard it again, nearer this time. It hadn't been quite a rustle, moreso a tiny, barely-perceptible, pattering of feet. Without thinking, she drew her legs to her chest, up and off of the floor of the collander, wondering if, perhaps, there was some sort of insect that had wandered in.
Indra was still far off and the pattering had died out all together, leaving only the distant trickle and steady "Tack" of the bamboo striker. Now there was silence. Dark, thick silence. Nothing offered an explanation. Not the sake bottle couch, nor the steadily filling array of containers on Indra's collection.
Suddenly there it was. It was warm with points that chilled. It was furry. And it was On. Her. Neck.
Drawing in a sharp gasp of surprise, Berra's mind instantly filled with images of a great furry spider that was currently tweezing at her flesh with its mandibles, still deciding whether to actually bite or not. Acting moreso on impulse than on reason, she swept at the back of her neck with the side of one hand, dislodging the furry something and sending it flying. She heard it land on the couch beside her and shrank away until she was huddled on the very edge.
She saw the thing right itself and scuttle toward her again, making her crawl further backward....where, unfortunately, she had run out of couch. A small yelp erupted from her lips as she toppled to the floor in a tangle of wings and limbs.
"Berra!" Indra started at the cry and dashed through the hall. Though he could not conceive of any danger she could have met in the quiet house he was spurred by urgency to see her safe. He threw open the door and dropped his cloak, rushing forward to Berra's side. Atop her forehead, the culprit perched and gave Indra an indignant squeak for barging in.
"Pebble!" Indra's brows creased as he scooped up the grain sized mouse from her face. "What in the..." he looked down at Berra and back at the seal pointed Casanova. At first glance it looked like the feien had been mugged, but then again he knew his 'pet' better than that. "I know we never have company but you should have the common sense at least!" He dropped him dismissively on the other couch and knelt beside Berra. "I am so, so sorry. I didn't think for a second that he would introduce himself like this. You aren't hurt are you?" he offered his hands, still fretting. That had certainly gotten him worked up in a hurry.
Berra was rattled, but otherwise okay. Pebble had left a tiny scratch on her forehead unintentionally with one of his toenails, but that seemed to be all and it wasn't even bleeding. "I'm okay." she said, sitting up and trying to shake off the incident. Somehow, knowing for a fact that her attacker had been merely a pixamouse, made her calm immediately.
She looked to Indra, her brow knitting, trying to further pass off her momentary fright as insignificant by shifting the focus to the slightly-disheveled gray feien kneeling at her side. "I didn't mean to scare you, I just....he came out of nowhere. I didn't know what he was in the dark." she forced a small smile. "Are -you- okay?"
Indra placed a hand on her shoulder to keep her steady. "I'm fine. Just a touch excited is all. I think we both just had a scare." He gestured to the mouse still sitting on the couch and eyeing the pair intently. "That is pebble. Thank you, by the way. He's been... an interesting addition to the house. Quite lovable and as you might have noticed a little negligent of personal boundaries."
Pebble twitched his whiskers and peered back and Indra. Uh huh. He could tell where he wasn't welcome. He would come back later when he forgot that Indra had company. The gray mouse popped off the couch and slipped through one of the holes in the colander with one last "Chh!" though his teeth.
"Really. Quite the sweet thing as long as you let him have his way." Indra sighed.
Berra's eyes lit up a bit as she moved to stand again. "He was in the box I sent you, then?" she asked, the forced smile becoming more genuine. "I hope he isn't being too much trouble for you...I know pixas aren't for everybody." It occurred to her she really should have asked before sending it, but at the time, she'd had no idea where to find him. The boxes had been her attempt to let all of her friends know that she was, indeed, still around and thinking of them.
Looking for Pebble and finding him already gone, she relaxed a bit. "Sorry...I don't mean to be wound up this tightly." The mouse incident aside, however, she was in much better condition than she'd been when he'd discovered her in the tree and she raised a hand to smooth back her hair into some semblance of order once more.
"He's been quite a fine companion. I'm grateful. He's just... a tad more socially awkward than myself if that is at all possible. Perhaps he'll drop by again later and introduce himself more formally." He rose to his feet, keeping his arm extended to help her up as well. She was looking no worse for the wear after the ordeal. In fact, it looked like it had been a healthy distraction. Perhaps he owed Pebble his thanks, not his ire.
"Lets try this again." He neatly folded the poncho onto the sake cup chair and took a seat on one of the sake couches, leaving enough room for Berra if she chose to sit there but at the same time not looking particularly expectant of it either. The other couch was just as inviting and viable an option. "You have everything you need? Water? A blanket?"
