(Really wanted to do a chapter of Tighnari + Cyno when they first met)
"Tighnari! You should come join us!" Some Akademiya students called out for the fox.
"I.. For what?" Tighnari tilted his head. His hair stood long and thin, his ears and tail being as poofy as ever.
"You know! The usual activities? And also to take some pictures maybe." Said one of them.
"I uhm.. Sorry, can you give me a moment?" Tighnari pointed the other way with a flick of his hair.
"Sure? Just come over once you're ready."
"Yeah, yeah.." Tighnari hurried off. He sighed as he left the scene, not wanting to come back.
Tighnari made sure that he was away from everyone. Outside of Pardis Dhyai, he sat in a pretty garden. The sun was starting to set. The blue sky grew orange as the young fox held his little hacky sack in his small, delicate hands.
He'd sigh. Finally.. I can relax a bit. Tighnari was feeling calm, enjoying the smell of the flowers in the garden.
"Huh?" Tighnari's ears detected a faint rustling. When he turned towards the noise, he saw something black hide behind a tree.
..I feel like this person has stalked me before.. Tighnari's ears frayed back as he stood up. He carefully walked over, still holding his little ball. "Uhm.."
"Is there something I can help you with..?" Tighnari would say.
"..I know you've been watching me for a while." He felt awkward saying that.
The person sighed. Guess there's no point in hiding anymore. He came out from behind the tree, revealing his pure white hair and red eyes, wearing a black coat.
"G-General Maha- I-I apologize for my rudeness!" Tighnari's ears lowered.
"I-It's okay. You don't need to be nervous. I'm just here on my own personal behalf." Cyno said. He showed the palms of his hands to show he means no harm.
Tighnari huffed. "Thank archon."
Cyno held out his hand. "I'm Cyno."
Huh.. Did I make a mistake by any chance? I hope it's nothing serious. The fox shook his hand.
"Tighnari.."
Tighnari's ear flicked. "So.. what did you want?"
Cyno cleared his throat, feeling a little awkward. "Uhh- sorry, this is the first I've seen your kin with dark fur. ..I've heard you have a great popularity in the Akademiya, so I wanted to see if I could meet you in person."
Tighnari softly chuckled. "Ahaha, I don't think I'm that popular. It's an honor to meet you today!"
"Same here. Shall we talk about your current research? I'd like to know more." Cyno said.
By then, the moonlight was shining on the two, the sky dark and filled with stars. Tighnari was inaudibly talking about some stories in the Akademiya, or just some events that have happened.
Cyno stared at him with a focused expression. "..So the rumor is true." He'd raise a hand, and pat Tighnari's shoulder.
"Now CyKnows you're a good person."
Tighnari sputtered. "Pftt, what an awful pun!" He'd laugh, with a pure expression.
Cute.. Cyno shook his head. He crossed his arms and closed his eyes, awkwardly. "Ahem. Still, I can't accept being called a stalker earlier. I'm just doing my job, and one of them is investigating any academic corruption in the Akademiya."
"Excuse me? I wouldn't be calling you a stalker if you had just stopped observing and interrogate me right away!" Tighnari pouted.
I swear to archon he has no chill.
"Listen, I'm sorry for making you feel uncomfortable. I didn't mean any of it." Cyno said, sounding sincere according to Tighnari's ears. "Since I found out that you're not guilty, you're safe now."
He got up. "Anyways, I still have other work to do. Till we meet again, Tighnari."
Tighnari had an unsure expression on his face.
"Again..?"
After maybe about a week or two later, Tighnari was seen walking down a dirt path. He was finishing up his errand of collecting some flowers and others like mushrooms to see if he can make anything useful out of them.
"Such a slow day.. These flowers didn't age well.. Did I perhaps come by too early.. or did I come by too late..?" Tighnari wondered. Whatever.. I need to go get this to water quickly before they die. They need to be as fresh as can be so I can work a smooth process.
