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 Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 2:11 pm
It had been nearly a month since Levin had joined Ka'da in his rich and powerful house. He had been hired on for two reasons as a guard for a mission Ka'da's Matron wanted finished. One reason was because of his large size. Most Drow men were small in comparison to the females, but he towered over six feet tall, a little bit shorter than Ka'da was himself.
The second reason was because he was a very powerful Lightmage. The eyes of most Drow could not handle the light of the world above ground, and it was because of this his talent would be most useful. After so many years of controlling light, his cyan eyes - which were a rare color seeing as most eyes were crimson - were used to the light, and it no longer blinded him as it used to when he was young.
It seemed that during the past month Ka'da had gotten used to such bright light as well, for everyday the two of them trained together in the courtyard, often to a large audience of females. Levin was a very good fighter, but he had never had very good stamina, and tired often. Ka'da was the far superior warrior though he was many years younger, he was both fast and strong, and could fight for hours at a time.
It was because of all of these factors that Levin liked Ka'da so very much. He could tell that it was slowly turning much more than just liking the other male, but he kept his mouth shut, afraid that if he made his feelings known it would ruin their friendship, and that was one thing he was not willing to lose. In that entire month he had not seen very little of his brother, and none of his sister.
It seemed that the day he bad been hired she went missing, and though he had looked for her whenever he had the time, he never found her. After a week or so he gave up the search, sure that she would one day return to her family. That wasn't very likely seeing as females were the rulers of Drow kind, and that she had no real reason to return, but he truly hoped she would. He loved his sister very much, and he was sure somewhere deep down she loved him as well.
Without his brother and sister being around everyday as they used to, his relationship with Ka'da came to be very important to him. The other male was like a brother almost, and though they had only known each other a month, it felt like they had been friends for years. Never before had he been able to train as he wished, for most males were so much smaller than him. With Ka'da he never had to check his blows, or watch how hard he striked. Training everyday had improved his stamina ten-fold, and he could almost fight just as much as the younger male could.
Today they were in the courtyard training again, waiting as the rest of the Drow going on the mission packed the caravan that they would be guarding. To pass the time the two of them spared, switching between swords and daggers to wrestling barefoot and grappling one another with no weapons. At the moment Levin wore nothing but leather trousers that ended just below the knee so that he had free range of movement. His large muscles glistened with sweat, and his silver hair was plastered to his forehead.
The two large males circled each other, waiting for the other strike and make the first move. In the month that they had been training, Levin had learned to know which moves Ka'da would make nearly before he made them. He had learned his style of fighting and was so in tune with the other males body. Levin watched the other male as he fought like he had watched no one before, he just couldn't help it. The grace with which he moved and the power he possessed was astounding, Levin had never met the likes of it before now.
His cyan eyes watched the movement of the males body, astounded that Ka'da seemed to not even be sweating. The other male was always so much more better than him at everything, but it was to be expected when he had grown up with so many sisters that would hurt him for any weaknesses he made visible, so he was used to having to be powerful and better at everything than anyone else. He moved like a wild animal, lithe and graceful. Levin was used to his way of movement, and he lunged with all the power and ferocity he could muster.-------------------- Nereida sat before Min with her eyes closed and her legs crossed, her arms resting on her lap. This last month had been a very good one for her as well. The other female had helped her gain some control after seeing that she had barely any control over her natural ability as a Shadowmage, so she had decided to tutor Nereida as best she could.
At the moment they were meditating as they did every morning, getting ready for Nereida to follow secretly behind her brother that night to make sure that he was safe. She was sure that Levin could protect himself, but she just had the feeling that something was bound to go wrong on their mission. She wasn't a Seeress, far from it actually, but she had a weird premonition of danger. During her stay with Min, she had been able to keep her whereabouts a complete secret from both brothers.
