Flashback Unruly Weeds (Phobius)

[Khara]

Just twelve. If Khara could make a fire and find animal tracks she just knew she could find twelve measly little flowers. At least, she really hoped so. She wasn't competitive, not like some at least, but she did have to admit there was a certain sense of joy that came from finishing a task before, and sometimes better than, other Yasi. Not that she got to experience that much, but the rareness made it something to look forward too all the more, right?

Either way, it wasn't like she was the only one of that mindset, despite what the Avora told them all. The other Yasi ran off eagerly, casting looks at the other pairs as if judging their competition. Even Pho - she hoped he'd let her call him that, she never got to give someone a nickname before - seemed to feel confident that they'd win.

As they set out towards the stream they had been told about, Khara couldn't help but feel better rather quickly. She honestly did like being outdoors, which was a good thing considering what she wanted to become when she was finished being one of the Yasi. The other places had always seemed too stuffy for her. She liked the heat of the Glass Reverie, though the actual art that was created there had proven far beyond her comprehension. The Crafts Gallery similarly wasn't disliked, but Khara never got the feeling she exactly belonged there either. The Kitchens and the Hydroponic Gardens though? Both of those were right out. The only indoor placed that Khara had taken any sort of liking to was where the birds, both large, small, and ginormous called home. The Aviary and the Nesting Area were close contenders for second place, but first and foremost was always going to be anywhere along the slopes and valleys of Skyinarta. They were home to her, at least it felt that way far more than any of the places inside the warrens of Wind Reach. Maybe her mother was to blame for that...

Her thoughts were interrupted by her partner's question and for a few moments all she could do was blink her eyes in rapid succession as she found herself somewhat startled by how well his question matched her own thoughts. There was only one answer that came to mind immediately though, something her mother had warned her of.

"Wolves," she stated. "And zynx. They're not so scary, I think, but they're dangerous. There's too many of us for the adults to watch all the time and they think we're gonna get snatched off or something." She offered a shrug as means of reassurance that she didn't buy too much into what the adults used as an excuse. Khara had never even seen either of those animals ever, so they were probably just some sort of story that was used to scare Yasi.

"Besides," Khara added. "It's the spider people you have to actually be worried about. But my mum used to say they only came for the bad Inarta who didn't do as they're supposed to and you don't seem bad to me and I know I'm not bad. So we're pretty safe, I think."

A small smile was cast in Phobius' direction, more attempts at reassurance even if she didn't know if they were needed or not. They would be fine. It was an adult thing to worry so much and they wouldn't have to do that for another four years. So all they had to worry about right now, at that exact moment, was some silly twelve flowers that Khara figured would be no trouble at all.

She heard the stream before they could see it. There weren't very many trees at this altitude at all, but there was enough smaller brush to obscure sight along the small ridge. Khara tried to remember what she had learned about finding water in her wilderness survival courses, but now that the sound clearly reached her she doubted she would need to know things about how it traveled downhill or how plants would grow thicker the closer you got to the stream bed.

"I wish they would let us do more outside. I kinda miss it. When I was little, well... littler, my mum used to take me outside a lot. She'd leave real early in the mornings and go hunting and come back by afternoon and we'd go hiking and she'd let me come to the ranges to watch her practice with her bow and..." Khara's voice drifted off as a small frown tugged at her.

She hadn't really seen her mother since becoming a Yasi, and while at first that had bugged her a whole lot, it wasn't something she usually thought of a ton. Not something she really talked about, anyway. You didn't talk about your parents a lot if you could help it. Some thought it made you look like you were weak, that you were still relying on them if you had them at all. She couldn't help but wonder if Pho had a similar mother which was why he liked the outside so much. Khara was scared to ask though, she'd made that mistake once when she was younger, asked one of the other Yasi if they missed their mom and the other child had answered her with a blank stare and a simple "I didn't have a mom. I grew up in the nursery." She'd felt awful then and had made it a point never to ask anyone else ever again.

But here she was now, rambling off about her mother and she felt the beginning of that awful feeling form in her stomach again. The girl wrapped an arm in front of her and scratched at the other arm nervously as she glanced back to the boy. "Sorry, they tell me I talk too much sometimes."

The slight glum look that came upon her was lost as she finally caught sight of the stream that ran through the small wooded area. It wasn't as small as she had thought, they'd get wet for sure if they had to try and cross to the other side, but it was far from any sort of raging river, either. What Khara couldn't help but notice though, was the way that small patches of snow still clung to the edges of the stream bed, stubborn in the shade and near the cool water to fully give up to Spring just yet. The girl had expected that spotting white flowers would be very easy, but that last bit of snow was going to make things a bit harder than she had counted on.

