Trees Need to Smile Too[Sseevrakressha]

[Kressha]

Kressha honestly hadn't expected the young human to be awake when she got back to the tent let alone sitting out side in the grass apparently waiting for her to return. She admired his form as she came up the beach, how the sun reflected off his pale skin and his golden locks. Her fingers twitched a little as she wondered if they would be warm to the touch and imagined herself running her fingers through his hair again, this time under the hot sun. He really wasn't making her little fantasy any better as he sat there in just his pants, his shirt nowhere near him. When she was finally close enough to his liking and his question was asked, she stopped and just looked at him for a moment before tilting her head and smiling. "Do you want it to be a one time ssing?" She asked, her hands wrung more water out of her hair one last time before she let her arms drop to her side and she moved up closer to him, her feet slipping through the sand with ease. Sinking down to her knees, she let her hands rest in her lap. "Ssere isss never jussst one time wisss me when it comesss to ssstuff I like doing." She said, speaking honestly as she looked at him. She could see that that one question had been floating around in his head for some time. She also could see the red mark on his head, though she didn't know how he'd gotten that, she was sure he had inflicted it himself. "If you decide ssat you want to play wiss me again, I would be more ssan happy to have a repeat of lassst night." She let her head tilt a little as she watched his face, trying to read any and all of the emotions he was probably feeling right now. She'd never played with an innocent before and had no idea of the risks of them possibly falling for her, and she'd be even at a more loss with how to handle the emotions directed at her. She had never loved anyone before in her life, not even her mother or clutch siblings. They were there and they all knew they were a family. She respected and cared for them... Was that considered love? Reaching a hand out, she brushes her fingers softly against his bent knee before pulling it back to rest in her lap. "I did not intend for lassst night to leave you wiss troubling ssoughtsss today. What we did wasss meant to be fun, sssomessing to be enjoyed."

[Faval]

Faval’s eyes diverted to the ground as she spoke. Faval did not know how to answer her question. What did he want? Faval honestly had no idea what he wanted. He didn’t have a lot of time to think about it. Part of him wanted something more serious, something that had concrete, long lasting meaning to it and he hadn’t met anyone who had interest in him at all, much less interest in anything of the sort. That made Kressha special to him, she was the first person who seemed to actually give a damn about him. By the same token however, did he really want to expect someone who…admittedly despite it hurting the self-esteem a tad…consummated her relationship with Faval pretty quickly and easily. She probably wasn’t the type to stayed tied down to one person and given how much she traveled, probably didn’t want to be tied down to one situation even. Getting emotionally attached to Kressha seemed like a foolish idea and Faval knew that. He knew that she probably wasn’t going to want anything that he wanted, but Faval could not help it. The small touch on his knee alone just warmed him up. He couldn’t help but grow attached to her. Faval gently lifted his eyes back up to her, a small smile on his face.

“I don’t want it to be a one time thing.”

Faval gently pushed himself to his feet, enjoying the morning sun on his face as he smiled down at his new friend. He would deal with whatever pain, heartbreak, whatever was going to kick him in the ass several times over. He wanted to give this a chance; he wanted to take the very blatantly ill fated risk. He had no idea what was to come, but he wasn’t going to find out sitting there worrying about it like a frightened little girl. Faval extended his hand down to her, offering to help her to her feet as the small smile on his face grew larger. It was nice to have reached a resolution and it was a strange feeling to Faval, despite all the uncertainty he was feeling he wasn’t worried about it. Not worrying about things was very, very weird to Faval. For now though, he’d just focus on enjoying what he still had.

“You wanted to learn things with the bow? I don’t know how much will translate to the Short Bow from the long bow, a lot of the little tricks are a lot different, but I will do whatever I can to teach you what I know.”

