Akhira was sitting crosslegged by the river, just enough far from it that the water didn't reach her. One by one she was picking small stones and throwing them in the water.

One, two ... She has been on this isle for a week already, more or less.

Six, seven, eight ... Still, she spent almost every day here on a riverbank, going back to the festival only to get some food.

Twelve, thirteen ... When should she go back to Heilia already? After the Fotamos Ceremony?

Now all stones were out of her reach. She pulled her legs closer to her body and leaned her chin on her knees. Akhira has already decided she wanted to stay with Deep Water tribe. Main reason: she liked the colour blue. And that tribe seemed to be more quiet than the others. She liked quiet people.

Oh, hey, another stone! Fourteen!

Chris walked slowly down the beach, his boots dragging slowly in the sand. His head pounded angrily in his skull; the result of drinking the night away. That was the last time he tried to drink every drink in the Drinker's Lullaby. Why he even thought that was a good idea was beyond him. That morning, waking up to the rolling thunder of thousands of voices, was too much for him, and he'd been driven down near the beach to escape most of the noise.

Hand pressed to his head, he stumbled along, hoping to find place to lie down and rest.

Splash, a stone was thrown into the water, soon followed by another. ...It felt so loud against Chris' eardrums. He gritted his teeth against the sound of the stones and the waves. The splash of the rocks grew louder as he got closer to the source of the noise. Looking up from the sand, and quickly regretting the motion as his head throbbed with pain, he saw a woman sitting alone, casually tossing rocks into the water.

Approaching her, Chris rubbed his temples with his thumbs attempting to force the pain out. "Why are you throwing the rocks so hard...?" he asked pressing his thumbs harder to his skull, certain that she must be throwing the rocks hard in order for them to be so loud.

((Corrected .))

She just wanted to throw the fifteenth stone she dug from under the nearest large rock when Chris spoke to her. She turned her head towards him and the pebble slipped from her palm. Splashes weren't loud; it wasn't like she was throwing whole rocks in the water. None of the stones was larger than her palm.

“I not throwing them hard, “she responded calmly.

Her sight was fixed on the man, examining him. He didn’t look well though, and when breeze turned its direction towards Akhira, it was already clear to her that he was paying the price of drinking too much alcohol. And.... what was that to her?

“Why you bothered? You go away soon, yes?” she expected him to go his way, and didn’t understand why he stopped here as he could easily avoid her and her stones if they were so bothersome.

Hugging her legs, Akhira looked back at the water.

“Or you need help?” an annoyed sigh escaped her as she thought of the reason why he spoke to her.

Chris started at her, his eyebrows crinkled against the pounding in his head. For a moment he didn't answer, slowly processing her words. "Oh..." he answered, still focused more on the after effects of the alcohol than on the woman's words.



"My head hurts," he told her, unnecessarily. She had probably already guessed that fact from the way he was pressing his hands to his head. "It was too loud back there..." He pointed his hand in the general direction of the festival. In comparison, the sound of the small stones against the water was far more tolerable than the boistrous noises of the festival.

Cautious not to move his head anymore than he needed to, Chris hunkered down next to Akhira, ignoring the annoyed tone in her voice.

"Do you know any hangover cures?" he asked, rubbing the back of his hand against his eyes. He'd already downed a mug of hot coffee, but his head still hurt.

Akhira tensed like a string, not visibly though, but she felt her muscles stiffen. Too close, he was too close. She glared at him.

“No,” she answered. “Sorry,” this ‘sorry’ didn’t even nearly sound sincere, mostly because she knew she was expected to be polite, and word ‘sorry’ was polite.

Should she feel sorry for him? She didn’t see any signs of struggle which would indicate that he was forced to drink all that alcohol. Suits him right. Then again, just trying to be nice won’t hurt... probably.

“Rest. I promise I quiet,” she mumbled, looking at him with a corner of her eye.

"Okay," Chris said disappointed. Again he didn't catch the tense, irritated tone of Akhira's voice. He sighed heavily and continued to sit in the sand beside her, not leaving despite her lack of knowledge on hangover cures.



"Dze," he responded. He'd been resting most of the morning, as far into the day as he could go without being kept up by the sound of the festival. By now, he figured he'd gotten enough rest as he would need, and wanted a different cure for his hangover. But without any other options presented, he lay down on the sand, his hat falling off his head and being smushed beneath his body.

