Yaro stalked the woods. Her wounds were healed, but her fatigue nipped at her consciousness. That Yon-bound trap set by a court of fairies nearly took her toes off. All she wanted was a place to sleep near that town, not a bed of leaves over a spike pit. There was time before the zuyg-rise, so she could take her time exploring the wild.
That’s when she found him.
She sensed a lone aura, one unguarded and in deep thought. She approached, finding someone knelt before a shrine of Ah. The stone grew an age of moss and lichen, the hollow eyes meant to house the universe eroded to what some believe the end to bring.
He was the easiest target she’d had in a while. She hoped he had at least a few fuur on him, if not some valuables she could pawn off or trade with. She hid behind a larger tree, staying low in the brush as she surveyed the area for any threats. She couldn’t finish before his appearance yanked her somewhere else.
He had strange coloring for a humi, his skin wasn’t its natural hue-lessness of white, grey, or black, but something that seemed like a hole in the universe with its peculiar pigmentation. His clothes too were so strange, somehow the most boring and unique thing she’d ever seen. He wore a single colored upper garment and a different color of lower garment.
Her shock brought her aura out; it was too late and she’d been noticed. He stared with brown, not black nor silver but brown, eyes that sparkled at her. His fear froze in decision, if he should fight or if he should flee. She hoped he would choose the latter.
He, instead, called out to her, “hello?”
She hid herself and her aura fully out of view. The light dimmed with the falling of the Sayk, she would not be found. She debated on rushing him. She could easily tie him down with her flames or break his neck. This far in the woods, no one would find him for a while, long enough for her to be long gone.
He called out again with a lilt of curiosity, “please come out. I feel- my eyes must have been playing tricks on me and I thought I saw something very weird on you.”
She wasn’t wearing her cloak. She wouldn’t risk having it rip on a thorn bush or inhibit her abilities to fight or fly in any way. She supposed the best course of action would be to show herself, then use the shock to rush him down. So she did, emerging from the tree with wings fully spread.
It worked, his eyes grew wide and she dashed at him. She felt her legs burn as she toppled him. She found herself holding back, she too was shocked at him. For her, his aura that permeated the immediate area with callousness dimmed in fear. In its place was not disgust as she anticipated, but shock and a bit of excitement.
He fell to the ground with a thud and a shout. He groaned in pinched eyes, “what are you?”
She didn’t respond, instead rifling through his clothing for any valuables. She braced herself to snap his neck if he tried anything. She found a leather book of sorts, some metal trinkets, and a mirror. His eyes caught her and she stopped. “What was that for?”
She let the items puff into smoke and trail into her holder. She stood up saying, “don’t try to follow me. I’ll kill you.”
She backed away, not losing eye contact. She wanted to make sure he wouldn’t chase her or otherwise try to attack, she thought to herself. She couldn’t deny there was something about him that was alluringly curious.
“Please don’t go,” he said timidly, but unnervingly sincerely.
She took a deep breath. There must have been some kind of glamour on him, she wouldn’t be tricked so easily. She continued, looking back every now and then to make sure she wouldn’t trip. He began to get up. She shouted, “stay down!”
“Okay, okay. I just- please- are you real?”
She stopped. Maybe he wasn’t trying to trick her at all, maybe he was just simple. She retorted, “are you real?”
“I think so. Your costume, those horns look like they’re really coming out of your body. It’s really…” He sat up, “how long did it take you to make that?”
Yes, he was simple. “This is not a costume.”
He visibly swallowed. “So, those horns are really growing from your head?”
A low blow from this cretin to mock her like that. She had a mind to come back at him and put a burn around his neck. “And you, what kind of dye did you use to have your skin look like that?”
“Dye?” He shuffled nervously. “This is how I’ve always looked.” He looked everywhere but at her. She supposed that was the most reasonable thing about him. He continued, “what are you doing alone in the woods, it’s dangerous this time of year. The bears have just woken up and they’re looking for food.”
He must have assumed her inept. It was one of those very bears that wounded her earlier that day. “I have no fear of bears. What are you doing alone at this shrine? Are you not afraid of the bears?”
