Work Text:
Mafuyu lets out a sigh, stepping back from her work.
She’s setting up camp in one of Mondstadt’s woodland areas— this is the last night she’ll have to camp outdoors before she can rent an room at an inn in the main city. Usually it would be a much quicker process than this, but she’s particularly exhausted after the experiences she’d gone through today. She’d encountered some merchants today who’d been in the process of getting raided by hilichurls— and despite the load on her back, Mafuyu still intervened and chased the monsters off.
They’d thanked her, and while the usual thing most did was give them a ride to their destination, it turned out the merchants were on the way to Liyue, the exact opposite direction Mafuyu was traveling. They had offered to lend her a horse, but she’d declined— but now that she was thinking back on it, she probably should’ve said yes. Curse her mother for drilling such etiquette into her… why was it she couldn’t be selfish every once and a while?
The exhaustion was ever more present now, and Mafuyu was really close to just calling it a day and collapsing onto her sleeping bag… but a sudden crackle within the sky startled her awake. She looked up just in time to get a droplet of rain on her cheek; it wasn’t long before another fell, and then another— and soon, it was pouring.
She scrambled to get her items in the tent, praying none of the ink in her notebook ran— she didn’t have time to check, so she resolved to instead bury it beneath her clothes to ensure its dryness if the tent were to collapse.
“Just my luck…” Mafuyu sighed; if she’d taken that horse, she’d already be within the city’s walls, dry and safe…
Although this was, admittedly, mildly pleasant… a chance to rest in a tent with the rain drowning out everything else. She even closed her eyes, trying to will herself to sleep— she deserved this rest, after all… but alas, she barely got ten minutes of this peace before another surprise greeted her; a yelp, barely audible over the downpour. Mafuyu had never been one to dote on animals, but this particular yelp was painful enough to spurn her into action.
What if it was a human yelp? A cry of pain from some poor adventurer, trapped somewhere? Mafuyu couldn’t just let them remain trapped— her mother would never approve of such a thing. So after grabbing her sword and ensuring her vision was secured tightly on her hip, Mafuyu ventured out of her tent and into the woods.
“Hello? Is anyone out there?” Mafuyu had to raise her voice considerably, given the rain’s noise. Her sword was feeling a bit loose in her hand, probably due to the slickness the hilt got from the rain.
A growl was the only warning she got before an attack was launched.
Thanks to the vision amplifying her senses, she was able to get out of the way of a nasty scratch; she countered the next attack with a swift swing of her sword, the impact of the claws sending a tremor through both the weapon and its wielder. It even caused her to stumble a bit, but luckily she was able to use the clumsy momentum to get out of the way of yet another bite— her luck seemed to run dry with this one, though, since even though she’d avoided the majority of the attack, she was still nicked by darkened teeth. As blood dribbled out of the bite, another tremor ran through her body, and she realized it felt like she was getting drained of her energy.
There was only one beast in all of Teyvat that could apply such an effect.
Rifthounds? Mafuyu squinted, desprately trying to see through the curtain of rain and wind that had befallen her. She hadn’t read any books that mentioned rifthounds being present in Mondstadt— so it must be a recent development. She should probably document it tonight, so her report wouldn’t be totally ruined— assuming her notebooks would be alright by the time she managed to get back.
With these beasts circling her, however, she had a feeling that it would be a long while before she’d be able to get back to her belongings. She did her best to get a grasp of the situation, as out of her element as she was; there were a total of three, but it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibilities for more to arrive. They always travel in packs, after all. Running would probably be the best option, but Mafuyu didn’t know her way around these parts— she’d probably only hurt herself in any attempt to flee, leaving her all the more vulnerable to the rifthounds’ hunting techniques.
So… it seemed she would have to fight. Usually, Mafuyu preferred to take her enemies down at a range with her bow, but since that was left in her tent, she’d have to make due with the sword in her hand. The weapon was familiar enough to her thanks to all the lessons from her mother, so she could probably defeat the rifthounds— or at the very least, scare them off.
One of the whelps let out a snarl, which prompted the grown rifthound to lunge forward without a moment’s hesitation. Mafuyu braced herself to block the attack, expecting it to be of similar force to the ones from earlier— but the clash of teeth and sword never came. Instead, a yelp sounded out, and in the moment Mafuyu had to process the turn of events she realized that the yelp was very similar to the one from earlier— the one that had drawn her out of her tent in the first place.
When she opened her eyes, she saw the grown rifthound using its paw to scratch at its face— more specifically at its eye, which the feathered end of an arrow poking out of it.
…an arrow? Mafuyu blinked, the rare emotion of shock showing on her face. She could figure out most things before they occured, after all, so she was rarely ever truly ‘shocked’ about anything— traits like that were part of why she agreed to enroll in the Akademiya. If her life was going to be trivial and boring, she may as well spend her energy on education instead of mundane daily tasks.
