Chapter Text
Night elementals. That's what we are. Filled with a dark mist flowing through our veins. I sit by the windowsill staring out across the town, lit by lanterns lining the streets. The night sky glittering with stars.
“Adi” My father yells, “ADIVA, Stop your daydreaming and get back to your work” He Huffs with disappointment before turning to leave my room. I quickly slip off the windowsill I was perchd on and make my way over to my desk, slumping into my chair. My father is a Businessman, running trades and stores. He’s nearly always busy so I never talk to him, except for when he comes to yell at me to continue my schoolwork. My brother is years older than me, he left home a few years ago, leaving me nearly entirely alone. I get stuck back into my work, opening a textbook and continuing to read about the Torau, a large winged ghost like beast.
Hours pass and the town is alive, people stroll through the streets shopping and gathering with friends. The Night capital was always bustling with activity, though I always prefered the Fire capitals parties. I travel a lot with my father when he goes on business trips, often to the fire or day capital, but sometimes other elemental territories as well. I hear 3 taps on my window and instantly know it’s Talion, My best friend.
“Ads, hey open the damn window it's cold!” Talion groans, tapping on the window harder. I chuckle before raising from the chair and making my way over to the window, stopping before it to taunt Tal. “Hey! stop taunting me, It’s literally freezing!” He retorts. I finally give in and opened the window for him, as he falls through and lands directly on top of me.
“God you’re so heavy, maybe try laying off on those scrolls” I laugh breathlessly as Talion scrambles to his feet, offering an arm to me.
“Ah, now that you mention it, would you like one? I have some in my pack” Talion says, reaching into his now discarded satchel. He reveals a tin box, opening it and pulling out a still warm sweet roll. Grabbing the sweetroll I fall back onto my bed, sitting up to watch Tal look around my room.
“Sorry it's messy, father made me study and I haven’t really left my room for a few days.” I take a bite of the sweetroll, getting icing all over my face.
“You haven’t left your room?!” Talion exclaims, a look of shock painted over his face. “You should have told me, you know I’d always be happy to come give you company. But not study, Never ask me to help study” I chuckle at his reaction, finishing the sweetroll and licking the icing off my fingers. Tal walks over, holding my face in his hand as he runs is thumb across the corner of my mouth, cleaning the icing off. My face heats up at the action, pulling away and covering my blush with my hands. Talion continues to look around my room, Picking paper off my desk and moving books to shelves.
“You know you don’t have to clean for me, Tal” I mutter through the peace of the room. He shoots me a sweet smile before continuing on with his cleaning, picking up books scattered over the floor.
“I know, but I want to help you Ads, you can’t just live in your own hovel your whole life.” he sighs, lighting a candle and moving to sit beside me. “Any plans on who you’re taking to Nebelis? The festival is in a day”
“No, not yet, I don’t have many friends outside of our group, and I'm assuming you’re going with Jez?” I sigh, disappointed to be approaching Nebelis alone, again.
“I'm not actually, Jez is going with Marle. I was actually kind of planning to go with you?” He turns to me with a soft look in his eyes. He places a hand on top of mine, lying back against the wall with me.
“I mean, if you want to be seen with a dreg like me, It’d be a lot nicer not walking in alone for once” I chuckle, sitting up straight to turn to him. We stare at each other for a few seconds before bursting out into laughter.
“You’re the best person to be around Ads, not a dreg. Besides, I like spending time with my friends” His breath hitches but he gives me a sweet smile. I stand up off the bed and pull the curtains closed, shivering at the breeze. “Any plans for what you’re going to wear? It is your big one, it's your first after the element set in” I stare down at my forearm, looking at the trail of smoke tattooed there marking me as mature.
“My mother had this dress, and handed it on to me before she passed. I was hoping to wear it to the festival” I step over to my wardrobe, throw open the doors and take out this stunning floor length black smokey dress, laced with crystals and shadows. A large slit running up the right thigh gives a flowy feel. Talion stares in awe, eyes flicking between the dress and me.
“I think that you should wear it, you would look absolutely amazing in it Ads. well you always look amazing but that's besides the point.” Talion stepped forwards, reaching out to feel the silk of the dress. “Anyway, best be off, it's almost dawn and my mother wants me home early. I'll be up at dusk, so I might swing past and say hi before I head off for a hunt with Mar.” Talion climbs up onto the windowsill before waving and jumping down onto a roof below. I peer down to see a flash of his forest green cloak dip beyond the houses. I let myself float back to my bed, letting the warmth wrap around me as I slip into sleep. The sun isn’t something we know, not as night elementals. It exists but we don’t see it, some people work into the day but the majority hide from it.
