"I haven't got a clue how long it will be before we jump into war, izeba. But I'll tell you, if I don't get married soon--"

Iosune hushed her chatty iloba, waving her hand in insistence to keep quiet. With a grumble, Irune glared down at her toes. "How your mouth runs, Irune. You shall be wed soon enough, when Eguzki bids it", Iosune replied, her hands working at the dough upon the slab of smooth stone. From Irune's awkwardly propped position by the archway she caught sight of the glimmer illuminating from the sliver of sunlight. "Not too soon, I hope. It troubles me that so soon my niece shall be gone from me."

The the giggle that suddenly took hold of her lips was unexpected. Irune smiled over at her busy aunt, shaking her head slowly. How like izeba to worry of my absence, she wondered jokingly. With a sigh she continued to watch the bread work done before her. But she knows I cannot take the risk of waiting for Xarles and Kuiril to fix their positions on patriarchy. Papa will never see me married, then.

How she despised thinking of her father's imminent death. It would sever her soul from the core, no doubt, in quite a similar way it had happened upon her mother's demise. Irune was sure she would have a devil of a time recovering from such a loss.

But Amets was dying... had been dying, to be exact... for the last few years. Irune and her brothers had come to understand and accept the fact that their father was slipping, slowly yet surely, from his health. How suddenly he had become ill, as if there were not a day between his sickness and stout health. It was quite different from Ixaka, who had lived by morning and was smitten before nightfall.

In the midst of her racing thoughts, Irune stood abruptly. "I'll be back, izeba." With that, she stepped out into the cool air.

They had stopped by another subtribe on their way to the border. The tribes usually kept a place for guests, but they had brought their own tent anyway, so it was not a problem. Their horses went to graze with the others; Iñaki knew that Gar would always come to him when he whistled in any case, and none of the Zerui would ever mistake one horse for another.

He strolled through the camp, trying to find some company which was not that of Mikel and Peru or his elder brother. It was somehow cleaner--emptier--than the Central Camp. That was always full, smoky, bustling--but here, Iñaki felt a little less put-upon. And no one was staring at the Warlord's weakling second son and secretly, or overtly, despising him. So that was good.

Iñaki looked around, his gaze particularly drawn to the more attractive women, and tried to avoid the men. He had never done well in the company of men. He found himself just passing by the east-facing entrance to one of the dwelling when a girl exited, and he almost bumped into her.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" He caught her by the elbow, steadying her. "I'm Iñaki sem'Zeru. I didn't mean to get in your way." Maybe she would be impressed by his patronymic and not recall (or perhaps she did not know?) that he was the unfavored son.

She had initially been prepared to open her mouth and speak brashly... an ill-favored trait that often had earned her nothing less than a tongue lashing from izeba Iosune... and perhaps even throw a most distasteful of frowns. Hasty remarks were certainly more to Irune's way of things in contrast to patience.

But he had apologized just as hastily as she intended to strike a verbal blow.

Irune could not help but smile. How genuine he seemed, the young man who had collided into her. Strange he had enough force in that single collision that Irune had nearly been knocked from her very feet; the slender vitality of his frame was decieving. As he cupped her elbow in reassurance, his dark irises catching Irune's in the sincer hope of forgiveness, she could do nothing but stare a moment. Nearly as quickly as he apologized the young man (who could not have possibly been any younger than she) said kindly,

The name did not strike her immediately, Irune taking him for a Zerui of a neighboring subtribe. Without brushing away the plastered grin she replied in a similar affable air, "No, of course not. You meant me no harm, Iñaki, I'm quite positive. I just suppose I ought to watch where I'm going more often." Hoping to instill his apologetic guise with a tad bit of light humor she added faceciously, "Next time it might be a prince I happen to knock into. I'm Irune, by the way."

She offered him another smile, hoping it would be as contagious as they often tended to be. This Iñaki appeared to have the capabilities of being as timid as a hare. Nothing, Irune believed, would compliment his inner strength more than a beguiling smile.

"Well met, Irune!" Iñaki relaxed, his usual twitchiness giving way to the charm he always put on for women, and he smiled at her. What luck he had where women were concerned... they always seemed to throw themselves at him, or at least turn up in his path. Or general vicinity.

"You have lovely eyes," he added. This was true. It was also something women loved to hear, and luckily, it was true of so very many of them. Iñaki wasn't an insincere boy... he was only lucky in that he found almost all women attractive, and so never lacked for sincere flattery.

Anyway, this one was witty, too. He laughed at her joke, and he was relieved, too. Clearly she didn't see him as the Little One or the weakling. At the same time, she wasn't in awe of him as a son of Zeru.

"Walk with me," he suggested. "I've never seen your tribe before. Do you have good horses? I tend to think ours are the best, but I'm always open to surprises." He slipped his hand into hers, pulling her gently after him.

Though the occurance was moments in the past, long since a moot point, Irune could not help but be well aware of how her spirit was still reeling from his compliment. No one had ever taken notice of her beauty; something Irune herself believed was of no particular grandeur in comparison to the other young women of the Zerui tribes. And yet here was this uncanny, unaccounted for peer of hers, this discreetly charming Iñaki, who already seemed to be carving a trail into her very heart before she could have a chance to speak ten minutes with him.

So odd he would notice such a thing. Irune had touched her cheek subconsciously, wondering, Are my eyes truely so attractive...?

It should not have meant anything, in all honesty. A mere display of flattery had no sincere reason to encourage Irune's thoughts that he was behaving anything other than false. Nothing so primal should have been beguiling.

But it did. And it was.

He had taken her hand before the rip-roaring thoughts of her mind had become lucid and concise, instigating another billow of infatuated wonder. Where he was leading her, Irune did not know.