At this, she stifled a giggle and moved to sit beside him, as he'd sat on the couch she'd been occupying before Pebble and assisted her in relocating to the floor. "I'm okay, Indra. Really." she assured him, making herself comfortable.
"Did you drop off Miss Wasa's pencil?" she inquired, wanting to ensure he'd finished what he'd set out to do and that she hadn't pulled him away from it. She didn't like being an inconvenience to anyone, least of all to one of her best friends.
"The eyesore has been delivered. I hope what ever she does with it was worth the indignity of buying it." He bit the inside of his lip in reprimand. Quite a smooth remark for him to make, given Berra's markings. "Which isn't to say that pink is a bad color... just not one I'm... terribly fond of... Okay!" he backed up a bit, turning a bit in his seat to face Berra with a visible blush that brought him no shame. "Yes. It's in a place she is sure to find it."
Berra likewise bit her lip, though it was to try and keep from bursting into laughter. At length she was unable to help it and dissolved into giggles for a moment at Indra's momentary case of foot-in-mouth. She was not offended in the least at his remarks about pink...from her experience, it didn't seem to be one that many people admitted openly to being fond of unless they were extremely feminine. Karma herself detested it, in fact.
"That's good to know." she said when she'd recovered herself again, clearing her throat as the last of her laughter dried up and fled. Gods, she was a spaz today, she inwardly chided herself.
He let her get her laughter out, smiling patiently, before once again shifting things back to what concerned him. With any luck he wouldn't manage to do it without shattering what comfort he had provided since they crossed pats. In the past he had never had much luck in it. "You know, I never too thought you to be a wandering sort... and I think I might be right." He left the comment wide open, placing the direction of their conversation in her hands. If she wanted to speak about what had happened, then she could do so without feeling like she was heaping him with a burden he had not asked for. If she wanted to speak of other things, all she had to do was keep on giggling.
As he spoke, her ears drooped a bit. If she -had- intended to keep on giggling, the urge to had died with his statement. "No...I'm not." she agreed. Unconsciously, she wrapped her arms around herself, cradling an elbow in each hand. For a moment, it seemed as though she might stop there and await further prodding, but then she spoke again.
"It was the fork again." she explained. "Except this time, I almost hurt someone with it....I didn't mean to, it just happened." She relocated her eyes down to her lap once more, seeming ashamed of herself. "I had someone who was helping me learn to handle it better but..." she squeezed her eyes shut. "....but I don't think I'll be seeing him again after this. I'm surprised he bothered to teach me at all, really..."
He didn't bother to ask who the trident had almost hurt or who had been training her. From his end it didn't really matter who it was or they were. His task was just the same. "Why surprised? I'm sure it would be quiet fulfilling to teach someone like you. You were quite dedicated to that artifact. I am sure your teacher was impressed."
"As for the... accident." His eyes went from the gift box he still kept, the gemstone, and the strainer hole through which Pebble had made his exit. "You say that you didn't mean for it to happen, and I am sure it is true. You could think of it this way if you like. You didn't mean to be," he tripped over the word, knowing it was a strong choice even as he spoke it, "assaulted by Pebble, even if you are the reason he is here. It's just his nature."
Silva and "impressed" didn't seem to fit in the same sentence with one another. If anything, he'd offered to teach her because he found the fork to be interesting, not because he'd seen anything in particular in her that he'd thought was promising. And why would he? He clearly had an advantage of experience and strength, it was silly to think that he would have genuine interest in training a tiny little fluff of a feien. Unless said tiny little fluff of a feien had a dangerous stabby fork attached to her, of course.
"I guess so..." she said quietly. "But if I hadn't been holding it, it wouldn't have tried to hurt daddy...so, in a way, it IS my fault..." Aside from Silva, she was also worried about Talon and her standing with him. It was a gamble, sometimes, as to what her father's reaction to things would be....he had assured her, while trying to get her to drop the fork, that she wasn't in trouble, but that may have been said out of hasty panic. For all she knew, maybe he was vowing, as they spoke, to never have anything to do with her again.
....and if that were the case, it would leave her with very few people indeed who would. It made her wonder if the fork was entirely to blame after all at times.
"I probably does not matter where the blame is exactly." He picked a piece of lint off the couch, not out of boredom but as tick that helped loosen his otherwise knotted trains of thought. "We could trace it back as far as we like, to you, to the ancient who sent you to find it, right to the long dead feien who forged it. But none of that will alter the present truth. The weapon is yours to wield now. Your responsibility." The truth was hardly reassuring, but it lead to another possibility.
