All the better; all the worse . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld couldn't help but smile; Akizetsumei truly was fearless. She might admit to being nervous at the prospect, but clearly her desire for adventure outweighed that. "Well...Galaens alone isn't too bad, so long as you don't stay too late and know where to avoid." For the most part the trade city was fairly safe; one had to worry more about being swindled than stolen from. But it did have a few seedy areas that he suspected even Sarah would hesitate to go near.

"I'm a little surprised anything makes you nervous, though," he told her. "You were pretty fearless out there yesterday; I don't think I'm that comfortable on a horse even now, let alone when I first started."

[Nayt]

Was that . . . a compliment? Akizetsumei's face turned about as red as it could possibly go all at once. She felt her cheeks burning and a tense feeling suddenly crept to the center of her chest and she felt herself unable to breath if only for a split second. She felt as if a thousand years of silence passed between them, though it really wasn't anymore than a second. She realized eventually, however, that it would've been rude not to say anything to that. So she took the compliment, even thought she doubted if she deserved it too much.

"Th-tha-- um, th-thank you, um . . ." Akizets replied nervously. She failed to see the irony in this.

She didn't go out of her way to say it, but she was rather scared once she fell off the horse. She wasn't against getting back on a horse again, but she was scared and hurt and she couldn't stop crying when it happened. Akizetsumei had a very low threshold for pain.

"B-but, um, but . . . but a lot of stuff makes me nervous," Akizetsumei replied; she was still a bit unnerved, but she was coming out of it, "L-like, um, like . . . like Tou! I'd be super scared to be out on my own, 'cause, um, 'cause Tou takes care of me a lot. Like, um, like cooking! And, um, and if I ever run into trouble . . . I-- I can't think of a time he hasn't come to save the day, you know? I'm scared I'd be lost without him around. A-and I know Reru feels the same way about me, a-and I'm scared he'd be lost if I just suddenly went off somewhere. S-so, so really, um, I'm really scared of a lot of things."

"It's just, um, it's just when I have the wind in my face," she remarked as an afterthought; just as much as Eld didn't want Akizets having some sort of overly elevated opinion of him, she kind of didn't want him thinking she was some sort of fearless daredevil. Really, there was only one aspect in life wherein she didn't know the meaning of fear, "I'm not afraid of the wind in my face; it doesn't matter how I gotta do it, just so long as it's there. That's, um, that's why I like to run so much. It just feels really good. A-and, um, and riding a horse-- it was like running times ten, you know? It was amazing."

[Zach Kaiser]

For several moments Eld stared at her, surprised. What she said wasn't particularly shocking, and in no way bad, but what she said...and the way she said it, as though she could practically feel it on her face right now...made her seem...

"T-...That's pretty cool," he said quietly. He wondered what it must be like, to feel like that, to have something that made you fearless in the face of danger--something to feel passionate about.

"I'm not sure I have anything like that..."

[Nayt]

Akizets realized all too late that she was probably talking too much about herself. She hushed up and felt the urge to apologize again. Still not wanting to seem pathetic in front of this boy, she did everything she absolutely could to refrain, and sincerely hoped he didn't think she was being conceited or whatnot-- because it wasn't true! Akizetsumei wasn't conceited or egotistical at all. There were just a few things in this world that she felt absolutely passionate about, and simply "moving at very high speeds" or "standing against a wind storm" just so happened to be a couple of those.

"N-no way!" she replied meekly, against her better judgment.

Truthfully, Akizetsumei was just originally going to hush up, blush a bit, and mull over everything she said and how silly it must have made her look to Eld, but then he said that. He said he doubted his own passions, which was totally wrong. He'd already told her his passion, after all!

"You said you're gonna go to a real nice school and come take over the clinic, right?" Akizetsumei asked, "That must mean you're super passionate about helping people."

Akizetsumei deduced this without a second thought, really. It just felt like common sense. Aspiring to be as great of a doctor as possible-- suggested by the want to get into the best medical school available --and aspiring to work here in this village where doctors weren't paid all that well . . . that said to her that Eld saw an intense value in human life, and wished to preserve and assist it where he could.

"Which is, um, reallysweetandtotallyamazing, you know?" she added as an afterthought.

[Zach Kaiser]

Briefly Eld blushed again. "Thanks. But..." He then frowned, becoming introspective for a moment. It was difficult to explain, and he could only hope that Akizetsumei had a better grasp of intuitive concepts than intellectual ones. He could understand psychology with some effort, but understanding himself was sometimes...very troublesome.

