Completed Hotbox

[Thraah]

"Yo stash, it's Thraah open up!"
Thraah had missed Zaire's infamous mac-n-cheese last time and she wasn't going to miss it again. Stash had the goods and while she was usually happy to trade for the usual purple stygian leaf she stood in front of his room adamant at not being denied.
Rumour has it he was batching again and so Thraah, by means of gentle persuasion, found out it was this very evening he was getting it ready. So she made sure to get there early and after tapping three times she spoke again.
"Come on man, I know you're in there. I made... Pen-pen told me."

Zaire

 

[Zaire]

“Stop yelling!” Zaire opened the door just enough to show his annoyed face immediately after she mentioned Penny. Really, Thraah hadn’t been yelling and even though her knocks were polite, Zaire felt like it was her banging and alerting the entire dormitory on what he was doing. “Shh.” He reiterated in a whisper.

As if there were Stalkers around, Zaire gave two long looks to either end of the hall before finally looking at Thraah in the eyes. He had been upset by her words at the dance but time had passed then. He supposed she didn’t know better, none of them did. The humanity sucked the sensitivity and empathy out of them all, even if no one likes to admit it.

“Just get inside.” He hissed, opening his door wider. “And hurry up.” This would be the last time he’d ever make his high end Mac and cheese.

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

"Sweet, thanks Stash."
Thraah slipped inside and took in Stash's room. It was bigger than hers and had a window.
"Figures." She stated quietly to herself as she flopped onto the bed.
She was unarmed of course, no need to carry weapons about the hallways, only psychos did that in her opinion and besides, no initiate was ever truly helpless plus she knew she had a bit of rocky stance with Stash lately.
But that's where Thraah had an in.
Recently, the weekly excursions to the kitchens had given her insight into the object of Stash's mad horn.
Stormy was an odd duck but in her own way Thraah felt they had bonded. Even if it was mostly over confect... Conduct... Cakes and stuff.
She propped herself up onto her elbows and looked squarely at Stash.
The door now shut.
"So... Let's talk brass, how much do you want for this little treat?"
Thraah's smile was wide and expectant. She knew it was a coveted thing, the mac-n-cheese, so there had to be payment.
"You want coin, Anirball Tickets, Stormy's socks? Pick your poison."



Zaire

 

[Zaire]

“Well you can first get off his bed. Sit there.” Zaire said bitterly and with a finger pointed at the bed on the other side that was actually his. Dak may have been missing for months now, with all the proctors shaking their head at the loss of an initiate with such potential, Zaire still had hope that his twin would return.

He locked the door. It was a simple lock and any proctor could open it with simple magic, but Zaire still felt safer with a locked door than an unlocked one. He went into a set of drawers, opening up and the smell of cheese and bacon flooded the room.

“I’m not asking for payment this time.” Zaire said. “But everyone only gets one portion.” There was a pause and he glanced at Thraah with a more pointed expression. “And no, I do not want Houri’s socks. I’m not a creep. You want a corner or a middle piece?”

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

"Oh, corner please."
Thraah said getting up and strolling over to the other bed.
"Sorry, I didn't know whose bed was... eh, any news, on Dak I mean. Anything?"
It was a slim hope but hey, you never know. She had heard a few rumors but nothing solid. Dak was killed, his body eaten by elfs, that kind of thing. She knew it was mostly bull.
She lounged on his bed and looked up at him waiting for a response.

Zaire

 

[Zaire]

With stolen wooden serving utensils from the kitchens, Zaire began to cut into the Mac and cheese inside the glass casserole dish. He was careful with this, clearly taking his time to measure and ensure that the promises he made to everyone could be fulfilled. Strangely enough, the fact that this was the last time had gotten him more orders than when he had started making it.

“No.” Zaire said with a shrug. The days had turned to weeks, weeks to months and now it was nearly a year. “But I know he’s okay.” He had to, they were twins. There had to be some telepathic connection between them, even if it was only unconscious. “He’s lost or stuck but he’ll come back.” Zaire wasn’t sure if he was lying or being optimistic.

The piece was perfectly cut. Zaire had a stash of dried corn husks that when folded just right could make a good plate or box. He began folding them, careful not to make them tear or break.

“I just hope it’s before we graduate, you know? He’d hate being a super senior.”

