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Of a Feather [DragonSong]

Started by nephero, April 16, 2017, 10:49:39 PM

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nephero

Keep an eye out and don't let the food burn. Kharon supposed he was well capable of such a thing. He moved across the floor and over to the fire, where he settled down with his legs folded beneath him. As he reached for the spoon, he looked over to where Lanaya had gone.

And very quickly had to look down again, away again, anywhere else again. He completely missed the spoon, and hissed quietly as his fingers instead brushed the outside of the pot, and he pulled the burnt pads to his mouth as he tried very hard not to blush.

Even with his darker complexion, it was not working.

Even less so when Lanaya stood up and walked across the room like it was nothing. Kharon again had to figure out where to look, but with such a cozy little nest there wasn't much he could do without being overtly obvious.

At least, until he caught sight of those scars. The bottom of his stomach dropped out, vivid memories rising up unbidden, and it was only with careful deep breaths that he was able to keep the attack from getting worse.

His eyes dropped to the stew, which he then had a bit more sense in stirring with an actual spoon this time around.

"Are you... injured?" he asked, not quite willing to trust himself in asking any other way.


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
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DragonSong

"Hm?" Lanaya glanced over her shoulder at him, then realized what he was referring to. Right. She supposed most people didn't have scars like that, she'd forgotten. Things she took for granted might draw attention outside of the forest.

"Not exactly," she answered with a careless shrug. "They...hurt sometimes. But I've had them as long as I can remember." She found the little clay jar of salve she'd been searching for and scooped a glob of in onto two fingers, reaching awkwardly in an attempt to smooth it into the scars.

A small noise of frustration caught in her throat. This was always the most irritating part- trying to reach the scars just made them hurt more, why did they have to be in such a damn awkward place?

Lenore had kept her eyes on their guest all the while, and suddenly gave a low, hoarse call. Lanaya paused, glancing over to her friend, then to Kharon. He seems off, the bird had said. He didn't really look it, but...

"Are you alright? I can take over, if you want." She moved to kneel beside him in front of the pot, still absently rubbing what she could reach of the scars over her shoulder.

nephero

"I-- no, I am fine, there's no need--" Kharon muttered, his eyes fixed on the pot of stew with increasing determination as Lanaya approached. There was simply no winning in this situation. At least with his face so close to the fire he could pretend that was why it felt so heated.

What was he even supposed to do in this situation? What was the protocol? Which did he address first, if anything at all?

Two hundred years in a tree and he was being utterly decimated by social etiquette concerning half-naked women.

Pushing the sincerely unpleasant feeling as deep down as he possibly could, Kharon tried to forget his embarrassment as he stirred the stew, his gaze flicking up to regard the raven, who he was sure had somehow told on him. He didn't have proof, or really any logical reasoning, but he was so very sure this was her fault right now.

Cocking an eyebrow at the bird as if to relay that accusation via body language, Kharon chanced a glance at Lanaya, very careful to keep his eyes trained directly on hers. It made for another rather uncomfortable conundrum-- her eyes were haunting, as avian as any of her companions and yet beyond that, and as such Kharon had the distinct feeling that he shouldn't linger there for long. But, all things considered, he really didn't have much of a choice.

"Are you... do you need... assistance?" he finally managed. He wasn't exactly looking forward to a closer look at those scars, but right now he was ready to take any available mercy he was granted.


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
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DragonSong

Lenore made a rather smug clicking sound and fluffed her feathers primly, a subtle enough gesture that Lanaya didn't notice it- which was obviously meant for Kharon's benefit.

The with sighed sightly as she added a bit of grain to the slowly forming stew, then snapped her head up and tilted it at her guest, surprised by the offer. "Oh, um...really?" For the first time, she seemed to display a more human outlook, flushing a bit before she bit her lip and nodded slowly.

"If you...don't mind. That would really help."

She shuffled back from the fire a bit, breaking eye contact, and twisted to put her back to him as she drew her hair over one shoulder. Every line of her body was suddenly set and tense. She really had no idea what to expect from this, and that made her nervous.

Not to mention there was something about the way he looked at her that made her feel...fidgety.

nephero

Outside of his crow form, Kharon couldn't be sure what the raven had said, but he was sure it was some kind of snarky comment or another. He wanted to glare daggers at the bird, but didn't quite get the chance before Lanaya's attention was back on him.

