[Various Locations] City By The River (Meera)(Finished)

[Aren]

74th Day of Winter, 511 AV - 8th Bell It was the day after the day, and Aren knew, from personal experience, that Meera's head was going to be pounding harder than a war drum. Unless, of course, drykas were immune to hangovers, but he doubted it. If they were, they would have certainly conquered all of Mizahar by now. The akalak waited in the Kulkukan tavern, which was conveniently found just a few feet away from the Kulkukan inn, located in the second floor of the same building. He had promised Meera a tour today, but he wasn't entirely certain she was going to be equal to the task of walking around the city all day. As he sat there, at the bar, alone with his own thoughts, he found them straying towards the drykas girl in question. Without even realizing it, Aren was, at this very moment, replaying the moment they had first met in this same tavern. His jaw softened at the though, and his eyes remained fixed on the spot where she had been, just before she had brazenly come to sit at his table, the very table he sat at now. Truthfully, he would not have believed, then, that she would be the reason why he refused to leave Riverfall. Aren knew he should, he knew he had lingered longer than he had intended, but he found that he couldn't leave. That... he didn't want to leave. For fifty years, the akalak had firmly believed that if he ever returned, it would be only so that he could make sure that he was right to leave in the first place. And now, Aren found, he had been wrong all along.

[Meera]

"Oh, gods..." Meera started. Her head hurt. Her mouth felt... fuzzy. Her stomach churned in its emptiness. She had not purged while she slept and for that she was grateful. Meera's sheets were soiled from dirty shoes and she sighed wearily. She felt exhausted, but at the same time wasn't tired. She hid her dirty sheets by making her bed and smoothed out the wrinkles. Her room was colder than she had expected, and thought the lack of warm blankets was to blame, but it was the fact that it was winter and she was suffering dehydration.

Her small window she was grateful for. It gave mediocre light to which affect her lingering head ache.

She checked her bell adornment to make sure it sat nicely. Already dressed for downstairs, she lumbered out of her room and down to the tavern to be immediately assaulted by bright daylight. Usually she loved the sunshine. Today it was harsh and garish.

Giving a stare to Nys that oozed venom, she gestured for water. Having no mirror in her room, she failed to see the wrinkle lines creased into her face, or the heavy bags under her eyes, or the flying wisps of blonde from her braid. She sat at the bar, her hands rubbing at her face. Her clothes hadn't even sat nicely around her, her belt was askew and her chemise twisted around her narrow waist. Her breeches pulled out the tops of her boots and idly she adjusted that as she was delivered her cool water.

Every time she opened her eyes, she was assaulted by bright light from the unforgiving sun.

[Aren]

The image Meera projected as she came down from the inn was one of regret, and pain. Regret that she had drunk so much (at least so much for her) and pain, which Aren was sure was making quite a lovely home for itself in the space between her ears. A subtle smile had appeared on his face as the akalak saw the drykas girl coming down the stairs, thought she did not seem to notice him. For some reason, this fact annoyed him, nagging at the back of his mind. He wanted to be noticed, he wanted her to notice. After all, he had a promise to keep, Aren told himself, and it would not do for Meera to think that he would even attempt to shirk his responsibilities. That was his story, and he was sticking to it. "Tell me, young drykas... what takes you away from the Sea of Grass?" The answer to that, of course, he already knew. His words were merely sentimental tokens to the moment they had met, not many days ago. Aren had been sitting just where he was, and Meera had been sitting just where she was. Until she wasn't, and then she was sitting with him, and it had all kind of developed from there. It had been like a storm out in the Sea of Grass; sudden, and unpredictable, and Aren had found himself carried away by the wind.

[Meera]

Aren would wish he never spoke to her that fateful morning.

Her eyes narrowed into tiny slits and her brow furrowed. In a single moment, Meera's head whipped around to stare at the Akalak. In the single look, if Aren was a sane man, he would be promptly told to shut up. If he did not heed the silent warning, however...

But there was something there on Aren's face. A soft smile. Her eyes did not soften at this knowledge. He could be happy, but Meera was not.

"At least you dressed." She said pushed her words across the bar in almost a whisper. It was good that he had dressed as Meera had few thoughts to last night, but she had definitely recalled with all too relative ease the tall blue nakedness. His chiseled abdomen met her at her eye-level, and the stark white towel just under her nose.

