[The Stone Garden] The Dilemma (Closed)

[Lucas Arias]

„Well, yes, being naked is a lot more comfortable than wearing clothes“, Lucas agreed. For a moment his face threatened to turn red – again. „But the knights wouldn’t appreciate it. If I walked around naked on the training field, they’d probably throw me out very quickly.“ A somewhat mischievous smile was suddenly visible on his face as it occured to him that this might be the solution. He’d gotten kind of tired of the whole knight business recently. Walking around naked might be an easy way to get them to throw him out. He really wasn’t in the mood to try and ruin an entire tavern during a bar brawl again. It had been hard work, and it hadn’t had any long lasting consequences for him.

„I suppose humans do have false modesty.“ He nodded. „I wouldn’t kick you out of town just because you’ve decided to take your clothes off“, he assured her. „If I were in charge of the city, you wouldn’t have to put up with all the itchy stuff and be able to always be naked. But since I’m not in charge of Syliras, you’ll unfortunately have to wear clothes.“

As she took the picture, he looked at her expectantly and just a little bit worried. Where his art was concerned, Lucas was an entirely different person. He wasn’t insulting, he didn’t make fun of others, and he wasn’t impatient either. He normally didn’t care what others thought of him, but he wanted people to like his art. So his heart beat just a little bit faster as Yve inspected the picture, even though he shouldn’t really have cared about the opinion of a Kelvic.

„You like it then?“ he asked as he heard the sound she made. Her next questions was so strange and unexpected that he just sat there and stared at her for a few moments, not comprehending a single thing.

And then he blurted out, „What?“ He had insulted her, he had made it obvious what he thought of Kelvic, and now she suddenly wanted to stay with him? Just because he had drawn her? What was she? A petching masochist? „I mean, it would be kind of neat to have a Kelvic“, he murmurred after he had calmed down a little and actually thought about what she had said. He even smiled a little. “…and you can stay with me if you like, but don’t you have a home? Or a family? Won’t they miss you?“

Even though she looked like a pretty girl at the moment, he had the impression of a lost little puppy- no, an owl, a lost little owl that was looking for a home and somebody to take care of her which was kind of strange. And even stranger was the fact that he had didn’t feel at all like insulting her or making fun of the fact that she was a Kelvic at the moment.

[Yve]

A very amusing image popped into Yve's head; Lucas surrounded by knights and squires as they all trained, but he was only wearing a helmet and his birthday suit. This made her snort, a very unladylike sound, and she quickly covered her mouth and nose to block it out. Blushing with embarrassment and mirth, she nodded her agreement. She'd seen some of the knights, and they seemed very serious people. Lucas on the other hand, didn't seem like the kind of person to take orders and be a quiet, obedient squire. He definitely had a mouth on him. Uncovering her nose and mouth, Yve smiled. "I'm glad you seem to not have a problem with me being naked," she said. There was an obvious implication there, but she was only teasing. She just wanted to get a rise out of him. She'd come to the conclusion that him being rude and sarcastic was just a ruse, seeing as how he was being so civil now, so she wanted to needle him a little just for fun. "I'll keep that in mind next time I think I need to keep my clothes on," she added. Yve hoped he'd blush, it was so funny and cute when he turned red. When she asked to stay with him, Lucas didn't react like she was afraid he would. He didn't make fun of her or call her crazy, though he was obviously taken aback. His consent surprised her even more than his lack of insult. Yve thought her heart was going to bust she was so happy, so instantaneously. She wasn't even upset about her family being brought up. With a happy shout, she threw her arms around his neck and about strangled him the force of her hug. I have someone, she thought. Yve would get used to his rude tendencies, but what she liked so much was that he was obviously much kinder than he let off. And there was just something about the look on his face when he'd been drawing that gave her a good feeling about him. With a happy sigh, she released him and leaned back to answer his question. "You could say I have grandparents, but we're not related by blood. I lived with them and my ma' in Zeltiva. But then I left, after I was old enough. That's how it works. I need to make my own way, and such. My mother on the other hand, she died a good number of seasons back and my grandparents aren't expecting me to return permanently. Just the odd visit I wager," Yve said. She had an odd look on her face at the memory of her mother, but it didn't bother her to talk about it. She had been starting to get over her mother's death for a little while now, and she was so happy with the circumstances at the moment that it made it even easier. She couldn't keep the smile off her face for more than a few moments.

