Closed [Mt. Skyinarta] One With Nature (Niro)

[Mia Zaro]

4th Day of Fall, 512 AV

Mia carefully made it over the last stretch of the bare hillside, walking only a step or two behind Niro. It was her day off today, but the young Avora was meant to be out hunting so she had decided to tag along. The girl was not entirely sure her friend was happy with this development - perhaps he would have liked a day of peace away from his bizarre, stubborn and loudmouth partner - but she hadn’t particularly cared. It was either this or spend a long, boring day of doing nothing. Not that she minded her well-deserved rest - far from it. She just preferred it when there was someone to share it with.

They had spent the whole time trekking down to the tree line bickering over the silliest of things and Mia could honestly say she was having a lovely time. She got to spend the day watching her best friend set up snares and poke fun at him for the terrible way he was doing knots which she couldn’t really do any better herself. They’d set up ‘camp’ somewhere close by afterwards, because no matter what Niro said it would start raining soon and they wouldn’t be able to go hunting. Then, once the sky had cleared out again, they would check up on his snares to most likely find them empty. And because Syna would be towards the end of her path by then, they would have to head back empty handed. Niro would be in a foul mood and would snap at her when she teased him, but would probably start feeling better by the time they got back. Yes, all in all, she couldn’t imagine a better way of spending her day off.

The wind had been quiet until now, the sky remaining a mostly clear blue, but as they made it past the first couple of trees a gust that had originated from Thunder Bay caught up with them. Mia paused for a second to listen and then hurried to catch up with the boy, promptly tripping over her own feet the moment the ground evened out slightly. “Wait for me,” she called out after having to slow down to retain her balance.

When she did catch up with Niro she settled on walking next to him instead of behind him, their shoulders brushing every once in a while. Every few ticks the girl would glance at her friend, as if trying to judge his mood before promptly looking away. It was obvious she was picking just the right moment to say something. Alas, as patience had never been one of Mia’s virtues, she only managed to stay quiet for exactly three chimes and forty-eight ticks.

“It’s going to rain, you know.” This was probably the fifth time she had said that today.

[Niro]

He was meant to be out hunting, one with nature, looking for a kill to bring meat back for the people of Wind Reach. People depended on him. It was Mia's day off, so Niro figured this was as good of time as any to make his way out to move quietly among the terrain. Mia clearly had other ideas. So there they walked. Niro's precise steps barely leaving a sound. Mia trodding along, warning anything and everything of their presence. It went like this every time her eagle wasn't involved in the hunting. At least it knew how to be quiet, and without her touching the ground, only her inability to keep quiet for more than a few chimes would give them away. It's going to rain, you know. Niro shook his head. Obviously not. The skies were blue. "Mia. Quiet." It was at least the millionth time he'd uttered those words. Considering they'd only been working together for two and half years or so, it was either impressive or depressing. He didn't want to know which it was. It's going to rain, you know. The phrase. Again. Moving off the trail he shot the woman a look that screamed what he'd said a few chimes before. He wanted to set some snares to try and catch some smaller animals while he was out hunting. If he set them now, they could check them on the way back and maybe bring back even more food. Problem was, he barely knew anything about setting them. All his training was in a survivalist sense, so anything he made would be crude at best. Anything less and they'd be useless. Niro got to work, trying to tie knots. His fingers fumbled against the rough threads of the rope as he tried to recall his classes in surviving the wilderness. He was creating a noose of sorts to catch a small creature. If set properly along a travel path they traveled, the creature would get it's head stuck, and unless it reversed direction exactly, the rope would tighten around it's neck and choke it out. Niro hoped his mockery of a trap would get the job done. He wrapped the string around itself, over and through, and then pulled it tight. If it worked, this part should slide some, and it did. A little. It was difficult to tell if it would work. For one thing, Mia wasn't helping. He could feel her there. Judging him. Judging his knot. If it were anyone else, he'd blow up on her right now. Things were somewhat different with her though. She'd earned a few shreds of patience. It's going to rain, you know? Six times. Six times since they had left. There went the last shred. "Mia! Will you petching shut up!" He turned, his face quickly matching the shade of his hair. "Damn it, Mia! It's not going to to rain! Have you seen the sky? Huh? Come on, woman." He shook his head as he stormed towards her. "And do you have to keep saying it and letting every petching animal in the damned area know we're here? And pick up your feet! Figure it out!!" He promptly turned around and went back to his trappings, ignoring the fact that he'd made more noise there than she had their entire trip. By the gods, she'd better not be right about that rain.

