The Free Plain

Artemis places a hand on Naoki's shoulder, and guides the other woman closer to the base of the rocks. After settling the picnic basket in the crook of her left arm, she gently scoops Naoki into her arms, bridal style. Artemis's coat wrinkles and folds as she crouches low, tense like a coiled spring.

A flare of mana pulses, and coruscating blue-and-white energy wreathes her form.

Suddenly, she explodes into motion, hurtling forward at an astonishing rate. A ferocious kick-off sends her airborne mere feet before running into an enormous boulder. She bounces off the rocks several more times before a final enormous leap sends her soaring into the air, straight up the final cliff face. At the apex of her arc, she hangs, motionless, for but a moment, before falling down to land lightly on the top surface of the hill.

Setting Naoki on her feet, she disengages the picnic basket from her arm and sets it down. A few high-velocity seconds later, she lands on the plains, and sweeps Kate into her arms. The energy surrounding Artemis's figure causes a tingling sensation wherever it touches Kate's body.

Artemis takes a running start, gaining speed at a terrifying rate. Her grip tightens, the energy flares and brightens, the tingling sensation peaks - and then the two are flying, soaring through the air, straight from the plains below to the top of the cliff.

The blue fire dissipates as Artemis lands, and she gently sets Kate on her feet. Artemis flashes the other two women a smug expression. Her breathing is deepened, and a few tiny beads of sweat are visible for a short time, before the wind dries them.

Alden travel worn, mud stained, bruised, and now dealing with sore feet from wandering around shoe less on hard dirt roads is beginning to suspect that he might just be a little lost. Unsure which road will take him back to the Free City he looks around for the nearest high place and gets climbing.

This is not the same peak that the picnic is occurring on, he will leave that lovely little scene alone.

After ascending to a better vantage points he takes in the surrounding country side again. This hill does not offer quite the same majestic view that he had seen atop The Towering Dragon Spire but it was still beautiful. It was a view worthy of taking in for a few moments and so Alden does standing atop the hill he simply breaths in and out long deep breaths. He absorbs the scenery letting it suffuse and enrich his being letting his muscles unwind and relax one after another. Just being out here, being free, causes a well spring of positive emotions to rise in his chest. Alden finds that it is almost more than he can bear and the weight of what he is experiencing causes him to crash to his knees silent tears of pure simple joy running down his face.

"Free, I am finally free."

His voice is a hoarse whispers as he says this to himself it wasn't until this moment all the staggering implications of those words hit him. He could finally make his choices, have his own personality, he could eat what he wanted, sleep when he wanted, he could help people who needed it, he could have friends! The key word for all that though was that he could do those things, and in order to do so he had much to learn. Alden needed money, he needed a place to live, and he needed to learn how to live like a normal person.

"Or at least a close approximation of a normal person."

He says this with a wry chuckle to himself. Alden decides though that first and most importantly he needed to get his shoes back his feet were killing him. Wiping the tears from his eyes he scans the horizon until he spots the Free City it wasn't too far he will be able to make it back within the hour. Once back he would head to The Towering Dragon Spire get his boots and cloak back, and after that who knows?

<Exits to the Streets and Allys of the Free City.>

Artemis responds to Kate's exuberant declaration with an exaggerated pondering motion, hand on her chin, eyes staring off into the distance. "Yes, I do suppose I am," she remarks, before breaking her charade with a laugh.

She walks over to Naoki, and helps the other woman set up the picnic area. Blankets are spread, smoothed, and weighted down against the wind, and sandwiches and drinks are prepared.

Once the preparations are complete, Artemis turns to Kate. "Everything is ready, Miss Kate. Shall I join you, or would you prefer that I leave?"

Naoki tactfully ignores Kate’s double meaning, and simply answers the question. “This stuff? No, this is only the food we picked up at the bazaar. I only hired the chef yesterday, today is his first day working; I imagine he’s still setting up. Wouldn’t want to ask him for such an important meal before he’s even found the stove, you know? So we’ll employ his services for dinner tonight.”

Having seated herself, Madame Naoki reaches into the basket once again, and extracts one of the sandwiches. She takes a moment to examine it, not having checked it previously. Judging it to not be harmful, she cautiously takes a bite.

Thick slices of salted ham with mozzarella cheese slabs between two halves of a round bun. A bit tough, little bit of a chore to chew, but the taste is there. After chewing for a moment, Naoki moves her right hand to cover her mouth, and speaks again, referring to the sandwich.

“S’ not bad.”

Naoki decided to opt to say nothing more, taking the ‘wait and see’ route. Perhaps it would be easier to transition out of a topic, than to bring one up herself.

Artemis tenses slightly, and flashes Naoki a loaded glance. After a moment, whatever she sees in the amber answers her unspoken question, and she relaxes slightly. She finishes her bite of sandwich slowly and meticulously, and speaks.

"It's not a very happy story, I'm afraid," she says with a shake of her head. "When I was quite young, I was sold to a... well, a brothel. I was crying and alone, when one of the other prostitutes, a mischievous young catgirl, came up and asked if she could give me a hug. That was Naoki, and she was the first being to ever show me kindness, or indeed, any emotion other than lust. We quickly became fast friends, and that friendship was the only thing that kept us alive. After a few years in that godforsaken place, we took a terrible risk, and managed to escape, at the same time ensuring that the brothel was shut down."

She takes a long drag from her bottle of cider.

"We wandered for a time, and eventually found sanctuary in the rising town that would become the Free City. We barely managed to survive for several months, until one day, we walked into a ratty old bar run by a decrepit old woman. She looked us up and down, and then, out of the blue, offered us a shot at running her establishment. That woman was Grandma, and that bar would, after some years and hard toil, become the Midnight Sun."

Artemis's light green eyes gaze at Kate, evaluating her reactions.