Tighnari heard some footsteps. He looked up to see a couple of figures in the distance. They seemed to be walking in his direction. The fox stopped, he hesitated to keep moving because he recognized the attire the people were wearing.
Are those Eremites? What are they doing out here in the desert? Tighnari's ears nervously folded back as he looked at his surroundings. There were some other Eremites, some big and some small, all coming around him.
"Aha, look at what we have here. A precious student of the Akademiya. Seems to be one of the popular scholars, as well." An Eremites spoke up.
"W..What do..-?"
"Sorry we have to do this to you. But we need one of you guys for our own personal benefit." The eremite nodded at a big guy. "Us Eremites have been having a lot of trouble maintaining a lot of things. We need someone more.. organized to give us a helping hand.."
Tighnari felt his ears flatten to his head, his tail itching to go in between his legs as he watched the big Eremite walk towards him.
His ears perked up when he heard something zipping by, sounds of violently rustling cloth and running footsteps. Tighnari saw a figure dressed in black ambush the tall eremite that was in front of him. Something like purple electricity stunned him, and a familiar figure stood atop of him.
Tighnari's tail lifted, and began to sway side to side. "C-Cyno!" He noticed his tail, and pat it down to cut it out.
"I've been looking for you Eremites." Cyno said. He glared upon the group of thieves with a dark look. "You can't hide forever. Your sins will be laid upon your soul."
"The General Mahamatra!"
Tighnari watched as each one of the Eremites was taken down. They were picked off like little hairs. Big, electro claws stuck out from his coat, looking as if they could cut anything into two.
After Cyno was done, every eremite was knocked unconscious. His electro claws disappeared, and he'd look at Tighnari. "..Are you alright?"
"Hm? Yeah! Th-Thanks.." Tighnari started.
As Cyno walked towards him, he noticed how the fox's tail tapped on the ground. "Sorry about that. I had been chasing those Eremites for some time, but I guess they had other plans. It's okay, now. I dealt with them."
"Yeah.. I just saw that." Tighnari said.
"Eremites can be little termites sometimes." Cyno tilted his head.
"I.. Okay?" Tighnari smiled awkwardly.
"But hey, I did say until next time, didn't I? I knew we'd cross paths again." Cyno said.
"We really did.. Such a coincidence that I'm in the leave that led you to me. It's almost as if fate wants something to do with us." Tighnari chuckled.
"Hang on for a few minutes, the General Mahamatra must deal with these Eremites." Cyno said.
"Okay."
"What brings you here?" Cyno would ask.
"I was just collecting flowers and mushrooms." Tighnari answered.
"Sunflowers?" Cyno saw some yellow flowers in Tighnari's little bag.
"Heh, yeah. I really like them. I've always wanted to become a Forest Ranger, so I've been studying my plants and wildlife."
"Sounds like a good plan." Cyno smiled at him.
"I wanna ask, why did you become General Mahamatra?" Tighnari tilted his head towards him.
"Hm? Oh, I actually didn't plan to, originally. I've always been a man of my word. I was just a normal scholar in the Akademiya when I decided to explore the desert— a humid place. When I heard about the bad that happens there in between students of the Akademiya and the Eremites, I wanted to do something to punish that evil." Cyno said. "Time passed, and I found myself being promoted as the General Mahamatra. This is my life now."
"..."
The two shared a look in silence.
"..That was the most uninteresting story ever." Tighnari said.
Cyno scoffed. "Seriously? I explained that in immense detail. Maybe you don't get it."
"I mean, I get that you want people to make up for their sins." Tighnari chuckled.
"It's evil. Evil should be punished. I will be the judge of that." Cyno said.
"Is becoming General Mahamatra how you got your vision?" Tighnari questioned him again.
"If I tell you, you'll be even more uninterested." Cyno said.
"Okay, never mind then." Tighnari looked away from him.
"..Nari?"
"Eh?" Tighnari looked at him in confusion. "Did you just call me Nari?"
"Short for Tighnari. I-If you don't want me to call you that, it's fine." Cyno waved his hand.
