deercountry | Sun rises, night falls, sometimes the sky calls...

She accepted the offering slowly. It smelled of sugar, which was something she found she missed. There hadn't been any in the forests of Deleo, but growing up in Valeria, she'd taken a shine to sweets. Sugar got rarer and rarer as the siege of the Red Dragon gained strength, but she'd always managed to know a few ways to sneak them.

Never this color before. She turned it over in her fingers, looking intrigued. What could possibly turn anything blue? No fruits that she could think of. Only a few sorts of flowers that, so far, she hadn't seen in Trench.

"A soldier?" she said, her eyes flicking up to him. "I'm surprised. I'd think it would make you inclined to be a hunter around here."

Raleigh chuckled and shook his head again, the candy clacking behind his teeth before he tucked it in his cheek. He's a fidgeter.

"No, I think my fighting days are over. Rode hard and put away wet."

Which was mostly true. He would fight to protect himself, his loved ones and his property, but he didn't feel the need to go out looking for trouble. Trench was full of hunters, they didn't need a busted up old has-been like him.

"I teach, though. Or I did in Deerington, there towards the end."

Rode hard and put away wet? What in the world did that mean? Had he drowned a horse or something? Horses were far from Ariadne's favorite animals, but she couldn't imagine something that awful.

It had to be a figure of speech.

She really, really hoped it was.

"Wh-what do you teach?" she asked, trying to set aside the terrible images of horses in the water.

N-no- Airy. He is the horse.

Raleigh furrowed his brow, watching her try to process something and not understanding what the confusion was.

"Self defense," he answered slowly.

"Sorry, did I say something wrong?"

"I..."

Thirty-five languages, thirty-six if you counted Elven handspeak. And she still struggled with some of the most basic sentences.

It was further proof that the universe--or multiverse--had something of a sense of humor. She could appreciate that, of course. Laughter was important. She just wished that the joke would be on someone else, every now and then.

"'Rode hard and put away wet?' Is...is that an idiom?"

"Oh- it, yeah it is."

His turn to be embarrassed. He forgot himself, sometimes. If it was any consolation Raleigh had several languages as well and yet here he still was struggling with his first.

"It means you haven't been taken care of very well."

A hard ridden horse stabled without care was left exhausted and uncomfortable, but he meant it in an even more abstract way.

"I'm a little beat up from service is what I meant."

But who liked bringing up their disabilities in a first meeting.

"Ooooh."

Her expression immediately turned to one of sympathy. Not pity, of course. Because she knew there was nothing worse in the world than being pitied. She was only sorry to hear that he felt that way.

"Well," she said, "in that case, perhaps you'd also like to sample some of the tea mixes that I've been experimenting with as well?"

Nothing like tea for a weary soul.

Raleigh perks and gives a soft, lopsided smile before nodding.

"I'd like that, thank you. Nothing with caffine, please."

He jiggles his hands to demonstrate being fill of energy, a nice way to say I'm Baby and Very Caffeine Sensitive. He's got a hard enough time sleeping as it is.

"You know.. I bet if we worked together we could start some serious agra-form here in Trench. I think we're here for the long haul and I dunno about you but I'm starting to get sick of mushrooms."

"This way."

With a nod of her head, she led him to a spiral staircase in the corner of the great room. It wound up to the second floor, which was Ariadne's apartment. A small space, with a large canopy bed on one side and a practically-untouched kitchenette on the other. In between was a low, wooden table. Surrounded by an assortment of pillows in various jewel tones. Ariadne had started decorating her home with mobiles of found objects: pieces of glass and metal and ribbon. Casting sparkling colors all over the room in the mid-day sun.

"I'm afraid," she said, walking over to the kitchenette, "that I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'caffeine.' Is that an herb of some kind? I've never heard of it before, so I doubt think it's in any of my teas."

Raleigh follows and takes in Ariadne's personal space with the same degree of awe in which he saw her shop. It's graceful and colorful and curated whilst still being inviting and comfortable. He loves it.

"Huh? Oh- It's uh- the chemical in plants that give you energy. I don't mix well with anything that keeps you going, you know?"

"Oh, you mean like coffee?"

When she didn't know a word, it always helped if she was able to identify the idea of it. The notion. It made her feel a little less silly. She wasn't educated, but she wasn't stupid.

And there was the language barrier.

She shook her head. "Don't worry. This is the kind of tea I usually dream to calm down, not get hyped up."

He nods as she speaks- yes exactly like coffee. One cup in the morning has him wired until the next morning. He's so sensitive wah. Not to mention a downer when he is constantly refusing hospitality.

"That sounds perfect. What's in it?"

She started taking jars out of her cabinets in the little kitchen. She didn't keep much in the way of food, but herbs were an interest and a specialty. And while she couldn't cook, she certainly knew how to dry them. Unfortunately, she didn't have matching cups. So out came a short, stout blue mug, along with a high, narrow purple one, with a cracked handle.

