Meili dragged her gaze from Draga. “I guess it depends… what are we betting on?”
“Who finds the remaining teacher first, me or Aurora?”
“Stakes?”
“If you lose… I get to ask you a question. Any question. And you answer honestly.”
Meili was shocked. I wonder what he could possibly want to know. “And if I win?”
Konakaz smiled. “I return this.” He pulled out another knife from seemingly thin air.
Meili tried to hide her surprise. That’s Aurora knife. I recognize the pattern on the hilt… that must be the one she thought she dropped in the desert. Something tells me she didn’t drop it after all. “I see…” She thought about it for a second. I suppose it can’t hurt. Even if he wins, which I doubt, I can still find out what he wants to know. That may tell me something about why he’s here. “It’s a bet.” She extended a hand.
Konakaz reached out and shook it. His grip was warm and firm. He turned and strode confidently into the room towards a side wall.
Before he could get there, a man of about 30 stepped away from the wall. He bowed deeply to the air in front of him. Aurora appeared behind him. He jumped when she spoke before turning around to bow to her properly. When he straightened up, they were both smiling.
Meili was too far away to hear what they were saying but she was close enough to see the appreciative looks the man was giving Aurora. As well as the stormy look Konakaz was giving him. Meili giggled silently, men can be so dramatic when they’re trying to impress someone.
Konakaz turned away from Aurora and the young man and walked back towards Meili, his expression lightening. “As promised.” He flipped the dagger in the air, caught it by the blade and held it out, hilt first, to Meili with a flourish. She took it delicately.
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Nightly routine/Random tidbit about Aurora and Konakaz
Wrapped snuggly in her bedfurs, Aurora watched as Konakaz paced in front of the fire and waited patiently for him to finish his circuit.
Beginning almost a moon ago, Aurora had begun to notice strange patterns in Konakaz’s behavior. He had been able to hide them at first but now that they were more comfortable together, and spending more time together, he was able to hide them less and less. Thinking back on it… he made a point never to stay with us when we were traveling through the Spine. I thought he didn’t want to be near Draga, but perhaps it was something more…
It always started with his constant checking of the perimeter of their camp, even while they were both awake and capable of defending themselves. He would pace the outreaches of whatever clump of trees they had taken refuge in, going as far as stepping outside of the protective layer of the forest to check the road for passersby.
Then he would make sure that the fire was still giving off heat and pile some extra firewood around it. He would rearrange his bedding, often causally moving it a touch closer to hers, and then would sit, as if to lay down for the night, before getting up, petting Astra, and checking the perimeter again.
He would repeat this routine three times: woods, fire, bed, woods, fire, bed, woods, fire, bed.
Finally, when he was convinced that there was no one around them or approaching them, he would pull out a thick leather bound book- that Aurora secretly coveted, for leather was a rare commodity and she loved books- and would write in it for a while. It was a beautiful black leather, with flames embossed deep into the front cover and his initials ‘KL’ ornately carved into it, studded with stones that matched the ones in his medallion.
Time would pass and Aurora would begin drifting to sleep, soothed by the warm crackle of the flames and the soft scratching of feather on paper.
She found that she could fall asleep faster with Konakaz beside her.
“You know… they didn’t say anything about you. You don’t have to leave yet.” The voice came from behind her.
Aurora turned to face the speaker. “I shouldn’t be surprised to see you here. Yet I am.” She hesitated before continuing, “What would I do instead of leaving?” She tilted her head and smiled slightly at him.
He returned it hesitantly, clearly unsure of how she would react, “Would you….” he cleared his throat, “uhh… like to spend some time with me? We can explore Borth together. I’ve never been here before.”
She stared at him in shock, too surprised to answer.
“I mean… only if you want to…” He scuffed his foot nervously on the ground, “I just thought… maybe it would be more fun than continuing to babysit.”
Aurora giggled, “Was I babysitting?”
“It sure looked like it.” He glanced back up at her. “Well?”
She turned just in time to see the crowd closing behind Meili and Draga, blocking them from view, without a glance backwards. When she turned back, he was still watching her.
Aurora made up her mind. “Sure. Why not?”
They smiled at each other for a moment.
Konakaz spoke first, holding out a hand towards her “So, where do you want to start?”
“That’s it? You ran through a Kikaume’s pen, got thrown over a fence, and got rewarded for it? That’s the whole story?”
“Don’t forget violently skewered!”
Full excerpt below!
POV Aurora. (Ya’ll I literally just forgot how to spell Aurora. God I’m tired.)
“Would you like to hear one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done?”
Aurora made a noncommittal noise.
“So, one solarday my friends had this brilliant idea to see which of us was the fastest. But after arguing about it we decided that a simple race wouldn’t be fair because there were several of us” he gestured to himself, “who were ‘likely to cheat’” he quoted their words in the air, managing to look both offended and flattered at the same time.
Aurora pushed away a smile.
He continued as though he hadn’t noticed. “Instead, we would all run through the Kikaume’s pen.”
