It Takes One To Know One

[Draconian]

Gardenia had the good mind to look at Soren in slight shock and blush, her finger tip still in her mouth. The burn wasn't too bad, but it was there and she gave him a sheepish smile. His question had her tilting her head and she blinked at him, trying to think of a way to not lie but tell the truth at the same time. "I... Do." She pulled her hand away to look at it, finding her fingers very interesting!

"I try to spend at least a few hours outside in the forest each month." She smiled, placing her hands on her knees, "I practically require it!" There. That was the truth. "I don't do this though," she looked around, trying to indicate the whole camping thing, "I mostly just... Wander around." Another small smile and she poked at the fire again. "Do you enjoy living in the forest? It's... Nice out here." It was, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes before opening them and smiling at him. "You have a lovely home, Soren."

[kleineklementine]

Soren gave a little snort at that. A beautiful home, indeed. The forest, of course, was beautiful, but 'home' might be a bit of a stretch. And the reality of life in the wild, however beautiful, was much less romantic than a young noble lady might imagine from the comfort of her plush bedroom. In fact, as a boy, Soren's head had been full of romantic visions of the nomadic peoples of the Sehra plains and the lives they lived on horseback under the great open skies. He couldn't believe it when a Duhjari man he met at the market could only speak of the harshness of the life, and told young Soren he should be happy to live comfortably in a comfortable home. He couldn't believe it then, but he did now.

"Well," he said, a little darkly, "it's not a 'home' that many would choose." It was an oblique comment, but hinted a little that it wasn't a home he had chosen. But the dark look passed from his countenance, and he flashed her a little smile. "As you can imagine, since you spend 'a few hours a month' in the forest, and never camping." He gave her a wink to show the comment was in good humor. "What do you do then? Paint landscapes? Write poetry about the plants and flowers and creatures that dwell therein? Or are you more studious... studying herbalism, perhaps?"

[Draconian]

Gardenia had the good graces to blush. Her studies consisted of... Politics, now that she gave it some thought. Another poke at the fire and she looked away for a moment, her lips pursed. "I mostly just... Wander around." She took the stick out and simply stared at the burning wood. "Every few weeks I'm struck by wanderlust and if I don't go into a forest and run around I go absolutely crazy!" Which was partly true. The comment about his home wasn't lost on her and instead of giving him a sympathetic look she just stared off into space.  "Do you not like it out here?"

[kleineklementine]

Soren had to laugh at that. He looked back over his shoulder at Gardenia. "I know I don't really know you, but I have to admit," he told her with a grin, "I have a hard time imagining you wandering around any forest 'going absolutely crazy.' You must mean in some manicured woods on some manor grounds, no doubt?" And with that, it was clear he was teasing her. Just a little. But really, here she was without even proper shoes, and she expected him to believe that she ran around 'going crazy?'

Of course, who knew when it came to teenage girls. Soren looked at her again, a bit more properly this time. As if looking for something he hadn't seen in her before.

Finally he turned back to the stream and gave a shrug. "Oh, I wouldn't say I don't like it here. It has its drawbacks, though. Have to keep your wits about you all the time, living off the land, especially in a wild forest like Draconi. I'd be lying if I said there weren't times I missed having a nice bed behind locked doors and a stocked kitchen."

As if on cue, the line went taut and Soren pulled a bright, rainbow-streaked trout from the river. He turned so Gardenia wouldn't have to see as he knocked its head against the rock then gutted the thing. Once it was done and washed out in the stream, he brought it over to the fire. From the bag he pulled out a split wooden stake that the fish could be spread across to roast over the fire. He motioned to hand the stake to Gardenia. "Think you can manage this? I'll see if I can't snag another."

[Draconian]

"I'm talking about a real forest, Soren." She crossed her arms over her chest, the fire momentarily forgotten. How typical. Judging her simply because she was a lady. Sure she'd been nicely dressed and been wearing inappropriate shoes for running around in a forest, but she'd been traumatized! If she had been prepared to go out into the forest she'd... Well. Honestly, she only went into the forest to change.

