emphatic inquiry [aurelio]

[jachaiharvey]

“Oh?”

Jachai adjusted the leather strap of his satchel so that it was firm on his shoulder, and swiveled his head around to see what it was that he’d almost tripped over. It was a stray clump of weedy grass, standing shriveled in the middle of a dirt path. The young man pursed his lips, thinking that it’d be terrible if he ruined the food in his bag because he tripped over a patch of grass.

However, it was a stray thought that had come and gone from his head, and after another few seconds of shuffling down the dirt road, he’d forgotten that such a clump of grass had existed to begin with.

So was the thought process of Jachai Harvey.

He knew he was seeking someplace secret, shrouded by a veil of enigma. A bead of cold sweat trickled down the side of his face, and his hands trembled as they clutched the strap of his satchel. He was too scared to look inside.

For inside were an apple and an ear of corn. Stolen, of course.

It was a small thievery, but it was enough to drown Jachai in his own little pool of shame. Every night before he succumbed to the woes of sleep, he’d tell himself that tomorrow would be the day he stopped stealing. But tomorrow never comes, and addiction is a powerful thing.

He stopped in his tracks when he heard rustling from off the side of the road. A jolt of adrenaline rushed through his veins, and for a second, he thought he was going to make a break for it. But when a furious villager didn’t appear from the bushes, his curiosity peaked and, despite himself, he plowed through.

It was a boy with a fishing rod in his hands. Jachai blinked. He’d never been fishing before. He never stopped thinking about the wriggling worms at the end of the hook, and dreaded the day where his father would ask him to do so. It was a much needed weight off his shoulders that his father wasn’t a big fan of fishing.

He reached out to the boy and tapped him on the shoulder, tentative but determined. “Don’t you feel bad for the worms?”

[terra]

[atrb=width,400,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true] NOTES: he uses artificial lures TAG: jachai CREDIT: sky of btn!

Fishing was nice. The little nudgers swimming happily around his lure, unknowing of the fact that they would soon serve as dinner on Aurelio's table. Some would probably say that there was never any guarantee that he'd catch a fish, but the brunette's optimism just pushed that thought out of his mind. That, and a lot of other things that probably could've been important. He felt a little tug on his fishing pole, and leaned out over the water to see if it really was a fish he'd caught, or if it was just junk. However, it turned out to be a real fish, which made Aurelio excited. A little too excited, maybe, because as soon as he started reeling the fish in, it escaped. "But .. how." Normally, any guy would feel defeated at not being able to reel in any fish for a few hours, but Aurelio was far from normal. No, he just shrug his shoulders lightly and attached a new lure to the end of his line, and then cast if out again. He was about to sit back and relax, engage in the waiting game once more, but there was a tap on his shoulder that made his thoughts come back to life. By a stranger. What had he said, though? Worms? "What worms?"

[jachaiharvey]

“What?” Jachai mirrored the boy’s confusion with his own, eyes wide and eyebrows arched as his face leaned in.
He twisted his body around the boy, peering into the murky water to try and find whatever was impaled on the end of the fishing hook, but his efforts proved futile. With a stark sigh, he plopped down on his tender rump, feeling tickled by the dirt running over his hands as he dug into the cold earth.

“That’s weird. Papa uses worms. It’s why I didn’t like fishing so much,” he said, shaking his head. He stared at the boy, confusion replaced by a child-like curiosity. His eyes seemed to sparkle. “What do you use then, if not worms?” The thought that you could use something else was clearly alien to him.

He sat back, folding his arms across his chest. He thought that if he did, he’d look like he was exercising a healthy skepticism. His legs were crossed and his satchel was sprawled on the ground beside him. He wasn’t going anywhere.

[terra]

[atrb=width,400,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true] NOTES: he's actually really stupid TAG: jachai CREDIT: sky of btn!

"Oh, I never use worms when I fish! It's bad for the environment .. under the sea." He laughed, shifting in his seat. He was about to start talking about a very popular song that came from a film from the mainland, but the pressing matter of being accused of fishing with live bait was more important. "I use artificial lures-- here," he reached over to his lure box with one of his hands while the other was kept to hold the fishing pole, and opened it to show off all the colourful lures he had, although the box was seethrough, so the man would've seen them anyway, if he really tried to. It didn't bother him the slightest that he was talking this comfortably to a complete stranger. This was Primula, wasn't it? Nothing bad happened here. And if it did, Aurelio would just purposely forget. "This is a swimbait, made to look like a live baitfish," he had taken one up to show the stranger. "But it's totally all in plastic! Isn't it funny?" It was odd how whenever Aurelio talked about fishing or fish he almost sounded intelligent. Well, that's what you get for being a fishing expert, though. "Hey, what's your name?" he asked suddenly, realising he was still talking to someone he didn't know the name of.