"How's the cleaning coming along, Larishazza?" Wastla asked as she sighed out a mixture of frustrations after she slammed down a basket full of dirty clothes.
"Slower than I expected it to go." I tell her with a firm gaze carved into my features. And, in my hands, a black pot that I was scratching the insides of just to clean it. My water wasn't enough it seems to get rid of some of this very old dinner.
"You can use the fireplace, you know, boil the water."
"But that would take too long!" I complained, much to her bemusement.
"You don't have to watch the bubbles form!" she says back to me as she starts to move some wood into the filthy pit. A short-lived cloud filled with specks of black even came out towards us when the new wood was put in.
"Alright, does anything else need cleaning?"
"This whole house does, but, some of it will just have to wait while my Little Va sleeps..." Wastla tells me before she sends a glare in the direction of Vadei's room. She even began to aggressively snort in that direction. And I knew perfectly well why, but, I did not bring it up. Even if it bothered me that she viewed Nin like that.
"What can be done, then?" I asked as I leaned away from the metal pot. I kept one hand in to fill it with water before then pulling it out. Then, I flicked it dry. All because I liked the limpness the motion put into my fingers.
Wastla lit the fire with a match before she looked up at me, "Laundry, mopping, and, while it is not really a priority... I would like to see my flower garden glowing with colour again." she tells me before taking on a distant tone as she looked outside.
"Putting new doors in is too noisy, I take it then?" I joked with a wide smile as my eyes looked down at the broken wood. It was in a sort-of neat pile now, but it was all still in the house.
"Hammers and nails do make a lot of noise, yes." Wastla informs me with a steady nod.
"I dunno... Can't we just push them in?" I ask her as I emphasize it by pushing some dents out of her kitchenware. Thankfully, I didn't just poke the dents outwards and break them further. I was actually able to fix them to some extent!
"No, I can't do that. Besides, there are other parts of town that need your strength." she tells me before she lets out another sigh.
"Where do you even keep your tools and that? If you don't have any, I have no problem filling in for them." I ask then say.
"They're in a chest under the house... My, Husband... He kept them hidden from our little ones so they didn't get any ideas in the forest."
"Is the forest back there particularly dangerous? Well, before the current bug problem." I ask before adding on a little clarification. It was probably not needed, but who knows. Who knows indeed.
"It was never a bad one, no. You had the occasional bit of wildlife, but, this small bit of land has always been quiet, really. Perks of it being reasonably settled, I suppose."
"Were you never concerned about your daughters getting lost in there? Even from here, it looks like it gets dark quite quickly as you go in." I ask as I lean to the side a little and using my enhanced eyesight to see how deep I can go.
"It's quite a loose forest, what are you on about?" Wastla asks me which makes me realise I was using too much magic in my eyes. So I stopped and started laughing at the fact I had tricked myself into seeing a different situation.
"Sorry... I was looking too deep into it!" I joked as my laughter came back in force.
She laughed a little too, but, her tone did not really change, "But, no. We never really worried for them getting lost. We could always smell them and find them. And, did you know, we oxfuinei have such a good sense of smell that we can tell if a family member is injured on the outside?"
"Eh?" I let out as I find out about this fact.
"It's true, we get very intimate with the smell of our pups after they're born. So, when they start smelling off, we can tell when something is wrong." she explains further.
"But, wouldn't you mistake her just playing in the mud or something?"
"No, because mud and trees and that, they are smells we learn to ignore as we know them. But, when smells we don't know are near our pups..." she explains furthermore as she starts to glare in Nin's direction.
"So, do you prefer your daughters to smell like themselves or do you prefer them to have perfume or something?" I then ask her as I looked at some stored away herbs and roots. They were all wilted and dull, but, I had no idea if that was meant to be the case. If not, I guess we might go spice hunting at some point!
"I don't mind them testing their boundaries, but, of course, figuring out how much to use is the issue." she says with a smile.
"They tended to just dump it over themselves?"
"Once or twice, but, even then, with how good our noses are, anything but the smallest drops might seem like that." she tells me as she playfully brushes a hand near her nose.
