Buried In The Desert - A Fatui CyNari fic

Chapter 1

Heeeyyyyyyyy so I decided to completely rewrite this fic! I felt like I made everyone, especially Cyno and Tighnari, too out of character and I didn't like how the story was going, so I'm doing a redo!

TRANS CYNO IS STILL HERE!
I STILL AM NOT SURE WHERE THIS FIC IS HEADED, BUT THE PLOT IS DIFFERENT!
COLLEI IS NOT A TRAINEE FOREST RANGER AND SHE AND CYNO HAVEN'T MET BEFORE IN THIS!

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If someone were to ask about his student years, Tighnari would say it wasn't too bad, but the worst at the same time. Studying under the Amurta Darshan was difficult, but Naphis was a good sage, and he's had good teachers. Projects were fine, beside a few maybe, and Tighnari usually reached deadlines right on time. The more negative thing about it was that the Akademiya is located in the city of Sumeru, where it's always busy on the streets, which meant it's also noisy. As a Valuka Shuna, it was annoying to be surrounded by so many sounds all the time. Even if Tighnari pressed his ears to his head, he'd still be unable to focus on his work. And then he also had the General Mahamatra chasing after him. The former one, that is. The former General was like a hawk. Somehow always seeing everything every student was doing, and one time, Tighnari had been his target. Had it not been for his ears, Tighnari would've never known he'd been followed by the white haired man. Had it not been for his ears, he would've never confronted the man with red colored irises. Had it not been for his ears, had he never befriended the slight shorter but two or three year older man. Of course, their friendship wasn't that big. Tighnari was a student, and the other was the General Mahamatra. Both were very busy, and once Tighnari had proven himself innocent to the General, they barely saw each other. Still, there were these moments where they greeted one another when they crossed paths somewhere in the city, and the General tended to seek for the Valuka Shuna when he had some free time. That caused the sudden disappearance of the General Mahamatra to come over more worrying than it would've if they hadn't gotten as close as they did. Everyone assumed the General had died during a mission, but that just didn't sit right with Tighnari. He knew the mission that the General had done at the time he disappeared wasn't as bad and life threatening as others he had done. But then the General also wasn't a person to randomly leave his life behind, especially not without a single word...  Unless it was absolutely necessary. Sometimes, Tighnari was stuck to that event, still, even though it has been at least three, almost four years since. He was a Forest Watcher now, and his studies from Amurta followed him in his work as a botanist. In fact, he had put it into practice only a mere minute ago.

The Shuna wiped his forehead with the back of his hand to get rid of the sweat. This Withering Zone had been more difficult than the ones he's dealt with before. This one hadn't contained simple Fungi. This one had attracted automatons, including a Ruin Drake. Tighnari was lucky that he didn't get wounded as he cleared it, especially because he did it alone. He preferred to leave out as many Forest Rangers as possible with clearing the Withering Zones. He knows what these areas can do to a person, and how dangerous they are, especially when you don't have a Vision, and thus he usually takes care of them on his own. The most the Forest Rangers do when it comes to Withering Zones is locate them and inform him about the location. The Forest Watcher was about to grab the notebook from his bag to write down notes about this Withering Zone when he could hear footsteps approach. It were two pair, coming from his left. He turned around and waited for about a minute to see who exactly were approaching him. It were Amir, who was another Forest Watcher at Gandharva Ville and the current General Mahamatra.

"Tighnari!" Amir greeted the other with a small wave. "The General Mahamatra wishes to speak with you."

"As long as it won't take too long." Tighnari said with a huff. "I'm kind of busy at the moment." Not really. He wasn't really busy anymore. But he dislikes this General. He has too much pride, too big of an ego, and he always speaks of how he will bring justice to the Akademiya. The former General did it ten times better than this one. That one didn't even had to say it, everyone just knew he brought justice. The current General misuses his power, the former treated it just right. The current General doesn't look right in the uniform, the former did just right. Everything about the former was just right. Maybe that's another reason why Tighnari dislikes the current one. No one can beat the former one.

"It won't be long, I can assure you. But we do have to speak at the Akademiya." The General said, his voice sounding as annoying as the heat of the sun in the desert can be.

