How To Get Rid of a Gloomy Cloud

[Laurë Eledhwen]

Since the past three days, Laurë hadn’t been very cheerful. She stayed in her room to get some rest cried here and there and never went out for a meal; her uncle had to be the one to force himself in there to make sure she was fine and also to make sure that she ate at least the minimum. It was the afternoon now and Laurë wasn’t as lively as she used to, her uncle seemed to worry about the fact that she always remained in her bedroom which was why he came in and gently told her that she needed to find things to change her mind like seeing Sorsha or to do something that would keep her mind busy.

She wasn’t all happy at the idea and tried to say that she would be fine staying here but soon enough, she found herself dressed with a cloak, and outside of the shop. She blinked at the sun for it had been a while since she had been out and watched everyone having their busy lives, wandering in streets, shopping here and there as well as kids running around. The loud town. She sighed and frowned as she made a few steps towards the street, she guessed that a walk would prevent her to think of her hometown.

She began walking, not quite sure of where she wanted to go. Her mood of the moment didn’t help her much to say the least that is why she decided to just follow her feet for about a half hour to find herself back to where she used to do some archery. Ah, this could be a good idea.

She grabbed a nearby bow, someone came to her to give her arrows; knowing her skills after the last time she came, the man surely wanted to see this again. However, seeing her gloomy attitude he didn’t stay near her but still kept a eye on her with the corner of her eyes. It was better like that, she could focus on something and not worry about anyone else around. She took a deep breath as she prepared herself to shoot, took a good fifteen seconds to focus and soon, the arrow was in the middle of the target.

[Aldamir]

Sorsha knew she had to give her friend some time. The shock of what happened was still much too present and Laurë needed to cope with it all, to accept the horror of it and that life had to keep on. But three days passed and she still had no news of the girl. She had grown worried about her but in the same time, she coudln't do much, since she had no idea where Laurë lived. All she knew was that she had a job, helping out a rather well-known dressmaker. And that her cousin was a jeweller. But there wasn't just one in the entire city.

For all those reasons, when Aldamir said he was leaving the house and go train, she decided to have him drag her to Laurë cousin's shop. He wasn't so keen about it but Sorsha wanted it so much and pestered him until he gave up. Anyway, there was no harm in showing her the store. He walked her there but before he could leave, she entered, dragging him in. Keann however had no idea where his cousin was. He said he saw her go out a few minutes ago, less than an hour for sure.

When they left, Sorsha was desperate. She ahd no idea where her friend was and Aldamir sure wasn't helping. It was getting on his nerve to be dragged along and all and s he ditched his sister, claiming that he didn't know Laurë all that much, that he wasn't her friend and so had no idea where she could be. Truth be told, he just didn't want to think about it. He was glad she was alive, but he had other things to worry about. Sorsha was pissed at her brother's attitude, even if she knew ti was legitimate. The two never liked each other, they didn,t know one another either. And in such a big city, it was normal that Aldamir wished not to start looking for one single person. So she left on her own, but she was still cursing at him in her head for leaving her alone to look for her friend.

Little did Aldamir knew that he'd find her. But he did for, as he entered the large courtyard where the guards trained and rested, he saw her, shooting arrows at a target. He sighed and, staring at the girl, wondered if he should be gettign his sister or not.

[Laurë Eledhwen]

When she was having her mood slowly changing with her shooting arrows, she didn’t know that Aldamir was to be around. Sure he was to be expected around but she hadn’t seen him so what was the big deal? Besides, it’s not like if they had been yelling at each other recently. The change of attitude made her feel good a little and she even started considering not being all this annoying at him.

She kept on focusing on her targets and shot these arrows. As soon however, as her mind focused to the war, she shot right next to the middle spot. She blinked; what was that? She never did something like this...shooting this far away from the middle of a target. She frowned and grabbed another arrow trying to see what was going wrong with her skills. The next one went back to the middle but the one after, went further away, yet, still on the target.

She sighed, settling the bow down as she went to study her down skills. She really need to forget about what had happened and she knew that she eventually would but for now, she knew that she needed to find something to do that would make her feel better, what? Perhaps she could give more of a focus to the target and less of her life. At least, she didn’t look like a beaten woman anymore like she used to three days ago. Her back was still fragile but it was to be expected considering what had happened to her, the pain wouldn’t go easily however, the cut on her leg started to be painful and she had to force herself to sit on a nearby bench. She rested the bow next to her meaning that she wasn’t inclined to speak with anyone she didn’t know. She stared at blankly at the target she missed thinking that she might as well go back to her room and sulk.

