brave_kreyu | OOM: All Skate Skellig Dream Magic Weirdness? -Part Two

OOM: All Skate Skellig Dream Magic Weirdness? -Part Two

Kreyu intended to dance in the sky with Skellig the very next day, but events have conspired to prevent that from occurring. A raid on the village by former soldiers meant many wounded to heal and much damage to fix. Akatan's sister, Neferet, has a definite crush, an infatuation, with Skellig. She hasn't done anything but look and exchange some friendly words, but it still makes her brother FURIOUS.

For all that Euripedes was from a different time and place, a line he had Medea speak in the play of the same name still rings true: "I would rather stand three times in the line of battle than once bear a child." Even with Kreyu's magic, with Taweret's skill, childbirth is incredibly dangerous. There are reasons why Taweret's goddess image of She Who Is Great has elements of the hippo, the lion, and the crocodile, a fearsome appearance to drive off the many threats facing a woman giving birth. The second birth in a week began this morning and was still going on when the sun began to set. Not a good sign.

Skellig, trying to burn off nervous energy while Kreyu was working, happened across a few of the village men drinking. They said things about Kreyu they should not have said. That he was FEEDING on Kreyu, drinking her blood. There...may have been a fight. At least they don't think he's a demon anymore, you can't give a demon a black eye in a brawl with your fists!

It is truly night now, and Skellig can hear Kreyu's tired footsteps on the road...

(OOC: Warning for explicit adult content starting around tag 194.)

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"No, not at all!" Kreyu replies. "I would be glad to have you there."

Her body is warm under him, her scales smooth. Her heart under him, so very close. It's not her human shape, but it's intimacy of a kind.

A small spark of light flies up into the air from one of her talons. "You see that grouping of stars there? Well there's a story about why they are arranged that way." Heroes and monsters shaped into stars by the gods, that when this group of stars is on the horizon the time of the mother river's flooding draws near, that that star portends love when it crosses that group of stars over THERE.

If he wants to listen, Kreyu could talk all night.

Listening is one of the things that he is best at. Observing, watching, learning. He gladly soaks up her words, grateful to hear her tell tales and truths about the stars. He asks questions about others, tells stories of his own for ones that he may not see in this sky but he figures must be out there somewhere.

(And if they are not? Then these will be his new normal.)

It is near-dawn again by the time he yawns, eyes growing heavy. He is so very comfortable here, lounging atop her body. But he knows that he cannot sleep here, and it is with great reluctance that he moves back to where it is safe for him beside the fire.

He is certain to leave enough room for her to curl up with him (the blanket is easily large enough for two to lay atop, as well as the one that covers him) in case she finds that she is able to shift back to her more 'familiar' form once the sun breaks the horizon.

With his chin resting on his folded arms, he looks over at her. (The firelight causes the violet in her eyes to flicker as she holds his gaze.) "You are a fantastic storyteller." The images she has painted across his mind with her words will ease his dreams, keep any Darkness far at bay. There is so little of it left in him now, that his discomfort has greatly eased. He yawns again, then snuggles deeper into the blanket, his body curling in on itself as he loses his battle to stay awake until the sunrise.

(He would much rather have her in his arms, but he knows that some things cannot be rushed.)

She soaks in his stories, his presence.

"Thank you, love," she tells him, before he falls asleep. For everything.

She feels the change with the dawn, takes the shape he knows so well, wings and all. The sea salt all over her from her baths did not bother her scales, but DOES trouble her skin in this shape. She pads quietly to the spring, washes the salt from her skin, dries off by the fire.

She curls up with him in their nest, wraps her body around him. Warm, Safe, things are right with the world again as she lets herself drift off to sleep.

It is past midday before he wakes again, sunlight streaming through the trees near the edge of the beach to cast pockets of light on the place where he chose for their 'nest'. He is only partially awake, then startles because he cannot hear her heartbeat, the deep slow sound of the dragon gone from his ears - where is she - and he is already moving to rouse himself, needing to go find her.

Then his brain registers that she is wrapped around him and stirring (since he has woken her) and the relief that hits him is like whiplash.

"There you are," he whispers, voice a little shaky (thanks to the adrenaline rush). And he means it in so many ways.

"Sorry to startle you, love," she says, soft. She doesn't know WHY the adrenaline hit him, that he feared she was gone.

"I did not wish to wake you, when I came to bed."

"It was not...I did not hear your heart at first."

Skellig shifts his body to better allow for her to sprawl atop him, like he knows she likes to do. He also might be wanting to cling a little closer to her. He doubts she will mind.

"It is much different, the rhythm, when you are dragon-shaped," he explains. "My ears had not yet adjusted, when I woke...I thought you were...gone."

She could simply have gone flying, or been out hunting another meal, or scouting the island in greater detail. But then, he figures he still would have heard her.

"But you are not," he adds, voice steadying.

"Oh, I did not even think about such a thing." She flushes. "I am so sorry, Skellig."

She leans in to kiss him, soft. He can cling as much as he wants.

When she kisses him, he returns it softly - but then laughs under his breath as he exhales. He is a little flustered - how could his brain have been so slow, so foolish? She is here with him, his arms are around her, there is no reason to worry about anything.

"I am just more nervous than I had realized." He says, subconsciously trying to apologize as he runs his hand over her arm. Her skin is soft under his fingertips, familiar.

"Understandably so," she tells him. She smiles, runs her fingers through his hair, soaks in his touch. Her lips are soft as she speaks against his skin. "My valiant, winged, knight."

There is salt in his hair, and it has already lightened subtly from the last few days spent in the sun (both here on this island and time spent in the desert), and it feels so very nice to have her fingers running through it, even if it is dirty.

