On Stranger Tides

[MadEmperor]

"I sure hope it doesn't work that way or I'm gonna end up toothless," he chuckled before disappearing through the door.


When Hana finally woke up, it was to Thrax watching her with a dopey, lovestruck smile on his face. "The fairytale princess awakens at last," he smirked.

[DragonSong]

Hana blinked, then smiled even as she rolled onto her back with a dramatic groan.

"Oh, that's all we need," she huffed, "for one of us to turn out to be secret royalty. Don't we have enough problems?"

[MadEmperor]

"Well, I know I'm safe," Thrax laughed aloud. "Gnoll royalty isn't a thing that exists. And unless there's a kitsune monarch off in some foreign land, you're safe too."

Smirking playfully, for he knew he was going to say something incredibly cheesy, he said, "Of course, I'll hedge my bets and treat you like the queen you are."

[DragonSong]

"Oh, gods," Hana half groaned, half laughed and rolled back over to bury her face in her arms. "You're such a sap," she accused fondly when she lifted her head, reaching out with one hand to stroke his cheek lightly. "There should be laws against it."

[MadEmperor]

"You said it yourself that I have a weakness for cheese." Thrax continued to smirk as he leaned into her touch. Love was worth acting the fool for. And he was head over heels for her. "Besides, you know you like it. Deep down. Really deep down."

[DragonSong]

Hana scoffed quietly, but she was smiling, and she kept her palm pressed to his cheek for a few moments. "Maybe," she admitted teasingly. "A little. Way deep down."

She pulled him in to peck the tip of his nose, then let her hand drop and rolled onto her back with a sigh. "Gods. Everyone okay after...all that?" She shook her head. "Can't believe that was a whole-ass ghost ship."

[MadEmperor]

"Everyone is remarkably okay," Thrax answered. "Well, aside from the mental trauma of being used as the puppet choir from hell. But they're a resilient bunch. They'll be fine."

"I'm more worried about you, honestly. You wore yourself out more than I did and I don't feel great."

He exhaled. "Let's never tap our magic out like that again, okay? That sucked."

[DragonSong]

"Uuhhhg, you're not kidding," she half-groaned, half-laughed in agreement. Her eyes flicked up and down him, then she noted with a slight raise of her eyebrows, "You seem to have recovered pretty well, though. How come you're not still asleep?"

[MadEmperor]

He smirked. "We gnolls have energy to spare. We don't know the meaning of--"

He snorted, unable to carry the blatant bullshit any further. "Nah, I was dead to the world until a few minutes before you woke up. I woke up once earlier, though, when Gracia needed the map room. But believe me, I collapsed again after carrying you to her quarters."

[DragonSong]

"Well, c'mere." She shifted back to make room for him and tugged lightly at his hand. "I think we've earned the right to nap until Gracie forcibly removes us from here, yeah?"

She cocked her head at him, lips quirked on one side and ears flicking playfully, but there was a hint of concern buried in her expression. That had been a lot of magic--and she'd never seen Thrax collapse like that after casting.

[MadEmperor]

Thrax cozied up to her, too tired to laugh off her concern with a joke. It really had been a close call, perhaps as close to death as he had been since the day he fled his village. And he had almost killed himself trying to keep everyone alive.

"I didn't even know I had that much magic in me to burn. Controlling the wind was something I thought was beyond me, even with the boost from Stormsong. Maybe I finally could, because now I have something to protect beyond my own life."

"All those cheesy songs about the power of love don't seem so ridiculous anymore," he chuckled.

[DragonSong]

Hana scooched herself up on the mattress so she could hug him against her chest and curl around him protectively.

"Mmm. Most magic is emotionally fueled, isn't it?" she noted through a small yawn. Her eyes were fluttering again. "Love is a strong one. Makes sense it can power some pretty insane stuff..."

Her own magical education had hardly been structured, but Tobin had taught her enough that she knew that could, in fact, be the problem; an intense emotion could fuel a spell, but ultimately the magic relied on the energy of the caster. Like a mother's "hysterical strength" in lifting a fallen tree off a child--the adrenaline allowed her to ignore the damage being done to her body, but once it faded...

[MadEmperor]

Thrax couldn't help but be a little amused by her curling around him, much like he had around her while she slept.

"That does make sense. When Stormsinger Zezak taught me that emotion was the key to musical casting, I never realized just how powerful a key it is until I met you," he responded. "Another way we make each other better."

[DragonSong]

"How very dare you." Hana sniffed. "I was already perfect. I hardly need your help."

She kissed the top of his head, and the way she curved her body around his rather undercut the words. The teasing dropped from her tone and she murmured, "Get some sleep, baby. Gracia will have us pulling our weight again soon enough."

[MadEmperor]

"Sooner than we'd like, I'm sure," Thrax sighed with a sleepy smile. It took no time at all for the big guy to fall asleep in her warm embrace.


Some time later...

An announcement from the crow's nest signaled that the couple's time on the Adamant Lady was quickly approaching its end. Soon, they would be crossing the desert.

"Ugh... I'm torn between wanting to be on solid ground and not wanting to experience desert heat again," Thrax commented. The Serha got pretty miserable in the summer but that was a humid heat. He had only been in Essyrn once and briefly but, even though it was more bearable than he had expected, he could imagine drying out pretty quickly if you weren't careful.

[DragonSong]

"Yeah," Hana sighed dramatically in agreement, leaning out over the ship's rail with her arms folded on the wooden beam. "Bringing heat I can do, but unfortunately I don't really have any magic that will help cool us off."

She glanced up at him sidelong with a lopsided smile. "And the desert makes illusions easy enough on its own, but all accounts."

[MadEmperor]

Thrax leaned out beside her, careful not to look down at the waves lapping at the hull as to not aggravate his seasickness, and mused aloud, "And water magic, if either of us even could use it, would just get us on Essyrn's shit list. You'd think living in the flipping desert would be easier if they used it  but, no, it insults their goddess somehow. But I guess I'm just not equipped to understand—my people didn't even have a god."

[DragonSong]

Hana shrugged. "Honestly I'm not sure if mine do—they don't follow the rest of Thanatos, but beyond that I don't really know. Doesn't really matter I guess," she mused, tipping her head to one side. Unlike her partner, she had no issue watching the lapping of the waves. "Tobin didn't much care for gods. Always said if there was any force worth worshipping, it made itself known in nature."

[MadEmperor]

Thrax grinned. "Sounds like he and Zezak would have had a lot in common. That's my religion in a nutshell. No gods, but rather the observable power of nature itself."

He sighed. "I still feel empty sometimes when I think about all the people I'll never see again—not until my spirit joins them in the eternal storm. I sometimes wish I could go back and change things, but then I realize I wouldn't be the man I am today, and I wouldn't have met you."

[DragonSong]

She glanced up at him, then reached out to rest her hand on his arm lightly.

"You're allowed to miss them," she told him softly, her voice just barely audible over the rhythmic rush of the water. "Just like you're allowed to enjoy the life you have now. Liking who you've become doesn't mean you don't mourn them, and wishing the past had been different doesn't mean you don't care about this present."

There was an uncharacteristic melancholy in her words and tone, a slight weight of experience. She knew they'd lost their people in very different ways—and on very different scales—but she could sympathize with the "what if" trains of thought.