[Aldamir]

Aldamir saw her shooting the arrows one after the other. He knew her skills, he was there last time, and so it had nothing surprising to him. He frowned however when she missed, and than another time. One almost didn't hit the target. He wasn't really disappointed in her. The other guards were wondering what went wrong all of a sudden with her, but he knew the truth and could easily understand why she missed at a not so big distane at that. The real surprise was more than she didn't miss more than that.

He saw her walk away and sit on a bench. She didn't look good. Better than before, yes, but still not good. The pain was far from gone. Then again, if it had been him who lost his mother, before his eyes, he doubted he'd feel good either. He walked in direction of the bench, making a shadow over the girl as he stopped before her. "Not bad, considering..." he said, not adding since he douted she'd like him to put in words what she was still having before her eyes.

After a moment, he sat down on the bench next to her, silent. He took a deep breath's starng at her target. "I doubt anyone would have been focused enough to even shoot one arrow were they at your place." he said, breaking the silence that was installed between the two. he turned his head towards her. "Sorsha's looking for you." he told her.

[Laurë Eledhwen]

Laurë then lowered her head glancing down at her leg hoping that she wouldn’t be as screwed as she already was. No matter how often she claimed that she was strong it spoke a lot about her. Though it could be seen as her being strong, for she survived such a war and even killed an orc but for now, it wasn’t something she was proud of it. She still needed some time.

However, talking of Aldamir, a shadow covered her from the sun, which made her raise her head to see who it was. She stared at him, thinking that if he wanted to school her well, he could go screw away but strangely, he didn’t. She had to admit that she had more respect for him since last time but that didn’t mean that she would tell him right away. It might just make it even more awkward than it already was.

She heard him speak and gazed at him nodding as he spoke and muttering a thank you. It was weird for her to say such things at him while usually she considered him to be a jerk, she happened to be wrong...at least for now. “It distracts me from this.” She simply said not with an usual loud voice but a calmer and softer one. Oh right, Sorsha...she looked back at him as he metioned of her name. The girl must be worrying. “I’ll see her later tonight.” She said not quite ready to face the girl once again, knowing how much she was worrying.

[Aldamir]

Aldamir raised an eyebrow when she said that it distracted her. He couldn't beleive it! even now, after all that she went through, she was playing the tough girl in front of his. Did she not recall that he saw her crying, breaking down litterally? Plus, you could ahrdly say it was distracting, more like haunting. To see her trying to look tough just annoyed him in fact, it rubbed him off the wrong way.

"I can't believe it, I'm trying to be nice, to tell you that you're getting better and you play the tough girl! You really just can't drop it, can't you? And here I was having sympathy for you." he let out, completely flashign her comment about his sister. Anyway, he wasn't thinking about her anymore. He just couldn't believe that Laurë was so uanble to admit she could be vulnerable that she had to look tough and say that the vision of her mother dying was only 'distracting' her.

He raised from the seat at stared at her, once again hiding the sun from her and casting his shadow on her small person. "It's normal to be broken after what you,ve endured, no one is expecting you to be all strong and able to move mountains! There's nothing weak in feeling demolished after this."

[Laurë Eledhwen]

Here she thought he was actually being nice to her, the mood changed drastically when he started ranting about her way of acting. What did he think? The nerves he had to do so! She felt like punching him in the face so bad; did he have no respect? Trying to be nice...RIGHT. She should’ve guessed he wasn’t that kind of man and there she thought she was going to have some respect for him. WELL he could forget about it!

“You think I’m doing this for fun? Are you serious?!” She exclaimed shooting him a death glare. He didn’t deserve her respect anymore. He was being a pain in the neck and would always remain one. “I don’t have a family unlike you who would support you whenever something bad happens! I have always been on my own and being strong is the only thing I got to help me go through this!” She was literally pissed at what he told her. He didn’t know any of her past to judge her that way. He was having a nice and easy life unlike her and there he gave himself the rights to tell her that.

“I don’t hide the fact I’m broken! I’m moving own my own way.” She snarled at him feeling an urge to grab an arrow and stab it in his hand.

[Aldamir]

He had a cold laugh when she replied at him. He wasn't cold, but he just hated her guts. He preferred the sad Laurë. "You still have family. Why do you think your uncle came to my house to pick you up. You'r enot alone, but you prefer to be. Anytime someone is trying to come close to you, you bite them. You don't like having people around, you don't like to admit you need others sometimes. You want to be on your own, well you force it on you!" he replied.

