Welcome to Gaia! ::

Galeia stared back into him, her face blank, but her lips were slightly parted. She was trying to think, but her thoughts were becoming a beleaguered mire under the beating of approaching dragon wings. She wasn’t going to torture herself with this; she wasn’t sure it would do any good. She liked Winderick, as a friend anyway. Shards, that was why she’d asked him instead of any of her other friends to hunt for eggs with her. And now, he wasn’t nearly repugnant enough to ignore. His hesitancy made her feel guilty for a moment, but maybe this was best. Surely it was better for him to discover this part of weyr life with her than someone else, right? She nodded nervously and said in thick voice, “get the eggs.”

He only had the chance to move past her before Galeia turned and took a step that put her, once again, at his back. Her hands went to his shoulders, constricting though she didn’t plan on using much force, and with her head tilted her breath blew sharply across his neck and into the scoop of his collar bone. “Wait.”

Galeia had no care for the dragons now, but the cursed things’ noise was growing louder still. She pulled him against her as he weakened, taking the balance for both of them upon her narrow feet. Her toes dug into the earth, her hands stretched Winderick’s shirt as they ran in circles over his chest, and as her mouth dipped do his neck, her teeth and tongue licked and nipped their way to his jaw line. She waited as long as she could stand before turning him around and jerking him hard against her. They sunk to the ground it was along time before they rose again.

Galeia lied half curled on the ground, close, but far enough away he’d have to reach to touch her. She faced him too, but her eyes were closed and twitching as he started to move, as if she didn’t want to know if she were being looked at.

And though she wouldn’t have cared, she was lovely now without her rag-like hiking clothes. Her hands were still plastered with dirt and bits of crushed leaves made stark contrast on the pale skin between her toes. The dust that had settled over her skin had been sweated into lines and dried as thin grooves of brown and grey. They traced the excursions of the day as if the history were worth marking, though she would have disagreed with this as well. The relaxed softness in her face began to fade as Winderick stirred and she shifted slightly, shaping her legs into modesty while she waited for him to dress.

Galeia sat up slowly, reaching her arms out in front of her and feeling the tension in her shoulders. Halfway through the stretch the expletive landed on her ears and she froze. She didn’t want to, but she looked at Winderick then, his stiff body, his jerky snatch at his shirt. Her sudden confusion rapidly imploded as she guessed at his anger. Was she so bad then, so terribly unwanted? She’d never caught him ogling her chest and there’d been no crude overly crude jokes out of him, but it’d seemed she’d been very wrong in assuming that was out of respect. That must not have been shyness in his stance when he realized what the Rising green meant, but revulsion.

How dare he? Galeia’s face burned suddenly and fury came into her in a silent uproar. She pushed herself to her feet as he started off, her hand coming up with a heavy rock she had no memory of grabbing. Winderick might have suffered a concussion in the next moment too, had Galeia not been the ‘active’ one during their earlier session. Her legs trembled and screamed at the sudden unbending, and the hurled rock missed, but struck a tree a few feet ahead of Winderick, striking the trunk with a loud crack. Her lungs threatened to burst at the injustice of the miss. “And same to you, you wherry’s a**!” she shouted out.

“Wrong with me? I’m sure you’ve already got a list, you inconsiderate snake. As if I were-” She squawked leaned down and snatched up a stone with one hand, and her shirt with the other. The shirt, clutched to her stomach and along with her hair hanging over his shoulders and breasts, gave her some modesty, and the rock was held up threateningly should he come too close. “You could at least have held your tongue!” Her shouting wasn’t a loud now. She couldn’t keep her volume and hold back furious tears too.

Galeia gripped the rock harder, too dizzy with spite and bitterness and resentment to understand at first. “You don’t…” She actually glared at him harder in scrutiny, but the rock lowered. “You like boys?” she demanded in the effort to comprehend.

“Why-?” He was already turning away. Galeia swore and started throwing her clothes on as quickly as she could. If she needed to throw him on the ground again to get some communication going, she wanted to be dressed this time.

She stormed after him, walking swiftly as she could and grimacing at the pains that radiated through her body. She was still too emotionally distraught to forgive. She wanted to hit something. “Why didn’t you say anything?” she half-shouted, catching up with him, then suddenly sounded injured. “You could have told me. We’ve been friends up until you just started freaking out just now. I thought you hated me.” The last word held endless inflection, largely pain, and that wasn’t entirely due to sentiment. She hurt in uncomfortable places and moving so quickly wasn’t comfortable.

He didn’t refute her broken fear. Even if it was a stupid one, she couldn’t ignore it. She tried to at least for now though. It seemed less forgivable , or at least lonelier, to let him leave now. “If I’d known I would have… I would have done something. I would have tried anyway. I didn’t think this was going to be anything but awkward. How was I to even know?” She made an inarticulate noise and stopped, pressing a hand to her side. She could have kept going, but she’d stretched herself enough for someone that wasn’t trying.