#and will I ever write from Zeph's perspective?? the world may never know

[frenchy-and-the-sea]

34 (how they act when they're nervous) + Zephyr

I think these have gotten away from me as like. A concept. But I think this highlights the idea that, uh, Zeph drinks hard and gets distant and weird when she’s nervous pretty well, despite being, you know, long as shit.

Including the Tea Party crew, with Mira, the aasimar cleric belonging to @colonelcupquake and Fàilbhe, the faun druid belonging to @kombits! With my genasi drunk monk, Zephyr. Obviously.

3000 words.

—-

“You’ve noticed her shaking too,”said the words in Fàilbhe’s book.

He flashed it quickly Mira’s way, just long enough for her toread, then gestured to where Zephyr was sitting, cross legged and silent, aboutthirty feet away. She had taken a post by the road when they stopped to restand take their midday meal, and had neither moved nor said a word since; thelatest in a long string of oddities that had started since they set out for herfamily’s estate two days ago. Mira stole a quick glance at her back, thenturned to Fàilbhe and lowered her voice.

“A couple of times,” she whispered back. “Like she’s cold, eventhough she says she isn’t. And she keeps grabbing her flask every time ithappens. It’s probably empty by now.”

Fàilbhe shook his head, and scribbled furiously in his notebook. “Sawher steal a wineskin from my pack.”

“She what?”

Fàilbhe shrugged. “Not worried about that. Worried forher. Acting strange. Wine isn’t going to help.”

Mira frowned, and chanced another glance over her shoulder towhere Zephyr sat, picking slowly at her lunch and staring intently down thelength of the road.

“What do we do, then?” she asked softly.

“Nothing,” Fàilbhe’s book said. “Watch and wait.”

—–

The waiting lasted until halfway through Mira’s midnight watch,when she caught a shadow creeping along out of the corner of her eye.

She didn’t turn her head, but her hand went slowly to thewarhammer at her hip as the figure stole over to where Fàilbhe was curledaround Delia just outside of the light of the fire. The dog’s head rose up asit approached, and Mira heard the faintest thump-thump-thump of a tail poundinghappily against the earth. The figure froze and made a gesture that Miracouldn’t quite make out; Delia just yawned in response, then dropped her hadback onto her paws and fell promptly asleep again. In the darkness, Mira hearda soft snort, and then saw the figure duck behind Fàilbhe’s turned back andbegin rustling in something that she could not see. One of Fàilbhe’s eyes slidopen, and found Mira’s across the camp. She nodded slowly, then fixed herattention back onto the fire as the rustling stopped, and she heard the figuresteal quietly into the woodline beyond.

She counted to thirty in her head, slowly, then stood andfollowed. As she passed Fàilbhe, she heard him push upright with a sigh, andtake her place at the edge of the fire.

Zephyr was not hard to find. Even with only half a moon to lighther way, Mira spotted her silhouette tucked up in the low branches of a widecoral tree after a few minutes of walking, her unbound hair caught up in aconstant, unfelt breeze. She had another wineskin in her hand, which she wasnursing slowly as she stared up through the treetops at the darkened sky.

Mira waited for a few long moments, then stepped forward into theclearing, deliberately shuffling her feet.

“Is this why we can’t ever get you up in the morning?”

Zephyr shot upright, one hand already clenched into a fist. Herunfocused stare landed on Mira a few seconds later - a few seconds too long,Mira thought with a frown - and then narrowed.

“I thought you were supposed to be on watch,” she sneered, andtook another, longer draw off of the skin before tucking back against the tree.“So much for any of us feeling like we can sleep soundly.”

Mira felt annoyance twinge at the back of her neck. “When there’sa thief in our camp? Yes, I think you’re right.”

Zephyr paused, head cocked her way, and Mira braced herself foranother burst of anger. Instead, the genasi tugged her wineskin a littlecloser, and put her eyes everywhere but in Mira’s direction. “He wasn’tdrinking it.”

“That’s beside the point and you know it.” Zephyr mutteredsomething in a soft, airy language under her breath. “Zephyr, please.”

