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]

"With direction, I could prepare something for us." Or at the very least, help her, if she'll let him.

"And avoiding the heat of the day would be best. My skin feels much better, but I fear I will be far more easily burnt for some time, until my body adapts."

[brave_kreyu]

"Help would be lovely," Kreyu replies. "I have bread leftover from yesterday, and some eggs. And beer, of course."

Yes, beer IS a breakfast drink around here.

"I fear you will, yes. But I can make plenty of ointment." The words imply that he plans to stay, and stay for a while.

[27_53]

"I can help with that as well, making ointment" he offers, not yet wanting to leave this bed or this space, but knowing at some point they will have to. Because she is right, and the memory of the blistering sun taking aim at his body is still quite fresh.

"Although it is tempting to allow myself to burn again, if only for the...aftercare."

He wouldn't.
Maybe just once.

His eyes fall to the 'drink' on the table, and he thinks of earlier.

"Does the midwife...does she know of your wings?"

[brave_kreyu]

"You need not go to such extremes to have my hands on you," she teases him.


"She shouldn't," Kreyu replies. "But she is very canny, Taweret. She may have seen the marks my talons left and presumed wings came with the package."

[27_53]

"She may have, or thought perhaps that they were solely the work the 'demon' which you have summoned..."

Skellig laughs a little at that, shifting against her as he stretches. His legs do need to move, and at some point, as comfortable as she is resting against him, his body wins out.

"Regardless, she has seen them, and was not concerned."

Everything is just faintly sore, but in a very familiar (and not unpleasant - at least for his body) way. He does carry some concern for her, once she tries to move.

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu stretches and her breath catches as her body complains. "I may need that tea after all," she says, chuckling. She stretches, wings and all, careful not to bump him.

"But I would gladly pay this price again, and again, and again, to have you."

[27_53]

"You're drinking the tea," Skellig says matter-of-factly. "Tawaret made it very clear to me that you should do so."

And he has no intentions of meeting the elder woman later having not followed her instruction to the letter.

"As would I."

Sitting up in the bed, he allows his fingers to close around the amulet he had stashed earlier beneath the nearest pillow, retrieving it. "I found this after she had come to check on your wellbeing. It must have come unknotted during the night. It is not lost."

Not that it would have far to go in this one-room home of hers, but they were quite active. There are also feathers among the linens.

[brave_kreyu]

"I'm glad you found it. I'll have to tie it tighter this time." Technically, he COULD tie it himself, this time.

"Looks like we shed some feathers last night in all the festivities." She eyes the water container. "I think there's enough water left for us to wash off, but I'll need to go to the well to draw more."

"Would give you a chance to wake the fire up enough to cook with." She's just presuming he knows how to do this because EVERYONE in her time knows how to do this from a very early age.

[27_53]

"That I could manage well enough, the fire." Handling of fire to cook, to keep warm, is straightforward enough - and he has built them in far stranger places than this, even if he cannot remember exactly where those spaces are at the moment.

As far as the amulet goes, he COULD tie it himself, but giving it to her means that she will have another opportunity to touch him.

"Should we put it back now, before you go for water? I do not know how often you are called upon."

After last night, he suspects the other villagers might be avoiding this side of the wall for at least a little while. But it would not do to be reckless...

[brave_kreyu]

"Better safe than sorry, I think. We've already pushed our luck once."

Kreyu rises from the bed, walks over to the water and wipes off the remnants of sweat and other things from last night. She wraps the kilt around her waist without really having to think about it at all, the movements ingrained in muscle memory.

[27_53]

Skellig lingers a moment longer in the bed, watching her walk to the water before he rises and joins her, placing the amulet on the table before fetching a cloth from the bucket to do the same to himself once she's finished.

Cleaning up is quick enough.
Finding his kilt...takes an extra moment of hunting, through the blankets on the bed. And underneath.

"Where in the..." he mutters, leaning over and bending down to look under the bedframe, where a scrap of the fabric peeks out. "...how did...hmm."

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu laughs. "I must have been more enthusiastic than I thought, when I got that off of you." She flushes slightly. She might have been admiring his ass, when he was bent over like that. Ahem.

She pads over to where he left the amulet, picks it up. "Let me tie it around your neck?"

[27_53]

"I'll have you help with this as well," he says, as he saunters walks back over to her, kilt fabric in hand.

Amulet first. He bows his head slightly, to allow her to better reach him.

[brave_kreyu]

She settles the amulet carefully in place, knots it with the securest knot she knows. "There." She kisses him, because she can and he looks so lovely in the early light.

"Would you prefer me in front of you this time as I help you put it on, or would that be too inspiring?" she teases.

[27_53]

"In front of me will be fine," he reassures her, though his tone is also teasing. "You will be inspiring, but I will save the thoughts I have for...later."

