Getting there is Half the Experience

DuskRaven

Bookworm with a pen
Original poster
LURKER MEMBER
MYTHICAL MEMBER
Posting Speed
  1. One post per day
  2. Multiple posts per week
  3. One post per week
Writing Levels
  1. Intermediate
  2. Adept
  3. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Male
  2. Female
  3. Futanari
  4. Primarily Prefer Female
Genres
Fantasy, romance, yaoi/yuri, vampires (non-twilight vampires preferred) though right now I'm VERY interested in finding a romance fantasy
Ava Radella stood on a hill, looking down at the village before her. She pounced on the balls of her feet as she waited. Should she run down and see her friend or should she simply wait until he showed himself outside the forge. It was almost noon after all, he should be coming out for lunch at any time. But at the same time, she wasn't sure if she aught to be this happy about it.

The witch giggled as she spun on the hill. Doubt hit her though. What if her friend hadn't gotten the message to meet her up here? She looked down at the picnic that she had packed. It was sitting just a few feet from her. She recalled the message perfectly:

Please meet me on the hill overlooking the village at noon, I have something I really want to show you! It will be really worth it
~Ava

She had slipped the message into his pack that held his lunch. At least she had hoped that she had. His and his mentors both looked more or less the same.

Her black and brown hair bounced around her. She had left it down so that she could let the wind that she had summoned up to play with it like she liked it to. Her hazel eyes sparkled in the sun. Her dress whirled around her, it's green material playing well with her light skin.

Focusing a little more to get rid of some of her energy, she found herself rising off the ground. She laughed and spun as the wind worked on keeping her afloat.
 
Adan Smith set his hammer back in the worn leather sling that overhung the table. The smithy's furnace burned hot near the open, glassless window off to the other side of the great room, the counter for taking orders and front door between them; and the ancient and massive double oaken doors took up much of the fourth wall. It was sweltering inside, and the sun of midday glared in the window, defying the attempt to cool the smithy. Uncle Verik took up a different hammer and set it by his workbench, nearer the furnace.
"Boy, you'd best have your lunch about now. Let me finish this one."
Adan frowned on the inside. Verik had again excluded him from the finishing process of swordmaking. Then again, it did give him a break to relax outside, and maybe get cleaned up for a while.
"Thanks. I was about to ask, actually."
Adan removed his heavy leathern apron, revealing a slightly cleaner, dull whitish and brown tunic and pants, and picked up his lunchbasket. He paused, smiling at the neatly wrapped food Ava had prepared so kindly for them both this morning-
"Not don't you spend too long out there! Jaydon Hawthorne wants his mare shod by this evening, and you better be here to finish the shaping," Verik warned as Adan walked out the door.
"I won't!" He called back. Enjoying the cooler air outside, Adan set down the basket and drew water from the well outside to wash his hands and face, drying them (as a good country boy would) on his shirt. Leaning on the well, he opened his lunch and a slip of paper flew out of it on a sudden, unexpected breeze. He chased it a few steps and read it.
Please meet me on the hill overlooking the village at noon, I have something I really want to show you! It will be really worth it. ~Ava
He looked quickly up to the hill above town, and, sure enough, silhouetted by the dull blue of the mountains beyond, Ava Ravella waited. Adan grabbed his basket and half ran, half jogged up to meet her, breathless when he reached the top. Her wind knocked his cap off, and he nearly didn't catch it.
 
Ava had seen Adan running up the hill to join her and lost her concentration on the wind she had summoned in the moment that joy that he got her note hit her. When he reached the top of the hill, she was sitting on the ground, wincing as she rubbed where she had landed on her bum. Blushing, she scrambled to her feet and brushed her skirts off quickly.

"Adan, you made it," She said, pouncing once more on the balls of her feet. Her voice some would say was overly happy for it was always in some form or fashion filled with a cheer that didn't just seem to harbor in her words but in the way she interacted with others as well. She liked to think that she was more like a tree playing with the wind--always moving and always doing as she pleased. She didn't notice though that the happiness in her voice seemed to heighten when she was with her best friend, nor did she care.

"Was your morning's work hard?" Ava asked as she turned and walked to where she had laid down a blanket where her own food waited. "Were you hit by any sparks?" She couldn't help but ask this. She worried about him working so near a fire--the element that seemed to hate her the most. And so she was determined to save him the pain of having to deal with any fire burns caused by sparks by healing them the moment she heard of them--a piece of magic she could and did work with.
 
Adan had to try not to laugh, and coughed once to clear his lungs (and to cover a chuckle.)
"Naw," he said as he walked over and sat with her, "I'm getting better at... well, spraying fewer bits of, you know, red hot metal at myself." He smiled unevenly and looked away.
"I've got four shoes to finish for farmer Hawthorne's working mare this afternoon, but this morning we had a commission for a sword and some pots for me to mend." Adan sighed as he picked up the bread from the basket.
"Verik never shows me how to finish an actual weapon! It's like he's afraid I'll hit myself with it or something." He bit into the bread with frustration that turned to enjoyment, and he smiled to Ava, trying to compliment her baking but making a small muffled noise instead.
 
