Unquiet Slumber for the Sleepers

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monster attack -> Lora wakes up -> oh god i thought we cleared them -> probably wishes Jin was there because bleh -> etc

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We open on Lasaria, the quasi-grotto by the ponds just afoul of the deeper woodlands, and find only four members of our usual party - and not any sort of four that you might think. It's Lora and Haze, yes, but also Addam - fine enough - and (here's where it gets curious) Minoth. Minoth, the latest join-up, really has no business being in Lasaria.

Where was their collective next destination, in fact? Certainly not Lasaria - there wasn't even anything much left in Lasaria to see, but there also wasn't enough in Aletta for the eleven of them to make productive with. Mungo was still working on the desert medicine, and Brighid was attending in that duty, which meant that Aegaeon followed and Hugo was tethered alongside. Jin was watching the kids, which for the moment included Mythra as well, and thus...why not a little excursion back to the forgotten provinces of the kingdom?

So to Lasaria they went, on a ship conveniently scheduled to dock at Yanchik Harbor as the direct walking path was blocked by, of course, the desert. Caught between curiosity and confusion, Lora and Haze elected to pass the time with charm- and talisman-making, rather than needle about Minoth's past. The Flesh Eater himself took a scattered few notes about their initial happy encounter and the sandy trek ahead, but was for the most part preoccupied by Addam's own questions.

Where have you been? How have you been? Did you know I missed you? Did you miss me?

Lora hadn't asked much of all that when they'd last been in just this same place, and Haze fretted and frittered about it as they cleared away the Kapibas and Upas and Fliers that had cropped up since their prior visit - this was their main thrust, you see, to tidy up misbehaving wildlife and see about approximate workloads for rebuilding of the demolished off-side of civilization, once the war was closer to being over.

The last beast they tackled was a Buloofo, still stinking of the same blood as before, and here, minus their two trademark team cooks, was where the first squabble began.

"Well," Lora started, nervously clapping her hands together. "We've still got some of that Nest Extract left over, haven't we? I think I remember how to make Ruby-Stew Buloofo."

"You think?" Haze repeated. "My lady, I'm not sure that's ever served us so well before."

"Oh? Bad history with the culinary arts?" Addam's inquiry was friendly, if a little stupid-sounding, and embarrassed smiles shuffled over each face in turn until Minoth proclaimed that he was no top chef, but he knew how to throw things in a pot and make them edible. It sounded agreeable enough to all, and so what they ate was not quite Ruby-Stew Buloofo, nor even Ruby-Stew Buloofo DX, but something of a Ruby-Stew Buloofo QED - there, I've proved my point, haven't I? It's edible.

After dessert of spare Spicy Scorpion Cookies (these the most consistently craveable of Mythra's creative concoctions) and a cursory cleanup, Lora proclaimed, "Good work, everyone! I'm all adventured out."

"You must be tired after a day like that," came Haze's selfless agreement, and they settled back onto the logs again for low-energy chatter and perhaps a bit of bean-counting to boot. Lora really was just so tuckered, however, and was soon completely conked out, head resting on Haze's shoulder.

"Certainly not what I'd call a light sleeper," Addam pronounced with a smile. At that, Haze had to wonder, because everything she knew of the prince so far dictated that he was a solid a snorer as anyone, if not just all the rest. She kept quiet, however, and instead Minoth cut in with something of the same thought:

"Oh? And what does that make you, then?" The bright smile turned ever-so-slightly pained, and Addam nodded out his shame. But never you mind; the true invocation of our title is for later.

It was an interesting motive question, after all, and so Haze began to explain. "Lady Lora used to have nightmares about finding her mother in...less than pleasant circumstances. I think now that she knows she's at peace, she can rest at least a little bit easier."

"So is that why you're holding hands like otters in the river?" At this, Addam's countenance became an almost imperceptible pout, likely because he wouldn't have said no to imitating such a behavior. Minoth was right; their fingers were none-too-subtly intertwined, Lora's left hand pulled over her right to rest in Haze's lap.

