PM to join [Inclement Weather] The Nightmare Never Ends (Kovac)

[Lavira]

It was the essence of the mountain given voice, both intriguing and frightening. The waving mass of flesh and red hair swelled and receded in time to the beating of the drum, a few particularly enthusiastic dancers even whooping from somewhere in the center of the room. The sight made her uneasy all over again as Vira waited at the edge of the crowd, unwilling to follow Kovac at first. Her eye had gone back to the door and part of her own being pulled her that way. This...chaos...was way, way too much.

But fear of being left behind, a forgotten face in the stones, as Kovac slipped into the crowd and tried to tug her along, made the Chiet move her feet forwards. Thankfully, he didn't go too deep. The panting air of the surrounding dancers, the brush of hair against her arms or accidental bump from behind, these little nuances of a hive-mind set free almost overpowered the sweet heat of the alcohol. These people were drunk with the passions that entailed being Inartan. And they were all around her, oblivious to the woman flailing in the pool.

Nothing's wrong, Vira...look at him, see? He's not frightened so why should you be?

That monocular eye had fixated on him again, listening with a slight cant of her head towards him as he shared what he thought dancing was. It wasn't what she thought it to be, the structured pursuit of a rhythm with ones body, moving arms and hands and hips and feet in time to something, like the drum that reverberated through the dance club.

It was a feeling. It was somewhat different from the things she preferred. With the exception of the variety of birds themselves that thrived in the volcano-city, Vira followed a structured life. You get up at a specific time each morning, you dress in a specific order, you brush your hair a specific way. There was little room for unpredictability, only stability, like the deep roots of some ancient tree.

And yet, here was this Avora, a bowman who had reminded her of the steps involved in shooting an arrow, not dancing, he said, but feeling. It was very chaotic; but what about the Inclement wasn't chaotic? What about this dark and sweaty place wasn't raw chaos even dark Rhysol would love.

She looked around, looking at the faces both familiar and foreign. Each seemed lost in their own internal rhythm, following the flow of their own firey spirits. Her gaze returned, watching the way Kovac's feet shuffled side to side a little and how his torso seemed to sway with the hard thud of the drum. One of her hands rose to brush hair from in front of her good eye and then fell away again.

Rhythm.

No. Feeling.

Feel it. How?

She closed her eyes, trying to break from her own nature and see what he wanted her to feel.

Stop it, Lavira. She snapped at herself, Stop it right now. Stop trying to control everything. How do you think you wound up down there in the first place? Yea, Vala didn't see you, but you can't expect everything to be exactly how you want to be so just stop it. Stop and just...

"Let go..."

And in that moment, she felt it. It was small, and fragile, like a spark that needed the tender whisper of a breath to encourage it into a fire or the offer of a breast to the hungry babe. It was a tired little thing, suppressed for most of her young life under the rigors of Inartan society, always following the rules, obeying commands from her superiors, servitude and structure.

Her hips began to move, a little at first, just back and forth, trying to sync with the beat of the drum, but she was off, and yet it was not a bad off. Other rhythms could be played on an upbeat too. These lighter ratatats made for an exciting change if one followed them to the end of the path too. The woman shifted, her feet finding the beat now as they stopped the sway and began to tap a little. Up and down, up and down. It was still rigid, bordering on forced as she tried to control the feeling. Controlling it wouldn't work.

She had to let it happen, she had to let go. Her arms picked up the thud-thud-thud, following a forward-back-forward pattern with every hard downbeat. In her mind, the alcohol had already put the memory to bed, letting it sleep for now so that the body it controlled could just relax and be happy for a little while.

Vira felt it swell from her belly when the tempo suddenly rose and the whoops deeper in the pack of people grew louder. They were really enjoying themselves and Vira almost wanted to see what they were so happy about. But she couldn't go that far yet. It was too close to being trapped again, and that, her mind would not let happen. That giddy rush made the woman laugh a bit and she leaned towards him to counter the brief withdrawal that came with his own movements. Her shoulders rolled, opposite one another, forwards and backwards in a kind of shake before her hands came together in a hard clap between them.

"It kinda is!" She shouted to him over the music. Somewhere in the mass, someone was starting to sing. It was a strong voice, probably one of the performers for the club, for it went perfectly with the music already filling the chamber, deafening everything. Her hands came together in a hard clap again, palms reddened from the collision, and the woman turned. Her arms swung up near her head while torso twisted, fingers snapping and feet shuffling. She twisted back the other way, simply going with the flow she felt. Once more, palms slapped against one another in a clap, synchronizing to the hard boom of the bass drum as her body turned rapidly.

