Being more past events of the Dothaven adventures.
Skye wakes up just before the sun, feeling the huge surge of light coming. He feels sick all of a sudden, having suffered the nightmare again. He looks down at the blanket, and for a moment, is overwhelmed with horror. But it doesn't smell like blood. In fact, it smells rather nice. And he feels better. he pulls his shirt on and wanders outside to watch the sun come up.
Hadone's still asleep. Yesterday had been trying...and reasonably comfortable beds always do this to her.
No one seems to be about at this hour, save for the nymphs, and Eleris of course. The big man notices Skye wandering about and trots over from the stream, where he'd been fishing. "Good morning! It is nice to see someone who doesn't burn daylight around here for a change!"
He slips his journal back into a random pocket and smiles. "I like watching the sunrise..." he admits.
"Aye, me too. But I still tell the others that I'm out hunting or fishing. I have an image to maintain, after all." Eleris holds out a pail to Skye, full of fat fish. "Hold this. Want to fish?"
Skye takes the pail and looks down at the fish. An odd look crosses his face. Finally, he nods. "That sounds good to me."
"Right. Good lad, come along." Eleries turns, and heads back to the river with those irksomely long strides of his. There is a crude net lying upon the ground along with another three buckets, a blanket, a basket, and a pail of something that looks suspiciously like dough balls. "Choose your weapon, boy. The fish are biting well today."
Skye grins, knealing at the water's edge. He likes fishing, and he doesn't need a net or anything to do it. He flicks his wrists a bit until his fingertips are glowing a soft, pale gold light. A fish swimming past flicks its tail, which is suddenly glowing with that same soft light. A moment later, Skye snatches it up easily.
"After four years of being on my own, I've gotten pretty good at this," he says to Eleries.
Eleris blinks, laughs out loud. "That is a trick! Let me try." Eleris, who lived in a desert for most of his life, knows no such snares for fishing, and so, lowers his hand into the water to just see how it goes. After a moment, he hefts a massive, flailing shape from the water, one much larger than Skye's fish.
Except that it's not a fish. It's a nymph, who wordlessly slaps Eleris's face for picking her up without permission, dives, and swims away just as quickly.
Skye laughs and scoops up another fish with a flick of his wrist. He looks down into the water at his reflection, frowns, and slaps his palm against the water, then waits for another fish.
"I feel indebtted to you all," he says quietly. "Everyone's been so kind and I've probably been behaving like an arrogant child."
He scoops up a third fish to punctuate the statement.
"Everyone acts badly when they first come here. It's the place, I think, has a very bad effect." He grabs for a fish, cleanly misses. "You did well for yourself, though. Emerging from Mi'ehna's hut early this morning. Eh?"
The fish that Skye's been holding slips from his grasp and Skye snatches for it wildly, nearly falling into the water. Nods once. "She's been very kind to me. Even let me sleep on her floor." A vivid image of the nightmare comes back to him and he scoops up some water to spalsh on his face.
"Ah," Eleris nods, understanding a bit better. "On the floor, is much better than what I had assumed. Did you come to any conclusions about your next step overnight?"
Mi'ehna had awakened not long after Skye's departure. Now, she sits quietly upon her roof, watching them curiously, analyzing, as always.
Skye laughs a little nervously, scooping up another fish. Already he's filled a bucket. "I think she might kill me if I try anything else, you know." He gestures at the rip in his shirt, still slightly stained with blood.
"Maybe. But then, she almost killed you anyway, so it could be a good sign." Eleris finally catches one, medium sized, and tosses it into the bucket. "She's watching you right now, even." He nods towards the rooftop.
Skye grins, not looking. "I know. I felt her light." He shrugs a bit, still grinning, and scoops up one last fish before taking off his shirt and dipping it into the water, and wringing it out. He frowns at the rip, knowing he'll have to ask Mi'ehna for a needle and thread later.
"Knowing that," Eleris looks at Skye, a quizzilcal expression lightening his face, "do you really want to put yourself in jeopardy again?"
