OOM All Skate Skellig Dream Magic Weirdness -Part Nine

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu has gathered plenty of henna and even woad, a blue dye, for some experiments with designs on Skellig's skin.

"The blue would look lovely on you, I think," she remarks. "Your fairer skin would show it off quite well. Though I am far more experienced in applying henna."

She's gathered bits and pieces of designs to look at for inspiration. Celtic style knots, viking style abstract patterns and stylized beasts, the mandala and floral type designs he's admired on her, and more.

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[27_53]

Skellig steps clear of her wings and studies the sky a moment as he stretches also, appreciating the scent of the damp earth from the earlier rain that had fallen.

He takes one of the bags she has packed; it will be easy enough to carry as they fly.

'I have yet to learn all the directions, I would have you lead on." He ruffles his feathers and swings his arms, hopping a bit to stretch his legs - not that he needs to, but, habit.

[brave_kreyu]

"I would be glad to," she replies, smiling.

She leaps into the air, knowing he will follow. It is perhaps two hours flight at most to the place she's looking for. The forest she seeks is connected to a larger piece of land by tidal islands that are most often underwater. The wood is green, with great trees vast in girth and height.

"No people around right now, and I think I can stretch the spell to cover at least most of it," she tells Skellig.

[27_53]

He does follow without hesitation and is always in a fine mood after a flight that is simply for pleasure; this is no exception as they near the coastline of the islands.

"What is our goal, by adding to the forest?"

[brave_kreyu]

"Practice," Kreyu admits. "I've altered the spell to stretch it over a wider area than originally called for. I'm hoping the effects will be less....dramatic that way." She flushes, remembering the gossip their LAST attempt provoked.

[27_53]

"It would not do to cause such a stir as we did the last time," he agrees. "Plus...practice is fun."

He MIGHT be smirking.

[brave_kreyu]

"Very fun," Kreyu agrees, smirking a little. "Positions will be reversed," she explains as she starts pounding the special stakes into the ground. "I'll be under YOU this time, as the Goddess of the Forest is aligned with earth and vegetation rather than air."

Her gaze is playful and slightly wicked. "Should be quite comfortable for you."

[27_53]

"I have been quite comfortable in all the positions we have chosen to experiment in," he says, laughing. "Though I will admit that I enjoy it when I am on top of your body."

He grins.

"It leaves your hands free for...exploring my body in ways I don't always expect, and I like that."

[brave_kreyu]

"I shall have to explore thoroughly," she replies. As the first stake is driven home, Skellig can feel the spell ever so faintly against his skin.

"In the story, he has never lain with someone before," she muses. They move along the outside of the forest and she starts to drive another stake in. "It would all be unexpected, perhaps?" She knows she can't be his first, not really. But part of her wishes she COULD have been, that she could have guided him through it all with as much care, acceptance, and knowledge as he did for her. Skellig might be able to pick up on that.

[27_53]

It is something he notices, as they move through the boundaries and she sets the stakes, the spell becoming slightly more noticeable with each one she leaves in the earth.

"You are not wrong," he says. "None of it could really be anticipated. I'm sure he would have dreamed, would have listened to those who spoke of such things... but if nobody would ever even think to accept his efforts... he would not have much to work with."

Carefully as they walk, he collects wildflowers.

[brave_kreyu]

She notices him gathering wildflowers, smiles with pleasure at the sight.

"The goddess will show him," she murmurs. "Would he have dreamed of her, do you think? With the wild in him, with her forest being his haven, where he felt at home?"

[27_53]

"I feel as if he would have," he says. "While he walked among these trees, this life, surrounded by all of it. It is a comfort, a safe place."

He allows his mind to drift a little bit, allows himself to fall into the character.

"He would be nervous," he laughs softly. "As he wandered the woods."

[brave_kreyu]

They are roughly halfway through the process of making the circle.

She laughs softly too. "Understandably so," she replies. "She would have watched him before, such a bright soul." Projecting a little, probably.

"But if it was solitude he wanted she might not have approached him."

[27_53]

"He spends a lot of time alone," he says. "It has become easier than answering the questions, trying to fit in. The creatures of the forest do not ask questions of him, they simply listen when he speaks."

Skellig spots an interesting pile of stones and momentarily studies it, lagging behind briefly before he moves to catch up with her as she sets another stake in place.

"His soul is brightest when he is unafraid of scorn, of ridicule for merely being who he is."

[brave_kreyu]

"Yes," she says, voice soft. "He is at home here, knows the forest so very well. He is not afraid, when he comes to the goddess, even though He does not know that she will accept him, love him."

She begins to work on the last stake. "With his soul so very bright, how could she resist?"

[27_53]

"Many have resisted," he comments, wry. "Or scorned him, however you might look at it. Despite his soul being so bright."

He shrugs, wings rustling with the motion.

"But perhaps it was because the only one with the right sense and vision to see it was the Goddess herself, nobody else even could."

[brave_kreyu]

"But the Goddess will see," Kreyu promises as the last stake reaches the correct position. He can feel the spell, the story, around him.

"Are we good to begin, or should I break the circle?"

[27_53]

Skellig closes his eyes for a moment, thinking to himself, asking himself just how far do you feel like taking this as he wanders a few steps away from her. He has no issues about if he were to get emotional or drawn into the story a bit further than the others. He does now fear her seeing him process those things.

