Spirits of the Earth

Keir felt like he were dying. The heat...the sun, the sand! All of it was too much for the Kelpie, especially with how he'd already been out of water for a long time. How long had it been, exactly? Three weeks? At least. He didn't really care about that now as he trudged along, muscles tired and smile gone as he headed towards the one bump on the horizon he thought was a town.

He felt that nothing could bring any happiness right now, that he was doomed to die if he did not find his way out soon. How did a creature dependent on water even end up in the desert? Keir didn't even know himself, it had been a quick, thoughtless decision to venture out. Apparently it was also quite the dim decision.

The wind screeched, whipping sand around him and making it harder to see. Keir groaned, covering his face with his sleeve to try and keep the hot sand from his eyes. Could this get any worse? The spec on the horizon seemed to be getting smaller, the only good thing going on, it seemed. Soon there was even more hope for him, he heard noise. Water? he thought desperately. Noise meant people, right? People meant water...right? Keir would be happy with the smallest of ponds, he just needed a swim, a drink and perhaps a nap too. But he couldn't stop now, he was so close!

Pressing onward, the dehydrated Kelpie had one thing on his mind and he tried to keep himself moving a conscious to reach that one goal.

(( I know he was supposed to sneak up on Keir, but he will later instead! xD It's hard to be sneaky when there's no one else around...))

A nightmarishly black stallion raced against the desert, so unnaturally swift that he  almost seemed a demon gliding across the horizon. Oddly, the mane was /wet/ even in this arid desert, and the droplets of brackish water that flicked off the tips of it, as wind combed through his hair, sizzled on impact with the atmosphere. Became vapor as if it had never existed at all.

How was Caspian supposed to know that the jungle opened up into this lifeless hell?! It was like the two regions just crashed together horribly: one moist and teeming with life, the other parched and without a soul for miles in between the oasis. Well, there was no choice! He'd have to make his way to an oasis (at least he knew there'd be civilization /there/) to settle in one of their... ponds or something.

The flecks of sand that pelted Keir, and the screaming wind around him? That'd been all Caspian's fault, the side effects of his speedy travel and rapid hooves. It wouldn't be too unheard of if Keir hadn't noticed Caspian coming up behind him, because the stallion's ride had been eerily silent before he'd slowed to a soft, rapping trot just a few paces in front of him. He made an about-face to regard the lone traveler he'd just blown past, the face which he'd spied in his peripheral causing him to hesitate. Was that... the kid? What did he say his name was... Caspian flicked one of his fuzzed horse ears at the thought, and began to advance  slowly back towards what he thought /could/ be the Kelpie he'd met once before.

And as he got closer, it was becoming more and more obvious that it was!

A soft, velvety black nose pressed itself up against Keir's forehead quite bluntly, nostrils heaving in air and fanning it back out against his hair. Even that was wet and humid, and the perpetual water of his hair ran in rivulets down his muzzle and painted his pelt an even darker black. Oh, it was that boy, no mistaking it! Luminous white eyes flared brighter for a moment, as if in bestial rage, and the stallion stamped his front hooves loudly against the caked sand of the desert.

"You." Caspian's voice sounded, though the horse's mouth moved not at all, "You're Torin, aren't you? Bastard."

Another speck! Keir cheered silently to himself when suddenly there was another speck on the horizon, but it was bigger! He had to be getting closer now! He was filled with a new-found hope, his step showing a bit of a new spring. Until that speck turned into a giant horse. This brought a couple of reactions from him, the first being curiosity for such a creature to be out in the desert alone and then happiness as, for all he knew, there was some sort of caravan around that got a horse running loose.

Blinded by excitement for this, the fact that this horse was soaked and dripping water completely escaped him. As they neared each other Keir was actually grinning, unaware that he faced another Kelpie who was actually a bit irritated with him. He dared to giggle as the horse pressed its muzzle to him and blew air, innocently in the dark about what was going on. "Hey there, boy," he said softly, eyes bright now despite the horse stamping his hooves. Perhaps he was frustrated with something... When the horse spoke, though, his face began to fall as a wave of astonishment hit him.

That voice...something felt so familiar about that voice, he was sure. But Torin? Where had he come up with that name? Silly horse... Poor Keir. He didn't even know he was facing his own kind. "Bastard? ...that's a mean thing to say, I never did anything to you. You know, I think you have me mixed up with someone else, horse. My name is Keir...Keir, see? I don't even know any Torin..." Of course, Keir didn't remember the time he'd lied about his name to this Kelpie. Poor Keir. Poor, poor Keir.

"B-But!" The voice rang out again, and the stallion made a show circling Keir in a heavy, wary march, "The black hair? The blue eyes? You're not Torin?"

As if in the blink of an eye, the horse dematerialized and a boy stood in his place. Wrapped up in a big white cloth like a human burrito, Caspian glared out from beneath his light hood with vivid gold eyes, and his lips twisted down into a frown. He continued the horse's circle, but in a more quick pace since his bare feet were now exposed to the hot, gritty sand. "Are you sure?" He pushed, moving in closer until he could point one finger accusingly inches from poor Keir's face. It faltered, curled away and tucked back into Caspian's sleeve.

After all, the kelpie he'd met was stubborn and... this boy didn't act like he could even drown a fly.

The weight of having made such a grave mistake began to anchor Caspian's heart to the ground. So he hadn't been able to find that kelpie after all, just when he'd almost gotten his hopes up. "I see." He mumbled, looking away uneasily, "My mistake."

Keir stood there watching this horse that seemed to recognize him so well. Perhaps he'd made a mistake himself? But how? It was then that the horse transformed before his eyes, which widened considerably when he saw the man wrapped in cloth. "You...?" he whispered, watching with amazement as he continued to circle him.

Blinking for the finger suddenly in his face, Keir stared at Caspian. So he was a Kelpie too?! "Aaah! Wait, wait!" he said frantically as the other looked away from him. Embarrassed as it all started to come back to him, Keir blushed a bit and ground his shoe at the caked sand. Reaching out, he lightly grasped the man's shoulder. "I...I remember you... You're Caspian, right? I think I tried to eat you," he said sheepishly. For the moment his thirst and desperate need for even some small body of water were put from his mind, temporarily replaced with wonderment.

Was it really possible? Was this man -who he'd been so keen on killing in previous times- one of his kind? This was beyond embarrassing for him, just the idea of trying to kill the only other Kelpie he'd met! Would Caspian forgive him, though?

With one quick twist of his torso and a step back, Caspian tore his shoulder away from Keir's hand the moment he'd touched him, and spied the other kelpie with suspiciously narrowed gold eyes. Honestly, he wasn't used to bodily contact unless he was attempting to lure someone to their death. Touching, even of the friendly variety, was associated with killing for Caspian.

That's why being touched on the shoulder by someone else was so... surprising!

But his name being uttered was even moreso. "Ah, then it is you. But how could you possibly not remember your own name? Are you daft?" Caspian arched an eyebrow, tucking his arms against his chest in something of a defensive posture as if being touched just then had made him horribly uncomfortable. It had definitely stirred up some seriously conflicting emotions, but that was overshadowed... by the sheer delight of having found another kelpie!

Even if that kelpie had tried to kill him.

But, Caspian understood well enough; he was unattached to feelings about death to the point where it didn't really matter to him anymore. After all, had Caspian been the hungry kelpie, he wouldn't have thought twice before doing the same. "Torin, right? Names aren't things I forget quickly... And I see you remembered mine." The kelpie boy wanted to maintain a stone cold exterior, really he did, but there was no stopping the contented smile and shy duck of the head he followed it up with. Because the other kelpie had thought of him enough to remember his name, even though he didn't know he was of the same breed!

Then again. Maybe it was because Keir had hated him so bad at that point...

So it really was him! Keir was really embarrassed now; he really had tried to eat another Kelpie before! Blushing hotly, and not for the godforsaken heat, he turned his head a little to look out at the desert. "Torin." Why did that name seem familiar? It certainly wasn't his!

Oh, but wait. Yes. Yes, he had also been a big, fat liar before as well. Grinning that little personal grin of his, he eyed Caspian for a moment. "Yeah...I, umm... Torin isn't my name, I use it as a cover for my...victims." He felt a little bad saying this, but it was the truth after all. He wondered why Caspian had pulled away so violently before. Perhaps he was weird about being touched? Keir could understand that, but he just didn't seem the type, unless... Ah, he only likes girls, Keir concluded, nodding to affirm this to himself.

"My real name is Keir, as I said before" he said, still scanning the desert as if he might find something in the endless expanse of sand. "So, are you...? You're like me...maybe?" He wasn't all that sure of what to say, of how to approach this; Caspian was the first Kelpie he'd seen in his life and it was exciting yet also a little strange since he had no idea how to act or what they should or could talk about.

