Alain and Atiya

A Rebellion collab between Magus and I.

Name: Alain

Age: 3

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Appearance:
(but without the fur on the arms, and is by Zaphk on dA)

Magic?: Yes

Royal Bloodline?: No

Personality: Alain is a friendly young lad, who loves to play and have a good time. However, when around adults he remains quiet and dutiful. He loves following the adults around, and copying what they do.

History: Alain spent his first two years of life quite happy in a small village. He had no worries or cares, and loved life. But his happiness was not to last. Winter came and food was scarce in that region of the land. Bandits came and slaughtered much of the village. Among the dead were Alain’s parents.

The child was found wandering in the snow, and was taken in by one of the rebels. Since then, he has lived in the rebel base, with occasionally trips to the nearest town. It is from this town that he has just returned.

Other:

Older pic: http://udonnodu.deviantart.com/art/Assassin-Shadow-Mimickery-131880803


Can't find a profile for Atiya. Does she have one?

((BTW, this takes place about 12 odd years into the future. Atiya and Alain would be around 14 and 15 respectively, I think, if I have their ages right.))

Atiya gave a loud, dramatic sigh and looked around her room, her gaze eventually stopping on her old friend, Alain. She smiled at him, and after a moment spoke.

"Well, I'm bored. So Alain, what crazy misadventure should we get ourselves into today?"

Alain glanced up from the book that he was flipping through and a slight smile appeared on his face. "Anything is better than reading through these boring books Ana keeps throwing at me." He snapped the book shut and dropped it beside himself.

"If it's mischief, I'm open for anything."

"Well, we could always go tease my little brother again." Atiya smiled at the thought of that as she sat upright and began to play with a lock of her hair. "Or we could spy on my parents again, and this time try and succeed at not getting caught. Hehe, I always find it so amusing how red your face gets on those occasions."

Atiya let Alain sink that in while she thought of some other ideas. If those two didn't work out, perhaps they could pull a prank on the Captain of the Palace Guard? He was an amusing old fart, and she knew that some of his own men would love to help them with a prank against him.

Alain’s cheeks flushed a light shade of red and he turned his head away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he muttered. Did she have to bring that up? Maybe he would just sit here and read. But it only took a single glance down at the book for him to decide otherwise.

“Teasing your brother sounds a little on the tame side. I’m in the mood for an adventure.”

"Oh, come now, Alain. I saw how red your face became when my parents were making out. If it hadn't been for that little reaction from you, seeing that event might have scarred me for life, but instead it's a fond memory now!" Atiya replied with a small chuckle. "And I never knew just how red a person's face could get until I saw your reaction to what they did after that."

Atiya chuckled again as she reviewed the event in her mind. After a moment of consideration a smile spread across her face. "Oh! I know. We could always try and pull a prank on Imperator Maul. I'm very interested in seeing just how stoic he is. And as a bonus, we'd most certainly run into his son, Bakar. I've really been looking forward to seeing him again."

Alain could only stare down at the floor before him, his face turning extremely red at the memories. Why did she have to bring that stuff up? He wanted to do nothing more than forget about it all.

But then he realized that silence had fallen in the room, and that he was expected to say something. What had she just been talking about? Maul. And Bakar. Ick. "Sure," he said, but his heart wasn't in it. It didn't really matter what he said to her anyways. She was a whirlwind and he could barely keep up with her at times. But that was what he liked about her.

"What's wrong, Alain? Jealous?" Atiya smirked at him and crawled on her bed until she reached the edge of it, and leaned in as close as she could toward Alain's chair.

"Don't be. There's plenty of me to go around." she raised an eyebrow at him suggestively and winked.

Alain had turned towards her just then to stumble out some sort of defense to her words and so he caught her look and, coupled with the words, they caused his cheeks to turn red again. Truthfully, he was very nervous around girls. He didn’t have a clue as to what he was doing, unlike Atiya.

“Let’s just go pull this prank,” he muttered and pushed himself to his feet, trying to save face before she tried anything else.

