The Asura and The Norn

"Look, I'm sorry. I'll get the door." Svala sighed, standing up. Sympiny felt her emotions stir uncomfortably when she heard the shudder in Svala's voice. Taking a breath and sighing softly, she put a hand on Svala's thigh when she stepped next to her. The wind howled loudly outside and the door rattled a little from the blizzard.

"I think I'll stay. The storm is pretty bad out there." Sympiny said, turning around and looking up at the Norn beauty.

"Oh, okay. Would you like the bed? I've slept on the ground so much that it wouldn't make any difference to me." Svala shrugged.

"I've slept in so many Human beds. Most are big enough for two or three Asura." Sympiny said, scratching her navy hair, "Maybe it would be productive and beneficial for both of us to sleep in the same bed. Unlike you, I probably won't survive the night without a constant source of warmth."

"Okay, if you want to. You want the inside or out?" Svala asked, pointing at the bed.

"Closer to the fire if I could." Sympiny said, setting her pack at the end of the bed.

Svala nodded and she crawled into the bed. She scooted to the far side if the bed, leaving a few feet for Sympiny. Sympiny draped her cloak over the bag and looked down at herself. She decided it would be best if she didn't sleep in her clothes. Her magitech gauntlet came off with a few latches, getting carefully wrapped in her cloak so the magic-sensitive purple crystal wouldn't get damaged. She stripped off her top and folded it carefully, putting it with her pack. Slipping off her skirt, she folded it with her top and walked over to the bed in only white panties.

Asura women didn't have large breasts, or really much at all. There were slight mounds on their chests, but unless if they were pregnant, they were never very much like breasts. Unlike the other races, Asura saw both genders as the same, only their genitals being private, so 'topless' was a bit of a ridiculous idea to them.

Sympiny thought it would be a bit strange to crawl into bed with a nude Norn, but it wasn't. She grabbed the edge of the bed and pulled herself into it, crawling under the warm, thick furs that covered the bed. Another twinge of a blush crossed her face as she felt the heat from Svala's body radiate over her own. Norn may live in a cold land, but they definitely weren't cold.

"Comfortable?" Svala asked, propping her head up on her hand.

"It is a pleasing bed. I'm not used to so much fur, where I live it's warm almsot all the time. We don't need much bedding." Sympiny said, snuggling down deeper in the fur. The bed was huge, made for the nine foot Norn next to her. A pleasing sensation of comfort came over her as the fire crackled happily nearby.

"Sleep well shorty." Svala poked fun at her and Sympiny just grumbled quietly.

*******

CHAPTER 2 - INDEPTH STUDIES

Sympiny slept quite well. The fire burned out after a few hours and the hut slowly cooled in the night. It drove Sympiny to shiver and find a new source of warmth. Eventually her half-asleep mind found one and she slept the rest of the night in peace. Whatever it was she found, it made an excellent pillow for her weary head.

When the sun rose and Sympiny stirred from her sleep, she found herself in darkness. She raised her head and the furs fell off her. Apparently she had been down past the top of her head in them. Her hand found something soft and she gave it a squeeze.

"Oooh, keep that up and we might have to do something." Svala cooed sleepily.

"What? I don't..." Sympiny's eyes grew wide in realization. She had just thought the bed got warm in the night, but instead she was lying on Svala's naked torso. Her bare breasts had been her pillows for the night and the Norn's body heat had kept her warm.

Now that she was wide awake though, she quickly jerked back and scooted to the other side of the bed.

"No, come back here." Svala mumbled in annoyance. Her long arms easily encircled Sympiny and pulled her into a very busty embrace. Sympiny squeaked in surprise and tried to fight, but it was hard to struggle with the Norn holding her had breasts big enough to suffocate her.

"Let go of me!" Sympiny said between her bosoms.

"You're cuddly... It feels good..." Svala said sleepily as she hugged Sympiny.

Sympiny struggled a little bit and got her arm free. She smiled deviously and a bit of electricity crackled around her finger. She jabbed Svala in the neck, releasing a jolt of magic. The Norn yelped in surprise and Sympiny quickly scrambled out of her arms, standing on the other side of the bed with her hands on her hips.

"I'm not a toy!" Sympiny said sharply.