Caspian trotted awkwardly in place, shifting foot to foot to relieve the stinging heat. The other kelpie certainly had an expressive face, and the embarrassed blush that flared up over it amused him, to say the least. "A cover? That's clever." He commented with a click of his tongue, the corners of his mouth pulling into a smirk. Long ago, he'd decided that he couldn't quite hold the fellow kelpie accountable for a task Caspian performed nearly every week since he'd discovered the new civilizations after the apocalypse of the original Earth, simply because Keir had tried it on him.

"Well, Keir," Caspian drawled, emphasizing the kelpie's true name playfully, "We're probably the same in most ways, given we're the same ... thing." He tapped the end of his finger against his chin from beneath the obscene amounts of white linens, mulling over what exactly he could say. There was too much to ask and say at once! Now, affirmed that the boy - with a slightly younger human form, if he could judge so himself - across from him was indeed a kelpie - and the first he'd met in centuries, to boot - Caspian wanted to know everything there was to know about him. How long had he existed? How did he exist? What type of human did he like to eat best? 'Probably male.' He'd answered his own question, recalling how Keir had attempted to eat him over the girl when he'd been given the option.

But why?! Men didn't have as much flavor as the women, typically. Maybe because they fought harder? Keir hadn't appreciated his struggling, if he remembered correctly. 'Maybe it's because he's...' Caspian let his eyes flit up and down Keir's frame, brows furrowed down in momentary thought, and nearly opened his mouth to ask...

But, this bobbing back and forth, it had to stop. Noticing that Keir was also on the hunt for a less lifeless place by taking note of the movements of his eyes, it was the perfect timing to suggest a change of scenery. "Would you rather continue this conversation... somewhere else?" He offered, shielding his eyes from the offensive sun with one hand, "I miss water. The land can be so unforgiving."

(lmaooo, both judging eachother's sexuality XD;;; )

In a way, Keir was jealous of Caspian's...cloth thing; he was at least protected from the winds whipping sand around them. Eyeing the other, who seemed a bit at a loss of what to say, he couldn't help but smile at the way he said his name. He wondered how much older than he he was; he certainly didn't look all that much older in human form, but looks, especially with Kelpies, were quite deceiving.

At the suggestion of moving on, though, he was all too happy to oblige. Caspian himself didn't look too comfortable standing there, hopping around like a hyper little kid who wanted candy, only his feet were probably burning from standing in the hot sand for so long. Nodding, he gestured with his hand and started off at a brisk walk, his arm up to shield his face. "Yes, let's get going! Gah! It's so dry out here!" he said with a frown. "I'd like to talk more, but...well, is there any water out here?! I'm dying!" He knew he was being a bit dramatic, but darn it, it was hot! He was sure he'd shrivel up and die soon if they didn't find something.

Moving along, he turned his head a little to attempt to sneak peaks at Caspian, though that was extremely difficult in his state of thirst and the fact that the man practically wore an entire set of linens. Grinning a little, though, for what he could remember of him, he was content for the time.

So, Caspian had gotten a smile out of Keir. It was a miracle! Or so it seemed, he noted, secretly proud of this newfound ability. Something inside of him secretly wanted the other kelpie's approval, as if it were some sort of need that had to be sated. After all, Caspian found being around other fae and humans overwhelmingly lonely.

He glanced in the other's direction as he fell into step with him, avoiding the side where his arm had been employed to block the sun. Not that it mattered, not really. At this time of day, it was everywhere. But his thoughts were quickly yanked from that offhanded thought, eyes blinking wide and regarding Keir with urgent concern. "Wh-What? You're dying?!" He croaked, moving in closer to try and press his frigid hand up against the boy's forehead. For a social shut-in like Caspian, such dire things were taken quite literally. And if this kelpie died, who would Caspian have? The bottom feeders?

Though he'd noticed that he'd managed to take attention to Keir's face at a moment when he was 'sneaking a peek', his thoughts were far too preoccupied with the boy's confession. He'd probably return to that discovery later, but for now, he was skirting in front of Keir and forcing him to stop in his steps, and peering worriedly at him through the cavern of cotton that hooded his head. "Do you want to ride, instead? Do you..." He cringed at the offer, but ground out the rest of it, "... want to ride me?"

He was surprised at Caspian's vaguely friendly gesture to feel his forehead. Slowing a bit, his arm still up even though he still squinted a bit for the immense brightness, Keir stared at the other man in his ridiculous ensemble. "Umm...well," he began, a bit unsure of what to tell him.

He had no idea why the other kelpie had such concern for him. But Keir wasn't really used to anyone being concerned for him, even if he was just being a baby with his complaining. Regardless, he was glad that Caspian wasn't just going to let him die. Understanding a bit better now by his own device, Keir nodded in agreement. "Well, I might, it's always a possibility. It's just so hot! So hot and there's no water and I haven't been in water in days! Oh, the desert is such a cruel place to me, I'll never live here, never!" As Caspian got in front of him he stopped, unsure of why he wanted to stop whatever progress they were making toward finding some place else to go.

"Ah, ride you? I've never ridden a kelpie. You're not going to take me to my death, are you? Carry me off and eat me?" he asked teasingly, a playful smile lightening his previously pouty expression. "As long as you're not, I would be so glad for that...and maybe it would help with two pairs of eyes higher up."

Keir certainly was the complainer, wasn't he? He cocked his head at his childish confession, melodramatic to the very end! It was kind of endearing, such a stark contrast to his very literal, very mature ways.... Right? He shrunk away from the boy's antics, huffing a bit now that he'd realized how he must've overreacted.

Unaware to Caspian, he was pretty childish himself!

For Caspian instantly regretted his idea. He'd been speaking too fast, too frantically, and had blurted it out before he'd actually had time to consider it. Now, he was willingly letting this boy climb onto his back, hold onto him, and ride him to the nearest body of water. And where could /that/ be? The boy could be riding him for ages! His pride stung, but he bit back on it, wrinkling his nose instead.

But as Keir ribbed him, teasing him in a brotherly fashion, he dropped the sulking kelpie act and laughed darkly. "I'll try not to." Caspian retorted, rolling his eyes, "But an eye for an eye, right? Just promise me that next time, when you say you're going to die, you really mean you'll be dying." And just like that, like a ribbon of distorting heat curling up from the face of the sand, the human Caspian was replaced with his alternative water-horse form. "Promise?" He urged, nickering beneath the words as he shook the endless supply of water from his mane. That Keir might be able to appreciate, at least!

"Come on now." The kelpie pressed mentally, turning an anxious circle in a flurry of hooves. He wouldn't admit it, but it was ridiculously more comfortable with hooves than fleshy feet. "Come aboard."

Keir was happy that he'd been able to get the other kelpie to offer him a ride, and he knew he would be much more comfortable nestled atop a horse's withers than enduring the hot sands licking invisible flames around his feet. The possibility that this search could take hours didn't occur to him, he only cared for his comfort and keeping Caspian within his sight at the moment, for he didn't want to lose his "find".

Grinning foolishly, he chuckled for this promise Caspian wanted him to make, one he seemed so urgent in getting a response to. Watching as he appeared in his kelpie form, though, his features softened as he was assured once again that the other man was, indeed, another of his kind. Nodding and reaching out to pat the stallion's cheek, Keir agreed, "Yes, yes, I promise. I won't say it again unless I mean it." At the other's invitation, though, Keir was all too happy to oblige.

He backed a few steps to give himself a slight running start to clamber atop Caspian's great stallion form. As he managed to get himself lain across the horse's back, he grabbed a fistful of mane and pulled himself up into a sitting position. Shaking his head to get his hair out of his face, Keir grinned. "Caspian, you're a beautiful horse, you know, and I'm quite jealous." Holding onto a bit of his mane still, he reached down with his free hand to pat his neck. "Good boy," he teased, fully expecting him to give him a hard time on this little trip of theirs.

The kelpie subconsciously angled his neck into the friendly pat, delighted at the feel of skin besides his own gracing his body. It had his heart, glazed over in frost, pumping ice-water blood through his equine body in anticipation of another meal, which in turn had Unseelie magic prickling through his brackish flesh. "Good, as long as you promise." He trailed, managing to recall that they were holding a conversation and that Caspian wasn't meant to eat him. It was unnerving how unaccustomed his body was to foreign touch, and how quickly his first response as a kelpie being touched by a human hand was to immediately kill. He stomped out those instincts as quickly as they came. Unfortunately, he was so absorbed in the friendly pat and consequently forcing his body to spare Keir that he didn't notice the other kelpie was about to make a running leap at him until it was too late.

