Like a Lightning Bolt | Homeboy!

[Kadakism]

Life in the village of Vaulk was as dull as Rowan could imagine. And she did like to consider that she had a fairly good imagination. Like right then, staring into the fire that burned in the communal space of the tavern. Back home, she vaguely remembered, this would have been a longhouse, a feast hall for family and community gatherings. She also wouldn't have been allowed in past the outermost rings of the celebration.

Here at least, as close to the Serenian border as their new home was, she could get away with working a job that wasn't just tilling fields and pulling weeds all day. Even though the people who traveled through Vaulk weren't usually very interesting, she could at least say she got to meet new people. Rowan might have wondered if mopping floors and washing dishes for travelers was any better, but she was distracted by what she saw in the flames of the hearth.

Shapes flickered and danced only for her eyes to see, horses and birds of all sizes, prancing over mountains and around the jaws of dragons without regard or fear. Men and women danced and fought and embraced, not distinctly but all at once. Her own mother didn't understand her fascination with flames, and she couldn't explain it. But the images she saw in them spoke a truth no one else could tell her.

The sound of the front door scraping open flung Rowan back to reality. She wasn't dancing with those people or flying with the birds over the mountains. She was barefoot, a rough wooden haft in her hands as she swept a floor she was pretty sure was made of dirt, making her efforts pointless. Customers though. The usual servers were busy, so she would have to tend to them. It was expected. Rowan set down the broom and turned to get back to work.

[homeboy!]

The distant bustle of a tavern was a welcome sound to a weary Robert. Bobby had spent the last day and a half on his feet, too excited to reach the next town, he had skipped out on his plans to set up camp, and walked through the night. His eyes looked to the egg held close under his arm.

"I could have bought a horse." He thought aloud, arms extending to hold the egg out in front of him as he moved towards the tavern. "Or maybe a hunting dog, or a- a falcon, but I bought you." He pursed his lips at the thing, tilting his head back in a feign of disdain. The eggs response? A thin line of smoke drifting from beneath its shell into the air, accompanied by its usual soft orange glow beneath the charcoal black of its outer shell.

Bobby let out a tired sigh "I can't stay mad at you, little buddy." He spoke in an amused tone as he reached the tavern door. "Let's get some grub."

Inside, Bobby found himself a bit surprised, this place was far from what he was expecting, and it showed in his expression. He was quite far from home, but thought he'd find certain constants in life no matter where he went in his country.

'A tavern is a tavern is a tavern' as his uncle would say.

Taking another step inside, he was greeted with the same sounds he'd been traveling with for some time, boots on earth.

"Dirt floors," he mused. "Thrifty."

[Kadakism]

Rowan was already tying one of the spare aprons around her neck when she looked up to see Bobby coming through the door. Something about him struck her as odd. No, not odd. Just... new.

She watched where he moved, seeing where he intended to take a seat so that she could intercept him as soon as he was comfortable. She put on her best smile, which admittedly wasn't much of one. Just a small, wistful upward curl on one side of her mouth. One of the many things that had been shaken out of her in her old village was being too outwardly expressive with her emotions. Too Serenian, they had said.

"Good afternoon ser," she said, emphasizing her R's the way she had been taught to do to better blend in on the border. She had heard the comment about the dirt floors and felt herself strangely conscious of the feeling of the loose pebble under her heel. She figured that commenting might just upset him though.

"Traveling far? We've food and drink if you're looking for it. Should be stew on, and whatever you want to drink." Friendly but not too familiar. The way she had been taught. Rowan's left hand fell to her hip, giving her a much more naturally aggressive stance than she intended.

[homeboy!]

"-well no, I don't think that's fair at all, dragon eggs and chicken eggs are two different things." Bobby seemed to be mid conversation with the egg that was placed across from him as the server approached them.

His index fingers tapped rhythmically as she spoke to him, getting a look at her as she listed off what they had to offer. Truthfully, he was only half listening, running through his travel route in his head as she talked. Bobby patted his pockets, empty, but he knew that already. "Yikes." He thought aloud, scratching the side of his neck awkwardly.

"How much is water?"

