Beginning of the end (Doc)

[Ycharley]

Axel came around the corner and sat between Lilly and Devin, the large feline's tale rhythmically swishing one way then another. He was eyeing Devin like he was a large steak. Lilly didn't have to worry about Devin. If Devin even thought about striking her Axel would quickly retaliate for her.

Lilly did like the way Cauwyn seemed to be protecting her. She also found it hard to not laugh when he said that it wasn't what it looked like. Lilly let herself lean gently against Cauwyn's back, he was nice and warm. She wondered how exactly with would turn out.

"The hell it isn't, my sister might be blind but I am not!" He yelled, looking between Axel and Cauwyn. Lilly stuck her head out from behind Cauwyn quickly after that.

"Damn you," She stated. What he said caught a nerve. She stepped from behind Cauwyn, her heart racing still but for a different reason,

[Doc]

"Uhh, hey now.." Cauwyn said, a bit nervously as Lilly stepped out from behind him. Fighting was something he was comfortable with, hell it was as natural as breathing, but even he was smart enough to know not to get between a sibling argument. "I don't think he meant it like that.." Cauwyn said in a rather loud whisper over his shoulder to the girl, then his attention turned back to the boy and his voice grew louder, "And watch how ya talk 'bout her, yeah?"

A real issue, he realized, was that his weapons and equipment were on the other side of the counter. If this turned ugly he was going to be going at it with this kid without his weapons. It didn't really bother him though, in fact he kind of liked the idea of the challenge causing a small smirk to form at the corner of his lips.

[Ycharley]

Devin looked at Axel, "Even you turn against ?" He asked the beast. He felt betrayed, his sister being promiscuous with a man she had only known for a few hours, Axel taking her side. Devin crossed his arms and shook his head.

"For hating Luna so much you're acting just like her," He spoke, a smirk crossing his face and his eyebrow rising in victory.

Lilly stopped in her tracks, her head slowly turning, "Excuse me?" She asked, her voice low, surprisingly calm. Her muscles were tensed, like a cat ready to pounce. She didn't need Cauwyn to protect her, she had fought her brother her entire life, no reason to have someone else do it for her now.

Axel let out a fierce roar as the intesity of the situation started to grow, he didn't like it when the two fought.

Lilly grabbed a hammer, her knuckle growing white. "I dare you to get close enough for me to use this you son of a bitch," She spoke, her voice a low growl as she glared at Devin, her body literally shaking with rage.

At this point Devin knew he had over steped his bounds and was in for it. His face of victory quickly faded as he took a step back, he knew his sister would bash him with that hammer with out a second thought.

"Now come on Lilly, you know I was joking," he said putting his hands up as if surrendering.

"Oh yeah, like it wasn't what it looked like earlier? I suggest that you you go hope of your little dragon and take a long trip, preferably to hell," She spoke, her voice full of venom.

[Doc]

Cauwyn stood quietly as the two began their back and forth. The confident smirk of earlier had slipped away into a look of awkward embarrassment. He looked somewhat chagrinned at the idea of being in the middle of this fight. When the large cat roared his attention turned to it briefly, but quickly went back to scanning the room. Half of surviving on a battlefield was situational awareness and right now Cauwyn knew he was on a battle field. When Lilly began thrusting around her hammer, Cauwyn knew it was probably time to leave these two.

As he started to slip away, sliding along the counters edge, he found himself cut off. Lilly had advanced around him, effectively flanking him in her assault on Devin, and cut off his escape. He could, of course, hop the counter again but the last thing he wanted to do was bring attention to himself.

[Ycharley]

Devin shook his head in defeat, "Fine, I'll leave you two to your fun," He said simply before turning to leave. Soon after he was out of sight you could listen to the beating of wings and the roar of a dragon.

Lilly took a deep breath, she could tell Cauwyn wanted to leave. She had effectively driven away everyone. She sat the hammer down gently and stepped out of the way so Cauwyn could leave if he wished. The rage had left her leaving her feeling rather empty and alone. She knew Devin would leave for a few days maybe even a week before he would return.

