earthen_hope

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--65

[The page is a little soggy around the edges and slightly stained with chlorophyll and sap. A week in a tree does few favors to a journal.]

I'm back to normal now. It looks like everyone is too.

Being able to fly was wonderful, but I'm still really happy to be in my own body again. I'll try not to miss any more work than I already have. If something else happens I'll come in anyhow just as long as I've got thumbs.

I know I startled and frightened some people. I'm really sorry about that. I didn't mean to, but I guess it happens when you turn into a dragon.

Peachblossom, do you have some free time?

There was another fellow I met on Captain Planet. If you don't mind I'd like to talk to you as well, please. We should meet each other properly.

[this is added a short time later.]

By the way, has anyone seen a guy carrying a sapling?

[ooc: Joan--I know the thread with Huo's not done yet, but if he does tell her his name she probably doesn't want to misspell it. XD]

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[Krile sits down, taking a sip of tea while Huo speaks--what he says is much to her relief. She really was afraid that he might hold it against her, and she was frankly mortified to be bowed to when she wasn't whatever Huo thought she was.]

It's understandable--I obviously reminded you of something you knew about. I just felt as though I was misleading you somehow.

[Krile nods slowly. She can't say that she ever paid that much attention to Honor's hands, but they were definitely working hands too. Someone who's around forty could be Honor's mother or aunt. But then, why did Honor feel the need to disguise her gender if a close female relative was a warrior too?

It's puzzling, but maybe something Honor didn't remember fully enough.]

The girl I knew--Honor--was only a little older than me, but she ran the weapons stall before me. She was certainly experienced in handling them.

[She fiddles with the thermos of hot water she brought with her. Damn this amnesia--Krile knows that Peachblossom probably doesn't know anything, but she has to ask anyhow.]

I--don't suppose the idea of a mother and daughter sounds familiar? Or an aunt and a niece?

She might have had children. There were - she had some stretch lines in the places where pregnant women get them. [Peach says it a bit reluctantly, and after glancing around to see if anyone could be spying. It's not decorous.]

[She's got another idea starting, an odd one, and doesn't hide it quite as well as that flash of suspicion.]

[Huo pauses for quite some time before speaking again: a thoughtful pause, slowly sipping his tea. It's a bit troubling, the silence, but it's better than speaking in haste.]

You reminded me of much, [he says finally.] I find that a good thing. I don't believe that anything happens without there being a reason.

[--Oh, well. That would. Be evidence to support her idea. Krile fidgets a little at the way Peachblossom phrases it, feeling rather undecorous as well.

anyway. The woman might have been Honor's mother.]

Well I guess that makes sense.

[She's not sure if Peachblossom's got a different expression on her face now. The woman could really create some stiff competition for Stoneface.]

But the other thing is--Honor was sensitive about being a girl. Like she thought people would disapprove of her being a warrior because of that. If her mother was one, I don't know why she'd feel that way.

[She's not sure about sharing this. Honor was a trusted friend and spoke to Krile more than once about what being a girl meant. So she tries to make it unspecific without being unhelpful, not saying that Honor had actively been disguised as a boy when they'd met.]

[Peach coughs into her fist and rolls first one shoulder, than the other, as if idly limbering up. It's a habitual motion, one she doesn't really think about.]

I didn't want to go to the healers about it. I knew what they were and they didn't hurt, anyway.

[What Krile said... There's something important there, rising like a bubble, but like a bubble she can't take hold of it. If Peach were still in that woman's body, she knows, she would have said something. She doesn't know what, but something, and for a moment she regrets being so measured. Maybe, like dragons being mages, it would be something she didn't know she knew.]

[Instead, she considers for a moment.]

Some people can get funny about women who fight. Even if they know someone who can, they'll try to claim that that woman's a fluke, and other girls will just get killed trying to be warriors. It's stupid of them, but that's how they are.

[That's right, she realizes. Someone had said something about that in her dream.]

[There's something white trotting through the nearest patch of underbrush. It's not the only dog loose in the park, but it is the only one coming this way.]

[Krile does worry when he's silent for a time, wondering what he's thinking--she doesn't know him well enough to tell just by looking at him, and resists the urge to glance at him repeatedly. When he does speak, it's a bit of a relief.]

Then I'm glad. Maybe it'll help you to remember whatever it was.

[She thinks a moment about his second statement. Did Exdeath have a reason? The random things in the Tree? She's not sure. But good can come out of almost anything... she nods.]

