Where the Wind Breaks (Aello)

by **Gunho Ma** on March 3rd, 2012, 6:00 am

Gunho was most comfortable when he was in his element and there was nothing more natural to him that this. He should have felt calm and collected with Aello's compliance, there should have been a feeling of serene clarity permeating his thoughts right about now. But Aello's close proximity gave his usually composed hands a sliver of intensity they were normally deprived of. He'd realized that despite himself, he still hadn't gotten over that night where he'd allowed Aello's teasing to get to him.

But she'd promised to hold back hadn't she? And she was keeping good on her words. Who was he to disappoint her. Gunho pushed back the things addling his thoughts and concentrated on Aello, on the slender curve of her back, on the rise and fall of her shoulders and on her quickening pulse that he could feel with his body this close to her own.

"Don't you worry." he whispered into her ear, his voice a lullaby in the air. "I don't have plans to stop anytime soon."

He parted her hair to one side and drew the pads of his fingers from the curve of her neck, thumbs settling on a depression beneath her ears and the rest finding their places up the side of her face until the edge of his index and middle finger stopped short of the side of her brows, just at the slight indentation of the skull that could easily be palpated there.

While he worked his magic he began to wonder exactly why he was doing this, what part of him motivated him to turn a little bolder when he was with this girl and why he'd never felt such a thing before. She was pretty, but he couldn't say he didn't know other pretty girls in the past...

"What is it about you," the question came unbidden, though the delivery was in a voice filled with muted wonder. "I can't place it, but there's something about you that's really... interesting. I'll admit to never having had a subject like you in all my time working."

by **Aello** on March 3rd, 2012, 8:39 pm

"Good," Aello purred, as she clutched the folds of fabric tightly. Bunching them as she pulled them in, as she slipped back, her body tilting over Gunho's own. Washing over him like a wave. "Because there is no need for you to stop anytime soon." She giggled. "No, definitely no need at all..."

Silence slipped into their midst. Mixing with the air in the tent. The heat that was arising. The vapors of the cool oils. Relaxing everything, as inhibition began to fall away, to make room for madness. For the most base, and simple desires known to either of the two humans.

"Interesting?" Aello finally purred as Gunho's fingers fanned across her face. "Only in that you don't truly understand, no?" There was a slight pause, as the girl gave the man a moment to consider. "You can't piece me together, and it intrigues you. I don't seem as simple as the other women you have encountered. Whose paths have woven together with your own."

Again Aello chuckled. "It's such a shame really, considering that I'm not really all that interesting at all." Even though her eyes were closed, Gunho would be able to sense them glimmering with amusement. Calm; a sense of joy. "But then again, most people aren't any more so." There was a slight pause, "don't you think?" she finally inquired.

by **Gunho Ma** on March 4th, 2012, 3:13 am

The heat that seemed to be spreading from the point where Aello melted into his form was slowly building and it had gone past the point where it simply warded away the cold. He felt a rush of warmth flooding through his hands and her back,

"I don't... I'm not even sure if I want to bother trying to get a read on you." he told her softly, his eyes also closed as he used his hands to memorize the features of the girl's face. ". I don't think I would even bother. I think... and this doesn't sound logical, but I like not knowing much about you. Your past or plans for the future isn't a concern to me, I'm just enjoying the present."

"I'd disagree with you this one time Aello." he countered without the savage edge of an argument to lend his voice power. "I might not be able to figure out what you are, but there's one thing I'm sure of-" the words to follow were bold, but Gunho was convinced that they were true that there was no room for doubt to cause Aello to think he might be simply saying something to flatter her. "-you are quite possibly the most interesting woman I've met in my life."

He allowed the words to sink, in this moment he only meant to say whatever he felt. He only cared about baring whatever thoughts there were swimming across his mind for Aello to interpret as she pleased. While he breathed heavily, he continued timing his massage with the girl's own pulse so he could allow her body to dictate the speed in which he would pry and manipulate the delicate muscles of her face, forehead and the ones at the back of her neck with two firmly swiveling thumbs.

"This is going to sound stupid, but bear with me." he leaned slightly forward so she could hear him clearly even if his voice was barely louder than the wind outside. "After winter... when I've made something more out of myself, do you think I could go see you again? I know you're travelling, but is there somewhere that I might be able to find you?"

