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RP [Maekardan] Falling out of the Nest.

Kai

Retired Staff
Szemis stared over the precipice. He looked down, and down, and down. It was a 300 meter drop. He had seen his sister drop from this very ledge hundreds of times. Oh, how she could fly. Szemis looked up to Zus as if she were a hero, and now that she was in the Astral Vanguard, he knew she was indeed, a Hero. The young Eyr Ranr toed the edge, his hand gripping his sister's favorite dropboard. Slowly, a couple of pebbles made their way down, dislodged by the blonde's nervous toes. They clacked and clunked against the sheer wall face before disappearing from sight and sound.

Szemis sighed, looking out across the vast plain before him. This was one of the largest cliffs on all of Maekardan, and the shadows at the foot of it were beginning to grow as the sun sank to the Eyr Ranr's back. Wind rustled his golden locks, and seemed to defy his indecisiveness, pushing up against the cliffs and forcing hot air currents up from the sands and towards the heavens. Legend was that Skyboarding was invented here, and yet, it was deserted, despite being a perfect day for boarding.

Ettiya Alasur stumbled up the high rise, heaving a board over her shoulder as she climbed the steep ascent. A month ago she got approval from her father to go sky-boarding, her Knightly parental figure often worried about her, and just going would've cause some sort of emotion to flow over his face. As she started to get to the top, she thought of how Na'Subir may have been a little too protective of her, but her own inherited wisdom figured it for the reason she was all he had left. Though, she truly wished she had not have had to wait a month before actually doing it.

When she got to the top, she spotted Szemis. Not necessarily knowing the man, she walked up to the edge, stopping a few feet away from it, stabbing the board into the ground. Her stony, emotionless face scanning the horizon.

Szemis had heard the light crunching of feet on the sand, and remained stationary, not really bothering to wonder who it may have been. However, when he heard the sound of a board being plunged roughly into the rocky ground, he cringed a little bit, and looked over to the other person, quickly hiding his displeasure when he noticed his new 'neighbor' was one of the female persuasion.

Her skin was of a complexion the young Eyr Ranr had not seen before, and her stature was also rather 'exotic' in a way. Szemis realized, after a moment, that he was staring, and quickly turned away, looking out over the cliffs and plains below once more.

"What?" asked Ettiya, noticing the man's staring. She sounded somewhat offended, but her unmoving face did not contribute or take away from the meaning at all. To her, the blonde fellow looked a little weak, in fact, he looked Eyr Ranr, which caused her to sigh inwardly. As a Mazerinii, she didn't enjoy the company of weak men, even if it was just a habit earned from culture.

Szemis nearly blushed. She had noticed his staring that he hadn't even noticed at first. Mentally, Szemis cursed himself, wishing nightmares this night for his own stupidity. After a half second of indecision, he decided to answer. "Sorry, it's just that people who come to this ledge usually know enough about Skyboarding not to treat their skyboards so roughly."

He raised his own, it looked a little scratched and worn, as if it was very old but still in very good shape despite that. "Like this." he explained, planting the end of the board on top of his foot, rather than in the dirt and rocks of the clifftop.

Ettiya cursed her own inexperience inwardly, though, her face only showed what seemed to be a somewhat uncaring attitude. Without looking, she also put her board on top of her foot.

"I know plenty of 'Skyboarding', I am simply tired." Ettiya lied, throwing a short glance back towards the path she traveled to get up there. Her gray eyes turned back in his direction. "Clearly you do not know as much, if you cannot tell by looking."

Szemis scoffed. "I know that your board is an unmodified Ahmida model twenty seven." the Eyr Ranr boasted. "And I also know that the rental shop ten kilometers from here only stocks those boards." He seemd to be very happy with himself for making this observation despite the girl's goading. "Besides, Someone who is clearly so stiff cannot be a Skyboarder."

"Stiff?" Ettiya's eyes seemed widen a little as she bit back at Szemis. She shuffled her board a little bit, almost as if to hide it from him. To be honest, she had not expected to run into someone that knew enough about the boards. In a way, the Ovoc Wakir respected his knowledge. Youth and pride, however, refused to let it show.