“Shrine? I don’t see a shrine. I just come here because it’s peaceful.” He paused in thought. “I come here to get away from everyone. As for the bears, I have some bear repellent as well as a tranquilizer.”
“Why didn’t you use that on me?”
“I don’t think it would work on a dragon. Not that they’re real.”
“A drake?” Yaro stepped towards him. She’d been ridiculed before, but never an air of respect. Her palms burned with hatred. “You think I’m a drake?”
“Well,” He said looking to the ground, “I’ve never seen anyone like you before. And if you say those horns and scales are real, then you look like a dragon to me.”
“And I suppose you’re a muzoval, fully beaked and tentacled,” she spat.
“I don’t know what that is. I’m sorry if I was rude. I’m just… I feel like I’m dreaming.”
“You may soon find yourself dreaming.” What was she doing? This imp wasn’t worth her time. She should leave. She emanated rage, enough so even the most dull would understand. “Tell me, does this feel like a dream?”
“Not really.”
“So I’m real, you’re real, and you’re about to be real sorry you pissed me off.”
“No really. You, well, I can show you pictures. I’ve truly never seen a dragon, excuse me, one like you before in real life. I don’t think you’re supposed to be real, or, maybe.” He tripped over his own words like a fool before a king who was one step away from beheading. “Just come with me. I think I have a book at my home with pictures of dragons. If neither of us are dreaming,”
Against reasonable judgment, she followed him out of the woods. Come the sounds and smells of a road, she donned her cloak and trailed in his shadow. No one looked their way as they weaved allies to a complex. He let her in and they climbed the stairs to a modest apartment. She was allowing herself to be brought to the den of beasts, she must have been the fool.
She didn’t know why then and never will know why she didn’t just leave.
“Here,” he said as he brought out a tome titled, “Anatomy”. He turned it to a page on the anatomy of drake. “Here, see, it’s a story about a dragon locking a princess away in a castle and a brave knight who rescues her.”
She looked at him numbly. “No, it’s not.”
They continued like that for a while. Back and forth they would point something out and the other would say something to the effect of, no, that’s not how it is. Slowly, they both came to the realization that they did not perceive the same world.
Yaro would see a solumkerd with a green coat while he would see a colorful humi in a green coat. In fact, all of the civilized creatures, according to him, were the same oqmi humi but with color. Then, the bombshell dropped, he did not perceive auras nor was he able to manipulate the world beyond the extent of what he could touch with his physical being.
He offered her to stay with him for the night. She could sleep on his couch. The topic change was too abrupt and Yaro found herself acquiescing without thought. She would later stay up the entire night staring at him, waiting for him to spring his trap. She was sure she could escape, but her curiosity at their perspectives consumed her fully.
The danger never came as he woke to her staring at him. They spent most of the following day discussing the differences they still experienced between their perspectives. While that dominated, they did tend to slip into more personal experiences. Shallow things she hadn’t thought much of like favorite colors, hers was red, favorite foods, hers were pears, and things they liked to do, she liked to polish things to a luster.
Then the zuyg rose again before the end of their conversation was anywhere in sight. He cooked while they talked, then offered her a meal. She took it with a slight laugh. He may be trying to poison her, but he would be in for a rude awakening as most poisons had no effect on her. The food, some sort of meat stew, was actually pretty good. At least, better than the scraps restaurant would throw out back after the day had completed. She’d scarfed hers down before he was a few spoonfuls through.
He did it again, he offered his couch for the night. Not having anything else to do, she took the offer. This time, she did not watch him the entire night, laying awake on the couch in deep thought. She thought of too many things, trying to collect her thoughts on all the matters. She next found herself waking up to the smell of cooking bacon.
They talked again, and he offered his couch again. And again. And again.
The following day, he apologized as he had to go to work. He was a ranger, a kind of person that surveyed the surrounding wilderness for any persons in need of help and to keep an eye on the wildlife. To her, that sounded like an intermediary. Like a lot of things, that probably was the case in her perspective, since many things had almost-reflections. A screen that showed distant events was a scrying smoke for her. Clocks existed but with gears for him, rather than trapped shadow. There was a lot.