So she'd probably have gotten undressed, tied the cloak around her shoulders and found some full-moon light. Soren didn't have to know that though, it was a little too intimate for their not intimate relationship of Guide and Damsel in Distress.

Her mouth opened to ask him why those were unavailable but he was distracted by fish and soon enough she flinched at the sound of fish being killed. She took it and blinked at it. This was new. She'd never cooked her own food before. Or Soren's food. Or just food in general. "I can... Manage." She held it close to the fire. Not in it. In it would make it burn, right? Gardenia didn't want to burn anything. What sort of housewife burned things.

"Why can't you... Have a real home?" She asked quietly, worried that it was a taboo question for him. "Why not have one in Opal Run? You said it was beautiful, didn't you?" And she turned the fish over, so that it would stay equally not burnt on all sides.

[kleineklementine]

"Okay, okay," Soren chuckled and held up his hands in conciliation. "A real forest. Where you really 'go wild.' Probably full of real killer deer and everything." He grinned at her; his grin growing for a moment as he saw how 'comfortable' she looked with cooking. Well, it'd just be a short adventure for her. She'd survive, and soon Gardenia could go back to her 'real forest' and 'go crazy' in the comfort and safety of her home.

And he could, hopefully, make his way 'home' with a nice paycheck for his efforts. 'Home.' Soren's grin faded considering Gardenia's question. Why can't you have a real home?

Soren looked thoughtfully at Gardenia for a moment, deciding what version of the 'truth' he should tell. Finally, he gave a small shrug. "Payment for crimes of the past, I suppose,"  he answered noncommittally. "Bit of a family dust up. It's not a very gripping story, though - more petty than anything - so I'll spare you the details."

That was meant to preempt any follow-up questions Gardenia might have, and it was fairly obvious. And thankfully, another fish was caught on the line just then, so Soren could distract himself with reeling in and cleaning the fish. Eyeing the fish she was working on, he opted to cook his for himself, and so settled down to join her at the fire.

[Draconian]

Gardenia wrinkled her nose at Soren and simply stuck out her tongue, resuming her attention to the fish. At the moment she was content. The full-moon wasn't happening yet. Yesterday was done. Right now was nice. It felt nice.

His dismissal of past event's had her clam up slightly and she looked away for a moment, frowning at her fish (and forgetting to turn it for a moment too long). It sent a familiar pang through her chest, the idea of family troubles. They'd never happened to her but what if they did. There was no doubt in her mind that her father loved her, but what if he decided he wanted a child that was part him in bloodline? Her expression turned dark and she ducked her head down, turning the fish.

"I'm not my father's real daughter." She looked at Soren, offering him a small smile, "my mother, after she married him, had an affair with someone." Gardenia looked away and pulled the fish out of the fire to examine it, trying to make light of the conversation, perhaps he would open up a little if he didn't think what he had to say was so awful? "My father looks very Serenian. Funny hair colours and everything, he has the most lovely eyes," a small smile and she looked down at herself, down at her tanned hands, her black as night hair. "I wonder why she did it." The last words were spoken aloud, but they were mostly for her.

Gardenia couldn't even begin to imagine experiencing a feeling so intense you go back on marriage vows.

And then a small piece of her fish caught on fire and she pulled it out to blow it off, holding it out and away. It should be done. Yeah, it was cooked quite well. Gardenia licked her fingers to pinch a piece off and to not get any bone and popped it in her mouth, chewing quietly. It tasted better than the fish at home did. "Thank you, Soren."

[kleineklementine]

Soren looked up from his cooking fish. Gardenia's sudden admission took him by surprise. And off guard. Not just because it had come seemingly from nowhere, but because it struck a chord. 'I'm not my father's real daughter.' What had made her tell him that? Was 'family dust up' too obvious a euphemism? But he hadn't meant his own illegitimacy, and for a moment Soren felt a burn of shame thinking of his brother. 'Family dust up'... was he really that removed from it, that he could use such a casual phrase for what had happened?