[Kadakism]

He was talking to an egg... a strange egg. Definitely not a chicken egg or a snake egg. Rowan watched, slowing her approach and then asked her question. He was pretty to look at, something Rowan could only have admitted thinking about someone maybe half a dozen times in her entire life. He looked... not dangerous or strange, but had an air about him that she couldn't quite describe.

Rowan found her gaze drifting back to the egg. Her attention snapped back to the man proper when she noticed him checking his pockets. The other corner of her mouth turned up, balancing out her barely present smile. She knew what that gesture and those words meant. He was broke.

"One moment," she said, a hum on her lips as she turned and walked confidently into the kitchen. She didn't say anything to the other employees, grabbing a bowl of stew, a hunk of bread, and a mug that she poured some of their middle shelf ale into. They stated at her and muttered under their breath a bit. Her tattoos didn't make her particularly popular, but that was fine. She didn't need to be popular.

Rowan used her elbow to push herself out and through the doors leading from the kitchen back into the main dining room. The bread was resting on top of the stew, already soaking up the skin of fat on top. She didn't think he would mind that much. Setting both the bo and the mug down on the table in front of Bobby, Rowan returned to her slightly aggressive stance.

"Eat. It's, as you say, upon the house." She was pretty sure that was how the euphemism went anyway. She had so many questions: what kind of egg was he carrying, where was he from, could she look at the spear he had. But looking at him, she felt her stomach tie up in a knot. It always did this when she wanted something, not allowing her to voice herself. But it was worse this time. Sharper, and heavier. She couldn't explain it.

"Ah, yes. Let me know if you require anything more. My name is Rowan."

[homeboy!]

There Bobby sat across from his egg, penniless, his server having just left to go to the back, calling the tavern owner, no doubt. "I think we're about to get kicked out, buddy." Bobby took a deep inhale through his nostrils, "Get some good sniffs while you can, because this might be as close as we get to food for a while." The statement came with a hearty chuckle, and a rumbling stomach.

To his surprise, she returned with a plateful of food which she kindly set before him. His better senses screamed that this was a trap, a trick of the light, perhaps, but there the plate sat. "Upon the house, yes, of course.." The sentence came out in a bit of a murmur, as if he was in a dream state.

Bobby soon recognized the woman had introduced herself somewhere between a mouthful of bread and a gulp of ale, and after swallowing his food, stood to return the gesture.

"I'm Bobby, of.." He drifted off for a moment. "Just Bobby." He gave her a small bow, trying his best to push back the years of etiquette in his actions.

"Would it be too much to ask you to join me, Miss Rowan? I think I'll put off your other patrons if I keep talking to myself over here."

[Kadakism]

Rowan looked over her shoulder, back towards the kitchen when he asked her to join him. There weren't that many customers, and the others were busy. She did want to talk to him, and his asking gave her the perfect excuse. So she nodded and slid into the chair across from Bobby, her hands clasped together on the tabletop.

"I know what that is like," she said, her eyes focusing on the different aspects of him: his face, his hair, the egg he carried, his spear. "I am often told that I am..." too Serenian was the first thing that came to mind. Not happy enough with her place in the world. A daydreamer. A slacker. Bizarre.

She back tracked a little, her small smile faltering slightly. "-that I too am off-putting. You are a traveler though, Just Bobby?" she continued, making what she hoped was a harmless joke at his fumbling over not telling her clearly what was a title he held in some capacity.

[homeboy!]

Bobby gave a sound laugh at her quip, which settled into a friendly grin before he answered her question."The traveler title is pretty new, but I've been around in my.." He trailed off, his warm smile fading with the onset of a realization. "Did you say Off-putting?" Bobby looked perplexed, were things really that different this far away from the capital?

"But you're like!-" Stuttered half-words came with several different expressions and hand motions "Pretty! And seemingly quite nice." He seemed to settle on two flat palms situated on either side of his face, before letting them drop with an amused sigh.

"Do you just give free meals to every wanderer who comes through town, or is there a thief in the palanquin?" The jest came with a raised brow as he dipped his bread into his soup.

"I only ask because I'd rather be robbed while I'm tired and fattened up, if its all the same to you." He teased.

[Kadakism]

"I am too Serenian for some, too Adelan for others." And as far as she had found, barely anyone thought she was just right the way that she was.

