On Top of the World (Zhol)

by **Khara** on September 25th, 2014, 5:27 am

Zhol's first comment brought nothing short of a full embarrassed grin to her. It faltered as he continued, the complete honesty in his voice striking anything resembling coherent thought right out of her head.

Sure, Zhol had spoken kindly to her before, even complimented her on occasion and it always made her blush and feel entirely foolish and unworthy of such things. But this? This was some other level. This was not the sort of thing she had ever expected to hear from anyone, Avora or otherwise, not even the boy she called her best friend.

Khara felt like a startled deer. Unable to move, unable to think, timid and terrified and unsure of if she should run forward or away. How did someone react to being told such things?

By completely doubling back on things you had previously thought, that was how. Certainties became uncertain once more and it made her dizzy to just think about it. Some part of her desperately wanted to run over to him blatantly if he felt the same way she did, if all this had been some horrible misunderstanding and he really did care for her in the way she wanted.

And then he finished and everything drained away again. Special place. It was strange how it sounded so familiar to when he had called her little sister. It's complicated. Remember?

A small sigh left her, making her suddenly aware that the smile she had initially formed had been held onto as some form of armor. She wouldn't have said it was entirely faked, but it must have kept all the other emotions at bay and for that she was thankful.

Stop it, the demand came to her with an authority she knew she would never possess. You are witless, but you are not going to ruin this. He brought you here, as a friend, to have some fun. So have fun, damn it.

"Then I'll be there," Khara finally found the ability to speak, though wasn't entirely sure of her words. Her thoughts pushed passed the more disparaging beliefs to try and latch on to what concept she was attempting to convey. "I'm not really going anywhere, Zhol. You mean too much to me."

Her gaze held onto him for a tick before she suddenly let a nervous laugh escape and turned away as she could feel another reddening of her skin beginning to form. Whatever tension she felt was ushered away with the giggle which left her with only one real question.

"Okay then. So, favorite thing you brought with you?" The playful nature had returned to her voice as she settled her mind on something other than making her feel like a nervous wreck. "And it cannot be the mule," Khara added with a nod.

A small sly smirk formed at the very edges of her lips before she added, "Or me."

"Nari" | "Common" | "Pavi-like."

by **Zhol** on September 25th, 2014, 6:09 am

|.

You mean too much to me.

What was that supposed to mean? How much was too much? Was best friend too much? Did too much mean more? Zhol had expected some sort of embarrassed rebuttal, some sort of affirmation that he was a good friend, and was sweet to say such things. Sweet was what you called people when you didn't feel anything back; at least, that was what people called him. Instead he got ambiguity. Instead, he meant too much. Too much for what?

Her assertion that he couldn't declare her his favourite stunned him further still, especially in that playful tone. Did she know? Had she realised? Did this mean... did this mean she felt the same, or at least didn't mind?

Panic set in. Zhol had no clue what to do, or what to say, or how to answer -

Realisation set in, sinking through his body like a mudslide, smoothing over the worst of his agitation and worry, though not enough to stop his hand from trembling ever so slightly as he turned back to the mule, and peeled back the blanket once again. He tugged free the ornate case that Vincent had sold him to protect his new bow, careful not to dislodge anything else. He turned back to Khara and, with a mix of excitement and apprehension, knelt down to place the case on the ground and open it, showing her it's contents.

"I know you're not really comfortable with the horses," he said, stumbling a little over the words as he clumsily explained. "But I wanted us to have something that we could do together, so it wasn't just dinner and days like this? Not that there's anything wrong with those, I just -"

He stopped himself, drew in a breath, let a small surge of embarrassment turn his voice a little slower and quieter. "I tried to learn on my own over the summer, but I wasn't very good at it. So last market day, I bought everything I'd need to keep practicing and, well, someone told me that the Inarta come up here to practice sometimes. I thought that maybe you could -"

He swallowed against his dry throat, glancing towards the grassy knoll before bravely letting himself meet her gaze again, a hopeful yet concerned look in his eyes.

"- teach me?"

"Pavi" | "Common" | "Nari" | "Symenos"
This template was made by Khara. She was bribed with coffee and jammy dodgers.

by **Khara** on September 27th, 2014, 5:16 am

If there was one thing that Zhol was proving to be very good at, it was causing a complete avalanche of mixed emotions within her. Conflict had once again scattered senses as he had talked about something they could do together; something not dinner together or her showing him all the sights of Mount Skyinarta. Her mind had spoken a quick, But I like those things, that thankfully didn't make it to her mouth just as he was reassuring her that there wasn't anything wrong with them. Khara's stomach had clenched with the expected but, and it didn't quite come in those terms...

