Private Tales Cherish What You Have

[Zeri Rekani]

The familiar waters of the Bystrza River, where the Bystra and the Wda met and flowed north to the Ra Gnamh Sea. Zeri Rekani had navigated the river before while on the Great Hunt of Luuruk-Hur, hunting elusive Delta Zebras. Yet this time she would be several months too early than when she had gone last year. This time, instead of sailing north for the Coming of Spring, it was the middle of winter. A light snow was even falling.

But she wanted to reach the Ra Gnamh Sea. To find a Gnamh Oyster with Twinned Pearls. With the help of the shamans of Bhathairk, she could have them enchanted. And in this way, Zeri would be able to tell her Pa, Thandriel, as soon as she found Paola. The scant few minutes of magical communication from the enchantment would allow them all to share in the moment together, for Paola to hear Pa's voice, for Pa to hear hers. And they could cherish the family they all still shared.

Weylin Kyrel had come with her. They had a small row boat, and he sat rowing and steering with the current while Zeri sat at the head of the vessel, all their gear at the back with White. And, over the past few moments, she had gradually leveled her gaze on him, staring, a light smile the only indication of what she was thinking.

Gosh, she really was blessed to have met him, wasn't she? They had been through so much together. He'd shared with her the trauma of his past, and he'd been there when she had suffered much the same after Neha's Rising. Through ups and downs, small comforts and big perils, here they were now. The Spine, the Steppe, the ruins of Bhathairk, all had come with their own considerable dangers, but together they had overcome them. From the moment they had met, the adventuring that she had dreamed of became a reality.

Zeri, then, finally realized that she was staring.

She straightened up. Stretched. Glanced over the sides as if it were nothing.

"We should start looking for a nice spot to set up camp for the night. Short days and all, ha ha. Ha."

She patted her legs. Entwined her hands and set them in her lap and continued to glance about with an awkward, bashful smile.

Weylin Kyrel

 

[Weylin Kyrel]

This land was unfamiliar to the hunter. The snow coated peaks and forests constantly at war with the wind and cold was what he knew. This river valley where things were so flat was not what he knew. Yet it was what the orcess knew. And why he had found himself rowing a boat. A new experience for him from the canoes he had used back in the Spine.

Their current quest, as Zeri had called their tasks, was to find these special pearls. Something to do with magic for once they found her sister, Paola. He didn't know much about magic. That was not a gift he possessed, unlike Mother Owl and other Old Folk like her.

His back was to Zeri as he rowed. A strange quirk about these boats they used on this river. One had to face back to row forward. Did they always guide themselves by looking to the past? A thought that sounded like something Mother Owl would have said. He didn't know what the orcess was doing behind him but the look White was giving her told him it was likely nothing bad. She glared at Zeri over everything. Why he didn't know.

"Which side? How far away do you want to camp from the river?"

Zeri Rekani

 

[Zeri Rekani]

"We don't have to go too far inland," Zeri said. "That way we don't have to drag the boat so much."

She glanced to her left and to her right. The forests and vegetation could be overgrown on the eastern side, and to the western Steppe side there could be long stretches of rocky outcroppings which made beaching impossible. But it didn't particularly matter which side of the river they chose. Just whichever side had a fairly good clearing and shoreline for them.

"I'll keep an eye out for a good landing site," Zeri said. Facing forward, she'd see them before Weylin could.

Oh! Oh, and easy access to wood.

"I can't wait to get a fire going." She rubbed her gloves hands together. "You know, I think it's going to take me a while to get used to winters that aren't so mild. Bhathairk is always so warm. For most of the year, really. Gosh, Weylin, I can't imagine how a full winter in the heights of the Spine would be like."

Weylin Kyrel

 

[Weylin Kyrel]

He kept on rowing. There was nothing else he could do but row. At least his little bird's chirping was keeping things from being too quiet and boring. Silence was vital for hunting but for travel it made a poor friend. She had proven to be anything but one to him so far. A gift he was not sure he could ever repay.

