"Stare deep into my eyes," the village spirit woman intoned. "Take deep breaths. Inhale... Now exhale. Become one with the ground and the sky and Mother Earth." All of the goennecs relaxed, dropping their shoulders and leaving their worries behind. "Now stretch your back legs.".....
Packing up her yoga mat, Chocolate felt renewed, as she always did, by the tribe woman's calming voice. For a short period of time, she could forget her troubles, her heavy burden, and just be... there. Not wandering, looking for a purpose, not stressing, but rather, just being. She gathered up the mat and held it in her mouth as she stood up and began to head towards the door.
As she reached the exit of the rather extensive and renovated wooden hut, she was stopped by the sound of a voice behind her. "Wait up," the voice calmly called from behind her, knowing perfectly well that she had already stopped to wait. "How are things?" he asked, a small twitch of his head, the only sign of emotion. But Chocolate, having grown up with him since she was 3, knew that he was anxious about something. Making him tell her what however, would take a lot of convincing. Lining up a proper persuasion, she was just about to start talking, when he said, "I need to tell you something."
Surprised at, and barely managing to hide her shock at his openness, she nodded slowly. Clearing off a blossom covered bench, Floren slid to the farther end, making room for her to sit at the other. "Recently, you may have noticed that I've been... withdrawing, I suppose you could say." When she remained silent, he continued. "I... I found out some news about my father." Gasping, she couldn't cover her reaction. Shyly smiling at the corner of his mouth, he stated, "You know that I can read you just as well as you can read me."
Hanging her head, bashfully, a touch of a smile lit up her face, reminding her of when they had first met. It had been when she was only 21, and he was only 22. When they were in kindergarten, they both used to play at the kiddie park during their break between classes. Usually on opposite sides of the park, they never interacted much or did anything much besides basically acknowledge each other as classmates.
On one occasion, the popular Goennecs began to taunt him over his unorthodox views on an issue that Chocolate no longer remembered. Hearing the shouting escalate and ruin the perfect silence of her sand castle building, she walked over to the group of gather Goennecs. When they started to shout, "Fight! Fight! Fight!", she make one snapping remark and dragged the shell-shocked Goennec away by his horns. When he came back to his senses, he gathered his wits enough to thank her for what she had done for him. But after that, they began to drift away once more, back to their natural social status positions, silently ignoring each other once more, but now addressing each other with a slight appreciation. Yet, nothing came of it.
When she was 25 and he was 27, fate drew them together once again. For a small school assignment, Chocolate and the others in her class were randomly assigned to a partner to work with. Unluckily, she thought, Chocolate didn't get paired with any of her friends. On the other side, she considered with interest and and curiosity her partner, the older Goennec that she had saved from public humiliation two years ago. For a brief moment, she hoped he would remember her. Then she dismissed the thought. Why would he remember her when that had happened years ago. It was history. She had to start over fresh.
Walking across the room to him, she said, "So, I guess we're partners on the project. What topic do you want to research?" When he saw her, his face seemed confused, then lit up in recognition and... was it a hint of admiration? Slightly disturbed at the thought for some reason, she thumped her foot lightly on the mud floor, waiting for his answer. Slow coming, it seemed like it took an eternity for his reply. :Um..." he bit his lip. "Maybe marine life? Like by the coast?" Declaring the idea good, Chocolate told him goodbye and walked back to her desk thinking about what has just occurred. His idea was to go to the coast on the weekend and collect a few samples of animals living there. Seconding the idea, she agreed to go on a Saturday, in the afternoon.
So, at 12 in the morning, the sun found her by the shore walking along it's lengths, searching for her partner. She internally blamed herself for not telling him an exact spot to meet. The shore was miles long! She was about to give up when a voice behind her spoke, saying, "So you've arrived. I've been looking for you." Scared out of her own skin, she jumped in surprise and spun around to see her partner leaning casually against the post. His whole shy facade faded when in his true environment. She realized, somewhat unexpectedly, that he was a lot more talkative then he had let on. She soon began to enjoy the task of the project and found herself loosing track of time, talking and laughing like she had known him her whole life.
This time though, at the end of the project, they kept in touch. What had started as a simple incident had blossomed into a strong friendship. And years later, friends they still were. Brought back to reality, Chocolate shook her head to clear the influx of memories and concentrated on what he was saying. Not having noticed her memory trip, he was in the middle of talking.
"...And the thing is, there's no way I can find him." he added wariness and frustration mixing in his tone, shoulders slumped. "Knowing who he is hasn't even narrowed my search. Do you know how many Rolans there are?" Resting her hand on his shoulder, she said, "Don't give up hope. You'll find him. I know you will."
Three months passed in relative eventlessness.
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