Carry You

Weiss found her way back into the house and contemplated going to the library. She checked her watch and found out she'd been riding for about an hour and a half. She definitely had time until lunch. She just... She really wasn't sure what to do. She was starting to like being outside a lot which was definitely nice. Seeing more of the world even if it was still within a small box definitely was a break of fresh air as far as her mind was concerned. It was still hard to believe she wasn't being locked inside all hours of the day. She'd start lessons soon enough, of course, but that was still a few days away. For now... She had to learn to fill her own time. She looked at Sayaka. "Is there anything else I can do around here that isn't reading?" Now that she knew what being active felt like... She kind of wanted more of it. She still didn't feel confident enough to try to ride a pegasus by herself. Neige she could handle since she did have some riding lessons under her belt. But a fully winged horse? Not happening. The little bird tilted her head and swayed back and forth a bit."Well, there is plenty to do but it's more for servants... The nobility prefers to stay inside since outside is considered for the peasantry unless it's stuff like falconry."That did make some sense she supposed, but she wanted to be outside. It felt so bad... She just... Ugh. Frustrating. She supposed she'd just go read more. She hiked up her skirts and started heading for the library though she honestly didn't feel like reading much. She did feel somewhat sore from riding for so long since she wasn't used to that sort of physical activity. Training for Beacon at night, sure. But horseback riding? Not so much. She'd get used to it in time. She made her way past the librarian and to her personal little study table and started transferring her notes again. It felt...droll. She wasn't sure why she wanted to be outside so much. She loved reading, but she felt kinda stir crazy today. She frowned. "Do you think Lilyana would work with me today?" she asked quietly, not trying to draw the librarian's ire. The bird raised her wings."Ask?"That wasn't the answer she wanted, but it did make sense, she supposed. So she got up, hiking her skirts again. Lilyana didn't wear the same amount of layers that she did. She changed into more amenable clothing and picked up her falconry bag. She blinked when she saw Dorosi sunbathing on her way toward Lilyana's house. "Oh Dorosi. Hello."She hadn't seen him in a couple days. The wolf tilted his head."What are you doing out here, Weiss? Maybe we could play a bit?"His mouth opened, practically smiling, as he got to his feet. "Maybe. I'm going to go see if Lilyana will let me learn under her for today... I just don't feel like being inside." Even if she didn't handle any birds today, maybe there were some things she could do with the woman. She wasn't sure what all was in her bag since she hadn't quite investigated yet. "Well... We do need to start working together as a team. Maybe she has some exercises for that."That might not be a bad thing to check into. She nodded and followed him to Lilyana's house, Sayaka still holding onto her shoulder. She knocked on the front door and the woman answered, tilting her head. "Why are you out here, Weiss? You shouldn't be out here until evening feeding..." "Well. I kinda want to be outside today. Sayaka says it's mostly for peasants, but I've never really been allowed free rein to be outside like this before." Of course, part of it was definitely the fact that Atlas was so cold and it wasn't safe for her to be alone outside. But Koiria seemed different... There were large, vast properties outside that definitely were safe. She had seen the caracaras patrolling while riding. And since there had been no wars for only who knew how long... Well. She had no reasontobe locked up. The fae seemed to have no desire to keep her all locked up like she'd been in Schnee manor. There was no need to control her here... She had come around to seeing that. "Well, there are some things you can do. And we should probably get Dorosi up to snuff with tracking. C'mon. Let's get saddled up." Weiss nodded and followed Lilyana back to the barn though the woman spoke out against her using Neige. "We'll be going into the forest. He doesn't know the trails yet." She would rather not get lost, so she could agree to that. They got all saddled up and headed to the edge of the forest. "Red-tails and Harris hawks are mostly open-country birds, but they can be found hunting at the edges of forests if it's possible. I prefer to hunt away from the manor since things are so manicured. But since we're working on tracking, we'll want to gointothe forest. Dorosi, you don't have a ton of tracking experience, so you'll need help. Weiss, go on for about twenty minutes, then I'll send Dorosi after you." Weiss nodded a bit and tapped the bay gelding into a trot. It was a much bumpier ride than Neige whose gaits were butter smooth. She wasn't sure if it was a breed difference, world difference, or