Post by gizmo on Feb 9, 2013 12:59:14 GMT -8
Naast sat cross-legged in the desert sand, reclined against a lush palm tree. He had come across an oasis with his companion hours past, though where they’d gotten to he hadn’t the faintest idea. He closed his glass-colored eyes and drank up the sun with his deep ebony skin. His skin was a natural defense against the harsh environment of the sands, and he dressed accordingly. He wore billowing pants of bright blue, which draped slightly past his knees, and a jeweled vest too small for his figure. Naast was young and relatively well-built, as life in the desert demanded. He took a deep breath of the hot, arid air and yawned, stretching to get comfortable. His long braids acted as a make-shift pillow against the rough palm’s bark; he kept his hair in a large, neat plait that reached the small of his back. Sleepily, he cracked an eyelid to see their two lonely camels drinking from the sweeping, shallow pools of the oasis.
“Uhg, what’s taking you so long?” Naast grumbled unhappily, closing his eye once more.
Senju knelt by the pool of clear water filling the canteens while Naast remained against the palm tree. She was a thin, wiry girl, much younger than her companion, with a bit of growing to do. “If you wanted this to go faster, you could always get off your butt and help me,” she snapped in his direction, her bright green eyes glaring at him over her shoulder before returning to filling the canteens. It had only been a week since she had met the man. Living off of the streets in Sabul, the jewels on his vest shining brightly against his dark skin, darker even than her own caramel brown skin, had immediately drawn her attention. The rest of his clothing was made of richly colored material, with no visible holes, also unlike her own attire. Surely this was someone who would not be too grievously hurt to find their coin purse missing. Unfortunately, he had noticed her just as she had cut his purse strings in the market crowd. She had made a dash for it, but one of the city guards had caught her before she could make use of any of her usual escapes. Senju supposed she should count herself lucky that Naast had decided to bring her along with him. Had he not, the city authorities would have cut off her hand for stealing.
"Hey, you can leave anytime you want, girl. Just leave me that hand of yours and be on your way," Naast joked dryly. He was surprised the little vagrant managed to sneak up on him in the first place, truth be told. Naast was not one to be bested, let alone by a flea-ridden bastard child. Street trash were often resourceful, though not so skilled as to one up any warrior worth his salt. The brat was quick, he'd give her that. And it seemed distasteful to dismember a child for trying to survive... Not that the brat hadn't come close to changing his mind a few times. One week she'd been with him so far, or was it two? Naast had never been a man for details. Senju had been with Him since Sabul, in any case. At this point he wasn't quite sure what he'd do with her. He certainly wasn't going to keep her, though it was fun to make her do the heavy lifting. He'd probably end up finding a place for her in the next city they came to, and hopefully set her up as a wash or kitchen girl at an inn somewhere. There was always The Kaadori, too; the monastery was in constant need of servants. Outwardly, Naast was not the most sensitive of men, but he wouldn't feel right leaving her on the streets where he'd found her. Or as she'd found him as it were. "Just keep quiet and do as I say, or I'll make you give me a foot massage." On cue he lifted his bare feet and wiggled them in her direction.
While she knew (or at the very least hoped) he wasn’t serious about taking her hand, it didn’t stop her wrist from itching slightly as a grimace brought the corners of her mouth down. She fastened the cap onto the last of the large water skins, and half dragged it over to the camels. The large creature groaned slightly as she heaved the thing onto its back, but was otherwise compliant. This was the older of the two camels Naast owned, and her favorite. The other one didn’t like her very much, and the feeling was more than mutual. Senju patted its long neck as she turned to glare at Naast. “I think I’d rather lose a hand,” she said, her jade eyes dropping to his bare toes. As she turned back to the camel, she grumbled something about bruising his toes in the process. If they weren’t out in the middle of the desert, she would have made a run for it already. Although with the refreshed canteens, the possibility loomed in her mind. Maybe during the night while Naast was sleeping....
