Trees Need to Smile Too[Sseevrakressha]

by **Kressha** on June 28th, 2012, 4:14 am

Kressha didn't move as he pulled away from her except to have her arm that was holding the bow drop down to her side. She was shocked at herself, why was she acting like this? She had spent the night with him and hadn't felt any fear regarding him, well, except with the arrow was pointed at her. She had seen how shy and innocent he had been. Hearing him give her what seemed like further instructions before he practically ran off, she cursed under her breath before running her hand through her hair. What the hell was she going to do now? She wasn't one to go run off after him, throw her arms around him and tell him it was going to be alright. That wasn't who she was.

Not sure what she was supposed to do now, she looked down at the bow in her hand and sighed. Practice, he had told her to practice. Picking out another arrow, she held that in her hand as she repositioned herself, watching where she put her feet and making sure they were as wide as he had made them before. She shifted her feet around from side to side, finding which way gave her more balance before straightening her arm and trying to nock the arrow with her other hand. Damnit, he had made it look easy while he had been helping her but after a few moments it fit into place. Taking a deep breath, she let her eyes wander over toward the beach where Faval had ran off to. He had gone far enough that she couldn't see him from where she was standing. Looking behind her at his bow he had left, she felt a bit reassured that he'd be back. She'd seen how much he loved it when he was cleaning it. Looking back at the tree ahead of her, she tried to do as he said, look down the shaft. Scrunching her brows, she lifted her arms a little higher so the bolt was closer to her face so she could see right down its length.

Before she even shot, her eyes flicked down to Faval's longbow again. Faval wasn't here... But his bow was. Her gaze flicked to the beach again for a moment before her fingers let go of the arrow she was holding and it whizzed off into the trees, making a "thwop" against a tree a bit behind the one he had had her aim at before.

Not interested in at least hitting something now, she set her bow down and carefully picked his up. For all the bad stuff she's done in her life, this felt wrong, like she shouldn't even think about touching it. Her eyes darted to the beach again before she picked up one of his arrows and she positioned herself again, having to adjust her feet a second time so she felt firm in place. The bow was just a tinny bit awkward in her hold and she eventually had to set it down in the sand to get the arrow nocked in with both hands. Her face lit up in a grin and she nearly did one of her little excited hops again, but refrained from doing so. Picking the bow up, she stood it up so it was nice and straight and grumbled. She wouldn't be able to hold it like he had, the dang thing was taller than she was. Her eyes glanced at the beach again as she considered shifting into her Dhani form. That would be tall enough, yeah. No, she didn't know when Faval would come back and she couldn't risk it. Getting it as straight as she could with the tree while having the bottom tip buried in the sand, she pinched her fingers against the arrow like he had shown her and pulled....

The string came back a little before she felt the tension and her eyes went wide. How did Faval pull this? Surely if he could, she'd be able to. She tried a little harder and it got a little farther back before she tried to rest a bit and the string snapped back into place. Growling, she was about to throw the bow down to the ground but stopped herself. Letting out a low hiss she pulled the bottom up out of the sand and laid it back in the grass where Faval had left it, making sure to dust off the sand she had gotten on it.

A few moments later she was walking through the sand heading for Faval. It didn't take her long to find him as the tracks in the sand were easy to follow. Finding him on his back, wet and now in mud, she just flopped down onto her rear next to him and huffed. She clearly looked annoyed as she glared out over the water as she shoved her toes deep into the muddy sand. She didn't say anything for a time. She was honestly surprised Faval was stronger than she was. He had to be, she'd seen him pull the string back to fire the arrow. She finally looked down at him and spoke for the first time after his attempt at calming her down earlier. "How do you pull ssat bow..."

by **Faval** on June 28th, 2012, 4:56 am

Inaction would quickly prove to be one of Faval’s most deadly adversaries. As he lay in the sand, thankfully alone for a short while, Faval was gifted plenty of time to think about things. Thinking about things tended to suck for Faval, most of his memories catalogued and recorded his many embarrassing mistakes. Faval raised his arm and laid it over his eyelids, shielding the sensitive skin from the sun and allowing his brain to run rampant. It played his first amazing theft of food where he didn’t pay good enough attention and ran straight in to a guard, causing his shirt full of apples to be knocked loose all over the ground and then his first attempt at wielding a sword where it slipped out of his hand and broke three weapon racks before the damage was done; but after awhile, he tended to gravitate toward his favorite memory. He had been in training for almost a year, having been kept around longer to finish the program and having practiced every night for that year, every night without being ordered to or instructed to or told to or any other sort of direction. Faval had spent a long time getting to where he was in the one thing he felt confident in. It wasn’t like that in the beginning, he was even worse than Kressha was. The first day of training, after taking fifteen minutes to get the arrow nocked and actually set on the shelf, Faval sneezed and managed to embed an arrow in to his foot. Many jokes were to be had at his expense for the following year and absolutely no punches were pulled. A year later though and he officially passed through the training program, he had succeeded, he had won. He had even earned a smile from his instructor and there was not an angrier looking person on the planet.