Lilly wished that he wouldn't be so overbearing, he would eventually have to let her make her own mistakes, he wouldn't be able to protect her forever. Lilly looked down at the counter, "I'll have your spear done in three days," she spoke, her voice rather defeated.

Her brother thought she was no better then a tavern whore, yet he was the one who chased away all the men who would have married her and treated her right because he was always convinced better would come along.

[Doc]

Cauwyn slipped around Lilly and the counter when the route was cleared. He had every intention of bee-lining it to the door and back to the tavern when he heard the defeated sound of her voice. He struck something in him and he sighed, heavily and then stopped his gathering of his things. He leaned his hands upon the counter and looked at the woman for a brief moment. He really didn't do empathy or grief well..

"Hey, don't worry..." He said in a somewhat nervous, yet oddly unreassuringly reassuring voice, "It's uh, not that bad right? At least... ya know, he'll be back.. He just, uh, loves ya... that's all. Yeah." Yeah, that made sense. Siblings loved each other right?

[Ycharley]

A forced smile flashed across her face as she shook her head.

"You don't have to stay to try to make me feel better, I sure Luna is already back in the tavern ready for a second round if any lingering effects from before he showed up are present," She spoke,  before finishing off the last of the potato alcohol.

She turned her back to him before pulling up her top slightly, revealing the end of a rather nasty scar that went up her back. Lilly then went to her forge, throwing in some dragon rocks to start getting it up to temperature so she could start on the spear.

[Doc]

"I want to stay.." Cauwyn lied with a forced smile of his own. When she mentioned the tavern and Luna though, the forced smile turned it's self into a much more genuine smirk, "After what I know, an' where my lips 'ave been this night I don't think a bar wench like that is really the company I would want, yeah?"

His eyes flickered to the large scar and his brows drew down. He knew a thing or two about scars, and that one looked like it had been painful, "How did ya get that? The scar there, on your back.."

[Ycharley]

Lilly shrugged to his question, she didn't know how to respond though she did know that in a way it was a compliment. She took a deep breath as he asked about the scar on her back, she had all but forgotten about it being there.

"From a lashing," She said softly. It was during one of the few wars that had made it to the village. The memory out it made her take a deep breath, she could remember the pain with almost perfect accuracy but she did not regret the scar.

[Doc]

"A lashing?" Cauwyn frowned at the idea, but was curious as well. He leaned his weight forward on the counter, resting on his elbows, "An' for what did ya receive a lashing, girly?" His lips turned into a wry grin, "I don't suppose you hit someone with that hammer of yours.."

[Ycharley]

"What did I tell you about calling me girly?" She asked casting him a quick look. "My brother is a dragon rider and well, during a dispute between some lords they were looking for him," She took a deep breath.

"I wouldn't tell them what they thought I knew so, well, they tried to whip it out of me," she said looking down. She had helped to protect her brother, she wore the proof on her flesh, yet he still thought she deserved to be treated like a child.

[Doc]

"Sorry..." Cauwyn held up a quick hand, "Lilly.."

When she mentioned her story though Cauwyn's frown turned into a grin. He respected her strength, it took a lot to withstand the whip. He'd used it before to get information, and even had it used against him. And that she had done so for her brother? That took courage few people had in them.

"Sounds like yer brother owes ya a lot.." He mentioned it idly, though he was starting to see why they might argue so much, "Maybe ya should remind 'im of that next time goes tellin' ya who ya can and can't fuck.."

[Ycharley]

Lilly shook her head, before turning to look at Cauwyn, she then walked to the counter slowly.

"I doubt it would do any good," She said hopping up to sit on the counter. "My parents died when I was two, so he has been my brother and my parents. He does it because he thinks he is protecting me. He has noble intentions," She tried to explain to him while running her fingers through her hair.

