Dark Crow Rising

Walking up the wooden stairs, towards the thunderous bangs, I reach the grounds of the done and dusted magic event. A very empty feeling of joy fills me as I climb on over into the abandoned seating area for the pompous aelenvari. All across the cleared-out valley are the left-behind tools I either lifted, pulled or threw about. Even that humongous one that nearly killed me is still there, all over the place in a hundred, thousand pieces.

Vapooliar must've broken it for me before it landed right on top. Speaking of, here she is, making a bigger mess of the place by throwing and or chucking what remained at the mountainside. Smaller weights blur towards the stone giant and reappear as a vicious gust of splinters and iron shards. The metal is holding together a lot better but even the mountain is feeling her strength.

"Something bothering you!?" I call out to her even though I most likely already know the answer to this question. Vapooliar does not answer, but she does turn to me. She appears right above me and I fly back high and fall onto the ground as a magnificent boom blows by.

She laughs gently as I lift my head high enough to nod in understanding, fully aware I deserved it. Groaning, I wrestle some control back over my magic and get up out of the dirt and wood mix. Facing upwards, she smiles down upon until I start to chuckle lightly. She lands near me and I then shove her in revenge, to which she just laughs and puts me back in the ground.

"No, nothing is bothering me now." she smiles as she pulls me out of my successive crater. Walking after her as she flies up and over, we meet back up on the chairs of this extensive podium. Vapooliar lets out another innocent laugh as she shows off the face of a trickster.

"Wonderful." I answer tiredly as I drop down onto the chair next to her. Mental exhaustion abounds in my mind because of a variety of reasons. Frankly, it's a miracle I found Vapooliar in a better mood than I thought she would be in.

"But, what's bothering you?" she then asks as she moves over to the barrier in front of us. She swings her feet over on the other side of it with the dim signs of magic emanating from them.

I lean forward and bang my head intentionally on her seat, "The Ivy-Mother has taken Dandelion for some reason."

"Did she do anything she wasn't supposed to?"

"More like, I did something I wasn't supposed to..." I mutter as I go over in my head as to how it is my fault. I was the one who spoke about our plans to her, I said Dandelion's name... Seriously, that damn name just set her off!

"It must've been quite something, she has a lot of patience with you compared to everyone else." Vapooliar remarks as she leans backwards slightly.

"All I did was say we'd be leaving soon with Dandelion and she went ballistic!" I screech through harshly clenched teeth as my arms wave in the air.

"I see..." Vapooliar says before pausing, "Have you ever seen her with another man, by any chance?"

"All the time, it's her job to be involved with them, no?" I ask as Vapooliar starts to get a bit heated in the face.

"N-Not in that way... As in, a lover. Have you ever seen her with anything like that?" she asks with a hesitant tone as I blink in recollection. The only thing I can really think of is me for some reason, but, again, I do not love her. She just started leaking honey on me every day and then she smacked my lips right on with a kiss in this very valley!

"Not that I am aware of." I grumble as I look towards the ground and Vapooliar starts to roar with laughter as she looks out to where I was looking just now.

"I think you might have accidentally sent her the wrong message when you beat the Gilded-Bark." she points out as I slump my chin onto the barrier, looking up at her somewhat. Rumbling my moaning throat on the wood, my hands repeatedly tap-slap my legs.

"I didn't make any declarations of 'If I win, marry me, Rose-sweerui!' I never, ever did any of that!" I tell her as my head swings side-to-side but when I look at her again, she just smirks.

"The fact you know her as that means someone has had their eye on you for a little while now." she smiles as I thuderously groan against the wood again.

"Cultivated by the flower... The irony." I mumble, sitting up once I am done.

"It's been entirely accidental on your part, Nin, so try not to let it bother you. It's obvious, I know, but, see, the aelenvari are not like us when it comes to intimacy. Especially petals such as Ivy-Mother Rose'lhia. They're very blunt-"

"Seems like an understatement... Blunt." I interrupt with a scoff, but Vapooliar carries on without a care.

"-with it, their desires are far simpler. For women, it is as simple as seeing a male far stronger than what they have currently. You may have seen a lot of lovers change hands during the sports event. When you defeated the Gilded-Bark twice the way you did, you confirmed to her that you are the best one to... Give her a son."

"Despite the fact we are two different species...?" I question, failing to grasp how that works at all.

Vapooliar reddens slightly, "Rumour has it the aelenvari have their origins during the Time of Liquid Mountains, when a lonely man found a peculiar plant. Most species have their origins within the influence of a human man and his... Seed. Since these ancient days, however, the aelenvari have developed into looking more like us because of repeated sexual involvement. Losing their green skin and developing proper mouths, for example."

"I don't want to ever meet the guys who decided to just shove it into whatever caught his fancy. New species from completely out of it whackos, and here I thought I've heard it all." I comment as I shake my head and Vapooliar's brow rises.

"Are there no other... Species like us, magic-capable... Human-like species back in your home city?" she asks after spending a moment to think about the wording. I shrug at her question as seeing what Heiya and her old man are, Vadei's strange, uncanny similarities and now this with the aelenvari. There's nothing like it in Tobaballe at all, or anywhere within the Civil Mountains as far as I know.