No. He'd been so vague because he didn't want to scare the girl off. And he wasn't that Soren anymore. He hoped he wasn't.

"If your father loves you," he finally said out loud, "then you're his 'real' daughter, and I'm sure he'd hate to hear you say otherwise." He paused for a moment, watching her introspection now, then he opened up. A little. For, he told himself, her benefit. "We have one thing in common, though. I'm illegitimate, too. Other way around, though. But I can't say that my mother - my father's wife I mean, not my birth mother, whoever she was - was very happy about it." The understatement of the year, he thought. "The rest of my family even all look rather Serenian, for that matter. Trading family, moved into Adela when my grandfather was a boy. It's just me who has the swarthy gypsy look," he added with a little grin, hoping to lighten the mood.

The last thing he needed was to have her upset again!

[Draconian]

Gardenia smiled at him and held the fish carefully, letting it cool from it's slightly previous on fire state of existence. Gently she bit her lip and while she listened she really wished for a far stranger thing in common. The chances of him being that wolf were growing slimmer and part of her was slowly growing more and more sad at the idea. The spark of a kindred spirit was so close she could almost taste it.

Still, the small bit of common ground was nice.

Even if it wasn't such a nice subject.

"I only..." Gardenia licked her lips, "I mean... By blood. If he were to marry and have a child of his own, I'd be as good as ..Well... Not his heir." And Gardenia couldn't really imagine that. She'd been learning all her life to take over his position, or at least do as well a job as she could, perhaps Arashaiyak would remain to help her as he'd done for her father. And her father's father. Gardenia got a distant look in her eyes while she wondered just how old he was. Which was something she'd never really considered before.

"I think you look nice." And then she popped some fish in her mouth and chewed while looking everywhere but not at Soren.

[kleineklementine]

Soren had to laugh at that. "Yes, well, I think so, too," he said with a grin. "But not much like my siblings."

Then he turned his mind to what she'd said before. Already he was beginning to relax a little after the mishap that morning. A dangerous prospect. But he had to remind himself that he didn't have any other, ill intentions with this girl. He was just bringing her to a safe town, where she could return. He wasn't... it wasn't like the other time, this time. What was the harm, as long as he didn't reveal too much to her, of getting a little more familiar?

Famous last words, he thought, but shrugged it away for the moment.

"Aha, so you're an heiress," he said, with just the slightest tone of teasing in his voice. "Now I know I should ask for double, once we get you to safety," but however crass the comment was, he said it with a disarming grin. He didn't mean it. Well, maybe he did, but what did it matter? Of course, Soren didn't know just what kind of heir she meant, and he imagined in that moment that it was a monetary inheritance that she worried over. He wouldn't have guessed what she really meant! "And no siblings, then? But you don't worry that hopefully a long time from now, when your father passed, your claim to your inheritance would be challenged by a more distant family member who was related by blood? If you look as different as you claim, then it can't be too big of a secret, after all. If you had siblings, they might respect your claim more than some greedy second-cousin."

[Draconian]

Gardenia had the good graces to blush, but she looked at him and smiled, looking away after a moment. She imagined if she had siblings, she wouldn't look much like them either. Opal haired and paled skin with rose cheeks. Another bit of fish was being chewed and she looked at him with a shocked but amused look on her face.

"You don't even know what you're going to get!" She ripped a bit of grass from the ground and tossed a few bits of it at him as punishment, though they drifted off not too soon after and most of them landed on her boot anyway. "I'm the only Silinrul left besides my father," She tilted her head, pausing for a moment to think of her fathers family. There were a few of them, though the closest was Adalia, whom she'd only met a handful of times when she was younger.