He just isn't sure if he even knows HOW to begin, if it were to happen.

His focus is on the grass beneath his bare feet, each blade as it touches his skin, hundreds of tiny pieces supporting him. It is like how his feathers work, there are hundreds... alone in his wings one cannot do much, but together...

"The Goddess will see," he echoes quietly, turning back to face her. "If it is too much, I will tell you."

[brave_kreyu]

She comes close, kisses him softly.

"I will be waiting for you, in the center of the Forest," she promises. "I think you will feel the way, but there is always the sound of my heart if you do not."

It is hard to walk away from him, but she knows it will make their reunion sweeter. He can feel where he needs to go, a tug. Not a straight path, for he must wander a bit, but true. He has never been here before, but the forest feels as familiar as any place he has ever been.

[27_53]

It is quite odd, this feeling he notices as he moves slowly along his route, idly collecting flowers, bits of fern, other small pieces of 'treasure' that he would present her with once he reaches the spring. That he has been here before, when he most definitely has not - this is all new territory for him, and he finds that he likes it.

His 'offering' is not much, and he finds himself hoping that it will be sufficient, enough to appease the Goddess. After all, she has not been pleased with his tribe for some time now, which is why he has volunteered himself to find her...

Skellig does take his time in wandering, only occasionally checking in with her heartbeat - steady and calm, as she waits for him - to ensure he is on the right course. It is the sound of the spring he hears first, before he sees it - moving slow and careful through the trees as he nears the creek that runs from the pool.

[brave_kreyu]

In MOST versions of the tale, the one born Winged falls asleep, wakes to hear the Goddess bathing, but not ALL. Perhaps Kreyu and the Goddess do not want to wait, today.

He hears her voice, low and sweet, singing a song without words. (Are there echoes in it of birdsong, of the trees moving in the wind?)

She's up to her hips in the spring, entirely naked. (The Goddess is Winged, like him but not, for her wings are as an eagles!) She is so very lovely, the designs painted on her skin make his fingers itch to trace them. (He's never lain with anyone before, and she's lovelier than every dream that has ever left him hard and aching. Has he dared to imagine her, as he's stroked himself to release?)

She smiles at him in welcome. "I had wondered if you would ever approach me, you whose soul is so very bright to my senses." (She is as at ease as any queen upon a throne, a bird in its nest. Not troubled at all by him seeing her naked.)

[27_53]

When he first catches sight of her as she stands in the spring, it is his own heartbeat that falters, skipping eagerly as his reaction is very much that of a young man laying eyes on a stunning vision of beauty for the very first time.

(She is more radiant than any dream he could picture, her song sweeter than any bird aloft on the breeze.)

"I... it has taken me a great deal of time to feel worthy of sharing your presence, Goddess." He moves closer to the edge of the spring, laying the flowers down upon a flat stone. "I still do not fully, but I am grateful for your welcome."

[brave_kreyu]

She tilts her head in a puzzled sort of way. "You have always been worthy," she says, soft, as she moves toward him. Less and less of her is covered by the water, until she is only ankle deep. "Kind, clever, patient, curious, and brave. I have watched you every time you have been in the forest since you became a man," she confesses.

"You did not seem to desire company that wore a human shape those times I have seen you encounter others of your tribe here, so I did not intrude upon you." She chuckles, low. "Else we would have met face to face many seasons ago, you and I."

[27_53]

"Those of my tribe do not understand," he says. "They do not understand many things, both to do with myself and with your kingdom, this forest."

Skellig watches her as she rises from the spring and walks towards him - it is so very difficult to keep his eyes on hers, to keep his gaze from wandering away from her face - she will notice that he takes glimpses here and there of the water as it runs down her body, droplets trickling between her breasts and running down her stomach.

"They ask too much of you," he says. "Take too much, give nothing in return. It isn't fair, to treat you in such a manner, and I have tried to explain..." His cadence quickens as the frustration becomes evident in his tone. "But they would not listen, so I would walk alone, attempt to offset their behaviors with my own."

(He can FEEL the anger and discontent rising up within his chest, which is so strange, as if this is something he HAS lived. Deep down he knows it is the spell at work, the story simply unfolding...but it still resonates.)

[brave_kreyu]

She would not mind him looking at any part of her as long as he pleased. She steps free of the spring, bare feet leaving footprints on the stone.

She stops not very far from him. "I had almost given up hope," she tells him, the slightest touch of weariness in her voice "That I would be seen, be heard. They are blind to me and deaf to my voice even in dreams."

She crouches down to pick up his offering with careful hands. "You see me, hear me, as no one else does." A resonance between Kreyu and the Goddess. "Might I have your name, wise one?" He's free to give his own name, as none is given in the tales. Or he could try making one up.

[27_53]

Skellig bows his head just a touch as she approaches him - he does not kneel - and nods.

"It is Skellig, what I am called." He feels nervous (why is he nervous, it is just Kreyu, his partner, his wife, his mate) and unsettled and she will probably sense that, but he does not back away or cower. "I apologize for their foolishness."

He has heard the stories, of those who who wandered into the woods and never found their way out. His eyes wander her form again, and his heartrate quickens - though it is not fear that has his blood racing through his veins. "I am grateful for your guidance, as I have never felt lost here in these woods, for all I have wandered within their boundaries."