"-The hell do you think you're..." Caspian began, unnaturally long equine ears flattening back against his head in alarm as Keir hopped into the air and landed haphazardly on his back. He whinnied in surprise, whipping his long, wet tail over his back as if attempting to swat away a nasty fly. "Dammit, don't you know how to mount? You're a kelpie! Is this what you make the humans do when you want them to ride you? 'Oh, just fling yourself at me like a god damn drunken ballerina', you novic- Ow!"

Keir had pulled his mane! He felt it sting at the base of his neck, and reared back a few steps in conditioned response to having his head pulled back. "Bastard, damned colt!" He huffed in response to the compliment, not at all pleased with the rough treatment of his dripping hair, "Last we met you ate a hole out of my coat, and now you pull my hair." Caspian was still idly snapping at Keir with his tail, ears quite permanently folded back while he tossed his neck to and fro to discourage that pleasant petting Keir was bestowing. He was mocking him, after all! "You must hate me." The kelpie sighed in jest, jokingly guilting poor Keir through his teeth while he turned his equine head to nibble at the fellow's feet. "Usually I ask for a sacrifice if someone is going to use my... services," He explained, aiming to wrench off Keir's shoe with his incessant nibbling, "But, since you have none, I'll just have to wait! Or you could promise me something I'd want..."

Caspian wasn't serious in the least, and his tone gave that away, for he wouldn't ask the kindred kelpie for anything beyond his company. But, he knew that what was worse than a bronco - what the poor boy had probably expected after his antics - was an unyieldingly stubborn jerk of a horse. Keir would have to butter him up, now! He nickered in a very unhorse-like manner, laughing in the only way his equine vocal chords would allow. "Well?"

He merely laughed at Caspian's antics, pulling his legs forward a bit to try and keep them out of the path of that whipping tail of his. "You're going to cause welts with that thing!" he warned, covering his mouth as he tried to ease his fit. He'd had to stop petting him to do this and still hold on; he wasn't so sure he wouldn't toss him at the first opportunity. Keir hadn't expected him to get so upset. After all, he wasn't all that heavy or anything, but he knew that his skills lay in being that picturesque fairytale horse rather than riding one. Nonetheless, he wasn't completely lost on the concept of riding and he'd known enough to stay on gracefully through Caspian's rearing.

As he started pulling at his shoe he looked down, grinning that goofy, happy grin of his and pat Caspian's muzzle before straightening so that he wouldn't fall over. "Ah, no hate here unless it's you toward me. I doubt that, though, seeing as you offered and all." Keir, though a grown adult, still couldn't fully grasp the concept of sarcasm. Some joking was lost on him and now he took Caspian's words quite seriously. Frowning a little, puzzled as he thought of what he could give the kelpie, he attempted to pull his foot back to reclaim the shoe Caspian seemed intent upon snatching off. "A sacrifice? Do you let many people ride you, Caspian?"

Subconsciously, Keir began stroking the kelpie's neck again, the action so normal to him somehow; the young man was leaning over a little just so he could do so properly, too. He still wasn't catching on to the fact that Caspian was merely joking with him, playing a game of sorts, and thus was intent on figuring out what to do. "Well, what would you want from me? What are you normally promised as "sacrifice"s? Or offerings or whatever..." Poor Keir was dead serious, and how could he possibly know what he might be getting himself into?

'Not bad.' He remarked inwardly, impressed by Keir's ability to stay grounded on his back, without a saddle, while he'd been bouncing about. Like Keir, Caspian had also typically played the horse as opposed to the rider, so the fact that the other had the capability to stay straddled over his back was a certain feat. Perhaps... he must have had some knack for riding horses, and had simply been ironically born has a water horse fae instead. 'Not that I'd ever let him ride me. Except for... now.' He decided, as headstrong as ever to remain a predator and not someone's most convenient form of travel from point A to point B. He was a force to be reckoned with, dammit!

Once Caspian had realized that their playful banter had turned into a serious discussion, he pulled his mouth away from Keir's shoe and peered up curiously at him from between the wet locks of hair draped over his equine face. He could've sworn he saw Keir smiling, but now that he was considering what he could do to repay Caspian, he was sure he'd been misinterpreted. "Oh..." He tried, unsure of how to explain the nature of his servitude, "I am of the Unseelie Court. Through it, I can be summoned to do bidding. Not against my will, of course, but I sometimes surface to amuse myself..." '-and, to sate my loneliness-' Caspian added in thought, bowing his neck to accept the disarming pats to his neck. He closed his eyes in pleasure, clicking his blunt teeth together while he mentally impressed the words he wanted to say, "...They usually just need the mount. Some want to slay me. But for those who want my services, I ask for something in return. A trade off. Like a... meal. Or a trinket, if I like it. Whatever I deem fit." Caspian angled his head to face Keir more directly, searching for some type of understanding in the blues of his eyes. "Aren't you... Unseelie?"

It was calming for Keir, even in the torturous heat, to simply pet Caspian in his horse form. Despite being a kelpie, he still liked horses and found them to be quite fascinating creatures. As a kelpie, though, Keir tended to come up quite short on his accomplishments. While Caspian explained the role that he played, he realized that this was the first he'd heard of anything like this; a kelpie being summoned, the Unseelie Court - Keir knew nothing.

Being sheltered would be putting it kindly, but Keir was simply ignorant to all things fae besides the fact of his existence and that of Caspian and a small number of other creatures he had encountered in his life. What was being described to him seemed interesting enough for his curious mind, though. "So you're...a slave by choice?" he questioned, moving his hand up to the stallion's withers to gently scratch at. "Or something? And, I'm sorry to be so blunt, but could we please get going? I think I might just melt if we're out here much longer...do you have any idea of where to go?"

ooc: I'm sorry that it's so short and that I took so long to get this posted. o.o

Caspian didn't speak, stayed carefully composed as Keir expressed his confusion about his state of existence. After all, not all fairy spirits belonged to a court, those being the solitary fae. And, not all kelpie would have to be regarded as fairy. He didn't have the slightest notion about the specifics of Keir's being, so there was still the possibility that, though they were both Kelpie, that they weren't half as similar as Caspian had first assumed.

But Keir was still busy scratching him idly, and while he didn't quite have to think about it, it was making Caspian want to lay down and close his eyes. Not to mention, with every pulse that Keir's body had, he wanted more and more to act out on instinct and find the nearest pool of water to promptly end Keir's life in.

Luckily, he couldn't do that, but at least those instincts would assist him in finding the environment they both so seeked. "You're right..." He trailed, allowing the topic of the courts and his servitude drop  with the fullest intentions of never revisiting. Instead, the dark horse bowed his body down until his nose was hovering a mere inch above the ground, neck sloped low and front joints buckled nearly in half. It was as if he hadn't a care in the world about his rider, and frankly, he just supposed that Keir would lean back and dig in lest he face being tumbled off Caspian's head. After sniffing the ground more like a dog than a horse ever would, Caspian bolted upright, swiveled his head about a bit frantically, altered his trajectory by about 20 degrees west, and flew. As if his haunches had been wound back like springs, he barreled off the packed sand of the desert and continued on at the same pace he had been before he'd come across Keir, racing across the landscape like a bat out of hell.

It occurred to him that, while his thick kelpie skin might have deflected the grains of sand easily, Keir might not be fairing as well. So, with one dozy of a spin around, Caspian whipped his tail up and over his back, effectively pelting Keir with it in such a fashion as it would flop wetly into his lap. Given it's permanently-dripping qualities, it had the potential to shield his rider at least somewhat from the sand. "You can use it as a shroud, if you wish." The stallion stated inappropriately, well-knowing that he was about two seconds too late to have informed Keir of that option.

But, he was still sore about having his hair pulled and well... that ought to do it, for now. "Up ahead, do you smell it?"

(( It's water. xD Dunno if Keir can smell water. And ditto about the sorry! This post is rusheddd, trying to close up the time between them running pointlessly through a desert anddd playing in an oasissss! x3 ))

Now he didn't care so much for Caspian's reply so much as getting some shelter of some sort from heat. Thus, he didn't mind so much when his questions weren't answered directly. Abruptly, he was tossed forward by the motion of the stallion bowing down in the most awkward way. Quickly grabbing a handful of mane, while being careful not to pull this time, he repositioned himself as the horse sniffed the ground. "What are you doing?!" he squealed, his dangling legs momentarily lowered in such a way that he could set his feet on the ground. And then he was being thrown back again as Caspian straightened up. "What is your problem?!" he whined. "You are so weird! Who sniffs the gro-" (Un)fortunately, Keir was quieted as the stallion lunged forward and dashed across the sand.