[Lucas Arias]

For once Lucas was a very obedient young man. As Yve mentioned the next time she thought she needed to keep her clothes on, he blushed furiously, just as she had hoped he would, although he certainly didn’t feel cute. He mostly felt kind of awkward. He always felt kind of awkward where naked people were concerned (although that didn’t keep him from talking about the topic!).

As she threw her arms around him, he let out a cry of surprise, and his eyes widened. He looked a little shocked for a moment, then he looked a little angry, then he looked as if he was going to choke, and finally he realized that a girl had just hugged him, a Kelvic girl, but still, she seemed to like him. That somebody liked him was new to him.

As she released him again, he just sat there and stared at her, wondering what had just happened. „Umm …“ he murmurred and cleared his throat. „I’m glad that what I said made you happy, but could you give me a warning the next time you do this?“

That she had grandparents, but they were not related to her by blood was a little confusing, and he furrowed his brow. „Are they not your real grandparents then? Why do they not expect you to return? Don’t they like you?“ His family, for all the issues he had with them, had always been there for him. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like if they suddenly died. He pitied Yve a little, and he murmurred, „I’m sorry to hear that your mother died.“

A little while earlier he would likely have made a comment about how her mother hadn’t taught her anything useful before she’d died, but he didn’t feel like being mean anymore. He felt like being nice for a change.

[Yve]

Yve nodded emphatically. "I'll warn you," she said with a smile. She probably wouldn't though, she'd forget something so trivial as that. He'd live. She thought it was a simple idea that her grandparents weren't actually related to her. Frowning slightly, she tried to explain. "They helped my ma' raise me. I just like to think of them as my grandparents, see? They acted the part, plus it doesn't really matter if you're related by blood to call someone family." Lucas's next question confused her. "Of course they love me, and I love them. But I left because..." She thought for a moment, "I guess it's because it wasn't in my nature to stay? Think of it as a bird leaving the nest once it's big enough, to go and start it's own life." Yve smiled and nodded to herself. That sounded like a good enough reason to her, and it was an ironic analogy. "We'll usually just be with one person, and leave it at that. At least that's what my mom told me, and that's what I feel like I should do." She shivered with barely suppressed happiness, knowing she'd done just that, but his apology deflated her bubble a little. "You don't have to apologize. My mother went out fighting. Nowadays, it doesn't bother me so much. There are more important things to worry about than something that can't be undone." Her smile was a little tight around the edges, which she noticed, so she mentally shook herself. "Tell me about your family now?" she said, looking and sounding more like herself. "And yourself." She leaned toward him expectantly.

[Lucas Arias]

„Ah … okay“, Lucas murmurred as Yve explained about her grandparents. „I guess it doesn’t matter if you are related by blood as long as you care about each other.“ He shrugged his shoulders. As she mentioned that it hadn’t been in her nature to stay, he looked a little shocked again, because he had momentarily forgotten that he was sitting next to a bird, not a pretty girl that had somehow taken a liking to him.

„Why are you usually with only one person?“ he wanted to know. „Isn’t that a bit boring?“ It was then that it occured to him that it was something else as well. The way she talked about it made it almost seem like a marriage. Did she … she hadn’t suddenly gotten the urge to marry him, had she? He was only seventeen!

„I’m not sure what I’m supposed to tell you about my family“, he admitted once he had gotten over the shock and successfully managed to convince himself that she couldn’t possibly have meant that. „There’s nothing particularly exciting about them. My parents are both knights, and they are kind of old. I think they are at least fifty now! They want me to become a knight as well even though the whole knight business frustrates me. There’s more to life than going on patrols all day long and pretending to be all noble and honorable, right?“

„I’d rather study at the universit and draw and solve riddles and go on adventures. How about you though? What do Kelvic do all day long?“ From what little he knew about birds, they were loud and ate worms, but she didn’t spend her day eating worms, did she? That would be disgusting, especially since he had begun to find her kind of likeable!