"Okay, okay. But at least come cuddle with me again. It was comfortable." Svala sighed, patting her bare breast, "Come on."

"Fine, but no hugging." Sympiny said, crossing her arms.

Svala nodded and Sympiny moved over to lie down on her chest. She avoided touching the Norn's breasts too much and just put her head on Svala's shoulder. Svala put a hand gently on Sympiny's back, just holding her gently.

"Mmm... See?" Svala hummed quietly.

"Yes, this is nice." Sympiny mumbled under her breath.

They laid together quietly in the warmth of the bed long enough for Sympiny to doze off again. She didn't sleep for long though, a loud bird's cry from above them startling her awake.

"What?! What the hell?" Sympiny squeaked in surprise. Pushing herself upright. She straddled Svala's chest and looked up.

"It's just Couerlii, my friend. He's an eagle." Svala sighed.

Sympiny looked up and realized that, on the two beams that criss-crossed beneath the ceiling, there was a thick nest of branches and twigs. An eagle poked it's head over the side and looked down at them.

"Hey there buddy." Svala said, sitting up. Sympiny slipped off her chest with a cry of surprise, tumbling across the bed. She righted herself and slipped down onto the floor.

"You have an eagle living in your home." Sympiny sighed, looking up again.

"Hey, you know that little shock was pretty kinky. I bet you could use that for fun." Svala said as she sat up.

"Are all Norn as obsessed with intercourse as you are?" Sympiny asked.

"Of course." Svala nodded.

Sympiny glanced up and it finally dawned on her. She grabbed the post of the bed and clambered nimbly up on the bed to see Svala better.

"Svala, why are you so intent on wooing me?" Sympiny asked, "Surely you must be able to find an adequate Norn to suit your needs."

"Well you're just more fun." Svala laughed.

"I'm pretty good at telling when people are lying." Sympiny said, crossing her arms.

"What? I'm not..." Svala started.

"Look, if you want me to stay here, don't even consider falsifying your testimonies." Sympiny said sharply.

"None of the others will have me. Nobody is interested in me." Svala said with a sigh.

"That is a mathematically impossibility. In any civilization, a number of the population is quirked, but more often than not, these ones always find mates or proper places. No single unit is ostracized without good reason and you seem like a perfectly viable Norn specimen, one of quality genes and adequate strength for proper offspring." Sympiny rattled on, looking Svala over.

"I'm sorry, what?" Svala asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You're a fine woman and a man would enjoy having you." Sympiny said slower.

"I don't want a man though." Svala sighed.

"Homosexual. Okay then, no big issue there. That seems exceptionally more common among Sylvari, but it shouldn't be uncommon among Norn, right?" Sympiny asked.

"No, it is uncommon, but not usually much of a problem... But I also have a thing for..." Svala started, a surprising blush crossing her cheeks.

"Of course. That would explain a lot. You have a propensity for others races." Sympiny said and Svala shook her head, "Ahhh! Just a fetish for Asura."

"Yea." Svala groaned, hanging her head, "To the Norn, it's very important you have a strong lineage. Being a homosexual is tolerated because most will copulate with the opposite gender anyway purely for the chance of a child, but I'm seen as much worse because I show interest outside of our kind. I mean... it's not like I couldn't be with a Norn... It's just..."

"Why the interest in Asura? I presume it has something to do with our size because if you were going for exotic, the Charr would be much further out there. Well, unless there was some childhood trauma in which an Asura saved you and thus you began to attribute life or positive feels to them... maybe... nevermind, anyway!" Sympiny paced a little as she rattled before snapping her attention back to Svala.

"You were right. It's your size. It's just, you're so cute and adorable, it's like I can just pick you up and treat you..." Svala started, biting her lip awkwardly.

"Like a toy." Sympiny finished with a sigh, "Svala, you must understand that I don't see a future between us that is anything but professional. I am here on a mission of knowledge and learning. I don't find Norn repulsive and I fancy the occasional woman, but I am entirely here to finish my compendium of the five major races of Tyria."

"I know and I'll still be glad to help with that!" Svala said hurriedly, "Maybe..." She tapped a toe on the ground and grabbed her elbows, "Maybe when you're finished..."

