(M) Traveling Light (Ghanon)

[Anonymous]

(No probs.)

Lana's eyes widened a little at his mentioning vomit.  Why would he mention vomiting?  Looking down at her food she shuffled it about after a couple of bites.  Really, she was starting to feel too much of the wine to continue her meal.  A lethargy overtook her accompanied by suddenly very sad feelings.  It was then that she realized Magus might be bored with her company.  He seemed so nonchalant...  And why should she care?  This new feeling of vulnerability, of having discovered a possible friend in an otherwise friendless world, and wanting to impress this new acquaintance....  It was so strange to her.  This drink... She scowled in the direction of the wine bottle.  It was degrading to her good sense.

"I think this is the first time," she stopped herself, and added to her sentence, "In a very long time that I've ever really experienced.... this."  She glanced at the other customers around them, merrily enjoying themselves.

She was starting to feel a little embarrassed at her own behavior.  Lana noticed the sound of the tip of her sheath scraping the floor as she shifted in her chair.  She was entirely at ease now, and though perhaps it was a positive change from the constant stresses of survival, it was also incredibly careless.  But there was nothing to be done about it now.  

"What are you?" she found herself asking this vague question, once again caught by his attire.

[Lion]

For Magus, he was quite enjoying the beverage.  The tenseness of this very physical body sometimes took some getting used to but at least he wasn't sinking through the floor.  The fluid made him far too relaxed.  His food already half gone by the time he noticed his companion had barely touched hers.  That was a little sad and he might have asked her if anything was wrong if she hadn't already spoken herself.  He put down his spoon and kept the mug from his lips all the while he kept a small grin on his face in congeniality.

"Well, it's not hard to get used to.  Once in a while is good, and I think you're doing just fine for someone so...well, inexperienced for lack of another word."  Magus gave a good healthy grin and took another swig.  He busied himself with pouring another drink.  By now the bottle was feeling rather light.  Behind him another song was starting and the patrons that were rested were starting to dance again.

Magus looked a little taken aback by her sudden question but it was certainly not unwelcomed.  "I am a magician, of course.  I do small, uncomplicated parlor tricks for the enjoyment of others.  And for money, but it brings in a poor living.  I do my best," Magus shrugged before shooting his right hand out to her as if he intended on hitting her.  But out from his sleeve appeared the most beautiful bouquet of flowers most anyone would have ever seen.  He offered them to her gently and stood up.  "For you, my lady," he said with a grin and bowed extravagantly again.

[Anonymous]

Lana sat back swiftly, though her reaction time was poor due to her recent intoxication, but was delighted to find that it was a bouquet of flowers.  They were all shades of blue, a rare find unless enchanted.  Her own eyes mimicked the same hues, the reflection of the petals disappearing into the similar coloring.  She glanced up at him and smiled gently.

"That's quite impressive." she was unsure as to whether she should take them or not, and then gently wrapped her fingers around the stems and pulled them near, "But surely you can do more than that?"

(OOC:  Sorry it's so short, having an interesting night.)

[Lion]

If he had more pride, Ghanon of Dragolir would not lower himself to embody the identity of some performer of cheap tricks that were only good to entertain others.   But pride was a dangerous obstacle that prevented people from enjoying life to the fullest.  If he cared even a droplet about what his father would say or what others thought of him, well, then he might not be in the business of chaos.  It was all very lucrative for him.  And Ghanon couldn't stop the grin that was plastered on his face as Magus.

He was clearly amused at the fact that the flowers, while an old gag, still worked enough to make her grin gently.  When she questioned the rest of his skill, he only grinned wider and stood up.  "Just getting started, my friend," he said.  Magus pulled a small crystal ball from his coat pocket and showed her every angle of it.  Suddenly his other hand went up and crushed it into his palm, shattering the crystal and grinding it into his palm.  As he pulled his hand away, instead of broken glass, there appeared a small crow that promptly flew away to the rafters of the tavern.  "Enjoy that?"

