Xenofos — Love Is Lonely
????, Dark Season, Season/Movement Week
Context
Dark Season/Movement Week/Freezeday / [[[s02:session-21|Session 21]]]
Events
Wind is picking up and the gusts drive the powdery snow around the yurts playfully. Varanis decides to try looking for Neela by the Black Lance yurt. She returns to the yurt with black door poles. Nobody is outside, but smoke rises from the top hole of the tent.
Following local custom, she steps in without knocking. “Hello?” she says in Praxian.
“Welcome in Daughter of the Wind,” greets the voice of Black Lance. A quick look around the yurt tells Neela is by the fire as well as the old man and the little boy. 1Pass pow x 5 so Neela was here
“May the gods smile on you, Grandfather,” she replies. Switching to TradeTalk, she says, “I was hoping I might borrow Neela for a short time?”
He looks at Varanis appraisingly and nods. “First you come and take Xenofos, then Neela, what next? Orgfal or Majaro?” His eyes bore to the Vingan, outwardly stern but there is twinkle in them. Neela, however does not look amused. The glance she gives before nodding and looking at her cooking pot is rather icy and her cheeks glow.
“I might need help in a snow fight against Berra,” Varanis replies with just a hint of mischief in her eyes. “But, there’s are women’s matters I need to attend to first.” She turns to the other woman. “Neela, you want to talk here? Or walk? Please?”
Neela looks at Majaro and shakes her head almost imperceptibly. The old man looks at her but rises to his feet and talks to the boy “Come on Orgfal, we need to check if Greymane and your calf are doing well. And there is a risk of a fearsome snowfight in the camp. We must see nothing bad can happen to your mother, don’t we.” Little boy stands up and sticks out his chest, strutting like a young warrior and nodding solemnly to his great uncle.
“Our bisons are pretty far Daughter of Wind so it will take us some time to check on them. And that snow fight.” Majaro takes his lance to one hand and the little boys hand to other and they walk out. Neela glares behind them.
“Neela, I’m sorry. I know you are angry.” Varanis speaks as soon as the others have left.
“Now you said that, I heard, You go?” comes the answer.
“No.” The reply is implacable. “You need to hear the rest.”
She crosses her arms and looks angrily at the fire.
Varanis sighs. “He is oblivi… he does not see what you offer. Your ways are different from ours, so we didn’t understand. But also…” She hesitates only a moment, “he loves another.” Best to wound quickly and cleanly than to drag it out.
“You, you…lie. Why do you say things not true?” She is blinking rapidly.
“I’m sorry, Neela. Truly, I am.” Sadness fills Varanis’ eyes. “I speak only truth to you. He loves another woman.”
“He does not say that, it is not true” Neela looks at Varanis “He never talk of a yurt and herd somewhere with a wife, never.”
Varanis considers her next words carefully.2Rolling Truth vs Love Family and Truth wins. “There is no yurt or wife. She doesn’t love him back. But that doesn’t change his heart.”
“But he never says that, it is not true, you make that up.”
Varanis shakes her head. “I don’t. Watch him. You will see what I say is true, if you watch him.”
“I have watched him!” She blushes and turns away from Varanis. “I don’t see what you say,” Neela says quietly towards wall of the yurt. “I see brown eyes filled with warmth, Unruly hair just waiting for fingers to comb and plait it. Deft fingers dancing with a reed pen, or tussling little boys hair. White teeth smiling, between lips that wait to be kissed. Surrounded by a silken beard I long to touch. Lean body, way too lean so I want to feed him properly yet I would not change his gaunt form. Love holds me captive again, and I tremble in bittersweet longing.”
Varanis’ eyes turn glassy as she listens to the woman’s passionate words. “Neela, I’m sorry…” She comes to a decision. “Come in the morning, when he trains. Watch him then.”
She turns, very slowly, and looks at Varanis. “When he trains?” She says. Very calmly.3Insight? 92. Nope.
The Vingan nods. “Early morning.”
She nods in response. “Early morning.”
“He cannot stop loving any more than he can stop breathing,” Varanis says. “It is who he is.” She shrugs. “Love is just loneliness anyway.”
“I know loneliness Redwind, I know cold sleeping furs.” Her voice is calm and melodious.
Varanis gives her a nod of understanding
- 1Pass pow x 5 so Neela was here
- 2Rolling Truth vs Love Family and Truth wins.
- 3Insight? 92. Nope.
