Across the Sea [Viper]

[Litani]

Aeyan. With the arrival and introduction of Viper's Strider, Litani's features lit with a smile that seemed somehow to encompass her entire body and being. She had quite the vocabulary of smiles, this one. Some shy, some tender, some eagerly joyful... some reserved. The one she held now was altogether enchanted and nothing whatsoever if not genuine. Almost as if on instinct, she showed no fear in approaching the great warhorse, instead greeting it as easily and cordially as her own horse. She offered him her hand first, palm up, showing him that she meant no harm and intended only a friendly interaction... Only when the Strider accepted her did she step closer to him, daring to run her fingers along his nose and neck. With him, she could be affectionate and none would think the less - she smiled brightly and shut her eyes, feeling the creature beneath her fingers, feeling the natural partner of the warrior whose eyes she still saw even when her own were closed. "You are lucky, great one," she whispered to him in Tukant, the murmuring language of the Akalak. "Take care of him, hm? ...no doubt he takes care of you. Rak'keli guard you both." With this, she offered a second smile to the creature and stepped back, hearing at last something other than her own thoughts and her prayer to the Gods. He... wanted to stay. She laughed softly and, all at once, turned back to gesture towards the re-forming camp with one long arm. "How could we deny you, sir...?" she asked jovially, reverting to her Syliran-sounding Common, gazing into Viper's eyes with that smile. "You and yours are the reason we live. Our fire is yours." He wants to stay. That doesn't mean he wants anything else... Having said, Litani's soft hands slid along Aeyan's neck to reach for his bridle and, out of respect, she gave the reins back to the Strider's master, offering them to Viper with an open palm. "He is beautiful," she told him in a low, quiet voice as she waited for him to take the straps of leather from her hand. Horse and master both. "You are well suited." Inwardly, silently, she smirked to herself... they made a fine pair, indeed. Although one for a very different reason than the other.

[Viper]

Viper simply smiled, and with a slight bow said, "Thank you." Though to which part and how he meant it, Viper did nothing more to elaborate. He went to take the reigns, but his fingers lingered on hers for a fraction of a second longer than would normally be needed. He then gestured toward the fire. "Care to join us then?"

He finally looked around the camp once more, just to see that the evidence of battle had already been cleared away. Not only that, but despite a slight amount of tension still in the air, and a few people with their eyes still looking to the heavens for any sign of our enemies, everyone was beginning to settle back down. As Viper approached the fire, one of his fellow Drykas approached handing him something and spoke in Pavi once more. Viper bowed his head lightly, putting the item into his pack as he relayed the permission they had received to stay with the group for the night in Pavi. Technically they didn't 'need' permission per se, since the travelers were in fact in his country. But still, he felt it only the courteous thing to do.

He then continued on to find a seat for them both. Not sure if she had anything to sit or lay on, he pulled out his bed roll and laid it out for her. "Please, make yourself comfortable." He said, gesturing to the blanket for her. Viper meanwhile, tied up his horse and sat down on the grass next to it. Settling in, his gaze was drawn toward the dancing flames of the warm comforting fire. A few moments later, he asked, "So judging by the direction you and your group came from...you have gotten this far from River Fall yes? How long were you there for? Did you find the place to your liking?"

Viper himself had never actually been there and was curious to hear about it. One of these days, he should pack up for a long trip and go see some of Mizahar before his body departed it. He always imagined there was many wonders to behold.

[Litani]

The shadows of dreams swallow all that falls upon them - faces, voices, feelings unspoken... people, places, things left undone. Where, in another world, the healer would have seen to every other need but her own... Where, in the waking world, she would have moved amongst the group, healing and giving and ascertaining safety... Here, in the sanctity of the dream, here she had only herself. The rest were still there, of course. They were there, they moved easily, they talked in the low drones of half-memories that would be forgotten on waking. But they were faded. Everything was faded... even Ansem. Everything faded but him. As she stood beside the shadow of Ansem and watched Viper, she realized with a subtle smile what he was doing - realized, and let her smile deepen softly with the realizing. She stood watching him for a moment as he prepared a place for them near the fire and beckoned her; she caught herself wondering a thousand things that she shouldn't give voice to, not even in her mind, but that didn't stop her from thinking them anyway. Wordless for a moment but still bearing that smile, she leaned up on her toes to whisper something to Ansem, then moved to take some of her own belongings from her saddle bag. She, too, carried a blanket upon which to rest, but more besides - provisions, water, a bag of personal items, and something that looked like a pillow. Crossing the small distance between them, she loosened the ties around her blanket and spread it out on the ground beside his own, casting him a brief smirk while she worked and he talked. When he asked after Riverfall, she paused, but only for an instant. Yet she didn't answer right away either. Having secured a place for herself to settle, she knelt down close to him and shifted to sit on one hip, her long legs drawn up beside her. "Yes... you are correct, we come from Riverfall," she replied, reaching into the small bag to withdraw a slender, simple comb. With one hand, she brushed the length of her unbound hair over one shoulder and it fell there in golden strands and half-curls, blown by the wind and a long day's travel. As she replied, her fingers and the comb slowly started to set the tangled threads to right. "Riverfall is beautiful," she said then, both dodging and answering at once. "It is paradise... everything it should be. Everything that could be hoped for. Perhaps it will call to you one day. But now... from where to do you come? And to where do you go...?" With this, she fell silent and back to watching him, grateful for something for her nervous hands to do. The subtle act of nightly grooming was not elaborate nor showy; at least, no more than the reflexive movement his arm had made when she touched it. She was merely a woman tending to a task... nothing more.