[Anonymous]

Certainly all of this was quite charming, and Lana was impressed that Magus, for a mere mortal, could perform such entertaining tricks.  Of course, in comparison to all of the magic that had coexisted in her realm, this was merely an attempt that mortals made to bring enchantment to their simpler lives.  Being half mortal, she could appreciate those longings, and the magic of humans.  For once in what seemed like eons, she found her heart lifting just slightly.  Though, this attempt to forget all that had passed, this silly distraction from all of the devastation that darkened her life, was only momentary.  All good things would pass away as night would fall, when she would sleep alone with her relentless thoughts.  

Lana lifted her forefinger to brush the crow's soft belly as he flew past into the dark rafters, "Yes!  You are very talented."  

A glass of water sat beside her, and she dipped the stems of her quickly wilting flowers into the liquid to rest in a make-shift vase.  It had all of the features of a conjured replica of real flowers.  They smelled spiced, like nutmeg, instead of flowery, and the petals were all too soon curling and drying.  A wonderful attempt, indeed.

She leaned down to run her fingers through Canis' coarse fur at the front of his brow, down through to the finer fibers between his ears.  

Magus seemed so alone, she wondered at his reason for remaining that way.  

"It seems like a lonely life being a poor magician always moving from one destination to the next.  Have you nothing but your magic to keep you company?"

[Lion]

Magus laughed, clearly showing signs of all that liquor finally settling in, the mead had always taken the longest and the wine was strong enough to make his head cloudy, but a wonderful kind of cloudiness that had him grinning like a madman.  Perhaps there was some truth to the expression, he did very much feel like a madman.  Or he was playing the part only too well.  One never could be sure with performers like him.  But as with all sorts of displays, the show must go on.

After he'd turned the crystal into a crow, Magus bowed in thanks and humility at the applause of the people around him, those of which quickly turned back to their own mugs and the dancers continued as the next song was just about to begin.

He looked surprised by her next question and he reached for another chug of the wine, but he was already spinning a little as it was.  "No, it's just my magic I suppose," he said reflectively and not without a little sorrow.  His eyes were down cast at that.  He looked back at the dancers as the song had just begun.  "Would you like to dance with me?  I won't bite!  I promise."  He smiled charmingly and extended a hand to her.  It ought to be more fun than sitting here and talking about loneliness.  He was sure she didn't want to do that.

[Anonymous]

The twinkle in Lana's eyes remained, thought it was slightly hazed by the effect of the alcohol.  It brightened a little when he offered to dance with her.  She had just endured and emotionally and physically taxing journey to the point of all encompassing exhaustion, and now, she found herself in a joyous little place with a companion who was smart not to delve into the darker topics of conversation.  Her heart lightened a little, and she pulled herself unsteadily to her feet with a hand remaining on the table.  

Canis took this as a cue to venture off for a moment and change form.  He raised himself from the lazy position he had taken and wandered toward the stairway.  There, he chose a darkened corner just as a pair of women passed by, and regained his human physique.  He waited a few moments to make the transition between wolf climbing the stairs to gentleman descending the stairs less noticeable.  Although, he wasn't too concerned with the level of observational skill that most of the occupants possessed.  Once he returned to the table, feigning an introduction and providing a handshake, he gently slipped Lana's sword from her side.  He could not imagine that an armed woman dancing with an eccentric looking magician wouldn't turn a few suspicious heads.  

Lana allowed Magus to envelope her hand in his own, and followed as he led her to an unoccupied place in the tavern.  Her feet were at first terribly unsteady, but she managed to remain unscathed during their short journey.  Suddenly, a wave of insecurity overcame her.  She realized just how very strangely dressed she was, with her once gloriously long white dress tattered to the length of a very short skirt at the front; the remaining bit in the back was reduced to what might've been considered a spindly, unraveling train nearly torn to bits.  The belled sleeves of her dress had dwindled to elbow length pieces, but the bodice remained somehow better intact.  It was apparent that during her time on foot, she had lost a bit of weight, her previously slender figure now just slightly more delicate, and made to appear so by the somewhat loose fit of her clothing.  Her hair was still quite a mess, wild and dirtied.  She made a pointless attempt at straightening some of it, feeling some eyes on her, though not all.  She was grateful that it was not all.  The music changed at that moment to something very lively, and she drew her lips to his ear and whispered,

"It has been so long since I've danced.  I don't want to hurt you."