"Lady Lora likes it when we hold hands while she sleeps," Haze said cheerily. Rather, Haze lied. Well, rather upon the rather, to be sure, Lora wasn't against the idea, and if she was conscious to be aware of it she'd probably be perfectly enthused, but it wasn't as if she'd ever bothered to make any sort of a deal with it with regard to Haze.

Of course, Haze had heard of what had gone on before her awakening. Always Lora and Jin, always Jin and Lora, always the perfect pair of father or brother or cousin or what have you to the perfect daughterial figure, and that truly was owed to the semi-aquine mustelidonious rodents' codependent pattern.

Jin, Jin, Jin. The Paragon, the perfect, the only one who mattered, never mind how elegant and ever-refined Haze could be. I hate to bring it up again - again, again, again - but it's the strongest thing that inflects her and Lora's relationship. No, Bechdel wouldn't approve, but it's Haze's mind I'm peering into and out of at the moment. We must know exactly what she is thinking.

And just what is she thinking? She's thinking that, in lieu of faith in the passage of time and the quelling of war to smooth out the inconsistencies in Lora's joint opinions towards each of her Blades, she may as well steal a little tender moment, here and there, and subconsciously plant the idea that Haze is here, Haze is real, Haze is soft and warm and, oh, all the things that she loves about her lady.

Still, back to the men. "Cute."

"Well there's no need to be rude, Minoth."

"Who's being rude? I said it was cute."

Haze, smartly, refrained from expressing her thanks.

The minutes wore on, and the fire carved deeper and deeper hollows into Minoth's face. Haze watched, hand still safely tucked around Lora's waist, as Addam poked a long-held just-thunk question at the scar and Minoth gave a weary smile and drummed his fingers in his lap to answer, and then she had to look away before she felt any more intrusive; the last stray traces of her gaze caught one face turned toward the other cheek, and the soft sound of a kiss immediately eaten up by the flickering flames.

What a sweet thing, a tender thing, here in the quiet woods. What Haze wouldn't give to have the same so easily - not so easily, because nothing's worthwhile if you haven't had to work for it and the process of its growth, but easily enough. Easier than this, surely.

All quiet. All rise, all fall, all die down to silence...in the woods. But for the mincing-milling Berryhoppers, they were the only things stirring.

The only things...apart from Everdark Erg.

The disturbance came crossfaded, the aforementioned flickering of the fire itself swallowed by the swooshing whisper of beating wings - four of them, to be precise. Minoth noticed it first, ears and eyes perked, and rolled his shoulder to apprise Addam and jostle him up from his resting place upon the same. Haze, drooping down to dozing herself, caught the prince's gentle call, and without a moment's hesitation shook Lora awake.

"Whuh- oh, Haze. Is everything alright?" Her smile was tired, of course, and Haze couldn't help but beam internally at the sight. "Yes, my lady," she reassured, "just a monster about."

Now Lora jerked up. "A monster? I thought we cleared them all!" Addam made a sympathetic noise, and Minoth provided his sage advice: "If there's one thing I've learned about varmints out in the wilds, it's that there are never as few of them as you think there are."

He went back to listening for further clues, and the implication was clear that all should keep silent as the dead for the moment.

Not that it worked, entirely. "Oh, gosh. I wish Jin were here."

It was muttered, but it was enough. Addam shot Lora a quizzical look, and in between raising eyebrows at Addam for the fact that he'd never do the same when it came to Mythra, Minoth cast wary eyes at Haze. He meant to reassure, that much she knew, but it still felt like an admonishment. How could you let this happen? Not that Master Minoth would ever say such a thing, because he was always the first to admit where Addam's failings brought him favor.

Rather, maybe he intended to say, "Here's your moment - there's your cue!" But Haze was too queasy to pick up on it. She nodded furtively, perhaps gulped, and picked at stray stitches on Lora's sleeve to calm, or perhaps just to rattle, them both.