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Darkness fills my room, the last of the sunlight pears through my still open window. I awaken to a figure sat on my desk, flipping a small dagger between their fingers
“FUCK TAL YOU CAN’T JUST DO THAT” I scream upon noticing his dirty blonde hair and scar running from his mouth. He chuckles before reaching a hand out to help me get up. “Did you at least bring sweet rolls? The suns only JUST gone down, I'm still tired” I drag my words on, emphasizing the fact I just woke up.
“Sorry Ads, ran past before I went hunting with Mar, remember? And yes I brought you sweet rolls.” He chucks a tin onto my bed, filled with sweet rolls. He lays the dagger on my desk, along with 3 other daggers, some vials full of liquids and some crystals. “Jez made up some more potions, they’ve all got labels but I dunno how to use them, so they’re all yours. Keen on joining us on the hunt today? Marle invited you, and I always want an excuse to see you.” He chuckles. I sigh before making my way over to my wardrobe, pulling off my tunic on the way over. I grab a forest green tunic and throw my cloak over, strapping my belt around my waist and attaching small pouches. I take my crystals and place them in the pouches, tying the potions to the belt with twine.
“So it seems you will be joining us, It’s been what? Few months since you’ve come hunting with us?” He says with a smirk, hopping off my table and making his way to the window. “What do you even do all day? Sit here and read, study and write? If it were me I'd sit here and cry all day.” We both chuckle at the comment as I pull my boots on, sheathing my last dagger on my thigh.
“Why do we always have to go out the window- it's so difficult-” I groaned, dragging out my words. My shoulders slump and I exaggerate a sad face. He starts laughing before perching on the window and reaching out to me. I very ungracefully stumble out the window, barely grabbing the vines to help me climb down. Talion climbs down with ease, letting me grab his hand as we we’ve through the street to the outskirts of the town.
“Tal! Took you a hot sec, why are you so late today, eh?” Marle turns to us as we walk up to him leaning against the tree “Ah! I see you brought a friend. Adiva, it's been a while, how are you?” He bows jokingly, smiling widely.
“Ah, I’m good thanks, I wasn't planning on coming out tonight but you know Tal, always insistent on getting me out of my room.” I grin, coming to a stop between the two boys.
“Hey! I'm just lookin’ out for you Ads!” Talion lightly punches me on the shoulder, laughing along with Marle. Mar pushes off the tree and nods his head deeper into the woods. We fall into step behind him as we follow our hunting path. As we lead deeper into the woods the sound of the bustling city is drowned out by the soft chirping of the birds and small streams running parallel to us. We walked for a round an hour before coming to a small break in the trees. dropping his pack by a stump, Marle took his bow off his back and stalked the perimeter of the clearing. Marle returned to us minutes later, signaling to set up an area to rest in. as I began moving some small stumps to give us places to sit Talion set some snares up by the stream running through the clearing.
“Tal, save some rope alright, we’re gonna need some to carry anything we catch home.” Mar calls out to Talion, shocking me as he basically just yelled in my ear. I cover my ears and he turns to me, confused for a second before realizing how loud he was. “Shit sorry Adi, didn’t mean to yell so loud” He apologizes with a soft smile on his lips.
“You’re all good, I'm shorter than you though so your mouth is level with my ears, Mr. tall man” I giggle, turning to see Talion walk up to us. I smile at him, moving slightly to allow him to start a fire. My smile dips as the only response I get is a slight nod and a sad smile. I sit down and take in the view of the clearing as Tal and Mar continue to talk about their traps. I perk up when I hear Talion ask Mar about him and Jez, inquiring into them going to Nebelis together.
“What prompted you to ask Jez this time? I know you’ve been pining over her for a while but I always thought you were too chicken to ever ask her” Talion chuckles, hitting Marle on the arm. The two boys laugh as marle shakes his head.
“You’d be surprised but she asked me, not the other way around. I’m not a chicken but she makes me real damn nervous to be around” Marle leans back against a log, resting his arms behind his head. “I’m glad one of us did it though, I certainly wasn’t going to ask her Nebelis”
“Well, I’m happy for you man. It was horribly awkward watching you two dance around each other without doing anything about it” Talion speaks, before letting the conversation fall into a peaceful silence. We hear a high pitch squeal and Mar jumps up, running over to one of his set traps by the river.
“Guys, come ‘ere we got a snag!” Marle calls out, kneeling on the ground. We ran over to see a hog caught under Marle’s knee, tied up too tight to move much. “Best catch all season I’d say, good trap Tal.”
