05-12-06

Characters involved: Flaxpaw & Harper.

RW Abbey: Path by Great Hall

Flaxpaw saunters toward the abbey from the pond, looking thoughtful. She's apparently feeling a bit rebellious because she's traded the novice habit in for her old patrol uniform.

Harper is very rarely outwardly rebellious, and so he remains in his habit. When he appears from the kitchen patch, he is carrying a bucketful of water in each paw and his head is down as he concentrates carefully on not tripping himself in his sandals. The tip of his tongue snakes out the side of his mouth. It's his concentrating face.

Flaxpaw catches sight of harper and hesitates, then heads toward him slowly, shuffling in spite of her boots. "Harper?...you, um...need help there?" she sounds a tad hopeful.

At the sound of approaching footsteps, Harper glances up briefly, sees that it is Flaxpaw, and shakes his head. He looks back down, his headfur falling down over his eyes. Fff. "Hey, Flax. Nah, I'm all right. It's just these damned sandals, ya know?" He's headed in the general direction of the orchards, though he's slowed his pace to include Flaxpaw in his journey - should she decide to come along. "Did Majah Jarril call for a training session I didn't hear 'bout?"

Flaxpaw joins him, matching his pace. "couldn't stand that habit thing anymore....an, wot d'you mean about majah? training session?" she droops visibly. "haven't seen him in a long time..."

"Oh. I meant - ya know. Yer uniform. I figured there must've been a training session." He shrugs and grins, glancing sidelong at her. "Never mind. Better not let one of the brothers or sisters catch you out of that thing."

Flaxpaw shrugs. "yeah, 'cause that'd be a shame if they caught me lookin like a patroller, wouldn't it?" she looks over, a slight smirk on her face. "An they'd report me or somethin. That'd be a shame...." She looks down. "I can't do anything in those habits...."

Harper's eyebrows raise, and his grin registers something resembling pleasant surprise. "Not as much of a goody-goody as I thought, eh? What other wild secrets're you hidin'?" He shakes his head wryly, shrugs, and then nods, in quick succession. "But aye, I know whatcha mean. Just ain't very practical-like."

Flaxpaw looks surprised. "A goody-goody? Harper, you don't know? majah brough me along so i wouldn't get in more trouble. I don't have a recruit record anymore. he threw it away, said everythin from now on goes to the real record. He'll throw me out if i mess up again..."

Harper chuckles and rolls his eyes. "Yer going to tell me that getting drunk 'n' getting caught makes you a 'real, mean-arsed bad'un' like my dad would say?" He shakes his head. "I bet you felt reeeal bad about disappointing the major, dincha?"

Flaxpaw shoves her paws in her pockets and looks down. "didn't like disappointing him...but it wasn't just the gettin drunk..." she shrugs. "At least he paid attention when I was doin wrong, though."

Harper finally stops, setting the buckets down with an inadvertent sloshing of water onto the path. "Why're you so fussed about him, anyway? Really?"

Flaxpaw stops too and considers him. "Well...when he came to get me on the beach...he was, he was so brave. An, well, he always knows wot's right to do...." she sighs.

"Always? No one 'always' knows what's right t' do, Flax." He looks around and finds a stone bench along the path, which he drops down onto. He rests his forearms his legs, hunching forward slightly.

Flaxpaw goes to sit next to him, and looks over. "have you ever /talked/ to him? he's....just like an officer should be...."

Harper grits his teeth and for a moment doesn't respond. But eventually, he nods. "Yeah. I've talked to him. He's my major too, ya know. Been learning under him since I joined up, same s'you." He shrugs. "... So what'd he do for you on this beach or whatever you were talking about?"

Flaxpaw looks a little bemused. "thought everyone knew that. Stupid Flax gettin in trouble fightin a wildcat...again." she shrugs. "he was not real pleased when he foun me. Wandered away from the patrol I was out with. didn't mean it, though...."

Harper looks at least mildly surprised. "No /wonder/ he was so mad at you the second time. That's a lot of trouble fer a recruit."

Flaxpaw sighs and looks down. "yeah, well, that always seems to happen to me, you know? That's why the majah makes me feel so safe...you should have seen him makin things right. the wildcat an in the tavern when me an quint were drunk, an...here, too. When Marsuvees was...sick."

Harper's ears and whiskers have begun to droop. He stares down at the ground between his legs, nudging some pebbles with the tip of his sandal. "Yeah.... well. Sounds like he's a real swell guy."

Flaxpaw shakes her head, still looking down herself. "He doesn't like me, you know. He's nice an all, but....bucks never do like me. I'm not the sort..."

Harper's brow knits and he chances a glance up, with thoughtfully narrowed eyes. "The 'sort'? What 'sort'?" He frowns and shakes his head. "Pretty sure I'm a buck 'n' I was never given any 'sort'." Pause. Snort. "Would've made things a damned sight easier if they had."

Flaxpaw blushes a little as she tries to explain further. "well, that is...yeah, you're a buck, but..well, bucks don'- they don' /like/ me. I'm..like a buck myself, I guess. or somethin. I don' know, but, they don'. do they?"

Harper is staring at Flaxpaw with fair incredulity, at this point. His eyes flicker down and up in brief appraisal and he snorts. "Trust me, Flax, ain't no bucks mistaking /you/ fer a buck." As for the rest, he doesn't comment. Rather he stands, remembering his task with the water buckets. "Any self-respecting buck went 'round saying the silly doe things you say, he'd get his ears flicked right quick." He bends, retrieving the water buckets.

Flaxpaw looks up, not sure if she's been complimented, insulted, or a bit of both. "wot d'you mean silly doe thin's?" she stands too as though to continue on with him, ears bent toward him.

Harper's shoulders jerk in a shrug and a bit of water sloshes out. He mutters a curse and focuses on his task for a moment before responding. "Silly doe things. Like you just said. About the 'bucks never do like me'. All that..." Nose-wrinkle. "Talkin' about how you feel. Around /me/!" The horror.

Harper waves Flaxpaw's apology almost absently, his head down and seeming not even to notice her hurt feelings. "Nah - don't be. Like I said - wouldn't be a doe if you didn't go 'round saying silly doe things. Just..." And another nose-wrinkle. "Just don't go askin' me if bucks /like/ ya anymore. I don't know, 'n' I don't want to know, 'n' I ain't gonna find out for ya. /'Specially/ not whether or not the major likes ya..." And with a shake of his head, he continues toward the abbey pond in silence, allowing her to walk alongside him without any fuss.

Flaxpaw follows along beside him, looking down at the ground, thinking. "well...alright, Harper. woouldn't ask you to find that out anyway...." she glances out of the corner of her eye at him. silly doe things indeed. but, he's not the first buck to say things like that to her. sigh and silence as they walk.

"... Yeah, yeah. And don't look so glum about it, either." Because he /is/ looking at her out of the corner of his eye, now, and with a final snort he continues along in silence, doing his level best not to slosh any more water onto the path as they walk.

Created by Oklina