It had been obvious Levin had searched for her, and she had felt horrible for keeping this a secret from him, but she knew it was necessary. If he knew that she planned to come along on his trip, he would never let her go despite her being a female and him a male. Females always made all of the decisions as this was a matriarchal society, but Levin still felt it was his duty to protect his youngest sister after the death of their parents.
After training for a month with Nereida, she had control over her power she had never had before. Min was a very good teacher, and though she wasn't a Shadowmage herself and didn't have much magic, she knew how to mix poisons and potions that could either heal or cripple someone so severely they would beg to die. Nereida knew that if Min so chose, she would be a powerful Matron. Most likely that would never be in her future, however, as she had many sisters older than her that were all next in line for the seat of power.
Surprisingly enough she had also been able to keep Nereida a secret from both her Matron Mother and all of her cruel sisters. Most of the time she stayed in Min's room, only coming out when Levin and her relatives weren't around. She had secretly watched Levin train in the courtyard from the window in Min's room, quite surprised at how good he was getting. He had always been a very good fighter before, but now he was absolutely extraordinary.
Still not as good as Ka'da of course, but that male hadn't had to train himself and had all of the best Drow possible to teach him his profession as Warrior of his house. Levin from a young age had come up with all of his own drills, used to run everyday to gain stamina, and practiced weaving Light the best he could. Nereida never had any training at all either, and now that she had a tutor she was getting stronger in leaps and bounds. The voices within were almost always silent now, and she found it so much easier to train when they weren't constantly pestering her and putting her down.
After they meditated Min put her through the usual drills of cloaking herself in Shadow so that she was nearly invisible, a skill she would need as she followed after both of their older brothers. She was made to manipulate the darkness within the room, make shapes and do odd things with them like blinding an opponent. She also learned to make the Shadow do such things as cause pain, and cripple someone to give her time to run away. When night came it would be time to leave, and Nereida found that she did not want to leave Min behind, the woman had come to be like a mother towards her. "I don't want to leave you," she whispered to the other female as they sat across from one another.
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 2:46 pm
For the past month, Ka'dairihn had lived so much more fully. He finally had a worthy opponent to counter his every move. Levin was learning fast, and was starting to gain stamina. Ka'da couldn't help but be pleased with the excellent progress his new friend was showing.
The daily bouts had progressed to where the two of them would either fight to a stalemate or to where the two of them were enter twined in some sort of headlock in a heap on the ground breathless from the fight. This was rather a good thing for Ka'da having always won these sort of fights because of his strength and size. Now..he was having to fight harder and try different things in order to keep from getting pulled down.
In the process of having to adapt and make himself better, Ka'da had grown to really like the other's companionship. He still had the feeling that the other male felt slightly different about him, but Ka'da wasn't about to bring it up. He was still rather unnerved by the thought that a male could fall in love with him. While he had heard of these sort of relationships before, Ka'da wasn't very comfortable with the thought of how two males would go about being intimate. It down right creeped him out.
Ka'da's attention was drawn away by the small form of a certain female healer as she walked past the spectacle of the two males fighting, giving Levin all the opportunity and leverage to take him down. Ka'da was a moment too slow to see it coming and found himself being thrown backwards into the ground. A loud thud rang through his ears as his body was jarred by the powerful lunge of Levin.
"Ugh." Ka'da moaned and just laid there pretty much stunned. "Alright..you win. Now Let me up." If he wasn't so sore and tired Ka'da might have made the effort to fight back. Lately Levin had been building up his stamina and was starting to slowly gain leverage on him.
* * * * *
Min'hyvair glanced up and over at Nereida a faint look of surprise in her yellow eyes. She too had grown much closer to the Nere, and was a bit startled to realize she too would miss the other female when she left. It was rather nice having a companion that she could actually trust. Well..trust to a certain extent of course. She still hadn't let Nere know of her plans to douse Ka'da with the potion that would make him twice as strong and protected against most physical attacks to his person.
"I know what you mean," Min replied in a quiet tone as she slowly stood up from her position on the floor. "but we have our work to do. Come, I have a farewell gift for you."