"I'll make a blend with spearmint, lemongrass, tilia, blackberry, hawthorn, and rosebuds," she said, adding a pinch of each ingredient to each of the mugs as she spoke. "It would be better with chamomile, but I haven't been able to find much of that here. Not yet, anyway."

And even better with orange blossoms. But Trench didn't really have the climate for oranges.

She started to fill her kettle with water, before carefully lighting the stove with a long match. Ariadne hated fire. It was a necessary evil, but she always regarded it with a certain amount of wariness. And she was quick to put out the match, as soon as the stove blazed to life.

Raleigh watches with interest, taking stock of all her ingredients. It's interesting and something he's devoting himself to knowing better now that he has the time. Now that the world isn't hanging on by a thread.

"I have chamomile.. but no seeds. Can we do anything with that?"

"There's plenty you can do," she said. "But without seeds, you have to keep in mind that you'll only be able to do those things a few times, before you run out. So I would recommend saving it for the most medicinal purposes, until you can find a steady supply."

There would always be new ways to make tea.

She leaned back against the counter, gesturing to the pillows around the table. "You can sit down, if you like. I don't need to stand on formality."

Well. Technically. But he meant like.. some cool way of magically reverse engineering the plant back to a place where it could produce seeds. Maybe just a lofty dream.

"Oh- sure. Yeah. sorry. I'm used to being the one in the kitchen," he says and offers a gentle laugh before moving to do as instructed.

A beat.

"What if I fed the chamomile to Fern and he could make the plant...alive again? Is that a thing?"

She frowned thoughtfully, grabbing a rag off the counter as the kettle started to whistle. "I'm not sure if that's how it works or not," she admitted. "Fern says it's related to his moods, possibly the people around him?" She picked up the kettle, carefully pouring the boiling water into each mug. "I suppose you'd have to ask him but...it's possible."

Sometimes, it felt like anything was possible in Trench.

Which was exciting. And also a little terrifying. But mostly exciting.

Ariadne liked possibilities.

"I'm sorry, I don't have any cream or sugar," she continued. "But hopefully, this will have enough flavor." She blew out the stove, then picked up both mugs, carrying them over to the table. Raleigh got the purple one. She kept the blue for herself, folding her legs beneath her as she sat down on the other side.

“Don’t be, this is perfect. Thank you.” he answers and takes the cup, bringing it close to breathe in the steam.

Herbal tea doesn’t want cream and sugar anyway.

“I’ve got to say.. it’s nice meeting another Deerington. veteran.”

"Deerington veteran." She smiled a little, breathing in the lovely scent of the tea, before she took a small sip. "I don't think I've ever heard us called that before, but it's somewhat fitting, isn't it?"

Being in Deerington had been a bit like going to war.

Going to war in a way Ariadne never had. Oh, she'd done her part. But the battles she'd fought had been...invisible. And mostly bloodless, thank the gods.

Surviving in Deerington had been war enough, even if she hadn't. Even if he hadn't.

"Kinda is, you've got to admit. Suddenly shedding your skin and skeleton rats made out of flowers are just another tuesday."

She tried not to laugh. And managed, for the most part, by biting her lips together. There was just the smallest, little snicker that managed to escape. But she couldn't help it.

Anyway, if you didn't laugh...

Well. After losing Dean, Ariadne was trying very hard to get back to the place she'd been where she didn't allow herself to cry.

"There were good parts to it too," she said. "Meeting people you were never supposed to know..."

"Yeah, that's true," he nods in agreement.

"Incredible second chances, too. Say what you want about these places but given the choice-" he does have the choice, they all have the choice-

"I wouldn't leave. My home is here, now."

Edited 2022-02-03 00:57 (UTC)

"I don't hear people say that often," she said. "Sometimes, people laugh when I even suggest that this is better than home."

She was liking Raleigh more and more. He seemed to be able to keep up with her optimism. That was a rare and wonderful thing.

How was it that she hadn't met him before? No way to know.

Ariadne lifted her mug in toast. "To Deerington. And to Trench."

Two ships in the same fleet. It's so reassuring.

Raleigh lifts his mug in reply, toasting before he takes a sip and gives a soft, pleased exhale. This is really nice.

He hasn't had much of a chance to enjoy soft things in his life. It's something he's been working on here of all places, amazingly, now that he has the time and safe space.

Funny to ascribe that to a place as dangerous as Trench but it is what it is. He's carving out a nice little life for himself.

"So tell me, orchards, herbal tea, beach glass.. that can't be all there is. What's your story?"

She nearly spit in surprise.

It was still an adjustment, having people show this much of an interest her. Probably because she'd been trained so well to be invisible, back home. That and Humans in general seemed to enjoy talking about themselves, more than anything else.

Ariadne shook her head. "I'm not sure what to say," she admitted. "I come from a world that no one's ever heard of. And I'm the only one here. Anything I do, people either think is quaint, old-fashioned, quirky, or just weird..."

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Sorry for the delay!

No worries :)

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