The Lake

Gemma stared at the empty air where Shi had been for a few seconds before her brain processed what had just happened.

"Omigosh!" she exclaimed, "C'mon Sen!"

They took off after Shi. Now Gemma was no novice at horseback riding, so she was quickly catching up to Shi within seconds.

'Just a little further and we can pass him, maybe, I think!' Sen told Gemma. 'Or her...whatever.'

'No, no!' Gemma exclaimed. 'I want him to win! Let him win! Please, Sen.'

Sen sighed, 'Whatever,' and slowed down a little to let Shi keep the lead.

Quietly, Lior slunk behind Alecis, trying not to be heard when a loud crack came from behind him.

Myrrh had stepped on a stick and broken it, alerting Lior to the fact that Alecis had probably heard it, and the fact that, like he would not be a good lawyer, it was also a far cry that Myrrh would ever make it as a spy.

'Myrrh!' Lior hissed, 'Whatever we've been doing to keep ourselves undiscovered, has all been for not!" Lior shook his head and fiddled with his collar, like he did when he was agitated.
'Um, sorry, Li, but we are in a forest.' Myrrh whispered. Lior could tell he was embarrassed.
'And with your tiny feet, somehow it was probable that they would land on an equally tiny stick and manage to snap it!'
Myrrh just snuffed and ignored him.

Just as the argument came to a close, Lior looked to the Ruins from feeling a gust of wind rush past him. He tried to look like he wasn't surprised, because he knew she could do stuff like that, but truth be told, he was surprised.

"Hi!" he said, waving to her, "What's up?"

"Trust me," Aven grinned, taking a step closer to him. "you're welcome. You're absolutely gorgeous." Aven wasn't really shy, and he had a tendency to go after what he liked. And that wasn't to say he necessarily had a thing for Rowan, he just thought he was attractive. "Sorry if I bother you with my forwardness."

Ra skittered down Aven's pant leg and sat on his shoe, so his snickers would be a little less audible. His clio really was unbelievable.
'Aven,' he whispered, through snorts, 'you're so ridiculous. You're scaring him, you goon!'
But Aven just ignored his daemon and put some of the cloth of Rowan's shirt sleeve between his thumb and forefinger, smiling like a fool.

Alecis smiled when Lior waved at her.

"Hey there!" She called, as she walked up to him, "Nothing much is up with me, what about you? It looked like you were looking for something."

As I beat her to the ruins, I laughed. Hazel rolled her eyes, 'It wasn't a fair race, you know that, right?'

'Of course it wasn't silly horse, I got a head start!' I rolled my eyes right back. Sometimes my dæmon was less than intelligent.

"That was fun!" I said in between giggles. "Do you want to keep riding horses? We could go to Froom if you wanted. There's lots of open space there. Or, we could just do whatever. My day is pretty boring, so I'm up for anything"

Oh. My. God. Aven was hitting on Rowan! How freaky. Charlie just nodded, "He is gorgeous, huh?"

'Wow,' Mae said, rolling her eyes.

'What was I supposed to say? "Back off, he's mine" wouldn't work too well. And Aven's my friend, I don't want to get angry at him. He doesn't know about us, it isn't his fault,' Charlie said, looking between the two. If it wasn't for Rowan and Charlie being together, she might consider Aven and Rowan being cute as a couple. :p

"Oh no, it doesn't bother me," Rowan replied, trying not to sound exasperated. He didn't want to offend Aven or anything, because he seemed like an okay guy and he was Charlie's friend. "No, it's actually very flattering and all." Okay, he definitely couldn't leave it at that. "It just doesn't feel right because I'm sort of seeing someone..."

Rowan had to try hard not to look at Charlie because that might give them away or something, but it was difficult, especially since she just agreed with that "gorgeous" comment.

Gemma was happy to see that Shi was happy, because all Gem wanted in life was to make other people happy.

"We can do whateeeeeever you want!" Gem announced, punctuating her sentence with laughter. "Froom Valley does sound fun though! We could race again!"

'No more losing on purpose,' Sen grumbled.

"Actually," Lior said, running his hand through his hair and smiling, "I was looking for you. It looked like you were upset, and I was hoping I could find out why." He said. "By the way, it's awesome that you can fly. Very impressive."

'Lior, you are ever the charmer. She does not look angry." Myrrh said in Lior's head, laughing a little. 'In fact, she looks happy to see you.'

Lior smiled again. "So." He said, stepping forward a little. "Y'allright?"

Aven smiled. "Well that's alright," he tapped the other again. "It doesn't change the fact that I think you're pretty." He bit his lip, grinning as Ra snickered some more on his shoe. He turned to Charlie. "I'm sure she's very lucky girl, because it's hard to ignore him." Aven tilted his head back and laughed. "I'd like to meet her one day. I'm sure she's beautiful."

Alecis couldn't help but smile.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking." She laughed, "I just wasn't in the best mood."

A tiny breeze blew the leaves around in the trees.

Rheis rolled his eyes.

"Awesome, we should ask some other clio if they want to come, too. We could have a big race!" I smiled.

And then I realized that not everyone's dæmon's could change form. D:

"Oooor, we could just go!"