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Thraah had heard about the links between twins and such. It was a common belief that she decided she wanted to believe in at the time.
"Yeah, I can see how that would suck."
Thraah had no idea what Stash meant by a "super senior". It sounded like a large sandwich.
Her eyes watched him work. He was clearly very crafty and he could cook. While Thraah had figured relationships were not the thing for Stormy she could see why people wanted her. She had the whole package and then some. Stash by comparison always seemed a bit, small, but she had to admit watching him work and smelling the clearly delicious meal meant he was already leagues ahead of the Blondies. She'd bet her thumbs they couldn't cook up a decent plan let alone a meal between them.
"Just a thought but have you considered presenting Stormy with your cooking? Maybe not THIS stuff but the regular kind. Might turn her head towards you."
She had tried to explain to Stormy that Stash was head over bawls for her but the woman was hopeless. If he was gonna get her attention that way then Lumen had to be removed and he had to move.
Getting him to move would be the harder of the two and she wasn't going to push too hard but she hated seeing people not go for what they want. It was like watching a river refuse to flow.

Zaire

 

[Zaire]

A twinge of jealousy sparked in his chest at hearing Thraah’s nickname for Houri. Did Houri actually let Thraah call her Stormy? Were they that close? Zaire tried to think if he saw the two of them hanging out, but with Thraah being into Anir Ball and Houri being, well, Houri, he struggled in seeing them being friends. Did they play Anir Ball when he had to attend his forced acapella lessons with Proctor Fernando?

“Thraah.” Zaire continued his folding. He liked keeping his hands busy. It reminded him of helping his grandparents when it came to brining the olives after they had spent the two weeks of harvesting the orchards outside. “Houri would literally eat anything. Me cooking for her isn’t going to change… what’s wrong with me.” He sighed, done with the folding and then putting her portion of max and cheese on it.

“Anyways, I used it all up in this batch. One bite, wait thirty minutes, see how you feel and maybe take another if you want to really get zooted.” He raised the dark brow over his red eye, his scar stretching further along his face. “You know if you do want to pay me back for this, you can help spread the word that I’m no longer… that… yanno, I’m clean now.” And he wasn’t going to share the locations of Chasmine’s old gardens either, but if he said that then he felt there really would be an uproar. Not that he had been the only one to deal things of this nature around the Academy, but he had been known for quality and not taking advantage of others with it. But he had to do this, for himself, so he could finally be good enough for her.

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

"You try too hard dude. Stormy is a free spirit, like a bird, ya need to let her come to you. Or you could tempt her with food and trust me, she has opinions about food and will not eat just anything."
Her mind went back to Stormy's insistence on chocolate frosting.
"Thank you."
Thraah carefully took the husk made bowel and examined it. The wooden spoon made it seem so cozy but that was probably her broke ass upbringing.
She took a spoonful and was about to bite when she stopped.
"Wait, you're going straight edge? No more funky muffins or mushroom tea? I'll spread the word but you're disappointing a lot of folk with that one Stash."
She bit down, chewed and swallowed. Damn it was good, so good she wanted more immediately. Would another mouthful or two be so bad?
"Mmm. Dish ish veliscious!"

Zaire

 

[Zaire]

He tried too hard? Zaire had felt that at the dance, Zinnia had told him he hadn’t tried enough— that he hadn’t been trying at all. But that was the issue, listening to everyone else, listening to his negative inner thoughts. That was the issue because it was how he got to where he was now: trying to scramble out of a big black pit of despair.

“If I keep it in this room, I might… yanno.” He didn’t want to say relapse, to speak it into existence. He didn’t want to admit the problem he did have. It was wrong to still lie to himself, to pretend it wasn’t as bad, but the first month after the dance had been painful. Lying in this room, knowing all the secret hiding spots for his stash was like starving and sitting at a buffet. He had slept on top of Dak’s bed on the worst nights.

The conversation quickly turned into something more lighthead before Zaire could get too much more in his head. It was easy talking to Thraah with her sincerity. So he gave her a pleasant grin and unlike the Zaire that Thraah had grown up with, he sat down beside her.

“You gotta bake Mac and cheese, if you just cook it in a pot then it gets sticky, sure, but not gooey. And you don’t cook the bacon all the way, let it get crisp up, then chop and then fry again and then put it in into the oven with everything else.” He stopped talking, Thraah hadn’t asked to know all of that.

“So. Since when are you close with Houri?” It seemed he couldn’t keep his mouth shut for long after all.