'Won't be long, my ass. That's a walk of half an hour already.' Tighnari thought, wanting to huff but keeping it all to himself. "Lead the way." He just said, gesturing with one hand for the General to start walking. He said goodbye to Amir before he followed, though.
On their way there, Tighnari could tell the General was trying to strike up a conversation, but his dry answers didn't make it easy. It was somewhat amusing, though. Every time the guy found a new topic to talk about, Tighnari managed to silence him again by his response, leaving him feeling awkward and embarrassed. Tighnari usually wasn't the person to act like this. It was just the obvious dislike in this man. Reaching Sumeru City indeed took them twenty-five minutes, and then the last five minutes was heading up to the Akademiya. Just walking under the gate that separated the city and the wild area made Tighnari feel like he wanted to tear his ears off already. It was as if opening the bathroom door after a pee break at a party with only teens who try to be cool by getting drunk and having one night stands. Going from muffled to bass boost. Tighnari had been to one of those parties once in his student years. He thought it'd be fun to try something different, but he'd left fifteen minutes after his arrival already. If he ever were to do anything remotely like that again, he'd much rather sit at the tavern in the city with friends. But he was too busy with work, anyways, and he wasn't a person to get even tipsy at all. Neither did he have anyone he'd like to do that with. Eh, it doesn't matter right now. What does matter, however, is that they made it to the Akademiya. Stepping inside was a small relief for his ears, as it was much calmer inside of the large building than on the streets.
"So. What did you want to speak of, General?" Tighnari asked, crossing his arms. He wanted this talk to be over with so that he could go back to Gandharva Ville already. No matter the hour that'd be wasted walking back and forth. He wanted to go home, check on some other Forest Watchers and Rangers, and make a mushroom hotpot for dinner. Maybe also read a book or write down the things he initially wanted to take notes of from the Withering Zone he'd destroyed earlier.

"It's unprofessional to speak of official matters in public. You should know that. Let's head to the Grand Sage's office." The General said, puffing his chest out as he walked through the Akademiya.

It took everything in Tighnari to not comment on his remark about being unprofessional. But the fact that the General wanted to speak in the Grand Sage's office was putting Tighnari slightly on edge. He's never liked most people that worked at the Akademiya. Amurta's Sage, Naphis, was fine. Spantamad's former Sage, Cyrus, had also been fine. It was just a pity he'd been fired a few years ago. Thinking about that... It wasn't long after that the former General left. Could he have been fired, too? No... Who would dare firing him? But the Grand Sage, Azar, always seemed... strange. To Tighnari, that is. He didn't know exactly what it was about him that made him seem that way, but Tighnari just always had an unwell feeling whenever he was mentioned or whenever he saw him.
The Shuna was pulled out of his thoughts when the lift came to a stop, signing that they'd reached the Grand Sage's office. He followed the General for a few steps, up one short staircase when he noticed something. The scenery wasn't right. There were no guards, there was no Grand Sage.

There were Fatuus.

"What?" Tighnari mumbled out loud, turning his head to look at the General for an answer. But it didn't really help. The General looked... afraid. scared. His embarrassing, overconfident posture had fallen, making him just look pathetic. He was looking right at the desk and seat of the Grand Sage, so Tighnari did the same. Whoever was sitting on the large chair definitely wasn't Azar. They looked... somewhat familiar? It was difficult to recognise the person due to their mask. The mask looked like the jackal headpiece of the General Mahamatra, but, well, as a mask. It had the same colours, and the same ears with the same ear piercings in said ears. The thing that made the person look familiar was the white hair that was tied up into a high ponytail, which ended a few centimetres above their shoulders.

"I brought you the Forest Watchers. Is that everything that you wanted of me?" The General asked, his voice shaky. Now Tighnari had heard that, he noticed that the rest of the man's body was also shaking.

"Very well done, General." that voice. It felt as if Tighnari has heard that same voice before, too. The annoying part was that he didn't know from where.
"Yes, that was all. But please, wait a little longer before you leave." Tighnari could hear a sinister tone in the masculine voice. The masked person stood up from their seat, and before Tighnari could register it in his head, blood gushed from the General's neck, and he felt something hit his own head before everything went black.