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 Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 2:33 pm
[waking dreams]
Words set fire to her heart, but Rayn's touch set fire to her everything. It was a treasured moment, one Sekkusu would not forget. Not as she heard and felt their hearts racing in time. She was both ready and wanting to give herself over completely to Rayn, without expectation or being bidden to do so. Even as the rest of the world crept back into her thoughts, Rayn's words battered them away. It was only the cracks being pried open by the lingering scents of Jarek's shirt that intruded at first, his words being easily bested... What shocked Sekkusu from her thoughts and momentarily drove her further into Rayn's hold, was the elven warrior's words.
Momentarily startled eyes that had gone unfocused from Rayn's, eventually refocused with their golden intensity on the warrior. It took her a moment to recall what was said from whatever depths of her mind had not been drunk with thoughts of Rayn. Just as her lips parted for a moment before speaking, Sekkusu found what she wanted to say and how to say it, the hard won confidence of her life seeping into her every fiber, "Thank you, it is most appreciated, but that will not be necessary. I will be fine."
So she began to rise when she was finished, managing to keep her hands entwined in Rayn's own as she rose, bringing the both of them up to stand. She was still smiling deeply as she shook herself to let go with all the gentleness she could muster, oblivious as coverings, tattered clothes and once hidden tools fell about. Before the sight could sink in for the others, a cloud of smoke rose up swiftly around Sekkusu and Rayn for her closeness, with barely a flick of the wrist to tell.
A swish of her tail and a twirling of her parasol cleared the smoke around the two as she stood happily with Rayn on her left. As fresh and well dressed as she had been when they had all first met in the market square. But with a deeper smile, with Rayn's arm entwined in her own, while her sword arm handled the parasol and a folded covering belonging to the swordsman. Still a bit fatigued despite the dragon's breath, Sekkusu hid it from everyone but Rayn with an easily called upon cheer, "Shall we enter the inn then and leave the wolf, the red and the white to converse?" addressing a wide audience from the warrior to the priestess, even Rayn's bear. With cheer and a dip of her parasol she turned her regard to the cloaked girl Jarek had been standing watch over earlier, "There is still room for another under my parasol, little priestess. Shall you join us and enter the inn under our shade? We could then find out what the others are up to?"
And maybe room enough in the inn for just Rayn and herself alone somewhere...
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Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 4:13 pm
[-?-]
Jarek had already managed to find a suitable long shirt and had made to loosen it with his utility knife. Soon caught with his back to the elven woman, he half turned to regard her, her words and her offered shirt. In the fire and candlelight of the inn, his impassive face melted to appreciation, but that was as far as it went. There had been offerings before at the shrine and that is exactly how he saw it now, even if the situation was largely different. Fighting back memories of the shrine and his family long enough to respond, Jarek addressed the elf maiden calmly and with clarity, "It is naught but a respect deserved for an honorable warrior such as he. I am not too unfamiliar with his stories, but it is enough. Especially his prowess observed firsthand demands honoring... Thank you for your words and your offering, kind maiden, but I have already found something that can be tailored to my needs. I do not wish to rudely turn down your offering, but I should simply work up something more suited to what I am used to."
After turning fully towards her and giving a respectful bow, he turned back to where he had been before she came in. To use the hearth's light to guide his knife through the long shirt. He did not want to shut her out, but thoughts of his past brought thumb and outward turned blade to his throat. To brush against the nameplates of his wife and son. Thoughts of his small, smaller of stature than even the elven maiden he had tried not to shut out, raven-haired wife sent his eyes distant into the fire of the hearth. His son, Katsuro, would have been old enough to start training in earnest. That thought did bring a tear swiftly wiped away to his eye.
So he stood there, shut off from the world, after sparing a soft apology for being lost in his thoughts to the maiden and returned his thoughts to dissecting the long shirt carefully...
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Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 6:13 pm
Within a few moments Wullf and his two old friends had made their way to the other side of the little village. It was not secrecy the Lycon was looking for but thought it best to let the others to their own devices while Wullf attended to his own business. Turning to regard Pearl and Tiki the werewolf thought for a moment but nodded his head in resolve to a decision he had made earlier.