She stepped up the edger, her feet skirting the drop.

"I'll have you know that I've done this plenty of times!" declared Ettiya, her stone face gaining it's stillness again. Though, that solid visage crumpled slightly when she looked down at the massive dive. Just... just... never this high... Ettiya remarked fearfully within herself.

"Three Hundred meters." Szemis clarified, looking down at the ledge himself. "What's the highest you've dropped before? Five-hundred is the legal maximum."

Ettiya broke out into a cold-sweat, which only served to freeze her skin at the windy altitude. She wrestled with the horrid beasts of Mazerin, and survived bitter colds and elements, yet the height of this cliff unnervered her greatly.

"One-hun--..." She caught herself, not showing her anxiety, but still appeared to not be as still as she was before. "F-..Four-hundred. Yes. Four-hundred meters, around there." She wanted to shoot herself in the mouth. If her nanny or her father had caught her with these kind of lies, they would've slapped her silly.

Ettiya was lucky that Szemis was not that observant of other people. His sister would have noticed the girl's nervousness in an instant, but it passed by Szemis as his mind was elsewhere.

"Four Hundred? Not bad for a Grounder." he said, lifting his board above his head and inspected it in the sunlight, feeling mad about all the scratches Zus had caused by doing some of her more dangerous tricks on it. "Truth be told, I've never dropped from this ledge before, But I've dropped from my Airship hundreds of times. It's technically illegel but, Eh." the young man boasted.

"Sounds like a stupid, idiotic stunt, to me." replied Ettiya, her eyes locking on the horizon instead of the drop. "Only a fool who thinks he has something to prove does something so dangerous."

"Dangerous? That ain't dangerous! That's just daily life going to get groceries or whatever! Granted we do that on liftboards not dropboards, but it's still nothing." The pride evident in the young man's voice as he boasted of 'daily life' would have made Zus hit him, but he didn't care. He had to defend his honor, saints damn it! "I don't have to prove anything."

Szemis had by this time broght the board back down, but rather than on his foot, he had absentmindedly planted it into the dirt to his side, and was now leaning on the board with a posture that suggested he was superior to Ettiya.

"Oh? Then why are you still here?" Ettiya asked, her stance stiff, her gaze targeting Storhan. She shuffled a little bit, staying by the ledge, but not appearing to cower away from it. In that moment, she wanted some encouragement, badly. For one, she didn't want to get talked down to by this 'numbskull'. Two, she would've looked very foolish if she didn't go off the side herself.

"I'm waiting for the right winds." Szemis answered Ettiya, looking down the cliff and then back up at the Ovoc Wakir. "Right now's good for Beginners, I want more turbulence. It's a bigger challenge." wether or not this was precisely true, Ettiya would probably not know. In fact, Szemis was lying. The winds were too strong at the moment, and would probably knock them off their boards if they tried to go just yet.

"Really?" Ettiya thought, not trully knowing, but knowing for sure that these winds were a little too violent for her. Even thinking about putting her feet on the board scared her, she wasn't ready, but this sandrat next to her didn't need to know that.

"Well, I think I'll wait, too." she chuckled lightly, a small smile spreading on her face, "I prefer a challenge myself." She rolled her eyes away from Szemis, almost giving her a somewhat superior air to the man.

The wind blew, moving the hair of the two young Iromakuanhe, whether or not they wanted it to. Szemis didn't move from his spot, until he realized that his board was touching the ground, the very thing he had chastized her for just moments ago. the Eyr Ranr cleverly moved the board, disguising it as a simple stretch, and replaced it on his foot. "So. What is your name? Mine is Szemis." he asked.

Ettiya's long, black hair blew into her face for a moment, at least, the hair that wasn't pulled back into a Gual-Tail. She placed her hand on her cheek and then glided it up her face to move the hair out of her way, noticing the small-movement with his board as she did so, but unfortunately couldn't call him on it, since he had readjusted himself. So, with no bullets to her argumentive gun, she answered him. "Ettiya, Ettiya Alasur."

"Nice ta meet you, Alosoar" Szemis answered, Mispronouncing the girl's maiden name, while bringing his unused hand up for a handshake. "My last name's Storhan, Eyr Ranr Extraordinaire."