“‘Zephyr, please,’” she mocked, and kicked at a piece of bark sothat it scattered over Mira’s head. “Merciful gods, you sound like my mother. Ididn’t realize that I had to ask for your permission too.”

The annoyance lingering at the back of Mira’s neck suddenlyflashed to life again, bright and angry as a hornet’s nest. Zephyr turned totake another draw off of the wineskin, and without thinking, Mira surgedforward, pushed up onto the bough and plucked it neatly out of her hands.

She landed hard in the dirt, knees buckling with the impact andwith a sudden, giddy rush at what she had done. That vanished as somethingshifted in her periphery, and she turned to find Zephyr on the ground too now,and stalking forward with both fists clenched tight at her side. Her lips hadpulled back into a ferocious animal snarl, and the wind that toyed with herunbound hair suddenly seemed more tornado than gentle breeze.

Mira clutched the wineskin to her chest and took a generous stepbackwards.

“Are you going to hit me?” she asked, the words tight and spillingout in a rush that she tried to hold them as steadily as her ground. “Over wine,Zephyr? Really? Is that all it takes for you?”

For a moment, it seemed like Zephyr had been fully deafened by herfury; her fists came up in a fighting stance, one already cocked back for aswing, and Mira felt the familiar panicked rush of adrenaline that always camebefore a fight. She latched a hand around the grip of her warhammer, and bracedherself to run.

Then Zephyr stumbled, her unsteady feet not the usual conjuredsort but the brutally honest stagger of a true drunkard, and the lines of furycutting across her face suddenly fell slack. She blinked, once, twice, and thenMira watched realization pool behind blue eyes that had been steely with angernot two seconds earlier.

The next step she took was backwards, and came with a lowering ofher fists.

“I’m….” she stammered, eyes darting back and forth between thewineskin, and Mira, and the camp beyond. Then she cleared her throat, squaredher shoulders, and without another word, Zephyr turned neatly on a heel andfled back into the boughs of her tree. This time, when she tucked herselfagainst the trunk, she put her back firmly in Mira’s direction.

Fight and adrenaline fled almost immediately. Mira sagged aroundthe wineskin pressed to her chest, hoping the sound of her heartbeat didn’techo in the half-empty container. Half-empty, her mind pointed out.Zephyr’s night had been a bad one, and coping alone had been her first and onlyanswer. Mira’s stomach suddenly knotted around itself, and climbed up into herthroat.

Slowly, as movement and strength returned to her limbs, she creptover to where Zephyr had pressed herself into the long, snaking shadows of thetree. She saw blue eyes flick back to meet her, then snap away with a quicknessthat seemed to imply a sniff of disdain. Don’t bother, the motion said. ButMira still had the wineskin in her hands, and it still felt too empty by half.

She hauled herself up onto the branch beside Zephyr, leaving afull foot of empty space between them.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly, settling herself over the edge sothat her legs dangled. “I wasn’t trying to upset you. I…. we’ve been worriedabout you. You’ve been acting strangely since we left the aerie, and thenFàilbhe said you were stealing the wine they gave us from his pack and I…"

She trailed off, hoping Zephyr would pick up the conversation onher own. When she continued staring forward, silent, Mira sighed and held thewineskin towards her.

“Are you afraid of going home?”

This time Zephyr looked over, a bonfire heat suddenly blazingbehind her eyes.

“I am not afraid,” she hissed. Mira recoiled, and somethingabout the motion sent the fire scattering out of Zephyr’s stare. She huffed andsank back against the tree, tucking both arms close to her chest. “Not in theway that you think, anyway.”

Mira waited for a moment, watching as Zephyr stared daggers intothe darkened woods. Then, slowly, she shuffled over, closing nearly all of thedistance between them and offering the wineskin again. Zephyr’s gaze flickedsideways, hard as iron. Then she sighed.

“My mother is a sorceress,” she said finally, plucking the wineneatly out of Mira’s outstretched hand. “A proper magical one, you see, not thehaggish sort you always read about in stories. She used to travel when she wasyounger, and that has, apparently, made her very powerful. I wouldn’t know,myself; I only saw the fruits of her labor when I found enchantments on my doorto keep me locked behind it, or when she compelled the few guards that didn’toutright dislike me to tell her how I’d gotten out that night.”

