Closed [Archery Supplies Storage Room] Broken Arrows (Napua)

[Napua]

After clearing the guard who is staring and yelling some obscenity after narrowly avoiding a hit in the head from the staff 'Ryuss' balances on his shoulders, Napua continues up the street, expelling a breath of relief. She looks over her shoulder at the red-headed blind man, not moving too far away from him after she released his Lontev but when the blind Inartan pokes jest at her about carrying her, Napua narrows her eyes at him a moment and smacks his shoulder, "Oh hush and come on. I'm helping you, it's not the other petching way around, you get that?"

She starts to walk off then stops, Ryuss almost colliding with her but she balls a bit of his Lontev in her hand and speaks quietly but firmly to his face, "And don't -ever- call me mistress, do you -want- people to get the wrong idea and start asking questions? Do you -want- to be found out when people start wondering why a dek is calling another dek mistress? You're the one with something to hide not me, so don't be stupid 'Ryuss'." She says the name harshly, to remind him bluntly that she is aware he needs her to pull off whatever this is he was doing. She figured by now he was no Dek at all and she knew she was tipping the line dangerously because she doesn't know if he was a Chiet, Avora or even an Endal but here she was in this blind Inartan's face, staring at him and being rough with her manner and words. She only hoped she did not pay for it later but also part of her knew she had a mild advantage. "Come."

She releases the fabric of the Lontev and turns, walking away, her bare feet touching the ground and she doesn't say another word nor does she care to look back to see if he's still coming or not. She was pissed off by even agreeing to be in this situation now and she rubbed her face and kneaded her forehead. She hope she didn't make the wrong decision here and that Miri better hold up to her end of the deal or she would beat that girl to a pulp.

[Vaas]

Vaas can feel her breath on his face, so she must have been only a few inches from his face. OK maybe the mistress joke went a a little to far. He wasn't trying to give the girl a hard time, but he is man enough to admit he was wrong that he should not have drawn the joke out too long. His eyes widen when he realizing what she meant asking questions about them. He swears at his stupidity and thinks to himself, What did this girl go through in the last year to make her so paranoid of everyone.” Listening to hear if anyone is around, Vaas says quietly to Napua, “I am sorry. I made you angry, and it was uncalled for calling you Mistress. I only played up the joke because you seem like you were enjoying yourself for a minute.” Trying to find the energy reserves, he tries to match her pace with the heavy load. He smiles at her and says in a calm voice, “Also, I haven't been too honest with you, and I apologize for transgression since you are putting your well being in danger for me.” Vaas adjusts the load on his shoulder, and he says to the girl, “My real name is Vaas. I really don't care much for the caste system, but if you need too know. I am part of the Chiet caste. Actually I am musician, but I am aspiring to become a Avora Hawker someday.”

After telling her the surface of his life, Vaas waits for her to say something. Honestly, he doesn't expect her to say much to him for the remainder of the trip to the Second Quiver. He does expect her to yell at him and say she doesn't care. Vaas' understands she just been lied too by both Miri and him. He will be surprised if she sticks around after the delivery. It is too bad though. She sounded like a interesting person once you can crack the hard shell. She put around herself. Vaas takes a deep breath and continues trying to match the girl speed down the street.

By the smell of the street, Vaas can tell he is getting closer to the artisan district of the city because the coal burning furnaces could be smelled for miles in this part of the city. Vaas remained silent for the remainder of the trip down the street. Until he had to slow his pace because the weight of the quivers were starting take a toll on his endurance. Suddenly, Vaas stops walking. He kneels down and sets the staff in the ground and says to Napua, “Can you help me, Napua. I know the stairs is not much further, but I getting to tired to carry these on my own. Could you please take the other side of the staff, and you can direct me to the range with the staff.” He hopes that makes sense through his heavy breathing. He is surprised he made it this far without assistance. Still kneeling on the ground, he says to her, “I would really appreciate your help, Napua.” Selia told him when he was younger that everyone deserved to be treated with dignity, and Vaas can tell how this young woman has been acting. She hasn't been treated with the dignity. She deserves.

[Napua]

Napua huffs and stalks away, rubbing her chest lightly but she hears 'Ryuss' behind her panting and striving to keep up. She doesn't walk too far away from him, she just simply refuses to look back even as she hears the blind Inartan's apology. When he does catch up however, she slows her pace a touch, continuing to listen to him and she frowns at his revelation of being a chiet; a chiet aspiring to be more and she turns her gaze to him, unsure of what to say, unsure of what to do. What she was certain of was that she wanted to scream her heart out at him for what he was doing and for tricking her and for using another dek to trick her also and how much trouble she could've gotten in, but she remembers he is above her and she tightens her jaw, just looking at Vaas.

