And the World Shall Forget You

[Nayt]

It was an easy task for Eld to find Etsu; she was standing directly in front of the tent. Eld touching her leg felt strange, though. A kind of strangeness she wasn't fond of. One synonymous with worry, similar to the brand of concern felt when standing next to a boy, only to realize you hadn't shaved your legs in a few days. Wait a second . . .

Etsu really hadn't shaved her legs in a few days! She quietly stepped back to avoid Eld's touch and made a mental note to take care of that tomorrow. Fortunately, though she had forgotten to bring a lantern, she had remembered to bring her straight razor.

She bent down, searched for Eld's arm with her own, and used it like a beacon into the tent. What followed was best described as "artful clambering," or the act of climbing over one another with no discernible direction or purpose, confused, offended, and embarrassed, to such an extended point that a modern artist would have observed it as a grand masterpiece of improvised art. But to Etsu, it was a terribly embarrassing moment that began with pulling herself into the tent. She climbed in too quickly and Eld hadn't moved yet, so she wound up plowing right into him-- almost like she was trying to pounce on him with a hug, except she (fortunately) didn't bowl him over.

Though maybe it would have been better if she did, because after that, she wound up squeezing by him to the left-- except he was trying to take the left side at the same time to get out of her way, leading them to meet in proximity again. Then, she awkwardly moved to the right just as Eld did-- so they had an incidental stand off, ending with her making the first move again: throwing Eld down onto his back and climbing over him to get to the pillow she'd set on the right side of the tent.

Except he was in the middle of the tent, and she couldn't exactly be clear of him then-- so she wound up laying with her face flat in the pillow, legs across Eld's body, and a horrid feeling of shame in her heart. There were no words, just disappointment.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld let out a small grunt as basically pushed him over and climbed around/over him to get ready. "Next time, wait 'til I'm situated first," he muttered; in her mind, the problem came from her insisting on pushing his way past him instead of just waiting for him.

Shoving her legs off him, he scrambled all the way over to the other side of the tent. They had barely enough room to fit both of them. It was good thing neither of them were usually restless sleepers, or things could have been uncomfortable. And possibly very awkward in a way that would probably involve him getting hit.

"Well, good night," he said once he was settled in the blankets.

[Nayt]

Etsu released a deep sigh. She kind of wanted to retaliate to Eld's shoving of her legs, but it was probably deserved. Maybe she shouldn't have shoved him down earlier-- but hey, he was really getting in the way. Oh well. It didn't matter anymore. They were situated, she was embarrassed, and he was going to sleep.

". . . good night," she whispered under her breath.

---

The next morning, Eld would awake to find that Etsu was neither in the tent nor the graveyard. It wouldn't take long to figure out where she was exactly, though. The two fishing poles she'd brought with her were missing, but the spear she brought was still there. The gear she packed for fishing was also gone, including a small container she'd brought for keeping bait. Though she'd taken a few more of her own personal items, Eld wasn't terribly familiar with everything she packed, so he wasn't likely to notice everything that was gone.

Her clothes from last night were still piled up in the corner, though.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld was a little surprised to awaken and once again find out that Etsu had left before him. I guess she's been getting antsy to do something lately. A quick check outside confirmed that she wasn't around at the moment, which fortunately let him get dressed in relative peace (and this time, light).

It only took a cursory glance over what was missing from the tent to figure out what Etsu was likely doing. Fishing already? He'd just intended to have some fruit for breakfast; he knew she liked fishing, but even while camping eating fish for every meal for a few days wasn't terribly appealing.

I suppose I'll go see how she's doing. If they were going to cook anything it would have to be by the beach anyway, since they couldn't exactly safely start a campfire in the limited room around their tent. So he started the trek down the trail to the lake...

[Nayt]

When Eld was lakeside again, he'd find Etsu in a particularly startling position . . .

Etsu sat by the shore on the opposite side of the lake, her legs spread out before her and her feet in the water. She cupped water in her hands and dropped it over her knees and down her shins, rubbed the moisture in, and gliding a razor blade over her skin once more. She was shaving her legs.

Honestly, what else would Etsu be doing right now?