"Nari" | "Common"

[Phobius]

Phobius knew what wolves were. He'd heard about them in some of the stories that the teachers would read to the Yasi in the nursery, from time to time. And the stories made them sound like scary, angry monsters who did nothing but hurt people, but the boy had come to see them merely as large dogs with pointy faces. They were probably only mean when they felt scared, and hurt people because the people had gone and made them upset, first. It's what all animals did. The boy had never seen one before, despite his occasional journeys into the forests that bordered Wind Reach, but he really wanted to.

As for Zynx, well...Phobius didn't think he'd ever heard of or seen one of those, before. Whatever it was, though, it sounded kind of like a cat. The name was funny, too.

He made his way around the skinny trees as they walked, making sure to keep himself at Khara's side so that he could pay extra-attention to her as she talked. At the mention of the spider people, he couldn't help but frown; they'd been in stories, too, but Phobius remembered having always disliked those when they were told, and felt as though the teachers did, too. It was hard to explain, but the adults always seemed to have an uncomfortable look on their faces whenever the spider people were talked about. There were no silly bad-guy voices given to them in their stories, and they almost never had a happy ending. And yet, Phobius admittedly had no idea just what it was about the spider people that they were supposed to be afraid of, besides their obvious love of misbehaving-Inarta flesh.

Could they be like wolves, maybe?

Phobius didn't know. It took him a few ticks to notice that Khara was smiling at him, too, but when he did he gave her a smile back. Then the somewhat-distant, soft sound of running water reached his ears, and he looked ahead.

It sounded like they'd found the stream. The flowers were close by, then, based off of what the woman had said a couple of chimes ago. What was it about telling them apart, again? The white one was good, while the one with reddish-stuff on its petals was bad...?

Khara began to talk, again, though instead of bringing up more dangerous animals and people, she was saying things about her mother. Nice, interesting things about the stuff that they'd do outside. Phobius' smile grew a little as he listened, his mind wandering as he tried to envision how much fun the girl had, going stamping up the sides of cliffs and trekking through the woodlands...

And then she stopped herself, sounding as though she thought that she was babbling. The boy shook his head in response, the frown once again appearing on his face, if only briefly. "No you're not."

He was about to say something else, but it was at that moment that they finally reached the stream. Phobius turned away from her to stare at it, his head beginning to tilt in curiosity as he marveled at the running water and how small it was. It still looked cold, though, and he was unable to help himself as he bent down and dunked one of his small hands in.

In reality, the water was freezing; letting out a surprised yelp, Phobius yanked his hand back and shook as many of the frigid droplets off as he could. That was when he noticed the lumps of leftover snow. Spring didn't seem to have fully moved in, yet.

The snow was clean, too, and as white at an eggshell. Hopefully none of the flowers that they needed were buried underneath it; the colors were the same so it'd be hard to tell where the flower was, and couldn't plants die if the temperature was too cold? And they hated snow, too.

Phobius' amber eyes stayed on the snow for a good while, as if he was waiting for it to melt. Then he looked back over at Khara. "What's your mommy look like?" the boy asked, his tone one of genuine curiosity. "Is she really tall? Really short? Is her hair like yours...?"

He didn't really see his questions as weird, though hoped that she didn't, either. Phobius was simply curious.

[724]

"This is speech in Nari."

This is thought.

[Khara]

Pho - she still hadn't gotten the nerve to try and call him that actually - was probably the first person ever who didn't think she was talking too much. While usually the majority would be happily accepted as the being right if they all thought the same thing, something about the way he had said No had struck a chord with her. Maybe everyone else just liked silence too much. Quiet was good sometimes for sure, but the quiet when it came to her had always seemed a bit one-sided. She didn't like to think about why that was, and now that someone had actually suggested there was other people, even just one, who thought otherwise? Well… It made it really hard to stop smiling, that was for sure.

It felt good to actually smile during a Bendi. Most of the time, the older you got at least, the more it seemed like you had to play at being serious and really try and pay attention. You were still allowed to have fun sometimes, but more often than not the adult in charge would snap at those who were causing too much disruption. Maybe being a herbalist wouldn't be so bad, Khara couldn't help but think. If you get to be outside and have assistants that are friends and it's like this. She still thought she'd like to be a hunter, though. Maybe hunters got assistants too that you could take out with you so you had someone to talk to until things got serious and you actually had to shoot something.

The small giggle that left her as Phobius reacted to the cold water only made her hope that was possible all the more. Maybe that was what Pho was going to be good at, keeping people company and being a friend and making people laugh in the good way not the mean way. It didn't sound like an Avora job, maybe a Chiet? Certainly not an icky drudge.

Khara had begun to look around the empty patches between snow and water and dirt for any hinting of the flowers they were supposed to find when she heard the boy speak up again. A small shrug of her shoulders came with a tiny scrunching of her face.

"I guess she's tall…? Taller than I am, at least. But not so tall like some of the others. So, maybe she's actually short. I think she's somewhere in the middle, maybe. Yeah, middle height, then." The girl nodded as if completely satisfied by the conclusion as she tried to picture the woman in her head. Of course she knew what her mum looked like, she looked like… Mum. Trying to describe that to someone else was going to be a bit tricky though.