"I- oh no! I was just surprised. No one's ever called me that." Tighnari said. "It's fine, you can call me Nari if you want."
"It's a cute nickname, don't you think?" Cyno laughed a bit.
"It's.. not all that." Tighnari hugged his knees. "Please, don't compliment me for something that isn't true."
"What are you saying?" Cyno exhaled. "Other people have their own opinions about you. In my vision, you look like a good soul, pure of innocence."
"That so..?"
"Nari, is it alright with you if I touch your tail?" Cyno had been resisting the urge to ask, but he succumbed to temptation in the end.
Tighnari grumbled, thinking about it. "Mmhhhn.. Ookay.. But only because you saved me." He stroked his tail, before handing it to Cyno.
The General Mahamatra gently took it in his hands. It was very soft. There were very few tangles when Cyno ran his fingers through the fur, they could have been from the conflict earlier. "Can I ask how your kin tend to your fur?"
"Well, a lot of work and material is put into grooming, at least if one has a thick coat of fur. Unfortunately, I'm one of those people." Tighnari clenched his teeth with a quiet hiss. "I typically apply waterproof oil to my tail for the rain, and I clean my fur every two days. Also part of that care is to.. stay out of humid weather, my body can't handle it."
"So you're not a fan of the desert? I shouldn't be surprised, anyways. I can see that coming from you." Cyno said.
"Yeah.." Tighnari quiet down for some time. The silence grew awkward.
..Jeez.. Who knew that I would become acquainted with the General Mahamatra? And to think that he was looking for me specifically. Tighnari squeaked when Cyno touched a no no area.
"Ah-! Not that close to the base!" Tighnari exclaimed.
"Is it sensitive there?" Cyno questioned.
"Yes." Tighnari puffed his cheeks with a soft blush. "Very."
"Speaking of, you're a type of the fennec fox, right? Does that mean that you have excellent hearing?" Cyno leaned over towards him.
"Yes. My ears are about.. 20-25 times more sensitive than normal humans, meaning that normal noises are extremely loud for me." Tighnari said. "You could say that's why I knew that you had been stalking me."
"It's quite difficult to hide from someone with such." Cyno said.
"Were you embarrassed when I finally caught you?"
"Perhaps."
"Haha, you sound very coy. I didn't think that somebody of such a serious title would be a softie." Tighnari's tail flicked, still in Cyno's hands. It was across his lap, comfortably.
"You didn't need to call me out like that." Cyno grumbled.
"Sorry, I couldn't help it." Tighnari was done laughing at him. "It feels nice to laugh, though."
"You have a nice laugh." Cyno said, before pausing. His mind spoke out loud, bringing back the embarrassment.
Tighnari just stared at him.
"Oh uhm, sorry. I tend to blurt things out when my mind is at ease. It happens." Cyno looked the other way and avoided eye contact. He looked back at the fox.
"..So you've got an earring." Cyno said, changing the topic.
"Oh, yeah. My dad pierced my ear when I was.. like 7 I think. I only remembered that it really hurt." Tighnari touched the golden ring in his ear. "Just a ring is kind of boring though, I was thinking of looking for something to replace it but I'm not sure what."
"Is your father a fox?" Cyno questioned.
"Yeah. Both of my parents." Tighnari said.
His father has the same dark hair color as Tighnari, without the green. It was naturally long, and is usually stroked out of his face with a hair pin. His ears are much pointier than the offspring, however. The mother had a lime green hair color, hence where Tighnari got the green from. She's always so expressively soft, wearing glasses and ears of a pretty lighter green color, round and furry. There would be an earring with a flower in one of them.
"Neither one of my parents had a vision, though. So I doubt that I'll get one." Tighnari said.
"You'll be lucky if you achieve one."
"You think? Heh.."
Some days passed. Tighnari was walking around in the House of Daena, holding some books. Must have been returning them to their rightful place.
"Oh, hey Tighnari!" A blondie that was a bit taller than him lit up when seeing his face.
