“Impressive,” Jaliqai praised from where she’d been silently watching her fiancée amongst the trees. Aika had been disappearing to be alone more and more often these days, and she had little love for this change in her lover’s personality.
Jaliqai had known from the moment they’d shared the kiss in the great hall at that fancy house in the far South of the Fire Nation that Aika was not…convinced. No, if anything she had taken steps backward since that time, away from what little progress they had made in the department of her sister.
It worried Jaliqai more than she cared to admit. She had seen that it worried Batbayar and Hanae too.
The young woman slunk forward, revealing herself to Aika, a smile pressed firmly over her features. She was determined to have a talk with her. A real talk. A talk in which Aika finally opened up to her about what was going on.
All she needed was the opportunity, in Jaliqai’s mind. She simply had not had it before. Not while they had been travelling to the wedding. Not while they had been there. Not in the hours and hours they spent together with the other two members of their party since then as they absconded as quickly as was possible toward Jaliqai and Batbayar’s home, and safety for good.
“Your skills are unparralled.”
“Thank you.” She said, because it is a thing one says. There was a quiet pause before she continued, “I didn’t hear you.” How long had Jaliqai been there? Clearly she had allowed herself to become too absorbed in avoiding her thoughts. A dangerous thing.
The snake was thrashing a little too close to her ankles, Aika took a step back and around it to evade the chance of being bitten. As she approached her fiance Aika mirrored her smile though it did not entirely reach her eyes.
Aika’s fingers picked at the lacings of her satchel. “Are the others with you or are they back at camp?” She doubted that Hanae was with her. The handmaid generally did not come to watch her practice unless invited to do so.
The satchel opened partially and she proceeded to fish her fingers within it in search of a rag to clean off what little gore the serpent had left upon her blade. She removed a cloth that had been stained with a minor scrape Hanae had incurred upon the road earlier in the day, one she might had been annoyed at stopping over had it not been someone she held any fondness for. It took little work at all to clean off what little the snake had left behind.
“You looked so serious,” Jaliqai said fondly, good natured mirth in her words, “I didn’t want to disturb you.”
The sun shone dappled through the leaves, making Aika’s hair appear blacker, if possible. Around her shoulders, Jaliqai’s own dark braids shone red as clay when the sun hit them just right.
She reached out, sliding the ends of Aika’s hair through her fingers absently.
“No I’m here alone. Batbayar is fretting over Hanae. I think he is in love.”