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

"That's cool. I get it. Some nights are just hard here and you've had it harder than some."
She became acutely aware of the the empty bed in the room. Thankfully Stash changed the topic, she had time for him but she didn't want to start her trip on a downer and she didn't think he'd enjoy it either.
Thraah listened but suspected she was not going to remember these very good instructions.
She put the small leaf bowl down and tried to give Stash her full attention. Wait was he going to need a new nickname?
Moments passed until she became aware of his expectant gaze. She heard his question but it was lost in her thoughts a bit.
"Uh, yeah well. I don't know, we just sorta started hanging out kinda. She's cool. I can see why you like her. Got that Luana charm and surprisingly not half as scary as some people think. She's just, she spends a lot of time in her own head I think that and the rumours about her escaping some mad lords castle and killing all the guards then leveling the place in a boiling inferno. Like, who wouldn't be scared of that person?"
She lay back and rested her head crocked against the wall.
"I mean I like that kinda thing but I get that it's off putting for some. So yeah I guess we're friends or whatever. What about you bro? You got your dance. I saw it, some of it. Was it as magical as it all looked?"
Thraah feigned a fainting posture as she said it. Stash was like Liv that way, way too easy to poke fun at.

Zaire

 

[Zaire]

Zaire wasn’t going to correct Thraah and tell her that he liked Houri when she was scary. He hadn’t heard the rumor of her turning a castle into a boiling inferno— surely there were other initiates who could boil and turn things into an inferno— but he wasn’t about to make any corrections when he had no idea whether it was true or not. Zaire couldn’t say why exactly, but he was sure there was truth to the rumor. Probably the part with Houri killing all the guards.

“Luana charm, huh.” Zaire repeated and awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. Thraah sure did talk a lot. He was already forgetting half of what she had said but then again his attention had been focused more on Houri and anytime Thraah had mentioned her name. At least until she mentioned the dance and then Zaire could do nothing but look down at the ground in shame.

“I dunno, I don’t think it was magical for either of us.” And only Zaire was to blame for that, not Houri. “I mean, the only thing that is magical is us. Not together, separately, I mean, but also together because we have magic.” He cringed at his own ramblings. Good thing he had gone cold turkey. “Houri is a good dancer though.”

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Thraah gave Stash a playfully backhand slap on his side.
"You know it. Any wonder she had Blondie chasing her."
She spat Leander's nickname.
"As if he could handle someone like Stormy."
She gave a snorting laugh.
"Can you imagine them together? *Now woman. You're not blonde so you have to make up for it with lots and lots of awful babies.* She'd cut his plums off and feed them to him on the honeymoon."
Thraah's impression of Leander was terrible. She deepened her voice too much and didn't use any words he might. Still she made a face and pointed a disapproving finger at the invisible image of Houri that hovered over them both.
She slapped his arm with her knuckles upon hearing Stash claim it wasn't magical.
"Oh what? Shut up dude. Stormy embarrassed Leander, made a super cool light show and then asked YOUR SKRAWNY ASS to dance."
She slapped him again to emphasise the very obvious point she was making.
"Stormy likes you dingus. She had the whole academy in the palm of her hand and who does she choose? Say it. Who did Houri Luana choose to dance with?"
She was smiling now despite the friendly badgering she was giving him.
Stash was a smart guy in most areas but she was often baffled at how his many friends who were also women seemed to still leave him clueless.

Zaire

 

[Zaire]

Zaire grimaced at her impression of Leander, not because it was bad but because he really didn’t like the image of Houri and Leander doing it. It also brought forth another insecurity he had. He had seen Leander naked too many times, and when he had been younger, it hadn’t bothered him. Some guys liked to show off, Leander was one of those guys. Zaire hadn’t realized how much it would bother him as he got older when now in the men’s bathrooms he couldn’t help but to compare.

Worse yet, Thraah had mentioned honeymoon. The two of them married? His gut felt empty and Zaire cleared his throat. Even if Houri hadn’t became enamored by the young Urahil, Zaire hadn’t done anything to make Houri like him the way he liked her and—

“Houri likes me?” Zaire asked, quiet and hopeful. His eyes were wide at such a revelation. Thraah and Houri were friends, did they talk about things like this? Had Houri told Thraah that she had wanted to dance with Zaire but unfortunately got stuck with Silas and Leander? Then Zaire’s shoulders slumped. Bad things happened in threes, he had told her that on their mission. It couldn’t just be a coincidence that when they danced, he suddenly had to upchuck all over the floor.

