Elemental Witch: Child of the Earth (Part I)

The Song of Compromise

"You will be alright, today?" Shaktay sat down on a rock beside Verana, where she soaked her hands in the cool water of the river, letting the cold soothe the scrapes she had caused when she climbed the cliffs barehanded the day before.

"You fought when you should not be standing." Verana pulled her hands out of the water, looking at them ruefully. "This is not so bad."

Shaktay snorted before  shaking his head in disagreement. "You do not need to hold swords with your knees."

"The humans do not want this fight." Verana said finally, looking to her friend as she stood and  moved to sit on a boulder beside him. "I can feel the reluctance. Seeing both fights yesterday, they believe everything that needed to happen, happened."

"Do not worry about their politics, Verana. Be prepared to fight." Shaktay offered a shrug, then pressed as he always would as her friend. As the one person who had the place to press her when the topic was far too painful. "Sencha..."

Verana let out a soft breath, nodding. "I do not know."

Shaktay's look was blunt, as was the undignified sound he made. "You do know. But even justified anger poisons a person when you hold onto it. You need to move on and accept what the truth is. While you still have time."

Verana sighed, shaking her head as she listened to the human side of the river begin to wake up and start the day as the sun climbed higher into the clear sky. She was pulled out of her thoughts when Shaktay nudged her with his good foot, hard enough that it nearly sent her tumbling towards the water. Turning to look at him, she met his fierce scowl and bared teeth, realizing then that her friend had truly begun to form into the teacher the council had seen him to be.

"Stop thinking. You know what needs to be done, Verana. Just do."

"I'm not supposed to need a teacher anymore, you realize this." Verana smiled though, watching him, finding comfort in his presence, in his fierce guidance.

Shaktay snorted at that. "and here you have two, neither of which you listen to."

Verana laughed at the oddity of that realization, tossing her head back and letting herself revel in the joy of the moment, closing her eyes as her face turned towards the warm sun. She remained like that after her laughter faded, taking in a slow breath as a warm breeze skimmed past them.

 When she opened her eyes, Shaktay was grinning to her and Sencha was approaching carefully. Across the river, the morning's guards were bringing down the small boat they used to move across the water, so she stood, pulling a pair of soft doeskin gloves on over her hands.

Sencha helped Shaktay to his feet, providing him support as they waited for the humans to arrive in their boat. He hadn't spoken a word to her since the arena, though she hadn't tried to broach any form of communication with him either. It was an odd sort of silence between them and she felt as if it were pushing him further and further away with each passing moment.

"You're coming to watch?" She offered, weakly, to Sencha as she side glanced to him.

He watched her in surprise, before nodding. "Of course."

Shaktay looked between them for a moment, then to where the human guards were landing on the shore, remaining silent despite the frustration on his features. There was an easy, polite exchange of greetings between them and the humans, all men they were familiar with and then the three of them climbed into the boat where Sir Benchan sat at the oars. Benchan sensed the mood and remained quiet through the trip across the river and then once on shore, he silently fell in with them as they made their way up towards the arena.