Senju wore her dark hair short out of convenience. Long hair had a tendency to get matted and filthy when one lived on the streets. That coupled with her wiry frame made it easy for her to be mistaken for a boy at a distance. Another thing that had made things easier for her in Sabul. She had lived there for a very long time, and had hardly ever left the city. She had never even seen a map of the country until she caught a glimpse of the one Naast used while traveling, although her pride would never let her ask for a closer look. In a tongue in cheek sort of manner, so as not to appear as though she were actually interested, she asked, “Where are you going anyway?”
“I’m going wherever I feel like,” Naast replied unkindly. “Besides, where do you have to be? I can’t imagine you have more pressing matters... Though I suppose there are a lot of purse strings that need cutting somewhere.” His agile toes dug into the ground, squeezing the sand in a vain effort as he rose to his feet. The golden grains of the desert left their handprints on his bright blue pants. Uncaring, he reached for his sandals - you got used to the sand finding its way into everything eventually - and he tied them securely to his feet. He straightened himself out as best he cared to and polished a glimmering red stone on his vest. None of the stones were valuable, merely bright and attractive in the sunlight. He loved it all the same, and he often felt it represented him well; pretty to look at but not worth much in the end. A small strand of his coarse braided hair fell loose, and he quickly swept it behind his ear. “Well, we better get a move on,” he said, tightening the sheathed scimitar hanging from his hip.
“How would you know? I could have lots of important things to do.” She didn’t. If anything getting away from Sabul for a while would be a nice change of pace. Especially when she didn’t have to give more than half of everything she managed to steal to someone else. Although it wasn’t as though there were any money making opportunities in the desert. She doubted that she would be able to ‘rely’ on Naast’s ‘kindness’ forever. It made her wonder what he intended to do with her. He would probably take her to another orphanage, or try to set her up with a job somewhere. She’d tried those before, and they didn’t suit her. The people who ran those types of places were only kind to wealthy looking strangers. Senju let out an exaggerated sigh when he said it was time for them to move again. “For someone with nowhere to go, you’re in a hurry” she grumbled, as she reached to pull herself onto the camel’s back.
He ignored her snide remark, striding past her to saddle his camel. Naast tired of her sourness, though he had to admit he never gave her much reason to feel otherwise. Something about the defiant way she looked at the world made him want to mess with her. Plus she'd attacked him twice while he slept thus far. Very rude. He'd have deserted her long ago if he'd had the heart for it, but Naast had a bit of a soft spot for the underdog... And Senju seemed like a good kid when she wasn't trying to cave his head in with a rock. Deft hands crisscrossed over one another with ease as Naast fastened the saddle straps. He hummed absentmindedly to himself, happy to go about his work. Finished, he turn to find Senju struggling to get the saddle on her old camel. Naast let the scene play out for a minute, his amusement apparent on his lips. When it became too painful to watch he laughed and stepped in, relieving her of her burden. "Let me help with that, little one," he teased, already tying and buckling. His clear eyes barely paid attention to his madly working fingers. Naast gave Senju a mocking wink and flashed her a devilish grin. "You leave a boyfriend in Sabul? Maybe that's why you're always so sore. A pretty little thing like you must've had all the boys begging!" He gave a mean-spirited cackle then and finished the job.
Saddling a camel had not been a skill she’d learned in Sabul. While necessity had been an excellent incentive to learn things fast in the past, this was still giving her some trouble. There were just too many straps. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t just simplify the whole process by tying all the damned things into a knot around the camel’s torso. The compliant old camel had grown used to her struggling, and couldn’t be less interested in her as he chewed on his cud. A laugh from behind her alerted Senju to Naast’s approach, before he started to help with the saddle. “I’m not a child,” she said. She crossed her arms across her chest, trying not to let on that she actually appreciated having the task taken off of her hands.