Charlie couldn't help but wonder if Aven had figured it out. Was it obvious or something? They'd barely said a word to each other, but it seemed as if Aven knew she was the one dating Rowan. Whether he knew or not, she couldn't help but blush lightly, so to make it less obvious she continued looking at Aven.

"She is a very lucky girl, huh?" Charlie said with a laugh, going along with it. Whether or not he knew was a mystery, but she couldn't take any chances, so she acted normal.

"Oh yes, she's very beautiful," Rowan agreed conversationally, slightly amused at the fact that Charlie was right there, pretending he wasn't talking about her. He smiled. "In fact, I'm the lucky one, not her."

It wasn't obvious, but Rowan could tell Charlie looked a little uneasy about this whole conversation. But Aven didn't strike him as the inquisitive type, so Rowan was fairly certain that their secret was safe. And if not, well, he seemed like a genuinely good guy. He (hopefully) wouldn't judge them or anything.

"Great!" squealed Gemma, thrilled at the very idea. "Let's go!"

They rode off.

[Yeah, yeah. Lame post. Just letting you know that Gemma has left.]

"Well, I'm glad you're doing better, then." He smiled, unaware that it was possible that he was most oblivious thing on two legs. Of course that could also be good old baby brother talking to Charlie and Rowan. But he did notice that when the wind blew it picked up Alecis' hair and made her look even prettier.

Myrrh smiled at Lior's thoughts and clicked his tongue. 'Say something about what you think.'

Unconciously almost, Lior took another step closer to her, "You look pretty."

'You sounded like a lovesick thirdgrader, but it's better than the Lior I'm used to.' Myrrh mused.
Lior ignored him.

Aven brought himself back. "I'll bet she is." He smiled and a certain air around him seemed to change. He looked at Rowan and said, "That's very noble of you." He nodded, agreeing with himself and looked to Charlie, personality undergoing yet another switch back to his usual self. "Apparently it is not luck but destiny that brought her to Rowan. She was destined to have someone as...attractive," Ra snorted, "as Rowan." He laughed. Under Aven's hair, Ra teased him for being so goofy.

Alecis wasn't expecting it.

She blushed and smiled.

He was pretty, too. She was about to tell him so when her dæmon mentally jabbed her.

'[i]Differennnnnt Eilemaiiiideeeeeeeennnnnnnn. Don't go there, Lec. You don't want to do that, you know it.[/id]'

She did, and she didn't.

She pushed him out and went for it.

"You look pretty, too."


=]

Charlie blushed the lightest bit when Rowan said that he was lucky, but she tried to hide it the best she could. She watched as Aven called Rowan attractive again, and so she thought she might make this interesting.

"Yeah, with Rowan being so attractive, they must have a real good time together, eh?" she said with a laugh and a wink, along with a nudge of the arm. "I mean, I would want to if I were her." She smiled a bit, wondering how this would change the conversation some.

[[ Sorry, I'm really out of it. >< ]]

Rowan had been getting the impression lately that Charlie was wanting to take their relationship further (in the physical sense), and her statement right then kind of confirmed it.

Well geez, what the hell was he supposed to say to that?

'Tell them you 'have a good time together' every single night,' Nym suggested, amused. 'Just to get a reaction.'

At first Rowan was going to refuse, but then he thought, why not? It could be kind of interesting. "Every single night," he replied. Nym laughed telepathically.

Lior shrugged his shoulders, happy with the compliment. "Thanks!" He grinned, shoving his hands in his pockets and kicking the dirt.
'You big old goofball.' Myrrh laughed. 'You try and act all tough and tourtured soul, but we all know who you really are, you psycho.'
Lior ignored him. "So," he grinned. "Where ever you're off to, do you mind if I come along too?" He put his hand on Myrrh's back and felt his daemon twitch with contact. "I mean if you've got nothing better to do."

Aven jumped at the sudden disclosure of Rowan's personal life. He nibbled his lip, really wanting to blurt out, 'Jealousssssssss!' But he refrained, and laughed. "Well," he blushed, "I would assume it would be hard not to..." He grinned and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm really curious to know who it is."

"No, no. You should totally come," Alecis smiled.

"I was actually thinking about going to the mountains," Alecis said happily.

"Hey... have you ever flown before?"

Charlie laughed a little at Aven's response. "Yeah, very hard not to. I mean, the sex must be great with a good looking guy like Rowan, right? I wish I knew how good he was in bed," purposely sounding silly. She looked right into Rowan's eyes, a grin on her face.

"Yeah, Rowan. I'm pretty curious as to who it is as well. Everytime I ask him, he says it's 'top secret,' but someday, someone is gonna find out." Charlie hadn't realized what she had said until after she said it. Talking about someone else made it seem different, even though she obviously knew it was her. What she had said scared her, though. What would happen when people did find out? Oh yeesh...

For a second it seemed to Rowan that Charlie forgot she was talking about herself. He smiled a little; it was kind of funny. Though it was also kind of uncomfortable to have her and some guy he'd just met talk about their nonexistent sex life.

"Alright, enough about me," he said, wanting to get the attention away from himself. He looked at Charlie. "How about you, Charlie? Aren't you seeing someone right now?"

'This conversation is pretty hilarious,' Nym commented. For once, Rowan actually agreed.