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bloodyshadow1 · 3 years ago

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The first time Katja met Adaine Abernant, she didn't think about her that much, there was a dragon to slay after all and she hadn't seen Cinnamon in over a year. But when you're both part of the best adventuring parties at the school, it's kind of hard to avoid each other. But after a few more meetings with the Elven Oracle and Katja finds that avoiding Adaine is the last thing on her mind.

The first time Katja met Adaine Abernant, it wasn’t really a meeting. Ms. Faeth had just rescued her and the rest of the girls that would become the Seven Maidens from Kalvaxus’ lair in the Red Waste and brought them to the gym of the Aguefort Adventuring Academy. Katja had been locked in that crystal for nearly a year, without Cinnamon, and was pissed. Johnny Spells was dead, Penelope Everpetal was dead, Kalvaxus was dead too, but not passed the point of a revivify spell which meant he could still be a target of their wrath.

So the future Seven Maidens said their hellos to the Bad Kids, some light introductions group to group, before the seven of them went to town ripping apart the scaley bastard in retribution. Adaine, well she was a pretty elf wizard in a cool jean jacket, but she barely registered on Katja’s mind with revenge on the way. It wasn’t how Katja ever thought her prom night was going to be, no white horse for Cinnamon to court while she danced with some faceless someone who didn’t judge her for wearing her riding clothes, but it was still a good night. Katja just thanked the Bad Kids for what they did for them. She wasn't really herself, she just wanted to kill Kalvaxus again and get her beautiful horse. Still, it was a good night.

The second time Katja saw Adaine was a few weeks later. Technically it was a lower stakes, but still anxiety ridden environment, a party at Katja’s house, or her family’s manor as it was. It was supposed to be a small get together organized by Penny between the two parties so they could get to know each other better. But unfortunately, Skrank, the guy Ostentatia was dating, thought it was a house party and ‘accidentally’ invited the whole school. Ostentatia apologized, but the deed was already done and at least a hundred or so Aguefort students were in her house partying down.

Once the ‘guests’ arrived, Katja was too anxious to tell them all to leave, she wasn’t good at speaking in front of crowds. Ostentatia took charge and responsibility and assured everyone that if they went above the first floor or out on the grounds, Gertie would kill them, and no, they wouldn’t be paying for the resurrections.

There was loud music and dancing, and so many people talking, it was too much for Katja who left immediately. She went to the stable, her happy place and started brushing Cinnamon, her happy Horse. “Mistress Katja, I thought you were having friends over this evening,” Cinnamon asked worried about her mistress.

“I was, but it became this whole big thing, not Ostentatia’s fault, but still, more people got invited, and you know me better than anyone else so you know that I don’t do well with so many people,” Katja said disappointed. Forming a party with the other girls had done a lot for Katja in getting her to socialize more. She wasn’t ready for parties, but she had friends, people friends for the first time in her life and it felt good. She was hoping she could make friends with some of the Bad Kids that rescued her and the other Maidens, at least some of them.

There was a slow creak at the door that surprised Katja and Cinnamon, the door to the stables didn’t creak. It was a heavyish wooden door, but Lockwood, Gertie, and her could open it easily without drawing out the slow creak. At the door was Adaine, who looked just as shocked to see someone else outside the party as Katja.

“I’m sorry, I’m not trying to snoop, I promise,” Adaine said panicking a bit, “the main hall was a bit too noisy and I wanted to finds someplace where I can hear myself think. I didn’t mean to disturb you, I’ll go-,” she said moving to leave.

“No,” Katja said loudly, shocking the two of them and the 101 horses in the stable. “I mean,” she cleared her throat to center herself, “you don’t have to go, I came out here for the same reason.

“Oh,” Adaine said surprised, before letting out the prettiest smile Katja had ever seen, “well thank you.” For a moment the two of them sat in an awkward silence before Adaine broke it. “I’m Adaine Abernant,” she said holding out her hand for Katja to shake. “I know we’ve met before but I don’t think I ever formally introduced myself.”

“Katja Cleaver,” Katja said, taking the smaller woman’s hand in her own. They were small hands, Adaine was a small girl, even smaller compared to someone of Katja’s size, but they were calloused and rough, not like any elf or wizard Katja had ever met. “But you knew that…,” she said awkwardly, she wasn’t good at talking to anyone outside the Seven Maidens and the staff that worked at her house. Then she thought of something, “and this is my horse Cinnamon,” she said pointing to her best friend.

Katja could talk about Cinnamon and horses for days, she knew that it weirded some people out, but if Adaine thought she was a strange horse girl she would leave and probably wouldn’t get along with Katja anyway.