He could only nod numbly, confirming the offer, even as he felt his internal screaming rise in both volume and pitch. he pulled at the wraps around his arms, peeling back the black cloth to free his hands and thusly avoid getting any of the salve on them.

Deep breaths, that's all he had to remember. To just take deep breaths and not think too hard. Consider the components of the salve.

His mind given a puzzle to task out, he was able to scoop up a bit of the salve and apply it to the portions of scarring that hadn't gotten attention before. He ran his thumb over the raised tissue, working it in with a mechanical sort of efficiency while he tried to pinpoint what this substance even was.

Deep breaths. The texture suggested the base might have been honey, but he couldn't be sure for how much plant matter had gone in. He had never been that good at remembering the different herbs and plants that went into green healing, and that particular lesson had been over two centuries ago.

"I... take it you made this as well?" He chanced a glance around the room before going back to focusing on nothing at all. "I don't see books. You do it by memory?"


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
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DragonSong

Lanaya slowly started to relax under the touch, pain faded gradually and she gave a soft, relieved sort of sigh, her shoulders slumping forward a bit as the tension eased.

She nodded. "Yes, most of it's from memory," she murmured. She almost shrugged, then remembered to hold still. "Hero helps me sometimes. His memory is better than mine, and he teaches me new things..."

Her voice trailed off as she sort of leaned back into his touch. It was surprisingly soothing, actually, to have her back rubbed when she wasn't contorting herself to accomplish the task. A small crooning sound, curiously similar to a pleased dove or pigeon, hummed in her throat.

She let herself enjoy it a moment longer, then pulled away with a quiet sigh and twisted to retrieve the salve. "Thank you," she murmured, smiling up at Kharon through a few locks of hair that had fallen into her eyes when she twisted around.

She fastened the cap back in the jar and stood to return it to its place. "Do you learn your magic from books then?"

nephero

Kharon distantly registered the name "Hero," and tried to imagine what sort of bird he might be. With a name as noble as that, he supposed it would be some larger bird of prey, one of the more native species like an eagle or a hawk.

Or, and here might lie an amusing turn of events, Kharon was entirely wrong and Hero was some bear. He smiled a bit at that, overwhelmed by the mental image of a great brown bear trying to hunker down here in this nest and remind Lanaya of herbal components. A bear with... spectacles. Or, no, wait, a bear with spectacle patterned fur around its eyes. And who walked on his back feet almost exclusively, prim and proper and completely incongruous to his size.

So lost in his own rapidly deteriorating train of thought, Kharon almost didn't notice as Lanaya pulled away, blinking up at her question before remembering that he was, in fact, talking to another person right that moment.

"Hm? Oh, just for certain things, like more complicated sigils and ritual work. I don't... dabble in potions and poultices as much, I--"

hate the ever loving life out of it, the sting of it on fresh marks, the way it made his skin itch as it dried, the fact that it seemed every other day he had to slapdash something on to keep himself going--

No. No. He pushed the thought away, firmly, and wiped his hands off on the side of his breeches, before replacing the long wraps that wound down his forearms and around his hands, leaving only his fingers free.

"I never had the head for them, or the patience, as it turns out. I just like to make things into other things."


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
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DragonSong

"Transfiguration?" Sevsmiled sort of wistfully as she settled herself next to the fire again, drawing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs. She let her chin rest on her knees and tilted her head at him. "I'd love to do things like that, but..." She shrugged with a small smile. "I've only ever been good wth plants. And birds, I suppose, though that's...less magic, more a knack, I think."

Her eyes flicked to the stew and she uncurled herself to carefully remove the pot from the fire, scooping about half of the steaming mess into the wooden bowl and leaving the rest. She nudged the bowl toward him and offered the spoon.

"What brought you here, anyway?" she asked curiously. "It's...been a long time since I've seen someone- well. Someone more human," she chuckled.

nephero

"It... does take a bit of thought. Though, considering what you've done here," he gestured, vaguely, with the provided spoon, before dropping it back into the stew and scooping up a sizeable amount, "I wouldn't say you're far off yourself. Transmutation is just... a shift, really. Rearranging properties and substituting others, which you must've had to do to get all this to grow together. A different means, maybe, but similar results."