"Then, does this cause issues when cooking then? There are quite a few pungent smells out there."
"No, when it comes to the kitchen. That is when we just let the smells just fill the air. You can always tell it is dinner time or that the men are coming home from work at a certain time of day." she explains with a blissful sigh. Her mind was likely filled with old memories and her growing distraught might have indicated that. She was probably thinking of her husband once again, I mean, how couldn't she? They loved each other, clearly!
Maybe I should try and shift the topic away from it, then? I wasn't too fond of sitting near someone as they silently grieved. I wanted to help them however I could, but, sometimes I don't know how. Just getting a smile to come wasn't enough sometimes.
Yet, I still wanted to try, "I know it is an obvious thing, but... You miss him a lot, don't you?" I ask her quietly. Watching with a growing frown as she starts to tear up and nod.
"I... I don't know what to do without him... We'd been together with those two since day one and now..." she whimpered as she likely looked about at his stuff.
"Of course you do! Just... Maybe thinking about it like a long days work will work? You've raised and nurtured those two on your own, right?"
"He always came back on those days... But, now..." she sobbed further as it became clear that way of thinking about it did not help her.
"They're both grown up, though, Wastla. The burden is not as heavy anymore."
"Just because they're older doesn't mean I'm just going to let them go at it... Vadei may be a woman now but she is still my Little Va... And Conquei is still my frustrating Conqy Bonk..." she says to me as she wipes her arms against her eyes.
"Maybe it is best then to just let them go? To free yourself up for more than just being a mother?"
"Only... Only someone who has never been a mother would say that... You don't get it." I get told by her before she goes outside. Still sobbing loudly until a loud bang is heard as she is soon screaming into the air. But, as I still wanted to help, I got up and followed her to see what I could do.
"Listen, Wastla, I know I am not a mother. I probably will never be at the rate I am going, but just give it a go? It might help. Just think, they've both been on a long adventure without you. They'll do just fine."
"One of them spent months away from me as a personal toy for some obese human while the other had to claw her way back to us just to save us..." she spits at me as her mind fixates on what might've been too casual a use of the word 'adventure.' Yet, I was willing to stick by it. It was an adventure for one of them at least!
"And in that time, they both went through hardships without you, they're both still here! One is turning into the daughter you always wanted her to be while the other has become so very strong. She's learned new magic, she can pilot that! You can rest easy knowing you don't need to keep being there for them." I say with as much enthusiasm as I can. Only to quieten down as Wastla slowly approached me with a blank expression.
She then sighed and trembled before me, "I can't rest easy, not while one is using her grief to kill herself while the other doesn't so much as say a word to anyone anymore... I need to be strong for them. They need me... My Little Va, my Conqy Bonk, they need their mummy to be there for them." she says as the tears come back in force and a hand covers her mouth.
I look at her uncomfortably at first before I approach her, only to get lanced at and hugged, "It's going to be alright. You don't have to worry. There are people here to help." I say in as soothing a tone I can while returning the hug.
"No... I need to focus on my daughters..." she moans back despite how ravenously she was seeking affection.
"And if you keep going like this, you won't be able to help them at all. Give them some space, let them handle a little bit on their own. Let me and my friends handle some more, and, of course, you can take on what is left or as much as you can."
"Okay... I'll trust you lot with this..." she mutters as she starts to wipe her eyes clean again. And, when she is done, I smile at her until she returns it. Then, when she lets go of me, we start to head back to the house. But, I catch her attention again when I start watering the flowers on the way back in.
"There, there." I say to the messy flowerbeds as I gently sprinkle water over them.
"I'd be careful with that, if you get Vadei's flowerbed wet, she'll get annoyed." she lightly scolds me with a small smile as I keep flicking more water out of my fingers. Looking back at her with a growing sense of curiosity as well.
"Oh? Which one is hers?" I let out with a subtle devilishness. Moving my gaze about rapidly until a raised finger and its finely filed nail pointed me in the right direction. And, I was a little surprised to see it. Mostly because it was clearly intended to be an outline of something.
"She spent quite a lot of time working on it. I think she was nearly done with it as well before we..." Wastla explains before she goes quiet at the end.