Now, you may say, doesn't Everdark Erg roost just so malevolently at all hours of the day, perfectly present to disturb our travelers' rest before they had even got un-going? And I may say, yes. That's right - and good show, indeed! You're quite up on your snuff. But I don't care. For what it's worth, our debonair Mx. Erg does dabble in equal shares of perching and propelling itself through the air, signifying behavior aligning alternately to either hemisphere of the clock, but, quite simply, Quadwings aren't big enough to cast a shadow of perpetual darkness over just about anything. So let us let the name serve.

At a final nod from Minoth, they all stood, and that was synchronized enough. Lora twitched nervous fingers at her whips; Addam unbuckled his sword from his back; Minoth drew his knives, engaged the handle transformation, and flipped the guns over his fingers; and Haze...Haze just picked up her crosier. Up from where it had lain unsheathed. Simple, childish. If she hadn't felt it before, she was certainly feeling it now.

Of course, childish. "Is this to your liking?" "How about this?" Haven't you any confidence, fair maiden, dear child? Why aren't you just as intrepid, so intrepid, as your lady? Why don't you take what you want? Indeed, people won't remember you because there won't be anything about you to remember - no preternatural kindness to unset the brutality, no stark and inmitable countenance, not even a skill at making anything beyond pathetic little handicrafts.

Well...hey. Lora wouldn't want you to be so mean to yourself. Right, Haze? It's not her fault - really, it isn't! She's not mean-spirited in helping enact this pattern, however it's fallen out. She's just human - really, she's only human! - and things get...muddled, sometimes. But every day is a new chance, after all! A new chance to prove herself - without the sneaking hand-holding and the constant asks for approval.

So Haze charged in to the woods, remembering fondly despite herself the last time Lora had called out "Haze has really got it in for you now!" It had made her feel wanted, cherished, respected, and not just because Lora was her Driver. But that's not enough, is it, ladies? Like a wound well-healed, the sutures have to suit. You can't just stick a bandage on a hemorrhage and call it done.

"Stick on support, Haze!"

And there was the proverbial salt. Haze cut her walking short and attuned herself instead to the tromp of Lora's boots over the fallen leaves, the snick-snack crinch-crunch soundscape that always signaled her lady's combat dance. It was accompanied this time by two additional, heavier sets of feet, one nimbler and overall more mobile than the other, and thus to Addam and Minoth she looked.

They weren't even standing behind each other, more side by side. Each called out actions to the other, and somehow toed that miraculous line between commands and suggestions. It was never contention, never advice summarily dispatched with, only genuine care and concern for the other.

They smiled at each other, too. Breathy grins and endeared eyerolls, sheer gladness to be with the other man interrupted only by motion closer to take point or cover as the battle required.

They wanted each other. They needed each other.

Lora wasn't looking back. Lora never looked back.

Support. In other, nigh homophonic (dare I say homophobic? I dare), words, superfluous. Extra. Useless. Lady Lora - no, just Lora, for she's only a person - doesn't need me.

But back to the battle. The Quadwing - for that's all it was, certainly one of the most straightforward, static singular monsters they'd met - attacked in swoops and spats. For the most part, Lora held her own, with Addam and Minoth keeping most of the beast's attention, but occasionally it got one of its most peerless swipes in, and she was sure to have many a scrape to patch when all was said and done.

It still served their team balances and elemental affinities best for Addam to carry an Electro Greatsword, and Lora a Blazing Braid; combos were set perfectly well from a Flame Bolt start no matter which of her Blades she had in foremost rear guard. In this case, it was to be an Electrofire Storm, and as Haze moved through the motions of their beloved Starlight Strike, she noticed more prominently than she'd ever wanted to how Lora conducted herself through the paired attack.

Is it always or, is it never and? Haze thought. And she was exactly right in thinking it, because whenever Lora and Jin finished off Midnight Sun, they stood together, in perfect sync and parallel harmony. The end of Starlight Strike saw Haze in the back and Lora in the front - as ever, as ever, as ever.