And her lips on his skin are also nice, a comfort. She will feel him eventually relax better beneath her touch, his nerves calming as his reassurance grows that she is here with him.

"I only did what any man should have done," he says softly. Clearly downplaying just what he did to have her here by his side, in this moment.

Edited 2024-04-06 13:28 (UTC)

Her eyes are violet still, the wild, the dragon, close to the surface. "Some men would not, and a great many COULD not, have done what you did."

As her hands touch, as her lips move over his skin, OTHER hungers are starting to stir within her. But he may not be ready for such, yet. She will not rush, not push.

Skellig's mind flashes back once more to the image of her on the table, of her blood on his hands, her blood filling his lungs as he gave her own space to breathe once more in her chest.

"It was...complicated."

Taweret's look of awe and wonder is there as well, as is her comment about owls and death, and beating back Death's grasp upon Kreyu. It makes him shudder, a whisper crossing through his mind before he pushes that image aside and hardens his mind slightly against it - a sort of 'keep out' sign posted upon the door, because he does not want to deal with that right now. Not when he wants to focus on her.

"But you are right." He hugs her tightly, presses his lips to her hair. "Many men could not."

She soothes with her touch, her lips, tries to drive whatever is haunting him from his mind. They can just cuddle, for a while.

Eventually, she laughs softly, as her body stirs with desire. "Such sweet folly, this one desires," she tells him, kissing him on the neck.

Holding her close, cuddling with her in his arms - these are all important things, good things to work to reset his mindset and bring him back to an even keel.

"I would like to go flying," he says eventually, stretching his body out beside hers and allowing his limbs to slightly untangle from hers, feeling his muscles stretch and shift. "I...I think it would help."

Allowing his 'owl' brain to take control for a bit may push what it is that haunts him further back. Flight while she was hunting was useful, in that manner.

"I was also pondering flying with you," she says, gaze slightly wicked. "We can go as we are, care not at all who sees or hears."

She stretches her wings out. "Will be good for both of us."

Skellig (who up until this moment had not considered that option as one that they might accomplish on this 'trip') glances over at her as he rises to his feet, stretches his wings.

Sees the gaze in her violet eyes.

"Oh."

His heartbeat quickens in his chest, wings flaring involuntarily as his eyebrows lift, understanding just what she meant versus his suggestion.

"Only if you desire it also, my dear," she tells him. She whispers the spell that will carry words between them while they are in flight again.

"We can court in the air another day, another time. Make all the sailors wonder at our ecstatic cries elsewhere." She's teasing, a little, but she really DOES mean it. They can just 'fly'.

"I had merely not considered it," he says truthfully, stepping closer to her. "You mentioned you were not sure how your hunger would translate into other...appetites."

That kiss that he leans in and plants upon her mouth? Will likely ease any concerns she may have about his desires.

He has missed her. Missed this part of her, of them. They can launch skyward in a minute, but for this second he is going to kiss her with his feet planted firmly on the sand.

Kreyu is VERY thankful for cleaning her mouth earlier while she was cleaning off the salt. Would rather ruin the moment for him to be tasting whale blood right now.

She kisses him back, wraps her arms around him. She's missed this too. More than she ever thought she could miss such things.

Eventually, he pulls back from the kiss, sucking in a deep breath of oxygen into his lungs.

And smirks, his own eyes sparking.

"Catch me."

And then he jumps skyward, using the stiff offshore wind to aid in his climb, rapidly beating his wings to gain distance and give her a bit of a 'chase'.

Kreyu laughs, the spell carrying the sound to him. She leaps skyward after him, wings loud in the air. "Traditionally, the male chases the female!" she tells him. But by the laughter in her voice he can tell she's perfectly happy to chase HIM.

She has caught more prey in the air than he has, done battle in the air, played chase with her brood brothers. That might give her an edge in the chase, here. Although his ability to make himself lighter could make his path hard to predict.

"Since when are you and I anything remotely near traditional?!"

He is also laughing, doing his best to avoid being caught - she is better at maneuvering, her wings a touch more 'built' for this sort of thing. But he is well-trained in the art of escape, of fleeing when needed, of how to quickly make himself disappear.

Skellig also has a habit of enjoying barrel rolls. Very much so, as he drops one shoulder and shifts direction, sending himself into a tight spin in the opposite direction from what she might of thought he was going to travel!

"A fair point!" she replies, still laughing. She turns quick in the air,a wingover, feels the g forces tug at her, sending her toward Skellig.

She starts a climb in the air, a move that will let her exchange altitude for speed later, when her 'prey' is in the right position.

It is after he breaks from his roll that he realizes that she has started climbing higher, and then he realizes why - she is going to catch him, if he isn't careful and able to avoid.

(He wants to be caught, and then he will chase her, in the more traditional sense of things.)

It will take effort to try to avoid her this time, though! So he will change direction once she starts her dive, making move for now to at least put distance between them.

She halts her climb, judges his position, and DIVES. She folds her wings almost entirely against her body, like a missile, the wind screaming past her ears.

She would never make CONTACT with him at this speed, would need to bleed off momentum, but it serves to get her close in a hurry.

And he changes direction once she starts her dive, of course he does. Her mate is a clever one, not so easily caught! She should not be able to do what she does next, the wings of this shape should not allow it, but she cheats. She funnels Karma into her wings, changes their shape, their structure, their joints, just ENOUGH that she can turn far tighter than usual, that her momentum slingshots her in the CORRECT direction.

Her wings shift back to normal as she closes in on him.

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