Suddenly, another arrow whizzed past Mafuyu’s ear. Something inside of her said to stand still, so she did— and she was glad she did, because if she had decided to take that swing at the rifthound whelp to her right, she’d probably be on the recieving end of a couple arrows. Regardless, the aiming was impeccable— and deadly. The mysterious attacks were enough to drive the rifthounds away, their ghostly tails tucked between their legs as they fled.
As Mafuyu watched the wolves flee, she found her gaze drawn to the arrows— more specifically, the faint aura of cryo radiating from them. The grass, wet from this downpour, was quickly getting frosted over due to the arrow’s aformentioned cryo infusions.
“Hey! You!” A girl probably around the same age as Mafuyu slid down a nearby ledge, which had been muddied from the rain. She was wearing a cloak, likely due to the current weather, a cryo vision pinned to the front. “Are you alright? Those wolves didn’t get you, right?”
“N-No,” Mafuyu, having been transfixed by the vision on the girl’s cloak, answered a second too late. “I’m alright, don’t worry. Just a little… um, shaken up by the attack.”
“Well, you certainly show signs of corrosion…” The girl was mumbling to herself, pacing around Mafuyu’s backside to get a full check on her. “You should probably come back to the city. The knight’s chief alchemist is also liscened in a number of medicinal practices— he’ll have you patched up in no time!”
Heading to somewhere with better shelter than… that definitely sounded nice.
“I can’t,” Mafuyu, ever having to be the voice of reason, refused the extremely pleasant offer. “I have a tent nearby that has all my equipement in it; I can’t just leave it out here.”
“Oh, that makes sense…” The girl hummed, tapping her chin in a brief moment of thought. Just as Mafuyu is about to leave, the girl’s face breaks into a grin, and she offers a solution to their predicament. “Then let’s stay there until the storm dies down! Then I can escort you to the city!”
“Okay.”
“Great! Let’s go before you catch a… a c-col… achoo!”
The girl’s name turned out to be Shizuku. She was a scout for the local knights— better known as the Knights of Favonius. She went on a couple tangents about her sister, who was training to be a knight, but managed to reel herself in every time. Aside from the tangants, Mafuyu found out quite a bit about her unique position; apparently, it was custom tailored for her by the current overseer of the knights.
Shizuku was apparently extremely gifted in the art of trailing creatures, human or otherwise. On top of that, she also mentioned how she possesed good archery skills, which Mafuyu believed without a doubt— although ‘good’ was a bit of an understatement… not many would be able to keep their aim so deadly in the midst of a thunderstorm. It was quite genius, actually; combine the prowess at targetting and aiming, and you’d get a pretty good scout.
“What brings you all the way to Mondstadt, anyways? These aren’t the snacks of a travelling merchant— you’ve got a pretty big collection of books and papers, too.”
“I’m from Sumeru’s Grand Akademiya.” Mafuyu explained, reaching into the collection of goodies she’d amassed through her travels to offer Shizuku one; as expected, the scout wasn’t too hesitant to scarf it down. “I’m doing some research for my paper so I can get past my undergraduate classes.”
“Oh, that sounds interesting.” Shizuku sounded like she had no clue what that meant, but Mafuyu appreciated her attempt to remain cordial. “I actually graduated from the Church of Favonius’s educational system a couple months before everyone else.”
“Everyone else?”
“The rest of the school.” This time, it was Shizuku’s turn to explain. “Er… class. Mondstadt doesn’t really hold education in high regard like Sumeru, so at most it’s twelve students per class, which usually only lasts five years. I was a bit ahead of everyone else, so I was able to graduate earlier.”
“So you became a knight?”
Shizuku nodded, a smile spreading across her face. “Mhm! Just following the family tradition.”
Mafuyu returned the smile, although hers was more muted— perhaps due to envy. It must be nice to be able to take pride in a family tradition— all Mafuyu ever felt towards her own family was a feeling of suffocation…
Due to her nonverbal answer, an air of silence fell upon the two. It wasn’t exactly an uncomfortable silence, just a bit… awkward. Mafuyu cursed herself internally for even allowing that to happen— she should’ve just kept that front up and been a polite person. It was unfair to Shizuku for her to be dumping some petty family issues onto her— and speaking of Shizuku, what was she doing…?
“It looks like the rain is clearing up a little!” Shizuku, with head out of the tent, spoke a little louder so Mafuyu could hear her. She must’ve taken the moment of silence to reimburse herself in their surroundings. “If you want, I can grab your bag and we can make a run for it back to the city!”