"Perhaps... you went about it the wrong way. Perhaps it wasn't you that needed to be trained, but it." The notion was somewhat ridiculous, but when placed in comparison with some of the rather ridiculous things he had come across in this world, it wasn't one to be dismissed for sounding funny.
The hands rubbed at either elbow compulsively and she exhaled a small sigh. "If that's the case, then I don't know what I'm going to do..." she said quietly. "I mean, I can change me if I work at it...I can't really do much to change other people or things."
She raised her eyes to look at Indra again. "Maybe I should just lock it away someplace." she said. "At least until I know what I'm doing with it...maybe when I'm older and I can handle it better. The last thing I want is for people to start to be afraid that it might hurt them, and for that to bleed over into them being afraid I might hurt them too. If that makes sense..."
It did seem, indeed, like some of her bridges were undergoing a slow burn at the moment. There was still time to extinguish the flames, of course, but those flames could always come back. It made her wish things were simple again...like they'd been the first week she'd come out of her bloom and her world hadn't extended beyond the guest room.
It was a bit funny that for as hard as she'd struggled to escape the constant doting and protection, she was finding herself missing exactly that.
"I think you underestimate your ability to change people or things. Besides. Change is too strong a word. To tame, perhaps?" He mulled over her words a few seconds more before continuing. "We decided before that being older doesn't necessarily make us anymore able. It would require something more... and, frankly, if it's going to take more hardship for you to feel comfortable with the trident, I would feel more comfortable if you faced that with the fork at your side."
Kookaberra let this sink in, knowing it made sense, but that didn't make her like it any better. In fact, the thought of picking up the trident again at all anytime soon frightened her. Quite on its own, a mental picture formed in her head....one of the fork emitting the same cluster of black lightning and this time, Indra being its target.
It made her give a noticeable shudder. If, indeed, her options were to be limited to including the trident in her future ventures, she would have to be careful that those ventures involved others as minimally as possible. You really should have given it more thought, shouldn't you? He's right, you know. You brought it back, you deal with it. People being afraid of you and not trusting you is an accessory to that whether you like it or not.
But she didn't want people not to trust her. Looking at Indra now, the way he had, again, dropped everything to be at her side and advise her...she didn't know how she might handle it if those bottomless gray eyes one day looked at her with fear and distrust. Or if his gentle tone began to carry a wary edge to it. She was unaware that, in thinking, she'd begun to unintentionally stare at him.
No matter how many times she came to him with these stories of near misses and fears, Indra could not twist his sights to see her as anything dangerous. Perhaps he was foolish to not hold any concern for his well being, to be deaf to the warnings that she uttered. Any attempt of his mind to try to picture himself in danger at her hand was met with not with denial, but with dismissal. It wasn't so much that he believed himself invincible to the effects of her weapon or her will he just didn't care. He was resigned to believing that should the wrath, be it the weapon's or Berra's, be pointed at him... well then, such was the way of things. Chances are he would be deserving of it at that time if any of his theories about how the trident's magic worked were correct.
He bore the stare with as much grace as anyone could, perhaps even better, and in that silence he picked through the worries that hung in the air and plucked a single one down. He studied it, peering through each facet of his limited wisdom to find the truths that came only slightly slower than those that came easiest. "It's not something you must bear alone."
Her brow furrowed itself a bit at this and her eyes dropped momentarily away from his. She wasn't sure if his statement was merely an observation or if there was more to it, making it a thinly-veiled implication. Much like the artichoke he'd come from, Indra had layers and some were easier to see than others.
But she was sure of one thing in particular....she didn't want to do this alone. Talon had mistaken her escape from beneath his wing to mean that she was now to be given a wide berth and it had made her feel a bit rejected. Coupled with the fact that Globin had erected somewhat of a wall around himself in regard to her after the trek to Canada, and there were times when she felt quite lonesome, hidden with a smile.
Perhaps that had been why she'd been so upset at the prospect of Silva being run off...because he'd been reassurance that there were those who would still seek out her company. But that was a novelty...and it was petty. Her friends didn't need to seek her out to make her feel cared about...not when they would, twice in a row, stop what they were doing to accomodate her and her troubles.
Her eyes met the steam feien's once more with not quite as pinning of a look in them as the time before. She felt her lips part and wasn't sure what was going to come out of them until it did.
"....do you trust me, Indra?" she asked, quite out of nowhere.
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Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 4:50 am
The Thrilling Continuation! It had to have been the first time he hadn't anticipated her response. He had always thought his unconditional trust was plain to see. He was not insulted, however, merely curious. "I've never felt otherwise."
