OOM All Skate Skellig Dream Magic Weirdness -Part Three

[brave_kreyu]

The lost city is carved into stone, even into the earth itself in places. A small oasis remains, and that's where Kreyu lands in her dragon shape, Skellig on her back.

An entire PRIDE of lions was asleep here, this place a den, but Kreyu's arrival sends them all fleeing in terror. THEY know who the most terrible predator in the area is quite well, thank you!

"A bit of luck. Nothing too big should be here, if they had made this place a den." They won't be back while they can still smell her scent.

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[brave_kreyu]

"Amikaya will be our best bet, for you," she replies. "Had I known you were coming, I would have picked something up for you the last time I was there." Her smile is soft, warm.

"The coins should change hands often enough before Heka is flesh again that he should not be able to trace them, and they will be useful for buying things for us."

[27_53]

"I figured as much."

He presses a soft kiss to her mouth, tender and sweet, gratitude.

"Will I need to stay...hidden, until I look as you would wish me to?" He asks, with very little hesitation. "If we need to keep up...appearances?"

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu enjoys the kiss very much, returns it with every bit of gratitude, sweet and tender.

"You shouldn't," Kreyu replies. "I have a friend in Amikaya whose establishment I stay at when I'm in the city. It's in one of the entertainment districts, and caters to the wealthy with some frequency. It wouldn't be the first time they've gone and gotten clothing for a customer when...circumstances necessitated it."

[27_53]

Skellig is relieved, though he won't outwardly admit it (at least verbally - she will likely notice a hint of ease entering his posture, even as boneless and relaxed beneath her as he currently is) that lodging will not be an issue. Same with procuring clothing that will help him blend in.

"Will speaking your name be an issue in the city?" He assumes not - she hasn't bothered to hide it elsewhere.

[brave_kreyu]

She shakes her head. "No, I use the same name there as here."

"I'm known as a mage there, a foreigner." She smiles. "Being foreign was a useful excuse while I was learning how to be, how to be HUMAN."

[27_53]

"Learning to be human is...difficult." It is clear from the expression that crosses his face that there was likely some 'trial and error' involved with his attempts to do so. "It took me some time. Also...my world..."

He has to pause and think hard to try to pull those memories back to the front of his mind, and what he manages with the effort is nothing but crackles of static and sparks that fight back like sticking a fork in a light socket. He huffs, mildly irritated.

"Was complicated." Was, not is.

[brave_kreyu]

She runs her fingers through his hair. "I'm glad things are simpler for you, now."

She shifts her weight slightly, and their stickiness once more makes itself obvious. "We ought to deal with the mess, I suppose. That vinegar that used to be wine might be a start, since I packed some rags in our bags."

[27_53]

"Does your friend's establishment have a bathhouse," he quips, though it isn't entirely joking. He knows neither of them are fit for any real form of company at the moment, and if they have to look upscale...things could get tricky.

As she works to peel her body off of his, he plucks errant feathers from her skin and his, laughing under his breath at the sheer ridiculousness of it all.

[brave_kreyu]

"It does," Kreyu replies. "And I plan to have us make use of it, but for now, we must settle for simpler means."

She laughs. "The mess IS a bit ridiculous, isn't it? Especially with wings."

She stretches as she moves off of him. "Was VERY worth it, however."

[27_53]

Once she's climbed fully off of him, he pushes himself up from the silks and sits up fully, allowing his wings to fully stretch to their full span. He grunts happily once he achieves the full spread, because that feels good.

"Very worth it."

There is very little in his body that actually hurts anymore, which he is finding unusual each time he wakes after spending another night in bed with her. He feels as if his body should protest more...much more. (Didn't it used to, when he woke up each day?)

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu bends over to fetch the amphora from where it was strewn on the floor. She might be making SURE he gets the chance to watch her do it. (She hasn't forgotten his reaction to her bending over to get that burn treatment in the trunk!)

Perhaps her desire to heal him is at work on his body when they have sex or when she is curled up with him in sleep?

She comes back over to him with the amphora and some rags.

[27_53]

If Skellig had any ounce of energy left for anything other than the basics right now, he'd probably have made a move on her while she was fetching the rags and the amphora. As it is, he manages to stand up, move off the silks, and holds his hand out for a rag.

His eyes say plenty, however, when he looks at her.

Temptress.

"Is there anything else we need to look for, among the things here?"

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu gives him her best innocent eyes with a WICKED smile when she notices.

"My plan was to scoop up all the jewelry and gems, leave the armor. Then coins, gold over silver. There might be something more interesting INSIDE the coin piles, so we should probably go through all of them."

She hands him a rag, opens the amphora.

[27_53]

The scent makes his nose crinkle slightly when she opens it, but it is less jarring than it was when she first opened it while he had been sleeping. Once he's wet the rag, he starts to wipe off his body, while wandering towards the nearest pile.

"Jewelry, gems," he echoes her words. "Gold over silver, dig through it all just in case."

A plan! Skellig does (rarely) appreciate a good plan of attack, rather than his usual attitude of 'just wing it and see what happens'.