“Oh she is beautiful,” Adaine said moving closer to get a good look at the horse in the pen, “she’s a palomino if I’m not mistaken,” she asked Katja, though Katja didn’t know why.

“That is correct Ms. Abernant, she is indeed a palomino,” Cinnamon spoke up.

Adaine made a weird sound, something that Katja didn’t know and was worried. A lot of the girls she knew growing up loved horses, but whenever Cinnamon started to speak they would freak out. Katja didn’t know why, a magical talking horse should have been every little girl’s dream, it was hers, but most girls her own age didn’t seem to agree. She was worried that Adaine would be like those girls, but instead Adaine’s eyes lit up.

“A magical. Talking. Horse.” Adaine said each word separately. The Elven Oracle was practically bouncing with excitement with that knowledge. For the rest of the night, Adaine kept asking Cinnamon and Katja question after question, her curiosity never being satisfied, until the party was over and the rest of the Bad Kids came to collect their wizard.

It was Katja’s house and being one of the few members of the Seven Maidens that was drunk meant that it was her job to do most of the cleaning. Oh her friends tried to help the best they could and Gertie and Lockwood really wound up doing most of the actual cleaning, but looking back, it was still one of the best nights Katja ever had.

It would be a while until Katja and Adaine would get to hang out. They were friendly of course, exchanging smiles and pleasantries when they passed in the hall, they had a few conversations here or there when they could, but they were in different parties and were different classes. Fighters and Wizards didn’t have much cross over in classes at Aguefort unless they multiclassed, or depending on the subclass you took.

Katja was hoping that Adaine would change her wizard specialization to bladesinging. She always seemed eager to punch people according to Zelda’s second hand stories and she had the dex for it. Katja just really wished they could hang out more since that night. You know like friends did, friends that were really pretty and super interested in your best friend who was a magical talking horse. It wasn’t a crush thing.

Besides, Adaine being a literal Oracle kind of meant she was stuck in the divination school even if she wanted to. Katja thought about changing her subclass to eldritch knight, she liked being a battlemaster, but she always felt like she came up short when it came to magic unlike her friends who all seemed like they could do magic stuff. But the stories she heard from the eldritch knights in the fighter classes always made the wizards they had classes with into bullies and snobs. Always making fun of them for not being smart enough, and since she was already held back one grade, Katja knew she would be tormented the second she walked into a wizard class. Since she was a half-orc, they’d probably assume she was a stupid barbarian who was too dumb to know the number of her classroom. Nope, Katja couldn’t put herself through that, so she stayed a battlemaster just as Adaine stayed a diviner, and she just wouldn’t hang out with her very platonic friend at school.

But luck would change one day, when Adaine approached her after school one day, “hello Katja,” she said in a friendly tone, but Katja could tell there was some worry behind it.

“Hey Adaine,” Katja said trying to sound as cool as possible, “do you need something. Not that you need something to talk to me,” she tried to assure the wizard. “I just mean you look worried, not that you look bad, you always look beautiful, I can just tell that something is on your mind.” Saved it, no one would be the wiser.

“I actually do need a favor,” Adaine said ignoring Katja's slip of the tongue. "You probably know that all sophomores need to take a class on Traveling, you know making camps in dangerous terrain, finding food and water to turn into rations, and of course long distance traveling on and off road."

Katja knew where this was going having taken the class last year. It was an individual class where you couldn't cooperate with your party. Each student needed to spend 5 days outdoors without a permanent form of shelter, prepare 10 days worth of rations from foraged or hunted resources, and log 10 miles on some form of transportation other than one's own feet. It had been easy for the Seven Maidens, Sam had let the other girls use her car, Sebastian made sure no one crashed, or Katja had over a hundred magical horses to choose from.

"Most students either use this to get hours towards their learners permits or take the bus for their mileage," Katja said. Though she couldn't understand why someone would choose to ride in a car or bus over riding a horse.

"That seems wise," Adaine admitted, "Fabian has his possessed motorcycle, Gorgug has his parents van, Fig's mom has her griffen Baxter for her to use, we have all carried Riz enough to count for his time, and Kristen…, her girlfriend Tracker is a werewolf so there's that," she said shaking her head in annoyance.

"I'm sure there are a lot of jokes about her riding her girlfriend," Katja couldn’t help herself, though she felt slightly bad when Adaine let out an actual groan.

“There are so many,” Adaine whined. But Katja thought it was cute all the same, “it’s even worse since I live with them. Well, I live with Jawbone and Tracker,” she explained, “Kristen just happens to spend the night more often than not. I don’t mind that, her parents are horrible, but it was bad enough when they just had sex every night, having to hear the all the bad sex puns they make has become too much.”

“So what are you going to do,” Katja asks, knowing Adaine mentioned her party members but not herself.