He tilted his head a fraction to the left, peering under the shadows to see better into her citrine eyes. They betrayed nothing of her intentions and worries. He was quite at her mercy at the moment, but he was steady in his conviction. "Never." It gratified her to hear that and comforted something within her...something that needed to hear that she hadn't yet upset him or rattled his faith in her. Which was why it was rather curious what she did next. Perhaps it had been the utter relief and following elation that had controlled her actions, it may have been the part of her she'd long-kept tempered that pined for contact...
Leaning in, taking advantage of the fact he'd tilted his head slightly, she placed a kiss on Indra's mouth. It was not passionate, it was small and curious, much like she herself wasThe gray feien blinked. He knew that a kiss was. He had not been so self-sheltered as to be ignorant of that. However he had never once thought of himself as someone whom another would consider kissing, let alone feel compelled too.
However, that confusion did not stop him from kissing her back.
His kiss was just as minute. Subtle, but still present and sure enough to be neither hesitant or over zealous... just as he was. She lingered a moment more before drawing back again, her hands fidgeting with one another. Why had she done that...? What on -earth- had warranted things to turn from a conversation about whether or not she was qualified in handling the trident to a kiss?
"I'm..." she cleared her throat, waiting to see what his reaction would be. It had felt like he had reciprocated, but she wasn't sure...it might have simply been wishful thinking on her part. "I don't..." she tried again to explain herself, and again words failed.Indra tilted his head again, this time in the other direction, and leaned it against the rim of the bottle couch. His lips, still tingling with the exotic sensation, had bent into a smile. Again caution was being happily discarded even though, from where he stood, the stakes had been significantly raised. A wiser fairy might have wondered what exactly was the motivation behind such an act. Was it instinct? Affection? A Distraction? None of these things passed through his mind save one small regret. He let it end a moment too soon.
Still curled into the couch, almost submissive in his stature, he reached up his hand and placed it on the curve of her cheek. "Should I say I trust you again?" Berra leaned into the touch, reaching up and placing one of her hands over his own on her cheek. Something told her that events really should not have taken a turn in this direction...it wasn't as though she had much experience with these things, though, and Talon and Globin certainly were not examples to follow based simply on the things she'd overheard in spite of herself.
The kiss Silva had placed on her certainly had been out of nowhere, she recalled....maybe the movies and stories were wrong. Maybe things like this -did- just spring on people out of nowhere this way in reality. How very confusing...
At his words, a blush stained her cheeks a moment. Her insecurity was fighting a losing battle with her curiosity...and something else that she couldn't quite place as she smiled, her fingers twining with his.
"You don't have to." she whispered. A beat of a pause and then, before allowing herself to lose what remained of her nerve, leaned in once more to resume their kiss.He didn't have time to beam as Berra closed in once again. It was unexpected but far from unwelcome, this turn of events, even if he was unsure of its meaning in the grander scheme of things. He was resolved not to worry about it, for when Kookaberra had laced her fingers with his, she had looked more at ease and more content than he had seen her since before the trident, before her father's trip... since the day they had first met.
He had no role model. No precedent or story to guide his actions. Every movement was his feelings alone translated into action. It was not an attempt to fulfill some standard of virility, take something for his own, or jockey himself into a position for something more.
It was as pure and virgin as an earnest kiss could ever be. As silence fell in the sieve, Berra found that her mind was not as easily quieted as their voices and she wondered if this was really all right. She supposed that it was...she trusted Indra would have said something if it weren't....or at least not have encouraged a second try.
Slowly, surely, the voice of negativity became lesser until it was an inaudible buzz just beyond her range of register. It was fine, she assured herself....neither of them were hurting anyone, much less each other.
As a strand of Indra's silver-gray hair fell forward, brushing the bridge of her nose, she reached up, absently tucking it behind one of his large ears and out of the way.He shivered slightly as her fingers brushed over the shell of his ear. It was not unpleasant. He wasn't quite sure what the feeling was. It was gone and past before he could dwell on it and the more pressing matter of the kiss took precedence over his thoughts. He pulled back slightly for a short breath and repeat that pleasant sensation of first contact, tapering off into a series of soft, tender pecks before retreating all together, wetting his lips and sighing contently. As he withdrew, Berra's eyes opened once more, a pleasant haze lingering on and around her...seeming to halo the both of them in an odd, warm glow of some sort. The hand, which had lingered on the side of his head after tucking back his hair, slipped down to rest simply on his shoulder.
While this hadn't been an expected method to taking her mind off of the sadness and upset she'd carried with her from home that morning, it had been an effective one.