Min turned and led Nere towards the door, turned and told her. "Its in my Potions room, perhaps you could try using your gift to hide us from prying eyes?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 27, 2010 5:23 pm
When Levin actually got the upper hand on the other male, and they crashed roughly to the ground with him on top, he whooped in celebration, surprised that he had actually won. Finally, he had finally beat Ka'dairihn in a fight! "I won!" Levin yelled excitedly, straddling the other male sitting on his waist and his hands holding down his shoulders. Underneath him he could feel the other males firm body, realizing he was sitting on the other male's crotch.
Drow couldn't really blush, but his skin did get darker and he quickly rolled off of him and got up onto his feet, looking away a moment to hide what he had been thinking. When he was sure it no longer showed on his face or that his pants didn't feel so tight, he turned back around and helped Ka'da to his feet. "Ah, I finally beat you my friend, you need to pay more attention!" he chuckled, slapping him on the back.
"Ah, well, I wouldn't be surprised if that is the only time I will ever win against you. Next time you will be more prepared and there won't be a little female to distract you from me." It was kinda sad that he had only won because Ka'da had been distracted, but a win was a win, and distractions were things you had to tune out when in a fight, especially distractions such as females. Both thankfully and unthankfully for him, Ka'da was the only person in this House that he was attracted to him.
It was thankful because he was never distracted from his training by relationships with females, so all his free time not with Ka'da was spent training. Unthankfully because Levin would really like to be attracted to one of the many females in Ka'da House, but whenever he looked at the other male it was him that held him, and he just couldn't seem to look away. The mission was to start tonight, so he was hoping that there would be too much for the both of them to do for Ka'da to notice that Levin was pining over him so deeply.-------------------- "Yes, we have so much to do before our brothers leave us for many weeks," she said sadly. She almost wished that the mission wasn't for many weeks to come so that she would have more time with her new friend. The last month had been wonderful, and she had finally be able to blossom into her powers. Nowadays she could do so many things with them that she couldn't do before, crazy wild things that she never thought would be possible.
When she heard the other woman talk about a gift however, she instantly perked up and became very excited. "A gift? You have a gift for me? Aww Min'hyvair, you didn't have to do that, thank you!" she said running up to the other female from behind and wrapping her arms tightly around her waist. Next to Min'hyvair she was still tiny despite putting on twenty or thirty pounds from eating such nutritional foods in the last month. Before she would eat rotten fruits and vegetables, even the occasional spider that would craw across her skin if she got the chance.
Hearing that it was in the potions room and that Min wanted her to cloak them, she smiled widely, glad that she was actually able to do that now. "Of course," she said untangling her arms from around her waist and taking one of the other girl's hands. She closed her eyes and it hardly took any concentration anymore for her to cloak them. The shadows within the room seemed to come alive, writing like living beings before slinking down the balls and across the floor to come rest across their bodies until they were hidden from all light. As long as they stayed within the shadows of the large house, they would be just fine. Even if a Drow switched over to their infrared vision, they wouldn't see anything but a cold spot like the rest of the walls around them.
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 5:46 pm
Ka'da was rather amused by Levin's exuberant excitement and could feel that it was catching. "Yes," He laughed and shook his head. "I should have been paying more attention. Next time we practice..there won't be any females around to distract me so you had better be on your toes. Now then, why don't we go get something to eat? I'm famished." Ka'da asked as Levin gave him an arm up and he brushed his dusty clothes off.
Ka'da turned towards the meal hall and tried to clear his head. It was still rather disconcerting to him that his future with Yallinda was tied into how he performed on this mission. He considered sharing this with Levin, so he knew what was going on but decided against it. It would be much better in the long run that less people knew about his relationship with the healer the better off it would be for them. Ka'da had no doubt that if his sisters were to learn of it they would go positively berserk and try to do something to screw with Yallinda's plans to become part of the House Ja'lithur.