Aldamir passed a hand over his face, unable to believe that, for one second, he felt bad for her. He was ready to help her out, but she preferred to shrug the matter off. He stared at her, wondering if she was blind with her pride to look strong and independant. "Look around yourself. Everyone is trying to help you out. Your uncle, your cousin, Sorsha, my family, even me! All those who know you want you to get better but you just want to act liek you don,t need us. No, you're strong, if you can't shoot well, it's because you're distracted. If you're feelign down it's just a little grey cloud passing. You don't need us, you can get over it by yourself. What was I thinking?" he let out.

Trunign his back at her, willing to leave, he froze seeing people staring at them. Their arguement sure diddn't go unnnoticed. But no one really knew what happened to her and wondered why they were fighting. They had no idea what was going on between the two. Aldamir stared hard at them, to show he was not willing to say anything of the amtter to them. Seeing this, they left a little and let him pass without a word.

[Laurë Eledhwen]

Laurë couldn’t believe what she was hearing. How did he even dare to tell her such things! He didn’t even know her for God’s sake. Sure everyone tried to help her but couldn’t he just try to understand one bit how she felt? But of course, no one really abandoned him at a young age. He didn’t know how hard it could be for her to open up while those who could possibly get to know her always ended up gone, or dead if you considered her mother.

Her eyes watered up once he was down his little mister perfect speech. He wanted war? He would have it. “Do you think you’re better than me?!” She asked him raising her voice not even minding the fact that he was with his guard friends. They could all go screw at the moment. She was just not going to allow someone like him to step on her like that.

“I have noticed how you acted; always trying to be perfect! That will never work out!” She said angrily while standing up. “You will end up like a grumpy old hag for the rest of your life if you don’t learn to loosen up! But do you think I would care? Of courseee not!” she spat at him starting to storm of away from the group who had been started to form as they watched their little show. “Rabryn was right; you NEED to get laid.” She muttered under her breath.

[Aldamir]

Sure he didn't know her all that much, be he was able to see that everyone was making an effort and she wasn't seeing it, nor thanking them for it. It wasn't like they had nothing else to do, or that they had to serve her. They were doing it in a friendly gesture, because they liked her. But nothing was coming from her. And nothing would, as long as she'd go on with the oh-so-strong attitude of hers. She was but a little lost girl in the dark and she refused to admit it because otherwise she'd be paralyzed by fear.

When she caught up with him, he was unablanced one moment by her watery eyes. Perhaps it was finally coming through and she'd let go. But then her gaze hardened. There was no pain in there, only hatred. His jaw clenched as she started to yell at him. Oh great, another one telling him to loosen up! And what did she know about him!?She didn,t know him, she had no idea how he was relaxing, loosening up. He was! He liked to go to teh tea shop he broght her, he was going to the healing houses sometimes, he was taking walks, he was playing with his little brother... he was doing a lot of things but it wasn't the way usual people were 'loosening up'. It didn't count, especially for a girl like her whose pleasure in life was to annoy everyone and meddle in her cousin's love story.

But what he couldn't believe she said, was that he needed to get laid, jsut like Rabryn said. Ofg course, his brother was saying this only in a teasing way, in family, not in front of everyone in the armory. He was litterally fuming now. He was about to come at her with somethign else that someone yelled "What is going on here!?"

The entrance door was open in a slam, letting the chief of the guards enter. He was not pleased by this ruckus. The man was already scary in his good days so now he was absolutely terrifying. He stared hard at his men, but none dare say something. His gaze finally fell on Aldamir, who lowered it quickly, and the young girl. The man's eyes narrowed as he approached the two. "If you have problems with your girlfriend Aldamir, you will do so outside these walls. I don't want any of this here. And that,s worth for both of you." he said loud and clear of his stentor voice, staring just as hard at Laurë for yelling as much as he might have done. "I suggest you get out before I kick you both so hard you won't be able to sit for a week!" he added. Aldamir muttered a yes sir and started to walk away from the building.

[Laurë Eledhwen]

Laurë was about to add something else but soon a large and imposing man approached on the field. She blinked as he mistook her to be Aldamir’s....girlfriend. Seriously?! How could anyone even think that they were close to dating. Geez, that was probably the last thing that would come out in her mind while thinking about someone like Aldamir.

However, she didn’t say anything and nodded doing the same, remaining silent though until they both got out. A small smirk appeared onto her lips as she started chuckling. “Your girlfriend.” She muttered under her breath. Yeah right; as if it would be any kind of possible. Hell would be frozen if it was going to be the case! It’s not like if they were close to sharing love, they were far from that. It was quite of a funny thought; as if she could be lovey dovey with someone like him. He was too stuck up even though for a few seconds she almost considered him to be a good person.

