Chapter 8: To Where the Wind Blows

Yal had left, and Del was giving the two pointers on their travel.

Clarinets was a three-day journey north from Fort Stave, the fortress city they were currently in. All they had to do was follow a highway. It was a well-patrolled one, and Lyrica’s economy wasn’t so poor that there were bandits the moment one stepped out of a city, so the only real threats were the local wildlife.

A different country of the past had already tried hunting wolves and such to extinction. The people of today wouldn’t repeat that mistake.

They could stay at a village at the end of the first day, while they would have to set up camp on the night of the second day. They should be able to reach the wheat fields of Clarinets by the afternoon of the third day.

Among the things gifted to them were also some camping implements, so they thought themselves good for the second day.

Del showed them to their rooms on second floor. Well, he was showing them some options.

“Would you like a room with one bed? A room with two beds? Separate rooms?” He had all of them. No one visited this place much, and the housekeeping magic was pretty durable, so they were all good to go at any time.

The two, meanwhile, shared a look.

"“Any,”" they said at the same time, forcing them to give it a pause.

Because they knew—this was going to be a most horrifying scenario of indecision.

“I think you went through a lot more than me, so you should pick,” Kalender reasoned.

“I have already forgiven you two score times in my mind and feel no revulsion whatsoever to your presence. Also, to prove my trust in you, I must insist that you make the choice,” Jyn countered.

They both looked to Del.

“What’chya think?” “Sir, your opinion is most valuable.”

The inquisitor scratched his cheek, but then recalled all those times when the two were an oddly sweet sight, despite the lack of—or rather, even more highlighted by the fact that there were no ulterior motives in their interactions.

Just go get married. “Then, please take the one with the large single bed.”

So they ended up in the usual setup. There was a window overlooking a grassy field, however, which was a relief. Kalender looked outside. The sun was already coming down.

***

They slept quite soundly, but alas, Kalender had the harder time waking up.

“Thank you, both,” Del said, seeing off the two. The army-marked wagon they were on would ferry them until the outermost gate to the north of the city. Kalender was a bit nervous about the amount of stuff they’d brought—two generously bulky packs that looked like they’d explode from their seams at any moment. Jyn assured him, however, that this amount wasn’t abnormal.

The wagon started, and Kalender and Jyn waved back to Del’s shrinking figure. As always, the wagon was unforgiving to one’s ass, but he was almost getting used to it. Almost.

“Wait, ‘thank you’?” Kalender wondered about Del’s word choice there. He tried connecting it to the fact that the inquisitor was shedding tears the other day, but he just didn’t have the context.

“I look forward to travelling with you,” Jyn smiled.

“Woh.” Kalender was pleasantly surprised. Jyn tilted her head.

“You smiled,” Kalender remarked. “This is the first time I’ve seen you smile.”

She covered her mouth and looked away. “Y-you,” she didn’t know what to say.

“A-ah. I didn’t mean—”

Jyn held up a hand. “It’s alright. I’m just…” too flustered to tell you what you made me feel in that moment.

Kalender sighed and scratched his cheek. “Am I too honest for my own good?”

Jyn looked at him, then looked away. Alright? That’s a yes, I guess?

He could already see the future. There would be a time when her feelings would grow like a world tree. He didn’t know if he could reciprocate that, though. Sure, Jyn was a good-looking gal in his eyes, and she’d proven well enough that he could trust her to have his back—but there was just something missing.

Well, that, and they probably didn’t look at love the same way. Lyrica’s culture was wack, as far as he could tell.

He needed to draw the line, and soon. The longer he left this topic, the possibly more deluded Jyn could become about her feelings towards him. This wasn’t even something concerning curses or whatever—people just tended to feel one thing, and think it’s another. After a while, that mistaken association would crystallize, and it becomes a self-fulfilling belief.

If Jyn falls in love with him, then fine—but he wanted it to happen as slowly and certainly as possible. At no point should Jyn ever be uncertain about it, and at no point should either of them fall out-of-step with the other’s feelings.

He’d do at least that much for her. She was now his friend—the first ever friend he’d made in this world, in fact—and he’d care for her like family.

However, he didn’t want to hurt his relationship with Jyn as it was, and maybe even what it could possibly become. He already felt that he should care for this person, and it was a given that that feeling would probably grow as time went on.

But what form would that care take? To deny the future’s possibilities was to be complicit in the belief that he knew what was best for the people he cared about, when in reality, he didn’t.

Well, either that, or I’m reading too deeply into this, huh! It was best to clearly communicate before thinking too deeply into things, after all!

Horse hooves were still clacking. They’d already passed the army base’s gate, and they were in the civilian ring of the city. The road they were passing through was packed with people, and knights were standing sentry on elevated platforms, sticking out like sore thumbs over the sea of people.

They were moving at a snail’s pace with this amount of foot traffic, but they were moving. He wanted to talk to Jyn, but it was noisy as all hell. There was still a handspan of distance between them. Maybe he could get closer so he didn’t have to shout about feelings and whatever?