just something unique to this horse. She could feel every rock, twig, and dip in the ground as the horse trotted over them. She did not like this, she did not like this, she did not like this... Guh. She kept an eye on her watch and lightly tapped the horse when twenty minutes had passed. "Okay, that's good." The horse stopped and stretched his neck out, shaking his head and falling into silence. She wished she had a book or something... Dorosi would take time to find her. She didn't feel like she was in danger, even with the dragons around... They weren't that deep or far into the forest. She hadn't seen the pillars that marked the dragons' territory here in the forest. They had only been at the edge whereas Blake had had them a fair bit deeper into the forest before they passed through. She waited a fair bit until she heard something traipsing through the undergrowth. Eventually, a born head popped up and he wagged his tail."I found you, Weiss!"She smiled a bit. He was so enthusiastic... It was kinda cute. Lilyana came up right behind him on her horse. "Good job. Dorosi. Though we'll need to get you tracking prey, not just Weiss before we can really call you a real falconry companion." Another dog stood near Lilyana's horse. "This is Jerim. He's my trained dog. How about we get you starting to be familiar with the scents of the forest, Dorosi?" The wolf gave a small nod and Jerim started walking. Lilyana motioned and had Weiss fall into step beside her with her horse. For the next while, they meandered through the forest with Lilyana translating between Jerim and Dorosi, picking out different scents and trails. Dorosi looked overwhelmed and eventually whined."How do you keep track of all of this? There's so much to memorise!" Jerim chuckled."Oh you'll get there eventually."Lilyana translated and also chuckled. "It's not so bad, Dorosi. You're a wolf... You should really already know these things. But since you're a unicorn forest animal... Well. It does make sense. You'll get there in due time. Jerim believes in you. Anyway, it's lunch time. We should settle in." Lilyana took a small basket out of a pack and Weiss dismounted. She wasn't technically wearing riding clothes, but they were close enough in her mind… Lilyana spread out a blanket and handed Weiss a small portion. "Oh... This is way less than I normally eat... My aura--my soul--is activated and I require a lot more food than most people do." "Ah, my bad then. Well, you'll have snack time with the Belladonnas soon enough. We won't stay out too much longer. Getting Dorosi's feet wet was a good idea, though. I'll start working with him when I'm not teaching you, all right? I'll get him whipped into shape. Never worked with a unicorn forest animal, so it's definitely odd. He's not a bad soul, just very kind and gentle." Weiss nodded. She couldn't really deny it. He seemed relatively unblemished by the world unlike herself. She was glad to see him though. He was so kind, soft, and warm. She was starting to enjoy his presence. "Dorosi, would you like to spend more time with me?" She could see that he had no negative desires for her or anything like that. The fae could have ulterior motives but even then... They rarely seemed negative. He nodded."I mean Iwassent here to spend time with you."He whined a little and his ears went down."Am I smelly or something?" She shook her head. "No, you're not. It was just settling down here and had to get rid of my ideas that everyone was out to get me." If she was in Atlas, she would still hold those ideas. But with the fae, it didn't seem as if that were the case. She really did need to spend more time with him. If she didn't, she ought to send him back to his pack... He would probably be happier there since hewasa wolf and had spent his entire life outside, not boxed inside a shouse. "All right, Weiss, you should probably head back to have a snack with the Belladonnas," Lilyana pointed out after the second run. Weiss nodded and they started heading back to the manor. Weiss handed her horse off to the stablehand who said he'd take care of the horse for her. She did just that and headed to the dining nook with Sayaka's help. The Belladonnas were already there and Blake blinked. "Where have you been? I haven't seen you since our ride." "I was out with Lilyana. We were helping Dorosi train in the forest a bit so he can hopefully be a good falconry companion to me." She settled down and found herself parched. She was so used to having water at all hours of the day next to her. So not having it for several hours... She definitely felt it. Her throat felt like what sandpaper must have felt like. She wasn't sure as she'd never touched the stuff before, but she heard hard, gritty things often compared to it. She'd never even felt sand before… "All right then." Blake smiled. "You getting out and not reading as much?" Weiss nodded a bit. "Yeah. It's...kind of nice to not have to just sit around all the time." She was really glad to not have to sit down 24/7 more or less. It was a rough time, but she was