Etsu already had both lines cast out into the middle of the lake, and a small bucket set out nearby for depositing her catches into. She hadn't nabbed anything yet, but that wasn't too much of a concern of hers right now. Right now, she was doing necessary bodily maintenance. She was at the tail end of an overdue date with a razor blade. It seemed she hadn't changed out of her night clothes, though, and she was very obviously wearing one of Eld's shirts. It was one of his black shirts and she was practically swimming in it (except for the chest area of the shirt; that was kind of-sort of tight on her, but it was about as uncomfortable as wearing a bra and thereby unimportant). If she stood up straight, it came down to the middle of her thighs.

When she heard a rustle across the lake, Etsu looked up quickly, only to be relieve to see Eld rather than anyone else. She wasn't quite so relieved when she felt a sharp pain on her leg, though. Etsu winced audibly, looked down at her leg, observed the crimson that now dripped down her leg from the open slash across her shin, and winced again. Stupid, stupid, stupid! She was jumpy and she wasn't looking at what she was doing, and she wound up nicking herself pretty good. Except she was using a straight razor, and nicking yourself with a straight razor usually meant giving yourself a nice healthy cut across your skin. A flesh wound to be sure, more an inconvenience than anything else-- but seriously, that was the last thing Etsu needed right now.

Oh well, if Eld wound up touching her leg again or something and he grabbed a rough spot, at least it wasn't because she hadn't shaved her legs; she was all smooth again. That just meant that he'd have grabbed a bandage, cloth, or whatever she could find to wrap around her leg, and then maybe he'd feel guilty for startling her.

[Zach Kaiser]

He'd figured Etsu was fishing, which was technically true, but he didn't think she'd be taking care of hygiene needs at the same time. He turned a little red, but fortunately it wasn't all that bad. It wasn't like he'd caught her bathing or anything.

It did seem like he'd surprised her, though. The cut wasn't too bad, fortunately, and Eld had made it a point to pack first aid supplies and keep some of the basic stuff on him. "Sorry if I startled you. Here," he said as he reached her, handing her a bandage.

[Nayt]

She gave him a slight glare as he reached her. Yes, he had startled her, and yes, that had resulted in her cutting herself shaving. Okay, maybe it was sort of her fault, too, being jumpy and not looking at what she was doing and all-- but hey, she could still blame Eld a little.

Etsu took the bandage from him without a word, and after rubbing her cut with lake water to clean it, wrapped the bandage around her leg and called it done for now. It'd stop the bleeding and help it heal eventually. It wasn't that big of a cut, anyways. Nothing to worry about.

Once it was all said and done, she put her legs all the way out-- ankles into the water by then --and flattened out her shirt so it covered down to the middle of her thighs, at least. With her hands back to balance herself, she leaned back and relaxed. The lines were out and she'd be able to tell if there was a bite, but she wasn't too worried about aggressive fishing right now. If she wanted to fish aggressively, she'd go out there with a spear and make sure she caught some fish. They were going to bite eventually, though, and they really didn't need a lot. So it was no rush . . .

Awkwardly enough, Etsu actually felt the need to make conversation with Eld, but couldn't find the words to start it-- in part because she was wondering where that drive even came from to begin with.

[Zach Kaiser]

After Etsu accepted the bandage, Eld walked over to where her bucket was, noting that she hadn't caught anything yet. "No bites, huh?" Once that was done, he sat down next to her on the beach.

Contrary to her, Eld seemed perfectly comfortable. Partly this was because he was rather used to antagonistic women, but perhaps it was more that Eld was a sociable person. He seemed reasonably comfortable talking to anyone. Well, anyone save Noah Herst.

"You must really like the outdoors," he observed with a smile. "With the way you sleep at home, I never thought I'd see you up before midday." Not that he was much better, but he was on a mission here, whereas he got the impression Etsu was here more to enjoy herself than anything.

[Nayt]

Etsu shook her head. Nope, nothing yet. She'd have something in time, though. Nonetheless, she glanced over at Eld when he sat next to her, and contrary to what she'd have done weeks ago, she didn't move to put space between them. Instead, she looked back out into the lake and thought about what he asked her a little.

". . . I do," she said with a nod.

With good reason, of course. A greater part of her life was spent outdoors. Inside a house, she was like a caged bird. She studied and she behaved herself, but she was just moving on with her day to day life in a state of indifference. She was only especially content when she was outside . . . doing anything, really. She could have just been sitting out in the sun like this and she'd be particularly happy about it.

"We went out a r-rot," it was obvious who she meant she said we, of course. "Camp-ing, fish-ing. Kiyoshi-sama even took me hunting."