This spin sent the firey hair flying. She had turned too near him, however, and as she twisted around, those burning locks and that snowy feather brushed against him, her sharp features looking far more bird-like than ever before. She was slowly forgetting the trauma, for now, the drink and dance giving her a different thing to focus on. Joy. Like standing on the edge of the cliffs and looking out at their mountain home each sunrise and each sunset. Like watching Tulaj during a hunt or the flitting song birds elsewhere in the city. Like...flying.

Vira lost her balance as she came back to face him and wound up with hands against his shoulders, her cheeks flushed from drink and dance both. She felt invigorated even as she let a girlish little giggle out, pushing off him and swaying until she was steady. "Sorry! Goodness that is kinda fun!"

[Kovac]

Kovac kept moving, subtle for the moment, his attention still focused on his traumatized friend. The Avora could see the struggle, the young woman's effort to overcome her own self-control, to give in to something that could not be embraced with logic or strength of will. A grin widened across the man's face as he saw Lavira finally giving in. Small movements at first, rigid and poorly synced. He nodded, emphasized his own lyrical movements to encourage the Chiet to loosen up more.

Then Lavira gave in. Kovac could see it, like skin shed from a snake. A smile gave way to a small laugh, something the Avora had yet to see from the girl. Her body fell into sync with the music, allowing slight hips to sway to the rhythm, shoulders to roll, and a beautiful grin to adorn her features. Kovac was elated.

Seeing Lavira embracing the dance, Kovac allowed himself to slip into his dancing with more abandon, foot stomping with syncopated beats, offering a brush of his hip against a freckle-faced woman next to him. His attention did not linger on the woman beyond a shared smile, and he turned back just in time to see Lavira twirl, her own ruddy locks brushing across his face, trailed by the ornamental feather. She stumbled into the Avora, who instinctively grabbed her by her waist until she righted herself. Kovac laughed with her, letting her slip away as she stepped back into her groove.

"I am glad you are having fun!" He lifted his voice to Vira. She began to move again, Kovac allowing himself a moment to cast a glance down her form as she danced. "You are doing well, I would say." He added with a wry smile, before allowing the musician in him to surrender to the driving rhythm and enticing lyrics. The Avora's gaze shifted from Lavira to their shuffling feet and back. His hands lifted over his head and rocked with the beat, his body twisting before he brought his hands low and crouched, head bowed and nodding with the song.

Rising back up, the fire of alcohol in his belly and the heat of the dance floor on his skin, Kovac met Lavira's green-golden eye. He shimmied closer, tentatively, his own desire to dance closer to her tempered by the concern that she was not ready, so soon had she let go of her fear. This had become about healing, not just a date. But, dancing alone on the floor was only part of the fun...dancing with someone else really added some excitement.

x

[Lavira]

Vira twisted with the jive of the song, her eyes closing and her mind thrown into the heart-pounding beat that filled the Inclement. It felt strange letting go like this and not just because of the reflections of the accident in her mind. It was a great deal more than that. It was freeing, not to feel weighed down by her need to finish the job, be that work-aholic that she innately was. She was one who could not stand idleness, wasteful actions. And yet, even with the anxiety that still dwelled beneath the surface of the ginger, here she was in the last place someone like her should be. The Inclement was abound with wastefulness! Wasted time, wasted drinks, wasted food.

But why care? Why dwell on a matter that was beyond her control?

The Chiet danced, her shoulders bobbing out of sync, one going up while the other went down, as close to the rhythm of the music as she could get while her elbows jutted with the movements her hands made. The woman barely heard the encouragement as she swayed and swung and swiveled, revelling in the pulse of what could have been Ivak himself pounding through the hearts and bodies of his people.

She had just finished another twirl and opened her eyes when she found her eye caught in Kovac's. For a moment, Vira felt a flush of shy embarassment rise in her cheeks, coloring them a darker red than the dancing that had already shaded them. It was an awkward and self-conscious smile that met her lips and immediately she fell out of sync, stumbling over her own feet and bumping again into one of the other dancers around them. This one had had a little more to drink, a thick woman with strawberry blonde hair and dark, pine-green eyes. She had a face like a horse, though, long nose, high cheeks, wide eyes. It wasn't pretty to look at and the scum that came from her mouth wasn't much better as she cursed the Chiet up and down the mountain. There was a strong reek of liquor on that ones breath as she faded back into the crowd.