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu wipes herself off thoroughly before she starts digging. There are a lot of coins, after all, it's not like Skellig is going to finish before she's done.

She starts arranging jewelry in her pack, then starts shifting through the coin mounds. She DOES find some gemstones, so the effort is worth it.

[27_53]

Once he's cleaned himself off well enough, he busies himself with digging through mounds of coins (there are so many - he has never even considered this much wealth in his existence) and finds a few items of interest:

A small, hand-carved amulet of a hippo's head, made of dark hematite, which he carefully tucks away into his pack - a gift for Taweret, once they return back to the village. A well-crafted but basic knife made of solid bronze, leather wrapped around the handle and a sheath to match - easy enough to conceal within the folds of a kilt if needed, for protection. Another small item, a bright blue feather formed from faience (which he intends to give to Kreyu) is tucked away safely, before something else catches his attention.

It is not something particularly outlandish or shiny, but a simple beaded bracelet, brown stone flecked with white crystals - porphyry - on a cord, laying haphazardly amongst the gold and silver. It gives him pause, and he studies it carefully, tilting his head with curiosity, before he crouches down to look at it closer. There is an odd pull that he feels as he 'listens' to it - there is no true echo, but it is...familiar, almost. (It is the color of his feathers, and he could easily wear it without attracting too much attention to himself.) Without hesitation he picks it up, holds it in his palm, looks at it closer. It feels right, in his hand, like a piece of himself he did not know he was missing has now been reunited.

His heartrate ticks higher as he is unsure of exactly what it is that he is feeling, but he is not scared, simply adjusting. (It is like when he was able to feel the Lines for the first time, sitting on the dirt floor of the other empty house. Some other piece of this world makes sense all of a sudden.)

[brave_kreyu]

He looks very much the bird, the way he is looking at the jewelry, tilting his head. "Something catch your eye?"

[27_53]

His attention takes an extra split-second to return to the part of his brain that knows how to process words and human speech; he blinks rapidly before he looks at her, rising from his crouch with the bracelet in his hand.

"I...cannot explain exactly what it is, about these stones, but I...I need this."

And the way that he says it - I need this - she will understand better than he can, what exactly he has just found in the midst of all the piles. The cord will need to be knotted by her hands, to secure it on his wrist, but that he will not mind.

[brave_kreyu]

She walks over to him, and as she gets closer her senses confirm what she suspected. "Ah, you've found a karmic item, like my necklace!" She's clearly DELIGHTED with his discovery. She takes the cord, carefully knots the bracelet around his wrist. "It has become a magnet for karma, will recharge itself over time. Draw too often and you will spend everything it has, but if you are careful, you will have an emergency supply of karma forever."

"The NEED you feel, that is why we dragons hoard items that Karma clings to." Has she given him a dragon's appetites, somehow?

[27_53]

It's very possible, with everything they've been up to over the past few weeks - and especially the last few days. Skellig listens intently to her explanation, and then eyes the bracelet once she's tied it onto his wrist.

"That...explains, better. This," he motions at the piles, the hoard of items that surrounds them. "I mean, I understood, but now...this makes much more sense." He nods, looking around briefly before he refocuses on her, leaning closer to press his hand to her chest above her heart, his lips to hers.

"I am glad to understand you better. To learn."

[brave_kreyu]

She leans into his touch, echoes it with her own hand. "It is a NEED with us, like thirst, hunger, or sleep. I do not think we can DIE from the lack, but it's uncomfortable."

"I do not deserve you," she whispers against his lips. "So kind, so loving, wanting to understand all of me."

[27_53]

"I will strive to keep you comfortable," he says. And if that means occasionally bringing her another item to add to her 'hoard' - then he will do so, to ensure that there is something being added, to increase the level of charge in their home.

He allows his forehead to fall against hers gently.

"Nor do I deserve you. But we have each other, now," he reaches for her hand on his chest, intertwines their fingers against his skin. "And we will make the most of it."

[brave_kreyu]

"Yes, we will," she replies. She brushes her lips against his, gentle. "I suspect you have found the greatest treasure among the coins, but best to be thorough."

They bag what they can of the loot, including all the gems and a fair amount of gold and silver coins.

"If we put anymore in the bags, they'll split," she says to Skellig.

[27_53]

"Here," he says, once they have sufficiently (and then some) packed the bags full. He puts a hand on each of them in turn, cocks his head to the side, and mutters a few words under his breath, a language she will not recognize.

"They will be lighter now," he says. "And they should hold stronger, somewhat." As explanation: "It has worked before...for my coat." The specifics of the spell are hazy, but his coat has seen a lot. Wherever it has ended up.

Once they are ready (and redressed), Skellig shoulders one of the packs, plus the one that holds their 'regular' supplies.

[brave_kreyu]

"So very clever," she tells him when he applies the spell. She smiles at the erotic art on the door as they close it behind them.

The way OUT of the city is quicker than their explorations on the way in. The lions are still gone when they step outside again. Kreyu takes off her kilt.

"Will definitely need to be in dragon shape again to reach the city with all of this in a reasonable time frame."