She took another deep draw of wine, and must have seen Mira’swide-eyed stare in her periphery, because she nearly lost the whole mouthful inone very undignified snort.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that. She never used anything on me,as far as I can tell. I guess she still wanted me to have something remotelylike dignity left. But I…” She hesitated. “I think it will be different, if wego back. I have never left like I did last time. Certainly not for as long. Andif she decides that she would like me to stay this time, well…”

She shrugged, but any nonchalance the motion might have hadvanished with the stiffness of her shoulders. Mira just looked on, silent.Zephyr had never been quite so open before. More than that; she had neverdeigned to answer anything so directly, had never spoken about herself asanything more than deserving of the highest praise and respect, and she had certainlynever done so with such genuine worry scoring the undersides of her words.Mira briefly considered taking the wine back, but Zephyr had it clutched in herhand like a holy symbol, and she greatly preferred her fingers in their currentorientations.

“Still,” Zephyr went on, clearly trying for casual, “if we don’tget my mother’s aid, then we let the world end. So, here I am. Stealing yourwine.”

She shot Mira a sidelong look as she said it, but all of the drysmirking in the world could not hide the way her eyes drifted just a little toofar past, off into the darkness, where she didn’t have to convince anyone ofher ease. Mira felt her heart catch in her throat.

She reached out and dropped a hand onto Zephyr’s bare shoulder,which jumped like a startled cat’s.

“We won’t let anything happen to you, Zephyr,” she said firmly.“Fàilbhe and I, we’ll make sure that nothing happens to -”

“Oh, please,” Zephyr muttered, and rolled her shoulder to dislodgeMira’s hand. “What are you going to do, exactly? Storm the estate? My mother isnot some cheap conjurer, Mira. She’s stronger than you and Fàilbhe combined,and she commands the entire martial force of a city. You would have to be verypersuasive, or very lucky, to even think -”

“Then perhaps we will be lucky.”

Zephyr paused, startled out of speaking by the force in Mira’s words.Then a deadly scowl crawled across her face, and she snorted under her breath,tucking into the shadows of the tree once more.

“Of course you will.”

“We will,” Mira insisted. She scooted herself the last few inchesacross the branch, until her thigh was pressed against Zephyr’s, and she couldfeel the phantom breeze that stirred her hair. “You don’t belong locked up insome room all day. You belong out here. Up there. Up, with thesky and the sound of wind pounding in your ears. You’re like me, Zephyr!You’re one of the Winged Mother’s children. She protects that for all of us.”Mira’s smile twisted wry. “Even the ones who don’t know her yet.”

Zephyr rolled her eyes - rolled her whole head, really - andturned to Mira with a word already half-formed on her lips. Then she paused,and Mira watched as a curious series of expressions stole their way across herface, like shadows over the moon. Thoughtful turned to terrified turned to aweturned to several hundred other things at once, all in increments, like everyemotion fit just a bit too tightly to remain. Her hands, still clutched aroundthe wineskin, had gone white at the knuckles.

Eventually, she caught Mira staring, and the strange, flutteringexpression snapped closed like shutters drawn in a storm. She turned away andtook another swig off of the wineskin.

“Well,” she said after a moment, her voice soft and unsteady, “Isuppose that I can use all of the help that I can get.”

Mira smiled, more broadly than she had in the last several days, andput a hand on Zephyr’s shoulder. She snorted, but didn’t shrug it off thistime.

They sat in companionable silence for a few long minutes, takingturns staring up at the darkened sky as Zephyr slowly but steadily wore throughthe rest of the wine. As she was tipping back the last few swigs, Mira clearedher throat.

“You, ah, probably shouldn’t drink much more of that,” she saidgently. Zephyr snorted.

“I’m a big girl, Mira. I can handle it.”

“Oh, of course,” said Mira, nodding. “I’m not worried about you.It’s just, well…that’s the wine the aerie gave us, right?”