"Thank you..." she moreso mouthed the words than spoke them, her eyes steadily on his, seeming almost to glow in the colander's dim light and crinkled slightly at the bottoms with the small smile on her mouth.He nodded in response, his own shimmer of euphoria faint like the aura of the moon. He was more than happy to serve her in whatever aspect he could provide... though he could hardly picture this or any of their meetings as a task to be performed.
Straightening just enough to be level with her he slid closer until their limbs and wings shifted and twined to be comfortable. Once settled, their bodies sat side by side. He remembered the last conversation they held over this topic. It had ended in this same position, and it had felt right. If possible, it felt even more so this time around. As he situated them, Berra willingly nestled in beside him. She, too, remembered that they had ended their last visit curled up in much the same fashion, and much like last time, she offered no objection to it. It occurred to her then that he made her happy on a level that others didn't. And it was, perhaps, for this reason that her aimless wandering today had not been quite so aimless after all.
Nestling her head into the crook between his shoulder and neck, she vented a faint sigh, not knowing quite what to say, or if there was anything that -could- be said at the moment.
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Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 10:48 pm
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 5:15 am
Indra leaned back on the windowsill, his pipe in hand and Pebble close by like on any afternoon. The news had finally filtered down to him. Karma, and thus her charge Kookaberra, had left the area. If ever they returned, it would be more days ahead in his life than he had behind. It placed his life in rather sharp focus. The only thing he had ever worked for was gone, and thus it could be said that he had done nothing. 4 months of his life now past and nothing to show for it but a hell of a lot of book knowledge (thanks to Wasabineko's text book collection,) some progress in understanding the basics of his magic, and a socially maligned habit.
It was change, and it was quite an interesting thing. Up until the moment he heard that his only companion might have disappeared from his life for good back to the day an indigo gemstone rolled into his life things had been rather sedentary. Yes, there had been growth; growth of knowledge and growth of relationships. But both of these had been the predictable results of a constant effort. The two events had been completely random variables. Perhaps because the entrance of the gemstone happened so early on in his life, before he had settled into any pattern, he did not appreciate the effect it made on him. Now that he had a point of comparison he understood.
Another hit, a holding of breath, and a steady exhale. Change. He smiled to himself. It wasn't so bad as the stories warned. He was actually quite lukewarm to it. It didn't inspire fear, but it wasn't something he particularly wanted to embrace either. Let it flow through his life, take him where it chose be it swift rapid or stagnant pool. He could bear it. And while it was doing as it willed, he had some matters that had to be attended to.
Wasa was a fine bond, and their conversations and outing were interesting. But he couldn't expect her to bear the burden of being his only social outlet, nor could he expect the same of a soul encased in stone though he held them in equal esteem. It was high time he took the business of being a friend to his kind in his own hands. He needed to see new faces, find new hobbies, and nurture his talents through the talents of others. Wasabineko had been kind enough to remind him how to make his way to the feien shop as well as share some information leading to people he might be interesting in talking to. On top of that list were the ancients.
Was he ready to talk to the ancients? He hardly thought so. What had he done other than take up space on Wasabineko's counter that would garner anymore than a dismissive glance from feien as accomplished as they? Then again, in their world it seemed that a meeting with the ancients was the only way to have the chance to do something that they would consider worthy of note. Of course, who was to say that they were interested in such things? Perhaps, without any concern for what he had done in life, they would be willing to help him.
His eyes flitted towards his steel colander and the gemstone inside. Wasabineko had checked the roster for him and all feien souls that had bonded with humans and passed were accounted for. It actually hadn't occurred to him to ask for Wasabineko's help. The entire incident had been rather awkward. It began with an innocent accident. Wasabineko had tried to refill the table fountain and misjudged, sending a cascade of water over the countertop and as a consequent, into his colander. The cardboard bed was ruined, his meticulous collection upturned, and his secret possession revealed. It took some smoothing over, but in the end she had been understanding of why he had kept it secret. In hindsight, it was about the best bit of on the spot bullshitting he had ever done or could ever hope to do again.
The point was, now he was even more in the dark about the origins of his disembodied roommate. If there had been no new for years before the summoner Corvus, and all births and deaths since his creation were on record, the logical conclusion was that the stone was the remains of an ancient. Therefore, the most obvious chance he had at discovering the identity of the stone would be to talk to someone who might have known the ancient while he or she was still alive... another ancient.
Little steps. First. Try talking to someone his age, his status. Then he could worry about passing that threshold. Rising to his feet, he snuffed his pipe and stretched. There was only one thing would be certain from this point on.
Things were going to change.
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