In a desperate attempt to stay aboard as Caspian made such an abrupt move, Keir locked his arms around the horse's neck until he got the stride of his gallop down. Then, carefully, he eased himself back and managed to feel secure with only his hands firmly holding their own lock of mane. Now he was faced with yet another problem; the sand hitting his exposed arms, neck, and face felt like bullets as they raced across the sand. "OWWWWW!!!" he whined, though his wails were most-likely lost on the wind. Great, he thought. Could this get any worse? Apparently, yes.

When he felt the sting of Caspian's tail slapped onto his leg all he could do was roll his eyes. "Well, thanks," he muttered, wrapping the make-shift cover around his head. He figured his arms could take the pain more.

Just a bit later Keir felt a change, though he wasn't sure exactly what it was. Caspian asked if he could smell something and he made an earnest effort to sniff. "I...yeah, what is that? Is it...water?" he asked hopefully, squinting to see if his eyes might catch something new upon the horizon. "Wait...do you see that?! That speck! GO TO THE SPECK!!" he urged excitedly, tapping his heels against the stallion's sides, momentarily forgetting that he wasn't just a horse to be ridden. Oops...oh well, there's water!

ooc: Yayyyyyyyy waterrrrr!!! 8D xD

Caspian was secretly and strangely pleased when Keir had called him weird, happy enough to spare Keir his wrath for having acted so untoward when he'd sniffed the ground. Especially sniffing the ground when said ground composed of obnoxious flecks of sand huffing up your nose; it was a necessary sacrifice to approximate the general direction of water. Didn't Keir know that?!

The dark horse was roused from his thoughts, however, when his rider had the sheer audacity to tap his dirty, sandy heels against his sleek black flanks! "Watch it!" He seethed, slowing in his breakneck pace so he could twist his neck around and attempt to nip at the the offending feet. Ooh, Keir was in for it once he was off Caspian's back, and the older kelpie made sure his rider knew that with a vicious glare of his white eyes. "You colt! I'm not your pony. Continue that act and I'll cut your hair off while you sleep." He punctuated the threat with a snort right up Keir's left leg, having flattened his wide, wet nose against it and huffed out a rather cold breath for something having come out of Caspian's body.

Then again, Caspian was freezing cold all of the time, wasn't he? And Keir was perhaps not as cold, or maybe even warm against his back, igniting a rush of thousands of years of Kelpie instincts to rise to the surface. That body weight against him, so distinct he felt he could outline Keir's form based on pure touch, and the voice, the breath, all of the tellings of a rider upon his back, and furthermore, Caspian's mouth a mere inch away from the flesh... It was all too confusing, and unwelcome feelings to boot. He didn't want to eat Keir. He knew he couldn't drown him anyway, so why was his body still reacting like there was prey seated comfortably against his skin?

He jerked his head away from Keir's leg and picked up his speed, rushing off wordlessly towards the speck, while his long mane trailed behind and smacked against his rider like a drippy banner of coal. The faster he got to the oasis, the sooner the other kelpie would be off of him. That thought alone had him spurring faster than before, Unseelie magic prickling at his hooves and propelling him through the desert. His skin was beginning to adhere to Keir's unknowingly, it's adhesive properties as activated by magic beginning to react to the presence of a rider all on it's own. The boy would find that his clothes were effectively stuck to Caspian, and even the hands fisted in the horses' mane would be quite permanently attached there. It was to the effect of riding a steed painted in super glue.

But that wouldn't matter, for they were advancing on the horizon faster and faster, and said 'speck' was becoming a full blown village placed just a mile or so away from a lush, green gathering of tropical weeds and palms. Caspian made short work of leaping over said weeds, bounding off his back haunches and catapulting through the air. Perhaps it was better that Keir was stuck to him, in this way, not that Caspian had any idea that his magic had done so to him. So, both driven by instinct and the need to land them both in the watery center of the oasis, he dove directly into the deepest, dead center of the pool.

Keir merely grinned at the stallion as he slowed to give him a momentary lecture. "Sorry!" he said, chuckling at Caspian's threat to cut off his hair, though it was something the kelpie, in the back of his mind, did fear; he took great pride in his hair. The huff of cold air against his skin made him shiver a little, but he couldn't help but smile still. After all, it was a horse that was making threats.

He wasn't aware of the fact that Caspian's instincts kept kicking in while he was there. He had no idea that it made Caspian want to kill, though perhaps not kill him. Keir also wasn't aware of the fact that anything touching the other kelpie's equine form was slowly becoming affixed to him. At the moment he wasn't noticing because of his concentration on even staying atop the horse; he was too busy gripping his legs around the sides of the stallion's barrel, tangling his hands into what mane he could grasp, and trying not to focus on the fact that a mere layer of cloth separated the horse's spiny back from very personal areas.

Keir was grateful when that "speck" began to turn into tangible objects, and soon a heavenly sight appeared before his eyes: the oasis he'd so been hoping to find. He didn't have much time to admire the sight, though, as Caspian was soon leaping over the barrier of weeds and short brush separating the desert sands from the beautiful pool of water. Quickly, he closed his eyes and prepared for impact.

As a rush of water hit his body, he felt it pushing him back...but he didn't come off Caspian's back like he'd expected to. Horrified, he looked up at the surface above them, the calm water disturbed and thrashing about in waves they'd created. Never having had a need to resort to luring a victim using his true kelpie form, Keir was confused as to what exactly was happening. He tried to pull away again, trying to loose his hands from the stallion's mane, and found that he was still stuck. Letting out a short cry of frustration, Keir slammed his heels into Caspian's sides. "I'm STUCK!!" he yelled at the horse. "CHANGE BACK!" Of course, his words wouldn't come out exactly as he intended, they were in water after all.

As the dark horse plummeted into the water, breaking the surface violently and descending at an alarming pace towards the bottom, struggling was the worst thing Keir could have done. Even his shrieks, incomprehensible soundwaves wriggling through the water, pleased the kelpie in Caspian. The rider's desperate heeling against his ribs merely spurred him on like it would spur on any other horse, and awakened the instinct in him. So, he trotted further down leisurely into the depths, his eyes blindingly white beacons of light as the sunlight fizzled out into a dangerous, dark blue. It wouldn't take long for them to reach it, simply due to the typically shallow nature of Oasis springs compared to something as enormous as the sea, but by the time his hooves touched the underwater sediment-coated floor... Caspian was completely enchanted.

"Change back!", Keir had yelled previously, the two words distinguishable by the recognizable vowels and  brevity in length... so, change back he did, taking back his human form as quickly as one could blink, and spinning about to give the other kelpie a wild look. Seeing Keir's face, familiar blue eyes through the darkness of the depths, should have eased him. But instead, the fairy in him refused to give the other kelpie a moment to potentially get away or do.. much of anything, so Caspian lashed out, grabbing Keir by his shoulders, and spinning about in the water to pin the boy's back down against the sand. It billowed up around them in their wake, clouding like smoke.

Caspian snaked his hands over to Keir's elbows, locking them in place with a grip aided by inhuman Unseelie essence, and planted his knees on either side of his waist. He was crouched over Keir much like some cat would over a mouse, and as he leaned forward to inch towards Keir's neck, he seemed to tremble with either internal struggle or desire.

Whatever he'd been fighting, it would have appeared to have won haphazardly, for the kelpie closed his chilled mouth around Keir's shoulder instead, a stark contrast against the warm spring waters. His blunt teeth pressed hesitantly against his skin - reluctantly applying more pressure, as if he knew it was wrong. The eating of live things was unheard of for Caspian typically, but he couldn't seem to convince his instincts of that. This attack was as involuntary as one's heart beating, really, and his veins sang with need.

It was such a strange thing to be the one dragged down to the depths of this oasis, and all the way down he was still struggling against the hold Caspian's magic held him in. Of course, it did nothing but frustrate him as he couldn't get away from the other kelpie like this, and so he stayed fixed against him as he was pulled down to the bottom by the other's own strength.

He was grateful when Caspian changed back and his feet could finally touch the bottom on their own, but when he looked at him, his own expression one a mix of confusion and thinking that Caspian was merely toying with him, Keir felt a little alarmed as he saw such a fierce and piercing look in those golden eyes. "Caspian?" he questioned cautiously, moving to take a step back; no sooner had he done so than found himself roughly grabbed and slung to the sand. Of course he fought it, but it was a losing battle with the advantage of instinct the other kelpie had over him.

Though he wasn't frightened, he was pretty confused with all of this. Perhaps he's playing a game, Keir tried to convince himself, looking up at the one who'd felt it necessary to pin him down. He found that same feral look about him, though, and a tinge of worry set in. "What are you doing?!" he demanded, flinging his arms up wildly as Caspian worked his way down to pin his elbows, making his arms pretty useless henceforth.

