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 Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2022 11:54 am
Today she had a day off. Elka couldn't remember the last time she had a full day to herself. The inn had been busy lately, lots of travelers coming in for a bed or at least a meal before continuing on. Against her protests, she'd had to work long hours, almost all day, trying to snatch bits of food while on the go to keep her fueled. Everyone was stressed out and annoyed with each other. So when it had finally calmed down and she was allowed a rest, the Ice girl had left to wander the city. If she stayed, she might have been roped into doing more work. When you lived at your job, it was difficult to escape the responsibilities of it. Which didn't seem quite as taxing as they had been when she first started. She didn't want to admit it, but she was starting to get used to the work.
Walking down the market street, close to the entrance that led out into the rainforest, Elka rubbed at her temples. She was fated to be here forever, wasn't she?
1/10
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2022 5:50 pm
It had been a good while since the company had stopped at Neued. Years, perhaps. Kayde lost track of time a lot. Time hadn't mattered much to him ever since he'd left the orphanage in Oda. There was only the daily grind of practice and performing, the struggle to keep his act evolving. With no aspirations for the future than this, he expected to be with the group for perhaps the rest of his life. Really, what else was he going to do?
And he didn't mind. Not really. He couldn't imagine himself settling down in one spot for very long. He thought he'd grow bored of it quickly, pack his things, and go back on the road. Make money by doing tricks by the side of the road. See the world. Have adventures. Live the kind of life every little boy ever dreamed about.
And who knew. Maybe he'd get scouted, make it big someday. Travel all over, putting on shows for people who would come from miles around to see him. Maybe he'd like fame. And if he didn't, he'd just run away. Live as a hermit out in the woods. Or find himself a personal island to live on. He could do it. Life wasn't so hard.
For now, Kayde was a nameless young man wandering the streets while Murie's Feats and Wonders was being set up outside the city. Another day and they would be open. His work was done, so he thought he'd scout out the city. See if he found anyone he recognized.
Which, it so happened...He did. Kayde stopped in the middle of the street, hands in his pockets, staring at the back of an Ice woman's head in a shade of blue he remembered well. With skin he remembered well. In a dress he remembered well. But that was the thing with all the tribes, right? Even if this was the last place he had seen her, it couldn't really be her. Everyone of the Ice tribe looked similar. Just like everyone of his own looked similar. This was just some lady who had bought the same dress and wore her hair in the same style.
Until she turned around. And locked eyes on him, too. A look of recognition met him from across the street. Oh, boy.
1/10
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2022 3:29 pm
When Elka locked eyes with the one person she had never thought to see ever again, she wasn't sure what to feel. Anger, yes. But beneath that were other feelings. A longing left over when she had been abandoned. A fleeting feeling of homesickness that she stomped back down, to no avail. As silly as it was, she was happy to see him standing there, looking at her as he used to. She didn't think it possible after so much time that the old feelings would still be there, just locked away behind a heavily padlocked door that he had unknowingly burst through with his mere presence.
As she approached him, barely registering the people around her, this was not the feeling she channeled. Quite the opposite. His expression looked worried as she approached. And rightfully so. For she did as most scorned women would do.
She punched him in the stomach. Quite undignified, but what did she care at this moment.
2/10
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2022 3:46 pm
Kayde wasn't sure what he expected when Elka started to approach him. He knew from experience that to turn and run would only make matters worse. She knew he'd be stuck here until the trope left, which could be days. Weeks. Maybe even a month or two, depending on business. Which tended to be fairly good around big cities like this. So instead of trying to escape and risking a worst punishment, he stood his ground. Once she had dispensed with her anger, maybe she'd be in the mood to talk. To learn the truth that he had had nothing to do with leaving her here and had been just as angry with them when he learned of it.
What he didn't expect was for her to punch him in the gut. She easily knocked the wind out of him, making him double over with his arms over his stomach. He grunted, and a few passersby tried to help him, but he waved them off, saying he had matters under his control. Despite how it might look.
"Wonderful to see you, too, Elk," he said through his teeth once he could say anything. Big mistake, to use his name for her. She hit him in the head this time.
2/10
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2022 4:10 pm
"Do you think you have any right to call me that?!" the Ice girl yelled at him in anger, not caring at the looks she received from those passing them by. Anyone who dared to touch her now would suffer the same wraith she was giving this lying sack of a Leaf male. Damned be the consequences if she had to turn on someone else.