Skye thinks for a long moment before answering. "That's what my life is about, has always been. As far back as I can remember." He lays his shirt out on the grass so that it can dry. "I definately want to get out of this place, but maybe there's another way to do it."
"Ah, so you have been plotting." Eleris catches one more fish, and moves away from the river. "I think that might do it. You fish well, boy, and for more than fish by the looks of things." He looks to the rooftop again, where Mi'ehna is still quietly watching. "Did the two of you figure anything out?"
Skye shrugs. "Just ideas..."
Eleris grins. "Then I will leave that to you. I think she is calling for you anyway." He hefts the buckets and trots down the path, waving as he goes. Mi'ehna has slid down from the rooftop, but doesn't say anything when she approaches him. Just... waves, cheerfully.
"Good morning," he says, watching Eleris leave out of the corner of his eye.
Funny, he thinks,
for a moment I almost knew what it was like to have a father.
"Did you sleep well?" he asks of Mi'ehna.
"Not especially," she answers, "but I feel fine, thanks to you." She smiles a bit. "Your energy is unusually refreshing, you know."
"Fishing and a beautiful sunrise usually put me in good spirits," he says. "I'll need to borrow a needle an thread later," he adds, holding up his shirt.
Mi'ehna chuckles softly, covering her mouth. "I meant the energy flowing in your body, Skye, but yes, that too. And I will find some for you." she sits at the edge of the river, pulling up her pant legs and dangling her feet into the water. "I felt a sour feeling in your heart when you left this morning. Is everything well?"
He sits down beside her, looking into the water. "I... had a nightmare." As soon as he says it he feels all the more childish.
"I wondered. But everyone has them once in a while." Mi'ehna reaches idly down into the water, snags a fish. "That
is a good trick. Do you want to tell me about it?"
"Just... something that happened to me when I was younger. I'd rather not think about it..." he gives an involuntary shudder. "I have it often, though. Damn haunting memory."
"I understand that well enough. We will simply have to find a way to take your mind off of it." She looks down the way a little, watching the nymphs. "You must be careful at this river. The nymphs have a habit of stealing clothes. I was in the water temple a few years ago, bathing away from the others, and they stole everything I had. I ended up sneaking back into my hut, covering myself with my hands."
A slight tinge of red touches his cheeks. He nods, looking away. "They tried that with me the other day, before they stole Hadone's mask."
"Pity they failed," Mi'ehna answers absently. She looks at him, puzzled. "Who is Hadone?"
He looks at her, equaly puzzled, then remembers. "Oh, that's the dancer's name, apparently. Unless the familiar was joking." He runs a finger over his right shoulder.
Damn, it burns.
"Oh, right. The mask. And what are you doing, there?" Mi'ehna reaches out, as if to touch that shoulder. "Are you still wounded, Skye?"
He moves away. "It just hurts after the nightmares, is all," he says, trying to make light of it. The points of the triangle seem to stab into his skin.
"Then we need to distract you more. Come on." Mi'ehna pulls her legs out of the river and gets up, leaving her pants rolled up so that her legs will dry. "What do you say to breakfast, and then some sparring? That rapier will do you no good if you do not know how to use it."
He stands up and stretches, pulling the slightly damp shirt on. "I'd like that." He wonders vaguely if the familiar kept Hadone up all night and if she finally strangled it.
She leads him down the main street, trusting that he'll follow. The smell of cooking fish grows heavier the farther she goes towards the southern hills, and before long a bowl-shaped depression shows itself just beyond Eleris's hilltop house. A collection of women stand there, stirring a gigantic pot with long sticks. It's some sort of thick soup that smells heavily of fish.
Mi'ehna turns, smiles at him. "Breakfast. Get yourself a bowl and tell them I sent you. In fact get us both a bowl, and then come find me over there at the bench."
Skye does as he's told. Already the nightmare is past and he's very hungry.
Dothaven Past III
Stumble!