Reluctant to move, she collected her water and turned her head to kiss the rim of her cup. The glass was near empty when the pounding in her head settled, leaving Aren to sit at the table for several long moments. She was in no rush. Once the clear glass was emptied and her stomach gurgled the water in her belly, she ordered another drink of water and sighed to meet Aren at his table.

[Aren]

She was still angry at him, it seemed. Realizing that there was nothing he could do about what Meera had perceived amidst a haze of drink, Aren simply resigned himself to her anger. He would just have to change her mind, and he knew just how to go about it. Fortunately, the itinerary for today called for a tour of the city, and the akalak just happened to know plenty of places he could show the drykas girl that were all but guaranteed to make disliking him impossible. "Yes, I am dressed," Aren smiled, still feeling somewhat embarrassed over the event. He wasn't embarrassed that he had presented himself half naked in the middle of a very public place, mind you, but that he hadn't realized it until it had been pointed out to him. "And, I do believe that I offered you a tour, yesterday, did I not?" The akalak was being very careful with his words, this time around. He knew Meera was a bit innocent, and coyness was not a trait she understood very well. Instead, he would simply be direct, which was what he was good at, anyway. "It would be my pleasure to guide you around Riverfall, if you would allow it," he stood, and bowed regally, as serious as a funeral pyre. Of course, not being a serious person by nature, his smile seemed to widen at the sheer ridiculousness of the act. "I will show you the city by the river, miss Meera, as only an akalak can," Aren's eyes seemingly lit up to talk about his home, but the truth was that the fire in his gaze raged, not with the desire to talk about it, but to share it.

[Meera]

Aren would have no way of knowing, and Meera hardly knew herself, that she was truly not upset at Aren. These past few days in Riverfall had been tremulous at best, constantly did she hear the pounding of the Bluevein in her ear, coupled with the boisterous Akalaks and Drykas finding their rest in the Kulkukan. It was filled to the brim with men - very few women in comparison - and the young girl decided it was the noise added to the fact that she had not been around so many men before that made Riverfall so intriguing to her. She hadn't planned to stay this long at all, and Aren had to be at fault for that for he had prompted interest in a place she had none.

Meera was upset because she did not know why he had prompted the interest, and how exactly she felt about that. The blonde could best categorize her feelings as a sort of sick; when she was near him she felt slightly queasy, she hardly breathed, and had severe palpitations. Remembering her first memory of the night before - him clad only in water and a towel - seemed to give her the worst hammering in her ears that threatened to block out the Bluevein's crashing waves. This sickness disturbed her for two reasons: one being naturally her health, for she had not spent this long under a roof before, and the other being how weak she felt because of it.

Had she any real world knowledge of any infatuations prior to Aren, she could have identified this as what it was, rather than get growly. On the other hand, a reason why Meera was so upset was the fact that she felt physically ill on top of her queasiness and hammering heart.

She chugged her water back and wiped the wetness off her lips with the back of her hand. She had continued to stare at Aren all through his small speech, even when he rose her eyes only acknowledged it by lifting up, then nodded her head in a shallow dip to answer him.

Her brows knit together in a sort of confusion when he bowed to her, and then he said it.

Her name. Not Ysane, but her real name. Her stomach did flips in panic; she did not recall telling him her name was really Meera. Her brows that had knit loosely in confusion furrowed close together in suspicion.

"Ysane." It wasn't a question or an answer to his reiterated offer of a tour, which she still would have accepted. Meera had not been entered into the Webbing, the Ankal would have no direct way of knowing her whereabouts or her status as alive or dead. Her name was the last thing that could incriminate her should anyone come looking, and she planned to keep her name hidden as much as possible.

Meera's voice wasn't gruff or rude when she had spoken. It was an old name that flowed prettily off her tongue in soft vowels. With a final look to her water, almost empty, she drank the rest of its contents and punctuated the act with a small 'ahh' of relief. The Drykas stood and dropped her eyes to the floor. Her hands fidgetted with her clothing, still trying to adjust the way her clothes sat on her body. Had Meera a mirror, she would have noticed how loose the ties to her chemise had become. The V that tied from the middle of her sternum to neck had loosened in her sleep and threatened to expose specific, but modest, parts of her gender. In the blinding pain from bright light, Meera did notice, but not to the extent that she particularly should have. She tightened the lace delicately but still what was contained under the thin fabric pressed the gap.