Was this some sort of a joke to him? Waltz in here after so long and just pick up where they left off? No sir, he had one hell of a price to pay if he thought he'd ever get back in her good graces.
"You do not! How could you all leave me?" Tears were starting to run down her face, now, and she hung her head, trying to in vain to use the strands that always fell around her face to hide.
3/10
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2022 6:16 pm
"Ow!" Kayde gasped out as he felt the impact of her hand to his head. Thankfully not her fist this time, but the palm of her hand struck the side of his head. He was still bent over his stomach and almost lost his balance, regaining it with one arm outstretched for balance. He glanced up at her, at her eyes burning red in anger and the tears on her cheeks. He would have loved to comfort her, to hold her head against his chest as he used to do when she'd get upset. But he knew that would just set off more of her fists. Instead, he straightened, his head now topping hers, though not by much.
"I get it. I'm sorry. Can we at least take this somewhere else? These aren't the kinds of staring eyes I like."
3/10
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2022 6:57 pm
Elka made a show of thinking about it, pursing her lips as she thought about it. Pretended to think about it. As soon as he'd mentioning staring eyes, her brain had snapped back to reality. Without looking around her, with her eyes still on Kayde, she could see out of the corners and around his head that people were staring at them. Now, being stared at was never something she despised. Quite the contrary. But there was a look in their eyes that she didn't much trust. She expected someone soon to intervene or run to find some authority figure to deal with this domestic situation out in the middle of the market street.
Finally, with her hands on her hips, the Ice girl nodded slowly. "Fine. Come with me." And with one last glare in his direction, she turned and walked down a familiar alleyway, making sure no one followed them. Of course no one did. Kayde wasn't the one being the aggressor.
She went only a little ways in, enough to have some privacy behind some crates and boxes next to a store's backdoor. The noise in the street was still easily heard. Not that she was that worried. Kayde was hardly more dangerous than a baby.
With hands back on hips, Elka faced him, her eyes still glaring daggers. "You have my attention. What is it?"
4/10
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2022 7:47 pm
Without questioning a single time where she was going, Kayde followed silently behind, his eyes on the bun on the back of her head. She always did favor up-does, preferring to have her hair out of her face, but also not wanting to cut it short. Long hair was dignified and elegant on a woman, she said. Sometimes also on a man. She'd tried to convince him to grow his own out. He'd always refused. Messing with his look was never his thing. He cared enough to brush it and left it be for the rest of the day.
When she finally stopped and faced him, that fury still in her golden yellow eyes, he put his hands out in front of him, palms up. "Alright. Listen. I had nothing to do with it." The tears had stopped. Her wet cheeks glinted in the sunlight, making him feel worse for this whole situation. "I was as much in the dark as you were."
4/10
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Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 5:17 pm
She was calm. Really, she was. She only wanted to hit him upside the head a few times as opposed to the dozens she had wanted to before.
Elka gave a sniff. Not out of haughtiness but an attempt to keep her emotions more under control. She didn't want to spend most of this time crying and looking weak. She wanted him to see she was the better person here. Because she was. And she'd show them all one day when she finally made it big as a dancer. They'd be sorry they abandoned her than. Maybe they'd all beg for forgiveness, for a chance to be known by a star.
"You still left me. Not even you came back for me." Despite her conviction, her voice trembled a bit. Years meant nothing to the vivid memory of discovering she had been left in a strange city in a strange country so far from everything she had known. They could have at least had the decency to drop her back off in Zena. She hated the rainforest.
5/10
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Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2022 3:48 pm
"I didn't know," Kayde continued to plead with her, his hands still held out palm up. He understood fully that it sounded like a farce, coming from his lips now, so many years later. Where had he been, indeed? Still traveling around Tendaji with the same trope that had left her and was also now camped just outside the city, setting up for performances. As if they hadn't left a young girl all by herself the last time they had been here. Perhaps they had hoped she would have moved on by now. Or maybe something worse. He hadn't thought about it much since that first month of shock. Not until he was now staring at her distraught face.