And he kisses her, because he can and she also looks lovely in this light, so why not take advantage of the opportunity?

"And then I will deal with the fire."

[brave_kreyu]

"I will look forward to finding out those thoughts of yours."

After the kiss, she 'walks' his hands through the steps of putting the kilt on for the second time. Oh how much has changed in less than a day!

"And there," she tucks the last piece into place. She picks up the water jug, large and heavy thing that it is, with relative ease. "I'll be back in a bit."

[27_53]

"I'll behave while you are away," he 'promises'. Which, he will, once she has taken the water jug and gone to fetch the water they will need.

In the first light of this day, and alone for the first time in less than a day (but yet it feels as if he has already been here so very long, beside her) Skellig takes a moment to simply stand and take stock of himself, his senses.

He is trying to figure out just where he is. There is no desire to leave at any near point, but his habits are not easily broken. Especially in a strange, unfamiliar land...

Without any luck, he moves to add some fuel to the fire's coals, then busies himself with tidying the bed, removing the feathers easily enough (he is used to hiding the 'evidence' of his presence) and piling the largest ones that remain on one corner of the table. The linens and light blanket are shook out, her pillows rearranged into some semblance of order.

When she returns, she will likely find him busy with tidying other things, expending nervous energy. He will not rifle through her things, but he has gathered the bread and eggs onto the table, along with a knife he's found.

[brave_kreyu]

The eggs are larger than he's probably used to, being the eggs of geese rather than chickens. Kreyu comes back in with the now much heavier jug, moving carefully so as to not spill it.

She smiles brightly when she sees how he's tidied. "Thank you, Skellig. That's very thoughtful of you."

She sets the water jar down carefully. "And I suppose I'd best drink what Taweret left for me, before I forget."

She takes her first sip of the drink in the jar, makes a face at the bitterness of it, but keeps drinking. It even SMELLS bitter to Skellig, if he's close enough.

[27_53]

Skellig shrugs a shoulder at her 'thanks'. "You have shared your nest. Your home," he corrects himself. "With me. It is just...what is done."

At some point he is close enough, and he makes a similar face at the bitter scent of the drink.

"That..."

(It triggers a flash of a memory in his mind, the feeling of the gritty texture of white pills as he grinds them between his back teeth, bitterness and acid on his tongue as he tries to swallow. One brown, two or three - or four, who's counting? - white, mix them together to dull the ache in his hands.)

Skellig visibly shudders and shakes his head, obviously still bothered. "I am sorry you have to drink that, I know it will help, but..." he makes a noise of disgust, and moves back towards the fire.

[brave_kreyu]

"Bad experience?" she asks quietly. Kreyu decides to just CHUG the rest of it, both to get it over with and to get the smell of the stuff away from Skellig.

She pours herself an entire mug of beer, downs it, and then pours herself another. "Ugh. Still need to wash the taste out of my mouth before I can tell how well this batch of beer came out."

[27_53]

"It is very similar to...something I have taken much of, in another...time, place."

He sighs, still unsure of just how he should classify this. The 'here and now' that they are inhabiting. But his mood perks quickly, as she mentions the prospect of beer. Once he's satisfied with the fire for the time being (and the scent has faded from his nostrils) he moves back over to her.

"Tawaret will be glad you have chosen to listen to her. I am glad I will not have to explain to her why I was unable to convince you," he says, smirking slightly before he drops casually into a chair, reaching for an empty mug and nudging it nearer to her. "You make this, yourself?"

[brave_kreyu]

She touches his arm in an attempt at comfort. Then she pours the both of them some beer,

"I do," she explains. "The village is too small to support one person dedicated to brewing beer, so most everyone brews their own. I've gotten better at it over time, thankfully."

[27_53]

"My inclination to stay grows stronger with each thing I learn about you," he lifts the mug in a hint of a 'toast' - whether the gesture translates across times and universes, who knows - before he drinks.

Now that he is not delirious from heat exhaustion and wavering towards darkness and dehydration, he actually has time to taste the beer as it crosses his tongue. The flavor profile is entirely different than what he is used to, but it is still good. He nods.

"You may end up stuck with me, at this rate."

[brave_kreyu]

She copies the gesture, guessing at its meaning from context.

"Was that supposed to deter me from trying to get you to stay?" she asks, leaning toward him from across the table. She laughs, low, and her smile is slightly wicked. She's so very close, it would be so easy to kiss her. "Because if it was, it isn't working," she purrs.

[27_53]

"You will not have to try," he replies, leaning up and pressing his mouth to hers in a kiss. It is not a deep kiss, but it is still passionate. "I will stay, so long as the fates allow it."

Regardless if it is another hour, day, week, or years.

"And as long as you would have me."