"There's only Adalia who he's related to closely," Gardenia smiled, "She's a mageknight. She looks just like my father, all... Opal hair and odd magic. I doubt she'd stake a claim for Jadenshine." She taped a fishy finger against her lip, which she quickly popped into her mouth to clean.  "She ran off with a forest man and didn't go home for months. It was quite the scandal. Father had to pull a few strings to keep her from being labeled as a military deserter." Gardenia nodded, still picking at the fish, "rescued the man from jail and everything, it was very romantic." And then Adalia came home alone, which wasn't so romantic.

Gardenia looked at Soren and cleared her throat, resuming to eat the fish. "Did I say thank you for the fish? Because, um... Thank you for catching the fish. It tastes better than what the cook makes at home."

[kleineklementine]

"'Stake a claim to Jadenshire?'" That got his attention, and Soren looked at her, eyebrows raised, anew. So she wasn't the sort of heiress he'd imagined. Or even the sort of noble lady. She was a high noble lady of Serendipity! And Soren had to wonder how on earth she'd ended up traveling with only a driver! Surely she should have been sent with an entire detail of guards. "Well," he finally said after a moment, "now I know I should ask for triple."

He listened with an amused expression to the story of her closest relative. He couldn't help but catch the reference to a 'forest man' and wondered if she'd used the term on purpose. But their story was hardly romantic! And he had a hard time imagining Gardenia rescuing anyone from anything. And Soren was far too clever to ever need to be rescued from a prison; or he'd have rotted in one ages ago. Hence his current life as a 'forest man.'

"You know your family better than I do," he said with a shrug. "But you'd be surprised how this sort of thing can bring distance relations out of the woodwork. I hope it doesn't for you, though."

That, of course, had never been a problem for Soren; he had many siblings, and had never been set to inherit much more than a small trust, at any rate. But he'd been hired by such a distant relation once. A man of meager means who had the luck of being next in line to a rather wealthy merchant. Unfortunately, said merchant was, well, still living. Soren had been paid to take care of that. He didn't really like that kind of work, but, well, he couldn't be picky.

But it didn't seem like she wanted to keep up the line of conversation, so instead he only said simply, "Fresh fish always tastes better. Hard to get it fresher than this."

[Draconian]

The talk of money again had her stick out her tongue at him, though she was smiling. His words were comforting and she smiled at him still, nodding and picking at her fish - which despite being burnt was still pretty good, thank you very much -  "The family would have done something about it already." And while they were still trying to set her father up with various wives, he was having none of it. Having neither the time nor the patience to deal with another potential wife.  She finished off her fish and smiled at him, looking towards the stream and then back at him.

"I'm sure we could have eaten it raw and still wiggling, that would be very fresh," for a moment she remembered how sweet and succulent wiggling raw fish was but then she remembered she wasn't going to be a puppy for a few more days and felt herself turn a little green. Gardenia looked up at the sky. Maybe she'd figure out some way to tell him before it happened. Or... Come back in the morning. No, then she'd be naked and that would be terribly awkward.

With her fish having been eaten she wiped her hands off on her pants and watched him. "You're very nice, Soren." Gardenia began, "Why are you alone out here? Doesn't it get... Lonely?"

[kleineklementine]

"Tell me, Lady Gardenia, as I suppose you must be, do you read many novels?" Soren asked her with an amused smile. "Perhaps the epics of Lady Rosenthal?" Lady Rosenthal, of course, was one of the most celebrated novelists of the past century, famous for her romantic epics. Though what a wandering forest man knew of Lady Rosenthal, he didn't say. "Because I feel you're rather bent on casting me as a tragic character. I really am more of a wanderer than a 'forest man,' to use your words. I don't spend all my time in the forest, however beautiful it may be."

Despite his defensiveness, Soren didn't seem angry or offended. And his words were true. Though he couldn't control his changing, he could usually tell when it was coming on. And sometimes he spent days at a time in a town, working odd jobs and charming village ladies. Of course, he'd run into more than one close call doing that, but he still had his skin so far.