"I think I've grown fond of you and I'd like to keep a friend like you."

by **Aello** on March 4th, 2012, 7:13 pm

"Don't lie to me," Aello whispered somewhat breathlessly as the arch in her foot came higher. Her feet curling as her toes tickled the floor. As her feet slid up and down, the fibres of the blankets strewn over her delicate form tickling her as everything glided along. She could feel her hands opening and closing around the folded blanket. Pulling it closer, before lightly pushing it away, over and over again. The girl opened her eyes and looked at Gunho. "Please don't..."

Aello's voice trailed off as Gunho's fingertips pressed ever so lightly against her flesh. Sometimes, his touch seemed to tickle. Sometimes it felt cold; and sometimes, everything felt warm. As though her face were flushing, or she had chosen to sit too close to a fire, and it was threatening to singe off her eyebrows. It felt so good. So strangely good, that the girl couldn't help but remain silent. Calm. A soft rumbling arising from the pit of her chest, showing her appreciation, as she closed her eyes again. As she whispered...

"It's difficult to say... maybe we'll go back to where it all began for me. In the port side city of Zeltiva, and perhaps, we'll return to where our troubles began," Aello started. "So we can end everything we have brought into beginnings." There was a slight pause. "But who is to say if we won't try something new entirely?" There was another pause. "But that's no worry. There is always a little bird to come and find you, if need be. If you really... want to spend that time..."

With me.

Aello could feel her eyelids fluttering, as her heart beat a little faster. She couldn't understand why. She couldn't seem to understand anything. But then again, she wasn't so sure she really wanted to. Or perhaps, maybe she really did, and had no idea as to where to begin. It didn't matter, did it? Only that she was so confused. She felt wonderful, and yet, so very very far away. On her own and lost. It shook her to her very core. Rattled her, making her body sink into him all the more as she tried to concentrate on her thoughts. As she tried to pull away from him just enough, at least in mind, to piece everything together. But she couldn't. She couldn't seem to do anything, so trapped was she by this strange feeling; this moment.

Me...

by **Gunho Ma** on March 5th, 2012, 8:24 pm

"I do, I'm looking forward to seeing you in spring... If fortune favors it... Zeltiva would be lovely." he imagined how it looked, how those people who'd visited the famous port city had spoken of it. "I've heard good things about that city, of the view of the sea and its vast libraries... but it doesn't matter where I have to meet you, I just want to."

"I've learned a great many things from being around you and the experience has been nothing but pleasant for me." when Gunho's fingers snaked their way back down on the girl's neck her quickened pulse surprised him. This massage was meant to make her relaxed, to slowly weather away at tension and resistance. It was not meant to inspire this, but she seemed pleased enough. The signs he could read pointed to it.

He reinforced his efforts, kneading the tender lump of flesh and the muscle underneath the slope dropping from her neck to the curve of her slender but shapely shoulders. Even as he put his hands to work, he leaned in close, diluted concern somewhere in the way he asked the next question. "Something a matter?"

He didn't know how or why, but something was off and it was keeping Aello from giving herself away completely. He wanted to know what, why and how... and if there was something he could do about it.

"Is something wrong with the massage... I can feel your heartbeat through your skin. If there's something I'm not doing right, I'll fix it for you."

by **Aello** on March 6th, 2012, 5:11 am

Aello scooted a little closer to Gunho, trying to wallow in his warmth a little longer. "No... no nothing's the matter. This feels quite lovely actually, and it'd be nice if you didn't stop or slow. Didn't second guess yourself at every turn. If only you kept on going, until you'd eased me into such a state of calm, that I could scarcely bear to stay upright any longer. Awake. Resting against your side."

There was a long pause as Aello considered her words. As she allowed his fingers to fall onto her neck, and ease the tension that had gathered there over the many days past. "It's just... it seems so weird, for someone to want to cross paths again. So very strange, that you're not a Kelvic, or person from my childhood. Someone from before..."

"Someone who knew what everything was like before the dagger came to me, and madness set in," Aello whispered. "Someone who knew the girl before she became the huntress, and yet, the hunted." Aello paused a moment, as she lifted a hand, and pushed it back, along her forehead, towards Gunho's hands. Picking the deep brown strands of her hair apart, as she swept it to the side of her left shoulder. "It just seems odd, that someone as innocent as yourself, as naive even, would want to throw themselves wholeheartedly, or perhaps, merely partially, into such a chaotic way of life. Into pure bloody insanity," Aello cursed as her hand slid down her chest, and then, whacked the blankets that pooled about her slender form.