slowly adapting to it. She had always enjoyed playing around with her Semblance even if she didn't necessarily enjoy fighting. Movement was thrilling in and of itself when she was so used to basically being chained to a chair at all times. Wiggling and moving of any sort were not allowed unless it was something like turning a page. Anything unnecessary was banned. She wasn't allowed to do anything outside of what was deemed necessary. Blake smiled. "Well, if you want, we can also teach you to swim. We have a pool inside at all of our manor homes." Weiss' insides turned cold at that. "Water means death," she said. Blake blinked and exchanged gazes with her parents. "Where...do you get that idea?" There was no judgement in her tone, just curiosity and confusion. "With how cold Atlas is, getting in the water means death. You'll die of hypothermia." That had been pounded into her head. Getting in the water meant death. Unless it was a shower or a bath. Swimming wasn't allowed because falling into the water would almost certainly mean doom. She couldn't imagine getting into a large body of water willingly. "That's...not how it is with pools. I mean, yeah, people can definitely drown, but they're inside and heated. You're not going to die of hypothermia because you got in a pool." Weiss frowned at the thought. "I don't know how to swim though. Wouldn't I drown?" It just felt like a natural consequence. With Atlas' thoughts on water, she definitely felt like she'd drown immediately. She couldn't and had never swam before. No to mention her hair would most likely create a lot of weight and drag. She was used to taking it so long to dry after showers even with using a hairdryer. She hated how long her hair took to dry but what else could she do about it... "And my hair is so heavy when wet..." "Weiss, if you wanted to cut your hair for whatever reason, youcan.We have cosmetologists that can adjust the length of your hair at any time. If you want long hair, you can have long hair. If you wanted to try out shorter hair, they can do that. YOu can get any length of hair at any time." Weiss blinked at that. She... Wow. No, she had never considered short hair because to wear short hair as a woman in Atlas... Well, it was scandalous. And she couldn't bring scandal on her family. The only way scissors touched her hair were to trim away dead ends. She had never really had a true hair cut in the sense of chopping a bunch off. "No... Me cutting my hair short would've been a scandal and reflected negatively on the family. Even Winter keeps her hair relatively long and she's military." Of course, women having long hair was just kind of part of Atlas' culture. Even military women could and were encouraged to have long hair as far as she'd seen. She had seen some pictures of the Ace Ops, so seeing Harriet and Elm with such short hair was mind blowing to her... It was probably easier to maintain than her long locks, but it wasn't like she had much of a choice. "Would you like totryhaving shorter hair? And it's not like you have to have all of it lopped off into a pixie cut or anything. You can just have it shorter.Still mid back length or even shoulder length. You can either have it done magically or traditionally. Even if you get it done traditionally, you can have someone grow your hair back out with magic if you decide you don't like having shorter hair." So it wasn't a permanent change... That was definitely good. She'd never known anything different than having extremely long locks from childhood. She thought shorter mair must be easier to maintain because she had to spend an excruciating amount of time working on it every couple of days and the amount of shampoo she went through when washing... It was a headache. She'd already gone through quite a bit from the appointment with the hair specialist. "That...might be kinda nice. I've never been allowed to have it shorter. Anything but my true length was discouraged. The only time I had it cut was to trim away dead ends." It'd been several months since her last appointment anyway, so she was due for a trim. Maybe she should just lop a lot of it off. With magic, it wasn't like she'd have to wait years for it to regrow. It could be done instantly if she wanted to have it go back to its previous length. "Do you have somebody here that can do it or would we have to go into town?" She wasn't sure. The Belladonnas had some people for some things, like a falconer, but she wasn't sure who all they had on the premises for stuff like this. "We keep a cosmetologist on hand because mom likes to keep her hair so short, so it needs to be trimmed quite often. That...and I like getting crazy streaks or color put in it sometimes." Blake chuckled. "Easier to keep someone on hand and pay room and board for them to be on call than try to make an appointment every time." Weiss nodded a bit. President Jacques always called somebody into the house when she needed to get her hair trimmed. It was on a fairly set schedule, usually the fifteenth every third month, unless the cosmetologist had some