“Yes,” Zephyr said coolly. “Is that a problem?”

“Well, no. I mean, not really. It’s just that, since it’sceremonial, it’s…it’s really more of a tincture than proper wine. We temperit with certain ingredients to bring us closer to the Winged Mother, and…”

“And?” Zephyr’s eyebrow rose. “Mira, what did you temper it with?”

“Um…griffon piss.”

Zephyr’s throw sent the wineskin hurtling into the center of theclearing, sending wine scattering across the ground with a dull thud. Shewheeled, purple-faced with fury, as Mira scrambled back out of her reach,laughing almost too hard to breathe.

“I’m kidding!” she wheezed, holding out a hand. “I’m sorry! Ididn’t think you would actually believe me!”

Zephyr just stared back, her brow a collection of furrows andhard, angry lines as her gaze shot between the wineskin and the still-gigglingMira. They softened only slightly as realization took hold.

“That’s not funny,” she sneered. “You’re not funny! It’sjust…it’s disgusting, is what it is! You’re disgusting!”

Her indignance only made Mira laugh harder, and when Zephyrdropped from the tree hard enough to nearly knock Mira out of it, she took thescrapes and bruises as earned.

—–

Fàilbhe was still sitting by the ire when they stumbled back intocamp, Zephyr still storming, Mira still picking twigs out of her hair. Hiseyebrow arched as Zephyr stormed off to the far side of the camp, mutteringunder her breath. Mira just smiled and offered him a quick thumbs up behind herback. It hadn’t been her swiftest or most graceful conversation, certainly, butfew things with Zephyr ever were.

“Thanks for waiting,” she said as she stepped back into the ringof firelight, hiding a yawn behind a hand. “I can take over again.”

Fàilbhe smiled and shook his head, then pointed to her bedroll andmade a shooing gesture. She opened her mouth to protest, but he turnedpointedly back to the book in his hands.

“Fàilbhe.” The faun’s ear twitched, but he didn’t move. “Fàilbhe,c’mon.”

“Oh, let him stay if he wants,” Zephyr’s grumbling came fromsomewhere behind them, along with a dragging sound as she appeared from out ofthe darkness with her bedroll dangling from a hand. “If he would like to sit upall night being eaten alive by flies, he can certainly be my guest.”

She tossed her bedroll down beside Mira’s without a word, thencrawled inside and pulled it up to her ears. Fàilbhe did look up now, frowning,and turned to write something in his notebook.

“Zephyr,” Mira said over her shoulder as he held it out towardsher, “Fàilbhe says -”

“That I have next watch, yes,” came the muffled voice from herbedroll. “I heard his furious scribbling from over here and guessed what hemight be on about. Hold your applause, please.”

Fàilbhe gave Mira a long-suffering look, then scrawled in hisnotebook again.

“She seems to be back to normal. Good job.”

Mira hid a small laugh, and then a slightly larger yawn, behind ahand. Fàilbhe raised an eyebrow and made another, more insistent gesturetowards her bedroll, and this time, Mira didn’t have it in her to fight him.Yawning, she waved him goodnight, then staggered her way towards the sleepingfigure curled up beside her bedroll. Zephyr had made a big show of being casualabout where she had thrown her bedroll down, but the bare few inches between itand Mira’s seemed a touch too well-placed to be an accident.

Smiling to herself, Mira shucked the rest of her armor into a pilebeside her pack, then crawled gratefully inside. Her head had barely met thepillow when Zephyr’s voice hissed out of the gloom behind her.

“Mira.” Her voice was so low that for a moment, Mira was certainshe had imagined it.

“Mhm?”

“Don’t tell Fàilbhe what I told you unless things go badly,alright? He’s got enough on his mind already.”

“Mm. ‘kay.” Mira couldn’t quite conjure the energy to fight withZephyr now either. “I won’t have to, though. It’ll be okay, Zeph.”

“I know,” said the voice behind her, too small and quiet by far.Mira felt her heart suddenly pound harder in her chest as something shiftedbehind her, and muffled the last word almost entirely away.

“Thanks.”