[Kressha]

Kressha didn't push the topic as she watched his face turn away from her to focus on the ground. They sat in silence for some time, but it didn't bother her. After a few moments she finally let her eyes close and she sat there enjoying the weather around her. With each passing chime, the sun was getting higher and higher and the temperature was quickly rising, making the skin on her back tingle under her shirt. She was so lost in the feeling that when he spoke again she jumped a little. Smiling at him, she gave a small nod of her head. "Ssen it will not be sse lassst time ssat we play." She said as she watched him climb to his feet. Taking ahold of his hand, she let him help her up off the ground and before she stepped away from him, she let her body press up against his as she stood on her toes in the sand. "Next time I will teach you new ssingsss to do." She whispered against the crook of his neck, that being as high as she could really get with the footing she had. Pulling back away from him, she was happy to see the smile on his face. There didn't seem to be any fear of her left in his eyes. Giving a small nod to his question, she dips back into the tent and knelt next to her saddle. Lifting a flap under one of the sturups, she untied the shortbow then rejoined Faval out in the sun. "I've never been very good at it, but sse man I bought it from sssaid it would be good for my sssize." She knitted her brows together then as her bottom lip stuck out. "I ssink he wasss sssaying I am ssshort." She whined out a little before laughing. She knew she was short and knew that had been the exact reason, well, that reason and she only had so much miza to spend. Holding out out to Faval so he could look at it if he wanted, Kressha continued. "It isss easssy to pack under my leg on sse sssaddle, which I wanted becaussse of how I travel, but it isss hard to aim and..." She purses her lips a little and glares at the bow. "I've only gotten a few ssingsss wiss it and I ssink I jussst got lucky." Kressha hadn't really known anything about weapons when she had went shopping for them and had been so excited about finally leaving Ahnatep to go new places, she didn't even care that the little bow didn't really fit right with her. She had told the man what she had to spend and that had been what she had been given. Getting rid of the glare she had in her eyes at the little thing, she looked up at Faval and smiled. "How isss your bow different from ssisss one osser in sssize?"

[Faval]

Faval was taken off guard as she pressed up against him, his brain very much not used to all the contact they were enjoying. His face grew red and his eyes quickly turned away from her, as if that did anything to hide how embarrassed he was at something so simple. His face grew even redder as she whispered in to his neck and did a wonderful job at betraying any attempt at hiding just how eager he was to enjoy more of her schooling. Faval brought his hand up to scratch the top of his head, a stress relieving habit that had formed rather quickly, as she stepped away from him and walked in to the tent. Faval couldn’t help but sneak a look over his shoulder as her small curvaceous frame stepped away from him and down to her saddle. As she got up to make her back, Faval’s head quickly snapped straight forward, trying not to be quite so obvious at his inability to keep his eyes off of her for more than a few seconds. As she made her way back out in to the open, Faval couldn’t help but smirk at her story, trying rather hard not to laugh at her, but she proved that an unnecessary restraint by laughing herself.

“That’s probably because you are short, Kressha.”

Faval studied the bow that she had presented him. It wasn’t in bad shape, wasn’t anything special but it wasn’t of poor craftsmanship or anything. Faval was no expert on the quality of bows or anything of the sort, but he had spent enough of his life around the weapons that it wasn’t that difficult for him to tell. As she spoke again and asked him what the differences were between her weapon and his, Faval let out a small smile. Retreating back in to the tent as she did, Faval retrieved his long bow and an arrow and brought it back out in to the sun. Smiling, Faval held his long bow out next to her short one, the red flush gone from his face now that he was focusing on a passion he was actually comfortable with. Looking up to Kressha, the smirk still on his face, Faval took his turn to teach.

“That is a big difference though. The amount of damage an arrow will do is based on how far you can pull the bowstring and how much the wood will bend when you do. Obviously, the draw strength of a longbow is considerably stronger than that of a shorter bow. At full arm extension, I can pull the longbow all the way back to my cheek, the short bow would make it to my bicep at most and usually only reach my elbow. Because you can pull it farther back as well, you get more spring in the wood which adds for even more power. The effective range for a longbow to punch through a suit of armor is roughly two hundred and sixty meters though it’s possible at around four hundred if gravity is on your side. A short bow tends to not puncture armor any farther out than one hundred and forty meters. On top of that, the draw weight on a long bow is about one hundred pounds while the draw weight on a short bow is around forty.”