[Yve]

For a second, Yve didn't even know how to answer Lucas's question. I never actually considered that, she thought, struggling with herself to find the right words. "Instinct, I think. It's just how we are. So far I haven't seen any groups of Kelvic, but I'm sure I will eventually. We're.. very protective and territorial with our.." She thought for a second. "People," she decided. "There are enough to go 'round, we don't have to share," she added with a coy smile. "But I know that some of us can get along, as long as there's a pecking order." Yve thought Lucas was taking this all very well, despite the miniature panic attacks. She tilted her head and examined him closely. His parents were knights, and they wanted him to be a knight, but he didn't want to be one. Why didn't he just stop being a squire, then? Humans, she thought, inwardly rolling her eyes."You've told them what you want to do, right? I agree it all sounds very boring, being cooped up a lot and having all sorts of rules," she said. "Why not leave?" This thought had her practically beaming. "They're your parents, wouldn't they want what makes you happy? We could go to your university and you could learn all you want, and draw everything you see." This seemed like an obvious solution and a good plan to her. Now she was beaming. "I do all kinds of things," Yve started. "Over the past year I've been traveling, so a lot of my days were flying or walking. I hunt, sometimes talk to people and owls I meet, I might take a nap, or a bath, and sometimes I make random things out of grass. Usually hoops. I like to hang them on tree branches and imagine someone finding them, and trying to figure out how they got way up there," she said with a smile. All that in one day was an ideal routine in her opinion.

[Lucas Arias]

„I don’t have instincts“, Lucas stated and made a face. From what Yve said he had the impression that instincts were things that you couldn’t control, and he preferred to be in control of his own life. He was glad that he didn’t have instincts – such as the urge to attach himself to a certain person and never let go.

„There are animals that prefer to be in groups, wolves for example. Wouldn’t wolf Kelvic be the same?“ he wanted to know. Somehow the statement that there were enough people to go round didn’t exactly made him happier. It sounded too much as if those Kelvic considered humans to be something they could just use.

„Pecking order?“ he asked. „Is this like in the Knighthood?“ Unfortunately Lucas was at the very bottom of the knight pecking order. Almost all his colleagues were taller than him, they didn’t appreciate his jokes, and they loved to beat him up. It was rather frustrating.

„No, they don’t want me to be happy“, he stated. „My parents mainly want to make themselves happy. They think there’s nothing better than being a knight. I suppose I could leave …“ he murmurred thoughtfully. „… but I’d have to be fast so that they don’t catch me again. Maybe I’ll go somewhere else first to throw them off …“

He furrowed his brow as he realized that she had said „we“. „You want to come with me?“ he asked incredulously. „What would you do in Zeltiva? Do you want to study at the university as well?“ He remembered that she had told him she couldn’t read. Maybe she wanted to learn that there?

He found the description of the things she liked to do kind of weird. „I can’t fly. I can’t hunt, and I don’t make random things out of grass either“, he admitted.

„… wait. Did you just say you can talk to owls? What do they say?“

[Yve]

"You'd be surprised what your body will tell you without you realizing it. You just have to learn to listen to it," she supplied. "Everything and everyone has at least a little bit of instinct." Yve shook her head, thinking this was obvious. Humans were animals too, they were just so used to their safe cities and warm beds that they seemed to have lost their ability to sense things like the other animals. "You're right, I imagine a wolf would be more likely to be in a group. Horses too maybe. You wouldn't see one like me with any other Kelvic though. I have no real interest in them." She nodded at his comparison to knighthood. "I don't really know anything about knights, except for what I've seen today in the city, but I'd say it's like that yes. There's someone in charge, who gets the first go at things like food and more comfortable sleeping spots, then there's the ones at the bottom with no real say in anything." Yve didn't like to be bossed around by other animals, she'd been in a fight or two when one had tried to force her into submission. The way Lucas described his parents, they didn't seem very good at all. She made a face and mumbled, "I'm sorry about that." If Yve had his parents she'd just leave. "If you leave, I can help you hunt. It won't be as difficult to go where you want with me around," she said proudly. She'd survived this long moving back and forth, she could surely do it with one more person. It would probably be even easier. "Of course I want to come with you," she said, a little confused. "You said I could, so I'll stay with you as long as you want me." Yve smiled encouragingly. "I don't think there would be anything for me to learn at the university, but it'd be just right for you. My grandparents live in the city, and there's other stuff to do, and of course you'd be there. I'd have plenty to do. More than I have now." "If you can't hunt, it's all the more reason to have me around! I'm pretty good at it. I might even be able to get some other owls to help. I wouldn't be able to take down anything big without their help. I might be able to kill a fox though," she rambled, then trailed off a little in thought. A hard blow to the neck would take out something maybe twice my size, she thought to herself, then picked back up in her chattering, "Other owls don't have much to say like me. They talk a lot about where's good to hunt, if there's any decent shelter, water, what the winds are like. Stuff like that." Yve shrugged. Sadly, they weren't an interesting lot. She preferred to talk to humans. Absently glancing around, Yve was shocked to see that the sun had fallen a little below the horizon. It was early sunset now, and she could hear the city getting quieter. She looked back at Lucas and asked, "Do you have to be anywhere by nightfall?"