They had a few more long battles of wills against their perspectives before they found that they both were truly living different realities. Then began the long discussion of not only what each other experienced, but why they experienced one another as they were in their own realities.
That was after he had returned from his work. It turned out he was simple, but not in that initial idea of un-knowledged. No, he was simple in that he was trusting. He let her stay in his home while he left for a full day’s work, unattended. They had only known each other for a few days, yet there she sat in a fully furnished apartment. She was almost boggled at the amount she could swipe and how long she could live off of it. But she didn’t take anything major. Instead, she would take a knife from the kitchen, a book from deep in the bookshelf, and use them to hunt and entertain herself when hungry and bored.
He would return, and they would get back to talking. That idling thought of leaving slowly left as he accommodated her. She moved from a couch to a bed he had bought for her. She would bring home kills of things she hunted in the woods as well as trinkets she’d swiped; he stopped asking where they came from after a while. He would cook her catches for the both of them, always incorporating his daily-made bread into the meal.
She’d stayed so long, she’d learned the name of the town, Geva. It wasn’t anything special, it was just where she ended up in her years of wandering. In fact, it hadn’t been since living in Natrai’s house of thieves that she’d stayed in one place for so long. The fear of being run out never left her, but she didn’t worry about it so much as she sequestered in his apartment.
She learned more about him, how afraid of everything he was but how he still worked as an intermediary, facing dangers every day. She shared a few things about herself, how the world she experienced viewed her as a monster. She left the part where she agreed out. The words that left his mouth were about how amazing and interesting she looked. Those words were always met with a change of expression to sincerity. He couldn’t believe both, and she knew she was hideous. But, it felt nice to hear the compliments nonetheless.
The season changed and she remained with him. After living so long as a vagrant, it took her all that time to begin a daily routine. She would see him off every morning after sharing breakfast. She didn’t need to eat as much as him, so she would often just have a single slice of bacon for most of the week before she really got hungry. Then, she would review the apartment for any differences from the previous day. Then, she would take a tome and read. Tomes about science, books of anatomy, herbology, alchemy, and rune-smithing were the most common. For him, they were unreal stories. Then, she would leave, making sure his apartment was locked.
She’d slip in the darkest alleys to the market. She’d browse for a bit and, if anything caught her eye, would snatch it. She would only take one or two things a day, her years of experience keeping her from being caught. She knew it was risky, but she found days without taking something too free of excitement. Then, she would make for the woods and begin hunting. She’d often gain a few scrapes from ambushes of semi-intelligent creatures or creatures with powers she did not account for like growing spikes. But, her tongue would heal her and the amount of food she in-took kept her fit.
She’d come home as the sayk began to fall behind the horizon and the zuyg would rise on the opposing side of the world. They would talk over dinner, sleep, and the next day would repeat.
That was but for every sixth day. Then, he would not have to go to work and they would go for walks in the woods. He tried to get her to take walks through the city itself, but she vehemently opposed that as any attention would lead to dire consequences.
It is from these walks out of the city that they discovered one important feature of their encounter. It was when he was stopped by someone he knew, someone from his occupation. They talked while she tried to keep from making eye contact, acting like a prop in the background. Anxiety whirled inside her, edging at her skin ready to burst forth. She felt that familiar tingle in her legs as she prepared to run. She felt her tattoos prickle in her palms. She’d never shown him her flames, so she still had it as a surprise if she had to fight back.
But no, instead they conversed in the strangest way possible.
“Hello, how’s your home studying going?” he would say.
“Hello there, are you looking for a protector? I’m an intermediary, I can’t help you.” his giant humi friend would say.
Then he would respond, “Maybe you should talk to her. It’s kind of her thing to help you out with that.”
And his friend would respond, “Oh really? I’ll be sure to let my superior know. Thank you.”
She listened a while longer then made the realization herself that the “friend” did not know who he was, but had some kind of glamour cast on him to act in a way a friend would. After discussing the interaction with him on their walk, they decided to test some things further.
He had a few more conversations before her. Each time, she prepared herself, looking for the best route to get away. Through the conversations, they learned that he did not have a past in her reality. She seemed to not be in his reality either, but she also did not live in his town, so people would not know her.
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