[Flashback]Birthday surprise (Ya-ya)

[Laeli]

Summer 14, 511 AV a very short distance from Endrykas “Jett! Come!” Laeli looked back over her shoulder at her cousin. “Another rabbit, I’m sure. He’s so naughty when he’s on the scent. Really, I think Berel needs to put in a little more time training him.” Her face went back to where she had caught the last sight of her bad doggie. As she had been walking and looking backwards at the same time, she hadn’t noticed the little dip in the earth and with the next step, she stumbled. Catching her balance before she landed on her nose, she frowned, a bit vexed. That was just what she needed – to fall and twist her ankle. Then they’d never get back. They had been out later then she had expected already, and there was no way she was going to go further into the grass. They already had three rabbits. Ya-ya might not be a great horseman, but his snares were ace. But it would be insane to wander too much further afield. Her frown turned to a warm smile, though, as Ya-ya caught her up. “I’m OK,” she assured him. “I just need to watch where I’m going.” Her warm expression considered him speculatively. “Are you alright, Yayi?” she asked, threading her hand through his tanned arm and walking a bit closer. She was the only one who used that pet name for her oddball cousin. Somehow, when they were very tiny, she had begun calling him that and it had stuck. They were almost the exact same age – her birthday would come on the morrow and then his just a few weeks later. Laeli had always liked him. She felt drawn to him somehow, his underdog-on the fringes persona drawing out a sense of protectiveness in her. It wasn’t as is she could do much to really help him negotiate the intricacies of being a square peg in a round hole, except to be his friend, and sometimes his confidante. Laeli too entrusted Ya-ya with her own secrets, mild though they might be – boring some might even say. But she trusted him implicitly, and she knew, maybe more than many others, what a really sterling person he was. As much as others might think him … unstable … she knew better. Ya-ya was just … unhappy, and slightly impulsive. Or maybe, really impulsive. Still, she knew he had a heart of gold. When she had seen him earlier in the day, looking so dejected, she knew right away that yet another contretemps had probably transpired within his pavilion. He had been on his way “out”, meaning away from the tent city. To check his snares but more, to get away, she guessed. She had asked if she and Jett, her Silkena hound, could tag along, hoping that her company might ease his angst. Sometimes, out on the grass, he would confide in her. She tried to be a good listener. He had accepted her offer, and for several hours they had been walking about, Ya-ya checking his snares and Laeli watching Jett bounding along and chattering about her coming birthday. But so far, her cousin had remained pretty quiet, which was unusual for him. She wouldn’t press him, though, or pepper him with questions. Laeli always figured, if someone wanted to tell her something, they would, in their own way and time. Now, with her hand tucked into the crook of his elbow, she did ask one question. “So, what did you get me for my birthday?” She grinned mischievously and her voice held a teasing tone.

[Yaheba Longshadow]

The day so far had been a grim affair. There'd been an argument over breakfast, then another when he came back late from setting traps. He'd gone too far afield, though he knew his half-brother had gone much further. But he had a strider to watch over him and Ya-ya didn't, though the conversation had skirted delicately around this fact. Mere had interrupted with a quiet word, trying to restore order, and Ya-ya had yelled at her before realizing who he was yelling at. Afterwards he'd muttered something about checking his traps. His father sipped his tea and murmured that it was too early for that and Mere said nothing at all. He could never tell with his sister what was on her mind exactly--nobody could, really. She was quiet and stoic and mysterious--just right for a Drykas. Still, he thought they usually got along alright. Ahead of him, Laeli stumbled and he trotted to catch up, but she was fine. He felt a little guilty that he hadn't been listening to her conversation. At first he'd been a little annoyed that she'd seen fit to tag along, but the further they got from the pavilions the happier he felt. His cousin had always been a cheerful influence on him; they had an understanding that he couldn't manage with Mere and had never achieved with his father. From her, the little nicknames didn't irk him and they could speak freely with one another of almost any subject. Striding through the long grasses next to his cousin, the world seemed perfect. Three hares swung against his back, their long bodies still smelling of sweet flowers and thistle, and the sun warmed his face against the cooling breezes, and the prairie whistled . . . whatever trouble he had in his pavilion now seemed distant and unimportant, at least for a moment. Laeli hooked her arm through his, cheerful as ever. He caught the teasing tone in her voice and grinned. Of course he'd gotten her a present. "Your birthday?" he asked innocently. "Why, is that coming up?"