But the moment had been enough to renew the reality of the situation and a little more besides. The changing lights that danced between the shadowed figures, the murmur of the voices drowned by music. The drums...the drums that sounded so much like thunder as it reverberated through the crack she had been trapped in. Vira sucked a breath where she stood, throat constricting and her eyes widening. Even in the dimness, Kovac would easily be able to see the pinprick state her pupil had dilated to, effectively tunneling her singular vision.

Something moving in the darkness.

Whispering, talking to her. Who was she, why was she here, how did she find this place?

The acrid odor of burnt earth and super-heated air. The stone-rumbling BOOM of thunder as the storm rolled overhead.

Water, so much water, flooding down through the crack and she trying to crawl in agony out from under the torrent.

Laughter.

But hadn't Iosha been there? Hadn't the healer been there with her?

She couldn't remember! Gods, she couldn't remember anything except pain and fear and loneliness. So much loneliness. "I- I- I c-can't move." Her joints had locked, a miniscule tremor rolling over her flesh and making it rise in goosepimples. Burning sulfur making her suffocate, Vira turned her head, the only part that would move. She was looking for the door, but it was nowhere to be seen.

I'm gonna die. She thought.

At least, she'd believed it was said in just her head and not aloud; but her lips had moved and the low whisper had escaped.

I don't want to die. Her head turned back and the bicolored eye stared clean through Kovac. She looked about ready to scream, her mouth working slowly where the rest of her body would not. And the drums beat on, swelling in the air until the song neared its dreadful conclusion in a series of tumultuous brrumms and a tremendous BOOM from the bass.

Help. Me.

[Kovac]

Vira had finally let go, allowing her body move with the rhythm. The girl had not totally surrendered her body to the dance, still working to find the beat, but Kovac could see the liberation in her face and the free movement of her limbs. He hoped the haunting had left her, at least for an evening. The Chiet's eye caught his, perhaps seeing something of his interest in his gaze, and though the light was too dim to catch the flush in her cheeks, the the Avora saw the awkward smile and the loss of sync in her motions. Lavira bumped into a woman who was unpleasant not only to the eyes but in demeanor as well, and Kovac shot the horse-faced girl a glare before she sank back into the crowd.

But the damage was done, by the time his gaze settled again on Vira's her vision was at some distant place, and he guessed where by the panicked slack in her features and the paralysis that was emphasized by the constant motion around them. Kovac was only beginning to understand the trauma the Chiet had endured in the crevasse, the pain and terror she must have faced, for the event to plague her and invade her everyday life. Fear had set upon Lavira again, holding her frozen. He had to get her off the floor.

Taking her by the arm, Kovac all but carried Lavira from the dark center of the room and its writhing mob, elbowing a path as they crossed the room to ensure Lavira was not crowded. He guided her towards to their alcove, hoping to get her to sit down, though the girl's insistent search for the doorway suggested he should maybe lead her out.

"Breath Vira, breath." The hunter spoke into her ear, as casually as he could. His gaze drifted to the table and the collection of shots. Kovac was not sure if another belt would help or harm her. "Do you want another drink? We can go, get some fresh air if you need to."

x

[Lavira]

Movement.

She was soaring. No, she wasn't. She was walking. Sort of.

The woman blinked and saw their position in the throng had changed. They were back outside of it all, Kovac pulling her along and (not) growling in her ear to breathe. But it was so hard. Why must it be so hard? Why must she be drowning? Could she not enjoy this night? Feel free for once from the burden of her duties and the self-loathing she endured that she had been unable to even help herself in that time of need?

Her vision twitched to the table and the shots that beckoned. How stupid she was to have ordered those; they wouldn't really help. No, they couldn't. They were just drinks, stupid drinks that would only temporarily blanket the deeper problem. It was true of everything. Everything! Gods above, where was her strength now? Her stalwart nature? What good did that do her here or there? Anywhere? Hah! Immovable rock, following the routine day in and day out. She could almost smell the stench of her own pathetic fear, and what she saw in Kovac's face wasn't (was) concern, but regret that he had asked this woman out for a night. No sympathy just embarrassment.

And with that emotion she falsely saw in his gentle face, so too came her shame. Darkened by the adrenaline from the dance and now from her humiliation, Vira looked away, fetching up the looser material of her outfit in both hands to hurry to the door, biting hard the inside of her cheek to keep her lips from trembling and discard the tears rolling down her cheeks as ones of pain, not shame.