Atiya giggled a little before nodding. She got off her bed and stood up. "Alright, whatever you say, Alain. Heh. Perhaps I should give you a few pointers about girls, one of these days. Then you might be less flustered around them. Honestly, sometimes you remind me of my own brother. Though admittedly he has it far worse. He can't so much as say a single word to a girl that isn't related to him without constantly stuttering."

His jaw dropped open for a second before he hastily closed it and turned his head slightly to the side. “I’m not flustered! And I can figure it out on my own.” Not like Ana was much help. He had asked her about it once, and she had glared at him until he had backed away, out of the room. Later that night she had come in and attempted to talk to him about it, but the whole talk had just been really awkward for both of them, and it hadn’t helped at all. That had been the end of that.

“But enough about this. We should be brainstorming.”

"Oh come now, Alain. I'm sure I could be a loads of help turning you into a ladies' man." Atiya grinned and raised another eyebrow at him. "After all, the annual Winter Solstice Ball is coming up. I imagine you don't have a date yet. I can certainly help with that! By the time I'm through with you no woman will be able to resist your charms!"

((And I'm sure Atiya would grimace and not-so-gently correct his mistakes. If it happened enough times, she'd accuse him of trying to turn her into a cripple so he could take advantage of her. Hehe. Perhaps all this cute and somewhat awkward stuff [since Atiya now has this bright idea in her mind and she won't let it go, so she'll become his viewpoint into the mind of a girl] could led up to an interesting Accidental First Kiss?

Hm. If Atiya does start giving him advice, it'll be....odd. For me, at least. Considering....hehe, this is sorta the opposite of what one would expect, given our own respective genders. Or something along those lines.))

Alain groaned softly and gave a shake of his head, his cheeks still glazed over with red. “I have a bad feeling about this,” he muttered, but it was easily loud enough for his friend to catch the words. Atiya was one of the last people he would ever have thought to turn to for this kind of advice, and that wasn’t just because he liked her.

(Hehe. And yeah, it could lead to an accidental kiss. XD Which will be great, of course.

Yeah, I can see how that would be odd. I know that, in the past, I tend to write the guy in a romantic relationship as how I subconsciously pictured my perfect guy. Shadow was the one who pointed that out to me, several years back. I’ve tried to become better at romantic guys since then.)

"Oh come on, it won't be that bad." Atiya gave Alain an encouraging smile before grabbing his hand. "Come on, follow me. I know an empty ballroom where we can have more privacy, and have more room."

Before Alain could give any objections the young (insert name here for whatever minority Atiya could be called, considering she's the daughter of a Humage and a Half-Elf)/girl dragged her friend out of the room, made a quick excuse to her mother, and proceeded to drag Alain down half a dozen hallways, before finally coming to a wide doorway. Atiya looked around for a moment before opening it, and stepping in with Alain. She closed the door behind them and looked around the spacious area.

"There. We ought to have plenty of room to practice dancing and everything else. And before you make any objections, I know you, Alain. You couldn't dance if your life depended on it. Or pick up a girl, for that matter. Without possibly getting slapped. No offense."

((Great! Can't wait to see that work out. Depending on how flustered Atiya ends up getting after that, she might end up revealing some interesting things. In the rare instances where Atiya is embarrassed or nervous, she tends to ramble, like her mother before her.

Alain frowned at his friend’s words, but found that there was nothing that he could say in his defense without actually just making things worse. “Fine,” he finally muttered. “Let’s just get this over with.” The last thing that he wanted to be doing right now was dance. Well… He looked up at Atiya, waiting for her instructions. Maybe that wasn’t exactly true, not when it was he and her.

"Now, just follow my lead." Atiya said, and took Alain's hand. She kept one of his joined with her right hand, and moved the other to her waist. She then began to dance, giving Alain a few instructions as they started.

Alain tried to follow her movement and her instructions, but his hand felt weird, resting on her waist, and it was hard to dance when there was no music to dance too—not that it would have helped him much. “Sorry,” he mumbled as he stepped on her toes for about the fourth time, cringing as he did so.