"This is cold here?" Weylin was frowning slightly now. Certainly that arid place and the steppes had proven to be boiling in their warmth demanding both his form exposes so the wind may cool him while also completely covered so the sun did not bake him alive, but was their winters truly so warm?

Zeri sounded like she was nervous or looking for a distraction. White didn't show any sign of change so he could be wrong. Weylin decided to actually talk for once.

"Little Bird, how are feeling? After everything."

He was only a little awkward about it.

Zeri Rekani

 

[Zeri Rekani]

This is cold here?

"Oh hush!" Zeri leaned forward, planting a dainty smack on Weylin's back. To her she'd taken it as a boast. Though it highlighted a truth, right? She still had a bunch of acclimatizing to do. Well, as she was now, at least she wouldn't be uncomfortable if she made her way all the west to the scorching deserts of Amol-Kalit!

He asked her how she was feeling, and she took a moment to coalesce her thoughts, her emotions. The current of the river gently rocked the boat.

"I've endured my sorrow. I've done my grieving. I'll always miss the Bhathairk I grew up in. I'll always miss Ma and Gurrash and Rodon. But I've got all my memories, and they'll always be with me. My spirit will rejoin with theirs in the Great Beyond, but that won't be for a long, long time. Until then, my place is here on Arethil, and I'm not going to let what's past bring me down."

Her heart burned with optimism. In the deep valley of despair, when things were at their worst with everything surrounding Neha's rise, Zeri felt as though such goodness would never touch her heart again. But, by the Spirits, she was wrong, and glad to be so.

She clapped her hands down onto her knees.

"Your turn! How are you feeling, hmm? Hmm?"

Weylin Kyrel

 

[Weylin Kyrel]

As the hunter listened to what the orcess had to say, his heart went out to her. The two shared too much in common now, especially compared to when they had first met. She was being strong. She wished to accept what had happened and move forward. But he knew she would never truly accept it. He still could not accept what had happened to his own home and family....

Weylin frowned. Was he assuming she would be like him and grieve so deeply? That was wrong of him. He would need to apologize in some way to her.... Perhaps cook their meal so she could relax? Yes.... Yes. He would cook for her.

But it was now his turn to answer. How did he feel? A question that immediately held no answer.

After a moment of silence, he said the only thing he could. "I'm awake Zeri."

She should understand what that meant. After all this time around him and getting to know about his mom's people she should have some idea of what that meant coming from him....

Zeri Rekani

 

[Zeri Rekani]

A moment of contemplative quiet.

"That's good," Zeri said. Even though he couldn't see, she nodded in approval. "That's good, Weylin."

Then, on a flight of whimsy, Zeri pounced on Weylin from behind. One arm wrapped around his waist, the other thrown over his shoulder, her chin resting on his other shoulder, a bright smile adorning her expression.

"And I'm going to make sure you stay that way! There'll be plenty of fun and adventure and wonder ahead for the both of us. I'm sure of it! Ha, ha!"

Weylin Kyrel

 

[Weylin Kyrel]

Things stayed quiet. Was it a good or bad sign? The hunter was unsure. Things involving her were always hard to predict. The orcess was just so different in how she saw things. A good thing if their history together was enough proof. He would not be here now if not for her. Likely he would be sleeping or one of the dreamers wandering the Spine still. Neither outcome was pleasant to think about.

Then she spoke. It was a good quiet. Then she wrapped her arms around him and rested her head by his own. More words followed full of promises.

Weylin froze up. The rowing stopped and his eyes grew a bit wider. His skin flushed slightly. Hopefully his out of control hair was hiding it for him. He still had yet to do anything with it other than tie it back and out of the way since the pair had first met.

The boat just drifted carried first by what was left of their rowing momentum and then it was taken by the current of the river. Hopefully it took them in the right direction as he had completely lost all sense of anything not Zeri.

After a bit he responded. "Me too Zeri."