Then again, of course, his life was lonely. But he could hardly admit that to her. Or to anyone. He was more or less accustomed to it now - not that that he never was lonely - but it had been torturous in the beginning. Having grown up in a big family, even a contentious one, and a comfortable family at that, the solitary life in the wild had been unspeakably painful for the first year or so. And it had taken some time before he'd dared to go into villages other than to steal supplies by night. But now? Well. He supposed he did well enough by himself. Nobody's life was perfect.

"Of course," he added with a knowing, teasing grin, "I'm quite the fan of Lady Rosenthal, myself."

[Draconian]

Busted.

Gardenia turned several shades of red. The reds complimented her eyes and she was quick to duck her head and look very interested at the grass at her feet. Her mouth opened and she gave him a look before she quickly shut it, "That... I... I didn't mean." Gardenia chewed on her lip, "I'm just..." Her hand went to her head and she scratched at it, tugging her hair after the fact and then simply played with the ends. "You're not tragic. It's just... Easier to relate to pretend people and if I can..." Then she paused and chewed on her lower lip.

"I didn't actually call you a forest man did I? I was thinking it, but I didn't mean to say it in case it might hurt your feelings." And still, she chewed on her lips and tried to shrink into herself, her shoulders hunching forward and her head snapped up so fast her hair flew back. "You're what?" No way he read those kinds of books. That was almost worse than him just knowing about the author, if he'd read her books then... "Oh... Dear. Well, it's... Those books or learning how to do ... Business things and those books are more fun!"

[kleineklementine]

Soren laughed as he took his fish off the fire, pulling out the spine and bones. "Your face. You look like you couldn't ever believe that a 'forest man' - or maybe just any man - could possibly have read the novels of the esteemed Lady Rosenthal." He grinned at her flustered, flushed blushing. "But what can I say?" he said with a shrug, eyes still lit with amusement, "I have four sisters."

He left it there, as if that explained everything. Though the truth was that those books had been a guilty pleasure of his in his early adolescence.

"Don't worry, though, I don't think you did call me a 'forest man,' I was just borrowing the term from your story. But now I know you were thinking it."

Soren laughed again, then bit into his fish. Without realizing it, he seemed to have relaxed quite a bit. After he chewed, he shot her a curious, half-smirking look and asked, "What's your favorite one?"

[Draconian]

Could she turn any darker? Gardenia pressed the back of her hand to her cheek and she could feel how flushed she was. It only got worse at his laugh and the more teasing and she wished she had a coat so that she could hide herself in it.  Or at least cover her face. It wouldn't have been so bad if he just knew about them, but he'd read them. Her odd eyes flicked up to meet his and she was still bright red, "I ... I'm an only child," was all she could say and it was lamely at that.

"This man was a real forest man! Not..." Gardenia stopped mid sentence, her mouth still open before she quickly shut up, before giving her words another thought "Not a gentleman who's circumstances have forced him to live off the land." Yeah, that sounded good. Nice and polite. Then she began to pick imaginary things off of her clothes and pull her hair off to one side to braid it and unbraid it and pull it apart.

"Well, there's one about a mage and a mordecai," Gardenia started enthusiastically, even giving a sigh as she looked up at the sky and smiled, remembering the romantic tale, " They're enemies but they were forced together for some reason or another," Who cared about that? That part wasn't romance," and they ended up in the mountains and they had to survive together because if one died so would the other and ... " Gardenia cleared her throat, "I enjoy the tales that has two people grow to love one another against all odds." 

Mostly because she didn't want to get into sharing body heat and ... Well.. That wasn't appropriate for a lady to parrot back out of a book.

[kleineklementine]

'A gentleman whose circumstances have forced him to live off the land.' Soren had to try very hard not to laugh at that, since he was getting the feeling that she was clearly embarrassed enough based on all the shades of red her face was turning, but he grinned and the silent laughter showed in his eyes. "I think that, Lady Gardenia, is the nicest thing anyone's ever called me."