Aello sighed, taking a deep breath in through her nose, and out through her mouth as she turned to look at him. Her body seeming heavier, her eyes drooping, filled with both pain and sorrow. "So... maybe I lied. Maybe there is something wrong. Or rather, a bit out of place..." Aello's brow furrowed a moment, as she considered which words to pick, which to speak. "But it isn't you... well it is... but it isn't this. It's not the massage, the way you work my skin and muscles. It's not the way you carry yourself, as much as what you say, and what your heart desires."

There was a long pause then, as Aello turned back around. "Is it really true... do you intend on beginning your descent into madness Gunho?" Aello asked. "Do you really wish to move away from everything you hold so very close to you? So very dear?"

by **Gunho Ma** on March 9th, 2012, 10:47 pm

"Who wouldn't want to meet a nice and pretty girl again?" his counter was plainly delivered, bereft of sarcasm or smugness. He truly, at least for the moment, believed Aello a nice girl and her attractiveness needed no argument for its defense.

He listened silently to her words, her professions of her condition, of the dark world she was mired in. The shadows that haunted her sharper now than ever. They refused to release her and let her live the life of peace so many sought out... the life she probably didn't even know how to live anymore.

"You worry a lot about that don't you?" he replied softly. "I don't think madness is a problem, not when you live in a world like ours. In the grand scheme of things, I'm the one who's a bit mad, I don't fit in anywhere in this dog eats dog world... My upbringing spoiled me in a way, as you put it... turned me naive and now... now I attempt to fix that mistake, to bathe myself in this world and become of it. I want to become stronger."

Again she went on, telling him about her lies, the obvious ones. She'd already seemed strange from the start, wasn't this something he'd already seen coming? What was she so worried about that he'd dislike. Everyone had a sliver of madness within, even he did. He looked at her face, smiling when she turned to gaze at him.

"Aello dear," slowly, with cautious motion he draped his arms around her shoulders and drew her back to him, hugging her lightly. "I have nothing to lose anymore and there's always going to be something bad in this world of hate and lies we live in. At least coming from you, I know what to expect. I don't mind having you as a friend, wouldn't have it any other way really."

by **Aello** on March 11th, 2012, 4:14 pm

Aello nodded weakly as her eyelids came down, obscuring her gaze so that she could see merely what lay below. She could feel Gunho breathing upon her neck. His breath warm, as it circled her pale skin. She thought she could feel moisture gathering, a thin sheen that caused her skin to glow, as both a cool air, and a deep sense of warmth set in. She could see the shadows reflected in the corners of her eyes, long before she felt him against her. His arms embracing something so slight. Something slowly fading away.

Smiling to herself, Aello lifted both her hands, and pressed them delicately against Gunho's arms. Close to where his hands were clasped. Bracing them, supporting them, making it all the more difficult for him to fall away. "If that is truly your heart's desire," Aello whispered, as she pressed her head against his shoulder, and peered up at him, "then that is how it shall be." There was a slight pause, as the girl took a moment to slide her hands along his arms, building up a greater sense of heat, as her smile widened, as her eyes continued to sparkle. "Even if we are far apart, and begin to wonder if the other still lives, we shall be friends."

There was another slight pause as Aello considered her words. "We'll be friends until Dira comes for us, and perhaps, even after, if we choose to linger. As the spectral forces of this world." The girl closed her eyes, but even so, Gunho could tell that they were smiling too. "Those which are bound for a time, never to leave this place until they have let go."

There was a long silence, as Aello's hands fell away in favor of the blankets, which she pulled all the more tightly around them. Doing her best to bunch them around Gunho's sides, so he too, could bask in their warmth. "So it shall be..."

by **Paragon** on March 13th, 2012, 8:21 pm

Adventurer's Loot

Aello's Loot :

Gunho's Loot :

Great thread. Naughty, naughty Aello! I liked seeing their thoughts and dynamics here - if you have ANY questions or concerns about this grading, don't hesitate to PM me.