Girls gossiping about Hati over tea

I decided to write this from an omnipotent 3rd person, and focus on Camilla’s and Tinsae’s different perceptions on Hati depending on different variables. It would be fun to write a similar shortie from the boys’ perspective.

*if muscular

“I do love a person who takes good care of themselves.” Tinsae smiles at her tea cup, her gaze grazing Camilla’s toned arms. “I heard that they tossed cabers back in the North.”

“Cabers?” Camilla’s gaze brightens. “How primal of them.”

Tinsae sighs. “You can’t just call Hati primal. It is quite offensive.”

“I already did,” she ponders happily at her tea cup, secretly wondering if she’d have the strength to toss cabers, too. 

*if lithe

Camilla takes a hefty sip of the tea she’s spiked with wine. “I love how skinny they are. Like a stick waiting to be thrown around.”

“Camilla...” Tinsae sighs. “Please don’t call Hati a stick.”

Camilla smiles, looking quite pleased with herself. Indeed, she already called them a stick and will not take it back.

“Besides, I don’t doubt your strength, please don’t misunderstand me, but they are a grown adult. To be able to ‘throw them around’ sounds preposterous.”

Camilla straightens her posture, eager to prove her friend wrong. “I will try and report back.”

“Of course you will…”

*if beard and fashionable

“I appreciate their formidable beard,” Camilla says.

Tinsae laughs. “I swear, you and beards.”

“It’s trimmed so nicely, too,” Camilla continues, ignoring Tinsae’s jab. “Makes me want to braid it.”

“You refuse to do your own hair but you would braid Hati’s beard.”

Camilla nods, affirming the analysis.

*if beautiful

Tinsae sighs wistfully at the tea cup. “Gods truly granted them beauty. Sometimes I catch myself staring at them for too long. Their beauty matches the most stunning of deities and heroes of–”

“It is indeed a pretty face.” Camilla interrupts and looks thoughtfully at the empty tea cup. “Too cute. Makes me want to make them grimace in pain.”

A shocked laugh escapes Tinsae as she places her cup on the table in exasperation. “Camilla, please.”

*if scar

“Did you know that they fought a bear?” Tinsae whispers in a conspiratory fashion, hiding her smiling lips behind a tea cup. She’s almost ashamed over her pride, she shouldn’t encourage that kind of recklessness.

Camilla closes her eyes and nods, carrying a mixture of pride and delight in her gesture. To fight off a bear and to live to tell the tale. That’s the kind of foolhardy recklessness she can’t help but to appreciate. “I did.”

*if chosen one/believer

Tinsae sips her tea, her thoughts wandering to her own faith. “I can’t help but to admire their conviction. There’s an aura of certainty about them that I find alluring."

“Of course you’d like that about them,” Camilla says with a small smirk.

*if also human sacrifice

Camilla ponders on her next words carefully. “I think I’ve seen something peculiar in their gaze.”

Tinsae nods. She’s noticed it, too. Something you can’t quite put your finger on, something that eludes you. Something sinister and wrong.

A smirk sneaks in Camilla’s features. “I like it.”

Tinsae shifts uncomfortably. “Of course you do, darling.”

*if determined on getting revenge

“There’s fire in their eyes that makes me… worried, at times,” Tinsae says as she inspects Camilla. She sees the same fire in Camilla’s gaze. It worries her all the same. It almost makes her regret that she ever came back.

“Nonsense,” Camilla says, not picking up on Tinsae’s insinuation, nor her worry. She rarely, if ever, does. “That fire has kept them alive all this time. It’s necessary. It’s admirable,” she repeats the words she firmly believes to be true.

Instead of responding, Tinsae looks at the horizon. The Southern wind carries the scent of spring with it. It makes her breathe out in relief.