“Well…,” Adaine said as she played with her massive crystal orb in her hands without meeting Katja’s eyes, something she did when she got nervous. “I have some options, Jawbone offered to let me use his car, but the thing is a death trap. I could ask my friends for a ride, but I think that defeats the purpose of an independent study. I thought about asking Tracker if I could ride on her wolf form like Kristen when they weren’t…, you know,” her pale cheeks burned bright red, but Katja didn’t say anything. “But I don’t think I could stand the jokes that would come with asking anyway. My fly spell would count I suppose, I heard from some of the other wizards that was an option most of them used, but I don’t feel like trying to fly for miles and doing nothing else even if I could knock out my required mileage in a day.”

That was a lot to hear, but Katja let her go. Katja wasn’t much of a talker at the best of times and Adaine seemed like a wordy woman, it was probably best to let her go and get to her point.

“I was hoping that maybe I could come over and ride Cinnamon with you,” Adiane asked, finally getting to the issue. “Or you know another one of your horses, if you don’t want anyone else riding Cinnamon.”

It was too late, Katja was already imagining it. Adiane, beautiful, regal despite how small she was, dressed in a classical cowgirl’s outfit, an outfit Adiane wouldn’t even how it looks much less own, riding Cinnamon, the greatest and most beautiful horse in the world. It was something out of one of Katja’s wet dreams. A very platonic wet dream of course, one that all young women have about their friends growing up. Definitely not something strange.

“I mean sure, I have no problem with that,” Katja half roared half whispered, she was having trouble controlling the volume of her voice.

“If it’s any trouble, I know how sometimes people get possessive and protective of their mounts and friends,” Adaine said worried she offended Katja.

“No, I think it’s perfect,” Katja assured her as quick as she could. “Cinnamon is an amazing horse and riding her can change your life. I have told her a bunch of times how much I want the whole world to be able to ride her. It will be awesome, Adaine,” she said, making sure the smaller elf girl was looking her in the eye, “it will change your life.”

For a moment, Katja was worried her enthusiasm would scare Adaine off. Katja knew she was weird, and her obsession with horses despite being in high school made her seem like a freak. That was why she put up such a stoic front, so people wouldn’t be creeped out when she got excited.

But once again Adaine surprised her, sure Adaine was surprised by how excited Katja was over her riding Cinnamon, but she found it charming. And cute, but much like Katja, that wasn’t a road Adaine was willing to explore at the moment.

“Great,” Adaine said with a grin she hoped matched Katja’s, “when is a good time for you? Tomorrow’s Saturday, I’m free all weekend, but I wouldn’t want to ask you to give up any of your weekend to help me with my school w-.”

Katja cut her off, “Adaine, there is nothing more that I’d want to do, believe me.”

The sincerity in her voice shocked Adaine, but also made her stomach heat up in a strange but not unpleasant way. “Alright then,” Adaine managed to get out, “if you really don’t mind then, how about tomorrow, we can start early in the morning and then if you get sick of me you can kick me out and we can try another day.”

“Works for me,” Katja said, her face breaking out in a huge grin. She never smiled this much, but she liked it for some reason. “I’ll see your bright and early, let's say 8:00 ish,” that would give her enough time to brush Cinnamon down and the rest of her morning chores before Adaine came over.

“Then I’ll see you then,” Adiane said, brushing her hair out of her face in another one of her nervous habits. But she was smiling too, which was also strange to her, but like Katja she liked it.

“I’ll see you then,” Katja echoed, and the two of them went their separate ways for the day. At least until Katja realized she was walking back into the school. She waited 10 or so minutes before leaving, she didn’t want to make things awkward with Adaine by walking the same way as her after they said goodbye.

So yeah, Katja is a huge horse girl, and when Adaine mentioned being able to ride a horse I kind of ran with that. Katja and Adaine are actually really good foils for each other, *spoilers* Two rich girls from families, but Adaine's parents were cold and tried to dictate her life, often emotionally abusing her when she didn't live up to their impossible standards. while Karl at least loves Katja a lot but is never around, he tries to make up for it by giving her what she wants, but never understands that she wants him around. I doubt the Abernants ever let Adaine have a pet, that would bring too much comfort to their daughter's life while Skullcleaver manor has hundreds of horses with Katja not only having her own horse that she is able to love and carefor. Adaine killed her dad Katja killed her mom. stuff like that. Hopefully the next part won't take nearly as long to post, but I am gonna bet it's going to be after tomorrow's episode

#uselesssidecharacter #dimension 20 #the seven #fantasy high #the seven spoilers #adaine abernant #katja cleaver #adaine x katja #rarepair #crackship #my writing

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