"Her hair is the same color as mine," Khara paused and tugged a strand of her own unruly tangles in front of her eyes, a small face of distaste flashing before she let it go. "But way prettier. Hers is like someone made it out of fire, so it's not so… fluffy, like mine. Maybe mine is just like baby bird feathers and when I get bigger it won't be so poofy.”

The girl let another shrug leave her before she returned to walking along the water's edge, keeping an eye out for anything that even remotely looked white that wasn't snow. "She sometimes has these pretty bluish green beads in it, and one time I think she got some dye from the people who make clothing because she made parts of her hair that same color! It was only a little bit and it was only for a little while, but it was really pretty. I wish she had kept it like that."

What was it they were supposed to be looking for, again? White flowers with blue in the middle but there was something about red or pink. Red was bad, right? But what about that pink thing they'd said? How much pink was too much pink before it was called Red? Was no pink the right thing? Was a little pink okay? So many questions and not an adult in sight to ask. Not that Khara would have, she guessed. They had told them what they needed to know, after all. She guessed they would just have to wait and see stuff for themselves. Living plants looked a bit different than kinda dead ones too, didn't they?

"Her eyes are kinda like that too. They're blue but sometimes they look a little green in some kinds of light," Khara added. She left out the part that more often than not they looked sad, or angry. Khara knew that was as much as what made her mum look like her mum as anything else, but it didn't seem like a good thing to say.

Khara looked back to Phobius, once more considering asking him about his own mother. He didn't seem like the type that would get sad if he didn't have one, most people like that didn't want to hear anything at all about anyone else's. A breath was taken in preparation of pulling up the courage to ask when something else caught her eye.

Finally! Okay, so they hadn't been at it very long but still twelve was still a bunch so the single flower she spotted seemed like it had taken ages to find. The girl took the quick few steps to the plant and quickly plucked it, it felt a funny to the touch, kinda itchy maybe, but nothing like the pickly that they had been warned about. They'd said thorns, after all, and Khara was pretty sure thorns hurt when you touched them.

She waved over to her partner before looking back down at the flower in her hand. White with blue, sure enough! Except... "Does that look red to you?" Khara asked as she squinted at the flower. There looked like there was some sort of pinkishness around the middle part but nothing as dramatic as like what they had been shown.

"Nari" | "Common"

[Phobius]

The boy went walking up and down the bank of the stream as Khara talked, attentively listening to her while keeping an eye out for any white flowers that happened to be sprouting up from the ground. More than once he'd stop and bend down the clear away some snow, only to realize that he'd have to use both of his hands; with Spring creeping into everything and making the air warmer, the snow that was left behind was kinda hard and icy, nothing like the soft puffs of white that covered the grass and trees during Winter. He guessed that those had melted a lot quicker.

From the way that she was being described, Khara's mommy sounded like a really interesting person. Phobius was especially curious when he heard her say that the woman had blue eyes that could look green, sometimes; he'd only ever seen people with yellow-ish eyes, or honey-amber ones like his. It was hard to imagine other colors, and it was even harder to imagine someone with bluish-greenish hair when varying shades of crimson seemed to dominate the population. Still, Phobius bet that it had looked really pretty, and briefly tried to envision himself with different-colored hair. There were so many colors out there, too...greens and purples and browns and pinks and...did rainbow count as its own color? Could a person dye their hair rainbow, if they really wanted to?

All in all, he was happy that Khara was sharing all of these things with him. People, especially ones his own age, could be touchy about personal stuff; the boy knew this better than most, having been forced to learn it the not-so-easy way from many, many experiences. There was nothing really wrong with that, though. Some people just didn't like to talk about themselves or their family, and that usually ended up being because it either made them sad or they didn't really like them. But Phobius was a curious soul, who couldn't help asking about moms and dads and grandparents.

The girl seemed to be trying to figure out really good ways to keep describing her mother. Phobius, in the meantime, was finding it easy to bring up pictures in his mind of what he thought she looked like. It was easier than picturing his own mother, at least, seeing as he had no clue what she looked like.

Phobius was inspecting an odd-looking plant when, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something moving. Lifting his head, he noticed that it was Khara waving to him, as if to call him over. He rose to his feet and trotted over to where she was, slowing to a stop as the thing she held in her hand settled into his line of focus.

It was a flower. With white petals and a blue cluster-thingy in the middle...the plant that they were looking for, right? It had to be!

Then again...

At Khara's question, the boy squinted his eyes a little and leaned forward so that he could get an even better, closer view. Sure enough, he was able to pick out the faint splotches of pink that seemed to surround the blue cluster. No, it didn't look red to him, but...had that herbalist-lady said anything about pink? Red and pink were different colors...well, pink was what happened when you mixed red and white, but they weren't the same. And if red was bad while white was good, what was pink supposed to be? Kinda good? Kinda bad? Not too bad but not that good?

