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

[brave_kreyu]

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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[27_53]

"That would probably be easier for you to do so, than me," he murmurs softly, simply appreciating the closeness between them, the quiet. And if he takes the opportunity once she has finished to lean down and press his lips against her forehead? Then that is just using the advantage he has been given. "I will be quick."

As he takes his leave, he pauses at the table and glances down at the bucket beside it - her blood still looking just as it did when it somehow (how did he manage that, he isn't certain) moved from her lungs into his. He lingers just briefly, considering that thought, before he moves (cautiously) through the door.

[brave_kreyu]

The village is quieter than it should be, at this hour. The arrow is still in the wall of Taweret's house where it struck last night, but Akatan's bow is gone. Somewhere, there is weeping. (His sisters mourn him. He was not always what he made of himself at the end.)

Skellig hears snatches of whispers. That Akatan killed himself in remorse, that She Who is Great exacted vengeance through her children. None of them are blaming HIM for anything, yet.

[27_53]

Skellig goes about his business while listening to the whispers.

Some of them believe that Kreyu has perished and that Taweret and himself are simply holed up in her dwelling, mourning her loss. Others have heard rumor that Kreyu still lives, but is badly wounded, because how else could she be after an arrow? Nobody has seen her lover, the stranger Skellig, but if she has died then perhaps he is overcome with grief. And Akatan, there is so much circulating about him, about what has he done, where has he gone, how did he die?

But nobody is blaming HIM.

He finds it difficult to listen to the voices, and part of him considers (briefly) if perhaps they are not voices of whispers, but echoes of his own mind, of the words he heard last night?

Is he falling into madness? Is the Darkness taking greater hold of him?

[brave_kreyu]

Perhaps they are, perhaps they are not. But even if it IS taking greater hold of him, what would he do about it?

Would he LEAVE, break the heart he tried so hard to save? Abandon her as he said he would not?

Her heart is strong, and he can hear it even now.

[27_53]

"Stop listening," he mutters to himself, under his breath. "Just focus on her, she is what matters to you most. She is your heart in your chest, your breath in your lungs."

Skellig turns and heads back for the house once he is done and it is her heartbeat in his ears that brings him back to 'center', back to reality. He lingers at the doorway, glaring angrily at the arrow still-lodged in the frame before he reaches for it, yanking it out with a pull that is slightly stronger than a human would be able to manage.

(Nobody is looking or listening at this hour.)

Shaft in hand, he re-enters the space.

[brave_kreyu]

She's standing when he comes back in, dressed in a clean kilt. "Thank you, Taweret," she's saying. "We should be back within four days, if all goes well."

"You are most welcome," Taweret replies. "You have what you need for the trip at home?" Kreyu nods.

She walks to Skellig, her motions steady. His feathers are still in her hair, but she's removed the ones on her skin, the ones that were rather covered in blood. (Stowed them carefully away in a chest in Taweret's house.)

[27_53]

Initially, his reaction to the sight of her is of concern and worry - there is no need for her to be standing so soon! She needs to rest, to allow her body to heal...and then he remembers that she has already done that, has already been healed.

His eyes sweep quickly over her form, then back to her face. She is hungry, and as she mentioned - she needs to hunt. He will help her.

He glances to Taweret.

"I am in your debt," he says softly. He does not need to explain for what exactly that debt may be, but he figures that the midwife will understand what he is not saying. (The blessing to go forth, to act as Her hands, to exact justice.)

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu can smell his concern, touches his arm gently.

"There is no debt, Skellig," Taweret replies. "Just keep yourself in one piece, if you can."

Kreyu is restless as they leave. "I feel a bit like I do when I've just incarnated, though nowhere near as strong. I may be a bit....feral, for a while." She flushes in embarrassment.

[27_53]

Skellig can sense the restlessness, the edge to her emotions and mood as they step out through the door - just hours ago, she fell to the ground here, where a stain of blood would have soaked into the earth had it not been for him to pull her off the dirt and drag her back inside to safety.

He also senses her embarrassment.

"Do not feel shame for what is your nature," he says simply, taking her hand - the one that does not hold that arrow, which he is taking with them on the walk back to Kreyu's home outside the wall. "It is who you are."

While they walk, Skellig does not hesitate to 'nudge' anyone who they come across (so few are out, as it is still quite early) to not See them. It is of little effort of him to do so, to cause them to become distracted by a sound in the other direction, or recall that they had something to do elsewhere, somewhere else to be or look.