He snorted a bit, slanting a cool glance in the raven's direction at the mention of Lanaya's 'knack' for communication with the feathered devil, as he was starting to mentally call her. Magic or not, some natural ability or not, it was certainly something in and of itself, and not one he entirely trusted, considering he was incapable of understanding half the conversation. And birds tended to always be watching, which set him on edge a little more than he'd have cared to admit.

He lifted the spoon to his mouth, and took a careful, curious bite. Satisfied that nothing immediately seemed off, he dove into the rest, barely pausing to let each bite cool before shoveling it into his face. He hadn't realized, in all of this, just how ravenous he had been, and now that food was A Thing, he could barely be bothered with much else.

As for what brought him here, well...

"I just wanted to get away," he muttered, scraping out the last of the stew before finally setting the bowl back down again, "just, see how far I could go. The bonus was that there were no people out here-- ah, less people, I mean."


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
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DragonSong

Lanaya's eyes widened a bit as he dove into the food. He must have been hungry. When he'd emptied the bowl, she took it carefully and spooned more of the stew into it before placing it in front of him again, a silent invitation.

"Do you know how far you've flown?" she asked quietly. She could be mistaken, but he seemed to her to be the type of person who didn't always keep track of such things.

A sentiment Lenore seemed to agree with, as she cawed harshly and Lanaya snapped her head around to frown at the raven. "Well, there's no need to be rude, miss. Mind yourself." She waved a hand at the bird in a shooing motion and Lenore puffed her feathers up indignantly.

"Too smart for her own good," Lanaya muttered, shaking her head before she turned her attention back to Kharon.

nephero

"How far?" it was in that moment that Kharon realized that he... was not entirely sure. He had been, previously, in the plains, and he wasn't sure exactly when it stopped being grasslands and instead wove into trees. Borders and parameters had all changed so much since he had last seen everything from the air, and now he was left with the very real notion that no, he had no clue.

"I... began somewhere just before dawn. Admittedly it was not a straight line, but however far it is from here to the far end of the Serha plains." he took the second bowl with a nod of thanks. The outright admission of where he had come from and how early he had began only served to solidify that no, he was absolutely not leaving these woods this night, not without substantial time spent getting his energy back.

His eyes narrowed as the raven cawed, and he leveled a cool stare in her direction. He might not have had the talent of being able to speak with the birds, but even he could recognize a jibe when he heard one. He was tempted, sorely tempted, to give the raven something to actually caw about. Like being turned into a crocodile. A tiny, finger sized crocodile. A tiny, bright pink, finger sized crocodile.

Instead, however, Kharon went back to eating his second helping of stew, though his black eyes remained fixed on the raven in a watchful manner.

"So I'm beginning to gather," he agreed with Lanaya, though his tone and raised eyebrow hinted at anything but approval for the matter.


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
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DragonSong

For some reason that made Lanaya smile and duck her eyes while Lenore clucked impishly. The witch frowned though after a moment, tapping a finger against her bottom lip. "That...is a far journey," she murmured.

With a soft breath, she got to her feet, brushing out her skirt and crossing to her bed-mat again. "You are welcome to spend the night here, if you like. It's not much, but it's safe from night-hunters." She glanced out the window as she spoke, considering.

The sun was nearly set now, the light that managed to filter through the trees and into her window deep, fiery red and orange. Gale seemed more alert than she had been, shuffling back and forth on her perch and flapping her wings every so often.

Lanaya turned to a pile of mismatched fabrics bundled at the head of her little bed and shook it out, revealing a blanket that seemed to have been hand-woven, through the yarn used to do so changed colors frequently and rather spontaneously, as though when it was being made the weaver had simply run out of one color and moved on to the next.

Which was true, but it was the best Lanaya had been able to do with the scraps and pieces her friends found for her when she was girl.

"Even if you're not going to stay, you should finish the stew," she told Kharon, glancing over at him as she spread the blanket out and tucked it under the edges of her sleeping mat. She gathered up her breastband and folded it neatly before storing it in one of the little shelves as well.

nephero

"Ah..." Kharon could only say, suddenly rather unsure of himself. He had taken Lanaya's hospitality thus far with a vague sense that what she offered was truly without any strings, but the concept of spending the night, well...