Zeri Rekani

 

[Zeri Rekani]

Zeri pulled back after Weylin spoke, smile undimmed. He was always terse, Weylin was. It was novel to the point of being out of character for him when on the rare occasion he did speak more than a sentence or two. Still, Zeri loved to chisel away at his metaphorical shell. Despite the circumstances at the time, she had very much enjoyed when he spoke at length about what he used to do for fun, about his old community, gosh, even about the dangers of the Spine.

And, also, it was funny how he froze up.

She giggled and poked a finger into his back. "Boop! Surprise, Weylin, it's just me. Not a big scary bear to play dead with."

Oh. Another thought bubbled up to the surface, after having reminisced about the past and their time trapped in the abandoned dwarven port.

"Ohhh, Weylin."

She reached for his hood from behind and pulled it down and slid her hand into his hair, ruffling it around.

"When we stop for the night, I can cut your hair for you. Or should I say tame your hair. Ma would've said that you've got an impressive lion's mane growing on you!"

She would've offered to shave him too (she'd practiced on Rodon and Gurrash plenty of times!) but...honestly she liked the look of facial hair on a man. There was just something inescapably rugged about it. If there was one thing she didn't understand about most male orcs it was the pervading desire among most of them to be clean shaven.

Weylin Kyrel

 

[Weylin Kyrel]

A slight smile formed over Weylin's lips at Zeri's first comment to him. After she poked him he got back to rowing. The boat was once more getting back on course.

"You're scarier than a troll Zeri."

The slight smile had turned into a bit of a smirk.

As she began to speak on his hair, his mind began to wander. What did his hair even look like right now? He hadn't done anything but keep it tied back for awhile. More than awhile. His face wasn't even shaven. What did he look like? Been some time since he had looked.... He was scared to look after events in the steppe....

He paused for a bit before said, "Okay. Do what you want with it."

His arms were starting to feel kind of tired now that he had paused his rowing for a bit.

Zeri Rekani

 

[Zeri Rekani]

Zeri made claws out of arched fingers and held them up menacingly in Weylin's peripheral vision. "Grrrrrrrr! Grrrrrrrr!" She spoke with a harsh, throaty voice, trying to sound as flagrantly evil as possible. "I'm gonna chase you this time! And there's no lost dwarven hold around here to save you!"

She had a giggle at that and sat down at the front of the boat once more.

Good! He agreed to let her groom his hair. And it sorely needed a trim, to say the least! Oh, what did he normally go with? Had he been keeping his hair the way he liked when they first met, or had it been rather long even then? What would he look like with short hair? Or clean-shaven, for that matter? That was such a transformation, a man being clean-shaven versus having a beard, or even stubble. Well, whatever it was that he preferred, she had come prepared!

She noticed then that he had stopped rowing. The boat drifted along in the center of the river, lazily taken by the steady current.

Zeri came forward again, kneeling down behind the bench he sat on. "You've been rowing all day. You must be so tired. Here."

She reached up and wrapped her hands around his left arm first, massaging through the sleeve, her thumbs kneading slow and deep circles round and around, fingers trying to loosen the ache and the tension.

And she smiled. It just felt good to do something nice for him.

Weylin Kyrel

 

[Weylin Kyrel]

The hunter continued to row. One might assume he was smith bastard son of some dead king as much rowing as he was doing right now.

His mind went back to the time he had spent with the orcess so far. Not as if his body need his brain for anything else but the tedious motion of rowing after all. Their meeting was not great. He was unfriendly. She was too because she had an arrow directed towards her. Then the troll attack and their time in the lost dwarven hold. The bat thing that had nearly killed them. The ghosts. The fever. The kobolds. It was a very strange encounter.

Bhathairk was no better. Both of them lost a maternal figure....

Weylin felt Zeri's hands on his arm. She began to massage. It felt good. A warm smile formed.

"Thank you Zeri.... For everything. You mean much to me."

Zeri Rekani

 

[Zeri Rekani]

Simple words, but in them was contained so much: the wholeness of a journey, harrowing peril and terrible sorrow, the perseverance through it, the leaning upon one another, friendship, caring, more. Zeri's heart melted with affection. For as much as she wanted to explore the world and experience the life of wandering adventure, she knew well that it would all be for nothing if she let her relationships wither.