“Thraah. I appreciate your… what this is.” His face had steeled, eyes narrowed down in usual teen resentment. “But I don’t have a chance with Houri, even if she does like me, if I can’t keep up with her. I gotta grow up and be a man now. I want to be someone she can rely on, someone she trusts— like Maz. Not, like, I want to be her brother. I’m not saying that. I’m just saying that Maz is, yanno, a good dude, a good friend. He’s the sort of guy any girl would like. That’s what I’m trying to say. Not that Houri loves him as more than a brother.” She wasn’t a Urahil.

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Thraah lay in the bed and blinked.
"Imma take my boots off."
It was hardly the words Stash wanted to hear but she was getting cozy and boots on beds was mank, wait Maseno?
*BADUMPUMP*
The temperature changed around Thraah. A gentle heat began radiating from her as if she was a hot lump of iron.
*Thunk*
The left boot collapsed onto the floor.
"Yeahhh... He's pretty dreamy."
The right boot followed it's sister to the ground.
*Thudunk*
And Thraah remembered the moment she made her heroic, and frustratingly unnoticed, perfect dash-intercept of Maseno Luana at the Dance as he was falling over thanks to Vee's doggo.
His golden eyes, his sharp cut jaw, that way he smiled like he was happy to see her, (the not so hard to notice ripped arms under his suit sleeves).
"Hmmm!"
A sigh of utter contentment left her nose and she remembered where she was.
"Aheh, I mean. Pfsh, yeah. Maseno is hot, I mean cool. I guess. If you like that sort of thing."
Thraah absolutely did like Maseno's sort of thing.
"Heh, wait. Hold up!"
She adjusted herself on the bed which ended up with her socks on the bedside wall and her hair hanging off the bed. This way she looked right up at Stash's face while still laying down. One of the perks of being short was the absolute abuse of such positions but Stash was one of the few who could match her there, only an inch between them and Stash held it.
"I need to ask you something okay and you gotta be real with me, promise? Cool."
Thraah didn't wait for Stash to reply at all. She took a breath.
"... Did, does... Maseno ever say, anything about me? Like in passing, on a mission or in training or something?"
She thought about her question and another one popped into her head, born from Stash's own words.
"And what do you mean about keeping up with Stormy?"
Stash's grades were good and he was always away on missions, he was going to graduate next year. Nobody questioned it.

Zaire

 

[Zaire]

Zaire looked at Thraah, oblivious over how she couldn’t decide whether Maz was cool or hot or both. Zaire thought he had to be both, but if he said that to Thraah would she take it the wrong way? Zaire didn’t want to be known for having a crush on Houri and Maz. Just Houri.

“Say anything like what?” Zaire asked, glad he rephrased his original question (“is he supposed to say anything about you?”) and able to hopefully avoid the third question Thraah asked. “Did you and him get in a fight?” Initiates fighting one another was more common than them kissing one another, and that was saying something considering how Urahil and Quinnick acted like they had a competition on who could kiss the most people.

“Maseno’s chill, if you apologize, he’ll understand.” Although Zaire thought Thraah to be a hothead, and a little too nosey for her own good, he couldn’t quite picture Maseno fighting with anybody without a proctor telling him to. Not even with Leander could Zaire imagine Maseno losing his cool. He just… didn’t do that.

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

"What? Fight? No dingus, it's... Ugh! I don't know where I stand with him."
Thraah held her arms out over the edge of the bed in exasperated dramatics.
She was quiet for a minute building up to the inevitable outburst.
"AGH!"
This exclamation was accompanied by an even more dramatic show of flailing limbs.
"Okay, the problem is,"
Thraah gathered her thoughts for the truth. It was in there, she just had to carve away the bullshit and the filler.
"He's soooo nice and kind and decent and he LISTENS. Kress' blood do you know how hard it is to find a boy who listens? No offence, but it's kinda true and he likes me but I don't..." Here it was the hard nugget at the centre of it all, the pit in the fruit. Thraah turned her head away from Zaire, he wasn't Stash now, he wasn't the boy she enjoyed teasing and went to for purple leaf. He was the one who was lovesick over another Luana and didn't know where his brother was and was one of Maseno's closest friends.
"I don't KNOW if he's just being Maseno or if he ACTUALLY likes me. So I hoped, you might have heard him say something that might clear that up for me."
Then she pinched Stash on the upper thigh below the waist.
"You're not off the hook by the way. I'm still gonna bother you about Stormy till you tell me what you mean by "keeping up with her" that sounds weird."
The smallest grin tugged at her cheek.
Oh, the mac was starting to kick in. She felt the edges of her perception blur slightly and her heartbeat increased. A fresh wave of warm air began to radiate from her body.
"Oh here we go!"