For some reason, that just made him anxious. He looked down at the stew still in his bowl, and then up where Gale was beginning to shift and turn and ruffle her own feathers in what was seemingly a nightly ritual of preparing for the "day". It gave him a moment to consider what he wanted to do; he still felt... relatively free. The compulsion to return wasn't there, and so there was a good bit of time before he had to worry about all the unpleasantness that that compulsion brought with it.

And then Lanaya had mentioned that he should at least finish his stew if he were going to choose to leave. Once again, Kharon was left... unsure. He wanted to believe that Lanaya had his genuine well being in mind, that this really was a kindness, and yet every last inch of him was fighting that particular conclusion.

Again and again, that nagging little voice, high and soft and mocking, telling him but what if, but what if, but what if...? Kharon swallowed the last bite of stew, though at this point he had stopped tasting it entirely.

"I... might simply roost on one of the branches." he said, finally. It seemed the best middle-ground available to him, staying and yet not quite staying. He stood, then, still holding the empty stew bowl, and licked his lips a bit before continuing, "Is there a stream I can wash these out in?"

He pointed, between the bowl and the pot, wanting to at least feel like he had done something to earn his stay, and thus hopefully silence that nasty little voice somewhat.


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DragonSong

"Oh, yes." Lanaya gestured toward the northeast wall of the nest. "Just a little ways into the trees that way. There's a path. But I can get those in the morning, you don't have to worry about it." She moved to a small chest- one of the few pieces of her home that seemed to actually be man-made. She rummaged around a bit, then emerged with another few blankets, adjusting the folds as she laid them out a few feet from her bed.

"In case you decide you want to be human for the night," she offered quietly. She crossed to the fire and damped the flames slightly so it could burn itself out through the night.

Gale hooted quietly and finally left her perch, swooping low over Lanaya's head and mussing her hair before she circled back and apparently decided that her head would serve as an excellent perch itself, blinking wide eyes as she tilted her head at an impossible angle to observe Kharon.

Lanaya gave a rather undignified squeak, throwing her arms out in an attempt to keep her balance at the sudden addition of weight. She glowered up through her hair, blowing out a sharp breath in an attempt to clear a lock from her eyes.

"Yes, thank you for that," she muttered with a huff.

nephero

A little ways into the trees, a path to water... Kharon was already logging that information away when Lanaya continued, instead stating that he need not trouble himself and simply leave it for her to do in the morning. It was... more than a bit conflicting, but in the end Kharon reasoned that he could always go ahead come sun-up, and deal with the dishes then.

It was a far sight better than trying to find his way in the growing dark, in a strange wood, filled with strange things. Giving the illusion of acquiescence, Kharon set the bowl and pot back down, at least stacking them for an easy grab in the morning.

Just in time, it seemed, to avoid Gale as she swooped down-- the owl's target was not Kharon himself, but the sudden movement had him ducking regardless, very nearly knocking over those stacked dishes in the process. The action alone had been enough to put the offer of a real bed-- the offer to spend the night as a human-- clean out of his head before any further panicked suspicion could rear its ugly head.

Kharon scowled, looking up and over at Lanaya where the owl had gone and...

and promptly burst into laughter.

The sound was short-lived, and he choked it down almost immediately, pressing one hand to his mouth to stifle any further sounds. But the way Gale had so nonchalantly claimed Lanaya's head as a perch, had seemed so completely unbothered by Lanaya's jerking attempts to keep balance-- that had been too much. And the wide stare the owl had given him had done him absolutely no favors.

"I think she's very much awake right now," he said, careful to keep from looking too residually amused. Perhaps remaining human in the night was a better plan; he didn't much enjoy the idea of being suddenly smaller than a prankster owl on the loose.


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
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DragonSong

"Oh, yes. Please, laugh at my humiliation," Lanaya grumbled, but there was no trace of real irritation in her voice. She was actually smiling a bit as she brushed her hair behind her ears and waved her other hand at Gale.

The owl finally relinquished her perch with a small, churring hoot, fluttering silently to the window to land beside Lenore. The raven shuffled over to give her room, though she clucked in annoyance about it.

"Girls, be nice." Lanaya leveled a firm look at them, then glanced back to her guest. "Feel free to get some sleep, however you like," she murmured as she moved back to her bed. Settling herself, she wriggled out of her skirt and slipped under her blanket.