[Mia Zaro]

Anyone who had ever partnered up with Mia could tell stories about just how bad of a hunter she was. For her to be able to follow a trail you had to hope it would lead over uneven terrain or up a hill because then her feet would be too busy dealing with obstacles to become one themselves. Tracking was problematic too, as the girl got distracted too easily and lacked the patience to put in the time that was often needed. And if by some lucky circumstance you had managed to get close enough to the game to attempt to take it down you better hope that you could do it on your own, because Mia certainly wasn’t going to be of help. The best case scenario was that she didn’t even manage to put an arrow to her bow in time. The worst case scenario could involve a great deal of physical pain for you and one of her arrows sticking from this or that part of your body. Luckily the latter hadn’t happened in a while.

Only with Niro did the girl manage to do better. And no, that wasn’t really because of the boy’s patient ways or natural talent for teaching. Far from it. But when Mia was out with him she pushed herself more and tried that little bit harder, partially because she wanted to show him up and partially because she would loath to embarrass her friend in front of the other Avora hunters. That wasn’t to say the two hadn’t gone back empty handed many times before. Or that Niro hadn’t had to retrace his steps to help a fallen Mia get back up. Or that he hadn’t screamed and cursed time and time again when the girl managed to frighten away a deer or elk or some other animal that he had been carefully aiming an arrow at. In short, it wasn’t the perfect partnership, but the other regular pairings seemed rather content to leave them to their own devices most of the time.

If Niro had minded he hadn’t complained... Scratch that. He was always rather vocal about his discontent. Luckily enough Mia’s lungs had just as much capacity and the two managed to function rather well in their dysfunctionality.

Having worked with the hunter for almost ten Seasons the girl had learned to anticipate most of his reactions. She knew what she had to say to successfully rile him up and what it meant, if he suddenly went quite (admittedly that didn’t happen too often). She knew what could make him smile or laugh and what she had to keep to herself because it would really upset him. Thus, Mia had been perfectly aware what would follow if she innocently reminded him yet again, of the impending downpour.

She stood still as Niro whirled around to face her, always quite fascinated by how quickly his face could acquire that particular shade of red. His voice sounded louder than it really was in the usual stillness that settled over a forest just before rain, and it was carried further away by the wind that had picked up considerably. Mia just stood there grinning at him, knowing full well that would probably annoy him much more than if she responded in a similar to his way. She followed him quickly back to the trap she had watched him prepare and tugged the snare out of his hands when he picked it up.

“You do realize this is a horrible knot?” Her fingers moved over it quickly, successfully managing to tighten it, making it that little bit less likely for it to actually work. “It’s too big and clumsy. Your animal would see it from a mile away and simply walk past it.” Mia tossed the rope back to Niro, keeping her eyes on his. “It’s a good thing all critters have already hidden away because of the rain, otherwise you just might have to blame yourself for going back empty-handed tonight.”

Another gust of wind made it between the trees, tugging at Mia’s hair and bringing the sound of thunder only for the girl’s ears to pick up. It was a timely warning, but soon enough Niro would be able to hear it too. The first rainstorm for Fall was rapidly headed their way. Mia tapped her friend’s shoulder gesturing further down the mountainside. “I know a little clearing not too far from here. We should go there.”

Yes. Because a clearing was just where one wanted to be during a downpour.

