T E A L I T A

[laurahborealis]

Arriving at the beach had been so incredibly strange.

She'd only come here knowing she wouldn't encounter them- her mother, the rest of her tribe. Sol was the moon where they did most of their traveling and selling and even the smallest children came along. She'd wanted to feel the salt spray, the sand, the cool water. But she hadn't imagined such a jolt of recognition.

As soon as she'd dismounted, taken off her boots, waded into the surf- it was like being her overconfident ten-year-old self again, just so sure she could stop for a swim on the way back from the market and be home before dark. Like she'd emerge from the water and run back to a cluster of tents, see her family there, her brothers all smug, mother waiting with a load of fish for her to gut as punishment. She was different now, surely. But is that true? Do people really change? Or is that just our excuse for not knowing whether our mothers are even alive?

She hadn't thought about growing up. Never. But here she stood, in water that churned with her own sweat, her grandmother's ashes, countless little-girl tears. She stood tall, looking on the outside like that wise strong woman she'd imagined herself as becoming. She'd emerged from here. She'd grown up. She'd come back. But somehow, she still fit.

Kree always believed red light was soothing to humans, the color that glows through your hands when you cup them around a flame, because it must surely be the first light you ever see. That was the color that blanketed the cloudy sky as the sun began to sink below the horizon. And she sat, eyelids lightly shut, letting the waves soak the rest of her body.

((Sorry if this is overdramatic/hard to reply to))

[Phoenix Lalandi]

There was a presence of another being here. Gil could feel it.

He had taken up a comfortable position in the sand about ten minutes before. His sword was driven into the ground next to him, and his bow and quiver were slung over the hilt. It allowed him the most comfort, without the pommel of the sword driving into his side, or his bow pressing right between his shoulder blades.

He wasn't sure why he was here. Perhaps it was his wandering spirit that led him here.

Or perhaps it was the need to get away.

He had been in Lunthar twice in the past year. Two times too many. The first, he went to retrieve some of his belongings from his home and check his parents' graves. The second was to meet the one person who he thought he would never see again: His brother.

He had stayed in the town too long. His head was plagued now; plagued with the memories he never wanted to see again.

So, after returning home, he went to the beach. Most had said it was where they went to clear their heads.

Gil didn't exactly feel this way.

No one had told him how quiet the beach was. The silence had given his memories more reign over his thoughts, not less. The only thing that kept him entirely sane was the sound of the waves rolling in and out, and the presence of Mire beside him.

Mire had seemed very relaxed. Even with his eyes closed, Gil could tell that the wolf hadn't been running about, using the energy that he seemed to have all the time. In fact, from the evenness of his breathing, it seemed that Mire had fallen asleep.

Which was good. Without the distraction of Mire running around, Gil might be able to clear his head.

The presence of another being also helped him. A distraction from his memories.

He did not bother to open his eyes, as he wasn't curious as to who else was there. And besides, the obscurity put even more emphasis on the distraction.

Maybe, just maybe, today would be the day that his head would be cleared.

[laurahborealis]

She may have sat there for hours, but at some point the light and the tide changed enough to rouse her. She had that feeling- the feeling sought after by the wealthy folk who'd pay for incense and massages- that seems to come only on its own- where every limb is heavy with relaxation. All of the worry of the past few days, the wondering, seemed to have melted away and been washed out to sea. How wonderful it felt.

She stood, almost unable to balance- as if she were floating above the sand- and turned. It was then that she saw that she wasn't alone. Embarrassment set in immediately, and then tension. Dammit. Thanks a lot, Random Stranger.

How long had he been there? She could've choked him. Ruining her lovely illusion of being alone with spirits. She must've looked so incredibly silly wading in the ocean like that. Luckily, upon closer inspection, it appeared his eyes were closed- had he not been watching her at all? Did he even know she was here? This discovery led to considerable relief, although her mental equilibrium was still completely destroyed. Perhaps, she thought, she could slip away without him ever seeing her...

But by now, the figure intrigued her, and leaving without meeting him seemed out of the question. She'd feel uncomfortable greeting him first, though, so she simply made sure her footsteps were audible, gave a bit of a cough, and waited for him to acknowledge her presence.

This post has been edited by laurahborealis on May 17 2007, 08:36 PM

[Phoenix Lalandi]

Gil's ears picked up footsteps, and he could feel Mire stir a bit in response to them as well. A cough, which he could identify as coming from a woman.