"Your necklace shattered," he offers by way of explanation, in case she does not remember what happened, in that chaos. (He hopes she doesn't.) "When you had me Take from it, I think...I am not sure what happened, between our energy. But it was lost."

[brave_kreyu]

"Thank you. I know I am hungry, will want to eat and sleep a great deal. I will also crave items that have karma clinging to them. I don't know if it will have any effect on my human appetites." She squeezes his hand gently.

"I've never heard of a karmic item shattering before, but it would have lost its power after you used it in any case, used the last of its energy.

She sighs in relief as they enter her home. The karma here feels good. "We'll be gone several days. Can't carry enough beer for that, but I have spells to make water safe."

"I'll have to wear my dragon shape, to get to the sea fast enough. You should be able to hang on, where my neck meets my shoulders. It's far from ideal, but I don't think you'd let me go alone."

[27_53]

"I do not need beer to survive," he comments teasingly. "Water will suffice. And I will manage to keep hold of you."

He will not be letting go of her (or letting her go anywhere alone) anytime soon.

Unsure of what all she wishes to take, what she needs to take (or what he'll need, since he arrived with simply the clothes on his back and she has been his sole provider since) he listens to her direction, follows her guidance as she gathers supplies for a trip of several days. It is packed easily for him to carry - certainly not something she would be able to do in her dragon shape.

"I think we will have to walk away from the wall, unfortunately. The sun has risen higher...more people have awoken. Flight would be too obvious. I am not strong enough yet to distract them all at once."

Whispers are becoming louder outside the walls, words spoken more openly, grief spreading a little stronger.

[brave_kreyu]

"Yes, time to go. Where I showed you my shape before should still be far enough away."

They make their way there, and Kreyu strips off her kilt, hands it to him to pack away.

She lays down as flat as she can on the ground, but it's a good thing he has wings!

[27_53]

As she has him pack away her kilt, he also removes the amulet from around his neck, allowing his wings to fully be 'seen' since the night prior with Akatan.

There are a few chunks of missing feathers, from where he had frantically pulled from the leading edges of his right wing, but nothing too bad. And flight is still easy enough, as he manages to 'perch' himself well enough at the space she mentioned - following her direction to adjust his bodyweight.

And her instruction to hold on -- tight -- his body pressed as flat as he can manage against her scales, grip firm.

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu whispers spells to carry their words to one another, to keep him warm, to help him hang on, to hide them from human eyes. "We go, my love, to the mouth of the river and the sea beyond."

Once he's settled, she LEAPS skyward, wings sending sand flying as she strives for height, seeks a thermal to help carry her higher. Unless Skellig has been in an aircraft, this is the fastest he's ever flown!

They rise above the river that men will one day call the Nile, the line between desert red and the black soil where life flourishes so very clear from on high.

[27_53]

This is the fastest and the highest he has ever been while flying - this is out of his range of capabilities - and while at first, he is a bit shell-shocked by all of it.

But then, he focuses on the view. And her heartbeat, which is strong and so very, very powerful beneath him, the dragon clearly healed well-enough to carry them both skyward, and towards the sea.

He could speak freely to her thanks to the spells she has cast, but he chooses silence for the initial climb, occasionally reassuring her that he is well, holding firmly.

Eventually:

"You are much faster than I am."

[brave_kreyu]

"Am I?" she asks, curious. "My size, perhaps?" she offers as an explanation. "Or that we are karma as much as flesh?"

She moves from one thermal to another, heading down the river. "It is good, having you hanging on to me, having you here. I, I can not put it into words."

[27_53]

"I am glad of it."

And if he 'hugs' a little tighter to the scale he is currently gripping, it may not be entirely from the fact that she is riding another thermal, gliding steadily towards their goal - the sea, her meal, the hunt which he knows she desires so greatly.

It is simply because he is glad that she is still here, for him to hang on to.

He is shedding Darkness with every beat of her wings, with the wind that rustles across his (even tucked tight and aerodynamic against his back as they are), Light growing stronger in his chest.

Flying is good for him, in so many ways.

[brave_kreyu]

She can feel the change in him, that THIS is good for him. She is so VERY glad.

The delta is a wide triangle of green below them, the sea beyond. "I will go lower, once we are out of sight of the mainland. If you hear one of the great singers in the deep, the whales, please tell me. Your ears are far better than my senses at hunting such prey. "

The sea rolls below them, a blue jewel, once they are out of sight of the coast and she descends. The sea teems with life. The is one vast heart in the waves below that he might hear, the size of a Volkswagon Beetle automobile. A blue whale, an old male, whose kind almost never come to these waters. He is half Kreyu's length, her equal in mass: fine prey, rich in what her body so desperately needs.