"Well, I am impatient and I don't want to wait for her to explain it. So, let me see what a bit of life-giving magic water can do!" I enthusiastically cheer as I began to fill the dried earth before me with fresh, potent liquid.
Then, Wastla began to tear up a little again, "So it is what I thought it was." she lets out as the flowers start coming to life again. Revealing a portrait of their family in the process. And, I could only assume it was based on an older photo as what seemed to be Vadei was quite young. Her sister as well was wrapped up in the arms of Wastla, so it must be quite old.
"There's a lot of talent here I can't really describe..." I let out in awe as I stared at the well-planned flowerbed.
"She's spent years on it. And, see, if you look about, you might be able to catch a glimpse of other, out-of-use flower patches." she points out as her hand goes about the open area behind her. And, to see if I could see them all, I hopped up into the sky and gasped as I saw them. But, I did not land with a splash as that would have been very rude. The door was also still, obviously, open, so I did not want to soak their house.
"Even then, with having just seen how many there are. I'm still impressed by the planning involved with this. Are all the flowers local to here?" I praise loudly before moving on to more questions. I quite liked some of these flowers, so, maybe, I can raise a few of my own. And, if we can convince her... She can make more of these with us being shown off at Suhurlodst...
"Some are not, no. She used to save up all her pocket money just to buy flower batches from the travelling florists on the way to the cities. She'd then cut them open with the precision of a surgeon just to get their seeds. Or, as she got older, she'd plant them separately." Wastla tells me before her gaze stops at a small wooden item out in the garden. She then walks on over to it and taps it, only to frown.
"What's that?" I ask after skipping up to her new position.
"It's the house my husband built for all the bees Vadei's flower project was attracting. But, it seems they died off or moved on." she explains with a sigh after she opens it up to reveal dark patches of flaking honeycomb. A few dozen bee corpses also fell down as she pulled it out.
"Well, here's to hoping you can get the bees to come back!" I say as she puts the piece back into the greater structure. And I loved the smile she gave me as the thought crossed her mind.
"The bees will, unfortunately, have to wait, we have more important things to deal with." Wastla says as she then goes back inside of the house with me following. I then sat back down with a quiet thud and looked down at the pot we left to boil.
"See! I told you it takes too long!" I complained as we both saw the lack of bubbles in the large black pot.
"No worries, there's still plenty to do." I get told as she carefully dips some towels into the heated water. She even throws in a few utensils and other small tools before she hands me one of the towels.
"What do you want cleaning?" I asked as she began to just start rubbing down parts of the house with the wet towel.
"Floors, walls, anything really. If the towel gets too dry or cold, just come back to the pot." she explains before she lets some frustrations out on the mess she was near. I, however, took this opportunity to go back to Einervaene so I could speak to her. And I smiled back at her when she had a smile come to her face as I came by.
"I take it she's feeling better?" Einervaene asks me while looking past me and at the other active cleaner.
"I've managed to help with her mood a little, but, this will be a long affair. One that I'll have to be very dutiful about." I tell her as I start prodding at her lower half with the edges of the wet towel. Grinning slightly at each little annoying nudge I managed to get in against her.
"You were sure not to make too many promises, right? We're only going to be here for so long." Einervaene reminds me as I came to a stop with the teasing and cleaning.
"We're going to be here a while, though, aren't we? This place is a mess."
Einervaene then sighed, "I know we said we'd help, but we do have an academy to get back to."
"So what if we lose our spots in the Academy? There are people who need our help!"
"If we stopped somewhere because people needed our help, we'd be failing everyone and getting nowhere." she says to me rather cynically as she looks down at her hands and knees.
"And I'm not saying we should despite how fun that would be. I'm saying it because our friend won't come with us if we don't." I whisper into Einervaene's ear. I was also fairly sure Wastla heard that as I heard her suddenly stop in the other room.
"You're still thinking about that then?" Einervaene asks me as she frowns when the memory goes through her mind. Back when Vadei called us all to the bridge to explain her new destination. She also made it quite clear she did not want to travel anymore. She just wanted to stay at her home village.