What a selfish a*****e he was. He should have packed his things and walked all the way back to find her. But he had been afraid. Elka had been given instructions of somewhere she could stay and work. He had not. There was no one in the city that he knew who could lodge him. The thought of being alone in the streets or in the rainforest, with nothing but his one bag for survival, was terrifying. He could live simply. That was no problem. But he didn't know a single thing about survival in the wild or on the streets. And so he had stayed with the trope and left her behind.
He wasn't sure what else he could say and so he remained quiet.
5/10
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Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2022 4:21 pm
Despite his silence and her anger of before, Elka just couldn't continue to shout and distrust Kayde. He had never been one for lying. His eyes were far too honest for that and so he had never tried. If he said he hadn't known, than he hadn't known. Still, it didn't account for the fact not even he had come back for her. She guessed life with them had been more important than her. That thought caused her to give a big sniff as a lump appeared in her throat.
"But you left me..." she repeated, her voice trembling more despite her efforts to stop it. That hurt the most of all. Not that they had left her. That he had. She had never been too fond of most of them. She hadn't joined up to work with them or be a performer. She had joined for Kayde.
6/10
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Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2022 7:35 pm
"I swear, Elka, I didn't know until we were well on the road." Which sounded just as selfish as everything else he was saying. How could he have missed her, even after only one day? Had he been that much of a self-absorbed a*****e to not see that the girl he, supposedly, had strong feelings for had been missing? His present self didn't even believe his younger self. If he'd cared, he would have left right away.
Not that present him was any better. He was still there. But if he left, where would he even go? What would he even do? You couldn't live on wishes and dreams.
"I am sorry. These are all just lame excuses. I understand if you want to keep hitting me. I'd hit me, too."
6/10
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Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2022 7:48 pm
Yes. Yes, they were. But against her better judgement, Elka was softening to his voice and what he was saying. She didn't believe for a second that anything he had done was intended to be malicious. He hadn't left her. He never would have up and left her. Whatever anyone said of Kayde, he was good at talking about and showing his emotions. As far as first loves went, or any love, she couldn't have picked better. Regardless, she wasn't about to let him see her walls were already crumbling down. At least not yet. A lot could happen in a few years. Maybe he had changed too much and she would be walking into another heartbreak.
"I don't want to hit you," she answered softly, hugging her arms to her body. "I don't know what I want to do with you. I suppose you're still with them." She hadn't posed it as a question. Of course he was. Why wouldn't he? He'd always wanted to travel the world. He loved performing in front of a crowd. He was so good at it, it would be a shame if he stopped.
Part of her wanted him to stop. The petty side said that was a fitting punishment for everything she had gone through over the years since. But the sane part of her was stronger. It hadn't been his fault. It wouldn't be fair.
7/10
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Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2022 9:16 pm
No more hitting was good. She could hit hard when she wanted to and Kayde was only a small man. Elka could be very quick to anger, but you had to give her credit for the fact she didn't stay that mad for very long. No, the thing you had to worry about was if she decided to hold a grudge over you. Once she felt slighted beyond forgiveness, mending the relationship was almost impossible. At least that was the Elka he remembered. This one didn't seem very different at all.
Had he changed? For the better, he hoped.
"Um...Yeah. I still am." Looking around, Kayde watched a bird flying over the rooftops instead of look at her. "There haven't been other opportunities since." He went quiet once more, still refusing to look at her. Not until the stillness stretched to minutes did he finally look, expecting her to be ready to hit him, again. She was still staring at him the same way as before, her arms crossed and her eyes sad.
"You don't have to do anything with me. I am very sorry you were left here."
7/10
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Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2022 8:05 pm
Maybe it was the mix of the sincerity in his voice and eyes, something she both remembered well but also seemed a bit different, was what finally broke her. Elka finally let go all the emotions inside her and threw herself into his arms, hiding her face in his shoulder. She could feel Kayde's arms instantly going around her, smoothing her back with one hand and making shushing noises softly with his mouth. She should hate him. She so wanted to hate him. It would have made all these years of misery and poverty worth it. But she just couldn't. To see his face once more, his caring eyes watching her, had brought up so many emotions she hadn't realized were still there. All the anger, love, heartbreak, and loneliness.
When she'd exhausted herself, she turned her head, resting her cheek on his shoulder, her bun pressing against his chin and forcing his head to turn the other way.
8/10
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