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Archive for baya
9 results.
on March 23, 2019
at 12:00 am
Ring ring ring
on October 5, 2019
at 12:00 am
False flowers
on October 12, 2019
at 12:00 am
A tip
The hulking tree of a sylvari grunted from behind Baya in response as she went on.
“And he’s real protective of me, see? Don’t like sharing.”
Tora still remembered the feeling of sweat forming on the back of his neck, Darach’s shadow looming over him, and the slow creep of heart break as he realized how silly his feelings for Baya had been. He hadn’t anticipated what would happen later. How Baya would lead him to her room while no one was watching. How Darach was asleep barely a foot away. How he’d begged her not to. How she didn’t listen.
….Baya had surprises.
She’d tell him later how she couldn’t help it, that she needed it, and that Tora made her feel more alive than Darach ever did. She’d tell him of Darach’s cruelty and possessive abuse. He believed every word, even if he wished she’d…
Tora slumped against the wall, finally breaking his gaze from the staircase. She hadn’t done anything like that since, and Baya was often so sweet when they were alone. Maybe she got it out of her system? What she really needed was help. The whole guild did.
It was knowing this that kept Tora so convinced to make things work. It was a guild of broken and hurt people, but Tora was broken and hurt too. Maybe things were uneasy now, but he could change that. He just needed to try harder, and with time… Maybe he could make them laugh? Bring some fun back into their lives. Maybe make a community of them, a place to belong, a family.
He’d certainly been trying to: cracking jokes or trying to start conversations here and there. Usually his attempts were met with wary looks and uncomfortable silences. Only once did it seem like he’d broken through to someone, but… Tora gave a cautious glance at the tall willowy figure of Ebril standing across the room. He remembered how friendly Ebril had been, the excitement he felt to finally be talking with someone. Then how quickly that changed, and Ebril was suddenly too friendly, his voice too sweet, and his hands too… touchy. He remembered Baya, grabbing at Ebril’s wrist and tightening her grip till it made an audible snap. She smiled as she did it, the way she always did.
“Ya can’t be so friendly with em,” she told Tora later. “They’s good weeds, but they’s still weeds. You act sweet and sugary while yer still a fresh sap and they’ll eat you alive.”
That wasn’t something Tora wanted to believe, so he kept trying anyway. Just maybe not with Ebril. And only when Baya was around. It just… felt safer.
She’d be back soon, or he hoped she would. Today he’d meet more members of the guild, and that meant new chances. They couldn’t all be wary and cold or strangely too sweet. He’d reach someone. He just had to try harder.
And so he tried.
When Baya returned with two members he hadn’t yet met, Tora nearly sprung from the wall to greet them. There was Zed, a rather bushy looking fellow, and Pepper, a sleek-looking young sylvari with a face full of bright green foliage. He peered down at Tora with two bright purple eyes peeking out like small gems from beneath his leafy brows.
“Wow! You have beautiful eyes!” Tora’s eager voice sung out loudly. The room fell silent as all eyes turned to Pepper whose face flushed with embarrassment. He mumbled something in response and looked away as a few of the thieves laughed. Tora’s heart skipped a moment – he’d gotten a response! He felt such a thrill he hadn’t noticed Baya’s smile waver ever so slightly.
Pepper disappeared after that day.
Baya too, was gone. No one could tell Tora why, nor did they seem particularly interested. She showed up a day later but offered Tora nothing as far as where Pepper went.
Then Pepper showed up three days after that, and Tora’s heart sunk at the sight of him. His right eye had been gouged out of his face with what looked like a knife. There were several cuts across the right side of his face besides, healing but swollen. The green foliage that covered his face only covered half now, with every leaf near his wounds either gone or wilting into an ugly purple.
Tora felt his skin go cold as he studied the cuts on Pepper’s face. He could almost feel the dagger that made them, smell the poison they were dipped in that made Pepper’s leaves wilt so… see the sculpted rose on the dagger’s hilt.
*
“Why did you do that?”
Tora asked her when they were alone later, out in the swamp where no one could see them. Baya didn’t look at him.
“Do what?”
“Baya, you cut his eye out! And his face, he-” he felt sick. “That was your own special poison. He’s never growing anything back.”
“What did you expect me to do?” Baya asked cooly. She still wouldn’t look at him, idly tossing rocks across the water. “‘Beautiful eyes’, you said?”
“W-What-”
“Can ya blame me?!” She finally looked at him, fire burning behind her eyes. “What am I t’do with ya?! Yer so ready to jus throw sugar at the drop of a copper! I leave ya alone for five minutes and ya go off flirting with jus anyone! Yer no better than HE is!”
That stung.
“I’m not-”
“Yer not?! I already got me a weed who tells me lies and goes off t’be sweet on others, I dun need another!”
“I’m not Darach!”
“Do ya even love me? Why should I believe ya, when yer so quick ta tellin’ sweet things ta jus any young thing?!”
“Of course I love you, Baya, please!” His voice was pleading, how desperate he wanted her to believe him. “I love you so much it hurts. I… You’re my everything.”
He reached for her hand and held it tight. Her shoulders slumped.
“Always such sweet words. How am I s’posed t’stay mad at you?” She stroked his cheek with her free hand. “That’s the trouble with you though. Yer a real charmer. Don’tcha get it? Even if ya don’t mean nothin’ by it, it don’t mean others don’t get the wrong idea. What am I s’posed ta do?”
He hadn’t thought of that… He remembered Ebril with his too touchy hands. Had that been his fault? Was he really so clueless? And Baya… he thought of the staircase leading to her room, felt his shoulders shake from the fear he had felt back then… was that why she?
“And I can’t help it,” She sighed. “Yer words drip with nectar and I want every drop fer myself. Yer a real charmer, Tora. If I let ya, you’d charm every plant in this forest. Thas why I don’t want you talkin’ with no one else. I’m a selfish weed and I know it, but I can’t help it.”
Tora could feel his heart breaking looking at her. How badly he wanted her not to feel that way. After what Darach put Baya through though, of course she did, and he felt foolish for not realizing how his actions were hurting her. He’d been so focused on trying to make friends, he hadn’t noticed… He had to try harder for her. He needed to be better. If he could just get her to believe him, maybe she wouldn’t be so insecure. Maybe she wouldn’t feel like she had to hurt others. Maybe if he tried harder…
She took her other hand from his and held his face close to hers. He felt his heart pounding in his ears.
“I want all of you,” Baya said. “And I don’t like sharing.”
Tora swallowed hard, thinking of the dagger he’d made for her with the sculpted rose at its hilt.
If I just try harder.
He thought of Pepper’s torn, ragged face.
If I just-
The staircase.
Maybe she won’t…