And then he had opened the case and revealed the bow inside and Khara couldn't help but stare. It was beautiful, the sort of thing she could only dream of owning as the Chiet was quite certain it must nearly cost an entire season's worth of her salary. The girl had seen bows like it before at the market, often looking at them with a sigh at the realization she could never hope to afford such a thing. Not that Khara would ever consider giving up her shortbow, it held far too much personal significance, but that never stopped her from wondering what something nicer would be capable of. She doubted Zhol had even the slightest clue as to how others would give practically anything just to hold such a finely crafted weapon; to try it, to shoot just one arrow.

Zhol's words came to her as though through a fog, barely comprehended as if she was just beginning to learn Common all over again. Had he really bought something so extravagant just so the two of them could have something else to share? Did that mean he wanted to spend more time with her or was he familiar with how it was the Chiet who handled most of the basic teaching within Wind Reach and he wanted to separate their interactions towards something more proper? The second option caused a tearing sensation to begin somewhere inside and she quickly attempted to bring a halt to it. He isn't like them, remember?

Still, he had asked her. Barely more than an amateur herself, far from holding any sort of respect among the other Inarta for her lack of developing a skill she actually possessed the ability to take farther. He had to know that. Yet Zhol had asked.

Khara finally managed to pry her eyes away from the bow and forced shut her mouth that had been slightly agape since he had revealed the weapon. Her eyes met with his once more as an eager nod was managed, not trusting herself to exactly speak for fear it would come out as nothing more than an embarrassing squeak of willingness.

"Nari" | "Common" | "Might be Pavi"

by **Zhol** on September 27th, 2014, 5:34 am

|.

Zhol's insides had tied in knots as he'd anxiously waited for her reaction, watching all of the thoughts swarming behind Khara's eyes, and ghosting across her expression. Had he done something wrong? Was this a bad thing? Oh gods, had he accidentally insulted her? Was archery instructor less prestigious than game scout? Did she think he thought that she was less than she was? Or was archery too personal? Was it too much like work? Was he crossing a line? Was he coming on too strong? Was he not coming on strong enough? Was this too much? Not enough?

When her nod finally came, it certainly seemed enthusiastic, but Zhol was too deep in anxiety to trust his perceptions any more. That didn't stop the irrational part of his mind springing into reaction though. Was that a yes? It was a yes. It was a yes! It was a yes, right? An unsure smile flickered into existence on his features.

"Is that a yes? Is this... okay?"

There was too much hopefulness in his voice; his mind screamed in panic, beginning to backpedal furiously, trying to retreat from accidentally revealing how much her ascent actually meant to him. If Dinah were here she'd have hit him across the back of the head and told him to calm down and act cool; but she wasn't; and even if she were, Zhol probably wouldn't have listened, nor managed to do so if he had.

"We don't... have to?" His eyes fell away, staring at Khara's boots as if they were the most fascinating thing in the entirety of existence. "I mean, not if you don't want to." He grimaced. "Gods, I'm sorry. Surprising was a stupid idea, especially on your first day off after working so hard. We don't... we can just..."

"Pavi" | "Common" | "Nari" | "Symenos"
This template was made by Khara. She was bribed with coffee and jammy dodgers.

by **Khara** on September 27th, 2014, 6:01 am

"I'd love to!" Just as she had been afraid of, it came out sounding chirpish in her accent. The force with which it had escaped didn't help matters and Khara immediately bit her lower lip and looked down at the ground, at her boots, at the rocks, at the steps, at anything but Zhol.

Her foot toed the ground a bit, creating a small indentation in the grass. Thoughts were racing to catch up to her, but their flight was laden making them slow in returning. Khara licked her lips slightly before trying to at least force something out that didn't sound like some giddy Yasi being asked if they wanted to go the market and buy sweets together.

"It's just that," Khara began as a hand raised to cup the back of her neck. "I'm not really all that good myself. Not good each to teach anyone, at least."

She let her gaze wander across the grassy knoll, to where the ground evened out. The cliff face that bordered it caught her attention, her eyes somehow picking up on the small scratches in stone that wayward arrows had managed to make as they had missed targets set up in front of them. You didn't have to shoot in that direction, but most chose to. The other option was towards the lake if no one else was around to pose as a potential accident waiting to happen. Either way a missed shot probably meant a lost arrow if you were really unlucky. She knew some of that first hand, after all.