[Lucas Arias]

Lucas looked a little unhappy as Yve informed him that everyone had at least a little bit of instinct. He didn’t mind that Yve was an animal anymore, but he was definitely not an animal, and he had no wish to be one either, thank you very much!

„That would be Loren Dyres“, he remarked as she talked about the one in charge. „He’s a really important knight and tells everybody what to do. And I’m the one at the bottom.“ He definitely didn’t like to be bossed around either. Unfortunately it ended in a fight whenever he complained. Sometimes he won, but most of the time he lost.

„Why don’t you have any interest in other Kelvics?“ he wondered. „I mean, I don’t really have any interest in other squires because they get on my nerves more often than not, but there have to be things that only another Kelvic can really understand! I don’t know what it’s like to fly or ... eat whatever it is that owls eat.“

He shuddered a little as he thought of what worms probably tasted like.

As she told him that she was sorry, he looked at her strangely for a moment. „You don’t know them, so don’t be sorry. As for hunting, what exactly do you hunt?“ His eyes were wide as she talked about being able to kill a fox. He didn’t think he’d enjoy fox meat, but that sounded pretty impressive. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to kill a fox, even though he was much bigger than an owl. Well, maybe if the fox stood still …

Maybe she didn’t think that talking to owls wasn’t particularly interesting, but as far as he was concerned, it was a fascinating ability. Sadly he could only talk to other humans – and to Eypharians, if they weren’t too arrogant to talk to somebody like him.

„It’s not …“ he began as she asked him if he had to be anywhere by nightfall, and then he noticed that the sun was about to set and abruptly stopped. He hadn’t thought that they had been talking that long! „Oh,“ he made. „I’m not sure. I often stay in the city after dark because it’s boring in the dorm even though the knights don’t like it …“

It occured to him that he didn’t have any idea where he was supposed to put the Kelvic that had decided to attach herself to him.

„What do you do at night? Do you want to come to my room with me?“

[Yve]

She gave Lucas a reassuring pat on the hand. "Don't feel bad about being low on the pecking order. If you decide to stay on as a squire, you'll surely rise up the line," she said encouragingly. "But human chains of command have so many more rules than most other animals' that I know of, I wouldn't know how long it'd take." That last bit pretty much ruined the encouragement factor, unbeknownst to her.. She shrugged. "Sure the others would have a lot in common with me, but I just don't feel the need to have them as company. I don't know why, it's just how I feel. Plus, so you know, I can talk to any bird. There's company everywhere really, for me, but... I just don't know. I'm different from the normal animals, obviously, and then all the Kelvic are different from each other. As in their wishes and what their plans are," Yve rambled. She was really getting into this conversation. She hadn't talked like this in a while. "By the way!" she blurted. "If you ever happen to somehow get the ability to talk to birds, by magic of some sort, avoid the carrion. They're a very dismal lot," she continued, nodding solemnly. "Especially buzzards. They're rude on top of that." Laughing as the continues, "The way you say 'whatever owls eat' makes it seem like we eat horrible things! I'll have you know I eat mostly meat. Like mice and squirrels. Sometimes insects, and then of course human foods or vegetables and fruits and when I'm in this shape." She rolled her eyes, playfully mocking Lucas's earlier snarky behavior. "Will I meet your parents, since I'll be with you?" she asked quizzically. Yve would probably get herself into trouble. From what Lucas said, she didn't appreciate the way they didn't seem to care about what he wanted to do, so she'd probably snub them or even give them a good tongue lashing. "I wonder how they'd react over me," she said with a grin. "You think there's a rule against squires and Kelvics bonding?" "If you want me to, I'll stay in your room. But if I can't I could sleep on the roof. It's up to you, it's your room." She smiled in a way that showed she really didn't care if he wanted her to sleep outside or not.