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The quiet of the forest in the morning was always calming to Clorinde. The whispered songs of the morning birds, the feel of the dew in the grass, all came together to give her a heightened sense of focus. A good place to practice her hunting. Not just anyone is allowed to be a Marachausse Hunter, after all, and if her dreams are to be realized, she must be diligent.
She always starts every morning small, tracking something easy- a boar, or a deer, or a rabbit. Rarely killing her first quarry, she treats the endeavor as a warm up. It’s the second prey that challenges her.
Finding signs of monster activity is, unfortunately, easier than she would like. All too common are the trademark signals of Hillichurl activity, or a Whopperflower- once even an Eye of the Storm, having wandered a bit too far afield from Mondstadt or Liyue.
Today she was hunting a slime.
Not that a slime was a foe to be disregarded; even a humble slime could seriously injure someone not trained for combat. But a slime is not quite the foe she envisioned chasing, and certainly not the cunning prey that would properly hone her skills further. Still, she presses on regardless, intent on seeing her day’s mission complete. Any training is better than no training, after all, and while Clorinde may be many things, a quitter is not and has never been one of them.
Slime secretions are thankfully very easy to track, given their elemental reactivity and various distinct scents. In this case, particularly large hydro slime. So a mix of various sized puddles of water like it’s been raining and the distinct scent of petrichor. Perhaps a less experienced hunter could lose track of this quarry in the foggy haze of the morning, with the dew fresh on the ground like it is, but not Clorinde.
The scenery is quite nice here, in fact… Not a bad place to bring Navia, perhaps. She had been begging to go out for a picnic with Clorinde for a few days now. If she could ensure the area was safe quick enough, perhaps she could even sneak back into Poisson and prepare something before Navia even awoke and realized Clorinde had snuck out from their sleepover for her training.
Navia hadn’t wanted Clorinde to do any hunting at all for this weekend, but the way Clorinde sees it, what Navia didn’t know couldn’t hurt her. And after all, if Clorinde is to become a Marachausse Hunter, putting her duty first will simply be something she has to get used to. Navia will understand.
The trail of the slime leads further and further from the nice forest and closer to the shore of the central sea, however, and soon Clorinde can see the Court of Fontaine proper in the distance, a bastion of law on the horizon- and closer yet, on the shores proper, her quarry, hopping along idly. The smell of petrichor is unusually strong for such a small slime, but Clorinde brushes the thought from her mind. It hasn’t yet seen her, and she doesn’t want to lose this opportunity due to her-
“CLORINDE! WATCH OUT!!”
Clorinde barely has time to register the high-pitched shriek from behind her before a much larger foe barrels down on her- a full blown water phantasm, jets of water flurrying by like blades. She fumbles her rapier out from its sheath just in time to deflect a single blow before stumbling backwards, falling onto her rear and at the full mercy of the beast.
Her hand reaches down to grab her pistol from its holster; but she struggles to remove it from beneath her. The phantasm brings a flurry of weaponized water above its body, and Clorinde winces in anticipation- but the strike never comes. Instead, she hears a muffled WHAM! And a sputtering sound, like a faucet getting its source of water cut off abruptly. When she opens her eyes again, Navia is standing above her, one of her parasols damaged and soaking wet, and there’s no sign of the creature save for the puddle they both now sit in- and an open wound on Navia’s left arm.
“N-Navia?!” Clorinde manakes to eek out, between her shock at Navia appearing and her dismay at the injury.
“What in the Archons’ names were you doing out here, Clorinde?” Navia admonishes, apparently not even noticing the injury on her arm.
“Navia- Your arm-”
Navia shakes her head. “Nevermind that! You said you weren’t going to be doing any hunting this weekend! A weekend to relax! That’s what you said!”
Clorinde has enough sense to lower her head, at least. “I’m sorry Navia- I- I didn’t want to lose my edge. You know how important this training is.”
Navia sighs, sitting down in the puddle next to Clorinde. “I know, Clorinde. But you aren’t gonna get rusty from two days of taking a break.” She grabs Clorinde’s rapier by its hilt, handing it back to its owner. “You’re already one of the most talented duelists and hunters in all of Fontaine. If anyone can become a Marachausse Hunter, it's you. I just want you to make sure you don’t forget about everything else in that process.
Clorinde manages a small smile at Navia’s words. “You’re right, of course. I think I forget all that, sometimes. I just don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t make it.”
“You will.”
“Well, who am I to tell the Princess of the Spina no?” Clorinde jests. She glances down at Navia’s arm, the wound still bleeding slightly. With the water beginning to dry, she realizes it’s nowhere near as deep as she first thought. “Here- allow me. I’ve gotten pretty used to patching up smaller wounds like that with all my training and practice.”
Navia doesn’t reply, just nodding and extending her arm out for Clorinde to take. Clorinde takes hold of it gingerly, taking Navia to a nearby creek to quickly clean it, before grabbing a small handful of bandages from her pack to wrap it with. Navia hisses in pain at first, but then quickly quiets, and Clorinde can’t help but wonder what Navia’s pain tolerance must be. The first time Clorinde treated a wound like this on herself, she nearly yelped in pain.
“There, all good. But if you’re really worried about it, we could always have someone look at it when we get back to Poisson.”
Navia shakes her head. “And undo all of your hard work? Absolutely not! I trust you completely.” She giggles to herself a moment. “I think maybe you missed your calling as a doctor.”
Clorinde shakes her head fondly. “I somehow doubt that.”
“A nurse then! And here I thought you always aimed high.”
“I’m not sure medicine is the right field for me overall.”
The two chatted the whole way back to Poisson, rarely letting the moment rest on its laurels all the while.
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