Two Belles

Nahimanah storms into her house the door slamming behind her…

In a rarely seen act of anger she flings her hammer onto the weapon rack…chastising herself for not being more forth right…

After all what was she expecting that all men she may travel with would have the same gentlemanly nature as her dear friend.

She paces back and forth across her living room and slowly the tension she has felt for the last hour begins to subside…

Reaching for a bottle of wine she shakily pours herself a glass not noticing the few drops that splashed out spilling on the rug.

With glass in hand she sits crossed legs on the floor in front of her bookcases.

Book after book is pulled down from the case, titles only glanced out before being piled to one side.

Finally reaching up she takes down a stack of guild documents…flicking through the booklets she finally pulls out the page on grouping etiquette, perhaps in here she will find some advice for dealing with such situations in the future…

Nahimanah begins to scan the pages but all too soon the words become a blur as she begins to reflect back over her conversation with her sister about Aiyanah’s travels with her dear friend.

She cannot help but to compare the two journeys as the vision of Aiya standing wet in the doorway forms in her mind.
Aiyanah’s state of merriment to one of annoyance for her…
Aiyanah’s laughter still rings in her ears as she told of hitting boxes to move them across the ship’s deck while he looked on and how she smacked him with chocolate cake for doing so…
Her poor efforts to navigate the stars while he patiently waited and how her sister rode across the plains for the first time without a care in the world for Aiya knew she would be protected from harm…

It was for the first time in her life that Nahimanah felt envious of her sister.