"I...I dunno," Phobius replied after a few moments, sounding unsure. "Not really, but...is there s'posed to be any color besides white on it?"

Guh, this was getting confusing. What else was it that the herbalist-lady had said about telling the plants apart? The Prickly Crowfoot was the bad one with the red on its petals, and...and it was supposed to have thorns all over. Right.

Squinting a bit harder, Phobius reached out and pinched one of the flower's leaves with his fingers.

...huh. It doesn't feel prickly. Does that...mean it's safe?

He drew his hand back and stared at the plant for a moment longer, a thoughtful expression wriggling its way onto his face. Then he said "If we keep it for now, we can see how it looks with the other flowers, once we find more. Maybe they all have tiny pinkish spots on them?"

There wasn't much confidence to be heard in his voice. Either way, Phobius announced that he'd go and keep looking, turning around to go trotting right back to where he'd been, before. The puzzling plant from a chime earlier turned out to be nothing more than a weed, so the boy moved a bit further down the stream, clearing away more chunks of icy-snow as he went.

A few chimes of silence passed. Then, without warning or any real, direct prompt, the boy began to talk. Khara had been doing most if not all of the talking since they'd been given their assignment, so in a way he felt obligated to. It was only fair.

"I never knew my mommy. I mean, I know I have one, because everyone has a mommy," Phobius began. "But I never met her, before. When I went and talked to some teachers about it, a few seasons ago, they told me that my mommy had left me at the nursery when I was a baby. They never told me why, though. I think that's because they don't know why."

The boy didn't sound too bothered, his tone even while his voice remained unshaken, as though he was talking about something casual, like the dinner that he'd eaten yesterday. He didn't face Khara as he spoke, either, choosing instead to focus on his flower-searching.

"And y'know how some people say that they can remember stuff from when they were a baby? I tried really hard, but I can't remember anything. I don't know what her hair looked like, or what color her eyes were...I don't even now how her voice sounded. It's all a big ball of fuzz in my head. Weird, huh?"

This time, he actually turned his head so that he could look over at her, the smile upon his face containing the slightest tinge of sadness within it.

"So the teachers took care of me. They've always been really nice, and I love the nursery...but...sometimes..."

A pause. Phobius looked conflicted, all of a sudden. He never really talked about this stuff with other Yasi...mostly because they barely ever talked to him, so he never had the chance. Still, though, it felt a little strange, and his words were quicker than his brain was as it tried to catch up with them. A new expression came over Phobius' face, in that moment; one that illustrated a strong want of a piece of knowledge that seemed to be unattainable. An answer to a question that had no real answer.

"Why couldn't she take care of me...? Do you...do you think she was too busy? Or maybe she wasn't s'posed to have one because of her job? Or maybe..."

And then the boy trailed off, having run out of ideas as he thought aloud.

[1222]


"This is speech in Nari."

This is thought.

[Khara]

As Phobius inspected the flower, Khara was letting her eyes wander from the petals to the boy's hair. His hair, after all, was red without question so it seemed a pretty good comparison for trying to judge just how red something else was. It didn't exactly answer the question of how little was little enough, though and Pho was right in pointing out the fact that maybe there wasn't supposed to be any other color but white and blue, but that seemed awful picky, didn't it?

A long single noted hum left her as she considered his advice about waiting until they found others. Yes, Khara figured that would be the best way to go. The next one they'd find was sure to be different enough they could tell one from another and after they had gathered or at least seen a few more they would be able to start leaving behind those that had more pink and only bring back those that hardly had any if they had any at all. She nodded in agreement despite not entirely feeling that it may have been the best thing to do. Stupid flowers can't make up their minds what they want to be.

It seemed a bit unfair, really. Why would Caiyha make it so there were two flowers that looked so similar when one was bad and the other was good? Why couldn't one of them be yellow or something? She grumpily looked down at the flower in her hand before turning back to the stream bed and the surrounding area, weaving between bushes and the water's edge. As her eyes wandered, Khara began to realize that there did seem to be one small problem with their plan. Twelve may not have sounded like a big number, but it wasn't like there were little white flowers everywhere to be seen, either. What if they only found twelve total? What if some of them were red? Would they have to stay out all night until they found them? Would they get yelled at? What happened when-

It was the sudden sound of a voice not her own, not in her head, that brought a halt to all the worries and questions. It was like as if Pho knew that was the perfect time to say something else, something not related to a bunch of over complicated flowers. Stupid flowers, her thoughts added again before silencing to listen to the boy.

So it was as she was worried about, Pho didn't know his mum. Unlike the last person she had found that sort of information about though, he didn't seem instantly angry or upset about it. Sure, there was a little bit of sadness that showed up, but only right at the end. If anything Khara thought she felt more sad for him than he seemed himself. She couldn't imagine that sort of life. The girl knew about the nurseries, about why some of the children ended up there, but it just seemed so weird to think about; to think that it was normal for some people. The boy didn't seem to think it was weird though and Khara couldn't help but think if he thought that her living with her mum before she became a Yasi was weird. Was it even weirder if someone had both a mother and a father?