Rowan's mouth hung agape for a moment, color rising in her cheeks when his tone made it clear that he was joking. She blushed to her ears, averting her gaze from him. A foolish, fleeting whimsy. Of course she wasn't pretty.

"I am not a thief though, and I do not know the word pa... pa-lan-quin," she added, sounding the word out as best as she could from hearing it once. "I do offer food to travelers when I can get away with it. Which is not often." She couldn't. She would be punished and barred from her duties. Again. And she needed to work so that she wasn't a burden on her mother.

[homeboy!]

"It's like this thing that rich people use so that they don't have to walk." Bobby made a sort of box shape with his hands as he explained. "It's basically a piggy-back ride with extra steps. I've only ever ridden-" He quickly caught himself, masking his mistake with a small cough. "Excuse me, I've only ever seen them ridden a few times." He took another bite of bread, mulling over her words.

"Does that kind of thing really matter out here, though? The whole 'Pureblooded Adelan' dilemma?" Bobby seemed a bit perplexed, he'd hardly ever heard of this kind of thing actually holding any weight in the capital. Though, he supposed he'd only ever been around 'Pureblooded Adelans'. Even still, he found the notion a bit.. backwater-esque.

"Why should who you come from matter so long as you're trying to be a good person?" A genuine question. He held firm eye contact with Rowan as he asked, but he seemed to be looking past her, as if the query was meant for someone else

[Kadakism]

Rowan could feel Bobby looking through her. She was used to this. He was... she didn't know if there was a term for it. Talking at her to talk to himself. She did the same thing often with the hearths and campfires. Finding the answers to your most dire questions by posing them to another without expecting a response.

But Rowan wasn't the type to not give a response. "You misunderstand. It is not my blood. This Adelan takes what he needs from Serendipity, but shunning the rest. That Adelan does not want Serenian things. I am... undecided, in these matters." She gestured at the fictitious people that she spoke of with her hands, using them to punctuate the points that her basic vocabulary lacked.

Still, his question did affect her, internally at least. She had often wondered herself that just because every soul had a purpose, how was it that everyone but her knew what hers was meant to be? And on top of that, she was cluing in very quickly that he was some kind of nobility. He knew big words like palanquin and had, though he corrected himself, possibly ridden in one before.

She chewed on the inside of her lip. "Why do you-" she paused, correcting herself as he had done, "why do they ride in the boxes then? The pa-lan-quin? Do their legs not work properly?"

[homeboy!]

"Most rich people are afraid of hard work." Bobby gave a displeased frown, and wiped his mouth of crumbs. "That, and 'commoners'." He made air quotes out of his fingers as he spoke that last word, clearly annoyed with the idea.

"The only thing wrong with them is that they want to feel like they're better than someone else, so they pay people with less money to carry them around to show it." Bobby was slumped over, and rested his chin in his palm as he swirled around his soup. "Its just a weird thing all-together, I've got my own legs, might as well use them, right?" After a sigh, he seemed to perk back up a bit.

"What keeps you out here?" Bobby, eager to change the subject, asked abruptly. "Family, Friends?" He placed an index finger on the Egg that sat beside him on the table, rocking it back and forth. "Boyfriend?"

"I only ask because if I were you, I'd have run away from here a while ago- No offense."

[Kadakism]

And once again, Bobby threw a sucker punch at Rowan. She felt her heart leap into her throat and then sink back down into her stomach when he asked if she had a boyfriend. She shrugged, unsure of how to answer. "Obligation. My mother took us far from our original village so we could perhaps have a better life. My place is with her."

Or so she had been told. She felt guilty when she thought about leaving. But was that her own heart telling her? Or was it just the shame others had in her when her wanderlust kicked in.

[homeboy!]

Bobby's head turned at that, as if he were a bewildered dog. "Have you never wanted for something other than this?" Bobby moved a hand across the table, leaning in ever so slightly.

"Have you ever yearned for something more?"

The question came with a genuine compassion, it was one he has asked himself many times, and his answer was always certain.

"There is an entire world outside of everything you know, have you never wanted to see it for yourself?"