Senju had always had to take care of herself. She had never really had a reason to say ‘thank you’ to anyone, and wasn’t about to start now, especially when the man continued to do little other than tease, provoke, or saddle her with chores for his amusement. She didn’t exactly appreciate being called ‘little one’. Naast’s question caught her off guard for a moment. Her eyes widened for a moment before they narrowed into a heated glare. “That’s none of your business!” she said as he finished with the saddle. It was obvious he was teasing her. With her short hair and scrawny figure, she could hardly be considered beautiful. After he’d walked away, leaving a laugh at her expense in his wake, Senju hoisted herself onto the camel’s back. “A boyfriend would be more trouble than he was worth. I can think of a hundred things way more important,” she half grumbled, as she nudged the camel to start walking. “You probably just like having girlfriends so you can have someone else tell you how pretty you are,” she said, mocking his apparent vanity.
“Oh, you think I’m pretty, do you?” Naast japed, leaping atop his camel. Senju took the lead, though she probably had no idea where she was going. But she was more or less heading in the right direction, slightly west of where Naast’s next destination waited. Samreet was a prosperous city, as well as a religious one; The Kadoori roots there ran deep. It was the perfect place to ditch a vagrant child, and she actually had a chance of surviving there. He meant to see her safely established. “So tell me about yourself, heartbreaker. We’ve been travelling together for at least a week, and I know nothing about you! How’d you get started on that glamorous path to thievery?”
“That’s not what I said at all!” she replied quickly, looking at him over her shoulder for a moment. Without really thinking about it, she urged her camel to move just a bit faster, as though to put more space between herself and him. “You sure decorate yourself enough. Might as well be a Kadoori temple after monsoon season,” she grumbled. Senju wished that she had the chance to look at the map again. It wasn’t as though she would understand what direction anything was in by looking at it, but she was amazed by just how big this country was. Almost as amazed as she was that someone could fit a picture of it onto a single roll of papyrus.
She looked back at Naast to flash a heated glare in response to his question. Once she had turned back, and righted herself in the oversized saddle, she thought the question over for a moment. It was hard to judge where anything had ‘started’. Most of her life had seemed to flow from one event to the other, without her ever having all that much control. Chewing on the inside of her cheek, she finally responded, “I ran away from an orphan house a few years ago. I stowed away on one of those huge merchant caravans; the ones with over a hundred wagons. That was when I came to Sabul.” When she had actually arrived at Sabul, things had not been easy. Her memories passed over some dark places she would rather forget, before she came back to the blistering desert atop the rolling back of the aged camel. “I don’t see why you would care.”
“Uhg, what’s taking you so long?” Naast grumbled unhappily, closing his eye once more.
Senju knelt by the pool of clear water filling the canteens while Naast remained against the palm tree. She was a thin, wiry girl, much younger than her companion, with a bit of growing to do. “If you wanted this to go faster, you could always get off your butt and help me,” she snapped in his direction, her bright green eyes glaring at him over her shoulder before returning to filling the canteens. It had only been a week since she had met the man. Living off of the streets in Sabul, the jewels on his vest shining brightly against his dark skin, darker even than her own caramel brown skin, had immediately drawn her attention. The rest of his clothing was made of richly colored material, with no visible holes, also unlike her own attire. Surely this was someone who would not be too grievously hurt to find their coin purse missing. Unfortunately, he had noticed her just as she had cut his purse strings in the market crowd. She had made a dash for it, but one of the city guards had caught her before she could make use of any of her usual escapes. Senju supposed she should count herself lucky that Naast had decided to bring her along with him. Had he not, the city authorities would have cut off her hand for stealing.