[Niro]

'You do realize this is a horrible knot?' He'd never struck Mia, and he never would, but damn it if she didn't know how to make him wonder how it'd feel. Just one across the face. Gods know she'd done it to him a couple hundred times. He shook his head, the normal coloring returning to his face. "And stop with that stupid ass grin. Pisses me off." He snatched the knot from there air. The knot, now tightened, offered no room for a creature to get caught in. Niro's jaw tightened as he glanced back to her, while working on redoing the knot. "It's amazing you're not a Dek, Mia. It really is." He stuck his tongue out as he began twisting the noose again. Large enough that the critter could get stuck, not so large it would slip through. With a bit of brush around it, it wasn't immediately obvious. At least not to the male Inarta. "You're not going to let that rain thing go, are you?" He sighed. That girl. She was as stubborn as they came. "I'm going to make traps along this path. You do realize I'm working, right? I didn't come out to play games." He shook his head. "Why did you come along again?" Before he knew it, though, they were walking off towards a clearing. "And why to a damned clearing? Here we are, animals! Pick up your feet!" Wasn't this just the norm? It wasn't the first time she'd dominated a hunting trip of his. It would by no means be the last, either. He wasn't even quite sure why it was always them together. She had a day off, she was following him around. He had a day off. She was following him around. Picking up women at the Weather. There was Mia, making sure he'd be alone in bed that night. Unless he could find a Dek or Chiet pleasing enough when she wasn't looking. Which seemed to be never. It only made things worse that she was an Endal. 10 seasons. Zero arguments won. Niro shook his head and watched Mia walk. What a petching awkward girl. He often found himself lamenting about how she had a Wind Eagle. She couldn't hunt. She couldn't track. She couldn't lead. She was just good with birds. "So stupid." He rarely had to explain what he meant. "Let's get to your clearing so I can get back to providing for our home. Unless you want those Deks you care so much about me not touching to starve this winter." He let out a huff and hurried on past her, trying to get to the so called clearing. "I bet that clearing is as real as your rain."

[Mia Zaro]

Mia’s finger jabbed Niro’s chest repeatedly as her smile shifted into a disapproving frown. “You would have liked that, wouldn’t you? If I were a Dek you’d be able to order me around like you try doing with everyone else. Well, tough luck.” This was a recurring argument between them - how you were supposed to treat anyone from a lower than your own caste, Deks in particular. Still, no matter how many times they fought about it, the topic still managed to get a rise out of the young girl. “You’re so petching full of it, I don’t even know why I bother sometimes.”

Mia huffed, making a swat at his hands to try and make him drop the snare he was trying to fix just to underline her point. It didn’t really work so she whirled around and stalked a couple of steps away from her companion, taking care to make as much noise as she could to spite him. Fallen leaves and twigs crunched loudly under her feet, informing any animal in a mile radius around them, if not more, of their exact location. It wasn’t like it would have any negative effect on their hunt anyway. She already knew that wouldn’t bare any fruits.

“I only came with you, because I thought that when your stupidity got you to try and shout down a bear someone had to be there to try and save your reckless ass. Or pick up whatever’s left of it.” The comment, while delivered in a mocking tone of voice, held a sliver of truth to it. It wasn’t that Mia didn’t think that Niro was a capable enough hunter to take care of himself. Gods only knew how many times he had looked out for both of them and had gotten them out of a sticky situation. Still, the girl always hated the thought of him out in the Unforgiving on his own - too hot-headed and stubborn to back down from a challenge. He needed someone to have his back, even if that someone was only Mia.

The girl still had nightmares about that horrible hunting expedition four Seasons ago when Niro had stupidly insisted on having a go at taking down a walrus. She had seen enough of her best friend’s blood that day to last her a lifetime and during the many days of the boy’s recovery she had managed to face her own shortcomings as a hunting partner. She trained harder and more often on her own now, having promised herself to make sure she never had to see Niro in a state like that again.