"How could I not? I didn't know Vadei very well before all this, but, I feel like we've learned to get along quite well since I ran after them as they left Suhurlodst on that airship."
"We all did. We were the only company either of us had for weeks and then when the wyvern attacked, we had to rely on each other a lot more." Einervaene explains to me. It may have only been a trip on an airship, but it was the trip we all learned to be great friends on. And in my case, I learned how to be a better friend to Einervaene here.
"It still surprises me how eventful it's all been so far. All we did was sneak out of school!" I laughed as I leaned back onto my hands. I even created enough distance to start teasing Einervaene with my tapping feet, as well.
"Where would the fun be if it lacked events? Sure, I nearly died in one of them, but I achieved so much when I defied those odds!" Einervaene said with pride before I began to rub her head.
"Yeah, you really did go above and beyond that day." I tell her as I ruffle her hair.
She started laughing and swatting as I did so, "Stop that!" she complained half-heartedly before she went quiet.
"Oh, I hope I'm not interrupting." Wastla says nervously as she approaches us.
"Not at all! In fact, I could start speaking about the part your daughter played as well!" Einervaene said which hooked Wastla into it instantly. Her ears just shot up into an attentive stance with so little effort!
"Please do!" she says excitedly as her hand moved under her breast and went near her heart.
"Well, see, when we were travelling on the airship, before we found you lot. This is where all the damage came from as well, by the way." Einervaene began to explain.
"So, yeah, we were flying along, having fun, then, boom!" I let out as Einervaene laughed through her nose.
"Yeah, it was a simple day at first. Just us lot trying to pass the time by messing about, but, then came along a bunch of wyverns. A very powerful one as well which snatched Nin down to the valley below." my friend explained as Wastla's gaze took on a disinterested look.
"And my daughter?" she asked as she tried to nudge the talk towards her child.
"I... I don't remember what she did." Einervaene said with a shrug.
"Isn't that when she learned how to fly the airship? I sent you two inside, didn't I?"
"Oh, yeah! She was on the bridge in her chair and one of the slavers did something that gave her that large scar on her palm and backhand." Einervaene explained once the memories came back to her.
"She was injured by those fiends!?" Wastla let out in a shocked tone.
"No, the airship did it. It has something to do with the technology used to build it..." Einervaene explained nervously as her gloved hand started rubbing her neck.
"The builders of that vile machine best hope I don't find them then..." Vadei's Mother snorted out as she lifted her gaze up at the idea of them.
"Don't be too hard on them, Wastla, they did build the airship that allowed your daughter to save you, after all."
"I couldn't care less, their machine tore open my Little Va's hand! Surely they could've made something that did not need to do that..." she mumbled in annoyance before I gestured for Einervaene to carry on.
"But, yeah, Nin was fighting the lead wyvern while Larishazza fought off the lesser ones. I dealt with one or two and Vadei was now piloting the airship through the battle. It stayed like that for a little as well. But then..." she said before she looked at me as a sore point in our history came up. I would not have gone so far as to admit I was wrong... But, what I did was unacceptable either way you put it.
"Don't worry, you can mention it." I say calmly as I accepted the fact I allowed myself to be scared at that moment. I let fear cloud my judgement when a friend was taken...
"We came to realise how powerful the lead wyvern was, and Nin got taken away by it because he did something to it that impressed it or something." Einervaene says, completely avoiding the thing I said she could talk about.
"And, Vadei here helped Einervaene track down where our friend had been taken so Einervaene could then beat it!" I finished off in a cheery voice while shaking Einervaene about. Smiling even more as she began to get embarrassed by the praise.
Wastla, however, was left distraught by that, "My... My Little Va helped save that thing's life...?" she questioned in disbelief before she just left. She also did not go into another part of the house either. From what I could hear, she ran off outside.
"Should we?" Einervaene asked as she began to get up.
"I don't know, Nin has helped her daughter so much yet she still can't trust him..." I mutter as I tap my fingers against the floor. The prior joy and pride that filled the air were now gone. And it wasn't likely to come back in the near future. Maybe we would just have to give it time.
It was probably all we could do regarding Nin's current situation...