Just Friends
Shadowed Solitude
Shadows dominate this weyr as only a few glowbaskets have been placed along the rough, unpainted walls. Spacious enough to accommodated both rider and dragon, only a few pieces of furniture crowds the floor space; A large table, made from a slab of oak wood with four posts attached to it for legs, seats six, though only four chairs are placed around it. Toward the back of the weyr, an alcove has been cut out of the stone, making a sleeping space for Khena, her furs and pillows spread out to make her comfortable at night, while a rounded depression to the left of the entrance seems fitted to a dragon's body, two large pegs set in the wall, big enough to hang the dragon's straps on. To the right side of the entrance, a circle of stones keeps a fire contained, a necessity in the Reaches winter, though it fills the weyr with a constant smell of smoke, mixed in with the scent of dragon. A few shelves have been cut out of the rock, providing space for a rider's belongings to be displayed for visitors. Letting in only slivers of light, a large oiled canvas hangs from the entrance, keeping out most of the harsh freezing weather, while just beside the entrance several small pegs allow for rider and visitors to hang their overclothes.
It is a summer midmorning. The sun rises, and it grows warmer, the previous day's storm just a memory as the heat returns. A light breeze rises from the east.
On the ledge, you see Mneoth.
You see Khena's Box, Stuffed Firelizard, Aya, Flasket of Tillek Sweet Cider, Midnight Chipped Sediment, and Jar of Sweesticks [Kinecha] here.
Khena
Eyes, grayish-green, look out from under long arched brows, darker than the shock-white blonde hair sitting on top of her head. Ragged and uneven ends cut short, bears witness that she doesn't put much interest in personal appearance. A bend in her long, narrow nose, tells of a long forgotten break, and adding to that is a two-inch scar on her right cheek, giving her a face of someone who's lived a hard life. High angular cheekbones and a strong square chin adds to the impression of masculinity, while the arched brows makes her retain some femininity in an otherwise harsh face. Shoulders and upper arms are hardened from long hours of training and work, as is thigh and -calf muscles, while hands and long fingers are callused and scarred. Along her flat abdomen is a five-inch scar, one of many on her body, but the one most predominant. Breasts are small and rounded, almost invisible when she's wearing baggy or heavy clothing, making her look all the more masculine, her height of almost six feet doing nothing to diminish that impression. Slightly tanned face and hands, from hours spent outside, complete the image of a woman easily mistaken for a man.
Scintillating in colors ranging from deep mahogany to an almost bronze gleam, the color of Khena's jacket can't be pinpointed to just one. Khaki at one cuff, klah-shaded at the other, while the collar is dyed such a dark umber it's almost black. Tufts of the fleece-lining shows at cuffs and collar, revealing its color to be moss-green, matching the jacket's browns to perfection. Thick, lithe leather clings to her legs, trousers dyed a deep sepia with a hint of mahogany, a color matching the hide of her lifemate perfectly. Stitched along the seem is a row of x's, the thread the exact same moss-green as the lining of the jacket. A color repeated in the cords tying off her knee-high black boots, which fit her lower legs and feet flawlessly.
Twisting together in a single loop around Khena's left shoulder is the two colors of High Reaches Weyr. Black and blue. Midnight's colors, which extends into a long tail, dangling from the top of the knot. Intertwined with the dark colors of the Weyr is a dazzling silver thread, adding a spark of light to the knot. Completing the knot of a High Reaches Wingrider, is a mahogany thread, indicating the color of her lifemate.
She is awake and looks alert.
Khena is 23 Turns, 7 months, and 5 days old.
Khena has no apparent threadscoring.
You go to the Mneoth's Matrix.
[*** Travel Spam ***]
Mind your head and don't trip on the stairs!
Stores and Wine Cellar
Redolent with the smells of oak and spirits, fresh linens and drying stores, these caverns offer a certain cool serenity. Swept clean and kept neat, the stores area is well-lit and carefully arranged to offer efficient access to the weyr-tithe. A few small stools and narrow wooden tables offer a quiet moments peace.
Deeper into the weyr, the cool dampness of the cellars stores large casks of wine and spirits. A large stone table and some worn rock-benches fill one branch of the caves, while the Storemaster's office is angled such that any unauthorized visitors might be apprehended.
Most of the hallways are barred and locked.. most of them. But perhaps a few are open?
Elehu is here.