Canis watched on with a careful eye, growing discomforted by the spectacle the two of them were making.  But it wasn't within his right to question her, and as her last remaining servant, he would not bring himself to interfere unless certain harm was imminent.

[Lion]

Magus did not look like a gentleman, not in his colorful rags, or the wisps of his black hair that had an oiled look to it, though was not so.  The room was warm and his cheeks were a little flushed from all the drinking and the laughing and the movement and from the sheer enjoyment of the company of a beautiful woman.  It was not that he looked at her like she was one, and not just some stranger off the street.  And though she was, the liquor made him not even bother to think about it twice.  He was beginning to think perhaps he was a little too drunk.

He led her to the dance floor, or rather just the section of the tavern that was busy with frolic and beer and dirty jests and blushes going all around them.  Magus noticed how she seemed to be suddenly so self-conscious.  He took her other hand and kept her in a spot away from the other dancers.  They seemed to be making far too much merriment to bother noticing her style of dress.  They weren't all that cleanly themselves now that he thought of it.  Magus leaned in close when she spoke to him as the fiddle suddenly picked up and the others started bouncing on their feet.

"Nobody's here to judge you," he whispered, a little closer than she did.  "Don't worry about anything, just do what I do."  Suddenly he began to bounce in tune with the music and did as the others did, spinning and twirling and spinning her as well and knowing all the while that he was being watched by the wolf-now-turned-man.

[Anonymous]

Lana appreciated the distance he made between them and the happy, dancing crowd.  She kept an eye on them here and there to see how they moved.  Her feet were bare, and though dirty from obvious reasons, somehow were unmarred after all they had been through.  She allowed him to twirl her with the music, though with every revolution she was wobbling more and more.  Finally she laughed heartily as she held on to one of his arms with both hands to steady herself.  

Her blue eyes were radiant now, and she grasped him in order to send him into a whirl of his own.  It was a silly sight to see a tiny girl twirling a man as if she were leading.  But fair was fair.  

She regained a bit of herself after her dizziness, "Dancing is so brutal when you're a girl." she laughed.

[Lion]

"Dancing is brutal when your head is spinning like a damn whirling top."  Magus found himself laughing with her and let her cling to his arm as she tried to steady herself, she was far too drunk.  Well that was good! He was too!  Magus bellowed out even louder as she sent him into a spin.  He was moving so fast that he lost his balance and  tumbled to the floor, but quickly jumped back onto his feet and clung to her when the music finally slowed down.

He was even more flushed now and he found he wrapped an arm around her waist and laughed as the song began to slow down to a softer, melodic turn.  Still the wine was flowing between the couples as they all found someone to hold on to.  Magus blushed further and laughed a little awkwardly but still offered a hand if she wanted to continue dancing.  "This is a beautiful song."

[Anonymous]

Lana's remark before they had started dancing, about not wishing to hurt him, rang in her head as he spilled to the floor.  But she couldn't feel too guilty, in fact, much of herself was lost to the spinning room.  She was grateful for the slowing of the music.  Her stomach churned as it tried to digest the fermented liquid and what little food she had consumed.  For a moment, the nausea distracted her and she breathed a bit more deeply to allow it to pass.  The enamored couples around them were of little notice to her, though one couple drunkenly fumbled into them and stumbled away.  

Canis leaned his head upon his fist becoming thoroughly bored with the whole affair.  He absently stroked his weapon as he kept his gaze on the goings on in the middle of the room.  The bartender called for drinks all around, thanks to a newly arrived gentleman who apparently had money to spare.  

