A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1365 - 1365: Change - Part 2

"It's best to go on the trail from here," Nila said. "The rocks are slippy at this time of year, and besides, we're going to be heading down there, towards the bottom of the ravine. There's a route up the other side that—Wait, Lasha!?"

The stupid, irresponsible distance that had been presented by the two rocks was something that any sensible person would have turned away from. Even being in the Second Boundary herself, Nila would have refused to try it without a second thought. But Lasha had lept, and Nila was forced to watch in slow motion, as the girl just barely fell short.

The tips of her high boots just barely skidded on the edge of the boulder, and her long black skirt went fluttering from the motion. Lasha's mask cracked for just a second, let loose the smallest amount of surprise. And then the entirety of her body weight was shifting backwards, and there was to be no recovering from it.

She landed with a thwomp, in the shallow pile of wet leaves in between the two slippy bits of rock. She stared sullenly at the sky above her, shrouded by the canopy of trees. The thin wool jumper that she had chosen to wear in place of her usual armour was almost undoubtedly being soaked through, and the sword at her hip was sticking off to an angle as if it was a broken bone.

"Goodness, Lasha, are you okay?" Nila said, hurrying to her side. It was quite a fall. Not in distance, particularly, but in force. All the incredible power Lasha had used to make the lengthy leap had been turned against her, the second she bounced off the rock.

Her black hair was splayed out around her like a halo, and she seemed unwilling to move.

"Lasha…?" Nila said uncertainly. At the very least, the girl was alive, for she was blinking, but she wasn't saying any sort of word of reassurance. "...Are you okay?"

Lasha didn't respond. She twitched her fingers testingly, as if going through rigamortis, but otherwise, she just laid there, as if the pile of wet leaves were truly comfortable enough that she couldn't afford to move.

Nila tried a different tact. "Are you growing out your hair again?" She said, noticing that it was longer than she'd last seen it, now it was flattened against the ground. She'd thought it to be an incredible shame when Lasha had returned from campaign with her beautiful hair cut.

"I am," Lasha replied in an instant. Her eyes flashed with mischief, which told Nila that she knew what she'd done. She'd intended to keep her silence a while longer, only to be prodded into an immediate reply.

"I know you better than you realize," Nila said, crouching down beside her, and pulling at a strand of Lasha's hair. "If you're going to play at being defenceless, then I'll be playing as well," she said. The hair was rather moist between her fingers, and covered in moist half decayed pine neeles.

Lasha's hand came up to stop her. Despite her doll-like appearance, the girl hated being treated as such. She was sitting bolt upright in a matter of moments, and muttering sullenly. "It hurts," she complained. "And now my jumper and skirt are filthy."

"And wet and cold, yes, yes, I am quite sure they are," Nila chided her patiently. "But that is what you get for being silly, isn't it?" The huntress patted her head teasingly, as if she was speaking to a child. "There, there. It will all be better soon. Do you wish to go back? There's still some clothes of mine at mother's house.

You can borrow them, if you like."

"…No," Lasha said stubbornly. "You said you would teach me how to hunt. I am going to make you keep up that promise."

Using Nila's shoulder, Lasha helped herself to her feet. Nila's smile twitched at being used as a handrail, but she supposed that to be Lasha's way of getting back at her for her teasing.

"Shall we be going, then?" Nila said, dusting off the leaves from her knees where she had been kneeling. Unlike Lasha, she'd had the sense to wear tight-fitting trousers for their day's work. She knew that even at this time of year, when all the vegetation was dying, there were still plants and little creatures about that could leave a nasty sting.

Before she could even think to take a step away, though, Lasha had crawled to the top of her boulder again, and was eyeing the gap between the two of them with an expression that Nila would have described as petulant.

"Lasha…" She said. "You're not going to try that again?"

Lasha looked at her like a little girl would look at her mother when she wished to put on a bout of stubbornness. Nila knew well that she'd given that look herself many times to her own mother and father, but she never thought she'd be on the receiving end of it from a girl that was the same age as her.

"I am going to make it," Lasha said. "I simply slipped last time."

"…You're going to hurt yourself," Nila sighed. "The reason you slipped is because the rocks are slippy. Slippy things are slippery. It only makes sense, doesn't it? You're going to be even more miserable when you fall on your back again. You're going to be colder, and you're going to hurt even more."

"…But if I make this jump, the glory will last for a thousand years," Lasha said.

"No, it won't!" Nila said hotly. "It won't even last ten minutes! I'm going to leave you, whether you make it or not!"

She folded her arms, and turned her back on Lasha, declaring that even if Lasha made it, Nila wouldn't be there to watch it.

"…Turn around," Lasha said.

"No," Nila said. "If you're going to be silly, I'm not going to reward you for it. You can hurt yourself on your own time. You asked me to teach you how to hunt, not how to fall. What if you take an even more nasty slip and hit your head?"