"I need your help here, Jin!" she'd say. Not quite the same as "Haze, let's go!" One expressed vulnerability and the decision to ask for aid, the other was just...Haze. Because it wasn't exciting to attack with Haze. Haze didn't have a sword. What good is a Blade if they don't have a sword?

Was it pity? Did Lora only let her share in the spotlight because she knew she had to? Oh, it ate her up. And again, Haze reminded herself as she halfheartedly cast a healing wind over the other three, it wasn't Lora's fault. Lora was so good, so warm, so special - she'd never fail in this way. (And I mean that as the narrator, too - truly, what fault are we finding with Lora? Surely not one this colossal, not ever something of this horrible magnitude.)

The bird was prevalent, the bird was peerless. Minoth fell back, chest heaving, and gave a weak spin of his guns, but the buff found itself useless, because Addam never attacked, instead ducking back as well to lay a hand on the Flesh Eater's shoulder and ground his quivering knees.

But if they're back here, then...

"Lady Lora!"

Where was she? Where was she?! Haze looked around all three hundred and sixty degrees, including and using every constituent minute and second, but her Driver was nowhere to be found. "My lady! Are you alright? My lady!!"

Where was she? She was up. Up, up, up, caught in a violent Tornado Gust, and Haze couldn't do anything but watch her spin, launched as she was, as powerless to do anything as her Blade on the ground was--

No. No! This is your chance, Haze! This is what you were born to do - what you were made to do! With a sharp nod to Addam and a flick of her dominant wrist, she cleared the malevolent winds and brought Lora down with a supportive gust, pulling the both of them back just as he surged back in to scatter the musty midnight feathers to the otherwise absent wind.

"Urgh..." Not quite so dignified, for a lady, but she's allowed, isn't she? "So...dizzy..." Peering blearily around at the others, Lora tested her footing and began to move, somewhat mechanically, with them back to the campsite. And as soon as she was more stable...

"Lady Lora, why don't you ever let me take the vanguard? You could have been seriously injured!" If I hadn't been there...! So perhaps not so useless after all.

The words burst out of her with an immediacy she'd never known, but Lora only blinked a couple times as she received them. "Why, Haze...I just want to protect you. I hate to say it, but you and I both know you're not as strong as Jin, and I don't want you to get hurt."

"But..."

"Hey." Lora put a gentle hand out to cup the side of Haze's face and cradle her chin, and now it was the Blade blinking surprise. Her eyes darted to Addam and Minoth in the background: the former was standing proud with arms crossed, and the latter was leaning lazily upon him, arms around his shoulders, a doubly nonverbal thumbs-up in his eyes.

"I understand when you say I don't travel with you at my side as often as I do with Jin. That makes perfect sense, and you're right that I should give you better consideration. But it doesn't mean I'm going to endanger you - then what kind of a Driver would I be?"

"You'd be Lora, I think," put in Minoth, "because you just endangered yourself. What's all that I keep hearing about us being one in body and soul with you lot?"

"Hey!" Lora snatched her arms away just as suddenly in half-mock indignance. Haze mourned them, mourned them, and mourned them again. "And just where were you two big strong men when I got hit with that move?"

"Bit players, bit players, my lady," said Minoth airily, knocking his head against Addam's and joining in his prince's muffled laughter. "I know when the spotlight's not mine."

"Oh...you." But Lora was laughing as well, and Haze snatched up her unoccupied hands once more with abandon. "I appreciate you wanting to protect me, my lady, but will you promise not to leave me behind?"

"Oh, Haze." There was never a more quintessentially Lora gesture than a reassuring squeeze of fingers in palms, accompanied by the warmest, fullest, gentlest smile. "Of course I will - so long as you promise to stick close!" Hand in hand, even?

"Anything can happen in the woods, my lady." Oh, go on, Haze, buck up! It's what Lady Lora would do, after all - er, well. She'd say it, anyway. But she would say it! "May I kiss you?"