Even if it doesn't look like there's one, you can probably find something if you pay attention to it.

[That... seems similar to what Honor told her as well. She was worried that people would try to keep her from fighting or wouldn't think she was strong enough, good enough to be a Guard and a warrior. It's not something Krile feels like she's ever encountered. That Peachblossom can explain the attitude so clearly just reinforces Krile's thought that she and Honor must share a home.]

I see. That explains why she felt that way, I guess--if a lot of people had that attitude where you're from, I can see why it'd still affect her here.

[So maybe Honor just took that route because it was easier? So she could prove to any doubters that there really wasn't a difference, and to keep people from giving her unwanted attention. Krile wishes she could ask her now.

Peachblossom doesn't seem bothered by it herself, but Peachblossom seems maybe more--surefooted about things. And she's older than Honor, too. Being about the same age she was, Krile understands the uncertainty that comes with adolescence.]

I don't know if I can ask much else that you'll remember about, but-- [She pauses when she sees movement out of the corner of her eye and spots the dog heading for them.] Oh, hello.

[Peach considers. Do people here speak much about their birth dreams? She doesn't remember anyone saying that. It seems like something about what happens here, she shouldn't tell anyone about, but what? After a pause, she decides she can share a detail, and if the Ordeal doesn't like it, too bad.]

There was someone in my dream who didn't want me to fight because I'm a woman. I was to be kept safe, even though there was a need. [She doesn't give away what she thinks about that.] It's some old tradition, I think.

If I ever remember anything about her, I'll let you know. [She keeps her speculations about the woman to herself. They're all ungrounded, anyway.]

[The dog - who's a mutt, but with some bull terrier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bull_Terrier) traits - trots up jauntily and sits, crooked tail stirring the dust.]

[Passing dogs and other animals have been coming to greet Peach since she was literally wet behind the ears. This one's different, though. He's an ugly dog, scarred and thick-jawed, and something about him... Is it the oddly knowing look in his tiny, triangular eyes?]

Good boy. Where's your owner?

[He stands and noses the palm she's holding out to sniff.]

I certainly intend do.

[He almost feels bad about what he is about to say next. He really does not want to stress her, and his voice is soft as he speaks.]

Please do not feel pressed; neither of us can expect ready-made answers. Yet I cannot believe that you have turned - have been turned - merely for the sake of jogging my memory. What are dragons to you, fūrén?

It's a ridiculous old tradition--[oh sup that wasn't so diplomatic. Hopefully Peachblossom won't be offended.] When there's a need to fight, anyone who can shouldn't be barred from it.

[She nods. Even if neither of them found out much that was specific, Krile's still glad to have a little more understanding about her friend and the place she came from.]

Thanks. I wish I could tell you more about Honor, but I don't think she remembered much about her home herself.

[She watches the dog curiously. It's certainly not a picturesque critter, but he seems tame despite his rough looks.]

He looks like a smart fellow. I don't think I've seen him around before, though.

[A little amusement shows in her eyes, but otherwise it doesn't appear that Peach heard that first part.]

I can't disagree. I don't think I'd make a very good dainty lady, anyway.

She sounds like someone I'd have liked to know. [Maybe, Peachblossom thinks, Honor was here for the same reason Peach was. Does that mean she passed?]

[She checks the dog's collar. It's not as fancy as the collar that was, say, on Taichou's neck when she was taking care of him for Rain, with the clips and dangling metal. This is just a sturdy leather strap with four letters carved into it.

"Jump"?

[He whuffs, and after a moment - nods.]

[Krile has to take a moment to think about that. She really doesn't have any direct memories of dragons, only instincts and the knowledge that she was riding one in her first dream.]

I like dragons. I know that there are some that will prey on people and attack us on sight. But not all of them do.

[She shuts her eyes for a moment, not opening them as she continues.]

The dragon that I turned into--I'm pretty sure I was riding on him in my dream. And when I think of Havoc, he's not a pet or an animal that I own. He's a friend.

[Huo keeps his expression neutral; he doesn't want to alarm her by letting her see his amazement at her discussing dragons as though they were everyday things, as though one might like dragon, as simply as that. No, none of that; he gives her an encouraging smile, rather, grateful.]

There was a man in my dream, of whom I thought as a dragon, [he said softly, volunteering a piece of his own tale in turn, such as it was,] and he was dearer to me than all in the world. But flesh and blood dragons seemed to be a thing of myth.

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