[27_53]

"There is much here," he says, a little amazed by all of it. So much noise, so much life, such a change from hours ago. "It will take me a moment to listen."

The things that Skellig has hunted (aside from monsters) have always been much smaller than he is - mice, rats, insects, other pests that he usually manages to stumble across rather than actively work to track and kill.

So it takes so time for him to to adjust his senses, for this type of hunting. This size of prey. But once he locates the thing she seeks, he directs her, guides her. Uses their connection to help her triangulate where she will have to dive - not too deep, despite the depths of the endless ocean beneath them.

And then he does the 'sensible thing', as owls do not swim - presses a quick kiss to the 'back' of her neck, his lips touching the scaled surface fondly - before bailing off her neck in a planned move, using his wings to flare and glide along the surface of the water, the salt spray coating his face as he moves to get away from her and her prey.

[brave_kreyu]

The hunger is in her now, the NEED to hunt, to feed. Things are simpler like this. She's aware of Skellig gliding along the water, her mate. She waits just long enough for him to get to a safe range, and then she folds her wings and DIVES. She snaps the whale's neck when her foreclaws strike it, but teeth that could tear through steel bite the spine, sever the cord, just to be sure.

The corpse floats to the surface, and she wastes no time in cracking the creature open with her jaws. She devours the dense muscle of the heart with greedy bites, tears into the liver and the other nutrient dense internal organs. She needs to bring her prey to land though, can't stand on the corpse like this forever.

A shark, drawn by the blood in the water, makes the fatal mistake of getting too close. Kreyu SNARLS, the sound like some terrible engine. Then her jaws SNAP and she devours the man sized shark whole in a single bite.

[27_53]

Skellig is grateful the kill is quick and 'painless', for it brings less of an energy shift than a drawn out and lingering one would, even in a hunting situation like this where it is a 'good kill', a need to satisfy life and fulfill her hunger.

He watches from a distance, not shying away from this part of her. He told her to feel no shame, no embarrassment. This is the shape of her soul, and he wishes to know every part of it.

So while she feasts, he idly swoops through the air around her, enjoying the breeze as it ripples across the open water, choosing to focus on the scent of salt versus that of iron and blood. She will notice (perhaps) that he laughs sharply as the shark makes the fatal mistake and is snatched up in one bite.

"Well done!"

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu preens a bit, poses to show herself off.

Then she growls in frustration as she tries to lift what is left of the whale into the air. "Heavy prey. Need to take to land, to water and den." She points with her nose toward an island. "Safe there. Eat, sleep, eat and sleep again till prey is gone."

[27_53]

"I can help."

Skellig glides easily over the water's surface in as non-threatening of a manner as possible, to alight upon the corpse of the whale where it floats above the water. He makes a bit of a face at the scent of the creature - it smells of fish, and he is mildly repulsed - but he digs his hand and talons carefully into the skin, piercing through a layer of blubber to hold on.

"Try again?"

The whale should be much lighter, now.

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu roars in triumph as she lifts the whale skyward. "Clever Skellig," she praises him.

The island is a rocky one, though partly wooded. Rocks lurk like teeth around the 'shore' of the flatter portions of the island, likely explaining its deserted nature. The area Kreyu flies the whale corpse to is large and flat. She dumps the whale corpse on the very edge of the rocky beach.

There's a sheltered overhang farther up the 'beach', and he can hear a freshwater stream running into a pool close by. A good place to 'den', to build a fire and camp.

Once Skellig is safely off the whale, she digs into the whale again, stuffing herself on precious meat and fat.
Once her stomach is as full as can be, she shakes herself, mutters a few words over the whale corpse to keep scavengers away and help the meat 'keep' a little longer. She reaches in with her talons, pulls a particularly choice bit of whale meat out of the carcass. "Meat for you?" she says, offering the hunk to Skellig with a hopeful expression.

[27_53]

While she has been feasting with greater intensity, Skellig has been busy gathering driftwood and other dried sticks into a pile, binding it with cord that they had brought with them in their pack.

Also, he has found himself a hunk of dried kelp, crisp from the baking sun where the tides had laid it upon a rock, salted by the sea.

When he has deemed it 'safe' to approach her again (he can hear her muttering, understands the words she is speaking) he wanders back in her direction, bundle of firewood over one shoulder, their pack over the other - mouth full of the dried seaweed, chewing happily.

An eyebrow is raised at the meat, and he smirks.

"I would be honored to share your kill." A pause. "But I will cook it, first."