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 Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 12:47 pm
Ashierra waited, and waited, padding silently behind. It wasn't until the fork in the road and Alek's simple small 'Well?' that Ashierra said anything.
"Well what?" She asked heavily, crossing her arms over her chest. Though, it turned out, she was really the one to break first, her tail curling and uncurling in irritation. "Don't expect me to pick one path so you can scurry down the other without giving me any answers! My question is still waiting for you to say more than 'magic' you- you- whoever you are!" When she had held up her hand after it being healed, he hadn't asked why, or what happened. It was 'magic' and a wave to wait until later. He had even been apologizing like it was his fault. Either his memory was returning or something else was up. Was this the Alek remembering, the Alek she had been traveling with, or was it all some other Alek?
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Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 6:02 pm
Alek forced a small grin. "Left it is then~" He joked trying to sound light about the matter though his eyes flickered with uncertainty. The cattaur held up his hands in defense. "I'm sorry this isn't a joking matter is it?"
He frowned though. Whoever he was? "Now I'm still Alek, ya know." His gaze turned away to the side as he looked up at the afternoon sky. They might not make it back to town by dusk if they took too long.
Alek sighed. "You could explain something to me first really." He replied suddenly looking at her. "I only remember attacking the naga with my other fire. How'd your hand get burned?" He asked suddenly the curious one. He just had to know, had he gone rampant without meaning too?
But surely Jade or Tuula would've...but then again. The cattaur just shook his head in concern. He thought he had a better control over himself than that.
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Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 7:01 pm
Ashierra kept her arms crossed, jaw set. So they both had questions, but who should go first? "Yeah, but the Alek ten minutes ago couldn't remember anything before this morning." She retorted flatly before thinking on his question.
His "other fire". The one she couldn't absorb. She wanted to hold out and wait for him to answer first, to force him into giving way first. But for some reason he wasn't someone she wanted to treat like any other taur. She couldn't bring herself to just scream at him or beat it out of him... She had trained herself to go up against enemies and strangers, not someone like... Alek. So again, she broke first.
"I don't remember clearly." She said, her eyes turning to the trees on the path side, ashamed to be talking instead of getting her answers. "Before I got my magic back from him, everything was all hazy. I think you put a wall up between us, with that- 'other fire.'" She flexed her newly healed hand, remembering the crackle of the dried skin. "I don't know why I reached out to it, but I did. Right before I started flying... Whatever that means." She frowned, still gazing into the trees, forgetting to look angry while trying to remember. "Do you remember me flying?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 1:19 pm
"Well that was the Alek ten minutes ago." Alek replied with a shrug. "Maybe the jolt of healing woke him up?" He sighed, there went the plans for a harmless evening.
"You...you reached out?" Alek's fists clenched together. How in the world had his barrier meant to protect turn against him? The cattaur's body slumped - his anger. His own stupid anger had blocked out reason. His fire must have mingled in with one of the simplest spells.
"Flying?" Alek's eyes shot up to hers. "No, I don't remember you flying." He replied softly. Had he missed something or was Ashierra's hazy mind scrambling memories? "Though truthfully I was rather busy punching in that naga's face."
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 10:47 am
Ashierra's distant gaze stuck in the trees, gazing passed whatever lay there into the past. The fire wall, touching and pain, then... she was in the air somehow, which lead to the naga and her magic. "Flying. Or, at least falling." She muttered. "Whatever it was... it got me to you." Quickly, she came back to the present, her arms crossing tighter around herself and eyes narrowed, going to Alek again.
"Now it's your turn. Spill it."
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 10:38 am
"Hmm." Alek leaned against a tree and crossed his arms stiffly. He was doing his best to try to look relaxed, but it was hard with the situation. Plus leaning against the tree gave his paws some rest, and after that deal with the herbalist he was exhausted.
"Spill what? The fire?" Alek shrugged, his eyes downcast. "That was just some sort of dark version of usual magic. A family thing...err curse sometimes really. I just happened to inherit it as well. What exactly can I say about it?"
He looked up, "It's not like I really have a happy past though, Ashierra. I hate my family and they hate me. I was used, I used others in turn, and I burned like them for a while. Hatred found my magic and it turned out to have a shadow along with a light."