Humans, only them, well, there are rumours regarding the Red People. But they might as well be a myth.

Shrugging again, "No, just humans like you or me. Vadei's people are there too, but, well... I don't think they're meant to be, given her hatred of me and everything I am."

"She has mentioned slavery a bit, yes..." Vapooliar comments as she frowns and rubs an arm. She looks away and seems to reminisce, but, shaking it out, she returns her eyes to me.

"So... To get back to the problem, the reason Dandelion is now under arrest is because Rose-swe-," I interrupt myself to try and end that habit, "saw her as competition?"

"I do not know specifically, but, maybe. It could be because she's a root solely."

"But why would any of that make her act the way she did? Even you said before that the aelenvari men have lovers, not lover. Surely this reaction is absurd even by their standards."

"I don't know the specifics, Nin, sorry. But, not all petals and stems like to share, not all of their men like to have it all. If that makes sense enough, for you." she tries to clarify and I sigh.

"Great... High-ranking aelenvari 'loves' me one-sidedly to the point of selfish obsession." I mutter before placing my lips into the gaps between my left hand's knuckle bones.

"You are quite popular in the flower, amongst the aelenvari. You are seen as the most likely one to give them boy-carrying seeds." she explains and I take it in two ways, though, I continue to show the least enthusiastic response.

"So, what, I give the Ivy-Mother a baby boy to distract her and we just run off with Dandelion?" I suggest more so as a joke, but, Vapooliar's fluster returns in force.

Frankly, it seems like something that shouldn't bother her that much, as, well, she had no problem sharing a bath with me. A wet, white silk dress on a bare chest pressed up right against my naked top. She was glad to see me, sure, but, it's easy to remember that moment out of context. I guess, her lower half is considered immodest to show as Vapooliar always seems to be self-conscious about it.

So many cultural oddities that make me glad that I am on my way home, normal people everywhere!

"Th-That... That might actually work." she says before she steps out onto the open air. Dropping to the ground with a dull thud before turning to face me. She gestures for me to follow as I lean on the barricade.

"I don't want to." I moan.

"Come here, would you?" she asks as I lethargically rise to attention before I hop down after her. Stumbling to the floor after landing, she helps me back up with a smile.

"What do you need?" I ask as I let go of her hand.

"When you recovered from this event, did you feel as if your grasp on your internal-magic had grown? Maybe even a little of your external?" she questions as my mind blanks out on her questioning. I nod regardless, however.

"Would you mind sparring with me, then? I know there's not a reason for it like when I was trying to teach you back in the mountain camp. But, would you mind? If sparring isn't what you want, then, think of it as me trying to train you a bit more. So you can be safe as we travel to Thrurstradtur." she asks and explains all fiddly.

I shrug at her request as I've got some energy to burn, "Sure, why not."

"Wonderful! First one to declare that they give up loses!" she exclaims joyously as her body snaps into her well-practised posture. Like before in the mountain, I fail to emulate it but at least this time it's not life or death.

"I give up!" I declare as Vapooliar seemingly waits for me to make the first move. Her expression is priceless and her form vanishes. She's rambling under her breath and I smile.

"Why!?" she wants to know, her tone dripping with disappointment. She was so eager and excited for a chance to punch me in the face... I don't know whether to laugh or worry.

"You need to change the rules, I am far weaker and slower than you. I'm pretty much always going to be the one saying it." I clarify for her, making sure she understands that I am being serious here and not joking, unlike before.

"I will go easy on you!" she promises, in theory.

"No, I am changing the rules to something that works for me... Instead of me having to make you go 'I give up,' I just need to land one solid hit on you, deal?" I propose and she turns silent to contemplate it. She does not answer me vocally, but her return to proper posture and that serious stare is enough for me. I nod back at her as I try to take this seriously myself.

The quiet feels obnoxiously heavy with how long we are holding our posture. I am trying my best to copy her, but my best is piss poor in comparison to what is lax for them. She hasn't done anything in too long, so I want to guess that she is giving me the right-of-way in deciding when. I charge at her, breaking the silence with my right fist cocked back, ready to go for her.

The ground explodes at her feet and she skids backwards in a straight line, the same distance I started with returned.

She vanishes from view with another gust of wind booming over me, reappearing for momentary flashes before another boom. One comes from behind and I spin around swinging, finding nothing with my knuckles. Shaking my head in an effort to keep my focus with all these bangs going off around me. I start to flinch as some come a little too close for comfort, tearing off what little of my shirt remains.

"Scared are we!?" I cry out over the warping, visible air and she comes to a perfect stop. Bearing a cocky smirk on her face, she crosses her arms.

"Of you? Laughable, give it a few centuries first." she replies rather apathetically despite her prior smirk. She launches straight for me and I dive for the ground as that blurring shape stays in my vision. Dragging my numb body up, I clutch my stomach as it wobbles but I manage to keep it calm.

I am certainly not out for the count!