Her eyes widened.
Konakaz laughed. “I did say it was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done, didn’t I? Okay, so clearly you know how fast and aggressive a typical Kikaume is. Now, have you heard about the special kind we breed on Sinsi?”
Aurora shook her head, forgetting for a second that she was supposed to be uninterested.
“We breed them to be bigger, faster, and meaner. So the average male weighs 400 stones, is 35 hands tall, and has horns about this long.” His stretched out his arms to almost their full length.
Aurora was smiling now. Deciding that this was worth commenting on, she spoke to him for the first time in nearly half a moon. “Why?”
Satisfaction flashed in his eyes. “I’m getting there.” Laughing he continued his story, “so here we are, standing outside of the Tikaume’s pen, what we call the dominant male of the herd” he added seeing her confusion. “Arguing about what poor sucker is going to go first. Because, if we all go at once it can only chase one of us, and then clearly the person being chased is going to win.” He was getting more animated now, clearly happy that she was so obviously entertained. “So my friends are standing their preening their feathers about being brave enough to go first, when we all know that none of us are actually going to do it and that we’re going to wind up running up a mountain or something ridiculous like that, when Tren decides that now would be a great time to mention that the order for the next solarday’s ceremony hadn’t been decided.” Pausing in the original story for a moment he continued, “We were supposed to be receiving our personalized flame chains,” he tugs lightly at the chain holding his Fire Knight medallion, “and everyone knew that the sooner you got your chain the higher your position was going to be. The most respected trainees with the brightest futures went first, and no one wanted to be last.
“So without another word, I jump the fence and start running.”
Aurora sat up straight. “No.”
“Yes.” He laughed. “It’s said that Tikaume can cross that field in 3 breaths flat. Unfortunately for me, I crossed it in 3.5.”
She raised an eyebrow. “And you’re still alive?” She asked, impressed.
“Well… I got lucky. When its horns caught me, it threw me back over the fence and out of reach.” He had stood up at some point and was now pantomiming running wildly then got up and threw himself dramatically over the fire, landing on the other side with a loud crash.
Astra jumped up, startled.
It was still.
“…hey.” Silence answered Aurora. “You’re not supposed to die reenacting the story.”
Konakaz sat up suddenly. “Nice of you to be worried.” He said, winking, “But I survived! I also ignored the healers and going to the ceremony anyway.”
Aurora grinned. “You’re a moron.” She pronounced.
Konakaz bowed. “Yes. Yes I am. I’m also a huge jerk.”
“I’ve noticed.” She responded dryly.
“Oh good, I was worried. But, I end up going to the ceremony. And they call me up first and scold me in front of everyone before giving me my chain.” He fingers the flames at his throat, “It was worth it.”
“That’s it? You ran through a Kikaume’s pen, got thrown over a fence, and got rewarded for it? That’s the whole story?” Aurora shook her head, laughing softly.
“Don’t forget violently skewered!” He turned his back to her and lifted his shirt. Running diagonally all the way across his back were a pair of ugly jagged scars.
Aurora gasped.
The fire light highlighted it in a way that daylight never could. The pale skin gleamed as if it were new formed, a bright contrast to the rest of his sun-darkened skin.
She stood up and had closed the distance between them before she realized what she was doing. She paused a mere arm length away from him.
He laughed lightly, “It’s not as bad as it looks. I refused to sit still and let it heal properly. The healers yelled at me for solardays.” He glanced back to gauge her reaction and started when he saw how close she was.
Her hand stretched out and traced the air in front of the ruined skin. “It looks like it hurts.”
He shivered. “Like I said, it looks worse than it is. It healed a long time ago.”
They stood there, frozen, time stretched out between them as they each waited for the other to make a move.
Suddenly Konakaz’s laughter increased. “I still remember you calling me an arrogant peacock. Where do you get these insults anyway? I’ve never heard anything like them before but they’re so perfect.”
A familiar sinking sensation settled in Aurora’s stomach. “Kendra. She was fascinated with the exotics that somehow wandered onto Kebeshe from the lower lands.” She smiled again, “They are perfect aren’t they? Have you seen the way the peacocks strut? How can they be anything but arrogant? Yet and the same time they are undeniably beautiful.”
He surveyed her with a surprisingly serious expression. “I see.”
She felt her eyes narrow in suspicion. “You see what?”
His face was perfectly unexpressive. “You think I’m undeniably beautiful.”
She stared at him in shock.
His expression broke for a heartbeat, revealing his normal mischievous glint.
“Your peacock is showing.” She snapped.
“Why yes, I suppose it is.” He ran a hand through his hair, preening.
Aurora felt herself crack again. Howling with laughter she leaned against a nearby tree for support.
Konakaz managed to look offended for an instant before joining her.
Aurora finally stood up, wiping tears from her eyes. “You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”
“Absolutely not, lil’ lady.” His eyes were warm, shining with a deep emotion she wasn’t ready to acknowledge yet.
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