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 11:50 am
Dark, like the herbalist had said. "Well, you found something to say about it." She huffed, though most of the fire had gone from her eyes. Curses, dark magic, hatred within the family... She remembered feeling cursed as a child because of the differences between her magic and the rest of the clan, but at least she'd had her family, for however short a time they had remained whole. Once she'd gotten out of the clan, she'd found that fire wasn't so strange really.
As much as she wanted to ask about his family, she figured he would in turn ask about her own. So she asked something else. "'A shadow along with a light.' What does that mean?" She kicked slightly at the ground, taking a couple steps closer to Alek, curiosity getting the best of her. A curse that has a light?
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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 1:20 pm
"I guess that is something." Replied Alek with a loose shrug. His eyes never left her face as he searched for a sign of anything - any expression even. "Basically what I said." Alek smiled faintly, "When I discovered my magic, I was terrified of it. I think that's why I was without any powers for the longest time."
He looked up at the sky and a faint, peaceful expression crossed his features. "Ashierra, if I hadn't had my fire even the shadow part of it then there wouldn't be much point to my existence. Fire is my light, it kept me sane in those darker moments. It gave me balance to actually learn that fire doesn't have to be a burning curse like it was for my family."
Alek's eyes fluttered closed as he remembered those dark days. Pain flickered across his face before he chuckled lightly and looked back to Ashierra. "Our fire actually can restore. Not that I know much about it. They say that part of our history was lost long ago." Another reason for his wandering - to learn more about his magic.
"Enough about me though." Alek sighed softly as he pushed against the tree and leaned towards Ashierra, "If I were you, I wouldn't trust me. Especially if you learned more about me. I'm a killer after all - once a very cruel manipulative murderer."
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Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 1:05 pm
Ashierra listened in silence, trying to understand everything Alek was saying. Her eyes seemed to be in opposite time of Alek’s. When he looked at her, she was looking away, and when he was looking away, she was looking at him. She was able to see the peace he felt now about his abilities, and an old pain that creased and aged his face when he thought of it. It wasn’t until he spoke of trust that their eyes met, and she realized how close they were standing. But she didn’t care right then.
Don’t trust him?! “Well, if you didn’t want my trust, you should have told me this before we started traveling together.” She said shortly, and then added, “Brat.” She crossed her arms, trying to get her emotions in check. She blew out a deep breath, her own eyes closing, thinking things through into some form of logic. “If you were someone to not trust, you would have shown that already. You could have let me fall in the mountains. You could have let- let the naga kill me and leave. You wouldn't have tried to help my hand. Hell. You could have left any time we slept, killed me anytime I slept, or left me alone when you found me near the water before all this started.”
She shook her head. “I suppose the key now is…” She hesitated, opening her eyes slowly to look into his. “Can you look me in the eyes and honestly say that you are still that cruel, manipulative killer that you claim to have once been?” Suddenly, she was scared. More than at the mountain pass or even with the naga. What if he said yes? Whether he really thought so or was lying to scare her off.... Could she really leave?
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Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 4:02 pm
"Hey now. I didn't exactly drag you after me." Alek replied softly before shrugging. He really did feel like a brat right now. Why had he drug her along into his travels like this? Surely there was a limit to 'finding amusement' from another.
"Yet, I could have done all of those things for my own twisted reasons." Alek replied bitterly. He remembered how his family and he as well (rarely but it had happened) had kept certain taurs alive only to use them to death later on. Not that he would have used Ashierra -never.
"Honestly?" Alek looked at her, his gaze steady. "I could say many a thing to your face and not flinch away." How did that make her feel knowing how easy it was for him to lie?
"But I can promise you that I wouldn't harm a traveling companion ever. Even if something disastrous happened and I went back to the way things were." Alek sighed. "I never want to do those things ever again."
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Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 5:21 pm
As much as Ashierra didn't want to admit it, his words were starting to sting. Did he want her gone so badly? "Could you." She said/asked flatly, her eyes sliding away, arms crossing her chest. With the proper emotional control, she didn't think hiding falsehoods would be impossible for the male. She had done so herself before. If he really was a danger to her... why wasn't she running yet? Or trying to kick his a** for leading her around?
Oddly enough, the biggest surprise came when he referred to her as a 'traveling companion'. After all that time denying and turning from such feelings, something deep and hidden inside her crumpled up and made her want to, dare she think the word, but it made her want to cry. A traveling companion... That's all she was? Her entire face reddened and she turned away from Alek.