sort of conflict for some reason. That rarely happened but she'd been told it had happened a couple times. "Maybe we can go after this?" Weiss asked. "Sure! Sounds fine by me." Blake smiled, her ears twitching a little bit. "Also, since you're so interested in birds, I was wondering if you'd maybe like to spend time with Vona." "Vona?" "My macaw. Remember?" Oh right, the bird with an entire room to itself. The one that made her see just how wrong Atlassian upper-class people were for sticking birds in such small cages. It was so weird to think she had seen a full feathered bird instead of a largely naked one for the first time in her life. Vona was beautiful, now that she thought about it. The bird was absolutely gorgeous. A caloshua macaw if she remembered correctly. Weiss nodded. "Now that you jogged my memory. But why spend time with her?" "Well, you're interested in falconry. No, parrots aren't raptors or anything, but macaws are interesting in their own right. Plus, she's free-flight trained so we can take her outside and let her fly free. She's a large bird so a lot of raptors aren't willing to take that on." Weiss nodded a bit. It made some level of sense, she supposed. She was enjoying learning about falconry and everything... What was wrong with expanding that to parrots? She loved learning just about anything she possibly could learn. And what better way than through experience? "All right then." She smiled a bit. There was so much happening in her life right now. She would hopefully start lessons pretty soon... She was getting sick of not having a predictable schedule. But part of it was kinda nice because she could choose what and when to do things when she wanted. It was a very strange departure from her former life but not necessarily in a bad way. It was just very,verydifferent. But yes, she definitely did want a predictable or at least semi-predictable routine back. "After snack, we can go see Vona, get your hair cut, and then maybe go down to the pool... Wiat. You need a bathing suit first." Blake frowned. "You'll probably want a more modest bathing suit than the styles we use. Our normal clothing is pretty modest, sure, but we don't mind showing off skin when swimming." "How much skin are we talking...?" Weiss was terrified to find out, just based on how Blake was wording things. Something about it just didn't sit right with her for whatever reason. It seemed like something she wouldn't be too happy about. "Pretty much just your bust and privates are covered." Weiss went scarlet. "Yeah, that's about the reaction I was expecting. A lot of fae do like more conservative bathing suits too, so I can take you somewhere that sells them and you can choose whatever you want. I don't mind bikinis though. You'll just have to deal with my personal choice. Can you do that?" Weiss couldn't respond quite yet. But she forced herself to nod. Different culture, different values. She couldn't judge Blake for something that she enjoyed... Guh. She would be insomuch trouble if she was caught showingthat much skin.It would be a scandal of the highest degree in Atlas. How anyone could wear basically nothing but underwear where someone could see was beyond her. She was learning not to judge fae culture quite so much but still... That felt like it was going beyond anything that they ought to… "O-Okay..." That was all she could say about it. It wasn't her body. It wasn't her choice. She couldn't be too offended even if her sensibilitiesscreamedat her to not accept it. It wasn't her place to judge. If that was how Blake felt comfortable, then it was how Blake felt comfortable. She couldn't say anything against it especially since thiswasBlake's house even if her parents owned it. She was being considered part of the family even if she didn't entirely feel like it yet… "Okay, shopping first, then hair, then Vona, then pool?" Blake asked. Weiss nodded a bit. At least she'd have time to calm down and everything before they got into the pool. But she still was going to bebeyondflustered when they did get there. But it sounded like they had the rest of their day until dinner planned. And maybe even after... Depended on how long they wanted to stay in the pool. It sounded like another way to be active so...maybe she'd have fun? She had no way of knowing. She'd just have to wait and see how she took to it. "That sounds fine, I guess." She just... Guh, this pool thing was throwing her off so much. She could understand the logic behind not having an excessive amount of cloth on in the water because that had been taught to her as well. Atlassian clothes were a lot thicker than most kingdoms' from what she'd heard. She'd heard some of the women talk about how utterly thin and naked they felt in Valian clothing, but it wasn't like they could do much about it. She was probably going to feelincrediblynaked in the swimsuits… "Honestly, I'm pretty much done eating, so whenever you're ready..." Blake said. Weiss sighed a bit and finished up. "Let's go!" Blake smiled and grabbed Weiss' hand, starting to drag her away.