As Faval spoke, he nocked the arrow before slowly pulling the feathered shaft back. Slowly and in one fluid motion, Faval lifted the bow as he was pulling the arrow back. By the time Faval had pulled the weapon back to his cheek, the arrow head was pointed straight for the back of a yet to be marred tree. Looking down the shaft of the arrow at his target, after waiting a few moments for his breathing to steady, Faval released the deadly projectile as it hurtled through the air at breakneck speeds. The sound of the weapon crashing in to the tree reverberated through their little clearing, the vibrations sent up the tree causing all manner of avian life to scatter through the skies in fear. Faval let the bow fall to his side, his arrow embedded deeply in to the bark, before turning back to Kressha.

“There are many advantages to a short bow however. While you lack a considerable amount of power and effective range, the weapon compensates for this by being far easier to wield and having a much lower margin of error. The slightest distraction or mistake with a longbow will send the arrow off course and not strike the target with the full force at its disposal. It is also far more difficult to be mobile with a bow this size. It is far too unwieldy and difficult to use while attempting to retreat and firing a longbow from the back of a horse is considerably more difficult than with a short bow. In addition, short bows tend to be more efficient for the purposes of hunting. They are less likely to get caught on snags while going through wooded areas or limiting your maneuverability when being chased down by an angry person with a sword. Consequently, when using a long bow you want to afford yourself a wide berth from things that will make you have to run around. It’s best to attack from a completely safe place with them. Consequently, a lot of the ways you’re taught to use the weapons are different. A longbow requires stillness, patience, and steadiness while a short bow is more permissive of jerky movements and firing multiple arrows in sequence as opposed to one powerful projectile. A short bow practitioner needs to fire multiple arrows quickly while I pride myself on only needing one. Fire one at the tree so I can see your form, we’ll go from there. “

[Kressha]

Kressha was glad the blushing wasn't gone from him after their time together last night. Standing that close up against him, the temptation to reach up and run her fingers across his cheek to see if the blush was warm was rather strong, but she held back. It wasn't a worth enough blush to touch yet. When she came back out and told her tale, she didn't mind him calling her short. She knew she was and she liked it. It made hunting men easy most of the time. When he took the bow and looked it over, she let her arms cross loosely under her chest as she watched. She had no idea what he was looking at and when he disappeared into the tent to get his longbow, she felt her brows raise a little as the two weapons were held side by side. There was quite a bit of size distance. As Faval started in on his teaching, Kressha stepped in closer to run her fingers over his bow, feeling how smooth it was under her fingers. She really didn't need either of the bows, her best weapon was herself if she shifted, but she wanted to keep that hidden from people. Truth be told, she'd only fired it once or twice since she's had it, and she got it back in the Summer of 507. It had been an act and just like the weak little human she looked like, she failed at the bow and those she had been staying with proceeded to do the hunting while she traveled with them. While she was on her own, she hunted in her Dhani form, eating her catch whole or in large chunks depending how large the kill was. As he spoke about the damage one of the arrows could do and the different ranges they could be fired from, Kressha felt her head tilting. She'd never hunted something from afar, but the power of the longbow was honestly exciting to her. The power it could dish out and from how far... Maybe it was just how Faval explained it. She could tell this was something he was really passionate about as he spoke about how the wood bent to get an even more powerful hit. She didn't car about the weight difference between the two, she'd be able to pull them both with ease. She scrunched her brows then as she thought on that. If she were going to keep up the weak human appearance, if Faval's bow was one of the ones that was at one hundred, and she shot it and was able to pull the string back without any problem. Her scowl didn't go away until she saw Faval set her bow down and take up aim at a tree across the clearing they were in. Sucking in a small breath as she watched how he positioned his body, her head jerked to the side, following the whoosh of the arrow as it shot past her to "thwop" into the side of the tree. She let out an excited sounding squee sound before she noticed the birds in the tree taking to the sky. She lifted her gaze to them and watched, biting at her lower lip for a bit before she looked down again. Seeing how powerful the bow was from up close made her giddy. Even his speech then about how the two compared in size and how the longbow was awkward to move with didn't settle her excitement. She wasn't interested in firing a bunch of arrows in quick sequence, but she did like how easy she could carry it. The shortbow had mobility where as the longbow had the raw power she liked. As he told her to fire one, she felt her excitement die down, she knew this was going to be training for the bow she had. She took a long glance at his bow before she picked hers up and pulled out an arrow. "I'll ssstick you wiss ssisss arrow if you laugh..." She said as she gripped it by the shaft and pointed the head at him. "Dun need sse bow to ssstab." Yeah, it wasn't nice to threaten her new buddy, but she knew she was going to look bad. Looking down, she worked on nocking the arrow. Having only used the bow a few times, it took awhile before she finally got it on there. A grin spread across her face at her small victory. Lifting the bow, she tried to place herself in the stance she had seen him in and most likely had it wrong while she pointed the bow toward the tree. Pulling the string back, she was so nervous about doing it wrong infront of the young human that she goofed and pulled the string too far back and the tip of the arrow left the wood of the bow and drooped downward. "Damnit..." She growled at herself as she lowered the bow, bringing her arm back in slowly so the string didn't snap back into place. Giving it a second time, she focused on watching her hand that was pulling the string, trying to see where she need to stop pulling and didn't focus on the arrow at all and in turn didn't notice the arrow leaving the wood again and this time swinging to the side. Growling, she tilted the bow to the side, smacking the arrow back against the wood and her finger slipped and away the arrow went. Whooshing through the air and off into the distance behind the trees.

