Her countdown of doom was approaching too quickly for her liking. One hand went numb, the other was ready to fall off. Two minutes of writing nonstop yet it felt like an eternity. Her brain rattled with thoughts but none of them were useful.
If anyone asked, Zenobia long lost the momentum after the first twenty seconds of this hellish challenge. For a brief moment she spared a glance at her companion, amazed that he was still writing at such a brisk pace. Also incredibly annoyed since she blamed him for this torment; he came up with the idea and enforced it.
Zenobia understood what the point of this task was, but there was no denying she struggled with things like this. Big time. It was the dream journal all over again except it wasn't a passing grade she risked losing. The image of her sister flashed in her mind, revitalizing her. With gritted teeth she continued. The ache in her hand from gripping the pencil too hard throbbed insufferably.
"Forty-three seconds left." How the hell was Elias able to stay so consistent with a time limit like this?! Just from the moment she peeked, she saw a long list. One far longer than hers. Frustration aside, she persevered. Zenobia felt Rosette partially in her lap, enjoying the finer things in life. It sounded strange being envious of a dog, but it's been several days of little sleep on top of this.
"Done. You can stop." Sighing, she fell back onto the bed. Her gaze met startled black as Rosette popped her head up. Elias laughed at her. There didn't seem to be much that left him down in the dumps. His cheery personality was needed since her house was insufferable right now.
Between her sister's tears, her mother's shouts and her own stress, the house resembled more of a cage than a loving home. A prison. It made her grateful that Jennifer stepped in and gave the old hag the excuse of tutoring sessions just so she could come over more often. It especially was helpful considering the personal mission at hand. It made her wonder just how much the old doctor knew.
Signing Elias smiled, stretching his arms above his head. Glad to see someone looked content with their work. Zenobia cringed at her answers. Compared to his, hers seemed terribly short. She could only hope this could get them one step closer to actually making the mask.
"Let me see what you got, Z."
"Z?"
"Yeah Z. Zenobia, Zeno, Z. Sounds simple enough."
"Just Zeno is fine."
"No way. We're partners in crime. We need special codenames now. So to you, I'm Eli. Now show me your list of animals." She wasn't going to bother trying to understand him at this point. Instead she braced herself for ridicule. From the moment she presented her list to him, she could tell he was trying his best not to snicker.
Dove
Rabbit
Butterfly
Koi
Unicorn
Golden Retriever
Sparrow
Horse
Arctic fox
Tiger
Dragonfly
"This seriously all you have? We wrote for like three minutes."
"I'm not good under time limits. I tried ok!?" These were the first creatures that came to mind. None of them felt right, sadly. From the moment she texted him, she knew this would arguably take the longest amount of time. Actually picking the damn animal to symbolize her sister.
On her own with just her experiments, it took days, if not weeks to have a conceptual image to tinker with. She couldn't take her time, but she also couldn't rush just trying to find something and hope it was good enough. This mask had to be perfect. This was exactly why she wanted to work with Elias instead of acting like a typical client who kept their nose out of the process.
Of course, Zenobia took pride in her art designs however; those weren't made from specifications. They were trials, designs she herself thought up of without any intention of it coming to life, let alone being worn on someone's face. Hell, the sketches she took pride in, were acts of inspiration that had undergone several changes.
That couldn't happen in this situation. What Zora deserved, what best represented her, and the desires she held for the future, it was too important to dive in recklessly. The teen's personal clock ticked painfully in her mind, fleeting by the second.
After messaging Elias, she walked alone to a park closer to her home, figuring she could try to figure it out before her meet up. It should've been easy. Search up some animals that symbolizes her sister, play around with some patterns that she thought looked good and then chisel it away on as many wood pieces as she could before the deadline. That was the plan.
It was what Zenobia wanted if for nothing else than to make her sister happy while proving herself worthy of stepping into her old man's shoes. Two hours straight of attempts shattered that plan before throwing the shards into river to never return. Why would it be easy!? All that simple thinking was believed with the past eyes of a little girl watching a master carver for years.
Stupid. There was a reason that mask making was a very serious, government funded career that required a lot of demands from the carver. That didn't stop her from trying, the problem was the longer she searched for potential design options, the less confident she felt. The more she created patterns, the more stress that upset her to no end.