"Don't try to drink everything in the Drinker's Lullaby," Chris warned her, closing his eyes. "Ent a benny idea..."

Looking at this guy, Akhira was now positive that she would never again try an alcoholic drink. She didn’t even like it so this wouldn't be hard. Her sight stayed on him for a little while then she focused on the water again. She intended to spend the day alone again; however, since she was intending to join the tribe she needed to learn how to tolerate people other than her foster family.

“Will heed your advice,” she answered.

Maybe she would even say something more, but she understood only the first part of what he said. Nevertheless, she liked the word ‘benny’. It sounded lovely.

“What ‘benny’ means?” surprisingly, she started something similar to conversation.

Eyes scrunched closed, Chris shifted on to his side, pulling his knees closer to his chest. Reaching over his back, he grabbed his and pulled it over his eyes, and then was still. Tired, as Akhira had suggested he was, Chris was content to lie there in the grainy sand.



Chris mumbled something unintelligible to her, and shifted slightly. But overall, he remained half asleep and unresponsive.



She interrupted the silence again, but this time Chris lifted his hat to squint up at her. It was strange to him that she wouldn't know what "benny" ment; it was such a common place word to him. He stared at her quizzically, as if trying to discern whether or not she actually didn't know what the word ment.

"Um, well 'benny' means 'good,' you know... like, 'That pie was real benny,'" he explained to her. "But drinkin' the Drinker's Lullaby, that ent benny at all. 'S bad."

She did promise to be quiet but she was also curious. As Cristoffe gave her a strange look, she remained stoic, looking back at him past his eyes.



Benny meant good. She could have predicted that. It was such a nice and round word that the meaning suited it perfectly. The Lullaby was also a lovely word but in this context, considering Cristoffe with headache, was not nearly as ‘benny’ as she thought.

“The Drinker’s Lullaby not benny. Right,” she confirmed and then locked her sight at the water again.

Watching the water was definitely benny.

Grunting, he rolled back onto his back, cushioning his head with his arms. The burgundy hat stayed in place over his face, the rims fluttering lightly in the wind, threatening to blow away every now and again. Shifting again, Chris placed a hand over his hat, securing it in place.

"So, where ya from?" Chris inquired, curious. He'd thought all wicks spoke Tek, but now, he wasn't so sure. Maybe she was some far removed country that had never heard of Tek before... She looked Anaxi though...

He lifted the rim of his hat to peer out at her with one eye, again.

Akhira slowly turned her head back in his direction. So much about wanting to have peace and quiet. She probably shouldn't have asked him about the meaning of the 'benny' word.

"Dorhaven," she answered, staring at another pebble that wasn't far from her. Thinking if she should state the forest as her original home, she reached for the little stone and held it in her palm. It was almost black, with grey specks and completely smooth.

She turned it with her fingers for few times, admiring its beauty. Stones were beautiful. She was often compared to a stone and although she knew it was because of her lack of emphaty and 'normal', as people usually stated, feelings, she wondered if she was beautiful as well.

"Forest, actually," she then added, throwing the pebble in the water.

"I've been to Dorhaven 'afore," Chris told her. "'S benny, I guess." He didn't think too much of her living in a forest. Perhaps, he supposed, that her fami had a cottage there or something else of the sort. "So, is it hard livin' in Wraithwine? Gotta keep a constant light on?"

His head, though still hurting, was becoming less painful, and with it his agitation towards noise was lessening as well. Strangely, he was also talkative. Perhaps Akhira's quiet nature had inspired him to talk more; keep the conversation moving. The air was still tense between them, the awkwardness prevailing, but yet he kept the conversation moving.

"I live here mosta the time, myself," he informed her, putting a finger to the sand. "I'm part of the Tall Tree tribe," he added on as after a short pause.

“Yes, Dorhaven benny,” the tone of her voice was contradicting the sentence as she was never really pleased with her home. “Benny for people.”

She didn’t count herself as one of those people. Even after so many years of living among them, she still considered herself as a part of the Wraithwine.

She shook her head to his next question. They had never kept a constant light on.