The ungrateful, little son of a Dek however, was unfortunately completely unable to appreciate her efforts or company. Mia shot him a glare as they walked past the last couple of trees and into the clearing she had promised him. ”There!” She sounded rather smug as she turned around to face Niro and tried walking backwards like that. “That’s the clearing.” As if on cue the sound of thunder, rather far away still, was carried to them on the wind. “And there’s the rain.” The self-satisfied expression on her face probably looked rather unpleasant as her lips drew into a thin smile and her golden eyes sparkled triumphantly. “By now you should know better than to doubt me when it comes to the weather. You are just so...” Whatever insult she was going to deliver next never made it past her lips. Her right foot caught on a stray stone and she tumbled backwards, falling rather heavily on her ass in the middle of dry leaves and needles.

Nothing could put a damper on smugness quite like your own clumsiness.

[Niro]

The poking! Gods be damned that poking was a gateway to his fury! She knew it, too! "If you were a Dek, I'd make you eat a petching finger for every time you just poked me!" He shoved her hand away, his face flushing red again. Mia had ruined many a potential romps with her self righteous attitude about Deks. So full of shyke about it. The caste system existed for a reason! It wasn't so petching Deks could get the same treatment as an Endal. "I don't know either. It's not like I can't take care of myself!" Each of her steps may have been the screeching of an eagle for the animals it would drive away. "And will you not step so loudly? It's like you're not even trying!" He knew she wasn't. So sure about the rain that she would sabotage his hunt. He shook his head and spoke in a slightly quieter volume. "Mia, if anyone could shout down a bear, don't you think it would be me?" He gave her a half smile. Anything to cheer her up. A pissy Mia was the bane of Niro's existence. Any worries of her messing up his plans would only get worse then. A vindictive Mia who was actually trying to mess up his plans was much worse than the accidental clumsiness of the happy go lucky one. And there was the petching clearing. Niro shook his head as she gloated. "And thunder," he muttered, quietly. Defeated again. She was correct more often than he liked. He was the woodsman, after all. It was a accident she'd stumbled upon this, no doubt in his mind. A grin slowly grew over his face as he noticed where Mia's next step would take her. Oh please deliver this to me. For all the pain she's inflicted on me. For all the head trauma. For all the nights spent alone. Please, just give me this one thing. It was for moments like this that he couldn't get rid of her. As her balance came, went, and sent her falling with a rather loud thump onto her rear, Niro's eyes lit up and he pounced on her, pinning his friend against the ground. Laughing, he looked down at his captive and tilted his head to the side. "I'm so what, Mia? Awesome." He mussed her hair up before rolling off beside her in the red and brown leaves. "You're so wonderfully dumb. I think your ass made more noise than the rest of our expedition combined." He nudged her on the side with his elbow, looking up into the sky. Dark clouds rolling in. What do you know?

[Mia Zaro]

It was easy to smile around Niro. Most of the memories Mia had with the boy involved the pair of them alternating between bickering and laughing together with unparalleled ease, as if the two were extensions to one another or different steps of the same dance. Many Seasons had passed since the first time she had noticed the cocky redhead, barely a Yasi at the time, stood up on a chair in front of their classmates and talking, as if he thought he would be the next Kaden. Mia had found him interesting then, amusing even, and had decided to keep an eye on him - just in case he turned out to be a potential Endal, of course.

Both of them had seen nine namedays since then and had matured a lot (or rather she had matured while Niro insisted on remaining the same silly chick he had always been), but they still had to part ways. So Mia matched the boy’s cocky smile with one of her own when his voice softened in the way which meant he was ready to change the steps of the dance. And she smiled again after her embarrassing fall, her unique ‘Oups! Did I just do this!‘ smile that Niro surely knew by heart by now.

The girl was sure that if there was anyone else with the right to hate her clumsiness as much as she did it was surely her partner. She had ruined many a hunt for him because of it and had forced him to keep as much of an eye on her as he did on the trail they might have been following. Still, despite never letting her forget it and reminding her time and time again to ‘pick up her feat‘ or something similar to that effect, he had yet to ask for another partner.