The weight of her sister's opinion was ready to sink her into the abyss. Zenobia's inspiration, her determination, it was slowly but surely shriveling up. Drier than a desert. Fissures in the earth. The pressure was only growing with the hands of time moving forward.
A second opinion was definitely required. Inevitably, she saw Elias's aid was essential. Obviously, she relied on his carving skills, but she really didn't want to trouble him with brainstorming. Not that he showed any impatience or annoyance helping her.
If anything he's been an asset. Since she arrived, his gaze had been nothing but thoughtful. Small jokes aside here and there, he was taking this seriously. Her colorblind friend threw as much consideration into this as possible while talking about Zora. No different from now when he offered a small sympathetic smile alongside his list.
Colors-
white-purity
Red-passion
Green-vibrant/alive
Purple-exotic/unique
Blue-calm/composed
Black-protection
Pink-sweet/kindness
Yellow-energetic
Animals-
Lion
Tiger
Lynx
Red fox
Horse
Dove
Snow Owl
Frog
Dalmatian
Golden retriever
Calico
Starfish
Dolphin
Panda
Arctic fox
Mexican wolf
Penguin
Ocelot
Kangaroo
Swan
Duck
Goose
Crane
Pig
Eagle
Sea horse
Well, it was definitely longer than hers. Not really surprising in the least there. She DID find it interesting to see that he listed colors before any animals. Usually people didn't do that, let alone those that were colorblind. It was odd, but it was nice to see he was also trying to figure out color combinations despite not even being close to the designing phase.
Scanning his choices, there were several questionable ones. Some of these animals she never heard of. Others didn't really make sense since they didn't represent what Zenobia thought best matched Zora. She prevented herself from shooting him a look.
Again, she detested the birds. Pigs and starfish sounded weird. And a lot more predators than expected. Despite the... odd decisions from both of their lists, some ideas formulated in her mind. First things first, figuring out what the hell some of these animals are.
"What's an ocelot? Or a lynx for that matter?"
"Both are wild cats." Grabbing his laptop, he opened it up, flashing lights across the walls of his room. She leaned over, watching as his fingers flew across the keys. He had two tabs popped up in seconds, each of them with the specified wild cats revealing themselves to her. They were smaller than she thought. Adorable too.
Not wanting to be overtly relying on straining her neck, Zenobia brought out her phone. Her own fingers bringing up the web search, typing in the ocelot, specifically. Just a instant glimpse at the creature struck a chord with her. There were no words to describe what she suddenly felt.
Spotted like a jaguar, tiny like a house cat. Tiny and cute while also being dangerous and powerful. The lynx was nice as well, but it had a more majestic feel to it. She also noticed it was bigger.
Her instincts were screaming to try something with the ocelot. Her hands twitched, desperate for her sketchbook, but she held herself back. She had to be sure. Craning her neck, she caught his gaze. He beat her to the punch.
"You look up some stuff on the ocelot, I got the lynx." It seemed he read her mind or snuck a look at her phone. Either way they were unified in their mission. With a nod from both of them, they shimmied a bit away from each other for some space.
His notepad and pen snug in the dip of his knee right by his side. Rosette, ignored by her two favorite people, huffed while she and her owner went web searching. Elias' favorite poochie poo (his words, not not Zenobia's) got comfortable again, this time stealing his pillows. A quick yank and she was snoring away.
If Zenobia wasn't too preoccupied in her ocelot hunt, she would've laughed at the sight. All Rosette needed to do was grab the blankets that the boy was sitting on and it'd be her owner sleeping on the floor. She seemed comfy as could be. Again, envy over a dog should not be a thing, yet she was.
Shaking her head, the red-eyed girl returned to the task at hand. There were many things that popped up about the ocelot, such as how big they were, how long they lived for, all matter of facts that though were interesting, were not needed. At least not right now. That changed when a particular link caught her eye.
"The Tale of the Ocelynx?" Curious, Zenobia clicked on the link, the screen suddenly went black, then it showed an old painting. Swirls of a ferocious beast in black and faded color ink with several paragraphs typed underneath. It was written by someone from Tortorang Territory. Without even realizing it, she started reading.