“Not hard. Maybe in Achtus when cold. But then we huddled together and it warm again. They always looked after me, so it not hard. If I alone there, then hard.”

The memories of her wolf family were pleasant and she got that peaceful, distant look whenever she thought or talked about them.

There were hard times too, especially when it came to fights or deaths, but she learned that everything was part of the life and it was of no use to cling to the past. One litter died and another came; everything was just part of the cycle and if you didn’t go with it, you were soon overrun.

She saw people mourning, holding a grudge or simply forgetting the present, and all of them were broken in her eyes; they stepped out of the cycle, denying the natural order.

“The Tall Tree? That name benny,” she tried to put the new lovely word she has learned to use. “Trees are benny. They like mothers. Always there for you, offering you shelter. Your tribe like that?”

Akhira's voice sounded tight and disdainful when she agreed that Dorhaven was benny. Clamming up, Chris wondered what she found wrong with the city or what had happened to make her dislike it. He wasn't going to ask any questions in case it was too personal, but still, he wondered about it, especially why she had added, "for people" at the end of her sentence.

"That's benny," he said as her tone switched to peaceful, happy, when she changed the subject back to Wraithwine. "It's always benny when you've got fami around ya." He nodded his head thinking of his own family; his daoa and his daobrunno and cousin. Things were always easier for him when his fami stood with him.

Emotional, and sometimes volatile, Chris was probably one of the many that Akhira viewed as broken. Not only did mourn his da's drifting, he resented him for it. And he resented others for treating him like his father's son. He clung to memories and struggled often to keep himself afloat in the world. And drinking was one of the results.



Chris shrugged as he thought of the members of his tribe. Yeah he supposed most of them were like that. Some of them weren't, but he assumed most of them were. "Oes," he answered after a short pause. Some of them did tend to treat him with suspicion, as if he would turn out exactly like his laoso da, but most were nice, he thought. He knew that his fami definately was.

His shrug and a short pause gave her an impression that he didn't exactly share her opinion, or better, definition of the tribe's name. Well then, guess she was wrong. She shrugged mentaly to herself and wondered what the Deep Water tribe would be like. Heilia was nice but what about the others? Anyway, did she really care about that? After all, she didn't have any false hopes of being accepted. Not now, not ever. A grim view on the world but even if they would accept her as one of the tribe members, she definitely wouldn't feel like one of them.

She sighed and stretched her legs in more comfortable position, letting the water to flow over her ankles. Her dress was now covering only a small part of her lower body but she didn't care as it was nice to feel the sand on bare skin and the sensation of cold water made her want to go for a swim.

Not caring what Cristoff would think, she suddenly took of her dress, letting on only her underwear and stood up.

"Touch my dress and I bite you," she almost growled as she turned to Cristoff, looking in his eyes for the first time. Although she wasn't very fond of the clothes, she still felt possesivness towards everything she owned.

She headed in the water and when it reached her knees, she turned back to Cristoff again, this time with friendlier voice.

"Cold water nice if you feel bad," with her finger she pointed at his head.

((Hm, I feel this is kind of off topic .))

Chris raised an eyebrow but said nothing as Akhira stood, slipping off her dress as she did. But he didn't complain. Hard, thin muscles snaked over her body just beneath her flesh. Silvery scars marred her skin in various places. Her long black hair hung against her olive skin, making it seem paler. Chris only stared up at her, his mouth parted slightly. She was pretty, not a normal kind of pretty. More of a serious pretty, a toughened pretty, but pretty all the same, and as a man, the Tall Tree wick was very aware of this.



Chris blinked twice and looked at the dress on the sand beside him. The edges of the sleeves fluttered lightly in the wind. "Okay," he said a little taken aback by her threat. "I won' touch your stuff. I'll just sit here... an take a nap," he continued awkwardly as he moved his feet further away from the water.

Resting his head on one of his arms, Chris closed his eyes halfway. He wasn't so tired anymore. His head was still numb, but he wasn't nearly as sleep as he'd been. With nothing else to do, he watched the edges of Akhira's dress wave to and fro in the breeze, before turning his sight to the girl as she walked slowly into deeper water. As it reached her knees she turned back to look at him.