"Stupid, look at him; leading you on like that...just go home. How could I be so stupid...I bet he knew the whole time, just lied to me....Gods what a fool I am..." all of this said quietly as she hurried for the door.

Would he follow? Vira just wanted to flee, find Tulaj and just...flee.

[Kovac]

Lavira offered no words in reply, though her face, her eye, her movement, spoke volumes. She was in a panic again. The darting glance at the table, and the drinks, elicited a grimace of regret, the glance that tried to avoid his, already welling with tears, strained with embarrassment and maybe even resentment towards him. In a flurry of motion, the young Inartan fled without a word, fled as if from a monster.

Kovac watched Lavira escape the Inclement Weather, at once perplexed and saddened. The girl was damaged, emotionally, from the tragic accident. Had he known, would he have invited her here? Probably not. As he stood amongst the revelers, Kovac surveyed the room, until his eyes rested on the table of shot glasses and the wine bottle. As he thought of Lavira, the allure of the club had faded. He sighed. A couple years ago, he would have shrugged off the Chiet, taken another deep drink of wine and found another woman to grind against on the dance floor. But not today, not since the Storm, not since he left Shayth, not since he confronted Chemar, and not since he opened up to Aidara. they had all helped him to change...a bit, at least.

The mongrel's gaze fell again to the doorway. He like Lavira. She had drive, passion, talent. Kovac took a little credit, having shown her that, even with her disability, she could learn to shoot well. He had invested in the Chiet. And admittedly, he just liked her. It would be tragic to see her sink into this frightened person she had become. With another sigh at himself, Kovac made his way to the door and out into the corridor. He saw the form of Lavira moving hastily away. He hurried after her.

"Vira, wait!" Kovac didn't expect her to stop. She was in flight, had already written him off for some reason, he had seen it in the pained looked she had given him in the club. Catching up to the girl, he spoke softly. "Vira, slow down. Let me help you." He couldn't believe he was saying it. "Don't turn me away, you can't overcome this alone."

x

[Lavira]

She didn't hear him at first as she practically flew along the pathway leading back into the city proper, searching for the closest point of escape she could, anything to be outside, away from this darkened interior. Her mind continued its barrage of self-degrading insults, stupid this, stupid that, petching fool, all blanketed by the overwhelming shame and terror that clung to her bosom.

The tears rolled freely now, her palm occasionally raising to rub at one eye and then the other while she bit down the sobs. There were some still making their way down to the dance club, most not even giving the young woman a second look. Those that did were curious but did not bother to investigate. She was just about to round a bend when the archer-Avora came into her limited periphary, trying to get her to stop.

Stop? She didn't want to stop. She wanted to run! She wanted to be far from here now. Oh how she envied the Endal their birds, her heart soaring with them where she physically could not. Bitter anger slipped from her lips in a derisive laugh at Kovac.

"Help me? Hah! How could you possibly help me?" She hiccuped, climbing a series of stairs and stepping over a Dek that has passed out in the pathway following whatever work he'd been doing. "How could any of you? Three days, Kovac-" The teen stopped, rounding on him and holding up her middle, ring, and pinky fingers of right hand. "-three. Can you count that? Pain and half-suffocation and only Iosha trying as best she could to get me out." There was borderline hatred in her single eye, the other a dead thing that almost echoed the hollow ache that resonated through the young woman. "But we were alone, and I for longer, I remember that much. There was one moment when I thought I was going to drown, did you know that? You remember that storm that came in?" Her voice cracked and the woman turned to hurry on again, panting in an effort to maintain some control.

"I thought I was going to die. And the one person who should've been down there, didn't even come to see me in the infirmary. He made it out that he cared, and then when I needed him, not when he needed me, he didn't even show up. He was there from the start, and he didn't even show up." Another hiccup. A balcony could be seen ahead, a brazier hanging from one of the elegant arches giving a pleasant glow to the overlook. She surged towards it, a tidal wave soon to break, her feet carrying her as quick as she could even as her jaw tightened against the pain throbbing in her side. "He just forgot about me, like some-" Her face worked, sliding into more vile words briefly. "-fucking Dek. Good for a petch, then wipe your hands of them."

