This Is What It's Like To Be Lovers [ON HOLD]

9: I'm Nothing Like You

• Love like you by Caleb Hyles •

Lari fell through the darkness and woke up with a jolt, the kind of dream that frequented her as a teenager. Only this time, instead of the velvet canopy on top of her Tsar-sized bed, she saw Jade.

"Good morning," she muttered, clumsily pushing herself up. The last thing she remembered from the previous night was sitting against the wall. In the morning, she found herself lying dangerously close to her newfound friend.

She twisted her back to pop some stiff joints and held her palms to her eyes. The skin on it was dry. Even though she had spent eons in the snows of Eira, winter never favored her.

"Good morning," Jade replied. "I would have asked if you slept well, but...I can tell that you didn't. Come, I made breakfast."

Over a filling breakfast of banana pudding with nuts and chopped berries on top, Jade proposed to Lari a plan of spending the rest of their days at Kalk.

"I want to help Citra out in her farm work as I said," she said, "and, I also think some combat training would be useful. Are you...familiar with fighting techniques, Princess?"

Lari's eyebrows shot up, remembering Luna's last words to her. She quickly covered up her surprise with a giggle.

"Not at all," she replied. "I was lucky my father thought himself to be rebellious of traditional values by letting me learn archery. Combat would have been too much."

"I actually never knew you learned archery." Jade munched on a walnut and Lari's gaze gravitated towards her moving lips.

"Yes..." The Princess looked away, red in the cheeks. "My father never thought I was good enough to compete. He didn't want me to fail in front of other people. But yes, I did learn. I think I'm...not that bad."

When Lari insisted she took part in the farm work, Citra and the Queen deemed it safe only to allow her tasks that required minimal strength. They made her sit on the bicycle cart and pull it as they proceeded along a row of the cornfield.

Lari's eyes flitted towards Jade frequently and unconsciously. The rolled-up sleeves, the sweat on her forehead, the smile on her face as she conversed with Citra, and the effortless pulling and tossing of corn cobs.

"Have you done this before?" Lari barged in on the conversation she was being left out of.

"Corn picking? No, not really, Princess."

By the time the farm work was done, the Sun had moved to its pinnacle and everyone was sweaty, despite the oncoming winter. Jade took over the cart when she decided it was too heavy for the Princess to pull, leading them to the cabin behind Citra's house.

"Do any of you know how to make arrows?" Lari asked as they approached the house. "I wanted to get back into practice but the quiver is empty."

"Oh, Princess!" Citra's tone resembled a harmless mockery. "It's a gift from Luna. The quiver only appears empty. When you wear it, it will have 14 arrows and it will refill itself when you shoot the last one of the bunch."

"Oh!" The Princess was flabbergasted, finally realizing what the note meant.

"Luna told me that the day she sent you here," Citra clarified. "I assumed she informed you too."

As Citra stored the day's harvest in wooden boxes, Larimar and Jade stood outside, losing themselves in the soothing burbles of the stream and the distant green of the woods.

"I was thinking," the Princess started suddenly, pulling the tails of her blouse from her pants to breathe better. "I could practice archery near the woods, right? It'd give me targets to hit."