Mugs of beer were being passed around and spilled, and as Lana reached for her own a third of it wet her skirt.  She smiled and drank the rest of it in one long draft, feeling rather impressed with herself.

Lana allowed Magus to draw her in for the next song, the one he had thought so lovely.  The pianist seemed to trickle thick droplets of soothing sound into the atmosphere, while a violin was the accompaniment.

[Lion]

Magus grabbed the mug that was handed to him and downed it like water.  Despite all the drinks he'd been taking in, his throat was feeling far too parched and the beer had hit just the right spot.  It warmed him much, sloshed around like a swirling torrent of amber love that told him that this was a good evening gone great.

He took his partner close and put a hand on her waist, the other holding her hand.  "You're a very good dancer, you know.  One would almost think you remember far more than you're letting on."  He laughed a little and smiled a genuine grin that was filled with warmth.  "I don't suppose you dance with strangers often."

[Sorry for the shortness!  Bit of a case of writer's block.]

[Anonymous]

Had she been in a clearer state of mind, Lana would have never allowed such a physical closeness between the two of them.  But in a battle between the need to feel vulnerable and the habit of hardening oneself for the sake of survival, at times, the former won out.  It was pleasurable to have the warmth of another hand against her body, the artificial reassurance of companionship so momentary, and yet, for that moment, so very healing.  She found herself half listening to his words, distracted by her own inner thoughts which ran wildly from one focus to the next.  He mentioned something about dancing with strangers....

"I almost never dance with strangers...." she leaned onto his arm for support, "I'm far too special to dance with just anyone."

This last remark of hers, she realized, meant one thing to her and probably an entirely other thing to him.  Dancing for her people had been a very rare experience, and a very artistic one.  But she, as Queen, as a blessed one, would never be seen to dance with just anyone.  Which was why she had never truly danced.  To Magus, it may seem that she was being jokingly arrogant, or perhaps being cleverly flirtatious.  But in reality, she was "too special".

She blushed a little at how he might take the remark, but continued to lean most of her small weight against him.

[Lion]

Ghanon knew exactly what he was doing, for he'd done it a thousand times over, though even now his head was a foggy, very foggy and he felt as if the only one in the room was Lana.  He focused in on her.  Even if the beer and wine was still flowing like a wildly crashing river, some people were already filing out.  He'd always enjoyed dancing...there was something about it that that made some connection to that other world that had long been forgotten in some distant memory...

At her words, he could only smiled and chuckle a deep throaty chuckle before he brushed his cheek lightly on hers and squeezed her hand.  "You are very special," he said.  "That's why you're dancing with me."

Once he'd been a prince, though he would never tell such a thing and didn't want to remember that part of him.  Corroth was a forgotten world, dead or dying.  And if it wasn't, he would ensure that it would be.  Things changed all the time.  He'd see to that; it was his "destiny", if he had one at all.  He leaned in close to her and barely pecked her cheek, lightly, feelingly, affectionately even if she was a complete stranger.  

[I'm sick of the short posts!  sorry again!]

[Anonymous]

A mixture of warmth, lust, comfort, and fear combined to throttle her into realization.  She had very little understanding of mortals and their ways of courting, but she did know her own unpredictable half-mortal body, and how responsive it was to his vague promises of comfort.  Even the lightest touch of his lips to her skin threw her.  In a moment of spontaneous introspection, she knew that her state of vulnerability was making her susceptible to much that was unknown.

Instantly, her guard was raised, though physically she remained as casual as before leaving no hint as to her change of awareness.  However, a spark lit up her eyes.

She looked up to him and smiled, a bit mischievously, tracing a fingertip down the hills along the side of his face, "Is that so?  And how special am I, exactly?"

[Lion]

Magus' eyes were slightly dull in their show of hazel, mystified by something only he could recollect.  Perhaps it was the past he'd long wanted to forget, or destroy.  Whichever came first.  They seemed almost sad, melancholic with the way they looked at her, through her almost.  Magus kept a faint wry grin on his expression though and he kept his face parted from hers, but close enough to still talk and listen.