She paused in the arch to look at the beautiful masonry of the rails lining the balcony. They looked somewhat like the trees she'd seen down near the Bay. Long willowy branches with slender leaves, whiplike when in a strong wind. Their heads intertwined to create a woven banister just wide enough to stand on. "And I believed that he cared. And then you take me there..." Vira stepped towards the banister, her hands resting on the edge and her eyes closing as she felt the warm wind rush up from the mountainside below to pull at her hair. It drew goosebumps to the surface of her skin. "You know, I really envy the eagles their wings...the ability to just get out of here and fly when the want strikes them." Her eyes opened and the teen drew a foot up to step onto the banister. She perched their briefly, then slowly straightened, her single-eyed gaze staring off at the darkened distance on the other side of the drop, shadows of the massive mountains just peeking through the receded light.They lived in a land of giants, lived beside one even. So why did she feel invisible?

"What I wouldn't give to be like them. No more caves and eddies; no more scrubbing shyke. King of the sky. No more fear or regret. No more-" Her gaze lowered to the distant bottom of the mountain. "-lonliness."

[Kovac]

Kovac cared about the damn girl. Its why he went after Lavira, even though he wished he could just let her run off to crawl into some corner, or more likely out into the open and brush her off. But when the weeping girl rounded on him, spitting rebuke, the Avora riled. But held his tongue as Lavira said her piece, revealing an anger and fire that he had not seen from the woman that was so recently as timid and fearful as a mouse. She needed to vent, to let it out, and let it out on someone. For the moment, Kovac would let her rail against him. As she moved towards the small balcony in an outer wall, he kept stride with her, until they halted at the patio rail.

Lavira leaned on the banister, looking out over Skyinarta. Maybe the open view, the fresh air, would clear her mind. For a moment, the Avora thought the girl had calmed, musing over the eagles. But as she climbed onto the railing, a fear struck Kovac. She could jump from there, she might, in her state of despair. A sudden welling of his own anger rose up in the half-breed.

"Petch no you don't!" He barked, grabbing her by the arm and yanking Lavira unceremoniously from her perch. "Stop it...stop it!" He ordred. His finger raised to her as if to gain her focus and aim his words. "Yes, you went through a horrible, horrible experience. Yes, you could have died. Smothered, starved, drowned, died. But you didn't. You are here, alive, in life. That piece of shyke Akalak could have saved you, could have stayed to woo you like he did Aidara and probably a dozen other women. But he didn't. But you are still here, standing in front of someone who does give enough of a petch about you to not let you live like some sniveling Dek. How long, Vira? How long do you plan to let something that is over rule your life? You are not there any more. But you won't get out of that crack in here!" He tapped her on the forehead with his finger.

Kovac's tone softened a bit, his hand resting lightly on her shoulder, eyes pinned to her seeing one. "Look, I know you just don't get over something like that easily. But you have to try, get mad at it, like you just got mad at me. You can't change what happened, but you can change what it is doing to you. You are right, I can't help you. No one can, but yourself. Sure, it will take time, but you can't give up." He pointed to the open air beyond the banister. He didn't know if she would have jumped or not, but Kovac was bent on keeping her from even considering it. "I will beat the shyke out of you if you ever do something like that again."

x

[Lavira]

There was a moment of serenity as Vira balanced on the railing, her eyes closed and her head raised to let the cool wind of the evening rush through her hair and cool her heated state. But no sooner gained was it ripped from her and the girl was brought back to the present, the moment of reprieve taken from her when the mutt grabbed her wrist and yanked her back and down.

Vira yelped in surprise, shoving away from him once her balance was regained. The scowl of perturbence did nothing to that otherwise lovely face, one hand clutched in a fist as if the Chiet was about to hit him. A good solid hit, square in the jaw, that would send him reeling and let her go on her un-merry way. She even had the venom of words waiting on her lips, ready to strike...until he began to speak.

He was right. Gods, he was right. It wasn't something she could forget, but neither could the woman let it rule her. There had to be a way to subdue it, if only for a while, make it easier to bare and manage the days and nights. But what of the nightmares? Of the ache in her legs, shadows of the pain endured? What of the resonating throb that continued in her side? She didn't even think about his mention of Addy and Garrens relation with her friend (that was too much for the Chiet right then).

She flinched instinctively when he tapped her forehead, waving the hand away with a look that had ebbed from its deep scowl into more of a frown. At last, he finished, admonishing her further for what he thought she would have done. Vira felt like laughing now, the corners of her lips tightening and lifting slightly as she stared at his eyes. "I wasn't mad at you, Kovac." She finally said, quietly, turning to look at the edge once more. "Not really; you couldn't have known. I was just...overwhelmed."