Ava tilted her head and smiled at him as he ate the food. "Manners boy, manners. Swallow and then speak. Not speak and munch." She reminded him teasingly before she took a bite out of her own food. When she was done chewing, she looked up at him. "Hawthrone's always got some work for you to do on one of his animals. You haven't had an afternoon free for weeks it seems."

The young woman ate in silence for several moments, thinking over Adan's complaint about never finishing a real weapon. Then she perked up and turned her hazel gaze on him. "I actually had two things I wanted to show you, one was kind of self-centered I guess, now that I think about it," the young woman said before turning and riffling through her own basket until her hands locked around the object she was searching for. "I saw it in the wears of a traveling merchant that came through a few weeks back and I didn't know how I'd get it to you without your family seeing. I know how much they disapprove of these things, for all that you and your uncle are blacksmiths. The instant I saw it I knew you'd like it."

She pulled out a dagger in a sheath. The handle was simple, the sheath equally as so. Ava slowly pushed the dagger over the blanket towards Adan, her gaze on his face to see if he liked it or not. The blade, she knew, was sharp enough to cut hair, for she'd tried it on a lock of her own before she'd bought it. She just hoped that he found it to be of good quality.
 
Adan shrugged off the comment about manners, and nodded along about Hawthorne. Chewing contentedly on his lunch, Adan nearly forgot to swallow when he saw the dagger. Hurriedly he wiped his sleeve across his mouth, tried to speak, and found no words.
"I... Ava, ..."
He gave a cough and gently took the dagger up, and unsheathed it.
"It's wonderful. Thank you."
Carefully he turned it to see the sun reflect off of the razor-sharp edges, and weighed it in his hand before sheathing it again. Adan was still quiet and somewhat in awe.
"I don't know what to give you in return, Ava."
 
Ava was grinning like a fool as she watched him look at the dagger. She could see that she had chosen the right present from the look on his face. She shrugged and took up her food again, nibbling lightly on it before looking out over the city with a hopeful gaze.

"I'm just glad that you like it Adan. Just promise me that no matter what happens we will always be friends, all right Adan? That's all I want in return--your friendship," she finally said seriously, turning her gaze back at him. This had been a worry of hers for a time now. What if he did learn to use a sword and he ran off to do crazy deeds or some other thing happened and they couldn't see each other as regularly as they normally did and then they met again and they couldn't stand each other? She didn't want that, and so she worried and thought about ways to make sure that never happened.

Then she cracked into a grin and giggled, "Oh and at least one day a week to hang out. I know that's a bit to ask, I mean when there isn't as much to do--when Hawthorne has stopped pestering you all. I swear he only comes around to try and get you to marry one of his many female relatives."
 
Adan slipped the dagger's sheath onto his belt.
"I promise," Adan said, smiling and looking directly into Ava's eyes. After a moment, he broke the gaze and popped the last bit of his lunch into his mouth. He chewed thoughtfully for a minute, swallowed, and gave a single, barking laugh.
"I'd rather spend time goofing around with you than with any of those dodder-headed daughters of his, anyway!" He laughed, and it became a laughing fit. He sneezed, stopped, and laughed again.
Several birds flew into the near tree and made a racket.
 
Ava was giggling softly with him, trying to keep from spraying the bite of food that she had taken when he'd spoke of the other girls. Eventually she put the bread down and covered her mouth with a hand as she forced herself to keep from laughing. Then swallowed the food. She gasped for breath and smiled largely over at her friend. "That was very mean to say. They aren't all bad," she said as she paused, "Well, they aren't that smart either, but they aren't bad. Just simple."

Then she pushed herself up and a look of glee passed over her features. "If you have time I learned a new trick with wind today that I'd like to show you. It'll only take a minute, promise." Ava said. She liked to show him new tricks that she learned because he would tell her the truth about them--if they were stupid or impractical, if they were amazing or just okay. She really hoped that he would approve. It could be useful, she thought, if she could get enough energy that is, but she always liked to have a second opinion that wasn't a family member that was obligated to say 'oh yes, that's amazing'.
 
Adan stood as she did. He raised his eyebrows. "Oh? Sure. I'm certain Verik wouldn't mind another minute without me."
 
Ava closed her eyes and focused. The wind slowly began to pick up around them. Her hands held her skirts down as the wind focused in on her and whipped her air around her. Slowly her body lifted into the air to about three feet. She opened her eyes to look at him with a smile as she lowered herself back down.

"I was going to do it to you but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to hold you up the same. I can lift up smaller objects--I learned to do it with your new dagger. I accidentally sent it flying when one of the local girls teased me about something," Ava said softly with a blush. She started pick up the blanket and started to fold it up so that she could return back to the village with him. She had a meeting with a local woman for a healing potion--though she thought it might be something more. "I could try to lift you if you want, but you'd have to promise not to yell at me if I lost control and you fall."