"Pearl I want you to take Tiki back to Lena and then take both of them and Kit to the Terras. That should be the safest place for them I can think of. With the wide open fields surrounding the Terras it will be easy to spot those large flying boats and find a way to prepare for them if need be," Wullf saw Tiki about to protest but with a quick raised hand it was silenced, "I need to make sure my family is safe and I can think of no better people to entrust that too. This is not a fight we can take on like before, we need to come together with all the warriors of Sarigal in order to find some way to get clear of this mess. These are not people who need leading, far from it in truth, and if I am to fight with them I need to stand beside them not feel as though I should stand in front and point. I've done too much leading and need to remind myself what it's like to be part of a equally skilled and experienced team."
Tiki just nodded to his friend and gave out a heavy sigh. As the red elf hoped on to Pearls back he gave a look back to the others and gave another heavy sigh.
"Now I won't get to be around all those lovely ladies any more, but I suppose it's for the best I could not have them all fighting over me," Wullf rolled his eyes as did Pearl who let out a dragon sized heavy sigh, "alright be safe Wullf and don't have too much fun without me," With that Pearl gave a few heavy flaps of his feathery wings and took off.
Wullf waved to the pair as the sorrowed out of sight and climbed to avoid detection from the lower flying enemy ships. With a nod the Lycon cracked his neck and made sure his arm guards were tight and well in place before he headed to the Inn everyone had decided to use as a camp.
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Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 6:19 pm
[?]
Echo managed a whispered thanks to both the Wolf and the Fox, having wanted to spend as much time up until then watching and waiting and listening to all that happened since the "revelation" of her nature, and was loathe to accept any charity or hospitable offers on account of it. She had her cloak, a gift from the temple she had served, and that was all she needed.
"No," She said, softly turning down the offer from the Fox with a kind look to her eyes. "Thank you, but I can manage to the Inn."
And she did, quite well, driven by the desire to be out of the sun and to find meditation. It was also not far, retracing the steps she had taken to seek Jarek out for the dragon, both memory and scent aiding her, and she was soon there before any that followed. It might have seemed rushed but now, considering the truth of her condition had been revealed, she did not feel inclined to excuse it.
The inside of the Inn was salvageable, if not quite manageable, and still carried a faint echo of the merriment that had been shared within. The scent of fine foods and wine, even the warmth of human bodies, was still tangible underneath the smell of fire and struggle and that was what she clung to as she looked for a place to sit and rest. On her way she did catch the sight of both the elf girl and the swordsman, Aranel and Jarek, in what looked like awkward conversation. The maiden certainly was friendly.
Reaching the back of the Inn she located what must have been the cellar, separated from the rest by a staircase which led downwards into an inky darkness to the cold, cooled earth useful for keeping food stock cool and wines fresh. It also brought her comfort, pausing as she reached the bottom of the steps to remove her footwear, and she sighed in pleasure as her bare feet felt the softness of the dirt. As well as the footwear she let the large hood drop finally, loosening her long hair to match the darkness she walked in, and let the cloak fall from her shoulders. It was still bound high on her chest just under her arms and at no risk of leaving her unprepared should a stray beam of sunlight find her, but the freedom from it was pleasant enough.
She took only a few more steps before she sat down, settling her feet under her to keep her knees together and before her, and closed her eyes as she worked to relax. In meditation she could find some strength that she would simply add to later, once all were sleeping. Once night fell she could go into the nearby forest and find a creature but until then she would seek forgiveness and offer thanks in advance for the blood she would later spill.
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Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:11 pm
[?]
She may have risen too quickly, or perhaps it was the proximity that she stood to the fox, or it might have been the smoke... a dizzyness came to her, no matter the cause, and the Ranger found her hands reaching for Sekkusu's free one for a tighter grip. What was it, how was it, that these thoughts and feelings had come to her? A sense of belonging, to her, and more than a sense of possession, of her. It was a wild thought, any thought that claimed an emotional possessiveness of a creature, a woman, like the Wakahisa was mad, and yet she found herself not dismissing it. Even as she was holding her hand with both of hers it was still an act of claiming her as her own more than any source of stability.
"Come." She said to the kitsune. Rayn had forgotten all else, everyone around them, even their whereabouts for the time being. Adrenaline pounded in her ears, a rush of the realization of all that they had made it out of and the beautiful moment of Sekkusu being brought back to her. It rushed through her brain, alighting her memory cortex on fire, and she saw multitudes of memories all of the Fox and not her at the same time, every one of them a remembrance of loss and sorrow, but here she was. She was not taken away from her.