She says nothing but just shakes her head and continues along the street. She couldn't phantom why someone in a higher caste would even want to pretend to be a dek; it was insulting. She continued towards the Second Quiver in silence, all that can be heard of her presence is her soft footfalls as she walks and the sound of her breathing amongst the bustling street with persons coming and going. Deks, Chiets, Avora and Endals all passing through and she lowered her gaze, keeping her moderate pace to deliver these arrows then head back to her own work. She was used to be lied to but this was a first; a higher caste pretending to be nothing but a dek, a petching dek not worth anything but yeah, her life was a joke to be made fun off anyway.

Almost to their destination, Napua turns her eyes gratefully to the Second Quiver ahead, just wanting this task to be over so she can get what she's owed and never deal with Miri or this blind Chiet ever again. She stops when Vaas calls to her and she turns, hesitating for a moment as her blood boiled with anger but nevertheless she obediently went to him and stooped, taking the left side of the staff and hefting it up then placing it on one of her shoulders, her smoky eyes looking back to see if the blind chiet does the same, still not saying a word as she stared at him, her fists clenching tightly and her teeth grinding together as she waited.

[Vaas]

Catching his breath, Vaas without looking up her because he has no clue where she is at. He smiles when he hears her pick up the other side of the staff. Vaas lifts his side, and he frowns to himself when she doesn't say anything to him. He doesn't hear scolding or any jab at being slow. All he is getting is a stiff heavy silence. His eyes widen suddenly at the realization that she reverted back to her social role of master and servant. Honestly, on the totem pole of status, Chiet is only above Yasi and Dek, but in her world that is enough to be hesitant to say anything unless she wants to punished. Vaas remembered when the Chiet guard treated him just for being a Dek and it was definitely a cruel thing to do to another human being. Vaas decides to think on this a little longer before saying anything to the girl.

Vaas hears some loud Avora pass both them one their way to the stairs, and both of them were glassblowers, and both were talking about import different type of sand from varies part of the world, and how it would melt differently because of the types of minerals in the sand. Vaas tries to follow the conversation, but eventually his mind goes back to his own problem with Napua. In his mind,Vaas swears at himself for going a long with this plan, and accidentally dragging both Napua and Miri into this mess. He waits until he can't here anyone around him. Before he says softly to the Napua as they walk down the stairs, “Napua. When we are done with this task, I want you to tell everything your feeling right now. I know your mad and hurt by my actions, and I am going to give you the opportunity to express them to me without any repercussions, and I will tell you the reason for my charade.” He takes a deep breath and continues, “If you don't want to tell me what your feeling. We can part ways as soon as we make it back to the storage room, and you will never have to see or hear me ever again.” There Vaas is drawing a line in the sand. He hopes she takes the first opinion, but he wouldn't be surprised if she takes the second either.

[Napua]

'Great, he's a petching Chiet and I was taunting him, yeah.. great great great job, Napua. Now he'll probably beat me or whatever else. I should've just left well enough along ya know? Why did I ever agree to do anything for Miri, I hate stupid Deks, she obviously had to know what he was.. ugh..' Came her angry thoughts as she carried the other side of Vaas staff. She remained silent still though she still gritted her teeth, her jaw clenched as well as her fist over her side of the staff. 'And what about him pretending to even be a Dek! Who wants to willingly be a Dek! So insulting.. he has a better life and isn't even grateful for it either. Why would anyone pretend to be a dek.. to accomplish what? Maybe he just gets a joke out of seeing how we live and being a chiet ain't exciting enough.'

She gave a mild grunt as her thoughts kept on racing, becoming more annoyed and angry with each step towards the Second Quiver. She steps along, avoid the Avoras' gaze when they spot her and the blind chiet pass nearby with a staff laden with quivers. They finally make it to the Second Quiver and she guides the staff gently then as she goes down the steps, turning it slightly so Vaas can feel the movement but she still says nothing to him. She will just obey her 'master' and finish this task then try to go finish her own in time and hope to not be beaten and if she ever saw Miri when she get back, she was going to give her a beating if she got her alone.

Her thoughts are brought back to reality when she hears the blind Chiet speak to her and when he finishes she answers as she moves the staff from her shoulder, "Yes, master." She simply says, beginning to remove the full quivers from her side of the staff and falling back once more into silence. She knew she didn't give a yes or no to either option posed, she just did not care and what did it matter what she thought anyway. She was a Dek and if he wanted to tell her why he was doing this, well, that was his choice but she wasn't going to be stupid again and believe nothing would happen for speaking her mind about this whole situation.

