Created Thursday 10 November 2022
The next day around noon, Khazhek wakes up in his bed, alone. Someone had bandaged his hands, but the bandages are perfectly clean. They healed overnight, but they now have some nasty scars.1 Naya walks in to check on him, not expecting to see him awake and sitting up. She rushes over and gives him a hug before sitting so they can chat. After some back-and-forth teasing, Khazhek asks about Ishamel. Ishamel woke up earlier in the day, but he’s in a much worse state. Not because of Khazhek, instead he’s got a lot of sprained and pulled muscles and everywhere else is sore with overexertion. Also, Ishamel can’t remember a single thing about the day before, saying at most it felt like he was still asleep and dreaming until he woke up in pain being told he tried to kill Khazhek. Khazhek wants to visit him, but Eŕe comes in to chat about what happened, how Khazhek is feeling, etc, and he remarks on Khazhek’s claws2. After a bit, Khazhek can stand up, but it hurts. He can walk though, so he goes around making sure everyone knows he’s okay. The hunters offer to give the kids an assignment as a final test which Eŕe and Kherin immediately object to because of what happened the day before, but Khazhek and Naya want to do it and Khazhek suggests Eŕe and Meridan go with them to make sure everything goes well. Eŕe thinks for a moment and agrees, which starts an argument between him and Kherin, who eventually relents because he trusts Eŕe. They hang out for a week, mostly to recover. Khazhek spends the time chatting with Meridan and Naya, teasing, joking, getting drunk in the local town, smoking pot because that exists. Ishamel spends the entire time brooding and avoiding Khazhek, not even looking at him.
The night before they head out, Khazhek heads a knock at his bedroom door, opening it to find Ishamel, looking like he hasn’t slept yet either despite it being only a few hours to sunrise.3 Ishamel still can’t look at Khazhek, but they have an awkward conversation about the trip. Just before Ishamel leaves, he hesitantly apologizes before rushing off.
Eŕe reveals the assignment to them that day, a maligned that they should be able to handle, perhaps with a little trouble. Frost aligned, decent at throwing spikes of ice around and maligned manipulation, known for going to people’s houses and stealing everything, sometimes murder.
Khazhek and Ishamel get along during this trip, showing us they can be friends and that Ishamel feels some guilt for things he’s done. Naya proves to be fully immune to mental manipulation if she’s set on something, while Khazhek and Ishamel have trouble resisting it. During their fight, we see Khazhek bleed fire for the second time, but willingly for the first time.4 The maligned they were hunting just barely gets away. Their mission was actually more successful than the hunters originally thought upon their return; the kids had weakened their quarry enough for the hunters to find them and dispatch them easily.
Most of this chapter is character relationship development. Here we see Naya and Khazhek are very close and always have been, that Ishamel and Khazhek can get along, and that Khazhek really wants to fix this relationship. We see Ishamel feeling some guilt, convincing himself he doesn’t deserve to be happy, but also convincing himself that Khazhek doesn’t deserve what he’s got and Ishamel would be happy if he never had a twin. We also see how protective and caring Eŕe is for these kids. Khazhek gets beat in a spar for the first time by Naya, who surprises him by tackling him to the ground.5 This chapter covers a few months.
Afterword for Chapters 1 and 2: I haven’t developed these chapters as much as other bits, and you can tell because I’m not remembering the details as readily. Honestly, I haven’t really thought through chapters 1 and 2 haven’t in a while. This is a much more organized version, which is good.
Chapter 2 is a slower, more character focused chapter compared to the first. The end fight isn’t as big a deal.