[Viper]

Viper shifted over onto his blanket after viewing Litani pull out her own bed roll. He probably should have figured she would have been prepared, considering she was traveling. Ah well. He thought to himself. At least he got his bed roll and didn't have to lay on the ground. He turned on his side so as to face her and listen to her recall briefly her experience of Riverfall. "Me?" He said in a slightly surprised tone. Not to many people usually care enough to ask that kind of a question of a Drykas in his own land.

"Well I had come from our camp farther into the Sea of Grass. We had been headed to Endrykas..." His smile faded slightly, as the memory from his past began to creep in slightly. "I suppose I'll just be heading back to my families pavilion in Endrykas. Honestly, my world has been sort of turned upside down. Not quite sure what I'll do with myself now." He quickly banished the memory to the back of his mind again before it had to much effect on his mood. Truth was he was enjoying the peace and serenity this woman company had afforded him. And he wasn't going to ruin that by brooding over a loss which in truth happened so long ago. Not the day before that this what he supposed to be a dream seemed to indicate.

His eyes stalled on her hands for a moment simply staring at her working her hair. A smile formed on his face and he turned his gaze back to her. Those blue eyes once again captivating his attention. "Now I do believe I detect a Syliran accent no? Is that where you are headed to now? Syliras?" His attention never faltered, never turned away now as he waited for her reply, having found himself enjoying her company more and more with each passing moment.

[Litani]

"Yes," she said softly, answering him, gazing at him, hearing his words but listening to the movements of his body and his eyes much moreso than his voice. But she heard him. "Yes," she said again, affecting a gentle laugh, nodding in acknowledgement. "We are for Syliras... I was born there." With a shy smile, then, she turned her eyes to the few tangles that she was working free of her hair and she painstakingly slid them free along the teeth of the comb in her fingers. For just a moment, she was silent, finishing the task she'd set herself to. She seemed to move as if she had another purpose in mind suddenly, some thought that had occurred to her and needed tending to. Once the last tangle was free, the comb was set aside. She stole a glance at him; in the half-light of the fire, her eyes came alive with sparks that were there in the day but amplified by the shadows of the starry sky overhead. "Do you thirst, Warrior?" she asked then, smiling slightly as one hand coiled its fingers around the skin of water she kept. Edging closer, she curled onto one hip and then settled at the closest edge of her blanket, almost as if there was some imaginary boundary there... as if he'd not invited her, only a moment before. She took the cap from the waterskin and drank, deep and cleanly, then offered the skin to him as she swallowed. When she spoke, her words were almost reverent, almost intoxicated in the intensity of their nature: "Water is sacred to my people... and here, in this Sea without waves, even more so. It is life..." She hesitated, as if unsure whether he would want to hear more, whether he would care to know. But she softly, persisted. "...it is life, and just like the water, you were the difference between life and death to us. Allow me to return such a gift to you...?" The water-sharing ritual was not one she had performed often; in truth, only a scant handful of times before, and only with the deepest devotion, usually amongst those of Laviku's children. Still, something about its intimacy seemed appropriate now and she offered the waterskin to Viper with her left hand extended between them... watching him with those depthless blue eyes. Eyes that called, eyes that watched, eyes that drank in his every detail as if etching it into her memory completely.

[Viper]

Her eyes were wonders in their own right. The flames from the fire seemed to dance in reflection off them. And a combination of her crystal like blue eyes and the warm radiant colors of the fire intertwined just seemed to make them shimmer more impressively than any clear starry night. His face warmed slightly at the realization of his thoughts, causing him to almost smirk. Viper checked the action though and listened, nudging himself closer to the edge of his blanket even as she did the same on hers.