Atiya grimaced as Alain stepped on her toes yet again. If this boy didn't stop that, she was seriously going to consider the possibility of turning him into an Eunuch...

"It's...fine. Just try to focus more. Try imaging that....you're dancing with a girl you really like, or something like that. Or, if you need a better mental image, imagine that your dancing instructor is Ana instead of me." Atiya suggested, smiling a little at that last part.

Alain made a face at the last part of her comment, exaggerating it to help hide the heat that had come across his face. He already was dancing with a girl that he liked—not that she liked him back, not in the same way he liked her. “Ana would cut off a toe each time I step on her.”

"Well then, I'm sure that's good incentive to get things right, then. Though with me, the penalty will be far worse if you give me a broken foot." Atiya joked slightly, then gestured downwards before making a cutting sign with her hand. She quickly picked up her dancing with him after that, giving a few more instructions along the way. She give Alain an approving nod as he slowly got better.

"See? Now you're doing much better."

Alain didn’t speak for a moment, and his eyes were rolled upwards as he concentrated on his body’s movements. Then he glanced back at her and stumbled for a brief moment before getting back into the flow of the dance. “Don’t jinx me,” he muttered to her.

Atiya giggled but made no other comment.

Alain stumbled a second time as he tripped over his own feet, and he suddenly found himself falling towards Atiya. He had only just started to hit his growth spurt and didn’t have too much meat on his bones, but still he was bigger than her, and thus knocked her backwards as he fell forwards. His eyes widened in alarm as he felt his lips slamming into hers.

Atiya blinked as she felt a heavy object pressing into her. What the...? One moment she was dancing with Alain, and the next he...tripped and fell onto her. Gah, that boy was never....wait, was that his lips pressing against hers? Were....were they kissing?!

A crimson blush overtook the majority of Atiya's face as her eye widdened greatly. She struggled to lift Alain off of her, but the lug had her arms pinned behind her back by accident, which was starting to hurt now. Finally some common sense came to her and she separated her head from Alain's, breaking the accidental kiss. Atiya's first urge was to shout at him, but she wanted to delicately end this situation with some dignity preserved.

"U-Um...m-mind getting o-off, Alain? Not that I m-mind or anything, but you're crushing m-my arms."

“Uh…” Alain could only stare down at her for a second, his face redder than hers. Then, somehow, he found the strength to scrabble backwards, away from her. A hand moved up to his lips, touching them in disbelief. He hadn’t…? They hadn’t…? Oh my gosh! What had he done?!

“I… I…”

That was all he could get out, as he sat there gaping at her.

Atiya's face continued to turn varying shades of crimson as she stared back at Alain. Finally she couldn't take it anymore and forced herself to turn around so she wouldn't have to look at him. Her cheeks continued to stay red as the young girl fiddled with her fingers and mumbled under her breath.

"J-Jerk. My...my first real kiss.......stolen...."

It just made the situation even worse, for her to just turn away. It had been an accident! Surely she could see that? Surely she wouldn’t hate him for this? But he hated himself, for how clumsy he had been.

“I’m sor-ry,” he finally managed to get out. He reached out a hand, to give her a comforting touch, but his hand didn’t even make it halfway there before he let it drop. The last person she would want to touch her right now would be him. “I’m sorry.”

Atiya blushed some more and nodded a little. She slowly turned around to face him again, though she couldn't meet his eyes.

"It's...fine. I....just didn't expect that. I mean I...I've entertained the thought of....us before and I thought that maybe my first time could be with you, since I know you and trust you and all, but I never actually expected that to happen and...and oh gods I should just shut up now!"

If possible, Atiya turned a brighter shade of crimson and turned away again from Alain. Stupid, stupid, stupid! How...gods, how could she have said all that to him!? It....oh gods, she was turning into her Mother now!