As he continued she couldn't help but feel even more sad. It was one thing to just be in a nursery because your mum died or something awful like that, but to have been put there? To think she was still around somewhere in Wind Reach but never knowing her? Khara guessed that it must have felt similar to when she thought about who her father may have been. She tried not to think about that a lot.

Khara tried to think about each of the reasons that Pho asked about. Too busy was a maybe. A lot of people in Wind Reach were really busy a lot of the times but that somewhat went with his next question about not supposed to have a child because of her job. Khara's mum was a huntress, one of the most important people in Wind Reach except for the Endals, she thought. If anyone was not supposed to be busying themselves with a baby it certainly had to be the people who made sure everyone had enough to eat, right? But Khara had been born and her mum had taken care of her just the same so that couldn't be it. Unless, maybe, Pho's mum was an Endal? Were the rules different for them? Or maybe...

"Maybe she's a Dek." Khara's eyes widened as she realized the words left her and her free hand slapped over her mouth. She hadn't meant to say it out loud! "I... I... I m-mean..." It was too late now! There was no taking it back!

"Sh-she might b-be an Endal, instead?" It felt like offering a sweet to the kid you just knocked down and threw dirt into their eyes. Not that Khara ever did things like that but she watched it happen sometimes and boy did she sure feel like that's what she had done. Only with words, which the girl felt was worse somehow for sure.

"Nari" | "Common"

[Phobius]

The girl was quick to smack a hand over her mouth once she'd spoken, acting as if she'd said some sort of terrible swear-word. Phobius merely stared at her, clearly not in the least bit offended by her words. Why would he be? All she was doing was bringing up something that he hadn't thought about, before.

A Dek...thinking on it, now, the boy couldn't really remember a time where he'd seen any Dek children running around; it was usually adults that loitered around the various cavernous tunnels or winding pathways, identifiable by their dreary-looking lontevs that hung above their knees and, more often than not, their lack of clothing below their waists. That wasn't to say that Yasi couldn't end up as one of them, because they easily could, but it seemed like a majority of the drudges were older people. And the Dek had rules that they had to follow, like everyone else in Wind Reach...but was being un-allowed to have children one of them? If it was, Phobius supposed that his mommy could have been one. Was still one, assuming that she was still...alive and all.

"Sh-she might b-be an Endal, instead?" Khara added, stammering a little. And to the boy, it sounded like a much better possibility. He didn't know much about Endals, but felt as though they were one of only groups of people who were able to do whatever they wanted. That and the fact that they got to ride on Wind Eagles, which Phobius had been taught was a super-special privilege for super-special individuals. Not just anyone could go up to one of the massive creatures, hop on their backs, and hope to fly; the Eagle had to like them, first. It was a lifestyle that interested the boy the most out of all of the available ones, though he couldn't see himself ever being lucky or special enough to become an Endal. But maybe his mommy had been one. Maybe she'd been a super-special person, and maybe a Wind Eagle had seen her one day and had decided right away that they'd like her, because she was pretty and smart and everyone liked her. Maybe her and her Wind Eagle had become the best of friends, and maybe she liked to fly around outside of the city and explore the woodlands, like he liked. Maybe she helped other hunters when they were out gathering food. Maybe the meal he'd had for lunch today was thanks to her.

Maybe she'd been so busy doing things for people and taking care of Endal-duties that she didn't have any time to take care of a baby, and...maybe she'd been forced to give him away. Maybe she felt bad about doing it, too.

"...maybe," Phobius muttered aloud, looking as though he was deep in thought. "Or maybe not. It'd be nice if it was true, 'cause I don't really want her to be a Dek. She wouldn't be happy."

At least, he imagined that she wouldn't be. After all, what enjoyment could you get out of being one, if any? It wasn't fun. It wasn't even a real job. You just did whatever other people told you to do, and you couldn't say no because you'd get in trouble, and you barely got to eat enough food and...and you couldn't even wear any bryda to keep your legs warm. Phobius didn't want his mommy to have to go through all of that, even if he didn't know her. Even if she hadn't felt bad about giving him away to the nursery.

The boy's amber eyes had lost some of their cheery glow, but within ticks it was back, again, and he seemed to perk up a little as a new thought entered his mind. "A long time ago, someone told me that the Wind Eagles eat people they don't like," Phobius said, effortlessly changing the subject. "I told them that that was a big lie because it sounded horrible, but I really dunno. I know that they eat meat, but...not people, right? Why would they wanna eat people?"

It was an innocent, if not a bit morbid, question. Phobius seemed to wait for an answer for a moment, before he went ahead and kept talking. "I bet it was a lie. He was only saying that to make me scared."