"Alasur." Ettiya growled with her straight face. "My name is Alasur, Storhan." She regarded his hand with a short stare before looking out at the horizon again. Part of herself wanted to just jump off to get away from the oaf. He was an Eyr Ranr, which made her assume that he was at least a tad suave, which he almost was, but wasn't.

"Alasur, right." Szemis corrected, holding his hand out for a few more seconds before retracting it, almost awkwardly and stuffing it in his pocket. As the sun behind them began to die down, so did the turbulence, making the air just a bit better for skyboarding than it had been a few minutes before. "Ah, I think it's almost time. We're running out of daylight, in any case."

The Ovoc Wakir woman froze at his words, not exactly wanting to go. Though, she'd look like the lesser if she didn't go. So, in an attempt to save her own pride, she set down her board and placed a foot on the hovering apeture.

"Okay, well." Ettiya swallowed the lump in her throat, keeping her eyes to the horizon. "I will go first."

"You really haven't Skyboarded yet, have You?" Szemis said, walking closer to the Ovoc Wakir and crouching down, flipping a switch on the side of the board, which turned on the GE lift pads. "it doesn't turn on automatically, at least, not that model, anyway." Szemis grinned at Ettiya. He now knew what was going on; her pride was too much for her to admit to being inexperienced.

"You know, I don't mind helping people when they ask."

"I don't need your help. I've done this before." Ettiya said, her breathing turning heavy. The fear started to rise in her chest, and then, she kicked off. Firing away off the side of the cliff, she set off into the high winds. At first, she seemed to have control, but started to struggle with it, then gained control again.

Oh Muna... Muna please... Muna... she begged to the Saint for strength as she tried to keep herself steady.

Szemis grinned at Ettiya's shaky start, then grabbed Zus' board and flicked the GE Lift pads on, taking a few steps back and running at the precipice, throwing his board out in front of him. The lift pads slowed down the board enough for the Eyr Ranr to land right on top of it after a few seconds of freefall, and, after a shaky second regaining his balance, the blonde was going after the black-haired girl, His board dropping a little faster, swishing back and forth as he caught currents of air like they were waves.

"You have to feel the air, or you'll never do anything besides drop down" he called out over the wind, arcing his board around and gaining a bit of altitude in front of the Ovoc Wakir. Szemis couldn't do the kind of acrobatics his sister was capable of, but he could still ride.

It was then Ettiya had learned that stepping off in the first place had been a bad idea. Firstly, because it showed how obvious her lack of experience was, and second, she was having a great deal of tryouble 'feeling the air'. Though, in that moment, her mind snapped to the fact of why Wakir stayed on the ground. Basically, like all of her bretheren, she had the distaste for heights and the inability to feel ones feet on the ground.

However, the Alasur would find this thought costly, as a highwind caught her, and threw her off her board. It was a moment in slow motion, the first thing she noticed was the lack of the boards feeling beneath her feet. Then, came the sight of the board flipping every which way, the GE lifters having nothing to keep them down. Finally was the feeling of the air speeding past her.

She couldn't breath, it felt like the air had been sucked out of her. Once more, she came to another epiphany, she was in over her head. The horrofic expression that soured her usually stony face would seem extremely unusual to those that knew her, but the realization was just that much. A fear gripped her as she began to panic, still unable to breath.

"Saints dammit" Szemis muttered as he saw the girl fall. Just then, he realized another big mistake: She had no leash. Zus' board lacked a leash, but then again, it was specialized and had stronger grip pads than most others. Following his momentum until the board could no longer rise, Szemis knew he had to act fast.

He had to make a drop turn, something he'd never been able to pull off before. Crouching closer, Szemis momentarily turned off the GE lifters, for just enough time to spin around 180 degrees before they restarted and caught his course. Without realizing he had been holding his breath, the Eyr Ranr released it in reliev, then tipped as far forward as he could, zipping past the flailing board and towards its former rider.