He began to feel trapped as the other kelpie took care to try and keep him down, his thin body seemingly not thin enough to slip away from his grasp. "Hey, stop it!" he yelled, twisting his hips around to try and knock Caspian off balance as he found his arms being pinned with excessive pressure. "I'm sorry I kicked you! Let go! ...OUCH, that HURTS!!!" Wincing, Keir desperately started looking for an out, his instinct to escape causing him to thrash about any way he could.

He finally realized that he was a target when the other man was getting close to his neck, that crazed look of bloodlust so near that he could see it was consuming him. Terrified of the idea that Caspian was going to eat him, and alive no less, Keir desperately pressed himself back into the sand and leaned his head back to try and put even a few more inches between teeth and flesh. It was a lost cause, though, for he soon found himself firmly stuck in a situation he never dreamed he would be in with his own kind squarely after his death. Gasping as the sharp contrast in temperature registered with him, Keir frowned in frustration before yelping in pain as the pressure of those teeth gnashed at the sensitive skin of his shoulder. "CASPIAN!!" he yelled. "THIS IS NOT A GAME ANYMORE, STOP IT!! STOP IT RIGHT NOW, THAT HURTS!!"

Though it probably wasn't the best thing to do, Keir pushed against Caspian now, trying with all his might to loosen the kelpie's grip and hopefully knock him out of whatever trance he'd been taken by. Not knowing what else to do, he leaned forward and nipped at his attacker's neck, wanting him to know just how it felt being chewed on.

Caspian was stunned by Keir's struggling, and tried harder to keep the boy's convulsing muscles from jarring his mouth from his shoulder. It was shocking for him, completely baffling to be in such a position - after all, he didn't usually have to fight his meals. They weren't of the moving variety once they were drowned. With each jerk, spasm, kick, Caspian came to himself fragment by fragment.

'How...' Came the first thought, breaking into his conscious like sunlight seeping through a storm. This tiny facet of awareness first observed that, despite his previous attempts to intercept his instincts and keep them from biting down against Keir's skin - well, biting down hard, anyway-, the boy's struggling had made his teeth break the skin. As that blood ribboned out into the water, touching the edges of his teeth so faintly, his thoughts were reduced to ashes. Crazily, lewdly, Caspian dragged his tongue across the minor cut, lapping up whatever blood was leaking from his victim's shoulder.

The flavor, however, had him stopping mid-lick. "...Ew."

"CASPIAN!" The shout anchored him back to reality, had him freezing in place. The rest of the words were muffled to his ears, as if he were still trying to hear it through his cotton burrito - which, to be honest, had come undone in the wreckage and was hanging on for dear life at his waist. Caspian did hear a lot of 'stop it's, though, and when he'd felt that telltale pinch of a mouth on his neck, far too close to his pulse, he gasped sharply with both the pain and the shock. He lifted his head, his pupils constricting to normal from their once ferally dilated state. Keir's face came into focus slowly, though he was tossing all around, shrouding a lot of what had been transpiring between them in grainy bits of sand. The black hair... blue eyes... and... horror? It was the other kelpie, and he was scared because...

Caspian looked down, finally coming into full realization just before he was bucked rather forcefully off of Keir's body. "W..." He began, but trailed off at that solitary letter as all of the evidence of how wrongly he'd just treated the other kelpie came flooding back from his memory. His gut was wrenching at the recollection of Keir's innocent confusion, and as Caspian hovered in underwater limbo, he had to clasp his hand over his mouth.

He'd met a kelpie, for the first time in his life, and had made to eat him! Maybe this was his destiny, to be alone forever. He glanced up nervously at Keir's face, wanting to judge the severity of his kindred's hate for him at this point, but cast his eyes back down. He couldn't bare to look.

Grateful when he finally got Caspian off of him, Keir immediately scrambling up from the sand and floated a little in the water as he surveyed the damage. His clothes, he was certain, would be filled with sand when he surfaced, and now he had that little cut on his shoulder, and it stung. Not as badly as it would had they been in saltwater, but it still stung.

For a while he didn't look at Caspian, as he was so preoccupied with himself, but eventually he did look to the other kelpie with confused and slightly sad eyes. To say what had happened was alarming would be an understatement; while Keir was certainly inexperienced he had never been tangled up with being "hunted" before now. He was hurt that this other kelpie had tried to eat him.

"Um..." Unsure of how to start, Keir put a hand up to his shoulder and pressed at the cut, trying to get it to stop trickling blood because it hurt being open like that. Moving a little closer to Caspian, staring at his face for a moment with his whole look of dejection, he eventually smiled just a little bit. Once the "cloud" of sand had settled a little, he nudged him with his foot and tilted his head up, trying to indicate the surface to him. Then he was heading up, pushing off of the bottom and letting himself swim lazily to the surface. Just as fast as he'd become fearful and angry he snapped back to being his normal, perfectly fine self. Inwardly, of course; Keir had every intention of milking this whole incident for everything it was worth.

He swam lazily to the surface, pretending to be injured the whole way up as he let his "hurt" arm dangle. When his head popped up to the surface he continued to "struggle" as he made his way to shallower waters and then dry land. Flopping down dramatically, Keir stared at the ground and feigned exhaustion. "This is going to kill me! I can't believe this happened..."

Nothing sounded better to Caspian at this moment than to curl up in the blue darkness of the bottom of the spring, hunch down in the plant-dappled sand, and sulk. Sulk for a good, long time. Just as he was quite seriously contemplating doing just that, the side of his calf felt the inclination of Keir's foot. It was so unexpectedly gentle a nudge, the older kelpie looked up at his kindred with a face twisted in utter confusion. Nervously, cautiously, Caspian followed him to the water's edge. It was a shame Keir was in front of him - it might have been undyingly amusing to him to see the way Caspian swam, the way he wriggled his entire body up and down like some drunk sea mammal as opposed to moving like a regular human. Once Caspian felt his feet colliding with the shelf of the spring, however, he ceased 'doing the worm' through the water, and waded over to Keir's side with a perplexed, speculative cock of his head.

"Kill you? Did I break the bone?" He asked slowly, clutching the linens around his hips so that Keir wouldn't see a little - or, in Caspian's opinion, a lot ;] - more than he wanted to as Caspian went to his knees beside him. Although he wasn't denying that he'd most certainly harmed the poor kelpie, he doubted it was anything mortal. And then, before he could bite his tongue, the words came falling out of his mouth, "You promised." The last word, stressed for importance, came out more like a disappointed child berating his dad for not attending their sport's game. He was alluding to the promise Keir had made not to feign his demise to Caspian, of course, but he realized as an afterthought that it was ten different shades of rude to be bothering the kelpie for a trifle of words after he'd just tried to eat him. Eat him alive, to boot! Gold eyes wide with borderline worry, Caspian hovered over Keir's sprawled body, dripping water down from the tips of his green-black hair. "I'm sorry."

As he lie there, just looking up at the sky and squinting for the bright sunlight, Keir wondered briefly if there was any danger to him from the tiny scratch of a bite on his shoulder. It was unlikely, it wasn't like Caspian had some sort of venom or something, and so he felt he didn't really have anything to worry about. It wasn't until Caspian was hovering over him that he realized what he'd said and that it broke a promise he'd made not long before.

Instantly he regretted it, what with that look of worry on Caspian's face. "I..." What could he say? He wasn't about to lie to him, that would have been rude anyway, but he knew that telling the truth would probably hurt his feelings too. "Well," he started, trying his best to think on his toes like this. "What if it gets infected?! I mean look at it, Caspian!" Yet he didn't move his hand, keeping  it firmly cupped against the minor wound because he knew such a small thing probably wouldn't have any chance at getting infected and he didn't want Caspian to tell him that after he'd made such a scene over it. "It's a possibility, isn't it? I mean--"

He saw that look in the other kelpie's eyes; the same golden eyes that had glared at him not even an hour before now held that look of sadness, a desire for forgiveness from Keir. His own expression mellowed for it -he wasn't about to make Caspian feel any worse about this than he already did- and he smiled that radiant, friendly smile of his. "It's alright, I know you're sorry, it was just an accident anyway...right?"

Perhaps there were more differences between Caspian and Keir than he'd first anticipated. First, Keir was essentially solitary fae... But was he even a fairy to begin with? Didn't he know about magic, glamour, or even how Kelpies went about drowning their victims? He leaned in with curious eyes when the boy had mentioned getting an infection, something quite unheard of for a Kelpie, whose blood was able to purify even the worst substances, infections, or poisons. Right?