She had… thought about them before? But he had thought… Bakar… He flinched as she turned her back to him again.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered again, the words as useless to erase what had just happened as they had been the first time he had spoken them. But what else could he say?

"It's um...fine." Atiya managed to get out. At least Alain hadn't commented on the other thing she said. "I suppose we just to....uh, move forward from....here."

“Y-yeah,” Alain replied shakily. He forced his still trembling body up onto his feet and then held out a hand to Atiya. “Let’s move… f-forward.” At least nobody else had been around to witness that.

Atiya nodded hesitantly and took Alain's hand. After standing back up, she tried to think of something to say to break the awkward moment. Though nothing truly came to mind.

"Um...I, uh..."

Alain let his hand fall back to his side and then he bit his lip as he stared at the ground, just as unsure as Atiya about what to do. He wanted to make this right, somehow, but he just didn’t even know where to start. It wasn’t fair for her to have such an awful first and last kiss to carry around, but he certainly wasn’t going to suggest that they… do it again. Like that would make things any better.

“Are we… done for today?” he finally asked, referring to the dancing lessons.

"I, uh, guess. Um...Alain, maybe we could, uh..." Atiya trailed off and averted her eyes from her friend. She fiddled with a lock of her hair as she tried to continue on. After a moment Atiya gave a nervous chuckle and went on.

"Y-You know what, never mind. I-It's stupid. We should just...move on."

He gave a quick nod of his head. “Y-yeah. Let’s move on.” That would be best. But what had she been about to suggest? No, he didn’t dare ask, not right now. But what were they moving on to? He simply stood there awkwardly, wondering what he was supposed to be doing.

Atiya shifted herself a few times as the awkwardness started to get to her. They...they had to make this right somehow...

"Y-You know..." Atiya began casually, looking away from Alain at the moment. "We uh....that k-kiss we had was terrible. Maybe we could, uh....haveanewonetomakeitbetter!"

Atiya blushed feriously after blurting that last part out, and didn't dare look at Alain to see his reaction. Oh gods, what had she done?! That was a terrible idea! Why had she suggested it in the first place!?

Alain stared blankly at her for a moment and then his eyes widened as he realized what she had just said. That was… He had just… But should he…? He started to lean forward, but quickly pulled jerked himself back.

“Y-you… you… w-w-want-t a s-second…?” he couldn’t even get out that last word, but could only stare at her as the question hung in the air.

Atiya blushed some more and looked away from Alain. She balled her hands into fists and tried not to shake from the unfamiliar feeling of being so embarrassed. Gah, did he have to make this so difficult?! Like this wasn't bad enough! Couldn't Alain just kiss her again and be done with it?

"Y-Yes, stupid. J-Just go a-ahead and..." Atiya stopped, herself unable to say that last, certain word. Gah, she was acting exactly like her mother, when she was a teenager! Ah! That was such a terrible and frightening thought...

"Just do it already!"

Alain flinched back at the shout, but then he scrunched his eyes tightly shut and leaned forward, pressing his lips against hers in a second kiss. He didn’t even give himself time to think about it, but just acted.

Atiya gave a small gasp of surprise when Alain actually kissed her, but after a moment she started to return the kiss. Once several good seconds had passed by, Atiya pulled away and ended the kiss. A faint blush spread across her cheeks as she looked around awkwardly.

"S-So....um....t-thanks. That felt n-nice."

“Y-you’re welc-c-come,” Alain managed to stutter out. It had felt nice, that kiss, but at the same time he still felt awkward. What was he supposed to do now? Just let things go back to normal? But what was normal now? Maybe he would just wait and see what Atiya did.

"Um so, uh....what should we...do from here?" Atiya nervously gazed at Alain, wondering just what he was thinking about all this. Her heart....it had never beated this hard and quick before, even around Bakar. Though she hadn't yet kissed Bakar, or dated him at all, and this was her first kiss so maybe that was it. Still...Atiya did like Alain, perhaps a bit more than as a friend. But did that mean...?