[Kadakism]

Rowan's face fell, her eyes searching the table for answers to his question. She chewed on her lip, feeling the slight difference in texture from where she had been tattooed all those years ago. She wasn't sure quite how long she was sitting in silence.

"I should get back to work. I will collect your dishes when you are done," she said, sliding back and out of her seat to stand. Despite the brief frown and uncertainty on her face, she recollected herself and went stony-faced once again. "Have a good day, ser. And safe travels."

[homeboy!]

Bobby averted his gaze, not that she was looking for it in the first place. The silence was more than awkward, but he almost looked alarmed when she spoke up.

Clearing his throat, he sat up in his chair. "Right, yeah. Sorry for keeping you." He waited until she left to finish eating his food before collecting his things and leaving the tavern.

"I made things really weird, right?" He said to the Egg. It gave no response.

[Kadakism]

Rowan got back to work, sweeping the dirt floor and picking up empty tableware from the patrons who finished their meals. She tried to remain focus, but every once in a while she would find herself stealing glances over at Bobby. Even when she looked to the hearth, his face and the words he'd said played over for her in the flames. Fantastic, really.

She could also see the next few days of her life, played out like the world's least exciting prophecy. Her mind always wandering back to that table, sitting across from the displaced young aristocrat. The words he'd spoken, the feelings he'd stirred. It would drive her to wander around the village rather than working. That would lead her mother to notice. That would lead to an argument. Lots of tears. Hurt feelings.

And then? A hug. A kiss. A ruffling of her hair. Packing up her belongings, as much as she could. A promise to come home sometime. And then leaving.

Rowan saw all of these things in the flames that afternoon at the tavern. She knew they were coming, but she didn't jump on the chance. She stayed and waited, letting the vision of the flames play out again in her actual life. She felt the wanderlust building, how her thoughts returned to the table.

And then she was gone, left with her mother's blessing and a quiver full of arrows. She knew which way Bobby had gone; she had watched him leave town. With nothing else guiding her, she took that same road.



Rowan stopped at a stream, kneeling at the water's edge to take a drink and cool her feet. She didn't know where she was going, and honestly she almost didn't care. Just... being away from it all like this was a refreshing sort of notion. She just hadn't done anything with it yet.

[homeboy!]

Bobby gave a hearty yawn as he awoke to the relaxing babble of the brook he slept by, His egg held safely in his lap, and his spear laying at the ready by his side. He decided he would continue to lay there for a moment, allowing his mind to wander.

He spent a while simply recounting how he got to where he was, he was thrilled to finally be on his own, but admittedly, he missed home, and its smaller comforts. Warm beds spread with grand breakfasts, afternoons in the city with his friends, late nights, training with his father. His father, he missed the man quite dearly.

-Oh and the handmaids! Couldn't possibly forget the handmaids.

After his reminiscing, he finally got a start to his day, doing some stretches before venturing off the road to gather what food he could find.

Bobby later returned after a hard morning's foraging with nothing to show for it, and was welcomed back with someone sat at his campsite (or lack thereof). Admittedly, it was only a tree over top the softest patch of dirt he could find, but it was his for the night.

"Shh." He said to his egg before approaching the figure, spear gripped tight in his free hand. Despite his stature, he moved quietly through the brush, making it to a mere yard or so from the woman before he caught a glimpse of her face.

"Tavern-girl?"

He was bad with names.

[Kadakism]

"Tavern-girl?"

The voice made her heart catch in her throat and she spun around to look Bobby dead in the eyes. She could only maintain this for a second before her gaze fell back to the underbrush. She stammered for a second, unsure of what to say. So instead she started by just hoisting the pack slung across her shoulder so that he could see. She had a blanket, a water skin, a beaten up old cooking pot, and some hemp rope along with her quiver of arrows and her bow.

"I- hello again, ser. I ah... that is to say... I took your advice, yes?"

[homeboy!]

"Advice?" With an elegant twirl, he stuck his spear into the earth, using his now free hand to scratch at his chin. "Ah!" A snap of his fingers in realization as his expression was a mixture of joy an surprise.

"I'm glad you found your answer, then." A sweet smile spread across his face before he sat down next to her, his egg sat in his lap as his elbow rested on his knee. Leaning forward so that he could make eye contact before he spoke again.

"So, what finally made you leave?"