OOM: All Skate Skellig Dream Magic Weirdness?

[brave_kreyu]

(OOC: Warning for explicit adult content, mention of noncon/rape, slavery)

Is it a dream? A glimpse of a universe that might have been? A story untold?

Something called Skellig out here, to a road scratched in the earth between the desert and the land irrigated by the river. The sun overhead is like a hammer, the heat murderous. His coat...he can't remember WHAT happened to his coat. In this heat the coat would be as strange as his wings to human eyes in any case.

There are two small mud-brick houses up ahead, then more road, and a mud-brick wall encircling a small village of mud-brick houses.

He needs a drink, desperately.

He hears footsteps coming toward him, the heat haze breaks to reveal a woman. (Except she can't be a woman, no one human has that much Light inside them, that much power.)

"Even one touched by the gods should not be walking about this time of day," her voice is all concern, all worry. She's wearing a white linen kilt around her waist, and nothing at all above it except a necklace of blue clay beads. She's lovely. (And she feels familiar? Why?)

She offers a hand to him, seemingly not concerned in the slightest about his wings.

Comments

[27_53]

"I believe you did," he murmurs, amused. Skellig could clearly care less, from his voice's tone. "We may have been...a bit louder, this time."

(Faint, too faint for Kreyu to hear, another woman in the distance cries out in ecstasy as she attains her release, and Skellig promptly turns 'off' his ears.)

His focus shifts to the drum of her heartbeat, which he can clearly hear without having to 'reach', as well as feel beneath his fingers as his hand comes to rest on her chest, palm flat on her skin above her heart.

[brave_kreyu]

"Introducing you to people tomorrow is likely to be...interesting," she tells him, still flushed.

"This time was lovely, she assures him. "Though I think you wandered on me a bit?" She places her hand over his above her heart.

[27_53]

"I..."

In the present, here with her, it is nearly impossible to slip back into the haze that clouds his mind. He cannot find the place where he was, though for some reason, the taste of salt - seawater - is faint on his tongue.

"Sometimes, when there is more Light in my stores than my mind recalls how to manage, it has...happened," he explains, trying to be reassuring. "It is not something I fear. I knew...I knew you had hold of me."

Her voice calling his name echoes once more in his head - that he can remember.

"I have been lost before, in..." he contemplates his next words carefully. "In the other direction. That I fear. But this was not that."

[brave_kreyu]

"In dark emotions?" She holds him close, as if she's afraid he'll disappear. This Kreyu does not know about Taint, about the dreadful things it does to what it touches.

[27_53]

"In darkness, yes." Skellig curls into her body, sighing gently. "Some may call it madness, but for me it is more...I simply lose track of who I am, what I am. Finding my way back is harder, from that."

[brave_kreyu]

"I hope you never go through that again," she says, quiet. "But I would find you, if you were lost. Even if you didn't want to see me again, afterward."

[27_53]

"With my reserves as they are now...it would take a great force of darkness to drain my stores to the point where I slip that far gone. I have not encountered that in...quite some time."

Maybe ever? He can't remember. Maybe the haze in his mind is protecting him from those moments. He isn't sure.

"Why would you say I would not wish to see you," he asks, curious. That part confuses him.

[brave_kreyu]

"You might grow tired of me, or find someone better suited to you," she replies, voice quiet. She's seen relationships in the village end before, often without much warning. "Or you might, you might want to go home."

[27_53]

"I may not have understood how I have come to be in this place, but I..." he sets his jaw slightly, nuzzles his face against her shoulder. "I would not simply part ways as if you are some plaything to throw aside once I grow tired. That...that is not how I am."

[brave_kreyu]

"Good. That's good," She runs her fingers through his hair, relaxes. "I've seen it, I've seen it happen. . To other people."

She laughs. "I think that's part of what my brothers were afraid of, when I left. That someone would break my heart."

[27_53]

"Your brothers are wise to caution you," he admits. "Many others would not - will not - think twice, about casting aside a lover."

Skellig grunts quietly - a happy, content sound - as she begins to run her fingers through his hair, his eyes slipping shut of their own volition.

"But I am not like others."

[brave_kreyu]

"No, you aren't." She keeps running her fingers through his hair. "You're very special, Skellig. Your presence is a gift."

"Should I use something other than your name to introduce you to people?"

[27_53]

Contemplating this, he stretches lazily to allow his body to align better beside hers, cuddling as close as he can to her.

"I...typically do not hide my name," he admits. "So rarely have I come across another I cannot sense their intent upon our meeting. But, if you feel it wise...do you conceal yours?"

[brave_kreyu]

"No, I use my name," she replies. "But I didn't know if you would be comfortable with that."

