Elemental Witch: Child of the Earth (Part I)

Friendship

Reyani stood on the river bank, looking up at the deceptively calm sky and frowning. She didn't believe the sunny cheerfulness of the weather, wishing for a real indication of what was happening with her mysterious friend who had disappeared in this direction a while ago. She didn't know when she had come to care so much about the Feysha woman but she had found herself incredibly sensitive to the look of shock and turmoil she had seen on Verana's face before the woman had wandered away from them all. Verana had won the fight, a fight that seemed to be so much more than most of the humans watching had realized but then stormed off. It was clear the woman had left  without seeing anything around her, without hearing those who had called her name.

"Even the weather could not understand..." the words came out of thin air, pulling Reyani's gaze down to see Verana, still cut and bleeding from several injuries, jaw looking as dark as a thundercloud from the bruises already blossoming on her skin. The Feyshan woman was looking disheveled and only slightly less in turmoil than she had been before but at least she had returned.

"Oh Verana, they kept saying to give you space and then I couldn't find you but no one knew where you had gone." Reyani hugged her, holding on tightly. She felt the woman's tension before Verana relaxed into her arms, hugging her back with a tentative firmness of her own. 

They stood embracing one another for a long several moments Reyani understanding the need Verana seemed to feel for some form of support and friendship. It was then that she began to appreciate just how alone Verana was.

"I... am alright." Verana nodded, pulling herself back and letting out a slow breath, offering a careful smile. Reyani didn't believe it for a second but there was a little more calm in Verana's eyes, a little bit of steadiness.

Reyani nodded, "well, you're bleeding. You didn't have an easy fight this morning. There's still a bit of time before Shaktay and Shelby go on, lets go see if we can get you fed and patched up, huh?"

Verana looked down at herself in surprise, just now realizing the injuries and state she must be in, nodding and following Reyani back into the crowd of tents and vendors and to the small tent she shared with the other two Feysha. 

Instead of a bare interior with one stool that had graced the tent earlier that morning, someone had brought another couple more stools, a low table and what appeared to be a cot. There was food spread out, which was Mirabel's doing judging from the scent and look of the food. 

 Reyani watched as Verana sat down on one of the stools, pouring and drinking several glasses of water without stopping. Verana glanced to her for a moment, only pausing long enough for Reyani to signal that she did not want to eat, before Verana started to devour the mini pies and stuffed buns that were spread out in front of her. Reyani took a moment to make sure her friend would be alright, before turning back out of the tent in search of a healer.

It didn't take her very long to find the medical tent and request  that someone attend to Verana. Though she did need to send a couple  of the healers ahead to do so as she answered a couple quick questions from the others. Oddly, the entire group of them seemingly concerned with the fact that Verana had been injured. 

Whether it was just from watching the fights or healing Shaktay, the entire cadre of them seemed to be attached to Verana. Going so far as holding Reyani back to describe the injuries and offer reassurances that her friend wasn't in need of a whole team of healers.

As she was walking back, Sencha found her, falling into step with her as he shifted seamlessly out of the crowd or shadows she had passed through. It was a sensation she hadn't quite gotten used to, or been able to pick apart, realizing she didn't know exactly when he appeared, just that one moment he was there when he hadn't been before.

Reyani let out a slow breath as she glanced at him, noticing he was regarding her skirts with a contemplative expression. He looked cleaned up, his hair damp, clothing changed into garments that were not covered in dirt and blood from the fight and appearing oblivious to her look of anger. She frowned as she looked at him, "part of me dislikes you very much right now."

Sencha blinked at her, though he didn't seem surprised, merely offering her a smirk. "Why?"

"You hurt my friend." Reyani knew how simplistic it sounded, how childish her words were when they came out of her mouth but she couldn't find a better answer in the short term. And when Sencha smiled gently in response to her, her anger flared even more. "You did. You two could have killed each other in there. And besides all that, she's lost, or hurt... in her soul. Whatever you said to her, she's hurting and I want you to take it back."

"Change is sometimes the most painful thing that can happen to us." Sencha murmured softly, frowning as he saw the healers moving in and out of the tent. "How injured?"

"Same as you, I suppose." Reyani gave him a once over, noticing his own bruises and cuts, "though it looks worse with the blood and dirt."

Sencha nodded then, thinking about it for a long moment before answering her. "She will live, Lady Reyani. But life rarely lets us stay the same, no matter how much we wish it." 

 He glanced to the tent, pausing before continuing. "And life will be even less kind to Verana as time passes. The pain she is feeling, the confusion in her soul, it will help her grow. It is necessary, but I do not revel in it."

Reyani sighed softly, her eyes on the tent. "I know that compared to you, compared to Verana, my life is a blink. I will be gone before she is half way through her journey but I feel like I am meant to do my best to move through it with her, while I can."

"You are a good friend, Lady Reyani." Sencha inclined his head, raising one brow as he contemplated her for a while longer. "A blink or not, you being here now, you being here with her when she needs you, will stay with her, for the rest of her life. And your life is no less important for how short it may seem to us. You have a great deal to do for the world yourself."

"Can you see the future?" Reyani asked after a moment, though she couldn't tell if she wanted to know what the future held, even if he could tell her.

Sencha chuckled and shook his head slowly. "No. The council has an amalgamation of Feyshan powers that can identify the individual threads of a person's path and all the options that await them. They can see where a person needs to be directed, where the world needs them to go and they offer guidance. But I do not have access to those visions."

Reyani frowned softly, glancing between him and the tent several times. "Then how do you know all this?"

"That is what friendship is, Lady Reyani." Sencha offered a shrug, smirking gently to her. "Being there for someone, helping them in their battles, living on different journeys and paths. And I can tell that you mean a great deal to Verana. You care for her and you have the strength to help her when her path gets tough. We do not show affection as easily as you humans do and you may wonder if Verana even notices you but you must understand that she does. That the Path that she is on consumes her and she will move on it alone, if need be, to save those of us she cares about."

"I just wish she wasn't so alone." Reyani murmured softly, looking towards Sencha one last time, seeing him give her a gentle smile.

Sencha nodded towards the tent. "She isn't, when you're with her."

Reyani nodded back to him, turning and walking into the tent to join her friend as she was being tended by the healers.