Great. Alain nervously bit his lip. She was asking him, but he had no answer to give. “Maybe…” Maybe what? “Do it again?” Wait, what?! He hadn’t meant to say that out loud! The kiss had felt nice, but still… She was going to hit him, he knew it. He cringed, just waiting for it.

"I....that....might be nice." Atiya blurted out, then looked away from her friend as her face became as red as a tomatoe. Oh gods! What had she just said?! Had she really said "ok" to that idea!? Alain was just kidding, right? Oh gods what would Alain think?! What would he say? Ugh, why couldn't she just keep her mouth shut sometimes!?

Alain cringed again at the sound of Atiya’s voice, but then he looked back up at her, in shock. She was… agreeing? But did she really want this? He had to fix this; he had to make it right. But how? Instead of trying to figure out the answer to that question, he leaned forward.

Very hesitantly, Atiya leaned forward herself until her lips touched that of Alain's. Slowly, at first, she started to kiss him.

Alain kissed her back, gently, and then he pulled away, but only a few inches. “I’m sorry,” he whispered to her. His cheeks were still warm, as he gazed at her, and his heart felt like it was going a hundred miles an hour. “I didn’t mean… for this to happen.” Like sorry would fix his blunder.

"It's...fine, Alain. I...it...it wasn't that bad." Atiya admitted with a faint blush. Truthfully, her second kiss with Alain hadn't been bad, and this past one was actually sort of...good. This was still all so very awkward, but it wasn't as bad as it had been in the beginning.

It wasn’t that bad? Phew. Then he hadn’t made a total idiot out of himself—only a partial one. At that, he couldn’t help but grin, and then that grin turned into a chuckle and then finally into laughter. He didn’t know why he was laughing anymore, just that he was and he couldn’t stop.

Atiya couldn't help but smile and giggle herself at the sound of Alain's laughter. It sure sounded nice, to her. And it definitely helped light this already awkward mood.

"So, what's so funny?" Atiya asked inbetween her now subsiding giggles.

Slowly, Alain’s laughter died down, letting him at least make an effort to speak. “I don’t know how many… times… we’ve seen your parents… ki… kissing and… but yet we’re both so… embarrassed because we… kissed.”

Atiya nodded and giggled a little at that thought. "Yeah, that's true, isn't it? Kissing should be that big of a deal for us, now, should it? It's just kissing after all. I don't know why we got so flustered over something as simple as that."

Alain gave a nod of his head, still breathless. “Yeah…” He drew in a deep breath and then began to breath almost normally. “It’s nothing like the… other things we’ve seen your parents doing.” Now those had been some embarrassing moments.

"Oh, yes. Their kissing.....a lot more passion to it, from what I remember. More...hunger." Atiya replied, blushing a little from the memory.

"So...what now?"

(A year skip)




"You're sure about this, Alain?" Atiya asked one more time as they walked out of the palace, and into the Grounds. "This isn't a journey to take lightly, you know."

“Of course I’m sure,” he responded. “Somebody has to keep you out of trouble.” Not that he was very good at that. It seemed like anytime he and Atiya were together, trouble soon followed after. But they hadn’t gotten into trouble for over a year—of course, that was also because he had been with Ana for the past year.

"True." Atiya replied, smiling a bit. She gave Alain a teasing grin. "And I have to make sure you don't make a fool out of yourself, either. So it evens out."

Alain frowned at her and then gestured to the sword he wore at his waist. “I am a trained warrior. So there.” He stuck his tongue out at her and then grinned, unable to hold it back.

Atiya giggled and playfully poked Alain's shoulder.

"A trained warrior. Yes, I can see it now. Gods help whatever army you might join, Alain. You're liable to take off your own foot, than an enemy's." Atiya teased, giggling again.

His face reddened slightly and he placed a hand on the hilt of his sword. “Ana’s been teaching me,” he said, slightly hurt at her words, even though he knew that she was just joking. “And you know how skilled she is.”