But Caspian had never met another Kelpie before, so it was possible that Keir was another breed of Kelpie all together! After all, he had different features than Caspian - what with the black hair and blue eyes -, so it could be possible that they were different... subspecies of their kind? He found he wanted to know more, wanted to know everything about the boy sprawled beside him, but it would have to wait until he'd cleared up... well, almost devouring him.

He ducked down closer to peer in anticipation of Keir actually showing him the wound, but he'd hadn't actually moved his hand out of the way. He'd almost been tempted to pry the fingers apart, had his hand tenatively inching closer, before stopping completely. After what had just transpired, Caspian felt far too guilt-struck to even attempt touching Keir at this point. What if he'd scared him? His mouth pulled into an upset frown, his heart sinking like an anchor. "Let me see? I could help you..." He suggested shamefully, moving his hand to instead brush bits of sand out of Keir's thick, black hair, "My blood can cure any taint. Does it feel like it will get infected? Does it..." His sentence broke here, and he stammered it over as he tried to process it. He'd never actually... asked someone this before, but the fact that he'd grown to care about someone enough to wonder had his breath catching with emotion, "Does it still hurt you?"

He shimmied closer, completely unconvinced by Keir's smile and acceptance of his apology. "Of course it was an accident, you colt. Stop pretending you aren't hurt." It was an act, he was sure, because Keir was just so thoughtful as to sacrifice his own well being with Caspian's happiness! Chest puffed out with this revelation, the kelpie nipped the tip of his own finger until a solitary bead of blood welled to the surface. "Here," He declared, eyebrows furrowed with determination. He didn't so much as look at Keir's face, his eyes pointedly fixated on the hand cupping his wound, "Show me? Let me mix our blood together." It was creepy, the very serious and obsessed way that he said it, and it sounded much more like some brotherhood cult ritual than someone trying to aid another. "I've been summoned twice to cure poison. They all say it only tingles a bit, but it might sting from the cold. Makes your muscles... convulse." He explained, balancing his finger as to keep the blood from dripping off prematurely. After biting into the poor kid, it wasn't like he was going to bleed on him willy-nilly now. No need to terrify him more than he already had... is currently... or possibly will in the future. "Trust me?"

It was true that while Caspian and Keir were so similar they were also quite different in some respects. Keir was not as "unbreakable" as the older kelpie, for one, though he didn't like that feeling of vulnerability in that he had such power yet could also be hurt so easily. He had no idea that Caspian was so interested in learning about him, but he was quite sure that he didn't want to lose sight of this other kelpie. Perhaps it was the fear of losing that feeling of acceptance or of finding a kindred, but Keir was certain that he liked having Caspian around.

It was interesting, what he heard, and it made him a little curious: Was his blood like that, too? Keir was virtually clueless about most things Kelpie-related, including his differences from most, so he also wondered if it was some quality unique to Caspian and it got him a little curious. On the inside he'd cheered a little for the other's apparent desire to help him, what with the eagerness to see the bite, but he was hesitant to let him see such a small wound. "Oh, it's nothing, really, don't worry!" he'd insisted at the offer of help, though he was quickly pacified by the seemingly gentle action of Caspian brushing some of the sand from his hair- he was sure there would be more in it once he got up. It was surprising to him that this other kelpie seemed to care about his well being, that he wasn't just some pesky, annoying brat to him.

He decided to be honest with Caspian, mostly because he looked so worried and concerned, and he chuckled a little for that determined look on his face. "Well, maybe I was overreacting a little, it probably won't get infected, but I think I got a little sand in it...stings a little--but not for the bite! It doesn't hurt because you bit me! It..." and then he was mumbling something about water and sand, realizing that he was probably only making this worse for Caspian. "No, really!" he insisted as he watched the older male bite at his own finger. "Caspian, it's fine!" But it was too late, of course, Caspian wasn't even paying attention to him and he looked so focused on doing whatever he perceived as helpful.

"Oh sure, because having convulsions sounds so pleasant," he teased. There was just something about his seriousness, though, and about his asking for trust that got to him. Keir wasn't usually so nice about things, especially if he'd been harmed even in the smallest way, but he felt Caspian deserved to feel like he'd helped him because he sounded like he felt so guilty about it all. Finally, with a small sigh, Keir moved his hand away from his shoulder to show the cut. "I trust you, Caspian, but it really isn't anything to worry about, you know." He wasn't sure exactly what was going to happen, if the other kelpie was serious about mixing blood and such, but he hoped he wasn't going to faint whatever it would be. That would be embarrassing.

Little did Keir know, he was far from being a mere pesky brat in Caspian's mind. Granted, Keir was most definitely a pesky brat, but as a fellow kelpie, and especially as someone who had opted to stick around after all that had transpired, he'd proved his worth. For now, Keir was as immediately dear to Caspian as a little brother would be. At least it explained the nagging pull Caspian felt to spare the boy, or how quickly he'd offered up services without retribution to this stranger that he would have made even his Unseelie Court pay dearly for.

But in this instant, it seemed that Caspian was the one paying dearly, hunched over the body of a persistently defiant and painfully innocent kelpie boy, with his own blood beginning to slowly pool beneath a fingernail. He huffed, eyes half-mast as he awaited Keir to finish resisting. He certainly did want to hide it from him, didn't he? There was no way of hiding the existence of a wound, as if Caspian hadn't even tasted the blood on his own tongue. Regretfully tasted it, if he remembered the blood's unappetizing flavor correctly. Maybe it was his own interpretation, or perhaps some ancient kelpie adaptation so that they would be repelled from cannibalism, but Keir's blood was comparable to perhaps a mound of dirt, or a delicate wine of fermented worms.

With those unappetizing thoughts in his mind, seeing the very slight cut present in Keir's shoulder was almost... disappointing. Caspian fixated the wound with an intense gaze, one hand primed nearby with a fingertip of blood, but his only outward manifestation of the let down was a quip of his eyebrow. "This..." He sighed, drawing his eyes up from the unimpressive wound towards Keir's face - but stopped, unexpectedly halted by a confession of trust. He hadn't ever been... trusted before. He wasn't sure what answer he was expecting from the question proposed previously, or if he had wanted an answer at all, but the uncomfortably warm knowledge that the other kelpie actually did made him want to be worthy of such an honor. Didn't quite like the wild, happy grin it possessed his lips with, though.

"I doubt it will hurt you very badly." He assured the boy while trying to fight off the smile that downright refused to stop trespassing on his face, "And if it does, it can't be worse than an infection, or losing a limb. Might've even lost that one socked hoof you have." And god dammit, if that last comment he'd made himself didn't only make his grin widen. It would seem sadistic in this context, but really, he just hadn't been so happy in quite some time. Meanwhile, he'd braced one hand in the short line of beach before the oasis degraded into it's natural hedge, and used his other hand to smear the dab of blood across the small cut. Though he was trying to be as gentle as possible, he had to apply at least a little pressure to ensure the blood leaked into a wound that was so very not fatal. "There..." He breathed when he'd finished, quietly as if he'd been holding his breath in anticipation. No one, or at least anyone in the immediate area, could possibly say how Keir would react, so Caspian watched his face with big, curious eyes. And, recalling how Keir had seemed somehow calmed by the simple and considerate action of removing sand from his hair - even if it was a futile gesture -, he awkwardly tried to smooth some of the remaining black tendrils away from the boy's face. "How do you feel?"

He had no clue why Caspian was smiling like he was. It was a little strange to have someone so stubborn about helping him even with something as small as he deemed this. At least it wasn't scary. It surprised him that he'd remembered what he'd looked like as a horse; it was such a specific, if noticeable, detail to remember after only seeing him as such once before and for a brief amount of time at that. And he was pretty sure this was the happiest-looking he'd seen Caspian since they'd met, which had its pluses; Keir preferred seeing smiles to frowns, for the most part- and who wouldn't?

Keir smiled a little, he hadn't really known until now what it felt like for someone to remember something like that about him because for the most part he'd killed anyone who'd seen it or was avoiding them out of embarrassment for not being successful in making a meal out of them. The idea of pain, though, however small, was unnerving and it made him tense up as he felt Caspian's bloodied finger on his shoulder. He closed his eyes and waited until it was over, relieved that nothing happened immediately. When he opened his eyes to meet a pair that looked wholeheartedly concerned, though, he just couldn't resist the temptation to mess with him yet again.

Immediately, he dug his hands into the sand and turned his head away with a scrunched up and pained, if fake, expression. He kind of felt bad as he realized that Caspian still seemed concerned for him and was trying to do what he could to comfort him, but he didn't feel bad enough to leave the theatrics where they were. Squinting his eyes shut, Keir mustered a sniffle. He didn't dare open his eyes until he was sure he'd welled up enough to shed some believable tears. When he was sure he could get himself to cry a little he turned his head again and opened his eyes to look at Caspian. He was all smiles on the inside as he felt a few droplets crawling down his cheeks in curved streaks.