Faval felt the cool water roll in on to his outstretched feet and it served as a start contrast to the warm sun beating down on his bare chest. Faval focused on it, the timing for wave of water washing over his feet as he steadily blocked out everything else around him. It was what he did with shooting that allowed him to calm down; he focused on nothing but the bow, the arrow and the target. Everything else was irrelevant, nothing else mattered; there was only those three and Faval. He had even fewer things to focus on now; there was just the water and the sun. That concentration carried on for a long time as he laid there blocking out everything else around him. It wasn’t until he heard a plop beside him that he even noted that someone was approaching. Normally he’d be appalled at his lack of attentiveness but at the moment, he just didn’t give a damn. He laid there in silence for a good while, not looking to initiate anything at the moment. When she finally spoke, Faval’s head turned a bit toward her, his arm still covering his eyes, before he let out a weird combination of a laugh and a cough. His head turned back to looking straight up as a small smile formed on his face.

“Didn’t I tell you? I practiced. I fail everything the first time, usually the second third fourth and fifth times too.”

by **Kressha** on June 29th, 2012, 2:00 am

Kressha hadn't really minded when Faval didn't say anything as she sat down beside him in the sand. It was a quiet moment and that was what she needed. The sight and sound of the water as it came up onto the beach only to get pulled out again worked wonders. She was still rather shocked that Faval could pull the string on his bow. He was only a foot or so taller than her and he was rather skinny. He didn't look like he had that much to him. If she would have known that when he had positioned her, she probably would have reacted a bit more. Her eyes narrowed and she did her best not to growl out loud at the thought. She didn't need to fear Faval. Even though she'd not even known him for a full day, he didn't have the kind of personality that would attack someone like some of the people that Kressha herself preyed on. But if he had wrapped his arms around her and stood at his full height, Kressha probably would be able to get out unless she shifted, and she didn't want him to see that, not after she had finally gotten the fear out of his eyes.

Breaking the silence finally with a simple question, she turned her gaze down to look at him as he answered. "Where did you ssstart your practicesss to get to ssat bow?" Even though she was upset that she hadn't been able to pull it, she was still drawn toward it. Being able to do that kinda damage with one arrow from a distance would be nice. She'd be able to defend herself without having to resort to shifting to her Dhani form. Letting out a frusterated sigh, she scooted a bit farther down the beach toward the water only to flop down onto her back beside him and close her eyes. "Will you ssstill help me? Even after..." She didn't finish her sentence as she peeked her eyes open for a moment, keeping her lids most of the way closed against the sun as she looked over at him.

by **Faval** on June 29th, 2012, 2:26 am

Faval was equally enjoying the silence, saying anything right now was the exact opposite of desirable at the moment. Undesirable would have conveyed that in a more succinct fashion, but overly describing things with as many words as possible, while annoying anyone having to interpret the thought, did a much better job of conveying just how little Faval felt like speaking. If Faval could help it, “I practiced” would be the entirety of what he spoke the rest of the day. He felt more drained at that moment then he did at any point in the last twenty four hours and considering that it wasn’t at all absent of physical activity was somewhat impressive. He felt a little guilty at how he was acting however, there was no reason for him to childishly storm off; it was him who was at fault here. He’s the one that went over the line. He shouldn’t continue to punish Kressha because he was an idiot. Though to be fair, punishing Kressha might equate to opening his mouth, not much that came out of it this morning was especially helpful in conceivable way, shape, or form. His own selfish desire to be quiet was actually having a positive effect.

Faval, his arm still covering his eyes, could vaguely feel the movement around him and he knew that she had lied down next to him. Faval didn’t make any motion to indicate that he even noticed she had moved, his body remaining perfectly still outside of his steady breathing. He gave even less of an indication, if it were possible, to denote that he realized she was speaking. Her first question struck him as kind of silly too. He had told her that he lived his entire life in Zeltiva, so he obviously learned his bow skills in Zeltiva. If he’s never been anywhere else, it’d be pretty impressive if he could learn things from other places. As such, for the time being he just ignored the question. He’d tell her more about it later if he felt so inclined, but he doubted he would feel any such inclination. Her second question caught him a little off guard and he couldn’t help but let a small smile creep in on to his face. He didn’t know if all she really cared about there was learning to use the bow as she asked, but she certainly didn’t need Faval for that, there were probably better teachers. So Faval, perhaps erroneously from his desperation for something to salvage from his stupidity, saw it as somewhere, deep, deep down, she did actually care about him. Faval gently removed arm from his face and gently reached down toward her hand, entangling his fingers with hers as he silently held her hand on that sunny little beach. He didn’t think any words were needed.

by **Cascade** on July 13th, 2012, 6:50 pm

Adventurer's Loot

Faval's Loot :

Sseevrakressha's Loot :

Nice thread. As a reader, I could really tell that you both enjoyed writing this -- which is what really matters. I appreciate the amount of introspection that you both put into your PCs. It allows readers to get a better grasp of them. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to PM me!