[Vaas]

Napua stopped and Vaas figured they made it to there destination. Vaas brings the staff from his shoulders and starts removing the quivers from the staff in silence. Moments earlier Vaas heard the young girl say meekly to him, “Yes, master.” When she said that to him. He realized how divided the Inarta with this caste system. As a Dek, Napua was just a mere slave to the upper classes, Vaas couldn't believe the foreigner were right, and for him to go around disguise as one just to learn archery. Is just the pinnacle of his ignorance and arrogant for the whole situation. Vaas says to himself quietly not realizing he said it out loud, “I am just a fool in the dark...”

When the quiver are removed from the staff, Vaas hears someone walk over to them and says to them, “Impressive both of you. I think this is fastest. I got a delivery in weeks. I will have to give in a good word to Valintar about Marth for running such a efficient operation.” The man looks at them both and says with a smile, “Good work both of you. Now run along before you get into trouble.” Vaas just stared at the man and grit his teeth at the fact that Marth is getting the praise for a job well done. “We did all the work you fool,” Vaas wanted to say to the man, but he just stayed quiet and he gives the foreman a nod of respect. Vaas hears the foreman yell for some help with the quivers, and he hears a pair of feet run over and pick up the quivers and run away.

“Shall we go Napua before we get in trouble..?” Vaas says to her and picks up his staff, and he starts using it to guide his way to the stairs. He knows her response would be something around the lines of Yes Master or No Master, he figures he won't press the issue until they get back to the storage room. No use of causing unnecessary scene out in public. Vaas doesn't know if she even following anymore. He would understand if the Dek girl just ran off the safety now. He would have no clue where she went anyways. Vaas loved his home of Wind Reach, but if things gone differently for him, he would have been treated the same way Napua is being treated. Lost in thought, Vaas just shakes his head at the cruel nature of his people. When he leaves at the end of summer, he hopes the world outside of Wind Reach is a lot more caring than his own people.

[Napua]

After finishing the removal of the full quivers, Napua's eyes go to the approaching foreman, hearing him praise Marth, the chiet from the Bent Arrow for their labour and she gives some semblance of a smile and nods her head before turning her face away to smooth her now dirty tunic down, her brow set in a frown as her eyes now find Vaas' face. She exhaled a quiet breath as she kept her grey eyes on him, wondering what the next step was now. She had to get back to the Bent Arrow before she got in trouble, she had work over there to do as well and she couldn't be wasting time with a Chiet who didn't even look like one because he was pretending to be a Dek. She couldn't say 'I was off doing things for another master.' for who would believe her when they saw Vaas dressed like that.

She groaned inwardly when the quivers are taken and carried to the range, her attention still on Vaas when he now speaks to her and she says softly, "Yes master." And she sets off alongside Vaas, but a little behind him to keep a measure of distance but not too much. Even though she knew the truth, she stayed close enough to not draw suspicion to him. She felt it was part of her new role in some master/slave way so she just kept quiet and followed, heading back in the direction they had now come from. She just wanted to get back to the Bent Arrow and pray she could finish her tasks there without being beaten today, it was already a horrible day and Miri.. Miri she would look for later.

[Vaas]

The trip back to the storage room was awkward and silent for Vaas. He made a few attempts to say something to the young Dek, but she always responded with a yes master or no master. Everytime, Vaas would frown, sigh loudly to himself, and continue walking. Honestly, Vaas was kind of surprised she didn't try to make her escape. He is blind, so it is very easy to slip away, and he wouldn't stop her if she tried. Vaas just wants to go home and curl into bed. He was a fool to think he can learn archery from the Dek, and now he is ashamed at himself for insulting both Miri and Napua in the process of his selfish goals. When they got to the door with Marth, Vaas ignored the insults directed at him. He just murmured to him, “I'll do better next time, Sir.” Marth snorted something to himself, and Vaas makes his way through the door. The hallway was darker than usual for him since he was dreading his goodbye with Napua. He had to say something to the girl, and since apologies will be promptly ignore by her. He has to try a new strategy.

Vaas comes to the room with the sound of bowstring twanging off in the distance. Vaas doesn't want her to think he is going to beat her, but he knows he not going to break this turtle shell. She put around herself by being nice and polite. He says to her softly but bluntly, “I am kind of surprised with you, Napua. When we first meet, you seemed like you had a backbone. What happened to the young woman, I respected as a person. Hell I was even trying to joke around with you to lighten the mood.” He shakes his head and laughs to himself and continues, “I am just surprised that learning somebodies caste make you want to hide in the corner. Honestly, I saw a young woman undeserving of the title given to her. You should be a Avora or Endal right now, but maybe I was wrong if your so willing to accept your fate dealt to you....What a waste.”

