The beach is at an evening hush. Right now, it doesn't clamor for attention or demand your time, and Kihal's sitting out here, because she isn't ready to go back home and get ready for bed.
"Are you alright?" And he looks a little silly, all bundled up like that, though there is a hint of a cooler wind carried across by the sea tonight, as the sunset slowly approaches upon them.
"Yeah, I'm not tired yet." Kihal answers back confidently, and he just stares at her in surprise.
"Is it later than it looks?" Is what he says instead and sits down on the rock beside hers.
"No..." She sighs, "Papa wants to make sure I sleep well." Kihal wonders though if it would be different if she wasn't the chieftain's daughter.
"Oh." He stares down at the sea, "We're visiting here, so I don't really have a bedtime anymore."
Kihal smiles, "Lucky!"
He laughs, and peers up at her, "Not really. Papa's not doing well. And Mama looks stressed."
"Stressed?" Kihal asks and scoots a little closer when the boy shivers beside her; she can't leave someone cold on her beach.
"She's very important." He mutters, "And busy. All the time. So's Papa, just Mama said we needed a vacation and that this is our land too. And the sun and the beach and the ocean will do us good." He's rambling, probably trying to remember the exact words she'd used.
"So's Papa." Kihal sighs and leans back, "And I'm important too, because I'm his daughter." She shrugged; importance really meant nothing to her. She didn't have any reason to fuss over exactly what that means, just knows that it means she'll grow up doing lots of things, just like Papa, and that doesn't sound very fun. Not when you have to go to bed early to get lots of sleep to do those important things.
"Ah." He nods next to her, "I am too."
"Why?" She asks, not to question his right to importance, but because she knows she doesn't want to be important and figures he doesn't either.
"Not as important as Lord Brother. He's very important. He's always in some kind of lesson." He kicks his feet up.
"Lord Brother?" Kihal stares over at him; she may not have any siblings, but that just sounds odd to her, "Not big brother?" She guesses older, because younger brothers probably would have some other kind of nickname.
"Yeah, because he's really, really important!" He declares next to her, boldly and a bit loudly, "And so, he's busy too."
"Ah." Kihal sighs, and curls up by his side, maybe she is a little tired after all. "I wish we weren't important."
"Why?" He stares at her as if the thought hadn't occurred to him yet.
"Important people are busy and have early bedtimes." She tells him, determinedly, just to get her point across finally.
"What are other people like?" He asks, finally.
"Let's find out." Kihal tells him, taking the lead, and his hand while she's at it and practically dragging him down the beach.
"What will we do?" He stares up at her with wide blue eyes, almost the shade of the ocean beside them.
"Something." Kihal pauses, realizing only now that she hadn't thought this through.
"Let's play in the sand." He decides for her, and Kihal looks over at him, debating over whether that's a good idea.
"Okay." She tells him.
"What's your name?" He finally asks, aware that they've been talking and playing all this time and don't even know each other's names.
"Kihal." She answers easily enough, "Yours?"
"K-iii-haal?" He repeats, struggling a little with the h, and she laughs next to him.
"Yes." She tells him, just to reassure him. Little kids always figure her name out eventually, and she figures kids her own age will too.
"I'm Zen." He answers confidently, and she grins over at him.
"Easy." Kihal tells him in reply, "Zen."
"Your name's so hard, Kihal." He mutters in reply.
"You're just not used to it yet." She tells him confidently, "You'll get better at it, and it will become easy."
"Okay." He pauses, and then nods his head, hopeful.
And though his family comes to find him soon enough, and Kihal has to hurry home, it was nice to meet someone new and have a new playmate who kind of understands her just a little.