Zaire

 

[Zaire]

Was his room always this hot? He only ever felt this hot when he was around Houri, and even then it wasn’t that he felt hot but instead clammy and sweaty. Sometimes a little sick in the gut but he wasn’t going to admit that to anyone.

“You like… like-like Maz?” Zaire asked, brows raising up high and he looked at Thraah with a peculiar bewilderment. The only thing he thought she liked was Anir Ball. She liked Maz, too? “You guys are kinda opposites.” He commented, looking away, bashful.

It was weird, seeing and hearing a girl talk about her crush. Thraah didn’t seem able to stop, either, even if she did bring Houri up again, Zaire hadn’t missed how much she could say about one thing about a person. He decided then that he liked it— this side of Thraah. At times he found her obnoxious, even a bit of a bully, but a bully could never like someone like Maz. And Maz wouldn’t hang around a bully.

“I could… bring you up to him sometime in conversation. See if he, uh… smiles when I say your name?” Zaire offered. “And if he says anything, I’ll tell you, fair?”

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Man this was good stuff.
"Hmm?"
Thraah's concentration had slipped for a bit so it took her a second to catch up to Stash's words.
"Duh, yeah."
It was still embarrassing to talk about to hey, that's what drugs were for.
"I-mean-I'm-not-like-baby-crazy-for-him-or-anything-but-he-apologised-for-his-bitch-cousin-who-is-bitch-and-we-had-a-dance-once-and-there-was-kissing-kinda-and-now-we-say-hey-and-I-get-this-warm-feeling-when-he-looks-at-me-like-my-chest-expands-or-something-is-that-what-it's-like-with-Stormy?"
The trade ended with another waft of warm air from her.
Thraah smacked her lips and let her tongue roam her own mouth for flavours.
"Opposites???"
She muled over the idea while mining for taste from her teeth. It wasn't a bad thing to her mind. Her Momni was NOT like her Mom so she saw it could work.
Stash's suggestion nearly made her bite herself.
"NO DUDE!"
She slapped him again, quickly but gently the look on her face said *are you fucking serious?*
"He's Maseno Luana. His brain is too handsome to fall for that."
Thraah had tried to say *his brain is too big* and *he is too handsome* at the same time.
"But enough about me."
She reached over and pulled Stash's pillow lazily towards her to hug it as if she might float away without it. The real reason was to give her hands something to do so she stopped slapping him.
"Stormy. Leaving you behind or something, speak."
There was something important in those words Stash had said, she could feel it and she wasn't letting up.

Zaire

 

[Zaire]

It took Zaire a moment too long to realize that it was hitting Thraah. He got off the bed, collecting a waterskin and an apple he had snuck from the dining hall. He gave both to Thraah as she spoke about Maseno’s handsome brain. His lips had quirked up into a smile at her gushing but went back into a thin line as Houri was brought up again. Damn, even faded Thraah was persistent.

“Uh,” he said. There was a long silence and Zaire took his time in figuring out his feelings instead of his words. “Houri deserves the best. Better than the best actually. And I’m… not the best. I’m not even great or ‘that good.’” He sat back down on the bed. “So I’m gonna change. I’m gonna be better, the best version of me that I can be. And when I am, I’ll tell her how I feel and maybe she won’t be embarrassed by it.”