[Laeli]

Laeli bumped into Ya-ya playfully with her hip, knocking him a bit. “Nooooo, of course not!” She teased back. “So I hope you don’t expect to be invited to my party, because of course there isn’t going to be one, is there?” She looked at him and giggled. She fervently hoped that he would come, though she half-guessed that if he could find some excuse to avoid it, he would. With the ways things often went, when Ya-ya was around, she could understand why. He didn’t exactly go looking for trouble. But somehow trouble had a knack for finding him. Her cousin always seemed far more at ease when it was just the two of them. Big gatherings, especially one with lots of their relatives, just did not seem to suit him. It was such a shame, she always thought. Ya-ya was such a good person, but that fact was often obscured by the clouds of his . . . social ineptness? There was just something different about him – a good different in Laeli’s eyes, but not everyone else’s, she knew that. How in the world he had turned out so completely opposite of his twin sister was a real mystery. Mere was everything a Drykas could and should be, while Ya-ya was …well, Ya-ya. Her tone became both softer and more serious when she asked, “You are going to come, aren’t you? Please?” She tugged on his arm. “You can’t hide from me, you know. I’ll find you and torture you like I always have if you don’t show up.” Her fingers moved to tickle his ribs, as her voice became comically deep and somber. “There is no escape, Yahebah . . . “

[Yaheba Longshadow]

Ya-ya stumbled a bit to the side, laughing. Steadying himself, he returned the hip-bump, before realizing the smile was retreating from his cousin's face. When Laeli frowned she reminded him of a horse with a broken leg; to him it meant that everything in the world was wrong, if only for a second or two. Laeli, Mere and his mother: the three people he wanted least to upset in all the world. He'd already hit Mere, and he knew his mother worried--upsetting Laeli would be putting the last bolt in a really awful day. Had he planned to go to the party? He hadn't gotten ready for it, that was for sure, but he hadn't actually decided not to--he'd avoided thinking about it, mostly. Parties lately had an undue stiffness to them when he joined in. Most of the kids were fine, but so many of the kids he knew were all grown up . . . they gave him certain sad looks and whispered certain sad things and he even got a few disapproving glares from time to time. It just wasn't what it used to be, and even in his memory he began to question whether the parties of his childhood hadn't been just as stilted. Perhaps he only hadn't noticed . . . that was silly of course, the reason he was getting the looks and the whispers was because he was 17 without a Strider. Things had been better when he was younger. He had to go to Laeli's party though. No matter what everybody else thought of him. "Of course I'm co--" laughter choked out his reply as she began tickling him. "Stop--stop it! I said--" he broke off and rolled away through the grass, only to jump to his feet and come after her, fingers wiggling. "You better watch out! I'm in a mean tickling mood!"

[Laeli]

This was more like it! Laeli shrieked a bit as her cousin came after her, sprinting off to avoid him, but very happy to see him being playful. This was the Ya-ya she knew from their growing up years, the carefree, funny boy who knew how to laugh and have a good time. As she ran off, trying to keep ahead of him and only just barely managing it, she realized, these days were drawing to a close. They both had to grow up. They each had to find their way in the world, Drykas or otherwise. Watching the terrain more carefully than before, Laeli ran and enjoyed the breeze in her face and the air that bellowed in and out of her lungs. Jett had lollopped over, easily keeping pace with her, as if he had been walking with that long stride of his. She could hear Ya-ya just behind. He must not have been trying very hard to catch her, for he would have by now if he had wanted to. But running felt good and she pressed her body for more speed, and got a few more feet ahead, when all of a sudden, she felt it. Her legs tottered a bit and at first she thought she had stumbled again. The next second, though, she could actually feel the earth trembling under her feet. Earthquake! Not completely unknown in Mizahar, but not overly common either. She slowed to a panting, gasping halt and turned to Ya-ya behind her. Still the earth vibrated under her. She could feel the thrumming sensation up to her knees. But casting her eyes about her, she did not detect any heaving motion of the earth’s surface. Not comprehending, she cast an anxious look at her cousin. “Yayi. Do you feel that? What is it?” To her side, Jett whined softly, and then barked, as if giving an alarm.

[Yaheba Longshadow]

Ya-ya bounded after his cousin, kicking his way through the tall grass and watching the life of the grasslands flutter up into the air. Finally lengthening his stride to end the chase, the world stretched and he stumbled, sprawling in the high grass. At first he thought he'd tripped, but then he felt sick, as if he'd just seen something he wished he hadn't. Really, wished he hadn't. Staggering to his feet, he felt the world twisting away from him. Nausea. He closed his eyes and stood still, waiting for things to settle. In a moment, he felt better, well enough to walk over to where his cousin had also noticed the weirdness. "It must be the web--eurgh." A second ripple, like an aftershock or a retreating shadow, passed over the plains. More like a brief headache, sort of a pang, not bad at all. He shook his head clear of it. "They're fixing it, or it's fixing itself. Someone--" Someone who was now in a whole lot of trouble, "Screwed up. Pulled everything one way--like when y'start picking thread in a weaving and you get things tight in one spot and loose in another . . ." his explanation dissolved into a combination of vague gestures and grimaces. Words were not his element. He hesitated. "Do you hear that?" Something like low thunder echoed along the edge of his hearing. It seemed familiar. He looked around, trying to figure out which direction it came from, but the sky's brilliant blue remained unmarred. If not thunder, then what . . . ?