Naoki scoots on her rear over to Kate, the layers of blankets folding over each other, displaced by her movement. A comforting arm wraps its way around Kate’s shoulders, bandaged extremity hanging down over Kate’s right shoulder.

“Hey. It’s alright. Don’t fixate on the past. Accept what happened, learn what you can from it, and focus on making your future the best that it can be.”

There was much more to their story than that, of course. Artemis had chosen to omit most of the details; for good reason. If Artemis were to tell Kate the extent of their revenge, or the details regarding the methods they used to enact their vengeance…

Some elements of the past could be glossed over, Naoki thought. She gestures with a sweeping gesture ahead, to the world at large.

“Focus on the here, the now, and how they will affect the future. Make a plan for how you’re going to make the future, and then make it reality. Feelings like doubt, grief, regret… They’re alright, but only in the context of understanding, and planning to proceeding forward without them.”

Her words hang in the air for a moment, before Naoki goes on.

“Such is my philosophy, at least. I believe that it’s important to remain positive, and to not allow your effectiveness to be dragged down by something like feelings. Right now, there is only you and I. Only you and I, the blank canvas of the future, and however we decide to fill it in.”

Naoki leans closer, and continues in a softer tone.

“And to me, there’s not much else that matters.”

Kate giggles when Artemis does the thing with the gloves.

"I see. So that’s how…You live in the moment and let the bygones be bygones.” Kate pauses as a look of sadness passes her visage. It leaves as quickly as it came, a reinsuring smile in its place. “To be honest, I completely agree. I don't need to know everything. Let’s be glad of what we have here."

They are hiding something... Or, at least avoiding it.

No! Kate, stop!

Kate snuggles closer to Naoki, pressing against her side. As she plays with her hair and ears (They twitch! That's so funny!) she murmurs: “Talk to me more. I like to hear you talk."

Kate was quite amused by Naoki's reaction to her caressing. She was kind of surprised that a woman in her profession would be this sensitive around the ears.

Kate thought that was pretty adorable. A mischievous smile crept up her cheeks surreptitiously. The rush of being in control of sweet, beautiful Naoki surged through her body. She wasn't going to let this chance slip by.

"The theory of happiness, huh?" She continued to tease her ears as she spoke. "Doesn't it kinda depend on the person? You can be perfectly happy without having contact with others. Of course, that would mean that you could be missing out on a lot of different sort of happinesses."

Kate leaned her argent head closer, pressing her lips against Naoki's shivering neck. "There are those who — are born happy, then there are those — who have to find their own way to happiness." Kate was giving small pecks on Naoki's nape midst her speech. 

"I'd say that the one's that — are happy should try to make others happy as well. After all, — our time here is limited. Might as well — use it helping people stand up, since there are more than enough people — who enjoy pushing them down."

Kate had been climbing up Naoki's collar, and had reached the apex of her head once she had finished her speech. She shifted her weight ever so slightly , so she might be able to bring down the taller woman. Once they landed, Kate would bring her face so close, all she could see for a while were the amber eyes of her beloved. She stare just stared, for a moment. It was time to put her final plan into motion.

"That is how I see it, anyway." Kate sniffed Naoki's silky hair and bit her ear, tuggingly. 

With a strangled cry, Naoki unravels under Kate’s teeth, holding the other woman tightly as shudders run through her body, before collapsing limply onto the blanket.

As she returns to some semblance of consciousness, Naoki finds herself lying on her back, head resting on Kate’s folded knees. Across her field of vision, cirrus shapes silently slide their way across the sky, propelled by the same light wind that ruffles the hem of her dress. In the warm glow of the aftershock, her mind wanders.

This must be pretty much it. Perched on an unassailable mountainside on a warm autumn day, joined by her closest partners, with good food and without obligations. From here, how would life improve? How could life improve? What possible enhancements could be made to build on this high, what new peaks did life have to offer? According to Kate’s philosophy, is this Naoki’s own ultimate happiness? Does this climax mark the highest point of her life, the vertex from which the only path is to spiral downwards? Would the forces that be swing her back down from whence she came, back down to the dark pits of poverty and emotional trauma, like some sort of perverse pendulum? Was this the end?

These thoughts and others lazily drift their way across the forefront of her mind, much like the clouds across the pale sky. For even at this, the highest of highs, Naoki is unable to find peace with herself.

However, Naoki is content, at least partially. This feeling manifests as a sigh, a warm flow of air quietly slipping between her lips. She adjusts herself slightly, to lie more comfortably.

Of course, Kate hadn’t really answered her question. Naoki had asked about the nature of happiness, what it is, in its most basic form. What Kate had said was agreeable, certainly, but Naoki was looking for an answer along the lines of, “Happiness is a delusion, a figment of one’s imagination, for the purpose of putting the mind at ease” or perhaps “Happiness is a state of being, in which the individual is satisfied, without pain, regret, or fear”.

Personally, Naoki is still unsure of what exactly the nature of happiness may be. Which was, at least partially, why she asked. However, she finds herself forming a new hypothesis as she lies there. “Happiness is believing that one is happy.” She supposes that one stands alone as the sole interpreter of their own life, and if an individual understands themselves to be happy, they are, and there may not be much more to it than that.

Under this hypothesis, Naoki supposes that she would be, in fact, happy. Judging this theory to be both agreeable and to her liking, she adopts it as her own. But enough of that. It was time to attend to more pressing matters.

In her now stabilized state of mind, Madame Naoki slowly rises, propping herself up on one arm. Kate had caught her by surprise, but now it was her turn. With only a sultry smirk from her lips, Naoki puts the reversal onto Kate, gently pushing her down into the blankets.

Naoki’s lips come down to meet Kate’s in a searing kiss, as the two women begin to lose themselves in each other.