She sighs into his touch, cuddles as close as she can. The skin contact sends little thrills of pleasure through her nerves, but she's too weary for it to do more than that.

[27_53]

"Your consideration is appreciated. I have been reckless before, and paid for it. It is good to know that here..."

Wherever 'here' happens to be.

"...here I am safe."

He will not let his guard down entirely, as he never does regardless of where he has found himself. But there is something about her presence, about her that he feels comforted, protected by.

[brave_kreyu]

"Yes," she replies. She kisses him softly, and her eyes are SO heavy. It won't be long before they're both asleep.

Some time later, while it's still fully dark, a set of footsteps approaches the house. They are moving quietly, but as if they have every right to be here. A little old woman opens the door in the moonlight, her hair gone entirely silver with age. She's carrying a basket on one arm, and seems quite calm as she surveys the scene before her.

With his hearing, Skellig is likely to hear her coming long before Kreyu.

[27_53]

Skellig's senses are far more dulled that he would ever care to allow; a by-product of the earlier wandering through the oppressive desert sun, the fight with the bandits, and then their earlier 'escapades' that stretched long through the afternoon and well into the evening. He is tired. But he still hears the door open, the footsteps, and he stirs.

His wings stretch instinctively as he yawns, turning to look--

his wings stretch

--and he is suddenly fully awake, but he does not outwardly panic or attempt to flee. He makes eye contact with the old woman, and holds her gaze. In that moment, the fact that the amulet that was around his neck earlier is no longer is a glaring alarm to his senses.

Skellig swallows hard. And then reverently, respectfully, bows his head to her.

[brave_kreyu]

"No need to bow, dear, I'm just the midwife," she says, voice soft. Kreyu starts to stir a little, HER wings also out.

"Tawaret?" she mumbles, only partly awake.

"Just came to check on you dear, you've been through a lot today." Tawaret bustles toward the fire, which not coincidentally at all gives her a better view of Kreyu.

"'M good," Kreyu mumbles, then wraps her arms around Skellig and attempts to use him as a body pillow/stuffed animal. She's STILL not really awake.

Something softens in Tawaret's face when Kreyu reaches out for him, grabs hold of him while still mostly asleep.

[27_53]

In a familiar motion (how is it already familiar?) Skellig instinctively wraps his arm around Kreyu's shoulders as she cuddles closer to him, his hand coming to rest on her upper arm.

He watches the midwife - Tawaret - move around the room.

"Kreyu speaks highly of your teachings," he offers, gratitude (for lessons that she will need to use later, in different lifetimes) evident in his voice. It also works to explain the bow.

And since the midwife is not attempting to run a spear through him at the sight of HIS wings...

"I am Skellig," he adds. "Well met, Tawaret."

As well met as one can, when entangled in a nest of linens and naked as the day he came into being.

[brave_kreyu]

Tawaret smiles. "She is a gifted apprentice. I have been looking for someone to take over for me for a long time now."

"Well met, Skellig." Tawaret lifts something out of her basket, a small pot. "Make sure she drinks this in the morning, if you would? It will be helpful for her after the night you two have had."

[27_53]

"I suspect her skillset would lend itself well to the profession, and she is eager to learn. Her mind is quick. She is quite gifted."

There is a hint of pride in his tone.

At her last words to him, Skellig feels a flush rise to his cheekbones - and he's highly doubting it is the burn from the sun returning to revisit him in this precise moment.

"I will do so," he replies, nodding his affirmation.

[brave_kreyu]

Tawaret smiles. "I'm very glad she chose you, Skellig. I had begun to fear things would go poorly, despite my teachings."

"But I will let the two of you get some rest now, you'll likely need it."

[27_53]

"No harm will come to her," he says quietly, his tone shifting from 'pride' to 'protection, but not 'possessive' in any way. Kreyu is free to make her own choices, and Tawaret will be able to tell that. "Not so long as there is breath in my lungs."

Another slight nod, which is not as much of a bow as before, but a touch remains. She is an elder, after all.

"I thank you for your kindness." He glances down at Kreyu, who is still fast asleep curled against him. "And she will as well, come daylight."

[brave_kreyu]

"You are a good man, Skellig. Drop by tomorrow, won't you? With Kreyu, of course."

"Sleep well, darlings."

[27_53]

"It would be my honor to do so," he says. "Thank you."

Once the midwife has left them, Skellig resettles on the bed - listening as her footsteps grow softer and fade as she travels back to her place within the village walls, ensuring that she too makes it safely back to her 'nest' - and his primary focus is on Kreyu's breathing against him, her heartrate.

It is not long before he allows sleep to take hold again for the hours that remain before daylight threatens the horizon, and the world outside begins to stir in the pre-dawn.

He is awake again before she is, but he does not rouse her, choosing instead to bask in her presence.