She hesitated a moment, then rolled to put her back to the rest of her home. It made her tense, but she thought the show of trust, however small it was, might help put her unexpected guest at ease some.

There was another soft call from Gale and she heard and answering hoot from outside, in the branches of the tree. Norn, come to collect his friend. They'd be out hunting, probably return before dawn- which was when she would wake.

Hopefully. She frowned a bit, thinking of the unfinished charm beneath her mat.

nephero

"Well," Kharon said, his tone dry and teasing, "if you insist, I suppose I can muster some more."

He looked almost surprised at himself at the joke, and very quickly busied himself with unwrapping his arms once more, rolling the long cloth up into small balls and setting those aside. By the time he had finished (and admittedly he had taken his time if only to better fill the awkward little void he had created), Lanaya had already turned her back to him on her own bed.

Kharon, for his part, was not entirely sure how he felt about any of this. Lanaya seemed nice, after all, but then again, everyone almost always did. He took a breath, let it out, and slowly worked his boots off of his feet. He supposed there was no sense in dreading it-- if things were to "go down", he was as prepared as he possibly could be.

After all, he wasn't helpless. And she was just some woodland witch. It'd be fine. And more to the point, he certainly wouldn't be any better off exhausted as he was.

Still not quite feeling like this was altogether true, Kharon settled down onto the borrowed blankets, and stared up at the natural ceiling of the treehouse. He blinked, slowly, tracing the path of branches with his eyes, until somewhere in the quiet of the lengthening night, sleep overcame him, light and fitful though it was.


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
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DragonSong

The nightmares were back.

It seemed a half-done charm would not work the way she wanted, and couldn't chase the bad dreams away. Perhaps she should have spent more time on it.

Lanaya's brow furrowed and she tossed in her sleep, murmuring and whimpering quietly. Her hand clenched in the blanket and she curled in on herself slightly, her breathing starting to pick up. Shattered and confusing images flashed behind her eyes, pieces of not-quite-memory that pulled and scratched at her mind.

Her back arched and she drew in a sharp breath. Alone in the dark, calling for a mother who'd already turned her back and left her. Pain she didn't understand spreading from her shoulders, through her whole body, deeper, deeper-

Someone was grabbing for her, pulling her down from her trees into the thick briars that covered the ground, scratching at her skin and seeming to twist and reach deliberately to trap her in place. The hand that had pulled her from the safety of her nest was gone, leaving her to struggle.


Her eyes snapped open and she gasped, bolting upright. For a moment she was frozen, panting and looking around wildly.

Lenore was still perched at the window, head tucked under her wing as she slept. It was not quite dawn- Gale and Norn must still be out hunting. Lanaya sighed and dropped her head into her hands, trying to breath through the shivers that wracked her frame.

nephero

Nightmares were always hard. Some less than others, but then there were the ones like this, the sort that wracked your body in your sleep and left you sweating and shaken in the dim darkness. It always left an edge, even in wakefulness. Every shadow was now somewhere for a threat to sit and hide, every movement of leaves the prelude to some awful great monstrous thing.

They made the peace and quiet of predawn in your own home into a horror all its own.

And certainly, having a stranger that normally wasn't there didn't help matters much at all. Which is why Kharon tried to keep his movements slow and careful, pulling himself from where he had been sitting in front of the spent firepit for the past hour or so. He seemed to have lost his prior shyness somewhere in the night, because he kneeled down beside Lanaya's bed, reaching out to offer her a small cup (that he had quietly scrounged for) filled with some murky fluid (that had been water but he had "persuaded" to be otherwise).

"Here," he said, almost tenderly for all his aloofness the day before, "I'm not one for herbcraft but... nothing quite beats tea for bad dreams."


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
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DragonSong

"O-oh..." Lanaya glanced up at him, a little startled to find him suddenly so close, then took the cup with a small, grateful smile. "Thank you," she murmured, simply holding the cup between her palms and appreciating the warmth for a few moments.

She took a sip and looked sidelong at her guest. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," she said softly. "Did you at least get some sleep?"

A small shiver ran through her and she pulled her blanket a little tighter around her body, huddling into her bed. Perhaps she should put her clothes back on- it wasn't as though she'd be getting back to sleep.

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