Elehu
Elehu has grown into womanhood with quite a bit of success. She has curves in most of the right places, though her body is still a bit on the thin side and heartily built, a stubbornness of physicality to match the resolute bedrock of her character. Her skin glows faintly of golden bronze, the visage of a wanderer. Her rich brown, shoulder-length hair contains streaks of reddish gold, bleached by the sun, that seem to make her hazel-brown eyes shine with an inner fire. Her hands are small, but her fingers are slender and nimble, well built for her walk of life.
Snug leather pants cover Elehu's legs, neatly tucked into sturdy black boots, but the doe-brown material isn't quite so tight that it can't be rolled up from time to time. A belt of silver-touched onyx encircles her waist, and a slender dagger, about six inches in length, hangs at her right hip, with an odd sort of wherhide pouch at the left. Her loose blouse of rich emerald has been carefully and precisely tucked in, the roomy sleeves falling only a few inches past her shoulders. This combined with the small jewel like buttons down the front affords the Healer with quite a bit of freedom in movement.
A soft cord of the deepest purple winds itself around a similar cord of bright white in a single loop. Small strands of icy blue and shadowy black are intertwined intricately, a long tail of all four colors hanging from the knot, signifying that Elehu is a Healer Journeyman posted at High Reaches Weyr.
She is awake, but has been staring off into space for 5 minutes.
Elehu is 21 Turns, 2 months, and 16 days old.
Elehu is inside one of the nearer storage rooms, kneeling on the floor and poking around some of the jars of dried herbs. She's very idly humming a soft tune, now and then pouring some of the dried herbs she finds into smaller jars on a tray on the ground beside her.
Khena moves slowly through the murky darkness of the stores, her boots scraping on the floor now and then. Hearing a hum, she looks around, trying to identify where the sound's coming from, and seeing Elehu's back, she stops dead in her tracks, just standing there observing the Healer work.
Elehu stops her humming as she hears the scrape of boots, but continues with her work. "Don't worry, I'll be out of here in a moment so you can lock up again," she says without looking over her shoulder, perhaps thinking it's one of the bookkeepers. "I just need a couple more. And you might want to order more cayenne. Between us and the bakers we use it up pretty quickly."
Grimacing, Khena moves her feet a little, boots making more noise on the floor, then coughs once her eyes still locked on Elehu's back. "I'm... Not here to lock up," she notes, keeping her voice low enough to be called a mutter, or a whisper. Unfolding her arms again, she hooks her thumbs at the belt, her eyes falling to the floor. "Haven't seen you in a while, Ele," she says, raising her voice a level or two, the tone is rather spiteful.
Elehu sets down the last of her vials and glances back quickly, the odd look on her face a mixture of surprise, curiosity and dread. "Hello, Khena," she says softly, carefully. She stands up slowly, eyes on the rider's. "Yes... a while. Um... how've you been?"
"I'm fine.. We're fine," Khena says, automatically including her lifemate in the answer to the Healer's question. Rolling her shoulders, she looks up from the floor to Elehu. "You? Busy as always, I see." Another roll of the shoulders, and she glances around the caverns, as if looking for something, and, apparently not finding it, returns her gaze to the Healer.
"Um... what brings you down here?" Elehu asks, voice again settling into a carefully neutral tone. "And yes, I've been quite busy lately with this and that... There's always a lot to do." She hugs her arms to herself for a moment and bites her lip lightly. "And... how's the new wing?"
"Well..." Khena starts, glancing around again and rolling her shoulder again, "I just wanted to see if I could find a chair.. Y'know, to go with the couch G'deon's making for me." If the Weyrleader was still doing it. The brownrider wasn't even sure if her 'order' had gone through to him. Unhooking one thumb, she raises her hand to scratch the back of her head, "Mudslide's fine," she notes, saying nothing more on the subject.
Elehu nods quickly. "Oh yeah... I should ask him about that." She pauses a long moment as the look on her face softens, a sad look descending upon her. "Khena, are you all right? I mean, really all right?"
Khena takes a deep breath, her shoulders trembling, as she tries to control her temper. Failing, a grimace rippling across her face, she jerks her chin forward, "whaddo /think/?! Things are s'posed to be /good/ now that we've graduated," she says, raising her voice and throwing her hands up into the air as she turns away from Elehu. "Instead... Instead I'm miserable and it's affecting Mneoth too." At this, her voice lowers again to a near whisper with a note of sadness in it. Hanging her head, she wraps her arms around herself, "I should go," she says after a long pause, but she doesn't move an inch from her position facing the wall.
Elehu hugs herself a little tighter and looks away, then down at the tray at her feet. She kneels to pick it up, gingerly holding it in front of her and looking completely out of place. "Khena, I'm sorry," she offers quietly, wincing before the words are even out.