"I know, I know." Atiya replied. She smiled at Alain, patted his shoulder, and gave him a kiss on his cheek. "I was only kidding. I'm sure you're a great warrior, Alain. No doubt you'll give Blademaster Maul a run for his money, one day."

Alain started at the sudden kiss, and his cheek turned a dark shade of red. He placed his free hand there, over the tingling skin, and fought hard the desire to turn away, to hide his embarrassment. Feeling awkward, he cleared his throat and spoke. “Of course I will, with just a little more training.”

"Good." Atiya replied, giggling again. "But just so you know, you won't have to be the only one protecting me in my pilgrimage. Of course, I'll do a good job of protecting myself, but since I didn't want either of my parents to accompany me, they insisted I bring along an old friend of theirs."

Atiya rolled her eyes and made a face after saying that. "I just hope whoever he or she is, they won't ruin our fun."

He wasn't the only one? Alain bit back his disappointment and turned to face her, dropping his hand as he did so. "They better not. Then this whole trip will be a waste."

"Indeed." Atiya agreed, giving Alain a grin.

He smiled back at her. "But I'm sure that whoever it is, they'll regret volunteering to watch us." Oh yes, they would. While he was a pretty well-behaved teen when traveling about with Ana, he could certainly cause trouble when Atiya was around.

"Indeed!" Atiya agreed readily, giving yet another giggle. They continued on their way until they made their way to the palace gates, where a cloaked figure stood in wait for them. The cloaked figure gave them a slight nod of acknowledgment.

"Our guardian for the duration of my pilgrimage." Atiya explained to Alain. "Mom told me he'd be wearing that cloak. Don't know who he is though, yet. Mom told me it'd be a surprise."

Alain's brown eyes studied the cloaked figure for a few seconds before turning back to Atiya. "Well, it's certainly not Ana," he said to her, dropping his voice down to a whisper as he did so. "Somebody much taller than that."

He felt a sense of relief at that. Ana was a funsucker, to say in the least.

(My cousins invented the 'funsucker' term, to describe my dad. XD)

((Hahaha. "Funsucker" is definitely a word that should be absorbed into modern english, I think. Heh. I'd love to see that as a real word. I'd definitely use it a lot, me thinks.))

((Hm. Mind if we just skip to them, now, leaving the city Casey?))

(Yes, it is a great word.

And I don't mind at all.)

"So....can you take off that cloak yet? I'm curious as to who you are." Atiya commented to their mysterious guardian, after they had made some distance away from the Capital. The cloaked figure paused, and turned to stare at Atiya for a moment. Though Atiya couldn't tell if he was studying her, or glaring at her, since his face was obscured by the hood of the cloak.

Slowly, the figure gave a nod. It reached up with its hands and eased the hood down. In an instant, Atiya gasped as she recognized the man's face at once.

"Grandpa!"

"Traitor," Alain muttered at Atiya's shout. But he had to admit, he was somewhat relieved that it was Syrien who was accompanying them--yes, accompanying them, not guarding or protecting. They didn't need either of those, not when he was here.

Syrien turned his head for a moment and simply stared at Alain before returning his attention to his granddaughter. "Yes, Atiya, it is I. Your mother requested I escort you to the Elven Tribes. Since I was an Elf myself, and I was somewhat familiar with the route to get there, she thought it best I accompany you on your pilgrimage there."

Atiya beamed at Syrien, and gave a delighted giggle. She rushed forward and hugged her grandfather fiercely. "It's so good to see you again, Grandpa! It's been so long!"

Syrien chuckled in reply and patted her head. "Indeed it has, Atiya. One year, four days, twelve hours, and thirty-two minutes since our last encounter. To be specific."

Atiya simply nodded and hugged Syrien some more before letting go. It was good to see him again, yet it pained her that she saw so little of him, over the years. Apparently, Daddy and Grandpa had had some sort of falling out, and Daddy had refused to have anything more to do with him. Or so the story went, from what Mommy had told her. Still, her Mother being who she was, she couldn't bear to go without contact with her surrogate father for the rest of her life, nor let at least one of her children not know their grandfather.

