Live for the living (attn:Natlya/Bella)

[Locke]

Terric

He’d seen her every day since the invasion without fail, working training dummies over with hand and foot or practice sword. He’d watched the young woman spar a few times. She didn’t know when to stay down. Constantly demanding rematches and frustrating her fellow Ji. After a decade of running with the spears, he’d seen people act like this. He himself had fallen into that state on occasion. He’d almost reached that point after the Seanchan invasion, but Felessan Solonne snapped him out of it.

Since his promotion, Terric had made an effort to make himself available to the lower ranks as a potential mentor and sympathetic ear. There wasn’t any reason he shouldn’t extend the hand of friendship to one of his own colleagues. Every day when he came out to train he considered going over and talking to her. Part of him warned to stay out of it. This wasn’t his affair. Protecting the Tower didn’t just mean training Drin though, he also had to make sure his fellows didn’t burn themselves out or hurt others during their training.

One such day, Terric watched the woman spar a bout with a Ji he didn’t recognize. As their training swords clacked together under the hot sun, Terric decided today was the day he’d intervene. He filled two pewter mugs from the water barrel and moved to watch the spar. The Ji she spared with looked exhausted, brown hair plastered to his face with sweat. After a swing that stopped short of splitting his skull, if they’d used real blades, she was immediately demanding a rematch. Terric stepped in offering her a mug, “Careful now, friend. Drive yourself to hard and you’ll fall over and die.” He kept his tone light as he fixed her with a pointed look. Glancing over at the sparring partner, he sighed and gave the man the second mug. He’d just have to fill up a third.

[Bella]

It was hard to train properly alone, yet it was hard when others did not want to keep up with her. After a moment, she'd always realize that she was pushing too hard and would just have to figure something else out...but she was aggravated all the same.

When she heard the voice, she turned to see a fellow Ji. She thought she recognized him from around the Yards, although she could not recall having had direct experience between them. She looked at her sparring partner, who took the water and then seemed to decide he didn't want to be around her anymore and slipped away while she turned back to the other.

"Terric, I believe?" she asked, accepting the water with a small nod and a quiet "thank you." Little did he know that the "falling over and dying" idea wasn't necessarily one she was so against. She wasn't actually looking for it, but she wouldn't fight it either. She sipped the water, not wanting too much to hit her belly too fast and make her sick.

[Locke]

Terric

Being recognized always took Terric by surprise. As the only Aielman in the Warder Yards, he realized it shouldn’t, but he didn’t socialize much outside a small group. That being said, he did sometimes wonder what kind of reputation he’d developed.

“So you know my name, but I don’t know yours,” he probed. As he waited for an answer, he was hit with an awkward realization. He hadn’t come up with a plan beyond interjecting himself into the situation and feeling his way along.

“If you need a training partner, one you won’t chase off, I’m always around,” he suggested. It was barely a plan, but if she agreed, he could at possibly prevent her from hurting herself. He also wanted to know why she was pushing herself this way. This drive she had, it wasn’t the product of something like ambition. There was something dark behind it. If there was one thing he’d learned after a decade chasing thieves and murders, earning somebody’s confidence was the best way to gain information.

[Bella]

Nat ran her eyes up and down the man standing before her, and she wondered what game he was running. It might have been as simple as introducing himself or making a friend, as there were many in this place that were like that (she had learned), or maybe it was something more. She had seemingly been driving more people away than she had been attracting him, so why was he there?

"Natlya," she said replied. There had been a thought lingering in the back of her mind that sprung to life again as she said her name, and was perhaps something she needed to pursue. Maybe it would... Well, she doubted there would be "closure" any time soon, but maybe it would bring her some measure of peace.

His offer made her tilt her head, even more curious. "And why is it that you would be so difficult to chase off?" she asked.