Mafuyu peeked out of the tent flap with Shizuku, blinking as a droplet of water broke on the bridge of her nose— but other than that single droplet, there indeed wasn’t any more rain. The clouds appeared to have broken up, making a bit of a sunny spot around them— but another rain front was on the way, so if they wanted to get into the city, they’d have to move fast.
Shizuku, as expected of a knight, moved pretty fast once she got the go-ahead from Mafuyu. With their combined smarts they determined the most valuable items to take to the city— everything else could stay here, given that even hilichurls tended to stay away from this deep in Wolvendom. With the heavy bag of papers and books on Shizuku’s back and the lighter bag of clothing changes on Mafuyu’s back, the two set off.
They followed Shizuku’s normal patrol route, since it was apparently the fastest route to the main city. Some Springvale locals tried to get the duo to stop for some snacks, but once a light sprinkle began, the two decided to book it back to the city— and while Shizuku had made it to the gates before the downpour began, but Mafuyu was not as fortunate. After a brief fit of shrieking at some lightning that struck a nearby windmill, the girls managed to burst into an inn— and once the innkeeper realized the scholar was the knight’s escortee, they were more than happy to let the duo stay the night for free…
…albeit in the same room.
Shizuku didn’t seem to have any quarrels with it, instead seemingly enamoured with the decor of the room— Mafuyu would’ve been enamoured as well if it weren’t for the racing of her heart. Why did it seem that Mondstadt had it out for her? Ever since she’d gotten here, it seemed her luck had taken a turn for the worst— first it was that unfortunate encounted with the merchants and hilichurls at the border, then it was the storm and rifthounds in Wolvendom, and now it was this— sharing a room with someone she’d just met!
And this room only had one. Gods-forsaken. Bed.
Honestly, if the roof were to cave in from a tree flying into it and kill Mafuyu immediately upon impact, she’d probably thank the deity that caused it to occur. She could swear that her face was getting redder and redder with each passing moment— this was a catastrophe just waiting to occur. This was where her career ended.
Archons above, please just end me already. Mafuyu let out a long sigh, flopping onto her back and allowing the bed’s fluffy covers to wrap around her.
Shizuku seemed superbly unbothered with Mafuyu’s internal screaming, instead letting out a pleasant giggle. A hand snaked through Mafuyu’s hair, which had been taken out of its ponytail in light of it being soaked in the rainstorm. Little prickles from the contact washed over the scholar’s body, but to her surprise, she didn’t fight it.
The act was oddly remniscent of her mother combing through her hair, but it also somehow different— it brought… comfort. Her mother’s swift styling had never brought that emotion to Mafuyu; and on top of this warm feeling, she got to look at Shizuku, who was wearing a soft, pleasant smile.
The scout’s mouth parted to break the tender silence, and Mafuyu almost found herself waiting for some life-altering sentence to form…
But instead, she asked one of the most mundane questions known to man.
“Mafuyu, do you want to bathe first?”
Mafuyu barely resisted the urge to smack herself in the face— after all, what could she have possibly been expecting from a complete stranger? With a soft sigh, she lifted herself into a sitting position, taking over the job of combing through her hair— much to Shizuku’s disappointment, given the slight, childish pout that formed on the knight’s face.
“I’m alright. You’ve been working all day, haven’t you? You should go.”
“But you’re a visitor from afar…” Shizuku frowned a bit, taking a moment to redirect her hands to start wringing out her own hair— a bit pointless since they’d probably get wet once more, but who was Mafuyu to judge? “It’s the chivalric thing to allow you to go first.”
Mafuyu sighed, taking a towel that had been laid out for them and ruffling it over her hair; they’d get nowhere with these endless formalities, but neither one of them would budge. Such was the struggle of being overly polite, she supposed.
“How about we bathe together, then?” The scholar tried not to let irritation sneak into her voice, but she was quite honestly fed up with Mondstadt’s weather— all she wanted to do was rinse off all the grease and grim from her long, sweaty journey and collapse into the bed.
Much to her surprise, Shizuku regained her usual smile and agreed without a second thought. “That’s a pretty good idea, actually! It’ll save the innkeeper some water and we can wash each other’s backs— I’ll go get the soaps!”
A flurry of emotions were whirling through Mafuyu’s head, mostly embarassment from even suggesting something like bathing together— no matter how irritated she was, it was really no excuse to blatantly step over someone’s boundaries like that. So as Shizuku turned to leave, Mafuyu called out, stopping the knight in her tracks.
“Shizuku, wait— are you really okay with it?” Mafuyu almost cringed at how her voice shook. “Bathing together, I mean. It’s okay if you aren’t— i-it was kind of a stupid idea.”
