In the Shadow, In the Light (M)

[Lion]

"I'm all done.  And I'm shivering cold to on these waters!"  Jerec laughed and kissed her again before letting her go.  He found the soap on the bank and sat down so that she could sit behind him. "You're turn!"

[GoblinFae]

With a giggle she scampered happily off to sit behind him. A lathering of her hands and then she rubbing clean-smelling soap along his back, rubbing vigorously at particularly stubborn spots of dirt. "Do you want to find a village today?" she asked quietly as her scrubbing turned to gentle caressing and massaging.

[Lion]

Jerec hummed pleasantly at the massaging on his taut back muscles.  "Just keep getting that knot riight there," he murmured.  "And we can find that village...yeah...  Harder please.  Just punch my back."

[GoblinFae]

"Here?" she questioned, digging into the spot with the heel of her hand. Her eyes bugged out though to hear his request to punch him and she leaned to the side some to get a look at his face. "Seriously? Punch you? I don't want you turning around and biting me because I hurt you, Jerec. I'm only a part-time chew-toy you know."

[Lion]

"Well I don't expect you to hit very hard.  You're just an little owlet after all," Jerec quipped.  He gave her a smirk.  "Y'know.  Soft punches, gentle ones in repetiton!  It feels quite good!"

[GoblinFae]

Skeptical, Ariel reached out and lightly tapped her fist against Jerec's back as if expecting him to suddenly scream in pain and then tear her to pieces. "Well, if I thump you too hard don't say I didn't warn you!" Then with a deep breath she began kneed his back with rhythmic punches from both hands, taking caution not to tire herself out by using all of her strength while addressing the stubborn knot and the area around it.

"Like this?"

[Lion]

But this time, Jerec didn't respond to her and instead, let his eyes drift close as the muscles of his back tensed and relaxed in waves.

[GoblinFae]

"I'll take that as a yes," she giggled, continuing to dig her fists into his back until her arms got tired. "You better get out of the water before you wrinkle on me Jerec. I don't fancy walking around with a raisin all day. If your back still hurts I can just as easily walk on it for you." The idea made her laugh into the back of her hand as she tried to stifle the sound.

[Lion]

"I thought you liked me wrinkly," he murmured with a small grin.  He shivered when she was done at last and stretched.  "All right then, I guess we're done.  Too bad we can't hang out by a water fall all day.  But then we'd never get to the village."  He winked at her and dunked his head in the water and shook it off furiously.

[GoblinFae]

Ariel snorted and shook her head as she scooted further up the bank so that she could get to her feet. While he rinsed off she busied herself with getting dressed again, though she kept a watchful eye out in case he decided to become rambunctious again and douse her with water or participate in some other form of tomfoolery.

"You know, we could always come back to the waterfall," she told him softly, shrugging into a tunic. "If things don't work out, or if they do. It'll still be here. It'll still be home in a way."

[Lion]

The sentence did catch him off guard for a moment as Jerec shuffled his clothes back on and grinned widely at her.  "Or maybe we can keep it as a getaway, I mean for ourselves...  I know maybe I have my hopes a little too high with this village thing, but I guess I just really think we can make it work.  I want to at any rate.  And I'm glad to see you're still with me even though you didn't want to.  When you're ready to go, so am I."

[GoblinFae]

"Aye. It can be our own private place to be when things get to be too much from time to time. You could even come here when it's your uh," she giggled softly, "time of month if you so chose." Ariel sighed heavily as she pulled her hair out from under her collar and then let her hands smack down onto her thighs.

She moved to stand beside him as she sighed again. "If you'll drag our packs back out of the cave then we can be on our way." Ariel refrained from commenting on how glad he was to have her with him. Inside she was a ball of nerves and wanted nothing more now than to delay and delay until they both forgot about it entirely. Now faced with coming so close to returning to everything she swore to forever forsake, Ariel felt scared and sick. If it were not for Jerec she would not even be considering it let alone going through with it.

[Lion]

Jerec happily dragged the heavy loads out of the cave and out onto the dry section of the bank.  "How much junk you got in here?" he said, kicking one of them.  He heard a clank and jumped.  "Nevermind, forget I asked.  Here."  He picked one up and hoisted it over his shoulders.

"I'm ready now, Ariel.  We shouldn't waste the day."

[GoblinFae]

Her head snapped around at the sound of Jerec kicking the sack and her eyes narrowed dangerously into a pointed scowl. With a grumpy yank, the second rucksack was upon her own shoulders and she was brushing her way past her companion.

"Oh no, wouldn't want that," Ariel growled sarcastically.

[Lion]

They had all they needed for the journey to make it into the settlement for which they were headed.  Jerec was eager, excited, more like the boy he'd once been, who was knew to the world of the Wild, that first encountered the very heartbeat of it.  Jerec trailed hurriedly behind Ariel, though she did not seem to be in any particular kind of rush.  Still, Jerec was nearly bouncing from one foot to the other, he could hardly contain himself.

"So,uh," he found himself asking,"Are we there yet?"

[GoblinFae]

Icy eyes slid to the side to give Jerec a look of complete irritation and displeasure. "Does it look like we're there yet? Tell me mutt does it smell like we're that close yet? Because you cannot honestly tell me you are that childish Jerec!"

[Lion]

Jerec blinked at her, taken aback by her outburst and frowned deeply.  "What's the matter?  Is it something I said?" he murmured. 

[GoblinFae]

"Use your head Jerec!" Ariel sighed and stomped ahead, her fury more worry than actual anger. she knew it was not fair to take it out on the werewolf but she was just so frustrated. Every step forward they took was back towards something she had run from long ago. "Just, we'll be there when we get there. And we're almost there so relax."

[Lion]

Jerec stopped suddenly and reached for Ariel.  He stepped toward her.  "I...I know I'm asking a lot of you by...us going there, trying this out, but I...I just want something new.  I want to try this...with you.  I...I guess I'm more eager than I should be."  He frowned, looking shamed and feeling it to.

[GoblinFae]

She was moving towards him before she had even realized that her arms were about his waist. "I know. I do Jerec, I just...I'm scared and I don't like being scared. You're not too eager and you're allowed to be. I'm just a great big raincloud on something that should be...normal. I'm sorry. Just ignore me," Ariel told him with a shrug.

"It's really not far though. We'll be there soon. See that tree way over there? It's right beyond the bend that forks out over there. Should be there within the hour. Sooner if I stop dragging my feet."