What was this?! They hadn't been traveling together that long! He shouldn't have-! She shouldn't be-! He was trying to tell her he was dangerous, a killer, to not trust him, and here she was- she was...
Her arms tightened as much as they could around herself, trying to hold it in. It was so hard. She'd never had to fight this emotion before.
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 2:49 pm
"Easily." Alek didn't lie about that. For someone who usually smooth talked his way or distracted his way out of situations, the cattaur was oddly standing firm. His cold features melted as she turned away from him. But in a split second he had cleared everything away again. This was probably for the best...right?
"Ashierra." Alek swallowed against the lump rising in his throat. "I understand if you never want to see me again." His eyes looked down on the path as his paws scratched at the ground. Silence, thick silence filled around them as he turned and started to back away.
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 5:50 pm
Ashierra closed her eyes, trying to think straight, to think logically. She fought, fought to understand. Without meaning to find it, she found a memory from long ago in her childhood...
~"Daddy?" Ashierra, just a child, walked slowly up to her father who was relaxing before bed.
"Darling, why aren't you asleep?"
She fidgets, tugging her ear from both sleepiness and nerves. "How come you and mommy and my bruders love me? No one else here does, 'cause I'mma fweak."
Her father sighs heavily, pulling the girl onto his lap. "Ash, don't you believe a word they say. You're different, true, but you're not a freak. The other taur out there are afraid of different. That's their own problem." He hugged her close. "Your family though will always love you. One; because we're family. It's a very special bond. And second... Well, no one can really explain why loves happens, or how, or when. Like why you have fire magic and we have water magic. I know it's frustrating, but your magic is special and has it's own reason for choosing you, like how uncontrollable feelings are just as important as the ones you do control. They pick you for a reason." He poked the girl's belly, making her giggle. "For instance, if I only did what others expected me to do or act like, I would never have fallen in love with your mother. I'm passive, while she's full of will and spirit, like you." He sighs again, kissing Ashierra's head. "The point is, we love you because we choose to, consciously and unconsciously, and it's in our blood and our minds. I couldn't not love you if I tried."
The girl's lantern eyes settled on her father's face. "I love you, too, daddy. And mommy, and my bruders. Even though you all have watur magic." A bright grin lit her face to match her eyes as she laughed.~
She kept her eyes closed, reliving that hidden away memory until she heard Alek start to move away. Could her father have been so right?
Her voice, softer and more tender than she'd ever heard it before, grazed its way through the air, cutting away at the silence. "Would you understand if I didn't want you to leave?" She kept her back to him, needing the space to make it through what she was trying to say, though her eyes opened, bringing herself back to the present. "Would- ...would you understand if I said I wanted to see you tonight? And tomorrow? And all the days after that?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 6:24 pm
"You say you'll never be loved? That's a lie." A delicate hand squeezed his own, "If I could I would be the one to melt that barrier down. But we both-"
"I know." He nuzzled the golden haired cattauress. "I'll really miss you."
"I know." She grinned up at his reply before kissing him. "I know you'll find someone to get to that heart of yours one day."
"Pfft. Like anyone would want to be with a monster?"
"The only true monster is the one who believes in it."
"If you say so."
"I know so, my son."
That was right before he left home - right when her spirit left their world.
Alek never really believed that reassurance that his dead mother had left him. But now reality was throwing something like hope in his face. Amber eyes widened in surprise as Alek stopped and looked back at Ashierra.
"Are you sure?" He managed to speak despite the lump in his throat and the wetness of his eyes. "Even with dangers and no telling what that may lie ahead?"
Alek took a step forward, "Look at me Ashierra. Face me and tell me what you really want. Because then I will say yes." His voice was soft, torn between doubt and immense hope.
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 7:28 pm
Ashierra closed her eyes again when the soft padding of Alek's paws stopped. She inhaled deeply, letting his words enter her along with the air. His voice, it sounded.. Oh, could he feel the same?!
She didn't argue his request. Without a second thought, she turned to face him. For a moment, she looked at him, taking in the expression on his face. At first, his previous words tried to rattle her again. Could he be pretending this? She searched more, then shoved the thought aside, taking her own step forward.
"What's the fun of knowing your own future? And we've already been through dangers." She said, a choked laugh slipping through. "Whatever lies ahead, I want to experience it with you, Alek."
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