Chapter Text
“collei, you don’t need to see me through everytime. i’ve been to gandharva ville plenty times already!” nilou literally just hopped off the landing from the trodden path when collei, still donning her ranger uniform, marched merrily to her side.
“nonsense, miss nilou. as a trainee forest ranger, it’s my duty to make sure you don’t get lost in the forest.” the green haired archer huffed quite cutely before smiling up the path to the huts.
“remind me again- when have i ever gotten lost?” nilou scrunched her nose up at collei from behind. collei merely hummed a little laugh.
“you’re quite early tonight, though! is the show preparation going well?” collei finally whipped around to get a good look at her when they reached her hut. the night still hung low but scattered shadows across dimly lit avidya forest at this hour made it quite difficult for them to see each other clearly.
nilou giggled. “mister zubayr said, and i quote! “if your wonderful talent managed to attract the newfound affection of even the akademiya scholars, then you can sure bet it can grant you an early night.”” she had a loosely curled fist clasped to her chin as she imitated her manager, then she giggled again. “we had an extraordinary breakthrough with ticket sales today! so many scholars want to come to our show! isn’t that wonderful?!”
“whoa, the times are changing now, aren’t they? just goes to show how uh, what’s the word again …?” collei scrambled through her vocabulary, trying to recall what her master tighnari had said in passing that she wrote down. it started with a p, something about controlling people’s opinion on something. in the end, collei sighed in defeat. “darn, i forgot- uh, anyway, here’s this week’s goods.”
in both their hands was a box neatly wrapped in brown paper with tweed string tying it together. nilou could sniff the rich earthly grounds beneath it. “thank you kindly, collei.”
“thank master tighnari too, he personally saw the mixing process for this special batch!” collei beamed with pride. “actually, since you’re available tonight, do you wanna have dinner with us? we may have a lot to go around tonight.”
nilou felt herself blush. “oh no, no, i can’t possibly intrude-”
“don’t worry, you’re not! well, unless-”
“unless i’m not late tonight?”
the two girls turned towards the doorway, where a cloaked figure with tall hound ears stood barely illuminated.
“oh gosh- master cyno! that was so scary!” the green-haired ranger squeaked. the jackal headed general merely clicked his tongue, amused. they hardly noticed he trailed them from behind since he saw the red-haired star of zubayr theatre take an unexpected detour to avidya forest. he was headed the same way himself.
“there you two are. ah, and nilou too, welcome back to gandharva ville. i take it you’re receiving the package?” from a wooden path leading higher up the huts, tighnari came down to hear the ruckus. those ears of his heard them from a mile away.
“master tighnari, i invited miss nilou to dinner since she had the evening off early.”
“oh, did you? well unless she says she’s on some sort of diet, i’m afraid we only made portions for the three of us.” with a slanted look, tighnari gestured to himself, collei, and cyno, who had been quiet all this time.
“collei merely assumed i’d be late to dinner again.” cyno deduced carefully, watching a measly smile form on the young forest ranger’s face. “too bad, squirt. i’d actually like to just sit down and eat after a long day instead of having to cook my own portions just because mister top forest ranger here can’t wait for a friend.”
“excuse me, general mahamatra, but some of us have been patrolling and saving unsuspecting scholars from death by poisonous mushrooms every two hours. we simply cannot let the food go cold while you run around collecting flowers for archons know what.” tighnari narrowed his dark teal eyes at him. cyno merely scoffed at his friend and opened his mouth to argue, but nilou cut in between them.
“ah, since you all have dinner plans already, i’m actually gonna pass. i don’t wanna take anybody’s share.” nilou declined respectfully, offering yet another grin to assure the trio.