Mia let out a surprised yelp as Niro tackled her to the ground, eyes alight. She pushed half-heartedly against his chest, trying but failing to make him get off. Bright red hair spilled on leaves of similar and darker colour as slender fingers tousled the locks in an affectionate gesture. The girl peered with one eye around her friend’s hand, sticking her tongue out at him when he finally rolled off of her. “You’d think that you’re awesome,” she teased. “But I wouldn’t have gone exactly for that characterization.” Not that she would ever really admit it, and she would punch anyone who dared make insinuations that she thought so, but Niro could be rather ‘awesome‘ sometimes indeed... Just a little... Very rarely.

"You're so wonderfully dumb. I think your ass made more noise than the rest of our expedition combined." No. Niro was definitely not ‘awesome‘ at all.

Still, Mia’s elbow only half-heartedly sought out his ribs and her lower lip, which had stuck out in a mock-pout, went back to its original position rather quickly. The girl shifted until she had her head on Niro’s stomach and then pointed up at the sky. “Do you see that?” She was, of course, referring to the rapid approach of dark clouds. “I told you it’s going to rain.” There were very few things that Mia liked more than Niro admitting she was right and he had been wrong all along. If only it happened more often...

In a matter of chimes the clear patch they could see above them turned from blue to dark gray and the thunder sounded three more times, every one a little bit closer than the last. The sky rumbled for the last time before the first heavy droplets tore from the clouds and plummeted to the ground. One fell right on Mia’s freckled nose. The girl rose up slightly, leaning on her elbows and grinned down at Niro, eyes shining with amusement. Her expression was the best picture of “I told you so!” anyone could have painted.

[Niro]

The two had certainly been through a lot together. Screaming matches that would wake the dead. Stare downs that felt like they could explode into the biggest fight Wind Reach had ever seen. Heated arguments over everything. Eagles. Her basic inability to do anything. Her loud voice. His louder voice. Deks. Yasi. Chiet. Avora. Endal. The color of a bird. The kind of bird. One of Niro's personal favorites, declaring just who was really in charge. One of Mia's favorites, trying to get Niro to admit not only was he wrong, but she was right. Endless adventures in their handfuls of seasons working together. Yet in the end it was these sort of moments that Niro loved about having Mia around. For those moments when neither of them were really underneath others skin, when a comment about her rear didn't result in a slap or sandal upside his head. Even though Niro could never admit it to anyone, a failure wasn't so bad when something like this happened. Laying on the mountain side, laughing at her stupidity. And then her stupidity being rewarded by the skies opening and rain falling down. She was an idiot. He was wrong. They both won in some strange way. After an explosive moment between the two redheads, there would often be a period of peace, an informal truce where people could actually see that they were best friends and not mortal enemies. Niro sitting quietly, with his best friend laying there on his stomach, smiling as the droplets came down. She could almost be cute. Almost. But just like that Mia was looking at him with that goofy grin on her face. Victorious, and making sure Niro knew it. "Stop it, you freak." He flicked her nose. "You're just being rude." Niro laughed and pushed her arms out from underneath her, trying to knock her back to the ground. The young man jumped to his feet and looked down at Mia, giving a stupid grin of his own before offering her his hand. "Well, are you just going to lay down there and get soaked? So smug about the rain and you led us to a clearing?" The short haired Inarta shook his head and sighed. "How did that Eagle pick you again?" They were going to get drenched. That rain was going to come faster than they could find a cave to hide in. After awhile his soaked clothing would likely end up pissing him off, but for now all he could do was laugh. Mia had got him into as many situations as she'd miraculously gotten them out of. He'd believe in her for now. At least until his temper reminded him how retarded of an idea that was.

[Mia Zaro]

"Stop it, you freak. You're just being rude." Mia reached up to rub her nose which had just been unceremoniously flicked so, naturally, lost her balance when her elbow was pulled out from under her. She tumbled to her side spreading her arms like a bird’s wings and burying them in the leaves. The smile never left her lips as she picked up a handful of foliage and attempted to throw it at Niro. Needless to say, it ended up all over her instead. The girl laughed as she huffed out a breath to try and push off the couple of leaves that had landed on her face before reaching up to accept her friend’s hand.

