20.Sep.12, 06:56 PM
Knocking? Who was knocking? Wasn't it still a bit early?
Staying true to his recent habits, Talian had skipped breakfast in favor of drinking an ocean of klah. He'd spent the majority of the morning rearranging his office, only to realize he hated it and rearrange it back the way it was before. It was a cycle of madness that he'd fallen into before, both at home and at Katila. Talian hated change. He liked his familiar space and his familiar arrangements with all his familiar things in familiar places, but sometimes Katila was so sharding boring that he felt the need to do something (anything) to keep him from going mad and doing exploratory surgery on himself.
And then, of course, the knocking.
"Yes?" Talian called out awkwardly, in the middle of shoving his last cabinet back into its familiar place. He wiped his forehead and moved to the middle of the room, only yo stop cold in his tracks at what he saw.
It wasn't just a dragonrider, it was a bronzerider. The evilest of the lot! The healer froze comically, blood running cold as he shrunk back ever so slightly. The fear was quite legitimate, but Talian managed to restrain himself from jumping out the window as he would have liked to. Animated responses didn't do much for him anymore. Instead, it was a quiet fear accented with only a brief recoil.
"Yes, sir?" he asked, speaking in the same reserved, soulless tone he'd used on his teachers back home.
Why was a dragonrider calling him 'sir' and bringing him food? The boy's pessimistic side assumed the 'sir' was a mockery. How badly Tal wished he hadn't dropped his damn knots on the floor during the previous summer! He wasn;t so paranoid to assume the damn bronzerider was there to poison him or whatever, though. So the healer dropped his guard slightly, cleared his throat, and willed himself to speak.
"Um, certainly," he said, meek. He tried to appear confident, but no amount of personal revelation could mend his inability to hide his emotions, it would seem. He'd changed quite a lot, but he still feared dragonriders. The only difference now? He wasn't actively wishing death on the man.
That didn't mean he thought he was safe, though.
Tal inched hesitantly towards his desk. "What can I do for you, sir?"
Staying true to his recent habits, Talian had skipped breakfast in favor of drinking an ocean of klah. He'd spent the majority of the morning rearranging his office, only to realize he hated it and rearrange it back the way it was before. It was a cycle of madness that he'd fallen into before, both at home and at Katila. Talian hated change. He liked his familiar space and his familiar arrangements with all his familiar things in familiar places, but sometimes Katila was so sharding boring that he felt the need to do something (anything) to keep him from going mad and doing exploratory surgery on himself.
And then, of course, the knocking.
"Yes?" Talian called out awkwardly, in the middle of shoving his last cabinet back into its familiar place. He wiped his forehead and moved to the middle of the room, only yo stop cold in his tracks at what he saw.
It wasn't just a dragonrider, it was a bronzerider. The evilest of the lot! The healer froze comically, blood running cold as he shrunk back ever so slightly. The fear was quite legitimate, but Talian managed to restrain himself from jumping out the window as he would have liked to. Animated responses didn't do much for him anymore. Instead, it was a quiet fear accented with only a brief recoil.
"Yes, sir?" he asked, speaking in the same reserved, soulless tone he'd used on his teachers back home.
Why was a dragonrider calling him 'sir' and bringing him food? The boy's pessimistic side assumed the 'sir' was a mockery. How badly Tal wished he hadn't dropped his damn knots on the floor during the previous summer! He wasn;t so paranoid to assume the damn bronzerider was there to poison him or whatever, though. So the healer dropped his guard slightly, cleared his throat, and willed himself to speak.
"Um, certainly," he said, meek. He tried to appear confident, but no amount of personal revelation could mend his inability to hide his emotions, it would seem. He'd changed quite a lot, but he still feared dragonriders. The only difference now? He wasn't actively wishing death on the man.
That didn't mean he thought he was safe, though.
Tal inched hesitantly towards his desk. "What can I do for you, sir?"