"But," Khara forced herself to look back to Zhol as she spoke again. "I can at least show you the basics my mother showed me, if you like. This is where she taught me, after all. Seems like a good place to share what tips she gave that really helped me when I started."

"Nari" | "Common" | "Klaatu, verata... Pavi?"

by **Zhol** on September 27th, 2014, 6:24 am

|.

It didn't matter how good she was, or thought she was; there was a city full of talented archers who he could approach for assistance if he was that dedicated to becoming good. It wasn't about that; Khara's skill didn't matter. It would make no difference if she didn't know what to teach, how to teach, or if everything she taught him was completely wrong: he wanted to learn from her, so that every time he held that bow, every time he loosed an arrow, it was Khara's voice in his head talking through the motions; so that it was Khara who would be standing there, spurring him on; so that it was Khara who - he so desperately hoped - would be the one trying to hide a proud smile if he ever succeeded.

If only he had the courage to actually tell her that.

"I didn't realise your mother had taught you here," Zhol said quietly, the panic and anxiety peeling back to reveal a new slew of emotions. He remembered what Khara had told him about her mother the day the seasons had changed; and suddenly he was filled with the sickening feeling that rather than escaping the city to be alone together, all he'd done is condemned Khara to a reminder of memories she might not want to endure. "Kami told me that the Yasi sometimes came up here to practice; I didn't stop to think that one of those Yasi might have been you."

"Thank you," he added, quieter still. His body urged him to leap into the lake and drown himself; anything to escape the dryness in his throat. "This is... important to me, and I can't think of anyone I trust more than you, to help me with the things that matter."

"Pavi" | "Common" | "Nari" | "Symenos"
This template was made by Khara. She was bribed with coffee and jammy dodgers.

by **Khara** on September 27th, 2014, 7:51 pm

Khara took the few short steps to close the gap between her and Zhol. It wasn't necessary, she could have shouted and the only ones to hear what she had to say would have been the small herd of goats nearby but had never been one for the loud, boisterous nature that seemed to colour most Inarta. The Chiet came to a stop at Zhol's side and crouched so she could at least be somewhat on his level where he knelt near the bow case.

"You don't need to thank me," she said barely above a whisper. "I'll always help if I can. You can count on me, I won't let you down."

A brief moment of hesitation, indecision, and finally acceptance passed before she reached out and gently took his hand in both of hers. It dawned on her that he had seemed more nervous than usual that day, and at first she had only thought it was because of the scarf maybe, but now it suddenly seemed to make more sense as to why it had persisted. Zhol never seemed to want to ask anything of her, and all things considered she could see why. She always knew she would do whatever he asked, not just because of what was expected, but because she wanted to. The fact he finally had found something to ask of her meant more than she could ever hope to express.

Khara realized a moment too late that her thumbs had been lightly running against the back of his hand as she had spoken and she forced herself to stop the motion. The harder task was to avoid the sudden embarrassed letting go of his hands that would only make him think something was wrong. Instead she very consciously eased her hands away from his, keeping the slow motion going as she stood back up and looked back towards the knoll.

"Might be hard to find some sort of targets though. I didn't come up here much when I was an actual Yasi, never found the time for it but when I did we used some old clothing that we bundled together and proppd up with sticks, nothing really fancy. My mother had a proper target she brought the first time - that was before I was even a Yasi - but she could afford that sort of thing, I guess." Khara looked back to Zhol and shrugged a shoulder. "I can see what I can scrounge up around here, if you like. I'm sure we can find something that will work."

"Nari" | "Common" | "Zhol teached me Pavi!"

by **Zhol** on September 27th, 2014, 8:06 pm

|.

"Actually, I -"

His voice faltered, not from nerves this time but from distraction, too much of his mind focused on the desperate desire for her to come back and take his hand again; on resisting the urge to have clung to it before it could escape, or to chase after, take hold of it again, to feel her fingers gently caressing not just his hand, but his arm, his cheek -

His face flushed, and every ounce of effort he could muster dove atop those thoughts and feelings, pummelling them as deeply into the corners of his mind as he could. He shouldn't think like that, they shouldn't even enter his head, not with what Khara had gone through, not with what he knew; and yet they did. The guilt coated his insides like lead, weighing them down into a heap in his gut.

From somewhere, he managed to scrape together enough wherewithal to muster what he hoped was a convincing half smile. "Check under the blanket," he said quietly, managing to find a stockpile of embarrassment and focus on it, a sheen of shyness coating the trembling of his innards. "I didn't just buy the bow."