Still, it made her feel better, a little. Who would’ve thought an argument was to raise her mood up. Oh the irony. The more she thought about it, the more she chuckled and even started giggling. “How would it even be possible?!” were the only words who came out after that. The man must be blind; there had no explanations about this. Anyone else knew that they shared hate, not love!

[Aldamir]

Aldamir left without even looking if Laurë was following him. He wouldn't mind if she didn't after all. He just couldn't stand her anymore. He hated everything in her: her guts, the way she was making fun of people, her attitude, how ungrateful she was... it was to a point that right now he would even be able to tell people she was the ugliest girl ever. That wasn't exactly the truth but it showed how much 'love' there was between the two.

He soon heard her behidn him. He frowned, unable to understand how she could be chuckling though. Turning around, he saw her, laughing at the chief's mistake. They took for lovers and that was hilarious for her. She even wondered how it was possible for someone to msitake them for lovers. He didn't know why but he felt a little insulted by it. Of course, she jsut said he needed to get laid, hence get a girl. So this comment made him feel that she meant it was impossible to imagine anyone with him. Even if she was the last person on earth he'd like around him, he disliked being told no one would want of him.

"Perhaps if you stop going after me all the time people will stop to think we're together." he grumbled under his breath. In other circumstances, he mght have found it funny, that his chief thought she was his girl. But that she laughed at it so easily... She drained all his energy for a second round but he still felt grumpy, annoyed.

[Laurë Eledhwen]

Laurë blinked at his words. Going after him all the time? Wasn’t he the first one who came after her in the first place?! He was hard to follow and it was annoying at times. Scratch that, it was always annoying. “Should I remind you that you’re the one who came for me earlier?” She pointed out not wanting to be him right on these points because he was obviously wrong. How could he even think that she was to always come after him? She didn’t come to his training field because of him; she came to practice her archery.

Besides, he was the one who told her to go straight to the points and that’s what she was doing with him. “Anyways, where is Sorsha? I need to talk to her” She said having a more serious expression this time. Sure he didn’t help her mood, but she had to go and speak with Sorsha, knowing Jossian, he’d want her to help him out and make something for her family as a thank you. She wouldn’t mind they didn’t deserve it. However, she wasn’t going to say anything about this to Aldamir even if it would talk back at him when he mentioned she never saw those who were helping her. It wasn’t completely true.

Her body ached a little but for now she could deal with it. Knowing her friend, she might as well worry to death once she knew that she wasn’t at home. She wanted to reassure the girl; she was her only true friend and she didn’t want to spoil their friendship because she had locked herself for three days in a room.

Not to add that she was done speaking with him once she would have an answer. It was his problem if he was too stuck up for his own good. She wasn’t the one who could make him open his eyes considering no matter how often she told him. Yup, he would end up grumpy and alone if he kept on that way.

[Aldamir]

He arched an eyebrow when she stated he was the one always coming after her. Yeah right. It wasn't as if he went training knowing she was there. Had he known about it, he would have found another activity to do. He was forced by her side. He was a guard, it was normal for him to go to the training field, not her. And she was friend of his sister and everyone always got him to bring her back home. And the only times he went to talk to her, well she was doing something stupid and he had to fix that. Plus this time, the only reason he talked to her was to warn her his sister was looking for her friend. If he could stop seeing her, it'd be fine with him. For she was abrasive. That girl was immature and it was high time she learned how to behave around people!

Speaking of hsi sister, Laurë asked where Sorsha was. Aldamir first shrugged. They both separated when he left to go to the training field. She could be everywhere. At this thought he frowned and looked around him, as if she could be there, searching for them like a lost child. But she obviously wasn't there. Now he started to worry. Sorsha had this bad habit, like someone he knew, to think she was stronger than she was. Sure she was vey good to talk back at people, but if someone decided to attack her, she was mch too small and frail to fight back. Again, like someone he knew and refused to see. Those two were way too much alike.

"She... we separated after we went to your cousin's shop." he said, a bit of worries showing in his voice as he suddenly felt bad for leaving her alone. But he had nothing to feel bad about. She knew the city, how to defend her relatively well, she knew the guards and they knew her... plus he warned her he was going to train and had no time searchign for her friend. "She went looking for you on her own, she must be doign all the palces you usually go to." he pointed out. But he had no idea how many there were, where they were. They couldn't just go from one point to another in hope of falling on her some time. He sighed, suddenly wishing he followed her instead.