"Hey, you can leave anytime you want, girl. Just leave me that hand of yours and be on your way," Naast joked dryly. He was surprised the little vagrant managed to sneak up on him in the first place, truth be told. Naast was not one to be bested, let alone by a flea-ridden bastard child. Street trash were often resourceful, though not so skilled as to one up any warrior worth his salt. The brat was quick, he'd give her that. And it seemed distasteful to dismember a child for trying to survive... Not that the brat hadn't come close to changing his mind a few times. One week she'd been with him so far, or was it two? Naast had never been a man for details. Senju had been with Him since Sabul, in any case. At this point he wasn't quite sure what he'd do with her. He certainly wasn't going to keep her, though it was fun to make her do the heavy lifting. He'd probably end up finding a place for her in the next city they came to, and hopefully set her up as a wash or kitchen girl at an inn somewhere. There was always The Kaadori, too; the monastery was in constant need of servants. Outwardly, Naast was not the most sensitive of men, but he wouldn't feel right leaving her on the streets where he'd found her. Or as she'd found him as it were. "Just keep quiet and do as I say, or I'll make you give me a foot massage." On cue he lifted his bare feet and wiggled them in her direction.
While she knew (or at the very least hoped) he wasn’t serious about taking her hand, it didn’t stop her wrist from itching slightly as a grimace brought the corners of her mouth down. She fastened the cap onto the last of the large water skins, and half dragged it over to the camels. The large creature groaned slightly as she heaved the thing onto its back, but was otherwise compliant. This was the older of the two camels Naast owned, and her favorite. The other one didn’t like her very much, and the feeling was more than mutual. Senju patted its long neck as she turned to glare at Naast. “I think I’d rather lose a hand,” she said, her jade eyes dropping to his bare toes. As she turned back to the camel, she grumbled something about bruising his toes in the process. If they weren’t out in the middle of the desert, she would have made a run for it already. Although with the refreshed canteens, the possibility loomed in her mind. Maybe during the night while Naast was sleeping....
Senju wore her dark hair short out of convenience. Long hair had a tendency to get matted and filthy when one lived on the streets. That coupled with her wiry frame made it easy for her to be mistaken for a boy at a distance. Another thing that had made things easier for her in Sabul. She had lived there for a very long time, and had hardly ever left the city. She had never even seen a map of the country until she caught a glimpse of the one Naast used while traveling, although her pride would never let her ask for a closer look. In a tongue in cheek sort of manner, so as not to appear as though she were actually interested, she asked, “Where are you going anyway?”
“I’m going wherever I feel like,” Naast replied unkindly. “Besides, where do you have to be? I can’t imagine you have more pressing matters... Though I suppose there are a lot of purse strings that need cutting somewhere.” His agile toes dug into the ground, squeezing the sand in a vain effort as he rose to his feet. The golden grains of the desert left their handprints on his bright blue pants. Uncaring, he reached for his sandals - you got used to the sand finding its way into everything eventually - and he tied them securely to his feet. He straightened himself out as best he cared to and polished a glimmering red stone on his vest. None of the stones were valuable, merely bright and attractive in the sunlight. He loved it all the same, and he often felt it represented him well; pretty to look at but not worth much in the end. A small strand of his coarse braided hair fell loose, and he quickly swept it behind his ear. “Well, we better get a move on,” he said, tightening the sheathed scimitar hanging from his hip.
“How would you know? I could have lots of important things to do.” She didn’t. If anything getting away from Sabul for a while would be a nice change of pace. Especially when she didn’t have to give more than half of everything she managed to steal to someone else. Although it wasn’t as though there were any money making opportunities in the desert. She doubted that she would be able to ‘rely’ on Naast’s ‘kindness’ forever. It made her wonder what he intended to do with her. He would probably take her to another orphanage, or try to set her up with a job somewhere. She’d tried those before, and they didn’t suit her. The people who ran those types of places were only kind to wealthy looking strangers. Senju let out an exaggerated sigh when he said it was time for them to move again. “For someone with nowhere to go, you’re in a hurry” she grumbled, as she reached to pull herself onto the camel’s back.