His smile increased somewhat as he pondered what she meant with her initial question. After all, it was a simple enough query were it not for the fact that her expression and tone seemed to indicate it meant more. She took a sip from the water skin as he continue to lay next to her silently, taking in every detail as well as he could. When she finally offered him the water, he took it slowly from her hand, his fingers once again resting on hers for just a moment. His own emerald green eyes never turned away or closed from her as he too, took a long sip of water.

Now only maybe a foot or so apart, he slowly handed her back the water skin. In a warm but soft tone, he said simply. "Thank you. I'm honored." The 'realities' of the dream seemed to fade away. All the people in the camp seemed to disappear leaving nothing but the two young people laying close beside each other, peacefully by the fire under a blanket of stars in the Sea of Grass.

Viper raised a hand slightly, but hesitated for a moment. Gauging what the beauty lying next to him was actually thinking. Pushing through his own concerns, he moved his hand closer to her face. Gently, he pushed aside a strand of hair which was beginning to fall in her face. In the same movement, he softly caressed the side of her cheek with the back of his hand for just a brief moment before pulling back. An uncharacteristically shy smirk appeared on his face. "Excuse me...please forgive my boldness." He said in an apologetic tone, biting his lower lip lightly, hoping she really didn't mind the gesture.

It was a strange thing that someone he had just met could have such an impact on him. Her soft features and gentle demeanor seemed to call him though. And he found himself suddenly wanting the feeling of her touch once more.

[Litani]

Their hands met again, lingered, then drifted apart. She smiled faintly, perhaps even conspiratorially, perhaps having wondered if that would happen as the waterskin was exchanged... In silence, the Konti glanced at Viper's hand as he raised it, hesitated, and then brought it to her cheek. Her eyes actually closed for a brief moment when he touched her, then snapped open again as a subtle shiver ran through her body. She caught herself with a tiny laugh - if she'd been ready for their fingers to touch, the caress of her face seemed to have caught her slightly off guard. She hadn't quite expected to feel such a touch so clearly, hadn't expected the whole of her body to respond to such a simple gesture. Still, there was no sense of withdrawal about her, only the return of her eyes to his... only a ghost of a smile. In the back of her mind somewhere, she felt wonder at herself for not shying away - in the waking world, she might never have been so bold as to take up his offer to share the fire in the first place, let alone have shared water, only now to find herself lost in that sea of green again. Then again, perhaps she might be that bold after all - some things she did still surprised her. Such as the sudden change of texture beneath one hand as it shifted from her blanket to his. Closer. That surprised her. In for a silver, in for a gold... Playfully, she let her smile shift just that fraction of a difference between shy and purposeful, between hesitant and daring. Her free hand - her left hand, the one not supporting her on the blanket - raised in a similar fashion as his had done and crossed that lessening distance between the two of them. She watched his eyes carefully for an instant, then let them shift to follow the movements of her fingers... Those fingers sought out one of the tiny braids in the Warrior's hair, one of the braids that lay closest to the edge of his handsome face. Between her first and middle finger, she gently caught the braid and ran her hand down along it lightly for just a moment, darting her eyes back to his as her hand made the transition to the side of his face, near his ear. Slowly, deliberately, the softness of her fingertips slid down his cheek and drew the line of his jaw, falling away only when they neared his lips. "Now we are even," she said softly. "Nothing to forgive."

[Viper]

In a bit of a surprise, she shifted again. But this time closing the gap further and joining him on his blanket. His gaze lowered for a moment to her hand and then body as she began to move. A small smile grew as he turned back toward her. His left hand remained outstretch on the blanket thus making it easy to rap her more closely in his arms when she found her spot. When she did finally settle down, her own hand came up to return his earlier gesture. He found himself relieved if still a little bit surprised, that he wasn't the only one enchanted by the person that lay next to him.

His right hand moved to her shoulder, slowly sliding down her side till it came to rest on her hip. What are you doing Viper...you just barely met this woman. Came thoughts in the back of his mind. But then in a retort, he felt as though he had known her forever. What was this attraction that seemed to drive him ever closer to her. Someone he hardly knew. Yet, felt like he did. If this is just a dream, he wondered if this would be his only chance to see her. The only time to drink in the small bit of happiness, she seemed to easily make him feel. He found himself biting his lower lip lightly as these thought flashed through his mind in the blink of an eye.

Getting lost once more in the beauty of her features and the serenity of her countenance, he wondered if his current desire was right. Or if he was pushing things a little to far. She would either reciprocate his action. Or not... After another moment which felt like an eternity, his right hand raised, landing softly on the side of her face. It gently slid to the back of her head, his fingers going through her soft hair like a comb. Cautiously, he finally closed the final few inches that separated their faces, as his lips met hers in an almost brief, yet passionate kiss. Pulling his face away just enough, he dared to gaze into her eyes once more to see for himself her reaction.

(Final portions of the dream finished in PM's)