"Ooohhh, Weylin," she said, the delightful sting of joyful tears around the edges of her eyes. She blinked them away, smiling broadly. "That's so sweet!"

A tiny snowflake landed on her nose, melting almost instantaneously from the warmth of it and running down the side of her nostril as water. She switched to his other arm, and kept massaging.

"I'm really glad to have met you. Even if I was a little scared at the start." She giggled. Then her earnestness returned. "I care about you, Weylin. I really do."

It was the truth, and yet--spirits!--did it make her feel so bashful! Her cheeks burned and she knew, just knew, they were flushing red against the green of them to boot. She didn't even need to, being behind him, but she dipped her head low and averted her gaze.

Yet her smile didn't go anywhere.

Weylin Kyrel

 

[Weylin Kyrel]

The hunter had a fever. After the orcess' words it was clearly the only explanation of why he was so red himself. They might need that beach soon or White might tip the whole thing over and dump all of them and their things into the water as deadly as those daggers she was staring into Zeri was right now. The white good girl was not happy about all of this fever having going on.

"Zeri, what do you want for evening meal?"

Maybe some words would help. He wasn't as good at talking as her, but he could try. Not as if they could really look at each other right now. They could hunt, forage, and fish around here more easily than back home. Spring in the Spine was a joyous occasion, not that it had arrived yet, but it was nothing compared to Winter outside of it from what he had experienced so far.

Zeri Rekani

 

[Zeri Rekani]

It was something of a good thing that Weylin brought the conversation back down to earth, so to speak. Phew, spirits, those were some dizzying heights! Her heart ached with affection, though the tiny, gripping pain of it she found she quite liked.

She sat back at the head of the boat. "Hm. I think we still have some that venison left. Even without spices, the way you cooked it was delicious!" Her Ma's side was salivating at the thought of it. Pa's too, he was a hunter after all, but certainly more so Ma's. Orcs, she thought, just had a finer taste for meat, and she got to experience that at least in half the degree.

Zeri pawed at her large pack, saying offhandedly, "Maybe I should check. I might've mixed it in with the jerky and gotten it all confused..."

Then something grabbed her attention. She looked up. Over the side of the boat. Pointed excitedly.

"Oh! Weylin! There! A place to land."

Indeed, where there wasn't vegetation growing over to touch the water's edge or rocky banks or too steep a side, a stretch of flat shore with little blades of grass being lapped by the river's current. The snow left a patchy white blanket upon the land, with most of the snowless shadows directly beneath trees whose leaves were sprinkled with a dusting of snow themselves.

Weylin Kyrel

 

[Weylin Kyrel]

Zeri always got excited over meat. Made him happy he was at least decent at hunting so he could let her eat it as often as he could. She went looking for their venison, which he thought they had already finished off. He could swear that White ate it when last they camped. Perhaps he was wrong?

Then she called out. A good spot for them to stop had finally shown up. So he did his best to see where the orcess was pointing to. There. It was a good spot, so he started to adjust the boat to begin heading towards it. An action that soon enough proved more challenging than he expected.

The current in the middle of the river was stronger than he was use to. It kept trying to draw them out towards what he had been told was the sea. He was unfamiliar with this land and didn't know what things were like. He just felt like he was trying to tug a rope out of the hands of a troll with each stroke of the oars.

It was no wonder those who spent much time on ships had arms like aspen trunks.

Zeri Rekani

 

[Zeri Rekani]

It took a moment, watching the smooth bank glide by at the speed of the river's current, for Zeri to realize that they weren't getting very much closer to it. She glanced back over her shoulder to Weylin. By the spirits, he was trying, but he had been rowing and keeping their course straight all day--one brief massage through his thick jacket wouldn't be enough to coax that sort of fatigue away!

Zeri turned and shifted back toward the middle of the boat, a beseeching hand laid on Weylin's shoulder. "Here, Weylin. If you move over, I can take the left oar. We can row together. I won't let you down, I promise!"