He used Interpersonal Bubble and what do you know, Jyn was pretty receptive to him scooting over right about now.

He moved closer and tapped her shoulder. She turned to face him, a bit surprised that he’d gotten closer, but it was obvious he wanted to say something, so she waved it off.

Kalender began. “I just wanna know what you think about me.”

No way I’m telling you about that! Jyn couldn’t get the words out of her mouth. Kalender took this as a cue to keep talking.

“I know we’ve only known each other for a couple of days, but looking forward—we’ll go through quite a lot of things.”

What’s this man going on about…

“Back in my world, when you care about someone, you just care about them. All that nonsense about relationships and marriage—that stuff gets a whole different set of criteria.”

O-okay, that somehow makes sense… Wait, marriage? Why are you mentioning this?!

“I just wanted to make sure and draw the line, that I’m probably never going to ask you to be mine.”

O-oh, about as expected. Again, why are you mentioning this—

“But, I think, I can come to care about you like I’ve known you my whole life. It’s like—a friendship that grows into family?”

“Shouldn’t you get married in that case?” Jyn finally spoke. There was an Aha face on Kalender.

"Feelings of closeness and affection are definitely required—but! What are you gonna call feelings between unrelated people that you normally see in families? How about the friendships with bonds stronger than some families?

“I wanna care about you like that.”

Friendships with bonds stronger than some families. Certainly, looking back, Jyn’s mother hadn’t loved her or her siblings all that much—she could say the three magic words, but they never had any magic in them, not even once.

Was Kalender saying that he wanted to bring that magic into her life? Already, every time he said “care,” she could feel lingering bits of that magic, teasing her to accept it.

She thought she understood Kalender. She was wrong, so of course, the next word to escape from her lips was, “Why?”

Kalender chuckled. “I just got a good feeling, that’s all.”

In the time that conversation took, the wagon had arrived at the gate. “Careful out there,” the driver called out before they got off. Once they’d gotten their things off, the driver brought the wagon around to some side road.

They had the whole journey to think and talk about things.

***

Kalender’s gambit had worked. Did he know what he’d been talking about back in the city? Somewhat, but not entirely. The whole thing was a profound haze to him, really. What he did want to clearly accomplish, however, was to get the two of them talking freely, and accomplish that, he did.

The two were walking down a road bordered by fields on both sides—some wheat, some potato, and some corn, all very much standard fare.

“I’m still thinking about what you said,” Jyn said. " ‘Friendships with bonds stronger than some families.’ You think we can accomplish that?"

“Easily! Look, we’re walking together, aren’t we?”

“Well, yes. What of it?”

“Do you enjoy walking with me?”

Jyn tilted her head. “It’s alright.” It was just like marching with her—former—unit, after all.

“Huh,” Kalender narrowed his eyes at the lack of a favorable reaction. “I guess people here just walk a lot.”

“The people of your world didn’t?”

“Hardly. It’d be a miracle to meet up with your friends more than a few times a year—and you don’t even live more than a few blocks away! It’s stupid.”

The more and more she heard about his world, the less it made sense.

“Anyway,” Kalender smiled at her, “I enjoy walking with you. Coming from someone who barely got to do that in his last life, and all.”

“You enjoyed walking with your friends?”

“I—can’t remember.”

“Ah. Sorry.”

“It’s fine. Can’t really get sad over something I can’t remember.”

Silence passed for a while, and Jyn wondered, He enjoys this? Just walking? The march particularly bored her, as far as she could remember.

Ah. Well. There was a time, a long time ago, when she did like it. The people she laughed with didn’t come back alive.

She looked to Kalender, and memories of that time overlapped with his walking figure. She sighed. “Please don’t die.”

Before she realized it, she said those words. She looked, and Kalender was looking at her with the most concerned face. He was still walking, but he’d slowed down to match her. She didn’t realize she’d slowed down as well.

“Don’t show me that face,” she said. It wasn’t that she was thinking he was pitying her or something. Kalender was making the Aww, there there face he made right before he went in for a hug. Although she didn’t quite reject such hugs, it just felt somehow unchaste.

“Come onn,” Kalender pleaded. “Please? Just a good hug?”

Whenever he’s like this, he stopped being a man and just looked like such a boy in her eyes.

She sighed, “Fine,” and opened her arms with an eye roll. He crashed into her, and they held each other for a good few seconds.

“When the rain falls, I’m there,” Kalender said. Jyn pulled away slightly and squinted at him. “What poet replaced Kalender? Where is he? Tell me. Immediately. Come on.” She shook him and started searching his pockets. A little frightened, he went and ran away. The knight had far more training, however, and caught up to him easily.

They left the vicinity of Fort Stave. It would be just a few days before they reached the town of Clarinets.

KeeperAbra

Hey, y'all! How do you like the story so far? This is my first proper attempt at writing a slice-of-life story. Up until now, I've been writing mainly action for fun, so it'd be cool beans if you could let me know how I'm doing with this one 🙂