The Tributes (Sable)

The Murderous Girl and The Terrified Girl

"Move."

Sable started and automatically followed the command in the voice, moving immediately away from it. But no one shoved her this time. 

Instead, the murderous girl in pearls strode to the brown-haired girl's side and knelt down right beside her.

"What is it," she murmured, not sounding or looking the least bit murderous anymore, "Is it the height?" She grasped the girl's upper arm like she intended to hoist her up.

The girl reacted immediately, hunching down even further to the floor and still pleading for heaven knew what.

"Hey," said the girl-in-pearls, much more firmly, grasping the other girl's chin and forcing her to face her. "We need to move, all right? Just look at me and stand up. There is no height."

The terrified girl began shaking her head, but the hand on her chin aborted that motion. "Yes. Look at me," commanded the girl-in-pears, softly. "Look at me. Can you see any height now?"

And finally, finally, with the girl-in-pearls taking up her whole vision, the terrified-girl began to not look so utterly terrified anymore.

"Good," she responded, like her deficiency of trembling was answer enough. Then she stood up and forcefully hoisted the other girl to her feet – probably managing to do so only because she'd caught her by surprise.

With sudden insight, before the girl could gather her wits and panic all over again, Sable slipped to her other side and (very, very lightly) grasped her other arm, blocking her view down from that side as well.

The brown-haired girl turned to her, and Sable, noting the stirrings of panic begin in her eyes again, finally spoke: "There's no height anymore. Just the ground below. You can see the stone below you, right? That's the ground you're on."

The girl reflexively looked down at what Sable said, and Sable took the opportunity to position herself such that, if she looked up, Sable alone would fill her vision from that side.

Frankly, she didn't think the girl-in-pearls had needed to be so forceful, and Sable had winced internally at how harshly she'd yanked her up. But, she'd calmed her down enough and had gotten her to her feet – which Sable had certainly not known how to do.

Sable glanced at the girl-in-pearls now – while the other girl's gaze was thankfully on the stone floor – hoping she would know how to get them all moving forward too.

However, the girl-in-pearls was pointing a glare at her again, which made Sable reflexively want to back away. Only the light contact she had with the other girl stopped her: She might panic again if Sable disturbed this formation.

Luckily, the glare didn't last long, as she decided to turn her attention back to the one she'd managed to calm down a bit. "Let's move now, OK?" she told her gently, a soothing cadence – in an absolute contradiction of the vicious look Sable had just received.

The brown-haired girl made a sound that might have been a fearful protest. But the girl-in-pearls overrode it by forcing her to move with her grip on her arm, talking to her all the while: "Remember the stone floor? Look at that, all right? You're on the ground. There's only us on either side of you. And the stone beneath your feet. Just look down and put one step in front of the other, and you'll be fine. That's it. You're doing well. Almost there now..."

And so they moved forward, the girl-in-pears leading the terrified girl by her arm, her gaze sometimes darting from the floor to her savior, and Sable attached to her on the other side as she followed.

Then finally, finally... the three of them had made it to the end of a stone bridge, through the door at the end of it, and directly into a wide tower.

Stone walls surrounded them once more. And that was the cue for the brown-haired-girl to take a breath, shake them off, and move forward on her own.

Sable, blinking, glanced at the girl-in-pearls to check her reaction to the lack of thanks. But she seemed unperturbed by the other girl's departure and looked like she'd almost expected it.

Sable wouldn't have expected thanks for herself; she'd just sort of wedged herself at the girl's other side after all the main hard work had already been done. But she had expected the brown-haired girl to at least acknowledge the one who'd peeled her off the stone bridge and consequently saved her from My Lady's wrath.

However, the girl-in-pearls sailed off like nothing had happened too – quite pointedly ignoring Sable. And this, at least, Sable was not surprised by.

She'd read the girl's expression when she'd glared at her on the bridge, however short it had been. She had seen her irritation and contempt at her for interfering after she'd stood there doing nothing at first. And Sable understood: It looked like Sable had butted in after all the heavy work had been done. Like she had, after just standing there doing nothing, pretended to want to help by joining in at the last minute.

Sighing silently, Sable trailed after them, keeping a respectable amount of distance between them.

AN:

Sable: I don't know any of your names. So I dub thee brown-haired Scared Girl and helpful Murder Girl. Note to self: Murder Girl does not like me. Keep respectful distance from Murder Girl.