There was plenty of smooth bank left for them to make landfall, but still they had to actually get there.

Weylin Kyrel

 

[Weylin Kyrel]

The rowing was not going well. It was making the hunter look bad in front of the orcess. At this pace she was likely to think him weak which would be bad. Orcs were attracted to physical strength right? He thought he remembered hearing that years ago. Was it true though? Sounded true. Why was he even caring how he looked to her? Something to worry about later. Too much to ponder now.

Then Zeri moved over and offered to help row. As much as it might have bothered him to not be able to do it alone, Weylin moved over and let her take one of the oars. They would row together and hopefully reach the bank soon. His arms felt as if they were on fire. As did his back and his legs and every other part of his body.

Zeri Rekani

 

[Zeri Rekani]

Zeri took hold of her oar with both hands and, grunting, started the circular motion of rowing. And she could feel exactly which muscles in her arms were being taxed by the effort. They were only going against the current a little bit, their angle mostly aligned with the flowing water of the Bystrza, and still it was rough going to coax the boat in the direction they needed.

"Oh wow...and you were doing this...all day!" Zeri said, her arms rotating in the powerful and repetitive circles necessary to row, row, row.

She wasn't much of an orc, that was for sure. If Ma were here, she probably could have handled both oars without breaking much of a sweat. Zeri's small arms (some of the kids who teased her would've called them "runty" arms) were more elven than orcish. Maybe she had some decent strength in her legs, a-and in her back too! Her backpack made her look like a turtle with a comically oversized shell, or so she'd been told. But in her arms? Oh no. She had trouble lifting Weylin up (and just a tiny bit off the ground!) when he'd fallen unconscious in that mushroom cave.

But she wasn't alone in this.

She and Weylin were rowing together.

And, she could see it, the bank was getting closer. Ever so closer.

"We're doing it!" Zeri exclaimed. "Ha, ha! The Bystrza isn't going to sweep us away! Just a little further! Just a little further and we can relax!"

Weylin Kyrel

 

[Weylin Kyrel]

Together they rowed. It was rough work. Their actions needed to be in unison or it would all be in vain. A tough demand for the fresh. Weylin was far from fresh by this point.

His gaze went over to the orcess. He continued rowing but found his gaze unable to leave. She might have the figure of an elf but her muscles moved like an orc. A not so subtle strength. A pop with each movement. Each motion showing off what she was truly made off....

Suddenly they were on the shore. That jerk as watery give met solid resistance. Out of the boat he swung, forced to look away from Zeri and her muscles. He grabbed the boat and drug it up further onto the land. White jumped out once she could avoid getting wet. A blessing to not have that wet dog smell.

After he was sure the boat was safe, he turned to the orcess. "Thank you." For a moment he paused. "You looked like your ma."

Then the hunter got to work getting their stuff out of the boat so they could get their camp set up.

Zeri Rekani

 

[Zeri Rekani]

Zeri got into a particular rhythm, a rhythm which made distant everything else in the world save for the rowing. She just kept at it, trying to ignore the mounting burn of fatigue in her arms. The Bystrza was a mighty river, and the spirits which flowed within it were wild and whimsical! But they had to get to the bank. The river could carry them to the Ra Gnamh sea tomorrow, after a good night's rest.

At last, there was a bump and the tangible feel of resistance toward the prow of the boat. Zeri looked over her shoulder and let out a huge sigh. The bank! They made it! They could have been drifting for a while looking for another suitable spot to land.

Zeri hopped over the side of the boat, her winter boots splashing onto the thin surface of water at the bank. Weylin dragged the boat ashore. Zeri then rested her hands on the side of the boat and leaned heavily on it, her head bowed, catching her breath. Phew!

She looked up when Weylin spoke, her eyes bright. "R-Really? Did I?" She looked at her scrawny arms. "I've tried to do everything. Everything I could, you know, to be big and strong like her and like Paola and my brothers. But," she gave a shrug, flapping her arms up as she did and smiling a resigned but accepting smile, "I am who I am, I guess. Tiny little arms and no tusks and pointy ears and all. Ha, ha."