Her voice was friendly now, not threatening as it had been when she warned him against touching her dress. "Alright," he said accepting the advice and sitting up.

Yanking off his coat and shirt, he tossed the clothes on the sand alongside Akhira's dress, pushing his hat beneath them so that it wouldn't flutter away. Pulling his boots off, he made his way into the water clad only in his trousers.

The cold liquid lapped at his legs as he waded after Akhira. As it reached mid-calf he forced himself to slip under the freezing water and swim the rest of the distance. It was so cold, he had to fight the urge to immediately resurface, but it was already clearing his head somewhat.

Coming up along the black-haired witch he stood, shivering, goosebumps forming on his skin. "Hesta!" he said, forcing a smile.

((Don't worry about it. Off-topic things happen IRL all the time, don't they?))

The water on the place she stood reached her abdomen but she had no desire of going deeper into it as the currents were stronger towards the middle. As well Chris she too was shivering yet this didn't quite affect her stoic posture. She waited for him to join her without apparent interest, as if it was her unavoidable duty to wait.

She was lightly touching the surface of the water with her palms, fingers slightly spread in a fan, just like she used to do during windy days. Feeling the wind was much like stroking an animal's fur, though more silky.


Akhira's expression stiffened. It was obvious that she didn't share his smile as she made a step away from him, wondering why he was saying hesta to her. It wasn't like they've just met. Well, they have, but not right this moment.

Forcing herself not to show that his action was kind of repulsive to her, she still stayed near him, although she would rather just swim away.

Thinking of her attitude towards others she met through life, when she openly showed her almost disgust by their nearness, she wondered what they felt like. It was logical that they probably weren't too pleased after getting a feeling that they were a nuisance. They were probably sad. She knew she was sad when she was shown her place in the pack rather rudely sometimes.

She was told that making people sad was wrong and still she couldn't force herself to at least pretend she liked them. When she tried that, it was like she had some sort of a barrier in her chest that didn't allow her to like them.

She bent her knees and sank under water with closed eyes. Staying under for as long as her lungs allowed her, she cleared her head of those thoughts. Being part of the human society was hard indeed and always trying not to hurt them with her own, to them unacceptable, personality, was really tiresome.

Raising up for the air, she eyed Chris before laying on the surface and letting the flow to slowly take her with it, lazily moving only her arms.

((Guess you're right .))

Minature waves, their tips not even peaked with white, splashed against Chris' hips, making the black-haired wick shudder even more. Further out, the water rushed with the river currents, but here was as calm as they'd be able to hope for. Only a weak hand of the current reached out to push against Chris' legs, not even managing to move him an inch. Lackadaisically, Chris let his arms fall into the water, swaying them back and forth as he looked lazily about. Akhira wasn't splashing around, it would be out of place if he did... besides he didn't think he had the energy to act like a boch right then...

Chris sank a deeper into the water, his legs bent into a squating position. Going completely under the water again so soon didn't exactly appeal to him. While the chip let herself sink beneath the freezing water, the wick continued to sway his arms back and forth lazily, watching the shadowy blob of Akhira's figure under the water.

He wasn't completely sure that she liked him much. She wasn't being rude or mean or anything, but it seemed to him that she was only tolerating him. A frown creased his brown lips and pulled his eyebrows together. Maybe he was just imagining it. Plenty of people treated him with suspicion; as if he would turn out to be a laoso toft. Maybe he was getting so used to it that he immediately suspected others of disliking him. He shook his head, casting thousands of pina droplets over the surface of the water. It was probably nuthin.

As Akhira floated back to the surface, he could feel her watching him carefully. Returning her gaze, he stared at her lips, turned in a slight frown. She was a fair serious rosh, he decided, being unable to recall seeing her smile in the pina manna time they'd known each other.

"Been likin' the Festival?" he asked for lack of anything else to say. "I like it," he said offering up his own opinion first.

Although she had many faults in the eyes of those who barely or poorly knew her, like not acting friendly, never smiling, never crying at the funeral, giving the feeling she would stab them in their sleep and so on, they found at least one positive thing about her - she was always sincere, no matter what. However, even this was probably more annoying than good when it to giving oppinions.

"No," she lifed her head just a bit so the water didn't rush in her ears, preventing her from hearing what Criss was saying.