Lilly started re-braid her curly hair with skilled hands. She didn't know what to say now. She had already been so close to the man that she could all but make a sculpture of his front half but yet she knew so little about him.

[Doc]

"That may be so," He countered with a rather wry grin, "but I was man once told me that just 'cause you make a road with good intentions, don't mead it won't lead ya to gettin' fucked over.." He considered the proverb for a second, wondering if that was how it went or not. In his own mind he shrugged it off, "Or somethin' like that.. Point is, just 'cause he thinks he's lookin' out for ya don't mean he is.. Ya should pro'lly tell him that.."

[Ycharley]

"I have told him," She said with a sigh as she finished the first braid. "He won't listen, he thinks he knows best," She said starting on the second braid. There was no reason to have her hair out of there braid now, so she quickly finished.

As she started at her kiln her mind returned to what happened before her brother interrupted them, his lips on her neck. She could recall the sensation on her neck, causing another chill to run up her spine.

Lilly slid off the counter walking to the kiln, using an air pump to start getting the kiln hotter. "You don't have to stay behind the counter."

[Doc]

"Hmm, really?" Cauwyn saw a chance to maybe rekindle something, though he was understandably a bit weary. Not just because of her brothers interruption, but because of what it could do to the girl. He liked Lilly, but as he sauntered around the counter and came up behind her, he knew he didn't like her enough to stay after. He would bed the girl, but a family he would not make and for the first time in a long time, he considered what that might mean to her even as he wrapped his hands around her waist, pulling her back against him. It was a hard decision to make.. "I wouldn't want t' interrupt ya though, or get in yer way.."

[Ycharley]

"Well it will be a little while before I actually start to work, it takes the kiln a while before it gets hot enough," She said letting herself be pulled back against the man. She turned in his arms to face him, looking up at him.

At least if he was here she would be able to distract herself from everything. She wouldn't have to think about what her brother said, or what he thought, or even what she had said to her brother. Nor would she have to think or worry about her brother and where he was and what might happen to him.

[Doc]

"Oh I think we can get it plenty hot enough, lass.." Cauwyn said with a wolfish grin as he turned her in his arms to pin her against a workbench and away from the hot fire. He leaned his head in again, nuzzling at the side of her neck before he continued where he had been so rudely interrupted. Teeth and tongue and lips scraped gently over the soft flesh of her neck, working their way up this time to her ear, but even as he began to suckle upon the tender flesh of her earlobe, his thoughts got the better of him and grudgingly Cauwyn pulled his head back to look down at the girl.

"Lilly..." He said, unsure of exactly how to word what he would say. He'd never said it before, in fact most of the women he'd been with knew things wouldn't usually go past one night or two. Those that thought it would? Well, they were usually left with a broken heart the next morning, but he didn't want that for Lilly. She was a good kid, he liked her and even respected her too much for that, "You know... this? Us? It's uh...heh, hmm.. It's not really..."

[Ycharley]

"I know you're the leaving type," She said simply, "I have no illusion that if I let this get to that point that you will be there in the morning," She continued. She was a logical person and she knew his type, she wasn't planning on letting him bed her honestly. She had too much of a soft heart for the disappointment that that would lead to.

Lilly reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, her fingers playing with his hair gently. She wasn't looking for a prince charming to sweep her off her feet and get married.

Lilly moved her lips to Cauwyn's neck and started to mimic what he had been doing to her.

[Doc]

He gave her a small, apologetic grin as she spilled what he had been thinking. It still hurt a little, to know that was what he was doing to her. Maybe it was selfish to think that way, but he couldn't help it. It was the truth of the matter. When her lips moved to his neck though, those thoughts began to drift away..

"Hmmm.." Cauwyn let out a small groan of pleasure, his head tilting back to give her all the room she needed. His hands tightened around her waist and he pulled the girl closer still, pushing himself against her. She might not have had thoughts of letting it go that far, but it was clear that to Cauwyn that was exactly what he was thinking.