"Pavi" | "Common" | "Nari" | "Symenos"
This template was made by Khara. She was bribed with coffee and jammy dodgers.

by **Khara** on September 30th, 2014, 5:01 am

Khara felt her head cant to the right side, a mixture of curiosity and confusion tugging at her features. It wasn't that she wasn't exactly expecting for Zhol to admit to there being more things he brought with him - the mule certainly seemed to be carrying more, after all - it was more the reluctance he seemed to have with wanting to speak of anything. With the question of if she would teach him asked, Khara couldn't understand what was still causing the crease in his brow that always made her feel like she had said something wrong. The look was always softened by a smile, but she had learned to see the difference from when Zhol was actually happy about something. It was nice of him to try and keep her from noticing, but Khara couldn't help but wonder what all he was hiding from her, what sort of things she had offended him with unintentionally, what other cultural misunderstandings had taken place that he didn't admit to her.

Not that she was much better about it. She could feel the creases of worry appearing on her face far before she managed to stop them and forced a smile of her own and quickly turned her attention to the shapes under the blanket. The fabric was pulled back and a small laugh left as she spotted the target.

"You really did think this through, didn't you?" Khara looked back to him. "Much better than I would have at least."

With far more care than was necessary she lifted the target from where it was packed and placed it onto the ground near her, crouching to examine it, to run her hand along one of the rings. Her head suddenly snapped back over to Zhol, eyes narrowing as she tried to sort out the thoughts in her head, pushing aside the reasons that she didn't want to hear. Everything was brand new, the target hadn't even been hit yet. The last market was a few days ago which meant he hadn't even tried anything on his own when he was at the stables or afterwards. Part of her wanted to think that maybe, just maybe it was because he wanted to wait for her, and she really wanted to believe that. But the annoying thought wouldn't leave her that maybe he wanted to gain some experience before a certain Avora ever watched him. Maybe Khara wasn't the only one who was happy whenever Zhol did something that made him more a part of Wind Reach. Maybe it was someone else's opinion that truly mattered to him.

Maybe it was better that way.

She swallowed the thought and let her eyes roam away from him, back to the cliff and the lake as she considered their options.

"So," Khara forced herself to finally speak, trying to ignore the sudden dryness that threatened to creep up from her throat. "What would you rather be distracted by when you shoot? A scratched up cliff wall or a nice mostly calm lake?"

"Nari" | "Common" | "Something like Pavi"

by **Zhol** on October 2nd, 2014, 5:42 am

|.

Zhol's mind helpfully offered the most beautiful person I've ever laid eyes on, but thankfully that thought and his voice were kept from interacting. It didn't stop the thought from driving barbs into his mind though, utterly refusing to be unthought or pushed aside. It took a few moments to even realise that he had been staring; his only comfort was the fact that Khara was too busy looking the other way to notice.

Trying to rummage past his insidious and guilty thought, he fought to find some sort of answer that would sound even remotely intelligent. The truth was, he had no idea. The other, permanent ranges in Wind Reach were aimed towards stone walls, but in a city like Wind Reach it was almost impossible not to be; and they had the benefit of straw and padding to catch the arrows that went astray. Zhol had no idea what happened if an arrow missed and struck a stone wall. Would it rebound? Would it break? Was there a risk that Khara might come to harm? He had no idea what happened if you shot an arrow off a cliff at the summit of a mountain, and let it fall. Would it float harmlessly to the ground? Would the wind throw it back against Skyinarta's rocks and leave it resting on some crag or ledge somewhere below? Would it skewer some poor animal, or gods forbid an unsuspecting passer by?

"I don't really know," he admitted, his voice more sheepish than the goats skipping merrily around. It was such a stupid, simple thing, and yet he couldn't manage to bluff his way past seeming like the worst kind of inept novice. He should have known to ask; he should have thought to check if he needed more than just a simple target; he hadn't, and now here they were, Khara exposed yet again to just how little he knew.

No wonder she only wants to be friends, he mused sadly to himself. Why would she want to be anything else with someone as useless as me?

He struggled his hardest to at least seem comfortable with his ignorance. While it did little to reassure him, or ease his shame, perhaps the notion that there was no way for an idiot outsider to know would be enough to win Khara's sympathy. He turned his embarrassed smile on her directly. "The lakes, I suppose? That is what you brought me here to see."

"Pavi" | "Common" | "Nari" | "Symenos"
This template was made by Khara. She was bribed with coffee and jammy dodgers.

Closed On Top of the World (Zhol)