She did not entirely care.

He hadn't the slightest inkling of surprises.

"We have marvelous horses!", came her words quickly, hoping her temporary hesitation hadn't given way to an idiotic perception. Eguzki's bones, why is he making me so nervous...?

Irune sighed shakily, though her actions betrayed such anxiety. Stepping quickly in front of him she smirked his way, hoping to instill further affable nature in their acquaintance. He seemed so very open to her abruptly emerging feminity, a display Irune hadn't put on for show in a good long while. Only after she realized her marriage to a warrior would deem her freedom from Xarles possible (and, from the looks of things, rather likely) ascention did the girl begin to bother worrying over her innate female presence.

Behaving as a woman always left her more restless. At least, the more threadbare of womanly duties did. But she knew well there was no choice in the matter.

Allowing herself to tug him along breezily, Irune wondered to him aloud, "I believe it's best to observe all the possibilities before making a solid decision. As for as horses go, that is." Glancing over her shoulder coyly, a dark lash winking, she added, "But if you're at all indignant on a regular basis as I am, such a thing is hard to do. It's worth trying, my father tells me. Our stallions are among the finest any being will come across." She kept the smirk, leading him past the several clusters of Zerui congregating in the early evening air. To every one of them she greeted with brief warmth, and despite her silence of the matter Irune was well aware many of them wondered openly of the young man at her side. Many of the old ones had lifted expressions of amusement, a select few shaking their heads; perhaps they had thoughts Irune was taking after Ixaka in some way.

Irune merely smiled, turning to Iñaki once more. "The old ones are laughing at us, I think. Come on, the field is just beyond this thicket of trees. Hold me tightly so we won't lose one another?"

Iñaki's eyes flew open, and he drew away from the increasingly flirtatious young woman. Eguzki's rancid breath, did he sound that coy and... absurd when he tried to flirt?

Hold me tightly so we won't lose each other?

Really? Iñaki's eyes shifted sideways, taken in the smiles and stares of her tribespeople. Were they staring because they knew who he was... or because the tribe slut was with him? He shook his head. They laughed at him too. They thought him absurd and much too obvious, and all of a sudden he felt a little sick.

"I am sorry, Irune, if I gave you the impression--" He was twitching a little again, nervous at all the stares. If there was one thing Iñaki hated, it was people staring. Talking about him. "I don't... why don't we just stay here, eh?"

The abrupt hesitation in his actions nearly cut Irune off entirely. So, then; this was what she recieved in turn for attempting to express her feminity? No one else seemed to recognize her attempts; why should a stranger have been any different?

"I thought you'd wanted to see the horses", she wondered innocently, utterly confused to his sudden staid behavior. And yet, in the far back of her secluded mind, Irune figured he was entirely disapproving of her. "But I guess not."

Irune almost could not recognize the pang of repudiation that stung ever so bluntly within her somewhere. She released his hand, watching him back away as he began to appear somewhat timid once more. This time, however, it was neigh impossible for her to feel adored pity for his sake.

Anger had fueled her then, a strange sort of resentment flushing her caramel toned cheeks. So, he wants to be so suddenly disapproving, does he? I'll very well let him have it.

No more endeavors for befriending those who might help her plea. It was, Irune then decided, up to fate. "Do not awaken Love until it so desires", as Ixaka had once told the girl.

No more awakening on her part. Fate would work things out in due time.

"You can be sorry all on your own", Irune snapped brusquely, just then lifting her imposing head of feral kinks in defiance of his unfamiliar nature. How trifiling he seemed now. "There is no impression, sir, that you have given other than your apt cowardness. I pray to Eguzki you do not end up in a hole somewhere like the rabbit you appear to portray."

She turned away, heading back to the village just in time to wipe a stray tear from the corner of her dark iris. But Irune dared not dwell on the recent rejection. As quickly as the foreign Zerui came to mind he would just as soon dwindle into a loss of memory, and all for the better, she was sure. After all, did izeba Iosune not insist that she would be married soon enough, when Eguzki himself bade it be so?

Patience was never her more illuminating characteristic. Irune feared it would be the end of her.

Iñaki flinched, twitching, at her repudiation. He had been told he resembled a rabbit before, and it always angered him. One, the rabbit was not a noble animal; and two, it seemed to imply that he was practically one of the soft, spirit-worshipping Ekaini. Pagh! He didn't completely understand the rest of her insults, but that stung.

So he wasn't without anger as Irune turned and walked away. He made no attempt to call her back, but turned on his heel as well. He would find his brother and let him know he would be sleeping with the horses, because he did not want to face that woman again. He had only been flirting a little, and then she had... well... had responded, but shamefully, clumsily, and he had felt... well... ashamed for her, and for himself...

Iñaki walked away brooding, in a black mood, his arms crossed tightly over his skinny chest. Some men were never ashamed. It seemed his fate was to be ashamed of everything, whenever possible.

Several hours and two dozen apples later, Irune was no longer brooding. If anything, she was tired and in dire need of a nap.

With a disgruntling yawn she stretched out upon the smooth boulder, warm from the rays of the sun and yet cooled by the occasional splashing of the waterfall that curtained overhead. It was one of her particular favorite places to seek solace; ideal for her daydreaming tendencies. To close her eyes in light slumber was precisely what Irune imagined herself needing just now...

Rest, she mused, her arms folding behind the back of her head for support as dark lashes shuttered her eyes closed. Then came the sigh, her exhale of newfound comfort. Yes, give me rest, Eguzki. Rest before... before... I...

She drifted off, the inspirational melody of natural wonders encircling her senses.