[Faval]

Too focused on his shot to notice what she was doing, which was a rather impressive testament to his love for his craft considering he hadn’t managed to tear his eyes away from her for long, Faval did not noticed the changes in her facial expression or her interest in what shade of red his face was. He did notice the adorable excited noise she made after he put the arrow in to the tree and how she was glaring at his weapon afterward…and he wasn’t quite sure how to react to that. Why was she staring at his? Faval gently slung the bow over his shoulder as he waited for her to take a few shots, his eyes attentively for multiple reasons, watching her pry her eyes off his weapon and get to following his instructions. The boy choked back his laugh as she threatened him. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe someone her size would be capable of stabbing him with the arrow, but he didn’t believe she would anyway and Faval had hand to hand combat experience and while it was never good to assume your foe was week, he had trouble believing he couldn’t defend himself if she came at him with an arrow. Faval did a small bow and gestured to the tree before speaking.

“Yes yes, you’ve very scary.”

Faval watched in silence as Kressha put on a clinic for how to improperly fire an arrow, standing still and unable to contain his smile as she fumbled with the weapon. When the arrow sailed aimlessly through the air, Faval couldn’t help but chuckle warmly. It wasn’t a cruel or derisive sound at all and Faval wasn’t belittling her. He knew what she was going through better than most and Faval slid his longbow off his shoulder and laid it delicately in the grass before making his way over to her.

“It’s ok, Kressha. That happened to me when I started too. Let me walk you through it.”

Faval grabbed another arrow and came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her and gently grabbing the backs of her hands as he slid the arrow in to her right hand. Faval, bending down slightly to try and level his center of gravity with hers, set his chin on her shoulder, trying very hard to ignore how nicely she smelled, and gently walked her through the steps to firing an arrow, much like she had done for him the night before. Faval slowly moved her legs with his, gently pushing the inside of her feet until they were shoulder length apart. Faval, thankfully bigger than her to the point where he could do this, straightened her left arm out and pushed up gently on her elbow to make sure she kept her arm flat while he leveled it with the tree. Faval, interlocking his fingers with hers for a moment, giving a gentle squeeze, positioned her fingers to properly hold the back of the arrow, placing her index finger above the arrow and the next two fingers below. He moved her through the motions of nocking the arrow and positioning it properly on the shelf. Satisfied with her form, Faval whispered gently in to her ear.

“Do you feel this? Go through this process every time you fire until it becomes natural. With practice, you’ll get it. I promise. Now stay just like this, pull the arrow back until you feel the tension, then let it go.”

Faval held her steady as he waited for her to go through the process of shooting the bow herself. She needed to feel where the proper place to release the arrow was on her own. He’d just keep her steady in the right form until she did.