"It's not that I don't want to do it, or that I don't feel passionate about it in a way. It's just...never made me feel like what you're talking about." He got a feeling of satisfaction from helping people at the clinic to be sure, but never the rush of joy Akizetsumei described.

"I'm not sure anything ever has..." The closest he thing he could think of was whenever he spent time in his favorite spot to be alone, but that was more of a feeling of serenity than joy.

[Nayt]

Akizetsumei didn't know what to say. She felt her enthusiasm die down immensely; it fell quick. She felt less energetic. She felt less optimistic. She felt . . . bleh.

"O-oh . . ." Akizets trailed off.

That was really kind of depressing. She didn't know what she'd do without something like running. Really, being stuck in a cast and unable to feel the wind in her face at will was going to eat her up inside, but she at least had the promise of being out of a cast later. Sarah said she was going to formally instruct her how to ride a horse, too, so that was something she was looking forward to, as well. But not having that . . . Akizets thought about it and thought about it. If she didn't have that, she'd kind of have . . .

Nothing.

"Um . . . I'm sorry," she apologized at last. She'd been holding in the urge to apologize for some time, and now here it was. Thing was, though, she didn't really know why she was apologizing this time. She hadn't done anything that she felt terrible about. She just felt like Eld deserved an apology from someone. Anyone.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld shook his head. He wanted to make her feel better while she was in the hospital, and here he was bringing down the mood. "No need to apologize." He gave her a smile; he might not have known the feeling she was talking about, but that didn't mean he wasn't happy. "Just because I haven't found something like that for me doesn't mean I never will, right?"

Earlier Akizetsumei had mentioned her accident, which had gotten Eld to thinking about something. It was...well, stupid it seemed now, and asking her was even more stupid, but...he had to ask. Depending on how she answered, he might be able to put his doubts to rest.

"Hey...uh...sorry if this sounds strange, but...did you notice anything...out of the ordinary, something that might have spooked your horse?" He didn't say what, not wanting to color her opinion, but he couldn't get those red eyes out of his head...

[Nayt]

The moment Eld smiled at her, Akizetsumei's enthusiasm returned back with full force. She felt her heart skip a beat. Eld had a nice smile.

"Yeah," Akizets smiled back, "There's always tomorrow."

She didn't quite mean that literally--it was just a personal philosophy of hers. It was both mature and immature at the same time. She was still so young to not know the full weight of mortality, not enough to know the chances of there not being tomorrow for some-- yet she also seemed able to acknowledge that they weren't at all old folk, and still had forever and a day to enjoy their lives. This wasn't the first time she'd used that line before, and it certainly wasn't going to be the last, either. It'd become something of a catch phrase for her, whenever Oboreru was down or she had family problems and just needed to cheer herself up.

All her thoughts were detracted from Eld and her current situation, sitting in this room alone and quiet with him, when Eld asked her a pretty weird question. She didn't think he was weird for asking it, but it was still a strange question.

"Hm?" Akizets hummed. She thought about it, even looked up to the ceiling as if the answer was written somewhere up there, but . . . "No? He was just kinda going, then he stopped going. It was my fault; I was just pushing him way too hard. I should give him some carrots later to apologize; he's probably really mad at me."

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld was silent for several moments. On one hand, he was quite certain that Stewart wouldn't have bucked Akizetsumei off no matter how hard she pushed him. On the other, she hadn't seen anything--and he had trouble believing that her horse might have seen something she missed.

I suppose even the tamest horses can be in bad moods sometimes. That was the conclusion he was forced to draw; whatever he'd seen in the woods must have been, like Sarah said, a figment of his overactive imagination.

"I don't think that's it, and I really doubt he's mad at you--if anything, he'll probably be the one feeling guilty." Well, okay, that was speculation as he wasn't certain that horses were capable of feeling guilt, but he imagined if they were then Stewart would have felt guilty for accidentally hurting her.

[Nayt]

"I dunno . . ." she whispered.

Akizetsumei didn't know the psychology of horses too well (actually, she didn't know psychology too well at all; she admitted earlier that tonight was the first time she'd actually heard the term "psychology"), but she was certain that there were hard feelings somewhere between her and Stewart. If it wasn't a matter of Stewart being mad at her for pushing him too hard and he was in actuality feeling guilty for hurting Akizets, then she'd just have to do something to let him know she's not mad at him! It made perfect sense.

"Maybe if I give him some carrots he'll know I'm not mad," Akizets replied thoughtfully.

She didn't find this subject at all weird or childish, either. Akizets was perfectly willing to believe that horses felt on the same abstract level as humans, even if there was no proof to really suggest it.