With that, the boy got back to his feet and went over to another, further-off patch of grass and sodden soil. "Hey, I found one!" he exclaimed in surprise, bending down to pluck a flower out of the ground. Then he held it up into the air so that he could squint at it, focusing especially on the petals, which were as white as the snow that was clumped up at the stream's edge. Phobius' eyes flicked to the ground, again, and luckily enough there were a couple more, but they looked different than the one he was holding. Unlike his flower, the other flowers were smaller and skinnier, and the petals were all closed up.

They hadn't...what was it called...hadn't bloomed, yet. And the lady had said that they only needed ones that were bloomed, with their petals showing. Right...?

Continuing to stare down at them, his head titled like a curious puppy's, the boy studied the young buds. "I think these other ones are baby flowers. We don't need the baby flowers, do we? If they're all closed up like this, I can't see if there's any red inside..."

[866]

"This is speech in Nari."

This is thought.

[Khara]

It was a bit of a marvel, really. Khara had it pointed out to her from others that her head moved too fast sometimes. That her thoughts never stayed in one place long enough, that they were always flitting among things in no good order. Maybe that's why she thought she liked Pho, he didn't seem to have problems keeping up with her or coming up with new things either.

Wind Eagles eating people; she'd heard about that too, but couldn't remember from where. Someone told her, but it didn't seem to be to scare her so much as actually give a warning. At least, that's how it played in her memories but those could be tricky sometimes and sometimes they got things wrong. Khara had been told that people with eyes like hers had been Wind Eagles in their past lives and while she wasn't really sure she was one of those people, that maybe her eyes were supposed to be blue or green but got confused somewhere along the line, she knew that she definitely couldn't have ever eaten someone. Maybe it wasn't actually eating people that she had been told about, then. Maybe it was just about how some of them had mean tempers when it came to anyone but their riders and they bit people who were rude but because their beaks were so big they took off a lot more than just a finger when they did! That sounded more right. Still scary, though. Unless you were an Endal.

She couldn't help but wonder what that must be like. To not be afraid of anything or anybody. To be an Endal and not have to do as anyone else said. Well, except for the Valintar, and the Tavinar and Tavina, and probably all the other Elders too. But that seemed like a very short list of people who Khara figured you should always listen to so that was okay. Did Endals have to do as other Endals said, though? Who would win if one told Endal told another Endal to do something but then the second Endal told the first Endal to do it as well? Did the Wind Eagles decide then? Was that when people got eaten??

Before she could consider the thought further, she heard the small shout as Pho found another flower. The girl hurried to his side, coming to a stop just before the small patch of, as he'd put it, baby flowers. They didn't really look like babies to her. He was right about them being all closed up though, like they were sleeping or something.

Khara crouched down and nudged at one of the buds with the back of her hand as if the action would somehow convince the flowers to open up so she could see if they were red or not. She hadn't expected it to work, but there was still a small sense of annoyance when it didn't happen.

"Yeah, I don't think they're going to be any good like this," Khara said before she looked over her shoulder and at the blossom in Phobius' hand. "That one looks good though. So that's two we have."

The girl stood up and looked down at the single flower she held before looking back to the one that Phobius had and brought her hand closer to his so they could be seen together. His certainly seemed a lot more white, no red or pink at all.

"Or, maybe we only have one?" She questioned. With a small shrug she handed Pho the other flower. "I'm gonna say we have two for now. If we can't find many more, we can always come back to these and maybe they'll have woken up by then and we can see if they have red or not."

It sounded like a good plan, at least. Khara knew that there were some flowers that were all shut in the mornings but by afternoon they would open up and look pretty, but if these flowers were like that she didn't know; they hadn't been told. Suddenly that seemed like a very important thing to know and she couldn't help but wonder why it was they hadn't been told. Or,, her mind added. Maybe they did and you just didn't pay enough attention.

As she set off along the stream bed once more, Khara glanced back towards the boy, questions of her own finally finding voice. "What's it like growing up in a nursery? Are all the other kids like brothers and sisters or are they just your friends? Are the teacher's nice? Do you have to share everything?"

Before Pho could begin to answer, Khara spied more white that wasn't snow. A quick few steps brought her to what sure enough was another small group of flowers. "There's more over here!" She called out before lowering herself to get a better look. Her hand reached out to pluck one of them but suddenly recoiled back as she noticed the dark red that spread from the flower's blue center. A disappointing look at the others brought on a small frown that tugged at her lips as well as her voice. "Or, maybe not. I don't think these ones are so good."

"Nari" | "Common"

[Phobius]

Two flowers was good, right? That still left ten more white or mostly-white ones to find, before the sun went down and it got too dark to keep looking, but Phobius doubted that he and Khara would both still be roaming around the stream by that time of the day. It was true that their Bendi assignment was proving to be a bit more...difficult than the boy had expected it to be, but that didn't mean that it would take forever to finish. All that mattered was that they had a few, by now.