Vaas knows what he said was cruel, but he sees too much of him in her. Just to walk away and say nothing to the young woman. After finishing what he had to say to her, he grabs his staff and starts walking away slowly. Vaas figures if she had to hate somebody. It might as well be him. He just hopes those words burn into her, and maybe they will start a fire someday. When he walks past her, he says nothing, but he hopes she does something to stand up for herself.

[Napua]

She walks back in silence towards the Bent Arrow, her eyes always on Vaas as she knows he cannot see her and her hands are clenched into fists as she just thinks about how stupid she was for doing a 'favor' for Miri which turned out to be a cruel trick, atleast in her eyes it was because even if she was the lowest on the caste chain, she atleast didn't think someone would come to make fun of it by pretence which is what it seemed to her. She mumbled a few 'yes master, no master' as they walked on and Vaas tried to make small talk with her but other than her responses she kept quiet just like any other dek would in her position when with someone of a higher caste. Speak when spoken to, not the other way around but he probably didn't even get that or realize what position he put her in by being presumptuous as all higher caste were. He was no different in her eyes.

When they reached the Bent Arrow, she was relieved and as she passed Marth, she didn't even look at him but continued inside and towards the stairs to go to the storage room but when Vaas again speaks to her, she shifts her eyes towards him. She listens in silence at his words, hearing them and tilting her head as she sets her jaw and just continues to stare. He was the one down here making a fool of himself and he dared to act like he was even on the same level as her? She was beginning to wonder if he had gone insane but when he mentioned how she should be an Avora or Endal, those words cut into her and she inhaled sharply and audibly when he said she was a waste and when he moves to walk off she raises her voice, the words hissing forth,

"You do -not- know anything about me!" She practically yells but keeps her voice moderately low to avoid attention, continuing angrily, "Respect?! What do you even -know- of the word! Here you are in this pretence of trying to be who I am and you do not even know one little thing about it other than what you -hear- other say because you cannot -see- it for your own self. If you wished to learn something about my caste, you could've done it in a more respectful manner but no you don't know what that is, you just talk and let your lips move but you have no idea of what it is like to be me. You do not starve, you are not beaten, you are not taken advantage of so don't you dare tell me I have no spine and what I should be. I -know- what I could've been and I have -not- accepted what I am now. I have plans! I have goals! And some blind Chiet playing a trick on me, isn't going to stop that."

She finishes her words, grits her teeth and moves back. She balled her fist and just stared at him. She wanted to hit him so badly it hurt and took ever fibre of her willpower to not lash out at him because she thought of the consequences instead. Her breathing was heavy now as she stood there, his back to her before she turned and went down the stairs, her steps hurried and echoing behind her.

[Vaas]

The walk to Selia apartment was a long and silent one. He was satisfied at the girls reaction to his cruel statement. Everything he said to her was false, but the way he said it and the reaction. She gave him put a smile on his face. Vaas can live with the fact the young woman Napua might hate him forever for saying what he said, but she hasn't given up on her dreams and that is the most important thing to him. Vaas taps the wall and notices the wall ends. He turns right at the corner, and he hears a voice behind him say, “I have to say that is a definitely a side of you. I think I never want to hear again.” Vaas stops realizing it is Miri, and he turns around with a ashamed look on his face. He says to her with no emotion, “You heard everything I take it Miri. I am not happy what I said to her, but I was worried that she has given up.” He throws his hands up and says to her, “Honestly I am tired of everything Miri. I am tired of acting a certain way around certain people. I am tired of staying quiet at the injustices of my people. I guess I am just tired Miri, and maybe a good night sleep will improve my moods.”

Miri watches him for a moment and looks around at the people around them. She moves closer and puts a hand on his chest, and whispers in his hear, “There is a great wind of change coming to Wind Reach, Vaas. This might be the last time you hear my voice, but I still remember your kindness. You should leave Wind Reach. It won't be safe here for long.” Vaas narrows his eyes and pushes back from her, and says to her in a quiet voice, “What are you trying to say Miri?” Miri smiles sadly at him and says to him in a soft voice, “It is nothing Vaas. Just the crazy ramblings of Dek woman.” Before she leaves him. She walks over to him and kisses him on the cheek than she turns the other way. Hearing nothing but her footsteps, he whirls around and heads home.