The woman paused, then turned to look at him again. "It's a lot harder than you think. I need to see the healers about getting something for the nightmares, at the very least. Those are the worst. I think if I can blanket them for a while, coping will be easier. Maybe, I dunno." Her shoulders rose and fell in a shrug before the girlish giggle rose to the surface at last. "And i wasn't going to jump, you know. It would've been your fault if I'd fallen, and you can guarantee I'd haunt you for a long, long time, if it got me killed." The grin slowly receded, giddiness subsiding to be replaced with apology.

"I'm sorry for frightening you; and for yelling. I haven't had a good night's rest in some weeks and been trying to unsuccessfully silence the dreams with work. Really, though, thank you for trying to cheer me up. I don't know what you could possibly find interesting in me, though. I'm nothing like Aidara. She's pretty and witty and a healer and...well I'm nothing like that." She'd brushed a coil of hair back behind her ear while speaking, looking askance to avoid his gaze. "But, er, yes...I wasn't going to jump, don't worry. I like the ridges that look out over the expanses; makes me feel like I'm flying sometimes. Brings me a sense of peace, if only for a little while."

There was a moment when she said that last where it was clear she was thinking of something else as her gaze turned to him again. It was the kind of look one got when dwelling on a particularly pleasant memory, one that satisfied a need even if it was brief. It came only when her eye had returned to his face. And the memory? Why, the dance. That absolute freedom she'd felt from his encouragement to just let go.

Why was it so hard for her to do that now? Why couldn't she be more impulsive, like Addy was! Why couldn't she just snap her fingers and let the stress and worry go. Act on the inner drives so many of her kinsmen in Wind Reach did.

Petch it, just do it.

Stop thinking and just do; and that's just what she did. Her hand rose to cup the mans cheek, that shadow of scruff he bore admired in the feel of her palm. No sooner did she touch him then the teen leaned up the short distance, her head tilting slightly, to place a kiss upon his lips. It was a gentle thing as so much of the Chiet seemed to be, that reflected the sensitive nature she had. She was so different in some ways from other Inartans, and yet those classic persona's observed clearly manifested in different, unexpected ways.

[Kovac]

Kovac had forged forth with his ire-fueled tirade, his intent well-meaning but his delivery sharp, and Lavira's threatening scowl and raised fists did not deter the Avora. But as he spoke his mind, Kovac could see the truth of his coarse words taking hold on his friend's mind. He was mad at her because he cared, and Lavira honestly scared him, thinking she was going to jump to her death. When the hunter finally shut up, and the woman was given space, she spoke, her demeanor much more relaxed than when he had plucked her from the railing.

Kovac's own countenance softened as Lavira assured him that she did not intend to end her life, the man blushing slightly at the embarrassment of his over-exaggerated reaction. But Lavira was finally speaking openly, rationally, about what was going on, how she felt, her fears, and not only about the accident. Lavira seemed to have taken a blow to her self-esteem as well.

But Kovac did see the difference when her gaze turned again to him, the emptiness of the sightless eye balanced by the depth of her all-too-seeing one, vibrant emerald that hinted at some resolution, a flash of the woman he had met at the range who dared to try to learn to shoot as others scoffed. Maybe Kovac had an inkling of what was coming, especially when the girl gently took his face between her hands. Still, the Avora was not expecting the affectionate gesture. For a tick he froze, then instinctively, his hands moved to rest on Lavira's upper arms. Kovac returned the woman's kiss, finding the press of her mouth gentle and tender. No, it was not the hungry, fiery kiss of others...and that is what made it so sweet and meaningful. The half-breed held the kiss for a long moment, savoring the softness of Lavira's lips, the pillows of which he had not expected to taste. Then he pulled away, a markedly non-sardonic smile on his lips, his hands slipping from her arms to take her hands in his.

"First of all, Aidara is a fine woman, but you do not need to be her...one Aidara is more than enough for Wind Reach." He laughed slightly. "You are remarkable, Vira. I saw it at the range, I see it now, as you wrestle with what you had to go through. You are strong, yet vulnerable. I don't know, you just seem...real. And that is very attractive." He reached up to brush back the stray lock that had slipped from behind her ear again. "And, to me, you are damned pretty."

"As for your nightmares, you ought to go to the Dreaming Lady. My friend Chemar works there. She is very good at dealing with nightmares." Kovac released one of Lavira's hands, but kept the other one clasped in his.

"Now, falcon girl who perches on precipices, have you had enough for tonight? Do you want to go back, or should I walk you home?"

x