[Kressha]

Kressha gave him one more threatening motion with the arrow tip along with a rawring sound as he took his bow. "Yep, I am ssscary, and dun you forget it." She said smartly before she went about trying to fire the arrow. She was so focused on what she was trying to do she didn't catch sight of his smile as he watched her but she heard the chuckle as her arrow flew away from them. Despite her threat, she didn't turn on him. She just stood there glaring in the direction the arrow had went. Maybe if she glared at it hard enough it would come back so she could shoot it properly. Faval's voice startled her again and she jumped a little as he came up behind her with another arrow. "Yeah right, for how you ssshoot, you were probably born wiss a bow in your hand." She mumbled. Feeling his arms wrap around her, she tensed for just a moment as his hands covered hers. This wasn't something she was used to and she wasn't entire sure she liked him at her back like he was. When his chin settled on her shoulder, she turned her head a bit and looked at his face as he went about positioning her right. With each little nudge of his foot, her feet slid farther and farther apart in the sand until she had them shoulder width apart, which seemed to be what he was aiming for. Pulling her eyes away from his face, she watched as he lifted her arm and pushed in on her elbow, showing her how to properly hold the bow. As he tried to level it, she felt her arm waver as he let go and growled a bit again as she forced herself to move it back with his help to where he had placed it. Keeping it still was rather difficult. The squeeze at her other hand had her looking down at her other hand. Her head moved around a bit as she tried to see all what he was doing without actually moving her body, having completely forgotten about her unease with him being there. The way he positioned her fingers on the arrow hadn't been anything like what she'd done and he made nocking the arrow so easy. As she felt his breath on her ear, her body tightened again and she looked back at him. Did she feel what? Him? Yeah, she did. She had felt how he had spread her legs and how he was holding her arms, she could feel the heat coming off his body against her chest and she could feel the beat of his heart. Licking at her lips a bit to calm herself, she gave a small nod of her head. Would she remember how he had positioned her as well as he had when she had done the same thing last night? Eh, probably not, but she'd try. Taking a deep breath, she gave another nod of her head and looked down the length of the arrow at the tree. She scrunched her brows together as she had no idea where she was supposed to be looking, how she was supposed to aim. Trusting that he had her all lined up, she pulled back, rather self conscious now about how strong she was with him pressed up against her now. Pulling back on the string, she felt her eyes dart between the tree and her hand, or well, their hands, over and over again until she felt it was probably a good spot to stop at right about her cheek. That had been where he'd stopped before, hadn't it? Taking a guess that this was right as she didn't know what to feel for when she was pulling back, she lifted her fingers off the bolt and it shot across the clearing.

[Faval]

Faval watched as she tentatively…almost worriedly pulled back the bowstring, and tensed constantly as he touched her. Faval was honestly very, very confused. Throughout the entire time he had known her, she had absolutely no apprehensions about touching Faval or being touched by him. Why was she suddenly jumpy and terrified that he was touching her? Was she just mad that she wasn’t doing so well with the bow yet or was she genuinely jumpy because he was touching her? Maybe it was because she couldn’t see him, her head did keep darting back at him. Was she that scared about someone being behind her? It did make some sense to Faval, she was a small woman and not everyone in the world shared his sense of morality or general kindness, her being scared of being attacked from behind wasn’t ridiculous by any means. While in part, Faval was a little hurt that she didn’t trust him, he knew that feeling was a little hypocritical. He had spent the better half of their time together thinking she was a man-eating monster of giant proportions. Being a little jumpy that he was behind her didn’t even sort of compare to Faval’s irrational paranoia.

As she let the arrow fly through the clearing, the metal tip struck hard in the side of the tree, not quite as precise as Faval’s earlier shot and a fair bit higher, but she had successfully hit the tree nonetheless. Faval couldn’t help but smile and feel a small bit of pride for her progress, even though he walked her through the steps, Faval still found ways to miss the target with considerably more training and help than she had. She was still tight, still tense, still uncomfortable and those little things were going to be enough to keep her aim off if she let them persist. He wasn’t sure if words would get her to change that, so he decided to go with the thing he had been trying very hard to prevent himself from doing. Faval gently let go of her hand before gently cupping her chin and turning her head toward his before passionately pressing his lips to hers. Words were never a forte of his, action was, and he attempted to convey every desire to help, care for, and protect her. He had decided to trust her, she needed to do the same for him. Faval pulled away slowly, his brain finally catching up to what he had done and he quickly sheepishly looked away before mumbling out those word things.

“You need to relax, Kressha. If you keep your body so tense and paranoid…then you’re going to miss the target every time. You need to be loose and flowing or you won’t be able to feel the proper tension in the bow and you won’t be able to feel where the arrow will go. You need to be able to feel the bow to shoot it properly. Please, just trust me…alright?”