Why? Why did I think this was a good idea? Ettiya cursed herself as she could feel Ruh's guiding hands approach her. Her life began to replay itself in her mind. Strangely, her first memory was of her mother, right before she died. The entirity of the world through her perceptions played out before instantly coming back to the situation at hand. She was sure Ruh would chastise her for her foolishness, how she let her pride get the best of her, Mu'Klamal and Yetsava would burn her for that. Her father? No. She didn't even want to think of what this would do to him.

Tears began to stream from her eyes, seemingly flying upward with their lesser velocities. She began apologizing to everyone she had ever harmed, physically, mentally, or spiritually. What seemed to kill her the most inside, was the reappearing image of her father, turning into a broken man because his foolish daughter was too prideful to think correctly. The shame melted her, causing her to close her eyes, not wanting to see her end coming.

Warm, salty drops of water began hitting Szemis on his way down, his Dropboard actually accelerating downwards (As well as Szemis' hear rate) and he slowly inched closer to Ettiya. Mentally, he counted off the meters, they were closer to 150 above the ground now, it was getting to crunch time. But, as if she had just been sitting still, the Eyr Ranr soon made his way to her. Unfortunately, he had forgotten his own velocity, so when he, with arms wide open, impacted on her, it wasn't quite gentle, but the jolt wrapped Szemis' arms around her automatically.

"Don't worry, I got you!" Szemis said, feeling a flood of unwanted emotions coming from the girl. He tried to do something a passing Sund Wakir had told him once, to focus calming thought on a person to help calm them, but his mind couldn't think of any, simply reflecting her own thoughts instead. Without thinking, however, Szemis had turnd the board level again and pulled the Alasur girl closer to him, taking care that her feet touched to the board's deck.

The sudden tackling that Szemis had wrought on Ettiya caused her eyes to open. Still pumping with adrenaline, she coudln't properly comprehend what was happening. Only that whoever was grabbing her was as rushed-up as she was. Still without the ability to speak, she silently folded into the man's arms. It was as if Fanir himself had leaped from the Eternal Dream and saved her, it was a girlish thought, but near-death wasn't the time to think about that. All she could think, however, was the sanctuary she felt in the arms of her savior. The relief and warmth of her emotions seeped forth, as she shook violently from the experience, a few tears finding their way out.

The relief from the girl helped Szemis as much as it helped Ettiya, calming him down so he could get his head back to himself. He realized just how close the girl was as they gently floated down, and blushed brightly as he did so, but remained quiet about his embarassment and whatnot.

"Are you allright?" the Eyr Ranr asked looking down at Ettiya and smiling the warmest smile he could muster. That had been the most dangerous thing he had ever done; having seen several people fall to their deaths after hitting one another in competitions. however, the saints had blessed them, giving them a gentle, stable (Although slightly faster than normal) ride down towards the bottom of the cliff, which was still a short ways away.

"Are..." Ettiya hicced through her words, still not feeling too stable minded. "Are we on the ground yet...?" Her arms were wrapped tightly around Szemis, her face was buried into his shoulder, not letting herself look anymore at the target of her descent. It was then that she felt the heavy pangs of embarassment and guilt. Even though she had not died, she would definately feel the shame of doing such a foolish and immature thing.

Sszemis grinned, Happy that the girl had seen her foolishness. He could feel her emotions, and his own feelings of superiority would have been dificult to hide even if he had known how. "Not yet, But just be happy *I* was around to keep you from killing yourself. No need to thank me just yet, we'll be down on the ground soon." The Eyr Ranr leaned forward slightly, the board following his motions and taking them much more quickly down to the ground, where the board shut itself off and Szemis hopped gently to the ground, still holding onto Ettiya. "So. How are you?"

His emotions, they sickened her. Ettiya only felt worse about herself now than she had before. No longer did she feel safe and comforted in his arms, in fact, now she wanted to get away from him. Just to be left alone in her fearful shame.

"Oh, suck sand, Szemis..." she said weakly, but in harsh tone as she tore away from him, but not too far as she did not feel like she had the strength to walk much. Even then, she shook and shivered from the horrific experience.