"Kaveh! How are you doing?" Tighnari walked to his side, placing one of the books in the shelf.
"I've been.. okay." Kaveh answered.
"Your voice is strained. Been yelling a lot?" Tighnari questioned.
"Ughh, it's that feeble scholar again. I don't think he cares at all about the fact that I am his senior. He treats me the same as he does anyone else! It's so frustrating." Kaveh groaned.
"Al isn't respecting you again?" Tighnari chuckled. He stepped to the side and put another book in the shelf in the correct category, then went back to his original position. As he held another book in his hand, he spoke some more. "When will you stop fighting and come to a conclusion that you should get along?"
"I can't get along with him if he doesn't cooperate in the first place. A lot of the time, he just ignores me. You know how disrespectful that is." Kaveh put his head against the shelf.
"Relax, Kaveh. You don't give up. Actually you do, sometimes, but Al isn't that bad. From.. what I've seen. I mean he's a smart guy." Tighnari said.
"Smart? Tighnari.." Kaveh looked at him in disappointment. "All he does is read books."
"And from reading books, he gets knowledge." Tighnari went on his toes to try to return a book to a high shelf, but he was much too short.
Kaveh put the book on the shelf for him, then grinned at the fox. "Shortie."
Tighnari glared at him. "I'm not short, the shelf is just high."
"Tighnari, you're like 5'5. I'm here standing at 5'11." Kaveh said. "That's pretty short."
Tighnari punched him, earning an ow from the blonde. After that, he heard familiar footsteps.
"Hey, Nari." Cyno said, as he walked by.
"Hey, Cyno." Tighnari replied, watching as the figure in black walked off.
"Cy.." Kaveh recognized last second who that was.
"What."
"What?" Tighnari looked up at him.
"That's the General Mahamatra!? You're friends with the General Mahamatra!?" Kaveh exclaimed.
"Well, I haven't known him for that long, but yes." Tighnari said.
"That's kind of.. really rare. The General Mahamatra typically doesn't make friends." Kaveh gripped his hair tightly. "That's a big achievement if he's chosen to get along with you!"
"Calm down, you're gonna rip your hair out." Tighnari had him let go of himself. "Anyways, I gotta go back and pack my stuff. Dad said he wanted to show me something I might like."
"You gotta explain yourself to me when you get the chance!" Kaveh complained as Tighnari walked off.
Tighnari chuckled to himself as he went back to his desk where his stuff was. He lost his smile when he saw a box. There was also a small bunch of sunflowers with it. "Eh?"
Did someone leave this here? No wait.. it has my name on it. Tighnari picked up the box. He sat down, picking up the sunflowers that gave off a nice scent.
Tighnari carefully opened the box, not really knowing what to expect. When he opened it, he saw what looked like a little earring that had some gold leaves connected to a rhombus shaped piece via a very thin string. It had a small note beside it.
"Hey Nari,
I remembered that you said you liked sunflowers, so I searched for ones in the best quality I could find them in. Also, I hope you don't mind me buying something for you, but I thought that the earring would look quite nice, given your dream of being a Forest Ranger. Hope you enjoy my gift of appreciation."
"Oh.." Tighnari hummed. No wonder why I saw him walk past. He must have just dropped it off. Heh, he didn't even bother to sign his name. It was easy to identify who it came from. Cyno's the only person to call him Nari.
His ears shyly lowered when he realize the smile he had his face. Huh? I- No! What is my mind trying to think?
He sighed. "But we haven't even known each other that long.."
End of the chapter!
Lmao the actual chapter part ended on 2929 words. Anyways, I thought this would be pretty sweet. I was thinking of doing a little backstory of Tighnari as a small little child, I feel like little Tighnari would be so cute. If I try to draw his parents I might try to draw them. The mom might look a bit like Haypasia.. is that how you spell her name?
Finally, a chapter I had a lot of thought for, literally reached 3000 words. 🌝
Have a good day!
3022 words