Great. This person was about to invade his thoughts. So much for a peaceful time alone...

Without opening his eyes, he tapped the wolf twice on its front shoulder, then gestured with two fingers at the woman next to him, moving his fingers up and down. The gesture meant, between them, "size this person up for me."

He could feel Mire moving over to the person, circling around them. Finally, Mire moved back to him and poked his side with his nose. "No malicious intents," was what that meant. If the wolf had barked, the person beside him would probably be pinned on the ground by the wolf.

His hand drifted to the blade of his sword, fingers grasping it along the flat side, careful to avoid the edge, ready to pull it out of the ground at the slightest provocation.

"What do you want?" Gil's voice was harsh, annoyed at this person removing him from his thoughts. Of course, that was all he said, even though he had much more to say.

Old habits die hard, I suppose... he thought. Perhaps it's time to get some new ones.

[laurahborealis]

If she'd kept any traces of that relaxed feeling, they were surely gone now. The breeze had picked up, and with her wet clothing she was freezing. There was no more sun to warm her now. And, of course, there was this unfriendly encounter. If he'd bothered to look at her, he might've seen that she was a fellow Ranger, unarmed at that, and could have let go of his weapon. But, apparently, that wasn't in his plan.

"What do you want?"

How do you respond to that one? Should she walk away, never have him see her? Respond equally harshly and destroy any possibility of a pleasant meeting? She even, for a moment, considered shapeshifting all over the place to confuse him. The thoughts felt like they took forever. Eventually, she stammered, "I... noth... how long have you been here?"

[Phoenix Lalandi]

"I... noth... how long have you been here?"

It was clear that the woman didn't know what to say. She was stumbling over her words, looking for the right way to respond to his statement.

Which was strange for him. Generally people knew how to reply immediately.

His right eye cracked open, scanning the woman. Up. Down. Left. Right. Finally, he opened both eyes and leaped to his feet with dexterity even he didn't know he had, releasing the sword in the sand as he did so.

Mire immediately retreated to his spot, behind Gil, circled three times, and lay down in the sand, eyes closed.

Finally, after a moment of silence, Gil responded to the woman's question.

"Twenty, maybe twenty-five minutes."

He took his bow and quiver and slung them across his back, then pulled his sword out of the sand with some amount of force and slid it into its sheath.

"But I never got an answer to my question. What do you want?" His tone had dulled a bit, but an edge of annoyance was still there.

[laurahborealis]

"Well, if I asked you that question, what would you say? I'm just a traveler who stopped to rest by the ocean, and you're someone I encountered. Greeting people seems to be the custom around these parts."

She immediately wondered if her reply had been to harsh. Either way, it was too late by now. Ugh. He'd just be more hostile now, surely. She was always ruining things like that.

Twenty or twenty-five minutes didn't tell her anything, of course, but she didn't feel the need to inquire further. Admitting that she had no sense of time and was obsessed with how long he'd been there would've just embarrassed her more.

He began to look a little less foreign and threatening then- maybe the light passed over him or something- and she decided to revise her response. Enough, even, to risk being judged as primitive. "I was born here- my family's from the tribes that live on these beaches." She considered adding a 'so either way, I was here first' onto the end, but didn't. This wasn't an argument, after all.

[Phoenix Lalandi]

"Well, if I asked you that question, what would you say? I'm just a traveler who stopped to rest by the ocean, and you're someone I encountered. Greeting people seems to be the custom around these parts."

"Yes, but you're not simply stopping by the ocean, nor are you simply greeting a person, you're interfering with my thoughts." Though maybe it was good that this person was here.

He emitted a long sigh, simply for effect, and looked this woman up and down again. From her garb, it seemed she was...

Another sentence from the woman interrupted his thoughts.

"I was born here - my family's from the tribes that live on these beaches."

Gil sighed again. Useless. A simple statement of where this woman was from didn't matter.

"Look, I don't really care about where you're from." He paused and scoured the woman once again. "You're a Ranger, aren't you?"

Tired of standing, now, Gil dropped onto the sand, sitting cross-legged, leaning back to look at the woman's face, as was polite when listening.

[laurahborealis]

"Yes, but you're not simply stopping by the ocean, nor are you simply greeting a person, you're interfering with my thoughts."

Well... yes, maybe she had... although he had, technically, opened their conversation. And again, she'd been here longer than him, in a larger sense if not an immediate one. It was his people who had built the dock on this beach when she was a small girl, who'd brought noise and gawked at them and interrupted everything. But she held her tongue.