The girl handed him the flower she'd been holding onto. Holding it up in front of his face, he inspected it for a few, extra ticks, then tucked it into the small hand that held the other. It would have been nice if the herbalist lady had given them some sort of basket or bag to carry the plants in, unless figuring out how to transport them without hurting them or anything was a part of the Bendi.

Khara went walking off toward a different part of the stream's bank, and the boy watched her go for a moment before deciding that it was time to keep looking. Baby flowers were a nice find, and he felt a little proud of himself for having dug them out of leftover snow, but unless they planned on blooming, soon, there was no point in picking them up. He was actually surprised that they'd managed to stay alive in all of that stuff; the snow might as well have been ice, so the buds should have been frozen, but they weren't. Were Crowfoots just really strong flowers, compared to other ones, or were those baby Crowfoots lucky?

And why was it called a Crowfoot, anyway? Phobius couldn't see how they looked anything like crows, or feet, or crow's feet. It didn't have thingies on it that looked like feathers, or those sharp nails that all birds had. ...well, the Prickly Crowfoot had its prickles, but that was different...kind of.

They hadn't really seen any of the Prickly Crowfoots, yet, had they? There was the flower with the pinkish spots on its petals, but the boy wasn't sure if he counted that as one of the bad flowers; pink just wasn't red.

He was crouching near a cluster of interesting-looking weeds when Khara asked him something. Her voice sounded kind of far away, though, and the boy was distracted by a beetle that'd come scurrying out from under one of the weeds' leaves. It took a while for her words to actually reach his ears, and a little while longer for them to reach his head. When they did, Phobius' eyes fell away from the beetle to stare blankly at a patch of grass, all of his focus going inward as he forced himself to think. Hard. It was a funny question, and she'd used some pretty funny words...not funny-ha ha, though. Funny-weird.

Was she asking if all the other kids treated each other like brothers and sisters, or did she want to know if that's what he thought they were like? Or maybe she was asking if they were actually brothers and sisters, which Phobius wasn't sure he could answer. There were probably a few there who were related, but...most of the Yasi at the nursery, or at least the ones he had seen come and go, didn't have any siblings. And he didn't really see them as being his brothers or sisters, because he didn't have any, either, so didn't know what it was like.

Were they his friends...?

The boy mulled over that for a moment, and gradually frowned a little. It was a question that he'd often asked himself; Phobius wasn't sure whether or not it was a bad habit, but on especially boring days where he couldn't seem to find something to do, he'd sit himself down in a corner and watch the other Yasi as they played or chatted. He'd watch and watch, and wonder why they never seemed to try to come over to him and talk, or ask him if he wanted to play with them. He loved to talk and play, and both of those things were no fun if you had to do them by yourself, all the time.

It was like...it was like the other children wanted to stay away from him. Like he had some sort of terrible disease, and they were all afraid that if they got too close to him, they'd get it, too.

And that's not how friends were with their friends. At least, the boy was pretty sure that it wasn't.

Khara called something else out, all of a sudden, but Phobius didn't seem to notice, too caught up in his own musings.

"...I don't think they're my friends," the boy said at last, having gone silent for over a chime as he'd continued to think. This was probably the longest he had ever talked with anyone, before, and it was still admittedly a little...surprising. "I mean, other kids don't really talk to me or...or ask me things, like you do. They're probably still nice, though. I think everyone's nice. Like the teachers! They like to talk to all the Yasi, and they help whenever there's problems. And we don't have to share everything...snacks, kinda, but there's so many toys that you don't need to share any, and we all have our own cots to take naps on...but I guess we share the big play space in the nursery, too..."

He fell quiet for another moment, and when he spoke up again he rose his head and looked over at Khara, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Hey, umm, Khara? We...we're friends, right?" Phobius tentatively asked, trying to meet her eyes if he could. A simple question, but to the boy it carried a certain weight—an importance—, and he couldn't help but feel as though if he didn't ask it, now, he'd be angry with himself, later. Because maybe, just maybe, he was worried about what her answer would be.

[1027]


"This is speech in Nari."

This is thought.

[Khara]

The nursery didn't sound too bad, it sounded a lot like being a Yasi, really. Like when they had made Khara stop living with her mum and move in with the others into the place where all the other Yasi lived. They had said it was to be independant or something, but Khara hadn't really seen the point in it. She could have lived with her mum still just as well as living with the other Yasi and everything would have been just the same, wouldn't it? Maybe it was part of growing up, though.

The reddish flowers were forgotten as she listened and then felt herself stagger a bit as he asked the question. Not physically, but it felt like her head had tripped over a rock and tumbled a bit. No one had really asked her that sort of thing before. The girl hadn't even really realized it when she had asked about all the others that Phobius had grown up with that she really didn't have any friends herself. There were other Yasi who were nice enough to her, she supposed, but they never really talked or did anything together and the only reason she felt like she would be able to count on them for anything was because their teachers would make them. That was okay too, she supposed, they were all there to learn so if learning on how to rely on others to help you when you needed help was part of that then it made sense. But friends were different.