“Why thank you, I do like to consider myself quite experienced” Talion replies, placing his hands on his waist like a king. Marle sighs, placing his head in his hand.
“Stop acting like you’re special and get here to help me slaughter it so we can eat, moron” Marle snarls jokingly, moving to the side to let Talion take a dagger to the hog’s chest. Once the hog was tied up Marle hangs it over his shoulder, dragging it back to our stuff. “I say, we invite everyone over to my place and cook this beauty up. Mum has an amazing recipe and it has been a while since the whole gang has been together since little miss rich father over here has been non stop studying.”
The three of us burst out laughing, agreeing to the invitation from Mar. We begin packing up our stuff and untying traps before setting back off on the trail towards the city. We stop at a relatively large farm house on the way back, Talion running up to the door as we stand behind him. Talion leaves three large knocks on the door and not even a second later it swings open to reveal a relatively tall Blaine, Jezti’s older brother and one of our friends.
“Hey, are you here for my sister? I’ll grab her now.” He says with a tired voice, turning to walk back into the house. After about 3 minutes a young joyful girl runs to the door.
“Hey guys! Thank god you’re here now, I didn’t want to be stuck helping cook dinner” Jez cheerfully states before stepping out onto the porch, leaving the door open.
“Well that's good then, as we’ve caught a huge hog and wanted to invite you and Blaine over for dinner at Marle's place” Talion replies, stepping aside so Jez and Blaine, who is now hovering behind her, can see the hog.
“Sure! Blaine, are you down to join us? Dad doesn’t need any help on the farm today so come relax for a bit!” Jez turns to her brother, hopping up and down in happiness pleading for him to come spend the time with us.
“I suppose I can take a break for work, just for you guys” Blaine smirks, petting Jez before stepping out of the doorway and closing the door behind him. “We’ll be back later dad, see you” he calls out to their dad who’s working in the garden outside the shed. Their father so much as waves before going back to tending to his flowers. The 5 of us set out towards Marle’s house, Marle and Jez leading the way. Blaine trailed behind us as Talion fell into step next to me.
“You’ve been kind of quiet Ads, everything alright?” He questions with concern in his eyes as his hand brushes mine. I flush at the action before nodding in response.
“Yeah, I’m ok. It's just been a while since I’ve been out and around people, it's exhausting.” I respond, flicking my eyes up to meet him before looking down towards our hands.
“Yeah I definitely feel that. How about, we hang out with the group then head off to that vineyard we always used to go to when we were sick of everyone?” He smiles softly, comfortingly. I let him flip my small hand into his, feeling the warmth radiating from him.
“That would be nice, it’s been a while since it’s been just us two.” I admit, looking back up to see him smiling at me. We stare at each other for a few moments before continuing on down the path behind Jez and Marle. After about 20 minutes of walking we finally make it to a small townhouse, instantly being greeted by Marle’s mother.
“Oh my dears welcome! I didn’t realize we had guests, well either way the more the merrier! Do come in please” Marle’s mother greets us cheerily, Hugging each of us as we head inside. Mar and his father end up in the kitchen butchering the hog, His mother made her way over to us. “My dead Adiva, oh how you’ve grown! It's been so long since I've seen you dear. How are you?” She questions.
“I’ve been good, thank you. I’ve just been busy studying and stuff, Father is strict with my work.” I respond, smiling meekly. I was never particularly good at talking to people who weren’t my closest friends.
“Oh! You’re studying! I must say you were always such a smart young girl, I’m glad you are putting that to use” She smiles with an unsettling happiness. “Tell me dear, what is it that you are studying?” She inquires before pausing to stare for a few seconds.
“Oh, I’ve been studying creatures and their lives. My current beast focus is the Vorau, a ghost-like winged beast.” I respond timidly. I start flicking my eyes around, looking for a way to escape socializing. Talion eventually catches my eye and understands the pleading look I shoot him. He moves over to sit by us so he can catch Marle’s mother in conversation, giving me a break.
Time flies by, all of us chatting and eating the hog for hours. Eventually me and Talion excuse ourselves to walk up to the hilltop vineyard. We often spent hours sitting there as kids just talking and playing. We spend another hour or so just talking and catching up on all we’ve missed over the weeks before he walks me home. After the incredibly awkward climb back up to my room he embraces me in a tight hug before descending back down. As the sun starts to rise I realize we’ve been out all day and head to bed quickly. My mind fills with the stars and space as I fall into a deep sleep, letting my mind float off into the galaxy that holds my mind.