She pantomimed the act of shooting an arrow, for lack of knowledge of what the heck the words for that were in Common. Pantomiming was easier than mentioning that.

She dropped her hands back to her sides again. "But I was . . . no good at that. Hankyū . . . far too tight. I cour-rd barer-ry pur-rr it back. Kiyoshi-sama was very good, though."

[Zach Kaiser]

The small, usually silent aggressive part of Eld's mind stirred at the mention of Kiyoshi, but he ignored it. If Etsu was comfortable to talk about him now, than there was no reason he shouldn't be.

"I'm not terribly good at hunting either; actually, that's what we were doing the last time I went camping. Sarah wanted everybody to go on a hunting expedition with her. That was an...interesting experience."

Eld sort of regretted bringing it up now, not because it was a bad experience but just because...well, Etsu had yet to experience what his group of friends could be like sometimes. Especially when alcohol was involved.

[Nayt]

Wait, what? They went out on a hunting expedition before? That was more surprising than the notion of Eld being a poor hunter. That just went without saying, actually. Eld wasn't the manliest guy around, and you sort of had to be a bit tough to be a great hunter.

"Oh?" Etsu tilted her head to the side. "Is Vaerbond-san a good hunter?"

Going by the aforementioned logic, it would've made sense to Etsu if Sarah was a great hunter. Or huntress, rather. Sarah was tough and overbearingly strong. Etsu had "fought" with her when they all went swimming, and Sarah wrecked her and everyone else even when she was pulling punches. She could probably string a bow easily and draw it back just as easily. Hell, she probably could've shot a longbow, for that matter!

Etsu imagined all of this perfectly-- and suddenly, she wanted to go out hunting with Sarah. Etsu would bring a spear and be kind of useless and Sarah could bring a bow and be kind of awesome. Etsu, fond as she was with watching other people, especially her friends, commit impressive feats and the like, was completely okay with this idea.

[Zach Kaiser]

"W-Well, about that..."

Etsu liked Sarah, and had bonded with her more than any of the other girls, so he was hesitant to break any illusion she had of her as some perfect sportswoman. But, well, he felt he should tell her the truth--especially as if she ever went hunting with her, she'd need to be forewarned. "Sarah's strong...she's the only one of us capable of pulling back a bow, but the truth is..."

"...she's kind of a bad shot," he was forced to admit. That led to a rather interesting outing, especially with her repeated attempts to prove otherwise.

[Nayt]

". . . oh."

Etsu sounded sincerely disappointed there-- for once a perfect tonal representation of how she felt about something. Because honestly, that was really disappointing . . . but oh well. No one was perfect, right? Sarah may have at least been good at other things.

"So she is r-rike my mother, then?" Etsu asked.

She loved her mother dearly (though it was complicated now for reasons Etsu had long since decided to stop thinking about), but she was pretty bad at a lot of things. She tried, which was admirable. It was just dangerous when she tried too hard sometimes. Like that one time that she went out hunting with Etsu and Kiyoshi.

"She ar-rmost shot me once," Etsu said, paused for a second, and added: "I was standing be-hind her."

Never again did Etsu's mother go hunting with them.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld laughed the vaguely frightened laughter of someone who knew very much what she was talking about. "Y-Yeah, I think Sarah's very much like your mother." It had gotten to the point where he wasn't willing to be around Sarah when she tried to hunt unless he had something very solid between him and her. And preferably over his head as well; arrows could arc.

He was also beginning to suspect some of his father's stories about Kyoko weren't as exaggerated as he'd thought.

"She nearly hit me as well, and I was behind a tree." That day he learned that arrows could indeed ricochet if they hit something at an angle.

[Nayt]

Etsu turned her head to Eld, her brow wrinkled incredulously.

"You are . . ." serious?

But she didn't get all of that out because . . . well, Eld was probably dead serious about that. It would just be a rhetorical question in the end.

". . . wow," she said as she looked back into the water, "That is . . . that is a very, very bad shot."

Though she hadn't outright intended it, Etsu wound up showing more emotion in this conversation than she ever had with Eld. These weren't strong emotions, but they weren't masks, either. She showed confusion, dismay, and even nostalgic catharsis. She wasn't being at all aggressive or spiteful, either. Etsu was being casual, calm . . . outright friendly, in fact. Something she'd never imagined herself being towards Eld in a million years, but she really wasn't thinking about how she was acting towards him right now, and oddly enough, if she did, she probably wouldn't have cared too much.