"I know," Khena says, though her tone is still dismissive and spiteful. "You don't want to hurt anyone." Turning around to face Elehu again, she stares straight at her. Frowning, she shakes her head slowly, "but.. Don't you /know/...? You're hurting yourself... Me," she says, pausing slightly then adds in a more quiet tone, as if not wanting to acknowledge what she's saying, "Hiza.."
Elehu's hands grip the tray a little more tightly though she does an admirable job of keeping her face smooth. "I couldn't make anyone happy either," she replies much more calmly than before. "I /am/ sorry, Khena. I'm sorry for hurting you like this. But it would have been worse otherwise."
Khena takes a deep raking breath, tilting her head back to look up at the ceiling for a moment, then down at Elehu again, her eyes hard and her mouth set in a straight line. "I think you're scared," she says, without any more hesitation. "To make a decision about this whole mess. But," she continues, lifting one shoulder in a shrug, "if that's what you want..." Ending her sentence there, she turns on a heel to leave, deep down hoping that Elehu'll stop her from going.
Elehu's own jaw sets, knuckles white as she carefully and deliberately sets her tray on a shelf. Better than dropping or throwing it. She then just stands there for a long moment, fists clenched at her sides. "Shardin' right I'm scared!" she suddenly bursts out, her face torn between rage and defeat. "I'm scared I'll hurt you the way I was. I'm scared I'll give you scars you'll never heal from. I'm scared that ending things before they even begin won't be enough." She seems to lose steam a tiny bit, her voice retreating to a sad, quiet tone near the end.
Khena stops dead in her tracks, a tiny smile spreading on her lips for getting a reaction out of the Healer. Turning slowly back to face Elehu, her mouth once again set in a straight line, brows slowly raising in a bemused look. "If I could only count the times...." she begins, looking down at one hand, the look on her face softening slightly. "Ele... Just because you were hurt once, doesn't mean it'll happen again.. Or that you'll hurt others." Looking up again at the other, she shakes her head by fractions of inches, the corners of her mouth turning downwards.
Elehu sighs softly, the intensity from before just disappearing. "I do know that," she replies, voice just degrees above a whisper. "Maybe I'm not ready to get hurt again either. And besides, there are other... issues I need to take care of first," she admits, face coloring faintly as she glances down at her hands for a moment. "It wasn't fair of me to lead you on at all. Except... I didn't even know I was, in all honesty, until a month ago. Maybe a little longer." She shuts her eyes tightly and sighs, glancing up at Khena again with a rather vacant look on her face.
Khena snort, a short displeased sounds as she crosses her arms in front of her chest. "You know what?" she says, a note of anger entering her tone as she takes half a step toward Elehu, "it's impossible to make you understand! I'd /never/ hurt you!" Drumming her fingers against her upper arm, she doesn't only seem displeased, but impatient as well. "If you need some more time to think this whole thing through, /fine/! Just don't dismiss it before giving it a chance!"
"Since when did being friends cut off all other options?" Elehu asks, voice becoming dangerously quiet. "I just couldn't go on as we were. I couldn't go on lying to myself. I couldn't go on pretending things were fine. And I'm sorry I had to tell you and Hiza the way I did. But it's done, I can't change that."
Looking down at the floor, Khena shakes her head slowly, clutching herself more tightly, knuckles of the fingers gripping one upper arm turning white. "The thing is, Ele... I don't want to be /just/ friends," she finally says, looking up with an almost desperate look on her face. Hadn't she already told Elehu this? "It's hard, y'know. Having to be /just/ friends, when there're... Other feelings..." She stops, turning her gaze to the floor again, doing her best to avoid the Healer's eyes at this point.
Elehu sighs softly as she picks up her tray again and glances at Khena. "I do know that, Khena. But I can't change my mind. Not now, at least." She pauses for a moment and takes a few steps out of the storage room, but stops beside the rider, just staring straight ahead. After a brief moment, however, she turns a little and just watches Khena for a long moment, a small, sad look on her face. Her mouth opens as if she were going to add something, but with a quick shake of the head she just gives another sigh and begins moving out of the cellars towards the stairs to the kitchen.
Khena stands rooted in place for a long moment, then looks over her shoulder to look at the empty doorway. Moving off further into the stores, she resumes her search for what she'd come here for, disappearing from sight as she turns a corner.
Elehu heads back up the stairs.
You click your heels three times.
*** Disconnected ***
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