"How special are you?  You might not look it now...but you have the presence of a goddess.  Maybe I'm laying it on a little extravagantly, but it's in all honesty.  And to me, that makes you very special."  Magus's tone was genuine and he meant every word he said, because those traces of astral dust on her could only mean one thing.

[Anonymous]

The moment seemed to be entirely in her control, about to turn in the direction she desired, until Magus opened his mouth.  Her suspicions were raised by the simple fact that he had chosen a word such as "goddess" to describe her.  In a world where oddities of race and origin were not uncommon, words like "goddess" and "angel" were hardly used as simple descriptors.  And one thing she knew about magicians of any sort was that their favorite hobby, by nature, was to veil the truth.  She knew that her reaction could either be paranoia, or intuition, however, wasn't protecting oneself against perceived danger better than being naive?

She smirked, her lips remaining as close to his as he had come, "And what of you?  You seem to have far more secrets up your sleeve than a simple card trick."

Her words had slurred some, but contained all of the knowing of an inwardly wise individual.  Her arms were now wrapped about his neck, her fingertips sloppily intertwined behind.  

"Maybe it's the wine talking...  But I see that your goodwill toward me may have another intention..."

Whatever the intention was, she couldn't know, perhaps it was pleasant or perhaps it was fiendish, but she was willing to test the waters as he had been for the duration of their time together.

[Lion]

Magus chuckled again warmly and offered another grin.  His usage of the term 'goddess' had been both figurative and literal, but he was a master with words and knew their uses.  He had a feeling that this woman was catching on quickly, but that was to be expected.  To dig a little deeper, it was gradual and sometimes startling, but it may as well be worth it in the end.

"I know a few things you might find interesting.  I could show you more if you let me.  I'm not just a magician," he said candidly.  "I'm a sorcerer, a very powerful one."  His voice was a whisper and his tone was jesting, not even taking what he said seriously.

He wrapped both arms around her now and liked the scent of her skin that it was so close.  The wine sloshing in his brain and guts was seductive and the lights felt like they were dimming around him.  The dance floor was becoming gradually vacant as the crowd thinned.  The music still went on and different tavern goers either left through the doors or stumbled their way upstairs.

"And what intention is that, darling?" he said casually.  "I'm rather enjoying our conversation.  Even if it is the wine talking.  Sometimes the best moments are found beneath a bottle of red."

[Anonymous]

Magus seemed to be so eloquently talented with words that they cornered her even at her best attempts to uncover the truth that winked at her from beneath.  Unexpectedly a yawn escaped her lips and sent her weary head toward his chest.  Lana remained aware to all the bustle around them, yet her figure was almost entirely reliant on her companion to remain upright.

"I don't know what intentions you possess..." she gazed up at him from her resting place on his shoulder, "But I do know that whatever they are, I am prepared to react accordingly."

One of her hands had slipped from behind his neck as her body drooped and began to finger a seam to his brightly colored attire.  She responded now to his former statement, "You're a sorcerer...  And am I really supposed to believe that?"

[Lion]

It was so ironic that sometimes one could lie to another simply by telling them the truth.  Magus laughed again and held her upright as she seemed dependent on him for support.  He didn't pay any attention to the goings on around him, he just kept dancing.  It wasn't uncommon for folks of Darken Vei to toss around random displays of magic.  He'd seen enough of that to know that even otherworldly drifters were safer there than in most parts of the world.

"I can assure that I mean you no harm, Eleana," he said with nonchalance and wrapped his arms slightly tighter around her.

He seemed far too amused by her question and showed all his teeth when he smiled.  "You don't believe it?" He feigned shock and gasped before softening his expression.  "You should.  Haven't you noticed that we've been dancing on air and not on the ground?" His head motioned for her to look down and showed her that they were a few feet from the ground, though no one else seemed to care, not even the other dancers that remained.  "Do you need more proof?"