He continued eating the fish while she described her favorite of Lady Rosenthal's stories. "I read that one, but it wasn't my favorite," he admitted. "I mean, unless you're actually from Connlaoth, I guess, you can't really see a Mordecai as a 'hero.' I liked the ones with good heros. Like, umm...." he raked his memory; novels weren't something he had the occasion to talk about much anymore! "Like The Last Ride of the Dragon, did you read that? About the dashing Adelan dragon-rider who saves a Serenian noble lady," he told her with a wink, but only a teasing one. "They fall in love, naturally, but of course she's already engaged. But after the lady begs her father to call off her engagement and marry the Adelan, her father sets out ten impossible tasks for the dragon-rider, hoping one of them will kill him. I think," he paused, looking thoughtful for a moment, "well I think in the end, one of them does. But he was a good hero."

Soren finished his fish and looked at her suddenly serious. "Of course, if you tell anyone in town that I've read any of these books, I'll have to tell them that you're mad. Hallucinating killer deer and making up all sorts of wild stories!"

Soren grinned again, then got to his feet. He wanted to get more distance under their boots today, and they wouldn't achieve that by yakking about old novels all day. "Shall we?"

[Draconian]

The nicest? "Well that's terribly sad," and it showed on her face. Her eyebrows were all drawn up and she looked at him not unlike a disappointed puppy. Gardenia kept her hands on her knees and she frowned slightly when he did not enjoy the book she'd read at least twice.

"I almost cried when he died," she admitted, pursing her lips, "how disappointing, all that work and she'll have to marry the person her father engaged her to anyway!" Something she wasn't looking forward to herself, but there was no handsome Adelan dragon-rider in her life to fight for her hand so... No use being grumpy about it. "I was so hoping they'd get to stay together, I put it down as soon as he was written out - how could that get any better!" Gardenia crossed her arms over her chest and looked and looked at him in surprise when he grew serious.

Then she smiled widely. "It will be our secret, Soren. Promise." And she followed him up with an unladylike sigh, loud and drawn out because she really didn't want to walk again, but she also really didn't want to be out in the forest for much longer. A little discomfort now for being out of the forest sooner.

"We shall," Another sigh and she pushed her hair over her shoulders, gave it a quick braid and rolled her eyes when it quickly fell loose. A glare at her black hair and she pushed it over her shoulders, having given up on keeping it from getting too tangled. "So that I have something to look forward to, are we walking until... "Gardenia paused, not quite knowing the word for... What they were going to be doing outside, but all she could come up with was walking until "Bed time?"

[kleineklementine]

"You didn't finish it?" he asked her incredulously as they set off walking. He told himself he was just humoring her, but secretly he found himself enjoying reliving the books he'd read as a youth. A library, in fact, was something he missed. If he could hear how earnestly he was talking about these books - especially these books! - he would likely be very embarrassed. But now that they were talking about it, the rest of the story came back to him. "Then you missed the best part. Because she doesn't marry the man her father betrothed her to! After the dragon-rider dies, she finds his dragon and together they complete the rest of the tasks her father set out for the dragon-rider. Her last act of love for him. Then, when she completes the tasks... Oh, okay, I don't remember all the details... But by some magic or the other, who cares about that part, she gets whisked away to some faery kingdom. And her dragon rider is there waiting for her. I can't believe you didn't finish reading it!"

And then it hit him, and he looked at her suddenly, sheepishly. "Oh... Uh... Were you going to read it? I guess I've spoiled it now." He self-consciously rubbed the back of his neck. "Heh. Sorry."

But thankfully she asked then about how long they were going to walk. And Soren was unable to hide his surprise at the question. What... else would they do? He looked thoughtfully at her for a moment, then ahead into the forest. "Well," he answered after a moment, "I suppose if we're adding another day to the journey anyway," as they'd already agreed, "we can take a different route. Something better suited to a lady."

And with that, he altered their course a little, taking them more north-by-northwest than due north.