So after a few years of Grandpa Syrien being...wherever he lived in Gaboria, her Mother had finally contacted Grandpa again, and had attempted to bring him back into their life. Somewhat.

So, once a year ever since Atiya was eight, Syrien made a journey to the Capital, snuck into the palace, and spent two hours with his family. One with Mom, and then the last with herself.

Taloc and Mazin, sadly, could never be visited by Grandpa. They believed him to be dead--apparently that issue had something to do with some sort of criminal organization, who had wanted Grandpa at some point and thus he'd been forced to fake his death (so Mother had told her)--and thus it was too much of a risk to spring upon them that their dead grandfather was actually alive. There was a risk Daddy might accidentally find out through them, and he wouldn't be happy about that.

Atiya did not mind that, though. To her, it made her precious time with Grandpa Syrien, when he visited, all the better. It was nothing Mazin or Taloc would ever be able to experience, and Atiya did love a good secret, too.

Alain hung back a little, letting Atiya have her reunion. Her words surprised him. It had been longer since Atiya had seen Syrien than she had seem him. He had thought that she saw him more often than that--not that she had said a lot to him about it, when the problems started. And not that he had always been there for her either. But he was determined to be from now on.

Syrien, Atiya

"So then, now that we have finished our reunion, I suggest we start traveling again." Syrien said with a gentle smile. "We have a lot of ground to cover."

"Sounds fine to me!" Atiya replied cheerily.

"A great idea," Alain replied as he moved closer to the two of them. That way nobody else could show up to "accompany" them. He fell into step on the other side of Atiya, with his left hand just inching to reach across the few inches separating his hand and hers. But he didn't, not with Syrien right there.

((So...time skip to a few days later, perhaps? Or time skip to that night, at camp?))

(We could have a night camp scene, yes, and then skip from there to a few days later. You starting, or me?)

((You can start, if you so wish Casey.))

General Narrative

Later that night, the trio settled down to camp and rest for what remained of the day before they set off again. At the moment, they were eating some of the food that Syrien and Alain had managed to gather from the surrounding area.

((Can't really think of much to post aside from that. Sorry.))

(It's fine, and it keeps the story moving, since I hadn't posted. XD)

Alain munched silently on his dinner of greens. His eyes stayed mainly focused on his plate, but every now and then his gaze would shift over to Syrien and then to Atiya before falling back down to his plate. He had questions to ask, about this whole pilgrimage business, but nobody else was saying a word, and so he didn't either.

But what was even the point of this whole thing? Why travel somewhere far away if you didn't have to? It wasn't like Atiya was being paid to do this, or that he [and Syrien, unfortunately] were being given money for guarding her. What was there to gain?

Alain finished off his food and climbed to his feet. No, he was thinking too much like Ana. "I..." He cleared his throat. "I'm going to take a look around, make sure that it's safe."

Syrien

"I will go with you, Alain." Syrien offered, though his tone and expression clearly said that the offer was not up to debate.

"I don't..." Alain drifted off, quickly realizing that protest was useless. "Alright..." Syrien didn't think that he couldn't handle doing a simple check of the area, did he? No, that couldn't be what this was about. Ana had trained him, and so there should be no question as to his abilities. Then what was this about?

Or maybe he was overthinking this whole thing and Syrien was just as bored as he was.

Atiya, Syrien

"Well, you two enjoy your patrolling." Atiya commented with a slight smirk. "I'm stuffed, and I think I'll be heading to bed now. Goodnight."

Syrien bid his granddaughter a good night, and allowed Alain to do the same before he walked off with the boy to look around the area. After a few minutes of silence, Syrien spoke up.

"You fancy my granddaughter." The way he said it, it came out as more of a fact than a query.

"Umm..." Alain's cheeks turned a light shade of red and he turned his head away. "You... you can tell?" Was this a good or bad thing? The four words weren't enough for him to decide if Syrien approved or not, and it left him not knowing quite what to say--not that he was really sure of what to say anyways.