“do tell me how the flowers are coming along next time, miss nilou. i bet they’re in much better shape than the padisarahs this idiot’s been picking the past few days.” if he had worn an earnest look for nilou, he all but glared at cyno when he shifted his gaze his way. “actually, can anyone please enlighten me why everybody’s so interested in padisarahs lately?”
cyno tucked his hands deeper into his cloak.
excitedly, nilou spoke first. she had been making trips to gandharva ville asking for advice on how to properly take care of padisarahs, especially when they were picked from elsewhere. apparently someone had been leaving them onstage just as she was wrapping up rehearsals for zubayr theatre’s upcoming show. “me, i just love padisarahs, so it would break my heart to just leave them to wilt. but, i haven’t had much luck nursing them back to life after they’ve been picked, so i approached collei here who led me to tighnari.”
she didn’t know why she was referring to tighnari in third person when he was the one who asked the question. perhaps, to her, it was her way to make everybody feel like they’re part of the conversation, that it wasn’t just an isolated response to the forest fox. either that, or she was hoping that the general mahamatra would open up what tighnari said about him picking flowers too. nilou, to her surprise, couldn’t see why cyno would take the time out of his busy days to go around picking flowers. padisarahs, even. those don’t grow anywhere near the desert, do they?
tighnari wanted to glance cyno’s way but decided otherwise. if he didn’t see them, he could smell the flowers he was hiding.
“a-anyway, i’ll leave you guys to your supper. i was called by the theatre pretty early today that i didn’t get the chance to tend to my padisarahs.” the moment the words left her, the red haired dancer felt utterly embarrassed she said that in front of tighnari. nilou mentally flicked herself on her forehead. she merely gave them a curtsy, just dancer habit, and excused herself. “have a lovely evening, everyone.”
‘wait a second.’ tighnari and collei’s footsteps resounded against the wooden planks heading up to tighnari’s hut, but cyno’s didn’t move an inch. if anything, it was his thoughts that started sprinting. he hummed to himself. ‘collei said nilou was done with rehearsals today. chances are she’s headed straight home. she won’t be able to see them if i leave them in their usual spot tonight. it’d be wasteful to leave these flowers to wilt on that stage too. much worse, someone could just throw them away.’
“you know what, master? i still don’t know the reason why master cyno started collecting padisarahs-” collei was about to ask the two older guys when she realized the general was gone.
cyno silently vanished from the huts and caught up to the red-haired dancer, clearing his throat when he got close enough. “miss nilou.”
nilou’s eyes widened like a waning moon turning full. “oh, hello general!” the grip she held on her package loosened at the sight of his familiar face.
“may i know if you’re headed back to the grand bazaar?” he inhaled sharply. was he being too direct? was that such a strange inquiry? he could feel the apparent beat of his heart in his chest. like the skin of his chest was some thin fabric being lightly pounded with a drumstick on beat.
a proud smile graced her lips. “did you know, general? ever since the sages’ departure, the rest of the akademiya has expressed interest in the theatre! that said, we made such good sales for our upcoming show today that mister zubayr let me go home early tonight.”
his heart was as light as a grain of sand amidst the desert winds. cyno had yet to understand what about art appalled the akademiya as much as it did before, but seeing nilou beam with pride just made him realize it shouldn’t have been seen as such a bad thing to begin with. “the sages have done all kinds of wrong to sumeru city. i’m glad that you and many others are able to enjoy your art now.”
“thank you, cyno. that means a lot coming from you.” nilou never misplaced a wrongful impression on cyno until the moment they properly met during the feast she threw for his reinstatement. to her, it was like she got the loudest ovation after a performance to have the general mahamatra say that. it definitely feels different when it’s from the very side that opposes what she does in the first place.
“on that note… these are for you.” he outstretched his hand with half a dozen padisarahs from behind him towards her. at a moment’s touch, his hands felt frozen in time. his fingers practically glitched from her touch– as if he didn't wield a spear with the harnessed power of lightning coursing through him.
“f-for me?” the purple pigments looked so fresh, they seemed brand new. but, why would he…
“i, uh… heard you lilaced them.” never in his entire dad-joke-making career did he feel so embarrassed to have cracked that one. thankfully the pink tips of his ears weren’t visible. and yet, to his surprise, nilou let out the tiniest giggle.
“i actually do! i’ll make sure to take care of these as well.” nilou touched the petals on one of the padisarahs. “i’ll get going then.”
“mhm. be safe, miss nilou.”
not a single word of his quick disappearance was spoken once he returned to their hut. it was almost as if the forest rangers barely noticed. or perhaps one of them just feigned ignorance. in their hut, it was just cyno’s well deserved portions, and more unfortunate stories from tighnari about the adventurers’ encounters with rishboland tigers and cliff sides that actually are too high to jump down and survive unscathed from.