"Don't start thinking those thoughts or you'll act irrationally. Believe me, 'what-ifs' never make anything easier. However, I will be glad for the help. My section on the Norn will be quite comprehensive because I have such an interesting guide. You see more than just their battles and glory. One good thing of your shunned life is that you can see beyond just what they brag about and tell to the world. You can see the faults and issues without being blinded by 'glory'." Sympiny said kindly, giving a soft smile. She could understand how Svala felt, as she had similar issues back when she was a teenager and she had refused to join one the three major colleges. Unlike the Krewes of Rata Sum and all their magnificent studies together, Sympiny prized her solitude and exotic exploration. Needless to say, most of the Savants and other genius' didn't take well to Sympiny's choices.

"I don't think I'll everstand half of what comes out of your mouth, but I know what you mean." Svala nodded, "Let me cook breakfast."

She turned and grabbed a knife from beside the door. Without care, she walked naked out the front door and out of sight. The blizzard had blown over and there was two feet of fresh snow outside. There was the sound of hacking meat and the knife grinding on bone. After another moment Svala came back with a large chunk of meat in her hand.

"Stays so cold up here that you can just hang your kills on the side of the hut and cut them when you need them, as long as you have the strength to hack frozen meat." Svala said, putting the knife back on the wall.

"So do the Norn not have a sense of modesty? I've noticed you all wear rather revealing clothes, but nobody was completely obscene. Care to elaborate?" Sympiny asked as she pulled her loose pants back on. She slipped on her vest and ruffled her hair back behind her ears.

"Modesty?" Svala said simply.

"Yea, the knowledge that another is seeing your naked body and some emotion or feeling drives you to clothe yourself so they cannot see your body anymore." Sympiny described.

"Clothes aren't a need to us. Furs are trophies of our kills and other things are armor to protect ourselves. Because we never know when the Sons of Svanir or some other foe will attack, we choose to wear our armor at all times." Svala said, piling another few logs in the fireplace, "Fire?"

"Sure." Sympiny said, releasing a small cone of flame into the grate. It started to crackle and burn under her magical fire, "Alright, so nudity or privacy don't mean much to the Norn then?"

"Not really, no. To show your body in all it's glory is a way to brag about the battles you have seen. Let people see the scars you carry and the might of yourself." Svala said, spearing the hunk of meat, larger than Sympiny's head, on a long blade to cook it over the fire.

"Interesting, interesting. So more than just genitals or breasts are enticing to Norn then? You show a greater interest in your bodies than reproduction." Sympiny grabbed her notebook and started to scribble quickly.

"Scars of battle, the strength of muscle and the tattoos that decorate your flesh. All of these are things make a Norn proud and it only seems right to show it." Svala said with a nod.

"I've noticed your own tattoos. They're rather extensive, spreading from your shoulders down to your knees. They seem to be a form of intricate knots and lines, spreading down your spine and around your hips. They actually go down your breasts and all the way to your genitals. Your backside is also rather tattooed, spreading that design and pattern down your thighs." Sympiny observed as she looked around Svala's naked body, "What do they represent? Are these for anything specifically?"

"They're a memory of my mother. She was a great warrior with the strength of the bear. She had tattoos much like these and I remember staring at them whenever I could as a little girl. I told her so many times that I always wanted ones like her's, but you can't easily tattoo one so young, you know the ink doesn't last well. So when she died six or seven years ago in the initial battle with Jormag, I made good on my promises to her. It took days to get them, but these are in honor of my mother." Svala explained as she ran a finger down her arm, where the tattoos spread from her shoulder.

"Really? Reverence for elders. I suspected such a thing, but I wasn't sure." Sympiny said, noting it down.

"It's not a common thing, it's not normal for a Norn to revere their parents. We are expected to revere the powerful and the legendary. Eir Stegalkin or Knut Whitebear, not our parents just because they bore us. Then again I suppose I'm already different, how much more stuff could be off with me." Svala chuckled idly as the meat sizzled over the fire.

"That's something I did know, the Norn's reverence for legends and greatness. Your pride and ego. So I notice that women and men stand the same in Norn culture, why is that? In Human and Charr culture, the women tend to be down-trodden by the men. I mean, singular cases like the human queen are exceptions, but you still have a basically masculine society." Sympiny asked, clambering up on a dining chair.

"Because women are just as capable of making legends of themselves as men are. We are just as strong as them, often more-so. They don't call it 'mother nature' for nothing." Svala chuckled.