"Is cold? Cloak?" She asked. She would hate to travel all day around the city's three tiers - she was not so uneducated about her current residence to not know about that - and be frozen. She was sick in two different ways, and would not care to make it a third way as well.

[Aren]

As Meera reiterated that her name was in fact, Ysane, Aren realized that perhaps she did no fully recall the events of last night, as he had guessed. She did not remember that she had revealed her lie to him, and her reasons for it. Even if she had remembered, however, perhaps she simply wished not to be called by the name in public, out of caution. Out of respect for her desires, whatever their motivation, the akalak nodded in acknowledgment. She would be Ysane once again, though he did not enjoy the fact. Aren's eyes kissed the floor of the tavern, knowing that for this to ever change, the drykas girl would have to tell him her story while she was in a state she would remember having done so. It had been a mistake to have pried, yesterday, and now he was paying fr it. "Of course... miss Ysane. Pardon my momentary lapse in memory. I knew someone by that name, once," the akalak rephrased, as smoothly as he was able to, whilst Meera adjusted her rather loosened attire. The fact that he made no conscious notice of the act spoke volumes about his current state of mind. "Perhaps I'll see her again, one day," Aren thought, as his smile faded, imperceptibly. "Is cold..." he replied, slightly despondent by the recent turn of events. Riverfall was generally a very temperate place, but in winter, the chill wind coming off the shores, from the Suvan, could cut a man. Some years, they would even get snows here, and there. "...cloak."

[Meera]

She nodded then, and soundlessly brought herself up to her room. She wrapped her cloak around her shoulders and wondered briefly if she should bring a weapon in case... She latched her sword to her hip, but knew she had Osri, and it was better to have a concealed weapon then an obvious one when faced with a threat. She would have that element of surprise at least, and that was worth something.

Meera trotted down the stairs at a bit of a clip, her head feeling better now that she had woken up more and had her two pints of water. The queasiness remained, because she knew to expect Aren. Meera wondered for a moment if the Akalak was some sort of wizard, if he was poisoning her simply by being near her. The blonde supposed she should avoid him if that was the case, but found herself dependent on him like a drug.

"Okay," She sounded off. "We can go now, Aren." It was true that Meera was looking forward to the trip about the town, and she had hoped to have a private moment with him to better explain why she was Ysane, and not Meera, and hopefully in doing so she would find how he knew her real name. Last night had been a blur, but she remembered being happy and laughing which was not a common occurrence for Meera. Maybe in her haze she had told him... But she could not remember how busy the bar was, how loud she would have told him, if anyone else knew.

She poured her dark gaze over Aren, and unbeknownst to the Drykas, she had smiled at him.

[Aren]

By the time Meera had returned from her room, upstairs, Aren was by the door of the Kulkukan, his scythe having resumed it's customary spot on the akalak's back. His golden eyes had followed her body all the way until she she stood in front of him, a delicate smile on her lips. "Let us be off then," Aren wanted to return that smile, but found himself unable to, his thoughts still burdened by an odd sense of perceived loss. Though he knew the poor girl was not at fault for it, it was... a strange feeling, one he couldn't quite put into words. Her eyes upon him, at least, seemingly lacking their earlier harshness, felt a relief. Turning towards the door, Aren's head turned to keep Meera in his peripheral vision, and he gestured her to come. Unsurprisingly, he wore nothing over his regular attire, as he had felt harsher winters than any Riverfall could ever produce. He had trained in freezing water, done battle amidst blazing infernos, endured such wind that it could rip trees from the ground, roots and all, effortlessly. The discipline of his mind was alone sufficient to guard him from such petty cold.

[Meera]

Aren felt as cold as the winter outside, and Meera couldn't understand why that upset her, which furthered to infuriate her, which in turn, furthered to storm up the knot in her stomach.

She brought her cloak closer to her body, wrapping the brown-red tighter across her back and gathering fabric in the front. It wasn't the worst winter she had felt, but this winter in Riverfall so close to all the water had made the air feel damp, and a wet cold seeped into her bones to freeze her bones, rather than a dry cold which would freeze her skin. Her nose had almost an instantly chilly sensation along her bridge, and the wind pummeled against her exposed ears. Without knowing, she had brought her body closer to Aren's, pressing her shoulder against his arm.

"Not cold, Aren?" Breath huffed from her lip in white plumes of moisture. She would not offer her cloak for it would be too short for him, and she was less tolerant to the winter than he would be, she assumed. After a beat, she spoke again. "Where to first?"