"Look, I don't really care where you're from." Psh. That was the answer to his question he'd so desperately seemed to want. If he really didn't want to speak to her, he could just walk away. Didn't seem like the type who'd stay to be polite, but that was assuming a bit much, perhaps.

"You're a Ranger, aren't you?"

She couldn't tell if he sounded as annoyed anymore, but it was an easy enough question, and she couldn't stand there silent for the rest of the night. "Yes, I am. For coming on ten years." She looked him over. His guild seemed obvious enough, but she didn't want to risk angering him further by making the wrong guess. "Do you have a guild?"

[Giluvien Fyrei]

"Yes, I am. For coming on ten years."

Ten years? That was a long time, in Gil's mind, at least.

The question which she chose to pose came quickly after her statement.

"Do you have a guild?"

"Of course I do. Most people my age do, don't they?"

He dodged the question for a moment by whistling to Mire. The wolf's head immediately perked up, and he pushed himself to his feet and moved over to Gil's side, taking up the position he was in before at Gil's side.

An unnecessary distraction, but it kept Gil silent for as long as he had really needed.

"I'm a Ranger, as well."

He gestured to the color of his clothing, then the bow on his back.

"For not nearly as long as you, however. About two years, myself."

((OOC: Pardon the shortness... I've only got a little bit before I have to go off to school))

This post has been edited by Giluvien Fyrei on May 22 2007, 12:00 PM

[laurahborealis]

"I'm a Ranger, as well." Not surprising. She thought she had seen him before.

She realized the waves were still swirling around her feet, so she moved away to sit across from him in the sand. Luckily, she was barefoot, or her boots would've been soaking wet and very uncomfortable.

"A Ranger... where do you live, then? I feel like I've seen you." It was a dumb question.

((and this is a RIDICULOUSLY SHORT post but i can't think of anything and I didn't want to leave this un-replied-to))

[Phoenix Lalandi]

"A Ranger... where do you live, then? I feel like I've seen you."

The question was sudden. Gil's eyes flicked up and down the woman again, trying to place her, but to no avail.

"I don't recognize you... but that means nothing."

He paused for a moment, attempting to go through the matching puzzle in his brain that matched up names and faces, to no avail.

"I live in the Green Hood Hideaway, if that helps you remember..."

Of course, Gil wouldn't remember her with his very selective memory. He didn't choose what he remembered, he just remembered what he could.

And this wasn't one of those things.

((OOC: Finally tore myself away from exam prep to post!))

[laurahborealis]

((Hehe, me too. Just finished my last exam yesterday, and now I'm done. Finally.))



"I don't recognize you, but that means nothing."

That was a bit strange. If she'd seen him before, and she didn't think she was imagining it, he must have seen her too. And her outlandish appearance generally stuck in the mind. Though perhaps around here it wasn't so strange. Or maybe he just wasn't one to remember faces.

"I live in the Green Hood Hideaway, if that helps you remember..."

Ah. She'd stayed there many times, though it was a bit populated for her liking. That must have been where she recognized him from.

"Aye. I always find myself up in Ka'sai, but the Hideaway's familiar as well. Where are you headed?"

He might have been a traveler, or just one of those people who always seemed worn out.



This post has been edited by laurahborealis on Jun 16 2007, 01:31 PM

[Phoenix Lalandi]

((OOC: Hmmph. Lucky. My last exam was the 20th.))

"Aye. I always find myself up in Ka'sai, but the Hideaway's familiar as well. Where are you headed?"

Well, that's a bit of a poser. I had no destination in mind...

Gil nodded inwardly. It wasn't common for him to have a destination. He just went wherever his mind led him.

But being on the beach with a stranger who possibly recognized him...

Well, that could be viewed as stalking, couldn't it?

He turned towards the surf and did not speak for several long minutes. It had become necessary to lie about his destination. Ensure that it was obvious that he wasn't stalking her, which he wasn't. Certainly not one of Gil's strong points, but he could do it.

Or he could hope that this woman didn't view him as the stalking type. Which was highly unlikely.

The long pause would probably give the fact that he was thinking up a lie away. Both cases had a lot of chance to them. Maybe the fates were in his favor today.

"I was stocking up on necessary supplies before I went back to Aeria. Lunthar, to be more specific."

The final factor to this was that she didn't have the same destination as him. But two people going to exactly the same place was highly unlikely, he hoped.