"It hurts me," he squeaked out. "It...you..." He quickly wiped the bits of sand from one of his hands onto his shirt so he wouldn't get any in his face and then proceeded to wipe at his tears. "You didn't bother to give me a bandage, you...you mean Kelpie!" he clarified, grinning like a foolish child. "Am I supposed to just leave it like it is?! What if I get sand in it because you left it as an open wound?!" He would've been busting out laughing if he wasn't trying to keep some composure so Caspian wouldn't smack him silly for what he'd done; he knew well enough how mean it was to mislead his kindred.

He wiped at whatever tears were left and smiled, doing what he could to try and pacify Caspian. Slowly, he pushed himself to sit up and frowned as he tried to shake the sand from the rest of his hair. It was nice to know and actually feel that someone was concerned for him since he'd never really had anyone to rely on, but at the moment he was completely abusing what trust was between them. Briefly, he wondered how long it might last, or really if it would last at all after he'd just faked something again. In an attempt to salvage whatever good mood Caspian had appeared to be in, though, Keir made an effort to maintain eye contact with him. "I'm sorry, Caspian," he told him with that goofy smile of his. "Please don't be mad or anything, I just couldn't resist and... well, thank you for your help. Hopefully it will keep me from getting into any big problems or anything. Forgive me? Please?"

Though the sun was beating down on them with a ferocity only the desert could possess, and even though Caspian would rather beat himself over the head with a beached whale than endure another moment outside of the water in this heat, he found an odd comfort kneeling next to Keir. His face felt strange, for a lack of a better word, in having been smiling so consistently for so long. And on that note, his insides felt stranger, strung tight with worry but undeniably, positively fuzzy with happiness. And why was he so happy? Because Keir said he'd trusted him, because Keir didn't run away, or because he hadn't simply died much like everyone else might have in the same situation? Or maybe because, for the first time, Caspian felt as if he were just where he belonged, perched in the sand over the body of this fellow kelpie, wiping his blood dementedly over his shoulder.

Er... Well, it didn't sound so good thought out in so many comprehensible and tangible sentences, but the feeling itself was satisfying and very new to Caspian. It felt like the day could quite literally only go upwards from this low point, and given the odds... well, it was highly unlikely that anything could ever be worse than trying to eat someone. Unless, of course, your attempts to make that person feel better out of a deep rooted emotion - which Caspian wouldn't even bother identifying right now, but was relievingly brotherly in nature - backfired in the most terrible way. Which was what Caspian was waiting to find out! At the most, he might have expected a few twitches, or little twinge of discomfort. He wasn't at all braced for what was about to happen, but when it did, he reacted openly. His typical, tough-kelpie filter was no where to be found in this moment of vulnerability.

And what a moment it was, absolutely key for Keir to pull such a dramatic stunt!

Caspian froze in place like a mannequin, his blood-stained finger preserving it's exact position over Keir's shoulder as he watched on in nothing less than completely undisguised horror. "K-Keir...?" He spluttered, eyes snapped wide and brows knit upward in genuine confusion, "Keir, what is it?! Are y-" But he never was able to finished his sentence, felt his cognitive ability to form cohesive sentences drop from the tip of his tongue as the younger kelpie sniffled in an adorably sad way, and then... Oh God, opened his eyes to reveal them upset and blue and wet with tears! Caspian jerked his hand back, holding it in plain terror against his chest as he watched the tears slip down Keir's cheek with an intensity that one might reserve to watch a terrorist in an airport.

There were too many things at play here for Caspian to keep up, too many faults that his brain was spewing in red flags to keep him from knowing any better. The guilt that it was his fault, especially, was the weight that broken Caspian's heart with such profound sadness at the sight of Keir's tears, and that extreme and momentary emotion clouded all of his better judgement quite effectively. It might have been hilarious to see his alarmed expression at that moment, and how desperately pale he'd gone, but Caspian was on the wrong side of that joke. Right now he was a papercut away from turning tail and running in the other direction, but was still panicked beyond being able to move much... especially since he still hadn't breathed since Keir had started speaking. Every word he said tugged at his heartstrings, and at that point, Caspian was very much Keir's bitch.

But not for long.

He froze in a different way now, his body still wound up as tense as could be, but his lips twinged into a deep frown. Keir had played him, that whole time!? Caspian exhaled with the knowledge, his breath bleeding between his teeth in a long, exasperated sigh. 'He really is a bastard colt.' The older kelpie acknowledged internally, fighting the desire to fist his hand in Keir's hair and fling him into the water. And it was worse that Keir was grinning now, right in his face, and it made him fist his hand into a white-knuckled grip. It trembled ominously against his chest, and he had to close his eyes and furrow his brow to channel enough will power to keep from giving Keir something to really cry about. He gritted his teeth, even as Keir attempted to apologize and be all around playful again, Caspian was positively fuming. There wasn't much Keir could do to slay the beast once he'd gotten the older kelpie so upset, so embarrassed that he'd been so worried over someone so... so... 'Insolent! Damned... disrespectful! Snatched pranks! A kelpie or not, he's... he's...'

And then, against all odds, "Ha... Haha... Hahahaha! Hahahahaaa!" Caspian laughed. Darkly, twistedly, insanely laughed a laugh that could only be born from the very pits of hell, something tinged with dementia and lunacy and terrible, terrible thoughts of ill-intentions upon poor Keir. And as Caspian laughed, his lips pulled into an awful smile of death and destruction, eyes clenched shut with the effort... he lashed out swiftly, scooping up a handful of sand and promptly sprinkling it over the small cut on Keir's shoulder. Then, when his fingers were done nimbly depositing sand over the wound, he mussed the rest of the sediment into Keir's hair, digging his fingers into the poor kid's black tresses and working the sand all about.

It wasn't enough, it didn't quell Caspian's growing insanity and burning laughter, so he swept low, wrapped his arms about Keir' waist, hoisted the boy up like a sack of potatoes, and haphazardly flung him out into the pool of water just behind him. The satisfying splash... well, that was good enough. At least Caspian wasn't laughing anymore, instead he'd pushed himself to his feet and brushed the sand from his knees with steady and sane sweeps of his hand. "You're funny, Keir." He stated blankly, his face and voice void of any emotion that would back up such a compliment, "From where did you inherit that sense of humor? Pixies? Trolls? Humans?" Obviously still sore, Caspian huffed and waded out into the water himself, sinking deeper and off the shelf into the warm, comforting waters of the oasis. That was nice - like covering the eyes of a beast, returning to the water had the kelpie finally quelled. "You're an impressive liar. Even better than I."

The reaction he got wasn't what he expected and that definitely wasn't good for Keir. He'd hoped Caspian would shrug it off, be an outstanding sport and forget that he'd been playing with him about dying and getting him into a panic over tears even though he'd already asked him not to be like that, to not pretend around him like that. Of course he deserved what came next, but Keir just wasn't getting it at first.

With Caspian sitting there frowning and looking terribly upset and embarrassed, Keir didn't quite know what to do. He snickered a little, trying to lighten the mood, and made the mistake of scooting closer to the other kelpie. "You forgive me...right? It's no big deal, right...?" The look on the older kelpie's face, though, said quite the opposite.

When the laughing started he froze. He had no idea what to do and was just staring at Caspian helplessly with those big, blue eyes. "Caspian?" But it was too late, he'd already made him so upset no amount of sugary sweetness and innocence was going to save him now. He was entirely unprepared for what happened next.

As Caspian scooped up sand he thought he might just throw it at him for acting like that, but no, Keir was in for much worse, in his mind. As soon as some of the sand hit his wound he inhaled in a hiss and swung his hand over to cover it, but that only made it worse as he ended up pressing the sand against his cut. "HEY!" And then he was putting it in his hair. Keir wasn't happy about that at all, but he knew why he was doing it. Pouting and grumbling about how he was totally messing up his hair, he leaned back to try and get away. Really, though, he was letting Caspian do it. If he'd wanted to he could have gotten away faster, but he felt bad for making the other kelpie so upset, for playing the only kelpie he'd ever met.

"Caspian, I..." He wanted to make up. He didn't like it when people were upset with him and it certainly got him flustered that someone who was becoming important to him was upset with him. He was laying it on thick, giving him those gentle, innocent eyes as he prayed nothing else would happen, but of course it wasn't over. When Caspian grabbed him he knew what was going to happen and pressed his hands against his shoulders, struggling to break free of his hold. "Caspian, NO! Don't do it, I--" And then he was flying, his strength no match against that of an embittered man.