That moment was theirs and Rayn's voice carried the same soft authority it always held when she addressed one of her companions. One of hers. Not waiting for a response of consent from Sekkusu, Rayn turned and took her velvety, black paw with her as she went. Across the way and into the Inn Rayn glanced back at the Fox periodically, sparing only one for her Bear - one that was sharing in meaning and spurred him into a lazy lumber towards the side of the Inn where he could lay in the shade with a labored groan - and each time she looked she took in another flash of the Wakahisa's true beauty. It was not in the silks she sported, barely, or the vividly, eye-catching and scandalous parasol, it was in the luster of her soft coat, the sway of her long, darker than dark hair, and the curves in all the right places. In the grace of her step, not her trained movements but the elegance of the woman within, and in her eyes... the color of the sun risen, early in the morning and shedding its light on all those who needed its touch to thrive... she needed that touch.
Up the stairs without a glance to anyone now but one more to Sekkusu, under veiled dark red lashes, her first seduction... both nervous and sure. She hesitated only beyond the first door to a ransacked room, her look questioning for a moment, but she pushed through it. She only stopped once the door was closed behind them, as much as it could be in its condition, and then released Sekkusu's hand in favor of wrapping her arms around herself. She didn't even know what she was doing, or why, but she knew she wanted it... but she had to know.
"What is this... between you and I? What is this that makes me feel as if my entire life has led me here just to be with you?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 1:22 pm
[secluded room]
Each step was agony, a step through two worlds and two lives. Where Rayn may have found better memories, or memories of rightness, Sekkusu only walked through the wrongness of her past and the hurt it had caused. One new and unsure, one old and filled with guilt and regret. Sekkusu tried her best to not falter under the weight, trying to take solace from Rayn's touch. Yet she felt the weight of her guilt, from leaving... From letting herself leave. Bits of the past walked past her eyes, even as they walked into the inn. A dark life she had spent doing dark things and living in dark ways. Abandoning a love she had held so much, for someone that had brought such joy to her heart. A person that had forced the breath from her lungs and quickened her heart almost painfully. But it was painful, especially painful to walk through shards of her past, and all the mistakes she had made. All the mistakes she had made and the doors she had closed off. All the doors that had been closed off on her...
Intrigues played out, alliances made and broken... People hurt... People she had loved... Still loved. Words she had said. That she had meant with good intentions, with different meanings. All taken in ways she had not wanted... The roads to the worst of afterlifes' were paved with good intentions. How things could have gone so wrong...? How...? She saw every glance stolen her way. Each glance from Rayn was desperately wanted, but each also lanced through her heart with searing pain...
They had ascended the stairs, but to her, to Sekkusu if that was her name, it was a descent into hell. Both lives had led lives of intrigue and grace, it was only those lifetimes that kept her upright. That masked her weakness with a strong facade. Inside she was ready to die again, but even that thought crushed her with waves of guilt. A mountain of regrets to crush her lungs against her ribs and constrict her heart. Her blackened heart and shriveled insides...
Inside the room, Sekkusu was jarred from those memories long enough to realize Rayn's intent. An art she had made her business. And from someone she wanted so badly, that it touched and shattered the c***k in her armor. When those hands left hers, she wobbled for a moment, until Rayn's words crashed into her, toppling the pile of rubble she felt like. She crashed to her knees, even as her sinning hands, her sinning paws, came clawing up to her face, to her sinning eyes as the tears burned from her eyes. Everything fell apart about her, discarded, everything that could fell, even the remnants of her strong facade.
"I do not know... It hurts... I did not know what I was doing. I did not want to leave you... I hurt you before... I could not bear to hurt you again..." Sekkusu managed between huge, wracking sobs, "I promised forever... Thinking I could at least make it last for a short time... I knew it would not be forever then... That it could not be forever... And... I left... I tried to live without you... And it only hurt more..." The last thoughts that came to her before her tears finally dried up, "And then... I had not needed to worry about it anymore..." The thought nearly drove her catatonic as she forced the last words, "I missed all my chances to get back what I wanted so much... I had gone to rest... Why am I awake again...?"
Frozen there, prostrate before the world, Sekkusu froze... Roiling between life and death...
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