Welcome to Gaia! ::

Cressa awoke at around midday sheltered comfortably under a large, shady bay tree on the village greens. The sounds of the gentle breeze rustling the neat grass and a small, unidentifiable disturbance in the air nearby which her sensitive ears could just barely detect were the noises that her aching head roused itself to. Beneath her, a barrier between her body and the cool grass, her thick cloak had been laid out as a makeshift blanket. Opening her eyes to the haze of light just beyond the comfortable shafts of darkness made her yelp, drawing Jessie's attention.

"" he greeted with a small smile, sitting on his haunches with his back against the trunk, ""

Her only reply was a groan, at which he laughed. ""

"" she grumbled, rolling over onto her back. The sight of the sun burning just beyond the canopy of leaves was a surreal one to her tender eyes and aching head, and after a few moments she was forced to close her eyes again, wincing.

"" he replied good-naturedly as she raised a hand to her eyes with a scowl, ""

"" she snapped, massaging her outer temples with thumb and middle finger, ""

A few deep breaths were all it took. A moment later, she sat up abruptly, eyes bright and with an air of total refreshment. She might have just stepped out of a shower, bright and sparkling new, ready to take on the world.

"" she breathed, stretching her arms and back like a newly-woken lioness, ""

"" he answered politely, and she turned round to scowl at him, unsure of whether he was being sarcastic or not. She did a minor double-take, having suddenly found the source of the strange whipping noise that had niggled her ears at such a short range. The warrior had been passing the time playing with a small dagger, flicking it up into the air and catching it deftly time and time again.

"" she asked drily, smirking slightly as she lay back down again, stretching out luxuriously in the shade.

Bouncing the pommel of the blade off the front of his shoulder this time, he caught it yet again. ""

Pursing her lips in amusement, she watched out of the corner of her eye as he held the blade vertically, balancing it precariously with ease on the pad of his index finger. She reached out interestedly with her left arm, smacking him on his knee for attention. He didn't drop it. "me have a try doing that!>"

"" Jessie retorted, but it was in jest. He obligingly passed the knife to the reclining woman, who began to attempt the same trick. The first three or four times, the knife fell back down into her hand almost immediately, but after that she managed to keep it up, displaying a sudden remarkable improvement that could have been down to her natural dexterity... but you never really knew with Cressa. ""

"" she grinned.

"" he sighed, rolling his eye.

"" she laughed, flicking the knife up and catching it just as he had done before.

Somewhere off down the embankments, the shouts of young Gaians drifted up towards them on the air currents. To Cressa, the air suddenly seemed to turn colder than it had been, and she sat up, turning around to face her friend. ""

To her surprise, Jessie replied quickly, though he didn't meet her gaze. "" he said offhandedly, ""

Taking the knife back off her, he twirled it absently between his fingers, looking up to gaze into the brightness beyond the shade. ""

"" she pleaded, pulling herself back to sit beside him, bosoms jerking with the sudden rough movement, "" Jealous. ""

"" Jessie answered quietly, single eye now fixed on the dark ground, ""

"" she replied, ""

Jessie seemed ready to maintain a stalwart silence, but after a few moments of wrestling with himself he apparently gave in. ""

"Oh," Cressa said, suddenly sounding bored, ""

"not - that's the point,>" he informed her, dropping back onto the ground with a small thump and stretching out his legs. While Cressa's interest perked up again, he spun the knife a few more times, twirling it in his fingers like a deadly pinwheel.

"Ooh," she replied, intrigued once again, ""

He seemed hesitant again, but once he began his thoughts came out well-formed, as if he'd had some time to piece them together. "" he began, "" he sighed, suddenly skewering the point of the knife in the ground between his knees and reaching up to rub his temples, head bowed. ""

"Oh?" Cressa said, eyebrow raising. Somehow, she couldn't imagine Jessie doing anything dire enough to a woman to prove unforgiveable. Then, she caught the tail end of the same thought that she'd missed a few hours earlier. "Oh."

The pair lapsed into a silence beside each other - glum on Jessie's part, unusually pensive on Cressa's. It was the woman who spoke first. ""

"" he frowned, glancing towards her. ""

"" she began thoughtfully, ""

"matters because I did something I never thought I could be capable of after all that I went through back home,>" he answered bitterly, unaware that she already knew this part, ""

A confused jumble of thoughts flitted through his head, jamming themselves to the forefront all at once. Jessie sighed again, resting his head back against the tree, and Cressa, frowning herself at the bewildering cacophony, wrapped her arm around her mate's shoulder. ""

"problem," he cried suddenly, turning to her, "want to keep my distance. I can't.>"

"" Cressa pressed in return, but immediately regretted it at the hint of desperation in his eye. Jessie just shot her a pained expression, and the two fell back into silent contemplation.

"" Jessie said eventually, "<...If I go back and find that she's moved on, as a human of her age might indeed... perhaps it would be for the best. I would respect her decision.>"

Cressa glanced at him, but didn't reply, afraid of hurting him further. She could feel his thoughts darkening by the second, and it was beginning to worry her. "" he finished quietly, resignedly.

"" Cressa breathed, wrapping her other arm around him in a tight hug. She brought her left hand up and gently brushed her fingers through his hair, but he remained rigid in her arms, refusing to melt into the embrace no matter how much he may have liked to. ""

"almost killed me,>" he replied coldly, slowly breaking away from her. ""

Under normal circumstances the temperamental sorceress would have been angered by his rejection, but at that moment she was too frightened for him to notice his harsh words. His mind had begun to swim with thoughts, memories she didn't recognise - faces long dead, usually kept well-buried.

"Jessie..."

"" he said suddenly, slipping the knife back into its hiding place beneath his robes and getting to his feet in one fluid movement, ""

Cressa remained seated, puzzling over the foreign affairs she had just witnessed. Jessie walked out a ways into the sun, then stopped, sensing she wasn't following. He turned, backtracking a few metres. ""

"Jessie," she said, looking up at him with eyes uncomprehending. ""

The former combat master visibly stiffened, glaring down at his companion with a look so hard it suggested he knew exactly whom she was referring to. He'd been thinking about her just moments ago, after all. How Cressa could have known, he had no clue... but over the years he'd become used to her exposing the secrets of even those closest to her without notice. Even his.

There was no point in commanding that she undo whatever magic she had done to extract the information, and he understood that his answer might go a long way to explaining his feelings. Therefore, he gave a short, blunt, and altogether acrid reply, which was clearly voiced into the slight chill of the early afternoon.

""

He spoke whilst turning, and marched off across the greens without waiting to see if she would follow this time.

She did follow, in due course. A minute or so passed, during which time she tried to gather her own thoughts and hoped that he would regain some of his normal self. Then, she wrapped her cloak back around her and stepped out into the sunlight, carrying the heavy troubles of two immortal lifetimes upon her shoulders.

~~~~~~~~~