fandomhigh | Library [24.09]

Karal was being quietly thoughtful elsewhere, so if you need help, you'll have to make yourself comfy while you wait for him to return.

(He'll feel bad, though, so you'll probably get tea out of it.)

Edited 2008-09-24 10:48 (UTC)

Karal was sitting on one of the more comfortable chairs, cross-legged and a million miles away, mentally.

He'd spent some time doing library aid chores before sitting down, and Altra was stretched out on the counter, keeping watch.

Edited 2008-09-24 10:41 (UTC)

It wasn't that Jaina was looking to talk, really, but she was beyond bored. There was a limit to what she could do right now, and she'd told herself she wouldn't keep calling home to beg to come back like some homesick kid, and yeah, she needed a hobby. Right now she was looking for distraction.

Of course, noting the look Karal had about him, she asked, "Anyone home?"

Karal startled slightly as he came back to here and now, then smiled. "There is now," he said, happy to hear Jaina's voice.

Altra stretched and wandered over so Karal could add seeing Jaina to his daily accomplishments.

"How are you?" Karal asked, stretching a little, and gesturing to the other chair in invitation.

Jaina didn't answer that directly, and hoped any wincing when she sat wasn't too obvious. She was feeling better, at least. "Distract me," she said, waving a little to Altra.

He looked at her sharply, not that it was obvious since he was using Altra's eyes, because he had seen the wincing and after this past weekend, he couldn't help but worry. But he was warmed that she'd come to him, even if it was only for distraction, and for the moment he would keep his worries to himself.

As Altra went to present himself to be patted, he frowned thoughtfully. "Hmmmm, distraction. I could tell you a story?" he suggested, smiling again as he added, "From when I was young and even more foolish than I am now."

That would be a distraction, yes. And it totally took the focus off her, so bonus. "You've hooked me in. Let's hear it," she said.

Karal settled back, making himself comfortable, and prepared to embarrass himself. "I was seven," he began. "My father was the Chief Stableman of the Rising Sun Inn, and I was a stable boy. No special privileges, he worked me as hard as anyone else, but some of the other stable boys were convinced that this was not the case." He shook his head at the memory. "They called my riding ability into question, and of course, being very foolish, I told them I would prove I was the best rider of all of them."

"Oh, this is the sort of thing that causes cracked tailbones," Jaina said. "Go on."

Karal sighed at his younger self, and propped his chin on his hand. "As it turned out, the owner of the inn had just purchased a new stallion, one of the finest available and worth hundreds of gold. He was huge, and had a reputation for being hard to handle." Karal paused. "You can probably guess where this is going."

"Just tell me I wasn't right about the cracked tailbone."

"I was punctured, bruised and half-drowned, but no, no cracked tailbone," he replied, chuckling. "We all snuck out to his pen. He was huge, miles and miles high, it seemed. I barely came up to the top of his leg. But I was determined, and I'd brought a handful of carrots with me, so I climbed up to the top of the fence and lured him over. Once he was busy muching away, I scrambled onto his back. It was higher than I'd ever been, and it felt like I was sitting on top of volcano. He froze and I grabbed onto his mane, praying harder than I ever had. If I hadn't been so terrified, I would have tried to get off, but I couldn't move."

"So how'd you get to half-drowned from there?" she wondered.

He held up a hand. "Patience," he said with a smile. "I was waiting for the stallion to explode, but he ignored me for the most part. Went wandering around his pen as if I wasn't even there, which was no way to impress my detractors. So I started nudging him with my heels, telling him go, and generally being a complete pain. He kept ignoring me until I smacked him with my hand, and then he very neatly dumped me off over the fence and into a thorn bush. That is how I got punctured and sightly bruised. The half-drowning came after that."

"You tried again?" she guessed, sort of impressed at his perseverance. Not that she wouldn't have done the same, but there were thorns involved and that would be a deterrent for most people.

"Oh, no," Karal laughed. "I wasn't nearly that smart. Meln, the oldest of the other stable boys, decided that wasn't good enough. I insisted that I'd ridden the stallion, even if he'd tipped me off, and when he said I hadn't proven anything, I tried to hit him." He dropped his forehead into his hand. "So there we were, rolling around in the dirt, me with thorn holes and getting more bruised by the second, when my father arrived. We didn't notice, the others scattered, and next thing I knew both of us had been unceremoniously dumped in the watering trough. That's where the half-drowning came in."

Edited 2008-09-25 01:56 (UTC)

Jaina laughed softly. "Very nice," she said, nodding. "Though I have to say, I can't imagine you in a fight."

"It's something I'd prefer to avoid if I could," he said. "My seven year old self thought it was a grand idea, but a lot has changed since then." Karal looked at Jaina thoughtfully. "I have been trained, though. When I first went to Valdemar, my master insisted, given how hated Karsites still were. The Armsmaster taught me how to stay alive if someone tried to kill me, for which I was grateful when someone did. Defensive and avoiding moreso than offensive, though she did train to me identify everything that could be used as a weapon within reaching distance, to the point I do it automatically."

"Really," she said interestedly. She couldn't help thinking that Mara would approve. "It kind of sounds like you've had more formal hand-to-hand training than I have."

"Herald Kerowyn was very insistent, and she was terrifying. I thought I was going to die after the first time, but it got better, easier, as we progressed," he said. "I imagine our training was different, though. Mine was designed to keep me alive until someone arrived to rescue me or I could run away." He gave her a small smile. "Yours would have been the training of the one doing the rescuing, I think."

"Is she the one you told me about?" she asked, wondering if she did know that name or not. "I think I focused more on defense than anything else. I'm changing that. If you're ever bored, I'm down at the gym a lot for training."

First period

Second period

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Third period

Lunch

Afternoon

OOC