"So similar to the Asura, you focus on the acts of the person not their gender. Good." Sympiny wrote more.

"Is it going to just be questions and answers forever between us? I mean, what if I wanted to know about you too?" Svala asked as she continued to turn the meat over the fire.

"Me? Well I grew up with my father, my mother having left to help build some of the other facilities in the Metrica Province. I didn't see her much and she died recently in the Thaumanova Reactor explosion. My father was a tailor and a magical inscriptionist. At the age of eighteen I earned my way into the colleges of Rata Sum. I found none to be of my liking and I opted to go alone. At the age of twenty I began my compendium by cataloguing and recording Asura society. I then took a long trip to the Charr lands, finding them to be the most exotic and exciting. Times were hard and I almost died many times, but my skills as an elementalist proved useful and I succeeded in learning an exceptional amount about their culture over the year that I was there. Then I went to the Human city of Divinity's Reach, mind you much of this was in the middle of the Human-Charr war. Things weren't exactly well behaved. But I spent a year there and learned about Human life, it was much more contemporary than I thought it would be. I thought them to be more barbaric than they were, but they were surprisingly advanced for their race. It was around that time that the war with the elder dragons started to get dangerous. I was called home to Rata Sum by my father to help with the war efforts. I spent three years there working with the others on fighting the dragons and keeping the city safe from the Inquest. About six months ago, the defeat of Zhaitan has given me a window of time to get out and finish my compendium. I spent the time since then in the Sylvari lands, exploring and learning of their way of life. They are very sedentary, content to stay near the pale tree and live their lives. From there I headed north-east, to here. Took me almost two months to travel this far because of a faulty issue with the Asura portals in Lion's Arch. That's pretty much my life."

She spoke quickly and with few breaths, apparently not interested in sharing her own life.

"Wow... Jeez, you've traveled all over." Svala said, "But I was hoping for something a little more personal. What's your favorite food? What do you do for fun? What do you want to do with your life once your traveling?"

"Peach pie, study other cultures and I plan to go home and write this book. I have all the information, but it doesn't mean I have it written yet. Probably take me a few months to weed out all the things I don't need and write the actual book." Sympiny said without much of a pause.

Svala just stared back at the fire and poked at the sizzling meat. This was the first time she had ever really gotten to talk with an Asura for an extended period of time and it was illuminating. She had never understood what people had meant when they told her the Asura were different. After speaking with Humans and Charr that passed through Hoelbrak, she thought different wouldn't be this strange. It made her even more curious about what made them like this. Humans and Charr were at least relatable to Norn, a sense of pride, a militaristic lifestyle or just a 'down-to-Tyria' sense of things. After speaking with Sympiny for so long, she realized just how different they really were and she wished she could just convince her to talk normally.

"Here we go, deer steak." Svala said, pulling a plate from a shelf and slapping the large chunk of meat on it. She pulled out another plate and hacked about a third of the steak off. The steak sizzled and smelled very good, but Sympiny had to stand on the chair to be able to actually eat off the top of the table. She also had to get her own utensils because the Norn's fork was as long as her forearm.

"Not one to eat meat for breakfast, but I suppose it's another thing to learn about your culture." Sympiny said as she cut into it.

"What could be better than ale and meat for breakfast?" Svala asked with a laughing scoff. Couerlii called loudly and swooped down from the ceiling. He landed on the table and bit the chunk of meat sitting in front of Svala. His sharp beak tore a large chunk of it and he looked at Sympiny. He tossed it up a little and swallowed it, squaking loudly at Sympiny afterward. "Here you go buddy." Svala said, slicing a large piece for the bird to take back up to his nest.

"Something that is less likely to make you sick or kill you. I prefer fresh fruit usually." Sympiny said, taking a bite of meat.

"I've never actually had fruit. Not much grows in this cold weather besides potatoes." Svala said, taking a large bite.

"High calorie, protien and starch intake suggests an extreme metabolism to fuel body heat and constant exercise." Sympiny said to herself as she wrote it down. A sudden thought hit her and she pushed her food away to better write in her notebook. "Must remember to retrieve autopsy examinations from Rata Sum data center when I get home. Possibilities of a more intense digestive system to deal with extreme climates."