Each hair felt like a thin sheet of a sort of mix between leather and paper. If I remember correctly, then they would have been made of keratin, so it makes sense that they almost felt like finger nails, though much more flexible and soft.
Kinda hypocritical to be so touchy about her hair after having so thoroughly violated mine. Maybe I ought to give her a good talking to later.
…
Nah just leave it. It’s like… a cultural thing or something… whatever.
As my hands lightly ruffled her hair, I noticed that it had become quite a bit warmer. This had to indicate either blushing, heat regulation, or both. Probably both, all things considered. Her translucent hairs around her face and the sides of her head were noticeably warmer than the others. A thinner layer of keratin maybe?
Sanon reached up and grabbed my hand, pulling it away. It was then that I confirmed that her skin was indeed quite rough, the gray scale-like surface gripping my hand strongly as she removed my hand from her head. “That’s enough now. I think I have had enough contact for the time being. I will return to my cart for the night. You should too.” she said brusquely.
And so that’s exactly what I did. I padded my way over to Brom’s cart and clambered inside. The older man regarded me with an amused expression gracing his aged features. “Now ain’t that one way to pull a girl’s heartstrings. You’d best be careful if that isn’t your intention mister; dwarves don’t normally expect courtship from others outside their region, let alone from another race!” he laughed.
“Now hold on just a moment! Is that what I just did? Did I just accidentally court her?? You said that they didn’t let anyone touch it!” I panicked.
At this Brom’s laughter only intensified. If the other caravan members hadn’t been trying to get some much needed shuteye then I bet he’d have been wheezing on the floor of the cart. “Oh ho no Max, I said you should never touch it under any circumstances! That’s normally a violation of their cultural values and fears surrounding their hair. I’m no expert, but if memory serves, then what you did is somewhat different: you got permission!”
Oh no. No no no. Goddamn it Max!
While he may have been having quite the laugh at my expense, Brom wasn’t entirely imperceptive to my perceived plight. “Ah but you shouldn’t worry all that much lad. Sanon is very much aware that us northerners don’t much adhere to their norms, so she was likely only flustered by it.”
Oh thank god. Wait no do not thank god.
I sighed in cautious relief. “So I don’t have to worry about rejecting her in the future, or something to that effect?”
“I actually expect her to preemptively reject you, not the other way around. She hasn’t spoken much during her time with us, but if I had to guess, then she might also be overthinking it. Like I said, she’s probably flustered by it, so if you get a rejection in the near future, then you can probably guess why.”
“Huh.” I uttered. “Should I maybe set things straight? Like in case she goes the other direction with it?”
Brom simply shrugged, a sly smile making his intentions both clear and infuriatingly vague. Noticing my glare, he turned over on his side while facing away from me, chuckling.
Before long, Brom had begun to snore, prompting me to join him in sleeping. He had said this trip would take just under two months if we kept a decent pace. It was only then that I had thought to ask him just how long a month was here on Helsa. Precisely 30 days, apparently. 30 days, 30 hours. More convenient than Earth, with a 210 day year to boot!
Wait. Now that I think about it, doesn’t that mean that the actual ages of the people I know are different? Shit hang on just what have I been thinking this whole time…
Those thoughts were the ones that I would sleep to that night, with much math to be done.
----------------------------------------
That morning, I arose to find the cart already moving. I had nearly fallen off the cart when a bump in the road had jolted me awake. Scrambling back onto the cart, I took notice to something that was not there before. Sitting on the other side of the cart was a distinctly humanoid creature. Covered head to toe in big leafy hairs, was none other than Sanon.
Why is she here.
Her hairs were once again flushed red, indicating either a blush, or she was trying to cool herself off in the heat. Hard to say. Regardless, things quickly became awkward as I tried and failed to find words that made sense to say. The blush(?) began to fade before long, leaving things somehow even more awkward.
“So uhhhhhh… nice weather we’re having…?” I said as I failed the proverbial charisma check.
Shit.
Sanon turned to face me, her barely visible eyes focusing on my presumably blurry form. “Yeah… nice weather.”
…
…
…
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Sooo what brings you to this part of the neighborhood?” I asked.
Sanon shrugged. “Just thought this cart might be more comfortable. I was right.”
Brom piped up from the front of the cart, apparently getting impatient with our bush beating. “She wanted to talk to you, Max. Now the both of you had best quit with the awkwardness and talk!”
Brom’s not-so-subtle threat had definitely lit a fire under our collective ass, since Sanon spoke up rather quickly. “Max, I want you to know that I am not interested in you as a suitor!” she said hurriedly before attempting to cover up her blushing hairs where a human would instead cover their face.
This immediately killed the tension, since that was the exact topic that I had wanted to broach, but had been afraid to do so.
I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “That’s what I had hoped for. It’s nothing against you, but I had no clue that doing that had such implications, so I apologize.”
Sanon shook her head. “You do not need to apologize. You didn’t know the full extent of what you did, and I was foolish to allow it.”