Honestly, Szemis had no idea why Ettiya was suddenly so harsh. He had just been honest, the girl WOULD have died had he not been there to catch her. Perhaps he had spoken too loudly? But there was no one else around. Maybe he could do something to assauge her pride. "I won't tell anybody that you fell. It'll be our little secret. how about that?" he suggested, Picking up his sister's dropboard and brushing the sand off of it.

"I mean, I did save your life" he mumbled, for some reason feeling extremely unhappy, when he should have been elated. Man, being good at something sure could make you feel like crap sometimes. still confused, the young Eyr Ranr bit his lip and asked, more to himself than the the girl "Did I do something wrong?"

"Just... leave me alone..." Ettiya had stopped crying, but was still shivering in the shock of it all. Her knees buckled from beneath her, causing her to fall into the sand. When the Ovoc Wakir landed straight on her rear, she didn't appear to notice the pain. As the thoughts of what just happened went over in her mind, her head dipped in the familiar shame she felt out of the situation. Szemis, though her hero in this situation, was a little too unfeeling and immature for her tastes, especially the tastes brought on by the situation.

Standing behind the Ovoc Wakir, Szemis scratched his head for a couple moments. it was bothering him that she wasn't praising him or thanking him or anything. so, he hatched an idea, and tried to pull his memories of how one of his sister's old friends, by the name of Agni, would have acted in this situation.

"Look, I'm sorry miss Alasur. I just, got, Yannow, caught up in the moment. It's been a while since anything so exciting has happened to me, so I didn't know what to do with myself. Are you okay?" Szemis explained and asked, his expression and body language pretty damn close to genuine, as he gently set down the board and moved closer to the Ovoc Wakir. "Let's get you cleaned up, and back to your home, alright?"

For a few seconds, Ettiya was silent.

"This stays between us... right...?" asked the Alasur.

"Of course. Why would I lie to you? It's not like I'd have anything to gain from telling people." Szemis answered, not as boisterously as he normally would. "I promise to the saints on my Sister's board that I will keep this between us." he continued confidently, stopping right bext to Ettiya and reaching out a hand gently. By now he had even made himself believe that he was genuine, and Ettiya would have had trouble telling that anything was off with him, even if she was fully cognizant.

"May I?" he asked, stretching his fingers and opening the palm in a warm invitation to pull her up off the ground.

Ettiya sighed, believing in this lie. A gentle looking hand rose to grip his, which would reveal itself to be a rough, worked hand. In that connection between the two of them, Szemis could feel a bit of shame, remorse, and guilt, emotions that rang hard in the Ovoc Wakir's heart. As she pulled herself up, she found herself landing into his chest again. Another sigh burst from her lips again.

"Thank you." said Ettiya, in a weak voice.

"No problem" Szemis answered, pulling Ettiya up much more easily than his stature would have suggested. When she bumped into his chest for the second time, Szemis could almost feel something like a heart flutter. Whether it was his or hers, he didn't really know, but he let the girl stay in place, and after a moment or two of deliberation, wrapped his arms around her again. His embrace was warm, and the feelings she got from him were a lot calmer than the ones she was sending to him.

"What made you come down to this cliff, anyway?" the Eyr Ranr asked, idly.

"I told my father I wanted to do some boarding on Maekardan." Ettiya started dryly, her arms wrapping around the man, finding comfort in his embrace. "I was told this was a great spot... but I didn't expect it to be so... high..." Her head rose for a moment, as if she was going to try and look at him, but did not go high enough. "I was going to turn back... but..." she grunted slightly, not wanting to go on.

Szemis chuckled. "It is scary. I was probably going to leave, myself." the young Eyr Ranr admitted. "This was my sister's favorite spot to ride. It is said that the early Eyr Ranr learned to fly from this very ledge, and that Skyboarding was invented here." He smiled, staring up the 300 meter cliff they had just plummeted from at a much faster rate than most people did.

Ettiya was silent, she didn't say anymore than she had. The Ovoc Wakir only tightened her arms around him. As the sun began to set over the horizon, she slowly began to calm even more. Szemis was an idiot, but he seemed to know what to say at the right time. For her, that worked, at least for now.

"Szemis... Next time I try to do something stupid..." She finally looked up to him into the eyes, almost wantingly.

"Stop me..."
 
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