He hit the water awkwardly, making a big splash where he normally could make the tiniest of plops on a dive. Growling as he went down into the water, he twisted himself around and shot right back up. Allowing only up to his eyes to surface, he stared at Caspian as he spoke. What he was saying instantly made him feel like a horrible kelpie, though, like he'd taken things too far. Swimming closer, he lifted his head up, still trying to lighten the older kelpie's mood by giving him that innocent look. "I'm sorry I lied...it wasn't nice, especially since you're so important to me," he admitted, daring to move a little closer. "I guess I take my fun too far, huh?" he tried to laugh a little, but it didn't really come out like he'd hoped.

Feeling a little awkward and embarrassed himself, but for his horrible attempts at lightening the mood, he averted his gaze and drew his attention to the cut on his shoulder. He was sure it would heal well, so long as he got all the sand out of it, so he started brushing at it trying to feel if there was any below the surface of the cut. For a few moments he busied himself with rushed attention to the wound, haphazardly splashing water on it to clear out what was on it, but this only made it start to bleed again. Sighing for this, he undid the bottom two buttons on his shirt -which really were the only things keeping the waterlogged garment on his body at all- and peeled the wet fabric from his body as he walked into shallower waters. Once it was off he flung it as far as he could, hoping it would dry out during the rest of the day if he set it out, but it only barely caught the corner of a bush. Grumbling, not really caring anymore because he was not getting back out of the water to fix it, Keir turned and waded back out so he could try and get the rest of the sand out of his hair.

While Caspian was free to do what he pleased now, Keir couldn't stand that feeling and just had to get the sand out. He spent a good chunk of time just standing there bent over with his hair dangling in the water as he worked feverishly at combing to get the irritating grains out. "Mean," he whined.

When he was done, or at least when most of the sand was out, Keir straightened up a little, letting his hair swing just above the surface as it dripped water. He shook it out a little before flinging his head back and letting the wet hair smack his neck and shoulders. Sighing in relief now, he ran his fingers through his hair in an obsessed way as he waded into deeper water, trying to find any stray grains before he stopped and tried to enjoy the cool pool of water he'd been so desperately searching for before. Finally he gave up with his hair, brushing it back over his shoulders, and just relaxed. He allowed himself to float on his back, enjoying the comfort in silence for a while before his curiosity got the better of him. "Caspian, you forgive me, right?" he asked, eyes closed against the sun as he just floated there.

In the clutches of madness, Caspian hadn't really considered giving Keir any leeway for the playful antics. Even the friendly expression and soft eyes, which would have ordinarily had him stopping in his tracks, didn't deter him from his mission for revenge. Now that he was back in his own skin, however, he had more of the mental capacity to dwell on Keir's attempts at salvaging the situation. 'A situation that he'd invented to begin with.' Caspian reminded himself inwardly as he pressed out into the waters, horizontally drifting along the surface with more the inhuman buoyancy of a crocodile than a human.

"Hmm." He sighed indistinguishably into the spring, his ethereal black-green hair trailing out from the nape of his neck and through the water like vines. It was hard to stay upset with Keir, and as much as he wished he could deny him any further opportunities to humiliate him, the boy was making short work of getting past his defenses. He would have found it endearing if it wasn't pissing him off so much. "I'm glad I served my purpose for your amusements." He replied curtly in a voice thick and rich with an accent no longer of this world, likely born from centuries frequenting the earthen Unseelie Court.

An eerie silence fell heavily over the scene on Caspian's behalf, leaving only Keir's pleas and the twinkling sounds of moving water to fill the void. He wouldn't speak, not yet, not until he'd felt contained enough to say something without risking scaring away his spritely kelpie friend. Annoyed, of course, but he still valued the boy above all else at the moment. And at least, as time dwindled away, he'd had the sylphs, brownies, naiads, harpies, and all other different breeds of fae-derived villains who dwelled in his court to interact with. Keir hadn't had anyone, had he? Did he just associate with the mortals, then? Caspian mulled over this, welling with unspoken questions as he watched Keir's reflection bouncing off the surface of the water instead of summoning the courage to look at him plainly after all that had occurred, again.

It was innocent, at first: just observing the emotions change Keir's face indiscreetly from innocent to embarrassed to ... frustrated? Caspian quipped a brow, blinking his cat-gold eyes down at Keir's doppelganger as he made futile attempts to clean the wound he'd created and sullied himself, then turn about face to remove his shirt. There was no reason why, no justification for his sudden shyness, but he'd looked away rather quickly after having been staring for too long. Skimming his fingers along the surface, he bid waves to ripple out from the disturbance and warp Keir's image to deter his eyes from giving Keir such painfully apparent attention.

It was true, he was curious and drawn to his kindred like a magnet, but it was against his character all the same to be so nosy. Then again, it was a bit hypocritical to be flustered about Keir losing his shirt when Caspian had been next to naked for at least the majority of this experience, right? Besides, kelpie and most other fae he was familiar with alike didn't find such taboo importance about indecency. So he shouldn't care, not at all. With that firmly reassuring in his mind, he glanced back at Keir to resume his scrutiny, following the motions of his hands working through his black hair. The whines were music to his ears, especially since Keir deserved to be at least a little upset, but Caspian was already over the trick.

"I'm important to you?" He finally acknowledged, his expression carefully aloof as he flicked his nimble fae fingers through the water to lightly splash the object of his attentions, "Stop fretting. I'll forgive you. If only because you're important to me, too." A small, weary smile flitted over his face as if in an unguarded moment at the confession, maybe meant for only himself, and was gone by the time he tilted his neck back to turn his eyes back to Keir's. "But, you could do something for me to make it easier. You're already in my debt for riding me here, do you remember?"

Caspian hadn't actually intended on making good on that demand, something that had only been spoken in jest, but now he found himself returning to it in earnest. There was something he wanted from Keir, something specific that he couldn't quite put his finger on, but it was hollowing him out from the inside with his indescribable yearning. He furrowed his brow, giving the kelpie a pensive and peculiar gaze. "Your hair." He declared suddenly, and with the discovery, reached across the water and touched his hand to the drifting strands, "Give me a lock of your hair, and I'll forgive you."

He wasn't sure why he'd wanted it so badly. Perhaps because he knew how valuable it was to Keir, and he'd just wanted to do it to piss him off? But he had no intentions of disposing of it when he was done, had some strange long-term desire to just... keep it.

He had no idea that Caspian had watched him, but even if he'd seen him looking he wouldn't have cared. If anything, he wasn't one to be particularly shy about his state of dress in any given moment.

Keir couldn't help but smile when Caspian told him that he was important to him as well. When he looked toward his kindred, though, that faint smile was missed by a mere moment. He was happy for this discovery, the strange development of a friendship. In truth, Keir hadn't really ever become attached to anyone, so he assumed that his feelings about it stemmed from sharing a likeness with the older kelpie. It was difficult, after all, to convince a human to stick around once they found out that Keir just wasn't normal.

As he drifted closer to Caspian, he found himself looking up at him upside-down. He found this to be quite amusing and immediately proceeded in twisting his head around at different angles to peer up at him, a smile ever-present. "Yes, I know," he said for the indebtedness comment. "What would you like me to do for you?" He floated patiently, still looking up at him and watching curiously as his eyes showed a sort of uncertainty. Then, it was revealed what Caspian wanted. "What?! My hair?" Keir asked nervously, frowning at the idea of losing a lock of hair.

It wasn't extremely important to him, he knew well enough he would go on just fine without a piece of it. It was just the idea of something of his own production being handed off to someone who was more likely to burn it in spite than do anything well-meaning. Slowly, Keir let his feet drift down under the surface and righted himself to stand on the sandy shelf facing the other kelpie. "Well, if that's what you want then I'll let you have some of it," he said, trying not to give away his reluctance.

With nothing else at hand to do the deed with, Keir resorted to severing a lock with the sharpest of his nails - not that any were particularly sharp. Holding the strands carefully with his fingers, he worked quickly to avoid embarrassing himself. However, a faint red came to his cheeks despite his attempt at deftness. Once finished, he held the hair in his hand helplessly for a moment, feeling as though something were missing. Looking up at Caspian, staring intently into the other kelpie's eyes, he eventually came up with the answer.

"Hmm. Need that, too..." he mumbled, reaching beneath the water and quickly ripping a strip from the edge of Caspian's white cloth. Grinning, he brought up the wet piece of fabric and tied the black strands together with it and then, at the end, decided to make a bow of the excess cloth. Chuckling, a smile creeping to his lips, he held out the hastily-made 'package' against his palms. "Here, Caspian," he said gently, determined not to let such a silly thing as hair get him upset when, after all, he did owe him.