Thar Shaddin

Why anyone would want to register Soneya in a Blind Date Pool of all things was beyond her. She wasn’t sure who could have done that either, though her bet was on one of her work colleagues. The girls were regularly teasing her for the lack of men in her life, so she wouldn’t put it past them to do a thing like this, but she still found it odd that they would actually go through with it. Wasn’t this the kind of thing joked about but never taken seriously?

Either way, here she was now, sitting on a bench in Memorial Park, waiting for her mysterious blind date, whoever this person was going to turn out to be, to make an appearance. She was nervous and kept wringing her hands together, already having put a few wrinkles in her dress. Unlike usually, her mother – who had intercepted the messenger and thus knew about the blind date – had persuaded her to dress in a different colour for a change, something a little more vibrant, but Soneya hadn’t wanted to switch from her usual blue.

As a compromise, they had settled on an electric blue dress that was form-fitting but not too revealing in any way and looked more lively than any of her other clothes. The dress belonged to her mother. Soneya was still surprised at how kind the woman had been in this respect, gentle and caring, unlike usual. She had even taken the time to try to tame Soneya’s hair into something looking like a proper hair-do.

It made her feel even more uncomfortable; and oddly exposed with her hair up and away from her face. With every passing second, she grew twitchier and a little voice in her head started advising her to make a run for it before it was too late, before she embarrassed herself.

Syrathan was getting desparate. He had eaten an old, wrinkled man earlier that month, and only roots since then. It had been years since he had been so entrenched in society, but it was time to eat again. A female: they tasted so much better, living and otherwise. The park was a suitable place to meet; it was similar to the woods, after all, with ample place to hide if the need came. Syrathan actually felt clean for once, and he had spent the day previous and most of today practicing how to interact with the dirt people. He was confident that today would be a pleasant experience.

He saw whom he assumed he was to meet sitting on a bench, looking nervous but not overly anxious. Good. It was annoying to hold people down. Syrathan smiled in preparation, perfectly groomed teeth showing, and took a fraction of a second to discern which side of the female would be more suitable for sitting. The left, there's a leaf over there. He had seen this before. Sit close, but not touching, act casual, exchange personal details, then continue in an...unknown manner. It wouldn't be that hard. He would take cues from the female and work from there.

"Good afternoon, maiden. I am Syrathan," he said, giving a slight bow before sitting. "I believe we were arranged to meet?" Syrathan made sure his posture was straight while remaining nonchalant.

At the sound of a male voice next to hear, Soneya looked up, and almost jumped up. Her stomach was contracting painfully and she could feel the slight throbbing of a headache but she ignored both. She had been so lost in her own thoughts and trying to calm herself down that she had not noticed her date appear.

And what a date it was. Soneya swallowed nervously as she took in the person before her. While he bowed, he gave her the perfect opportunity for a quick once-over without being too obvious. From a first impression, he looked good, really good, which did not at all help with the queasiness taking up permanent residence in her stomach.

He was nicely dressed, polite from the way he spoke, longish black hair. When he sat down next to her, she risked a brief glance at his face. And almost stopped breathing. Blue like the water of a cold mountain lake – not that she’d ever seen one in real life, but the pictures had been breathtaking, just like his eyes. His face was handsome though he looked a little pale. All in all, she liked what she saw. And that just made her stomach do a little flip once again.

“I believe we were,” she replied, unsure what else to say. Without realising she was doing it, she imitated his well-spoken way and even continued in that manner. “Might I enquire as to your name? I am Soneya.” Whatever else could she possibly say? How was she going to talk to such a good-looking man? How had she ended up on this date? The first time she had ever been on a proper date... Oh, it was excruciating!