Vignette: Changes
When: Early month 9, turn 17
Where: Diving Cliff, High Reaches Weyr
What: Milani does some thinking about recent changes.
Just back from Ista, with the sun lingering long in the sky at the Reaches, Milani walked through the Bowl with her shawl drawn up around her shoulders. Her steps were leading her towards the diving cliff, the ledge that hung out over the lake where the daring could jump. Her skirts swirled against her calves, the fabric light and airy, almost too thin now as the seasons started to change in the mountains, still just right for Ista.
It had been a nice evening spent at the Sandbar laughing and talking, catching him up about the rigors of the tithing season for the lower caverns, sharing a meal from the bar's new kitchen and teasing each other the way they always did. It was an easy back and forth of poking elbows and tongues stuck out and old jokes made new again by their own cleverness. At least they liked to think they were clever and if they weren't really, it didn't matter. It was about being together and sharing the time and Milani was so very glad they didn't have to /hide/ it anymore. She could walk down to the Sandbar holding his hand now, lean her head against his shoulder in the broad light of day without sneaking around in the dark just to get a few precious minutes of his time.
The drawback of course was what he thought about it all and how it affected his mood. Which was to say that she didn't really know what he thought at all, because he wasn't really talking about it yet. She could be patient though when she put her mind to it and she knew it was just a matter of time before he made up his mind. About how he felt. About what he was going to do about it. She had her own fond wishes in that quarter that he was well aware of. Milani had said it bluntly of course, come right out with it as soon as possible after. He'd only smiled and kissed her and said something characteristically evasive. She hadn't brought it up again. He knew what she wanted, if he wanted the same, he'd come around to it in time.
Up on top of the diving cliff she tipped her head back to catch those last rays of the setting sun, let the breeze slip through her hair and she let out a long sighing breath, relaxed slowly into the moment. It was a beautiful sunset, all reds and pinks shot through with fiery orange as Rukbat slid down beneath the rim of the Bowl. Sudden twilight pervaded the airspace immediately below her and Milani smiled, seized with a sudden feeling of derring-do. Her shawl dropped to the surface of the ledge and she peeled out of her clothes, leaped out into the void.
Her body dropped and dropped, seemingly forever and the chill rush of the lake's waters was a distinct shock as she hit the surface. Down she went under the surface, bubbles coursing upward back along her point of entry. She let herself sink, then kicked strongly upwards to float on the blue, watching the sky slowly fade from periwinkle to indigo and then black studded with the white light of the stars.
Where: Diving Cliff, High Reaches Weyr
What: Milani does some thinking about recent changes.
Just back from Ista, with the sun lingering long in the sky at the Reaches, Milani walked through the Bowl with her shawl drawn up around her shoulders. Her steps were leading her towards the diving cliff, the ledge that hung out over the lake where the daring could jump. Her skirts swirled against her calves, the fabric light and airy, almost too thin now as the seasons started to change in the mountains, still just right for Ista.
It had been a nice evening spent at the Sandbar laughing and talking, catching him up about the rigors of the tithing season for the lower caverns, sharing a meal from the bar's new kitchen and teasing each other the way they always did. It was an easy back and forth of poking elbows and tongues stuck out and old jokes made new again by their own cleverness. At least they liked to think they were clever and if they weren't really, it didn't matter. It was about being together and sharing the time and Milani was so very glad they didn't have to /hide/ it anymore. She could walk down to the Sandbar holding his hand now, lean her head against his shoulder in the broad light of day without sneaking around in the dark just to get a few precious minutes of his time.
The drawback of course was what he thought about it all and how it affected his mood. Which was to say that she didn't really know what he thought at all, because he wasn't really talking about it yet. She could be patient though when she put her mind to it and she knew it was just a matter of time before he made up his mind. About how he felt. About what he was going to do about it. She had her own fond wishes in that quarter that he was well aware of. Milani had said it bluntly of course, come right out with it as soon as possible after. He'd only smiled and kissed her and said something characteristically evasive. She hadn't brought it up again. He knew what she wanted, if he wanted the same, he'd come around to it in time.
Up on top of the diving cliff she tipped her head back to catch those last rays of the setting sun, let the breeze slip through her hair and she let out a long sighing breath, relaxed slowly into the moment. It was a beautiful sunset, all reds and pinks shot through with fiery orange as Rukbat slid down beneath the rim of the Bowl. Sudden twilight pervaded the airspace immediately below her and Milani smiled, seized with a sudden feeling of derring-do. Her shawl dropped to the surface of the ledge and she peeled out of her clothes, leaped out into the void.
Her body dropped and dropped, seemingly forever and the chill rush of the lake's waters was a distinct shock as she hit the surface. Down she went under the surface, bubbles coursing upward back along her point of entry. She let herself sink, then kicked strongly upwards to float on the blue, watching the sky slowly fade from periwinkle to indigo and then black studded with the white light of the stars.