I raised a brow, curious. “Is it that sensitive a topic?”
“Mm, generally yes. Cutting it is very dangerous, as you know. But touching it has a different meaning, normally. It takes a lot of trust, though depending on the dwarf, they may be pressured into it at some point in their life. I… felt guilty about what I did to you, so it seemed appropriate.”
Holy shit I need to be more careful in the future. I’m a goddamn idiot.
----------------------------------------
As that day continued, Sanon and I continued our cultural exchange. I saw a new side of her when she found out that I was an outworlder. Apparently most dwarves have never seen a human before, so she genuinely did think I was a weird elf at first. At her discovery, her disposition changed quite a bit compared to the first two times we spoke.
She had been very enthusiastic to hear about Earth and the humans that inhabited it. It was during this conversation that I learned just how different the Helsan climate was. Cold climates are apparently very rare, with only the extreme southern end of Aust — the continent we were currently on — and the extreme northern part of Esta having any sort of snowfall. Helsa only really had two seasons, so it was during the wet season that the extremes of the planet saw any kind of snow.
Sanon was very pleased to hear that colder climates were more common on Earth, but she quickly lost that valor when I mentioned global climate change. According to her, dwarves originally lived in the warmer regions in competition with elves, but the old Lontish Kingdom had begun forcefully removing them, which led to a bloody conflict that the dwarves unfortunately lost. The remaining dwarves retreated to the southern regions of Aust where they would spend the next two centuries. They would come to prefer the colder region, and when the Lontish Commune executed the old royalty, they invited the dwarves back into their territory. The dwarves refused, having come to prefer the colder regions. Sanon said that there also may have been some apprehension that also informed the decision to not reenter the warmer regions, though she said this with a shrug.
I asked her about her apparent indifference toward the decision, and she said that it had been made well before she had been born. Status quo and all that.
I eventually ended up asking her about her reasons for traveling with the caravan. She had told me that while she was in fact out here looking for spellsilver, she was certain that she had simply been banished, since spellsilver had become so rare.
“Why would they have banished you?” I queried.
“Ehhhh… I might have gotten a little too overzealous with some of my magic.” she admitted sheepishly.
“Oh? Do tell?”
“I… might have blown up the forge…”
I could feel a manic smile creeping onto my face. “What kind of spell was it, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“I may have used a spell to get the forge much hotter than it normally is… I thought it would get the metal hotter faster but it just blew up instead!” she nearly shouted, clearly embarrassed by her mistake.
…
“What were the components?” I said, wondering how she could cause an explosion doing that.
“I just used ‘increase heat’ a bunch. I did end up discharging, but I was more worried about the forge… the whole building completely collapsed!”
Oh. That’ll definitely do it. That much energy in that short of a time span? I suppose that could indeed cause an explosion. Lemme just file that one away for later.
“Maybe next time set a specific temperature?” I suggested.
Sanon sighed. “Yeah I guess. Though I don’t think there’ll be a next time…”
Oh right. Shit.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to come off rude.” I backpedaled.
Sanon waved her hand side to side. “Oh don’t worry about it. I’ve mostly gotten over it…”
You are fooling no one Sanon, but I respect it.
----------------------------------------
We continued talking through the day and part of the night. Not much had happened that day, so we had plenty of time to shoot the shit. I had mentioned my interest in and experimentation with magic, which had brought her even further out of her shell. Upon learning about my water experiments, she had become very interested in outworlder knowledge, which made things rather difficult. Helsa didn’t have any kind of atomic theory, so when I told her that water was made of two potentially explosive gasses, she had a hard time believing it.
“I mean… we’ve stopped moving. I could give you a small demonstration.”
“But you said that it was explosive?”
“It is explosive, but I think if I do it carefully I might be able to make it work.”
Sanon narrowed her barely visible eyes. “That certainly doesn’t inspire confidence…”
“Oh hush. I got this.”
I got up, hopped off the wagon and stood tall. I drew in a very small amount of mana, intent on making this work. I took note of a small puddle of rainwater from the earlier rain that had passed over us; we had long since entered a tropical forest of some kind, so rain was plentiful.
I put the tip of my shoe into the puddle and began casting. “Bond hydrogen and oxygen, relocate the produced heat into the puddle I have my foot in.”
A small steam explosion immediately erupted from where my foot had been — the heat had clearly been relocated. Looking at my hand, I saw that it had indeed been engulfed in a small orb of pure water.
I turned to Sanon, a smug smirk plastered on my face. My reward was a dropped jaw on Sanon’s end, though not for the reasons I had thought. She tried to say something before stopping herself and immediately jumping off the cart and running toward me.
Hm? What’s up with that? Was there something on my face? And speaking of why can’t I feel my face?
I put a hand up to feel my face, and when I brought it back into my line of sight, it had been painted red with my blood. Sanon did not reach me before I hit the ground face first, my vision turning a deep crimson just before.