Since he liked the festival, he would be probably disappointed by her answer. Most of the people was if she or anybody else didn't agree with them. And now it was time to provide an excuse so he wouldn't be that much disappointed.

"Too much people. I hate crowds. It like they stealing air I breathe, locking me in invisible cage I can't get out of it."

The water was cold but after the reasoning her disliking of festival she felt goose bumps for the first time. And since she was used to swim in the cold water, they were not a result of that.

She sank under water again to clear her thoughts and then quickly returned to the surface, with nervousness reflecting in her eyes.

"Why you like it?"

((So sorry it took me so long to post .))

Grimicing at the water, Chris nodded. As Akhira had expected, Chris had been slightly offended by her opinion. He liked the festival a lot and didn't know how anyone could dislike it. It was so much fun; his favorite part of the year. And there was good food, tons of music, and everyone got to see old friends again. That to him, automatically equaled good. Feeling an awkward numbness in his stomach, he remained silent as she explained her resoning.

"Oes, I guess the crowds ent tha' great..." he replied, feeling a little less insulted by her dislike of the festival. Some people were afraid of crowds weren't they? Jus' like some were afraid of water, and others of heights. For all the wick knew, Akhira could be one of the people afraid of crowds.

But the awkwardness remained. Chris turned his face away from the witch, looking out over the river. Cupping some water in his hand, he slicked his hair back away from his face. As several drops ran down his cheeks a shiver traveled up his spine, while his feet began to numb from the coldness.

"Eh?" Chris asked, turning back to the girl, as her question left her lips. "Oh, um, I dun know... I suppose I like it 'cause I think it's fair fun... I like tha' everyone gets to see each other again. It's different, ya know? A pina less borin' than other times..." Moving his arms lazily back and forth through the water, he gave her a grin.

((It's fine, I've been swamped with school projects anyways.))

Ah, another unknown word to her. However, she could imagine from the context what it meant. She nodded; surprisingly, even understanding him. To him, this festival meant as much as to her, just in opposite way. He liked it very much, she disliked it very much. She forced a smile as a response to his grin, but it looked as if someone had sewn the corners of her lips a bit higher; anyway, her ‘smile’ definitely wasn’t charming. Creepy maybe.

“See each other again nice,” she thought about her old pack. The wolves she knew were probably already long dead. Knowing that made her heart ache a little; this meant that the last bonds she had to the forest were severed. At least she was free to join the tribe now. Not the happiest thought, but better than nothing.

Her creepy, fake smile disappeared thanks to the thoughts. She swam to the shore, but stayed in the shallow part of the river.

“What your name?” she asked him, remembering that they don’t even know each other’s names.


((Tell me about that . The comming week and the next week I have my last two projects . God, are they annoying ><.))

"Oes," Chris said with a nod, pressing his lips together, trying not to look at Akhira's smile. It was a little odd looking, slightly manical, and Chris had to avert his eyes to keep from laughing or getting creeped out.

For a moment, the kov closed his eyes, relaxing with the light pull of the river's current. It was good seeing people again. Seeing all the friends from other tribes; it was like one enormous party. Especially with the dancing, music, and drinking. If only Chris could cut out on the drinking. He'd probably be having a much better time if he didn't drink so much during the festival. But oh well. What was done, was done. And besides, he still had fun didn't he?

Chris opened his eyes and looked back to Akhira. Her unnerving smile was gone, replaced by her normal, stoic expression, which was somehow more comforting than her smile.



"'S Christoffe," he told her with a slight smile. "But ya can call me, Chris, if ya wan to." He paused a moment, looking at her. "What's yer name?"

(I know! I have so many of them. I don't even wanna think about how stressed I'm going to be.)

"Chris," she repeated quietly, giving him a slight nod.

"My name Akhira. You call me like that," she answered in almost demanding tone.

She didn't have a nickname and, except her foster mother, nobody had called her by her pet name. Aki; she shuddered. When she was a child, her foster mother would call her like that just before she would gently stroked her head or tried to hug her. And Akhira just hated being touched by people. No wonder why she hated her pet name too.

"Just... Akhira, Chris," she added with a sigh, and much more gently, remembering herself that she shouldn't be so mean towards Chris. After all, he was being nice to her.