[Locke]

Terric

His look of incredulity probably bordered on offensive, but who could blame him. Wetlanders, he thought. Many Wetlanders probably couldn’t identify an Aiel if he was charging them with a spear. Natlya was Ji’Val, like him, but she hadn’t been forged under the hot sun of nearly two and a half decades in the Three-fold Land. He wasn’t here for his ego though, he just needed to make sure one of his fellows didn’t work herself to death or hurt somebody else on accident.

“Trust me, friend. I’m Aiel, I don’t get chased off easily. Anyway, don’t you Wetlanders have a saying? ‘Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.’ I don’t quite understand why anybody would look in a horse’s mouth, or if this horse is bearing gifts, but the meaning is there. We can train now, or meet up some other time.” If he couldn’t talk her down, he could at least make sure she was taking care of herself.

[Bella]

She knew he was Aiel, but didn't imagine that alone would save him from being driven crazy by her. Everyone else was, and she wasn't sure she rightly cared. She simply didn't trust the moment, but she wasn't trusting much of anyone. She'd say no one had been seeking her out for this, but here he stood, so she couldn't say that.

"You tell a horse's age by their teeth," Nat replied curiously, uncertain even why but she did. "The horse is the gift, not giving them. So don't look in its mouth to see its age and judge the gift you're being given. The phrase just means be grateful for the gift." She paused and pushed sweaty red hair back from where it stuck to her forehead. "Trying to spare the other trainees from me, then?"

[Locke]

Terric

“I knew what it meant, just not exactly why the expression was a thing,” Terric replied running his hand through his already messy hair, “We don’t have many horses in the Three Fold Land.”

Pausing, he considered her challenge. He had wanted to keep the other trainees from harm, but that wasn’t the whole of it. Agreeing, felt too much like a lie to him. He’d mostly come to stop a fellow Ji’vale from working herself to death. Sure, there was ji in perseverance, but training until you fell out was something new algai’d’siswai did when they had something to prove. The rank Ji’vale assumed a degree of maturity.

He opened his mouth to answer then paused. Be honest, just couch it in the right terms, he thought to himself. Out loud, he said, “There’s that,” in reference to her assumption, “It’s just against my nature to leave somebody wandering in the desert. I’ve got to at least offer water.”

[Bella]

Natlya frowned slightly and tilted her head. If he knew what it meant, why did he say he didn't know why someone would look in a horse's mouth? This incongruity had her perplexed, but she chose not to give voice to this one.

She kept her hazel gaze intent on him as she considered his more recent words. Wandering in the desert... She had never seen the desert, but she certainly knew about it. How could he say that, though? She was, after all, very focused on her path. There was no wandering about it, but maybe this was another case of phrase confusion, like the horse.

"You've offered me water," she said carefully. "You think I am wandering in the desert?" This was asked with acrimony, simply curiosity to discern his true purpose.

[Locke]

Terric

Terric gave her a flat look. Honestly, Wetlanders. They had no sense of poetry. “I didn’t mean that literally. I brought you water because it’s a friendly thing to do for somebody who’s been working hard.” He realized he might be at fault for at least some of the confusion, he had actually offered water. He gave the Wetlander another flat look, she was one who appreciated plane talk. Looking her directly in the eye, he said, “You seem to need a friend. I could use a steady training partner. I’m sure we can work something out.”

Everybody needed a shield mate, somebody to watch their back in the Dance and to tell them when they were being fools. Looking into her eyes, he saw something. Grief. Was that what drove her? She’d probably lost a friend in the recent attacks. Maybe she’d lost her shield mate. That was why nobody was trying to stop her as she drove her self so recklessly.

[Bella]

His answer only did a little to give her a better sense of him. He seemed offended by her question, or perhaps like he thought her an idiot or dullard. Well, let him think whatever he wanted. She knew who and what she was. She held his gaze steadily, for she had everything to hide and little trouble hiding it.

"I don't need a friend," she replied, flat in her affect around that. "I don't suppose I should turn away a willing training partner." She paused and looked him over. "What is it you seek to train yourself in then?"