“Of course a clearing! Where else would you want to be for the first rain of Fall?” It was a rhetorical question for her, but something told her the logic would escape Niro. As she got to her feet she looked up at the sky, blinking against the raindrops which were now coming down faster. In a matter of chimes it would be pouring down. Mia spread out her hands and opened her mouth, trying to catch a droplet or two on her tongue, completely oblivious to how cold the rain was and to the wind which was picking up as well. Standing as she was, in the middle of the clearing, the girl probably looked quite ridiculous, but if she realized it at all she didn’t appear to care.

After what must have been half a chime of her standing with her mouth open and tongue hanging out Mia suddenly whirled around, turning to face her friend again. “Niro!” The exclamation was quite loud, but the girl didn’t seem to notice. She quickly took the couple of steps that separated the two, hands immediately reaching for the hunter’s katinu when she was close enough. Her fingers fumbled with the front as she tugged at it and tried to open it. “Come on. Take it off,” she encouraged with a small smirk on her lips. She pulled at the clasps of her own coat and in a matter of ticks was left only in her dark blue vinati.

The cold air quickly chilled her skin, raising goosebumps on her arms which were either ignored or left completely unnoticed. Mia reached out a hand, impatiently waiting for Niro to comply with her request almost bouncing up and down in her spot. Her hair was starting to get wet and strands of fire were sticking to her forehead and falling in her eyes. Fumbling with the clothing in her hands she managed to push the hair away from her face, if only for a moment, before hurrying to the edge of the clearing and depositing her armful under one of the trees with still relatively thick crown. There was a small chance that whatever was at its base would remain relatively dry... A very small chance.

With that out of the way the girl bounded back, almost colliding with Niro as she didn’t quite manage to stop in time. She reached down for his hands, holding them in hers, and tugged him with her into a slightly awkward spin. “We’re clearly not going to get any hunting done. We might as well have some fun.” Her fingers rose to tug playfully at the bright mop of hair which the water had managed to flatten only slightly.

[Niro]

Niro continued laughing as his friend failed at fighting off his assault, and only got louder at her backfired attempt at retaliation. For as little as Niro would actually say about Mia, spectacular was a word which he had no problems throwing out for the girl. In everything she did, success, failure, or otherwise, it was always spectacular. Nothing easy, nothing by the books, but gods be praised there would be a story to tell afterwards. As he pulled her up, a shiver ran through his body. The cold winds were beginning to whip the even colder rains around. He had to push those thoguhts aside, especially when he heard the infamous 'Mia Logic' saying where the best place to be during the rain was. Resigned to his fate, he finally and completely accepted defeat this day. "There's literally no way for me to take an argument to that, you." He said shoving the spinning girl lightly. "You look like an idiot." It was the norm for her and was certainly no surprise to Niro. Always doing something stupid. Imagine Niro's surprise as she suddenly began to try and undress him. An out of character move for a friend he wasn't sure knew how to flirt. A chance like this couldn't be wasted, right? It would obviously have to be a dream anyways, so why not go for it. He began to undue his coat, slipping it off and tossing it to her as she turned to run. By now the rain had soaked his comparatively short hair through and through, it sticking to his face and head in matted portions. Drips of rain ran down his slender, slightly toned frame,, his dark eagle tattoo revealed to the elements. The chill nearly took his breath away as he waited impatiently for his partner in failure to return. "I knew this day would come, Mia," he said playfully. "My rippling abs, my tattoos, and my piercings are all too much." As she took his hands he looked into her eyes smirking. "Sure, let's have some fun. I'll try and be gentle." He winked at he joined Mia in their uneven twirling. Just what is she doing? Here we are. The laughingstocks of Wind Reach. Half naked on the side of a mountain. Cold rain and winds all about us. And we're dancing. He sighed and smiled. It wasn't too bad, was it?