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Stash was doing the thing.
There were words for it and Thraah knew she should use them but basically she understood this behaviour as *that thing that makes her want to bully Stash* she saw it at the dance when he just took Leander's shit and didn't fight back and she found it very frustrating.
"Oh, thanks again, shit you're PREPARED!"
Taking the water skin she put it on the pillow that now rested on her belly and took a noisy bite of the apple and chewed it, mouth open, juice on her face. Smiling up at him.
Stash thought of everything. Getting doted on was nice. She wondered why Stash was not leading his march towards Stormy with THIS approach.
Also if Stash was waiting to make his move then there was a pretty glaring hole in his plan and his thinking.
"What if Stormy doesn't wait?"
She took another bite and chewed while she continued. Apples were delicious.
"I mean, you want to be the best you. Cool. That's good. I support your decisions to stop getting blitzed in class and becoming more yourself."
Thraah tossed him a thumbs up that pointed down to the floor.
"But like,"
She took another bite and gathered her swift moving thought. Plucking them from the air.
"Stormy isn't perfect yo. She's got, stuff going on."
Thraah didn't know what exactly, rumours were one thing but from their interactions she picked up the not so subtle cues that Stormy was kinda suck a social stuff sometimes.
"She thinks you're hung up on eh... Oh piss what's her name?"
Her mind was drifting a bit it was easily forgotten. Thraah hadn't even met her. She was just a name to her.

Zaire

 

[Zaire]

The scary part was, with Zaire’s commitment to this path, that it was entirely possible it would all be for nothing. In Zaire’s mind, everyone liked Houri— or at least they should like her. She was beautiful, competent, honest, strong, a good cook, and perhaps best of all, generous. He liked the way she made him feel, he liked the way she was to her family (at least the living ones, he still struggled in understanding her demeanor when she relayed the sad news of her father and brother) and figured she’d get along with his own family.

There were many things he liked about Houri, and there were also some things he didn’t like. It didn’t dim Houri’s shine. It didn’t make her less, just another part of her. He didn’t know why he couldn’t apply the same logic to himself.

“Houri doesn’t need to be perfect to deserve the best,” Zaire said quietly instead. He sighed before continuing. “Lumen, right?” He fell back onto the bad. The warmth in the room was making him a little sleepy. “I don’t get along with people like Lumen, she’s so…” he struggled to find a nice way to put it. He failed. “Nosey. I don’t even understand why Houri thinks I like Lumen.”

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Thraah couldn't see Stash anymore. Only his legs on the corner of her eye.
She thought of Maseno and how much Stash's words mirrored her own feelings.
This brought more heat from her to warm the room.
"I don't know Lumen but if YOU don't like her she must be bad. I mean, heh, you put up with me."
She crossed her ankles on the wall, her socks were thick and a clay red in colour.
Thraah was almost finished with the apple now. Only core remaining which she bit into. Seeds ground under her molars.
"You don't have to be perfect either Stash. You got a lot going for you too. Cooking, friendly..."
She counted on her fingers as she went.
"... You're a good listener, you're good in a fight, you're clean, you're not an Urahil. That's loads. What are you planning to add to that?"
She finished the apple and chewed on the stem.
Her arms hung over the bed beside Stash's legs.
The ceiling, which she now studied like an old manuscript was certainly wood and plaster. The cracks were like rivers and she felt a bit like she might be able to will herself to fall up onto it.
The sensation brought a smile to her face.

Zaire

 

[Zaire]

A hand was scratching at the back of his neck as Zaire brought his gaze elsewhere. It was rather embarrassing being complimented like this, even more embarrassing that it came from Thraah after they had both admitted to liking two people who, at least in Zaire’s opinion, they shouldn’t like. Liking another initiate was wrong. Sometimes it felt wrong how much he liked Houri.

“You know Lumen,” Zaire said quietly. “She’s in our class.” Maybe he shouldn’t have insulted her, though. Was that Thraah’s way of nicely telling Zaire he was being unfair when she couldn’t defend herself? Never mind that. He sighed. “I’d like to be taller. Maybe not as tall as Leander but taller than Houri. Like how Silas and her looked at the dance.” Was that really too much to ask for?

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Thraah didn't remember Lumen. She tried to remember to give her a talk about this.
Maybe if Lumen spoke to Stormy.
Ugh that was always the trouble Thraah thought. Folk should talk.
Her Mom always said, talk about it, whatever it is. She found the wisdom of those words now.
Hold on.
"Taller?"
Thraah thought about it. She remembered Silas and Liv at the dance. They certainly looked happy and she heated up to thinking about looking up at Maseno. Into those golden eyes.
"Mmmmmm. Taaaaaaaaaall. Heh. Yeah, fair enough. So how are you gonna do that? Magic? Growth potions? Stilts?"
Thraah was perhaps one of the few folk who knew this particular plight of Stash's but still, it was different for her. Least it seemed so.

Zaire