xp_logs | Buzkashi: Nighttime

Nighttime falls in Asadabad and Rahne and Sooraya bed down for the night.

Sooraya was still slightly amazed at the grasp the tall man had on the customs of the area - though he wasn't a native, he certainly knew enough to get along in the country without raising too many eyebrows. He had shown her and the other girl, whom he had introduced as Rahne, to a widow's hut and requested permission of the old woman for them to stay the night. She had agreed, and not long after she and the other girl were shown to the tiny spare room, which held little more than two cots for sleeping and a crude table holding a covered pitcher of water.

After he left them alone Sooraya shuffled to one of the cots, taking a seat at the end and carefully working to unfasten the veil from over her face. Her head was still spinning slightly from the events of the day, and the apprehension about what tomorrow would bring was nearly overwhelming. Was she really going to go to this school he spoke of? It didn't seem possible, and yet he assured her it was. Glancing up at the other girl, Sooraya wondered how she had come to be at the school, and what her experiences had been thus far. Did she enjoy it? What about her family? Were the other students there kind?

Rahne was less well versed than Nathan, but doing her best to follow his cues -- or others' -- where she wasn't sure. She perched on the end of the other cot and unwound the green scarf he'd given her so she could brush out her hair, pausing to smile at Sooraya. Her ears, when revealed, were slightly pointed; she'd been keeping herself very slightly shifted for the extra information it could give her, which lengthened her ears (and teeth, but not too visibly) and gave a faint tinge of brown to her normally pale skin and red hair. "Are you nervous?" she asked softly, in Farsi. Nathan had had her reviewing the language and practicing it since shortly after she'd agreed to work with Elpis, and it was coming more easily after a few days immersed in it, but she still had to think carefully about how she could say what she wanted to. "I was, before I left home for the school, though I'm glad now to have gone."

Once again, Sooraya was more than impressed with the mastery they all seemed to possess... inwardly, she doubted that she would ever pick up another language so easily. True, the girl's speech was slightly slow and halting, but it was more than understandable. "Yes, I am," she admitted, keeping her eyes trained anywhere but on the girl's strange-looking ears. "I feel as if I'm dreaming, this is all so strange and sudden."

"It will stay strange," Rahne said a bit wryly, "but you will get used to that."

This was less than reassuring, but Sooraya smiled shyly and met the girl's eyes. "Then you do not regret it? Despite the fact that it is strange?"

"No. I've... learned things, and had the chance to do good things, that I would not have done at home. Working with the doctors. Working with Nathan, and coming here."

"But what about your family? Don't they miss you?"

Rahne hesitated at that. "I don't have much family," she said. "I was adopted by a--" She wasn't sure how to refer to a Christian minister. "A man who felt it was important to take care of me, if there was no one else." That sounded odd, but it was accurate enough. "He does not have much other family, either. He... would not have sent me away otherwise, I think, but he cared enough to send me to people who could teach me how to manage being a mutant, since he didn't know how, and I had trouble at first." She smiled sheepishly. "I change forms, and I got stuck at first."

Sooraya's eyes widened at this fact, and she looked at Rahne almost eagerly. "I have a problem like that too. Do you think they can help me with it?"

"Probably," Rahne said. "Some abilities are harder to control than others, but they have a lot of practice teaching people to manage them. Dr. MacTaggart, especially. She's very good at it. She's also the one who told my... father about the school, and she's married to Nathan."

This was sounding more and more promising, and Sooraya's smile widened. "I would like to meet her, I think." All of a sudden a wave of sleepiness came over her, and she yawned widely. "I'm sorry... I'm feeling very tired." The day had been extremely eventful, and it wasn't surprising that she was feeling the aftereffects now.

Rahne tried to smile back, but ended up overtaken by a yawn as well. "I'm not surprised. So am I, and with less reason." She faded back to full human, as maintaining an intermediate form still took more effort than the two main ones.

Shifting to lie on the cot, Sooraya didn't even have the energy to remove the rest of her robe. She merely slid a hand under her cheek, eyes fluttering closed as sleep drifted over her. She didn't even get to bid the other girl goodnight before she was asleep, curled up under the dark robes she wore.