*****************************
Min'hyvair was a bit surprised at the Nere's sad tone and didn't realize what caused it. "Well..you will be there with them, I'll be the one left to deal with the annoying antics of my sisters. At least with you here..my days have been rather bearable." She commented, with a loud sigh.
She stood there stunned for several moments in the other female's engulfing embrace not sure what to do or say. Finally after a few moments Min coughed slightly, casting her eyes to the ground in an uncomfortable manner. "Well..Its not that big of a deal, the item in question will allow us to communicate back and forth, so its more practical than a normal gift would be."
She was rather relieved when the other finally released her from the close embrace. Min had never been one for physical embraces..having been extremely clauster phobic as a child. Anyone that had tried to hug or pick her up was met with screaming, biting and kicking. Thankfully over the years this had died down, but not after it had been made perfectly clear that hugging was not a form of accepted form of affection. Not that it had mattered much, the only people who had ever tried to hug her had been stupid human servants who hadn't known any better. Most drow grew up without any affection..so it had been a good way to train the human servants not to show any.
Min'hyvair smiled as she watched Nere use her powers much more effectively. She was rather proud of the fact that it had been her hard work that had helped bring Nere much more control and discipline with her powers. And..her matron claimed she wasn't good for anything but creating potions. Well..one day soon she'd show everyone just what she was fully capable of!
"Nice control," Min murmured appreciatively as she lead Nere back into the House and through the hallways and into the cleanest potions lab ever seen.
Once inside the well organized lab, Min left the shadow covering and closed and locked the door. Then she turned towards her desk, and began to ruffle through the drawers with a frown.
"I just put it in here yesterday..now where did it go off to?" She grumbled as she went through the first three drawers and not finding the item she was looking for. Finally on the fourth drawer on the left side she found it.
"Finally..here it is!" She said triumphantly as she pulled out what looked like a hand held seashell mirror. "This..will allow us to communicate with one another should you have need of any advice."
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Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 7:32 pm
Nereida had never been in Min'hyvair's potion room before now, for she was usually kept within the other female's rooms as no one knew she was here. They would probably suspect her of being a spy, even though she technically had no House to spy for, nor any family that could pressure her into doing anything. These last few months neither of her two brothers, Levin and Evael, had come looking for, so she wasn't even sure why she was doing so much to protect the eldest of the two. Then again she had always been closer to Levin, him being the only one to make sure she ate and cleaned herself up at least once a week.
She hated the feeling of owing someone a favor, so to make an excuse for her ministrations, she put everything down to making the two of them even, that way he could never come to her and say she owed him something. Never in a million years would admit that she had gone through so much trouble to make sure he was safe because she actually loved him. Love was an unacceptable emotion between Drow, even between relatives, such as brothers and sisters. No, all females were meant to rule over males, and if anyone besides Min'hyvair knew that real reasons behind everything, they would most likely punish her very severely. Min was different though, and she trusted the other woman to keep her secrets for her.
Once in the potions room, she let the shadows fade as Min stepped out of them, and her jaw dropped immediately. This was the nicest, most organized potions room she had ever been in. Then again this was only the second she had visited, so she only had one other to compare it to, but even if she had visited more than just one, she knew that no other could even compare. All around the walls were shelves, and on these shelves were potions of all kinds. There were rainbows of colors, and some sparkled and glittered like they were made of silver and gold. Other jars held eyeballs, some organs of animals, and others of even weirder materials that had obviously come from live specimens.