He ignored her snide remark, striding past her to saddle his camel. Naast tired of her sourness, though he had to admit he never gave her much reason to feel otherwise. Something about the defiant way she looked at the world made him want to mess with her. Plus she'd attacked him twice while he slept thus far. Very rude. He'd have deserted her long ago if he'd had the heart for it, but Naast had a bit of a soft spot for the underdog... And Senju seemed like a good kid when she wasn't trying to cave his head in with a rock. Deft hands crisscrossed over one another with ease as Naast fastened the saddle straps. He hummed absentmindedly to himself, happy to go about his work. Finished, he turn to find Senju struggling to get the saddle on her old camel. Naast let the scene play out for a minute, his amusement apparent on his lips. When it became too painful to watch he laughed and stepped in, relieving her of her burden. "Let me help with that, little one," he teased, already tying and buckling. His clear eyes barely paid attention to his madly working fingers. Naast gave Senju a mocking wink and flashed her a devilish grin. "You leave a boyfriend in Sabul? Maybe that's why you're always so sore. A pretty little thing like you must've had all the boys begging!" He gave a mean-spirited cackle then and finished the job.
Saddling a camel had not been a skill she’d learned in Sabul. While necessity had been an excellent incentive to learn things fast in the past, this was still giving her some trouble. There were just too many straps. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t just simplify the whole process by tying all the damned things into a knot around the camel’s torso. The compliant old camel had grown used to her struggling, and couldn’t be less interested in her as he chewed on his cud. A laugh from behind her alerted Senju to Naast’s approach, before he started to help with the saddle. “I’m not a child,” she said. She crossed her arms across her chest, trying not to let on that she actually appreciated having the task taken off of her hands.
Senju had always had to take care of herself. She had never really had a reason to say ‘thank you’ to anyone, and wasn’t about to start now, especially when the man continued to do little other than tease, provoke, or saddle her with chores for his amusement. She didn’t exactly appreciate being called ‘little one’. Naast’s question caught her off guard for a moment. Her eyes widened for a moment before they narrowed into a heated glare. “That’s none of your business!” she said as he finished with the saddle. It was obvious he was teasing her. With her short hair and scrawny figure, she could hardly be considered beautiful. After he’d walked away, leaving a laugh at her expense in his wake, Senju hoisted herself onto the camel’s back. “A boyfriend would be more trouble than he was worth. I can think of a hundred things way more important,” she half grumbled, as she nudged the camel to start walking. “You probably just like having girlfriends so you can have someone else tell you how pretty you are,” she said, mocking his apparent vanity.
“Oh, you think I’m pretty, do you?” Naast japed, leaping atop his camel. Senju took the lead, though she probably had no idea where she was going. But she was more or less heading in the right direction, slightly west of where Naast’s next destination waited. Samreet was a prosperous city, as well as a religious one; The Kadoori roots there ran deep. It was the perfect place to ditch a vagrant child, and she actually had a chance of surviving there. He meant to see her safely established. “So tell me about yourself, heartbreaker. We’ve been travelling together for at least a week, and I know nothing about you! How’d you get started on that glamorous path to thievery?”
“That’s not what I said at all!” she replied quickly, looking at him over her shoulder for a moment. Without really thinking about it, she urged her camel to move just a bit faster, as though to put more space between herself and him. “You sure decorate yourself enough. Might as well be a Kadoori temple after monsoon season,” she grumbled. Senju wished that she had the chance to look at the map again. It wasn’t as though she would understand what direction anything was in by looking at it, but she was amazed by just how big this country was. Almost as amazed as she was that someone could fit a picture of it onto a single roll of papyrus.
She looked back at Naast to flash a heated glare in response to his question. Once she had turned back, and righted herself in the oversized saddle, she thought the question over for a moment. It was hard to judge where anything had ‘started’. Most of her life had seemed to flow from one event to the other, without her ever having all that much control. Chewing on the inside of her cheek, she finally responded, “I ran away from an orphan house a few years ago. I stowed away on one of those huge merchant caravans; the ones with over a hundred wagons. That was when I came to Sabul.” When she had actually arrived at Sabul, things had not been easy. Her memories passed over some dark places she would rather forget, before she came back to the blistering desert atop the rolling back of the aged camel. “I don’t see why you would care.”