Almost in shame, Mafuyu averted her gaze to the nightstand, where a clock stood— assuming it was correct, the time here was about seven at night. Mafuyu usually went to bed at eight… a sense of guilt washed over her, because she realized she’d probably gotten to Wolvendom around two, with the rifthounds attacking her an or so hour later— so she’d probably taken up at least four hours of Shizuku’s time.
Time was a valuable thing— that was something Mafuyu had to learn early on. Her parents were both high-ranking officials in Fontaine’s judicial system, or at least in the province they lived in, so more often than not their daughter had to entertain herself for hours on end when the family’s staff weren’t availible to play with her. Once, she’d made the unfortunate mistake of bursting into her mother’s office room with a hand-drawn picture, the ink for the drawing still fresh on her fingertips. She’d been so excited to show it to her— only to get shoed out with a bout of frustrated shouts.
Learn to behave yourself like a proper lady, Mafuyu! Don’t come bursting into mommy’s office when she’s doing important buisness! This yelling is valuable time I could’ve been using to finish quicker, you know! Don’t let this happen again!
Mafuyu had learnt her lesson, especially since her mother and father didn’t even tuck her into bed that night— she had been a bad girl, after all, and bad girls needed punishment. This whole situation with Shizuku was just another testamate to how pitifully immature she still was— she had a long, long way to go before her parents could ever look at her with a genuine smile.
“Mafuyu, why are you looking like that?”
“…like what?”
“Like that.” Shizuku reiterated, waving a hand across her face. “Sad. You kind of remind me of my sister, actually.”
This wasn’t the first time Shizuku was mentioning her family, but the change of tone from the earlier moments was… a bit odd. The girl was probably the same age as Mafuyu, so she was definitely still living with her parents and sister. Why was she mentioning them like they were past tense, like she hadn’t been fawning over her sister earlier?
“She used to be happy all the time, going out with her friends and all.” The scout continued, unbothered by Mafuyu’s brooding. “But recently, one of them has gotten sick, and has been confined to the cathedral for the past few weeks… now, Shii never goes out with them. She prefers to stay indoors and study, or go out and complete bounties. It worries me, especially since she doesn’t even have a vision— just last week she came back with a concussion and a stonehide lawachurl’s hide.”
“I’m… sorry to hear that.”
“Don’t be,” Shizuku shook her head, smiling softly. “It’s not your fault. It’s not anyone’s fault… but that doesn’t mean I don’t hate it.”
She stepped around the bed to get closer to Mafuyu, who finally managed to make her gaze meet Shizuku’s without any guilty aversions. The scout seemed to perk up a little more, her soft smile gaining just a little more confidence as she continued on.
“You look like you’ve been through a lot as well, Mafuyu.” She said, reaching up to smooth Mafuyu’s bangs out of her gaze. “You look… tired.”
“…I am.” Both physically and mentally, Mafuyu was exhausted. When was the last time she’d gotten proper sleep? The Akademiya’s homework was not something to be taken lightly, and with her mother sending letters every week to check up on her assignment progesses, Mafuyu could hardly afford a second of relaxation.
“Well, you’re safe here. You can rest now.” Shizuku replied, her voice soft and understanding; it almost made Mafuyu want to go to bed right then and there. “If you really don’t want to bathe together, you can start the water and get in first. I know you probably want to go to bed.”
“No, it’s fine.” Mafuyu stood up from the bed, shooting a grin to the scout. “It’ll save the innkeeper some water, after all— and washing each other’s backs is a sign of courtesy in Inazuma.”
She didn’t know why she was having a sudden change of heart— perhaps because Shizuku was just so… inviting? With someone a bit more forward, Mafuyu probably would’ve felt a sense of caution if they suggested bathing together. But Shizuku wasn’t forward— more like a bit of a scatter-brain, if anything.
The scout, for all her brilliance, didn’t seem to have a single ounce of personal boundaries in her body. While some may find it unnerving, it was kind of refreshing for Mafuyu. At the Akademiya, everyone kept each other at arms-length out of some illogical fear of sabatoge. Mafuyu, for all her charms and wit, was no exception to this strange, unspoken rule. Despite being surrounded by those of higher intellect, she felt more isolated than ever when she stepped through the Akademiya’s doors; so to be welcomed so unresevedly by this random, beautiful girl was like a godsend.
“I’ll go get the soaps!”
As Shizuku happily skipped out of the room and down the hall, Mafuyu watched her go with a fond, genuine smile.
I think I’ll like it here in the City of Freedom, She mused internally, once again flopping onto the bed. Her smile never faded even as she slowly faded away, tuckered out from the stress of school and the journey from the Akademiya— so despite the promise of bathing together, the scholar drifted into the arms of sleep. Perhaps another day she’d get lucky, but for now, she’d take Shizuku’s advice and rest.
She deserved it, after all.