[Kressha]

She watched the arrow sail across the clearing and when it buried itself in the tree, Kressha's body completely relaxed only to have herself fidget in place a bit in excitement as a large grin spread across her face. Did she know she shot hit? No. She hadn't had the slightest idea of where it was supposed to hit other than it was supposed to hit the tree. Her little dance of victory had her body position that he had put her in all messed up now. She seemed to once against forget about Faval being behind her as he still had his hands over her own and his chin on her shoulder, but as his hand came for her face, she tried jumping back to get away only to jump back into him. Having hands come at her in the heat of a sexual moment was one thing, she loved being caressed, but they weren't playing right now and so she reacted instinctively. When she had been younger and still only a small snake, a hand heading anywhere really for her face meant they were going to hold her mouth closed, stripping her of her only defense. Her mother had done it on several times to stop Kressha from biting at her clutch siblings when her temper would flare. Without her fangs, she was helpless, and ever since then, even after she had become a Dhani and grew her human torso and grew to quite a bit larger size and even now in a human form where she could fight and kick back, that memory was still there. Though his touch wasn't rough and cruel. It was was soft as he turned her head to face his own only to claim her lips in a passionate kiss. She just stared at him with wide eyes as he kissed her, her heart actually racing wildly in her chest as the look of confusion quickly filled her gaze. He hadn't even finished the kiss yet and her eyes were closed as her body started to shake and a small whimper came out of her throat. That, right there, had never happened to her. She was truely honestly confused and after her fear before, this, even though it made her want to relax against him, had her worried. This wasn't a sex hungry kiss she was used to, where lips played for dominance with each other. It was soft and loving... Did she really just think that? Loving? How would she know what a kiss like that would feel like? When he broke apart from her finally and looked away, her eyes flickered open to spot the now familiar blush covering his cheeks. His words that he spoke then fell on deaf ears as she just stood there looking at him, her arm holding the bow still raised as his arm was still there holding her in place.

[Faval]

For Faval, that was incredibly enjoyable. Either from a place of sincere affection or naivete clutching on to the first person he felt strongly about, Faval did genuinely care about Kressha. To him, it had felt so very right. Apparently it was a little more one sided than he had hoped. Though his brain was too lost in the action to fully notice her reaction, as it caught up it processed that she had drawn away from him and that he had more or less forced that upon her and the stunned silence she was enduring after the fact seemed to confirm that.

“Oh..”

Faval quickly let her go and backed away a few steps, giving her and himself a little space as a pit was forming in his stomach. That’s not what he wanted at all, the last thing he wanted was to force anything on to her and he was so very ashamed of himself for getting carried away. The red that came to his face now wasn’t the same, it was one closer to anger, anger at himself for being so large an idiot. Faval walked around her before slowly backpedalling toward coastline and away from her tent. Faval’s fight or flight instinct was leaning very heavily toward flight at the moment, rationally deciding it was best for both of them to not be near one another and emotionally deciding that he just wanted to run for the hills and never stop. Speaking uneasily as he continued backpedalling away, Faval issued whatever was left of the lesson that he could think of.

“Well…to aim...just look down the shaft of the arrow while you’re shooting, little bit of practice and you should get it, just keep the right form and doing what I showed you. Well not all of what I showed you, just the part with the bow and…yeah. You keep practicing…I’m going to go…somewhere.”

Pretending to be satisfied with that incredibly cleverly crafted exit speech, Faval turned and made his way down the beach, desperately needing to get away. He wasn’t aware he could even walk that fast. Once he was confident that he was far enough away to be out of sight, Faval knelt down by the side of the water and splashed water on his face. He had cleaned himself off a little bit, but he had done a fair bit of sweating last night. Cupping a palm full of water, Faval proceeded to wash himself off, rubbing the water up and down his arms and chest, hoping the physical activity would chase his stupidity from his mind of the time being. He was annoyed that he left his bow at the tent as well, hopefully it’d still be there when he went back later, much later. At the thought, Faval let out a small cry of frustration before falling back on to the sand, completely defeating the purpose of washing himself off in the process as his eyes closed, shielding himself from the bright morning sun. Screwing up was a talent he had in spades, it would seem.