[Zach Kaiser]

"That might work," Eld replied, trying to hide a grin. He couldn't help but be amused that Akizetsumei was so worried about the horse thought of her. "Ask Sarah first, though. She can be pretty strict about her horses' diets." He didn't really think it was going to be a problem, but he'd learned long ago to check with her first if one was doing anything related to her horses.

Out of things to say for a moment, he glanced down at his book. He hadn't expected to be talking this much; he supposed being in the hospital all day meant she was desperate to talk to anyone, even someone like him. Perhaps if her family had stayed a bit longer...

That gave him an idea. "So, is Toushikyo as moody at home as he is out with us?" he asked.

[Nayt]

"Ah? Uhhh . . ." Akizetsumei trailed off.

Eld actually surprised her a bit with this question. She hadn't been expecting any questions about her brother. Then again, she never expected them. She hadn't expected Emily to ask about him yesterday, either. Those were kind of personal questions. She didn't feel comfortable talking to Emily about it-- but oddly enough, she actually felt kind of comfortable talking to Eld about it. Enough that she was willing to actually talk about it, rather than meekly defend her brother and try to skirt the issue to her best ability.

"U-um . . . I don't, um, I don't really know if he's moody with you guys or not. Um, I kind of only see him when we're at home," Akizets replied.

But in all honesty, he was pretty moody at home. He could be a total jerk sometimes. They'd gotten into fight after fight over the littlest things before.

"But, um, at home, he can be really, um . . . I dunno, inconsiderate?" She replied after a moment of thought. "He sorta doesn't ever think 'maybe this is Akizetsumei's or Reru's stuff' or 'this is Akizetsumei's or Reru's room,' he just goes wherever and never really asks permission to do anything, not even borrow something. He can be a total jerk sometimes. I dunno if he's like that with you guys or not, though."

[Zach Kaiser]

"He kind of is," Eld agreed. "Well, except for the borrowing part. Mayako doesn't have us over, and I think he's too scared of Sarah and Em to try to take anything of theirs." And everyone seemed to be in universal agreement that his house was too boring to hang out in--unless there was some kind of medical emergency, in which case it was way too exciting to hang out in.

"I don't know that he's really a jerk, though. Well...he can be, but mostly he's just not very honest with himself, I think." Ultimately, Eld got along with Toushikyo--it seemed he was the only who was unphased by his temperament.

He felt as though he should say something good about Toushikyo to offset the tone of the conversation. "You know, when you fell off your horse he bolted right for you--he outpaced even me. I don't think I've ever seen him run that fast. And he practically bowled over Sarah to get to you, and believe me when I say that's not something easy to do."

[Nayt]

"I . . ." Akizetsumei smiled in a way that almost seemed bashful. "I know."

In truth, though, what seemed like a bashful smile was actually a heartfelt one, the kind of smile a person gives when they just felt something truly heartwarming. Akizetsumei thought about all the good things Toushikyo had ever done for her, practically all at once. She usually had a fairly unreliable memory, but it seemed with this sort of stuff, she remembered every little detail. Without a doubt, she loved her brother. She'd said it before, even. Akizets admitted earlier that she was afraid of the idea of being apart from him.

"P-please, um, please don't think I don't like him," Akizetsumei mentioned as an afterthought, "He can be a real jerk sometimes, but Tou is the best big brother I could ever ask for. He's a sweety in his own way, you know? Like . . . like for him, if he's just hanging around someone, that means he thinks really highly of them. Even if he doesn't say it, you know? He spends a lot of time with me, and he's always there for me if I'm in trouble . . ."

It didn't take very long for Akizetsumei to come up with the perfect example of this. It was something Eld probably didn't know about, actually. Toushikyo had a habit of rarely if ever discussing his personal life.

"You know he once punched a boy for picking on me?" Akizetsumei asked, "Bloodied his nose and everything. I think, um, I think the boy's name was Noah or something, I can't remember. He, um, k-kind of kicked Tou's butt after, b-but I think he knew that was gonna happen. He said he was just trying to get him to leave me alone, and he did, and Tou was happy with that no matter what."

[Zach Kaiser]

"Noah deserves to have more than his nose bloodied," Eld replied vehemently. There was...some history there, to say the least. For reasons beyond his comprehension, Noah loved to pick on him and Toushikyo (but especially him). Now that everyone was older it had substantially lessened, but it wasn't uncommon for him to antagonize them verbally when they saw each other.

"But yeah, I can see him doing that." He might have done the same. Especially if it was Noah.