"Wow Min, your potions room is absolutely.... amazing, astonishing, wonderful!" she said not able to think up all of the different words that could describe such a marvelous place. Min'hyvair was obviously a professional at what she did, it was obvious from all of the hundreds of jars, and all of the neat worktables where she would put together her potions and that held all the tools of her craft. Nereida was careful not to touch anything, so she sat down on a nearby stool and looked around, astounded at all the room had to hold. She wasn't even paying attention to what Min had to say until the woman brought out what looked like a seashell. She took it from the other woman and turned it over and over in her hand. "Wow, Min, did you do the magic for this yourself? It's incredible!"-------------------- Levin laughed at his friend, but was a little disappointed that it was a female that could gain his attention so easily. Even though he knew that nothing could ever happen between the two of them, intimately wise, he still wished that he could catch his attention as easily as some of the females did. Despite how much he wanted the other male, he kept those unwanted thoughts at the magic of his mind, for his friendship with Ka'da meant more to him than anything in the world, even more than his brother and sister. He felt bad for not checking on them these last few months, but he hoped Evael had been taking care of little Nereida in his long absence.
When Ka'da mentioned grabbing something to eat, Levin nodded in agreement, but his mind was preoccupied. He thought that before they left on their mission, he should perhaps go visit Nereida at their old House, just to make sure that she was alright. Before now he had never given much thought to how she was doing, but now he felt extremely guilty for just leaving her alone like that. Ever since their parents had died, he was the only one to make sure that she ate everyday, and didn't get too filthy. Evael had never been able to work with her as much as he had been able to, and now he started worrying about her even more.
In these last months, how could he have forgotten his family so quickly and easily? If anything it was probably because for once in his life, he hadn't felt chained down with responsibility. He had new duties now, duties to Ka'da and the rest of his family. They relied on him, took care of him, much more than anything his brother and sister had ever given him. When they got to the dining hall, he ordered his typical meal almost mechanically, not even paying attention that the House chef had given him the wrong food. He sat down at their usual table across from his companion and started eating without really tasting his food despite how well it tasted. He didn't even watch Ka'da intently as he normally whenever he thought the other male wasn't looking.
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Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 2:34 pm
Min was rather surprised at the other female's compliments on her potions room. She had never thought that anyone would ever describe it in such a fashion, but then again no one had ever been allowed inside; well save for the Matron and her Aunt. And even then, they hadn't spent nearly as much time examining the room as Nereida had.
Min'hyvair shot Nere a small smile, saying. "Well..the room suits its purpose well enough. I'm a bit OCD, and tend to like to have everything organized so I can find it easily. I could probably find anything I wanted if I were blindfolded..since I know the layout of the room so well."
Min blushed slightly at the praise she got about the shell mirror. "Uh, actually its my Aunt's work. She gave me a set of these in payment for some potion work I did for her. Until now I have never really had need of them. Now then..where did I put those anti-venom potions? I had them here just last night." Min said with a frown, touching the counter and looking around for the box she had filled the night before.
She surveyed the bench and the work desk until her eyes alight on the small box that was sitting in a shadowy corner of the room. "Ah, now I remember..I put it in the coolest spot so they could settle properly."
Min'hyvair sauntered over to the box, lifted it up and carefully laid it on the counter in front of Nere.
"The vials are carefully labeled so you know what they should be used for. Should you, or one of our brothers be bitten by something venomous, just follow the directions on the bottle. You don't want to administer too much of the anti-venom as it could have some adverse affects." ******************
Ka'da longed to reveal to someone, especially Levin that his attentions on the healer weren't some passing fancy. Or some lustful feelings, but something real and true. Despite his wanting to share the wondrous news that he and the healer, Yalinda were in love and were going to marry on his return he knew it would be smarter to keep it to himself. And he still didn't know if he could trust Levin explicitly just yet.
Of course he knew the other would have his back on the battlefield and on the trip through the wilderness..but he had no idea what the male's thoughts were on Lloth and if he was fanatical or what. He figured he'd probably learn a lot of this from Levin if they got close enough to open up with one another.
Ka'da could tell however, that something was eating at Levin. He was only half listening to him and not really paying all that much attention. He couldn't help but wonder if Levin had some unfinished business to deal with. Tonight would be a good time to finish it, as they were planning on leaving on the morrow.
"You okay over there?" Ka'da asked through a mouthful of bread. "You seem to have something on your mind. Do you want to talk about it? Is there anything I can do to help you with it?"
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