After a moment longer, she pulled her oversized pack from the boat and brought it on land. And with her foot she started to clear away a patch of snow to make room for setting up the tent.

Weylin Kyrel

 

[Weylin Kyrel]

The hunter was busy setting up their single tent in the space that the orcess had cleared for them. A task that was slower going than usual for him because of how sore and worn out his arms were after all the rowing. A fact he paid no mind to as he was happier that she had taken his comment so well.

The chirping of this song bird was just that pleasant of late.

Once the tent was set up it was time to worry about getting their stuff into it and a campfire set up. Putting stuff in would be easy, but the campfire might not be depending on how wet the wood was from the still lingering snow.

As Weylin had grabbed as much of their things out of the boat as he could manage, he kept up their conversation. "Fish for dinner or forage stuff for a hot pot?"

He was less familiar with the area than she was. He didn't know which of the two would be the better option. In the Spine fish could be harder to get your hands on during the winter because of ice being in the way. Foraging was also difficult, although there were kinds of winter berries that one could find. Like snowberries that only showed up when a blanket of white covered everything.

As the two worked, White had found her a spot and laid on it. Her gaze directed at them. A watchful glint in her eyes. A sour expression about her whole form. She just knew the female was going to do something completely and utterly inappropriate soon. Such a lust driven creature the female was. White was going to have to keep her human safe at all costs.

Zeri Rekani

 

[Zeri Rekani]

As Weylin was pitching the tent, Zeri had pulled out her hatchet and had set to chopping dead branches from a tree not so far from their camp. She came back with an armload of firewood and set it down on a cleared patch of ground. Went back out. Came back again with another armload, and by then the tent was raised.

"This was the driest tinder I could find," Zeri said, letting out a small phew after and wiping the back of her hand across her brow. Even in the cold she'd worked up a tiny bit of sweat from the effort. She did feel quite warm within her parka though, and it'd be a nice bridge of comfort until the fire got started to keep her that way.

"Oh! We could do both!" Zeri said as she was strapping her hatchet back onto her pack. "There are some Solceberries that I could scrounge up around here. They're a little strange. An odd taste for an odd plant, ha ha. But they're good! I like them. They're both sweet and sour, but more sweet. And they're these tiny little things. Hardy, you know? There's only a couple kinds of small scavenger animals that eat them, so there's plenty to find if you know what you're looking for—Pa showed me the trick."

Weylin Kyrel

 

[Weylin Kyrel]

THAT BITCH!

White was furious. The female was eternally in heat. Look how she got all that wood and ran around cheerfully and was saying so many words. None of it was impressive. Not a single part, yet her human had a slight smile on his face. Clearly she was bewitching him and spreading her filthy lust scent around. She needed to do something about this!

Weylin was surprised by what Zeri had to say to him. This berry was new to him and sounded good. It was always good to eat as many different kinds of things as you could to stay healthy. A trick from the elders in the Spine was to match your plants and meats into this portion of half and half to three fourths plants to one fourth meats. Those berries and some fish would probably taste really good together if he stuffed them inside the fish and then wrapped it up to cook.

The hunter was about to say something back when a big white terror lumbered over and began to scatter and break the sticks for the fire. He frowned and went to try and stop her.

"Stop. Bad!"

White didn't. She just kept at it till he was forced to grab her and lift her away. The dog looked very pleased with herself. Her human did not.

Zeri Rekani

 

[Zeri Rekani]

"Oh, she's feisty," Zeri said. "We can hardly blame her, though. All that time spent cooped up on the boat. She just wants to play, that's all!"

As Weylin carried White away, Zeri went back and rearranged the mess of tinder, sticks, and chopped firewood into some semblance of order. There. That was better. Some of it had been tossed far enough to land in some of the nearby patches of snow, and Zeri could only hope that didn't impede their efforts to start a fire too much.

"How do you fish in the Spine?" she asked, crouched down by the pile of wood. "Do you spearfish up there?"

Weylin Kyrel