Their eyes met as Khara considered the question. They were Bendi partners, for sure. But other ones she had been paired up with never really talked with her. Either she would talk a lot at them or they would tell her to be quiet when they would be trying to follow whatever assignment they had been given. But Pho was talking with her and she quite liked it, really. In fact, she was hoping that for the rest of the ten days they had to do herbalist stuff she would be able to keep working with him. That settled in, then.

"I think so," Khara said with a small nod. "I mean, we can be if you want to. I wouldn't mind at all so if you don't either then I think we already are. There isn't some sort of thing you have to do to make it official, is there?"

The girl sheepishly looked away. It sounded like a really silly question when you put it like that. It was the kind of thing people knew or not, wasn't it? She went back to looking at the flowers near her, trying to keep the small embarrassed smile she had under control. Okay, they were red, which was bad. Khara stepped around the plants, trying to give them as much space as possible before she continued along the small riverbank.

"Okay," she spoke up again. "So, now that we're friends. What sort of things do friends do? I mean, except talk. I don't really think I've had one before so that makes you my first friend."

It sounded more of a curiosity than anything she was sad about. It seemed strange to suddenly realize it all, but just because you didn't have a friend before didn't mean that only having one now was a bad thing. It just means you had to wait for good things, kind of like desert after dinner, maybe.

As she waited for an answer, hoping maybe Pho had a better idea about this sort of thing than her, she continued to look about and for a brief moment watched a leaf as it rode the stream's waters. When she looked away her eyes caught a flash of white and she stepped over a particularly squishy looking patch of mud to stand on a rock near the plant. There didn't seem to be any red this time at all! Quickly plucking the flower she held it up with a grin.

"Three now!" Khara declared with a small bit of triumph.

"Nari" | "Common"

[Phobius]

While it wasn't a definite, super-enthusiastic yes, it wasn't a no, either; all in all, the girl seemed to think that they were friends, already. Phobius could practically feel his tiny heart swell up with happiness at her words, and the smile upon his face had grown so wide that it kind of hurt.

Friends. They were friends. He actually had a friend...! And to think that, up until this point, he'd expected the day to be about nothing but finding plants...

The boy couldn't remember a time when he'd ever felt as happy as he did, right now. In all honesty, it got a little scary after the first few ticks...the swelling seemed to have spread to his entire chest, and for a moment he was convinced that it would burst open, like a cage full of big, anxious birds. But then it kept spreading, and Phobius wondered what would happen to him when it ran out of places to go. Would it go away, or...or would he explode...?

He certainly didn't feel as though he was going to explode. He didn't...really know how he felt, other than...well, other than happy. And for a brief, alarming moment, that happiness seemed to morph into sadness; Phobius could feel his bottom lip start to quiver, but he bit down on it to force it to stop, not wanting to cry in front of his new friend. That didn't, however, keep the tears from gathering in his eyes.

It was all just so strange and confusing. If he was so happy, why did he feel like he needed to cry? There was nothing sad about making friends with someone; Phobius had wanted to make a friend ever since he'd started his habit of watching the other Yasi play together back at the nursery, and had always wondered what it was like to have fun with other people. They'd always seemed so cheery about it, too, always laughing and sharing toys and running around. He was sure that he'd never seen another Yasi cry with their friends, and why would they? Crying was for when someone yelled at you and made you sad, or when you tripped and broke your favorite toy, or when you hurt yourself while you were trying to climb a tree. People cried when they felt bad, not when they felt good.

The boy's smile quickly ebbed, an uncertain frown taking its place as Phobius lifted an arm and rubbed his eyes on his katinu's sleeve. No more crying, he scolded himself. Khara's not crying, and if she sees you cry she'll think something's wrong with you.

Self-discipline wasn't something Phobius was skilled at, but it worked, and he blinked the remaining tears out of his eyes before looking back over at the girl. She was happy, too, wasn't she? About them becoming friends...? It was kinda hard to tell, since she was smiling a little but looked as though she was trying to hide it. Huh.

She probably has lots of friends. I mean, she's really nice...who wouldn't wanna be her friend?

Nearly as soon as the thoughts had entered his mind, Khara claimed that she didn't have any. Shocked, Phobius stared at her, looking for all the world as though she'd said something crazy, like having never seen snow, before. She didn't know what kinds of things friends were supposed to do with one another, either, but neither did the boy. So he was quiet as he took around a chime to think it over, sorting through the bits and pieces of things he'd picked up on over the years. "Uhh...play together a lot, I think," Phobius said once he'd found some answers. "Y'know, games like hide n' seek. Friends can do all sorts of stuff together. I dunno them all, but...I know that there's a lot."

The boy fell quiet, again, and let his eyes drift down to his toes as he continued to think.

"I think...I think it depends on what stuff we like to do. Like...like being outside!"


"This is speech in Nari."

This is thought.