Farewells., -Danie

[Akedhi]

Sana is sorry that the caravan is moving on - she rather likes the forest, much better than the cities. There aren't as many people, and she's been learning to dance better. (Not better than Mistress Ingsley-Miar, of course, but that's a given. Also, she dances just that bit... different.)

But they're moving on, and that means she's going to leave Yannick behind, and she's a bit sorry.

So she's filched some bread and butter and sausages from the store wagons and taken a blanket from Roberto's wagon - off her own bed. He'll give her another, sometime - and is slipping out to find his abandoned barn again and give him a parting gift.

She's wrapped in two shawls and two skirts. It's cold - she doesn't have any shoes, so she's running and avoiding putting her feet down more than necessary. Yannick only has one blanket.

And here's the barn.

"... Yannick?"

[Danie]

There's a soft snort - he'd been sleeping, and she's startled him awake - and the golden-eyed youth peers over the edge of the ruined floor. It's something of a nest, up there. Once his arm had healed, he'd made a rudimentary but more stable platform on the creaking boards. It hasn't shown any signs of wanting to fall down yet.

"Oh. You."
Not a disgusted 'you', but a simple, slightly suprised, 'you'.
He skitters down from his perch, with a landing that looks as if it took a lot of practice to get right.
"Hullo. Lost again?" He's kidding (shocking, I know). Yannick knows that she knows the way now. When he sees the things she's carrying, though, he blinks his huge eyes, tilts his head to one side, and inquires, "...Or running away?"

[Akedhi]

She shakes her head.

"No. The caravan'ss leaving. I wanted to ssay goodbye."

She scuffs her foot against the dirt of the floor and smiles shyly.

"I brought sssome thingss for you."

[Danie]

Yannick's first reaction is a slight narrowing of his eyes (he can hardly open them wider) and an urge to ask what she wants in return. That's the way it works, isn't it? Gifts are rare, almost nonexistent in his world.

"Er."
What does he say? Think, what would the shopkeeper say? Mustn't be impolite...
"That's,...thank you?... You shouldn't have."
That's polite, isn't it...?

[Akedhi]

Shrug.

She doesn't need to answer that part.

"Here. I brought a blanket and sssome bread and ssaussagess."

She holds out the basket and the blanket folded over her arm with a shy little smile. It's a nice blanket - undyed wool, woven of black and white together, and so a sort of variegated grey.

"I thought... your blanket wasss awfully thin."

[Danie]

"...Oh."

Blink.
...
Blink again.

"That's,...really thoughtful of you." He's not just being polite - he means it. Suddenly shy, he twists his hands over each other for a moment before hesitantly reaching out to take the offered basket and banket.
"Thank you."
She shouldn't be offended that he sounds a bit bewildered. He's not used to this sort of kindness.

[Akedhi]

"You're welcome."

Shy smile and a faint darkening of her cheeks. (The skin underneath is red, but her scales don't change colour.)

"I... guessss we'll be back... next sseasson?"

She doesn't know. She doesn't actually want to leave. She likes him.

[Danie]

"Oh, will you?" Pause. "I never know for sure where I'll be, from year to year. But I - yes, I can always come back. If I'm not living here next season, I can still come back to see if you are."
Surprisingly enough, he really would go to the trouble of coming back to check.
He smiles a smile that's rusty with disuse and seems to creak. Sana is,... trustworthy? Likeable?... Something like that. The closest word he can come up with is 'tolerable', though it doesn't really do her justice, as he really wouldn't mind her sticking around. She's been very nice to him, all things considered.

[Akedhi]

"... oh. I... I thought you lived here."

As in, this was his permanent place of residence. (Not that she judged him for it - she's lived on the streets and in a hovel and now she lives in wagons. Nothing wrong with an abandoned barn.)

"I don't know. I... maybe Roberto will want to go ssomewhere elsse."

[Danie]

"I do. But this place could fall down, or someone else might want to make trouble, and - well, you never I know. I stay when I can, leave when I can't."
Shrug.
"I'll probably run into you sooner or later, regardless of whther you come back next season. I've been all over."

[Akedhi]

"Oh."

She thinks for a while.

"The caravan goesss everywhere too. We... we might jusst missss each other."

Frown.

That wouldn't be good.

[Danie]

"I could find you if I tried." He smirks. "It's hard to miss a caravan of that size. You move awfully slow."
He might actually try to find her.
...Of course, it would be easier if he just followed them. Less catching up to do, later.

[Akedhi]

She giggles.

"Yeah. Roberto decided daysss ago that we were leaving. And we haven't yet."

Pause.

"... would you try?"

[Danie]

"I could."

Yannick blinks, and thinks a moment, and finally corrects, "I will."
Because he might not be the nicest person, but it's the nice thing to do.

[Akedhi]

Pause.

She beams.

"Oh... or... or I could sstay here..."

She doesn't know why she suggested that. It just seems like it would be a way to solve the problem of never seeing him again.

[Danie]

"I,...don't think you'd want to do that."

Yannick shakes his head, slowly, reluctantly even.

"You're better off with the caravan. Much better off. Safer, too, prob'ly."

[Akedhi]

"I can take care of myssself."

She opens her mouth, wider than any human - or elf - should be able to, and shows him her fangs.

Then she closes her mouth and shrugs.

"It makesss people really sssick. And they leave me alone."

[Danie]

"Mmwell..."
He looks as if he's seriously considering it, and he is.
"I don't know. It's up to you, of course, but I would not reccommend it. Winter's awfully cold, you see. And, you know. You need to get food, and that's a bit harder when everything's sleeping and hiding and such."
He forgets sometimes that other people don't live mainly on small rodents.

[Akedhi]

She makes a little face and shakes her head.

"I don't know. Maybe... I could do like I ussed to. And buy food. And bring it back here..."

She'd fit in better with him than she did with the Miar anyway.

[Danie]

"Well. You can if you want."

He wouldn't mind the company. He doesn't know if he'd grow to enjoy it, but he certainly wouldn't mind it.

"'Course, we'll have to track down the caravan again if you change your mind."

[Akedhi]

Pause. Shrug.

"The only one that likess me isss Roberto."

And he sometimes... well. He sometimes yells at her and does other things to take his temper out.

[Danie]

"Oh. Well,... like I said. You can stay if you want. I won't make you." Did he give the impression that he was going to make her stay? Because if he did, I missed it. "It's,... well, come to think of it, you would be nearly as safe here as the caravan."
Yannick hasn't gone near if he could help it, but from what he's seen of it, he's been able to guess what sort of folk travel with it.
"Less people out here, though. It gets quite empty."
He likes it that way.

[Akedhi]

"There'ss you."

Isn't that enough?

He never gave the impression he would make her stay. Actually, he's giving the impression that he's trying to talk her out of it.

... thus, she's trying to talk him into it.

"... would you mind?" That hadn't occurred to her yet."

[Danie]

"No."
Yannick says this with perfect certainty. If there's one thing he knows about Sana, it's that he doesn't mind having her around. Granted, he doesn't know much about her, and she hasn't been around for any great length of time, but he doesn't mind her.
That's a lot more than he could say for everyone else.

With others, he wonders what they're planning, whether he's a tool in their plans.
With Sana,...well. She doesn't seem to have any plans, other than, it seems, being nice to him for no apparent reason.

[Akedhi]

"Then everything'ss all right."

She smiles. Bounces a little on her feet.

"I have to go get my thingss."